Bentley Warren (2:24)

I try.

Kenny Wallace (2:26)

Bentley Warren, 85 years young from Hingham, Massachusetts. Is that right?

Bentley Warren (2:33)

I think it was Boston originally.

Kenny Wallace (2:36)

Oh, that's even better, I think.

Bentley Warren (2:38)

I don't know, but it might have been hang. I don't know. You probably know more. I was too young to know where the heck I was born.

Kenny Wallace (2:46)

Well, Boston, Mass. Is an awesome area. And those New Englanders, they love you. They really love you. Do you feel the love up in that area?

Bentley Warren (2:59)

Well, at the saloon, it's really. It's kind of busy and people enjoy it and enjoy me and enjoy the racing and they enjoy a lot of stuff we do. It's a whole group.

Kenny Wallace (3:11)

You know what, we're going to go all over the place. But you brought up the saloon. Campground and bikers saloon was constructed in. Let me see if I say this right. Is that Arendelle, Maine? Arundel, yeah, Arundel, Maine. And it serves as a tourism site and recreational haven. They love that saloon you got going on up there. Tell us a little bit about your place.

Bentley Warren (3:37)

Well, it was a small little bar and I bought it from a friend of mine and he was having a little bit of financial problems and I loaned him money, da da da da. And he always paid me back and everything. And he wanted some more, some more. Then long story short, I bought it. And then I took it from being a little crap hole bar to make it a real nice place. And it's. Over the years I've had a lot of help and a lot of people. My girlfriend Lisa does all the promoting and all the work there. And actually last year she took over the whole management thing of the saloon and made the bottom line the best it's ever been. So I'm pretty darn happy with that. I just work. I do this.

Kenny Wallace (4:22)

Hey, Bentley. I'm having fun when I say this.

Bentley Warren (4:26)

Okay.

Kenny Wallace (4:27)

It is sad to say, but like my wife, my wife Kim and our ladies, we. We must be pretty good at picking out the ladies because they are pretty smart, aren't they?

Bentley Warren (4:38)

Well, yeah, smarter than us. But it doesn't take much to be smarter than me. Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (4:44)

Well, my brother Rusty and my nephew Steven, they build motorcycles. Custom Harley Davidson. Billy Davidson from Harley Davidson, they like Rusty. And you know when Rusty was taking those Harleys and making them cussed and Rusty didn't know what to think. But now Billy Davidson from Harley Davidson, they like Rusty and Steven and they came up to your place. What was it like having Rusty Wallace up at the saloon?

Bentley Warren (5:14)

Well, he's. He's such a neat guy. And you wouldn't think he was Rusty Wallace per se with that name because he's Just so regular. He just. The people loved him. He, he really opened a lot of eyes in our area. And his bikes and, and his son riding wheel. He's like what the heck? But I'm not allowed to show you.

Kenny Wallace (5:35)

Yeah, well, you know, you know, you and I are probably the most. We cuss normally when we cut it's in the right spots, but they don't like us cuss and Bentley. But all my friends don't mind it. So we can always bleep you out on here our, our YouTube manager, which is Charlie Marlow. Charlie's really good at editing, so we're gonna have fun. And one last thing about the saloon. You've got a great friend, Mark Martin. As I say, Mark the Kid Martin. Tell me about your relationship with Mark Martin.

Bentley Warren (6:09)

Well, he and I have raced at a lot of tracks together, not really getting to know each other. And then he moved in down here at this campground. It's really a luxury resort, but I call it a campground just to see what the people's reactions out of the living. And I call, I got a motor home and I call it a campus. So that also drives them a little bit nuts, you know, but we got to be good friends and he's a great guy and you know, he and I talk about racing and about life and all kinds of great things. Him and Alene and Matt and you know, Matt set this computer up this morning. I don't know how to do it.

Kenny Wallace (6:45)

Well, hey everybody. We do want to thank Matt Martin, Mark Martin's son. They all laugh, they say the computer you're on right now is Mark Martin's wife. It's Arlene's. And, and, and everybody says Arlene can never get her computer back because Mark and Matt are doing the Mark Martin show on that computer you're on. And now we got Bentley Warren on Arlene's computer. So we, we want to thank Arlene Martin, we want to thank Matt for setting you up and we don't need to tell everybody where you're at, but I, I know you're out on the west coast and do you do that every year?

Bentley Warren (7:21)

Yeah, we've done it for about maybe 20 something years, I think. And I met Jim McGee out here and he was in this campground and he talked me into buying a place here and we ended up stealing it. It was just a great deal. So it's. And we've met a lot of people out here and the place is really great and a lot of the people that I've met out here Come back east, go to. Go to Maine. And they stop at the saloon at the campground because they all get. You know, the big camp is these motor. Motor coaches, as they call 3 million.

Kenny Wallace (7:54)

Hold on, everybody. Mark, just. Okay, the. The coach you're in, is that yours or Mark's?

Bentley Warren (7:59)

Mine.

Kenny Wallace (8:00)

Okay, well, Mark's is close to yours, I guess, but Mark, Mark, Martin, and Matt came to my house about a month ago, and Bentley, you all have some incredible motor coaches. Do these motor coaches amaze you how much they feel like home now?

Bentley Warren (8:19)

They are. I mean, we live in it. We. We get. We got a casita here that we are rebuilding. We're making it. It's going to be beautiful. But we stay in the camper. I call it camper just because we go camping. It's a camper. Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (8:34)

And Mark is on Facebook. Do you get into social media at all?

Bentley Warren (8:40)

No, I don't know how to do it.

Kenny Wallace (8:41)

Okay, so listen, one thing that I noticed in your voice before we get to racing, and this is my opinion, you are extremely smart. Yes, we do give credit to our wives, our daughters, but. But you inevitably make the call. Where did you get this business savvy? I. I do want to talk about your trucking company later, but you got it going on Bentley. Where did this talent come from?

Bentley Warren (9:12)

Well, I went in the army when I was 17 because I had to. I thought, I really need to be a soldier when the chief of police told me, you've got to go in the army or go to jail. So I want to be a soldier.

Kenny Wallace (9:25)

I love it.

Bentley Warren (9:26)

And I went in the Army. I was 17, and I dropped out of high school. I got kicked out a few times, and then I just ended up courting high school.

Kenny Wallace (9:33)

And.

Bentley Warren (9:34)

And just when I turned 17, I went in the army and I got a very, very good. My parents brought me up well, but then I got a very good education on life in the army. Three years in the army, going to career, and here and there, not in the war, but just probably a year after the war was over. And I just learned how to respect people, how to. And, you know, I was like. I say I was brought up well with good manners and all that, but that just gave me a whole new light on life and being three years there. Then I got out, I got married, and I had three kids. And then I went racing. I'd been racing before. I went in the army when I was 14. I built a car, and it was a real crap can, and I remember blowing a tire in it in practice and A roll bar hit me in the back of the head and I was in the hospital at 14 or 15 years old. I came home and my mother was very upset with me racing. My father signed for me. But I learned so much from racing. How to budget things and how to, you know, having no money but working and trying to save enough money to buy a tire. And, you know, we built a car. Jimmy Carter and I built a couple of race cars and Ernest McKay built one I drove for him. And it just, I learned so much racing and I really think that helped me in running my business. And when I started the business, we had nothing. And it just grew from there. I just, we, you know, counting pennies, saving pennies and making nickels out of them, making quarters out of nickels and all that. And we, we did well. And then I got hurt and that's how I started the trucking company.

Kenny Wallace (11:10)

So I do want to get there. But a couple more questions. We're going to go into your career. We're going to start at the beginning. I'm honored to have you on Kenny conversation. I'm not going to waste this one thing that has always intrigued me because I always heard this rumor and I want to clear this up for me. Do you have anything to do with the Boot Hill saloon in Daytona or was that always rumor?

Bentley Warren (11:38)

That was. Well, I knew the owner, Gary Garris and Karen, and I was good friends with them. And one of my marriages was there and we got married at Boot Hill the week for bike week. And it was a big wedding. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. It just unfortunately didn't work out for the two of us, but it still was a lot of fun. And they sponsored the race car that I drove for Bobby Seymour.

Kenny Wallace (12:04)

Got it.

Bentley Warren (12:04)

Okay. Boothill saloon did so. Then Stu Murray did it also. You know.

Kenny Wallace (12:15)

Boot Hill saloon needs to be paying you some money because for us racers, Boot Hill saloon is Bentley worn. That's just always been the talk out on the town. So. Okay, Bentley, are you ready, buddy? You need to take a drink of water. Here we go. It's show time. It's show time. Okay, Bentley Warren, 85 years young. I say Hingham Bentley says Boston best known for USC Championship Car series. Would you say that is right when you kind of got rolling? Is that what you feel like? You're known for the Indy type cars early.

Bentley Warren (12:57)

I got recognition there because that was a televised. Those are televised races. But I think I was more known for the super modifieds. No doubt. That's where I started.

Kenny Wallace (13:08)

Okay, we're going to go in chronological order here. So, okay, you run the IndyCar type race cars. You do very well from 1970 to 1975. And we'll come back to this. But you raced in 37 starts from 1970-75. 37 starts, including. And we're going to get to this. Two Daytona or no, excuse me, two Indianapolis 500 starts. That's. That's really big. So in totality, 14 top 10 and a best finish of fourth at Milwaukee in an IndyCar. That's pretty badass. How did you get from the Northeast to indycar?

Bentley Warren (13:55)

I was. I was driving a sprint car for Skip Matcek, and he's the guy. He has that total and our seal seals at Company. You've probably seen him. And he had a sprint car and I was driving that. And then I had a modified and a super modified and I think 68. I drove his car a few years off and on. And we went. Well, we went, you know, did a lot of some USAC racing sprint cars when we could afford to, but we couldn't afford to do it that often because it was traveling to Ohio or Indianapolis from Massachusetts and Maine. But he knew a midget mechanic, Paul Young, and he had. Paul Young had worked for Tassie Vaddis, who owned Indy cars. And he introduced Tassie to me at Paul Young's house in Connecticut. And that's how I got my first IndyCar ride.

Kenny Wallace (14:49)

And for all you kids out there, this is called networking. I notice a lot of kids are very quiet now. It's hard to make it in life. And Bentley, you definitely had a lot of friends, and you still do to this day. You have friends all over America. And I see it with my own eyes. Kenny Schrader loves you. You know, we would race out Newman, Arizona, so it only makes sense. Okay, so we know you as the super modified wing cars. They're now called Isma the Steel Palace Oswald. But I want to go to something in. In early in your life, you started racing in the Northeast. What do you remember from your early beginnings? Like, we always ask this. It's like, you know, if I was to ask Mark Martin, hey, Mark, do you remember your first race? What do you remember? Like. Like, how did you become a race car driver? Who was it?

Bentley Warren (15:57)

I went to the races with a guy named Ernest McKay out of Ipswich, Mass. And he actually lived in our house. We had five apartments in our house, and he lived in our house at the time. And I was 14, 13 or 14. And I looked at the cars, I said I want to do that at 14. And I was working on a farm and in the gas station and I went home and built a race car with Ted Akeley who passed. But he and I built a race car together. And it was just, it was a crazy, crazy times. I mean putting in the back of a dump truck with chain, you know, it was just, it was really crazy. But it was great and we learned so much. But that's the car that I said. I we. Jim Adams welded a wheel up for me and he welded my front bumper on because I had welded the car together. But he re welded the front bumper had a cow catcher on it and I had welded the back bump. I welded the roll bars and all that. Well, I blew. I put a Buick tire on, I put a patch in it because it was a blown out tire. Incredible big white tire, wide tire. So I said well this is going to be, we're going to be fast. I went out and practiced and blew the tire, went off the track, hit a telephone pole. And when I hit the pole the front bumper stayed on. But the back bumper that I welded on fell under the car and the roll cage, the back roll bar hit me in the back of the head and shoved me my chin through the gear shift lever. And they took the hospital and I was 14 and the hospital hated that all these kids or younger people getting hurt in race cars came in. So I'm holding my chin like this so it's bleeding on the outside, bleeding on the inside. So I'm holding my tongue on the inside. And the nurses were kind of obstinate about taking me and they finally did and stitch it up and all that stuff. And I went back to the track, I hitchhiked back to the track and then they already had my car load in the back of the old dump truck and stuff and got home. And then my mother junked all the cars because she didn't want me racing. And I was in high school.

Kenny Wallace (17:59)

So your mother, you came home and she took the race. Because you're 14, your mother takes the race cars from you like a child.

Bentley Warren (18:08)

Yeah, they were in the field and went to high school the next day and I came home and I had four or five cars used to buy a car for five bucks. And that's what the cars were that we raced and my car. So I got on my motorcycle, my bicycle and I rode the Ipswich to the junkyard. And I got There was a 2 by 4 block red and white, 2 by 4 block. It was junk. So that stirred up a little controversy in my family. And I went and lived with my father and he lived in Boston at the time. So I lived there for a few months and came back to Essex.

Kenny Wallace (18:45)

So I listen to the little things. Were they back in these scrapyards back in those days where I guess they were smashing cars?

Bentley Warren (18:54)

Right.

Kenny Wallace (18:54)

So they took your car and smashed it.

Bentley Warren (18:56)

Yeah. Squeezed it.

Kenny Wallace (18:58)

Yeah. Right into a block.

Bentley Warren (19:01)

They take the engine out. They cut the engine out in the front end off and then they'd squeeze the rest of it and they'd put the engine in the engine pile and stuff like that.

Kenny Wallace (19:09)

You know, Kenny Schrader is a good friend of all of ours. And Schrader wrecked a car really bad. He or Scotty Hansen did. And Schrader had it smashed maybe 3 by 3 foot by 3 foot. Took a full race car, smashed it and put a round table on it. And they drank beer on it. So drink beer.

Bentley Warren (19:33)

Oh my God.

Kenny Wallace (19:35)

But they were. Schrader made smashing cars fun. It is amazing that they. Those presses are that strong that they can smash a car.

Bentley Warren (19:45)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (19:45)

And Kenny had fun with it.

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Bentley Warren (20:20)

You've made it on time for the McDonald's breakfast menu. You think to yourself, finally I can start my day. But what if breakfast could be even more perfect with the hot honey sausage egg biscuit? It finally is.

Kenny Wallace (20:32)

Go to McDonald's and.

Bentley Warren (20:33)

And get it while you can.

Kenny Wallace (20:37)

Okay, I'm going to say something. It might shock you. I was waiting to see what you had to say. But tell me if you think this is right. Your first win in a race car was at West Peabody, Massachusetts, 1957. Your first championship in 1962 in the B class at Hudson and Pines. Is that right?

Bentley Warren (21:04)

I don't know about the first win. I don't think the first win. That was the first time. West Peabody was the first time I drove a super modified which was just a cut down. I think it was a model A coupe with a flathead V8, maybe in it. And it was for Eddie Perkins, I believe. And I was so nervous driving it, I didn't even put the seat belts on. I was like. I remember falling out of the seat onto the floor, onto the frame or the floor or something stupid. I don't know. I can't remember. But I was only about 15, probably then 14 to 15, and I didn't.

Kenny Wallace (21:41)

That is funny. That is funny.

Bentley Warren (21:46)

I can't remember. I think the first race I won was at. No, it actually was at Dude Ranch Speedway in Hampton, Virginia, I think it was Hampton, Virginia. I was in the army, and I was 17 or 18. And this is another kind of a silly story, and I don't know if you got time for it, but we. We got.

Kenny Wallace (22:04)

Hey, whenever we can get the great Bentley War on, we got all the time. This is good. Tell us.

Bentley Warren (22:09)

Okay. I just got back from Korea, and I was in. Back in Fort Eustis, Virginia, and I met the guy that owned Dude Ranch Speedway. Harvey Strader, I think his name was Strader. And so I worked in his garage cleaning transmission. He had an automatic transmission shop and he ran. He either leased our own Dude Ranch Speedway. So I worked for him cleaning transmission parts, taking it apart, putting in a shop and cart and washing all the parts. And then that got me my free pass into race. And I had a 49 Ford that I wrecked. Friend of mine and myself wrecked it on the highway, drinking too much. And we pulled out in front of a car and boom, T boned in. So I remember the guy. It was funny. The guy I'm with, he's sitting in the front seat, and the wrecker picks the car up by the back, and he. The cop. I'm sitting in the cop car, and he said, is your friend all right? I said, yeah, he's fine. As I'm saying that, they're picking the car up, he goes keflop on the dash, hits his head, dead drunk.

Kenny Wallace (23:15)

Oh, my God.

Bentley Warren (23:17)

And we didn't get in trouble. I mean, we didn't get in trouble for the thing at all. But the car was junk. So I took it back to Harvey Straight and made a race car out of it. Welded rollbars and all that stuff. And I want to race it. Dude Ranch Speedway, the feature. And being in the army, you're not allowed to race. So I called myself Kid Bent. So just Kid Bent's written on the thing. Well, the company commander, I can't remember, Captain, calls me down to his office and I. Yes, sir. PFC Warren reporting For whatever. And he said, oh, congratulations. You've been advanced to specialist fourth class or first class, whatever. You know, one thing up from E3 was E4, specialist fourth class, I think. So he said, congratulations. And I said, oh, thank you, sir. And then he spins a newspaper. He said, but don't bother showing the stripes on your. On your uniform. He spins a newspaper around, and here I am with the checkered flag at Dude Ranch Speedway. Kid Bent wins the feature. So he said, you've been promoted and demoted in the same day. So he never gave me my stripes. So I just, you know, that was about 75 bucks a month difference or 50 bucks a month difference in pay. But that was my claim to fame in the army.

Kenny Wallace (24:39)

Bentley, I want to take this time, and I want to be very serious about this. I want to thank you for your service. I. I can tell as we talk, it was those days that. That molded you, that define you. I mean, because you. You give. You give those days a lot of meaning because you feel like that's what made you, you know, financially stable, the brain that you have. Thank you for your service. And what. I respect you so much. Tell me about your time. You know, how many years. What. What all did you do?

Bentley Warren (25:15)

I was RA which means regular army, and US is when you're drafted. So I was regular army. I joined. I was three years. And that's where you went? And I. I went to Korea for 13 months. I extended to go to Laos because there was a war going to start in Laos, and I wanted to go there to fight and all that, but they ended up with our company, didn't go. So they let me come back to the States at the end of my 13 months. And it was just. It was. I hated the army. I mean, I thought I hated it because you, you know, you're young, you want to get home and do things that all the kids are doing that you went to school with and you grew up with. But I. When I look back on it, like, a couple years after I was out, I said, wow, what an education I got in life. I mean, in life. And I was an aircraft mechanic, so I learned a lot about mechanics and a lot about engines and. And people. I mean, I. I think the main thing in. In everything that I've done, the service, racing and everything, is the people you meet.

Kenny Wallace (26:15)

Yeah, that is amazing. I'm just in awe right now. I always feel like there's turning points in people's lives. Like, you know. You know, what was the turning point? And it seems like that was a turning point for you. You give it a lot of credit. It straightened you out, you know, and what, you know, were you even going the wrong way? I don't, I don't know, but it seemed like that. Do you feel like the army was a turning point for you, that it straightened you up or were you headed in the wrong direction?

Bentley Warren (26:47)

I wasn't heading in the wrong direction, but I was a little bit of a wise guy. I used to, you know, get in front of the chief of police's house with another car and spin the tires in front of his, you know, front of his office. House. The chief of police's house was his office. And then try to get them to chase me. And then they'd usually go off the road and I'd go on looking. That's good.

Kenny Wallace (27:09)

Okay, so that's the army. Straighten your ass up.

Bentley Warren (27:13)

Yeah, definitely. So.

Kenny Wallace (27:15)

Oh, my God.

Bentley Warren (27:16)

And it's just, I think life is all the people you meet and just, you know, listening to what they're good points and if they got bad points, you, you listen to that too and you try to pick up the good points from everybody. And I think that's made me a better person. Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (27:33)

Wow. Okay, so you straighten this out. I had your first win at West Peabody. You told us. No, a great story right there. Okay, so we talked about from 1970-75. You had 37. I'm going to say Indy car starts.

Bentley Warren (27:52)

That's what they were. Indycast. Yes.

Kenny Wallace (27:54)

Okay, great. And that is awesome. And our Charlie model is going to drop some really good pictures in here. They're all over the Internet. You look good. Bentley. You, you got a different look now. Okay, speaking of look, let's, let's talk about that right now. All the pictures I see, you are a good looking man. Where did the, this look you have right now? Everybody just thinks you are so badass, including me. Where did the bandana in, in the boots. When did that start?

Bentley Warren (28:29)

About probably 30 years ago. Wow. In Florida. Probably. Mostly because I, I've been riding motorcycles Since I was 8 years old, I think. And so it just, I was sort of born on a bike. And then the race cars also, you know, and anything this fast I've loved and still do.

Kenny Wallace (28:49)

Well, you sure do. You, you don't drive the slow cars. You drive Indy cars and, and you drive these incredible winged type sprint cars. Very rare. Do you realize, I mean, I know you do. Those type of cars that you ran at the Steel Palace, Oswego, those are rare. The super modified Wing Cars. I mean, how many are there in the United States? Is there a hundred of them?

Bentley Warren (29:19)

Maybe, but I think there's only about. I'm just trying to put it together. The west coast cars, the Ohio, Michigan cars, and then the New England cars. There's three different divisions, sort of, and there's probably about 75 cars now. They've gone downhill a little bit because of the expense, the motors. Everything's so darn expensive. So they don't have the following of cars that they had 20 years ago. And a lot of short track racing is that way.

Kenny Wallace (29:49)

You had to really grow up learning G force because you're in the Indy cars and you're cornering really fast. I don't know what you're pulling. One G. I don't know. But then you are a super modified winged car driver, so I guess you were.

Bentley Warren (30:06)

Did.

Kenny Wallace (30:06)

Did anybody ever talk to you, Any of your other driver friends talk to you about the G forces that you pull in those cars?

Bentley Warren (30:14)

No.

Kenny Wallace (30:15)

Just part of it.

Bentley Warren (30:16)

Yeah, just. It's part of. I mean, I know your head used to get tired. You had to put a strap on your head and. Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (30:24)

Yes. Okay, I want to.

Bentley Warren (30:27)

I want to race at star speed. It was kind of a funny thing that they have a. A stock classic every year, and the in and out box was jumping out of gear. So I had a head strap on. So I took my head strap on and I tied it on the in and out box to hold the handle in. And so I'm trying. I'm driving now. My head's going like this, you know, because, you know, you can't hold your head up. I mean. Yeah, you know, you try to. And you never had those head straps when you were younger, and your muscles just got better and better because you were racing all the time. But it was kind of funny.

Kenny Wallace (31:04)

I would race Berlin Raceway, and it was a circle track, and, you know, I started in 86, but brother Rusty was racing Mark Martin, and Rusty was running third at Berlin Raceway, Berlin, Michigan. And all of a sudden. Okay, so you've raced there?

Bentley Warren (31:21)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (31:22)

Yeah. Okay. So Rusty starts fading and goes back to, like, 12th. And he comes in, and me and Paul Andrews, we run to the car. Rusty, what happened? My head got tired. His head was falling off. And to this day, it aggravated that big brother, Rusty. He said he didn't like it. He. He felt like Earnhardt was stronger than him. And I said, rusty Earnhardt's lying to you because Dale Earnhardt would run one of those midgets like, you're talking about one of those straps that will go under your arm and. And Earnhardt would hook it onto his helmet and then pull it down. And so Earnhardt looked cool, but the reason he looked cool is he had no. He couldn't help. But he had his head snatched down so far, everybody thought, oh, Dale Earnhardt's cool. I'm like, no, he. He's got that strap on his helmet. That baby pulled down.

Bentley Warren (32:15)

Smarter by about a month.

Kenny Wallace (32:18)

Yes, yes. Dale Earnhardt Senior. You know, they want. You know, Earnhardt had that image that he was an old redneck from Kannapolis. Earnhardt was smart. He was like you. So smart. New geometry, very well. Knew how to let off the gas early at Dover. Floated into the corner. Earnhardt is extremely smart. Okay, so 70 to 75 are. Let's. Let's put an end to IndyCar. Your best finish of fourth at Milwaukee. Now, you can strike me out, but your Indy car kind of slows down. And in my verbiage, you kind of go back. You kind of go back to the super modified wing cars. You go back, and here's the way I see the story. Straighten me out. Tom Heveron, he gets injured, and they.

Bentley Warren (33:12)

Say, Dougie ever on Doug. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Kenny Wallace (33:16)

So Tom was the dad. Okay. Doug Hevron gets injured, and they say, hey, Bentley, will you fill in? And you just are unbelievable. You win five of six races immediately. Tell me about that time going back, you know, and kind of slowing down your Indy cars. And you go back to Star, and you go back to Oswego and you dominate.

Bentley Warren (33:45)

Well, before that, I got hurt. Where the hell was it? Star Speedway. I was racing Star Speedway under another name, assumed name. And the throttle stuck. And I got an accident, and it was a bad accident. People got hurt in the accident, and I ended up in the hospital. And Dick King was the president of USAC at that time, and he called me after I got out of the hospital. I was in the hospital for a couple. Two or three weeks. Broke my sternum and heart. Fell out, all kinds of stupid things. Broke my leg and some ribs.

Kenny Wallace (34:21)

That's incredible. That's not something to gloss over.

Bentley Warren (34:24)

No, but it was just powder racing. So I'm home and he calls me up. And you just had landlines. There were no cell phones. And I don't know what the heck year it was, but I was driving. It was a good race car, but the throttle stuck. And anyways, I wanted to hit the wall and hit some people that were standing there where they shouldn't have been. Standing, but they were. And it was a lot of controversy. So it was in the newspapers, on the radio and on TV probably. And Dick King, the president of USAC called me and said, bentley, I'm so sorry that you got hurt and this and that. And he said, oh, by the way, you're out of USAC now because you were racing a non sanctioned race, same as NASCAR was. You know, if you raced a non sanctioned race in the 60s or 70s in NASCAR or USAC, you got thrown out in some other divisions and then they changed that, they changed the rules because it was a right to work rule or something after that. But I got thrown out of usac. So then I started driving supers again and a friend of mine, Dave Snyder, bought a super modified from Nolan Swift. And then I drove that. And we did quite well with that. And we went to Kalamazoo and Michigan, up where Randy Sweet was from. And I got to know Randy quite well through that. And just Randy was a hell of a race car driver, a genius with suspension and all that stuff. Mack Martin and I talk about him quite often. And I just, I had just so much fun. But that's how I got back into super racing. Okay.

Kenny Wallace (35:55)

I gotta say, that was it. 77, close to 80. Brother Rusty, you know, he gave me a lot of my experiences. We went stock car racing Milwaukee, and we're running the Firebird, sponsored by Child's Tire. We're racing AJ Foyt, Joe Rutman, and Billy Saxon, he was running the, the USAC stock car division. He was the president of the USEAC stock car division. And what you just said hit a nerve because, you know, Rusty didn't really want to race any dirt at the time. But Billy Saxon said, rusty, if you don't show up at the coin on the one mile dirt, that's it, you're off the plan. Meaning you're not part of us anymore. You're not going to get any of the extra, you know, curricular. Not curricular. I'm sorry, wrong word. But money. And I thought, man, what a dick, you know? So I caught myself taking the leaf springs out of the car, taking them apart, greasing them up, taking the black electrical tape, taping the leaf springs back up. We use black electrical tape because they would bend. It would, you know, if you use race tape, yeah. It would create rate and make the springs too stiff. But I, I think the reason I tell you that is because both, all the divisions in usec, they, they thought they were somebody back then, don't you think? Bentley.

Bentley Warren (37:23)

Well, both. Both divisions. NASCAR and usac, I believe. Because I remember I had the same problem with NASCAR when I was running modifieds at Thompson, maybe. And in the. I can't remember. I think it was in the 70s. It was very similar.

Kenny Wallace (37:38)

Yeah, they, they, they were like union.

Bentley Warren (37:41)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (37:42)

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Now we know. There it is, everybody. Now we know how Bentley goes from the Indy cars to super modified. Okay.

Bentley Warren (37:52)

Okay.

Kenny Wallace (37:52)

So Doug Hevron is injured and you immediately make your presence known. You're back. You're back where it all started. You know, Star Thompson, you name it. All those. By the way, I love this stat. Let me see what we got here. You won at 34 different tracks across the United States and Canada. You crossed that line quite a bit, did you? You remember going up into Canada a lot?

Bentley Warren (38:26)

Yeah, we went there some. Yeah. I didn't know I wanted that many tracks, but Schrader and I were drinking beer in a cellar one night. Racetrack book, you know, the racetrack book. And he and I are going over it. We're drinking beers and talking about. And he raced every track in the United States, I think. I mean, might be five or six. He didn't, but he's talking about. He said, I won here. And then he. I said, well, yep. And then he said, well, you won over here, didn't you? I said, yeah, I think I did. And it was just different tracks all over the country. It was kind of. It was really fun. We had a great time. And he's coming down and said, shredy, you got a TV program at 7 tomorrow. I don't care. We're having fun.

Kenny Wallace (39:10)

If you don't have fun with Schrader. Oh, Kenny Schrader, love of my life, my best friend. My. Literally, it's my brother Rusty and Mike. And then Kenny Schrader would say, yeah, me. Me and Jim are having a good time. This is like a week ago. And like, Jim. He goes, yeah, my new friend Jim. I said, jim. Ooh, he set me up. Jim Beam.

Bentley Warren (39:37)

That's. That's Kenny. That's great.

Kenny Wallace (39:40)

He's always. Brother Rusty says it right. Schrader's always got a quip, a little joke at the end of everything. He says, he's always setting you up, but I like that. You know, it says, as of 2007, you won races at 4:34 tracks in US and Canada. And I think that just kind of says what a well rounded race car driver you are. Okay, we. We keep trying to go in chronological order here. Everybody but Bentley's got Such great stories. Okay, so once again, we're going to try it again. Doug, He. No, no, no. Don't you ever say you're sorry. This is what makes it awesome. Doug Heveron, which. I know that name. He gets injured, you win five of six races, and I'm. I'm kind of skip on right away. So the Flying Five, you drive Paul Dunnigan's fleet, and you went on to win the International classic at Oswego six times. Two Little 500 wins the Copper Classic. Is that at Phoenix?

Bentley Warren (40:52)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (40:53)

Okay, now. Now you're out west. That's what you meant. You win the Star Classic, the Thompson World Series, east and west, showdown between the best of the super modified drivers from east to west. Is it fair to say that when you drove for the Flying Five, was. Was that what solidified your comeback, or am I missing some stories in there?

Bentley Warren (41:19)

It was every car. The Flying Five was an awesome race car. Ed Bowley and Tom Bowley owned it. Mark Whitten, who worked for Rick Hendricks for years. Kenny Schrader got him a job there, and he worked on the car for Ed Bowley. And when I was driving it, and we won tons of races with that. And that was the old number one car. Heavron number one car. And then I wrecked that one at Thompson, Connecticut. Broke a wheel and we hit the fence head on. Shortened the frame up quite a bit. And they bought the other car from Tom. Hevron had two race cars. They bought the other one from Tom, and then we ended up racing that one, and we finished racing that one that year. Won some classics and some other races with it. But it was a great team. It was a really, really good team. We had a lot of fun doing it.

Kenny Wallace (42:15)

You want everything. I. I find that the greats like yourself, they try to downplay. You're a legend. You've done it all. You're fearful, but you're smart. Like Earnhardt. You know, you're going fast, but, you know, you know what to do with the gas and the brake, and you're an incredible talent. I'm going to say something.

Bentley Warren (42:36)

My. My head's getting big now.

Kenny Wallace (42:38)

Keep talking. Well, you know that. Hey, Bentley. That's why everybody admires you, because they know what a badass you are. They know that you can chew gum and walk better than anybody. They admire you for your financial stability. They admire you for being so brave. Those cars you drove were no joke to us. You're almost a daredevil, but you're, you know, you're smart. Hey, I Want to throw something in there? And this is just me growing up as a kid at Oswego. That number eight, Jim, was it? Jim Champagne, is that the name?

Bentley Warren (43:17)

Yep, yep.

Kenny Wallace (43:19)

You know, I'm 62, so I loved reading the magazine Speed Sport News. What you remember about that car?

Bentley Warren (43:28)

He. When I, when I went to Oswego, Nolan Swift was like the king and he was a great guy. The 10 pins car they called it. And he and I became very, very good friends when I was winning. And I even drove his car a few times and won some races with it at different tracks. And then Jimmy Champagne was like the king of the super modifieds, building the offset cars and then building the rear engine car. And I thought a lot of it was in his building ability and his knowledge and being aggressive with new technologies and just a smart, smart guy. A great, very, very nice person. Very nice. And so I thought, you know this. And he won a lot of races at Oswego. One year I think he won almost every race at Oswego and the only person that came close to him was Doug Hevron when he was only 16 or something when he started driving there for Ed Leprade and for his father. And they put a hell of a team together and they won and won and won. But Jim Champagne did it and he just was so into it. So I really thought it was because he built such a good car. He was so concentration level was so good and all that. Then he went into World Outlaws and I thought well this is going to be a wake up because I was driving sprint cars and all that stuff and I thought this is going to be a wake up call for him. And on the radio or something I heard that he won a feature, World Outlaws feature. I'm like, you don't. Not everybody just wins a God World Outlaw feature. He won and I called him and congratulated him. A quite similar story. I didn't know that you were going to be that good of a driver in the World Outlaws on Durrett where you'd run just us wego and local tracks on pavement with a super modified and a little bit of modifieds and to go that well. He was really a hell of a talented driver and he was a great, great person. I mean really nice. He was a good friend of mine and it was an awful, was a terrible thing when he got killed that night. And I know some people thought it was somebody else's fault, but it was just. He spun out and there was. You spin out like this and there's A car here going for him quickly turns evasively and the car behind doesn't have time enough to turn because you know, his. He's delayed by another knee. T boned him. And there was nothing that guy could do to miss him. And it killed him right in the car instantly. I think it broke his neck or something, I can't remember. It was a terrible thing. And he was on the pole for the classic that weekend. They left the poll empty, you know, with the. He was on the pole. So they left the pole, you know, the second, third place guy was here and then he pulled up or second place and it was, it was quite ironic, you know, nice thing they did for him.

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Kenny Wallace (47:37)

I didn't feel like it would be right to talk about those type of race cars without bringing that car up because to me it's you and him. And I know there's other people like.

Bentley Warren (47:47)

Doug Hevron, Ed La Prade and Tom Hevron. And the team that Tom put together was phenomenal. Tom was methodical in his maintenance and stuff and that's why Doug went so well. I mean, that's part of the reason. And Doug just adds so much natural ability. And he was a wild kid, but a great. He and I, we call ourselves brothers. And he lives in Oklahoma now. And I stopped last year. This year. Well, Leah, last year I was coming back from Indio, going back to Maine and I've been in Indianapolis at the midget race where Bobby Seymour put that race together. I think Jake Trainor won Won it, but who's a hell of a race car driver, and he won it. But I was coming back and I called Doug, knowing he was in Oklahoma, and I went a little bit out of my way to meet him, and he and I talked. We stopped on the side of the highway and shot the bull for about an hour. He's a very good friend of mine.

Kenny Wallace (48:48)

You know, you say that it surprised you going back to Jim Champagne. You know, isn't it amazing that, okay, those. Those, you know, super modified wing cars, in my mind, they're gonna stick like a. They're gonna stick. And you're thinking, okay, he goes to a sprint car. You're gonna be, you know, you're driving with a wing. So you guys have that.

Bentley Warren (49:13)

That.

Kenny Wallace (49:13)

That wing is a. Is a different duck. You know, you. You guys know how to feel the stick with the wing. But I want to go to something that kind of reminds me when drivers are incredibly talented. I remember seeing the great Jeff Gordon. I mean, at 15, 18 years old, he goes to Lee Lee, New Hampshire, and gets in one of those type of cars and just burns the right rear off of. Is surprising to us, isn't it, when we think we know a person. Like, I know that guy. But then he just shocked you, right? I mean, you're saying that's what Jim did. And. And it shocked me when I saw Jeff Gordon do that. That's when I woke up and said, okay, this kid is a gift from God. I mean, this is a talent. And I guess that's what. That's what happened with you and Jim when he did that.

Bentley Warren (50:12)

Yeah, just wow. I mean, to win a world outlaws is something that. It's a phenomenal group of people. Phenomenal racing and fast, fast sprint guys on dirt. And it just was, you know, it's incredible.

Kenny Wallace (50:28)

Yeah. Okay, so don't want to repeat myself, but I just want to say it again. You want it all. You did it all. And there's so much more to talk about. So I want to. I want to slow down with the racing a little bit so you win in 2006. Now we're real. We're really fast forwarding. We're going to come back to the saloon, we're going to talk about your truck company, we're going to talk about Dale Jr. Kind of, you know, reintroducing you to the world, but all the way to 2006. You drive for Vic Miller. Things start slowing down, I guess. 2007. Am I reading this right? I. I added it up on my own did was Your last year 67, 68 years old?

Bentley Warren (51:20)

I'm not sure. Well, I don't look at my age because I'm just so damn old.

Kenny Wallace (51:26)

Yeah, well you were born in 1940.

Bentley Warren (51:29)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (51:29)

And I, what I did was I took 2007 minus. So you, you ran. I think that's another reason you're so popular. You, you, you rung it out. You rung it out and you won till the very end. So the question is, at what moment did you say I'm done driving the race car?

Bentley Warren (51:54)

Well, we got a controversy at Oswego. I think we, yeah, we won a race and they took the win away from us because we were £2 too light. Two too light on the right side, £2 heavy on the left side. And I asked them to turn the car around. I said, that's just turn it around. Well, no way it the other way and see if it's your scales or if it's the car. Because I knew that Brian El Agresso would not put something together that wasn't legal and they wouldn't. Then we, we got, they took our points away or did something, I can't remember. We're leading in points and we're winning races. So Paul Dunnigan and I decided not to go to Oswego for the regular Saturday night shows, which the Saturday night shows aren't all winged. They're non winged and they only have special winged shows. And the winged and the non winged are so different. And you can ask all the drivers to drive them. Now. Otto Sutterly is probably one of the best at Oswego and he wins in both, you know, both ways with a wing and without a wing. And he it, the cars are just, they're fast, both of them are fast, but they're a little bit less, less, less G force without the wing. They're a little bit more, you know, they're more slippery, like whoa. You know, and with the wing it just plants the car down and goes. So I remember the first time, I think I drove with a wing and I was driving for Brian and I looked, I went in to turn, turn one and I said, holy cripes, I'm going so much faster than I ever did. Wow. I'm not even lifting, you know. And I looked at the tires. The car went to the right about three inches and the tires, the tires, the tread of the tire stayed still, but the wheel went to the right. It was like you could see the tire do this, you know, it was like, wow. Because you see, you know you can see your front tires right from on the, you know, in the super modified. You see the right front, it's right, right in front of you. And it was like, wow. There's a, we're really relying on a lot of things, you know, with the G forces that this car is producing with the wing.

Kenny Wallace (54:08)

But the great Dick Trickle would say to me, he was my teacher. Great guy, right?

Bentley Warren (54:15)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (54:16)

So sad he's gone, but, man, I get emotional. Dick would say to me, my boy. He always called me my boy. He'd say, my boy. He'd take a smoke of that cigarette, put his coffee down and say, my boy every time you come off that corner. So, see, we had mirrors in our race cars. Did you have mirrors?

Bentley Warren (54:33)

No. Yeah, right.

Kenny Wallace (54:34)

I kind of knew that Dick would say, we take a snap, we don't look in the mirror, we take a snapshot. And you, you, you took a snapshot of the tire flex here you're racing, but you saw that tire, didn't you? Yeah, that's badass.

Bentley Warren (54:51)

Yeah, it was, it was surprising.

Kenny Wallace (54:54)

Yeah, yeah. It made you go, holy moly, these tires are really flexing. This somebody blows out, we're gonna hit hard and. Yeah, I get it, I get it. Okay, good stuff. All right, so we're never finished racing. We race our whole lives. But, but let's move on. I, I, I want to move on to some of the interesting things in your life. And when I saw this one, I went, wow. In the 2000s, you worked with actor Paul Newman on midgets. And, and was it super modified at Star Speedway? Tell me your, your relationship with one of the most famous people in the world, the great Paul Newman, the most, I mean, well, celebrated actor in the world.

Bentley Warren (55:43)

Well, he, he loved racing. And I, I, I kind of knew that from seeing him in the papers with his, I believe, Toyota and stuff like that. Yeah, Lime Rock and maybe, I don't know where else. And a guy named Paul White, who was a very good friend of mine, was a good friend of Paul Newman's. And so Paul White called me and said, paul Newman's in Maine doing a movie and he'd like to practice with a super modified or a midget. He hasn't done any oval track racing for a couple of months while he's been doing this movie. So Paul White put the thing together, and I got a hold of Paul Dunnigan and Bobby Seymour. Bobby Seymour brought a midget up. Paul Lawless, another friend of mine, brought another midget up, and then Paul Dunigan brought a super Modified up. So I met Paul newman, and it was kind of a funny thing. I met him on the side of the highway. I told him, I'll meet you. I'll be on my motorcycle.

Taco Bell Advertiser (56:40)

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Bentley Warren (56:41)

I had my wife with me at the time. And he said, well, I'll be in a maroon. I don't know what it was, a chevy or something, or a pontiac rental car. And so I went up to him, and Paul newman was driving the car, and Eddie worth was in the rider seat. Eddie worth was another very good race guy. Driver from ascot. Won a lot of races at ascot. Pack Gagajanian's track. Yeah. So he was. Eddie was in the right seat, and paul newman's in the left seat. Paul newman's got this scrub like this and scruffy beard, you know, scruffy. And. Because he's doing a movie. And so I saw the car and he saw me pulled over my motorcycle, and I got out and I went over to the car, Paul newman sitting in the driver's seat. And Eddie worth. I said, oh, hi. I reached. I shook hands, and I said, oh, you must be paul. To Eddie worth. I'm reaching in. I said. And he loved that. That I knew the heck he was because he was so famous for all his movies. And I'm not a movie person. I'm just a race car driver. And he loved that. That I, you know, didn't know who he was for his movies, but he was going to do some racing with me. So he and I went to the track and we drove the midgets, and I drove paul alles's midget, and he was in Bobby seymour's midget. And he said, just go out. I said, we'll go a few laps so I can show you the groove. And he followed me. And I'm listening into no mirrors, and I'm like, son of a bitch. He's right on my butt. Right on my ass. You're going pretty fast, you know, And Paul's car wasn't as good as Bobby seam was. And Paul won races with his car, so, you know, he was a good driver. But I'm just trying to give Paul newman a little feel of the track. And I remember driving like I can hear him. And so I started going a little faster, a little faster. I went as fast as I could go with the car, and he was right there. So, you know, then I pulled in and he went a couple more laps, and he came in, and he was very, very humble and all that. So then he got in the suit. But then he drove the car a few laps. The midget, I think a few laps by himself. And if I remember correctly, I think he broke the track record in the midget in Bobby Seymour's midget. And nobody was there. It was just, you know, about 10 of us at the track. It was private, a private thing. Then he got in the super modified. Oh, I got in the car with him in his rental car and he said, show me what you do out here. I think that might have been before the midget. So I drove the car and I showed him the groove a little bit, you know what I mean? Just driving around. And he said, how much brake do you use? I said, I just use brake for whatever the car's doing. If it's pushing and I use the brake and it pushes out or I'm going to go in and use less brake and, you know, kick. Kick it or what, Whatever, you know, because you just adjust. And he. His concentration level. That's why he was probably such an excellent actor. His concentration was like 100% right on. I mean, it couldn't get any better. He was incredible for that. And so then he got in the super. I drove the super a couple laps, showed him what he did, and I told him what the cow was going to do because they're different. And it was. We had a wing on it, I believe. And he went out and he went quite well. He had old rubber on, and he did spin once, which is easy to do because, you know, the old rubber. It takes a while for the tires to get warm enough to even work. And then he went quite well in the supra, too. I mean, as good as I did, maybe. Maybe not quite as good, maybe a little bit better, but he was very, very good. And then I went to. I was in florida, and he came down for the 24 hour. The. The race, the rolex. And he was running that. And he had darice, his. From his agent or whatever she is. She takes care of all Paul newman's stuff. And she called me and asked me to come to the track. And I went to the track and that was kind of a funny story. I go to the track like this with my shots. I love it. And he's in his camper. He's got a. I can't remember what kind. It was a big prevost. And so I went to the door and the guy said, you can't go in. I said, well, Paul newman. I was supposed to meet paul newman here, and they wanted me to come to the camper. He said, oh, like a bodyguard or whatever he was. No, no, you can't. I said, oh, okay. What's your name? I said, bentley Warren. So I walked away. I'm walking away. I was about 20ft away, and he came running after me. No, no, come here. You didn't tell me who you were. I said, well, you asked me who I was and I told you. So I went in and he kicked everybody out of the thing. And talking to me for about 15 or 20 minutes. Just such a humble gentleman. I mean, it was really. And I, you know, now I knew who he was, that he was so famous with his movie, but he was a heck of a racer. And then I went up in the suite and I met his daughter and some other people, and Derice was the person. It's kind of funny. We just spoke with Derice, Lisa and I talked to her yesterday because it was Eddie Worth's birthday. So Lisa and I called Eddie and sang him Happy birthday, which we did to Jim McGee. About how long ago was that, Lisa? Three weeks ago, maybe about three weeks ago, we called Jim McGee and sang him Happy birthday. So I've had a hell of a life, let me tell you.

Kenny Wallace (62:16)

I love this. You know, this is great timing last night. So I like. I like this social media app called Instagram, and my wife and myself, we go to bed and. And I just laugh. I love this Instagram. It's so funny. Well, there's. There's this real footage, you know, it's Leonardo DiCaprio. He's a famous actor. And there's another one, Brad Pitt, Leonardo. So now what I'm addressing here is when this bodyguard sees you, he sees this rough guy, you know, Bentley, worn with the boots on, you know, and you're kind of a badass, like a biker. And it's funny how people, they have a vision, what they want you to look like, you know, but le. Leonardo and Brad Pitt are driving through Hollywood, and Leonardo says, see those two people right there? One's dressed up as a massive hippie, and the other, the lady, is dressed up as like a. An somebody from India. Leonardo looks at Brad Pitt, says, that's my. That's my dad and that's my stepmother. And Brad Pitt says, there's no way. He goes, no, they've been dressing like that forever. So Leonardo's Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the most famous actors in the world right now. His dad, to this day, is unrecognizable. He's got this long hair. He just It. That is his look. He's a hardcore hippie in la. And then the mom dresses up India. You know, not Indian India, but Brad Pitt. Like, there's no way. And I'm assuming that bodyguard said, who is this biker dude, man, but Paul Newman.

Bentley Warren (64:03)

Paul Newman doesn't know anybody like that. No, that's kind of what I think he said. I think that in his mind, he just put that together, like, instantly, like, yep, that guy can't come in the camp. Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (64:17)

And how wrong he was, man, I love that story. That is so awesome. Well, and kind of to end it with Paul Newman in. In the racing world, you know, And I'm sure you and Mark Martin have talked about it, because Mark drove for Jack Roush forever. But everybody said the same thing about Paul Newman. I mean, like, in the Daytona 24, I mean, he was. He was really a good race car driver. Now we see this. We see somebody right now trying to be like Paul, which is Frankie Munoz. You probably don't know who that is, but this Frankie Munoz, he is a Hollywood actor. And. And, you know, he's here. He is Frankie Munoz, driver of the number 33s in the truck series, and he's famous for Malcolm in the Middle. Now, you might not watch tv, and I don't watch it either, but there are some Hollywood people that try to, you know, do regular things. They're so famous. But Frankie is a man. Now, I'm not saying he's old, but when I look at Frankie Munoz, MU N I Z he runs the F150 drives for Ford. But it reminds me of Paul Newman. Sometimes you see these Hollywood actors, and right now he is on Malcolm in the Middle, on Disney plus or Hulu. So, okay, all right, here we go. Before we get totally away from racing.

Bentley Warren (65:52)

I want to look at this Frankie Munoz and see who he is.

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Kenny Wallace (67:04)

So I want to congratulate you. I know it's been a little bit ago, but Brad Bergman as our Dick Bergman, excuse me. Dick has done a beautiful job right outside the New Hampshire International Motor Speedway up there in loudoun. And in 2007 you were inducted, rightfully so, into the New England hall of Fame. That is a beautiful building. Congratulations on being inducted in 2007 into the new England hall of Fame. Tell me about that building and that time.

Bentley Warren (67:42)

It was a fun night. I was with Eddie west and who else? Ollie Silva, who had passed already. And I think there were three or four, four of us. And they, they put a flag up, you know, like a. Hang a banner like they do with the, the hockey rinks, you know. Yeah, like Bobby Orr and. Yeah. Johnny Busick and stuff like that. They hang their flags there. And so they did the same thing at the New England Auto Racing Museum. And Dick put that museum together and it was a dream he had and I was fortunate enough to be able to help him a little bit. And it was just. Thank you. It was such an honor to be able to help him because he was always a friend of mine and there was a time in business when I had a lot of people go bankrupt on me and I was in a lot of trouble trying to keep my head above water and I managed to do it. But he said, if you need any help, he said, I've done very well in my ESPN and Fox and all that with the, you know, with the narrating of the races, the NASCAR races. He said, I could help you. I said. And I remembered that, and I said, I really appreciate it. And he said, well, if you ever need something, holler. And I could have used help, Very, very. A lot of help, but I didn't want to because I didn't want to take a chance on borrowing something from, like, you or from him or whoever it may be and not being able to pay it back. I was in that kind of trouble. And so I never forgot that. And so then when he started building the museum, I was able to help a little bit in the building of it. Helped him with some equipment and some people to help him do things and introduced other People to him, and then other people started helping him, and he put his dream together. And now it's really. It's a beautiful place.

Kenny Wallace (69:38)

By far the best racing museum I have ever witnessed. And I've seen a lot. And, you know, some of them, listen, they try, you know, they'll rent a building or some old, you know, racing. When I say racing, I just, I mean all forms. You know, NASCAR's got the hall of Fame, but that. That, you can't even compare to that. That's millions and millions of dollars. But what Dick did in that building, I know you're proud. I went in there and I. I spent hours there and looking at all the great drivers from the New England area. So congratulations on that Bentley. That is. That is no joke. And there's a lot of great drivers in there. Okay? Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15, 20 years ago. Time flies. I know it flies. You know, I'll say some, you know, five years ago and somebody go, no, Kenny, that was 15 years ago.

Bentley Warren (70:37)

Ain't that awful?

Kenny Wallace (70:38)

Oh, it's unreal.

Bentley Warren (70:39)

You get.

Kenny Wallace (70:40)

You get to 50 years old and everything goes in five year chunks.

Bentley Warren (70:44)

It's.

Kenny Wallace (70:44)

It's like, what is going on? So Dale Earnhardt Jr. The kid, he's ultra famous. He is the most famous race car driver we have. There's no doubt in my mind. He reignites your popularity. We're. We're at Daytona Speed Weeks, and, you know, this is, you know, practice that's still going on. And during the middle of the week, you know, we got Speed tv. And this is when NASCAR was still rocking and rolling with speed TV, and everybody's glued to the TV, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Finds you. He just finds out who you are. He reads books. And in Dale Earnhardt junior's mind, he's like, holy moly, this Bentley Warren is a complete badass. This guy's unbelievable. Tell me about this moment when Dale Jr. Has this platform and he reintroduces you to the racing world. Tell me about that whole time.

Bentley Warren (71:51)

Well, Lisa and I were driving back from California camp. In the camper. Yeah, I got. How the hell did it happen? I got a message from him. I guess I missed a call and he left a message or something. I can't remember exactly how it was. And he said, kenny Schrader gave me your number. So I. Somebody's just breaking my balls. Somebody's, you know, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Is the king. You know, he's the most popular, like you say, and just such a good guy. And I didn't realize how nice of a guy he was. But anyways, we were coming back. So then I called Schrader. I said, schrader, did you give my number to Dale Jr. He said, why? I said, well, he called and said it was, you know, Dale Jr. And left a message, he wanted me to call him. And I said, I just don't believe that, but did you? He said, yeah. He said, wait a minute, let me call you right back. So two minutes later, Dale calls, Kenny, calls me back and says, call. Call him right now. That. That is his number. Call him right now. So we called him, we made arrangements. We were driving back to Daytona for the racing things. You know, we're going to go New Smyrna into the Living Legends and all that stuff. Dave Dion's, that club that he puts together. I don't know if you've ever been there, but.

Kenny Wallace (73:18)

Yeah, but I know who he is.

Bentley Warren (73:19)

Yes. So he's a hell of a guy. You ought to come to that thing. We got an extra ticket if you want to come during that. I don't know what day it is sometime during speed week, but if you want to come, I got two tables. You'd have a ball.

Kenny Wallace (73:31)

That's very nice of you. And if I'm there, I'll be there. I'm going to go run Volusia, so.

Bentley Warren (73:36)

Well, come over one night. You'll probably be at Volusia, though maybe. I don't know that night. It's a week night and I know they race every. Are you racing every night there?

Kenny Wallace (73:47)

Well, as my wife says, we'll see. I'm like, I hate it when you say that. Kim, Kim, will you do this with me? We'll see. Well, I am racing Volusia. I'm starting on January 29th. 10,000 to win here in just a couple weeks. Bentley 29th, 30, 31st of January. And then I leave. I leave Daytona on February 7th. Kim and I are going during the real speed weeks. Kim and I are going to winter in Yellowstone and. But I don't know about you. Yeah, we're trying to be a little worldly. We actually. We actually come back from winter in Yellowstone on Sunday, the day of the Daytona 500. But let's go ahead, keep going with Dale Jr.

Bentley Warren (74:34)

So then. So then I called him and it was, you know, Dale, Kenny told me to call him right now. He's waiting for your call. So I called him. We spoke for a few minutes. He said, are you going to be in Daytona? I said, yeah. He said, you're coming to the speedway. I Said, well, I wasn't gonna, but why? He said, well, I'd love to meet you. He said, I've read your book and this and that. And so I think that's how it went. And I said, yeah, we'll go. So we went and it was kind of. It was comical as heck because I think, oh, who was it? I can't remember who it was, but a couple people that knew me came over to me and we're standing by Dale's trailer. And so then now the little group is forming because Ryan Newman, I think, was there and this and that. And then Dale came and we went in the trailer and stuff, and he talked to me for a few minutes, and he just knew so much about me. He had read the Oswego book. Oswego wrote a book about the track. 50 years at Oswego or 100, whatever it was. And then he had read the Bentley's. Bentley's wicked fast book.

Kenny Wallace (75:41)

Wicked fast.

Bentley Warren (75:43)

Yeah. Johnny narcosha, but I call him Johnny narcotics. He doesn't do narcotics at all, but that's just nakosha, seems like. And he owns auto subtly's car, and he's been winning races at Oswego like crazy. And he came out to Vegas year before last and won the super modified part of the race and just a great racer. And Johnny narcotics gave him the books. And I signed one to Dale Jr. He said, Sign this to Dale Jr. So I did, and I gave it to him. So Dale knew all about me, and he was so darn knowledgeable. When Lisa and I were in his trailer talking to him, and he's asking me questions if I cry a lot. I don't even know the stuff that you're asking me. You are so on the ball. You know, I was really impressed and just a great guy. And then I did a show like you're like the sort of this show, but right in his little.

Kenny Wallace (76:37)

Yeah.

Bentley Warren (76:38)

Thing.

Kenny Wallace (76:38)

And it's race dirty mo media. Very popular.

Bentley Warren (76:42)

Yeah. Yeah. So it was quite an honor. And people. And it did get me a crapload of recognition. You know, being on his show and being on your show. I'm sure it's gonna. You know, I'm not doing it for the recognition. I'm doing it because it's fun to shoot the.

Kenny Wallace (76:59)

Yeah, hey, me too, Bentley. You know, I'm still racing to this day. I'll wash my hands and I'll come down here and turn the computer on, and I tell my closest friends, I say, you know, when I do Kenny conversation, man, it's a blast because I get to meet these racers and, and talk to them and no more, hey, Dale junior. You know, his dad, Dale senior, the man in black was a badass. And senior Dale senior made sure that Dale Jr. Went to military school. So that's why Dale Jr. Right now, to this day is very studious. Dale Jr. Is like, yes, sir, no, sir. He's calmed that down a little bit now because he's, you know, a grown man. He's married, he's got children. But you know, when, when juniors started racing, you know, you and him, you know, you're a man's man. You, you went into the army. But, but Dale senior said, you know, my kids, my kid needs to be straightened up. So he goes to military school. And it is surprising to me that Dale Jr. Is a studious man. You know, Dale Jr. Will read a book. I mean, hell, I can't do that. I'm too hyper. I mean, I get a, I get quarter way through it and I'm like, I'm done.

Bentley Warren (78:20)

Got to have a lot of pictures in it.

Kenny Wallace (78:25)

Exactly. Oh, I love this. Oh, my God. Okay, so we are going to end like this because to me, this is most fascinating and you're going to find it odd that I chose this. I always tell my dirt racing friends, I say, be careful. Don't be a dirt dauber. Don't, don't be poor and broke. You've won all these dirt races. You lived your life in racing and now you're a vagabond. You had nothing. I tell my friend Nick Hoffman that, and Nick's doing good. He's got, he builds race cars. But I find so many racers, they win everything and they're the most famous. And then when it's all over, their vagabonds, they have nothing and they're broke and they're poor. What I've always admired about you, and we glossed over it a little bit, but you said to me, you know, about your trucking company, your saloon, you are one of the most successful financial racers in, in, you know, in my time. I admire you. Yes, you got the saloon. But tell me about this trucking company that just kicks total ass. Tell me about this.

Bentley Warren (79:48)

It's kind of a long story.

Kenny Wallace (79:50)

Good, good.

Bentley Warren (79:52)

We got a lot of time.

Kenny Wallace (79:55)

Let's finish like this.

Bentley Warren (79:56)

Yeah. I got hurt real bad in Toledo, Ohio, and I was in the hospital for a long period of time and I was running usac and it was a sprint car accident and it was a bad accident and I'd broken a lot of stuff. Bones, burns, all kinds of stuff. So I was in the hospital for, like I say, a long period of time. And I was in USEC and USAC had a good insurance. And fortunately, with the insurance and with the money that I had made at Indy that year, I ran the Indy 500. And I think I had about. And I can't remember. I think it was about 13 grand in the bank that I'd made at Indy, running the Indy 500 and some other races. And then I got hurt in Toledo early in the year. I believe it was in a sprint car. Broke my legs and headburns and feet and all kinds of bones and just crazy, bad accident. And so when I got back to Massachusetts, I lived in Massachusetts, in Gloucester, Mass. At that time. Man, I said I got to do something besides race. And a friend of mine, Bob Pompey, had a old Brockway tractor and a dump trailer that he didn't use. And so I bought it from him. And I didn't have enough money to pay for the whole thing, but I bought it from him, and I made payments on it. But it was very inexpensive. He might have charged me a grand or something like that for the whole thing, and that's all it was worth. But then I, you know, rebuilt it, and we used it. And Jimmy Carter drove it at night. No, he drove in the daytime hauling the dump trailer. And I drove it at night hauling fuel. But I was in two casts and with crutches and.

Kenny Wallace (81:38)

Oh, my gosh.

Bentley Warren (81:39)

But I was driving the truck, you know, But I had those walking casts, those little rubbers on the bottom. So anyways, I started with that one truck. And then I remember one day I was working for Johnny Vitali in New Report, Mass. Hall and Gravel, and I made $300 in a day with the truck. And 300 bucks in 1972 was like, for one day, a landfall of money. Like, what the. This might be a good thing to do. So I had that truck, and then I bought another truck, truck number two. And I got it from a friend of mine, Chuck Webb. And it was a Kenworth, and it was an old Golf oil truck. And I think that was. I believe I was about 1200 bucks I gave him for it. And he'd bought a newer truck. And so I took that old truck, that old Kenworth, and rebuilt it and put tandem rear ends. It was a single axle. Welded it up myself because I was a good welder. And then I just kept that. Just kept doing all these things. Then I got Kicked out of West Colossa because I had six or seven trucks in a residential zone. I had 10 acres of land and they kicked me out of West Colossus. So I bought a piece of land in Ipswich, Mass. That Paul Quinn, a friend of mine had and I didn't have money to buy it, but he showed me how to buy it, how to. I put a road in and all kinds of things. And we built that business. And then my daughter runs it now. She'd been running it for. She'd been there for 30 something years. I think it's 30 something years and doing a heck of a job. We got a lot of people working there and it does very, very well. And it's just. And then it's just been awesome. And so.

Kenny Wallace (83:25)

Yeah, so listen to this. Bentley Warren Trucking is a family owned company in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Did I say that right?

Bentley Warren (83:36)

Yep.

Kenny Wallace (83:37)

That supplies and delivers crushed stone, sand, gravel and loam. What is the loam?

Bentley Warren (83:43)

L O a M. Topsoil. Topsoil Going under a lawn.

Kenny Wallace (83:48)

I'll be darn. Serving both residential and commercial customers in Maine, New Hampshire and Mass. But you got going on. You're serving three states. Established in the early 1970s, it has grown from a single truck to a fleet. How many trucks you got right now?

Bentley Warren (84:07)

Not that many. I think we're down to about 25 or 30. That's all. We got a stone. We got. The biggest thing is that we got a stone crushing business and we buy and sell a lot of material and it's turned into a good sized company. And my daughter, being what she is, has made it. You know, I worked hard and did quite well, but she's just so much smarter than I ever was. And she knows and she's got my way of talking, thinking and my mind, but it's a little bit more mature. Not older, but more mature because she's smarter and she's put a lot of modern technology into it. And my nephew helped her. Lisa. Yeah, She's a hot. And she's a runner. She's a runner. She's at Oswego. We had a bicycle race. I know I'm jumping all over the world.

Kenny Wallace (85:01)

No, that's okay. Say it.

Bentley Warren (85:03)

They had a. They had a bicycle race and I think. I can't remember. Dougie Hebron was racing and I think I was driving our own. Cindy Snyder's car, which was Dave Snyder's knee had passed and. But I still had the car and Cindy Snyder owned it and they had a driver and a girl race. So a Bicycle race. Yeah. Dougie Hevron was 16 or 17 at the time. He and I became very, very good friends. And his father and I were friends, and I was probably older than his father, but my daughter took the bicycle and she went out there with about six girls and going around, you know, pedaling off and come around the dock part of the track. On the third mile track, there's a half, five, eight mile track. And then on the inside is a third mile. So they're going to race on the third mile, one lap for the girls, then one lap for the guys. So she comes around and I'm like, holy crikes. There's nobody behind her. So she's a real athlete. So she comes around on the bike way the hell out front. And I get on the bike, flim flop and elbows falling off. And I'm pedaling and she's pushing me, getting me going, you know. And so I go around and then Dougie Haveron catches me. He's like this, right beside me on the outside, coming to the start finish line. So I kick his bike so his bike goes like this. I beat him by about a wheel. Oh, man. She won the race and I couldn't let her down because she had. There was nobody else in the race when they could. When the girls came around, you know, when the first. When my daughter came around, that was the only bike there. And there were five other bikes. Where the hell are they? But they weren't there. But then Dougie caught me because whoever he was riding with, you know, didn't go as fast as my daughter, but he went faster than me. And I remember riding to work every day for about a month before this race, and it's about 15 miles. And I was riding my bicycle every morning at 5:00 or 5.

Kenny Wallace (87:09)

Get ready. Yeah.

Bentley Warren (87:10)

Trying to practice and still didn't go worth the. But I won it, Manley.

Kenny Wallace (87:16)

Let's end like this. I remember I had a crew chief. What was his name? I forgot. But he said, if you cannot help family, then who can you help? And I just want to tell you a quick story. Two weeks ago, my. My middle daughter, Brandy. My kids are like 35, 37, 39. My middle daughter. All my. All my daughters are awesome. But we got this merchandise business. It does good shop. Kenny Wallace.com. And my daughter, she's, you know, I'm telling her, I'm giving her instructions in. Right in the middle of this conversation with my daughter, she goes, dad, I'm 37 years old. I run my own business. I know how to run a business. It floored me. I thought. I thought about it overnight, and I called her up the next day. I said, okay, you're going to run it.

Bentley Warren (88:14)

All.

Kenny Wallace (88:16)

Those kids, you know, they just grow up.

Bentley Warren (88:19)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (88:19)

And they surprise us, don't they?

Bentley Warren (88:21)

They do. They do. It's impressive. That's like my girlfriend Lisa, running the. The saloon. Yes. She started off in the gift shop and took a gift shop from being a little, little thing to a big, massive, massive business. And then she worked in the. Then she's being in the gift shop. We run the campground out of the gift shop office. So then she's like picking up on the campground. And then we had some employment issues and stuff like that with management and stuff like that over the last few years. And we've had different managers that were running the bar, the saloon part of the business, and the kitchen. We've had just a lot of changes in management help. And every time we had this change, Lisa, my girlfriend, would pick it up and fix it, rebuild it, get it going again. And this last year, we had another management change and she jumped right in and took the whole damn thing over and took it from being about this big to. You can't see my hands now because that big. And made the bottom line have a net that. That we've never had before. And I got other people in there, you know, I got Lee and I got just Dirk and all kinds of people that work in the business that are great. And I'm not trying to name them all because I don't have time to name everybody, but. And then we have all kinds of people that. Customers and stuff like that that are just as dedicated as I am, and Lisa and Lee and every. And Durek and everybody else. And so it's really. It's a great, great thing. And I think it's maybe my camaraderie and the way I was brought up that makes these other people assist you in the way they do and make. They make me look like a hero and I'm just a zero, but I. I'll take it. Don't know.

Kenny Wallace (90:18)

You remind me of Rick Hendrick. Treat your people well. And Lisa, I'm sure you can hear me. You're a badass, honey. And I. I haven't met you, but I already love you. I'll be up that way. I don't know when I, you know, I go up to loud New Hampshire every year for a little show we do before the NASCAR cup race. It's called Trackside Live. And I. I always come in on Saturday. I think I need to come in on like, a Thursday. And I need to. You know, my wife and myself, we love our motorcycles. Now, Kim won't ride a two wheeler.

Bentley Warren (90:53)

I saw you, trike. I'm going to be on one pretty soon, so have no fear. Bentley will be here.

Kenny Wallace (91:00)

I'm going to tell you what that trike I love. My wife, we met when we were kids in school, but Kim and I, we fall in love all over again with this trike. You know, we.

Bentley Warren (91:12)

She.

Kenny Wallace (91:12)

We got our rhythm, you know, our helmets, we got the Bluetooth. We. We travel 2,000 miles with the Cal Petty charity ride. And every morning it's, you know, I'm a badass like you. I mean, I got my two wheeler. It's all carbon fiber, but I like riding my trike because there's nothing better than having your sweetie on the back and.

Bentley Warren (91:32)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (91:34)

Do you two ride together?

Bentley Warren (91:36)

Yeah. But she doesn't feel as comfortable as she did five years ago, and I can understand that. Yeah, you know, I'm 85, so I'm not as stable as I was at 80 or 75 or whatever.

Kenny Wallace (91:46)

Totally understand myself.

Bentley Warren (91:47)

I feel great. And with her on the back, I still feel good, but not as. Yeah, she's not as comfortable as she used to be. Yeah, she rides her own bike and she's got a license. She's great rider. But she doesn't ride her own bike now.

Kenny Wallace (92:01)

Yeah, well, rightfully so. Bentley, you have officially gone into hero category. You are right there in our top three longest ever Kenny conversations. About an hour and a half. Holy. And I. And, and listen, I. I talked to Stuart Friesen, and I don't know what it is.

Bentley Warren (92:22)

Great guy.

Kenny Wallace (92:23)

Yes. And my point is this. I don't know what it is about the Northeast, but your fans are what we call rabid. It means they love racing. So the Northeast loves you.

Bentley Warren (92:36)

The new. You're.

Kenny Wallace (92:38)

You're a hero forever. And I want to thank everybody in the Northeast. I love the New Hampshire. You know, I love that area.

Bentley Warren (92:46)

My.

Kenny Wallace (92:47)

All my. My big wins came from Birdie. And we lost Birdie. Steve Bird was my crew chief. Birdie just died over the last couple months, but I love the Northeast.

Bentley Warren (92:57)

Yeah. Great guy.

Kenny Wallace (92:59)

Yeah. Star. He talked about star all the damn time. But okay, everybody, this is it. And remember, if you want to see the great Bentley, Warren's pretty face, you can turn in to the Kenny Wallace YouTube show. So if you go to Kenny Wallace YouTube, you'll see Bentley. If you're driving to Daytona for speed weeks and you want to listen to Bentley, you go to Dirty Mo Media podcast. That's Dale Junior's Dirty Mo Media. So two ways. Anything else buddy?

Bentley Warren (93:35)

No, but been fantastic. You've always been odd in my mind.

Kenny Wallace (93:41)

I'm a little off centered but I can't. Aren't we all?

Bentley Warren (93:45)

Yeah. Heck yeah.

Kenny Wallace (93:47)

Okay everybody, until the next any conversation. We'll see you next time. Goodbye everybody.

Bentley Warren (93:54)

Thank. You.

Kenny Wallace (94:02)

Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. Hey everybody, it's Babs from brunch with Babs. And do I have a tip for you. If you share my passion for classic style and joyful living, you're gonna love Birch Lane. Their timeless furniture and decor is carefully crafted to bring joy to your home for years to come. Just like the memories you make. Fair plus plus it's delivered fast and free. Shop my hand picked Birch Lane collection and more classic styles@birchlane.com.

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Kenny Wallace (94:50)

Are you my my dad now?

Bentley Warren (94:53)

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