← Herm & Schrader
Herm & Schrader
Kyle Petty: Growing Up A Petty, His Musical Itch, & The State of NASCAR's Next Gen
01:11:19
With Kenny Wallace & Ken Schrader both on the Kyle Petty Charity Ride this week, what better time to reach back inside the Kenny Conversation vault and hear from Kyle himself
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- [00:01]
Kenny Wallace
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- [01:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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- [01:42]
Kenny Wallace
Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought to you by jegs, the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts. Please remember to go to JEGS.com for anything you need for your vehicle to fix it up. Well, you know what? There's. There's close friends, there's friends that are closer because you're able to talk to them the way you really want to talk to. And, and this man right here is a dear friend of mine, Cal Petty. Cal, thank you for coming on Kenny Conversation.
- [02:18]
Kyle Petty
Man, I have been. I have so been looking forward to this. I was in Bristol this past weekend and they said it was going to rain. I said it better not rain. I gotta be home by Tuesday. I gotta be home. I gotta be home to talk to Kenny. That's all I know. See, you were up there, man. That's how you eat wings.
- [02:35]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, we did. Hey, you know, we haven't even started the show yet, but how about Bristol? Man, it had that feeling that it was, you know, it's starting to come back.
- [02:45]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, it really did. The fans brought that feeling, you know, I mean, the competitors, you know, you listen to what the competitors say and it's added, whatever it may be. But the fans were pumped, man, and it was a good race. It didn't disappoint. I mean, they were. You know, you get caught in traffic. The high groove. It took about a third of the race for that to come in. I wish they didn't have a gear rule so you could run on the bottom and beat somebody up off the corner and take that position away. Like the old days when you run high and run low, but you bog it down on the bottom. But it was. Listen, it's a solid race. Denny had the best car. Denny was just. I mean, he was on another planet, but he has been the first three races. If you really go back to Darlington and Kansas, he's been the guy to beat the first three races.
- [03:25]
Kenny Wallace
See, this is where the Kenny conversation is so awesome, because you talk about running the bottom, and I believe you are one of the very best at running the bottom. You did it so well at Rockingham and Dover. You know, Kyle, before the show gets going, I mean, it takes throttle. I know this is a fancy word. It takes throttle. Manipulation.
- [03:46]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [03:47]
Kenny Wallace
To roll that bottom.
- [03:49]
Kyle Petty
Yeah. And I. This interesting. Interesting little tidbit of information here. So Dale Jr. Ran the Xfinity race on. On. On. On Friday night. But the world already knows that. I'm not. I told you. Okay. But it was funny talking to him Saturday morning. He came in and was talking. We were talking. It was he and I and Dale Jarrett. And he said, guys, he said, it's exactly like it used to be. He let off just past the start finish line, roll off into the corner, don't use a lot of brake, pick up the throttle about a quarter of the way and just slowly accelerate up off. And he said, next thing I know, I'm driving away from him. And he said it was fascinating because these young guys drive all the way to the center of the corner until they see God, then try to get the car to turn and go again. And he said it drove exactly the way it did back in the 90s, back in early 2000. So that. That was an interesting piece for me to hear, somebody who had just been out there. But I said, when I. When we did the introduction for. For Junior on. On Friday night, I said, so here's a guy who's won, who had won 17 races and two championships before Sam Mayer was born. And Sam Mayer. Sam Mayer was his driver, you know, his teammate, and they're racing for a championship. That's fascinating to me. But he did a great job. He did do a great job, man.
- [05:06]
Kenny Wallace
And the racer in me knows that like you said, you know, you give the fans a little sneak preview and you know, Rusty's the one that taught me. I mean, my brother would pull me to the side, you know, you know, roll off like you said and you know, squirt that baby across the middle. Then if you got too much head speed, roll up a little bit. But that center of the corner speed, so important. Well, all right, listen, here we go. Yesterday, I think Monday. I love your social media and I want to start conversation out like this. You put a beautiful family picture and you and all the kids at the swimming pool. And you said one last plunge in the pool before winter starts in. Where are we at with kids? I mean, I mean, you're knocking them out, man. How many kids you got?
- [05:59]
Kyle Petty
Now here, here's, here's the way it works. It's like I've always said, everybody lives life this way. And the only time that I met up with everybody was when I was going that way. So that's the way it is, man, you know. So in the picture, you know, there's Overton, he's my five year old.
- [06:16]
Kenny Wallace
And we're gonna drop that picture right now. Right here.
- [06:19]
Kyle Petty
Yeah. So Morgan and I, Morgan and I have been married seven years. Overton is our five year old, Cotton is the three year old and the Vant is 13, 14 months I think in the picture. And then there's Austin and Austin's 41. So Austin is my middle son from my first marriage, Adam's brother and Montgomery Lee's brother, he's the middle child. And the two little boys, Stone and Rhett, that's, that's Austin's little boys, they're seven and six or eight and six, I think so they're right in there. So it's crazy. You think you get confused. You ought to see my dad when everybody comes to get. He can't tell who the grandkids are, who the great grandkids are. And sometimes he forgets who his kids are. He forgets myself and Sharon and Lisa and Rebecca. He didn't even know where we fit in. There's just a bunch of kids at the family. I, I, I'm going to tell you this. 1992, when my dad retired, we took a picture out in front of his house with the race car and all of our families and all the kid grandkids and kids at the time. And there were 19 of us at that time. We did this same thing, did the same photo this past Christmas because he wanted to recreate It. And even though my mom's gone and, and Adam's no longer here, there were 43 of us. So from 19. Yeah, that's what we said. So from 92. From 92 to 20. 22, there's 43 of us that, that come out of that house.
- [07:42]
Kenny Wallace
That's unbelievable. How many square foot is that house?
- [07:47]
Kyle Petty
So here's the funny part. I'm gonna tell you what. It's 10,000 square feet. This is the funny part. It's a 10,000 square foot house that the man actually lives in. 600 square foot. He goes in one room and watches TV and then he passes through the kitchen and grabs something to eat. And then on the far end of the house, that's how he gets his exercise. On the far end of the house is where the bedroom is and, and that's it. Those are the only rooms in the house he uses. And he lives there by himself and loves it. I'm telling you. Yeah. Somebody could break in the house and take everything from the living room all the way out to the. No, he'd never know. He'd never know what's gone, man. He'd probably walk out through it and not know it was gone.
- [08:26]
Kenny Wallace
I'm scrambled age right now because, you know, the cow petty charity ride is just, is just wonderful. And you are such a good father. You help your wife, Morgan, so much with those babies, but remembering. You tell stories of growing up with your dad and he would come in in the middle of the day and he'd lay down on the hard floor and, and making some southern type of country sandwich.
- [08:53]
Kyle Petty
That's no kind of sandwich, man. He made a mayonnaise sandwich. You take two pieces of white bread and you put mayonnaise on both sides and then you sprinkle pepper on it until it's solid black. And then you put them together and then you eat it. And that's why he would go to work, put 8 or 9 in the morning, they'd work till lunchtime, 12 or 1, he'd come home, make a mayonnaise sandwich, lay down in the middle of the floor, sleep until maybe 2:30 or 3, take about an hour, hour and a half, nap, and then go back to work. Then he'd come home and have. Have dinner with us and then they go back to work again because that's the way people worked on race cars then. And they'd work until 10:30, 11:00 at night. So they worked on those things. There were only three or four of them, him and Dale and Uncle Maurice and those guys. So they worked on those things all the time. I, so I have to say this. So I told somebody he was inducted into some hall of fame at some point.
- [09:43]
Kenny Wallace
Another one.
- [09:43]
Kyle Petty
Yeah. And I had to do a thing for him. And I told him, I said, I just want you to imagine what Richard Petty, what he could have accomplished in life if he had worked more than half a day in his life because he slept half a day. That's what I always used to tell people. Oh, he's a sleeper, dude, he's a sleeper. He can, he goes to sleep about one or two in the morning and he can sleep until 10:30, 11:00, 11:30 the next day. He's a good 12 hour sleeper. He's, he's easy.
- [10:10]
Kenny Wallace
All right, well listen, this is the Cow Petty conversation. So we could go on. And it's been documented so much in that awesome book right here. Ah, what a book. I mean, I love this book. And you know, so I mean, I don't want Kenny conversation. I want to talk about, I want to talk about how I know you. So let's start like this. Cal Petty, 829 NASCAR starts. Eight, eight NASCAR cup wins. And, and Kyle, eight Cup wins is no joke. I'm telling you, this finger here is already a little abused. I'd cut that off. I really would. I'd cut it off to do what you have done. So when you look back, 829 starts, I mean, that's way up there in Cup.
- [11:07]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [11:09]
Kenny Wallace
What do you think about when you look back and see those stats?
- [11:14]
Kyle Petty
You know what, it's funny. King. So obviously I grew up beside a race shop and grew up going to the racetrack and that's just all I ever wanted to do from the time I was little. I'd go to the race shop, sweep, and then they let me sandblast parts and then they let me spray bomb parts and paint them and Magnaflux them. And then they taught me how to weld when I was 12 or 13. So they, they let me come through the cycle and I had to work in every part of the shop for a year. Worked in the engine room for a year, Worked as a fabricator for a year. Worked as, as a mechanic. Worked in the body shop. Hated the body shop.
- [11:47]
Kenny Wallace
Oh my God, me too.
- [11:48]
Kyle Petty
Coughed up Petty blue paint for about a year after I worked in there.
- [11:51]
Kenny Wallace
So that's another story. Petty blue.
- [11:52]
Kyle Petty
That's a whole another. But I loved, I love the fabricating stuff. I love, I love being there. So I Kind of fell back into that when I. When I went through the cycle. But you know what? That's all we did. And it was so funny when I started. And, you know, I started in an ARCA race at Daytona because that was an old cup car. And my dad said, you know, we have cup cars. We don't have late model cars. We don't have what was grand national, which became Bush, which became Xfinity. We don't have those cars. Those cars at the time were the 311 engines, the wider wheels. It was just a different animal than what a cup car was. And my dad said, we're not buying that stuff. If you want to race, you're going to have to run a cup car. So I ran that ARCA race, and then the next race I ran was Talladega, which was a cup race. So I had run two races in my life, one ARCA race, one cup race, because that's what I did and that's what our family did. We run cup cars. So, you know, I look at it, and it's funny because I came along at a time when my dad's career was at the back end of his career. He wasn't as successful. They could win races, but not like he had won before. One Daytona, you know, won another championship when we were there. And we had gone from the bigger cars to the small cars, which is the Buick Regals, the Pontiac Grand Prix, that stuff that's from the old Monte Carlos and the old Dodge Chargers. That's. That's my reference from old.
- [13:14]
Kenny Wallace
I remember the downsizing in the 80s. You know, we had the big Oldsmobiles, and then we kept.
- [13:19]
Kyle Petty
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it was just. It was a totally different car, visually. It was totally different compared to that 74 Dodge Charger, that 76 Charger, or that old 77, 78 Monte Carlo, which was huge, man. And all of a sudden you show up with a Buick cut or with a Osmobile Cutlass or a Buick Regal and the Pontiacs. So it was just a different time. So we were. We were struggling at Petty Enterprises, and I was there for a couple of years, and then I went to the Wood Brothers, and they had never run all the races. They had always just run a limited schedule. So when I went there, we started and got up and running, and I was there for two or three years, and we ran all the races. And it took a while for. For us to get in the rhythm of running all the races as. As that group, as Eddie and Lynn did a tremendous Job of hiring people and running that. And then, funny, I told Eddie and them, I said one day I was up there and I said, I know I'm the only one up here that doesn't have the last name Wood. So when you get ready to fire me, just tell me, man. It'll be okay. I understand completely.
- [14:18]
Kenny Wallace
I got to stop you right there, because when I go to, you know, I wake up and I make my notes. Not like Larry McReynolds. I make my notes, and I'm gonna skip way down. You know, in my notes, say this. One of the questions that I have for you that is, to me interesting is what you just said. You're with Petty Enterprises.
- [14:43]
Kyle Petty
Yep.
- [14:44]
Kenny Wallace
But I feel like you went out and. And made your own name. You mean you made Kyle Petty. So you drove for Felix. You drove to the Wood Brothers. And I want to be significant on this. What team was it? Felix was. It was. What team did you have the most fun driving for and meant the most to you?
- [15:06]
Kyle Petty
So that's a good question. That's a good question because. And this. And I'll. Let me finish my other thought. When? When. So as when I left the. The Woods, I went to Felix, and then I started my own team. So it seems like if you look back at my career, I was always starting a team. You know, I was either. I was either with a team towards the end or either starting something to get going. So I've been a part of a lot of startups if anybody wants to start a team.
- [15:32]
Kenny Wallace
Me too.
- [15:32]
Kyle Petty
I can tell you, I can take. And. And you struggle for four or five years, three or four years when you start. I had. I had a blast driving for the Wood Brothers, and let me tell you why. I was 23, 24 years old, working with Leonard Wood, a guy that I considered the smartest man maybe ever to walk through a garage area bumper. He knew engines, he knew gears, he knew transmissions, he knew chassis setups. He knew everything. You could not throw a problem at Leonard Wood and probably still can't today, that he can't figure out on a car. It's a different animal now, but the stuff we ran, there was nobody in that garage area smarter, smarter, or willing to work harder than he was. So I. I learned a lot from Leonard, and I learned a lot from Lynn and Eddie because they were just taking over their business. They were just. It was being handed down to them, and it was. It was fun. When I went to Felix, I had no idea what to expect.
- [16:28]
Kenny Wallace
Nobody.
- [16:29]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, I rode that roller Coaster for those first few years. I rode that roller coaster for those first few years. But Felix and I, through time became incredibly tight. Personally, even though we, we struggled as a team, it didn't mean that we weren't good together as people. And that, that's, that's the one thing I have taken away through my whole career. And, and you're the same way, man. You are the same way is, yeah, you drive a race car and you're loyal to the people you drive for. You could have gone a lot of different places there. There may have been a chance for me to go other places, but I was loyal to the Wood Brothers, loyal to Felix until they said, it's time, it's over. I'm going to stay here because I told you that's what I would do. I told you I'd come drive your race car. And that's the way it was. No matter how we run, we just got to keep working and fixing. And I got that the same way you did. You grew up with your dad and your brothers working on something. And that's the car you took to the racetrack on the weekend. You took your car and you made the best of it. We took our car at Petty Enterprises and we made the best of it. We didn't fire people and hire people and rotate people. We just dug a little deeper and tried to make things work. So that's kind of the way I approach those. But I enjoyed Felix. Being with Felix was fun. It was different. It was a different kind of racing than I had ever done because I had been with the family, I've been with the woods family and here all of a sudden I was, I was with Felix and Felix was, was just different. It was. The sport was changing during that time and you know that with Rick and Roush and Gibbs and everybody else, the.
- [17:59]
Kenny Wallace
Super teams were coming in.
- [18:01]
Kyle Petty
Yes. Yeah, yeah, they were. It was not that it was not the family farm anymore. It was, it was a corporate farm and we just weren't a part of the corporate farms.
- [18:11]
Kenny Wallace
Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from.
- [18:15]
Kyle Petty
Our Star Stripes and Beers collection available now. We've got tanks, tees, beach towels and more.
- [18:21]
Kenny Wallace
Just in time for summer.
- [18:22]
Kyle Petty
Check it all out at shop.dirtymomedia.com creativity.
- [18:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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- [18:56]
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- [19:26]
Kenny Wallace
It's interesting because I asked you, you know, I said you have 829 NASCAR starts. You got eight cup wins. And I said, what did you think about? And you didn't say anything about your success. You went right back to being a kid. And you know, Kyle, I, I noticed that when great athletes, they're really good, and then all of a sudden, like, say, 10 years goes by after they're done, they re. They skip that. That part. They go right back to their childhood.
- [19:58]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [19:59]
Kenny Wallace
You just did the same thing. And I guess I would, too. You know, it's like. It's like I kind of forgot about that whole.
- [20:04]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [20:04]
Kenny Wallace
Hardcore life in nascar. And you just did the same thing. Do you think most athletes do that? That you ask them about all their greatness and then they go right back to their childhood?
- [20:15]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, because that's where it starts, man. That, that's, that's where your dreams are. You know, I, I tell people all the time and, and this is a part. And, and listen, you are a phenomenal dirt racer and have transitioned. And you. And you are. And you're still a driver. You are still a driver. And I look, I think of. I think of Kenny Wallace as a driver, as a race car driver. I still do. There's going to come a day I don't know. Kenny Schrader is still out there doing it. So there may not ever come a day I won't be Schroeder. But. But what I'm. But here's what, what I tell people all the time. When I was a little boy, when I was a little boy, we had all these crash cars out behind the race shop over there. Some of my granddad's cars, some of my dad's convertibles from when he Ran a convertible and they had 43 painted on the side of them, or 41 for, for Marvin Panch or Jim Paschal, guys that drove for my father. And these were just torn up race cars. They would just strip stuff them out in the woods. If you've seen Junior's graveyard, we had an incredible graveyard. I'm gonna tell you because it was.
- [21:16]
Kenny Wallace
You're the original graveyard.
- [21:18]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, it was 58 and early 60s Plymouth and stuff like that. When I was a little boy, we'd go out in the woods and we climb up in those cars and set in the seat and hang on to that steering wheel and play like we were driving, man. And you're out in the woods, you know, and you look over and there's a 42 car beside of your 43 and you're racing that thing, man. And I tell people from the time I was five or six, six or seven years old, that's all I dreamed about, was hanging onto a steering wheel and sitting in a seat. I didn't dream about BSing on TV. I didn't dream about big time sponsors. I didn't dream about commercials. I didn't dream about fans. I'm so sorry. I didn't dream about you guys. I dreamed about hanging onto that steering wheel and sitting in that seat. And then you get out of the car and that's the one thing you can't do anymore. You still can do the fan thing. You can still have work with sponsors and do all that stuff. But the piece that you truly dreamed about when you were a kid, you have to put in a box and put somewhere. So that's, that's always sad when I watch guys. That's why I've always been happy for you because you just transitioned into something else and you're still hanging onto a steering wheel. And then that's. So you're living that dream, man. You're just living that dream. So I think that's a lot of times that's why you go back to, to the beginning and athletes do, because, you know, you dream about standing at the plate and hitting a home run in the World Series or you dream about, you know, that buzzer beater when you're a basketball player kicking a field goal or running a touchdown or throwing it, whatever. You don't dream about all the BS that goes along with sports. You dream about the sport itself.
- [22:48]
Kenny Wallace
We don't know, we don't, we don't know all the business behind it, you know, so much money to do this.
- [22:54]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, true.
- [22:55]
Kenny Wallace
So you know, I can easily tell this could be five hours. No, it really could because I have a lot in common with you. I know a lot about you because we were teammates. Let's remind everybody that, let's go like this right now. I believe that after you got done racing, I believe you became way more famous because you're a rebel and your, your quotes, your, your answers, your phrases, they ricochet throughout the world and media grabs your quotes because you're strong minded. They, they, they found you. Media, they found you. You didn't ask for it. Yeah, I feel like you're more famous right now than you've ever been. You're on NBC, you're on, on big tv. And, and they still pick your quotes up. And Kyle, you, you matter because you're a historian. And that's another subject. When I say all that. What do you think?
- [24:02]
Kyle Petty
Thank you. First I'll say thank you. And, and I think, and I think it all ties together. I'm a little bit, I'm in, in these ways, I'm a lot more like my mom, like my mom was. And I'm sure.
- [24:18]
Kenny Wallace
Opinionated.
- [24:19]
Kyle Petty
Opinionated. I got it. And you're gonna hear. But, but here's the, here's the thing. The thing is, it's just like we were, we were talking just a minute ago. When I think back to the old car, I think back to the Superbirds of the early 7 of 70s of the Ford, you know, of the Torinos and, and the, and the Talladegas, the, the, the, the, and the Mercury's that the Wood brothers would bring to the racetrack. And those, those cars are the cars of my youth and those are the cars I think about. And I started driving them. I drove a Magnum, I drove a Monte Carlo, that old Monte Carlo like you see so many times. Earnhardt drove that number two car, that old Monte Carlo, that body style. So I drove those cars and then transitioned to the small Buicks and all that stuff and then transitioned to the next car with the offset body and everything and then to the cots of the early. So I've driven a lot of stuff. And the thing is, so I grew up going to the racetrack when I was 6, 7, 8 years old, going with my dad and during the summers and on the weekends hanging out with Pearson and Kale and Bobby and Donnie. Even though you were a kid, you saw those guys, man, you got to hang out with them and they're gods, they are gods to this sport. And then I had an opportunity later in the 70s when I started racing, Bobby was still here and Kale was still here. Kale and I had a hell of a race at Talladega when Bill Elliot unlapped himself twice for second. And I ended up beating him just barely at the line. And that's one of my greatest moments, was beating Kel Yarbird to the line at Talladega. So there's moments like that that I look at, and that's where my opinions come from. My opinions come from how I grew up, what I've seen in the sport. So when somebody says, well, this, this, and this, and I'm like, yeah, but I remember back to 68 and 69.
- [26:08]
Kenny Wallace
No, no, no.
- [26:11]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, I remember back to 76, you know, I mean, so it's different. And. And so I have an opinion. And. And, you know, and. And you and I are the same way. And you. In. In this way. We've seen a lot of drivers come and go, you know, I mean, and there's. I know a lot of nice guys that can't drive race cars. I'm sorry. And I know a lot of, you know, horses, rear ends that can drive the crap out of a race car.
- [26:34]
Kenny Wallace
Ain't that a shame? Ain't that a shame?
- [26:38]
Kyle Petty
But everybody that drives a race car is not a nice guy, but they're not a bad guy either. You know what I mean? And. And, you know, but we've seen guys come in with all the hoopla and all the pomp and circumstance and never do anything. Never do anything. And we've seen guys that come in quietly that just excelled and just. Matt Kenseth is a guy that just kind of slid into the sport, went and won a championship, and just kind of disappeared. Terry.
- [27:03]
Kenny Wallace
Bonnie, I think of.
- [27:04]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, yeah. Terry Labonte. I mean, so many guys like that, but they left a mark here. And because they're great race car drivers. So I have opinions when I see somebody drive and just taking up. Taking up a seat and wasting oxygen because they shouldn't be in that seat, because somebody's got more money than God and they bought them a seat. I don't like that. Yeah, I just don't.
- [27:23]
Kenny Wallace
I'm sorry, because you were in the race shop, you were enterprises, sanding things. You used wheel bearings.
- [27:30]
Kyle Petty
That's right. You pack wheel bearings. You put rear ends on the car. So I don't like that, because I know there's a kid out there somewhere who has worked his knuckles and worked his fingers until they are bloody dreaming about sitting in that seat and holding that steering wheel. And he's not going to get a chance because some 14 year old decided he saw Jeff Gordon on TV. And I want to be a superstar like Jeff Gordon. Daddy, can you buy me a seat? And he gets a seat. And I'm sorry, I'm not a huge fan. I've seen guys come in that way who have been phenomenal race car drivers. But I know there's guys in the sport right now who are just wasting oxygen, man, just taking up a seat somewhere and a good car, somebody else could get in that. And maybe we're missing an opportunity at the next Earnhardt, at the next Jeff Gordon, at the next Rusty Wallace or Jimmy Johnson or whoever that may be, because he's never going to get a chance to set in a seat.
- [28:23]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah. You know, I'm going to broach this subject just because I feel like I grew up in this era. I, when I raced locally around St. Louis, well, first of all, I never raced around St. Louis. I was with my dad, my brother Rusty, Kenny Schrader. And ladies never were allowed in the chit area because that's, that was a man's world and it was thought of as too rough. The ladies are goddesses. Let's keep them out of harm's way. You know, And I feel like here's where the Kenny conversation comes in. I remember your father more so. And I'm not, I don't want you to answer for him, but I kind of, I kind of remember you on this bandwagon too.
- [29:08]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [29:10]
Kenny Wallace
Ladies in the pit area. Back in the day, the Petty Enterprises wasn't you. You guys didn't like the ladies in, in the garage, in the pit area.
- [29:20]
Kyle Petty
No, it had never been. And, and I think that's, that's, it just never happened. You know, I mean, listen, I remember this. True story. I remember being in Riverside, California.
- [29:31]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah.
- [29:31]
Kyle Petty
When Dick Brooks had a sponsor that had a, a female. This is back in late 70s, maybe early 80s, had a female VP and she couldn't get in the garage area to see a car that her company was spending hundreds. Oh, my dollars.
- [29:50]
Kenny Wallace
Hold on, let me back up. NASCAR did not allow ladies.
- [29:53]
Kyle Petty
NASCAR didn't let women in the garage. That's accurate. Yeah. So NASCAR did not allow women in the garage area. Yeah. And here, and, and again, here is a corporation who is sponsoring a car in a NASCAR series in the elite NASCAR series. And the woman who is in charge of the, the finances for that, that company can't get in the garage area to see the car because they don't allow Women in the car. And that's the way the sport was. That's just the way of sport. And. And I'm going to say something. So my dad did an interview. I'm throw this out here. My dad.
- [30:26]
Kenny Wallace
This ought to be good.
- [30:27]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, My dad did an interview, and he was asked that. He said, what do you think about ladies and racing? Yeah. And. And my dad's answer was, there are no ladies in racing. And the. The reporter that ask, it said, named off, rattled off five or six. And he said, oh, you mean women in racing. My mother's a lady, My mother in law was a lady, and my wife is a lady. And a lady would never drive a race car. A woman might, but a lady would never drive it. So it depends on the phrasing in the south on which way you want to go. You know what I mean? And. And that's the way he looked at it. And, you know, I think his opinion has changed. But, you know, the technology's changed, the cars have changed. Everything has changed. Life, you know, Rusty's a big old boy, man. Rusty's tall. Y'all are big old guys, you know, And. And you look at it, and now you look around the garage area and. Jockeys. Yeah. You know, Matt, you know, we grew up with manual steering. You know what I mean? We grew up with so many different things that. That it's just different. It's not better, it's not worse, it's not easier, it's not harder. That's not what I'm saying. It's just different. And. And the world changed along with it. And that's why, you know, we went at Pity Enterprises when In the early 2000s, you know, we had a couple of female engineers that were the smartest engineers we had. They were incredible. And they looked at the sport totally different because they looked at it strictly engineering. And it was so refreshing to sit down with Margaret and a couple of them and just go through the data. And she would pick things out that I would take for granted, and that's good. And she's like, no, that's bad. And this is why it's bad. And you get to thinking, it's like, oh, my gosh, I understand. Alba back. Oh, Chevrolet, man. Incredible woman. Incredible woman and an incredible pioneer in the sport for that part of it. And I had an opportunity to talk to Janet Guthrie and what she went through. I can't imagine what she went through. That was tough for her. We talk so much about what Bubba goes through or what, you know, Bill Lester or other people have gone through in the sport. What she went through at a time in the 70s is, is, was horrific. So. But the world changes and the whole sport changes and it changes for the better in a lot of ways.
- [32:43]
Kenny Wallace
But let me say this from my viewpoint. I always like to me the ladies, you know, like when I would talk to my wife about this Kim, she would say, kenny, I'm a girl. I, you know, I don't want to be in the dirty old garage area. It's dangerous. So for. From my viewpoint, Kyle, we didn't say ladies weren't shouldn't me in the garage from being mean. It was like, hey, you ladies are, are dainty. You're. You're the love of our life. We don't want you in this dirty, nasty, scary area.
- [33:13]
Kyle Petty
Yeah. It was just a different way is. Listen, it was a different way of looking at it. We grew up at a different time and, and that doesn't make it right or wrong. That's not an excuse one way or the other.
- [33:22]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah.
- [33:22]
Kyle Petty
It's just different. Listen, I can't go back and fix my childhood. I can't go back and fix how I was raised and I don't want. So I'm going to keep some of those values and, and that's what I'm going to do and I'm going to move forward from where we're at now. That's all, that's all any of us can do. Whether on anything like that. The way I look at it.
- [33:38]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah. Moving forward now. So you are when I say, when I say this, I mean capital letters. You are a free spirit. Free spirit means your hair's in a ponytail.
- [33:50]
Kyle Petty
Yep.
- [33:50]
Kenny Wallace
Leonard Skynyrd, you're from the south. However, you're gonna go to New York to get your hair cut. You know, 30 years ago the media followed you there. You know, you're gonna grab a guitar. Yeah. Like you did one week ago to an unbelievably sold out concert. So is the free spirit. And I see the wood brother kids are a little bit like that from being in the mountains of Virginia. It does shock me that you all are like this. The Wood brother kids, you. This free spirit, does it come from your mama?
- [34:25]
Kyle Petty
A little bit. A little bit? I, I think it does.
- [34:29]
Kenny Wallace
Or are you rebellious?
- [34:30]
Kyle Petty
Yeah. More from her. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I think this is what she taught me. Okay. I think this is what she taught me. And this is what you learn. I think you learn this, this racing. Okay. So. Yeah. And and yeah, what's that number again? I ran how many races? 8 hundred and what?
- [34:47]
Kenny Wallace
Eight, 829. NASCAR starts with eight NASCAR cup wins.
- [34:52]
Kyle Petty
829. And I lost 821.
- [34:55]
Kenny Wallace
Okay, no, no, no, no.
- [34:58]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, but here's, here's my point. Here's my point. I lost 821 times, which means that I failed to reach my objective. 821 times because that's, that's the way you look at my dad. Won 200 races, but he lost 915 or something. You look at it like that.
- [35:16]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, good point.
- [35:17]
Kyle Petty
So the point is, I think the way I was raised and what. And growing up that way is I was not afraid to lose. And I'm not afraid to fail. I'm more afraid not to try. I just want to go try things. And that's where that free spirit and that rebellion comes from. If somebody says, let's go ride a bull, I'm like, let's go do it, man. Somebody says, and because I don't want to be, I don't want to get to be 96 years old and in an assisted living home and hear everybody else's stories. I want to hear when I'm at the nursing home and somebody says, anybody ever ride a bull? I'm gonna raise my cane in the air and shake it, and then you will lead the group, you know, Anybody ever fly around the world, I'm gonna raise my hand. Know. Just whatever it may be. Yeah, I, I, I was only on that bull for like.09 seconds, man. It wasn't like I rode the bull. I just sat on the bull and he threw me off, but at least I sat on the thing, you know what I mean? So that's my point, I think. I think that's the way I, I was raised. Not only for my mom, but just the atmosphere you're raised in. You're going to lose, you're going to get beat, but that doesn't mean you don't lose it. You got to go try. You gotta go try, and you gotta give it everything you can while you're trying and then pick yourself up off the ground and go do it again. And that's what my granddad did, and that's what my dad did, and that's what I do.
- [36:38]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah. And in that same arena, you've been to the Grand Ole Opry, you know, when you and I work together at speed or FS1, you would bring your guitar and, you know, you don't drink, but we'd all grab a little bit of beer and we'd come into your hotel room, be about six of us. And yeah, you're not shy at all. You just pick that guitar up so. And. And we'd have a good time. And. Yeah, I love that so much about you. And you've taught me to be who I am. But you just got done playing a concert last week. Yeah, to sold out. Where. Where do these songs come from? Where do you. Where do your guitar skills come from? Because I couldn't play guitar if you. If I tried. I. I want to. Because I want to be cool as you. That's awesome.
- [37:29]
Kyle Petty
Songs, you know, I. I don't know where the songs come from. I. I honestly don't. Listen, I. I tell people all the time. I was. When I went to school, this true story came when I went to school. I hated reading, man. I hated reading more than any. And I had a teacher. Finally when I got. Got to the fourth grade, fifth grade, right along there, I had a teacher. And she told my mom, she said, he's got to read or we're gonna. We're just not gonna let him go forward. He's. This is as far as he's gonna make it. So my mom said. So the teacher said, what does he read? And my mom says, he. He reads. He's constantly in with his nose in Speed sport news or in stock car racing magazine. And the teacher said, send me some of them. So my mom took a stack of stock car racing magazines and a stack of speed sport news. And my teacher circled them with a magic marker. And she said, I want you to read this story and write me a report on it. And I would read anything, man. Man, I read about Lloyd Ruby. I read about David Pearson. I read stories about guys that run Richie Evans running modifieds. And I'd write it, write a report. And that's how. That's how I got through fourth or fifth grade, was because the teacher had enough sense to know I didn't care about the other stuff. But she said, you got to read no matter what. So the song stuff has kind of.
- [38:52]
Kenny Wallace
That's who you are.
- [38:53]
Kyle Petty
And doing that. It's just kind of stuff I've done and stories I've. I've experienced. I just started writing stuff down. The music stuff come from Marty Robbins, because Marty Robbins I ever saw, he used to come to the racetrack and hit set by the pool and play guitar. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, it was crazy, man. You'd be out by a swimming pool in Talladega, Alabama, and Pearson be sitting there, my dad Bobby or Donnie. And there'd be a bunch of fans whoever stayed at the hotel. You know, it'd be 20, 30, 40 people hanging out. And Marty just be sitting there singing, you know, big iron on his hip or El Paso or some of his.
- [39:28]
Kenny Wallace
What a great story.
- [39:30]
Kyle Petty
And I thought, oh, my God, man, I'm gonna learn to play that box, man. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get me one of those things and learn to play it. And that's. I was 12 years old, I think, then, so I learned to play when I was 12 or 13. I've never got any better. I'm 63 now. I never got any better, but I still play.
- [39:43]
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- [40:30]
Kenny Wallace
I'll tell you what now, out of everything we just talked about, to me that takes my mind and I'm, I'm like in a hallway. I'm focused in because I can remember, you know, us staying at, was it Thunderbird in Florence?
- [40:43]
Kyle Petty
Oh, yeah, man.
- [40:44]
Kenny Wallace
And all the teams would wear white. And, you know, I, I came in in 84 and you know, all the crew members would drag a cooler.
- [40:53]
Kyle Petty
Yep.
- [40:53]
Kenny Wallace
Out of their bedrooms.
- [40:54]
Kyle Petty
Yep.
- [40:55]
Kenny Wallace
And we'd all from. Say they kick us out of the garage at 5 and we drink beer till 7 and yeah, those were the days, weren't they, Kyle?
- [41:03]
Kyle Petty
They were, man. Remember? And listen, you talk about carrying a cooler, you get a cooler, you order pizzas, hang out in the parking lot, whatever it may be. Remember we went to Riverside and changed over those cars in the parking lot, switched over the. The fuel necks and everything, and we're just out in the middle of the American Motor Lodge in Riverside, California, welding and grinding and cutting everybody's Working on everybody else's cars. That's the cool part about it.
- [41:28]
Kenny Wallace
I gotta tell that story real quick because I'm proud of that 1984, the team that I was with, the Levi Garrett team, we took our car and we piggybacked is what they called it back in the day. And we put that Levi Garrett car with driver Joe Rutman on your hauler, the 7 11. I was at the 711 car, 7 11. Well, I wanted to help you. And you said, kenny, you know, take my battery from the left, put it on the right, take my fuel neck. And I kind of, you know, when I look back on, I said, holy crap. You know, here I am out of Arnold, Missouri, working on, you know, we. We were all together.
- [42:07]
Kyle Petty
That's right, we were all together, man. It. You know how it was. You travel down the road, truck break down, everybody'd stop, pull over, and you went together and then you. You go again and. And trucks broke down then, you know, it's not like it is now, man. You used to break down on the side of the road, have to change the tire by yourself on one of those big trailers and stuff. So. But that's. That was the spirit. That was for me. And you talk about coming out of Arnold, Missouri and going with your dad to the racetrack. That's what people did at a local racetrack. They helped each other, man. Something happened. You help each other, you just happen to be with. In a different league, in a different place. But the people were the same people. They were the people that came from. From Arnold, Missouri. They were the people that came from, you know, the mountains of Virginia or, you know, of. Or Tennessee to work on race cars. And that's what they did because the race car was the common denominator. And that's all they loved and all they cared about was being able to. To go. And it was. Listen, you know, it. There was nothing better than loaning a guy your parts or your springs and then going out and kicking his butt, you know, but you loaned it. You tried to help him. Hey, I tried to help you, dude. I just had to beat you in the end. Sorry.
- [43:11]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, you know, there's an old saying. Be careful, young man. Competition to kill you. But on the other hand, you don't want to race by yourself. You have to have people to race against to be good. Yeah, well, I believe, you know, obviously that's where your historian, your storytelling comes from, because, you know, Petty Enterprises. Who were you without racing against? Kale or Donnie? We. We gotta have competitors.
- [43:38]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, you and you know it. You saw it. You saw it when you came up. You saw it in Rusty first. You probably saw it in Rusty first. You saw Rusty race local, and then moved to asa. And he had to up his game when he went to ASA because he raced against better people. Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, Seneca, those guys made him a better race car driver. I mean, and then when he came to cop, those guys, Earnhardt and all those guys made him a better race car driver. Same with you. As you come up and you're racing against Tommy Ellis and. And all these guys, they make you a better race car driver. You got to get better or you get out. That's the way it works.
- [44:16]
Kenny Wallace
That's where I learned to get gnarly at South Boston and Rouge.
- [44:20]
Kyle Petty
You gotta go. You gotta go do it, and you gotta stand toe to toe, whether you have the experience or not. You gotta make them believe you can stand toe to toe with them, and you get better because of that. And when that race is over with and you've run second to Jack Ingram and you've been banging on his rear bumper, you go back to the hotel and you look at yourself in the mirror and you say, damn, good job, man. I'm becoming a race car driver. You know, I mean, because those guys, even when they beat you, they made you a better race car driver. So that's. That is. That's always. Yeah, competition. You play against better people. There's a lot of big fish in little ponds that think they can do it, but when they get to a big pond, they don't always get to do it. They don't. They're not always that good. But a lot of guys rise to that occasion. And that's when you get to Xfinity and you get to the Cup Series. Those two ponds are big, big ponds, man. If you can win in those series, you're doing good.
- [45:10]
Kenny Wallace
You know, you mentioned something right there that just really hit home. First of all, NASCAR is the biggest form of motorsports in America. You know, formula ones, doing their own deal. But everybody. I even talked to Jonathan Davenport about this, you know, the greatest dirt racer in our era. Everybody says, oh, yeah. I mean, everybody wants to be in nascar. So you bring up a good point. When you go to nascar, I mean, in reality, most of the drivers, if you put them in their car, they're going to kick ass. You know, everybody is, what is that, Kyle? The best get to nascar. Why is that?
- [45:53]
Kyle Petty
You know what? They just find their way there and I don't know. And listen and I don't, I don't know. I don't know how I, I always. And, and I know you're, you're the same way. You know, when, when you run a cop and you run the Xfinity and you, and you look and you roll into a racetrack and, and let's, let's throw the truck. Let's. Truck series. If you say the truck and the cop. Our truck, Xfinity and cop on any given weekend and you roll in there and there's. We'll just use the number 35. So that, that's what, 70? That's 105, in my opinion. There's 100 and 105 of the best drivers that, that, that we have, that NASCAR has in that racetrack on that weekend. You know, I mean, and, and, but the fascinating part is there's somebody out now with this kicking butt that could do it, too. Yeah, there's somebody down in South Florida who's kicking butt that could do it, too. There's somebody running midgets in Texas or sprint cars in Texas that could come and do it, too. He just hadn't had the opportunity. The trick is when a new one comes in, one gets kicked out. And we're seeing that this year with some guys retiring like, like Harvick and those guys return. But the thing is, is you want to get there because it's like the big stage.
- [47:11]
Kenny Wallace
The automakers. The automakers are trying to find the best, right? Like with Cal.
- [47:17]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, they're trying. You know, Toyota, remember we used to have the Gong show with, with Roush. Remember that? Yeah. The owners used to try it and now the manufacturers do it. You know what I mean? And some of the manufacturers do a good job. Toyota does a great job at it. But the problem is, and, and this is the problem with, with any of these scenarios is so Kevin Harvick retires and, and there's an opening there. But when you look around the garage area and you look at, and I'll take the Hendrick organization, when you look at William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, listen, there may not become a seat open up there for another 10 years. 10 years.
- [48:03]
Kenny Wallace
They're young.
- [48:04]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, they're incredibly young. So that means there's a seven or eight year old out there. Okay. Or eight or nine year old.
- [48:12]
Kenny Wallace
Good point.
- [48:13]
Kyle Petty
That if he starts now, he may get a Hendrick ride in 10 years, but that, that guy that's 16 probably not going to get a Henry grind because there's just no opening, you know, What. I mean, it's. It's a crazy. It's a crazy way of looking at. But there's. Listen, there's a lot of people. And. And my dad used to say this, and he'd get mad at me because I wasn't doing something right, and he'd say, you know, I. I could probably go up in the grandstand and get somebody to do about the. And. And I used to laugh at him. But the older I got, I realized there probably was somebody sitting in the grandstand on certain days that would have been a better choice than Kyle Petty just sitting in a race car. And in all honesty, because there was probably somebody there who run a local short track who would give his little finger, like you said, to just sit in one of those things and hang on to a steering wheel. And. And when you have that desire in that heart, man, you can't see that. You can't see that from the outside. You can't see it until they get in the car.
- [49:07]
Kenny Wallace
You know, Kenny Schrader used to say something that made me laugh, and he still will say it, but I mean, this serious. It's almost what we're talking about right now that, you know. And Dale Senior told me this, Herman, there's thousands of great race car drivers all over the world. And Schrader would say, it's not how you run, it's how you place the blame. And we'd all laugh. But, you know, Kyle, it is extremely hard, and I think it's impossible to have the greatest drivers. So, I mean, it's just something that. It's a conversation point. It's something we live on. And, and one more quote.
- [49:46]
Kyle Petty
I'm.
- [49:46]
Kenny Wallace
I'm that old now that it was Bill Elliott, he said, herman, it's all about timing and circumstances. So, Kyle, I don't think this subject ever gets solved.
- [49:58]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, and that. No, it doesn't. It. Listen, it never does, and it never will, and it never will. And it is all. It's all about timing, being in the right place, going left instead of going right, whatever choice you choose. That day you got up at 6:05 instead of getting up at 6:30 that day, and you were the first one there. That's just the way it is. You know, And I used to tell people all the time, we used to get. We used to get a thousand resumes at Petty Enterprises for people to come to work, and we never really paid attention to them. But if a guy quit and you walked in, you got the job. That's how simple it was because you just, you were right place, right time. That's. But it is the funny part to me is I don't think as you look back through and everybody wants to, you know, this guy was great. This guy was great. This guy did this, this guy did that. Yeah. It's hard to compare eras in this sport because they just continue to change. We have been incredibly blessed, I think in this sport to have so many great drivers who have won championships, who've won, you know, 50 plus races. That, that 50 number. And, and I'm gonna, I'll say this, that 50 number. And, And Rusty's in the 50. What's Rusty?
- [51:10]
Kenny Wallace
One, 55.
- [51:12]
Kyle Petty
55. So that 50 number is in the future. And the future to me and the not too distant future is going to be like that 200 number of Richard Petty. You're not going to get 50, you know, I mean, you come along now. Yeah. And, and if you, you end your career with 30 or 35 wins because these guys are going to retire a little bit sooner. The competition is so much greater. You don't see guys winning 10 races a year. You don't see guys winning nine. I can't believe William Byron has won five this year. It is, yeah. So you get, that's a huge, huge year, five wins. But you get three or four wins, you get two or three wins. You know, you get three wins a year and you run 10 or 15 years, you're only at 45 wins, you're not going to get to 50. I'm sorry. And it's. That number is going to be so elusive, man. So if you've those guys that have won, that are rare talents who have gone above that 50 mark or rare talents in this sport.
- [52:04]
Kenny Wallace
So here we are at 46 minutes already and you're making me think differently and we got to start wrapping it up. But I knew this would happen. So, so my, I want to hear your opinion on this. Here's what I believe. I believe 40 years old is the new 50s. So we saw Harry Gant, we saw Rusty, we saw your dad. But as you bring up, you said this, now these kids are starting racing at five. Tony Uri Jr's got his five year old kid, the helmets just a bopping around in the go kart, they're starting at 5 and when they get to be 40, it's like being 50. So. So Kyle, more drivers are retiring at 42.
- [52:49]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [52:50]
Kenny Wallace
Now more than ever. What's your thought on that?
- [52:52]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, so I think you're going to see that and for, for a couple of different reasons. You know, we look at, you know, what's Joey Logano, 31, 32, something like 33. Yeah, he's early 30s. He's early 30s. Kyle Larson, you know, late 20s, early 30s. I don't, you know, William Byron, mid-20s, right along there. So I see your point.
- [53:14]
Kenny Wallace
They've already done it all.
- [53:16]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, they've already done. They've already won championships.
- [53:18]
Kenny Wallace
Championship.
- [53:19]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, they've already won races. And, and the thing is that they don't. They're going to get to that place. That and, and Kyle Busch is a perfect example. I did, I did an interview with Kyle Busch and we were talking about the truck.
- [53:32]
Kenny Wallace
I love yours, all your shows, dinner, coffee, it's all good stuff.
- [53:36]
Kyle Petty
Thank you, man. But we were talking about the truck team and his goal is to, to run long enough to run a few more years in cup, whatever that number may be, then step back and run the Truck series until his son comes. Then. So Braxton comes, then they run together for a year or two.
- [53:55]
Kenny Wallace
Oh, my.
- [53:55]
Kyle Petty
Steps out. So that's his exit strategy. That's not Kyle Busch running a cup car at 45 years old. That's just not. His strategy is already in place for where he wants to be. And that's what I'm saying. These guys will get to their late 30s. And the point is at 37 or 38, if I take, if I take some kid out to 37 or 38, you've got Braxton Bush coming along, who's got tons of experience.
- [54:23]
Kenny Wallace
They're in the pipeline.
- [54:24]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, already there. He's coming along. So the thing is, the younger drivers, with that and with all this simulation that they got now, they. Can you believe that days and days and days in a simulator and just get so much. You and I, we would go, you know, you go to Martinsville, you get two hours of practice in the morning. Two hours. So that's four hours. They can spend four hours in a simulator before lunchtime, go eat lunch and come back and spend three or four more. They get double the experience. It's simulation, don't get me wrong.
- [54:55]
Kenny Wallace
It's really good. I've never even seen it.
- [54:57]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, but we, but, but the thing is, you're seeing these guys learn a different way. They don't have to wreck cars. They don't have to do it. They learn. And the way the car is, with all the simulation and all the things, engineering wise, it's just a different animal. So it's going to trend to a younger driver and the older drivers, I believe are going to be have to retire a little bit earlier. So like you say, I believe you're. That's correct. The 40 is. 40 is the new 50. You know, from, from that perspective. And when you get to that, that's where the win total comes down. That's where the top fives come down, the top tens come down. All those numbers are going to have to be adjusted to a different place because we're not going to see guys, you know, run 7, 800 races in a career anymore. It's just not, it's, it's the market that won't stand it.
- [55:43]
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- [56:17]
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- [56:46]
Kenny Wallace
More we we got a group that goes to movies every Tuesday night. It's. We're cheap here. It's like $5 a night at the movies. Well, last week we saw a really good movie called Grand Turismo. True story about sim drivers, you know, over in Formula One or, you know, the 24 hours. And I am caught off guard. You know, I guess there is simulation for airplane pilots.
- [57:10]
Kyle Petty
Yes.
- [57:11]
Kenny Wallace
And I guess they've really made this real for racing. I mean, it's the real deal, ain't it, Kyle?
- [57:16]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, it is. It is. Listen, I, I was, I have a pilot's license. Rusty has a pilot's license. Long, many years ago I was fortunate enough to to go to Winston and get in a simulator and try to land a jumbo jet in Chicago. And let me tell you something, when you miss the Runway in a jumbo jet, even if it's On a simulator, it is a weird feeling because you feel like you are in it, you know, I mean, and the adrenaline's pumping and that's the way these cars are. That's the way the simulation is now. It's. It's not. You know, there's our racing and there's all this, but there is so much. It is so technical and, and, you know, a lot of guys are, you know, I don't want to do that. You know, Martin Truex, I don't ever go do that. But we heard this week Martin Truex spent hours in the simulator getting ready for Bristol because he needed to move out of this round to the next round. Kevin Harvick. Guys like that who didn't grow up that way are having to relearn it, are having to go back a little bit. But now we see guys like Alex Bowman, who's just spent years in a simulator, like William Byron, who has spent forever on iracing and in a simulator, you know, Josh Berry, who came up that way, and that's. That's how people began to know who he was, from iracing stuff. So when you look at it, there's another door that's opened up for these guys to come into the sport. And they're going to come in younger and they're going to be better at a younger age, but I just don't think they're going to. They're going to ride that wave like. Like Rusty did, like my dad did, like Bobby Allison did, like those old guys did. But the other thing, too, is this, and I will say this is another factor. Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Kale, my dad, all those guys, they drove until they were 51 or 52 because they had to make a living.
- [58:57]
Kenny Wallace
Make a living.
- [58:58]
Kyle Petty
That's how they made a living. That's it. They didn't have the option to retire at 38 or 45. They had to make a living for their family, and they had to keep the businesses that they were part of in business. Now these guys make so much money.
- [59:12]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah.
- [59:12]
Kyle Petty
Honestly, you know, they could retire or 28, Carl Edwards. Yeah. And they're out. They don't have to. And they never. They never look back, and they don't. They don't regret it From a financial aspect. If those old guys retired early like that, man, they would have regretted it for the rest of their life. And they loved the sport. It was a different love than it is now.
- [59:33]
Kenny Wallace
I think we're coming to the end of Kenny conversation, and I have something on my mind. And you know, I can be a prick like you can, but. But I also am a lover. And you know, my. I, I was miserable my whole life in the cup series, just miserable. And my mama knew it and she would always try to help me through it and she would say, you're gonna get your due. And here I am 60 years old now and I love my life. Yeah, this is the happiest I've ever been. And my mama would say, see, I told you. And I just want to say, from my viewpoint, you're the best Kyle Petty that I've ever seen right now. There's something about getting older that I appreciate more. And Kyle, I appreciate you more right now for what you do. Like I said, you and I can be smart asses and we'll go to war, but what you do for that banner behind you, for your son, Adam the Cow Petty charity ride. It is unbelievable. And you told me, you said, Kenny, you know, I went on it. I'm going to continue to go on it.
- [60:46]
Kyle Petty
Yes, you are.
- [60:47]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, you said, and I want you to comment on this, I know I'm long winded, but you said. I used to think it was about motorcycles. And you said it's, it's about the people.
- [60:57]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [60:58]
Kenny Wallace
We're in a good place, aren't we, right now, Kyle?
- [61:01]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, you know, we are. And, and, and that, that's the funny part, Kenny. I think, and I think it does come with getting old. I think it comes with, with, with going through a lot of stuff in your life and you've been through a ton of stuff in your life. You know, we both have. And, and you learn from that. You know, if you don't learn from it, shame on us. You know, but, but the thing is, you wake up one day and you realize, man, I don't have to be the center of attention. I don't have to be the superstar. I don't have to work my butt off.
- [61:31]
Kenny Wallace
I seek attention.
- [61:32]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, I just, I like people. I like being around people and stuff. And the motorcycle thing, man, I always just loved motorcycles. And the more I ride and the more people that come and ride and, and you met all the people on our ride.
- [61:44]
Kenny Wallace
Wonderful.
- [61:45]
Kyle Petty
Just good people, man. They have good hearts. They have caring hearts. They're in every line of business from working on race cars to owning multi million dollar corporations. It's crazy, the diversity of the, of the people that come and ride. But the one thing they have in common is they care. They give back. They want to do something special for camp, they want to do something special for kids and they like being with each other. And for me, that, that's, that's the deal, you know, is I don't have time. And you mentioned, you know, the cup. Listen, there were years I was miserable driving a cup car. The only time I was never miserable was sitting in the seat. Yeah, right. And I say that the only time I was, was getting in that seat and hanging on. And I'll say that forever. But, but the thing is that you, you get to that place in life where you just don't want the negative stuff, man. I, I don't. Exhausting. Just be positive. You know, I'm a, I'm a glass half full. Just, let's do it. You know, looks like. And, and it's like. Well, it looks like that house is burned down. Yeah. But none of the trees got killed, so that's.
- [62:50]
Kenny Wallace
Everybody's out.
- [62:52]
Kyle Petty
You gotta find the bright spots, man. And that's kind of the way you are. And when you look at life from that side and you don't surround yourself with people that are complaining because you don't drive hard enough or you don't get, get the most out you run.
- [63:06]
Kenny Wallace
Second.
- [63:06]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, he driving two car leaves further into every corner than you are. Well, then get him over here and let him drive this piece of crap because it won't go too farther in there. We're gonna wreck it, you know, but it's one of those things where you just get rid of that negativity, man. That's what's been that Morgan and these little boys are, are the most precious thing. And I know Kim's always been. And your, your, your girls have always been. You have always been an amazing dad that just heaped praises and heaped love on those kids. And you always. Man, I, I remember working with you and we do stuff and you call. Your daughters would call or they come to the racetrack and Kim's always there, man. And, and that, that's special. And that says a lot. That says a lot about you, you know, and that says a lot about the man. I think, I think, you know, I will say this. I think we all grow up and we all, we do things, you know, and, and you become known as this guy or that guy or whatever, and that's what you do. But who you are is how you treat your wife and how you treat your kids and how you treat other people. And you are the man of the mountain when it comes to treating people right and being, being kind and being nice. You're an example For. For everyone and always have been for me. Because you always laugh, always smile. Now, you may go in a room and bang your head against the wall. I don't know. We all do that. We all do that. But I'm telling you, man. You are. I still. Let me. I have to tell you this. I was at a thing last night, and this true story. And I told somebody I was coming to this thing, and I was at an event for camp, and a guy said, hey, I got a friend that goes on that ride with you, and his name's John Gurley, and he goes on the ride. And he said. And John Gurley was talking about when you did that. That thing on stage with Kenny Schrader and Kenny Wallace. And I said, one of the greatest nights on ride history. And listen, here I am in North Carolina with somebody who wasn't even there.
- [65:02]
Kenny Wallace
And he's dropped that picture right here, okay?
- [65:05]
Kyle Petty
He's talking about the Kenny and Kenny show on the charity ride. And I'm like, that was. That was a fantastic night. And that's who. That's what I take away from all my years in racing is nights like that and times like that and conversations like this. So I appreciate you more than you'll ever know. And I love you. You know that. Listen, I put it on Twitter all the time. People think I got a bro crush on you because I tell you all the time on Twitter that I love you, but I do.
- [65:28]
Kenny Wallace
We care about each other quickly, before we get to the hardcore ending, which is going to be your opinion on some NASCAR stuff. I know Morgan will like this. Where are we starting this year for the Kyle Petty charity? Right. And what are the dates?
- [65:43]
Kyle Petty
Oh, man. Jenny, when's the dates?
- [65:47]
Kenny Wallace
What?
- [65:50]
Kyle Petty
May 4th through the 10th are the dates. May 4th through the 10th. And we're going. We're going from Deadwood. Deadwood, South Dakota. And we're going. Coming back to camp. Coming to Victory Junction. We hadn't ended at camp in a long time, but there's some surprises in between. You got to stay tuned. We're gonna go some cool places this year. It's gonna be fun.
- [66:09]
Kenny Wallace
Okay? So I'll. Me and my wife Kim will be on the Cal Petty charity ride. Kim said if I ride a trike, she'll ride with me. So I'm gonna get a trike. Yes. Not gonna buy one, but I'm gonna be like your dad.
- [66:23]
Kyle Petty
So, yeah, just bomb one, man. That's what my dad does. He just bombs them.
- [66:27]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah.
- [66:27]
Kyle Petty
I'm gonna give you a try.
- [66:28]
Kenny Wallace
Okay, so Kyle, we're gonna end like this. This would be the, the controversial take. So I do this with all the drivers. Your thoughts on. And I have three of them today. Your thoughts on?
- [66:46]
Kyle Petty
You know, I think NASCAR is in a transition, but in a good place. I think that they have finally decided that if you can't bring the fans, if the fans won't come to the sport, take the sport to the fans. And I think the LA Coliseum and the Chicago street race are two perfect examples of that. We went to Joliet and couldn't get the crowd from Chicago to come out 50 miles away. Yeah. So we went to the streets. Same thing with la, you couldn't get them to come to Southern California so much, so we went to them. So I think they're, they're good. I think this car, if they continue to do what they're doing with this car, continue to be open to suggestions to tweak it, whether it be stiffness, whether it be arrow, whatever, if they continue to stay open, I think, I think they're headed in the right direction. I think there's still some, some weak spots in it. I don't think they're short track program. They don't put on great short track races. That's not a good, good thing for this car. The speedway stuff is always going to be whatever it is. As long as we run those, the engines and try to restrict them, that's always going to be what it is. But then, but the intermediate tracks and some of it is in pretty good place and I think the leadership is open to, to change and that's a good place to be. I think Jim France has taken it more of a, of a role, but him and Steve Phelps and Mike Hilton and and O'Donnell and all those guys are doing a good job.
- [68:03]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, I like seeing Jim around. He's a pretty cool character. Wears those jeans and just fits right in. So the second one is. Elaborate a little bit more on that if you don't mind. The next gen car.
- [68:15]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, see the next gen car is such a departure, such a departure from anything that you and I ever, ever messed with.
- [68:23]
Kenny Wallace
Independent suspension.
- [68:25]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, you know, we had, yeah, we were still running trailing arms and track bars and stuff. Just like out from under, you know, out from under an old four old Chevy pickup. And the front suspension. Yeah, front suspension after out of a 68 Chevelle with the rear steer and all that. You know, our front steer and all this. So when you start looking at it, we were running antiquated technology you know, when they came in, think about it. You couldn't. You. You couldn't even go to. To an auto parts store hardly and buy a carburetor off the shelf. But NASCAR was still running carbureted engines, you know, because nobody had. They. Everybody had abandoned that technology. So I think what they did, they basically jumped with this car. If you really look at it, from the car that we were running before and I. And when I say the car we were running from, it's been a smooth or a slow transition through the early 2000s into. To. To where we are now, but it's basically a transition of about 15 or 20 years. It's like they really went like, boom. They just went the other. Yeah. Sequential shift, independent suspension, rack and pinion. I mean, they just did everything all at once and threw it in there. And then six races into the season, people wanted to complain about the car, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Whoa. They put 30 years of technology into a car and just said, go race it. Now, there's going to be some weak spots. We're going to have some things that fail. We're going to have some things that work. We're going to have to change some things. And that's why I say, I think if they continue to. To be that and continue to look at stuff like that, then. Then the car will get better. But the car is a good jumping off spot to be in 20, 23, 24.
- [70:00]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah. And the final question, your opinion on the incredibly hardcore penalties. Now, they seem to have calmed down, but your. Your whole opinion on the $400,000 penalties to Rick Hendrick and have the teams got the message now?
- [70:21]
Kyle Petty
See, there's the question, I think, because. And really. Because I think as a racer, you never get the. You never get the message. Yeah. You know, because that's not what you're paid to do.
- [70:31]
Kenny Wallace
You're paid.
- [70:32]
Kyle Petty
You're paid. And racing. Racing, unlike any other sport, nobody takes the NFL rulebook or, or Major League Baseball rule book or, or golf, and they say, maybe I could do this.
- [70:48]
Kenny Wallace
How can I get.
- [70:49]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, how can I. How can I get in between these rules? But everyone would take the NASCAR rule book and say, how can I get in between these two rules? You know, and that's just what you did. And that's what you did from 1949, the first time they ever run a Cup race. Yeah, until Rick was. Rick was fine recently. You know, I mean, I mean, that's. That's just what you do. And, and we're going to continue to see that. Whether it's with hood louvers or whether it's underbody, no matter. You're going to see somebody trying somebody something. Because that's the nature of the sport. I think in a sport where. And, and I will say this again, I think this. And, and I've said it before, a sport where 20 or 30 million dollars is spent on a car, I'll pay a 400, 000 fine all day long until you start taking the win and the points and everything else away and make it like I wasn't even there. Like I wasn't even there. Yeah, then it's going to hurt me. But, you know, the money is. It goes up. I think they. I think they do a good job. I think NASCAR does a good job, but they have to do a good job now because they have so many rules and so many things that you can't touch. If I allow Kenny Wallace's team to touch it, it's going to spread through the garage area like wildfire. So I have to slap you hard to send that message. And I think that's where they're at with, with all their rules and all their penalties is I don't like it. And I don't like to see them because I like creativity and I like to see people use their minds. And I'd like to see another Leonard Wood in this sport. I'd like to see another Ray Everingham in this. Somebody creative like that. But that. That they kill the creativity with the rules. And that's just the way it is.
- [72:27]
Kenny Wallace
And. And this is not on my list, but as I listen to you, I. That's one thing I try to do when I do these Kenny conversations. I try to listen. So just recently in the news is that, you know, when we watched Bud Moore quit, you know, and we watched Junior Johnson quit, they had nothing. All they had was their building. And then years later, Junior auctioned it off. So now we got the franchises and one reportedly. And you would know more than me, just went for $40 million. Now, for $40 million, we give you the franchise and you're guaranteed to sell sponsorship because now you are locked in every race.
- [73:08]
Kyle Petty
Yeah.
- [73:08]
Kenny Wallace
Your opinion. Boy, don't you wish Junior and Bud would have seen those days? What's your opinion on $40 million?
- [73:18]
Kyle Petty
That's fascinating because. Because I will go back. Let's go Back to when LG DeWitt and when. When Junior went out of business and Bud went out of business and all these guys went out of business, they Had a brick. Yeah, they had a brick and mortar business. Yeah. They had, you know, 60 years worth of Ford rear end housings and gears and, and, and lower control arms and cars. And they were lucky to get 10 cent on a dollar for everything they sold. Yeah.
- [73:45]
Kenny Wallace
Because it put the whole life in it.
- [73:47]
Kyle Petty
Yeah, their whole life. Everything they'd ever done. And they were lucky to get 10 cent on a dollar. Now we're in a sport where somebody paid X for a charter and sold it for almost 400 times what he paid for it. That's not 10 cent on the dollar. That's 400. That's a multiple of 400 almost.
- [74:09]
Kenny Wallace
That's good stuff.
- [74:10]
Kyle Petty
Which is crazy. Which. Which is crazy to me. And it's just a piece of paper. It's not anything. It's just, here's my charter, Kenny. You can have it, you know what I mean, for this much. So it's just a piece of paper. It's just. And it means something. Don't get me wrong. It's tangible and it has a value. But I think that totally changes because here's the thing you've got to remember, too, the charter that was sold is a charter on the low end of the income spectrum. It got so much money guaranteed before the year started. You're guaranteed to start every race and you're guaranteed X number of dollars. You're guaranteed. Yeah, you're guaranteed X number of dollars now. So I'm. Let me, let me get my picture here. So that charter was down here?
- [74:54]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah.
- [74:55]
Kyle Petty
Okay, so if that charter is worth 40 and Rick Hendrick owns four charters that are up here, what's a Rick Hendrick charter worth? Is it worth 60? Is it worth 80? And he's got four of them. What's it worth? And that's the fascinating piece for me.
- [75:11]
Kenny Wallace
I easily see a charter being worth $100 million. And here's why. Because by. By a. Buy an NFL football team.
- [75:20]
Kyle Petty
Yep.
- [75:21]
Kenny Wallace
And that's what you pay to get in because you're guaranteed a starting spot. Now I can sell sponsors.
- [75:26]
Kyle Petty
Yep.
- [75:28]
Kenny Wallace
Well, listen, Kyle. Yeah, man, buddy. We set a new track record here. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Kyle. And we'll see y'all later.
- [75:38]
Kyle Petty
Thank you, Kenny. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
- [75:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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- [76:22]
Kyle Petty
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Kenny Wallace
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Kyle Petty
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