Harry Hogge Quotes in Days of Thunder (1990)

Harry Hogge: Cole, you're wandering all over the track!

Cole Trickle: Yeah, well this son of a bitch just slammed into me.

Harry Hogge: No, no, he didn't slam you, he didn't bump you, he didn't nudge you... he *rubbed* you. And rubbin, son, is racin'.

[During a pit stop]

Harry Hogge: All right. While we're still under a caution, I want you to go back out on that track and hit the pace car.

Cole Trickle: Hit the pace car?

Harry Hogge: Hit the pace car.

Cole Trickle: What for?

Harry Hogge: Because you've hit every other goddamned thing out there, I want you to be perfect.

[talking to the chassis]

Harry Hogge: I'm gonna give you an engine low to the ground... extra thick oil pan to cut the wind from underneath you. It'll give you thirty or forty more horsepower. I'm gonna give you a fuel line that'll hold an extra gallon of gas. I'm gonna shave half an inch off you and shape you like a bullet. I'll get you primed, painted and weighed, and you'll be ready to go out on that racetrack. Hear me? You're gonna be perfect.

Harry Hogge: [after Cole gets spun out by Russ] Cole, you OK?

Cole Trickle: [Giving Harry a dianogsis of the car before coming onto pit road] The good news is the accelerator's fixed. The bad news is the transmission's screwed. I'm coming in!

Harry Hogge: [Cole is cursing on the radio after a bad pit stop] Hold it while we're on the air.

Cole Trickle: I come into the pits, I was in first place, now I am in third with two laps to go!

Harry Hogge: Cole, you're in third place, that's a respectable position. Now when they slow down for turn four, I want you to pass them on the outside.

Cole Trickle: Harry, you told me nobody passes on the outside in turn four!

Harry Hogge: Well now, I'm telling you different. If you go to the outside, you can hold it.

Tim Daland: He's gonna end up in the wall Harry!

Harry Hogge: Cole, the pace car is ready to duck on off, I don't have much time to tell you this.

Cole Trickle: Well, tell me how?

Harry Hogge: Because we have a really good set of matched tires on it.

Tim Daland: What?

Cole Trickle: What?

Harry Hogge: Those tires are matched perfect and staggered special.

Tim Daland: You're gonna get him killed!

Harry Hogge: The pace car is getting ready to duck on off. If you go to the outside, you CAN hold it.

Cole Trickle: All right Harry, when it comes to the car, I'll take your word.

Cole Trickle: Now can you walk, or am I gonna have to carry you?

Harry Hogge: Where to?

Cole Trickle: Victory Lane.

Harry Hogge: Walk? Hell... I'll race your ass.

Buck Brotherton: [noticing an undamaged spot on the car] Well how 'bout that, a side we don't have to fix.

Harry Hogge: [kicks that door panel] I don't want you spoiled, Buck.

Cole Trickle: [after driving a stock car for the first time ever, and only a couple of laps] I'm droppin' the hammer!

Harry Hogge: [furious] No you're not!

[Cole does so anyway]

Harry Hogge: Tim, take a look at that hound. That's the best coon-dog I ever seen or heard about and I didn't to teach him a damn thing.

Tim Daland: If you're from California, you're not a Yankee. You're not really anything.

Harry Hogge: You said it.

[chuckles]

Harry Hogge: [during the last few laps of the Daytona 500] This is it! This is what it's all about!

Harry Hogge: Drivers can't stand to be reminded of what can happen to 'em in a racecar. They, they don't go to hospitals, they don't go to funerals. You get a driver to a funeral before he's actually dead, you've made history, darlin'.

Cole Trickle: Whoa. Her ass is all over the place.

Harry Hogge: When the rear end's loose, the car's fast. Loose is fast, and on the edge of out of control.

Harry Hogge: I'm settin' you up for cool weather... but if that sun breaks, after you're out on the track, you're liable to get real loose real quick. Now I don't wanna worry you or nothin, but, Cole's not ready for that... he's changed, see, he's changed. You cannot get out of control and expect him to bring you right back. He's liable to hurt you, you're liable to hurt him, and... I couldn't handle that, so, ah, you've gotta take care of him... see... you gotta take care of him.

Harry Hogge: [speaking to Cole condescendingly about engines] Now Cole, when that little needle goes up into the red and reads *nine thousand RPM*, that's bad!

Tim Daland: [Walks to tractor] See you're enjoying the good life, Harry?

Harry Hogge: Yeah. Well I don't mind spreadin' a little fertilizer round now and then. There's worse things.

Tim Daland: How's the truck runnin'?

Harry Hogge: Runs good.

Tim Daland: [pause] I... uh... I want you to build me a car.

Harry Hogge: [stops tractor] Now, Tim, everyone knows some downtown car dealer can't afford a race team. And no driver worth a damn is gonna sign with you. Cause they wreck one car, you can't afford to build them another, and their out of the deal, you know. And no car's gonna win without a driver, not even mine.

Tim Daland: [points to Harry] If you built the car, I'd get a damn driver.

Harry Hogge: [starts driving tractor] What kinda driver you gonna find after the season's started? Some ole' boy that's washed up, and one worth a shit to begin with.

Tim Daland: You can work with him. You can build a driver like you build a car, Harry.

Harry Hogge: [points to dog] Tim, take a look at that hound. Now that's the best coon dog I ever seen or heard about, and I didn't teach him a damn thing.

Tim Daland: Well I got somebody.

Harry Hogge: Who?

Tim Daland: Take a look at him.

Harry Hogge: Anybody I gotta take a look at ain't somebody.

Tim Daland: Then take a look at nobody.

Harry Hogge: [stops tractor] Tim, I give up racin', you gotta know that.

Tim Daland: Ah, you didn't give up racin', Harry. You quit to avoid investigation into Buddy's crash at Daytona.

Harry Hogge: Hey, I didn't avoid any God-damn investigation.

Tim Daland: [rolls eyes] Well, anyway, I... uh... I talked to NASCAR and if you come back in there won't be any investigation.

Harry Hogge: How they hell you sell 'em on that deal?

Tim Daland: I'm a helluva saleman.

Tim Daland: You said you'd look at him.

Harry Hogge: I've looked at him.

Tim Daland: I paid twenty five hundred dollars to use this track today, Harry.

Cole Trickle: Forget it, he needs a brand name like Exkon or Richard Petty.

Harry Hogge: Well, I know a damn race driver when I see one.

Tim Daland: We messed up big time on Sunday. I had sponsors in thew stands and I'm huggin' and holdin' hands and kissin'em in the ears and prayin' for a good showin'. And what do we do? We end up lookin' like a monkey fuckin' a football out there. Everybody out, PLEASE.

[Everyone gets up]

Tim Daland: [to Cole and Harry] ... Except you two. I've got a question. What is the one thing you absolutely need to do to win a race?

Harry Hogge: That's pretty damn obvious...

Tim Daland: You keep quiet.

[to Cole]

Tim Daland: You need to finish the race!

Cole Trickle: Tim, I realize Harry's been around a long time. I'm not sayin' that his ways are antiquated but it'd help to have a car that handled properly and didn't blow engines.

Harry Hogge: Well if he wouldn't get excited and over-rev the son-of-a-bitch the engine wouldn't blow. Now, Cole, when you shift the gear and that little needle on the tach goes into the red and reads 9000 RPMs, that's BAD.

Cole Trickle: It's also my fault that the tires blow if you ask this old fart!

Harry Hogge: Well, Hell yes it's your fault. There's 40 other vultures out there who manage to finish the race on THEIR tires. You see Darrell Waltrip usin' up HIS tires?

Cole Trickle: There's nothin' I can't do with a race car.

Harry Hogge: Well, that's the difference between you and me. There's only so much I CAN do.

Cole Trickle: Well, that's obvious!

Tim Daland: Harry, he doesn't need to appreciate your job to do his.

Harry Hogge: He sure as hell does 'cause how can he expect to race if he don't know what a race car can and can't do?

Cole Trickle: What is this shit, huh? You want me to work the pit and YOU drive. Fine, we'll try that.

[Cole leaves the room]

Harry Hogge: I can't talk to this son of a bitch... I can't talk to that son of a bitch... I just can't... I can't... I... I...

Tim Daland: You think he can drive?

Harry Hogge: Oh he can drive. He can drive beyond the limits of the tires, the engine, the car or anything else. If the sum' bitch listened to me we wouldn't hardly ever lose a race!

Tim Daland: If they don't give us a sponsor in the next couple of races, my ass is fried. I'm liable to be out of the car business all together. And Harry, I know you're great, you know you're great, but if the guy in the car doesn't trust you we're never gonna win a damn race.

Harry Hogge: [after Cole was spun out on the last lap at North Wilkesboro; Harry was upset after the race] Russ Wheeler don't deserve to win Tim, and if NASCAR won't call it low-down, shit-ass racin', you better.

Tim Daland: It's just racing Harry.

Harry Hogge: oh, yeah

Tim Daland: Cole Overreacted,yeah!

Waddell: Harry tells me your guy runs those Indy-type deals.

Tim Daland: Yeah, sprints mainly. Two World of Outlaw championships, three all-star wins, seven straight feature wins, and he's been driving ASA.

Waddell: [to Harry] Got yourself a real statistician there. He know anything about drivers?

Harry Hogge: We'll see.

Harry Hogge: [discussing Cole's fearfulness after his big crash by intentionally destroying his engine during a race] You done it deliberate... done it deliberate! Nine thousand, four hundred RPM... according to the little tell-tale button.

Harry Hogge: What do you know about stock car racing?

Cole Trickle: Well... watched it on television, of course.

Harry Hogge: You've seen it on television?

Cole Trickle: ESPN. The coverage is excellent, you'd be surprised at how much you can pick up.

Harry Hogge: I'm sure I would.

Harry Hogge: What kind of driver are you going to find after the season's started? Some old boy who's washed up, and wasn't worth a shit to begin with.