The Kenny Conversation - Episode #1 - Tony Stewart

hello everyone and welcome to the Kenny Wallace show brought to you by Jegs the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts remember to go to jegs.com for anything and everything you need wow take a deep breath this is a big deal for me the very first Kenny conversation and probably the number one driver in my generation Tony Stewart Tony thank you for doing this man for you I wouldn't miss this for the world bud you know that well I really appreciate it so we we're going to call this the Kenny conversation because I feel like if I have to make an audible you know it's it shouldn't be back and forth like a tennis game if you want to interrupt you know same here we'll have a good time so let's start it out like this um that smoke that nickname smoke it is so badass the logo on your on your belt on all your fire suits I don't know if we've ever got to the bottom of that we know it's smoke but when and where and when did you realize they were naming you that well it uh it's evolved let's say uh over the years but it started at IRP in Indianapolis at Raceway Park and I was driving a USAC Sprint car for Steve Chrisman and him and his family live about 30 minutes from here in Southern Indiana and um I don't remember exactly what happened that started it but came off a turn four and two of us banged wheels and I got sideways and it slid right past the end of the pit wall going into turn one and slid in the grass well you've been to IRP you remember what's down there light poles yeah so uh went sliding by the light poles probably about 10 15 feet away from which would have been a disaster if we to hit those and um got back in and and the brother the older brother and he's strictly 100 farmer goes man you about smoked those poles Bud oh but he started calling me smoker all the time and uh that car that I was driving had a ton of ram injection injections so it literally had two intakes about this big around I mean when you open it it was like flushing a toilet but instead of eight little small Stacks it had two big butterflies that opened up and and it was it would go lean very easy there so uh it made it a little hard to drive on the exit of the corner so I I was always hazing the tire a little bit I was still learning throttle control and how to manage at that time about 750 horsepower so uh so get away from the USAC side and I went IndyCar racing with Team Menard and we blew Motors up left and right and uh the IndyCar guys knew my nickname was smoke but they then they kind of changed the meaning of it to what we had smoke coming out of the back of this thing it was there goes smoke again you know blowing another motor up so uh it's changed over the years the the the definitions as we went to different series and teams but uh it started at IRP in a Sprint car wow that's pretty incredible you know uh I have all these questions lined up but this is the the perfect segue I I feel like uh great race car drivers like yourself god-given talents you know I was always taught that there's a string from your brain to your ass to your foot your hands you're really good at throttle control so you're saying that those early days is what taught that ankle of yours is there a thousand different spots in that throttle you better have it and that's exactly what I tell everybody you better have a thousand spots on that throttle in every race car you drive other than a drag car we'll get to that later but you've got to have a thousand spots and you better know where they're at all the time so when I broke my leg in 2013 uh that was the biggest thing we focused on because obviously it was my lower right leg broke both the bones had to go through a lot of physical therapy uh when I started my foot literally went three positions it was here here here and then wide open so we we actually mocked up a steering wheel and a pedal system and had the same amount of pressure on the throttle pedal and it was just like it was like a simulator that you would see for eye racing now but there was no video with it so it literally was a steering wheel a steering shaft I had two shock absorbers on the end of the steering shaft and I just sit there while I was watching TV and just turn it back and forth and back and forth and was working my foot the entire time and it went from three different positions to back to that thousand eventually I remember a story you told me you've been banged up a couple times didn't you get injured real early and you told me that to bring yourself back to 100 like you thought you needed to be you went to a really nice local go-kart track you're on to it we uh I would say this uh was the end of 96 and it was the end of the first IRL season the season finale was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway first event on the racetrack and uh it was in I believe July and it was 102 degrees out and myself and my teammate marked dismour both blue right rear tires and hit the wall and it hit flat left side so broke my shoulder blade my collarbone back my left hip and pelvis on the left side and I was living in an apartment with one of the crew guys on my team who was who also came from the ranks and uh I I started at my mother's house and because we we were on third floor Apartments so getting up and down steps this is 1996. yeah it was not a good deal no elevator to get up and down and uh but I went to Stefan Johansson's go-kart yeah on the west side of Indianapolis and a guy named Sean Britt was uh the general manager there and he literally would come pick me up at 7 30 every morning the smoke can get up early yeah and it's not I'm not a fan of it I'm getting older I'm starting to get up earlier and earlier and it pisses me off so uh but he would care literally carry me down two flights of stairs every day load Manny's car take me to the karting Center uh they had one cart that had timing that had lap times on it they had a lap counter on it and he would put me in that cart with a full tank of fuel the very first day I made it five minutes and and had to get out then ran five more minutes and that's all I could do by the end of 20 days I got to where I could sit there and ride through a full tank of gas like litter would start at eight in the morning and by the time 11 o'clock came it would run out of fuel and I'd ran a whole tank of fuel out in an indoor go-kart track which takes a lot to do but um but I was the the reason I'm bringing this up is no I like it what I was super impressed about with Sean was he would sit there and grab a stack of paperwork and he would go into the control Booth which was out in the karting area where the computer was and he would do paperwork and he would look at the lap times and as soon as he you know indoor karting tractor really slick so the longer you run the more heat you're building in the tires the faster you go faster you go faster you go as soon as he would see those lap times start slowing down and going the other way he knew I was getting tired and he had let me run about four or five more laps like that and if it didn't come back down he'd stop me and make me get out for a couple minutes get a drink of water put me back in get me packed in phone send me back out by the end of that like I said didn't didn't stop at all so a lot of times would just literally get get faster to a certain point then they just stay level and stay consistent so he was a very big factor in me getting healed up and back in a race car quicker it reminds me of uh I I once asked Dale senior I don't know if you remember that bud shoot up back in the day Bush Clash whatever they call it he kept starting last and going to the front start will ask any and he dominated and I said Mike gosh you were fast and he says when you have a good horse ride it yeah your conversation you know I mean you kind of mix that in with their As Good As You Are you still work really hard at your craft and I want the young kids to understand what you're saying so that leads me to this question I think that you're a god-given talent I think you know some there's times I looked up and said Lord why didn't you give me some of the Tony Stewart's Talent have you ever in your career after everything you've accomplished just for a moment driving down the road by yourself going I'm a little different than everybody else now I know you're humble but have you ever thought that I I'm very grateful to the man upstairs to get for giving me the talent that I have uh for sure because you know I got a text from a buddy of mine that was the very first go-kart I ever drove at a racetrack and and he's we're still good friends I mean we were we raced since we were eight years old and go-karts until I got out and go well until he got out of go-karts uh in our in our early mid teens but um yeah I think about that a lot to be honest because and I owe you've always heard me joke around they're like man you're really good and I'm like well I had to be because I'm too lazy to work a real job yeah but then years go on and you're in you realize it's there's not a lot of Truth to that in all reality because yeah I didn't like working real jobs I didn't like you know I worked at McDonald's two different times while I was in school and right after I graduated until I got settled in somewhere uh I've worked some really crappy jobs along the way to get where we're at but it was all so I could race and uh I've realized in Motorsports people don't realize how much work's involved in it from from a driver's standpoint now you talk about car owners and crew guys a ton of work involved but it's equally equally taxing for us as drivers because we constantly have to think about what we're doing I mean you take guys nowadays this day and age most guys are very single Lane on on what they want to run when they're young their parents the soccer mom and dads are in full swing and Motorsports now too and uh they have their kids path planned for them and their kids buy right into it and it's a single dimensional plan they either go on an Indy car route they're going to NASCAR route they're going to sprint car out one of the other that's what I stopped and weaved yeah and I did it I did all of it at some point so uh but it's what you don't see is kids jumping back and forth from different cars and I think that is honestly what has helped build me to who I am uh it wasn't so much all the hard work and it was all the hard work but every car you drove was different and everything that that car wanted you to do with your hands and feet was different so you had to be smart enough and sharp enough to sit there and say okay the car is telling me what it wants I just got to figure out how to manipulate it to so it will do what I want it to do but you have to do what the car is asking so uh I always felt like that was an advantage for me uh going to new race tracks going and driving new cars is that I never got stuck with one feel I got used to a lot of different fields and then it made it a lot easier to learn something new every time we made a new step I so badly want to get at the start of the show which is your drag racing but you know these conversations are leading me in different directions Mark Martin was interviewed and they set up they said Mark Martin tell us about Tony Stewart you know it's true you're a badass you're a tough guy you're you're a chip off the old AJ foyt block but Mark said you're a lover you're a philanthropist you do such good deeds uh so we know you're a tough guy but at heart you're a lover I mean you're talking about the man carrying you up and down the steps we hear that you go back to the Dairy Queen the original owner I know what you do are you are you both are you a lover and a tough guy how would you assess yourself yeah I hate for you to say that because then you're going to ruin my bad reputation we already know that because okay I'll ask you this are you a lover uh yeah there's there's a softer side to me too um you know and I'm my eyes are wandering around because I'll be honest this is the first time in first day in four months that I've been back to my Ranch in Indiana you're checking your place out while you're talking and looking out the windows because it's turkey season and I'm watching eight turkey cruising along the back again speak out there and hide one of you would have a bad day now I I do I you know you mentioned the Dairy Queen I mean they they sponsored me when I was nine years old in a go-kart and um one of my best friends in town now works for me here at the ranch and and I literally text him before I sat down in the chair to talk to you I said hey as soon as we get done let's go see Bob at Dairy Queen because I know he'll give me a free Shake which shakes about a dollar 75 now so uh but he is same guy same store um I race a three-quarter in Indiana here when I have spare time and my dad's 85 years old he races one that's why I still race but uh if we when we run the Columbus fair and the fairgrounds here if we win the race I always do just like I did every Saturday night when I raced go-karts if we win the next day I take the trophy into him he sets it on the counter for the entire year and uh then I get it at the end of the season okay this is perfect this is perfect now let me let me start we've done 20 minutes and didn't even start the conversation so we know everybody knows that you've done it all I mean if you know in this new era if I Google Tony Stewart I mean NASCAR champion you know IndyCar Champion you know don't make me go down the list but you've done it all there there's nothing else to do except what Tony wants to do we all know that so you go to uh race NHRA and uh but now you end up in Vegas last week and now you've already done it all but you win you win your first NHRA drag race you send the whole United States and not the states the world in a tizzy because now it's like holy crap he's now he's winning the drag racing so are you taking that Wally to the Dairy Queen I don't know about the Wally it's a little different from a Fairgrounds trophy at a TQ race but I was uh that was one thing when I got home last night and I was grabbing everything out of the truck and bringing it inside uh you know when we win an SRX race or we win a sprint car race or whatever it is you know if we win something we always bring it to the kitchen first and you know the my housekeeper here we call her Berta like Berta from Two and a Half Men she's just got as much spunk and she doesn't care if it's Johnny Morris that's staying at the house or you or anybody else she's going to give me the same crap and the same grief like I haven't even seen her yet this morning and I guarantee when I go out there she's going to look at me and go you're here yeah how long till you leave again so I mean I just guarantee that's what she's gonna say but um I love putting it out there because she likes to see it my buddy Mark that works for us loves to see it when they get here and uh you know then then it's a topic of you know talking about the race weekend and talking about how it went so you went to Vegas um uh and I want to get I want to get to that but you do something that comes out a little bit later came out immediately in your interview but we all didn't hear about it you've gone to Vegas a lot in your life you've won on the cup track you won on the bull ring you've won on the dirt track and now you're just you've done historical things now you've won in everything on the Vegas complex once you realized what you've done I think you realize it in Victor Lane from the videos I saw that's pretty big feather in your cap possibly nobody could ever do that we we honestly thought about it last fall when we ran second at the NHRA race the very first race I ran I lost by two ten thousandths of a second which literally is one inch it is that big and there are 15 840 inches in a quarter mile that's you can imagine driving a quarter mile 15 840 inches and you lose by one are You Smarter math now because of drag racing uh no it just the good thing is we get we all got phones way easier for us but um but yeah it's I sat there last year and when after we won the semifinals I'm like holy crap if we won I got thinking about like I wanted the bull ring in a non-wing Sprint car and a that I won in an as an ASCS national race uh 360 race at the dirt track I won my first so USAC silver crown race on the dirt track one cup win at the big track and then we were one inch away from completing it and but who would have known that you know four races later and in the spring we're going to come back to Vegas and we're going to win by three ten thousandths of a second which is an inch and a half and uh end up completing it so I that was probably aside from think there were three things that I was so grateful of at the top end when we got out of the car I was I was just so excited that we won because you and I are a Racers it doesn't care until the day we die we're going to be sure something if it means we gotta race to the toilet to see who gets to the toilet first or to live to the buffet or to get to down the hall to see our girlfriend at the nursing home whatever it's going to be we're going to always be erasing something so the win was exciting to begin with and then I thought man this is so great for this team that I'm with McPhillips family it's Rich senior Rich Junior we call Rich senior pop so I'll refer to him as pops but uh him and Eric and Bill and Renee um those are the five people that really work on my car and the car that I drove last weekend was not the car that I ran at Vegas last fall that we had obsessed with they built they were building a brand new car already for Richie the Sun and uh after the Vegas race then they decided they want to put wanted to put a deal together for me to drive the new car this year so we started the year very very slow and rough and pre-season testing we ran a couple days could not get could not get any speed out of the car um ran the baby gator Nationals which is the weekend before the gator National event slow went to the gator Nationals slow went to Pomona slow like literally couldn't get this car to get out of its own way and it's literally it was literally the biggest part of it was the first 60 feet of the run I just couldn't get the car to take off and launch and uh but he was they were pulling their hair out pops I'm I don't know him that well but I mean I could see every run that we would come back just the stress and torment in his eyes he just was so frustrated but uh after the Pomona race before Vegas we won't we took the car to Bakersfield California and did a test there and it didn't show any promise either I went there Richie drove the car I said hey this was going to be your car you need to do the test session and drive it and um didn't see anything out of the day that we tested but in between the tests and going to Vegas they found two things that were very big and very important that uh they had missed on uh and had found a couple other areas that we we made improvements on so I literally on Friday at Vegas when I stepped on the gas to do the burnout I'm like whoa this thing's woke up now I can tell it's a different race car and he told me the whole laundry list I mean intake camshafts did some stuff in the rear end freeing the rear end up we had an alignment issue with the motor and the Drive Lines just little things that added up uh but it literally was a way different race car and we Friday the two qualifying rounds we had we didn't even make it down the track it'd make it a second and a half into the run and literally shake the tires so bad you had to lift so um we knew we were we were way on the other side of the needle at that point that that's a good feeling I mean it's it's like a racehorse it's way easier to slow that horse down than it is to sit there and get the whip out and try to get more speed out of it so we had uh Power we just had to kind of pull it back and figure out where it needed to be so for the most part when we started on Friday it was like starting all over with a new car I love it because you this is racer talk and Racers love to hear how you go from not good to testing overcoming prevailing so um we're in Victory Lane and uh you know the great Dick Trickle taught me about snapshots you know just you know whether you're in the race car and you're coming off the corner you look at the mirror that's a snapshot or life life is full of snapshots what I really liked about your Victor Lane and I tuned into that was uh your wife Liam came and gave you a kiss and you said to her I don't have to borrow your Wally anymore I have my own and she looked you square in the face like a competitor and she says you earned it do you remember that moment yeah I do it's bad yes I won't forget that moment are you kidding me I mean I could not wait for her to get down there the first person to me and the lady that you saw me hug immediately while I still had my helmet on was Kelly Antonelli and Kelly runs TSR for us she used to run John Force Racing and uh she was looking for a change and we said hey what a coincidence we're looking for somebody but she's the spine and the backbone of the whole program so Kelly was the first one I hugged but I kept looking around for Liam like she'll be here any second and but it's a long time I mean to get on you know to celebrate on the the part that you miss as a driver in NHRA is when you win the race normally you get to celebrate with the team right away the hard part in NHRA is you're a half mile down the track yeah oh they they celebrate on on the line and then they all get in the tow vehicle and scooters and golf carts and haul ass down the return Road uh to get up there to you but I I remember that I will never forget that moment I I was so excited to see her up there and you know she she's she's really the reason that I'm there I mean I I for multiple reasons I mean we'll we'll dive deeper obviously but you know she's my coach I mean she's my driver coach there's so many things like etiquette of just I don't even know and I still don't know I ran five races now and I'm still confused on the flags at the top end of the track on who's supposed to turn off first and this and that and it can be a dangerous situation if you're not paying attention so uh they always say when in doubt just stop so uh but I'm figuring all those things out but Leah has been the most amazing teacher you could possibly imagine I mean we from the day we met I started asking a lot of questions about sport because like you mentioned earlier I'm a student in Motorsports I want to understand it I want to know it I want to wrap my head around it and my hands around it and understand it so we've talked about a lot of things and then I've been to the track the last couple years and been able to watch and and learn from that but uh then when you get the call that you're going to drive a car for the first time at an event I'm like oh crap there's all these things that I don't know about and etiquette I mean you know how I am as a person in Motorsports uh you talked about the the loving side and the aggressives and and frustrating side A lot of times when I got mad people thought I just enjoyed being mad I hated being mad I don't like being mad I'm I'm like you you and I are two peas in a pod we love having fun we love laughing love being around people I hate getting mad and I hate getting mad at other competitors but when I get mad at them it's always about etiquette it's about the stuff that Dale senior and Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin Bobby Labonte Jeff Gordon Terry Labonte all these greats that I raced with they taught us and they taught you too when you came up they taught us the etiquette of how to do it the right way and if you didn't do it the right way there was an easy fix for those guys we're gonna bust your ass yeah they turned you around back in the fence and when you were sitting there sliding down the racetrack or stopped or trying to get it fired up to drive it to the pits you have that time to go I think I made a mistake and you had to figure it out but that's how you learned and they really don't it's it's sad in our sport now how vanilla and wimpy all these drivers are they wanna they literally won't confront each other at the track they'll just sit there and wait till they get home and and beat on each other on Twitter where nobody has to face anybody so we grew up in a different era in a different age I don't know how I got off on this channel it's a good subject don't don't worry about it I do it all the time but let me say this when we had a gentleman's agreement in the Nascar Cup series that when there was a big wreck we all slowed down because at the time we didn't have the the lines underneath the asphalt to freeze the field so we froze the field ourselves well early in my career I raced Terry Labonte you know I passed him and I thought oh I'm getting him I'm getting him he took me he Terry Labonte took me between the trailers and to me that's what you did Rusty did we did like hey come here and you know oh and we went between the trailers and it was that little private hallway people like you or or you know Dale senior we would address people those days are gone yeah yeah you're right it's uh I mean I remember drivers coming up in the lounge and and it wasn't always bad sometimes they'd come in there and tell you when you did something good too and that you did something right they would come in and praise you for it but if you did something wrong exactly there were meetings in between trailers they would literally come in your trailer and talk to you in your own lounge and talk in each other's motor homes after practice was over or after the race was over you handled it and you did it eye to eye you did it face to face you did it as men and and exactly what you said I mean we didn't have timelines in the racetrack when the when the caution came out you literally were allowed to race to the to the start Finish Line yeah and you could pick up 10 15 20 spots if you wanted if the caution came out and turns one and two but everybody it was it was handled respectfully and uh we did it because when when cars wrecked then we didn't have soft walls we didn't have containment seats uh the safety at that time was as good as it could be at that time but it had a lot of room for improvement but um we all took care of each other and and there was a there was a proper etiquette and as time went on and I tell people I I honestly say when we lost Dale senior that was the beginning of the end of the etiquette there is no etiquette with these guys anymore and that's okay as long as we don't care you and I don't care what the rules are we just want it to be the same for everybody we want everybody to race the same so that verbiage Gentleman's Agreement yes yeah and and we all did great with it and and we had great races great racing everybody respected each other and sure there's times that guys made mistakes or went over the line and and we all kept each other in check but it's definitely a different day and age in NASCAR and that's that's what I was I guess uh where I was going with that is that's what I'm trying to make sure sure I learn in the sport of NHRA is I want to be respectful coming in it doesn't matter I don't it does not matter anything that I've done in my past before I got there I'm a rookie just like everybody else but I have the way I am as a person and the way as I am as a driver is a I want to respect the sport I want to respect the people in the sport and I want to learn the etiquette I want to do it the right way and Leah will tell you I focus on making sure that I'm doing it the right way I'm I can do things and and then at the end of the day we'll go to the hotel I'm like hey I did this was this right was this the right way to do it or not and literally some of the guys that I line up with for qualifying runs um you know you're not racing each other but you're paired up against each other for qualifying and you know in my in our class we have injected cars and then we have some cars that have blowers on them and the way they stage is different than what the alcohol cars that just are injected that how they stage and everything so I would literally talk to every driver that I was going to and say Hey you know help me understand how you need to Stage so I don't mess you up because I don't mess your run up you know if I mess my run up that's on me but I don't want to measure run up because I don't know what I'm doing and I think those guys really respect the fact that I don't sit there and go I don't care about any of these guys all I care about is myself uh I I care about the guys I'm racing with and it because of that I'll build a good rapport in a short amount of time with the teams and the drivers that are in my class in the pit area yeah I want to compliment you then we're going to move on from drag racing up number one you're you're the ultimate racer I'm saying that the other thing that I know about you is that grown men in racing they try to be tough guys and they'll they'll they'll leap over things they should have focused on but when when I'm around you one thing I've noticed about you is you take the most simplest thing and you're very serious about it and I noticed that about you years ago I'm like Tony's focused in on what I thought was just the simplest thing and I want to thank you Tony because you made me be more mature in that area so like literature no don't no don't don't I got everybody thinking of a nut right now you're gaining on it you're gaining on it but I mean you got a long way to go but I want everybody to know that about you about you at the start at the start of a manual of you know instructions whether it's life or racing you're dead serious from the start about just the most simplest thing so I just wanted to compliment you on that and tell you that you taught me that you don't got to be a tough guy let's get this right let's start out right and uh that's why when I saw you I'm going to drag race in school you know I thought that was so badass you know you were learning from the very bottom uh and honestly when I did that I had no intention of racing I literally went at the end of 2020 because you know Lee and I met in March and then at the end of toward the end of the season I had built enough of a rapport with her team to where I I was allowed and was asked to sit in in the debriefs with this learning the lingo and the yeah and I and I was sitting there and I mean I would sit with my shoulders like this and I would try not to breathe too loud and I got to listen to all the debrief and and I would listen to Leah talk about the run and what she had to do driving wise anybody that thinks a drag race used to go straight you end up you could go a straight line to get there but none of those cars go exactly straight the entire time so you have to drive but I I sat and listened to all those things and I sat there and and you and I've both done it we've all you know you and I visit different race tracks and watch different cars race and and when you hear people talk about it you go well we think we understand and know what it would feel like to do that but when she would talk about something I'm like why in my head I understand it but I don't really know what that feels like because you wanted to feel it so I wanted to go to the drag racing school and just get a better perspective on it just so when I sat in those meetings then I don't have to ask all those questions of and at the end of the school you feel about a tenth of the things you need to learn but it gives you a good base and understanding of how uh how it all works and you know I started in a super comp car there at Holly's school and um halfway through the day he had brought his alcohol car for me to drive as well that car is a 220 mile an hour car and a quarter mile so my Lord get your undivided attention not because of the speed but because of the acceleration to get there I mean our cup cars cannot get to 200 mile an hour in a quarter mile it just physically isn't possible so um that's how it really started but I didn't have any intentions at that time of of doing anything more than just going to that school you know oh God I gotta wrap this this part up but when we were at bike week I told you Tony I did a hole shot in the Jegs Pro Stock and I said something new that I thought was kind of funny but you took it serious I said you know when I did that whole shop my brain was here yeah and the g-force was so unbelievable because I was already in my 50s and the car was up here and you said that that is a big deal yeah it really is it's uh that's the hardest thing to explain to people because they're like man you can drive anything oh I feel like yeah I can drive anything but the thing that happens is and the easiest way to describe it is if you wanted to bench press 400 pounds you don't just start with 400 pounds you start with a lighter weight and as you get used to it and you build up to it then you keep adding the weight and you just keep building and working up our brains have to learn to process information so you think of fighter pilots and you think it right drag racers and you think about all these people that drive things and fly things that move very quickly and change direction very quickly their brain has to learn and it doesn't just automatically do it your brain has to train itself if it doesn't have an application to to grow and be better it won't no different than lifting weights and building muscles so I had to drive slower cars that didn't have as much acceleration as the top fuel card just to get my brain to start wrapping itself around it because I told you the first time I drove Leah's Top Fuel car they said go to the 330 foot cone because all the cars you and I've ever driven if we want to ease up to it we just run part throttle and then we want to go faster a little more throttle it doesn't work that way in drag racing because there's timers there's all these sensors that have to go off but you have to stab the gas when the light changes and then it has to go through and do its work so to work up to it you just go shorter distance as you start at the 330 cone then you go to the 660 cone then you go to the thousand foot and then you go to the end of the quarter mile in the alcohol car so but I hit the gas got to the 330 cone and saw the 330 cone shut it off and my brain was probably 150 feet and I could tell everybody I've driven Leah's car 16 runs I've went 322 miles an hour to 3.76 lapse time and that's hauling ass yeah they're running into 330s when they're hauling ass but 322 was fast for me but trying to get your brain to understand and you know you and I we could go to Bristol and happy hour and Run 100 laps in happy hour before it was over in a one-hour session in a eight hour day at an NHRA track if you have a good day you can get four four runs in with the alcohol on you get five maybe so to try to get your brain to understand and learn all these things it takes time to do it and that's really how I ended up in the alcohol car with the McPhillips family is I drove her car at Vegas a year ago and spun the tires the last two runs out after 200 feet and didn't even know I was spinning the tires because it was still pulling at 1.6 G's I mean it's still pulling hard but I couldn't feel it and I got very frustrated and also at the same time the reality came in of you know when the thing goes down through there and there's no problems it's it's okay it's it's the 40 things that could happen during that run of a cylinder going out or uh spinning the tires and not catching it quick enough there's just so many things that you got to be prepared for and and ready for it that's what scared me of if I'm behind the car and something happens there's a good chance I can't catch up to it to recover it so uh that's that's why I took a step back and came down to run alcohol I totally get it uh I'm gonna end the drag racing segment as I flew with the Blue Angels and I was pulling six eight G's and I was going out and the pilot was just flying beautifully because like you said he worked up to it you know what you're right you got to train your brain so Tony let's move on uh whoops boy that was loud listen I take this interview serious I got notes I actually have notes well I wanted to throw them out for you what who made three because you didn't write those out yourself I did I'm lost you know what I do Tony I get on my phone and and I make others mean Kim I get I got a note section uh Connie from Sparkle called me but anyway I get that notes and helmet then yeah uniforms I think that's fair that's your SRX deal nice I'm gonna be down there I'm going down to Charlotte uh by the way you've done a a really good job with that SRX deal and I'm honored August 17th that last SRX race at Wheatland uh you know you all invited me into that's a big honor for the third third child that always feels lesser so I'm gonna fit my seat uh you are the one that I'm worried about at that event that you're the one that I'm like you're the guy of the group that I got circled that this is the guy that I'm gonna have to beat for the win if I'm gonna win that race stop it well so we um we got to move on to NASCAR uh you are the owner part owner of Stuart Haas it's a big responsibility and we all know okay I'm saying this you're not Gene called you somebody called you you go there I mean it's this is Christmas you you save the day you immediately win a championship uh you got you know all your people in place it and now Stuart Haas is one of the top tier teams there's no Ezra Stephen would say no doubt about that so um you're a full-fledged owner now and you you have all the right to say whatever you want to say because you know everything now about NASCAR even though you're running NHRA you can do everything at the same time I said I say Tony conchugum and walk at the same time better than anybody so I'm gonna ask you some questions about about NASCAR because I've heard you already so I'm already a little privy to what you think Tech inspection with these new next-gen cars and the penalties what's your opinion on this I don't want you to get in trouble the bad thing is I have an opinion about it I have a very strong opinion about it you got the same as mine but and I said this at Bristol when you know we were down with uh uh Chris Myers and and Clint and I were doing the pre-race show and it was discussed about you know the Hendrix Saga of getting penalized and losing points and crew chiefs suspended and then they win the appeal and then the next week two more cars go back and uh windshield screw gets cut off and they lose all these points again for a windshield screw that got cut off so um yeah this is the part that I really hate about the sport right now and this is what frustrates me about NASCAR right now is yeah I I do have an opinion I have a very strong opinion about uh how they're doing things but if I say something yeah they're an owner then it's going to cost me money it's going to cost me points it's it's going to hurt my drivers it's going to hurt my organization and so as much as I have an opinion I'm scared to voice it because that NASCAR is shown now you you can't have an opinion you can have an opinion but keep your mouth shut is basically the moral to the story so let me say it uh and I don't want you to answer because one thing we want to remind everybody is that you are a NASCAR owner and I think we all lose sight of that because you announce the races you drag race you know I mean you're you've got Donny shots in the World of Outlaws uh you do so much good for Motorsports throughout the world Tony thank you for doing that but I want to say this Kyle Petty said it exactly right he says when Daddy people on South call their dad's Daddy when Daddy raced when it was Lee Petty Kyle Petty you know Richard Petty all the petties he said when we went to the racetrack it was us against them so my opinion is this look we're coming to the racetrack here's my car jack it up do whatever you want we're going to go through inspection as many times as you want at this racetrack but I think five hundred thousand dollars for this car or 450 whatever it is and when I leave it's my car I don't think it's right to continue inspection when you leave the facility uh because I've given you all the Hey listen we can find anything wrong with your house if I go to your house don't even Joyce you know so if you're going to take my race car and study it that's not right you inspected it at the racetrack when we unloaded before qualifying Before the Race I beat you the end I feel comfortable with this because I've said it before okay you're saying it and you and you remember this when when I started and when you were you'd already been in the sport for a little while when I started there were two guys in the tower that had a stopwatch in each hand two guys a total of four stop watches to sit there in time 43 cars on Pit Road for pet Road speeding correct they're all 100 right if you or I pissed off NASCAR the week before or we got under their skin or ruffled their feathers guess what happened the very next week got a road speed and penalty 100 and that's how NASCAR kept the etiquette and kept the drivers in line and kept control and that's we all understood that and it was like yeah we get it and and you know on top of that if you really went overboard they'd call you to the trailer and have a talk with you and they would explain why they have to do things the way they do and I don't want this to sound like a bass session against NASCAR because no you're not they have the hardest job in Motorsports to control all this so now we're in an era where they've kind of backed themselves in a corner a little bit now you got all this gambling and betting on the sport well they can't they can't sit there and give you a Pit Road speeding penalty if it's not warranted if you didn't do it they can't charge you for a Pit Road speeding penalty like they used to now you change the outcome of the game if you did now you've changed it and you've you've you're controlling the sport from that standpoint and screwing up the betting so they don't do that anymore there's no debris you know debris cautions where somebody threw a water bottle out and it's clear against the inside wall and they want to caution because they want to Bunch the field up they literally cannot do that anymore yeah so now if you're a NASCAR how do you control everything afterwards and how do you control one across Kevin Harvick's mad he's talking about the cars are unsafe and and they're talking about this procedure screwed up and that how does NASCAR then keep these guys under control they take their cars back to the shop and they find it tear it down just like you said in my house they tear it down until they find something they don't like and every car is going to have something that they can find so that's their way of controlling it so with that again it's it's it's again why it's like the inspection process and this and that man the the Disco room and the the lasers and all that to scan it the technology involved in that and how good a job Nascar has done to control that is amazing it's phenomenal the Hawkeye system they had to figure all that out and figure out how to control all this NASCAR's done an amazing job from that standpoint but I agree with you to sit there and be upset because somebody said something you know the Denny Hamlin case is a perfect example you know he gets on his podcast a day or two later and says what he says well what's the statute of limitations you know two years two years from now years ago I wrecked Danny Hamlin on purpose well what are you gonna do take the take the win away now I mean what do you do and that's what I asked them in a meeting I said where does it stop it's like you can't control you can't you can't babysit you can't monitor everything and and I think they are making mistakes but it's it's their playground it's their their rules and and we all play by them so let's move on that way I can keep you and me out of trouble because I'm still I constantly live in a state of trouble it's yeah how little or big is it getting my brother Rusty says her and I watch all that stuff you do he says you push it just far enough let's say well let me know if I go over to the line so hey like I said I just want everybody to understand I still love the sport of NASCAR though I still love what it's about it's there's just some growing pains with the new car and there's some things that I feel like they they've kind of got on a check on but um it's it's not for us to judge that it's their game and and you know they always have said and I remember Brian France saying if you don't like it here you don't have to be here you can leave at any time if the sport was here before you got here and it'll be here long after you you leave and and he's absolutely he was absolutely right but at some point they all have to realize too that we're all working together to make it better yeah that reminds me of when I I interviewed we talked to Jonathan Davenport at Bristol for that NASCAR race day show came back and I said Jonathan I want to be this I see you know it's dirt fans hate NASCAR I said you're here to run the Cup race do you hate NASCAR he says Kenny this is a dream come true all dirt Racers love NASCAR this is the biggest moment of my life my career so you're right you can do whatever you want to do you don't have to run NASCAR but everybody wants to the the thing about the dirt Community because I have a Sprint Car Series I have a Sprint car team yeah you had the series too I forgot about that yeah got a car that runs World of Outlaws the mistakes that NASCAR are making are very transparent and everybody in the industry and it's like NASCAR doesn't realize the lower what you they would consider the lower levels of Motorsports the Grassroots level look at NASCAR different than they did 10 years ago and 20 years ago I mean absolutely it's every driver's dream to be an NASCAR driver at some point but then you'll pull on you and I both do this we pull into a dirt track and people come over and go what the hell was NASCAR thinking listen to it Non-Stop and you can't penalize me for that yeah if my cars end up at Tech next week because I said that they're penalizing the wrong guy you know it's they're making the mistakes and they've got to somewhat get himself back in check Tony I spend all the time at the dirt tracks trying to you know help NASCAR and have these dirt fans go look I know you're upset but NASCAR is awesome and I spend my whole dirt racing career doing that so let's move on uh I want you to do uh tell me if this is a rumor or not so uh the new car it was said that Rick Hendrick Roger Penske Jack Roush Richard Childers all the top car owners I want you to tell me if this is true or false they went to NASCAR and they said because you're an owner they said save us because we're spending so much money molding these cars just let us get a car so we can get rid of and we got so many employees it's killing us is it true did I'm not saying you but it did all the owners in NASCAR ask for this next-gen car absolutely I mean it was it had to happen because the spending per team per year was getting astronomical the resources that you were having to put into it and what it what it was doing was separating lower third middle third and top tier teams the top tier teams were well funded had a lot of resources the lower tier teams it was all they could do to just survive and get cars to the racetrack so we needed for the health of the sport we needed to find a way to cut costs to cut back on I mean I think Gibbs at one point had over 600 employees for four Cup teams and running one car one race yeah yeah running a car One race and then stripping it it's crazy yeah and that was the standard I mean that's how far the competition is has pushed itself and how technology has got involved and pushed this sport so the the owners realize for the longevity of it from the ownership side that we needed to ask for that and I I think it's the new car is I don't know I have opinions about the new car I don't think I would have asked a sports car manufacturer to design a stock car that's where I'll go with that yeah okay so uh we're gonna wrap the NASCAR up uh your opinion uh so I asked Austin Dillon I said Austin why are you all beating the hell out of each other he goes Kenny he says years ago we knocked the radiator out you couldn't do it because they got these things so strong they're like German tanks and that's the reason we're beating the hell out of each other now with that said you know you're the best Tony you're one of the bestest Sports ever seen because the front ends are strong should we be beating the hell out of each other well you're on to something there the front ends are strong the toe links in the rear are not strong that's the thing that you have to guard I mean you and then you can change them obviously during a pit stop but that is the weak link I mean we used to be able to bang off the wall and it didn't take us out of the race now it screwed the sheet metal up and probably had a tire rub with it but that's the great thing about the composite bodies they don't really you don't really get as many Tire rubs because the bodies will push back out the hard part is the comp the suspension components and and having the toe links in the back uh for independent rear suspension I mean that is kind of a weak Link in the cars right now right all right we're done with NASCAR I don't think you and I are in trouble listen it's going to take a couple weeks they won't they may be slick about it if they're going to penalize this stuff I mean I say that and I give them I critique them because I really want the best for the sport and I appreciate the opportunity I had in NASCAR and what it's given me to reinvest in Motorsports and keep going so let's let's wrap it up like this what is good about NASCAR well you look over this last 75 years of what where it started and where it's at now I mean it's it's incredible it's the largest form of Motorsports in the United States so to see all the great drivers and and you know now be a part of that 70 congratulations Tony thank you um you you sit there and you when you get older you start looking back at how thing the big picture of everything and you look at what Bill senior did and what Bill Jr and Brian and and now Jim France and and Ben kennedy I I think the world of Ben kennedy I I don't always agree with him and we don't always get along but I really respect Ben kennedy I think he is the future of NASCAR uh I think he will carry this sport for the next 50 years easily yeah Daryl Walter Owen like this Daryl Walter said Hey listen just because I complain about NASCAR doesn't mean I hate him you know I love them right it's our sport so moving on uh this will be our last segment uh dirt racing you got somewhere else better to be today enough to hang out I feel like we've been doing this forever I'm having a good time for like five minutes are we having a good time we're having a great time I love that and I'm home I don't have to go anywhere I have an off day I keep yeah I think I keep saying that because I'm not nervous but this is our first one and it's a big deal to have one of the greatest drivers and I won't tell everybody we're good friends uh dirt racing are you still embarrassed about me you remember that day no I just I was afraid of you and when you confronted me about it you came out of the it was Daytona in the toner in the RV section you come up and you said the media says you're afraid of me and I said I am but we we've moved past that I love you I I was learning you I was learning you and we discussed that actually yeah I I was taking you wrong uh and like you said I think you know I would see your tenaciousness and I didn't understand that you were just you know going at it you know um it reminds me of David if he was my first crew chief he says uh I was I was going at it with him I was arguing over a sway bar because I was kind of I'm a kind of a chassis guy he grabbed me by the color I said boy when we come to this racetrack we love each other we're in war don't don't take anything personal but we're in war together we're fighting on the same team yes yes and and I'll be 60 in August and sometimes I wish life was the other way around because if I'd have known some of that stuff but I think that's part of the journey yeah uh so so dirt racing I'm going to say a couple things and maybe you comment on it not so much a question uh I think in totality of all of America or maybe the world when I look at auto racing it seems like the dirt super late models are like the greatest thing in racing they're just it's just skyrocketing it's everything's better it's more money to win uh am I wrong or right or just comment on that no I think you're right I mean the I think and I don't even think it's just their late models I mean we did the dirt Million last year at Eldora for the late models this year and you're on Eldora yeah forgot about that one do we're doing a million dollar to win Wing sprint car race this year so dirt races they're going through the roof I mean uh Jackson Minnesota is doing a 250 000 to win Wing sprint car race um you know the purses are getting higher and higher and higher and short track racing which is great but it has to the technology and the dirt late models is way out of control now I mean Kevin Rumley is the guy that that really started revolutionizing modern late models now to where they're at do they ever ham up dirt yes exactly that's exactly the best way you can say it but he is he has taught these guys you know our world we learned about downforce we didn't think anything about side force and then when we learned about side force it was a game changer in in NASCAR racing well now they brought that technology to dirt late model racing and you watch Cars I I literally remember and this might have been five years ago even I remember watching Jonathan Davenport the world 100 got the lead and was driving off from the field he caught the back of the pack and couldn't pass the last place car yeah it was so air dependent that it was no different than what we complained about as drivers in the cup series and what you see in IndyCar and formula one about being air dependent so it really shows how the technology has changed in in the dirt late model World sprint cars are the same way always have been because of the big wings on top but um Wing sprint cars dirtway models and even the modifieds now I mean I sat there and looked at the car I was watching the broadcast uh watching Kyle Larson when and Justin out and I looked at that thing in Victory Lane and I'm like man 15 years ago that would have been the most cheated up race car you've ever seen in your life but it was brilliant I'm looking at I'm like that was that was done really nice that was done really nice that was done really nice and I'm just watching it on the computer but then you watch the cardboard around the racetrack and you're like yeah that's why it drives nice too because of how good a job Justin and his crew and his team have done it building a car that is totally illegal um we know what we're looking at when you and I look at it and we're like that's pretty damn sexy right there I mean that's that's getting it done yeah so uh you talk about you and I watching the races um six ten years ago myself and Bob Sergeant were driving up Interstate 55 north and we're trying to figure out if flow or dirt Vision streaming is good for the sport what's your opinion on uh you know all the new streaming sites uh well dirtvision started it with the sprint cars and and then went to the late models in the Big Blocks and then here came flow Sports yeah and they have revolutionized and it's been a game changer for short track racing uh not only just short track race I mean they're now moving into drag racing um you name it they're in it and and when I first when somebody first said flow I said okay well what is it and they said well you just got to kind of look I mean there's everything from marching band competitions started with three guys and two of the brothers one was a wrestler and one was in track and field so they I mean they do high school track and field high school wrestling college track and field college wrestling and everything in between the Jitsu you name it they cover it if it's Sports they're covering it and uh to bring the Motorsports aspect I mean Mark and his staff have totally changed the game of how fans have the opportunity to watch races we all you know you live in St Louis I live in Indiana or Arizona depending on what half of the country we're on racing that weekend but we can't drive to all these race tracks but we have the ability to go to a track and at the same time on our phone be watching another race when when there's down time so we have the ability to enjoy more and more and more Motorsports and it's all cataloged so you can go back and watch it for Flo to do what they've done to give the fans an opportunity for 150 a year to have all of their content I mean if you want to watch if you're like oh I bought it for the racing but yeah my kids into you know my five-year-olds into this softball yeah let's think you can watch it and all of it and it is crazy and and I think flow has really been a game changer I I love what they're doing um you know it's kind of created a storm in our sport though the the the track operators and owners are fearful that because of that people aren't going to come to the racetrack well if you live in Skagit Washington you're not coming Tuesday night Eldora right you still watch it right so I don't feel like it hurts the tracks and I hope it doesn't hurt the tracks as bad uh as we as we are talking about um but it's great for the teams it's great for the drivers it gets them that exposure um you know it really helps showcase their talent and stuff so we as owners and team owners and series owners we get to watch these young and up and coming guys and it's hard to sit there and go yeah I don't know anything about him well yeah I got to see him Tuesday night or I can go back and pull up a race and watch him run that's that's stuff we didn't have access to years ago so I I'm a big fan of it right now yeah I think it's good too because we don't have to rely listen we always say we want everybody at the racetrack but yes and we still do I mean that's that is the most important thing what people don't realize is it's an ecosystem and for all this to work you can't just sit at home and watch watch it on on streaming and and this to be sustainable you still have to go to the racetrack you got to support your local tracks because you got uh co-part companies like Copart that are going in and buying race tracks left and right and the reason they're doing that is because they can bring all their cars there and they don't they don't have to worry about EPA because just about every race track's got oil and stuff in the dirt and it's an EPA nightmare but they can buy the property because it's already that way so they go in and they're shutting race tracks down to expand their business they don't care about Motorsports they just care about building theirs yes this is interesting yeah this is something Mike Joy pointed out to me Copart is a big factor in buying up a lot of race tracks that are struggling right now and you know it's for these track operators and owners that are struggling it's it's a it's a way out for them unfortunately but it's shutting down race tracks across the country because coach and Jerry Boyd's just shut down yeah co-part is buying a lot of these race tracks and and turning them into salvage yards wow I never knew that what do you see what do you see at your window right now we're good it's pretty it's pretty slow right now though I guess the grazing period is over or they've moved away from eating my bushes outside I know you're trying to do an interview yeah so um as you look back on your career what was the happiest time what what was it when was it was when I ran the Xfinity series the bush series I was winning it was simple time for me when I got the cup it was rough what was your happiest time I would I'll say now is pretty close to the happiest time but I would say originally what I've always told everybody was my happiest times was when I was racing you sack when I was running a in a Sprint car and silver crown car and you'd drive with your buddies to the races and then you might be in a fight with each other at the racetrack then you're like we gotta ride home together the white nine yeah yeah the Lewis car and uh but when I was back back then before I won my first championship I mean you would sit there and literally in a four week period in a in a month you if you had three rough weeks and you didn't make much money you were getting by and getting race to race but then rent utilities all that stuff that I'm getting nervous I'm getting nauseous thinking about those days real world you'd sit there on week four and go man I can't screw up because I got to pay bills next week you know and and it kind of changed how you raced on week four if you had a rough first three weeks but that was when I had the most fun I mean life was simple um you know I was in my my early mid-20s and and really enjoying life as a race car driver and originally when I started as a kid I when I got in my early teens I thought man if I could ever just make a living Drive in a race car and support myself if I could make make a living Drive in midgets and sprint cars that'd be the ultimate for me and what did you know we got there we got there we just kept Trucking them so uh but yeah those those were the best times when I was uh you know raised in USA back in the day well Tony lesson uh from the bottom of my heart thank you so much for saying yes to do this this is a big deal we I kind of dreamed it up I told Charlie I said Charlie one of these days we're going to interview people and he goes well we can do that now I'm like really so welcome to technology Bud yeah yeah it's pretty incredible you you know and I I gotta say we've had a great feed and it's way easier than me traveling five hours to your house and uh thank you so much do good you mistakenly you have reminded me everything you're doing my Lord Eldora sprint cars drag cars cop cars it's unbelievable congratulations on all your success congratulations on once again uh being one of the greatest race car drivers to ever live with NASCAR 75 but there's so much more to you than that well I appreciate all that thank you so much um and I would anytime you call I've done your brother's podcast and uh when you when you sent me the message I'm like apps I I didn't know what my schedule was the rest of the week initially but I'm like yeah I'm 100 all in doing this with you but I'd say one of the proudest moments of my life and in my years of NASCAR and I can't take all the credit Kenny Schrader gets a lot of the credit as well Kenny Schrader and I talking you into getting into dirt track racing yeah and getting you in dirt cars and and then a whole new Kenny Wallace came out of his shell and to see that and be a part of that that's probably one what I one of my greatest accomplishments in Motorsports is introducing you to dirt track racing and getting you hooked on it uh I know saved my life that I'm proud of that um seeing you you know I was working the track at Tulsa at the Chili Bowl and seeing you in a the first time you helped me there was no happier moment I was like a proud father watching you ever switching the wheel too much you helped me but you were learning and and uh but just the fact that here your background was always pavement racing and NASCAR racing and we got you into something that that you've really became passionate and happy with and to see that and you uh truly has made me happy as your friend to see you enjoying dirt track racing and other forms of Motorsports like we do I'm smiling from here to here I'll I'll never forget that we won that we won your 2005 Prelude of the dream and I ran my ass off trying to catch you and you just drove away and I had Don O'Neal as my crew chief that night and he was so I won't say he was mad at me but he was frustrated I'm like Don I tried everything I've ever learned in a race car better than anybody in the field I said I I did everything in my power and he just ran a perfect race there was he never made a mistake and you didn't you ran every lap flawlessly so we you looked at me in Victory Lane you said what was that all about I think I said you maybe I should have been a dirt racer I don't believe it was like an out of body experience for you it was crazy but man like I said though I mean I wish the fans and and the fans know you now for who you are and how uh they know your personality and you've always had that personality but to see a smile on how much fun you're having you have broke out on the shell and the shadow of your brothers I know you always say you're the third brother but you're not you're you're your own man and and you're you're your own Wallace you have built that so uh you need to embrace that and start embracing it because you you're not Rusty's brother you're not Mike's brother you're by God you're Kenny damn Wallace and you you're you man I mean you made a huge impact on so many people I needed that that was great therapy Tony listen thank you so much I appreciate it I want to remind all the fans that uh listen we're doing it we are in podcast form now we are on Spotify iTunes this interview was awesome for me I hope it was for all of you but until then uh we're just gonna keep on rolling we got NASCAR's greatest drivers we got more in the pipeline so until then see you later everybody [Applause]

Channel: Kenny Wallace

Views: 81,689

Keywords: NASCAR, racing, Tony Stewart, Kenny Wallace, dirt racing

Id: o23uYTxUjAI

Length: 67min 57sec (4077 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023