Kenny Wallace (1:31)

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 everything you need to fix your everyday car up or even that hot rod that you have. Oh, this one. This one's a big one for me. Everybody. You are looking at the man that is going to break my most starts record in the new NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. Jeremy Clements. There he is. Jeremy, how you doing?

Jeremy Clements (2:09)

I'm great, Herm. Thanks for having me on your show, man. It's awesome to be here and talk to you and just thrilled.

Jeremy Clements (2:15)

Thank you.

Kenny Wallace (2:16)

I just want to say that I really enjoy being around you. You are very pleasurable human being. You're always nice and pleasant and. Yeah. So here's what we're gonna do. Everybody. For everybody that's watching on Kenny Wallace YouTube, if you're listening on Dirty Mo Media, I'm wearing my Gary blue hat today, but I'm gonna move my head this way. There it is behind me. At the time, the NASCAR xfinity series gave me this. It says, Kenny Wallace 547. And I've had that hanging up there. And that means I am the mayor. Nobody is better than me in the xfinity series. I have 547 starts. Now. I'm gonna move my head back. The man that you're looking at, Jeremy Clements, on June 20th at the Naval Base Coronado, June 20th at San Diego. You're gonna break my most starts record. All right, tell me about it.

Jeremy Clements (3:21)

I don't even know what to think. Kenny, I remember being at your last race, Iowa, 10 years ago, and racing with you. You were in that 20 Joe Gibbs Racing car. And, man, just what a day.

Jeremy Clements (3:35)

They.

Jeremy Clements (3:35)

They honored you at the drivers meeting with Wayne Alton and everybody. And we all did a standing ovation. And, man, I remember it like it was yesterday. So it was.

Jeremy Clements (3:46)

It was just so cool.

Jeremy Clements (3:48)

All the things they did for you, they had to. Even in the garage, they had, you know, your name and everything spray painted on the. On the. On the floor there. So that was just cool. And yeah, just remember watching it, being a part of it, thinking, that's really cool. That dude has been here a while, and I'm just honored to race against him. I grew up watching you as a kid and now to, you know, still be here that much longer and able to. To hopefully break your record. Good lord willing, I'm still here then and doing everything I want to do. It's going to be amazing. So I was looking. I was like, how old was Kenny when he. So you were 52, I think, is that right?

Kenny Wallace (4:28)

Something like that, Yeah. I was born in 1963, so that was 2015 was my last race.

Jeremy Clements (4:35)

Yeah. So I get asked the question already, when. How long you gonna do this? I'm like, as long as I'm able. And I'm having fun. So I'm like, the guys are in their 50s, still doing it, so I still got a ways to go. Guys just chill out with these questions. But it's just funny to me to hear that. But, I mean, Mark Martin was still getting done at like 55 running, winning cup races. So, yeah, I'm super excited. And as long as I can stay healthy and keep going. I don't see any quit me.

Kenny Wallace (5:07)

I, I want to come out and I want to hand the baton over to you. I'm looking forward.

Kenny Wallace (5:14)

Hopefully everything, my schedule goes good, I'm going to come out there and hand that baton over to you. I know how hard that is. It is really hard. Sometimes I look back and you know, I went and ran the cup series for 300 and something races.

Kenny Wallace (5:33)

I can't imagine but now I can. I believe that you're going to get to 800. Do you feel like you're going to get to 800 starts?

Jeremy Clements (5:44)

I don't know the math in that right off, but I think that's definitely achievable. Like I said, I don't. I'm just a racer. I've raced since I was 7 years old. It's all I've ever done, it's all I've ever known. So as long as I can just like I said, stay healthy and keep going, baby. We're going to keep the train rolling and I'm just super excited to be able to be blessed to be able to do this and obviously I know we're going to talk about it. I can't wait for our new deal with Haas next year to be able to drive those fast Chevy's. It's going to be amazing. So all that coming up. I'm going to tie your start record at Pocono the week before a track that I love and I know I can run up front at and then going to San Diego I think it'd be, I don't obviously who knows who even be in the race but if I think it'll be anybody's race, it'd be such an unknown, unknown race.

Kenny Wallace (6:35)

We're talking to Jeremy Clements everybody. He's going to break my most starts record. And remember this is Kenny conversation. We're going to talk about his new venture. We're going to go back to Spartanburg, South Carolina. We're going to celebrate his family and most of all, we're going to celebrate the man you're looking at right now. Jeremy Clements. Okay, so we got a lot to talk about. Let's go back and forth a little bit here.

Kenny Wallace (7:01)

You just made national news because your family, your dad, Tony and you, you have owned your own race team and you have done it the hard way. Everybody looks at you as a single car team, you know, no help. And now big announcement. I'm going to let you you talk about it. What was the big announcement?

Jeremy Clements (7:24)

Well, we have a technical alliance now with Haas factory team and man, just to be a part of that organization, that's big.

Kenny Wallace (7:33)

That's big.

Jeremy Clements (7:34)

Drive their cars out of their shop, built and maintained by them is going to be huge for a driver like myself who is really never got that opportunity. It's always been racing our own equipment, buying used cars from the different big teams and just making it work all these years it's been a struggle a lot of time and then we've run, we've run well a lot of times. So you know, racing is up and down sport. You just, you can't let it get you down too much. But boy, when it, when it's good it makes you like this is what, this is what you keep doing it for. So just love the sport but man, it's tough as hell, Kenny, you know that you still race, you've raced your whole life and man, it's just been, it's been a journey. So I'm thrilled to have this new opportunity. It's actually a two year deal, so very excited for that. Really appreciate Joe Custer believing in us and letting us tag along and be a part of their organization.

Kenny Wallace (8:34)

I love Joe. I would see Joe Custer who runs Haas factory, I would see him at the Wells Fargo bank right there in Concord, North Carolina. I said, what are you doing? He said, paying off the credit card bill.

Kenny Wallace (8:49)

We all listen, we're all the same.

Kenny Wallace (8:52)

It takes money. And I would lose sleepless nights myself whether I was trying to get money at the end of my career, you know, to keep racing. For Robbie Benton, I had unoh, I had Federated Auto Parts. Have you lost sleepless nights, you know, trying to find the money to keep this, this train rolling?

Jeremy Clements (9:14)

Oh, Kenny. You know, you go to sleep thinking about it. You wake up thinking about it. You toss and turn in the middle of the night thinking, what can I do to make this better? How are we going to keep it rolling? Because like everything we've done over the years just makes the train get heavier and you gotta, you gotta keep it going. Like you said, it's stressful. So we try to make, you know, everything better each year. Get better stuff, better people, everything. So it's just, it's hard, it takes more funding each year and, and everything's gone up as we all know. So. And this series is not the same as it was even three or four years ago. It's changed tremendously with the amount of teams like myself being aligned with the bigger teams, everybody having lease engines. It was not like that years ago. I mean, if you had a lease engine three or four years ago. You could easily run top 12. And now that is just not the case at all. So, like I said, it's changed a bunch. The funding takes a lot. And really, this deal just happened because we've been trying to buy new chassis and we couldn't. It's been a struggle. We went to talk to Joe about buying cars, and he said, I'm not gonna sell you any cars, but I'll offer you this instead. So we got with our partners and brought them there, did a shop tour and made it happen. So it's exciting as hell.

Kenny Wallace (10:33)

I want to give a shout out with respect to your wife Courtney. At the end of my career, I was driving for Robbie Benton, and she was our secretary. I just want to congratulate you on getting married to my old secretary.

Jeremy Clements (10:50)

She.

Kenny Wallace (10:50)

She's a beautiful lady, and that's really awesome. Where did you two meet?

Jeremy Clements (10:57)

Thank you so much. She loves you, too. And she was helping me set up. I'm on her laptop. She was helping me set it up before, and I was in a different wrong spot, so we had to move. But, yeah, I met her. Well, I met her at the racetrack, Kenny.

Kenny Wallace (11:12)

Imagine that.

Jeremy Clements (11:15)

The first year she was doing the season, the four, the full season with tristar, I think. And I had saw her at a race with you guys before, a couple years before that, and I was like, wow, that. That girl's hot.

Kenny Wallace (11:31)

Yeah.

Jeremy Clements (11:32)

And then I, then I remembered, and then I saw her again, 2015. I was like, I think that's that same girl. And then, yeah, just started talking to her here and there and just. Just fell for hard. So I, I knew, you know, I was like, I was probably 30 at the time. I was never the type that wanted to get married and settle down and do all that. But with her, it was different. So I think it was definitely a God thing, and it was just meant to be. And now we have a beautiful daughter, Kennedy, that's about to be two in January, and we'll be married in May next year for nine years. I don't know how she's done it with me, so time flies. I, I, Yes. It's just crazy how much it goes quick. So thank you for saying that, though.

Kenny Wallace (12:18)

Yeah. Well, I was talking to my daughter, Brittany. Brittany Pompey. Brittany got married. She met her husband at Eldora at the dirt track. And I told Brittany last night that I was gonna talk to you, and she said, dad, that's Courtney. And I'm like, what? And, oh, that's right. So those girls, they stick together. I call them Instagram partners. You know, Courtney became a, a star in my book. You know, she really is good at what she does on Instagram. You know, don't know if she does it that much anymore, being a mama.

Jeremy Clements (12:50)

Oh yeah, that's all she does. Yeah, she, she's on Tick Tock Big. And yeah, she's got my office upstairs covered up and all her stuff. And I mean, my gosh, she does, she does an amazing job. She works very hard at it. She's very creative. I'm very proud of her.

Kenny Wallace (13:08)

Yeah, that is really awesome. And just a look everybody inside everybody's lives. We, we like to make fun of ourselves. We're one big circus. But, but we really are. We really are the same, aren't we, Jeremy? We just, it's what we do is everybody's kind of got the same deal going. Hey, this is Dylan 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.

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Kenny Wallace (15:29)

So here we are. You just made national news by joining Haas factory. That's a great team. There's good money there. There's technical alliance there.

Kenny Wallace (15:43)

Gene Haas, the owner, he's worldwide. He has formula one race cars. He makes the largest machinery. Now, I want to get to your family in a little bit, but your family builds motors. They're legendary. Do. Have you had any fun? Does your family have any Haas equipment in the motor shop right now?

Jeremy Clements (16:07)

I'm not gonna lie. I don't think we do. But I could be wrong, but I.

Jeremy Clements (16:11)

Don'T think we do.

Jeremy Clements (16:12)

I don't want to say that for sure we should because they got some amazing machinery. And when we went to that shop, they were making brand new spindles, $12,000 a piece spindles, their own rear ends, center links. They looked like they were going to war, Kenny. I was like, we shouldn't even be on the same racetrack as these people. But then you go to Hendrick Motorsports where they have a ton of Haas machinery as well. But yeah, Clements racing engines. I don't think we do, unfortunately. And maybe we can change that. Maybe we can work out a deal with Gene and get rid of. Get rid of some of our CNCs and get some of his. But yeah, my dad, Tony Clements and Glenn Clements, his brother, they have built an incredible company and they work day and night to still this day.

Jeremy Clements (17:00)

I don't know how they do it.

Jeremy Clements (17:03)

Their work ethic is unreal. So they just pour every ounce of blood and sweat into that place, and it definitely shows. And right now, I think they said there are 150 brand new engines behind and 150 rebuilds behind as well. So they are. They could work 24, 7 forever. I don't think they'd ever catch up.

Kenny Wallace (17:24)

Okay, we are going to go, you know, like a basketball. We're going to throw a basketball in a room and we're going to let it fly. I have so much. I studied so hard on you last night.

Jeremy Clements (17:35)

And thank you.

Kenny Wallace (17:36)

Yeah. To my surprise, you are a badass to the maximum peak. I'm going to say this, I'm going to read this to you, and then I want you to respond. Jeremy Clements family has history in nascar and it runs deep. You're the grandson to owner and engine builder Crawford Clements. Remember to straighten me out now if I got anything wrong here. Your. Your uncle, Lewis Clements was a championship crew chief for the legendary Rex White.

Kenny Wallace (18:10)

Now, Crawford and Lewis, you know, those two were well known for developing race engines for 25 years together. And now your dad Tony has carried on the family tradition, building motors for everybody. And let me tell you something, everybody. Clements, it is hard for me that. To fathom that Jeremy, the man you're looking at now is a race car driver because his family is the most famous motor builder in America. Clements, tell me about this history.

Jeremy Clements (18:45)

Yeah, so, man, my grandfather Crawford and his brother Louis got all this started, and they were some badasses back in the 50s and 60s, like you said. Won the championship of Rex White one at Daytona with all these different drivers from AJ Foy to Buck Baker. I mean, the history is incredible. So my grandfather Crawford, he's the reason why I got started racing. I'd be at the shop with him, and he'd be tinkering around on. On whatever. And I was just under race cars, working on carburetors. I mean, just doing all kinds of stuff. And then when I was turned seven, he got me a go kart and started taking my brother Jason and I to Buck Creek Speedway and racing. And from there it was just. Oh, man, I loved it. And he built us a Cuban and started taking us take care of the go karts and everything. And we raced for a few years. And then he passed away, like in 96. So I was 11. And, man, that was a tragic loss. Super sad to our family. And he'd be so proud of us right now. I know he's smiling down from heaven, but, yeah, he's the reason why I got started. And my dad, Tony and Glenn, they. They actually raced themselves for a while, and they started building engines because they really. They needed a. They needed income, you know, racing, make money. Yeah, they were winning and doing great, but they. They needed some real money, so they started building engines.

Jeremy Clements (20:17)

So they had to stop.

Jeremy Clements (20:17)

Stopped racing. And then I was just. I was never interested in the. In the engine side. I was just. I was just. Man, I was just groomed. I watched racing as a kid. I. I just loved it, everything. I just wanted to drive, you know, I wanted to go fast. I wanted to. To be the driver. So it was never. The engine part never really got to me like. Like it did for them.

Kenny Wallace (20:39)

I want to celebrate your career. I want to go way back, but before I do that, I mean, you do recognize how famous Clements Racing engines is. I mean, they're. They're one of the best dirt motors in America. How's that make you feel?

Jeremy Clements (20:54)

Proud. Very, very proud. I'm. I mean, I. Like I said, I see how hard they work. They don't do it for.

Jeremy Clements (21:03)

For that, you know, they just do it because they love it. That's what they love to do. And you can just see it when you come to that shop. They just love to work and love to make badass racing engines and, and man, they, like you said, they got some of the best out there, if not the best. And it is incredible. They can build anything. So it, it never. I don't know what we're gonna do one day when, if, when they're not here because I can't build an engine. Kenny, we're screwed. I don't know what we're gonna do. So we better.

Kenny Wallace (21:30)

It'll be all right.

Jeremy Clements (21:31)

But man, those guys, that generation is one hard working generation. And I don't, I don't know if we got it in us, Kenny. I really don't.

Kenny Wallace (21:41)

Well, we're going through Jeremy Clements career, everybody in his life and it sure is incredible. I didn't realize that your family, you know, grandson to Crawford and Uncle Lewis and all of them NASCAR champions and. Okay, let's go back. There were some things that.

Kenny Wallace (22:03)

I went, wow, we're going to go to this surgery. You had, you, you had a drive shaft come through. But hold on, everyone, we're going to get to that. All right? You started racing go karts at age 8. You raced at Thunder Valley and Cherokee Speedway. You won 55 races, a couple championships. Let's. We'll get to 2002 in a minute. When you went to late Models. But just tell me about the go karts and Cherokee. Man, those are legendary names.

Jeremy Clements (22:32)

Yeah. So like I said, Crawford got us racing go karts. My brother Jason, I couldn't. We had to race every other weekend because he would go to his mom's house that weekend. We have same dad, different mom, so we were only allowed to race the same weekends he was home. And so that was. That could be frustrating because I wanted to race every weekend, but I had. We. We wanted him to be with us. So we wait on him. Then like I said, we. We won a lot of races. And then Crawford passed away. My dad didn't want to. He didn't like go kart racing. So all that kind of stopped. So I got my mother Maria to take me to Buck Creek Speedway. I found. I found different rides. I mean, I was a kid, man. Drop me off. I'm gonna figure this out. So I would literally just. I found a ride and started driving for a guy named Jerry Workman and raced for him for two or three years. And then it was 1999 and I talked my dad into getting a four cylinder dirt car and we went and bought it. This old four cylinder car is a piece of junk and we bought it for two grand. Like the whole car, engine, everything. Me and my buddy Chase Masterson, he. He works in racing. He's a. He's a hell of a pit crew guy at RCR and he's done well for himself there, but he was racing with me forever till I got hurt. And I know we're gonna go into that, but. So we went and got this car and painted it and did everything. Me and Chase got this thing together and then we started racing and started winning. Man, we started winning in 1999 and then 2000 and 2001 we won the world crowns four cylinder nationals at Cherokee Speedway and damn Thunder Valley Speedway. And there was this. The two races were back to back within six days. One track to another. One was on a Sunday night, one was on Saturday night the following week. And one paid 16 grand, one paid 12 grand. So we won that. That was 2000. One won that 28 grand. All the money we. We made. The last race, Kenny, we took. We had. We had two cars running two classes. We. The. The people that bought them, we won the race, the Cherokee that night, the last race. And then they followed us back. They. We sold everything. So all the. The both the cars, all the parts, all the gears, everything. So all that was gone and we used all that money to buy a dirt super late model from Barry Wright. Wow.

Kenny Wallace (25:03)

Okay.

Kenny Wallace (25:05)

Let'S back up for a minute. What did you have.

Kenny Wallace (25:11)

In your brain and in your physical being? What did you have that they didn't have that you kicked their ass so bad?

Kenny Wallace (25:19)

Those are some big wins.

Jeremy Clements (25:21)

Yeah, I. You know, all of it, I think. I mean we literally had a great handling car. We figured out we had worked on.

Kenny Wallace (25:30)

That chassis and made it light. I think those. Key to those.

Jeremy Clements (25:33)

Oh yeah. We did a lot to those cars. Everything we could within the rulebook. And trust me, we got protested all.

Kenny Wallace (25:39)

The time off computers, right?

Jeremy Clements (25:41)

Oh yeah. We had to tear this damn car apart every week about out getting the fights with the grown man. You know, I'm like 12 or 13, 14, 15.

Kenny Wallace (25:50)

Yes.

Jeremy Clements (25:51)

And. And what a mess that was at times. And I was a little scared at some times. I was like, I mean I'm 150 pounds right now. Can you imagine what I was back then? I mean I'm just a little kid. I can't be fighting these grown man. So it was wild, wild times. And yeah, our engines, they we build our own engines, so they just. I mean, we have a dyno. So we were hammering those engines and figuring out more and more. So everything we were doing was just, you know, we had the total package so we could go and win anywhere. And Cherokee and Thunder Valley, those. That was our bread and butter. And we raced one Thunder Valley Friday night, Cherokee Saturday night. I'd come and wash the car the next day, change the gear or the. You had to change the whole rear end. So we change the whole rear end, put different gear in, and go race. Man, that was my whole weekend.

Kenny Wallace (26:38)

I. I find something. This, to me, it's a phenomenon because, see, I started on asphalt. I'm an asphalt racer through and through. I started.

Jeremy Clements (26:47)

Yeah, that's wild to me.

Kenny Wallace (26:49)

Yeah, I'm an asphalt guy. I ran ASA All Pro, Winchester, Salem, you know, Pensacola, Nashville. And I got into my career, and then I. I wanted to learn dirt racing. So you. You ran dirt?

Jeremy Clements (27:04)

Yeah, I was a dirt guy until I was 17. My first asphalt race was at Talladega.

Kenny Wallace (27:11)

Oh, okay.

Jeremy Clements (27:12)

Now.

Kenny Wallace (27:13)

Okay, this. This is something that amazes me. You said after you've done all that, I mean, Barry Wright is one of the most beautiful fabricators in the world. Everybody marvels at his jewelry, which is a race car. So now what I got here is 2002. You move up the late models. So I. Super dirt late models. These are badass. These are. These are. These are no joke.

Jeremy Clements (27:40)

They're.

Kenny Wallace (27:41)

They're scary. They're more scary than the Bubba Pollard super late model on asphalt. I mean, these things are. These are wild. And you won nine races and the championship. So tell me about your dirt super late model days.

Jeremy Clements (27:56)

Oh, man, it was just everything I dreamed of. You know, I used to go Cherokee and watch the. The big races. Scott Bloomquist, Ronnie Johnson, at the time, Billy Moyer just.

Kenny Wallace (28:07)

I raced him.

Jeremy Clements (28:09)

I know you know that, but just. Just guys, I grew up racing just, like, you know, my NASCAR stuff, so I love dirt racing. I love nascar. That was my two things I love the most. So just getting a chance to run against Mike Duvall. He's the one that I went to a little school, and he showed me how to drive the car. And I remember, like, this four cylinders, like, the steering was like a damn bus. So this thing, like, you had to turn the hell out of the wheel. And then the. The super late model was like. I mean, it was so fast. So that took me a minute to get my hands on. But once I figured it out, started out running the Cherokee, locals Like I said, Mike Duvall, Ricky Weeks, Jeff Cook, bunch of guys that could run and win anywhere. And then when the, the big boys would show up, Bloomer and Earl Pearson, all those guys, we could outrun them. To Chris Madden, it was a lot, man, just amazing. Race car drivers that. A lot of them, obviously they could run NASCAR too, you know, never got the chance, which we all say that so many good drivers just never get the opportunity that I raced with it. I thought these guys are top dogs and they could, they could do it. But yeah, started, let's see, that was 2002. And then flash forward, I guess 2004 if you want, or you got any other.

Kenny Wallace (29:28)

Yeah, I, I want to stay right there for a minute. Duvall, the Flintstone Flyer. Yeah, when he passed away, they. They took the hearse and they drove it around the racetrack.

Jeremy Clements (29:40)

Yeah, he.

Kenny Wallace (29:42)

What a legend. So for him to just help you. Yeah, I, that was big. That was big.

Jeremy Clements (29:49)

It was a ton of respect on, on both ends and just. I just always looked up to Mike. He was, he was a hero growing up. And the legendary Flintstone Flyer, I can see it right, right now in my mind watching him go around Cherokee. He won so many races, and just getting the opportunity to be on the same track as him was. Was a privilege. And then outrun him was just. Was amazing. So, I mean, guys like that, man, it was just awesome to race against them. So really appreciate what him and his family did. For me when I started racing super.

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Kenny Wallace (31:19)

Yeah, we're celebrating the career of Jeremy Clements and it's. You just don't get dropped off in nascar. Everybody. You just. You just don't get dropped off in nascar. Everybody's got a journey, okay? This One. This one caught me off guard. While you were racing at 3Eleven Raceway, the drive shaft broke and came through the car, pierced your hand. Nine hour surgery. You missed the next year and ten more surgeries. Show me your hand and tell me all about this. Oh my gosh.

Jeremy Clements (31:53)

Yeah, it was not pretty.

Kenny Wallace (31:56)

Oh my gosh.

Jeremy Clements (31:57)

Those bones were going that way. And as you can see, I can't, I can't straighten it. I can make a decent fist.

Kenny Wallace (32:05)

But they did a good job.

Jeremy Clements (32:07)

Oh my God, what a blessing. They wanted to amputate it, Kenny. So it was, it was terrible. But we had raced the night before in Tennessee. Bill Elliott was there. I remember that very clearly. It was a five, eight mile track, super fast, rough as hell. So we ended up getting a hole knocked in the oil tank in the race. Put us out of the race, drove back home, got home at late as hell. 5 or 6am the next day we're going to go race the Carolina class race at 3:11, three hours away. And you know, we didn't get the shop till noon. Got a busted oil tank, you know, got to change gear, kind of clean the car. You got a lot to do in a short amount of time. So I remember standing in the hauler, we had one of those, what's it called? Stacker.

Jeremy Clements (32:58)

Hauler.

Kenny Wallace (32:58)

Yeah, a lift. So the car goes in, it raises up.

Jeremy Clements (33:02)

That's right. So I remember just standing there looking. I'm like, I don't think it's happening today. And then here comes my dad and he's like, nah, we're, we're, we're gonna fix it. We're racing today. I was like, oh hell.

Jeremy Clements (33:15)

And I'm the one that wants to race like, like, yeah, bad. So got it all fixed, rushed to 311 and missed practice. Qualified, had the wrong damn gear in qualified bad like 15th, running maybe 10th, 9th or 10th in the race, which is bad for us. We're usually up front. Just a bad night, Kenny, you know, not nothing's going the way it should. And hell is like two or three, four or five laps to go in the race and going down the straightaway, just boom, explosion. And you know, the car just kind of starts moving like, you know, like it does when it loses drive shaft. And I just, I remember thinking, damn, what the hell just happened? And then, then it was like a few seconds go by and I was like, whoa, something hurts. And I just looked down and my damn arm is going one way and my hand's hanging off and I'm like, oh God. Oh My God. So I just freak out. I pull over out of the way and turn one and two up against the wall. I get the hell out of the car somehow, and I just fall the ground and immense, the worst pain you could ever imagine. And then the ambulance gets me. And I remember, I remember it very clearly being in there. They strapped me down, and I'm just screaming and crying, and it hurt so bad. I was like, dear God, just do something. And the drive to the hospital took forever and just in terrible pain. And when we get to the hospital, that's. I guess that's when I, you know, I go under. Like I said, they wanted to amputate my hand because it was so bad. They're like, we don't think we can save it. So Tony told them, no, we're not going to do that. If we can't try to fix it, we're going to go somewhere else. So, good Lord willing, we were at a. At a great hospital with, with amazing hand surgeons, and they were able to. To save this hand in my arm. And your hands got a lot of stuff, and it makes it work. And it's like all these bones and tendons and everything. So it's, It's. It's amazing what God's created, but boy.

Kenny Wallace (35:24)

The tip of our fingers are so sensitive to feel.

Jeremy Clements (35:28)

Yes. Yeah. So incredible. So they had to do bone grafts from my hip, tending graft from my right foot. Like you said. 10 surgeries. It was. Went through. Went through hell for sure, you know, and there was a lot of depressing moments through that time.

Kenny Wallace (35:45)

They sewed your hand to your hip.

Jeremy Clements (35:48)

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. That sucked. I mean, sewed my hand in my hip for a month. That's terrible. Then once they did it, I, like, my shoulder was messed up from just sitting in that bad position, and they had to clean all of it every day. It was just terrible. It was awful time in my life and. But good Lord got me through it. And I really relied on. On my faith to push through and. And just go on the other end.

Jeremy Clements (36:16)

Of it, but, boy, it was.

Jeremy Clements (36:17)

It was rough patch for sure. And I. And I had a. I had a ride lined up in the Xfinity series at the time or the. I should say the O'Reilly Auto Part Series now. I'm so sorry.

Jeremy Clements (36:27)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (36:27)

Oh, you're good. We've been through three or four sponsors, but I want to find everybody. Everybody. You're looking at the two mayors of the Bush National Series, the Nationwide Series, the Xfinity Series. And no, now, O'Reilly. So we know what we're talking about. And there's the legendary decal right here, everyone.

Jeremy Clements (36:48)

That's right.

Kenny Wallace (36:48)

Oh, yeah. Now it's going to be O'Reilly. O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Jeremy Clements (36:55)

Can't wait for the. The tune they come up with for us.

Jeremy Clements (37:00)

As fast as the counter service at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Jeremy Clements (37:02)

I don't know.

Kenny Wallace (37:04)

This was a. This was a moment in your life. And, you know, I had some tough times, too, and there was a saying that really helped me. And it goes like this. Tough times last a while. Tough people last forever. You endured hell, my friend. You about lost your hand. You know, you would have been the one armed man Bandit. Chuck Amadi. Chuck Amadi, a great sprint racer, ran that sprint car. I mean, you, Ernie Irvin, when he came back, he ran North Wilkesboro, won a cup race with one damn eye.

Jeremy Clements (37:40)

I remember that, watching that. Incredible.

Kenny Wallace (37:44)

So let's get to the end of this. You take a complete year off. When. When do you know you think you can go racing again?

Jeremy Clements (37:53)

I was doing a lot of physical therapy with an amazing friend, Alan Segner, that got my hand healed up. We'd go to the doctor together and all the appointments. And then he worked me over, man. He was making me work out. He's making me do all these arm hand things. So anyway, got the point where, like, I think I can. I think I can grip a wheel. And I just wrapped the wheel, the dirt late model wheel up with some, some padding, made it thicker because I have a hard time like just grabbing small stuff so I can grab big stuff. So we wrapped the wheel and then we went and tested at Thunder Valley and then it was on from there. Started racing again then. But like I said earlier real quick, I did have a ride lined up with, I think it was called Matt kill Motorsports, the 56 car that Riggy Smith ended up driving. And so, I mean, there's no telling where my career would have went then. But like I said, God has a plan for us, so it just wasn't meant to be. But yeah, went started back racing dirt, late models and then got back into ARCA too, and started. We were racing dirt and arc at the same time, out of the same shop, out of the same hauler.

Kenny Wallace (39:06)

Okay, everybody, I think we did a really good job. My goal on Kenny Conversation is to do just what we just did to remind everybody NASCAR drivers don't get dropped off in nascar. They have a journey. And the man you're looking at right now, Jeremy Clements went through hell. Yeah. He might have won some races, but got his hand ripped off. And that hurts me just saying it. Okay, deep breath everybody. It's time to go back to nascar. So we went through Jeremy's family.

Kenny Wallace (39:41)

We went dirt racing and now it's time to get in the shower and get the dirt off of us.

Jeremy Clements (39:48)

Yeah, we gotta do that.

Kenny Wallace (39:50)

Yep. We gotta get. Okay, we're. We're gonna go NASCAR. And I want to remind everybody that you have two wins in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. You are a winner, my friend. 2017 Road America, that is no joke. That is a tough ass road course. And then you win 2022 at Daytona. That's not all. If we go before that, you got one win in the ARCA series at Nashville. So if you follow the bouncing ball, everybody, this is not an easy business. But the man you're looking at is a winner. And you're sitting right now at 526 races in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.

Kenny Wallace (40:39)

That's badass.

Jeremy Clements (40:40)

Thank you.

Kenny Wallace (40:42)

So now you're going to race for Haas. At what moment did you and your dad go.

Kenny Wallace (40:51)

We got to do something. We, we got to find more speed because I mean maybe I'm reading between the lines because I'm a racer, but at some point in our lives we got to get more speed.

Jeremy Clements (41:02)

And you're.

Kenny Wallace (41:02)

And you're young. You're only 40 years old.

Jeremy Clements (41:04)

Yeah.

Kenny Wallace (41:05)

Do you remember this talk with your dad or your friends or your people that are helping you?

Jeremy Clements (41:11)

We've been trying to buy newer chassis for over a year and a half, Kenny.

Kenny Wallace (41:16)

So that was just it. The chassis's okay.

Jeremy Clements (41:19)

We every. All my career, like I said earlier, I think at the start. Start has just been trying to. We buy these old cars from these teams. We got the best cars we ever got from Gasti when they shut down and at the end of 18 and then in a 19 we've been running these same cars ever since then and they're just, they're just wore out, man. And, and the good years tires have changed. The, the cars need to be built different. So we really going to have to cut these cars up, put. Put new front clips on them to make the geometry work or we, yeah, we need new cars from JRM or RCR or somebody.

Kenny Wallace (41:52)

You're at your wits. Equipment you got.

Jeremy Clements (41:55)

Yes. So we had to make a change. It needed to happen. We had speed and then a lot of times we didn't. But just yeah. Frustrated at where we were and you know, how it is. You always got to try to stay ahead in racing. So yeah, went to Joe and just made this deal happen. And like I keep saying, just never been able to drive this kind of equipment in my NASCAR career. So it's going to be, it's going to make it so much. I think it's going to make it so much easier because I, I drive hard as hell every lap anyway and I did some stuff back in 09 with Gibbs. 08 09, 2010 drove for them when, when the, the Cup Stars were at other, other tracks and oh my God, their cars are so much faster. It was stupid and it, it just made it so much easier. And I remember whatever year it was, 2009, Danny Hamlin didn't make the race at Darlington. Fastest car in practice goes out there and crashes in qualifying. Lap one tries to hold it wide open. I think didn't work, didn't stick. And then Kentucky, I'm in the car. They weren't racing full time so they had no points to rely on. So Ratcliffe's were second fastest in practice. And then in qualifying he's like, dude, just go out there and make a lap. Just, it doesn't have to be a fast one. We just need to make the race. So I go out there, barely drive the car 65% P7 I'm like, Good Lord.

Jeremy Clements (43:26)

It was just so much easier. The car just was so fast. It didn't, didn't like. I drive my car hard as hell. 110 they're like P22 buddy. I'm like, damn. So, so yeah, it's just going to be so much, it's going to be so much fun for me to be able to still drive hard. But you have speed.

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Kenny Wallace (44:32)

I want to share something with you to let you know I'm Your brother. I feel your pain.

Kenny Wallace (44:40)

2001, I guess I'm at Darlington, and I'm running in the O'Reilly Auto Part series, and there's a. There's a bad wreck. Steve park gets hurt in. In the Xfinity series at that time. So.

Kenny Wallace (44:56)

Paul Andrews gets on my radio. He's not my crew chief, but I know his voice because Paul started here in St. Louis with us. So it's Paul. And I'm like, this is odd. Well, he's Steve Parks cup crew chief for the Pennzoil car.

Jeremy Clements (45:13)

Oh, wow.

Kenny Wallace (45:14)

Well, in my race, during caution flag, Steve park gets hurt. Okay? He gets hurt. And they say, kenny, do you want to drive the Pennzoil cup car tomorrow in the cup race? And I'm like, we're going. We're going under a caution flag, laps after laps. Well, Steve Park's steering wheel came off, and he turned left and Larry Foyt center punched him. This is all under caution. So this takes Steve park out of his car. He's hurt bad.

Jeremy Clements (45:50)

Wow.

Kenny Wallace (45:51)

Now, I want you to hear this loud and clear because this is my message to you.

Kenny Wallace (45:57)

I got in that Penzo cup car. I started dead last for the Southern 501 tough track. I sliced and diced through the field. I got up to six. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Said to me later, what was that all about? I said, you got good cars. You're a lucky son of a. Yeah, exactly. Here I am running 10th in this Xfinity race. I get in the cup car the next day, then the next week. I go to rocket him. Quick time in the Penzo car. Go, bud. Light pole. And I dominate this race. I get. I run second. I. I get beat on a short pitch. So my message, not to you, but to everybody. Dick Trickle told me this, and I'm gonna. I'm gonna say this to you, Jeremy. Don't change your driving. Just keep. Keep racing. And you're going to look up and you're going to go, damn, I'm. Quick time.

Jeremy Clements (46:52)

I agree. You.

Kenny Wallace (46:54)

You cannot win on a slow horse. And unfortunately, my friend, me and you, God put us in this position because only you and I can handle driving slow cars. So have fun next year.

Jeremy Clements (47:10)

That's an incredible story and one that definitely inspires me. And you know, you can't drive a slow car fast, so I know we have busted our tails. A lot of people, myself included, for all these years, doing whatever we could to stay in this series and race. And it's just going to be fun to finally have a. A Great opportunity to drive those fast cars.

Kenny Wallace (47:32)

The only reason my career kept going because when drivers would get hurt I get. I mean Ernie Irving. I heard I got Nepenzo or I got in Haviland car and you know it goes on and on. So I'm excited. You know what they called me? They called me the super sub.

Jeremy Clements (47:49)

That's for sure.

Kenny Wallace (47:50)

I was never. I think it's a long story. It's not about me. Let's end it right there. I think I'm trying to inspire you but you got it and I'm very excited for you to get in good equipment. You're going to have the time of your life and you're going to feel. You're going to feel like you're on Mount Rushmore, my friend.

Jeremy Clements (48:11)

I know I can't wait for to do it. So I feel like I've definitely earned my way to this and yeah, it's going to be amazing. So I think hopefully we'll get to Rockingham and test in January and see how that goes.

Kenny Wallace (48:26)

Go from there and just drive the way you normally drive and don't drive any harder and okay, you're. You're receiving WAR awards already. This one I really like. I saw a beautiful picture. I think it was you and Ryan Sieg maybe.

Kenny Wallace (48:42)

You have competed in every NASCAR xfinity Series sponsored race. 363 races. They gave you a beautiful.

Kenny Wallace (48:54)

Plaque pitcher.

Jeremy Clements (48:56)

I did.

Kenny Wallace (48:58)

Very nice. You tell me about that.

Jeremy Clements (49:01)

Yeah, that was very unexpected. That was at Phoenix and you know Eric Peterson, the NASCAR Xfinity main guy at the time said everybody come to the you know the hauler like at 3:15 that day and driver intros was right after. So we all went and so the, the whole garage is standing there and drivers and crews and Matt from Xfinity started making his speech and then they said we want to recognize two people. And I was like oh, oh boy. I might be one of those people.

Jeremy Clements (49:35)

A little nervous. I was like oh boy. Because I wasn't expecting it. And then they brought us up there and gave us the. The frame picture and the plaque. So that was very special. I do have it hanging in my office but like I said my wife is rated that thing so I just stayed out of there. But it was. That was really cool and, and to be one of the two drivers to do that is amazing. And I'll actually be semi teammates with. With Ryan Se really so our, our cars will be out of the same shop together. So and, and I love. Ryan's been the same as me Just grinding it out. Him and his family as well. So big salute to him. We, we race well together. We had a run in back in 2013 when he first came in at Kentucky, but ever since then we worked it out and now we race very respectively.

Kenny Wallace (50:27)

Kentucky's easy to get into. You come off that turn four down that dog lay, you're running 212 mile an hour and you get, you get on the inside of somebody down there and it was bumpy. And we all, we all got into each other at Kentucky. You know, I mean that track just demands that.

Jeremy Clements (50:47)

I hate that we don't race there anymore. Kenny. I wanna, I wanna going back to Chicagoland. That is awesome. And I think Kentucky is another track that deserves a race there.

Kenny Wallace (50:58)

Do, do you see anybody when you look around? Maybe you haven't even thought about it. You're awfully young. Have you looked around in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series right now? Is there anybody that's gonna break my 547 starts? Anybody going to challenge you? Do we have any more lifers out there in O'Reilly Auto Parts?

Jeremy Clements (51:21)

I'm thinking. Kenny. I was putting my thinking cap on, but I, I don't, I don't know right off I would say obviously Ryan Sieg, he could, he could do it for sure. I don't know where he at is at and starts, but he could definitely do it. I don't know how long, I don't even know how long Ryan wants to race. Never even asked him, but he's a great driver. I see him last and I don't know who else there is without me looking at a list. But man, you, I've seen so many comers and goers, so many Knicks big names, so many this and that. And the funding runs out pretty quick because it's hard to do this. So you see that a lot. You see a lot of comers and goers. So with that said, I, I don't, I don't know. That's tough, man. This is, this sport has gotten tough and it's only getting tougher and it's getting harder and harder to fund it and a lot of changes coming up. And we're hearing about a new car coming in 2029 and who knows what that's going to do this, this series as well. So a lot of unknowns and I think right now is, is in my third. I don't. Am I third or second? I don't really.

Kenny Wallace (52:26)

Well, you, you got it. Well, you, you got to be second because you're going to break my record.

Jeremy Clements (52:31)

Yeah, Jeff Green was right up there. I don't know.

Kenny Wallace (52:33)

Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I understand.

Ad/Promo Announcer (52:35)

Yeah.

Jeremy Clements (52:36)

Jeff is the people's champion. I love that man. He's. He's Jeremy.

Kenny Wallace (52:41)

Jeremy Keller. Jason Keller. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm talking to Jeremy.

Jeremy Clements (52:49)

He's close by. He's in Greenville and I'm in Spartanburg. And that's another guy I looked up to and loved racing against as well. So a lot. Just amazing people in that top five that drivers that I looked up to and got to race with and very well respected.

Kenny Wallace (53:06)

We've had a good time. I got a couple loose ends here that. That have to do with right now. So we celebrated you. We reminded everybody everything you've been through. You're going with Haas factory next year. We're both jacked up on Sundrop about that. Okay, so. So NASCAR just came out with something new and let's kind of end like this.

Kenny Wallace (53:29)

They just announced that they, you know, they didn't say they made a mistake, but they said, you know what? We, we got to get these cup guys back over to the O'Reilly Auto Parts. So when I raced, I was racing against Mark Martin and Dale Senior and, you know, Harry Gantt. And so now the new rule is, is the cup drivers can run 10 races with you instead of five. They're going to double it. Now I do want to say that if you become a cup driver and you and your. It's your first two years in cup, you can run unlimited, but now somebody like a Kyle busch can run 10 races with you. What do you think of NASCAR changing this rule?

Jeremy Clements (54:19)

I don't think I'm the biggest fan of it. Hermit. I really don't.

Jeremy Clements (54:22)

I.

Jeremy Clements (54:23)

My problem with it is when, when these guys drive for, for the cup teams they already drive for and those are the best cars out there anyway. So it makes them look invincible. And I mean me racing in my own equipment against them, and that is just not even. It's. It's not even close.

Kenny Wallace (54:43)

What are you doing? Right?

Jeremy Clements (54:44)

Yeah, yeah. So I mean that. I don't know why we're doing that. I think I like what the series has become where you see all these names. The names are here in this O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. They're not in cut. There's not cup guys playing on our level every week. So I liked it, what you saw. So I'm not really sure why we're doing that exactly. But you know, we don't get to make the rules. So I just say if, if a cup driver wants to run races, you can run for a non affiliated cup team. But now like I said earlier, that's, that's really come far and few in between as well.

Kenny Wallace (55:20)

Yeah, I think NASCAR is trying to get back something of what they lost. That's, I'm going to just give my opinion since you're going to be taking over my job as the mayor of the.

Jeremy Clements (55:33)

Kenny, first of all, ain't nobody can take over your job. No, I don't even want that. But I want real quick Kenny too. I want to say this year CW took over the, the ratings have been phenomenal. So I don't know, you know, do they get more ratings?

Kenny Wallace (55:49)

Good point. I like that. That's a great debate. NASCAR's in a funk right now. They know it. The president, you know, Steve o' Donnell admitted it and, and he, he said, and I want you to comment on this. Steve o' Donnell said at the expense of our core fans.

Kenny Wallace (56:11)

We went after new fans.

Jeremy Clements (56:13)

Correct.

Kenny Wallace (56:14)

And it did not work. It did not work.

Kenny Wallace (56:18)

Do you think NASCAR going back to Rockingham with the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, cup series, going back to Wilkesboro for a points race, you know, going back to Bowman Gray going back to Chicagoland, Kind of strange, you know, it's that old song, you can't, you know, you leave the place and now they want you back at Chicagoland. So do you think these things are going to help?

Jeremy Clements (56:45)

Yes, I certainly do. I know being a driver at Rockingham that weekend, this past year, Easter weekend was phenomenal. The place was freaking packed out. We did a session and the line, you couldn't even, you couldn't even see the end of the line. It was crazy. So I just think, yeah, like you said, we, we left our core fans trying to pursue other people that maybe aren't, will ever be interested in the sport, whatever you do to it. And yeah, I can't wait to see what they do with the, the championship, however they go about that. No idea. But yes, we need to go back to what made NASCAR so popular in that 90s early 2000s run. And I think what they're doing is definitely positive.

Kenny Wallace (57:33)

All right everybody, we will leave it right there. I'm so excited for you. Congratulations, Jeremy. Lot a lot of good stuff coming up this year. New fast race cars with Haas factory. June 20th on that Saturday out in San Diego, Coronado Air Force Base. You're going to break my most starts record.

Kenny Wallace (57:55)

Congratulations on everything. Do you have any last words?

Jeremy Clements (58:00)

Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you, Herm. I. I like to talk to you all day and can't wait to drink a beer with you.

Jeremy Clements (58:08)

Especially the the night or the day or whenever after the race that we break the record. I hope you can make time in your schedule to come. That would be just amazing to me to have you there. So just thank you for, for what you just did for me and putting me on your show and, you know, honoring me and, and just, just being a good dude, man. I loved racing with you. I love the talks we had in the garages through the years and I just want to tell you I appreciate everything.

Kenny Wallace (58:38)

Thank you, my friend. I appreciate you. All right, everybody, remember, if you want to see Jeremy's pretty face, you can watch us on the Kenny Wallace YouTube show. If you want to listen to Jeremy, you can go over to Dirty Mo Media until the next Kenny conversation. We'll see you all next time. Goodbye, everybody.

Jeremy Clements (59:04)

Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

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