Life's A Drag - New England Nationals Recap and Bristol Preview with Richard Gadson
41 annotations
Hosts recap the New England Nationals and set up a Bristol preview with Richard Gadson. They talk road-trip prep, then dive into Bristol qualifying strategy: lane choice tied to points, Q1/Q2 timing, and how resurfacing and weather can swing performance. Richard shares why Bristol changed his mindset, plus the hot, muggy conditions that suppress ETs/times. The conversation also covers community/pit culture, milestones like Greg Anderson’s 1000th round win, and Bristol fan events such as Legends of Thunder Valley and autograph sessions.
0:00
--:--
01:03
Place
Thunder Valley
“Thunder Valley” is a nickname for the drag-racing track at Bristol Motor Speedway. When people say it, they mean that specific Bristol event and the vibe that comes with it.
03:00
Place
Bristol
Bristol is a famous race track where drag races are held. If the track surface was recently redone, it can change how fast and consistent the cars feel.
03:00
Term
Q1
Q1 means the first qualifying session. Drivers run to earn a good starting position for the next part of the event.
03:11
Term
Top Fuel
Top Fuel is a top drag-racing category. It’s for super-fast nitro dragsters, and the schedule around it affects when qualifying sessions run.
03:11
Term
Q2
Q2 is the second qualifying session. It’s another chance to post a fast run so you start in a better spot for the racing that follows.
03:11
Term
Funny Carnot
This sounds like it was meant to say “Funny Car.” Funny Cars are a drag racing class with a car-like body shape, built specifically to go fast in a straight line.
03:37
Term
Mission Foods Too Fast Too Tasty
That phrase is a sponsor-branded event name. It’s basically a named part of the race weekend schedule, not a specific car technology.
03:49
Term
points position
Points position is where a driver ranks in the season standings. In this format, your ranking can help determine which lane you get during qualifying.
03:49
Term
lane
A lane is which side of the track you run on. Sometimes one side is better because of grip or track condition, so lane choice can affect results.
04:19
Term
resurfaced
Resurfaced means the track was redone. A fresh surface can change grip, so the cars may hook up differently than before.
22:19
Topic
championship
They’re talking about the overall season competition. Winning a race helps you earn points that can put you in a better position for the final title.
23:58
Term
wild card
A “wild card” is a surprise or guest racer who isn’t normally in the main group. The host is saying Joey’s return could make the races tougher for the regular competitors.
24:12
Place
Ankle Raceway
Ankle Raceway is the drag strip where the host watched Joey race early on. It’s mentioned to show the host has seen Joey’s progress from the beginning.
24:19
Car
Ninja 250
The Kawasaki Ninja 250 is a smaller, beginner-friendly sport bike. The host is saying Joey started racing on a bike like this before he got better and faster.
24:53
Term
MSR bike
“MSR bike” is a particular racing bike setup the host is talking about. The host is basically saying Joey is very capable, and the MSR bikes are already fast, so it could shake things up.
This is WFO Radio.
Hello and welcome to another edition of Life's a Drag on the WFO Radio Network.
I'm one of the hosts, Elon Warner, joined by my partner in crime.
Abby Warner-Wilford.
So we are going to recap a little bit of a epping.
Talk about Bristol.
We're going to have the great pro stock motorcycle world champion Richard Gadson join us in a couple of minutes at the top of the show.
And let's, we're right in the middle, two down of three in a row. How are you feeling, Abby?
I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling a little behind a laundry, but you know, we're, we're, we're excited to, it's, this is going to be my first time attending Bristol in person this weekend.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Excited to experience the joys of Thunder Valley.
And yeah, and then before you know it, we'll be at Norwalk. So, very excited.
Also very funny you mentioned laundry because I actually loaded the washing machine before the show did not start the washing machine.
Oh no.
I just, I just realized that.
So if commercial break is just a little bit longer, guys, you'll know what you'll see.
Yeah, when it comes back and it's just the life's a drag, you know, highlight for just a few seconds. That's just me running into my laundry room to start my washer and dryer because I only have 30 seconds.
But producing on the air, all the commercials are not like the continuous two minutes.
They're 30 you have to switch them manually. So good news is it's always so I did, I did car stuff yesterday. So did you.
Yes.
Got tires checked because we're driving to Norwalk.
Yes.
So that got the Explorer all geared up for that.
Did car stuff, did bank stuff, did post office stuff.
You went to the theater last night.
I saw Wicked last night. I got my hair cut yesterday.
All the things.
All the things.
So yes, but I like this whole three in a row thing. I mean, do I want to do it maybe all the time? Probably not.
But it's a really fun way to get the summer of racing. I feel like, like really, really.
And I mean, I also like that if we're going to have, and we'll talk about this more later on in the show, if we're going to have an incomplete race, I would much rather go ahead and complete it literally the next weekend.
Yes.
And this is almost my favorite version of completing a race, because now if you come to Bristol, you're going to get three days of racing.
Yes.
Because they're going to, so Friday they'll do Q1. And then at the end of Funny Carnot, end of Top Fuel, the last pairs will be Q2 for Sean and Leah, and then also the final of that thing.
Yes.
And then same deal for Jordan and Beckman. So it gets tricky in that, yeah, are you racing? Are you trying to qualify? Because that's the, you know, really, really good session.
Yeah.
But if you win the race, you're probably going to run really good. So then you go Saturday into Mission Foods Too Fast Too Tasty, which all of those guys will obviously be back in Mission Too Fast Too Tasty.
And then you go into the race on Sunday, which here is an interesting deal I was talking with someone yesterday about the way they, and I don't know which lane they do this, but basically Q1, your lane is decided by your points position.
Okay.
So it is possible for Sean Langdon, I think, has lane choice, and I think Jack Beckman does.
But more importantly for Sean, he's number one in points, so he will start in, let's say the right lane.
Okay.
They've just resurfaced Bristol.
Yes.
So there's a chance you could get into a right lane is better than the left lane or left lane is better than the right lane.
They'll sort it out because Sean will get to run Q1 in lane, in the right lane and Doug, who's number two in points, will run in the left lane.
So the quality guys will get information on both lanes.
If one lane is obviously better than the other, then Sean could pick that lane because he'll have lane choice in the final.
And let's say he starts in the right lane.
The right lane is a better lane.
Okay.
He's going to run the right lane again on Friday night.
Yeah.
Saturday rolls around.
He'll have lane choice again for Q3, the first round of Two Fast Two Tasty.
He could pick the right lane again when final round of Q4, right lane again.
Yeah.
So he could basically go into race only having run in the right lane and could stay in the right lane all day on Sunday.
Yeah, if he keeps going low.
And I think that's really interesting that you could basically go to a track and only run one lane the whole weekend and win the race, which I never thought of it like that before.
He could also go to four and five races in a row in one weekend.
Wild.
So it's the last time someone's done that in a nitro class, Steve Toritz.
Yeah, like five in a row I think is Steve when he swept the countdown.
Yeah.
But it's, it's just all these little things can get set up in Bristol.
Also, we could have weather.
You know, I looked at the forecast on my phone, which really doesn't mean anything because I don't control the weather.
But it looks like while it's saying rain, it could just be kind of rain in the evening or rain in the morning.
So I feel pretty good about getting racing.
We did not, you know, also became so close and epic.
I know.
I was actually, I was beginning to get a little cocky towards the end and then that obviously bit us, which I'm sure I'm sure it rained because I got cocky, obviously.
But yes, I posted something on my Instagram story, just kind of complaining about we were doing so good.
And then we had to end it with less than 10 seconds of racing left.
All we needed was about 10 physical minutes to get 10 seconds of racing done.
And you go back and you just do all the math of all the little things that bogged us down.
Yes, during the day.
The pollen and epping was off the charts.
Like swirling pollen.
It was, it was disgusting.
Like you could feel it on your clothes.
I felt like all weekend we were just like constantly like trying to not trying to get yellow green dust off your body.
Exactly.
Yeah, so I think that contributed a little bit to some of the funny cars hitting cones.
Yes.
Yeah, I've never seen so many people hit cones in a row.
To the point where we had a conversation in the press room of like, how many cones, how many cones do we have?
Like at what point do we accidentally run out of cones?
Right.
Like what, you know, and if you run out of cones, is there, I mean, are we just done?
Yeah.
What happens then?
Race stop because ran out of cones.
So that, that was just wild on that front of just like that.
And then we got so close with the rain and then it stopped.
And this is the part that is just soul crushing.
I shout out to the safety safari guys, all the track guys, they had extra tractors there.
They got the track ready to go.
And then they're pulling the cars out of the pits and they get basically they're starting to roll towards the starting and it's not that far.
No, it's not.
And then it starts really raining after that.
And then you're like,
I'd gone out to the car to call my husband who was doing like Homer pairs and just, I was like, you know, because the press room one is not very big.
And I didn't want to disturb other people.
And I was like, we are so close to racing.
And then I just watched the heavens open up again.
And I was like, we're not racing.
But we did, we did cap off Sunday night with some success of going to Brown's Lobster Pound, even though you're not a seafood fan, you took one for the team.
I'm not ever going to yuck anyone's young.
If I'm the, if I'm the minority, I'll still go to the seafood restaurant.
You just can't judge me for ordering a burger.
No.
And that was a pretty solid burger.
That was a, it was a delicious burger.
And also, I mean, your lobster looked great.
You enjoyed eating it.
And of course you can't beat the company of Richard chute and Garrett of Stasi.
So it was a great dinner all around.
So were you a bit concerned when you walked in and just saw the big pool of lobsters and then saw me just pick one and you, you did have a funny text exchange in our family group text.
Do you want to recount that a little bit?
Well, I should have screenshotted it, but it was just funny because I was, I took a picture of the lobster, you know, before the poor guy knew it was about to hit him, you know, still live being weighed.
And it's like, we're here.
We're about this guy's about to go into the fry.
Actually, before you put me on the spot, you should have told me.
Oh, sorry, I was, I was expecting to.
No, it's okay. Because the how I'm, I'm not recounting it well.
I said the lobster dad is about to eat. He won't be alive for much longer.
And a family, the family friend Brian Lampkin, shout out Brian responded that is no way to talk about your father.
And then I went, I responded just went into the boiler and you responded.
That's at least how I pictured it in my head.
Yeah, that's that's that's exactly what I would if you drop me into a boiling bucket of water, that's exactly the sound it would sound very high pitched.
All right, well, enough talk about lobster and then you possibly boiling me alive. We are joined by the great Richard Gadson, pro stock world champion, all around good guy.
How are you doing, Richard?
How you guys doing? Thanks for having me real quick.
We're doing great.
The place that we go is like 20 minutes from the track right on the coast and literally the lobsters that they are serving were, they tell you like a lot of them were in the ocean that morning.
Yeah, they could not be fresher.
Yeah, I've been up there. I went to lowering main one time for land speed race. Yeah, I've done land speed racing too.
And and we had fresh lobster. I mean, we were right on the water and it changed my whole like, you know, like I have a hard time going somewhere in order to main lobster and it's like no, no, no, but I've had a real one.
Yes, kind of one of those deals.
So, but yeah, I totally know what you're talking about. It's one of the reasons why, you know, I'm not lobbying for it or anything like that.
But I wish that bikes were on the epping schedule.
Yeah.
Just because I want to go to that area for that reason.
So out of the five races that bikes don't do or at least aren't doing with this year's schedule, which is the one that you have the most FOMO about when you're not there.
FOMO, what's that mean? I'm old.
Oh, fear of missing out.
Oh, OK.
God dang it. These these Gen Z kids, Richard.
Yeah, I didn't want to do that. I was trying to think like.
But props to you for not trying to just gloss over it. Just straight up saying, I don't know what that means.
FOMO for races. So if I could think of them there, what are the five if you know if this is Phoenix?
Pomona.
OK, Pomona one. So we go later. So not that one.
Phoenix, epping.
And I think right.
Yep, brainer. Yeah. So so I would say epping.
Phoenix is up there too. And most of those my reasons don't have anything to do with racing is just the area. Like I want to go to the area for some reason or another.
Not like I ever actually do. We go to the racetrack and then we go to the room and go to sleep and then we go back to the racetrack.
But my mind tells me that one of these days I'll actually get out and go see the areas and enjoy this this opportunity while we do travel to circuit.
You know, I may never see some of these places ever again.
One of my biggest regrets is even being on the on the circuit when before Vance and Heinz when I was with Bostic, I never went to the Denver race.
So now I'm living with super regrets that I never got to see Denver.
So but yeah, Phoenix and Phoenix and epping, probably epping for the for the light nudge.
Yeah, we they started later on Friday in epping.
And Abby and I, we found a cool breakfast spot that the Stanfields were also at and then Gary and Astasi showed up and then we have like kind of two and a half out.
We didn't want to be the people that just go to the track at 11 o'clock and then sit there for six hours.
Yeah, so we actually drove to Hampton Beach before and Richard, you know what we wear at the races, black pants, black shirt, you know, quarter zip black.
So we actually went to the beach and walk the boardwalk and our clothes toed shoes in our clothes toed shoes in our race uniform.
We look like darks. Yeah, we completely look like so everybody's in bikinis, flip flops, getting all their stuff and we're just walking around getting fried dough and
credit. We could have bought everything needed swimsuits, sunscreen, beach toys, chairs, boogie boards, boogie boards, but obviously we weren't going to get gross and sandy before heading to the track.
But yeah, we looked ridiculous.
You don't think anybody noticed.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
People, it was an equal balance of I guarantee you people looking at people that were like really incredibly body confident for the swimsuits they were wearing, which shout out to those people.
Yeah.
And then looking at us like, why are you wearing that?
That's hilarious.
Is this your first day on planet Earth?
Yeah, just now discovering what exactly a beach is.
I would have just started telling them like even if that thought they were looking at it, just so y'all know I was on my way to racetrack.
I just came in and just started just talking.
They were like, what are you talking about?
What's going on?
Yeah, so then, but it was nice.
So now we are probably next year, I think we'll plan a little bit better to get up a little bit earlier and then actually do because it's just kind of those deals where we took our time, but we did find a great breakfast joint, which is always key.
Northeast breakfast is a whole different ball.
Me and Eddie talk about it all the time.
We're like, man, if racing doesn't work out for some reason, we're going to open up a Northeast style breakfast place in Indy.
And I swear we wouldn't, we would only have to open until a small right the other day, maybe even take a couple days off or whatever, because it would be so packed.
I guarantee it.
But yeah, I've never been that far Northeast for breakfast, but I just know if somebody asked me what I missed the most about Northeast, it would be breakfast.
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