Engine Building Experience and Personal Reflections

end of the day, the only true asset you have in racing is where you're standing. That's dirt. So that's why I always overbuilt because I knew I could get my money back for real estate cuz that's where I did in Pennsylvania. Sold used cars and dealt in real estate and uh never lost a piece of never lost any money on real estate. I still think it's the same today. But anyway, then we went back in here and then decided that the tractor trailers were getting, you know, the heat down here is bad, so we can move the tractor trailers in here. And then uh, you know, we just kept growing. These guys, this guy's got some nice stuff in this shop. Look at this truck. It's cool when these these former race shops uh, still do cool stuff with cars. Not all the sun. Oh, there is no sound in the world better than a big block Ford or a big block Chevy or a big block Hemi. Ooh, they got a thump. I raced a big block in the modified. Them sons of bees with a torque fuel injection. Badass. Anyway, we go back into the body shop. But this is pretty cool. Brings back a lot of memories. The stuff they change. Old babe Jensen. Good guy. Oh, I had uh he's dead. All these guys have died on me. Gut died. Gary, my other painter, died. Time moves on. My god, Eddie told him. He worked for me. He worked for Gary Belaloo. Great guy. He could he he was a a tuner. He would he could read the plugs, carburetors. Eddie Eddie was Eddie worked for me. He was good at what he did. We won races with Eddie. Blew up a lot of motors. That's when he said, "You got to tell the engine builders to back up." Should have won Charlotte four times and five times. We won it once. We blew up leading twice. We blew up at Texas. Leading Mark won Texas. Nema checkek won Charlotte. Joe was going to win that race. I wasn't going to win that race. Joe was hooked up that day. That was Carl Wagner's car lo motor. But I still blew up. But I wasn't going to beat him then. Mark beat me at Texas when I blew up lead. Mark beat me twice at Charlotte. But I did beat Mark when I finally put a motor in. It didn't blow up. Las Vegas leading the race in Las Vegas blowed up. Funny story there. We go to Vegas. I had two engine builders, Kevin Blanks and Hutter. And we were still in this shop. No, we were in the new shop. And Hutter had built the best motor he ever built. Kevin Blanks had built the best motor he ever built. And I had won Bristol the year before in a at u in a my bush car. And I and I said to my man Jerry, he was my…