February 6, 2020 • 42 mins
CHILI BOWL Episode 3: The Chili Bowl 2020 Preview continues with episode 3. Hosted by Rico Elmore with co-hosts Ken Stout and Rob Klepper. Special guest Tony Stewart talks about his first Chili Bowl win in 2002, along with additional insider info from guest Cory Kruseman.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back to the Skinning Kids. Out with you. Rico
Elmore in the house of Rob Clipper here with us,
smoke yes, Tony Stewart in my house as well, and
a couple of call in guests Rico A Room and
Corey Kruzman. Stay with us. It's gonna be fun, do it.
Brought up the point how good, how good the field
(00:25):
has become, I mean excess of three plus cars and
and how tough it is even in your heat race
on any given night. And Clipper, maybe you know the
answer to this. Was it Sammy that came from the
deepest to to win, or at least he came from
the main Sammy when Year came from the E made
it up to second in the A and then broke
broke something the drive shaft. So and we constantly talk
(00:46):
about this, and we pick up the show live on
mav TV. By the way, for those of that'll that'll
watch us. If you want to watch the Chili Bowl
Racing Boys, pick it up Monday through through Saturday really
and then all the way starting with c Mains. We'll
have it live on mav TV and you can watch
from there. But we constantly talk about forget about the
C mains, the starters in the D main or a
great A main any other time of the year. It's phenomenal.
(01:09):
But based off of what you were saying before, how
good this talent level, how deep it's it's become. Can
you do that anymore? Can you come from an E
and make it to an A main? You know, if anybody,
if anybody can do it. Chili Bowl is the place
that luck can change a lot of things. But you know,
ten fifteen years ago people had nice cars, but there
(01:31):
was still a lot of hand built items. Now you
can buy the best of them, so there is empathy
of the quality of the car is gone. So you
can take you know, a guide that we've never heard
of that goes out there and just kicks our asses,
and you know that he makes a name for himself.
But it's getting harder and harder to do, I think
(01:54):
every year. I mean, Tony has obviously helped with the
racetrack a bunch with keeping it two group, and it's
nice having a racer to have his hands on the racetrack,
But I think it's getting tougher and tougher. You know,
you obviously have to be in a really good race car,
and there's gonna be two hundred of those, and there's
(02:16):
you used to be able to say there's thirty people,
twenty of those thirty are going to make it to
the main event. Now I think that's more of eight people.
So it I think it's still a milestone to make
it to the main event, let alone win the main
event there. But it's a tough deal, it really is.
You make the preliminary night feature event. Like you said earlier,
(02:38):
that's tough enough just to get into the show on
your prelim night, UM top two now with the car account,
get locked into the A. The way it breaks down,
if you run dead last on the prelim night, you're
in an E. On on Saturday, I mean that's it
used to be the D but with the extra the
extra night now on Monday, now you're in an E.
So like you were saying, you've got guys that are
(02:59):
Dave darl and legit that maybe have an issue on
the prelim night. Now they find themselves in an emine
and have to race to the D to have a
Dave Darlan plus one. Then they into the sea that
Dave darn plus two, and it just gets tougher and tougher,
but either one of the ease is going to have
an easy six to eight guys that are capable of
(03:19):
winning the Chili bawl, you know, I mean, and then
when you get to the D it's it's half the field.
I mean, that's that's the hard part. Every preliminary night.
I wouldn't say the entire A Main are are guys
that are guys you would expect to be in an
A Main on a on a regular night, but two
thirds of that starting field on a preliminary night are
(03:40):
guys that you would expect to see in the A
Main on Saturday night. And like you're saying, now, now
those guys that finished the back off the are gonna
be in an emin. I mean, if you make the
B Main, its stout the guys that don't make the
show from the B Main. Any promoter in the country
would take that starting field as their you know, as
their lineup for for any SAT Day night show and
sell the place out to come watch him. So it's
(04:03):
it is just so tough to get in those spots.
And that's why that's why we talked about him and
Corey has been there a million times he can tell
you it's just the slightest little thing gets you buried
in that deal to where and now you're now you
went from you know, maybe having to go a little
bit at work, a little bit harder and have to
make a couple of steps to get up the to
the A main and get in a decent starting spot,
(04:24):
to now you're fighting just to make the show. And
a lot of times when you are fighting like that,
the chromb horn obviously comes into play. But also, like
Rico Abrew was saying earlier, you can you can kind
of create your own problem by having to force yourself
to put yourself in a bad position. And it could
you know, just like you said, you're starting in the
front row of the see okay, all right, I made
(04:45):
it in the back of the beat, and I'm in
the back of the beat. I got what is it,
twenty laps in the be main, which can go by
in about five minutes if it goes green Um to
get into the A they only take the top seven.
I mean, it's it's go time. You just do what
you have to do. And I mean this because I
respect him so much. That's what makes it hard for
someone like Corey Kruzman if he's in a in the
middle of a B Maine or a C main or
on back to get to the front. Is because Corey's
(05:08):
not the guy that's gonna lay a bumper to you.
I mean, he's he's way too nice and he wants
to do it the right way. He's he's got a
great reputation for racing guys clean. And that's that's the
hard part, is that you get to those situations where
now on Saturday, you're not in the A main and
you've got to make something happen. If he doesn't have
a race track that he can get there and it's
one lane, or it's or just the fact that it
(05:30):
can still be a two lane race track, but there's
so many cars that there's already cars in both of
those lanes full He's not the guy that's going to
route a guy out of the way to to to
make something happen, and it makes that it makes that
Lower Maine just that much more difficult. I've always been
fortunate to race people cleaned, so it's it's something that
means a lot to me because when I started, when
(05:51):
Smoke started, when when we did something stupid You didn't
get in trouble by the officials, You got your ass
by somebody else. He it came and grabbed you by
the T shirt and explained to you what was right
and wrong. So you know, a todd early age, what
was right and wrong. And that's kind of how I
I prefer to race. I think Chili Bowl and the
success of a driver is a guy that can run
(06:14):
the bottom, that can run the top, but is smart
enough to know when to change lanes first. The first
guy that changed lanes is the first guy that gets
through the field, and that's a crapshoot. Is as Tony knows,
as Rico knows, it's because there's plenty of times we've
changed lanes and realized that it was a train on
the bottom and that was because the top was four
(06:37):
tenths So you know, it's just knowing, knowing when and
when you cannot move around. And thank god Corey's is
a cleaner racers he is, or I wouldn't have won
my first Chili Bowl. I mean, and I've been waiting,
We've never I've never asking this. This is the first
time I've ever asking this question. How much faster were
you than me? That first year that that you followed
(06:58):
me on the bottom with Kevin Doty on the outside
of us. We were actually really good that year. I
would say we were at least five better. But the
problem was the race track. You had to be glued
to that three or four feet or it didn't really matter.
So and you were smart enough to know it that
if you slipped up, obviously we were going to be
(07:19):
able to get underneath you. And there was several times
I think we got almost side by side coming off too. Yeah,
I think, like I said, thank god it was him,
because if it had been anybody else, I wouldn't have
won that first Chili. But I mean, I've watched I
bet I've watched the video of that probably a hundred
times since since that race happened. And and at least
two times we were side by side off of two
(07:40):
and there were so many times that he had his
right front underneath my left ear, And I'm like, I
couldn't have been as nice as he was. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't erected him. It would have been it would
have sounded just like Dale Senor said about Terry Lebonni
at Bristol. I mean, but I you could just see
how it had to be agonizing, because, like you said,
(08:00):
I can see it in the video. I'm sitting going,
I'm holding I am literally holding him up. And Kevin
Dodie had the top block. So it's not like you
had another option. I mean you you had kind of
committed to the bottom. We had kept committed to the bottom.
But I'm sitting there going, man, I mean it had
to be. And and hey, here's the other thing. When
when you're that much faster than somebody and you can't
run your pace, it makes it harder to drive your car.
(08:22):
But because you can't get in the corner of the
way you need to, you can't get in the gas
when you need to. It had to be hard to
sit back there and know that, you know, all he's
gotta do is be eight feet further forward than what
he was and he wins this race. It was way
harder to El Dora for my first time. We raced
in California for several years and made a deal with
(08:43):
my car owner if we we won Man Danita one night,
he would take me to the foreground and that was
the first time that we got to run open tires
because we California is always on a spec tire. So
we go back there and I think we were like
third quick or fourth quick in the mid it and
as well in the sprint car. We led about eighteen
laps to the foreground in the midget and blew the
(09:05):
motor up, and then we get in a sprint car
and I'm like, holy this this is almost easy. We're
running away and and checking out, and about lap sixteen,
I blister a right rear tire and when smoke goes
by me. I don't know if it was a wave
of peace sign or the finger it was. It was
some sort of international gesture that was a much harder
(09:31):
one to swallow. The tire management signed. I I had
been there just enough to know. It's like it's kind
of like when you're like, I've seen this movie. I
know how this ends, and I'm watching him and he
is running the dogs. I mean, if it had been
a fifteen lap race, he had a shot at it.
But I mean he was running every lap. I mean
you could see how much he wanted to win the
(09:51):
four crown, and and it is it was a huge
deal for all of us, and you sacked it to
try to because it paid ten thousand to win all
the divisions at that time. And uh So I'm watching
him and I'm like, man, I know I can run
that pace, but I can't. I know I can't make
my tire live doing that. And I'm watching him and
I'm going, man, he looks good. And and for a
while there, I'm like, I don't think this, saying I
(10:14):
don't think his tire is gonna give up. And then
I'm then I start catching myself running a little bit
harder than what I really wanted to. And then I
could see it. I could see the as soon as
that tire blistered, you could see the holes in it
coming up in the block, and you can physically see it.
As he's going down the straight away. I'm like, oh,
there you are, sweet Jesus, come back. And so we went.
(10:35):
When I went by, I kind of went like this,
like I gotta slow down just a little bit. Tires.
So and that was and I had an unfair advantage
because Eldra when it was slick. I ran for Glenn
and Ibol that year and that that car was absolutely
terrible to run if the track was heavy, because it
didn't have enough motor to to keep the tire spinning
around and keep the car rotating. And so Corey was
(10:58):
in Harlan Willis's car, and you know, Mike Drake was
his crew chief, and I'm like, man, he's he's gonna
be fast. I know he's gonna be quick. I know
what he can do. And he got out front there
and I thought, man, this thing, he's gonna back up quick.
It's gonna kill this thing. And he it hung on
a lot longer than I thought he was gonna be
able to hang on to. But then when I saw
those whole start coming up, I'm like, oh, your your
(11:18):
your job just got a lot more different. The elemented
difficulty went up. If he could have stuck that landing,
the Russian judge would have gave him a really good score.
But yeah, I went by in that V six and
I'm like, I knew he was sitting there and just
cussing at the time, because I don't think I ever
maybe three or four times heard Corey cuss at anything,
but I was pretty sure he was cussing when I
went by, and so I stuck morn like just slow
(11:38):
down a little bit and run straight. But you know,
Corey was out from out west where you know, I
remember getting the posters the Sprint Car calendar every year,
and the best shot of the whole calendar wasn't a
wing sprint car shot. It wasn't a U Sack uh
you know, Bloomington or anything like that. It was watching
Brad Nofsinger and Bubby Jones and Leland mcspadden uh back
(12:00):
him in at Ascot before Ascot closed. It was the
only shots on the calendar that were shot from the
infield and you could see the right side of the
car and that's the way Corey drove in. And you know,
Corey was fast out in California driving that way, and
that's what you have to do. I mean, the California
tracks are heavy, sticky, and you had to back him in.
But you know, Eldora was you know, I knew the
(12:21):
first time there when I saw him, I'm like, yeah,
I don't know if that's going to work for very long.
But like I said, he held on a lot longer,
but he just you know, I I had We did
have that conversation when you drove for me and we
went back to Eldor. I said, listen, I said, remember
what happened the first time you came here and you
were looking out the right side of the cage. I said,
if you if you have to look past the right
side of the front roll bar, you're you're way two sideways.
(12:43):
You gotta looked through the front of the cage to
get around here when it's slicked like that. And he did.
I mean, he made big adjustments there and got a
lot better. Corey was so good. You know when he
when he finally realized that he didn't his chin didn't
have to scrape the right retire on entry. When he
figured that out, it was like it totally changed his
driving style. And then you know, that's when he got
(13:03):
going so good at at at uh you know, Chili Bowl,
and he that's why he could run the bottom so good,
because he could get in so hard but so straight
at the same time and still get the car to rotate.
I mean, that's that's where he made a lot of money.
We've talked about that a lot on the course of
the broadcast. Um, but Knoxville is that way. If you
don't run that car really straight at Knoxville, I mean
borderline like an asphalt car, you're not gonna win that right,
(13:25):
especially on the bottom, and you know that is like
kryptonite to me. I still cannot get around Knoxville to
if making the a main meant life or death, you
guys would be been at my funeral for the last
three years straight. But which is amazing because I mean, clearly,
you know shots knows how to get around that place,
and you, my guess is you have pretty good notes
from him, and is it No, I don't. Actually, he
(13:48):
won't tell me anything about Knoxville. That's the only place
that he will not talk to me. But the one
guy that I reached out to was Danny Lesoski because
I know Danny knows how to get around there. And
you know, the thing about Donnie is Donnie's just done
it for so long that he doesn't even think about it.
It's just what he does. Where you know, Lesoski is
much more methodical about it. Um, well, we were gonna
(14:11):
try to sneak out and I might have been a
dingis a little bit too late the night before we
were gonna do this, but we were gonna sneak out
on a golf cart first thing in the morning, and
he was gonna show me how to get around there
the right way and it's it's just one of those
places that kind of like Eldor was the Corey the
first time he went there. I mean, getting around Knoxville,
if you don't run there a lot. There's guys like
Geo Celzy that picked it up really quick. Uh, and
(14:33):
there's guys like myself that I've I've been going there
and I bet I still haven't ran probably six or
seven races there in my career. But I'm out till lunch.
If I if it's not if it's not the if
the entry is not kind of wide to get in,
if it gets really narrow getting in, I can't even
hit the bottom. But and I can't get around the
top to save my rear end. For some reason, I
(14:54):
just cannot get around it like you need to. And
then you sit there and watch Brian Brown and and
Shot and Pittman and David Gravel, and you're like, I
have a suite at Knoxville and I've sat there for
years during Knoxville Nationals Week, and it's like I know
where I'm supposed to be on the racetrack, but I
can't get there from where I'm at for some reason.
Ironically enough, you weren't bad on a late model. You
(15:15):
did a great running the late model. Yeah, the late
models fun, but it was Yeah, that's why I say
a wingsprint car there though, it's just a totally different animal.
For some reason. I remember running your car there one
year and we were running during the Knoxville Nationals. I
think it was like the first night, and we ran
a hot lap session at intermission, and then we ran
(15:37):
a twenty lap feature we pill picked for after the
main event, and when we pushed off for the main event,
the people in the grand stands were fighting to get
out of the grand stands so fast because we didn't
have wings on. It was absolutely incredible. The USAC boys
put on pretty good show at Knoxville this year, for sure.
(15:58):
Brady Brady Bacon sweat both nights there and took twenty
five grand away from from the sprint car capital of
the world. But uh, I think I think they made
a lot of fat had sponsored car. That's true. That's
why that's why I brought it up for you. I
do this for for very you know. But no, it
reminded me of a race in Australia. So to win
(16:23):
the Australian Championship, it's not a point series like we
know of in America. You win one race, that a
number one. So I went down there one year and
they didn't allow Americans to run. It was only Kiwi's
and Aussies, and they decided to allow an American and
we went down and we ended up fast time when
the heat race won the main event, and we just
(16:45):
we we had a great night. And I'm walking out
of there, I'm carrying the trophy. They had an American
flag for me, and I'm exhausted. It's like a hundred
degrees and and I'm I'm whooped and I'm walking out
and there's this kid standing up by the fence and
I thought, I'm gonna walk up there. I'm gonna give
this kid this trophy, because that's what I did. I've
only kept about twenty trophies in my whole career. I've
(17:06):
always given him the kids. So as I'm starting to
approach this kid, I get about twenty ft from them,
and I'm gonna say maybe four to six years old,
and he starts yelling, hey, you yank, and he flips
me off, and I'm like, what are you doing me?
You know? So I'm starting to laugh, and then I'm
(17:30):
and he's got this older lady with him. It's it
must be his grandma. And I looked at her like,
you know, are you gonna say something? And she goes,
you need to go home, you freaking American, and she
gives me a thing. That's one of the trophies I
kept because but that was kind of like like us
(17:51):
raising at Knoxville, you know, it was like, do you
really want us here? You know? I remember when we
first moved back here to raise and in ninety nine,
I guess we we lived with Tony Elliott, the late
great Tony Elliot, up at Kokemo. We stayed with him
during the summers. We come back right before the night
before race to the four Crown. Then we'd go out
west and run Turkey Night and on all the West
(18:12):
coast Thursday night thunder stuff. And one of the first
races we went to was a Sunday night show at Kokomo.
It was it was pretty much the Dave Darling Tony
Elliott show right well, the sprint cars came out, which
we I we found really odd that the sprint cars
weren't the final race of the year because on the
West Coast they're always the last race of the night.
Um Elliott goes out. He wins the sprint car race.
(18:33):
He's down doing Victory Lane and the fans are booing
him and they're yelling at him to get off the track,
and I'm just like, what in the heck is going on?
Because the street stocks were still left to come out
and they hadn't raced yet. And I thought it was
in West Virginia, right, I thought the sprint cars was
the show, but no, it was the street stocks and
they could care less about Tony Elliot. They wanted to
see their buddies out there running the street stocks kind
(18:56):
of the same similar deal. I still think we should
get one and just cheated up, go out there and beat,
just beat, beat the beat the wheels off of them,
pull it on the trailer, don't ever go to Victory
line and just leave it was favorite story has involved
Steve Drake. That's oh j Drake. J that's a ChIL
bowling story. That's a leading on a prelim night. And
(19:18):
Jay decided to no, you're not leading anymore. What happened
to us? Jail? I'll say, hey, man, I need to
get to the front. Yeah, man, I'm sorry about that.
I'm sorry about that. I never understood how you could
drive a car because he was just and I was like,
somebody wake him up? Did I get into your clip? Sorry? Man,
(19:40):
you couldn't be mad at him, Yeah you could. Well.
I was extremely mad at him for like two three years.
I told him he still got one coming. I mean
that was nine two, I think it was the early
one two thousand, But yeah, he got us once on
at Anderson on Thursday night Thunder or what's whatever it
was called, bumped the South Away and heat racing then
go again Chili bol and and um Jay is great.
(20:02):
I mean, he's one of my favorite guys in in
motors but I mean in general for sure, but I
mean just in motorsports. Uh Ever, he was one of
the first guys we met coming up in in the
mid nineties, you know, when it was him and and
Leffler and and Edo and Cooeper and all those West
Coast guys um back then. And he's always he's been
a good friend ever since. I mean, he's he's really
(20:23):
one of my favorite guys in this industry. But to
talk to him, you wouldn't know that he is a
badass race car driver. I mean, we're one of my
favorite J. Drake stories and it really makes no sense,
which a lot of his stories really don't make a
lot of sense. But we're sitting at the pit and
the pits just chilling, waiting for the driver's meeting, and
Jay walks up and he says hey, Equally my brother
(20:47):
says yeah. He goes, you know, if your first name
was the you'd be the Clipper. And then he walks off.
That was it? What what the hell just happened? Right?
You'd be the Clipper. So fast forward to maybe it
was two thousand five. Last time we ran the Chili Bowl.
Was Ja, my brother and Aaron Pierce driving for Scooter
Ellis kind of like an old man's veterans team and
(21:12):
on and the visors. It was the Pierce, the Drake
and the and the Clipper. I put I put a
little vow on there, and Jay goes, A man, that's
pretty good, you know, But uh could be single hand
the best J. Drake invitation I've ever seen in my life.
I got I could do with Jay on well he
would always do and we'd see him on thunder Right
and he would he'd always looked down and Dave de
Spain would come over and talk to me. So, yeah,
(21:33):
you know, o'keith and these guys give me a good
car and you know, we'll just we'll see if we
can put her in the show. And last second, he'd
looked up a smile every single time. He'd never look
at the Spain until the last second. But uh yeah,
one of one of my favorite guys, with the exception
of that turn to incident at Chili Bowl two thousand
or whatever. I did want to mention before Corey got off.
You know, Stout knows me that that I'm a numbers guy.
(21:54):
But but looking talking Chili Bowl only Tony Stewart Corey
Cruiseman twelve A mains starts each, both two time winners.
Tony Stewart has four top fives including those wins and
twelve A main starts. Corey Kruzman six top fives in
those twelve A Maine starts. So technically Stewart needs to
(22:14):
get back, yeah, come back into it would go to
Cruiseman as well. I'll take I'll take it a step further, um,
probably because you guys are busting my balls. Average finished
for Corey seven point three, Stewart nine point seven five,
so you need to get back. I'm gonna help your
shop the front, I think if I don't know if
(22:35):
it's still sitting in your shop in the front of TSR,
it is. And see if that thing I started with
to night two thousand nineteen was not so good. I'm
gonna help him out a little bit. He was inducted
into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. I think I still
might have a stat that Chili Bowl stat that he
hasn't accounted for yet. How many total completed laps we
(22:59):
could is if you count after that faces over on
that tractor. I got his ass cover every night for
sixth straight now. Absolutely very good guy, pull them up,
very good, point a lot, and I've let all those laps.
You cannot you cannot take that away from it. He
puts it. He puts a transponder on that sub bet.
They get really mad though, when I dumped the clutch
(23:21):
to pull wheelies off the corner, just like the hot
dogs do now, like Larson and Bell and those guys,
and you can't get the steering wheel off of it.
Thank god, the tractor's too big to pull the wheel
off of. I got a hard enough time with the
wheel on it. So which accomplishment it's more important to you,
the triple crown and the single The first driver won
the triple Crown single year of the first Cup Championship. Oh,
(23:42):
that's easy. I thought you were gonna ask something difficult
that I was gonna have to think of the triple
crown definitely. I mean, I love what I do in NASCAR,
and NASCAR people get really upset when they hear me say, oh, yeah,
by far a triple crown. The logistics of what it
took to win the triple Crown that year far exceed
what we did at a NASCAR that year. It's um,
(24:02):
you know, there were races that the sprint cars and
the midgets were two different locations on the same night,
and we had to go run the sprint car. So
we had to get enough of a points buffer to
allow myself to miss that race. And luckily one of
them got rained out or else it probably, you know,
we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But um, you know,
it came down to the last race in the silver
(24:23):
Crown car, came down to the last race in the
sprint car. Um, I think the midget it was decided
the race before the last race of the year. But um, yeah,
that that by far. I mean that's an easy one
for me. I mean it's hard for anything to top
the Triple Crown year, just just because I know what
all it took logistics wise to get there. Um, it
(24:45):
wasn't just showing up on Sunday running, No, and it
was you know, you'd be in a midget Friday night,
a sprint car Saturday night, a sprint car Sunday, but
a pain you know, Saturday night, it was Sunday, it
was pavement. Just just all the different things and disciplines
we had to go through to get there. So it
was that was much harder than the NASCAR. I was
trying to come up with something that would present a
(25:07):
challenge because I if you asked me, without asking you,
I would have said the triple Crown would would be Well,
it was easy because I've never wanted a tone of
five everyone in the five hundreds, So it wasn't like
you had to go real far out there that you
didn't have as many options as what you Well, when
when when he won his first Turkey Night at Irwindell,
is that correct? Um? I think that they asked you um,
you know, or maybe you just said it, like you know,
(25:30):
when a NASCAR race is great when you know, but
this is Turkey Night. And when you look at these
crown jewel events that you probably eyeballed growing up, whether
it's especially Turkey Night because it's been around for for
so long. To win that event to you at that
moment probably was as big as, if not bigger than anything.
And I and like Turkey Night, for example, we I
(25:53):
won the t Q portion of Turkey Night at Bakersfield. Uh,
then we won better when Dale with the the midget
than the next year want it with the sprint car.
And uh, but I think J Drake wanted in a
focus car on the small track at Irwin. Deal wanted
a sprint card or one Dale and one you know,
(26:13):
the Grand Prix with the midget two. So I gotta
find a focus ride or something to go out and
win one more. Try to see J just keeps creeping
back into these columns. Well, I mean he is retired.
He only ran sixtys this year and podium somewhere in there.
(26:36):
Like it's it was far from a retirement year. You're
really back on the swing of things, man. I'll be
honest with me. I gotta cut back a little bit
though it, but it was wearing me out. And thank
god Rico went to a lot of the races with me.
Or it was, it would have been a disaster, because um,
I still have a plane. But I had more fun
driving the motor home. But what I realized is about
five in the morning, or as soon as the sun
(26:58):
starts coming up, I shut down. I'm like a vampire.
It's like, hey, I've gotta get off the road, gotta
get parked, gotta get blankets over my head. Can't get
direct sunlight or I'm gonna burn to the ground. So
that was Ricos shift was the coming back to life
shift for everybody else I could drive when nobody was
on the road. That was my He's up there, turning
as white as these walls. He's like, are you ready
(27:20):
got one for either one of you guys? Um. I
tried to think about it just off top of my head.
I couldn't really come up with one. Has anybody other
than you won an Indy Car Championship and a Cup
championship thinker one only been one of the guy win
the triple crown all the same year. But hasn't won
(27:41):
the Chili Bowl. He's aroune second at Chili Bowl, the
cos J J yale as he won an any car
championship in a NASCAR It's it's the It's just like
when this guy was battling with which what I thought
was probably the best definitely the best chase in NASCAR,
but maybe one of the best years when it was
got do you employer and you ran him down in
(28:04):
the championship and I'm sorry not and I think you
were doing it and you were just blowing him, blowing
him crap every time, trying to rattle this cage. And
he said, if you ever want that lot race that
was a media day. I mean, that was like the best,
And I said, boy, I man, he's just like, come on, man,
come oh. He was over it. So literally with like
(28:27):
three races ago, It's like, hey, we got a shot
at this with this, this could happen. We could beat
this guy, you know, because we were we were so
bad going into the chase that I literally set their
media day off to the side because I was embarrassed
to even be around the rest of the the guys because
I'm like, I really don't I didn't feel like I
belonged in that group because I'm like, we're running so bad.
We're just wasting a spot that somebody could have, you know,
(28:48):
that was running good. There were teams that missed it
that we're running really good right up to the point,
you know that the chase starter, but didn't make it
on points, and I thought, man, this is waste. But
we got down to those last couple of weeks and
we you know, rattled off two or three wins and
I'm like, man, we we got a shot at this.
And then I started feeling like I had a chance again.
But it made me go back to nine five when
(29:09):
we won the National Midget Championship against Andy Mitchener, and
I remember sitting there at Tara Hote one night with
Andy and and uh that year, Tara Hote had a
real big hole right in the middle of the groove
going into turn one. Either had to go below it
or you had to go out and around it and
above it. And um, I went out on a four.
We learned looked and I'm like, hey, it looks like
(29:29):
they got this fixed. But we got ready for the
driver's meeting and I was standing next to next to
Mitchener and I said, hey, did you go down and
look at one yet? And he was no. I'm like,
oh man, it's worse than it was last time we
went here. I said, I don't know what they've been
doing down there. And dude, he was so far off
the pace. I don't think he even got anywhere near
that part of the race track. And we qualified good
and I think right through it smooth as glass, you know,
(29:53):
and rifling through there. But you know, I remember that
psychological warfare. So we got to we got to Homestead
and uh, you know, I was feeling good. We were
running good, but Carl had won you know, Phoenix the
week before. We ran fourth, and um, but I'm like,
you know, hey, there's there's one thing that I kind
of know how to do here. They can get this
thing off until, you know, because that last week. It
(30:14):
doesn't matter what you've done for thirty five weekends. I mean,
it's you still got to make it happen that last night.
And so I did. I started using him up. And
Carl was one of those it's like Carl here, he's
so nice, he can't tell, you know, and Carl just
was you know, he didn't he wasn't confrontational with anybody,
and and UM, you know I did. I just I
absolutely And it started the very first uh the deal
(30:38):
that we had on media day was an interview with
Daryl Walter and they had Darryl in a single chair.
They had the podium with a trophy on top of
and then they had to uh director's chairs on the
other side, and they wanted Carl to be in the
chair right beside the trophy. I didn't know this at
the time, but they wanted him and the beside the
trophy because he was leading the points and he wanted
to be beside him. So I sat right next to
(30:59):
the trophy. Didn't know it, and they said, well, you know,
Carl's leading the points. We went and I'm like, no,
I'm not moving. I said, this is my trophy. And
Carl's standing five feet away from me, looking at me,
waiting on me to get up. I'm like, this is
my trophy. I said, I'm taking us hang home tomorrow,
you know, Sunday night. I said, cities asked out, and
he did. He finally put him on the other chair
because I refuse to get up. And so that's how
I started the whole day and I just I mean,
(31:21):
I just kept carving him up, carving him up, carving him.
The highlight of it though they get through the whole
media session. You know, I tell everybody I'd wreck my
mom to win the championship, which I love my mom,
but I would I'd wreck my mom in a heartbeat
to win the championship, and and would apologize to her
Thanksgiving and Christmas. And if she didn't want to give
me gifts, so be it. I understand, no hard feelings.
But our PR guy, we were the last to there.
(31:43):
The PR guys were there, and Carl and I are
walking out to We're getting a police escort back to
the track as Miami traffic was crap at that time
of day, and and uh so Carl's trying to get
us back to center, you know, and just be back
to where we normally are, and he just wasn't thinking.
I mean, it was a mistake on his part. But
you know, our PR people are like twenty ft behind me,
(32:05):
and the PR guys are talking at each other and
it's just him and I leave it. He goes, hey,
what are you gonna do on Monday? You know the
season's over. What are you gonna do? Monday. I said,
I don't know what you're doing, but I'm gonna be
in Bristol, Connecticut all day. That's that's the ESPN Tour
all day Monday. If you won the championship. We just didn't.
I said, I'm going I'm going to Bristol, Connecticut Monday.
I don't know what you're doing. And I mean he
(32:26):
never said another word, and we never spoke again the
rest of the weekend. Did not speak at all the
rest of the weekend. At what's that? What's that? You
gotta say it out loud, you gotta put it in
the universe. Well, and I thought, man, I got He's
asked there because it wasn't in front of the media.
This isn't some stage circus show. This is him, and
I knows that now nobody, nobody knows, you know, nobody's
(32:49):
here to hear this, but just him and I. So
I thought I got him. And then Friday, the next day,
he goes out and sets it on the poll. I'm like,
well that didn't work. Was that the year when you
had passed some incre ridible number of cars I want
to say over the last three races, or maybe maybe
it's the last three races, but that last race, the
last race, I think for position, not counting lap cars,
but for position, I think we passed a hundred seventeen cars.
(33:12):
It was crazy cars that start the race. But we uh,
you know, we started the race. Kurt Bush's you joint
breaks like twelve laps into the race, goes through the
front of our car. They tell me they see this,
They call me in on the caution. They come in
and fix it. We go to the back. We get
halfway up through the field the next stent and uh,
(33:33):
what I told the guys in the yell in my
k you know, it's pressure is off. I mean, we
just got to go out and just we'll get everything
we can get. Guys were not done, but we'll get
everything we can get. And you know which just is
just bad lucky. And this is the first first ship
ownership being an owner driver. So we get about halfway
through the field and then I catch another buddy of
my David Rudeman, and at the last second I get
(33:57):
ready to pull the left and start to left, and
he pulls to the left just to let me go. Well,
I had already started moving and I clipped him in
the right rear with the left front poke a hole
in the nose, and I remember I'm calling me on radio, going,
we have to come back in and fix it again.
So they come back in and then I'm laughing and
I'm just comical at this point because it's like, you know,
we're screwed. We've you know, aerodynamics or everything in these cars,
(34:19):
and not once, now twice we've screwed up the air
one this thing. And uh, I had said, well, and
I'm just joking around. I'm like, man, they're really gonna
be piste off when we come from the back and
win this thing. Now, no clue that we could even
remotely do that. But we ran the next stent, we
got back up to fifth and that's when the rain,
the first rain delay happened, and uh the I remember
seeing Carl. He he had led the entire thing, I
(34:41):
think up at that point, and I remember I was
had just taken my helmet off, hunging up on the deal,
was just getting ready to get the window net, and
I'm watching him climb out. So I stopped and he
was sitting on the door of his car and he
kind of leans back and sees me four cars behind him,
and you couldn't you. It's just it was like like
you had seen a go because in his mind he
(35:02):
had eliminated you. Like's not They've told him twice that
we've had problems and that you know, he's leading the race.
He's just gotta go do what he's doing and turns
around and he's like you can see the look on
his face is like, wait, how did he how how
did he get up here? But I remember the best
part of that during the rain delay was was Jack
rash and Jeff Clark, who worked for Rash Ates Engines,
(35:23):
and got out in the restroom is cleared down at
the end of pit road where they were where their
pit stall was forgetting the poll and Jack had he's
back to me and Jeff Clark was looking at me,
and Jeff smiles and nods, just being polite. And I
tapped Jack on the shoulder and I said, hey. He
turns around and I said, you better tell your boy
to get on his words because I'm coming. And Jeff
Clark's is back. You're trying to not laugh out loud
(35:46):
because Jeff knows this is Jeff knows what's coming on
this deal, and and uh, you know, He's just shaking
his head like, Oh, I can't believe he just did
that to him, you know, so, but it was. That
was the hell of one night. But but yeah, that's
why I will tell you one thing that I remember
about that race was watching the car on the ragged
edge the whole time, coming back through there and watching
(36:10):
the car and looking at it and thinking, this side
of a bitch is going to rotate all the way
here in just a minute. The worst part about it,
I'm pulling slide jobs every lap and nobody's up there
go slide japs. Damn it. I did long before Dale Jr.
Thought it was popular jobs. But I'm telling you, man,
it was just like the car just looked like I was.
(36:35):
That was one of those do as I say, not
as I do comments at that point. But that was fun.
That's those are the that you just talked about the
two greatest moments of my life in racing was the
single race and championship at Homestead and the Triple Crown.
I mean those by far. When people say what's what's
the one thing that you say or you're you're shining
crowning achievements, those two things are what comes to the
(36:59):
top of the list for sure. I've got one last
thing I want to bring up here, um, and I'm
sure that the stories here will fill up a little
bit of time. And we lost a couple of historic
people here in two thousand nineteen. Bill Simpson comes to mind.
Junior Johnson here just recently, a close personal friend of
ours on that wing sprint car that I talked about
a little bit before. Randy Bisch and probably the one
that you missed there that's probably right at the top
(37:21):
of the list for most of us here is Dick Jordan's.
Dick Jordan's for sure, Brandy Brandy. It was a tough
year in the racing industry. I mean some real pioneers.
I mean you look at what Dick Jordan did at
USAK for so many years and and of all things,
Dick should have been president of u SACK, not you know,
(37:42):
president of communications and and vice president of USAK. I
mean he was USACK to to all of us uh,
like his life. Yeah, and you know nobody promoted you
SACK harder than than Dick did. Uh. Do you look
at Randy Sweet and what he's meant to racing, whether
it's been you know, pumps and valves, steering boxes. Um,
(38:03):
you know, his his friendship with Scott Bloomquist, what they
were able to do in late model racing, Uh, really
ahead of his time in that category, and rack compinion, steerings. Uh.
Just just some great people. And none of us would
be here even talking about all of this if it
wasn't for Bill Simpson. I mean, uh, he he not
(38:24):
only talked to talk, but he walked to walk. I mean,
he did it all he uh, and he did it
because he wanted to take care of his buddies and
protect his friends, and and um, you know it didn't
matter whether it was drag racing, IndyCar, Nascar, um, you know,
open wheel racing. He had an insight and the knowledge
about it and knew a side of it that needed help.
(38:45):
And that's what Bill really excelled in. I mean, he
he ran it as a good business, but aside from that,
the thing that that more so than the business side
of it, he just he wanted it to be right.
He wanted it to be as safe as it could be.
And uh, you know there were times when you know,
he had the ability to get under your skin and
a heartbeat and you know, a day later put his
arm around you and say, hey kid, I'm gonna help
(39:07):
you with this. And and there's just I don't think
in the safety category there's ever going to be a
single person that's going to run a ship like Bill
Simpson did and a guy that put his life on
the line to build his own credibility to prove that
his product was was worth it was. What do you
know that story about him catching himself on fire? I
(39:27):
knew Bill from the race track, right like everybody you know,
you'd seem and but but one of the things that
he told me, he goes, you know what, I caught
myself on fire? I said. I said, yeah, I said,
you're crazy. I said, you intentionally did that. He goes,
I know. He goes, why you know I did it?
I said, no, I have no idea. He said, because
(39:48):
I had a competitor that said their stuff was as
good as mine. I said, made me right here at
this time. We'll both catch herself on fire and we'll
see who works that out. The other person never showed up.
That sounds like a Bill Simpson is a total bill.
Can he tell you who who actually was the one
that led him on fire? Without Chips, I believe, so
I think I was just yeah, yeah, that he and
(40:10):
Chip had a had a unique relationship. Yeah, well that's
Bill had a unique relationship with everybody. But but they
but but him and and Ganassi got along really well,
and uh, you know, had a lot of respect for
each other. But but the Bill was just one. That's
the thing. Bill was one of those guys. I mean
you kind of you know, for a long time, you know,
I was sponsored by them, I think in ninety three
(40:32):
and to this day, I'm still sponsored by some some
race products. But every time I saw Bill, it's like
you just kind of waited a second till he said something,
so you knew where the temperature gauge was at that
particular day. And then it finally got old enough in
my career and far enough up the ladder where I
didn't give ship where the temperature gauge was. It just
was like, what are you doing, the old man? Are
(40:53):
you piste off today? You're happy today where you're at.
And then I've never had we never had a problem
after that. It was just it was just fun. Any
how he was It's like if you just got on
his level and and just did it your way like
he did. He. I mean, it puts you in an
elite category. And you know, guys like Bill and guys
like Randy sweet Um, you know, Junior Johnson same way.
(41:15):
I mean, these are guys that did it their way
did it. I just did it smarter and didn't do
it on a computer, didn't do it with an engineering degree.
They just did it because they were smarter and cared
and wanted it to be right, wanted it to be different.
And uh, you know because of the guys like that,
it's that's what's pushed this sport to where it is.
And you know, it's It doesn't mean we don't have
(41:36):
a lot to look forward to, because technology is a
good thing, but there's bad things that you lose with
it too. You lose the personality side. But there's cool
things that keep coming and racing that keep making it
better for all of us. And and uh, you know,
keep reminding us that the motorsports is going to be
sound for a long time. But those innovators of single
people that single handedly did it on their own put
(41:56):
the sweat into it, uh you know, and and had
had to shake the tree, so to speak to get there.
I mean, Junior Randy Bill. You know, they all did
it that way and that's what made him so special.
Thanks for watching this edition of the Skinny. Go to
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I Wear apparel along with many other products. Thanks to
(42:20):
our partners and Elliott's Custom Trailer and Carts for their
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Welcome back to the Skinning Kids. Out with you. Rico
Elmore in the house of Rob Clipper here with us,
smoke yes, Tony Stewart in my house as well, and
a couple of call in guests Rico A Room and
Corey Kruzman. Stay with us. It's gonna be fun, do it.
Brought up the point how good, how good the field
(00:25):
has become, I mean excess of three plus cars and
and how tough it is even in your heat race
on any given night. And Clipper, maybe you know the
answer to this. Was it Sammy that came from the
deepest to to win, or at least he came from
the main Sammy when Year came from the E made
it up to second in the A and then broke
broke something the drive shaft. So and we constantly talk
(00:46):
about this, and we pick up the show live on
mav TV. By the way, for those of that'll that'll
watch us. If you want to watch the Chili Bowl
Racing Boys, pick it up Monday through through Saturday really
and then all the way starting with c Mains. We'll
have it live on mav TV and you can watch
from there. But we constantly talk about forget about the
C mains, the starters in the D main or a
great A main any other time of the year. It's phenomenal.
(01:09):
But based off of what you were saying before, how
good this talent level, how deep it's it's become. Can
you do that anymore? Can you come from an E
and make it to an A main? You know, if anybody,
if anybody can do it. Chili Bowl is the place
that luck can change a lot of things. But you know,
ten fifteen years ago people had nice cars, but there
(01:31):
was still a lot of hand built items. Now you
can buy the best of them, so there is empathy
of the quality of the car is gone. So you
can take you know, a guide that we've never heard
of that goes out there and just kicks our asses,
and you know that he makes a name for himself.
But it's getting harder and harder to do, I think
(01:54):
every year. I mean, Tony has obviously helped with the
racetrack a bunch with keeping it two group, and it's
nice having a racer to have his hands on the racetrack,
But I think it's getting tougher and tougher. You know,
you obviously have to be in a really good race car,
and there's gonna be two hundred of those, and there's
(02:16):
you used to be able to say there's thirty people,
twenty of those thirty are going to make it to
the main event. Now I think that's more of eight people.
So it I think it's still a milestone to make
it to the main event, let alone win the main
event there. But it's a tough deal, it really is.
You make the preliminary night feature event. Like you said earlier,
(02:38):
that's tough enough just to get into the show on
your prelim night, UM top two now with the car account,
get locked into the A. The way it breaks down,
if you run dead last on the prelim night, you're
in an E. On on Saturday, I mean that's it
used to be the D but with the extra the
extra night now on Monday, now you're in an E.
So like you were saying, you've got guys that are
(02:59):
Dave darl and legit that maybe have an issue on
the prelim night. Now they find themselves in an emine
and have to race to the D to have a
Dave Darlan plus one. Then they into the sea that
Dave darn plus two, and it just gets tougher and tougher,
but either one of the ease is going to have
an easy six to eight guys that are capable of
(03:19):
winning the Chili bawl, you know, I mean, and then
when you get to the D it's it's half the field.
I mean, that's that's the hard part. Every preliminary night.
I wouldn't say the entire A Main are are guys
that are guys you would expect to be in an
A Main on a on a regular night, but two
thirds of that starting field on a preliminary night are
(03:40):
guys that you would expect to see in the A
Main on Saturday night. And like you're saying, now, now
those guys that finished the back off the are gonna
be in an emin. I mean, if you make the
B Main, its stout the guys that don't make the
show from the B Main. Any promoter in the country
would take that starting field as their you know, as
their lineup for for any SAT Day night show and
sell the place out to come watch him. So it's
(04:03):
it is just so tough to get in those spots.
And that's why that's why we talked about him and
Corey has been there a million times he can tell
you it's just the slightest little thing gets you buried
in that deal to where and now you're now you
went from you know, maybe having to go a little
bit at work, a little bit harder and have to
make a couple of steps to get up the to
the A main and get in a decent starting spot,
(04:24):
to now you're fighting just to make the show. And
a lot of times when you are fighting like that,
the chromb horn obviously comes into play. But also, like
Rico Abrew was saying earlier, you can you can kind
of create your own problem by having to force yourself
to put yourself in a bad position. And it could
you know, just like you said, you're starting in the
front row of the see okay, all right, I made
(04:45):
it in the back of the beat, and I'm in
the back of the beat. I got what is it,
twenty laps in the be main, which can go by
in about five minutes if it goes green Um to
get into the A they only take the top seven.
I mean, it's it's go time. You just do what
you have to do. And I mean this because I
respect him so much. That's what makes it hard for
someone like Corey Kruzman if he's in a in the
middle of a B Maine or a C main or
on back to get to the front. Is because Corey's
(05:08):
not the guy that's gonna lay a bumper to you.
I mean, he's he's way too nice and he wants
to do it the right way. He's he's got a
great reputation for racing guys clean. And that's that's the
hard part, is that you get to those situations where
now on Saturday, you're not in the A main and
you've got to make something happen. If he doesn't have
a race track that he can get there and it's
one lane, or it's or just the fact that it
(05:30):
can still be a two lane race track, but there's
so many cars that there's already cars in both of
those lanes full He's not the guy that's going to
route a guy out of the way to to to
make something happen, and it makes that it makes that
Lower Maine just that much more difficult. I've always been
fortunate to race people cleaned, so it's it's something that
means a lot to me because when I started, when
(05:51):
Smoke started, when when we did something stupid You didn't
get in trouble by the officials, You got your ass
by somebody else. He it came and grabbed you by
the T shirt and explained to you what was right
and wrong. So you know, a todd early age, what
was right and wrong. And that's kind of how I
I prefer to race. I think Chili Bowl and the
success of a driver is a guy that can run
(06:14):
the bottom, that can run the top, but is smart
enough to know when to change lanes first. The first
guy that changed lanes is the first guy that gets
through the field, and that's a crapshoot. Is as Tony knows,
as Rico knows, it's because there's plenty of times we've
changed lanes and realized that it was a train on
the bottom and that was because the top was four
(06:37):
tenths So you know, it's just knowing, knowing when and
when you cannot move around. And thank god Corey's is
a cleaner racers he is, or I wouldn't have won
my first Chili Bowl. I mean, and I've been waiting,
We've never I've never asking this. This is the first
time I've ever asking this question. How much faster were
you than me? That first year that that you followed
(06:58):
me on the bottom with Kevin Doty on the outside
of us. We were actually really good that year. I
would say we were at least five better. But the
problem was the race track. You had to be glued
to that three or four feet or it didn't really matter.
So and you were smart enough to know it that
if you slipped up, obviously we were going to be
(07:19):
able to get underneath you. And there was several times
I think we got almost side by side coming off too. Yeah,
I think, like I said, thank god it was him,
because if it had been anybody else, I wouldn't have
won that first Chili. But I mean, I've watched I
bet I've watched the video of that probably a hundred
times since since that race happened. And and at least
two times we were side by side off of two
(07:40):
and there were so many times that he had his
right front underneath my left ear, And I'm like, I
couldn't have been as nice as he was. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't erected him. It would have been it would
have sounded just like Dale Senor said about Terry Lebonni
at Bristol. I mean, but I you could just see
how it had to be agonizing, because, like you said,
(08:00):
I can see it in the video. I'm sitting going,
I'm holding I am literally holding him up. And Kevin
Dodie had the top block. So it's not like you
had another option. I mean you you had kind of
committed to the bottom. We had kept committed to the bottom.
But I'm sitting there going, man, I mean it had
to be. And and hey, here's the other thing. When
when you're that much faster than somebody and you can't
run your pace, it makes it harder to drive your car.
(08:22):
But because you can't get in the corner of the
way you need to, you can't get in the gas
when you need to. It had to be hard to
sit back there and know that, you know, all he's
gotta do is be eight feet further forward than what
he was and he wins this race. It was way
harder to El Dora for my first time. We raced
in California for several years and made a deal with
(08:43):
my car owner if we we won Man Danita one night,
he would take me to the foreground and that was
the first time that we got to run open tires
because we California is always on a spec tire. So
we go back there and I think we were like
third quick or fourth quick in the mid it and
as well in the sprint car. We led about eighteen
laps to the foreground in the midget and blew the
(09:05):
motor up, and then we get in a sprint car
and I'm like, holy this this is almost easy. We're
running away and and checking out, and about lap sixteen,
I blister a right rear tire and when smoke goes
by me. I don't know if it was a wave
of peace sign or the finger it was. It was
some sort of international gesture that was a much harder
(09:31):
one to swallow. The tire management signed. I I had
been there just enough to know. It's like it's kind
of like when you're like, I've seen this movie. I
know how this ends, and I'm watching him and he
is running the dogs. I mean, if it had been
a fifteen lap race, he had a shot at it.
But I mean he was running every lap. I mean
you could see how much he wanted to win the
(09:51):
four crown, and and it is it was a huge
deal for all of us, and you sacked it to
try to because it paid ten thousand to win all
the divisions at that time. And uh So I'm watching
him and I'm like, man, I know I can run
that pace, but I can't. I know I can't make
my tire live doing that. And I'm watching him and
I'm going, man, he looks good. And and for a
while there, I'm like, I don't think this, saying I
(10:14):
don't think his tire is gonna give up. And then
I'm then I start catching myself running a little bit
harder than what I really wanted to. And then I
could see it. I could see the as soon as
that tire blistered, you could see the holes in it
coming up in the block, and you can physically see it.
As he's going down the straight away. I'm like, oh,
there you are, sweet Jesus, come back. And so we went.
(10:35):
When I went by, I kind of went like this,
like I gotta slow down just a little bit. Tires.
So and that was and I had an unfair advantage
because Eldra when it was slick. I ran for Glenn
and Ibol that year and that that car was absolutely
terrible to run if the track was heavy, because it
didn't have enough motor to to keep the tire spinning
around and keep the car rotating. And so Corey was
(10:58):
in Harlan Willis's car, and you know, Mike Drake was
his crew chief, and I'm like, man, he's he's gonna
be fast. I know he's gonna be quick. I know
what he can do. And he got out front there
and I thought, man, this thing, he's gonna back up quick.
It's gonna kill this thing. And he it hung on
a lot longer than I thought he was gonna be
able to hang on to. But then when I saw
those whole start coming up, I'm like, oh, your your
(11:18):
your job just got a lot more different. The elemented
difficulty went up. If he could have stuck that landing,
the Russian judge would have gave him a really good score.
But yeah, I went by in that V six and
I'm like, I knew he was sitting there and just
cussing at the time, because I don't think I ever
maybe three or four times heard Corey cuss at anything,
but I was pretty sure he was cussing when I
went by, and so I stuck morn like just slow
(11:38):
down a little bit and run straight. But you know,
Corey was out from out west where you know, I
remember getting the posters the Sprint Car calendar every year,
and the best shot of the whole calendar wasn't a
wing sprint car shot. It wasn't a U Sack uh
you know, Bloomington or anything like that. It was watching
Brad Nofsinger and Bubby Jones and Leland mcspadden uh back
(12:00):
him in at Ascot before Ascot closed. It was the
only shots on the calendar that were shot from the
infield and you could see the right side of the
car and that's the way Corey drove in. And you know,
Corey was fast out in California driving that way, and
that's what you have to do. I mean, the California
tracks are heavy, sticky, and you had to back him in.
But you know, Eldora was you know, I knew the
(12:21):
first time there when I saw him, I'm like, yeah,
I don't know if that's going to work for very long.
But like I said, he held on a lot longer,
but he just you know, I I had We did
have that conversation when you drove for me and we
went back to Eldor. I said, listen, I said, remember
what happened the first time you came here and you
were looking out the right side of the cage. I said,
if you if you have to look past the right
side of the front roll bar, you're you're way two sideways.
(12:43):
You gotta looked through the front of the cage to
get around here when it's slicked like that. And he did.
I mean, he made big adjustments there and got a
lot better. Corey was so good. You know when he
when he finally realized that he didn't his chin didn't
have to scrape the right retire on entry. When he
figured that out, it was like it totally changed his
driving style. And then you know, that's when he got
(13:03):
going so good at at at uh you know, Chili Bowl,
and he that's why he could run the bottom so good,
because he could get in so hard but so straight
at the same time and still get the car to rotate.
I mean, that's that's where he made a lot of money.
We've talked about that a lot on the course of
the broadcast. Um, but Knoxville is that way. If you
don't run that car really straight at Knoxville, I mean
borderline like an asphalt car, you're not gonna win that right,
(13:25):
especially on the bottom, and you know that is like
kryptonite to me. I still cannot get around Knoxville to
if making the a main meant life or death, you
guys would be been at my funeral for the last
three years straight. But which is amazing because I mean, clearly,
you know shots knows how to get around that place,
and you, my guess is you have pretty good notes
from him, and is it No, I don't. Actually, he
(13:48):
won't tell me anything about Knoxville. That's the only place
that he will not talk to me. But the one
guy that I reached out to was Danny Lesoski because
I know Danny knows how to get around there. And
you know, the thing about Donnie is Donnie's just done
it for so long that he doesn't even think about it.
It's just what he does. Where you know, Lesoski is
much more methodical about it. Um, well, we were gonna
(14:11):
try to sneak out and I might have been a
dingis a little bit too late the night before we
were gonna do this, but we were gonna sneak out
on a golf cart first thing in the morning, and
he was gonna show me how to get around there
the right way and it's it's just one of those
places that kind of like Eldor was the Corey the
first time he went there. I mean, getting around Knoxville,
if you don't run there a lot. There's guys like
Geo Celzy that picked it up really quick. Uh, and
(14:33):
there's guys like myself that I've I've been going there
and I bet I still haven't ran probably six or
seven races there in my career. But I'm out till lunch.
If I if it's not if it's not the if
the entry is not kind of wide to get in,
if it gets really narrow getting in, I can't even
hit the bottom. But and I can't get around the
top to save my rear end. For some reason, I
(14:54):
just cannot get around it like you need to. And
then you sit there and watch Brian Brown and and
Shot and Pittman and David Gravel, and you're like, I
have a suite at Knoxville and I've sat there for
years during Knoxville Nationals Week, and it's like I know
where I'm supposed to be on the racetrack, but I
can't get there from where I'm at for some reason.
Ironically enough, you weren't bad on a late model. You
(15:15):
did a great running the late model. Yeah, the late
models fun, but it was Yeah, that's why I say
a wingsprint car there though, it's just a totally different animal.
For some reason. I remember running your car there one
year and we were running during the Knoxville Nationals. I
think it was like the first night, and we ran
a hot lap session at intermission, and then we ran
(15:37):
a twenty lap feature we pill picked for after the
main event, and when we pushed off for the main event,
the people in the grand stands were fighting to get
out of the grand stands so fast because we didn't
have wings on. It was absolutely incredible. The USAC boys
put on pretty good show at Knoxville this year, for sure.
(15:58):
Brady Brady Bacon sweat both nights there and took twenty
five grand away from from the sprint car capital of
the world. But uh, I think I think they made
a lot of fat had sponsored car. That's true. That's
why that's why I brought it up for you. I
do this for for very you know. But no, it
reminded me of a race in Australia. So to win
(16:23):
the Australian Championship, it's not a point series like we
know of in America. You win one race, that a
number one. So I went down there one year and
they didn't allow Americans to run. It was only Kiwi's
and Aussies, and they decided to allow an American and
we went down and we ended up fast time when
the heat race won the main event, and we just
(16:45):
we we had a great night. And I'm walking out
of there, I'm carrying the trophy. They had an American
flag for me, and I'm exhausted. It's like a hundred
degrees and and I'm I'm whooped and I'm walking out
and there's this kid standing up by the fence and
I thought, I'm gonna walk up there. I'm gonna give
this kid this trophy, because that's what I did. I've
only kept about twenty trophies in my whole career. I've
(17:06):
always given him the kids. So as I'm starting to
approach this kid, I get about twenty ft from them,
and I'm gonna say maybe four to six years old,
and he starts yelling, hey, you yank, and he flips
me off, and I'm like, what are you doing me?
You know? So I'm starting to laugh, and then I'm
(17:30):
and he's got this older lady with him. It's it
must be his grandma. And I looked at her like,
you know, are you gonna say something? And she goes,
you need to go home, you freaking American, and she
gives me a thing. That's one of the trophies I
kept because but that was kind of like like us
(17:51):
raising at Knoxville, you know, it was like, do you
really want us here? You know? I remember when we
first moved back here to raise and in ninety nine,
I guess we we lived with Tony Elliott, the late
great Tony Elliot, up at Kokemo. We stayed with him
during the summers. We come back right before the night
before race to the four Crown. Then we'd go out
west and run Turkey Night and on all the West
(18:12):
coast Thursday night thunder stuff. And one of the first
races we went to was a Sunday night show at Kokomo.
It was it was pretty much the Dave Darling Tony
Elliott show right well, the sprint cars came out, which
we I we found really odd that the sprint cars
weren't the final race of the year because on the
West Coast they're always the last race of the night.
Um Elliott goes out. He wins the sprint car race.
(18:33):
He's down doing Victory Lane and the fans are booing
him and they're yelling at him to get off the track,
and I'm just like, what in the heck is going on?
Because the street stocks were still left to come out
and they hadn't raced yet. And I thought it was
in West Virginia, right, I thought the sprint cars was
the show, but no, it was the street stocks and
they could care less about Tony Elliot. They wanted to
see their buddies out there running the street stocks kind
(18:56):
of the same similar deal. I still think we should
get one and just cheated up, go out there and beat,
just beat, beat the beat the wheels off of them,
pull it on the trailer, don't ever go to Victory
line and just leave it was favorite story has involved
Steve Drake. That's oh j Drake. J that's a ChIL
bowling story. That's a leading on a prelim night. And
(19:18):
Jay decided to no, you're not leading anymore. What happened
to us? Jail? I'll say, hey, man, I need to
get to the front. Yeah, man, I'm sorry about that.
I'm sorry about that. I never understood how you could
drive a car because he was just and I was like,
somebody wake him up? Did I get into your clip? Sorry? Man,
(19:40):
you couldn't be mad at him, Yeah you could. Well.
I was extremely mad at him for like two three years.
I told him he still got one coming. I mean
that was nine two, I think it was the early
one two thousand, But yeah, he got us once on
at Anderson on Thursday night Thunder or what's whatever it
was called, bumped the South Away and heat racing then
go again Chili bol and and um Jay is great.
(20:02):
I mean, he's one of my favorite guys in in
motors but I mean in general for sure, but I
mean just in motorsports. Uh Ever, he was one of
the first guys we met coming up in in the
mid nineties, you know, when it was him and and
Leffler and and Edo and Cooeper and all those West
Coast guys um back then. And he's always he's been
a good friend ever since. I mean, he's he's really
(20:23):
one of my favorite guys in this industry. But to
talk to him, you wouldn't know that he is a
badass race car driver. I mean, we're one of my
favorite J. Drake stories and it really makes no sense,
which a lot of his stories really don't make a
lot of sense. But we're sitting at the pit and
the pits just chilling, waiting for the driver's meeting, and
Jay walks up and he says hey, Equally my brother
(20:47):
says yeah. He goes, you know, if your first name
was the you'd be the Clipper. And then he walks off.
That was it? What what the hell just happened? Right?
You'd be the Clipper. So fast forward to maybe it
was two thousand five. Last time we ran the Chili Bowl.
Was Ja, my brother and Aaron Pierce driving for Scooter
Ellis kind of like an old man's veterans team and
(21:12):
on and the visors. It was the Pierce, the Drake
and the and the Clipper. I put I put a
little vow on there, and Jay goes, A man, that's
pretty good, you know, But uh could be single hand
the best J. Drake invitation I've ever seen in my life.
I got I could do with Jay on well he
would always do and we'd see him on thunder Right
and he would he'd always looked down and Dave de
Spain would come over and talk to me. So, yeah,
(21:33):
you know, o'keith and these guys give me a good
car and you know, we'll just we'll see if we
can put her in the show. And last second, he'd
looked up a smile every single time. He'd never look
at the Spain until the last second. But uh yeah,
one of one of my favorite guys, with the exception
of that turn to incident at Chili Bowl two thousand
or whatever. I did want to mention before Corey got off.
You know, Stout knows me that that I'm a numbers guy.
(21:54):
But but looking talking Chili Bowl only Tony Stewart Corey
Cruiseman twelve A mains starts each, both two time winners.
Tony Stewart has four top fives including those wins and
twelve A main starts. Corey Kruzman six top fives in
those twelve A Maine starts. So technically Stewart needs to
(22:14):
get back, yeah, come back into it would go to
Cruiseman as well. I'll take I'll take it a step further, um,
probably because you guys are busting my balls. Average finished
for Corey seven point three, Stewart nine point seven five,
so you need to get back. I'm gonna help your
shop the front, I think if I don't know if
(22:35):
it's still sitting in your shop in the front of TSR,
it is. And see if that thing I started with
to night two thousand nineteen was not so good. I'm
gonna help him out a little bit. He was inducted
into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. I think I still
might have a stat that Chili Bowl stat that he
hasn't accounted for yet. How many total completed laps we
(22:59):
could is if you count after that faces over on
that tractor. I got his ass cover every night for
sixth straight now. Absolutely very good guy, pull them up,
very good, point a lot, and I've let all those laps.
You cannot you cannot take that away from it. He
puts it. He puts a transponder on that sub bet.
They get really mad though, when I dumped the clutch
(23:21):
to pull wheelies off the corner, just like the hot
dogs do now, like Larson and Bell and those guys,
and you can't get the steering wheel off of it.
Thank god, the tractor's too big to pull the wheel
off of. I got a hard enough time with the
wheel on it. So which accomplishment it's more important to you,
the triple crown and the single The first driver won
the triple Crown single year of the first Cup Championship. Oh,
(23:42):
that's easy. I thought you were gonna ask something difficult
that I was gonna have to think of the triple
crown definitely. I mean, I love what I do in NASCAR,
and NASCAR people get really upset when they hear me say, oh, yeah,
by far a triple crown. The logistics of what it
took to win the triple Crown that year far exceed
what we did at a NASCAR that year. It's um,
(24:02):
you know, there were races that the sprint cars and
the midgets were two different locations on the same night,
and we had to go run the sprint car. So
we had to get enough of a points buffer to
allow myself to miss that race. And luckily one of
them got rained out or else it probably, you know,
we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But um, you know,
it came down to the last race in the silver
(24:23):
Crown car, came down to the last race in the
sprint car. Um, I think the midget it was decided
the race before the last race of the year. But um, yeah,
that that by far. I mean that's an easy one
for me. I mean it's hard for anything to top
the Triple Crown year, just just because I know what
all it took logistics wise to get there. Um, it
(24:45):
wasn't just showing up on Sunday running, No, and it
was you know, you'd be in a midget Friday night,
a sprint car Saturday night, a sprint car Sunday, but
a pain you know, Saturday night, it was Sunday, it
was pavement. Just just all the different things and disciplines
we had to go through to get there. So it
was that was much harder than the NASCAR. I was
trying to come up with something that would present a
(25:07):
challenge because I if you asked me, without asking you,
I would have said the triple Crown would would be Well,
it was easy because I've never wanted a tone of
five everyone in the five hundreds, So it wasn't like
you had to go real far out there that you
didn't have as many options as what you Well, when
when when he won his first Turkey Night at Irwindell,
is that correct? Um? I think that they asked you um,
you know, or maybe you just said it, like you know,
(25:30):
when a NASCAR race is great when you know, but
this is Turkey Night. And when you look at these
crown jewel events that you probably eyeballed growing up, whether
it's especially Turkey Night because it's been around for for
so long. To win that event to you at that
moment probably was as big as, if not bigger than anything.
And I and like Turkey Night, for example, we I
(25:53):
won the t Q portion of Turkey Night at Bakersfield. Uh,
then we won better when Dale with the the midget
than the next year want it with the sprint car.
And uh, but I think J Drake wanted in a
focus car on the small track at Irwin. Deal wanted
a sprint card or one Dale and one you know,
(26:13):
the Grand Prix with the midget two. So I gotta
find a focus ride or something to go out and
win one more. Try to see J just keeps creeping
back into these columns. Well, I mean he is retired.
He only ran sixtys this year and podium somewhere in there.
(26:36):
Like it's it was far from a retirement year. You're
really back on the swing of things, man. I'll be
honest with me. I gotta cut back a little bit
though it, but it was wearing me out. And thank
god Rico went to a lot of the races with me.
Or it was, it would have been a disaster, because um,
I still have a plane. But I had more fun
driving the motor home. But what I realized is about
five in the morning, or as soon as the sun
(26:58):
starts coming up, I shut down. I'm like a vampire.
It's like, hey, I've gotta get off the road, gotta
get parked, gotta get blankets over my head. Can't get
direct sunlight or I'm gonna burn to the ground. So
that was Ricos shift was the coming back to life
shift for everybody else I could drive when nobody was
on the road. That was my He's up there, turning
as white as these walls. He's like, are you ready
(27:20):
got one for either one of you guys? Um. I
tried to think about it just off top of my head.
I couldn't really come up with one. Has anybody other
than you won an Indy Car Championship and a Cup
championship thinker one only been one of the guy win
the triple crown all the same year. But hasn't won
(27:41):
the Chili Bowl. He's aroune second at Chili Bowl, the
cos J J yale as he won an any car
championship in a NASCAR It's it's the It's just like
when this guy was battling with which what I thought
was probably the best definitely the best chase in NASCAR,
but maybe one of the best years when it was
got do you employer and you ran him down in
(28:04):
the championship and I'm sorry not and I think you
were doing it and you were just blowing him, blowing
him crap every time, trying to rattle this cage. And
he said, if you ever want that lot race that
was a media day. I mean, that was like the best,
And I said, boy, I man, he's just like, come on, man,
come oh. He was over it. So literally with like
(28:27):
three races ago, It's like, hey, we got a shot
at this with this, this could happen. We could beat
this guy, you know, because we were we were so
bad going into the chase that I literally set their
media day off to the side because I was embarrassed
to even be around the rest of the the guys because
I'm like, I really don't I didn't feel like I
belonged in that group because I'm like, we're running so bad.
We're just wasting a spot that somebody could have, you know,
(28:48):
that was running good. There were teams that missed it
that we're running really good right up to the point,
you know that the chase starter, but didn't make it
on points, and I thought, man, this is waste. But
we got down to those last couple of weeks and
we you know, rattled off two or three wins and
I'm like, man, we we got a shot at this.
And then I started feeling like I had a chance again.
But it made me go back to nine five when
(29:09):
we won the National Midget Championship against Andy Mitchener, and
I remember sitting there at Tara Hote one night with
Andy and and uh that year, Tara Hote had a
real big hole right in the middle of the groove
going into turn one. Either had to go below it
or you had to go out and around it and
above it. And um, I went out on a four.
We learned looked and I'm like, hey, it looks like
(29:29):
they got this fixed. But we got ready for the
driver's meeting and I was standing next to next to
Mitchener and I said, hey, did you go down and
look at one yet? And he was no. I'm like,
oh man, it's worse than it was last time we
went here. I said, I don't know what they've been
doing down there. And dude, he was so far off
the pace. I don't think he even got anywhere near
that part of the race track. And we qualified good
and I think right through it smooth as glass, you know,
(29:53):
and rifling through there. But you know, I remember that
psychological warfare. So we got to we got to Homestead
and uh, you know, I was feeling good. We were
running good, but Carl had won you know, Phoenix the
week before. We ran fourth, and um, but I'm like,
you know, hey, there's there's one thing that I kind
of know how to do here. They can get this
thing off until, you know, because that last week. It
(30:14):
doesn't matter what you've done for thirty five weekends. I mean,
it's you still got to make it happen that last night.
And so I did. I started using him up. And
Carl was one of those it's like Carl here, he's
so nice, he can't tell, you know, and Carl just
was you know, he didn't he wasn't confrontational with anybody,
and and UM, you know I did. I just I
absolutely And it started the very first uh the deal
(30:38):
that we had on media day was an interview with
Daryl Walter and they had Darryl in a single chair.
They had the podium with a trophy on top of
and then they had to uh director's chairs on the
other side, and they wanted Carl to be in the
chair right beside the trophy. I didn't know this at
the time, but they wanted him and the beside the
trophy because he was leading the points and he wanted
to be beside him. So I sat right next to
(30:59):
the trophy. Didn't know it, and they said, well, you know,
Carl's leading the points. We went and I'm like, no,
I'm not moving. I said, this is my trophy. And
Carl's standing five feet away from me, looking at me,
waiting on me to get up. I'm like, this is
my trophy. I said, I'm taking us hang home tomorrow,
you know, Sunday night. I said, cities asked out, and
he did. He finally put him on the other chair
because I refuse to get up. And so that's how
I started the whole day and I just I mean,
(31:21):
I just kept carving him up, carving him up, carving him.
The highlight of it though they get through the whole
media session. You know, I tell everybody I'd wreck my
mom to win the championship, which I love my mom,
but I would I'd wreck my mom in a heartbeat
to win the championship, and and would apologize to her
Thanksgiving and Christmas. And if she didn't want to give
me gifts, so be it. I understand, no hard feelings.
But our PR guy, we were the last to there.
(31:43):
The PR guys were there, and Carl and I are
walking out to We're getting a police escort back to
the track as Miami traffic was crap at that time
of day, and and uh so Carl's trying to get
us back to center, you know, and just be back
to where we normally are, and he just wasn't thinking.
I mean, it was a mistake on his part. But
you know, our PR people are like twenty ft behind me,
(32:05):
and the PR guys are talking at each other and
it's just him and I leave it. He goes, hey,
what are you gonna do on Monday? You know the
season's over. What are you gonna do? Monday. I said,
I don't know what you're doing, but I'm gonna be
in Bristol, Connecticut all day. That's that's the ESPN Tour
all day Monday. If you won the championship. We just didn't.
I said, I'm going I'm going to Bristol, Connecticut Monday.
I don't know what you're doing. And I mean he
(32:26):
never said another word, and we never spoke again the
rest of the weekend. Did not speak at all the
rest of the weekend. At what's that? What's that? You
gotta say it out loud, you gotta put it in
the universe. Well, and I thought, man, I got He's
asked there because it wasn't in front of the media.
This isn't some stage circus show. This is him, and
I knows that now nobody, nobody knows, you know, nobody's
(32:49):
here to hear this, but just him and I. So
I thought I got him. And then Friday, the next day,
he goes out and sets it on the poll. I'm like,
well that didn't work. Was that the year when you
had passed some incre ridible number of cars I want
to say over the last three races, or maybe maybe
it's the last three races, but that last race, the
last race, I think for position, not counting lap cars,
but for position, I think we passed a hundred seventeen cars.
(33:12):
It was crazy cars that start the race. But we uh,
you know, we started the race. Kurt Bush's you joint
breaks like twelve laps into the race, goes through the
front of our car. They tell me they see this,
They call me in on the caution. They come in
and fix it. We go to the back. We get
halfway up through the field the next stent and uh,
(33:33):
what I told the guys in the yell in my
k you know, it's pressure is off. I mean, we
just got to go out and just we'll get everything
we can get. Guys were not done, but we'll get
everything we can get. And you know which just is
just bad lucky. And this is the first first ship
ownership being an owner driver. So we get about halfway
through the field and then I catch another buddy of
my David Rudeman, and at the last second I get
(33:57):
ready to pull the left and start to left, and
he pulls to the left just to let me go. Well,
I had already started moving and I clipped him in
the right rear with the left front poke a hole
in the nose, and I remember I'm calling me on radio, going,
we have to come back in and fix it again.
So they come back in and then I'm laughing and
I'm just comical at this point because it's like, you know,
we're screwed. We've you know, aerodynamics or everything in these cars,
(34:19):
and not once, now twice we've screwed up the air
one this thing. And uh, I had said, well, and
I'm just joking around. I'm like, man, they're really gonna
be piste off when we come from the back and
win this thing. Now, no clue that we could even
remotely do that. But we ran the next stent, we
got back up to fifth and that's when the rain,
the first rain delay happened, and uh the I remember
seeing Carl. He he had led the entire thing, I
(34:41):
think up at that point, and I remember I was
had just taken my helmet off, hunging up on the deal,
was just getting ready to get the window net, and
I'm watching him climb out. So I stopped and he
was sitting on the door of his car and he
kind of leans back and sees me four cars behind him,
and you couldn't you. It's just it was like like
you had seen a go because in his mind he
(35:02):
had eliminated you. Like's not They've told him twice that
we've had problems and that you know, he's leading the race.
He's just gotta go do what he's doing and turns
around and he's like you can see the look on
his face is like, wait, how did he how how
did he get up here? But I remember the best
part of that during the rain delay was was Jack
rash and Jeff Clark, who worked for Rash Ates Engines,
(35:23):
and got out in the restroom is cleared down at
the end of pit road where they were where their
pit stall was forgetting the poll and Jack had he's
back to me and Jeff Clark was looking at me,
and Jeff smiles and nods, just being polite. And I
tapped Jack on the shoulder and I said, hey. He
turns around and I said, you better tell your boy
to get on his words because I'm coming. And Jeff
Clark's is back. You're trying to not laugh out loud
(35:46):
because Jeff knows this is Jeff knows what's coming on
this deal, and and uh, you know, He's just shaking
his head like, Oh, I can't believe he just did
that to him, you know, so, but it was. That
was the hell of one night. But but yeah, that's
why I will tell you one thing that I remember
about that race was watching the car on the ragged
edge the whole time, coming back through there and watching
(36:10):
the car and looking at it and thinking, this side
of a bitch is going to rotate all the way
here in just a minute. The worst part about it,
I'm pulling slide jobs every lap and nobody's up there
go slide japs. Damn it. I did long before Dale Jr.
Thought it was popular jobs. But I'm telling you, man,
it was just like the car just looked like I was.
(36:35):
That was one of those do as I say, not
as I do comments at that point. But that was fun.
That's those are the that you just talked about the
two greatest moments of my life in racing was the
single race and championship at Homestead and the Triple Crown.
I mean those by far. When people say what's what's
the one thing that you say or you're you're shining
crowning achievements, those two things are what comes to the
(36:59):
top of the list for sure. I've got one last
thing I want to bring up here, um, and I'm
sure that the stories here will fill up a little
bit of time. And we lost a couple of historic
people here in two thousand nineteen. Bill Simpson comes to mind.
Junior Johnson here just recently, a close personal friend of
ours on that wing sprint car that I talked about
a little bit before. Randy Bisch and probably the one
that you missed there that's probably right at the top
(37:21):
of the list for most of us here is Dick Jordan's.
Dick Jordan's for sure, Brandy Brandy. It was a tough
year in the racing industry. I mean some real pioneers.
I mean you look at what Dick Jordan did at
USAK for so many years and and of all things,
Dick should have been president of u SACK, not you know,
(37:42):
president of communications and and vice president of USAK. I
mean he was USACK to to all of us uh,
like his life. Yeah, and you know nobody promoted you
SACK harder than than Dick did. Uh. Do you look
at Randy Sweet and what he's meant to racing, whether
it's been you know, pumps and valves, steering boxes. Um,
(38:03):
you know, his his friendship with Scott Bloomquist, what they
were able to do in late model racing, Uh, really
ahead of his time in that category, and rack compinion, steerings. Uh.
Just just some great people. And none of us would
be here even talking about all of this if it
wasn't for Bill Simpson. I mean, uh, he he not
(38:24):
only talked to talk, but he walked to walk. I mean,
he did it all he uh, and he did it
because he wanted to take care of his buddies and
protect his friends, and and um, you know it didn't
matter whether it was drag racing, IndyCar, Nascar, um, you know,
open wheel racing. He had an insight and the knowledge
about it and knew a side of it that needed help.
(38:45):
And that's what Bill really excelled in. I mean, he
he ran it as a good business, but aside from that,
the thing that that more so than the business side
of it, he just he wanted it to be right.
He wanted it to be as safe as it could be.
And uh, you know there were times when you know,
he had the ability to get under your skin and
a heartbeat and you know, a day later put his
arm around you and say, hey kid, I'm gonna help
(39:07):
you with this. And and there's just I don't think
in the safety category there's ever going to be a
single person that's going to run a ship like Bill
Simpson did and a guy that put his life on
the line to build his own credibility to prove that
his product was was worth it was. What do you
know that story about him catching himself on fire? I
(39:27):
knew Bill from the race track, right like everybody you know,
you'd seem and but but one of the things that
he told me, he goes, you know what, I caught
myself on fire? I said. I said, yeah, I said,
you're crazy. I said, you intentionally did that. He goes,
I know. He goes, why you know I did it?
I said, no, I have no idea. He said, because
(39:48):
I had a competitor that said their stuff was as
good as mine. I said, made me right here at
this time. We'll both catch herself on fire and we'll
see who works that out. The other person never showed up.
That sounds like a Bill Simpson is a total bill.
Can he tell you who who actually was the one
that led him on fire? Without Chips, I believe, so
I think I was just yeah, yeah, that he and
(40:10):
Chip had a had a unique relationship. Yeah, well that's
Bill had a unique relationship with everybody. But but they
but but him and and Ganassi got along really well,
and uh, you know, had a lot of respect for
each other. But but the Bill was just one. That's
the thing. Bill was one of those guys. I mean
you kind of you know, for a long time, you know,
I was sponsored by them, I think in ninety three
(40:32):
and to this day, I'm still sponsored by some some
race products. But every time I saw Bill, it's like
you just kind of waited a second till he said something,
so you knew where the temperature gauge was at that
particular day. And then it finally got old enough in
my career and far enough up the ladder where I
didn't give ship where the temperature gauge was. It just
was like, what are you doing, the old man? Are
(40:53):
you piste off today? You're happy today where you're at.
And then I've never had we never had a problem
after that. It was just it was just fun. Any
how he was It's like if you just got on
his level and and just did it your way like
he did. He. I mean, it puts you in an
elite category. And you know, guys like Bill and guys
like Randy sweet Um, you know, Junior Johnson same way.
(41:15):
I mean, these are guys that did it their way
did it. I just did it smarter and didn't do
it on a computer, didn't do it with an engineering degree.
They just did it because they were smarter and cared
and wanted it to be right, wanted it to be different.
And uh, you know because of the guys like that,
it's that's what's pushed this sport to where it is.
And you know, it's It doesn't mean we don't have
(41:36):
a lot to look forward to, because technology is a
good thing, but there's bad things that you lose with
it too. You lose the personality side. But there's cool
things that keep coming and racing that keep making it
better for all of us. And and uh, you know,
keep reminding us that the motorsports is going to be
sound for a long time. But those innovators of single
people that single handedly did it on their own put
(41:56):
the sweat into it, uh you know, and and had
had to shake the tree, so to speak to get there.
I mean, Junior Randy Bill. You know, they all did
it that way and that's what made him so special.
Thanks for watching this edition of the Skinny. Go to
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