Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Kenny Wallace, the longtime NASCAR driver and commentator who now races dirt. Wallace, a St. Louis area native and resident, will be part of the World Wide Technology Raceway weekend with both his fan zone show and an appearance on the FS1 broadcast. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. The full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast.

1. You have to pick one chore or obligation to do every single day for a year. But if you make it the entire year doing this, you never have to do it again for the rest of your life. So what would you like to pick?

At this time in my life and at my age (59), it would be doing the laundry. I make the bed every morning. I do the laundry. I take out the trash. I pay all the bills, take care of the taxes. … But (my wife) did all the clothes in my NASCAR days because she wanted me to look good. Now I’m doing it. (Laughs)

Advertisement

2. Can you describe how you are as a passenger in a street car?

People say to me when I’m a passenger, “I don’t know exactly if this is the right way to go or not.” And I tell them, “It doesn’t matter. I’m along for the ride.” So when I’m a rider, I’m very patient. If I’m not patient, I tell them to let me drive. (Laughs)

I go to appearances, right? And someone is driving me. So it’s better if you drive, because if I don’t know where I’m at, you can be lost and I wouldn’t know it. But if I know what I’m doing, let me drive.

3. What is an app on your phone you love using and think other people should know about?

Oh my God, I love my banking app. I can’t tell you how many reasons I used to have to run to the bank. We went to the bank our whole lives. I made friends with Joe Custer, who helps run Stewart-Haas (Racing), because I’d see him at the bank all the time. But I’ve learned to work my banking app and it has just saved me so much time. The banking app is God’s gift to a person my age.

4. What do you do to make yourself feel better when you’re having a crappy day?

The first thing that comes to my mind is what Dick Trickle taught me: “As long as you can justify it.” So in other words, if I’m having a bad day, I try to think about what’s next. I try to project what’s good coming up, and if nothing is good coming up, what can I make good? I use that technique all the time.

Like right now I’m tired. Been going hard. So let’s get some good rest. Let’s eat some good food. Let’s get some good sleep. I’m looking at, “We go to the movies on Tuesday night. What’s the movie going to be?” That type of stuff.

5. I asked readers to submit “Dear Abby” style questions for drivers to answer. This person has a marriage question and you’ve been married for a long time, so maybe you can help this person out. They said: “My wife and I recently moved out of a big city and into the suburbs. The move has been great. It’s given our family more space, and we even have a kitchen upgrade. My wife loves to bake. So the bigger the kitchen, the better. However, she also loves to buy things. … Now she’s complaining about a lack of cabinet space and counter space in our kitchen. And she just bought a big countertop air fryer. How can I convince her she is her own worst enemy in this battle for space without me having to sleep on the couch?”

I literally just went through this, and I could call my wife right now. It has to be their idea, but you have to plant it. I was watching Snoop Dogg’s (“Father Hood” show) years ago and he said, “I’m going to renew our vows.” So I told my wife, “Hey, I love you. Let’s renew our vows at our 25th anniversary.” She says “I don’t know …” Well, a couple of days later, it was all her idea. (Laughs)

Advertisement

So with the cabinetry, we had 150 or 200 cups and glasses — some from her grandma that were old, but they were sentimental and we never used them. Or like you said, it’s like every company, every golf tournament, people were giving you these (tumblers). So I said to her, “Kim, if you ever get around to it, we need to clean these cabinets out because we don’t use (most) of them.” I use one cup for coffee in the morning and I have my iced tea cup. I use two cups for my whole life. And sure enough, maybe not a month later, she cleaned it all out.

So that’s the first technique I would try: Plant the idea.

6. The next one is also like a pop culture/societal debate or dilemma. So you’re at the gate at the airport and you’re waiting for your flight. Somebody nearby is watching a video and they do not have their headphones in and it’s very loud. Everybody around can hear it and everybody is looking at them. Are you supposed to ignore the noise? Do you move seats? Do you just put on headphones? Or do you say something to them? What are you supposed to do?

We were coming back from Cabo and it was packed around our gate. And this man is laying all across like eight seats with no shoes on and crusty feet, nasty toes. I took a picture of him because I wanted to embarrass him. But I really feel like this is an issue. When I want to listen to something, I put the volume real low and I put it up to my ear. But it amazes me, the etiquette. If it gets to be too much, I move because I’m not confrontational. However, we all have those moments and those days.

The reason I quit Fox Sports is because of that question. The more you go to the airport, the angrier you get. I cannot stand the airport. It’s filth. It’s a bunch of people who want their space, and you’re not going to get it because you’re all piled on top of each other. If I’m traveling every week and I’m one of the traveling NASCAR media, I’m pissed all the time. I despise the airport because everybody’s about themselves.

So I’d either move seats if I’m in a good mood, or you’ve got to say, “Excuse me, I can’t hear myself. Can you please turn that down?” And then most likely you’re gonna get into a fight. (Laughs) But this is the world we live in. It’s brutal.

Advertisement

7. This is a wild-card question. My impression of today’s NASCAR drivers is they are more aggressive than ever and there’s less give and take than in the past. But sometimes I get caught up in the moment of what’s going on. You’ve seen it all, so my question is: Do you think the modern-day NASCAR drivers are more aggressive than the previous generation? Or is that sort of a false perception that just gets inflamed when things happen?

No, you’re accurate, and I’ll tell you why. The reason the modern-day NASCAR Cup driver is running into everybody — and I don’t mean this to be mean — is they never worked on their own race cars. We have an era now where I can name all the drivers off, and I love these guys, but they never worked on their own race cars. When you go back and look at Matt Kenseth, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin — all those guys worked on their own equipment. So they knew when they wrecked it, they had to fix it.

The other reason is this Next Gen car, the front bumper assembly is so strong that when you go to spin somebody out or move them, we used to be able to move people and hit them in the left rear and you move them up the track. Now the cars are so strong, you’ve got to hit them hard and move them out of the way. Like if you watch Martinsville, they can’t move each other. The front bumper used to be where you hit somebody, that lifted him up because the bumpers didn’t match up real good. If the front bumper hit the rear bumper underneath, it lifted them up, made them light.

Years ago, if you hit somebody, you would knock the radiator out of the car. You had to be careful moving them because you’d ruin your own race car. Nowadays, they’re so strong you can just knock the hell out of them and you’ve got to hit them so hard to spin them out.

8. In your career, what is the deal that came closest to happening that ended up not working out?

There was a moment I thought we were going to get Crown Royal as a sponsor. It was going to be a big deal. It was going to be with the No. 27 car (Eel River Racing) that had Viagra and Barry Dodson was my crew chief. We had Crown Royal and we asked NASCAR to approve it and they wouldn’t approve it (hard alcohol sponsorships were not permitted at the time).

Another one that was OK but emotional is when Steve Park got hurt. I got in that Pennzoil car and it saved my career. We set quick time at Rockingham and ran second but got beat on short-pitting. And it was like, “Is Steve Park ready to come back or not?” And then he came back and it ended up being the end of his career. I so badly wanted another year in that car and I so badly wanted Steve to recover.

The third one is I got word Andy Petree didn’t believe in my driving anymore (at the end of 2000). We’d just run second to (Dale) Earnhardt (Sr.) at Talladega. And it hurt my feelings so bad that I quit. Andy called me up and he said, “Let’s just forget everything that happened. You just continue driving the car.” I was so upset that I said, “Nope, I’m gone.” The older Kenny would have forgiven him because the older Kenny has learned men just say things. It’s a big boy sport and people’s feelings are going to get hurt. But I had already pulled the plug.

9. Who is a person you would be starstruck by when meeting them?

Elon Musk. … Just forget about politics and forget about Republican or Democrat, I just think (Musk) is so smart. And I’ve always been fascinated by weird or different people.

Advertisement

10. What is the single most important skill a race car driver can possess?

God-given talent. In other words, I had to make myself a race car driver. I had to practice at it. I had to hone my skills for what I have. Then you look at guys like Jeff Gordon, who never worked on a race car. I love him to death and he’s my brother, but I don’t think he’s ever used a wrench in his life. Kyle Larson (who often says he doesn’t know how the cars work). These drivers are gifted by God. That’s the single most unbelievable component a driver can have.

Now, let’s say you don’t have God-given talent. What’s the single most important thing you can possess? It’s to study the sport. Don’t ignore things. Take it all in. I’ll argue this until the day I die: I think Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott are good, because as babies, they watched their dads race and they sucked it all in. It became them. It could be in the genes, too.

11. What life lessons from a young age stick with you and affect your daily decisions as an adult?

You will never see my last dollar. My mom never wants to hear this, but we grew up marginally poor. We ate baloney and cheese sandwiches and Braunschweiger. And mom and dad worked, but Dad spent all his money on the race car. Mom did the best she could for me. My first motorcycle, my mom put on layaway. She paid a certain amount of money per month and I counted the months and days down.

I’ve been given two compliments in my life that made me feel so good about myself. One of my original car owners, Filbert Martocci, looked me in the face one day and said, “You’re one of the best drivers with his money I’ve ever employed.” And then my brother Rusty was doing an interview with Martin Kilcoyne, our Channel 2 sports reporter (in St. Louis), and Martin was trying to play with Rusty and say, “Kenny’s funny. Kenny’s goofy.” And all of the sudden, Rusty got real serious and said, “Hold on. Herman knows what he’s doing. He’s smart and he’s really good with his money.” That’s probably the No. 1 thing my brother Rusty has ever said about me that made me so happy.

So one thing I learned as a kid is you will never see my last dollar; I saved all that money because of how we grew up. I’ve still got all my NASCAR money and all my Fox TV money. I invested it properly. I was never talented enough to be a Jeff Gordon, so as much as I was disappointed, I had to make it up in other ways. I put all my kids through college and bought them all their new cars. I like to supply for my family as good as I can.

12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last one I did was with Scott McLaughlin, the IndyCar driver. He says, “What separated you and Rusty? What did you do better, what did he do better and what could you combine to make the ultimate Wallace brother?”

Oh, that’s easy. First of all, Rusty’s got God-given talent. He’s just good. And what we could combine to make us better? It’s already happened. I can make Rusty a little nicer to people and a little more understanding. Rusty gets mad at me because people like me. And then he has taught me and given me some big shortcuts. The reason I’m good at Martinsville is because of him. The reason I’m good at Bristol is because of him.

Rusty got so mad at me about Martinsville. He goes, “See that curb? I don’t care what you’ve got to do, don’t let the car come off that curb.” And then at Bristol, he taught me some great driving techniques. I won an Xfinity race at Bristol and I sat on a Cup pole there. And I won two Xfinity races at Martinsville and sat on a Cup pole there. So Rusty gave me his shortcuts.

Advertisement

It’s kind of funny because I’m 59 years old and this just recently happened to where me and Rusty now finally talk to each other normally. He’s not chewing my ass out 24/7 anymore. (Laughs)

The next interview I’m doing is with Alex Palou, the Indy 500 driver and points leader. Do you have a question I might be able to ask him?

I just recently watched Graham Rahal have to go through the excruciating pain of missing the Indianapolis 500. How does a driver overcome something like that? How long does it take and what techniques would you use?

(Photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)