Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Bill & Billy Venturini Interview

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Kevin Harvick sits down with Bill and Billy Venturini for their first long-form conversation after Venturini Motorsports made its final ARCA Menards Series start in Las Vegas. The father-son duo reflects on the emotional final weekend at The Bullring, the legacy of their 43-year run in ARCA, and why they made the decision to sell the team to Nitro Motorsports. They also discuss working with young talent like Corey Heim, the future of driver development in ARCA, and what comes next for the Venturini family in racing. LINK TO SUBMIT PICKS FOR TALLADEGA: https://forms.gle/Jw4H6P12RD4Qcjgd9 0:00 - Intro 0:28 - Bill & Billy Venturini Joins The Show! 2:57 - Origins Of Team 8:06 - Billy’s Driving Career 13:40 - Where ARCA Series Is Today 15:01 - Kissing In VL 19:07 - Best Driver 26:31 - West/East Coast Racing Cultures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plan A was to be a race car driver. I spotted my first cup race when I was 13. I said, what do you think is going to happen? He says, well, we'll be fine as long as we don't screw it up. It was an a h-hickick. It put us on the map in one day. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. And today I have two legends of our sport.

Bill Venturini and Billy Venturini. Thank you guys for taking the time. And I think, you know, for our listeners, we've found that we have a lot of hardcore fans that are going to know exactly who you guys are. But legends in the Arkham-Minard series and now you've sold your teams and going to ride off into the sunset. Just me. I'm the only one riding off.

I know, but still, it's been a family affair for a number of years, and I think for you, this has to be kind of a, it's a very sentimental moment of everything that you've put into the sport and to see the last race is, How did that feel? Man, I thought it'd really be really emotional, but I'm okay with it. Yeah.

It was time, you know. I've been doing it 52 years, so, you know, I kind of know nothing else in racing, but it was time for me to get out. Back when Billy actually took over the team like 18 years ago, you know. Oh, my gosh, has it been that long? Yeah, it has, man. God, Lord, I didn't. Time flies. And I never, never imagined or thought we'd be what we are today, was never planned that way.

Now, he had a vision, and that was up to him to grow it. And that's kind of what we agreed on. I said, you know, here, take the reins, kid, but, you know, I'll support you emotionally. But you've got to do the rest. And he did it. I can't complain. And I'm very proud, very, very proud of what we've accomplished. You know, he put us on the map.

But I'm satisfied. I'm okay with it. I thought I'd be really, really emotional, but it's time. I'm okay with it. Yeah. Do you have like a plan? What's you going to do with all your time? Do I have a plan or does my wife Kathy have a plan?

Does your wife have a plan? Yes, it definitely is a plan. March, we're going to South America. Oh, wow. July, we're doing a Mississippi River cruise. I think in October we're going to Ireland. and in between all of that, my bucket list was to drive Route 66 from Chicago to LA. That would be awesome.

I'm going to find time in between that schedule to do that. Yeah, what are you going to drive it in? I don't know yet. I'm going to rent a car. Fly to Chicago, rent a car, drive to L.A. I'm not going back. Not two ways, one way. I'm not going to drive it all the way back.

I don't know yet. I haven't decided. Well, that'll be fun. And I think for you, I mean, obviously you talk about taking over the team 18 years ago. and I got to imagine when you started, you probably didn't, was this the vision? I mean, because you guys kind of became the place to develop drivers to send them off to the next level. Is that what your plan was when you started or did it evolve into that? No, 100% that was the plan.

Okay. Like, it wasn't our original idea driver development, but we wanted to, so if you're not going to be the first at it, you got to try to be the best at it. And that was our goal was really we kind of, little copycat from the other teams, kind of saw where their weaknesses were and kind of were trying to make sure those were areas we addressed. But we started as a one car, quickly grew to two car. And within the first season, I think we ran three cars at a couple races, which, funny story. The first time we run three cars, it was Kentucky 08. And dad pretty much threw to Tallinn on that one. When I said we were going to bring three,

he's like, I'm not going. And I'm like, well, then watch it on TV and root for us, but we're going because I've signed three deals for Kentucky. He came around quick, but it was, I mean, for us that struggled to get one car on the track as a family run team, to put three within basically a year was, it seemed like a tall order, but we somehow pulled it off. So what is your racing history?

How did you wind up in racing? My father raced from 1951 to 1959. Sojur's Field, O'Hare Stadium, the Chicagoland area. Freddie Lorenzen and Tiger Tompestoni and my dad, and they raced in the circuit just around Chicagoland. Andy Granitelli was the promoter, actually, back then. And I loved racing growing up, seeing my dad did it.

But family rule was when I started to talk about racing, he said, as long as you live in my house, you can't race. And I said, why? He says, well, because I know what it does to you, you know. It's kind of, as you know. Dicting. It's addictive. It's very addictive. And it's consuming. And he knew that and he said, no, you can't race. Well, I was a mechanic at his gas station and he gave me two weeks vacation for my honeymoon. The first week we went to California because Disney World wasn't open yet. That's how many years ago it was. And the second week I came back and bought a race car. And I've been racing since then, 52 years. And did you, I mean, how much time did you spend driving from, did you drive? I started in 70.

And I quit in 94. Sounds about right. Yeah, right around 94. And why did you quit? Why did I quit? First of all, I accomplished what I wanted to do. I ran some cup races. I realized I couldn't afford to do that.

I ran some back then it was Bush. I ran some truck. I ran Arka, which I loved. But at the same time, he was coming in. Yeah. And we ran a couple races together. And I knew then it was time. for me to step back and try to try to keep all my resources so he could race.

So were you slower than him? Is that why you quit? Because I feel like I'm living that now. I feel like I'm slow. You hit on a touchy subject. I feel like I'm slower than Keelan already. So I feel like that's kind of the ride out onto the sunshed. We went to one racetrack and he smoked me bad. And that's when I told my wife.

He says, okay, 100% effort goes to him. You know what's happening? I'm on the same path. I'm on the same path. You know, I wish I could have afforded to keep him running to the quality of stuff that are the caliper that we're running today. But, you know, it is what it is. Yeah.

Yeah, it's that evolution. So the driving piece of it for you, obviously, that was how you started? That was the plan. Plan A was to be a race car driver. So when did you start working on the cars, though? My whole life. Like, actually, I worked when he was driving. So I actually, oh my gosh, I've probably six, seven years old,

was at least in the shop, like actually contributing a little bit. And by the time I was 10, absolutely was an active member on the team. I literally, I spotted my first cup race when I was 13. 13. Yeah, he spotted for me at 13 years old from cup race. That's awesome. I remember spotting cup races like when I, I mean, races when I was like 11, but did my first cup race just a few months after I turned 13 too.

Yeah. My how things have changed. Right. with the age. And I remember going to the shop when I was three, four, five years old, and I would find every nut and bolt, and I'd find every hole in that car.

My dad worked on open comp cars and late models at Mason Marin in Bakersfield, California. So, and I'll never forget, the guy was a dentist. His name was Dr. David Hill. And I would, his, the shop was in the alley,

and I would lay on the creeper, and I'd shove those things in there, and they'd take that thing to the track, but I was, I was probably eight and rode in the right side of the car around the racetrack, and you were on the radios, you were in the pits, and doing all those things in the race shop. So you go from the race shop and you get in the car, and obviously it came to a point where it's like, okay, I'm going to be better off selling rides and working on the car.

When did that change for you from the driving side? So I ran my first Arka race in 94, but really, didn't, but we just kind of putter around because we didn't really have much money all the way up until about 2000. Then I ran full-time in ARCA for 2000 through 2004. Okay. Oh, 5, we had a full deal, actually got injured in 05, and then didn't run much of the season there. And then 06 was my final season. We stopped in 07, but it was because of finances. Yeah. Like, it was one of them. Really, he came in, he brought me in the office. and was like, we got a close shop.

And mom, we didn't even know this, but mom, Edmax, Edmax the home equity line that we didn't even know. So we're actually, we're 150K in the hole. Forget that we didn't have money. We're 150 negative. Right. So we're like, we're beyond broke.

We're underbroke. Yeah. And I asked, well, how much payroll we got. And it was only himself and one other employee that worked on the cars. And dad's like three weeks. I was like, okay. And I had worked aside,

side gig over at Petty Driving School, had some friends that were there, and one guy was spotting for an older gentleman that had a race car, and he was having someone maintain his car, and he wasn't real pleased with it. So I was like, hey, but Tom want someone else to take care of his race car?

So our first development driver was a 63-year-old businessman from Wisconsin, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And Tom Birdie. No kidding. Yeah. And to this day, I get my championship speech and made him the most key driver

we had in the history of our... Yeah, because he was the first one. He's the one to keep us alive. That's what set the model. So, I mean, what's the most cars you guys have ever taken to the track at once? Six. Six. And we've done that multiple occasions, but six.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not, that's not with your blessing. No, no, no, no. You think they're crazy. I remember the first time we went to Chicago with five cars. I thought the world was going to collapse. I said, how are we going to do five cars?

And to him, it's like the norm. And I'm like, you know, panic. When you take that many cars, to the racetrack, obviously you're building this depth of mechanics and knowledge and pieces and all those things that you guys became, it just became easy. Not easy, but it became easier for you guys to do because you've been to the racetracks, you've done all this. Did your vision always just stay with ARCA or did you want to grow it?

Thought about growing it and we had a couple little, we went into truck series for just a little and it's fendi, but just small little sample stuff. Really, that was probably just as much Toyota, because Toyota was really big about, as Jack Irving always said, back your spot in the lineup. And it's like, you're our ARCA guy. You're a development guy.

If you go truck racing, we have a truck team. We have an XFendi team. You're our ARCA guy, you eat first all the time. And that was like, and with that being that, we've been able to be that brand for them, financially just made way more sense than trying. Because I think the ARCA model, if done correctly, works better than the truck and Xfinity model.

So when did the Toyota relationship start? And who pitched that? How did you wind up with that? So actually, so it started with Gibbs. Okay. So JD and I ran race of legend cars together. And he let us run Mark Davis right at the beginning, 08. So, or no, yeah, 0, no, 07.

0. So it was our very first half year that we were running. We ran Mark Davis right at the end of the year. Joey's coming in 08, and Joey was like the Holy Grail at that point. driver development. Yeah. Slice bread. Yeah.

There was. That's right. And so I went in and basically pitched them and literally, I remember this. But you and J.D. Yeah, J.D. But I did have to pitch him because he's like, what do you have to do to be able to compete with? And at the time it was Eddie Sharp.

He's like, what do you have to do to be able to beat Eddie Sharp at Rockingham? Because he wanted us take Joey down there. I told him, all we need was an opportunity and we'll win. Now, that was the most ludicrous statement I could have made. But I had no, I mean, like, we had nothing. We had nothing to lose. Right. But we went down there and then we whipped them.

Like we whipped them in practice and qualifying. And we literally, we laughed all but one car at one point. Wow. It was an ass kicking. Yeah. And it put us on the map in one day. And since that day, and obviously you had the conversation with Jack, when you dipped into the truck and I would assume Xfinity at that particular time, Bush series,

whatever it was, those were just one-off opportunities. that just didn't feel right. They both were where we had basically clients that wanted to fund it. So it really wasn't us going... I got you. Putting us really putting ourselves vulnerable. Both of them were they bought the cars,

they did stuff. So we were kind of fielding it. It was almost a little more of a partnership on that one. But when I got in there, I just, I knew we were so much in our lane in our... Like the tech procedure and everything in the relationships, like you get to know that. And that's where the value had a...

team really was, was knowing how our world worked. And when we got over there, we were a new kid on the block. And the Arcadale was working. And we weren't, so honestly, we just kind of stayed in our lane and really made it. It worked out. Made it work. So when you look at it this last weekend, I mean, where do you feel like ARCA is with where it was, you know, 10, 20 years ago compared to where it is now? What could be better? Where do you think? that everything is is at right now with with arca racing when i was racing um first of all the cost was much less yeah you know a working guy could work a regular job on the you know full time and then work go racing on the weekends that's kind of what i did when i when i first started um today it's

not that way you know because the cost is so much so much more expensive they they had a lot big field and And not just ARCA, but racing in general, which you know has gotten so expensive. So it made the fields much shorter. But I got to say in the last three to four years, now NASCAR took over ARCA, I think it was five years ago. 2020, yeah. Yeah, five years ago. I was very skeptical. I really was.

And, you know, I talked to Mike Helton about it and I said, hey, you know, he says, what do you think is going to happen? He says, well, we'll be fine as long as we don't screw it up. And thank God, he's let Ron Drager kind of run the program. And I think they're on a good upward swing. Let me put it that way. Yeah. So you've won all these races. You've been a part of all these races.

And your kiss after the win. Oh, gosh. How in the world did this kiss every driver after the wind start? Where did that start? Well, actually. Well, it's different when you kiss him. Well, that's what happens. Okay.

So, originally, you know, Andy, you know, Andy, you know, Andy, you know, Antigrantelli, if everyone knows your history, and when Mario Andretti won the Indianapolis 500, Andy kissed Mario. Okay, well, my dad drove in the Chicagoland area, and Andy Granitelli was the promoter. So they were kind of friends. So I kind of, oh, that's pretty cool, you know, being an Italian,

and you can test this, Billy Ken, my grandfather, you had to kiss him every day. And he said, don't ever be ashamed to kiss another man, you know, and show him respect. That sounded a little bad, but... Yeah, but... You get the idea. You know, okay.

So, along comes Billy. He wins his first race. Dad, of course, runs up and kisses his son. Yeah. Well, someone says, oh, is that the end of the telekissed? You know, oh, gosh. So actually, the media started it. And then I just kind of kept it going.

It became a little bit of a right of passage, I believe. I think the driver is dreaded and wanted it both. Like, it's... Yeah. But we have some pictures. that are priceless that we'll never show, but it's terrible. Like, you can see the fear, there's the look of fear in some of these driver's faces. Yeah, but Jesse Love loved to be kissed by me.

Let me tell you that. Jesse embraced it. Jesse embraced it. He went in. He was good. That's actually the best way to go about it. You have to lean into it. If you try to shy away, it gets way worse.

So you mentioned Jesse Love, and you've seen it through multiple generations. And aside from Billy, who, what was your favorite, win as a car owner. You can't pick anything that Billy did, though. That doesn't count outside of Billy. Oh, man. Well, my favorite win was Texas World Speedway, 1991. I like the fact that he throws out all the old school.

Well, you know, that's his... I know, I love it. That's his wheelhouse right there. Yeah, you know, that's, that was my... My biggest win was that. And, you know, setting the track record at Teledaycare, again, Daytona, which still holds today. Those are the, those two things I'm the most proud of.

Yeah. For me, my accomplishment, as a team, as an owner, as Ventry in Motorsports, I have to give him the credit, man. You know, Rockingham, put us on the map, winning Daytona five years in a row. You know, that meant, man, I never won Daytona, you know. Yeah. I wish I could have, you know. Yeah.

But to win Daytona the first time and then also to do it five in a row, How many of we won? Seven. Seven. Seven, you know, that. Pocono was a terrible track for me as a driver. And then he comes along and we win Pocono. I don't know how many times, you know.

Joey Lugano and I think. Brennan's one there, Christian's one there. Yeah. I don't know, you know. You're trying to get me going out memory lane. You know, I'm 72. Believe me, I forget a lot. Him and my wife have to remind me,

I'll say something, it'll be wrong. And they'll say, no, wait a minute, Dad, that wasn't that race. That was this year, and this is who was driving for us. The stories always get better with time. Yeah, yeah. And then we just, we have more time. How old are you, Billy? 49.

Okay, well, we're the same age. I think we're about same age. I'll be 50 in December, so. Yeah, you got me by a few months. Yeah, so we're the same age. So your stories are better than ours, but ours will get better with time. Oh, they always get better with time. That's right.

There's a, but there's a, I'm actually, we're writing a book right now, and there'll be a lot of stuff that it'll be in a book that Billy gave me the okay. I said, I said, Billy, they're going to do a book on me. He says, okay. I says, can I really tell it like it is? And he says, dad, go for it. Yeah. Okay. So there's some true things in there that, you know, I usually haven't told anyone, but it'll be interesting. When you look back at your time with the ARCA program, who do you think the best driver that's come through there is? Ooh, that's tough. That's going to put a bunch on that. And you've asked me that question, one other interview. And at the time, I told you Willie B.

Really? Yeah. I don't know if you remember that, but you asked me, it was you and Yolkham asked me on a radio show once. I said, Willie B. Man, there's so many good ones. We've been through a lot since then. But since, I'll tell you what,

man, there's been some hand. I can't, if I do that, I'm going to get like 20 text messages, pissed off drivers. Let me ask you this. As you've gone through, as you've, let's just, I mean, you watched Willie B come through there. Mm-hmm. How has the driver changed since then?

A lot. The amount of research that the drivers do off-track now is insane. Yes. Like, so, and I think the very best one for how he preps using Sim and everything else is Corey Heim. that Corey is the best sim driver I've ever seen. I'll go that far. Yeah. And it translates because he is super special.

Yeah. And I think when I look at Corey, I mean, that's, that's, lines up with everything that I've watched just from the outside looking in. I mean, for God's sakes, he wrote his, he had a PowerPoint presentation for his girlfriend the other day when she was going to Kansas. I heard that and I'm like, what in the world? And I think that's what the driver has developed into. and today, and we talk about that on our show all the time, you've got the Joey Legano and the

Denny Hamlin. Now, Ryan Blaney's doing pretty good. William Byron's doing pretty good, but they'll never catch up to the experience side of things that those two guys have. And there are just those, there are those key guys that can go to a test and turn their season around. There are guys that just go to a test to test, but there are guys that can go to the test and communicate with their team at the simulator in today's world, at the race track, in today's world and be able to dissect the car to be able to put it in a path that's better than what it was. And there's just, there's guys like Corey Hime that are special.

I'm glad you said that because I feel like he's pigeonholed into the truck series right now. He's just out there destroying him because he's so much better than him. But he, if you put him in at Daytona next year in the cup car, he's going to be competitive and he's going to figure it out pretty quick. I believe he'd win a cup, or cup race as a rookie. That's how strong I think he is. He's unique. Yeah.

Go ahead. My wife called him the robot. When he put his helmet on, totally a different person the minute that helmet went on. He's just, yeah. He's ice cold. Yeah, ice cold. Ice cold.

Ice cold. And I think that that's how you have to be in today's world because there's with the social media and the pressure at such a young age. I mean, I was 25 when I won my first cup race. typically, I mean, Josh Barry's kind of not been there and, you know, butterbeams coming through a little bit later. There's some of these guys that are starting to get opportunities that are a little bit older than what they had been. But 19-20, you better be pretty close to ready to go. Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I think it's kind of a lot of pressure. I mean, these kids are... Their brain's not even developed yet. Think about how dumb I was when I was 19. I can't even imagine. You're echoing what I say all the time. I'm like, I feel bad for the kids, actually. Because everyone always thinks drivers haven't made, but I'm like, there's a lot of things drivers haven't made. but I'm like, that's a lot of pressure because I was a complete idiot at 20 years old. Oh, my God.

And so you have to remember, so are they. So you just got to keep them from making those big mistakes. Because you look back at 30 to think how you were at 20, you're like, I'm just glad I got through today. Yeah. Right? It is extremely difficult. And I think that when you look at the development of these kids,

it's much different than it used to be. And, you know, I feel like, I feel like ARCA is almost, misaligned with the ages that they have to start now compared to where the rest of the racing world has went. I almost feel like it's almost too old. You feel like Archer's too old? That's what I'm going to ask you. Fifteen?

Yeah. I think that, I mean, when you look at, I think it's misaligned a little bit. I look at the late model stocks, you know, like the pro late models you can do at 12. Now they move the legend car back to 10. The go-carts and bandeleros and everything start at 7. And I feel like our sport, I feel like on the short tracks almost needs to be a year earlier.

I don't think that the super speedways needs to be changed. That for you has to be pretty eye-opening because of the fact that, and I've kind of lived it through the kids now with the, you know, the Brent Cruises and Zilliches and Keelan and seeing what they've been able to do. How old is Keelan? Keelan's 13. and but like when I look at Connor Zillich when I first saw him in a go-kart and I look at Brent Cruz when I first saw him in a go-kart they're not there there there's a lot of those there's not a lot of them but there are a lot of those kids that are on that path to have raced you know

they'll go 40 weekends a year and race sometimes four times a weekend in the carting stuff and and they're just so much more prepared than what I just I didn't start racing until I was 20 I couldn't even go into pits until I was 16 and 18 in some of those places. So you started at 20. Yeah. And, you know, so it's culture shock for you from the way that you look at the kids today. When I first time, Bill, we went to test somewhere.

And we were, I don't know where we were testing at one of the tracks here in North Carolina. And I come in a little later. And the father's standing there. Well, I'm thinking the father's the guy that's going to test our car. Which driver was it? I'm telling you. I think who it was. We've had some youngsters.

Yeah. This kid was like 13 years old. And I looked at my wife and I said, we're putting a 13-year-old kid in our race car and we're going to trust them. You know. What year was this? Not too long ago. I mean, we had, I know we had Justin Haley when he was 14.

We tested him at 14. We tested Chandler Smith at 14. Christian Neckis of 14. Like, I mean, you're on David, or Todd Gillen, he won his first race with. Luke Fenhouse. No, Fenhouse. Oh, I know what it was. It wasn't Fenhouse, but it was that Toyota test we did, and we did have a third.

It was Brent. Brent Cruz. Okay. No, it was Brent. And you know how big Brent is, okay? At 13, it was, yeah. It was, I'd think about it. It was Brent.

We used to do a combine test every other year for Toyota, and Brent, the first time we rolled him in there, yeah, he was 13. Yeah. And was, we went, and we did like eight drivers. He was second fastest driver at 13. Yeah. And that's, you know, I think that, you know, Brent and Zillich and. And, you know, the way that those two kids, I mean, they were in the same tent that Keelan was when we race carts. And they stood out so far above the other two kids.

And just because of the fact that they could just, they could do things that nobody else could do. And, you know, I think that there's definitely, there's definitely an ability there that not a lot of kids had. So when you look at the future, you're going on vacation. What are you going to do? Staying with Nitro for at least one year. Okay. That was actually, it was part of the whole deal of the whole contract. Nitro Motorsports.

Yeah, Sturtram Motorsports. I had to, I'm on the contract for 13 months. Nick's already trying to talk me into staying longer. Yeah. But you and I talked about it before a little bit was we're going to do some West Coast racing too. And that's something a little bit near and dear to my heart. So if that's the case, maybe I can be talked to stay a little longer. I enjoy that a lot.

Yeah, well, explain that. We talked a little bit about it, but I think it'd be good for the, for the fans to hear. just the difference in cultures from West Coast to East Coast, because the thing for me that stands out on the East Coast is there's so many people that are doing it for a living. West Coast, there are people that are doing it, but it's just there's still some of that love of the game, love of the sport, feel to it.

I don't know how you would explain it, but for me, that is how it feels. So we went out in 2003 with Sean Hingerani, and we were fortunate enough to win the championship with him. But I remember telling my guys after we were there at a first race, I was like, we got to blend. Like, this is a different culture. And I was like, don't push East Coast racing on these guys

because we don't suck the fun out of this. Because as much as we all love what we do on the East Coast. And that's the main focus of racing happens over here. In the Carolina, the 704 is where you race. That's right. But the West Coast has just a really cool, chill atmosphere. They compete hard as hard as hell, but they have a little bit different attitude about how to go about it. And I thought, I loved it. And I've enjoyed being out there.

Yeah. Well, it's obviously something that I have a passion for with the, being from the West Coast and being able to race out there, come to the East Coast, in the same kind of time frame as Hornaday and everything that Corelli did on the West Coast and be able to still race with those. guys, but I always told people that when Ron got to race for it, it felt like I was repaying somebody for letting me have a career because he kind of taught me the ropes of how the East Coast worked and the differences and who you needed to talk to and how things were going to go. And it's just, I feel this deep connection to getting West Coast racing from the grassroots level, whether it be super late models, pro late models, or at the local level, back to what it used to be. And I think we've, I think we've got a good path as far as that goes. So it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the last couple years.

So I got a, I got a couple of easy questions now. They've all been easy. Yeah, I know. But this is, this is probably a little bit off the wall. But what was your first car that you drove on the street? 64 Pontiac Bonneville, four door. Really? Did you wreck it? Sell it? I sold it. And then I bought a 66 Ford Galaxy 500, 427, 4-speed. Yeah. Fastest car you ever drove?

No. What is the fastest car you ever drove besides those Daytona cars on the street? On the street? Yeah. Did you ever drag us? His car. His car? His car? You aren't that flashy. Is that what you're saying? He had the flashy car? No, I mean, what are you got right now? I kill myself. I did finally get a cool car.

My kids turned six. When they turned over 16, I was like, I don't have to card them around. I'm getting something fun to drive. I'd kill myself in his car. Oh, my gosh. Some of the streetcar stayed. Best car I had, a street car was a 68 Chevel SS 396. Yeah.

And then I, of course, put a tunnel ram on it and, you know, dual quads and headers. Did you ever street race it? Yeah, a little. A little. A little bit? Yeah. How about yours? My current car, I finally, like,

Like I said, my kid. No, your first car. My 1987 Pontiac Trans Am, but I had the small motor. Did you buy it? I did. Yeah. Bought it from my cousin. Really? Yeah.

So at that point, it was about seven years old, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I love that thing. Well, you guys have had a great run. I know you're going to keep going. Yes. But you've had a great, great run at everything that you've done.

I've been very blessed. Well, everything that you've done for this sport, I think that no matter what level is at, the commitment that your family has had. had for this sport is great for all of us and laying the foundation to what this sport is all about. And when you look at NASCAR racing, Arka racing, stock car racing in general, it's a family sport. It's built off of people that have a passion for it. And you guys have had a great passion for it. So thank you for everything that you guys have done for racing. You're on the same path. Yeah, you're exactly right. It's not getting any cheaper either.

Thank you guys. Thank you very much.