RFP Vault Episode 4 Danny Bohn

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of the Rough and Fenders Podcast is brought
to you by South Coast Power Equipment, Robinson's Parts in Fabrication,
Gender Motorsports, Thomas Welding, and Hayes Signs and Designs. On
this episode of the Rough and Fenders Podcast, we talked
to Danny Bone, who is how I thought was just
the guy that got fucked over at Wall Stadium, but

(00:20):
there's more to his store. He started racing at a
young age of probably thirteen or fourteen years old, and
Bandaleiro has made his way up to Southern Tour Modified modifieds,
SK lights and all that stuff in between. He's won
everything that you can imagine at Bowman Gray, even a
championship in twenty fourteen, took his talent all the way
up to the NASCAR Truck Series, Annexfinity Series, running for

(00:44):
Young Motorsports, and On Point Motorsports, which you'll be surprised
how that all started about. But he's had a great
career over the many years that he's been racing. He
still races today. He was actually doing this whole podcast
while so we've been up his shop floor. We appreciate
everybody support of the Roughing Feender's podcast. So please sit back,
grab a road so to enjoy. Season two, episode thirty seven,

(01:08):
Danny Bone Tire Balloon to it. I ever, I we
don everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
My name is Dy Fops.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Here of the ruffing Fender's pot for a soft to
where we talk anything and everything.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
About racing from north to south, that various shops we
go on, visit untu unedited and no.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Bullshit anyone to just go back to the pit.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well he fucked up. He's just my day.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
We talked about rules.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
I don't know we got all these rules peans that
we see on the track.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
I've been waiting for this hut.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
You've been running.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
You've been running in the back of it, oh for.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Like five years, playing inside of me.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
He's blaming me, rushing into the bad Raine Jacket, Wayne Jacket,
I raisedly just like you, Joey David's nuss.

Speaker 6 (01:46):
I did it for the wind.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
We can talk to various drivers in their shop where
they cut their teeth, blood their blood and they make
their name and the sport that we love of short
track racing.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
On a tree.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Just back, relax and grab a road soa and enjoying
the various drivers that we go and meet.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
From now on with the show that's always says every time, Oh,
you know, we should do this, we should do that.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
You're scared, you're scared.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
How are we doing? Everybody? My name is Randy Phillips,
here of the Rough and Finders podcast along my long
side with TPM James Segos the course. See how we're doing, James.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We're doing good. I see you still can't say English.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
It's horrible. I've been sick. Leave me the hell along.
But today we have a special guest, Danny Bone. Did
I say that right?

Speaker 7 (02:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, perfect, perfect, okay cool. I can still sound out
words even sick. But Danny Bone, he's raced from Bandoleros
all the way up to the NASCAR Truck Series Xfinity Series,
so he has he has one hell of a story
for us to dive into. So first off, Danny, thank
you for coming on on short notice. We just talked

(02:56):
about it off off the record, that James is really
bad get in the hold of people like a week
in advance. He gave us like two days. So I
appreciate you coming home on short notice. Uh, definitely appreciate
you being here.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
Now. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, I mean,
you know there was more of that story. It sounded
like he reached out to somebody else than didn't answer.
So then I was the one that read my Facebook message.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
So uh yeah, yeah, see yeah, the show. I wasn't
gonna I wasn't gonna put James out by like that.
But this is why James doesn't do social media because
he literally just told Danny, I your second best, Like no, like, hey,
we're just looking around to see who would come on,
don't don't. Everybody's appreciated that does come on and in

(03:41):
short notice. Like I said, we had James do a
thing in South Carolina where it was a ten k
to wind race and he's going around with a DQ
sticker and I was like, just nicely go up and
he's he's going through the pitts Yellen, who got DQ?
Like which one are you? So the guy didn't take
kindly to that. We probably didn't sell no T shirts there.
Uh Like I said, thank you for coming on, Sorry

(04:03):
for hanging up on you. It didn't come through the headset.
But as that's out of the way, How did you
get started, Danny? How did you get get get into racing?
What was your upbringing to where racing came into into
the circle.

Speaker 6 (04:18):
So I'm originally from New Jersey. So my grandfather, uh
started racing the late fifties, like Wall Stadium, Trenton, Long Branch,
stuff like that. Obviously I didn't get to watch really
much of his career at all. I've got to run
watching run a few races there towards the end. But
my dad followed in his footsteps, started racing at Wall Stadium,

(04:42):
had a really good successful career there. He won a
couple track championships, five Turkey Derbys, Wow, raced at Flemington,
and then they switched i'd say halfway through his career.
He started racing dirt cars, so he ran the modified,
the Hights Town Own and you know New Egypt Speedway one,

(05:04):
a couple of races on the dirt, and then I
just you know grown up, you know, sitting in the
shop when I was younger, and every Saturday night was
at the racetrack, you know, from the time I was
in diapers watching my dad race, and we had the
tire business at Wall Stadium, so I was just involved
in that sense. And then you know New Jersey has

(05:27):
you know, different little different laws and some other states
where you have to be sixteen to drive a full
sized car. Just wasn't in the budget for myself to
start racing early. Like we had quads, dirt bikes and
all that stuff. We lived on a farm, so we
and we made tracks in the backfield and jumps with
the quads, and did circle track stuff with the quads,

(05:50):
everything that a young kid could do. Obviously, I always
dreamed to be able to race, but just I honestly
didn't think I'd ever be able to, just because of
the funding. But you know, my dad, I think it
was two thousand and three, just randomly called me out
of nowhere. I guess he found a Bandaleira car for

(06:11):
sale and they were racing those at Wall Stadium at
the time on the infield track. So we bought this thing.
And you know, it's just like a you know, a
bigger go cart in a sense. But we went out
and we ran three races. The first year I almost
won one of them. I think it's fun out, you know,
running second or third. And then the following year two

(06:31):
thousand and four, we went through the car with the wintertime,
you know, learned a lot about them and we whipped them.
We won thirteen out of sixteen at Wall and the Yeah,
so we we had a really good year that year.
And then I was at the age where you know,
I couldn't get a big car yet, and it was

(06:54):
you know a little bit aggravating for our competitors to
race against me. So I took the year off. My
younger brother ran that car. He won every race, sixteen
out of sixteen, so he even beat me. So then
it kind of, like I said, I was kind of
just in a holding pattern like what I was going
to do. And ironically, my dad, when he raced that Wall,

(07:17):
he built his own chassis with a guy named Billy McGill.
They built I think six or seven cars steering boxes,
and he won the track championship in nineteen ninety two
with his own built car. Oh wow, they had they
had built a new one in ninety one and had
it as their backup car in ninety two. Well, they

(07:40):
only ran in a handful of times. He never won
with it, and then when they stopped racing, one of
the owners put it in his garage and it sat
in his garage ever since. So two thousand and five
winter time, we drug this nineteen ninety one chassis out
that my Dad built and with a lot of home

(08:01):
built parts on it. We put the time. It was
the Modified Affordable division at Wall Stadium. It was originated
in two thousand and six. It was called the Mad Division.
We put a great motor in in the car and
started racing that and I won, I want to say,

(08:21):
devin six or seven races that year. I won the
track Championship, I came down here and won the North
South Shootout in sk Lights with it wow. And then
the following year I did the same. I think I
won seven In two thousand and seven, won the track
championship again and then won the sk Lights Turkey Derby.

(08:42):
I also was able to that thing year win a
sk or a Wall modified type race for a guy
named Frankie Tilton. He had two cars. He asked me
to start and park his all. I one in a
sense just run on old tires and you know, just
kind of get a feel for it and I would,

(09:04):
you know, starting to back, but I'd make I'd run
up through the field and then I'd kind of fall
off toward the end. And I don't know if you
guys are familiar with don Ling. Donny Ling sponsored a
lot of cars up North and you know, seemed to
help a lot of people. And I ran into him
one night and he says, hey, what's the deal, Like
you run up through the field and you kind of
fall off, So we don't put tires on? He goes,

(09:24):
well why not? I said, well, it's expensive. I'm just
kind of get laps. He goes, put tires on. Next week,
I'll buy him. So we put tires on the fourth
night that I had run that car, and I won
my first modified race at Wall Stadium. So definitely a
cool moment in a backup car. Yeah, that was pretty neat.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
So so to go back a little bit before we
carry on to this stuff, what made your dad go
to dirt? Did you just like sliding around or did
you just want to try something new?

Speaker 6 (09:59):
Or I think the challenge. I think the challenge. You know,
he was uh good friends with Randall Rito and risod
Far I forget who originally started driving for him, but
had the opportunity to try the car out, And you know,
I think after he did that, it was just a
new challenge, a different type of driving. And I'll say

(10:21):
it wasn't bad, but he didn't do what he did on.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Asshole it's a whole different animal, asshole.

Speaker 6 (10:28):
But he always he contended, he contended, you want a
couple o New Egypt, He should have won a bunch
at Hype Town, but mechanical and just if if something
crazy could happen, they would happen. But they ran respectably
for a number of years. And then when we started racing,
he just my older brother started racing at the wall

(10:50):
at Wall and the modify, you know, my my racing,
and then my younger brothers racing. My dad just he
retired once we started. We all started racing.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So he got three kids.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
Man, yeah, time.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
That must have been hectic, that's for sure. So so
you're the middle child, I would guess, right, and so
middle child? Uh went and one uh what was it?
Thirteen out of fourteen out of the.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
Sixteen, thirteen out of thirteen in the bandello, then one
sixth in the sk light the first year, the seven
the following year. So yeah, I mean I I thought
I was the next best thing. Well, I mean that
is all that.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
That is impressive. And a three year span he jumped
from a bandello and so pretty much those modified the
sks those are like six oh two, correct, Yeah, Okay,
so they jump into one of those and you go
and knock off another thirteen wins within two years after
jumping out of a bandello. That's a big There wasn't

(11:55):
anything in between there. It was just straight to him.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
Onte.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
No, that's crazy. That's even more crazy, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 6 (12:02):
We had our I had my growing paint. You know,
I did some dumb stuff, ranteole in the fence, missed
some gears, but it was all part of all part
of learning.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, hear that, I hear that. But two thousand and six,
is that that's when you went down to the North
South shootout.

Speaker 6 (12:23):
Yeah, we went down He came down here, and do you.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Remember anybody that you were racing? I mean two thousand
and six, it was a lot of competition around. I
mean mods were really big in two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven they still it was.

Speaker 6 (12:37):
It was a sk like there was a bunch of them. Yeah.
Glenn Reen, he was my I wanted him and Robert
Guible were the biggest. Two competitions, two biggest competitions that
I had down here. I don't remember what happened to.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Glenn, but he's still racing. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (12:54):
No, I don't know how to him in that race,
like we were, we were kind of like hands down
classes field, the two of us, and then I don't know,
I honestly don't remember what happened, but uh, I do remember.
I was young, and you know, little copy. I told
my dad, I said, if we win this thing, I'm
gonna go out climb the fence. Well, I was passing,

(13:18):
I don't know, I was laughing, like fifth place or
sixth place or something. And I went down and turned one,
ran up the hill and I smacked the wall right
where he's the crossover where the haulers crossed over there. Yeah,
and I knocked the toe out. Concord.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Oh Concord. Wow, you got to you get to run it.
You got to run a track that it's not even
around anymore.

Speaker 6 (13:42):
Yeah. Yeah, So we I pancake the wall, bent the wheel,
sent the toe out, and I was leaded. So Cautu
comes out, come down Peru and I got like four
inch the toe out. Well, they screwed the toe back
in and I think there was like eight laps to go,
and I I guess I lacked enough cars that I

(14:03):
don't had to pass the handful there at the end,
but I id a taken lead I think with like
two to go and one down here, So that was cool.
Never thought coming down from Jersey, like had no plans
in two thousand and six to live here, so with
you know, an iconic track North South shootout was huge
when it was that Concord. Yeah, so it's definitely, you know,
a pretty neat experience, uh, to come down here and

(14:25):
do that.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah. I mean I didn't even get that chance to
even like enjoy a race at Concord or anything like that.
I'm too young, but I get to, like, at least
we get it on I Racing and we can get
somewhat of a sense of how the track was. Were
you guys really like obviously a modify is totally different

(14:47):
and it's just a little sidebar on Concord, Were you
guys like full pin through that little dog leg so.

Speaker 6 (14:54):
Slaphole is yeah, yeah, so we were even in the
tour type modified if you don't lift that dog.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Like even of but you lift into one, come off
to and in, you.

Speaker 6 (15:06):
Lift into one. Once you get a turn and you
can run it up that hill, you floor it and
you don't lift aga until turn three. If you're lifting
in the dog leg. Yeah, I ain't doing something right,
But honestly, we were so I don't know. We just
had this part this sk like rolling. Yeah. I want
to say I would have qualified nine percent in the
courfield with my qualifying lap like it just it's all.

(15:29):
It was all momentum. But we were hauling with this
thing and I don't I honestly, yeah, I want to
we would have been like top ten in the sword
tight field with a with a Craik car.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
That that's crazy. That's definitely rolling. Go ahead, James. Is
that well?

Speaker 5 (15:48):
Because I watched a lot of old rand you know,
me watch random old races throughout the week, and I
found a video that was like the two thousand and
seven North South shootout.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Like the whole day. You know, I had all divisions.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
But dude, when they go down that backstretch, it is
not some tea was watching it on this video. Dude, man,
it loss look sketchy, you know, knowing you have to
go through their flat foot and if your.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
Car is handled a little weird and you still just
have to keep.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
Your foot down, I must be you know, tighten, tighten
you up a little bit going through there, you know,
especially when you're some of the guys you know, they
get too wide going through there, and that must have
been sketchy right there.

Speaker 6 (16:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, it's definitely, it's definitely wow. It
was a cool track.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
And then one more question about concord so in in
ie racing, because that's all I have to go off
of here. Uh, does it literally drop off into three
like it's it's pictured and or does it gradually because
like in in ie racing and literally just like you
just drop into a bowl and then it just fucks

(16:56):
and then you go.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
I want to say it. I want to say it's
a drop. I think it's more gradual if I had to,
if I had to guess the tricky part for me,
Like and I when we ran the tor Kite modified there,
I hit the wall there too. It's right where when
you go into one and you start running up the
hill into two, like that wall, that wall creeps up
on you. I hit it. Yeah, I've hit it twice

(17:18):
by myself. Pretty good.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
At least you know it was there. That's one of
those for it, ye feel at moments. So two thousand
and seven, Uh, you're you're still in the SKS right.

Speaker 6 (17:33):
The sk light. And then I ran a few, like
I said, a few SK races and.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
One one yeah. And then so was the backup the
backup car was an SK or was that a bigger one?

Speaker 6 (17:45):
My dad's got backup car was the SK Like.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Okay, gotcha? So you came you put on new tires
because it uh man, I'm already drawing blanks, Danny Ling.

Speaker 6 (17:57):
No, no, so I drove a backup Oh sorry, no,
I'm I drove him the backup car for Frankie Tilton. Okay,
okay at Wallah. And then so Don Johnny Johnny Lane.
Don Lane was the guy that bought my tires for me.
And if you go back and look, you know around
that time, the early you know, two thousands, you know

(18:19):
he was on a lot of race cars up there,
just a huge supporter of modified. Yeah. So it's definitely
cool to you know, reward reward him with a win
after you know, helping tires.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
So what what you do the next year? Did he
did he win a change?

Speaker 6 (18:38):
Well?

Speaker 1 (18:38):
No, actually you won the Turkey Derby as well two
thousand and seven.

Speaker 6 (18:42):
Correct, yeah, in the in the in the s K light. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
And then so is that like I need to get
down the wall obviously for the Turkey Derby, but it's
really cold and stuff like that. But usually those mod
races are intense down there.

Speaker 6 (18:56):
I mean, yeah, they're pretty pretty so I'm over pretty brutal.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, okay, at least you said it. I was gonna
say a couple of the races that I've seen, man,
it was just it.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Was a demo dury.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Oh yeah, okay, so yeah, no exactly, the Tour the.

Speaker 6 (19:14):
Tour race a few years back was terrible. That was
just Yeah. The NASCAR Wheeling race that went there was
just a reckfest. But I don't know, it's honestly, it's
it's hit or miss. Like we a few years back
we ran it, they had a caution like lap twenty
seven and it ran till one to fifty with one
like one caution the whole race. And then there's been

(19:35):
other races where you can't go two laps without a caution.
So it's just it's one of them races that you
don't you never know what's going to happen. Is it?
Is it?

Speaker 5 (19:45):
Because the tracks super tight race groove wise, like there's
not a lot of room between the first second groove
to really.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
You know, there's nowhere to go.

Speaker 6 (19:56):
For the most part, it was for years it was
pretty much single, single group track. In the last few
years they started spraying the outside, so it actually has
an outside. I think it's helped is the sense of
not wrecking as much. But yeah, I mean, you're it's
higher speeds, it's high bank, it's and it's a give
and take type of racetrack. And you know, it's the

(20:17):
last race of the year. Everybody's got to prove themselves.
Everybody's got all winning and fixed their.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Cars, so there's a lot more give than there is taking.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
So I think that's what factors in a lot of it.
And then you know, it's a later race in the year,
so people have time to to get all lamped up
about it. And like I said, I think the biggest
thing is they have all winter of fiction, so they
just missed all out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Now, usually around October time, that's when I usually tell
people that people are just there for paychecks. Points points
are done. Yeah, it's one great, we see it. Paychecks.
That's what I usually tell people because that's what usually
when like the big shows show up, and usually the
end of September started October that's when the bigger shows

(21:08):
show up throughout all of New England. And like I
tell people all the time, just some people are just
there for paychecks. They don't care. They'll take all winner
just to put it back together for you. So winning
the Turkey Derby being at your home, well home tracking
quotations because you probably ran all over the place like

(21:29):
your dad, How did How did that feel? Because I
know the Turkey Derby is a big thing.

Speaker 6 (21:35):
For wall Yeah, so I mean it's like it was
obviously a lower division. My my life long goal, my
my career goal is goin to win the tour race.
My dad's won it. I don't know five times. I
think my dad's won the Turkey Derby and my my
older brother won the sk Turkey Derby. So I've tried

(21:57):
like hell for the last I think I did run
a tor type car there in two thousand and seven
Turkey Derby. I missed one year since since two thousand
and seven and I have not been able to win
that race. I finished second, I finished third, I finished fourth.
I blew a motor running third. I blew a radiator

(22:18):
cap leading like that race.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I don't know what it is.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
I cannot win that race. This year, I was leading.
I let the first twenty seven laps and me and
the second place guy got together and they parked me.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Leading, So oh shit, yeah that's it. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
I don't know. So I don't know if ether there's
some bad mojo. I don't know if there's something I've
done in that place. I don't. I have no idea,
but I have zero luck there, like we've we always
run well, we're always fast, but we just have zero luck.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
I mean every racer has their heel. Honestly, yeah, I
can name it because definitely one of those tracks that
I've been to that I could never get it together,
no matter what it be. I mean, I think the
top the closest I got to a podium, the right
front wheelbaring said take it easy, and I just smack

(23:14):
turned four and I was like nice.

Speaker 6 (23:16):
So I was like yeah, I like, honestly, I don't
There's five or five of them tour type Turge Derby
that I feel like I had a chance to win,
and just something two years ago I was running a third.
It was like thirty to go, first car on tire,
so I made it through the field first like, we're good.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, caution.

Speaker 6 (23:40):
Caution was like there you go, and I'm thinking in
my head, this is going way too smooth. Sure enough,
the next lap under caution, I look at the left front.
It's got a belly in it. Left front rolls off
the wheel, flat tire under caution. It's like you got
It's like I'm telling you, it's crazy. I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Hopefully that changes around because that finally stick one that
you could write off.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
But I don't know if I'm going back after this year.
I don't feel I feel like there was some fair
play there. I feel like I got the well.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Definitely, we'll definitely get into that. We'll definitely get into
that because that was. Yeah, that was I like always
telling Charlie Hanson. We had him on He Runs Wait
County and he came up with a saying that I
always enjoy saying, now his perception is reality, and that

(24:34):
was just like, go man. And then there was a
lot of stuff that happened this past this past year
that we can get into, but we'll say that for later.
So two thousand and eight, what you get, what you
end up doing? Did you hang out?

Speaker 6 (24:51):
So my dad, you know, what's growing up in Jersey.
He was really good friends with Raham and h Ray
and off him. That was when Race sold his race
team and offered my dad a job down here.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Oh wow.

Speaker 6 (25:05):
And I was eighteen years old. I was winning races
and didn't really have a I started going to college
for criminal justice in Jersey. But like that was that
was a plan b. I always wanted to be a
race car driver. So my dad said he was moving
to North Carolina. I said, well, if I if I'm
going to be a race car driver, I need to
move to North Carolina. So move down here with my

(25:26):
dad with no job, no plans to race, you know not.
We don't come from family money. So yeah, it was
kind of a limb on a limb. I was going
to put myself in the right area and kind of
see what happened. So I don't think. I don't think
I raced anything in two thousand and maybe maybe one
or two races. And I want to say I ran

(25:50):
one of them speechters for Richie Tobias once or twice
in two thousand. That was it. One of those speezers.
The speezers they run them, they running that cuts down
Tobias Easter.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
I'd have to look this up. I'm so so in
relation of any race car, what would.

Speaker 6 (26:09):
It be like like a little midget type thing. But
they were traveling, they were traveling around. They had like
a traveling series, and they ran some races down here.
So I drove for him that year. I believe a
couple of those races.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
So when I pulled up on my phone, it kind
of looks like a midget.

Speaker 6 (26:26):
Yeah, they were running in Pennsylvania a lot.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
I got a Porsche, so obviously not.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Okay, it's it's there without the e what like my speed?

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, okay, all right. I was like, oh I ran,
I ran, Oh those things look nasty.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
So have you run on dirt then as well?

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Oh yeah, big time?

Speaker 6 (26:59):
So that's the next story.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah all right, so yeah, so how that go?

Speaker 6 (27:05):
So two thousand and nine, Avenham bought East Lincoln Speedway
down here, a dirt dirt track down here, and you know,
I wanted to race, and you know, he he said
he'd helped me out some but I would have to
race his tracks. So I was like, okay, that's fair,
Like what do they run over there? And he said, well,
they run these they're modified they're a little bit different

(27:28):
than the Northeast ones, but you know, it's a pretty
good division. So searched around, found a car. There was
like one car for sale in North Carolina. Got lucky
because the guy that we had bought it from offered
to help and he was fairly he was fairly good

(27:49):
at it himself. So doctor car, Yeah, yeah, got a
car and a crew guy.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Yeah, guys.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Worked out really well.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
We uh.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
Rebuilt this car. And first time I ever seen the
racetrack was the first night that we raced. Like I
we had just got it done in time to go racing.
Showed up at the racetrack. I think I finished sixth
my first night. But long story short, we were able.

(28:23):
The first year on dirt, I won the track championship
at East Lincoln and then they have, you know, the
biggest race of the year is a non points race
at the end of the season. We won that. So
a pretty successful first year. Not a ton of cars,
I mean there was either there was twelve to sixteen cars,

(28:44):
I'd say, But it's funny like back then two thousand
and nine, twenty eleven, that's all I did was run
the IMC A type their cars around here East Lincoln Speedway,
Carolina Speedway. I won a race at IG seventy seven,
but yeah, I think two thousand and ten I won

(29:05):
seven or eight races. In twenty eleven, I think I
won twelve or thirteen, but it was the same three
guys or a lot of a lot of the races
were won by myself, and then it was Nick Hoffman
and it was Kyle Strickler, So wow, it was like,
you know, back then, it's like, yeah, you're raised to

(29:26):
get a couple of you know, a couple of guys.
You know, a couple guys, a couple, aren't, you know,
But it's like, that's that's who it was. Ryan Airs
used to run really well. There was a few other.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Ones that won some races as well, but like Kyle
won a.

Speaker 6 (29:39):
Bunch, Nick Hoffman won a bunch. I won a bunch,
And it's like, you know, back then, you just don't
know where everybody's career is going to take them. And
it's like, well, heck, you know, they're bothation ones running
the what is it the world? All of late montl
Nicks running the late miles. Now, Kyle's running late miles.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Now, I think, oh no, no different, Nick, No, keep going.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Hey, Kyle Stickler does super late Models as well.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yes, and he was the Chili They're both just the Yeah,
they're both at Chili Bowl. Yeah, you ever gonna do
the Chili Bowl.

Speaker 6 (30:12):
I don't know. I haven't had. I haven't never got
an offer. I mean I would, I'd be down to
do it, but never came across somebody where there was
an offer to do it.

Speaker 5 (30:23):
If you ever try to pursue that at one point,
maybe just try to get like funding maybe for one
for that shot and to just go through and and
go through that style of race.

Speaker 6 (30:34):
I haven't honestly, Like I don't know, Like there's been people,
you know, mentioned the sprint cars and the midgest and stuff,
and it's like, I'm not the smallest person in the world,
and yeah, I love racing, but I feel comfortable and
the modified I feel comfortable safety wise, and the modified

(30:59):
I never really got in it, Like I don't know, like, yeah,
I'm six ft too two and twenty pounds, Like if
I go barrelling down the backstretch, like I might not rebound, Like.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, these other guys, No, I totally get that. I
feel the same way about legend cars. Like, I'm pretty
big dude, so when people like climb into legend cars,
I'm like, nope, I don't need to be put in
the box. Maybe when I'm done here, but not like that.

Speaker 6 (31:22):
Yeah, I mean, my my whole, my whole racing career,
aside from the truck series, Like I've always struggled with
you know, heights above my helmet, you know, and that's
like always been a concern and everything I get in
like it's it's close and yeah, you know, I'm not
saying those cars have taller cages and all that, but
it's like, I don't know, I just I never never

(31:44):
really got the uh ambition to go that route.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
With my career, gotcha. Yeah, No, I I totally get it.
I mean, yeah, I know the chili bowl is its
own thing, and but yeah, I would, I mean I would.
He ain't gonna rebound that great.

Speaker 6 (32:00):
I want to turn it down, but I didn't participitate.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
No, I totally get that. So two thousand, so what
were you going to be a So we're going to
backtrack a little bit. Why could What were you going
to be with criminal justice? Like a lawyer? I want
to be a cop? Oh oh, there you go.

Speaker 6 (32:19):
So they cops. Cops make decent money in Jersey, and
I think you retire twenty twenty five years and yeah,
I was. I was, like, I said, I I didn't think,
you know, i'd have a shot at the racing career.
So I could see myself being a cop, So like

(32:42):
the way did that? And then the all offer came
up with my dad moving and I was like, well,
I figured obviously I could if uh, you know, I
wanted to, I could have continued that down here, but yeah, uh,
you know, just just decided to chase the racing thing.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Racing is way more fun, It sounds way more fun,
less paperwork. You only have to sign in. He barely
signed my name. Some days. You get me at a
three night racing event. Guess what, we're not designing our
name the third night, We're nope. So so you go
to East Lincoln. You ran a speeds there, you ran

(33:18):
a dirt mod, you got a Bogo event going on,
You buy a car, you get a crew guy. Uh
and then he then he clicked off a couple of
wins and then you got a championship. How was it
going from asphalt to dirt doing all that stuff. It
was the biggest thing.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
I think that was was the biggest jump for me
was all of the the travel that you get on
the dirt cars, like they wh I first went out
and that thing like, man, something's broke. You know what
I mean. You run an all modified you get you
get an intention and a half of travel and that's it.
These things travel four three four inches. It's leaned way

(33:57):
over on the right rear. There four inches of rear steer.
It's like just a lot of movement. So it was
like once I figured that out, you know, we we
dialed in on the car. I had some made some changes.
It was a Z link car when we bought it.
And there was a guy that ain't down here in
MONTI gright, I built freedom chasts and you know, I

(34:21):
just picked his brain a little bit. We ended up
putting a four link on the left rear and a
Z link on the right rear. So I was able
to get you know, a decent amount of rear steer
with the four link on the left rear. But I
had a ton of drive once I got appointed with
the Z link on the right rear. Yeah, and it
works like I want a handful I want a decent
amount of Carolina. But we whipped them at East Link

(34:42):
and that after I did that, like I think two
thy eleven eleven. Yeah, I committed, I only ran a hand.
I only ran seven rates of East Lincoln. Then I
won six of them and we uh yeah, we had
doll in for over there. But then uh, you know,

(35:04):
you just I worked for Ray. Ray ended up when
I moved here, I did some part time stuff for
Ray and then he ended up hiring me. So I
worked for Ray at the same time that I was
racing a racetracks. So it kind of it seems like
it upset some people, like we got they tore my
car down a couple of times, protested it. But we honestly,

(35:25):
like I did not do anything out of the rules,
Like we didn't cheat at all. Yeah, and we just
but we just had a really good car. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Well that's the other side of the saying of perception
is reality. It just comes with it comes with the territory.
It seem with like when people start winning a lot,
people just start, Yeah, they want to see trans not transparent.
Well yeah, transparency it's for a lack of a word there,
but they want to see different winners. They want to
see everybody did it, but someone come in the air

(35:56):
and handing our ass to us every week. They're like, Okay,
what's going on? What was what was your part time
job at? What were you like parts running? What was
what was Ray doing? What was Ray building?

Speaker 6 (36:07):
All that thing? No, so he bought a big building
in two thousand and eight when he started the big
iron rods that he's got now and gotcha, my dad
was the shop manager. And now it was just getting
it set up, getting the building, you know, building maten
and stuff like that is what it started out as.
And it was just, you know, it was a part
time deal. And then when it got to the point

(36:28):
that it was like, you know, everything was about done,
I'm like, hey, you know, if you know of anybody
looking for somebody, you know, give my resume. So yeah,
he came back out and he's like, I got some
I got an idea, just just stay here. So that
was two thousand and eight, and yeah, I just I

(36:48):
just ended up taking another job. But I was with
him for fourteen years.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
What do you what? He just why did you do that?
He just he justudn't announced that he's going Irock.

Speaker 6 (36:59):
I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
He's a riot.

Speaker 6 (37:05):
I had a good opportunity. I was, you know, was
completely transparent about it with him, and we're we're all
good like Christmas party, is still keeping touch, still text.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
So yeah, no, he's good about that. He's a riot. Yeah,
I met him. I met him a couple of times.
He's funny, but he's very smart, very very very smart,
very technical and very smart and uh but yeah, no
that irack thing, that's going to be crazy. So yeah,
whenever you want to put your two weeks and go
help out him.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
Again, I picked a lot of them stars up for him.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah. No, I I remember a little sidebar go out
the conversation here because we love rabbit holes here, right, James.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Uh, I was.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
I was watching a YouTube video and he was going
through like his whole collection and stuff like that, and
like he has Irock cars from back when they first
started and yeah, it's crazy and he's still looking for
the stock seeds. I was like, oh, best of luck, buddy.

Speaker 6 (38:07):
Out there though there's a lots a lot of stuff
in garages that you would never know.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
I can't remember what he found. It was. Uh, it
was the first I think it was the first third
gen Camaro he built and he found that in a
chicken coop and that was cool to hear about and
all that stuff, and it's like down to bear chassis
and I was like, wow, like you said, like he said,
he said himself, He's like, it's like a lot of

(38:34):
these are barn finds. Like we just put it out there,
like we're looking for these things, and a lot of
people just started calling in. And then on the video
he just like gives out the shop's number. He's like, yeah,
just call here. Usually people are very seclusive about it.
He's like, no, call please. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool.
He has a cool thing going and raise raise a
good raise, a good good ship. He's definitely uh.

Speaker 6 (38:55):
Yeah, he's like I said, I now, I was there
fourteen years. He was always good to me. Yeah yeah,
no zero complaints.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Well that's good. We'll put them down on Yelp Yelp reviews. So,
so twenty and ten, what you end up doing, You're
still running dirt?

Speaker 6 (39:15):
Yeah, t I ran dirt. I think I I don't know,
like I said, I think I won seven or eight
that year, but that was the year that I was
I had a couple of Saturdays off, and I went
and sat in the Dan and the grand fans of
Bowman Gray. Oh wow, two thousand and two thousand, When

(39:40):
the hell two thousands? Yeah, so I remember one of
those two years.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
No, you're good man, you don't have to be absolutely accurate.
James isn't even here half the time.

Speaker 6 (39:52):
One of those years, I was running the dirt car
we had. We still had the asphalt car that I
had ran out wall okay down down here, but we
weren't doing anything with I had the Dirk car was
running that. So everybody, and honestly, I'd be lying if
I said like, I'd be lying if I said I
didn't hear bowm and Gray, Like I really didn't know

(40:13):
anything about it until I moved here. Yeah, and everybody's
talking about Asphalt Modify. I mean, the social media stuff
wasn't a big back then, and you know, you didn't
have all crazy videos and all that.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
So I was like, what's that.

Speaker 6 (40:26):
Well, it's just tracked up the road to get fifteen
thousand people there, YadA, yah, YadA, Like you need to
go check it out there on Asphalt Modified.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
So I want to save your seat on Tuesday.

Speaker 6 (40:35):
So yeah, I went there and I sat in the
grand stands and I'm like, I have never seen anything
like this in my life. And I'm in the back
of my mind, I'm sitting I have one of these
cars to happen. You know, we have one of these cars.
So yeah, idea, yeah, so let's so I went back again.
I'm like, I gotta do this. So we put my

(40:57):
car together. Now I don't remember, I think it was, Yeah,
it was two thousand and eleven, so twenty ten I
went there. Twenty eleven. I was gonna I'm going to
race the bum and Gray. So went there and ran
Opening Night in the two hundred and I mean, I

(41:19):
didn't think I was the greatest driver in the world,
but they I was terrible. Like I it was embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
So it's not an easy track.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
But I I was like, oh man, this is terrible.
So yeah, I think Junior Miller will at me, like
put me on the infield, like we It just wasn't
wasn't good. So we got back to the shot. We
were scratching our heads. Well you know, we got our
we got our feet. Well, well this is what we
should do. So we did this, this, this, this, We

(41:50):
go back the next night qualified not that good, but
it was twin twenty fives and they uh invert between
the races.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
M M yeah.

Speaker 6 (42:01):
So I started, start towards the back in the first
twenty five, drive up through the field and say, miss
a couple of acts finished eight, So finish eighth. Yeah
that's decent, you know, I mean top ten. So I
I don't even know. I didn't even know they had
an invert, Like not a clue. Yeah. So Bert Myers
comes over and I'll you know, I know who Bird is,

(42:23):
but don't know him well. And you know, I didn't
even know if he knew I was. He goes, where
did you finish? I said eight? He goes, You're on
the poll. I said, on the pole for what? He goes.
The second race they invert. They inverted eight, So you're
on the pole, Like, no way, so shure it up?
Sure up, go ahead?

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Sorry, yeah, there it is.

Speaker 6 (42:44):
No, it's an invert. So yeah, start on the pole
of the second twenty live effort. I won it and
that was that was it. I was hooked.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
There any birds that I knew I was that must
have been a different uh man, that must have been
a different thing for it because like when you started
racing there, it was the Tim Brown and Bert Myers.

Speaker 6 (43:14):
Was Tim Brown, Burn Miles, Burt Myers and Junior Miller show.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
That was yeah, yeah, exactly, they were going at it.
But yeah, no, that must have been a different thing.
And no birds, no Gordon Beers.

Speaker 6 (43:26):
No, yeah no, Well then it was just like I
haven't I didn't have any spirits there. So like the
fighter comes over, like I win, I don't know where
to go, so they wait me to start finished line.
I'm like all right, so I stop shut the call
and the fighter comes down. He hands me the flag
and I'm like I'm looking at him. Do a victory lap.

(43:47):
I'm like, no, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
No, do a victory lap.

Speaker 6 (43:49):
No, I'm good. So like everybody does a victory lap.
So I car got to a victory lap. But yeah,
after that, like I was just hooked on hooked ongoing there. Well,
I don't know, I think we only won that one.
I think that year we ran respectable. Yeah, but that

(44:12):
was kind of like I would always say, like it
gets the bad hype, it gets you know, drama and
this and now, but that if I didn't raise the
Bowman Gray Stadium, I don't think you know that that's
the place that put me on the mat, honestly, like that.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, definitely a big uh yeah, biging there.

Speaker 6 (44:32):
Yeah, that's what put my name out there. Like there's
good race car drivers that a lot of these you know,
local short tracks. And it's different now because there's a
lot of social media. There's a lot of coverage, right,
so yeah, everybody hears about everybody now in a sense.
But back then, it was like there wasn't a ton
of that, so you know, it was hard to get
your name out there. But when I started running there

(44:53):
and running well, and you know, you're instead of fifteen
hundred people in the stands, there's fifteen thousand people on
the stands, and yeah, no, it all worked out in
that sense. Like you know, so I got my feet
went back in the modified down here doing that twenty twelve.

(45:14):
You know, I wanted to do more, so we we
we ended up getting a brand new Toyer car and
committed to do the Southern Modified Tour when they had
that gotcha again. It was you know a lot of
tracks that I've never been to. You know, you're back

(45:34):
then it was Andy Si, Ron Hols, Old l W Miller,
the Meyer. You know, there was some some good drivers
and showed up, you know, brand new car as a rookie.
Like I said, some of them knew I was. Didn't
race with a lot of them, but we we had
a really good year. I wanted Carraway like it. We

(45:54):
only had twelve races, but I wanted Caraway as a rookie,
which that was my goal was to be able to
you know, win at least one race, you know, on
the tour that year. So we were able to do that.
Finished second in points. And like I said, there was
six tracks Langley, South Boston. I never saw them until
we showed up. It's like, hey, what what springs are going?

(46:17):
I don't know what you know, what set up was going.
I don't know, you know. We just kind of would
watch the videos, yeah, on the on the phone or
on the computer, and give it our best shot. Like
I finished third at South Boston the first time I
was there, and like I said, I'd never seen the
place until I pulled in the party lot. Wow.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
And South Boston's a pretty fast track.

Speaker 6 (46:36):
I mean yeah, that's honestly. Like that and Orange County
are my favorite mostly my two favorite racetracks like short
tracks to run out because you can hear there's like
six different lines you can run around there. I don't know,
it's not the same I guess as not quite as
much the same as it was before they paved it,
but I remember, hell, you almost drive down it almost

(46:59):
acts like you're going through it road and coming you know,
coming out of four and then you just missing side wall.
There's grip on the apron, and then you can run
high and one and two you can run the bottom,
and just a really cool track to race that.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah. No, definitely, different, different type of lines all the
way through there, and it literally like some of the races,
it looks like they just like they don't like stab
the brake, but they like drag the brake really hard
through through three and then they just put it right
on the apron and just drive off straight and I'm
like crazy.

Speaker 6 (47:31):
I was like, no, Yeah, that's definitely. That's definitely an
on the Gas racetrack, and that I have three poles
there with the NASCAR Southern Modified Tour, so you know, yeah,
I've I've had I've had some number one there like
that was That's one of my bucket list tracks. To say,

(47:53):
you know, I want to win at but the last
tour race we ran there, that was one that ran
a hundred. We had zero cautions. I led the first
one hundred and twenty seven laps and I've never in
a million years expected to run one hundred and fifty.
Last screen flag and we I just ran too hard,
you know, expecting a caution somewhere around one hundred and

(48:17):
right were gave up. But we had a car to
win that night.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yeah. No, Usually South Boston it's usually not that track
that just goes clean and green, no cautions.

Speaker 6 (48:28):
Yeah zero.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
It tightens off too, It tightens up hard off of two.

Speaker 6 (48:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, I'm not saying it it's it's it's a rugged track.
Like I'm not saying like it's a caution filled place.
It's just a tight track. It might have sweeping corners,
but when you come off to that's tight come off
for if someone's above you coming out of four, you
got to try to keep your lane coming off the apron,
and it's just it don't work. Sometimes. It's just one

(48:57):
of those things. But South Boston's also one of those
tracks at when someone wrecks, you got nowhere to go
because there's a wall inside and out on the back.
There's a wall inside on and out on the front.
We've seen some.

Speaker 6 (49:10):
Yeah, yeah, right, I've wrecked there once before. Pretty good.
I knocked the left front off pretty good. There.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Where were you, like, where were you on that ball?
I mean no, no, no, no, I know that. Sorry,
that was horrible.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
So third or fourth, but I was underneath somebody coming
out of four we had it was later in the race. Yeah,
and I came up on him and you know, he
was up against the wall. I kind of moved up
more than I should have, just touched him with the
right front when when it hit, when I hit the
right front, the back come around and I did one
of those. I didn't spin, but I wasn't straight type

(49:46):
of deals across the race track and just waffled the
inside wall with the left front. Yeah, that was. That
was in my bad luck spree of twenty twenty or
twenty thirteen. That was probably I wrecked more crap that
year than any other year in my race career.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Oh, let's go right into the year that got you
got kicked in the nuts every time. Well, so were
you doing the Southern Tour and it was just who
were you everywhere? Reckon shit?

Speaker 6 (50:22):
Uh, mainly the Southern Tour, but it was Yeah, we
ran the Southern Tour and Bowman Gray. So yeah, twenty
twelve probably one of my best years. Like I said,
finished second in the tour, Southern Tour and points, you know,
won a race, had pole one I think two at

(50:42):
Bowman that year, so I was doing both. So then yeah,
we're like we're going all out. In thirteen, oh, that
was the year I finished second in the tour race
Turkey Derby to Matt Hershman past Jimmy Bluett with like
ten to go. Was catching Matt just ran that a lapse. So,

(51:02):
you know, like I said, my good year. So we
we get invited to go to do the Daytona Backstretch
deal the Iowa what they call it Battle of the Beach. Yeah,
so we're gonna go down to the Battle of the Beach.
It's track that it's flats like Bowman. We're gonna you know,
we're gonna bring our you know, our a game. We're

(51:23):
gonna go run well twenty thousand to win. Well, if
you Google modified put the Daytona that bat to me.
Me and Priest got together with thirty or something to go.
I was running fifth or sixth and completely destroyed my car.
That was in February during Street Week, if you remember.

(51:43):
So car was fresh, motor body, the whole nine, ready
to go, ready to run the whole year, and we
completely totaled it down there on the backstretch. So had
a lot of help from other competitors, Jimmy Blewett, Ray,
a bunch of people scrambled together because I mean I
thought my season was over week, Like you can watch

(52:06):
the video, we destroyed it and I only had one car,
so rally you get the thing back together. Got it
together for the first tour race the Carraway and destroyed
it again on the backstretch. And the second race here

(52:26):
in Southern National, I think I finished fourth, and then
the third race of the year was South Boston and
that's when I cleaned the left front off, running fourth
or fifth. So just one of those years that I
couldn't do anything right.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Yeah, I mean it happens for every racer. It just sucks.
I mean, it's just one of those things that you
start that and like I'm a big believer that racers
are the worst worst enemy. When that shit happens is
like usually usually when we have seasons like that, because

(53:03):
I've had it, I'm like, man, maybe I should just
pick up something else. This is getting way too expensive.
Obviously it ain't working out for me this year, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (53:12):
It is one of them where you don't want to
give up, but it's like, yeah, you want to, but
you're just so damn determined not to and to figure
out what's going on, and like, I know what it was.
It took me the whole year to figure out. But
so we rebuilt the whole car after our flip. Well,
when I wrecked at Caraways the first the next race,

(53:33):
which was the first four race, caught some screedy dry
They didn't do a good job. They didn't do a
good job cleaning the track. Somebody blew a line. They
put like five hundred pounds of speedy dry out. We
did one or two laps like sus ship flying everywhere.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Yeah, they throw the green.

Speaker 6 (53:52):
Well, somebody come off a two and brush the wall
and all I could see was dust and spark, So
I think they're wrecking. So I just put a little
wheeling into it coming off of two again. It just
did that half ass slide. I couldn't stay, I couldn't
spind it, I couldn't save it, and it just nerves
into the inside wall radiator, left front, right front bumper.

(54:15):
Was flatten the whole nine.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
You know.

Speaker 6 (54:18):
It wasn't a clip, but it was a bolt on
horn and all that. So we did it the most,
the best we could do to get it back together
for the next race, and we we ran okay and
then went and wrecked it again at South Boston. And
then we went and struggled the next race, and struggled
the next race, and I was convinced something was wrong

(54:42):
with it, you know, because we'd we'd flipped it. I
wrecked it, like something's wrong with so. I mean it's
been it's been hit on every corner, brought it, brought
it up to Brunhosles well, I stripped it like between races. No. Sorry,
we skipped Bristol that year because I said, you know,

(55:03):
we're running terrible. There's no point to spend the money
to go to burstil. Let's take the time, take the
car apart. We brought up the brunt holes, put it
on this jig. Every point was where it needed to be.
Like so We're sitting here scratching our heads like what
the what the hell's going on? So he goes, ah, well,
sometimes you know they'll get sprung. You know, let's cut
the down bars and reweld them. So we cut the
down bars, no spring, rewald them, so nothing zero, put

(55:28):
the car back together. Struggle, struggle, struggles. So I'm determined now,
like we're gonna find out what is going off. So
we had the little break between the end of the
year and Turkey Derby, and so we know what this
rear hasn't been looked at all year. Let's take it
out and look. Well, come to find out when I
hit at caraway, you don't I didn't think. I never

(55:52):
hit with a tire. I never hit with a rear tire.
But I guess just the force from hitting with the
front and the wheels and the hubs and all that shit.
The axle tube were bent, like really really bad. One
was back, one was forward. Didn't see it when you're
square in the rear, but you know when they put
put it on the jig, like, the tubes were just
waffled and it was I never hit with the tire,

(56:14):
it was just from hitting the wall. So we squared
it all up out all where it needed to be,
put the rear back in. We had the Turkey Derby
and that was the year that I led one hundred
and some laps and the damn radio cap blew off.
Like the fastest car there led the race, hit it

(56:38):
come back through the field. I'm up to like fifth.
I think, like we're like easily with one of the
best cars there and a twelve dollars radiator cap blew
off and that was that was it. So yeah, it
took all year to figure the car out, but we
finally figured it out.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
Yeah, Like that's like a heartbreak season almost just like
can anything go right anything?

Speaker 6 (57:04):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, So I know you.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
Try to take the good from the bad. At the
same time, you're like.

Speaker 6 (57:11):
Well, like it was right there, you know, Yeah, well
I was. I was about bringing the things to the
junk yards and just crushed the whole thing. Like it was.
It was that frustrating, but I was glad we finally
figured it out there at the end.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
But like, so like to go into the next year
from obviously this this this year that you're speaking of now,
I always like to say it's the beauty of race
and we'll have our years that we're getting kicked to
the nuts, and then the next year we'll figure it
out and click off of click off of a really

(57:50):
good Jesus, why can't I talk a really good season?
So two thousand and four, two thousand and four, twenty fourteen,
still trying to learn English over here? How did that
year go? Because, yeah, some accomplishments.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
There, another one of my better years, like you. So
in twenty thirteen I was also racing the other car
at Bowman I ran. I didn't run all the races.
That was the year that I ran the first two
or three and then missed a few. And then Fuden
Swisher called me the fifty three car from Bowman grants, Hey,

(58:28):
whyane line show up mine's racing so that we're not
going to run all. I don't have the money to
do that. I don't drive my car, so I started
driving for him. I want to say that. Yeah, so
I want to want a race or two for him
that year. So twenty fourteen, we bought a brand new

(58:49):
car at the end of toward the end of thirteen.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
You didn't want to try out the tested one?

Speaker 6 (58:54):
No, well, I already had it. I already had bought
a chat.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Oh so it's a total different one, gotcha.

Speaker 6 (58:59):
Yeah, so I'm gonna leminade. I'm gonna eliminate this car,
and then we go to circuy and everywhere with the
fastest car there. So yeah, I already had a chat.
He's sitting there. You know what we're in.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
We're in this bar.

Speaker 6 (59:08):
Let's just you know, take parts off, put it on
the other one, and we'll go through everything to make
it right. So ran the tour again in fourteen and
ran for putting Swisher at Bowman Gray. Won four poles
I think on the tour and one at We won

(59:30):
the one ninety nine at Bowman Gray, which was the
tour race, and then we want to one of the
tour races that carraway on the NASCAR Tour. And then
I won the track championship at Bowman Gray for putting
Swisher that year. So yeah, really good year.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
It was only we're not going to just skip over this.
You run against Tim Brown, Burt Myers, Jason Myers, you
run him again, some guys that are pretty big, heavy
hitters that are at Bowman throughout the whole throughout that
whole year. Or how did how did most of that
year go? Like, like, obviously I'm not going I'm not

(01:00:12):
going to ask you race by race, but yeah, what
were some of the highlights of that year of Bowman
Like is that when you really stand like I mean,
there's not many people that can can go around and say, hey,
I'm a I'm a wheel uh not wheeling, I'm a
modified champion at Bowman Gray you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:00:31):
Not many. So you know, well there's only there's only
five in the last twenty five years. It's been rand
Award this year myself first him, and and and Junior Miller.
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
That's about it.

Speaker 6 (01:00:43):
So that was that?

Speaker 5 (01:00:45):
Is it?

Speaker 6 (01:00:46):
Yeah? Yeah? So, like I said, we always aside from
the first night, we always ran decent there. I think
at that point in time. You know, in fourteen, I
probably had won six or seven races by then, had
a decent, decent car all year, had some mechanical failure.

(01:01:07):
Now some people won't give me credit, but that was
the year that Burt and Tim had the absolute meltdown
and turn one and they docked them some points, which
in fairness, yes I probably wanted to beat them if
they didn't dock the points. But we blew two motors
that year, so I had two DNFs for motors. I
broke areer, so I had literally three DNFs if I

(01:01:30):
didn't have those. And not talking crap about putting Switcher,
nicest guy in the world, but it's a shoe string budget.
It's not anything close to what those guys were spending
over there. So for us to be able to compete, yeah,
was was you know, good in itself. But then, like

(01:01:52):
I said, they docked them some points and it put
us back in the running. And there was still three
or four races left, and yeah, when we realized we
had a chance at the championship, so we got to,
you know, kind of get our crap together. So we
made some changes, and the last four races over there
that year, we were the fastest car there every night
we won. Basically I was third going in the points

(01:02:14):
to the last night, or third in points going into
the last night. I had to beat Lee Jeffries by
three and I had to beat Jason Myers by one spot,
so like I was odd man out damning into one fifty.
I'm like, well, all I have to do is go win.
If I win, then you know whatever happened to happen.
So we yeah, went there and I qualified second, I

(01:02:38):
passed him Brown on lap eighty something, and we won
the damn race and won the championship.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
That's awesome. Well then then obviously you put your stamp
on that year as well, and people can say whatever
if they docked points, melt down, whatever the case may be,
that win to win. I feel bad for Jason. That
could have been his championship because we had Jason on
and he's like, I can't. He's like, he does try it,
and he's like one of those guys that is proud

(01:03:03):
that he can make make an old chassis. How old
is this chassis? James like like pretty old?

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
Right, Yeah, I'm pretty positive is one of the older ones.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Yeah, it's like one of the older chassis and he
and he still competes with it, and he's very he's
very prideful about it, and he's a good friend of ours,
and that was one of the things He's like, championship
has just always eluded me. Now, with you saying that
you only had to beat him by one spot, I
was like, oh, that poor bat, Yeah, that poor guy.

(01:03:36):
But no, you put your stamp on it. Who cares
what they say. I mean, it's still hey.

Speaker 6 (01:03:42):
You look in the record book, it says my name there,
like I won races that year. Can we ran up
front all year?

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:03:49):
Like if I.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:52):
Honestly, it was the motor that we used to win.
So we blew up with like four weeks ago, five
weeks to go. One of the motors we borrowed was
one of Burt Myers's motors that his old owner had
laying in the basement for like four years. That's what.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
That's what.

Speaker 6 (01:04:12):
That's the motor that won the damn last rate.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
You should have put that right yeah, right there. It
was just one of them.

Speaker 6 (01:04:20):
You know, we had a little bit of luck, but
we had a good car. But honestly, Putting Switcher race
there from the fifties, and yeah, I said, I'm not
a huge you know, I know a whole lot more
about that place now, but you know, Putting grew up there,
and for him to win the championship there, you know,

(01:04:40):
just to see you know, his emotions and you know,
him to finally be able to do it, that was
what was cool for me, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Yeah, And like you said, you have the youah, the
other than h other than Brandon Ward and uh and
uh Junior Miller. It's just Tim Brown or Bert Meyer.

Speaker 6 (01:05:03):
So yep, yeah, yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
It's just your name is in the record books. You
put your stamp on it, especially going out it was
one hundred and fifty lap.

Speaker 6 (01:05:15):
Race one and the season finale.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Yeah, so then you go out there, you do that
and you passed Tim Brown who was leading or whatever
he was when he had them outdown. So you still
put you still you still earned it. I still put it. Yeah,
win's a win. Win's a win. But uh no, that
that's that's that's the beauty of racing because one year

(01:05:42):
you're Ricky Bobby and backstretching and then the next year
you win in championships at Bowman and stuff like that.
Were you doing anything else or did you just focus
on Bowman?

Speaker 6 (01:05:53):
No, it was just Bowman and on the tour, like
I said, we run, We won two races on the
tour and won. That's four So yeah, I mean fourteen
was a really good year. Yeah, it was just just
modified stuff. Yeah. I think in between those years, I
drove a couple of races for Kyle Strickler. In one

(01:06:14):
of his dirt modified and stuff. Mainly it was just
concentrating on the well, no, I lied. So I did
some super late model races too. In two thousand and
twelve for Dave Moody, the m RN guy. Oh we
were yeah, the Past Series, the Birth Experience in a

(01:06:35):
full thunder car.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
So Dave Dave Moody that is on m r N
from Vermont. Yeah, I didn't even know he owned a
dirt car. That's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:06:44):
He had a he had a super late model super
ran the Past series.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Pass it. Oh oh a super late Okay, no, now
we're because you were just talking about dirt and I
was like cool.

Speaker 6 (01:06:55):
Yeah, no, no, no, no, you're good.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
You're good. So yeah, no, that's cool. Where did you run?

Speaker 6 (01:07:02):
We were a motormile. We were at Orange County and Hickory.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
How is did your teeth chatter at Hickory? Yea, No,
it's a gritty track. I give it that. But man,
when I see those cars come off too and go
down the bag ships, I'm like, oh, I was like,
those guys have to have mouthpieces in as it look. Uh,

(01:07:37):
James shoot from the hip cowboy so.

Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
Does does a lot of the momentum with Modifies and Bowman.

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
Gray go together at all in these years of like, yeah,
you started doing good on the tour, so the confidence
would go to Bowman where you just show up and
have good pieces and just you know, have these great
races when ship wasn't breaking.

Speaker 6 (01:08:00):
I think, honestly, I think Bowman is my go to
to build my confidence just because it's like I think
I've won seventeen races there now, Like I don't know,
it's and I'm not being cocky, but it's just one
of those places that came to me pretty quick and
I can go I've wonted three or four different cars there,
Like it's just I run well there and it's just

(01:08:22):
a track that suits my driving style with the track,
I understand. So I always looked at that place to
build me up.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
That's fair, Yeah, I mean, because I mean Bowman being
there is like as a fan, that track doesn't look
easy to drive with a modified at all.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
You know, it looks like you're driving like I was said,
driving around a Walmart parking lot.

Speaker 6 (01:08:45):
Yeah, no, it is. It is.

Speaker 5 (01:08:48):
Yeah, when you test drive your your Bowman set up,
when you scale it, you just go around the street
real quick and it's about the same thing.

Speaker 6 (01:08:57):
Yeah, we go down to the Yeah, there's a there's
a wall are about half a mile down the road.
We just put out some cones and we tested out there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Now transition it's as fly.

Speaker 6 (01:09:12):
As it looks, and it's yeah, definitely it's different. But yeah,
there's just some people that run really well there and
there's some people that struggle there.

Speaker 5 (01:09:22):
So another random question, I thought, did the dirt driving
on dirt? Did that help you go into the asphalt
modifies more like? Did it help you in the you know,
get more just I don't know, just drive like drive
a car differently? Could you had when when you jumped
over or is it kind of just the same thing
when you went back.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
To modified from it was?

Speaker 6 (01:09:43):
You know, it took a little bit of an adjustment
to get back. But I'm just a firm believer in
uh many time in a race car. You know, you're
you're you're learning, it's experienced at sea time. So I
was able, I don't know, So I was able, you know,
fortunate enough to be able to do both. I don't

(01:10:05):
think I won on a I think the best I
did was I finished second at Carolina on a Friday
so twenty eleven, I'd bounced back and forth a lot,
like I'd run the dirt car Friday night. I'd get
home at twelve o'clock in the morning, I'd corually if
i'd come to the shop the next morning, I'd unload
my dirt car. I'd cleaned my dirt car, and Bowman

(01:10:25):
starts at like four o'clock, so I get everything cleaned
up from Friday night. I loaded my asphalt car up
in the same trailer with mud all over inside and
all that, and I'd go rate Bowman Gray on Saturday night.
So yeah, I don't know, just I was just being
a young kids living the dream, racing Friday, racing Saturday.
And honestly, I thought about this the other day, like

(01:10:47):
I don't know how the hell I did it all,
Like my dad helped me a ton, and then you know,
I had some really good crew guys, but we raced
a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
I think.

Speaker 6 (01:10:57):
You know, there was two thousand, ten, eleven, twelve time
like I was racing thirty forty races a year, and
then to come back now it's like I raced ten
races and it's like, man, that's a lot of work.
I like it. I don't you know. I was, you know, younger,

(01:11:19):
living live live in a you know, I had a condo,
so I didn't have a yard. I didn't have It
was just go to work and worry about my race car.
So well at least, Yeah, I just any any time
you're in a anytime you're in a race car, I
think you're learning, and I think it's you know, valuable
see time that that you will use down the road. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
Have you ever thought to yourself, you know, like you
you're modified, gets out of shape and you're like, man,
if I didn't learn dirt, like I want to wreck
this damn thing. I feel like experience really like showed
up as like man, like I felt this before.

Speaker 6 (01:11:57):
Yeah, So there there was several times and there's several
comments like you know, early on in O and like
I came out of the dirt and I started racing,
Like I would run around the outside of that place,
dead ass sideways, passing cars and it's like it was
just nothing, and you know, there was a lot of
people there. I made the outside. It's not as good

(01:12:19):
now since they paid it, but I was. I'd venture
to say that for a while there, I was I'd
make on the outside there because they do the cone deal,
so you can pick and choose, and for a while
everybody would just stuck at the bottom, so you could
gained two three rows on a restart, and then everybody
bottom said right, so they get to the bottoms crush,

(01:12:41):
they can I just letter eat on the outside and
I'd make a couple lot of ground on the outside
and then yeah, dead sideways come up the corner. Sideways
in the middle.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Of corner, just in the gas sold t shirts. That's
all that matters.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
Yeah, the only thing I feel like, the only disadvantage
of that is a hunt out race for you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Are you burning that right rear right down?

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
I mean, I'm you know them twenty five where you
can just burn it down and just put the right
front on and just burn the.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Other side down.

Speaker 6 (01:13:10):
So that tire there, it's a different that tires and
F fifteen and now it's a different rubber than what
we're all used to with the wire tires. Like it,
it repeats like it, you'll wear it down, but it
doesn't lose a ton of grip. And then heat cycles
don't seem to effect it. If you keep heating it

(01:13:30):
like it doesn't it doesn't just quit like the m
thirties and twenties where they just quit his tires. The
boning tires will repeat if you keep eating them. So
it's actually a really good tire for over there.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Yeah, I'm not, uh, come on, James.

Speaker 5 (01:13:51):
The tire game, well, I was gonna say the tire
game of Bowman, like I'm it's not really. I wasn't
really familiar with it until started watching this year, but
just hearing, like how the tire is different, you know,
how they work better?

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
Did they paint your tires there?

Speaker 6 (01:14:03):
Did they paint the sidewall?

Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
Do they know what color that they put on it?

Speaker 6 (01:14:09):
It's different every week some people will somehow figure out
what color is going to be on there, and they
have it on some other ones. And we won't get
into all that, but yeah, have.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
You ever had the guy watch you put on the
tire and then you get the cute that same night.

Speaker 6 (01:14:25):
No, No, I've heard all the stories about that. So
there's there's a few stories about that about the Jason
I didn't get to qualified for uh leading a race
and roughing somebody up this year. I did do that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
We'll definitely get into that, because man, that was a, Yeah,
that was a shit show. Twenty fifteen. What you do
was there? Did you race all the way up until
you did the NASCAR stuff or yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:15:00):
Well so honestly, fifteen, I moved back home. I had
the job offer on Jersey and uh that No, I'm back,
I'm down I'm in North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
Oh okay, gotcha? Okay continue?

Speaker 6 (01:15:13):
Yeah, So no, I moved. Had a guy worked for
in high school and after high school, right after high school,
offered me a really good job, and so I had
a really good year in fourteen, but was getting at
that age and you know, thought, you know, hey, I
need to think about my long term career if the
racing things not gonna work out. So he offered me

(01:15:34):
a good deal. Moved up there to take this opportunity,
and I raised eight races. You know, my cars were still.

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
Down here, No I raised Who were you raising for?

Speaker 6 (01:15:50):
So I I still had my cars down here? Yeah,
and my dad maintained them. And then I was living
in Jersey. So I came down. I ran eight races
at Bowman Gray was it eight, I don't know, six
or eight, but we ended up winning four. We won,

(01:16:12):
came down and ran the tour race, the one ninety
nine at Bowman in fifteen. Won that. I won the
I won one of the fifty lappers the night before
with the Bowman Gray modified, so we won Friday and Saturday.
I won a twin twenty five, and I think I
came down one one of the hundred lappers. So weekends
that I you know, I had some time off and

(01:16:34):
won the race. I'd come down and and my dad
would get the car rady and I'd basically show up
at the track race and then I'd drive back home.
So probably you know, my win to win the race race, yeo,
that was probably my I won fifty percent of them.
We won four races that year.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
That's not bad for doing.

Speaker 6 (01:16:53):
Hey holds out. He still brings that. Remember when you
need to work on these stars. We won fifty percent
of the races. You know how it is?

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
Yeah, But.

Speaker 6 (01:17:05):
I don't know. I think it was just the car
for good luck and clear mind and came down and
did my job and it went back. But I ran
two races Freddy Harvey on the Southern Tour that year.
I ran South Boston was one and I ran Charlotte.
I finished third in his car Charlotte that year and

(01:17:26):
then what is it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Not to cut you off? Where about on Charlotte not
like the Legend Track.

Speaker 6 (01:17:33):
Right, the Legends Track.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
No, I never, Oh man, I'm totally out of the loop. Damn.
I gotta be like find that video. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6 (01:17:45):
Yeah, so I bet you that's one cool thing I ran.
I raised the truck at the Charlotte Big Track, I
ran and modified at the Legends Little Track. I ran
the dirt modified at the Charlotte Dirt Track. And I
actually took my modified down drag strip. So I've been
on every.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
Every part of that.

Speaker 6 (01:18:04):
Yeah, every part of Charlotte Seaways.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
Check the walls. There's a Danny Bone sticker.

Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
There's a video of me drag racing my modified down
the drag stript.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
We'll definitely find that. We'll look for it, that's for sure.

Speaker 6 (01:18:17):
It's on there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:19):
That's awesome. That's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:18:20):
It took me like I took off in third year.
You know we all got third fourth years.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
So yeah, that's true.

Speaker 6 (01:18:26):
This is a star was terrible, but I think I
got up like one hundred and twelve mile hour by
the by the quarter mile, I put the I put
both right sides on the rear and I put both
left sides on the front.

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
That's awesome. I didn't even know they had a drag
ship there. Shows that I had never been there. Uh
but no, just hearing that there's bull blown modifies running
around the Legends track.

Speaker 6 (01:18:54):
Yeah, that was a big deal for a couple of years.
I finished third there. I should have won. The year
that Doug Tobe came down and won, I passed him
and then went three wide for the lead with like
fifteen to go, and he passed me. I finished second.
We lapped, Yeah, we lapped up to I think there

(01:19:17):
was three cars in the lead that me and Doug
Kobe and one other car.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
Wow. The last year they did it, and that was
fifteen or when was that sixteen?

Speaker 6 (01:19:29):
That was no, fifteen? I finished third. What was the
year that?

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
I don't know?

Speaker 6 (01:19:39):
I was in my car French car, I don't that's
a good question.

Speaker 1 (01:19:48):
We got him stumped. Look at that people.

Speaker 6 (01:19:50):
Eighteen or eighteen or nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
Maybe when they when they stopped doing it. Damn, why
did they never hear about this? Maybe I was under
a rock because that would have definitely and into that if.

Speaker 6 (01:20:01):
I Cory the Joy drove it Breeche ran it one year.

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm just under a rock. I'm gonna
go find those we ran on.

Speaker 6 (01:20:11):
We ran on full night the Thursday of a cup
ball fine in October.

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
That's true. Yep, that is true, now that I'm starting
to understand. Yeah, okay, yeah, no, that does make sense.
And I've probably seen a couple of things and just
never looked into it for some fucking reason. I don't
know why I did that. So yeah, no, that must
have been a different experience. But at least you got
the all you ran all of all of Shark.

Speaker 6 (01:20:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
What else happened in twenty fifteen? Anything else cool?

Speaker 6 (01:20:46):
That was? So that was the year that I met
my carner. I was back in Jersey, fully committed on,
you know, my working career, and yeah, got a message
from Jamie Tomato. Hey, you're interested in driving a car.
I said, uh it a Pens, good guy, good car.

(01:21:09):
You know you can run that wall. So I'm like, sure,
I'll go, I'll go take a look at it. So yeah,
when I looked at it, it was at Jamie Tomato
shop when he was up there and got together, and
I forget I ran one or two races that year.
We should have won Turkey Derby. Yeah, we should have

(01:21:31):
won Turkey Derby that year in the sk and it
broke a rocker like we were we were leading and
was running on seven cylinders and I think I still
ended up halfway decent. But that was, you know, kind
of the That was the year that started the relationship
with what I've been doing since that. So that guy
Scott Brannick, he owns the fifty one fifty seven car

(01:21:55):
that I raced that Bowman now and then I just
had up at Turkey Derby. He lives in jury.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
But the cars down here.

Speaker 6 (01:22:03):
It all started over Jamie Tomato shooting me a message
on Facebook and Kyle of the rest is history. We've won,
we ran some. We ran the tour race at Wall
with this car a couple of years ago. We had
bad luck, but I won the two hundred in twenty

(01:22:24):
twenty two at Bowman Gray, the opening night race in
this car. I won a hunter lapper last year like now,
I just I run seven races at bow and Gray.
It's the two hundred, the one fifty and the five
hundred lappers. That's all, dude. I don't like to get
into the drama and the politics and the weekly stuff

(01:22:44):
over there. It's like, you know, when I you have
a chance to you if you qualify bad or draw
BADT tenth, you fifteenth, you still have a chance to
win the Hunter Lapper. Then they do the Fans Challenge
where you're start in the back and you make it
to the top four, it's an extra three thousand dollars.
So I did that the first time last of this year.

(01:23:05):
I qualified second or third, I think started dead last
and made it to third, so won an extra three
thousand dollars on top of the first. So it was
like four thousand dollars for third, which is which is
good for a bowman. But yeah, I kind of just
jumped from fifteen to twenty twenty three.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
What's that says?

Speaker 2 (01:23:29):
You think you think that'd be good for just running
a modified in general?

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
You know that would be yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:23:33):
Well, I mean yeah, well, so it's a double side sword.
Like you go to bowman, you buy it's twenty dollars
getting the pitch, you buy one set of tires, you
buy enough raise fuel of practice on the race. You
generally don't like destroy a car, maybe bend a wheel

(01:23:56):
or nerve bar. So it's relative, right, it's an hour
up the row. But like, no, you go to these
tour races, it's it's nine you know, the smart to
I'm talking about, it's nine. It's nine tires. You want
to do a race? Nine tires, five for the race,
four practice, some hotels, some travel. So yeah, I mean

(01:24:16):
that's a lot of money. That's that's three four thousand
dollars just to go. And then you know, I don't
even I haven't ran any order of tour races, but
to see it's probably even more than that. So you know,
relatively speaking, you know, Bowman Gray, you know, if you
have fifteen hundred dollars in your pocket when you go
up there, you know you can buy everything you need

(01:24:37):
and have a little money in your pocket when you leave,
and then you have the first money. Right, So you
ain't going to run one of these tour races for
fifteen hundred bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Oh yeah, of course, yeah, no, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
We just had that this past weekend with the Street Stocks. Yeah. Yeah,
well the race for twenty five hundred. But we ever
Buddy Ricky well Claire Senior and he won the b
made and they're like they're like, you got an actually
two fifty in your back. He's like that don't mean shit,
I go buy tires now. He's a good ship. But no,

(01:25:10):
I get you get your point. That just made me
chuckle a little bit, But no, I get it. It's
one of those things. But no, to do the fan
challenge to a lot of people turned down, you at
least you took it on. And I mean again, maybe
you're just a wheel at Bowman. That's definitely one of

(01:25:31):
your great tracks because if you're starting and.

Speaker 6 (01:25:33):
Honestly, it's just like I said, it's just I run.
I don't know it came naturally. I run it there.

Speaker 1 (01:25:41):
Yeah, it's just one of those tracks you can't can't
You just don't. I mean, knock on wood somewhere. But
you just don't really have a really bad day there Usually.

Speaker 6 (01:25:50):
When feature time I've had I've had some.

Speaker 1 (01:25:52):
But yeah, yeah, no, but you get my point. The
scales aren't even you know what I mean, you're not
chewing it out overront.

Speaker 6 (01:26:01):
I went out over the fence for one night.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
There were you the guy.

Speaker 6 (01:26:05):
No I was one of the few. Yeah I went
out over Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
Was that this past year? No, I was like I
was like, James, are we talking to the guy that
climbed slate and just.

Speaker 6 (01:26:17):
Went no, it was uh, I think it was maybe yeah,
I went so. I was leading the points that night.
There was a double points leading the point. I ran
decent in the first race and it was probably closer
to halfway through the season. Gotch Yeah, just coming through

(01:26:39):
the field and they checked or the car spun in
front of me and I checked up. Well, I hit
him at the same time somebody hit me and it
went right out over the fence, and I'm like, I
think so. It was the year that was running the truck.
I was bouncing back and forth. That was the year
that I ran Pokono, flew back and raced the same night.

(01:27:00):
I ran Pocono, and I ran Pocono and Bowman the
same day, and I ran walking Clinton Bowman in the
same day.

Speaker 3 (01:27:08):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:27:09):
Yeah, we I went out of the fence and one
of the fans is yelling at me. I don't want
to look at him, like, I'm just in my own
little zone, and hey, your shock's down there. I'm like,
what I look like one hundred yards down the grass,
there's my shock and springway in there. Uh it cleaned
it right off.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
They're just like, thanks buddy, Yeah, I picked it up.

Speaker 6 (01:27:32):
I'm like, I all um, if we.

Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
Didn't cost a lot, he could have gave it to him.
Here you go. But so twenty sixteen, what were you
up to? What were you doing? Moments fifteen?

Speaker 6 (01:27:53):
I decided that I was going to move back to
North Carolina. They were on sixteen.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
Hey man, we can skip right through this.

Speaker 6 (01:28:03):
That's all the stories to sixteen I was. I decided
I was moving back to North Carolina. Yeah, you know,
whatever didn't work out up there, made a phone call.
Array wanted me back, so pt a deal together, and
I was moving back. So I was literally on my
way back three weeks before the NASCAR Solar Modified four

(01:28:29):
season started, not a plan to race at all, and
Jesus it was Chris. Chris Fleming calls me, Hey, rumors
are moving back. Yeah, actually on my way right now.
Interested in driving her car? I said, what, like your

(01:28:50):
brothers or you're no my brother so Frank's car? I
said what on the tour? He said yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
So I said, yeah, I'm down.

Speaker 6 (01:28:58):
So obviously okay with him, but yeah, I mean it's
three weeks away. So called me back an hour later,
he talked to his brother and went up there the
next day to see if I get fit in it.
And that was when I started driving for Frank on
the Southern modified sort we had. We had four or

(01:29:21):
five poles, should have won a few races, but sometimes
he just had those years that it doesn't all come together.
Like we were checked out leading the first race. I
drove them checked out leading carraway. I don't know ten
car lanks, like six laps to go, easily would have

(01:29:42):
won it. Then Costume comes out, restart green, white, checker.
I get clobbered in the back going into one get sideway,
second and third or second, fourth go by me. We
end up third. Finally, the year that I won or
led one hundred and twenty seven laps of South Boston
and the cost never came out. Yeah, just just allude us.

(01:30:07):
So had a decent year. We want to couple that.
Bowman did the same thing in seventeen. Shoot a. We
we built a new car, ran Myrtle, beat terrible, We
ran what was the so East Carolina Speedway. We went

(01:30:30):
to oh I think I finished fifth in points in
sixteen or sixteen. Yeah, and then I think fourth and
seventeen on the Southern Tour. You never won a race
for them though, like had a bunch of poles, really
good runs. For a second, he never won a race
for him.

Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
It's so hard go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
James was that that's like a kicker, like you know
you can.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
You have these great years and that one year where
it just keeps getting away and it's like man, this
one team and it's like that want to kill his
heelers is getting getting the damn win.

Speaker 6 (01:31:09):
Yeah. Yeah, we we tried, like hell, like you know,
great people, you know, thankful for the opportunity. Uh yeah,
I still keep me touch with them. We had a Yeah,
we just decided to go two separate things. You know
the following years. I'm sweeping my shop up right now,

(01:31:31):
you're good.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
He's sweeping up his shop while doing the podcast. That's awesome.
He's I was working before. Now you're good, buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:31:44):
Yeah, I don't have to still at all, Like we're
all like that. Uh So, I don't know when was No,
I don't know when the first when did I start?
When was my first year in the truck or first
racing the truck.

Speaker 8 (01:31:59):
It was nineteen or twenty nineteen at Martinsville. Okay, yeah,
so NASCAR Hall of Fame race.

Speaker 6 (01:32:10):
Yeah, so did my own deal. Just ran Bowman in eighteen.
So yeah, nineteen was running Bowman. The Southern Tour shut
down because there's no more NASCAR Southern Modified Tour they started.

(01:32:31):
They had another one that was the ASA Tour maybe yeah,
late models, Yeah, but there was a modified tour too.
I think it was a SA Tour. So I started
driving for Phil Stephanelli in the end of eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
Gotcha.

Speaker 6 (01:32:53):
We Our first race was Concord like and we came
a long way like we weren't that good in practice,
but we ended up finishing fourth, and then we kind
of just clicked after that. We were for the four
races at the end of the year. We were probably
the fastest car down here. We went to you know,
it was a one race. You know, Hey, you want

(01:33:14):
to run Concord. Sure, went to Concord, finished fourth. Hey
you want to run Hickory next week. Sure, we went
to Hickory, qualifying the pole, finished second. Hey you want
to raise Orange County next weekend? Sure went to went there,
qualifying the pole and won. Then we were I was
contemplating whether to bring my car to Turkey Derby or

(01:33:34):
his car to Turkey Derby. So we ended up bringing
his We broke a vow in practice, so we never
got to run the race. So we went and did
a couple of rates at the beginning of nineteen together
and then you know, decided to go different ways, and
then it was kind of just bouncing around doing my

(01:33:56):
own stuff with them and then through Ray while so
back to Bowman put me on the map. Like I
get this call in nineteen about running and modified and
I'm like, I yeah, sure, so I'll come take a
look at it. So don't really know who the people are.

(01:34:18):
So I drive out to this shop, look at this
modified that these people are interested in me driving. Well,
was on Pointy Motorsports. It was a Excunity team and
a truck team. So just literally I had a conversation
just like this. I'm like, yeah, I mean I'll drive that,
I said, but I'd really like to drive that truck
over there. You want to drive that truck. I'd love
to drive that truck. That's all I ever want to do.

(01:34:40):
Let's try to put something together. So obviously with the
qualification process, like the only race I'd be qualified to
do would be Martinsville. So at that time I was
traveling around through Ray with Scott Borchetta with Big Machine Records.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 6 (01:34:58):
Just you know, obviously need to come up some some
funding and put a portosal together, and like, hey, you know,
I had this opportunity to run this truck at Martinsville,
you know, to come up with some money. You got
an interest and told him it was for told him
it was and he goes, oh, hell, I think I

(01:35:19):
got idea. But Brandley Gilbert's got a new album coming
out that month. Let's put that on the truck. I'm down.

Speaker 1 (01:35:25):
So you just.

Speaker 6 (01:35:29):
Know this guy.

Speaker 1 (01:35:30):
You just know this guy.

Speaker 6 (01:35:32):
I was working for him through Ray.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
Oh it's like like you meet him Combi's or abusies.

Speaker 6 (01:35:40):
Like he he was doing the vintage racing stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:35:44):
Gotcha, And I was helping him through Rays deal.

Speaker 6 (01:35:47):
So I would travel around with him on the weekends
and and do like the SVR events.

Speaker 1 (01:35:52):
Gotcha. I got to spend a lot of time with Gotcha,
gotch and conversation.

Speaker 6 (01:36:00):
I'm gonna do my first truck race. Never drove a truck,
and we're gonna put Brandley Gilbert on it. Okay, yeah, sure,
Like no pressure, right, that was like the honestly the
most the coolest experience in the world. So, like we
wrapped the truck, we went to a test at Martinsville
prior to so I got my feet wet, got a truck.

(01:36:23):
So he had a concert here right before the truck race.
So brought the truck to his concert, had the Brandley
Gilbert truck out in front of PNC. Let it up
and I'm standing there sign an autograph. Nobody knew who
I was, but yeah, I got hands yeah, backstage of

(01:36:44):
his concert. So just a really really cool experience.

Speaker 1 (01:36:47):
And then.

Speaker 6 (01:36:51):
I figured, honestly, like it was my that was my
my shot to do something or not. So went to
Martinsville and I think who qualified nineteenth, kept my notice
plane and somehow or another, like finished the eighth of
my first truckers.

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
That was a badass looking truck too, it was, but
that was nice.

Speaker 6 (01:37:12):
I've kind of kept tabs, like I think Lane Riggs
beat me last year, but I've been kind of trying
to monitor who's best finished, like in the most recent years,
you know, their first NASCAR Top three Series start. Yeah,
so for a while the eighth was it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:30):
Yeah, So yeah, we're not going to just pan over this.
You jump into a truck after getting called to go
run and modify for On Point Motorsports, which is which
is a really well it's a known it's started in
twenty eighteen with Stephen Lane and a couple of investors
and all those guys and how so, I know, you

(01:37:51):
got your feet wet, but it's totally different when the
green flag drops and you're in a who how I
don't even know how heavy those car trucks are, like
forty funds. We'll just put it real high. Probably heavier,
I'm not sure, but but that's a cool deal that
got put all together. Did you get to meet Brantley himself?

Speaker 6 (01:38:10):
Or oh yeah, yeah, he came out before a concert,
like came out before his concert. We unveiled the truck,
the fixtures all that, and he's like, hey, I'll see
you backstage and went backstage and they just like it
was like the coolest experience in the world. Like and
I will say, you know, Scott Borts had a great guy. Yeah,

(01:38:34):
put the deal together, you know, supported me with that.
He you know fast forward, that's that was my Exfinity start.
But brandtly like just like he'd be like me, and
you're talking down to earth. Yeah, the nicer guys in
the world.

Speaker 1 (01:38:48):
That's the coolest thing about like these guys because like
because like I've been fortunate and definitely humble enough to
know a lot of people like like you were talking
about like Ray and and and I got to meet
Kenny Schrader and all these guys, Dale Earnhart and Aron
Hart Jr. And like all these guys, and like when
you talk to him, they're just down to earth, and

(01:39:09):
like they'll just sit there and talk to you about stuff.
And like we just had uh, we just had Boo
carlisle On and he's really big and in the cars
tour stuff that's getting ran by Jeff Burton and Kevin
Harvick and along with daleen Hart Jr. And I asked
him and he's like, man, I got his phone number.

(01:39:30):
We talk all the time. I was like, yeah, See,
it's just down to earth. They're just they just planted
their name to where they were in the right spot
at the right time. Same with you. He went and
checked out and modified. All of a sudden, you're starting
to race for On Point Motorsports at Martinsville. Of all
tracks start at and and you go out there and
you finish eighth, and then you have Brentley Gilbert on

(01:39:53):
the on the side of it all the way down
and that pain scheme is absolutely beautiful. I'm a big
fan of this truck. This is awesome. It's a beautiful truck. So,
like I said, like you had you had your feet wet,
and obviously the green flag dropped and all that stuff.
Where did you start in that?

Speaker 6 (01:40:12):
Well?

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
I think you qualified pretty decently, didn't you. It was
like nineteen Yeah, top twenty, first time in a truck,
had a technical track of Martinsville. As anybody's been to
Martinsville or see Martinsville, it's not that easy to get around.
You got to hit your marks.

Speaker 6 (01:40:26):
Yeah, well that's so that's like where I feel like
it's repetition, right, Yeah, you do the same thing over
and over, and that's where the Bowman great experience. Definitely
one helped me in that aspect. So yeah, it was
just pretty damn cool experience.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
I thought it was one and done. How did how
did that race go?

Speaker 6 (01:40:49):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:40:49):
Throughout the race? So you started nineteenth, what were some
of the challenges First? When the first like I think
this is when stages started and stuff like that. So
and it was I guess we'll go by stage.

Speaker 6 (01:41:04):
Yeah, it was honestly pretty clean, like we we maintained,
Like I don't think we. I don't think we went
a left down. I think we, you know, kind of
maintained around that area. I think we. I don't honestly,
I don't remember a ton we did some. I think
we did a little pitch strategy stuff in a sense,
but we ran respectable. Now I got lucky. I got

(01:41:29):
lucky on this in a scent. Not no, not really.
So I crossed the line eleventh or twelve. So the
original rundown was that they had we were all coming
out of four, coming to the checker, and here the
guys wrecked in front of me, and there was a
hole and I was going for a hole. Won't hit

(01:41:50):
me on the left side, won't hit me on the
right side. We blew both right side tires. So I'm like,
I could see the start finished line. I'm in the
gash like two flat tires. I'm going so running to
the start finished line. And we finished twelve. So I'm like,
you know, shit, like we were we should have been
top ten, Like my goal was I had a really

(01:42:11):
good day if I finished in the top ten. So
and I was a quarter of a straight away from it,
so I was a little disappointing start run down for
the twelve from the floor, the whole nine. So it
wasn't until probably forty five minutes an hour later somebody
had called me. It was it was Scott and said, guy,

(01:42:35):
congratulations on eighth. No we finished twelveth No run down
to eighth, so like you finished, you finished eighth, went
online and what they they freezed the field. So they
froze the field when we wrecked and I was eight,
so would have been as if I didn't wreckt but
still like it was like you know what I mean,

(01:42:56):
like we were should have been eight, we weren't eight,
but then we ended up eight. So but yeah we
did like destroying the truck on the last.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
Leapt hey he got there, you know what I mean.
I mean, like I said, you started nineteenth, you moved
your way up all the way up to eighth, like
you said you were maintaining. But like but like Stuart Freezing,

(01:43:27):
Timmy Hill, John Hunter, Nima check right and finger, Johnny Sotter,
Ross Chastain, which is which is a cup? Driver now
along with John Hunter Nima check like you you finished
right behind them. Whether they freeze the field or not,
you were there and you still had two tires down.
So yes, you missed Natalie Decker. So that's good, you

(01:43:52):
know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:43:56):
There was some pinch me moments I remember in particular,
like I think I pass daughter undergreen like and I
was like, I just do that, like you know, I mean,
it's these things forever, like you know what I mean.
So there was a couple of moments in the race
where it was like, oh wow, I'll tell you it
was the first So it was modified right, you have

(01:44:19):
the doortop and then you have two and a half
the three feet of nerve far outside of that, so
you never have somebody right up against you. In a
sense they are, but they're not. There's nerve far right. Yes,
I was outside of Johnny Satter coming off of two
and he come off the bottom. I thought he was
driving me through the fence because the only thing I
could see is my doortop. Well the only you know

(01:44:40):
what I mean, and the only thing that keeps him
off of my door is his door. So it looked
like he was on top of me like driver's side,
you know what I mean, outside window net, doortop, and
there's Johnny's order's door. I could reach out and reaching
his truck, you know what I mean. And I had

(01:45:01):
never experienced that because everything I raced that nerve bark
my whole crap. Like, So there was definitely a lot
of learning, you know, the breaks, management, heat and all
that stuff. Stuff that you typically don't really concern, doesn't
concern you to modify, Like there was fift factors pit
stops like live pit stop that was different.

Speaker 1 (01:45:22):
How that gold through the box.

Speaker 6 (01:45:25):
Was No, it really wasn't bad. Uh we I got.
I was lucky in translation we were able to go
test prior to so I had some laps around there
in the truck. And then the last hour that we
were there, like I just I came down pay Road, pitch,
came off pay Road, went back out, ripped it down
the back trips, came back down Pey Road. So I

(01:45:46):
mocked did a bunch of pit stops that day. So
I had a little experience before nothing. It was only
a handful of trust of the test and I wasn't
racing against any of them, so but it was familiar
when I got there.

Speaker 4 (01:46:01):
How much harder is it when you have thirty other
trucks trying to get into the same pit stall and
like go through. How that feels like in comparison to
driving down the road and you're trying to just like
yank it into a pit stall.

Speaker 6 (01:46:13):
Yeah, I mean it's it's tough. Like there's a lot
going on. You need to your spot or helps you
a lot, like you'll count down your boxes and then
pulling out of the out of the stall, like your
crew tea will clear your one range twin lane so
that you know either stay on the bottom go out.
You got to watch here, you're watching your tack. You

(01:46:33):
get Sometimes you can't go as fast as you need
like you can because the guy in front of is not.
Sometimes the guy behind you, you know, pushing the limit
on the speed limit. But I got spun out at
Phoenix f On on pit road. I actually hit it
backwards like I lift in first split second before I
turn left to going to my pit stall with the
guy behind me was like on my bumper, spumy out.

(01:46:57):
There's a lot going on in that little bit of time.
But you have to have you have people watching every
angle you know, guide and get through it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:09):
So that's why I like, there's all.

Speaker 6 (01:47:12):
You know, it's called the break you got you know,
turn the wheel a little, you know, a little the
right to get the left front and off, or a
little the left to get the right front off. You know,
they get it out from the wheel. Well, you know,
it's neutral.

Speaker 1 (01:47:25):
It's neutral.

Speaker 6 (01:47:26):
When you stop, they'll do the right side. They drop
the right side. That's when you put it in first
hold the clutch. They do the left side. If you're
jamming and gear with one of the tires up, you know,
it'll spin the tire and then your tire guy will
probably come punch in the face because you know you
rip his hand off. So just a lot, a lot
of stuff you want to think of that that happens,

(01:47:47):
you know, while you're doing you're fixed up.

Speaker 5 (01:47:52):
Yeah, yeah, because I've know, like even the smart Tour
of the stops are even their live stops is a
little different. And in the aspect of how many cars,
and I mean some of the pit roads are pretty tight, and.

Speaker 6 (01:48:05):
People I've voiced my opinion on that, I don't hear it.
We go to even the trucks go to some tracks
where the pit road is not safe because it's too
tight and they don't why pit them ARCA does it.
I get it looks cool spun, different aspects of the race,
but you know, you don't want to get anybody seriously hurt.

(01:48:29):
And I feel like that's that's going to happen at
some point. There's just there's a lot of throw together
pit crews, older people, people that don't know how to
hit the car one but pit period and it's it's
dangerous in my eyes. So I have voiced my opinion

(01:48:49):
to the Smart Tour on that, like something needs to
be done. Nine times out of ten somebody's blocking me
and then you're trying to either run the guy over
in front of your throw reverse. It's just you know
what I mean, it's just I don't know, it's it's
a sticky.

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
I do.

Speaker 5 (01:49:07):
I do the tire changing for Jason, and yeah, I
can definitely say like it gets it's pretty hectic, you know,
like you put in the guy in front of you
can't he doesn't know how to parallel park it as well,
so he parks it half in the stall and he's
half blocking you, and and you know, and then you
start getting cruise yelling at each other about it, and
it just gets gets intense. It's it's very intense from

(01:49:29):
from a cru side of things, especially you know, I'm
not spending forty hours a week just doing pit stops.

Speaker 4 (01:49:35):
You know, I have a day job Monday through Fridays.
So I show up with him as a weekend warrior,
just try to do the best I can. But it
is super intense.

Speaker 6 (01:49:44):
Yeah, So that's that's kind of like my my outlook
on it, Like us have full time job. It's costs,
all right, so it costs a lot of money running
his cars. My performance from my finish should depend on
if I get blocked in the pits or not, or
if I pay somebody to come change my tires, or

(01:50:05):
if my tire changer practices during the week. That should
not determine at this level the outcome of my race,
right in my opinion, if you want to do it right, yeah,
hire four or five pit through guys, you know, practice
all week. But eighty five percent of our teams don't

(01:50:25):
have that capability. Like the budget's not there, So I
think it's more of a grassroots series. And my opinion
is your ration shouldn't be determined on if you get
in and off hit road and that ultimately it is
Hali factors. I think there's but there's also ways. You know,

(01:50:45):
there's pit strategy stuff that you know could have the
same outcome or different outcome on the race that would
be safer. You know, you could short fit, you could
put you know, just freeze the field in that way
someone don't get run over. It eliminates you know, a
lot of times it's hard to find five or six
guys to go to the racetrack with you, you know,
you have it's all mostly volunteers. So it's like, hell,

(01:51:09):
I've been in the racetrack. I won Franklin County in
twenty twenty when COVID hit. It was me, my spotter,
my dad and Mike As There's four of us there
with the driver. So I mean I couldn't go do
that on a tour race.

Speaker 4 (01:51:25):
No, Yeah, the wheeling tour is that you need eight
people and that's.

Speaker 6 (01:51:28):
Yeah, and you look like you look online every pick
every team is looking for pickure members. It's like why, like,
why are we doing this? Eliminate that?

Speaker 5 (01:51:41):
Yeah, I mean I definitely I missed the old you know,
my favorite hit was the controlled stops and the halfway break.
When they did the halfway break, I thought that was fair,
you know where you split it in half.

Speaker 6 (01:51:53):
Yep, No, I agree, like we Yeah, every every team
has put some kind of message up saying, hey, well
looking for crew members, looking for a tire changer, looking
for this, look at that. Likes on top of the
cost of the car or the tires, the travel everything else,
you've got to have eight people with you to go
to the race. Just I mean, shoot yourself in the

(01:52:13):
foot in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:52:15):
Yeah, And some of the.

Speaker 5 (01:52:16):
Teams they even tell you they're like, man, like I
can buy a hit pass. But you know, it's really
that's really it. Like the rest of it, you're you're.

Speaker 4 (01:52:21):
Kinda you know, you're on your own, but it and
it's not from it's just they can't do it.

Speaker 5 (01:52:28):
They're not you know, they're not a Gibbs or a
or a big team that can just shovel out money
for hotels and food all weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:52:36):
You know, for these eight guys, you know, it's a
tough it's a tough deal.

Speaker 6 (01:52:42):
Yeah, I mean, obviously ninety the reasons why star counts
are count is because of the cost. Right, It's the
cost so eliminate some of the costs that easy to eliminate,
Like you're your parts are gonna be what they're gonna be,
your tires are gonna be what they're gonna be. But
some of the stuff is it is fixable. So that's
like I said, that's just my opinion on it. I

(01:53:03):
don't at this level, we don't need to be doing
live pit stocks.

Speaker 1 (01:53:09):
It makes it makes sense, like how you guys it
makes it makes sense like if James told me we
were doing live pit stops, I'm like, yeah, on your.

Speaker 6 (01:53:21):
Wow that the last race at Orange County, I got
blocked in, so I threw it reversed and I ran
right into my guy and it's like you're it's you know,
it's twenty five tog you're putting the right rear on. Yeah,
if you if you lose four or five spots, you're done.
Like so yeah, you got to get everything you can.

(01:53:42):
And that's where it's fingers. Like I was blocked in,
so it's like, yeah, I didn't even put it in
a third, I put it reverse, I went backwards, ran
into my tire changer and then was still blocked in
Try County, I almost a guy. You know, I was
pitted in front of his car. Well his jack guy
came around to jack up the right guy just as

(01:54:04):
I was driving by, and he's I don't know if
he thought he was jacking up a back truck or love,
but he stepped out three feet from the car and
I damn near blew his leg off, and it's like,
where are we doing right?

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
Damn near blue light off?

Speaker 6 (01:54:19):
I love that. Yeah, I missed it by I bet
I missed him by two inks.

Speaker 2 (01:54:25):
Wow, Like I said, it's intense.

Speaker 1 (01:54:29):
James told me that. James told me we're doing live Petzel.
I'm all set it should be. It should be frozen
because it like you guys are making the point. But
at the same time, and you've been a big vocal
thing about it, It's all about safety. At the end
of the day, I don't need my right kneecap destroyed
by a fifteen inch hoosier, you know what I mean.

(01:54:50):
I'm all set with that.

Speaker 6 (01:54:53):
Yeah. One of us, Well, like I said, there's there's
a few, but yeah, ninety percent of us we a
get up to go to work on Monday. And if
you can't go to work on Monday because it's something
you were doing, playing around with on Saturday. Sometimes it's
just it's not good, you know, and you know everybody's close,
close group of people, like accidents happened. You don't want

(01:55:15):
to you know, your next crew chief me didn't have
a guy missing or you know, guy missing on the crew.

Speaker 1 (01:55:20):
Like it's like it sucks to get something.

Speaker 2 (01:55:26):
You don't have much of a crew and it's all
your friends.

Speaker 6 (01:55:29):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:55:29):
Then you're like, your friend just got smacked me because
you wanted a race on on Saturday.

Speaker 6 (01:55:33):
Yeah, I don't. I've said that from day one. I
told him, like I do not agree with Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55:39):
So how did the other two races in uh twenty
nineteen come about? Phoenix and then Homestead for the truck?

Speaker 6 (01:55:50):
So it was you said, I when I went to Martinsville,
left Martinsville, I was only raising to Martinsville. Well, we
had a conversation after the race, you know, at the
owners Motor Home that hey, like, you know, you can
find some find some sponsorship. You know, the other two
races are open, you can do those and talk the

(01:56:12):
mathcar and they're like, yeah, I mean it plays out perfect.
So you go to Phoenix, which is you know bigger
than Martinsville, and then if you go to Martin or Phoenix,
then you can go to Homestead.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
Yeah, so how do they how do they do it?
It's like short track intermediate and.

Speaker 6 (01:56:30):
Then yeah, then the big Yeah, then the big track
back and then plate correct Yeah yep. So then yeah,
I go to I don't remember. I think it was Phoenix,
and then I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:56:44):
Yeah, Phoenix. Then I'm looking at it. It's Phoenix and Homestead. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:56:49):
Then yeah, then they switched it and then the other
Phoenix was the last race. But yeah, we did made
a bunch of phone calls and had that Sierra Delta
the Veteran Organization jump on board, and then I think
North American Motor Car was on there as well. So
they did those two races, had the dog on there.

(01:57:12):
That was a reality check. Like when I left Martin Hill,
I'm like, this ain't bad. Yeah, you go whistle it
off in the corner at Homestead three feet off defense,
two feet off defense. You were talking about holding it
wide open through the dog like at Concord.

Speaker 1 (01:57:29):
Like, yeah, I can only imagine Phoenix.

Speaker 6 (01:57:32):
You have all new respect for what those guys do
on TV. When you start having to do that kind
of stuff like Texas and Kansas and all them places,
and just yeah, hold it wide open as long as
you can hold it wide open.

Speaker 1 (01:57:49):
When you went to the dog like at Phoenix, was
it like taking the wheel out of your hand.

Speaker 6 (01:57:53):
No, that wasn't that bad. And honestly, like you do that,
my we were all our team head just beat the
crap out of the front of the truck and the
side skirts and all that. So I didn't do that
a lot for a simple factors like just not tearing
up equipment. And I don't think it's I think it's
minute on the stop watch of how much you gained

(01:58:15):
my So I basically stayed on the tracks most of
the time. I got Phoenix was the other raids like that.
Another reality check is I got a flat. I'm like, hell,
I'm going to bring out the caution I need, I
need to put tire on. I rolled down the front

(01:58:36):
stretch like two mile hour, no caution. So they're screaming
at me on the radio, and then after the race
they they want to see in the.

Speaker 1 (01:58:47):
NASCAR trailer is uh, how's that You didn't talk to
anybody that had to go there.

Speaker 6 (01:58:54):
Yeah, he goes Hey, I just heads up. You don't
determine when the caution comes out.

Speaker 1 (01:58:58):
I do.

Speaker 6 (01:58:59):
I'm like looking, and he goes, I don't care. That
thing's got three tires on it, two tires on it.
You drive that thing to pit road if you can
drive the pit road, Okay, you got it. Yeah, wall
or bowl or you just roll around the outside. They'll
throw the cars and you go.

Speaker 1 (01:59:15):
And put a tire on.

Speaker 6 (01:59:16):
You don't his left not there? Yeah? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:59:23):
So how did how did the twenty twenty year come about?
Because you didn't start until deep in the deep in
the season.

Speaker 6 (01:59:31):
Uh yeah. So we tried, you know, obviously funding, and
then that was here that we split with Brandon Pool.
He had put some stuff together to run the first half,
and then you know, I obviously wanted to try to
do as much as I could. And then that was
when North American Motor Car jumped on and the last

(01:59:52):
half the season was open, so we did that. I
forget where my first race was, but all of that.

Speaker 1 (01:59:59):
Uh, I can tell you.

Speaker 2 (02:00:01):
It was.

Speaker 1 (02:00:03):
Worldwide Technology Raceway.

Speaker 6 (02:00:06):
Okay, Yeah, so we went there. I think I finished
twelfth there. I believe sixteenth sixteen, so I was twelve
from the last three start, got shuffled out, finished sixteenth.

Speaker 1 (02:00:16):
Is that a road No, that's not a road course.

Speaker 6 (02:00:20):
No, it's a it's a smaller track, but big sweep
and corner and three and four and tight one and two.

Speaker 1 (02:00:30):
Gotcha?

Speaker 6 (02:00:31):
Yeah? Really neat racetrack we were like said, I ran
really well there that day, just got stuffled out there
towards the end, and I had I think I was
up to eighth at one point during that race. But yeah,
a lot of it. So I'm not making an excuse me.
But the tough part about when I got my opportunity was,

(02:00:52):
you know, not having an experience of these racetracks. But
then you know, we did that last I don't know
what I do ten races that year for eight.

Speaker 1 (02:01:03):
Shoot nine nine races.

Speaker 6 (02:01:06):
Nine okay, so it was places that I hadn't been
to still get my feet wet. So it's like, okay,
twenty twenty one, we're gonna go all out. And then,
you know, I forget when COVID hit exactly. I know
I was standing at Atlanta generated to walk into the
back gate to go run the truck race. Is when

(02:01:28):
the whole world shut down.

Speaker 1 (02:01:29):
Yeah, and that's where.

Speaker 6 (02:01:34):
You know, like like I said, not making excuses, but
they eliminated most of the rest of my truck serious
career was no practice, no qualifying, go up goum from
the truck racingly so as somebody that my first laps
around Talladega, I had radio trouble. So I did one
great lap, had radio trouble, came down pit road, well

(02:01:54):
off pit road, they were lining up to take the
damn green, and my first lap around there was green flager,
Like why did it hang on? Then it's like, how
do you you know? Without a twenty like twenty minutes
of practice, you learn a lot. And yeah, like Texas, Kansas, Talladega, Atlanta,

(02:02:18):
all of them like climb in the truck. Never turn
all out there in my life, no green flabrations. So
it takes me Vegas thirty forty laps, fifty laps, sixty laps,
is like, okay, I'm kind of getting this, But then
you got thirty five other trucks out there. Yeah, but
you're trying to sit out of their way, you're trying
out the wreck. You're out a small So it's just

(02:02:39):
like I said, it's just a tough deal. Small team,
no practice, no experience, of places. So it was like, man,
just not a lot of luck in my corner from
when I I'm grateful for the opportunity for sure, but.

Speaker 1 (02:02:58):
It didn't really help. I mean, you did good at Martinsville.
He finished one spot and you started in the same say,
in the same spot. The next year was nineteenth and
came up to seventh.

Speaker 6 (02:03:11):
Yeah, I finished seventh. We had a good truck there.
So the first year I ran Daytona, we were coming
the year that I ran the Expinity car and the truck.

Speaker 1 (02:03:22):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 6 (02:03:23):
Coming through the checker for the truck and Sheldon Creed
come across the nose and when he hit the right front,
it's fun me in the infield, so I crossed line backwards.
He finished sixth, so like we were right there. And
then the same thing with the Spinity car. I drove
Scott which says when he when he announced he was

(02:03:45):
doing an Exfinity deal. Jade Buford, who drove from the
first year, wasn't qualified to run Daytona. So I was
able to put a deal together to run his first race,
and we were right there in the mix. I think
I let a lap under talks and counts all around
towards the back, but uh got a wreck with five

(02:04:07):
to go. We had a green white checker at the end,
but gotten the wrect with five to go. Is a
car that pushed frem to the wreck. Finished ninth. So
you know, like I said, double side his sword, like,
never in a million years that I think I would
drive the day tell her to drive running the truck
in the extremey ration the same weekend. Never would have
imagined doing that. It wasn't the same token driving back

(02:04:29):
like in a matter of six laps, I lost two
top ten finishes. So but that's how racing. You know
that that's already animal.

Speaker 1 (02:04:39):
Well that too, but you might have you must have
shipped fucking bricks coming across the fish line backwards.

Speaker 6 (02:04:50):
Okay, started to lift, it's start to lift, I said, oh,
here we go, and then come back down like all right,
and then slide and fly like it's such a helpless slide. Alright,
nothing you can do it. It's just take forever.

Speaker 1 (02:05:04):
And that's when everybody gets humbled about, uh about forces
in in in life, because you're just sitting there like
like you have no you have no control even if
you try to turn your your tires aren't gonna grip you,
all right, just hold on to it, keep your hands

(02:05:25):
off the wheel. You're just there. It's like hitting oil.

Speaker 6 (02:05:28):
It's helpless. It's helpless.

Speaker 1 (02:05:31):
Yeah, but yeah, I know you would have definitely got
your full truck experience if you got lifted there, like
I know that. Man, damn no, screw that.

Speaker 4 (02:05:41):
No all sat but no practice, nothing, just go out there.

Speaker 1 (02:05:47):
Go ships for us pal.

Speaker 6 (02:05:50):
Day had we had we had some practice, but there
was yeah, I don't know, there was a lot of them, right,
It's just like it was. I don't think. I think
they allowed us some practice at Daytona, but then there
were so many and races you would just literally fly.

Speaker 1 (02:06:07):
There was this twenty twenty one. Yeah, yeah, so yeah,
because Daytona was the first two races and then it
went to Las Vegas and then went to Atlanta, and
that's when everything was like I think they like canceled
the race for a day or something like that or
like shut.

Speaker 6 (02:06:23):
They they can't they they they canceled it there. Yeah,
so we were online. That was when it hit, right,
and then then I think the day before like the NBA,
then the NHL, then the MLB, and then like well
we're going racing. So we went down there and we
were standing there on at the pickgate and it was, hey,
rumor is, rumor is you're gonna just qualify and race

(02:06:51):
and I'm like, hell, I don't. I don't stand a chance.
I've never been here. And then it was rumor is
you're just gonna race. I'm like what, like this is
that's insane, Like you can't put rookies out there that's
never raced before. Just tell them go racing. And then
and then an hour later it was hey, we're packing up,
we're done, We're not racing golf. So it all went

(02:07:12):
home and then fast forward. That's what we did the
rest of the year was go up and climbing the
truck and race nothing.

Speaker 1 (02:07:22):
Yeah that's not a full expert. I mean that sucks.
Like you said, like rookie drivers just go out there, right, Yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (02:07:30):
Don't know, like not making an excuse me. We had
some decent runs, like we think NA Dooxville seventh at Martinsville.
I had an eighth at Tala day I had an
eighth at Daytona an ah at Martinsville. But yeah, I
mean I got half. I just I didn't get the
full full opportunity, you know what I mean, Like, there

(02:07:52):
wasn't thirty men practice, there wasn't qualifying, there wasn't anything.
It was just and I don't, I don't, I don't know.
I guess simulation and kids that are brought up around
simulation and kids that have access to the you know,
really good simulation helps. But yeah, you know a guy
that works for a living that has a you know,

(02:08:14):
I can jump on I rasing and it'd be like,
you know, you you're doing your I rateing deal and yeah,
go to this track, all right, Yeah, no practice, just
just wind up in the race like okay, and then
a lot of the you know, the modified stuff is
short tracks half a mile smaller, and then you go
to like you know, Vegas and Texas and Tansas, it's

(02:08:37):
like you hold the damn thing wide open most of
the time, and it's.

Speaker 1 (02:08:40):
Like totally different animal. So yeah, if someone told me
to go and run run a vice, flat out, no
practice or anything, I'd be like Andrew Martell in a
dirt car and go knock the fence down first lap,
So like he's one of those eggs. Uh yeah, now

(02:09:01):
I totally get it. You definitely lose out on the
experience to practice the seed time because these these trucks
are not light, they're not modified, they're not they're not
a street stock, they're their own own breed, you know
what I mean. Trucks are really big on Arrow as well.
What was your biggest what was the biggest eye opener

(02:09:23):
from running running a truck and then going to Infinity
because I know Exfinity is totally different from trucks, so.

Speaker 6 (02:09:32):
I only ran Daytona or the expinited car at Daytona.
But the biggest thing that so the trucks punch a
huge hole in the air, like, yeah, you have truck
ten truck lengths for Prenty twelve truck lanks horny and
you can typically you could stuck right up to them
when you want to because it's such a big hole. Yeah,
the fifty car it's three four car lengths. After that

(02:09:53):
you're you're struggling to try to be the holes not there,
you know what I mean, it's not punching such a
big hole in the air. So we ran which was different,
Like the trucks run the bottom, the spindy cars move
up and run the top.

Speaker 1 (02:10:10):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 6 (02:10:13):
You know, I got to play around a little bit,
like they let me go in the second stage, and
I drove up to I don't know hence to fifteenth
somewhere in that range, and then played the strategy, rode
around towards the back like I say, all would have
worked out, But there was a wreck like five to
go and tied dill and come out of the grass,
and I had nowhere like I'm just looking out the

(02:10:34):
driver's side and I say, he's gonna clean me out.
So he hit me and I hit the car. I
moved up the side as I could, but I hit
the guy on the outside and then he hit me
and just knocked the tow way. We still ended up nineteenth, Yeah,
but we had no I mean top twenty. We had
this beer damage, Like.

Speaker 1 (02:10:55):
Yeah, I think the last track I would want the
tone knocked out of is fucking Daytona.

Speaker 6 (02:10:59):
But well, so yeah, come off the road, he say, sire,
I ain't going to vegas three laps around here. So
I put it off this. I held wide, put it
as close as the fence as I could because if
it blue attire, I'd be up against the fence, right,
So yeah, I ran. I ran as high as I
could for three laps and that it was nothing but

(02:11:21):
cord when we finished. But we hey, we finished on
the lee lap top twenty. Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:11:30):
Here's a random question because it's one of my favorite
tracks and definitely one of those technical tracks, but not
to a point. What was your biggest takeaway from running
the Lady in Black Darlington? Because Darlington n let me
try to talk, it's its own damn reed. I mean,
I went there for the first time with James in
the infield and you can definitely tell that they're there.

(02:11:54):
You say, you're close to the wall at Homestead, which
is definitely a point, but this same time he got
these guys just ripping into three and they're just right
against that wall. It's crazy.

Speaker 6 (02:12:09):
That's honestly one of my favorite tracks. So you could move,
you could slide the truck around, but it's the driver's
track as well. Yeah, I mean it was crazy to sound.
But like for a smaller team like or fifteenth to
twentieth place finished is a good run with thirty six trucks, you.

Speaker 1 (02:12:29):
Guys never finished out of the top twenty five there.

Speaker 6 (02:12:33):
Yeah, so I finished nineteenth one year, I think twentieth
one year.

Speaker 1 (02:12:36):
And then twenty second the next.

Speaker 6 (02:12:39):
So that so that raised the twenty the last one
I did there, I I completely messed up on my own.
There was five or six laps to go. That was
why I did the throwback for Waltrip the yellow thirty truck.

Speaker 1 (02:12:55):
You were real question, real quick question. I was looking
at your thing. Do you still have any of those?

Speaker 6 (02:13:01):
The die cast? Yeah, I may, I have to look.
I know I give someone away.

Speaker 1 (02:13:07):
I will buy one because I love that thing. It
back because that was a throwback to like the Lemonade
car that he used to.

Speaker 6 (02:13:15):
The Country time.

Speaker 1 (02:13:16):
Yeah that country Yes, yeah, no one hundred. Let me
know what your venmo is.

Speaker 6 (02:13:22):
Yeah, I'll think it was. When I get off this
and see if I still have them, I think I do.

Speaker 1 (02:13:26):
Perfect.

Speaker 6 (02:13:28):
But I was passing for eight and spun and there's
a video of that too. I did like a lazy spin.
I knew, I knew better not to again back to
the air like you take the air off the right
side of the truck, you're done. So when tried to
pass somebody into one, which I know better not to,
but drove down underneath some lost here on the right side,

(02:13:49):
did a lazy slide. S fun fun fun didn't hainte nothing,
but that would have been I would have been top
ten mart at Darlington that night and gave it up, just.

Speaker 1 (02:14:01):
Got to try.

Speaker 6 (02:14:02):
Yeah, I mean I I beat myself up for a
bad finish, but as a racer like I had to
do it. I had I was faster on him. Honestly,
I think I could have been fifth and I was
going for it.

Speaker 2 (02:14:18):
No, sometimes you just got to go for it.

Speaker 1 (02:14:21):
Oh yeah, I hate to have you sit here and say, oh,
I just wanted to hang out. I'm in the top ten.
Should just should just.

Speaker 6 (02:14:33):
Granted. I felt bad because it was you know, could
have a good finish and points and you know it
all it all. You know, points for your following week.
You know, if you don't qualify like owner's points to
play the factor. Obviously purse matters when you were a
smaller team, so not a good deal for points to purse.

(02:14:54):
But you know I had to go for it.

Speaker 1 (02:14:57):
No, I I totally I told who running for I
think you were running for Young right.

Speaker 6 (02:15:03):
No, the thirty I went back. I ran for Young
as the year after we uh, I think we finished
twenty first that one.

Speaker 1 (02:15:11):
Well, say you were for on point at that time,
I was for.

Speaker 6 (02:15:14):
All point that when you have the thirty trucks. Then
I went back and ran for young Is the year
after at Darlington with the twenty truck and we had
a ship.

Speaker 1 (02:15:23):
I'm all over the place here, I'm looking at a grid.

Speaker 6 (02:15:26):
Yeah, I'm all over too.

Speaker 1 (02:15:27):
I no, no, you're fine, No, you're you're totally okay.
I'm looking at I'm looking at twenty twenty two. You're
talking twenty yeah, twenty twenty one. I mean you still twentieth.
He didn't do bad, Yeah, I was.

Speaker 6 (02:15:40):
I was going for seventh or I was passing for
seventh or eighth with five to go. There's a YouTube
video of it. I spun out.

Speaker 1 (02:15:50):
As long as you sell some T shirts, it's all
that matters.

Speaker 6 (02:15:53):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (02:15:54):
It's all about some T shirt man usually. So like
some of these races, they have like a background, like
not like a background, but like a write up for it.
And this one doesn't, which sucks, but whatever. But yeah, no,
I'm just I'm just trying to keep up because I mean,
you ran a full season in twenty twenty one. I

(02:16:15):
ran minus a couple of races.

Speaker 6 (02:16:18):
Yeah, I ran twenty two.

Speaker 1 (02:16:21):
I think, Yes, why were so what happened for uh
what is co a Coda? Come?

Speaker 6 (02:16:33):
Yeah, that was kind of a I don't know, you
got these road road race people that you know, want
to run these races and throw big money out there.
Kind of got the at the end of a business
deal on that basically just somebody had a lot more
money to go there and I got to sit out.

Speaker 1 (02:16:54):
Oh gotcha. No that makes I mean, that doesn't make sense.
But that is that is the business like It's just
was the same thing for Texas.

Speaker 6 (02:17:05):
Yes, yep, same thing both Texas races.

Speaker 1 (02:17:07):
Damn damn both.

Speaker 6 (02:17:10):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was that was just business, is
what I'll say.

Speaker 1 (02:17:18):
Yeah, no, I I no, I totally get it.

Speaker 6 (02:17:26):
Uh and then.

Speaker 1 (02:17:29):
Uh so you did the so you did the Exfinity
stuff for one race Daytona. Uh and then you jump
back into the truck. Go back to Daytona. You finished
eighth in the truck, which is pretty fucking good for
a two and a half mile track.

Speaker 6 (02:17:46):
I think we should have we would have a that
was the race? That was it? No, he think? Oh yeah, yeah.
I drove for Tyler Young at that one. We had
a brand, We had a decent truck brand. New truck,

(02:18:07):
and it's like, hey, like, you know, you got to
play the game. Play the game, play the game. I
stay out of trouble. Say so if you're if you're
rolling at the end of the race, like you you
got a good finish. If if you're still straight going
to the stage three, you have a chance at winning. Right,
So we rode around, We rode around, rode around around,
like WAPs are clicking off. Well about five a go,

(02:18:33):
I thought we were about done, like just in trouble,
like strategy didn't work, right, they're not gonna rett. Yeah,
we were coming down. I was going to turn three
twenty seven, I'm coming out of four twenty seven, and
then all hell broke. It was coming to the checker
like and I'm just sitting down like if they if

(02:18:56):
they threw the yellow yellow checker, like We've finished twenty
seventh with a decent truck, and rode around the whole
damn right, like I was kicked. So Spire comes over
and goes, hey, they threw the couts, no checker, we're
gonna up rack them back up. Well hell yeah, all right,
we're gonna go. So we restarted, like I don't know

(02:19:19):
fifteen fourteen something like that, and took the green and
I got behind Jesse Little was my teammate, got up
behind him. Coming we crossed the white and I was
second trucking line on the outside, he was first trucking
line on the outside. We were actually had a decent
run coming and they wrecked behind us and they threw

(02:19:41):
the white checker and froze the field there. So we
would have had a good run like we played. The
strategy probably would have been better than where we finished.
But you know, to finish eighth at Daytona, that's you know,
I can't complain about that.

Speaker 1 (02:19:57):
You can't at all. I mean, most of us come
and fucking turn a lap at Daytona, you know what
I mean. Like the only time I'm going to see
Daytona is I'm sitting in one of those Toyota Tonda
trucks riding around. You know, Like the only time I've
ever turned laps on the Hashermoti Speedway, I was looking
at Christmas lights.

Speaker 6 (02:20:15):
You know. It's just I'm extremely lucky, like as a racer, Like,
you know, I wish I was still doing it more.
I wish I could say I want, But it's like
you know, I come from humble beginnings and yeah, a
lot of great people that helped me. And it's like,

(02:20:37):
I don't know, like every everything happens for a reason, right,
So like, yeah, am I am? I done?

Speaker 1 (02:20:45):
Maybe, but we'll see you at all this year.

Speaker 6 (02:20:48):
No, No, I'm definitely the modified stuff. Yeah, I'm definitely
gonna keep running those like I have. We're good there.
But like as far as the NASCAR stuff, like I
don't know, Like I don't know if I were doing
another like yeah, but there's a chance.

Speaker 1 (02:21:00):
You know, it's all about who you click up with
and it's all about it's not all about who you know,
but it's the connections that you made throughout the years.

Speaker 6 (02:21:09):
Like, well, it's more about if you can sign that check.

Speaker 1 (02:21:12):
Well, there's there's the connection parts, Danny, there's the connection parts.

Speaker 2 (02:21:19):
Well, the connections to the paycheck.

Speaker 1 (02:21:21):
Well, yeah, that's what I mean. And it sucks, and
it sucks that that's how it is now because back
in the day, a hundred people used to show up
for Daytona with their ship boxes. They're really good cars
and trying to race in. Now it's just whoever can
pay the check. It doesn't matter if that guy can
go and wall the front stretch, first lap out there,
the check clear. That's all that matters now, and it

(02:21:43):
is what it is At this point, I can't really.

Speaker 6 (02:21:46):
I am. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:21:48):
No, it's just like you said, you come from humble beginnings.
You started in Vandaleiro's, moved your way up to an
s K light and you're and you're running Southern Modified toys,
you're running big mods, you're winning championships and both. Then
you're running uh then you're still keeping in contact with
good friend Ray Avraham, and then that turns into a

(02:22:08):
truck ride, which turns into infinity and like you said,
like like yeah, hopefully it's not over, but and you
wish you could say that you won. But at the
end of the day you can still take a step
back and be like I started at a bandolero ripping,
ripping the top lip one thirteen races, and now I
went and finished eighth at Daytona, almost flew flew away

(02:22:29):
at Daytona two in a truck, had a great finish
at Martinsville two times, and and you got to run,
even though it was a shitty experience, probably with COVID,
you still got to run almost a full season in
the truck series, which is which is most people, most
most people that sit on their couch and turn on
the TV. They can't say that, you know what I mean.

(02:22:49):
And I'm humble enough just to know people to get
me into the into the pit, into the pits for
the truck races of the Infinity Races, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 6 (02:22:58):
So like definitely, but yeah, I mean, but go ahead, sorry, okay,
no like top ten of Talladega top Senate Saytona, yeah,
Marksville top ten on the dirt, like you know, I
get to sitting here in the modified shop, I got
you know, some of my truck hoods on the wall,

(02:23:19):
my Brandley Gilbert door's on the wall, the Country Times
thirties on the wall, they Spinity Tail Town. So it's like, yeah,
I mean, well, I didn't think when I was younger,
i'd even right, you know what I mean. I wanted to,
but never never thought i'd had the opportunity. And then,
like I said, it just comes down to great people
like I worked for Reay for fourteen years, a lot

(02:23:41):
of connections, a lot of help there. My dad helped
me a ton and then just great car owners and
sponsors and rustolliam To helped me a ton and North
American Motor Car helped me a ton. And I'm just
so fortunate, you know, on the modified side, Like, yeah,
I don't you know, I just I've had good people

(02:24:04):
support me. I've drove for this one guy, you know,
since twenty fifteen, so we're going on nine years. I
drove for him, and you know, I got some other
stuff in the work that's going to be really cool.

Speaker 1 (02:24:16):
So, oh boy, just living it. Wall Stadium here we come.

Speaker 6 (02:24:23):
I'm not going back there.

Speaker 1 (02:24:28):
No, So you mentioned your dad, which helped you out
a lot with the race and stuff. What how did
he feel when you're out there running a truck or
running an Infinity car and you're going up were you're
taking your dad everywhere that you went? Or so he went.

Speaker 6 (02:24:45):
To Martinsville. My whole family came down from Martinville. You know,
Ray was there. I mean for him, it was probably
like a proud bad moment. Yeah, yeah, cool for me.
Like my family started racing the fifties. My grandfather won
a lot of races in the Northeast, did a lot
with what he had. My dad won a lot, but

(02:25:07):
wasn't able to travel a lot like he ran. I
think he ran sixty seven tracks his whole life, but
it was mainly a new agent pipe down, I'll say, plumbing, right.

Speaker 1 (02:25:17):
So gotcha.

Speaker 6 (02:25:19):
I've been, I've you know, just extremely lucky on my side,
like I've probably I don't I meantage like try to
write down or figure out how many tracks I raced that, but.

Speaker 1 (02:25:33):
Like that takes dirt from everywhere.

Speaker 6 (02:25:36):
Yeah, I've been. I've raced at forty different racetracks like so.
And then to be able to take you know, my name,
my my last name right that that's popular in the
mode sides, and to put it on the NASCAR level
and you know, yeah, did I make a you know,

(02:25:57):
a huge successful career. No, but you know I did it,
you know, and and you know it was it was
proud for me to be able to say, you know,
to be able to do that, bring the name to
that level, and uh, you know my lifelong dream. You know,

(02:26:18):
I would love to be able to say that I
started a Cup race and then I could say I
ran one of every you know, but I don't know
if that'll happen. But you know, like I said, no,
I have not now, no I need to Yeah, I
need to get my feet wet in some some truck
stuff or something before I do that. But no, I mean,

(02:26:41):
I just you can't. I can't be upset about what
I've been able to do. Extremely lucky. I've one on
a lot of cool racetracks, a lot of tracks with
a lot of history. It's just met a lot of
great people. But it's in a sense like I've I've

(02:27:03):
dedicated every spare moment of my spare time to this lifestyle.
I walked, I got holl from work, a dinner real quick,
walked down the shop, worked on the cars, and then
did this podcast where I was out here till ten
o'clock but last night ten o'clock. And it's all I
know how to do. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't say normal,
but it's all I know, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:27:24):
So that's most of us racers. If I could try
to figure out what people do in life, they don't race.
I don't know, and I don't know where i'd be
if I didn't race, you know what I mean, Or
if I wasn't around it, or if I didn't cover it,
or whatever the case may be. You know what I mean?
Out who knows I'm not pretty good at collecting stamps.

(02:27:46):
I'm all set.

Speaker 6 (02:27:48):
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:27:52):
It's all.

Speaker 6 (02:27:53):
It's all I've known since I was born. Yeah, the
love hate relationship. One day you want to quit and
you hate it on and then the next day you're
working on it. You're gonna go set the world on fire.

Speaker 1 (02:28:04):
So just depends on how the cards fall, honestly.

Speaker 6 (02:28:08):
Yep, I've I've I have figured out that, you know,
I don't need to race every race, like, I'm good
with just concentrating on the ones that I want to
do and going to do them the best that I can.

Speaker 1 (02:28:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:28:23):
And yeah, just like I said, it's extremely fortunate to
still be racing, you know, there's yeah, just been been lucky,
you know, taking if I knew where my career would
have took me twenty years ago, Like I don't modified
good experience for a sense that like see time, car

(02:28:46):
control stuff like that, but it doesn't there's no arrow, right,
So that was all new for me. And then the
weight and the weight of four star ratio is different.
The radial tire is a big difference. So I think,
you know, going back and it's just what you what
my you know, what I what was available to me.

(02:29:08):
Like my dad rates modified. He knew modified. Yeah, so
I was good at modified it because my dad had
a ton of experience with modified and that's all we knew.
But you know, going back to when I was eighteen
years old, I probably should have ran a late model,
you know what I mean. That would have gotten me
more experience for where my career took me. But in hindsight,

(02:29:29):
like if I didn't rate Bowman Gray, then what I
ever got the opportunity? Like I don't know your whole life.

Speaker 1 (02:29:37):
But yeah, we all have those moments where we like
sit back and if I did this, what would be
the outcome and stuff like that. I mean, there's still
time you could jump into a late model stock anytime,
just jumping.

Speaker 6 (02:29:51):
I've had. I had somebody reached out to me last
week about doing some of those next year, so it's possible.

Speaker 8 (02:29:57):
Yeah, Wake County, We'll see you there and I'll look
at the schedule. I only know about go ahead.

Speaker 6 (02:30:06):
Sorry, No, there's no let's talk about doing next year.
So we're working on We're on every aspect of getting
things figured out. The only thing that I say that
I'm definitely doing is I will be at all the
big races that Bowman this year and then I will
definitely be racing other stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:30:27):
So we'll is that in the works in the Are
you doing a lot of smart.

Speaker 4 (02:30:33):
To races this year?

Speaker 6 (02:30:35):
I'll probably be at some of the Yeah. So it's
it's it'll be, it'll be. It'll be a good year.
It'll be it'll be fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:30:45):
No, no for sure. But like I said, you could
jump into the late madel Stock. So not to disclose
your actual location, whereabouts are you? I might send James,
I'm made by the director. You know where that is?

Speaker 4 (02:31:03):
James the what directrip? Okay, I mean yeah, all the ways.

Speaker 1 (02:31:11):
Okay, look at that, James, go get your forehead signed.

Speaker 2 (02:31:16):
Yeah, I live on the Rally side. That's driven.

Speaker 1 (02:31:27):
Had no comment for that.

Speaker 6 (02:31:30):
Yeah, I didn't hear.

Speaker 1 (02:31:32):
Oh oh he said he's on the Raleigh side. And
then you were just silent. I was like, perfect, yeah, perfect.

Speaker 6 (02:31:39):
I just was ignored. Yeah that's two hours.

Speaker 4 (02:31:46):
Yeah. All the cars you've you've driven in your time,
which one has been your favorite?

Speaker 2 (02:31:51):
Just driving wise?

Speaker 4 (02:31:52):
Like your favorite?

Speaker 6 (02:31:53):
When? When?

Speaker 1 (02:31:54):
When?

Speaker 4 (02:31:54):
If you had to choose a racer's for you know,
every car you've races race on the same day and
you can choose one.

Speaker 2 (02:32:00):
Which one would it be?

Speaker 6 (02:32:01):
I'd be modified, man, Yeah, yeah, no, no question man.
And it's the most most horse power, most in the racetrack.
You'll you'll feel in a race car that I've driven.
But yeah, you can only go so far in one
of these. So yeah, if you want to have fun,

(02:32:23):
you' get the modified.

Speaker 1 (02:32:27):
You've ran many of many different cars over the years
being here, Like, well, actually, before we get into that,
what happened at wall because we never got into that.
So you got into someone and then you got parked.
Why did they park you? Because I remember seeing this
and I think it came out by the thing. You're like,

(02:32:47):
I'm not going to race here. I'm not gonna travel
all this way for that, you know what I mean?
So I think that's what it was, right. You put
out something and you're like.

Speaker 6 (02:32:56):
I did No, I just said. I just said I
was making the choice not the to go there anymore
or support the racetrack anymore. So, yeah, it's it's a
ten hour trip, right, he play and grew up there.
My grandfather raced there and my dad raced there, so
it's my home track in a sense. And they I
don't know like, they have all these crazy rules that

(02:33:18):
I'm not one hundred percent familiar with. So I went
back and drove another car in July at Wall and
it was the Garden State Classic, so it's one of
their bigger races. Yeah, I had a good car, finish second, right,
So got to the second place guy he was holding
me out, moved him out of the way, moved him,

(02:33:39):
pushed him up a line, right, so try to pass
him five times. Obviously he knew he knew what he
was doing. Yeah, and I knew what he was doing,
So use the bumper to move him a lane up
rolling and even test good. Right, So finished second, pay decent,
go through text, they tear the car park go to
get paid. They paid me for fourth, so I'm like, well,

(02:34:01):
what's the deal? Well, oh, we made the decision to
dock you two spot after the race. I said, okay,
well what was that relate after the race? Okay, then
why did you tear my car apart for second place
when you only techt top three when I finished fourth?
Well that's good question. So miscommunications long story short second

(02:34:23):
place points or fourth place points? Second place first? Okay?

Speaker 1 (02:34:28):
So okay, this was in July.

Speaker 6 (02:34:31):
Go back Turkey Derby the whole deal. We're gonna We're
not going to tolerate bomp thing. We're not going to
tolerate this. We're not going to tolerate that. So Salmeato
destroys the field by accident Friday night, yesterday race. Nothing's done,
multiple incidents Friday night, nothing's done. Okay, racing deals, okay,

(02:34:55):
I'll say so we've qualified top ten, uh re drew
were inverted or whatever. Finish started on the start a
second right, took the lead, leading the race, take the green,
go down the front, twist my spotter clears me nine
out of ten times. I will look. But I had
a good enough run that I was pretty compident. I

(02:35:16):
was clear, so I started just to inch up. I
touched Cecily with my right rear nerve, fought right rear
nerve far behind my right rear tire with his left
front blocks him up, slides off on the fence, rex right.
So he says he pitched. Well, they black flagged me,
said that he can't continue, so we have to park you.

(02:35:39):
So they I would have been okay with going to
the back because I did make contact, but it wasn't
ed right. It wasn't like I hooked the right up.
I just slowly came up. We touched went back down.
If he would have got off the brake, well hit
the brakes or lifted one, it wouldn't hit me two
just rolled off the brake, he would have made the corner.

Speaker 1 (02:35:59):
He just locked him up.

Speaker 6 (02:36:00):
Wint. So they have these cameras and he said he
looked the race wrecks, They looked at the video and YadA, YadA,
yaha whatever. So ultimately they parked. They said that he
couldn't continue. So I'm parked. So four laps later he
goes back out. They allow that Jan Koyak recks the field, Yeah,

(02:36:24):
that they do nothing. So, I mean, I'm pretty pretty
open minded. But to me, it was it was a
jab back and yeah, just just not gonna support it,
not gonna you know, I didn't hear. I did get

(02:36:47):
a call from the race director after my GoPro came
out that that's not what he saw on the track
cameras and apologize for making that call because it was
the wrong call. But at the end of the day,
I don't get my car owner didn't get the I mean,
we rebuilt the engine, like we I we're about eighteen,

(02:37:10):
granted in going up there, go there right, and didn't
get anything back. I didn't get the three or four
weeks in the shop that we worked in the car.
I didn't get the twenty hours of travel back. I
didn't get the time that my crew guys. So just
a bad deal. And to me, if it was across
the board, they were making those calls, and they made

(02:37:30):
them to three or four other people, Okay, I was
the only one that got pinalized the whole weekend. So
and it was probably the most it was probably the
biggest incident that was like, what really happened?

Speaker 1 (02:37:47):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (02:37:47):
Like it wasn't like it looked delivered at all. It
wasn't like I reckon you know, junk the guy. Like
it was just it was just the whole deal is weird. Honestly,
I still don't understand it. I've never heard anything from
the track management themselves, heard from the race director with
an apology that was it. So I've been.

Speaker 1 (02:38:09):
Sounds like they just make a make a point, like
and then they're like, ah, that was a little harsh
they made.

Speaker 6 (02:38:17):
They wanted to set an example, and they set an
example on the dumbest incident that they could set an
example on. And like I said, my family, there was
the fiftiest circuitary we've We've been at forty nine of
them with one of us. So just yeah, like I said,
they're fair or fair, there's unfair, and there's just I'm
not doing it like I'm Yeah, it's I've went out

(02:38:43):
of my way multiple times over the course of the
last ten years. I'd usually run two or three races
every year to try to support the place. You know,
I go back and see family and all that. But yeah,
when you not, when you don't feel welcome, you just
got to make a decision. And I'm not I'm not
going back. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:39:02):
No, wait, we don't blame me at all because Friday Night,
well even they have Friday Night. Friday Night was a
ship show.

Speaker 6 (02:39:08):
Yeah, how many?

Speaker 1 (02:39:09):
How many?

Speaker 6 (02:39:09):
How many people they kent ofize? None?

Speaker 1 (02:39:11):
None. But there's there's people getting hit by modified.

Speaker 6 (02:39:15):
There's Salmeo and I like Timmy, I like Andy, and
I'm not talking crap about them. I get along with them.
Nothing but Salmeto wreck Cecily like specially was lapping jam
Solomeo come off before and drove him in the fence,
wreck the leader as a lap car comes back and
wins the race. Nothing son, it was good, right, I mean,

(02:39:39):
unless I'm making up. Did you see the same thing
that I saw? No?

Speaker 1 (02:39:42):
No, I get no, I agree with you. That's what
I did.

Speaker 6 (02:39:46):
So how is how is that? Okay, I'm racing for
the lead, I'm the leader.

Speaker 1 (02:39:52):
Yeah, I cut the guy.

Speaker 6 (02:39:54):
He slides off on the fence, comes back out, and
you park me. They did. I'd be lying if I
didn't say. They came over to me like lap seventy
and said, hey, if you want to go back out,
you can go back out. He went back out, Like okay,
what's the point.

Speaker 1 (02:40:09):
Yeah, at lap seventy, I'm all fucking set. The load
tires are already on it and we're taking a beer.
We were no, no I it, but yeah, no, that
would have been me. Load tires would be on it
in the trailer lights are off and I got a

(02:40:30):
beer outside the trailers in whatever.

Speaker 6 (02:40:32):
You know what I mean, what's the bad? Just to
put the bad tasing them out, that's all.

Speaker 1 (02:40:37):
Like, it's just like what, Yeah, you gotta be transparent,
you gotta show transparency. And like I alluded to before,
perception is reality. And when you do that to one
guy that's been supporting you for forty nine of the
fifty Turkey derbies you got, there's there's definitely a high
chance that I ain't gonna come back and do it anymore.
I don't blame you, an I wouldn't be.

Speaker 6 (02:40:57):
Like I said, I felt. I felt like the deal
in July was kind of like, yeah, not fair because
the guy that I had moved out of the way
was at the tail line and while going over this
whole thing, and he's like, they put you back to
the spots. I said, Apparently he goes for what I said, moving.

Speaker 1 (02:41:18):
You out of the way.

Speaker 6 (02:41:19):
He goes for that I said. Apparently He's like, I
think it was that bad.

Speaker 1 (02:41:23):
I'm like, I didn't either, Like you're having a conversation
with me.

Speaker 6 (02:41:27):
He put the guy in the three up up a
lane and then dry underneath him like you would see
any other racetracks in America.

Speaker 7 (02:41:34):
Yeah, well the grass taking the hell out but yeah, yeah,
I mean yeah, yeah, Like it's just whatever, okay, And
then I don't blame you, Like if that's all takes
the take the nerve bars off, take the bumpers off,

(02:41:56):
and tell everybody if you touch any car out there,
you're going you're done taking our bars off?

Speaker 6 (02:42:03):
Is off? Put balloons on the side, like I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:42:09):
Know, plut a balloon on the side of them.

Speaker 6 (02:42:11):
It's just and I don't know, Like I've watched Race
the Wall City in my whole life, and it's like,
really where we're going.

Speaker 1 (02:42:19):
I get your point. With all with all the race
cars that you've ran over the years, and obviously you
have your hometown number, how did you get that racing number?
It's sixty? What's one? Exactly? That's what I mean. Well, no,
you ran a third three digit number in dirt, which
is totally different. How did that come about? How did

(02:42:42):
that three?

Speaker 6 (02:42:45):
So the six fifty nine was my grandfather's number.

Speaker 1 (02:42:49):
There we go.

Speaker 6 (02:42:50):
There they so him he ran obviously home Mill cars.
The guy that he drove for built the engine. And
I don't know if they kept breaking fan belts or what,
but they always forgot what the fan belt number was.
So they said, well, hell, we'll just make it that.

Speaker 1 (02:43:12):
The number of the car. So that is an actual
gates fan belt number.

Speaker 6 (02:43:17):
Six. That was awesome fan belt that they that's the
fan belt number that they ran on his car, and
then my dad ran it, and then I ran it
until I ran it that Bowman in the opening night
when I want, and then they told me no more
three digit numbers, so changed it. So then it's sixty

(02:43:38):
five most of the time. And then my one stadium
car that I had, I had a small nine next
to it. So yeah, they they don't allow me to
run the three digit anymore.

Speaker 1 (02:43:47):
But yeah, that number has been in the family since
the fifty That's awesome. That's like, that's like our buddy
George Baldwin, he runs LLL and his and his father
got the number off of a clock in a bar,
so that's so it's a fan belt. Yeah, that's awesome. See,

(02:44:09):
that's that's why. That's why we asked this question, because
it's there's a bunch of stories that go with it,
and like we we obviously hold it dear to our
heart because that's our number. That's that's what we watched
racing around the track. My dad was fifty five. I
ran nineteen. I have to I have never asked my
dad why he ran fifty five. Probably just an easy
number to do. But six or fifty nine, man, that's

(02:44:33):
definitely that's cool, that's awesome. H James, what you got?

Speaker 2 (02:44:43):
I mean you you kind of took the question I
was gonna ask about the number.

Speaker 1 (02:44:47):
You can do RFP. Then you what the rough rofend
fenders moment?

Speaker 5 (02:44:55):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, So what would be your you're
like the the moment of you you uh here I had,
like the Bowman Gray, you have had any of those
altercations with the driving into under caution or throwing some
throwing some speedy dry at you.

Speaker 6 (02:45:16):
When I was younger, like I felt like I needed
to do some of that in a sense to try
to like just say like show everybody, hey, I'm not
I'm not putting up with the bullshit like I but
I'm not a fan of like what happened the last night.
Like I work on all my race cars. I do
the bodies, I do the maks repair them and all that,

(02:45:39):
so I know what it takes to fix them. But
I've also owned my own race car, so I know
what it costs to fix them. So like that all that,
I was almost embarrassed to be out on the field
the last night at Bowman when all that shit was
going on.

Speaker 1 (02:45:52):
Oh yeah, Tim Brown.

Speaker 6 (02:45:54):
But yes I have ran into Tim under caution to
let them know I'll piss off. I have ran in
the Bird on the Talus and the let dingo is
pissed off. I have random the Jason. I have had arguments,
verbal arguments with Bird. I've you know, I had words
with Tim based like all of them in a sense,

(02:46:14):
but in a respectful manner, like get your point across.
I'm not gonna the only one. Actually, I did pull
the tin one night. I pulled a hand grenade one
night on the valley. We ran the dog crap out
of each other for twenty laps and I ended up
beating him. It was like for four I go down

(02:46:37):
and turn line. I'm pretty hot because I felt like
he ran me pretty pretty dirty. We got on turn
one and he runs right in the back and he
knocks the helmet down, like my helmet over my head
just I snapped, so he drove by me. I let
him get out about twenty carlank and I floored that

(02:47:00):
thinking I didn't lift till I hit him and it
I have a home built car, right, so it's a
little stiffer than your average modified Why I blew right
through the back of that car, hit the fuel cell. Yeah,
I don't know. They said it was rear Cliff and
all that, but that was it wasn't my Prouor moment.

(02:47:20):
But again, I get it, right, I get like, I'm
not I get raced and all that, but he he
took it to the next level by running to me,
and then I just took it to the next club
level after that. But no, you need to you need
to stand up for yourself in a sense, right and then,
but I don't agree with completely trashing somebody's car and

(02:47:41):
then like the deal, uh, you know with him on
the last night, like him raced all year long for
that championship opportunity. Yeah, he's fun the guy out, but
it's like, you know, to go completely clean him out.
I'll agree with that, But that's what put people in

(02:48:02):
the stands, that's what people talk about, that's what gets
the place the attention is. But I'm not a fan
of trash and race cars on the cross mothers Like yeah,
I mean when I was younger and trying to make
a name, Like yeah, there's there's videos of me arguing
with her, cursing at each other and all that good stuff.

(02:48:25):
And me and Jason at our moments. It's just part
of it, I guess at the end of the day though,
Like down here, whether you're racing the Smart for or
erasingal bowman, you're gonna be racing with those people over
and over and over again, so you got to have

(02:48:46):
somewhat of a relationship with them in a sense, like
I don't know if there's anybody that hates me, hate me,
and there's like I don't. I'm pretty court like I
talked to pretty much everybody that we race, like I'm
flying with Jason, I'm finding for and find the family.

Speaker 1 (02:48:59):
Yeah, heat of the moments, things you can't hold ahead. Man,
I've I've had more than a handful of hand grenade moments,
so not not I mean one time under caution, but
most of the times I'll just ship you like okay,
we'll play take care and then yeah. Now my younger years, yeah,

(02:49:23):
definitely way worse. But I grew older and I was
just like, I'm still keen for it. But at the
same time, heat of the moments, things you can't really
the damn thing.

Speaker 2 (02:49:34):
After that was like the big thing.

Speaker 6 (02:49:36):
What ye like, I.

Speaker 4 (02:49:40):
Someone else's car and have to go fix the damn thing.

Speaker 6 (02:49:44):
Yeah, you can buy to buy and all that. But
I I build all little like that's what I'm doing
right now, and putting body on cars, like build all
the body panels, paint the nert like, and I try
to keep myself really nice, like I take FID and
my race car, yeah, and the racecar drive. So it's
like that extra work on top of it, and then

(02:50:05):
could go deliberately wreck them.

Speaker 1 (02:50:08):
Not a fan, Yeah, No, I totally get that. I
I totally understand. I'm running ship boxes. I ain't running
no damn modified I'm running. I'm running fore bank. It
didn't matter. I'll put it right to the I'll put
the motor in the dash. I don't care. I'll go
build another one. No, it's just those those heat of

(02:50:30):
the moments things. And that's that's why we cover those
two is like we all had those heated moments. I mean,
some people are way better about their attitude. I definitely
was never a person of that. I was always heat
in the moment and in that heat and see like
trashing people onto caution, Like first time I went to
Claremont up here, I almost got into a fistfight. So
like it was just one of those things I just

(02:50:52):
was always a hot hot head when it when I
got done with the race, it didn't matter where it ended,
if I felt like I got done wrong or ran
like shit it someone new, Yeah, someone new.

Speaker 6 (02:51:02):
I think it's if yeah, I mean if if, if
somebody does, you're dirty, Like you got to get your
point across in the in the grand scheme of things
in life and what we're actually like every one of
us that's out their racing is extremely lucky and fortunate
to be able to do that. Right. We have our
for sure, we have the opportunity, you know, finances are

(02:51:23):
there to do it, health is there to do it,
like and the great like you just look at it
as a as a big picture, like every time you
walk into the racetrack, you're lucky to be there, You're
fortunate to be there. You're fortunate to have that opportunity.
And then it's like, yeah, you get mad, but it's
like it is it really that big of a deal, Like, yeah,
I just chog it up and go to the next one.

(02:51:44):
So but some people just file out to handle like
it's the end of the world. But there'll be times
in their life that they realize it really wasn't that big.

Speaker 1 (02:51:52):
Of a deal. Yeah, exactly, And and we just had
that be a point up here just at the World
Series where it'll absolutely destroy your whole race team altogether.
It's where who knows what they're gonna do. Now, you
know what I mean, You can't let it get too far.

Speaker 6 (02:52:12):
Yeah, I don't really know your reference thing, but yeah,
I mean it can happen.

Speaker 1 (02:52:17):
The fistfight at at the World Series thing.

Speaker 6 (02:52:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Now I know you're
yeah is really we're driving Modified. We're all lucky to
be doing it.

Speaker 1 (02:52:30):
Yeah, no exactly, but yeah, man, thank you for coming on.
I mean, we we kept you busy for almost fucking
three hours.

Speaker 6 (02:52:39):
Jesus was really expecting to do like an hour podcast there,
two panelfe but I have done nothing.

Speaker 1 (02:52:50):
I apologize for being in the way, but no, I
always like to give the racers they're they're time to
talk about everything from at the beginning, and obviously like
glance over some things. But you've done a lot, you
know what I mean, like run expecting you run trucks,
you run Modified full time. Hopefully you have some die

(02:53:13):
cast for me.

Speaker 2 (02:53:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:53:14):
But at the same time, like you've been fortunate. You know,
like you said, you came from humble beginnings and you
made it all click together. But like I said, I
like to give people their their chance to speak the truth,
well not speak to speak the truth, but speak their
speak their racing, uh history.

Speaker 6 (02:53:33):
Because I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (02:53:34):
Yeah, just like just like if I was in your
shop right now, we'd be still having this conversation. It's
the hardest thing to ever do. And that's why that's
why I do the do the podcast stuff. That's why
I do the shop tors ship up here. Got to
get James to get get to do it down there,
have them come bother you for four hours and see
all the cool stuff you have. But yeah, no, uh yeah,

(02:53:57):
we usually try to shoot for an hour. But it didn't.
Never works.

Speaker 6 (02:54:00):
We just and I bounced around a lot like you said,
just extremely, I don't know, there was never no, there
was never a plan. There was never like yeah, like
when I was when I was fourteen fifteen years old,
I wanted to race, but I honestly never never thought
I would race like this. My parents got divorced when

(02:54:23):
I was young, like just the finances were not there
and we somehow put it all together, made at work
and then moved here and then you know, like I said,
just being being around good people, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (02:54:40):
I I don't know.

Speaker 6 (02:54:42):
I'm not wanting to brag on myself much, but I
work my butt off, like I don't. I'm not show
up and drive every car I've ever drove. I've worked on.
It's all I know.

Speaker 1 (02:54:54):
So it's like, it's not bragging. You cut your teeth
to where do you need to be right now? You
know what I mean, that's not bragging. If anybody calls
that brag and then they need to just get a
reality check on everything because some of us I don't.

Speaker 6 (02:55:05):
I don't like to fan myself, so I don't like
to give myself much better. But I've I will work
my butt off to be able to do what I've done.
And you know, I get that just goes It's the
old saying like hard work and dedication, Like if you
want something bad enough, you work for it, you have
a good chance of that happened.

Speaker 1 (02:55:25):
You know, and like exactly exactly. But yeah, no, like
you said, you don't like the brag, but at the
same time, you're allowed to obviously allowed to. You're a bowman.
Gray Stadium, Modify Champion. You're allowed to sit there and
be like, hey, I've done this, and I've done that,
and I've I've ran Talladega and Daytona and all this ship,

(02:55:47):
and like you're allowed to stick a step back and
be like, hey, and that's why we do this stuff
because I woant have known this, because like like when
James mentioned when no, no, it wasn't even that James
said that ship. When when he mentioned it, the first
thing I thought of was that's the guy from Wall Stadium.

(02:56:09):
I was like, that guy just got sucked over. I
was like, damn. I was like okay. And then when
I but it's always like scratching the surface. Everybody knows
you from a different point. And then when you sit
here and you talk for three hours about where he
started and where he ended up and everything that you're doing,
Like that's the beauty of racing, is like we all
start somewhere and some of us are destined to go

(02:56:30):
to NASCAR Cup and some of us get to dabble
into it and still get the same share the same stories.
But at the end of the day, we're all the
same person. And that's the beauty of racing. That's why
I love racing, because no, I agree, because I agree
with that because if.

Speaker 6 (02:56:45):
You want me to bray a little bit. The one
thing I am proud to be able to say that
I did. So Bauman Gray has two hundred is opening night,
then they have five hundred lappers. Yeah, I have twin fifties,
they have twin twenty five, and then they used to
have the Tour Race one ninety nine. Yeah, they have

(02:57:09):
the season finale one fifty. I have won everything you
can win at Bowmen Gray. That's one thing I am proud.

Speaker 1 (02:57:19):
And this guy doesn't want to brag. Okay, makes sense.

Speaker 6 (02:57:21):
So I won the twenty five and I was like, okay,
I want to fifty as I say, okay. Then I
won the one ninety nine. I'm like okay, and then
one uh the championship and the one fifty the same night,
and then the Hayes Jewelers two hundred. I finished second
in three times. It was kind of like Turkey Derby.
I could run, I run top five. I don't. I

(02:57:44):
think my last four finishes the second, second, win, second.
I think the last four years I finished worst since
the second, but that race I could not win. I
finally won it, least not this past season twenty three,
twenty two. Yeah, I won it. I finished second this year.
But if there's anything I can say that, I definitely
am proud to be able to say I did was.

(02:58:06):
I want every distance race.

Speaker 1 (02:58:08):
And everything you can win at which puts you.

Speaker 6 (02:58:12):
I think, I don't know if there's that. I mean
there's I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:58:17):
It might be other people, but we have to get
a statistic guy.

Speaker 6 (02:58:21):
The burn has I'm sure ten has I have. But
then like you know, Brandon Ward hasn't won all those
and like they don't even have a tour you know,
one nine there anymore. I want that twice. So it's
like it's cool to deal. It's like if I ever retired,
when I'm fifty years old, sitting in my rock and Caro,
I'll be, yeah, you know, I want everything over there

(02:58:43):
when I ran there.

Speaker 1 (02:58:44):
Yeah, no exactly, yeah, but like yeah, like I said,
that's the beauty of racing in that, and that's why
we give people the chance to do all this stuff
because like, like I only knew you from the guy
from the guy ft at fucking Wall after Yeah, I
got fucked over at Wall for bullshit, and then the

(02:59:04):
night before there's fist fights, people getting hit by cars,
people wrecking the whole field, nothing happening. And then the
next night you're getting parked for light contact because I
watched the damn race, like and then I was like,
how the fuck does that work? And then the post
and I was like, all right, then at least least
some like like I said, like, that's the beauty of racing.

(02:59:27):
I wouldn't have known that, you know, Ray Everham and
uh and and did all this stuff, and and your
racing numbers, a gates fan belt, you know what I mean,
that's the beauty of it.

Speaker 6 (02:59:37):
And like, yeah, no, you're right, yeah, yeah, that that
is the nice part about racing. And everybody's got a story.
And I appreciate you having me on there, Like I don't.
I don't get a ton of requests lately, you know,
obviously my racing slowed down a little bit. I don't

(02:59:58):
know in a sense. But we're gonna have a fun
year this year.

Speaker 1 (03:00:02):
What are you doing? What are you doing this year?
Without letting ship out of the.

Speaker 6 (03:00:06):
Bag, it'll be mostly modified, okay, but it should be fun.

Speaker 1 (03:00:14):
Well, if you if you're free around August twenty fourth
that Wake County.

Speaker 6 (03:00:18):
We'll be there, uh twenty four.

Speaker 1 (03:00:23):
August. It's free. James is going to be there, so
it's free. If you're talking about a tour race, Okay,
all right, that's what we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (03:00:37):
There's no tour, James, Well no, smart tour didn't go
there this year.

Speaker 1 (03:00:43):
Okay, see, we'll be there.

Speaker 6 (03:00:46):
Okay, I'll try to find a course to race for
that one.

Speaker 1 (03:00:49):
There you go, see right, that even be better, that'd
be awesome.

Speaker 6 (03:00:54):
But yeah, no, I'd like I would, honestly, I would
like to try to do some of those, just just a.

Speaker 2 (03:01:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (03:01:02):
I like the truck. I think the truck relates more
than that than the modified relates to the late model
of the truck. So I think going from the truck
to that, I don't think it'd be if I was
in decent stuff, I don't think it'd be a huge
like difference than the experience. I guess, like, I think
if I was in decent crack could run halfway decent.
But I would like to run out of tracks that

(03:01:24):
I had experienced that I'd like to go to somewhere
where like I wanted Orange County, you know, you know,
I don't know if they go to eighth anymore. I
won there, like Franklin County have won there, so like
somewhere that I've been to before that I ran well
act would yeah, probably be what I like to try
to lean forward, But obviously you just got to take

(03:01:45):
whatever opportunity can.

Speaker 1 (03:01:46):
Wait County bull Ring, you'll love it there we go.

Speaker 6 (03:01:50):
Yeah, I actually seen big that place that probably that
would probably could if I stop a little bit the bullring.

Speaker 1 (03:01:55):
You do good at Martinsville, you'd be all right, totally different.
Yeah exactly, yeah, exactly exactly. See, you'll be great at it.
But like I said, man, thank you for coming on. Yeah, no, no,
for sure, we appreciate you taking the time for all
our listeners and all that stuff. So hopefully if if

(03:02:18):
if you don't make it to Wake, we'll be down
there for the week, so I'll definitely come and meet
you and all that stuff.

Speaker 6 (03:02:22):
And yeah, yes you probably you'll probably be able to
help me finish these channels and finish.

Speaker 1 (03:02:29):
Yeah perfect, Yeah, no, definitely definitely by that time I
rent James out, it's pretty quick, pretty pretty cheap, so
he'll he'll do anything for a dollar. But like I said, man,
but but like I said, man, thank you for coming on.
Congrats on everything that you've done. Nothing to that eyelash

(03:02:53):
at but I appreciate you taking the time to run
through everything that you did, and I got to learn
a lot about you and hopefully you can cross cross
uh cross pathways with you this summer when we go
down and uh, I'll definitely make a point. I'll save
your number. I'll definitely make a point to see what
you're doing. He might be Fisher or whatever the case is.

(03:03:13):
But uh, yeah, man, thank you for coming on.

Speaker 6 (03:03:17):
Yeah, I appreciate it. We'll keep all right, buddy, Oh guy,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:03:21):
Take it easy. Yeah, James, I only knew him as
the guy that got fucked over at wall I just.

Speaker 2 (03:03:32):
Knew him as a modified driver. Honestly, I was like
you and then but long, come on.

Speaker 4 (03:03:37):
I was like, let's get let's get another mob driver on.

Speaker 5 (03:03:40):
I know I play a little bit of favoritism to
mod drivers because I like modifieds.

Speaker 6 (03:03:44):
But.

Speaker 1 (03:03:46):
It's not that. But like, that's the beauty of this podcast,
and that that's why we enjoy everybody that does listen
to us and support us and does sit here and
sit through these long, long, long podcast episodes for a reason.
I don't want to cut people off. I don't want
seven main things that you that you've done and everything

(03:04:06):
like that. I want to hear everything that you've done, you.

Speaker 2 (03:04:08):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (03:04:08):
I wouldn't have known that he's ran Cup or Exfinity
or or won everything at Bowman including a championship, for
fuck's sake, you know what I mean. He's well fledged
driver and all that. So, like I said, guys, thank
you all that do listen to this, that do support
this podcast, that do go and buy shirts or hats
or whatever the case may be, even get a sticker

(03:04:31):
from us and all that stuff. We enjoyed everybody at XPO.

Speaker 4 (03:04:36):
Quete on purpose, you know for those some of those people,
I know you want the shirts.

Speaker 2 (03:04:42):
Why say again, people getting dq't.

Speaker 4 (03:04:44):
On purpose just so they can get shirts.

Speaker 1 (03:04:46):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know, But those DQ shirts are
a trophy. Shout out to Machhad Motorsports for doing that
that photo op for us. But like I said, man,
that's why we do this stuff. That's why we enjoy
everybody that does come on and appreciate everybody that does
come on. Was supposed to do stuff at EXBO but
We definitely lost our voice because of obviously getting sick

(03:05:09):
from my kid, but thank you guys all for listening.
This is season two, episode thirty seven. Danny Bone tie
a balloon on the outside of it. Have a good night, y'all.

Speaker 2 (03:05:23):
Bye bye, everyone,