November 4, 2024 • 39 mins
Wayne Auton, the NASCAR Xfinity Series managing director, returns to the podcast as he wraps up his tenure in the garage. Auton shares what it’s been like to go through this year and how folks have treated him; plans for 2025; going through the adjustment of what comes next and a changing lifestyle; how he views being a resource in the future; drivers wanting to share their success with him; what he wanted to get out of the final season; the drivers who stand out having seen them grow and get to where they are now; memorable moments from inside the hauler; the hauler being a place for teams as much as NASCAR; the chances of still being surprised this long on the job; staying aware of everything involved with the series; dealing with the coming and going of drivers on a frequent basis; what he is most proud of from his tenure in the role as it comes to an end.
Original music created by Tony Monge.
Follow me here: https://linktr.ee/kellycrandall
Original music created by Tony Monge.
Follow me here: https://linktr.ee/kellycrandall
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Racing Writers Podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly crandall our guest today is Wayne on And, who
returns to the podcast because his tenure is NASCAR Xfinity
Series Managing Director is coming to an end this weekend.
Wayne was on the podcast back in early twenty twenty
three as we talked about the twenty twenty two season,
and we're gonna pick up a little bit on that,
talking more about the role and what goes into it,
(00:28):
but really we're talking about how this year has gone
for Wayne as he tries to soak up every last
day of it as it comes to an end this
weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Wayne has been in the role
for quite some time in the Exfinity Series. Before that,
he was in the Craftsman Truck Series. He started his
career at Hickory Motor Speedway. He has been in many
places and has had a long and storied racing career
(00:50):
and it's just so great to get to talk to him.
So I'm really excited to have him back and to
continue this conversation and just let him tell everyone what
it has been like over the last many many years.
Let's get into it. Here's Wayne on the Racing Writers Podcast.
Wayne at And is back on the podcast because he's
(01:13):
wrapping up his time as NASCAR Sfindy series managing directors,
So I had to have him back on for part
two because we only scratched the surface last time, but
also Wayne, because I want to know what has this
year been like for you now that it's coming to
an end. I'm sure there's been a lot of folks
who have probably had some kind words to say, hopefully
and then probably wanted to take a lot of your
time just letting you know that they appreciate you. So
(01:34):
what has it been like from your perspective going through
this year.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's been a busy year. You know, We've had seventeen
different winners out of thirty one race, so that's pretty
good batan average. So it's been an interesting year. It's
been a fun year. It's quickly becoming a sad year.
But we'll be part of Crown and our thirty third
champion as a series director, so that's pretty cool. Bettersweet,
(02:00):
But yeah, you said, you know a lot of people
telling me congratulations, a lot of people tell me to
get the hell out, and then there's also people that
are all of them came to me a couple of
weeks ago and said, hey, we all picked the race,
so you're our guest at a race next year. So
that makes you feel pretty good that they still want
you to be around. But you know it's I keep
(02:22):
telling them when I leave Phoenix, you'll not see me
back in the garage. I keep telling them all, I
go down to Rockingham because that's where I worked one
of my very first races as a NASCAR official. I
definitely worked my first Cup race there back in about
eighty four, and I told them I was going to
come in, but I was going to set up in
the stands and have a coal one and take a
picture of it and send it to all of them.
(02:43):
So that's one race that I will go to.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That sounds like a heck of a plan. I know
there's a lot of people excited for Rockingham, but for
you to be able to go take it in as
a fan, like you said, with cold one in your hand,
that would be pretty fitty.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, absolutely a cold one and watch all of them work.
And I keep telling them all that I'm gonna I
will do definitely be watching the race. I'm go'll send
them notes during the race that they're in trouble or
you know, just to mess with them a little bit,
but you know, they got a job to do, so
we'll have some fun with.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
It, right Well, on that Notewayne, can you share what
you will be doing in twenty twenty five, because when
the announcement came out that this would be your last
year as managing director, it's set at the time you
were going to stay on with Nascars. Are you able
to share what an idea of what you're going to
be doing next year?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
No? None, at this time, still a lot of conversations
going on. Might just ride off into the sunset, as
they say.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That might not be a bad thing either, right, No.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's not. I've never had a new vehicle. I've always
bought live a new vehicle, but I've never bought one
for myself. Well, I went out and bought one a
couple of weeks ago, So I think I'm gonna enjoy
that and enjoy hanging out with the grand babies. They're
starting to get at the age that, you know whatever.
We started this deal years ago. Our two daughters were
(03:55):
very young, but we left and we would go out
on Saturday morning come back, Sara and all the travel.
I will tell you, as Kelly, when I got home
at six fifteen am from Las Vegas a couple of
weeks ago, and I got up whatever time it was,
still couldn't sleep, you know, because of the difference in time.
(04:15):
And I told liv I said, I know it's time
after laying down at six fifteen am, so the soul
body just won't take much more.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know, this is an interesting conversation, Wayne, because so
much gets focused right on drivers when they retire after
such a long time spent in sport and so much
that they've given to being a race car driver. But
as I listened to you talk, it seems like, you know,
it's not that much different for you all. On the
other side of things as well, you've been in this
sport for so long that you're going to be going
through that adjustment as well of what comes next and
(04:45):
what do you want to do? What don't you want
to do?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, I definitely don't want to go to a racetrack
to work, you know, I'm going to enjoy maybe going
as a fan to a couple of races. I've never
stayed at Talladega Boulevard, the racetrack. Downer offered me a
motor home and I stay at Talladega Boulevard. I might
even try that out, but you know, after you travel
(05:08):
so long, that's the hardest part of the job. The
hardest part of leaving job is gonna be the people
in it. The wear and tear on your body is
it's not for an older guy like myself. Nowadays, and
whenever we were young, heck, it wasn't nothing to get
up at four o'clock in the morning, jump in a truck,
take off due a race, get down about midnight, and
drop back home. Not a problem at all. But nowadays,
(05:31):
luckily we get to fly across the country. But like say,
you get home after working all day at six fifteen
am in the morning, and it was one of those
flights that didn't seem it ever wanted to stop bouncing,
so didn't get my trust on the plane. But man,
I'm gonna tell you what it's. It's just one of
those deals that I'm gonna have to adjust a lot
(05:52):
because I'm so used to being on the go as
much as we've been for all this year. It used
to be on the road over two hundred days a year,
and this last couple of years, especially since COVID, we
probably cut that down in half, so it's not as
bad as it used to be. But still the old
bones are getting old on this Kelly now. But it adds. Guy,
(06:15):
it's been a good ride.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
As you look to the future, Wayne and someone comes
in and takes over that role, would you want to
be a resource? Would you hope that you would be
a resource someone that if folks still need to lean
on or ask about the job or certain situations. Would
you are you open to being that guy? If, as
I said, you know, somebody needs to come to you
for something.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, I think you've got to look at it this way.
That hopefully the knowledge that we got to learn from
Bill Frantz Junior, last Dichacter, Mike Helton, those type folks,
Jim Hunter. I mean, golly, if you didn't learn from Hunter,
then you weren't paying attention on what was going on.
But hopefully the knowledge that we learned from those folks
(06:58):
that we try the hand down to the younger kids
that are taking over the sport now and they need
a little bit, you would hope that they would want
to give you a call and said, hey, how did
you actually handle this. I mean, that's basically what goes
on nowadays. And do I want to be absolutely Do
(07:19):
I really need to be absolutely not? Because I believe that,
as Mike Helton told us, the way we should lead
this sport is in a good place, and right now
I think the sport is in an excellent place, especially
with the racing that we've seen in all three national
series this year. The people what you're going to miss.
You're not going to miss the job, but God, I
lay the people in. It is just unbelievable. When you
(07:42):
can walk through a garage and somebody wants to talk
to you about business, somebody wants to talk to you
about their personal life, somebody just wants to crack a
joke with you. So that's what you get comfortable with.
And that's the part that you're going to miss. But
the go to guy, if I would never tell this
company that if they needed me to step in for
(08:03):
an emergency for somebody. This company has been good to
live an out for a lot of years, and no
way would my phone be turned off if they needed
some kind of advisor, needed a body to go do something.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
You don't mind if you have to be but you
hope you don't have to be as well. I like
that that's a good way of looking at it. Going
back to where I was talking about, you know, you
interacting and hearing from some folks this year as your
tenure winds down and getting ready to crown your thirty
third champion as a series director. One of those drivers
that you and I talked about on the last podcast
(08:38):
a lot we had some laughs about is Justin Algeyer.
I believe you had called him on the last podcast
the senior citizen of some of the Exminity Series garage,
and he had made the comment way in a couple
of weeks ago. I don't know if you had heard
this or not, but he said that he's really hoping
he can pull off this Exminity Series championship so that
he can find a way to get you on stage
and share that moment with you. So again, I know
(09:01):
we've talked about Justin on the last podcast, but to
hear just messages like that from drivers who want to
share their moments with you and have time with you,
that has to feel pretty good too, that when they're
in these moments of success that they hope that you're
right there and that they can share that with you.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, you got to look at this way we travel,
we eat, sleep, work, yell, pat each other on the back,
give high fives, and it's our family. And Justin, as
I said earlier, being a senior citizen other than myself
in the garage area, I mean, he's thirty nine. The
(09:37):
heck he is what twenty eight years younger than I am.
So but to hear drivers say that kind of comments
makes you feel like it maybe you did all right
in this job. Everybody says, how do you explain your job?
And you go, well, you're a principal, you're a dictator,
you're a boss, you're a friend, your family mentor, you're
(10:01):
somebody galen on and you're the chief cook and bottle
washer and if you don't want to do all those things,
and this job's not for you. So been fortunate to
get to hang out with a lot of a lot
of drivers. Austin Cindrick stopped by last weekend at Homestead
and we had a really good chat about the couple
of years I've got to deal with him in the
(10:21):
garage area. So it's nice to know that you can
still walk through the garage and people recognize you a
little bit, and I appreciate what you do on this
side of the fence. And as mister Frantz told me
a long long time ago, there shouldn't be no offense
between the NASCAR officials and the competitors because we got
to put our hands together make this business work.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Is there something when you were hoping to get out
of this year when you came in knowing it was
the last Is there something you hoped you experienced or
took in more and appreciated or have you just been
a business as usual not have to do interviews.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
No, I just wanted enjoy the last year is the
biggest thing. And I mean, you know, when I was
in truck for eighteen years, pretty much could name people's
grandkids instead of their kids and their kids and the grandkids.
I know one particular wife told me after one of
the races that she really appreciated what I did, but
(11:22):
she was really mad at me, so she wasn't going
to talk to me that day. So you know, that
makes you feel good that they understand that you got
a job to do. And there is feelings on both
sides of the fence that when you walk inside deck gate.
You do your job like you should, and your friends
will be on the outside the gate want to have
a cold beverage with you. So biggest thing, I believe
that if you had to ask me, what was one
(11:44):
thing that wanted to see the last year, see people
smiling faces? And you know, I'm not sure if I
told you this. Last time everybody asked me, what's the
best race I ever seen? The best race I've ever
saw in my life was when everybody goes home safe.
So it doesn't matter. We all like to see that
one answer last when as we had earlier in the
(12:06):
year with uh maybe the Sam Mayer and Ryan said
Texas and that you want to see everybody go home safe,
and that's that's what the enjoyment of this racing thing is.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I do believe we had talked a little bit about that,
and once you said that, I remembered that saying you
mentioned Austin Syndric. Are there drivers Wayne that you had
worked closely with for one reason or another, or that
just you they were in the series Xinity truck, or
or you've been so many places over the years that
you see them now and how far they've come, And
(12:38):
it kind of strikes you as maybe they of course,
they were probably much younger in their development when they
came across you in whatever series you were overseeing. Is
there anyone that come to mind as I said that
today you look at them and how far they've come,
and it just makes you chuckle.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Oh God, that that is a great question. And I
don't know if I can answer that was or not,
But God, when you see kids that you see when
they first come into the sport at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen
years old and mature as much as they have when
(13:13):
they first come in, they need a little bit of
a guidance. Sometimes they left the trailer crying, sometimes they
left the trailer with high fives. But when you see
the ability that they have and how much they grow,
and hopefully you had just a little bit of a
part in seeing those kids grow up. I know Austin
(13:34):
Cindric had a as an example, He's won a Daytona
five hundred. I mean, what can you say when you
see a young kid come in to a series when's
your championship and goes and wins the Daytona five hundred,
and you know you had a little bit of a
part in that Austin Dellon win in the championship, winning
(13:55):
the Daytona five hundred. I mean, the list just goes
on and on. A the people that we got to
see start and part of our job is to help
them get to the next level. That's what a series
director does. We know, we got rules and regulations, we
got to have them meet and follow, but when they
need somebody to lean on. Bobby Hamilton used to come
(14:17):
in and trail and just lay down and stay there
for a couple of minutes, just to get away from
his team. And a lot of times a driver would
come in and just sit down with you and just say, hey,
I just need a few minutes. Can can you hide
me in here for a little bit? You know? And
you remember those those days. There's been so many drivers
that Kylie Kelly, you just you got me stumped here
(14:42):
on the best way to answer. But the best way
was what I said about the two Austin's. Both of
them started racing with me, either in trucks or Infinity,
and they both want a Daytona five hundred. And as
a series director, sometimes you think of these these drivers,
(15:03):
it's your kids and you want to see them succeed
and to see those two guys when the Daytona five
hundred just keep saying, it is just amazing to me
how much they I've grown.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Those are good examples. I'm good with that. I'm glad
that those two came to mind at least. And you know,
when we did the last podcast swayin we talked a
lot of feel like about the truck series, and you
were telling some great stories about kind of what you
just said right there, drivers who'd come in the haller upset,
and I want to say it was corn to day.
You told a great story about he was so mad,
or someone came in the haller and they were so mad,
(15:35):
and they kept pushing the chair and the chair kept
rolling down, and.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I was born to day, that was born today.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So I just I wanted to know, or I wanted
to get some more stories. What are some more stories
you can share from over the years, whether it be
trucks or exfinity of some things that have happened in
the hall or that you can share that were not
seen by the public that maybe you will always remember.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well, there's a special bond that you can have with
certain drivers, and I believe that Jack Spragg, Mike Skinner
and run Horna. They paid for that because people knew
and we didn't try to hide it. When you were
leaving a racetrack, you might have seen all three of
us together having a cold one after the race after
all the inspections were over. And Sprague to this day
(16:19):
still says I owe him one more race that he
still believes that we took away from him. That might
have been Milwaukee Mile. I think it was. He still
swear there wasn't nothing on the racetrack, but there was
debris on the racetrack and we called it and he
had a pretty good lead at the time, and he
come in the trailer and boiced his pleasure if you
(16:42):
want to say in a negative way that he feels
like it. We still owe him a championship and Skinner,
I mean it was something with Skinner every week every
week early or even when he came back to the
trucks finish out his career. But Hornaday's story with the
(17:04):
chair is still just the funniest one that I can
just stat here today and just remember vividly. But so
we were a test at Daytona one year and I'm
a big New Orleans Saints fan have been since the
sixties when they first started playing, And I tell everybody
the joke that whenever they used to sit in the
(17:24):
stadium with bags on their head, I'd set it home
with a bag on my head watching them on TV.
Somebody knew that I was there watching my favorite team.
But we were to test at Daytona one year and
all of a sudden, I hear here comes Saints go
marching in and it's half the garage at the test
with bags on their heads coming in the trailer, and
(17:45):
there was a guy playing harmonica with the all the
Saints come marching in and they all just got a
big kick out of that. And you know, just stuff
like that that you remember. That was a lot of fun.
You know, there's been good days. There's been bad days
in this sport for all of us, but the good
days really outweigh the bad days. I wish that there
(18:06):
were some people that I would get to speak to
again that we can't because of incidents that's happened on
the track, but those are few and far between. Thank
God for that. Almighty upstairs takes care of these drivers
and crew members. But you're asking me funny stories, I
mean colle The Horned Day was just so dog gone good.
(18:28):
It's hard to beat that one, you know. Yeah, But
like I say, Bobby Hamilton used to come in and
I knew what he wanted. My desk was right as
the inside the trailers. You come into the left and
he come in and say, hey, you doing today, Wayne,
And I go, I'm doing fine, Bobby, and I wouldn't
even turn around because I knew what he was going.
He just wanted to get away from everybody. And he
(18:49):
would just all of a sudden just take him a
little nap there, and he'd get up and said thanks
for the talking. Out the door he would go, and
then he would come in another times said hey, are
you busy? And I knew right then and he wanted
to talk business. So, you know, just times like that,
which made a lot of fun. And then one other
one we had one of the funniest stories with a
(19:10):
couple of people in the trailer was we had a
kid that had a motor home and it happened to
be out with the fans. And this guy was a rookie.
I'm not going to mention his name because it's unfair
to him. He's really grown up, let me put it
that way. So anyway, we were having a rookie meeting,
and before he got in there and the guys were
(19:30):
telling me about he was raising all kinds of king
about where his motor home was at. So when he
walked into the rookie meeting, I said, hey, how's you
your motor home during the day. And all the other
guys that's got a big k they just busted out laughing.
And he looked at me and he said, not too
blankety good. And I said, well, you know something, I've
(19:50):
always told you kids that the way you make money
is not driving a race vehicle. The way you make
money is selling and have some T shirts. Maybe you
could set you up a little fan out there and
sell some hats and T shirts. Maybe you can make
a little money to pay for your motor home spot today.
But all the other rookies in the trailer, they just
busted out lapping. One of the stories that still makes
(20:11):
me feel so good is we always tell the rookies
that before you go on the racetrack, you have to
go out the right side of the car. And Christopher
Bell I remember him. We were in a rookie meeting.
I forget we had somebody brand new. I don't remember
who that one was. Anyway, Christopher goes hey, wang, let
me handle this one. So before I could even say
(20:33):
a word, Christopher goes hey, have you ever been out
the right side of the car. So it makes you
feel good that those guys like to have a lot
of fun in the trailer behind closed doors as much
as anything else. But I'm telling you, I wish I
had some really good I could tell you some really
good ones that people don't really need to hear. So
(20:55):
when we've had people that's went out crying, we've had
people went out really mad, but we've always seen that
eye before we walk out to garage.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Well, I was going to circle back on that part
where you just said it again there about folks coming
in or leaving crying, and you also mentioned Bobby Hamilton
just coming in to escape. I never thought of the
NASCAR hauler as that would be a place where somebody
would want to escape. So I love that story. But yeah,
I want to circle back to I would always think
if somebody's going to the haller, it's because they're angry.
(21:25):
So hearing that folks would leave their crying, it makes
me chuckle as well.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Well, my granddaughter Drotella. I'm just a big old teddy bear.
But some of the drivers will tell you that I
never tried to be this way. I don't know why
it comes across that way, but some people tell me
I'm intimidating and they don't like coming to the trailer.
(21:50):
Jesse Love told me this year he had a little
bit of deal earlier in the year, and so I
was going to bring him in and it was more
of a teaching lesson than anything else. The first words
out of his mouth was he said, mister Wayne, I
thought I would make it more than nine races before
I got caught in here in your trailer. So you
know that was That was one of the funnier ones
(22:11):
that somebody had said ever said to me that they
come in the trailer. But listen, that trailer is theres
as much as it is in NASCAR office. They should
be able to come in there and voice their opinions.
And that's what we learn from Jim Hunter as much
as anybody, and the less director of Mike Helton, what
they taught us about how to handle these competitors. You know,
(22:33):
you can be the guy that everybody's scared to come
in and talk to or you can be the guy
that people want to come in here and sit down
and just help a casual conversation. Jack Rowse's come in
that trailer many of times and and uh, I go
what you need, Sarah, I just come in here to talk,
and that makes you feel good. The hall of famers
that want to come in and sit in the trailer.
(22:54):
Richard Petty asked me one time if you could watch
the TV and the trailer because there we were out
in Portland, Oregon. He just wanted to come in to
watch wrestling. So you know, it's just a commonplace. But
I learned that from back to my younger days when
I used to hang out in the Unicow building in Rockingham.
(23:16):
There again, rocking Him comes up. One of the first
races they ever went to as a young kid, and
the drivers hung out. It didn't have these big fancies
trailers and stuff that they've got nowadays. So sort of
learned that, hey, these guy's got to have a place
they can get away too, and a lot of times
they just want to get away from their team. There's
no place to go to. Then official out on lining
(23:38):
up to day twenty five hundred one year and Davy
Allison come out there and he said, hey, Waan, Hey Davy.
He said, mind if I hang out here with you
for a little bit. I said, absolutely, sit down right
there and I'll make sure nobody gets to you. He
sat there about twenty minutes. He got up and went,
all right, let's go back to the zoo. Thanks buddy,
and Troun walked off. So you just learn that the
(24:03):
drivers they are human beings also, and they need a
little time away and maybe you can be the one
that can show them a little bit of a Hey.
You know, you're a big star. But it doesn't bother
me because we both got a job to do.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
When you have been in this role, and really not
even just this role, but when you've been in the sport,
Wayne for as long as you have, which we touched
on at the top of our conversation, is it possible
to even be surprised anymore by things that may happen,
whether it's on the racetrack or things that happen in
the sport, or rivalries or just anything. Is it possible,
(24:39):
as I said, when you put in as much time
as you have in this sport that you still can
be surprised by by something.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
That's what's so cool about this sport, Kelly, that every
day is something new. You know, you could be in
no disrespect to anybody what jobs they got, but you
could go into a four walls and it's the same
thing day after day after day. I can actually stand
here and say, one day has never been the same
(25:07):
as the last. It's always been something different. Something new
always comes up. You see something new that somebody's somebody's invented,
or somebody's tried to get through the inspection, or some
new saying that a kid has done that. You look
at it and go, man, that sounds pretty stupid. But
(25:28):
then in about two or three weeks, Hey, that kid
was pretty dark, gone smart. So there's nothing I believe
that would surprise me. Even going to Martinsville this weekend,
and I'll say it out loud, that's my favorite track
because I've been going there since I was eight years old,
at least a race every year. It's done that for
(25:50):
fifty years and then I missed a race. But anyway,
something new will come up this weekend of Martinsville. Something
will come up new next week in Phoenix that we
hadn't thought about before. But these drivers and these teams
and these owners, they will keep you on your toes.
And hopefully the best part about it is you surround
(26:13):
yourself with good people and all of it comes out
pretty good. And right now I can personally say that
I've never ever not had good people around me. That
wyn Oughton did nothing in this sport, but what we
accomplished and what we did together as NASCAR officials and
team owners and team drivers and team crew members together
(26:34):
as reason this sport is so awesome.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I was also thinking as you were talking there about
you know, drivers and teams keep you on your toes.
The cool thing about the Infinity Series is that there's
been so many great programs over the years as well.
In addition to the racing, right, there's the Dash for Cash,
and there's all these different little specialty things, and obviously
the championship formats have changed over the years, and the
rules about cup drivers and how many races they can
(26:59):
run in your position, Wayne, how challenging or how interesting
and how much have you been have to stay on
your toes when it comes to just understanding everything about
the job. And like I said, the format and the
rules and all the information you and your team and
everybody needs to know.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, the cool thing about it is we have this
NASCAR R and D Center here in Concord, North Carolina,
and these people that are working here are pretty doll
on smart, or they wouldn't be in this building, and
they keep us up to date on a lot of stuff.
But the reason that we can stay on our toes
is because we have teams that'll talk to us, Teams
(27:37):
that will come and say, hey, can we try this?
Or hey, we've seen this? Is this legal to do?
Or the best inspector in the garage is the teams
because they're going to tell on each other because that's
who they're trying to beat. They're not trying to beat
us NASCAR, but they're trying to beat those other thirty
seven cars that are setting out there in this garage
(27:59):
area whenever we get Martinsville this weekend. And the way
you stay on top of that is you constantly are
in conversation with them and you listen to what they say.
They may have a great idea that helps the whole garage,
and then they may have an idea that helps their team,
and you go. You know, we got to think about
that a little bit. So it's been a job. Let
(28:22):
me put it to faith, I don't have a job,
but what we have together is a garage area that
works together. Very very proud of how the NASCAR Experience
Series handles the garage area amongst everybody. Everybody knows that
it costs a lot of money to run this sport.
It takes a lot of knowledge to run this sport,
(28:43):
It takes a lot of time to run this sport.
And the only way that we're going to accomplish anything
is just doing it together. And ninety percent of the
time they're talking to us, they're telling the stuff they're
talking to us. Ideas, we got some stuff coming up
here in the very near future pretty all gone exciting
that teams have talked to us about that hopefully is
(29:04):
a cost savings for them. Be premature to say anything
here today, but Eric Peterson's going to be taking the
reins here and he's done one heck of a job.
We knew five years ago we were hurting we had
the right person to come in and just take take
this division over because he is so smart, and begged
him to come to work here We got unlucky that
Jack Rowse shut down their Exfinity program, but we got
(29:27):
lucky because they shut down their expendity program. We got
Eric Peterson on board coming in to take over this
and he does a fantastic job out in the garage area.
And the cool thing about this garage you don't get
surprised by a whole lot of stuff. Nothing's ever the same,
but pretty much somebody's going to tell you something that's
coming at you so that we can all make sure
(29:48):
that it all fits and it benefits everybody in the
garage area. So if there's one thing that keeps you
on your toes is the ever changing evolution of this
sport because it's just one of those sports that a
ten cent piece could knock you out a race, but
it's also a sport that a ten cent piece could
(30:08):
win you the race. So as long as the conversations
keep going between NASCAR and the teams, this garage, Erry
is I'm gonna be biased here, but this is the
best doll gone garage that NASCAR's ever had.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I know you have some other responsibilities coming up today,
so I've got two more things for your Real quick Way,
and you talked. At the beginning of our conversation, you
threw out a stat about seventeen different winners, and you know,
the great thing about the Infinity Series is, obviously there's
so many drivers coming and going, whether it's drivers on
part time schedules, cup drivers coming down running some races,
(30:42):
or of course just the changing faces in that series
with drivers moving up and down the ladder. How unique
or what has it been like for you that there
does seem like there's always new faces in that series, right,
it's I mean, you do have your veterans, but that
is a series where as I said, you have a
(31:02):
lot of drivers that you're going to interact with that
are coming and going, and then along the way you
get to be a part of their success. So how
unique How has that been for you of dealing with
so many different faces?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I think it's like a dad that watches their kid
throw a baseball for the first time, or catch a football,
or or bounce a basketball or you know, this sport
is not cheap. I'll say it again, but the cool
part about it is personally, this is one time and
I'll say I I've had the fortunate of being able
(31:38):
to see a lot of young talent. And when parents
come to you and say, hey, we can't be there
all the time, would you please make sure our kid
is okay, And they put their kids in their hands
and just ask you to take care of them when
they're not there. It is just so when you look
back on your career and you go, Golley, what was
(32:02):
one item that may have made you feel good? It
was the trust in the people to watch their kids,
because they are young kids. And I member justin probably
just now I'm here, just now go running the trucks,
and he was in his teens twenties maybe when we
(32:22):
first met. But when you get parents that come to
you and said, please watch after my kid, and they
got the trust in you to know and what they
mean by that is don't let them get in any
kind of trouble and if they need a good old
out the door spanking, as I think we all grew up,
(32:43):
I get one at least one time in our life.
I got much fair share, I'll know that. But when
you see these kids grow up to be men or
the ladies become women, and you know that you had
a very instrumental part in them growing, That's that's the
coolest part. And that's what I'm going to feel like
(33:04):
that I got out of it. Hopefully I did my
part of it.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
On that note, about your part of all of this,
So between today's conversation and our last conversation on the podcast,
you talked about the role, what goes into the role,
and so on and so forth. So, Wayne, as your
time winds down here, what are to talk about yourself
for a minute? What are you most proud of that
you brought to the role or the way that you've
gone about being in this role in the Xpinity series
(33:32):
for these last number of years. As you again, as
you get ready to close that chapter, Wow.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Don't want this to sound the wrong way at all.
In twenty twelve, and I'm speaking for the Expanity Series
in twenty twelve, Mike Helton sit here in the office
here in Concord and ask me if I would go
over and run at then the Nation series Expanity Series now.
(34:02):
And the first words out of his mouth was, we
really want you to do this, and we don't think
we know you're the right person for it, but we
need the culture changed in the garage. And at first
I didn't really understand what he was asking asking me
to do. But after you get into garage, and before
(34:22):
we went into Daytona in twenty thirteen, visited every race
team in their shop, spent probably three hours at Penske
Racing just listening to what the issues were that And
once I got done with all those, went to j R.
M and spent time hours with them. Jimmy Mean, spent
(34:44):
a couple of hours at his shop, Johnny Davis, Richard Childers,
I mean, Jack Rowse. The list just goes on and
on of the grudges that we went to shops, we
went to offices, We went to just listen to what
they would needed. They needed somebody to vent to or
(35:04):
talk to or give advice to. And once I got
down with that, I understood fully what Mike Helton was
saying was changed the culture of the Gridge area. And
if there's one thing that probably if I had to
say one time saying something that I felt like it,
we did right. We changed the culture of the garage.
And you know, I think JD. Gibbs knew I was
(35:27):
going to be the Expenity series director before I did,
because I remember at Homestead in twenty twelve when we
were down there. He come by me and he said, Hey,
what are you gonna be doing next year? And just
sort of chuckled and walked off and didn't think anything
about it. But you know, Waynaunton did nothing in this sport,
(35:47):
Kelly waynaunt got to enjoy not a job, because it's
not a job. It is so much fun doing this
and interacting with the folks. But what wayn Aunton did
was meet a lot of good, very good people, a
lot of smart people, and hopefully got them together so
that we could come to a deal to where everybody
(36:08):
could enjoy the sport, and especially the fans. Hopefully they've
enjoyed what we've done all of our career, but went
out and did nothing. But what we all, we folks
in this garage area, we did together. But if there's
one thing that probably I'm proud of as much as anything,
is getting the garage to be able to talk to
us NASCAR and NASCAR being able to talk to them,
(36:30):
and that I believe that's what Mike Helton meant when
he asked me if I would get the culture changed
in the garage area, and hopefully we did that.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Wayne. I always enjoy getting to talk to you. I
appreciate you coming back on to do another part of
the podcast. We had done it actually back in the
first one was in twenty twenty two. It felt like
it was it had only happen. Yeah, it felt like
it had been center or more recently than that. But
I appreciate all the time. I appreciate the interactions we
have had. You are, sir, deserve all the act and
(37:00):
flowers that you've been getting. And once again, thank you
so much for just doing the podcast and everything you've
done for the sport.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Kelly. You've been a big part of this sport and
I've known you for a long time. When I say
a long time, as long as we've known each other,
and it's always a pleasure of doing this with you.
Amana had she still says, there's one person she's gonna
make me talk to before I leave, and I don't
think she's gonna get it done. She's got a week
to do it and it's not gonna happen. So that's
(37:27):
another story. But I hear you, Amanda, don't try to hide.
I know what you're saying over there. But Kelly, anytime
for you, and after we leave us job, we'll still
be friends.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Absolutely absolutely. Well, I'm gonna end the recording. Wayne once again,
thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
All right, Kelly.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Once again, Wayne, thank you for coming on the podcast.
Congratulations once again. There have been so many kind words
sent Wayne's way. Sure all of you have seen that
on social media. Maybe you've seen the articles that have
been written, and he deserves all of it, as I
told him, just an absolutely unbelievable career and one of
the good guys in the garage. So Wayne, congratulations. I
can't wait to see you this weekend, and I can't
(38:13):
wait to see you having a cold one in the
stands next year at Rocking hammeror wherever you may pop up.
My thanks as well to Amanda Ellis of NASCAR for
coordinating conversation. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please
leave a rating and review. You can go to social
media and interact with me there as well and let
me know what you think. My ex handles at Kelly Crandall.
You can also find me by the same name on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn,
(38:36):
very easy to interact with me. I appreciate you clicking, listening,
downloading each week and where You've got a couple more
episodes before we wrap up for the season, So once again,
thank you and I'll see you again soon on The
Racing Writers Podcast
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Racing Writers Podcast. I'm your host,
Kelly crandall our guest today is Wayne on And, who
returns to the podcast because his tenure is NASCAR Xfinity
Series Managing Director is coming to an end this weekend.
Wayne was on the podcast back in early twenty twenty
three as we talked about the twenty twenty two season,
and we're gonna pick up a little bit on that,
talking more about the role and what goes into it,
(00:28):
but really we're talking about how this year has gone
for Wayne as he tries to soak up every last
day of it as it comes to an end this
weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Wayne has been in the role
for quite some time in the Exfinity Series. Before that,
he was in the Craftsman Truck Series. He started his
career at Hickory Motor Speedway. He has been in many
places and has had a long and storied racing career
(00:50):
and it's just so great to get to talk to him.
So I'm really excited to have him back and to
continue this conversation and just let him tell everyone what
it has been like over the last many many years.
Let's get into it. Here's Wayne on the Racing Writers Podcast.
Wayne at And is back on the podcast because he's
(01:13):
wrapping up his time as NASCAR Sfindy series managing directors,
So I had to have him back on for part
two because we only scratched the surface last time, but
also Wayne, because I want to know what has this
year been like for you now that it's coming to
an end. I'm sure there's been a lot of folks
who have probably had some kind words to say, hopefully
and then probably wanted to take a lot of your
time just letting you know that they appreciate you. So
(01:34):
what has it been like from your perspective going through
this year.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's been a busy year. You know, We've had seventeen
different winners out of thirty one race, so that's pretty
good batan average. So it's been an interesting year. It's
been a fun year. It's quickly becoming a sad year.
But we'll be part of Crown and our thirty third
champion as a series director, so that's pretty cool. Bettersweet,
(02:00):
But yeah, you said, you know a lot of people
telling me congratulations, a lot of people tell me to
get the hell out, and then there's also people that
are all of them came to me a couple of
weeks ago and said, hey, we all picked the race,
so you're our guest at a race next year. So
that makes you feel pretty good that they still want
you to be around. But you know it's I keep
(02:22):
telling them when I leave Phoenix, you'll not see me
back in the garage. I keep telling them all, I
go down to Rockingham because that's where I worked one
of my very first races as a NASCAR official. I
definitely worked my first Cup race there back in about
eighty four, and I told them I was going to
come in, but I was going to set up in
the stands and have a coal one and take a
picture of it and send it to all of them.
(02:43):
So that's one race that I will go to.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That sounds like a heck of a plan. I know
there's a lot of people excited for Rockingham, but for
you to be able to go take it in as
a fan, like you said, with cold one in your hand,
that would be pretty fitty.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, absolutely a cold one and watch all of them work.
And I keep telling them all that I'm gonna I
will do definitely be watching the race. I'm go'll send
them notes during the race that they're in trouble or
you know, just to mess with them a little bit,
but you know, they got a job to do, so
we'll have some fun with.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
It, right Well, on that Notewayne, can you share what
you will be doing in twenty twenty five, because when
the announcement came out that this would be your last
year as managing director, it's set at the time you
were going to stay on with Nascars. Are you able
to share what an idea of what you're going to
be doing next year?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
No? None, at this time, still a lot of conversations
going on. Might just ride off into the sunset, as
they say.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That might not be a bad thing either, right, No.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It's not. I've never had a new vehicle. I've always
bought live a new vehicle, but I've never bought one
for myself. Well, I went out and bought one a
couple of weeks ago, So I think I'm gonna enjoy
that and enjoy hanging out with the grand babies. They're
starting to get at the age that, you know whatever.
We started this deal years ago. Our two daughters were
(03:55):
very young, but we left and we would go out
on Saturday morning come back, Sara and all the travel.
I will tell you, as Kelly, when I got home
at six fifteen am from Las Vegas a couple of
weeks ago, and I got up whatever time it was,
still couldn't sleep, you know, because of the difference in time.
(04:15):
And I told liv I said, I know it's time
after laying down at six fifteen am, so the soul
body just won't take much more.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know, this is an interesting conversation, Wayne, because so
much gets focused right on drivers when they retire after
such a long time spent in sport and so much
that they've given to being a race car driver. But
as I listened to you talk, it seems like, you know,
it's not that much different for you all. On the
other side of things as well, you've been in this
sport for so long that you're going to be going
through that adjustment as well of what comes next and
(04:45):
what do you want to do? What don't you want
to do?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, I definitely don't want to go to a racetrack
to work, you know, I'm going to enjoy maybe going
as a fan to a couple of races. I've never
stayed at Talladega Boulevard, the racetrack. Downer offered me a
motor home and I stay at Talladega Boulevard. I might
even try that out, but you know, after you travel
(05:08):
so long, that's the hardest part of the job. The
hardest part of leaving job is gonna be the people
in it. The wear and tear on your body is
it's not for an older guy like myself. Nowadays, and
whenever we were young, heck, it wasn't nothing to get
up at four o'clock in the morning, jump in a truck,
take off due a race, get down about midnight, and
drop back home. Not a problem at all. But nowadays,
(05:31):
luckily we get to fly across the country. But like say,
you get home after working all day at six fifteen
am in the morning, and it was one of those
flights that didn't seem it ever wanted to stop bouncing,
so didn't get my trust on the plane. But man,
I'm gonna tell you what it's. It's just one of
those deals that I'm gonna have to adjust a lot
(05:52):
because I'm so used to being on the go as
much as we've been for all this year. It used
to be on the road over two hundred days a year,
and this last couple of years, especially since COVID, we
probably cut that down in half, so it's not as
bad as it used to be. But still the old
bones are getting old on this Kelly now. But it adds. Guy,
(06:15):
it's been a good ride.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
As you look to the future, Wayne and someone comes
in and takes over that role, would you want to
be a resource? Would you hope that you would be
a resource someone that if folks still need to lean
on or ask about the job or certain situations. Would
you are you open to being that guy? If, as
I said, you know, somebody needs to come to you
for something.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, I think you've got to look at it this way.
That hopefully the knowledge that we got to learn from
Bill Frantz Junior, last Dichacter, Mike Helton, those type folks,
Jim Hunter. I mean, golly, if you didn't learn from Hunter,
then you weren't paying attention on what was going on.
But hopefully the knowledge that we learned from those folks
(06:58):
that we try the hand down to the younger kids
that are taking over the sport now and they need
a little bit, you would hope that they would want
to give you a call and said, hey, how did
you actually handle this. I mean, that's basically what goes
on nowadays. And do I want to be absolutely Do
(07:19):
I really need to be absolutely not? Because I believe that,
as Mike Helton told us, the way we should lead
this sport is in a good place, and right now
I think the sport is in an excellent place, especially
with the racing that we've seen in all three national
series this year. The people what you're going to miss.
You're not going to miss the job, but God, I
lay the people in. It is just unbelievable. When you
(07:42):
can walk through a garage and somebody wants to talk
to you about business, somebody wants to talk to you
about their personal life, somebody just wants to crack a
joke with you. So that's what you get comfortable with.
And that's the part that you're going to miss. But
the go to guy, if I would never tell this
company that if they needed me to step in for
(08:03):
an emergency for somebody. This company has been good to
live an out for a lot of years, and no
way would my phone be turned off if they needed
some kind of advisor, needed a body to go do something.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
You don't mind if you have to be but you
hope you don't have to be as well. I like
that that's a good way of looking at it. Going
back to where I was talking about, you know, you
interacting and hearing from some folks this year as your
tenure winds down and getting ready to crown your thirty
third champion as a series director. One of those drivers
that you and I talked about on the last podcast
(08:38):
a lot we had some laughs about is Justin Algeyer.
I believe you had called him on the last podcast
the senior citizen of some of the Exminity Series garage,
and he had made the comment way in a couple
of weeks ago. I don't know if you had heard
this or not, but he said that he's really hoping
he can pull off this Exminity Series championship so that
he can find a way to get you on stage
and share that moment with you. So again, I know
(09:01):
we've talked about Justin on the last podcast, but to
hear just messages like that from drivers who want to
share their moments with you and have time with you,
that has to feel pretty good too, that when they're
in these moments of success that they hope that you're
right there and that they can share that with you.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well, you got to look at this way we travel,
we eat, sleep, work, yell, pat each other on the back,
give high fives, and it's our family. And Justin, as
I said earlier, being a senior citizen other than myself
in the garage area, I mean, he's thirty nine. The
(09:37):
heck he is what twenty eight years younger than I am.
So but to hear drivers say that kind of comments
makes you feel like it maybe you did all right
in this job. Everybody says, how do you explain your job?
And you go, well, you're a principal, you're a dictator,
you're a boss, you're a friend, your family mentor, you're
(10:01):
somebody galen on and you're the chief cook and bottle
washer and if you don't want to do all those things,
and this job's not for you. So been fortunate to
get to hang out with a lot of a lot
of drivers. Austin Cindrick stopped by last weekend at Homestead
and we had a really good chat about the couple
of years I've got to deal with him in the
(10:21):
garage area. So it's nice to know that you can
still walk through the garage and people recognize you a
little bit, and I appreciate what you do on this
side of the fence. And as mister Frantz told me
a long long time ago, there shouldn't be no offense
between the NASCAR officials and the competitors because we got
to put our hands together make this business work.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Is there something when you were hoping to get out
of this year when you came in knowing it was
the last Is there something you hoped you experienced or
took in more and appreciated or have you just been
a business as usual not have to do interviews.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
No, I just wanted enjoy the last year is the
biggest thing. And I mean, you know, when I was
in truck for eighteen years, pretty much could name people's
grandkids instead of their kids and their kids and the grandkids.
I know one particular wife told me after one of
the races that she really appreciated what I did, but
(11:22):
she was really mad at me, so she wasn't going
to talk to me that day. So you know, that
makes you feel good that they understand that you got
a job to do. And there is feelings on both
sides of the fence that when you walk inside deck gate.
You do your job like you should, and your friends
will be on the outside the gate want to have
a cold beverage with you. So biggest thing, I believe
that if you had to ask me, what was one
(11:44):
thing that wanted to see the last year, see people
smiling faces? And you know, I'm not sure if I
told you this. Last time everybody asked me, what's the
best race I ever seen? The best race I've ever
saw in my life was when everybody goes home safe.
So it doesn't matter. We all like to see that
one answer last when as we had earlier in the
(12:06):
year with uh maybe the Sam Mayer and Ryan said
Texas and that you want to see everybody go home safe,
and that's that's what the enjoyment of this racing thing is.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I do believe we had talked a little bit about that,
and once you said that, I remembered that saying you
mentioned Austin Syndric. Are there drivers Wayne that you had
worked closely with for one reason or another, or that
just you they were in the series Xinity truck, or
or you've been so many places over the years that
you see them now and how far they've come, And
(12:38):
it kind of strikes you as maybe they of course,
they were probably much younger in their development when they
came across you in whatever series you were overseeing. Is
there anyone that come to mind as I said that
today you look at them and how far they've come,
and it just makes you chuckle.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Oh God, that that is a great question. And I
don't know if I can answer that was or not,
But God, when you see kids that you see when
they first come into the sport at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen
years old and mature as much as they have when
(13:13):
they first come in, they need a little bit of
a guidance. Sometimes they left the trailer crying, sometimes they
left the trailer with high fives. But when you see
the ability that they have and how much they grow,
and hopefully you had just a little bit of a
part in seeing those kids grow up. I know Austin
(13:34):
Cindric had a as an example, He's won a Daytona
five hundred. I mean, what can you say when you
see a young kid come in to a series when's
your championship and goes and wins the Daytona five hundred,
and you know you had a little bit of a
part in that Austin Dellon win in the championship, winning
(13:55):
the Daytona five hundred. I mean, the list just goes
on and on. A the people that we got to
see start and part of our job is to help
them get to the next level. That's what a series
director does. We know, we got rules and regulations, we
got to have them meet and follow, but when they
need somebody to lean on. Bobby Hamilton used to come
(14:17):
in and trail and just lay down and stay there
for a couple of minutes, just to get away from
his team. And a lot of times a driver would
come in and just sit down with you and just say, hey,
I just need a few minutes. Can can you hide
me in here for a little bit? You know? And
you remember those those days. There's been so many drivers
that Kylie Kelly, you just you got me stumped here
(14:42):
on the best way to answer. But the best way
was what I said about the two Austin's. Both of
them started racing with me, either in trucks or Infinity,
and they both want a Daytona five hundred. And as
a series director, sometimes you think of these these drivers,
(15:03):
it's your kids and you want to see them succeed
and to see those two guys when the Daytona five
hundred just keep saying, it is just amazing to me
how much they I've grown.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Those are good examples. I'm good with that. I'm glad
that those two came to mind at least. And you know,
when we did the last podcast swayin we talked a
lot of feel like about the truck series, and you
were telling some great stories about kind of what you
just said right there, drivers who'd come in the haller upset,
and I want to say it was corn to day.
You told a great story about he was so mad,
or someone came in the haller and they were so mad,
(15:35):
and they kept pushing the chair and the chair kept
rolling down, and.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I was born to day, that was born today.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So I just I wanted to know, or I wanted
to get some more stories. What are some more stories
you can share from over the years, whether it be
trucks or exfinity of some things that have happened in
the hall or that you can share that were not
seen by the public that maybe you will always remember.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Well, there's a special bond that you can have with
certain drivers, and I believe that Jack Spragg, Mike Skinner
and run Horna. They paid for that because people knew
and we didn't try to hide it. When you were
leaving a racetrack, you might have seen all three of
us together having a cold one after the race after
all the inspections were over. And Sprague to this day
(16:19):
still says I owe him one more race that he
still believes that we took away from him. That might
have been Milwaukee Mile. I think it was. He still
swear there wasn't nothing on the racetrack, but there was
debris on the racetrack and we called it and he
had a pretty good lead at the time, and he
come in the trailer and boiced his pleasure if you
(16:42):
want to say in a negative way that he feels
like it. We still owe him a championship and Skinner,
I mean it was something with Skinner every week every
week early or even when he came back to the
trucks finish out his career. But Hornaday's story with the
(17:04):
chair is still just the funniest one that I can
just stat here today and just remember vividly. But so
we were a test at Daytona one year and I'm
a big New Orleans Saints fan have been since the
sixties when they first started playing, And I tell everybody
the joke that whenever they used to sit in the
(17:24):
stadium with bags on their head, I'd set it home
with a bag on my head watching them on TV.
Somebody knew that I was there watching my favorite team.
But we were to test at Daytona one year and
all of a sudden, I hear here comes Saints go
marching in and it's half the garage at the test
with bags on their heads coming in the trailer, and
(17:45):
there was a guy playing harmonica with the all the
Saints come marching in and they all just got a
big kick out of that. And you know, just stuff
like that that you remember. That was a lot of fun.
You know, there's been good days. There's been bad days
in this sport for all of us, but the good
days really outweigh the bad days. I wish that there
(18:06):
were some people that I would get to speak to
again that we can't because of incidents that's happened on
the track, but those are few and far between. Thank
God for that. Almighty upstairs takes care of these drivers
and crew members. But you're asking me funny stories, I
mean colle The Horned Day was just so dog gone good.
(18:28):
It's hard to beat that one, you know. Yeah, But
like I say, Bobby Hamilton used to come in and
I knew what he wanted. My desk was right as
the inside the trailers. You come into the left and
he come in and say, hey, you doing today, Wayne,
And I go, I'm doing fine, Bobby, and I wouldn't
even turn around because I knew what he was going.
He just wanted to get away from everybody. And he
(18:49):
would just all of a sudden just take him a
little nap there, and he'd get up and said thanks
for the talking. Out the door he would go, and
then he would come in another times said hey, are
you busy? And I knew right then and he wanted
to talk business. So, you know, just times like that,
which made a lot of fun. And then one other
one we had one of the funniest stories with a
(19:10):
couple of people in the trailer was we had a
kid that had a motor home and it happened to
be out with the fans. And this guy was a rookie.
I'm not going to mention his name because it's unfair
to him. He's really grown up, let me put it
that way. So anyway, we were having a rookie meeting,
and before he got in there and the guys were
(19:30):
telling me about he was raising all kinds of king
about where his motor home was at. So when he
walked into the rookie meeting, I said, hey, how's you
your motor home during the day. And all the other
guys that's got a big k they just busted out laughing.
And he looked at me and he said, not too
blankety good. And I said, well, you know something, I've
(19:50):
always told you kids that the way you make money
is not driving a race vehicle. The way you make
money is selling and have some T shirts. Maybe you
could set you up a little fan out there and
sell some hats and T shirts. Maybe you can make
a little money to pay for your motor home spot today.
But all the other rookies in the trailer, they just
busted out lapping. One of the stories that still makes
(20:11):
me feel so good is we always tell the rookies
that before you go on the racetrack, you have to
go out the right side of the car. And Christopher
Bell I remember him. We were in a rookie meeting.
I forget we had somebody brand new. I don't remember
who that one was. Anyway, Christopher goes hey, wang, let
me handle this one. So before I could even say
(20:33):
a word, Christopher goes hey, have you ever been out
the right side of the car. So it makes you
feel good that those guys like to have a lot
of fun in the trailer behind closed doors as much
as anything else. But I'm telling you, I wish I
had some really good I could tell you some really
good ones that people don't really need to hear. So
(20:55):
when we've had people that's went out crying, we've had
people went out really mad, but we've always seen that
eye before we walk out to garage.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Well, I was going to circle back on that part
where you just said it again there about folks coming
in or leaving crying, and you also mentioned Bobby Hamilton
just coming in to escape. I never thought of the
NASCAR hauler as that would be a place where somebody
would want to escape. So I love that story. But yeah,
I want to circle back to I would always think
if somebody's going to the haller, it's because they're angry.
(21:25):
So hearing that folks would leave their crying, it makes
me chuckle as well.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Well, my granddaughter Drotella. I'm just a big old teddy bear.
But some of the drivers will tell you that I
never tried to be this way. I don't know why
it comes across that way, but some people tell me
I'm intimidating and they don't like coming to the trailer.
(21:50):
Jesse Love told me this year he had a little
bit of deal earlier in the year, and so I
was going to bring him in and it was more
of a teaching lesson than anything else. The first words
out of his mouth was he said, mister Wayne, I
thought I would make it more than nine races before
I got caught in here in your trailer. So you
know that was That was one of the funnier ones
(22:11):
that somebody had said ever said to me that they
come in the trailer. But listen, that trailer is theres
as much as it is in NASCAR office. They should
be able to come in there and voice their opinions.
And that's what we learn from Jim Hunter as much
as anybody, and the less director of Mike Helton, what
they taught us about how to handle these competitors. You know,
(22:33):
you can be the guy that everybody's scared to come
in and talk to or you can be the guy
that people want to come in here and sit down
and just help a casual conversation. Jack Rowse's come in
that trailer many of times and and uh, I go
what you need, Sarah, I just come in here to talk,
and that makes you feel good. The hall of famers
that want to come in and sit in the trailer.
(22:54):
Richard Petty asked me one time if you could watch
the TV and the trailer because there we were out
in Portland, Oregon. He just wanted to come in to
watch wrestling. So you know, it's just a commonplace. But
I learned that from back to my younger days when
I used to hang out in the Unicow building in Rockingham.
(23:16):
There again, rocking Him comes up. One of the first
races they ever went to as a young kid, and
the drivers hung out. It didn't have these big fancies
trailers and stuff that they've got nowadays. So sort of
learned that, hey, these guy's got to have a place
they can get away too, and a lot of times
they just want to get away from their team. There's
no place to go to. Then official out on lining
(23:38):
up to day twenty five hundred one year and Davy
Allison come out there and he said, hey, Waan, Hey Davy.
He said, mind if I hang out here with you
for a little bit. I said, absolutely, sit down right
there and I'll make sure nobody gets to you. He
sat there about twenty minutes. He got up and went,
all right, let's go back to the zoo. Thanks buddy,
and Troun walked off. So you just learn that the
(24:03):
drivers they are human beings also, and they need a
little time away and maybe you can be the one
that can show them a little bit of a Hey.
You know, you're a big star. But it doesn't bother
me because we both got a job to do.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
When you have been in this role, and really not
even just this role, but when you've been in the sport,
Wayne for as long as you have, which we touched
on at the top of our conversation, is it possible
to even be surprised anymore by things that may happen,
whether it's on the racetrack or things that happen in
the sport, or rivalries or just anything. Is it possible,
(24:39):
as I said, when you put in as much time
as you have in this sport that you still can
be surprised by by something.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
That's what's so cool about this sport, Kelly, that every
day is something new. You know, you could be in
no disrespect to anybody what jobs they got, but you
could go into a four walls and it's the same
thing day after day after day. I can actually stand
here and say, one day has never been the same
(25:07):
as the last. It's always been something different. Something new
always comes up. You see something new that somebody's somebody's invented,
or somebody's tried to get through the inspection, or some
new saying that a kid has done that. You look
at it and go, man, that sounds pretty stupid. But
(25:28):
then in about two or three weeks, Hey, that kid
was pretty dark, gone smart. So there's nothing I believe
that would surprise me. Even going to Martinsville this weekend,
and I'll say it out loud, that's my favorite track
because I've been going there since I was eight years old,
at least a race every year. It's done that for
(25:50):
fifty years and then I missed a race. But anyway,
something new will come up this weekend of Martinsville. Something
will come up new next week in Phoenix that we
hadn't thought about before. But these drivers and these teams
and these owners, they will keep you on your toes.
And hopefully the best part about it is you surround
(26:13):
yourself with good people and all of it comes out
pretty good. And right now I can personally say that
I've never ever not had good people around me. That
wyn Oughton did nothing in this sport, but what we
accomplished and what we did together as NASCAR officials and
team owners and team drivers and team crew members together
(26:34):
as reason this sport is so awesome.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I was also thinking as you were talking there about
you know, drivers and teams keep you on your toes.
The cool thing about the Infinity Series is that there's
been so many great programs over the years as well.
In addition to the racing, right, there's the Dash for Cash,
and there's all these different little specialty things, and obviously
the championship formats have changed over the years, and the
rules about cup drivers and how many races they can
(26:59):
run in your position, Wayne, how challenging or how interesting
and how much have you been have to stay on
your toes when it comes to just understanding everything about
the job. And like I said, the format and the
rules and all the information you and your team and
everybody needs to know.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, the cool thing about it is we have this
NASCAR R and D Center here in Concord, North Carolina,
and these people that are working here are pretty doll
on smart, or they wouldn't be in this building, and
they keep us up to date on a lot of stuff.
But the reason that we can stay on our toes
is because we have teams that'll talk to us, Teams
(27:37):
that will come and say, hey, can we try this?
Or hey, we've seen this? Is this legal to do?
Or the best inspector in the garage is the teams
because they're going to tell on each other because that's
who they're trying to beat. They're not trying to beat
us NASCAR, but they're trying to beat those other thirty
seven cars that are setting out there in this garage
(27:59):
area whenever we get Martinsville this weekend. And the way
you stay on top of that is you constantly are
in conversation with them and you listen to what they say.
They may have a great idea that helps the whole garage,
and then they may have an idea that helps their team,
and you go. You know, we got to think about
that a little bit. So it's been a job. Let
(28:22):
me put it to faith, I don't have a job,
but what we have together is a garage area that
works together. Very very proud of how the NASCAR Experience
Series handles the garage area amongst everybody. Everybody knows that
it costs a lot of money to run this sport.
It takes a lot of knowledge to run this sport,
(28:43):
It takes a lot of time to run this sport.
And the only way that we're going to accomplish anything
is just doing it together. And ninety percent of the
time they're talking to us, they're telling the stuff they're
talking to us. Ideas, we got some stuff coming up
here in the very near future pretty all gone exciting
that teams have talked to us about that hopefully is
(29:04):
a cost savings for them. Be premature to say anything
here today, but Eric Peterson's going to be taking the
reins here and he's done one heck of a job.
We knew five years ago we were hurting we had
the right person to come in and just take take
this division over because he is so smart, and begged
him to come to work here We got unlucky that
Jack Rowse shut down their Exfinity program, but we got
(29:27):
lucky because they shut down their expendity program. We got
Eric Peterson on board coming in to take over this
and he does a fantastic job out in the garage area.
And the cool thing about this garage you don't get
surprised by a whole lot of stuff. Nothing's ever the same,
but pretty much somebody's going to tell you something that's
coming at you so that we can all make sure
(29:48):
that it all fits and it benefits everybody in the
garage area. So if there's one thing that keeps you
on your toes is the ever changing evolution of this
sport because it's just one of those sports that a
ten cent piece could knock you out a race, but
it's also a sport that a ten cent piece could
(30:08):
win you the race. So as long as the conversations
keep going between NASCAR and the teams, this garage, Erry
is I'm gonna be biased here, but this is the
best doll gone garage that NASCAR's ever had.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I know you have some other responsibilities coming up today,
so I've got two more things for your Real quick Way,
and you talked. At the beginning of our conversation, you
threw out a stat about seventeen different winners, and you know,
the great thing about the Infinity Series is, obviously there's
so many drivers coming and going, whether it's drivers on
part time schedules, cup drivers coming down running some races,
(30:42):
or of course just the changing faces in that series
with drivers moving up and down the ladder. How unique
or what has it been like for you that there
does seem like there's always new faces in that series, right,
it's I mean, you do have your veterans, but that
is a series where as I said, you have a
(31:02):
lot of drivers that you're going to interact with that
are coming and going, and then along the way you
get to be a part of their success. So how
unique How has that been for you of dealing with
so many different faces?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I think it's like a dad that watches their kid
throw a baseball for the first time, or catch a football,
or or bounce a basketball or you know, this sport
is not cheap. I'll say it again, but the cool
part about it is personally, this is one time and
I'll say I I've had the fortunate of being able
(31:38):
to see a lot of young talent. And when parents
come to you and say, hey, we can't be there
all the time, would you please make sure our kid
is okay, And they put their kids in their hands
and just ask you to take care of them when
they're not there. It is just so when you look
back on your career and you go, Golley, what was
(32:02):
one item that may have made you feel good? It
was the trust in the people to watch their kids,
because they are young kids. And I member justin probably
just now I'm here, just now go running the trucks,
and he was in his teens twenties maybe when we
(32:22):
first met. But when you get parents that come to
you and said, please watch after my kid, and they
got the trust in you to know and what they
mean by that is don't let them get in any
kind of trouble and if they need a good old
out the door spanking, as I think we all grew up,
(32:43):
I get one at least one time in our life.
I got much fair share, I'll know that. But when
you see these kids grow up to be men or
the ladies become women, and you know that you had
a very instrumental part in them growing, That's that's the
coolest part. And that's what I'm going to feel like
(33:04):
that I got out of it. Hopefully I did my
part of it.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
On that note, about your part of all of this,
So between today's conversation and our last conversation on the podcast,
you talked about the role, what goes into the role,
and so on and so forth. So, Wayne, as your
time winds down here, what are to talk about yourself
for a minute? What are you most proud of that
you brought to the role or the way that you've
gone about being in this role in the Xpinity series
(33:32):
for these last number of years. As you again, as
you get ready to close that chapter, Wow.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Don't want this to sound the wrong way at all.
In twenty twelve, and I'm speaking for the Expanity Series
in twenty twelve, Mike Helton sit here in the office
here in Concord and ask me if I would go
over and run at then the Nation series Expanity Series now.
(34:02):
And the first words out of his mouth was, we
really want you to do this, and we don't think
we know you're the right person for it, but we
need the culture changed in the garage. And at first
I didn't really understand what he was asking asking me
to do. But after you get into garage, and before
(34:22):
we went into Daytona in twenty thirteen, visited every race
team in their shop, spent probably three hours at Penske
Racing just listening to what the issues were that And
once I got done with all those, went to j R.
M and spent time hours with them. Jimmy Mean, spent
(34:44):
a couple of hours at his shop, Johnny Davis, Richard Childers,
I mean, Jack Rowse. The list just goes on and
on of the grudges that we went to shops, we
went to offices, We went to just listen to what
they would needed. They needed somebody to vent to or
(35:04):
talk to or give advice to. And once I got
down with that, I understood fully what Mike Helton was
saying was changed the culture of the Gridge area. And
if there's one thing that probably if I had to
say one time saying something that I felt like it,
we did right. We changed the culture of the garage.
And you know, I think JD. Gibbs knew I was
(35:27):
going to be the Expenity series director before I did,
because I remember at Homestead in twenty twelve when we
were down there. He come by me and he said, Hey,
what are you gonna be doing next year? And just
sort of chuckled and walked off and didn't think anything
about it. But you know, Waynaunton did nothing in this sport,
(35:47):
Kelly waynaunt got to enjoy not a job, because it's
not a job. It is so much fun doing this
and interacting with the folks. But what wayn Aunton did
was meet a lot of good, very good people, a
lot of smart people, and hopefully got them together so
that we could come to a deal to where everybody
(36:08):
could enjoy the sport, and especially the fans. Hopefully they've
enjoyed what we've done all of our career, but went
out and did nothing. But what we all, we folks
in this garage area, we did together. But if there's
one thing that probably I'm proud of as much as anything,
is getting the garage to be able to talk to
us NASCAR and NASCAR being able to talk to them,
(36:30):
and that I believe that's what Mike Helton meant when
he asked me if I would get the culture changed
in the garage area, and hopefully we did that.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Wayne. I always enjoy getting to talk to you. I
appreciate you coming back on to do another part of
the podcast. We had done it actually back in the
first one was in twenty twenty two. It felt like
it was it had only happen. Yeah, it felt like
it had been center or more recently than that. But
I appreciate all the time. I appreciate the interactions we
have had. You are, sir, deserve all the act and
(37:00):
flowers that you've been getting. And once again, thank you
so much for just doing the podcast and everything you've
done for the sport.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Kelly. You've been a big part of this sport and
I've known you for a long time. When I say
a long time, as long as we've known each other,
and it's always a pleasure of doing this with you.
Amana had she still says, there's one person she's gonna
make me talk to before I leave, and I don't
think she's gonna get it done. She's got a week
to do it and it's not gonna happen. So that's
(37:27):
another story. But I hear you, Amanda, don't try to hide.
I know what you're saying over there. But Kelly, anytime
for you, and after we leave us job, we'll still
be friends.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Absolutely absolutely. Well, I'm gonna end the recording. Wayne once again,
thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
All right, Kelly.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Once again, Wayne, thank you for coming on the podcast.
Congratulations once again. There have been so many kind words
sent Wayne's way. Sure all of you have seen that
on social media. Maybe you've seen the articles that have
been written, and he deserves all of it, as I
told him, just an absolutely unbelievable career and one of
the good guys in the garage. So Wayne, congratulations. I
can't wait to see you this weekend, and I can't
(38:13):
wait to see you having a cold one in the
stands next year at Rocking hammeror wherever you may pop up.
My thanks as well to Amanda Ellis of NASCAR for
coordinating conversation. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please
leave a rating and review. You can go to social
media and interact with me there as well and let
me know what you think. My ex handles at Kelly Crandall.
You can also find me by the same name on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn,
(38:36):
very easy to interact with me. I appreciate you clicking, listening,
downloading each week and where You've got a couple more
episodes before we wrap up for the season, So once again,
thank you and I'll see you again soon on The
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