Episode 24 - Daniel Beeson

Episode 24 – Daniel Beeson

Operations Director at Richard Petty’s Legendary Garage | Bowman Gray Modified Driver

In Episode 24, Brad sits down with Daniel Beeson, Operations Director at Richard Petty’s Legendary Garage, where classic cars are transformed into one-of-a-kind resto-mods and high-performance custom builds destined for major showcases like SEMA. From vintage restorations to cutting-edge upgrades on modern vehicles, Daniel lives at the intersection of craftsmanship and performance.

But when he’s not overseeing builds at one of the most recognizable names in motorsports, Daniel is strapping into a Modified car at Bowman Gray Stadium, where he’s spent years competing in one of short track racing’s toughest divisions.

Brad and Daniel dive into life balancing professional automotive projects with grassroots racing, the creativity behind custom builds, and the passion that fuels both worlds. From the Madhouse to the show floor, this episode is packed with horsepower, stories, and perspective.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, and welcome to another episode of Driving Fast and Taking Chances. I'm your host, Bad Brad. Today's episode is brought to you in part by Schoenfeldheaders. Schoenfeld headers, note they don't do stainless, but they can show you why mild steel headers are still the best solution. Application for pretty much anything you're racing, check them out online, showenfeldheaders.com. Today our guest is the legendary Daniel Beaston. Daniel's gonna say he's not a legend, but I think he is, and he's at Legendary Garage. Daniel Beaston, welcome to the show, man. Thank you, Brad. Glad to be here. We are glad to have you, man. So for you guys who don't know Daniel Beaston, Daniel has been a racer at Bowman Gray for how many years now? Total.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Probably 20, Brad. I really didn't keep up with it. I just went racing, right? Probably 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

20 years. Street stock sportsman. Now you race a modified there. That's right. And uh one of the cool things about the modified, it's often in legendary petty blue. Uh any reason that it could potentially be that going?

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Um grew up certainly Richard was my hero. Um that was my idol growing up. Him and Pudding Swisher uh is what led me to racing. But of course, as you know, I'm now part of Legendary Garage. We're on those famous grounds and uh found the formula for the correct petty blue down there, the old petty enterprise.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Awesome. So that's one of the reasons we really want to get you on the show today. So a lot of folks don't know. So Petty Enterprises, as everybody does know, Richard Petty, winningest driver in history, 200 wins, seven championships. He is the king, period. You can argue any way you want. Yeah, this guy was better. If he didn't, if he'd have raced against Kyle Larson, who knows, right? Ultimately, who else has 200 cup wins?

SPEAKER_03 1:44

That's what he tells me.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, and only one other guy has seven championships, God rest his soul, but he doesn't have 200 wins. Richard is the king without a doubt. Level crossed North Carolina. So kind of south of Greensboro would be the town people in the world have heard of. There's a lot of little towns around there. There is this strange series of garages that are linked together. Much not like the cup shops we see, the Taj Mahals. We're in downtown Wellcome, North Carolina. We always joke about downtown. We have one stoplight. Everybody knows RCR, these big ivory tower buildings. But Petty Enterprises started with a garage, then added on to a garage, added on to a garage. There's no cup racing that goes on there, but what goes on in that building now? I think that's the thing that people don't understand what's going on at Legendary.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Yep. So in that uh complex of roof lines, as you mentioned, uh necessity is what led to all those different buildings. Um, what we do with the Legendary Garage is from a full restoration to maintenance of classic cars, custom paint and body work, and then we have, in my opinion, as good an engine shop as there is in the area as it pertains to muscle cars and race engines.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

So you say full restoration. Were we restoring race cars? Are we restoring street cars? Classics. What is it that you guys specialize in?

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yep. Uh so our specialty is gonna be your um resto mod um to a fun driver. What we don't try to do, we're capable of, but is what will be a concourse restoration. Not that we can't, it just bogs us down, and there's so much more of the custom resto mod work out there.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Absolutely. So premium cars that people are gonna enjoy and drive. If I wanted to take my 69Z28 down there and have you guys put it on tubular uppers and lowers, put a late model LS in it, and you guys have the ability to do it all. Paint, body, I mean, the quarters could be rotted out. You guys can do the interior. Corey Pinto back in the engine shop can build me, build my LS3, supercharge it. You guys have a chassis dyno. Is there anything you guys can't do there at Legendary?

SPEAKER_03 3:46

You know, really not. Um, if we don't do it there, we know the guy to call and we can get it done um quickly and efficiently. But no, um, we can drag it out of the field and you take it to the show, you know. Pretty much a one-stop shop there. And not just both tubulars, tubular arms on. We can make the stuff. You know, we're there on what's left, all that race, uh, equipment and heritage. So we're on surface plates and um pretty much all the racing technology goes into what we do there.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

And it's a it's a really impressive facility when you pull in. I mean, the facility's always been very well maintained. The parking lot's always been nice and smooth. Obviously, the museum is there, so a lot of neat traffic there. And I'm sure you guys get some overflow from that. People want to know, oh my gosh, what's legendary garage? What's going on? But um, you guys have been kind enough to have me down a few times and get the tour. I mean, everything is just in its place. It's orderly. It's great to go in. I don't know what you guys call the main shop there, but it's neat to see the cars that are in different processes in different stages. I mean, you guys just have so many talented people doing so many jobs there.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Oh, yeah. Uh it happens quick there, unlike some small shops. Everybody knows somebody that works on old cars, but um, with our team, things happen quick. So if you come in one week, you're back the next week, you see change. You know, you can see that your car has moved.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

So what what is the passion? What was the reasoning behind that? Why did you guys, and it's it's yourself, you've got two partners in that as well. What is it that lit the wick? Why did you want to be part of this deal? And how did the whole legendary concept come together?

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Yep. So Russ Stell Fox is general manager, and he ran Petty's Garage, I will say, in his heyday. Okay, so that was Richard's speed shop. Um, Richard has gotten to the place in life where, believe it or not, he's ready to slow down.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

That's that's pretty odd to hear that Richard wants to slow down. Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

So he kind of wound that back. Um, Petty's Garage was closing. Uh Russ was a good friend of mine, I'd done work for through the years. And then Shane Bill ties the three of us together. Long and short, last New Year's we were at a car event um in Oak Ridge and um just had a lot of people coming up to me. As you know, I've always done this kind of work. And Shane is the businessman, right? I'm the passionate car guy, but he's the business. He kept hearing these people asking me, Hey, will you do this? Can you look at that? And um he asked me and Russ, hey, do you think there's a business model here? Yeah. Um, absolutely, there's a need for that sort of uh repair work and customization, and and that's really what sparked it. Uh with Petty's closing, it kind of fueled the fire. I thought that was the place to do it. Um, I can't think of another place in the triad that would be better to definitely the most historic, without a doubt. Yep. So five paint boots. I mean, it's just hard to walk into a place like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

That's ready to go. And and you've done paint and body work for me. You've done a couple show cars for me, my dad. Sure. I've sent you friends over the years. And in my opinion, I tell people this all the time. And there's a good part and a bad part. Daniel Beeson, in my opinion, is not the best modified racer I've ever seen at Bowman Gray. But you better believe he's the best paint and body guy I've ever seen over there by far. Now, Frank Fleming would fight you on that, but I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

So, what I've told people is I wish uh the racing came as easy as painting. For some reason, that just came supernatural to me. Um, the desire to be the best racer is there, but that has been a journey.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, absolutely. Well, the paint and body stuff has been no short. We actually uh you helped me restore uh Chop Top Convertible that we actually won awards and stuff with that nobody's ever been able to win East Coast. It's always been a West Coast deal, it's always been that kind of thing. Daniel Beeson rose to the occasion. I think Best Paint everywhere we went with that car, it was absolutely an awesome restoration. So now the engine shop is kind of a special deal. You guys don't really build race cars there, but you do build race engines. Elaborate a little bit more on that, the relationship with Corey and what are the competitive advantages? Why would I want to have Petty's Garage build my engine? I know you guys are involved in some of the spec programs and some of that. What is the active role of that engine shop?

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Right. So the reason you want Legendary Garage to do it, um, Corey's built my engines forever. Um, you guys that know me from racing, you've seen me at the racetrack. I pride myself in having good equipment. Um, and if I got to sit out a few races to make sure I had the best engine, that's what I'm gonna do. Okay. So I've known Corey a really long time, sent him lots of restoration work. But when all this came together, Corey was the guy I knew that I wanted an engine shop. And on the racing, to answer your question, the reason I knew I wanted him, um, as racers will appreciate, Corey doesn't kiss and tell. Okay, so I've always been a customer of Corey's. I was aware he was building other people's engines, w engines that win, but I didn't know who they were. Okay. So your speed secret was always safe with Corey. He's gonna work diligently to be the best at it. Um, obviously budget, right? You gotta give him enough money to see it through. But if you can, I have yet to run anybody locally that worked, uh, and I say locally because I just haven't been outside of that world, but worked as hard to give you the best piece possible. At the end of the day, he's gonna do whatever it takes to make sure his engine is the best there is. And since then, we've been able to secure um the progressive spec engine. Um, so very successful engine and super late model down in Florida, and then um runs in the Smart Series. It's always kind of had a a love-hate in the Smart Series. Some people love to hate it, right? And some people loved it, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

But it's a strong piece, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:12

It runs good and affordable, right? Yep, so affordable. We've always actually got two options. So we had a Chevrolet and a Ford uh as it pertains to the Progressive Spec. And I'll probably run some smart races this year and look forward to putting one in and and trying it out. But it is affordable, you know. For the upper 20s, you can get a brand new engine ready to go in the car and compete against the like the NASCAR spec engine that's 40 something thousand.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Sure, absolutely. And now, machine equipment-wise, I mean, I don't know a lot about engines. I've always bought horsepower, I've never built a race engine, but I mean, I was there a couple weeks ago and he had uh an engine on the dyno. Sure. And then I also understand, I know I sent some folks down there for your chassis dyno where they actually the complete car rolled that bad boy in, strapped it down. And unlike some of the other places that do chassis dyno, Corey's out there helping those guys too. And he's telling them air fuel, he's telling them jet this way, do this, do that, do the other. You just you don't get that most places. They're like, hey, here's the deal, man. It's$500 an hour. If you blow it up, you blow it up, do your thing. It's almost like Corey takes an interest in no matter who's on that dyno to make sure things go the way that they should.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Sure. Um, there's actually some local racers that we do help um keep up their car. One's a street stock over at Bowman Gray. And Corey worked hard on it. He didn't build the engine, but we did do the exhaust. Uh, I watched him tune on it and found 20-some horsepower right at the wheels. Um, that's certainly a passion of his, and not just him, the rest of the guys. There's five guys there in the engine shop. But yeah, he is very hands-on. Chassis Dino is back in a separate building. You've seen it. It's kind of isolated, so he can uh can get in there and work and not be bothered.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Absolutely. And uh machine work, you guys. I mean, you had cylinder heads out there, he had a crankshaft he had on, he was working on, so a lot of really neat stuff there. I think one of the things, the most fun part for me walking through there was seeing all the cool things that are there that y'all have built and done. A lot of folks didn't know that there was a Petty Edition Mustang, late model uh S550 platform that you guys did tons of those with supercharges, much like the Shelby, the Rouse, this, that, and the other. Not as many of those as there are the other brands out there. But to see some of those cars, there was a really unique. There was a 9-11 you guys had just finished down there. Yep. Uh rotisserie spray, absolutely gorgeous, thinking guards red was flawless in every way. Um, and then you had some kind of, what's that supercar you had on there?

SPEAKER_03 11:32

It was some kind of oh yeah, the Optima Ultimate.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, that thing was crazy looking.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

I think they actually call it a hypercar.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Wow, it looked like it was like the whole thing from the roof line to the floor is about 13 inches tall. It's like you lay down in that thing to drive.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

So us as racers, you know, I thought I was immune to that with a modified.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

But when I come up on that car, as you said, it's just tiny. Yes. Um, and I have driven it and it is impressive. It's insanely fast. It's impressive.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

There you go. So to hear a guy who runs a modified say, it's insanely fast, it's insanely fast.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

I think it's 2,000 pounds and about a thousand horsepower.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, power to weight ratio is for real with that thing. Pretty strong. For sure. So uh now you guys do some trade shows and some events. I think you guys just recently did Run to the Sun. We did. Um, I know you guys do some good guys events and stuff like that. What is your focus or goal when you go to these types of events?

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Yeah, so kind of like we're talking about here, just making sure that people know there is an option. I I think this triad area, um, to my knowledge, has been a little short on that, right? Um, and so we get out with the people and make sure they know what we can do, you know, um, whether that's paint work. A lot of people just want a paint job.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

Um, and we certainly facilitate that. And then you got plenty of them that's got the just this morning, we got a 67 Corvette in, one owner car, obviously an older gentleman, and it'd been sitting in the garage for 15 years because the brakes didn't work. He did not know who to trust that with. So we went and picked it up, brought it in, and we're gonna get it back running so he can enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

So you guys really do offer white glove service. You even mentioned dragging it out of the field, that kind of thing. And I think uh, and then for my older hot rod buddies, man, listen up, because I know this is the case. No matter what phase your project has stalled in, you guys are willing to pick up the football and carry it to a touchdown. Is that correct, Daniel?

SPEAKER_03 13:17

That is correct. And and I can speak to that. So when I ran my shop, you know, I tried to just do paint and body. And the reason is the assembly bogged me down so much. Sure. And so what I've witnessed, I've conquered that by having a team of people to do it. But what I've seen is I wasn't alone in that. So a lot of people's cars um stall out when they get past the phase of whoever's doing it is the most comfortable with. And you find it in the corner, you know, they run into a hurdle and they don't know how to overcome it. But with the team we've got, I've got somebody with the answer. So yes, we get a lot of them that it needs wired, it needs whatever plumbed, um, and we can make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

So, in the situation, let's say that I've got that 67 Corvette and I have the numbers matching engine, but the engine needs to be rebuilt. That's something you guys would facilitate, put it back in, color correct, install it the right way. Basically, I would drop it off as a project. You'd call me in some X amount of time, I'd come pick up my running driving car.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Yep. So just last week, a guy I know uh from Mount Erie um inherited a um 66 or 7. I hadn't seen the car, Chevelle Supersport, a factory 375 horse, um, which if you know muscle cars, it's a significant car, and it had suffered a drop valve. And he was afraid that the damage to the head was gonna make that ear, you know, irreparable. Sure. Um he brought it down, Corey looked at it, and we've been able to fix the heads. Wow. So, which is gonna keep the value in the car. And when he picks that up, it will be a detailed, have them in ran, broke in, you know, no surprises, ready to bolt in the car. He's not gonna have us put it in, to my knowledge. Um, but when he takes it home, he knows it's ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

And I think that's one of the most disappointing things is, and you've done it with new race cars, I've done it with new race cars. Uh, unfortunately, I have a fetish for projects and probably buy way too many. But it's like you get everything put together and you go hit the go button and it don't go. And you're like, oh, and then you start tearing stuff apart and you scratch stuff and you ding stuff and you nick stuff. Man, what a confidence-inspiring program that you guys, when I go get it, it's washed, it's waxed, it's ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Peace of mind. What's peace of mind worth, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:24

Oh yeah. And and you wouldn't believe how many times we've seen people. I I know Corey in the past, he's built these great engines and they take it to a shop to put it in, and they're not quite qualified. Sure. And next thing you know, they've they've starved it for fuel, they've starved it for water or something, and then you're in a bad spot. So you don't have to worry about all that.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah, so I think uh I think uh building that awareness, letting people know, hey, no matter how many boxes it's in or how far back it is buried in your basement, man, we'd love to have that project. What is the average turnaround time? If a guy brought you a running and driving brand X, he drove it into your shop and he wanted it completely done. How long does it take to restore a car today?

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Yeah. Um, 12 months is a really tight window. Um, so we can turn them around in 12 months to do that. I I can't have a basket case at a point I'm missing a lot of hard-to-find parts. Sure. So if we got to spend months finding that exact carburetor for your balls 302 Mustang, that can extend it. But if it's a complete car um where we can just fix all the facets of it and make it back a complete car, about 12 months is the shortest window that you can realistically get it back, up to a year and a half. You know, if we're gonna do tons of metal work, like it needs frame rails and all those things, it can extend it to that point, but somewhere in that time frame.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

And uh modern muscle is no stranger to you guys. You guys just recently did a project for SEMA.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Yep, yep. So we were fortunate enough to uh to build a petty edition tundra for uh Lear trucks. If you guys seen Lear Camper Shells and they're in a lot of things I learned. Um we built a tundra for them, you can find it online. Um so it was lifted, full custom paintwork, suspension, full custom petty interior. Um got the king's seal of approval and was able to take it out to SEMA with the king um and do a lot with SEMA in it, and that was a lot of fun. And and to that, we're actually looking at building some new uh Mustangs. You talked about the Petty Mustangs, but we're looking at something to compete with, like a dark horse. Okay. Um imagine a street legal race car look. Um considering a what I would call like a short track and a speedway package, if you will. So the speedway package, probably supercharged versus naturally aspirated, but that's something on our radar.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Awesome. Now on the Tundra thing, you guys did all of that work. I mean, obviously, Toyota provided a vehicle. You guys lifted it, wheels, tires, interior, all the mods, all the paint, all the body. I think I was down there one day. You guys had part of it taped off, and I'm like, man, Daniel, what is that? And you were like, that's actually a petty edition tundra. And I'm like, what? So you guys did everything to that, and that that was a brand new truck.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yep. So that truck got shipped to us a brand new, I think it was a limited, um, which actually complicated it because it had a lot of chrome and they did they wanted it monotone. Uh the petty deals all black, pretty much. So yeah, we took a stock, um, very nice limited truck. And um, I think it took us about 30 days with waiting on parts and different things, but yeah, five-inch lift, um, full suspension, all color keyed in the petty blue, custom wheels, custom lights, um, no stickers, all paints, slick painted, no edges, uh full um Richard loves like a um ostrich and um a lot of the western themed interior, so full custom interior.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Cowboy hat kind of gives that away.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Yeah, it's got a holder right in the concept.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, oh nice, nice. That's that's perfect, man. 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. Now, you've got uh you got some fun uh king stories. You and I were talking about. Tell him about the uh TV story.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

I'm trying to remember which one is the you said where he was drawing on his TVs. Yeah, the king came in one day all upset about his.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So you had had a little bit of interaction with Richard over the years, but nothing like you do now.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Yeah, so um certainly I I mean you're talking to the guy that waited all day at North Wilkesboro to get to meet him, right? Right. And um waited in line at the convention center for autographs and um certainly have plenty of things to show for those times, but now I get to see him and get to talk racing with him, which is phenomenal. But yeah, there uh Richard was in in pursuit of a TV. He likes to uh apparently pause the race and and ride on and see what he, you know, he's thinks he sees there in the course of the race, and and uh yeah, we had to work through that. But um he's good now. He's got big screen TVs, but um probably my favorite Richard story is we were at SEMA actually. And um, I'm just excited to be there with the king, right? And we're coming up on the back door and he's leading the way. One thing about Richard, you don't have to wait on him. All right, so he's leading the way. Well, he did not have his credentials. So if you've been to SEMA, you know it's kind of a big idea. So this very nice lady's working the door and she's yelling at him, I gotta see your credentials, I gotta see your credentials. Well, I assume he doesn't hear because he does not slow down, okay? Marches right in the building, and and uh she's following us for probably 30 feet. And I said, Lady, he is the credential.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

He is the king.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

If you don't know who he is, you probably are working the wrong booth here. But anyway, we go on in, she turns and goes back to her post. And again, I'm thinking Richard didn't hear.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

So we're at a uh Magna Flow event and got a downtime. And I said, Hey man, that lady was upset. I don't do you have your credential. He started laughing. He said, Let me tell you something. He said, Um, this was my deal with Linda or whatever. He said that Linda would come to the race with a whole station wagon full of people, but he said we had one ticket. All right, he said, so I would tell her just wait till the line gets on in the infield. I've done this, and he said, When you roll up, hold up your one ticket and keep going.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

He says, That guy can't leave his post because everybody's coming in.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

So that was his story at SEMA, but he just mowed right through there and never checked up. So he heard her.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah, so uh I I can see that I did that uh years ago. We were at uh Knoxville, Iowa for Knoxville Nationals, and I'm with my uh one of my dealers from Australia, and we don't have any credentials. And I'm sitting there, you know, I drive a Dodge Grand Caravan. That's my happy daily driver. Have some other cool stuff, but uh drive a grand caravan. And Mark's like, how are we getting in? We ain't got no credentials. I said, watch and learn. And there was a lady standing there who did not have a two-way radio or a golf cart, and uh, she did not appear to be an athlete. And uh I just waited until the line moved. I cracked the window. I never looked at her, I just said from France, and literally just drove right past her. And she's back there waving her hands the whole deal. Oh, he just died. It actually worked a handful. Handful of years ago, we did some over-the-wall suits for an Xfinity team or O'Reilly's team, whatever the series is this week. You know what to me? It's always gonna be Bush. It's Bush. To you, it's always gonna be Bush. I'm delivering some over-the-wall suits down there, and it's a hot garage, right? Same deal. From France. Work like magic. NFR a couple years ago with uh my daughter and the crew we were out there with for the rodeo. Pull up to the VIP lot from France. It's worked multiple times. Just remember that. The king was not wrong on that.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

The king mows through. He doesn't look back, I promise you. Yeah, and I will tell you one other thing about him eye for detail. So that petty truck we did, he came and surveyed it before he was on let it go out there. And man, he has an eye for detail. I've learned through the years at Petty Garage or Petty Enterprises, they were known for super nice race cars. Sure. And he was a driving factor behind that. He's very particular about his stuff.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

There's nothing wrong with that. He always had beautiful cars. Sure. I mean, petty blue is the most legendary blue in my mind. So yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

I would agree wholeheartedly. But it's awesome to be there working with him. Um, he's in and out. Um, we usually see him once or twice a week. He's a busy man, even at his age. Um, certainly busy, but love it when he comes by and checks on things. And yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Awesome. I found it was interesting when I turned the corner there. The volunteer fire station is station 43. 43. And it's in blue on the building too. I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

I can tell you he lets no grass grow either. So he must be in with a local law. So if you're in at about level cross.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Well, so you were telling me when you guys went to get the TV, he said he made you jump in the truck with him, and you guys were in the hammer lane running like a hundred miles an hour, and you're like, Why are we going so fast?

SPEAKER_03 23:34

King does not let up. I was on a test drive the other week in a in a Lincoln Continental, 65 Lincoln. And um, man, here comes uh some black SUV by me just flying. I'm thinking, man, what you know, I'm waiting for sirens, like they're in pursuit. And uh a few miles I turn in and I see him popping out of it there in the parking lot. Yeah, he knows one speed and it's wide open. He's smooth as silk, but he is going. So still at he, how old is how old is Richard? 80? Richard is 89, I believe. I don't want to age him, but I think that's correct.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

And still just smooth as glass. You told me you said we were running 100, but I wasn't even scared because it's like he's just he's good as he can be, man. So it's the king, man.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

You can't be scared.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

You can't take King away. You told me a little story uh when you first got there, something about uh a show car and a trailer situation.

unknown 24:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

Are you allowed to tell that? There's probably some people that be upset by that, but yeah, I was privileged to um one of the king's personal race cars that's around there, got hauled West Coast, and um he did not enjoy the way it was unloaded, and it was a tense moment, but we had some uh it was good for me. I'll say I enjoyed it. Made friends, made friends, yeah. Um, it probably wasn't as fun for some of the other members of the story, but uh and you got to drive one of the king's race cars. Yep, sure did. Yep, that was awesome. I I'll be honest, uh pulling it around the building there, I couldn't help but think as a kid, I thought, man, I'm gonna drive for Richard Petty, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

You did!

SPEAKER_03 24:58

You finally drove, you just didn't know how. The two moments that uh I thought, well, God, you you you were listening, just not the way I was thinking it. I was sitting at the end of the big blue uh table there in his conference room as we were putting this deal together, and I thought, man, there's Richard Petty down there, and we're about to make this happen. I'm sitting at his table, and uh that was pretty cool. And then circling the building in that uh, I think it's a maybe a Monte Carlo, I can't remember, but um, I thought, wow, I'm driving Richard's race car.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Man, that's gotta be. I mean, like uh you when you think about stuff as a kid and you're like, man, I I made it. I'm I'm actually here. I'm actually I'm actually doing this thing, man.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

So I think that's something we lose sight of. The things we aspire for, if you're willing to work and get after it. Absolutely. Sometimes we're so busy we don't look back and see that what we wanted, we we got. You guys take a second and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

And I think sometimes we're so caught up in the moment we don't realize all the magical things that are really going and all the things that had to happen in order to get us there.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Sure. Several years ago I drove a race car for another team. I've always drove for myself, but there was one year I drove for another team, and um Jeff Day said to me, we had had lots of conversations about Bush series, and I've always said, Man, if I'd have been in that time, I'd have built one, right? Yeah. Um, I would have had something to drag the Daytona. And he reminded me, he said, Man, we're doing it. You know, this modified deal is no joke. He's like, we are doing what you're talking about. It's a different time and all, but he reminded me we're we're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

So yeah, the craftsmanship is really not gone. I think a lot more stuff is bought now than built. I don't think I think there's negligible fabrication that we have to do. Everything, you know, I I equivalate that to when we were kids, there were two kinds of model cars. There was glue together and snap together. That's right. Kids that were patient, whose daddies yelled at them more often, had glue together cars. Right. Kids that weren't patient and want to play with it right now had snap together cars. I was a snap-together car guy. I'm gonna guarantee Daniel Beeson was a glue together guy.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

I was a glue together, and I can show you the boxes. Uh you talk about these projects that go uh south. I got boxes of them painted. I just never took the time to finish putting them together.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

There you go. You need to bring those down to Petty's garage and let them finish them for you, man. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely, absolutely. So, Daniel, uh, switch gears a little bit here with me. So uh is is this where you want to be forever? Is this your retirement plan? You want to go out at legendary garage? You're still fairly young. You're 40. I am 45. 45. So at 85, at 89, at the king's age, is this the last place that you want them to see the taillights from?

SPEAKER_03 27:29

That is. This is uh I I've moved around a little bit chasing things in the automotive world, whether that be chasing money or um, you know, whatever. Um, but this is what I plan on finishing up with. This is I've not been able to outrun this. I will go run service departments and I will get the phone calls. Hey, will you help me with my Chevelle or whatever? And um, I guess I decided it was time to quit putting that off and letting it be a hobby. Let's go ahead and focus on this and go edit full board. But I plan to hang up my helmet here.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Sure. And not to beat a dead horse, but it doesn't matter whether it's crash repair, hail damage, just general accident, whatever, you guys will fix it. I mean, you're still a full service paint and body shop, and still very competitive price-wise. You just recently did some work for me on one of my trucks, right? Still very competitive. I mean, there's no reason to take it to the dealership or to makeo or whatever like that. Right. Call legendary, you guys will get them in.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Yeah, certainly. Um, I painted a Dodge truck bedside this morning for a customer that we do specialty work, if you will. Um, but yeah, body shop wise, we're here for you. What we do a little different is the collision world. If you guys ever are in that world, you'll see these estimates with huge hours. Um, the labor rate is lower uh set forth by insurance. Um so you might see$50,$60 an hour, but an inflated hour amount. Sure. We bill by the hour instead of chasing all that collision uh fluff, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Right, right, right. And you've been in paint and body for how long? 40, 46 years, you're 45 now?

SPEAKER_03 28:59

Started um, I guess I was 17, um, was fortunate enough to work for some really good people. Jimmy Joyce is where I cut my teeth. He's as good as there is, but took it in high school at the Career Center and just really never looked back. There's not been a time since 17 that I haven't been involved in a body shop.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Awesome, awesome. Now, racing. So Daniel Beaston, the modified racer. Right. Like you said, you mentioned a couple years ago you did drive for another team. That was kind of an interesting deal. It was sort of odd to see you. I can understand from a being busy standpoint why that makes sense, though. Um, years ago, somebody's like, Man, why do you have your own stuff? Why don't you just rent a car? And I'm like, rent a car? I'm like, how much is a car to rent? They're like, five, six grand a race. I'm like, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of until I started doing the math. Man, it's really cheap to rent cars. Because by the time you figure your your 60-hour work week, your 60-hour modified get ready week, that's a pretty the cheapest thing that you've actually done. So you're back in your own equipment, you're doing your own thing. What do we have to look for this year? You mentioned a little bit about smart, we got the stadium coming up. What are your plans for the uh for the upcoming season? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

So um we're gonna start with a 200 uh and then kind of take it week by week, to be honest with you. So with the legendary garage taking so much of my time, I really haven't been out chasing sponsors at all because there's only so many hours in the day. Um, so I look to probably run half, maybe three quarters of the races at Bowman Grey. Um we'll pick and choose, but uh we'll we'll probably run more than not. But anyway, and then uh probably once the stadium ends, I look to run three or four smart races. So it'll be a lot. Um, it may not sound like a lot to some of you guys, like the dirt racers that run so much, but that stadium grind is a challenge, as you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Weekly, weekly, absolutely. It can be tough. And you've got a well-seasoned crew. Your dad's there, Tom Green's there, Joanne's there. Yeah, you've got the same, it's the same faces every year. It's the same folks that keep coming back. Did you finally get them a vehicle they can work out of? They were unhappy about your gabarino truck. While as cool as it was, I heard some heard some some some feelings got hurt on that.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Yeah, so I love the sport eracing, right? And I'm always chasing the history. And I was fortunate enough to own and have for a while. Um, Bob Garberino's Mystic Missile Hauler. I still love that cool truck, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

It really was.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Ray Everenham just bought it. Um, sorry, Ray, you might have been the one to announce that, but Ray bought it. Um, he's gonna do some really cool things with it. I told him I felt like he was the right guy for the You're not wrong, man. But yeah, so we're back to just a boring old 32-foot trailer.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

But load of the grounds. Same one that you had for years. No, I bought a um a different, a newer one. Um, I'm working through putting a ramp over it. Oh, there you go, absolutely. But yeah, so good crew, Tom Green, you mentioned my dad Dwight, um Uncle Richard, my cousin Phillip. So it's a family deal. And then uh we've been fortunate here lately. Lee Stimson's helped us, and that's been a Lee's huge help. He's drove my backup car some, but just nice to have a racer there when you speak, he knows what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

But yeah, so um, same Troyer we ran last year, it's a 2013 model. Um, but it'll still get the job done. So yeah, we're excited. I think we'll uh we'll have a good year. We found some stuff over the winter. Um really the last couple years have just not been magical for me over there, just to be honest, right? Uh just didn't things happen, um, just haven't been that great the last two years. But I really feel good about it. There's some stuff happened over the winter with the car I found, and I think we'll be pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Awesome, man. Have you had your car on the Chassis Dino at Legendary yet?

SPEAKER_03 32:23

You know, Corey keeps beating me up to bring it down there, but I haven't. Um I need to. I need to get it down there. I'm confident it'll make the number, but uh I really haven't taken the time to bring it. I should, that, and my roadrunner. Um, but that thing will hurt your feelings if you're not careful. It's not cheated up like some of these dinos out here.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, get you know, getting those real numbers. Uh Jay Foley did my motors for years, and you know, he built me one. I only had ever had one brand new 18 degree 12 to 1 motor when I ran the smart tour. And he ran on his dyno and it made like 530 horsepower. And I'm like, dang, Jay.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Yeah, he's a conservative, I've heard.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

And he said, uh, well, how much should it make? And I said, Well, I'm hearing these guys are making, you know, 594, 598. Heard a couple of these, you know, heroes from up north got 600 horsepower. He goes, I'm gonna bet you if we put that motor on my dyno, it'd make about 530 horsepower. So when we started running that uh super, that 525 super series with the LS3, the Dirt Late model deal, uh, we brought it up there and Jay's like, I really want to dyno one of those. He said, If you'll bring it up here, he said, Man, I'll tune it with you, Cobra, and get everything ready for you. So we took it up there with the MSD box because we had to run a program deal, the whole deal. And uh we got it hot and the first real dyno pull he did, he turned around and looked at me, he said, This will make one hell of a modified motor. He said, Man, if you could ever get this thing approved, he said, I'm not saying you'd win a bunch of races with it. He said, Those would be very respectable numbers. He said, Torque and horsepower numbers on this thing with that 750 cobrator. He said, This is a bad to the bone piece. And I think then they were 10,995 or whatever, you know, not even real money for modified motors by all.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Well, that's a little bit like the progressive. Listen, I was uh against the spec engine stuff. When Smart started, I was a built motor guy.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

I recall.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Yeah, I was allowed.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

I was I was at that meeting also.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Yeah, um, I wanted it to stay Bowman Gray rules, but it didn't, right? Yeah, it didn't do that. Um, I just felt like that's where that series um was focused as far as its main competitors. Obviously, now there's a lot of guys coming from the north, and that's awesome. But anyway, I was against it, no secret. But what I've seen now is I I'm a big enough man to admit, um, seeing that like the progressive, um, I like it because it is race engine parts. It's not a crate engine that's gonna come in your Camaro, okay? Um, but it's a durable race engine, and I'm man enough to admit, like at Bowman Grey, it would save us a fortune and level to play in field. Right. Um, I'm not saying that's ever gonna happen, but I'm man enough to admit um I was a little bit off there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

You know, as passionate as you were about the progressive, I was as passionate about the LS3, and I think the thing that everybody didn't realize was what else came with that from the great folks at Chevrolet and what they were willing to do for the series. And I don't fault Chris for doing what Chris did in the way that they went. Gracious, look at the series where how many years deep in this evolution of smart modified racing? Full fields just did this King of the Modified's deal. I mean, kudos to that guy. I didn't know Chris prior to the to the you know the reincarnation of Smart. What a heck of a job he's done with it, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Oh, he does phenomenal. I was kind of there in the beginning uh with Bert. Um, they were nice enough to bring me along. And at that point, I worked for Smart Chevrolet and they helped put some money up to get the thing going. So I was really familiar in the beginning. And and again, Chris has taken it. I don't think any of us sitting down to SNR that day in that meeting um probably thought we'd have a king in a modified race, right? No, 20 grand to win. Crazy. I don't think we were thinking about that.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

No, no, and it's great to see so many new people have shown up for this deal because now we have a backbone. You know, we uh we actually had Randy Myers on. And uh for those people who love Randy, great. For those people who hate Randy, that's fine too. Randy is a wealth of knowledge and history of modified racing. He's been there since the beginning, and we really talked about the evolution of the sport. And when you know, NASCAR came in, we started off great with 26, 28, 30 cars, and when it was done, we had six. Right. And for all practical purposes, it squished tour racing in the south. So I think we had been dormant long enough. Man, the timing was right. Chris struck at the right time with the right group of people. He he wanted to hear what you guys had to say. He was passionate about it, the whole deal, and man, like what's going on now is just freaking awesome. I think everybody, I mean, people compare it to ROC, people compare it to Monaco, Tri-Track, all the stuff that's going on. You know, NASCAR within modified tours always gonna be the king. It is what it is. Sure. Uh, but for all practical purposes, it's probably the best thing we've ever had in the South.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

Oh, I would agree with that. Um, I was a kid in the heyday of the first rendition of SMART. Um, but it it seemed great as a kid, right? But yeah, as you mentioned, it it it kind of got sucked up by NASCAR, and um that just didn't seem to work down here for. So, yeah, no doubt. It's the best thing we've had that I've seen.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

You know, the smart deal is I remembered, I was fortunate enough to run 020304. Um what I remember about smart racing was if you could finish top 15, you could kind of pay the bill for the day. Right. Um tires were six hundred dollars a set. I know they're far cry from that now. The tires were six hundred dollars a set, racing gas was three fifty a gallon. There's a lot of things that have changed, but I think it only paid us$2,850 to win. It wasn't even real money to win. Right. Polls$100. Um, but if you finished, I want to say it was 16th or 17th, was in your mind a breakeven day. It wasn't, of course, but it was kind of a breakeven day. Now, unfortunately, it does take that$5,000 purse. It does take that getting into that$1,200,015,000,$1,800 to make it feel like you've had some kind of stuff. And everything has gotten more expensive. 2003, I built a brand spanking new Troyer modified, newest, latest, greatest Labani power then, because Fred Terza was there and I had$80,000 tied up in a car. Sure. Which was, I mean, I barely paid much more than that for my first home. And uh at least you had your priorities straight. Oh, dude. Absolutely, man. 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. Yeah, I mean, I spent$80 or so thousand dollars on that, and we're racing for$2,800 or$2,200, or maybe it was$1850. I don't remember what it was, but it almost made you feel like it was okay. I don't think that today you could build a brand new modified any brand with a spec, not the progressive, but with a spec, which is the current engine of choice, latest, greatest. Could you do it for$125,$130? If you had no deals, if you had to buy it all retail.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

So I think if you're um like myself, a racer, that'd probably be the the number. But uh if you're like a lot where you're having somebody you're paying somebody to put together, I don't know if you could do it for that or not. You know, change so much as far as it pertains to that.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Yeah, 150 probably wouldn't be unrealistic. I wouldn't think. And tires are what,$800 a set now? I mean, just all the pieces that go with that. So it's definitely not a poor man's sport, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

We're all guilty of, or I can only speak for myself, I'm guilty of rationalizing, okay, this is the amount I'm comfortable with, and obviously each year it goes up. Sure. I just heard maybe the tires are going up at the stadium, and I I said to Danny Pro's, good friend of mine, one of the few companies. Flying tacos. I love my Danny Pro's, right? Shout out to Danny. But I said to him, I said, man, if tires get to be a grand a week, I'm gonna do something else. You know, that's what I told him, and he was quiet because he was thinking his head, you're full of crap.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

You ain't gonna do nothing different.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

But that's what I said.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

How many times have you been never coming back? How many times have you done it?

SPEAKER_03 40:08

Man, I don't know. There's probably been a few. I took my break um after Sportsman and went and ran my other tracks. I've not been that guy. I I try not to say I'm quitting. Yeah, because somebody, my wife supports my racing and my daughter, they're right there with me. But I can't imagine that Eileen would if I if I promised I was quitting, she might hold me to it.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

She holds your feet to the fire, yeah. Yeah, I've I have uh I have quit and sold out, we know of five times for sure. I'm sure it'll happen again. I got two kids over there this year. Well, I got Jim, not a kid. Sure. And then I got a kid for us in the uh street stock car this year, and I'm sure something's gonna happen this year. Jim, great guy, one of my best friends. We've all known Jim, what, 30 plus years? Very respectful. Gentleman Jim. Yep. He never wrecked nobody. Everybody loves Jim. To me, here there's only two guys in my mind that could win and nobody boo them ever. Mitch Gales, Jim Shop. I was gonna say Mitch. Yeah, Mitch and Jim. Mitch Jim and Mitch Gales, uh, Victory Lane pitcher over there signed. Those are probably the only two guys I could think of. I'd say you'd probably be one too. Be like, Daniel Beatson got him one, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:09

Somebody would be upset.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, I don't I don't know that they would, but uh, and then I've got this young kid who's won literally 500 plus go-kart races. He's chill, he loves Jesus. Uh he came over last year and practiced the car, ran the same lap times Jim did. Identical. Right. Never driven anything with a clutch in his life. First practice, got into second practice, he went three tenths quicker than Jim. Jim said, Y'all probably let him drive that thing. I was like, not yet, not yet. And he said, Can we make it faster? I was like, Yeah, we can actually. So uh with that one, I'll probably be in some issue this year. I ain't never coming back here, but uh, I'll be back the next week.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

Listen, I'm a nice guy, but there's there's a few out there. We've had our times through the years. Yeah, it does happen. I'm not quite on the gym or Mitch level there.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yeah, no, you're getting close though, man. You're getting close. You know, some people would argue Randy Butner too, but Randy got spicy here the last couple years, man. I mean he's fast, but he gets spicy.

SPEAKER_03 42:06

My Randy Butner story is I've learned Randy all my life. Dad worked with him, and I've just known him forever, and he's a great guy. But when we first got a Bonafi, we went and ran Ace. And um they were really good at Ace. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

So at that time, uh Brad Allen was running the track and they were talking about changing rules. So I was told I could run a dry sump as long as it was still head. All right. So I show up with it. Uh Corey had built the engine, it'd run.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

I bet.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

So there we are, we're running second. Uh I think it was the first night there. Now Brian King was they said he was out there with us. I couldn't see him.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Different time zone.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Yeah, yeah. But there I am doing my deal. And we had a caution late. And man, I got jacked up getting into one and uh finished fifth or sixth. And Butner finished second. So I said, Man, Randy, what happened? He said, Man, they was all behind me just shoving me out. You know, I'm sorry, buddy. Okay. I looked at that video later. That's no show. But no, I could. Me and Randy raced quite a bit together at the stadium, probably as much as would anybody. And he's a great guy.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

Yeah, absolutely. Been doing it forever, and he's what, 66, 67 years old now?

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Gotta be about right.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

And won a race or two last year. So yeah, he's still pretty sportified. Him and Chris Fleming and Lee Jeffries, they don't lose a drop. Somebody said uh old racers never die, they just smell that way.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

So yeah, yeah, yeah. Tough I love racing with all those guys. Good racers. Yeah, good deal.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

So uh this will be how many years in the modified now?

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Listen, uh, I think I've run this would be my eighth year, I think it's right, eighth, ninth, something like that. I think I've run four full time and then a lot of part-time.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Sure. Yeah, so uh business, obviously, family, got a daughter. I hear she's into horses too. She is, man. I mean, what's worse than race? Tell me about it. Yeah, let's hear about it. Yeah, yeah. Let's those horses, man. Uh my kid, same same program.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

Yeah. Love my daughter, right? Wouldn't trade her for nothing in the world, but Yeah, she uh she's wanted a horse and she could say horse. Yeah. And my dad fixed me up by telling her he was gonna get her one. Fantastic. Okay. Okay. So I finally decided I'm gonna do the right thing and get her this horse. So we cleared land during COVID. We couldn't race. Yeah. So a friend of mine lawned me a bulldozer and I do what any racer would do, and that's learn how to drive it. There you go. Cleared land. So made pasture, you know, we did it all. Barned a post, pulled all the wire. But anyway, bought her a horse uh last year for her birthday.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

And what I've learned is I mentioned having taken time off through racing, right? And I explained this to Avery, that's my daughter. And um, I said, you know, Avery, there's been times I couldn't afford to race, or you were born and there was other things. I said, so I could just sit it in the garage and it cost zero. That's right. What I've learned is old old Ben never stops.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

No, he don't care. Uh-uh. He has to get shoes every six weeks. He's gonna eat twice a day, he's gonna poop that stall up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I got five of those hay recyclers at my place.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

So we got two haymaker or recyclers there for sure, and that's uh gracious plenty.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

What kind of riding do we do?

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Um, she rides English saddle. Um I would love to tell you a lot more in detail, but she rides English saddle, and I used to kind of laugh and not think it was anything to it. So she gets Ben home. Ben's from England, and he's a big horse. Uh I don't know. He's tall, taller than me.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

Does he nay with a funny accent? No, he's pretty much he's he's fixed that.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

But anyway, he's a big horse. Long and short, I'm I'm gonna get on and ride this thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

You're gonna show her how to do it.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

I rode him about six feet in that little tiny saddle. I'm like, hey, get me down off here. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

It's not as not as fun as it looks, is it?

SPEAKER_03 45:34

No, but yeah, she rides English. Um, she's considering some jumping stuff coming up, but uh I think she just loves the horse, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Uh, any interest for her in car racing at all?

SPEAKER_03 45:45

You know, she's been a hard no. I bought her a go-kart as a kid, like a racing one, and and uh pushed it on her and just wasn't her thing. But over the last few years, I've seen the fire in her a little bit, right? Situations we lost a race uh a couple years ago. It wasn't a very fun situation with a guy, and uh she was very fiery, right? Oh so now she's uh she's she's gone from a no to maybe to now she says yes, I'll race. Um, but I'm gonna wreck everybody. So that's where she's gonna be. Awesome. Um anyway, I I've considered whether to put a crate engine in a modified and let her get her feet wet, or now these um uh crown vic are coming up. Crown Vic's awesome. So in the next year, I'm gonna put her in something. She'll be 16 next month. Really? Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

I can't believe she's grown that fast.

SPEAKER_03 46:29

I know, right? It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Yes, yeah, yeah. She's a great kid.

SPEAKER_03 46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Crown Vic might be fun though, man. Right.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

I can ride shotgun.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

You could, you could put two seats in there. I don't know that I'd want to do that, but yeah, um, we've seen a lot of that, like uh Bentley Black. He's a young kid. Yeah. Been doing really well. Tony Sun, right? Tony Sun, yeah. The locals, local hero, man, kids winning all kinds of good stuff. Appears that those things are still right now, they're still fairly affordable to build. They just haven't figured out how to cheat them correctly yet, but I'm sure it's coming.

SPEAKER_03 47:00

So the kid in me sees them as a blunderbus. Yeah. You guys are in around the stadium. And uh the eraser in me is the problem because I was talking to Lee Stimpson about building one, and I'm like, he, you know, we could shorten this and we can move that.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

Yeah, so that's what ruins it. But yeah, you're exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Yeah, you and I are the problem. We're like, how do we make this do that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man, the Crown Vic thing might be a lot of fun, actually. Well, we'll be looking forward to that. I tried to get my kid, and every time it would happen, she was sick or had a horse event or whatever. And I in retrospect, I I I kind of thank God that she didn't do that because uh business is good, life is good. And at this point, if my kid on a scale of one to ten were just a level five driver, how many race cars would I own? Oh many haulers, a lot, three full-time shop guys, we'd be going all the way, even though we're not going all the way. So I'm thankful. And now with her business, man, she just she'd rather work than rodeo anymore. So you know what? It don't hurt my feelings a bit.

SPEAKER_03 47:55

I think we're both big enough guys to admit um, you know, what's our passion doesn't necessarily mean it's theirs.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

It's hard to see that as a younger man, though. I will say that. It's like uh, man, I want them to do this. And I think too many times we push things on our kids, our families. You should try it, you should try it, you should try it. Man, you know, here's the thing about it. You know, everybody don't like broccoli, right? You know, that's the unfortunate thing. I like broccoli. I mean, my kid don't like broccoli, it's okay. I mean, but there was a time in my life where you're right, you better eat broccoli because it's what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

So for me, what was hard was we'd go to these horse shows before she owned her own horse and she would ride. And I I don't know horses, but I could see that we were outhorsed. We were outhorsed, right? Uh I was trying to find a judge to pay off. But anyway, um I said to her, I said, Avery, you know, and race it, I could get you there. Yeah, I can't get you to cup. But my point is if we're gonna go go kart racing, I know the guy over in Wanna Cove to call, we're gonna have the tires, right?

SPEAKER_00 48:49

We're gonna have the stuff, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

And if you want to go, I've paid my dues enough in this world that I can get you where you need to be. I said, we can circumvent all this stuff that I can't help you with. But yeah, she's as passionate about that as I have ever been about cars or racing. And it's a little scary because I can see it. Like she eats, sleeps, breathes it. So I know there's probably not much chance of me getting out of this.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

Hey, that's perfectly okay. What I found horses did is it kept my kid straight A students, first kid in the church doors. She did mission work. She's turned out to be a kind human, she knows how to take care of things. I don't think it's uh I don't think it's a bad thing at all.

SPEAKER_03 49:23

Kids are so special, and uh, I do feel bad. It's ended up with another uh kid for my wife to take care of. She's got me, Avery, and now two horses. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

It just happens, it's that way.

SPEAKER_03 49:34

It does happen. But I will say this, you talk about kids and you mention church and all. Um anybody out there that knows me, I again I try to be a great guy. Certainly there's a temper in there, right? All of us. Right. So we're working along and uh putting up fence, and I don't know what I did, but Avery got to where she called it four-letter farm. Because inevitably, in the course of the day, something happened, I'd lose my marbles, right? And uh so time goes on and she's working, and uh she gets mad and she doesn't say what I would have said, but I see the anger in there. I said, Hey Avery, don't let yourself go there, you know, right? I was like, because once you get there, you do some stuff you regret. And I'll never forget she looked at me and she said, Daddy, I got mad, but I didn't sin. Boy, you're talking about making you feel about this big. Oh man. Right? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty. She's seen the racing, she's seen it all.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

Four-letter farm. Have you got an arch over the driveway now that says four-letter farm?

SPEAKER_03 50:25

You know, back before she had the horses, she wanted a sign in the the racer in me. I said, What do you think about Race Hill Farm?

SPEAKER_00 50:31

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

So we have that sign somewhere. We've never hung it up. Um, but yeah, four-letter farm would probably fit us a little better.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

It'll be more applicable. Let me just say, all things with horses will absolutely uh you can you can invent cuss words because they are right, yeah. They are definitely tough.

SPEAKER_03 50:48

We got one that just wants to die all the time. Like it you look at her wrong when she's laying down, you got to call the vet.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Oh, yeah, it's not an event. See, you should have just been a large animal vet. Well, that's what she says she's gonna be. Yeah, well, there you go, man. Yeah, man. Uh foster and pursue that. Let her do her thing. Like, say, my kid got her first horse when she was 10. She's 22 now, and there is no looking back, dude.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

Oh, I enjoy watching her on the social media with the rocket donkey. Yeah, I love watching that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

Yeah, she has she's uh she we may be related, I don't know. Yeah, right. People tell our time it's like you cannot deny who your dad is. Your mom, I don't know, but your dad, yeah, you definitely can't deny that for sure, for sure. Well, Daniel, uh, is there anything? How do we find out more about Legendary Garage? Yeah. If people want to get in touch with you guys, talk about your social media, talk about your website, phone numbers, location. If these guys want to know, man, I need to get my car finished up. I want to start a project, do a project, this, that, and the other. Also, one of the things you didn't mention, you are an incredible resource for knowing what is for sale. Pretty much, if a guy's looking for something that's real, especially Mopar, Daniel Beeson knows where it's at. How do we find out more to get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_03 51:56

Yeah. So um uh to that, real quick, we're we're getting ready to start up the Legendary Reserve, which is gonna be um, I'll stop short of saying classic, but specialty car sales.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:06

So from that Chevelle up to a Foxbody Mustang and everything in between. Um, so that's getting ready to come along, and you'll be able to find that along with everything else on all the major social media platforms. Awesome. I'm old school, so I'm a Facebook guy. Yeah, um, but we're on Instagram, we're on all the other places, of course, the website, uh the legendary garage.com. And um, my phone number is on any of that stuff. I'm easy to get a hold of. Um, the racing world knows where to find me most Saturday nights. But yeah, um, just look at us there on any of the social media sites and you can get right to us. And and that's one thing I feel like we try to do a really good job with. Um, try to keep everybody updated with what we're doing in the shop, whether it's their project or someone else's. But we we try to do a really good job around that. I feel like that's something that a lot of smaller shops miss out on and and the world really likes to see what you're doing. But yeah, so any of the social media sites, um, and uh if not, come on down to 311 Branson Mill Road if you're in the triad area and come check out the Petty Museum. You might see the king, but if not, you can certainly get to tour and and hear all about the different buildings and how they got there. And we'll even go out back and show you the old uh Dodge cab overhauler still left back there. I I keep trying to buy it, but it's not for sale. But there's still some history around there. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

And you guys are open what days and hours?

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Yep, so we're open Monday through Friday, 7:30 to 5:30. Um, by appointment on the weekends. Uh, but we have lots of events there. Actually, this weekend We just did a big event. We did, and this coming weekend is Petty Fest, and we're gonna have the shop open um so you can kill two birds and one stone. It's gonna be all things petty like a family reunion, and then we're gonna have everything open, a lot of the crew there showing everything off so you can come see the shop and see some cool cars too. Uh probably three, four hundred show cars. So um, if you follow us on the social media, you'll see uh we do about four shows a year there through the legendary garage and then um fundraisers through the triad honor flight. We try to do a lot of giving back to the to the triad. Um, but yeah, follow us on all the social media platforms and you'll be right plugged in.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Awesome, man. Well, Daniel, thank you so much for taking the time out to come today. I know you guys just finished up with the big show and you got lots of projects going on down there, and and hope you guys wind up with way more projects. So uh really good to know you. Obviously, known you for a really long time. Our dad's kind of known each other for 50 plus years. We've got a chance to race with each other against each other. Um, really good to see what you and the guys have done there at Legendary. The place is impressive. You guys got some great skills and some good craftsmen down there. Obviously, I know Corey and I got a chance to meet your business partners the other week down there. So really excited to see what you guys have done and making that history part of the future, too, man. It's been really interesting to see.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

So yeah, really that's uh part of it that really drives me uh in conclusion here, Brad, is really wanting to make sure that uh 311 Branson Mill Road is a place to come for a long time. It's on the map. Yeah, that's right. It's on the map.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

Awesome, man. Well, guys, that's gonna do it for today's episode of Driving Fast and Taking Chances. Special thanks to our guest, Daniel Beeson with the Legendary Garage. You can also come out and cheer him on most Saturday nights at Bowman Gray. And at the end of the season, he's gonna be running some of the smart modified tour. Guys, that's gonna do it for today's episode. If you're looking for a new fire suit, helmet, gloves, or shoes, VelocityDash USA.com. Always have great deals, whether it's custom, whether it's off the rack, or whatever it may be. We've got you covered here at Velocity USA. As always, drive fast take it.