Recounting the Move to Charlotte and Engine Reliability Issues

like it was with the the picture window looking out at the shop. H Do you have a lot of influence on the design of the building? You know what? I I didn't I kind of I kind of gave Kenny some some feedback just from my standpoint that that to keep it as wide open as we possibly could. Uh, and my office put it as close to the shop as you could and I could have a window to look out. And I remember when we were up here racing uh in the fall, the Charlotte race in the fall of 88. I remember my wife and I coming over here with Kenny and Cheryl. Cheryl, who is now his wife, was his girlfriend there. And we kind of, it was still, it was in the dry, but it still had a long way to go. Still probably had a couple of months to go before it was going to be ready to move in. But I remember coming over here and that's really the first time I'd even seen where it was or anything about it. So your first win as a crew chief was at the other building down in down in Travelers's Rest. Yeah, we won um Watkins Glenn uh in 1988. That was my first career win. It was King Racing's first win with Ricky Rudd. We were still in Travelers Rest. Our first win out of this building would have been Sonoma of 1989 with Rudd. With Rudd. Yeah. And then we won uh we only won a race a year 88, 89 and 90. 88 was the Glenn with Rudd, ' 89 was Soma with Rudd and then Brett Boddine started driving this car in 1990 and we won North Wilsboro. But the funny story about how this whole shop came about is when Kenny bought the team that I was working for in the latter part of 1985. It was a little team again in Travelers Rest and he brought the Quaker State sponsorship. He brought uh Buick. He brought Joe Rutman as a driver. He just needed a team to go to. And he bought out the gentleman that I was working for, Bobby Hawkins. And I had kind of picked Kenny's brain along the way. Did he want to relocate to Charlotte, North Carolina, where everything was? And he said, "I don't. I like being away from the rat race of Charlotte. You know, we're 2 hours away. I'm good with that." So each year I' I'd ask him, "Are you sure you don't want to relocate to Charlotte? You sure you don't worry? Every year was the same. No, I like where we're at. We're down here by oursel. And only thing I kept telling him, it's hard to find good help. You know, when you're in Charlotte, you got a good pool of people to pull from. When you're down here, it's a little more complicated. So 1988, we were really fast. Everywhere we went…