Kenny Wallace recalls the moment when he finally knew his NASCAR career was over. But where he had the epiphany is almost as important as the story as to why he wound up doing what he did.
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“Let me tell you the day, the moment that I decided to quit NASCAR,” Wallace said on his Friday podcast, ‘Kenny Conversation.’ I was at my Concord, North Carolina home, I was in the shower and I was shampooing what hair I have left (he then gave a gratuitous shot of his balding noggin) … and it hit me like a ton of bricks.”
What hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks was how his life had become more of chasing sponsorship money to operate his car, run his team, and pay his employees, rather than the reason Wallace got into the sport in the first place: to enjoy racing.
“All I (was doing) is search for sponsorship 24/7,” Wallace recalled. “The search for sponsorship wore me down. That’s the same story (NHRA drag racing legend) Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme (told Wallace). We had him on ‘Kenny Conversation.’ I said, ‘Snake, what made you quit NHRA drag racing?’ He says, ‘Oh man, sponsorship.’ I said, ‘Me too, Snake.’
“Snake asked his wife, ‘Honey, are we okay (financially)?’ She goes, ‘Oh yeah, honey, we’re okay financially.’ He goes, ‘F*ck it, pull the plug, we’re done.’ And that’s what I did. What I was doing? I was living my life in NASCAR through sponsorship.”
For the final few years of his 26-year NASCAR racing career, Wallace was almost like a hamster on a wheel, chasing, chasing, and more chasing after something that was getting more and more difficult to come by, namely, sponsorship.
Ironically, an Xfinity Series race on August 1, 2015, is relevant to this weekend’s Cup and Xfinity races at Iowa Speedway, as that was also where Wallace’s racing swan song took place. Serving as a hired fill-in driver for Joe Gibbs Racing on August 1, 2015, he started seventh and finished 15th.
As soon as he took the checkered flag, Wallace was done with NASCAR for good (although he kept barnstorming across North America for several more years behind the wheel of the late model dirt car he owned, which he now is also retired from, as well).
So Long, Carolina, I’m Heading Back Home to Mizzou
It took Wallace a while to sell all his NASCAR equipment, his house, pack up all his and his family’s belongings from more than a quarter-century of living in North Carolina, and move back to rural Missouri, not far from where he grew up.
“I was actually the one supporting the teams, I was the one making the payroll because I would get the money and then I’d give it to the team,” Wallace said. “I grew exhausted. So, when I got done shampooing my hair, I came out and said, ‘Brandy (his daughter), get all the family gathered up. I got something to say.’
“Brandy goes, ‘Dad, are we in trouble?’ I said, ‘No.’ Everybody gathered up, I looked at them all and said, ‘I’m done with NASCAR.’ My wife said, ‘Hold on now.’ Brandy said, ‘That’s awesome, Dad.’ Cuz they saw at the end how much it tore me down.
“And that, my friends, (is when) you’ll know when you’re done with anything. It’ll hit you like a ton of bricks. You’ll become resolute. The word resolute means resolute. ‘I’ve got a resolution’ means ‘I’m sure, I’m positive,’ and I’ve never looked back.
“And I’ve never been happier because I got so tired of trying to find money to support that damn race car and that team and all the payroll and the families.”
The Best Is Yet To Come for Wallace — Actually It’s Already Here
Wallace, who turns 63 on August 23, concluded his story with an analogy that illustrates how the revelation in his shower ultimately proved to be one of the best decisions of his life:
“I’m living my best life now.”
