We're Talking Sports Ep. 12 - We're Talking NASCAR! w/ Ron Kirk

**Will** (0:45)
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another edition of We're Talking Sports with Will and Ron right over there.

**Ron Kirk** (0:52)
Hey, good morning. Good morning, buddy.

**Will** (0:54)
How are you?

**Ronnie** (0:55)
Look at this shirt. Isn't this a beautiful shirt?

**Will** (1:00)
Yeah, absolutely.

**Ronnie** (1:02)
Kyle Carson. OK.

**Will** (1:03)
So today we're talking sports, but we're talking a sport that we don't really dwell in too much here. No, no.

**Ronnie** (1:10)
Honestly, I went to a Nascar race and I was this morning, I was trying to think when that Nascar race was. I think it was about 20 years ago I went.

**Will** (1:19)
Yeah. Yeah.

**Ronnie** (1:19)
It's been a little while.

**Will** (1:20)
Yeah.

**Ronnie** (1:20)
Yeah. My my cousin's big in the Nascar.

**Ron Kirk** (1:23)
So I went up with our guest.

**Ronnie** (1:25)
Our guest is Ron Kirk from Arcadia Landscape. And he is our our Nascar aficionado.

**Ron Kirk** (1:32)
I wouldn't say aficionado, but I mean, I've been around the sport longer than I can remember.

**Ronnie** (1:38)
OK.

**Will** (1:39)
Yeah.
So tell us everything. That's everything, you know. All right.

**Ron Kirk** (1:44)
Well, for some of the people that are not Nascar fans, Nascar, Mr. Bill France Senior, he's the one that created Nascar.

**Ronnie** (1:55)
So Nascar was created as the founder.

**Ron Kirk** (1:58)
Yes. And believe it or not, Mr. France Senior, he started Nascar with no money, zero, none. And he got investors and he built his first track. And his first track was at Daytona. Florida.
So he started that. And the reason he started that is because back in the 30s and the 40s, Nascar was invented by bootleggers, where the bootleggers were running moonshine and they were running from the cops.

**Ronnie** (2:24)
So Mr. Senior thought, hey, it was almost like Dukes of Hazard.

**Ron Kirk** (2:29)
Yes, yes, yes, yes. In a roundabout way. I don't think the new boys are running moonshine.

**Ronnie** (2:34)
But so that was the PG version.

**Will** (2:38)
Yes, yes. The family version. Right.

**Ronnie** (2:41)
Uncle Jesse went a lot.

**Ron Kirk** (2:42)
So Nascar right now stands for the National Association Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. And it was established back in 1948

**Will** (2:51)
Oh, you're right. Ron, you're like 12

**Ronnie** (2:54)
I was just turned 19 back in 1948
Yeah. February 15th, 1948 in Daytona Beach is when their first race was. Their first official race.

**Ron Kirk** (3:05)
But all right. So since you did your notes, let me ask you this. What kind of grounds did they race on? Was it clay?
Was it dirt? Was it asphalt? What was it?

**Ronnie** (3:15)
I would say it was dirt.

**Ron Kirk** (3:16)
No.

**Ronnie** (3:17)
You're close.

**Will** (3:17)
Okay.

**Ron Kirk** (3:18)
They actually started racing on the sand of the beaches of Daytona.

**Ronnie** (3:22)
Really?

**Ron Kirk** (3:23)
That's where they started.

**Will** (3:23)
Wow.

**Ronnie** (3:24)
That would be an interesting race for handling cars and all that.

**Will** (3:28)
Right.

**Ron Kirk** (3:28)
Exactly.

**Ronnie** (3:29)
Yeah.

**Ron Kirk** (3:30)
So that's when if anybody knows, well, everybody knows Dale Earnhardt. Who does it? Do it for Dale, right?
So Dale Earnhardt Senior, he was, that's how he started. He started racing into that and then he started racing on the dirt track circuit in the number eight car. And then as time goes on, Dale Earnhardt Junior was just kind of, or actually Dale Earnhardt Senior was just kind of, kind of just mulling around in the auto racing, watching his dad and doing things of that sort. Sure. Dale Earnhardt's dad is named Ralph Earnhardt. So when Dale Earnhardt Junior came up and started racing, he started racing his dad's number, which is the number eight, and he was sponsored by Budweiser.

**Will** (4:13)
Okay.

**Ron Kirk** (4:13)
So unfortunately, Earnhardt passed away, but Earnhardt is what made NASCAR what it is today.

**Will** (4:20)
Yeah.

**Ronnie** (4:21)
He was the big name.

**Ron Kirk** (4:22)
He was.

**Will** (4:23)
He was.

**Ron Kirk** (4:23)
And everybody thought that Dale Earnhardt was, he was going to be a nobody. Richard Petty thought the same thing. Cale Yarbrough, I mean, Bobby Allison. They all thought Earnhardt wasn't going to go anywhere, but actually Earnhardt's the one that made NASCAR.
When it came to apparel, Teresa Earnhardt, his wife, she's the one that got him to start apparel. He was the first driver that ever had apparel out there.
So that's where the apparel and the merch, I guess people call it, that's where the merch came from. It all started with Mr. Earnhardt himself.