"The Godfather" Dave Moody: Grassroots Racing & STRONG Opinions

Summary

Podcast Summary: “The Godfather” Dave Moody: Grassroots Racing & STRONG Opinions

Podcast: Herm & Schrader
Hosts: Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader
Guest: Dave Moody (MRN, SiriusXM)
Release Date: December 30, 2025
Provider: SiriusXM, Dirty Mo Media

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Episode Overview

This episode features a lively, in-depth conversation between racing personalities Kenny Wallace and Dave Moody, known as "The Godfather" and the “voice of NASCAR.” The discussion blends hilarious storytelling, sharp opinions on racing culture, and heartfelt tributes to the grassroots roots of stock car racing. Moody shares his path from Vermont’s Thunder Road to national radio, his relationship with legendary figures like Ken Squire and Barney Hall, candid thoughts on racing safety, and his philosophies around sportscasting and spirited debate. The tone oscillates between nostalgic, irreverent, and unflinchingly honest—pure racing passion with no filters.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rainouts, Racing Commitment, & NASCAR’s Effort

• Moody’s take on race cancellations:
  • Discussing NHRA canceling Pomona and speculating the NASCAR fan reaction if a championship race were called for rain.
    • “If we went to Homestead, Miami...ended up just canceling it because of rain...Can you imagine what the NASCAR fan base would have to say about that?” (Moody, 02:03)
  • Praise for NASCAR’s investments (Air Titans, rescheduling) to never give up on holding races.
  • Brian France’s vision for track drying and innovations in the sport.

2. Dave Moody’s Vermont Roots & Broadcasting Beginnings

• Confusion about hometown, and the ‘Barry’ moniker:
  • Montpelier (“Mount Pilot,” “Mount Peculiar”) vs. Barre; how radio legend Barney Hall just couldn't get the town's name right.
    • “He knew he was butchering it, but there wasn’t a darn thing he could do about it.” (Moody, 04:46)
• Early days announcing sports:
  • Moody got his start covering high school sports and writing for ‘New England Speedway Scene’—a gig he took for a pit pass, not money.
• Ken Squire’s Influence:
  • Ken found Moody, saw potential in his writing and fandom, and invited him onto Thunder Road’s public address.
    • “I went to Ken Squire High School and Barney Hall University.” (Moody, 06:12)

3. The Spirit & Culture of Northeast Racing

• The myth that racing is a Southern-only sport:
  • “The premise that stock car racing is a Southern sport is just patently untrue...there are race fans there [Northeast/Midwest] that are the equal to anything found south of the Mason Dixon line.” (Moody, 09:42)
  • The intensity of short racing seasons—“We don’t get a whole lot of summer...so when the sun’s out...we have to make the most of that time.”
  • Reference to great Northeast racers: Bodines, Ricky Craven.

4. Thunder Road’s “Widowmaker” & Changing Safety Attitudes

• Showmanship and danger as part of the sport’s lore:
  • Ken Squire promoted the “Widowmaker” while emphasizing the draw of danger.
    • “People don’t want to watch something that's safe. They want to watch people do things that they don’t dare to do.” (Moody, 13:34)
• Evolution of safety:
  • Stories about drivers like Chester T. Woods—using literal tractor seats.
  • Massive advances: soft walls, HANS devices, full containment seats.
  • The Northeast’s motorsports museum and halls of fame; importance of honoring pioneers.

5. The Lasting Impact of Autographs and Racing Heroes

• Personal connection with drivers:
  • Moody’s childhood memory: lingering for autographs not for signatures, but to be seen by the drivers—“Once you got to the head of the line...would look you in the eye and pat you on the head and say, how you doing, kid?” (Moody, 19:18)
  • Ken Squire’s lesson: “That guy right there might pick up your garbage tomorrow morning, but tonight he’s a hero. Every driver on that racetrack is a hero...it’s your responsibility to make sure people realize that.” (Moody, 20:12)
• The importance of salesmanship in regional racing rivalry, especially with Canadians like Jean Paul Cabana:
  • “Some people like Jean Paul, some people hate Jean Paul, but everybody knows Jean Paul.” (Moody as JP Cabana, 22:31)

6. MRN, Career Breaks, and Radio’s “Sounds of Summer”

• Landing the MRN job:
  • Ken Squire recommends Moody, leads to a Daytona audition in 1983.
  • Accidental breaks (Dave Despain wanted to ride his motorcycle).
  • First assignment as ‘Garage Reporter’—no one crashed during the 500, so he had nothing to report.
  • “I sat there leaning up against a garbage can saying, I’m done. I’m never going to be heard from again. I’m the only reporter in the history of MRN…” (Moody, 31:17)
• Old MRN traditions:
  • Tuesday night MRN trivia, live shows from Hawaiian Inn during Speedweeks, and the power of radio before TV coverage.
  • Moody’s place in calling the end of the Daytona 500 for Darrell Waltrip.
    • “I’m going to get to call Darrell Waltrip off turn four to win the Daytona 500...I think he’s going to make it. And that was, that was my entire call, but that was enough.” (Moody, 39:38)
• “Trouble in turn two”:
  • A phrase passed through generations of MRN announcers to alert the team of priority race coverage.

7. Transition to SiriusXM and Modern Racing Media

• How SiriusXM NASCAR Radio began:
  • Multi-layered negotiations—show debuted right after 2003 finale.
  • “Can you think of a worse time to start a show than the day after the season just ended?” (Moody, 45:24)
• What makes SiriusXM unique and compelling:
  • “It’s real people being real.”
  • Importance of strong opinions:
    • “Half of them are going to hate you, half of them are going to love you, and there’s not a damn thing you’re going to do to change anybody’s mind.” (Moody, 46:53)
  • Sometimes takes up points just to spark debate, not necessarily out of full personal conviction.
  • The value of debate, not agreement, in sports radio.
  • On meeting fans: “You don’t have to agree with someone to like someone. I can’t imagine going through life without ever hearing anything you disagree with.” (Moody, 49:05)

8. Embracing Not Being Universally Liked

• Both Wallace and Moody reflect on learning to be comfortable with being disliked:
  • Moody: “My job is opinions and commentary...If you think I’m a jerk, that’s okay. As long as we did three hours of really interesting...radio...I don’t need to be universally beloved.” (Moody, 51:06)
  • “Given the choice between loved and hated, everybody’s going to take loved. But...no one that’s successful in that business...just said, ‘yeah, I don’t really know how I feel about that, but if that’s how you feel, okay.’” (Moody, 52:58)

9. Social Media, Civility, and Cooling the Environment

• Moody notes the effect of anonymity:
  • Quotes Mike Tyson: “People on the Internet have gotten used to saying terrible things to each other without ever having to worry about getting punched in the mouth.” (Moody, 57:05)
  • Echoes longing for when, “if you’re going to tell Kenny Wallace or Dave Moody to go to hell, you had to stand in front of them and look them in the eye while you did it.”

10. Grassroots Racing Renaissance – Ricky Craven & Tracks

• Wallace and Moody’s pride in drivers buying and improving local tracks:
  • Ricky Craven’s story from Unity, Maine, to NASCAR, and now purchasing Speedway 95.
    • “He loves the sport. And he’s going to put about a decade into that place up there in Herman, Maine. And...then he’s going to do what you did. He’s going to hand it off to whoever comes next...” (Moody, 58:50)
• Promoting ongoing renewal in grassroots racing ecosystems.
• Recognition of unsung heroes and possibilities for the next generation in New England and beyond.

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Memorable Quotes

• “People don’t want to watch something that’s safe. They want to watch people do things that they don’t dare to do.”
  (Dave Moody on Ken Squire’s marketing genius, 13:34)

• “I went to Ken Squire High School and Barney Hall University.”
  (Dave Moody, reflecting on his mentors, 06:12)

• “Half of them are going to hate you, half of them are going to love you, and there’s not a damn thing you’re going to do to change anybody’s mind.”
  (Ken Squire’s media philosophy, as quoted by Dave Moody, 46:53)

• “Some people like Jean Paul, some people hate Jean Paul, but everybody knows Jean Paul.”
  (Moody, recounting the legendary French-Canadian driver, 22:31)

• “You don’t have to agree with someone to like someone. I can’t imagine going through life without ever hearing anything you disagree with.”
  (Moody, 49:05)

• “People on the Internet have gotten used to saying terrible things to each other without ever having to worry about getting punched in the mouth.”
  (Quoting Mike Tyson, 57:05)

• “If that’s what we accomplished today, I’m fine with that. I don’t need to be universally beloved.” (Moody on opinions in radio, 51:06)

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Timeline of Major Segments

• 00:41–04:55: Opening, Moody’s Vermont/Montpelier story, Barney Hall, and radio legacy.
• 05:45–09:42: Early influences; Ken Squire and learning the craft; the Northeast’s racing heritage.
• 12:30–14:47: Thunder Road’s “Widowmaker” and the balance of danger/safety in racing.
• 15:56–20:12: Racing safety then and now; honoring both old-timers and modern advancements.
• 27:05–33:02: Breaking into MRN; first big break, garage reporting, and early career challenges.
• 33:27–39:38: Sounds of summer, MRN nostalgia, and Moody’s signature “Trouble in turn two.”
• 42:24–43:56: Ken Squire’s iconic lines; Moody’s favorites (“grandma, put your teeth in your pocketbook…”).
• 44:57–48:43: SiriusXM, the value of authentic, opinion-driven radio.
• 49:54–52:06: Embracing not being universally liked; lessons from the greats on radio candor.
• 57:05–57:49: Discussion on social media vitriol and the changing nature of fan interaction.
• 58:50–61:58: Ricky Craven’s purchase and revival of Speedway 95; importance of grassroots racing.

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Final Notes & Takeaways

• The episode is a loving, brutally honest ode to racing’s roots—its dangers, characters, and the red-hot passion of its communities at every level.
• Moody’s story is a testament to the power of mentorship, perseverance, and authenticity in sportscasting.
• The conversation underscores the continued value of local racing, the importance of strong opinions in sports media, and the irrepressible energy of race fans—north, south, and everywhere in between.

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For those who love racing’s culture, history, and hard-edged debate, this episode encapsulates the spirit of the sport as seen and shaped by some of its most colorful personalities.

Transcript

[Kenny Wallace]

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[Dave Moody]

To the exclusions and details@t mobile.com hello.

[Kenny Wallace]

Everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought to you by jigs, the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts. Remember to go to JEGS.com for everything you need to fix your everyday vehicle up and even that hot rod that you have. Okay, deep breath, everybody. I am super excited about this man. They call him the Godfather. I call him the voice of nascar, my dear friend. And we are like minded, the great Dave Moody. Dave, how you doing?

[Dave Moody]

I'm good, Herm. Great to see you. Always a good day when I get to spend time with my friend Kenny Wallace.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, you make me happy, my friend.

[Dave Moody]

And I.

[Kenny Wallace]

And I gotta tell you, I think this is the first time I've ever had anybody on from radio and I saw a post that you were making and it made me think, I gotta get Moody on. You said something like, the NHRA race at Pomona. They outright canceled it, Dave. They just said, we're not gonna even run the race. It's rained so much. And I thought, I thought, boy, Moody's got an opinion on that. Because you said, what would our NASCAR fans do if we just canceled a race?

[Dave Moody]

If we went to Homestead, Miami for the final race of the season with champions to be crowned and ended up just canceling it because of rain and saying, we'll see at the banquet tomorrow night. All the champions are now determined on points. Can you imagine what the NASCAR fan base would have to say about that?

[Kenny Wallace]

I'm not, I'm not laughing, making fun. I'm laughing like, oh my Lord, they would lose their mind. And you know, when I go back, I think about, what was it maybe 10 years ago or more? We were at Michigan. I think we finally got that race going on a Tuesday. Yeah, but NASCAR has Done everything in the book, and they've spent millions and millions of dollars, Dave, with these. These drivers. I mean, just talk about the effort that NASCAR makes to get these races in.

[Dave Moody]

Yeah. Brian France doesn't get a lot of credit for a lot of things. He should get more credit than he gets. But that whole Air Titan thing was his baby. That was his genius idea. I don't know. I think he went in the men's room, you know, and you had one of those airflower things that you stick your hands under. He said, man, that works really good. And they spent a lot of their own money, NASCAR did to. To build those Air Titans, and they have revolutionized how fast we can get back to work after a rainstorm.

[Kenny Wallace]

All right, everybody, let's start Kenny conversation. Let's celebrate the great Dave Moody. But that is why I said, I gotta call Moody, because that was a good one. And we use that one on Herman Schrader. So thank you for. For giving me that little controversial nugget right there.

[Dave Moody]

But.

[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, Dave, you are from Barrie, Vermont. Tell me about Barry, Vermont.

[Dave Moody]

I was. There's a story here, Kenny. I was actually born and raised in Montpelier, Vermont, which is the capital city. It's about five miles. Five miles to the west of Barry. But when I started working for the Motor Racing Network, you know, at the start of the broadcast, when they throw it out to us for our little scene sets, Barney hall would always try to say, from Montpelier, Vermont, dave Moody. He could not for his life pronounce Montpelier. It was Mount Pilot. It was Mount Pilar. I think it was Mount Peculiar one day. And finally I came up to him on a Sunday morning, and I said, barn, if this helps, I was born and raised in Montpelier, but I live in Barrie. And he looked at me and he said, boy, you're from Barrie. And that's the way it's been ever since you.

[Kenny Wallace]

You know. You know that old Barney was like, every time he. He had to say that name, you know, he's like, oh, God, I gotta say that name again. Yeah.

[Dave Moody]

And he knew he was butchering it, but there wasn't a darn thing he could do about it. So we. We went with Barry. And Barry, it remains, you know, I.

[Kenny Wallace]

Know a lot about you. And I have to admit, somebody said to me one time, they said, if you were not going to be a race car driver, what would you be? And I said, I would do AM debate radio. I. I love. I love radio. And I just want to say this That I get emotional when you say the name Barney hall because he would say things and you say things that just take me back to my childhood when I, you know, I love racing so much. But Barney would say, David Pearson looks on the inside of Richard Petty, but he thinks better of it. Barney always said he thinks better of it. Was there any favorites that you had of Barney besides that one that he said?

[Dave Moody]

Herm, I was. I have been doubly blessed in my life and my career because I grew up learning this business at the knee of Ken Squire. Ken taught me everything I know for years and years and years. And. And then I was fortunate enough to get hired by MRN and I got to learn at the knee of the great. Like you said, the great Barney Hall. So I joke with people that I went to Ken Squire High School and Barney Hall University and everything that I am and everything they do that I do. And about 90% of what I say came directly or indirectly from one of those two gentlemen.

[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, I love this because you've given me my lead way. So Montpelier, Vermont, we say Barry, Vermont. But I'm going to go to the beginning, and then you help me. I believe you are a racer from ground zero. However, in your early beginnings, you announced high school basketball, hockey, football. So let's. Let's start from the very beginning. So I see that you announced high school basketball, hockey, football, and then we're going to get into Ken asking you to be the track announcer at the Widowmaker Thunder Road. That's such a long story right there. We'll get to it. But when did you find your voice to. To do announcing?

[Dave Moody]

Ken found it for me. Really? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I was. I grew up a race fan, even though nobody in my family knew racing existed except for my uncle. And he dragged me to the racetrack when I was six years old, and it ruined me for anything else. I never wanted to do anything other than watch race cars from then on. But I started out the summer before my senior year in high school. I started out writing a little weekly column for a guy named Val Le Suur. He ran a paper called New England Speedway Scene. I remember gone, so is the paper. Never paid anybody a dime, right? We all worked for free. But I thought it was the greatest deal in the world because I got a pit pass and I could go into the pits and I could talk to Dynamite Dave Dion and Bobby and Beaver Dragon and John Paul Cabana, and I just write my little column every week. And. And about the time that Ken started getting really Busy with CBS Sports, going on the road to do CBS Sports Spectacular. And he'd be all over the world, right? He'd be at the Acapulco Cliff Diving Championships. He'd be down in Australia for the Bathurst 1000. And he needed somebody to take over on the PA Mike on Thursday nights at the nation's site of excitement, Thunder Road, high atop Quarry Hill. And Barry. And I think the best I can figure is that he read a couple of my columns in Speedway Scene and said, okay, here's a kid that loves racing and has got a workable vocabulary. Maybe I can make something out of him. I guess that's it. Either way, I'm just thankful because he picked me.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, he chose a good one because you're really good at what you do. Now, I want to say this. I remember Val. Val La. Sure. He would always. And I want you to help me. Is this a Northeast thing? I would say, how you doing, Val? And he'd say, good new.

[Dave Moody]

Good new. Yeah. Yeah. What is that?

[Kenny Wallace]

What is that?

[Dave Moody]

That was a big old grissy bear of a man. Usually grumpy as hell, right? But. But yeah, good new every single time.

[Kenny Wallace]

What is it about the great Northeast? I admire you all. I truly love you all. You. You love your racing like nobody else. I, you know, I had Stuart Friesen on. I said, what is it about the Northeast? So, simply put, what is it? Why are the fans and why are you. I mean, we all are, but you guys are extra effort. You're rabid racers.

[Dave Moody]

I've said this for years, Herman, and some people believe me and some people don't, but the premise that stock car racing is a Southern sport is just patently untrue. And you know, up in the upper Midwest, there are race fans there that are the equal to anything found south of the Mason Dixon Line. Same thing up in the Northeast. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York State, Connecticut, Massachusetts. You know, we don't get a whole lot of summer. You know, we. We get about four months of summer maximum. So, man, when the sun's out and it's above 70, we have to make the most of that time. And, boy, there are some passionate racers up in the Northeast. There really are.

[Kenny Wallace]

I thought that. And that was my opinion, too. I said their. Their winters are seven, eight months long. It's dreary. But. But you know, you've made some great racers up there. A lot of hall of Famers, whether it's the Bodines or Ricky Craven or any of my friends. 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 when it comes to money, you deserve to feel safe from fraud and in control. And that's what you get with Cash App. Instantly lock or unlock your card with one tap. If a suspicious charge appears, Cash App declines it and alerts you with security. Lock face ID or biometrics. Protect your account. Order a Cash App card today at Cash App Card for a limited time only, new Cash App customers can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real. Just download Cash App. Use our exclusive referral code. Secure 10 in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Firms apply. That's money. That's Cash App. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Prepaid debit cards issued by C. Sutton bank member fdic. Instant discounts provided by Cash App, a Block Incorporated brand. Visit Cash App legal podcast for full disclosures.

[Dave Moody]

The McDonald's snack wrap is back.

[Kenny Wallace]

You brought it back.

[Dave Moody]

Ranch snack wrap. Spicy snack wrap. You broke the Internet for a snack? Snack wrap is back.

[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, we kind of laid the groundwork where you're from, how you got started, but let's talk about Thunder Road for a little bit. You know, they call it the Widowmaker. Listen, I know you know everything. I just want to serve it up for you that, you know, I ran there once, and coming off of turn four, it's like that wall is just decimated. It's destroyed. Tell me about Thunder Road.

[Dave Moody]

Well, Ken Squire and a couple of partners built that place in 1961, and. And yes, they call the front stretch wall the Widowmaker. No one, let's be clear, no one has ever died at Thunder Road and hopefully never will. But Ken Squire, being the PT Barnum showman that he was, understood that the possibility of somebody really getting in trouble would draw people to buy tickets, right? When you go to the circus, you don't go to the circus hoping to see the guy fall off the trapeze and die, right? The Flying Wallendas. Nobody ever bought a ticket to see the Flying Wallendas, hoping that they would fall to their death. But the fact that they could was what sold the tickets. And putting a net under the Flying Wallendas took all the fun out of it. And Squire for years late in his life and his career said nascar's gonna stop talking about how damn safe this sport is. People don't want to watch something that's safe. They want to watch people do things that they don't dare to do. And he was of course, absolutely correct about that back in the day. You know, Chrissy Konamaki told me a story, the late Christy Conomacki many years ago when he used to, when he was selling newspapers and he had to hitchhike to the race because he couldn't afford a car. He said, I'd show up late to the racetrack after practice was over and somebody what happened? And they'd say, well, driver A was fastest and driver B was second fastest and driver C blew an engine and driver D died and he'd go, oh, okay, I'm up to speed. And he'd go and watch the rest of the race. Thank God it's not like that anymore. But, but the, the risk and the daring and the, you know, the lucky teeter hell drivers component of our sport is still, I think, very important.

[Kenny Wallace]

We are talking to the great Dave Moody from Barrie, Vermont. We're going to get to more later on, but 1983, you started with MRN. Right now you're on Sirius XM Speedway. And we're going to get to that, everybody, but let's stay right here for a little bit, okay? As you know, I worked for Speed TV, which was owned by Fox for 14 years. And Dave, we had a meeting. Steve Craddock and you know, Eric Shanks, I mean the, the bosses at Fox and they brought up that very subject when we, when we came out with the soft walls, the HANS device, the full containment seat, they looked at us in a meeting and they said, guys, girls, you got to remind everybody that this is a dangerous sport. You can die. So with that being said, I mean, you know, I mean, I just got done talking to Kenny Schrader about this. This is a dangerous sport. We've made a lot of improvements. Just talk about the improvements that you've seen in your day from the Widowmaker to now.

[Dave Moody]

Oh, Lord, it's amazing, Kenny. When I first started going to races at Thunder Road, we had a racer and a really good racer. His name was Chet Woods. Squire dubbed him Chester T. Woods. His middle name did not start with a T, but Ken said it sounds good. So he is Chester T. Woods. He actually had one of those round Massey Ferguson tractor seats in his race car.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh my.

[Dave Moody]

And if you pulled up alongside him going down the front straightaway, he would turn and look you right in the eye. And it freaked a lot of racers out when he did that. But I say that to make an example of just how little we used to really care about safety back in the day. You go to the NASCAR hall of Fame now and you look at one of the first couple of cars on the glory road display up there and you need, you need a tetanus shot just to walk by. You wonder how anybody survived back in the 1950s and 60s and 70s. Somehow we got through it all, but thankfully it's, it's a whole lot safer today.

[Kenny Wallace]

You mentioned something right there that kind of grabbed my attention. You know, kind of caddy corner from Loud New Hampshire. From the racetrack is Dick Bergens. You guys got a wonderful, well put together museum, hall of Fame, it's everything. Do you guys recognize that as your Northeastern Museum hall of Fame? I mean, it's beautiful.

[Dave Moody]

Absolutely. So Dick Bergren and company, he'd be the first to say it hasn't been just him, but they've done an amazing job with that facility. And it was built for minimal money because racers stepped forward and said I want to help. And you know, the racer with an excavating company did the excavating and the racer with a concrete company poured the concrete. So they got it done on a budget. But they do, they do some amazing things there. And I've been very blessed to be asked back to mc a couple of programs with old time racers. You know, just, you know how it is telling. It's like you and Schrader telling stories on each other. Half of them true, half of them not. But yeah, they've got a really neat place over there. And it's funny you mention it because in the next 30 days, going to put the inaugural class into the Vermont Motorsports hall of Fame, something that's long overdue and a bunch of us finally decided to get busy on that and try and recognize some of the pioneers of the sport.

[Kenny Wallace]

David, as I get older, I'm 62 now and I will admit when, when I was younger and, and I'm embarrassed to say this, but I'm just going to be honest because I want to, I want other people to hear this. When I was younger, you know, old people were getting old, they were getting ugly, they wrinkly, they were in my way. But now that I get older and I go through that museum, that hall of Fame, my Lord, everybody was the same when they were young. And it is so nice to see people, you know get their due and get recognized. Do you ever get emotional when you see those older people in a wheelchair with a cane? And then you look at him, you go, man, they were so badass at one time.

[Dave Moody]

Yeah, I really do. Hermit. And I've been very fortunate because when I was a kid, I would go to Thunder Road on Thursday night, and after the races were over, they'd throw open the pick gates and nobody went home. After the races. Yeah, all the racers would just sit on the tailgate of the pickup truck with a cold beer in their hand and sign autographs. And every night after the races, I'd stay there for probably 45 minutes or an hour, and I'd get Dave Dion's autograph, and I'd get Bobby Giro's autograph and John Paul Cabana, and the next week, I'd be right back in line again to get the same autographs from the same people. And it wasn't really the autograph. It was the fact that once you got to the head of the line, those drivers, those heroes, would look you in the eye and pat you on the head and say, how you doing, kid? And, you know, talk to you about their race. It was like. It was really amazing. You know, Squire taught me when he was teaching me how to be a. How to be an announcer, he said, he point at the racetrack and he'd say, that guy right there might pick up your garbage tomorrow morning, but tonight he's a hero. Every driver on that racetrack is a hero. And it's your responsibility to make sure people realize that. And he never had to tell me that a second time, because I'd always believed that to begin with.

[Kenny Wallace]

I love this, because, yes, an autograph is fine, and it is awesome and it is valuable. But when I would see my heroes, whether it was Dick Trickle or Larry Phillips or Dale Earnhardt Senior or Richard Petty, I would study them. And. And I'll admit it, I mean, I don't think I'm saying something that nobody else does. Don't you just stare at them? Do you know whether they're sweating? Do they smell? After this race, you know, you. You take in all this. This ambiance and all these scents, and you're like, oh, my God, there he is. I'm two feet from him, he's signing the autograph. But yet many smells. Oh, look at. Look at him smoking that big old cigar. And Jean Paul Gabbana is easy from Canada. How did he. I mean, am I saying it right? Am I embarrassing myself?

[Dave Moody]

That's the way I Felt, oh, you're, you're totally right. And, and a lot of them back then understood the salesmanship that was part of the deal that if people didn't come back next week, if people didn't have an emotional investment in you as a racer, that they wanted to buy a ticket again next week and come back and see, you know, JP Cabana, he understood as well as anybody because, you know, there were, there were four or five really good Canadian racers that would come south and a lot of the time they'd grab all the money and go back home again. So there was a little, there was a little bit of this going. There was a little rivalry. The local fans were not wild about seeing the Canadian Canadians win. And JP understood that. And he poked the bear, man. He, when he would win a race. And this even continued into when I had started announcing and I understood what was going on. So when he was in victory lane, he, he, he'd do his thank you very much, my car was very good. And I'd say, jp, how about a couple of words for our French speaking fans in the audience? Oh, boy. And he, he'd go about four minutes in French and when he got all. And of course the crowd was booing and carrying on, right, because they didn't like him to begin with. And now he's not even speaking their language. And he would always end up. And he would say for the fans that boo me, I say one thing. Some people like John Paul, some people hate Jean Paul, but everybody knows Jean Paul. And he would give them the Kyle Busch bow 30 years before Kyle Busch ever bowed. And they lost their minds. But you can bet your biffy they were back next week for more.

[Kenny Wallace]

Man, I'm just thinking of old Ken Squire. Gave him an extra $10.

[Dave Moody]

Oh, easy. Yeah.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh, man, that, that is, that is badass good stuff. And I wished someone. It's so serious nowadays because we, you know, everybody just lives, eat and breathes, racing to the maximum peak. Most of those racers back then, they, like you said. I like what Ken said. You, that race car driver there might be emptying your trash, might be running a company, but right now he's a race car driver. And, and nowadays most, most of these racers, I mean, what do you think about that? Do you think most racers, I mean, we're talking even like, you know, Bubba Pollard or, you know, the Cars Tour, these guys are racing for a living now.

[Dave Moody]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, Herm. Honestly. I mean, I get it. That as you, as you climb closer and closer to the top of the ladder every time you grab a new rung, that means there's less time for anything else than just being a racer. Because you've got to be, you know as well as anybody, you got to be 101% devoted if you're going to make it at the uppermost levels of the sport. But I love the fact that at least at the local level and to some degree in the regional ranks, there are still guys that race. It's not their day job, it's their side hustle. And they do it because they love it. You know, I went home to Thunder Road for the Milk bowl, the race where they kissed the cow in victory lane. Yeah. And it made me feel older than Dirt Herman, because there were, there were second generation drivers whose races I announced their dad's races. There were third generation drivers. I announced their grandfather, I announced their father, and I announced them. Made me feel old, but it sure did make me feel good, too, that, that, that little racetrack up in the hills of Vermont had three generations of people coming back to drive race cars.

[Kenny Wallace]

I knew this would happen. You and I would start talking about racing and we would forget about celebrating you. So we're going to write the ship right now, everybody. We are celebrating the great Dave Moody. And let's, let's keep it, let me try hard to keep it in this lane right now. So you love racing. Ken Squire find you. You start announcing high school. Basketball, hockey, football. You have found your voice. Ken Squire recognizes your talent. So I have this question here. I see you on social media. You love Boston. Are you a sportster? Do you love all sports?

[Dave Moody]

Yeah, I, I do. I, I, like, I won't say all sports. I'm in the wrong play. I live in North Carolina now and have for 15 years. I am not a, I'm not a huge or basketball fan, mainly because up in Vermont, you know, we didn't have Division 1 football and basketball teams that were really any good. But, but I'm a huge, you know, baseball fan, NFL fan, hockey fan. I'm a Boston Bruins guy from way back. You know, they put the Boston Bruin Games on Channel 3 out of Burlington, Vermont, every Saturday afternoon. And my dad and I'd be huddled right in front of that tv and that, that has stayed. So, yeah, I'm, I'm a sports fan over and above. Just racing.

[Kenny Wallace]

We're gonna go back and forth, everybody, because you're like me, your love and your passion is northeast and NASCAR mines the Midwest and nascar.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, so let's head south now. We'll get back to the great northeast. So in 1983, the great Ken Squire, he recognizes your talent. Your Thursday night, you're at Thunder Road. Your announcement. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, you get this big break in 1983. You get your break. You, you, you try MRN radio. Tell me about this.

[Dave Moody]

Well, that door opened, as most of them in my career have to some degree, because of Ken Squire. And I think, you know, he was having a conversation with John McMullen, who was running the network at that time. About two weeks before speed Weeks, I got a phone call from John McMullen saying, We'd like to bring you down to Daytona to audition for the network. Would you be interested? I'm not going to say no to that. And I was on an airplane shortly after that and went down there and did my little audition for them. I didn't think I was anything special at all, but apparently I did good enough that they invited me to hang around for the rest of Speed Weeks. And I spotted a couple of races for Dave to Spain. And then when it got down to. It got down to Saturday to Spain, said John, I'm a motorcycle guy. I'm in Daytona Beach. I want to go ride my bike. Why don't you send this kid up and just let him call turn two. And everybody in the room, you know, Eli Gold and Barney hall and all of them, their eyes got as big as dish platters because they're like, oh, no, we're going to send some green kid up there. McMullen looked at me and he said, you want to do it? And for some reason or other, I said, hell, yeah, I'll do it. And they sent me up to, to turn One and two on Saturday afternoon to call the Busch grand national race.

[Kenny Wallace]

Man, oh man, I'm thinking about when I first started my way. You know, there's this funny saying that we all said, you know, and I haven't heard it lately. Tell me, in the great Northeast, did they say, hey, I'm going south? We, we. I mean, that's the way it was if you were going NASCAR. You know, I can remember at 40 something years old, Dick Trickle, one of the greatest drivers of all time. And, you know, you're in Wisconsin and like, Richard's going south. You know, if we're in St. Louis, Missouri, Herman's headed south. You know, I'm going NASCAR. But did they talk like that or is that only me?

[Dave Moody]

No, it was the same in New England as It was in St. Louis. When you finally, when you finally couldn't stand it anymore, you would take most of what little you owned and you'd throw it in the back of a pickup truck and throw a blue tarp over it and a couple of bungee cords, and you'd head south to Charlotte and, and back then you could probably pick up a job within three or four days if you were lucky, coming to Charlotte, probably sweeping floors or doing something fairly menial. But it got your foot in the door. So, yeah, it was the same.

[Kenny Wallace]

I, I often find that, you know, right around now, everybody's kind of tired of racing. We need a little bit of a break. But I often find, you know, after Christmas and the start of New Year's, like the middle of January, everybody has had enough and they are ready to head south now. And they do love NASCAR again. Was it like that?

[Dave Moody]

Yeah. And the older I get, Herm, the more time it takes me to go back into withdrawal, back to the track it used to be, man, two weeks after the season was over, my leg would start bouncing up and down underneath the desk, right? And I just, I need. So I got to go to the racetrack. I got to get back to work now. I can make it into the middle of January before I start getting withdrawal. I'll be 65 in March, and apparently I've just mellowed out a little bit.

[Kenny Wallace]

Yeah, I'm the same, Dave. I'm 60, 62, be 63 in August. I'm right there with you. Okay, so we make it south. But now, is this right? 1983, you do your first race and I read this. It made me laugh. You said you were jacked up, you were at Daytona and you just couldn't wait. You were a Garage reporter. But nobody would wreck. You had nobody to talk to.

[Dave Moody]

Yeah, after I did that Busch grand national race, and then we got to Sunday, but there was no place for me. They didn't quite dare to put me out there on Sunday yet. So they said, okay, we'll make you our garage reporter. When people drop out, you can interview. And Harmon, that 500, nobody spun out, nobody blew up, nobody ran in anything, nobody cut a tire. I just. I sat there leaning up against a garbage can saying, I'm done. I'm never going to be heard from again. I'm the only reporter in the history of MRN that'll never say a word during the Daytona 500.

[Kenny Wallace]

So that was in 1983. When did you go to work for MRN full time?

[Dave Moody]

It was a few years. It was probably five or six years because back then there was no truck series, right. So there were no truck broadcasts. The only time I would work was when somebody needed a weekend off. If one of the. A team had a commitment or somebody was getting married or they were under the weather or whatever, they'd call me up and they'd bring me in. Probably ended up doing two or three, maybe four races a year. And then finally, after a while, I'd done it for long enough. My boss at that time was David Hyatt, and he called me and he said, what would you like to do in a perfect world? I said, well, if you're willing to make a commitment to me to send me to the track every week, I'll make a commitment to you to get on the airplane and be there. But I'm at a point where I'd like to either fish or cut bait. I either want to go to work or I don't. And he said, okay, we'll put you to work. And I've been there 40 years now. It's crazy, but I'm still going.

[Kenny Wallace]

Let's. Let's have a little fun. I wanna. I wanna tell you how much you mean to me. I want to do some. What I call sounds of summer. When I. When I was a kid and I wanted to be NASCAR, the very first one was Tuesday nights. MRN radio. Hello, I'm Eli Gold. If you're the 12th caller, you will receive a free. Do you remember those days?

[Dave Moody]

Well, absolutely. So, yeah, there's no question about it. I remember that. And I remember, you know, during speed weeks, Squire used to go down to Daytona beach and they would have it. Every single night of speed weeks, they'd have a live radio show from the Hawaiian Inn. Yes. And you know, it's like now you got to arm wrestle drivers to get to come on the air with you. Back then there were race car drivers lined up all the way to Deltona wanting to get on Ken Squire show. And anybody that was anybody was there and the place was packed. A few people might have been slightly overserved during the festivities. It was just great fun.

[Kenny Wallace]

So as I talked earlier, you know, we would listen to the great Barney hall say as he, you know, petty on the inside of Pearson, but he thinks better of it. He backs out. You started one that I use every day of my life. You know, a tree could fall and I would say trouble turn one. So it is said that you dubbed Trouble turn two when you first started. You were turn one and two. You still are the, you're the leader, you're the lead. You're the lead turn announcer. You are big time. You have now, you are now you have taken the place of Barney hall. You've taken the place of Ken Squire. Did you start Trouble turn two?

[Dave Moody]

No, that. That pre. That preceded me and it will be there long after I'm gone. There are, there are a few ground rules if you're going to be calling races for mrm, and one of them is you have your area, and for me, it starts at the entrance of turn one and it ends at the exit of turn two. That's my area. And if anything goes wrong, no matter who's talking, everybody on the broadcast knows that you push the button and you say trouble in turn two or trouble in turn three or wherever. And that means for everybody else to lay out, right? That's the broadcast term for shut the hell up and let the guy call the race or the wreck because the wreck precludes everything else. It's the most important thing. So no trouble in turn two had more to do with where I was standing than anything I made.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, I tell you, I, I don't know why, but here I am at 62 and to this day, I mean, MRN is the soundtrack of my life, along with my St. Louis Cardinals, KMOX radio, Jack Buck. But I get emotional because, you know, even though everybody's race car drivers, you know, there, there's. Before you're a race car driver, you're not, you're not a race car driver. And we're all fans. And MRN radio is, is everything to me. And you're right. I mean, you know, back in the 70s, 80s, I would say around the mid-90s, it was still there, but we'd go to Daytona and we would beg, hey, man, can we be on a radio show? You know, I mean, it was a big deal before you became part of MRN Radio. And we're going to get to SiriusXap here in a minute. Before you became part of MRN Radio, were you a fan of MRN Radio? Did you listen to it?

[Dave Moody]

Absolutely. So, you know, when I was growing up, Herm, we didn't have races on tv. At best, we'd get three or four races on Wide World of Sports and they were two weeks old by the time we got them. And they weren't flag to flag. Right. They'd show us 15 minutes and then they'd cut away to the, you know, the Acapulco Cliff Diving Championships. Then they'd come back and they'd show us three or four wrecks that had happened. And then they'd cut away for two PBA bowling from Akron and then they'd come back for the last 15 laps. So that was the closest we ever got to live racing. And it wasn't live racing. The only way we had to know what was happening at Darlington or Daytona or wherever was on the radio to the point where you'd get in the car and drive to the top of the hill because the local radio station, that was an MRN affiliate only came in from the top of the hill. So, yeah, we. We lived for MRN back then.

[Kenny Wallace]

Michael Waltrip tells that beautiful story. His popularity would, you know, they. They live there in Kentucky somewhere. And he had. He had to drive miles and get off the exit and he would sit there all day long so he could listen. MRN announced his brother Daryl. Speaking of that, it is said that you called Daryl Waltrip off turns three and four to win the Daytona 500.

[Dave Moody]

Sure.

[Kenny Wallace]

Is this true?

[Dave Moody]

Yeah, absolutely true. It was the first time I'd ever worked the 500 from a turn. And I was up there in turn three and four. And as you'll remember, I guess the legitimate story is that Daryl conserved fuel better than everybody else. Whether that's the case or not, whether there was a story behind the story, I don't know and I don't care. It just made for a really dramatic finish. And I remember I got a good line in with about three laps to go when I said a bird just flew down the back straightaway and Darrell Waltrip drafted it all the way to turn three. And then we get down to the final lap and I'm thinking to myself, this is awesome. I'm going to get to Call Darrell Waltrip off turn four to win the Daytona 500. And as I got ready to push the button, Dick Brooks, who we all loved back then, he was down on pit road, right, with his bib overalls, and he pushed the button and proceeded to do a last lap update of how Darrell Waltrip's crew didn't know if he was going to make it or not. And about the time he stopped talking, it would have been time for me to stop talking. And I got a little bit selfish as the first time kid at the Daytona 500. I said, I'm not getting aced out on the final lap. And I pushed the button and I said, darrell Waltrip is off turn four. I think he's going to make it. And that was, that was my entire call, but that was enough.

[Kenny Wallace]

That is so badass. And you probably feel like it was yesterday, you know, Mark Martin was in town. Mark came to my house. We've been friends our whole life. So much so that when we would pass each other in the garage area, we just, we knew we were good friends. So Mark rolls up the hill and we do a lot of coffee with Kenny's. And it was really good. But I, I said, mark, I gotta take out the Schraders. So I got the Schraders and there's this wonderful picture and, and we're gonna. Our Charlie Marlowe can do wonders. Charlie, drop the picture in here. Here's Mark Martin, his son Matt. Right now you're looking at it, Mark. And Matter out at Schraders. And Schrader has the old Union 76 ball from Talladega. Were you ever in it?

[Dave Moody]

Once, and that was enough. Herman, those 76 balls were made out of steel and it was about this thick, the steel. And they had, they had tiny little windows which are about a foot and a half tall and maybe four feet wide. And I'll give you a little insider hint here. Every picture you see of those 76 balls, there's somebody hanging out of the window, about up to their waist with no shirt on. It's not because they're rednecks trying to get a better look. They were just trying to breathe. Those things on a good day were 125 degrees. It was brutal, absolutely brutal.

[Kenny Wallace]

I wonder if Union 76 paid for them and put them up. How do you think those originated? Did you ever hear a story or.

[Dave Moody]

Yeah, I'm sure 76 at one point paid for them. And they were great because you could see them from 10 miles away. But, man, if you had to live Inside of them on a hot day at Talladega, Alabama, or Daytona Beach, Florida. Fourth of July in Daytona Beach, Florida. Oh, yeah. Hang out. Hang out in that steel ball for a couple of hours and tell me how much fun you're having.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Dave Moody]

You are strong.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Kenny Wallace]

You know, in our day, NASCAR was everything. I mean, I. I get emotional right now. I mean, it was. It is my life. I know it was yours. I want to tell you another one, because this is how much radio means to me. As the sun sets in the west. The 37th running of the Daytona 500 is coming. As the drivers head off into turn one. I mean, that was Ken Squire. I mean, the years would go by. It's like, oh, my God, 20 years just went by, and I still remember. As the sun sets in the west. I mean, what. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I'm thinking you gotta have one.

[Dave Moody]

What?

[Kenny Wallace]

One just gets you. I've told you so many of mine already. Is there any that get you?

[Dave Moody]

Are you a member? Oh, yeah. I've got a million Squire isms. My favorite one probably wasn't the most polished one, and I don't know if he ever used it on national tv. Maybe he did, but he used to use it at the short tracks every once in a while. He. He. Well, you got ready for the final restart. With three laps to go, he would say, grandma, put your teeth in your pocketbook. This one could be interesting. Far and away. Far and away my best Ken Squire. I mean, there was the Oklahoma land rush, and you know all of those great Squire phrases, but grandma, put your teeth in your pocketbook was by far my favorite.

[Kenny Wallace]

That is fantastic. All right, everybody. It saddens me that now we're going to Come up to date. I sure enjoyed it. You know, we're going to talk about Ricky Craven in a little bit and him buying that racetrack. But let's, let's go right now. So in 2003, SiriusXM NASCAR radio, and you are by far the Most famous show, SiriusXM Speedway on Channel 90 right now. You, you are like me, you are controversial. But, but you're not controversial on purpose. It's because you have to, you have to field the callers. They call you. You know, I'm. If I had Jimmy Johnson's race car, I could out drive him. I mean, the, these are the type of calls you get. You end up, I'm not saying arguing, but you get into heated debates and the steering Sex M Speedway is, I mean, it is the premier show because we, you get a look inside how crazy some of these people are. And I mean that. I'm not taking that back.

[Dave Moody]

Right.

[Kenny Wallace]

These people are crazy. Tell me about when you're at mrn. Here's what I want to know. You're at mrn. When do you first start hearing about this Sirius XM thing?

[Dave Moody]

They talked about at home for about a year before it ever happened. And you know how it is. You get multiple layers of red tape. There were, you know, NASCAR was involved. Sirius and xm, they hadn't merged at that point. They were all, I remember that, you know, MRN was involved. So, you know, there were 19 levels of bureaucracy to finally get done by the time they decided we were going to do it and they pushed the button to go on the air. Our first show was the Monday after Matt Kenseth won the 2003 championship. Can you think of a worse time to start a show than the day after the season just ended? All the drivers are on boats or airplanes or somewhere, right? They don't, they have no interest in talking to me and they didn't even know we had a show. Anyway, I figured we'd be lucky if we lasted a year and a half. And, and as of now, we're working on year 23, so off we go.

[Kenny Wallace]

What is it about this, this radio? My wife, Kim, she'll tell me all the time, you know, I just bought her a new Suburban. Make sure you pay for my Sirius xm. What is it about that radio that is different than normal radio? I mean, just take it from there.

[Dave Moody]

What.

[Kenny Wallace]

Why does my wife have to have it?

[Dave Moody]

Well, she's a woman of impeccable taste, as we all know, based on, you know, who she lives with and all. But you Know, for my money, Herm, it's real people being real. And, you know, Squire told me a long time ago about doing sports talk radio, that if you're, if you're going to work in sports talk radio, you have to have strong opinions. You have to defend your opinions strongly, and you can't really care about whether people agree with you or not because. And he told, I remember him telling me this, he said, half of them are going to hate you, half of them are going to love you, and there's not a damn thing you're going to do to change anybody's mind. And if you look at talk radio in general, but certainly sports talk radio, there's no one that's successful in that business that doesn't have unbelievably strong opinions, doesn't defend those opinions to the death, and quite honestly, doesn't piss people off on a fairly regular basis. Basis. And it's just a part of what we do. I'll let you in on a little trade secret. Sometimes I will give a point of view on my show that I don't necessarily believe in 100%, but I say it in order to motivate you to say, I think he's right about that and I'm going to call in, or I think he's an idiot and I'm going to call in. Doesn't really matter whether you agree with me or not. And a lot of people that call into sports talk radio, certainly my show, kind of have it backwards because if they hang up the phone at the end of their call and the host didn't agree with them, they think that their call was a failure. They think that it didn't go well. No, not at all. You're not required to agree with me. I'm not required to agree with you. Let's just have a debate. Let's wind people up and let's just air it all out and clear the fences and get all sides of it out on the table and encourage the next guy to call in and say, you know, I think you're right about that, or I think you're an idiot.

[Kenny Wallace]

And you know what I find is when we see, when accidentally we see each other in real, we like each other, but there's that, that bravery that, you know, whether it's on radio, I'm gonna call in and tell this guy what I think. But, you know, when we see each other, we're a little more timid. Have you ever met any of your callers?

[Dave Moody]

Oh, yeah, I definitely have. We, we Have a pretty loyal group. It's almost like a kind of a really. A really odd, incestuous, inbred family, you know? And, and yes, I get. I get people every single week that walk up to me and say, listen to your show every single day. Love your short course. The people that hate your show aren't going to come up and tell you. Even if they're listening, they're not going to come and tell you, I listen every day and I think you're a jerk. They just watch you walk by. But, yeah, I hear from those people all the time. And, and it's wonderful because you don't have to agree with someone to like someone. I can't imagine going through life without ever hearing anything you disagree with. Some people really think that they should be able to go through life and never hear anybody say anything they disagree with. I can't imagine anything more boring than that.

[Kenny Wallace]

I want to stay right here for a minute. The art of being okay with people hating you. When I grew up, I wanted everybody to love me. And then we're at Bristol. Never forget it. And I'm out there. I'm talking to Chuck, man. I'm talking to Steve Grissom from the Bush grand national days. My brother Rusty Wallace. I say his last name in case, you know, we got new people. There's a generation gap. So Rusty goes, herman. I hear Herman. It's Rusty. He's calling me. I go up in his motorhome. He goes, what are you doing talking to those drivers? I said, they're my buddies. He said, they are not your friends. They're trying to get you. And it. I'm not saying it bothered me, but it stuck in my brain that one of the reasons my brother Rusty is so good and maybe Michael Jordan or maybe even Earnhardt is they weren't out to make friends and they weren't out to make enemies. They were there to do business. And I've mastered this, by the way. I'm quite proud that people hate me. Tell me about you. Tell me about you.

[Dave Moody]

I'm the same way, Herm. My job at SiriusXM, and you know me well enough to know that there are at least two sides to me. There's the side that's on MRN on Sunday afternoon where opinions and commentary are not my job. Describing what's in front of me is my job. And I try to do that as best I can. But Monday through Friday from 3 to 6pm Eastern Time, my job is opinions and commentary. And I'm fine with the Fact that a lot of people disagree with me. If you think I'm a jerk, that's okay. As long as we did three hours of really interesting, really captivating, really informative, formative radio, and you turned it off at 6 o' clock Eastern Time, saying, I can't wait for 3 o' clock tomorrow so we can do this again. If. If that's what we accomplished today, I'm fine with that. I don't need to be universally beloved.

[Kenny Wallace]

I think. No, I don't think. I know that. That. And I know this sounds crazy. It completed me because I was so worried. My whole life I want people to love me. But here, lately, I almost feel complete that now that I've learned how to handle people hating me, which, you know, I mean, we're exaggerating a little bit, right? You're gonna have a couple people. I don't like that, Wallace. I don't like that, Moody. They run that mouth. Hey, dummy, that's what we're getting paid to do.

[Dave Moody]

Don't give the secret away, Herman. Then I'll figure it out. If you tell them.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, but I mean, for me, there is a little bit of. How do I say it? Not happiness. A little comfort knowing that I. I'm okay now. I'm okay for years. I mean, did you ever go through that or.

[Dave Moody]

Sure. No, no. Everybody would prefer to be liked, right? Given the choice between loved and hated, everybody's going to take loved. But I'll. I'll go back again and talk about, you know, people that have done well in talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus, Stephen A. Smith. Right. I mean, just go down the list of people. Are there any patsies on that list? Are there any. Is there a single one that's been successful in that realm that just said, yeah, I don't really know how I feel about that, but if that's how you feel, okay, then I'll go along with it. No, those were all people that challenged their listeners to think beyond, well, I don't like so and so. Well, why don't you? Well, I don't know. I just don't.

[Kenny Wallace]

Well, he don't think like me. He should think like me.

[Dave Moody]

Right? Right. You mentioned Mark Martin a minute ago. I love Mark Martin. Mark Martin is one of my favorite people on the planet. There are a couple of fairly significant issues in our sport that he and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum, and I couldn't care less. I love Mark Martin. If he thinks something different than me, if he wants to run 36 races and count points, and I don't. That's okay. Maybe we'll debate it when we see each other. Maybe we won't. Maybe we'll just sit and talk and tell war stories for a while.

[Kenny Wallace]

We always. We use something that I think is kind of funny when. When the fans get ignorant.

[Dave Moody]

We. We.

[Kenny Wallace]

We got this code where, oh, you. You have a lot of passion. I. I think that's the best way to clean it up. You know, when people start mother. And. And, you know, they start calling you names, it's like, oh, you got a lot of passion. Because it, you know, it. It is part of the debate. And. And I will add on to this with Mark. You know, I knew the fans wanted to hear it. I saw it. When Mark Martin comes to your house, I hope he beats you down. I hope he puts you in your place. So the first thing I asked Mark, I said, mark, do you hate me? Mark, do you want to beat me down? And basically chewed the fans asses out. He said, see, that's what's wrong with all of you. He says, you're vicious. You have to learn to disagree and go on. And it was short and sweet, and I thought, wow. I didn't have anything else to add to it, but I like what you said. You love Mark, but just because he likes vanilla ice cream don't mean you gotta eat it. And you both can sit there and you can eat chocolate and he can eat vanilla and you still like each other.

[Dave Moody]

Exactly. Right? We can be perfectly happy. We can spend, you know, and I won't make it about Mark. I can. I can spend six minutes on the radio with some caller arguing about anything in the sport, and we don't disagree for 15 seconds. But on. On Saturday night, if I'm riding out through the infield at Talladega on a golf cart and the guy says, hey, Moody, it's me. We just had a big old fight on the radio, and that happens. Let's drink a beer together and talk about nascar. I'm glad you called. I'm glad you listened.

[Kenny Wallace]

I gotta tell you, I'm a little disappointed because now since Mark said that, nobody's mean to me anymore.

[Dave Moody]

Oh, it won't last. It'll never last. Sh.

[Kenny Wallace]

Would say that won't last.

[Dave Moody]

They'll hate you again in a minute. Her. Don't worry.

[Kenny Wallace]

It's like everybody that we respect so much, like Mark Martin, the guy that understood NASCAR to the maximum peak, he goes, you know, I'm gonna pull over. You know, we're 200 laps into this 500 lap race, this guy's all over me. If I don't pull over, he's gonna wreck me. Mark started, you know, this great sportsmanship. And when Mark told everybody, you got to learn to disagree without being so vicious, I think sometimes we need the environment cooled down. What, what are your thoughts on every once in a while cooling the environment down?

[Dave Moody]

I agree wholeheartedly. I don't know how it's ever going to happen because with the way social media operates now, you can say anything to anybody without any repercussions. Really. I think the best person to sum it up was Mike Tyson, the heavyweight champion of the world. Iron Mike Tyson, when he said, people on the Internet have gotten used to saying terrible things to each other without ever having to worry about getting punched in the mouth. And I think there's something to be said for that. I think we were a good deal more civil back in the day that if you're going to tell Kenny Wallace or Dave Moody to go to hell, you had to stand in front of them and look them in the eye while you did it. We were a heck of a lot more civil when we had to stand face to face with each other.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh, man, Dave, I tell you, I could, I could go on. There will be a part two, sadly. Let's start winding it down a little bit. Let's go back up to the great northeast. And this is kind of bringing it in with where we're at today. I, I see a lot of race car drivers, you know, Kenny Schrader, Tony Stewart, myself, Bob Sargent. We owned Macon Speedway in Macon, Illinois. We, we made it better for 14 years. I'm proud of it. Then we sold it. And as Bob Sargent would say, there's always somebody that can do better. Now, up in your parts, I see something that, I mean, I'm ready to help at any time. The great Ricky Craven, he just bought Speedway 95. He's thanking the bank. Every one of us post here on Facebook. They are making improvements. Just tell me your pride level of Ricky coming back to the northeast and, and doing this.

[Dave Moody]

Herm, I couldn't be more proud. I. I've known Ricky since he was about 14 or 15 years old. I was the track announcer on the old American Canadian tour and we were racing in Unity, Maine on a Saturday night. Unity, Maine is. You go to Canada and hang a left, basically, and we were all done racing. It's like one o' clock in the morning and the cars are going through tech and this scruffy little kid with crooked teeth and red hair flying everywhere, walks up to Tom Curley, the late Tom Curley, who ran the series and said, Mr. Curly, my name is Ricky Craven. I drive the number 12 bomber car, and my goal is to be good enough to race on your tour someday.

[Kenny Wallace]

Wow.

[Dave Moody]

And two years later, he did. And two years after that, he won the BushNorth Championship. And two years after that, he was down south winning grand national races. And maybe a year after that, I got to call his first NASCAR Cup Series win. And I can't tell you how proud I felt to have known him win. And he's just been. He's a top notch guy, and he loves the sport. And he's going to put about a decade into that place up there in Herman, Maine. And it'll. It'll shine like a diamond when he's done. And then he's going to do what you did. He's going to hand it off to whoever comes next because he'll be 65 or 68 years old, and that'll be enough for him. But I'm. I'm so proud of him, of what he's doing to give back up there.

[Kenny Wallace]

Okay, you made me emotional because I feel like there are some drivers that you watched from the beginning, so you know, Ricky Creighton through and through. That makes it easier for you to talk about him, announce him. Was there any other drivers from the Northeast that you watched or was it just Ricky?

[Dave Moody]

Well, that made it to cup. You know, Kevin LePage, you know, grew up at the same two racetracks that I grew up at. You know, we're roughly the same age, so great driver. Yeah. Guys like Andy Santaire, you know. Yeah. Ricky's far and away, probably the most. Not probably. He's far and away the most successful so far that's come down out of New England. And I don't know why that is, because there are some great, great racers up there just waiting to be discovered there. There's another Butterbean Queen up there, and more than one of them. They're just waiting for their shot.

[Kenny Wallace]

You know, I just want to fill my part there. I think sometimes people get jobs and it's like, how do I leave this job? I own this house. Maybe Ricky was just broke enough that it just didn't matter and it was just easier. You know, I've heard it before. Earnhardt will say to me, herman, there's thousands of great race car drivers all over America. They can't all be nascar. Sometimes it's hard for these Great drivers to just get out of the Northeast because they might, might own a plumbing company, they might own something and to like give it all up, you know, at an early age. But yeah, so I'm excited. Herman Maine. I mean, so am I the first driver since that's my nickname. Should I go there?

[Dave Moody]

Absolutely, you should go there. Yes. He's, he's, he's really rejuvenated that place. You know, my, my buddies Chris Machad and Pat Malone bought Thunder Road a few years ago and they have absolutely resurrected that. It wasn't struggling to begin with, but it, it's a, it shine's like a new dime. Ricky's going to do the same thing up there in northern Maine and there are a lot of racers and race fans that are pretty darn excited to have him aboard the Hermanator.

[Kenny Wallace]

Herman the German Herman goes to Herman Maine.

[Dave Moody]

I can, for the proper amount of money, he'd probably name it Hermanator International Speedway. You can just sign on.

[Kenny Wallace]

Oh, Dave Moody, you know, let's just leave it right there. We, we started with you at Thunder Road. We came, we went south with you. You got a wonderful career. What you're doing at MRN and Sirius XM and that complete collaboration, the marriage of MRN and SiriusXM. I love you, my friend, and you are the voice of nascar. That's just awesome. And I really appreciate you being on Kenny Conversation.

[Dave Moody]

Happy to be here. I was happy to have the invitation. I am, I am thankful and honored that we got to spend a little time together. Herman, I love you back. Thank you.

[Kenny Wallace]

We are like minded. All right, everybody, remember, if you want to see Dave Moody's pretty face, you can watch him on the Kenny Wallace YouTube show. If you want to listen to Moody as you're on your way to the races, you can do that on Dirty Mo podcast. Until the next Kenny Conversation. We'll see you all next time. Goodbye, everybody. Check out Dirty Mo media on Twitter, Facebook, Tick tock and Instagram.

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