#9 - Cruz Pedregon

Rico sits down with Cruz Pedregon, a 2-time NHRA Drag Racing Funny Car Champion, to talk about racing, life and other stories.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Skinny with Rico Elmore, founder and
CEO of Fatheads Eyewear. The undisputed leader in oversized eye
wear is fetheads. All right, welcome to the Skinny with
myself Rico Elmore, proud sponsors fat Heads Eyewear. Thank you.
Oh that's us too. But anyhow, Uh, today we've got

(00:22):
our good friend and guest, Cruise Patagon and hr a
funny car nitro driver. How's it going, good, Rico? How
you doing? We're good man, just in the midst of
trying to move to our new facility, as we talked earlier,
and uh, in the middle of that, trying to run

(00:42):
your business at the same time. You've you know the program,
I know the feeling. It's yeah, it never ends. You've
you've got a traveling, traveling road show. So we're like
the we're like the circus and I guess the drivers
of the clowns. So that's kind of the way I
see it. Set up shop three days later, we're three
days later, we're tearing it down and going to the

(01:03):
next one. We have outlawed we Uh. I don't know
if you remember. It was in Atlanta. It was the
first the first Nitro race that Morgan Lucas had won.
It was rainy to lay rain to lay rain, delay
and everybody was pretty much gone except the teams and
uh we were up against Spencer Massey uh and uh

(01:25):
I think Spencer was driving for for Snake at the
time in the school car and uh, I think that's
what it all was. Anyhow, we ended up winning. In
the nhr A officials said now you guys need to
pack up and get out of here. There's a tornado
that's about to hit. And we said, hell, we're not
getting out of here. We're gonna party. Guy just what

(01:46):
his first race, right, And then we came to the
conclusion this is going to be the biggest trailer park
hit ever with the multimillion dollar trailers, with all the
cars and equipment and of them like, all right, but
we could be part of it. So it was gonna
be the that was gonna be the exciting part. But anyhow,

(02:06):
so my my, my opening question always is how in
the hell did you get in this business? Well through
my dad. My dad raced in the sixties, and you know,
it was funny about that. As my dad when he retired,
he we thought he had like a twenty thirty year career.
But when we look because we were kids when he raced,
but when we look back at it, it it was like

(02:26):
a five year career, and we thought it was forever.
So he retired. He started racing early sixties, but he
started racing serious nitro racing sixties four or five six,
retired about sixties seven. So we grew up. Um, we
were born in the mid sixties, so we were really
really little, so we just grew up loving it. We'd
go to Orange County. When my dad wouldn't have anything

(02:49):
to do with it, he would say, all right, go
ahead and go to the go to because we lived
in Torrance, California, So we would go to irwin Dale
when it was open. We'd go to Orange County. We'd
go to Ontario. When Ontario have before Fontana, we go there.
And so we just we just kind of started off
as fans. And then we to tell you how I
got started, I would just say it like this, I

(03:11):
think the connections might not I think I know the
connections my dad had through friends enabled me to have
a name to go in and kind of I guess
network right and and um, and I had two things
I would work for free or like work for food,
you know, And so that's the way you have to

(03:32):
start out. I mean, if I would give advice to
any young drivers, I would just tell him, hey, you
have to do whatever it takes, and you have to
be willing to not get paid for it. That's the
bottom line. So we were talking off camera, of course,
and uh, you know Jason Johnson, the great picture of him.
Uh where where did he came up from from? From

(03:55):
Louisiana or Texas or something with Louisiana, Louisiana to help
some body that was at I can't remember. I think
it was at Pennsylvania Speed Weeks, you know, for free,
you know, and who knows how I even got there.
But uh, but that is a lot of it, you
know what I mean. I grew up around racing, you know, uh,
you know, stock car racing. I was. I was there

(04:17):
when I was a little kid and became a super
fan and uh you know, I raced go cards and
then I literally outgrew that, so I couldn't do that anymore.
So it was they didn't have anything big enough to
have my big gass around the track. Actually I started
out that's the co kart scene was kind of bigger,
a little oval dirt oval tracks. So that's how I

(04:39):
mean that's affordable racing. I mean to go, you know,
even to take unless you steal your mom or dad's
car and go run it on a Wednesday night bracket show.
It costs money even like I was thinking the other day,
like radio control cars cost you know, really you have
to have that what do they call it, uh, spendable
money or or throw away money, So you have to

(05:01):
eat how's yourself and then have enough money to do that.
So you know, drivers figure out how to make it work.
But I always tell people, as if you asked ten drivers,
it doesn't matter what category, what classic gonna be, dirt track,
drag racing. They all have ten different ways of Wow
they got where they got. There's no cookie cutter away.
It's it's opportunities. But they all have one thing in common.

(05:22):
They want to race pretty bad. So well they've got
the heart. They've got the heart for it. So it
was you and two brothers, right, yep? So who got
in first? I think I did? I think yeah I
got into racing first. Yeah I did. Yeah, Well I
started when my dad was alive. We had a truck
yard truck lot, so they had a truck drag race

(05:43):
in like Orange County. So I'm like, hey, da, can
we take one of the trucks off a lot? And
so we did, and I went and won the race,
and I was I had one second kin worth banging
gears and so anyway a little yeah, yeah, it was
twenty one second. So we did bracket race and so
I won like a thousand dollars trophy the whole nine yards.

(06:06):
So that was really the beginning of my career racing career,
but it took a lot of turns and curves, but yeah,
I started out doing that and then I started out
racing six Uh. I got my name with Charlie Marquez
out of Compton, of all places, I'd hear gun shots
at night. I'd be able there working on his car.
Here pop pop pop, like, hey, Charlie, we got some fireworks.

(06:28):
Oh no, no, no no, man, those are those are some
gun shots. So I would try to find something really
low to work out on the car because I was
in a garage. So I'd be like, man, let me
see make sure these headers are header bolt of Yeah,
I would check the bottom in but so so yeah,
I just started out. You want to talk about humble beginnings, man.
I The car I drove was probably at that time,

(06:48):
was probably fifteen years old. So but you know, if
you listen to any driver like Tony, I probably started
out more like guy like Tony Stewart where he really
started out rock bottom, work your way up, proved yourself
and you know, and that's remember speaking of Tony Stewart,
somebody asked Tony about other drivers that let's say, let's
say a driver gets up uh an invitation to to

(07:13):
to get timed with other drivers. I don't even know
what they call it a NASCAR right, They just hey,
bring a group of guys, see what you got. That's
when you have to show your stuff. If you're off
that day, too bad, so sad, you may not ever
get called again. So Tony Stewart said it best. He says,
you know, when I had my one shot, I took
advantage of it. That's what you have to do. It's cruel,
it's not you know, racing is not um unlike sports

(07:37):
where you can just bring your yourself and your skills.
Racing costs money. You have to bring sponsors or something
to the to the table unless you're like a Kyle
Larson nowadays that's really really good. Then you get then
then you get they call him young money because he
a guy guys spectacular. What's the what's the end of
that race was more of what NASCAR needs, right? Yeah?

(08:02):
I saw that that was both of them mixing it
up and fished you know where they finished, which was great.
But at the end of it, they both shook hands
and hey, that's racing, and you know what, that's really
what's missing from that sport. But you don't let me
say this about And I'm a I'm a uh fan,
So I watched it just like but I really followed

(08:25):
Kyle Larson's career because he raced dirt track, which midget sprints,
which I love those. But I think really the confidence
that he has showed because he didn't get out of
their m f and anybody, he didn't get out of
their pointing fingers. He got out of there and said,
you know what, it's a good race. Hey, don't don't
be booing this guy. But that's a confident driver that
knows he's going to get his shot again. And you know,

(08:45):
if I'm those other NASCAR drivers, man that's that guy
for not having a lot to think about. He's only
been a cup for what a couple of years, He's
already he's mixing up with the probably arguably the best
driver out there. Now. That's that's pretty good. And and
and in the least paid. I'm sure I'm sure he's
getting paid more now. But you know, that's the thing
that's been going on a NASCAR is they're trying to

(09:08):
get everybody back in line and pay because you know,
these ten million dollar a year guys, that's that's not happening.
And uh, you know where they're bringing, you know, the
Kyle Larson's and the Crisp Bells, which are crazy talented.
But you know the other the other side of that
is is you know they can bring him in at

(09:30):
a number, you know what I mean, they can bring
him in an affordable number to make the numbers works.
So I guess my question to you is is what
was your shot? Well, my shot was not really in
that first car. I drove. That car was just to
get my name out there, to get my license. But
I drove a car by now a guy, Gary Turner
GT Bikes. She started out with Gary's car and I

(09:54):
and I, uh, I took advantage because it was a
good enough car where I could win. I thought, man,
at point, you can't be like Flintstones, just shove your
feet through the through the floorboard and pedal your way.
You gotta have the car, you know, it's like a
it's like a horse. I I tell people, you don't
see anybody who in the Kentucky Derby on a donkey,
So you have definitely have to have a good horse.

(10:15):
The drivers should compliment that. So, yeah, I got in
that car in one races. The driver they had before
didn't win much that I recall. Um, so yeah that
was my shot. And so you know it's I put
a lot of pressure on myself. I I just was
so dedicated and committed. But you have to figure out, okay,
there's twenty other drivers who want to drive that same car.
How are you going to differentiate yourself from all those

(10:37):
other guys? And I don't I don't know that I
ever did that, but but I but I it. It
definitely sprung me in to the limelight a little bit.
Yeah that's a g Yeah, yeah, yeah, they you know
it's funny because they started what was he doing? You
like yeah, yeah, he was. He was a fan. He yeah,

(10:58):
and there was two There was uh Richard Long who
was partners with Gary. Gary was the GT. But there
are two people that made up that company. And they
grew it out of their garage. It's a it's a
you like like you Rico, you start out your fat
Heads company. Just it's an idea, it's a thought, you know.
But they were literally weld and bikes together in their garage.
Like their track on turned it into you know, multi

(11:20):
multi billion or multi multimillion, probably one of the top
names of the top bikes right right. So but anyway, yeah,
he he was a guy that this was his hobby
and he didn't he never wanted to drive. He wanted
to own. And uh yeah, we had we had some
I raced for for Gary for three years I think,
and we had some good times and what this is

(11:41):
top alcohol drags. Yeah, so they we we went. We
were running six twenties and sixteens at that time that
eight and I won back to back races and yeah,
it was it was like I said, it was a
good car. Definitely was able to make some strides and
at so then you move into nitro, then I move

(12:02):
into well, I moved into an alcohol funny car for
one year. I wanted to drive a funny car, really
what I wanted to drive, but there wasn't those seats available.
So I drove alcohol funny car for a year for
a team out of northern California. Then at that point
I met was introduced to Larry Minor, who owned a
multi car nitro team, the Pros, the Big Dogs, the
big Cheese, right, So I went right to that and um,

(12:25):
we had a partially year the first year, and then
the next year we Larry landed the McDonald's sponsorship. So
then basically I was a drag stare driver and ed
the Ace McCulloch legend driver, big name was driving the
funny car. So Larry literally asked me one day we
were sitting at that we were at it was a
rain delay in Reading Pennsylvania, were at waiting for it rain.

(12:47):
He comes up to me and he says, and I
knew that McDonald's thing was lingering, and uh, Larry said, hey,
like kind of like have some bad news. He goes,
would you would you mind getting out of this car
and driving the funny car? And I was like, I'm
like what are you kid? And me I didn't say that.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, I think I could do that,
which is what I wanted to drive anyway. So you know,

(13:09):
like they say, the rest is history. Who I drove
that car ninety two championship year dethrow in the Great
John Force, Joe Gibbs came in as the owner, took over,
built a new team with McDonald sponsorship, and then race
for Joe and third of the Way in the ninety
nine and then went on my own and summer of

(13:30):
ninety nine became a car owner. Dove in feet first.
I didn't think. Yeah. People were coming up to me saying, cruise.
Why in the world all the money you made driving,
are you gonna just put it? And you don't want
to do that cruise? And the more they say that
they said that, the more piste off I got and
I didn't. I didn't want to hear about it. And

(13:51):
you know what, to me, it was the best thing
I ever did. And you know that was the thing
I was telling somebody the other day, I said, you
know what, I can tell you, I could count on
one hand how many people told me how great it
was gonna be with what I was doing with this company.
I couldn't. I don't have enough hands feet toes any
of the above to tell you how many told me

(14:12):
it will never work. And you know what, those are
the ones that drove me. That's exactly what you just said.
It's like every time they're like, you're an idiot? Why
are you doing this? Like I'm gonna show you who's
an idiot, you know, and here you are successful years later,
and listen, I don't care if you're John Force with
the money, with with big sponsors coming in a lot
of times, it's always a struggle. It's a struggle with us,

(14:35):
with the It's not a struggle, it's a fight. It's
a constant fight with us, you know, with you know,
whether we're developing a new product, a new line. I
knew this. I knew that because it's ever evolving. It's
like you guys, you get a new crew chief, you
get an old it's a start over. It's a baseline
and then okay, well let's try to go from here.

(14:57):
Thank god, you have an idea of what your car
answer needs. It helps a lot. But there's you know,
I mean, you've been hooked up with stab On for
several years now, which you know is awesome. Good people
there as well, and it's it's uh, it's one of
those things. I mean, you go out there. I think
one of the things that that is awesome with you

(15:19):
that I see. You know, you go out and you
ride with one of the drivers. I'm not sure if
you still do that. I know you used to go
out Oh yeah, right with the stamp on franchise is all.
We do that every race every Thursday. I go out
to the field, as they say, and meet and greet
the customers and think them and what do they think?
Would you show up? Oh you know what? They yeah,
they some of them will, uh, they'll they'll kind of

(15:39):
be a little shy, especially if they know who I am,
and then I'll just you know what. I what I
enjoy about doing that is I like to be able
to talk and interact with them and just really not
talk about what I do, talk about what they do,
you know, and bring up you know what. Because the
tool businesses meets it, it goes hand in hand with racing.
Plus I grew up around truck so it kind of
works out. But yeah, it's it's cool to get out there.

(16:02):
It's unique you know, I'm you know, think about it.
Stampon has stores, they call them stores because their store
stores on wheels, and so the automotive industry is directly
connected with racing. So it's so it works out. I
mean I had a Burger sponsor McDonald's, which was a
tougher sell because they have a lot of venues. Okay,

(16:23):
how do you connect the our customer to racing? That
was a little tougher. Auto parts was closer. I had
Advanced Auto Parts, so like a bi Oh yeah, I
did commercials. Well, yeah, I bit into a how was
it a not? I'm called breakfast Jack. That's Jack in
the box. I was. I was egg McMuffin. We're filming

(16:45):
a commercial. And I literally bit into this thing, probably
about twelve to fifteen times, but a little they know.
I was spitting it back out. But it was a
nice fresh It kept handing me a perfectly groomed egg McMuffin.
And it was that their store. They have a store
in City of Industry. That's a mock store that, you know.
So it was a great sponsor, great people, but it

(17:07):
ran its course. I think it was seven years then
I was with Advanced Auto Parts. For like seven years.
But what I was getting at is the business part
of it that snap I'm sorry, stamp On Advance was
a little closer to two two because mechanics, it's a
natural and it's it's a statistical fact that they go
to the races they enjoy, right, But then the snap
On is even closer to what I think is is

(17:28):
a is a is a win win because you have
the customers, they buy the tools. So yeah, it's a
great sponsor. I'm grateful. We're signed up until two thousand twenty,
which will be ten years that I've been with we've
been with stamp On. Yeah, some of those toolboxes I
used to work in the dealer end all right, right right,

(17:49):
you know you would walk back there and you're thinking, God,
if this guy has a toolbox like this, he must
live in a mansion. Right. A lot of those guys that, yeah,
caused a bunch of their car. But the yeah, you know,
and in Toyota, right, Toyota is that that that's it's
it's a great fit because Toyota is one of one
of my one of our sponsors. So they Toyota dealers,

(18:11):
most of them require snap On tools to be if
you're gonna be a tech, you know, you need to
have tools that are certain industry tools. Yeah, you can't
be rolling up there with Harbor tool and freight stuff,
you know, you know what I mean. So we used
a heart which I will tell you this the difference
between snap On and Harbor Freight is we had a
Harbor Freight, Harbor Freight drill bit. We're drilling through something

(18:35):
and it literally been it to a ninety degree angle
and snap On no chance they have those black uh
black bits or something, and I'm telling you it'll yank
you through the whole with it as it's going. So
but it's uh but yeah, they're they're you know, you've

(18:56):
got Maco, which you know Mac, I mean all great tools,
but man, snap On was always the one. You know,
if you saw a tech back in the back in
the back that had a that had a snap On toolbox, man,
they were yeah, they were the deal. They were serious
about their careers. You know. It's so yeah, it's a
it's a pright thing. And you know, let's face it,

(19:18):
we all like tools. That's like a big boy toy,
right tools and toolboxes. So so yeah, so so yeah,
we're right in the middle of our season. We're getting
ready to go to Epping coming up. We've gotta we
want to race this year, first time in four years, Caleb,
we want to race. So so yeah, things are looking
at We have a great crew chief, crew team, all
the team guys are great. So yeah, we're looking forward

(19:40):
to Aaron has it on kill a lot of time. Yeah, yeah,
he does. I mean we work closely together. He he
has his experience with drags was a lot on Morgan's team.
You know, he worked for Morgan for five years and
won a lot of races with models, and so yeah,
we uh, we mashed our our ideas together. Yeah, and
it's you know, it's taken a while, but it's it's
starting to unfolding be really good. That was the thing

(20:01):
we were I'll never forget. We were at Brainerd and
Morgan pulls up there and it's you know, Brainard, it's
hotter than hell, it's and it's in August and he
pulls up on the line and I'm standing there next
to Forest and I said, what do you think. He said,
it's either gonna blow the tires off of it or
it's gonna set a world record. Because I don't know
which want, and it goes down there and absolutely sets

(20:24):
a track record. I mean like that, hey, I said, well,
good thing that came out the right way, because man,
he'd go off, but uh but no, he's Aaron's a
great dude. And you know what it's that's the other
thing about the drag racing business. You know there are teams,
but man, there's this team that this team member that's

(20:45):
worked with that team member, and it's it's a big family,
you know, it really is. Yeah, And you know, think
about Aaron. He's his attitude, He's got a good attitude.
You know, he's not you you know, you want a
guy that is not afraid to take some criticism because
this is a tough sport. I mean it's it's no
different than being the locker room or being behind the scenes.
You know, you can't. I've had guys that I've worked

(21:05):
with before that you know that that they take it
personally and it's like and then that's when the trouble starts.
You know, then his arguments, his dissension and that the
car never really runs good. So with Aaron, you know,
we we've had our rough spots, but you know we
get over it and within two minutes, you know, there's
there's definitely behind the scene, like called the the what

(21:26):
they called the war room, which is where our computer
is and stuff. So but anyway, great guy, good experience,
younger guy, he's you know, in his mid forties so
and he's a great fabricator. So the car shows up
to the track, it's prepared. He's a great teacher. And
we have another guy, guy by name McGlenn, who's our
who is with the Patron team for many years, who's
also a great fabricator. So we're able to do a

(21:47):
lot of our own in house fab work that I
used to have to sub out. And I think in
the end, in the end that that's what a lot
of these big teams are doing. They do all their
own so you can control the quality in house. So
that's the other part to that. The people don't really see.
They don't see, Okay, well, how's this team structured. You know,
we're a single car team, but we're oh, you know,
well groomed single car team. You know, we have what

(22:10):
it takes to compete at the highest level. And I
think we have we now and I couldn't say this
for a lot of years. There was two or three
years that I didn't have the people that I felt
needed to put me over the top to compete with
these other guys, the Schumacher teams, the fourth team. But
I do feel like we have that now. I don't
disagree at all. And you know, it's interesting. So you know,
Toyota is a great marketing partner and of course you

(22:33):
know unbelievable friends of ours as well, and uh, you
know they're they're all of their work that they're doing
in uh, you know in the series you know it,
you know, talking about traction and you know the tune ups.
I mean, so is Shaggy still going to the to
the races or is there somebody still showing up from TRD. Yeah,

(22:56):
they have JP um John Pierre, I think they called
we call them JP. But the Shaggy still on the
on the CUSP. I think he kind of oh, I
think he's more over a NASCAR now. But Toyota has Yeah,
the Tota has a great support system. What Total provides
for us similar to NASCAR, and that they supply us
with support, with the support that we would have to

(23:17):
hire a track expert. And because they have the on
track support to help us read the track, what's the
track conditions? Like, you know, that's something that all the
Toyota teams get. We're one of them, thankfully, and so
yeah there, you know, and I love the body. The body,
the shape of the cameras are great, great down for
us and a low drag and that kind of thing.
So yeah, it's a good partners. I love the I

(23:40):
love it. I know I was at one race and
I can't even remember what it was that, you know,
Shaggy had a piece of pavement on the roof of
the trailer and uh it was trying to make sure
he knew exactly what the temperature was at the track. Yeah,
I was like, all right, you know, and this is
a you know, Shaggy was a Formula one guy. You know,

(24:01):
he was a Formula one Toyota guy. And you know,
I was told one time by somebody who definitely knew,
you know, Toyota's Formula one budget was eight hundred million
dollars a year and they still didn't win, and uh, ankyo,
Mr Toyota said we're done. We're not doing this anymore.

(24:23):
There's there's zero reason for that. And you know, they've
gotten into you know, the NASCAR, the the the the rally,
you know the rally, the nhr A in a big way,
you know, sponsoring actual events and and things like that.
So I uh, you know, I I of course know
a lot of you guys, and you know, we've been

(24:44):
friends a long time, you know, and and you know,
I I gotta say, of course, there's always room for
all kinds of improvements and everything and all of us
and everything. But it it definitely seems like the nhr
A maybe is starting to starting to turn the corner
and start to come back with some good stuff. Yeah,
I think so. I think, you know what, the Fox

(25:04):
uh Fox Sports one, and we're gonna be on the
big network at some of the West Coast races coming
up in Denverse, Seattle, I think Sonoma, Sonoma, I'm sorry, Sonoma, Seattle.
So that helps TV helps the exposure. But I think
they're the h r A. You're right. I think they're
starting to get uh, they're starting to get it. They're
starting to get some newer, newer, younger guys, younger thinking.

(25:26):
I know one of the big controversies has been the
track prep, but really the track prep. You know, there's
a couple of guys that that that critique it. But
really it's more than just the track. Prep It's okay,
how can we make the sport healthier? How can we
get how can we make it affordable where more owners
can come in and make it a viable investment um
But to have a three million dollar a year costs

(25:49):
and and it's sponsors to give you a million and a
a half that doesn't quite work out and doesn't want them.
So when your dad did it, what do you think
the budget was or what did they What do you
think you know my dad did it? You had the car? Yeah,
I was setting in your shop. Is it still there? No? No,
we we we sold it to a to a museum.
We figured hey, they could display it better than us.
But the way they did it back in the day,

(26:10):
in the sixties is they would it would I uh
put it next to owning a boat. You get out,
you get a big picture of beer, or not a picture,
but ice just full of beer. You get your buddies
that want to, you know, go out on this. In
this case, go out and we'll work on a car.
And so it would be no, it would be all volunteer.
And I have yet I've had probably two employees throughout

(26:33):
the years. I have yet to get a guy that
will work for a couple of beers and something to eat, right,
It doesn't work that way. Everybody. Everybody's like that, you yeah, yea.
So it was a little different back then. And but really, honestly,
my dad would build a lot of his own cars
that he would go, uh, you know, he'd weld the chassis,
he would do a lot a lot of stuff. I mean,

(26:54):
I think that's really the part of racing that I think.
I'm I wish I could go back, maybe not as
that far back, but I wish I could go back
maybe ten years when you had um there were just
a few more sponsors weren't as smart as they were,
so you could go in there like I know of
I'm not gonna mention any names, but I know of
certain teams that would get like upwards a five million

(27:17):
dollars annually per car. You're good luck to tell them
that your sponsor. Sponsors know, they know what everybody's paying,
they know exactly who's looking at that, all right. So
so so it's hard to go on there and go, yeah,
I need this to write. They're like okay, yeah, right,
here's all these people are going to be watching. Yeah,
here's what we're gonna pay you. You need to make

(27:38):
it work. So but but it's it's a great living.
I I've let's see we're talking when you were talk
asking me about when I started. I started really late
eighties and here it's two thousand eighteen and I'm, you know,
still racing. So one of the one of the hell
of accomplished, thank you. One of the strategies I had,
I thought, you know, I never want to I didn't
want to be a forty something or god forbid, looking

(28:01):
for a dry a ride, right, So I don't want
to be like, hey, can I you know, can I
guess that's what it would turn up, that's what it
would be. So I it was is painful and as
and I had to go back because I went from
driving one of the top top running nitro funny cars
to like bottom of the bride to star always. That
was hard for me to do because you know, I
felt like I had helped the owner build and bringing

(28:22):
the people, so I kind of felt a part of that.
And then when that went away and I started out,
it was like that was hard to do. But Thankfully,
by two thousand and eight we were were in championship form.
We won a championship with Advance. Next year they were
gone start up with snap On. I kinda had to
start over again there, but we've had some big wins
and uh, and we're I think we can win another championship.

(28:43):
I really do so there we are absolutely you know.
That's that's funny that you say if a forty something
or a fifty something, you know, looking for a job,
because that's there's a lot to be said about that.
And you know with you, I mean, that's that's like
the place, you know, like fat heads, you know what.

(29:03):
The day that it becomes a job will be the
day I don't do this anymore, you know what. I
love it just as much as you love racing. Are
there some days that are better than others? Yeah? Are there?
You know? Do we have great people around us that
we you know that we spend more time within it.
We do our family, you know, and we rely on them.
I mean you for your safety and and uh, you

(29:25):
know all the logistics of getting you up and down
the road. I mean, we've got we've got a million
moving parts on both sides of it. And uh, you know,
I respect that because there's a there's a lot of
people on the outside that look in and think, oh,
you know, that guy is the top you know, he's
a he's a funny car driver, he's a top field,
right whatever, you know, and and god, he's got it made.

(29:48):
You have zero ideas. It's it's I mean, every time
you're one, you're you're strapping yourself to a rocket. You
know that that you're controlling to some point down this
quarter mile or you know, now thousand foot? What are
they going back to? Quarter mile? By the way, Yeah,
I don't know, but you know, we actually a lot
of people still race quarter mile. They just they don't

(30:10):
know that they shut off back there. They drive a
clear across. So we're actually racing quarter mile. But the
but the the Finnish line is a thousand foot. But
I really don't look at any different. I do shut
the car off a little earlier, but it's really you're
you're talking thread TWT. When you're traveling at speed. It man,
it goes by like that. It goes by like that.

(30:31):
So you thought about shutting it off and then you
were at the other line. Yeah, well and what's happening
now is we're going as fast our terminal velocity, our
speed at the thousand foot, we're going as fast as
we were at at at a quarter mile, what six
or so whenever they change at oh eight or oh nine.
So now the tracks are back to ben It's all
we can do to stop our cars, you know, if
our parachutes are a little delayed, and like you know,

(30:55):
I've been in the sand a couple of times because
the parachuges either didn't come out. But what I guess,
what I'm saying is the tracks are now becoming because
when first started racing thousand foot, was like, oh man,
look at all this room we have. Now now I
could see the freaking when I could see the weave
of the net from the starting line, Hey man, that's you,
you know, so really reliant on the paarachutes get tangled up,

(31:18):
don't come out exactly right. You've got a handbrake. You
get a handbrake, But what else do your carbon fiber
that's it, your carbon fiber brakes, four wheel carbon fibre brakes.
But believe it or not, that's not enough to stop
a car. I mean, you can slow it down a
little bit. I've managed to slow it down enough, but
I'm one of those drivers that shut it off like
I close the throttleblades are pretty close to the thousand

(31:39):
foot Why because I know if I have a problem,
I do not want to be. My biggest fear, besides
catching on fire and being burned to death, one of
my biggest fears is being tangled up in the net
upside down and on fire. If that, if you think
about that, not being able to get out, that is
my biggest fear I have. And I think about it
now and then and I get a little bit claustrophobics.

(32:00):
So that's something that I don't want to have happened.
But I do everything I can. So I guess you
could say I respect the speed, and you know so
I so I give myself all. I guess what I'm saying.
I give myself maybe a few extra hundred feet. But
the but the brake handle, I mean, it's you know,
it's it's there, but it's I had the throttlestick one
time in Gainesville, Gainesville in two thousand eight, and I

(32:23):
always thought, oh man, if the throttle ever stuck, I
can handle. I'll do this, this and this no, I
was like a I was literally a passenger. What I
didn't realize is the g force from the car pin
and your back. You don't you can't even hardly reach
the break. So it was wide open throttle, the bracket
broken and the pressure from the from the from the
engine revving up at the pump pressure kept the blades

(32:48):
wide open. So you know what shut it off. It
ran out of feeling and blew the body off the car.
That's the only reason the car shut off. So if
that doesn't get your attention, I really think that the
day is gonna come where any trade needs to what's
it's here now, it's been here for a few years
where they probably need to look at the engines and
figuring out, okay, how can we how can we uh

(33:08):
make have them have a little less horse part? Because
did you see my my explosion A couple of races ago, Rico,
I can't remember. Yeah it was. I've had a several.
I've been driving funny cars for a long time, and
it was one. It was. It was it was like
basically putting instead of like one stick of dynamite under
the blower, was like putting ten be The destruction was

(33:28):
massive and it was scary. I had parts coming back
at me. It blew, it blew a hole in my
little driver's shield. It's the body. So I asked the
NHRA guys that I go, guys, they had guys, I go,
do we really need to have these cars where it
does that? That's the price you pay for hanging a valve,
breaking a rod. I said, man, this is out of hand,
And so you know, I'm one of many. There's been

(33:50):
a lot of those. All the DS archives guys are blown.
I think force is all blown. My point is that
do we need that mass destruction and the cars on
three hundred and forty in a thousand feet No? The
answers no. So, you know, without getting to political, there's
got to be a different way, because if you think
about it, everybody's the big sanctioning bodies have all restricted

(34:14):
their cars. And I hate to use the word restricted
because that that kind of that's that's not what people
want to hear. But they've they've done things because technology
has gotten so the cars are going like one that
we you know, and and I'm afraid that somebody's gonna
have to get hurt before they, you know, they realized
something that you know, well, unfortunately we lost Scott you know. Yeah,

(34:36):
I think it was right right when they changed to
a thousand feet, which you know, unfortunately English Town. It's
probably really not one of the uh one of the
one with the best runoff, you know, and uh and
you know it was him getting you know, him losing
his life, you know, a dynasty of family, right, you know,

(34:59):
of race or's you know, and and the thing of
it is, it's like it's like, so we changed that
to a thousand feet, you know, and and there's probably
a way and I'm not saying that. I mean, let's
talk about how the NHR he started. I mean it
was kind of run what you brung, you know what
I mean. And then all of a sudden, you know,
there were people like your dad and you know Big

(35:21):
Daddy and Karamas, you know, and all these guys, and
so they start coming along and and tweaking this and
tweaking that, and and you're right, I mean there's engineers
that are crazy smart that are making these parts and
making these things do things that nobody would ever imagine
they would do. And uh, the thing to make it

(35:44):
where it's one affordable for the race or but if
it's affordable for the race, or then it's affordable for
the fan to come watch it. Okay, And if it's
affordable for the race or an affordable for the fan,
then you have a show, you know, And that's that's
And I get what you're saying. I agree with you.
It's economics and whether you know. But people at the

(36:06):
at the at the track or some of the guys,
they don't realize that there's a lot more than it's
and some people take it as oh, we're picking on
a certain team, but there's the race. Just as we've
made the cars faster, n h RA has gone from
you know, back like my when my dad raised where
you could you know, it was a little sticky to
the tracks are so sticky it's like velcro. If you

(36:28):
walk on the track. Yeah, a lot of fans will
realize you walk on that racetrack, especially the way they
used to spray it, you know, or last year, the
year before, it literally takes your shoe off. You walk
across that, it will peel your shoe right. So like
there's no prep racing, these other kind of racing that's
going on. I'm thinking the fans don't even want it
prep that much because it's like a little bit. It's
like cheating a little bit in a while, you know.

(36:50):
It's it's like when they did it at NASCAR. Remember
they put stick them on. I don't know if it's
Bristol or Charlotte, but they did something the similar, similar product.
They put it on there and they're like, oh, well,
it'll make it more racing. No, it made it like
they had a big wing on the car. It was
stuck to the track. I mean, the best thing about
Bristol back in the day was there was there was

(37:13):
a certain way you had a pass peeple and it
was usually by bump and run. It wasn't. It wasn't
I'll take the center line or the middle or or
the outside of the inside. Now there's three lines of racing.
They're like, oh, this is gonna Who said it was
gonna beat it that way? The people who owned the track,
that's car Because I can tell you the fans didn't go, Man,
if this was three wide racing there on this half,

(37:35):
my hell of that. They want to see somebody get
wiped out. Like Dale Earnhardt used to push, push him
out of the way, go past him and that's what's missing.
That's what we were just talking about at the beginning
of this was with Kyle Bush and Kyle Larson. The
best thing was, Yeah, Kyle got to him, try to
put a slide job on him, missed it and got

(37:56):
him got in his door, which he should have never
went up as far as he did there. That slide
was not even close to be there. But he got
into his door a little bit and got him, got
him shook up. Well, you know what when he went
into the next turn. He's lucky that Kyle Bush is
as good a driver as he is that he didn't
wipe them both up, you know. But it was so

(38:17):
crazy that you saw where he got him loose, and
it upset Kyle Busch's car so much it put him
up into the wall. He gets out of the wall
and finishes the race. But you know, yeah, the fans
were boomed. Hell I used to like it when they
were you know. If you know Jeff Gordon would win
and beat Del Jr. They were throwing Budweiser cans on
the track at him and rather have him doing that

(38:39):
than saying nothing, sitting on their hands, rightly, Remember back
in the seventies, they had stick him for NFL football players.
He used to be able to put whatever. It's like
like pine tart. Yeah. Yeah, so it's like they could
just get like get a ball out of it. Yeah,
but what the reason why I brought up no prep racing?
Think about it this way. Think about it if it
was like prep racing or hell yeah prep or you

(39:03):
got it, prep whatt whatever metaphor name you want to
call it. It's popular because it's no prep. That takes
a little bit more doing to get that, especially have
a little tired to hook up and go that way.
So I I like that idea. I think that would
be that would be crazy to try to get that
to adjust the clutch and all this. They're yeah, they're

(39:25):
actually doing that now, and it's you know, there's been
uh several different we want to race in the with
the new prep. Uh, there's been some other cars that
you might not have seen had the track been you know,
just balls to the wall like it was before. And
so it's good. Yeah, Clay Milk, Yeah, I'm putting it down. Yeah.
So I think I think it's just about a matter

(39:47):
of if, if having people realize that you know what,
oh you can't slip the clutch a little bit like
we used to. Oh yeah, okay, well then it works.
It shouldn't all be about brute power, because brute power,
like we talked about earlier economics, doesn't work. It costs
too much money. You know, there was there was got
not to interrupt that. There was pick crank Chef for example.

(40:08):
I heard through the through the pits, which I'm pretty
familiar with with bs and no bs. But there were
the crank life last couple of years, and some teams
have been three to four runs. We're talking five thousand
dollar apiece cranks lass and think about it, four runs
outs a mile like that's that's so you're not gonna
get You're not going to grow the sport doing that.

(40:30):
So I'm glad they're doing something and it's still great
race and there so you're not running three eighties, we're
running three nineties and four ohs we're still going three twenty.
It's like yeah, and you know what, sometimes people like
to see the underdog win. Yeah, exactly. Clay Millock is
one of the best dragster is going right now. Whoever
thought that they have they're like us, they're a single

(40:52):
car team. They're not. There's no affiliation other teams right there. Yeah.
The in fact, somebody said the other day they have
like three spare engines, like some of these have three
spring engines like in there in there when when you
walk in the door. Yeah, and they got ten ten
more back right, Yeah, Well that's it's uh. And Clay
Clay is one of the one of the nicest people

(41:14):
you've ever made in this world. And he's uh, he's
been around it. He's another guy who never walked away
from it. Can't fight h r A. And for years
with the you know, with the Warner car and yeah, yeah,
I h r A. He was, he was, he was
the man and and and uh and uh old Bruce

(41:34):
Letton Glory be to God. Yeah. Yeah, very tiger gets
out of the car. He's uh missing missing missing the thumb.
And I said to him, I said, Bridge, how that
helped you lose your thumb? He said, I was drag
racing motorcycles and the chain got it. Wow. Yeah, So
that you know, you had Celsie, that would raise the

(41:57):
chili bowl, of course you that would raise the chili bowl.
I think caps didn't caps and the prelude the dream, Yeah, yeah,
late models. Yeah, so all of this stuff outside the
NHR A the NHR should be promoting this. They should say, hey,
here's some money, go infiltrate this other sport and bring

(42:19):
some more fans back, you know. And it was always fun.
It wasn't fun. I didn't like watching you hit that
wall down there from the one where I think the hey,
I think the hey's still falling, falling on the ground
back there. But yeah, you know what's funny about that.
I was. I wasn't even racing. It was at the
at the checker and I thought, you know, I'm gonna

(42:39):
buzz the tires and see see if there's any traction
up there. And it was all marbles. Yeah. So I
went in there and and it was like just kept
going straight, stayed up there, but they never moved. Yeah.
I was seting next to at Lauch. Yeah, oh yeah,
and he goes, oh my god, one of our guys
just got hurt he was looking at because that wall
did not move. Well. Luckilier was like the hay bell. Yeah,

(43:02):
I stopped in one spot once about the hay bell
saved me. I was never so happy to see a
bunch of straw. But you know, funny thing other than
my shoulder was sore. I I didn't even hardly feel it.
I was like, man, what am I doing here? Upside down?
Because they think hit like right. But so so since
you're on that subject, I did. We did buy Image.

(43:24):
So I have a stealth, old school stealth, narrow um
that's all ready to go turn key. So we're thinking
about running the Chili Bowl, but we're also thinking about
running the uh the Brickyard four hundred pre Usack race,
the dual dirt track there, and we may play around
with it here and there between our races. You know
who's gonna who's gonna drive? You don't know, I don't know. Um,

(43:47):
you got a big enough seat for me. You know,
it's a narrow stealth, so that sucker is tight. But
but it was it was a I bought it just
because it was a good deal. And I was sitting
on the West coast. A good friend of mine, Steve
Watt Maxwell Industries, UH, said hey, we're at p R I.
He says, hey, you know, I've got this midget's Chili
Bowl ready, and he showed me a picture of it,
and I was like, oh, man, I remember that car.

(44:07):
It's the six car um So anyway, long story short,
we you know, we got the price paid for it,
got it shipped, and it's sitting at the shop. It's
everything complete minus the seat. So I called Bernie at
the Indie Parts sent me a seat over a quirky,
a little narrow thing. Don't need to full containument because

(44:28):
I'm not gonna run it and I'm not gonna have
anybody run out the big trucks, just little short tracks.
So yeah, we'll see TBD as far as driver goes nice.
I think the thing at for the Brickyard weekend. You
know one thing that I'll say about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Of course we have a suite there that you know,
we we bring custpers, friends and family too. But you know,

(44:51):
one of the things about there is, you know, Doug
Doug Bowls is finding a way to make it more
than an event and more than a race. He's turning
it into an event just like the Indy Car race,
just like you know that now the NASCAR race with
this being part of it. I mean, get some people

(45:13):
out in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway experience that you know,
we're talking about the prices and things like that. I mean,
let's let's forget about the eighty dollar a ticket. Okay,
you can't take your family, you know, as much as
somebody want to set in the stands, I mean it,
it's not gonna happen. You know. Let's make it affordable
where you know, yeah, maybe you can't pay the Dell

(45:37):
juniors that are now a TV announcer, and you know
some of these other folks like that. You know. So
I think that I think they're all going in the
right direction, and I think there's enough there for everyone.
I think that Indy Car has an unbelievable path in
front of him with the talent that they have there,
the racing and and everything that's arting to evolve. But

(46:01):
that race with with you, Sack. I said and talked
with Kevin Miller at length, uh at the at during
the five hundred, I think it was Saturday maybe before
you know, I said and talked to him at length
about what was going on and what their plans were
with that. And you know what, it's gonna be awesome.
It's gonna be unbelievable, now are they? Is it gonna

(46:23):
be a U? Sack points event like it would be
a national show. I believe it is, yes, and actually
and it's gonna be h. It's my understanding is it's
going to be a pretty significant pay. Yeah, it's gonna
be way more than a than a usual show. So
you've got all the NASCAR guys there. Now, they're they're
probably not gonna run, but they're definitely probably gonna be

(46:43):
over there checking it out, you know. And uh, there's
a couple of guys that can jump right in those Casey,
Casey Kane obviously, the the obvious guys, Kyle Larson's and
those guys should be in Christopher Bell. They they're on
the Chili Bowl every year. So Caleb and I were talking.
We're talking about, man, they should dig up I r
P and make it make a dirt track out there,
because really, do you think about it, there's really no

(47:05):
significant dirt track, especially smaller ones for midgets around this area,
and you know, you think there would be. But and
I told him, and I told him, I said, you know,
we used to have the suite out of you know,
out at Lucas Oil Raceway, I rap, and uh, you know,
as soon as they lost NASCAR, you know that was
really our that and you know, you guys, of course
that was the that was the biggest draw. That's why

(47:28):
we wanted it. Well, you lose half of that, then
it sets empty all year, you know, so you can't
entertain folks. I said, you want to need to turn
this into a dirt track, or you need to build
a dirt track over in that field over there. And
you know the nhr A, they're they're busy trying to
go straight. They're not interested in that. And uh, you know, unfortunately,

(47:48):
and you know, I thought maybe with Peter coming in
and the rest of the guys, you know, who knows,
that may change. But I said around that whole NASCAR weekend,
they ought to have the trucks on the mild dirt
at the fairground, right, you know that you want to
put a show on. That would be that would be
pretty badass if you had the the the Exfinity cars

(48:10):
back out at a rap which is where they belong.
I mean, I love the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it
it has no place for that. It just isn't. Uh
you know, the Cup guys, you know, it is what
it is. That's what it is. And uh, we're definitely
a city of racing. We got to figure out how
to spread it around. But I appreciate you coming by.

(48:33):
Thanks for your support as always. Yeah, thanks for your
for your support. Rico. I was gonna tell this quick
story before, and I just want to say thanks for
for doing what what you've done with the glasses. But
you know, fat head here, fat head here. So I
used to go buy glasses sunglasses and I put them
on and they'd beat like pretty tight right here, and
you know that's not comfortable. So I would just pick

(48:55):
pick a pick a set, take them off, put another
set on. So I finally figured out, okay, get the
little cigarette, lie her, hate the freaking frame, bend them out,
file them so they opened up a little bit. And
then you came along. So thanks for what you do.
And and I was wondering how you wore those other frames.
Well they just you know, they just didn't fit. It's

(49:16):
just like, okay, well I guess this is you know,
this is the way it is. But you came along,
great invention, and I'm glad to see your successful and
it's gone and we loved it. Your support, and uh,
thanks for having us absolutely, thanks a lot, brother, all
right man, You've been listening to The Skinny with Rico Elmore,
founder and CEO of Fatheads I Wear. For more information

(49:38):
about Rico, visit his personal page at Rico Elmore dot
com and be sure to check out all of our
great products at fatheads dot com. The undisputed leader in
oversized eye wear is fatheads