Get to Know Jernigan Racing

Podcast Transcription 

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Maddy: Welcome to PFCU’s Money Talk Podcast, I’m your host, Maddy. This episode was such a fun one. Jernigan Racing is an all-female mother-daughter racing trio- how amazing is that? And I got the opportunity to sit down with them to chat about their racing careers, challenges they’ve faced and what they’re most looking forward to in the future. All of these ladies were a pleasure to talk to and I find to really be such an inspiration, especially to young girls. So, please help me in welcoming, Bobbi Jo, Kenedi and Riley Jernigan of Jernigan Racing.

Well, thank you for being here with me today. I’m so excited.

Bobbi Jo: You’re welcome. Thanks for inviting us.

Maddy: Yeah, of course. If you just want to start with a quick intro of who you guys are, maybe a little bit of background in racing. I know you sent me the story ahead of time, it was super interesting and fun to read that so if you want to share that with everyone, that’d be great.

Bobbi Jo: Absolutely, I’m Bobbi Jo Jernigan, I’m the mother and then I have my daughter, Kenedi Jernigan who is 18 and then Riley Jernigan who is 14 and we are mother-daughter trio who race out at Owosso Speedway. We started racing in 2020 when Kenedi got into it off a bet with her dad.

Maddy: That’s awesome.

Bobbi Jo: She said that she could do this and we pretty much said, well, let’s put your money where your mouth is and we bought her a car and she went out there. She got in a really bad accident her first season and decided to take a step back and I said, well can I race your car? I want to give it a shot and she said, sure but you’re not allowed to race my number so I said, okay, well let’s cut your 88 into a 38 and I took over her car, fell in love with it immediately. And now I get to race with her and then Riley joined the team this season and…

Maddy:  Awesome.

Bobbi Jo: We get to race with her now!

Maddy: Yeah! So, what is it like, do you guys race against each other often?

Bobbi Jo: Kenedi and I do almost every weekend.

Maddy: Oh okay. How is that? Does it make it kind of a fun competition?

Bobbi Jo: It’s amazing. I would say the best time I’ve ever had with her was when we were running one and two positions and we were battling for first place.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: It was amazing and actually Kenedi pulled the win off, so.

Maddy: Oh cool! You have bragging rights now, right? Could you talk about your accident a little bit and how, you said that caused you step back for a while, what led to the decision?

Kenedi: Every time I’d get in the car, I just got really nervous.

Maddy: Yeah.

Kenedi: I couldn’t shake the idea of it happening again and I just didn’t want to put anybody else in danger.

Maddy: Yeah, that’s scary. I couldn’t imagine. How often do accidents and crashes, like, does it happen it often or is it maybe not as much as you’d think?

Bobbi Jo: I mean, there’s a lot of like, leaning on each other and there’s some bumps.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: But as far as like, crash crashes, there’s not really a whole lot of bad crashes that happen.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: Kenedi’s crash, she actually got the worst crash ever at that speedway.

Maddy: Oh my gosh!

Bobbi Jo: So, I mean, it doesn’t happen frequently but we know every time we strap into the cars that there’s a potential that it could so, that thought’s always there but it is what it is and we know that, so.

Maddy: Right, right. The risk you take and yeah. What made you decide to come back? Did you just need some time but still loved it?

Kenedi: Yeah, I still just really wanted to do but I was just scared at first so, I needed to take a minute and realize why I liked doing it again.

Maddy: Right!

Kenedi: And I just got back in.

 Maddy: Very cool! Riley, you’re coming up.

Riley: Yeah.

Maddy: You’re racing now, you’re just starting this year.

Riley: Yeah.

Maddy: How is it going for you?

Riley: So, I haven’t actually been able to get in my car yet.

Maddy: Okay.

Riley: But just, I’m excited. I’m clearly nervous but I’m more excited to get into the car and see how it actually is from a driver’s perspective.

Maddy: Yeah. And what’s it like for you guys, you’re racing in a very male dominated sport, what is that like?

Bobbi Jo: I think my perspective might be a little different than the girls’. The guys have been pretty accepting of me being out there with them. Sometimes they get a little upset when I beat them but for the most part they’ve been really supportive. They jump in, they give their input, they help out. Now that I am more competitive with them and I’m more of a threat with them, there’s a few of them that don’t like it and they think that they can razzle me and intimidate me and scare me and I will just back off and I won’t.

Maddy: Good, yeah! I think that’s awesome!

Bobbi Jo: I know that sounds a little cocky but…

Maddy: No, I think you probably kind of have to be that way, right? Otherwise they’re going to walk all over you.

Bobbi Jo: Yeah.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: And I like knowing that even though it is a male dominant sport, that we can go out there, we can be competitive and be an inspiration for other girls who want to want to join this because it doesn’t have to be just males.

Maddy: Right. What about for you guys? Do you have any thoughts on that?

Kenedi: I think it has a lot of ups and downs.

Maddy: Yeah.

Kenedi: It’s beneficial because people are more interested in sponsoring us because we’re females and we get more social media attention because of it. But then on the other hand men aren’t very happy about us being out there but some are nice.

Maddy: Yeah, yeah. I mean that comes with a lot of things, right?

Kenedi: Yeah.

Maddy: No, I think that cool. And I think you’re right, I think you guys probably inspire a lot of young girls who might not think about racing because naturally you think it’s what men do. And I know I was looking at your Facebook page and I saw, I don’t know where you were, but you were signing autographs and I saw little girls getting autographs and I just thought that was so cool.

Bobbi Jo: Between autograph night where we get to meet all of our fans.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: And I would say last night with you guys at the Westphalia car show was probably by far the best two events we’ve done. Watching the kids’ faces light up is pretty inspiring, like, just watching the excitement and the spark in their eye is, it’s fun. And it’s nice to be able to give back and inspire them. I actually one little boy say to me yesterday, is this your boyfriend’s car? And was like, no it’s mine and his face, he just turns around and he goes, mom, that’s her car and he goes, you drive this? And I’m like, yup, this is mine.

Maddy: I love that.

Bobbi Jo: It was really cute.

Maddy: You just blew his mind.

Bobbi Jo: Yes.

Maddy: Are there any other, aside from it being a male dominant sport and maybe the risk of crashes and things like that that we talked about, are there any other challenges that you’ve faced in racing since you started?

Bobbi Jo: Recently for me, until this season, I didn’t have this issue, I’m not the best qualifier. And when we go out and run our features, I’ve been breaking out from my qualifying time which means I get a speeding ticket and I get black flagged and disqualified. So, that’s been the hardest issue for me, is just trying to figure out how I can qualify better so I don’t put myself at that disadvantage when it comes time to doing the race.

Maddy: Okay.

Bobbi Jo: Before that, it was just overcoming the nerves because it is a little nerve-wracking when you’re sitting in the chute and you’re preparing waiting for your turn to hit the track, you’ve got all these thoughts running through your head, like what if this happens, what if this happens? And just keeping yourself calm, cool and collective. And then once your hit the track, all of that goes away.

Maddy: And then you’re just in your zone.

Bobbi Jo: Yes. The track is honestly, once I hit the track, that’s when all my thoughts stop and that’s when I get to focus just on being on the track and all the other problems of the life, the world go away.

Maddy: Yeah, that’s neat.

Bobbi Jo: It’s nice.

Maddy: Yeah. Do you have any rituals or superstitions on race day? Oh no.

Bobbi Jo: I have a couple so I tap the roof of my car before every race and say, we’ve got this girl. I tell my girls, good luck, I love them, we’ve got this and I have my dad’s ashes in my car with me so I reach for his keychain and tell him I love him and I’m going to give him the ride of his life.  

Maddy: Yeah, that’s awesome, that’s so cool.

Bobbi Jo: My dad used to race so having him in the car with me is pretty special.

Maddy: What about you guys, anything?

Kenedi: No cameras.

Maddy: What did you… No cameras?

Bobbi Jo: No cameras! The night of Kenedi’s accident, we decided to stick a GoPro on her car and someone who was pitted next to us, one of their crew members said, you don’t ever put a GoPro on your car, that’s when they get totaled and we’re like, Ricky, the car’s not going to get totaled!

Maddy: Oh my gosh!

Bobbi Jo: It’s fine! And then she goes out there and her car gets totaled.

Maddy: So never again.

Kenedi: No, never again.

Bobbi Jo: So, she refuses a GoPro.

Maddy: Understandable. And I guess you haven’t gotten in a car yet.

Riley: No.

Maddy: So, we’ll see how that turns out for you. I was going to ask, something popped into my head when you were talking. Oh, you said that your dad raced so this has been a family thing for you?

Bobbi Jo: It has. So, the girl unfortunately never got to see my dad race but I pretty much grew up at the track watching my dad race or just being a spectator. So, we always wanted to do it, it just wasn’t in the cards for me but then when Kenedi showed interest and wanted to do it, we jumped in head first and it’s worked out, so. My dad passed away last November.

Maddy: I’m sorry.

Bobbi Jo: Thank you. So, he was our biggest supporter, our biggest fan. I’m not going to get teary eyed.

Maddy: We can move on to something else. I’m sorry to hear that but I think it’s amazing that you have him in your car with you. That’s awesome.

Bobbi Jo: Yeah, I decided before the season started that I was not hitting the track unless he was in the car with me, so.

Maddy: And you know he loves it.

Bobbi Jo: Oh yeah. I know he is smiling down, just beaming.

Maddy: Yeah, very cool. So, what’s your goal for the season?

Bobbi Jo: To load my car on the trailer under its own power every night. That is the first goal. Obviously, you want to win, that’s a big goal for everybody but going out there and having fun. That is something that I want to make sure, if we’re gonna, if we’re racing that if it’s not fun and we’re not enjoying it, then what’s the point in doing it? So, I want to make sure it always stays fun. That we’re always safe out there and we get better and better and to get this one’s completely finished.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: So, she can be out on the track with us. I cannot wait until all three of us are on the track together.

Maddy: Do you know how long it’ll be until that happens?

Bobbi Jo: The car should be going to paint, probably next week.

Maddy: Okay.

Bobbi Jo: So, we’re getting, we’re wrapping up, we’re getting pretty close.

Maddy: Yeah. Very nice. What about you, Kenedi, do you have any goals for the season?

Kenedi: I’d like to pick up a feature win and get over my fears a little bit more from the crash and improve a little more.

Bobbi Jo: Kenedi’s battled a lot of car issues this season. She’s been broke almost every weekend. Every time we think we have a gremlin fixed, a new one pops up.

Maddy: Yeah.

Bobbi Jo: And we’ve just been chasing issue after issue with her car so, hopefully…

Kenedi: I haven’t done much racing.

Bobbi Jo: …We’ve got it figured out and she can go out there.

Maddy: Yeah, yeah. Do you guys travel a lot to race.

Bobbi Jo: Owosso Speedway is our home track.

Maddy: Okay.

Bobbi Jo: We have raced out of city in Birch Run and Corrigan Oil but they’re like, few and far between. Mostly we just stick around at Owosso.

Maddy: Yeah. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to start? Whether it’s their young child who maybe has some interest or they’re interested in racing, do you have any advice for those people thinking about it?

Bobbi Jo: My biggest advice is do not skimp on safety equipment. Buy the best safety equipment out there because it really truly does make a difference. Make sure that you’re having fun, you know, stay humble but I would definitely say the whole safety thing is probably the biggest, just don’t skimp on safety.

Maddy: You’re like, yup. Alright so, I saw that you guys have social media, you have a website. Would you like to share that so people can follow you if they would like to?

Bobbi Jo: It is Jernigan.Racing for Instagram.

Maddy: Okay.

Bobbi Jo: It’s Jernigan Racing on Facebook and then we also have Jernigan Racing on YouTube.

Maddy: Okay, cool.

Kenedi: And a website.

Bobbi Jo: And we have a website which is Jerniganracing.com. And then we also have a TikTok which is Jernigan Racing.

Maddy: Oh, I’ll have to check that out. Do you have anything else you would like share?

Bobbi Jo: I don’t think so.

Maddy: No? It was really nice to talking to guys.

Bobbi Jo: Thank you. It was a pleasure speaking with you.

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