Original subtitles

Everyone has heard me say before that Mississippi

is basically one really big small town.

We all look after each other.

We all take care of each other.

We lift each other up.

When there is a problem, we race to help

people in need,

which is why I'm so excited today

because I have a fellow Mississippian,

a champion racecar driver,

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.,

in the workshop ready to build something.

Ricky's family got their start

with his dad building racing engines.

He started racing at a very young age,

and he's done it all.

He won the Nationwide Series

Rookie of the Year, the Sprint Cup Series

Rookie of the Year, and then in 2017,

he won the big one, Talladega.

Ricky stayed in town last night.

He's walking over to the shop,

but I wanna cut him off before he gets there

'cause I wanna show him something.

- What's up? - What's happening?

Plus, he gets to ride

in a real racing vehicle, Plant.

- Good to see you. - Good to see you.

Good to go.

It's just like riding a NASCAR.

It is. The only airflow you got

is what comes out the side window there.

Where are we headed?

We're going to the fire department.

I like it. I love helping

fire departments, first responders.

First responders, man.

And if you think about what he does for a living,

they have first responders and firemen around them

all the time, ready at a moment's notice

in case there's an emergency.

All the real heroes.

The real heroes. Yeah, we...

People think we might be heroes but we're not.

Yeah.

Yes, you see this green space out here?

- Yup. - That's what...

We're going to build something for that.

A place where they can sit, hang out between calls.

It is time to give the firefighters

their own pit stop, somewhere where they can

restart their engines, you know?

Somewhere where they can recharge,

get, you know, something to drink, refuel.

What if this becomes the firehouse winner's circle.

Pretty cool.

So this is what we're using.

Looks good to me.

You see, I just took you on the high side there.

- I did see that. - Yeah.

- A little slide job. - Yeah.

- Coming around. - Dang.

Okay. So this wood is poplar.

This is my least favorite wood species,

- which sounds terrible. - It sounds horrible.

Well, we're gonna build something

for the fire department. We're gonna...

- Yeah. - Get them some crappy wood.

The reason I don't like it is 'cause it's...

I don't like the color in it.

It's kind of boring normally, but this piece is not.

These pieces are special.

This is from the second

largest poplar tree in Pontotoc County.

Dang. We're getting close to where I'm from.

- North Mississippi. - Yeah.

This was the limb... A limb on the tree.

- So that is... - A limb?

I was thinking this was like the base, the trunk.

- This is a limb? - No. This is the limb.

I'd say it was a pretty big tree then.

It was huge.

As soon as I saw the L-shaped slabs,

I knew exactly what I wanted to build.

- All right. - Okay?

So what I'm wanting to do is actually build two benches.

They can bring them together, have a U-shaped

- or they can... - Yeah.

Keep them a little bit separate.

Okay.

We're gonna keep the poplar lob edge, sand it.

We may have to shorten one side

or the other a little bit.

Then we're gonna take and we're gonna do

two full-width English-style

hand-cut dovetails on the end,

and then we're going to pin those dovetails with red oak.

Once we have our dovetailed ends on,

we're actually gonna flip the top over

and we're gonna domino the rest of the supports in.

For our legs, we're gonna use cypress.

That's for the dovetailed ends

and for our support legs underneath.

It's a great outdoor wood.

It holds up well in the weather.

It's gonna be a great material to use for our legs.

- Love it. - All right.

Well, then this will be good 'cause we can rely

on your standard for precision.

- Got it. I'm ready. - All right.

Let's go prep our slabs.

All right. Before we do any kind of work...

- I'm official now. - That's right.

Well, you've always... You've been official...

- That's true. - For a long time.

I should have just brought mine from home.

You have one from the original batch though.

- I'm an original kind of guy. - I see.

So our stores, the Laurel Mercantile

and Scotsman Co.

started as Erin Ben Co.

And it was this small "what if this works" project

we launched, and the next morning,

we gotta check the orders

and someone had placed like a $250 order.

In a small retail shop, that was huge.

And I went and looked and it was,

you know, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Ricky always supports people from Mississippi

because they've always supported him.

You know, especially his family

but also his community.

I mean, he really wants to give back.

How much shorter are we gonna take off of it?

- We're basically... - Or just clean it up?

We're just cleaning it up. Yeah, we're not worried

- about how thick it is. - Okay.

Actually, the thicker the better.

Yeah.

I know you grew up in racing,

but when you say you grew up in racing,

- what does that look like? - Yeah.

Well, I was born at noon on a Saturday.

My dad went and raced that night.

- My mom... - Oh, shoot.

Took me to the track. I was six-weeks old.

My dad was racing.

From everything that I can remember,

it was traveling to the racetrack

or hanging out in the shop

while he was working on his race cars or engines.

And so I just looked up to my dad and everything

that he did 'cause he was racing.

And then... So we rode dirt bikes together.

When you say your dad was a racer,

I mean, he didn't race stock car?

No. He raced dirt cars around home.

Okay. Okay.

Sprint cars is what he raced and...

Sprint cars are the ones with the big wing?

With the big wing on it, yes.

Yeah.

I started in in go-karts on dirt tracks.

Okay.

I was five or six years old and...

- Five and six years old. - Yeah.

So literally like grew up,

traveled the country, went and won some big races.

I had learned and kind of done

what I needed to do in go-karts.

My dad felt like I was ready, you know, to...

Okay.

Make that transition to sprint cars.

There was a new track in Mississippi

being built and they had a play day,

like kind of a test day, and we're all going down.

He's like, "You're ready to practice today?"

And I was like, "Yeah, let's go." We went down there.

I made I think 10 or 15 laps

and then that was the last time

my dad ever got in a sprint car.

- Dang. - He was like,

all right, I think it's time to,

you know, put everything that he's learned

and worked for into me, give me the opportunity

to take it, you know, another step further.

That was a really big moment...

- Huge. Huge. - For you.

Huge.

All right. Let's sand these.

Oh, we're ready?

Just slide it.

Poplar is not a desirable

piece of wood for furniture, okay?

But this piece is.

These are really cool.

This is not your typical poplar, okay?

This is a slab that's L-shaped

that came from the biggest tree

in Pontotoc County that has some...

It has a little bit of spalting in it.

It's got a lot of grain pattern in.

It's got some figure going on there

because of some imperfections

that were in the tree.

And so that makes it not good for lumber

but it makes it perfect for furniture building.

So we're gonna take this slab and just let it be.

That makes for fast work.

That's way better than by hand.

So that's like the difference

between my pickup and your racecar.

You're still gonna get there

but one of them is a lot faster.

A lot faster, yeah.

Let's go make some cypress legs.

Yeah. So set it up off the ground.

That's it.

All right. So I got a question.

What does it take to go from, you know,

racing go-karts on the weekend to being a sprint car racer?

It takes a lot.

It took a lot of sacrifice from my mom, my dad, you know,

putting everything that we had into it.

You know, I was racing with a guy

by the name of Jeff Buckner who...

He raced against my dad and he had a trucking company.

And I raced with him once or twice and he literally

dropped all of his racecar stuff off at our house

and said, "Ricky, can, you know,

go further than here."

And I just took things like that and a lot of people

kind of in my corner to help us go race.

Ricky is seriously one of the most

humble people I have ever met.

He's at the top of his racing game but he never forgets,

you know, where he came from and who helped him get there.

It's awesome.

What is it specifically about racing that you love?

Yeah, there's a lot.

I mean, like is it the competition,

the speed, the adrenaline?

I like competition.

Definitely like the speed.

I like the Evel Knievel like daredevil side of things.

Like how far can I push it without getting hurt, right?

Like how far can I push a racecar

without stepping over the boundaries?

Were there any scary moments?

Actually, the second race I ever ran in the sprint car,

a guy's car broke in front of me and came across

the track and I ran right into him and flipped.

I think seven or eight times.

My mom had it on camera.

And it wasn't scary.

It was kind of like, "Oh,

that didn't... that didn't hurt that bad."

And it was almost like a light switch that made me drive

even harder because I was like, "Oh, that didn't hurt."

You know, I was 15 years old...

- Yeah. - And kind of hardheaded

so it kind of made me more fearless

than what I already was which...

Because the idea of flipping

seven or eight times, I'd be like, "I'm done."

Yeah, I mean, racing is obviously

a dangerous sport.

I've had friends get killed, you know, in the sport.

And I think my first year of racing, we had a guy,

you know, get killed in a race that I was in.

And so I know the danger is there,

you know, when I was 15 years old,

I just wanted to win and go as fast as I could and...

Yeah. Okay, so this is a table saw.

- Yup. - You've seen a table saw.

I have.

This is the start of our legs, but...

Okay.

We'll cut about eight or ten of these.

- You wanna do it? - Yeah, let's go.

All right.

Okay, so the table saw, it's the one that I'm most

afraid of in the shop, in my opinion is the most

dangerous saw in the shop.

Some people, it doesn't bother them.

Ricky has been in wood shops, he's been in mechanic shops.

He knows his way around tools.

So, I feel comfortable turning them loose.

I don't have to watch him.

All right. We've got our slabs prepared

and our legs are cut down.

So this is our bandsaw.

- We'll cut our dovetails out. - Okay.

But then we will take chisels and hand tool it

- to get everything perfect. - Perfect.

Yeah. With a dovetail the piece that sticks up,

- that's called the pin, okay? - Okay.

This will slide up into our bench

and we'll put pins into it.

So, going from being a kid

racing sprint card, that was the dream.

That was the dream.

Then you moved up to racing cars

and the Nationwide Series, which is like

the minor leagues for professional racing.

And you're racing with one of the best teams.

What was that like?

Now all of a sudden, I'm racing a stock car

at Daytona for Roush Fenway.

And like it all happened, you know, in one year.

That was my introduction into NASCAR stock car racing,

living in North Carolina, away from my family.

It was... it was a big jump.

You started off pretty rocky.

2010 was my full rookie year in the Nationwide Series.

That started off rocky for sure.

And some tracks I've never been to before,

and was still fairly new

to pavement stock car racing,

- you know? - Yeah.

And so I was pushing too hard a lot of times.

A part of that was I didn't know what the cars

could handle because I was still fairly new to it.

Jack Roush came to me and he said,

"Hey, you're gonna go into the chassis shop."

And I worked in the chassis shop for three months.

Chassis shop is that,

you know where they're building the car?

Yeah, that's exactly... exactly it.

Was it just your car was it...

- No, everybody... - Everybody's?

In the teams.

And that was kind of Jack's way of saying,

"There's a lot of work that goes in

to these race cars, you know,

not just showing up and racing on the racetrack.

So, try and take care of it." I kind of thought

I was gonna lose my job there for a while.

Dad and Jack had conversations about,

you know, what was going on.

Jack always was close to my dad and myself,

and I felt like, after going through

those struggles, I felt like my family

and I were even closer.

You know, we were able to turn that into finishing the season

really, really good and we ended up coming back

from way behind to win Rookie of the Year that year.

That's another thing I love about racing,

it's just there's always a chance

to get better and I'm trying to figure something else out.

Because this is a lavish piece of furniture,

I wanted it to have a modern silhouette.

And so that's why our legs and our supports

are just a simple block of wood,

just a nice clean, straight line.

- Just to the line? - Yeah.

Typically when you see dovetails,

it's a row of several dovetails

that makes for a really strong joint.

When you do a big single dovetail like this,

it's not as strong of a joint

and so what we wanna do is actually pin

the dovetail joints.

I like the way this big dovetail looks on the end

of this bench, so I wanted to go with this

so the dowels will actually make it stronger.

Now, we need to come over here and cut the actual bench.

Yeah, yup, okay.

So, now, we're gonna cut the tail, all right?

And we're gonna rough it with the jigsaw,

- so we're gonna... - Okay.

Cut inside our lines and then we'll come back

- and chisel it. - Okay.

This is where we will have to be precise.

We are starting this joint with machines,

but then we're gonna finish it with hand tooling,

which is where the precision comes into this

and where the uniqueness of this joint comes in.

A lot of people think that a machine cut joint

would be more precise than a hand cut joint

because of the human error there.

But the problem with the machine is that you,

you know, take dovetails for instance,

you have a round bit, making the cut.

So, it's not gonna be able to get tied

into a corner the way that I can with a chisel.

Look at that.

Yes.

Whoo! Fits like a glove.

There's the pole position right here.

- Pole position. Good start. - Yeah.

- Good start. - Still some work left to do.

A lot of racetrack left.

You know what this is?

This was like you winning back to back championships.

You ready to move up to the Cup series.

Yeah. Yeah, it all came together.

The first time Ricky and I were hanging out, I asked him,

I was like, "Hey, what would it cause to put a...

You know, just to have, like, a decal?

What would that run me?"

And he said, "Just come to the race,

and I'll stick it on the car."

"What race?" "Talladega."

Did you have a good feeling going into Talladega weekend?

I had a really good feeling.

You know, we had been working on our Talladega car

for a good while,

set on the pole and qualifying.

And, like, knew we had a really,

really fast car then,

and it showed throughout the race.

I was able to do things that, you know,

other drivers weren't able to do.

Like, I'll draft with somebody and let them know,

"Hey, my car is fast.

We can draft good together." But I was able to do

I felt like something's not relying

on other drafters to help me with.

Then, you won and it was just like,

not only did you win, it was your first win.

- Yeah. - And...

It was an exciting day.

It was, "Whoo."

It was cool to finally get my first win,

and then my dad was there.

He normally didn't cry very much, but he was...

He lost it. And I mean, he was...

Oh, yeah, you didn't get out of the car at first

and you just said, "Where's dad?"

- Yeah. - I saw Ricky win,

I was in victory lane. I was there for it.

The energy was unbelievable.

But then the most hilarious thing happened.

Maybe, the best thing about the day

was your dad getting arrested.

He ran to the fence...

He climbed on the... Like when I got done...

- Wait, that... - Taking the checkered.

I was coming by and he's climbing up on the fence.

He was, you know, excited.

And they're like, "Man, that's a crazy fan."

He said that they pulled up in their car

- and slammed him on the hood. - Yeah.

And took his ID. He said, "I was crying.

I was telling him my boy just won.

That's my son. He just won.

He just won Talladega."

- And he... - Yeah.

And he said, "And, then they called out for my...

They were looking for Ricky Stenhouse Sr.

And they just so happened to be looking at my ID

and boy, we were real close after that."

Yeah.

For you as a family, not like your team.

- Yeah. - But your family,

what was that like?

My dad started racing when he was 22 years old

and then put a lot of effort into me.

So I can tell all that kinda came to him at one time.

It was cool. It made me obviously choke up

and get, you know, emotional about it.

But after that, it was like, "Wow, all the hard work

that we put in as a family definitely has, you know,

come to... come to right here."

Man, that was such an awesome day.

It was.

The really cool thing about this bench

is that it is 100% Mississippi made.

You have a tree that, you know,

grew all crazy and gnarly in Pontotoc County.

You have a racing stock car champion

from Olive Branch, Mississippi,

and you have a woodworker from Laurel, Mississippi

all coming together and building this thing,

hand cutting. That's really cool.

That makes me proud.

And we're giving it to some of the best people

this state has to offer.

I like having you here because you've taken

the heavy end every time.

How's it look? What do you think?

I think it turn out pretty good.

Put a little color on it.

The spray will make all that grain come alive.

Good looking bench and I think they...

I think they'll enjoy it at the fire station.

I think so. All right, let's spray it.

♪ All right, let's go ♪

♪ We're bringing the noise ♪

♪ We're making a sound ♪

♪ They're building walls ♪

♪ We'll keep knocking 'em down ♪

We got one done. This looks good.

- I like it. - Okay.

We'll do the other one. Let them dry.

We'll be ready to deliver.

♪ And dance Into the world now ♪

This build is actually too big to haul in Clint.

Gosh, these look so good.

Just a good thing we bought a dump truck.

Plot is our new dump truck.

We found him in a farm in Tanner-Williams, Alabama.

We can haul grain if we need to.

We can haul scrap lumber if we need to.

We can haul gravel. We can haul benches.

If you can think of it then I can probably

haul it in that dump truck.

A little faster than a stock car.

A little rougher than the stock car you think.

Oh, yeah.

Still doing sprint car.

More on the side with my dad, you know,

we're able to go race Friday, Saturdays,

and then race the cup car on Sundays.

I think more seat time the better.

Kind of like your woodworking.

- Yeah. - The more you woodwork...

The more you're in there...

The better everything goes and, you know,

doing that with my dad is a lot of fun.

Him and my mom are, you know, working

on the sprint car during the week.

So Mom's a big part of it as well.

Pulling up to the fire department.

There it is. Ladder one is pulled out.

They're checking everything. They probably just washed it.

But you notice there's nowhere to sit.

- What do you say, gentlemen? - All right.

How you doing... All right, how you doing this morning?

You all got anything to eat here?

A little late for breakfast.

You know, we get started at 6:00.

- Chief Brown. - Ricky Stenhouse.

- All right. - How's it going, Chief.

- How's it going? - Everything all right?

- Good to see you. - Good to see you.

- All right. - When I found out

y'all needed something for your space here,

I wanted to call Ricky

because he's big supporter of firefighters...

- Okay. - First responders

and just heroes in general.

Especially Mississippi heroes.

- That's right. - All right. Thank you.

- Thank you. - And you guys save lives.

You save our properties.

You give our kids something to scream

- about during the parade. - Right.

This green space here

has always been interesting to me.

I mean, it's nice and y'all can use this.

Yeah, we have no place to sit outside.

We always have sit on inside off on the front.

- So yeah, it will be nice. - That's what we were thinking.

Appreciate it.

So we wanted to do something for you.

- We appreciate that. - All right?

I got it here on the truck.

Y'all gonna have to help us unload it.

- Okay. - Do y'all have any experience

climbing on the back of trucks?

- Oh, yeah. - Little bit?

All right.

Yeah.

- Dang. - So who's climbing up?

Mason.

Yeah, I think that's a rookie job.

Yeah. There you got it.

- All right. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's go over here to the grass.

Guys, y'all got something to sit outside.

That's it. Yeah.

Where y'all wanna put it, guys?

Can we put it like right here.

I think y'all will be able to access it easier.

Okay.

So you can come out.

- Have a seat. - Yeah.

You get any visitors, walk right on out.

That's... Yeah.

Mississippi made, Mississippi grown,

and we're putting it back on Mississippi souls.

Okay.

Ben and I tested this in the shop, they sit good.

Yeah, this is outstanding.

You know, people usually don't think about us

until they're in a time of need.

But bringing us something

is very touching for us, you know?

Yeah, it touched me but it also

kind of broke my heart because it's true.

Like we don't think about the fire department

until we're dialing 911.

To be able to bring this to them just felt good.

We got to get you a fire pit out here.

That might be frowned upon though.

I'm gonna say.

Bravo 1 to Engine 1.

Engine 1, go ahead.

in my area

and

They got a call. They got to go.

- Copy that. - Oh, okay.

- All right. - It makes you...

- Have a good time. - Let's go.

Let's get the

I don't think this is from their first time.

I don't think so. It's like watching a pit crew.

Yeah, they have to be dressed

and on a truck in two minutes.

All right.

I mean I hope everything's okay,

but that's awesome.

Okay, so I'm not really sure.

I think they might have done that for us.

They're still pretty cool.

Just that quick we would go

from a casual setting to emergency mode.

- Yup. - You just got to...

- Up and go. - Go up and go.

So that's why the job is so stressful and that's why

a piece like this gives the opportunity

to sit outside, enjoy, and relax and so...

- Decompress. - Right.

Decompress.

If you're gonna celebrate somebody,

it should be people like the Laurel Fire Department.

Firefighters, who are literally

saving lives and saving people's houses,

they are the real people that should be looked up to.

Well, I got to get him to Talladega.

I'm gonna haul him the whole way on a dump truck.

- Okay. Good luck. - Thank you.

- Yeah. - Thank you.

That's what I love about Ricky.

He was helped by his family and by his community

and by this state, and he doesn't forget that.

He's always ready to help whenever and wherever he can.

- You want me to drive? - I think I'm faster.

I don't know.

Oh, that's a nice take off.