John Force didn’t need to lose two major sponsors to realize the pitfalls of drag racing sponsorships.

The 15-time champion had been down this path before.

When both Ford and Castrol announced they would be stepping away from the iconic drag racer at the end of the 2014 season, he immediately hired a marketing, social media and reality television dream team to chase what he coined as “Corporate America”.

Decades ago, Force didn’t have this option. He didn’t have the wherewithal to chase the corporate dollars.

“Corporate America wasn’t some big company, you know what I mean? [It wasn’t] a McDonalds or AT&T. Corporate America was a little stereo store on the corner. It was an opening Wendy’s Hamburgers. It was a not corporate General Motors or Ford Motor Company. It was Don Steves Chevrolet. You understand how it evolved?”

This video, from Force’s standpoint, takes you back into the days when he wasn’t so popular of a driver. It was an era when Force’s gift of gab more than made up for his lack of monetary funds.

In fact, it was this gift which landed enough money, to keep him in the game.