Episode 21 - Randy Myers - Caraway Speedway

Episode 21 – Randy Myers

Operations, Technical & Competition Director | Caraway Speedway

In Episode 21, Brad sits down with Randy Myers, the Operations, Technical, and Competition Director at Caraway Speedway — and a member of one of the most storied families in short-track racing.

The Myers name is synonymous with success at Bowman Gray Stadium and beyond, with Randy connected to a legendary lineage that includes Billy & Bobby Myers, Gary Myers, Danny “Chocolate” Myers, Burt Myers, Jason Myers, and Slate Myers.

Brad and Randy dive into what it means to carry that legacy, his role in helping manage competition at Caraway Speedway, and the evolution of short-track racing from a family deeply rooted in its history. From behind-the-scenes technical insight to stories tied to one of racing’s most recognizable names, this episode is packed with tradition, knowledge, and perspective.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, I'm Bad Brad, and welcome to another episode of Driving Fast and Taking Chances. Our guest today, the legendary Randy Myers. The legendary Randy Myers. If you don't think he's a legend, once we get into this, you're gonna find out why. This episode brought to you in part by Bassett Wheel. Check them out online, BassettWheel.com. They've got steel wheels for every racing application: dirt, asphalt, IMCA, all the way through NASCAR modified. If you're looking for race car wheels, bassettwheel.com's got what you need. Randy Myers, welcome to the show. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you asking. Man, we were super excited to be able to get you on here. Um, first and foremost, I think the things that people don't know is people who don't know you, how are you affiliated with the other Southern Myers? How about that? That'd probably be the easiest way to get this started.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, the oldest other Southern Myers is my brother Gary. Okay. And Bert and Jason are my nephews, and Slate is my guess my grandnephew. And you know, they're doing a good job keeping the family name. Let's go a little deeper. Before you and your dad there was uh my dad, Billy, and Bobby Myers uh were the first Myers brothers. Okay. And uh they grew up, I guess, at Bowman Gray, or grew up uh their racing enterprises at Baum and Gray. Bobby started in 49, ran a race or two. Daddy ran, or actually started in 50. Uh so Bob Bobby was your uncle? Bobby was my uncle, but Billy was your dad. That's correct. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yep. And Bobby's chocolate's dad. So get out of the way. Uh chocolate, chocolate Myers, like RCR famed chocolate Myers. The one and only.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

So you guys are all kind of in that that loop and circle there. Always uh we grew up in it. Uh, I don't think anything will ever change. We'll always always be there. So right on.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Now, uh Billy and Bobby Myers, that is the namesake for the uh every year there's an annual breakfast in Dayton. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, actually, uh it there used to be a breakfast in New York at the banquets. Okay and uh they evolved and now it's just part of the uh the NASCAR awards banquet. Uh it's presented during the the banquet itself. It used to be a breakfast, but they got I guess, hey, budget budgetary constraints might have changed a little bit, but it's uh now presented during the thing. It's a Myers Brothers Award, been going since 60. I'm sorry, since 58. I guess 58. And that award is issued or given for it's given to the person that the National Motorsports Press Association deems to have contributed the most to the sport of racing uh the previous year. And lots of times it goes to somebody we lost, uh, but lots of time like this year. So tickled to see it go to somebody like uh the folks from Sunoko Race Fuels Up North Mike Joy. Might enjoy got it, and it's uh it's nice to see somebody like that that's still here to enjoy it. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

So through the Myers Brother Award and the other things that you guys have done, um, I think one of the things that our friends, our race friends, our racers, our customers that are not in this area, they're kind of surprised when we know who we know. And what I say by that is like there are people that they say, Oh, well, do you know so-and-so? Well, yeah, we worked together on this project, or we did this, that, and the other. Do you feel like being born? Uh I'll say this, I've heard it commonly said at Bowman Gray Stadium. And Eric, if I'm wrong, the Myers family is the first family of Bowman Gray, as it's kind of been.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

That's that's that's what somebody said. I don't know. I think maybe the Flocks were the first, but uh, because Tim and Fonnie were were there, they ran the first year, and I think uh maybe Fonny was a champion. Okay. But uh, you know, we're we're glad, I guess, that that moniker stays with us.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Uh it's quite an honor to be. Anytime anybody recognizes the the past and keeps the history of the sport alive, I think it means a lot to anybody. And you know, we're we're just you know proud to be part of it.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Now, Gary, the uh early memories of me, and I actually remember you in a race car too, son. Uh early memories of uh Gary. I actually don't remember the earliest memories of Gary in a modified. I remember Gary in a stock car at what we would consider cup level. What what what happened during that time? Was there a push to go that way?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

I didn't remember Gary in a modified until after that. Well, and that's that's he wasn't in one until after that. Gary was he started as a hobby dresser at Baum and Gray, uh and uh moved from there up to uh actually he was uh real competitive at Franklin County Speedway and other places that they went. Well, you know, that was a circuit that we kind of did. Sure. Uh you know, he was uh after that he moved up. It was a lot easier to move from one division to another back in those days. And uh he had a limit late model stock car. Or actually it was a limited car a sportsman car at the time. Sure. And uh Jimmy Taylor construction company helped him along. He went to Daytona in 74. Not in a sportsman car yet. Yeah, in a sportsman car. Okay. In a sportsman car. And he went because he was the first track champion at Caraway Speedway in 73 when it was first paved. Wow. So uh he won that championship. He went to Daytona with Jimmy the following February. Uh, had an interesting week, but uh it was what it was. And uh for whatever reason, I guess they they moved along, changed uh direction with Jimmy, and uh it was like I said, it was a lot easier to build a car then. Gary built a Grand National car in the floor of our garage in Mornock Cave. Wow. I mean, it was it was right there in the floor. Gary and Mark Moorefield and David Smith and some folks like that. They were all involved in it. I got to play a little bit. Gary was a whole lot more dedicated than I was, but uh it he uh he did that. Uh first race he ran is a in a well, I take that back. Wasn't the first race. He ran a couple of races for a guy from Tennessee in an old uh Monte Carlo that was kind of sketchy. But uh most of those cars sketchy back in the day. Yeah, they were compared to today. Yeah, I think this one had aluminum rods and all that stuff. A few more sketches of it.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Yeah, he made Bill Gasway's uh fan list there, but uh so that would explain why the uh Tetna Shot Company was the primary on that one?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But uh he his first car that he did himself and and they took it to Martinsville in spring of 76, finished at 11th, first shot at it, and uh he's uh he's my favorite driver. That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So uh you've been how many generations? How many years have you now been involved in automobile racing? You were born into it, so that part don't count, but I guess I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I I had hobby car at the stadium in 73, I guess. You did along that yeah. Okay. Sure did. No, actually, it might have been it was before that. Uh it was in the late 60s because it was a Chevelle. Gary and I Gary was first, had a 64 Chevelle. I had a 65 Chevelle, and uh Jim Brewer, God rest his soul. We just lost him a few weeks ago. Uh Uncle Jim always fussed about them Myers and them damn chrome bumpers. So, you know, it was uh it was that was my first shot at it. And then uh I did I did run a claiming race or two before that,$99 claimers, so you know. Did you have any success? Nah, shoot, no. I couldn't carry them guys in the lunch basket, you know. Did you did you have fun? I did, I had a lot of fun. I won a couple of heat races at the stadium and won a feature race at Caraway in a hobby car. So, you know, I do know the name and and and been there and seen that, but it's you know, it's uh like I said, there's a lot of guys I couldn't carry the lunch basket that were still out there racing.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

So what uh uh at what point did you realize driving was probably not gonna be the role for you?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Uh you know, I don't know. I I don't know what the real cutoff date was, but uh I know I did continue. Uh Gary was gracious enough to let me run uh modified car a few times after that. I actually ran his cup car one time at Rockingham in '77. Uh he had had some surgery and wasn't able to compete. So uh we tried to get uh a couple of guys, Jimmy Hensley and Paul Radford, to drive it. Gary said, Well, heck, if I'm gonna take it, you might as well drive it. So I did. Uh I ran 377 less before I had pilot failure. And uh I've never heard it put that way.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Pilot failure.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, I had pilot failure, but uh we had a good time, learned a lot, uh, and you know, was able to uh help him considerably for the next couple of years after that. But his biggest thing, Mark Moorefield is his was his partner in the deal, and uh David Smith, who everybody knows was at Childress's Jack Mann. David was David was Gary Screw Chief. Wow. And uh they uh they were pretty successful. They ran, I think, 46 or 7 cup races. I didn't realize it was that many. I was thinking it was a dozen or two. Yeah, they ran 46 or 7 cup races, and and back in the day uh people will well people that know know. But uh the first year they ran the Grand National car and Junior Miller had a car as well. And NASCAR's programs at those in those days, they had a winner circle and uh plan one A, plan B. Right. And to keep the car on plan A or plan B, you had to be a certain place in the points. And Junior and Gary actually shared car number. Now hold on a minute. Junior Miller. Yeah, that one.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

And Gary Myers. That one. Oil and water. They did, yeah. They shared a what? They shared a car number. So there was some level of could we have at that point, could we have called it a friendship?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Oh yeah, yeah, I guess there was. You know, things evolved after that. So I've seen firsthand, yeah. So they shared a car number. What was the advantage of doing that? Well, the points went to the car number. Okay. And the car number junior owned the nine, the number 95. Okay. And so when Junior couldn't go, and Gary did go, they put 95 on Gary's car, so the owner's points stayed with the car number. So that's the reason it worked out that way. It helped, I guess, in the long run to keep them because the plan A and B paid a few dollars. And so that was the that was the way they did it back then.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

To the best of your knowledge, at that point, that 73, 74, 75 Could a guy at least cover expenses if he finished the race or at least turned out, or were we already on that cascade or slope of big money?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

We were already on the downhill side of it, but you could, you know, it it, you know, I you'd have to ask Gary if he covered expenses. I'm sure he didn't a lot of times, but uh uh it's um it was different then. And you know, like I said, you could build a car. He built that car, his own hands in the floor of the garage in Walt Cove. And uh it would there were times it worked really well, the car worked good. We had Nashville, the car ran good, Marinsville, the car ran good, Rockingham, it was pretty good. We took the Daytona two or three times and couldn't get out of the wrong shadow. Sure. But it's just simply because aerodynamics, even then we didn't know, but that was a lot of it. Right. And uh I remember one day, well, we had the spoiler laid back on the car. We kept knocking the spoiler down, trying to get enough speed. Those times they didn't have uh the fixed angle on the spoiler. And uh I had it laid flat. I mean, it was almost flat. And Gary said, Well, what else you're gonna do? I said, What you know, are you turning right through the triover yet? And he said, No, I said it ain't down far enough. So we knocked it down a little bit more. So if it ain't turning right through the trial, it ain't down far enough. Eric, we need to add that to our t-shirt collection as our quotes. That's pretty good. Yeah, but it's uh it was different, it was a lot of difference. And uh, you know, the Gary would the year I guess Earnhardt ran for rookie. The year Gary was this in that same class. I guess Ronnie Thomas won it that year. But Ronnie and Earnhardt and Gary, it seemed like it was somebody, maybe Baxter Price, it was three or four or five of them that were in that same same class, and uh, you know, obviously uh Earnhart stuck around. Sure. Uh and and Ronnie Thomas, I I consider him a uh a reasonable friend. And he's still uh still a big part of the the the background stories. He's got a little museum up in Christiansburg, and so it's you know a lot of a lot of history there.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Back in the day, uh when you guys were building your own cars, uh, when you would go to Daytona or Rockenham or those, were there teams in your mind that pulled in that y'all just went, wow, if we had one of those, if we had that widget, if we had this, that, and the other. Were you all struck to the point of feeling like you were beat before you were beat?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah. Well, I didn't I don't think that part of it was that was the thing that was there. It's just you were amazed when the pedis come rolling in with the big box truck with a trailer with a car on it, and uh that was something else. The first time we went to Daytona, I had a Ford van that I laid carpet out of. And uh we towed the race car to Daytona behind that forward van on an open trailer. Worked just fine, didn't we? Oh, yeah, it got there. Yeah. Uh we when they when they decided to park us in the infield or uh out in 30 last 30 acres out there that they had, you know, well, maybe we weren't quite up to snuff, but it was so there used to be an island in the middle of Lake Lloyd, and that's where they put you. That's took the ferry across the room. Yeah, and you could barely see the little van amongst all the tractors, uh the uh the road tractors and the box trucks.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Right. So uh you know, but Randy, and I I don't think you think anybody would argue about this. That is what made NASCAR great. I think it is the fact that a guy could build a car in his shop floor. And here's the thing I mean, I never knew you ran a cup race. That's awesome. You've run a cup race, Gary ran cup races, Burke's now run cup races, Junior ran cup races, Brent Elliott ran cup races, all of those guys are Bowman Gray. I'm gonna call you guys Bowman Gray heroes for all practical purposes.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

And Brent actually, well, I'm trying to think, make sure I get it right. Brent bought the car that Gary had. Okay. He bought the Monte Carlo. Okay. And uh for whatever reason, I I don't, I'm not sure he ever raced that Monte Carlo, but he took a lot of stuff off of it and built a Buick after that. And he did run a few cup races. Uh the car wound up, actually, it's sitting down in Billy Bisco's yard right now, sitting on the ground. Interesting. But uh it's that car still exists.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

See, that's a cool thing. I'd love to just be able to. This episode brought to you by Jeff Hill Trailer Sales in Modoc, Indiana. Jeff Hill Trailersales.com has got everything you need cargo, utility, stacker, full blown race trailer, whatever you need. Jeff and his crew will get you taken care of. Jeff Hill Trailersales.com. Check them out today. See, that's a cool thing. I'd love to just be able to tap into your onboard database. Yeah, well, that car set here now in 64. So I mean, golly, it's like we were just talking before the podcast. Uh my dad just came by the shop, and uh, you've been the longtime employee of Hank Thomas Performance. You've sold race gas well as long as I've known you. Um you'd mentioned dad came down. You know, my dad worked for Tom Parnell, and uh good year race tire. That's kind of where I started. I spent um uh you you were probably there. Um I think the first time that my parents had some controversy is uh my dad had to work a race at Bowman Gray Stadium in uh the year I was born. We'll just leave it that way because I'm not really doing my time ago, Brand. It was a long time ago. Let's just say we uh were past half century mark, and um my dad had to work and there was no way to get out of it, and mama was a nurse at the hospital and she couldn't get out of work and there was nowhere to leave. Well, you know, I'm a bouncing little baby boy in a bassinet. What racer's wife and or girlfriend would not love to see me? And you've known my dad a long time. He's a fairly friendly and fairly social guy. Yeah, he's got a lot of friends in a lot of places, so uh took me over there. As it turns out, some of Philip Smith's friends uh thought that I was quite handsome, and they basically took care of me for the night. So I spent my first night at Bowman Grey a handful of months on uh between the front seat of uh Philip Smith's pickup truck and the front seat of uh Tom Parnell's Goodyear box truck. So, you know, but again, that's what made it great. It is. Family was there. We were building cars, man. Our knuckles were bloody. I mean, and here's the thing if you had a disagreement with a driver, y'all went out behind the field house. Figuratively speaking, everybody didn't have a field house, and y'all settled the score like men.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Usually.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

There really wasn't a tremendous amount. Of course, there was some retaliation, this, that, and the other, but these videos we see where drivers are driving through the infield and chasing each other around and this, that, and the other. I mean, men were just built differently back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

It's I you know, if we're gonna go down the stadium road, things have never changed. Correct. From from day one till tomorrow at Baumagray, things have never changed. And honestly, if I was anybody working at Baumagray, I wouldn't change it. All right. I mean, yeah. Uh, but they are one that works. Uh, I think a lot of people in the Southeast that are track operators try to pattern themselves after the stadium, uh, with the exception of some of the driving through the infield and stuff like that. Sure. You know, it's it's just the stadium's here first. Uh they deserve a little more. They deserve a little a lot of credit. Uh when you go back to to Hawk and and and Bill Sr. and and those folks that were the the ones that did the work back in the day. You know, it's it's hard to imagine what NASCAR is today to what it was then. It's it's unreal. It's uh you know, it's uh we we're we went back with NASCAR this year, we're caraway, we're going back to uh to a sanctioned track, and I think it's good for us, but the the stadium is it's just never gonna change, and you know it it's part of the show. So for those who don't know your current role in racing is Oh, I have a business card that says I'm the operations technical and competition director at Caraway Speedway.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Caraway Speedway. And for those of you who don't know, Caraway Speedway is nestled in the Uari Mountains, which is arguably the oldest mountain range in North America. I did some research on that. Um and uh they're nestled in the hills there. Absolutely beautiful place. There are two temperatures at Caraway. It is either hotter than the face of the sun or it is colder than a mother-in-law's love. There's never been a pleasant day at Caraway as long as I've been around. Just catch a good spring day once in a while. Yeah, just once in a while. So um that track, uh most notably made famous by Russell Hackett.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Uh God rest his soul. I think Darren is at the helm now and doing a really good job with the facility. Beautiful. I get do you guys three-eighths or four-tenths?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

It's 0.455.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

0.455. And a lot of guys who have branched out from the stadium, that seems to be the natural progression of the next place to go.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

It is, and and it's mainly because even before Russell, Bob Sweat and some of the people that were there uh had the foresight to run modified cars. Uh-huh. And uh the the modified gravitate from bottom and gray to caraway when the stadium's not running, and sometimes now when they do. But uh that that's uh always been, I think, the the tie between the two racetracks is because it's easier. You you're bringing stuff from the stadium on Saturday night when the stadium's closed, you go to the caraway, and and you know, they continued it on. They used to, you know, Sam Hard in in uh Speedy Thomas' car. I mean, there's lots of people that have run modified at uh at Caraway that came from Ball and Gray.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

And usually a really good show there. You're able to actually race. Yeah, we can put down some stuff. I made my I made my smart debut at Caraway Speedway all the way back in 2002. Always been a really fun place. And I will say, one of the best automobile races I've ever seen in my life. I do believe it was the last year of the Slim Jim All-Pro Series, and it was one of the last races they ever ran because it was in the fall. Remember being cool. Um, I've never won a door prize, a raffle, a 50-50, or anything of the sort in my life. And four of the five people in my group won door prizes that night. It was the craziest thing ever. And uh I, if I'm not mistaken, I don't remember. I I want to say Wayne Anderson won it, which would not be uncommon. What is it, Wayne got like 700 all-pro wins or something?

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Um but you you guys started, you guys all pro, whoever started 28, 30 cars. Every car, with the exception of two or three, led at least a lap. It was about a 200 lap deal, live pit stops, the whole deal. When they came across the start-finish line, nobody knew but the guy running 11th was going to win it. It was that freaking good. Yeah. And I'm I don't think anybody sat down. I almost want to say it was a doubleheader. Maybe the modified were there with them.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Could have been. Bob Harman was the all-pro director at the time, and he had a he had a tremendous show everywhere he went.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Oh, just I mean, door to door, wheel to wheel, the cars were close. For me, it made me honestly at that point in my life, I'm like, man, I want to go super late model racing.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

You know, Caraway lends itself to good racing. There's uh I got favorite places, I'm sure. And and Darren Hackett will tell you right now that Tri-County is his favorite racetrack. Of course, as far as a layout and a raceability.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I actually spent an hour and 17 minutes on the phone yesterday with Shan about marketing ideas, geofencing, and geotargeting.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

So ironic that you bring up Tri-County. Tri-County is a great racing track. Sure. Orange County is a great racing track. Tonight, Caraway's right there behind them. It's the the three of those tracks really, I think they lend opportunity to to guys to uh to race hard and race clean with one another without running through. The infield of taking care of business. So it's it's a good racing tracks. Absolutely. They can turn your mic up just a little bit, Randy. Towards you.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

There you go. Good job.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Am I better?

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

You're much better. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

And you know, the uh the cameras catch the hand just as you know, in case you throw some cool, you know, signs. Now, years ago, um, yourself, and I really feel like you spearheaded that operation. Um, I know that Danny was involved, Thomas was involved, Phillip Smith, I think Pudding was involved. Let's just say that a group of savvy, I'm gonna call all of you racers, regardless, um had a vision and went a little bit north of Winston-Salem to the Elkin area and uh bought a defunct dirt track, uh, hadn't been running years. You guys went in, laid down asphalt, concreted stuff, redid a tower, paved stuff, concreted stuff, painted walls, put in lights, and you guys effectively turned Friendship Motor Speedway into an asphalt track.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

We closed on Friendship Speedway the 12th or 13th of January uh in 2003, and honestly, I was the only one that could get to Elkin to sign the paperwork because it was a snowstorm. And so I got there, we did the paperwork, we got all that handled, and they Danny and Philip uh and Thomas were the the main people that did the the physical work there. I was just the BS or whatever it took to get maybe some sponsorship done. But those three people uh did an amazing job. Uh David, um I'm trying to think it was one more. David Adams. David Adams. David was there. He his he drew they drug his concrete trucks in with a bulldozer. They drove them out with a bulldozer because the the road was so bad from snow and rain and sleet and whatever. Uh, but they transformed that track from the 13th or 14th of January to the first of uh the 30th of March. We actually raced in March. I believe. They they put the walls up, cleaned everything up, paved the racetrack, and we raced. And it was uh it's amazing what they did. Uh no, you know, nobody wouldn't nobody wouldn't understand it. Uh it's just how much dedication they had, Danny and Philip. And I mean, uh that's where the little hump in the in turn four came into play. Okay. Philip wanted one more day to grade and try to get that little bump out or that little hump out, and Danny said, no, well, well, we're we're paving. So that's why that's there.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

So I have to remember that next time I see uh next time I see Philip, tell him he should have pushed on through there and just done. They're working through the night. Yeah, absolutely. Now, uh, friendship you guys ran, we all ran we ran modified there. They ran late models, they ran limiteds. Um, I even remember renting the track. I put on a go-kart race there one time. Sure enough. Um, raced a little bit of pretty much everything. How long did the friendship thing go on? And in your mind, what was missing? What do we need to carry friendship and carry that torch to continue to be another great track, caraway, Orange County, Tri-County? What did friendship need that maybe it was missing?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Uh honestly, I think the thing that they really needed was the fans to understand that friendship wasn't built to put Baum and Gray out of business. Friendship was built to give people another place to race if they wanted to go with a certain division, which was the modified. And the stadium, rightfully so, had a lock on Saturday nights. And you know, I never never complained about that. Uh, but a lot of fans, a lot of people thought that uh, you know, the only reason they were there is to put the stadium out of business, and stadium's my favorite place, and I ain't going friendship. And so fans and attendance, I think, was the the biggest thing that uh that hurt us. And uh, you know, of course, you know, when we had our very first open house up there trying to uh generate a little excitement, people that were friendship regulars said, Oh, this is a place to never make it. It's an asphalt track, it's a dirt track. Well, it's been asphalt for us, it was asphalt for five years, and they put dirt back on it, and it's and it's about a fourth or fifth uh management change, so I'm not sure that it ever you know it's gonna be any better as a mass uh dirt track.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Do you feel like do you feel like it's location? Do you feel like it's the storied history of the track? Do you feel like there's a black cloud over it? What what makes friendship not work?

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I'm not sure. It's certainly not location. I mean, it's it's half mile off of interstate. It's very easy to get to.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

And that exit has grown. Yeah, you know, I remember coming up there one day, Gali, many, many years ago. I had brown hair, you had a little less gray, and uh I rode around with you. We went and chased up some money and went a few places. Sure did. But man, there was a great seafood place there. That convenience store wasn't even there, the hotel wasn't there. Right, none of that, the vineyard, none of that. But now it's a it's actually a destination.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Oh, it is, and and even in the day, Ray Charles could find a place. Sure, it was just just very easy to get to. But uh I don't know, part of it uh it John Huffman had it at one time as part of his series. I think that might have been sort of the decline. I think the Woods families did a great job up there. They were there for a long time, but uh and then it just wound up changing hands, changing hands, changing hands, and and you know, that's not good for anything, especially a racetrack, because people don't put, you know, there's no trust. They don't put any faith in what they see. So that's that's part of the thing. And race fans are fickle. Uh, you know, I'm not complaining about them. They're it is what it is. So uh, you know, that's that's what I remember about friendship, what I think about friendship, and it's it's a shame that it it was a hell of a racetrack. It really was. It had it it had character, you know. You had to get into one right to be able to get off two down the back stretch. You had to be able to stop, get through the hump in four. Uh so it it wasn't too fast and it wasn't too slow, and it it it gave people the opportunity to race pretty hard. But uh, you know, I I I miss it. Good place, but it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

I was fortunate enough to get to uh to race there. I was uh during my storied smart career, uh, was there. Um I got to run the pavement modified and had had some pretty good success there. And I've also got a chance to run uh late models, dirt late models there. So I got to run it kind of both ways, and it's you know, the first time I rolled off the bank in there for with the dirt car, I was like, man, I miss this place being paved. It sure was fun. It was it sure was fun. It was uh it was uh it was a neat time to see some growth because uh I mean how many new asphalt tracks have popped up in the last decade? Not many around here.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Yeah, just uh just that's just that's fact alive. I mean, things aren't you know, racing is not what it was, like we talked about earlier. It's it's not what it was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, it's changed a lot. And you know, I think one of the biggest problems that we have is is as far as making these racetracks successful is you know gotta have butts on the boards in the grandstand to watch this. And we don't keep our racers at the track that long. Uh everybody has the uh, or especially if you got a a fendered car, everybody has the the thought that I'm gonna move up the ladder real quick. And you know, that doesn't happen very often.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

No, very often.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Uh and uh if you don't have a lot of money in your pocket to take to the to a team, you're not gonna go up there anyway. The uh but you know, we I hate to blame all this on Jeff Gordon.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

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SPEAKER_00 30:29

I hate to blame all this on Jeff Gordon, but uh I always thought it was a Jeff Gordon syndrome when when uh his dad brought him down and did what he did with him and he made him into what he was. Uh there were so many kids that thought they could be the next Jeff Gordon. And uh and and they they'd convince their dad to to lease a stacker uh or a toter, and uh they would go to the pits at Caraway or wherever it may be and pick the best driver at the caraway and make him a crew chief for the kid. And a couple of years after dad figures out the boy can't drive a nail, you know, I've lost that kid, and I've lost my hero. And so the tracks don't have their local heroes uh to relate to as much as they used to. And that's one thing that, again, I hate to go back to the stadium, but that's one thing that the stadium has. There's not a lot of transition from the stadium to to the upper level.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Uh that's true. And and a lot of those guys, I mean, uh your brother raced at Bowman Gray for how many years?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Uh uh forever. I mean, you know, it's uh we started with a hobby car and then took the took a hiatus to do the uh the sportsman car and uh the the Grand National car, but then after that he fell right back into the stadium.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

It'd be interesting to know, and uh Eric, you may even know this. When when did Tim Brown start at Bowman Grey? He's still theoretically at Bow Magray. Yeah, early nine. So he he does have a cup start, yeah. Yeah, and he's run some other places, had some success on the smart tour. Yeah, but for all practical purposes, when we think about Bert, when we think about Tim, when we think about many of these drivers, they're Tommy Neal, uh, AJ Sanders, they're they're they're Boma Grey heroes. And I don't know if there's anything wrong with that. They're doing exactly what they love.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

I th I don't think there I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I think I I give Bert and Tim and some of those guys credit for knowing that you know, I think they'd rather be the big fish in the little pond than to be out there treading water at a at another place. And so they're happy there. I think they're happy there. Uh those those two or three guys that you that you mentioned, Bert, Tim, Jason, even. I mean, Jason's won a bunch of races. Yeah, 50 races or something. So there's there's a lot of people that stay, and they stay number one. Well, they used to it's easy to get a sponsor. Sure. I I've heard that. I I've heard that's from Gary. I said, Gary, you come to friendship this week? I don't know. I ain't got no help. And I said, Well, have you been to friendship looking for a sponsor? And he said, Well, no, but I got to go to the stadium. It is so easy to do it at the stadium because of the numbers that are supposedly in the grandstands. And so it's uh, you know, race. I mean, I can tell you from experience when you drive out onto that restaurant, you can hear the people in the grandstands. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You can and you you know that as well. You can hear those people, and you know, man, it gets you a little bit excited.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

So yeah, no, no, it makes you want to go. Absolutely does. Let me ask you a modified question. Number one, it's funny. Uh, if I remember correctly, your email is MyersForMods at something. It used to be. It used to be. So talk about commitment to modified right there. And you've actually heard me say this, and I'll say this out loud and say it right by my podcast. If Randy Myers won the lottery, I'm not talking a$300 deal,$300 million,$400 million, whatever, one of those deals, and he started a modified tour, I would again own the team. You have my word.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

I would be the cutrel of the day, you know. I'd be the IHRA. If I had that kind of money, I would have done it. You know, there's there were times that that it didn't work out right financially. I I wish those things had not happened, but they did. It was because I wasn't trying. Sure. That's why I'm still working. I'm 78, you know. That's why. You didn't get there.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

You you mentioned that, and that's one of the things that I would consider. So uh there are people in the South who think Matt Randy Myers is a great guy, and there's a handful of racers specifically from a certain time in Southern modified racing that maybe maybe there was a little black cloud over, or I'm gonna say the Randy Myers black eye. Um the world here listening, the world's here looking, whoever's watching, or whatever that was. There was an incident during your coma days, and I think you were the promoter, uh, where, and again, I was not involved in the series at the time. I think I was giving you some awards or whatever you asked before, probably doing your radios or whatever. I was not involved, didn't own a team, didn't own a car, wasn't driving. Uh, but I understand that there was an event, uh, maybe more events or points or whatever, that um people showed up race, didn't get paid. That's correct. Yeah, sure did. Tell us the story so that everybody knows what that situation was.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Well, we had a sponsor, uh, and his sponsorship was to put X amount of dollars into the purse at each race. And uh the last race that we actually well, it wasn't the last race that we had for Smart, but it was the next to the last race uh was uh up in Virginia, and uh the guy didn't deliver his sponsorship money and I paid out everything else I had, and some people didn't get paid. And you know, that's uh most of them still talk to me today because I'm you know I'm I'm sorry it happened, but it did, and it ain't because I was trying to uh to to keep anything on my own, it was just because I loved doing what I was doing so much and I wanted it to succeed, and you know, other people just it didn't work out for them. They didn't pay their bill, and so you know, some of the bills I had didn't get paid either.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

So arguably, and I hear this in the dirt world, which you know that we're very involved in, is uh the opinion is is the promoter should be on the hook, period, lock, stock, and barrel. Yeah. Uh sponsorship dollars, backgate dollars, front gate dollars. It doesn't matter if nobody showed up to watch the race, there's no TV money, there's no sponsor money, and Randy Myers elects to put on a race, that Randy Myers should do whatever means is necessary to make sure that everybody is paid. Do you agree or disagree?

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Oh, I agree 100%. Yeah, absolutely. But you also can't get blood out of a tournament. That's right. You can't squeeze it, but so hard. So it's just it's what it is. It's uh it's a shame that happened. Uh I hate it did. Most of the guys that uh that felt like they got short chains, I speak to. And sure. We talk with them daily, and some of them understand the situation, some of them don't, some never will. So it's you know. Do you feel like uh have you promoted since then?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

No. Do you feel that do you feel like Caroline? Sure. Do you feel that that was the end of your touring promotion in theory, or do you think that that was the cat that or the straw that broke the camel's back or the catalyst that ended it all for you, or were you just ready to stop promoting?

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Well, I think it's uh the the biggest thing was I just wasn't able to financially do it anymore. Uh and I said I'm seventeen, I'm still working. So that that tells you how it was. And it uh you know, it's it's just a shame. But it ended there, and uh, you know, Darren was gracious enough to let me come back to Caraway. Sure. I worked for his dad when it when he owned uh friendship. Um I'm sorry, when he owned uh Tri County and uh helped him something at Caraway. So, you know, I'm I'm fortunate that I can do that. I'm fortunate that I get to see a lot of people a lot of times, and uh, you know, take I take what I got and I'm happy for it.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Awesome. So the Smart Tour, you're one of the original guys that kind of came up, was part of that brainstorm. When did Smart actually start? How did it start and why did it start? A lot of folks don't really know the history of the Smart Tour.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

We were at a race at Myrtle Beach and it rained, and this was in '88.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

And and quickly, Smart originally was Southern Modified Auto Racing Teams or Tour? Teams. Okay, Smart, Southern Modified Auto Racing Racing Teams. All right.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Myrtle Beach, we got a rain out. We had a rain out Myrtle Beach. Earlier in the in the fall of that year, uh, somebody had tried to promote a race or two at other places, uh, believe Lanier. Modified race. Modified races at Lanier and Anderson. The purses weren't well, they had the same situation I did, I guess. But uh there was a lot of controversy over that. Um at that race at Myrtle Beach when it rained, we were all sitting around the uh a concession stand outside the track, and we cussed and discussed and thought about things. So we we came back to town and I rented a uh space over at Miller Park, and uh I brought uh hot dogs and uh cold drinks, and Hank Thomas brought the coffee pot, and we had a meeting there, and I guess Smart was loosely formed then and more uh of a coherent uh organization shortly after that.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

We actually went to Now prior to that, really the only modified racing that we had in theory was Bowman Gray Stadium. Yeah, on an occasion, Myrtle Beach happened. Was Wilkesboro happening already then or not? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Wilkesboro's happening and then obviously Martinsville with whatever NASCAR was doing, but they're really Southern speaking, not a lot of touring going on.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

The only only Southern speaking really was was North Wilkesboro. Enoch Staley uh put on a uh a modified race with each of the cup races in the spring and the fall, and he did a triple header. Yeah. Uh it was uh modified uh sportsman and Bowman Gray cars. Wasn't it the six-cylinder sportsman though? Six cylinder sportsmen. It's only the only place you could go. So yeah, yeah. So it was kind of like the modified. I mean, there's nowhere else to go unless you took advantage of it. And uh Enoch did it for many years, and uh so eventually when Smart actually got together, Enoch wouldn't have a smart race. Uh he'd run the races, but he we had to call him smart races. And he finally uh I spent more than one Sunday afternoon aggravating Enoch and uh in his in in Mary's kitchen trying to figure out how we could get the purses up, things like that. And uh in Hank School Field was helpful in to some degree. And uh, you know, that's the way it got started. Uh we put it together with the Secretary of State, we formed a not for profit. What uh was it what is it? 501.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

501 or 503.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

Yeah, one of the three, but it what actually it was a not for profit. I'm I don't know the numbers we used back then, but anyway, we did that. The first race, the first smart race was uh at Langley Speedway in the spring of 89. So Langley, Georgia? Langley Speedway in Virginia. Langley. Oh, Langley. Langley and Hampton, Virginia. That was that was the very first smart race. In when?

SPEAKER_01 41:05

In spring of 89, March or April of 89. And I have heard, because we had somebody on the podcast who actually won the first one who was Robert Jeffries. See, we were told it was Andy Jenkoyak's dad.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

No, Tony won a smart race, but it was at uh Motor Mile. It wasn't the first one, though. No, no, no, no. It was '90 or '89 or '99. It would have been in existing for a couple years. So Robert Jeffries, like local legend Robert Jeffries. Lee's dad. That's right. Okay. That's right. He ran the very first, he won the very first smart race. I never knew he toured. He did. Oh, he did. He went to Somerville and he went to several. Uh he wouldn't commit to all of them, but he did run a lot of them. It's kind of like Lee runs a few of the 602 races. He ran a smart race last year, but uh, you know, Robert won the first one. Uh I honestly, I believe Gary about had to race one. He had a right rear going down, and carried tight, and Robert got by him and won the race. Frank Frank Fleming tried to knock the fences down. I mean, it was it was a great race. Langley at the time had a big hump in him one and two, and oh, it was a wild place to watch a race. And uh that was that was the first one.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Wow. Okay. And uh history of smart. It's gone. It's been it's been on, it's been off, it's been changed, it's been this, that, and the other. Um honest opinion, southern modified racing right now, good or bad? Well, it's good. I think it's really good.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

I I have to give Chris uh Chris Williams uh a ton of credit. Uh we don't agree on everything. I don't think any of us ever will. But uh that's not part of the plan. It's uh he he's doing a lot with what he has to work with. Uh he's you know uh the thing about it, the only thing that I have an issue with is it's not really an issue. I'm sorry that we don't have as any more participation from some of the southern cars that we do. And it's a and smart even back in the day, we we had to count on some northern cars to come and run. But uh I I wish there was a little bit more participation from some of the folks down here uh to keep so it would really would be a southern modified deal. But all in all, uh it's it's a good deal. It's uh you know, we're fortunate we get two of them at Caraway. They got 14 races this year. Uh so you know it I th I think it's all in all a good deal. But through the years from 89 through 2003, 2004, uh it was it was a good program. Uh NASCAR decided uh in 2005 that they could do a better job. And they started NASCAR Southern Modified tour. So that's where NASCAR Southern Modified Tour came in to be. And and uh it was okay for a little while, but it costs got out of hand evidently for whatever reason. You know, I don't know all the details. I just know that we had offered to uh do some things at friendship. That's where we've we ran a lot of the races uh in Caraway races. A lot of the races, but uh you know, hindsight maybe it's 2020. I wish we had done it a little bit different, but uh maybe NASCAR wouldn't have jumped in, but they did. Uh they stuck with it for 10 years and decided that they weren't making any traction, weren't gaining anything.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

So uh it's pretty disappointing there at the end. We were seeing six, seven race cars at some places. And you just wouldn't expect that from well, from anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Yeah, anywhere. I mean, you know, it's uh you know of course we every every track now, I mean, you're we're from looking at all the tracks in our area, uh it it's it's real easy to find a feature event night when you got eight, seven, eight, nine cars and and they're again part of it's retention. Sure. Uh, but part of it is just because uh you know it's cost so much to do it now. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

So now we've seen uh the birth of the Crate Modified in the South. It wasn't born here, it didn't start here, it wasn't our idea, we didn't come up with it. I will say we did come up with the real modified idea. Well, I would argue that with our friends north of the Mason Dixon, because we were we were doing it without fenders long before they were, but nonetheless, I really think the Northeast controls and owns big modified racing for theory for all. And and and arguably so uh I remember during the time that I ran the Smart Tour 02 or 304, um if uh if a semi-competitive Yankee car came down south, we were most of us were racing for second or third. A lot of times that happened. Sure did. Why do you feel like I asked Eddie Hardy this one day too? Um curious what your answer is. Why do you feel like northern cars in theory are better than southern cars? Or at least during that time. I think there's been some equalization and things are a little better now, but why do you think northern cars were better than southern cars back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Well, at the time, uh th there were people up there that raced for a living. Sure. And uh the they were more competitive because uh they did race for a living. And and when they came down here, even the middle of the pack car, a top pin car, let's say a 10, 11, 12-paced car, could come down here and be real competitive. It was because of the the work ethic they had. Uh the diversity in the tracks that they had down here. We only had the stadium. I mean, that was basically it. Everybody learned at the stadium and when they went to Wiltsburgh, it was, oh, it was the greatest thing in the world. But uh I think diversity of the uh the facilities they had to race on made a lot of difference in it. And uh, you know, the down here when we raced on budgets. Sure. We uh we were really tight on budgets. I know Gary would uh we we had a good relationship with Childress, and and Gary got a lot of good parts from Richard. Uh and uh Spenny Clendennan, who was Childress's engine at the time, one of one of them. Uh Spenny helped us put the stuff together. Gary did a lot of the work in the garage. I mean, you know, he did take parts and pieces to Jay Foley's to get them machine to come back and put them together in the shop right there.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Another, another great Southern racer there, Jay.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

So it's just, you know, that's that's what I see as a difference.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

And in what did Eddie Harvey say? Uh Eddie Harvey just said it was uh number of opportunities and exposure because those guys had have and had so many more opportunities. You know, he said, Brad, you look at it like this. He said, in a modified, if you ran a full stadium season and you ran a full smart season, you had 30 opportunities all year. And he says, we're gonna lose a few of those to rain outs. He said, those guys could go run Stafford on Friday night, they could go run ROC tour somewhere else on Saturday, catch the NASCAR modified race on Sunday. He said they they had a three-day race week. Yeah, and he said their opportunities were more. He said there's more of them. He said, and uh the other thing, strengthen numbers. And I saw that a lot in the dirt world. You know, when I first started racing dirt, everybody had a blue-gray rocket. Well, if you wanted up front, guess what you had to have? Blue gray route. Blue-gray rocket. So it was kind of the same and uh uh a lot more or a lot less diversity. Touch on the northern thing here, real quick. I remember during my time, uh L. W. Miller in my day owned Southern Modified Racing. He was good. You can say anything you want to say, good, bad, or indifferent. If you look at his northern career, he was a 10th place race car on average. Yeah, he did win Martinsville that year. And uh he may not remember that event, but it's one of the few that I remember going to Martinsville and watching. And the car that absolutely didn't dominate that event probably put the ugliest beatdown I have ever seen in a modified other than Jan Leedy's win at um Oswego a few years prior to that, was Ken Woolley Jr. Ken Woolley Jr., who I'd never even heard of. I think he set the poll. I want to say before the caution, the first caution came out, he lapped up to like fourth place. I mean, nobody can run with this guy. This episode brought to you in part by Schoenfeld Headers, Van Buren, Arkansas, all the way back to Daddy Schoenfeld building the best headers for all types of racing. If you need headers for your race cars, schoenfeldheaders.com, check them out online or at any of their thousands of retailers nationwide. This episode brought to you by Bassett Racing Wheels. Whether you're looking for a 15-inch inertia wheel, rolled edge, armor edge protection, whatever it is that you need, DOT IMCA Bassett Racing Wheel has you covered. Bassett Racing Wheels is the leader in short track wheels nationwide. BassettWheels.com for all your racing wheel needs. This portion of our show brought to you by Woodleaf Raceway Park right on Facebook. Check out the world's greatest dirt go-kart trap with a focus on kids and family. They have ungo-karte go-kart racing. Jeff Freeman and his staff worked tirelessly to make sure your kids are safe and having a great time. Check them out on Facebook at Woodleaf Raceway Park. Nobody could run with this guy. He was a mission and a missile. With a handful of laps to go, we had the big one. Yeah. LW screen screamed through it. They went back green flag racing, he won it. Hands down, he won it. He won the grandfather clock, the whole deal. I'd never heard of LW. You may have heard of him. I didn't know who he was. Uh, he and I are the exact same age. Um, I I never really followed his career. I didn't know who he was. He showed up the next year in the South. And if you didn't know who LW Miller was, he was going to educate you real fast. He did. Man, he he absolutely destroyed Southern Modified Racing for three to five years. I would also say in the South, he probably put that other brand of chassis on the map because nobody down here had one of those. Yeah. I know Danny bought cars from him. I think everybody probably bought a car with, through, or from super nice, very helpful, down to earth, easy to get along with. But man, he was absolutely destroying everything we knew about Modified.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

Yeah, he was good. And he drove, uh he finally got he did drive for Danny. Sure. They bought some real good stuff. And he was always tough at friendship. Tough everywhere. Yeah, he was. And uh I remember everybody said, Well, he's got to be cheating. He's doing this, that, and the other. And I said, listen, come sit in the tower with me one night.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

And you watch that car when he rolls into turn three. So I said, when he touched the brakes, all four rotors are red. It ain't two on the front, it ain't the ones on the back. That car, he had figured out the braking on the cars and all the other things that it took to make it work. And he just he had a package that was really hard to beat.

SPEAKER_01 51:32

And here, down here, that was his job. He was a modified racer. Sure. Dad sent him down here to be a modified racer. They had a little shop there in Mooresville. This story about his dad.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

We had a race at Caraway, and I can't remember if Gary and LW got into a hoo-haw on the track or whatever, but I remember LW's dad come running down pit road. He kept running into Phillips radio with his head. I don't understand.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

I think that was before the days of the radio belt and the holster. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could I could maybe see that. But yeah, for a while there. And I think he did have a bit of a time in maybe ARCA or something where he kind of moved up, and then I didn't hear anything from LW. And then next thing I know, he's married to Kelly, and life is great. And man, his kid is some kind of wheel man holes. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

I haven't got to see him.

SPEAKER_01 52:21

I've just read a lot about him. Tulsa Shootout. I've seen him a couple times there because we obviously do the shootout with the Han family, and uh man has been really, really good there. But he was a great example of a northern team that kind of came down. I also remember a particular event at Friendship. You'll probably remember this also, uh Donnie Leah. North South shootout. I think you guys ran this Sunday after North South shootout.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:41

And uh a handful of cars came, a bunch of Donnie. Um, but Donnie had won the North South shootout.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

He did, that night, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

And uh showed up the next day, got there late. I think he got negligible practice. I want to say maybe he did qualify. I do think he did. And he got spun or he got into an altercation where the black flag was issued, and y'all sent him to the rear of the field. And I want to say it was either two or three laps before he was leading again. Put him on a mission, didn't he? We really did. He won up there anyway. But just again, another example of a northern car I can think about that's like, man, we race here every other week or every third week. How is this guy so much better than us?

SPEAKER_00 53:19

But man, he really was. He was good. Another one that uh today's hanging around pretty well, too, Ryan Priest. When Ryan first came here, his dad said he was 14. I'm not sure he was, but he was he practiced at friendship in 2003. Yeah. Uh so you know, he's been hanging around a while and uh he's you know friendship. I had to get free, I had to give plug friendship every once in a while because we did turn out some pretty good. Absolutely, yeah. So some good rivalries, some good battles and stuff up there.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Oh, yeah. So so, Randy, so what does the future look like in your mind for Southern Modified Racing? I know that's where your heart is.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Well, I mean, I hope the future is to continue to grow. Uh, the biggest thing is that if the the teams down here will continue to support it, uh, and I think they will. Uh the the big thing is making sure that Chris has enough sponsorship and he's doing a great job of putting that part of it together. So we'll see how that continues to work. Uh you know, I'm just hoping it'll grow on from here. It's uh we'll do what we can at uh at Caraway to to make sure it continues to grow.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

So what do we do to continue to educate fans, to keep people in the stands, to keep people engaged, and to keep people coming? Because I do think that sometimes we spend so much effort on our competitors. Um, and again, I promote a couple of events a year, and sometimes we get so laser focused on making sure I've got a hundred cars in the pits or 50 cars in the pits or 90 cars or whatever it is, we kind of lose focus about the people that are really paying the bill, which is very few people make a bold statement here, and I don't mean any disrespect. I work with a tremendous amount of promoters. Again, spent an hour and 17 minutes, hour 17 minutes and 23 seconds, Shannon I looked at it when we hung up uh yesterday talking about how do I get more people in the stands. And I've given a lot of people some ideas as yet. I don't claim to be good at it, I get really lucky a lot of times. But I think that so many promoters in general have forgotten what walks through the front gate because we've learned how to make a living on the back gate.

SPEAKER_00 55:27

Oh, I d I don't disagree with that at all. And and Darren and I talked about that a lot. I mean, it's a it's a damn shame that the racetracks have to operate the way they do. Uh and again, part of it's our fault. But you know, when Reynolds left the sport, we lost a generation of fans in the grandstands, or at least I think we did. And we did because I mean when you when you needed help back in the day with a sponsor or something like that, you you could always talk to Dan or T Wayne or or somebody at uh at Reynolds and get a little help to put the race on it. And putting on good quality events kept people coming to the grandstands. And Reynolds did more than their fair share of promotion outside of the racetrack. If you everywhere you looked, it was Winston Racing Series. Winston Racing, yeah. And or or or Winston Cup or Winston Racing Series, and that I don't know. I guess we got spoiled as as track operators, promoters, whatever you want to call them.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Uh but uh did we take that potentially for granted and not hone our promoting skills because we knew we had a crutch?

SPEAKER_00 56:37

I I think I don't know if we took it for granted, but it it grew on us for for 20 odd years.

SPEAKER_01 56:44

Well, it's no different. Uh yeah. I have no idea what you drive every day, your streetcar. It doesn't matter. If you go out and you get in your Ford Taurus, and every time you turn the key, it starts up and goes, what do you expect to happen tomorrow morning? I hope that key starts her up the next morning. Well, if it doesn't, now we have a problem. If you've not planned ahead, guess what you don't have.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

And that I think a lot of what happened. Sure. And it's all the tracks that were sanctioned tracks. I mean, at one time there was 105 sanctioned tracks.

SPEAKER_01 57:11

I remember 90. I remember going to the short track summit. NASCAR came into the Ocean Center at Daytona. We used to have a great trade show there, by the way. NASCAR, I'm not happy about this. They had we had a great trade show there, and they pushed the trade show out. And next year they had that short track summit I attended. And I remember we had this great looking binder, and there were people in suits, and man, it was great, and they fed us breakfast and told us how wonderful everybody was. And at that time there were 90 short tracks in America. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Yeah, it is, and now we're at 50. Caraway makes 50 this year. Wow. So, you know, hopefully, I had a meet with Jim Frantz and and Mike Elton when I was in Daytona last m last month. And one of the things that we talked about was to get some fan recognition for the drivers that we have. Sure. And uh so we did a car tour race at Caraway three years ago and had uh Kyle Larson. And he put two butts on the boards when Larson was there. The next year, uh who did come?

SPEAKER_01 58:14

William Byron.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Uh thank you very much. Uh William Byron came and put a few butts on the board and and actually ran a better race than Larson did. Yeah. But you know, a a third of the people. Sure. So Larson and Byron. So yeah. And that's that was one of the things that I I tried to stress to Jim. But the people have to know the the who they're seeing. And and they're the product. I mean, you know, those racers are the product. They can talk about cars and this and that and the other all they want to, but the the fans go to see that driver. Absolutely. And if they can't relate to them, don't know them when they see him, it makes a difference. And so I think that's that's one thing that we all kind of lost, and it was because of Reynolds' demise. But uh, you know, we I think after a generation they figured out, man, we got to do something different. We got to get better at what we do. And some of us have, some of us haven't, and some of us don't need to. Sure. But uh it is what that is.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

And Randy, you've got an interesting perspective because uh I've seen you at Daytona with the vintage car. You drag an old modified around with you to some places. So you're plugged into that culture, you're obviously involved with what's going on now. I mean, uh for all practical purposes, modified must flow through your veins.

SPEAKER_00 59:26

It does. It does, it really does. I mean I I I don't go to cup races very often. Uh I we did go to the to the duels last week or last month, but usually I'm in New Smyrna on Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, cold night, whatever warm night is in New Smyrna. So it's uh and that's where they run modified.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

Absolutely. What do you think uh the evolution or the future of modified racing in general? What does it look like? What do you think is going to be the next big thing? What do you think needs to happen to plug more kids in to get more people excited about modified racing?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

Well, uh what needs to happen is not necessarily just for modified racing, although modified racing benefit, but we've got to figure out how to reach that kid that's in this fifth, sixth, seventh grade at school, and and you know, and again, if we don't do a good job at that, then they don't know what we have to offer and they don't get it cited. And uh if you look at uh here I am, I'm back at the stadium again. If you look at the stadium on any given Saturday night in the summer, mom and daddy drops the kids off on top on top of the hill there at M on MLK, and they come back and get them at 11 30. Sure. But there's a lot of kids at Balma Grey. Uh, you know, I know chocolate and childress and all them guys like to talk about how they sold drinks and popcorn and this and that and other stuff. Well, I did too. And honestly, if they're not dead, I could probably go back in there and sell the same guy another bag of popcorn. You're not wrong, yeah. Then so that's that's where the stadium's done a good job of their fan retention, driver can re retention, whatever it is that you want to say, they've done a good job at that. And I think the environment has a lot to do with it. Yeah, but uh and it's you know, gray as Gray will tell you, it's it's entertainment. Well, you know, it's entertainment to the cats in the grandstand, but it's pretty serious business. That guy that's putting thousands and thousands of dollars in the in a car and tie in pit passes and driver's license and stuff like that. It's a different story.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Awesome. Uh, if we want to find out more about what's going on at Caraway this season, how can we do that? What's the best way to connect with it?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

Caraway Speedway's www.caraway speedway.com. We got a Facebook page, it's at Caraway Speedway. We open this coming Saturday. This is coming Sunday, 61st season opener. Uh our late models, uh, chargers, uh 602 modified, uh Crown Vicks, mini stocks, uh, Legends and Bandoleros, our U cars will all be there then. And the following Saturday is our open wheel showdown. It's a 75 lap open competition modified race. Uh there's no smart race that weekend, so we we've held one last year and do it this year. It's a 75 lapper. Four tires, just miles to the wall for 75 laps. Jerry Jeremy Gershner proved that to everybody last year. So it's uh it's uh it's a good event. And of course, we run everything else with it except our uh late models and the the legends there at uh Charlotte that week. Okay. Special events coming up this year.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:34

What do we have going on this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Well, that oak wheel showdown, number one.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:38

And that's gonna be last weekend of March.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:40

That's the 28th of March, that's correct. Uh we have Rusty Harp race on uh July the 4th.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:45

We have a smart race on the same that same night. Rusty Rusty Harp race is the late models of modifies is a smart race. We have a smart race on September the 12th. We have the North uh we have our the North South shootout in November. But all through the season, we have 10 events for what it's our limited late model, which is it's really a late model, but uh with a couple of restrictions in it. But uh we have a road to the crown. There's there's five four events leading up to the road to the crown, which is our championship night in October. But uh they they're 5,000 to win, thousand but uh 400 bucks to start for a limited late model. For a limited late model. And you guys just had a$10,000 to win late model. Uh our chat our championship last year was the same night, and it's called the Road to the Crown, and then it's the Caraway Crown that night. That's October date.$5,000 to win. That's that's that's late model stock money right there. That's a$10 to win race on in October. But there's going to be four fives late. Four fives, right. And then the others are uh their twin forties and uh 175 leper. And you know, we ran the twins to make sure we get enough events in to count tours and NASCAR points. Yeah. And uh so you know, right now the the the response has been real good. I bet so. So we've got a lives, a lot of guys that uh you wouldn't think would be racing limited late models, but you know, I remember the days at Caraway.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

I remember that's where I discovered Mike Skinner. Yeah, uh David Hyder. Uh Stephen Grimes. Stephen Grimes. Believe it or not, he's one of my best friends on earth. We race go-karts each other. Um, oh my gosh, uh Steve Lofton. Lofton comes by here all the time. We see Steve. Actually, he's getting ready to get married, or if he didn't already. That's right. Yeah, good to see him. So uh man, those were some of the greatest guys, man. The some of the best racing was just unbelievable. Uh Penn Cren, we connect with Penn every now and then too.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

Yeah, Penn, I think Penn's gonna run with us this year. Awesome. Uh you go back to some days back, though. I mean, you had uh Jay Hedgecock, you had Sam Ard, you had uh Jimmy Hensley, I mean, and everybody that was anybody came to run some of the Russell big races. Yes, absolutely. Earn Hart was there.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

Mid-Atlantic Championship 500. Ironically enough, Butch Lindley's son, Marty, and I were best, best buddies growing up, but we were arch rivals racing go-karts. They used to call him pork chop, he ain't no pork chop no more. Wheel man for sure could get it done. But he ran some pro cup when I did absolutely rent some hooters. So you guys have got lots of great stuff going on at Caraway. If you're looking for some excitement to go do something a little different, a little other places. You guys have got some the Rusty Harp race is a midweek show, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:20

No, actually it's Saturday. We'll be Saturday this year, it's on July the 4th. I've got the honor guard lined up, and uh we're working on some uh more entertainment because it's uh 250th anniversary of our great country. Nice, awesome. So we'll have a special show.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

You guys have always had a killer fireworks display.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:36

Yeah, we usually do, and uh we thanks to DJ Hall for that. And uh uh then we do it again on September with the same thing with our 911th room uh remembrance. Awesome, good.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:47

Good time with it. So, Randy Myers, when it's all said and done and the last checkered flag's away for Randy Myers, what do you want people to remember Randy Myers for? Remember about Randy Myers.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:56

I just tried. There's no doubt about it. I just tried, that's all. Uh nothing else. I mean I just tried.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Awesome, man. Well, Randy, we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to get with us today. Uh great to have you on the show. I've uh honored to call you, friend, known you for a long time. You and I have always had great, great stuff that we've done together. So thoroughly enjoy you being here. Hopefully we can get uh Russell to come hang out with us or uh Darren Darren to come hang out with us on the show. That would be a lot of fun to have him on here. Come on here and talk about some of the changes and some of the improvements and things. You guys have spent a ton of money down there the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:29

New grandstands, uh they paved three and four over the winter. Uh a lot of asphalt and concrete in the pits. Awesome. Got some more to do. Uh Darren called me this morning and said some of his lights are on the way. They have been shooting. So we're we're gonna we're gonna upgrade the lights as the season progresses. It's uh, you know, it's a$100,000 project, so you have to do it as you can. So come to Caraway and get lit.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:54

Yeah, come to Caraway and get lit. That sounds like a lot of fun. Well, Randy, thanks for being on the show. Folks, that's gonna do it for another episode of Driving Fast and Taking Chances. Special thanks to our guest today, Mr. Randy Myers. We're gonna call him Modified Royalty here in the South. Uh if you guys are looking for a new or used trailer, Jeff Hill Trailer Sales is your guy. Jeff Hill's a friend of ours, built several trailers for us. Check them out online, Jeff HillTrailersales.com. That's gonna do it for this episode. Drive fast, take chances.