10 Superstitions From the World of Motor Racing

Some football players refuse to wear new socks before a big game, and some baseball stars refuse to wash their clothes after a win. Overall, athletes can be a pretty superstitious bunch -- and race car drivers are no different. Tune in to learn more about racing superstitions with Scott and Ben.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the Wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from House stepworks dot com. Throw everybody, welcome
back to the show. Thanks for tuning in. My name
is Ben and I'm Scott and today. Oh wait, hang on, Scott,
I forgot. I can't believe I was about to start
an episode without my good luck sip of coffee. Oh

(00:24):
that's right. Yeah, you always do that, don't you. Yeah.
It's a bit of a superstition, you could say. Or
is it an obsessive compulsive disorder? Ah? Or is it
a vital real part of making a successful episode? Could
be that, I mean, it could be the whole reason
that this all this is, that's the fabric that holds
this all together. That may be it, now, Scott, would

(00:47):
you say that you are a superstitious person? Definitely not.
And I was thinking about this because I mean, I'll
walk right under a ladder that's open. I don't care
about the number thirteen. I've broken a mirror before in
my life, a couple of mirrors and my life when
I was younger. You run perpendicular to black cats a
constant basis, all the time as much as I can. Yeah,

(01:08):
So I um, I I Honestly, I am not superstitious
at all. Um, as we get to the end of
this episode, I'll tell you, like, I think I have
a little bit of compulsions, okay, but not anything obsessive
and not anything dangerous, right, And that's why I drew
the distinction. So we'll call you for this episode Scott
the skeptic. Benjamin. Maybe that's probably a good one. Yeah,

(01:28):
how about you were you are? Are you superspicious? You
know what I mean? I know you've got the coffee thing. Yeah,
you know. I have a lighthearted idea behind some of it. Um,
there's clearly there's clearly a fascinating folklore surrounding superstitions. And
we do know that the placebo effect is real. So

(01:50):
sometimes when people feel that they have done some sort
of important ritual, it can affect the way they think
about what they're doing, which could affect their performance. But
as for actual bad luck from walking under a ladder
or the thirteenth floor, or putting the wrong foot on

(02:11):
the ship when you first set off on a voyage,
all that stuff I think is largely bunk. Yeah, I
think so too, And um, I think I think later
is what we'll find out in this I want to
say that was Dannicka Patrick that said, you know, there's
nothing really to these until you start putting stock in them,
until you write, you know, then they become real to you,
and then it becomes a real thing, right Like I

(02:31):
I'll share some compulsions that I've picked up with you
as well when we get to the end. But today,
ladies and gentlemen, Scott and I did not come here
just to say that we think a lot of superstitions
aren't real or you know, don't have value. We came
to talk about one of the most notoriously superstitious professions

(02:55):
in the world. Athletes. Yeah, that's right. All athletes seem
to have some type of super restition. And we see
this in you know, in the times of let's say playoffs. Um,
a lot of the you know, the teams won't shave
for the entire playoff season, the entire post season. I
can only wear this T shirt. That's a very common thing.
Or um, I you know, I have to wear this
specific type of socks and they have to be you know,

(03:17):
want us to be pulled up, wants to be pushed down.
They've got all kinds of different superstitions. I tie my
shoelaces in a very particular way and at the very particular,
very particular time, maybe not until after the ceremonial first
pitch is thrown out. That's when I lace up my shoes.
And I do it this way every single time. And
it can be something more involved to like, uh, I

(03:38):
go to this specific place to eat this specific dish
every day before game or before race or something like that.
All of these rituals have an important part in each
of these these people's lives and and you know it
gives them some form of confidence. And I was thinking
about this because how do you gain confidence? Usually? I

(03:59):
mean and confidence, first of all is essential for success
in sports. And you've got to be confident. You have
to go for it exactly right, And you gain confidence
by a couple of different ways, like experience. You have
to know your strength and your weaknesses, and know the
strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. That's exactly right. You
have to maintain focus, you have to you have to

(04:20):
hone your skills. Once you do know what your skills are,
you hone those skills and you work on what you
don't know, right, so you work on whatever you're you're
lacking in. Um, you have to take risks, that's another one. Um,
you have to kind of takes, have to take lessons
away from the losses. So when you do lose, take
a lesson away from that, and who knows, maybe that's
the birth of a new ritual for a lot of them.

(04:40):
You know. Oh, you know, I I ate a you know,
a six egg omelet before I came out for you know,
the game today. Luck. That was a bad luck. And
I'll tell you why because it was six eggs. I
shouldn't have said that one maybe, but you know, a
certain type of sandwich or something like exactly right right,
a Reuben sandwich. And then we lost a double header.
You'm never ever going to have another the Reuben sandwich

(05:00):
on game day, that kind of thing. Um, So so
learn from the losses as well, you know. I mean
that's I guess that was wrapped into the confidence thing.
But um, you know, the birth of new rituals based
on losses is another thing that we could look at here.
But another big group of people that we we don't
really think of a lot with superstitions I guess would
be motor racing. Yeah, which is this is an idea

(05:23):
that you came to us with and I thought this
was fantastic. This is from a how stuff works article
that you edited. Right, Yeah, it's let's let's just put
it this way, Ben as it as it stands right now,
early June two thousand fourteen, unedited, unpublished on the site,
but it will be so you know, listeners can go
out and check this out eventually. I'm not sure exactly

(05:44):
when it's going to get there. Let's let's let's shoot
for late June, how about, right? And uh, we want
to go ahead and say that we're going to be
naming ten superstitions from the racing world. But these ten
are by no means all of the superstitions. And that's right.
And I want to give us some credit to our
writer here. It was Charice Lapine and that was a

(06:06):
fantastic job, exactly right. And we've and you know, recorded
a couple of episodes based on content that she's provided
for us. And uh, this is another fantastic example. So
let's just kind of step through these, uh, these ten
superstitions in the world of motor racing. And that's going
to be the name of the title. The article by
the way, and um, see what we've got. So you
want to start with number ten, but yeah, yes, sir,

(06:28):
number ten. Getting dressed. Now, this won't surprise too many
people because the getting dressed in the morning or the
evening or before any kind of event is inherently a
ritualistic thing for a lot of people. You know. Um
funny story. Actually, when I was a kid, one of
the superstitions I had when they when people used to

(06:50):
say they put their pants on one leg at a
time like everybody else. I thought that was supposed to
be some sort of passive aggressive statement about how that
was a way stupid people put their pants on, and
so for as a kid, I thought that before a
test or something like that, I thought I would be
stupid or not performed as well if I put my

(07:11):
pants on one leg at a time. So I'd like
sit on the edge of my bed ritual and stick
my feet out, and they put them on both legs
at the time. This is a ritual been right before
a test. This is what you would do, right, you
would change it around a bit. Now, see there's drivers
who do something similar. They've got these superstitions about the
way they dress it's not it's not so much what
they wear, because they know what they're gonna be wearing. Yes,

(07:35):
the order of events, and so a lot of drivers
like um, I think one that's mentioned here is brand
Scott Um. He has a superstition that, um, he's sort
of from other drivers that the right side of the
body holds all of the luck, which is a weird
thing to think of. Um. So that I mean as
far as when it goes to getting dressed, you would
put on you know, your boxers, your pants, your socks
or sleeves and gloves and all that goes on, you know,

(07:56):
on the right side of your body first, your right
arm or your right leg is whatever. He goes into
the garment first. I've never heard of that one. That's weird.
I've heard of people, um maybe put it on one
sock and then one shoe or both socks first and
then both shoes or you know, and and the order
is important as well, like you know, right first or
left first, and that's very important to people. And all

(08:17):
these weird little eccentricities about the way you get dressed
to me a favorite remind me to come back to
this with later. Also, Ben, this made me think now
this is gonna be for all older listeners, So I
don't know, I don't know if you're gonna remember this
or not. Alright, the show with Archie Bunker on it
was that all in the family, Is that right? I
do not know. Oh, I think it was okay. Archie

(08:38):
Bunker he was sitting on the bed with meathead one day,
you know, his son in law that he caught meathead.
And this is like a funny little bit that you
can find video of online, I'm sure. But they were
arguing about how they put on shoes and socks, and
one of them wanted to put on two socks at
one time and then two shoes, and the other one
was arguing, well, that's a stupid way to do it.
You put on one sock and one shoe and then

(08:59):
once tock and then one shoe. And that's how I
do it every day. And it was like this back
and forth. It was hilarious when they did it. I
don't know, looking back now, you know, thirty years ago. Yeah,
I don't know. I'm not sure, but look look for
that little bit anyways, and that's that's exactly what we're
talking about. Because people have a particular error in the
way that they want to do things, and and it
matters to them. Everything matters on race day. Two race

(09:20):
car drivers, right, Yeah, even number nine, which caught me
by surprise. Yeah, this is a strange one. This is
even more strange than the previous one. Mismatched shoes. So
there's a guy, he's an F one driver. His name
is Alex Wertz. And Alex wers has apparently been right
well when he was racing, because he was a driver
from to two thousand seven and he's got two, um,

(09:44):
twenty four hours of LAMA victories as well, so accomplished driver. Um.
But he supposedly he wore two different shoes, types of
different colors of shoes, you know, like mismatched pair, and
supposedly he thought that brought him good luck throughout his career. Yeah, um,
I don't believe him, but you know, maybe it's true.
I don't know. And the thing is that this one

(10:05):
can be traced back even further than him. You know
that there were other drivers that did it. I'm not
sure who was. I think he's the most famous for it.
I'm not sure that you can point to one person
to say they always wore mismatched shoes. Maybe you can
if you're a historian. Well, there are similar things to
you know, the idea of mismatch socks like us Stefano Modina.
Uh you know he also wore one of his gloves

(10:28):
inside out. Um, that's a weird one. Yeah, And I
would wonder if they would even work the same way,
Like would would a fireproof glove work the same way
if it was inside out? I'm not sure. I'm not
confident that that the that the sanctioning body would even
allow that, right, Yeah, this is probably not something you're
supposed to do. And uh, Sharise makes a really good
point here that you know, maybe you shouldn't follow a

(10:51):
superstition if it creates a handicap. Oh okay, well that
makes sense. Then maybe she was saying that maybe that
you know, something is causing you to uh you know,
well maybe that's not what she's Yeah, as she's saying,
maybe it's time to draw the line there when it
goes past something relatively innocuous to something that might damage
your performance. You're right, got it, you or somebody else.
But you know, I was thinking more along the lines

(11:12):
of safety with the glove thing. But again, then again,
maybe there's nothing to that, that's just a strange habit.
So mismatch shoes, that's number nine. You want to move
on to number eight. I think this is one that
a lot of people have. I mean, I think I
think more drivers than we would, you know, even be
able to mention carry a lucky charm. Okay, and let
me just be honest, completely subjective here, Scott, I usually

(11:35):
hate this stuff really, yeah, because you know, I don't
like touching metal or jewelry and often Look, you don't
have to be a race car driver to practice this one,
because you've you've been in somebody's car, and some of
our listeners you might have your car kidded out this way.
We have a bunch of stuff hanging from your rear
view mirror, like like St. Christopher's medal is really common
in stuff. Um, these likely charms aren't my thing, but

(12:00):
a lot of people, not just athletes, really believe in this.
And that's why you have people who have a bunch
of stuff on their key ring that is meaningful to
them or a lucky charm of some sort. Yeah. Now,
I think in the world of racing, we're talking about
like maybe a coin or something that they keep in
their pocket and they would you know, before the before
the opening lap, they would rub it with their thumbs
six times. You know, that's the that's the ritual. You know,

(12:21):
it has to be very specific. Others, you know, they
may have a medallion that they wear or a picture
that they've always keep in their you know, their their
left front pocket or something like that. So these lucky charms,
you know, I mean we mentioned you mentioned like lucky coins,
rabbit's feet, things like that that people carry around. But
you know, racers they're they're more and they have to
keep things relatively small. You can't have something hanging from

(12:43):
the ruby near the race card, be like this is
my lucky donkey Pinyata, Yeah that I sit in the
shotgun seat exactly right. Or you know, um, what was
the NASCAR Joco Flacco? Yeah, I mean I've lucky monkey
that rides with you in the in the race car.
I love that monkey story. You can't do any like that,
but um, like, you know, maybe wearing a pin like
um Tasio Nouvalai who wore a tortoise pin as kind

(13:08):
of his lucky charm. And you know, so small things
like that Sebastian vitel Um, I guess he's got a
lucky coin that he can And it all goes back
to the confidence. You know, it might be a token
or a souvenir that someone in your family gave you.
And and you know what, you don't even have to
really have have heard about this for it to be happening,
because you know, a lot of these guys I know

(13:29):
that they've got something on them that they did. Maybe
they don't let anybody know about it because that's part
of the thing to them is that it's a secret. Yeah, um, okay,
speaking the secret, I will I will admit that I
regularly participate in number seven. Do you really do? This
is talking to the vehicle. You talked to your Monte Carlo.

(13:49):
I talked to my Monte Carlo. I talked to other
people's cars. I talked to UH. A surprising amount of
it enem and objects in the course of the week.
You're like the Chevy whisperer. Are you trying to You're
trying to Are you trying to? Like what are you
trying to do? But you're trying to trying to coax
it into fixing itself. You're trying to uh, you're trying
to assure it. What are you trying to do? Exactly? Well? Sometimes,

(14:12):
I mean for me, largely, it's a rhetorical thing. You know,
I'm just okay, alright, buddy, where are we gonna go today?
If I have the time to drive, and this it's
more of a do anything. I don't. I'm not under
the impression that it shapes the performance of the car.
Um it makes you feel good though, Yeah, it's just
it's it's just bonding with an inanimate object. I've been

(14:36):
there in that place before, like, Okay, all we have
to do is make it to the next stop. Yeah,
And I think to myself, like what I just I
just talked to the car, like all we have to do?
I mean you and I. I mean really it's up
to the car. And I had before in some previous
cars that I had what I felt were full blown
conversations just because you know, when when you own a

(14:57):
car for or just drive your car for a certain
number of years. I'll say, if you drive a car
continually for more than five years, especially if it's an
older car, then you get to know it's in announced
very well, right, So so you can have conversations where
just based on your time, and it sounds like it's

(15:18):
replying to you because you know they'll say, oh, here
we go, I got what's wrong? What's wrong now? And
then right then ding ding ding um it can pop up.
And that was a trick that one of my that
one of my grandfathers used to do, and I thought
as a kid that he could actually talk to is
had you fooled into believing the car? Oh? He had
me so fooled until I was about six years old.

(15:40):
But it's like chitty chitty bang bang, you know, like
it has a has a life to it. You know,
there's there's something doin. There's a soul there. Uh. And
I think a lot of people feel that there's a
like I guess a lot of people do feel like that,
like there is a soul to their car, Like they're
communicating with it and they're they're they're helping it by
coaxing whatever it is. Like I mean, it's like a
race winner, Yeah, coaxing coaxing a winning race out of

(16:03):
your out of your race car or your your motorcycle.
And and race car drivers like I mean, let's take
a motorcycle motorcycles. First, Valentino Rossi, he's known for for
kneeling next to his bike before he mounts it. Now,
this is a motor g P rider. Um, so he's
he's accustomed to, or rather known for, kneeling next to
his bike and then also talking to it, which helps him,

(16:27):
as he says, mentally prepare for the challenge ahead. Now,
I completely understand this, and I think this is more
him talking. He's talking to the bike, but he's also
talking to himself. I think he's psychling himself up for
this race. Yeah, And I think I think that's what
a lot of that sort of conversation is. The literary
term is apostrophe, right, you know when you an apostrophe,

(16:49):
not the grammatical apostrophe, but in in terms of grandiose
speeches that we hear in old stories where someone looks
out towards the sea and they say, oh you ocean, now,
don't st etcetera, etcetera. That's a that's an apostrophe. And
I think that that's what these things are. They're they're rhetorical.

(17:11):
I don't I don't think any race car driver right
now honestly believes their vehicle can hear them. And if
you think your vehicle has a soul, then I challenge
you to think very carefully over whether you're hanging out
with a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Christine. A very
good point, Ben, because it's not very different souls there.
You know, I just recently watched some some clips from Christine.

(17:33):
I'm gonna I'm gonna rent that movie again. I'm gonna
rent the whole thing, you know, I just watched the
whole thing start to finish again. But fantastic story. I
love that one. Also, one last thing we have to
add for this is this talking to the vehicle. There
is a little side note here about this one. It
says that dancing was always an option too. And this
is kind of Funny's I look this up on Snopes, Ben.
This is uh, this is something that is filed as

(17:55):
legend and I'm sure that you can find footage of
this happening because it's such an unusual thing. Um. One
of the code owners of Michael Andretti's car would do
a dance in front of the car before the race,
shaking a cigar at it as he as he did
this dance, and that was for good luck. And it
is so bizarre. I mean, can you imagine somebody dancing
in front of the car shaking a cigar at it

(18:16):
every time? Like I can. But we work in the
city and again that yeah, that's right, and it has
to be that, you know, that was something that he
had done right before. For whatever reason, he decided that,
you know, I'm going to do this before this race,
and then that was a victory for them, so or
a good standing or whatever. You know, they at least
made the podium maybe um and apparently it was good
luck and they just kept it up. Well, okay, what

(18:38):
do you think about this one? Then entering the vehicle
from one side? Now I've got a couple of things
I got to say about this. Now I understand you
know that, Okay, you and I we always ended the car.
If we're gonna drive, we was sent around the driver's side.
And then you don't you don't have like a you know,
a feeling that you have to get into the passenger
side every time or something horrible is going to happen

(18:58):
to you during you know, your rush hour. Can mute
in an F one car or an Indy car or
anything like that, you have an option you can enter
for you can you can climb into the cockpit from
you know what would can be considered the passenger side,
the right side of the vehicle, or the driver's side,
which would be the left side, or you know, it
depends on where you are. I guess if in Europe
it could be the opposite way around, right. But some
drivers feel that, you know, even in these single cockpit

(19:20):
seats or cockpit cars, rather that you get in on
one side every single time, and you do it the
exact same way, you know, right leg first, then the
left leg that I'd lower myself in. You know, there's
there's just a pattern, a way to do it, and
they feel that that brings them some luck. Like I
always approached the vehicle from the left front, but I
always get in on the right side every time. You know,
that's that's just the way that it happens. And I

(19:43):
don't know, I mean, there's there's something to it. I
guess motorcycle riders they've got a choice as well. But
some motorcycle riders will only do it from one side
as well, They will only mount the bike from one
side or the other. So Valentino Rossi is another I mean,
this is another one of his superstitions. Yeah, and as
you'll notice here listeners, one thing that we're finding is

(20:05):
that quite a few of these superstitious practices involve a
ritual as well, you know, the whole idea of a
lucky charm. Scott. I love that you pointed out there's
often a ritual that they have to do with the coin,
for instance, that's not just the coin alone. Uh So,
before we go on all let's talk about rituals. Made

(20:27):
me think of one of my newer rituals that I
have acquired. What's that That is that I am watching
Netflix instant on Saturday mornings the way that you would
watch cartoons. You know, I'll do some laundry, I'll be
cleaning up a little bit around the house, and it's
nice to have something on in the background, right because

(20:49):
sometimes MNPR won't cut it. And you're fantastic with Netflix recommendations.
So I've got to ask, Scott, do you have anything
new for me? I do have something new, Ben, but
I'm going to suggest that you actually sit down and
watch this one and I just have it on his
background because this is one that visualization and this one
is everything. I mean, it's it's called Double Indemnity and

(21:10):
it comes from nineteen and there's a lot of like
shadow play going on and all this stuff, and there's
everything is visual in this. You really got to watch it.
And I the only reason I say that, you know
that's so important is because I took a film appreciation
course in college. I think it was This is one
of the films that we watched. It was a great
film to begin with. But then you don't have you
ever had a course like that where you're taken and

(21:32):
you know, like, you'll never look at films the same
way ever. Again, like you see, you pay attention to
the very first thing they show you in any film
from that point forward, the very first image that you
see in the film is very important. And then then
you realize, like, okay, the way that they've got the
shadow on the protagonist face, the way they've got the
shadow on the antagonist face the exactly right. And you know,

(21:53):
like there's there's light outside of the house, but as
you enter its darkness and you know all these all
these different things come in to play here. Well, this
is a perfect example of all of that. And again
it's it's directed by Billy Wack Wilder Weather and it
stars Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwick and uh Edward g. Robinson.
There's a there's a whole host of you know people

(22:14):
here that are part of the cast that you know
went on to do many many other films. And it's
a great example of film noir. And if you know
any about film noir, I mean it's it's you know,
this cinematic high drama you know from Hollywood back in
that that era, and particularly emphasizes like themes of cynical
attitudes and sexual motivations. And there's a lot of tension

(22:36):
in these films. And uh, there's also I'll tell you
about it in just a second, but um, the summary
of this is that there's a smitten insurance man and
his name is Walter Neff, and he and the fem
fatale who is you know, Phillis Dietrichson, who is played
by barb Barbara Stanwick. They kind of plot this perfect
murder against her husband and they want to you know,

(22:59):
make this incidental I'm air quoting accidental death happened in
a certain place at a certain time in order to
be able to collect a double indemnity on his life
insurance was mean it pays double. Um, So there's this
lots of scheming and and conniving going on between the
two of them, and uh, it really is a gripping
story and the film is also. And what I love

(23:21):
about this maybe the most ben is that this film
has kind of that nineteen forties era rapid fire dialogue
that a lot of those films of that erahead And
it's so quick and I don't even know if I
can really come up with a lot of it right now,
but it's amazing stuff when you hear it. It's like
this back and forth dialogue that is just loaded with
double entendre and it's just there's so much tension throughout

(23:43):
this whole film. It's just fantastic, a great film. And
there's a lot of cars that you should pay attention
to do. So here's the angle for car stuff. Now,
some of it takes place on a train that's not
given anything away really and um, you know the insurance
man Walter ne f he drives a nineteen thirty eight
Dodge business Coup, which appears is quite often in this
and she the you know, the fem fatale, Phillis Dietrichson.

(24:06):
She drives a nineteen thirty seven LaSalle touring car. Now,
these are cars that you'll see in museums and you'll
see them, you know, on concourse events and there, and
the rest of the cars in the in the film,
they may go through the early nineteen forties, but they're
mostly mid nineteen thirties cars and they're spectacular. Wow. So
that alone, for any fan of older cars, will make

(24:26):
it worth the price. Also, Double Indemnity is a film
school classic, isn't it. Uh? So you can check out
Double Indemnity for free on Netflix Instant, that's right? Yeah?
And uh yeah, for free, I mean for thirty days.
Ben Oh, yeah, that's right. So you don't have to
just watch Double Indemnity. If you go to Netflix dot

(24:49):
com forward slash car stuff, then you will be able
to watch anything you want on Netflix Instant for free
four a month. Yeah. That's so that's a load of material. Yeah,
I mean, and and Double Indemnity. I know it's black
and white. Stick with it. It's an awesome story. It's
really really good. I think our listeners would really appreciate it.

(25:11):
Speaking of something that we really appreciate here, Uh, Scott
have to point out number five. I can appreciate this
one because this is a superstition that goes across the
Western world in some ways, the number thirteen. Yeah, that's
goes so far as to have affected buildings right there.

(25:32):
Yeah we are. We ride an elevator with no thirte
floor button. But as Mitch Hedberg said, people on the
fourteenth floor, you know what floor you're really on. They
know what's going on, they know what they know what
time of day it is, right, they know what time
it is on the streets. I don't know how to
say that, Ben, what's the saying? I like, they know
what time of day it is the street something like that.
It's they know what time it is. It's probably I've

(25:55):
I've extrapolated that to be something way too long and coversome.
But anyways, this this was way back. I mean, I
don't know how far back the the actual number thirteen
superstition goes back. But of course, race car drivers don't
want the number thirteen associated with them in any way,
and NASCAR is one area where you'll find that they
go to great lengths to uh keep their drivers from

(26:18):
having to deal with the number thirteen. Right yeah, yeah,
just like in a an elevator in a lot of
Western buildings, you will see the numbers jumped directly from
twelve to fourteen. In the NASCAR pits, the uh, the
numbers are distributed so that there is no thirteen. That
is so strange. I mean, so you could you're not
going to be working in the number thirteen pit in

(26:39):
a NASCAR competition ever, Um, this is weird. Now, the
driver thing, this goes back and what you know, as
we said, it goes back farther than I really know.
But I mean obviously they're affected by it as well.
And one guy that really didn't like the number thirteen
was Joe Weatherly and he once qualified in thirteenth position
for a NASCAR race. And now the weather really, whether

(27:00):
it was a driver pre nineteen sixty is we're gonna
find out. But um, he qualified number three in the
thirteen spot, but he asked NASCAR to allow him to
start as position number twelve. A how weird is that
I like it because it sounds somehow better than twelve,
I guess so. And And the thing is, you know,
like other forms of racing, they don't like it as well.
I mean obviously, uh, Michael Schumacher Um, he's established a

(27:24):
preference for odd numbers in a race car, but thirteen
is one that he will not choose, right, Yeah, but
some people buck this trend. This is what's interesting about
the thirteen superstition and racing in general, because there are
a couple of racers who will say, you know what,
I want this unlucky number, and that's weird, that's my number. Yeah, strange.

(27:46):
I've seen it before, you know, smaller tracks that you know,
the number thirteen cars out there. Sometimes you see it
in demolition derby's or things like that, where you're just
gonna spray paint the number in your car. But to
actually pick the number thirteen for your race car for
the Formula one season, yeah, that seem like I mean, okay,
I said, I don't believe in superstitions. But is that
a risk? I mean, has he taken a risk by
doing that? I mean, is it just a mental thing?

(28:08):
It must be, I mean, and I don't know how
that would affect him. I guess you know this guy,
Pastor Maldonado. I mean, he's one that's decided to take
his chances with number thirteen. And um, you know an
F one driver, so you know, unlucky number thirteen. I
guess is it really that big of a deal? I mean,
I guess motocross racers are affected by it the same way,
because there's a there's a magazine called Motocross Action, and

(28:31):
Motocross Action magazine says that a few prominent razors have
somehow managed to reverse the trend in recent years because
a handful of riders have decided to choose number thirteen,
specifically to seek out number thirteen as their numbers. So
it's kind of strange, Ben, but it happens that way now.
I know. In F one, I believe they have recently

(28:53):
changed the rules so that you can choose your permanent number,
which was something they didn't do in the past because
you were only you were giving your signed a number
based on your ranking in the sport. Now NASCAR and
other other sports, other racing series, you were able to
pick a number that was your permanent number three career,
so Dale Earnhardt was always number three, right. I mean,
I think that you know a point he changed his

(29:15):
number three and he stayed with that. Um, I'll have
to look in the history that I'm not sure. And
you know, Earnhardt Jr. Is number eight, and that's just
the way it goes, right, And recently, as of two
thousand and fourteen, f one drivers have been able to
select a number that's going to stay with them for
the rest of their racing career. And so this, uh,
this pastor Maldonado, he's wrapped up number thirteen for himself

(29:37):
and we'll see how it pans out. We'll see how
it pans out. Now, we do know that some of
the superstitions in the racing world come from um perceptions
of actual events, right, tragedy sometimes right, which leads us
to number four fifty dollar bills. Now, you might not
know this if you're not too familiar with the inside

(29:57):
baseball of racing. I guess the inside track would be
a better way to say of NASCAR in particular, of
NASCAR in particular, not just racing in general. Um So,
Joe Weatherly, who mentioned for two time NASCAR champion, had
two fifty dollar bills in his shirt pocket during the race. Unfortunately,

(30:19):
during this race he died in a crash, and so
the legend of the unlucky fifty dollar bill began when
they found the cash in his pocket. Yeah, so they
I mean this is just one of the things they
associate the fifty dollar bills. He had two fifty dollar
bills in his pocket. They find them in the wreckage
on his on his body, and they assume that that
is what caused the wreck. And now this seems odd.

(30:41):
I mean you might think, well, that could have been anything.
He could have had his car keys in his pocket,
you know, and think about NASCAR at the time. He
might have had his car keys in his pocket, is
right outside the track. But um, that's not something that
came to be associated with the superstition. It was the
fifty dollar bills for whatever reason, and that that superstition
is still around today. I mean even as recent as

(31:03):
as again Dale learn Hard. We just mentioned Dale Earnhardt
with the number thing. Uh Dale Earnhardt, he was perhaps
the best known driver to avoid fifty dollar bills at
all costs. He just didn't want them around. And the
superstition didn't end in two thousand one when he passed away.
No other drivers like Sterling Marlin he won't touch a
fifty dollar bill as well. And let's keep in mind
it's not just fifty dollars in cash. They'll take, you know,

(31:25):
two twenties and a ten. But it's the fifty dollar
bills specifically, Like Scott you remember how the two dollar
bills often considered unlucky. It's like that, Okay, got just
for Nascar. Um, there's something else which seems very interesting
to me because I'm always a little bit hungry, and
that is eating specific foods. Yes, now, this is one

(31:46):
that I think we mentioned this early on the podcast
Dannick Danica Patrick, who you know drove an IndyCar for
a long time and now is in NASCAR. She said
that she tries not to let superstitions develop because you know,
once they're in your head, they become real to you.
It's something that you start to believe in, and that's
that's the power of these things, right. Well, at the
same time, you know, she says that she also says,

(32:09):
I have certain foods that I do like to eat
on race day, right and it's easy to see how
these things can develop. In fact, I think that most
people would be surprised. If you think about it, you
probably have some sort of ritualized food thing in your life.
It might not be something that you eat right before
race because you're probably not a professional race car driver.

(32:31):
But it might be something that you always eat before
test or something that you you go out to celebrate
you and like your kids do a regular thing every Friday.
You take him out for pizza or something you swear
as like a hangover cure, like the day after you've
been out drinking or something. You know, like I always
have to go to this, uh, this this diner and

(32:52):
have this sandwich and that's it. Yeah, exactly that type
of thing. It could be anything really, um you know,
maybe when you get in the car, you always have
to have a diet coke, right like uh Sterling Morland
his case, won his first day tone of five hundred
after he ate a ballooney sandwich. Yes, I guess what
he does before every single race now he eats a

(33:13):
ballogny sandwich and he swears that that's what what what
gives him luck? And guess what, he didn't win every
single race, that's right, So maybe there's some bad balloon.
Maybe what what about Marcos Marcos Ambrose, I love another
NASCAR driver. He's an Australian native and he's fond of
his natives. His native country is distinctive vegemite spread as

(33:34):
part of his pre race meal. Is there anything wrong
with it? I mean, yeah, you're right, you love it
or hate it? Have you ever had it? Yeah? Okay,
I've never had it. I've heard that some people have
a strong aversion to it though, Yeah, yeah I've had vegemite.
M R might um, are you a fan or not
a fan? You know, I'll eat it? I see. Okay,

(33:56):
all right, that's that's enough. Alright, got it? All right?
So you know anyways, yeah, this is this is his
pre raised ritual, his pre raised meal, and that's what
he finds works for him. So that's what he does.
Let's get a little more specific, Scott as we move
towards number one. Yeah, you know, and was I want
to point these out that these two, these last two,
these go way back in time. These are very old. Yeah,
these are very old. The number two and number one

(34:18):
superstitions are very old. Alright. Number two peanuts in shells. Yeah,
this is a strange one. Huh. Yeah, so you can
you can still have shelled peanuts at NASCAR events, but
if the peanuts are inside their shells across motorsports, people
will think you're being a jerk. Isn't that really weird? Now?

(34:40):
The thing is that concession stands may sell them. I
mean sometimes that happens. It's it's actually something I think
in some places they actually banned them. They say that
they can't shell a cell rather peanuts and shells. Yeah,
and it's tough to say. It's like C C and cells,
peanuts shells by the shell station something like that. Yeah. Okay,

(35:02):
so this is still such a real superstition, even unto
the point of what drivers do and don't allow in
their pits. So see, I mean when I say that,
you know, sometimes the concession stands will sell peanuts that
are in shells. They don't allow them in the pits.
They're they're banned from the pits at some NASCAR events
and some I mean just motorsports events in general because

(35:23):
they're bad luck. Isn't that weird? They're bad luck? And
and the way that this coming came about rather was
all the way back in nineteen thirty seven. Then it
goes it goes back to two separate events in ninety
seven that set the precedent for this whole legend. Now
this is according to Snopes, and it comes from the
first incident. It comes from the Langhorn Speedway, which is
in Pennsylvania, and I guess two vehicles in that particular

(35:47):
race straight off the straight off the course seconds apart,
both injured or killed spectators on the way. And then
at the nash Nashville Fairgrounds that same year, four or
five cars collided, resulting in the death of the driver. So, um,
you know, both tied to fatalities. Uh, And here's where
we start to see a weird wrinkle in the stories.

(36:08):
In both of these incidents, witnesses claimed that peanut shells
were visible in the record. Official reports don't mention this
at all. Yeah, that's right. So the wreckage contains peanut
shells as shells in particular, not not you know, just peanuts,
but the shells. And there's there's a good reason for this. Now,
there's also a documentation that goes back before, right, so

(36:31):
you know that they say that, you know, this is
um founded by other other wrecks happening as well, the
other fatalities that happened exactly right. But you gotta remember
this that before World War Two, car races mostly took
place at fairgrounds, and peanuts, of course, we're a popular
treat at those fairgrounds. So the thing is that you
know that they were around. They were obviously you know,

(36:53):
people were eating them. The drivers were eating them. Uh
you know, the fans spectators who were probably walking up
to the vehicle at self reading them. May be someone
tossing peanut shells in the car before the incidents happened.
Just you know, I guess it's just like coincidence, right,
So it's like a sinister version of the old banana
peel bit a bit, yeah, where somebody is walking down

(37:15):
the street and they slip on a banana appeal. But
in this case it's a car somehow wrecking due to
peanut shells. Yeah. Now, the weird thing is that, of
course the shells are gonna be scattered everywhere at a
a you know, county fair or something like that, They're
gonna be all over the place. And you know, at
the time, I guess that, you know, it was a
little bit more relaxed about how close you can get
to the cars. You could walk up to them in

(37:36):
the pits and you know, talk to the drivers, and
drivers themselves may have been eating peanuts during the race,
who knows. I mean that that kind of thing actually happened,
so inevitably shells would end up in or in or
near the cars, and you know that if the crash occurred,
they would blame the peanut shells, and that you know
the uh I I guess the fault of the driver
in this case, which is why, ladies and gentlemen, when

(37:57):
you go to meet your favorite Rayce car driver, don't
bring shelled peanuts. You know what I would say, don't
don't bring peanut shells. Don't bring peanuts in general. Um,
maybe just don't bring any snacks. Maybe just don't maybe
just don't show up eating. That's maybe a good that's
a good bit of advice. Constant snacking looks weird. And

(38:20):
I say that as someone who's been through the fire.
We're a constant snacker. Uh, I'm a constant snacker. I'm
surprised I'm not eating right now. All right, So there's
a possible logical explanation for the peanut shell thing. Yeah,
I got it. There's well, there's a possible believable story
of origin story maybe understood, not like a scientific explanation,

(38:41):
but for this one, for number one, No, if we
could get some dramatic music leading up to this, the
color green, which is odd. Yeah, I mean we're talking
about the color green as far as the car, the
color of the car itself. Now green car superstition goes

(39:01):
all the way back to nineteen twenty. Nineteen twenty is
when a guy named Gaston Chevrolet, who was the brother
of Chevallet Motors co founder Lewis Chevrolet, he was driving
a green car and was killed during the accident, and
from that point forward, the color green quickly slipped in popularity.
You know, like as far as the rankings go, you know,
like when you know, drivers would say, like, you know,

(39:22):
whatever car they're ordering or the team or was ordering,
because it wasn't quite the sponsor driven thing that it
is now, which comes into play here in just a minute.
But you know, as far as like teams being able
to choose colors at that time, green dramatically slipped in
ranking after that, and primarily justin racing, because of course
a lot of people will say, well, guys, what about

(39:43):
British racing green ever the classic the class, Yeah, that's right,
I mean you would still drive that today and people
didn't have any kind of association with that on the
road in your daily driver for a civilian cars strictly
race cars, but it's true because a lot of people
really didn't want to get behind the wheel of a
green car. They're like, what are you gonna do next?

(40:04):
Throw peanuts at me, you jerk, that's right. Now. The
problem with this, then, the modern problem with this is sponsorships,
because we know how sponsorship driven racing is now, absolutely,
especially NASCAR. Yeah. Absolutely, you see a car that does
not have visible sponsorship, then it would be odd. Yeah,
that's exactly right. And everything is about sponsors and you

(40:26):
know the badges all over them, the the way the
cars are painted. Now, what do you do in a
situation where this the the sponsor has green primarily as
its logo. Let's say you're driving a John Deer car
or you driving a Mountain Dew car or um. You know,
remember the skull bandit from way back when. I mean
that was as a long time ago, but you know,

(40:46):
the skull bandit was another green car. How about the
Go Daddy car that Danna ka Patrick drove for a
while that was green. Um. And we're not talking about
all green because some of these, you know, like the
oh let's see which one the I think the the
effects round car. This is the modern example that I
can think of here that that was that's primarily a
black car, but it's got green elements to it, So

(41:07):
those are cars that have green on them. I think
that some of the drivers are kind of bucking this
trend recently, saying that you know, it's not necessarily green car.
That really bothers me because these cars are out there
and they have to do it for the sponsorship. So
I don't know. I think this is one that's that's
fading in, uh, in the race car world as far
as being an actual superstition. Yeah, but now it's time

(41:28):
for us talk a little bit. That's number one from
our list of ten. But now it's time for us
to talk a little bit about compulsion. It closed out
the show, right, sure, now you said you had something
to say. You don't feel, Scott, that you particularly have
any superstitions, but you do feel you have a few compulsions. Well,
I think I do, And by that I mean I
don't think that I have anything that's like diagnosable, no,

(41:51):
nothing like that, Like I don't have to flip lights
which is ten times before I leave a room or
something like that. But I mean I think I have
like sort of have rituals. I mean, like closing the
gradgate or every day. I do have this thing like
if I don't say it to myself, like even almost
mumbling it to myself, like okay, like I pull out
of the garage, you know, as I'm leaving, you know,
I pushed the button and then I look back one

(42:12):
last time, and I say to myself, the garage door
is closed. And I do that, and I even maybe
even just mumble it to myself, you know, you know,
no one can even really hear. Yeah, that's right. And
if I if I don't do that and I get
to the end of the street and I haven't thought
to myself, okay, I know that that graduate is closed,
I'm gonna have to turn back around and come back

(42:33):
and check to make sure the graduateor is closed. That's
that's the type of thing that I mean. And I
have like other little things like that, like, um, you know,
I checked the door locks and the alarm at night
every every night in the house. But I do it
in a certain pattern, like I always do a certain
door first, and I go to the next one, the
next one, and then I checked the alarm system and
then I go to bed. And that's that's my ritual.
And I don't think that's really an obsessive, compulsive thing

(42:55):
or not. But it is a ritual, you know. It's
something that I do every single evening. I mean, maybe
it's a touch of O. C D. But I think
it's it just becomes part of what you do. And
I don't think it's like, um, you know the people
that have to wash their hands continuously, Like, I don't
feel like it's something like that, Like nothing that I
need to go to be concerned about. No. I think

(43:16):
it would be more of a disorder if you found
yourself constantly waking back up and going to check everything again. Yes,
that's right, that's right. I do you have any of these?
Do you have any kind of like, um, I guess
not obsessive things, but but rituals that you have. Sometimes
sometimes I catch myself with a couple of little things. Uh.

(43:40):
I don't care for routines, but I do have some
rituals that are important to me. If I'm sitting down
to write something in my spare time, you know, then
I alter my environment based on what I'm going to
going to be writing. So if I was doing if
I was writing something for our stuff or something for

(44:02):
how stuff works, you know, then I will I'll usually
be drinking coffee hot, and I eat a certain kind
of thing when I am doing this, and then I
play a certain type of music, typically Hugo Montenegro and
Anique Morriconi, The Good, Bad and the Ugly. Yeah, I

(44:24):
play that soundtrack. If you looked at my history, my
you know, internet history on how stuff works, it's just
lousy with Hugo Montenegro and and these Western instrumentals. Um,
because it gets that ritual kind of gets my brain
prepped or primed in in that mode. And so if

(44:48):
I'm writing something else, if I'm writing you know, fiction, horror,
science fiction, something like that, then I will do something different.
I'll drink uh. I have very specific drinks and music
for those as well. And part of it, I think
goes back to the idea of how profoundly impressionable our

(45:11):
our consciousness is, our consciousness is, well, that's a tough
one too, you got it though, thanks man. Uh. Anyway,
how profoundly vulnerable and sensitive to an environment our mental
states can be. So ritualizing something is a way to
get your your brain and your focus and your intention

(45:32):
on board with whatever it is you're about to do.
And you know what, people carry this to every little
aspect of their life. I mean, if you're getting ready
to to work on your car, you may lay out
the tools in a certain way every every time. You
may before you cut the grass. You may do certain
things that you do every time the exact same way,
and you've just always done it that way, and that's
the way it works for you. So you know, you're
making my rituals look mundane. By the way, what do

(45:53):
you mean, I mean my mind, you know, checking the
doors and that type of thing and saying the garage
doors closed. That seems kind of silly, but ritual look Monday.
But you are, so you've got much more complex uh,
you know, situations or scenario is going all around like
what you're doing. I mean, that's that's interesting. I never
knew that about you. Well, thanks buddy, But I'm crazy

(46:14):
I would have stuff like this. You know what I wonder.
I wonder just how over the top some people go
with these rituals. And I wonder kind I mean, because
there's a point where it becomes like it hampers your
ability to do whatever you were setting out to do
in the first place right if you have to open
and close the doors seventy two times every time, well
that see that, Now that becomes the that breaks it

(46:36):
into the obsessive compulsive disorder where you do need to
go seek some type of help for that, because that
becomes something that causes you more trouble than anything. Really.
I mean, you may even not be able to get
to whatever you were doing before, Like you may you
may lose a job because you know, you're you're handwashing
obsession is so bad something like that. But you know,
the ones that we're talking about for racing, these are

(46:57):
guys that you know, they just have simple things that
they do before the race and it worked. So yes,
So this is what this is what I submit to you,
uh Scott and two listeners, um, as sort of a
defense of these kind of superstitions, especially the ones that
ritual eyes of behavior. What if this works? What if

(47:17):
it works? Furthermore, because it is a way of I
don't know, lack of a better word, some sort of
low level hypnotism or meditation that these drivers are performing
on themselves. Um, I think that's possible. And yeah, and
in some cases it may be advantageous even because we

(47:39):
always hear I've been doing a lot of reading, I
guess about what's called the zone. You know, you hear
chess masters talk about being in the zone, and athletes
and and one of the questions that's been going around
for a while is how do we scientifically explain this concept?
Have you this one little side market and this is
and we'll get off this quickly here, but um, have

(48:01):
you ever have you ever really been around a race
car driver or anybody who's about to participate in a
certain event and they put on what they call the
game face. Have you ever seen that, because there's a
moment in time. I mean, you can watch this happen
to somebody where they're they're joking and talking with you,
and you know, laughen and you know, maybe in the
case of like race car drivers. I used to be

(48:21):
around tracks all the time with Chrysler and an interview
race car drivers, and they'd be fine and happy and
everything that we do an interview, and I mean there'd
be just a moment where you could just snap and
see it happen and it would just like like wiping
your hand over your face, and it was like that
they were focused, I mean, dead on focus on what
they were doing, and they had their game face on
and that was what they were doing. They were just

(48:41):
they were just in the zone, like you said, maybe
a little differently than you know, like you know, like
a basketball player something in the zone you like, and
it's the whole thing. But I'm talking about like before
the race, the pre race stuff. You could wave talk
to him, try to get their attention. They're so focused
on what they're doing. It's like they've got on blinders there.
I mean, they're just they're just focused on what they're doing.

(49:01):
And it's important. I think it's it's very important part
of the sport to be that focused. And and I
think that some of these guys, you know, I mean,
I think the ritual is part of that, of that
whole thing. Like you know, once once I get in
the car, you know, make sure that I rubbed that
lucky coin five times or whatever of my fighter and
then and then from that point for like, from that

(49:22):
point forward, it's all about this race and nothing else.
I'm not going to think about what's going on at home.
I'm not going to think about anything else but just
what I'm doing, not the lap I just ran, not
the lap I'm running, I'm just going to exist, and
then now I'm gonna try to get to that checkered
flag and that's all I'm going for, and then after
that I can think about all that stuff again. Yeah,
that's that's true. I think that's how I think that's

(49:43):
how it is. For most people who have the experience
of being in the zone, time slows down, and the
idea that there would be psychological rituals people engage in
to arrive at that point seems to mold to me.
In fact, listeners, I am imagine that you probably have
a few rituals and or superstitions of your own. Uh, Scott,

(50:07):
I'd love to hear them. I would absolutely love to
hear these. I mean, if we have people that are
in professional you know, racing of course, but any other
type of professional sports. Do you have any kind of
game day ritual that you do or even if it's
just you know, um, non competitive you know, softball league
or whatever it is. If you have a ritual, let
us know it. And and I mentioned a few that
were not related to sports or anything right away, but

(50:29):
just rituals, um, superstitions of any kind. Really, just just
let us know it's interesting. Uh, And specifically, I can
think of a few of our regular listeners already, but
I'll just name one, Richard, our limo driving friend. I
would be really interested to hear if there are any
limo superstitions, So there might be. Yeah, there's probably a

(50:50):
whole list that we don't even know about. And all
of our all of our ladies and gentlemen out there
trucking as well. I'm sure that there's so many stories.
If not you, someone you know probably has probably has
a superstition ers point been. All these subcategories have their
own ritualistic things that they do or they're superstitious things.
Law enforcement, firefighters, n I'm positive that those guys have

(51:14):
something because I mean, it's a dangerous position they put
themselves into. It may be different for every single person,
but maybe there's a maybe there's something that's known across
the industry. Yeah, so let us know anything that you've
heard related to this, even if it's not something you've
personally experienced. I would love to have enough of these
submissions to make a show just about that, because the

(51:36):
more we dug into this more fascinating it became definitely Yeah,
and they go way way back, So it's not anything
that's that's brand new, So go ahead and let us know.
Find us at Car Stuff hs W, on Facebook and
on Twitter. That's not all, folks. We also have our
own website, Car Stuff Show dot com. We would really

(51:58):
appreciate it if you go check it out. That's where
you can find every single one of our podcasts, which Scott,
it's embarrassing to admit, goes all the way back to
uh two eight. Yeah. Yeah, we've got something I mean
in the ballpark of like maybe five hundred and seventy
five or something like that. That's a lot of episodes. Yeah,
and we've never done an anniversary episode or anything like that.

(52:19):
It's always just been grinding them out. More car stuff
that's right, one after the other, and if one more
enjoyable than the next, yes, yes, one would hope. And
to do that, we want to always make sure that
we have interesting topics, which is where you come in.
Uh So, guys, if you have a recommendation for something
we should cover in the future, suspicious story or rather

(52:41):
a story about superstition, then you can email us directly.
For a big difference there, yeah, there is. You can
email us at car stuff discovery dot com for more
on this and thousands of other topics. This is how
stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
Send the email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

(53:04):
Mmmmmm hmmmm mm hm