Frank The Tank | Frank Walks
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00:00There have been 15 drivers that have won more than 50 races in NASCAR's largest series.
00:15One of them is Denny Hamlin.
00:18Today we will be walking with Denny Hamlin.
00:20We are here at Martinsville.
00:22This is the oldest racetrack in NASCAR.
00:26It dates back to the inaugural NASCAR season 1949 and it is the only active track among
00:33the eight original tracks that is still run regularly on.
00:37This is actually the second NASCAR race I'm attending.
00:39I went to the Daytona in 2022.
00:41Of course, Daytona is a lot different than this race.
00:44That's a super track.
00:46This is tight, compact racing.
00:48The smallest track in the sport.
00:50Not only are we going to be walking with Denny Hamlin, we're going to be walking around
00:54the racetrack here in Martinsville.
00:56Let's see if he can keep up with me.
01:10Frank want to introduce the guest today?
01:12I said we've got Denny Hamlin here walking with him.
01:15I hear old and dude wipes first thing I think of is large.
01:18It's me, exactly.
01:19It's the only way I can stay fresh at this age.
01:22So what are we doing?
01:23We're going to walk down into the half-mile track, do a couple times around the track
01:25on one time depending on how conditioning is.
01:28Excellent.
01:29Let's do it.
01:30Let's go.
01:31You're coming into this weekend's race a winner.
01:34You won just six days ago.
01:38That's right.
01:39In Richmond.
01:41That's why I'm still doing this is I feel like every seven days I've got a shot to win.
01:45Well, you're off to a good start this season.
01:48We are.
01:49We've won really three of the first races, three of the first eight of the season, including
01:55the clash.
01:56So we're undefeated on the short tracks.
01:59And this Martinsville Speedway is the shortest track in NASCAR.
02:04You've won this race several times, haven't you?
02:06Yeah.
02:07We won this one five times.
02:08But you've also won Daytona three Daytona 500.
02:11We won three times.
02:14We have some kind of some big races, you know, like majors in golf.
02:19Daytona is one of them.
02:22You can argue Bristol Knight races.
02:23You got the Indy for the Brickyard 400, the Coca-Cola 600, which we won.
02:29And then the Southern 500 at Darlington is definitely a major and we won that three or
02:35four times.
02:36Right.
02:37I got to interject here.
02:38Did he jump the restart?
02:39It's a text out of history with that type of shit.
02:40Yeah.
02:41I'll take a look at the tape a couple thousand times.
02:42Yeah.
02:43You know, listen, it's like a move and pick.
02:45You can call it any time you want.
02:47Exactly.
02:48So you're one of 15 drivers to achieve 50 career wins on the large circuits.
02:59Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's I've avoided winning the championship somehow, but they've
03:07changed the format so many times that it really comes down to winning one race, which makes
03:11it pretty difficult.
03:13The sample size is pretty small.
03:15But you know, at this point in my career, you know, I'm trying to get to 60 wins before
03:19I retire.
03:20I think in a way it's we're chipping away.
03:24You know what I mean?
03:25So if we can keep on this, at least winning three or four races per season kind of pace,
03:30I think we're going to be.
03:31Well, I noticed that I noticed that you're one win away from tying Lee Petty.
03:38Yeah, that's a big one for me.
03:40I always kind of look at, you know, of course, you look at the the list of people that are
03:44in front of you on the win category and the names are starting to get greater and greater.
03:50Like, you know, big, big part of history for NASCAR to have Lee Petty one spot ahead of
03:55me.
03:56Hopefully, we change that this weekend because I look at 50 wins and I look at only 15 drivers
04:04have done it.
04:05And I look at some of the drivers that fell short, like Tony Stewart.
04:09Yeah.
04:10One short 49th.
04:12Yeah.
04:13I mean, Tony, to me, is one of the greatest, versatile drivers that we've ever seen.
04:21He's driven IndyCar and won, I mean, championships, moved over to NASCAR, won championships.
04:30That is extremely hard to do, because usually as a kid, when you figure out what path you're
04:36going to go in motorsports, you have to designate whether you're going to work to be a NASCAR
04:40driver or an IndyCar driver or an F1 driver.
04:44You can't, the techniques in which you use are so very different that it's hard to do
04:50both.
04:51And he is so talented that he was able to do both.
04:54Didn't he do Coca-Cola and Indy 500 in the same day?
04:58He did.
04:59There are very few that have done the double.
05:02That to me is insane.
05:03You're in a car for over a thousand miles during the day, and it's like, I mean, you
05:10got to get the flight, you got to make everything, everything's got to connect at the right time.
05:15I always marveled how Tony Stewart was able to do that.
05:18Yeah.
05:19He's just, he's gifted beyond any talent level I was ever granted with.
05:23But yeah, he's just, he's one of the NASCAR greats.
05:27Even him, you know, didn't get the 50 wins, so it just tells you how tough it is.
05:33I mean, being in there for four or five hours sometimes, that always seems like to be the
05:40toughest part.
05:41It's just like, and you're in there, the car, I guess, how hard is it to be in, to actually
05:50do the race?
05:51Is it, I mean, how young do you have to start to become a good racer?
05:56I started when I was eight years old in go-karts.
05:59That was kind of my start.
06:02If you look at other drivers like some of the young guys today, William Byron, for instance,
06:06didn't start until he was a teenager, and he started on iRacing.
06:10Well, back in my day when I was eight to 10 years old, I didn't have iRacing, so I had
06:15to go out and just do it in real life.
06:18That's the opportunity kids have nowadays that we didn't have is that, you know, racing
06:22is a very expensive business, and it costs a lot of money to do, right?
06:27Because if your kid wants to do it, you've got to go buy them a car, you have to replace
06:30the tires every week, if they blow the engine, if they wreck it, it costs money to replace
06:36it.
06:37Well, iRacing creates a platform to where you can do it online, and honestly, it is
06:42the best way that you can hone your skills virtually, you know, an NFL player can't go
06:48play Madden and get better at it, because they're just pressing buttons, but on a platform
06:54like iRacing, you're using, you know, your hands and your eye coordination and your feet
06:59and all those things equal making you better.
07:03I mean, that's the thing with NASCAR is, I mean, baseball, they have a little league,
07:09and then basketball, they have basketball camps.
07:11Football has touch football and tackle football, hockey, these players skate when they're four,
07:16but NASCAR, you really can't know it, it's like driving, except for the go-karts, until
07:22you're like 15, 16, and then you become a racer.
07:27All right, so you're a sports guy, where are you on this debate?
07:31Are athletes today, are they better than the ones 20 years ago?
07:37I don't think that's necessarily true.
07:38I know it's a hard comparison, but I believe athletes today, basketball players, I don't
07:44care what technique it is, football, basketball, and it's maybe an unpopular opinion, they're
07:50better today than they were 20 years ago, because they started early, they have more
07:55technology, more analytics, more things, they're more educated on how to be better today than
08:00they were back in the day.
08:02They had to just be naturally talented.
08:04Well, there's one guy, there's one guy who, I think, stands above them all, and if he
08:11was given the ability to play in today's sports science technology, he'd be superhuman, and
08:20I'm talking about your co-owner, Michael Jordan.
08:23Yes, 100%.
08:24And he has, what I loved about him, and watching him grow up, is that, yes, he did anything
08:32he could to be better than everyone else.
08:34We saw it with Kobe Bryant as well, these guys just outworked him.
08:38Burning desire.
08:39Now, given his work ethic, and the technology that you're saying is available today, 100%
08:47unstoppable.
08:48Especially, you look at how the rules have changed in sports over time.
08:54It's become softer.
08:55Yeah.
08:56100%, right?
08:57I think if Jordan played today, he'd average 50 points for his career.
09:01Yeah.
09:02I believe that.
09:04I mean, how did that get set up, you co-owning a team with Michael Jordan?
09:11It really was an accident.
09:15I met Michael Jordan at a Charlotte Hornets game.
09:18He was obviously sitting courtside with his team.
09:20This was in the early years of him owning it.
09:23I was a courtside season ticket holder, and I was going to the halfway break house or
09:29whatever during halftime.
09:32He had a security pull me aside and ask to meet me.
09:36Of course, I am completely starstruck.
09:40He gets my phone number, and then the second half of the game, he's asking me all these
09:43racing questions like, last week, why would you pit in this scenario versus just staying
09:50out?
09:51I'm like, wait a minute, this guy watches NASCAR?
09:54I was just blown away by it.
09:56It started a friendship that essentially led to a year later me saying, hey man, why
10:01don't you make my suit, my shoes, my gloves?
10:04He's like, done.
10:06He calls up the people at Nike and the Jordan brand.
10:08They start making all my gear.
10:11It just changed a lot of things.
10:13I think that that relationship that I built with him, that friendship, then turned into
10:19us playing golf together, doing things together, talking, racing together.
10:24I didn't realize that his mom and dad used to take him to the NASCAR races when he was
10:32a kid with his brothers and sisters.
10:34That's right, he went to Darlington, he went to Talladega, he went to Charlotte, a lot
10:42of the tracks that we go to still today.
10:45That grew his passion for racing.
10:47Basically, I was in the middle of COVID, kicking around some tires with some speculative team
10:53owners and I wanted to purchase a minority stake in a race team, but I wanted to control
11:00the competition, the business side of that team.
11:03I never was going to get the control I really wanted.
11:07It just so happens the rumor mill gets started and then there's a fake news article that
11:12comes out that says Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan are looking to purchase a stake in
11:16Richard Petty Racing.
11:17Well, that's fake news.
11:19I was doing it, but not him.
11:23I debated and so I sent him this article and I said, hey, it looks like we're going into
11:29business together.
11:30He says, ha ha, that's obviously fake news, but if you want to make it real news, let
11:34me know.
11:35Immediately, I stopped and I'm like, okay, what do I do now?
11:39What's my next move?
11:40I says, well, what do you mean?
11:42He says, well, are you going to be a team owner or not?
11:45I says, given the right situation, yes.
11:49He says, well, if you want a partner, let me know.
11:52I says, okay, when can you meet?
11:54I called up my agents.
11:56I says, hey, I need a business plan put together, how we're going to start a race team and I
12:01need it within 48 hours because I'm flying down to Florida to meet them.
12:04They work day and night, came up with the business plan, how we're going to make it
12:07work, showed it to him and he says, listen, I love it, but this has got to go through
12:13my people and that's going to take some time.
12:16For the next month and a half to two months, his group vetted it and looked it over and
12:21says, we're in.
12:22Wow.
12:23You have two talented drivers.
12:24You have notable racers.
12:27We have Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick driving the 23 and the 45.
12:33I love that too.
12:34I love that it's his numbers.
12:37It's certainly special to him.
12:39I love it personally as well.
12:41I'm glad those numbers were available, but yeah, we're a new team in the sense of most
12:47of the teams that are successful nowadays have been around for decades and decades.
12:51You run race one of the greatest teams.
12:53Yes.
12:54I'm with one of the best teams in Joe Gibbs racing.
12:57Them and Hendrick Motorsports honestly win the bulk of the races.
13:01It's amazing what Joe Gibbs has done because he's a hall of fame NFL coach with three Super
13:06Bowls and then he's now a successful race car owner.
13:13That tells you something about his character, right?
13:15If you were able to be a hall of fame coach and a hall of fame NASCAR team owner, it clearly
13:21means you're good with people and you know how to put the right people in the right places
13:24to succeed.
13:27That's very rare you see that, but I've worked with Joe enough to know that that's what his
13:31specialty is, is getting the most out of his people.
13:34Everyone always talks about the driver, the driver's the one who does all the driving
13:38of course, but the mechanics, the pit crew, how important are they to a successful team?
13:46Listen, there's only three things that are different in each car that you watch this
13:51weekend.
13:52It's the driver, it's the crew chief, and the pit crew.
13:57The pit crew are these amazing athletes that have probably performed in other sports.
14:05Maybe they didn't get the call in the NBA or the NFL or whatever it might be, but now
14:11they've got another avenue to participate in professional sports.
14:14They come and they try out.
14:16What we look for in our pit crew members is people with fast feet.
14:21Get those fast feet, fast hands.
14:22Fast hands too.
14:23Absolutely.
14:24You've got to get those tires, you've got to get those chains in.
14:25That's it.
14:27To do a pit stop in nine seconds, it's really hard to do, right?
14:30It's amazing.
14:31I would never be able to do anything like that.
14:34The dexterity, pumping the gas, that thing you have to peel off the windshield too, right?
14:40The shield.
14:41Yeah.
14:42I mean, everyone has such a crucial role to a pit stop, so again, the driver, the pit
14:47crew, and the crew chief are the three main things that make a team fast or slow on any
14:53given weekend.
14:54Can I ask you a question Denny?
14:55Yeah.
14:56I remember when you had that last pit, that was, I think, nine seconds.
14:58I mean, I was counting it down while we were on.
15:01Can you tell while you're in the car that these guys are killing it this time?
15:04You have that mental clock knowing that between 10.3 and 9.3 seconds even?
15:09Well, 100%.
15:10I knew when they dropped the jack on the right side after three and a half seconds, because
15:14we do have an internal clock, but I knew we were on a heater at that point.
15:18That was awesome.
15:19At that point, I'm just thinking, do not stall this fucking car and ruin everything, the
15:25advantage that they just got me.
15:26So it's fair to say they didn't win the race for you, but they certainly put you in a position
15:30to win the race.
15:31I mean, they put me in a position to, yes, I won the race, but I actually think they
15:37won me the race, right?
15:38I mean, when you control the restart, it gives you such an advantage, especially when you
15:43only got two laps to try to overtake the leader.
15:47It's almost impossible.
15:48Now, do you like the way they finish races now?
15:53I do.
15:54I mean, they've certainly changed formats for many, many years in NASCAR, trying to
15:59make it more exciting.
16:00I think ending race is under caution.
16:03Nobody wants to see that.
16:04Nobody wants to see that.
16:05No one wants to see that, right?
16:06So they at least finish it under green and they used to have where it was, they limited
16:11the amount of attempts.
16:12Now it's just unlimited.
16:14Which I like.
16:15What about the stages?
16:16You know, I like the stages and we are still an entertainment business.
16:22We have to understand that while maybe the purists don't like it because you're artificially
16:27stopping the race and bunching the field back up, we have TV partners that need to get commercials
16:32in.
16:33Yeah.
16:34That does help.
16:35The proof in the data shows that if you have a long green flag run to start the race, less
16:39people start tuning in, you know?
16:41So they want to see the restart.
16:43So I think the stage breaks are good.
16:45We at least can plan around them.
16:48We used to get some cautions that were very questionable because they need a damn TV break.
16:53So I think at least where you know they're going to fall seems to be a lot better.
16:58Now, of course, the one thing that's eluded you is the series championship.
17:02You've come very close so many times.
17:04What about the format?
17:05How it's run now?
17:07I don't love it.
17:08I just think that the reason I don't love it coming down to one race is that racing
17:16is a sport where luck is involved.
17:18And it's not, you know, luck is a very loose term that people use.
17:23But when you're competing in a championship in any other sport, it's one on one.
17:28Your team versus the other team.
17:29The difference in NASCAR is it's one against three, but there's 33 other guys out there
17:35that can completely screw up your day.
17:38Yeah.
17:39I mean, I was watching the Daytona this year and it was direct that like Joey Logano was
17:45like looking like he was having a great day, like a multiple car pileup.
17:52He just couldn't avoid it.
17:54So he didn't make the mistake someone else did that wasn't even part of the championship.
17:58No, it was like a lapped car spun into another car and like caused a domino, just like changed
18:06the whole race.
18:07Yeah.
18:08And I mean, I've been in those scenarios, I think in 2019 or 2020, I forget which year
18:13it was, but you know, it's me and Truex leading the race and it's going to come down to us.
18:19And then somebody running 32nd wrecked calls the caution.
18:26Kyle Larson's pit crew gets about P1 in the pits, Kyle Larson wins the championship.
18:30So it's, I don't know, to me, it's a little bit Mickey Mouse, but it's the way it is.
18:36We all know what it is.
18:38I prefer they have a championship round.
18:41They have rounds.
18:42I like the championship round.
18:44Because there's a three race round when you have 16 cars, then they cut it to 12 to eight
18:48to four.
18:49Why don't we have a championship round?
18:52Challenge these drivers at multiple different racetracks.
18:55I mean, I don't care if you put a road course in the championship round, at least you're
19:00crowning a champion off a larger sample size.
19:03No doctor puts out a new fix for something without testing it over a large sample size.
19:12So why do we have our championship coming down to one race where luck can be involved?
19:17And like I said, you're going to wreck in your career.
19:22Absolutely.
19:23As a matter of fact, nobody could avoid it.
19:26It happens, but you just got to find a way to get around it.
19:30And what's the scariest wreck you've ever been in?
19:33The scariest one by far for me was California 2013.
19:38I broke my spine during that wreck.
19:41I remember the pain I felt, honestly, until they gave me meds when I got in the helicopter.
19:46It was excruciating.
19:48I could not breathe.
19:49It was just really, really bad.
19:51And so that's the one that, and it messed me up for a year.
19:55I couldn't feel the car.
19:57The difference in good race car drivers, great race car drivers is they've got something
20:01in their ass that makes them feel the car sliding before it actually starts sliding.
20:07And so that kind of messed me up a little bit in my feel.
20:10So when you have back problems, you don't have that level that tells you you're on the
20:14edge.
20:15And so I spent a year trying to recover from that.
20:18And so that by far was the best.
20:20Now here are the cars.
20:23It's amazing.
20:24They've changed them over the years.
20:26I mean, now they have the car, basically, it just leveled the whole field.
20:31Yes.
20:32So we used to design these cars from top to bottom.
20:35We of course had parameters in which we need to keep it in the box.
20:41But now all these cars are essentially, to make it in layman's terms, it's a 200 piece
20:47Lego set that you put it together and you can put it together any way you want to.
20:52But it's, you all have to run the exact same parts.
20:56Now there are some parts that the team still manufacture and there's a lot of brackets
21:01and dashes and things like that.
21:03But anything performance related, every one of these cars are exactly the same.
21:08So basically, even though it says Chevy or Ford or Toyota, it's all the same car.
21:14Yeah.
21:15So what the new rules with the bodies of these cars and why you see that they look so different
21:19is that they actually have a box in which aerodynamically they have to fit into.
21:24So when the Toyotas develop a new Camry XSC like they did this year, we still could not
21:33exceed the box that the Chevy was in or the Ford was in.
21:37So while we could improve it slightly, we're all still in such a small box that although
21:44the cars look different on the outside, they're basically the same.
21:51I mean, I just, the sound of the cars.
21:55The first time I went to a race was a couple years ago, I went to the Daytona.
21:58And the day before, when the Xfinity race was going on, we were just outside going shopping
22:05like across the street from the shores there.
22:08And you could hear the cars, you could actually hear them for miles.
22:14It sounded that roar.
22:17That's what NASCAR racing is, right?
22:19And that's something that made me want to become a NASCAR driver when I was five years
22:25old.
22:26I went to a race at Richmond.
22:27My parents have had season tickets there now for almost 40 years.
22:32But the moment I felt the cars rumbling by and I smelled the tires and fuel, I was instantly
22:39hooked and I wanted to be a race car driver.
22:42Just look at the cars.
22:44It's awesome.
22:45It's just like...
22:46These are precision machines.
22:48I said this before, it's like we're racing Lambos, but you look at these cars, they're
22:53$300,000 cars, at least, each one of them.
22:56So these cars definitely have quite a bit of technology.
23:00So not just the crew chiefs, but the day-to-day mechanics on it, the best mechanics in the
23:05world, I imagine.
23:06Yeah.
23:07I mean, a lot of these crew members come from the local short track ranks, which is why
23:10NASCAR Roots is so important to us, is developing not only race car drivers, but mechanics.
23:17So a lot of these guys have been in motor racing for decades and they finally just worked
23:22their way up to the Cup Series.
23:24But of course, the one thing about, we're in Martinsville, which is the oldest track,
23:29the only track that continually, the entire history of NASCAR, now over 75 years, of course
23:35you want to go on to the 75th team, got to mention that.
23:40But they have the 75th anniversary, they've been racing here since 1949, since the very
23:46beginning of NASCAR.
23:47And it's the last one that's a regular series event.
23:51Yeah, this is one of the best racetracks that is on the NASCAR Circus.
23:55It's independently owned, you know, Clay Earles, Clay Campbell, Clay Earles, I think, founded
24:00it.
24:01Clay Campbell runs it.
24:04And so we get to race here.
24:06Before I made it to NASCAR, I was actually racing here at Martinsville once a year for
24:10the big light model race.
24:11And so it's just a sweetheart track.
24:14It's, you know, are we in a big city?
24:16No.
24:17But it's, you know, these are our race fans.
24:19The roots of NASCAR.
24:20This is the roots.
24:21Yeah, the whole roots of NASCAR, the beginnings of NASCAR.
24:24It's good that they at least still have, I mean, now you go to Phoenix, Las Vegas, all
24:30the biggest cities in the world, the Miamis, I mean, you're everywhere.
24:36But it's good to keep these old tracks, these old places around.
24:41There's a place in our schedule, there always should be a place in our schedule for these
24:44types of tracks.
24:45And while we want to keep things new and fresh and we have, you know, big sponsors that come
24:52that love to sit in suites and all that stuff, you still got to have these sweet heart tracks
24:58for sure.
24:59Now besides racing and owning a team, are there any charitable endeavors that you're
25:08involved with and trying to help build this sport, build a sport beyond this and just
25:12help out in general?
25:14Yeah, I mean, we had the Denny Hamlin Foundation that we started about 15 years ago.
25:21What the main benefactor of that is cystic fibrosis.
25:25You know, I didn't understand back in the day when my cousin was taking all these meds
25:31and had all these inhalers and all these things that he had.
25:34I never understood why and what was wrong with him because from the outside he looked
25:39very normal.
25:41And so I got educated a little bit about cystic fibrosis and they have just come such a long
25:47way in their research and, you know, the life expectancy for someone with cystic fibrosis
25:53has went from, you know, a late teenager to my cousin's now my age in his forties.
26:01So it's, you know, that because, so I know that all the money that I've given cystic
26:06fibrosis for their research, it's working, right?
26:09And so we're letting people live longer.
26:12Another guest I'm going to be walking with very soon is Boomer Esiason, who has done
26:20tremendous work for cystic fibrosis because his son got diagnosed with that when he was
26:26very young, he was like three.
26:29Yeah, my cousin has had a double lung transplant and it was very successful.
26:34So I mean, these guys are living normal lives now.
26:37Yeah, I believe Boomer's son has his own family and he's like a high school coach and high
26:43school gym teacher.
26:45So it's amazing.
26:46That was 30 years ago that Boomer like announced his son has this condition and he's like really
26:52like head first into it.
26:57So where are you at with your journey right now?
26:59Well, I've been doing it now six months.
27:02This is a walk 191, no 192, 192 and I've lost 50 pounds since August.
27:16That's amazing.
27:17I mean, the heaviest I ever was was over 500 in 2016 and I've gone up and down between
27:23360 and 450 for the last five years.
27:29So now I'm finally down to 333, lowest I've been in years.
27:36I've gone from a size 69 belt to this size 50, being able to squeeze into 56.
27:44Have the walks gotten easier?
27:45Yes, they have.
27:47I did a walk in Northern Virginia on a historic battlefield, Civil War battlefield, and a
27:56lot of hills and I probably couldn't have done that three months ago.
28:01That's awesome.
28:02What was the best advice you ever have been given on it?
28:07Don't stop.
28:08Just keep going.
28:09I mean, that's the way to do it.
28:13When you got full momentum, you're going, you're charging.
28:17You're going to have days where you're like, I don't want to do it today, right?
28:20I mean, that's always.
28:21I had a day where I had a hundred and two fever and I walked.
28:27I walked to a week-long sinus infection, which was, yeah, that'll, that'll take all your
28:34breath out right there.
28:36That wiped me out, that sinus infection.
28:41And it's been a brutal winter up in New York this year.
28:44Not so much snow, but rainy, cold.
28:48I mean, this week it was in the forties.
28:51I had a couple of earthquakes thrown in there in Frankfurt.
28:56I hear that you have a Netflix show starting up.
28:59Yeah, we, we, we shot our first season of Netflix last year, last, last playoffs actually.
29:06And yeah, I mean, I was heavily a part of that for sure.
29:10People got to see some insiders, kind of how my week goes and, you know, kind of the balance
29:15that I've got between being kind of a hard knocks for NASCAR.
29:18Basically that's what it is.
29:19Right.
29:21I think they did a really good job of kind of educating your avid fans about some things,
29:27the personalities of the sport, because ultimately you need star power to continue to grow your
29:33sport.
29:34It is about the drivers in the end, right?
29:36I mean, no one's going to come watch these, these races if there's no, if the stars are
29:41not in it.
29:42So what was the name of the show?
29:44It's a NASCAR full speed.
29:47It's on Netflix.
29:48It came out late this winter and people can still go check it out.
29:52So it's, I think it's just a great run through the playoffs.
29:56It's a 10 week kind of a show of, you know, how they crown the champion in NASCAR.
30:01Now, to be honest with you in New York, NASCAR is kind of like not really a big thing.
30:07It's that's, so I've had my teams that I've never really been fully into NASCAR.
30:12I mean, my team's tortured me, but let me put it this way, being a Mets fan is like
30:16having your heart ripped out of your chest on a daily basis.
30:19It's like the scene from Indiana Jones where the guy reaches into your chest, pulls out
30:25the heart and is laughing.
30:26That's what the Mets do to me.
30:28So where does your allegiance, let me ask you a hypothetical, the Dolphins, the Devils
30:36and the Mets all play at the same time on the same day.
30:40Where's your priority lie?
30:41Well, it probably had to be Dolphins because it's the NFL season, so compact and short.
30:47Okay.
30:48And then Mets will probably be second, Devils third, just the overlap in baseball and hockey
30:54isn't that much.
30:56But if it's a Devils playoff game, I'll choose that over the Mets.
30:59And if it's a Mets playoff game, I'll choose that over the Devils.
31:02Let me ask you this, that are you a believer that Tua is going to take you to the promised
31:05land?
31:06I don't know, but there's nobody out there that's better right now.
31:09Right.
31:10There's nobody that's available.
31:11There's nobody that the Dolphins can get who's better.
31:14Do you have your choice, Tua or Dak Prescott?
31:20I might stick with Tua.
31:22I might stick with Tua.
31:23Really?
31:24Yeah.
31:25All right.
31:26I might stick with Tua.
31:27Just because he's homegrown, we drafted him.
31:34I mean, Dak Prescott, he just seems, Tua's only had one chance under the spotlight, one.
31:41And it was a sub-dirty degree, below zero a day, with his entire team injured.
31:47That's fair.
31:48That's fair.
31:49So I can't judge him yet.
31:51I cannot judge him on that playoff loss.
31:56I recently switched to the Knicks from the Nets, the formerly New Jersey Nets.
32:03They died when they became Brooklyn.
32:07And I just cannot embrace Brooklyn.
32:10I just can't.
32:11So I tried.
32:12So I watch you watch these sporting events, and I watch you take your glasses and absolutely
32:18destroy them.
32:19Yeah.
32:20I'm guessing these, I mean, how many glasses have you gone through, or are these things
32:22just bulletproof, and like, toy glasses you get out of-
32:25I've got a whole bag of broken glasses.
32:27I'm thinking of selling them to some fans.
32:30I mean, I'd be giving them to fans.
32:34I got a bag, a shopping bag of broken glasses, and I'm glad that there's a certain glass
32:40company that exists.
32:42Yeah?
32:43I'll mention it, Zanny.
32:44I'm glad they exist.
32:46Maybe they can sponsor me.
32:51I'm more of a shady-raised guy.
32:53Just so you know, if you have no sunglass deal, Shady-raised actually has the cheapest
32:58polarized sunglasses.
33:00I know that you have a prescription.
33:02I do not.
33:04But you can tear them up, and guess what?
33:07You can also just get a free pair if you say you lost them or destroyed them because the
33:14Nets gave you another excruciating loss.
33:17Now which NASCAR team should I root for, and why?
33:23Oh, man.
33:24I mean, I'll take the bias out of it, right?
33:27Because the obvious answer I'm going to tell you is 23-11 because it's the team I own.
33:31I think that we do things a little differently.
33:35If you look at our cars, they're always a little different.
33:38We do a lot of collaborations with country music artists and all kinds of different things,
33:44right?
33:45We did one with the Star Wars last year.
33:46Oh, I like that.
33:47Yeah.
33:49If I had to take them out of the equation, I mean, I would say Joe Gibbs Racing because
33:53Joe Gibbs Racing is Joe Gibbs, and this is his family business.
34:00While you look at the Rick Hendricks and Roger Penskys that have been part of this sport
34:04for decades and decades and decades, this is more of a hobby for them.
34:10This is not their portfolio.
34:13They're car dealerships.
34:15These guys have got a lot going on other than the racing.
34:18Now, they're very passionate about them, absolutely, 100%.
34:22But Joe Gibbs Racing, this is all he does.
34:25He went from football to NASCAR racing.
34:27If you look in the front office, you're going to see a lot of the people, his kids, his
34:32grandkids.
34:33This is a family business for him, and it's all he does.
34:36I can tell you this, this guy leads by example.
34:39He's 80 years old, and I don't give a shit what day of the week it is, at 8 a.m. you'll
34:44see his car in the driveway at his race team.
34:47He's walking around the shop, and he's telling people, you know, what can I do to make you
34:52better?
34:53That's what I really love about him.
34:56This has been a lot of fun.
34:59Like I said, I don't know that much about racing.
35:01I'm a casual racing fan.
35:03Growing up, I, of course, was a fan of Dale Earnhardt, a Dale Earnhardt singer, I should
35:08say.
35:09I try to follow it from here and there.
35:12I might turn on a race during the season here and there, but I'm a baseball fan.
35:17I watch baseball.
35:18I watch football.
35:19So, I've never really gotten fully into NASCAR, especially since it's never been a big deal
35:23where I live.
35:24That's right.
35:25Yeah, the closest thing you've got to where you live is like, you know, Pocono or Watkins
35:30Glen.
35:31I mean, that's upstate though, so it's not in the city.
35:36That's why we went to Chicago last year, right?
35:38We brought the racing to the people.
35:40That's one of the things that NASCAR's really done over the last few years is start bringing
35:43the races into the cities itself.
35:46That way, people like yourself that don't get exposed to it, they do, and that hopefully
35:51changes their mind about it.
35:52Have you ever, has NASCAR ever flirted with the idea of maybe putting a race into New
35:57Jersey?
35:58I heard that back in, not too long ago, they were poking around Staten Island to build
36:05a racetrack.
36:06That would have been nice.
36:07Yeah.
36:08That's actually New York City.
36:09I don't know how they do it.
36:14Again, we were racing around the fountain in Chicago, so no telling.
36:17I mean, Staten Island is part of New York City.
36:22They sold it from New Jersey, just like they sold the Statue of Liberty from us.
36:27Well, I tell you what, this weekend I'm going to enjoy two races.
36:36I'm going to watch the Dude Wipes 250, the Cookout 400, and you know what?
36:42I think I'm going to make your team my team.
36:45I appreciate it.
36:46Thank you, Frank.
36:47Let's go.
36:48Thanks for the walk.
36:49Good luck to you on your journey.
36:50Well, thanks.
36:51Well, Frank, there's one thing I wanted to give you before you leave.
36:53I know you're going to do a lot of walking, so we got with the folks at Nike.
36:58We have the Forrest Gump waffle shoes here.
37:05Oh, nice.
37:06I mean, he ran across the country many, many times.
37:09So we got your size, and maybe you can make use of them in future walks, okay?
37:15Beautiful.
37:16Thanks.
37:17You're welcome.