WEBVTT - The Ballad of L. W. Wright 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.760 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.560 Yo, Elizabeth Dutton, zaren, I got a question for you. 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:09.639 Do you have a second, Yeah, okay, so we'll take 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:11.480 a second. Do you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:11.799 Yes? 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:14.200 Okay, then you just answer. I guess. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:18.319 Well, messages and emails I get a lot. Yeah, you know, 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:22.040 I've been starting to get those emails again, like, oh, congratulations, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:23.840 your kids should probably go to our college. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:25.760 Oh the other Elizabeth, Yeah. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:27.520 But I don't think it's it's I know it's not her. 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.800 Yeah, I know, but well the third Elizabeth Dutton. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:31.920 I meant, like a dozen now emails from these like 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.520 sort of third tier colleges. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:35.760 If I had a kid, they would not be going, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:37.479 I'm rooting for your fake kid, thank you. 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.520 So anyway, emails, messages I get a lot, The show 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.440 gets a lot. The ones that the show gets are 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:44.960 sent to me. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:46.800 I'm sure the people when they see that I have 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:48.840 not answered an email, they're like, this is ridiculous. 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:53.640 Probably our show email rarely gets visible. 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.640 I meant all my emails, yox. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.720 Just AnyWho, We've been getting a lot of these messages. 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.000 A particular one, Oh no, oh god, I thought that 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:05.760 we were done with the emails that that was it. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:06.680 They got ridiculous. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.679 Now do you like cheese its? 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.160 Let's just say I do. Move on, okay? Is that it? 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:15.360 I and you own Converse All Star high Tops. 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.000 Right, I too, and that's where I keep my cheeses. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.120 How do you well? Oh, so you have these? There's 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:20.200 apparently getting me. 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:21.040 I was just joking. 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:26.200 Clear Converse high top sneakers. 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.280 Clear with Converse High Top cheese. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.440 It's poured inside like a little pocket like those kangaroo 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:33.280 shoes you can. 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:34.280 I'm so confused. 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.440 So the shoe was clear, but the cheese it's were 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:37.760 going to be on the outside. Does it look like 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:39.160 you see my foot and some cheese? 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.080 It's yeah, you see your sock because you know, let's 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.800 not go barefoot in this job. And then but you 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.240 there's like a window of pocket and that's where the 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.080 cheese its are and anyone can see your cheese. It's 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:51.640 the cheese its are out for the world to see. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:52.880 So I'm flexing my cheese. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.760 It's basically so this was on Instagram and it was 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.360 a post that was done not only by the guy 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.520 who created them, but cheese it's but they're not for sale, is. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:05.280 This even real? Is this like an Ai thing? 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.840 No, it's this guy case In Sullivan. 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:13.639 If you're curious Instagram at is thank you case God. Okay, 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.480 And he makes all these he says concept designed by 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.680 me and my spare time for fun. And then the 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.160 smiley face with the stars in its size. Uh huh. Anyway, 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:24.959 he does this with a lot of tennis shoes, a 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:30.079 lot of sneakers. He's got Tostitos ones, Tobo Chico oreos, 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:32.480 you know the what have yours. But if you go 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:36.760 to the cheese It shop, they have shoes, but they're slides, okay, 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.800 and they have a cheese It cozy oversized retro hoodie 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:42.040 for seventy dollars. 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.400 Now you said hoodie, right, and maybe you also said slide. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:46.720 So did the slides have a pocket? 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.079 For two different things? 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:50.680 I got that part, so I figured the hoodie has 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:52.800 a pocket. But dude, the stud slide oddly. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.400 Enough, there's no front pocket on the hoodie. 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.480 Wait, wait, you're getting everything. Where am I going to. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:58.200 Keep my cheese its? They have a Hawaiian shirt. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.160 You just keep them in the hood like I got 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:00.760 a hood full. 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.040 Of space in your space. 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:03.600 Your story. 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.560 So Case and Sullivan has everyone thinking that cheese Its 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:08.720 is selling these shoes, but it's just a little special 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:09.440 project of his. 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.919 Oh case, god end, Well, if you got a second 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.520 now that you've had your cheese It, yes, just to 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.240 clear your palate, I got a story for you. 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:19.919 It's totally ridiculous, I hope. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:20.040 So. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:20.440 Yeah. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.959 So there was once an amateur stock driver, you know, 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.079 like a race car driver. He conned everyone he had 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.440 to to enter the Winston five hundred at the Talladega Speedway, which, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.840 mind you, is the longest closed course track in professional motorsports. 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.960 It's also the fastest track in the world. So he's 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.120 out there with forty professional race car drivers names you know, 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.840 NASCAR legends, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Darryl Waltrip, Bobby Allison 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.080 and my favorite part, he said, all of this, the 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.160 whole idea came to him and basically the responsibility of 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:51.040 Waylon Jennings. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:04:14.920 Oh yeah, this is ridiculous crime a podcast about absurd 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:16.440 and outrageous capers. 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:21.040 Heis and cons it's all weighs ninety nine percent motor 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:28.560 free and ridiculous. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I know how you love 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:34.599 to drive fast. I say that teasingly. So I figure 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.520 you'll love this story because it's all about speed and 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.120 driving things you love, like you know, racetracks in. 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.080 The South, so all my favorites. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.200 Quick question for you, which major American sport began as 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:45.080 an organized crime? 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:46.720 Answer? 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:52.359 Nastall, I don't have a pickle. What maybe, but NASCAR 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.200 definitely is the only major American sport based on crime. 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:56.880 I talked about this in the show before. 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.000 Yes, yeah, no, I use the rum runner. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.080 I remember the woman behind the wheels of Lights out 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.960 souped up thirty two forward flat head v. 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.000 Eight talking about her with the product shop. No. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.279 Now, you may already know this, but Nascar, as I said, 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:13.039 started out as a way for run runners to see 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.559 who was fastest. They would take those souped up cars 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.360 and they became the stock cars of NASCAR. So basically, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.200 for a rum runner, as you've you know, I think 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.440 you know this, but we'll just pretend you don't. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:24.920 Okay, okay, you take a. 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.479 Stock car right off the showroom floor, right you say 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.640 the aforementioned thirty two forward flathead V eight, I preferred 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.560 favorite of the rum runners in the know. And next 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.240 you modified the engine, you soup it up and then 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.680 you rip out the seats and the floorboards any excess 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.080 weight you can. You load up a suspension with new 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.320 springs for all the extra weight of the booze you 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.520 plan to carry down those mountain dirt roads. Then you 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.679 add a metal plate in the front of the car 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.040 that's to protect the radiator, but also to give you 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.520 a little weight if you need to smash through a blockade. 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:57.200 So now you got yourself a nice good rum runner. 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:58.720 So you gotta go up the mountains, get yourself a 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.520 load of illegal booze, and you make that run down 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.840 from the hills where the moonshine stills are located. And 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.440 then once you load up, you race back down to 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.440 the low country where all the thirsty people are on 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:10.360 the speakeasies. 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:12.159 It's a great life, yep. 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.480 And Willie Carter Sharp was probably I was impressed because 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.120 I had not really a good you know, you hear 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.839 about her, but like the speed you describe, Yeah, and 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.440 these cars like these, these are not cars with power brakes, 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.120 these are not cars of power steering. 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.240 These are cars it's like just basically like. 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.240 Really lean into the turn, you know. Yeah, anyway, so 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:32.880 you know, also you're doing this you're killing your headlights. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.880 You're doing this in the dark on a dirt road. Right, Well, 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.120 great fun was had by all, then all of a 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.440 sudden nineteen thirty three prohibition INDs. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:40.760 Yep. 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.600 Now you got all these rum runners with a skill set, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:44.839 but no way to get paid for it. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.479 So what do they do? Well, Elizabeth, I'll tell you 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.760 don't even worry. They do what they do best. 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.000 They keep driving fast for money, except for now they 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.480 do it on dirt flat tracks all around the South, 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.080 and nude and nude before paying audiences with their like 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.200 you know, pet pig. So in nineteen thirty six, Tone 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.320 of Florida held a race, the first professional organized stock 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.440 car race. Right, the audience loved it, but the guy 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:07.960 didn't make any money. The promoter sotally, oh yeah, it 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.160 took a little bit of time. A decade passes before 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.239 they can kind of get this racing culture to grow 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:13.320 and spread across South. 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:13.560 Right. 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.600 By nineteen forty seven, Boom NASCAR is founded. Next year, 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:21.320 nineteen forty eight, in February, Batance again back down in Daytona, Florida, 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.200 NASCAR holds its first professional race. Now do you know 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:25.280 who the winning driver was? 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:27.200 Barney Oldfield. 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.440 Good guess, Red Byron. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.040 I only know Barney Oldfield because I did actually get 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:33.080 a speeding ticket. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.880 Once'ntil I called you, my grandmother was. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:41.280 All, look at you, Barney Oldfield like weepings ashamed Barney. 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:42.920 That's the only way I know that name. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:43.400 Well. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.600 Red Byron was a former real life Moonshiner who notably 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:49.400 was driving a Ford. A lot of Fords in this 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.280 for you. And this means, by the way, the very 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:54.560 first NASCAR race was one by a criminal. 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:56.360 So boom right here it is. 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.119 Now this brings us to my dude, NASCAR's mysterious legend 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.120 w Right. Larry Woody, a Tennessee sports writer. He once said, 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:05.840 I quote, if he could have driven as fast as 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.320 he talked, L W. Wright would be a NASCAR champion. 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.320 Now yeah, now L. W. Wright is the gnome do 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:13.880 race for the amateur driver. It's not his real name. 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.400 The professional con man who woke up one day and 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:17.840 he decided, you know, I think I'm going to go 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.800 race the best drivers in the world at the biggest, longest, 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:22.800 fastest track in the world. I'm gonna go do that. 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:23.680 So that's what he did. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.960 It's the longest track, I mean who cares the closet. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.000 But I mean they're going around and around and around. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.679 Yeah, for five hundred miles. Sure, so it's a lot 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:34.079 of miles. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.080 They don't have to do as many turns if the 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:36.800 track's longer. 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.760 No, that's true. The turn it's just a bunch of 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:41.600 left turns. Yeah. 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:43.199 Well they don't have to use their blinkers. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:45.800 No, they definitely save it on the turn. 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.560 They don't need. Yeah, the blinker fluid. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.000 A lot of blinker fluid saved in NASCAR. They don't 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.040 even think they have blinker fluid sponsors. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:09:01.280 They do, do they? Okay, American blinker fluid Jimmy All yeah, yeah, I. 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.319 Know you're you're probably I know I'm right, man. I 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:04.440 don't even know how I forgot that. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:06.320 Yeah, I'm full of correct facts. 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.000 So how does my dude l W. Writ con is 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.520 way onto the track? Well, the year Elizabeth is nineteen 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.360 eighty two. I want you to frame your mind. You're 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.160 in the Reagan's America. The month is April. Larry Wright. 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.160 He contacts the local paper, the Nashville newspaper, the Tennessee, 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.440 and he offers a newspaper a news item. You know, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.720 anybody could do this in newspaper it publishes it and 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.640 I quote. Nashville driver L. W. Wright yesterday announced he 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:28.880 will be attempting to qualify for next week's Winston five 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.920 hundred Grand National Race at Talladega, Alabama. The thirty year 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.400 old right, a veteran of forty five Grand National races, 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.080 will drive a nineteen eighty one Monte Carlo. The name 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.760 of Wright's team is Music City Racing, and among his 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.200 sponsors are country music stars Merle Haggard and TG Shephard. 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.920 Haggard is scheduled to appear at Talladega with his driver. 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:46.640 Wow. 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.479 Yeah, so as simple as that story was, fantastic story. Yeah, 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.800 do you think it's true? No, No, it was not 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.480 true at all. Country music legends backing at amateur race 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.960 car driver no one's heard of. People are like, oh, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:00.800 I'm gonna print that. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.320 But you know, I don't think Hank done it that way. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.560 You're spot on. So turns out, uh, LW. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.359 Wright, He he did get onto the track of Talladega 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.560 that day, and how he did it and who he 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.480 was remained a mystery for forty years, okay forty years, 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.160 no one knew who this guy he. 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:19.960 Got on the track did his car, He got in 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:20.400 the car. 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:22.720 No, he didn't like run like he was racing a horse. 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:24.440 Just like I thought. Was he like glad handing? 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.319 Like walking around one going to get my carts around 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:27.760 the corner? 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.360 Nineteen eighty one Monte Carlo and he took it out. 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.240 That's such a great in my mind, I see like 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.720 current Nascar, and then I see him Monte Carlo like 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:38.680 not tricked out. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:39.800 A dust you boys. 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.000 So on the fortieth anniversary, journalists Rick Houston and Steve 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.960 Wade from Scene Vault podcast, they broke the story that 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:48.600 they had found L. W. 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:48.840 Wright. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.280 Nascar goes nuts right all the bad like are you 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.200 kidding me? The legend was finally ready to let his 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.520 story be known. He was ready to kill the mystery. 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.240 It took Rick Houston hundreds of exchange messages to earn 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:02.880 this dude's trust and the trust of his family, but 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:04.600 eventually he is able to speak with L. W. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:04.840 Wright. 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.960 So turns out, in nineteen eighty two, L. W. Wright 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.120 was working as a bus repair garage he just north 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.559 of Nashville in a town called Hendersonville, Tennessee. Now Nashville 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.839 is known as Music City, the country music capital of 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.160 the world, which also meant big country stars of that 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.040 era brought their tour buses over to Hendersonville to get 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.160 their buses repaired and ready for the road. Yeah, that's 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.080 where Old L. W. Wright rubbed elbows with the glitterati 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.920 of country music legends like Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Willie Nelson, 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.679 Waaley Jennings, Merle Haggard and so and so. Now, being 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.040 that close to the country music stars gives Old L. W. 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.800 Wright a big idea. Now, if you ask him, Wright 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.040 credits Whylon Jennings for why he was on that track 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.920 that fateful day. Now, he tells this story rather casually 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.240 and so quote Whyal and Jennis. He was sitting in 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.360 an apartment studio in Hendersonville. This is how Wright tells it. 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:51.520 Now. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.360 Quote George Jones and Merle Haggard was there to do 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:56.320 a duet on a new album that evening. 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.559 They told me to come over. Wanted to talk to me. 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:00.880 That was the three of them there. Mer All was 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.040 called me Hoss because I was a big old boy. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.880 He said, haas, will hear you want a race? I said, well, 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:06.440 we're trying. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.720 He said, why don't you let us make a little 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:10.680 bit of money help you get there. We're not gonna 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:12.560 stand a lot of sponsorship, but we're gonna give you 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:13.400 money to race with. 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:15.000 Right that's his story. 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.720 So these guys are just hanging out like tuning it 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.079 up smart and whatever, and they're like, you know, get 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.600 the bus mechanicsous come over here, get over here. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:26.400 You tell me a story. The other day, we gotta 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.080 get him. And I love he says, hass because it's wayling. 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.160 Jennings is known for calling people haas and not but whatever, 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.880 you know, So he's got this country boy's dream. Whalen 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.040 Jennings telling you need to go drive as fast as 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.400 you can right now. Anyway, our amateur race driver L. W. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.960 Wright says Merle Haggard ponies up three grand. The other guys, 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.679 George Jones, Whale and Jennings are like, oh, I gotta get. 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:47.080 My three grand. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:48.839 I don't know how they'll have three grand on him, 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.360 if it's that night, or if they go to the 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:51.280 bank and say, LW. 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:52.080 You come by it later. 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.080 Anyway, in those days, it was required to have three grand. 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:55.480 In your pocket. 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:56.880 You know, if you're going to a guitar pick and 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:58.880 you want to bring three grand exactly. 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:00.360 So according to they. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.400 Said, Hus, they'll take care of your tires and mobtail bill, 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.240 won't it. I had a lot of friends that got 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.600 into music, and I didn't use any of them other 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:08.920 than what they wanted to do. 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:10.360 So he's always saying that it's. 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:11.800 Their idea made me do it. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.360 Yeah, they basically twisted my rubber arm. So if you 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.439 ask lw Right that what he did with the Country 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.800 Music's Legends money, he said he sold a bulldozer and 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.040 then he paired that money with the country stars money, 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.839 and he purchased himself that nineteen eighty one Chevy money. 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.719 Carlo, Wait, two questions, One, why didn't you just race 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.600 the bulldozer? He was such a good mechanic. Two, why 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:31.640 did he own a bulldozer? 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:32.880 He didn't have a big enough ratchet. 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.640 And the second one is he used that to pay 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.640 for the donkey he wanted to eventually get because his 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:41.560 kids love that. So he's like, Okay, I'll use the 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.000 bulldozer to pay for the donkey. I cant for it now. 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:45.560 I think he stole the bulldozer. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:46.400 No, I don't know. 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.480 Why he just had a bulldozer. He's like, I don't 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:50.199 know why did I buy this? I was drunk and 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:50.719 I bought the. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:52.959 Bulldozer, so an impulse purchased. 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:55.680 He was at to check how he was like, candy 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.520 bar bulldozer, I have bulldozer. IM ain't that hungry. So 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.800 keep in mind he did just buy any nineteen eighty 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.280 one Chevy Monte Carlo. He bought a race car from 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.600 Cuckoo Marlin in his future Daytona five hundred winning son 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.640 Sterling Marlin. Cuckoo Cuckoo, Cuckoo Marlin and Sterling Marlin. 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:12.920 Yeah, uh huh cuckoo. 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.640 Whi's a NASCAR You got to get used to this name. 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:18.319 That is not what his mama named him. She did 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.040 not name him cuckoo. Yeah. So, as L. W. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.240 Wright recalled it, I said, I'll buy it if you'll 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.320 only paint the car black and put number thirty four 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.240 on it. So he's now telling them they take this 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.200 all red car painted black, put thirty four in and 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.920 I'm taking it. Now he's got his race car. Things 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.760 are proceeding well for old LW. But LW had another 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.200 issue that was going to probably darken some skies for him. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.320 This troubled. This cloud hovering above him was the FBI. 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:42.960 Oh yeah, so he was a coal miner at the time. 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:44.920 Least that's what he said. And if you ask LW. Wright, 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.600 this is when he was also a bus repairman. He 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.040 had a lot of jobs apparently, or he was overlapping, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.640 I don't know, but he was in coal mining at 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.120 the time. And his version goes like this, compy, we 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:55.840 were doing some work for They had a safe and 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:57.640 they had money in it, and they told the law 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.040 enforcement and they told the insurance people that they I 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.360 had one hundred thousand in there. I'm here to tell 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.160 you today there was exactly one thousand dollars in that safe. 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:06.280 I didn't go. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.600 And get it, but it was brought to me. They 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.200 did that so the insurance would pay them. But I'm 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:11.960 the bad guy. 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:14.560 It's always someone else exactly. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.120 He's a victim of circumstances. Really, So this money was 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.080 allegedly LW. Wright's motivation to make the money as a 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.120 race car driver. His answer is, I got this problem 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.320 with the FBI. I should probably go under Talladega to 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.320 make the thousand dollars I need. So he's gonna pay 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.280 back that grand, So he put it. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.760 He spent the grand on the bulldozer exactly. 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.240 All these impulse purchases. This is not his only impulse purchase. 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:38.240 You know, that's what I'm sane. 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:40.680 So anyway, Yes, he put it quote, that was my 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.320 goal to make it right. I knew I could do it. 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.840 I knew I could run fast enough, qualify and all 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.000 that stuff. But it didn't work out that way. 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:53.760 He wanted to make it right. Yeah, with thew. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.040 The FBI investigation, the tanging over him, it became a 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.240 bit of a distraction for LW. Let me put it 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.600 this way. He says, it was hard because you got 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.720 to focus on every face in the crowd. You don't 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:06.920 know who's gonna walk up on you at any minute. 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.080 You wouldn't know how to handle that. Plus the stress 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.640 on you that you gotta do good. You gotta qualify, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:13.600 You gotta get out there and run this race. You 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.120 gotta finish in the top fifteen. 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.480 Can't hit the FBI hanging over here. You got a 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.240 race to win. It's like an Elvis Presley movie. You 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.480 gotta win this race. Elvit. I gotta win this race. 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.400 And the FBI is here, Elvis, FBI is here. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.520 Anyway, A lot of pressure got this first time car 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.840 driver and now throw in he's a con artist who 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.520 shouldn't be there, adding the FBI agents who her it 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.160 e'tone about to grab him. There's a lot of pressure 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.840 for old hell wie he is, but he talks his 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.120 way onto the track at Talidaga. Now, as I said earlier, 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.800 it's the biggest, longest track, the fastest track in the world, 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.640 the true long daddy, Elizabeth. So he said, and I quote, 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.000 I remember pulling in the infield and standing at the 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.320 end of the track and looking down at looked over 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.160 at my brother and I said, Lord, have mercy. 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.880 Ain't no way? He said, Well, what do you mean? 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.440 I said, you think about. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:16:59.960 Holding that pedal flat on the floor all the way 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.640 around this track? That straightaway is almost a mile long. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:04.680 How much can that car game before you go into 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:10.560 that urn? So cold, dark fear rolled through lw Right. 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:12.919 So what does our com man racer do, Elizabeth. 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.840 Well, he's just a little old lump of coal, and 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.080 that that pressure's gonna turn him into a diamond. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.680 Oh, I love it, because he just needed the Lord 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.840 to help him. That's the extra pressure he needs. 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:23.960 Wait, the Lord helped him. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.040 He asked God for help. 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.680 I got off by myself that day, and I said, Lord, 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:29.800 I'm down here, but I'm gonna need some help. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:32.760 God's like, okay, I've got a really long list of 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:34.440 tickets that people have put in for help. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:35.760 But you, LW. 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.600 When I get done with Ethiopia, I'll be right there. LW. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.200 We got the starvation going on, but I swear you're 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.879 next in line. There's just millions of them. It's only 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.280 one of you. It's a number things, LW. So anyway, 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:48.720 I was reading that quote and I was like, my 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.040 brother in Christ, this is what we in the story. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.000 Bill is just called a gross understatement. I'm gonna need 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.080 some help. You're gonna need a lot of help. 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:57.639 You're gonna need like six. 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.840 Gods worth of help to get any chance to win 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.320 in this race, even gods like Paul. You're asking for 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.040 a lot here. So okay, let's take a little break 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.120 and then we'll after these messages. I'll tell you we'll 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.120 get into Talladega that very fateful day. 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:25.280 Nice. 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:31.760 All right, Elizabeth, we're back and we're all about to 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.240 be in Talladega. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.720 Yeah, we are now, Elizabeth, Charlie, it. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.560 Is it true that Talladega Knights is your favorite Will 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:41.359 Ferrell movie. 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:42.240 Yes it is. 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:43.679 I remembered you saying that. 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:43.960 True. 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:44.800 I thought I remember that. 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.200 It's like that, or let's say that an old school school. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.200 Oh yeah, there's no racing in old school. So let's 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:53.320 talk about Talladega Knights. 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:58.159 I love that movie. I own it on Blu Ray. 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:00.760 You're laughing, I'm serious. 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:01.080 You are. 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.560 Do you have a Blu ray player somewhere? Do you 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.080 remember the scene when he did he needed to master 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.879 his fear and then he's like he's like, he's like, 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.280 you know, teacher for teaching him how to drive. 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:15.840 Dad. 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.399 Yeah, Ricky Bobby is sitting there and his dad's like, Okay, 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.040 you need a cougar in your car. He gets in 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.480 and there's a cougar in his market and he has 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:24.800 to drive with the cougar. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:28.160 Yes, first time I saw that, lost it, lost it. 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.960 It's like there's some stuff my dad would, Boy, you 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.440 need a cougar in the car. Yeah, you're right, there 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:36.639 is a cougar in the car. 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.639 Anyway, So imagine if Will Ferrell wasn't in a movie, 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.600 right and no, imagine Will Farrell was really racing against 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.399 the real life NASCAR drivers, Like I know the dude's 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:47.920 a dope drummer, but I don't care how dope a 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:48.399 drummer is. 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.200 He couldn't handle that speed. We're talking two hundred miles 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:52.040 in a drummer. 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:53.720 Are you confusing him with Chad Smith? 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:55.960 No, he's a drummer, girl, drummer. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:56.639 I've seen him. 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.200 He's really good, is he? Chad Smith says he's I 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:05.200 don't drum know. I believe the Chili Peppers Elizabeth will Ferrell, Yes, 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:06.199 one of them. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:10.399 I think they take tours. He's like, I need to 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.520 get out for a little sabbatical. Chad, you do some 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.160 comedy which explained some of the movie choices. 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:14.400 Yeah. 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.400 Oh so anyway, so the as I was saying two 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.720 hundred miles an hours basically, how fast these guys are going? 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:22.000 Really fast? Yes? 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.800 Really really, that's like five eighty Oakland speeds exactly. 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.440 We know these speeds. You've seen them on the freeway 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.439 zipping by. Okay, So race weekend comes. 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:31.920 L W. 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.240 Wright is officially now listed as one of the drivers. 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:35.840 He's in all this stuff. You look in the paper 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.879 it says, oh yeah, Dale Earnhardt, LW. Wright, What the 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.840 who's this? L? W Right, public relations director for the track, 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:46.240 Tom Roberts, he would say, quote after the fact, NASCAR. 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:47.200 Was fooled like everybody else. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:49.600 Normally new drivers are checked out before they were giving 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.360 a license, but this wasn't a normal case. This guy 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.520 dropped names and places and just simply talked his way in. 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.320 He had a press release with them. Yeah, like the 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:01.840 old boy. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.840 Meanwhile, there's l w Right. That dude's having a crisis 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:06.919 of confidence at this point. And I quote from l 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.040 W I was real nervous. I was there with the 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.560 biggest names in racing and me and nobody from back 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:13.760 in the hills of Virginia, but no background like that. 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.000 I knew I didn't have the ability they had because 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:17.320 they'd done it for years. 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:21.879 The little rebel whoop at the end. 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.919 Something that's authenticity, Elizabeth, That's what that is. So now 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.040 he's at talent dig L W. Wright has to pass 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.040 for a professional race car driver. Cuckoo Marlin and son 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:33.920 Sterling Martin. They've sold a stock. 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:34.159 Car to L. 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.040 W Right, so he's got an official car. He looks 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:37.440 like he belongs there. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:38.399 Now did he check it. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.400 Out as a mechanic to make sure? Because if I'm 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.880 a NASCAR driver and some upstart, says, can I. 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.680 Buy y'all's car? I go, yeah, sure, take. 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.959 This one, like my busted up one, the janky one 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.040 I got like, hey, that's what you do that? 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:54.520 Yeah, hey, take this car. 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.639 I got this limit of the car over quickly in tune. 0:21:57.720 --> 0:21:59.560 Don't even look at it. It's perfect. 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:01.399 Just don't yeah, don't kick those tires. Oh you know, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.280 come on, and then it's just race back on the 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.080 starting line. Don't start it here put. 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:09.040 You'll never mess with Cuckoo. 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.720 So my man to Sterling Marlin. His father with Cuckoo 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.159 was racing. So he's busy. He can't like be bothered 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.040 with this. But Sterling is a young man. He's like, 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:20.560 you know, like twenty one, twenty two or whatever. I 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:21.280 think he's twenty five. 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:23.879 He twenty eight thirty, doesn't it's. 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.760 Very handsome, twenty seven, so surly marn. 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.040 He told ESPN back in twenty nineteen in a story 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.160 about this before the mystery had been revealed. 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:34.160 Quote, now I'd never heard of this guy, right, but that. 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:36.000 But you sold him a car, sir. 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:40.719 Oh, it gets better than that, because he's like lw 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.119 is lying to his face. Remember in his press release, 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:45.639 he said he had forty five, and he told Sterling 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:47.720 forty three whatever. He's like somewhere in the forties, and 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:50.200 it's all telling him he's flat track races in Virginia. 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.720 So this guy's a racers. Dad's a racer. Grip rates. 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:54.399 He's like, oh, yeah, do you know this guy? He's like, oh, 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:55.600 I don't know him. He don't know this guy. 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:56.160 I don't know him. 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:57.879 He starts listen down. He doesn't know any of the 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.560 names of any of the current flat track drive. Doesn't 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.199 bother him, startling like that's kind of weird. So somehow 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:03.720 this works. 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:05.080 To his benefit. Sterling's like, you know what, I bet 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:05.840 this guy needs help. 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:08.200 This is my dad's busy, he decides, and I quote, 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:10.080 so I decided I'm gonna go down there with him 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:11.920 kind of be like his crew chief, just to keep 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:12.520 an eye on him. 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:12.720 You know. 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:15.240 As soon as we got there, it all got even fishier. 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:17.479 He decides, this guy is weird and crazy. I think 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:19.240 he's lying to me. I should get closer and spend 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:20.080 more of my time. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.160 On this what like a pro bono crew chief. 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:23.640 Yes, he's not getting paid. 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:26.359 Yeah, so he's doing like he just get this guy, 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:28.200 by the way, I mean, you got l W walking 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:29.720 around in this garage and he's doing like what you 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:32.280 would do, Elizabeth. He's like, I have that ratchet, you know, 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.280 we see this other ratchet over here. I need the 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:37.960 Everyone's like, who the hell is this dude? 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:39.919 I need I need the old twisting. 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:41.760 Thing rod, the hard twisty. 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:44.720 And so even though he's made it this far on 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.320 a ruise and a lie, LW he just can't stop himself. 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:49.439 He keeps talking to other folks in the garage in 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:51.680 the infield of the track, and he's made it. He's 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:54.600 inside Talladagan. He's about to blow it because the more 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:56.879 he talks, everybody knows this guy is a liar and 0:23:56.960 --> 0:23:59.280 his ignorance is leaking out of him. He's like you 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:02.199 like a flatulent old uncle. And he's sitting there like 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:04.160 after like he's had a big meal and he's sitting 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:05.480 there taking a nap in the room. 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:08.520 He doesn't know how much he stinks. Now that's l W. Right. 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:10.920 So word starts to spread around the track. 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:13.159 People are like, who's this new? No name Newcome you 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:15.119 hear about him? Like, oh yeah, he tell you Whyalon 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:17.679 Jennings is a sponsor. You know, they're all like talking, 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:19.240 They've read the press releases. 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:20.959 Everyone. He's the talk of the girlage. 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:22.320 He said Whalen was going to be that. 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:24.680 Merle Haggard's gonna be there, and Merle Haggard did not 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:27.520 show up, and shepherds the other country start. He's like, 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:30.040 I don't know this guy. He releases a press release 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.760 saying like he's a liar. Yeah people, So people are 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:35.480 asking about that. I saw the shepherd called you a liar. 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:37.760 You said he's one of your sponsors. And another guy 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:39.560 is coming at him, like, how can it be possible 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:41.960 that not a single one of the NASCAR drivers ever 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:44.080 heard of you? So he's like, oh, you know how 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:46.879 it is, I'm I got a name. People forget, you 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:49.640 know whatever he's saying. Right, He's got momentum at this point, 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:52.080 so he just keeps the wheels rolling. But most importantly, 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:54.080 he knows he's got in his hot little hand his 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:56.160 official NASCAR license to race. 0:24:56.320 --> 0:24:56.840 Oh yeah. 0:24:56.880 --> 0:25:00.320 According to Jim Hunter, the Talladega Speedway president can't down 0:25:00.359 --> 0:25:02.600 to the fact that Alabama is a right to work state. 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:05.240 He claimed that he was. 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:09.600 Quote handcuffed by what NASCAR and Talladega Speedway could do. 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:12.960 Once questions were raised about this new driver, so Jim 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:15.600 Hunter put it Besides, the damn guy did qualify for 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:18.359 the race, so you know you can almost hear the 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:20.480 like the echo of a good old boy chuckle. He 0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:26.919 just got it. Anyway, the way it works since LW. 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:29.600 Paid is one hundred and fifteen dollars entrance fee and 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:33.320 his NASCAR competition license fee and the Talladega Speedway on 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:36.000 hundred dollars race fee, he's now an official interest. 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:38.879 That's all it takes. And what like a Malibu Grand Prix. 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:40.280 Yeah, he's like a Grandnex. 0:25:42.080 --> 0:25:44.080 Here's nothing they can do about it now because once 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:46.399 again right to work state Alabama laws were like, you 0:25:46.400 --> 0:25:47.560 gotta let this race. 0:25:48.119 --> 0:25:50.120 Doesn't that mean they can just fire you whenever they want? 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:52.000 Yeah, that too. It's about it's a whole like, we 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:56.000 don't have union, so the workers make their own contracts right, right. 0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:58.120 Exactly, So it's usually not good and in this case 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:00.359 it was not good for the owners. But anyway, it 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:03.280 cuts both exactly. It's a very sharp knife. It's a 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:05.720 Ginzu blade on both sides. The day before the race, 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:07.920 the drivers are taking practice laps, right, so L. W. 0:26:07.920 --> 0:26:10.600 Wright goes to take his qualifying laps. Before he gets 0:26:10.600 --> 0:26:13.399 out there, the driver's in the garage. This driver, Bobby Allison, 0:26:13.440 --> 0:26:15.879 comes up to l W. Wright and this listen has 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:17.720 a legend right, and the legend tells, look, if you 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:19.639 don't qualify, don't feel bad because there are a lot 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:21.000 of guys he ain't gonna make the field. 0:26:21.560 --> 0:26:21.800 LW. 0:26:21.960 --> 0:26:25.240 Wright says, with zero hesitation, I appreciate that, mister Allison, 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:27.080 but I come down here for one reason, to make 0:26:27.119 --> 0:26:30.520 the field. So impressed, Bobby als replys, well, you're cocky enough, 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:31.000 ain't you. 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:35.600 Wow? Elizabeth, can you guess who comes up to him next? No, 0:26:35.720 --> 0:26:39.800 it's your boy? Throw up three for Dale Dale, Yes, 0:26:40.040 --> 0:26:40.840 legend Dale. 0:26:40.640 --> 0:26:42.600 See rest with the angels. Dale. 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:46.040 So Dale Earnheart senor known to be a hard ass, 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:48.480 but he's somehow cool with LW. Wright. 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:51.439 He even gives him some Dale Earnhardt tested advice for 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:53.560 winning a race. He comes up there and says, look here, 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:55.040 when you get out there, you can get on the 0:26:55.040 --> 0:26:56.960 back of someone that's been here before and follow them, 0:26:56.960 --> 0:26:58.400 stay with them, and then make your move. 0:26:58.640 --> 0:26:59.960 Why is everyone helping him? 0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:00.520 I don't know. 0:27:00.680 --> 0:27:02.240 I thought this was a competitive sport. 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:03.720 I think they just want to see what he'll do. 0:27:03.760 --> 0:27:06.960 It's entertainment. They're like, just put the kid out there. 0:27:06.960 --> 0:27:09.080 It's much more of a community than I realized. It's 0:27:09.119 --> 0:27:11.000 just it's all trying to uplift each other exactly. 0:27:11.040 --> 0:27:14.480 It's men helping men, bro being there for in the 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:16.800 middle of it. They say, we need therapy. 0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:17.760 No, we didn't count. 0:27:18.080 --> 0:27:20.000 We have more times to back each other up on 0:27:20.040 --> 0:27:23.080 our crazy s iday. So now we have Dale Iron hurt. 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:25.040 And he gives them all this good advice. And he 0:27:25.080 --> 0:27:26.960 wanted to let this good old boy know that the 0:27:27.359 --> 0:27:29.840 seven time NASCAR champion he's got his back. 0:27:29.960 --> 0:27:31.880 Chucks him on the shoulder, said you get out there now. 0:27:31.920 --> 0:27:34.520 So he goes out to do his practice laps and 0:27:34.680 --> 0:27:36.720 he's never seen the track before. He's never been on 0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:39.240 the track, he's never driven his car. He's on talented 0:27:40.640 --> 0:27:44.280 exactly once again. World's longest track, faster than Indianapolis five 0:27:44.359 --> 0:27:47.240 hundred right track is just for some specs, Elizabeth. The 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:49.840 track is two point six six miles long. It is 0:27:49.920 --> 0:27:53.400 a trioval, which is not standard. Usually a triable means 0:27:53.680 --> 0:27:55.600 you have three turns at one end, two turns at 0:27:55.640 --> 0:28:00.439 the other end. He has five turns. 0:27:58.680 --> 0:28:01.360 So it's sort of from above, looks what triangul. 0:28:01.000 --> 0:28:03.680 Yeah, yeah, well yeah, pentagonal or something. 0:28:03.760 --> 0:28:05.480 It has like a giant octagon. 0:28:06.160 --> 0:28:08.520 Yeah, it looks like a rhombus. So you get it. 0:28:08.560 --> 0:28:11.600 One, two, three, Okay, I'm counting. 0:28:11.240 --> 0:28:13.520 Five, yeah, three and then two. Yeah, there it is. 0:28:13.560 --> 0:28:14.679 That's some crazy business. 0:28:15.000 --> 0:28:18.080 So there we are five turns deep. So the north 0:28:18.119 --> 0:28:21.679 south turned, they're banked. The two turn end right is 0:28:21.720 --> 0:28:25.200 banked at thirty three degrees. Oh yeah, the inner trioval 0:28:25.240 --> 0:28:27.840 is banked at eighteen degrees. Now, thirty three degrees. That's 0:28:27.880 --> 0:28:30.600 a super very steep angle. Right, eighteen degrees is a 0:28:30.600 --> 0:28:32.359 steep angle if you're on it. So these guys are 0:28:32.400 --> 0:28:34.680 like driving on a hypot news of a triangle. Basically 0:28:35.000 --> 0:28:36.120 at two hundred miles an hour. 0:28:36.240 --> 0:28:38.480 You're loving this all the mass I do. 0:28:38.640 --> 0:28:40.680 They're coming into turn three Wilde Elizabeth. 0:28:41.480 --> 0:28:44.880 So the entire track forty eight feet wide, which is 0:28:44.880 --> 0:28:48.080 basically about the third of a football field, the width 0:28:48.160 --> 0:28:50.120 of a football field from the sideline to sideline. Oh 0:28:50.160 --> 0:28:52.480 it is, yeah, but the fortye it's about the Yeah. 0:28:52.560 --> 0:28:54.560 So to keep the tracks, keep all these cars in 0:28:54.560 --> 0:28:56.400 the track, there's a retaining wall, and the retaining wall 0:28:56.480 --> 0:28:58.600 is about about four feet high most of the time, 0:28:58.680 --> 0:29:01.040 like uh, like on the track and then seven feet 0:29:01.040 --> 0:29:02.760 past the grand stands. Like they want to protect people, 0:29:02.760 --> 0:29:04.680 so they got next to three feet garry this which 0:29:04.680 --> 0:29:07.520 you guys get three feet because we care. So if 0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:09.640 you were let's just say like you're on this wall, 0:29:09.680 --> 0:29:12.240 like the retaining wall, not the hurricane fencing part to 0:29:12.280 --> 0:29:14.160 the cement wall. Let's say you were an ant and 0:29:14.200 --> 0:29:16.120 you look down at your buddy ant and the grasses 0:29:16.120 --> 0:29:18.040 in the infield of the track. You can be fifty 0:29:18.040 --> 0:29:21.680 feet higher than the ant on the grass. Wait on 0:29:21.720 --> 0:29:23.320 the retaining wall. You're on the retaining wall on the 0:29:23.320 --> 0:29:26.160 outside of the track fee because of the steepness of 0:29:26.320 --> 0:29:28.520 the canted angle of the track. And then you add 0:29:28.520 --> 0:29:31.280 in a couple of feet of the fence that's feet 0:29:31.360 --> 0:29:35.280 higher than the inside field. So just think about that. 0:29:35.320 --> 0:29:37.960 And also keeping the ants is wearing an altimeter, by the. 0:29:37.920 --> 0:29:42.320 Way, of course, like little romans. 0:29:42.640 --> 0:29:44.160 So the taker guys. 0:29:44.040 --> 0:29:46.360 The infield of the track at Talladega, that's the grass 0:29:46.400 --> 0:29:50.640 inside the track, right, that could comfortably sit thirty one 0:29:50.760 --> 0:29:51.760 rose ball stadiums. 0:29:52.440 --> 0:29:55.440 Wait, stop it, that's how big this place is. It's huge. 0:29:55.440 --> 0:29:56.640 Thirty one thirty. 0:29:56.400 --> 0:29:59.680 One rose ball stadiums. It's huge. That's why I always 0:29:59.680 --> 0:30:01.440 stopped to see it. It's a cathedral. 0:30:01.880 --> 0:30:03.600 Having problems getting my head around there. 0:30:03.640 --> 0:30:06.280 I know thirty one rose balls inside the inside the track. 0:30:06.600 --> 0:30:11.000 The track is bigger, bigger driving around. Yes, so this 0:30:11.120 --> 0:30:14.520 is bigger than the United States interamateur race car driver 0:30:14.720 --> 0:30:16.680 L W. Wright, who now has to drive around the 0:30:16.760 --> 0:30:18.520 United States Elizabeth l W. 0:30:18.640 --> 0:30:20.120 What are you going to say? So in his first few. 0:30:20.000 --> 0:30:23.680 Practice laps, he not going fast enough, and I quote, 0:30:23.960 --> 0:30:25.120 I was comfortable in the car. 0:30:25.320 --> 0:30:27.360 The only thing was I wasn't getting the most out 0:30:27.360 --> 0:30:28.000 of the car. Me. 0:30:28.280 --> 0:30:30.120 I wasn't getting the most out of it. I thought 0:30:30.160 --> 0:30:32.080 the car would do more than what I was making 0:30:32.080 --> 0:30:33.680 it do because I hadn't run it before. 0:30:34.320 --> 0:30:37.400 So, to be fair, he hadn't driven it before he 0:30:37.440 --> 0:30:37.920 got on the track. 0:30:37.960 --> 0:30:42.120 So the first wait, he didn't even like adjust the seats. 0:30:42.400 --> 0:30:44.000 Around the car. The guy's like, my race car. 0:30:44.200 --> 0:30:47.760 No, No, the rear view he did it like on 0:30:47.880 --> 0:30:50.560 the track, He's like, I should set my mirrors and now. 0:30:50.960 --> 0:30:53.600 Okay, the angle of the steering wheel. 0:30:53.720 --> 0:30:56.080 To be fair, his first lap went better than you 0:30:56.160 --> 0:30:58.400 might expect. Yeah, but then on his second lapp he 0:30:58.480 --> 0:31:01.920 crashed into a wall, which is about what you'd expect. Yeah, 0:31:02.040 --> 0:31:03.800 so even though he slammed into a wall at one 0:31:03.880 --> 0:31:07.520 hundred and ninety miles an hour, he was still all in. 0:31:08.040 --> 0:31:08.760 So LW. 0:31:08.880 --> 0:31:11.720 Wright said, uh no, cirt never crossed my mind. I 0:31:11.720 --> 0:31:13.240 was in the hospital. First thing out of my mouth. 0:31:13.280 --> 0:31:14.720 I asked a buddy of mine with me. I said, 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:16.520 how bad? It's a car tore up? He said, I 0:31:16.560 --> 0:31:18.440 think we can put it back together. I said, let's hurry, 0:31:18.520 --> 0:31:20.320 get her out there and get going. He will not 0:31:20.440 --> 0:31:20.880 back down. 0:31:20.960 --> 0:31:22.480 Wait what he wanted to be in the same race. 0:31:22.640 --> 0:31:23.280 Yeah, he's going to be. 0:31:23.560 --> 0:31:24.480 He's in the hospital. 0:31:24.600 --> 0:31:26.760 No, no, So they took him at there's a he 0:31:26.800 --> 0:31:27.400 was taken away in. 0:31:27.400 --> 0:31:29.440 An ambu like a fields he was, Yeah, he's not 0:31:29.480 --> 0:31:31.400 taking away an ambulance like to a hospital. He's just 0:31:31.400 --> 0:31:32.640 taken by an ambulance to like the. 0:31:32.600 --> 0:31:33.720 Field hospital because there's a. 0:31:34.120 --> 0:31:38.080 Thirty one rose poles to cross. So they get him 0:31:38.080 --> 0:31:40.360 to the infield track hospital and he's bandages up. This 0:31:40.400 --> 0:31:42.200 won't slow him down, you know, because you know his 0:31:42.320 --> 0:31:45.240 crash doesn't matter to him. He's he's gone fast enough 0:31:45.240 --> 0:31:47.760 to qualify for Talladega. He went one hundred and eighty 0:31:47.760 --> 0:31:49.880 seven point three seven nine miles per hour for an 0:31:49.880 --> 0:31:52.760 average lap speed. So boom he gets in and surprisingly 0:31:52.920 --> 0:31:56.600 not the slowest time. Oh that guy thirty six in 0:31:56.680 --> 0:31:58.920 a field of forty NASCAR drivers. 0:31:58.680 --> 0:32:01.760 Those four guys exactly. Now when you say it's thirty 0:32:01.760 --> 0:32:03.400 one rolls rose bowls? 0:32:03.760 --> 0:32:03.920 Is that? 0:32:04.440 --> 0:32:04.560 Like? 0:32:04.600 --> 0:32:04.880 What if? 0:32:04.920 --> 0:32:06.240 Are they stacked vertically? 0:32:06.440 --> 0:32:07.360 Why would they be stacked? 0:32:07.600 --> 0:32:09.640 Because I can't still can't believe it's that thick. 0:32:09.920 --> 0:32:14.000 Yeah, put on the ground, just like I got what vertically? 0:32:14.520 --> 0:32:16.400 I know, you make a tower of rose bowls. 0:32:16.680 --> 0:32:19.640 That's the only way this makes sense. No, how big 0:32:19.760 --> 0:32:21.040 is this huge? 0:32:21.280 --> 0:32:21.480 Yes? 0:32:22.400 --> 0:32:23.800 Now also you get that's why you can go two 0:32:23.840 --> 0:32:26.160 hundred miles. Remember you stand down the straightaway. It's this 0:32:26.240 --> 0:32:26.720 is interesting. 0:32:27.160 --> 0:32:28.960 One lap around this thing and they're done. 0:32:29.520 --> 0:32:33.640 Basically it's a five hundred mile last So this first, this, 0:32:33.920 --> 0:32:36.320 this is the first time. This year nineteen eighty two 0:32:36.360 --> 0:32:38.160 was the first time that a driver crosses two hundred 0:32:38.200 --> 0:32:40.520 miles in any track. And they do it on this 0:32:40.560 --> 0:32:42.320 track because you need the length to get up to 0:32:42.320 --> 0:32:44.560 the speed. So they break a record this year. He's 0:32:44.600 --> 0:32:48.400 out there miles an hour to get They eventually get 0:32:48.400 --> 0:32:49.000 speed governors. 0:32:49.000 --> 0:32:50.920 They realize this is too faster. These guys be driving 0:32:51.000 --> 0:32:53.400 right they Oh yeah, it doesn't matter. 0:32:53.480 --> 0:32:57.280 Aerodynamic is just runs to take those governors off. 0:32:57.320 --> 0:32:59.120 Dude, l W does real well. 0:32:59.160 --> 0:33:01.479 The fastest guy they who says the record Benny Parson, 0:33:01.640 --> 0:33:03.960 he did two hundred two point one seven miles. 0:33:04.360 --> 0:33:04.640 LW. 0:33:04.760 --> 0:33:06.880 Wright he did a speed that was one eighty seven 0:33:06.920 --> 0:33:08.280 win three. That's thirteen miles slower. 0:33:08.360 --> 0:33:09.080 It's really fat. 0:33:09.080 --> 0:33:11.520 Thirteen miles slower than the record setting speed. Our amateur 0:33:11.560 --> 0:33:12.640 is killing it right. 0:33:12.680 --> 0:33:13.080 Wow. 0:33:13.160 --> 0:33:15.240 The fastest I've ever driven is one hundred and fifty 0:33:15.240 --> 0:33:18.440 five miles an hour. Oh, I was clenching like when 0:33:18.480 --> 0:33:19.880 I was doing that, and it was on a straight 0:33:19.920 --> 0:33:21.920 country road. I didn't have to worry about anything. I 0:33:22.000 --> 0:33:23.560 knew what I was doing. I could see forever. 0:33:23.840 --> 0:33:25.000 What kind of car was it? 0:33:25.000 --> 0:33:28.600 It was the old Mercedes Sedan. Those things good, they 0:33:28.640 --> 0:33:30.840 will they I didn't think it get that fast. It 0:33:30.960 --> 0:33:32.520 kept going and kept going and kept going. 0:33:32.520 --> 0:33:35.000 One one time when I was driving, it was like 0:33:35.080 --> 0:33:36.479 on the five, that was the fastest. 0:33:36.480 --> 0:33:40.320 You were like fifty six. I mean it all the way. 0:33:40.480 --> 0:33:42.120 So you're on the five. What else going doing like 0:33:42.120 --> 0:33:43.760 fifty six story. 0:33:43.960 --> 0:33:49.160 Yeah, So after w crashes into the wall and his 0:33:49.240 --> 0:33:52.080 impromptu crew chief Stirling Marlin has to like, like you know, 0:33:52.200 --> 0:33:56.760 basically bolster his confidence, right, he also has an issue. 0:33:56.760 --> 0:33:58.200 His car is wrecked, and now he's got to go 0:33:58.200 --> 0:33:59.960 around to other drivers and try to like get parts 0:34:00.040 --> 0:34:01.760 from them. So he gets a door and a fender 0:34:01.800 --> 0:34:03.680 and a quarter panel from one racer, and then he 0:34:03.680 --> 0:34:05.760 goes over to Richard Petty and he gets a windshield 0:34:05.760 --> 0:34:09.040 trim for Richard Petty. Then he gets the windshield to 0:34:09.080 --> 0:34:10.880 go with it, because his windshields blown out, so he 0:34:10.880 --> 0:34:13.759 gets a windshield from Dale Earnhart's team, and then he 0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:16.280 gets the snaps he needs to tie down his windshield 0:34:16.280 --> 0:34:18.319 from Darryl Waltrip. So all these legends are like, yeah, 0:34:18.320 --> 0:34:19.200 here you go, I got all the. 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:21.560 Parts of extra. Did they invoice him later? 0:34:21.800 --> 0:34:23.640 I don't care, don't care? Oh good old boy. 0:34:23.840 --> 0:34:26.440 So finally day of the race comes l W Right 0:34:26.480 --> 0:34:28.160 out of the field hospital in his car. 0:34:28.760 --> 0:34:31.040 Cars slap back together after crack up. 0:34:31.120 --> 0:34:32.120 It's like a civil war. 0:34:34.360 --> 0:34:35.520 No one can stop him. 0:34:35.440 --> 0:34:37.880 Now, so put him under ether exactly. 0:34:37.880 --> 0:34:40.800 He's kind of goofy and weird. We're gonna need to 0:34:40.800 --> 0:34:41.000 get you. 0:34:41.320 --> 0:34:43.560 You got to amputat. 0:34:43.600 --> 0:34:46.320 That's just what we do here. Son put some cocaine 0:34:46.320 --> 0:34:49.120 in him because he got ghosts in his blood shows up, 0:34:49.480 --> 0:34:51.680 so L W. Pulls his car out on the track. 0:34:51.719 --> 0:34:53.440 He's out there on the grid, lines up next to 0:34:53.480 --> 0:34:56.640 the stock car legends at the starting line. Quote that's 0:34:56.680 --> 0:34:58.680 when it really said in I thought, well, I finally 0:34:58.719 --> 0:35:00.680 got here. It doesn't matter what happens today. I'm here, 0:35:01.200 --> 0:35:02.879 and that's what I was shooting tours. But I wanted 0:35:02.880 --> 0:35:05.560 to run good. You know, that's like the good old 0:35:05.560 --> 0:35:10.600 boy model. I want to run no good. How do 0:35:10.640 --> 0:35:13.759 you think my boy LW. Wright does at one hundred, sorry, 0:35:13.840 --> 0:35:16.840 two hundred miles an hour? Next two men nicknamed the 0:35:16.840 --> 0:35:19.040 Intimidator and the King, how do you think he does? 0:35:20.040 --> 0:35:20.560 Not so hot? 0:35:20.680 --> 0:35:22.640 Yeah, well, rather than me asked you that question, We're 0:35:22.640 --> 0:35:24.200 gonna take a little break and then I'll be back 0:35:24.239 --> 0:35:50.160 to show you the race. Nice okay, Elizabeth Okay. Talladega Speedway. 0:35:50.880 --> 0:35:53.640 Our man LW. Wright is on the grid at the 0:35:53.680 --> 0:35:56.759 starting line with all the legends. Hundreds of thousands of 0:35:56.760 --> 0:35:58.120 people are watching him. I don't know if that's true, 0:35:58.160 --> 0:36:00.760 but at least at home. Millions of people watch on TV. 0:36:01.560 --> 0:36:03.000 So covered and bandage. 0:36:03.080 --> 0:36:05.160 Now do you think he's gonna do well? No, he 0:36:05.200 --> 0:36:06.640 did thirty six in the time to you know, the 0:36:06.719 --> 0:36:10.680 qualifying time. So right, I'll just I'll tell you this, right, But. 0:36:11.280 --> 0:36:14.680 How long did he go before he crashed? Yeah? 0:36:15.880 --> 0:36:19.319 Not well, well it was rather than us voting about it. 0:36:19.360 --> 0:36:26.640 Why don't you just close your eyes and picture May second, 0:36:26.800 --> 0:36:30.080 nineteen eighty two, the Winston five hundred at Talladega. You 0:36:30.360 --> 0:36:33.719 are an ant. You've crawled across the sun warm track. 0:36:33.760 --> 0:36:35.719 It's as stock cars line up for the race. You 0:36:35.760 --> 0:36:37.120 climb up onto one of the cars. 0:36:37.120 --> 0:36:39.640 You're bored. Whatever the race car of LW. Wright. 0:36:39.960 --> 0:36:42.240 He's in Row eighteen, number thirty six, in a field 0:36:42.239 --> 0:36:44.960 of forty cars. This means nothing to you. You're an 0:36:45.000 --> 0:36:48.879 ant engine start. The cars rumble and shake, eager to race. 0:36:48.920 --> 0:36:51.200 The drivers grip their steering wheels, ready to make hate 0:36:51.200 --> 0:36:52.120 to the other drivers. 0:36:52.200 --> 0:36:52.560 LW. 0:36:52.719 --> 0:36:55.399 Wright just hope he doesn't die or kill someone else 0:36:55.440 --> 0:36:57.560 by a mistake. And you wonder what the hell is 0:36:57.600 --> 0:37:00.880 all this noise? You came to this track someone's RV. 0:37:01.000 --> 0:37:03.560 You don't know anything about NASCAR. This is your first 0:37:03.680 --> 0:37:07.000 NASCAR race too, So you can practically hear what LW. 0:37:07.080 --> 0:37:08.960 Wright is thinking in the car because you're sitting there 0:37:09.000 --> 0:37:10.400 on the glass of the windshield. 0:37:10.520 --> 0:37:11.799 He's in there, and we all lined up. 0:37:11.840 --> 0:37:15.160 Everybody was antsy, and boom, the green flag is waved. 0:37:15.200 --> 0:37:17.479 The cars all roared to life. They're off wi seeing 0:37:17.480 --> 0:37:19.319 that flag drop. The front runners took off the middle 0:37:19.320 --> 0:37:20.719 of the field. Itn't and I was waiting, come on, 0:37:20.840 --> 0:37:21.640 come on, come on. 0:37:22.280 --> 0:37:24.440 He sees the turn. Come he floors it. 0:37:24.680 --> 0:37:28.279 The wheel squealed car races storage us. Elizabeth and Aunt 0:37:28.360 --> 0:37:30.800 on the windshield of this race car are now stuck. 0:37:30.880 --> 0:37:32.799 The wind presses you down to the glass. You're just 0:37:32.840 --> 0:37:35.279 staring at this guy and he's staring. 0:37:34.960 --> 0:37:35.760 Down their track. 0:37:35.960 --> 0:37:38.040 The cars get to going fast sixty miles an hour 0:37:38.040 --> 0:37:40.480 within seconds, then one hundred, one hundred and ten, one 0:37:40.560 --> 0:37:43.600 twenty one, thirty, one, forty one fifty. You're up to 0:37:43.600 --> 0:37:45.239 one hundred and ninety miles an hour. None of this 0:37:45.280 --> 0:37:47.200 means anything to you, but you're going super fast. 0:37:47.360 --> 0:37:48.839 My little ant limbs are flying. 0:37:49.400 --> 0:37:51.920 The world is blurring fast. Your antenna you lose one 0:37:52.000 --> 0:37:54.759 WoT well the leg gohost. This crazy bastard is in 0:37:54.960 --> 0:37:56.200 this race. LW. 0:37:56.320 --> 0:37:58.400 Wright would later tell a journalists and I quote, as 0:37:58.400 --> 0:38:00.400 soon as I cleared the flag stand, I remember dropping 0:38:00.440 --> 0:38:02.640 the outside lane and going to the front about ten cars. 0:38:02.760 --> 0:38:04.759 I remember that. I guess it was all adrenaline in. 0:38:05.000 --> 0:38:06.839 No sense, but I went to the front and hurry, 0:38:06.840 --> 0:38:09.480 and I thought, this is where I'm gonna stay. So 0:38:09.680 --> 0:38:11.840 after lap one you can tell this maniac is in 0:38:11.880 --> 0:38:13.839 it to win it. Lap two doesn't go as well, though, 0:38:13.880 --> 0:38:15.800 because you're still pressed to the glass of the windshield. 0:38:15.840 --> 0:38:18.400 The wind is intense, the speed insane. You wonder how 0:38:18.440 --> 0:38:20.880 long you can hold on your little ant body quivering. 0:38:21.080 --> 0:38:24.439 Couple drivers retake their spots ahead. Lw falls back into 0:38:24.480 --> 0:38:27.160 the pack. Lap three, one of the front runners, Darryl 0:38:27.200 --> 0:38:30.719 Waltrip in the Mountain dew Buick takes first place. He's 0:38:30.760 --> 0:38:32.919 down on the lead of the high speed train made 0:38:32.920 --> 0:38:35.800 of car race cars and the King, Richard Petty is 0:38:35.840 --> 0:38:36.520 in the lead pack. 0:38:36.680 --> 0:38:38.879 So is the intimidator Dale Earnhardt, but he has yet 0:38:38.920 --> 0:38:39.600 to make his move. 0:38:39.840 --> 0:38:42.279 You are desperately hoping this all in soon, but there 0:38:42.320 --> 0:38:44.719 are still four hundred and ninety two miles to go 0:38:44.760 --> 0:38:48.320 in this race. Lap four, a young driver David Simcoe, 0:38:48.400 --> 0:38:50.040 spins out at one hundred and ninety miles an hour 0:38:50.040 --> 0:38:51.080 and slams into the wall. 0:38:51.160 --> 0:38:52.560 You're a gas How does one. 0:38:52.440 --> 0:38:54.399 Get off a race car going one hundred ninety miles 0:38:54.440 --> 0:38:57.120 an hour? Your little antenn I are wondering, but evan 0:38:57.400 --> 0:39:00.640 no chance to answer because the speed Lap four is 0:39:00.719 --> 0:39:03.880 going and Dale W. Wright, He's footstays smashed down on 0:39:03.920 --> 0:39:06.319 that accelerator. Yet some part of him, the part that 0:39:06.400 --> 0:39:08.959 keeps them alive, it won't let him drive as fast 0:39:09.000 --> 0:39:11.520 as the other drivers. They do things he would never do, 0:39:11.680 --> 0:39:13.120 never think to do, and if he did thing to 0:39:13.120 --> 0:39:15.480 do them, he still couldn't do what they do. Meanwhile, 0:39:15.640 --> 0:39:18.239 you're inventing like aunt religions. You were praying for Aunt 0:39:18.320 --> 0:39:20.600 God's to deliver you off of this windshield. Lap ten, 0:39:20.680 --> 0:39:23.719 Dale Earnhardt in the blue and yellow Wrangler car. 0:39:23.960 --> 0:39:26.000 He makes his move Dale three for Dale. 0:39:26.239 --> 0:39:28.680 Dale has pushed his way up to from the twentieth 0:39:28.719 --> 0:39:30.640 starting position up to the fourth spot at the head 0:39:30.680 --> 0:39:32.440 of the pack. L. W. Wright is now in the 0:39:32.480 --> 0:39:35.399 last place, falling behind very fast. You're like, thank God, 0:39:35.560 --> 0:39:39.520 thank the Aunt God's now at this point. Dale Earnhardt, 0:39:39.560 --> 0:39:43.080 Jeff Bodine are coming into the trioval too wide. It's 0:39:43.160 --> 0:39:45.479 lap eleven. L W Wright gets lapp by the lead cars. 0:39:45.520 --> 0:39:45.919 That's bad. 0:39:45.960 --> 0:39:48.439 That's very bad. That's dangerous. With all the other cars 0:39:48.520 --> 0:39:49.920 roaring past him a two hundred miles an. 0:39:49.840 --> 0:39:52.520 Hour, he's going so slow that he gets last lap. 0:39:52.560 --> 0:39:55.120 They're racing past him. He's doing like one seventy one sixty. 0:39:55.120 --> 0:39:57.080 I don't know, LW Wright, and you are now a 0:39:57.080 --> 0:39:58.719 speed hater. You're gonna be lucky if one of the 0:39:58.719 --> 0:40:01.400 cars isn't slam into you. NASCAR officials are waving the 0:40:01.400 --> 0:40:04.359 black flag. That means you've been ejected from the race. 0:40:04.560 --> 0:40:06.560 On the TV coverage that you can't hear this, but 0:40:06.560 --> 0:40:09.400 the commentators finish this point, everything's okay, she's earned heart 0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:11.839 faint a little really racy now, followed. 0:40:11.520 --> 0:40:13.600 By the other commentator racy. 0:40:13.440 --> 0:40:15.759 The car that was given the black flag a lap 0:40:15.760 --> 0:40:18.320 ago was LW. Wright from Nashville, Tennessee and the Music 0:40:18.360 --> 0:40:19.520 City Racing Chevy. 0:40:19.920 --> 0:40:20.280 LW. 0:40:20.360 --> 0:40:22.120 Wright, by the way, has come way too far to 0:40:22.160 --> 0:40:24.600 listen to some black flag wave and official He refuses 0:40:24.640 --> 0:40:26.680 to pull into pit row. Next time you and he 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:29.640 passed the starting finish line, you've still clutching onto the windshield. 0:40:29.680 --> 0:40:31.839 The announcers are awed by LW. Wright. 0:40:32.120 --> 0:40:34.400 So LW Wright again given the black flag as he 0:40:34.440 --> 0:40:36.680 passes by us, and Right has been ordered to the 0:40:36.719 --> 0:40:39.920 pit area. LW Wright won't not stop racing now, you 0:40:40.080 --> 0:40:42.440 stop thanking the new aunt gods. They have failed you 0:40:42.640 --> 0:40:44.880 so clearly NASCAR is gonna have to send like a 0:40:44.920 --> 0:40:46.839 cop car onto the track to get this guy off. 0:40:46.840 --> 0:40:48.560 They don't know what they're gonna do. So you give 0:40:48.640 --> 0:40:50.520 You've given up on your aunt gods. You are now 0:40:50.560 --> 0:40:53.160 just praying that the black flag something throws it, Something 0:40:53.200 --> 0:40:55.840 happens luckily for you. Physics take the wheel, and the 0:40:55.880 --> 0:40:58.520 old ant gods in the new save you. Because in 0:40:58.600 --> 0:41:01.200 lap sixteen, really it's only lap thirteen for LW Right. 0:41:01.239 --> 0:41:04.200 Black smoke erupts from the speedway and the reel drivers 0:41:04.200 --> 0:41:05.960 they all caught. They slowed down for the costion flag 0:41:06.000 --> 0:41:08.400 because Lwright is slammed into a wall and his race. 0:41:08.360 --> 0:41:09.560 Is now officially over. 0:41:09.960 --> 0:41:13.320 Rip me yep car wrecked Lwright. He drives back to 0:41:13.360 --> 0:41:15.279 the garage with what's left of his car. Once there, 0:41:15.320 --> 0:41:17.880 he pulls himself from the wrecked race car. You crawled 0:41:17.880 --> 0:41:18.760 down off the windshield. 0:41:18.880 --> 0:41:19.480 Oh, I made it. 0:41:19.520 --> 0:41:22.600 You're free, Elizabeth. He made it. Whoo, Genie, you're free. 0:41:22.880 --> 0:41:23.480 Lw Right. 0:41:23.520 --> 0:41:25.560 He didn't win the race, No, didn't even really, he 0:41:25.600 --> 0:41:28.480 didn't even finish it. But he'd done it, Elizabeth. He'd 0:41:28.560 --> 0:41:29.040 done it. 0:41:29.320 --> 0:41:30.000 He done did it. 0:41:30.080 --> 0:41:31.640 He raced at the best in the world and he 0:41:31.640 --> 0:41:34.600 didn't kill anyone himself included. That's good, right, And since 0:41:34.640 --> 0:41:37.040 one driver crashed before him, he didn't even finish last 0:41:37.600 --> 0:41:40.879 what So he got thirty nine, which means he won 0:41:40.960 --> 0:41:44.480 fifteen forty five dollars what which means he got the 0:41:44.520 --> 0:41:47.160 thousand dollars you needed to get himset out of trouble 0:41:47.200 --> 0:41:47.880 with the FBI. 0:41:48.080 --> 0:41:48.279 Oh. 0:41:48.640 --> 0:41:50.719 Yes, As for the winner, that was Daryl Waltrip in 0:41:50.800 --> 0:41:53.160 case you were wondering. Yeah, he won the eighty two 0:41:53.239 --> 0:41:56.680 when Talladega wins. Anyway, so the race is still going right, 0:41:56.719 --> 0:41:58.880 and he's now in the garage and people have been 0:41:58.880 --> 0:42:01.040 talking about the black flag. He very embarrassed. He just 0:42:01.040 --> 0:42:03.440 wants all this to go away. So what does he do? Well, 0:42:03.760 --> 0:42:06.920 he vanishes after the race, is just. 0:42:06.880 --> 0:42:08.640 Like a puff of smoke and he turns into bats. 0:42:08.760 --> 0:42:11.560 He does his best impression of disco. He's just I'm 0:42:11.560 --> 0:42:14.680 out right, he's he disappears from the scene. Gone right, 0:42:15.120 --> 0:42:17.239 He's gone. Before the race is over, he leaves his 0:42:17.239 --> 0:42:19.400 car in the garage. He cuts out like he had 0:42:19.440 --> 0:42:20.759 a bill to pay and he was not going to 0:42:20.840 --> 0:42:24.200 pay that bill. He dines and dashes the Talladega right 0:42:24.280 --> 0:42:27.239 so in his wake. By the way, as the days come, 0:42:27.320 --> 0:42:30.120 you know, after the race, days pass, and the checks 0:42:30.120 --> 0:42:31.960 that he'd been writing to keep his con going, they 0:42:32.040 --> 0:42:33.000 all start bouncing. 0:42:33.280 --> 0:42:34.680 It's like a kid's super Bowl. 0:42:34.480 --> 0:42:38.600 Like they're not going like big bounces, right, so everybody, 0:42:38.680 --> 0:42:40.440 and I'm talking like the bounced checks aren't just for 0:42:40.480 --> 0:42:40.799 the race. 0:42:40.880 --> 0:42:42.960 He he bounces his rent check for his apartment. 0:42:43.400 --> 0:42:47.319 He was gone, gone working leading up to this, he 0:42:47.480 --> 0:42:48.320 was doing the old. 0:42:49.080 --> 0:42:50.799 I think he was doing bus repair works. I don't 0:42:50.840 --> 0:42:52.120 know what he was doing. I mean, I think he 0:42:52.160 --> 0:42:52.840 had five jobs. 0:42:52.880 --> 0:42:54.479 You know, I don't want to know what he was doing. 0:42:54.520 --> 0:42:56.799 So the cops get called on him. NASCAR is she's 0:42:56.800 --> 0:42:58.840 a warrant for lw Right. I don't think that's what 0:42:58.880 --> 0:43:00.279 all the new story. The issue a warn I'm a 0:43:00.360 --> 0:43:01.560 can NASCAR. 0:43:01.280 --> 0:43:03.800 Issue in in the court of Nascar. 0:43:03.920 --> 0:43:05.120 It like SEC rules. 0:43:06.239 --> 0:43:09.280 They went to the NASCAR judge and then the NASCAR 0:43:09.520 --> 0:43:11.920 DA was like, hey, this is the evidence we have. 0:43:12.000 --> 0:43:14.240 Throw the NASCAR book out him, Like, let's do it. Yeah. 0:43:14.280 --> 0:43:17.839 So one Nashville businessman who'd given him about thirty grand 0:43:17.880 --> 0:43:20.480 apparently then just sponsorship fees. And so I don't know 0:43:20.480 --> 0:43:22.560 how this works out, but he goes and hires a 0:43:22.600 --> 0:43:24.680 private detective to get his money back. No luck, No 0:43:24.680 --> 0:43:27.280 one ever sees lw. Wright ever again. For forty years. 0:43:27.719 --> 0:43:30.759 Boom disappeared, just completely, he disappears. 0:43:30.840 --> 0:43:31.080 Yeah. 0:43:31.120 --> 0:43:34.439 So then this dude Rick Houston I told you about, 0:43:34.440 --> 0:43:36.600 and Steve Wade who had the Scene Vault podcast or 0:43:36.640 --> 0:43:38.880 they still do. They break this story last year on 0:43:38.920 --> 0:43:41.920 the fortieth anniversary. Turns out ldw Right did not exactly 0:43:41.920 --> 0:43:44.960 go off the grid. He didn't even quit racing. Days later, 0:43:45.040 --> 0:43:47.040 he went to Nashville and he tried to race again 0:43:48.480 --> 0:43:51.279 that race. Elizabeth was the Grand National nineteen eighty two 0:43:51.400 --> 0:43:54.719 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for twenty Winston Cup. 0:43:55.000 --> 0:43:56.800 Yeah it was Cracker Barrel four twenty. 0:43:56.880 --> 0:43:59.000 Do you remember that that lovely weekend we spent at 0:43:59.000 --> 0:44:01.120 the Cracker Barrel for one cut back in ninety eight. 0:44:01.760 --> 0:44:02.440 That was awesome. 0:44:02.640 --> 0:44:06.640 That Elsell never mind. 0:44:06.640 --> 0:44:07.800 Saw I take that back. 0:44:07.880 --> 0:44:10.960 Cracker barrel exactly of town. 0:44:11.760 --> 0:44:14.719 So he qualified for the Talladega five hundred. He could 0:44:14.719 --> 0:44:17.120 not qualify for the cracker barrel for twenty cup. It 0:44:17.160 --> 0:44:19.359 was too hard for him. So now he's running out 0:44:19.400 --> 0:44:21.360 of money fast. So what does he do now? He 0:44:21.440 --> 0:44:23.759 quits racing. Now he's like, I can't do it. Also 0:44:23.760 --> 0:44:25.440 because remember he's still on the run from the FBI. 0:44:25.560 --> 0:44:28.080 Yeah yeah, so, and I quote, I didn't panic, but 0:44:28.080 --> 0:44:29.440 I felt like, well, it's time to back up and 0:44:29.440 --> 0:44:31.080 have another plan. That's why I said it's time to 0:44:31.080 --> 0:44:32.359 pack up my family and just quit. 0:44:32.440 --> 0:44:33.120 I'm done. 0:44:33.400 --> 0:44:35.360 They were shocked because they didn't know a tenth of 0:44:35.360 --> 0:44:37.279 what was going on with me and all this. They 0:44:37.360 --> 0:44:39.720 was honest and it was everything they were. They didn't 0:44:39.800 --> 0:44:41.520 understand why I had to be pressured to move. I 0:44:41.520 --> 0:44:43.520 didn't tell them until after the fact. I said, it's 0:44:43.560 --> 0:44:45.520 in your best interest just not to ask no question. 0:44:45.640 --> 0:44:47.680 Let's just do this. And that's what I did. Right, 0:44:47.960 --> 0:44:48.480 Dad of the. 0:44:48.520 --> 0:44:51.960 Year being pursued by the NASCAR police exactly. 0:44:52.160 --> 0:44:54.080 This dude has a wife and four kids. He's not 0:44:54.160 --> 0:44:56.439 to nero and heat. He's got a wife and four kids. 0:44:56.440 --> 0:44:58.680 He's got a at Talladego in this. 0:44:58.719 --> 0:45:01.160 No, No, they don't really need he was a race 0:45:01.200 --> 0:45:01.720 car driver. 0:45:02.280 --> 0:45:02.719 Oh my god. 0:45:02.880 --> 0:45:04.359 I mean they know that there was a race car 0:45:04.440 --> 0:45:06.280 that Dad had like in the driveway at one point, 0:45:06.320 --> 0:45:07.160 but they don't think. 0:45:07.120 --> 0:45:08.719 Maybe that was his buddy. He has all sorts of. 0:45:08.680 --> 0:45:10.480 Weird doing that. 0:45:10.719 --> 0:45:10.839 Well. 0:45:10.880 --> 0:45:12.360 I like to imagine this son was like, let me 0:45:12.360 --> 0:45:15.360 get this rad Daddy, you failed to win two NASCAR races. 0:45:15.480 --> 0:45:18.000 You entered to pay off your debt, some robbery at 0:45:18.040 --> 0:45:20.480 your day job, and that's why the FBI is after you. 0:45:20.560 --> 0:45:22.319 And that's why I can't go to the prom with 0:45:22.360 --> 0:45:25.919 Becky Lamb. That ain't fair, Daddy, That's what I picked. 0:45:25.920 --> 0:45:28.239 It's lucky that Daddy doesn't wind up buried under the 0:45:28.280 --> 0:45:29.640 track at Charlotte Motor Speed. 0:45:31.080 --> 0:45:33.720 Then he has this great like sad Ricky Bobby bowment. 0:45:34.080 --> 0:45:36.879 He goes out and LW says he has to say 0:45:36.880 --> 0:45:39.080 goodbye to his dream. And he says, quote, the race 0:45:39.080 --> 0:45:40.799 car stayed in the back of the trailer right there 0:45:40.840 --> 0:45:42.520 at this house where I left it. I didn't even 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:44.319 open the door and look in it. I just drove 0:45:44.400 --> 0:45:48.560 a boy. So he cut to one year later. Okay, 0:45:48.800 --> 0:45:51.440 the FBI finally catches up with old Dell w Right. 0:45:51.600 --> 0:45:54.080 He's arrested, tossed in a cell. I was picked up 0:45:54.080 --> 0:45:57.560 in West Virginia, hauled me to Knoxville, Tennessee, stayed in Noxfield, Tennessee, 0:45:57.640 --> 0:46:00.319 twenty six hours, and they come unlocked the sale and 0:46:00.360 --> 0:46:01.560 told mister ry E can go. 0:46:01.680 --> 0:46:03.120 We're done. That was the end of it. 0:46:03.640 --> 0:46:06.120 So the thing he'd been running from, the FBI threat 0:46:06.160 --> 0:46:07.839 that pushed him to risk his life and the life 0:46:07.880 --> 0:46:11.040 of others at Talladega, upset his family's whole thing and 0:46:11.080 --> 0:46:14.840 go start his own amateur witness relocation program. That was nothing. 0:46:14.880 --> 0:46:17.799 It was basically clear pepsi. It was a big nothing. Right, 0:46:17.880 --> 0:46:19.759 So what does l W. Wright do when he finds 0:46:19.760 --> 0:46:21.239 out he didn't really need to run his life and 0:46:21.280 --> 0:46:24.360 uproot his family. If I knew that when I run Dalladega, 0:46:24.360 --> 0:46:26.280 that would have been a different outcome because I wouldn't 0:46:26.280 --> 0:46:28.239 have gotten up and left Nashville. I wouldn't have moved. 0:46:28.239 --> 0:46:29.560 I would have took care of what I need to 0:46:29.560 --> 0:46:31.480 take care. I would have gone him back to racing. 0:46:32.480 --> 0:46:35.239 So after forty years, LW. Wright finally willing to tell 0:46:35.239 --> 0:46:37.160 his story, and he gets this dude, Rick Houston, I 0:46:37.160 --> 0:46:39.040 told you about the journalists, get him hundreds of messages, 0:46:39.120 --> 0:46:42.400 earned his trust, and then he convinces him like okay, oh, 0:46:42.480 --> 0:46:44.239 I want to meet in person. So they meet at 0:46:44.239 --> 0:46:47.560 the secret location. Out walks his seventy three year old man. 0:46:48.160 --> 0:46:50.520 He confirms that he is indeed LW. Wright or that 0:46:50.600 --> 0:46:52.920 was the name he was using. He has the racing 0:46:53.000 --> 0:46:55.160 suit that he warned that day at Talladega to prove it. 0:46:55.200 --> 0:46:57.919 The racing suit matches the only known photo of L. W. 0:46:57.920 --> 0:47:00.440 Wright from that day and is confirmed by the stitching. 0:47:00.440 --> 0:47:03.120 That's what kind of journalists that Rick is. He's down, like, 0:47:03.160 --> 0:47:06.080 I recognize the stitching. So now he starts to correct 0:47:06.239 --> 0:47:08.759 the legend. He wanted to correct his legend. He was like, 0:47:08.800 --> 0:47:11.680 you know, I have a bone to pick with some 0:47:11.680 --> 0:47:12.920 of the facts people. 0:47:12.680 --> 0:47:13.279 Have claim right. 0:47:13.280 --> 0:47:15.680 He takes issue with all the people claiming he owed 0:47:15.680 --> 0:47:17.239 money all over town, which I don't know how he 0:47:17.239 --> 0:47:19.200 could do that, but he's like, no, that ain't true. 0:47:19.280 --> 0:47:20.920 You tell him, come down talk to me and all 0:47:20.960 --> 0:47:24.319 this right anyway. My favorite thing though, is that he 0:47:24.360 --> 0:47:26.600 bought the car from Cuckoo Marlin your boy, yeah, and 0:47:26.680 --> 0:47:28.799 Sterling his son, right, and he'd ask him to paint 0:47:28.840 --> 0:47:30.640 the race car black and add the number thirty four. 0:47:30.760 --> 0:47:30.960 Yeah. 0:47:31.000 --> 0:47:31.600 Now, as LW. 0:47:31.719 --> 0:47:33.920 Wright said, thirty four come from Wendell Scott. He was 0:47:33.920 --> 0:47:35.480 the one who already tried to race, but didn't have 0:47:35.520 --> 0:47:38.040 the means or the money. So I picked up thirty four. Now, 0:47:38.040 --> 0:47:40.520 Wendell Scott, I loved this. As a former Moonshiner, he 0:47:40.560 --> 0:47:43.359 was an indep pendant black stock car driver who raced 0:47:43.360 --> 0:47:45.879 in the fifties. So for the entire decade, NASCAR tracks 0:47:45.880 --> 0:47:47.759 woudn't let him race. They wouldn't let him on the track, 0:47:47.960 --> 0:47:50.600 so he raced independent. And even in those races, these 0:47:50.640 --> 0:47:52.759 other good old boys they would intentionally wreck his car. 0:47:52.880 --> 0:47:56.400 So he was like fighting to constantly keep his car roadworthy. Right, 0:47:56.680 --> 0:47:59.200 Wendall Scott keeps on racing, right on racing, and he wins, 0:47:59.320 --> 0:48:01.680 and he wins, and he wins. That good old boy 0:48:01.680 --> 0:48:04.320 could drive right. So eventually he wins two championships. In 0:48:04.400 --> 0:48:06.719 nineteen fifty nine, NASCAR goes, oh, we gotta concede, he's 0:48:06.719 --> 0:48:08.480 a good old boy a little let him ride. So 0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:12.160 nineteen sixty one, Wendlescott becomes a first black NASCAR driver, 0:48:12.239 --> 0:48:14.960 and he persisted, and he becomes like the person to 0:48:15.000 --> 0:48:17.920 beat the sclerotic culture of the Southern segregation. 0:48:18.000 --> 0:48:18.200 Yeah. 0:48:18.400 --> 0:48:21.279 So I don't know, but perhaps L. W. Wright saw 0:48:21.440 --> 0:48:23.560 something of himself and the underdog Wendell Scott. 0:48:23.719 --> 0:48:24.080 I don't know. 0:48:24.120 --> 0:48:26.680 Perhaps being a Southerner, he understood that someone needs to 0:48:26.680 --> 0:48:27.880 beat these old Southern ways. 0:48:28.120 --> 0:48:28.600 I don't know. 0:48:29.000 --> 0:48:31.320 I did think this that the journalist Rick Houston, he 0:48:31.320 --> 0:48:34.120 had the most interesting take on the whole affair and 0:48:34.160 --> 0:48:35.279 who the real L. W. 0:48:35.440 --> 0:48:35.759 Wright is. 0:48:35.800 --> 0:48:37.880 And he said, I quote in the grand scheme of 0:48:37.920 --> 0:48:39.960 things in the rear view mirror, what he did wasn't 0:48:39.960 --> 0:48:41.840 truly all that bad. And I will say that the 0:48:41.880 --> 0:48:43.760 story we've all heard all these years, in the story 0:48:43.760 --> 0:48:46.040 that he tells us now, they are not the same story. 0:48:46.239 --> 0:48:46.960 Is there closure? 0:48:47.000 --> 0:48:47.440 I don't know. 0:48:47.640 --> 0:48:49.400 But to sit there and listen to him finally talk 0:48:49.440 --> 0:48:51.680 about it to a lot of NASCAR fans, that's a 0:48:51.760 --> 0:48:53.600 day we never thought would come here. 0:48:53.600 --> 0:48:54.560 He's just in it for the story. 0:48:54.680 --> 0:48:54.880 You know. 0:48:55.120 --> 0:48:56.400 Do we know what his real name is? 0:48:56.960 --> 0:48:59.040 Yeah, but it doesn't really matter. Yeah, so it was 0:48:59.040 --> 0:48:59.319 a kid. 0:49:00.000 --> 0:49:01.399 Don't want to put it out there, No, no, no domb 0:49:01.440 --> 0:49:05.200 for so Yeah, olw Right telling the story. This is 0:49:05.200 --> 0:49:07.360 why it comes at a steep cost. The FBI catches 0:49:07.360 --> 0:49:09.239 back up with him because now the story is out 0:49:09.280 --> 0:49:11.520 there and he's bragging on and talking about numbers and stuff. 0:49:11.640 --> 0:49:13.239 They don't let him go, and best I can tell, 0:49:13.280 --> 0:49:16.680 he's presently in Jefferson County, Tennessee jail on felony charges 0:49:16.719 --> 0:49:20.480 of theft, burglary, passing bad checks, evading arrest, and so 0:49:20.600 --> 0:49:23.279 he tells you the truth and finally, boom, now he 0:49:23.280 --> 0:49:25.000 has to pay for the costs of what he did 0:49:25.040 --> 0:49:27.799 back then. I guess the FBI listens to podcasts, so 0:49:28.600 --> 0:49:32.760 you know it's Elizabeth who says all this stuff anyway, 0:49:32.840 --> 0:49:35.799 So why did he do it? LW had the final word, 0:49:35.800 --> 0:49:37.239 and I'll give it to him. On this ick. The 0:49:37.280 --> 0:49:39.640 rush of danger. I like pain, believe it or not. 0:49:39.920 --> 0:49:42.080 I used to box see this old nose. I had 0:49:42.080 --> 0:49:44.720 thirty one golden gulve fights. Out of thirty one fights, 0:49:44.719 --> 0:49:46.759 I won twenty nine. But just to get out and 0:49:46.760 --> 0:49:49.040 deliberately do something to somebody, No, I don't do that. 0:49:49.200 --> 0:49:51.080 But the excitement of being in the middle of it 0:49:51.120 --> 0:49:53.440 for me was rush. You don't think about the danger 0:49:53.440 --> 0:49:54.799 around you. I mean, you're standing in front of a 0:49:54.800 --> 0:49:56.879 pistol and it fires at you. You're looking at him 0:49:56.920 --> 0:49:58.400 dead and the eye and you're saying, you better make 0:49:58.440 --> 0:50:01.040 it good because I'm gonna get you. I guess it's excitement. 0:50:01.040 --> 0:50:02.520 I may not be right in the head, you know what. 0:50:03.239 --> 0:50:05.840 So no, my brother in Christ, you may not be 0:50:05.960 --> 0:50:07.520 right in the head. But if you want, you can 0:50:07.520 --> 0:50:08.560 always come sit next to me. 0:50:09.239 --> 0:50:10.839 So yeah. 0:50:10.880 --> 0:50:13.160 Also, it is just for everybody else. If you ever 0:50:13.239 --> 0:50:14.759 doubt yourself, you ever have a moment you're like, I 0:50:14.760 --> 0:50:15.960 don't know if I can do this, just think of 0:50:15.960 --> 0:50:18.160 old L. W Right and go, goddamn, I can do this. 0:50:19.920 --> 0:50:21.920 So what's our ridiculous takeaway here? 0:50:22.800 --> 0:50:25.880 You know what my ridiculous takeaway is that a nineteen 0:50:25.960 --> 0:50:28.600 eighty one Monte Carlo was at some point a new car. 0:50:29.360 --> 0:50:31.719 Yes it was, and it was a bitch in new car. 0:50:32.560 --> 0:50:36.320 So yeah, that's it. Thank you for asking my ridiculus takeaways, Elizabeth. 0:50:36.360 --> 0:50:37.880 Once again, I don't have one for you. 0:50:38.200 --> 0:50:40.560 So I have a story. You know. That's what I 0:50:40.560 --> 0:50:41.120 did over here. 0:50:41.800 --> 0:50:43.759 You carried the weight on this one, so you can. 0:50:44.160 --> 0:50:45.640 You know, you can find us online if you'd like 0:50:45.680 --> 0:50:47.920 to talk to us about stuff. You can send us 0:50:47.920 --> 0:50:51.280 messages on Instagram, or you can have messages on Twitter. 0:50:51.440 --> 0:50:54.000 You can just you know, retweet stuff or like post, 0:50:54.040 --> 0:50:55.480 you do whatever the heck you want. I'm not here 0:50:55.520 --> 0:50:58.160 to tell you what to do. It's your social media anyway. 0:50:58.280 --> 0:50:59.200 I don't know how you live. 0:50:59.480 --> 0:51:01.720 Yeah, I don't care. But we do have the talkbacks 0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:02.839 in the iHeart app. We like those. 0:51:02.920 --> 0:51:04.480 I do like that, enjoy those. Yeah. 0:51:04.760 --> 0:51:07.200 Anyway, you can also email us Ridiculous Crime and gmail 0:51:07.239 --> 0:51:07.640 dot com. 0:51:08.040 --> 0:51:10.799 No one checks them we have, I damn sure don't, 0:51:11.080 --> 0:51:14.520 but we do have the website ridiculous crime dot com. 0:51:14.640 --> 0:51:18.239 It's worth a check. Yes, thanks for listening, y'all. 0:51:23.440 --> 0:51:26.320 Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarren Burnett, 0:51:26.400 --> 0:51:30.120 produced and edited by Dale Earnhardt's driving instructor Dave Kusten. 0:51:30.360 --> 0:51:35.000 Researches by Marissa Intimidator Brown and Andrea. The Kang song 0:51:35.080 --> 0:51:38.320 Sharpened Tear, our theme song is by George Jones. Historical 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:41.839 re enactors Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Executive producers are 0:51:41.880 --> 0:51:44.760 Been the Cracker, Barrel four, twenty Cup Bowland and Noel. 0:51:44.960 --> 0:51:46.760 This is why I prefer Formula. 0:51:46.480 --> 0:51:58.280 One Ridicus Cry Say It one more time. 0:51:59.280 --> 0:52:02.640 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts 0:52:02.680 --> 0:52:06.280 from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 0:52:06.280 --> 0:52:07.680 you listen to your favorite shows.