FORTitude FW Where Stories Never Die

Roxo Media House

Rob Ramage Senior Vice President, General Manager Texas Motor Speedway

Rob Ramage

Senior Vice President and General Manager Texas Motor Speedway

Rob joins J.W. and Brinton on this episode of FORTitude FW and discusses the changes he’s bringing to the speedway and they’re not all race day related.  He talks about his journey to his new position as Senior VP & GM, where NASCAR is and what he wants to do to bring the entire community together at events.

Please enjoy the best art Fort Worth has to offer.

Audio Only

Episode Transcription: 

Rob Ramage

Senior Vice President and General Manager Texas Motor Speedway

Transcript

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]