The Skinny with Rico and Ken welcomes Mamba Smith to the studio

Since he was 4 years old, after his father bought him a Go Kart, Mamba Smith has always loved racing. He was named Rookie of the Year at Thunder Road Speedbowl in 2009, participated in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program, worked with Stewart-Haas/Haas Automation, and is set to drive the #34 GoPro Motorplex Late Model Stock Car at Hickory Speedway on May 29th. Mamba’s bigger-than-life personality and engaging, positive energy makes for an energetic and entertaining conversation as he joins Rico and Ken in the studio for the latest episode. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Skinny with Riego and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. I'm Mombas Smith and this is the
skinny from the Fatheads I Wear Studios in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the skinny brought to you by Toyota, Rhino Classifies,
General Tire and Dream Giveaway. This segment of the skinny

(00:23):
is brought to you by General Tire. It's more than
just a slogan anywhere as possible with General Tire. General
Tires Grabber X three Mud Terrain tire offers aggressive styling
and is engineered for durability with innovative performance features that
are ready to carry you through extreme mud, dirt and
rock cover terrain for extreme traction that's ready for anything

(00:46):
and rugged styling the match look no further than the
Grabber X three. Make your anywhere possible by visiting General
Tire dot Com today once again, welcome back to the Skinny.
We've got a great guest with us here today. Of course,
Rico Elmore sitting alongside as always can Stout and we
have Mamba Smith with us, Dylan Mamba Smith, Dylan Black

(01:07):
Mamba Smith, whatever you like to call him, but he
is in the house and I heard a lot about
him before he got here, and I'm like, I'm just
not familiar with the guy, but welcome. I've since learned
a little bit about you great personality as we have
a lot here a little bit earlier. So welcome to
the show Man. Yeah, you guys can call me whatever
you want, just don't call me late for dinner. Yeah.

(01:28):
I'm always hungry now, as hungry as Rico is, but
I'm pretty young. Just snuck in for lunch. They're pretty good.
I know the green room. We had a whole green
room set up of beautiful things. It's on Craftmans and such. So.
So you've bounced around in the industry. You've had a
number of different jobs. You've done some racing and the
Snowflake one certainly, Man, that's a big race for sure,

(01:49):
very very competitive, a lot of tough players, and you
did qualify for that one. I did listen, by the way,
to a podcast that talked about the qualifying situation there,
which man or man I get us talking about it.
But that had to be pretty wild on the bubble. Yeah, so, uh,
first off, thank you Rico for coming on. That was
like a really late minute deal. Rico and you guys

(02:10):
with fat heads came on. Um, we had Miss Cindy
Elliott came on too. Really, it's cool to have to
two groups from the same area come on like that
and only race once a year. So we did the
snowflake Like everyone's like, why do you race once a year?
Why do you know? Well, first off, it's expensive to
go racing, so um, but I decided that if I'm
gonna go run, I want to do it when people

(02:33):
are the most eyes are on. Well. At the same time,
those big races brings all the big guns and all
the guys that I've been running all year, and they're
ready to go. So uh we I go down there
with Leef falk Um. I'm like, man, I think we're
gonna be pretty good, Like this is the best car
of driven ever and we're in practice and everything's going
pretty good. We're probably we're about fifteen somewhere around there.

(02:55):
We haven't mocked up or anything. We do a mock run,
go down and everyone's on the racetrack because everyone has
enter practice. Everyone's out there and uh, I get himed
up with somebody and let him go. So it kind
of messed up my lap. So Mike comes on the
radio goes, hey, man, give me one more dude. We
come off at two and we're just guys ng. It

(03:16):
looks like I'm at Daytona and we're chucker block full
and I'm like, oh my goodness. So I shut it
down and about that time he said, come on, finish hard,
and so I cut it back on going into the corner.
So we lost however much time a poll and I
got off. They gave me the time and I'm like,
dang man, we're gonna be really good and they're like,
this is slow. But they didn't know that I cut

(03:36):
off the car getting down to the three and they
I came in and they're like, you cut it off.
I'm like, yeah, I cut off there, like you cut
off the flag stand. I'm like, well yeah, but I
cut it off down the backstretch. They're like, oh, okay,
we're gonna be all right. So we're feeling good. Now.
We've been Vermont. We do heat races, so we got
a little bit of that dirt car situation going on.
We don't do um we don't do time trials, so

(04:00):
I didn't grow up during time drials. Well, now, only
racing once a year, so there's no time to practice
them at all. So so with that being said, what
did you run in Vermont? What was your word? Uh?
I ran at thunder Road speed Bowl at Barry and Barry, Vermont,
which is Ken Squire's old track. We ran American Canadian
to a late moles which they're like, they're like a

(04:20):
cross between a kind of like a street stock in
a in a hornet. Yeah, basically this is gonna be
a long show. The hornets are fun, man, those are fun.
I'm into the hornet deal. I'm telling you right now.
I think if I could one, I'm getting on. We
can get you one, the one with the driver's store
and you know, you just open it up and a

(04:42):
little capri. No, they're like, they're like a late model.
They're just like older late miles pro shocks and old
hal bars and stuff like that. So run the qualifier,
all right. I missed my lap terribly, cut the corner,
like and they're like, I think we'll be okay. We're
watching them and cars that we were beating all week
are now beating us. What you get? Did you only
get one lap or two? We get to and I

(05:03):
cut the I cut the corner on both of them.
I didn't arc. It was just like my war is
the worst ever. And I'm like, man, because yeah, probably, yeah,
I think I think if I raised last, I probably
would have done better. I Mean there's such I mean
for the people that are out there that no they know,
but for the ones that don't. I mean, qualifying alone,
there's an art. I mean, it's an there's there's qualifiers

(05:24):
and there's racers, and it's hard. Sometimes it's hard to
find a guy that can qualify and race. But there's
some people that just rip i mean right out of
the box, like on the mat and rip it, you know,
and they're they're just good at doing that. This guy, Yeah,
a lot. I feel like a lot. You see a
lot of der race and these guys that get in
a car and they just haul the mail. Now they
might not make it five laps into the race with

(05:46):
twenty other people around them, but they haul it. Yeah,
they're right there, so you know, miss the lap well
on the bubble And I'm like, man, I have we
put a lot of promotion into this, you know, with
with fat heads and then Truly was on board and
the Ryan Blanney Family Foundation and Bubba Wallace is on
here and we have all these partners on here and
I'm like, we are getting close. I am throwing up

(06:10):
like I want to hear, and this camera is dead
on my face because we're sitting on the bubble for
like the last three and I'm like trying to keep
it together. I'm pacing and uh and we see the
last car come out. Oh yeah, we want a low
to use the phone. So we couldn't even watch on
race monitor because something about somebody track traction control. They're

(06:32):
worried about that, and I'm like, I'm just trying to
be here. And they busted somebody with that. They busted
Chandler Smith and then he they busted him for having
his phone and it was like a hardcore rules, like
you have your phone, you gotta go into the last chance.
I didn't want to go in the last chance because
everyone recks in the last chance. Dude one on the bubble.
When the last car comes out and it's a fast car,

(06:54):
it actually is the guy that won the race, who
he qualified in through the last chance. And when one
of the race, he stepped on it harder than I do,
and I'm like, WHOA. The amount of stress that just
fell off. Well, then I forgot that we actually had
to race that night. We weren't like the snowflake cars
the supers they get to qualify then race the next day.

(07:15):
We have to qualify in race the same day. Now
I'm like trying to drink coffee and get myself back
into it. So after all the Trulia, after all the truth. Yeah,
we were celebrating down I was celebrating like it was
we won the I'm like, snap, no, But it was
a good experience and it got us to this point
where I'm actually going to race a Memorial Day weekend
um in the Pro Weight Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedaway.

(07:38):
So that's a cool place. It's cool, it's fun. I'm excited.
That's and that's no joke there, no, no, no, no,
You're in good old boy country. I mean they know
what a weird I mean they and and it's like,
you know, it's like they were almost bred to run
that place, you know what I mean. There's some unbelievable
like Cody Swanson. Cody went down there and and he

(08:02):
I mean, he's probably one of the smoothest guys out there,
but I'm telling you he uh, you know he you know,
if you finished his fit since or whatever. And he
was running for Chad Bryant Chad's Late Models. So that's cool, man,
that's awesome. Actually, that's a neat that's a neat deal.
I I I knew a little bit of you know,

(08:23):
your your deal and you know, and and Sarah was,
you know, kept talking about this MoMA guy. Of course
you and I have known each other for a little while.
Now she's talking, talking, talking, and I'm like, I'm like, listen,
what what are you who are you talking about? What
are you talking about? It? Like she's just going on
like you gotta be you gotta mean even of course,
you know, he and I talk on the phone and

(08:46):
you know, awesome conversation and then of course we get
to hang out other times. We know a ton of
the same people. And but but yeah, I mean, so
is your aspiration to run anymore than you do or
what's your thoughts there? Yeah, I mean so in the
the way the um the landscape is now, which I

(09:08):
don't really like it, but I mean that's hard to
believe you I too. I mean, you're at least twenty eight,
He's it's the way you lay the words out, like
you can make something sound a lot different if you
just layer it differently, right, He's at least I love that. Um, yeah, No,

(09:34):
I mean the way the landscape is an asphalt racing
and like NASCAR, it's like, if you can find somebody
to believe in you and write a big enough check,
you can go run. Right. So I would love to
And I feel like I'm kind of closer to that
now because I do so much stuff off off the
track to attract some on track stuff. But I think
people get mixed up between the dream and the goal.

(09:57):
The goal is to race on Sundays. Everyone wants to
race on Sundays. That's the goal. The dream is to
race every weekend whenever you want to and enjoy it
and not have to spend a ridiculous amount of money. Right,
And so I'm chasing the dream. I mean, thank thank
about all the folks that make a living doing that, right,

(10:21):
you know, living the or living the dream? Really and uh,
you know, and and exactly what you said, that's a
great way of putting it, because you know, is the
goal to be there Sunday or is it just the
dream to be able to do this? You know, as
long as you need to to, uh to keep it going.
And and I mean that's I mean, that's the best

(10:43):
best way of putting it. But yeah, that's that's cool.
That's a great way. But I just love racing, man,
I just love it. I just want to be able
to do it, have some drinks at the end of it,
cheers with the boys, and uh, just have fun. So
how did you get into it? My dad sponsored a
bush North car Um Bush North. Yeah, we're going back now,

(11:03):
way back, so out of rom out of my hometown.
This guy named Kip Scott Skip Kip Stockwell say that
five times from the northeast. Yeah, I'm from Vermont. Yeah, so, um,
I just I loved it. We went to the local
local track. I was like, man, I want to do that.
I was like three or four that that some of

(11:24):
my dad bought me a go cart. We won early,
and I figured out that like winning and winning is fun.
So it's weird. It's I never would have thought I
liked winning so much. Whatever, you know, Yeah, it's okay.
My dad wanted me to be like Tiger Woods. Well
he figured out that after I started throwing clubs at

(11:45):
like seven. Maybe I was a more emotional athlete, so
golf might not be my no if I like when
you're engulf like if you mess up, like it just
goes downhill from there, right yeah, because you you you
come back from a bad shot easy and you know
it doesn't stick with you and you don't think about

(12:06):
it much. You can hit eighteen good shots in the road.
You get one bad one, the rest of your day
is shot. Yeah, You're like, I'm done. I'm never doing
this again. Horrible. My golfing career was exactly the opposite
of that. I would have like, uh, let's just get
closer to a real number. I would have about a
hundred and two really bad shots and one good one.
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going back. I can do this.

(12:28):
I got it. I figured out that. Like I'm a
good golf partner. Like if we're playing best ball, I
can I can tee off pretty well, I can put
pretty good. It's that middle stuff. Now. The problem is
after about the whole three, I'm like five truly is in. Yeah,
and there's eighteen of them, yeah, eighteen holes. So that's

(12:48):
I mean, so we're playing best and and if you're
playing in a scramble. It's going Yeah, so you definitely
have a lot more time to enjoy beverages and think
up more bad things to do to the next team
behind you. I'm moving the team markers, you know, the
box markers, And I've heard all this. Anyhow, I've never

(13:11):
seen anyone. Do you ever have been in or around
any And then you have to survive the golf cart
ride to the next hole. That's not always easy. It
depends if there's if there's bunkers. If there's bunkers, that's
when it's really not easy. If it's bunkers on the way,
you're like, hey, hold on, hold you bere, let's try
trying to jump it from one end to the other.
I love golf kind of you still play. I hadn't

(13:35):
until recently. Um covid a little bit. That was like
pretty much the only thing we could do in Charlotte.
Um and then my room Covid didn't live on the
golf course. I suppose I didn't see it. That's a
really good point. We were there, I mean we were
there looking around, they walking around, runing the carts, and
so my roommate Ryan, why actually I live in Ryan,

(13:58):
Ryan Blandy's house so uh and an attached little apartment
which is sweet. Um, but he got into golf pretty
well over the last little bit. And so you know,
when they have a foursome and they need a fourth guy,
I'm I'm always down to clown. So he has like
another bag has like has like a driver, maybe a
five wood, couple wons and a putter. Like I'm like

(14:20):
mismatching this thing to that. I'm like, this doesn't working.
Just five clubs today, that's pretty much all I need.
All right, it's a new game today. It's a four
club game. And got a driver, a seven iron, a potter,
and a chick. And I gotta be honest, I only
use the clubs that I know I hit good with,
Like it doesn't make sense. Like if I'm hitting good

(14:43):
with the five, I'm hitting the five all the way
up and down the fa swinging a little harder, a
little longer, and you know it's fine. Yeah, I I
used to play a lot uh in another lifetime, but
I I enjoyed it. But man, it can be frustrat writing.
I mean, like nobody's business frustrating. And you know, Tony's

(15:04):
got his own simulator at his house now. So I
mean he's like, I mean, he's the next coming of
like Jack Nichol, Button Tiger Woods or whoever. You know.
So he I feel like I feel like smoke every time,
like he starts doing something, he just gets like the
bike right right, and the road bikes nicest road bikes.

(15:25):
Probably had it all set up in a standard position
with a little you know, peletron type situation. You know,
he probably had the one that rotated before they even
made it. He probably came up with that idea for one. Yeah, no,
they did it. They did it at at hasses f
one garage exactly. Tony needs a bike ride here, he's

(15:48):
fine in from Charlie's coming to Monico. We gotta really
you guys got that things set up. Yeah, make sure this. Kevin, Kevin,
move your stuff, Max, move your stuff. We need the
bike here. We need the bike. And I are the
for the folks that don't know you. You spend a
lot of time at Stewart Hass Yeah. Yeah, I um,
that's family right there, man, that's family. I I got

(16:08):
to Charlotte in two thousand and eleven January two eleven,
So I graduated high school in ten and got offered
a job with the diversity program and eleven um was
there for a couple of years when a championship with
Kyle Larson. So me and Larson go pretty far back.
That's pretty cool. So what what diversity programs? So yeah, yeah,

(16:29):
he's from here. Yeah I know he's from Many Yeah, great,
dud dude. That deal, that deal is what got opened
the door for me. It's opened the door for a
lot of people to be in the industry. Um, not
just drivers, but you know, crew members, people in front office,
all types of stuff. So that's pretty cool. But I think,
but I think one of the best things about it
is it's a path. Yeah you know what I mean.

(16:50):
It's a it's a sign that says, hey, you can
do this. Come over here and let us show you how.
Now I'm gonna switch gears and we may have to
to you down shifting or up shifting. We may have
to add it this shifting. We're about we're about right,
we're about ready to blow the heads off this thing.
That for a moment. So so Baba, as you know

(17:13):
as a friend, Um, I don't, I don't know him,
and I couldn't say that I knew him to even
speak to him. But I will tell you, and I've
told this to many others, I am very disappointed with
the pressure that they have put on him. Yeah, and
and I mean and listen, they didn't know how to
go about it. They didn't know how to do it,

(17:35):
and the way they did it was unfortunately not good.
I will say that a lot of people, UM don't
Most people will never understand the type of pressure that
that comes with. And you know, everyone has their own
opinion about the whole situation and and whatever, right, but

(17:55):
this is what people don't realize. Darryl has was anointed
like the guy to really show the path of diversity
and in motorsports for the most part, because NASCAR is
basically the pinnacle right from there, the pinnacle of a
lot of right from the age of sixteen, sixteen years old,

(18:17):
they put that on, They put that on his shoulders. Now,
this was a kid that just want to be a
race card, right like everyone else, Like he didn't really
think he wasn't thinking about that stuff, No one. I
didn't think about it. I never thought like I knew
that Window Scott was a hero mind because I could relate.
And that's where I got the thirty four from was
Window Scott. But I never was like, yeah, I never
was like I want to be the you know, the

(18:39):
first black drive. I just wanted to be a good
race car driver and all that other stuff will come, right.
So they annoyed him at sixteen and the pressure that
that comes with and being with a company like Joe
Gibbs and being you know, then to KBM, and then
you know he makes the shift old like with all
these top flight teams, like there's a lot that goes

(19:00):
in and and you know, Bubba has been outspoken about
about um, his his mental state and that you know,
his struggles with that, Like that's that's been documented. So
you put that on top of and then yeah, right,
and then you're gonna throw it on top of it.
I mean he talked about his battles with depression and
and so you know, somebody and all of us have

(19:22):
dealt with somebody like that, and you know you have
to work with them. You have to you know, make
them feel better. Listen, I trust me owning a business
and doing all the things that we do. I don't
know what depression is, but I'm pretty sure that I've
been through it. A lot highs and lows, that pressure

(19:43):
and that depression with when you have I mean arguably
the world, but certainly the country staring at you exactly
and feeling like the weight of the entire race, your
race is on you. I mean, that's got to be
what it feels like that, whether it's true or not,
the feeling of perception of him has to be there exactly.
And I think the thing that bothers me the most

(20:05):
about it is look at the nhr A. Okay, we
have a lot of involvement there with those guys, but
look at the nhr A for you know, a lot
of the things they could probably do better. Their diversity
is second to none. You have women Alexe Alexis to Jort,

(20:25):
you have Erica Anders, you have the Force girls, okay,
LP out there, you have Leo, you have Angel for
all these years. Okay. You have JR. Todd who was
an Absolute stud World champion. You have Antron Brown, Absolute
stud World champion, Cruiz Patrigon. So you have all of

(20:48):
this diversity, and it's like, how did we how did
this get mixed up? Okay, NASCAR, for all of the
great things they do, how did they get this sideways
because listen, I I hear a lot of the rumblings
and grumblings about you know, and and and listen, and

(21:11):
every time I hear and I say, listen, if you
had the same pressure that that kid he's a kid, Okay,
if you had the same pressure that that kid had
on him up to this point. I mean, he's lucky
to even be able to put a sentence together, you
know what I mean. It's a tough gig. And I
try to talk. You know, you talk about the NFL's

(21:34):
the the the Major League Baseball, and those are kids.
Those guys are kids. Okay, those are kids. Okay. So
here's the bottom line. You have somebody running those organizations
that clearly are leading them. Okay, the nhr A. Never

(21:56):
have seen him lead anyone, okay in that manner, Okay,
never have seen him lead anyone. You got the best
car up on the line, and you ran it right.
And and so when you get all these folks in
there that start leading these kids, hey, we need to
do this because this is the right thing to do, well,
the right thing to do by who, you know what

(22:18):
I mean. So now Darryl not only has all this
pressure of his whole race on him as a car
as as ken Ken said, thanks Ken, good night, to
see you back. You know, the whole, the whole, his
whole race on him. But then you have everybody else
that's the naysayer that just wants him to lose, you know,

(22:39):
And it's like, I mean, so now you've got that pressure.
It's hard enough to race the damn thing. Man. We
so so darryl Um it was, man, I forget what
he is. Whatever you he's running for about He was
fourth and points and the expedient points doing well. The
team didn't have enough money to do it all year
knew it did enough money. I'm working at MDM at

(23:01):
the time, which is like an ourcur team UM slash
truck team. I was doing social media there. So I
go over. He's sitting on the couch on a Saturday
and I'm like, I'm gonna go check on my dude.
So I go over, go over to the house and
he's just, man, I have never just just hurt me
like I We just sat there and watched the race,
but he just like looked so dejected, like watching this

(23:22):
right that was really like he knew that he should
be he should be there and he should have been well.
Later on that year, we our truck team was going
to Michigan and we worked at a deal with Maestro's Barbershop.
They sponsored him at Michigan. We went off and won
that race with Bubba that like after he sat on

(23:44):
the couch, so my man was on the couch. Comes
back and when's the truck race with Kyle Bush beating
on his back bumper And and that's just that there's
so many people don't realize the rallies that he's had
right in the things that he's went through. And again
that's what I mean this show right here, when we

(24:04):
bring folks on, we really bring folks on. We don't
care about the racing. We bring folks on to talk
to him about life and about who they are. You know,
they are a race car, you know what I mean.
But it's like, let's get to know these people a
little bit more about you know, before you know he's
a you know, Kyle Bush is a blah blah blah.
Kyle Bush is a competitor. Okay, he wants to win.

(24:27):
He doesn't care, he wants to win. So anyhow, well,
I agree with you a ent and where and take
a quick break here in just just a moment, but
to just touch base on on Kyle Bush and and
as you're talking about Bubba as as well. I mean,
Kyle Bush gets it. He gets a bad rap, and
he's brought all of that stuff, by the way, on
himself for the most part. But but I will say,
and I love it for the most part. I love

(24:49):
watching it happen. I will say. The biggest frustration and
his life is the stupidity coming at him. You know,
whenever you go out to you you see them in
the in the media, in front of the media. And
if you were to ask him an intelligent question that
pertained to racing, something that makes sense, he would answer
on a regular basis in a normal tone of voice.

(25:10):
But when you ask some stupid sheet guess what, man,
You're Yeah, the BS meter gets pegged pretty quick. Man,
he just doesn't have time for you talking about you.
I thought Rico was gonna hit we got cat on
the limited over there, but but but but you know
what it is. It's just like the interview with Tony

(25:31):
where he's staying in there and they're asking him about
the championship. He's like, listen, if You're not gonna come
up with an original question. I'm not answering you. And
I forget who it was, Marty or somebody asking a question.
He's like, see, Marty just asked a good question. This
is an original question. I'm like, Wow, I mean, you

(25:51):
gotta do a little bit. You can just walk in
and be ignorant to the entire sport and think that
you're gonna talk to somebody that's dedicated his entire life
to this for it and get some sort of, you know,
intelligent answer. Back's kind of like it's kind of like
the sideline reporters, right, that's some some people, and I
won't mention who they are. So how do you think

(26:13):
the football games going? Right? It's like we're getting the
brakes big off of us. That's how it's going down
four touchdowns. It's the first quarter. Tom Brady still slinging it.
What do you mean sucks? All right? With that, we're
gonna take a quick breaker. We'll be right back on
the other side. This segment of the Skinny is brought

(26:34):
to you by Rhino Classifies Tired of all those ads
and random stuff that shows up when you're looking to
buy or sell your car parts. Rhino classifies was created
just for you. Welcome to a streamline buying and selling
that created by racers for racers and race fans. Modified cars,
classic cars, race cars, that special pig block. You need

(26:58):
the trailer to move your baby around the country in
we got you at Rhino dot Co. And once again
we're back here with the Skinny Crew and we have
Mamba Smith who has joined us here on the set
Rico alongside. Hey, before we get going here in this
next segment, um, let's talk about the hundred thousand all challenge.
We want to take a moment and mention an exciting

(27:19):
event coming up soon. Fat heads Ie wears and has
been named the official sponsor for the inaugural Who's your
Classic fat Heads Eye Wear one hundred thousand dollar Challenge?
And you're the man behind that. Tell us a little
more about it. I just hope one of our guys wins.
We gotta deal with all of them. So trying to
trying to work through this, Hey, what are you doing there?

(27:41):
Are you? Are you in town? I could be for
a hundred thousand dollars that might be well, hold on
a minute, that isn't how the deal works, said that
Now I said what I said. Here, let's help me
understand it a little better. Who's Your Classic will host
a trifecta of open wheel pavement racing feature champions Sprint
Cars on Friday August, Champion Midgets on Saturday August, and

(28:06):
the U Sex Silver Crown Series held later that same day.
Now you are capable of all three of those cars. Yeah,
I would say so for sure. Well, that's NASCAR Weekend.
I know it is. That's a big week you did.
You guys are gonna have so many people out there
for that, it'st be great. And you're exactly right. The
Who's Your Classic is set to take place in conjunction
with the Brickyard four hundred Weekend. Competitions will all take

(28:29):
place at the Oval at Lucas Oil Raceway. If a
driver wins two of the events, they will claim a
bonus of fifty dollars on top of the prize money,
and if someone conquers all three, then they take home
the one hundred k and that would be enough for
you to keep racing some more. We we go racing
for the all next year. I'm actually mean Miko might

(28:49):
go on on on a boat for a little while
I might cut of, I might have to cut the
big guy back in. You Yeah, maybe it's hold back
in on mutual respect. You know. You know, hey, is
that is Cody. He's gonna be there, right, Yeah, yeah,
y'all might as well, just y'all are gonna be raising
for a second, might well. I mean he's one of
our guys. So I mean you can understand where look

(29:10):
look Cody. I will say I interviewed Cody on on
the bull Ring on Speed fifty one a couple of
weeks ago, and which I didn't even know he's gonna
be on. I'm like, oh my fat had teammate. It's cool. So,
but he has highly impressed me in the stock car stuff,
right like all year he was knocking on the door
to Speed Weeks and I was like, man, he's gonna
he's gonna about to keep this door. And he did.
And so so I gotta tell you an absolutely hilarious

(29:31):
story about that. So and I think I've mentioned this before,
but you know, he he We've been involved with him
with a lot of different things. So he ran the
US have two thousand car out at out at Lucas
Oil race Way and and for all intensive purposes. He
wasn't looking that great in the race because it was

(29:55):
way way different the way you arc the car and
you know what you're talking about. But I can tell
you this, he's a quick study and he pulled this
thing together like nobody's business. Right, So he gets going
and anyhow ends up winning it. So, I mean, it
was it was amazing. It was the first race back
that Caitlin, my daughter that's been battling with leukemia. You know,

(30:18):
she was you know, that was our thing. We always
used to go to the races together and sometimes she'd
have to drive me home. But anyhow, if I was tired,
of course, teamwork, I mean it was a team thing,
so but family bonding. I mean I may have been snoring,
but it was nice probably too. But but anyhow, when

(30:41):
we raced uh uh and I may have the dates backwards,
but when we raced Iowa, he was in Chad Bryant's
wanting to arc a car and uh, I told him,
I said, you know, he was a wreck. He was
an absolutely nervous wreck. He is the hardest person on
himself that I've ever seen anybody in my life, right,

(31:02):
and I mean hardcore. Tore up with himself. So I
go up to him before we before he goes out
on the track, and I put my arm around him
and I said, listen, the hard part's done, the money's paid.
It's time for you to get out there and do
your thing. I said, this is gonna be fun. I said,
go have fun, be safe. And I said, where it
sorts itself out, it'll sort itself out, because really, at

(31:25):
that point, that's where you're at with it, you know
what I mean. So anyhow, he goes out and I
think he ends up finishing sixth six or eight is
I think it will cut him out anyhow, cut his
mink off, uh sex anyhow, don't pay attention to the

(31:49):
guy over there anyhow. But no, so, you know, but
when he's done, I go down and talk to him
and he's like, I don't blame you if you never
sponsor me again. I can't leave how bad I am.
And I was like, I was like, did you watch
the same right? He said, I was watching. I mean,
you know he had he had some tough, tough competition

(32:09):
out there, right. So anyhow, fast forward, he comes to
me about speed weeks and uh, and you know a
couple of other things, and I said, I said, yeah,
I'll do it with you. I said, I'll help. Yeah, man,
I said, I'd love to love to see see makes
something happen. I said, but one thing, one thing. He said,

(32:29):
what's that? I said, If you don't put a fender
on somebody, I said, I'm never doing another thing for you.
He's like that, Well, what do you mean put a
fender on somebody? And you know how he's the nicest, nicest,
nicest individual. He goes, well, you know, I don't want
to go. I didn't tell you to dump him or

(32:51):
run him into the corner until he see Elvis and
drop him off. I said, I just put a fender
on him, said let him know you're there, touch him
a little bit, you know. Okay. I mean I guess
I'll try it, but I mean, I don't really want
to do that. I love that. I want to ask,
so I don't know. I don't know if he did
or not. But I mean he's been a runner, he's

(33:11):
been running great. I want to ask you guys, because
you guys watch a lot of race, kind of a
lot of drivers and just people in general. I was
talking Ryan about this the other day. I think the
biggest like head cases as far as athletes are golfers,
race car drivers and UFC fighters. For a race car driver,

(33:33):
you can you can make a pretty big mistake, you know,
in the middle of the race, and if you don't
get a hold of yourself, I mean immediately, I mean
I'm talking about in the next couple of seconds, it's
gonna bite you again and again and again, and and
you just you immediately get caught up in that mentally,
and you're out of the hunt. You're out of the hunt.

(33:55):
You have to dismiss it right away, which is easy
to say, but but to do when you're inside of
the car. Because you've been there. I've been there, He's
been there. We we all know exactly what happens, like,
oh man, I just made a massive mistake, and you
think to yourself, my crew, my sponsors, you think of
everybody that you just affected. When what you need to

(34:15):
do is dismiss it and go racing again. But it's
it's really difficult to do that. I think Stewart did
it pretty good, you know, I think if we had
a few more wrecks. You know, if you do it
long enough, you you make mistakes and you crash stuff,
and things happen, and I think you do learn to
dismiss it quicker than you know, the first few times
it happens, you know, if you don't have short term

(34:37):
memory lost playing sports. And I think in life actually
in general, like bad things are gonna happen, right, and
that's okay, it's okay, but you can't like sit on
it and dwell in it and marrying it. You got
to learn from it and then move and hit hit
it again and do it better this second, right exactly.
And I mean, and that's I think there's uh, you know,

(34:59):
a lot of I mean, the race drivers, I think
is probably you know, one of the one of the
toughest things because you know, cars handling bad, you know,
then your tempers starting to flare. It's not like you know,
I mean, it's funny if you listen to Tony's interview
on his you know, in his championship you know in

(35:20):
Miami was in fourteen twelve or twelve twelve ft nissa,
he goes, he goes, yeah, he goes, uh, he goes. Uh.
You know when Strimmy came up the you know, went
to move, when he went to move and cave the
front end in and you know, he comes back, he
comes on the radio and he's just like, listen, guys,

(35:41):
we're just gonna keep going. Here he goes, he goes,
we've had it. We've had a hell of a run.
You know. He was like he was like, Okay, I'm
accepting this. And then you know, the uh somebody's you
joint flies out, smokes the grill, and and he's back
in again. After he's I can't remember how many cars
he said he passed that Uh, it was like it

(36:03):
was like almost a hundred cards or something because he
went front to back to front to back. Yeah. Yeah,
And I mean it was an amazing amount of cars.
But anyhow, you know, he could have pulled one of
his sometimes usual thingies that he would do. And you
guys are doing a great job. Thanks, thanks a lot
way to give me. If you get you get Dad

(36:25):
coming on the radio, Zippy, that's enough. That is enough.
That's enough. God. Their relationship, Tony man, he so like
he was my favorite race car driver growing up, Like
like there was no when I moved to Charlotte, I
would tell people that he's gonna be my boss. He's

(36:47):
gonna be my car at one point, and he kind
of was. At one point. I drove the host Automation
forty one night model for the hostaversity or the development program,
so that was really cool and I worked that right.
We became very close, very quickly, and we have a
lot of the same mindset. And I'm like, he's like
one of the guys. It's like him, it's like Tom Brady,
it's like it's like um Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Michael.

(37:11):
I have tried to take things that they do and
insert them into my life, like I might not have
been able to. No, no, I I'm pretty good with
the tequila. That's like tight lipping a no no, no,
I actually drink the tequila Tornidos tequila. By the way.
That's my my jam right there. Yeah, that's a good one.

(37:32):
Unlike some people I know who like, hey, shots everybody
and knew this ten people, including him with only nine
shots board and he you look at him and you
think he's taking the bottle, but really he's just cheers
in you and you do it, and you're like, wait,
did I thought we were doing this together? Yeah, I'll
get you on the next one. Okay, eight later just

(37:53):
a quick little side note for you might help out
one night. The color of beer and the quila is
almost the same. So if you wanted to fill your
shot glass up with beer and everybody else's with tequila.
I'm not going to tell you that I've ever done
this trick before, but I will tell you there's a
pretty good chance you might get away with that deal.
You know. I mean, truly is light like that too.

(38:14):
I could really, I can knock down some shots that
truly now they're like, oh wow, look at that purple tequila.
So the way it came about was we had we
had really it was like an extended family, and the
guy was a salesman and every time we'd go to
his house, we'd there'd be a fight on, you know,
like a tyson fight or something. And he didn't fight
everybody over, and he would just start the second you
walked in. He was selling you a shot, do a shot,

(38:37):
Let's do a shot, Let's do a shot. I mean,
relentless dude, all night long. So by the time those
fights come on, you know, the twelve one in the morning, Yeah, yeah,
I mean you look, you feel like you've been hit
and you're trying to out trying to fight the guy
off all night long. It's like, dude, I don't know,
I don't okay, all right, And you think I'll do
it and he'll go away, but he doesn't go away,

(38:58):
just keep coming back. So I came over one night
and I'm like, yep, um, let's see how this deal goes.
So I started, I started on him, I put, I put,
I did one real shot and then I opened up
a beer. I set her on the side, and the
second we did our shot, he went off on e
chat it for a couple of minutes. I filled my
shot glass up. I'm like, I'm ready to go whenever

(39:18):
you are, man, just want you to know I'm good
to go. Are you ready good to go? And I
kept going, dude, and he never even saw the pre
fight that he was in the bathtub. His wife had
to carry him up the stairs in the bathtub like
winn Winner chicken dinner. Everyone's high beause we wanted that

(39:39):
to happen for long. We wanted it to happen, and
now we can watch the fight. Thank you for destroying
ted man. No that I love man. I love that
part of the community. I love the camaraderie I love
how everyone just wants to have a good time and that,
like we talked about diversity earlier, like a lot of

(40:01):
a lot Like my barber, he'd be like, man, what's
you know, what's you know? What's not asking? What's it
like in that? I'm like, man, Mike, if you walk
in there, people are gonna look at you, and then
they throw you a beer, They're gonna tell you thanks
for being here, and you just go on back to
their camper later on and you have a good time. Man,
It's for everybody. Racing is literally for everybody, and you know,

(40:21):
and that and and that's the whole thing about it.
You know, we talk about the stars of the sports
that we know and friends and things like that, at
the end of the day, they just want to be
treated like people. They don't they don't need somebody, you know,
climbing on them climbing. I mean, listen, they get that
all day at work, you know what I mean. They

(40:43):
just want to hang out with the boys and you know,
chill out. And Uh, it's funny that you said that
Tony was your you know, that was your guy growing up.
So I got to two great stories that go with that.
So we we were, you know, if we could just
get one of those, would I mean, we got to

(41:06):
fill in some dead space. You haven't got this to say,
so anyhow, because we'll go ahead. I don't know what
YouTube scarped over here and figured out before the show,
but anyhow, So we're in Richmond, Okay, at the Cup race.
Tony's racing up the road at the um what is it,
Virginia Motor Speedway, the dirt track. Pretty wild place, by

(41:29):
the way. I mean, oh, it's it's a hammer down joint.
It's a big place. So the folks that owned that
are the folks that used to own Richmond, Okay. So
they I mean they have they have put big grandstands
in and they know how to bring people in. I
mean they're one of the original NASCAR track people that

(41:51):
knew how to bring the fans to the show and
things like that, which we need to get back to
Okay and and get you know, find a little of
that goal to get in anyhow long in the short
of it, we get done racing there, we go back
to the hotel. Well, where we're staying at is the
same place that s HR staying you know, Stuart Hass

(42:12):
and everybody. So all his teams are there, and we
pull up and we're getting ready to walk in, and
his whole one of his teams is standing out there.
How a Harveck's team or whoever boy or at the
time is standing out front. And this African American gentleman
walks out and he looks at Tony and he absolutely
loses it. He's like, man, I can't believe this Tony

(42:35):
Stewart like he is. And Tony cools a cucumber sitting
there talking to him. This dude's wife walks out. He's like, babe,
you know who this is. She's like, is that the
guy offim Practical Jokers. He's like, he's like, no, babe,
it's Tony Stewart, Okay, Yeah, she's at the race track

(43:04):
for her man. She didn't know anything that was going
to Practical Jokers. And I said good night, and I
just looked inside. I was like, I'm out, but it's awesome.
But we uh, we were at we went to Dick
Jordan's funeral, and I was talking about this the other day.

(43:24):
We went to Dick Jordan's funeral and I mean this
was you know, um, it was ten o'clock at night.
But Tony had parked in our suite over at the
at the speedway and we rode together because we didn't
know how many people were gonna be there. Well, anyhow,
we get back ten o'clock at night and we see
these two guys driving around the parking lot. It's two

(43:44):
African American dudes driving around the parking lot and we
can see him out there. We're like, what are they doing?
So then they pull up and they've got Virginie plates on.
And I said, I said, hey, guys, what's going on? Hey? Man,
do you know how we get in there? I go,
it's ten o'clock at night. You're not getting in there
unless you're looking to go to jail. You know, you
can't get closed bab. He goes okay, and and I said,

(44:06):
where are you guys going there? Like, man, we're going
to surprise our body in North Dakota. He you know,
he's on leave and and we got a week off,
so we're going to go surprising. I was like, wow,
that's cool, man. I said, that's a hell of a
drive from Virginia, you know. And he's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
and and uh and I said, you guys race fans like, yeah, man,

(44:27):
we're big race fans. And Tony pipes up and he says,
do you guys like, do you like Virginia or do
you like Richmond? Richmond's track? And the driver says, you
know it's you know, it's okay. And the passenger now
the trucks blacked out inside so nobody can see, and

(44:48):
he's on the pastor side. The pastor said, man, is
that Tony Stewart over there? I was like, how did
this guy even pick that up? Right? But I mean
he picked it up like that, that that saying you know,
we're we're Uh. He's like, man, can I get a
picture please? And and he was like yeah, I'm had
no problem. So I pull over and I said, I said, Tony,

(45:09):
I said, why don't we go upstairs to the suite
and to our sweet and uh and just you know,
and you can talk to him and hang out whatever.
He's like, yeah, let's do that. He spends over an
hour with these guys never met in his life. And
you know what the funniest thing is that these guys
wanted to know why did you hire Danika? And I

(45:33):
looked at I looked I looked at I looked at
one him. I said, that's the question. It's like you
got anything else you could ask that, that's the question.
And he goes, he goes, He goes, Yeah, man, I
just said, always just mesmerizing. Why would you hire? He goes.
And I loved what he said because it was from
the heart and he meant it. He said, because we
felt like we could be better, you know, make her

(45:55):
better and and it would be a better team, you know,
And didn't work out. Something's doing, something's don't. But it
was just interesting the questions that they would that they
would ask. So, uh, anyhow, good stuff, man. Both stories
were wonderful. Yeah, I thought it was one. Yeah, that

(46:16):
was now there was a quick interesting just go to break,
Just go to break, all right, Apparently Rico wants to
go to break. So we're gonna take a quick break
here and uh, we'll be right back on the other
side in the meantime. Listen to this beautiful music. This

(46:38):
segment of The Skinny it's brought to you by Dream Giveaway.
Dream Giveaway has been giving away high in American muscle
cars to raise money for charity since two thousand seven.
Dream Giveaway is known for giving away classic and new
muscle and paying the federal taxes so the winners don't
have to for dollars. You can jump in the game
and part of that goes to charity. You'll have a

(47:00):
chance at winning some of the coolest cars on the planet.
Check it out at dream Giveaway dot com. And once
again we welcome you back here to the Skinny. A
very talented young man here just the age of twenty
eight years old. We uh not at least twenty just
twenty eight years old. Mama smith with us and has
been scrapping his way in this racing industry, which is brutal.

(47:24):
If you have a ton of money, if you come
from a family of average means, normal means, let me
put it that way, and you want to make your
way into the racing world, you better get ready for
a dog fight, because I don't care how talented you are.
It's extremely difficult. And this talented young man has uh
has been forging his way through with whatever skills he
can deliver. And you have a number of skills from

(47:45):
working on cars and building cars with social media, extremely
good at that. You have your own podcast as well
to driving cars. So I applaud you man for bringing
every tool in the chest to the game and throwing
them all out whenever you can. Man, I think the
only thing I have and done is probably drive the
tractor trailer truck. And I have refuse to get a
CD out because once you get a cd L, boys

(48:05):
and yeah, you're done. You don't get to do anything
fun anymore. You get to wash the truck and drive
the truck. So I have refused by the thing. Yeah,
I know, I've had mine for a long time and
I still get to do that. That's fine. Well yeah,
well it just looks good though. Thank you the Matt Black.
That thing is nice. Well, I mean, so we can
make you one Matt Black and get your cd L.
Maybe you can drive it. I'll try, you know, I'll

(48:26):
drive yours to a couple of shows. Do you need
to CDL to drive that thing? No, I don't think
so I drove listen Sean ray Hall earlier, just Sean
ray Hall earlier this year was going from Atlanta down
to East Bay and I had a couple of days
out a week or two off. He's like, hey, man,
will you drive this bus for me? And I'm like, sure,
I didn't tell him to drafter we started. I've never

(48:47):
driven a bus before. I mean, how hard can it be?
I'm like, airbreak. I've seen this before on the movie
Watch on Your Trailer, Buddy. Hey, I saw this on Convoy.
It made me feel like a big time tracker. It's cool.
Those things are weird though, other than the air, Like
when you're driving next to a tractor trailer truck and

(49:09):
every hapen like seventy and you're just trying to get
down the road at sixty little I've never done that whenever,
whenever you're passing him and you got wheeled. This was
a wheel in it. We were driving across, driving a
vegasy n h R event across Flagstaff and like this
the whole time. I mean, it was Screwubb in the

(49:31):
front tire. It was wild. I mean it's just like,
how does this work? Like this? But but yeah, I
get it. If you have your CDL, you're definitely in
another group of we'll get him to do it exactly right.
I have to do falls under the category of I
don't want to do it. I mean, our good buddy
Robbie Fast and he's my spot for Scott Dixon I'm

(49:54):
in turn three. Robbie Fast doesn't turn one, has been
has been Dixon's spot or for many many years. Well,
he also drives a transporter for Ganassy, But that poor bastard,
he'll drive the tractor trailer down, for example, you're down
to St. Pete, drop it off, and then they'll flying
back up here getting somebody's bus, drive the bus down.
And then when he's at the races, he takes care

(50:16):
of a whole bunch of other duties. You know, of
course keeping that thing clean, and but then you know
everything that's setting up the pits, breaking the pits down,
and then goes in spots for Dixie in the middle
of it all. I mean, the dude is crazy, crazy, busy,
one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet
in the industry. But yeah, I'll pass on his gig
man is driving around this country relentlessly, messing with the Swedes.

(50:39):
He's a pretty nice guy. Yeah, he gave us a
couple of tips, didn't use. Yeah, we're good, we're not
doing that. When we had Marcus Erickson and Rosen quest on,
they were on the week after him and after Dickson
and Robbie was on and he's like, oh, talk to
him about the swede a chef. We're like, yeah, we're

(51:01):
not doing that. Yeah, oh my god, I'm totally not
doing it. And of course, so then we have to
bring it up after we kind of get things going,
they're like, yo, real fun I was. I had. So
Twitter started this new thing called Twitter Spaces, so you
can go live, you can talk to ten people, ten

(51:23):
people can talk about one time, and anyone that wants
to join and join it. So this thing on there
called Racing Spaces. I joined in there. Oh no, no, sorry,
not that one. I was on a different one. A
bunch of designers, a bunch of young kids. They're designing
race cars, like, you know, because now with Instagram and everything,
like that's a viable way to get noticed. And they

(51:44):
were talking about stuff like because you know, Marcus Lemonis
has been like giving people an opportunity to put their
design work out there and he might pick it or whatever.
They were kind of like, they're kind of a little
they're a little hemmed up about, you know, putting the
work and then if they weren't picked, not getting compensated
for right, which I kind of understood what they were saying,

(52:05):
but my point to them was, and this is like
for for everybody, right, really, it's like you have to
do a lot of stuff that you don't want to
do to get to where you want to go, and
like that is so important to know that that's earning
your stripes. Like if you don't put in the work beforehand,

(52:25):
you ain't never gonna get to where you want to go.
Like I'm not, I say yes to the dumbest stuff
and like hard work and stuff, and like whether it's
you know, write that now, Yeah, when did we start
this show? Yeah? Hold on? Did you compensations? Hold mark?
It was it was December two thousand nineteen, I think, yeah,

(52:45):
And so when's that all that hard work? And when's
that compensation thing start? I'm gonna have to look up
in the dictionary what compensations works. We're a year and
a half end of this thing. And I mean, so
I started fatheads and oh four, it's exactly what you said.
You know what I did this morning? I mean I
don't know what everybody else was doing. At five am,

(53:07):
I was driving to Portland, Indiana to pick up a
load of of our new drag Racing Edge magazine, Very
very proud of a lot of hard work went into
by the group. And uh, but you know what it's like,
I mean, who else, I mean, hey, you know, I

(53:28):
mean he he clearly wouldn't been able to get up
that earlier. I mean, Jared Hall still would have been
kicking and so you know. But anyhow, I was with
you in spirit. Oh, it felt like the whole way,
right on the blow or half, he really felt. I
woke up at like the turtle six am, and I
was like, I hope Preco is doing Okay, I better

(53:50):
get a cup of coffee. Yeah, I'm texting me here
about I'm texting me about eight ye see what ye wait? Yeah, Bud, Okay,
Hey did you get up there? I mean you're headed
back the only way back. I don't want to see
the book. I think that looks like brand new edition.
It is. Uh, it is our first edition, volume one,
issue one. While the drag Racing Edge magazine has been
out there before, this is the first one that we

(54:12):
have produced. Hats off to the entire staff are Chief
editor Evan Smith is also a fabulous photographer and has
a ton of photos in here, including the one on
the cover. But um, this is available as of today. Um,
so we'll be handing these things out at Charlotte and Dallas.
And it is a bi monthly magazine and it's called

(54:37):
drag Racing Edge. I'm sorry, Houston, Yes, sorry, uh, drag
Racing Edge. So check that out. It it is available.
Art of the Wheelie is the first volume issue one.
So that is pretty cool. Man, in the in the
magazine is beautiful. It absolutely has some congratulations on that. Guys.
That's actually that's really cool. You had some people have

(54:59):
a vision, dude, and you know people don't can the
whole ways, Like, man, are you sure about this? I'm
not really sure. So are you talking about print like
printing magazine? Is this online only? Yeah? Do you know
how that's trending? Is curious. We're gonna break the trend.
I think we're gonna have fun with it. Time for

(55:21):
a quick break, don't go away, Welcome back to the show.
This segment of the Skinny is brought to you by Toyota.
One thing COVID had made like, if you didn't I
figured out real quick, no matter even with all this
stuff I have going on, if you didn't change something
in your life in a positive way from COVID. If

(55:43):
you didn't learn something about yourself or learned that you
didn't like what you're doing, or that you needed more
of something, then you wasted. I feel like the whole
COVID time for sure. Yeah, yeah, I knew that need more,
truly more hornitos. So I got I got that. I
got my Actually, I got my hornitos kicks on. You know,
we're gonna go down the street in a case of
the peach trullis. I love those things anyway. It's the

(56:06):
Shamous plugs right there. Like that. You like that? Uh No?
But we started I started a little media company um
called MoMA Media that we're building out. We're bringing together
a bunch of motorsports content and you know, podcasts and
people that are doing it for fun but have a

(56:26):
knack for it and a good at it and should
be doing it for more, but they can't. Something I
figured out with my show The Racing France and I
was doing is even though I had who's who a
NASCAR people in there, it wasn't gonna be sponsored. Because
this is one singular show. I had to spread out.
So that's what we've done, and we're bringing people together
and I love giving people opportunity to reach their potential.

(56:50):
I like I like being a part of that process.
And that's why I think I love like kids is
because watching them like grow and learn and start figuring
out what they love and helping them mold at and
like adults too. I mean, you know, are you pointing um,
I don't always pointing me and saying adult clearly clearly

(57:10):
missed the market that opportunity he's allowed one. That guy
in trouble in schools, that makes exactly that completely. Yeah,
don't put us in the same room together. Yeah, no,
they immediately closed the doors. We tell them you need
a special room for us. Now, you guys will be fine.

(57:32):
This is quiet back there. Ten minutes in there, start
closing doors and you know all those walls you didn't
think existed, but they can move around. Pretty soon. We
had our own little space. How they build an origami
for us? Good stuff? Man. One more question, Well we'll
let you go. We've got head you on here for
a little bit. Tell me how you got the name? Well,

(57:55):
if you ask this one guy on Twitter, it was
something to do with something that it wasn't. But no,
So two thousand and ten, nine I go down to
Charlotte for the first time and I'm part of that
diversity program and there's a we're go go karting part
of the deal. We go go karting, and uh, I
picked a name and at the time, Kobe Bryant was

(58:17):
the best basketball player on the planet. They call him
the Black mom But my man, I like that. I
like Kobe, like, I'm gonna put that in. So I
put that in my racing name. I leave. I didn't
know I was gonna move to Charlotte for the next
ten years, but I come back. I moved, and well,
it keeps your name in the thing, right, like right,
So the next time I go, I'm going with like
Brandon McReynolds, Joey Lagan, Corela Joy, Ryan Flores, Mark David's

(58:41):
like a bunch of races right there. They have this
gocarting league called um Field Fillers that they were on
actual go cards at but they moved they off season, like, hey,
let's all go go karting. So I got invited and
first time meeting all these guys and they're looking at
the leaderboard. I think I was like on seven, three,
eight that are like twenty or whatever. And they're looking

(59:03):
at it like, who's the black mamba again? Five ft
six seven me. Some guys like hey, that's I mean,
I'm I'm doing. Nice to meet you and um and
they're like that's awesome and like my because I'm of
Haitian descent, so my helmet at the time was paying
up and said hot rod Haitian on it. So like

(59:24):
that's great and um. So that next race, I start
on the pole like to my left is the Joy,
to my right is Logano. Right behind me is like
either Floors and McReynolds. We get going here, we go
into the first turn. It's a hairpin. I'm like wide open.
I looked. I'm like, oh my god, this really feels
like a bad I want to hit the brakes to

(59:45):
get out of the middle of a three wide situation.
They drove me so hard into the corner that to
stop the race and pry the go car out from
under the wall to welcome to the crew, and I'm
like hey after that, like everyone was. Everyone was cannon
racing at the time, so I was on, like I said,
I was on Larson's crew and around so like they

(01:00:07):
didn't know my name. I swear to God, they didn't
know my name. And for like a year, I remember
I had one buddy named too tall, Michael McDill. He
he calls me one time. It leaves me a voicemail.
He goes up. I don't know who. I don't know
who Dylan is. But if if my black mom, but
is this is you call me back? Man. We're trying

(01:00:27):
to do some stuff and yeah, that's me. That's that's
my government name. Try not to use it too much.
That's how I judge. That's how I judge how long
I've known you. If you call me Dylan, you're north
of the Mason Dixon line and we probably went to
high school together. If you call me mom, but you're
south or everywhere else, and uh, that's yeah. So that's

(01:00:48):
how I judge it. So question for you, do you
love what you're doing? Now? I? I love it? Um,
I'm I'm do you know? I talked about, like put
a post at the other day that what if I
told you your dreams are just your glass ceiling. My
dream was to be in NASCAR, being racing and this,

(01:01:10):
that and the other. Right, Well, like I've been doing
that since I got down here. But it's offered up
so many other things like being able to meet you guys,
and being around nhr A and being around Ferrari Challenge
and Dodge and all this stuff. And uh so I've
already done shattered what I thought my dream was being
a kid from Vermont and the journey has just like

(01:01:31):
taken me to a wholly different place. And so I
love it and we're building on it. I'm putting myself
around a lot of people. I've been able to connect
the dots to make a lot of new business opportunities happen,
and I'm excited about it. And that's one of the
biggest things in it is connecting the dots. You can
have as much, uh as much um education as you want,

(01:01:57):
and and if you don't have the right connections and
the right people that are around you, I mean, that's
that's what it's all about. So uh No, if there's
anything that we can do for you short of rite
a full sponsorship check, uh we would be more than
did you hear that loud and clear? Has the skinny

(01:02:19):
been on a race car? Like? Has the skinny been
on a race car? We're on on Roberts on the side,
my my son's driving a truck for super Stadium Trucks
for Robbie Gordon. Is he really got him on the
side of that. I thought those no, but I know
the shop is and those guys are always practicing right there. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:02:40):
he went down there and shook it down. Yeah, that's nuts. Yeah,
he said that. It It was like nothing. It's a crazy
I mean he's he's won championships in sports cars and
short course off road and he's driving a lot of
different stuff and he said, man, I've never been anything
even remotely close to that thing. Let me tell you.
We're talking about kids and people coming up and watching
potential Max Max Gordon. If you don't know his name,

(01:03:07):
you will, I promise, because I don't know what he's
going to be. And he drives just like dad, like
he is going to be. Can you tell the story
about him in the driver's meeting. Yeah, well he shook
down all the trucks, like because we just raced it
years old, twe years old, twelve years old, and he

(01:03:28):
shook down every truck that they took to St. Pete
to run here just a couple of couple of weeks.
So yeah, I mean, he's he's super talented. Uh no,
no question. Know we're talking to Davy Hambleton and and
Davy Hamilton's said, I went there and I was supposed
to get a U t V. Uh and they and
Gordon tells him. Robbie says, it's in the truck. He

(01:03:50):
he looks at Max. He said, Max, go go get
it out of Go get the u TV out of
the truck. The truck is a tractor trailer. It's got
the lift gate down. It's not all the way down,
it's up in the air. So he says he looks
up there and he says he's thinking he's gonna roll
it out there and just lower the gate. And he
said nope. He stands on the throttle and just sails
it off the back of the tailgate and the lands
and on the TV. Here you go, Bob kids crazy,

(01:04:15):
He's crazy. So I think he was nine years old
when he didn't just drive in but completed the Baja
one thousand at like the age of nine with Dad.
I believe it wasn't a u TV. So he's already
had a ton of desert experience. But but as we
talked about his attitude, you know, his his personality. I

(01:04:37):
want to say. His personality is just like his dad.
He's aggressive, he's uh, he's just a switch on a
little guy. And he has more confidence. He's got truckloads
of confidence. So, yeah, we're in a driver's meeting. A
bowl of masses is in there, and so wound up dude, right,
So Bo gets in there and bows are all excited.

(01:04:58):
He's about to drive these trucks. He never been in
whatever he's about to drive. His trucks were in the
driver's meeting and he's all wound up because he owns Salem.
And he says, well, I'm gonna get these trucks at Salem.
We're gonna spot you guys. We're gonna get everybody a
bunch of seat time. And he's rattling off boom boom boom,
and finally Max looks at him and says, Boa, this
isn't a business meeting. This is a driver's meetum and

(01:05:20):
tries to get him back in line, and Robbie says, hey, Max,
it's always business. But Max's Max is tell him there
was the youngest guy in the room and the oldest
guy in the room, and the youngest guy in the
room was held me. Hey, yeah, yeah, reel or in
for a minute so we can get through this thing.
It was just it was just really funny. Man. Listen

(01:05:41):
to him. Listen to him, go at it again. If
there's anything we can do for you in your ventures,
were always there and and uh definitely believe in you.
Even though Sarah had a hard sell. Actually she didn't
have a hard sell, herod. Sarah just had a hard
time getting me to stop to listen for a minute
as always. So but I'm I'm glad and fortunate that

(01:06:03):
we did because I'm glad to have you as a
friend more than anything. But but as uh as somebody
that's involved with our company and companies and uh, we
we take that all pretty serious. So I mean, it's
it's an honored to be here. Man. I'm happy to
have it wrap the team and be a part of
the family and see what see what else we can

(01:06:24):
do throughout the year, you know, a little uh, send
a little advice your way from someone who's who's been
down a chunk of this road already with my son
who's twenty nine years old, so right there with you,
um and and watching people like like Cody Swanson chase
his goals if you want to put them there. You said,
your dreams have kind of come true, and now you

(01:06:45):
want to bust through that ceiling and accomplish your goals.
The one thing I will tell you is, much like
we just said, maybe it, maybe it never happens for Cody,
maybe it never happens for my son. And whenever we
say that, we mean, you know, make it to the
to the big leagues if you will, NASCAR, Indy Car,
whatever that that and maybe. But in the meantime, enjoy
that that ride because that ride could very well end

(01:07:06):
up being your life. And you don't want to wash
it all the way and spend it frustrated because you
didn't get to that final step. It wasn't for lack
of trying. It just didn't work out for whatever, for
any number of reasons, right, But enjoy the ride, man,
because you're on a pretty cool one, and you're certainly
a talented young man, and you've got a lot going
for You bring a lot of joy to a lot
of people. So enjoy it, man. I appreciate it. We're

(01:07:28):
just getting started. I don't know where we're gonna end up,
but I'm definitely enjoying it. Step Remember you stopped playing
golf so you could enjoy Yeah, no kidding, right, Yeah,
golf is not my deal unless you want someone to beat.
I'm that, Ladies and gentlemen, Black Mama Smith. Thanks buddy.

(01:07:48):
We appreciate you come here and hanging out with us
for a little bit. Hope you enjoy the show. We'll
see you next time. Thanks for being with us here
on the Skinny. This episode has been brought to you
by Toyota know classifies dream giveaway and general tire for
the latest and sunglasses, optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be
sure to check out batheads dot com. That's bath Heads

(01:08:11):
with a Z. Production facilities provided by Fatheads I Wear Studios.
All rights reserved. The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.