Episode 120: Luke Griffith Moves Into the 410

Ohio driver Luke Griffith discusses making the move to the Capodice 410 car, crusing the bottom, and what it's like to move into a new team. 

Episode Transcript

(00:36):
Hello, race fans, and welcomeback to the Ohio Dirt Track Podcast.
I have no idea what number show. This is over one hundred. Uh.
We are into May now and we'rein the race season in Ohio and
we're glad that you're tuning back andlistening to us. My name is Clint
Knight, I'm Jacob Pardlue Griffith ishere on the horn with us, and

(00:57):
we're gonna talk about some sprint carracing as usual. Luke, it's awesome
to have you on the show.This is definitely the first time we all
was something we always talk about.I am at the baseball field, so
I'm sure you guys hear some baseballbackground. I apologize for that, but
Luke, we're excited to have youon. Hey, I'm glad to be
here, guys. Thank you.So, Luke, you know, coming

(01:19):
into the season, it kind oflooked like you're gonna do some three six
year racing there. But right beforeour season started here in Ohio, it
was announced that you're going to bein the capitalized number twelve machine. So
you know, tell us about that. How did that start up and go
and all that stuff. So youknow, I've known phil since going Kyle

(01:40):
Bold, I should say since Iwas a kid. You know, Kyle
and I race go carts together overat the go kart track there outside of
Fremont, and you know, obviouslywe both raced three or fives together and
then he went to four to tenroute, we went to three six year
out. But you know, we'vestill kept up communication, you know,
not that we race with each otherevery week, but when we see each
other, you know, it wasalways a hello, Hey you doing.
And I had run into Phill acouple times throughout the winter. Him and

(02:05):
I have a spot in downtown Senuskythat we both end up at a lot
and he had said to me,you know, I don't really know what
I want to do. You know, last year he had Brian Lai driving
the car for him and he wasn'tsure what direction he wanted to go this
year. And I said, well, you know, we're probably not really
racing for points or anything. ButI've got a family vacation in July,
so we were gonna miss a coupleof shows. So I was like,

(02:27):
we're probably just raced around here there. You know, we're probably not gonna
raise a ton, so that wedon't have to do a full rebuild,
but uh, that's kind of wherewe're at. And you know, we
talked a little bit and nothing reallywas said that was about the conversation.
Well a little before actually was rightaround Easter. He called me just completely
out of the blue and him andKyle had talked about it, and he
offered me the ride, and Iwas ecstatic, for lack of a better

(02:50):
term, I didn't quite know whatto say, just because I've never been
in that situation before, you know, I've always just driven for Mom and
Dad, and it was a prettycool deal. So Dad and I went
over to his shop that next weekand kind of talk things out, expectations,
you know, where he wanted torace, how much he wanted to
raise, that sort of thing,and we've just been kind of going from
there. We kind of made arough schedule that we're not really too firm

(03:13):
on, you know, like there'ssome three sixty stuff in there, there's
a fair amount of four ten stuffin there, and we're just kind of
going with the flow, for lackof a better term. But that's kind
of the story. It's kind ofnot as glamorous as some might think,
but it just kind of spawned outof nowhere. But I mean, hey,
you're going from racing your own threesixty to driving someone else's four ten.
So I mean, that's that's that'sa pretty good deal. I mean,

(03:35):
not a lot of guys get tosay they get to do that.
Oh, absolutely, couldn't couldn't bemore thankful, couldn't be more excited for
the opportunity. Like I said,I didn't really have that big of plans
this year. It was just kindof was what it was. And when
Phiel called, it was like,well, damn, this is gonna go
places, so I better get onmy horse and get rolling. So go
ahead. And you know, forthose who are listening and don't know who

(04:00):
Luke Griffith is, you know,kind of tell us about your upbringing,
you know in the race car thing. I know your family has some pretty
deep ties to the whole sprint carracing thing, so you know, kind
of, you know, talk usthrough that. So my grandpa, Earl
Griffith, actually started Griff's Engines.Forgive me if I'm looking up outlaws around
hot Lass. He started Griff's Enginesand downtown Sandusky back. I wish I

(04:26):
could tell you what year, Butmy uncle grew up and started racing,
probably in his late teens early twenties, and then when my grandpa retired,
he purchased the shot from him continuedon it with the Grift's Engines name.
And then when my brother Caleb gotto the point where he was, I
think he started the three or fivewhen he was like fourteen fifteen something like

(04:46):
that, and he raced three orfives for I believe it was two years.
Then they moved to four tens andhe raced for my dad my uncle
for a little while, and thenyou know, costs got to go up
as they've been doing in recent years, and they sold out of it.
Card. He raced for a fewother people, Al Davis, Ray Marshall,
Jeff Ward was always great to mybrother as well the last couple of
years. And I started racing threeor fives when he was driving for Al

(05:11):
Davis in the forty double D carback in I believe my first year was
the end of the twenty thirteen season, so twenty fourteen would have been my
first full year racing three fives,and we did that for we raised three
all five steady at Attica in Fremont, and you know, when you get
your Waynsfield or your Wayne County show, you know, wherever else. I
think we ran Mansfield twice, inMillstream twice. We rased three ll fives

(05:35):
pretty well constant until twenty twenty one, and we were kind of Dad and
I got to a point where wewere just kind of like, you know,
we felt we needed to We weren'treally running as well as we felt
we should run, and we feltlike we needed to kind of spread our
wings a little bit. So wedid some kind of off the wall things.
We went and raced our three orfive against the three sixties at Lima
when Ron Hammond still in the NRA, and we went to Plymouth, Indiana

(05:58):
and raced with them. And wealso ran non wing believe it or not,
with a three five with Barry's nonwing series the GLTS up at Silver
Bullet Speedway up in the Thumb ofMichigan if you've never been there, highly
recommended just for the atmosphere. Butwe raced there, and then we raced
with Aaron Fry's Boss series at Atomicone Night, and it kind of got

(06:19):
to the end of the year andwe knew we really didn't want to go
back three o five racing, butwe weren't really sure what we wanted to
do. And Ray Marshall, theheck of a guy, was always great
to me and my brother both.He made us a pretty good deal on
our first three sixty engine. Youknow, it still needed some work,
he needed a rebuild, but hetreated us very well and I'm very thankful
for that and kind of got uspointed in the right direction. And we

(06:42):
actually have two engines now, butthat was our first engine and that was
what we ran all twenty twenty twowith. I had a lot of good
runs, probably missed out on acouple wins. We were you know,
in three oh five's the fueling andall that isn't such a big issue.
But when you get to as Icall middle brothers sprint cars for three sixties,
it's it's a bigger deal. Andthen you get to four tens,
it's imperative. So we kind ofhad a few mistakes. Some nights got

(07:04):
away from us that year. Thatwas kind of our fault, just because
we were new to that game.But last year was obviously best year.
We've had, got two wins atLima, ran up front a lot run
forth in the NRA points was justa great year all the way around,
and we were kind of, likeI said, you were kind of planning
on doing the same thing this year, and then this fourtend deal kind of

(07:26):
blossomed with Phil and we've just beenkind of going with it. So let's
see, it's uh, yeah,I've been doing it a long time.
That's this is you said twenty fourteenwas your first full time year something.
This is ten years. Yeah,ten four years would be this year.
So it's uh, sometimes it feelslike thirty, but it's only been ten.
So I you tweeted just the otherday, it's like, even though

(07:50):
you're only twenty eight, you're you'retoo old to be up banging on the
cushion right now too, or atleast you feel too old to be.
Oh, man, the bottom,the bottom my home dog. I'll be
honest with you. Uh. Youknow, some of these guys are like
my brother was always a big guyfor running the curb, and he'd always
chastise me. In three or fiveyou get up there right against it,

(08:11):
and I'd be like, dude,that's that's not me. Man, Like
I'd rather just run the bottom andpass people where they're not. But uh,
you know, obviously racing at placeslike Lima Waynsfield, shorter places,
you get pretty good at running thebottom because it's the shorter way around.
It hasn't really translated well places likeEl Dora, but it goes pretty good
on the shorter tracks. So butyeah, I'm a I'm a bottom flowered

(08:33):
heart. Now I'll go up likein the in the heat race Friday Attica,
I didn't have much of a choice. I had to go up there
because it was just where the fastplace on the racetrack was. But I'm
definitely a bottom guy. By traintell us about that heat race Attica on
Friday, I mean, that wasyour first four ten heat race win,
and you held off the most recentWorld of Outlaw winner to do it.

(08:56):
Uh. You know, it's probablya good thing that I never saw him,
because if I did, I probablywould have done something double first admitte
to you, But I can't sayenough good things about how good Phil Cappitace
had the race car. We kindof the first night we went to Attica,
I was kind of out of myelement. You know, I hadn't
race since slashed October when I gotupside down on Waynesfield and hopped into something

(09:18):
that I'd quite literally never done before. So I was pretty slow. Was
a little discouraged when the night wasover with, and then we went to
Fremont the next week. Felt alot better in hot laps and qualifying.
We just weren't quite where we neededto be in the heat race and the
bee. And man, when wedropped the gate at Attica last Friday,
you know, forty eight cars,and I'm like, man, it's gonna

(09:39):
be a tough go. You know, you have to make sure yet and
we qualified good, felt car feltreal good qualifying. I'm like, okay,
you know we streamed together a heatrace here, we can put her
in the show and see what wecan do. And got to jump on
the start, just rolled with it. Man. I probably owe probably owe
that to Tyler Street because he wasin the heat race before me, and

(10:00):
I can't remember who he got by, but as soon as he went by,
he went to the bottom and oneand two, and I'm like,
hey, that's an idea, now, I get buying that, and started
rolling the bottom down there and rollingthe top of the three four end,
and like I say, Bill hadit hooked up. So I give all
the compliments of the world to whathe had going on, because man,
I think it was a rocket ship. It was a point where I couldn't
he message it up. So sowhen you when you make a major change

(10:26):
like that, I mean, likeI said, you've been working in the
family car for years, and thendo you feel like you're stepping into Phil's
world? Do you feel like Philstepping into your world? What? What
did that transition feel like for you? Guys, It's a little bit of
both, to be honest with you. You know, Phil and Kyle had
raced together for a long time obviously, and you know, different drivers like
different things. He kind of was. He was real thorough and questioning me

(10:50):
the first you know, even lastFriday, he was real thorough and asking
me what I wanted out of therace car, what I felt, what
I felt it needed more of.And you know, it's been a little
bit of me adjusting to how togive feedback to Phil versus my dad and
my buddy Austin Troyer helped when werun the three sixty car. So it's
been a little bit of a changefor me in terms of trying to give
good reliable feedback to him, justbecause we've never worked together and then on

(11:13):
the same side of things. I'msure he's had a little bit of adjustment
getting the feedback from me and figuringout what he needs to do with it.
But I really feel like we're headedin the right direction. We had
sing issues on Saturday, but wegot all that figured out. Now we're
off this weekend with that car,but we'll be back next week, hopefully
get some good solid laps in atAttica and start keeping going in the right

(11:35):
direction. Yeah, I was gonnasay, I mean, it looks like
the progression that you've made over thelast few weeks to where you ended up
the other night at Attica, itlooks like it's working, looks like the
communication is there, and I thinkit looks like it's you know, could
continue to grow, going to bepast the season for you guys. Yeah,
I've been I was thrilled with howthings went and added the last Friday.

(11:56):
Obviously, I wish we'd have beena little bit better in the feature.
I kind of with that on mebecause I told Phil I didn't think
the racetrack would go away as hardas it did after that rain. Uh,
so we were really good early.But usually when you're really good early,
that means you're not gonna be reallygood late. And uh, I
had the I looked up. Theyhad caution with about eight to go,
and I looked up and I hadthe wing peg and I was pulling the
wheels on the backstretch, so Irolled her back forward a little bit.

(12:20):
We kind of got lucky, youknow, a couple of cars got tangled
there in the last couple of lapsand we gained a couple of spots back,
and then we got a spot backon the last restart there, so
we were on eleventh. Not ahorrible night at all, considering there was
forty eight South race cars there andthere was a lot of good race cars
that didn't even make the field.So uh, it was a great way
to end the night and a greatstep in the right direction moving forward.

(12:43):
Obviously, I wish Saturday would haveplayed out a little different, but we've
got all that figured out now andwe should be good to go. So
that uh, that first night atAttica in the four to ten, what
was that feeling like kind of sailingoff into turn one, you know with
the four ten? Now, uh, so funny, funny story. When
we fired the car. Phil firesthe car on the side, roll right

(13:07):
by his house and he goes,all right, you know, just get
her rolling straight, knock her outof gear, and it's kind of it's
kind of a pain to get fromwhere he fires back to a shop,
so like, you know, justkeep it running here on the road and
we'll check and make sure there's noleaks. So if we have to refire,
we don't have to drive all theway back around. I'm like,
okay, So he goes to shoveme off. It's just not fun.
Fire, not firing, not firing, And I'm like, day, what

(13:30):
is going on here? So he, you know, he stops and I
knock it out of gear. Hegets out. We're looking at things and
I'm like, man, I feellike I don't have any spark. But
the tach came on. You know, well, you're truly here, didn't
have the fuel turned on. Yourstruly thought the fuel valve needed to go
the other way. So we gotwe got that all right, and so
that was kind of like worked alittle bit of bugs out that night,
so that that way when we gotto Attika, I didn't look like a

(13:52):
complete more on uh so. Butback to your original question, it wasn't
you know, I kind of gotI shouldn't say I got lucky, but
the racetrack was not conducive to havingto run up on the top that night
when it started, because they gotall that rain, so they had it
super hard packed. But to behonest with you, man, more than
anything, I just felt so likeI felt like a squirrel. I mean,

(14:15):
I felt like I was all overthe place, and you know,
I'm hot lapping with guys that havegot a ton of laps. I mean
quite literally. I did the maththere that night. The only person who
had less laps than me was nobodyin a four to ten. So I'm
trying to stay out of everybody's way, trying to get comfortable, and I
just felt super all over the place. Well, then when we went to
Fremont the next week, I don'tknow if it was me, I don't

(14:37):
know if it was the race car, but I just felt guns better.
And I've always been more comfortable withAttica than Fremont for some reason, but
I felt way better there in hotlaps, and it's been a positive adjustment
ever since. So it was Ishould say it was a little intimidating,
especially, you know, shout outto Dwayne Hancock. He's had massive car
counts to start the year. Greatfor him, great for AFCs, great

(15:01):
for four to ten racing in thispart of the world in general after the
unfortunate fallout of the All Stars.But it's been great to see that guys
have been supporting him in his seriesafter what he does for sprint carries.
I mean, forty eight cars,forty seven, forty eight on Friday night.
I mean that was that's the highestnon outlaw or non high limit show
of the year so far. Youknow, it's the entire nation. I

(15:24):
mean, it was my job hitthe ground. When I was in the
pit tower and they told me it'slike forty seven four tens, like thirty
one, three h fives and thirtyeight models. I'm like, where did
all these cars come from? It'swild man, No, no, lie.
I showed up and you know,I don't get off work till four.
So I show up and I justdon't feel i'll draw because I gotta
walk through the pits anyway. Igo to draw and there are quite literally

(15:46):
three pills left in the bucket.I'm like, oh, this is great.
It's probably like the forty eight,forty nine and the fifty or the
one or something, you know,but no, that was astounding. I
mean, like you say, Ican't remember the last time, even Speed
Week last year, I don't rememberseeing a car count of Attica that large.
And I'm a firm believer that ifthere wouldn't have been two other racetracks

(16:08):
racing Saturday night, Freemont would haveprobably carried over that and maybe a little
bit more. You know, youhad Butler's testing tune going on, you
had Fast Was at Muskingham, andthen you had Wayne County with the regular
show, so some guys were spreadout. But I mean, had Freemont
is still have thirty one cars withall them guys spread out, that's I
mean, that's impressive in itself.I mean, rough rough math, there's

(16:30):
probably about seventy seventy five ish fourtens spread out between you know, Fremont
and Muskegom and Wayne County. SoI mean that's that's a good number.
I mean, I'm super interested,to be honestly, I'm super interested to
see what the four ten numbers looklike this weekend, because you know,
Attica Fremont obviously aren't racing. Theydon't want to compete with Eldorra. But

(16:53):
Mercer is racing, Atomic is racing, and Butler is also racing. I'm
interested to see what their car countsare and just reflect things because you know,
a lot of local guys don't godown to Del Dora for the outlaw
shows stuff like that. I mean, we weren't gonna go even if our
engine was running, right. ButI'm just interested to see what how many
cars are reflected around because it feelslike the number has just been growing massively

(17:17):
yearly. It'll be uh yeah,it'll definitely be interesting, you know,
to compare that's the right word,compare between El Dora and this tracks that
you mentioned. I guess I didn'trealize that Atomic was running four ten.
Yeah, I didn't know that untilearlier this week. So it'll be interesting

(17:37):
to see. You know, obviously, you got your your guys that race
down there all the time. They'llobviously stay there. I mean, they
have no incentive to leave. ButI'm interested to see. I feel like
Fast at Mercer is gonna get apretty solid car count because a lot of
those guys in Western pa will showup. You know, Aaron Fry does
a great job at promoting his endof four tenth Sprint car racing has great
payout throughout the field, so I'mbeliever that he'll get a decent amount of

(18:00):
cars as well. I feel likethere has been a pretty large number of
people moving up to that fourteenth orI say, moving up to the fourth
tent, you know, moving fromthe three oh five and three sixties to
the fours in in the last coupleof years in the region. Yeah,
you know. The weird thing isClint. You know, three sixt year

(18:21):
when we were racing with the threesixties, when we had a three oh
five, the car counts were likesuper low and they were paying believe it
or not, they were paying anextra I can't even remember what it was.
I think it was an extra twohundred dollars for the highest finishing three
oh five every night with the threesixties for like the last month and a
half of the season when Ron Hammondswas still running the NRA. So that
was why, like myself, SeanBalny, Dustin Stroup came. I believe

(18:45):
the first year they had the TimAllison Memorial, it was crowded. I
mean there was like thirty five carsthere and uh, you know, obviously
it paid very well, but youknow, they were throwing those bonuses out
and it seemed like the next yearwe moved the three sixties, Mike Heagan
went as well. Kelsey joined usat the end of the season. Uh.
And like you said, it justseems like here lately, there's been

(19:07):
a lot of guys moving on up, if you should say, from the
three h five to the three sixseason, then also from the three sixties
to the four tens. Uh.You know, Tyler Rankin had a pretty
solid three sixty program going with gigWheeler and they moved a racing full time
IRA this year. Uh. Greatfor those guys. They've always been great
to me. But like like Isaid, it just seems like everybody's uh

(19:29):
moving on up in the world,trying to stay relevant, trying to compete.
It's a great thing to see,to be honest, I'd say,
So, what now that you've racedyou know, the Little Brother's print car,
the Middle Brothers print car, andthe Big Brothers sprint car. You
know what, what's like the biggestdifference that you've seen between the three Uh.
So, for lack of a betterterm, when you race a three

(19:49):
h five, uh, it kindof feels like you have to have the
thing tied to the floorboard all thetime unless you're running the bottom. At
the end of the night. It'ssuper slick. Now. I was never,
like I said, I was nevera top guy in the three to
five deal. But you know guyswho go good, you're Jamian Miller's,
You're Steve Rando's, Paul Weavers,Brian Sabido, et cetera, Tyler Shuleck

(20:11):
last Friday at Attica. You knowthey're not scared of the right planel and
you gotta keep them up on thebars when you race the three on five.
The three sixty is kind of aninteresting middle ground because it has a
lot more throttle response, so likeyou can enter the corner at quite literally
no wake speed and come off thecorner on the bars but not pulling the

(20:34):
front wheels. Now, with thefour to ten, I've I've already pulled
the wheels a couple of times,so I've had to adjust that a little
bit compared to the three sixty,where you can just stand on it.
Uh. But I would say thebiggest thing difference I should say, sorry,
more than anything, is that thefour tens, you just have so
much more wing speed and so muchmore throttle response time. Like you know,

(20:57):
we fired the three sixty night andI'm leaning it out and I'm like,
man, I feel like this istaken a while, you know,
with the with the four to tendeal, it's like they lean out so
quick and they run int an idolso much cleaner and better and all the
above, but especially that last weekat Attica when the racetrack had some juice
to it. The best way Ican describe it, as I said it

(21:18):
to Tyler Street and somebody else,Ricky Peterson, I think when you're that
fast, you feel like you're halfan inch from death. That was the
analogy I used, and I standby that. Hopefully it gets to be
a little more comfortable in the longrun, but you know, it's it's
definitely a little bit of a changeof pace, but it's uh. I

(21:38):
definitely would say you've got to bemore on your toes in the fourth end
deal. And granted I've only racedthree times, but especially after that featured
atticle last week, I got outand I'm like, man, this is
the first time I've been gassed afterdriving race car in a long time.
I'm not shade. Uh. Youknow, normally we're racing at Waysfield,
Lima, where it's pretty slick andit takes a little bit of ainesse.

(22:00):
You're not on the board the wholetime. But man, you were ripping
last Friday aftern So I think yourstruly might have to hit the gyms for
a little bit to uh get alittle less hefty. Uh huh. You're
saying you might have to find adifferent spot in Sandusky, Ohio. Yeah,
might have to find more a gyminstead of the local bar. But

(22:22):
did a healthy mix of the twois okay? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
I think you know, I needto get better at drinking water and
exercising a little bit instead of justgoing to work every week and showing up
to the racetrack drinking a Pepsi orred bull. So uh, definitely something
I got to work kind on myend. But I would say biggest adjustment
has just been everything happens so muchfaster in a four to ten And anybody

(22:45):
who's driven one can tell you thatI'm not uh leading me to the promised
land here, But I'm interested tosee what happens this week when we go
to Linema because it's like I toldmy dad, I feel like we have
a pretty hot year in the carfor early in the night when we have
to qualify, and I feel likeI'm gonna be like, man, we
need to ad gear to this thing, and I'm probably gonna be turning like
eighty seven hundred or something stupid likethat. Uh, but that remains to

(23:07):
be seen standing by, and I'llkeep you in the loop ask to how
that goes. So, So,I was talking to Cody Brewer, I
think a couple of weeks ago,but he mentioned that, you know,
you, Cody and Jordan Ryan areyou know, pretty good friends. And
now all three of you are racingfour tens after you know, working your
way up, you know, threeh fives to four tens, you know.

(23:30):
So how cool is that being ableto race with some of your best
friends now? Uh, to behonest with you, man, it's pretty
damn cool. Uh. You know, we all started racing. Cody was
a little bit of a late bloomerwhen it came to the three h five
world compared to the rest of us. I was getting out a little bit
after the time he started, andJordan just had a fuzz of overlap because

(23:52):
he was still occasionally driving I believeit was for Russ Adkins at that time,
driving his three O five sporadically.Uh, but it's it's a pretty
cool feeling, you know. Codysent a group text when I told him
about the four to ten deal,and he's like, man, I just
I'm so excited. I can't wait. I hope we're all in the same
heat race one night somebody gets apicture. Uh. You know, he's

(24:15):
just super stoked. And I can'tsay enough good things about our friendship in
general, you know, all threeof us, especially when you know last
year Jordan was raising four tens,I was raising three six ses, Cody
was raising three or fives. Atthe end of the night, you know,
we'd all send in the group text, how we did you know?
Good? Bad? In between,how the night go, et cetera.
And it's nice to have some guysthat you can bounce those opinions and feelings

(24:37):
off of that have quite literally beenwhere you're at, know what you're going
through and can digest it the sameway. You know, It's not like
you're you're telling you you're coming homeand telling somebody who's never driven race car
before or even been to the races. Yeah, you know, I kind
of screwed up when I did this. They're like, oh, yeah,
racecars, you know, But it'sto answer your original question. It's definitely

(25:02):
a cool feeling, and I'm gladto see that Cody has moved up and
he's feeling a lot more comfortable.I talked to him at Freemont on Saturday.
Did a heck of a job inthe B main and got rolling there
in the future, kind of gota kind of got a little squarlier there,
popped WHEELI off too, and gothimself back reeled in. I made
smile nonetheless, But then you know, Jordan goes and wins Saturday Wayne County.

(25:23):
Great for him. But it's definitelybeen two dudes that I wouldn't want
to do it with anybody else.They're two class act guys and they've always
been there for me, and Itry my best always be there for them.
So what are some of the goals, you know, for this year
and maybe even the long term,you know, see seeing where this,
you know, Capitize number twelve carddeal goes, So you know, to

(25:47):
be honest with you, Jacob,we're kind of like, like I said,
we're just going with the flow.Kyle was gracious enough to, you
know, be okay with all this. You know. That was one of
the first questions I had for Phil, was is kind of cool with it?
Because I, you know, Idon't want to I don't want to
step into what he's got going on, you know, and he's him and
his wife have a ton of thingsgoing on. They're trying to better themselves.

(26:08):
You know, he's got a newjob. I'm sure you saw on
social media their day. They're havingtheir first child, which is great for
them. I was kind of heldthe secrecy because I already do this,
but I couldn't really tell anybody,but I'm glad for them. Goals I
would say are I'm trying my hardestto represent Kyle, Phil, Kyle's brother

(26:29):
Tyler, who's been gracious enough tocome on and help in the shop and
at the racetrack and all their sponsorsin a positive light and make strides of
improvement every night, and just representthem the way that I feel they should
be represented because they took a chanceon me, and I don't want to
be somebody who lets them down.And you know, it's racing. Sometimes
some stuff's gonna get torn up,some stuff's gonna get bent up, and

(26:51):
the Knights aren't always gonna go yourway. That's just how it goes.
But if I could do my beston my part to minimize that and make
improvements and the world that Phil's gotgood stuff and Phil can make his race
car go fast, because I knowhe does and I know he can,
that's kind of my goal, tobe honest. I mean, obviously,
if I mean, i'll, Iguess I should say this. If we

(27:11):
win anything, Jacob, I willthe place will probably burn down that night.
If we win, I don't careif it's Wayne County, Atomic,
freemont Attica, Wayne'sfield, anywhere inbetween. If we win a feature in
the twelve car, it's gonna belike Marty Gau It's gonna be a week
long party and I might not evengo to the Racist next week. But
in terms of goals, I wouldsay that's probably where we're headed. I

(27:33):
don't know where things will go fromhere. I mean, obviously I'd love
to stick around as long as possible, but I'm just thankful for the opportunity
to be doing what I'm doing rightnow. And if Kyle decides next year
he's ready to hop back in therace car, then I wish all the
best for him and I'll be theresupporting him every step of the way.
That's what you're saying is I mayneed to bring beads to a racetrack sometime.

(27:53):
Yeah, if you see the twelvecar starting on the front row or
anywhere in the first three rows andit's Midsummer, you might you might need
to be prepared. I'm not inhere again. We're we're talking to toall
erd. You know, there's alot of good four to ten racers all
around the country, not just atFremont Attica. So we got a little
ways to go. I've got alittle ways to go. I should say,

(28:14):
Phil doesn't I probably do more thananything. But if I can get
them to that point and uh maketheir sponsors happy and make them happy,
that's that's my most important goal tome personally. Speaking of sponsors, give
a shout out to some of thosesponsors. They're making it happen for you
guys. Absolutely so obviously I gotto thank Phil Capitie, Kyle Capiticce,

(28:34):
Tyler kapad Ie. They've been huge, uh, instrumental in fact in keep
keeping me in the right mindset inthe race car and helping me out as
much as possible. Kyle's wife,Kylie has been terrific as well. Uh,
she's been easy to talk to.She's been seen it all. But
Rob Butston a Lawless Butts have beenwith me for a handful of years.

(28:55):
They've also beene with Kyle. They'rean integral sponsor on the twelve car.
I have to thank Themlarrence Nursery isanother one. They've been a huge supporter
of Kyle since day one. Boxfor Farms, Fred Wolf Auctioneer Lynette Loss's
father, Fred Wolf. I'm sureyou've seen him at the racetrack lot.
I know he supports some other racecars there as well. Kisser Racing Products,

(29:18):
Kisser Engines. Ken Grieber at GriberRacing Components has been a huge supporter
of mine with the eleven G carthe last couple of years, and he's
come on board with the twelve car. Timmy System with TNT Fabrication, J
and F Construction who has been Jim, Jim and Brock Mays who have been
longtime supporters of me. I could, I probably would never have been sitting

(29:38):
in a race car if it wasn'tfor Jim Mays. So I have to
thank him almost more than anybody.But those are all the people that make
the twelve car go fast, showup to the racetrack every week, and
I can't thank all of them enough. Fun fact, if you or if
I were to like get in mycar right now, give me about four
minutes and I can send you apicture of Jay and construction. I knew

(30:02):
you were close. I didn't knowyou were that close. It was about
two miles down the road. LikeI turned left onto what turned into State
Route nineteen and it's like, yeah, two miles there, provided I don't
get stuck by a train. Oh. I gotta love them be Cyrus trained.
Yeah, Jim and Brock have beenfamily friends with us for a long
time. You know, Dad andI always go on hunting trips. My

(30:22):
brother as well go on hunting tripswith Jim and just saw to the earth
people, you will not find anicer human being than Jim Mays. I'm
a firm believer in that. Andlike I say, I can't thank that
guy enough because if it wasn't forhim, there's no way I would have
ever even set foot in a racecar. So all right, I think
that's about everything, Unless you haveany questions for us, Luke, I

(30:48):
don't think I really have any questionsfor you, If you guys don't mind,
I'd like to thank the rest ofthe sponsors on the eleven G.
Since we're not entirely giving up onit, we're gonna probably make definitely less
appearances than in the past. Butin addition to the people that I just
named, of course I say thatnow I'm drawing a blank as people I

(31:10):
want to thank. Doug Berryman hasbeen a huge supporter of ours ever since
I started racing sprint cars. Hewas with Caleb when Caleb was still racing
four tenths for Dad and my uncleGary. Uh so he's somebody got to
thank. Jeff Ward helped me kindof get going in three zero five's as
well. Wish him and his teamall the best. Scott Gressman helped us
out with our engine program this year, and god dang, you know,

(31:36):
like I say, I'm drawing ablank as people that I need to thank
right now, But that's pretty mucheverybody I believe I'm rattling names off on
the top of my head. RobinLynette Butts, Like I said, they've
been big for us in the past. H But I think that's about it.
My family, my brother, mysister Mary, her husband Dusty,
my mom and dad, my girlfriendMarissa have been massive. My friends supports

(32:00):
system. I cannot say enough goodthings about all the people I have it
in my corner, and I justtry my best to look at things in
a positive light. I'll end.I'll end with this quote. My brother
always told me, he goes enjoyevery time you get to drive race car,
because each time you do it isone less time you'll get to do
it. And that's how I tryto look at it. So I'm just
trying to have the most fun Ican have. So someday when i'm all

(32:22):
washed up more than I am now, I can be like, hey,
I used to do that, andI was kind of good at it back
then. So that's all we loveto hear. That's solid advice, I
think, you know, and somenights it goes great. A lot of
nights it doesn't go great. Butthe way I look at it is there's
a lot of people that would loveto do what I'm getting to do.
So I just try my best tokeep my best foot forward and if night

(32:46):
goes bad, move on and tryto have fun next night. So that's
that over. Brother of yours isgood for something. Yeah, yeah,
that much good for driving advice whenit comes around the top. But he's
got some good life advice here andthere. So I don't know, I'll
never forget. It was I thinkCaleb's first win in the thirty three w

(33:07):
there Jeff Ward's car. I wentto interview him and he's just like,
yeah, like come on in,like he like grabbed a tire off the
racks out of down. He's like, here, have a seat, let's
talk like pulling out all the stopsfrom Caleb. I appreciate it, you
know, let's do it again sometime. And but man, that was at

(33:29):
You probably caught him on cloud nineat that point, so he probably he
wouldn't have cared if you interviewed himon the top of the trailer. He
uh huh. Man, that's that'ssomeone I miss seeing out the track though.
Well, I think you know hewent to last year, we went
out to Houston's and unfortunately we hadto mention trouble when we were there,
but he went with us out tothere. Uh So he sporadically makes appearances

(33:51):
here and there. I might beable to talk him into coming to a
show now that racing big brother sprintcars here at home a little more so,
uh keep it all open. Butif I get a win that he's
coming, I'll shoot him your direction. So nice, that's what that's that's
what we need. I don't knowif the world needs any more of that.
But if you think so, herebefore we uh, before we take

(34:12):
off, tell us where you're gonnabe this weekend where we can catch you
on the track. Uh So,we're tentatively planning to race with the GLSS
at line of this week with ourthree sixty car. The weather forecast isn't
looking too inspiring, but I'm excited. I'm excited to get back to a
place that we have had a lotof success the last two years. There's

(34:34):
a lot of good cars there,though I can't say enough about the toughness
of racing with the GLSS now thatit's combined into one field. So it's
not gonna be easy never and it'sever easy. I don't care if you're
racing mini sprints, three fives,three sixties or four tens. There's nowhere
in the country you go where it'san easy slam dunk. So I'm looking
forward to getting back to there.And then Saturday night, boys, I'm

(34:54):
just gonna spectate. I'm gonna gosit and have me a watch down at
the Big Euh. I've got abuddy of mine that I work with,
who he goes down there for everyshow. He buys the same seat,
So my girlfriend and I bought seatsnext to him on the concrete there off
a turn four and we're just gonnasoak it in and have a good night.
Uh. But we should be backnext week at Attica for sure on

(35:17):
Friday. And uh, don't quoteme on this, but I think we
might get a little zesky with itand go to Lawrenceburg with the three sixties
on the eleventh. So gotta runthe you gotta run the top there.
So I don't know, I mightUh, I might reconsider and go Fremont
that night, but we'll see.That's kind of our plans for the next
like two weeks or so. Andlike I say, we're just we got
a tentative schedule, But that's kindof where we're headed, at least for

(35:38):
now. Gotta get out of thatcomfort zone sometime. You know, there
was definitely some progress made on stretchingthe comfort zone last Friday at Attica.
Now, I'll be honest with you, in the future, I was I
was too scared to go up there, so I just stayed down in my
zone and kept pulling the wing backand tried to run the thing into quarters
straight. Uh So, maybe that'llhopefully that will change here in the next

(36:00):
couple of nights, now that Iknow Phil's got me a hot ride and
I can trust it. So soundslike we might run into each other on
Saturday. I might have a coupleof toilet waters in hand, just to
keep me drownded so I don't fallover, you know. Balance there you
go there, You Well, ifyou're looking for me, like I say,
I'll be right off turn four,I think it'll be. I think

(36:22):
it's two rows down from the topon the concrete there where you set one
chairs at. Uh So, theguy, the guy I worked with,
You guys should do a segment withhim. Oh boy, he's a die
hard race fan and like this dudehe's never been married, never had any
kids. But like last year,you know, they run the Late Model
Nationals a Knoxville. This dude leftwork on Thursday. I'm sorry he took

(36:45):
a he worked like a half dayor no, he left. Yeah,
he left Thursday night, drove allthe way out to Iowa by himself,
watch Friday night, slept in thehe's got a cap on the back of
his truck with an air mattress,slept in the back of his truck,
watch Saturday, and drove home Saturdaynight after the Late Model Nationals. Like

(37:06):
he's a hardcore race fan. Man, He's what the racing world needs more
of. Uh. But uh,there's a lot of great race fans out
there, don't get me wrong,But this guy, he don't miss nothing.
So I love to go watch raceswith him when I get a chance.
So sounds like a time and ahalf. Oh yeah, Well,
if you're believe me, you needto shoot me a text when you're around

(37:27):
me because I'm introduced you to thisguy. You got a right sounds good,
I am. I'm looking forward tothis now. I don't get to
be a race fan too often,so you know what I do. I
tend to, like you said,soak it all in as much as possible.
So, oh yeah, he's ahe's a dandy. You know,
our aur where we work at wereemployee owned, so we have a meeting

(37:49):
every year about, you know,how things are going. He showed up
to the employee meeting where the KnoxvilleRaceway button, So he means business.
It's the kind of energy we need. Oh for sure, Clint, do
you got anything else for us?I don't. I was gonna say,
I hope that I hope that Iget to see that feature winning the four

(38:10):
ten the first one for you,and selfishly, I hope it's a Freemont
because that's my favorite place to doMarty Grass type things in the campground,
and I hope I get to seeit. Well, I might not be
the most popular guy over in thatpart of the world, but you best
fleeve that if the twelve car endsup on the front stretch at the end
of a four ten race, I'mgoing to make sure I'm the most popular

(38:34):
guy by the time nights over.I'll stay there till six in the morning,
sign and autographs if I have peopleso awesome, we appreciate you coming
on the podcast, it's it's alwaysgood to have a first time driver.
And I apologize that I was atthe baseball field while recording on that note

(38:55):
to the person, the man whowalked by me with the Devin Moran shirt
on while I was recording the podcast, if you happen to hear this at
the at the Frederick Town Ballpark,if you happen to hear this, we
will send you a free Ohio Dirkshirt and hat. Send us a message
and if somebody can get this toyou, we'll get you a free shirt

(39:16):
and hat game represent game, thelate model, the late model version of
the shirt. You need to doa jersey swap with him if you get
the check. That would that wouldbe good for pr. I saw him
coming down the walk away and Iwas like, that guy's wear the Deba
Moran shirt at the baseball park.So that is funny, right on.

(39:42):
Well, Luke, we definitely appreciatedand we look forward to seeing you have
the track and like I said,hopefully, hopefully we'll get to see that
first sports in win for you thisyear. Well, I hope. So.
Man, We're just gonna try toget better every night, and I'm
gonna try my best to get betterevery night, and we'll see what happens.
Hopefully we pick one off, buteither way, we're gonna have a
hell of a lot of fun doingit. So but I appreciate you guys

(40:02):
giving me the nod to come onto night and flap my gums and uh
take part in all this. Iappreciate it. So that's that's the name
of the game around. So thanksa lot, all right, Well,
appreciate you. Appreciate you guys tuningin. Make sure you share it on
Twitter and the Facebook on your socialmedia so everybody knows about the ador Check
podcast. Until next time, getout, Get thirty. Support your local tracks.