Nascar, Bull Riding, & Spreading the Gospel!!

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network.

Maybe in the world. I mean, I'm in, welcome North Carolina, right between Lexington and Winston-Salem, and I'm with the man Mike Dillon. This is the Richard Childress Racing World Headquarters, Capital of the World.

He's in the Hall of Fame. I walk through your lobby. There's a, did you know there's a NASCAR car in your lobby? Do you know that, sir? Yep. Yep. We know it. We put it there.

Tell us where we are. Just describe the scene. I can hear the drills. I can hear the hood shutting and the guys in the crew teams training. What's going on? So this is the, this is the main shop.

Hang on. This is the main shop. This is the main shop. You can see the fan wall here.

It's open all the time when we're open. So fans can come and see this area. This is set up plates. This is the main areas for the eight car and the three car and the hauler bays right over here. And then the Xfinity race teams are in the back, back there.

Another whole two sets, two other teams are back there. So this is the main shop, but we have 60 acres here that we race out of and about 12 different buildings that we produce these race cars from. And we probably won't get to all of them today, but I came over here because you're on fire for Jesus Christ. And that got me excited. And I was actually preaching in Cowboy Church yesterday. Tell everyone what that is and what's a race team doing in the rodeo? Well, you know, it actually is our fans, you know, same as our fan base there. And so Richard has always been a cowboy and we raised our kids and they're cowboys and they just, the bull riding thing came along and it was an opportunity to own a bull riding team, the Carolina Cowboys. And they got a hold of that.

And it's like anything Richard does, he's going to do it big. So it's all hands on deck when that thing comes to town. We all go there, work there. So it's a team atmosphere.

It's a family atmosphere. And everything we do is directed by God. Well, thank you all for doing Cowboy Church. And even though people are questioning your judgment, bringing a crazy sordid cowboy like me, my mom quoted Psalm 103, didn't she? Psalm 103.

I've already told three different people. I had a Bible study at 12, told them about it, and I told another group this morning about it. It was really awesome. I may not have told you this and I'll show you the picture, but Daddy was at Cowboy Church last year. He went to heaven a couple months ago. And we hung out with Richard. We got pictures.

We all got our cowboy hats on. And so he was there last year wearing what I wore to preach in yesterday. And Mama quoted Romans 8 at his funeral, but she had to record it because she couldn't.

It would have been hard to hold it together. But she quoted Psalm 103 yesterday. It's kind of in honor of Dad, but we gave the gospel. But it's a great, it's all a platform. Like you were telling me earlier, you guys do things to help Navy SEAL guys, guys that come out of the service that are struggling. So talk about like the bigger picture.

People see you guys on the tracks winning big races, you know, Austin, your son, all these guys, you know, these star studded drivers and these cowboys and all this. But tell kind of about your passion and like what you all want to see happen in terms of eternity with all this. Well, I mean, you know, the most important thing is Jesus Christ and having known him as your Lord and Savior. And but, you know, was given back with, you know, you're only here to manage, I believe, what God gives you. And you're here for a short time and you need to do the best you can with it and help others and give what you can back to community. I love it. I'm holding a brochure in my hand.

This is something for folks that are in the North Carolina area anywhere. It's already filling up. I don't know how much we should talk about this, but give a quick shout out. You got a hold of this book called The First Hour Unleash God's Power. Tell us about Mark's book and why you're inviting a bunch of men to come to your to your race headquarters here to learn about that and to meet him. What's this about?

What's God stirred in your heart with this? So The First Hour for Men is a book that Mark Cook, he wrote and he's a movie producer. His son, Blake, raced for a while and he sent me out of the blue one day. Hey, I need your your address. My dad wants to send you something. So he sends me a book and as a bookmark, I wrote this. I thought he just wrote it. Well, I didn't realize how long ago he wrote it, but he said it changed my life. Basically, the book is a tool.

So that's that's all it is. But it's a tool to get you into the book, which is the Bible, the holy Bible, the truth, which is. And it's by doing that, it has changed my life. You know, you hear it's the truth or it's a living word. You understand it if you get it every day and start reading and enjoying what the Lord. And he starts making you understand more and more each day. So it's been it's been incredible for me, the journey and what the Holy Spirit's done for me. And my life's changed. And it's it's I was saved when I was 17, but I didn't didn't know. It was it was more all in my mind. I knew all that, but I didn't have it in my heart. And now I've learned what it means to to have it in your heart and give give give God your heart.

Mike, what happened to get you came to Lord early? You know, like, you know, I grew up in church and had some great mentors like Uncle Ron and Aunt Jackie. Remember, you know, Jackie and Ron. Yep. Jackie, Ron, big friends. Ron was here just two hours ago. He's in our Bible study at 12.

Yeah. He's been mentoring me to call him Uncle Ron. He's like my adopted uncle and Jackie. And they love your family and they love what God's doing here. But what happened to kind of turn you on to the Lord even more, like to awaken you up? What was it that got you kind of I guess we call it on fire for the Lord.

So, you know, the last four years, I mean, I've always been, you know, my grandmother, you know, was a baby. You know, she she was always reading your Bible. And and I got blessed by her.

She's she's the anchor of of of my faith. And then but just again, I didn't make the decision to to live it like it was like I'm supposed to. And then again, like I say in the first hour from in book is a tool that got me into reading my Bible every day. And I think it's so important to start your day off to spend that first hour praying and reading. And, you know, a lot of it the first time through it, you might not get some of it. It's like every time I go through it, I hear I get something new out of it. You know, I've gone through Proverbs. Now there's there's 31 Proverbs in the Bible.

There's 31 days in most months. So all the months that I have 30, you get to read two Proverbs that day. But if you just that alone, there's something new every time I read it. I've read it 36 times now. So it's like I mean, and it's something new every time you read it. And it's still just as moving, you know, and then, you know, go through the New Testament over and over. It's just it continues. It just continues to be a blessing. This Hometown Foundation, Team Dillon Management, the RCR, you guys are all kind of connected promoting this event and other events to help bring people closer to God and make a difference. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's what we're supposed to do, you know, and share. I just want to share with others what the Holy Spirit has done for me.

OK, let's walk and talk. We've got this vast room. How many square feet are we in here right now? About 200,000 square feet. You know, the whole shop.

You can't see the back half here. And then but it's pretty big place. And you got a whole pit crew gym back here where the guys come in. And my buddy Ray Wright and all those guys get going.

Yeah. Ray Wright's upstairs with the pit crews and pickleball courts are upstairs. We've got to get a basketball court in here, man. I'm kind of hoping we can get some moves.

We actually go to that's Austin. He's got the basketball league that he does. And they just they'd actually just finished up their league. OK, so I was supposed to be in that league a couple of years ago, but I kind of I kind of wimped out. Had a lot going on in the Christian radio, but I'm hoping to rejoin at some point.

Yeah, I'm sure they'll do it. But where is this now? What are we looking at here?

Now we're going to a different section of this. This is the Xfinity race shop. It's the same building. But this is where all the Xfinity cars are.

Look at all those cars. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Frame getting framed and all that.

Yeah. Bodies and they get them ready to go to the race there. They're heading out. Where are we going this week?

You are OK. Their office, their office. How much I know. A rare break. Yeah. And they just came back from Texas. So let's talk about Texas.

OK. So they just came back and you got all these teams. These guys are going to Talladega. The Cup cars are going to tell Cup cars going to Talladega. Unbelievable. This is a big weekend.

Oh, man. That's that's a hot track down there. Right. It's a cut. It's a cut race. It's a race where we've got to get through it.

And then get to move advance on into the championship run. Wow. Get it. Get a good drive.

Get a good draft partner and hope you don't have to, you know, you know, have you know, pit stop on the back end. Right. You hope you don't get caught up in an accident. That's the problem.

That the main thing is a lot of times is something is hard to avoid. Now, you've got a big event center in here where you have you'll have several hundred folks, maybe more. And we should do a pastor's event out here, shouldn't we? OK, so that's upstairs.

Unbelievable. Right here. OK. And this right here is more part of this framing area. And we're able to hang the bodies in here. And this is the fab shop. So extremely cars on this side.

The Cup cars on that side. Now, one more quick question for you and we'll wrap up. And we're at where we're at. OK, tell everyone where we are.

Give everyone a little kind of context or they were just they just popped in here to the racetrack. Where are we? We're at RCR. Welcome, North Carolina. Is that what you tell me?

Richard Childress Racing is what RCU starts walking north on a huge racing. But, you know, it can get pretty intense out there. You got fights, you got folks throwing some pretty bad expletives. You've got in the rodeo can be rough. You're getting thrown by a bull.

You find yourself in the hospital, all this. But how do you keep your faith amidst all that crisis? How do you tell me that? Tell us that real quick for everyone listening, because there's people listening that might be working in a warehouse or they might be working as a financial planner, might be at home raising some rough kids trying to be a godly mom or dad. What would you say your challenge on that?

Keeping the faith amidst all the craziness, turbulence and on the racetrack? Well, I think that's pretty easy. That question would have been harder for me to answer at other times. But it's just knowing God and being in your Bible every day. And he's always available, always with me all the time.

And it's not a thing that happens during the day that I don't sometimes go and have conversations with the Lord. That's what our Hometown Men's Fellowship is about. It's for these men. I want the others to have what I have.

Have the opportunity to be able to know that the Lord is there for them whenever you need them. How many people have you got working out here? We're getting close to 400 employees.

That's bigger than something? It's 400 families, not 400 individuals. So you've got to figure that's probably two and a half to three more people than that. So you're looking at 1200 people depending on us.

Plus vendors and suppliers and customers and salespeople and all that. So you have a big broad impact. And what a great way to touch people for Christ. And listen, thank you for all you're doing, man.

What a blessing. And October 3rd, if you're in town, 2023, 7 to 8, 30 p.m., I guess people can just sign up. How's the best way to sign up for that? Well, you can Google it for Hometown Men's Fellowship and it will pop right up and there's a QR code there. You can find one of the posters, but you don't have to register.

You can just show up. I love it. Mike Dillon, he plays the race card, but not like you think. He uses NASCAR racing and the cowboy world and all the bull riding stuff to lead people to Jesus Christ and to host Cowboy Church and to just be a blessing to our military. Thanks for what you're doing, man. I really appreciate your heart and great to hang out with you. Well, thank you for helping us. And I just want to invite all the men to come out to this conference.

I think it's going to be something special. Wonderful. And thank God for Grandma, the Pray Force, right? We're both here because of that, aren't we? Thank God for Nanny. That's right. This is the Truth Network.