"Pour Gas On It!" How Joey Logano is Scaling Huntersville Ford (+ his NASCAR playbook for dealers) | Joey Logano, NASCAR Driver and Co-Owner of Huntersville Ford

I say, listen, treat me as special teams would on a football team, right?

I can't be there right now to be the day-to-day operational stuff because I have a day job, right?

But treat me as someone that can go out there and, you know, be the relationship guy.

Think of things that are a little bit outside of the box.

Where can I, you know, do some things that they haven't been able to do in the past?

Everybody, I'm Sam Darken.

Today, I'm joined by Joey Logano, NASCAR driver and co-owner of Huntersville Ford.

The automotive retail business is cutthroat, and it's exactly the environment that Joey performs best in.

He explains how he uses his background as a two-time NASCAR champion to quote poor gasoline on an already successful dealership.

Joey breaks down the transition from athlete to operator, the value of elite mentorship from Roger Penske,

and how to treat your service department like a world-class pit crew to drive customer loyalty.

A big thanks to our sponsors for making today's episode possible, open lane.

Lot links and no bad content studio.

And now let's get into the show.

So Joey, Logano, welcome to the Cardiarship guy podcast, exciting to have you here.

So Joey, everyone knows you from NASCAR.

What they may not know is you just became a co-owner at Huntersville Ford.

Joey, what was the moment you knew you wanted to own a dealership and why Ford specifically?

Well, I think it has been a long time coming.

I've always enjoyed cars of a car guy, right?

That's, I think the first box you need to check is the love cars.

Because if you don't love what you're doing, it's never going to work.

And as a race car driver, as my day job, that obviously kind of goes hand in hand.

I race a Ford.

I've been racing Ford for the last 14, 15 years, also a very natural relationship to here.

Live pretty close to Huntersville, North Carolina.

So Huntersville Ford is kind of our local Ford dealership.

Worked a lot with them through various projects that we've done through our studio business that's right up the road from there.

And so built some good relationships along the way.

And then this opportunity kind of came to my door and it's like, Hey, if you're going to do it,

this is like the natural time for all things to come together.

So it's actually been a very fun partnership, but a very natural thing.

It just kind of came along.

It really wasn't forced.

And I think Ford's seen a great opportunity with tying me together

with an already successful dealership and Huntersville Ford and the Kraus Automotive Group.

So it's been, it's been very educational eye opening and a lot of fun.

So walk us through the ownership structure at Huntersville Ford.

Are you hands on or is this more of a financial stake?

No, I want to be hands on.

I want to I want this to be the first step into my my career, if you will, into the automotive world.

And like I said, I've been enjoying it a lot.

The way I tell our operating partner Stacy, I say, listen, treat me as special teams would on a football team, right?

I can't be there right now through the day to day operational stuff because I have a day job, right?

But treat me as someone that can go out there and be the relationship guy.

Think of things that are a little bit outside of the box.

Where can I, you know, do some things that they haven't been able to do in the past?

That's where my true value comes into play.

As a race car driver, you have relationships.

Well, any athlete, they can kind of call any CEO and they're going to answer.

And that's a great idea to have business.

So if I can leverage that in certain ways to help the dealership, that's what I want to do.

When did the deal become official?

When did you officially take over in your ownership role?

It's great before Christmas.

Is a Christmas miracle?

So it was great before that and took a while to kind of get to that point.

Obviously, we wanted to make sure all of it was right.

I had some great people helping me along the way to make sure that, you know, because

I'm sure a lot of people on this podcast can understand that, you know,

the first time you walked into the dealership world, especially if you haven't worked in it before.

Gosh, it can be really confusing.

And I was like, what the heck is going on?

I had some great people mentoring me.

Roger Penske be one of them.

That's my boss and a driver on the race team.

So he was a big piece of help in this getting done.

So I think of Penske's, you know, a legend and an automotive, a group ahead of an automotive group.

I think of Hendrick, a legend, a big and NASCAR racing.

I work for Aaron Ziegler.

We're in NASCAR racing.

We show up on Sundays at the track.

You have a view that those three don't have, which is you're able to walk into a dealership

and you see things with a fresh set of eyes.

When you took over that first month or two, what surprised you most as an outsider looking

in coming from NASCAR as a driver about the automotive world that most people may not see who are already in it?

Yeah, first off, I don't like to take over a comment.

That's not what I was there to do.

I'm there to try to add a little bit to what they already got going on, right?

They got another, in other words, they got a great flame burning.

I'm looking to pour a little bit of gasoline on it and make it even bigger.

And as a, you know, someone in motorsports, which you learn really quickly is that

within motorsports, that is kind of the top of the top when it comes to mechanics and

engineering and processes, right?

Like we have to hit certain benchmarks.

We're up, but we're competing every single day, right?

And our report card happens every Sunday.

So, right?

So we have to be the most professional, right?

Because we're representing huge partners that are spending millions of dollars on our race car.

So we have to act a certain way, we need to look a certain way, we need to perform, right?

Every Sunday, we need to not just get a car to the track.

We have to bring the best car to the track.

So I think when you can apply up that mentality to the dealership world,

I think that's kind of the next step that we can make.

Hundreds of forward is where, you know, we can take some of those,

those lessons, those, that attitude, that culture that you see in motorsports.

And I think anyone that watches motorsports probably sees this stuff very easily

and say, man, how can we apply that to our business?

And there's many, many ways that we can do that.

So it's going to take some time, right?

None of this happens overnight when those things happen kind of slowly.

But I think that's something I can apply over time.

Is that culture that look, that feel, when the customer comes into the store,

but also when they, when they get their cars worked on, right?

When it's, when it's warranty work or fixed, whatever it may mean,

maintenance stuff, we want to do it at the highest level, the very, very top,

which is possible. We can do that.

And it's not far from that.

Actually, it's actually closer than I thought,

but it's just trying to get that image and all that right.

So,

Penske Hendrick Ziegler, they started not a motive and went into NASCAR.

You're starting in NASCAR. You're coming into automotive.

This is your first store.

Do you have bigger plans for multiple stores?

Is this kind of enough for your goal?

Knowing me? No.

But at the moment, yes.

Right. I'm 35 years old.

I'm young in the car world, I guess.

Middle aged in the race car driving world.

So, you know, you kind of got to look, you know, into the future.

Okay. What's your next step?

Right? Every for athletes, it's kind of odd.

You think about it, right?

Like I'm on the upper end of my career, middle to upper end of my career.

That means you're, you're done around 40 at 45 somewhere in that window.

That's the peak of most, you know,

executives roll type people is that's when they start to come into their prime.

And so it's a backwards.

And for an athlete, you can either be done at that point in your life and do

nothing. You could do that.

That doesn't sound like fun, right?

It sounds like something I have a competitive nature inside of me.

I need something I think you didn't, right?

And this is a great avenue for that.

So in NASCAR as with automotive, folks have mentors, people that they look to for advice.

I'd be curious, who on track early in your career was a mentor in NASCAR?

And who today is your mentor in automotive to learn this new world?

And is there a parallel?

Yes and no.

I will say coming in as a race car driver, if you're looking for someone that's

currently in the business that's going to help you, it's probably not going to happen

because it's a doggy dog world out there and you're where I'm not going to go on out here.

It is brutal.

But that's, that's okay.

That's, that's what you come to expect.

It's just cutthroat.

In the automotive world, you know, for me, my mentor is Roger Penske.

And I don't know if I could find a better one.

Roger Waltzarnik, he, you know, his whole group, your guys that I've, you know,

trust, I've worked for for 15 plus years and he wants to see me succeed here.

So I'm able to just, you know, call with any questions here.

Hey, hey, take a look at this.

Tell me if I'm way off on this one.

How can we work together?

Right? I mean, there's so many different ways to work with them.

He's been great.

I will say Zach Kraus has been great to work with as well.

He's been a great mentor of mine at the end of partner in this case.

But, you know, just trying to, to, you know, it's kind of like you're drinking

out of a fire hose at the moment because it's so much and it's, it's much more of a complex business

than I thought coming into it a couple of years ago.

But there's so much opportunity.

Gosh, there's so much if you can do it correctly.

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I want to go back to a question I asked a little bit earlier and I want to ask it in a

little bit different way.

So we have a large auto dealer audience.

You see listening to this podcast or auto dealers, people to own dealerships all

across the country and many of them have an interest in racing,

NASCAR, my boss included myself, include I'm a track many weekends.

And I think many of us are curious from a race car drivers view point going into

automotive.

What did you see that surprised you most when you first went in?

Was it how cars were sold?

Is it how they're merchandise?

Is it is there something in the service department, the way technicians service vehicles?

The speed or the slow with which they process customers?

Was it something to do with the interaction between customers in the dealership?

With your fresh set eyes, was there something that kind of surprised you or you said,

Hey, that's kind of cool how that works.

What what about automotive kind of gave you an aha in those first few months?

You're giving me a hard one because there's so many.

I know like oh, yeah, I said I'm going to how complex the businesses,

how many little businesses there is within the one, right?

And just one hard dealership, right?

And you start zooming out and you see in how people own 10, 20, 50 hundreds of them,

like, yeah, oh my goodness, right?

How do you, how do you do it?

You got to scale that, right?

Yeah, because they are complicated, but they're simple.

They are simple, but they're complicated.

It's a complicated, but it definitely is.

It's, I've been involved in some much simpler ones, but anything hard doing,

you know, you usually worth it if you can accomplish it.

And I'd say, gosh, I was always interested in the, you know,

is that been a customer at card dealerships long enough?

And I was like, how do you make the deal really work?

What's it looked like on the back end?

Because you know, you talk to the sales guy and you're like, okay,

like what's actually happening here?

And you don't really get to see, you know, until they pull the curtains back, right?

And now I can see, oh, this is what they do at this light.

This is what's happening here.

Even the service work, how that is operating the amount of inventory.

Gosh, that's a tough, that's a tough part of the business for sure.

And something you have to be, you know, very efficient at and agile for sure.

Right?

You got to be quick, but you can't be, you can't get too lazy with that department.

That's for sure.

But you know, I think for, for me, what, what I care about right now and what I want is

I want the image of the business to look a certain way and for our employees to

act a certain way and that to me is what's going to drive the most business, right?

If I'm going to put my name on something, I want it to, I want people to walk into

there and say, man, I got a great experience.

I feel like I was treated fairly.

It was professional.

There was, there was, you know, an open door policy, right?

There's an explanation for everything that was going on.

As a customer, those are the things I want, right?

Then I walked into a car dealership to buy a car or to get service done.

I want, I want to know I'm not getting BS.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like I want to make sure that everything is, is up to that level.

That's transparent.

That's the first, yeah.

The first thing I want to tackle, right?

Is, is that side, the image of marketing side of it?

Like that's where I can bring the most expertise.

I want to hit those marks first and then kind of keep diving in deeper from there.

So do customers walk through the front door of the dealership asking for Joey

Ligano, do they come in wanting to meet you, to see you, to talk to you, to buy a car from you?

We're planning on doing a kind of a re-grand opening, if you will.

But we want to make sure, again, everything is put together correctly.

Everything is right.

So we've kind of made a soft announcement.

We're doing some things like we're doing right now, right?

Talking about it.

But we really want to put together a big splash and, and you know,

show that there's some differences and what's going on and kind of, you know,

a rebranding, if you will.

So we kind of got to get to that point, right?

It takes us a walk before you're around, but we're kind of easing into that.

So we wanted to make it public because we don't want to waste that opportunity of being involved.

But we also want to make a big splash when we're ready for that.

But obviously there's a lot of, you know, logistics and collateral that needs to be produced

before we can do that.

When you get to that point, let us know because we'd love to have the car dealership guy stream live.

Our daily, we love to come to it live and maybe do a

test drive.

I would love a test drive with Joey Logano.

I think there's a couple of great viral, you know, you know, what?

It's got to be what?

A Mustang, it's got to be something, something fast GTD, something like that, right?

So we're, hey, it's, it's the desk.

Actually, I'll show you what you should be driving for the race.

Let's see if you have a reaction to this.

That's our car.

I'll get you a, do you know this car?

Do you know this car, Joey Logano?

I've seen that one wreck a lot of people lately.

So, so it's you are ready.

That looks good.

Yes.

So speaking of speaking of young drivers and mentors, you meet Carson Hosevar on track.

Famously, you guys have had words back and forth.

You've had some advice for him.

Had had some frustrations of being wrecked.

And then I think even last year, late in the season, he may have felt like you bumped him.

It's all racing, right?

Is that all part of racing?

And is that translated into the business world as well?

How does, how does some of the, some of the drama and the excitement of NASCAR racetrack

transition into the business world?

I would say it's a, being a race car driver is a pretty unique place to be.

Because you can, I see you can do things that you would typically go to jail for, right?

On the racetrack.

Yeah, there's this world, right?

But listen, like you drive a car, you put your helmet on the rules of the road or not there, right?

Rules on the racetrack are different than the rules on the road.

And it's an eye for an eye type of sport, right?

You get bumped around, you're going to have to get it.

And so it's a self policing situation.

And it becomes very challenging.

And just like, you know, in other sports, you know,

you might have some rivalries that that naturally happen, right?

And it's great for sports.

It's great for, you know, for certain teams to have those type of things, right?

Because it just brings eyeballs to it.

But usually you have three months before you meet another team again, right?

This is like, hey, you just got wrecked like, yes,

who you're lining up next to next week.

The guy that just wrecked you, right?

And so you get to having some interesting conversations.

Because I mean, that's the best way to do it.

If you don't want to be tearing up cars back and forth, that's not a fun thing to do.

No one wants to be a part of that.

But you also have to stand up and stick up for it and you stand your ground

because the whole industry is watching, right?

And when you start getting pushed around doing anything about it, guess what happens?

You get pushed around more and see a weak link.

So how do you deal with drama?

So in auto dealerships and in the business, it's sort of the same.

You deal with that every single day.

So salespeople disagree, managers will disagree, stores will compete against each

other. They'll disagree.

They'll find ways to talk it out.

The tension between yourself, Carson,

Hosfar and even some of the younger drivers, that's, it's, it's well-known.

How do you deal with that on a weekly basis?

What advice would you give to Carson as a newer driver about maturing and

eventually looking to win a race and remembering?

We sponsor them.

So I've all been there.

Like, listen, I came into the sport when I was 18 years old.

Same thing, right?

I kind of came in and ruffled some feathers.

It did some things.

It's kind of driving over my hand.

Perfect. Right?

Yeah, I did.

Yeah, yep.

And now we're friends.

So go figure.

But I think what happens is when you first come into the sport, you're trying to make

a name for yourself.

You're racing like your life depends on it.

And so you, and you haven't won a race yet.

So you're thinking, gosh, if I can just win one, I'd do anything to do that, right?

And it's something that a lot of drivers say, I'd wreck my mother to win a race, right?

People say that.

That all sounds well and good until your mom's back behind you again.

And it's going to come back to you, right?

So what's the goal?

Is the goal to win a race or is the goal to win championships, right?

Is it the long game or is it the short game?

And once, and then, like I said, I've been through this.

Once a driver understands that, Hey, I'm going to be here for a while.

I have speed in Carson's this guy for sure.

He's got a ton of speed.

He's going to be around for a time.

But once he understands that he's going to have many opportunities to win.

And they're going to championship opportunities will be taken away if you don't earn respect

on the racetrack.

So you have to earn respect out there.

And sometimes that's by given respect.

Sometimes that's through fear, right?

But you got to understand which way that is and play that mental game.

It's, it's a big part of the sport.

So how much of earning respect is going through those steps of having that conflict on track?

And how much of it is playing nice?

Because as you said, you went through that process, right?

The Harvick was not a huge fan back in the day, right?

Yeah, I mean, and now they're notoriously, there are some drivers that get frustrated with Carson.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's common sense really is what it is, right?

I mean, how do you handle conflict in life, right?

The first thing you need to do is be open and honest.

If you screwed up, Hey, I screwed up, right?

If you meant to do it, Hey, I meant to do it.

And you're going to live with the consequences, right?

Like it's, it's that simple.

It's really not that hard of a thing to do.

But communication is really the biggest thing, right?

And the truth is, right, the truth is in the, in the pudding all the time, right?

When, when you see things happen over and over again,

or you see kind of a trend of things,

you kind of know what you're dealing with, but it's a complex thing, right?

And it is just like that.

Any business in life with your spouse, right?

Like you have to just be honest with each other and understand that we kind of live together, right?

Like tomorrow will happen.

Well, I got to tell you, sitting on top of the box of the Daytona 500 this past,

just a few weeks ago to see Carson come in first place, final lap,

white flag gets pushed from behind into the wall spins out.

That was a heartbreak, Joey.

What it was almost his first first place?

What was your first place finished?

What did it feel like to win?

And will you be able to get that same feeling automotive as you have successes as a dealer, Joey?

What was your first win in NASCAR?

How did it feel?

My first win was, gosh, 2009, years and years ago.

And I honestly, I feel like winning a championship is like, gosh, the pinnacle, right?

It's the best of the best.

It feels absolutely incredible.

And I don't think you can replicate that in any way.

And I don't think in the automotive world, dealership world, like that is possible,

because in sports, you don't know you got it until the happens, right?

And it happens really, really fast.

And in the business world, it's a slow process, right?

And it's like, oh, we're starting to win, we're starting to win.

And like, what is that big win moment?

Maybe it's when you sell your business and cash in, right?

Maybe that's what it is.

But even that is like a slow, it's a slow transaction, right?

It all kind of, and then it happens, right?

But that, like, rush you get as a race car driver or anyone really an athlete,

like when you hit that buzzer beater, right?

When you make the last lap pass to win the race and it hits you just so hard,

that is, those moments, I don't think you can replicate.

So you try to enjoy them while you can, right?

Because they are great.

But I think that's just one of the things that sports is able to give you.

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So I think the parallel between owning an automotive dealership

and then being a race car driver is the adrenaline-infused high of winning.

And the only thing I would say, Joey, is I think you may be surprised

as you start to win in the business world.

Automotive, in some cases, works on a 30-day cycle.

And it is possible to get that high at the end of the 30-day

and even at the end of 12 months.

As you develop a team that is so good at executing,

it's almost like training your pit crew.

Nothing can be more frustrating if somebody makes a mistake at the tire

because you know it's preventable, right?

And in automotive, it's kind of the same way.

You can see that happen.

And if you train your team, right?

If they're well-trained and they execute, right?

That high is possible.

But I'll never know what it feels like to get a first-place finish.

Where was your first-place finish?

And what do you recollect of that day and the feeling

as you cross that finish line,

that very first time, Joey Logano?

Yeah, so I mean, my first win was a rain short and race.

So it was kind of an odd feeling, right?

Because you were sitting there like, oh, it's right.

I would kept raining, we won.

Oh, that's good.

But it was like a, oh, okay.

But then winning it, you know, after that,

that was maybe one of the first times

like you crossed the line and you get that feeling, you know?

But those ones like, yeah, hopefully it's the same way

in other ways, because in life at some point,

I'm going to miss that feeling.

So hopefully I can figure out how to win and some other things.

But I mean, it means a lot because it's hard to do, right?

And I think that's what, and everyone's trying so hard

and you're competing against the best of the best, right?

Whether it's a NASCAR or in any industry, right?

When you get to this, these guys are good, right?

Like people know what they're doing.

And when you can see success in that,

yeah, you know what, you should take some pride in that.

You should enjoy it, because it's freaking hard.

Yeah.

So this isn't your first foray in the business.

You've got a car wash, you've got a production facility,

you've got the mixed-use development in Hunter'sville.

What's your goal with all of this,

with all these different business ventures, Joey?

It's just to see success in other ways.

It's very, yeah, it's a new challenge.

Obviously racing is priority one and it has to be.

But this is kind of like the things that challenges

my mind in different ways, which is important to do.

It's very eye-opening to understand

how other industries work.

It makes me a better race car driver from being honest,

because I can understand the business side of not just our sport,

but our partners' businesses as well.

And what key metrics they're looking at

that makes sense for them,

and what we need to produce for them as a race team.

So it's really helped a lot with that side of it.

But it's also a little bit like selfishly.

I want to prove that I'm not a one-trick pony,

like to myself, not really to anyone else.

Whatever, I don't care what anyone else thinks about me.

But it's really just to myself is that I want to prove

that I can do more than just drive a race car.

So yeah, you kind of go through this thing

and opportunities have come my way.

And gosh, I hate wasting an opportunity.

Whether it's you brought up the multi-family development

that we're mixed-use development

that we're building in hundreds of those as well.

That's a huge project to learn the time doing that.

The studio facility, that was a natural one,

just because we do so many shoots as race car drivers

and I had a building.

So just naturally, that business naturally built really fast

from the ground up.

So that one was really special to me.

And the car wash stuff, yeah, I like cars, right?

And a friend of mine was starting up

a new franchise called Hangtan.

And they got seven or eight of them open already.

It's been a short time, it's only been a couple of years.

So they've been popping those things up, left them right.

So I'm a little bit further away from that one,

but still involved a little bit on that.

So as you get down the road on all these ventures,

including this new Ford store that you've bought,

what's the answer?

You say, how I want to prove I'm not a one trick pony.

I want to prove I can have success in other areas.

Are you starting to feel that success?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's ever a destination, right?

I mean, I have the never enough.

What will be success?

Yeah, what will be successful?

I don't know, right?

I mean, I think success is defined differently for everybody.

I want to be a person that has taken advantage

of every opportunity that's come my way.

I want to be somebody that's made other people stronger

and better for being around them and happier, right?

That's success to me.

And that's hard to do a lot of times

that it's hard to do as many things as I'm doing.

Still being a father and a husband.

That's very, you know, it's a hard balance.

But I want my children to see that dad works hard,

dad takes advantage of opportunities as well.

And I want my kids to be the same way.

And so I involve them a lot,

and even from our foundation stuff, right?

That my whole family is involved

in what we're doing charitable wise

and helping foster kids.

That's like where our heart is.

So it's a mix of a lot of things.

A million things go on in my life,

but it's been enjoyable.

It's something that I find a lot of fun in, right?

Some people like to go golf and it's been half a day

doing golf.

I hate golf.

I'm not going to go golf.

It's a waste of my time.

I don't want to do it.

I want to go to work.

I want to go to build something.

Yeah, I want exactly.

I want to compete something that to me matters a lot

and can be generational.

That's the stuff I want to do.

Well, let's talk about advice you might give

to other NASCAR drivers.

Actually, let's take it to Carson.

Let's say Carson, a host of our comes to you and says,

hey, you know what, Aaron Ziggler's offering

to sell me a Chevy store in the Chicago land.

What advice would you give to a Carson,

a host of our or another NASCAR driver

seeking to do the same?

What you've done?

What advice for you?

What would you tell?

My thing would be, do you really want it?

Do you want that?

A lot of people aren't wired like I am.

I've realized that.

There are people who are a little different than me.

I'm a little weird.

It's got to be something you have to really want to do.

It's an opportunity, because something like that

doesn't happen.

It's an opportunity that doesn't come along every day.

So know that if you say no, it's good chance

it never happens again, right?

Like, you don't want to, like, once it's gone,

it's usually gone, like the window will close.

So you need to think hard about it,

but also can you do it, right?

Like, that's the only thing I always think about is,

it's a good opportunity, but can I do this in a way

that's actually productive for the business

and not take away from other things

that I feel like are more important at that moment.

And so sometimes the time is off, right?

I mean, there's things that come to my plate.

Don't think I just say yes to everything.

There's things that come across my table.

And I'm like, I would love to.

And I think it's an amazing opportunity.

I just can't.

I just don't have time.

Yeah, and actually that's a good book

by Matthew McConaughey Greenlight.

He talks about how a lot of times the nose

are more important than the yeses,

deciding what to greenlight, what to say yes to,

where to spend your time and energy.

So thinking about that, you know, 10, 9, 10 months

out of the year, you're spending at the track.

Weekends, every Saturday, every Sunday,

you're driving that car, that Ford NASCAR for Patine Penske.

What does your average cadence look like?

How much time are you able to be in the store at this point?

And then do you hope at some point to be there

even more as your NASCAR career matures out?

Yeah, I do want to be there more than I'm able to.

And honestly, I do the majority of work on the phone

because I'm just not home a lot, right?

I'm always just kind of traveling down in your road.

Yeah, you can so much just like we're talking right now,

right?

You can do so much with the V stuff.

So I think, you know, when I look at that,

would I like to be boots on the ground more?

Absolutely.

I'd like to be there.

I'm there once a week, spend a couple hours,

you know, three, four hours usually weekly.

And then I'm on the phone, you know, daily with things.

So that's just what I'm able to do right now.

Like I said, I don't, I'm not the operations guy.

I'm not going to be over there running the day-to-day stuff.

I can't.

But I want to be, but you're learning it.

And I want to learn exactly some day.

Maybe I want to do that.

Maybe it's just right now it's just kind of learning

the business, that's the biggest thing.

And then putting together some, you know, unique deals,

which honestly, that's my next thing I'm going to after this.

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Talking to the CEOs of companies

that are willing to do things to help enhance the business,

right?

So there are multiple departments in a car dealership, right?

They're sales, they're service, there's the office.

There's a body shop potentially.

Where, when you're in the store,

where do you feel most at home?

Which department do you feel most at home at your store?

Uh, the shop, just where I feel like that shop, right?

That area to be is like, okay, I can speak the language.

I understand what's going on.

Some, uh, that to me feels the most natural place to be.

Yeah, but yeah, and probably the sales side is the most,

like, not natural, if you will, right?

Like that, that it feels to me, okay?

You know, that's a different life.

Well, because I haven't really,

I mean, I buy and sell my antique cars,

but like, not from the same way they do it, right?

And understanding floor plan and all the stuff

that they're doing, it's like, whoa, like this is,

and I love it though.

I like, I feel at home in the garage,

but I really love the sales side,

because I love diving into something that's just new to me

and understanding how that whole process works.

You know, and it's inventory of vehicles, right?

Like, how, like, which ones and how you do it and all that?

Like, that's, that's cool.

Shoot, the other day we, we sell a lot of Shelby vehicles

and it was kind of fun to us meet with the Shelby guy there.

And, yeah, we're picking out colors of cars we want to order out.

Like, that was kind of fun.

I was like, going shopping, like, kid in candy store.

That was a blast, a fun perk that I did not realize

was coming my way on.

I was like, wait a minute.

How did you decide what vehicles to purchase?

Just the ones I thought were cool.

It's really hard not to buy one yourself,

but now, I mean, I think that,

I mean, I looked a lot at, you know, what we did before, right?

What, what are the popular ones that sell?

There is some things that I think is cool

that other people don't.

So we were just looking at what has sold and what hasn't.

But, you know, it's definitely a unique thing

to do a lot of things like that.

And it's, it's hard not to buy one yourself.

If I'm being honest, you know,

when you get to start to talk to the Hennessees or Shelby's

or RTRs of the world,

you know, you're kind of like, I kind of want one too.

I said, every dealer who owns a car dealership anywhere

across the United States,

so it's always a competition in store between,

what do you personally want to own

and have sitting on the showroom

and then what's going to sell the best, right?

And that's always one of the conflicts.

So do you have someone nearby that says,

hey, wait, this is a great idea

because this will look good in your personal collection,

but it's not as great an idea sitting on the floor

for general inventory.

Do you have anybody that says,

but kind of keeps you in that lane, Joey?

Well, Stacy Callan, he's our,

he's our operational partner.

And yeah, he's the day-to-day.

He's the guy in it.

And so he knows the business really, really well.

Yeah.

So he understands that, you know,

listen, some of the cars have good margins.

Some of them don't.

Some of them are marketing tools, right?

Some of them get the people in the door

and maybe buy something else.

And that's okay too.

Right now it's hard to quantify what that car's value

really has brought to the table.

But if it does attract some people, great.

You know, to me, obviously, I love having the,

you know, some of the cool cars there.

Hundreds of Ford has done a great job

at being the performance, you know, store, if you will.

When it comes to local area here in North Carolina,

where they sell a lot of these, you know,

seeped up vehicles, right?

Whether it's doing it in-house in the garage

or if it's, you know, doing some of the Shelby RTR stuff,

you know, those, that image is what I want

the dealership to be, right?

If Joey Logano, the race car driver is involved,

we better have some high performance vehicles

sitting there as well.

And we can beat that dealership in the area.

Which is another great question that I was thinking about

is you've got a 1924 model T

and you've got a 254GTD sitting on this in the same shop.

What does that collection and the variance

in that collection say about how you think about cars

and the business that is your founder's Ville Ford?

I love cars.

And I love all kinds of cars.

But I love the story.

Like you talk about the 24 model T.

Like to me, that car is a blast to drive.

You can be going 20, it goes somewhere between 19

and 24 miles an hour, right?

But it feels like you're going 120.

But the story of that car is what matters the most to me.

And I love parking it next to the most recent performance

vehicle that Ford has produced, which is the GTD.

And I love thinking about how that model T was revolutionary.

Like it was changed the industry.

It sold millions of these cars, right?

But it's what built Ford Motor Company?

First mass production.

That's right.

And when I see that change what we see today,

that what's 100 plus years look like?

And it's from here to here, right?

It's like not even close, even engineering, right?

That was a car that was much better in a horse and buggy.

That's what it was competing against, right?

And to see that, now when you drive that car,

you think, gosh, this thing's a piece of crap.

Because it can't do anything good.

It's not fast, it doesn't turn good, it doesn't stop good.

Like it doesn't do anything good.

But it got you from A to B and you look at the GTD

and you're like, well, what's the next 100 years look like?

Like no one was ever content.

That's the thing that I love that it reminds me

is that they weren't content with the Model T.

No one's going to be content with the GTD.

What's 100 years from now?

What's the next vehicle look like?

Which, by the way, is kind of parallel

and symbolic of your own life.

Not happy enough just to be racing.

Not happy enough just to be in the car wash or the multi-use.

You want more, you want to prove different areas

and you're rising tides around you as you do that.

I think that's pretty cool.

Joey, we appreciate you being on the Cardiola Ship Guy podcast.

We wish you success in the Hunter's,

for Hunter'sville Ford acquisition.

And in all seriousness, we'd love to be invited

to come to a live stream there from the show

as you do your grand opening.

And also, when you see this car, give him some space, man.

That by the way, I appreciate you.

Give him some space, Joey Logano, Hunter'sville Ford owner.

We appreciate you being on the Cardiola Ship Guy podcast.

Thanks for being here.

All right, thank you.

I had a blast.

Appreciate it.

We'll see you soon.

All right, hope you enjoyed that episode.

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I'll see you guys next time.