“You will never see my last dollar”. Born with little money but harboring big ambitions, veteran racer Kenny Wallace toiled as a mechanic till he was 21 years old. He got his first NASCAR ride by Dale Earnhardt and then there was no looking back for ‘Herman’. 

At 60, Wallace is still seen giving youngsters a run for their money on dirt tracks. In the Xfinity race in Phoenix, he recognized another self-made man who began his career in the tool shop – the victorious owner Gene Haas.

Kenny Wallace observed an intriguing contradiction in Xfinity champion team owner Gene Haas

“I just never give up and keep trying, trying and trying.” Team owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, Gene Haas finally found a reason to celebrate when Cole Custer won the first Xfinity Series championship for SHR. But the road to this victory was far from easy. In a tough racing year marred with mishaps and penalties, the 70-year-old entrepreneur powered through one of the worst-faring NASCAR seasons of his team. He had a huge role in creating the largest machine tool manufacturer in the United States. But for this, Haas had to learn to deal with setbacks at a very young age.

In a previous interview with CNN, Gene Haas opened up about his humble beginnings and drive to succeed. “I’ve been tinkering with cars most of my life, since I was 10 years old. I always had this flavor, this attitude ‘yeah I think I can do that a little bit better…I just keep hammering away.” The successful harbinger of Haas Automation hammered all the way till he could employ other people to do it for him. 

Despite graduating from California State University in accounting and finance, Gene Haas was forced to work as a mechanic machinist when he could not find employment. As reported in formula1.com, the team owner of Stewart-Haas Racing recalled, “I was just sitting there making stuff, welding things together”. Laboring as a racing mechanic while dreaming of a NASCAR career in his early 20s, Kenny Wallace would certainly be able to relate.

When Wallace chanced upon a visual of millionaire Gene-Haas in plain attire at the Xfinity race, Herman quipped in his trademark tongue-in-cheek manner, “Never be fooled by what a person wears. Gene Haas, owner of @StewartHaasRcng and a @f1 team is in the jeans and hat pull down over his head is one of the wealthiest people in America.”

Watch this story: A New Dawn for Stewart-Haas Racing: Cole Custer’s Triumphant Return

For the head of a 250-million-dollar empire, his simplicity came at the expense of decades of hard-earned wisdom.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Gene Haas chose success over sartorial sense 

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If Gene Haas were to see Kenny Wallace’s satirical post, he would perhaps give the same response he provided Formula 1 a few years ago. “A lot of times in this kind of business, durability is more important than flamboyancy.” The business tycoon knew anything could happen on track and he took his wins with the same pinch of salt as his losses.

Haas had then explained his stoic presence on the racetracks over the years. “It’s so easy to under-deliver in this business. If you brag about stuff, you become humble real quick, just like that. Races go bad so fast. I think every time I boast about something, I eat my words.” Reserving the phrase larger than life for his personality rather than his lifestyle, Kenny Wallace’s childhood also taught him to save for a rainy day.

In a recent interview with Jeff Gluck for The Athletic, Wallace revealed, “We grew up marginally poor. We ate baloney and cheese sandwiches and Braunschweiger. And mom and dad worked, but Dad spent all his money on the race car. Mom did the best she could for me. My first motorcycle, my mom put on layaway. She paid a certain amount of money per month and I counted the months and days down.”

“So one thing I learned as a kid is you will never see my last dollar; I saved all that money because of how we grew up.” Kenny Wallace might have engaged in light-hearted ribbing for the newly crowned owner Gene Haas, but behind the veteran driver’s humor, was a profound lesson for the entire racing community.

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