The Talent Tank

EP 37 Chip MacLaughlin

• Chip MacLaughlin • Episode 49

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A play on the triumph and losses in performance and life.  The Talent Tank podcast will navigate the inner workings of lifestyle, lives, family, teams, careers, programs, and technology in and around the offroad motorsports industry.  What breeds success with your Talent Tank on full, failures when its on empty.  From the journey to the Starting Line to take that Green Flag, on to exploring trials and tribulations on and off the track in pursuit of victorious achievement and the Checkered Flag.

#ChipHappens 
Well it finally happened on The Talent Tank.  We stepped in it fully, or it fully hit the fan. On this episode we moved this Texan, one of the funniest guys in ULTRA4 Racing from side chick to show pony.  Chip MacLaughlin the  driver of the # 4 Unlimited 4400 car of Rufus Racing @rufusracingtx did a cannonball into the tank, and we are so glad he did.  From practical jokes, burning down trucks, running at the front of the pack, popping motors, with a heavy dose of philanthropy and figuring out what really matters when you are faced with the worst adversities in life.  While we didn't talk about HOA's with Chip, he's well versed and hence this episodes "After the Checkered Flag".  Enjoy!

After the Checkered Flag-
Important Tips to Avoid Being Taken Advantage of By An Abusive HOA Board & Underhanded Property Management Company:
-DOCUMENT & SAVE ALL communication and correspondence. Keep letters , emails, faxes, text messages, and record phone calls where legal. Texas is a “one-party consent” state, meaning only ONE party in a recorded conversation has to consent. Please check the applicable laws of your state or the one you’re calling to.
-Know what your Texas HOA rights are by law. Read and get an understanding of the Texas Property Codes, CC&R’s (Convenants, Conditions & Restrictions), By-Laws, and HOA Rules & Regulations. 
-Get familiar with debt collection laws. The Texas Debt Collection Act, Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Texas Third Party Collections spell out Do’s and Don’ts for debt collectors.
-Organize! Talk to your neighbors and get connected with the Nextdoor app. Chances are, you are NOT THE FIRST or only homeowner to experience HOA abuse of power by your Board members. Go to your HOA meetings. Come up with an action plan to remove unscrupulous HOA Board members and property managers that don’t know the law or intentionally side-step it. Run for office so that you and your neighbors can make the community friendly decisions. As board members, you can control where the money is going and make sure that your neighbors stay in the loop through effective communication tools. 
-Be patient and civil. Give your HOA Board and property management company a chance to right their wrongs. If you have exhausted all means to resolve your HOA issue before litigation but are still faced with unjust actions, then you may have a reason to sue your HOA.

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Intro/Outro:

Let's drop the green flag on this episode of the talent tank podcast with your host Wyatt Pemberton bringing you the best, fastest, most knowledgeable personalities and Ultra4 for and off road racing.

Wyatt Pemberton:

All right, all right. All right, here we go. Here we go. Everyone who dialed in today dial it up. Click den clicked on. Man. Another episode. This is the right after nationals Ultra4 nationals. As you guys saw when you clicked on the day we've got chip MacLaughlin, you know North Texas guy, philanthropist cancer survivor. prankster Texan. Driver, the number four Ultra4 4400. Car. Chip.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Welcome to the show. Answer. I'm so sorry, buddy. It has we keep talking every chapter. That's a good way to get it started. Man. Thank you for coming on, man. You've had a copy of so many good stories. I've known you for quite a while. But man, I hadn't had you on yet even though I've been excited because why?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Well, it's because you're gonna use me as your emergency contact and I don't know if that's a good thing for you or not. But yeah, it was your emergency backup.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, my break glass in case of emergency and the reason was, I mean just when you're trying to almost nearly live record you know, this thing is going to when people listen to this they're going to get caught when you record that obviously in the last week because the nationals and timing Yeah, we try to stay on the ball and sometimes just schedules don't work out. I mean, I've been known to get on a plane and go interview a guy jumped in a car and gunner got a couple guys you know just discussed it. But you Since you're here in Texas, it's an easy one. And we talked about and then to be honest, that actually becomes like offensive like, Oh, yeah, chips my backup, you know, and you're like, Fuck you. I'm not the backup. That's the that's the only word that's it. I know I dropped the F bomb. I know I did but that's the only one that fits there right

Chip MacLaughlin:

now I you know you're doing awesome show and you know just even be asked to be on it. And even to be the emergency contact is an honor. And you know, I'm just glad to be here. Glad to be racing and having fun.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well in I haven't dropped. You know, I didn't even lead in with that. You've broken your back. So there's like, leaving that open for broke back jokes. The whole rest of the episode. Oh, I did just drop it right there, didn't I?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Oh, well, my phone's going off. Matt Enochs is calling me.

Wyatt Pemberton:

God Matt Enochs Yeah, I mean, I was texting with him just a little bit ago. he's a he's a he's a proud American little North Texas guy with you. I think you know, you guys.

Chip MacLaughlin:

He lives like 30 minutes from me, I believe so which is scary. So you're an employee everywhere.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Your big spoon. He's little spoon.

Chip MacLaughlin:

We'll go with that. It's better for me.

Wyatt Pemberton:

We'll go with that. If you guys caught the live show this past weekend. You might have seen right off the start line pretty much in every single drone shot was mowed into the mowed in the field that said HPD JT you know Happy Birthday JT Taylor. that's who we're talking about. In Chip.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I'm not sure who did that.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Right. Right. Right. Rufus racing literally they're doing their race prep race it packed in there they pack a zero turn mower. This is planning this is prank prankster level next level

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, it was a that was Zandy and Diamonds idea Brad and I just happened to be the ones that executed it you know that we knew where we wanted to park was not where most of the racers Park and there might be tall grass so we thought now maybe we should bring we'd eat or something. And then he's like, No, we got the zero turn and this is what I think we should do. And I was like, that is the most brilliant thing I've ever heard in my life.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And if anyone caught the JT episode, which was back at Christmas for The Talent Tank JT was here with me at Christmas at my house. He spent Christmas with us and we love you know was was the title of director of race operations.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Right

Wyatt Pemberton:

something something really high level high

Chip MacLaughlin:

director birthdays

Wyatt Pemberton:

director birthday so my kids you know, they invaded the the recording while JT sitting across the desk from me and singing happy birthday because someone prompted him to

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, so funny since that trip, you know, he calls it windshield time. He calls everybody gets bored. He drives all over the country between Colorado and Florida. Yeah, he called me and I kind of put two and two together knew he was going there and knew he was gonna be on the program. And so I might have queued that up, but he doesn't call me anymore when he does that. I don't understand why.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, I wonder. You know, I actually didn't hear him say anything about about the mowing and the stuff in the mon into the field. But that is the thing about see you put it together. See, you've got a buddy that's kind of like that. You know, Brad Christianson. He's your co driver. You've known him most of your life. He saw me walking across that field carrying a talent tank interview kit and he put two and two together so he is fed me a ton of gotchas.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, I'm afraid. I kind of got wind that he had done that. And he laughed the whole time when he told me and it scares me

Wyatt Pemberton:

just giggling just giggling like, Oh, you know, I mean, they're good stuff. I mean, I mean, they really are like burning down trucks. I mean,

Chip MacLaughlin:

just one or two.

Wyatt Pemberton:

He is apparently the one that coined the #chiphappens.

Chip MacLaughlin:

He is well, yeah, it always happens to somebody else's that was leaving hammers, with Doug Jackson, I think in 18, Doug's last race, and we're sitting in that windstorm trying to get out of hammer town. And I'm Mike, it's getting hot in here. I'm gonna go get my shorts out of the trailer. And I opened Doug's bus in that when took that door and ripped it off the hinges. And Doug was just so mad. He just sat there. And then Brad's like chip happens. And it's stuck ever since.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, now it's even on your on your racecars like it's Oh yeah, yeah, it's um it's like on your visor on the above the windshield or it's not windshield What do you even call What do we call that in the that said

Chip MacLaughlin:

I don't know visor, roof whatever. I put it on there so we can distinguish because everybody gets Danny nice cars confused. So we put you up happens and if somebody messes something up well, I've got a bunch of stickers hidden in little turn up in good places

Wyatt Pemberton:

and places. When so an overdrive you know, they literally blow high pressure line on their tank.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Exactly. Oh, yeah. It's gonna chip happens sticker your, your talent tank is empty,

Wyatt Pemberton:

fully, fully empty, fully empty. Well, so let's let's dive into nationals. And there's a whole bunch of other stuff about you that we're going to talk about for the next hour and a half or two hours or however long we go. We'll get it all in there. But nationals were just coming off on they were just this past weekend. you qualify good at one point and you know, in the for car, it's an ifms tribe car built by Adam Scherer and his crew, there in a in Fort Worth. On corrected time. You were way up there. Number two, number three.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yep, yeah. Second, after lap a third after the B. And I had zero idea that we had gone that far. We started 16th, I believe.

Wyatt Pemberton:

But to finish first, you must first finish. Right?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Exactly. And that was that was our plan. I was listening to Alan's deal. And I was messing with him. I was like, it's gonna be checkers wreckers. I guess I forgot to put up blowing up but yeah, I came in, you know, we came into nationals. 10th, Brad and I did and a number for car. And I had a mission. I wanted to be top five and overall points. So I mean, I did my homework showed up early. We marked the course walked the qualifying course, which I've never really done. And so I was going for it. And you know, things just happen now to be your control.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And so what took you out was you lost the motor, but it was a it was you know, old pressure, you lost oil pressure. And then that took you out. So what's all the what's the story around that?

Chip MacLaughlin:

So it's a dry sump motor. I had had some issues with the oil light coming on, you know, under heavy braking or jumps when I'm getting out of the gas up in a jump. And so I'm used to light blinking just instantly and coming right back off, and I started doing it, but I started doing it more frequently. And I kept asking Brad, dude, we got bowl pressure, because Yeah, well, he kept coming on more and more. And in that motek system with like a Christmas tree and I'm like, are we gonna go the course and I think it gave me about two seconds, three seconds and it shut me down. As Diamond would put it when I started it sound like a 1980s heavy metal band. So we were out

Wyatt Pemberton:

like a drum full of rocks.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Exactly. It was it was unfortunate.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Then, and then Zandy. So this is team Rufus, Rufus racing North Texas. You guys are multi car team. You guys have I mean, how many 4400 cars you guys have no, three.

Chip MacLaughlin:

So we own three we only race two. Okay. I call it the Tribe16 Collector's Edition, because all of them are tribes. It seems like one tribe card was up for sale. We buy it. So the number four is on Doug Jackson's old car to solid axle car which I raced in Tennessee this year. And then Alex Wackers IFS car that we bought right after nationals last year and then Zandy's got a nightmare that Keanan Leatherwood used to race.

Wyatt Pemberton:

That's right Keanan's and then that car Kenyans old car nightmare went to the Demolition Ranch filler, right DemolitionMatt. Yep. Demolition Matt and then it came back up to North Texas, right? Exactly. Yeah, I should look this up. What's Sandy's number? Your 4

Chip MacLaughlin:

24

Wyatt Pemberton:

He's 24.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. Are they on the you? UTV class. He's number four. Because 24 was taken and I took another available UTV number to just harass 4400 guy I got the number 13

Wyatt Pemberton:

Oh,yeah, yeah, yeah. So JT Taylor, imagine that like they,

Chip MacLaughlin:

I? What, what are the odds, right.

Wyatt Pemberton:

So this whole, you know, broke back in JT. Crush. This is really pulling in JT's favor here, Chip, this is not looking good for you.

Chip MacLaughlin:

You know, that dude is one of the coolest dudes I've ever met. And I love harassing him and it comes back. I mean, the, the Happy Birthday thing. You know, we started at Sacramento, he we saw him and Dave and the 4400 group coming in, you know, employees to come to their, you know, employee meeting or whatever, for dinner. And as grown up as a kid, my parents always used to embarrass us and say, you know, saying Happy Birthday getting the can put whipped cream on your face. And we came up with the idea to do JT and it has happened at every race. It's got a life of its own now actually.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, man, you guys. I mean, just getting him I mean, sometimes and he is a great guy. I do need to tell a quick Ultra4 JT Dave story from this past weekend, because I think it's important to everybody, you know, I've been and you know, and everyone listening knows I've been fairly I've been critical of Ultra4 when it comes to timing, and in running races and, and being being able to hang their hat on the results. Not I'm not gonna miss one. I haven't mince words about prior to, you know, Moab, you know, before they brought in USAC. So we we had, you know, the just fiasco a couple fiascos last year, the fiasco K, ah, this year, the stuff in Tennessee, I mean, it's been I've been critical and I'm, I mean, I own that I absolutely I have I've held their feet to the fire. And so in nationals, I, you know, normally at a race, I'll go jump in the truck with a with Dave during, you know, during race Ops, and that's usually you. In this case, it's JT and the F 450. The red one that they've got sitting there, JT in the driver's seat, Dave in the passenger seat, just run a race often I just sit in the backseat. And normally, you know, I've done this, you know, numerous races, but this one, this one was particularly You know, it was good. I was in there quite a while just watching the lead changes watching guys come across watching. Well, there had been a problem in, in the UTV race with timing. And then there being another problem in the EMC race with timing. And those guys, you know, that they gone down Johnson, Allen, walked the issue over to the F 450. Talk to JT, Dave, you know, to listen to it, and walked away and Dave seseri pops up his laptop, he already had an opening, went to the right files, started just walking it through the tracker walking out through the yellow brick walk on through timing. And then he radioed down to the time trailer, print me out all the stuff for this car. And it was a in this case, it was the sage in the UTV race. And the difference was, it actually changed the the national outcome, the National outcome of that, because of this issue, and the points were made. And, you know, I've been in that truck for a couple hours. I was like, You know what, I'm out of here. And no kid,

Chip MacLaughlin:

Tommy's been an issue. And you know, I haven't been, you know, very vocal about it. I have been with, you know, honestly, with JT and Dave, because, honestly, in Kentucky and Tennessee last year, I was affected, you know, Brad and I in our car were affected Tennessee, we were pulled off a lab early. And, you know, mistakes happen, the guys are doing the best they can and with what they have in, you know, Dave came in gave me a solution. And I agreed with it. And, you know, we went on our day, you know, not everything would be perfect, but I respect what those guys do. And listening to Dave and some of his ideas on the drivers meeting this past weekend. We're going some cool places, and he's realizing, you know, he can't do everything. I mean, I'm one of those guys. It's like, I wanted to make sure I do it because it's going to be right. And you know, with the race team and work and everything else, you just kind of cast it back and Dave's done that I was really surprised to hear he's gonna take off after hammers for the rest of the year that did that shocked me as well. But I get it right. He's he's actually put some really great powerful people in the right places between you know, and it's a team. It is a total team between aliante and Ryan Thomas and Scott Hartman, and even Roxy merge and Alan Johnson and Travis Wall. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. You can't stop but I won't go back to this this USAC issue. Dave, Dave turns and turns, you know, in the seat and leans back goes, Oh, Oh, hell no, Wyatt.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah. No way. No way. You sit there, you listen to the SH t that that goes down, you say? And I'm like, that is frickin fair. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'll sit here. I listened to all of it. And then the whole it got to the point where you needed to go down to the timing trailer and have them walk through each each lap every time you and there was three, there was three timers for you to go across to this racers, three different segments. And so the times to walk down there and I could get it I could sit in the truck. I could get out and go elsewhere. And I got out and I said, Hey, I'm going down to the timing trailer. And I'm going to see this whole issue from cradle to grave from where it started to a resolution and went down there and those guys so I got to see exactly what went on in the time and trailer for and what they're looking at and how they're looking at it. And the fact that they have video of every single time a car trips, the wire right, so not only is the the transponder linking up with satellites in space and being logged, it's also being logged on video and they could roll the video for the back in the in the timestamp is identical. I mean, they are spot on. And we rolled through it. And yeah, as it turned out for let's say age, it was wrong. The way they'd set it up. They made it throw out any lap that was less than 10 minutes because they believe that was an error. And because he had missed was kind of what effective Bleiler, it's exactly what effective Bleiler and Bly are throwing away the national points title accidentally, you know, having to end up doing lat B twice because he missed the entrance to me. Because when you came off the short course you had to go left to a or right to B. And if

Chip MacLaughlin:

that happened to one of our guys, Malcolm in the UTV class, and then going back and watching the live feed when I got home, it happened Eric Miller too. And he was a he caught it in time where he could spin around a tree and go back but I mean, you put the visor down I mean, as JT says, you become stupid and you know that stuff happens.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I'll even add to that it's not just stupidity I don't think it's stupid. Well, I mean, it can be done wrong it can be but we're talking about Bleiler, you know, this guy is you know calculated. man he's in the national points contention one king of the hammers, he's won national points a year ago. So he's the current defending you know, the, the defender of the national points title. This guy knows it. I mean, he's, he's, he's the guy right now in my book, and, and he made all the right decisions. lap, you know, on lap one and lap two. And this is lap three made the mistake. So the thing for me is, you know, this is endurance, it's offroad endurance racing. Endurance also means the human it means the body it means mentally Are you beat up and this this course was, it was a hard course. No,

Chip MacLaughlin:

no, it was, you know, honestly, I liked this course more than any course we've had out there. Because, you know, we had what I call the desert section, which was a no, it was not a fast like, just in the sand. You could go fast. You were in the dust, but you had rock mines everywhere, you know, besides the Volkswagens. And you know, so you had to be calculated in technical there but go fast. Then looby had mud bog in Hill killin driving through river water crossings. I mean, you know, everything else that you don't get in the desert. So you know, as Ultra4 as the ultimate, you know, car that can do anything. This to me was the best test of that out of any of the races we've ever done. And the short course and it had short course a short intro course to Yeah, forgot about that part, too.

Wyatt Pemberton:

So yeah, what Haven't you brought it up lap? A it looks in people watched on video. It looks wide open open fields, there's no trees. But if you get a foot off a course, what's sitting there? You know,

Chip MacLaughlin:

it's funny because, you know, I raced This is my third time racing I first time I raced was with when I was go drive with Doug Jackson. He got sick, and I ended up having to fill in for him. That was the mud race. The first time we ever raced out there and there was cars sunk to the top of the door bars

Wyatt Pemberton:

Is that the one where it flooded? Also, everyone got you got trapped on one side or the other side of the entrance because you drive through pretty good water crossing to get into the park.

Chip MacLaughlin:

He could I mean, the night that, you know before when we're supposed to have qualifying that that's when the tornadoes came through. And Brad and I are actually sitting in Doug's race trailer and we could hear the sirens going off and I said, Look, if there's a tornado comment, I said, we're strapping into the car. And if the trailer starts flipping, I'm firing it and we're going out of the back of this trailer. I was like, I think that's the safest place we could be because I think that's a brilliant idea.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, roll cage.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Exactly. So that the next year when I raced the car as me being the driver, I came up on Shannon Campbell on the last lap. And Chetan can hear the best. And you know, he didn't pay attention to other people and I come up behind him. He had no brakes. Did the siren Brad's like just pass on? Like, I'm not getting out of this to track because there's going to be a Volkswagen it's going to take us out. So I nudged Shannon Campbell, which probably the worst mistake I've ever done in my life. He moved over. And he returned the favor because he thought I was like some pumps just seeing me wounded. I'm going to show him well. He forgot he had no brakes. And he came to the back of my car and ripped his front wheel off and peanut was riding with me and he goes, I've never seen you drive so fast. And like I won't get hit by Shannon Campbell again. And I did not want to get out of those two tracks.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And they had one of the funniest stories I heard out of this race was Waylon overshot overshot a turn shot off he got kind of high centered hit a rock he was Ill throw it in reverse and just as he's thrown in reverse Brian Croft you know is soon to be fall brother in law brother in law comes with a rise in just hits him and he just smokes him in the back.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I I saw the aftermath, I thought he blew a radiator or something. But what he does, I guess he moved a bar so I'm going to shorted the winch out and it started a fire. So when he came by and he had a bunch of smoke coming out of the front, it looked like radiator but it was actually electrical fire.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Oh man see, I didn't know about electrical fire. But that does make sense from from what I saw. And then Shannon, he didn't have a you know, he broke some stuff. It was whittled down devil slide to I will say this. Ryan Miller driving for Bailey completed every between Bailey and he completed every mile in 4400 this season.

Chip MacLaughlin:

That is you know, a feat. That was one of my goals. And when we were in Moab, I had my steering rack lose no ring for miles from the finish. And it put me out. And I was like, man, I just mean granted with what happened at this race. We wouldn't have made it either. But I was I was still on the hunt when we were in Moab right up to the last lap. And I think that says a lot. You know, only two people out of I mean, how many we haven't hammers over 100 Yeah, right at 100. So two people gleep you know did every lap This shows how hard this racing is.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Who was the other car there was another car that did it. It wasn't Bailey and Ryan did it in Bailey's car. There was another car listed. I and Danny was Bailey. Cool. Was it Bailey? It was maybe it was Bailey. Cool. I don't know. No, no, no, no. Well, I don't know. Did they count? I guess they're not counting Brandon.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Well, once race you know, that's different. He went fishing on that one.

Wyatt Pemberton:

He did you know it'd be one that watched the qualifying on Friday of the 4400 race at Nationals. His pit crew Awesome. Awesome crew guys I mean just outstanding. Travis took and put colored cellophane I guess over his cow lights. So he had read on the passenger side green on the driver side. So it was like a boat. Yeah, right red right returning and so beautiful. It was very obvious until he fired up the ambers. As soon as the amber fog. You know, Amber floods came on, right? It washed out the red you really couldn't tell. But from a side angle as the car was going. Yeah, it looked like a boat. Like you could see the red and the green. It was

Chip MacLaughlin:

that you know, I'm glad we could sit here and laugh about that because that was a very scary event. And he's taking it like a champ. And there's a lot of different ways that outcome you know, could have ended in it happened the best way but, you know, for us to be able to make jokes about it and and do that. I think that's great because it shows the resilience of our guys and you know, we keep going any race the car the next day.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Insanity motors fine. Yeah, yeah. motors fine. Well, let's, uh, I mean, granted, last weekend nationals was was very good. It's really sad to see the 2021 season come to a close. I mean, sorry, the 2020 season coming close. Well, I told Dave I was thankful.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, right. Like, Hey, I'm in a time warp. Get out of this crap.

Wyatt Pemberton:

I haven't had to tell Dave after awards, I said, Man, I really you Congratulations. I really think you guys did a very very good job making lemonade out of lemons this year has been total crap. And based on where all the races were scheduled, and Reno not being able to let them go without more than a week's notice and all that that was that this team with Ultra4 was able to look around and pivot. I think that's the key word of 2020 is pivot when it comes to businesses and they did very as best as you could and the racers stuck through it and showed up and you got Moab you got here. I think Ultra4 did a great job as critical as and I am a person who is critical of them. I will say that the the timing issues and what I saw from USAC I don't know if that my stamp of approval means anything but I did watch the let's say GE issue go from beginning to resolution and the driver lists he was happy with this the outcome they was happy the outcome and me I got a high level of confidence and now what that program looks like to make it work and I have confidence in it now so where I'll tell you I had no confidence in timing which makes you look like a laughingstock and makes you know sponsors and companies not believe really don't believe the results. You know, if if I put my mind behind the guy, you know,

Chip MacLaughlin:

and you want it you know we pay a lot of money to go do this and you know, I kind of take 2020 for Ultra4 it's kinda like a reset. We got to try some things that we've never done before. You know where we got to go racing moabit area bfhi which has been typically closed off and so you know, we got to try different things. nationals in Oklahoma Who would have ever thought we were going to be racing nationals of Oklahoma? To me that was an advantage to me over Reno because you guys like Vaughn getting and Lauren and Levi and Shannon Campbell the guys have a lot of short course, you know, that plays in their favor and Reno levels the playing field when we got all these other things we you know, hundred and 10 miles or 105 miles, whatever it was that changes things a lot.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Absolutely. Well, it was good stuff. Well, hey, let's say let's get out of current affairs real quick and jump into the chip show. And let's let's talk about you North Texas guy. You grew up, I believe in the Plano area.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Is that right? I was actually born in Houston. I live in Houston till second grade and then moved to the Plano and that's where I lived till I graduated high school

Wyatt Pemberton:

in that said about Houston. So I never really said You know, we've met you know, so I've known you basically from pirate from back to the archaic days of pirate back in the early 2000s. But when right when did we actually first meet physically in person, it's only been the last couple years,

Chip MacLaughlin:

the first time that you and I were actually in the same place together was at Spring Creek and I think it was a mohawk race. And I blame you for competing against Kelly Kaiser on selling or ice drugs because you come out of the corner net triple nickel car and I'm like, how is that dude not flip it over? And I went over looked I was like, What are these ory things and so in my brilliant do like Well, I'm gonna start selling them. And so that's that was

Intro/Outro:

Oh, oh 90809

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, that car. I remember racing. So we racing the hammers oh nine in that car. And then the mo rock thing came up and they gave me a hard time like, hey, this race is basically local Houston. I mean, for me, I think it was an hour drive. Or ish. I can't skip a race like that. But I hadn't prep the car. The car was still exactly how it was a king. And I actually timed out I'd actually broke the chassis at one. At some point we had it welded on course. Then Then so when we got we got shut down at a checkpoint. Well, I drove as fast as I drove race speed all the way back to main pits and put it in the trailer. I was pissed off. The car was still in great shape except for I broke this you know this this chassis point? Well, so yeah, we still had hammers dust on it. We raced it on my rock, but I don't remember meeting you there. But I do remember it. Oh,

Chip MacLaughlin:

I don't know if we met you and I were virtual friends and I even had been to your house to give you you know, deliver a bunch of tubing.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, I bought this deal from you. I bought, you know, inch and three quarter deal. Yeah.

Chip MacLaughlin:

And when I had Pringle fat, well, I still have Pringles Yeah, but that's when I actually had my shop. And it

Wyatt Pemberton:

was funny. Like, I was like, I can't I'm not gonna be there. I can't be there like, Oh, it's fine. So my wife comes home like there's a piles of pipe in our yard. In the driveway is like Oh, yeah, yeah. Chips been there. No, man. But when you when a friend? Yeah,

Chip MacLaughlin:

yeah, we met physically. It was around the fire and hammers, I think two years ago.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, it so it seems crazy that you know, what's called a 15 year relationship. Online boyfriends. You know, online boyfriends you always go. It didn't feel like you were a stranger to me. It was just we just physically haven't been in the same room together. It's like, you know, it's like 2020. But zoom calls.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Exactly. We just gave each other crap and person has to

Wyatt Pemberton:

overpower it, or Facebook or whatever. It was salt. So you were born here in Houston. And then you ended up up in North Texas? Correct. And then you you graduate. Were you in Plano during the whole black tar heroin.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Era right after me. And, you know, I was fortunate I. So I tell people I grew up in Plano during the week. And in my family. We have 1000 acres just outside of Dallas, near near nocona, Texas. So finance school, me and my buddies would load up and truck and we go in the ranch. So I wasn't in Plano a lot during the weekend. And, you know, I'm thankful for my parents that we got that experience where I didn't get into the drugs and you know, it was bad. I had no I was clueless. It happened right about the time that I graduated and was really bad after I left, not because I left

Wyatt Pemberton:

I hang out in college. I dated a girl that was uh, that was from Plano and that's she, you know, this is the late 90s at this point, and she brought the whole black tar heroin thing up and I was like, What are you talking like, you know, at that point, small town, Kansas paila, Kansas, me and Myles and Kelly Kaiser? Like, like,

Chip MacLaughlin:

yeah, that you probably should have had some black cars.

Wyatt Pemberton:

It's booming metropolis. Now Penn was pretty famous. You know, uh, you know, there's there's quite actually quite a few famous people from that little Burg. It's a kind of 10 a little ridiculous how many famous people are from that little town but that aside, so yeah, your dad, your mom, you guys had this ranch north of town north of north of the DFW Metroplex. And you guys got out there all the time, right.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, we think Dad, Mom and Dad bought it, probably, I think was 8283. So I was about 10. And, you know, I was driving at nine cars and on motorcycles at seven So that's where we went. And that was our haven dad would. The rule was as long as we stayed on the ranch, we were good. And we push that envelope a lot. But there's a lot of good things that came from that I learned how to weld and build things and drive tractors. And, you know, I'd say they live during the week and ranch life on the weekend. And I couldn't ask for anything better.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And I mean, looking at yourself, and you listen to town tank and other guys and just known other guys and Ultra4 isn't it really crazy the parallels that we can draw from, like the collective stories that are so similar, and that the fact that now we're, you know, for 30, you know, 2030 4050, even 60 year old guys out racing like that, the parallels, they're so similar, like, all on dirt bikes. 45678 910, you know, farm kids are learning how to fix it, or dad was a mechanic and teaching us everything. It's so insane that you're birds of a feather flock together doesn't matter the age. Right?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Right. You know, and that's where, you know, like, today's generation, I worry is like, we're out on the ranch. We didn't have internet and TV. I mean, we had TV, but on the ranch, we didn't have telephones out there. And so, you know, you breaks up, but you got to figure it out. Might not fix it the right way. But you know, it got done. And I can even think back that chip happens way back then by ripping barn doors at dad's barn or dropping hay bales on the highway or, you know, whatever. So, I mean, but those are valuable lessons. I mean, most people learn from making mistakes.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And that's why I feel today, man, like my own son, you know, I he's not experienced in that, you know, I left the farm. You know, I got away from that I'm living suburban American. He knows how to swing a baseball bat way better than I could. But outside of that,

Chip MacLaughlin:

well, where you live and you know, I'm familiar with, you know, Sugar Land in that area, but the hurricanes and things like that. Should be a good swimmer and be able to rebuild a house. Yeah. Have y'all been hit by a hurricane?

Wyatt Pemberton:

Or get it roofing? How crazy is this? We're today is 1028 when we're recording this, you know, to a couple days for Halloween? Yo, you guys are gonna listen to this MC Well, obviously last week, a hurricane came ashore. Two hours ago, Southeast in New Orleans. Yeah. How nuts is that? hurricane Zaida? Yeah, it was a cat two even. That's

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, you know, I left. I mean, kind of jumping around a little bit. I left Plano right after high school ended up at a&m and Galveston for a couple years. But ultimately, I ended up in New Orleans and graduated University in New Orleans for in spent 10 years there. And, you know, here I'm reading this week on Facebook, you know, one of their turbines power turbines has gone down. That means it can't run all the pumps. So you know, they're closing the floodgates and stuff today and granted it's only a cat two but you know bourbon streets I think six or eight foot below sea level. So the rest of the areas around there I mean, work the Hurricanes Katrina and you know with my job I've been all the hurricane you know, rescued stuff and seen some pretty scary things over cat to Hurricane go on and on. And that's kind of scary to me. That's living there now.

Wyatt Pemberton:

It kept catoosa you know, up to 115 miles an hour. I mean, that's what that's all that will mess something up.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, it's not really the the winds it's you know, Norland it's all about the flooding.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Oh, that's what it was. storm surge man. Yeah, just push pushes all the way to Mississippi. And then everything there the punch train and everything there in the swamps around there. Yeah, something else, man. Well, I will see what tomorrow looks like for those guys. But

Chip MacLaughlin:

yeah, Doug Jackson will be busy with Operation airdrop, and which is just a cool organization. And, you know, started because of the hurricanes. We've been a part of that. And so I'm here to talk to him tomorrow. See what see what we can do.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, so I absolutely gonna go and do the philanthropy work of, of chip, because that's a full line item of the things that you've done and that you do and you do on a regular basis. But uh, I'll jump into Uh, yeah, man. Ed, your wife, you guys, both cancer survivors. Yes, sir. Right. think she's five years.

Chip MacLaughlin:

She 911 was her five year anniversary of being cancer free from stage three breast cancer.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And then she did she have the double mastectomy?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, she she only had to have one But okay, it was safer to go ahead and just do both and have reconstructive and Ms. She had a hell of a fight chemo and radiation. And it was a it was a hard battle. And through though,

Wyatt Pemberton:

and then out of that, though, she refused. If I heard the story here, right now, I could obviously you know, Brad, you know, he's my background guy, you know, and so and so and there's some other bill that may be wrong here, but you guys got engaged, but then she refused to marry you if she didn't have hair. Correct. I love this woman. Well let

Chip MacLaughlin:

you know it was one of the things she went bought a wig when she first got it, and I looked at it, I'm like, that's just horrible. Don't wear that wig. It. She was the most beautiful bald person I've ever met in my life. And she rocked it. I mean, we go to concerts or whatever, and she'd get freaked out because people would touch her head. It was like weird for them. You know, she owned it. And, you know, that was our fight. We made it very public. I was even at Nationals. I had gone up there to support the twisting monkey guys, and Lauren and Shannon and Bailey Campbell. And we got all the racers to go through. And we made a video over because she couldn't come up there. She just had a double mastectomy and everyone wished her well. It was a pretty cool emotional video just to have all the Ultra4 people support her and we took an Ultra4 shirt and everybody signed it. And she came back and cried when we gave it to her. She's got it in her Memory Box today.

Wyatt Pemberton:

That's our family, right? Yeah. That's, uh, we got to take care of each other. So you got you guys getting married. You know how many years ago is this now? Three years ago.

Chip MacLaughlin:

So we got married three and a half years ago. We plan the whole wedding in like two weeks. We're driving back from Houston. My daughter lives down in Houston. She's like, Alright, I'm ready. I'm like, for what? She has to get married. I'm like, Don't tease me. It was like, you know, she could just pick the date. Well, April Fool's Day was two weeks later. So we get married on April Fool's Day, which is pretty fitting for you.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Right? Yeah. Spot on.

Chip MacLaughlin:

And then know if there was a real wedding or if it could come casual or get married on the ranch. It was quite entertaining. And I even made it look like I got arrested on our wedding day. And most people saw through it. But if you didn't, if you didn't like my mother,

Wyatt Pemberton:

and then what was the point where you were diagnosed with prostate cancer?

Chip MacLaughlin:

So we got married April 1, I don't have I was talking about the hurricanes. I was loading my truck up with the I was gonna borrow boat and I was coming down to Houston to help with a hurricane and all the names. So was this 17 for Harvey? Yep, goes for Harvey. That's exactly what it was. And I'm loading at seven o'clock in the morning and in my doctor called. And he was like, hey, I need you to come in. I'm like, dude, I'm I'm leaving. I'm headed Houston to go help recovery because you have cancer. You I was hoping that I was calling tell you, you didn't have it, but you really need to come in. And that was a probably one of the worst days of my life turned out well, and so I just postponed my, my drip two days. And that's actually when Doug Jackson and I and a number of other people came up with the operation airdrop was that week.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And before we close out the you know, close out the cancer thing. All of this because, you know the philanthropy in operation airdrop is super important to me as well as the you guys went through, you know, uni gone through divorces and you know, just adversity upon adversity and in the fact that you guys find each other finding love, you know, in your 40s is hard. I mean, the dating scene in the way, by the way, mounting the scene, the way that people date today and meet people day is just it's frickin foreign to me. Like Yeah, it's insane. It's like if it's, it's online only, like if it's weird, like I think you met at like a Mexican food restaurant. But that's, that is like a minority story today. Like that doesn't happen.

Chip MacLaughlin:

It's not magic calm or, you know, any of these other dating websites. I was innocently sitting came into a bar and the rest of the bar at the restaurant, and she was in category and we were talking to the waiter who knew the bartender knew both of us and juice all stories about her daughter and her and I just started talking and that's where it went. So it was what three that was in 13th 2013.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Was she involved at all in ultra light novel for just off with off roading? Did she GPG anything or did you just this just freshly plucked her out of the her like out of out of gin pop? You plucked her I remember during that

Chip MacLaughlin:

time I took her for a ride my car, she's like you do What? And I took her for a ride and we're out the ranch and I went to go up this ledge and she goes, we're going up that my gal she screamed, and she's like, I want to do that again. I said well cool, because we're going to dirt Riot nationals in Bridgeport in a couple weeks. So I took her to that. And this is a funny story and I'm going to get a lot of trouble for telling the story. We just met pipe date a couple months, three months, Brad and I are in my old Jimmy's football four car with our eyes, racing bridge board and I have an issue. I didn't hook up the steam ports on the LS motor correctly. I just kept them off. They had no idea that you had to reroute that stuff. I mean, that's how far back we go. So I'm walking around the pits and she's sitting there reading a book of all things and Got sunglasses on and I see her eyes over sunglasses as she's watching somebody walk by. And I watch it and I'm laughing is Andrew McLaughlin Andrews walking. He's got no shirt on back when Andrew was working out. I'm like, What are you doing?

Unknown:

She's nothing.

Chip MacLaughlin:

McGlothin and I'm like, Look, I spell my last name the right way with ma si. He spells it wrong. It's MC. So you got to be with me. So that was our first race ever was it out there dirt ride in Bridgeport finals.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Because always fun those stories funny when you know, you've talked to a guy who brings a spouse now spouse or fiance or whatever, and they had nothing to do with anything off road and then like, wait, you get in your truck and trailer and you drive to California race and then you go to Pennsylvania and race and then you go to UCLA? Who does that?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, exactly. And what was even funnier is, you know, last year we go out, you know what, Doug Jackson keep bringing Doug's name up. But Doug and I and Brad and Sandy and Andrew mcglothlin, and his wife and Chris Shaw from access and all this. wriggle out down to the

Wyatt Pemberton:

bailing. Yeah, you guys were sailing together.

Chip MacLaughlin:

You might have been given me some antics to upset. People repeat, but I kept telling us what she's like, we just stopped telling that story. Because Andrew and his wife were there. And like, of course, I'm gonna tell a story. It was great.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Made Andrews day, Port 80. Now, uh, yeah, well, I mean, we'll bounce to that. Well, you anyone that listens to this and knows me. I love the sailing. I have no idea why, or how it's just, it's now I feel like it's my thing. And I owe it all to Doug Jackson. I owe it all over for you know, like our group, our family. You know, I've shared a boat with Dave Cole and his ex wife. So I've

Chip MacLaughlin:

Well, we owe a lot of the rules because of you and Dave Cole and Shannon Campbell and Terry Madden and play dance in the side of the boat. And, you know, yeah, we got shut down a bunch. Because like, Hey, I know what group you came from.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Oh, yeah, I know the genesis of where you came from. So yeah, the last time we were down there, we took a bunch of folks from my neighborhood. And one thing we did in just vandyke in the bvis swim over at night, little little SEAL Team 40 Plus, yep, little roll of duct tape. And you know where the bow lines come down off either side of the of the of the catamaran and they go through a more involved so it's one rope from one side the boat goes down to the more inbound comes back up and the boat just kind of stays there. mord up. Well, what we did was pulled those lines together for about 18 inches and wrapped duct tape around them right at the ball. Yeah, so so so this is this is this is pretty sweet. Like Well, what exactly that is just duct tape. Well, in the morning when they got on there, the two got two guys walked up and they just undo it off the cleats and they throw the rope to get off the morning ball and guess what that rope takes it back go back go through the eyelet slick still right there still hung

Chip MacLaughlin:

up. You gave me that idea and we had a the night before you gave me that idea to do that to Doug and we actually had snuck on their boat. Clay Gill strap was down there Chris Shaw. They were on this boat we had gotten on their boat while they were eating dinner installed Melinda Jackson's amen flag. Oh, get off our boat, put it on our sail and went back and we're very obvious and they're like, Oh, we caught you. You're not getting away with anything. I'm like, you have no idea what we've done. And yeah, it's the prank wars out there just as bad as Kingdom hammers.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, somewhere in there. They get their cell phone they get they're circling back to Yeah, the the Cancer man, you guys went through like this massive amount of adversity, you know, with with marriage and kids and putting together the, the Brady Bunch with your kids and EDS kids and then her going through cancer and you being you know, the rock for her through that. And then you also getting cancer. I mean, cancer. I mean, that's the only word but cancer. Yeah.

Chip MacLaughlin:

It's like we couldn't get away from it. And internet. It was bad news. It was rough on us. And I mean, actually only we almost took our marriage. I mean, I can't say I can't blame it on cancer, but just the emotions and the physical changes for both of us. I mean, it's it's, it's not a pretty disease. I'd like to find, you know, here that they find a cure for it. I was fortunate that I caught mine early on accident. I have ADD and take medicine and they found out my bloodwork. I had no symptoms and you know they're like okay, we're gonna do a biopsy and I'll call you in a week and say, yeah, you don't have cancer. Well, they caught me in a week and said not only do you have cancer, we got to get you in like now and I ended up having stage two prostate cancer. The youngest one of my doctors ever diagnosed

Wyatt Pemberton:

Oh man

Chip MacLaughlin:

48 said, I guess the most powerful thing he told me in the recovery part of it, you know, I guess the when you're 50 is when you're supposed to get your prostate checked. But you know, that's the kind of the Golden Age. He goes, if you would have waited like, doctors tell you he was you wouldn't have made it. And that was pretty eye opening sobering to hear.

Wyatt Pemberton:

I mean, meant there was a reason, right? There's something you hear about those. I mean, somebody somebody's kind of looking out for you. You guys have now been together. How long you been married? I think I asked you sorry. But three and a half years? Yeah, three and a half years. Yeah. But you've been together a lot longer than that. That's a, that's something else. And we've seen Ed this weekend. Good times. She is definitely fun. She keeps you a she keeps you square content. I say attempts to I shouldn't say she does.

Chip MacLaughlin:

She tries her best. I mean, she's short. But she's mighty. As I say,

Wyatt Pemberton:

here's the thing that shocked me about you. And I would have never guessed it that you are a mechanical engineer.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I am, you have an ni. The funny part is is I didn't go get my mechanical engineering degree to be an engineer. I wanted to understand how things worked, and how I could build things. Personally, I knew I didn't have the mentality, sit on a desk and be an engineer. And it was something I wanted to prove to myself and it was a hell of a ride, try to do it. It took me six, seven years to get it. I don't test Well, you know, in the classroom settings, where I'm sitting next to guys, and they're inventing formulas to come up with stuff. But now my senior design project was some called the mini baja and I had to float. Well, all these genius engineers that I'm friends with, didn't know how to weld or put a wheel on, you know, and so we're sharing a shop with like, the electrical engineers, they're building a solar car. Well, guess who built their solar car? I mean, they did all the connections and solar panels and all that, but they didn't know what breaks, how to pick up brakes, or do a K drive or whatever, or bleed them or any of that exactly, or drive it.

Wyatt Pemberton:

So you were the guy, right?

Chip MacLaughlin:

It was me and a couple other guys that had the same mindset that I'm still friends with today. You know, that was like a just a personal goal for myself in net, you know, I kept telling myself when I got out of school, I'm never going into oil gas. And I'm never going to be an engineer. So my first job right out of school was an engineer in oil gas at ExxonMobil. And shell met. And I was designing pipelines. And I was bored. Thank God, I got laid off from that job nine months later, and I went into sales after that. And that's what I did for 20 years. But on the electrical side, which is the more entertaining part of what all mechanical sudden,

Wyatt Pemberton:

but still an oil and gas though.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. And I was an oil and gas probably till about a year ago, actually, five years. You're why I'm back in Dallas. I actually was a water resource engineer. I built pipelines and frac tanks and recycle plants out in West Texas for an oil gas plant or took a dive got laid off again and went back into sales. And then a year ago a workers AMD and here we are now

Wyatt Pemberton:

and here we are now. Yeah, so uh, yeah, I'm an oil and gas myself. And I think everyone kind of knows that you can't you almost can't be in Houston and not in it. And yeah, it's a people ask me when I've had these discussions and like you, I'm like, Yeah, I mean, I lived every every day of my professional career life, expect it to be my last day with that job. Like every single day. You don't? You don't know. And so will you don't keep personal effects at work or things like that. Like, I mean,

Chip MacLaughlin:

you know, my area's oil and gas thing is funny because I'm an oil and gas now I run a construction company for zandy. You know, that's why I do my day job. And oddly enough, we're building. We're almost done with it. We're helping build a hospital in Pecos, Texas. And so I went out there to go visit the job site. And that was the day that oil went with negative $30 minus 30. And I'm like, in Pecos, Texas that day, and you know, with COVID and everything shut down. I'm like, I just don't know how we're gonna survive this

Wyatt Pemberton:

yet. COVID was just starting to come on. So this was we were in February, when it was February the 21st 24th. And are in there. And COVID it was a it was a topic of discussion, but nothing had really been shut down yet for for me COVID didn't become real. For a few more weeks. We were We were in West Palm Beach, Florida. Houston. Astros spring training is Astros vs nationals. And it was the last preseason game that Major League Baseball played for the Astros played in Major League Baseball. They shut down spring training the next day, but we are sitting there in the stands. Houston livestock show and rodeo is going on. You know, this town shuts down for Houston laughs Oh, it's it's glorious. It's so it's it's three weeks of chaos and coolness and Everybody wearing cowboy hats and boots no matter what it is, and if you're at work and you're like, Hey, I got to go, Hey, I got to go work my shift or whatever, because you're a volunteer for it like your bosses like, see you tomorrow.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, well, the most likely the boss was probably there too.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, no, that's exactly that's exactly it as well. So, so yeah, we're sitting my wife and I are sitting in the stands with our kids in West Palm Beach. And we get that text. The notification that they've shut down. They closed Houston livestock show and rodeo for coven. Right Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are we missing? This Whoa, you don't shut that thing down. Like what are we missing and yeah, I guess we've missed a lot so we freaked out a little bit we finished our vacation came back but yeah, no. So you're in Pecos which is the Delaware basin they kind of the current you know for Houston West you know me for Texas oil and gas. It is your west of what your Western no trees be exactly.

Chip MacLaughlin:

On the way here, nobody's out here smile.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And you're a little bit you know, little Well, no, not even not even really east. You're straight north of where do we have the ultra for race out on I 10.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Now that was in. That was right near El Paso. laco a lot. locker checks. Yeah. bunco tech,

Wyatt Pemberton:

Sierra Blanca, Sierra Blanca,

Chip MacLaughlin:

one of the coolest races ever and I wish we could go back and there's a lot of issues with that. But that was one of the most fun. Everybody races outside of the race with the sheriff and all the things the shenanigans that went on. It was just crazy.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, that Sheriff he bragged about he'd arrested Willie Nelson right because it's the

Chip MacLaughlin:

yeah yeah. And he had the those stickers that said Don't be a pussy if you didn't jump the the city street because we're coming down the creek and you'd have to go through the church parking lot jump the street. And I think it was one of the Gomez brothers they cartwheel off of it. Play gills trap. But funny story about this play. Gilstrap had a steering problem. So he rolled over the street. This is when I was riding with Doug Jackson. I was co driving. The sheriff comes wandering our camp because you play Neal strap. Yes, sir. Figures good. I put a sticker on your cars to go ahead. It was Doug's car. So but at the same time, that's when the memories kind of fuzzy on this, but I think it was one of Shannon Campbell's guys, he should have gone over to Shannon Campbell's camp, and one of his guys stole the sheriff's truck. And the sheriff pulled them out of the car, put them in handcuffs and said I tell you what, I'm gonna make you a deal. I'm gonna give you 30 seconds. You can run or I can take you to jail. That dude took off running and that the sheriff started just laughing cuz man I'm just messing with He's like, come back. I'll take them off. But that was a cool, it was a cool deal because the whole town like shut down for us. I mean, we started on Main Street in downtown like on asphalt and nobody thought that you're talking about timing issues. Nobody thought the timers were working. I mean, I think Shannon Campbell got clocked at 120 going down the asphalt after he went under the ITN bridge I went back and looked at all that thing and I'm gonna tell you those timers were right on

Wyatt Pemberton:

he's getting after it. Yeah, that was in the course ran right next to Mexico like you could you could walk across the border from Texas to Mexico drew

Chip MacLaughlin:

Andrew mcglothlin got out of his race car walked across the river in took a picture said I'm in Mexico and then he walked back

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yes, that's exactly how we were on the border. And we'll talk about well you need you need a border fence and border walls and all stuff well it's so remote it's so rule I mean there's almost no way to defend it no way to put it out there and it's no

Chip MacLaughlin:

and I think that was one of those deals I think it was Matt howl and Adam shear they had a problem with their car. And so they're like okay, we're just gonna go on a service road and drive it back to Pitts well the service road was under construction. They ended up on it and in the race car with our helmets and had to go through customs check.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yes, the Border Patrol check.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, it was the greatest I mean, I think he had a GoPro or someone that the video is classic.

Wyatt Pemberton:

We didn't get that up. I've not seen video of that, but I knew the story. Yeah,

Chip MacLaughlin:

maybe my memory is going bad. I think there's video of it. Maybe it's just in my mind because I can picture those two goofballs doing that

Wyatt Pemberton:

and you know and some of the funny that will not funny cool I find it super cool is not the part where Matt how has retired from racing. That's not the cool part. I get I get it though. I walked that same path myself. But the Dawson Ellington bought his car and raced it this past weekend. So it's very baby g bracing. I think maybe Jeep racing. What was Matt's car the 45 1045 Danya 4510 Eric Thomas, it reminds me a super Dave Osborne. That's so yeah, I don't know what it's supposed to be. But it reminds me a super Dave Osborne

Chip MacLaughlin:

is he always I mean just like his hair. His car was always polished. Maybe wrecked the corner. I mean, they would replace the corner. I mean that car look showroom every time I showed up to the race every time

Wyatt Pemberton:

beautiful car Dawson Ellington and you got a good car man. It was good to see you races. We can catch up with you. So So yeah, so we're talking about you know, West Texas Pecos Sierra Blanca racing out there. Oil and Gas but now you went to work for for zandy How did you meet Suzanne? He's kind of the like I said the figurehead, the guy over Rufus racing. And then he he's got a handful of different businesses. But how did you end Zandi flange up?

Chip MacLaughlin:

It's kind of weird. I mean, you go we on up and Clayton and up in Oklahoma and drink beer with people and you know, I've met some of my best friends out there, you know, doing this stuff. And one of our buddies Logan, we call them Lulu. You know, Logan, God zandu come out to King and hammers the last year that I raised with hammer. So that had to be with Doug with now had to be 18. And he came out and want to see what this whole king of hammers thing was about. And he came home, he doesn't, I want to buy a car. Well, he bought a car and I talked him into Doug's and walk them through the whole deal. And I knew the car and knew he was getting a good car. He's like, Alright, anytime I drive it, I'm like, I put my hand up. I'm like, I'll drive it. I'll show you how to do this stuff. I've been around a long time, you know, long enough. You know, so we start doing so we started going to different races. It was just me racing with Brad in the car. And I was an oil and gas deal. But I was taking a lot of time off from work. And it got to the point where I was taking advantage of things and I think it was when we were down in Mexico. Down in San Felipe Bay. I'm like, Look, you know, we want to keep doing this. You know, you got the staffing company. I know on gas when we started on gas side of it. It was man, I sounds like a great idea. Well, that turned into me being in the race shop for eight months. But you know, that's kind of how it started. Because then we bought nightmare, which was unexpected. And then we bought whackers car, which was even more than expected. So we show up at King and hammers and we've got our three cars. I didn't know which car was going to race whackers or Doug's old car. And he had nightmare and then we had the guys pit justice and the guys from Australia that have Daryl Gray's old car which was Lauren healy's winning quarterback, and 12, we think, and we decided to build these razors to go pre running, which turned into a Hey, I'm faster than you between zanny Nye. So we ended those in the king of the hammers. You know, so for eight months, I was in the shop, I had a broken back in the middle of that. And, you know, we're coming back from hammers this year. And he goes, man, this shits expensive. He goes, we keep doing this. We gotta, we gotta go make some money. I'm like, Alright, well, you want me to do he goes, here's a company wants to go run it. So I run Eagle earthworks, which is a dirt construction company. And COVID hit and I'm gonna tell you on our side, go It was a blessing for us because we haven't stopped. I mean, because people were at home. We were regrading yards and companies were, you know, rethinking what they're doing. And to me, it was just easy. I could roll down the highway at 30,000 pounds and nobody jumping out in front of me in DFW and get through town in 45 minutes or three hours. Yeah, it is awesome. So that was a that's kind of how that whole thing worked. And, you know, we're still kicking today.

Wyatt Pemberton:

So that is solid. Yeah. And then. So then Zandi has even some some further further things because I mean, we're back up just a little bit. So you guys invited me out to text Plex to Midlothian. There was another race going on that weekend. I don't remember what was going on.

Chip MacLaughlin:

So is it. They had a bunch of UTV races and zanni. And I wanted to see time. So I went and talked to the guys. I said, Hey, why don't you list run a 4400 class? And they're like, okay, and they'd seen us out there practicing. So I set this race up for it's just a test engine. And I ended up two weeks before that, crushing my hand and couldn't drive. So Brad, my wonderful co driver, he's like, I'll drive as he always does. I think we had five cars. It was Andy Brad. Cody St. Clair Jagan. That's right, it was only four cars. It was kind of cool to show a different, something different than utvs. Down there. It's short course race. And that's when you came down there.

Wyatt Pemberton:

So I actually had it on my calendar. Because last in January, they put out this that Texas pre runner calendar for that for that place, and that was going to be a prerunner weekend. So I had on my calendar and every single time that pre wear weekend was going to happen either I had something or poured down rain.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yep. So that prerunner course goes through all kinds of creeks,

Wyatt Pemberton:

and it was always muddy. So yeah, I'm like, Well, you know what, I'm committing my son. I was like, You know what, we're gonna go I you been in conversations you regularly with with 100 Miller, who is the king of the hammers UTV champ from this past year and getting the very far from us either. No, yeah, right. He's up in your neck of the woods, him and his brother and then, uh, you know, the heart and I mean, there's so many great racers in that area that were, you know, Kyle Cheney, who RJ Anderson was there. It's a legit suit. And so they had the prix runner thing going on that day that they canceled because it rained it you know I when I left Houston it was pouring down rain it didn't stop raining until we got somewhere north of waco and then we got there and I was like okay if the premier thing is going on I am not doing it. I can't believe how muddy my truck got just in the parking lot like it was just a slop and that thing you know, it's it is a tool drive but with you know, full locker rear. It amazingly goes pretty deep

Chip MacLaughlin:

in mud, like so I just remembered when you and I met in person, that's when you debuted that truck King and hammers and you got it stuck in the sand. Oh, yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Barry fucker. Oh, yeah. Pretty much every time I've stopped that truck and sand. I've

Unknown:

done it don't stop.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, that's that's the key. But you know, yeah, that always worked out, you know, best laid plans. Right? So yeah, we came up there. And you and you guys were doing this, like, I'm gonna call ultra forks. But what is? No, no, that's not the right word. exhibition or just exhibition. That's the right word. Wow, I had to dig that one out. But no Hunter Hunter been trying to get my son to come up to basically, you know, he's a baseball player. But I really would like you to race and every time I come to an event, just like this, and hey, we need to get another car. Well, I'm gonna probably get another car when my 13 year old decides he wants to race and right now he's all into baseball. So Hunter is like, Listen, he won't fit in any of the smaller cars. We're gonna do this naturally aspirated 1000 class, he's perfect for bringing. So this little dude, he's the third. I think he's only 12 at that point, but now he's 13 now, and those. He has national champions. Now, yo cannamd sponsored factory drivers, right twisting his arm and telling him you need to do this. Yeah, it's go time. And he's like, No, he didn't get it. And you know, maybe in the future is someday we'll you know, he'll look back and be like, wow, I had like, the names like the who's who and UTV racing, telling me I need to get into this and I didn't get it. Well,

Chip MacLaughlin:

I think every kid should do that. I mean, is expensive. And you know, as being type A personalities like no, I want to dry but I think that leads kids, you know, especially in today's world, but all electronics that would lead him in a different direction.

Wyatt Pemberton:

That's exactly what I want. I want less fortnight more shop time. That's what that's what that's what he needs his life. That's what I need in my life. I know like bouncing around. Right. So you're a Harley guy.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Well, it's funny. I just became a Harley guy. We went to Sturgis here. That's a Mazda three butts. Yeah, it just drops. And you know, we've done this too. We did last year, too. We take four groms. Up there. We ride all through surge, I think last year in 1980, put 150 miles on the groms. And those things are so quiet. You hear people laughing at you.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yes, yes. Well explain what a Grom is. I know what a Grom is, but a lot of people maybe don't

Chip MacLaughlin:

like mini mini bike, the street, Lego 125 CCS. Honda makes them and of course, all ours are all wrapped like the Texas flag. There are pit bikes. I mean, I've read this thing through hotels in like half a zoo. We've taken them to Mexico. We take them everywhere. And we take them to Sturgis. So we do last year this year. You know, we took them again, you know drove through Deadwood and you know, I'm really excited that we're going to be at surges in 2021 with Ultra4 it's going to be huge at the buffalo chip to cool course. But we ran Harley's in which is my first mistake. And we ran for two days because I gotta add I mean, I'm buy and sell cars, race cars, Jeeps, whatever. Like I'm gonna get bored with this in a week. Well,

Wyatt Pemberton:

Brad asked me to ask you at this degree, Brad asked me to ask you how many cars have you on in your life?

Chip MacLaughlin:

I think I'm knocking on 60. I mean, at one point, I had three of them in any range. I mean, I've had a Hummer and I've had a viper and a load is not doesn't mean I make a lot of money. It's just I didn't do other things. I just bought cars. And I would rotate them every six months. And I think 60 is my number right now. So we rent these bikes in our you know upsurges and we had him for two days. We were there for two more days. And so I'm like, I'm gonna extend these so I called a Harley dealership like Well, no, not only can we not extend them You were supposed to be here 30 minutes ago and people are here waiting for the bikes. Like oh crap me and Brad and peanut we get on a bike ride him in there and ATV kicks in and I drive out with the 2020 Street Glide and a lot of miles on a sense.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And it's black. It's beautiful. It's something else.

Chip MacLaughlin:

It's it's solid black. Ed loves it. I mean she never in our I've never had written on a Harley before and redid the Black Hills, put 250 miles on it there. It's sitting in the garage right now with 1400 miles on we're leaving tomorrow to go down that bend daris to ride the Twisted Sister route down in South Texas and you It's cool different different avenue gets me you know out of racing got to work and just something that her and I can enjoy together

Wyatt Pemberton:

and have your own thing right get away from kids every from get away from the the headaches and the heart aches. Right right. Or where you guys think you guys staying like like Fredericksburg.

Chip MacLaughlin:

It's a town called like utopia. And I'm not really familiar with down they're not familiar with, but we're taking the RV down Aaron, but the bikes behind it and you know, we're gonna leave tomorrow night and if we don't make it we'll stay wherever we, you know, whatever Walmart I can find and make downtown Friday.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Sounds like you guys are really roughing it.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, it's bad. I mean, and that's kind of cool thing about racing. I mean, you see all kinds of cool. That's one thing I've enjoyed about the past two years and we've been to both coasts we've been in Mexico we're down to baja 1000 I mean, I should like drive into the races. I mean, hell Reno i think is Sacramento was I think 1800 miles for us and you see some cool thing call a hell i think i think my labs a haul I think mill is hard to get for me I just seems like a hard one to get to. Feels like for me feels like King the hammers from Houston is just a one shot. Yeah, I literally get on I 10. And then I get off at Palm Springs. Right. Exactly. That's in you know, hammers, at least the thing was like this long ways. But after going to Reno in Sacramento, and you know, it's weird to say that San Felipe Bay Mexico is closer to here then go on hammers. Yeah, like goes to Reno Sacramento.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Oh, yeah. But by by half a day.

Chip MacLaughlin:

And you know, that's why I was so disappointed that nationals. You know, it was a Davis, Oklahoma because that was a whole 67 miles from my house. It was bad. It was a horrible drive.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Are you that far north? You're in a car.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I'm in Ross. I didn't, didn't wear the 35 merge back together.

Wyatt Pemberton:

We'll see universities that university North Texas up north Tech University, North Texas, the Mean Green, what is the Mean Green? I don't even know what that is.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I don't know, they got a bunch of green stuff on their college. So they think they're mean, I don't know, my sister graduated. There's maybe I should ask her

Wyatt Pemberton:

right now that said that my mother was there was no. So we can always talk about you know, Chip happens and some things like that, but and you're prankster, but you have this uncanny ability to catch things on fire, like vehicles.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, I do.

Wyatt Pemberton:

And for owning 60 vehicles in your life, you know, based on that, and how and you don't always burn down your own stuff. You burn down other people's stuff.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I've only burned down other people's stuff. That that's the better part of this. And what's even funnier is the first one that burned down was Brad and I went in together and bought a 40 foot diesel pusher. This is background. Oh 809 and rehab it up at the ranch. And, you know, Brad and I are all a whole lot of like, but sometimes very polar opposite. And I was driving into the ranch and he's like, Dude, don't try to make it up to the hill of the house. And like it's rain and muddy and like screwed. I'm trying to Well, I blow out three of the rear four tires. End up believing it. month later. Of course it happens at the stroke of midnight into Halloween. I get a call from my dad. He goes hey, I need you to come to the ranch. I'm like, Why? It's like 11 o'clock. We'll actually call Brad because my phone was dead and tells Brad this and he goes you can't get your bus out of the driveway. Brad's like why he goes on fire. So my phone's dead. They think I've gone up from living Houston time they think I've gone up and burned the bus down but it had a shortened frigerator and burned to the ground blew out the windows in my dad's house. Brad also happens to own a fire sprinkler company. Which makes it even better. Fast forward. Five years. Just last year, I go to work for Sandy and I have a company truck brand new f 350 19 2019. We got most of the race team up there. We're celebrating Logan's bachelor party. Riga wheeling around the ranch and I get the same phone call from an ad. Hey, you got to come get your truck out driveway. Why? It's on fire. I burned down a brand new 2019 f 350 i was like not only am I gonna lose my job I'm not gonna build race anymore and it wasn't my fault. We might have some fireworks did real it burned to the ground?

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I mean insurance paid right.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Oh, yeah. And that's the funny part. It's never been on my insurance. That's always somebody else's.

Wyatt Pemberton:

So that truck when that truck burned was really the first shock for me I'd heard about the aluminum duties but I never really I guess expected it to burn the way it did. There was nothing left

Chip MacLaughlin:

there was you know it's funny cuz we got back and this is even the sad part is Amy's mom had passed away she had been sick, so he had to go to the West Texas for the funeral. We were leaving at six o'clock the next morning to drive out there. We were taking that truck and another truck, which was our buddy Casey's truck. It was sitting right in front of it. It melted all the taillights and the camera and everything on the back of his truck. So we're trying to put the fire out for the fire department gets there. And we didn't know that how much magnesium was in a Ford superduty diesel motor. We hit that motor with water, it exploded all we had to repaint the whole front, top of Casey's truck because it splattered and anyone real quick now, they did find my keys. Like I had all my you know, house keys and equipment, keys and all that was in the door. None of those burnt, they just fell on the ground. They even got business cards, and I know they're around. I haven't seen him yet. But he'd like Bernie edges, my business cards. And it was that quick on the fire. It was crazy.

Wyatt Pemberton:

just gone. skis. Yeah. Well, I mean, if anything, it's it's just don't get around chip. I mean, that's kind of the thing that chip happens, right?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, it's a theme. The funnier part is when I got the next truck. I went to the dealership, pick it up. And it had the Omega 18 wheelers, the danger signs of flammable and all that it had one of those tied to the grill,

Wyatt Pemberton:

which I think is only fair, which I think, Hey,

Chip MacLaughlin:

I didn't get fired. I still get to race cars.

Wyatt Pemberton:

That that you do. Alright, man, I want to talk about I want to talk about yells race efforts. I will talk about King hammers this past year, and kind of how you guys, you guys had a very good showing. And then this year, you've had a very good showing, again, nationals you worked your way up. Where did you finish in the national point series this year? You were closer

Chip MacLaughlin:

it was I think it was 18. I went into the I went in 10th. And because we didn't finish in last point. I mean, there was only 100 points between 10th and third. Yeah, you know, so it was a big shake up. Didn't do as well as we wanted neither zanier and I but you know, in everything that, you know, that is a negative, there's always good. I mean, we My feeling is we made a statement. You know, I'm getting faster. I had a problem with you know, trying to get out of my head after breaking my back and then you know, crushing the finger back on those April or sometime. You know, that was a hard thing to get back in the car. Especially had to break it back. I mean, that that's just wild. And then watch Casey shear break his back two weeks after I did mine. You know, it shows you how quick things could change for you. But we made a statement. I mean, I started driving faster. Sandy started driving faster. We bring a huge crew with us. I mean, the core of Rufus racing is only six or seven guys, but you know, we show up to a race like Oklahoma. I think we had a few people out there wearing Rufus gear.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I can say that that's when I shut up, Midlothian and I got sidetracked on that story. When I walked up to the Rufus trailer you actually unity weren't there, in that you guys had the full awning out off the side of the trailer. And that's what you re saw this 18 Wheeler with a full on it. There wasn't a single car under the awning. But it was standing room only shoulder shoulder with people and this was during, you know, COVID was fully on and there wasn't a mask to be seen that. I don't know what you're talking about.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. Now, I mean, Zandi, you know, he's not a public person. He don't see you know, a lot of people know who I am. They don't know who Sandy is. The dude's a funny dude. He's a great dude. He He's a very giving guy. You know, one of his mottos in life is let's go make memories. You know, we might not finish a race. But I'm going to tell you, we got some of the best stories and pranks and just a hell of a lot of fun. You know, and that's what Rufus racing is about. You know, neither one of us have ended up on a podium. The only time I've been on a podium was last year at third and East Coast series. I haven't podium I've come close a number of times, but I've not been on podium during a race. And, you know, we're having a lot of fun doing it.

Wyatt Pemberton:

See, that's where I'm at. It's always I can tell you, I can't always tell you who won the race, but I can always tell you who I remember from the race. It's whoever, like put on the biggest show.

Chip MacLaughlin:

So it was a show. He talked to Brad and you know, we talked about me breaking my back and he drove for me at Nationals. I'm sure he asked you to ask me about the highlight reel of last year's nationals.

Wyatt Pemberton:

No, I actually don't i don't think that made it he asked me to ask some things like, like, your relationship with Tonya Harding. Oh,

Chip MacLaughlin:

yeah.

Wyatt Pemberton:

We'll get to that in a second. Right. And then add there's some other good stuff on there, but we can skip that. But yeah, so So the last year 2019

Chip MacLaughlin:

Brad was my fill in for nationals. My back was broken. So I was in the pits and he was going you know, his last chance qualifier. He was doing really good earlier he broke a tie rod. Heim on the tie rod. So he didn't get to finish on the race. Ended up an L CQ and he was going against all South Jeff Also Jeff was ahead of them and gotten that lock, last rock section and his car went limp mode. And I started screaming in the radio was like, go, go, go, go, go, go go. Brad hit that last rock section jumped half the rock section and got across it and ended up hitting the big tractor tire at the K rail, four foot from the finish line flipped, was disoriented and didn't know where to hell he was.

Wyatt Pemberton:

He did lean wheels down though, right? He did.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. But also Jeff snuck around them because he was reaching up to hit the kill switch because he thought he was upside down. And so he missed it just like, milliseconds. He reminds me he goes now nobody, nobody knows who won that race or whatever. But they know that video made a highlight reel because what have you done? I'm like, You're such a jackass. Last week, or somebody reminded me to

Wyatt Pemberton:

a put in your place. Right, you know, just just set you up. Yeah, maybe a tuna land.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. So that the Tonya Harding deal, I was on world's dumbest drivers. It was fun. Excited. No, I'm sitting watching TV watching world's dumbest drivers. And I'm looking at it. And I'm like, that looks familiar. I like holy crap. That's me. And it was it was a king of the creek rolling bayla done it down at Spring Creek had done this race. I've gone down there to race it ended up winning it. The guy behind me blew a transmission or something. It started on fire. So they were really making fun of him. But Tonya Harding was like so what do you when if, when King a degree you get prom date with a pregnant chick, or what she made, but yeah, they were making fun of me on world's dumbest driver. So that's where that story comes from.

Wyatt Pemberton:

You're gonna break your back in the future. So something I always ask is, what's your advice for guys getting into the sport? What's your advice for guys looking for? For sponsors? What's your what's your advice for guys that are? Or maybe they're even current drivers? What's some advice because I, I have a new nugget that I want to drop here for your side of it?

Chip MacLaughlin:

Well, you know, I always say drugs are cheaper, even with rehab. I'm thankful, you know, all the way at races because with zanny, and Andrew, you know, his wife, what they're doing for the team, you know, without them, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing. We don't have any sponsors. And, you know, we have a media person who knows marketing, we bring a videographer during every race necco has been a little different. He wasn't with us in Moab or Tennessee, but you know, we've got a lot of really professional done videos, me and Sandy and the group of us, we put together a package, you know, immediate package to send to people. And, you know, today we don't have one, and it's, you know, a lot of people think I'm gonna go braces, professional thinking of hammers and sponsors are going to come just knocking on the door. And that's not the way at all. And, you know, I've looked at what, like Lauren, and Levi and von getan and Shannon Campbell and all them do, and they have a lot of people behind them. And they have a product, they have a character. The cars are characters, and they're drawing people in. And, you know, so I started like the Facebook and Instagram page for Rufus racing.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, let me let me interrupt right there. I do want to back that back that up a little bit. And a lot of guys supporting them, you know, at most races, you know, or even in the shop time, you know, like Levi, Surely it's just Levi, you know? And for Eric Miller, it's it's Eric plus one. Yeah. For horschel. It's It's Paul plus one sometimes Paul plus two. It's right. You know, and that's, that's rare. I mean, it's not these big teams where there's 10 guys that are always in the shop or whatever. Yeah, you may see him on race day, and they've got five guys or 10 dipping. So you guys, you were an hour from home or an hour and a half from home or two hours from from the Metroplex. You pull a big crowd because family and friends this is the closest you'll be that they can come and watch you race or they can exactly easily come out and so you get that you know the kind of let's call it the hometown crowd, which is also it makes you feel great but yeah, I mean feel like oh my gosh, I can't you like Campbell's Campbell's are the prime example this past week and I mean, if Campbell wasn't your last name or you weren't engaged to a Campbell I mean they did have exactly two of the guys there plus Doug who's their their truck driver um if it wasn't for that little they they do everything themselves it's not like pit crews pickers or you know, multiple pickers pit from multiple guys will pit for multiple cars because it's like this Yeah, I'm I would rather be you know those guys out on the you so you team up it's this that's I think that's why Ultra4 such as family oriented Because we know it takes all of us to

Chip MacLaughlin:

get takes army.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah. Oh God does. So

Chip MacLaughlin:

we've got, we've got three cars. It's john Bryan diamond, Dave and the shop every day, those two guys keep the race cars together. I used to be in the shop every day and I'm running a construction company now. So I, you know, it's kind of a detriment to me on the racecar side making money for us. But, you know, I don't know every bolt and nut of the car like I normally do. And, you know, like, here we're in Dallas, NASCAR, I think got to run today. They're supposed to run on Sunday. You know, those guys got multiple cars tomorrow, they've got to be somewhere else. You know, so I know they send another team with cars. And you know, they can go race this weekend. We don't have that, you know, we have sometimes as least as three weeks, maybe six weeks to turn the car around. And these cars take a horrible beating. I mean, we got to pull two motors, you know, for these cars. Thankfully, we got three months for hammers. It's amazing on what Ultra4 does. I mean, Loren Healy. I mean, they're in Moab, JT. All their cars raced this weekend. I mean, JT does racing more. But you know, the guys that are, you know, at that moheb show, and even at the San show, they got canceled two weeks ago, their cars were there

Wyatt Pemberton:

yet. So I saw Vaughn Gittens Brocky is there right now that that car was on the podium it was third place, he got third place 4400 race. And it's there. I got to believe all Lauren did pull it off the trailer, hose it down, wash it down in detail it armor out whatever it took, and then roll it into place. It has not met and probably put fresh panels on it probably got fresh panels, but it's still totally worn out. By the way, I got to bring it I saw something I yeah, I bring up something in your notes. It's, uh, I saw the means of CO H. beam on that. And it's the it's the cartoon of right, the third, the third guy, third place podium guy. Just Yeah, he's blasting himself with champagne. He's just having like it. And then they zoom out. And it's the dudes like in third place in the first place in second place. They're like, what the hell third place? Yeah. Well, then, literally real life, you know, mimics and

Chip MacLaughlin:

sprays himself.

Wyatt Pemberton:

He Oh, he's going to town with the champagne. And you got Eric Miller standing on the podium with Paul horschel in the second place podium, and they're both looking at Vaughn. Like, what are you doing to help? Beautiful, whoever caught that and whoever captured that and whoever, you know, made man up.

Chip MacLaughlin:

You know, to me, it's an honor to make names like he is like, any, you know, well, let me phrase it most publicity is good publicity. You know, like names. And I always find great humor no matter how goofy it is. But, you know, bringing up like Facebook and Instagram and me trying to figure out as an engineer, I got numbers and stuff in my head and views and likes and blah, blah, blah. I found the stupidest crap, gets more views and more attention than the professional videos like we did that stupid rain dance in Tennessee. When we took the 43 dsls we were going to race on them. So we did a rain dance just as everybody off and it rained 20 minutes before the starting and I got a text from Alan, he's like, You're an asshole. And I'm like, this is beautiful. Now granted, it didn't work. But, you know, that even goes back in the day. And I know when I say this, you're gonna you're gonna remember it. But back, Carl, Lamborghini, I cannot say his name right ever again. Because Mike Stewart made all those middle of the mall, shit videos, and he would always say call Lamborghini with all his chains and all that. I still think like, you know, he was a pioneer in this advertising and you know, follow me when we didn't even know what that stuff was. Even today, I'm seeing like a rain dance the stupidest thing you could ever do. That's the one that got the most views out of everything we've done. And I just think it's interesting on the way that people interact with our race teams.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I think it's you found your niche, right? And um, please don't take this as a knock. You're You're just a fun guy. Man. You You love having fun. People love to be around you that love to have fun. So if you put out something serious, it comes off as so not genuine because there are people that know you are like that ain't that guy. That's that's not for you. I mean, that's exactly it. No, that goes back to the Happy birthday with JT I know it drives him crazy.

Chip MacLaughlin:

He's gotten even with me and you know every time we see him, you know we yo Happy birthday and we were at King hammers running the UTV class and diamond day we got to ride with me and I come into waka Moly new trail hadn't run it yet. hurt. It was easy. And I shoot off the side of the ravine and end up upside down in the ravine before even the hard part about guacamole and diamond and I come crawling out of the car to flip it over and who drives up but jG Taylor. And I'm like, upgrade. I just screwed up. And here's JT making fun of me. He goes, all right. I said, Yeah, happy birthday, he flipped me the burden, he drove off. And, you know, that's the way our life is. I mean, I put him off one time in Tennessee and ran smack right into a tree, because I wasn't paying attention. And that's, you know, those are the memories. I remember. And it's a lot of fun. I'd rather must do have those memories. And nobody remember who won that race?

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I think, you know, pure like, well, this is just kind of a diatribe here. But I think the gist of it is and if you boil it down to is finding, like, knowing who you are, knowing who you are, and then leveraging that talent, don't try to be someone who you're not, you know, for marketing of your race team marketing of your race efforts, or whatever be you be as best as you can be you and just own the shit out of it. I mean, that's the only like, my work, I just, you just have to own it. And you got to take it to that like next level, and whatever that equals, if it's, you know, having a videographer to follow you around. Or if it's Tick tock, you know, whatever it is. Own the hell of it. I mean, that's, that's kind of where I go with that, man. I wonder chip happens come from. I mean, it's, it's nothing but so a philanthropy man. We jumped on it a little bit ago when you you know, the day that you got diagnosed, you got the call about having cancer, you guys, you and Doug Jackson and put together some stuff you guys were going to head down here to the Texas gulf coast from North Texas to I mean, to help with the hurricane Harvey effort. I mean, I was one of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the the Texas coast in recent history. I end up heavily involved in that my neighborhood flooded and we had the Brazos river was at flood stage. There's water in my neighborhood. My wife is using one of my Humvees to deliver medications around the neighborhood. Chris summers, BJ Allen, all the guys over Barco pump. We got together with them and they sit down a truck 18 Wheeler after 18 Wheeler of huge pumps. And you know, we built a supplemental pumping station inside my neighborhood in a cul de sac in the middle of you know, five $600,000 homes. We plopped down, you know, a couple million dollars with pumps and started pumping water over the levee out to the Brazos river but you guys came up with Well, I mean, so. So during that Doug called me and it was in the the hurricane heading fully I'm sure we would still like rain bands, but we're already flooding. And we had hit mandatory evacuation for my neighborhood. So we we bailed, and it's terrible story. But we were just going to go up to my father in law's house and he said, Yeah, come on over. We drive over there. He's in Sugarland, we're down in Missouri city, Texas. And we get we get over to his place. We couldn't get to his house because there's three foot of water four foot of water on the street, like you mean, there's a stop sign with a foot of post showing underneath the stop sign to the water level. Well, he had he lives on a corner lot. He looked up the front door, and he could see the street in front of his house. But he didn't look down the side road, which is the one that you have to come into the neighborhood on. And it's like you You need a you need a boat. And so we were we could see his house, two blocks away and we're calling like, we can't get to you. So we ended up six hours later in College Station.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. Which was what normal drive hour and a half for me. Maybe our 20

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, yeah. So six. We just couldn't get across the river, multiple places. Well, anyway, we're sitting in the hotel room and in College Station, Texas, and Doug Jackson calls me and says, Hey, are you okay? And I'm like, Yeah, man, we're good. We're but we're in College Station. So if he goes well, this is what I'm thinking Tell me. I want to do something. I want to do something. I think we can fly stuff down there. Well, I think initially it was gonna we're gonna put stuff in trailers. And we're gonna we got to bring stuff down there, Rockport got devastated, Rockport got destroyed just

Chip MacLaughlin:

wiped again horribly destroyed,

Wyatt Pemberton:

horribly destroyed. And he said, we're gonna do something we're gonna do some What do we need to bring? And again, I'm sitting in a hotel room I don't know and I'm like waters I'm just thinking like what I've seen on CNN right? diapers baby formula. I'm just you know, shouting things out. I mean, I don't know I remember the thing that Carl McIntyre if anyone remembers Carl, he used to wheel a twisted customs buggy red twisted customs like I think is in California. albies Mississippi or Louisiana guy, Carl during Katrina. He made really good money. He was in the mattress business. And that was the thing that sold out because when people whenever the first thing people replaces their bed, right, if you can't get a good night's sleep, and I started so I was like, mattresses. I don't know dug in. And that was I think we talked one more time after that. But next thing I know you in a crew include, like you guys loaded up a bunch of Cal trailers.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, we that's when Doug on the trailer. accompany Texas custom trailers advocator. I got a brand new cattle trailer I had one done, we filled it. I think seven, I would know was way overloaded. But I had seven pallets of water around all the water we put in diapers and dog food and dry food and flashlights and batteries. And then Doug had another like an enclosed trailer. Like we had one or two generators in there. And then, you know, even like toothbrushes and toothpaste. I mean, when we rolled in Iraq, what we were there before the National Guard's were, and I, you know, I'd worked other hurricanes before. And, of course, we went very heavily loaded with guns and stuff like that. But we got escorted, and the, you know, just seeing the people come and being gracious on what, you know, we were doing, you know, giving back is just an awesome feeling. And that's where operation airdrop came from was from that weekend in Doug's got a really good story about a guy showed up with a truck, he didn't have any gas, he had his dog and stepped on something and it got cut real bad. And one of the guys that had lived down there was like, Hey, I'm okay, but my vet, we got his dog fixed up. And then he's like, Whoa, we, you know, we got no power, whatever. And Doug gave one of the generators. And a week later this guy, you know, he wouldn't a homeless guy, but he showed up dirty hadn't taken a shower in a while. I mean, we're gonna move a hurricane. You know, he looked like a homeless person. He shows up. A week later, it looked like he had been through a life changing event. His hair was brushed, his teeth were brushed, had clean clothes on, you wouldn't even recognize the guy and he came back just to tell us Thank you. And that was a cool, you got to get back. I mean, you know, you can't keep taking it in this world and not ever get back. Because your time is coming. And that's where operation airdrop came from. And then that's also when Brad and I decided to legitimize the Texas first responders fun, which is Brad nice. Well,

Wyatt Pemberton:

before we jump in that let's talk about Texas air drop real quick. It is Doug Jackson's deal. I definitely get that. But I since we've named dropped it a couple times. These guys take a you know, airplanes, their personal airplanes, private airplanes. And a lot of people have airplanes and they load them. They load them with as much supplies as they can.

Chip MacLaughlin:

And they do it the way and then they take off and I think on that one. And Doug would probably have to give the deal. But there was five or 600 planes that got volunteered for that

Wyatt Pemberton:

effort. I think I think oppression airdrop on their website, they have a running tally of how many tons of aid that they've delivered. Right? That's where I saw it last. And it's a very significant number and it just didn't, it didn't start and end with Harvey. They've gone all the way down, they'll end up all the way down in Puerto Rico.

Chip MacLaughlin:

That was that was like four weeks later and and even in between there was Florida. That's right. And it just, I mean, those two months were just stupid crazy. Versus he was flying. I mean, I bet he put more hours I was playing man and he has since the whole time he's had it. Oh,

Wyatt Pemberton:

absolutely. I mean, he talked about the last time I talked to him, we say hardly flown his twin engine this year. But yeah, I mean, this year, you would have us flying in and out of Louisiana. They've taken five Yep, take one from the team Luis. Texas has been very happy with having you guys as a neighbor. Right. But yeah, so So yeah, you you guys start up your Texas first responders fun. And that's where the other thing I've seen you guys did you guys the thing that I see the most, which I know that this isn't all of it. But one of your big fundraisers is you guys raffle off a really awesome rifle.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah, Chris sours actually was the first one to win the first one and we get him started coated with you know the VA you know the the blue line and the red line and all that and we also do call it crawling for the fallen we'll go do it we on trip at bridge Porter at the ranch or something. And you know that that really legitimize right about time airdrop was and that was three years ago, four years ago. It was three years ago. But Brad and I have been doing this, I think since around oh four. And it really started because I guess kind of backup about my family. I've got two sisters and a brother. My younger sisters adopted and my parents were foster kids when they're growing up. And she was a last last foster kid to come through it. So we actually started raising money for you know, the the foster kids, you know, in the county where the ranch is and then dad came in because they got plenty of money in the bank. So we started looking for other things. And up here we got a guy called Russ Martin on a radio that gives you know 20 $30,000 to families that you know lost a fallen officer. So we piggyback with that gave him a lot of money but then was it July 5 or six. Thank you Five years ago, when the five officers got slain in downtown Dallas,

Unknown:

right, they got in.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. And that, you know, that hit Brad and I in our families pretty hard. We had some American flags made and the stars were nine millimeter bullet shells, were all stars. And it was just black and gray with a blue line. And today, you know, we auctioned off raves by $2,000. For that thing, the person that bought that was a friend of ours in Houston, she donated it back in the Dallas PD headquarters, we got to go down and, you know, give it to them. And we met the families that were affected, you know, from those officers that died. So, you know, it's something special to us. And, you know, I'd like to do more with it with the COVID thing. It's been kind of hard to do this year, we've had some things cancel. But you know, that's something we're passionate about.

Wyatt Pemberton:

I think it's been on, not teared up here, but I'm just, uh, you know, I look at you and hear what you're saying. And I've seen your see your passion into this and, you know, makes me reflect Manny, I'm doing stuff I'm not doing enough, you know, we're not giving back enough and you're chip you've set you're setting the bar really high. You really are man hard to follow in your footsteps on on on all the stuff that you guys have busted out for that for your community.

Chip MacLaughlin:

But, you know, it's um, dear to us. And, you know, the way I look at it is, you know, those guys, whether it be police or firefighters are the guys that drive the ambulance or, you know, even the military. Our worst days are the days that they shine. And why wouldn't you want to give back to those guys, and especially in today's environment, when there's a lot of anti police and anti military and, you know, if people really understood the ramifications of those guys went away. I mean, we're back to the Wild West. And a lot of people don't know how to use guns these days. So it's gonna be it's not you know, Playstation or whatever.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, you don't get Yes, your buddy can't run over and recharge you you don't get a you know, respond. I mean, it's a it's your one and done. You get one.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. So it's some cool for us.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, as we run run towards the finish line here on this, the last big line item that I want to talk to you about which i think you know quite a bit about and I've learned a little bit about recently is what is going on next July like late July of nj Oklahoma. Oh, man, this thing is cool. Let's enroll through.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I'm horrible at keeping secrets and I've known about this for a little while. But it made America in July. They're having an eight day event

Wyatt Pemberton:

where they're mid America offered Park. Yeah. Mama Nora, northeast Oklahoma, just just north west of grand old northeast of Tulsa

Chip MacLaughlin:

northeast of Tulsa. It's 15 miles from Disney.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, Disney Oklahoma. Disney Oklahoma feels like Disney like what Florida now? Yeah. wheeling location. That's a good wheeling location. Yeah.

Chip MacLaughlin:

In this guy Jason. I guess it's a couple years ago a couple years old. I just recently discovered it. The campgrounds and the way that this guy set up this park is amazing. But he's brand basically. I'm going to call it king of the hammers to Oklahoma. Yeah, but it's not just 4400 it's mega trucks. mudbug trucks. bounty kill it you know he'll killing Jason Robinette?

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yes. I probably say the right super nice guy.

Chip MacLaughlin:

But and yeah, you met him this weekend. I saw him and he was looking at me like I kind of know you from somewhere. I was like, Yeah, I was at your event A while back. But imagine going to King and hammers and having swimmers swim

Wyatt Pemberton:

up pool like a swim up bar swim up bar free beer. The whole part not just the bar. The whole park is free beer because it was they did some economic calculations that they couldn't get a liquor license, or it was gonna be so much money that they'd rather just give it away. So they have a liquor license. Oh, they do. I see. Yeah.

Chip MacLaughlin:

And it was really big. We went up there for the outlaw race here a while back. And I was just blown away at this part. Now, the whole notre four cores out there. It hasn't, you know, the trails haven't been broken yet. And it's kind of easy for us. But the parks amazing. And the rumors are and it is, you know, I don't know if they're still going to do it. But for 4400 it's an invite only nothing, there's 20 or 25. But the reason that is is they're going to make 25 2025 teams, and they're going to pick a driver from each class and your collective times from each class. Or who wins the person that's like $300,000 in purses.

Wyatt Pemberton:

It's a big number is what he told me. And yeah, and I got I got pulled into the conversation by Dave Cole. Dave Coldplay that leaves a conversation talking with Jason. They Don't each other, they're working on this thing. He walks through the crowd grabs me, drags me back across the crowd and says why you need to meet this guy. Jason you need to meet this guy. Why and we get to talk and I'm like, What? I know we're j Oklahoma. Wait, I think I know where j Oklahoma is. And he confirmed it's up near Grove. You know, it's Miami, Oklahoma. It's, you know, northeast of Tulsa. Just off the Will Rogers Turnpike. I'm like, Yeah, okay. Eight days, concerts. They've got cabins. They've got RV hookups, the swim up bar was nuts. I didn't know that. The beer is gratis with your ticket at the gate. Yep. Yep. UTV racing. 4400. Racing. They're having monster trucks out there. They were gonna do some stunt bikes. I think two Yep. bikes. I mean, just motocross or just, he just kept rattling stuff off. And I'm like, this sounds like it sounds like Sturgis for offroaders offroaders. And he's like, that's exactly. You know, like, what we're going after we're going out there. Like, there's something for everybody. It's going to be in j Oklahoma. This is where you're going to make it to. I'm like, Well, I'm February. I'm Mecca to means dry lake. And in July, I'm going to Mecca miasta. Jay Oklahoma. Like, alright, but man,

Chip MacLaughlin:

it's kind of weird, because you know, Dave goal. You know, a lot of people have a love hate relationship with him. But he's an idea guy. 100% huge. Jason's the same way. Huge idea. Yeah, I think the two collaborations they're, you know, gonna be pretty cool

Wyatt Pemberton:

in. I don't know, Jason from that regard. I don't know anything about him in that regard. But I do know what I do know about Dave is big idea guy that has the means and wherewithal to pull it off. Yep, you'll win, lose or fail. Whatever it is, he will pull it off. And then maybe like, Okay, that was terrible. We won't do that again. Or like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe we pulled that off. That was amazing. Now, next time, we're gonna do it three times as big. So Exactly.

Chip MacLaughlin:

I can't imagine what the next one's gonna be.

Wyatt Pemberton:

I don't know. But I saw in Dave Cole, his passion about what Jason had going in Jay, Oklahoma. And, and I knew you were involved in that because I'd seen you pushing that on social media just a week before. It's called mid America offered Park is called mid America for parking. Jay, Oklahoma. And yeah, mark on your calendars, guys. I mean, next July, I think July the 22nd. I think is

Chip MacLaughlin:

the third week in July, I believe.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah. And it's somewhere

Chip MacLaughlin:

like right. And I might have not looked at the calendar. Um, I think it's like, right before we race in Sturgis, and then I forget where we are now, weeks later. There's the others

Wyatt Pemberton:

of June race and then in August race, but i think that i think the closest August race would be Vegas to Reno.

Chip MacLaughlin:

No August the first week of August to Sturgis, were somewhere else that weekend. I think it's Moab maybe. But yeah, it's gonna be a quick turnaround for us. But it's something we definitely want to be involved in. You know, that's something that Rufus racing in Zandi and the guys, you know, we've been doing 4400 we might start looking into the series, you know, I'd love to go do you know, some of the Mexico races. Yeah, we're gonna see what see what goes on.

Wyatt Pemberton:

At least get your feet wet at Nora, or something along those lines,

Chip MacLaughlin:

or it just sounds like a blast to me. I mean, going across the finish line getting tacos and beer. I'm in.

Wyatt Pemberton:

You look like it. I mean, it looks like something that Me Me too. I mean, that's that looks like my kind of race. That's got to be the finish line first. Right? Well, hey, Chip, did we cover everything you wanted to cover? Yeah. Any stories on Oh, mean? I know. We're missing stories.

Chip MacLaughlin:

There's so many stories I do. We have to have a whole nother show on that. But you know, Rufus Rasen, we're, you know, we're just a group of guys having fun, you know, xante pulled together and there's diamond and fry and peanut and Brad and you know, more the merrier. And we help other teams, especially like Australians, and then Hooper and those guys were just making memories and having fun. Well, that's what it's about.

Wyatt Pemberton:

I love the fact that you know, you've been involved in rock sports for we're going on the better part of two decades leading, you know, in a third decade here and you're still just as passionate today about it as you were back then. Don't you're wrong. Nothing is a flatline all the way up. Yeah, no, there's been the highs, the lows, the sideways, the the broken backs here, the broken hearts.

Chip MacLaughlin:

But I just think it's cool to go race with, you know, idols. And, you know, like in Oklahoma this past weekend, you know, I was sitting there going, Man, I'm, there's a lot of who's who here, and I'm just like, feeling like, you know, Danny and I are these nobodies. And you know what, we made a point this weekend. And our team did, we didn't get across the finish line, but we can run with a big guys. And I think that's what's cool about it, you know, an average, everyday Joe can get it and mix it up. And if you got some talent, you can go just like these other guys. You're not much different.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I want to give two shout outs right there are things that I saw this weekend in the 4400 race on that level. Nate Williams, Nate, Nate Jesse, Jesse. He finished seventh In national sip, seven Nate's had a car two years. He's a new driver. He hadn't raced before. And here we are. He finished seventh in that field. And then I saw Matt Bearcat. He's a North Texas guy. The reason yo Matt was racing is because jack nasty was in the passenger seat with my helmet on. That's fair all first statements, but Burkett finished 10th. When was the last time Burkett raced a race? And when was the last time he raced an Ultra4 race? and finished? And I don't know that ever. I mean, I'm sure he's finished.

Chip MacLaughlin:

He's had a lot of struggles with that car with motors. And he started with Ford and went to Chevy. And

Wyatt Pemberton:

today it is a ttv car. Yeah, so yeah, it needs some serious tuning, but I don't know Bearcat at all. I've never met him. I've raced against him one other time. So I don't really have anything you offer. But the fact that the car hasn't been running, who knows how many years it seemed like and he shows up, pulls off a 10th place at Ultra4 National School. Like that's cool. And who finished 11th No idea. Joshua. Josh Blyler. Oh, yeah. Current King and was Yeah, I mean, he did do whatever he had some issues but Luke B he did do it four times versus three I mean, but the thing is that's that was still racing is still under doing the green the checker and we're kept putting it in front of a national champ. So I've got to say, I mean, I gotta hand it off to these guys that if you want to, if you want to dedicate some time to the sport you would dedicate some a whole bunch of money to the sport and have a car you can run with the big guys you will you nerf Shannon Campbell during this race. It offered offered Hall of Famer I mean and i

Chip MacLaughlin:

i mean even look at like Kevin Taylor, which oddly enough is my wife is related to previous marriage on how it actually works. But he ran on 43's and rock bouncer that looks like a Porsche. And I think he finished 14th

Wyatt Pemberton:

it was the one of the more noticeable politics like you can pick it always pick out his profile and Bailey Bailey Cole's profile in the cars it's it gets it gets messy when there's like three or four different Miller approach assays and they're covered in mud. You can't tell which is

Chip MacLaughlin:

the two good pass on the brown car.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, the brown car versus brand car or the Campbell cars all end up starting to look the same. And you've got Wayland and then Bailey cars Bailey's is far enough apart but Shannon's and then you gotta leave I surely there's enough of them that looked at it or Cabrera. If Cooper's cars at the right angle. You can get them confused. But nonetheless. Wow. Yeah. We just came off a great weekend. It was man. Good to see you, Chip. I'm glad we had Yon great stories. I just do like I said you've fully impressed me for the last 20 years. And here we are. You're no longer the backup. You're no longer my break class in case of emergency. I've got to say

Chip MacLaughlin:

Sandy's the backup because he hasn't been on and I keep beating him maybe well, he got to beat me this weekend. But I call Danny the backup now.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yeah, we'll just calling that right. I think that's okay.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. Hey, put it on a bigger sticker and put on his car for hammers.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Well, I'll have to chop down their backup. Or Well, hey, guys, I appreciate you guys tuning in and giving me your time on this episode of the talent tank. You know, we're winding down this fall season. We've got four more left before before Thanksgiving man Thanksgivings. coming out as quick. But that puts us what that means is we're three months from from hammers three months from seeing everybody on lateness in three months, it's less I know, stop counting. Alright, Chip, Chip. Thanks for coming on, man.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Appreciate Why thank you for everything you do. And I love the show. And you know, I learned a lot from the show. So I'm appreciate you doing this. And I'm grateful for it. You know,

Wyatt Pemberton:

you reminded me I said I was going to have a nugget about some information a little bit ago when we were talking about sponsors and get involved in how to get involved. And I didn't drop that nugget. I'm gonna interrupt the exit right here and I'm gonna drop that nugget. I saw one thing this weekend that so impressed me it was one guy it was one guy he did it both days he did during qualifying and he did during the race when he was done with qualifying. He went to the media trailer, which is the big NATO team with a traitor sat down in the middle lounge with Miss Pam Hall and miles house Lucas sat down with them and gave a little post recap of how his qualifying went and then the next day during race day on Saturday. He raced he broke he did not have a good day. When he got back his car got back to the pits he came up there he walked into the the ninja immediate ninja trailer grabbing the set down the ninja lounge and gave a race recap about what his day was. And so he gave back value to sponsors. He led all of his fans know and his family know kind of how his day went. I saw one driver do that. It was the same drivers both days. only guy that did it. Wayland Campbell.

Chip MacLaughlin:

Yeah. And I learned from that you'll see me doing that as much as I can. And you got to get over that. You know, my idea was, I don't want to interrupt those guys. They want you to come in because they're tired of saying hey, this just coming down to the wire. whatever other words that Myles use, they can use the interruption. So that's great advice

Wyatt Pemberton:

you're giving that as a driver, you're giving them extra color, you're giving them depth, you're giving them the backstories, about what was going on inside the car, and they can see what goes on outside of the car, they got a drone. I mean, they've got cameras of the course. And they're getting people talking to them in their ear about it. But to get from the horse's mouth, you know, right there from the source. It doesn't get any better than that. And that's the one thing I would like to see. And that was just my observation. I'd like to see, you know, if, if there's a line of drivers trying to get in there with them. That's one story. But there was no line. It was just one one. I saw Josh West, Joshua West, he went in there sat down from one point. And then at one point, miles grabbed me and made me sit down for a little bit at the very beginning of the 4400 start, but yes, that's needed. That's, I hope I said something to Dave and I said something to JT when I was sitting in the 450 with him, basically, along those lines, and JT said, Yeah, you know, that's a valid point, we should bring that up in the drivers, meetings, drivers. You want exposure, you're always asking, you know, how can I give back more to my sponsors? How can I get more coverage? Well, man, the live feed, that's, you know, that's what Oprah for has the live feed for, it's for coverage, use it, go sit down in there, give some live commentary, you may sit there five minutes or 10 minutes until there's a spot for you to to tie, but they're going to get your story and they're going to be happy about it. And then we're going to know your story. And the more of us know your story, the better odds are we're going to know your name, we're going to know your memory, we're gonna know your car, we're gonna know exactly this stuff. And then your ability to walk into whoever and have a conversation about supporting your program and being a partner in your program. It's a little easier.

Chip MacLaughlin:

You know, the other thing too, that that that's a good point. I'm glad you brought that up. But even the new people coming in, you know, that show up to the race for the first time. You know, don't be afraid to walk into somebody's tent or camp. You know, the Levi Shirley's that chant Campbell's the Lauren Haley's, the Rufus racing or whatever. You might leave with it, like a team shirt. Or hell, you might even be sucked into being on the team, right? Give you a wrench or something. If you want to learn what this is about. Don't be afraid to approach the teams, we always need help everybody does no matter who you are.

Wyatt Pemberton:

If you know how to you know, cook bacon, or flip pancakes or a rapper burrito, or you know how to actually change out a motor and swap stock or murders. It does. There is a place for you if all you're good at is surfing Facebook and taking pictures and posting up there is a role for you. Yes, there absolutely is.

Chip MacLaughlin:

So it goes both ways. And you know, I'm glad you brought that up that you know, listen to like Levi's, and some of the other guys do about sponsorships. And you know, Bailey Cole brought it up because you know, you got to give back. He can't keep taking and that's the exact way to do it.

Wyatt Pemberton:

Yep. Now, man, Chip, thank you for coming on. Thank you for wrapping up with me. Thanks for the whole ketchup. Sorry, about just what you and I had the little hiccup like pre recording, but here we go, man. I hope everybody enjoyed this episode of the talent tank. I appreciate you guys dialing in and giving me your time and giving chip your time for listening to us gab gab along with some girls. All right, guys. We'll catch you next week. Yep. Chip. We're out.

Intro/Outro:

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