Hermie Sadler: From All Racing To All Business

Summary

Podcast Summary: Herm & Schrader – "Hermie Sadler: From All Racing To All Business"

Introduction

In this engaging episode of Herm & Schrader, hosted by Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader, the spotlight shines on Hermie Sadler—a renowned NASCAR driver turned successful businessman. Released on March 6, 2025, this episode delves deep into Hermie's multifaceted life, exploring his illustrious racing career, entrepreneurial ventures, personal struggles, and contributions to both the racing and wrestling industries.

Early Life and Racing Beginnings

Hermie Sadler begins by recounting his early exposure to racing, highlighting the influence of his father, Herman Marion Sadler III, a third-generation oil company owner. Growing up in a modest two-bedroom farmhouse, Hermie's passion for racing ignited at a young age.

• Hermie Sadler [02:07]: "Look, I'm like, you can be in the boardroom with the billionaires with the Fortune 500 companies, and I can wash dishes with my cooks at Fosho, whatever it takes on a daily basis."

His entry into racing was marked by significant achievements, including winning the World Carting Association Championship in 1988 and securing the Rookie of the Year in the Busch Grand National Series in 1993.

Transition to Business

As Hermie's racing career progressed, he diversified his interests into the petroleum business. After purchasing the assets of Salar Brothers Oil Company from his father, Hermie and his sister expanded into convenience stores and truck stops, emphasizing honest work, fair pricing, and excellent customer service.

• Hermie Sadler [05:32]: "But we just started building convenience stores and we'd lease them back to the company while my dad was still active in the company and doing all that."

Despite challenges, including attempts to undermine the fossil fuel industry, Hermie remained steadfast in his business pursuits, ensuring the sustainability and growth of his ventures.

Family and Personal Life

Hermie's dedication to his family is a recurring theme. Balancing a demanding career with family responsibilities, he shares heartfelt moments, such as prioritizing his daughters' activities over racing commitments.

• Hermie Sadler [19:41]: "I just decided because of where I was in my life and with what the money was going to be, I just needed to change directions in 2019."

His daughter Haley's diagnosis with autism profoundly impacted his life, leading him and his wife Angie to advocate for better resources and support for special needs children in their community.

• Hermie Sadler [28:21]: "She walks into mine and Angie's room every morning about 6:15 with a smile on her face and says, what are we going to do today?"

Political Endeavors

In an attempt to effect change at a systemic level, Hermie ventured into politics by running for the 17th District State Senate seat in Virginia. Motivated by a desire to represent rural southside Virginia and address issues like inadequate schools, poor infrastructure, and lack of economic development, Hermie ultimately withdrew his candidacy when he realized the political environment was not aligned with his principles.

• Hermie Sadler [71:52]: "I hate politics... But when you look at the Commonwealth of Virginia, all of the people and the influence and the money is in Northern Virginia, around D.C. and Hampton Roads, which is the Virginia Beach area... we've never had a voice."

Involvement in Wrestling

Hermie's passion for wrestling is intertwined with his racing career, stemming from his close friendship with professional wrestler Jeff Jarrett. Serving as a promoter, Hermie played a pivotal role in the development of wrestling promotions like Total Non Stop Action (TNA), United Wrestling Federation (UWF), and Global Force Wrestling. His efforts provided a platform for aspiring wrestlers, bridging the gap between racing and professional wrestling communities.

• Hermie Sadler [78:01]: "So I helped him make some connections in the TV industry... I was on the board of directors and then UWF, United Wrestling Federation."

Current Views on NASCAR

Reflecting on the evolution of NASCAR, Hermie expresses optimism about its current trajectory, believing that the organization is making strides to reconnect with its traditional fan base while attracting new audiences.

• Hermie Sadler [89:38]: "I really think we're back on an uptick... NASCAR has listened and I think they are trying to make the racing better."

He emphasizes the importance of making events more accessible and affordable for families, advocating for a balance between growth and preserving the sport's core values.

Closing Thoughts

The episode culminates with Hermie expressing gratitude for his enduring relationships within the racing and wrestling industries and affirming his commitment to community and family. Kenny Wallace admires Hermie's resilience and multifaceted success, highlighting him as an inspirational figure who seamlessly transitioned from racing to business without losing his authentic self.

• Hermie Sadler [93:45]: "But I did that for them until TNA finally got to a point where they had infrastructure and money and equipment and talent in place to do their own live events."

Notable Quotes

• Hermie Sadler [02:07]: "You can be in the boardroom with the billionaires with the Fortune 500 companies, and I can wash dishes with my cooks at Fosho."
• Hermie Sadler [19:41]: "I just needed to change directions in 2019."
• Hermie Sadler [28:21]: "She walks into mine and Angie's room every morning with a smile on her face and says, what are we going to do today?"
• Hermie Sadler [71:52]: "I hate politics... we've never had a voice."
• Hermie Sadler [89:38]: "NASCAR has listened and I think they are trying to make the racing better."

Conclusion

"Hermie Sadler: From All Racing To All Business" offers listeners an intimate glimpse into the life of a man who has navigated the high-octane world of NASCAR racing, built a successful business empire, faced personal challenges, and contributed significantly to the wrestling industry. Hermie's story is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and unwavering dedication to both his passions and his family.

For those interested in the intersections of sports, business, and personal growth, this episode is a must-listen. Hermie Sadler's journey underscores the importance of evolving with one's interests while staying grounded in core values and community support.

Transcript

[Matthew Murdoch]

Daredevil is born again on Disney plus. My name is Matthew Murdoch.

[Hermie Sadler]

I'm a lawyer. Exactly what kind of a lawyer?

[Matthew Murdoch]

I'm a really good one. Critics everywhere agree it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense, and elevated, it's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Marvel Television's Daredevil, born again, now streaming only on Disney plus.

[Hermie Sadler]

Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating.

[Kenny]

And so, as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud.

[Hermie Sadler]

It grows louder when you ask for.

[Kenny]

Help and you're vulnerable.

[Hermie Sadler]

It is the thread that lets you.

[Kenny]

Know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible, find out [e-mail] brought.

[Hermie Sadler]

To you by the National Council for Mental well Being, Shatterproof and the Ad Council.

[Kenny]

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought to you by jegs, the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts. Remember to go to JEGS.com for anything you need to fix your everyday vehicle up or your hot rod. You're looking at another Hermie, everybody. One of my best friends in life. We share the same name. Great race car driver. He can do it all. He really can. Hermie Sadler. Hermie.

[Hermie Sadler]

Kenny. I can't tell you how long I've waited for this opportunity. And my first question is, who the hell is going to translate this so people across America can understand what the hell we're talking about?

[Kenny]

You have the most wonderful accent. I love it.

[Hermie Sadler]

And can you believe somebody with my accent had almost 20 years of television?

[Kenny]

Well, you're good. You. You talk good. You're a mature man, but you're right on my level, too. So that means you can fit in anywhere.

[Hermie Sadler]

Look, I'm like, you can be in the boardroom with the billionaires with the Fortune 500 companies, and I can wash dishes with my cooks at Fosho, whatever it takes on a daily basis.

[Kenny]

And I love your videos. I really do. All. All your videos with your daughter, Haley, as you call her. Haley.

[Hermie Sadler]

Drew Haley. Dr.

[Kenny]

Your dishwasher over there at Faux show and your restaurants and Victory Lane restaurant. Hey, before we get going, I need you to straighten something out for me.

[Hermie Sadler]

Let me hear it.

[Kenny]

Years ago, I was. I think I was in West Virginia, and I was. I was running my dirt car, and local news came to me. We were promoting, I think maybe Beckley, West Virginia. And I said something of it, said, well, excited to be here in Virginia. And the man stopped, put his camera down, he goes, kenny It's a really big deal between Virginia and West Virginia. So I do agree with that. But is there still a little civil war going on between Virginia and West Virginia?

[Hermie Sadler]

If it is, it hadn't reached Emporia, where I'm at. I love the Mountaineers and a lot of people from West Virginia come over and, you know, I tell people all the time, Kenny, I have lived two completely different lives. I had my racing life that you had, like, and now I've got a completely different domesticated life. In my second life, I sell. We're in the petroleum business, so we have convenience stores and truck stops. But I also sell fuel and I sell fuel to a lot of the construction projects going on around Virginia, whether they be solar panel projects or, you know, Dominion Power doing projects, all these things. And a lot of the workers come over from West Virginia. A lot of hard working people over there come into our state and work and, you know, they're, you know, get up every morning, go to work, put in a good day's work and, and they buy fuel from Hermes. So I have nothing negative to say about the people from West Virginia.

[Kenny]

I love that. And, you know, we can start this great conversation. I say great because I truly love you. We started racing together. I want to make sure everybody understands that. Myself and Hermie, we raced together for years in the start of the Busch Grand National Series, 1989, you know, and on for years. But Hermie, let's start like this. You and I started as kids. My gosh, I'm older than you. I'm 61. You're 55. I consider you a true friend because of everything I just said. We always got along. We really did. You are from Emporia, Virginia, and I just want to let everybody know a little bit about you here and then we're going to go through it all. Number one, I know you as a race car driver, but I also know that you are a businessman. You worked for Fox as a broadcaster. You tried your hand in being a politician. So I want to start in your home area. Let's start like this. I looked you up.

[Hermie Sadler]

Your real name is Herman, Herman Marion Sadler iii. So as I told you before we started taping, it took them three times to get it right. I love that I got it right. Yeah. My dad, luckily is still, still around. He's 83, comes to work most every day in the afternoon, still comes in. He's got an office here. And although he's mellowed, he still, he'll, you know, light my ass up. Every now and again when I need it. And Kenny, you'll be happy to hear, my dad walked in yesterday and stuck his head in here and he said, hey, do you still have Rick Hendricks number? I said, I do. I said, what do you want, Daddy? He said, I want a BMW M8 convertible. And he's 83 years old. I said, is this a midlife crisis? He said, call it whatever you want, but call Rick and see. So I'm like you, you know, Rick doesn't communicate with everybody, but I text Rick. Within three minutes he called me back and hey, Hermie, I miss you. How you doing? What do you want? I said, rick, you're not gonna believe it, but my dad wants a. I don't know why, and it's none of my business why, but he wants a BMW M8 convertible. Who can I call to get him one? And he connected me with a manager at one of his BMW stores in Durham. And that's in process. But my dad, you know, we're third generation, my sister and I, as you mentioned, we. We purchased the assets in the stock of Salar Brothers oil company from my dad about three years ago. My dad took over when my grandfather, who actually started the business, got killed in 1973. My dad was 29 years old when his. When my grandfather, his dad got killed. And so my dad, I give him a lot of credit. I'm not one of these that wants everybody to think that I did it all because my dad really from, you know, he had to sink or swim. He was handed a company, but a company at that time with a lot of debt and a lot of problems. And my dad was, you know, like I said, 29 going on 30 years old. And he came up the hard way. You know, we're very successful and we got lots of things now, but when I was a kid, you know, I lived in a. Me and Elliot and my sister, we lived in a two bedroom farmhouse with one bathroom with five of us. And so it wasn't always, you know, like it is today, thankfully. And I give all the credit to my dad for that. He's a hard worker, old school, believes in the, you know, the free market and all these other things that kind of led me to, you know, try to run for office, you know, later in life. But, but my dad was junior and I'm, I'm number three and I'm trying to, trying to keep the train on the track.

[Kenny]

Well, I want to compliment you and your dad. It sounds to me like your, your father is a good Teacher.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yep.

[Kenny]

And you're a good student. You know, we all know that you could screw it up and, you know, you're doing good.

[Hermie Sadler]

You know, it's just we, we keep it simple, Kenny. You know, we. We have convenience stores and truck stops and we sell fuel to farmers and loggers and all the true American patriots that I think sometimes get overlooked, you know, on the importance that the truck drivers have going up down the highway and the loggers and the farmers. But my dad, you know, and I do the same thing. You put in an honest day's work. You charge people fair prices and give them good service, and that's. It's really no magic in the retail business. It's, you know, everybody has access to fuel and pricing and is similar, but it boils down to relationships and service and, and customers and that kind of thing. And it's always been that way with us, with my dad and, you know, even when I was racing and doing tv, I was still involved in the family business. My wife and I, you know, while we were. And I'll go ahead and say it probably wasn't this way for you, but, Kenny, I made way more money doing TV than I ever did racing. And, you know, for those years, my wife and I did some commercial real estate projects. We built some convenience stores and leased them to the oil company and all that when, you know, when I was, when I was doing, well, doing that. And I'm so glad now that I did that because now I'm involved with Salibella's oil company. And now my wife and I own a lot of the convenience store properties that we built when I was out on the road busting it like, you know, all about too. And so it's all kind of come full circle that I have some, some commercial properties that are leased to the, you know, a sister company. And my sister and I are doing it. And it's hard work. You know, this, you know, being in the petroleum business, we kind of, you know, we've had people in, you know, in Washington up until about a month ago that we're trying to do away with the fossil fuel industry. So we've had a lot of fights and battles on our hands to, to, to try to save our business and our livelihood, and we're working hard to try to do that.

[Kenny]

Well, a couple things. Number one, I want you to know that I, I show this to everybody every time we do this. Two pages of notes for Hermie.

[Hermie Sadler]

You see, you don't need all that. Me and you can talk for Six hours.

[Kenny]

Well, well, we can. And you know what I'm going to do? You see the first page? I'm going to put it at the back.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yep.

[Kenny]

Because I had, I had Saddler Brothers oil at the back. And we're just going to stay right here. Then let's talk racing later. But, but I do want to say this about you and your wife. Years ago, when I was in nascar, you and I are hustlers. So we raced, we did tv, we give speeches, we do whatever it takes. But I was saving my money at an early age. And my wife said to me one day, she said something me, Kim said, you're always putting so much money away, you're strapping us for cash. And I looked her in the face and I said, honey, you're going to thank me one day.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

And you know, I put all that money in the stock market, but first, you know, I invested in real estate. So I just want to say that, wow, we share the same nickname, but we've also kind of been down the same path. You're telling me you, you saw a vision years ago.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

And now, now, now you're reaping the rewards.

[Hermie Sadler]

You know, you never know. Sometimes you plan things and they work out and sometimes it's just, you know, there was a time from the, say, mid, early to mid 2000s to, you know, around 2010, and you, you were involved in some of this. But there were weekends when I started doing tv, I'll give you an example. And I told, I was talking to my wife about this last night when I told her I was gonna be on with you. And I look back now and I'm like, I could never do this now, but a weekend for me back in those days would be okay. I remember being in Des Moines, Iowa doing TV for a truck race on Friday night. Truck race gets over, I go back to the airport, I get on the NASCAR charter plane that all the crews fly on, flew back to Concord, North Carolina, got there like at 3:00 in the morning on a Saturday morning, went directly to this airport in Statesville, North Carolina, got on the DEI charter plane and flew to Loudon, New Hampshire that same day to do TV race day before the show we used to do with you. Then during the race, I did DirecTV Hot Pass. After the race, after the race, I would do the post race show with.

[Kenny]

All you guys hustling, man.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah, I mean, but I'm telling, I would be up from Friday morning at say 6am in Iowa and go to, you know, get and then I would do PRN radio on Monday. I would do John Boy and Billy radio on Tuesday and get back home on Wednesday and Thursday and leave again on Friday and start it all over. But, you know, I don't say this in any kind of bragging way, but those days, Kenny, I would go on a weekend and make 30 grand, you know, for a weekend because of the way Fox paid us to do the show and then Hot Pass and then PRN and all this. And I never made that kind of money, you know, racing. But I, you know, wife and three daughters, and one of my daughters is special needs and things. And so we started pretty early on, you know, what can we do that's going, you know, that I can control? I'm not. You said you do the stock market. I don't do that because, no offense, I'm not going to invest in something that I don't know the people running it, so. Good point. We just started building convenience stores and we'd lease them back to the company while my dad was still active in the company and. And doing all that. And I've got three houses and cars and put my kids through private school and all that. I did all that like you did, Kenny, busting my ass. You know, people want to say, now all the saddlers, you know, they got money. They. But I was out there digging just like everybody else, and so I'm not ashamed of it. And, you know, I pay for all my houses and my cars and put my kids through school and do. Doing exactly what I just told you on any given weekend, doing four and five, you know, and that was really when it came to the end for me for TV. Kenny, 2019. One of my favorite people, and I know one of your favorite people, too, is Steve Craddock.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

So we started talking about, you know, what the future was going to look like at Fox Sports. And Steve came to me in as nice a way as he could, and he said, hermie, the way we've been paying y'all, we can't pay like that anymore. We got to do an all in lump sum, 2500 bucks for a weekend. And I said, steve, I love you. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not doing that.

[Kenny]

You know, I agree.

[Hermie Sadler]

They used to pay us that amount of money to do a qualifying show.

[Kenny]

Yes.

[Hermie Sadler]

And so. And I. But I never looked at TV work. I know we're getting off the oil company thing, but I never looked at TV work as work. I've always looked at it like, hermie, we're Paying you to travel and be gone from your family. And that's what they did and that's what. So you can't put a price tag on that. So I just want in on the, you know, we're gonna pay you per show till we're gonna pay you are all in. I said, y'all can get plenty of other people that would be willing to do that and probably deserve an opportunity and can live on that kind of money. But you know, just like racing or doing tv, when you turn that faucet off of money, you know, there's certain things you can live with and certain things you can't. But I had obligations and I couldn't fulfill my obligations based on where Fox was headed with the, with the weekend TV help it that they were doing. And I still love Steve Craddock. I talked to him often and. But that the way they were restructuring at that time, at the end of 2019 wasn't going to work for me. And so that's why I decided to come back home and start my second life.

[Kenny]

As I said earlier, yeah, they, they, let's just take a number. You and I were 45 and they were wanting to, you know, we were, we were being paid as we, as if we were 45 years old. And they, they offered us 17 year old money. That's right. As you're, as if you're seven.

[Hermie Sadler]

And I don't begrudge them. They had a business plan. Look, they were good to me. I'm gonna just tell you, I mean like I said, I go all weekend, do all this stuff and I'm like, when I first started, I'm like, y'all gonna pay me two grand to do a 30 minute practice show? Okay.

[Kenny]

Yep.

[Hermie Sadler]

You know, and so look, they were, they were, they were good to me. But in any business, especially the bigger companies, when they start cutting expenses, they start at the top, you know, they cut right across the top. And the people you know, and I, you know, me, you, John Roberts, Wendy.

[Kenny]

Venturini, we were making good money.

[Hermie Sadler]

Good money. And the shows, the shows were great because look, I loved Kenny. Kenny loved hermy, I loved Wendy, I love John, I love Kyle Petty. I didn't care how much Kenny was making. I didn't care how much Kyle was making. You and I, as far as I know, until this show, have never talked about money in any way, shape or form. So I didn't care. You Kenny, it's a free market. I love it. Whatever Kenny's worth, if he's worth two grand, More than hermy. That's great. Roll with it. You know, and Cal Petty. Sure. His last name is Petty. He deserves more than me. Have at it. You know, but when it, when it. I was worn out prior to that, before 2019, I had told. I remember being in a hotel one night at. Trying to think may have been Canada for the. For the most port race one weekend. And my oldest daughter Cora was a cheerleader at unc, so she was getting ready to cheer in the NCAA basketball tournament for the Tar Heels. And my youngest daughter, who is now playing college softball, she was playing travel softball in Myrtle Beach. And I was sitting in a hotel.

[Kenny]

In Canada at 8 o'clock at night going, what the hell are you doing?

[Hermie Sadler]

It's lonely. Me too. I was in a hotel by myself, you know, and there for years doing the truck races. I was on the road with Rick Allen and Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip and people I had a lot in common with. And we had fun. We went to dinners and we played golf and did all that. And then ultimately Fox changes their business plan and they come to me and say, hey, the only two people that are going to be traveling to the track are the two pit reporters. And we're going to put this person with you. We like for you to train them, you know, and this and that and the other. Everybody that I grew up with and, you know, made it bearable to travel. But when I started, when there was nobody else at the track and the schedule was brutal, my brother had kind of cut back and retired, so I was flying commercial everywhere. I couldn't fly with Elliot and so I had to leave a day earlier.

[Kenny]

And commercial sucks.

[Hermie Sadler]

It's horrible. You know, it's horrible. I mean, that people think when they look at race car people and TV people, glamorous TV job, okay? But I'm sitting at a hotel in. By myself in a room, you know, three and four nights a week. And I. It finally got to a point where it, it became about money for me. It became if. If I'm not going to make what I think I deserve to be out here. I. I need to go and I want to, you know, I want to go watch my daughter play ball because that's my youngest daughter, Naomi, when she signed her scholarship to play ball, she looked at me while we went the signing with all the people there, and she looked at me in front of all these people and said, dad, if I sign this scholarship to play college ball, are you coming to my games?

[Kenny]

Oh, wow.

[Hermie Sadler]

Because I missed all of Core's cheering. And when they were little, I missed all the dance recitals and all the ball games and the T ball and all that. I remember chartering a plane from Darlington one weekend. I was racing in the Southern 500. They had the dance recital Saturday night. I chartered a plane, spent five grand to fly back to Emporia to watch my girls on a three minute dance in a dance recital, then fly back. But I just decided because of where I was in my life and with what the, with the, with the, what the money was going to be, I just needed to, to, to, to. To change directions in 2019. And Kenny, since I've done that, it took me about one race to realize that Fox could have a TV show without me and NASCAR was going to drop a green flag without me. Once I got over that, I hadn't looked back.

[Kenny]

Hey, this is Dalen Hart Jr. And for the latest Herman Schrader gear, you need to go to shop.dirtymomedia.com We've got plenty of options for everybody and we're adding new stuff all the time. So go to shop.dirtymomedia.com At Ameca Insurance.

[D]

We know it's more than just a house. It's your home. The place that, that's filled with memories. The early days of figuring it out to the later years of still figuring.

[Hermie Sadler]

It out.

[D]

For the place you've put down roots. Trust Amica. Home insurance. Amica Empathy is our best policy.

[Matthew Murdoch]

Daredevil is born again on Disney plus. My name is Matthew Murdoch.

[Hermie Sadler]

I'm a lawyer. Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?

[Matthew Murdoch]

A really good one. Critics everywhere agree it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense, and elevated, it's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Marvel Television's Daredevil, born again now streaming only on Disney Plus.

[Kenny]

So 1984, Jake Elder was the crew chief and I was the car chief. And I had not started racing until 1986. But in 1984, I leave St. Louis, I go to Charlotte. I'm a car chief. Jake Elder looked at me and he says, boy, and that southern accent, he says, they gonna start this race with us or without us.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

And at an early age, I realized that the show goes on.

[Hermie Sadler]

Sure does.

[Kenny]

Hey, boy. I'll tell you what, in another cliche, you can get in a helicopter or an airplane, you look down and everybody looks like ants. So, you know, to stay humble as soon you know, you gotta have confidence. But you, you can't. You cannot think that you're going to control a whole network. Especially now, nowadays, these networks are firing, firing the top people, like left and right.

[Hermie Sadler]

And I'm telling you, I, I, I'm lucky in that I have some people that I know that you know, too, that you're friends with that are still doing TV today, making 25% of what they were making 15 years ago, but not that they have to, but they. I have plenty to fall back on, I guess, is what I'm saying. I had a, you know, a business and things going on here that, that I could easily fall back on, that I needed to be here for and all that. So I didn't, I didn't labor over it a whole lot. I was fortunate, I said lucky, to do what I had done. I'm healthy, I'm out. And I've been perfectly, perfectly content and really have never been happier because all of my. Cora is now married. I now have my first granddaughter, about 15 months old. And of course, we have Haley. She'll be with us forever, which I love. But my, my family is here. My kids are here. Everybody's here. I see them every day. Cora now works here in the office for me. She does our payroll for the company. So I see her and my grandbaby every day. And I look back now and I don't regret it, but I don't know how I did it, to be honest.

[Kenny]

So I want to tie these two together. You're the owner of Fosho Bar and Grill, and I like that faux show.

[Hermie Sadler]

Let me tell you how that name happened for show. Some of your people. You may not recognize this name, but if there are people. I went to school at unc.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

So known for its basketball program, but there was a guy that played basketball at UNC that later played on some of the championship teams for the Chicago Bulls. And it wasn't Michael Jordan, but it was a guy named Scott Williams. He played center for unc and he played on, like, three national championship teams for the Bulls. Scott was a friend of mine. He lived out in Scottsdale, Arizona. So one of the weekends that I was in Phoenix, I was racing the Bush race or the Xfinity race and doing TV that weekend. But I got done with the bush race on Saturday. And I was driving from the racetrack after the race. I was going to meet Scott Williams and Charles Barkley in Scottsdale to play golf. And in the process of this, my wife and I had built this restaurant, and we were trying to think of a name for the restaurant. So every time I pulled up something that had Hermes Sadler in it. Somebody had already bought the rights to my name ahead of time and wanted me to have to pay them to release my name back to me. And I said, well, look, I'm not doing that. My name was attached to a porn site. John Force hermansaddle.com Get ready because here we go going at it. So I wasn't gonna pay. Ultimately, I ended up getting my name back. And but at this time I was hard headed. I'm like, I'm not paying somebody 25 grand to give me my name back. Just go to hermesabad.com and enjoy yourself. But so I was trying to figure out what to name the restaurant. So anyway, I text Scott Williams as I was leaving the racetrack and I said, I'm running about 20 minutes late, but I'm on the way. And he text back to me, Fosho F O S H O. Which is for sure or right on or whatever the case may be. So I called my attorney right then, driving through the tunnel at Phoenix, and I said, can you check and see if the, if the term faucho has been registered in any restaurant service, you know, anything? He said, no. I said, trademark it right now. So he put the paperwork into trademark the name Fosho. So it's Hermes Sadler's Faux Show Bar and Grill. And if nothing else, it's been a tremendous communication piece over the years because people like, why did you name it that? I'm like, because my name was a porn site.

[Kenny]

Yeah. So one thing I like about Fosho Bar and Grill restaurant is, you know, I'm sure you serve great food and you have great people, but I see good videos you give your dishwasher. Love, Haley Drew, your daughter has autism. Hermit. Keep. Keep the videos up. I love them. When you do make videos, you're up in the morning, you're going and doing. I want to talk about your daughter Haley that has autism. She is a lover. She's your sidekick. You and I, obviously I do my very best, you know, to pay it forward to autism. Just talk about Haley for a little bit in autism.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah. You know, and this really ties back into my racing too. You know, I got married in 1996. Cora, my first daughter, was born in 1997. Haley was born in November of 1998. And I was in the middle of racing and all that. And then. And I told this story the other night. There's a wonderful new autism service group in neighboring south hill, about 35 miles. It's called the Bailey Center. And I Hosted an emceed a gala a couple weeks ago, and I donated them $10,000 and this and that and the other and all that. But somebody asked me as I was speaking about Haley, I said, when did you know? So Haley, when she was born. You know, you never really want to compare kids, but in a way, you compare kids, you know, you want to.

[Kenny]

Make sure things are going on.

[Hermie Sadler]

They walked at this date. This one spoke at this date. And Cora, you know, was very bright, smart. Still is. Haley was tracking along pretty close to where Cora was, and then all of a sudden, she regressed. And so Christmas morning, when Haley was 2 years old, you know, we're all, as dads, we're proud to provide a wonderful Santa Claus for our kids. So when, you know, Haley's 2 years old, Cora comes in. Santa Claus has been and his stuff, from one end of the house to the other, toys. Santa Coral's going nuts. She's throwing paper everywhere, celebrating. Haley walks by out of her bedroom, looks at us, no emotion. Kept walking. Walked upstairs to the. Used to have. I used to have a gym, weight room in my house above my garage. She goes upstairs to the bonus frame, sits in the corner, facing the corner, and was just doing this rocking.

[Kenny]

Oh, you knew it right there, you.

[Hermie Sadler]

Know, and just all that commotion in the. In the. In the den. And so that started the. The wheels turning for Angie and I that we knew something was wrong. So it took us a while to get a diagnosis, you know, and back in 1999 and 2000, the statistics said one in every 500 kids are diagnosed with autism. Now it's one in every 34. So that's how much has changed, you know, in the last 23 years. But we went to got, you know, get a diagnosis. I went through the emotions that you would normally associate with something like that happening to you. It goes from anger to sadness to frustration to all these things. But after we got past all that, we. We went immediately to work. What do we need to do for Haley to give her the best chance to be. To be happy, healthy, and successful. And so I was still trying to work and race. My wife was driving Haley to Richmond from Emporia, 75 miles each way every day, to the Face On School for Autism, where she was getting ABA therapies and treatments and all that. And ultimately she transitioned back to the public school system here. But since that day, and still to this day, my wife is a wonderful outlet to parents and families of kids when they get diagnosed with autism, because my wife knows the law she knows what the schools are supposed to provide or what they're obligated to provide. She knows how to do IEPs, which are individualized educational programs for special needs kids. So everybody around here, when they're getting ready to go to. To visit a school or principal or school board or whatever, they call my wife, you know, because Angie knows it all. And we had the ability. I had to hire an attorney to force the school systems to provide the appropriate resources for my daughter. And I didn't do it for my daughter. I did it so they would have to provide those services for all the special needs kids in the school system here in Greensville county, in the city of Emporia. And I say we, but mostly my wife. I put the money in, don't get me wrong, but my wife and the attorneys paved the way for every autistic little boy and little girl since 2000. And really, 2001 are getting much better services and resources now than they were then because of what we went through with Haley.

[Kenny]

There is a beautiful movie out. I just went and saw it a couple nights ago. Unbreakable Boy. You know, his bones would break very easily, but he was all, you know, he had autism at the same time, and this. He was able to make bullies feel better about themselves. You know, I'm just saying that you and your wife are wonderful people. And, you know, one thing that turned out really good when you and I worked for Fox is Artie Kempner, one of the most famous, you know, directors.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

In tv. His boy was, you know, Ethan.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Yeah. And you and I, every year, go.

[Hermie Sadler]

Play golf, support his tournament. And Artie and I had and still have a special bond, even though I haven't done TV since 2019. We share that bond, and Artie and I. One thing we do agree upon now that I was going to kind of finish the chapter talking about Haley, you know, for all those years that I kept saying, why is this happening to Haley and why is this happening to us? It took me a few years, but now Haley is such a bright light for us. She loves everybody unconditionally. See, she doesn't see color or race or religion or politics. She loves hugs on everybody. And I tell people, you know, she's got special people. And I. We still to this day don't know why. She does certain things, like she gets attached to certain, you know, employees that we have at for the Beef O show or the oil company or restaurants or whatever. And, you know, she. She gets attached to that person, has to talk to him every day and all that. But I look at it now, Kenny. She walks into mine and Angie's room every morning about 6:15 with a smile on her face and says, what are we going to do today? You know? And I'm like, she ready to go? Damn it. If, if she can be happy every morning with the challenges that she's having. You know, even though I've got dishwashers broke and fuel pumps down and people calling out of work and all that, hell, I can get out of the morning, get out of the bed in the morning and be happy to and tackle my day. And she's really. I can sit here and tell you now, all these years later, she has taught me and my wife way more about life than we ever taught her. And she's a blessing to all of us.

[Kenny]

That is fantastic. Okay, I'm looking at my notes and I'm thinking to myself, okay, you own a bar and grill. Now I want to be clear. I'm not an idiot and I know the answer to this.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

But I want everybody to hear it. So you, you have Sadler Brothers Oil Company. You're the owner of Faux Show Bar and Grill restaurant with Victory. Is Victory Lane Restaurant. Is it separate?

[Hermie Sadler]

Victory Lane restaurant is a separate restaurant entity. It's a 24 hour restaurant attached to Sadler Travel Plaza. One of our truck stops here in Emporia. My wife and I own in. I say we, but my wife operates the restaurant side of our stuff. So she operates Victory Lane which is attached to a truck stop. And you do a lot of traveling with your dirt car. That's one of the things that we've never wanted to mess with. That, that Victory Lane restaurant serves country cooking. So by that I mean we do the fried chicken and when we cook butter beans, we cook bacon and fat back in it and the string beans and the cornbread and all that, you know, we've other comfort food is what.

[Kenny]

They call that hermit some of these.

[Hermie Sadler]

Truck stops, you know, and they change and put like a little, you know, health menu. Yeah, we don't do that at that particular. My dad has always said do what you want to, but serve good old fashioned country food. Country, you know, we banana pudding, you know, fresh. They got a bunch of old ladies back there, they cook it fresh every day. So my wife runs that, she runs Faux show which is open every day 11am to 9pm she runs the UPS store. She owns and operates the UPS store. And then out at Exit 4 and Skippers, we have a convenience store outside of our slipping food Mart umbrella, it's called Hermes, Sadler Slippy. And it's a, it's a convenience store and a IHOP Express ad and Skippers, she runs that too. So Saddle Brothers oil company and Slipping food marts. We have about 300 employees. And then we call all the, the umbrella over all the restaurants and stuff. It's called CHN, which is Cora, Haley and Naomi LLC. And so CHN has about 100 employees. So total, all in employees that Angie and I look after is about 400.

[Kenny]

Okay, so this is something that anybody would want to know, including me. Let me talk for a minute here before you answer me. Okay. You were working at Fox Sports. Appeared to me like that was your only job. Now you're telling me that you have 400 employees, you and your wife, your sister. I don't know where Elliot. Hold on. I don't know where Elliot fits in and all this. Your Brother, you have 400 employees, you have all this going on. So my question is this. Did this success just come in the last three years and it with 400 employees, why were you doing TV?

[Hermie Sadler]

Well, so my wife and I started, as I told you earlier, we started to build while I was out racing and doing tv. I was not affiliated with Salibola's oil company. My dad was involved in that and he had a management group around him. So I, I built convenience stores and leased them back to the oil company. And then my, I bought back when Dale Jarrett was a teammate to Elliot. And he had UPS on the car. Yeah, Elliot got a UPS franchise and then, you know, didn't really want to run it anymore. So I bought that from him for my wife. And then I built a strip center on a corner of some property where Fosho is now initially was a Starbucks. We built a strip center with a Starbucks on the end. This was probably 2006, seven right in there. While I was doing all this other stuff, we built a strip center, built a Starbucks on the end with a drive through, did a 15 year lease with Starbucks. 15 months into a 15 year lease, Starbucks comes in and says, we're closing a thousand locations and we're doing it by the last thousand that we opened up. So I had to negotiate a lease buyout with Starbucks. So that's when we decided to put Fosho into that building right there.

[Kenny]

I'll be darned.

[Hermie Sadler]

So now we've got Starbucks, Fosho, which used to be Starbucks. And then we got UPS store. And then on the other end we've got a five guys burgers and Fries on the other end of the building in Emporia and a five guys burgers and fries in South Hill.

[Kenny]

So man, you're not afraid. I like how you.

[Hermie Sadler]

I guess to answer your question, to not be. To not be confusing. What changed since I. Since 2019 was once I knew I was going to be here.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

All day, every day. My sister and I went in and. And. And. And bought salad but his oil company from my dad.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

So the. The. The day to day operation of that really although I was involved in it before 2019. I really. From an ownership standpoint and being responsible to making sure there's enough money to bank to make the payroll started in 2019.

[D]

At Ameca Insurance, we know it's more than just a house. It's your home. The place that's filled with memories. The early days. Days of figuring it out to the later years of still figuring it out for the place you've put down roots. Trust Amica Home insurance. Amica empathy is our best policy.

[Matthew Murdoch]

Daredevil is born again on Disney plus. My name is Matthew Murdoch.

[Hermie Sadler]

I'm a lawyer. Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?

[Kenny]

Really? Good one.

[Matthew Murdoch]

Critics everywhere agree it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense and elevated. It's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born again now streaming only on Disney plus.

[Kenny]

Okay, so hang with me for a minute. Okay. We assume most people listening are racers. I want to get to your political office run. I want to get to this wrestling. I want to get to, you know, NASCAR sending you alumni hard card. And I want to get your thoughts on NASCAR today. But Hermie, we got it. We got to go back. Okay? We have to right now. We skipped. Okay? You and I started. You know, you are a NASCAR race car driver. I'm gonna say this, and then I just want you and I did this to Elliot, your brother. Okay. You ran 347 NASCAR races. That's a lot. 66 cup races in the highest form. You know, you and I kind of grew up in it. So it's like, oh, it's just a cup series. Yeah, but anybody in the world is like, you ran 66 NASCAR cup races. That's the highest form of motorsports in America. You ran 266 Xfinity races. You ran 15 truck races. And early when I raced you, you were fast. Yeah, I mean, you know, you were a hell of a competitor.

[Hermie Sadler]

Had a good team.

[Kenny]

When I say that, when I just rattle off your stats. And I know that was this other life, but go with me for a little bit. Yeah, for, for a minute, please. Forget about your life right now. Okay. You became popular because you were a NASCAR race car driver and you were on Fox Sports. Tell me about this, these, this 347 NASCAR races.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah, well, I grew up. My dad never raced, but he owned late model dirt cars, so he owned the car. And so we started going to the go kart, I mean, to the racetrack at a very early age. Bunch of dirt tracks around here. And so we grew up around it. My brother and I both. I started racing go karts in the mid-80s. 83, 84, 85. I won the World Carting association championship in 1988. I immediately wanted to start running late model stock cars after that. And we've got some competitive tracks around this area that, you know, South Boston Speedway, Orange County Speedway. And I. You know, those racetracks back in those days, I mean, we had Stacy Compton, Wayne Patterson, Barry Begley, Maurice Hill, Roy Hendrick, I mean, you name it. And, and how I knew those guys were good. They were good every Saturday night. But when you go to the big races at Martinsville, Curtis Markham, I'll throw him in there.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

When we went to the Martinsville's and the Volusias for the big races, all the guys I raced against every weekend were up front everywhere. Yeah, the first late model stock car race I ran, rented a car from Emmanuel and Butcher Vacus at stock car.

[Kenny]

Man, what a name. Emmanuel Zarakis.

[Hermie Sadler]

Emanuel Zavacas. He had a. A very. Almost like a petty blue color. Oh, one, you know, because he had a white O1 back before those days when Jeff Bowdine used to drive for him. But I rented a car from Butch Savacas and Emanuel and started racing at South Boston and then started going to Orange county and other places and doing all that. And then really got my break in 1992. I finished. I think I won five races at South Boston, finished second in points. But Don Beverly happened to be at the race just watching and we ran. You'll know what this is, but I'll explain to the fans. We had twin one hundreds that night at South Boston. So we qualified. We ran 100 laps. I won the first race. They inverted the top eight for the second 100 lap, and I was fortunate enough to win the second one as well in that one night. Best night I had ever, you know, I mean, that was hard to win. And so Don Beverly happened to be at the, at the race that night. And walked across the track and we started talking. And this was 1992, about the Midway point of the year. And he said, would you have any interest in driving for me in the Busch Grand National Series? And of course I said yes. So we started talking. It didn't all happen that night, but we started talking. And then on top of all that, I made a deal with Tommy Ellis. So the first Busch grand national race I ran was in like the fall of 92. I went to Orange county with Tommy Ellis and you're talking about a piece of work. You know, Tommy and I, I went to Tommy's house, we worked on the car all week and we laughed and joked and rode all the way to Orange County. But once we got to the racetrack, he turned into Tommy Ellis and he didn't speak to me no more. He was, you know, Tommy, very, very competitive. But I ran a couple races with him and ultimately, of course, we ended up making a deal with, with Don Beverly. We went and got sponsorship from the Virginia Tourism Corporation. We had Virginia's for Lovers on the car.

[Kenny]

You sure did.

[Hermie Sadler]

And I did that for 93 and 94 and kind of got my career started that way.

[Kenny]

What's Tommy Ellis? Is his health okay or he's doing better now?

[Hermie Sadler]

I haven't. I still talk to Bobby King, who was my crew chief, great crew chief, you know, back not only with Don Beverly, but the first couple years that I kind of went on my own. When Dewalt reached out to me, Bobby came with me. But Bobby and Tommy are still very, very close. They work together, they restore old cars, even do some light carpentry work together, you know, replacing roofs on houses and, and all that. And you know, Tommy at one time owned a bunch of, I say about several car washes and think things around Richmond, but him and Bobby are still very close, best of friends and, and, and still work together. Like I said, I talked to Bobby. Bobby's had some open heart surgery maybe about a month ago. And so I talked to him more during that period of time just, just to check on him. But I don't see Tommy that much and I don't see Don anymore. Unfortunately, as happens in racing, you know, Don back in those days was also a drag racer. And we went together and got this sponsorship money and then we got off to a good start in 94. I got rookie of the year in 93. We finished like fourth or fifth in points in 94, but about halfway of the season you could, you, you would know. You could see it too. I Started to see the, the funding going away. We weren't spending money and we didn't have the tires we needed. And we, you know, we could just see it. And ultimately Dover in the fall of 94, I remember I finished second or third and I got on TV and just on a whim decided I was going to say I'm leaving Don Beverly racing at the end of this year. Damn. Because you know, we were starting to. You could just see it. I mean, engine bill wasn't getting paid, you know, horns and E was coming to me like, can you help pay the motorbill? I'm like, no, I'm just a driver. All that. But. So I did my TV interview at Dover that day, the second race in Dover. 94. I said I'm leaving. Don't know what I'm doing. First time I said it. By the time I got home that night, you know, we didn't have cell phones back in those days. You had the old fashioned answering machine on your home. And somehow another Hugh Miskell who at that time worked for Black and Decker and dewalt, he had found my home number and left a message for me on my home answering machine that night and said, hey, I'm Hugh Miskell, you know. And Hugh after that end up leaving Black and Decker. He worked for Home depot when they were with Gibbs and Tony Stewart for all those great years they had together. But Hugh called me representing Black and Decker and said, I saw your TV interview. Can you come see me at Black and Decker in Baltimore sometime this week? So I drove to Baltimore like a Tuesday and Wednesday of that week and sat down with you. And within an hour we put together a sponsorship deal that ultimately started my own team. And Bobby, a lot of those guys came with me. So we were racing there and I did that for a couple years until I ultimately merged in with Diamond Ridge Motorsports to be a teammate with my brother.

[Kenny]

Man, that is awesome. I'm just thinking to myself how many local racers around me, you know, we all and moan about money. But I tell them, I said, listen, don't take this as I'm talking down to you. It's the same thing, just on a different level. It's like going to a casino. Do you want to gamble a dollar a hand or do you want to go in the big boy room and gamble a hundred dollars a hand?

[Hermie Sadler]

You'll get it on or you want to drag it out, right?

[Kenny]

Yeah, it's, you know, if you're in the cup series, you, you're always looking for millions of Dollars, you know, if you're in the Xfinity series, you're still looking for millions of do. It's. It's this way in life in local racing. That's a wonderful story, Hermie. Reminds me of myself. Okay, so, you know, here we are already at it in almost an hour, which is awesome because we could make this a three part series. My, like I said, you were always fast. I just want to say something. It is amazing to me how you've just turned the switch and you got this new life. I want to compliment you on that. I want people to see this, I want people to understand it that you don't define your racing. Didn't define you. Here you are doing everything you're doing. But I gotta say this as we leave racing and we'll get into other things in your life. My most memorable race moment with you was when Miami Homestead, they built this brand new racetrack.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yep.

[Kenny]

And oh my God, was I fast. And I led this whole race and I decided not to pit for tires. And here you came on my ass. And behind you was Larry Pearson who.

[Hermie Sadler]

By the way had sat at half the race. He got sick and got out of the car and that last caution came back down, got back in the car and they put four tires on him when like 10 laps to go or something.

[Kenny]

Yeah, he was fresh.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

And I didn't want to pit because my pit crew was not good at pitting. And you were fast, you were all over me. So you get underneath of me and. But I'm going to race you through the corner. But Larry knocked the hell out of you. Knocked you into me. And by the way, we're coming to the checkered flag.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Or the white flag. Whatever.

[Hermie Sadler]

We're coming to the white.

[Kenny]

Yeah, we're coming to the white. And it was the most catastrophic wreck and Dale Jarrett was running fourth and he just won the race.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah, I remember we.

[Kenny]

I, I cried. I literally and I mean I cried on the little airplane I got on. It was one of the most devastating moments in my racing career. What a.

[Hermie Sadler]

It was unbelievable. Looking back now, to win the inaugural of anything, you can't put a price tag on that. And I had had limited opportunities. That's the first race that I had brought in John Monson, who I know you know.

[Kenny]

Oh, good crew chief.

[Hermie Sadler]

He came in to help me this the last two races of the year. That was the first time I'd ever run Olin shocks. I remember the.

[Kenny]

Oh yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

And I remember us sitting. I had qualified seventh for that race. And I remember we had a really good happy hour and, and all that. And I remember sitting there in the bed looking up, you know, John and I and Chris Rice, we were all in the same room and you know, we were talking about, you know, what if this, what if that. And we concerned that maybe the track might come apart, whatever. But I look back you now and I'm, you know, and I'm disappointed for me. I was disappointed for you and I was really disappointed. Not that it matters at all and I should have been tougher and not expected it, but Larry was just non apologetic about any of it. You know, it's like he had four brand new tires. You and I did not have tires. He was going to probably win the race anyway. I mean probably. But he prevented any of us from having an opportunity. And then I had a concussion that day and got my bail rung and threw up and I was sick.

[Kenny]

We hit, we hit hard.

[Hermie Sadler]

A ton hard. Yeah, yeah.

[Kenny]

It destroyed my race car.

[Hermie Sadler]

When I got myself together to finally go talk to Larry, it was like your fault. He was my fault. You know, he hit you in the. Hit me. So, you know, it's just one of those things. But racing taught me a lot of, you know, a lot of life lessons and that, that is one. I had that race that, you know, you never know. And then in 94 at New Hampshire, driving the 25, I led the whole race and about a half a straightaway ahead and I ran out of gas with about two laps to go. Come to find out, we figure out later on that we had plenty gas but the pickup broke. Yeah, Derek coping up winning that race. But there's moments, you know, and that's one thing that I, you know, that I wasn't, I'm not saying I wasn't good at, but I wasn't able to, to close the ones that were there. You know, you get limited opportunities to, you know, you have to execute and close the deal. And you know, I just wasn't able to. And I had, you know, like we all do, I had, you know, a handful that could have, should have, would all that. But you know, I'm man enough to say now, you know, I really made some decisions that I look back on now and, and you just wonder for giving example, at halfway through my rookie season, 93.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

Bud Moore called me and I went to Spartanburg and met with him.

[Kenny]

Oh my gosh. Cup, Cup Series.

[Hermie Sadler]

Driving in the Cup Series. And of course I just said Bud Moore, this is wonderful. But I, I've only run 15 Bush Grand national races, I would not be the guy. And then I realized after that, pretty much, you know, that the, the team that I'm racing for has got financial.

[Kenny]

Issues, timing and circumstances.

[Hermie Sadler]

And then I look, look ahead at the end of, at the end of the 96 season, you know, Gary Bechtel with Diamond Ridge Motorsports, my brother is racing and he's had a wonderful rookie year. And I can tell he's on his way where they called and say, hermie, come drive to be a teammate with Diamond Ridge motorsports and bring DeWalt with you and we're going to do all these wonderful things and, and that. And, and Elliot and I have talked about this. It had nothing to do with Elliot, but Elliot had a great crew chief named Sandy Jones, and they won races. Won. Won a lot of races.

[Kenny]

He ended up going to work for Ray Evernham.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah, Sandy Jones did not want a teammate, you know, so, yeah, it made that situation and it was a strain on me and Elliot for a while because we weren't, you know, they were getting this and we weren't getting this, and they were getting that being our automotive, you know, built the engines for them back in the day. It just, it never worked, you know. And I tell people this story now because Gary Bechtel, you know, his family's billionaires, the Bechtel Group, you know, they. Bechtel. Oh, yeah, he came to me. First thing he said was, don't worry about your sponsor. I got plenty of money. We're going to race as long as we want to. Don't worry about it.

[Kenny]

That's awesome.

[Hermie Sadler]

But. But after two years, you know, when we start struggling, not running very good and, you know, DeWalt is unsure about what they're doing, Gary says, you know, we're spending a lot of money not to get the results we want.

[Kenny]

And I'm like, here we go.

[Hermie Sadler]

What happened to the don't worry about anything. I got billions of dollars. We'll do whatever we want. And so I look back at some of those things now and I wish I had chosen a different path, a different way. But, you know, my optimism always thought, I can fix anything. I can make anything work. Then I went and drove for, you know, that Rick Goodwin, that crazy Toys R Us Team Bristol guy that Kevin Grubb was driving for. And I ended up having to pay all the bills for that. And he's think he's in jail somewhere now. And then I go to all these other things and I can some gangsters back. I can make it Work. I tell my wife, I said, if I could just collect 50% of the money that's owed to me, not even by. By word of mouth, by contract, yeah, I could. I really could retire.

[Kenny]

And same with me.

[Hermie Sadler]

But I learned. I learned a lot of lessons. And I, you know, the biggest setback, you know, like 2000, 2001. I had car dealerships back in those days, too, and I provided a car to the Rock. Dwayne the Rock Johnson, he drove a car for me in exchange for doing TV commercials. Well, he comes to Homestead to watch me race, like in 99. And then all of a sudden, we cook up this idea that we're going to start a race team together. And so we work with wwe. And the Rock is, at that time was climbing. He was going to be a superstar in wrestling, but he certainly was not the movie star that he has later become. But we go through, sign all these papers, and I bought a building and some cars from Joe Bessie. He had that power team car. I did all that. Well, all of a sudden, one day, out of the blue, I get a call from an attorney representing wwe, and they tell me, dwayne Johnson is not going to participate in this team with you. Do not talk to him anymore. And you, you're holding the bag. And I'm like, what about these documents? They said, come after us if you want to. But that was Vince McMahon and WWE. Yeah, I didn't have millions of dollars to pay his lawyers to shuffle paper. And, you know, so I had to go and I had about $800,000 worth of investments that I had made. And, God, my God, it's just all these things. Yeah, I know. I mean, but when you want to race that bad, you know how it is, you know, you like, I can make it work. I can fix it. I can do it. You know, but my racing career, because of some of these turns that I made, and I was trying to do too much, you know, when I had my cup team, and, I mean, I was booking the flights and I was booking the hotels, and I was working on the sponsors, and I was picking up race cars and picking up motors and trying to. I mean, it just. I look. And then, you know, I made that deal. You know, when Michael Waltrip came in with the Toyota deal, he struggled out of the box, and they were missing races. And so I had gone to Robert Yates. The one thing that I. When I knew my racing career was going to be dying down, the one thing that I had never done was race in the Daytona 500 I went down, like, in the fall of 2005, and I met Robert Yates at the waffle house at exit 36. And I said, robert, before I give up, I want to race the Daytona 500, and I can't do it without you. And so he made a deal with me. He said, here's what I'm going to do. Because Elliot and Dale Jarrett were teammates at the time in that period with Yates. They wanted to go to talladega and test. But you know how drivers are. They don't want to go to Talladega and test no more.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

So Robert says, if you go test the 88 and the 38 at Talladega for two days and let them gather the information they need, I will give you a car and lease you an engine for Daytona.

[Kenny]

Oh, boy.

[Hermie Sadler]

So basically what I did, they took three cars to talladega, and I stayed in there for three days testing. And that's a meticulous test on a speedway. As you know. I didn't have the. The dial tack. I had a digital tack that I had to watch all the way around the racetrack. How much, here's what it's doing. How much wheel input. I'm, you know, so Gary beveridge was the aero guy. So basically what happened when we got done with that test, the 88 had a car, the 38 had a car. And the third car was going to be mine and Talladega that fall. Dale's on the pole, Elliott second, First and second. And then when I went to Daytona the next year, I qualified, like, 24th on speed, which locked me into the Daytona 500, which I would never have been able to do had I not done that. And we were running top 20. And blew. Blew an engine with about 10 laps to go. And so you look at the stats, and Hermy finished 40th, you know, but it was.

[Kenny]

But it was better than that.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah, you know, but. But what. What I was getting at is, you know, Michael came to me with Aaron's. You know, Aaron's was not only sponsoring Michael, but they were a huge sponsor of TV and talladega. And Michael comes to me and he says, dude, we're having a hard time qualifying for races. So here's what I want you to do. Will you put errands on the car, and if you qualify, we'll pay you x amount of dollars. So I was going to some of these races, Kenny, as you know, the exposure to go and to lease an engine and to buy tires. 40, 50 grand. Even if I had everything Else it was gonna at least cost me 50 grand out of pocket to go, so I would go qualify for these races. I remember being on the grid at Atlanta trying to qualify, and it was 60 cars for 43 spots, always, you know, and. And, you know, so if I don't make the race, I pay all these bills on my own and come home. And if I make the race, I get the money from errands and the purse money. You talk about pressure. And I look back at now. I look back now, and I'm like, herman, you're an idiot because you put your family and your finances and everything on the dashboard on the line.

[Kenny]

You were young.

[Hermie Sadler]

I won't. Scared of nothing, but now I'm scared of that. I wouldn't. I'm not scared of racing necessarily, but I'm scared of the financial harm that I would do.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

To my wife and my kids and my. You know, so I could never. I look back now, and I just didn't care. I wasn't scared. I did it. And I look, you know, because that Daytona 500, I ended up making the race, getting money from errands. It worked out fine. But if I had not made the race, I probably would have spent 300 to $350,000 and got nothing in return. And that was very irresponsible on my part at that time.

[Matthew Murdoch]

Daredevil is born again on Disney plus. My name is Matthew Murdock.

[Hermie Sadler]

I'm a lawy. Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?

[Matthew Murdoch]

A really good one. Critics everywhere agree it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense, and elevated, it's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Marvel Television's Daredevil, born again, now streaming only on Disney.

[Hermie Sadler]

Still getting around to that fix on your car.

[Kenny]

You got this on ebay. You'll find millions of parts guaranteed to fit. Doesn't matter if it's a major engine repair or your first time swapping your windshield wipers.

[Hermie Sadler]

Ebay has that part you need ready.

[Kenny]

To click perfectly into place for changes.

[Hermie Sadler]

Big and small, loud or quiet.

[Kenny]

Find all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. But you already know that.

[Hermie Sadler]

EBay.

[Kenny]

Things people love.

[Hermie Sadler]

Eligible items only. Exclusion supply.

[Kenny]

You are incredibly nervy. Yeah, I. The whole time I've been your friend for 30, 40 years, whatever it's been now, I never realized the nerve that you had. I don't have the nerve you have. I mean, I don't have it anymore.

[Hermie Sadler]

Look.

[Kenny]

Wow.

[Hermie Sadler]

I'm not trying to come across as a tough guy. I don't have it anymore. I'm, you know, I'm still in racing. I've talked to you a couple times. Me and my buddy Bill Stanley have got an open wheel modified that we race on in the wheel modified tour and we won the smart modified tour championship Last year with 17 year old Luke Baldwin. The son of Tommy Baldwin drove, drove us to a championship and Bobby Lobani has won four or five races for us. Ryan Newman drove some races for me. We won the first race back when they reopened North Wilkesboro Speedway. So that is my enjoyment now. And I took this line from, I mentioned earlier, John Boy and Billy, you know, because we, John Boy and Billy have had a 35 or 40 year career in radio. And John Boy taught me one day he said, I know the best decision I ever made is one day I decided I'm only going to sign the back of checks, not the front. Once I adopted that theory from John Boy, you know. So we have a sponsor with Pacematic. They pay me to run these modifieds and everything I do now I sign the back of the check when it comes to racing now on the payroll side and the business side, I have to sign the front.

[Kenny]

Yeah, that's when it costs the racing.

[Hermie Sadler]

Now I only signed it back.

[Kenny]

I want to. I got a little bit of an ego. We all do. I want to thank you for offering me a ride in that modified and.

[Hermie Sadler]

The offer is still open.

[Kenny]

Well, that's, that's nice of you. And I just feel like I, you know, I ran a mod up in Kinross, Michigan, but not with the big tires and, but I'm too old now and I want to stay my lane.

[Hermie Sadler]

Well, you're also still very competitive.

[Kenny]

Yes, I win still and I'm proud of that.

[Hermie Sadler]

And I, and I understand where you're coming from, why you wouldn't want to just go hopping and go. But I will say that, you know, Bobby Labani is about your age and he wins in my cars and ryan Newman is one in my cars and we took a 17 year old and won three races last year and won the championship. So if you ever decide you want to make a weekend out of it and come practice on a Friday and race on a Saturday, the door is always open.

[Kenny]

As you know, Hermie, I went to South Boston two years ago and ran that cars tour series and I mean I drove my ever living ass off and I was underneath people trying to get underneath them and finished 20th.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

And Dale Jr. Calls me after. He goes, well, what'd you think? And I said, I couldn't drive any harder. He laughed. He goes, every one of those kids.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

When them races are over, their tongues are hung out, you know, just like we're way.

[Hermie Sadler]

We were the last. The last real, like Xfinity races. I did. Yeah. I didn't have the best of cars, but I had a 25 year relationship with the Virginia Lottery, a personal service contract. They would put me in a couple races and I would run one or two races a year after being off three years. So I rent me a 25th place car after being out of a seat for three years and show up at Bristol and look, dude, I'm doing all I can do and they're passing me on both sides, you know, so I just, you know, same thing is like, they're young and they don't. They don't know the. You know, these walls still hurt, even though they're safer, so to speak. But I learned. I said I'm. I have no business out here doing this. But I go back to say, you know, I'm. I used to be too proud to say it, but I'm not anymore. You know, I did it because I made money. You know, I can tell you that I'd be willing to bet you now you. I don't know if Dale Jr. Was in that race or not. Take him out because he's another beast. But I'd be willing to bet you the last Xfinity race I ran at, I'm gonna say Richmond. Yeah, I probably finished 25th. Okay. Yeah. But I'd be willing to bet you that I made more money than anybody else driving an Xfinity car that night.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

And you know, that's not the reason to do things, but that was the reason I did things.

[Kenny]

You know, you were racing for a living. There's nothing wrong with that. That's called racing for a living. Cal Petty tells me stories about Petty Enterprise.

[Hermie Sadler]

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Kenny, I got.

[Kenny]

Oh, yeah, we stop everything from cor in river. Oh, let me see. Oh, hi, River. Cora. Hi, honey. Yeah, you take. I've seen pictures of you on social media. Hi, honey. Thank you, baby. Hi. Oh, she said hi to me. I love you.

[Hermie Sadler]

Hey, wait a minute. Are you all done? I'm done.

[Kenny]

Oh, she knows. And everybody, we are on dirty Mo media. This is also on the dirty I'll.

[Hermie Sadler]

Come get her after podcast.

[Kenny]

So we're looking at Elliot's daughter and grandbaby. That is awesome. Okay, well, Here we are. I always can tell when I'm having fun.

[Hermie Sadler]

We haven't even gotten through the year 2000 yet, Kenny. What the hell's wrong with us?

[Kenny]

Well, we're going to come to an end now. We got two subjects I want to go through real quick before we get to wrestling. I want to make a brief stop. You. You made a run for political office. You ran for the 17th district in the state Senate.

[Hermie Sadler]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Why did you do that?

[Hermie Sadler]

I'll start off by saying I hate politics.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

I've never had.

[Kenny]

We all do.

[Hermie Sadler]

Involved in politics.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

But when you look at the Commonwealth of Virginia, all of the people and the influence and the money is in Northern Virginia, around D.C. and Hampton Roads, which is the Virginia beach area.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

This little area that I live in, rural south side Virginia, We've never had a voice. We've never had anybody to advocate and speak.

[Kenny]

And was it going to be a new district, too?

[Hermie Sadler]

It was redrawn. So the area, I mean, was redrawn after a redistricting.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

And so it was going to be an open election. And so, you know, our schools are not good, our roads are not good. We've talked about. Haley. The resources for special needs in our area is not good. Our infrastructure, you know, you name it, We. No business development, no economic development, nothing. So when this seat became available, I went and visited at the beh, at the request of our governor to explore an op, you know, a potential run for Senate, which I did, and I ultimately decided to run. I spent a lot. For about two years, I put my life, my business, and my family on hold again. After I did all that, for all the years we just talked about to go out, because I really felt like we were in trouble as a. As a state, as a community, as a nation. I really felt like somebody's got to go over in Richmond and get all these people in a room together and talk about the issues and how can we fix them. And so my race got really close, and then they called me back. The same people that had asked me to. To run called me back over and went to have a conversation, and they're like, okay, so can we guarantee. Can you guarantee us you'll vote this way on this issue here? I said, no, here's what I can guarantee you. I said, you know, and I don't mean this to turn into a political conversation, but I said, I'm a conservative. I believe in conservative principles. Okay. So what you can count on me is, is that I'm always going to legislate and vote conservatively. But my number one concern is going to be what's in the best interest of the constituents that I have in Southside Virginia, not Northern Virginia, not Hampton Roads. You know, I'm here to be a voice for my area. So. No. And what they ultimately wanted was a yes man. They wanted somebody that they could just check a box with. And I found out pretty early on that a lot of these people are not really conservatives. They are. They play conservatives when they're in the General assembly or they play a conservative on tv, but they're not really conservative. And so once they realized that I was going to be a free thinker and I didn't want their money, I didn't want their. I didn't want any of that. I was gonna, you know, do what I thought was in the best interest of the people that I was representing. Then all that group that initially wanted me, they threw all of their support behind my opponent, who, by the way, was already in the House of Delegates. And I'll just say nicely say, because it doesn't matter anymore, but she was not as conservative as she wanted to play to be and all that. But ultimately I decided they started donating money to her, and the governor did commercials for her and all that, because she just was like, I'll. Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. I'll vote for this and that. And it just wasn't things that I believed in and that I didn't believe that conservatives believed in. And if you're going to be a politician just so you can sit in a nice chamber and go to cocktail parties, that's not what I was interested in. And ultimately, you know, I was not successful. But I look at it now, and I'm glad I was not successful because I could have not. Could not have operated in that type of environment with all the. I'm going to say a cuss word so you can get ready to hit the beeper, all the bull, I just. I just. I wasn't going to do that.

[Kenny]

Yeah. Wow. What. I mean, I kind of knew that, but what an amazing story.

[Hermie Sadler]

So I don't regret it because I learned a lot and A lot.

[Kenny]

You learned a lot.

[Hermie Sadler]

I opened up a lot of people's eyes to really what politics is all about.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

All about who's got the biggest check.

[Kenny]

They install people into those seats so they can count on your vote because there was. They were redrawn a district. They wanted that one to vote the way they wanted to.

[Hermie Sadler]

And these people vote on Both sides of the aisle, believe it or not. And I just, I got kind of, you know, got tired of all that before I even really got started.

[Kenny]

Thank you. That was incredible. All right, let's. Let's end on a good subject. I find this highly entertaining. As I, as I've known you and you have talked to me and you've shared, you know, some of your wrestling friends with me. All right, now you've done so much. I think the one thing that I am just in total, I've learned so much about you. You are not afraid of anything. And I think all your fans in the NASCAR racing world have learned that you are one hell of a businessman. So when I study you, here's what I see. You started with Total Non Stop Action Wrestling, United Wrestling Federation, Global Force Wrestling, Hermie. I mean, you promoted the hell out of wrestling. Tell me this passion for wrestling.

[Hermie Sadler]

Well, most of that was. I'll get to that era that you're talking about. It was mostly tied together because one of my best friends back in those days and still today, is professional wrestler Jeff Jarrett. Yeah, Jeff and his family, you know, you and I, for the 30 plus years we've been out, used to call it the NASCAR circus.

[Kenny]

Yes.

[Hermie Sadler]

We meet a lot of famous people and we get to go to a lot of neat places and go to the clubs and do all that. And while I'm, you know, I may want to call some of these famous people my friends, they're really, truly just acquaintances.

[Kenny]

Right.

[Hermie Sadler]

But Jeff Jarrett and I became close in the early 90s. We're close in age. We got married close to similar times. We both had three daughters, similar in age. Unfortunately. Jeff's first wife, Jill, passed away with breast cancer under the age of 40, which was a very difficult thing. But I've been friends with Jeff. So I go back, I told you in like 1996, WWE sponsored me a SummerSlam car. I ran Bristol with it with Ed Whitaker. We did all that. My friendships in WWE started because they were two referees. They were twin brothers, Dave and Earl Hebner, probably the two most famous professional wrestling referees ever. They live right over here in Richmond. Dave, unfortunately, is. He passed away, I'm gonna say, about a year and a half ago. Earl is still alive, still good friends. He comes to watch Naomi play ball, enrichment, all that started with friends with them. Then I ended up, as I said earlier, I was given a call to the Rock to do commercials for me and amazing. And then I made friends. You know, Stone Cold Steve Austin and I are friends. We still Chat. He used to come to the races at Texas Motor Speedway and hang out. And Shawn Michaels son used to run bandoleros at Texas Motor Speedway. Used to go help them do all that. But my closest friend friend is Jeff Jarrett. And so back in those days when Jeff was, he's with WCW and then wwe, he's in the hall of Fame, all that. Well, he decided that they wanted to start their own wrestling promotion and it was called Total Non Stop Action which that stood for the letters tna. Tna.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Hermie Sadler]

And so Jeff and I were friends and so I helped him make some, excuse me, helped him make some connections in the TV industry. Look at back now. They, they started off doing some of the shows on Thursday afternoons on some of the Fox Sports channels. And so Jacob Ullman was involved in some of that and I helped connect Jeff with Jacob and they did business together and all that. And then I was on the board of directors and then uwf, United Wrestling Federation, basically what that was TNA were starting and they were only doing TV shows. Well like WWE was doing TV shows and then they were also doing what we called house shows which were non televised events that they would go around, you know, three 500 seat capacity auditoriums and care of the brand, grow the brand in non TV markets, if that makes sense. So you're doing it promoting? Yeah, promoting. And you, you're, you're getting new fans 3, 500 at a time rather than 500,000 at a time on TV. So when TNA started they didn't have a, they didn't have the resources or the people to do non televised events. So I started UWF to, for Jeff Jarrett and then the co owner Dixie Carter. I did non televised events for them. So I bought a ring, did promotion, I had a, oh my gosh, transport trucks, trailers. And so these guys were working two days a week taping TV for TNA Wrestling and they were working for me two or three days a week doing non televised events. And I did that for them until TNA finally got to a point where they had infrastructure and money and equipment and talent in place to do their own live events. And so then Jeff Jarrett decided to start Global Force Wrestling. And so I was on the board of directors of that for him. And now today Jeff is in AEW still doing great. He's 57 years old, he's in the best shape of his life. He's wrestling three or four nights a week and he, oh my. Aew working on their overseas business. That's his quote unquote day job. He, he, he's a big part of the business of AEW during the week. But he's wrestling on tv, still doing it and doing great. But Jeff and I and our families are very, very close. We vacation together every summer at the beach and all those kind of things. So I'm not actively involved in wrestling anymore, you know, from a, from a business standpoint, but I still have a lot of friends. I look at, you know, A.J. styles and Samoa Joe and you know, all these people that are huge stars now in WWE that at, you know, at this point in time, they were working for me making 250 bucks a night.

[Kenny]

That is incredible.

[Hermie Sadler]

Wrestling in high school gyms in front of four and 500 people. And so, you know, and these guys and girls are still, they're good people too. In most cases. They, they still reach out, call me, talk to me. They understand. Much like in racing, I provided a ladder for them to climbed the ladder and reached their dreams and a lot of them had forgotten it, which is nice.

[Kenny]

I, I'm going to talk to Charlie Marlowe, who is my YouTube manager. Me and him are partners in crime.

[Hermie Sadler]

Somewhere on YouTube you can find some matches that I did. I did a couple of pay per view matches live for TNA, you know, in the, in the early 2000s. So if you look hard enough, I know I wrestled Ron Killings one time.

[Kenny]

Oh my gosh. I think my title for this Kenny conversation is the incredibly diverse Hermes Sadler. Yeah, so this is a good segment.

[Hermie Sadler]

You can say diverse or desperate. Look, my gosh, when you, when you, when you have a wife and three daughters, you're providing for them. You find a way. I mean, that's what I go to work, I find a way.

[Kenny]

Okay. And now we come down to the end, two things left. NASCAR is trying to make a wrong a right. We were in Dover and I talked to Mike Elton and Jim France. They're standing right there and they sent you and I hard cards. They're called. They started new alumni and Mike Helton said to me, kenny, we just really messed up. And we come up for air one day. And me and Jim said, we got to make this right. A handful of us have, have received an alumni hard card. Means we can go anywhere.

[Hermie Sadler]

Which back in the day when I bought those things when I was racing were 10 grand.

[Kenny]

Yeah, me too, $10,000. So I want to hear what you think because I saw you do a video with. You did a nice video like I did. But. Okay, so I just want to say this. When you got the alumni hard guard, what went through your head?

[Hermie Sadler]

What do you think? Appreciation, first of all. Yeah, right. Because, look, I'm. I'm very open and honest about this. I didn't accomplish in my racing career what you did on the track. I didn't accomplish in my racing career what Rick Mass did. Now, when you look at my whole body of work, between the racing and all the 20 years of television and all the people. So I understand you're somebody, Hermie. I know that, but I. But I. I understand where I sit and I'm. And I'm comfortable with it. I'm okay. You know, me too. I understand, you know, but, you know, NASCAR really, I think to your, to your point, realize one day we've left the people that got us to this point. We've forgotten about the people at Rockingham and North Wilkesboro and all these people that are hardcore. You couldn't do anything wrong to run these people off. And they decided for a time, let's put our. Let's just call it redneck fans on the back burner and let's go to California and let's go to this place and that place. And look, I understand the growth and trying to grow, but to people in some parts of the country, NASCAR was a fad to the. To the true hardcore fans. They live it and breathe it every day. And so, you know, I talked to Mike. I still text with Mike occasionally about things because he's like, you probably there's a new regime, but he's still my connection to the new regime. You know, when I have a question, I'm gonna ask him. When I want an opinion, I'll ask him. And. And he got. He talked to me about the. The hard cars. Because in the first couple years after I quit racing and doing tv, they ultimately sent me a hard card. It wasn't an alumni hard card, but it. It was like pulling teeth. You know, let me talk to Mike. I don't know.

[Kenny]

Yeah, it's like, Jesus, sorry I raced for you that long.

[Hermie Sadler]

They. They turned it around and, you know, sir Amber reached out and kind of told me what they were doing. They started last year. They sent me one last year, and the couple times I went, when they had events, I did little hospitality things and took some pictures with people, and they seemed like they appreciated it. And look, it felt good for me for, For NASCAR to, you know, reach out to me and say, hey, if we send you this hard card, will you ever use it? Will you go? A couple times. And if you go, do you mind going to some of These little events, and it might be five people, it might be 15 people, it might be 150 people. I don't know, you know, But I smile. I'm still very thankful and appreciative. I've never been one of these. Even when I thought I was going to be better than Jeff Gordon, I never thought or turned anybody away at a dinner table or at an event or. I just. Not that way. I. I've been around so many people in our sport, and I'm not going to call names that have think they are just way, way up here and you're not supposed to talk to them at a certain time and you know that you bothering them. And. And I'm like, dude, I've seen Richard Petty sign autographs for hours, and I've seen Jimmy Johnson sign autographs for hours. And if, if they can do it, guess what? So can you. And not everybody has a mentality, but there are. There are some. And, But I think nascar, you know, this is their attempt in a way to try to bring some people back that were part of their heyday, whether it be on the racetrack or TV watching, whatever. And a couple times I've been. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, and the fans seem like they're happy to see me and say hello and take a picture. And if they're happy to see me, I'm happy to go see them.

[Kenny]

Wonderful. And. And I'm going to end with you like I do with all the other great NASCAR drivers. Your thoughts on NASCAR today?

[Hermie Sadler]

I really think we're. It's back on an uptick. I know we're.

[Kenny]

Oh, show.

[Hermie Sadler]

You know, I laugh and people get so mad, you know, like, you know, like the political thing, you know, people are so mad at Trump and everything he says. And I used to tell, you know, Trump, just be quiet and govern. Now I say, give it to him. You know, tell them you see the movie. So all these people that told me on social media five years ago that they were never going to watch another race, they're always tweeting me after a race by what they didn't like. I thought you quit watching five years ago. What happened? And I've learned you can't argue with these people. But I think NASCAR has listened and I think they are trying to make the racing better. You know, I'm not involved on the business side, so I don't truly know if they're saving the team's money or not. It's been fun to watch the Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, you know, fight for what they believe is right. But I will say that I think for the first time in a long time that NASCAR is trying to listen and reconnect with people that have experience and they're trying to, you know, they're cutting back some of the. Offering more packages, you know, for. They got to make it more affordable. I mean, I mean, you can't back in the day in Daytona, dude, You know, even with me as a race team, seven and ten night minimums and hotels that are typically 70 bucks a night is 300 bucks a night. And they, they finally realize that it's. And by the way, it's not just nascar, it's the communities around the tracks.

[Kenny]

And yeah, they take advantage of the race coming in.

[Hermie Sadler]

They, you know, they mean, they, they, you have to make it where a man can take his wife and kid or kids, excuse me, and, and go enjoy it. Because if I sit at a blackjack table, if I put up five bucks, I don't really care. But if I put up a hundred bucks, it's not as fun. So when a, when a man is going to take his kids and family to a race and it's going to cost him five, six thousand dollars to go, that's crazy. But so I will say, is it perfect? No. You know, I don't like. And I just old school part of me, I think it's too hard to find the NASCAR programming on different platforms and things for average people. I'm not a technology guru, as you can tell. It took me a long time to figure out how to talk to you on this. You figured it out like for the Xfinity deal. I think it's great that all the racers are going to be on this network. Xfinity, it's CW network. Let's do it. I do have some personal frustration and hear from fans sometimes that, you know, I never would have thought 15 years ago that there would be a practice or qualifying session going on for a cup series race weekend that you couldn't find on a major mainstream cable station. And so I know this is 2025 and I got to get with it and all that, but you know, all the people that we're just talking about don't have Roku sticks or whatever. You gotta have to get all that, you know.

[Kenny]

Yeah, Roku, yeah, whatever. That's great.

[Hermie Sadler]

So, but, but I do, I do think NASCAR has realized that we don't have to ignore this fan base to attract this new fan base. We can do it. We can, we can do it all if we do it the right way. And I think they finally have learned that.

[Kenny]

Hermes Sadler, you were wonderful. And listen up, everybody. You can find this over on Dirty Mo Media podcast, so I know you want to see. Boy, doesn't he look good. Hermie Hermit, you look good, buddy. I say you look. I eat like George Clooney a little bit.

[Hermie Sadler]

I beat up with looks and personality. I know it.

[Kenny]

Well, thank you for being on Kenny Conversation right here, either on YouTube or on Dirty Mo Media podcast.

[Hermie Sadler]

Herman, you know you can call me any time of day, any time, and we're brothers. I can do it. I'll do it. You know that. And I appreciate you and I appreciate what you do to you could have. You know, you still give back and do things that you don't have to do. And I know it and I see it and I know a lot of other people do it too. You're entertaining and people love you and for good reason. So I'm always blessed to call you a friend.

[Kenny]

I remind everybody every once in a while, I am retired. You know, I'm good to go. But as Clint Eastwood, just sign back.

[Hermie Sadler]

Of the check and.

[Kenny]

Right, right. And this is part of. Don't let the old man in. Stay busy.

[Hermie Sadler]

That's right.

[Kenny]

All right, everybody. There he is. My dear friend, the great Hermes Sadler. And one thing we learned is, oh my gosh, is he still getting it done and doing it all? I learned a lot. Until the next Kenny conversation. We'll see y'all later. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

[D]

Real businesses rely on Spectrum business for the fastest, most reliable Internet. Starting at $40 a month. When bundled and backed by the Spectrum commitment, get Internet speeds to fit your business needs. Starting at 500Mbps. Bundle with TV, phone and mobile. For more savings, level up your speed. For a three year price guarantee, find a bundle that is made for your [e-mail] business restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Every day our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human.

[Hermie Sadler]

Thank you for calling Amica Insurance. Hey, I was just in an accident.

[Kenny]

Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of.

[D]

At Ameca, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking. It's human. Amica Empathy is our best policy.