Get To Know NASCAR Executive Ben Kennedy

Episode #47 of “Kenny Conversation” is NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Development & Strategy Ben Kennedy!

#racing #kennywallace #nascar #benkennedy

Brought to you by JEGS! Click here: https://jegs.io/KennyWallace & text KENNY to 36727 to save up to $100!

***thumbnail & b-roll photos by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images courtesy of NASCAR Media

JEGS has been in business since 1960.
Racers selling to racers.
Focusing on American Muscle – but also big product line of automotive tools, garage gear & other performance parts.
JEGS is well established with racers of all kinds, including the NHRA, bracket racing, circle track & more!
Free shipping on orders over $199.
Unrivaled expertise from techs.
Millions of parts for every car person’s needs.
Sign up for their email for exclusive deals!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny conversation brought to you by Jegs the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts remember to go to jags.com for everything you need to fix your vehicle or your hot rod up deep breath I set it on X I said this

Is a big one for me uh I’ve been a big fan of this man as a race car driver Ben k Ben how are you doing I’m doing good Kenny how are you doing thanks for having me on today well it’s it’s sunny here in St Louis uh are you

In Daytona or Charlotte I am in beautiful Daytona Beach Florida it is sunny and about 75 degrees right now it’s it’s a perfect day for a for a race Daytona 500’s over but it’s uh it’s nice here yes and that’s what Ken Squire used to say or no maybe maybe it was somebody

Else it’s a beautiful day for a motor race well well Ben I want to start out like this um who is Ben kennedy and I want to say a couple things about you and if I get them wrong I want you to interrupt me but uh a lot of people don’t know

Everything about you uh you’re very young so let’s start like this um Ben kennedy 32 years old uh correct we’re off to a good start yeah hey hey I’m one for one baby one for one yeah you can stop right there if you want yeah see you later

Everybody Ben kennedy NASCAR senior vice president of racing de development and strategy you started working at NASCAR uh March 10th 2022 is that right I started working uh about six years ago so late January of 2018 maybe that would maybe that was your position you that might be that

Might be my most um recent position that I have on the racing development strategy team yeah that that’s a uh that’s a big uh some big shoes to fill and we’re going to talk about all this a little later uh a little bit more about

Who you are um we all know you it seems silly that maybe I’m introducing you but I find you very interesting and I want to thank you for letting me talk to you so um Bill France senior was your great-grandfather and he started NASCAR uh so you’re as close I mean you

Are you are NASCAR am am I accurate in this uh yes so my my great-grandfather uh to your point exactly Bill Fran Senor started NASCAR in 1948 it was incorporated 76 years ago um and one month now so so uh he founded it and then my grandfather Bill franch Jr

Obviously was involved in L it for a number of years and then Brian Lisa and and Jim as well um and Lisa and Jim obviously involved till this day so a second generation a third generation and I guess myself as a fourth generation all still being involved in the in the

Business I gotta tell you I hardly know your mama but I love your mother and I’m going to tell you why because I was uh I was in a suite at Iowa Speedway and you were racing and your mom came up there and now I’m a little nervous because you

Know your your mom is the boss right uh right you know your great-grandfather’s gone uh your your grandpa’s gone uh it’s your mom and and and Jim France so your mom comes up in the suite and I just got my eyes glued to her and just like a

Proud mother she was watching you race that day and I thought to myself she’s a racer so is your mom a racer she is she absolutely is I uh I never had the opportunity to actually see her watching me obviously because I was in the car but I’ve heard many

Accounts of people being in you know the Grand Sands or sweets or wherever it might be and watching her uh you know watch me compete on the racetrack and uh you know they said that she was always so nervous She always told me she was so nervous uh I never uh obviously never

Got to see any videos or pictures of that or anything but uh I think she got better with it as I got into the um you know the the truck and XFinity series and the the latter part of my racing career she started to get a little more

Comfortable with it but uh you know she was definitely nervous like I imagine a lot of you know parents who put their kids behind the wheel and then um so funny story when I started racing um I used to run in U it was a little pro

Truck division down here at new M Speedway for a number of years and uh and she was smack talking me for quite a while saying she could do it and she could do it faster than me and all that stuff so I said okay game on we’ll uh

We’ll put you behind the wheel of a car for a couple laps and see how you do uh so she got a fire suit she put a helmet on we got her in a Hans we got her set up with a radio and she went out for a

Few laps and she did everything the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to do right so typically fast run the straightaway and you slow for the corners well she would actually gun it in the corners and then she would come off the throttle on the straightaway so

She was like she was faster than me as soon as he got to the corner but I would beat her down the straightaway every single time and then uh she looped it around on her last run and we said okay that’s it you’re done we’re gonna back

It up and go home after this well I um I guess you could say I’m intimidated by her because she holds such a high position and and same as you I’m a little intimidated by you but uh I like you because you’re a racer and uh let me

Uh let me tell you that I I did sleep okay last night but I was struggling with how I wanted in order to do this um it was like should I talk to Ben about the great TV numbers should I talk to Ben about NASCAR gaining so much right

Now in every way uh should I talk to him what what made NASCAR lose its grip in 20 6 we’ll talk about those subjects in a little bit and I would encourage everybody to listen in because I um I will I will talk to Ben one time about

What happened to our sport when it fell from Grace just a little bit but I find you more intriguing uh let’s start like this I want to talk about you as a race car driver so um I looked at your stats uh you’re a Race Car Driver uh you raced in 17

NASCAR xinity races uh 72 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and you won Bristol in 2016 that is no joke I want to highlight that you Bristol is where Racers become Racers so you are a real race car driver and you’re a good one not because you own NASCAR You’re simply a really good

Race car driver now I’m not done 26 top to 10 in the NASCAR truck series one pole in the truck series 2014 truck series Rook of the year and listen I know I could go on and on when I tell you that stuff what goes through your mind right now when I tell

You that you were a really good race car driver uh what goes through my mind is I should have won more races winning at Bristol winning at Bristol was so special I mean if if you could win at any track outside of Daytona for me uh

Bristol was was up there on my list so to be able to win there was incredibly special um it met a lot to our team and um you know our family and friends and everyone who who all really helped get me to that place that I was in 2016 and

You know I I think for me the the challenging part about it is you know I race through 2017 which was my last year competing part-time the nasar xinity series I competed kind of part of the time with DMS and then the other part of the time with

RCR and I would say those last two or three years of racing was when I finally felt like I got my feet underneath of me as a driver um you know my confidence started to get up I felt more comfortable going to a lot of the tracks

That I had already competed at a few times at that point I understood the cars a lot more um you know it took me a while to really understand how the trucks race just being so aerod dependent with the amount of downforce and side force that that they had I

Really love driving the the xinity cars because they didn’t have a lot of downforce and you know you could really wheel them so you know I’d say my last two or three years I felt like I was finally getting my feet underneath me and then I decided to hang out the fire

Suit for the business suit and come over to the NASCAR side of the world um business side of the world I should say yeah but um you know it was a great career I I learned so much being a driver uh I made so many great relationships and I think what’s really

Neat to see today is being on the company side of it you know all the folks I worked with whether they were my crew chief my car Chief mechanics Engineers spotters uh to see where they’re at a lot of them are sitting on um pit boxes of some of the best cup

Drivers that we have today they were in Austin Texas this past weekend I think it’s so neat to see some of the people that I got to work with um and you know see them continue throughout their career and and be in one of our national

Series today so it was uh it was a great experience and um I would go back and and do it over again every single day we call this Kenny conversation because uh you know there’s a thought that if you interview people you’re a professional and you you ask them the question as

Short as you can well first of all I’m not a professional I’m a race car driver and I’m going to ask the questions the way I want to ask them even if they’re long so let me start like this when I ask you this question uh my wife and

Myself are watching the net fli special right now the crown so it’s about over there in Buckingham Palace and uh you know King Edward said I don’t want nothing to do with this I fell in love with a girl I’m leaving you you all have at it kind of

Like sure you know Harry and bean marle doing right now so King George said how dare you give me this burden because nobody wants to be the king of England it’s a burden you can’t live your life I started thinking about you while I was watching this last night and uh I

Thought to myself did Ben really want to stay a race car driver or is he given this burden that he has to start his stint at running NASCAR because it is it NASCAR is familyowned now I pretty much know you’re going to lie to me but that’s

Okay are you ready for the lie yes Li you want the truth you know you know I’m having fun with you so no 100% is it is it a burden are you okay with it did you struggle having to quit being a race car driver and and get

Ready because we know your succession you’re you will be the boss after you get done with all this your stuff you’re doing right now give me your give me your thoughts when you said okay I’m going to quit racing so I haven’t seen the crown um and I don’t envy being in

In those shoes at all I’ll have to check it out um I thought we were actually G to talk about full speed but this is this is a good curve ball so no I mean you know at the end of the day I I had a

Great racing career for 11 years um I got to go to so many cool places I got to travel a lot of tracks I got to see the sport through a different lens a really unique lens of being a competitor every single week and um you know I just

I I took probably two two and a half months in that off season and I looked at myself in the mirror and I said I’m 25 years old I’m young I’m hungry um I want to do more I want to be productive I want to have a positive impact on this

Sport I care about the future of this sport um and and I think I can do that in in a small way and I think one of those ways is taking the leap of faith out of being a race car driver and coming to the business this world so you

Know I spent the better part of two months talking to Steve O’Donnell Brent der Steve Phelps um a number of folks and you know really came up with this position um you know that kind of naturally made sense I raced in the truck series for uh the better part of a

Little over three years and you know I had an opportunity to come to NASCAR and work on the truck series in particular Brad Moran and um you know help kind of start you know gaining my my leadership abilities in in this world and you know taught to friends and family it was a

Difficult decision and um you know it was a Little Bit Spur the moment that uh you know I gave I think it was Steve O’Donnell a call on a day in the middle of January and I said hey I’m I’m coming I’m committing to this I’m gonna hang up

My my fire suit full-time for now and I’m I’m coming to NASCAR and I was 90% there I don’t know if I was 100% but after that call it made it so much more real for me and then you know after my first week being on the business side of

The sport uh I’ve just never looked back so you know people ask me all the time you know how much does it hurt coming to the track and and not being behind the wheel of a race car and I think you could probably say this and I know

There’s a lot of drivers that have competed for a long time and you know they retire they hang their their helmet up and you know they’re coming to the track as a spectator or fan and you know you’ve been in the issues it’s not easy at all it is difficult to do as

Especially at tracks that you love to race and cars that you love to compete in and uh it was difficult for a while but you know now this is a new Norm for me um I I haven’t raced competitively since Homestead of 2017 I jumped in a

Late model last year which was fun um but I’ll uh I’ll have to I’ll have to find a couple races sometimes once things come down here to uh to to do it again man that is absolutely fantastic I like where you said you were 90% uh that

That shows your racer I I want to brag on you for a minute I know people just like you the great Roger Pinsky the captain he was a great race car driver and and you know he got those dealerships going and he said hey I got to go into my business uh

The great Rick hendrik uh you know same same thing there are there are people just like you where it’s like okay you know I can drive the race car till I’m seems like nowadays they’re going to 42 whatever you want to do but you know when you’re

42 years old you go okay what’s next uh so congratulations because I feel like you put yourself right there like a Roger Pinsky a Rick Hendrick chip gassie these were great race car drivers and uh they had to take care of the business and uh so congratulations Ben appreciate

You telling me your your story absolutely yeah good stuff well yeah okay uh you know for some of the fans uh you know there’s 30% of the fans that want me to rough you up and then there’s 70% that don’t want me to rough you up uh

And bring it on yeah right well you know we’re not going to do that and we’re going to talk about some of these things let you know there there’s an old song uh it’s becoming older and the song slows down and it says let’s get to the

Good part so we’re going to get to the good part right now uh you talked about full speed at Netflix just now I threw you a curveball with the crown which reminded me of of you know the France family so I had to throw that in there

So we’re looking at we’re five races in we see attendance up we see TV ratings up now I just looked at Mike Joy on X who is the voice of NASCAR on Fox and Mike Joy said up is up so right now NASCAR is up and it’s doing really

Really good right now so for me I love NASCAR your family and NASCAR provided an incredible life for me one that I’m forever grateful for we went through some tough times but now we’re going way up quick so as a good engineer or a good competitor why are we doing so good this

Year yeah I would say it’s it’s a plethora of things um and you know a lot of it I think is a momentum that’s been built over the past couple of years whether that is the nextg car you know some of the things we’re doing from a scheduled perspective some of the things

We’re doing from a marketing standpoint but I think if you if you look at the last couple of months you mentioned Netflix full speed um or NASCAR full speed on Netflix um you know 88% of the people that turn tuned into that first week of netfli or NASCAR full speed on

Netflix didn’t tune in the championship race in Phoenix um last season so if you think about both you know creating content and trying to build our drivers names and Brands and their personalities and being able to display that Netflix is a great non-traditional platform for us right you have fans 12% that tuned

Into to the championship race that happen to also watch um the Netflix show but then you had a lot of people that that didn’t tune into that show as well and I think you know we’re starting to see some of the results of that and a

Lot of people that tune into that first episode are watching all the way through so I think that’s been a good opportunity for us I think the racing product has been fantastic this year um you know if you go back to the Atlanta race from start to finish probably one

Of the more exciting races that we’ve seen in a really long time one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history I mean I don’t know about you I don’t know the last time I’ve seen a three wide finish like that other than you know maybe Talladega when they came across

The line but Talladega wasn’t even that close so um you know a lot of story lines and narratives that came out of that Bristol a couple weeks ago um some great traditional short track racing that reminded me of my racing days of being at Pensacola Speedway and

Greenville Pickins and you had to go into Tire management mode and you had some of the drivers that that were competing that um you know went out there and they they blew their tires off and they saw the percussions of that then you had some of the veterans that

Have seen um you know what tire management means and they saved their tires and they were there at the end of the race so uh you know I think it’s it’s a combination of things at the end of the day you know I think Netflix

Certainly a part of that uh I would say the racing product and then just the strong momentum that we have in this early part of the season of you know all the narratives and and storylines that we usually have at this point of the year so it’s uh it’s been good on the

Ratings and viewership front hopefully we can keep that Trend and um you know see it through as we we get into this portion of the Season my big brother Rusty Wallace is in your Nascar Hall of Fame he he’s one of the best uh he’s

Intense people say to me how do you get along with your brother Rusty so much and well first of all I love him if it weren’t for Rusty I wouldn’t be where I’m at uh you know sometimes people are hard to understand but I understand my

Brother and he said this to me he said Herman which is my nickname he says it’s sad to say but you have to remind people because people remember what they want to so you were pretty much a baby and uh respectfully when fox said you know we’re going to go against ESPN we’re

Going to start FS1 so there there was a period of time when you were young you know we had Fox we had NBC CBS and now that they all wanted to start their own sports company and you know they wanted to go against ESPN so um Brian your

Uncle and um one other executive they came to me at Texas and they said Kenny would you do NASCAR 360 and I said hm I said tell me about NASCAR 360 I remember n okay NASCAR 360 is exactly what full speed is right now NASCAR NASCAR 360 took me from here to

Here and I said why are we doing this and they said we want everybody to know what these individuals are about so my point is this we’re just repeating our history uh somewhere in there we got lost and when when fo’s Speed come up

I’m like well this we did this uh y did did we lose our way a little bit and and then and then have to go back and grab full speed from Netflix yeah it’s it’s a good question and you know I I remember watching as a

Kid uh I think it was on Speed Channel back in the day it it saved my career it saved my career it was amazing and it’s I mean to your point it’s exactly what Netflix full speed is it’s a different production company it’s different people it’s different drivers it’s a different

Distribution Channel but it is uh it’s very similar to what we did a little over a decade ago and you know it is a huge opportunity for us to to tell the stories and share the personalities of a lot of the upand cominging drivers that

We have today and you know I think if you if you think back you know let’s say a decade um ago 2014 2015 you know right you had you had a lot of big names in the sport that were still competing Jimmy Johnson tan Patrick Dale Earnhart

Jr Jeff Gordon and over the course of you know four or five years all those drivers are tired they had huge huge following some of them were on NASCAR 360 back in the day some of them just naturally built their names and their brands and you know I think a little bit

Of that was probably a result of um you know the 2002 2005 2006 kind of peak that we saw as a sport and I think since you know those drivers have retired we have a crop of new drivers that have a ton of talent they have a ton of energy

They have a lot of passion and they have have some personality as well and we have to find a way to somehow you know tell those stories of those upand cominging drivers in a way that is both on the track but off the track um and I

Think one of the unique things about our sport that you could argue as a little bit of a competitive disadvantage to other sports is we’re very unique in the sense of you know you don’t have that Hometown Pride necessarily you know I think of being here in Daytona Beach

Florida people cheer for the Jacksonville Jaguars and they cheer for the Gators and they cheer cheer for UCF uh and it’s a little more difficult for um a non-fan to associate themselves with hey I’m gonna cheer for this guy on on Sunday and tune in and watch every

Single week so what do we have we have their personalities we have their names we have their brands and um you know I think creating something like we did with full speed gives us the opportunity and platform for the drivers to you know get in front of millions of people and

Show themselves a little bit show who they are show what they represent and you know that hope that hopefully will give people a hook to be able to say that you know I like this driver I’m be a Christopher Bell fan I’m going to be a

Bubba Wallace fan I’m gonna be um you know a joey lagano fan because you know I I like them I associate with them I have things that um we have in common with each other and you know that really creates fandom at the end of the day

It’s something that that we talk a lot about internally at NASCAR and I think star power and Crea big names and and names that people can associate themselves with um is a huge opportunity for us as we think about the future for sure yeah well said and basically you

Just said we have to create these Superstars all over again I listen I don’t want your job uh because when you really put it that way uh accidentally you know Bill ell would say Herman it’s all about timing and circumstances and here all of a sudden your most popular

Your greatest drivers within a couple years of each other they retired uh that would be hard on any sport you look at Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods when they quit their sport it’s hard on those Sports so I don’t want your job um however I I want to help so um I

Really like this W William Barron kid he wins the date Tona 500 he wins Texas I have him on in Kenny Sation about 3 weeks ago and my analytics uh myself and Charlie Marlo were like you know nobody’s paying attention to to William and it really bothered me uh I’m like

You know I was getting way more views on like an elot Saddler so then all of a sudden I was real happy to see that you all are building this new building I believe in in Concord North Carolina uh so is is this part of the process at

NASCAR for you to get these drivers out in America you know for people to know who they are cuz they are really good drivers yeah they’re I mean to your point Kenny they’re they’re great drivers they’re probably some of the best drivers that that we may have had

In the history of our Sport and and we’ve got to find a way to to tell those stories so as you’re mentioned we’re we’re we finished building a building that’s right next to our R&D Center up in Concord North Carolina our NASCAR Productions building um we probably need

To come up with a a more creative name than that something uh something a little more fun but uh we call it our NASCAR Productions building up there but you know it has a handful of Studios it have has podcast rooms in it um a bunch

Of control rooms and uh you know that’s going to be the hub for every bit of content that is coming out on social and digital platforms we be doing a little bit of live production from there not a ton but um you know having it there in Concord nor North Carolina was

Strategically place to be close to a lot of the teams and drivers right you know if there’s a driver whether it’s a cup driver exity driver a truck driver an Archer driver that wants to come down and and shoot content with us unveil a new paint scheme announce a new partner

Um you know we wanted to create this as a hub to be able to both you know create content but then also distribute distribute uh content and uh and produce it too so we’re really excited about the building I mean we’re only skinning the surface for what can really do and what

The capabilities are bring on um some new people to help lead a lot of the content creation as well and um you know we really think it’s it’s a feature right people are consuming content more than they ever have they’re consuming it in very different ways than they did 20

Years ago and we’ve got to be on the Forefront of that right you know whether it’s live content and people tuning in you know this weekend to Fox Sports One for a live race or on Instagram on X on Facebook um Tik Tok we’ve got to meet um

All of our fans and non-fans where they’re at today and uh and we got to do that through content so it’s uh it’s a huge opportunity for us it’s a huge green space I’m I’m really excited about that building and what’s it’s going to do and and like I said we are just

Learning um some of the capabilities of it I think it’s only going to scale up from here I am 60 years old and uh I worked you know I Was a Race Car Driver I ran 95 NASCAR races and I would get out of the Nascar Cup car you know I’m

Driving from furniture ow helping them get their new team started and I would get out of the the race at do 500 lap race and I would immediately be in my firesuit and jump on the speed TV set or FS1 set so when social media first

Started I’ll tell you my story later uh it’s a really really good story on why I was the first to social media it helped me acquire sponsorship to run the Nascar exfinity race but I knew this before anybody and I had people making fun of

Me because I was on X and I was on Facebook and I’m like keep laughing buddy uh now now it’s come my way so last week in Bristol I took a picture of uh the person in charge of social media at Fox and Bob pockrass MH and I and the

C was they made fun of us back then not anymore so you know I’m always honest on here so crra Steve C my boss says remind me who made fun of you and I want to say you did Steve but in in your defense now follow my timeline all all the famous drivers

Retire and and we have this this unbelievable Rippling effect of this new digital era how to how to go about this I mean you had this perfect storm uh those times you know H how do I deal with social media because all they do is argue on social media you had to

Figure out how to turn that into a positive and I did and I see you all doing it now this was a lot for you to handle yeah it was for sure and I mean you know to your point you were a pioneer of social media and the NASCAR

World as it started to come come on you know a little over 10 years ago or so and that’s now paying dividends and you know we’ve got to do it certainly you know as a sanctioning body and and as a sport but you know it’s also the responsibility of of teams and drivers

And the rest of the industry to to get on social media engage with fans because you know I think it’s a great platform to have onetoone relationships with people um and really be able to to tell their story answer questions do q&as put videos like this podcasts on it um and

Do all sorts of things so um you know it’s it’s something we’ve obviously focused on a lot in Charlotte it’s something we’re g to focus on a lot with the production Center and and something that you know we talk about this driver ambassador program as another example of

It um you know how do we how do we find ways to get drivers really excited about not only you know going on and doing late night shows and you know TV hits and radio interviews but also um you know social and digital content and and

Engaging with a lot of the fans through that so uh I just remembered who was behind me the whole time I had one person call me and said man this is incredible what you’re doing you’re sharing videos inside your shop and it was Paul Brooks at NASCAR at that time I

Don’t yeah Paul was brilliant at that time so uh and I don’t know what he’s up to now I see him on Instagram over in Italy with his kids and I and I like that um yeah have you thought of an alumni I go down

Here to Bush Stadium and and I and I see uh you know everybody loves your past everybody loves you know uh Rusty Wallace or Bill Elliott uh or Jimmy Johnson have you thought of maybe giving these guys a polo shirt with their name on it alumni a a different type of hard

Card where this this alumni can come to the racetrack hang out and uh and the fans go oh look there’s Bill Elliott have you thought about an alumni we have we’re actually we’re working on alumni program right now actually well I’ll be done very cool yeah the timing is impeccable here but

Uh we’ve been working on it for the past several months and uh I mean you know I know a handful of drivers that that were competing the cup series and retired and you know they kind of left the sport or distanced themselves a little bit and I

Think part of that was just hey what is my role and how can I be helpful and and why should I come to a racetrack um you know I I’ll say myself it’s difficult to come to a racetrack when you don’t have anything to do when you’re a fan there

And you’re watching the race I enjoy it I love it but if I’m coming in a you know in a professional role I actually want to be productive and and to be valuable at the end of the day and I think that’s that’s where a lot of

Driver’s heads are at so we’re working on an alumni program I don’t have all the details around it we’re still uh fine-tuning it but I think it’ll be a neat program not only to get you know a lot of our alumni drivers out to the racetrack and you know have them come

And bring their their friends and family and enjoy a weekend but then also you know opportunities for fans to to go and see them um you know put them on a stage for for pre-race or out in the Midway or fan zone so um you know we’re we’re kind

Of crafting what exactly that’s going to look like but uh you know I think to your point exactly like we’ve got to focus on you know building the names that we have today but then also finding a way to celebrate our history and Our Roots and and what really got us to

Where we’re at and a lot of that are the drivers that competed for a number of years so I’m uh I’m excited about it I’m excited about us kind of putting the fine uh fine tooth comb to it and and share more on it but it’s it’s gonna be

A neat program from what I’ve seen might I add that some of these great drivers they get embarrassed but they do have egos I I think you should put their name on a polo shirt with NASCAR on the other side NASCAR here Bill Elliott’s name

Here I like that okay and and asked him say would you please wear your championship ring and here’s why I say this Ben it’s a generation gap you know some of these people like me I decided to let my hair go gray you know I was dying it

For TV but sometimes you know a kid’s 25 years old he’s like who’s that but he sees the name oh my god look that’s that’s Rusty Wallace when I was born I heard of him but I didn’t know really what he looked like so uh I think it

Would be cool if you know you made some polos for these great drivers NASCAR logo here their name over here love it okay let’s change let’s change uh I think that’d be great yeah so do I I think it’s awesome we’ll put it in the Opera for sure that’s a good one yeah

Well you listen it’s like I said I’m not kissing your ass I love NASCAR you you guys you know I made a lot of money in NASCAR and and you guys you know I I love this sport I can only talk bad about it so much you know uh

And it’s not fun you know to talk about a tough situation in the end I love love NASCAR I remember seeing listen I I’m at the age where um and I I hate to say this but I got to say this I remember seeing big bill on the back

Straightaway in his n days in a wheelchair with eating eating a hot dog with a little bit of mustard right here that’s how much I’d love NASCAR and I remember the man your great-grandfather that started it so so for the people that want me to talk crap about

NASCAR they can go SWAT flies uh I will when it’s a situation sure yeah all right so we all need to do that every now and then right I mean we’re we’re all humans at the end of the day NASCAR as a sport or as an LLC isn’t going to

Be perfect we’re going to make decisions that are going to move the sport in a good direction we’re going to make decisions that sometimes may not make sense and we’re gonna mess up and that’s that’s a part of us all being human and learning from it but we we gota we got

To make the best decisions we can I’ve I’ve actually been rereading the book on um on Bill Senor it’s called Big Bill and uh it it retells a lot of those stories of him growing up you know through the 40s 50s 60s 70s and 80s and there’s some of the the coolest stories

Um that you’d ever hear from you know starting you know building a track at Daytona National Speedway or Talladega um you know up into the 80s and 90s when Bill Jr got involved but Bill Senor was still around I imagine around the time that you probably saw

Him at the racetrack and um I would have loved to see him and Annie B and and just you know them being involved or even just walking through the garage area back in the day I can imagine so special and I okay now I got to go one

More before we before we go I got some stuff here but uh yeah so U your grandpa uh you know uh Bill France Jr uh I guess I’m right I I mess up some sometimes but anyway yes uh we’re at a softball tournament I think in wat Watkins Glenn

And you know he’d smoke and he’d have a beer and he was such a badass and get up here in our trailer and he chew your butt out and you know it was a different way of governing back then but uh we’re at a softball game and he looked at me

And I’m like I’m looking at like I’m looking at you right now I’m like oh my gosh you know get over here and I sit at the picnic table with him and he’s smoking takes a drink of beer you know you know your mom’s dad right so uh I

Will never forget that uh at 60 I’m excited to tell you these stories because you’re only 32 years old so anyway just you know my love for NASCAR and like I said I can only rough it up so much so all right here we go uh you

Know I’m all over social media when when I’m not doing anything but I’m very busy so I was on X yesterday or two days ago and uh I I asked this I took I like X because you can take polls and it’s quick communication Facebook has its

Place uh you know Tik Tok has his place I like Snapchat but anyway I took this poll and it got 5,292 votes in one day that’s a lot of people that’s strong think about 5200 people at Bowman Gray that’s a lot of people okay and my question was this

Does NASCAR RAC too much 73% of the people said no they don’t race too much 27% of the people said yes they race too much okay now hold on right behind it I asked a uh another crazy question that that was a good question the one I asked but I said

This has talking bad about NASCAR become a sport and then I said in other words is it what people do for fun are we in in a society where talking bad on social media is it a sport is it fun 69% of people said yes it’s a sport

People get enjoyment out of talking bad even though they’re watching the whole race uh 31% of the people said no what I have learned then is that 70% of the people no matter what love NASCAR this is my figures 30% of the people just there to create negativity

Sure what what what are your thoughts on all that um do you know that I well I haven’t seen that PLL so I’ll have to back does NASCAR know that have you ever talked about dealing with the people that are just there because it’s a sport um no I mean not necessarily you

Know and I I appreciate and I respect um criticism at the end of the day and and constructive criticism uh I’m not a big believer in in people um talking bad just to talk bad or you know try to create conspiracy theories or whatever

It might be um you know but at the end of the day if if you have feedback I’ve I’ve always said give us and me myself if it’s on X or whatever it might be give us honest feedback and I get a lot of that um and some of it is is really

Helpful and really constructive um so that’s always been you know kind of my personal opinion on it at the end of the day and you know I I think we have an opportunity to go and and kind of you know sometimes tell our our version of the story or why we’re making certain

Decisions and you know there are a lot of things things that I would love to sit here on on your podcast Kenny and tell you hey this is a reason why we did X this is a reason why we did Y and this is a reason why we did Z and sometimes

We we just naturally can’t sometimes we can though um and I think using platforms like this and platforms like X and others to be able to explain kind of the rationale behind some of our decisions um you know is helpful in some scenarios sometimes we make a decision

Everyone’s like I like that that’s a big W Mark a w next to it there are a lot of decisions that that people may not agree with um you know but that’s that’s all part of our human nature at the end of the day right we all have different backgrounds we have different

Perspectives we have different thoughts on on how things should be run or how the sport uh you know what the the the direction of the sport uh should go in and you know I think uh I think that’s the beauty of it at the end of the day

And I I love hearing people’s opinions um and you know whether it’s positive or negative and I’ve always said that if you’re you’re going to have an opinion put a little bit of thought to it and and please be constructive as you you bring it to us and we’ll we’ll

Definitely take it into consideration yes 100% I agree with that don’t don’t go I hate NASCAR that’s that’s my one of my characters I play you know I hate NASCAR that but they watch the race so anyway that is that is not mature uh to you know create a conversation with you

About that because you know we hear them we see them but okay this is a question now look I stressed over talking to you uh yeah you have a lot of notes there that’s impressive well I do this you know uh this is Kenny conversation this is the real

Me that’s great Kenny Wallace shows where I give my opinion and and I animate a little bit there you know y so there are you know there’s coffee with Kenny which which is me getting out of bed and that found its place and I’ve watched a few of those along the way

Those are great well I had to grow up a little bit too you know so but but you know and and then there’s uh you like I said the Kenny Wallace show is my opinion Kenny conversation is this right here I would say this is more me you

Know I I couldn’t have won nine Xfinity races acting like a nut so we all have to settle down at times um so this is where I want to go with this one I really feel like this is the only time I’m roughing you up uh and it’s not even roughing you up

So I believe 2006 was the height of NASCAR that was like the granddaddy of them all like you know 2006 was when you know we’re 400,000 people in the grand stands at at Indianapolis Motor Speedway you know we 200,000 people at the Daytona 500 now one would have thought that

NASCAR would have went down Hill after the death of our beloved and great Dale senior who was so good to me uh just had to add that in senior was good to me he he let me drive his car to get get started in NASCAR um so here’s the tough question

For me uh but somebody on X ask it and and but I already had it wrote down in your opinion and I have my opinion what caused the societ vital downward shift in NASCAR what what caused now that we look back at it it’s been a long

Time sure what what caused that you know uh for things to just go bad yeah I remember it um you know 2005 2006 it it was a peak of NASCAR as a sport uh and hopefully we’ll get back to those days again we will um you know I

Remember the two-year weight list on some of the racetracks I mean over 100,000 people that would come to a race every single week no matter where we race it was unbelievable um you know I think there a handful of things that that contributed to um to to kind of the

Downward slope that we had I would say probably 0708 really until 2018 um I would say is is where we kind of hit our floor then I think we’ve started to see some flattening and some growth in the past couple of years which is great but I

Should be it to a couple different things um you know one is the financial crisis of of 08 um right if you think about a lot of our fans uh a lot of our fans travel to the racetrack on the weekend they bring their friends and their family um they would fly Sometimes

Some of them would camp in an RV um you know it’s not just the cost of buying the ticket it’s the cost of actually traveling and going to a race um and you know it it wasn’t inexpensive for a lot of people um you know back in the day so

I would say that along with a lot of our fans being um true blue collar workers um and Jim you know has said this before if you think about our core fan base um you know it it it is and has been and probably will continue to be a lot of

Our blueco collar fans and I think they were hit particularly hard during um the financial crisis of OA and you we started kind of this this slow downward decline after that and we talked about some of these other things you had a lot of bigname drivers that retired year

After year um and you saw ratings and viewership like clear metrics fan attendance um relevance you know everything that we were looking at was continuing to decline and you could attribute it to a deal Jr not being in the car for that weekend or Jeff Gordon

Not being in the car for that weekend um so I think that was a part of it and then I would say the other component is just and and this kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier around the Productions building and content is in 2006 our biggest

Competitor were other sports leagues right it was the NFL and NBA and NHL and in a lot of ways they they still are all of our competitors today but our competitors are also just frankly anyone that is making content um you know people watching YouTube videos people watching Netflix people watching um you

Know videos or or pictures on Instagram or X you know content is everywhere today and you know we’re we’re competing against that for our fans attention for people’s attention ATT for potential Partners attention um and it’s a completely different world from where we were almost two decades ago so I think

There’s a handful of things those are the three biggest that that come to my mind um you know but it uh you know it’s definitely a bit of a downward um you know kind of spiral that we had for a little bit and I I think ever since 2018

And 2019 and a lot of the changes that that we’ve had in the sport it’s now finally you know starting to come back and and getting a good spot um you know to we talked about from a ratings and viewership perspective so we’ve got to get continue that momentum and and

Somehow get it back to the days that that you were talking about of you know walking into a Bristol or Dover or Kansas or Richmond and and you know being sold out um you know with hundreds of thousands of people and we’re we’re slowly tipping away at it and getting

There so I’m I’m bullish on the future of the sport certainly it’s uh there’s a lot of learnings that we’ve had over the past 20 years or so I want to say that uh I remember 2008 clearly uh I took my NASCAR money that people make fun of me

About I saved a lot of money and uh I specifically bought a lot of real estate and uh you know I did good with it and here I am but I remember 2008 where the banks loan I’m saying this because I want to remind everybody watching it’s

Not your job do this but in 2008 the downward spiral in the economy was the banks loaned everybody money and they loaned anybody money and they had too much money lent out and they had to they had to call those loans back in so they wanted them to just pay the whole

Damn loan back off and America went spiring down so America our country went crash landing and we were all along for the ride uh Google it if you’re watching this right now so uh yes that was an extreme tough time um yes I’m glad you brought that up so let’s have a little

Fun now you’ve answered other tough questions and I want to thank you uh obviously like ol Larry MCR says I can beat I can beat this like a dead horse I can rough you up till the till the cows come in but let’s have some fun now because you’ve answered the tough stuff

Um in a good way uh who is your best friend NASCAR you you’re you’re a young man but you’re smart you’re mature you you know kids age so quickly now because I always tease that it’s a stero steroids in the chicken nuggets it seems like somebody

Like you you’re so mature uh who is your best friend at NASCAR who’s who’s the one you go to and go hey man let’s go to lunch oh that’s a good question um I would say a lot of the folks on my team probably are so I’ve got a I’ve got a

Great team so um I have scheduling that goes into me so Jan Hamilton has has helped lead a lot of those initiatives uh Joey denowitz has come on board and and uh you know he’s got a lot of experience running short tracks with track Enterprises was at Spire so he has

A little bit of a race team um side to it too and and he’s come on and Run Regional and then uh at design development into me as well with Derrik malown so I would really say it’s my team um it’s also a lot of the folks

That I spend good amount of time around um and I spent a good amount of time around Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell they’ve been you know great mentors great leaders um you know they have more experience in this building uh than than just about anyone else and they’ve seen

They’ve seen NASCAR through the the really bad times um that we just talked about and they’ve seen NASCAR through the good times so being able to to lend a ear onto them uh is is always invaluable and then I would say frankly um you know my mom Lisa and and Jim um

You know Jim has seen this and um you know he grew up literally as his father Bill France Senor was building NASCAR in the 1940s and 50s he got to see it um you know through those days he ran impsa for a number of years on the sports car

Side and he’s running it today so he has a tremendous amount of experience and then you know obviously uh my mom is a good sounding gourd as well she’s you know she grew up I would say a little more on the track side with International Speedway Corporation so um

You know anything that we’re talking about that’s related to schedule or um you know entering new markets you know she was a big part of us racing in Kansas Speedway and Chicago land and you know Fontana Michigan a handful of tracks that we race at today that are

You know pivotal parts of our schedule she helped um make them come together so I think it’s it’s neat to be able to have a responsibility that in a lot of ways aligned with what she grew up doing and what she led um on the ISC side of

The company so uh you know there there are a ton of people that I I get to uh to to bounce ideas off of and and for me that’s priceless at the end of the day and and one more fun question in in a fun way I’m not going to use all these

Important words I think I know the answer but who who is the grand pooa I mean who who is is it Jim is Jim France like the man in in a fun way I’m not cornering you yeah I mean like for me familywise would it seem like you would be but right yeah

But I don’t know yeah I I would say you know the the grand poopa as he said it it would probably be Jim at the end of the day right he’s the CEO of the company um he is at the top of the totem pole um and him and Lisa um you know

They both have very big voices um in the company because you in a lot of ways they they are the company um when I say NASCAR LLC yeah um Steve Phelps obviously is another big leader um I would say is much more involved in a lot of the the day-to-day decisions yeah

Right there are certain decisions that that level up to a board level for recommendation and decisions um there are a lot of day-to-day decisions that Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell um are also making l the way so I’d say the the grand poopa and the grand boss probably Jim at the

End of the day but there are a lot of leaders um and ncar as a company at the end of the day I’m going to call an audible here and have fun with me you’re a businessman is it hard to call your mom Lessa or do you do do you want to

Say Mom do you want to say Mom sometimes but you gotta say Lessa so I’m working on this keny uh if you have any advice please let me know because I I haven’t figured this one out so uh we when I came on it was

Probably two years or so in we we went through this merger and integration right you had International Speedway the tracks you had NASCAR it all kind of came together as a part of that we did um I guess similar to NASCAR 360 but very different at the same time we did

What we call 360 so um we did it for a number of different people in the company and and one of the things that I got as Fe back from from um the person that I was working with is is trying to understand and delineate when to call

Your mom mom and when to call her Lisa at the end of the day got it and what I’ve defaulted to is if it’s um you know a story that I’m telling or a personal setting it’s always mom wow if it’s a business setting I typically um go to

Lisa so uh I haven’t perfected it by any means if anyone has any advice I love it been in situation let me know but it was good advice that I had from a co-worker of mine um that got back to me and uh and now I’m I try to be more thoughtful

About it like I said I I think it’s very heartfelt and I really appreciate you answering that and and I gotta settle up something on my part I I only went 1 through 12 I did not go to you were a 2014 college graduate with with the

University of Florida with a degree in sports management so you’re was smarter than me I went one through 12 so your mother’s name is spelled LSA is that correct Lea yes but you call her Lisa Lisa yep so it’s still it’s still Lisa even though it’s

Lea even though it’s Lea a lot of people spell it l IA obviously but um she’s always gone by Lisa so I guess I’ve always called it Lisa maybe maybe there’s a better pronunciation for it that she hasn’t used but she’s a she’s a badass uh I’m still afraid of her one

Day I I’ll walk up to her but okay uh we’re getting towards the end here um people say why do you always tell your your guests you’re getting to the end I said because I want them to know Tony Tony Stewart would say and Kevin har they like I don’t want this to

End this is fun U this is a good time enjy it yeah yeah yeah this is probably the most light-hearted part of my day so we we just go till the end of the day if you want my meetings we won’t we won’t but um I listen very well even though people

Think I don’t you know they had me on ritland when I was a kid because I really was diagnosed hyperactive but I’m getting better I’m getting to where I can listen now so um you mentioned your mother uh being an integral part of you know scheduling so we were at Chicago land

Well we we had Joliet sure then we went out to Chicago land so we were two Chicago tracks everybody forgets Joe the the one I I’ll never forget the one that uh Kyle Bush won at when he was 15 years old then we had to make the age it’s

Like no no you you want to so we went to that track then we went to the beautiful Chicago land and now we’re into the city of Chicago what was the thought process on creating a street course in Chicago in the city yeah I think it um I think it was a

Handful of things you know we we had run Chicago land for uh the better part of I guess almost two decades at that point we took a break during covid and then um haven’t had the opportunity to go back since but uh for the Chicago Street course you know is really an opportunity

For us to do something new unique different novel in a lot of ways right we had never had a street course in our Sports 75 year history uh but an opportunity to bring NASCAR racing to a lot of people right so if you think about a lot of the the places that we

Race at today um you know fans will travel great distances to make to those racetracks um and a lot of them aren’t necessarily in an urban or metropolitan area uh so it’s a little bit different from that perspective in the sense that not only we bringing the race literally

To people um but we were bringing it to fans that may have gone to Chicago land um from when we were racing there but we also brought a lot of new fans so you know more than four out of five people that walked through those Gates on the

Very rainy rainy Sunday uh had never been to anascar race before and that was their very first experience of of going to anascar race and a lot of those people continue to consume and engage with NASCAR today so um you know I think it was an opportunity to do that

Obviously you know being on big NBC on that weekend was another big part of it in showcasing you know NASCAR racing in a different light in the city of downtown Chicago and you know there’s there’s a handful of other things but you know it was uh it was a really bold

And audacious goal that we had um I could tell you perfectly said yeah the first times that I mentioned it in in the room um you know I almost got laughed out of the room the first couple of times they said you want to do what

And we’re actually going to be able to do this yeah and then did the virtual race and then one thing led to another we were able to to actually make the real race happen last year and we’re gonna come back this year and I can tell

You it is not going to be raining um at all this time when we come on July 6 and 7th because we’ve already got the rain out of the way with Daytona 500 Daytona 500 in Clash we had our rain so it’s gonna be Bright Beautiful and sunny on

Um July six and seventh this year positive mental attitude so um with that said I just want to add something uh my brother Mike said something to me he goes uh you know what happens when you don’t promote and there and there’s silence right do you know what happens when you don’t

Promote nothing baram Bailey so years ago Barnum Bailey you know they had the great circus act to to this day I I thought a lot about you in Chicago uh I’ve heard you loud and clear that was an extremely expensive race for you to put on however we all know that Chicago

The city of Chicago is massive amount of people we know that we know that the suburbs of Illinois they’re you know it’s just Farmland which is awesome we love the farmers but in in in the Kenny Wallace term I think when you went in the city you just kind of

Like they had to pay attention to you cuz you was right there in their face uh and I think to barnon Bailey because you know you promoted the sport and I might add I want to I know I’m longwind I want to say this because of SVG Shane Van gisbergen

One of the greatest NASCAR races of all time him coming from the back and running over that puddle of water you know where it was that puddle of water was there and I’m a race car driver like oh oh you know it was a hell of a race it

Was so everything I just said you you you went downtown it was a hell of a race the skyline was in the background I thought it came off quite well even though it was expensive it was it it it wasn’t a uh inexpensive Endeavor that is for sure um

You know but but to your point I mean you know it was a great opportunity to to get in front of new people that came to the event that tuned in on TV and for the people that either came or tuned in on TV outside of granted there are some

Things that we need to to work on for Saturday and Sunday but they got to see an amazing race um and they got to see SVG which was a bit unprecedented um come and and win that race and it was one of the most talked about things that we had on social media

Last year um was SVG winning that race so uh it created a lot of narratives a lot of storylines uh it was an exciting event um a lot of learnings that we frankly had because we had never done anything like that before right you know if you think about um our our experience

Operating tracks it’s brick and mortar it’s permanent built facilities it’s it’s a Kansas it’s a phoenix it’s a Daytona it’s a Homestead Miami Speedway this was 100% temporary um we were closing down roads we were building temporary structures we were pouring concrete walls inside of downtown Chicago we’re putting up fences um all

Sorts of things that that we don’t traditionally do um and we had we had a lot lot of folks involved on our side we had a lot of conversations obviously with uh the city folks and you know for it to come out the way that it did last

Year uh rain aside it it it uh it was a really neat event and uh you know something that that I think the the company in the sport can be proud of I mean the industry really teams drivers everyone came around that event in a uh in a special way

Too so uh in that same realm like a day or two after the Netflix series full speed after full speed we saw a gain a positive 260,000 on Instagram 41,000 on Facebook 20,000 on X like a day or two after the full speed uh I feel like you’re just doing a

Really good job of promoting the sport right now with full speed with getting in people’s faces that you normally wouldn’t with Chicago I just wanted to I just wanted to say that uh really really not a question but your thought on that I guess yeah no I I I think it’s great

Um you know and in Chicago was an investment for us and I think a lot of ways that paid great dividends and and full speed was an investment for us as well um we brought in words and pictures to come in and produce it and and

Netflix uh was a great partner and you know put it on their platform which was massive so the numbers that you just rattled off are real numbers um you know part of that are is probably Dayton 500 part of that is some of the other storylines that we’ve had but I would

Say a big part of that is is also full speed and and um and creating some really good content that that people can tune in and watch and hopefully gets them to either follow NASCAR even closer than they already do today or say hey maybe maybe we should think about you

Know tuning in you know this weekend to Fox or FS1 or maybe you should think about it’s coming to Charlotte in a couple weeks and I live in the Charlotte area I want to go see what it’s all about I’m gonna come to the coch 600 um

And just to put that grain of thought into their head that they’ll now consider consuming um Nascar coming out to an event is what we’re all hoping for at the end of the day right we want to bring um new fans into the fold and we want to create a really great experience

And a really great racing product for everyone that follows us um and really create something that that they can all be proud of so um you know it’s good to hear those numbers actually I haven’t heard those numbers before um but it uh you know we got to keep this momentum

Going for sure yeah that’s that David Stern guy he he’s uh he’s new to the sport I say new to the sport he’s not new but he’s quality and he’s good for everybody uh just a comment um at at night my wife will be on her computer

Playing games and I’ll be laughing and laughing I laugh so hard my wife says what are you laughing at I said these reals on Instagram I can the point I’m trying to make is you gain NASCAR gained 260,000 on Instagram Dale leard Jr is a

Dear friend of mine we talk uh and he said to me about three years ago and Dale Jr he’ll he’ll hear about this we we talked to each other and he says man Instagram is quality that’s what all our analytics say there’s a lot of fighting on X everybody likes to

Fight and Facebook but that that Instagram and and I know Tik tok’s the big deal right now for the kids I get all that but it seems to me that Instagram is where quality is and I wanted to give you an adoy because 260,000 to me this is me saying this

Instagram is the quality site out of all social media that’s where the quality people are the ones that don’t throw trash in your face all the time so good job on that game that’s a big one and and to end um this is where just a little bit of

Fun right now I’m I’m going to go into character I’m I’m going to do the Kenny Wallace show for a minute okay Ben kennedy better not ruin Bowman great he better not ruin my racetrack so that was my my character because that’s what they say NASCAR it was your

Decision I guess you’re going to run Bowman Gray uh little birdie says that the city has been saying somebody take this over I don’t know if I’m right or wrong comment on Bowman Gray yeah so uh you know we announced Thursday last week that that we’re going

To take over the entity that that will have the lease of bman gray um and you know be operating it so our first race is April 20th it is less than a month away so we have a lot of work to do we brought on Austin schuur um a great

Person he’s uh you know he’s helped promote a number of races at Nashville Fairgrounds he’s been involved with Milwaukee and and Knoxville truck races through track Enterprises he’s gonna be a great leader for that track and if you spend some time with him he is a true

Short track um person he he loves short track and it it’s in his blood and his DNA for sure so excited about that but you know as we started having these conversations and getting back to who is the boss um to the boss one of the first things

That that Jim tell Jim asked us to do and told us to do was make sure that that you keep what makes Bowman Gray Bowman gry Stadium um and you know a big part of that it’s a Racing Products it’s the entertainment that’s on the track it’s frankly a little bit of

Entertainment and you know what happens off the track uh and it’s it’s a way that Greg Garrison and his family have operated that track for decades and his family has and you know this is um a partnership that goes back to we talked about a little bit some of the early

Days of NASCAR this is a partnership that that Jim remembers that he and his dad had with the Hawkin Hawkins family back in um the late 1940s as early as 1949 you know all the way up to the Cub series racing in the 1950s through the 1970s and we’re still running there with

NASCAR weekly modified races so it’s an important relationship it’s an important partnership we actually had um someone with the last name of Hawkins there when we signed the papers um on Wednesday which was so special uh but getting back to my point you know Jim told us and and

You know as soon as we start talking about this is do not mess up this racetrack whatever you do and that is um our goal and our focus is you know we want to keep what the the DNA of Bowman Gray is um because that makes it so

Unique it makes it so special and we’re going to keep Greg Garrison and some of the family members involved for the next couple years they’re going to be with us um for probably every race this year um they’ll be out there this year working with Austin and the team so you know

Excited to take about a lot of those learnings um and experiences that they have because they know every nook and cranny of that place they know what makes uh it work they have a lot of relationships that are invaluable and we’ve got to we’ve got to keep and

Protect that so that is our Focus um on Bowman Gray obviously we got to get our feet underneath of us and Austin’s gonna be a good person but uh we’re excited to get racing April 20th can’t come soon soon enough loc local racing uh is it is

It true uh I was listening to Chocolate Myers on uh on the the the what is it the NASCAR Channel 90 on Series XM he said that uh and this is where I’m only 60 I need to be about 80 to remember this I think but

Did NASCAR run six points races a year there back in the day or I’d have to go back and and double check I it was several um I don’t know if it was exactly six but it was several yeah I want to say they started in um 1956 we

Went through I believe 71 there with a cup series wow 71 points races or sorry 1971 I should say okay okay I don’t know exactly how many points races we had but we had the cup series there for number years um and then we actually had the

Convertible series there I want to say it started in 1957 um and that was there for several years convertible series was was huge back in the day too so and then if you like if you if you rewind the clock another decade um you know the first

Year of NASCAR racing and people forget this it wasn’t predominantly stock cars it was modifi um our first couple of years was really modified racing and you know for the better part of that first decade at Bowman Gray it was predominant L modified um it was modified before he

Actually brought the NASCAR Grand National Series in the late 1950s I remember yep yeah exactly and um we actually we handed out our um a trophy a new Speedway last year for the modified race it was pretty neat so it was 75 years to the day we handed out the

Trophy at newa Speedway was 75 years before we handed out the very first trophy for a modified race on the beaches of Dayton um so it it reminds you about how big modified racing is you know from our roots and where we began but if you go

To Bowman Gray on any Saturday night it’s one of the biggest races of the night and and there’s a reason for that I sure do wish they would have never got rid of mad house on History Channel on the History Channel mad house I have no

I have no idea why that series ended it was the greatest and one last thing real quick um when I think of NASCAR I was the keynote speaker at the Illinois stock car Hall of Fame this year um Soldiers Field so a lot of your NASCAR

Tracks listen to me talk to you but some of the NASCAR tracks back in those days were like Soldiers Field Bowman grade these were like racetracks around football fields uh so it’s really the way you all started it is yeah in a lot of ways it is and you know people

I’ve talked about the Coliseum for the past couple years and yeah uh in some ways look it’s a completely different event it’s in a different Market it’s in Downtown LA but in a lot of ways it’s a little bit you know making a nod back to our history and where we began because

If you overlay the Coliseum on top of Bowman Gray or Soldier Field for that matter back in the day um they are almost identical tracks to each other so Stadium Racing was a thing um you know back in the day and if you go back even

Further uh and I I love looking at some of the old photos of this the old um wooden tracks of you know yeah board tracks the board tracks over 40 degrees of banking um it’s crazy wild and we’ve we’ve raced all sorts of you know different track types you know

Throughout our history whether it’s a Nascar or outside of NASCAR and you know I geek out in some of the history and you know I think Bowman Gray for us in a lot of ways and to what you were mentioning is a little bit of a homecoming in that sense yeah well here

We are uh Ben listen uh you went downtown LA smart move you went downtown Chicago smart move might have been expensive but Barnum Bailey you know uh what do you do if you don’t promote what happens nothing I can guarantee you downtown LA and downtown Chicago they

Know they who they know who NASCAR is now so I just had to say that and uh listen everybody we are on podcast everybody says why is this not in podcast form it is and you can listen to Ben kennedy on your way to work and it’s

So long that you can listen to him on the way back home and you can do it over and over as many times as you want we are in iTunes and we are in podcast so Ben listen I know what’s going to happen they’re going to say why didn’t you ask

Him this why didn’t you ask him that listen my friends it’s been an hour and 18 minutes I can’t tell the complete NASCAR story but you know subscribe right here respond and most again sometime part two is coming soon right Ben thank you so much thank you Kenny I appreciate it

Really enjoyed it today always uh always appreciate the time and appreciate what you uh what you do for the sport thank you and remember everybody we have Danica Patrick coming up Kyle Bush we have some real uh real popular people coming through the pipeline maybe not as popular as Ben kennedy but they’re

Coming down the pipeline all right everybody until next time we’ll see you