Dad has seen my ashtray in the house.
Never smoked around him. I knew that’d get me an ass whooping.
Um, he hated it.
And I knew you hated it
from how you reacted around other people that did it.
Uh, but he walked in the house
and I couldn’t get it hit, right?
And so he’s seen it before,
so he kind of knew that I was.
I was smoking. Didn’t know how much,
but anyways,
I’ve never done it in front of you.
Never seen me with a cigarette,
never seen me with a pack of cigarettes,
right? And so I.
I never drove a race. I’ve always wanted an open face helmet,
right? So we got full face helmets.
The helmets right there, that yellow one.
Oh, yeah.
So we got the clip in for the.
The drink, right?
The electric drink. I’ve always just tape.
Tape the tube and, you know. No,
no electricity pumps. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I. I had that thing,
and I. I’m.
We’re getting ready to. As I got a friend with me in the bus.
I’m in my bus,
we’re getting ready to go out.
Dad’s like, um,
my. My friends,
my PR guy, he’s like, hey,
your dad wants you to come to pit road.
I’m like, man,
I’m not getting in the car till another five hours.
He’s like, this is during the race,
before the race started. He’s like,
he wants you to come to pit Road for a picture on it
on the grid. I’m like,
alright, cool,
I’ll go. And so we’re getting ready to go,
and he’s like, um.
He’s like, yeah,
they’re gonna come by and pick us up on the golf cart.
I’m like, okay.
And I’m nervous, right?
So I’m like. I’m like,
expose expensive.
All. I’m like.
I’m like, pushing out all this nervous energy, right?
So I’ve come standing in my bus and I put that helmet on,
and I stuck a cigarette in that little thing where the drink goes.
And I’m standing right at the door of the steps,
and I’m doing this dance. I’m like, hey,
look at me,
look at me, man.
Look at the cigarette. You can smoke.
No way. Yeah.
Through the drink bottle on the front
in there. Just.
You stuck a cigarette in there?
Yes, it fits right in there.
I mean, why don’t I know that?
I only. That’s gotta be the only time that’s ever happened.
Not lit. It’s just.
I’ve just stuck a cigarette in there.
I’m like, check it out, man,
you can smoke. Wearing this helmet.
To my buddy
right in that moment. I’m sweating now.
The dad opens the door. Oh my god!
He looks straight up in there at me.
And I turn and I’m like.
And I’ve got a helmet on with a cigarette sticking out of it.
And we’re getting ready to start the 24 hours that they told us this
Corvette thing, right?
This. It’s a big day.
What’d you say? Surprise!
He slammed the door.
He slams the door shut. Oh,
my god. My freaking eyes were as big as sand dollars.
And in my. I pull this helmet off and I sit it down,
and my buddies like, we better go.
We go out to sit on. We go out in the golf cart,
sitting there and dad sitting on the front of it.
He’s got the. The driver,
and he’s steaming like smoke coming out of his ears.
You won’t even look at me.
We sat on the back and we go.
We’re riding, uh,
in the infield of Daytona,
head toward the head, toward the grid.
And we go about 100 yards
and my buddy just starts snickering,
and dad turns around and goes, don’t!
And encouraging. Hahaha!
I remember that. He was so mad.
It’s so funny. We get to the grid and,
you know, so much is going on,
it kind of gets forgotten.
We take a picture. Yeah.