The Dale Jr. Download - 338 – Bentley Warren: Wicked Desire

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes American badass, accomplished racer and good-time haver Bentley Warren onto the program to learn more about his colorful career on and off the race track.Ahead of the interview, Dale Jr. shares the story behind Isla receiving a go kart as a birthday gift with co-host Mike Davis and the crew. What happened after the video Amy posted stopped? Dale fills us in and details Isla’s third birthday. Plus, the guys try to figure out what to do for their wives on Mother’s Day this weekend.How did Dale end up talking with Washington Football Team’s first round draft pick Jamin Davis just a day after the team drafted him over the weekend? He tells us about that and the reason why coach Ron Rivera made Dale part of the welcoming committee. Dale also reveals some of the things he has shot it straight with team owner Dan Snyder over the years.Then Warren enters the studio to tell all about his life that’s seemingly fresh out of a movie scene. Dale shares how he came to know Bentley and his connection to the Oswego Classic. Oswego holds a special place in Warren’s heart and he explains exactly why, including a spite he had with the track for a short period of time.Most racers have scars and death-defying stories to go along with them. Bentley is no different. Hear how he was badly burned while racing an IndyCar in Argentina, what happened in the hospital afterwards and his recovery process. In a completely separate racing story, he details how he convinced a doctor to not amputate his foot.Earnhardt Jr. and Davis then dive deeper into his racing career. He discusses all the different kinds of cars he has raced and how he made it to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hear his reaction to walking through Gasoline Alley for the first time and seeing the car for the before taking it out onto the track and qualifying for, and competing in, the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" twice.Bentley at one point in his life ran outlaw races illegally. Hear how he flew under the radar in these events and what ultimately happened after he got injured.No good old-school racing story is complete without some run-ins with the law. Hear about Bentley’s unique relationship with many chiefs of police, how he dragged raced an officer and why he left his Oswego Classic after party in the back of a cop car.Now, Warren runs multiple successful businesses, most notably his bar Bentley’s Saloon in Arundel, Maine. Hear why he got into business while still racing. Plus, learn about the legendary Saloon that Dale Jr. is dying to visit, what’s unique about it and Bentley’s role in the establishment.In Ask Jr. Presented by Xfinity, Dale fields questions about his plans to run an Xfinity Series race in 2021, his reaction to the Texas All-Star Race format and the time he played the role as a spotter.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. The Dale Jr. Download. Hey, everybody, welcome back. Thanks for tuning in. Another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. I'm Dale Jr. My co-host, Mike Davis.

What's up, bud? How's it going? Shultz is here. Leah is in the house as well. We got a great guest coming on this show. Some of you're going to know, Bentley, Warren. Maybe some of you don't. In my opinion, he's one of the greatest to ever drive a race car.

made most of his work up in the Northeast, racing supermodifieds, but he's got an amazing story that goes all the way to Indy. We're excited to have him in the studio. Should be a great show. So let's get started. All right, so I tried to get a hug from Ila before she was getting out of the car to go to school.

She wouldn't give me one. So I had to try to explain her what hugs are and why you give them. That's right. And I gave her one, and I said, did that make you feel better? She said, no. I said, well, wow, I got to figure out why my hug didn't work. She's just not even interested.

Hey, listen, no lie. When your kid doesn't hug you, that does kick you in the pants. Too grown up. They don't know. And then you wait for them, you know, for it to snap in. Wife posted a picture or a video of Aila getting her birthday gift, turned three the other day. She posted a video on social media.

Yes, she did. We watched it about 20 times. Juul boy. It took off. So, yeah, NASCAR and NBC re-posted it and I was getting text messages from even Dan Patrick. Really? Yes. So stuff like I'm nervous to post stuff like that because I don't want to be to, hey, look at us, you know, look at our amazing life. But, and Amy says, hey, you know, why don't you post it? I'm like, well, my count's a little different in yours. Yours is more personal. Totally cool. Go post it. Right. You feel me? Yeah.

It makes sense to you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyways, I guess, you know, everybody kind of wants to know how she liked it, right? Obviously, the video appears like she loved it right off the bat. Which I would just, can we say before how she liked it? I just want to say, we had this conversation here last week, and you drew big distinction between a go-kart and a race car. It was not a race car because it didn't have decals on it. However, as we saw it, it came with decals.

I couldn't take them on. And a flag. Yeah, yeah. And she did want to go straight to the racetrack. She's, yeah. That was the best part. She's pretty clever. So I was, I don't know, she doesn't know how to steer.

All right. She knows her left hand from her right hand. She knows her left from her right foot. So I can tell her to go left, go right. But she doesn't know that the wheel will do that for her. She hasn't connected all that yet. And that'll come in, in short period of time. So funny thing.

She hops on it. And we have, this is, this is. her first electric vehicle, right? These are kind of common for kids. At some points, you know, they're going to get an electric vehicle, right? Mashed a little gas and go. I was surprised that she knew how to match the gas, to be honest with you. We've had some, we've had some electric vehicles like hand-me-downs, right, from Kelly that were Wyatt's or T.J. Majors give us one or whatever, right. So we've had a couple and some friends have sent us some stuff. But she'll mash the button and go like, and it'll go and she'll stop, right?

She just, she doesn't understand that, like, she doesn't think in her head, like, I want to drive over there, so I'll mash it and go over there. Right. She just hits the button and goes a little bit and looks at she goes, hey, you know. How'd I do? It went somewhere.

It doesn't need the button. So she would hit the button for a couple seconds and let off, and a couple seconds let off a couple of, and I'm like, all right, you know, if you, you know, you want to drive over there, just follow me, and she'll follow me. So she finally got it going, but she couldn't put it together like to follow me she had to turn the wheel if i walked over to the left at the right she would need to steer to go that way and as it would she would just keep going straight

and as it's headed toward the grass she starts going dad dad uh no it i don't like it i want off that's it yeah she and it would drive into the grass and she would get upset and won off and i'd be like hey it's okay driving out of the grass here turn the wheel just drive it out nope No. Sounds to me she's drag racer. I'm done. Sounds to me like that, you know, she's just going to go straight just for four seconds at a time.

Well, she originally asked her for the tractor and I think, yeah, I could totally get on board with that. Yeah, yeah. Maybe she's a farmer. So anyways, we got a long way to go before she figures out kind of how that thing works and how to use it right. So you haven't exactly booked time at Millbridge yet for a test? As soon as she won it off shortly after the end of that video that everybody saw,

Well, she hasn't been on it since. Oh, really? No. It's not like I'm, hey, come on, let's go. Let's go. Let's figure it out. Let's go. You kind of want to. Not even a little bit.

It's plenty of time, man. She's three. It didn't bug you a little bit that she just wouldn't grasp the steering. Nope. All right, good for you. My expectations weren't. I didn't have any. That's okay.

I think you did, though. But that's understandable. Yeah. I mean, she's real good on a scooter, and she knows how to get the scooter, to go where she wants it to go so she can go around the you know we have a little old we have this paved racetrack we used to race go cars on so she knows how to use the scooter to to do that but she hasn't quite figured out what the steering wheel does but um it'll happen it'll come in time and

i don't i'm we tend to buy her gifts that are just a little bit too advanced i you know my my my sister bought her the cardboard fort thing right yeah yeah it comes in a box it's just square sheets of cardboard and you piece them together to make a fort it's real simple and cheap and i mean if i was a five six seven eight year old kid it'd be amazing it'd be a lot of fun right and uh i get it out and we're playing with it and she just doesn't she she's like you know she understands what it is but it ain't like the coolest thing she's ever seen what is the coolest thing she's ever said well what is her go-to toy so i would i built this fort in the hall one big center main room and two tunnels right so

so you could access it either way. Put this whole thing together. And she peddled with it for, she went in there and sat in there and looked around and went, hey, I like it. It's cool. And then didn't fool with the rest of the day. Did the flute show up?

Yes. How's she liked that? I have not give it to her yet. I forgot to give it to her. You know, the key to. I think Amy might have hit it. The key to really appreciating a gift is to get the gift. I know, but I told Amy that I was getting her a flute and she,

Amy was not happy about it. So maybe Amy hit it. and side of the side out of mind the race car and the flute yeah you definitely were going with some bossy gifts there I do whatever she saw

she was she handed me this little wooden tube that was a part of another toy and she's playing it like a flute and I'm like do you like you want a flute are you playing a flute and she goes yeah I planned a flute

yes I am and I'm like well you want a real flute and she goes yeah so I went on Amazon and got her a $11 dollar flute, you know, and so that's easy for me to do. I don't, you know. Are you going to give it to her? I will give it to her. God.

So, we bought a, well, I got a bouncy house. She likes bouncy houses. She'd put some time into that. Yeah. Yeah. I got her pretty, I got her neat one. They're cheap, too, I thought. I mean, cost about it. I bought it for what I think one would be cost to rent.

For you to call it cheap, that's something, because you are cheap by, by nature. It was $600 bucks. Oh, I thought that would have been way more than what you were. And it's 12 but 12 foot. I thought it was pretty good price. That's nice. Yeah.

That's nice. And I'll tell you this. It lasted the entire day with 10 kids pounding on it constantly for hours, right? And it's still working. Feel good about that investment. Put the bouncy house at a 90 degree angle and tell her the only way she can get there to the bouncy house is she drives to it. No. She'll be steering that thing, boy.

All the way. You'll see Flair's Earnhardt, just coming out of her. Well, it was a fun day. We had a little birthday party outside. Everything went well. We had some ice cream cake. Is that not the best way to do cake? I mean, I do love a good birthday cake.

My favorite is red velvet. Oh. I'm a big red velvet fan. Really? Yeah. Y'all like red velvet cake? It feels like a wedding cake to me. Really?

Doesn't it? It's kind of an any-day cake for me. Okay. Ice cream cake, though, is pretty damn good. Especially when it comes right out of the freezer. It's hard. Yeah. Good and cold.

But it has a quick lifespan, so you better be eating it. You better be getting after it. You just get it out and give it to people and put it back in the refrigerator or freezer. Put it back in the refrigerator. Say how that works out for you. I corrected myself. Guys, don't forget Mother's Day is Sunday. Whoa.

Is it? Yes. don't forget I got it on my calendar what do y'all do for Mother's Day I mean I know like I'm being married and whether you got a girlfriend or a wife

I kind of know what to do there what's new to me is that I'm also responsible for making sure that the kids have an impact on Mother's Day help me what do my kids need to be doing

to make mom proud. Is it like a, do we need to make a, do we make, do we handcraft? Yeah, like a homemade card. Homemade card. Yeah. Yeah. That's always a good one.

Yeah. Especially for kids your age. That's a fun, that's a fun project that you can do. And, um. For sure. Homeade. Yeah. All right.

What are you going to do? I, that's one thing I'm going to do. Yeah, yeah. But what are you going to do from you? What? My wife likes the, uh, what are those? flowers, they own a stem, they got to get them at the grocery store,

they've got a stick and they go up and they get one little flour hanging off. What do they call them? What are those? No. She likes them. Does she? Yeah, I can go to the store and get them. Very easy. She likes them.

My wife doesn't like flowers or jewelry. Good. Sounds like amazing. Orchids? Is that what they are now? Is that what they are a deal? Orchids. Orchids? See, if I got her orchids, she'd go, did you keep the receipt? Oh, gosh.

Well, it'd be fun if we could get some good ideas on. Social campaign. Leah, let's say, you know, don't tell her, don't tell them why you're asking. Just ask them. For a friend. Ask him for a friend. What's a good Mother's Day gift? All right, we'll see what we got.

On a budget. All right, so, Mike, did your favorite NFL team draft the player that you hope they did draft you? My favorite college team got a bunch of players. No, no, no, we're talking the NFL. We're talking the NFL, Mike. I don't have a favorite. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't have a favorite? Well, you know my favorite.

I know. Washington football team. Well, we had a lot of, we had a lot of great players that we drafted. I'm excited. One particular player, I guess, the first round player, Jamie Davis, played for Kentucky, linebacker. That's who they drafted in the first round. So, Jamin is a big NASCAR fan.

Okay. Jimmy Johnson fan. His whole family into NASCAR, I think his sister was a fan of mine, apparently, going by the information I'm reading on the internet. So the whole household was in the NASCAR, and he wanted to become a driver. Still does. Still, you know, has this belief that, that, man, I want to figure it out. I want to learn what it's about. You know, but his life is all about football right now.

He is a new player for Washington. So I was like watching the draft, big fan of Washington, liking everything that's going on, hearting all the tweets and doing all the stuff, and come across the information about him being a NASCAR fan. I'm like, this is great. And he's a Jimmy Jotson, even better. So Coach. Ron Rivera? Yeah, Ron.

Coach Ron Rivera text me. And he said, hey, man, you mind calling him? he'd be thrilled to hear from you. Whoa, whoa. Absolutely. Sends me his number and his name and stepped outside, gave my ring, said, hey, bud. How many days after the draft was this? The next day.

Holy crap, what are you talking about? Are you serious? Really cool. How about that? I got to talk to him, tell him how big a fan I am of the team, how excited I am about him being a part of it. And obviously, if he ever wanted to come out to a race, I wasn't sure if he had been to races before but if he wanted to you know go to any race he'd be uh he'd be taken care of and and

i'm excited for him to have an opportunity at some point meet you jimmy jimmy was engaging on social media as well so jimmy's aware so that's a real possibility he's excited about the opportunity to meet jimmy jimmy wants to get him to an indie race yeah that's okay yeah yeah it's not really what he it's not his thing not yet but um anyhow man i was that was really cool every once in while something like that kind of weird happens. This is, you know, the perks of being drafted by Washington. Wait, perks of being. Well, you get to, you know, a fan of the team.

Ron Rivera just calls up his buddies, says, hey, do me a solid, talk to this guy. It came out of nowhere. It's awesome. I didn't know. You and Ron Rivera were friends. Well, so being, you know, being a fan of the team for so long, me and Dan Snyder have been in contact for many years and give each other a hard time every once in a about what's going on.

You do? Oh, yeah. I tell him, I shoot it straight. You tell him when things aren't right. Well, I have been honest with him. I'll say that. Haven't sugar-coded. Not like, oh, man, we're losing.

I want a Super Bowl, but, you know, I don't... I want a Super Bowl. Make that happen. Hey, well, I got a question then. Is Washington actually going to come up with a new nickname? I tell you what. I went out, I text him... I don't know.

I text him years ago. I said, change his name. You did? Yeah. He's like, no. I was like, come on, man. I don't know who you're holding out for. Right.

You know? You're making it hard on us. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're holding out for people like me, like the, you know, all the diehard fans, you think this is really what we want you to do? No. Just let's go ahead and get on down the road.

You told him it's okay to let go? Yeah. And then he was like, no. But he, so he shared with me, I guess when they hired Ron, we were, me and him were communicating a little bit, and he sent his number to me, and I was able to, reach out and say, man, slowly pumped, looking forward to how you shape the team and all that stuff. I'm looking up as Jamie Davis. Yep.

See what we got here. Well, everybody's excited about him. Anyhow, obviously this week at Darlington is throwback weekend. We're going to go down there with the Nova and paste the field before the Xfinity race, and that should be a ton of fun. And I'm going to drive around there. I hope everybody loves to see it. And I'm going to, yeah, I'm taking me, my Uncle Danny.

Daddy, Dad's brother, LW. LW is kind of our lead mechanic. And then the guy who basically helped put this thing all back together, Robert G. Jr. That's right. Robert worked and built the car when it was brand new back in the 80s, and he put it back together today. And was the one that helped authenticate it when you bought it. Yeah, I mean, he's been part of this car's existence all the way through its entire. life so all four of us are going to drive down there or yeah drive down there on

Saturday morning early get in the pits we're going to get the car positioned over on the front straight away and just wait yeah yeah so good luck to you hopefully the weather's not too hot and hopefully it's a comfortable day and the car is getting carried down there in one of our haulers so we won't have to I won't have to tow the car down there which is kind of a nice convenience. Nice. In my mind, I was towing it down there all the time in a goose neck or something like that. But I'd be glad not to have to worry about that.

Yeah, that'd be anxiety right there. Sure. You already got enough of that just with the face-ups. So we're actually going to ride down into Suburban. And Mike, I've tasked you to maybe put some go-pros and stuff in there and we'll create some content and see if we can get Robert Jr. telling some stories. See if we can get between Danny Sr. and Robert Jr. See if we can get more than 10 words out of each of them.

For sure. We'll see. But it should be a fun day. and it's kind of like the bookend of restoring this car. Once it does this, I'm anxious to maybe get an opportunity to showcase it at the Hall of Fame

when that opportunity arises, which I'm sure it will down the road, but otherwise we'll just have it here to shop. It looks good. If it never leaves, if it comes back here and never leaves this window, it'd be fine by me. It's a good looking car.

Oh, hey guys. Bentley Warren's here. There he is. Let's bring him in. Oh, look at this. Look at this. What's up, man? How are you doing?

I'm doing good. How are you? Good, good. Oh, Bentley Warren is at the Dale Jr. Download, Dirty Mo Media Studios. Looks like you rode your bike into town. Yeah, I got a idea. Yeah?

Put that mic there. You can bend it towards you there. Bender around. Anywhere you want. Do whatever you want to do. Just muscle it. So Bentley. You live up in Maine, right?

Yeah, yeah. So what are you doing cruising through North Carolina? Well, we're in Florida for a couple of weeks. We went up to Maine weekend before last, we were opening weekend. Opening weekend for what? The saloon. Yep. And that was fun.

It was packed, and people had fun, we had fun. And then we flew back down, Lisa and I flew down to go to the, to go back to get the camper. What was the camper doing in Florida? I was getting repaired. Yeah? Well, just getting some, you know, up. updates and stuff. You know how campers are. They always need something.

Yeah. TLC. That's right. Well, he's called it a camper, by the way. It's a motorhome. It's not a camper. We're talking about it. It's a Prevo, right? Yeah. How long have you had that? This one's new about a year ago. Okay. Wow. What are you been doing with your time? What are you doing these days? We're riding motorcycles, having fun, meeting people, doing the same thing I've done for 80 years.

Yeah. Where are you riding your motorcycle? We were in California, so we ride out there every day because it's such a good weather. We go to Mexico and here there and everywhere. You fly all the way out there and jump on your bike? Or you ride it all the way out there? We take the camper out. Okay. I got the bike on the back of the camper. You're traveling a lot. Man. I love it. Yeah. And you're just traveling. You don't have an itiner or you don't have any place to go. You're just going. Is that right? Kind of. I mean, are there races or are there events? Are there things that you're being? Are you just going? Just going. This is a life you live. Yep. I got a big nose so I get on my motorcycle follow my nose.

So Bentley Warren, seven-time, Oswego Speedway champion, four-time Isma champion, two-time little 500 winner, two-time Indy-500 qualifier. And you're in the Super Modified Hall of Fame. You won the classic. Me and Mike were arguing about how many times?

How many times? I think it's six or seven. I thought it was seven. Mike said six. But the first time you won it was in 69. Yeah. And then the last time you won it was in 98? I think so, right?

Yeah. I want to talk about that. So I got a friend of mine who he owns a car that owns a super modified. He's friends with Tony Stewart and they grow some sort of, they grow something. I don't know, down and they grow tomatoes. Tomatoes, I think. Yeah. And so this guy, and they, I think you know who I'm talking about.

But anyways, this particular person was giving me videos, DVDs of the Oswego. classic every year over the last five or ten years and he gave me this book. All right, this book right here is the history of the international classic at Oswego. And it's the last, it's 50 years from 1957 to 2006. And so I kept this on my bus over the last probably four or five years of my cup racing career. And I read every page. And I read this book probably three times sitting on the toilet. And so that's how I learned about you is I was like, so I'm reading about Nolan Swift, right, who was amazing. And Nolan was before you. You raced against him though, but he came in, he came into, he was a little bit older than you. But then you come in and win in 69 and then I'm reading

through the book, you know, and you come back and you win some more and you wins and then you won the race in 98. And I don't even know what age. But that's the span of time. from 69.98. It's just amazing that you could, and this is, the super modified is a very, I've never drove one, but it's an extremely intimidating car. Maybe not for you. We'll have to get you riding one. You'll love it. To me, it comes across, or the impression that it gives me is that it's a very intimidating car, it's very physical, and it's super fast, and to win and do well in that race, you've got to be brave and very, very smart.

And you were able to do this in such, from 69,998, you know, to be able to, in the technology of the cars, the pictures and looking at the cars and how they change from 69 to 99. 98. A lot of guys, a lot of drivers don't adapt as the cars change, right? They don't, they can't, they can't plug into the newer technology and the car gets, the car gets more and more foreign to them. And the younger guys come in and just kind of take over. and but you were able to keep winning and it just, you're, you're very rare and unique in that,

you know, aspect. So that was something that made me really, really admire you. So I want to talk about that. So you've, you've done so much more outside of just the classic, but that's really how I learned who you were. So let's start there. Do you remember the 69 win? Yeah, I do. So, so. It was something. It was really amazing. That was my big, big, that was a highlight. of my life up until that time. Why so? Just to win that against like Nolan Swift and, you know, some of the people, Gordon Johncock had been there.

And I'd seen a lot of these guys Sammy Sessions. They were all great drivers and they drove indie cars and, you know, they just went all over the place and it was just like, oh my God, I think I might win this, you know. We had, I think we had quick time, a second quick time. So you had a good car. Oh, a very good car. And the guy that owned Howard Purdy, he just passed. But just a fantastic mechanic.

He was an organizer, a businessman, and that's what it takes to do well in those divisions. Yeah. And so you had a really good car. You go out there and you win in 69. You ran four different drivers for many years, right? But if I remember correctly, by the time you win this race in 1998, you're basically just walking into the track with your suit and your helmet and jumping in anybody's car, right? kind of a Jeff West called me up and asked me if I wanted to drive his car and I said

nah I don't think I'll go with this year why I just because we had a little bit of a spat with us we go about we we quit racing I was driving Paul Dundgan's car we were a pound light or heavy on the left side and we just thought that was kind of technical so we just got bit off on nose to spite our face and stopped running for a few years and then Jeff West called me up and asked me if I wanted to run his car and I said nah I don't think so then I called him up for the last minute. I said, is that ride still open? He said, let me see if I can, you know, get you in the car.

So he caught me in the car and I rode my motorcycle out there and we won the race. But he made the car good for me, too. Right. And it wasn't the fastest car, but again, like you were smart. And if I remember that race correctly, you just outlasted everybody. And by the end of the race, you had plenty of pace. But you weren't, you probably weren't, you weren't the fastest car at the start of the race. You just took care of everything.

and ended up getting the win. And then at the end of the race, you had, you know, you celebrate and then you hop on your bike and rode on out of town. Yeah. It was like this out of a movie scene. He is out of a movie scene. I'm convinced of it.

This guy's a character because, you know, when you say he celebrates, he knows how to do that. You know how to celebrate, just as well as you know how to race. But you're also very humble. I can't help but I wonder. We're talking about the classic at Oswego. Oswego was your track. So to hear that you had a spat with Oswego,

It was somewhat interesting to me. But for those of us, have you ever been to Oswego? I'm sure not, right? For those of us, never been to Oswego. Describe that place, first of all, so we can kind of qualify in our heads what we're dealing with when we talk about the classic. And what is it about Oswego Speedway that is so remarkable? Well, to me, it was the name of the track and all the people have raced there.

And then the first time I went out there with our own race car, I think it was 64, and we put a supercharger on the car. we thought would be, you know, killers out there and really go well. And I walked through the gate, and I looked at these steel walls, and I looked at the straight-oers. It looked like I looked at the third turn, or fourth turn, and then I looked down to the first turn. I'm like, holy crap, this place is wicked long.

That's longer than any track I've had to been on except for Thompson. And we went out there, and we ran good, but, I mean, we blew up, I don't know, we lost a clutch or something like that and hit the fence because I was trying to go too fast and wrecked the car and rebuilt her that night, It went back out, and that's when we lost the clutch. But it was so intimidating. And then to hear of all the drivers that had one out there and guys that had been hurt and killed and stuff like that,

it just kind of scared you a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, wow, this place is wicked fast. And it was. So it had steel walls, like boilerplate. Inside and outside. The outside was about a maybe 8 foot, 9 foot wall. That's tall.

It had about a 3-foot wall. So when you hit it, it was backed up by dirt on the inside, on the infield. He ran right against it in turn one and two and three and four right on the fence. Yeah. Right on the inside wall. I'd touch it. I used to have white wall tires on both sides. Left rear and the right rear were always white wall.

What happened? I said, I was going too fast. I was touching the fence. So sometimes the super mods will run wingless. What's the difference when you strap the wing on one of them things? It's like night and day. The cars are, you know, about a second quicker with the wing. Yeah.

And when you first put the wing on, you just go into the corner where you usually let off, and you just leave your foot in it. It's like, wow, is this thing going to turn? And you can feel the wheels. You can see the tires like doing this on the front because the Gs are pushing the car out, but the tires are staying to the left. You know what I mean? It's like it's insane.

Wow. Okay, so we always love to ask this question because Oswego is such, you're synonymous with Oswego, and so I know that we're going to come back to Oswego and talk about the classics and everything. Little 500s you won. Throw it back to the beginning. Tell us about your roots. I want to hear about your dad, your mom, siblings, and where you're from?

They were from actually Williamstown Mass. My father was a graduate of Williams College, and he was an investment banker, and he used to like to have his tea, his tea like the beer or the whiskey or whatever it may be. He was a hot ticket, though, and a great, great guy, and he had more friends. Everybody admired him. He was a great, great guy. What was his name? Bentley, Warton,

okay. Junior. My grandfather was, I'm the third. You're the third. Yep. They call me the turd. Bentley of the third. Oh, my God.

So how do you explain, how do you explain becoming who you are and the outlaw that you are in a sense and your father's character being so completely different? Well, my father loved Koss. He was into antique Koss. He had Rolls Royces and Model T's and all kinds of, of cars and he taught me how to drive when I was probably six or seven.

You know, piled telephone books piled up in his little car and I'd drive around the field and I had a motorcycle when I was seven or eight. We have a video of me riding, I'm a little squirt and I'm riding this big guy on the back of the motorcycle in the field. I think I was eight years old or seven years old. It was cool, but he loved cars. He loved, and as far as my racing went, he followed me. We raced in Argentina.

when I was running the Indy cars. Yeah. And he went down there. And I burned up there, but he was there. So your dad supported your racing, right? I had to gate. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Really? Yeah, because when I was 14, I built my first car. What kind of car? It was a jalopy, what they called the jalopy. It was a 36 Ford, I think, a 35 Ford. Where'd you race it? Pine Speedway and just Pine Speedway. Yeah.

We used to bring it up on a trailer, on a boat trailer. And then I had a junkyard guy that used to put in the back of his dump truck. And it was cool. Yeah. You mentioned Argentina. I know we're going to jump ahead and then jump back. Oh, yeah, because there's a story everywhere.

How did you go? What are you doing in Argentina? Well, the Indy cars went to Argentina and I was driving for Tassi Vadas and all the Indy cars went down there. Did you feel like, did you get there and go like, how did I get here? What am I doing here? No, that was when I went to Indy. When I walked through gasoline alley, you were plugged in.

I was like, I saw a gasoline alley. and I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm here. So had you traveled outside of the States before Argentina and before that? So I know, but like were you not standing in Argentina going, this is different? Oh, yeah, it was different. I mean, I know when I go out of the country, I still trip out. Yeah, it was like, holy crape, you know, it was fun. Wow.

You said you got burned up? Yeah, we were running really, really well. And I just saw something Robin Miller did about, I can't remember what it was, It was kind of cool, you know, pumping my head up a little bit when I saw the video. Oh, yeah. His tough guy's video. Yeah, I think it was. And something about hitting, well, I was running really, really well in Argentina.

And I think I was passing second place or something, Lloyd Ruby. And somebody had lost some oil up high, and I was up high and hit the oil back in there, hit the fence, back under the fence, and the car kind of blew up on fire. And my father, Jerry Cox, a guy that was working on the crew, father was standing with him and the car blew up and Jerry said oh my god he said I you know saw this guy killed and this guy killed and my father just as cool as can be he said it's just an accident if he makes it he makes it if he doesn't he doesn't he was just you know and Jerry couldn't you know he never forgot sure and it was just you know really did you get any burns yeah I was in the hospital for a

couple of nights in Argentina yeah how was that it was a Catholic hospital and all these nuns were in there really nice people yeah And they said you have to drink a lot of liquids. And I had my hands tied up, like, you know, they're all bandaged, and they're up in the air and all that stuff. And I said, oh, much savasa. So they brought me in a big gallon of beer, and I drank that. Really? They let you have beer?

Yeah, in the hospital. It's not very hydrating. So did you have to do all the scrubs and all that with the burns, or did they just healed? No, well, I got a couple little skin grafts. Did you? I had one finger that was bad, and I went to Mass General. And I was going to Phoenix, Arizona for the first IndyCar race. That was my first year in the IndyCar race, I think.

And I remember I went down there and I had to shake hands with the doctor, and he squeezed the heck out of my hand to make sure that it didn't hurt. And I just, yeah, it's fine, you know, how are you doing? But it was hurting like a son of a gun. But I went to Mass General, and, you know, he had to clean. I had my hands tied up in bed every night. I tied them up because the higher they are, the quicker they heal and all that stuff. and they looked kind of gross and one finger was bad.

I didn't know that about the height because I remember when I had my burns on my leg, I had this one. Like when you, if you have a burn and you put it low, it's super painful. Yeah. You know that? You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah. Like I felt like my thigh was going to come out of my leg. It hurts so damn bad. Burns are wicked. They're terrible. So I had to always like lay, I had to get underneath my thigh and have it high. or anything else. That's where I was most comfortable.

Well, it pumps the blood. It pumps fresh blood through it. It makes it heal better, I guess. And when I went to Mass General, I told the doctor, it was this finger, and it was like all pussy and screwed up. I said, well, can't you just cut it off and sew the skin together? No, no, no. He was kind of funny, you know, not wanting to do it.

Is it true? I have heard of rumor. Is it true that they, at one time, not in Argentina, probably America. They wanted to amputate a leg, but you told them not to because it's your gas leg? No, I just, I told him not to because I said, I don't think you need to. Oh, so not because that you can get it. What was the circumstances? I got hurt in a sprint car in Toledo.

And I just, I got hurt by hot oil and it burnt my leg. I broke my legs and broke my feet and they wanted to cut my foot off because the doctor thought, Gang Greenwood said, because he thought it was gas that burnt it. And it was hot oil. And Mary Purdy, Howard Purdy's wife was a nurse or something. and she was in the hospital and Howard was in the hospital with me. And she kind of talked the doctors out of doing it too. Man, were you awake enough to tell them?

Oh, they wanted to give me morphine or something because of the pain was wicked. I mean, you know, I had skin grafts. I was in there for a long time in the hospital. And the doctor came in with a, what a hacks are about two feet long on the sky. He's in the room with it. He said, we've got to amputate that now. I said, no, no, don't do that. I said, get another doctor to look at it.

I remember another doctor came in later on that night and said no, this will heal up. It was a long time healing. Yeah, sounds like it. Let me tell you a story about this guy. Last night we're talking. Okay, I'm talking to Dale, everybody. So I'm talking to Bentley and we're talking about some race at some racetrack or whatever. And I say, didn't you get in a wreck there?

Didn't you get hurt there? And he goes, no, no, that wasn't the one I got hurt at. I was only in the hospital for three weeks for that one. Yeah. And I was just like, well, this guy's crazy. This guy's crazy. I mean, so you've had the injuries mount up now. Do you still feel them?

No, they said when I, they told me when I was about 30, they told me when I was 40, I wouldn't even walk. Right. And I've been skiing, walking, riding my motorcycle, and still doing all the things that everybody else does. So I guess they have to eat the words. When's the last time you was behind the wheel of a race car? It was in, well, I drove, you know,

exhibition thing in Oswego. When? In the 40, last year in the 44 car. How fast did you get? Not very fast. When's the last time you went fast? At Oxford Plains Speedway in a super and one of Chris Pearlie's backup cars.

And that was the last official race I ran. What year? I can't remember. It was probably seven, eight years ago. Man, it's not too long ago. No. It was probably 70-something, I guess. There's like, you could count them.

on one hand, maybe two hands, of the amount of people that can drive a race car competitively, regardless of their age. Right. And I don't expect you to be able to explain to me why you can do that because I don't know if anybody really knows why. Because I've always been kind of fascinated by, you know, when I was thinking about retiring from cup racing, I looked at everybody's ages of like guys that retired like Dale Jared and Bobby Labani and other people.

and, you know, people retire for different reasons, heard, or they just don't want to do it anymore, or they just aren't competitive, or they get forced out. But it seemed to always kind of fall right around this same age. Around 43, the tide sort of turns for everybody a little bit. Most people, like there's an 80% chance that the numbers drop, the top fives, the top tens, right around that 43-year-old, 43-year-age.

And there's only a couple people that can go beyond that. You know, Harry Gant was one, right? Yeah. Bobby Allison, I thought, was a guy that could, that just still had that grit. It's a grit. There's a bit of a, there's some grit there. There's like, you got to have the passion, the love. A wicked desire.

Yeah. I think it's just got to be a wicked desire. Yeah. And when you lose that, you lose that fire to push every lap, every corner, right? To just push yourself into those situations that are uncomfortable, you know. It's just amazing to me. to be able to meet people and talk to people that are unique in that way. What would you even consider your prime?

I went good for a lot of years. Partially when I was younger, it was either first offense because I was too numb to. First or fenced? Yeah. First or fenced? And then I think when Tom Heveron and Doug Heveron, Tom raced, Doug raced Indy and Doug broke his leg out there in practice, and Tom asked me to drive one of his cars

and Doug wasn't running yet but he ran later on in the season and I won about I think I won the championship in Heveron's car and then he we raced together and they were just great friends

Doug Heveron just stopped racing recently honestly and that's when I really came into winning a lot of races because he maintained the cars so well he had a little parade and a lot of moat and all those guys working on

and it was just a wonderful team. And then Ed Bowley bought the cars and Tom Bowley and Mark, you know Mark Whitten at Hendricks. Well, he worked on the car. And I drove that for three or four years. And we won just race after race. And then I drove for a few other guys. Yeah, I remember Doug. I remember Doug Heveron's name from Cup Racing in the 80s.

And then he ran a little bit of Exfinity stuff in the 90s. I got into i racing and i see Doug Hebron's name and he's a sim racer Doug is and still does it today and I've chatted with him a little bit through that and then I read this book which he is in a bunch because he was very good at Oswego as well and I remember when you and him were running to race his teammates together in the classics and stuff and when you filled in for him but I've always kind of been fascinated but Doug and so Doug got a chance to go into stock cars and kind of test that out a little bit. What was your opportunities and we know you went to Indy and did that for a bit, but what

was your opportunities with stock cars or did you ever have any passion to go there? Not really. I just was, you know, so good an open wheel. Yeah. And I loved the open wheel. I drove some modified, you know, but they were sort of like a soup because they were open wheel also and I drove a couple late models but I didn't go well in them yeah it's too much crashing stuff for me you know like rub guys push them out of the way and all I just you know if you do

that in a super you're dead yeah with open wheel car you got to be you got to race with a whole different mentality I imagine you got you got to be you know eighth of an inch away wide open all the time but if you touch you're both going over you know you've been you can get hurt quite badly and wreck a lot of equipment. Hey, so you mentioned going into gasoline alley for the first time. So I want to talk about your champ car career, which I think it's about a five-year span. I know you got it hurt in there once or twice, but how did you get the opportunity in 1970, I believe, was your rookie year?

And you were lights out. I mean, you were the guy. You were the new young guy coming in. You had everybody's attention. How did you get that opportunity? And then what happened with it? Well, I drove a sprint car for Skip Matzick, a guy from Connecticut, and we won some races.

And then I went to Thompson, Connecticut at the end of the year, with my modified. And I'd been in a bad wreck a couple weeks earlier, so I had, I think I had a broken hand, but I was still running. It was a 500-lap race, and I was leading it for quite a while, but we ended up screwing up a wheel and stuff. But he had a guy named Paul Young, who was Tassie Vattis's midget mechanic. Tassie Vadis was the car owner that I drove for. And Skip introduced me to Paul Young, who introduced me to Tassie Vattis,

and he's a guy that flew me to Indianapolis. He owned a couple of Indy cars. Great guy, Greek steamship owner, you know, steamship lines and all that stuff. And he knew on NASA's and just, you know, really like, holy Christ, I'm with some, you know, wicked up people. But they were just so real people, you know, they weren't put on any of that stuff. So it was pretty darn neat. to walk through gasoline alley.

He flew me out. I didn't have anybody flight in Indianapolis, and he flew me, paid for my ticket, flew me out. Bill Finley, he was a mechanic, picked me up at the airport,

and we walked through gasoline alley. Like I said earlier, I'm looking at this gas. I'd seen it on TV and seen it and illustrated Speedway News and stuff like that. Like, oh, my God, I can't believe I'm walking through here,

and I'm going to go sit in an indie car because I'm going to drive it at indie this year. Have you ever been near, have you ever been next to a car before? Not an Indy car. So when you walked up, to the Indycar and Gasoline Alley in the garage is the first time you've seen it. Yep.

Did you look at that car and did it seem different than what you'd been racing? I didn't know. It had a little four-cylinder Raffey. That's it? Yeah, I thought I kind of like laughed inside. Right. This will be easy. You know, a little motor like that.

I didn't realize it made a thousand horse power with the turbocharger. When the first time I stood on it down in, I think it was Trent, New Jersey. We went to Phoenix and we couldn't get it run. We had problems. It was kind of a low buck team, but a good team. And Bill Philly was a great fabricator and mechanic and all that. And so we went to Trent and Utrezzi the next week. How big is that track?

A mile and a half. It used to be a mile, and they put the dog leg in. Yes. Going into turn. The backwards dog leg. Three, yeah. Turn right and left. Yeah.

You raced on that? Yeah. Holy smokes. And I raced on it when it was a straight one mile in sprint car. Yeah. I think maybe it was Eddie Perkins. is roadster, I can't remember. I had to have been a weird track, but they bent it.

But I hit the gas in the turbocharged. I thought this was going to be a joke, a little tractor engine four-cylinder, you know. I touched the gas and, holy crap, it's like sideways. Wow, I said, this is something, it's got some moxie. When do you, do you remember going to Indy and driving your first laps? Yeah, Bill Finley was a great teacher, and he sent me out there for about four, laps and he wanted me to stay on the very inside of the track and at that time when you went as a rookie you had to stay on the inside of the track and that kept your speed down to like 110 because if you

couldn't go up you couldn't get the speed up in the corner and so it just gave you a little bit of an education and feeling then he had you come in and stay for sit for 20 minutes or half an hour think about you think about what you've done yep go back and run a few more laps at the same same configuration of the corners and stuff like that how long of an afternoon before you you're sort of free to do whatever you want to do out on the track. It was probably the second day. That's when you had the whole month. Yeah.

You know, you had two weeks of practice and all that. So how drive me around that track in that car? How much are you lifting? You used to lift because it didn't have the aerodynamics. Yeah. It was just, was it loose? It turned. It's kind of dirt tracking into the corner?

No, I think he tightened it up quite a bit so that, you know, you get the feel with the front pushing a little bit to, so you'd, get your butt behind you and keep it behind you instead of having it pass you. When you're at the end of the back straightaway, is it wandering all over the track? Is it pretty tight? Is it steering tight? It was pretty, I mean, after driving all the cars I'd driven, it was sort of, it wasn't easy. It was definitely hard.

Foyt gave me a lot of help because Foyt was a good friend of Bill Finley's. What kind of advice did he have? He said, you know how he talks? Well, Bentley. I slowed down for you And he says And I wanted you to follow me I said yeah

If I followed you I would have followed you I would have followed you But I would have followed you Into the turn And hit the fence I said as fast as you'll go And the car wouldn't

You know turn the corner And to turn three Yeah And but it was It was really Denny Holm took me around In a pace car To show me the track

And he said If you feel like you're going to hit the fence Here You're going fast enough If you do hit the fence You're going a little too fast fast. Yeah.

It was just a great guy too. What was it like when you were around to the cars? Was the, did the arrow change or? Yeah. When you were behind another car, it just kind of picked the car up in the car. Just floated a whole, you know, one groove up. Yeah. Oh, my God.

Every lap. So how did you deal with qualifying for the Indy 500? Were you nervous? Yeah. I'm sure I was. I don't know if I was or not because I was so concentrating on trying to run. And we qualified 34th. instead of 33rd.

So we missed the show the first year. And my wife and I was sitting up in the stands. And we had a pretty good time, qualifying time, on the first weekend. And the second weekend, it cooled down about 10 degrees. And I'm not looking at the times. I said, I don't think we're going to make this, honey. And we didn't. So were you heartbroken?

Yes, but, you know, we've all been in those situations when you're leading a race and you break or whatever, so it's just part of racing. You're going to take your lumps. Yeah. Was it four laps? Yeah. Yeah. I had four laps too. I mean, you don't breathe.

You don't breathe for four minutes. I can't even imagine driving something like that and trying to put. I mean, you know, when you're driving a top two or three car, the experience that that guy had trying to qualify for that race is so much different than what you had, trying to push to get every little ounce that you could out of that car just to get into the field. I think it's a harder test or harder, more difficult thing to do, right? It's trying to take a car that might or might not make the race and shove it into the

race, right, with everything you got. You're kind of putting your tail on the line. You got a lot, you're putting your tail on the line a little bit more than the guy who's sitting there with a front row starting car. Right. You know what I mean? He's just got to go out there and not destroy it and he might get the pole. He might not.

I watched, um, Bob, who just passed the other. the day. Yeah. And it was a great, great guy. Really nice man. A hell of a racer. I mean, he and Al and their son, baby Al, you know, just all good, good races. Jerry Yunts, you know, they're just wonderful people, too.

And I watched him qualifying in one of Dan Gurney's cars. I think it was Phil Casey, was wrenching on the car. And we'd go up, we'd loosen the lock night up on the waistgate and go like half a turn or a quarter of a turn or three hexes. And I watched him. He loosened the lock, not and he's had a speed wrench. He's turned it in to get like, you know, 1,1100 horsepower. And then Bobby has to go out and try to qualify with, you know, that much horsepower.

That's a heck of a lot of horsepower. Really? And, you know, I mean, if we ever did it with some of the motors we had, we'd lose them. Yeah. They'd break. Yeah. How much of the situation changed when you went back there in 71 and you did make the field? Well, I was driving Sam's, Sam Posey's year before Gurney Eagle car.

And it was such a difference. It was just, it was tremendously qualified 15th or something like that. The Sampos? Yeah. Did you talk to him about that before the race? Yeah. He and I were teammates in 70. Really?

Yeah, and he had the Gurney Eagle. Yeah. And I had the Finley. And so did he was like, because he's such a fascinating guy. Oh, he's a great guy. Yeah. I saw him up at the museum in New England. Yeah.

At Dr. Dex Museum. Sure. Just a heck of a guy. So Mike was saying in 71 you go back and you had a much better experience, a little more speed in the car. And what was the difference in how the car drove? It was like 90 day. It was just such, you know, and they could go get the statistics from other cars,

you know, what spring rates and what this and what that. And it just made it so much easier to go fast. Yeah. Did you feel like you were, you know, could you see your future in Indy by that point? Are you thinking, I love these cars? I'm feeling like I'm adapting to these cars. I think I would just, I just loved racing so much. You know, I just wanted to go, you always want to win.

I mean, that's always been the goal of, I think, of any race guy driver you want to win. You know, just, you don't care. And if you're running 14th, you want to be 13th. But you don't want to stay 13th because that bad luck, so you've got to get to 12th. But, you know, you're always trying to move ahead. And, you know, whatever you can do to get that one more position. back in the 70s, you know, guys that ran at Indy and the Indy 500 and ran the Indy car often also ran dirt sprint stuff.

I mean, they were racing every single week, two, three, four times a week. So in comparison to today, Mike, where your guys that are running indie cars, they aren't running the local dirt track on Friday night or Saturday night or on an off weekend going running a sprint car somewhere. But you guys, like you say, you were, I guess you were trying to get a, opportunities in an indie car, but you also had multiple other things going on in your life that had your attention. Well, at that time, NASCAR and or USAC couldn't cross over the line and go from, you know,

if you were running USAC, you couldn't run an outlaw race or, you know, track at home or anything like that. And I think it was the same with NASCAR. You couldn't run someplace else. Didn't you get in trouble there running an outlaw race? What happened there? I got an accident throttle. and that's the time I ended up in the hospital at Starr.

You're at Star Speedway? Yeah. You ran there a lot. Yeah. You liked that place. Well, it was close to home. You know, I had different cars of good drive. Yeah.

So it was enjoyable. Well, who was Ken Bell? Oh, that was me. I can't remember. I think it was that track. Ken Bell was the guy that let you run outlaw races, right? Yeah, yeah. You ran under an assumed name.

Yeah. So, well, whose idea was that? probably mine because I knew I couldn't race you know USAC you wanted to run a USAC race well I want no you wanted to run this outlaw race and I just wanted to race I wanted to race all the time yeah and you couldn't you know I couldn't afford to go to the Midwest every week so I went were you not nervous about getting busted no I thought you know that's fine you're a pretty recognizable guy yeah I don't know I mean there's not social media and everything going on back then, but I'm sure if somebody at Star Speedway saw Bentley Warren walking through the pits and

the races can go out there and you go out there and we win the race, it's time, you know, where's going to travel? Yeah, we were racing in Florida one time at Hollywood Speedway. I was driving a super from up north, and I was leading. Under an assume name? Yeah, and I can't remember what name it was. Oh, you had multiple names. You've won, like, you've won hundreds and hundreds of feature wins, but there's probably

another hundred wins that it's not counted because in bail or no not that many but a couple but i told i told the car owner i said if i win this i said you get he used to drive too and i said you're going to put your fire suit on come running out and take pictures i said i never run away from the car and going to skip out yeah did that really happen i didn't i didn't win we had something i think we had a flat tire or something but i was leading very very well i was the car was running really so you never want to race under an assumed name i don't think so i don't think so i don't think So, wow. Would you admit it if you did?

That's the question that you and I got it. Well, now I could. I wouldn't give it done. Statue of limitations is long past. So he was this crash at Star Speedway got you banged up, got you hurt, and that's how they found out. Yeah, yeah, because it was on the, you know, all kinds of news media. And King was the president of USAC, and he called me up and said, I'm so sorry about your accident and this and that. And he said, no, by the way, you can't run USAC anymore.

You're out of USAC anymore. Did they suspend you indefinitely? Yeah. Was that fair? Well, and actually it doesn't seem fair, and they don't do it anymore. Neither, and none of the clubs, because they do, I think they know that you need to race as much as you can. I mean, I think the more you race, if you race five nights a week and you're racing five nights a week, you're going to be that much better. Yeah.

Well, how did you get reinstated then? Because you ran Indy 500 and 75. Yeah, I went out and joined. FIA, I think, or something like that. Got super license? Yeah, some formula race license. Jerry Glanville told us about that, remember? They got the silver card.

So that way I could run. It's kind of like a circumvent the rule, if you were. And so now you're back in. Did they do anything to try to argue your entry? No, after that. I think they'd calm down. Yeah, after that, I think they let people run other divisions. Yeah. Wow. Were you hurt? Like were you, I mean, I don't know you're physically hurt, but were you, how mad were you about that?

Yes. Pad of life. Come on. You know, it's just. No, no. I'm sure you cussed when you hung up the phone. I'm sure you had a few choice words. Maybe. I can't remember. I just, I couldn't believe what happened. I mean, you know, and I couldn't believe, I was still in the hospital and, you know, they called me. I was in there for a few weeks and they called me and told me to call. How many times, was there ever a time, I guess, when you're laying in a hospital or sitting at home with a cast on a leg and her arm where you thought, I need to, I need to figure out how to stop getting banged up? Because, I mean, not that you crashed more than other people on average, you just race so long, and you ran hard, and you ran to win. And you got hurt a lot,

You know, you had a lot of injuries. Yeah, once in a while, but not. I know, was there a point when you're like, because obviously there, obviously the answer to the question is there wasn't a point because you kept racing all the way till the bitter, you know, till you couldn't physically do it anymore. But, I mean, was there ever a point when you're laying there in the hospital, like thinking maybe I need to change my style at least?

Maybe not, I don't think you ever thought that you need to stop racing, but. I don't think so. I think I just remember when I got hurt in Toledo that time, I was in the hospital for a few months. And I had run Indy that year, and I had about 10 grand or something in the bank or something like that, which in 71 or something was a heck of a lot of money. And I said, I got to do something besides race. And that's when I bought an old dump truck and started. Yeah, I said, I got three kids and wife. And, you know, we got to buy food and we got to pay rent and all that.

So house payment was $52 a month. You know, that was a lot of money. I remember reading about that in the book. Bollins wrote a book about you. And you, so that was what was, I was curious and trying to touch on a little bit earlier with your dad. Your dad had this imagining your dad and what he was about. You just, you don't seem to have, you didn't choose that life, right? You didn't choose that path.

You wanted to race and do things your way and ride Harleys and own dump trucks. But you weren't afraid to work. You know, you weren't afraid to do whatever. And you did a lot of stuff yourself, right? You didn't take help from your family. But here you talk about starting that business and why you had to start that business, what that business became. Well, I started it because, you know, like I said,

you know, three kids and a wife and house payments. How old are you at this point, roughly? Mid-20s? Yeah. I think so. So you got three kids and you're married. How's... I think it was 30.

30? I think so. All right. So what had you been doing up to this point? Just part-time work, like driving a truck for somebody in the winter when I'm not racing. And... Hauling 18-wheeler's? Yeah.

Yeah. And I used to haul fishing in New York City and stuff. And then I used to weld. I had a, you know, welded and stuff like that. So I used to welding guys dump trucks and tractors. and whatever I needed fixing or fix a car or, you know, whatever I had to do to try to make a buck. So you bought a dump truck? Yeah.

And what did you do with it? I ended up with about 50 of them in about 10 or 15 years. Really? And what was the job? What did they do? Hall gravel. We haul gravel and sand and stuff like that. How did it grow?

I didn't even know what I was doing, but it just kept growing because I, you know, trying different things. And my father was very, very proud of what I did with the trucks, you know, I mean, because he loved any kind of mechanical stuff. So he enjoyed the heck out of seeing me do it. And he saw me, I think I had a broken arm and I was building to build and putting a steel building and I was hanging on with the cast on trying to screw screws into a tin building.

And I was just kind of neat. You know, you look back at the pictures and see the people and, you know, all that. You wonder, but it was fun. Yeah. So that was a good business for you. Yeah. Yeah.

And my daughter runs it now. It's still going. It's going tremendously. she's doing, you know, she's like a son. Yeah. My gosh. So what made you want to open a saloon? I've been riding motorcycles for years and years and years.

When did you get your first street bike? Or it just seems like you've always had one. Yeah, probably when I was. He started when he was seven. Yeah. That was a dirt bike. I know it was, but still. No, that was a wriggle.

Oh, was it? Really? Oh, my gosh. Right around the field. An old kickstart, you know, but it was a small one. And then I got a bigger one and stuff like that. But then I think, yeah, when I got out of the Army, I was 20. I went in the Army at 17, and you probably read that in the book.

And I saw the Chief of Police wanted me to go in the Army. He thought that'd be a good place for me. He was correct. You need to get out of his hair. Yeah. Were you a bit of troublemaker? Oh, no, I was a perfect child. Now, why would the Chief of Police actually want you to go to the military?

Because something was wrong with it. I had a Model A Ford pickup, and they had a 41 Chevy or a 41 Dodge with a Chrysler remote in it. It just somehow it went fast and it was supposed to go. It just found its way in a race set every now and again. I mean, there's no way to control those types of things. The throttle was touchy. The throttle wasn't working right now. So like any of those problems, you send them to the military.

That'll straighten them out. Look what it did. It made a bigger racer. He came back even more fast. When did you open the saloon? I think 15 years ago. And why did you do that? Well, I actually when my wife and I were riding when we're probably in our 20s

and we'd go into a restaurant to eat. And we couldn't go that often because we didn't have enough money. But maybe once a month we'd go out for dinner or supper, whatever you want to call it, and would go to eat. And you'd walk into the restaurant and they wouldn't let you in. They said, oh, no, it's reservations only. And I said, well, those tables are reserved. But I said, those aren't.

And so we'd get in and I said, someday I'd like to have a restaurant, a saloon, or a restaurant or something that anybody can come into, not just dressing a suit and a tie. If you just want to be a working person, you've got work clothes on, you should be able to go. Or if you're riding a motorcycle, because they used to think motorcycles were terrible. And so that's one of the reasons I wanted the saloon. And then be in Daytona a lot during the 90s, riding my motorcycle,

and going to Sturages and stuff like that, I decided I really wanted to get a bar and there was one right in front of my house. That was? Yeah, it was hooked to my property and I helped a guy named Randy out a few times. You know, just when he was in trouble, I'd help him out a little bit financially. It was his bar. And it was his bar and they ended up buying it from him. I wanted to be partners, but I could see partners wouldn't work because I knew they didn't work in marriage.

They're not going to work in business either, so how's that, how's the business of owning saloon been for 15 years? It's great. I mean, it's a lot of work. I haven't taken a son out of it since I owned it, but we keep making it better. My girlfriend runs it, and I got some great help up there. And it's just, you know, it's a fun business. You can go up there and plug in a motorhome or a trailer. You also got little.

Park models and stuff, yeah. Little places where you can. Yeah, if people ride bikes up, they can spend the night there. Right. So if you get just too drunk to go home. Yeah. Well, where you can sleep. Lisa calls her to stumble away from the campground.

Yes. You know, the saloons are stumble away. It is. I've never been. You want to go. It's definitely on my bucket list to go up there and get too drunk to leave. There you go. I think I told you this story. I'll tell it again. When Dale Jr. was talking about, you know, we have our list of people that we want to have on the show.

And then, you know, Bentley Warren kept being on it. And so, you know, Dale Jr., when he has a person that he wants to have on our show, I always like to ask, you know, what is it? Why is it? Just to know where his head's at. And he goes, because he has a saloon. And I want to drink a beer there one day. Well, we have that in common now, let's see, Mike. That's right.

You do. But, like, so this is when I finally heard about Bentley Saloon. And, man, that place, we did a Lost Speedway's episode up in a Rundle Main. That's where Bentley Saloon is. It wasn't open at the time when we were up there. But this Bentley Saloon now, we've come to learn is the spot. It's open now, though, right? Yeah.

We opened up two weeks ago. How often are you in there when you're at home? I just do PI work. I just, you're the, you're the publicist. Relations, relationships. Yeah, that's all it is. You got to have, people have to see you enjoying the product. Well, absolutely.

They won't. YouTube videos with you karaoke and singing on a stage, is that from Bentley Saloon? If you saw them, it probably is. It is, right? Probably. I'm going to say something. You want to see, you want to see an act. Dale, Dale Jr.

Bentley Saloon's got a stage, and when they get this Johnny Cash house band come in here, I don't think Bentley can keep himself off the stage. Is that right? That's right. I think the people love it, but I think I love it better. Well, you never struck me as somebody that had a difficult time finding a good time. Well, I try to enjoy life. How many speeding tickets have you gotten out of?

A couple of few. No, no, come on. Could it be more than 50? Oh, my gosh. Probably not that many. Maybe, maybe close. I'm telling you, Dale, guys, he gets out of stuff. He's got a care of his,

charisma he's got charisma about him he don't get scared with cops he gets pulled over they become friends the cops end up drinking with him afterwards am i wrong oh it's kind of you're sort of right yeah usually and he doesn't even play i'm bentley warren he they just knowing it is that right well a little bit i had one cop stopped me years ago and i thought i was racing this we were leaving work we had a junkyard in new hampshire and it was about nine o'clock at night we hadn't been drinking or anything just i had a 61 ford then it was kind of a wreck And so I'm this Bob Pompey, he was working for me, and he's got a newer Ford, like a brand new Ford. Like I can't remember what year it was, but it was probably a, I don't know, 65 Ford or 66 or something.

And he's beside me, I thought. And I said, look at this son of a gun. He's keeping up with me. That car won't care. And I kept, you know, I had a big motor in this old police cruise was a black car. And it was a piece of crap. And so I kept going. I said, son of my gun, he's keeping the hell with him.

I'll just leave him. All of a sudden, blue lights come on. I said, Bob Pompey hasn't got blue lights on the roof. The cops stopped me, and he's giving me hell. And he said, I wasn't chasing you. He said, I was beside you. You're going 100-something miles an hour. And he hit the roof of the car.

Well, I hit the headliner been ripped out of the car, so the roof just fell in. And he felt kind of guilty about it. But then he asked me for my license of registration. And I didn't have a registration because I had a fake plate on it or something, just a plate off an other car. And he said, Bentley Warren, when he's looking at my license, save the speed for the racetrack. And he said, now I've got to give you a ticket because he said, I already called it in. I said, oh, geez. So Bob Pompey was behind me, and he passed me, and he waited down the road a couple of miles.

He figured he's got to follow me to the Brentwood jail because I'm going to jail for sure. And the cop said, well, I'm going to give you a ticket for three ball tires. I had a couple of ball tires and a snow tire on the front. And so he gave me the ticket. And I remember I went to court. And the judge said, did you rectify the situation? I said, Your Honor, I don't know what that means. But I said, I put some newer tires on the car.

I got them out of the junkyard. Oh, okay. Case dismissed. Oh, my gosh. Is it true that you drove a police car, the one that pulled you out? you drove it back to the party that you came from I don't think I don't think I drove it but that was at Oswego yeah I read that in the book yeah it was kind of funny yeah so that was after a race right yeah yeah what happened there uh well the cop came up and so you win the race yeah and we're in the

infield potty and and finally they kicked us out because it was the classic then it was a big race and uh so we went outside and they closed the gates and we were out in the street and late at night yeah well 10 or 11 yeah so it was an afternoon race and it was an afternoon race It was over when it was light. So we're drinking beer. We had a bunch of beer because Budwise used to give us a 12-pack or six-pack for every lap you led, and we led, you know, 150 or 190. Oh, my gosh.

We had plenty of beer. Oh, my gosh. We're drinking. So the cop comes up with his, you know, packs on the grass, and we're all by the fence. And he's up there, you know, you guys got to break this party up. You can't be here. You know, it's too late. and you're, you know, whatever.

And I got in the cop car on the driver's side, and I blew the siren, turned the lights on, and he comes running over. He said, I got to arrest you. You're disorderly or something like that. And he says, so he starts driving away. People are throwing beer cans at the car. You're in it.

Yeah, I was kind of a little. Yeah, so he said, I got to take you to jail. So he's taking me to jail. And he calls in. He said, I got something drunk, disorderly, or whatever the heck he is, whatever I was doing. He said, I bring him to the police. What's his name?

He said, what's your name? I said, Bentley. What's your last name, Warren? He said, Bentley Warren. Turn around, get back. They'll have a riot up there. Oh, really? And then ended up, the chief of police got on the radio and said, bring him down.

I want to have him sign an autograph for me. So they drove down, and then when we rode back up, I was blowing the sirens and everybody's cheering and hollering. That's hilarious. The party was still going? Oh, heck, yeah. You have a knack for developing relationships with chiefs of police, I've seen. There's a common denominator here, whether they're sending you to the military or they're calling you down to the station. Hey, how did you, so you had mentioned to me about Dale Earnhardt and that he had helped you out and talked good things about it.

How did you and Dale Earnhardt ever cross paths? He was racing at Lee Raceway back when I was running at Lee Raceway and Russ Conway. You remember Russ Conway? Well, he used to put on these races and bring Richard Petty and your dad up and Tim Richmond, a bunch of good races up there. And he'd have a couple of the local guys racing against him. And that's how I met Dale at a racetrack. He was really, really nice.

Then I owned Sandusky Speedway. So he and Bobby Ellison came out to race. And your father took him, he's running a car, I think it was a three. car. I can't remember who was Wrangler back then, but it was somebody else's car that they painted or vinaled it or whatever. I don't think they had vinyl back then, but they painted it his colors. And he's out there running and he came back in and checked it up. And he's under the car, changed the sharks and springs and everything else. He went out and led the race. He didn't win, I think, maybe Mark Martin won the race, but it was a hell of race, but he worked to,

he was a racer. I mean, he was a real racer. And he said, the same thing about me to other people. And he was just, you know, real, real good guy. You owned Sandusky. Yeah. How long? Five or six years, maybe. What was owning a racetrack like?

It was like owner of a boat. It's a hole in the water that you put money into. But it was fun. I mean, I built walls, cement walls and stuff myself and all that. And the business was going very well then. It was like in 1980s, 85, I think it was when I bought it. And it was the price was really right. I'd won a lot of races there, so I said, what the heck.

Everybody says you own the track, so I might as well own it. How close is that to where you lived? 800,000 miles, probably 1,000 miles. Good, heavens. So why do you want to do that? Yeah, I know, I'm just curious. I just wanted to own a track. Did what you want.

Yeah. You just did whatever felt like doing? Yeah, so interesting. Wow. Man, I think I used to be that way. Yeah, you actually had a little stint at a track ownership. I used to just do whatever I wanted to do. Yeah.

It was a good life. Yeah. You got out of the track ownership about as quick as he did. I think there's similarities. Track ownership is not glorious. No, it's hard, especially when you, if you can't be there all the time when it's running, it's just, you know. And people try very, very hard to run it well, but it just doesn't work the same as if the owners in the store. Yeah.

That's a good point. So one of the things that I always thought was interesting. and it kind of documented really well in this book here. You raced over so many decades and looking at the technology of the cars and how that changed. How were you able to, you know, adapt to the cars? I mean, from 69, I mean, they were kind of, they were, it was run what you brung. Some of them were jalopies. They all look different, you know.

Johnny Benson's dad would bring that tall stand. stand-up car. Other guys would have these low-flung down on the ground cars. Everybody had some different approach to what would go fast and how to be fast. And the blue deuce, whose car was that? White duce with a blue number. Was that pretty? Howard Purdy. Yeah, that car was kind of a, it looked like it had a high, high roll center or high center of gravity compared to some of the other cars as the technology changed. The cars get lower and lower and lower, like Jimmy Champaign's car. Is that how you pronounce his last name? Champagne, yeah. His car, like he had that one car that was super offset, right?

How did you continue, how do you stay competitive when the cars just change so drastically? Because in the super mods, you know, there's not many rules to really regulate change, and the cars just got crazy. I think that it's like when you're racing, you're driving the car balls the wall and you're just trying to get the most out of it and when the when you had the little skinny tires on the front and the rear you know the rears might have been that wide instead of that wide yeah and the less horsepower but maybe more horsepower and crudely built but you're and you know they didn't have the weight in the right corners the spring rates and all that but you're trying so hard to keep it on the track and go as fast as you can I think it just you progress with

how the cars progressed because you're doing the same thing yeah You're driving it beyond its capability, and that's what makes you win. Do you ever – this is something I kind of do a lot. Do you ever think back and wish that you knew what you knew in the 90s back when you were racing in the 70s, like technology-wise? Yeah. Because some of the stuff that we learn, right, you're like, God, if I could have had that in, you know, this particular period of my life, I would have been able to just – destroy these guys. Do you ever think about that as far as the technology?

Not as much as I think about what you wish you knew what you know now back then and self-control and being nice to people and, you know, like you said, charisma and all that. And, you know, I've got that. I mean, it's a natural thing. Or you're not like that all the time in the set? Well, I think I was, but I was wicked shy. You know? Really?

Oh, heck yeah. Shy. Oh, wicked. They're kidding. I think I was, you know what I mean? Maybe I wasn't, but I was, and I just concentrated on racing. Just my whole life was, you know, how can I go faster next week? What do I got to do?

What do I got to, you know, put a different tire on the car or a different shock or a different spring? Or what's that guy going so fast? What the hell is he doing? Yeah. You know, I know I'm just as brave as he is, or I think I am. And, you know, I'm maybe a little more stupid, but, you know, I just wanted to go faster and faster. and when? You know what else he is?

He's humble. And so when somebody's successful, I don't know that, yeah, you say you're shy, maybe you've overcome the shyness, but when someone's very successful, but you're also very humble, I don't think you like to talk about all your successes. Is that fair to say?

I guess not, because it... Unless you need to throw that card out to the chief of police or something. I don't, well, I do whatever I can with the chief of police. No, I got you, but seriously. Whatever you got to do there, you got to do. Are you uncomfortable when you talk, when people just talk about how,

grade of a racer you are when they compare you to the uh you know some of the all-time greats no it makes you feel good it definitely does make me feel good i mean when you know when you when you when you when you said you know he met his uh whatever you said you know a great racer or something meaning me well that naturally from dale or not that makes you feel good and you know just other guys that have said stuff like that foyte said stuff like that to me and other people have it it definitely makes you feel good it makes you say i was rewarded for everything I've tried to do. It's a reward, and it doesn't make my head big,

but it probably does in some sort of a way. When you look back over your career and think about all the things that you got yourself involved in, are there some things you didn't get to try or didn't get to do? Is there any form of motorsport that maybe you weren't interested in back then, but now that you're curious about? Maybe there's a part of that indie experience that you wish would have won a different way. not necessarily regrets, but is there something maybe that you didn't get to do?

Well, I didn't win the Indy 500 and I wanted to and I thought a few times I was capable of it, even though I never said it to people, but I think I could have had I sometimes paid a little more attention and been able to maybe been in that Midwest group more. Yeah. And or with all the success that NASCAR is having with all the guys that I know that have run there, I look at them and say, well, they've done so well, and they've made a lot of money and done a great job and they have a great life. And it makes me proud of them. And sometimes I think, gee, whiz, I wish I had gone that route a little bit more.

But you can't do everything. No. And I was trying to live and make the business and still race. And, you know, when I am racing, I race like this, you know, first. And that's all I want to be is first. What's your, what's your, do you go to the racetracks these days? Once in a while. I go to Oswego. I went out there. Otto Soutly just got my 61 junior car that I won a lot of races with.

He got that running this winter, and it just made me so proud. He sent me a video of it driving down the street with his son pushing him. And, you know, he's running down the street about 70 miles an hour in Oswego. And I'm looking forward to taking that maybe to Oswego, because the Teresies have done a heck of a job with the track, you know, rebuilding it and running the track. Oh, yeah. It's a great racetrack and, you know, my heart's into that track, so I'd like to go out and maybe run a couple laps just to, you know, to fans see it.

Fans have the seeing the car and maybe help their fan base a little bit. Yeah. When that happens, you've got to let us know. That will be our first time at Oswego. Okay. I mean it. Okay. It won't be hard to get Dillner to go up there.

No, he's a big huge fan of that stuff. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean that. I'd love to come up and see you up there at Oswego because that's, that's your, That's your home. Oh, yeah. Well, we've got to get to the boot the saloon. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.

We'll go to the saloon. You know, we'll plug in there in the campground. You'll have us out there. That'll be fun. Yeah. That'd be cool. That's an absolute must. Been a treat having this guy here.

Am I wrong? I mean, come on. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. You know, being up, being that you're up in Maine, you know, we talk to Mark Martin and several guys and a lot of guys that are all over the country, and it's really hard to get them pinned down to get over here to Charlotte. So we kind of really appreciate you making the time on your trip from Florida.

You spent the night out there in our parking lot in your coach, and I hope you enjoyed your stay. And chatting with Mike last night. It must have been a good time, too. Oh, we had fun. You know, it's just this show has been a great, great place for all of us in this room to talk to. the legends, you know, these guys that are heroes, you know, and you're our hero.

You really are. I'm so glad that I got this book from my friend many, many years ago, and I'm so glad that I was able to learn about who you were and become more and more curious about your life and who you are today, you know. You're somebody, I think, that sets a great example to enjoy yourself, and live life to the fullest and that your age is just a number and all those things, all those cliches, right? Because I'm, you know, as a new father, I'm, I got two little girls. I'm 46 years old and I often wonder about what the rest of my life is going to be like, you know, and the quality of life I'm going to

have. And you set an amazing example for somebody like me to be, to stay positive and to enjoy, you know, myself. And so I really appreciate that from you. And it's been, honor for me to talk to you, to call you a friend. I look forward to coming up north to visit and seeing what that naked of the woods is like, learning a lot more about that type of racing from up in the northeast. And we've got to stop in Dick's Museum. Haven't been there yet. Oh, you'll love that. He's done such a job. It's really amazing. He was just here a couple weeks ago telling us about it. So we've got a lot of things to plan out and a lot of things to enjoy. But thanks for stopping in, Bentley.

Thank you. It's a dream for us. It was a dream for me, too, and I saw your daughter racing in that little go-cott. That was so cute. When she touched the gas, she said, wow, I'm sure she said, wow, this thing goes fast. Oh, yeah. That was fast for her. That was cute as heck.

I mean, that was really neat to see her. I hope she enjoys it. We're going to see if, you know, she wants to enjoy running around in circles in that little thing for a while. And she'll know who Bentley Warren is. Trust me on that. Well, cool. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Bentley Warren on the Dale Jr. Download. Thank you. Let's hear an important message from Vivalene. Hey, hey, hey, stick around. Don't skip through this. Don't skip. Don't skip.

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go. Dale Juneer, you had some news break on Twitter, so you want to tell us what race you're running this year? I'm running at Richmond for Unilever. Unilever's been a big partner of ours for many years with Helmonds and Ragu and good humor. And I mean, the list goes on and on. Briers, they have so many brands underneath that Unilever umbrella that have been a part of our family here at Junior Motorsports. So they have a new campaign United for America to honor all the victims from 9-11. The races on September 11th.

So we're going to have a great cool paint scheme that me and Ryan Williams upstairs, our designer, had a big part of putting together and creating. I like to run the short tracks, and there's only a couple to choose from. So I want to eventually maybe run Martinsville, and that's still a plan. for me going forward

but this year we're going to Richmond and it's the second race second Richmond event which is also an NBC event so I'll be working as a broadcaster on the cup race and we've done this before I think a couple years back Dang near won it

well yes we let's no it yes you did we finished fifth or something led the most laps yeah I don't remember we didn't have it at the end but when I went to go when I mashed the gas at the last stage or near that last restart. Our car didn't go like the rest of them,

but it had some long run speed, that's for sure. Hopefully it's a good long run race because I think that's where my strong suit will be. But looking forward to get back in the car and know that track really well, really comfortable. I'm not as nervous about this one as I would be, maybe Darlington or Homestead. Those are bigger tracks

and trying to start without any practice, no laps. Oh, that's right. This will be the first time doing that. Just firing off after not being in a car for over a year. so it should be pretty fun. Our next question coming from Dallas Gibson. What would be your perfect All-Star Race format and track? A lot of talk about the All-Star Race this past week.

Yeah, you know, I don't know if there is a perfect scenario, but in my opinion, you know, I don't know if there's a perfect scenario or a perfect track and a perfect format, but we had a really great start to the All-Star Race when it came about in 1985. The first one in Atlanta wasn't very exciting at all. If you go back and watch it, that was the time when Bill Elliott's car was so dominant.

And he just drove away and there wasn't much of a race. So they brought it to Charlotte immediately. They had a great, great event. Darrell Walter won the race. Harry Gant was really close in second place, and Darrell's motor blew going across the finish line, and everybody wondered whether he had blown the motor on purpose, Was it a big engine and was he trying to destroy the evidence, right?

Of course he was. Yeah. And so then you have Dad in 1987 with Bill Elliott, just an amazing event, Rusty spinning Darrow Waltrip, I believe, in 89 or 90. And maybe it was 91, I can't remember. But, you know, then you had Davy Allison crashing across the finish line with Kyle Petty. 92. Yeah, 92.

Dad wrecking in turn three prior. to that in the same race. Dad and Darry Waltrip going into the wall off term four. Michael Waltrip winning is the Winston All-Star race that year. My own win.

Something that I think, you know, those are all great events. Now, there were a couple in between those that I mentioned that weren't quite as exciting, but still had good energy. And there was a common thread,

really, amongst all of those, and that was the format. It was, you know, they would change the first segment or the second segment, but it was always just 10-laps shootout, right, and where the caution laps didn't count. There wasn't inverting or anything like that. There was just, you know, show-up race. We're going to run, you know, 30 laps, 15 laps, 10 laps, or 30-lapse, 30 laps, 10, you know, whatever it's going to be.

But I would go to Charlotte, probably go back to the old format and run it just like that, just, you know, and just do it. And, you know, Bristol was okay. Everybody always wanted us to go to Bristol for some of years. Just go to Bristol. I was one of them. I still am. We went to Bristol and it wasn't this.

Yeah, best still liked it. You know, it wasn't like this amazing discovery. But for some of us it doesn't have to be. Yeah. You know, just being in Bristol is event enough. Like it's Bristol's Bristol. Bristol's Bristol. You just got to appreciate it for what it is.

don't try to expect too much. Yeah. That's kind of how I feel about it being in Charlotte all those years and keeping that original format and just that's what it is. Let this race be what it is and not trying to try to create it and bend it into something, twist it into something else. The best format is one that sticks for two years in a row and not changes every year. I mean, just stick with one and let us learn to love it.

Yeah. I read a little bit about the format for the current one coming up in Texas, and yeah, I'm lost. No clue. I can't understand how they expect anybody to pay attention to all of that. No, I didn't sign up for homework. No. It's awful.

But, yeah, next question. Next question from Ryan Kutshaw. What did you end up doing with your final cup car? Say again? Oh, it's in my, it's at the house. I just saw it the other day. Me and I was messing around down there getting something out of the shop and it's sitting in there. It's just going to hang out.

I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep it out of the elements. and just keep it close, man. Keep it close. Next question coming from, Higgie, with the next gen on bail tomorrow. What's one thing you hope that this car does for drivers and competition? Oh, good question. Oh, man.

You know, I'm really anxious to see what straightening up the rear tailpiece does. You know, they move the tailpiece back to center of the car. If you look at Cup cars over the last probably 15 to 20 years From the door number back on the right side The quarter panels are straight And it's because they move the tailpiece over To make that quarter panel straight as possible To create as much side force on the car as possible

Just like the trucks The trucks are almost moved beyond straight So the trucks kind of wing out on the right rear And that's what the cup guy's been trying to create for years But with this new car they've sort of centered the body back up to where the body really is mounted symmetrically, the way you might mount it for a road course. And so that's going to take away quite a bit of side force, I think,

on the car and how the car reacts in traffic will change, how the car runs against the wall will be a little different. It may be subtle. It may be a major shift. I'm looking forward to, I like that direction, like getting things back to stock, getting things back to symmetric measurements,

it's getting things back to zero, letting the drivers, you know, have to drive the car and figure it out and be challenged. And so I don't know, you know, that is really going to, the car can be amazing. It really can. And it's going to be determined by the arrow package that it has on it. Just like every other car that we've ever had in the series dating back, as far as I can remember, the front splitter or valence, whatever ends up on the car over time, and the rear spoiler is going to depend is going to control the racing.

That and the tire. The tire, what connects the car to the pavement? The tire is a very massive component and a huge responsibility as far as the visual race we see and whether we like it or don't like it. The tire plays a major role in that, how it reacts to the track,

the track in, creates multiple grooves. So there's a massive responsibility for Gidior to get that right. And for NASCAR to get the arrow right. I mean, this could be an amazing car, but it could get, you know, if the arrow is not, if you don't nail the arrow, it could be bad. Next question coming from Bubba Fett watching live on YouTube. It is Star Wars Day. May the 4th.

Do you have a favorite Star Wars movie? I guess the original. Okay. Yeah. Next question coming from Austin Hunter Do you have any tips for someone getting into spotting? No, you know, spotting is a I did that one time and I didn't like it.

So for everybody who wants to be a spotter, I, a buddy of mine was like, man, I'm running in my late model car over at this racetrack, come help me spot for me. I'm like, oh, great, I'll come help you spot. That'd be fun. I was off that weekend. I think it was in between Xfinity races. So I go over to this little short track,

up the road and my buddy goes out and he's racing green flag he's on the outside of the front road and um he beats the guy on the inside uh for the first lap and so we're going down the front straight away completing the first lap and he's clear and i'm told him going into the corner i'm like you're clear and the guy dove in there and hit him into left rear jumped run over hit him into left rear jumped his left front tire went over the hood knocked the air cleaner off and crash, right, tore the left side off of the car, the whole hood knows everything off of the car. And I'm like, I guess that was my fault.

So for all you people that want to be spotters out there, I didn't realize that, like, what an insane responsibility you have. And plus on the other side, like when something doesn't go right, even though you know you had nothing to do with it, you're an easy target. absolutely because I mean when you know when I'd screw up in the car I'd absolutely go blame TJ I'd jump on the radio and do it publicly and you know and you get a little annoyed and the first thing a driver's going to do is yell at you you know wake up what are you doing up here yeah um shut up too much information you know so it it's uh it's not glamorous it's not and you stand up

T.J. And he's not exaggerating. You stand up on top of that. You know, they put you up on top of the highest perch above the grandstands. You've got no shade. So in them sunny days, man, T.J. and all of them got long sleeves on, 9,500 degrees out, wearing long sleeves, you know, covering their necks up and everything, trying not to get burnt. Miserable.

And they have to be up there all day. And, you know, you want to spot a cup car. truck, Xfinity, you want to do it all to make all the money you can throughout the weekend, and you're going to be on top of that building all. I would not want to do it. But anyhow, how do you get into spotting? Most of them are drivers. Yeah.

But more drivers. A lot of guys were drivers. Typically a race car driver who's looking for a spotter likes to have a guy that's been behind the wheel. So he kind of understands what you want to know. But basically, I would say it's like anything else. Go to a local short track, walk around the pits, offer your services. Say, give me a radio. I'll be glad a spot.

Find somebody who's willing to take you up on that offer and get to work. Could I-Racing be a tool to help with that? I-Racing is absolutely a great place to learn some spotting skills, for sure. All right, guys. All for today. All for today. Well, that part of the show seems to go by to flash, Mike. You know it does.

It always goes by quickly, but not nearly as fast as Xfinity X-Fi. Well, X-Fi is more than just fast, Mike. It's also reliable and powerful, meaning everyone can do more of what they love with faster Internet. That's true. With X-Finity X-Fi, you can do more of what you love with faster Internet. You and your crew can stay connected with Wi-Fi coverage. It delivers the speed your devices need. Remember, everybody, send your Asked Junior questions to Add Xfinity Racing on Twitter.

to Xfinity, proud premier partner of NASCAR. All right, last call, man. What a great show. A lot of fun. Yeah, Bentley was awesome. And I hope to get him back in here. He's got so much of history and have to read in his book and everything. He's just an amazing character and lived through so many decades, man.

Seeing racing change and develop and evolved from the first car he drove it, also we go to the last. The way the technology changed is insane. The Xfinity race in United for America number eight car that I'm going to drive was unveiled today. We'll be racing at Richmond in the Xfinity series on September 11th. Pretty awesome to be able to get that information out there. I hate having to sit and wait on that

because I knew about where I was going to race last year, right? I know where I'm going to race next year already. And I just hate not being able to tell people. And rarely do you actually wait until the actual announcement? I try to figure out how to tell everybody without actually telling everybody. So I can't get blamed for it. Wednesday, I'm going out of town. I'm going to Charleston to the Naval Weapons Station on behalf of Unilever.

They're going to send me Justin Algear and Josh Berry to go visit with some of our military. I am excited to do a personal appearance that's not on Zoom. I cannot wait. Yes. And also just to connect to the military, we've had such a great relationship with them over the years through our work with the Navy and the National Guard. And also, you know, NASCAR's had a great connection to the military for most of its existence. So it should be a lot of fun for us. Friday, I'm going to Nashville.

I'm actually going to go to the fairgrounds to take a look at the racetrack and do some media at the track. at the track itself. The Archer-Mernard series is racing there this weekend. It's going to air on NBCSN next Friday, May 14th at 3 p.m. Eastern. All right. But they'll be practicing on Friday while I'm there at the track. I've got a couple other things in town in Nashville to do. Then Saturday, the following day, I'll be bringing the Nova to Darlington Raceway.

I've got to pace the field for the Exfinity Race. We've talked about that. I feel like every day for the last six months. The Exfinity race will be on Fox Sports 1 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The Dell Jr. Download, this podcast, TV form, will be on NBCSN on Thursday at 530, 530. Go ahead and get your TVs ready to record Thursday, 530. NBCSN. Also, we regret to inform you a new episode of Door Bumper Clear is out. The Kansas, Post-Kansas. T.J. Brett and Freddie, they have a heated debate over NASCAR's decision.

decision to not immediately call a caution for the tire in the grass. They could have all done it better, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. They could all run the sport better. Plus, they talk about the wild final restarts, the All-Star Race format, and they share why the next gen car is changing everything. Boy, I want to hear that. Yeah.

I might learn something. Doorbump are clear available on all major podcast platforms. All right, everybody, have a great week. Hope you enjoyed the show. we'll see you soon this bit of bad assery was bad assery was made by dirty moe media

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