Stapleton42

05/24/2026

05/22/2026

In 2004 I was 8 years old and NASCAR was the coolest thing ever to me. Kurt Busch was on top of the world at that time. My dad had indoctrinated me to think Fords/Roush were the “bad guys” because he was a Jeff Gordon fan. I’ve always gravitated toward the underdog story before I even knew what the term was and that’s how I saw Kyle. When I heard Kurt Busch had a younger brother kinda coming in under the radar I immediately thought “I want to see this guy go whoop his big brother” and was instantly a Kyle Busch fan.

I remember when he started driving the Hendrick 5 Lowe’s car in the Busch series that sorta looked like Jimmie Johnson’s but a bit different. I thought it was awesome looking because it wasn’t the 48 and he wasn’t Kurt either. He was the underdog to me.

My dad was going to a Bristol race without me so I scribbled down some wish list of diecasts I wanted him to get. It was a stretch because he never ever bought new ones for me. (Example he’d give me 15-20 bucks at the Gypsy tents in Michigan and taught me how to go negotiate with the seller if I wanted something). I REALLY wanted a Kyle Busch #5 Lowe’s car. I don’t know if a diecast had even been made of that particular car yet it was so new. They didn’t exist yet at Michigan last time we were there. As you can see on the note I really wanted him to “chek” for it 😂

He managed to find an #87 Ditech diecast while he was there and waited in line for Kyle to sign it. He also gave Kyle my note to sign too. My dad said Kyle looked at it looked back up with a strange “wtf is this thing” kinda face. Then did sign it after my dad said what it was for.

Both have been in a diecast case in his office since 2004 and I never did get that stinkin Lowe’s car.

I was hoping one day after Kyle retired to do a hometown history video with him and maybe share this story even though it’s nothing remarkable really. Those things are very memorable when you’re 8 years old.

I can’t believe he’s gone. What a terrible situation for his family to endure. There are no words to describe.

05/22/2026

I’m in total disbelief about all of this. Both Kyles.

It just can’t be real.

05/21/2026

What’s your perspective on the state of NASCAR for the last 5 years?

Here’s my opinion. I think it really felt like 2022-23 was a big upward swing across the board. The next gen car had good racing in 2022 before the big teams figured it out. I think Ross Chastain’s wall ride at Martinsville 2022 was the peak of public interest and 2023 carried the plateu fairly well with a slight decline over time. SVG winning Chicago after showing up out of the blue was a big boost that extended that plateau a bit further.

2024 things really seemed to cool off as the new cars weekly running order hierarchy started to return to the usual with the same teams running up front. It seemed people were back to complaining about the playoffs. The Xfinity series storyline had cooled off. It wasn’t as exciting as 2022 when Gragson Gibbs and underdog Josh Berry were there.

2025 I don’t even remember anything noteworthy other than the announcement on playoffs going away which was a huge deal and the offseason lawsuit drama.

2026 so far I have no idea what’s going on anywhere since COTA. It barely makes it to my news feeds lately.

How does your own perception compare?

05/19/2026

Mark Martin’s week old 2027 Newell coach gets another turbo! The whole compound kit install and dyno test video just went live! How much power do you think it made? It has a Cummins X15 with 605hp from the factory..

05/18/2026

I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon over the last couple years. Filming some of this historic stuff is a really unique experience however my actual first person lived memory of it fades very quickly. I finally figured out why.

After I go through the footage enough times while editing, my first person memory of the actual event is effectively “replaced” by what the camera sees. After it all I’m left with essentially the same thing you are after watching the completed video. Internally it almost doesn’t feel like I was ever there.

I have more vivid memories of conversations that occurred after the camera was off than I do while it was on because I only experienced that part once. My memory of earlier video recordings is also more vivid because back then I’d just rip through the footage once and export it 😂

Just an interesting observation on how the brain works.

05/14/2026

Mark Martin’s Newell is going on the dyno at PDI tomorrow. You’ll get to see the whole install and dyno process when I get back home and get this footage edited. I left home with 18 hours of space on this SD card and I got about 10 left so it might take me a little bit to go through all of that 😂

05/12/2026

Mark Martin’s new Newell under the knife for a compound turbo kit at PDI this week and I’m here for it. You’re gonna get to see how that process goes and the chassis dyno too.

PDI is an extremely impressive operation. I’ve seen a ton of awesome stuff in the past 3 days out here.

05/11/2026

Sacred ground today. If you know… you know 👀

05/10/2026

Just posted a video with Burt Myers at his modified shop and I learned a TON. I had no idea his father raced the Cup series in the 1970s. The shop they raced out of back then is still standing next door and we got to see that too!

Burt’s accomplishments are so profound on their own I honestly never thought about his family lineage at all so this was a really fun one to learn on the fly.

05/07/2026

If you listen to the full episode you’ll learn a lot of stuff about me that I’ve never said publicly before. Jeremy’s good a good thing going here.