Hello. My name is Rick Houston and welcome to the Scene Bought Podcast,
your source for all things NASCAR history, presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
America's racing show place. Because I knew I made it when I got a
twenty five cent hour race and he told me, don't tell nobody out there,
and I said, hell no, I'm ashamed of it. As you
are, jump over the wall, bent down with the jack split first thing.
Sure, and I'm still jacking. And I was in the buff.
Barry said, left side and tires at Darlington the Southern five hundred, and
I'm only one that went to the right or the card. So we're taking
looks off by luck. Well, I'm I the only one over here the
day NASCAR and all of us associated it. Anyway, when NASCAR forget it's
past, that's today, we don't have any future. Hello everyone, I'm
Steve Wade and my name is Rick Houston, and welcome to the Steam Bought
Podcast, presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway, America's racing show place in the
track that truly cares about NASCAR history. Now, I got to start off
this week by asking Steve a very important question have you recovered from signing autographs
at stocks for Tacia? How's your arm? Rick? I want to tell
you one thing. I thought I was gonna have to go to the learn's
room. You talk about writer's cramp. Holy smokes, I have never in
my life experienced anything like that. Now, that was absolutely fantastic. We
got there about five fifteen that afternoon. There were already people lined up,
that's right. And the doors didn't open until six thirty. And according to
what a lot of people says, they came through the door, came through
the line to talk. They had been there since three three thirty, that's
right. Were a couple who said they got there about five fifteen, thinking
that would be all right. Well, by the time they got to us
same line, it was close to nine o'clock. Yes, we signed for
a solid three hours, and judging off the bundle of postcards I had on
hand, I'm guessing I'm guessing that we signed for maybe three or four hundred
people. I think you're exactly right, Rick, and I do remember them
telling us that we should be there until oh, eight thirty. Well a
thirty showed up, but we saw that line still going out the door and
you turned me and said, well, I don't think at thirty is gonna
cut it. Well, you said to me before the event started, you
said, you know, if it gets slow about eight o'clock, I think
I may cut out of here. That's right, you jinxed it, called
me a dreamer, but I had no idea it would take that long.
And if everybody who received one of our I don't want to call it a
hero. If everybody who received one of our postcards, let's call it that
a postcard, if they actually scan the QR code on the bike and listen
to the show, well you're going to be in business, baby. Oh
yeah, all right, I think it's definitely going to grow up. They
do that now. Of course, there were those you could tell they were
there just to see the big names further down the line, much further.
We'd sign a card, give it to them, and they'd keep right on
going. But what really meant a lot to me or the people who stopped
to tell us that they actually listened to the podcast and really enjoy it.
And Steve, it continually amazes me that somebody is out there and they're listening
to us. That's right, they really are. And I tell you what,
Richie, you do would call that we signed some other things other than
the owned postcard. We sign sixteen Steve Wade trading cards. And was it
four or six Rick Houston books? Well, according to the tally that I
kept, you signed twenty four twenty four Steve Wade Trading cards. Great.
Great, And then you also signed some candid photos where people had had their
photos taken with you, so you signed a bunch of those. But also
I won for the number of books that were signed this year. Now,
I did not keep track of the number of books that I signed, but
I do know it was at least I want to say six or seven.
I think you're exactly right. The books signed where let's see your book on
the bus series called Second to None, Yes, and then your book on
NASCAR's Greatest Race nineteen ninety two Hoods five hundred right and del versus Daytona.
There you go. But Steve, that event is such a tradition in the
morris Will area. It does a lot of good. It provides toys for
kids who might not otherwise be able to enjoy Christmas, so that is a
big deal. But also tomorrow, and I'm looking so forward to this.
We are recording this on Sunday, and tomorrow morning, I'm headed up to
Stuart, Virginia or Morgan Shepherd's Christmas in the Hills trip. You do that
every year, Rick, That's really good work on your part. I have
done that every year since nineteen ninety four, with the exception of two years.
And Morgan and his wife, Cindy, they will never know what it
means to me personally to have been able to do that. Even when I
was out of the sport and I had no connection to the sport whatsoever,
they still cared enough about me personally to call and invite me along. It's
a tradition for you now, Rick, and I know it's one you really
enjoy. And what service you and Morgan give to those people up there and
Stewart. And finally, I can't wait for this. Tony Liberatti, my
buddy Rambo. Oh, he has invited me to a Petty Enterprises reunion and
Level Cross tomorrow night. Oh how about that? Holy cow, that's gonna
be great. I cannot wait. Now. I don't know exactly how I
feel about being Rambo's plus one. I don't know about that, but honestly,
I did text Kyle and I said, is it okay if I come,
Because I'm not gonna come as a reporter. I'm just gonna come and
enjoy the moment. So I just want to make sure that it was cool
with Kyle. And of course he texted me right back and he said,
come, oh man, just come on, You'll have big tim We'll speaking
of Richard Petty, he is going to be part of a roundtable discussion this
Wednesday night at the annual Coekee Driver Development Program Awards banquet. Kyle's going to
be with him as long as several other crew chiefs and driver moderated by doctor
Jerry Pudge. And I am going to be there, are you really?
Absolutely? I wouldn't miss it for an old friend. Allan Well, Steve,
I don't know about you, man, But when it comes to the
interview this week and the one that we shared last week, the installment of
the epic Storytellers session that we had with John Dotson and David f and Pete
right, we're closing out the year on a definite high note. We're not
just cruising into the off season, We're rocketing into the offseason. We are
doing our best to still bring it with the content and with this interview,
I think we hit the nail on the head. Well, I tell you
what, Judging from the opinion of many of our listeners after the first half
of this interview, we are definitely on the right track. It's a great
stuff. This week it is the conclusion to our conversation with John and Pete
and David, and they kept right on telling stories with a full head of
steam, just like it did last week. They remember they're welcome to NASCAR
and most embarrassing moments life on the road away from family, and so much
more. And just like last week, we are going to forego the issue
of the Week segment because honestly, this conversation stands on its own. Man
said, have added boys, and that's exactly what they did. Listeners,
if you possibly can, please consider supporting this podcast. It's not possible without
that kind of support. If you possibly can support us on a monthly basis
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Vought podcast And just as a reminder, this show is not affiliated with American
City Business Journals, owner of the same brand. What was the moment that
you felt like you had arrived in the sport where you went, okay,
so maybe I belong here after all? Who met anyone? Just general?
Just general? Um me, you know, being here at NASCAR Tech,
we put a lot of young guys and girls on the race teams and they're
impatient. They want it now. And I was the same way. I
wanted to change tires, you know, and and be on pit road and
all that. But I tell these kids, I'd say, look, you're
in your twenties. You have not experienced enough to lead anybody or be the
boss of anybody. And I said, you got to get through your twenties.
So I give them the ears open, mouse shut speech. And that's
exactly what the race teams want, right They want to body ears open,
mouse shut. And a guy that really comes and learned works. So I'd
been building race cars full time from twenty two years old to twenty eight years
old, and we were building a spoiler for the chevallets for gem and NASCAR
asked me to build it on and had a dick lead on the table and
we built built a spoiler, and they had Rick Hendrick and all these guys
come over and look at it. Well, I built it. And I'm
just standing right over here and Barry and Rick Hendrick, and you know,
I forget all the big dogs that was standing there, and they're like,
what do you think? You know? And Rick Hendrick and none of them
knew you built it? No, well, Rick did they knew I built
it because I was bolting it on and sitting it right and I said it
and I showed him everything and I stood back and they said, what do
y'all think? And they looked and Rick Hendrick looked at me. I was
twenty eight, and he said what do you think? John? First,
I didn't even know he knew my name, but Barry had called me John
or something. And I actually looked backwards. I'm like, you know,
and I realized that Rick Hendrick was talking to me, and he's like,
you built this. You're a seasoned guy, you know. And that's when
I knew. Right then, I thought, Okay, I'm twenty eight and
somebody's asked my opinion on a race car. Now, Because Barry would just
tell me, you shut up word, you know, And that's that's kind
of then. You know, it takes it takes some time. It takes
some time and patience. But that's when I felt it for me. It
was I was at Daytona. I don't go what how old I was.
I was young, and um I walked by the NASCAR truck and that you
know how they used to put little schedules up on that peg board at the
back. I was looking at it, and Billy Francis standing walks up to
the back of the truck from inside. He looks down at me and says,
Pete, how's it going. That was it for me. Once they
knew your name, he's Billy France Jr. And he knew me yep.
And that told me then I've done something they recognize. Yeah, they recognize
that. That's that's the feet of name. That's kind of word that time.
I don't know where forget that. I mean, I think I grew
up footing a half at day Yep. Well, I worked for Bud Moore
almost five years and he didn't know my name for three years. He called
me, boy, come over here, So, yeah, you were doing
something right. He never knew money ain't and anyway, he called me boy.
But I knew I made it when I got a twenty five cent hour
race and he told me, don't tell nobody out there, and I said,
hell no, I'm ashamed of it as you are. You remember you
remember when one Dale started uh hiring everybody following that big money. That was
Terry. We're near the dream team, I mean five Muhamma and allies in
a ring. Yeah, they had herb Nap left junior. We still beat
them. Yeah, we still beat them too. And then Rick had the
all Star dream Team. It's just amazing that different aspects as we got older,
how these certain groups stayed together and went to these places and we still
beat them. But you know you're talking about that you made it? Do
you think you made it? And everything? I think that things just went
along so quick and fast. Oh you're in your life in racing, you
know, all of a sudden you got it. I was making three hundred
some dollars and Darryl call me because I worked with him five racing. We
got along real good. He said, come and be my crew chief down
there at Dieguard. They were in Daytona Beach then, and I was making
three hundred twenty five dollars a week or something, and I'm going to seven
hundred dollars. It's hard to go home and say to your wife, the
kids are in school, we're moving. You know. It's like Barry,
you know, when I hired Berry away from the Petties. You know,
I paid Berry good. That's why they came for that. They come back
when you got older, you know, and you had kids in school and
wife and stuff, and anybody could say this, your wife raised them kids,
and it wasn't my We were good providers. We weren't good fathers because
we were never there and the wives raised the kids and everything. And they're
really the ones that need all the credit because we was out having a good
time at our profession. And that probably if everybody took a divorce rate in
racing, that's it would be the highest there. That's exactly why I never
took a crew chief job. I mean, and Felix talked about crew chief
job and Pimperton left and and I'd seen what Barry had sacrifice, and I
mean a lot, and I thought I don't want to be that. That's
another reason I didn't like doing it. We both got off the road,
you know, so I could help raise my daughter's me there and be a
dad. And that's the worst thing I didn't do, was to get off
the road and spend time with my son. Yeah, and I regret that
to this day. But I was doing something that I could take care of
them, you know, making the money care because I remember when it was
at Junior's and house a Bush wanted to Junior to give me and Brewer and
Mike Hill contracts so we wouldn't leave, and uh, Junior had Prince South
these big contracts, comes back there and give them to us. And we're
supposed to it for three years. We're supposed to list what kind of money
we wanted to make, how much raise we wanted per year. And with
me and Mike Hill, we're sitting there looking at mine, We're looking at
his his, you know. I said, how do you want to put
down that first time we come up with some God off them gonna being own
road down? He said that they want to give us some fifteen percent raised
next year. I said, how much is that? He said, I
don't know, just put down this. We put down this third year of
rich Sun. But I said, all right, I signed mine. He
signed here. I took put mine toolbach, they took put his and a
little place he had there in his little works. Are you? I found
my contract about a week ago. I was like, upstairs, got it?
We said, all right, i'm I walked up to Junior. I
said, Junior, do you wan't need to stay here and work? Well?
I don't really want you lead that you ever give me a contract?
I said, do you want me to stay and work? Yeah? I
like pointy team, I said, I ain't gonna. I don't mean no
damn contract that that back your contracts where nobody knew that. I remember m
c Anderson, Harry Milling. We had the Milling to Harry Millan. I
can remember him, Benny, me, mc and Harry Millan setting in a
motel room, drinking beers and them shaking hands on a year contract deal.
Harry Millan sponsored them. Nobody, no nothing, and Harry asked, well,
how do you want Patty says, well, whatever, every month,
every three months, whatever. You know it was a set amount for the
whole year. And he said, you divide it up how you want to
pay me? You want to pay me every month, every three months,
whatever? And that's ship and shook hands on it. And it was like
a two or three million dollars deal back then. And that's how things went.
And your word was you know, yeah you I mean if you if
your word wasn't worth nothing, you didn't get hard to start with. They
feel what happened on teams. You when a crew chief got to let go
because the driver they wasn't going to fire. No, they let a crewchief
go. Well, then he's coming in and he's bringing all his guys,
so you could count on if your crew chief got gone and used with him,
it wasn't long. You better be better. But usually a crewchief just
took took their guys when I left one team and you know, but you
know every time a crew chief and new crew chief come in and one before
him was stupid as hell and he had to throw everything away to that crew
chief had three million dollars, Yeah, to change everything. He might pay
him driver after all, yeah, yeah, or who was But it was
hard to It was hard to keep as it went on and on. It
was hard to keep secrets because one guy would leave the team and he knew
what you were everybody was doing and a lot of times as them, team
them crew chiefs, and people hired away. I hired Barry because money done
it, you know what I mean. And Barry is probably making like I
was at Bud Moore's. I made four dollars in sixty cents an hour when
I worked from my racing engine room four sixty yeah, and you were it's
time fifty hours a week. Yeah, and you punched the time clocking on
and I started going in the hole. And that's why I had to quit
one championship in nineteen eighty four. I'm making two twenty five. Got a
five hundred dollars raids, got off the airplane coming back from New York banquet,
went the best buying ball to VCR for five hundred thirty nine dollars,
and that was a raid. Blew my bonus, blew everything right, Richard.
They won the championship up there, and Richard only had so many seats
he could take, and he said, who I know, I can't take
everybody, but I give everybody a thousand and two thousand dollars that don't want
to go. Cecil Gordon said, cut the check money. I remember when
I left Smoking Joe, they put Cecil screw chief up there taking my place,
and he come up with me at the track one day and I met
Darrell's and uh, he says, how in the world did you do it?
He says, I said, what are you talking about, Sally?
I've been there three full weeks and I still ain't you who I worked for.
All right, so here's one. What is your most embarrassing moment in
the sport? Oh? I got that's easy for me, Barry said,
left side and tires at Darlington Southern five hundred. I'm only one that went
to the right side of the car and started taking lug nuts off, started
pulling lug nuts off. I like, well, am I the only one
over. We're here on a green flag stop two on green flax of everybody
in the stands was watching. You know it up, Tim lung nuts come
back around and believe it or not, I caught up with Jimmy maykof where
we went. Because that's a hard fast as I ever changed the tire of
my life. Now, I'd rusty have to say about that. Uh,
it was with Tim Richmond. It was for Richmond. I just joke joked
around with me and said, you know, said uh, And then the
other embarrassing piece was when we won the championship. The last race is when
my tire cut loose left for a tire came loose, and we thought.
I thought I lost this championship. But a lot of people don't know that
Barry made me change pit guns that morning. I'd used the same pit gun
the whole season. He said, your gun don't sound right. I said
it's fine, and he made me change guns. And I didn't know how
hard to tighten that wheel. And it took a whole hundred of some laps
to come loose before it did. But I still thought I'd cost us championship.
But yeah, that that that Southern five hundred. That was I never
did that again. I guess for me, it's working at Junior's. Of
course, that's when most of everything happened to me in my life when I
worked there. But we at Talladega and I went to chains Over to uh
race day stuff, which was white pants and all this. You know.
I grabbed a pair of pants and they weren't mine. Somehow mine didn't get
back from the cleaners. Junior giving me a pair of hiss, tell me
where his I put him on the way Junior wore his pants and the way
I wore my pants a little bit differ. So I put them on and
they are tight. Oh they tightening. I can't even put my radio in
my back pocket. Jason tight well jump over the wall, bent down with
the jack split first thing, and I'm still jacking and I was in the
buff. Couldn't stop, couldn't stop. I'm glad, I'm glad. I
was down on pit roads around the car and I can feel that arges man.
I jack up the other side four tire stock. I get back over
his brewer. He's Mike Heels, Shorty Edwards, all just rolling on the
ground. Well here, Junior says, here we got to fix them.
He starts taping my rip together. And from then on, every time I've
been over to Jackie racecock and feel something back our pools. I didn't think
the debate back fixed everything. And the worst one I trying to get when
I got to the truck after race and I had to tag them off.
Took three people to get them off from me. He doesn't take my butt
to my prinches and everything out in Vaveline uniforms the same way. They were
so cheap we'd all split them at the same time on one pit and everybody
tape up their crock. I guess on a trip to California when we went
to jail Mexico. Yeah, coming in there that race track the next two
a day later day. Yeah, y'all were in jail for three days,
two nights, two nights and three days. Yeah, that sounds like a
vacation. We didn't. That sounds like vacation. It was three days,
two nins. Well, I've never been to Mexico. After Barry said I'll
never leave this country again, that was the same enough for me. I
went on a cruise that was it down to the but I never left us
with Japan. I went to Japan, you know ra and then it won
the last race. We got there day late in that the old DK always
had on the back of his car was the Tijuana boards or something. Yeah,
but next was pretty much he rose though and stuff when you got into
the track. Yeah we we we Yeah, we was at MCNA. Even
the dieguard team gain that. And then to win the race, yeah yeah,
to get just get out of jail, and we were scared to death.
Tell you the truth, we come in there, Barry, he told
me. He scared. You know, it took me. I was thirty
six, thirty four years old bank then it. I always said, it
took me thirty four years to grow up. And that's when I growed up,
right then, when they hauled us down there and put us in that
jail. Because you never be heard from again. Yeah, And I asked,
you know, one's America, then the American Castle coming around here,
something that's I he might be hear to morrow. And fifty years ago,
almost almost forty years ago, it was me Berry Eddie trap two can two
can? I'll tell you one one morning, Catle the pro golfer, he
lost his card over that. He was supposed to be at Indian Wells playing
the Bob Hope Desert Classic. And we're sitting in Mexico in a jail.
We was at Daytona testing in January, and Tim Richmond in that punty I
was telling you about h Every day we'd get to the track and you'd get
out on the Lincolns we rented Lincoln Continentals and you'd run around the race track.
You'd run five or ten laps one way, then everybody on the back
stretch and turn around and you run ten laps other way, or it had
blow the engine up in a in a regular car because all the little bit
at one side. So one morning Tim come in. He said, they
said, we don't know if the tracks dry or not. And he said,
uh, I'll go out and check it. So he gets in the
car. He says, hop in. So I get in the car.
So I'm sitting in the car on the floorboard. He said, we'll just
go out and see us. You know. We go out. We go
in the first corner. He gets down and he runs. He saws on
the wheel, you know, and I'm sitting over in the floorboards, going
on the row bars. So that's the shady turn one and two, so
he knows how wet it is. We get on the back stretch. We
come off a two, and we start down the back stretch and he's he's
he's riding, you know. He looks over at me, pulls his belts
down, puts it to the metal and never checks up. And I'm like,
oh, he ain't gonna live. You know, I'm sitting in the
floorboard holding He goes through one and two all around. He ain't letting up.
Red dogs is said John Boy y'all. Y'alls running one hundred and eighty
miles an hour, you know there's clocking, and started clocking us. And
finally I scared to death. I said something smoking in the back. We
got smoke. We got smoke. He's like, oh, okay, you
don't want to mess car, just grinning, pulled me in. I thought
I was gonna throw up. Got out of that car and they said,
man, you run one hundred and eighty miles an hour, sitting in the
floor pan, holding on the bars. I've done that telling of Buddy Baker
at Talladega testa one time. That'll show you how to respect to drive.
What were you thinking? Well, he said he had a vibration in the
car, and we changed dry schaff, changed gears, everything, and he
says, this thing it went away, But he said went out on pet
Row. He went one lamp. Come in. He coming in to tell
me. He said, this thing still by. I said, there ain't
no way, but he said, get in here. We'll go down pet
Row and you'll feel it. I jumped in the other side this isfere they
had side windows and everything. Oh yeah, no on no side windows nothing.
He took off and he man he went and we went through three and
four. He's up against that wall. You get a great respect for drivers,
just you know what I mean. I got out of that car and
I said, I was shaking, yeah, you know, and I said,
how can they do that? And they're body their selves one car?
I think it would throw you, but it doesn't. It sets you and
then I can't move. Yeah, and you're holding on. But if we'd
have blown a tire or anything like that, Richmond's over just a laughing,
you know. Yeah, they're laughing and he's over there grinning and I'm holding
launch shaking. But but you get a great respect for drivers. And it's
it's a thing that there's only a very few that can do it. Oh
you know. It's it's different than people think, oh I want to be
a race car driver, you know, and and they want to be a
crew chief. For that, well, sacrifice live in motel rooms two hundred
and forty fifty days a year, and that's why your wife raises your kids
and stuff. The guys and the garage think they could have been drivers.
Yeah, yeah, everybody thought they could drive. Yeah. I was one
that didn't think. I didn't want to try because I had too much of
a temper when I was growing up. My probably i'd wreck everybody. If
David you mentioned this a little while ago, but I believe that you were
talking about kel Yarbro and he couldn't tell you if a car was loose or
tied or whatever. Would you rather work with a driver who knew the car
inside or out or somebody who didn't have a clue about the car or what
was more dangerous? A driver who thought that they knew the car inside or
out, driver that thought they knew the carriage. They I'd tell you there's
drivers out there. Rusty one of them. He could come, Darryl Waltrip
because they Mark Martin, they built their own cars, they raced their own
car. Rusty knew every front end set, and what do you got the
front end set at Daryl everything? You know what I mean? If he
went Rusty went down in and I'd done Rusty's bush cars. He if he
went down in the turn and he'd go through one turn, he get off
start coming in and Daryl was the same way, and Benny. All of
them that knew their own cars, they built cars. They would say the
front end just don't fit it. Ain't set right, and he said,
well, it's just like it always did. But then you check it and
it'd be something. That driver didn't come in and say the brakes don't feel
right. He didn't just make it up. Something's wrong. And you had
to learn that about people. Now I've got lost races because drivers thought they
turned that novel on that brake thing and jack their selves all out of shape,
and we would be somewhere. I'm not mentioning the driver's names, but
we'd be somewhere a little. I said, crank some right front to it.
But the week before we lost the race because he was cranking on that
brake, nob leaving it, and Jeff Bodine beat us. He had it
so jacked out of shape because our car was better. And I think jelln
and you guys always were better on the long run. But I always set
the cars up better for the long run. Your deal was if the pit
you had to pit, and six and the eight laps, that's when you
wanted that car to go away. If you had to pit and sixty eight
laps of fuel, that's when that car started getting LuSE where he couldn't drive
it, but you had it was a happy medium that, you know,
and all these cautions now and all these lucky dogs and drivers around, so
there was none of that. You had to race your way back to get
a lap back if you got a lap down, and it was just a
whole different type of racing nowadays with the cars, the one lug nuts and
everything. We probably couldn't even change a tire now if with the one lug
nuts, something about coming out of retirement, I can't hit one luck Yeah
I could probably, you know, I wouldn't need actually, jun if I
run out there for one, you know, I could do that you're talking
about justin that bright I remember the Haggans. We built a road course car.
Steve Mill talked him and Richie Barts taught Bale mm And into putting dual
master cylinons home and I mean this is in the early eighties, and so
we're going to Riverside with it, and we get over there and we got
dual mass Cyllinus. Well, during the race, Terry has cranked that thing
so much the little of just inside had come out of the sweeps that moved
the underneath the day. Yeah, and just so happens of all days to
come a rain at Riverside. It started raining. We won the race,
so we stopped next day on the backside stretch and put they let us put
car covers on. Well, when we put the car cover on, Steve
Mill had grabbed all the tools he thought he would need and we put the
cover on. He crawled in the car and covered sitting out there. Well,
he got a flash lighting on. He fixes it. Well, still
raining. How much long as we're gonna leave, Steve, I mean it
out plumb dark. Steve's them been in there two or three hours and we
don't have radio. He didn't care a radio with him, so we didn't
know if he's still alive or dead. And me and Eddie, no,
it was me and Gary department over to take a car cover off, and
they said we could take it off and take the cow, but we had
to put it back one and people were longly allowed to car and we should
okay, when we get done, it's gonna be three up. Well,
he Steve gets out and men, Gary, we've shaken, you know.
We tape up the cow and we shaken the cover and meanwhile Steve gets out
and he's crawling on his hands and knees, up to the next car where
couldn't nobody pay much attention to him. He pops up, he goes back
to the garage. Got it fixed. We got it fixed. But that
was I mean, we didn't left him in there two three hours. They
all said, you think he's all right. I think he's all right.
I told y'all we didn't need to run that crap on these cars. That
was Bill Elliott's first win. I take that back eighty three. That was
his first win because we were leading with Tim and and Darrel and Tim spun
coming off a nine and give Bill the lead with just a few laps to
go yea three. Because I remember having it go to the car when Tim
was on the backstretch we were leading the race, and he smoked cigarette and
a lot of people didn't know it, and he said, bring me a
cigarette, you know, And remember going over and taking him, taking him
a cigarette, and just me and him. You know, they had they
got a picture piercing always he smoked. They had a cigarette. Like nobody
knew Tim smug. Nobody knew Tim smut, but they got a pictures.
The green come out and he's going off in the turn to Darlington. Cigarette
hanging out of his mouth and then throwed it out. That's like Karl ern
got wrecked up. He wrecked his bush car up at Michigan and we were
NB. Two and uh no. Sooner than they had gotten him to this,
they were bringing him from his car to the infield care center and Dick
Trickles already setting in his car in the cup garage. That's the last race
he ever raced. And because I put the seat in that car for him
over in his shop earning and that when the second hard hit he took at
Michigan. Yeah, when I put the seat in that car, I put
some some padding up here. Yeah, and he come in the shop,
just me and him. He said, get that stuff off of there.
I said, Ernie, you need to leave that there. He said,
no, I need to put them ahead of there, right where he hit
his head and the Latin last. But we had to put a cigarette lighter
in our caring about them head risk back years ago. They didn't lie him.
NASCAR didn't lie. We had Benny Parson's and he never finished Bristol,
you remember, and wore him out over wore him out, yeah, his
neck, and they had a caller and they go in and that for some
reason they turned a wheel to me it headed go more. But you know,
Barry come up with this thing bolt on the seat, you remember that
Bristol, and they made us take it out during practice because they said that's
you, he gonna can't see. Well, Benny liked it. So when
we was butting them in the car for the race, Barry got in there,
hooking everything up and bolted it back on. And that's the first race
Benny ever finished at Bristol. Remember we had Bill Elliott in the pits of
relief drive for him. Bill was nobody even knew who Bill Elliott was.
Then everybody started putting them on. From Brustols. We put the first leg
braces on a seat to go to all the way up the firewall. When
we wrecked. We wrecked at Charlotte tire testing or practicing over there. Rusty
bent the seat down and then Neil Bonnet wrecked and his leg went around the
shifter. So that's what came back. And we're the first ones to ever
put leg braces illumining pad him and all that stuff. And then now now
you're in a capsule, yeah, you know nowadays, And when we were
doing that they didn't want. Well, somebody sacrificed something for everything we did
on the race oil bonnet. He took some hardly career, but he was
a driver. Well, I'll tell you when Ice was on the truck at
Daytona when he hit the wall, that car bottomed out. They've seen it
bottom retires too, yep. And but the car bottomed out. That's when
they come with these soft springs, and they were trying to get them.
Everybody was running in the front and everything, and they lay down on the
ground and that car he went through three and four and it bottomed out because
I was clocking them really and it turned him up into the wall. That's
what killed I was looking at myself when that happened. Yeah, everybody ran
them soft springs, want to get this ball. They didn't remember about how
to stop him and everything that bump stops, they didn't have none of that,
and they were just they would put the springs in it. Well it
ain't bottomed out yet, let's put put some more. Take takes fifty pounds
more out of the front. And I was a talent dagon. You know
how NASCAR trucks parked. Heers come off four. Well, that's when everybody
started running on them buck stops. I mean, all kinds of signs stuck
off and that. So I'm standing up against the fence behind the NASCAR truck
and here goes the car down through, and it's like this just so happening.
For at that time, Billy Francis Junior walks up and by and by
the time he walked up and said, Pete's going, I said, going,
good? Bill, I said, what are you doing here? He
said, I just thought i'd check in see everybody's doing, you know,
just carrying on a conversation. All of a sudden, somebody went buy in
the qualifying mode and everything like that. Billy was looking at it. He
looked back at me. He says, what's wrong with that car? He
said, I believe spring fell out of it. I said, I don't
bet you. Well, no, it ain't got no springs. He said,
what I said, that that's sudden we can do. Now we're against
bump stops, we're qualifying. And by that time, Mike Hilton walked out
of the trailer, and of course Billy seas and Billy goes, come here.
Mike walks up. At that time, nother car goes by and that
thing just you know, rocking thing. Billy looked at Mike and says,
what the hell have you done to my race cards that say we You might
allow it now, but after this, I do not want to see my
race cars looking like boats going down straight With Mark Martin one yeah, stops
and that's what I had to have a new kidney put in. There was
any feelings in your teeth, the drivers, they were vibrated out when you
was done racing, he said. In his career, drive a race on
the bump stuff. He hurt his back, his kidneys. He was messed
up good after that him over that. The one thing that I have noticed
about racers is that they know the races that they won, and they're happy
about the races that they won, but they can almost tell you as much,
if not more, about races that got away. Oh yeah, what's
the race for you that got away? How many do you want to?
On the other hand, you won something that you wasn't supposed to. My
worst one far as getting away from us whistling. Kevin Harvey beat Mark Martin
to the start finish line at Day Tone in the five hundred and they were
wrecking behind us, and Mark Martin as a spotter, was paying more attention
to the wreck happening than telling Mark that Kevin's coming, or you could even
try to block him or do anything. But Kevin Alrea had too good a
run. But nobody gonna block him. But they never would throw the caution.
They were wrecking behind him. And as far as me, that's the
one that got away from me. Mine was DAYTONA five hundred with Kyle Petty
into Meliella car. You're not gonna pick on Bobby Helen again, are you?
No? Not, because Bobby didn't have any breaks but reaped. But
that that's it. We worked on that car and we went. They did
not have all the side templates on that car. Most of that was with
body on that car, and Robin Pemberton was a crew chief and I was
changings rears on the car, left left sides and we pitted and our gas
man um, he didn't give a one can in the car. So I
remember going to Felix and I said, if you want to win the day
twea five hundred. That was the first stop. I said, you're better
to get us a gas man. Our second stop or something like that and
put us way back in the field. And uh we had a half half
lap lead on Earnhardt at the time, and he was he was the one
to beat. And uh we were doing everything we needed to do in that
race car too to win the day twenty five hundred. And then when the
red came, Kyle was back there. You know, Bobby did didn't have
brakes, but Kyle thought he let off the brakes and didn't looked like he
let off the brakes from Pitt Road. But that turk took one of my
Daytona five letters away anyway, hard one. I think the first race that
I run with m c anderson Racing was at Daytona and with Buddy Baker in
the twenty seven car, and in the qualifying race him and Bobby Allison wrecked
going for the lead off of going into one and two. They wrecked.
Who you were listening, No, I was burying all of the wrecked and
we had to put that car back together. You didn't have backup cars in
nor you fixed your car and this thing was bent, tore up. We
cut bumpers, fixed it all. And there was a friend of mine come
down from Ohile you got this free help, and I'm there forget. He
goes, and my brother was there. He'd come every year and didn't go
back home. On one he come down and this friend of mine told me
the bumper brackets all bent up, and I'm trying to work on something.
And this was a Thursday afternoon and it's going to take us all though till
Saturday. Fix his car. He says to me, what I do?
I said, go straighten it, and he went up to my brother.
My brother told me this later and he says, your brother's just lost his
mind. He wants me to straighten this here. But anyway, we fixed
that car, went out there. We led the race one hundred and sixty
seven laps, and with nineteen to go, Baker come on that radio and
said, this thing's vibrating. We got a lap on the field. We
had a lap on the field and I said, slow up, slow up.
He comes around the next lap. He's a tenth quicker and I you
know, and I said, slow up, slow up. We only got
seventeen fifteen laps to go, and it blowed up with four to go,
coming down through the trial. Four to go and then we'll Benny. He
was leading the race down there in the twenty seven car and cracked the head,
cracked the sooner head. Yeah, that was him, but I think
I was working for We had to come in and put water in it.
Every that's the that's the race that Kale, I mean Kale and Donnie Allison
stopped and we had the first in car camera, first nine, first in
car can. That was the first race run. Flagged the flag and we
won the qualifying race. And after we won the qualifying race, Richard Benny
got out of the car and I thought he was, you know, congratuly.
He said, we lapped Richard Petty. That's how bad they were.
That's the first year they went to col Springs. They always run torsion bars
and leaves and they didn't know what they were doing. And I might have
told this story went over there and if somebody had already heard it. We
helped him out and will never forget Kal. Richard brought me that mug mug
to Richmond because Richard was the second race special special. His face on an
Internet and I put that thing on that mantel for two years and then when
until flea market and this guy's got five thousand. My wife would take her
out. Do you still have that? Oh yeah, I think we SIT's
somewhere in an attic or someplace. That's when I was seventeen in high school,
changing Tarsha. Richard Childer that day, mister eleven days of high school
to go to Dayton. That year, when I got back to school,
the guidance council, he said, you come with me, and H.
Miller counsel was his name. I knew. He said, he knew where
I had been. He said, took me to his office. He said,
if you missed one more second of one more class, you're not gonna
get a diploma in February. So I had to tell Richard, I can't
go to Riverside. I got to get a diploma, and then after that
I ended up going to work for Maurice when I got high school. You're
talking about earlier that when we went out west, we always road vans or
something, you know. But boy, when we started riding on that big
Eastern airline, yeah, we owned. We had poker games. We would
take people out of their seats. Yeah up front, we would say,
y'all gonna have to move up front here, we're gonna have poker games back.
I mean we would have literally from the back of the plane, there'd
be like four poker games going on. Stewart is just laughing watching us,
and we'd be playing. You could drink all alcohol you want. You know,
by the time you landed on Riverside and you didn't know if you were
going to be able to go anywhere after you got off the area, you
had to walk down the rada. Didn't have didn't have a thing come off
the airplane. Yeah, yeah, push that thing up. There was his
name, Bruce, Bruce Rowney. Wasn't that worked for Eastern Irelane? Bruce
Rownie. Everybody got their plane tickets to Judy Judy Short, Judy Short.
Yeah, everybody. Everybody got there al ten eleven flights and they had like
what six seats in the If that plane went down, that racing was it
was over. Yeah. I think they thought about that. Remember did you
ever go to Japan over there? They sent half the people on one airlines?
Did you go over there? I did the first year and then and
then they sent the other half another. Well, they don't care about the
media. I mean they'd down the media plane if it you know, But
like on purpose. Bill Elliott was the top ten teams was you know,
three or four the top teams were on one airline go to Chicago and then
I'll go over there to Japan, and the other ones went out of Atlanta,
the ear and all them. You know. Ferry didn't like flying.
So when we'd have two planes, he'd say, I'm going on this one
and y'all get on me and Bradley we maybe get on the other one or
something. He said, let's don't. Yeah, it just that way,
said, if one of them goes down, at least mama's got two of
it or another. Somehow a lot of people didn't like flying. Old Bob
Johnson, you remember, oh my god, he would take a train the
riverside. He leaves four or five days early, take a train to Phoenix
and then get on a train and go somewhere. I actually went on the
train with him one year, did you He didn't fly. He team and
Gussie did not want to know. They wouldn't they wouldn't fly. Yeah.
I left in Greensborough on the train and met up with him. How long
did it take? Three or four days? Twenty twenty seven, Mawich something
like that. I mean I got drunk and clovered up three times. All
right, So last question, last official question. You guys have known each
other for a lot of years. Well, what's a question that you've always
wanted to ask somebody else sitting at the table but never got the chance.
I got one, did you? Well, that's a tough one. Listen,
it's to day. Did you ever take all that herble life? I
was. I was probably thirty pound overweight, and he lost a bunch of
wine. I said, Bee, i'd you lose all that damn weight here
and needs a herbal light? Whatever you had, he was selling it.
He was one of these distributors. He says. He told me about two
hundred dollars worth of this I brought. Yeah, gives it to me and
the man, I'm gonna lose this one. That was an awful I took
it like he told me everything for a month. Richard Busting took it the
ass mad and he was all about it. We never lost a fortune all
that. He sold it to everybody in a garage area. We never too.
We just laughed at it. But maybe if you're working, you're gonna
lose weight. Yeah, here, working boys, you know what Flossia had
a good way to lose weight. Best that that you keep your mouth shut.
That's right. Quit that's a hard question. I already know everything.
They ain't never held nothing back with me. I think you get older,
you get get away from it. Everybody goes on with their lives and everything.
And you know, when you I was always believer. I'd done it
all my life. That was my career. But when I walked away from
it, I walked away from it. I don't go to the I've done
that inspection deal for Jack McNeely, but I think, you know, you
would like to still see some of the old people that you like, Dale
Edmond, you know what I mean, And that I went to the Hall
of Fame when Benny got inducted. Phil called me and said, you know,
he'd laid that he would want you here, and that's when I that's
the last time I've seen Dale and stuff. And you know, just seeing
the people that you worked with all your life, it was like you talked
about a family, you know what I mean, And it's yeah, it
still is. It's yeah. I think about when you know, when we
were together, or we were together and I was at different teams, and
you know, things start out great, but things in bad. Yeah,
But then over time you forget the bad, You forget well, you know
this person might have done me this way, or he come in and fired
me and got this, and you forget all about that. You know.
Um when when? Um? When when Barry and Ed and Pete all left
wheel in the twenty eight car and we're in the middle of the season,
come over to the twenty seven car with Tim Brewer and them, and next
race we show up a pokdo Well, I was just the weekend guy.
Well white Elle said, well, if they all leave, John, you're
fired too, because I was with them, you know, and and and
they we laughed about it. We're like, well, no way they'd keep
me, you know. So we all show up at Pocono the next week
and everybody's like, what's going on? And me? And why they are
the best of friends, and you don't you don't even talk about that,
to think about it. It's that that goes that goes away. You just
remember, I think the worst cussing out of a guy in a garager everybody
by Wadelle Wilson. I was grinding on a sway bar arm and he was
justin Baals on his car next shavings was going to my god, he laid
one on me and we still prints. Don't get me wrong, I deserved
it because, like I mean, I was worth for Jake at the time.
And you know how Jake was. You got to do at the end
there and wherever you could do it, didn't care well. It's slepping like
when to run my own business, and I was always a crew chief,
had to hire and fire, and a lot of nights when you know you
had to go in there and get rid of somebody, you didn't sleep good.
That's one of the hardest things to do. Did I ever knew?
And Race always had me by his own brother. You think that was,
but it was. It's tough to go in there and fire somebody that's worked
for you for a long time and stuff, and but that you know,
you go back to the generally, if somebody's getting fired, they fired themselves.
Yeah, you just got to do the d Yeah. You and a
lot of times you don't like somebody at the time what they said, and
then you think you know he was he was right. Yeah, I mean
you really come back to when you grow I guess that's growing up. Yeah,
you grow up and you get into things. There was one time while
ago you was talking about when we were talking about drivers, the good drivers
that viewed the cars and all that stuff there are. I was driving at
Junior's. He comes in, he would you know this? So he was
terrible with setting the toe. He can tell you in a minute if you
had a thirty second toe out, an eighth fenced toe out or whatever in
a car, a rear stair car. Of all, well, we we
he's do wars out and we're practicing for I believe it was at Charlotte and
then Sandy Jones was gonna set toe point. Well, Hammond told us that
don't just act like you're setting it. What just act like you're doing But
we did. We just you know, put the hood down. He goes
out. That's all we did. Now, Yeah, we've done a few
of those. We go out, he comes back in. He said,
boys, I'm gonna tell you something. I don't believe y'all change that toe
any that's a driver. Yep, he said, did y'all change something?
And the whole time we look at each other like, holy crap, he's
unculled it. Should I tell you something, Darrell Walter and rich all of
them. But Daryl, you worked with him. I working out. That's
why I was open. Hammond was there or something that everybody that's worked with
him. He was a racer. Oh Daryl Walter, and now I'll say
this, he he was the first one to come in. You had Kale,
you had Richard. They couldn't talk to the press that you know,
piercing. He wouldn't say nothing, you know. And these were the superstars,
but the TV camera went on him. They were you've interviewed people like
that. But Daryl done for racing what Muhammad Ali done for boxing. I'm
gonna tell you that heavyweight box was not until Muhammad Ali come along. Casius
Clay. But that's what Darryl. The camera would go on him whether he
was but he knew how to not He told me one time, I'll never
forget. You need to learn how to talk like the man on the five
o'clock news. And Daryl could talk. And he was a racer. He
run over well, he backed it up. He backed it up. He
could back it up. That's one when they called Jaws. He called Kale
jaws kill named him Jaws, Yeah kill, named him Jaws and then Hind
At Charlotte he told everybody to meet him all to k Mark parking lot,
remember that, yep. But he could work on his car, Rusty,
because I working for Kel and Rusty. You know, if I'm picking all
the drivers, you think, well, who's who? Who's the best?
In the cars and the air as they run in they were equally as good
because Cal couldn't tell you nothing, and Tim Richmond could not tell you.
Is that the spark plug thing? Yeah, that's kind of how he wasn't,
you know, you hit it right on another. Yeah, whatever air
they were in, you know, it'd be fun to see them all in
the same thing, same car at some point in time. But when we
got Rusty, you know, half the time we didn't have to suggest anything.
He'd say, hey, take a half half pound of air the right
rear and give me a half running wedge and the left you know, and
in the womb here he'd go. And if you didn't argue with that.
And Mark Martin was the same way. You know, they come from ASA
and they brought a whole new racing chains when we started bringing him in,
the say guy and Jeff Bodine stagger. Uncle COLWICKI Science came to racing the
yeah, and he was the owner of the team and done all his own
stuff. And like Ricky Rudd and Darryl Waltrup, seeing what he'd done,
he said, will I got the sponsor? Why do I need it?
Why do I need Junior Johnson? I'll own long team. Yeah. Well,
you know they couldn't do it. Alan Quicky was a special type of
person. I see had four cars in one rear inhouse. Ye he.
I changed tires for him when we were splitting up with Rusty, and in
ninety at the end of the year I went and changed tires for him for
the last three races. He made me try out. Now we'd been all
Pro one A championship and I had to go over there and try out to
change tires. But when you talk about dual Maaster ceilers, we were at
Atlanta when Mike Mike Rich got killed and they put dual Master seilers on Ricky
Rudd's car for that race. And this was this was ninety and the front
the pit road is slow hoped in Atlanta, and when he hit them brakes
coming down pit road first time, that's when that car come around. You
can watch the video and I'm on Pit Road and start hollering at them,
and I jumped back up behind me. Didn't even know where Pitt Road was,
but you can see me jump on the wall backwards and and see this
taking place. That's just about Master Riverside when Michael pitted and wiped out all
the Bills. We were being the first Pitt and Bills pits. He never
had them kind of brakes and and uh we had to finish out pit stop
and go jack up, Jeff, go jack up the car and pull the
rest of the Bills group Chucky and yeah, but stand insolve them out under
the car and then finished changing the tires. Yep, that was a terrible
day. That's when that's when the Pitt Road speed come into effect. Now
I didn't change tires after that. Out there, changed tire and the cars
go behind you. Could you think that's damn how close was it was?
It was scary, but you never thought about it. No, not to
you witness that You're like, I don't want to change tires anymore. How
many times you've been to everybody knows Don Miller, oh Richard hit me in
Nashville. The only time. It's probably my fault. But hell I rode
halfway out on the hood and finally he stopped the wap. But Don Miller
everybody talladegg and it kind of ling. Buddy Parrett took his belt off.
He we was together at Dackguard and he where he learned this, that he
was a paramedic or something in the part time. But he worked, saved
his life. It's a tidy. He put that belt around him. Back
then they might have had one ambulances and turn one or something and he put
that his belt around them. And me and done are tight friends. And
he'll tell you the story. But when they took him in the he said
he could hear everything going on. He had a big gash in his hand
in you know, and his butt cheek and he said. They took him
in the infield care center and the lady in there said, well, there's
nothing we can do for him, like he's he's not gonna and she said,
he said, Roger Penskey after after Buddy Paris saved his life, Roger
Pinsky saved his life because he come in and he said, you stopped saying
that he's not gonna die. We're gonna do it, and he he told
him, you start working on him, let's get him transporting. He'll tell
you that story. I got hid at tal Dagga by Terry one time.
Pitting and uh we're running against with Dale Dale was Laden were running on the
back bumping and we just so happens with Pitt. But it used to be
a deal with Pitting. It would be Jimmy, then Childress and then uh
so our vice version. But he tried to pick who we had to watch
each other. Yeah, but anyway, they out there running in the draft.
Terry's right on Earnhart and they were running when they pitty. When Earnhart
pitied, we would pitt. Well, they coming down. Brewer told him,
says, stay on his ass, stay on his ass. Now they
coming down through there. And I went to jump right after day, I
went by off the walls to Jack. Well. When I did, Terry
Clipton knocked me up over the hood, knocking the wheels off from Jack and
old steel Jack I had and here come I got done. Here comes will
Lynn. He picks me up. I mean he didn't even change the Starry
come back and make sure I was okay. And then I'm all right,
we finished the stop. They finished her stop, and they go back out
there and I reached and I'm sitting over in Jenia said boy, I'll start
jack and I believe you hurt, I said, boat and my ribs were
killing flinging around the front. Anyway, he said, terry, and then
went by. You know one time, he said, come here, boy,
So what's on the car? I said, what car? He said,
our call on the hood? He said, what you do that hood?
When you hit you? I don't know. Went over. It's a
quick I don't have a clue. When it went by, and it was
flewing this hood pins which just flapping. Oh you knocked him out. No
hood, pants are flapping, told Jiff, I don't want what your kids.
He come back back by and I went and I had my radio.
Surety gave me my radio, so I said it and got ready to put
it in my back pocket. It fell off on the floor just so happens.
When I got hit. It ripped both of my pants pockets off from
my pants, stuck on it and stuck on the hood. And that's what
Junior was seeing on the front of the race card. When my pants pockets
flopping in the air. That's a good time, right. I never got
hit on pit Road much, but Billy Woodruf hit me right here at Wilkesboro
to fight. Yeah, Bardham, Texas cowboy boots yeah around his fist.
I was the first one in the ladies restroom locking the door when it comes
to fighting. Now, I didn't like doing that. Everybody would always grab
something. We didn't have a lot of deals, but that one you guys
had with when we won the All Star Race, Well we didn't. I
didn't start it, but we I've had a good role in finish it.
Yeah. Well yeah, Sandy Jones, you're going to last quarter last.
You do what you're supposed to. Yeah, I don't blame Rusty one,
damn bit. Do you do what you gotta do them different? Raymond Bede'll
give me two thousand dollars the next day, and he said this is for
the race, not to fight. All right, guys, will you got
anything else? You've got a list? Well, you've got a list here,
so do you have your list? Come on. When I've been working,
you know, I'm thinking, well, I'm anticipating coming here, and
I just write down a little things that I remembered so I got a bunch
of stories in today. Um, you know, and and and you when
you sit down and start thinking back, there's more. Oh and and you
know, I got a bunch of them in most of my stories. There's
some stories from me with you, but most of my stories with Barry.
Yeah, you know it. We called at that time. Y'all were at
the track all the time. You came to Sunday mornings or Saturday when it
was far off. So I was. I stayed back around the shop.
So that's who is my driver, So I around him all the time.
Yeah, But I mean we we back in them days, and you know
you're a teenager. We'd work on that car all day and then we'd go
golf till dark, or we go fishing. We used to. We used
to think your brother was a met couldn't talk. I don't say nothing.
Well, you know, Barry wouldn't talk to him about eleven twelve o'clock in
the morning. He wasn't a morning talked to him after lun after lunch.
If I finally I get on I get on him. I'd say, Barry,
it's eleven twelve o'clock. You can talk now. Yeah, And he
kept looking at me for about a month. Speak to Barry to lunch extra
lunch. He was he wasn't a morning person. That's the one story I
was on say remember when I don't know if you ever heard it, but
him and uh Wayne Dalton. Yeah, they're the ones that they worked at
their petties. They worked at patties and had come down from it. They
bought that car and was redoing it. It had been recked. They bought
wrecked cars in the week. They had a body shop and they would buy
crashed cars right, and they cut two cars in half and build one right,
and then go sell them to the Toyota place. And then then we'd
picked the car they go to random and and we'd drive to the races and
work on Well, this is the story I always heard from Dale. They
built a buick. They got a buick and they put it together and that's
when the demo switches went to the Stern Wheel and they sold it to Lee
Lee Petty and said Lee drove it for a couple of days, you know,
said all of a sudden, here comes Lee back. He pulled open
door, pulls it into garage, opened the door and he's then pulled all
the carpet out. He got that pipe on his He's told they'll get barrying
Wayne over there. You need to talk to them. Well, they come
over there, and he said, they'll say the puffing my pipe. Said,
boys, I know you've done something with it, but we're in the
hell to dim or switch at Lee boy was one of them. Oh my
god, I think as one story and said he never forgot that they didn't
feel like they were making enough money at the petties, and you went for
money and MC was paying the money. And so they had quit the petties
and had a shopping random and they worked out of it during the week and
then we'd go to the race tracks on the weekend. So I drove them
too, did a lot of driving. That's what you'd done. You drove
up. We'd leave some million millar four I was thirty. I was a
million millar before I was thirty years old. Yea. But always when that's
one thing I always thought about Bear. Every time I think about him,
I think about that time he hid the demo switch from him. I'll say
again about Barry. I was thinking of bout him yesterday because it's coming up
on the anniversary of his death here in December. But he loved racing and
he was good at it. And I mean that Kyle was a racer.
He he built model cars in our house and you know, his teenage little
and he'd come out of the hall and and he'd go up the hallway to
the kitchen to go get him something to drinking. But he'd come out the
hall like he's driving and go up against the wall and make a race car
noise. And that's that's what I want to see from kids. Is it
in your heart that you want to race? Isn't really in your heart?
And boy, he had it. You know, he had it way more
than I did. And I thought I was crazy about it. But that's
what makes you when you move and you lose your wife and everything else.
Yeah, and you stay with that race car and you stay with that race
car. You know how much he loved it. But I'd tells him he
was good at it. Yeah, that's just like when Adam, my son
wanted to get into it. I found that real quick. It was in
his heart too, because like it was mine. And that's reading I lived
and keep on doing what he did. Dude, you know we got killed
if you really look at the families, you know, like Buddy Party,
even his two sons went up and even my boys are not at Gary's in
it. He does an inspection deal for them, but boys with us,
you know, and they're going up the ladder you know and everything. So
do you have a brother that was in the speed Yeah, Larry Larry Okay
truck for Robert Yates. Well we just talked about him on the podcast two
or three weeks ago, and he was driving the Yates truck went down.
Brakes went out at Watkins Lynn. Yeah, Watkins happening and they find out
Ford really find out something happened to the brakes. He didn't heat him up
because he was that's what he was riding with him, Joey Knuckles and another
fella. Um. Yeah, and I remember Devin de Devin was with them,
worked in the motor room. Yeah. He's the one that owns always
barbecues now, ain't he is? That Devin Towns and were what they do.
But yeah, he come down here. He actually worked worked for me
at Race Hill Farms. And then when I left, Jack Beebe and them
and and well Jack kind of quit and Ronnie went with drove for that guy
from California up there, the old petty shop up there and can curb.
Yeah, I kind of went on my own and everything, and UH would
just building stuff by myself and everything. And Larry went to work for over
there for Robert. I got him a job with Robert over there and everything.
As you talk about Jimmy Maker and them, you know, Jimmy worked
for UH for Robert Gee when he first came. Yeah, and he worked
for Bernstein there you remember, and when Dick Morosso we killed and that I
you know, he was Bernstein kind of was getting out of it. And
I told Jimmy Maker, I said, why don't you go over there to
Gibbs and get in over there? You know that'd be the place to go
an upcoming thing because they were talking about Gibbs buying Bernstein stuff. But Danny
didn't. But what's his name been over there for a long time to work
for Phil martowskis at Square d Car what he worked there. I told him
cool there And I told four or five people, the good people governor and
see Jimmy Maker because he went in as a you know, I can remember
when Jimmy him and his daddy had their car, and they came here and
they would go through race tracks, you know as car fillers, you know,
like they didn't have enough cards and make a show. And I remember
sometimes they wouldn't even make the show. He said he made five bucks an
hour working at Robert G's at night on Robert G's cars. And you're talking
about Barry, Well, I goes thinking about this. You know, when
you're racing, you got this connection. You don't even have to talk sometimes,
you know what I mean. During a race, Oh yeah, Barry
were yeah, and me and him were that. I look at him and
he you know what I mean, he knew what I was thinking, and
I knew what he was thinking. And I were that way. We were
at dayton of five hundred first race, were usty, you know, and
uh, we we're gonna have to gas gas and go. Well, how
many times you've seen rusty slide through a pit, you know? So I
just look at Barry and I said, I did like that, and I
grab He saw me grab a gas can. I went three stalls down at
Daytona to the opening in the pits. No, no, no, I
had a gas can sitting on a bench. I'm sitting here beside of I
forget who it was. Might have been with three pits up and they said
what are you doing? I was just hang on, just hang on.
Rusty comes in no pit road speed. You're in Daytona. You come down
there, he said. Marry says three two one, you know how many
pits And he says, get him, John, get him. I step
out of pit road because the Rusty knows you don't have to, you know,
he sees me. He comes sliding up to me, he cocks that
car sideways and all idea was plugging in and had like eight laps to go
and went out. We fin us in the top ten. You know.
But that's the telepathy or whatever you want to call it, that you have
and racing. And Rusty never said a word. He just like he saw
me step out letter right too. That's why I wouldn't know. When you
try to keep the same people that's working with even if you move around.
You I've only had four jobs, spend more time with them when you did
with your family. You know. On the you ever had a real job.
Never, I don't know. I never had a real job. I
mean we always got paid to help bunk. I mean to do something we
loved. You know, that's what you always say. I never had a
real job, but you always tried to. Once you work together and you,
like you said, you're with the people more than anything else, and
that it's it's and if something happened to one person, everybody was there.
Yeah. I mean, you know, I hate like when Barry lost his
kids like you know, like I did, and when I lost at him,
you wouldn't you know? Just people you had forgot about for twenty years
were back. Oh yeah, you know, just showed how much family it
is. Well, it's just like right here, I haven't seen John probably
twenty twenty five years, five years. And you know what's it take to
pull in here? Many times I go up seventy seven and come in here,
but he's never here. He's you know, life's busy, life goes
on. Taking the checkered flag and driving to victory lane is the goal for
any racer. It tells the competition my accomplishments resulted in a trip to the
winner circle. It's no different as a business owner, team leader, or
coach. Recognizing those deserving is what we do every day at five Star Awards
and engraving high race fans. This is Bob Laird, director of Sales at
five Star and former jackman for Buddy Arrington back in the eighties. Laser engraved
and full color corporate awards, as well as crystal plaques, trophies and promotional
products are just some of a sample of what we offer at five Star with
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The entire project can be completed online. Please reach out to me at
Bob dot Laird at five Star Awards dot net nine nine nine five four one
one three zero. As a thank you, everyone who contacts me will receive
at no charge, a collection of NASCAR memorabilia featuring Richard Petty while supplies last.
That's Bob dot Laird at five Star Awards dot net. Nine one nine
nine five four one one three zero. This segment is brought to our listeners
by Las Vegas Motor Speedway, America's racing show place. John Dotson said that
he felt like he had arrived into sport when Rick Hendrick called him by name
and asked him what he thought about a spoiler that he had built for NASCAR's
approval process. Bill France Junior called Pete Wright by name, and he said,
Hey, Pete, how are you doing When a competitor in the garage
calls you by name? Basically, any competitor calls you by name, number
one, I take that as a sign of respect. I take it as
a sign that they know who you are. But for somebody like Rick Hendrick
to know your name, Bill France Junior, to know your name, that's
a pretty big deal. Now, cool story here. I saw David Green
at stocks for TODs and we talked for a long time before everything got started,
and David was the very first person in the NASCAR community to call me
by name. I'm telling you, I thought that that was a big deal.
NASCAR Bus Series champion knows who I am. Well, that kind of
thing happened to me a long time ago, as you might expect, Rick,
and that was when I was still working in Rome. I was a
job as a racing writer from maybe maybe my second poor year, and I
got called by my first name in the same day by Richard Petty and Benny
Parsons. And Benny Parsons from that day on for the next couple of decades
always called me by my first name, as did Richard. Looking back on
your career, what do you consider the moment that you felt like you had
arrived in NASCAR? Was it Richard and Benny calling you by name or was
it something else? Mostly Richard and Benny calling me by my name. That's
when I first realized I had some familiarity with these guys, and that was
so important as being a writer. You can get your best step from guys
who know you, are willing to call you by your first name, and
who trust you. There they'll tell you what you want to know, and
that is a great and who trust you. That's right, That's that's the
big deal. Yeah. Absolutely, When they trust you, that's when you
get the good stuff. And I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't
know if I belong in NASCAR yet, come on, Rick. A couple
of things stand out to me, in particular, getting my company credit card
when I went to work for Weston Cup saying and flying to my first race
at Pocono in nineteen ninety five. The company credit card meant that I wasn't
gonna have to sneak food out of the press box or sleep in my car
in the media parking lot anymore. And I can remember going to that first
race and deb and I went to dinner that night, our first night in
town. I was looking at the menu, and I was used to looking
at the low end of the menu, and I looked at that menu,
and she asked me what I was gonna have, and I said, well,
it looks like the hamburgers the cheapest thing on the menu, so I'll
just get that. And deb I actually told me, she said, if
that's what you want, fine order the hamburger. But you don't have to
limit yourself like that. Our bosses understand that we work hard and they want
to take care of us, and they do take care of us, and
so get whatever you want. Well, that was a good story, but
I think I took her a little too seriously. Don't tell me you went
to a Chinese buffet. I went to Chinese buffets for the next ten years,
and then flying to Pocono. Oh yeah, I was a big shot
then, and obviously I came to have a very definite love hate relationship with
flying, but that's another story for another episode. Well, I was in
the same position you were for a long time. We didn't fly it from
Ronald very much to cover anything except for the occasional football game or basketball game,
certainly not racing. I had to beg to get a flight to Michigan
in nineteen seventy seven to see Richard petty debut is Chivrolet, which is a
huge story down the South, and they didn't allow me to fly. But
as that recalled, until I got the scene, that was probably the only
time I ever flew to cover a race. David made the comment that he
was a great provider for his family, but maybe not the greatest of Dad's
because he was gone so much. Now. I know that this is a
touchy subject for a lot of people in the sport, but it's something that
really hit me hard because I might have been a big shot getting on that
plane or hitting the road driving back and forth to and from races every week,
but that was a lot of time away from home. I've always said
that travel was the best part of the job and the worst part of the
job. I mean, in what other job could I have possibly once caught
a foul ball at a Los Angeles Dodgers game. Oh, I saw that,
and then caught less than a week later a foul ball at a Richmond
Braves game found laws on opposite coasts in less than what are the job?
Because I'd done then, well, I understand exactly how I feel about love
hate relationship with traveling. Rick. I enjoyed traveling so much for so long
as I covered races, But after a time, a couple of things hit
me, just like they hit several other people. Number One, time away
from home was time lost that you were not going to recover, and you
do miss a lot of things that you should not miss. And the other
thing was as flying became more difficult, and by that I mean you had
to go through the inspection of lines and all that sort of thing that goes
on, you had to be at the airport two hours ahead of time.
I just grew to hate the grind so much. That's the way I looked
at travel a lot later in my career, before Adam and Jesse came along
in January two thousand and one, travel was literally all Jeanie and I knew
in our relationship. We started dating one month to the day before I started
it scene and so I was literally on the road our entire relationship. But
it got way more complicated once they were born. And I've said this before
on the show, but Jeanie actually emailed me Adam and Jesse's very first studio
portrait the day of the two thousand and one Bush Series season opener at Daytona,
and that was back in the days of dial up internet connection, so
it took forever for that picture to download. And while it was I was
sitting in the press box watching dal Earnhardt drive Terry Bradshaw around the racetrack and
then stop, get out of the car and climb on top of it like
they were celebrating winning the race. That is still so vivid to me.
I mean, that's like it happened a couple of months ago, much less
twenty one years ago, and obviously nobody had any idea what was going to
happen in less than twenty four hours. As young as they were, Adam
and Jesse have no memory of me being gone as much as I was I
was back the end. But I also have a son, Richard, from
my first marriage. He lived in Nashville with his mom, and I was
in North Carolina, so that was a distance there. But he spent every
summer with us, and Steve some of my fondest members with him as a
father and son took place when he went with me to races and racing related
events. And I worked in wrong for so long. I was the only
racing writer other than Bob Adams, who was my partner there for quite a
long time, so getting relief from travel was not necessarily available. I had
to go to a lot of races, and I was god a lot.
Only when I came over to scene that I realized, Hey, you don't
have to go to all these races. You now have a staff. You
can send that staff to races because they want to go too. So I
did that much more often, and I was home much more often, and
I really really appreciated that. One of my best memories of my time with
Richard, I went to an event in Nashville. Of course, that was
my hometown, that's where he still lived, and I took Richard to a
driver autograph session. So I knew all the drivers, and I went and
to introduced him to all the drivers and he got his picture taken with a
bunch of the drivers, and I had on my Weston Cup scene jackets.
We were walking back to the car. This fan came up to me and
said, are you recuston Yes? I said, yes, sir, and
I mean I couldn't deny it. I had on a Weston Cup Scene jacket
with my name on it. And he handed me his poster. He said,
will you sign my poster? And I'm like, come on, man,
you don't. You don't want me, you don't want me to sign.
I mean, I'm you know, I'm just a lowly rider or whatever.
But finally he convinced me, said yeah, I'd love where you signed.
I read all your stuff, read Weston Cup Scene, been reading it
for years. So I'm gonna be a big shot. I'm gonna sign an
autograph in front of my son. And about the time I took the poster
and started to sign it, Richard looks at this guy goes, what do
you want his autograph for? He's not famous, whether he does have a
point balloon burst now, Steve, here is one last cheating story that they
got in. During this installment of the interview. Terry Lebanni had a break
issue at Riverside and when it started raining, Steve Mill, who was working
for Hagen Racing at the time, he got in the car under the car
cover and he goes to work during the red flight. Now that's a no
no, yes it is. You are not supposed to work on a car
during a red flight, just asked Stirling Marlin. And Steve gets the job
done. He fixes the break issue, but he can't get out because somebody
might see him, and the rest of the crews like, should we go
get him? Is he gonna suffocate under that car cover. I'm assuming that
it didn't take him the entire red flag period to repair the problem. So
what did he do for the rest of the time. I guess he took
a nap. I would have paniced. According to the numbers and comments that
we've been saying on YouTube for the last week's video and the comments that we've
gotten on social media on Twitter, the topic of cheating in NASCAR is one
that really intrigues fans, and I've got to say as well, I am
fascinated with how people in the garage could possibly come up with everything that they
did over the year. Just when you think you've seen it all, somebody
else comes up with something else that's right. You know, cheating, whether
we like it or not, is a big part of Nashcar, and I
have a feeling rick that fans like to see this kind of shading as they
go on. It makes it fun, it makes it challenging to see what
they're doing to try to beat Nashcar. Now. Years ago, it was
a lot easier than it is now. NASCAR has gone really technical when it
comes to checking on cheaters, and that still makes it very, very hard
to get away with cheating today. But you know something, they still try,
don't they rid Yes, sir, they do it. Didn't imagine there
is what NASCAR got in place. They're gonna try to cheat and get around
the rules. Always have and they always will. And here's something that I
thought was really interesting. And somebody made the observation this week that I was
talking to. In other sports, when you cheat in other sports, that's
taboo. I mean, look at the Houston Astros from however long ago it
was, and banning the trash cans and signaling the pitches and all that.
But in NASCAR, not only is it not necessarily taboo, it's expected.
It's true That's why I stayed the fans like it is part of the sport.
If you're not cheating, you're not trying. No, no, you're
not. And somebody asked me a long time ago, when we're discussing this
subject of cheating, how many cars out there today in that field are strictly
illegal? And I said, none, not a one is strictly illegal.
And if you don't believe me, just go check that out and find out
for yourself. Well, back in those days, you could find out which
cars were strictly legal because they were going to be headed to the bike of
the pipe exactly. Hey, race fans. John Dodson here from NASCAR Technical
Institute. NASCAR Tech is opening and rolling with classes starting every three to six
weeks. In our forty eight week Automotive Technology program, students learn everything from
vehicle electronic technology to diagnostics and driveability, and as our exclusive educational provider for
NASCAR, we are for a fifteen week NASCAR Elective where students learn engines,
fabrication, aero dynamics, pit crew essentials, and more. NASCAR Tech also
offers thirty six week welding and C and C machining training programs, so you
can choose the path that best fits your career goals. Ready to see how
you can get started, visit UTI dot eu slash NASCAR Today. NASCAR Technical
Institute prepares graduates to work as entry level automotive service technicians. Some graduates who
take NASCAR specific electives also may have job opportunities in racing related industries. NASCAR
Tech is an educational institution and cannot guarantee employment or salary. Hello, I'm
Philip Parsons. I'm Robert Kalma cut Hi. This will lend Hi everybody.
This is Jimmy Mains. Hey, I'm Larry Pollard. You're listening to the
scene Vault Gast with Rick Houston having a ball. Hello seen Vault fans.
This is Brian from Speedway Screens. And if you're enough of a NASCAR historian
to be listening to this podcast, there's a good chance a piece of the
past you've been on the hunt for is in my shop. I'm constantly on
the hunt for apparel and collectibles from all genres and eras of motorsports. So
whether it be cup cars, dirt modifieds, dragsters, or monster trucks,
I've probably got something for you. Check out my inventory at Speedway TSJ dot
etc. Dot com and be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter at
Speedway screens for the newest items as soon as they drop in for a peek
at what I keep from my own collection. As a special thank you to
listeners of this show, just enter scene at checkout for ten percent off Speedway
TSJ dot etc. Dot com. That's Speedway, TSJ dot etc. Dot
com. This podcast has been brought to our listeners by Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
America's racing show place. We have come to the end of our last
episode of twenty twenty two. It has been a good year for us and
hopefully our listeners will agree when I say that our content continues to be really
top shelf stuff. We're gonna keep digging for the best interviews that we can
possibly get. We already have at least two recording sessions scheduled for our quote
unquote all season. And finally, Steve, thank you for sticking with me
this year, putting up with all my selling us with the pace Car and
everything. Still gonna make that offer for you to ride with him in the
pace Car next year at Lonesome Pond, But you know, we can talk
about that later. Well, Rick, I never thought I would say this,
but it's been an honor to work with you, really has. I've
enjoyed every minute of this. Everything that we've done together has been really supper,
been my opinion, and we're just going to get better next year and
listeners. Words simply can't express my gratitude for all your encouragement and support.
You are the reason we do this show week in and week out. I
don't know what else to say other than thank you. You guys keep me
going. I just appreciate it, so thank you very much. Last year,
we ended our season finale with a song that Adam and Jesse had sung
with their group Fourth Wall. We got some good response all that, so
I figured why not go ahead and make that a yearly tradition. So here's
Adam and Jesse and their buddies Zach Hicks and Ali Purdue singing Silent Night,
Night a Night Brian Rogen Myather and childly sot and around mind see then Leapy
sleeping the leading sidelently share Squeega the sighty streamed from them in the farn and
sing Lilluia less saying your is mooreless sing is more side lanlightly night side of
God. Last your light read be run by Holy face. We the dawn
of deep being. Please Jesus a biby, Jesus on a night b