Watermelons & Woodchips Episode 38: Dustin Jarrett, "The Dean of Dirt?"

W&W presented by Central Iowa Diesel Performance Episode 38, the boys sat down with Dustin Jarrett from FloRacing.  Dustin expands on how he got started at the age of 15 years old at his first announcing gig, moving on to a traveling series, becoming the house announcer at Eldora Speedway, and now to FloRacing.  He talks about his career as a Dean of Admissions at a local college, his love for IMCA Stock Cars, and many other stories.  We talk about the upcoming Hawkeye Challenge and Harris Clash. Tune in! 

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The views and opinions expressed on Watermelons & Woodchips are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or opinions of Boone Speedway, IMCA, their affiliates, partners, or sponsors.

This content is intended for entertainment and discussion purposes only.

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:11

Holy gee Willickers, that was awesome.

SPEAKER_05 0:16

It would be really cool if you did that.

SPEAKER_12 0:22

Welcome, RaceFans, Watermelons and Wood Chips. Presented by Central Iowa Diesel Performance. We're on episode 38, according to Josh's itinerary.

SPEAKER_08 0:30

That's uh episode Dude Thompson. Is it?

SPEAKER_11 0:35

Oh man, I thought you were gonna go with Dylan Thornton.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

I know. I know we're gonna go with the most claimingest driver back in the early 80s, 90s. I don't know if he was the most, but I'm gonna say that because he claimed my dad a lot of times.

SPEAKER_08 0:47

He filled a card or two back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

But the old 38 special, I tell you what, Dash and Dude Thompson down at the Iowa State Fairgrounds was He was a man back in the day.

SPEAKER_08 0:56

Yep. Back in the day. But yes, he did like to pull an engine or two. So um I just have that name, that number popped into my head. I'm like, oh, he's not even gonna see this coming.

SPEAKER_12 1:05

No, no, that's perfect. Because I was I wasn't expecting that one either.

SPEAKER_08 1:08

So you're going with Dylan.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

He stoked me, but I thought it was totally gonna be Dylan because Colton's here and he's a fanboy.

SPEAKER_08 1:14

I that's true. Well, what you don't know is I was a fanboy of Dude Thompson back in the day. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But I do know some guys that were for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Oh, Robert Avery. He used to go over to Robert Avery's all the time.

SPEAKER_08 1:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Back in the day. And uh he actually my dad had lost so many motors the one year, he had to call uh Robert Avery. Robert heard that my dad wasn't gonna be able to race because he didn't have it uh uh, you know, because back then you g you bought the flywheel too. And uh so Robert called my dad and was like, Are you really not racing because you don't have a flywheel? My dad's like, Yeah. So he we went down there and dude, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:55

Got one off one of his engines?

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Yep. Got one off of my dad's engine, bought it back, and then we went racing and then lost that motor too.

SPEAKER_10 2:03

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:05

Oh anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 2:06

I don't know if you see that, you're facing the wrong way. Hey, the timing is. I'm sure you guys didn't throw the black flag.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

It was real inconsistent with that layout.

SPEAKER_08 2:15

I will tell you, at the Hawkeye Challenge, the black flag's a rarity. It's oh, it has to be it's yeah, because if we kicked them all out, which we don't see a lot of rough driving in that because in these, you will see a sprint car go in and just give somebody a right rear a little, which is hilarious because you see a stock car guy get a right rear from a sprint car, it's just not very often.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

But yeah. They do that this year, but I'm hooking it and going in.

SPEAKER_09 2:37

All right, all right. I'm just saying. Okay.

SPEAKER_12 2:40

Uh well, anyway, we'll reel this back in. Yeah, pull it back in, Cody. Josh Reynolds over here, our resident ginger over here, Jonathan Lowe. And uh we brought in uh Dustin Jarrett. Looks like he just came from a booster club meeting at the Boone High School board. School board, yeah. School board meeting, absolutely. Rocking the the tour doors get up. I'm I'm a fan of that.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

I'm glad you said tour doors because I honestly was not sure if it was Torridors, Tor Raider, I wasn't real sure. Torridors, of course. Yeah, big tour doors guy. Yeah, you know, big touridors guy.

SPEAKER_12 3:13

No, I I love it because I I coach our wrestling team and and uh so as a guy proud to see you rapping the the tour door swag today.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Well, I mean we did graduate from the boon torridor scene, and then when you walked in with it on, I'm like he must have gone to goodwill or stopped or something.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

Well, the r the wrestling coach was too cheap to get me a shirt. I had to go buy one at Walmart.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

So then I'm like, no, he probably did his research because he's really good at that. So he probably went somewhere and picked it up just so he was prepared.

SPEAKER_12 3:43

Right. Right. But uh, you know, getting into Saturday, rain. And anyway, yeah, that's there's really not a whole lot to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Hey, no, the best thing that to talk about Saturday was we get there early. I knew DJ was coming, we had chatted, whatever, you know, and and I w always show up a little bit early. We show up, it's like not raining. It really didn't look like it was gonna rain. Yeah, I thought it was gonna come. I mean, it really didn't. I mean, it it well Dustin probably doesn't know this, but Boon Speedway, when it hits that river bottom, it just does weird things. Yeah. It really does. And so, like, to me, when people call me on Saturdays and it's sort of like, well, what's it doing over there? I'm like, well, the storm's still on the west side of the river. As soon as it hits there, it might go north, it might go south, it might just not do anything. Meteorologist Bobcat over here. Yeah, John Mugglefflin called me on Saturday out of retirement. And basically, we unload, we come over, we're bullshitting, Cody and I and DJ and some other people, and and uh I'm like looking at it, and it really started to rain pretty good. And I'm I walked over the trailer, I'm like, all right, load up, we're out of here, we're going to Texas Rodhouse to have a steak. So we load up and we're backing out, and everybody's like, Where are you going? I'm like, secret channel bitches. And at that time I had no idea I didn't talk to anyone, or that you know, I I did not know that they were canceling. Um you were the first one out. I was the first one out.

SPEAKER_08 5:07

Everybody at the pit shack was like, What are you doing? I saw him and I was like, he's just going to hang out in the parking lot, you know. Because you people do that sometimes, you know, just to be you know have to wait to get out, but nope, he knew he knew it.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Well, once I looked at the radar and there was a blob of red and yellow, I'm like, man, I don't know.

SPEAKER_12 5:24

Because it actually picked up a little bit. Yeah, because usually, like like you said, when we've seen that, it'll hit the river bottom and it and it like dissipates or sp goes around, but yeah, this time it actually hit it and it just built up. And then and so because it showed originally that all that rain was supposed to be out by like three o'clock. Right. Or stay south of 80. Right. And then all of a sudden it was just like Yep.

SPEAKER_08 5:51

But they heard the IMCA commissioner, stock car commissioner, was in town and told me to get the hell out. The weather gods came through and said nope, next time.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

So I got a funny story. So I actually uh so I was staying in Fort Dodge. So I'm doing what any normal race van does, right? Like I am driving and checking the my race pass results for the night as well, and I get almost back to my hotel in Fort John Fort Dodge, and the MRP app shows racetrack near you, Webster County Speedway. Webster County Speedway? What the hell's this? So I Google Webster County Speedway. They were running at the track at the fairgrounds, they call it a quarter, it's probably a fifth mile tight oval and figure eight. They didn't rain out. Uh they had races on both tracks. So I went in there and watched racing for the night. No kidding. Webster County Fairgrounds got two new tracks in one night. So how about that?

SPEAKER_03 6:43

I was just gonna say I was just gonna say you got to knock off a new track. I'd never been there either. I grew up here. So when I was seriously, I seen your Snapchat and I'm like, what's he doing? Well then actually a couple of the hobby stock guys, Seth uh um Butler.

SPEAKER_04 6:58

Yeah, the 15A went up as well. I saw that.

SPEAKER_08 7:00

Yeah, Andy Sharman?

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Sure. Yeah, I think you're right. It might be is it Sharman? Yeah. And then also uh we've seen Seth Butler. Not Seth, but uh Shane. Shane. Shane Butler, he made the trip up there too. Um so was the racing good? I mean it was cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

It was neat. It's it's different, right? I mean, it's you know, you're on a you're on a racetrack that's about as wide as this table right here. Um but the figure eights are fun, especially when you get all twelve or fifteen fifteen cars out there, you know, and you get the guys in the X and it starts to be a game of chicken with the leader and the guy in the back, and it's just it's it's different. It was fun. It was and I tell you what, they had a huge crowd, too. Really? I mean, they had a mat it was kids' night, and so there's like a thousand yard apes running around, and you know, bicycle giveaway and kids' rides and candy rush and the whole thing. And uh so I went out for the candy rush and they threw me out after that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 7:54

It was probably one of those places that not a lot of that you probably can't say this a lot that nobody there probably knew that this is Western Jarrett. Seriously. Well, you know what I mean? You say that.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

However, however, Foxman was announcing it. Oh shit. Yes, and uh and and and notified the world that I was there. And uh no, I he did, yeah, and and loved the Foxman. But uh but no, I was able to kind of slide under the radar there, which was kind of cool every once in a while.

SPEAKER_12 8:22

It was kind of cool, right?

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 8:24

That's awesome. Yeah, because I saw your snap and I'm like, where did you end up? And I'm like looking and I'm like, I think that's the fairgrounds at Fort Dodge. And then I went back and saw your story, and I was like, it is.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

And then you're like, what kind of psychopath does this? Right?

SPEAKER_03 8:39

Well, honestly, it looked really nice from what I seen on your Snapchat. Um like the grass, I mean, it just looked like a nice little facility.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Well, they redid that place a few years back, from what I understand. I did a little research, but uh, but yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's it's all flat, uh grassy area behind the grandstands for parking. They had like seven or eight food trucks back there. I got a I got one of the best pork chops I've ever had in my entire life, by the way. Um but yeah, they did they they did well. They ran off a good show and it was cool. It was a nice, kind of relaxing Saturday night.

SPEAKER_12 9:10

So it's gotta be nice when you can go somewhere and have zero responsibility just to watch racing.

SPEAKER_08 9:16

A hundred percent. Yep, which is why we have so much fun when we go to the dome. I see Colton back there. That's that's one of our biggest things. You get there and it's like we don't have to work. So you get to watch me work. We do get to watch you work the whole time, for sure. Yep.

SPEAKER_12 9:30

Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_08 9:32

So that I'm just gonna knock my question out of the way. You posted your how many tracks does that make?

SPEAKER_04 9:39

Oh man, 335, I think, or 334.

SPEAKER_08 9:45

Which is amazing. A lot. But out of them, how many of you announced that? Do you know that?

SPEAKER_04 9:50

And I, you know, I kept track of that at one time. Um no, I don't know. I'm actually at that point where like I want to start taking tracks off my list. Like, I don't want people to know I was ever at some of these places. That is crazy. It's a lot. Yeah, in four in in every state but Alaska. No good. Yeah, Alaska's act it's actually the only state that I've never been to as well. Yeah, never been to Alaska, haven't seen a race there. You gotta check that one off. Yeah, I gotta wait till my wife's actually available for that one. If I if I fly to Alaska without her, I mean the locks will be changed on the doors, and it it's not so much her, it's the dog, right? I mean, she will, you know, she'll have that dog trainer rip my leg off clear up to my shoulder, and we can't we can't have that. I love the dog Snapchat. What's the dog's name? Dakota. Dakota. Of course. Fair enough. Named after the Dakota Classic Mod Tour. Really? Well, not necessarily, but I tell people that it's sounded really good.

SPEAKER_12 10:42

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Wow. Yeah, that's cool. That is cool.

SPEAKER_08 10:46

Yeah. Very cool to have you here, man. This is uh I see you a lot. We all see you a lot, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:53

We hear you a lot. We hear you a lot, yes.

SPEAKER_08 10:55

But just I don't know, you're just like a regular guy, and that's what I was just saying that before we started up. Those are the best ones though.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

But like, where did where did Dustin Jarrett just say, Man, I think I want to get involved with auto racing and why?

SPEAKER_04 11:12

What what like I ask myself why every day. Every day. I ask myself why, Jonathan. Um man, I mean, I I announced my first race when I was like 15 years old. Really? Um, yeah, there's uh I I don't want to get us too far off the off the path here because you've already you already derailed us from the from what we have here. Told you it wouldn't take long. Right. But uh no, I mean I I started so my my uncle and my dad raced uh around home. They they ran some tracks around Zainesville, Ohio, Tyler County, West Virginia, in that area. And um I had just I had gone so long one week, uh the announcer at the track in Zanesville that we were going to at the time, R R Speedway, it's no longer in business, um, their announcer wasn't there. And so uh I went up to them and said, Hey, if you ever needed an announcer, I would do it. And they said, Okay, what do you charge? And I was young and dumb and 15 years old, and I said, Well, I'd do it for free. And son of a bitch, if they didn't have me on the microphone the next week.

SPEAKER_09 12:10

Really?

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Wow. Right? And that's no lie, actually. Sounds like a typical track owner of a motor. 100%. 100%. So I still haven't found out how to get paid for this either.

SPEAKER_08 12:23

So all pro bono we're hearing. So um I figured it was just to hang out with Blake Anderson once in a while.

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Ah, dude, uh Blake, yeah. Yeah, that's that's what it is. Although Blake moved all the way to Skatch, it's all the way to Washington, so I only get to see him about once a year now, and that's a gateway, usually.

SPEAKER_12 12:38

He messaged me about the Steve. Did he message you about Steve's? Yeah, he sends he usually sends me something every week, like, man, I'm just listening to the last one. It's pretty awesome. Like, yeah, but he'll bring up like a memory how it relates to him. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

And which is really cool. Yeah, that's what he did. He's like, Man, when you it start and Steve started talking about you and your dad racing and stuff, and I'm like, pfft, he's like, I love the show. I'm like, we need to get you on here. He's like, well, you know, and I'm like, well, because we kind of like your story too. Like that's really cool, you know. And to know where that all kind of started, man. I mean, that's a a very, very, very cool thing.

SPEAKER_08 13:13

Well, and and to listen to you talk about starting at 15, Blake kind of started you on like that too, right? He did, yeah. Like a lot of similarities there.

SPEAKER_12 13:20

And Blake and I actually started announcing uh mod lights or the dwarf cars together, and that's all so that's all that Blake ended up doing every week was uh he was he would do the dwarf cars every week with Denny and Toby, and that's how he kind of got rolling.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Cut his teeth right at the biggest. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_12 13:41

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_08 13:42

It's awesome. All right, pull us back on track. No, you guys are doing great. You're doing great.

SPEAKER_12 13:47

Well, so anyways, go from yeah, from that, I guess, like how did you you get rolling? So when did you start doing it more regularly after as you got older?

SPEAKER_04 13:57

My first my first traveling gig was uh 20, let's see, would have been 2003 with the old uh the now defunct Battle of the Bluegrass series. Um the guy that had that, uh Spencer Wilson, he had uh he re he emailed me and he's like, Hey, I think I saw you at the Dirt Track World Championship. This is back when it was at Bargetown, Kentucky at Bluegrass Speedway. He goes, I am getting ready to branch out and start a national touring series called the N A R A Late Models. Um He goes, I'm taking James, James Essex, with me to do that. He goes, I'm looking for someone to do my Battle of the Bluegrass late models, and and then I'm starting a Battle of the Bluegrass modified series as well. Would you be interested? I said, Yeah, absolutely. And so Spencer started. Hold on. Did you know James at this time? Yeah, we knew we knew each other. We actually both wrote for Mid-American Auto Racing News. Really? Way back in the day. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Yeah, this is one of the moments I'm saying, because you I was like, well, wait a minute, when did he meet James? At some point before that.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

It came like point of year, but we yeah, we knew of each other. Okay, all right. And so uh and and so I said, yeah, I would do it. And again, you you know, these little traveling series you work for next to nothing, right? And so Spencer, he did, he started the N-A-R-A late models the next year, uh, which um had I think eight races maybe that year. Shannon Babb got crowned the champion um during that that offseason then. Uh he picked up the Lucas Oil sponsorship and that eventually became the LucasOil Late Model Dirt series. Really? Yes, yeah, you did not know that. Yep, that was how all that got started. Wow. And uh so James is out doing the uh Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt series, and I'm traveling around to 201 Speedway in Kentucky announcing battle of bluegrass late models. But it was a really cool gig because the guys that came up through that series, we're talking guys like Mikey Marler and and guys that that went on and ran national, you know, touring late model deals as well. So it was who still are. And and who still are, right. And and again, it was a different world back then. You know, we're talking 2004, 2005. They would get 40, 45, 50 late models for a 3,000 to win show, you know. So it was uh so that was kind of a cool deal to get your foot in the door, and and that uh that eventually led to a role where they um uh they were wanting to start uh doing these audio broadcasts, audio internet broadcasts, because apparently there was a bunch of psychopaths listening at home that were at home thinking, man, I would love to listen to a race somewhere, right? No video. There's no video. I want to listen to a race. And they chose me as the guy to um be the voice for them to listen to, uh, which I still don't know why anyone would want to just listen to a race, but there were a lot of people that did, and they did that, and uh did that for several years and until the Eldora thing came about and yada yada.

SPEAKER_08 16:45

Well you think about before you know smartphones came along, like I'm out what is it blowing your way?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

The Eldora, you know, it kind of just came about it.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

I mean, that's we can go into that story if you want. There's not there's not much to go into that story here, bud, but I'm gonna let Josh continue on first.

SPEAKER_08 17:07

Well, like I'm I know these guys have heard me talk about before I grew up on a farm. We didn't have sheltered. Very sheltered. We had AM radios for a long time. But my first interaction with any kind of racing at all, period was Weber Valley Speedway and the horse and buggies, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Very close. Very close.

SPEAKER_08 17:26

It was it was radio NASCAR races on radio. Yeah. And I would catch them once in a while.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

I mean, I listened to football games and stuff like that, but only when they went to the Amish store in town. Of course. Well, of course.

SPEAKER_08 17:35

You had to go over a certain hill before the frequency would come in. Yeah. Go over it and go away. But um, but yeah, I can see how that would have come along because guys, you know, they didn't have an opportunity, and then of course, we didn't have streaming like we do.

SPEAKER_04 17:48

Yep. Yeah, that technology wasn't available, and and and um two things that I learned back then that that have really helped me out today. Richie Lewis was the uh series director for the Lucasoil series at the time.

unknown 18:00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

And he said, Now DJ, Richie was Richie's from the south. Now, DJ, you get on there, I want you to make these races. You are the eyes and ears of these people watching at home. So you need to make sure you get out there, you get on there, you describe exactly what's happening to them people watching at home. Okay. And so I did. And then the second thing Richie said was, uh, DJ, we want to make sure we get butts in these seats now. It's great we got these people listening at home, but we want to make sure we got butts in the seats. So you know, you make these races sound as exciting as you possibly can for them people listening at home. And so that's something that always stuck out to me as well. And like if you listen to like MRN or PRN or something, you know, they'll be like, and Hamlin sticks a nose down to the inside and you're watching it home and he's like, eight car links back or something, you know.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Seriously, uh when you said who wants to listen to a broadcast, it brought me back like if we were racing or going somewhere back in the day with my dad, he would listen on 98.3, he would listen to the race. Oh, yeah. And like Ned Jarrett and all them guys were No relationship. Really? I well, that was gonna be my next question.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

I was gonna say condolences. Thank you. Great Uncle Ned.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

But you know, like listening to it, like they did make it exciting. Yeah, like and it was cause we didn't even know what we were what we couldn't see what we were doing, but I I mean It made you want to be there. It made you hurts, made you want to be up and get there and turn it off. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_12 19:26

Yeah, well, and that they did like MRN. I was fortunate enough to like meet Frank Beers, and he was the director of operation at MRN, and like so he took uh he took me to a couple races at the Iowa Speedway, and like I got to go in the trailer, and like so they he's like, Do you want to shadow this guy that it was Kyle Ricky was actually on great guy, yeah. Yeah, so I got to the shadow with with uh Kyle Rickey and we were up on this like you know scissor lift in turn four, and and I'm sitting there like wa you know, watching the the race, and I'm just like kind of bored out of my mind, to be honest with you, right? But like you have these guys in your ears and they like they make it exciting.

SPEAKER_08 20:10

So like well the way they throw it around, you know, and the bigger the track, you know, the more of the responsibilities the guys have. But when I'm watching a race that like you and Ben are calling, you kind of feel that way. Ryan and Jerry, it's kind of the same way. They kind of toss it to each other, and and the good ones and James Essex, like it's just uh it's an art uh of and it's honestly it's kind of a reward to to listen to it because you guys do a great job, you really do. And I know it's hard when somebody tells you you do a great job, but you do. Well, thank you. You need to know that.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

So um but yeah, we were just talking like before the show started. See, we always do this too. We start talking about stuff before the show, and we're like, wait a minute, we need to be doing this on the show. Uh-huh. But if you were watching the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday night, I mean, DJ just picks the mic up and he's talking about people that I didn't even know who it was.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

It was like, oh yeah, this is. Hunter Smith, Fort Morgan, Colorado, winner in Stewart earlier this year. Yeah, moved out here earlier in the season. Yeah. Anyone else I can enlighten you on? The competition or anything? I mean, go ahead, Hunt. I'll sit and listen. He's gonna have a spreadsheet for you. This guy drives this way getting in the war.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Exactly. What I'm thinking the entire time is uh Rod. Is it Rod, the announcer at Marshtown? Or is it Rodney? Rodney and his son are probably just like you just pick it.

SPEAKER_08 21:35

It's I mean, it's just like somebody jumps in your car and goes out and wins a feature, and you're like, what the hell? Yeah. It is kind of like it's pretty good. Yeah, not bad. But maybe tighten it up the center.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

So uh yeah, it it is a much appreciated thing, you know, and then and then to just get to talk to you outside of the booth, you know, you're just stand up guy. And I I I we had a Jimmy Gustin, he set me up for A failured thing.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Here's that 20 bucks out of him for saying that.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Right. But it was a you know, who's your favorite announcer of all time? You know, and I didn't know if he was talking about IMCA, you know, because like when I was growing up, I was listening to Toby and Denny. You know, like they were the gods, in my opinion. Well, he's like, no, late model sprint car. I'm like, well, hold on a minute, bud. You loaded the question on your moment. Because of course, you know, it's James Essex and you are his favorite. And so, I mean, I agree with him. But like when you guys all three get together and do these broadcasts and and uh it makes it exciting. I don't know how you store all the shit in your head or how you do it, because I try to do the uncut stuff, which when Garrett started that, I did get a message from DJ that was like, dude, you coming out for my job or what? And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_04 22:50

Like, okay, we're just out here jacking around a little bit, all right? This is like Hey, listen, Tom Brady, Troy Aikman, these guys are in the booth, right? I I mean I feel like it was a legitimate concern that I were here.

SPEAKER_08 23:01

They were on the bench at one time.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Tom Brady was. That's a good point, boys. That is a really good point. But uh, I mean, so how long have you so you're 15? I'm gonna ask you your age. So you're you're 40. 30 years. 41. Yeah. Yeah? No.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

You're 45? I've been doing it for 30 years. I'm 46.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

46.

SPEAKER_08 23:23

Yeah. Okay. I'm the oldest guy in the room. You graduated high school now. Josh is older. 97. Yeah. I'm at one year off. We got a whole group of 96ers. Yeah. Jimmy Gus and Todd Shute. Oh, myself. I thought maybe we had 30 years.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Yeah. Yeah. That that's I mean, I never really even thought about it like that, if you want to know the truth. Well, that's why I asked. Because I I figured so like, God, I'm old, it's time to retire.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

That was going to be my next question. When, I mean, like, so how old is James? Uh older than me. Right, right. But he's been doing it. I mean, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

He's been doing it a long time, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

Forever. It's like, you know, the listeners, like, we don't ever want you guys to quit.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

Well, first of all, you know, James, especially, because his voice is so because it's been, I mean, since the beginning for Lucas Oil, like we just talked about, right? You know, and and that's very similar um to what Rick Eschman was in in essence to the Outlaws. And Rick had a couple years off in there, but God rest his soul, that was that voice uh is synonymous with you know, was synonymous with the outlaws, James's is synonymous with with Lucas. So it um every time I start thinking about like, man, I need to I kind of need to rein it back in a little bit and not do as much, and then I'm like you know, man, just a couple more years and I'll have twenty World 100s under my belt. Seriously, you know that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Yeah, that's awesome. You know you've seen a lot of lot of stuff over the years and and to do like like I mean what we it's all the unknown, like you know, different when Toby and Denny quit my childhood announcing, like who's who's gonna take over? Like we all see it that when James retires in like 15 years, 50 years, yeah. You will take over James Spot. And like I mean, that's all that the people have spoken, DJ.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Well, I don't know about all that, but uh but what I do know is any yeah, i I mean, any time that like I run into someone that's like, hey, I'm an I'm an upcoming announcer, I'm an aspiring announcer, like there's not a lot of those people out there, to be honest with you. There's yeah the sport as a whole, it's not just announcing, it's it's drivers, it's fans, it's promoters, right? Like nobody walks in the door and says, I want to be a racetrack promoter someday. Yay! You're like, all right, you start with a big fortune and then you have a small fortune here. Um but uh I mean we do. We Ben's the same way and James. I mean we we try to give them advice and talk to them and reach out, and I have no problem sharing some notes or information or what I do. I I had a phone call actually just a couple hours before I got here from a good friend of mine, Mike Norris, uh the announcer at Fairberry Speedway, and he pit reports with us at Eldora, and he just asked me a few questions. Hey, what program do you use to store your notes and and how do you do this and that? Um and I mean Mike is is my age or our age, but I I have no problem giving that stuff out because um I'm not getting any younger, and I don't want I don't want to do this until I'm yeah, and that's one thing I've talked to Josh about several times is like our demographic is not getting bigger.

SPEAKER_08 26:23

No, yeah, there's not an expansion going on. Like when you get somebody, and Kristen's a good example, when you get somebody that wants to be involved, she's taking over for me at Stuart. You you gotta nurture that because it just doesn't come along very often. Yeah, you know, and and especially if it's the right person. And you might have somebody come along and you're like, Yeah, we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

Well, entertainment now is and I'm not gonna stick too far on the soapbox here, but but we have entertainment at our fingertips and we've never had that before. You know, people talk a lot about streaming hurting racing or whatever else, and it doesn't have to be flow, it can be IMCA TV, Dirt Vision, or whoever else. But the thing that a lot of people tend to forget is that we have everything right here available. I can I can watch any movie that I want to watch right here, right now. I can watch any television show. It doesn't matter if I want to throw it back to Alf in the eighties, I can watch it right there on my phone. I can listen to any song that I want to listen to, and I can turn the TV on and watch any sporting event, any race. I I can do anything that I want to do at my fingertips. And so at Racetracks, we've got to find a way to keep people entertained and get people in there. That way they're not pulling these out or that out or whatever else and finding entertainment elsewhere.

SPEAKER_08 27:38

That is talk about one of the hardest things.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

A hundred percent. Yeah, and whenever we find that magic formula, the four of us will bottle it up and sell it to every other out there and that right there is a verbal contract.

SPEAKER_08 27:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_08 27:51

All coming up with it together. We got to sign your place to five. Five, five, five, yeah, cheese in. Yeah, that is that is no kidding.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

It's crazy. You know, you talk about just back in the day, we've talked about how before streaming come about. See, and I I think the streaming has has helped racing a ton too, because we've talked about the like my grandparents being eighty, eighty years old, they ain't can't make it to the track, but they can get on their phone and rent it, and but it has made it different, you know, like in 2019, Supernationals when it was rainy and shitty, and like the first year I get out that I win, it's like it looks like El Doro, that the World 100, there's that many people there. Which there's not that many, but you know what I'm saying? That's what it felt like. It felt like that 2019, it's like where is everybody? Yeah. Yeah. And then 2020 was worse because it was COVID.

SPEAKER_08 28:41

And yeah, COVID and weather.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

COVID and weather. Yeah, was that the Sunday race? That was the Sunday race. So it was like if I can you can see those things like and and all these racetracks are really, really getting creative with what they're doing. Like, I think one of my all-time favorite things is when you guys hire the gal that rides the horse with the American flag around. Like that. It's pretty cool. It is cool. When they're singing, it's like bumps every time. We've heard that bumps every time. Yeah, we've heard the song a billion times, but it's just something about her riding that around there. Right. You know, and it's quiet. I don't know. But stuff like that, um, you know, like the the mo the Muskow light stuff that they're doing now at Knoxville with the weird shit. And I haven't seen it because I've only been to Knoxville a few times. Right.

SPEAKER_08 29:27

Well, even just the simple simpleness of when they take the green flag, the poles turn green. Like that is something little kids are like, whoa, you know, just it's not a big thing, and obviously it's an expensive thing, but once it's done, like that's stuff that keeps people engaged a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Well, and like the the the flame fireballs at Eldora. Like when we went there the first year a couple years ago, I mean, of course you see it on TV, but in person, way better.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

Why I'm wearing a hat, I don't have much hair anymore. I've supported all those years.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

So we Brett got those for the stage at Supernational on each side, and so we all get in there to take our picture before we get into our cars on the front stretch. Everybody's like, I'm like, boys, step away from the flame because it's hot.

SPEAKER_05 30:13

Oh, is it really that hot? I'm like, I'm telling you, it is hot.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

Well, needless to say, Damon Murdy got a little bowl shave on the one side because you know, we but it and the flame, it's just shit like that that really makes events like when uh you bring in the big tele the TV stuff, you know, jumbotron. Jumbotron stuff and everything like that's all yes.

SPEAKER_08 30:34

It it takes an event, it it elevates. Yeah. And and those are things that I mean are they necessary? No. The race is gonna run so many laps and there's gonna be a winner and everything else, but it just it just makes everything just that much better.

SPEAKER_04 30:49

We actually we actually just got a video board uh that will be at every uh Lucas Soil race the remainder of the year and every Flow Racing Night in America the rest of the year, too. Which by the way, you can see Flow Racing Night in America and Marshalltown Speedway, Tuesday, August 18th, and Mason City Motor Speedway, Wednesday, August 19th. There's my there's my shameless plug of the uh podcast right there.

SPEAKER_09 31:10

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

Ta take as many minutes as you need.

SPEAKER_08 31:14

As many minutes as you need. Well, that Flow Racing Night in America thing's a big thing. Oh man. I mean, it is. It's I didn't realize it. Colder and I were working up at Marshalltown a few years ago and they had one. And I'm like, it's just another race for me, and we show up, and then I start figuring out, oh no, this is the only thing going on in America. Yes. Racing wise. I'm like, oh, well, this is kind of a big deal then.

SPEAKER_04 31:37

And and to that point though, that's why it was started. I mean, it it took kind of COVID, really, you know, that 2020, 2021 seasons for us to realize, hey, we can actually have midweek races and make it work so that it's beneficial for the promoters and it's beneficial for the drivers, and and third on that list of streaming companies, and it's evolved into this giant monster now that we keep saying we're not gonna do again the following year, and then don't end up doing it the following year every year, you know.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Whoever's listening to this, is it Rigsby if he if Rigsby makes that call, like keep doing Flow Night America, like it's a cool thing. And I I was gonna how do you guys choose tracks? Is that is that the like one of the toughest parts about it because of scheduling?

SPEAKER_04 32:20

Yeah, what you do is you get a two-sided jinxall puzzle, throw it on the table, take a piece away, and then put it back together. That's that's how that's how you put that schedule together. It's uh I mean it's I quite honestly, uh like last year, the top ten an hour points, five of them were Lucas Will drivers, five of them were uh World of Outlaws drivers. And so you've got to find a date at a track that both those series are within distance, but not too close, right? Because you don't want to hurt the promoters of of those events they're having they're having races at that makes logistical sense for the drivers, for the tracks, for the series, and then for our staff as well. I mean, because we bring in a production staff of about ten people or so, and you don't want to wear them out and and um you know cause more stress on them either. And so it is, it it really and truly is. And then you got some staples in there, like Eldor has found its home that Wednesday before the dirt late model dream, and so we know that one's gonna be in there. Right. The Wednesday before the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury, we know that one's gonna be in there, right? The the Peach Day Classic at Sanoy, that's gonna end our season. So there's almost half your schedule already. Right. And so then you try to slide dates in, and and there's I mean, there's a hundred tracks we would love to go to. Um I was talking to Trent Chin the other day. Um, you know, he said, Man, you know, we'd we'd love to get one at Park Jefferson. And I'm like, here's here's the issue with trying to bring one to Park Jefferson. To go to Park Jefferson, you have to be going to Park Jefferson already, right? It's not like both series are within a few hours of that region at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

So um it is uh Well it almost seems too like you guys uh schedule that stuff so perfectly, like they're either Well, that's what it's like they're they're they're oh they're racing here, and like you said, they're you got both series that are close and then they're just hitting it on the way through or on the way by or whatever the case is.

SPEAKER_04 34:11

Well that's that's the goal. Sometimes easier said than done, and then Mother Nature throws a wrinkle in everyone's plans. Right. Right, which really sucks. That happened a lot last year. Yeah, it's happened a lot this year, too.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Yeah, oh yeah, that whole week.

SPEAKER_04 34:24

Oh, Illinois Speed Week. That was terrible. Sucks.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

Drowned out.

unknown 34:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Cody, we uh we might need to go into the Elmquist towing question of the week and come back to DJ's archives. Oh, yeah. And then go to break real quick. My archives? Yeah, like all your stories. Oh, okay. All your all your awesome stories.

SPEAKER_12 34:42

Well, do you want to go to break first and then come back with the towing question of the week, or what do you want to do? I mean, you are the host. I'm just here, bud. All right. Hey, let's send it off to a break. We're at 34 minutes, so we might as well. Yeah. See, we we also have the clock because we've got to reel us in a little bit. So um, well, we'll send it off to Central Iowa Diesel Performance and our other partners. Um we come back, we'll get into Elmquest towing question of the week and continuing to talk with DJ. You've been watching Watermelon Witches, we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

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SPEAKER_01 35:46

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SPEAKER_12 36:20

Welcome back, RaceFans, watermelons and wood chips, presented by Central Iowa Diesel Performance. And uh, you know, talking with DJ and hearing some cool stories. We're gonna get back into those for sure. I know Jonathan's had stuff uh percolate percolating over the during the break, but three days ago I got the message and I've been storing shit. I didn't have percolating on my bingo card for this podcast, by the way. Yes. But uh right. Well, we will get to that later. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we still do have something for the unboxing again this week. So we'll have to get the Swiss Army knife out. Right, yes, we'll have to get that out. And uh, I don't know if you've seen any of the stuff, but we've had people sending us random stuff and we just open it up on the podcast.

SPEAKER_08 37:03

Look on the back of Jonathan's chair there, you'll see Paul Burton. Oh, I I did I did notice that.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

You know Paul pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

Yeah, I didn't know Paul, I didn't know Paul wore this.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

His personal one.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

I hope I opened my mouth and was like, oh yeah, I'll wear anything. Send it on into the podcast, you know, and then I'm like, I don't know if I should have said that. Yeah. But it's a little too late now.

SPEAKER_12 37:25

So Haley will be like, hey, you got another random package at the house, and it says watermelons and wood chips on it. That's right. Um but uh well, so we have so a few things coming up. Um we have the Hawkeye Challenge coming up this weekend, which is like my favorite all-time event um that we have at the racetrack. And you know, obviously actually that picture right there of of my dad and I from 1989, uh he won the stock car portion of the Hawkeye Challenge, and then I think he got he got second in the overall to um Brian F. Camp in that deal in 1989. So that's always been a really cool uh event where they put we put all the classes together. So it it started in the 80s, went through the mid-90s, I think ninety-four or ninety-five was the last year that they ended up doing that. But um but yeah, we brought it back. We brought it back in twenty nineteen nineteen. It's my first year. Up there. Yeah. Yep, twenty nineteen was the first year back, and uh you know I spent time trying to and and actually the having the transponders helped a lot as far as like getting that all so it would like the first year, I think the top nine were within four seconds of each other. All different classes.

SPEAKER_08 38:45

We were very close to having them having the top four leaders come out of turn four together.

SPEAKER_12 38:49

Like it was and it was the like I said, the first year, so then it kind of um springboarded it into what it is now, and um hold on.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

So now that the Adobe Lounge power rankings are going on, will the Hawkeye challenge the cars that are involved in that race? Will that we could probably work in some bonus points? Well no, I'm just I'm just asking. Oh I oh, bonus. All right.

SPEAKER_12 39:12

I thought that's where you were going.

SPEAKER_03 39:13

You want a bonus point for the I mean I think we should have a bonus point for it. I mean, it is a special event. Yeah, true. Um there's a lot of people that are scared to run it. I like running it. I run it, I've run it every year. Um but yeah, I mean, we should it should be a bonus. Don't you think it should be a bonus, DJ? Yeah, didn't you win that one year and get I knew you were gonna break that? Yeah. So I'm remembering that I'm remembering that right. Remembering that right is that I just broke my line. Hey, now that's number two. That is number two, but I won the race. They bring me the trophy, we take all the pictures. Um yeah, do you take it? Because you're gonna use it here in a minute.

SPEAKER_09 40:04

So we take all the pictures.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

I mean, I'm pretty pumped up about it because see, my dad won this show one time too, and they did the same thing to him, and I don't remember what year it was. And uh it funny story. So my dad figures out back then, you know, you had to change transmissions or your gear to change your gearing. Well, he forgot to do that from one track to another. They had too many Toddies that night. So the next day was the Hawkeye Challenge and it was super slick out. Well, Lottie had called these late model guys and said, Come down to our show, you know, like we're gonna doing this deal, you guys will win, blah, blah, blah, we're paying good money. Well, my dad, like, if they wouldn't have kept throwing the yellow flag for these altercations and stuff, he was gonna lap the late models. And they were so pissed off, they took they took the they black flagged my dad for his fender flopping. Really? Dead serious. Wow. And and he was gonna win the race, right? So 25 years fast forward, I'm down in Victory Lane, I'm pumped up, like, just won the Hawkeye Challenge, like I just beat sprint cars, like, look out, we're good, you know. Go to the trailer, we're all pumped up because the trophy they got, they get for this deal is pretty badass. I mean, it's a big trophy and everything. It was a it was so it's $500 to win your class. And I always tell everybody, I'm like, why don't you guys want to run it? I'm like, they pay $400 to win the regular show and I gotta race 24 cars, or they pay $500 to win and I race three other cars. Myself and three other cars. My odds are way better, right?

SPEAKER_08 41:39

And it's shot at a thousand, really.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Yeah, yeah, because $500 more if you win the the overall. And uh so Lottie come down and we're all down there having a good time and everything, and I'm thinking, yeah, I'm getting a thousand bucks. No, I got five. I got five hundred. They gave it to Donovan Smith.

SPEAKER_08 41:57

Scoring Snafu. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Scoring Snafu, which was I call was complete bullshit.

SPEAKER_08 42:02

It was actually the message we got to the tower that said, look, we did it to John. We have to do it to Jonathan.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

I knew that was what it was.

SPEAKER_08 42:08

I knew that's what it was. And that's okay. That's a joke. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Is that one of those what's good for the goose is good for the gander things? I mean, right, right. But it is one of the coolest events uh that I've ever been a part of. And I it's because it's crazy, it's wild, it's like you got little cars, you got big cars, then you got really big cars with really big tires, you got open wheel cars, you got stock cars, like it's chaotic.

SPEAKER_08 42:33

You got people in the tower crossing their fingers and toes that they just run green to checkers, like seriously, because the cautions are hard.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

They hurt, they are really hard because you guys do a great job on the race receiver saying, like, because they they don't all stop. Like, we just kind of keep rolling where we're gonna go. Yeah, right, where we're at, but like you I mean, if you're not at least half throttle, oh you should say caution life you've ever seen. Ever seen in your life, and but it's like I'm not lifting if he's not lifting, you know, because that I mean that could make or break the race right there. Yeah, you just never know. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 43:09

So that's one thing that it's tough, it's hard to do. Um and and we've talked about it a few times. You have a the greatest race ever. You have great late model races, sprint car races. What hurts them? Sometimes it's a caution. Yeah, and it's and that's a race, and that's part of it. Um yeah, we'd love it to just go green to checkered because we know we have done it a couple times. Yep, and it and when it happens, it usually is a tight finish.

SPEAKER_12 43:34

I like I think that very first year we did it, like I said, the the first top nine were within four seconds or something, and it was green to checkered. So um that was the one they took from you, DJ. That's how close it was. No shit. But no, it it it's a really cool event, and uh you know, we have the Sprint King series coming in um to bring the Sprint cars to Town for that. So um and they they run uh they run a mixture of like Raceaver and uh Knoxville rules just as a way for those guys to exist. Yeah, have you know put them together and race and then um with Houstet's going on, Knoxville's off, so that's how why this lands the way it does to bring some of those cars um to be a part of it. And it it's pretty cool. Last week uh last year Brett Moffitt showed up and won the the sprint car. I can't remember that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 44:32

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_12 44:33

Yeah, so that would that was cool to have Brett there. And um not every day you get a NASCAR Cup rookie of the year racing.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Well, hold on, not every day do you get a NASCAR cup guy that cut kind of cut his teeth at Boone, raced at Boone a lot over the years, you know. As a baby. Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_08 44:50

So that was super and with the Harris Clash coming up, I believe he was a winner of that in the sport mod, and I think he's the youngest winner of the city.

SPEAKER_12 44:59

Yeah, I think he was 14. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Gotta be a Bob question, boys. I'm not quite sure if Bob can remember. He is getting pretty old.

SPEAKER_08 45:06

Well, you'll get a chance to ask him here in a couple minutes.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

Oh, I'm gonna be all over Bob.

SPEAKER_08 45:12

Uh Garrett, we're gonna have to get the sensor button out. There's a story about a dog Bob.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

That that's where it originated from you.

SPEAKER_12 45:23

Yeah. That's how Log started. DJ's never heard that one. We'll cue it up. We'll cue it up.

SPEAKER_08 45:34

We got a call from the FCC on that. Right.

SPEAKER_12 45:37

Uh but so we have the Hawkeye Challenge coming up on Saturday. Um, and then obviously with that following Tuesday, Harris Clash. Is it the 35th this year? 35th, 35th, 35th, Donovan Smith. 35th annual Um Harris Clash. So, and we're so this will be out on Tuesday, so technically tomorrow, once we put this out, we're gonna do a special live edition with Bob to talk about the Harris Clash um on Wednesday. So um that'll be really cool. And uh, you know, good that leads us into Elmquist toeing question of the week would be best memory of the Harris Clash, and and there's so many like but the anything at Knoxville just kind of pops up to me. You know, I just that was our childhood.

SPEAKER_03 46:27

You know what I mean? Yeah, so Kenny Schrader, uh my my memory. My uh check that out. Look at that bad boy.

SPEAKER_04 46:37

The old AC Del Good. Great looking car, isn't it? What a great car. Um all it's missing is that the the uh toe bumper that they had sticking out the sticking out the front though.

SPEAKER_13 46:51

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

Yes. Um my my best memory of the Harris Clash uh for me is Kenny Schrader was driving my dad's car, and I believe it was 1997. Um he was racing my dad's car, and my dad was racing Rich the Workey's car. And um, of course, you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, Kenny Schrader is like in our trailer, you know, like he's got a cut-off thumb. He, you know, anyway. So they go in the rig, and uh he had I don't remember this guy's name, but his pilot that flew him there, you know, he comes to races with him, and we'd always watch Day's Thunder. So we're in the infield, and that was, you know, uh Knoxville preps a racetrack like four sprint cars. Four ten sprints, yeah. So it was like it's always it's muddier and shit, like we're either packing or like you know, it would just made it for a very unique event. So we're we're inside, we're watching this, and Kenny comes in there, you know, and I'm like sitting there watching the TV with Kenny Trader, you know. And uh he's like, you know who that is right there? And it's when they're rolling in the rig and they get pulled over by that hot cop, you know, and they got that little 1989 TV in there that you gotta sit six inches from to see it. And in the background there's a car rolling down there, you know, and I'm like, no? He's like, that's me rolling down the back straightaway. I'm like, get out of here. Whatever. You know, bullshit. Well, at that time I didn't realize that they were actually filming those that that movie at some of these live events because there was that was about the only way to do it, you know. And uh my dad goes out and junks Richard Workey's car in turn four.

SPEAKER_08 48:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 48:41

I mean totals it. Yep. And Kenny runs third. Um and he came in and man, he was so pumped up. Like, because Bob had hooked my dad up with Bob and Kenny go way back, you know, and that was my I mean, granted, watched my dad on two wheels pass Johnny Saddoff off of turn four at Knoxville in 1999 or 98 when he won it. That I mean that was pretty annoying too, because the sail panel, that was when dad ran uh plexiglass. Wow in the in the in the the bolts out of the guardrail shredded like on old Thunder Road. Yeah. Grease lightning, the old scorpions with the shit. And that's what it looked like down the side of the sail panel, you know?

SPEAKER_12 49:27

And then we lost our motor. Yeah. Those are always I mean, just such good race. I remember the year that Clayton Christensen won. Right. That was that was a big one. That was for whatever that pops out in my mind, like that was such a good I just rem vividly remember I was I think I was a senior in high school or had just graduated, and like I just remember being in the infill at Knoxville watching that, and I'm like, that was cool, you know?

SPEAKER_03 49:53

So I've been to four of the different tracks that it's been at since I've started racing. Yeah. So at Knoxville, Webster City, Deer Creek. I don't know, I know it was at Mason City. Bob's gonna elaborate on all this, which is gonna be super cool, but it's been such a long time event for the IMCA modifieds and to bring in the stock cars last year. I mean, I kind of thought that was a no-brainer. You know, Bob had called me and was like, hey, you want to sponsor the show? I'm like, pfft, if it's gonna be the rage chassis IMCA stock car presenting sponsor, come on. Yeah. Uh so I think he's you know, they've made that show, and it's just crazy. Like that was one of those shows that always you always went to that had uh almost a hundred modifieds or sport, you know, the sport mods. It took a few years to get there, but they're really supporting that event as well.

SPEAKER_08 50:50

Yeah, but we have 81 and 80 last year, I think, for mods and sports.

SPEAKER_03 50:54

I think we had more stock cars.

SPEAKER_12 50:56

Yeah. I think we had one one more stock car than modified, I think. That's just a great turnout. For the first year.

SPEAKER_08 51:01

A great turnout.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

I I think they have a hundred stock cars this year.

SPEAKER_08 51:05

We might. I mean, it's and and I mean, I don't like to look at long-term weather forecasts. I'm a three-day guy. Anything more than three, I don't know. You said three hours. Well, especially at Boone. Yeah, right. Especially at Boone, that's hopefully, you know, hopefully we'll get a good night of weather there. And and uh Yeah, I mean uh the sky's the limit on that deal, and I think a lot of people were paying attention last year. We had a really good good event, and uh yeah, it was it was great. I can't wait for the next one. I my my favorite uh Harris Clash memory, you said something about getting claimed at Knoxville. My favorite memory was walking out on that track afterwards, and there was Annafrize running down from four cars sitting up against the wall, and every one of them were pulling engines. That was just that was every every year at that deal. Um but also Clayton Christensen win him, but Jared Timberman won.

SPEAKER_12 51:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 51:59

And that was I thought that was really cool. That seemed like uh that was a sport mod win. Um but it seemed like a little bit of an underdog uh deal for him.

SPEAKER_12 52:08

So yeah, and I think what year did Brett win at 07?

SPEAKER_08 52:13

Maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 52:13

Yeah. I think Moffitt won it oh in 07 as like a 13 or 14 year old kid, which was pretty cool. And I think that was the year Jason my cousin Jason ended up getting fourth. And then I think that was when Kevin Sather got DQ'd. They ran second or third. Valve springs? Valve springs. They had the bigger diameter valve springs, and so they checked them and then so we got a trophy out of the deal. So but no, love you, Kevin. So didn't mean to pour salt on the wound, brother. Yeah, he's over now. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Well, the original. Might have been a couple weeks back then. Right.

SPEAKER_08 52:52

Original G unit.

SPEAKER_12 52:53

Yeah, we used to then that's when we were all running around together. And so yeah, but uh yeah, I mean Harris Clash stuff. Um are you you're probably out of town, I'm assuming, or yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

I've so I've been to the Harris Clash twice, twice at Deer Creek. Twice at Deer Clash. Twice at Deer Creek, yeah. I was actually playing, I planned my race cage, my annual race cation around the Harris Clash last year. And we know what happened. So the the original date of the Harris Clash. Yep. Um Yeah, no, I gotta head back uh to make sure my wife hasn't changed the locks on the doors or anything at home. Train the dog. Yeah, yeah, train the dog to rip my leg off, like we talked about. But uh no, uh I I would love to be out, but we've got the uh Firecracker 100 on Raville Speedway coming up just a couple days ago.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

Yeah, that'll be a good one. I see I love that place. I I did I was blocked from a few of the comments, uh like always.

SPEAKER_08 53:48

Same.

SPEAKER_03 53:48

Uh so I didn't get to see those. But however, I did note I I see here that you guys have the the Bobcat bombister at Deer Creek moment uh at number one on the list.

SPEAKER_08 53:57

I was able to see that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

Don't worry ya.

SPEAKER_08 53:59

Chat GPT handles this. I've told you this before.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Well, I need to have a talk with it or something. It's always putting me at like the top of the list of this shit.

SPEAKER_08 54:08

I don't know why that is. It's weird.

SPEAKER_03 54:10

Well, uh, that was the closest I've ever come to win in the Harris Clash was at Deer Creek. Uh me and the old Bowmeister is what I call him. Um we had a little altercation on the racetrack, and we never touched, but I just was like, eh, we got about three or four laps left, and I'm just gonna go up and I'm gonna squeeze him. Oh, you're sweet. I'm gonna squeeze him up on the top and see if he lifts. He'll live. If he doesn't, he's gonna collect the wall. Well, he didn't lift. And uh, if you guys are familiar with the Deer Creek Speedway, they have two officials standing right there in the top of turn two where all the cars come out on the racetrack. Okay. So we never touched, but I mean it it took him out. Well then he came up, so that I inherited the lead at this time. Jake McBurney's running third, I'm running second. Me and Bomeister are doing this battling and stuff, and uh he wrecks me under yellow, Bomeister does needless to say, we were not friends after that moment. Okay. Were you before that? Uh kind of acquaintances. We I met him because I wrecked my stuff at Brit, so we kind of like shared some tools and you know, whatever. Well, then we ended up wrecking each other at Brit, and then it was like this, he was kind of like my rival up there. And which like we didn't intentionally wreck, we were just racing really hard, you know. And I mean we showed each other our displeasures when we were on the short end of the stick, and when we were on the long end stick, we stood there with our chest pumped out, like you know, and uh anyway, uh I didn't end up winning the race because when it when we made contact, it wiped out my spoiler and my quarter panel and my tire, and I just basically went in and Jake uh drove around me on the outside, and that was 2018. Uh Jake got it. Jake got it, and I ran second. Yeah, so I did get a cool trophy, but uh that was one of the only races in a sport mod I never got was the Harris Clash. Um so I was really excited when Bob decided to bring the stock cars in because I hung up my open wheel stuff because I build IMCA stock cars and I feel like I should race one of those and try to promote my product. So I was really excited, even though I last year, first lap, they dropped the rag. I get I nowhere to go. I'm a straightaway behind. Um yeah, it is what it is. We never gave up, got a caution. I almost made it. But so I'm really looking forward to that. Hopefully we can bring home the hardware. You bet. But then you got like Todd Shute throwing the spoons.

SPEAKER_08 56:45

Yeah, I don't know what that story is. I'm not gonna be around.

SPEAKER_03 56:46

I don't either Troy or Todd. Um I'm sure Chad GPT. Chad that could be. Colton and the Colton, pull that up for us, will you?

SPEAKER_08 56:55

Yeah, don't you call that Chad Chad GPT?

SPEAKER_03 56:59

Chad GPT, yeah. Um the the Jeremy Hendrick upset win. I don't remember. Jeremy Hendrick, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I don't remember that one for some reason.

SPEAKER_12 57:09

That was oh when was that? Oh that was before oh six, I think.

SPEAKER_08 57:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 57:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_08 57:21

Yep, Michael Long, that's probably a name you've heard of. Yeah. Yeah. Illinois. Light at the scales. That's a really you know just people's comments. We pulled them off uh off of Facebook and throw them in there. And it's it's interesting to get everybody's perspective of you know moments like that and what they remember. And um I it just always cracks me up because you'll you'll get fans that remember somebody remembered Jake or I'm sorry, Joe McBurney claiming John Logue's motor. That never happened. And that's what you you commented on that. And I was like, well, somebody remembers something that commented on it. Oh, he did. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 58:02

I mean, Joe was definitely drinking beer in the trailer. For sure. But he just I mean, I remember the one year we went down there, so this was when the mod car series was going on. Um we went to the Harris Clash, Joe McBurnie gets bought, didn't have another motor. So like he like taught I don't remember who bought his motor, but we pulled it, they pulled it at the racetrack. Not we, they pulled it at the racetrack, and Joe ended up buying it back from that guy just so we could continue on to go to to Batesville, Arkansas to run the Modcar show. It was a two-day deal down there. It was Batesville, Slino, Oklahoma, and Batesville. Um but uh yeah, I mean, there was a lot of really good memories on there that people brought up. It just takes you back to the old times of stuff. But uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 58:48

Sitting in the pits down there was always a different thing too because there was no real good spot to watch the races.

SPEAKER_03 58:53

Well, it sucked.

SPEAKER_08 58:54

Unless you had a rig to stand on.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

But you couldn't even stand on the rigs because they can't, they don't let you. And we never understood that, but we understand why they do it for the sprint car stuff because their rigs are like twice the size of all of our rigs. Granted, at that time there were still a lot of people getting big rigs, but uh I don't know, it was just always cool. You go down there to the sprint car capital of the world, you go over to Dingus, grab a couple toddies or whatever, get there, you're driving across the racetrack, bitching already because it's so wet. You know. Um I remember one year they filled all the trash cans full of mud. I mean, like, you couldn't even pick these things up because it was that muddy. Right. But you know what? A at the end of the day, by the end of that show, it always usually wounded up being a pretty good event by the end of the night. It was tough early, but always good at the end.

SPEAKER_12 59:42

I'm trying to think. There was I think there was a year that we were down there and something happened where but they didn't have an announcer lined up. And Bob that would have been twenty eleven, maybe. Trying to think, was that still at Knoxville at 2011? Oh, yeah, it had to have been. Probably yeah. 2010, 2011. But they didn't have an announcer lined up, they just there was like a miscommunication, and Bob comes over and he's like, Hey, I need an announcer, are you gonna can you do this for me? And I think I swear I was working for at Power Lift at the time. So it had to have been 20 like 2011. Yeah. So then I did put me up in the booth and I announced the Harris Clash. Yes, it was, because I remember sobbing ended up winning the sport mod, and he like he lapped up to like eighth or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:34

And and it was the hardest race to ever announce because it was just like he was just killing everybody, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:42

You know, so you had to make it interesting. That's right, that's right, yeah. Right. Yes, yes. So I don't remember talk afterwards. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_12 1:00:49

I don't remember who who won the modified, but I just remember sobbing would just crush those guys. So it had to be somewhere in that 2010 to 2012 uh range, because that was when I was working at powerlift, because I remember asking Jason, because Jason was racing and and then uh and then Jeff was racing the modified, and I'm like, they don't have an announcer, they need me to go. And he's like, do it, go foster tire guy. Yeah, so I went up and announced the Harris Clash one year, so that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:18

Yeah, that is cool. Well, yeah, we'll go over some more Harris Clash stuff in a couple, or I'm sorry, tomorrow.

SPEAKER_12 1:01:26

Yeah, depending on yeah, right, what your timeline is.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:30

Right, right.

SPEAKER_12 1:01:31

Um but yeah, let's let's get back to some of these questions that you have for Dustin, because like some of these are no, they're pretty, pretty good. So one one question that I have, I don't know if it's even on here, but um I when we were talking before the show, so I I lived in Pennsylvania for like a year and a half, and I and uh Danny Dietrich was my landlord and got to go and I worked for Hoosier and we were doing the sprint car thing, and um one thing I noticed about the food out there, so like on the East Coast, the East Coast, they have vinegar on the tables. Like you spray vinegar, vinegar and obey.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:08

Colton's giving two thumbs up over there.

SPEAKER_12 1:02:10

He must have dude, I'm telling you, chicken strips in the in the fries, like the thick cut fries with the vinegar, and then you put Ole Bay on them. That was like my favorite thing. But you know, obviously from being from Boone, Iowa, like that was I'm like, what the hell is this? And my boss was like, no, you gotta do this. So what is like what is some things that you see out on the road like that?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:31

I was gonna say, I'm sitting here wondering, like, what the hell are people doing putting vinegar in Old Bay on stuff? Man, I remember it's so funny because I was at Park Jefferson last night for the Dave Riley Memorial, right? And I remember the first time I went to Park Jeff, and it was like 20 years, here's how long ago it was. Um they had a US MTS modified race there. The winner of the ray of the US MTS race that night, the first time I was at Park Jeff, John Tesh. Oh, wow. How about that? Yeah, really? How about that? Oh, 14. 14. And I mean, he clobbered them by like half a track. But I tell you that story to tell you this story that you talk about food on the road. I the first time I went there, um it was the first time I'd ever been to South Dakota as well, and so I'm, you know, in that in that covered area back there where they've got the concession stand. They're going down through the menu and they've got the normal racetrack selections. It's, you know, burger, cheeseburger, hot dog, chicken tenders, fries, gizzards, what gizzards? They had gizzards, and that was the first time I had ever experienced that. Really? On the road was gizzards, yeah. I mean, again, this is like twenty-some years ago, so I was not quite as cultured as I am now. But I thought, gizzards, like I remembered seeing. Did you get them? No, I did not get them. My memory of gizzards was watching like Looney Tunes when I was a kid, you know, and I'm like, what is going on here?

SPEAKER_13 1:03:58

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:00

But uh I I you know, one uh one that I talk about, um Man, anytime I can get uh an Iowa pork producers sandwich of any kind, whether it's a brat, pork burger, whatever it is, Iowa pork producers in the Iowa Cattlemans. I was at Algona the other day, and they had burgers from the Iowa Cattlemen Association there. Phenomenal. Just fan fantastic stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

I was telling the boys because they haven't been to Eldora. And I'm like a Pittsburger? With a Pizza Burger or the Pepperjack cheese balls. Oh yeah. Like and they come in like a container that's got like more than seven or eight in there, you know? Like it's legit like a good thing. But but it's like I've noticed too that Eldora's prices are cheap. They're so cheap. Yeah. Like I don't like it's phenomenal out there. It's crazy. And I I don't know if that's has it all well, because we we get we can't do we go into the Eldora thing right now, or do we want to wait a minute? Because the Eldora thing's gonna be a minute because that's the question. This is this is your world. I'm just living in it here.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:58

Okay, we're gonna want to go into Eldora. But I mean that they they though their their prices have always been cheap for food for as long as I've been there.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:05

Um is that a Tony thing, or did Earl have it?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:09

Earl had that as well. Really? I mean, for really up until a couple years ago, a beer was just two dollars there. They recently raised it all the way to three for a beer. Hold on a minute, talking about rewind. Or you can get sticks for I think uh $15, by the way. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

My dad was like, gee, drink, this is cheaper than either, it's cheaper than us. Now you go up there and get a cocktail and it's a big cup. Yeah, it's not like a regular, normal, clear, like a short one.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:36

Five bucks. Yep, five dollars for a cock for a mixed drink. My dad's like, doubles, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:43

But okay, re rewind real quick. Okay, so Dustin Jarrett's doing uh announcing with a little bit with James X fiction doing this bluegrass thing. Yeah. How so you knew Earl? Yes, I did. So Did Earl call you? No. Who c how'd you get into Eldora? How did that happen? Because you were the regular announcer there for many years.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:09

Yeah, for five years, yeah. From 2010 to 2015. Yeah, I was their house announcer. So how all that got started was uh my ex-wife and I were expecting our first child. And she was doing September, and the gentleman that was the uh announcer, well, let me let me rewind that. I was looking to get off the road from LucasOil. I've been traveling and everything. I was also um in a former life, uh you guys I don't think anybody knows this. Um I spent 15 years of my life working in higher education and college admissions.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:43

What? Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:44

I was uh I was an assistant director and and a dean of college admissions as well. Yeah. For 15 years. So I've where's this violin? I was just writing it down.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

I was just writing it down to put it in the archives so Garrett can remember that portion of it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:00

You'll never you'll never remember it anyway. We're never getting rid of this episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:04

So I will remember.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:06

So um so I I had been doing that for a long time, and every weekend it was like rinse and repeat, right? I I took Friday afternoons off. I didn't take vacation. I I booked like every Friday afternoon off so I could drive five hours south to Lake Cumberland, Kentucky, and announce a battle of the bluegrass race. And Bruce Hines, who was the house announcer at Eldora Speedway, I had been there for a couple of those um ALMS late model races covering stuff for dirt on dirt, just going getting an interview with the winner with the little, you know, handheld microphone or handheld recorder or whatever. Uh doing a little story, sending that in to to Michael Riggs being Todd Turner at Dirt on Dirt. So I'd I'd kind of got to know the the folks at Eldora. I I the time only lived about an hour away. Well, at the end of the season, or during the off season rather, um when I'd mentioned that my my then wife was pregnant, expecting our first child, Bruce Hines, who was the announcer at Eldora Speedway at the time, I knew him, he called me up one day and he said, Hey, he goes, I'm not going to be at Eldora next year announcing. He goes, I don't know if you want to get off the road from traveling because you're expecting your first child or not, but uh this might be an opportunity for you. He goes, if you want, I'll mention your name to Larry Bowes. Larry was the you know, the race director and and kind of oversaw the day-to-day operations there at the time. And I knew Larry, again, just from being there doing some stuff from dirt on dirt. So I reached out to Larry and uh Larry basically said uh yeah, can you come to our banquet this weekend? And I said, Sure. And so I get to the banquet and he says, I want you to do a few interviews with a few drivers. And so I did, I think, two or three interviews with like their track champions or whatever else, and like the next week he basically said, Job's yours if you want it. Wow. And so that was how I became the house announcer at Eldora Speedway.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:57

Oh, that's cool. I mean, a lot of lined up couldn't have lined up perfectly though while you were having a child.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:04

Like I live an hour away. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:07

So like were you nervous the first night? Oh, for the so so the first night, listen to this. So the very first race, so they had like one race get rained out. So their first night was a USAC sprint car race. And I knew as much about USAC sprints as I know how to build a race car, and that was absolutely nothing. I knew nothing about USAC Sprints, okay? Oh boy. So they had also, Tony, Tony was at the helm by this time. Again, this is 2010, they had put new dirt on the racetrack as well. So USAC gets out there and they had um they had, I believe it was Rob Klepper announcing for them at the time. That eased my attention a little bit because Rob and I had done some TV stuff for Lucas Oil a couple years prior. So I'm like, okay, I got this. Well, Tony had put this new dirt on the racetrack and it didn't settle. And so they go out there and hot lap, and it was like that dust from driving down a dirt road. It went about three feet up in the air and just hovered, and you couldn't see anything.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:07

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:07

And so Larry, one of the first things that Larry Bose had told me when I first started announcing there, Larry hated dead air. He did not like dead air. And I was the opposite. I had always come from that background of, you know, again, internet audio, take commercial breaks, you let things breathe for a few seconds, you let that gnat sound of the cars, you know, come into the broadcast, and Larry was a no talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. So this is all going on. And I mean, when I say the natives were getting restless, these fans were in an uproar over this. They're out there, I mean, it was literally hours they spent working on this racetrack. USAC comes back out, runs, and it's the same thing again. And so, I mean, I'm so I'm trying to feel a dead. Hey, don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, get your 50-50 tickets right now. They're available behind the main grandstands and get those get those $5 cocktails. And I mean, this goes on for a little while, and Larry's fine like, shut up, shut up, don't say anything, don't say a word. And so I'm like radio silent for like it felt like 30 minutes on on the microphone. It probably was not that long, but I mean it was like forever. And um in the next room, uh Larry and Tony and Larry Kemp, who was the jam at the track at the time, they're over there having little powwow, and uh the next thing they come over, they tell me that the race is canceled because they couldn't get that dirt, that dust under control. That was the very first race I ever announced at Eldora Speedway, was that. Oh wow. Really? Yeah, and so they end up rescheduling it later on. And so and Tony puts a Tony probably does not remember this. Um Tony puts a press release out that uh that later says uh they they rescheduled the race for like a a Tuesday night, and I don't know, they they did something really weird, like like I think it was free admission, or if you had an arm arm ban from any of they did something really weird, and in the press release, Tony was like like it was an actual quote from him, and he's like, We know that when this event got dusted out, we did not communicate very well with you, and I thought, oh my god, I'm fired after one race, and I didn't even get to announce a race. Like he is going to fire my ass right here, and I haven't even got to announce a race at Eldora Speedway.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:09

Um That was not the case, actually. And uh he thanked God that he that he kept me on board, and then I called the the dream and the world and everything that year, but it it got better from there. Hold on.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:20

So the that year. That was this was 2010. In 20 in 2010, you're like, so how you're what seven years, eight years into this announcing thing? Yeah. You started in 03, you said? Well, uh on the road. On the road in 03. Okay. But I mean I've been doing it first. But like, so you know about the the late model dream, you know, we got all these big events like the dream of the world. Was it intimidating or was it very much so?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:48

So then so at that point, James Essex is there, though. I James, I don't know, was there the first year. It was it was me and Rick Eshelmann actually. So you have something on James. Yes. Wow. Well, no, I I don't know that James was there that first year. It was Rick Eshelman and I, or it was Ozzy Altman and I. I can't remember who Ozzy was the announcer for the Havatampa late model series for many years. But it was some some combination. I think I think James came in the next year.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:15

Do you remember who won that race? Which race? The Dream. The Dream. Your first dream that you have.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:20

Oh man, probably BlumQuist. You think so? I think I mean he won Can we have somebody look that up?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Who won the dream in 2005?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:30

I know a website. DirtonDirt.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:34

That's crazy. Yeah. So then it at this point now that you got all these big touring series coming to Eldora, because like what'd you do for a weekly so it wasn't really weekly then?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:45

Yeah, no, they ran um like a total of twenty races over the year. It was like fourteen or fifteen events. So they never really ran weekly there. They're their closest thing to a weekly show at that time. Um five or six times a year they had um open wheel modified, UMP style modified, uh, Eldora stock cars, and then they would usually run some sort of third class with them, whether it was like 360 sprints or late models or something like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:14

So they have Eldora stock cars, like they have their own kind of setup there?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:20

Yeah, yeah. They uh and and they're uh honestly not far off from IMCA stock cars now. Yeah, yeah. They and they've written they never really have been. Eldora uh teamed up with Lima Land, who's a Friday night track, University of Northwestern Ohio. You've heard of that. They own LimaLand Motorsports Park, a Friday night track in Lima, Ohio, and those two teamed up several years back to run common rules. That's one thing that we that you guys are blessed with out here. IMCA everything, right? Or you know, you get North It's with Soda or whatever else, right? We don't have that over there. I mean, we've got UMP coming in for modified and and late models, but outside of that, man, it's just a free-for-all.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:56

Right. I th I yeah. I mean, we've talked about we we kind of had this little press thing, like we're real we're still working on trying to get them IMCA stock cars at Eldora. Oh man. And you know, hearing you say that those stock car guys out there are really similar is pretty intriguing. Like, you know, because we wouldn't want to take away from them guys if they're gonna come. We're gonna still show there. I mean, they they run there, they we don't get around there, but um so that there is still some traction on that people because it kind of went stagnant there for a while, and uh it's just uh I I think that uh we're very optimistic about that. Hopefully it happens in the next year or two years. But um Levi Jones. Levi Levi Jones, yeah. Levi Levi's a good guy. They did, however, I when uh at the dream they got those bleachers up in turn one and two. Holy shit. They're big. They're huge, they look huge on TV. They they're they're big, they're very nice. So my dad and I were talking about it. It's like I'm like, that's where all the trailers and the vendors are. Like, holy shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:55

You know, because Levi had told us, so they they dozed that area. Uh they they didn't doze, but they cleared off that area behind the grandstands. Really? Uh filled in filled it in with some gravel, and now they've got a giant you you almost make kind of a loop or circle around the vendors row area off of turn one now at Eldora Speed. So they can actually accommodate a few more souvenir vendors back there too.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:17

Wow. I yeah. The first time we'd ever been there, you know, I like I said, I it was when they had the track or the dirt track championship there, so they had the late model flag all the way along the f the fence around the pond. Super cool to see. I'm like you know, like it was just cool. You were deaking out, weren't you? We were deaking out. We had God rest his soul, but we had a meeting with Jerry Gappins at that time, you know, and uh terrible tragedy for him and his family, but super cool guy. Like I'm thinking, yeah, we're going out to Eldora, like the campground stuff, just seeing all that, seeing little Eldora uh next to Big Eldora. Like, you guys gotta go.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:55

Which isn't there anymore. No more little Eldora. The go-kar track? They took it out? Yeah, no, they took it out, they took it out. That's that's extra parking now. Really? Well, they needed that.

SPEAKER_10 1:17:04

Yeah, they didn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:04

Holy shit. I can't believe how much like the camp and everything, honestly, people, the the biggest expense we had is driving there. Like camping is cheap. Um you know, they're that however, do not dick with the cops out there about driving your golf cart across the road or anything. No, they will take it. Yeah. Okay. And there's but if you have never been to the big E, make the trip because it's totally, totally worth it.

SPEAKER_12 1:17:31

Um I've been there one time. We went out there with Ian Madsen when I was working for KCP, and we went out there. I think it was might have been the four crown or three crown or triple crown, whatever it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:44

So what year would that have been?

SPEAKER_12 1:17:46

Twenty thirteen.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:48

I would have been I would have been there announcing. Twenty thirteen.

SPEAKER_12 1:17:51

Yeah. And I think we ended up rolling in late because like didn't know that the because it started earlier or something, and I remember coming over the hill and like the place is full. Yeah. And I'm like, who read the schedule wrong here? Because like we're rolling in, but it was cool. It was it was neat. We were there with the USAC and then whatever else was going on. Um, but it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:14

So you you do that for five years, and then you is that when you got the call from Flo? Like you were just killing it? No. What'd you do after you left Eldora? Like how do you where where do you go?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:25

So the reason I left is I became again, going back to this this secret life and college admissions, uh, I became the dean of admissions at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, West Virginia, which was 20 minutes from where I grew up. This was a so I'd spent listen, I'd spent I'd spent all this time. I spent all this time.

SPEAKER_12 1:18:45

I spent all this I spent all this time as an assistant director. He's like the dean, he's like the he's like the dean off accepted.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:50

Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. Yeah. And so I spent all this time as an assistant director, and uh my my then wife and I, we were going through a divorce, and I was kind of looking for something else, right? And so um this this position opens up at this university that's 20 minutes for from where I was born and raised. So I'm at the time I'm living in northwest Ohio, three hours away from where I was from where I grew up. This position opens up and I'm like, I'm just gonna apply for it. I'm not gonna get it, you know, I'm not qualified for it. So they bring me in and and I meet with all of these higher-ups, right? I mean, I'm meeting with the president of the university, and I'm meeting with the dean of all these other departments and everything else, and we go out to dinner and and all of this stuff, and uh so I leave and I'm like, well, there's no way in the world that that I'm getting this. Like they they tell me what the they they told me there, like what the salary was, and it was twice as much as I was making at the time. And like, well, there's you know, there's nowhere I'm getting this. And so you fast forward a couple weeks later, and I'm sitting in a tree stand bow hunting. At Double J Farm. It's a double J at the double J Farm, yeah. So I'm actually real close, right? I'm real close to where where uh the school is. And uh and it's like fifteen minutes before dark, and I'm like, Huh, Wheeling Jesuit University. Huh, golden hour. So I silenced the call like any good hunter would do, right? And uh and it was the uh the guy that was the head of the search committee, he was the dean of the uh College of Arts and Sciences, and so of course I got out of the tree stand probably ten minutes earlier than I should have that particular night.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:23

So you didn't kill a deer.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:24

And I did not kill a deer that night. I drive up the road and uh parked to at the little uh Wheelittle Baptist church there, pulled in the driveway, check my voicemail, and uh calling the other end said, Hey Dustin, this is Bob Phillips from Wheeling Jesuit University. We'd like to offer you the position of Dean of Admissions. And uh yeah, and so uh went in and talked to Father and thanked him.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:45

So I talked to him.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:46

Yes, yeah, I did. I did. I threw up my Hail Mary's. But uh so I took that and and moved away, and that was uh so I I was no longer then, of course, the house announcer at uh at Eldora Speedway, but uh they had me back for the banquet, and I I did talk to Tony there, and I told him, I said, listen, I said, I know you got some decisions to make, I said, but I would love to at least keep doing the dream of the world 100 if I can't. And Tony told me right there himself. He said, first he made fun of me uh on the stage in front of everybody at the banquet, and he said he you know uh specifically said that I was going to live in West Virginia, which was not true, and he still teases me about that to this day. But uh but he said, as long as I own Eldora Speedway, you have a seat in the press box for the dream of the World 100. Yeah, I think for uh Yeah, well, this year's this year's World 100 will be my 17th in a row.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:42

I was just gonna say, because uh 2010 you said was your first year, it's 2026, so that's 16. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:48

By the way. Well, 17 because 2010 is a Zoom. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:53

So 2010. You know what?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:57

He's got six toes on that one. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:03

I wasn't even making fun of you. You were going to.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:06

No, I I got a text from Colton. 2010, the winner of the World 100.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:13

Scott Boomcoast.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:14

Dave Brooklander's gonna be pretty excited to hear this. Billy Moyer.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:19

Really? Oh, there you go. Now wait, we said the dream, though, right? He won both. Did he win both, bad? Oh, there you go. There you go. Okay. There you go. Mr. Smooth.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:30

That's right. Yeah. Yep, but uh an Iowa connection.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:34

That's right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:35

Crazy. So you want to know what? Uh the first year that we went down to that I went down to the we got to go to Billy's little trophy room. Have you ever been to there?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:45

No, Ben, that Ben Shelton has. I have not. Dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:48

So it's got, well, you know, the old shop towels, like the red ones. Yeah. They used to write on them, like the date and what where they were at and shit and everything. And we walk into Billy's little room or whatever, and I'm just like, I mean, what the first thing I went to was I picked one of them rags up, you know, just like because it was like laying over the trophy and because I wanted to read what it said. And then we went to Larry Shaw's little deal. Yeah. Have you been to that? No. Oh man. If you if you go to the top, because you'll be at the topless, won't you? At Batesville? No.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:24

I do not do the topless. No, it uh every year it interferes with my wife's first volleyball match of the year. Oh I've never been to Batesville.

unknown 1:23:32

What?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:32

That's one track I've never been to. Yeah, I've never been to Batesville. Sorry, Moon.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:36

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:36

Yeah. Never. Mondays with Moon are going to be a little different today, huh?

SPEAKER_08 1:23:40

Just saying. You know, we have a Batesville connection coming on a week from tonight.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:44

I oh I I guarantee you, Peyton will be like, you know what? We're just gonna fly him down on the back. But no, it was just it was just super cool to see, you know, Billy was one of the best back in the day. And uh my dad had got the opportunity to race a Rayburn car and got to race with the tall cool one and Bloomer and and Billy and all this shit. And they they were whatever racetrack they were at, where Bloomquist wore the police uniform to the driver's meeting. I think know that I remember this. So my dad, they were there, and my dad won a B main, and Bob Pierce came over to my dad and looked at his tires. Uh my dad's like, What are you what are you doing? I'll just look you don't want to be looking at what we're doing. Hey, you know, Bob wanted to know what he was running, you know, and that's just very, very cool. My dad told me, too, that he won a D-Maine at Eldora. And he came in and he was just dog tired, you know. And Scott Bloomquist ends up winning the main event one-handed with when it was when his arm was broken. Wow. And my dad's like, that's when it it I put into perspective in my head that Scott Bloomquist is a bad SOB.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:08

Because he goes, I was like dog tired. Like, he goes, it is the force, like, and the racing that wears you out worse or you know, more than any other track he'd been on.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:20

Sure. And those that was before containment seats, too, so you Correct. Yeah. You were muscling.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:25

Yeah, and you're turning 15 second laps on a half-mile racetrack, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:29

Wild. So it it's pretty cool that that kind of stuff. You guys are savage. Okay. So then you so now you're a dean.

SPEAKER_09 1:25:45

And we're back. And we're back.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:49

Still not entirely sure how this happened how that happened, by the way. Sure. I mean, that's awesome. So how long did you do that? Uh less than two years. I was there 20 months, and they decided that a 21% increase in new students was not what they were looking for, and and uh they told me that uh we were gonna part ways.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:06

And that that is the as I sit here, that's 100% the honest God's truth. They uh they were the the non-meat and potatoes version of that. Um they were uh severely underfunded and and kind of drowning in not drowning in debt, but they were they were more in debt than what they told me. They told me when I when I met with them, they said, hey, we're X number of dollars in debt, and I came to find out a little while later it was twice as much.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:28

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:29

And so uh yeah. So what'd you do? Uh so my next job then, I was the uh director of admissions at a small boarding school near me. I did that for uh two years.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:43

Jonathan's making notes. Now we go from a dean to a private school. Basically, boarding school, private boarding school, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:51

Interna International Boarding School at that. Wow. Um yeah, and so uh I finally went full time then with uh Dirt on Dirt in 2019. Rigs Michael Rigsby and I had tried to make something work for I mean the better part of ten years. Um he would come to me and say, DJ, I want you to work for me, and my timing wasn't right. I came to him, Rigsby, man, I I'd love to work for you, his timing wasn't right. And then it it just it all finally happened in 2019.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:18

So really? So that's when you started for Flow?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:20

Or while Dirt on Dirt and then Dirt on Dirt and then they Yeah, Dirt on Dirt was acquired by Florida. Yeah, my it dirt on dirt, it was I was kind of a jack of all trades, master of none, right? Like a Swiss Army knife. I I did all of their social media, uh I did their ad sales uh and a few other things for them as well. My announcing was wrapped into that. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:38

Gosh dang, that's okay.

unknown 1:27:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:41

I don't I mean, see, this is this is the shit very natural transition, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:45

To go from a the director of admissions to you know social media marketing manager, yeah, that sales manager, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:52

I mean I mean, you know, there's a lot of people out there that watch or pay attention to that stuff like that don't know that, didn't know that. I didn't know that. And I paid attention to that shit. I mean, you need to pay more attention then. I I have written everything down. Have you seen me right now? So, okay. Isn't it time for a commercial break? Do you want to go to the commercial break? I mean, I do have to take a piss. Yeah, we're gonna why don't you send it off to a blue tree? Yeah, because we we still got like 80 more minutes of feed to cover because I've been like hammering DJ.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:26

By the way, did I tell you that I that I do have a two-hour drive after this as well? I'm staying in Cedar Rapids. You are? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:32

I can get you there quicker. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:36

Not if you're gonna get disqualified like you did at TL Challenge.

SPEAKER_11 1:28:39

Fair, fair, fair.

SPEAKER_12 1:28:41

That's right. All right. Well, we'll send it off to a break to Log Fab and P1P Canopy and Adobe Lounge. And when we come back, we'll finish talking to DJ. We've got a uh box to open up a box and uh go from there. But uh stay tuned. You're watching Watermelons and Wood Chips. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:06

Welcome to the Adobe Lounge located in Boone, Iowa, at 915 West Mamie Eisenhower. Our hours are Monday to Friday, 1 p.m. to close, Saturday and Sunday, noon to close. Come enjoy some of the strongest drinks in town and the best homemade pizzas around. Whether you're stopping in to relax, meet friends, or grab a bite, the Adobe Lounge is the place to be.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:30

See you soon.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:38

This is Dustin Jarrett, and you are watching the Watermelons and Wood Chips podcast with my guys Cody, Josh, and the Bobcat.

SPEAKER_12 1:29:50

Welcome back, RaceFans. Watermelons and Woodchips presented by Central Iowa Diesel Performance. Back from the break and uh still talking to, I guess, our resident dean of Auto Racing, uh DJ. Like I said, he he is used to being the dean of admissions. He did come from a school board meeting at at uh at Boone High School tonight, so uh the uh wrestling coach's job is on the line. Yeah, it always is. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:20

Well, you know, hey, are you gonna start calling him the dean? Is that a way for you to come up with a nickname, Austin?

SPEAKER_12 1:30:26

You have a question about I know. This is and so this is one of the things that that I was thinking of. Um we'll get to Mavitz Mayhem, but while we're talking about this, so um Steve Jackson has one of the coolest nicknames. Capital City Tornado is like still one of my favorite all-time nicknames for race car driver. Do you have you ever had any nicknames that you've given guys that have have stuck, or what's your favorite one that that you've heard?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:56

Yeah, I've I've given a few, not a ton. I was never a I don't want to say I was never a big nickname nickname guy, and Rick Eschman and I, and God rest his soul, we used to joke with each other all the time. I'd say, Rick, you give every single one of these drivers a nickname. And he's like, Yeah. You go to a wrestling match, he goes, and and you know exactly who the ultimate warrior is or who the holster is, or you go to a racetrack and you know who Squirrel is, and so that was we would banner, we would have playful banner back and forth about that. Um I've given a few, um, not a ton. Snowdrift for Blair Nodorf. Uh, very first time that he ever raced with us. Uh Ben Shelton actually sent me, goes, How do you think you would pronounce this guy's last name? Because it's like North Dorft or something. And he's like, No, it's like Nodorf. And I said, What? Snowdrift? And so the there was that one and a few other regional guys. My I think my favorite of all time, there was a guy from Pennsylvania, Central or Western Central Pennsylvania. His name was John Britzky, and his nickname was the Russian Rocket. Really? And I thought, what a cool nickname. The Russian Rocket, John Britsky in the 18s.

SPEAKER_12 1:32:02

See, like that's the kind of shit that I'm like.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:07

He always had like this a number on the quarter panel every year. He was a he was a he was a good little regional shoe. Like he ran a lot of like the Max races back in the day and things like that. But just because of his nickname, you were a fan of the Russian rocket, John Britzky.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:20

So like like where does the smooth operator or you know the real deal obviously comes from Don O'Neal? Right. Right. Okay. But like uh, you know, like Bloomquist and and where did all this come from? James? Is it is it is it James? James Rick.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:37

A lot of it. I'm an organic guy too, right? Like I want a nickname to be organic for for someone. I don't I don't want it to just be someone some an alliteration of someone's hometown and then something, you know, afterwards. You know, the the the boon basher, you know, the slaughter's build or whatever. Right.

SPEAKER_12 1:32:56

It's not like you're sitting in a room with Vince McMahon with a list of nicknames and you gotta pick, you gotta which one of these sounds good?

SPEAKER_04 1:33:05

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Um Tim Dome, the showstopper. You know, I used to call him that because he ran around around my area.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:12

Do you guys really have a good time with at the dome? When they do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:21

Wait, what I'm not sure I understand the question here.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:24

Well, the question is like so when they first started doing the like coming out and you know Oh, like the driver intros. The driver intros and stuff. Like, how what inspired that? Like, because you know, when Rico came out on Bloomquish's show. Which was I think that's the best one of all time.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:39

That and and Shannon Babb coming out with the wheelbarrow. Yeah, that was great. Um yeah, that was I think that was very organic, just truth be told. Like, like Cody Summer wanted the the really cool intros with the smoke and the guys walking out of the tunnel, but them coming out and doing things uh really and truly was just very organic. And then it I think it hit a high point. Um, I'm gonna say probably five, six, seven years ago. I don't know those have been as good the last few years. That's that's my challenge to the late model drivers of the dome. Better driver introductions in 2026.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:13

Okay, the next thing is you're a deer hunter, right? Yes. Okay. Can you talk to Sommer and tell him to get it off of Iowa's opening weekend of deer hunt? It's on it's on our uh uh opening week of gun season as well. I know. I mean, I'm so upset about it because we came down the first year because it wasn't on that weekend. Yeah. And then ever since then, I've had to watch on TV because I'm in the timber.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:35

Yeah. Well, uh, here's the good news is that Lok Fabrication, it sounds like, wants to sponsor a second running of the Gateway Dirt Knight two weeks later. And we can have it then. As long as you can have IMCA stock cars there.

SPEAKER_09 1:34:48

Everybody wins.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:50

Everybody wins! Whoa. I mean, I don't I don't know. I don't really know just because of how because I've been there and seen how small it is. It's way bigger on TV. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:35:02

Cody, this all formulated right here.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:05

That's right.

SPEAKER_08 1:35:05

I remember those ideas that we're gonna come up with right here.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:08

And what I've got to do is stick in his hand in front of the camera. I'm over here. Meaning by that is you know, the class too tough to tame. You know, we can rub a little bit. Oh and like not tear off like our sail panels or our spoilers or whatever. Like, I mean, it might be a pretty good show.

SPEAKER_08 1:35:27

You know, one guy that goes to the suite in our suite is Mike Nichols. Oh my! And we had the talk a couple years ago. I said, if they ever had stock cars at something like this, he goes, I'd be I'll be racing it.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:41

Yeah, like for sure. Well, it's an invite only. We're probably not gonna invite you, Mike.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:47

He doesn't even live with the guy, he doesn't even live in the area anymore. He's not here to defend himself.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:51

I know, but I I love Mike Nichols. I've raced with Mike. He's been a big inspiration to the sport. He's done so much for the sport. Um, but I don't want to race him. He's fast.

SPEAKER_08 1:36:01

Well, and now as an originator of the idea, I'm gonna give him a provisional. So he's gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:06

Of course, the farm kid would come in with that, wouldn't he? Quick 30-second Mike Nichols story. I was down and out for about a month with Lyme disease last summer. Really? Yes, yeah, yeah. And I mean didn't get to announce a few races like the North South 100, Hall of Fame ceremonies, and all of that. And uh going through my Facebook inbox, you know, and that's just uh people that that reach out to you that you don't know, it's it's incredibly flattering, but you've also got to filter through, you know, all of the spam messages and everything else. And I get one on there from uh from a Mike Nichols, and I'm like, well, I know who that guy followed IMCA racing enough to know who that is. And he reached out to me and and had a really good conversation and shared some stories with me, sent me a t-shirt in the mail, so I've got a Nichols racing shirt. I was IMCA stock car when IMCA stock car wasn't cool, and yeah, so I've got that shirt at home. Yeah, so I just I wanted to throw that out there because I thought that was a really cool gesture. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:58

Very, very awesome. That's just Lyme disease's not cool, but the gesture from Mike was cool. I so I'm an avid mushroom hunter. Do you have mushrooms in Ohio? Yeah. So you are you a mushroom hunter? No. So deer hunter, yes, mushroom hunter, no. I'm an avid mushroom hunter. I had a tick in my belly. I thought it was a piece of lint, but I had a tick in my belly button. Oh, if you wash your belly button a little more often, that wouldn't happen. I I was, I mean, I got a deep one, so I get a good number or something. But I'm in there feeling around and I'm like, man, you know, like the second day I'm like, okay, I know I've washed the lint out. Okay. But anyway, so then I like, so that at that time I'm like, you know, if you try to look at your belly button and you have a you know big belly like I like I do, it's kind of hard to see in there. So I get my light out and I can see it. And I was freaked out because of the Lyme disease thing. And I mean I'm not laughing at the Lyme disease. I know.

SPEAKER_08 1:37:50

Is it hooked on?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:52

Yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah. I grabbed it with a pair of tweezers and uh when I pulled it out, it was weird. It was like when it popped, it was black, you know, like the whatever was in it's that's not a tick, that's a blackhead. That's so I was freaked out. Like, how did you know that did you get bit by a tick? No, I did not actually. No. Okay. That's how much time you got. This is a whole story. That's a well, I remember when you were sick. I had reached out to you to see you because uh, you know, I feel like we've become friends at this point over the years, and and uh there was a lot of people worried about you, but I was freaked out. I had to go and do all these tests and stuff, and I ended up I was good.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:35

I'll try to give you the cliff notes. I woke up on a Monday morning. I had been I had been setting up trail cameras on a Saturday. I woke up on Monday with such a not even a headache, such a pain in my head. I could have told you exactly where the veins were, like in my forehead and down the side of my face. Like it was like a throbbing, like with every blood pulse, not to be gross. Yeah. But like I could feel, yeah. And so that was Monday morning. Tuesday morning I woke up and it was like 85% on the left side of my face. And I'm like, well, this isn't good. Wednesday morning I woke up, it was 100% left side, left side of my face is turning about the color of the table, it's it's turning like a reddish purple color, like lip like uh you know, like I've got bells palsy or something. So I go to the doctor, um, and the doctor's like she's like, Well, it could be this, this, this, or this. And she goes, and and Lyme disease was one of the things. She goes, I think it's about maybe facial cellulitis based on this pain you were telling me about Monday. I'm gonna put you on an incredibly aggressive medication for that. If you're not bet if you don't start feeling better within 24 hours, come back and see me tomorrow morning and we can at least rule that out. I, in fact, did not feel better, and within 24 hours I felt worse. She got me off that and she put me on um man, she put me on a medication for something else, and I can't remember now what it was. This is Thursday morning. Um whatever she put me on there did not help. I woke up Friday morning and it was like I'd had a stroke. And if you know anyone that has ever had a stroke, a lot of times after they have a stroke, their speech is very broken and fragmented, and that was how I woke up Friday morning. Wow. You know, I woke up, I'm talking to my wife, and I knew what I was trying to say, just like the four of us are talking here, but it was coming out very fragmented like that. And um and again, it didn't really register with me that it was happening like that. And I look at my wife and she's like, I don't know what's wrong with you. You know, she's crying, and I'm like, I don't know what's wrong with me either. And so I uh so I immediately so I immediately go to she go she uh for whatever reason she goes off to work. Um I go to uh the doctor and the uh physician's assistant that saw me just happened to be uh one of my wife's uh volleyball players' moms. She sees me for like two minutes and she goes back and tell I found this out later, she goes back and tells the doctor, Hey, I don't know how well you know Dustin Jarrett, but there is something seriously wrong with him. A doctor comes out, and he is we joked about the school board, he was the uh on the school board for the high school that my wife and I graduated from that I announced basketball games for. He comes out, sees me for five minutes, and he's like, I know you well enough to know this isn't you. And so same thing. He sent me immediately to ER. He called ER himself and had um CAT scan, EKG, and blood work done. And uh they found out there that uh that it was Lyme disease, and they put me on doxycycline for like two and a half, three weeks. And so I mean that fixed it. That's yeah. But uh but yeah, I mean it's still like that's a scary deal. It is, it is very scary. Especially when they're looking at you going, uh Well when you know I mean I don't announce for a living. I've got a full-time job at Flow, but like when that is such a big part when talking is such a big part of what you do, and you wake up one morning and you can't talk, you know, I mean there's there's a lot of things that go through your head of Am I gonna be able to do this again? Am I you know am I gonna be like this forever? Because I I know people that that have had strokes and have had things my grandmother had a stroke. Um and and she's still with us at at 90 years old, but she in the same sense her speech is very broken, very fragmented, and and you a lot of times can't understand what she's saying. And so um, you know, those thoughts start going through your head of that that sort of thing. Wow, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:42:23

I I bet that was very scary for you. It was especially for what you do for your like you said, a living. That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:30

No, don't get emotional on me. I'm alright.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:33

I was generally worried because I we had read the post. We read your post and stuff, and and like I said, I mean that's a that's a kind of a freak deal, you know, but that's that that can happen.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:45

Yeah, I and again the weird thing is I never pulled a tick off of me. Never. But that was a very uh I don't want to say very, but that was a somewhat common occurrence in our region uh last summer as well. Yeah. I bet I've had um eight to ten people reach out to me since then that that had the same exact thing. Without a tick. Without a tick. Yeah, without a tick, without a bite, without a mark.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:11

That's weird.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:12

Ohio's weird. Write that down, Jeep. Anyway. We still want to go to Eldora. Yeah, yeah. Still go to Eldora, yeah. Yeah, there's no ticks there.

SPEAKER_08 1:43:21

Well, they have you know cheap uh concession food.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:24

Right. So we we we know that you have, I mean, raced and been at 300 and how many five tracks, right? What do you see what's the differences from you know, region to region from like IMCA to UMP or or to to the late model stuff? Like what is what do you see as the biggest uh outstanding um difference between the two?

SPEAKER_04 1:43:49

You know, the the biggest thing in this area is, and this is no secret to probably most people watching, is just the IMCA again, I don't care if it's IMCA sanctioning or Wesoda or whatever, but we're an IMCA country, we're in central Iowa. And if if you break those rules, you're done for 30 days or whatever that penalty is from every racetrack, right? And as I mentioned in Ohio, we we don't have that. We have UMP late models and UMP modifies. Um but everything else beyond that is a free-for-all. The rules at uh one track are different from the rules at a track an hour down the road. And and um the tech officials aren't uh trained as well, uh just very honestly, and I'm not throwing my home state under the bus or anything like that. It's just refreshing to come out here, and I think it's very healthy for the sport to have that to have that common set of rules and and know that um you know what what did what did we say earlier, Cody, that that you know, rising tides raise all ships or whatever, and and that's I think the case here. The other thing I love about this area, and I'm very, very adamant about this on social media, the efficiency of the programs is tremendous. Uh one and done rule in the heats and bee mains is is spectacular. But I think it makes I think it makes I think it makes you guys better drivers. I mean it really i I see that, it really and truly does. When someone says they're gonna start a race at 6.45 p.m., I'll be damned if that first car ain't on the track at 6.45 p.m. And and again, we don't have that at home all the time. It might be 6.45, it might be 7, it might be 7.10, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:45:19

What what what what do you think like if that rule was implicated in dirt late model racing? Oh, it would be a mute. What would Jonathan Davenport do? I mean, it gets you know, it wasn't even his fault. Yeah, he gets taken out and it's like, well, 49, take it to your pit. Yeah, you're done for the heat race. Yeah. I mean, it we we've we talk about it all the time. Like it really kind of makes you hold accountable to like, hey, instead of driving through this guy, like I might need a break, but there's it's it's a double-edged sword though, too, because you can be victim of circumstance, yeah. And that's where I feel like the rules sucks, but they uh i i it it's cut dry.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:57

It's the same for everyone. It's the same for everyone, and I do think that it is different, and I mean this in the best for both sides I'm talking about here. I do think it's very different from a regional level versus a national touring series with guys that have $150,000 race cars that are racing for a living as well. Right. And I think that's very different, and that's uh the same thing can be said. Look, we can get down an entire rabbit hole here, too, right? Oh, yeah of hotlaps and qualifying and everything else. But but I think that there are I could sit here and say, and I do, I love the fact that out here it's you know, there's the handicap point system and that that's how heat races are lined up. Not everybody hotlaps, there's no qualifying. I love that. In the same token, you cannot take that to the world of outlaws sprint cars or late models, or the LucasOil late models are high limit, it just it does not work. It's an apple's gorgeous difference.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:44

Right. Well, and we kind of talked about it too a little bit in past episodes. It's like, you know, when you go to a Lucas event, now granted, if it's the dream or the world one hundred, you're getting sixty cars or seventy or how many ever it is, but like like some like like the flow night, what is there, thirty, forty cars? Yeah, depending on where we're at, right, right, right. So it's a lot easier for to give that driver a a second chance in a heat race because you don't have you don't have 160 cars like what we're getting, or you know, for instance, 141 two weeks ago, 181 cars.

SPEAKER_07 1:47:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:17

I mean, that's insane. That that's that's more than Boone Speedway, you know, a couple of times this year. Boone's been right up there, but 141, for whatever reason, it's always been that way. What a spectacular you've been there. Yes. Once. Just one time, actually, believe it or not. Uh we see that the is it the world of outlaws that are going there? Uh this weekend. This weekend. This weekend. I'm really curious to see how that place races with those big guys on there. Um, it's gonna be a little different. Like that place is so unique. Um, and do you think them late model guys when they win that show, they're gonna jump in the crick?

SPEAKER_04 1:47:49

Well, Earl Pearson did, so the only race I was at was the Luca Lucas Soyo had a race there. Oh, really? Back in uh 2018, maybe?

unknown 1:47:59

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:59

2016, 2018, and old Earl Pearson won. Um, and he jumped in. So I think, listen, there's some characters on that outball store, right? Like Pears, Turbo, those.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:10

And Turbo's been faster and shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:11

He has, but I want to see I want to see like someone strong. I want to see like McCready win and jump in. You know, someone that's like really straight laced or something. McCready ain't jumping in.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:19

I thought you $20. Well, yeah, he'll be there. $20.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:22

If McCready wins, he jumps.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:23

I say he jumps in. There it is. Game is documented. Documented, you saw it here. Yeah, so I I I don't know. I I look at I watch, I've been I actually watch probably a ton more late model racing now than I ever have just because of being able to go to some events and have you ever thought about announcing it? Because I got a great offer for you. I I mean if you're offering, but I mean as long as I get one of these buttons right here. Do you guys have one of them buttons? The the mute button? The sensor cough button. Yeah, we have that.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:50

You do have to you don't have to push that very much. You're pretty, you're pretty much. Listen, people ought to pay to hear what we say when the microphone's not.

SPEAKER_09 1:48:59

All right.

SPEAKER_08 1:48:59

Gold Mopay already raised his hand on that. Yeah, but and uh Jonathan's gonna need some uh assistance on that tour, so just just we'll just stand in the back of the room.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:10

I literally Garrett he ruined me on this because he just was like, let's go do the bobcat uncut. I'm like, like, what are we doing? What do you mean? Well, I don't know, just go out there and be an idiot. I'm like, oh, that's easy. I do that when I wake up and start breathing.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:26

And so what he mentioned earlier when he whenever I text him and said, Hey, are you coming after my job? I think that was the first bobcat uncut, I think. Yeah. And it was crazy. Well, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:34

Like, I don't remember we were at Supernationals and it like got like sixty or seventy thousand views, and I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_08 1:49:41

Why didn't you have to try for it?

SPEAKER_04 1:49:44

And then it then it turned into way, yeah. They didn't tell him that uh actually that was using a Nielsen multiplier plus um. There was only like forty-eight people watching it.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:55

That's fine, and I'm fine with it, but it it it it's turned into this little thing now.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:00

So if I if I I need to just start calling you because I need a little guidance on that. I need to rope it in a little. Guidance from the city? He need to be a little more professional.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:08

Yeah. He needs some uh maybe that's why it's unique. He need a little something from the dean. From the dean.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:15

The dean of dirt. The dean of dirt. Right. I love it. But since we brought up the 141 deal, Cole Charneski, absolute domination up there in the modified class and stock arch.

SPEAKER_12 1:50:26

That that uh mod race was awesome.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:28

Yeah. I mean Cole, when he's got it going on, he's got it going on.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:33

It's the mullet, bud. It definitely is telling you.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:36

And don't forget about his uh skills at karaoke.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:39

Yes. We've seen that at the Clash on the Club. Incredible. Yeah, it was it was incredible.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:44

Uh I will I will say there was no less than half a dozen times I thought Johnny Whitman was going to get around it. Yes. I mean, he was and Johnny, well, Johnny's mayor up there.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:54

I mean, he's won that race several times, and and uh that track is so hard. I mean, now there we could say there was probably a little favoritism because his old man does own it. Oh, poor Tim. I mean, you know I'm just kidding, Tim.

SPEAKER_08 1:51:09

But that thing from the tires to the wall looked just like this table. Oh, it was it was great.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:14

You could see it transitioning when they were running the other classes out there. They had a hell of a stock car race. Um I mean, that place is so unique and it it's tough. I like I hate going up there, but I love going up there at the same time because it's just a different kind of racing, you know, and and they get the crowd. They've got the cool bar, the food's good, the the atmosphere is just good. It feels like me going to Boone Speedway, it almost feels like that going up there in that area.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:44

You know what I mean? So I gotta be honest, I wondered how all of that the crowd and the car count and the atmosphere was going to be because this was the first year they moved it to Friday Saturday. But it wasn't it wasn't a Wednesday-Thursday show. Yes. It seemed like it went well. Seemed like it went really well.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:59

I was gonna say, I don't almost wonder if it didn't go better, really, because you you people during the week, unless you're a real diehard racer, I'm gonna stay at home and watch versus going to the show, especially if I gotta work the next day. You know? Granted, I do work for myself, but so I'm going. But I've I didn't even realize it was on this week or weekend until Tom Barry pussed out and come out with the flu, and then ended up going to Marshtown and taking Paul Nagel's money at the PB. Swept the whole weekend over there. Shoot out. He was good. He was good. Very good. And then uh Jimmy Gustin picking up the wind there in the in the stock cars, uh, Dylan Van Wick doing what Dylan Van Wick does.

SPEAKER_08 1:52:41

I did get a clarification on that while we were in Indy, his mom. It's Dylan Van Wyck. Wyke. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:47

She's told me that probably a few times.

SPEAKER_08 1:52:50

I just asked her.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:50

I screw it up. You guys know how I am with my words. I know.

SPEAKER_08 1:52:53

She checked him in and I looked right at Colton. I'm like, I gotta ask. I just asked her, and she goes, it's Van Wyck, but she goes, a lot of people say it that way.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:00

So super nice. That was a good race, too, between him and Will Wolfe was up there. Yeah. Absolutely. Um man, I mean.

SPEAKER_08 1:53:08

Will's been fast lately. Yeah, he's been super fast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:11

He's that Jeff Mueller line right around the bottom of the racetrack. You can count the treads in his tires down there. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:18

You know, and and I mean, the show, I mean, it got over it was over before 11 30, wasn't it? Marshalltown?

SPEAKER_04 1:53:24

Yeah. Oh, it was done super early. Yeah, I mean, they were done at like 10 30. I've s Jimmy Gustin had me down there getting his picture taken with him at like 20 after 10 or so.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:31

He's already got like a 20 by 30 in his shop. Above his bed. Above his bed. Yeah, if if you get a chance and you're in there and you get to go down to his new place, his setup with his race car shit and everything, like he'll only let certain people in there. He'll let you in, I know he will.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:50

It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:51

But it is it's super sick. But I I I haven't asked Adley, I'll probably have to ask her, but I guarantee he's gonna have that picture up in the back. But and then Sunday, uh uh Park Jefferson, or not Park Jefferson, or yeah, Park Jefferson, the Dave Riley Memorial, uh not Morgan, uh Zach Olmsted picking up the 4,000 to win. That's a pretty big hobby stock show over there. And watching on the broadcast, I mean he just kind of worked that top. Them other guys were just down there working the bottom.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:20

He was good from the time he unloaded, too. I was I was there. I was there, and I mean he was good in his heat race. Um, and he just I mean, he he very it really didn't take him long to get to the front. He and he was very methodical in that's the cleanest I've seen in his car.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:34

He's usually a beat and a banger. You know, he's he's rough on the boys out there, but the car looks pretty good. Um and then old T Fitz, our BMX rider. Did you know he was a BMX rider? No, no, he was professional. Remember the old Dave Mara bike game? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Trevor Fitz. Okay.

SPEAKER_12 1:54:52

No, he sent he sent me a video on Snapchat one time and because it we were BSing back and forth, and he's like, Yeah, I lived in Italy for a while and was like doing this tour and stuff. I'm like, we're like Wait, what? And he's like dead seriously. He sent me a YouTube clip of him.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:08

And so he brought that up uh when we were at sports, is it sports park way? Sports raceway. Sports Park Raceway. Sports Park Raceway. I've screwed it up every time.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:17

Hey, get with the program. I'm sure an announcer, nobody's wrote it down for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:22

Um, but he comes over and his side of his trailer come off. I saw that. And like his hair is getting so thick, it almost looks like Bobby's King of the Hill, you know, it's all thicker and shit. But I was like telling him, like, dude, that was the first time I talked to him. I'm like, bud, okay, you're cool. Like, you went up, you got like 50 more Gryffindor points because you became a uh you know, BMX writer. And uh so we got to talking about that, and he's like, he still has the Dave Mark. What?

SPEAKER_12 1:55:53

It is wrote down it says Spark Racer right on your itinerary.

SPEAKER_09 1:55:59

Whatever. Oh, I had to point it out. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:04

Let's also uh let's take this time too to mention the fact that we are not even through page one of three in this podcast. No, we are. We've we've we have elaborated. We bounced a little bit. Okay. We bounced around a little bit. It does say sports park raceway, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:56:17

But I did have to be announcer.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:20

If you're gonna be an announcer, you gotta see.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:21

I told you I'm a little squirrely up here.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:23

I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:24

But but he still has the Dave Mara PlayStation game that he says he rips around on still every once in a while. I just thought that was cool.

SPEAKER_12 1:56:32

He sent me a snap, he was at the at the BMX park the other day. Really? Yeah. Loosening up the ankles.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:38

Right on, right on. Uh he but he did a hell of a job last night. I mean, RJ Merchant won four races up there. RJ's been good. He's been super good. And I think, I don't know, but on TV, it looked like RJ was like, uh, look out, I'm going gravedigger here. So here's what so here's what happened.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:56

Fitzy was coming on the bottom, and RJ, RJ had a great race with uh racer Ricky with Ricky with Ricky Stephan was up front. Those two ran side by side for the first half of the race and never laid a fender on each other. It was a great race. RJ Merchant finally kind of went out, got out front. Um Fitsi started coming on the bottom, and the bottom started taking just a little bit of rubber, and I think Fitsi found that maybe a few laps before anyone else. And as the back of the field kind of closed in on Merchant, that allowed Fitsi to close in on RJ. And uh RJ left a door open down in three and four with about three laps to go. And so Trevor stuck his nose down in there very clean. Never never touched him. Yep, yep. Got got beside him, and I I think I'm guessing, and RJ will probably keep me honest here. I think it rattled RJ a little bit, and he went to gas it didn't know there was a lap car on the outside of him and drove over the top of him, and I think he broke a rear end.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:46

That's exactly what it looked like it happened on TV. I mean, like it literally it was almost like RJ's here, Fitzy goes like this, and RJ goes, Oh shit. Yep. Like did sitting duck out front, not really knowing what's going on. You're watching the lappers and stuff, but it ended up being a hell of a race. Um the sport mod race was a good race. That hosting kid first picking up his first IMCA uh win. I mean, he runs corning, so which is an you know a NASCAR deal, but uh super cool to see him hold off Willie Kirk. Willie Kirk's really good up there at Park Jefferson.

SPEAKER_12 1:58:21

Willie's been fast down here, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:22

He's been fast everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:24

Um Willie was right there on him in lap track as well a few different times and just couldn't quite every time the door would open a little bit, it would shut about as quickly as it opened, and that allowed uh Hunter to kind of pull away those last few laps. Right.

SPEAKER_09 1:58:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:38

So I yeah, I mean, what a great weekend of racing, got a bunch of stuff coming up.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:42

Caden Reynolds won stop car to the former the former Iowa native. Well, I now in North. Yeah, I talked to him last night. Uh got a job, he's a welder, got a job out there, and uh girlfriend or fiance, whatever it is, is from that area, and so he moved out there uh during the offseason.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:58

No shit. I did not know that. Uh super cool. Yeah, I mean he ran Hellverase too. I thought Barker was gonna get him. Barker started pulling that diamond line. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:06

And when he'd come down that hill, he'd run. Oh man, he was getting some runs, and then he got a little steppy down in turn through no, it was turn one. Yeah. He about lost her, and and uh then it was just kind of night lights out then for uh Reynolds.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:21

But Caden Reynolds, former IMCA Hobby Stock National Champion, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:25

Crazy. And uh you become an announcer, you'll remember. King of the Catwalks winner. Yeah, that's right. I was there that night. Yeah, yeah. I was there the night he won that. Yeah, that was the one of the first nights we had that show there. Fifty-seven stock cars there that night.

SPEAKER_08 1:59:37

Also the first winner of the Harris Clash and a stock car.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:40

At Boone Speedway. At Boone Speedway. Ah, there he is. Yeah. Yeah. Last year. Yep.

SPEAKER_08 1:59:44

So you think he'll come out and defend you. And a hell of a last name, by the way. Right. Third cousin, Josh. I don't know. I have I'll take all the credit, but I get none. So right.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:56

So we we kind of need to go into the Moffat's mayhem um deal. Uh DJ was present for this as well. Um happened up at the Kasuth County Speedway. Did I say it right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:07

Not even.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:08

I did. It's Kassooth, right?

SPEAKER_11 2:00:10

It is Kassooth, but there's no L. He puts an L in.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:13

It's done it for years, apparently. But anyway. Probably should have been on this uh sheet that we have here.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:21

Probably should have listed it up. Hey, if you didn't listen to the last podcast, I'm not a good reader, I'm a good pitcher looker. So and you know what? All you guys, all you guys can kick rocks because Chris Burke said the same thing. So my man Chris was uh all about the being a good pitcher looker. But um, a little altercation in the sport mod class up there. I think it's gotta be the mayhem uh of the week. Um I'm gonna murder both of them guys' names, but I'm just gonna go with their car number. The 49.

unknown 2:00:53

Matt Hollerich.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:54

Matt Allrich. Holleric. Hollerick Alrich. Where'd I get the A from? A and H still a long ways away. And then the 81 of Jacob Cordy? Jacob Cordy? Is it Cordy or Gordy?

SPEAKER_04 2:01:07

We don't know. A-O-R-T. Yeah, like it's like Randy Cordy, but we don't know if it's Court or Courty out here.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:14

Okay, so if he could comment on the show and correct us on that, so we're not, you know, saying it's Court because that's where he's gonna be headed after what happened.

SPEAKER_08 2:01:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:24

So there was an altercation in turn one and two, which was multiple cars. Uh there was a car on the entry of turn one, but then there were also cars in like the exit of turn two. Yes. Um, and so they were kind of zoomed in on that. And the only thing that I seen, which they didn't see, catch the wreck. So they just caught them when they were sitting there. Hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 2:01:47

We need some more cars up here, because then we can do like give me dad's car up there. Give me dad's car over there.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:52

Get that baby over here. Okay. So the Cordy guy, the Cordy guy is sitting like this, and the 49 car is sitting is sitting like this, right? And they're on the inbanking. And so I see the 81 car roll into the 49 car, okay? And then he backs up and pulls away. So then they pan back out, and they're like, oh, you know, the altercation Chad's talking about it, and they're like, uh, there's still another car in turn one, so they they pan over to the car in turn one, which whoever put all the poles in Algona, like to where you can't see what's going on. Like, especially when they're doing interviews, I'm like, Every time can this guy not see the frickin' pole in front of the driver? Anyway, he zoomed in on that, and then all of a sudden we literally hear on the broadcast the the car rev up, which I think it was was it the 81?

SPEAKER_04 2:02:47

I that's that's when I looked up as well. I heard the rev and then the mayhem, and then the moffins mayhem.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:54

They they come together on the front stretch, and then like the the camera guy was like super quick, was like right on it, but it was all over then.

SPEAKER_08 2:03:05

I wonder if it was Ian.

unknown 2:03:06

It's Ian.

SPEAKER_08 2:03:07

Was it Ian?

SPEAKER_03 2:03:08

Oh shit, Ian. That'll boy Ian. Yeah, that'll boy Ian. Um, but Chad Meyer was like, oh man, like you do not do that. We're gonna go ahead and send both of those drivers back to their pit area, and you do not use your car as a weapon. And I'm like, see? I don't ever hit anybody under yellow. I just sign language the shit out of me. Sign language is okay. I it's pretty tough to get a finger in around me when I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_08 2:03:37

At least you know how to get a finger out the window. Them mod light guys, we gotta get a hold of them.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:41

I don't, you know what? I think that there should be an incentive. If they're all gonna do it, it might pay an extra $10 at the ticket window.

SPEAKER_08 2:03:46

I said a hot dog at Austin's trailer, and he commented and said, that's not cooking. That's just a good thing. So he's gonna bring a grill. So it sounds like he's wanting to grill. Yeah, but I do have to do, I do have to say a little honorable mention on the Moffat's mayhem. Did anybody see Jimmy Cole park his car on the front? Yeah, sure did. I got a kick out of that.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:06

Now, Dustin, you were there. What I I mean, I know he was displeased with the stuff.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:10

I didn't see what yeah, it was kind of uh towards the middle or back of the pack. Yep. And so I was watching Fitzie and those guys up front. Um I don't know exactly what happened, but I know that Jimmy Cole was not very happy with the call. He parked his car on the front straightaway. He got out of it, uh, he walked away from it. Which and yeah, I mean it was a nice little advertisement for him there. I don't know exactly where they towed the car to, but I was told it might not have been his trailer. Really? I that I don't know. I don't know that for certain. Did they take it to Mavericks?

SPEAKER_10 2:04:40

I well that I don't know either.

SPEAKER_08 2:04:45

Oh man. I I have heard it said at Boone specifically when somebody walked away from their car, take that thing down in the grass. It ain't getting any help from us to get on their trailer. So if somebody's gonna stop the show, okay, then you can figure it out after the races. So I wondered if they did something like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:05

Maybe, maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 2:05:06

Just put her down in turn one and let them figure it out after the race.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:08

Which is understandable. I mean, I've seen Jimmy do some pretty wild stuff over the years. He's a he's a crazy wild, great, great, great, great guy. Yeah, he's pretty nice. Um he kind of reminds me of the old guy that you know scoops the snow off of Home Alone Street. You know what I'm saying? That's what he reminded me of. Batter switchblade Sam. I don't know. Of Dennis Matt. That's exactly where he's from. Seriously. The home alone guy. It's absolutely him. So that was kind of that was entertaining. That was cool to, you know, to see that happen. And and to but we we talk about this, and I I think you can agree to this, Dustin, is when the racer quits worrying about what happens on the racetrack and quits showing, you know, that they care the emotion of it, our our sports in trouble. Oh, absolutely. I mean, even the professional guys, you know, on the on the uh touring series and stuff, they show their displeasure. Sometimes I'm like, oh shit, they're getting fined for that. Or something.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:07

And we will even catch grief occasionally, right? Like, ah man, why did DJ, why did Ben go out there and stick a microphone in front of someone right after they wrecked? But that's also the beauty of our sport. Yeah, we have all access to it doesn't matter if it's Jonathan Davenport or Jonathan Logue, right? We have all access to you guys to be able to do that. And um, it's also incredibly easy to just decline a comment or walk away as well. It is, right.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:31

I love it when you guys do that because uh Well, it was like uh last year when Max Player and whoever got into it on the front stretch and ended up in turn one. Oh, yeah. And we're all like, get over there, and nobody did. Because it's like I want to hear him say, Well, that dumbass or whatever comes out, you know, because that is It's like that's rivalry stuff, or or you know what I'm trying to say there? Like that's what Man, I want to come back.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:59

But his person's personalities. You know, we we we don't in our sport as a whole, we don't our drivers are not robots, and we don't want to be robots. Right. We don't want him to go out there and be the well you know, I really probably shouldn't say anything, you know, and I gotta thank all my sponsors. Like, I I want that pure raw emotion, you know, and and and we we we try to do that uh and I think a lot of others do as well. Well that creates storylines, create storylines, exactly. Yep.

SPEAKER_08 2:07:26

People should be able to be their own person and be able to you know express how they feel about something. And I I look back at the dome to Tyler Carpenter that first when he won as he and they stuck that mic in his face and he just literally the keyboard warriors, yep, and then we didn't hear come here to fuck around. Yep. I mean and the whole place is just you can hear like and they just lost their minds, and and but yeah, it's just it makes it real because I don't know when I'm pumped up about something, I'm not golly gee, Willakers, that was awesome.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:02

It would be really it would be really cool if you did though.

SPEAKER_08 2:08:08

But it's like, you know, I how does Willickers how does most everybody celebrate something? You know, they get pretty excited, they might say a cuss word here and there, but and then when they're mad, same deal, you know. Gee, I'm real upset with that guy, you know. No, you're yeah I mean we're we're away from the you know fist to the nose stuff, yeah. Pretty much. But yeah, if you could say a little something here and there, you ought to be able to.

SPEAKER_04 2:08:33

Yeah, and uh you know, listen, I don't know that we need to be dropping F-bombs every other word or anything like that, right? But I do think that showing raw emotion, there's something to be said about that. And again, we we are we're a sport that has access to that, and I think that's something that that we can take advantage of. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:47

I agree. We've got five more things for you.

SPEAKER_08 2:08:50

Oh my god. Well, the first thing before we get to them, we've got to open this box.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:54

You gonna open the box first?

SPEAKER_08 2:08:55

Crazy Martin's first. Open the box first. Yeah, it says it's for the first time. We have to ask these questions.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:00

Oh my god, we have to. We have to ask these questions because if you're gonna go to the case.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:03

Well, do we need to make room? Can I should I put your dad's car back? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_12 2:09:06

Oh yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:08

Like I'm like I'm running the place.

SPEAKER_12 2:09:09

Yeah. This one actually got hand delivered to the house. Uh yeah, and it wasn't it wasn't DoorDash, right? No, it wasn't DoorDash.

SPEAKER_08 2:09:17

Yeah. Cody's the they mess his address up all the time, so they have DoorDash brought to their house all the time.

unknown 2:09:23

The new doll in the guy.

SPEAKER_08 2:09:24

Right, and I keep telling him, I'm like, just take it. Who yeah, you're there getting DoorDash?

SPEAKER_03 2:09:28

It's pretty good shape for like 1999.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:30

Yeah, well, I mean, uh, yeah, no, let's cast our cameras off a little bit on the left. Well, actually, J Bar spent a little bit of it.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:47

You know how many races I won then?

SPEAKER_08 2:09:50

Oh, okay, yeah. Hey, way to open that away from the camera. Good job. Yeah, way to yeah. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Crazy Marty. What do we got?

SPEAKER_12 2:10:00

Alright, so we have a bunch of snacks.

SPEAKER_08 2:10:03

Here, here. This thing will reach you. Put that baby on.

SPEAKER_12 2:10:07

Take that, so I don't think.

SPEAKER_08 2:10:08

Yep, yeah, I'm gonna put that away.

SPEAKER_04 2:10:11

Great. Josh lost a pinky.

SPEAKER_08 2:10:12

Well, Josh loses a pinky on the uh watermelons of woods.

SPEAKER_12 2:10:15

So I know exactly who this is from, and and we got a got a bunch of snacks in the box. So I don't know. It's from Chad Christensen because I see what's in the in the box. We have the the deer crossing sign, so I gotta tell that it's where the the deer running him over. I gotta tell that story. Um Did anybody see the deer take the lap at uh Boone Saturday? Yeah, I was like, what?

SPEAKER_03 2:10:38

Have you ever seen that?

SPEAKER_04 2:10:39

Oh, put a transponder on that thing, right?

SPEAKER_12 2:10:41

I don't think anybody needs to open this. Let me open it.

SPEAKER_08 2:10:45

Let me see. Let's put that down here. Uh-huh. We can open that off camera, maybe.

SPEAKER_11 2:10:52

Uh you pussies. Yes. You can try it here. Let me see. Let's do this. Is it gonna blow up? Yes, it's gonna blow up. I bet it's gonna blow up. Watch out, DJ.

SPEAKER_08 2:11:04

Oh, we're good. Oh, okay. It's not like full of black powder or uh okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:11

I don't know if I want to touch it.

SPEAKER_11 2:11:18

Is that where this is? Put it on my leg.

SPEAKER_12 2:11:20

Is this where this is that where this came from?

SPEAKER_08 2:11:23

Holy fucking thing. Yes, I believe that is that's where that came from, DJ. I do believe that's where that came from.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:35

I don't know if it came from the lumber yard or if it came from that's got a glitter on it. That's about what it was. It's 2026. I know I never have glitter on me. No, I was not where you think I was. Anyway, thank you, Chad. Rolling on the shower.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:54

Two inches does a lot of damage.

SPEAKER_11 2:12:00

Oh man. I mean, and then just random snacks. Snacks. I think it's because OG stuff. There you go. You need some pretzels. Yeah, I like Dodge pretzels.

SPEAKER_08 2:12:15

That's awesome. Chad, as always.

SPEAKER_12 2:12:18

Great. So this. Oh God. So the story behind this, I think we were actually at Fort Dodge when my cousin Jason was racing. I think they were racing, yeah, racing sport mods. Sports Park Raceway, by the way. It shows it right here. It's right here. It does. So Chad was in the hotel parking lot, and they I think they had the like the door off and he was washing the car. And all of a sudden they hear like this door just go like just hear a crash. And Chad's on the ground, and shit's flying everywhere. Well, this deer had taken off across the field, apparently, and Chad was washing the car, didn't see it, and it just fucking mowed him over. Just cleaned him out, knocked it like ran him over, and he had hoof prints up his back. And like they had to go back, and they and they said they went back and like because they're like, what happened? And the people at the front desk had the security cam footage of him like getting run over by this deer. Yeah, in the parking lot. Just cleaned him out. Just amazing. Only Chad. So so yes, then somebody got him a deer crossing sign.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:38

That's awesome. Well, that's like real life grandma got run over by a reindeer. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 2:13:42

That is awesome. That's gotta go there.

SPEAKER_08 2:13:45

Right here.

SPEAKER_12 2:13:46

There you go. So yeah, Chad's been run over by a reindeer. And then after that, they got him, they got him that and they got him uh like an orange hat and it had deer whistles on it.

SPEAKER_09 2:13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 2:13:58

Incredible.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:59

I mean anybody like a dots pretzel? Awesome. Not real easy to get open, I will mention that.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 2:14:05

Right?

SPEAKER_04 2:14:06

Are you ready for your fast five? I've got a fast five.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:08

You've got a fast five.

SPEAKER_08 2:14:09

Oh boy. There might be six or seven on there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:13

Well, we already know we already talked about his true. Well, I I mean, it was the most unique food that he'd seen, so I was gonna skip that one. True. Alright. Okay. Um go for that. But okay. These are just like, I'm gonna put you on the spot, like, we're gonna ask you the question and just say it. Right. We're right off the dome. All right. Who's your favorite announcer?

SPEAKER_04 2:14:31

Uh James Essex. I did I grew up listening to James.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:35

Favorite interview of all time. Oh man. You have done personally.

SPEAKER_04 2:14:40

Probably a Bloomquist interview at some point in my life.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:43

Oh yeah. Okay. Favorite late model driver.

SPEAKER_08 2:14:47

Oh man. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 2:14:53

Yeah, that could be different. Okay, let's do current and all time. All time, I was always a Davy Johnson fan. The juice Davy Johnson from Pennsylvania. Yep. Always, always like that's that's another sick nickname. Juice Davy Johnson. Right. But I grew up around, like I've got die casts in my own office, you know, like uh 24-scale die casts of uh oh no, I didn't thought there was a sign of uh of regional driver, local drivers that were very good in my area. So Donnie Moran, um, Mike Balzano, Steve Shaber, and Bart Hartman. They all uh grew up, or not grew up, they all raced, lived and raced within an hour of where I where I live. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:32

Okay. Favorite IMCA modified driver.

SPEAKER_04 2:15:35

Oh my favorite IMCA modified driver of all time or current? Just current. Man, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:43

Or of all time.

SPEAKER_04 2:15:43

You can do all time either or I mean I don't know that I have a current favorite IMCA modified driver.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:51

Wow. I told you so anyway. Anyways. We'll have him email those in so we don't have to do it in air. Um I knew those were shots in the dark. Um what is your favorite race that you've ever called? What or like a singular race or like an event?

SPEAKER_04 2:16:21

Or like an event or or yeah, like an event. Man, the world 100 is so it's it because you've done it for so long. It's the pomp and circumstance that goes with it. Right? It's you know, Rigsby asked me like last year, he said, Why does the world mean more? And and it's a it's a uh paradox of an answer, but it means more because it means more. And what I mean by that is like all eyes are on it. Yeah. Every vendor is there, every chassis builder is there, every engine builder is there. So it means more to them, and therefore it means more to the people, and it means more to the drivers, too. Absolutely. Okay, fine. And the pomp and circumstance, man. There is one of the coolest things in the entire world, no pun intended, is the drivers representing their states walking out of the front straightaway with their state flags. And I don't know if you guys can see it, because of course, supernationals is going on at the same time. So you don't think we don't have it on it.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:09

You're absolutely out of your mind if you don't think we don't have it on, okay?

SPEAKER_08 2:17:12

I know Colton does.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:14

But if we could pause the supernationals to like to where it would just on the on the race, I mean I I wouldn't make that call if I could.

SPEAKER_04 2:17:21

But I mean, but the drivers walking out with those state flags, and and then you get the fans cheering, like, you know, representing the state of Indiana, Hudson O'Neill, and all the Indian all the Indiana people go nuts. It's just um it gives me goosebumps every single time. You mentioned like the horse, the horse with the American flag paint of running out on the racetrack and stuff. It's all of that stuff that goes into it. It's nerve-wracking as hell. I mean, we we have like an hour-long meeting that goes over the exact this is what we're gonna do here. This is because the state representation thing, drivers really take that to heart. And it's like, okay, is Ricky Thornton Jr. Arizona? Is he? So we have actually started going with either their hometowns or what they mail in for their entry form. The the catchy part with the entry form is a lot of times the car owners will will mail that in. Right. And so Roger Sellers, for example, who owns Devin Moran's car, will mail in, you know, Maryville, Tennessee. Well, Devin Moran's not from Maryville, Tennessee, so he can't he's not gonna take the Tennessee flag out. Right. Right? So it's um there is not an exact science or methodology to it. Someone's gonna get pissed off at some point because they're not out there holding a flag, but it's the best that everyone can do.

SPEAKER_03 2:18:29

See, I feel like I feel like uh because like last night at Park Jeff they were saying, oh, you know, T Fitz all the way from California. It's like he's lived here for two years. Yes, in Iowa. So I feel like you know, it should be Trevor Fitz from whatever I don't know what town he's staying in, but I feel like it should be Iowa.

SPEAKER_12 2:18:48

He's from Tuna, he's from Tuna Town now. He lives in Altoona. Does he? Tuna town.

SPEAKER_04 2:18:52

So Ricky Thornton Jr. then, does he represent Iowa or does he represent Arizona? I say he represents Iowa. He's been he's been in Iowa for the last to me, it's a mailing address.

SPEAKER_08 2:19:00

Uh where you live now.

SPEAKER_04 2:19:02

So what about Jonathan Davenport then? Does he represent Blair, Georgia, or does he represent Belton, South Carolina? I think he represents Georgia. But he lives in Belton, South Carolina. But he was originally from Georgia, right? So Ricky Thorne Jr. was originally from Chandler, Arizona. How long has he lived there? Long time.

SPEAKER_03 2:19:23

Then he's from North Carolina. South Carolina. So attention span there. See that one? About that much.

SPEAKER_04 2:19:31

Yeah. That is the never-ending question. It is. But in the same token, like going back to the nicknames of drivers, when you say nobody in the entire world knows where Blairsville, Georgia is, for the most part, other than our little niche sport, right? Nobody in the world knows where Dresden, Ohio is except our little niche sport. And so I think when you when you Chandler, Arizona, you know, is a suburb of Phoenix, obviously, right? People don't know. So when you when you keep these things, when you keep it consistent across the board with these drivers, it gives uh a little bit of um I don't know, of recognition, but it it attaches something to the drivers there as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:08

Yeah, that that's a good way to yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04 2:20:11

Um we slowed down the rapid fire a little bit, Bobcat.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:14

Yeah, that that's okay, because there's only one left. What is your bucket list track?

SPEAKER_04 2:20:18

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:19

Uh Chili Bowl.

SPEAKER_04 2:20:20

You've never been to the Chili Bowl? No, because it's it always overlaps with the it always overlaps with the Wild West shootout. Oh and so, I mean, I I seriously, not because I'm on the I would say Supernationals is up there as well. Of course, it always overlaps with the World 100, but I've been to Boone as well. I've actually I have never been inside the Expo Center at Tulsa before. Never been there for the shootout.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:40

I've never been there for the Chili Bowl. You've never been to the Supernationals either, huh? No, like then this little late model race we have.

SPEAKER_04 2:20:48

Yeah, when Tony finally kicks me out of the booth, yeah, I will I will be at the Superbus me at the Supernationals.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:53

I mean, is it the rumor that Stewart's getting ready to retire and sell that place, or what?

SPEAKER_04 2:20:58

I think that rumor's been going around ever since he bought the place, has it? I said it. That rumor and and every anytime a racetrack comes up for sale, Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., Ken, like that group is buying the racetrack, right? Every racetrack in the entire world. Yeah. My grandma's go-kart track out back. Man, I heard Tony Stewart's gonna buy that place, you know. I wish Dale Jr. would get in here and buy that place, put some money into it, every track.

SPEAKER_03 2:21:20

Uh okay. So, we're we're like closing this out. We're two we're 220 in here. Last question for Dustin Jarrett. All right. On episode 38.

SPEAKER_08 2:21:32

Dude Thompson.

SPEAKER_03 2:21:34

If you could only announce one race per year for the rest of your life at one track in one division, what would it be? You're on the time, you're on the timer, Tommy.

SPEAKER_04 2:21:50

Man, it would probably be the world. Would it? It probably would be the world. But listen, Gateway Dirt Nationals has become so freaking popular. Yeah. I mean, so popular. It's it's unbelievable. Um the amount of people watching it, uh, our viewership. Well, our viewership on flow for both of those events is is just through the roof. Um which is awesome. Yeah, it is. It really is. But it would uh Man, the world is just so like that's it. Like that is for dirt late model racing, and that's what I grew up around. You know, I I grew up in an area where people always say, Man, don't you like 410 sprints? And I'm like, we didn't really have 410 sprints growing up. You know, we had we had dirt late models, and so that was what I went to. My uncle raced a dirt late model for pretty much my entire life, and so that was what I grew up around. So little DJ grew up like like knowing the world 100 was it. Like if you win the world 100, you have won the biggest race in the you've won the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500. Throw out every uh every moniker and every analogy that you can throw out. And and so I think for me, for that reason, Gateway's a phenomenal event. The popularity is is incredible, and I think it would be a pretty close second. But I think the world is it just because it was it was always the main marquee event, the one event that every dirt late model driver in the country wanted to win.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:14

And still wants to win. And still wants to win. Yeah, that's I I still feel like them guys like that's the race that they want.

SPEAKER_04 2:23:20

Like, so and and a another cool little side story with that, I just told someone this uh uh within the last week or two. Um so Eldora used to have, when I was younger, they used to have an answering machine there at the racetrack, and they I don't know when they started this, but at some point the winner of their marquee events like The Dream and The World and the King's Royal or whatever else, they would have that winner record a message. So if you called it was almost like a hotline. So if you called in after the race, right, and I remember I remember one time it wasn't the world, it was the drink, it was the dream. I remember coming home from Tyler County, West Virginia, and I had my great big bag phone with me, right? Like the first cell phone that I had that you blew the fuse out in the cigarette lighter every other weekend, so you just kept a pack of 40 watt uh fuses in the truck, right? And so uh so when I finally got like 30 minutes down the road or whatever, I pulled in and and I called Eldora Speedway. This must have been like 2000, I don't know, whatever. It was 2001 or whatever it was. And uh and they had the hotline up, and I remember hearing on the other end, hi, this is Rick Eckert from York, Pennsylvania, and I just won $100,000 in the Dirt Late Model Dream.

SPEAKER_09 2:24:29

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 2:24:30

Yeah, like and so and I remember you know coming home and like Rick Eckert won the dirt late model dream. Like I'm telling everyone because this is back when you had to wait for the mid-American Audit Racing News or the Hawkeye Racing News or whatever, all the dirt to come out like a week later, right? Yeah to find out who won. You weren't there, you didn't you ran to the mailbox on Thursday or Friday to say, oh Rick Eckert won the Dirt Late Model Dream, and so I'm like, I called the hotline, I got the information before anybody else, you know. But that was to the point of your question, like that was the cool thing about Eldora, too. Like that was really and truly ahead of its time. Why the when you think about it? Well, we have this little thing now called the internet, so you can find out. Everybody knows. Yeah, there is that. And uh, if you can't be there in person, you can watch every lap live on Flow Racing.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:21

I've been waiting for that.

SPEAKER_08 2:25:26

We need Jonathan and cut. It's burn, it's burn in there. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 2:25:31

I mean it is, yeah. That's awesome. Listen, I gotta I didn't want to throw it out there too much. I gotta stay on Brett's good side. I mean, being the unofficial commissioner of the I feel like the title unofficial commissioner of the IMCA stock cars probably upsets Brett. So I don't I don't want to do that. I'm sorry. I don't think it does.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:47

You can I mean I think he really admires the fact that you know, a national touring series guy that's like, I don't know, known clear across the country, except in Alaska.

SPEAKER_13 2:25:58

It's the best, it's the best form of racing on the planet. What I'm saying it is. It's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 2:26:06

Last night when they went four wide, five wide coming off of turn two in that stock car race right at the beginning. I'm like, I bet DJ is like on the edge of his seat.

SPEAKER_04 2:26:22

Alrighty then. Listen, it was all it was all I could do to not announce it to like the people sitting around me on there. I had to keep it all in, right? I was like in here, like say anything.

SPEAKER_08 2:26:36

Do you do it in your head? Do you just maybe he does. You won't tell anybody.

SPEAKER_03 2:26:41

You know, but if you did that, if you're eating Ronald's down a frustrated, you got a 1.2 second advantage.

SPEAKER_11 2:26:51

Oh man. That's great. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_08 2:26:54

Man, no, that's great. No, and and your love for the IMCA stock cars, it's it's shared by a lot of people. It really is. I mean and and your love for racing is it's it's great. You know? No, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 2:27:08

It's awesome. It's uh again, I I I want people to, you know, Fairberry Speedway does this really well, and this comes from from Michael Rigsby and his group. Um Rigsby said it best. He goes, We Fairberry Speedway, we we want people to love this thing that we have as much as we love this thing that we have. And and you know, they did a video on Faraberry, and I try to do that. And it's you know, I I joke a little bit about IMCA stock cars, but it's it's racing in general. If if I love something, I want other people to love that thing as much as I love that thing, right? Whether it is uh Marshalltown and Boone, whether it's IMCA racing, whether it's the World 100, whether it's it's something that my son did, whether it's something that that I have done, whether it's you know my wife's volleyball team, I want people to love that thing as much as I love that thing too. And I th I think that's something that is a sport. I think that we could all we can all learn from that. I I really and truly do. There's a lot of uh end on this note, right? There's DJ's deep thought, right? DJ's deep thought. Like there's there's a lot of cutthroat out there uh still in this day, it's 2026. Um and we still have a lot of cutthroat between tracks, between drivers, between promoters, between series, between sanctioning bodies. And uh and again, rising tides lift all ships, like you know, like Cody said earlier. And and um you know, we mentioned it on on this podcast earlier. The average age of uh the the demographic uh is not getting any younger. Um it's not like we are getting more drivers and more racetracks popping up, and so we've got we've got to find ways to work together and we've got to find ways to get people to love this thing that that we all love. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:45

What do you think what do you what do you think that is?

SPEAKER_04 2:28:47

Well, if I knew that again, just like we talked earlier about bottle that up and sell it to everybody else. But again, it's it's working together. It's it's working together, it's providing entertainment for people, it's it's understanding that um you know USRA and IMCA, and I'm throwing two randoms out there. USRA and IMCA might have some differences, but uh you know, maybe we need to work together a little more to make sure that two sanctioning bodies come together. Maybe Wesoda and UMP need to work together a little more. Maybe Lucas Oil and World of Outlaws need to come together a little more like we did at Muskingum County.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:16

We didn't get to talk about that, but I had I A, I didn't even know that the Morans owned that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, since the 80s. One of my home tracks. My dad used to got to race with Donnie Moran back when he was doing that shit, and he's like, oh, you know, he's all jacked. We didn't even know what was going on. I like I just we didn't even know what was going on. Some hobo announcer. We did, and he's like, I have been announcing races here at this speedway for how many you announced her from.

SPEAKER_04 2:29:43

I I mean I announced it off and on a long time. Again, it was one of my home tracks that's down the road.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:48

Very cool place. Yeah. But that show that they did was awesome. Like, I hope that they continue. I've I thought it was cool that they took the top 12 from each division. Yeah. Even though Bobby Pierce is pretty sporty right now. When Pierce gets good, man, he's hard to beat. That's right. So uh I thought that was a great event. Um, the King of the Hill. Normally the King of the Hills are kind of snoozy. It wasn't. I agree. They were good. They wasn't bad. And the crowd was into it too. That was the cool thing. That's tough on a King of the Hill because it's like he got two cars. You know, we we do they do it at the speedway, and there's nights where it's like super good. And I think I like the fact that you guys put four cars out there now instead of two. Yeah. Because one little hiccup, and it's like, I mean Yeah, I think it makes it better. I I agree. I think it's uh Motown had that Friday too. Yes, it was good. That deal was actually really good, I in my opinion. So another great uh episode.

SPEAKER_04 2:30:43

Hey, how many people can say that they uh announced the top 12 in Lucasoil and World of Outlaws Points one night, and less than 24 hours later they were watching George Gill and Land race at uh Algona the very next night. The only person I know is Dustin Jarrett. That's right. I can't take credit. Colby Fett gave me that line. I can't take credit for that one.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:03

I I seen your post. I thought, man, we're gonna hear about this because have you ever met George?

SPEAKER_04 2:31:09

I just seen it, and by the way, you talk about grassroots to the bone, man. I love seeing that. I love it when that dude pulls into the racetrack. That's so cool to me.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:19

So freaking cool. Very, very, very unique to the sport and and very, very cool to see him out there still.

SPEAKER_04 2:31:24

Warrior and Iron Man, and I hope he does it for the rest of his life. That's so freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:28

I think he will, as long as I his wife, his his wife stays home and him and the boys go out and do a little rip around there. I love that. Always had a very unique car too, but uh boys, we're we're two and a half in here, and DJ's still gotta go east.

SPEAKER_12 2:31:42

Yeah, yeah. No, we'll shut her down. But hey man, we we sincerely appreciate you coming on the show with us. And you know, when this kind of got brought up, we all got excited. Like this we got amazing.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:55

We were flattered a little bit with Troy's Nobody Cares What Troy thinks. Oh, yeah. Because James commented on his thing, and I'm like, oh my god. Like, this is cool. Like, cause when I'm like when I was fanboying at Eldora, I was sitting down right below you guys, and I could like, I mean, I don't I mean, you didn't notice because you were watching the races, but I was watching you guys because we were that close, and I'm like, stalker like right over there, they're like right there, man. We're down here eating pepperjack cheese balls and shit. This is so great.

SPEAKER_04 2:32:30

Did you tell them when you called me about this, though? He could so he calls, so I get a I look down at my phone, Jonathan Loges calling. So I pick the phone up. Okay, so I picked the phone up and I said, uh I said, you uh calling me to be on the uh watermelons and wood chips podcast, and he doesn't say a word for like three seconds, and he's like, actually, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:57

So then I I'm like, I'm like, wow. So I caught, I mean, I messaged you guys right away. I'm like, why?

SPEAKER_09 2:33:04

Big news, you know, pumped.

SPEAKER_03 2:33:08

So yeah, I seriously, DJ, like this is so freaking awesome. Um, it's always great to see you out uh on like who I don't know very many people that do racing for a living. I'm gonna say living because you do it for a living. You go to as many racetracks as you do, and then your vacation away from racing is racing. I'm a psychopath. So it's like yes, I can relate to that. Like, that's totally me. If we're going somewhere or whatever and there's a race, we're going. We're I mean doesn't matter if we it's different.

SPEAKER_04 2:33:42

It's different we don't have to be there and race or work, you know, seriously, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:33:46

Like when we come out to Eldora to do that deal, it's just like I don't know what like I want to be down in the pit area, I want to like be around the cars, but it's like I'm not really that close of friends with really anybody that I can go. I mean, Ryan Guskin, of course. But uh it's just a much appreciated thing for so many of the listeners out there, man. I mean you're such a voice to to our sport and what we all love to do, and and and I I know it sounds like I'm just over here loving on you more than Colton wanted to, but it's just to really scare you over here. People that care about it as much as we do to and and then you know, to to me, you're you're famous, man, in our in our sport. So to have you sitting down here at our little awesome podcast that you know we were gonna run out of stuff to talk about. So is this the point where I stick a couple of pretzels in my mouth like it look like a walrus to help go ahead and help break the I think a lot of people, you know, uh uh we're gonna really appreciate you coming on here and doing this and and spending some time with us and uh so yeah, and dude, whenever you're around, just hit us up.

SPEAKER_04 2:34:59

I'm out here like eight months a year, I feel like. No shit.

SPEAKER_08 2:35:03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 2:35:04

No shit.

SPEAKER_08 2:35:06

Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 2:35:07

Thank you. Thank you guys for having me on. I appreciate it, man. It's awesome. I enjoy I truly enjoy being out here. I I really do. I was full of great people, great racing, uh, Shields and High V. Shields and High V. He loves High Volks.

SPEAKER_05 2:35:20

My other favorite things.

SPEAKER_08 2:35:21

Well, everything you said right there, I think we can get him a key to the state. Pretty sure.

SPEAKER_12 2:35:25

Right, right. Yeah. Well, we want to thank our partners from Central Iowa Diesel Performance, Elmquist Towing, Adobe Lounge, uh, Moffitt's Ford, Logue Fab, P1P Canopy, and Barntown Brewing for being a part of our our little show. And and like again, we we sincerely appreciate you coming on. And uh man, we could have we could go for another two and a half, I know. But uh we'll have to say that for another time. Right.

SPEAKER_08 2:35:52

And we do need to say too, the Adobe Lounge, we didn't have power rankings this week because of the rain out.

SPEAKER_12 2:35:57

Sure.

SPEAKER_08 2:35:57

So uh, but we do appreciate yeah.

SPEAKER_12 2:35:59

We'll try to get that bonus point structure worked in for the hot day channel.

SPEAKER_03 2:36:04

Have you seen the Adobe Lounge Rank Power Rankings thing? No, is Jimmy Gustin first after Winno Motown Friday? He's first. Of course you would bring that up. He's first. He is. Is he? Oh yeah. Cody, Josh, and Colden. I truly do not know. Yeah, yeah. I've been giving these guys shit because it's been rigged as shit ever since they started. But Colton, Colden, Josh, and Cody come up with this thing, like power rankings, like college football. It takes all your stats and puts it into a format. Like, I think you guys should maybe hit these guys up for like the Lucas Oil, like power rankings, Lucas Oil shit. Like, that'd be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_08 2:36:37

It is pretty cool. It's a recency thing, too. It's like it's weighted. Weighted, and it takes takes into account your whole night. Uh, your your last three are like a hundred percent, and then it falls off as you go back in the past. Um, but it does overall across all classes and then individual. I love it. I love it very much.

SPEAKER_03 2:36:56

It's a really cool thing, yeah. Like so I'll Cody should show it to you, just kind of how it's all I mean, it's pretty cool. It's although I have Adobe Lounge. Thank you. Thank you very much. I haven't been uh in the top ten, but maybe a couple times all year for the overall, so I think it's totally rigged.

SPEAKER_08 2:37:12

But DQ'd in that one Hawkeye challenge.

SPEAKER_03 2:37:14

Yeah, no shit. No shit.

SPEAKER_08 2:37:17

That does, yes, that does matter.

SPEAKER_12 2:37:19

That does matter. Anyway, dude. And on that, again, we want to thank uh Dustin Jarrett and uh producer Garrett for oh that rhymed actually. Uh Producer Garrett uh for for uh getting us going here. Um I'm Cody Malico, along with Josh Reynolds and Jonathan Logue. We thank you for watching again. Um until next week, you've been watching Watermelons and Woodchips. We'll see ya.

SPEAKER_06 2:38:15

Saturday and Sunday, noon to close. Come enjoy some of the strongest drinks in town and the best homemade pizzas around. Whether you're stopping in to relax, meet friends, or grab a bite, the Adobe Lounge is the place to be.

SPEAKER_07 2:38:29

See you soon.