1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:02,760
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:07,560
Speaker 2: Yo, Elizabeth Dutton, zaren, I got a question for you.

3
00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:09,639
Speaker 2: Do you have a second, Yeah, okay, so we'll take

4
00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:11,480
Speaker 2: a second. Do you know what's ridiculous?

5
00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:11,799
Speaker 3: Yes?

6
00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:14,200
Speaker 4: Okay, then you just answer. I guess.

7
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:18,319
Speaker 5: Well, messages and emails I get a lot. Yeah, you know,

8
00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,040
Speaker 5: I've been starting to get those emails again, like, oh, congratulations,

9
00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:23,840
Speaker 5: your kids should probably go to our college.

10
00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:25,760
Speaker 4: Oh the other Elizabeth, Yeah.

11
00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:27,520
Speaker 3: But I don't think it's it's I know it's not her.

12
00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:29,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, but well the third Elizabeth Dutton.

13
00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:31,920
Speaker 5: I meant, like a dozen now emails from these like

14
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:33,520
Speaker 5: sort of third tier colleges.

15
00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:35,760
Speaker 3: If I had a kid, they would not be going,

16
00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:37,479
Speaker 3: I'm rooting for your fake kid, thank you.

17
00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,520
Speaker 5: So anyway, emails, messages I get a lot, The show

18
00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:44,440
Speaker 5: gets a lot. The ones that the show gets are

19
00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:44,960
Speaker 5: sent to me.

20
00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:46,800
Speaker 2: I'm sure the people when they see that I have

21
00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:48,840
Speaker 2: not answered an email, they're like, this is ridiculous.

22
00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:53,640
Speaker 3: Probably our show email rarely gets visible.

23
00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,640
Speaker 4: I meant all my emails, yox.

24
00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 3: Just AnyWho, We've been getting a lot of these messages.

25
00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,000
Speaker 2: A particular one, Oh no, oh god, I thought that

26
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:05,760
Speaker 2: we were done with the emails that that was it.

27
00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:06,680
Speaker 4: They got ridiculous.

28
00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:08,679
Speaker 3: Now do you like cheese its?

29
00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:12,160
Speaker 4: Let's just say I do. Move on, okay? Is that it?

30
00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:15,360
Speaker 3: I and you own Converse All Star high Tops.

31
00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:17,000
Speaker 4: Right, I too, and that's where I keep my cheeses.

32
00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,120
Speaker 3: How do you well? Oh, so you have these? There's

33
00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:20,200
Speaker 3: apparently getting me.

34
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:21,040
Speaker 4: I was just joking.

35
00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:26,200
Speaker 3: Clear Converse high top sneakers.

36
00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:29,280
Speaker 4: Clear with Converse High Top cheese.

37
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,440
Speaker 5: It's poured inside like a little pocket like those kangaroo

38
00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:33,280
Speaker 5: shoes you can.

39
00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:34,280
Speaker 4: I'm so confused.

40
00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:36,440
Speaker 2: So the shoe was clear, but the cheese it's were

41
00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:37,760
Speaker 2: going to be on the outside. Does it look like

42
00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,160
Speaker 2: you see my foot and some cheese?

43
00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,080
Speaker 5: It's yeah, you see your sock because you know, let's

44
00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 5: not go barefoot in this job. And then but you

45
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,240
Speaker 5: there's like a window of pocket and that's where the

46
00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,080
Speaker 5: cheese its are and anyone can see your cheese. It's

47
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:51,640
Speaker 5: the cheese its are out for the world to see.

48
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:52,880
Speaker 4: So I'm flexing my cheese.

49
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:57,760
Speaker 5: It's basically so this was on Instagram and it was

50
00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,360
Speaker 5: a post that was done not only by the guy

51
00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,520
Speaker 5: who created them, but cheese it's but they're not for sale, is.

52
00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:05,280
Speaker 4: This even real? Is this like an Ai thing?

53
00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:07,840
Speaker 3: No, it's this guy case In Sullivan.

54
00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:13,639
Speaker 5: If you're curious Instagram at is thank you case God. Okay,

55
00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,480
Speaker 5: And he makes all these he says concept designed by

56
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,680
Speaker 5: me and my spare time for fun. And then the

57
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,160
Speaker 5: smiley face with the stars in its size. Uh huh. Anyway,

58
00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:24,959
Speaker 5: he does this with a lot of tennis shoes, a

59
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,079
Speaker 5: lot of sneakers. He's got Tostitos ones, Tobo Chico oreos,

60
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,480
Speaker 5: you know the what have yours. But if you go

61
00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,760
Speaker 5: to the cheese It shop, they have shoes, but they're slides, okay,

62
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,800
Speaker 5: and they have a cheese It cozy oversized retro hoodie

63
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:42,040
Speaker 5: for seventy dollars.

64
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,400
Speaker 2: Now you said hoodie, right, and maybe you also said slide.

65
00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:46,720
Speaker 2: So did the slides have a pocket?

66
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:48,079
Speaker 3: For two different things?

67
00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:50,680
Speaker 2: I got that part, so I figured the hoodie has

68
00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:52,800
Speaker 2: a pocket. But dude, the stud slide oddly.

69
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:54,400
Speaker 3: Enough, there's no front pocket on the hoodie.

70
00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:56,480
Speaker 4: Wait, wait, you're getting everything. Where am I going to.

71
00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:58,200
Speaker 3: Keep my cheese its? They have a Hawaiian shirt.

72
00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:00,160
Speaker 4: You just keep them in the hood like I got

73
00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 4: a hood full.

74
00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,040
Speaker 3: Of space in your space.

75
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:03,600
Speaker 4: Your story.

76
00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:06,560
Speaker 5: So Case and Sullivan has everyone thinking that cheese Its

77
00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:08,720
Speaker 5: is selling these shoes, but it's just a little special

78
00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 5: project of his.

79
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:13,919
Speaker 2: Oh case, god end, Well, if you got a second

80
00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,520
Speaker 2: now that you've had your cheese It, yes, just to

81
00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:18,240
Speaker 2: clear your palate, I got a story for you.

82
00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:19,919
Speaker 4: It's totally ridiculous, I hope.

83
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:20,040
Speaker 6: So.

84
00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:20,440
Speaker 4: Yeah.

85
00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:22,959
Speaker 2: So there was once an amateur stock driver, you know,

86
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,079
Speaker 2: like a race car driver. He conned everyone he had

87
00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,440
Speaker 2: to to enter the Winston five hundred at the Talladega Speedway, which,

88
00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,840
Speaker 2: mind you, is the longest closed course track in professional motorsports.

89
00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,960
Speaker 2: It's also the fastest track in the world. So he's

90
00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,120
Speaker 2: out there with forty professional race car drivers names you know,

91
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:43,840
Speaker 2: NASCAR legends, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Darryl Waltrip, Bobby Allison

92
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:47,080
Speaker 2: and my favorite part, he said, all of this, the

93
00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,160
Speaker 2: whole idea came to him and basically the responsibility of

94
00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:51,040
Speaker 2: Waylon Jennings.

95
00:03:51,480 --> 00:04:14,920
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, this is ridiculous crime a podcast about absurd

96
00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:16,440
Speaker 7: and outrageous capers.

97
00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:21,040
Speaker 2: Heis and cons it's all weighs ninety nine percent motor

98
00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:28,560
Speaker 2: free and ridiculous. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I know how you love

99
00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:34,599
Speaker 2: to drive fast. I say that teasingly. So I figure

100
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:36,520
Speaker 2: you'll love this story because it's all about speed and

101
00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:39,120
Speaker 2: driving things you love, like you know, racetracks in.

102
00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,080
Speaker 4: The South, so all my favorites.

103
00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,200
Speaker 2: Quick question for you, which major American sport began as

104
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:45,080
Speaker 2: an organized crime?

105
00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:46,720
Speaker 4: Answer?

106
00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:52,359
Speaker 2: Nastall, I don't have a pickle. What maybe, but NASCAR

107
00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,200
Speaker 2: definitely is the only major American sport based on crime.

108
00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:56,880
Speaker 3: I talked about this in the show before.

109
00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:00,000
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, no, I use the rum runner.

110
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,080
Speaker 2: I remember the woman behind the wheels of Lights out

111
00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,960
Speaker 2: souped up thirty two forward flat head v.

112
00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:09,000
Speaker 4: Eight talking about her with the product shop. No.

113
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,279
Speaker 2: Now, you may already know this, but Nascar, as I said,

114
00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,039
Speaker 2: started out as a way for run runners to see

115
00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,559
Speaker 2: who was fastest. They would take those souped up cars

116
00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,360
Speaker 2: and they became the stock cars of NASCAR. So basically,

117
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,200
Speaker 2: for a rum runner, as you've you know, I think

118
00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:23,440
Speaker 2: you know this, but we'll just pretend you don't.

119
00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:24,920
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, you take a.

120
00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:27,479
Speaker 2: Stock car right off the showroom floor, right you say

121
00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,640
Speaker 2: the aforementioned thirty two forward flathead V eight, I preferred

122
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:33,560
Speaker 2: favorite of the rum runners in the know. And next

123
00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:36,240
Speaker 2: you modified the engine, you soup it up and then

124
00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:38,680
Speaker 2: you rip out the seats and the floorboards any excess

125
00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,080
Speaker 2: weight you can. You load up a suspension with new

126
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:43,320
Speaker 2: springs for all the extra weight of the booze you

127
00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,520
Speaker 2: plan to carry down those mountain dirt roads. Then you

128
00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:48,679
Speaker 2: add a metal plate in the front of the car

129
00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,040
Speaker 2: that's to protect the radiator, but also to give you

130
00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,520
Speaker 2: a little weight if you need to smash through a blockade.

131
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,200
Speaker 2: So now you got yourself a nice good rum runner.

132
00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:58,720
Speaker 2: So you gotta go up the mountains, get yourself a

133
00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:01,520
Speaker 2: load of illegal booze, and you make that run down

134
00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:04,840
Speaker 2: from the hills where the moonshine stills are located. And

135
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,440
Speaker 2: then once you load up, you race back down to

136
00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:09,440
Speaker 2: the low country where all the thirsty people are on

137
00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:10,360
Speaker 2: the speakeasies.

138
00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:12,159
Speaker 4: It's a great life, yep.

139
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,480
Speaker 2: And Willie Carter Sharp was probably I was impressed because

140
00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:17,120
Speaker 2: I had not really a good you know, you hear

141
00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:20,839
Speaker 2: about her, but like the speed you describe, Yeah, and

142
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,440
Speaker 2: these cars like these, these are not cars with power brakes,

143
00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:25,120
Speaker 2: these are not cars of power steering.

144
00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,240
Speaker 4: These are cars it's like just basically like.

145
00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,240
Speaker 2: Really lean into the turn, you know. Yeah, anyway, so

146
00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:32,880
Speaker 2: you know, also you're doing this you're killing your headlights.

147
00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:35,880
Speaker 2: You're doing this in the dark on a dirt road. Right, Well,

148
00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:38,120
Speaker 2: great fun was had by all, then all of a

149
00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:40,440
Speaker 2: sudden nineteen thirty three prohibition INDs.

150
00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:40,760
Speaker 4: Yep.

151
00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:43,600
Speaker 2: Now you got all these rum runners with a skill set,

152
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:44,839
Speaker 2: but no way to get paid for it.

153
00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:46,479
Speaker 4: So what do they do? Well, Elizabeth, I'll tell you

154
00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:48,760
Speaker 4: don't even worry. They do what they do best.

155
00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,000
Speaker 2: They keep driving fast for money, except for now they

156
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,480
Speaker 2: do it on dirt flat tracks all around the South,

157
00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,080
Speaker 2: and nude and nude before paying audiences with their like

158
00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,200
Speaker 2: you know, pet pig. So in nineteen thirty six, Tone

159
00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,320
Speaker 2: of Florida held a race, the first professional organized stock

160
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,440
Speaker 2: car race. Right, the audience loved it, but the guy

161
00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:07,960
Speaker 2: didn't make any money. The promoter sotally, oh yeah, it

162
00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,160
Speaker 2: took a little bit of time. A decade passes before

163
00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:12,239
Speaker 2: they can kind of get this racing culture to grow

164
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:13,320
Speaker 2: and spread across South.

165
00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:13,560
Speaker 4: Right.

166
00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,600
Speaker 2: By nineteen forty seven, Boom NASCAR is founded. Next year,

167
00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,320
Speaker 2: nineteen forty eight, in February, Batance again back down in Daytona, Florida,

168
00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,200
Speaker 2: NASCAR holds its first professional race. Now do you know

169
00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:25,280
Speaker 2: who the winning driver was?

170
00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:27,200
Speaker 3: Barney Oldfield.

171
00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:29,440
Speaker 4: Good guess, Red Byron.

172
00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:32,040
Speaker 3: I only know Barney Oldfield because I did actually get

173
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:33,080
Speaker 3: a speeding ticket.

174
00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:35,880
Speaker 4: Once'ntil I called you, my grandmother was.

175
00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:41,280
Speaker 5: All, look at you, Barney Oldfield like weepings ashamed Barney.

176
00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:42,920
Speaker 3: That's the only way I know that name.

177
00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:43,400
Speaker 4: Well.

178
00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,600
Speaker 2: Red Byron was a former real life Moonshiner who notably

179
00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:49,400
Speaker 2: was driving a Ford. A lot of Fords in this

180
00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,280
Speaker 2: for you. And this means, by the way, the very

181
00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:54,560
Speaker 2: first NASCAR race was one by a criminal.

182
00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:56,360
Speaker 3: So boom right here it is.

183
00:07:56,440 --> 00:08:00,119
Speaker 2: Now this brings us to my dude, NASCAR's mysterious legend

184
00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:04,120
Speaker 2: w Right. Larry Woody, a Tennessee sports writer. He once said,

185
00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:05,840
Speaker 2: I quote, if he could have driven as fast as

186
00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:08,320
Speaker 2: he talked, L W. Wright would be a NASCAR champion.

187
00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,320
Speaker 2: Now yeah, now L. W. Wright is the gnome do

188
00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:13,880
Speaker 2: race for the amateur driver. It's not his real name.

189
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 2: The professional con man who woke up one day and

190
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:17,840
Speaker 2: he decided, you know, I think I'm going to go

191
00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,800
Speaker 2: race the best drivers in the world at the biggest, longest,

192
00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:22,800
Speaker 2: fastest track in the world. I'm gonna go do that.

193
00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:23,680
Speaker 2: So that's what he did.

194
00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,960
Speaker 5: It's the longest track, I mean who cares the closet.

195
00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:31,000
Speaker 5: But I mean they're going around and around and around.

196
00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,679
Speaker 4: Yeah, for five hundred miles. Sure, so it's a lot

197
00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:34,079
Speaker 4: of miles.

198
00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:36,080
Speaker 3: They don't have to do as many turns if the

199
00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:36,800
Speaker 3: track's longer.

200
00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,760
Speaker 4: No, that's true. The turn it's just a bunch of

201
00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:41,600
Speaker 4: left turns. Yeah.

202
00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:43,199
Speaker 3: Well they don't have to use their blinkers.

203
00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:45,800
Speaker 4: No, they definitely save it on the turn.

204
00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:47,560
Speaker 3: They don't need. Yeah, the blinker fluid.

205
00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:50,000
Speaker 2: A lot of blinker fluid saved in NASCAR. They don't

206
00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,040
Speaker 2: even think they have blinker fluid sponsors.

207
00:08:52,559 --> 00:09:01,280
Speaker 3: They do, do they? Okay, American blinker fluid Jimmy All yeah, yeah, I.

208
00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:03,319
Speaker 4: Know you're you're probably I know I'm right, man. I

209
00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:04,440
Speaker 4: don't even know how I forgot that.

210
00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:06,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm full of correct facts.

211
00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:09,000
Speaker 2: So how does my dude l W. Writ con is

212
00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,520
Speaker 2: way onto the track? Well, the year Elizabeth is nineteen

213
00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:13,360
Speaker 2: eighty two. I want you to frame your mind. You're

214
00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,160
Speaker 2: in the Reagan's America. The month is April. Larry Wright.

215
00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:19,160
Speaker 2: He contacts the local paper, the Nashville newspaper, the Tennessee,

216
00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,440
Speaker 2: and he offers a newspaper a news item. You know,

217
00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:23,720
Speaker 2: anybody could do this in newspaper it publishes it and

218
00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,640
Speaker 2: I quote. Nashville driver L. W. Wright yesterday announced he

219
00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:28,880
Speaker 2: will be attempting to qualify for next week's Winston five

220
00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,920
Speaker 2: hundred Grand National Race at Talladega, Alabama. The thirty year

221
00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:34,400
Speaker 2: old right, a veteran of forty five Grand National races,

222
00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:37,080
Speaker 2: will drive a nineteen eighty one Monte Carlo. The name

223
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,760
Speaker 2: of Wright's team is Music City Racing, and among his

224
00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:43,200
Speaker 2: sponsors are country music stars Merle Haggard and TG Shephard.

225
00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 2: Haggard is scheduled to appear at Talladega with his driver.

226
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:46,640
Speaker 3: Wow.

227
00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, so as simple as that story was, fantastic story. Yeah,

228
00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:53,800
Speaker 2: do you think it's true? No, No, it was not

229
00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:57,480
Speaker 2: true at all. Country music legends backing at amateur race

230
00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,960
Speaker 2: car driver no one's heard of. People are like, oh,

231
00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:00,800
Speaker 2: I'm gonna print that.

232
00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:03,320
Speaker 3: But you know, I don't think Hank done it that way.

233
00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:07,560
Speaker 4: You're spot on. So turns out, uh, LW.

234
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,359
Speaker 2: Wright, He he did get onto the track of Talladega

235
00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:12,560
Speaker 2: that day, and how he did it and who he

236
00:10:12,679 --> 00:10:16,480
Speaker 2: was remained a mystery for forty years, okay forty years,

237
00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:18,160
Speaker 2: no one knew who this guy he.

238
00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:19,960
Speaker 3: Got on the track did his car, He got in

239
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:20,400
Speaker 3: the car.

240
00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:22,720
Speaker 4: No, he didn't like run like he was racing a horse.

241
00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:24,440
Speaker 3: Just like I thought. Was he like glad handing?

242
00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,319
Speaker 5: Like walking around one going to get my carts around

243
00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:27,760
Speaker 5: the corner?

244
00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:30,360
Speaker 4: Nineteen eighty one Monte Carlo and he took it out.

245
00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:33,240
Speaker 5: That's such a great in my mind, I see like

246
00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:37,720
Speaker 5: current Nascar, and then I see him Monte Carlo like

247
00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:38,680
Speaker 5: not tricked out.

248
00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:39,800
Speaker 4: A dust you boys.

249
00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:44,000
Speaker 2: So on the fortieth anniversary, journalists Rick Houston and Steve

250
00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,960
Speaker 2: Wade from Scene Vault podcast, they broke the story that

251
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:48,600
Speaker 2: they had found L. W.

252
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:48,840
Speaker 4: Wright.

253
00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,280
Speaker 2: Nascar goes nuts right all the bad like are you

254
00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:54,200
Speaker 2: kidding me? The legend was finally ready to let his

255
00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:57,520
Speaker 2: story be known. He was ready to kill the mystery.

256
00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:01,240
Speaker 2: It took Rick Houston hundreds of exchange messages to earn

257
00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:02,880
Speaker 2: this dude's trust and the trust of his family, but

258
00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:04,600
Speaker 2: eventually he is able to speak with L. W.

259
00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:04,840
Speaker 4: Wright.

260
00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,960
Speaker 2: So turns out, in nineteen eighty two, L. W. Wright

261
00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:11,120
Speaker 2: was working as a bus repair garage he just north

262
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:14,559
Speaker 2: of Nashville in a town called Hendersonville, Tennessee. Now Nashville

263
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:16,839
Speaker 2: is known as Music City, the country music capital of

264
00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:19,160
Speaker 2: the world, which also meant big country stars of that

265
00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,040
Speaker 2: era brought their tour buses over to Hendersonville to get

266
00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:25,160
Speaker 2: their buses repaired and ready for the road. Yeah, that's

267
00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,080
Speaker 2: where Old L. W. Wright rubbed elbows with the glitterati

268
00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,920
Speaker 2: of country music legends like Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Willie Nelson,

269
00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,679
Speaker 2: Waaley Jennings, Merle Haggard and so and so. Now, being

270
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,040
Speaker 2: that close to the country music stars gives Old L. W.

271
00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:39,800
Speaker 2: Wright a big idea. Now, if you ask him, Wright

272
00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,040
Speaker 2: credits Whylon Jennings for why he was on that track

273
00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:45,920
Speaker 2: that fateful day. Now, he tells this story rather casually

274
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:48,240
Speaker 2: and so quote Whyal and Jennis. He was sitting in

275
00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,360
Speaker 2: an apartment studio in Hendersonville. This is how Wright tells it.

276
00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:51,520
Speaker 4: Now.

277
00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,360
Speaker 2: Quote George Jones and Merle Haggard was there to do

278
00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:56,320
Speaker 2: a duet on a new album that evening.

279
00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:58,559
Speaker 4: They told me to come over. Wanted to talk to me.

280
00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:00,880
Speaker 4: That was the three of them there. Mer All was

281
00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,040
Speaker 4: called me Hoss because I was a big old boy.

282
00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:05,880
Speaker 4: He said, haas, will hear you want a race? I said, well,

283
00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:06,440
Speaker 4: we're trying.

284
00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:08,720
Speaker 2: He said, why don't you let us make a little

285
00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:10,680
Speaker 2: bit of money help you get there. We're not gonna

286
00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:12,560
Speaker 2: stand a lot of sponsorship, but we're gonna give you

287
00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:13,400
Speaker 2: money to race with.

288
00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:15,000
Speaker 4: Right that's his story.

289
00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:17,720
Speaker 5: So these guys are just hanging out like tuning it

290
00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:21,079
Speaker 5: up smart and whatever, and they're like, you know, get

291
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,600
Speaker 5: the bus mechanicsous come over here, get over here.

292
00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:26,400
Speaker 2: You tell me a story. The other day, we gotta

293
00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,080
Speaker 2: get him. And I love he says, hass because it's wayling.

294
00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,160
Speaker 2: Jennings is known for calling people haas and not but whatever,

295
00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:34,880
Speaker 2: you know, So he's got this country boy's dream. Whalen

296
00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:37,040
Speaker 2: Jennings telling you need to go drive as fast as

297
00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:40,400
Speaker 2: you can right now. Anyway, our amateur race driver L. W.

298
00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:43,960
Speaker 2: Wright says Merle Haggard ponies up three grand. The other guys,

299
00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:46,679
Speaker 2: George Jones, Whale and Jennings are like, oh, I gotta get.

300
00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:47,080
Speaker 4: My three grand.

301
00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:48,839
Speaker 2: I don't know how they'll have three grand on him,

302
00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:50,360
Speaker 2: if it's that night, or if they go to the

303
00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:51,280
Speaker 2: bank and say, LW.

304
00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:52,080
Speaker 4: You come by it later.

305
00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:55,080
Speaker 3: Anyway, in those days, it was required to have three grand.

306
00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:55,480
Speaker 4: In your pocket.

307
00:12:55,559 --> 00:12:56,880
Speaker 2: You know, if you're going to a guitar pick and

308
00:12:56,920 --> 00:12:58,880
Speaker 2: you want to bring three grand exactly.

309
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:00,360
Speaker 4: So according to they.

310
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,400
Speaker 2: Said, Hus, they'll take care of your tires and mobtail bill,

311
00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:05,240
Speaker 2: won't it. I had a lot of friends that got

312
00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:07,600
Speaker 2: into music, and I didn't use any of them other

313
00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:08,920
Speaker 2: than what they wanted to do.

314
00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:10,360
Speaker 4: So he's always saying that it's.

315
00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:11,800
Speaker 3: Their idea made me do it.

316
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:14,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, they basically twisted my rubber arm. So if you

317
00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,439
Speaker 2: ask lw Right that what he did with the Country

318
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,800
Speaker 2: Music's Legends money, he said he sold a bulldozer and

319
00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,040
Speaker 2: then he paired that money with the country stars money,

320
00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:24,839
Speaker 2: and he purchased himself that nineteen eighty one Chevy money.

321
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,719
Speaker 5: Carlo, Wait, two questions, One, why didn't you just race

322
00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:30,600
Speaker 5: the bulldozer? He was such a good mechanic. Two, why

323
00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:31,640
Speaker 5: did he own a bulldozer?

324
00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:32,880
Speaker 4: He didn't have a big enough ratchet.

325
00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,640
Speaker 2: And the second one is he used that to pay

326
00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:39,640
Speaker 2: for the donkey he wanted to eventually get because his

327
00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:41,560
Speaker 2: kids love that. So he's like, Okay, I'll use the

328
00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:44,000
Speaker 2: bulldozer to pay for the donkey. I cant for it now.

329
00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:45,560
Speaker 3: I think he stole the bulldozer.

330
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:46,400
Speaker 4: No, I don't know.

331
00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:48,480
Speaker 2: Why he just had a bulldozer. He's like, I don't

332
00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:50,199
Speaker 2: know why did I buy this? I was drunk and

333
00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:50,719
Speaker 2: I bought the.

334
00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:52,959
Speaker 3: Bulldozer, so an impulse purchased.

335
00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:55,680
Speaker 2: He was at to check how he was like, candy

336
00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:58,520
Speaker 2: bar bulldozer, I have bulldozer. IM ain't that hungry. So

337
00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:01,800
Speaker 2: keep in mind he did just buy any nineteen eighty

338
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:04,280
Speaker 2: one Chevy Monte Carlo. He bought a race car from

339
00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:07,600
Speaker 2: Cuckoo Marlin in his future Daytona five hundred winning son

340
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 2: Sterling Marlin. Cuckoo Cuckoo, Cuckoo Marlin and Sterling Marlin.

341
00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:12,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh huh cuckoo.

342
00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:16,640
Speaker 4: Whi's a NASCAR You got to get used to this name.

343
00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:18,319
Speaker 4: That is not what his mama named him. She did

344
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,040
Speaker 4: not name him cuckoo. Yeah. So, as L. W.

345
00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:23,240
Speaker 2: Wright recalled it, I said, I'll buy it if you'll

346
00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,320
Speaker 2: only paint the car black and put number thirty four

347
00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:27,240
Speaker 2: on it. So he's now telling them they take this

348
00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:29,200
Speaker 2: all red car painted black, put thirty four in and

349
00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:31,920
Speaker 2: I'm taking it. Now he's got his race car. Things

350
00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:34,760
Speaker 2: are proceeding well for old LW. But LW had another

351
00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,200
Speaker 2: issue that was going to probably darken some skies for him.

352
00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:40,320
Speaker 2: This troubled. This cloud hovering above him was the FBI.

353
00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:42,960
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so he was a coal miner at the time.

354
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:44,920
Speaker 2: Least that's what he said. And if you ask LW. Wright,

355
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,600
Speaker 2: this is when he was also a bus repairman. He

356
00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 2: had a lot of jobs apparently, or he was overlapping,

357
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:51,640
Speaker 2: I don't know, but he was in coal mining at

358
00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,120
Speaker 2: the time. And his version goes like this, compy, we

359
00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:55,840
Speaker 2: were doing some work for They had a safe and

360
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:57,640
Speaker 2: they had money in it, and they told the law

361
00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:00,040
Speaker 2: enforcement and they told the insurance people that they I

362
00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,360
Speaker 2: had one hundred thousand in there. I'm here to tell

363
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,160
Speaker 2: you today there was exactly one thousand dollars in that safe.

364
00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:06,280
Speaker 4: I didn't go.

365
00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:08,600
Speaker 2: And get it, but it was brought to me. They

366
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,200
Speaker 2: did that so the insurance would pay them. But I'm

367
00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:11,960
Speaker 2: the bad guy.

368
00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:14,560
Speaker 3: It's always someone else exactly.

369
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:18,120
Speaker 2: He's a victim of circumstances. Really, So this money was

370
00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:21,080
Speaker 2: allegedly LW. Wright's motivation to make the money as a

371
00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:23,120
Speaker 2: race car driver. His answer is, I got this problem

372
00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:25,320
Speaker 2: with the FBI. I should probably go under Talladega to

373
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:28,320
Speaker 2: make the thousand dollars I need. So he's gonna pay

374
00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:30,280
Speaker 2: back that grand, So he put it.

375
00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,760
Speaker 3: He spent the grand on the bulldozer exactly.

376
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,240
Speaker 4: All these impulse purchases. This is not his only impulse purchase.

377
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:38,240
Speaker 4: You know, that's what I'm sane.

378
00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:40,680
Speaker 2: So anyway, Yes, he put it quote, that was my

379
00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,320
Speaker 2: goal to make it right. I knew I could do it.

380
00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:45,840
Speaker 2: I knew I could run fast enough, qualify and all

381
00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,000
Speaker 2: that stuff. But it didn't work out that way.

382
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:53,760
Speaker 5: He wanted to make it right. Yeah, with thew.

383
00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:57,040
Speaker 2: The FBI investigation, the tanging over him, it became a

384
00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:00,240
Speaker 2: bit of a distraction for LW. Let me put it

385
00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:02,600
Speaker 2: this way. He says, it was hard because you got

386
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,720
Speaker 2: to focus on every face in the crowd. You don't

387
00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:06,920
Speaker 2: know who's gonna walk up on you at any minute.

388
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:09,080
Speaker 2: You wouldn't know how to handle that. Plus the stress

389
00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:11,640
Speaker 2: on you that you gotta do good. You gotta qualify,

390
00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,600
Speaker 2: You gotta get out there and run this race. You

391
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:15,120
Speaker 2: gotta finish in the top fifteen.

392
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:17,480
Speaker 4: Can't hit the FBI hanging over here. You got a

393
00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,240
Speaker 4: race to win. It's like an Elvis Presley movie. You

394
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:22,480
Speaker 4: gotta win this race. Elvit. I gotta win this race.

395
00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:25,400
Speaker 4: And the FBI is here, Elvis, FBI is here.

396
00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,520
Speaker 2: Anyway, A lot of pressure got this first time car

397
00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:30,840
Speaker 2: driver and now throw in he's a con artist who

398
00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,520
Speaker 2: shouldn't be there, adding the FBI agents who her it

399
00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:36,160
Speaker 2: e'tone about to grab him. There's a lot of pressure

400
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:38,840
Speaker 2: for old hell wie he is, but he talks his

401
00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,120
Speaker 2: way onto the track at Talidaga. Now, as I said earlier,

402
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,800
Speaker 2: it's the biggest, longest track, the fastest track in the world,

403
00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:47,640
Speaker 2: the true long daddy, Elizabeth. So he said, and I quote,

404
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:50,000
Speaker 2: I remember pulling in the infield and standing at the

405
00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:52,320
Speaker 2: end of the track and looking down at looked over

406
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,160
Speaker 2: at my brother and I said, Lord, have mercy.

407
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,880
Speaker 4: Ain't no way? He said, Well, what do you mean?

408
00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:58,440
Speaker 4: I said, you think about.

409
00:16:58,160 --> 00:16:59,960
Speaker 2: Holding that pedal flat on the floor all the way

410
00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:02,640
Speaker 2: around this track? That straightaway is almost a mile long.

411
00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:04,680
Speaker 2: How much can that car game before you go into

412
00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:10,560
Speaker 2: that urn? So cold, dark fear rolled through lw Right.

413
00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:12,919
Speaker 2: So what does our com man racer do, Elizabeth.

414
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:15,840
Speaker 3: Well, he's just a little old lump of coal, and

415
00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:18,080
Speaker 3: that that pressure's gonna turn him into a diamond.

416
00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:20,680
Speaker 2: Oh, I love it, because he just needed the Lord

417
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:22,840
Speaker 2: to help him. That's the extra pressure he needs.

418
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:23,960
Speaker 3: Wait, the Lord helped him.

419
00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:25,040
Speaker 4: He asked God for help.

420
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:27,680
Speaker 2: I got off by myself that day, and I said, Lord,

421
00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:29,800
Speaker 2: I'm down here, but I'm gonna need some help.

422
00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:32,760
Speaker 5: God's like, okay, I've got a really long list of

423
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:34,440
Speaker 5: tickets that people have put in for help.

424
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:35,760
Speaker 3: But you, LW.

425
00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:38,600
Speaker 4: When I get done with Ethiopia, I'll be right there. LW.

426
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,200
Speaker 2: We got the starvation going on, but I swear you're

427
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:43,879
Speaker 2: next in line. There's just millions of them. It's only

428
00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:46,280
Speaker 2: one of you. It's a number things, LW. So anyway,

429
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:48,720
Speaker 2: I was reading that quote and I was like, my

430
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:51,040
Speaker 2: brother in Christ, this is what we in the story.

431
00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:54,000
Speaker 2: Bill is just called a gross understatement. I'm gonna need

432
00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:56,080
Speaker 2: some help. You're gonna need a lot of help.

433
00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:57,639
Speaker 4: You're gonna need like six.

434
00:17:57,480 --> 00:17:59,840
Speaker 2: Gods worth of help to get any chance to win

435
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,320
Speaker 2: in this race, even gods like Paul. You're asking for

436
00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:05,040
Speaker 2: a lot here. So okay, let's take a little break

437
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:07,120
Speaker 2: and then we'll after these messages. I'll tell you we'll

438
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,120
Speaker 2: get into Talladega that very fateful day.

439
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:25,280
Speaker 8: Nice.

440
00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:31,760
Speaker 2: All right, Elizabeth, we're back and we're all about to

441
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:33,240
Speaker 2: be in Talladega.

442
00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, we are now, Elizabeth, Charlie, it.

443
00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:40,560
Speaker 2: Is it true that Talladega Knights is your favorite Will

444
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:41,359
Speaker 2: Ferrell movie.

445
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:42,240
Speaker 3: Yes it is.

446
00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:43,679
Speaker 4: I remembered you saying that.

447
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:43,960
Speaker 7: True.

448
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:44,800
Speaker 4: I thought I remember that.

449
00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:48,200
Speaker 3: It's like that, or let's say that an old school school.

450
00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:52,200
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's no racing in old school. So let's

451
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:53,320
Speaker 2: talk about Talladega Knights.

452
00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:58,159
Speaker 3: I love that movie. I own it on Blu Ray.

453
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:00,760
Speaker 3: You're laughing, I'm serious.

454
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:01,080
Speaker 4: You are.

455
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:07,560
Speaker 2: Do you have a Blu ray player somewhere? Do you

456
00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,080
Speaker 2: remember the scene when he did he needed to master

457
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,879
Speaker 2: his fear and then he's like he's like, he's like,

458
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,280
Speaker 2: you know, teacher for teaching him how to drive.

459
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:15,840
Speaker 4: Dad.

460
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,399
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ricky Bobby is sitting there and his dad's like, Okay,

461
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,040
Speaker 2: you need a cougar in your car. He gets in

462
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,480
Speaker 2: and there's a cougar in his market and he has

463
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:24,800
Speaker 2: to drive with the cougar.

464
00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,160
Speaker 4: Yes, first time I saw that, lost it, lost it.

465
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,960
Speaker 4: It's like there's some stuff my dad would, Boy, you

466
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:35,440
Speaker 4: need a cougar in the car. Yeah, you're right, there

467
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:36,639
Speaker 4: is a cougar in the car.

468
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,639
Speaker 2: Anyway, So imagine if Will Ferrell wasn't in a movie,

469
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 2: right and no, imagine Will Farrell was really racing against

470
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:46,399
Speaker 2: the real life NASCAR drivers, Like I know the dude's

471
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:47,920
Speaker 2: a dope drummer, but I don't care how dope a

472
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:48,399
Speaker 2: drummer is.

473
00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:51,200
Speaker 4: He couldn't handle that speed. We're talking two hundred miles

474
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:52,040
Speaker 4: in a drummer.

475
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:53,720
Speaker 3: Are you confusing him with Chad Smith?

476
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 4: No, he's a drummer, girl, drummer.

477
00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:56,639
Speaker 3: I've seen him.

478
00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,200
Speaker 4: He's really good, is he? Chad Smith says he's I

479
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:05,200
Speaker 4: don't drum know. I believe the Chili Peppers Elizabeth will Ferrell, Yes,

480
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:06,199
Speaker 4: one of them.

481
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:10,399
Speaker 2: I think they take tours. He's like, I need to

482
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:12,520
Speaker 2: get out for a little sabbatical. Chad, you do some

483
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:14,160
Speaker 2: comedy which explained some of the movie choices.

484
00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:14,400
Speaker 5: Yeah.

485
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,400
Speaker 2: Oh so anyway, so the as I was saying two

486
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:20,720
Speaker 2: hundred miles an hours basically, how fast these guys are going?

487
00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:22,000
Speaker 3: Really fast? Yes?

488
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,800
Speaker 5: Really really, that's like five eighty Oakland speeds exactly.

489
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,440
Speaker 2: We know these speeds. You've seen them on the freeway

490
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:31,439
Speaker 2: zipping by. Okay, So race weekend comes.

491
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:31,920
Speaker 4: L W.

492
00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:34,240
Speaker 2: Wright is officially now listed as one of the drivers.

493
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:35,840
Speaker 2: He's in all this stuff. You look in the paper

494
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,879
Speaker 2: it says, oh yeah, Dale Earnhardt, LW. Wright, What the

495
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,840
Speaker 2: who's this? L? W Right, public relations director for the track,

496
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:46,240
Speaker 2: Tom Roberts, he would say, quote after the fact, NASCAR.

497
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:47,200
Speaker 4: Was fooled like everybody else.

498
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,600
Speaker 2: Normally new drivers are checked out before they were giving

499
00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,360
Speaker 2: a license, but this wasn't a normal case. This guy

500
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,520
Speaker 2: dropped names and places and just simply talked his way in.

501
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,320
Speaker 3: He had a press release with them. Yeah, like the

502
00:21:01,359 --> 00:21:01,840
Speaker 3: old boy.

503
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, there's l w Right. That dude's having a crisis

504
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:06,919
Speaker 2: of confidence at this point. And I quote from l

505
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:09,040
Speaker 2: W I was real nervous. I was there with the

506
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 2: biggest names in racing and me and nobody from back

507
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:13,760
Speaker 2: in the hills of Virginia, but no background like that.

508
00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 2: I knew I didn't have the ability they had because

509
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 2: they'd done it for years.

510
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:21,879
Speaker 3: The little rebel whoop at the end.

511
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,919
Speaker 2: Something that's authenticity, Elizabeth, That's what that is. So now

512
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,040
Speaker 2: he's at talent dig L W. Wright has to pass

513
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,040
Speaker 2: for a professional race car driver. Cuckoo Marlin and son

514
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:33,920
Speaker 2: Sterling Martin. They've sold a stock.

515
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:34,159
Speaker 4: Car to L.

516
00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:36,040
Speaker 2: W Right, so he's got an official car. He looks

517
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:37,440
Speaker 2: like he belongs there.

518
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:38,399
Speaker 3: Now did he check it.

519
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,400
Speaker 5: Out as a mechanic to make sure? Because if I'm

520
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,880
Speaker 5: a NASCAR driver and some upstart, says, can I.

521
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 3: Buy y'all's car? I go, yeah, sure, take.

522
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:49,959
Speaker 5: This one, like my busted up one, the janky one

523
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 5: I got like, hey, that's what you do that?

524
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:54,520
Speaker 8: Yeah, hey, take this car.

525
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,639
Speaker 4: I got this limit of the car over quickly in tune.

526
00:21:57,720 --> 00:21:59,560
Speaker 3: Don't even look at it. It's perfect.

527
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:01,399
Speaker 4: Just don't yeah, don't kick those tires. Oh you know,

528
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 4: come on, and then it's just race back on the

529
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:06,080
Speaker 4: starting line. Don't start it here put.

530
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 3: You'll never mess with Cuckoo.

531
00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 2: So my man to Sterling Marlin. His father with Cuckoo

532
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 2: was racing. So he's busy. He can't like be bothered

533
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 2: with this. But Sterling is a young man. He's like,

534
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:20,560
Speaker 2: you know, like twenty one, twenty two or whatever. I

535
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:21,280
Speaker 2: think he's twenty five.

536
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:23,879
Speaker 3: He twenty eight thirty, doesn't it's.

537
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 4: Very handsome, twenty seven, so surly marn.

538
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 2: He told ESPN back in twenty nineteen in a story

539
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,160
Speaker 2: about this before the mystery had been revealed.

540
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,160
Speaker 4: Quote, now I'd never heard of this guy, right, but that.

541
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,000
Speaker 3: But you sold him a car, sir.

542
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:40,719
Speaker 2: Oh, it gets better than that, because he's like lw

543
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 2: is lying to his face. Remember in his press release,

544
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,639
Speaker 2: he said he had forty five, and he told Sterling

545
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:47,720
Speaker 2: forty three whatever. He's like somewhere in the forties, and

546
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:50,200
Speaker 2: it's all telling him he's flat track races in Virginia.

547
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:52,720
Speaker 2: So this guy's a racers. Dad's a racer. Grip rates.

548
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:54,399
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, yeah, do you know this guy? He's like, oh,

549
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:55,600
Speaker 2: I don't know him. He don't know this guy.

550
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:56,160
Speaker 4: I don't know him.

551
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:57,879
Speaker 2: He starts listen down. He doesn't know any of the

552
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 2: names of any of the current flat track drive. Doesn't

553
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,199
Speaker 2: bother him, startling like that's kind of weird. So somehow

554
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:03,720
Speaker 2: this works.

555
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 4: To his benefit. Sterling's like, you know what, I bet

556
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 4: this guy needs help.

557
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 2: This is my dad's busy, he decides, and I quote,

558
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 2: so I decided I'm gonna go down there with him

559
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:11,920
Speaker 2: kind of be like his crew chief, just to keep

560
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:12,520
Speaker 2: an eye on him.

561
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 6: You know.

562
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,240
Speaker 2: As soon as we got there, it all got even fishier.

563
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:17,479
Speaker 2: He decides, this guy is weird and crazy. I think

564
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,240
Speaker 2: he's lying to me. I should get closer and spend

565
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 2: more of my time.

566
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:22,160
Speaker 3: On this what like a pro bono crew chief.

567
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:23,640
Speaker 4: Yes, he's not getting paid.

568
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:26,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's doing like he just get this guy,

569
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 2: by the way, I mean, you got l W walking

570
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 2: around in this garage and he's doing like what you

571
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,280
Speaker 2: would do, Elizabeth. He's like, I have that ratchet, you know,

572
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,280
Speaker 2: we see this other ratchet over here. I need the

573
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 2: Everyone's like, who the hell is this dude?

574
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,919
Speaker 3: I need I need the old twisting.

575
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 4: Thing rod, the hard twisty.

576
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,720
Speaker 2: And so even though he's made it this far on

577
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 2: a ruise and a lie, LW he just can't stop himself.

578
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 2: He keeps talking to other folks in the garage in

579
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 2: the infield of the track, and he's made it. He's

580
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,600
Speaker 2: inside Talladagan. He's about to blow it because the more

581
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:56,879
Speaker 2: he talks, everybody knows this guy is a liar and

582
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 2: his ignorance is leaking out of him. He's like you

583
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,199
Speaker 2: like a flatulent old uncle. And he's sitting there like

584
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 2: after like he's had a big meal and he's sitting

585
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 2: there taking a nap in the room.

586
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 4: He doesn't know how much he stinks. Now that's l W. Right.

587
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 4: So word starts to spread around the track.

588
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,159
Speaker 2: People are like, who's this new? No name Newcome you

589
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,119
Speaker 2: hear about him? Like, oh yeah, he tell you Whyalon

590
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,679
Speaker 2: Jennings is a sponsor. You know, they're all like talking,

591
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 2: They've read the press releases.

592
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:20,959
Speaker 4: Everyone. He's the talk of the girlage.

593
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:22,320
Speaker 3: He said Whalen was going to be that.

594
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 2: Merle Haggard's gonna be there, and Merle Haggard did not

595
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,520
Speaker 2: show up, and shepherds the other country start. He's like,

596
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 2: I don't know this guy. He releases a press release

597
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 2: saying like he's a liar. Yeah people, So people are

598
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 2: asking about that. I saw the shepherd called you a liar.

599
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 2: You said he's one of your sponsors. And another guy

600
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 2: is coming at him, like, how can it be possible

601
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 2: that not a single one of the NASCAR drivers ever

602
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 2: heard of you? So he's like, oh, you know how

603
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 2: it is, I'm I got a name. People forget, you

604
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,640
Speaker 2: know whatever he's saying. Right, He's got momentum at this point,

605
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 2: so he just keeps the wheels rolling. But most importantly,

606
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 2: he knows he's got in his hot little hand his

607
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,160
Speaker 2: official NASCAR license to race.

608
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.

609
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 2: According to Jim Hunter, the Talladega Speedway president can't down

610
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 2: to the fact that Alabama is a right to work state.

611
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:05,240
Speaker 4: He claimed that he was.

612
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 2: Quote handcuffed by what NASCAR and Talladega Speedway could do.

613
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 2: Once questions were raised about this new driver, so Jim

614
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 2: Hunter put it Besides, the damn guy did qualify for

615
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 2: the race, so you know you can almost hear the

616
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 2: like the echo of a good old boy chuckle. He

617
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:26,919
Speaker 2: just got it. Anyway, the way it works since LW.

618
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 2: Paid is one hundred and fifteen dollars entrance fee and

619
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 2: his NASCAR competition license fee and the Talladega Speedway on

620
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 2: hundred dollars race fee, he's now an official interest.

621
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,879
Speaker 3: That's all it takes. And what like a Malibu Grand Prix.

622
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's like a Grandnex.

623
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 2: Here's nothing they can do about it now because once

624
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 2: again right to work state Alabama laws were like, you

625
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:47,560
Speaker 2: gotta let this race.

626
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:50,120
Speaker 3: Doesn't that mean they can just fire you whenever they want?

627
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, that too. It's about it's a whole like, we

628
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:56,000
Speaker 4: don't have union, so the workers make their own contracts right, right.

629
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,120
Speaker 2: Exactly, So it's usually not good and in this case

630
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,359
Speaker 2: it was not good for the owners. But anyway, it

631
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 2: cuts both exactly. It's a very sharp knife. It's a

632
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 2: Ginzu blade on both sides. The day before the race,

633
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 2: the drivers are taking practice laps, right, so L. W.

634
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 2: Wright goes to take his qualifying laps. Before he gets

635
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 2: out there, the driver's in the garage. This driver, Bobby Allison,

636
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:15,879
Speaker 2: comes up to l W. Wright and this listen has

637
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 2: a legend right, and the legend tells, look, if you

638
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,639
Speaker 2: don't qualify, don't feel bad because there are a lot

639
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 2: of guys he ain't gonna make the field.

640
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 4: LW.

641
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 2: Wright says, with zero hesitation, I appreciate that, mister Allison,

642
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 2: but I come down here for one reason, to make

643
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 2: the field. So impressed, Bobby als replys, well, you're cocky enough,

644
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 2: ain't you.

645
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 4: Wow? Elizabeth, can you guess who comes up to him next? No,

646
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,800
Speaker 4: it's your boy? Throw up three for Dale Dale, Yes,

647
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 4: legend Dale.

648
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 3: See rest with the angels. Dale.

649
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 4: So Dale Earnheart senor known to be a hard ass,

650
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 4: but he's somehow cool with LW. Wright.

651
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:51,439
Speaker 2: He even gives him some Dale Earnhardt tested advice for

652
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 2: winning a race. He comes up there and says, look here,

653
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 2: when you get out there, you can get on the

654
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 2: back of someone that's been here before and follow them,

655
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:58,400
Speaker 2: stay with them, and then make your move.

656
00:26:58,640 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 3: Why is everyone helping him?

657
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 4: I don't know.

658
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:02,240
Speaker 3: I thought this was a competitive sport.

659
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 2: I think they just want to see what he'll do.

660
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 2: It's entertainment. They're like, just put the kid out there.

661
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 3: It's much more of a community than I realized. It's

662
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 3: just it's all trying to uplift each other exactly.

663
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 2: It's men helping men, bro being there for in the

664
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 2: middle of it. They say, we need therapy.

665
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 4: No, we didn't count.

666
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 2: We have more times to back each other up on

667
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 2: our crazy s iday. So now we have Dale Iron hurt.

668
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 2: And he gives them all this good advice. And he

669
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:26,960
Speaker 2: wanted to let this good old boy know that the

670
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 2: seven time NASCAR champion he's got his back.

671
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:31,880
Speaker 4: Chucks him on the shoulder, said you get out there now.

672
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 2: So he goes out to do his practice laps and

673
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 2: he's never seen the track before. He's never been on

674
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 2: the track, he's never driven his car. He's on talented

675
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 2: exactly once again. World's longest track, faster than Indianapolis five

676
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,240
Speaker 2: hundred right track is just for some specs, Elizabeth. The

677
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 2: track is two point six six miles long. It is

678
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 2: a trioval, which is not standard. Usually a triable means

679
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 2: you have three turns at one end, two turns at

680
00:27:55,640 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 2: the other end. He has five turns.

681
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 3: So it's sort of from above, looks what triangul.

682
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, well yeah, pentagonal or something.

683
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 3: It has like a giant octagon.

684
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, it looks like a rhombus. So you get it.

685
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 3: One, two, three, Okay, I'm counting.

686
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 4: Five, yeah, three and then two. Yeah, there it is.

687
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:14,679
Speaker 3: That's some crazy business.

688
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 2: So there we are five turns deep. So the north

689
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,679
Speaker 2: south turned, they're banked. The two turn end right is

690
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 2: banked at thirty three degrees. Oh yeah, the inner trioval

691
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 2: is banked at eighteen degrees. Now, thirty three degrees. That's

692
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 2: a super very steep angle. Right, eighteen degrees is a

693
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:32,359
Speaker 2: steep angle if you're on it. So these guys are

694
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,680
Speaker 2: like driving on a hypot news of a triangle. Basically

695
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 2: at two hundred miles an hour.

696
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 3: You're loving this all the mass I do.

697
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 4: They're coming into turn three Wilde Elizabeth.

698
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 2: So the entire track forty eight feet wide, which is

699
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 2: basically about the third of a football field, the width

700
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 2: of a football field from the sideline to sideline. Oh

701
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 2: it is, yeah, but the fortye it's about the Yeah.

702
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:54,560
Speaker 2: So to keep the tracks, keep all these cars in

703
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 2: the track, there's a retaining wall, and the retaining wall

704
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 2: is about about four feet high most of the time,

705
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 2: like uh, like on the track and then seven feet

706
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 2: past the grand stands. Like they want to protect people,

707
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 2: so they got next to three feet garry this which

708
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 2: you guys get three feet because we care. So if

709
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 2: you were let's just say like you're on this wall,

710
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 2: like the retaining wall, not the hurricane fencing part to

711
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 2: the cement wall. Let's say you were an ant and

712
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 2: you look down at your buddy ant and the grasses

713
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 2: in the infield of the track. You can be fifty

714
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 2: feet higher than the ant on the grass. Wait on

715
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:23,320
Speaker 2: the retaining wall. You're on the retaining wall on the

716
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 2: outside of the track fee because of the steepness of

717
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 2: the canted angle of the track. And then you add

718
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 2: in a couple of feet of the fence that's feet

719
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 2: higher than the inside field. So just think about that.

720
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 3: And also keeping the ants is wearing an altimeter, by the.

721
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 4: Way, of course, like little romans.

722
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 3: So the taker guys.

723
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 2: The infield of the track at Talladega, that's the grass

724
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 2: inside the track, right, that could comfortably sit thirty one

725
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 2: rose ball stadiums.

726
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 4: Wait, stop it, that's how big this place is. It's huge.

727
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 3: Thirty one thirty.

728
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 2: One rose ball stadiums. It's huge. That's why I always

729
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 2: stopped to see it. It's a cathedral.

730
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 3: Having problems getting my head around there.

731
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 2: I know thirty one rose balls inside the inside the track.

732
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 2: The track is bigger, bigger driving around. Yes, so this

733
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 2: is bigger than the United States interamateur race car driver

734
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 2: L W. Wright, who now has to drive around the

735
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 2: United States Elizabeth l W.

736
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 4: What are you going to say? So in his first few.

737
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 2: Practice laps, he not going fast enough, and I quote,

738
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:25,120
Speaker 2: I was comfortable in the car.

739
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 4: The only thing was I wasn't getting the most out

740
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 4: of the car. Me.

741
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 2: I wasn't getting the most out of it. I thought

742
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 2: the car would do more than what I was making

743
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 2: it do because I hadn't run it before.

744
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 4: So, to be fair, he hadn't driven it before he

745
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 4: got on the track.

746
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 3: So the first wait, he didn't even like adjust the seats.

747
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 4: Around the car. The guy's like, my race car.

748
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 2: No, No, the rear view he did it like on

749
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 2: the track, He's like, I should set my mirrors and now.

750
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,600
Speaker 3: Okay, the angle of the steering wheel.

751
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 2: To be fair, his first lap went better than you

752
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 2: might expect. Yeah, but then on his second lapp he

753
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 2: crashed into a wall, which is about what you'd expect. Yeah,

754
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 2: so even though he slammed into a wall at one

755
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety miles an hour, he was still all in.

756
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 4: So LW.

757
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 2: Wright said, uh no, cirt never crossed my mind. I

758
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 2: was in the hospital. First thing out of my mouth.

759
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 2: I asked a buddy of mine with me. I said,

760
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 2: how bad? It's a car tore up? He said, I

761
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 2: think we can put it back together. I said, let's hurry,

762
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 2: get her out there and get going. He will not

763
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 2: back down.

764
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 3: Wait what he wanted to be in the same race.

765
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's going to be.

766
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 3: He's in the hospital.

767
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 4: No, no, So they took him at there's a he

768
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 4: was taken away in.

769
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 2: An ambu like a fields he was, Yeah, he's not

770
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 2: taking away an ambulance like to a hospital. He's just

771
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:32,640
Speaker 2: taken by an ambulance to like the.

772
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:33,720
Speaker 4: Field hospital because there's a.

773
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 2: Thirty one rose poles to cross. So they get him

774
00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 2: to the infield track hospital and he's bandages up. This

775
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 2: won't slow him down, you know, because you know his

776
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 2: crash doesn't matter to him. He's he's gone fast enough

777
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 2: to qualify for Talladega. He went one hundred and eighty

778
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: seven point three seven nine miles per hour for an

779
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 2: average lap speed. So boom he gets in and surprisingly

780
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 2: not the slowest time. Oh that guy thirty six in

781
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 2: a field of forty NASCAR drivers.

782
00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 3: Those four guys exactly. Now when you say it's thirty

783
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 3: one rolls rose bowls?

784
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 4: Is that?

785
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 5: Like?

786
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 6: What if?

787
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 3: Are they stacked vertically?

788
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 4: Why would they be stacked?

789
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 3: Because I can't still can't believe it's that thick.

790
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, put on the ground, just like I got what vertically?

791
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 4: I know, you make a tower of rose bowls.

792
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 3: That's the only way this makes sense. No, how big

793
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 3: is this huge?

794
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 6: Yes?

795
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 2: Now also you get that's why you can go two

796
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 2: hundred miles. Remember you stand down the straightaway. It's this

797
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 2: is interesting.

798
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 3: One lap around this thing and they're done.

799
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 2: Basically it's a five hundred mile last So this first, this,

800
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 2: this is the first time. This year nineteen eighty two

801
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 2: was the first time that a driver crosses two hundred

802
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 2: miles in any track. And they do it on this

803
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:42,320
Speaker 2: track because you need the length to get up to

804
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 2: the speed. So they break a record this year. He's

805
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,400
Speaker 2: out there miles an hour to get They eventually get

806
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 2: speed governors.

807
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 4: They realize this is too faster. These guys be driving

808
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 4: right they Oh yeah, it doesn't matter.

809
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 3: Aerodynamic is just runs to take those governors off.

810
00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 4: Dude, l W does real well.

811
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,479
Speaker 2: The fastest guy they who says the record Benny Parson,

812
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 2: he did two hundred two point one seven miles.

813
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 4: LW.

814
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 2: Wright he did a speed that was one eighty seven

815
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 2: win three. That's thirteen miles slower.

816
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 3: It's really fat.

817
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 2: Thirteen miles slower than the record setting speed. Our amateur

818
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 2: is killing it right.

819
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 3: Wow.

820
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 2: The fastest I've ever driven is one hundred and fifty

821
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 2: five miles an hour. Oh, I was clenching like when

822
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 2: I was doing that, and it was on a straight

823
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 2: country road. I didn't have to worry about anything. I

824
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 2: knew what I was doing. I could see forever.

825
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 3: What kind of car was it?

826
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 2: It was the old Mercedes Sedan. Those things good, they

827
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 2: will they I didn't think it get that fast. It

828
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 2: kept going and kept going and kept going.

829
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 5: One one time when I was driving, it was like

830
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:36,479
Speaker 5: on the five, that was the fastest.

831
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:40,320
Speaker 3: You were like fifty six. I mean it all the way.

832
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 4: So you're on the five. What else going doing like

833
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 4: fifty six story.

834
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, So after w crashes into the wall and his

835
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 2: impromptu crew chief Stirling Marlin has to like, like you know,

836
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 2: basically bolster his confidence, right, he also has an issue.

837
00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 2: His car is wrecked, and now he's got to go

838
00:33:58,200 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 2: around to other drivers and try to like get parts

839
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 2: from them. So he gets a door and a fender

840
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 2: and a quarter panel from one racer, and then he

841
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 2: goes over to Richard Petty and he gets a windshield

842
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 2: trim for Richard Petty. Then he gets the windshield to

843
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:10,880
Speaker 2: go with it, because his windshields blown out, so he

844
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,759
Speaker 2: gets a windshield from Dale Earnhart's team, and then he

845
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,280
Speaker 2: gets the snaps he needs to tie down his windshield

846
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,319
Speaker 2: from Darryl Waltrip. So all these legends are like, yeah,

847
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 2: here you go, I got all the.

848
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 3: Parts of extra. Did they invoice him later?

849
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 4: I don't care, don't care? Oh good old boy.

850
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 2: So finally day of the race comes l W Right

851
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 2: out of the field hospital in his car.

852
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 4: Cars slap back together after crack up.

853
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 3: It's like a civil war.

854
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 4: No one can stop him.

855
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,880
Speaker 3: Now, so put him under ether exactly.

856
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,800
Speaker 4: He's kind of goofy and weird. We're gonna need to

857
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 4: get you.

858
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 3: You got to amputat.

859
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:46,320
Speaker 2: That's just what we do here. Son put some cocaine

860
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,120
Speaker 2: in him because he got ghosts in his blood shows up,

861
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 2: so L W. Pulls his car out on the track.

862
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:53,440
Speaker 2: He's out there on the grid, lines up next to

863
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,640
Speaker 2: the stock car legends at the starting line. Quote that's

864
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 2: when it really said in I thought, well, I finally

865
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 2: got here. It doesn't matter what happens today. I'm here,

866
00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:02,879
Speaker 2: and that's what I was shooting tours. But I wanted

867
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 2: to run good. You know, that's like the good old

868
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 2: boy model. I want to run no good. How do

869
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 2: you think my boy LW. Wright does at one hundred, sorry,

870
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 2: two hundred miles an hour? Next two men nicknamed the

871
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,040
Speaker 2: Intimidator and the King, how do you think he does?

872
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 3: Not so hot?

873
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, rather than me asked you that question, We're

874
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 2: gonna take a little break and then I'll be back

875
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 2: to show you the race. Nice okay, Elizabeth Okay. Talladega Speedway.

876
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 2: Our man LW. Wright is on the grid at the

877
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,759
Speaker 2: starting line with all the legends. Hundreds of thousands of

878
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:58,120
Speaker 2: people are watching him. I don't know if that's true,

879
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:00,760
Speaker 2: but at least at home. Millions of people watch on TV.

880
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 3: So covered and bandage.

881
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 2: Now do you think he's gonna do well? No, he

882
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 2: did thirty six in the time to you know, the

883
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 2: qualifying time. So right, I'll just I'll tell you this, right, But.

884
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 3: How long did he go before he crashed? Yeah?

885
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,319
Speaker 2: Not well, well it was rather than us voting about it.

886
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 2: Why don't you just close your eyes and picture May second,

887
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two, the Winston five hundred at Talladega. You

888
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,719
Speaker 2: are an ant. You've crawled across the sun warm track.

889
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 2: It's as stock cars line up for the race. You

890
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 2: climb up onto one of the cars.

891
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 4: You're bored. Whatever the race car of LW. Wright.

892
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,240
Speaker 2: He's in Row eighteen, number thirty six, in a field

893
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:44,960
Speaker 2: of forty cars. This means nothing to you. You're an

894
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,879
Speaker 2: ant engine start. The cars rumble and shake, eager to race.

895
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 2: The drivers grip their steering wheels, ready to make hate

896
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 2: to the other drivers.

897
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 4: LW.

898
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:55,399
Speaker 2: Wright just hope he doesn't die or kill someone else

899
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 2: by a mistake. And you wonder what the hell is

900
00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,880
Speaker 2: all this noise? You came to this track someone's RV.

901
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 2: You don't know anything about NASCAR. This is your first

902
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 2: NASCAR race too, So you can practically hear what LW.

903
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 2: Wright is thinking in the car because you're sitting there

904
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:10,400
Speaker 2: on the glass of the windshield.

905
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 4: He's in there, and we all lined up.

906
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 2: Everybody was antsy, and boom, the green flag is waved.

907
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:17,479
Speaker 2: The cars all roared to life. They're off wi seeing

908
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 2: that flag drop. The front runners took off the middle

909
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:20,719
Speaker 2: of the field. Itn't and I was waiting, come on,

910
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 2: come on, come on.

911
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:24,440
Speaker 4: He sees the turn. Come he floors it.

912
00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 2: The wheel squealed car races storage us. Elizabeth and Aunt

913
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:30,800
Speaker 2: on the windshield of this race car are now stuck.

914
00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 2: The wind presses you down to the glass. You're just

915
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,279
Speaker 2: staring at this guy and he's staring.

916
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:35,760
Speaker 4: Down their track.

917
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 2: The cars get to going fast sixty miles an hour

918
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 2: within seconds, then one hundred, one hundred and ten, one

919
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 2: twenty one, thirty, one, forty one fifty. You're up to

920
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,239
Speaker 2: one hundred and ninety miles an hour. None of this

921
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:47,200
Speaker 2: means anything to you, but you're going super fast.

922
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:48,839
Speaker 3: My little ant limbs are flying.

923
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 4: The world is blurring fast. Your antenna you lose one

924
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 4: WoT well the leg gohost. This crazy bastard is in

925
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 4: this race. LW.

926
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 2: Wright would later tell a journalists and I quote, as

927
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 2: soon as I cleared the flag stand, I remember dropping

928
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 2: the outside lane and going to the front about ten cars.

929
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 4: I remember that. I guess it was all adrenaline in.

930
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:06,839
Speaker 2: No sense, but I went to the front and hurry,

931
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,480
Speaker 2: and I thought, this is where I'm gonna stay. So

932
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 2: after lap one you can tell this maniac is in

933
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:13,839
Speaker 2: it to win it. Lap two doesn't go as well, though,

934
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:15,800
Speaker 2: because you're still pressed to the glass of the windshield.

935
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 2: The wind is intense, the speed insane. You wonder how

936
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:20,880
Speaker 2: long you can hold on your little ant body quivering.

937
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:24,439
Speaker 2: Couple drivers retake their spots ahead. Lw falls back into

938
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 2: the pack. Lap three, one of the front runners, Darryl

939
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 2: Waltrip in the Mountain dew Buick takes first place. He's

940
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:32,919
Speaker 2: down on the lead of the high speed train made

941
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,800
Speaker 2: of car race cars and the King, Richard Petty is

942
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:36,520
Speaker 2: in the lead pack.

943
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:38,879
Speaker 4: So is the intimidator Dale Earnhardt, but he has yet

944
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:39,600
Speaker 4: to make his move.

945
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 2: You are desperately hoping this all in soon, but there

946
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,719
Speaker 2: are still four hundred and ninety two miles to go

947
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,320
Speaker 2: in this race. Lap four, a young driver David Simcoe,

948
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 2: spins out at one hundred and ninety miles an hour

949
00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 2: and slams into the wall.

950
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 4: You're a gas How does one.

951
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,399
Speaker 2: Get off a race car going one hundred ninety miles

952
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 2: an hour? Your little antenn I are wondering, but evan

953
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 2: no chance to answer because the speed Lap four is

954
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:03,880
Speaker 2: going and Dale W. Wright, He's footstays smashed down on

955
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 2: that accelerator. Yet some part of him, the part that

956
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,959
Speaker 2: keeps them alive, it won't let him drive as fast

957
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 2: as the other drivers. They do things he would never do,

958
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 2: never think to do, and if he did thing to

959
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 2: do them, he still couldn't do what they do. Meanwhile,

960
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 2: you're inventing like aunt religions. You were praying for Aunt

961
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 2: God's to deliver you off of this windshield. Lap ten,

962
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:23,719
Speaker 2: Dale Earnhardt in the blue and yellow Wrangler car.

963
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:26,000
Speaker 4: He makes his move Dale three for Dale.

964
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 2: Dale has pushed his way up to from the twentieth

965
00:39:28,719 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 2: starting position up to the fourth spot at the head

966
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 2: of the pack. L. W. Wright is now in the

967
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:35,399
Speaker 2: last place, falling behind very fast. You're like, thank God,

968
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:39,520
Speaker 2: thank the Aunt God's now at this point. Dale Earnhardt,

969
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 2: Jeff Bodine are coming into the trioval too wide. It's

970
00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:45,479
Speaker 2: lap eleven. L W Wright gets lapp by the lead cars.

971
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:45,919
Speaker 4: That's bad.

972
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,439
Speaker 2: That's very bad. That's dangerous. With all the other cars

973
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 2: roaring past him a two hundred miles an.

974
00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 3: Hour, he's going so slow that he gets last lap.

975
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 2: They're racing past him. He's doing like one seventy one sixty.

976
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 2: I don't know, LW Wright, and you are now a

977
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 2: speed hater. You're gonna be lucky if one of the

978
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,400
Speaker 2: cars isn't slam into you. NASCAR officials are waving the

979
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,359
Speaker 2: black flag. That means you've been ejected from the race.

980
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 2: On the TV coverage that you can't hear this, but

981
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 2: the commentators finish this point, everything's okay, she's earned heart

982
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:11,839
Speaker 2: faint a little really racy now, followed.

983
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 4: By the other commentator racy.

984
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 2: The car that was given the black flag a lap

985
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,320
Speaker 2: ago was LW. Wright from Nashville, Tennessee and the Music

986
00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 2: City Racing Chevy.

987
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:20,280
Speaker 4: LW.

988
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 2: Wright, by the way, has come way too far to

989
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 2: listen to some black flag wave and official He refuses

990
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 2: to pull into pit row. Next time you and he

991
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,640
Speaker 2: passed the starting finish line, you've still clutching onto the windshield.

992
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:31,839
Speaker 4: The announcers are awed by LW. Wright.

993
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 2: So LW Wright again given the black flag as he

994
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 2: passes by us, and Right has been ordered to the

995
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:39,920
Speaker 2: pit area. LW Wright won't not stop racing now, you

996
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 2: stop thanking the new aunt gods. They have failed you

997
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:44,880
Speaker 2: so clearly NASCAR is gonna have to send like a

998
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:46,839
Speaker 2: cop car onto the track to get this guy off.

999
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 2: They don't know what they're gonna do. So you give

1000
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 2: You've given up on your aunt gods. You are now

1001
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:53,160
Speaker 2: just praying that the black flag something throws it, Something

1002
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:55,840
Speaker 2: happens luckily for you. Physics take the wheel, and the

1003
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 2: old ant gods in the new save you. Because in

1004
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 2: lap sixteen, really it's only lap thirteen for LW Right.

1005
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:04,200
Speaker 2: Black smoke erupts from the speedway and the reel drivers

1006
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 2: they all caught. They slowed down for the costion flag

1007
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,400
Speaker 2: because Lwright is slammed into a wall and his race.

1008
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 4: Is now officially over.

1009
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,320
Speaker 2: Rip me yep car wrecked Lwright. He drives back to

1010
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:15,279
Speaker 2: the garage with what's left of his car. Once there,

1011
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:17,880
Speaker 2: he pulls himself from the wrecked race car. You crawled

1012
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:18,760
Speaker 2: down off the windshield.

1013
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:19,480
Speaker 3: Oh, I made it.

1014
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 4: You're free, Elizabeth. He made it. Whoo, Genie, you're free.

1015
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 4: Lw Right.

1016
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,560
Speaker 2: He didn't win the race, No, didn't even really, he

1017
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 2: didn't even finish it. But he'd done it, Elizabeth. He'd

1018
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 2: done it.

1019
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 3: He done did it.

1020
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 2: He raced at the best in the world and he

1021
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 2: didn't kill anyone himself included. That's good, right, And since

1022
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 2: one driver crashed before him, he didn't even finish last

1023
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:40,879
Speaker 2: what So he got thirty nine, which means he won

1024
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 2: fifteen forty five dollars what which means he got the

1025
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 2: thousand dollars you needed to get himset out of trouble

1026
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:47,880
Speaker 2: with the FBI.

1027
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 6: Oh.

1028
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:50,719
Speaker 2: Yes, As for the winner, that was Daryl Waltrip in

1029
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 2: case you were wondering. Yeah, he won the eighty two

1030
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 2: when Talladega wins. Anyway, so the race is still going right,

1031
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:58,880
Speaker 2: and he's now in the garage and people have been

1032
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 2: talking about the black flag. He very embarrassed. He just

1033
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:03,440
Speaker 2: wants all this to go away. So what does he do? Well,

1034
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 2: he vanishes after the race, is just.

1035
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:08,640
Speaker 3: Like a puff of smoke and he turns into bats.

1036
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 2: He does his best impression of disco. He's just I'm

1037
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 2: out right, he's he disappears from the scene. Gone right,

1038
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:17,239
Speaker 2: He's gone. Before the race is over, he leaves his

1039
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:19,400
Speaker 2: car in the garage. He cuts out like he had

1040
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:20,759
Speaker 2: a bill to pay and he was not going to

1041
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 2: pay that bill. He dines and dashes the Talladega right

1042
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,239
Speaker 2: so in his wake. By the way, as the days come,

1043
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,120
Speaker 2: you know, after the race, days pass, and the checks

1044
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:31,960
Speaker 2: that he'd been writing to keep his con going, they

1045
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 2: all start bouncing.

1046
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 4: It's like a kid's super Bowl.

1047
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:38,600
Speaker 2: Like they're not going like big bounces, right, so everybody,

1048
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:40,440
Speaker 2: and I'm talking like the bounced checks aren't just for

1049
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 2: the race.

1050
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 4: He he bounces his rent check for his apartment.

1051
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:47,319
Speaker 3: He was gone, gone working leading up to this, he

1052
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:48,320
Speaker 3: was doing the old.

1053
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:50,799
Speaker 2: I think he was doing bus repair works. I don't

1054
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:52,120
Speaker 2: know what he was doing. I mean, I think he

1055
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:52,840
Speaker 2: had five jobs.

1056
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:54,479
Speaker 3: You know, I don't want to know what he was doing.

1057
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,799
Speaker 2: So the cops get called on him. NASCAR is she's

1058
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:58,840
Speaker 2: a warrant for lw Right. I don't think that's what

1059
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 2: all the new story. The issue a warn I'm a

1060
00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:01,560
Speaker 2: can NASCAR.

1061
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,800
Speaker 3: Issue in in the court of Nascar.

1062
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 4: It like SEC rules.

1063
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:09,280
Speaker 5: They went to the NASCAR judge and then the NASCAR

1064
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 5: DA was like, hey, this is the evidence we have.

1065
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:14,240
Speaker 4: Throw the NASCAR book out him, Like, let's do it. Yeah.

1066
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:17,839
Speaker 2: So one Nashville businessman who'd given him about thirty grand

1067
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 2: apparently then just sponsorship fees. And so I don't know

1068
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:22,560
Speaker 2: how this works out, but he goes and hires a

1069
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 2: private detective to get his money back. No luck, No

1070
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:27,280
Speaker 2: one ever sees lw. Wright ever again. For forty years.

1071
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:30,759
Speaker 3: Boom disappeared, just completely, he disappears.

1072
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1073
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:34,439
Speaker 2: So then this dude Rick Houston I told you about,

1074
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 2: and Steve Wade who had the Scene Vault podcast or

1075
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:38,880
Speaker 2: they still do. They break this story last year on

1076
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:41,920
Speaker 2: the fortieth anniversary. Turns out ldw Right did not exactly

1077
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,960
Speaker 2: go off the grid. He didn't even quit racing. Days later,

1078
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 2: he went to Nashville and he tried to race again

1079
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 2: that race. Elizabeth was the Grand National nineteen eighty two

1080
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,719
Speaker 2: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for twenty Winston Cup.

1081
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:56,800
Speaker 3: Yeah it was Cracker Barrel four twenty.

1082
00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 2: Do you remember that that lovely weekend we spent at

1083
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 2: the Cracker Barrel for one cut back in ninety eight.

1084
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:02,440
Speaker 4: That was awesome.

1085
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,640
Speaker 3: That Elsell never mind.

1086
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:07,800
Speaker 4: Saw I take that back.

1087
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 3: Cracker barrel exactly of town.

1088
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:14,719
Speaker 2: So he qualified for the Talladega five hundred. He could

1089
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 2: not qualify for the cracker barrel for twenty cup. It

1090
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:19,359
Speaker 2: was too hard for him. So now he's running out

1091
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 2: of money fast. So what does he do now? He

1092
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 2: quits racing. Now he's like, I can't do it. Also

1093
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 2: because remember he's still on the run from the FBI.

1094
00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so, and I quote, I didn't panic, but

1095
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 2: I felt like, well, it's time to back up and

1096
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 2: have another plan. That's why I said it's time to

1097
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 2: pack up my family and just quit.

1098
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 4: I'm done.

1099
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,360
Speaker 2: They were shocked because they didn't know a tenth of

1100
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:37,279
Speaker 2: what was going on with me and all this. They

1101
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:39,720
Speaker 2: was honest and it was everything they were. They didn't

1102
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 2: understand why I had to be pressured to move. I

1103
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 2: didn't tell them until after the fact. I said, it's

1104
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:45,520
Speaker 2: in your best interest just not to ask no question.

1105
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 2: Let's just do this. And that's what I did. Right,

1106
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 2: Dad of the.

1107
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:51,960
Speaker 5: Year being pursued by the NASCAR police exactly.

1108
00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:54,080
Speaker 2: This dude has a wife and four kids. He's not

1109
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:56,439
Speaker 2: to nero and heat. He's got a wife and four kids.

1110
00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 3: He's got a at Talladego in this.

1111
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 4: No, No, they don't really need he was a race

1112
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:01,720
Speaker 4: car driver.

1113
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:02,719
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

1114
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:04,359
Speaker 2: I mean they know that there was a race car

1115
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,280
Speaker 2: that Dad had like in the driveway at one point,

1116
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 2: but they don't think.

1117
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:08,719
Speaker 4: Maybe that was his buddy. He has all sorts of.

1118
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:10,480
Speaker 3: Weird doing that.

1119
00:45:10,719 --> 00:45:10,839
Speaker 6: Well.

1120
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:12,360
Speaker 2: I like to imagine this son was like, let me

1121
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:15,360
Speaker 2: get this rad Daddy, you failed to win two NASCAR races.

1122
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:18,000
Speaker 2: You entered to pay off your debt, some robbery at

1123
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:20,480
Speaker 2: your day job, and that's why the FBI is after you.

1124
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:22,319
Speaker 2: And that's why I can't go to the prom with

1125
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:25,919
Speaker 2: Becky Lamb. That ain't fair, Daddy, That's what I picked.

1126
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,239
Speaker 5: It's lucky that Daddy doesn't wind up buried under the

1127
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:29,640
Speaker 5: track at Charlotte Motor Speed.

1128
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:33,720
Speaker 2: Then he has this great like sad Ricky Bobby bowment.

1129
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:36,879
Speaker 2: He goes out and LW says he has to say

1130
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 2: goodbye to his dream. And he says, quote, the race

1131
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 2: car stayed in the back of the trailer right there

1132
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 2: at this house where I left it. I didn't even

1133
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 2: open the door and look in it. I just drove

1134
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 2: a boy. So he cut to one year later. Okay,

1135
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,440
Speaker 2: the FBI finally catches up with old Dell w Right.

1136
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 2: He's arrested, tossed in a cell. I was picked up

1137
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 2: in West Virginia, hauled me to Knoxville, Tennessee, stayed in Noxfield, Tennessee,

1138
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:00,319
Speaker 2: twenty six hours, and they come unlocked the sale and

1139
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 2: told mister ry E can go.

1140
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:03,120
Speaker 4: We're done. That was the end of it.

1141
00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:06,120
Speaker 2: So the thing he'd been running from, the FBI threat

1142
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 2: that pushed him to risk his life and the life

1143
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:11,040
Speaker 2: of others at Talladega, upset his family's whole thing and

1144
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 2: go start his own amateur witness relocation program. That was nothing.

1145
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:17,799
Speaker 2: It was basically clear pepsi. It was a big nothing. Right,

1146
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 2: So what does l W. Wright do when he finds

1147
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:21,239
Speaker 2: out he didn't really need to run his life and

1148
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:24,360
Speaker 2: uproot his family. If I knew that when I run Dalladega,

1149
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:26,280
Speaker 2: that would have been a different outcome because I wouldn't

1150
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,239
Speaker 2: have gotten up and left Nashville. I wouldn't have moved.

1151
00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 2: I would have took care of what I need to

1152
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:31,480
Speaker 2: take care. I would have gone him back to racing.

1153
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,239
Speaker 2: So after forty years, LW. Wright finally willing to tell

1154
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 2: his story, and he gets this dude, Rick Houston, I

1155
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 2: told you about the journalists, get him hundreds of messages,

1156
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,400
Speaker 2: earned his trust, and then he convinces him like okay, oh,

1157
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:44,239
Speaker 2: I want to meet in person. So they meet at

1158
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:47,560
Speaker 2: the secret location. Out walks his seventy three year old man.

1159
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 2: He confirms that he is indeed LW. Wright or that

1160
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,920
Speaker 2: was the name he was using. He has the racing

1161
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 2: suit that he warned that day at Talladega to prove it.

1162
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,919
Speaker 2: The racing suit matches the only known photo of L. W.

1163
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:00,440
Speaker 2: Wright from that day and is confirmed by the stitching.

1164
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:03,120
Speaker 2: That's what kind of journalists that Rick is. He's down, like,

1165
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:06,080
Speaker 2: I recognize the stitching. So now he starts to correct

1166
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:08,759
Speaker 2: the legend. He wanted to correct his legend. He was like,

1167
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 2: you know, I have a bone to pick with some

1168
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:12,920
Speaker 2: of the facts people.

1169
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:13,279
Speaker 4: Have claim right.

1170
00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 2: He takes issue with all the people claiming he owed

1171
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:17,239
Speaker 2: money all over town, which I don't know how he

1172
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 2: could do that, but he's like, no, that ain't true.

1173
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 2: You tell him, come down talk to me and all

1174
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:24,319
Speaker 2: this right anyway. My favorite thing though, is that he

1175
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 2: bought the car from Cuckoo Marlin your boy, yeah, and

1176
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:28,799
Speaker 2: Sterling his son, right, and he'd ask him to paint

1177
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 2: the race car black and add the number thirty four.

1178
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1179
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 4: Now, as LW.

1180
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 2: Wright said, thirty four come from Wendell Scott. He was

1181
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 2: the one who already tried to race, but didn't have

1182
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 2: the means or the money. So I picked up thirty four. Now,

1183
00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:40,520
Speaker 2: Wendell Scott, I loved this. As a former Moonshiner, he

1184
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 2: was an indep pendant black stock car driver who raced

1185
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:45,879
Speaker 2: in the fifties. So for the entire decade, NASCAR tracks

1186
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 2: woudn't let him race. They wouldn't let him on the track,

1187
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:50,600
Speaker 2: so he raced independent. And even in those races, these

1188
00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:52,759
Speaker 2: other good old boys they would intentionally wreck his car.

1189
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:56,400
Speaker 2: So he was like fighting to constantly keep his car roadworthy. Right,

1190
00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 2: Wendall Scott keeps on racing, right on racing, and he wins,

1191
00:47:59,320 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 2: and he wins, and he wins. That good old boy

1192
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:04,320
Speaker 2: could drive right. So eventually he wins two championships. In

1193
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:06,719
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty nine, NASCAR goes, oh, we gotta concede, he's

1194
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:08,480
Speaker 2: a good old boy a little let him ride. So

1195
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty one, Wendlescott becomes a first black NASCAR driver,

1196
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 2: and he persisted, and he becomes like the person to

1197
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:17,920
Speaker 2: beat the sclerotic culture of the Southern segregation.

1198
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:18,200
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1199
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 2: So I don't know, but perhaps L. W. Wright saw

1200
00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:23,560
Speaker 2: something of himself and the underdog Wendell Scott.

1201
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 4: I don't know.

1202
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:26,680
Speaker 2: Perhaps being a Southerner, he understood that someone needs to

1203
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:27,880
Speaker 2: beat these old Southern ways.

1204
00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 4: I don't know.

1205
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,320
Speaker 2: I did think this that the journalist Rick Houston, he

1206
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 2: had the most interesting take on the whole affair and

1207
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:35,279
Speaker 2: who the real L. W.

1208
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:35,759
Speaker 4: Wright is.

1209
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:37,880
Speaker 2: And he said, I quote in the grand scheme of

1210
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:39,960
Speaker 2: things in the rear view mirror, what he did wasn't

1211
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:41,840
Speaker 2: truly all that bad. And I will say that the

1212
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:43,760
Speaker 2: story we've all heard all these years, in the story

1213
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 2: that he tells us now, they are not the same story.

1214
00:48:46,239 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 2: Is there closure?

1215
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 4: I don't know.

1216
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:49,400
Speaker 2: But to sit there and listen to him finally talk

1217
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:51,680
Speaker 2: about it to a lot of NASCAR fans, that's a

1218
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 2: day we never thought would come here.

1219
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:54,560
Speaker 4: He's just in it for the story.

1220
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:54,880
Speaker 6: You know.

1221
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:56,400
Speaker 3: Do we know what his real name is?

1222
00:48:56,960 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it doesn't really matter. Yeah, so it was

1223
00:48:59,040 --> 00:48:59,319
Speaker 4: a kid.

1224
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:01,399
Speaker 2: Don't want to put it out there, No, no, no domb

1225
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 2: for so Yeah, olw Right telling the story. This is

1226
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 2: why it comes at a steep cost. The FBI catches

1227
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:09,239
Speaker 2: back up with him because now the story is out

1228
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:11,520
Speaker 2: there and he's bragging on and talking about numbers and stuff.

1229
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:13,239
Speaker 2: They don't let him go, and best I can tell,

1230
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,680
Speaker 2: he's presently in Jefferson County, Tennessee jail on felony charges

1231
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 2: of theft, burglary, passing bad checks, evading arrest, and so

1232
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 2: he tells you the truth and finally, boom, now he

1233
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:25,000
Speaker 2: has to pay for the costs of what he did

1234
00:49:25,040 --> 00:49:27,799
Speaker 2: back then. I guess the FBI listens to podcasts, so

1235
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:32,760
Speaker 2: you know it's Elizabeth who says all this stuff anyway,

1236
00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:35,799
Speaker 2: So why did he do it? LW had the final word,

1237
00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:37,239
Speaker 2: and I'll give it to him. On this ick. The

1238
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:39,640
Speaker 2: rush of danger. I like pain, believe it or not.

1239
00:49:39,920 --> 00:49:42,080
Speaker 2: I used to box see this old nose. I had

1240
00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:44,720
Speaker 2: thirty one golden gulve fights. Out of thirty one fights,

1241
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:46,759
Speaker 2: I won twenty nine. But just to get out and

1242
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:49,040
Speaker 2: deliberately do something to somebody, No, I don't do that.

1243
00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:51,080
Speaker 2: But the excitement of being in the middle of it

1244
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:53,440
Speaker 2: for me was rush. You don't think about the danger

1245
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:54,799
Speaker 2: around you. I mean, you're standing in front of a

1246
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,879
Speaker 2: pistol and it fires at you. You're looking at him

1247
00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 2: dead and the eye and you're saying, you better make

1248
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:01,040
Speaker 2: it good because I'm gonna get you. I guess it's excitement.

1249
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:02,520
Speaker 2: I may not be right in the head, you know what.

1250
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:05,840
Speaker 2: So no, my brother in Christ, you may not be

1251
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 2: right in the head. But if you want, you can

1252
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 2: always come sit next to me.

1253
00:50:09,239 --> 00:50:10,839
Speaker 4: So yeah.

1254
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:13,160
Speaker 2: Also, it is just for everybody else. If you ever

1255
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 2: doubt yourself, you ever have a moment you're like, I

1256
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 2: don't know if I can do this, just think of

1257
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:18,160
Speaker 2: old L. W Right and go, goddamn, I can do this.

1258
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 4: So what's our ridiculous takeaway here?

1259
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:25,880
Speaker 3: You know what my ridiculous takeaway is that a nineteen

1260
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:28,600
Speaker 3: eighty one Monte Carlo was at some point a new car.

1261
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:31,719
Speaker 2: Yes it was, and it was a bitch in new car.

1262
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:36,320
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's it. Thank you for asking my ridiculus takeaways, Elizabeth.

1263
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:37,880
Speaker 2: Once again, I don't have one for you.

1264
00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 4: So I have a story. You know. That's what I

1265
00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 4: did over here.

1266
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:43,759
Speaker 3: You carried the weight on this one, so you can.

1267
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 2: You know, you can find us online if you'd like

1268
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:47,920
Speaker 2: to talk to us about stuff. You can send us

1269
00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:51,280
Speaker 2: messages on Instagram, or you can have messages on Twitter.

1270
00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:54,000
Speaker 2: You can just you know, retweet stuff or like post,

1271
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:55,480
Speaker 2: you do whatever the heck you want. I'm not here

1272
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:58,160
Speaker 2: to tell you what to do. It's your social media anyway.

1273
00:50:58,280 --> 00:50:59,200
Speaker 3: I don't know how you live.

1274
00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:01,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't care. But we do have the talkbacks

1275
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:02,839
Speaker 4: in the iHeart app. We like those.

1276
00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:04,480
Speaker 3: I do like that, enjoy those. Yeah.

1277
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:07,200
Speaker 4: Anyway, you can also email us Ridiculous Crime and gmail

1278
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 4: dot com.

1279
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:10,799
Speaker 2: No one checks them we have, I damn sure don't,

1280
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:14,520
Speaker 2: but we do have the website ridiculous crime dot com.

1281
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:18,239
Speaker 4: It's worth a check. Yes, thanks for listening, y'all.

1282
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,320
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarren Burnett,

1283
00:51:26,400 --> 00:51:30,120
Speaker 2: produced and edited by Dale Earnhardt's driving instructor Dave Kusten.

1284
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:35,000
Speaker 2: Researches by Marissa Intimidator Brown and Andrea. The Kang song

1285
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,320
Speaker 2: Sharpened Tear, our theme song is by George Jones. Historical

1286
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,839
Speaker 2: re enactors Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Executive producers are

1287
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:44,760
Speaker 2: Been the Cracker, Barrel four, twenty Cup Bowland and Noel.

1288
00:51:44,960 --> 00:51:46,760
Speaker 4: This is why I prefer Formula.

1289
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:58,280
Speaker 6: One Ridicus Cry Say It one more time.

1290
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,640
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

1291
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:06,280
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1292
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.