The Dale Jr. Download - Lake Speed: Driven By Something Bigger

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes former Cup Series driver & 1978 Karting World Champion Lake Speed to the studio to learn about his path from karts to Cup. Without the support of his parents, Lake had to chase the racing dream on his own, and started a karting business out of his house to fuel the fire. After finding success stateside, Lake ventured to Europe to pursue the ultimate achievement in karting: The World Championships. After a few embarrassing first attempts racing internationally, Lake finally won it all in 1978, beating future F1 Champion Ayrton Senna.  After achieving the highest honor in the karting world, Lake shares why he wanted to move to NASCAR, and looks back at the moment he busted his ass in his first handful of laps in a Cup car. Lake opens up on his deep connection to faith, and how he learned to trust the inner voice in his head. Once he started trusting that voice, everything changed for him, and he went on to deliver an impressive second place finish in the Daytona 500 and a win at Darlington several years later. Dale & Lake close out the interview by discussing his relief efforts following Davey Allison’s passing, his fight with Michael Waltrip, and his experience working with the Motor Racing Outreach. Even at 77 years old, Lake still races. That alone should tell you this is a conversation you have to hear.  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.

I find myself leading the race, and we've been leading it a lot. Going down the back straightaway, and Richard was behind me, and Benny was behind me, and we had checked out on the field. And this little voice spoke to me and said, Lake, what are you going to do if you win here or two? I couldn't get away from hearing that voice. I started crying out. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

All right, so Lake Speed, out in the lobby, just right outside the door here, waiting to come in and do his interview. And Lake Speed has a very recognizable name. Some people may know some of the high points and here's career, especially his win at Darlington, or maybe more recognizable being the WCA 1978 World Championship, World Carting Champion and beating Ayrton Center. Erton Center was in that race, along with probably many other talented drivers that went on to have, you know, decent careers in Europe and F1 and so forth. So either way, I mean, we always marveled at the fact that Lake Speed has that on his resume. But that's all I know. I don't know how he got

there. I don't know any of the details. I've been, you know, kind of curious. I've been kind of curious. all of my life about what how Lake Speed, this guy that came from nothing in terms of a racing lineage, became a world carding champion. He won national championships and all kinds of stuff, but he became the world carding champion. How in the hell does a guy out of Jackson, Mississippi, just create that opportunity for himself? Well, we're going to learn that. That's going to be a lot of fun. We'll get into the other details around the cup stuff, the Ray Mock race at Daytona, his reaction to that, his faith. He's very heavy into his faith, which I think we'll have to talk about. And also, we'll talk to him.

I'll ask him about the Michael Waltrop deal on pit road at Michigan. I won't leave that out. I know that'll be important for a lot of people. I'm not sure how much he'll open up about that. That's not really a probably a fun experience for him. but yeah so we'll see what we get to it's going to be a fun conversation i'm ready to get started let's bring lake into the room you got some notes yeah i got me a cheat sheet here that's good because i'm tell you what when you get to be 77 years old yeah there's a lot of stuff

that starts not oh working quite like it used to it happens before then and this memory thing is yeah i've always been terrible about remembering people's names because you know you know how it is you're out and you meet in how many people every week. Yeah. You expect to remember all them? I know. I just gave up and quit. Yeah.

I was the same way. I always admired like Rick, Hendrick, and certain people, my sister Kelly, they can remember everybody. Yeah. And we'll walk into a room and they'll go, that's such and such. You know, that's the PR manager for this or the person for that or the person that or the person that does this for this company. I'm like, I should just be like, how do y'all remember all that? Like, I can't remember that.

Even if I tried, I couldn't do it. I'd have to study all day. Well, Lake Speed, it's awesome to have you here. As you mentioned, 77 years old, Cup Series winner and 1978 world carding champion, car owner, driver, had a lot of success over the years. and you've got to hell the story, so I'm excited to learn more about it today. I was able to fortunately be kind of plugged into the sport as a little kid and a big fan

throughout the 80s. And I remember we'll get to this in a bit, but the very first memory I think I have that has any relation to you is when you must have been renting over where Austerlund was. So this was right around the very front end of 1981, and you had your orange and green Oldsmobile number 66. Yeah. And I just, I was, I was probably seven.

Probably. I remember you running around there. I remember that car. And, but we'll get to that in a bit. One of the things I want to get to is just, you know, the incredible accomplishment of winning the, the 1970s. FIA Carta World Championship. But how did you even get involved

in racing as a kid? Started out with a kid lived just a little ways away. He got a two-seater go-carts for Christmas one year. And we rode that thing everywhere. You know, we could. And we lived that pretty far out in the country,

so it wasn't, it was a development there, but the development was just at the very beginning of it happening. So there was a lot of dirt roads in between and whatever. What part of the country is this? This is Jackson, Mississippi. And so we ran that, rode that thing until it fell apart, and it was a friend of

mine, it wouldn't mind. And then I wound up talking my folks into buying me a little single-seat go-cart. It had, you know, it was a dirt, you know, the yard cart, knobby tires on all that stuff. Well, when I wore an oval track in the front yard, my mother said, that's got to go. Yeah. And so my return to her was, well, let's get me one that's got slicks on it.

Got racing slicks on it. It won't tear the yard up. So they wound up, let me get a go-kart with racing slicks on it. About that time, another kid in the neighborhood comes on Christmas morning. We hear all this loud racket outside, go outside and look, here he comes up the street. He's got a real racing go-guard. Oh. Straight-header.

on it, all this stuff. I said, man, that looked pretty cool. I'd been fooling with horses all my life. My family liked horses and whatever. Then I'd done a little junior rodeoing with them, barrel racing and this, that and the other. I wound up getting a big old horse that looked like Charles Atlas, and it threw me off right in the middle of practicing one day. I was mad and tried to land standing up because I was ready to, I was going to whip that sucker.

Yeah. Broke my leg. Just broke both bones and leg. And I got to think, I said, you know, that thing, I want, that go cart doesn't have a brain. So I think I'm going to do away with the horses and just work on this cart thing. Yeah. And so that was the beginning of my carting. Your brother apparently raced a little bit as well.

Was that, is he older than you? Older, yeah. One brother was eight years older, then another one was 16 years older than me. The eight-year-older was he was a wild man. He was into trouble all the time. He called himself the black sheep of the family kind of thing. So he kind of was instituted talking my mother into getting me the racing go-kart. Okay.

And that was the beginning. My dad took me to the first go-kart race that I ever went to, and that's the only one he ever went to. Why? He said, this is total foolishness. You know, you're crazy. Oh. Just.

How old were you? Huh? Probably, I'm going to, I'm guessing I was kind of go back and looking at school ages and whatever. I'm going to say maybe 13, 12, 13, something like that. He thought it was a waste of time. Oh, yeah. He was a business man. Yeah.

You have to understand his background. He was one of eight kids, I think seven boys, and grew up out in the sticks. down in South Mississippi on a dirt farm. They were just, you know, just plowing a mule. He said one day, he said, I'm tired of looking back in this mule. I think I'm going to go to the big city, see if I can make, because nobody down here has nothing happened for their lives. They went to the big city, and the year I was born, he was a mayor.

Damn. Of the city. And he went there, eighth grade education, and just worked hard. Worked hard, straight with people, and did really well. Yeah. And so that was kind of his background. He was all business. Yeah.

You know, his, I asked him one time, I said, Dad, how come you don't have a hobby or anything? He said, son, I do have a hobby. He said, I hunt and fish. Only things, I'd do mine on Capitol Street. Yeah. I went, huh. Yeah. Never thought about it that way.

And he said, I'm really good at it. Yeah. That's awesome. That was it. So you continue to race, obviously. But how did you handle that without? his support or who was with you. I found out there were some other kids that had go-carts too. And so I started a little cart business in the garage at the house.

Yeah. Working with other people's carts, selling parts, buying parts, doing whatever to finance my carting stuff because dad didn't have nothing to do with it. He didn't appreciate the businessman that you were because that's quite impressive. ever thought about that. I don't know if he did or not. I mean, we had a great relationship as far as me and him went. Yeah. But I never remember getting any bad boys or baddaboys.

But like I said, he was just all business. The first race that he took me to, that was the last race that they had at that track. They closed it. I think the next week I went to the, had a go-car close. I went to the go-kart club meeting. That was the last meeting. They disbanded the go-kart thing. Damn.

When you went to the races, is this road course oval? All asphalt road course stuff. And how did you... Stuff about the size of, you know, what it called a GoPro, but now it's track house. Right? Tracks like that. Yep.

That size. And you developed your own ability, knowledge, a mechanical knowledge, just by trial and error. Like I said, Dad was developing this development that we lived in. So he had a lot of construction equipment.

It was like a construction company building this thing, putting streets in and plumbing and all, everything. A black guy that worked for him was kind of his manager guy. And Warren took me with him when I was really little. He'd take me with him every day.

Wherever we went, we'd go riding in a pickup truck with him And I watched that man, there wasn't anything he wouldn't try to fix or work on, do whatever. So I grew up before I even going to school with men all day, building things, doing things, fixing things, and whatever. So I wasn't scared to, you know, got that first knobby tire car. One day I said, I'm going to, I wonder what this thing looks like inside this motor. I'd take something off, put it back on and see if it's still run. Take a little bit more off the next time to see if it's still run, you know,

and I'm trying to figure it out. And then when we started doing the racing part, then I said, oh, these guys are working on these things. So I went over to one of the guys that was supposed to have been really good, and he was showing me some tips and things. Oh, okay. And so then I started there, just started letting my mind do. God just gave me understanding how a lot of this mechanical stuff works. How did all of this racing fit into your education?

Education kind of gotten away, but other than that, you know, you just kept to go, went to college. Where'd you go to college? Mississippi College. Well, first year I went to Ole Miss. Everybody's heard of Ole Miss. Okay, went there for your party school big time. It's crazy. I flunked out, and I said, I was the first year, and I said, yeah, I ain't doing this.

This is stupid. It was stupid. Plus, it really hampered my racing stuff. I was, you know, just, I was too far away. I wasn't getting to work with it and wasn't getting to race much. Yeah. So I went back home and went to Christian College. It was right outside of town there.

And I'd commute. And that way I could still work on the carts and doing my cart business was getting a little bigger and things are going along. When you're, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but you brought up going to that Christian college. Everybody knows that's watched you. in your NASCAR career knows your man of heavy faith. Like, you know, it's a big part of your life. Had that always been that way, or was that something that developed through that experience at the college?

Or was that something that was always part of your household? No, well, our family went to church every, you know, most every Sunday unless it wasn't convened or something. It was a kind of a convenient faith at the time. Casual. It wasn't anything serious. I was just going through the motions and, you know, doing whatever. And I believe there was a God, but, you know, I wasn't talking to him and he wasn't talking to me.

And it was, I was just doing my thing, you know, just out there calling myself a Christian. I went down front, joined the church when I was 15 years old, just because I did it on Sunday night when the crowd was low. I wouldn't embarrass myself anymore, you know. Well, those kind of things. You just check the box off, you know, kind of thing. I thought I had my ticket to heaven in my pocket. now I can just go. Right.

And that was kind of, I was living crazy. Yeah, you were living crazy. Yeah, too. Yeah. Raising hell. We would a bunch of a lot of people talked about. Me and some of my friends that I ran with, especially in high school. Well, as we go through this career of yours in this life, really, more than the, more

in the career, don't let me skip past the part where that starts. to change for you, okay? Oh, yeah. Let me, if you'll give me this grace. Sure. The carding thing grew out of the garage.

One day I started working my desk. I went to college. When I got to college, came back from Ole Miss, back to Jackson. My dad said, well, once you go to work and help me with real estate stuff, I'll give you some job here to do some things to take care of.

So I actually started doing commercial warehouse. It had been a bunch of residential stuff they'd have done. So we're going to start doing some commercial stuff and get you involved with that. Building some buildings and leasing some stuff and whatever like that. So I was getting my feet on the ground there, but the same time I was racing the cars. And the one day I walked in the office and I told Dad, I said, Dad, I know you've got to come on crazy, but I'm going to quit working for you. and I'm going to open up a cart shop to full time.

He said, you're absolutely going to lost your mind. Yeah. And I thought, just what I want to do. He said, well, have it. Yeah. And so I went and rented a place. And Jackson. And Jackson was rented a place and started one of the first mail order go-kart parts places in the country.

And I was doing it super cheap. Yep. I went in and was wholesale and everything. Were you working, blew up? Were you selling for specific manufacturer like Marguet or horsemen? All of them all. All of them, everything.

What was your preference? Oh, back then at that time, whatever was the best one, the hottest one going, I'd run that, you know, and push it. But we sold stuff all over the country and then started selling stuff out of the country, getting exporting and important stuff. Damn. So this thing took off. Yeah, and 71 was the year, my first year I won a national championship.

I switched from American-made McCullas and all-American-made stuff to European engines. And won everything. You could win. The end of the season, I'd won my first national championship. The end of the season, the guy that was helping with the motors. and whatever. We got an invitation to go to Hong Kong. I said, what?

He said, yeah, they got a big race over there, and they pay a lot of money, and they'll pay us to come over there. They'll pay us, and then I'll sell them all the carts, and they'll even bring them back. They're going to give me a bunch of money for the carts. Yeah. We jumped on an airplane and went to Hong Kong.

There's a park right in Hong Kong in the middle. Big race, they did it. Did good. Me and the guy that was with us, We first and second. And sold you stuff. Sold the stuff. Got on an airplane.

Went back. Then, I don't know what happened. Several years later, somebody tells me it was this world championship thing. I had a really good year. You know, several years. I won, like, national championship for like seven or eight years in a row. So I guess I feel in a spot for me between coming back home to college,

going to college locally at home and getting back to racing and starting your carding business to winning a national championship. Like, did the winning come, for lack of a better way, did the winning come easy? Was success always part of your experience? No. Did you have to build up to that sort of? Prior to changing to the European engine, just doing the McCullough stuff. I was probably overly aggressive, and I just blew them up all the time.

I couldn't keep the motors apart. I mean, we'd take a little two-cycle motor, I'm trying to put nitro-methan and the thing to make it make more power. Yeah. I found out years later why I couldn't outrun some of the top guys. They had some parts that were not after-market products. They had a lot of titanium parts that they were putting these motors. I don't even know what titanium was.

Yeah. But anyway, when I changed to the European engine, it was success from then on. Really? We were killer. Yeah. From then on. Hey, everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel? Visit shop.durtymomedia.com.

We're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a t-shirt. Again, check it out at shop.dirtymohmedia.com. When you go to the racetrack in, let's just say 1971, when you're winning the national championship. When you go to the racetrack, who's with you? Help me understand. Me and my wife at the time.

You and her? Yep. You didn't have anybody else helping you? Nope. You unload the cart. You do any tire treatment? No, they don't do tire treatment back then. Back then?

You got everything ready. As soon as you hit the track, it's ready to go. I did the motors. I did all the prep, did everything. You got a little. You got a little. I still got the, I got a dead-gown little old, what do you call it,

a little red wagon. Yeah. I got the same little red wagon. I still take it to the cart track today. Yeah. That I put my toolbox in and a fuel can in it. And they gave you a place that wasn't much bigger in this table. To work your pit when you were at the racetrack.

And you had everything there. And that was the way it was for a long time. Yeah. And before carting really took off. What was your dad's reaction? into your carting business and its success

and then you're... Like I said, I never really got any... Even after you went and, when you go home, when you go home and sit that, you know, to FAMBER Union

and sit that National Championship trophy on the table. Nothing. Maybe nothing. None. Did you want? Do you wish he would have... Hey, look.

My mother never saw me race a go-car. It's crazy. Ever. That's crazy. My dad never saw me race but the one cart deal. My mom.

mother, when we did the buck stove deal, that was the first time she ever saw me race ever with her eyes. She saw me on TV, but that was the first time and the only time she ever got to do it. So when I've watched your show here and watched stuff, it seems like everybody that was in it started out either them or their family or something. It's been a family tradition kind of stuff and whatever, and I'm thinking, no wonder, people looked at me like I was odd, you know, because I was. Yeah.

The background, you know, I tell somebody the other day, I said, well, I guess I came to NASCAR 40 years too early because now most all the guys that are coming in are all go-cars. Yeah. When I was running, we had never gotten to the point me going to Europe. After running to business for a while, and I went a whole lot of stuff. I forgot what year it was. I know what it was.

73 was the first time I went over there. I'd won three national championships, I think, that year or something like that. In the three different divisions. And really confident, overconfident, I guess you might call it. And I said, well, we've done one and all this stuff. We just need to go on over there. You tell me they got this world championship thing in Europe. We just go over there and kick their butt too.

Yeah. and say, oh, you know, we're done. We got it all done. I went over there, and they embarrassed me so bad. We could, I mean, there was like over 100 carts. We couldn't even make the main event. What were you missing? The main 30.

Everything. Yeah. It was, their style of racing was completely different. The rules and regulations they used were different. The weight, they had really lightweight cart stuff, which I could get down to the weight without any. problem. But our American style equipment

was not competitive with what they had. Their track layouts were a lot of wiggles along straight away. So the centrifugal clutch was okay

with American stuff. But they had direct drive just chain over the crankshaft. Yep. You know. But there's instant response. And when you're in all those wiggles, every time we'd go to hit the throttle,

that gaped me a cart lane while I was waiting for that stupid clutch to. So we didn't even make the main event. We got to watch it. And me and another guy that I raced with all my life, he'd gone with me over there. And my wife, the wife that I had, my first wife,

raced herself, and we just did everything together. And that was pretty cool. But after it was over, we're sitting in the parking lot, looking at each other and say, well, we want to just go home and play like this never happened. Yeah. We couldn't even make the main top 30 carts.

Are we going to go home and work on this? Yeah. I said, I'm going home and work on this. So we went back to the house and I ordered some European carts and I started running them. Even in the States, I was running them. It's like running a race with a weight bag on you or something. You know, I was, but I found out, I woke up one day,

and I said, you know, when I won a world championships, I woke up and I said, you know, all that time I was running all those races at a disadvantage. I was just like a runner practicing with weights on. He took the weight off when it was a real race. and I think that really helped me a lot to make it That was in 73 when you went there the first time Did you go back each year

And finally in 78 You won All of it Had you come close in those other years First year didn't make it Next year Next year Cool

I came back One of my competitors in the cart business He had a big business this up in Ohio. He imported a different engine than what I'd been running successful for lots of years there. He calls me up and says,

I'll make you a proposition. I said, I understand you didn't have too good a time at the world championships. He said, you put away all your stuff and start promoting my engine, and I'll get you factory support next year at the world championships. I said,

deal. I haven't hesitate. Really? So I just parked all my stuff and he started supplying the engines for me. Okay. And so ran his stuff and we went over there that next year. I think the final, the last final of the World Championships, I think it was like 12th or something, 12th to 12, 15th, somewhere right in there.

Yeah. So that was encouraging. And we went back to next year and I think I finished 6th. And then getting, before we go back to the following, year, it calls me up and tells me, said, they've sold the business to somebody else, and they're not going to have any factory support anymore. Yeah. And I'm like, dang, what am I going to do now?

So I said, I called back to people, the company in Europe that I'd been running their product and selling it. Yep. I said, I want to make you guys a proposition. They made several different brands of motors, and the one that they raced, the factory team raced wasn't imported in the United States. I said, you let me, you give me factory support, and I'll start selling that engine in the States. I'll start marketing and sell it and promoting it here in the United States. They said, you got a deal. And he said, do you got a go cart yet?

I said, no, I was going to work on that next. He said, well, call a beryl. He said, they'll take care of you. And so I started importing the beryl cart and the pearl of end. And so I started importing the beryl cart and the Perilla engine. Oh. And pushing it. And then I went back over, and I think the next year I finished fifth. And then the next year flipped back to six. I think that's right.

Yeah. Six fifth, some anyway. And then the year in 78 was a crucial year for my life. My first wife decided she didn't want to be married anymore. Yeah. dropped that on me I think probably June or something like that

and World Championships are in September every year. Yeah. And so I'd call the factory guys and told them I wasn't coming. And they told them, but they tell them all what had happened and everything. He said, well, we understand and understand.

Then my oldest brother, this 16 years older, that was all business too. he calls me up emotional I was at the World Championships watching you last year you got to go back because you're so close

I called back guys in Europe told them said I think I'm going to come anyway and they said well we've just about handed out everything all the stuff I don't know you come on we'll take care of you come on we'll we'll make it work yeah and so we went and uh this is a cool part too

i didn't understand what he meant by give out all the stuff because i mean this is a factory they got boo-coa anything and everything so we get over there and we get the carts and me and my friend the same friend would go over there every year to lan haddock was he was probably the most widely named, name and carting, me and him, the two of us, just, you know, kind of dominate a lot of stuff.

Anyway, we get over there and get everything done, we go to the racetrack, and we get out there, and we're practicing and qualifying and doing everything, and we're out of, you know, like I said, over 100 drivers.

We wind up for the first final for the World Championship we're sitting on the grid, we're third. We're going to start third. And I'm on the go-cart, sitting in the cart, ready, trying to push us off. And this young Italian kid comes running up there

with four tires in his hands, wheels and tires. He said, put these on the cart. I looked at Lynn. Lynn looked at me. Scramming. We understood. Right then, there was something. When he said he'd given everything out, this kid was one of the top drivers for the factory he had crashed out and they brought me his tires oh

won the first final won the second final it was over i was the world champion they run three it's the best two out of three oh and i won the first two it was over yeah they wouldn't give me another set of tires for the third final yeah they said we've got two guys other two factory drivers want them to battle it out to see which one of them is going to wind up be second or third. Yeah. That's kind of where that program went. You didn't know it at the time,

but, you know, there were over hundreds of, you know, hundreds of drivers in this field, 27 countries, just a bunch of talent, right? And one of those drivers in the field was Aaron Sina. You didn't know who, you know, at the moment who he was going to be. He wasn't one of the Italians. I wasn't concerned. Yeah.

Those guys were the ones you had to beat. That is forever tied to the story because of who he would become, right? He was one of probably a handful that I raced against that was less than 18 months we're driving Formula One cars from the time. I was racing them in a world championship. That's why I said I came 40 years too early. You're an American that went over there and did that. what was the reaction the fans were seemed to be very pleased about it I mean when

they have a parade kind of walk the teams around each country's only allowed six drivers and so when it comes to the parade it's just me and and Liener and my buddy yeah with a flag you know walking around with the flag yeah the US we're the only US representatives a few years of the World Championships some other drivers in the states went over but none of them ever you know never made them made never made never made never made a main event oh it was uh so the reception was good yeah it was good um you're at 30 you're 30 years old yeah yeah i don't want to drag your emotions uh through too much today because i know you're emotional guy yeah i know but um being in a marriage right that i'm you know we both have

experienced that and know how like when you make that commitment, you know, you kind of all in, right? It was pretty hard. That was... I can't imagine, you know, how you pulled yourself together, right? Because I think that no matter how great everything else in the world is going for you or anyone in that situation, when that leg gets kicked out from the table, it's It's hard to, to your point, like you didn't want to even go over there and run.

You just didn't, you didn't really have motivation to. It's a weird, weird deal because the two of us were just like this always. She did all of marketing and everything for the cart business. There, she raised some too. Did you ever? We had Lake Jr. Yep. And had him started carting, you know, he was getting, getting his early start with it.

and it just yeah it was devastating it was devastating and I think my older brother said you know you just need to go because you know you're racing you're a late we're laser focused yeah you know when when it's time to go race you know you set you on fire and you don't even know it yeah and so it it took over when I got there. It took over and... That was helpful? Yeah, I think... For the short term.

It just made the drive that much harder. You just, I was, you know, I don't kill. Yeah. Did you, I mean, I assume you eventually at some point come to terms with the, with that, and carry on with your life, right? Yeah, I have to. So, you're 30 years old. Now, take in 1978, is that, where is that on the, you know, if a 30-year-old man won the

World Carton Championship today, I don't know what the reaction might be, you know, these, everybody, the kids, everybody getting younger and younger, used to, I started in the- I was a little older than the guys, not a lot, but a little older than all the guys over there too. I started in the Xfinity and in my, feels like my mid-20s. And now these guys are jumping in these cars. as early as they possibly can. We got, you know, wide out there racing a limited late model at Hickory at 12 years old. When you won the World Championship and left to go back home to the United States, where was

your motivation? Because, like, I would imagine you've been there so many years, you've won national championships, all these, you've done it all. And you're 30 years old. So we know that you move on to stock car racing. But when you got home, was there any still some factors? to compete in cart and continue to do that? I had a business.

That's what I did for living. So you got the business that still going. I just won an oral championship. That's going to be really good for business. And it was really good for business. Business picked up. It was already good and then it got better. And I got invited to go to, I raced in New Zealand.

and I've got a few other trips where the people just wanted me to come. Yeah, go and show up, World Champion. They paid the bills and sent me there. No, that's cool. You know, it was all right. Sucked to be by myself doing it. But, you know, that's just the way it was.

Yeah. But because, I guess, I think it was a year before I won, yeah, it was a year before I won the World Championship, one of the Italian drivers had moved on. and he was in Formula One. He came to the World Championship just to, you know, he was there. It was in Italy, and that's where he's from,

whatever, so it was easy for him to show up. So he comes to a racetrack. There was a guy named Elio DiAngeles. And I was talking to him, and I said, Elio, what's it like driving a Formula One car? He looked at me straight as I'm looking at you and said, it's just a big go car. Put that in the back of my mind.

I don't really want to live in Europe. I like going over there and visiting and everything, and it was, you know, it's different and it's nice and whatever, but I don't live there. Yeah. And I got to thinking, well, you know, I've done everything I could do in the carting. I just need to find something else. I started going to some open-wheel events looking at some of the open-wheel stuff.

And I was thinking, maybe this is what I ought to do. and then I got a call from a total stranger and he happened to be the editor of car and driver magazine I think and he tells me he said Lake I understand you're thinking about doing something professional racing he said you know most of all those organizations you're looking at are on life support they might not be here next year

or the year after they're just struggling big time he said but there's another one that's taken off like it's going to the moon that's NASCAR I said, I don't know what we think about going circles, said, whatever. He said, if you want to do something professionally, you better look at this.

You need to do it. I've got some people that would like to have you come up to Charlotte and let them show you around. Oh, really? You remember, he had a knack for doing this. Oh, yeah. This was not a new thing for him. He had an agenda.

He had agenda. Well, the same year, I wanted to, World Championships of Carts, Mario Andreddy won the World Championships for Formula One, and Kenny Roberts won the World Championships for Motorcycle. So we had three World Championships the same deal. So I guess that was part of the probably helped get me some attention because carting otherwise wasn't going to have any, nobody's, you know, might as well won a basket weaving world championships. Yeah.

But, so I said, he said, you know, if you come up there, show you all around, do I? well okay I guess I you know what heck can hurt anything so I flew up here to Charlotte and uh at that time to Charlotte Airport wasn't as big as this building right here you know it was a little little bitty small thing you know and got out and but he had a uh retired driver guy named darrell derringer picked me up at the airport and darrell took me to martinsville that weekend it first took me to the speedway showed me around Charlotte motor speedway and it was you know didn't have all office tower and all that stuff there yet but it was still a highly impressive facility.

And then we drove up to Martinsville, and of course probably just as you, just on the other side of Winston-Salem, you started seeing banners and all the, you know, how it used to be. Yeah. You thought you were all there at the track, and no, you're not at the track yet.

It's a long ways yet. All that going on and to get to the track and all the stuff that was happening there compared to the road racing people. stuff. This was on steroids. This was out of sight. I was impressed with all that.

I walked around the pits and started of cars and looking at the cars, some, and this, that, and the other, and didn't really know what I was looking at particularly, but talked to Ricky Rudd because I'd had been a customer,

and I'd raced with him one time, I think, that it's a road race track on a big track where we ran on a sports car tracks. and he hadn't been in it very long maybe three years

or some at that time and he said oh yeah you know it's it kind of encouraged me a little bit not a whole lot

but encouraged me a little bit anyway then they put me up in the press box to watch the race and I'm sitting up there Martin Zill

and watching the guys go around the track and I'm sitting there Daryl's asked me and he said well what do you think and I said I'm thinking

it doesn't look like there's about a half a dozen guys down and know how to drive and he said what makes you think that well there's only a few of them that just you know right on the where they ought to be taking a good line around the corners whatever darrell said he said i think you'll find out it's a lot

harder than it looks and so next thing they did they offered me a test ride yeah in the car if you remember the term barageries yes yeah i didn't know anything about that yeah well they took me to Rockingham and I guess that was in October it was nice and cool outside and that's where we tested and so they put me in the car

and first they just want me to jump in the car and go and say no way Jose I don't have nothing about it I have no clue what this thing should feel like or nothing about it I said you drive it and I'll just let me crawl in the right side over there and I'll just hold on and you just go out there and run some

and then I'll go. Who's driving it? D.K. Okay. D.K. He can go that there and runs around a little bit and come in. Okay, all right, now. I got some idea of what's going to be like. So you rode in a pasture, side of this car, hanging on?

Just crawled in there and held on the roll bar. We ran fairly fast. I mean, fast enough to. If you're showing somebody something, they're going to be driving in a minute. You go on that pretty, look, I had never been scared of much. nothing you ride a go-car 160 miles an hour or something there ain't nothing there but you

and whatever's around you I'd be upside down turned over on them and all this stuff too you know so I didn't I wasn't scared of nothing yeah so I crawl in the car and you know I broke all this bolt this stuff

I mean everything was five point hard I didn't know anything about anything I didn't know anything about nothing you'd never been in a car with a harness no no no no. So I put it all on like you would a street car. I just, you know, hooked everything up and just pulled it up and everything.

So I got there and run, run around a little bit and just trying to feel out on the, God dang, this weirdest feeling thing, just moving all around, it's flopping. It's 3,800 pounds they weighed back then. And it's big, and this will go with Monte Carlo.

Yeah, you've been sitting in the middle of the car. I'm sitting over here, and I'm saying, man, I know you're supposed to run close to the wall down here, but I mean, how far? I don't know how wide it is when you're looking. So, I mean, it was so out of my wheelhouse that I couldn't even hardly figure it out at all. So I'm running around there and finally get going. The first thing it is, I mash the gas, and then it's going.

But I've been driving rocket ships. A go-car with right at 100 horsepower on it weighs 150 pounds. Yeah. When you mash the pedal on it, you best be paying a car. intention of where you're going because you're going to be there like like this yeah and this thing didn't take off at all but it never quit taking off we just kept on going you know that was pretty good so i made a few laps and come in and they said oh man you're doing awesome doing great and i said i hadn't even been close to running hard well you so i went back out again and worked my way up a little bit

and i crashed oh yeah i crashed tore it all the pieces got bruises all over my shoulders from the shoulder harness. It wasn't tight. I didn't know anything. And I was just stupid as you could get. And so I learned a lot of stuff the hard way. I went to Charlotte in a bush car that dad and his Tony Senior name let me drive in 96. And I ran erect on the fourth lap.

And I had no idea what I was doing. Same thing. Just no clue. don't know how far to go in the corner, don't know what it can do, know what the limits of this thing is. I just ran out. I had bare grease. Yeah. And so I busts my ass and I think that's it.

That's the end of my career. I ain't going to get a chance to do that again. I don't wreck it. And so when you, when this happens, what was your, what was the general emotion from you or the people around you that day? was it like well that that's unfortunate we'll we'll test somewhere else or what was the plan i was shocked i was shocked that i'd crash for one thing and then i was even more shocked when darrell and all the all of them said wait a minute man you were doing you're doing really good i mean for somebody's never been in one of these things at all you're you were doing good they were encouraging

me and decay you and said it said yeah man look there's a race coming up here in a couple weeks I'll prepare another car for you if you want to go try again you know and uh I was out of I don't know how long it took me to say yes but I did and so they took me to Atlanta and we went down to Atlanta and oh sure enough in practice I think if I remember right, I was about halfway up to the board in practice. And so I was supposed to qualify fairly far down the list, you know, so I wouldn't get up on the hauler to watch the guys qualify. Yeah.

And when we were parked down right inside of turn four. And I watched, I think Buddy Wood Baker had been really quick or something and practiced and I watched him qualifying he went off in the first turn it didn't look like he lifted out of that thing till he was almost in the middle of the corner yeah I thought damn no wonder I hadn't been running faster than I am I'm used to being on the top of the sheet wherever I am or damn course to it anyway you know and I'm sitting there saying huh and see also the carts were all the cars were the same if you got one brand you've got they wasn't you could take this one that one then they're all the same it just drove them yeah it was up to

you you know to drive it yep and uh so that mentality hadn't never got into my mind yet that these cars aren't all the same and they don't all drive the same somebody's is better yes yeah some of them have more grip than others do and whatever like that so that that wasn't even in my mindset at all i'm just well i just didn't drive it hard enough that's all this is yep And so when I went to qualifying, I went down the first turn, and that thing started spinning out before I'd ever cracked the throttle, buddy. I was still wide up. I hadn't got to the middle of the corner yet.

And so didn't hit anything. Turn around this, where I was actually a real fool. Didn't hit anything. I thought, well, bad guy. I still could turn this thing back around. I could go around and still get me another lap. I won't have to spend it out. Next time I'll let up a little early.

Yeah. I didn't know about an interline. miners and all this stuff. I'd cut the right rear tire down. I'd gone down on them. I went back out and I come sailing off into turn three. Lost it. Damn it.

Crash big time. And I think everybody in NASCAR knew me within five seconds. And he said, that's fool. It's out of his mind. Because I hit the outside wall and then came down and hit the pit wall. And all those people lined to the store. still like cars everywhere land. I thought I was going over the wall into the lane.

Yeah. And luckily I did. But that was my entrance to NASCAR. Sounds like a tough one. Oh, it was. So the, this is. So this is something that I learned, too, that I thought, you know, it would, it would, this is something that I think a lot of people might not think about.

But I remember this exact sort of phenomenon not being absolutely obvious to me, even when I was young. Go to the racetrack and you're standing in turn, you know, you're standing in the middle of the front straight away or down in turn four or whatever. And you listen to the car, a lone car on the track qualifying. And it sounded like he lifted at the, you know, middle of the corner or lifted at the 30% mark of the, corner but it just takes the sound that long to travel yeah he's actually lifting way earlier way earlier but the sound don't get to you until a few seconds later and he's already another 200 feet down the race you know further down the racetrack and so you know it's easy to get confused you know it's easy for that it's it sounds like something's you'd come easy that day

but that i learned that real good that day that's that's there was the one that pointed out to me I told him what I'd done, and he said, Blake, you're half a dang mile away from where it was sound. I said, well, dang, that makes all the sense of the world, no wonder. Just that little beep of time, that little moment of time for that sound to travel to you, just that half a mile, he's another 200 foot. And so you see, you're thinking he's lifting deeper in the corner. So the same, it took, when I was, I watched Dad run hundreds of races,

it seems like in the 80s and 90s. And I didn't get that. I didn't understand that thing about that until I drove myself at a big track. And I went, oh, I better not pay attention to that because that's giving me some bad information. And so you ended up having a tough go at it, but you decide NASCAR is for you.

Let me back up. Yeah. Why did I do this? Why'd I even come and ask them? Something new. New challenge. I was trying to find something I couldn't win. I only something where I wasn't supposed to win.

Because I went to a cart track, I was supposed to win. And that can be a pretty heavy burden to put on you. And it gets where it makes things not so enjoyable. The cart thing, it's a thing. got because of the business, I had so many customers coming after me at the track that I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing. I couldn't relax and enjoy myself. Yeah. And I was supposed to win. It's like being DeLerhardt's son is what that sounds like. Yeah. Yeah. I think you probably could get a little bit of grip. Would it relate to this? Yeah. And so I wanted to go, I need to do

find something that it'll be hard and because I like I really enjoyed the mechanical stuff of it I enjoyed trying to come up with a better mouse trap new tricks all that stuff and that that's I love it I love coming up with new ideas and trying to design stuff so I said I just need to find something that I'm more probably can't be successful at but I can enjoy the fight to trying to get there. Yeah. And when I had this experiences with the stock car, I said, this is it. Because I ain't got a snowball's chance.

Hey, D's doing any good here. I don't know anything about it. I don't know anything about a car. Don't know what the shock is. Don't know what the sway bar is. I don't know what nothing. Yeah. This will be tough.

So that was the challenge. Where did you get your first car from? Darrell found the first car from me and bought it from a guy in Chicago you know the great mass car state of Chicago I'm thinking afterwards

I don't know what have we got what have we got here you know and it had a zero the number on it was zero and it looked rough it was pretty rough looking we got it

and a guy John I remember what John's last name was he sold it to us and he had a little box truck, I think it probably like a 16-foot box truck and an open trailer, pull it on and whatnot. So we just had two or three guys there, and we rented a little spot there,

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near Charlotte Murder Speedway and Opry Meals in Nashville. When you were over at Austerlunds, we were working kind of next door to them. I remember seeing your car there, and... We wound up buying a car from Austin, later.

Okay. I think it was that later, yeah, would have been that later that year. Sometime along there wanted to have a car there,

your dad wouldn't like or something. That's not the first interaction that you would have with dad. You and him, there's a picture you and him

standing in Victor Lane at Charlotte. Y'all had won some buck stove challenge or some sort of challenge where, I don't know if your top,

rookie and some rookie yeah yeah and so dad won the race and you were the top you ran seventh or six or something in the race and got best finishing rookie and y'all standing y'all both your teams are in victor lane together but what do you what do you remember about that that time frame kind of being around connected somewhat to the i don't know if it was you know you see you was running they were they were giving us some help there some of the guys were over there you know give us pointers on this that and the other and that was before we bought the car and once we bought the car then they were really well they were really well they were helping us even more, you know, give us more information, what to do to it. Whatever you do, don't you hurt that nose of that car. It's got a lot of ours in it, you know. But, and we were running better, too, you know, we just got to running better. We just didn't have much, didn't have much, any sponsorship, amount to anything. And my funding was running low. I'd sold my cart business to fund all this stuff.

Really? I just liquidated the cart business. And that was it. I put it all on the table. Had you moved down to North Carolina full-time? No. I was still living in Jackson and just commuting. I did that until it was New Year's Eve at 84-85 before we moved up here full-time.

You end up getting some sort of a radio call during the race at Ontario in 1980. Explain that to me. This is a story I hadn't heard. Yeah, I don't really remember the details of it. I just remember we had messed around and I don't know what happened. We got a lap down somehow and another. I remember this is one of those highlights in your career stuff. I passed three cars.

I mean, Kale Yarber, and I think it was Neil Bonnet and somebody else, all in the coming off the, I remember that track layout. would have been coming off the fourth turn, passed all three of them in one shot. My car was hooked up and I was going, but we'd gotten a lap down. And every time when we'd come around for a restart, whatever, them guys are running the side of me

and doing anything, try to get me out of the way and not let me start back up there with them. So the car was really good. And I just tell you, they said, Dale needs you to help him. And I don't remember, I can't remember if I was running in front of him and slow down to let him draft with me, or if I was running behind him helping push him, you know, more or less.

But anyway, that was at the end of the race. It was, you know, last, I don't know, last several laps or something like that. I believe. I mean, I'd never heard this story, but I would imagine that it would be connected. So Ontario, 1980, Dad's trying to win the championship, and they had had a bad pit stop and had to come back down pit road to replace a lug nut. And so they had lost the lead draft,

and they were really hanging on by like one or two spots to the championship. And I imagine that you were likely called on being that you were in the proximity of dad somewhere near him. They were like, hey, we need him. He needs somebody to draft with. You've got to help him out. Yeah.

Pretty unique deal. I'd never heard that, but I absolutely believe it's possible that it happened. I don't make up stuff. No, hell, no. I've got enough real stuff. I don't need to make up anything. Bridge the gap between your, you know, driving your own car to getting a call to come drive for Raymock.

You talked about your funds running out. You talked about how, you know, how tight the budget was. Yeah, there was a lot between those two. Right. there was a lot of stuff between them. Roger Hamby saved me because after that year

at the end of that was 80. 81 we changed over to the small car worked through all the details on that ran a few races

and then I was I'd spend it all I was toast and so we just I had to close the shot let everybody go took what little bit of stuff we had put it on a truck, a fan.

One of my fans had a trucking company, and he put the stuff on the truck and sent it back to my brother, my middle brother had a motorcycle dealership. He had a big shop there, big storage area. Yeah. Put all the stuff down there, and that was it. I was over, you know. Yeah. I thought, well, I tried, did the best I could do, it's over.

Well, then Roger calls me over the winter and says, how would you like to drive my car? I'd like for you to drive the car if you would. He said, you know, I don't have a budget. I'm there just to go have a good time, and I just love racing, and, you know, that's it. So I said, yeah, I'll do it. I'll be glad to do it. I just give me some more seat time, more exposure, get out there and go.

He did have one carity hung out there. He said, I do a lot of work for Junior Johnson. And he said, basically. I'll run out of his trash pile the stuff that he ready to throw away. He don't want anybody else to get it, but he'll let me have it. Yeah.

Because he knows it won't go anywhere. So that year with Roger, when there's two guys there, and I can't remember one of them's named, Donnie Disheroon. Have you ever heard of Donnie? Him and another kid were high school. They were in high school.

They were building the motors, and they were doing the cars. And then he had a few other week. guys that would come in and help on the weekend stuff but that was it we'd go to the racetrack and because of what the parts were the thing could run pretty dang fast yeah from time to time we'd never had any you know never put new tires on we never had a new tire on the car ever you know the whole year it was always somebody else's cast off stuff but we ran really good every nine then it'd usually break or blow up or something or something i'd break or fall off of it

yeah like that so it got me enough exposure i think there were people saying wait a minute rogers car he's supposed to run he's supposed to be running that good and so that opened a door for me to go to hall's ellington's shop oh yeah that's when the real magic happened that's when the real magic happened. Shelton Pittman, they call him a run. It was one of the smartest, smartest guy there walked through that garage. I'm going to tell you that right now. And he took a liking to me, and we had some magic going on. Hoss was, he just wanted to play and have a good time and whatever, so he wasn't super serious. we probably could have won a few more races

if he'd have been cooperated. He'd been as serious then as he was later when some of the other guys came along a little bit later and they had more money to, he wouldn't have to do it paying out of his pocket. But Shelton believed in me and gave me some fast cars. And when the thing happened at Talladega,

it wouldn't have a supposed. prize. Again, you have memories that are special once in. We're at Talladega. I don't know if it was that race or one of the other races at Talladega. I remember Leonard Wood, they were pitting right beside us and everything. We'd been practicing. He said, dang, you guys don't hardly ever.

You run you just once in a while. They said, maybe we ought to quit going to all these races and just stay home and work on our stuff. little bit more before we get to it because y'all kicking our beehins every time y'all come to

the racetrack yeah you know and so it was that kind of stuff yeah and then that day that day I think it was

would have been the I was the spring race of the fall race but I find myself leading the race and we'd been

leading it a lot and I'm going I'm just unreal just a few few laps left in the race and going down the back straight away and Richard was behind me and Dale and Benny was behind me and we had checked out on the field and this little voice spoke to

me and said Lake what you're going to do if you win here or two somebody wrecked had pits top I went in for everybody went in to get some tires or last seven last lap dash there or whatever and going down pit lane and they said stay out, stay out I can't stay out of them all down pit lane said Pauce didn't buy any more tires you got on tires for you

oh so anyway I think I finished third but I couldn't get away from that hearing that voice and I start crying out to God I said what's this all about I don't understand

I don't have a clue what this life's all about. And he said to me back again, you need to pick up that book's been around thousands of years. It's instruction book for life. You'll find the answer. And I went home that night

and took that book out and started reading. and I've been reading it ever since. Damn. Right after that race is kind of the moment that that was it. You made that decision. Well, I didn't make the decision right then. Yeah. But I just knew, I knew I needed to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life and what this is all about.

And it was, it wasn't very long after that. It had me and my girlfriend at the time now. we got invited to go to her church, a friend of hers church. She was a nurse, and it was her person who was in charge. The invite her said, you know, come over to our church. You know, boss asked you to come to the church. You need to go to church. Yeah.

We'd go to church. So we went to their church and went in there. It was different in any church I'd ever been in. It would. I was used to going to the biggest church in the state. you know, every, he's quiet and reverent, and you hear a pen drop, you know,

just all that kind of stuff. And this place, it looked like there was a concert going on. It was drums on the stadium and electric guitars, and everybody was talking, and it was just, it was happening. People, you could tell they were glad to be there. It wasn't anything.

And the pastor got up and he didn't preach like normal preaching. that I was used to. He was teaching the Bible. He was just line by line. He was teaching, you know, what it's all about, like it was good or better than any professor in college I ever sat under. And at the end of the service, typical for most evangelical churches, every head bowed in their eye closed.

Anybody in here would like to ask Jesus to be the Lord of their life, they'd come down front and we'll lay hands on you and pray for you. received Christ. A voice came back to me and said, you've been reading about a church like this, hadn't you? Said, Lake, you've been driving your own little red wagon. Look at it.

It looks kind of beat up, bent up, scarred up. You'd run it off and ditched quite a few times. And why don't you let me drive a while? Up off the chew, pew I came. Yep. And as I was coming off of it, another old loud voice that I was used to hear. a lot.

Said if you go down front, dude, you'll never race again. He'll send you off somewhere to be a missionary or something. I don't care. I'm down front I went and asked Christ to be the Lord of my life and everything changed. File mouth went away. Alcohol went away. I was a new person. Came back to the racetrack thinking, man, I got to go.

got on my side now. Next race was one of the Darlington races. I went southern off what used to be the third turn back there. You know, you're challenging yourself all the time. How deep you can run here? I said, I'm going to be able to run this thing wide open.

And just about wrecked. Boyce came back to him and said, like, you're not the only one out here we got out here. Yeah. Reality here, you know. no and so that was really the beginning of

life change for me you know my experience of following you and just you know experiencing your involvement in the sport you've always spoke openly about your faith and how big

an impact that's had on you do you think that that is it any coincidence that, you know, you would then kind of find yourself in a really good situation at Raymock shortly after that decision. You would go have a really great year, a big moment in Daytona that we all, you know, look back on finally. You would then be able to build your own race team into a competitive race team, end up winning,

driving your own car out of your own shop. You're winning at arguably the toughest racetrack and the, toughest race to win. You sort of, do you feel like that that decision allowed you to find all, you know, find a way to get all the other components necessary in life to be successful in this? Absolutely. God had a plan. It's not, doing things God's way is not always easy.

It's probably, probably better said, never easy. From the time I've made that decision, I was driving for a hall of sin, and then the situation of Ray Mock came up, and a couple other offers came up. What were they? They were not talking about them. Oh. The, there's other people involved. There's other people out there.

You don't know. No. Anyway. So we prayed hard as to what we should do, where we should. go and decided that we felt like God told us to go to butch and bobs. So we went there and Hollis and them, you know, were probably disappointed. I feel sure they were disappointed because we were doing really well and had a lot going on for us.

Anyway, it felt like Lord told us to go there and went there with them having no sponsor. Yeah. Nothing but I went there on God's direction and immediately started dialing for dollars. You know how that is? Dialing for dollars, nothing happening. And one day was we getting really close to go to Daytona. I was sitting at the desk at Butches, and I went to pick up the telephone to call somebody. and a voice came back to me

said, you're going to trust me with this or not. I put the phone back. We went to Daytona with a car, nothing written on the side. Saturday during the Saturday's race, I was up in the

Goodyear Tower watching right before we're going to have last practice, you know, I got your uniform on all that stuff. I'm up there and watching around. This guy comes over, Timmy, bumps in, and says, this is the first time I've ever been down here can you tell me what's going on

and I explained to him what was happening and he was asking more questions and I was answering a question to him he's a nice guy and after the race was fixing to be over here in a minute I told him I got to go I'm going to be practicing here in a minute he said

before you leave he said I've came down here and there's a big team that's supposed to be meeting with me we were going to put a sponsorship deal together. It wasn't going to be a big one, but a sponsorship deal with them. And he said, I got down here and they won't even talk to me. You got any ideas?

Anything I could do someplace I could put some sponsors or put my name on it. I got a whole ton of people guests that are here. And it was a nationwide auto park guy. And I told him and said, well, actually, we've got a white car down here, has nothing on it. And I'm sure that the owners would love to talk to you about anything doing whatever.

And so they got together that night and had dinner. But you buy, instead of a little small decal, put it on there, they wrote nationwide all over the whole car. Yeah. Like it was a big time, full deal. And I remember when I came to the track, you know, you know, and go your garage stall and see your car and see what's going on, you know, whatever got there, and the car wasn't there.

I said, well, maybe it had gone through tech. And I went over the tech area. It wasn't there either. I'm saying, where's the car? And somebody pulled me, said, oh, it's right around the corner over there. Sign painter's still painting. We started that race with wet paint on it. It's pretty cool.

Yeah. Went out there and had a heck of a race. The only car on the lead lap with Bill when he was all over with. We won our class. This was when Bill ran, you know, all that crazy. Ten mile hour faster than everybody else. They had it going on. The Elliott's did.

I don't know if any of them ever heard yet figured out what it was. I have some sneaking ideas that of what it was. Right. They wasn't anybody going to be able to run with him. But y'all really could. You know, for a little bit. Your car would hang in there a little bit. Niels was real good, too.

Niels was pretty close. He found something happened to him there. He blew up on the front straightway, I think. Yeah, something like that. But that was a. that was the big deal let me tell you what the part that was why I was so dang emotional

this is really important I think so we come off the racetrack and you go to the gas pumps you know and as soon as I pulled out the lines of the next third place car can get in the guy from Nationwise runs up to the car

and how he got there I don't know if he was in the grandstand I don't know how he got there but he comes running up to the car and he's hollering in me in there and said, I don't care what we have to do.

We're not taking our name off his car. He said, I'm going to get the money to sponsor y'all for the rest of the year. Yeah. And so then you get out of the car and, you know, the camera people and all the stuff

is at the Winter Circle, right? Yeah. I'll look up and here they come. The whole shooting match. Yeah. And I think it was Mike Joy. He sticks a microphone in front of my face and says, What does this mean to you?

And a voice came back and said, I told you I was going to take care of this. I exploded. Yeah. You know, just thanking God for, you know, what he had done? Just a fucking miracle. Yeah, it was. And that was just a beginning.

Yeah. There's a bunch more miracles that he did after that. to the rest of the stuff happened. I don't know how long your show can go. But I can tell you some more that we'll flip you right out. I want you to take me to Darlington in 1988. If you watch

you in, you know, 86, 87, in 88, you'll understand that you were building something, you were building a team to your standard. Right? You had had this kind of

Knowing now, right, with a story we've heard about how you developed such a successful operation and business in carts, I can totally see how you applied the same sort of business mind to how you ran your own operation. And by 1988, your car was very competitive. This team that you had built on your own. And you had a very intentional. way of going about your engine program and everything. And you did it all smartly with a budget a little bit tighter than a lot of other people's. But you could go out there and compete. And so here you are in Darlington one afternoon with one of the best race cars in the field,

led a lot of laps and put yourself in a great position late in the race to have a commanding lead. I guess, you know, walk me through what those emotions must have been like as you're closing in on the finish of this race because, man, winning in your own car is one thing. But doing it at Darlington and a track where every driver in the field knows that that's where drivers shine. That's where real drivers shine. You kind of conquered a huge mountain that day. I just kind of wondered, I was there. I was watching, you know, watching you run the last handful of laps coming through turn three and four and thinking, man, he's going to win.

He's going to win today. It's his first win. What were your emotions closing in on the finish of that race? I had almost won several races that year already. And my emotions were, don't have anything else happened. You know, we had the whole field of lap down in Richmond. and figured out a way not to win the race. And Rockingham, we were really fast at Rockingham.

Didn't win that one. Yeah. Started out at Daytona. But Daytona, we were leading the race. And the harmonic, where the end of the crank shaft, where the harmonic balancer goes, and it broke off. The car was so fast that Bobby and David drafting together couldn't pass me that was the first one so when it came to daunt and and uh dominated the whole race

and then just in there's please don't let something happen again yeah don't with something happened again and uh when it didn't i was quite relieved it was people who was what was what did you feel like i said it was the biggest relief i just like how dang finally yeah finally you know something didn't happen because so many things that happened before when I thought I was going to win the race and didn't you know I kind of got used to being shot down at the end and when it didn't happen that was that was it was very rewarding for say the least and

you know like I said one of the things you said the driver does not make this happen you don't have the car under you and the support behind you, it ain't going to happen. I don't give you your dad, there ain't no human being, can make one of these cars stick to the racetrack more than it's sticking to it or to make it run down the straightaway any faster and it's running. Everybody's got the foot wide open.

There ain't nobody out there running part throttle. Yep. You know, so I give the guys credit for helping me to get good cars. I got a list of people here that I wanted to. To shine some people that I gave the first jobs to in NASCAR that Michael McSling, Troy Selberg, Tony Gibson. Drew Blackendorter, when I was helping Bobby Hillen with his Bush car, Drew was a PR guy and office manager. Damn.

John Callis, who did my engines for us there in the last years. when we were so fast out there at Charlotte and Robert tried to hire him that night for me and Randy Clary probably did motors for you Tony Gibson

I give most all these guys their first jobs in NASCAR I don't remember you might not ever even known Gary and Walter Smith were the first ones that were doing pit crew coaching

and getting everybody healthy and, you know, working all that stuff. Yep. They were my pit crews. They were pitting my car at Darlington. Oh, right. There's just, it takes a whole team. Oh, yeah. You know, it's not an individual.

The guy that's managing it's trying to make things happen. Yep. But I was blessed to have a bunch of people work for me that were hard workers. I think that that is the one thing that I've learned about you that I didn't realize is how for your team to be successful, you had to have, you had to make the right choice. It had to be 100% all the time. You had not only in parts and pieces, but the people that you put in all those places had to be, you know, had to

overachieve or, you know, had to be great. Yeah. And you, you know, you had to see greatness in them and the potential in them, right? You couldn't have this one guy over here just not quite measuring up, you know, because the whole, your operation banked on every little pillar

being strong. I can't, I can't, I can't, not tell you this. Sure. when Raymock let me go like second race or third race of the season

I thought it was over for absolutely for sure I mean what am I going to do there's no seats coming to bobble whatever I'm sitting at the house trying to make a garden a flower bed

on the front porch around the front porch who we'd bought this whole farmhouse and God spoke to me again and it's the lake you can't you. Nobody's going to hire you. You're going to have to do your own team. I laughed. Lord, you know, I owe money on this place here. I had to borrow money to buy this land. He said, you just do today what you can do. Let me take care of the wits.

I had an old bulldozer that I'd gotten to clear pastures for the horses. And I said, well, Junior Johnson, the most successful guy in racing right now in his shops about maybe 50 yards, 75 yards behind his house. I said I got a place right back there about 75 hundred yards from the house. I clear some trees off and get a pad. I started building a pad for a building to go on. Didn't have no money, no nothing. I started doing what he told me to do.

I got a check in the mail for exactly how much money it cost to build that building and put all the equipment in it. My father had invested in something for me as a kid, as a child. I'd never gotten a penny out of it. They decided to liquidate it, and the check covered exactly putting it all together. People started coming up to driveway. when they heard that I was going to start my own team volunteering to come work with no money. Actually, they started doing that before the check showed up.

And we put that thing together and had the first car at Talladega testing in December, I think it was. Wound up buying most of the stuff from Cliff Stewart when he shut down. We went to auction up there and bought most of the stuff there and that's where I think

this one got connected with Darrell and J.E. and a few of the other key people. Hadn't already gone, find him another job. A lot of his crew had when it's shutting down, they'd bail out and go get somewhere else. But then people just started coming up.

I didn't have to ever solicit anybody. Yeah. So God made all that happen. Man, that's a heck of a story. It's crazy. It's crazy. And there's lots more. We've got to get you back.

There's a couple things I need to ask you before we turn you loose. What it feel like to get the call to fill in for Davey? When we lost Davey, you got a call from Robert Yates, drawing the best cars in the garage. We were trying to race, and we had a Chevrolet. And I couldn't even buy the raw castings for the cylinder heads. the latest and greatest stuff. And John Callis was doing the engines for me,

and John came in and said, Lake, they won't even sell us to cast us. He said, but there's another company to weld them up and do them all with it, but they want $10,000 for a set of heads. They said, I'm talking to Kowicki's guys up the street here. Kowicki's shop was just up the road down there from me. He said, those guys are bolting on.

They, Yates' heads out of the box, and bolt them on and make 700 horse. fired. It only cost $2,500 bucks. It's he said,

we need to change to Ford. I said, based on that, I mean, we don't go to the racetrack just to ride

around and just to be there. We're trying to do something. Yeah. And so I said, okay, I'll call Robert.

I said, Robert, any chance I could buy a used engine from you? He said, oh yeah, we fix it. He got something.

We fixed it. Anyways, he sells me to use anything. I don't want to make this quicker. He's selling the used motor. We'd take it and run it. Runs like, okay, it wasn't really very good. John had a background, and Calus had been building forwards for a long time before he ever started with the Chevrolet stuff.

He said, like, I about letting me work on this thing. So he took it apart and did some work on it. I think Charlotte race was coming up next race we went to. We went out there and in practice. We had the fastest car. No doubt about it. We had the fast car. One of the writers for the newspaper,

there's a sleeper out there. Nobody's been paying attention to him, but he's bad fast. And after practice, Robert and Doug come walking down to the charms. That ain't the motor that we, sold you is it? He said, yeah it is. He said, I ain't supposed to be running that fast.

John's done a little work on it. And, you know, we wound up going out there, and I don't know if you remember anything about that race, but when the 600 started, I qualified 15th, I think it was 15, 16, something like that.

I was one of the early ones out, and it was hot, you know, it was a track hot. Anyway, I went from 15th to second, the first stop. They dropped the jack, I dropped the clutch, and it snapped off to whatever you call that thing on the front of the gear. The pinion, yeah.

Kenyon deal. We pushed the car back in there. They put another gear in it. They're going to have one of the right gear. Sure. Put another gear in there and went back on a racetrack. When I came back on a racetrack, your dad, Dave, were on the front row

coming around. and I just pulled off pit road as they were catching a green flag so we're running and the guy said oh really said Dick Beatty just said that Davy had told him said y'all be sure to get Lake out of the way when we catch him and he said baby told him said you catch him I'll get him out of the way

and they never got me he's gone I was done 25 laps down or whatever it was I don't remember what I remember that race But that car was so freaking fast Every practice session

Everything Well it wasn't just a couple of weeks later We were at Talladega And David just had his accident And whatever I'm sitting on the pit wall Getting ready to go out and qualify And Robert walks up to him and says

Like any chance I can get you drive this car next week they're working on something with another driver trying to get him out of his contract, whatever, but it may happen, may never happen, I don't know, he said, but anyway, can you do that? And I said, well, it just so happens

this is the last race that we have sponsorship for, we're shutting down after this race, and yes, I'm available. Then he called me Monday, or, yeah, call me Monday, said, we've changed our mind. He said, we want to put a road race ringer in a car instead of you.

and said you can run the car after the next week i said robert you don't understand that i am a world champion road racer that's all i've ever done my life before i came into this he said let me call you back a minute so he calls back a few minutes later said okay yeah we're going to give you a shot at it yeah yeah we'll give you a shot at it yeah and so it went up there and it was some funny stuff that happened in my life but I went out he said don't

there's a lot of practice a lot of pressure on you and everything you hear you just just be calm don't try to do don't overdo anything don't try to impress anybody

just go out there and run said since you drove up here before they got this bus stop thing back there in the back now you know you have to slow up for that thing

but if you miss it you know you can just stop and then they'll go again be all right I went out and ran practice and come in. He comes running up there and pulled the net down. Did you go through the bus stop or did you go straight through there? I went through the bus stop.

He said, well, you're right up here close to the top of the sheet. I said, I didn't even run hard. I promised you I didn't run hard. And then went out and qualified fourth. And he was over the static. said we'd never qualify in top 10 before ever at a road racetrack. I said, problem, but I'm still not running hard. I'm still taking it easy.

I'm trying to be careful. I understand what the circumstances are. Race started. I'm running second, and I'm running a leader down the transmission brakes. So that was the beginning of it. Next weekend we went to Michigan and qualified outside pole. I don't remember what happened that race

Yeah But something happened But uh Then the next weekend It was Bristol And We'd practice I guess we went and tested at Andy

And then tested at Darling And then tested at Darling Right before Ernie got out of his contract Before I could get to Dalton Yeah I was You're looking forward to that one

Oh buddy, who was I ever Was I ever Darlenton I don't know If my road racing experience or what but something about Donington I finished 8th I think as a rookie the first time I ever

went there and then the next race I think was 7th that rookie year when I didn't know Adam's house kid I didn't know nothing about the cars or nothing else but I just loved that place yeah it was always good to me and there was a bunch of other near misses wins

that were at Donington so I always felt like God gave me a bone if I was going to win that'd be my choice of where I'd want to win. Yeah. If you only got one, that's the one.

That's the one. Yeah. It's one that the drivers all appreciate. Yeah. One thing I'm going to ask you about that I can't release this podcast without asking about this, but one memorable moment when you're driving for mailing in the nine car, the spam car. Oh, yeah.

Michael Walter got upset with you at Michigan. What the hell happened on the racetrack that had him so hot? You know, I think the truth of the matter is, I think it's something that happened at another race before that. One time at Pocono, he thought I wrecked him on purpose, and your dad did this one time, too. You're on an corner, and you're driving by somebody, and you think you've cleared him, but you hadn't,

and you turned down, you wrecked yourself. I didn't wreck you. Yeah. and that's what happened I think with Michael and he just never believed I didn't wreck him and so that particular day

we had been running pretty darn good up front I think maybe we had a bad pit stop or something and I'm coming back up through the pack just late in the race I mean just a few laps left and he was trying to block me and keep me from passing him and I didn't have

much time to wait. I did a slide job on him, but I didn't go by him to slide. I slid, kind of pushed him up the track a little bit, and went on. He was hot about that. Did you ever have, did you ever talk about that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Immediately, like the next week? Oh, no, no, no.

I'm five foot five, and he's, what, six foot seven or whatever it is, you know. I think the wives actually did the work it out. Worked it out first, you know. kind of helped that makes it a little easier oh yeah that's a good thing yeah it's a real good thing um but i'll tell you something else there's another one that yeah when he did that when he he walked away from the car and everything that old voice it was used to control me a lot told me run over him oh no he said run over him yeah and holy spirit said don't you ever think about yeah don't you ever think about it yeah don't you ever think about

You finished up your NASCAR career, but that wasn't the end of your driving career. You got back into carding. But it was a while, so you ran your last cup race right before the 2000 season, so like 98-99. Five years later, you get into carding. You remember Steve Peterson? Yes. Steve, I didn't know this until... This all happened.

The NASCAR official, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Steve had been a go-karter back in his teenage years in early 20s, I guess, before he ever got involved with the stock car stuff. And so Steve still fools around with the carts. Ricky Rudd still had a cart. He carried a cart with him to the Sonoma and other places after the races over. He'd play with go-carts and stuff. So find out there were several people had carts, and they were going out to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Wednesday afternoon.

running on the road course. Running on the road course track out there. A cart track. And so Steve started calling me and asked me to come out there. And I turned him down the first few times. And he finally caught me a week one day. And I said, all right, well, I'll come out there and run. I was made to do that.

So I went out there and drove his cart. And I said, God, dang, I forgot how much fun these things are. You know, and I said, can I come back next Wednesday? You know? And the next Wednesday. Then I started feeling bad about it. I said, well, Steve, I'm going to wear your stuff out. plus that I want to work on them.

I built these things that's done all. I'm going to do all my own stuff. And so I'm going to get my own cart. So I called the guys back in Italy. Really? I called the guys back in Italy. Can I get a deal? I was all, I'm always hunting a deal.

I said, can I get me a deal on a motor and a cart? And the guy said, yeah, I can get you a deal. I'll send you one for nothing. Damn, shipped me a cart. And so I started running. I went back out there a bunch of more and run, run, run, run. where were you racing? I'm just saying I was just going out there

Charlotte just Charlotte going out there on Wednesdays and doing that and doing that I said there was no go car tracks around here no no sprint tracks nowhere I mean you had to go close as one probably in Georgia or someplace and so I'm having a good time with that

but I want to start it's a race I'm going to race again and so I find out there's no sprint racing anywhere in the southeast right now but there is road racing they do it on big sports car tracks and there's a bunch of them around here and they were racing them all the time

and I said okay well let me go to one of those and see what they do and they do a few little things trickier on them than they do on the sprint tracks and different stuff for it so I went there and looked and it's okay I take my cart and I'll convert it and make a road race cart out of it

and so I did that for a couple years there I guess maybe two or three years. Yeah. And won a national championship again. Yeah. So in 2008, you won the WK national championship in the particular class you were in. Right, right. You also got into the historic stock car racing association.

Yeah, that was a little bit after the cart thing. You know, we had a big economy thing or something in the cart deal. All of a sudden, instead of having 30 carts in the class, there was five. or six, ten are showing up. And I said, this ain't no funny. Racing. Nobody to race. You know, this is no good.

So one of the guys was on the board of directors from motor racing outreach lived at Phoenix. And he had gotten, I guess on the West Coast that Vinny Stock Car thing had come to life

and was pretty active. He had bought two cars. He had one of Davis cars and he had one of Rusty Wallace's cars. And he was saying, come out of here. and we have a race here at Phoenix come out and drive one of my cars. And I said, what kind of cars you got anyway?

And I'm thinking, yeah, you know, it was, hmm, not so good, you know, I don't know if I'm to do that. He said, no, I said, I sent my cars down to Elliot and Ernie and those guys. They've gone through it, and he's done the motors and cars and everything. Oh, yeah, that sounds, I'll be there. So I flew out there and went out to Phoenix. They had a road course that was in the inside of the tractors, too. He used part of the oval.

So went out and ran. First practice, I went out, and I came back in. I'm crying. Man, I'm crying. You know, it's the first time I'd been in a car since 98. And so, my Lord, this is amazing. And I thought I've got three cars sitting in the shop at the house. Your own.

That are all covered up. You just got dust on. Ron, thank you so very much. will see you at Daytona with my own car. You know? Yep. And so we went back and I went hard on taking one of my cars and converted it into a road race car and went down to Daytona and had a blast. Yep.

So you raced in go-karts up to 70 years old. The amount of time and the amount of laps that you got under your belt, the experiences that you've had, the personal transition that you had, I would say that you had to be quite content, pretty satisfied. I hate the ones that got away. Of course. We all have them. I believe that God gave me how much I could handle. I probably couldn't handle it. I might not be the same person I am today if I'd had more success than I had.

Yeah. Where are you personally, though, because I've seen, you know, social media content, some things you've done here recently where you do have some mementos, your jacket from your go-karting days and the trophies and things like that, but you're finally having to part ways with those old cup cars that you've had under a cover for all those years that you ran and fooled with. And these are things that even though it's probably time,

so that's something I think I want to learn from you is like, I hang on to a lot of stuff too. I got all kinds of stuff. And I know that I got more stuff than I probably need to be hanging on to, right? the pieces and parts, the body panels, the cars, the trophies, the collectibles, and all of these things that I think, man, that matters to me. But I think there is a time that I'm probably, I am aware enough to know that there is a day or a point in my life where I'm going to go, all this ain't nothing.

And it don't matter. Someone else can have this, value this. I don't need to leave this burden to my girls. They are not going to understand the value. It's not going to have the same value that it has to me. We're close. Right. And so are you in that transition period?

That's where I am. That's where I am right now. It's just started in the last year. That's got to be a bit emotional to have that realization of, man, I hung on all this, and it mattered to me. You can see how proud of, all that stuff you are and how y'all were able to do what you did we did a whole lot with a little yeah just god blessed us to to be able to do what we did against i always felt like i was a

big team's worst nightmare because i'm in the morning and i'm having to explain how come this nobody would run faster than you did yeah you know something like that but now you're in the in the point you're in this kind of a tough spot where you're having to this is this is where i am i i you probably saw the picture of the a big display place. That's in my office, and that's going to stay there forever. But that's all I need.

I don't need any more than that. Yeah. I've got stuff back there that somebody else could be enjoying. I got a car that one who took to... VIR. VIR. And, you know, my son and the guys at Pro Motor went through the engine.

I don't know if you know all about that. The whole deal there was doing, seeing what the difference is and everything. That's awesome. awesome pieces. They won bunch of races with

that thing and the vintage thing. Somebody else needs to enjoy that thing. When I went

up there and ran it, I'm going to tell you what, that thing went down Australia way faster. I'd

ever been down a straightway over there. And I'd won several races up there in the past.

But the idea being 77 years old and crashing. Oh, yeah. Not because I did something stupid, but

I mean, I don't know how many times you were testing and something broke. Oh, yeah. I mean, I had lost breaks a couple of times, you know, things broke and crashed big time. We had a brand new car that was everything's supposed to be perfect. Yeah. So I just, that part's understandable, but. And my wife is not happy at all that I'm

out there risking this, you know, she's on just whatever, you know. I just decided that there's somebody else needs to own this stuff that can enjoy it and put it to use and not just sit here and have it just deteriorate into nothing right you know and that's that's probably worse you know so seeing it go out the door yeah yeah and and for me before i had the auction that we sold all the sold almost everything but the cars every time i'd walk out there in this shop they it was like i'd get sick to my stuff of them. Yeah. I mean, it was just gut-rich. Think how much energy and effort you put in to putting this all together and making it happen for it just to sit there and do nothing. Yeah.

And that just drove me nuts. That makes a lot of sense. So I got rid of that, you know, 90% of it went to auction. and the cars we had some of the best cars on the racetrack that was sitting in my shop and they were going for

almost nothing and I got sick then I said I'll let them rust before I'd give them away I just bowed up I should have let them go but I didn't at that time when we were right before

when we closed up in 83 and went to do the deal with Yates. We'd already built, I think, one or two cars for Ricky. It was when Rudd was just starting his shot. They bought cars from us. We built cars for him.

And so most of the guys that were on my team went to work for Ricky. Sort of thereafter. We had really nice cars. I'm talking lightweight, some guns that had Arrow. Norman Greene was doing body stuff for us. And we had some good pieces there. It just made me sick. Yeah.

Anyway. What's there now? I've got one of them sold. Finally. One of them sold. The guy in California is supposed to be coming picking it up pretty soon. The other two are still sitting there. Fresh motors, fresh everything.

They'll sell. Somebody. I hope somebody will go, go have some fun with it. Yeah. Somebody will one day. Yeah. Hope so. They ain't depreciating in value, that's for sure.

I don't know. No, that's just historic, man. I think the further removed we get from it, the more difficult it is to find those cars in decent shape. Some of them want them for nothing, though. People that call me want them for nothing. Well, the right person will call. I've enjoyed sitting here talking to you.

Oh, yeah. We could talk forever. Listen, this is the great thing about this show for me. I grew up watching you race. But due to my, due to my, youth and where you were in your life and where I was as a young man or a child, you know, our, we, we didn't, we didn't communicate. Right.

Right. And you were one of my dad's peers. But I get to bring guys like you in here and sit down and have a real conversation. It is a, it is a blessing. I am thankful. Before we, before we finish, this right here. Motor racing outreach. that may be the reason it all happened.

Everything we've talked about. Yeah. In my heart, I feel like God knows the future. He knows the future what's going to happen. I think he led me through this journey to get a hold of me at Talladega, turn my life around to start this organization. Shortly after I made my profession of faith, I come to the realization that I can't go to church on Sunday anymore. It's not going to be one.

And then as I'm reading the Bible, I'm realizing the church is not a building. The church is to people. I said, we've got people in that garage area that are Christ followers. And we've got a whole bunch of them in there that need to be. And so I got with some of the drivers and wives that I knew were Christ followers, and we started praying for God to send us a pastor. Because we don't have to have a building. We can have a church right here in this garage area.

And shortly thereafter, Max Helton shows up from California with a wife and five kids. or whatever it had and says that God told him to come back here and start up church in a racetrack and MRO

came in existence in 1988 at Darlington was the first time that Max held a service in the garage area man that's interesting

so the MRO that's where it all started yeah for a lot of people that are listening the MRO Motor Racing Outreach is church at the racetrack

church And so I remember And now church in the garages And then shops You'd go to Yeah you'd go to Yep they do They do throughout the week

They are moving in and around The industry from building to building Having prayer and services and so forth They do a lot of amazing things On the charitable initiative For our For our sport and our industry But one of the things that I remember

Is dad going you know, dad would go to the service. Yeah. And it might be, you know, they'd throw down some chairs in the garage and the old empty end of the garage somewhere. They'd do it wherever we could. Good year. Yeah.

Sit on some tires in a good year's place. Yeah. Yeah. And people just kind of sat around. And there would be a short, brief, you know, 20, 30-minute service. We even had, for a period of there, we had some singers. People that were involved in racing and were singing. had music.

Oh, yeah. It was a lot. I mean, and I don't remember, I didn't know the origins of the MRO, but I will, I'm thankful for it today because it's really my daughter's favorite thing. Yeah. So like Ila, six years old,

I don't know what her interest in racing might be. And I won't, you know, if she were to, racing for me has been every day. It's part of my DNA, right? And I want to be a part of this sport or do something in it to be a piece of it somehow, some way. And I hope whatever we have going on professionally

might be something they would want to carry on. It's not a necessity, but it's wanted to be available to them. And so for her to have any interest in being at the racetrack is like the first hurdle. And so she loves going to the racetrack and the reason why is MRO. And it is a safe place for them to be in and around the racetrack.

Young kids, there's a lot of places where they don't have access. I can't take my girls to the pits. They can't sit on a pit box. They can't, you know, I can't be in those areas. So the MRO is a place where I know they can have fun, be around other kids, their age. And get some, learn some very good character qualities and just life-changing things. and foundational things. And they have a little staff there that's amazing.

Unreal. Yeah. And so I'm very thankful for it. I'll tell you something else they do that probably most people don't know about is they have training for chaplains to be chaplains at other racetracks all over the country. Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. They'd come and teach you how to do ministry at the racetrack.

Yeah. One of the other things, too, that I think is really neat about that is the the pastors that we do have at the racetrack are, they become so woven into the fabric of your life. They'll be the pastor that officiates your wedding or, you know, or a crew member's wedding or, you know, so they're, since to your point, like we don't go to a regular church. I'm a member of a Lutheran church in Moorsville, but I rarely go because,

you know, we've been at the racetrack for all these decades. And so the pastor at the MRO at the NASCAR events tends to become your personal pastor, right? And when you've got questions and you got things you need to talk. They're there for you. It's awesome. And I'm thankful for your involvement in that because it has served so many people in our industry in all kinds of ways. Oh, yeah. And it's become, I don't know, it's become an integral part of our, of our, of our,

I've had a NASCAR official to tell us at one time and said MRO is a glue that keeps everything start to get out. Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. Back when it was really, really dangerous to be driving these things. That's true. They were the ones that were at the hospital. They were the ones that were handling the families.

When we ever had, anytime we ever had a very traumatic event, you'd always have a few more people show up next week. and they got their attention, you know, when we'd have some close calls. And I know that, you know, we'd all kind of, we'd all like have these moments in our lives where we needed to gravitate towards something and we tended to go toward the MRO and trying to find some answers or just some, you know, making sense of what's going on either in our personal life. Help. Help. Yeah. And so I'm very thankful for that. Thank you for bringing that up and shining a light on the MRO.

There's still a massive part of what we're doing in our industry as, as you know. know. And that's a great way to close this out. I've enjoyed this conversation. Man, you're both. Thank you for coming by. Thanks for being available and still being out there telling your story. I will tell you this. I've always thought you had a great story and a neat story. But I've seen you sharing it a little bit here over the past couple of years on social media, taking people through your shop, Stapleton, it came through and done a story with you. I thought that was fantastic. And I'm thankful for you doing that because it does introduce some of the younger fans to who you are.

Your name's recognizable. It's an amazing name for a race car driver. That's a sense of humor, doesn't it? And so, you know, people recognize the name, but now they're really truly being reintroduced to you, and I think they're going to enjoy this show. So thanks a lot for coming through. And it's not made up.

Dad's one of seven speed boys. There was a bunch of them. Oh, yeah. I believe it. Lake Speed on the Dale Jr. download. All right. So a great interview with Lake Speed. I'm thankful to have the opportunity to talk to him.

Lake is, you know, leans heavy into his faith. And I wanted to give him the opportunity to talk about that because it's something that's important to him. And so I feel like we allowed him to share, you know, share that. And I really found, you know, I guess this is the way the kind of interview went for me. Like I was really interested in the go-karting part because it's, you know, Lake Speed, yeah, that guy that won the world carding championship beat Erden's Senate. And then that's where it ends, right? So I kind of wanted to know, all right, what was the lead-up? And so there's a lot of fun for me to get into those details.

The only problem is, is you get to, you know, right around 1984 when he gets to the Raymock deal and it's an hour and 15 minutes into the conversation. And I got to figure out how to get us to the finish line in 30 minutes. but are somewhere around that. So we kind of did, you know, compressed the back half of his career. There's probably a ton there, I'm sure, that I would have loved to have gotten to. But there is one thing that he mentioned when he got up from the table. He's still racing go-carts. At 77 years old, I thought he had quit racing and even said that to him.

But apparently he still messing with go-carts and said, says that he goes all over the country running vintage carts and just having fun. He's got some old vintage carts that they still, there's still a group of folks that enjoy those. So pretty fantastic. Guy looks like he's in great shape for his age. And it's kind of one of them deals where certainly, yeah, you wish, you know, what could he have done in the right situation?

He did find himself behind the wheel of a couple of really good rides that just didn't really kind of pan out. The opportunity with Yates was very brief because they were bringing in Ernie Irvin. But I'm not somebody that speaks about their own faith a lot. I have my own position and beliefs. And I do feel like that his life, I don't know if predetermined is the right word, but like the path he went down was the one he was supposed to go down. And I think that's probably why he might be able to be more content with the way things didn't pan out because, I mean, he really did have some moments that really impacted him personally throughout his life.

he sees a bigger picture, right, than just top fives and wins and success at just a racing level. There's something, you know, he's sort of driven by something bigger than that. And the other thing, too, is he did take this team. And, I mean, if you dive into some of the details and especially some of the things he's done lately on social media and this story today, you will learn, right, that he had to. they had to really hit, they had to kind of like strike gold to a certain extent with almost every hire and everything they, every person part and every dime spent had to be really, really clever and smart. And for him to have success in the Wins car and build, build the speed that he's able to build in that car, you know, to go from, you know, Ray Mock to start his own team,

win at Darlington in 1988. I know his budget was super tight with the wins folks. They were involved in racing, but probably not one of the bigger sponsorships. He had less people, less finances, so pretty incredible. They were able to get the speed they were. He capitalized on the Hoosier tire in some certain areas where some other teams did as well around that time frame. but just just got a cool story and the fact that he I like the fact that he ain't stopped

you know that you know I talked to all these guys I'm like how do you stop I don't know if I can stop that he ain't stopped um he's still having fun and and um driving and at some level right getting out there and feeling the adrenaline that's pretty cool so thanks for Lake uh in his time great interview another one of these uh fun DJD guest interviews in the books. Let's get to the White Flag. All right, to tear down, they were live on Twitter and YouTube following the race at Homestead. Some great, you know, great reaction to what we saw on this past weekend at Homestead.

Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi, just, you know, those guys, they're. their take. It's measured. They debate. You can kind of buy into both sides at times. Sometimes maybe not. But it's still fun to listen to these guys conversate because I'll be honest with you. I think I know freaking everything about this sport. Now, I know in the back of my mind that that is not absolutely true. But I get really heavily convicted on some sort of stances, right? And I need this tear down. Like, I need to listen to these guys. Because they kind of get me into a better place in a lot of areas. And I'll be frustrated with one thing or frustrated with another thing. And they kind of call me, they kind of give me the details, the things that I really need to know.

It's such a great show. Doorpup upper clear had Jamie McMurray on this past Monday. Jamie is always an incredible guest. a lot of people are really enjoying what he's doing in the booth for the CW. Just a fantastic addition to our broadcast ecosystem in NASCAR. And, you know, when we can get him on the show, it's always a lot of fun because he brings a lot of great vantage points and opinions. Carson Quappell surprised Jamie during the show to announce his Darlington throwback paint scheme. If you haven't seen it, it looks amazing.

Great job by the folks upstairs. to bring back that historical car that Jamie McMurray had so much success with. Action's detrimental also dropped on Monday. Denny having a pretty solid day out in Homestead, gives us his feedback and take on everything going on in the sport. Lake Speed, obviously, the guest today. And Herman Schrader and Speed Street, that drops as well today. You want to listen to what Herman Schrader think about what's going on in the industry.

They touch on something sort of outside of all of the, conversations that we have here at Dirty Mo Media. It's always fun to see what they think is important or what they think we need to be talking about. And Herman and Shreda, they do a good job with that. Speed Street's always a great listen, especially as we're diving into the IndyCar season. They bring a lot of great insight on what's going on in the IndyCar world. Every Wednesday, bless your heart is back on Thursday.

I got a new chair. I'm excited. Me and Amy had a blast last week. No telling what we're going to get into this week. And don't forget, you're starting to see some of the gear that we've been talking about at our new merch store. Shop.dirtymo Media.com. We've got hats, shirts, sweatshirts, even drinkwear.

I'm wearing all this stuff on the show because I like it. This little sweater right here, this logo, awesome stuff. Last week had a hat on. So trying to drop in some of this stuff where you can see what we have. If you haven't checked out the store, shop.dirtymohmedia.com, any of our podcast, we've got gear for all of those. We've also got some just fun, silly stuff that we've created T-shirts and whatnot with from things we've said on our shows. Amy is doing a lot of the creative or part of a lot of the creative on any of the bless your heart stuff. So if it looks different or it looks better, that's why.

Y'all have fun. It's been a great week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.