roxo media house

0:14

[Music] all right welcome to fortitude everybody jw wilson brinton payne here with you uh

0:22

bringing you something really cool today welcome to the uh captex bank studio yes brinton i know you asked for money

0:29

sometimes i love to ask for money from people but usually in a bank you get to run around you have to file a bunch of

0:34

papers sign them with your forms sometimes you need a guy that actually will look at you in the face and see the

0:40

value in what you’re trying to borrow the money for and believe in you this guy these guys at captex bank uh

0:46

particularly um our friend over there mike yep yes big mike these guys do it the right way so i was with big mike

0:52

last night and it’s always good to see him around at places right what was he doing uh we were at jotez together was

0:57

he signing papers for anybody no he he looked right at me and run the eyes like whatever you need i got it for you i

1:03

mean that’s the guy there he is thank you mike thomas thank you captain x-men well brinton this gentleman was sitting

1:08

between us goes by the name of rob ramage which is a really badass name in itself but this guy is his title is the

1:15

general manager of texas motor speedway welcome to the show rob raymond honored to be here thank you so much for having

1:22

me i love it when people’s names like match the industry they’re in there’s like no better name than rammage

1:30

for a guy who’s running the nasty track so that’s great again welcome to welcome to the show thanks for being here how

1:36

fast did you drive getting here and which stock car did you drive getting here if we can dig in deeply i’ll give out the secret

1:43

it’s a real souped-up chevy suburban no numbers on the side and i can assure

1:49

you and to all the good nascar fans listening it was in excess of the speed limit

1:55

excellent we saw you fishtail in the parking lot oh yeah saw me burn out well done well done well you have been at tms

2:01

now for over 10 years about on 10 years right you come from a pretty cool background general counsel director of

2:07

governmental affairs and senior vice president of finance and compliance at tms prior to that you were an attorney

2:13

and you still are a practicing attorney correct yes what type of law did you practice and you’re still doing this to

2:19

some extent right yeah so i’ve been a lawyer since 92 seems like 100 years ago

2:26

and when i first started practicing law you know nobody lets you work on the most complicated

2:32

things when you’re a new lawyer maybe in y’all’s profession you’re not going to

2:37

interview uh dak prescott right out of school uh but maybe more in your career sure

2:43

someone will then let you go interview somebody like that so when i started off practicing it was primarily in texas

2:52

and it was representing companies primarily in very big injury and death cases

2:59

i represented a lot of law enforcement entities where police officers were being sued

3:08

allegations of excessive force wrongful shooting those kinds of things a lot of employment law defending

3:15

companies so like uh sexual harassment you know a whistleblower or whatever

3:22

and then my career progressed and then it was more very complex commercial litigation

3:29

uh representing celebrities representing some athletes um any drivers and is that how

3:37

some drivers yeah and some drivers a lot of pro rodeo cowboys some pga guys uh

3:44

stuff like that and then a lot of intellectual property and a lot of white-collar crime okay so that’s what i

3:51

did all across the united states uh can you based out of here based out

3:57

of dallas but would handle cases new york san francisco

4:02

miami chicago were you always a fan of the of the sport nascar i grew up with it okay

4:09

um so my dad uh raced cars when he was younger nice and

4:14

it was just as a small child my dad was a huge fan and so you’re always with your dad and

4:21

you’re always wanting to hang out with him and so i grew up going to races with my

4:27

dad and then every saturday sunday we would watch races on tv

4:34

and i can remember even being with my dad listening to races in the garage

4:41

on a sunday how many was this in dallas oklahoma okay and then so how many

4:46

tracks were in in place at that time there were no my gosh i mean there wasn’t as many as now

4:52

right there was not yeah um if i were to have to guess i would say

4:58

30 you know 40 something like that but the big ones were there like the talent oh yeah darlington so darlington south

5:05

carolina’s this weekend that’s an old historic track yeah um my company so we

5:12

own 10 race tracks and so my company just bought probably one of the most historic race tracks in

5:20

the united states north wilkesboro north carolina oh yeah and so we’re uh rehabbing that and

5:27

repurposing it and bringing back that great diamond

5:33

back to life so that’s exciting so you you you succeeded the legendary eddie

5:38

gossage uh who stepped down in june after 25 years running tms uh he’d been

5:44

there for more than three decades i believe how did this come to happen uh well eddie just decided to spend more

5:52

time with his family i had as you can tell by my titles were

5:57

lots of different hats right was very exposed to all the different business

6:02

operations different departments and so i had the experience which was a

6:07

blessing for me to step into this job you wanted to spend less time with your family it sounds like it’s

6:13

just kidding that’s about the reality of it you know before that though you’re just practicing law going on and then did tms

6:20

become a client or something and how did that go how did you jump from those worlds um i knew of the opening i knew

6:26

my predecessor we talked about it and buddha bing bada boom yep there i was yeah great great so let’s talk about

6:34

your role as gm at texas motor speedway what what is the gm of this the world

6:39

it’s one of the largest sports stadiums in the united states which is incredible if you’ve ever been there you should see

6:44

it at some point it’s it’s amazing but what is your what does the day in the life of of robber image look like

6:50

yeah early mornings late nights and so i oversee all the departments at

6:56

the speedway so finance marketing corporate sales ticket sales tic ticket logistics the

7:03

operations department uh we have a 10 story condominium with

7:08

76 condominium units and 110 000 square feet of commercial office space

7:16

we have activities going on the property every day so my job is to

7:24

i’m a cheerleader ask a lot of questions make sure things are running smoothly make sure that

7:30

we’re profitable deal with the day-to-day issues that arise

7:37

and being 1600 acres having such a large stadium

7:43

every day there’s always some issue that we have to deal with how many people does tms hold so

7:49

uh capacity was in the grandstands right at 109 000.

7:55

in the interior infield right at uh 65 000

8:00

and then we have campgrounds all throughout the campus that’s along 202

8:06

64-person suites oh wow a city twice a year so the mayor and i

8:13

were talking yesterday two days ago um and i said you know we have a lot in

8:19

common what is that rob and i said when we have our big nascar events or another big

8:26

event i’m a mayor of a small city and so we have hospitals you don’t get

8:33

voted in though that’s the easy way to get yeah that’s right that’s right but we have hospitals we have safety issues

8:40

we work with fort worth pd fort worth fire it’s just a lot of moving parts yeah

8:48

how many employees rob right now 59 59 yeah you know you talked about and

8:56

that’s just and then what do you just onboard a whole bunch of others when the races come around so prior to the

9:02

pandemic we had around 140 we’ve kind of right-sized some different things

9:07

restructured stuff uh during the nascar event we will hire [Music]

9:13

say 7 500 uh part-time event staff workers okay and so those are people that we

9:20

know that we trust that we have a history with some of them are new but then they come in

9:26

and it’s real cool because a lot of those people have been in those roles for 10 15 20 years and they know right what

9:34

to do what’s expected where to go it’s a lot of fun who’s in charge of uh buying

9:40

beer for these events bush bush beer specifically how many cases of bush beer are we talking about

9:46

they’re kind of kidding miller products yeah how much alcohol is sold on on a good race day is that something you

9:52

would you would be able to speak to the uh so we allow coolers and so that’s one thing that makes us

9:59

unique and really a very priceless experience for the fans so if you two

10:05

guys come and you buy a grandstand ticket you can bring a cooler our only restriction is you don’t bring glass but

10:13

you can bring your own beers you can bring some sandwiches bring some food so if we didn’t do that we would set a

10:20

world record on beer cells but i can assure you our beer cells are strong

10:27

and then the other thing so if the three of us were going to tms and we’re going to camp

10:34

you’d go to costco you’d go to walmart and i’d go to kroger or whatever right

10:39

and we would load up and so we’re bringing a lot of our own supplies yep

10:45

that costs us money we know that but it’s a great value for the fan right

10:50

you mentioned the uniqueness of the the bringing the coolers in but what makes you different from your predecessor

10:56

eddie goss’s what are you doing different at cms yeah um so i took over in august

11:02

and um i’m very focused on the fans because at the end of the day that’s i’m a fan that

11:10

works at a racetrack and you might be a fan of public speaking or interviewing people and

11:16

that’s y’all’s jobs that’s the way i feel uh in august i wanted to kind of do

11:22

things differently but didn’t really have the time to put my fingerprints on it right

11:28

i’m a big believer in music concerts having fun and creating a festival type

11:34

environment i know our campers and i know that our campers like to cook

11:40

i know that uh you think you make the best best brisket you think you make the best brisket when we had the october

11:47

race um i had a barbecue cook-off and it was

11:52

two-fold one the pros uh the people that came in with big giant

11:58

cookers and and participate in all these tours and then the three of us that are just

12:04

joe blow and but believe in our stuff and that was something that had never

12:10

been done before and then i hired concerts uh created uh a kids fan zone

12:17

we had never had a concert in the infield at texas motor speedway and you know our infield the party scene

12:25

is legendary but i wanted to amp that up and so i hired a kiss tribute band oh

12:31

nice that was for the october race and so i was kind of telegraphing and telling my teammates that i want to

12:39

create a festival yeah i want to create a festival that doesn’t have anything to

12:44

do with motorsports racing something that’s going to be fun and unique

12:50

for every no matter who you are so for our big race coming up is on may the 22nd or

12:57

nascar all-star race so we have what we call a fan zone so you park in the parking lot you walk and

13:04

you got to walk through it to get to your seats in the grandstands i really hope y’all come okay and i

13:12

really hope that all those watching this come what you are going to see

13:17

is a run a show from 8 a.m to 2 a.m

13:22

and it’s all kinds of whack activities djs music smoke in the air

13:30

human cannonball high wire racks dog canine performances

13:36

a stage with pros on the stage interviewing athletes

13:43

celebrities all the drivers all these unique uber cool personalities

13:50

it’s never really been done yeah so that’s kind of different and then the other things that i wanted to do that

13:56

were different is uh my my ears are slipping i’m sorry there you go um

14:03

blake shelton so blake shelton for that race is going to perform a 60-minute concert nice

14:12

with his wife maybe you got to come to watch

14:17

uh so i’ll just leave that out there um so we had never really hired a blake

14:23

shelton type that level of talent to perform at

14:28

a nascar race so that’s something new and different and if you look at our price points if

14:35

you go to our website texasmotorspeedway.com i challenge you and i challenge the

14:41

listeners just for that blake shelton concert you could not go to dickies and you could

14:48

not go to aac for that same price point and get to see somebody like blake

14:53

shelton yeah perform for an hour well and think about it we’re coming off the heels of coachella stagecoach these huge

15:00

festivals that are coming back with you know and out of the pandemic and there’s no way that you can go and do that

15:07

speaking of your earphones what goes on with the nascar fan and the headphones i would just like tell us about that

15:12

because you see a lot of people that’s another fan engagement that i don’t think other sports

15:18

they they don’t have either they don’t um i’ll answer that and then i want to go back to what’s different okay um so

15:26

the earphones so um it comes with a scanner and you have a card and it shows you

15:32

what drivers are on what frequency what their racing teams and their spotters

15:38

and so when the drivers are in the car driving they have ears and a mic and

15:43

they’re talking to spotters way up high that’s telling them slow down or speed

15:50

up or this car’s coming up on your rear or pass left pass right

15:55

those guys at our tracker going 200 mile an hour and so when you’re going 200 mile an

16:01

hour it’s not like you’re driving and you’re looking in your rear view mirror and

16:06

you’re scratching yourself and and looking around and you have this great fill division

16:12

they’re about ready to go in the air yeah they’re going so fast and their eyes are forward they’re watching the

16:19

telemetry all their gauges and they’re driving a car and shifting and doing all this

16:26

stuff and they need that extra set of eyes to communicate with them and then the other thing they’re doing

16:32

is they’re talking to their crew chief engineers and mechanics

16:37

and it’s hey i’m losing speed coming out of this turn

16:42

i feel like we’re off on the left rear or whatever the case may be

16:48

and then the crew chiefs the mechanics and the engineers are all reading the

16:53

data the diagnostics and then they’re preparing to make changes to help that driver

17:00

be more uh faster uh when they come in and pit so that’s what’s going on yeah as a fan

17:09

that’s where you hear really priceless comments i can’t imagine i can remember

17:15

being at tms for the grand opening if you will the very first race in the

17:20

history of texas um and i’m listening i’m sitting with my dad

17:25

and i’m sitting with my brother who’s now deceased we all had the same earphones in the same deal so we were

17:31

all listening to the same thing and i can remember listening to dale senior who’s since passed

17:39

talking um to his crew chief about world famous driver jeff gordon

17:46

that was in front of him and that he wanted to pass and he felt like he had a

17:51

faster car and so you’re listening to all that dialogue and so is everybody else in the

17:58

grandstands and when del senior ended up passing jeff gordon

18:04

everybody in the grandstand stood up and was going nuts because they knew it was coming now when when he’s saying that is

18:09

it like hey uh i think i’d like to pass him here like uh or is it like i’m gonna do it

18:14

down and they’re like wait wait wait and then they’re trying to find that perfect time yeah and yeah and then who yields

18:20

to who does the driver ultimately make the decision or that that spotter pit crew or is it it i think it’s a

18:27

combination of both yeah and every circumstance is a little bit unique yeah but as a fan

18:34

uh so i’m a fan of the dallas cowboys and i love watching their games love the

18:40

cowboys i don’t get to hear dak prescott getting plays i don’t get to hear the coaches talking

18:48

about hey we should have thrown the football 20 yards down field to joe blow yeah to

18:55

cd lamb yeah you don’t get to hear any of that in our sport you do get to hear

19:00

that another thing that’s uber cool about our sport so y’all been

19:06

to the cowboys you’ve been to the mavericks you’ve been to the rangers you’ve been to the stars

19:12

how many times maybe all are different uh because of your profession but how

19:18

many times does the fan get to see dak prescott right before the game or luca or any anybody on the team

19:28

how many times do you get to go in the locker room and walk around and see dak prescott or

19:34

ezekiel elliott getting their ankles taped or those kind of things

19:39

right like like if you could look at their pads and yeah you down their helmets yeah you don’t and so in our

19:45

sport no sport probably in the world gives the fan

19:51

that type of athlete access in my sport if you have the right

19:57

credential you can go down in the garage you can watch them working on the cars you can

20:02

look in these uber cool haulers see all the engineering and everything

20:08

and you are right there standing next to the driver just like we are yeah and

20:14

as a fan that’s pretty cool very very cool rob because you’re getting to see and be

20:21

part of everything and again if anybody can prove me wrong if

20:27

somebody can call in or do whatever and say hey that guy at the rest track is wrong uh the texas rangers

20:35

or the nhl allows you to go in the locker rooms or what please let me know yeah well there’s no doubt the fans are

20:42

extremely loyal to that your sport and the engagement you’re growing much so and this is probably a part of it that

20:47

which is well done i mean i think you’ve done an amazing job thus far and it’s only getting better would you mind

20:52

stepping back to the the the things yeah the fan experience the difference yeah you and your in your predecessor yeah um

20:59

so if you knew me and you knew me well um one of the big things that i’m very

21:04

very focused on is i want our grandstands to look like our city

21:09

and i want every ethnicity every culture

21:14

in our community to know that you’re wanted and welcome to come to my home to let me share with

21:22

you what i love the most so uh for years i’ve done a lot of public

21:28

speaking in the hispanic community and it’s me out there using my forum using

21:35

my platform if you will to support and embrace the hispanic community

21:42

so what’s different never been done not even in the markets

21:47

with high hispanic community populations miami phoenix la

21:53

california i’ve hired banda msa

21:59

and so banda msa is gonna come perform and do a 60-minute show

22:04

uh post-race nice and bonda msa is the only mexican band to perform and record

22:10

with snoop dogg they are the only mexican band to perform at coachella

22:16

and i’ll represent to you that if you uh follow or enjoy

22:22

mexican music that banda msa is kind of a rolling stones a you too

22:29

they’re a household name i watched them on coachella i watched a lot of that live feed and they kept i kept going

22:35

back to that just because i was waiting for another band but they are very captivating yeah they’re awesome

22:42

they’re a great band so my goals my guardrails for success our guard rails

22:47

for success are that we want everyone in the hispanic community to know we’re doing

22:53

this for you yeah and we want you to come be part of the crew part of the team and

23:00

enjoy the experience and so to amp that up there’s uh one mexican driver on the

23:08

cup series uh daniels daniel suarez and he’s a wonderful young man from

23:13

monterey mexico and he’s a friend and i started sharing this vision with

23:19

him november december and so on that mini version of the state

23:25

fair of texas the fan zone on that big stage which i spoke about earlier yeah

23:31

daniel is going to come speak and he’s going to do that at two o’clock

23:36

on that sunday and so hopefully everybody from the um

23:41

hispanic community in our town uh will come they’ll listen to daniel because they

23:47

they want to support him he’s their driver and they’re going to have fun they’re going to go watch blake shelton do a

23:54

60-minute concert i’ve had a bunch of things brought in on

24:00

our fan zone that are very hispanic-centric and so all those activities so they’re

24:06

going to feel welcome and wanted and they’re going to appreciate that the open race for that day

24:12

begins at five so those are the guys racing who don’t have a guaranteed seat

24:17

in the all-star race so they haven’t won is that saturday or friday that’s sunday so that’s sunday okay sunday may the

24:24

22nd so that’ll be at five o’clock and then um i’ve got a super bowl esque

24:31

pre-race uh stage all kinds of whack uber cool fun things

24:37

be just like what you saw at a halftime show on the super bowl okay um that’s going to happen 6 30

24:44

the green flag is going to wave um i’ve got a really cool

24:50

uh special guest that’s going to wave the green flag that’s going to be very epic if i don’t mind saying so this

24:56

is a surprise i’m guessing it’s it’ll be a surprise and then it is it does he look like this guy or this he does not

25:03

he does not he’s sorry it could be a sheep it’s true true um and then that race begins at seven

25:10

that race will be over 8 20 8 30 okay and then uh bond msa is

25:17

going to perform there’s going to be fireworks and all kinds of activities and my goal for that day

25:23

is that all those members of the hispanic community they had such a wonderful time

25:29

while they were there doing all these things watching a nascar race and then they get to see what they

25:35

wanted to see the bonda msa and then when they’re leaving they

25:40

realize boy this was fun it was a priceless value i was treated with

25:46

respect and and i was welcome and i and they want me to come back and they want

25:52

me to be part of the team and then they are yeah and then i want to start um working on

26:00

other ethnicities um i was telling emmitt smith the other day the

26:05

uber uh all-time greatest running back in my opinion of all time one of the greatest

26:10

cowboys i was telling him we have one african-american cup driver

26:17

um bubba wallace and emmitt smith bought a racing team and it’s in the xfinity series

26:24

and after this race i want to get with emmett and and people in the sport that

26:30

are african-american how do we effectively communicate to that part of our community

26:37

that you too are wanted and welcome and what i do is the coolest

26:43

there’s nothing finer on planet earth than nascar motorsports racing there is

26:50

nothing better than being at a nascar racetrack for a weekend

26:55

and i don’t care who you are where you’re from it is uber cool yeah and i want the

27:02

world all the ethnicities in our community to know this is cool it is cool it is i love

27:10

that you’re pushing forward in that regard well done rob thank you so before we get into the race experience i wanted

27:16

to the the track itself is a mile and a half long yeah one lap around which is incredible you host three nascar events

27:22

annually uh besides racing what else goes on at tms

27:28

before we talk about racing what else do you do because there’s a lot of things happening there besides just every day

27:33

[Music] lots of that um so i guess

27:40

prior to the pandemic we would host on average say 750 publicly attended events

27:47

and since the pandemic as best as i can kind of figure we’re right around 350 to

27:53

400 events per year wow and so there are car shows

27:59

like most recently we hosted the ducks unlimited outdoor festival the largest

28:04

outdoor festival uh conservation outdoor activities

28:09

biking duck hunting canoeing kayaking that’s an example of something unique

28:16

that we do we’ll have 20 to 30 concerts per year

28:21

all kinds of corporate activities driving schools um we’ve got a

28:27

two events that are about ready to start they’re setting up is a bubble run

28:33

which is kind of a fun type of activity for walkers and runners and then we have a bike ms to bring

28:40

awareness to multiple sclerosis to raise money for them but every day at the

28:46

racetrack there is an event going on every day yeah um so it’s a lot of fun

28:53

and it’s smaller scale things proms weddings yeah um so my office building

29:00

is just like yours it’s you know just a normal corporate office and it’s nine

29:07

stories and the top ninth uh floor is a 1200 person ballroom

29:14

and so there’s all kinds of stuff we’ve had boxing fights yeah um we had a wedding once

29:21

where they brought a baby elephant um i mean you name it you’ve done it has

29:26

the um the population increase in in that whole northern area because when you all first came

29:32

there there was a lot of green pasture from that top area there you’d see has that just helped to fill those days i

29:40

mean it really has i think it’s uh substantially increased tours so we do

29:45

tours every day at the racetrack and so if you live nearby and hey i want to go

29:51

inside the track you can take a tour you hop in a suburban or a van and there’s a tour guide

29:57

and they take you out on the track that’s a lot of fun we have driving schools and riding

30:03

experiences where we have all these stock cars we’ve partnered with different companies

30:09

and so hey uh really for a small fee i want to learn how to drive a stock car

30:15

or i want to just ride in one but i want to go 170 180 mile an hour

30:21

we have those activities going on every day as the population within our five mile

30:28

radius has substantially increased all of that kind of business has

30:34

but it’s also brought more awareness to who we are and what we’re doing yeah

30:39

activities at the track um so it’s fun and it’s real cool to see

30:45

you know where the bucky’s is across the street from tms i used to dove hunting

30:50

that field and you know it’s just kind of cool yeah to see how it grows

30:56

and then hillwood mike berry in particular has just done a fabulous job

31:02

on um new corporations coming into our community

31:07

and i i say this openly and i really mean it every time hillwood wins as a

31:13

developer by bringing in charles schwab our community wins our city wins

31:21

uh and so do i and so do all the other businesses because that’s more people

31:26

coming into your stores buying goods and services and looking

31:31

for entertainment yeah tell you you mentioned before the show about the covid situation when you had to shut

31:37

down but yeah something remarkable in regards to the vaccine you speak to that for a sec yeah the um

31:44

a very unique experience in my life like every we all have our own kind of covid

31:50

coexistence experiences and some people were shuttered in place and worked remotely and some people

31:56

still are working remotely um i had a unique position that when the

32:02

pandemic first occurred somebody had to be there somebody had to be in our building

32:09

and uh for the most part it was just me and at times one other person

32:16

we wanted to continue to do our business to

32:22

go about it in a very safe government approved manner but to still have fun and give people fun options

32:29

so we originally started off doing a lot of uh stay in your car concerts yeah

32:36

stay in your car drive in movies stay in your car buy a corn dog stay in your car

32:43

do this can’t get out of your car uh but that was the time we lived in and

32:48

that’s what we had to do to comply with our laws um so when we were going through that

32:53

process we learned and when the vaccines emerged

32:59

i can remember watching on tv another city not our city

33:06

that was managing vaccines at the state fair of texas um

33:12

and what i saw at that time the people that could get vaccines you had to be

33:17

over 70 or you had to have an illness or something

33:23

not everybody could get a vaccine and what i saw was people standing in line at three in the morning

33:30

um in the cold in the snow in the rain and they were probably getting sick or

33:35

catching covet while they were in line and then a lot of people weren’t getting their vaccines

33:41

and uh denton county judge andy eads is just a solid borrow gold he’s just the

33:47

best man in the world and he and i in tms had previously done

33:54

the stay in your car graduations and all this other stuff we graduated over 16 000 children wow

34:03

from 62 different high schools and we gave those families a graduation

34:09

ceremony that candidly my children did not get so we were always learning and

34:15

so when we saw these vaccines we knew um y’all are going about it the wrong

34:21

way and so me and judge edes we started speaking with people in austin

34:28

and it’s i’ve got 1600 acres we are experts on moving people yeah on moving

34:36

cars on knowing human traffic and being how to manage people

34:41

efficiently and so forth we’re not public health people we’re not government officials but what you saw at

34:48

the end of the day was the perfect marriage between a bunch of rednecks

34:53

and a bunch of public health experts that knew how to how to do the vaccines so we

35:01

met and met and met and um one of my favorite meetings was

35:07

we had a meeting there was maybe 60 people in the meeting and i’m listening to all these public

35:13

health experts and they’re talking about the pfizer vaccine the modern vaccine and all these different things

35:20

and you’re listening to all these people talk and everyone’s always compelled to add their two cents in yeah

35:27

and i said hey i just want to let everybody know that um

35:32

we’ve got you covered on the fuel and on the wreckers and people kind of

35:38

looked at me and what you know ramage this isn’t a race yeah and we don’t need

35:43

fuel trucks we don’t need wreckers people aren’t going to wreck and uh i said well we’re used to moving

35:51

people and large amounts of people not everybody can afford a brand new car

35:57

and people have car trouble and not everybody you know and back then the

36:02

price fuel was night and day what it is now not everybody can have afford to have a

36:08

full tank of gas and so people run out of gas and so when i say fuel trucks i’m

36:14

not talking a big sunoco 18 wheeler i’m talking about a pickup truck with

36:20

five six seven five gallon jugs of fuel like what you use for your lawnmower and uh wreckers

36:27

uh i hope people don’t wreck but somebody’s car may break down yeah and we got to be prepared to deal with

36:34

that so everybody dismissed it and you know rob works at a racetrack but whatever

36:40

the very first day within the first hour maybe hour and a half

36:47

the cars going through line um a car broke down so we had a wrecker come in

36:54

lift that car up drive them through where they would get their vaccine and that person got a vaccine while being

37:01

towed i was listening on my headphones when that happened to them talking

37:07

and it was it was joyous it was epic and um and then we had a couple of other cars

37:13

that within you know the first three or four hours that ran out of gasoline and so we

37:18

a gentleman i work with would get out of his pickup go over and put some gasoline in their car

37:25

prime it if needed and then fire it up and then they’re good to go the

37:31

a lot of thought and a lot of hard work went into it we used things very simple

37:37

like what i just spoke about all the way to the internet of things to tethered uas or drone systems

37:45

we did we we gave more vaccines than anywhere else in the world

37:51

over 460 000 vaccines and

37:56

if you recall at that time when you would get your vaccine you would have to sit in your car and

38:01

wait 15 minutes per the cdc’s in case you wouldn’t faint or something yeah

38:07

we never ever ever ever ever lost our 22-minute efficiency standard

38:15

so that meant once you were on my property and we measured it that you were really only going through

38:21

the process seven minutes to get your vexing and that you would then pull forward and

38:27

put your car in park and sit there for 15 minutes and then you would be told your 15th this line

38:34

here the 15 minutes is over and then you would peel out we set two world records

38:41

on vaccines and um not only the most overall given at one

38:47

site but the most given in one day that’s fantastic and that’s speed

38:52

timing and efficiency i don’t know where you get that yeah and where you’re a fan of i’m going to figure that out before all this is

38:58

greater good and they took a loss i only can all imagine we shut down our business so that we

39:04

could solely uh focus on that good for you guys and that um i can’t tell you

39:10

how many people are running to hey i got my vaccine that you’re shot or

39:16

hey my parents are very elderly and they’re very worried about the

39:21

vaccine and they came to your property thank you and they were treated with respect and

39:27

taken care of and then boom off great yeah um so

39:33

being a part and giving back to our community um is something that’s near and dear to

39:39

all of our hearts another thing that maybe your listeners or you all may not know

39:46

is we have our own charity and so speedway children’s charity um it’s been around since the existence of

39:53

our track and we have a full-time employee we have a board i’m on it

39:58

and we raise and give back to tarrant um

40:04

colin denton and dallas county those four counties is our turf and our

40:10

mission is to improve the lives of children and so as you all can imagine

40:16

um there are so many unfortunate different causes for children i mean there’s thousands of

40:22

them one of the things that i changed is i want us to narrow our focus

40:30

so we can be more effective and so we’re really going to focus on

40:36

combating all the evils of human trafficking and so each year we may

40:41

raise 400 grand 500 grand 600 grand 700 grand um we have a big giant christmas party

40:49

at the racetrack yeah santa is there so if you want to see the real santa holy

40:55

cow how did you manage that it just that’s just they have a landing area yeah you’ve got a lot of schools

41:01

1600 acres he does appreciate space i’ve heard you both are invited and they love

41:06

to meet santa and it’s so sweet the real santa will be there and then we have a grant distribution

41:13

and so the grant distribution is all these charities that are really

41:18

out there helping out children that are victims of human trafficking they will be there and we’ll have these big giant

41:25

checks and we’ll hand them out and it’s a wonderful night it’s a wonderful celebration

41:31

and a lot of people in our community i don’t know about that and they think well it’s just a racetrack uh we’re out

41:39

there doing our part and giving back love it rob that’s fantastic so tms

41:44

indeed pause indeed tms has a 300 million dollar economic impact on north texas

41:50

of all things you’ve talked about the most important thing i think you do aside from helping children we know tms

41:56

is a race track let’s talk about racing before we get out of here but let’s do that what is it like to be a race car driver just for

42:04

someone who doesn’t understand this world could you give us a little insight into what it’s like to be a race car driver yeah um

42:11

it takes years and years and years of

42:16

failure driving left learning success to get to where these guys are today

42:24

um people make comparisons you know who’s the best driver uh formula one nascar

42:31

whatever in my i’ve grown up with racing my whole life and in my opinion the nascar drivers are

42:39

the best race car drivers in the world and people can debate me and that’s fair but that’s my opinion

42:46

the drive the modern day driver started off driving race cars when they

42:51

were itty bitty when some of them four years old five years old eight years old and they

42:57

started off uh bandoleros legends carts

43:03

um uh mini sprints you know all kinds of other different racing

43:08

and then they’re working their way it’s just like a baseball player a guy on the texas rangers team

43:15

he just didn’t show up one day and say hey i want to try out for the rangers yeah he played peewee

43:22

he played grammar school he played high school celebrities

43:28

yeah select xbox junior college you know

43:33

division one college division two college yeah leagues double a triple a yadda yadda yadda

43:41

you really have to work your way up to that level these guys

43:47

are real deal athletes they’re in prime shape

43:52

they’re physically fit they are uber strong and they have eye hand and feet

43:59

coordination that the average human does not have is it clutch

44:05

yes it’s paddle shift or is it stick shift stick shift you’re gonna be 200 pounds

44:11

to be a driver no most of the drivers are not joking are

44:17

not big guys you’re reading it you tell me you got to be under 200 i’ll bet

44:24

140 or something one the little it it varies but most of them are smaller guys

44:30

because the cars are small yeah um but they’re physically fit um they they

44:36

can do things with a car it’s it’s not our experience driving a car

44:42

yeah it’s not you getting on i-30 and 35 and changing

44:47

lanes and being able to merge with traffic it’s almost an uncanny weird

44:53

ability to navigate the wind to know engineering to know mechanics

44:59

to know what’s going on in your vehicle and it’s not just always about going

45:05

uber fast but it’s having an extraordinary comfort in that isn’t it oh yeah like like i mean oh yeah where

45:11

most people are freaking out going at that speeds oh yeah those guys it almost like their their bp drops in scenarios

45:19

that’s right rhythm rises it does so visualize the three of us are leaving here and

45:24

we’re going to go to dfw and hop on a plane and we’re taxing out we’re on the tarmac

45:31

and the pilot comes on everybody buckle up we’re taking off or whatever the pilot says

45:37

and you know that feeling that you get you’re not even driving

45:42

you may not even be looking out your window and those jets roar up

45:48

and that thing starts taking off the runway imagine doing that for 500 miles

45:55

how fast those jets go when they take off around 170 180 about what those cars go

46:01

yeah and so imagine doing that except oh my gosh there’s 40 other jets on this

46:08

tarmac and we’re racing with each other and i’m turning

46:15

that’s what those guys are going through yeah so the next time you you’re on a plane

46:21

you think about that yeah that’s pretty cool what’s a coach see you know or somebody who’s like that kid’s got

46:27

talent what’s what do you think the number one thing is is it the the guts that they have the the moxie or is it

46:33

more the technical i think it’s i think it’s the ability to hit your

46:39

marks on turns and the appreciation and the technical

46:44

understanding that it’s not about just putting your foot down on the gas and mashing it

46:51

so like so when you all go home get in your car and get on the highway

46:57

and go as fast as you can go as fast as you can we don’t condone that our legal team is uh

47:04

sweating over here you know we’re doing that after this interview for sure yeah but if you did that and if you drove

47:10

your car that way your car would begin to have mechanical problems yes and if you came to every

47:16

red light and just slammed on your brakes and skid your brakes would fail

47:22

yeah your tires would fail uh they wouldn’t last like they were meant to so when we drive our cars we’re

47:29

being responsible and obeying the laws but we’re taking care of our equipment

47:34

so that driver so imagine you’ve you’re racing for all this big time money

47:40

you’ve got all these people around you you’ve got to keep your sponsors happy you’re putting on a show and you are

47:46

uber competitive you have to have that self-discipline and that self-restraint

47:52

to save and preserve your equipment yeah because the day’s a long day yeah

47:58

yeah so it’s pretty cool well it’s a long i would imagine weekend you know yeah

48:03

you’re there you’ve got all these people around looking there’s a lot of rules in nascar i mean there is an incredible

48:10

inspection process that occurs on those vehicles they don’t put up with anybody just coming in with any kind of makeshift

48:18

deal i mean it is precise on what you cannot do to get an advantage in that

48:24

everything is inspected thoroughly that’s one of my favorite parts as a fan to watch

48:30

so you’ll watch the crew chief and the crew and they’re pushing the car and they go through this inspection area

48:36

and they have all these templates and stuff that come down they’re testing the exhaust the

48:41

diagnostics the fuel the everything and you’re watching that crew

48:47

yeah and you can see it in their eyes kind of holding our breath

48:53

hoping that we make it through the inspection because if you don’t you could have the fastest car in the

49:00

field if you’re trying to cheat or violate the rules and it’s all gamesmanship

49:06

if you get caught you’re going to have to go back and and conform to what the rule book says

49:14

and you may have to start at the rear of the field did the the pandemic and coming out of it with this sport

49:20

affect the supply of some of those parts at all like i’ve got to think somewhere somebody said

49:27

we usually we used to weld this out of steel we’re just gonna do an aluminum type of like there’s got to exist that

49:34

somewhere there’s been a few adaptations that were made because of supply chain issues

49:40

uh but nascar the racing teams they’re really the best they really foresaw

49:46

through a lot of stuff yeah and so if these types of chips or these types of parts

49:52

or these types of things existed people really did a good job and had the

49:58

foresight to okay there’s 200 of these things we’re going to buy all 200. yeah

50:03

so it in that regard it really has not impacted the sport what’s the cost on

50:09

owning your cars rob generally speaking oh my gosh uh millions of millions of

50:15

dollars for one car yep and so you think about it too um

50:22

you you’ve got to have engineers you’ve got to have mechanics you got to have all these people

50:29

to be able to support and work on that one car yeah and so it’s not just a car

50:36

and it’s in the garage and i’ve got a truck driver who’s going to load it up and drive it to texas

50:42

it’s hundreds upon hundreds of people when you go to north carolina and you

50:48

see the racing team headquarters you think it’s a shopping mall or something

50:54

it’s just it takes an army of people to build these cars yeah to put them together and to remain competitive well

51:00

and then how much bad blood happens when rob goes to jw’s team from my team like there’s there’s probably a whole inner

51:08

inner working of politics that exists in that pit there has to be

51:13

yeah that’s probably pretty interesting yeah rob the sport is inherently dangerous because of what you’re doing

51:19

um yeah you’ve seen some things over the years that involve some accidents do you have any stories that that are come to

51:25

mind of you know the inherent risk of the sport albeit a fantastic thing but yeah it’s um

51:32

that’s the bad that comes with the good um this is a life and death sport

51:39

and uh the drivers are incredibly brave

51:44

and every time they get in a car and do what they do they’re risking their lives

51:51

the pit crew members jumping back and forth in front of the cars to service the cars

51:57

you’ve seen it on tv i have and seen it in person where one of those guys doing their job

52:04

could accidentally get hurt um there’s all kinds of risk

52:09

[Music] one of the more personal stories that i have is

52:14

[Music] really with the indycar series and the indycar series we host an

52:20

indycar race every year that’s a carbon fiber car uh that is a steering wheel that all

52:28

everything is on the steering wheel the accelerator the brake the shifting the power boosting all the controls is right

52:35

there it’s about that big and when you sit in those cars you almost sit like an l

52:41

and there’s really not a lot of protection up front yeah i mean they’re safe and they’re designed great

52:48

but it’s just a very different vehicle than a nascar stock car um there’s a young driver

52:56

who is just fabulous and he’s just a wonderful wonderful human i’ll tell you a story about him

53:02

um joseph newgarden is his name and so we were having an indie race at our racetrack

53:09

and right before my eyes joseph crashed and i know that

53:15

when those drivers crash like that particularly in that series they could be fatally wounded

53:22

so i just watched this horrific crash right in front of me and i know this young man solid borrow gold

53:29

um and then i saw his head just kind of leaning forward and so you’re just

53:35

really worried as a fan and as a friend and uh he was fine

53:41

um he ended up having a couple of broken ribs and a broken arm

53:46

and a lot of bruising he had to be careflighted to a hospital

53:52

and that really hit close to home joseph ran a race the next week

53:58

with all those injuries um my joseph knew garden story um

54:03

it’s worth telling and i think your listeners will appreciate it and this isn’t unique to joseph the

54:10

nascar guys are the same way but joseph is top of mind um we had an indycar race six weeks ago

54:18

at tms and about four weeks prior to that i’m laying in bed

54:25

and i’m reading fox news and i’m going through a story about

54:30

a seven-year-old boy in parker county texas that gets off the school bus and is

54:36

walking home and is attacked by a pit bull type creature

54:42

dog and a woman sitting on her porch sees this dog dragging this boy into a

54:50

creek she goes to save the child

54:56

she gets beat up just like the three of us would from this dog but she saves

55:01

that boy’s life she does and the the coolest part about my job

55:07

and while i’ll never leave is we have the ability to bless people with our blessings

55:14

and so i reach out to the county sheriff the fox story uh said that he was the one investigating

55:20

it and so forth arrested the woman that owned the dog reached out he connected us with the

55:26

family well what seven-year-old boy doesn’t like race cars they all do and so i

55:32

talked to his mother and said you know my name’s rob i work at the racetrack and um i want you and your family to

55:39

come out and be in our suite and to have fun and if uh connor is the

55:46

young boy’s name if conor wants to do it um

55:51

king’s x will make him the grand marshal of the race and he can go down to victory lane with me

55:57

and hand out the trophy to the winner and so um the mom works at a donut store

56:04

and couldn’t be at the racetrack in time so we hired the world’s gaudiest longest

56:12

white limousine um had them go pick the boy up filled it with

56:17

coca-cola and cupcakes and balloons and cookies and all this other stuff had him

56:23

transported to the track and so i drive him down with his family

56:28

into victory lane there’s fireworks and hoopla well who wins the race

56:35

joseph newgarden and that was a very historic moment because team penske that was their 600th

56:41

win and so i’m standing there and i’ve got this little boy with me and it’s obvious that he had an um an event

56:51

yeah you know the dog attack and so joseph newgarden had no idea who

56:57

this boy was and so i said well joseph i need you to come get photos made with this young man

57:04

he just won a race his car is smoking his eyes are this big

57:10

you know he’s been going 230 miles an hour little adrenaline going in yes and

57:16

he was so sweet got his photo made with the boy the boy loved it um

57:22

two days ago joseph newgarden sent me and well let me

57:27

back up in victory lane rob who was that boy so he’s there celebrating this historic

57:34

win that just happened and within five minutes he’s asking me who is this little boy why you know what’s the story

57:40

behind him and i can tell joseph was genuinely touched two days ago joseph sent me an

57:47

email can you get me that little boy’s name and his address because i want to take

57:54

care of him and send him a bunch of stuff that is the quality

58:00

of these drivers yeah in my world yeah the nascar the indycar guys there’s just good good

58:06

people good humans that give back um and those are the types of things

58:11

that we like to do at tms yeah what’s not to love about you and this sport man this this is all good stuff brother

58:18

thank you very much yeah i’m sure uh last two last two questions uh my partner not to change the subject to a

58:24

little humor but my partner’s not a big fan of women drivers whatever i’ve never said that why are

58:30

there no how do we get more people women driving in nascar or in race cars you know it’s

58:36

uh so there was danica patrick and she retired and in the truck and in the xfinity

58:42

series there are some women drivers good good good and so it’s like everything else in life

58:48

um they’re jumping at the bit and they’re wanting to race in the cup series but um

58:55

you know you got to prove yourself yeah yeah and i think the second that they get um more success catch the eye of

59:02

some different teams you will see women racing in the cup series on that sunday

59:08

awesome uh let me i’m going to interject one question then we’ll get our last one is nascar coming back i got this feeling

59:14

about this thing i mean it’s like yeah the pandemic and yeah and now people they like the concerts and the coach you

59:21

know and the i think that they want to be amongst their fellow man in this fun

59:27

environment with a lot of people around it’s yes i mean can you talk just very yeah yeah yeah yeah uh proof is in the

59:34

pudding tv ratings are up radio ratings are up attendance is up

59:40

uh we are the most patriotic sport in our country there’s no question about

59:45

that um our country is full of good people uh eagles fly with eagles good people

59:52

want to be with uh other people we’re not political um

59:58

you know supporting the military supporting the law enforcement that we do people want to be part of us the racing

1:00:06

right now is the best racing that has ever existed in the

1:00:12

history of nascar can you see a favorite for this coming up race are you allowed to um

1:00:19

i wouldn’t say a favorite um i’ll tell you all wager i’ll tell you who i bet on

1:00:24

please for darlington kyle larson okay there you go there we go uber cal arson

1:00:31

uber hot uber fast what’s the big sponsor of his uh hendrick motorsports okay oh good one

1:00:37

yeah yeah he’s a super awesome guy great driver

1:00:42

um he loves that slick old track he loves running up against the wall and

1:00:49

that’s what all you know darlington has the famous darlington stripe because usually you’re going to run up

1:00:55

by the wall and most drivers you know may have some bad luck and hit that wall

1:01:01

until you get your darlington stripe on the side of the car well we’re going to try to throw a cap tech’s bank sticker

1:01:06

on that car boom that day and we just wanted to you’re going to see us in the infield one of these probably in this may race coming up this

1:01:12

next car all-star challenge yeah we would love to interview some of the fans and just because

1:01:17

it is a great experience i’ve been lucky enough to go out there and see it we always end the show

1:01:23

with uh the favorite day no family though and you’ve had some great stories here so uh you talk to us a little bit

1:01:29

about a place you go in the summertime and see things what what’s been you the best day of your life you know sans you

1:01:36

know kids being born graduating wife’s getting married that kind of thing best day of my life wow

1:01:42

um uh memory it has to be memories with family activities it just has to be we

1:01:50

can’t accept that though rob it’s got to be something outside of family something outside of family um

1:01:58

the problem is everybody does try to do they always go back to family you you have to you could go to a race track you

1:02:03

went with your father and just leave that portion of the story out where you just came upon the track or something

1:02:10

like that so hey i got one okay an uber cool story um so i’m a hunter

1:02:16

and um i had targeted one deer and this was in on a big deer hunt in

1:02:24

wisconsin and it was seven days and i was after this one very unique

1:02:30

deer at the 11th hour the last day

1:02:36

my flight is leaving in three four hours and i’m three four hours away

1:02:42

[Music] and i wouldn’t leave and i see him

1:02:48

and i get him [Music] finished my business there and um

1:02:54

fortunately the plane was having some type of delay issues and i made my

1:02:59

flight and if i could go back in time when i landed back in dallas that day i

1:03:06

should have bought a lottery ticket uh because it was just one of those

1:03:11

days where everything goes your way well said awesome rob ramage general manager

1:03:17

of texas motor speedway upcoming race nascar all-star challenge let’s go thank you for being here thank you captex bank

1:03:23

for making this possible great job today thank you i love it rob i’ll come back any time thank you we’ll have you back

1:03:29

we’ll see you

1:03:35

[Music]