Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to It. Good do it, Good do it. Let's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard him about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know it's all. This
Speaker 1: is part two of our podcast with Jeff Gordon. You
Speaker 1: heard part one. You heard Jeff talk about being a DJ.
Speaker 1: How about break dancer. He's from Vallejo, California, and he's
Speaker 1: a smurf d J smurf and he started dripping the
Speaker 1: call when he was like four years old. That's crazy. Um,
Speaker 1: when you're driving a car four years old, do you
Speaker 1: get diaper brakes? My mind is blown. I have no
Speaker 1: idea because you you know, he's tinkling on himself for
Speaker 1: four years you're driving. But I gotta have partty breaks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So hey, well Part two is pretty awesome. You love
Speaker 1: to hear Jeff Gordon go in depth about his career,
Speaker 1: eighty one pole positions and just what he's learned about
Speaker 1: himself as he's gotten older. Let's cut to with Jeff
Speaker 1: Gordon Part two. How long of your career did you
Speaker 1: observe this was maybe a sport that wasn't for everyone. Well,
Speaker 1: I can the very first second year I was in
Speaker 1: quarter midgets, there was a black family that that raced,
Speaker 1: and but they were one of the few. I mean
Speaker 1: they were one of the very few, and so you
Speaker 1: knew that it was rare, right, It was really primarily
Speaker 1: there was a few female drivers out there, and there
Speaker 1: are a few, you know, black families that were out there,
Speaker 1: but but it was very rare. And that was in California,
Speaker 1: so it would probably have more in California that it
Speaker 1: than it happened in other areas. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't think anything of it at the time because
Speaker 1: you were always used to being around so many different cultures. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I was. And then I looked at it
Speaker 1: as as more female start trying, and I had. There
Speaker 1: was a girl that I raced, girl named Kara Hendrick,
Speaker 1: very talented race car driver from southern California. Unfortunately she
Speaker 1: was killed in a race car, but I thought she
Speaker 1: was she was going to be the next Janet Guthrie. Um,
Speaker 1: your or real major female to to go a long way,
Speaker 1: and and it was such a huge loss because it
Speaker 1: didn't it wasn't just what her it was going to do,
Speaker 1: but how she was going to influence others. Um. But
Speaker 1: I looked even at at the female pool of drivers,
Speaker 1: and I said, the only way that we're going to
Speaker 1: find the best to excel at the top level is
Speaker 1: we've got to have more of them competing, just like
Speaker 1: I did and others did before me, start at a
Speaker 1: young age. You know, you've got to get the experience,
Speaker 1: you've got to have the talent, and and you know,
Speaker 1: the only way you do that is to have a
Speaker 1: large pool. So we've got to have more people engaged
Speaker 1: in the sport of all different types of ethnicities and genders,
Speaker 1: and and that's the only way we're really going to
Speaker 1: have somebody get to the top level and actually be
Speaker 1: able to, um, you know, excel at it. And um
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I certainly hope that we can
Speaker 1: find better pass as you mentioned, to to do that
Speaker 1: at a young age, because right now, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: usually not happening. If it does happen, it happens when
Speaker 1: they're older. So what was the race called utuer? You
Speaker 1: go from California, Indiana, now you're here in Charlotte. What
Speaker 1: was that race culture from the Midwest West to now
Speaker 1: the South? Um? Yeah, you know the South was all
Speaker 1: about stock cars, right. It was full fender stock car racing,
Speaker 1: and and that was new to me. I was an
Speaker 1: outsider when I came to North Carolina. People looked at
Speaker 1: me as an outsider, you know. And what do you
Speaker 1: mean an outsider? Because because because I'm from California. Number One,
Speaker 1: I was racing sprint cars, in opal wheel, dirt cars,
Speaker 1: not not anything that most of the guys are racing
Speaker 1: to excel at NASCAR. You know, you look at I
Speaker 1: mean Dale Earnhard. I think he you started racing some
Speaker 1: kind of stock car and probably dirt tracks when you're
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen years old. You got a later start in
Speaker 1: racing and and then was introduced right into stock car
Speaker 1: some kind of street stalk or some some kind of
Speaker 1: full fingered vehicle, where for me it was very early
Speaker 1: age open wheel racing and all, you know, just oval stuff.
Speaker 1: So um so yeah, there's no doubt there there was
Speaker 1: a difference. But you have to understand, I looked at
Speaker 1: it as, man, do you mean to tell me I
Speaker 1: could race every day of the week in Indiana? You know,
Speaker 1: I could go to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and there
Speaker 1: was a race happening somewhere in California. They wouldn't even
Speaker 1: let me race. And then, and this is the one
Speaker 1: thing I was you were you were talking about racing
Speaker 1: a car at five and six years old. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you what. That was nothing compared to driving a
Speaker 1: full blown sprint car six hundred fifty horsepower at that
Speaker 1: That that one scared. Yeah, that scared the crap. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is when I actually looked back on this, especially
Speaker 1: when I as a parent, I'd say to my step down,
Speaker 1: like you were either crazy or you didn't care whether
Speaker 1: I died. Thank you. Look look where you are now.
Speaker 1: It was nuts, man, it was nuts, but it worked
Speaker 1: because here I am today, you know, talking about this
Speaker 1: crazy journey that that that that was created because of
Speaker 1: those two significant moments. Getting introduced a quartermadge it's at
Speaker 1: a young age. Getting introduced that sprint car at third team.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. How did you deal with not? I mean,
Speaker 1: even as you talked about coming in from the West Coast.
Speaker 1: How did you deal with not being accepted early on
Speaker 1: as as a driver? I just wanted to prove myself,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and I wanted I just wanted
Speaker 1: to fit in, right, I wanted to do everything I could.
Speaker 1: I I I probably didn't take advantage of my uniqueness
Speaker 1: at that time. He was in me and I and
Speaker 1: I had my own path, and but I wanted so
Speaker 1: badly to fit in because I wanted to be there.
Speaker 1: I wanted to race against them, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: do more of it, and I wanted to excel at it.
Speaker 1: And I felt like the only way I could do
Speaker 1: that is is to you know, say the right things,
Speaker 1: do the right things, not get in trouble um, you know,
Speaker 1: and and go perform on the racetrack. And and yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I got more confidence that okay, I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm established. Now, Now I can start to be more
Speaker 1: me and and shoot, that probably didn't happen until almost
Speaker 1: till I retired, to be honest. And just because you know,
Speaker 1: you're representing sponsors, a fan base and you know a
Speaker 1: team of people, and and to me, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to rock the boat. I just wanted to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: put my head down to do my job and represent
Speaker 1: all those entities the best I could, because I wanted
Speaker 1: to keep doing it, and I was getting paid really
Speaker 1: well to do it, so I didn't want that to stop.
Speaker 1: I mean, you lay right into it. NASCAR's heavily depending
Speaker 1: on sponsorships. And you know, obviously more than anyone at
Speaker 1: this table, you how much sponsorships, Like you said, how
Speaker 1: much sponsors play a role in your the food on
Speaker 1: the table, how you travel, just everything is depending on
Speaker 1: on sponsorships. Why has that always been the case? Like what?
Speaker 1: Why is? Why is NASCAR always heavily depending on basically
Speaker 1: other people in investing, sponsor driven other people investing and
Speaker 1: you doing a sport and a skill that you love
Speaker 1: to do. And it's if you think, I mean you
Speaker 1: could you could isolate NASCAR or Formula one and and
Speaker 1: kind of have that story because you know that there there,
Speaker 1: that's the pinnacle, right that that's that's where the money
Speaker 1: is at. Every other form of racing is really hobby racing. Um,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say everyone. I mean, there's there's guys making
Speaker 1: a living doing it, but the owners that provide the cars,
Speaker 1: if they don't have that sponsorship. They're just doing it
Speaker 1: out of their pocket. And as I mentioned, it's not cheap,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and so it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: level you're doing to that you're always and money does
Speaker 1: buy speed, you know, it's that that's you know term
Speaker 1: that we use. The more money that you can spend
Speaker 1: on either the best people, the best components in the car,
Speaker 1: maybe freshest component like like if if you can, if
Speaker 1: they would allow you to have the freshest engine and
Speaker 1: in the latest greatest technology. I mean you're talking about
Speaker 1: titanium components, and you know it gets expensive, right, and
Speaker 1: it makes and you so you want more horse bier,
Speaker 1: you want you want more speed under the hood. But
Speaker 1: then you need more down force, more grip, new tires,
Speaker 1: new so the budget can just go through the roof.
Speaker 1: So you're you're always dependent on on some kind of
Speaker 1: of income that goes beyond if you just took a
Speaker 1: race car, built the race car, and I'm talking about
Speaker 1: grassroots racing, right, you built a late model or a
Speaker 1: sprint car and you go to the racetrack and you
Speaker 1: just went off the winnings. You're not gonna make money.
Speaker 1: You're gonna you know, the winnings, the purse money that
Speaker 1: you're competing for is not enough. Now if you get
Speaker 1: to NASCAR and Formula One, this this gets you know,
Speaker 1: deep into the business side of things because, um, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got a great TV contract for for racing, right,
Speaker 1: it's not great compared to NFL and being it is
Speaker 1: for the content it is great, and and it's you know,
Speaker 1: has great viewership, very you know, a very solid average viewership,
Speaker 1: very loyal fan base. Um. And and so then you
Speaker 1: know you take that and and what's in the purse
Speaker 1: through the TV money to do it at the highest level,
Speaker 1: to win, you still don't make money. So you've got
Speaker 1: to have those sponsors and and you know you hope
Speaker 1: that you're given the sponsors enough value of what you're
Speaker 1: asking for or but you know, this day and age,
Speaker 1: with different media outlets, um, you know, companies are are
Speaker 1: are finding ways to spend their money in so many
Speaker 1: different areas that that just isolating it. Now, live sports
Speaker 1: is still good, right, that's that's still a great way
Speaker 1: to advertise. So we still have solid sponsors. But you know,
Speaker 1: the sports got more expensive and and sports marketing and
Speaker 1: some of the money they're spending on on race cars
Speaker 1: has been kind of going down. That's why you see
Speaker 1: us have more sponsors. Used to be you know, stp was,
Speaker 1: Richard Petty, DuPont was was you you you are, Pepsi
Speaker 1: Lows and Jimmy Johnson. Those days are you know, a
Speaker 1: few and far between now to to have one company
Speaker 1: that can do the full So does it take more
Speaker 1: work to keep multiple sponsors happy? Oh yeah, yeah, you gotta,
Speaker 1: you gotta, you know, you gotta do a lot um,
Speaker 1: you know, for them. But that's that's part of the deal.
Speaker 1: I mean, ever since I came into racing, my understanding
Speaker 1: was the it took money to race, and and you
Speaker 1: either had somebody that had the money they wanted to spend,
Speaker 1: or they had a connection with the company, maybe a
Speaker 1: B two B type sponsor, or somebody just came in
Speaker 1: and um, you know, you're you're you're meeting people constantly
Speaker 1: and connecting and and saying, hey, would you like to
Speaker 1: I mean I can remember making phone calls it, you know,
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, Hey would you like to sponsor my
Speaker 1: sprint car? To me? My parents couldn't afford to do
Speaker 1: all of it, but they could afford, you know, to
Speaker 1: introduce me to it. And along the way you meet
Speaker 1: people that want to help. They just like racing, maybe
Speaker 1: they like you whatever it is, and they're like, yeah.
Speaker 1: I would call people and he's like, I met you,
Speaker 1: you know, at this track, and you said you you'd
Speaker 1: be interested in maybe helping us South with every Yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you need? Well, we're trying to put this
Speaker 1: program together and we need a new engine. What's that cost?
Speaker 1: Thirty thousand? Yeah, man, send me the bill. I'm like,
Speaker 1: he said, yes, you know, and You're like, wow, you
Speaker 1: know that's yeah, So well yeah, I mean you said that.
Speaker 1: So there's such a heavy business aspect of NASCAR. What
Speaker 1: were the factors if you, if we so may ask,
Speaker 1: what led you to move from four family to drive
Speaker 1: for the UM for Rick Hendrick and Chevrolet. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: when I came into NASCAR, my first opportunity was just random.
Speaker 1: A guy that I I came across at a driving
Speaker 1: school was a NASCAR Buck Baker driving school in Rockingham,
Speaker 1: and and somehow they knew, you know, what my background
Speaker 1: was the racing I was doing, UM because the race
Speaker 1: I was doing at that time was these live races
Speaker 1: on ESPN, So I was I kind of had built
Speaker 1: up a name for myself in that in that world,
Speaker 1: but I was really wanting to get into NASCAR and
Speaker 1: stock cars um and and so he gave you know,
Speaker 1: he's like, hey man, you know you want to take
Speaker 1: a few laps in my car. I'm doing this more
Speaker 1: just as a hobby for fun. I might do a
Speaker 1: couple of races. He's a busy. This guy wasn't a
Speaker 1: real pure racer. He just like cars and and so anyway,
Speaker 1: I got in there and and I went really fast,
Speaker 1: and so he's like, I realized when I saw you
Speaker 1: making those last maybe I shouldn't be in this thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe you should be. I was like, that sounds like
Speaker 1: a good idea. And so I would drove three races
Speaker 1: for for him that year. Got named Hugh Connerdy and
Speaker 1: and we sat on the outside front row at Rocking him.
Speaker 1: In my second race, we qualified second, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you know, phone start ringing back in Indiana
Speaker 1: when I got back from that race, and one of
Speaker 1: them was forward, and I said, hey, you know, we
Speaker 1: saw what you did at Rockingham. We'd like to talk
Speaker 1: to you about an opportunity. And so they really did
Speaker 1: give me my first real opportunity, and and it was
Speaker 1: a great relationship, you know, Bill Davis and drove for
Speaker 1: Ford and Bill Davis for two years and the next
Speaker 1: Afinity back in the Bushground National Series, and so all
Speaker 1: of a sudden things were going really well, star winning races,
Speaker 1: star getting a lot of attention, and next thing I know,
Speaker 1: I'm getting offers from a few different owners, which I
Speaker 1: was flattered by, but but you know, I wanted to
Speaker 1: stay loyal to build, and we started searching for sponsors
Speaker 1: and like it was okay, you've got Jack Rausch, and
Speaker 1: you've got Rick Hendrick and and you know, even kayle
Speaker 1: Yarborough had a team at the time and that was
Speaker 1: talking to me, and I started looking at their organizations
Speaker 1: and they're already established. This team was trying to get
Speaker 1: from Vixfinity to cut It was a big mountain to
Speaker 1: climb and a lot of money to do it, and
Speaker 1: so you know, and just just kind of came to
Speaker 1: this place where Rick Hendrick made me, you know, like
Speaker 1: a real offer. I didn't have a contract with four
Speaker 1: past that year, but we're trying to make it work.
Speaker 1: And I just realized that, you know, this is this
Speaker 1: is a long road, and this is man, I get
Speaker 1: to go right into the best stuff. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I wish I could say it was a harder decision
Speaker 1: than it was, because it was a pretty easy one,
Speaker 1: to be honest. So it wasn't hard at all. It
Speaker 1: wasn't It was hard after the decision was made because
Speaker 1: I got criticized and judged because everybody looked at me
Speaker 1: as a Ford guy, you know, Ford to Seviest polarized.
Speaker 1: I was with Ford for for a year and a half.
Speaker 1: You know, my whole career, I drove Chevrolet engine cars
Speaker 1: and nondescriptive cars of of of a make. But NASCAR
Speaker 1: is a different deal man that and you get with
Speaker 1: that manufacturer and that that those fans are a lot
Speaker 1: of supposed to be brandy and but so you's the
Speaker 1: best decision I've ever made. So you were basically disliked
Speaker 1: because you switched to brand. Yeah, and it was from
Speaker 1: Callie any Young. Well you you know, honestly, you know
Speaker 1: who makes me think. It makes me think about Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 1: seriously think about it, Like he got drafted really early,
Speaker 1: had success, first ever guard out of high school, like
Speaker 1: non traditional background, came from Italy, smoke Italian. I think
Speaker 1: about it like early on success that that ruffles people's feathers.
Speaker 1: So I definitely get the Kobe Bryant compared it. You know,
Speaker 1: I would say there there was a probably a five
Speaker 1: year period where just man, everything I did just turned
Speaker 1: out good. Right, it's just the timing of who I've met,
Speaker 1: the car I got in, and then you don't track
Speaker 1: performances success bam bam, bam bam bam, and next thing
Speaker 1: I know, I went from you know, graduating high school
Speaker 1: to win in a Cup championship like three or four
Speaker 1: years later. Uh yeah, it was nuts. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: So let's let's switch gears. Let's we usually call this
Speaker 1: let's talk ball, but um no football, So let's let's
Speaker 1: talk gears. There you go, son in talking these gears.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be okay with showing the lack of understanding.
Speaker 1: We haven't. And for the listeners that may be dumb questions,
Speaker 1: but there's never a dumb question. You gotta you gotta,
Speaker 1: you gotta school me and Smith. But there are some
Speaker 1: dumb questions. Yeah, they're really I just imagine imagine NASCAR
Speaker 1: one oh one and you're the professor. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: I'll try. I'm not a professor, but I told you
Speaker 1: how that I was in school for us. You are
Speaker 1: opppe since ye did you have a routine while driving?
Speaker 1: If so, what was that routine? Yeah? I mean I
Speaker 1: think a routine is so important, but we're talking about
Speaker 1: driving a car though, well, I'm probably talking about routine
Speaker 1: of prepping in the car. That's what I Yeah, see,
Speaker 1: that's what I wanted to know. Yeah, I mean to me,
Speaker 1: and you have to understand and and I'm ignorant to
Speaker 1: to you know what your day would have looked like
Speaker 1: on on game day, but on race day it's you.
Speaker 1: You're with sponsors and fans, and you know, you're interacting
Speaker 1: with all these different people from the time you get
Speaker 1: up in the morning on race day. That's just part
Speaker 1: of it, man, I mean it's I would be well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if it was hours, but
Speaker 1: you're you would go to three to four different hospitalities,
Speaker 1: suites or or you know, at the at the race
Speaker 1: haller meeting five ten people that were somehow connected to
Speaker 1: one of the sponsors on your so you every morning
Speaker 1: that so so at first, it was like, man, I
Speaker 1: can't believe I got to do all this stuff before
Speaker 1: I go get in the race car, but then becomes
Speaker 1: part of your routine. You just got to get into
Speaker 1: the mental place of I'm gonna talk to these people,
Speaker 1: but like i'm talking, they're talking through me. Whatever it was,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was hard for it to actually penetrate
Speaker 1: because I'm thinking, okay, but what you gotta do. What
Speaker 1: that car is gonna feel like, you know, turn one? Okay,
Speaker 1: we made these adjustments from practice. So the whole time
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about that, but I'm interacting and I'm putting
Speaker 1: on a smile and I'm shaking hands and taking that
Speaker 1: takes skill by itself. It took it took a long
Speaker 1: time to really get comfortable with with doing that. And
Speaker 1: then and then you go to what they call the
Speaker 1: you know, the driver's meeting, which is basically a bunch
Speaker 1: of sponsors and your dignitaries or whatever that are there.
Speaker 1: You're really not they're learning. It's not like they're saying, hey,
Speaker 1: here's how you're gonna drive the race today. I mean,
Speaker 1: you already had that out all figured out, so we
Speaker 1: kind of figuring race. You know, where the clutches. But
Speaker 1: it was a big left turn But but what I
Speaker 1: what really became part of my routine later was was
Speaker 1: would from that moment, from the time you finally got
Speaker 1: away from all of the distractions, was I would I
Speaker 1: would go do a warm up just you know. And
Speaker 1: this is more. When I got older, my body started
Speaker 1: failing on me in my back issues and things like that.
Speaker 1: But just I get on a bike, I'd warm up,
Speaker 1: do a few stretches, exercises, have somebody you know, kind
Speaker 1: of pushed me a little bit, and and then I
Speaker 1: would go get into my ratio form. But it was
Speaker 1: left leg, right leg, left sock right, superstitious, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean you could look at it that way. I
Speaker 1: think you could look at it that way. I didn't
Speaker 1: look at that way. But I'm gonna tell you what
Speaker 1: right now, if I have somebody, like if my crew
Speaker 1: chief walked in, he's like, hey man, what about I'd
Speaker 1: put my hang on one second back. So I did
Speaker 1: not want to mess up the routine. You know. I
Speaker 1: wasn't about like lucky pennies and like a baseball player almost.
Speaker 1: I mean some like like eat like like eat all
Speaker 1: your fries. No matter what if you were like if
Speaker 1: you were a former picture like like backstage Joe backstage
Speaker 1: is a former picture who they knew he would eat
Speaker 1: fries and it would do various things with those figs.
Speaker 1: He still hadn't had it because you know, you know,
Speaker 1: had more to do than his actual velocity of arm strength.
Speaker 1: It was of course skill, no, no skill. And now
Speaker 1: he has so much you know, like post draumatic that
Speaker 1: it carries over and like we can't we have to
Speaker 1: have certain meetings and we have to have certain post games,
Speaker 1: and because the backstage, so that so that that became
Speaker 1: a place for me to just kind of get relaxed.
Speaker 1: So that routine, in that superstitition actually was a time
Speaker 1: for you to kind of reset to it. Okay, we're
Speaker 1: done with the sponsorships. Now we're in race mode. You
Speaker 1: still gotta gout and driver. Yeah, but I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that after driving introductions, it's the best thing that would
Speaker 1: happen was and my wife would even tell you, like
Speaker 1: when her and my kids were there, because you know NASCAR,
Speaker 1: that's a cool thing about Nascars. You get to interact
Speaker 1: with him right right until the time you get in
Speaker 1: the car. It's cool, and it's not cool because you
Speaker 1: know you're you are in this game mode. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm wound up. Whether the day before went good
Speaker 1: or whatever our situation is. I could not wait to
Speaker 1: get in that car. I mean like, like it could
Speaker 1: be a hundred degrees outside. I'm sweating my butt off,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, get me in the car because i
Speaker 1: just want to get in there and get the helmet on,
Speaker 1: get strapped in and just truly get into that place.
Speaker 1: And and that was if I miss anything now that
Speaker 1: I'm not racing, it's those moments like you get in
Speaker 1: there and the anticipation of getting the green flag and
Speaker 1: going racing and competing against uh, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the best out there. That and and with a great
Speaker 1: team and the great car that was. That was a
Speaker 1: cool thing to experience. We have to take a break
Speaker 1: and we gotta pay some bills that I love cut
Speaker 1: to It and I love it even more when you
Speaker 1: download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on
Speaker 1: social media too, Smithie where where at that's at? Cut
Speaker 1: to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At cut to It? Facebook?
Speaker 1: Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online?
Speaker 1: And you can follow us at cut to It podcast
Speaker 1: dot com where you can buy merch and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
Speaker 1: all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my
Speaker 1: questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast dot com. I've always wanted to ask
Speaker 1: a guy, especially because I know you've had some rivals.
Speaker 1: Now I've watched you drivers sometimes y'all hold me back,
Speaker 1: hold me back, man. I see you guys go after it.
Speaker 1: But I gotta ask you too, though, Like, have you
Speaker 1: like gotten to that fight modem? And then you you
Speaker 1: forget to unbuckle, I'm gonna I'm on my seat belt
Speaker 1: or you still got the harness. Harness We get made
Speaker 1: fun of because we leave our helmets on. Like you
Speaker 1: get out of the car so fast that if you
Speaker 1: got to get in a fight, you gotta take your
Speaker 1: helmet off. It's like, yeah, I probably should, but I
Speaker 1: mean a one time I did, I flipped over. H
Speaker 1: car was upside down, and especially in a stock car
Speaker 1: win it's upside down. Do you have an oil tank
Speaker 1: behind you and and there's hot oil pouring out that thing,
Speaker 1: and you're going, I need to get hell out of here,
Speaker 1: and and so you're laying upside down and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know I shouldn't be taking my belts up. I
Speaker 1: really want to get out of I bet I can
Speaker 1: get out of here. And you do it. Bad mistake
Speaker 1: because as soon as you unbuckled, you go, you go
Speaker 1: straight to the roof your whole body. You don't wait,
Speaker 1: and the belts have enough straps and things where usually
Speaker 1: it's gonna catch on something. So now not only are
Speaker 1: you hanging, but you can't get undone. And oh it's scary,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's like God, that wasn't very smart,
Speaker 1: and so I tipped over. Um it was a slow
Speaker 1: roll at Dayton, wasn't a bad accent, but it did
Speaker 1: go upside down. But I ended up upside down and
Speaker 1: so undid the belts. I was like, that was stupid.
Speaker 1: They finally got the car right side up and I
Speaker 1: got the belts off of me, but I've taken my
Speaker 1: gloves off and that was the really big mistake because
Speaker 1: as I climbed out, I didn't realize the sheet metal
Speaker 1: had been all torn up and it just sliced my
Speaker 1: fing So I get out of the car and they're like,
Speaker 1: oh blood. You know immediately they're calling, you know, people over.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, no, it's just my finger, man.
Speaker 1: I just I just cut my finger. It's not a
Speaker 1: kind of great thing. It was embarrassing, but it's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, leave the gloves on. So what does what
Speaker 1: does uh a NASCAR rival mean to Jeff Gordon? Um, well,
Speaker 1: it's funny. It means something different to me now right
Speaker 1: now that I do TV, man, we need rivals. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's like I totally when I was in it. When
Speaker 1: I was you know, like I had arrival with Dale
Speaker 1: Earnhardt and and he played it up good. I mean
Speaker 1: he he was a master of that, and me, I
Speaker 1: was just like, I don't want to have anything to
Speaker 1: do with that. I just I just want to go
Speaker 1: out and do my job. I don't want to get distracted.
Speaker 1: He's just trying to mess with me and getting my head,
Speaker 1: get an advantage or you know, the media is gonna
Speaker 1: gonna take something and then I'm gonna have to answer
Speaker 1: those questions and deal. I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1: I just want to race. And I probably I wish
Speaker 1: I would have played into a little bit more because
Speaker 1: I realized, you know that the fans what they love
Speaker 1: so much is like you mentioned earlier, they love to
Speaker 1: love somebody, that love to hate somebody, and they love
Speaker 1: it when there's a rivalry. It just it just builds
Speaker 1: more interest and gives people way more. The personal aspect
Speaker 1: of it, the human aspect of it, is sometimes more
Speaker 1: entertaining than the actual race. And we had, I mean
Speaker 1: we had to fight this past weekend on on Saturday,
Speaker 1: not in the Sunday race. Saturday race, man that's always
Speaker 1: showed on Sunday. Was these two guys swinging, going at it.
Speaker 1: Anything they swing, the questions wasn't intentionally amiss? You know,
Speaker 1: I mean, you you connect to somebody, you getting suspend
Speaker 1: your you know, you get you probably won't be the
Speaker 1: next the next week. Yeah, if if they see you
Speaker 1: make make contact by throwing a fist, you're you're gonna
Speaker 1: you can you can wreck a guy like I've done. Unfortunately. Uh,
Speaker 1: you can do a lot of things, but man, you
Speaker 1: can't swing and hit again. So what about would you
Speaker 1: get to spend it for open palm slap since you can't,
Speaker 1: Since you can't punch, that's a good smart that's a
Speaker 1: smart way to get around. And you still keep the
Speaker 1: helmet on like you can still smack somebody hard enough
Speaker 1: and then well there's like a right slapping competitions. But
Speaker 1: you can shove and you can talk smack, but I
Speaker 1: don't think you could hit him in any No, open,
Speaker 1: open palm is disrespectful. Of course you'd say that. Dudes
Speaker 1: in the locker room, you know, you backhand somebody in
Speaker 1: the locker room, it's intentionally disrespect you in the locker room.
Speaker 1: In the locker room, you can do all you want.
Speaker 1: So is it fighting in all? Well, you gotta understand
Speaker 1: the locker room. That's that's usually just like the locker
Speaker 1: room to us would be like at the airport getting
Speaker 1: ready to leave. They don't really have a locker room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, you eat have your own individual trailer.
Speaker 1: But if somebody walked up into your trailer and punch you,
Speaker 1: are you that's that's so I want to revisit you
Speaker 1: backhanding people in your locker Why would you backhand somebody?
Speaker 1: I mean, you're getting you're getting a little tussle with
Speaker 1: someone and um, not gonna punch because if first of all,
Speaker 1: if I'm punching, then as you know, we're really into it.
Speaker 1: But open for me why I was right, open palm
Speaker 1: is all disrespectful, but a backhand and that's like some
Speaker 1: old school like backhand. And so you wanted to show
Speaker 1: your disrespect, but you don't want to actually get into
Speaker 1: a real No. Let me see. This is where you
Speaker 1: explain you're missing. If I back hand you, I'm going
Speaker 1: back handed, right. So what comes next is when I
Speaker 1: back here, you're gonna come back, and that's what you're
Speaker 1: gonna catch that two piece. This is how you orchestrate
Speaker 1: nasal fights. Everybody, did he just back hand you? Yes?
Speaker 1: I did? Is that like a player? And then here's
Speaker 1: the problem. When he realizes he our back hand, he's
Speaker 1: gonna say he hit me, like oh, and then he's
Speaker 1: going to approach and then it's on. Then it goes
Speaker 1: very quickly. Yeah, I'm this is this is smoke one
Speaker 1: on one. First of all, if I back here, I
Speaker 1: have no respect for you, clearly clearly No, I mean
Speaker 1: I don't really think that's a respectable type. If your
Speaker 1: back hand someone, you respect the hell out of him.
Speaker 1: I've that's good point. I never thought of it that way.
Speaker 1: I never once thought it was like a warm greeting
Speaker 1: some man. I might just be mad at him. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I disrespect him. But if I backhand you
Speaker 1: anytime you're about to fight somebody and an open palm
Speaker 1: is done, it's not gonna go. Well. So all right, um,
Speaker 1: so we've digressed, but um, I really want to talk about,
Speaker 1: which I think is really cool. You've had poles, which
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. Um, what what's the key to getting a pole?
Speaker 1: And when is the pole captured? Again? I know some
Speaker 1: of this stuff, but then I'm kind of like, I
Speaker 1: get I get the opportunity to talk to you, great,
Speaker 1: and you are you have done and doing commentary analysts work,
Speaker 1: but you also know exactly what these individuals are trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish. Yeah, well, first let's established there's no actual
Speaker 1: physical polly. We may even start from the beginning. Someone
Speaker 1: may not even know what the what it so and
Speaker 1: and I think pole position goes back to like horse racing,
Speaker 1: where where there's like, you know, the pole is the
Speaker 1: other side some other um jobs that require I appreciate
Speaker 1: you clarified. You said like that goes back to I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, okay, okay, cool. Well I think it
Speaker 1: may all come full circle in some forms, but I
Speaker 1: see what you did. I see what you did. Is
Speaker 1: it that very thorough bread is? But h But but
Speaker 1: winning the pole position or being the fastest qualifier, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think obviously you know. The need thing about racing
Speaker 1: is it's a team sport. But but it's it's machine.
Speaker 1: The machine is the athlete is the way I look
Speaker 1: at it, right, Like like people debate whether race car
Speaker 1: drivers are athletes. And and don't get me wrong, you
Speaker 1: gotta be in in in very good physical shape, a
Speaker 1: different type of shape than to say, like you had
Speaker 1: to be for for football, But you gotta be in
Speaker 1: good shape. But the race car, that's what I want
Speaker 1: to be the thorough bread. I want that race car,
Speaker 1: you know, to have just a little more down force,
Speaker 1: a little less drag, a little more horror power, just
Speaker 1: a little more grip than anybody else out there. Now,
Speaker 1: if if you know, if all things were equal, which
Speaker 1: they're not, I'm sorry, it's just not the case. It's
Speaker 1: just racing one oh one, the way it's been forever.
Speaker 1: Somebody is going to engineer something to make one car
Speaker 1: a little bit better than the next. And NASCAR does
Speaker 1: an excellent job at at at trying to create parody
Speaker 1: and all the different ways that they measure the car
Speaker 1: and and and you know, inspect the car, great job,
Speaker 1: but still there's always going to be a way to
Speaker 1: try to get around that. And so you know, on
Speaker 1: that day where you go to qualify, it's it's that
Speaker 1: machine and it's you, and you're just pushing it to
Speaker 1: the absolute limit of what that car is capable of doing.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you do it right, then you're
Speaker 1: gonna be the fastest one and you're gonna win the
Speaker 1: pole position. And and if you if you mess it up,
Speaker 1: you're either gonna say, Okay, I didn't get all of
Speaker 1: it or the car wasn't capable of more than I got.
Speaker 1: And so I would you know, I I like to qualify.
Speaker 1: I love being out there on that single lap just
Speaker 1: pushing it. I was I was always known to be
Speaker 1: a driver that drove, you know what we say, deep
Speaker 1: into the corner. So there's a lift point that every
Speaker 1: race track is not Daytona or Talladega, but on all
Speaker 1: the other tracks is this lift point of where you
Speaker 1: get in there. You might use break not use break,
Speaker 1: depend on the track and corner size and everything, and
Speaker 1: you just want to carry as much speed in there,
Speaker 1: but you really want to get back to the throttle
Speaker 1: and carry all the speed through the center and all
Speaker 1: back onto the next straight away. So you know, I
Speaker 1: love that challenge, man, I mean I just did. To me,
Speaker 1: that's that's the purity of being a race car driver.
Speaker 1: So why why is the pole position so important? Well
Speaker 1: because a couple of things. One is, it gives you
Speaker 1: the starting position to lead the field. You should be
Speaker 1: able to lead the field, um you know your side
Speaker 1: by side, so there's a chance that you might not,
Speaker 1: but gives you the best opportunity. Plus it allows you
Speaker 1: to get a better pit stall, so so where your
Speaker 1: picker is going to do their work. If you're the
Speaker 1: pole position, if you're you know, if you're number one
Speaker 1: on the grid, you get to pick where you want
Speaker 1: to be first. So it gives it has an advantage
Speaker 1: throughout the entire race. And as as soon as I
Speaker 1: ask was all about is what tiny advantage can you
Speaker 1: get every single time? My starting position? Where my where
Speaker 1: my pit is? The modifications you make on your car
Speaker 1: is Nascar is almost like a game of interest. And
Speaker 1: and you know, we talked about clean air in racing
Speaker 1: and what that means is if you're the first car.
Speaker 1: All the air that's seeing your car. You know, it's
Speaker 1: there's nothing disrupting, it's seeing your car first. Okay, so
Speaker 1: it's attaching itself giving you the best performance. As soon
Speaker 1: as you're the next one back. That air is doing
Speaker 1: all this. It's just dancing all of the place. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's like getting in a jet wash of an
Speaker 1: airplane and and you know they're just it's not going
Speaker 1: to attach itself to your car. And so you are
Speaker 1: already at a disadvantage. Now if you're five ten cars
Speaker 1: back home like you got nothing. You got no air
Speaker 1: getting to your car. Um. Just random now just made
Speaker 1: me think, do you believe NASCAR will transform talking about
Speaker 1: clean their act, talking my climate change? Just my thoughts
Speaker 1: when you said that, do you believe NASCAR would transform
Speaker 1: itself into electric vehicle racing? One day? They'll have to?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you know, I think NASCAR plans
Speaker 1: to be around for a long time. A lot of
Speaker 1: the race teams planning to be around for a long time.
Speaker 1: And you see where the future is going in in automobiles. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's happen. It's happening now. Um you know is
Speaker 1: it electric? Is it is it. It's just charge though,
Speaker 1: just something something that is even a supercharge station. With
Speaker 1: asking something that's more sustainable though, But and no I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't asking like higher level. I was asking bare bones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you believe, well, elect your cars because a lot of
Speaker 1: what we do is driven by the O, E. M. S. Right.
Speaker 1: And so if they're oh that, I said, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I really like basically the manufacturer of the vehicle, so
Speaker 1: so Chevallet and Ford and Toyota, um or any other
Speaker 1: manufacturer that wants to come to NASCAR. If they say, listen,
Speaker 1: electric vehicles is our future. That's what we're gonna be building.
Speaker 1: We need to find a path to introduce that to NASCAR,
Speaker 1: then it's gonna happen. You know. I I think there's
Speaker 1: already discussions about it. But I think that what you're
Speaker 1: gonna see is similar to what we've seen in Formula One. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now there's an all electric Formula Series out there right now,
Speaker 1: and what they do is they swap cars. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: So they start in one car and run that thing
Speaker 1: to the batteries out, come in and get into another car.
Speaker 1: And then now I heard that this year they're gonna
Speaker 1: have one car with one battery, but it's all about
Speaker 1: managing the power throughout the whole race. So like you
Speaker 1: might say, hey, right now, I'm gonna use of my
Speaker 1: battery to pass these two cars ahead of me, but
Speaker 1: then I'm going to have less later and right now
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about the one car. But yeah, this series,
Speaker 1: it's called Formulaly. When they started, you had two cars
Speaker 1: because they couldn't run long enough because it took so
Speaker 1: much because you speed exactly, I have electric car, So
Speaker 1: that's why I was asking, Yeah, so what, But what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen? I think what we've seen in Formula one
Speaker 1: is they introduce electric motor just for boost, right, just
Speaker 1: for extra power, just to help the car accelerate off
Speaker 1: the corner. And now you're starting to see Ferraris and
Speaker 1: other cars that have purce. Ferrari has this in it
Speaker 1: that makes the car actually perform better. So you take
Speaker 1: a gas powered engine and the electric power. I think
Speaker 1: that's what you're gonna see NASCAR do initially. Whenever that
Speaker 1: time comes, they'll probably just have some kind of electric
Speaker 1: motor and it might be a boost to pass right
Speaker 1: too that you get to use. So much of it
Speaker 1: throughout the race. Maybe it regeneralizes the extra you earn
Speaker 1: it like yeah, oh yeah, yeah not fan vote, or
Speaker 1: or you're like, hey, you gotta win two replays. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there there's some of that. So I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna now I will tell you this, if we
Speaker 1: ever go all electric, the thing I'm gonna push the
Speaker 1: hardest for is that it's got to make some kind
Speaker 1: of sound, right Like, like I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: the hissing and whistling of of the drive train or
Speaker 1: the electric motor winding up. Uh. There's there's technology out
Speaker 1: there right now for electric vehicles, um, you know that
Speaker 1: make their own amplified sound. Just make it sound cool
Speaker 1: whatever it is. You know, if Chevrolet or Ford or
Speaker 1: Toyota says, okay we're going on electric, no problem. But man,
Speaker 1: give me some cool sounding thing that that when that
Speaker 1: car goes by, I'm like, I'm not gonna say that's
Speaker 1: a v A. I'm gonna say that's a kick ass
Speaker 1: sounding car. It just happens to be electric. I think
Speaker 1: it's about that time, just so I'll take a little breather,
Speaker 1: do it good doing. It's getting down to do it good, Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: Why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. In you found you found it the
Speaker 1: Jeff Gordon Children's Foundation. Why was that important for you
Speaker 1: to do? You had you already had so much, so
Speaker 1: many things going on, raising a family, traveling around the world, racing,
Speaker 1: and to try to, you know, establish a foundation, Um
Speaker 1: take take us through that? Why was that important for you?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think at that time of my life,
Speaker 1: I was I always go back, you know, to to
Speaker 1: the beginning and who my parents are when they taught me,
Speaker 1: and my parents always loved helping other people, didn't or
Speaker 1: what was going on in our lives. Somebody needed help,
Speaker 1: boom they were. They were there to lend a helping
Speaker 1: hand or do what they could for them, And so
Speaker 1: I think I kind of go back to that. But
Speaker 1: I you know, I looked at my own career, my success,
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, there's got to be more
Speaker 1: than just collecting trophies and winning races, uh and and
Speaker 1: what what can I do uh to to get back?
Speaker 1: And along the way, one of my crew chiefs Ray Evernham,
Speaker 1: and his son was diagnosed with leukemia. So I had
Speaker 1: never I didn't know a lot about uh pediatric cancer
Speaker 1: and and you know how it affected children families until
Speaker 1: that happened and when it hit close to home then
Speaker 1: and I had met a lot of kids to Make
Speaker 1: a Wish, and so I think, you know, the combination
Speaker 1: of meeting kids from Make a Wish, what Ray had
Speaker 1: gone through with his son, Um, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to do something that I thought I could get back,
Speaker 1: and because I met so many kids that had this,
Speaker 1: I realized there's a real need out there. So so
Speaker 1: I wanted to do things for pediatric cancer. So that
Speaker 1: that's where it all started. Are you guys are an
Speaker 1: amazing job being able to work on somebody's foundation. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we've definitely have paid attention and you guys
Speaker 1: do just an incredible and impactful work. So it definitely
Speaker 1: hats off to you, and we definitely see that from before.
Speaker 1: But then just being here within the Charlotte community, greater
Speaker 1: Greater North Carolina, South Carolina community, you have an incredible
Speaker 1: impact on a lot of people. I appreciate. I'm really
Speaker 1: proud of what we've done. I thought when I retired,
Speaker 1: you know, that that would be something that, um, I
Speaker 1: could spend more time with. But also I didn't know
Speaker 1: what the future would hold for it, you know, not
Speaker 1: not being in the race car, being able to promote
Speaker 1: it wasn't you know, not making the kind of money
Speaker 1: I was driving. And uh yet it's just continued to
Speaker 1: rise and take off. So uh, I've always had great
Speaker 1: people surrounding me on a race team, and I've got
Speaker 1: great people on our foundation team, and and they they
Speaker 1: they've they've just surpassed anything I could have ever hoped for.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Our last segment is called Deep three, and basically,
Speaker 1: these are three questions that takes us to a deeper
Speaker 1: level outside of who you are as a race car driver,
Speaker 1: as an analyst, and all the different hats that you wear.
Speaker 1: We want to know about you. I get my deeper.
Speaker 1: I mean, we opened this thing up with some antastro
Speaker 1: DJ skills. So some medi go ahead and ask them
Speaker 1: the first one. You've done a ton of interviews now
Speaker 1: doing uh your TV work, what is something you've never
Speaker 1: been asked in an interview about yourself that you know
Speaker 1: it gets overlooked. I mean I did a I did
Speaker 1: a book when I uh in my final year in retirement,
Speaker 1: so I got I feel like I got everything. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think most people probably stay away from
Speaker 1: you know, my my biological father and that that side
Speaker 1: of my my my life and upbringing, um and and
Speaker 1: really don't dive very deep into the Valleos stuff either.
Speaker 1: You know of of what that was like, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. I feel like we kind of touched on
Speaker 1: on some of that. So God, you know, when you've
Speaker 1: been doing this as long as I have, I feel
Speaker 1: like I've been asked everything. I can't think of anything
Speaker 1: I haven't been asked. I'm not uh yeah that that
Speaker 1: that that one might might keep me speechless. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure you've mentioned NASCAR has diehard fans. How did your
Speaker 1: relationship to your fans changed from the beginning of your
Speaker 1: career not to the end. Yeah, I think it's gone
Speaker 1: through a wave of interactions because I think it was.
Speaker 1: It started out as and and and you you brought
Speaker 1: this up early on when we started this about I
Speaker 1: started getting cheers, you know, new guy on on the
Speaker 1: track and and all you know, he's doing good. Oh
Speaker 1: you know, I might have a new guy to cheer for,
Speaker 1: or maybe they like the way my car looked whatever
Speaker 1: it was. And I was like, I'm starting to hear
Speaker 1: some cheers. That's awesome, that feels good. And then I
Speaker 1: started winning more and I was racing with Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Speaker 1: Right became rivalries, and all of a sudden, those those
Speaker 1: cheers quickly turned into booze that we're definitely louder than
Speaker 1: than the cheers. And so then I was at this
Speaker 1: place where I was like, I don't like them. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't like them for you know, why why do
Speaker 1: they not? They don't even know me, And so then
Speaker 1: then you know, you get experienced with it and you go, Okay.
Speaker 1: I realized that has nothing to do with me personally.
Speaker 1: It's it's what they're passionate about, and I respect that.
Speaker 1: And so I think I went through and also with
Speaker 1: my own fans, I went through this place of you know, hey,
Speaker 1: don't bother me while I'm eating, don't bother me in
Speaker 1: the bathroom. Don't you know, like give me my personal time.
Speaker 1: If I'm with my family, you should know not but
Speaker 1: but I'm actually, you know, I think now that I'm
Speaker 1: removed from it and not in it is entrenched from
Speaker 1: a race car driver standpoint. Now, I'm like, man, anybody
Speaker 1: that followed me, fan of mine, that that that wants
Speaker 1: to to you know, get that picture. I'm all for it.
Speaker 1: And okay, there's still limits. But but but I just
Speaker 1: I think I have a greater respect and appreciation for
Speaker 1: their giddiness there. You know, their their excitement or or
Speaker 1: you know that you know, take I don't know if
Speaker 1: if I've ever been that big of a fan of
Speaker 1: anybody's or or any one thing to fully relate, but
Speaker 1: I do know that some of the times I've met
Speaker 1: some cool people, I was like, you know, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: I might. I might at this moment, go this is
Speaker 1: my one opportunity. I'm going to take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: I've done that before, and and so I get it now,
Speaker 1: you know, And and so I think I've just the
Speaker 1: things kind of come full certain from Oh man, I
Speaker 1: love this too. Oh man. I I don't know if
Speaker 1: I like all this and and then then didn't think
Speaker 1: I like the ones that were against me. Now I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: the more the merrier, make all the noise, like I
Speaker 1: love now seeing fans. We we had a kid on
Speaker 1: TV that this past weekend had a big sign Sam.
Speaker 1: You know, I hope anybody wins, but but Kyle Busch,
Speaker 1: you know, and and uh, you know, Kyle Busch kind
Speaker 1: of gets gets some heat for some of that set.
Speaker 1: But man, people are listening, people watching what he's doing,
Speaker 1: and I think it's about embracing it. That's the That's
Speaker 1: the one thing you know, I was I was always
Speaker 1: afraid of, Okay, what are people gonna think? Or how
Speaker 1: is this going to affect our sponsors, our career. I
Speaker 1: wish that you could just go out there and NASCAR,
Speaker 1: no sponsors, number on the car, your team, your race car,
Speaker 1: and just go race and be you, like completely be you.
Speaker 1: That would be that would be one entertaining form of racing.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I think we're we're all sort
Speaker 1: of held to some some sort of of of standard
Speaker 1: that we've got to got to live up to to
Speaker 1: keep us in check or might get out of control.
Speaker 1: So that that leads me to the final question here
Speaker 1: and Jeff Gordon of Today, if you go back in
Speaker 1: time and talk to Jeff Gordon, years old, what would
Speaker 1: you tell oh my gosh, well, would I be able
Speaker 1: to tell him how how much, how good things are
Speaker 1: gonna go? Yeah? Um, you know, I think that it's crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm almost fifty now and and I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm still learning things about me that that it's so
Speaker 1: cool to be in that place where you're just like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I've lived a great life and I'm
Speaker 1: very comfortable with who I am, and I'm sure that
Speaker 1: will even get greater as I as I go along.
Speaker 1: I I wish that even though I had a lot
Speaker 1: of confidence on the race track, off the racetrack, you know,
Speaker 1: you have those insecurities, you have those those things where
Speaker 1: you're just not so sure. And I see now, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just being able to to to what I
Speaker 1: see people relating to the most is people that are
Speaker 1: just genuinely being them and not holding back. And I
Speaker 1: always always just held back a little bit. Was it
Speaker 1: because I was from California? Was it because I raced
Speaker 1: open Wheel? Was it you know, the type of sponsors
Speaker 1: that had I'm not sure, but I always held back,
Speaker 1: always held back just a little bit, um not necessarily
Speaker 1: on the track, but but off the track, and Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't haven't many regrets, but but you know,
Speaker 1: I would probably just would have wanted people to to
Speaker 1: see a little more of me along the way media, friends, fans,
Speaker 1: because you know, at home, I mean they get to
Speaker 1: see that. But you know, just wasn't always there when
Speaker 1: I was when I was racing or at the track
Speaker 1: that when I came to NASCAR a lot and again
Speaker 1: this is just people not really even knowing me, just
Speaker 1: assumed that I got handed everything on a on a
Speaker 1: silver platter and that I had the easy street. And
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I mean it went well, but
Speaker 1: I had to work my ass off, you know, and
Speaker 1: and a lot of things you lined up, but I
Speaker 1: felt like I had to earn it. Maybe I didn't
Speaker 1: have to earn it like Earnhardt had to earn it,
Speaker 1: but but I had to do it in my own way.
Speaker 1: But in your own way is but it lined up
Speaker 1: based off the fruits of your labor, like it lined
Speaker 1: up because you you raced and met someone, they gave
Speaker 1: you their number. Then after your race or a couple
Speaker 1: of days or weeks later, you had to keep that
Speaker 1: piece of paper. Then you had to call them. They
Speaker 1: had to pick it up and then you had to speak.
Speaker 1: They had to accept it like it's not you were
Speaker 1: given everything. You had to do it. You have some
Speaker 1: you have some some sweat equity into it. And the
Speaker 1: thing I can relate, you know, with you about it
Speaker 1: is that there were certain people out there and that
Speaker 1: it didn't matter what I said, what I could sit
Speaker 1: there and have an hour long conversation show with them
Speaker 1: and they were gonna walk away with that going. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jeff Gordon, he you know, he had it easy, or
Speaker 1: or you know, man, he got so lucky. They were
Speaker 1: going to judge. And so you know, I learned along
Speaker 1: the way. Okay, I gotta stopped trying to convince everybody
Speaker 1: of of how I got here, why, and just go
Speaker 1: do do my thing. And you know, luckily that that
Speaker 1: thing worked out pretty good. The mistake, the mistake I made,
Speaker 1: was I would I knew the reporters and what they wanted.
Speaker 1: I knew some reporters had a preconceived notion of me,
Speaker 1: So I gave them the lazy cursing smithy, you gave
Speaker 1: me exactly what there. I gave him exactly what they wanted.
Speaker 1: Because if I spent an hour with them and then
Speaker 1: after that hour. A couple of days later, the article
Speaker 1: was written. I was the son of a like I gave.
Speaker 1: I gave them so much of who I am and
Speaker 1: they took that and just wrote this. And I kind
Speaker 1: of like, it doesn't matter what I say, Like everybody
Speaker 1: always says that, like Steve had a chip on their
Speaker 1: shoulder if I break down. When I was in college.
Speaker 1: Coming out of college, I broke my C four vertebrate.
Speaker 1: I went to the University of Utah. It was not
Speaker 1: considered a good school. I was five nine. A guy
Speaker 1: drafted by the New York Jets from the University of
Speaker 1: Miami named Santana Moss was drafted in the first round.
Speaker 1: Had the same height as me, but he wasn't too small.
Speaker 1: H And the reason I'm saying that is obviously I'm
Speaker 1: not jealous at Santana Moss, but I'm when you compare,
Speaker 1: it's like, well, he's an apple. I'm an apple right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he maybe he's from Florida, so his apple maybe tastes weeder,
Speaker 1: but he's still an apple, right He had a better
Speaker 1: product he was, you know, honey, Cris, I was an apples.
Speaker 1: I can still be used to press with your knowledge
Speaker 1: of apples, right, and so I always felt this like
Speaker 1: I didn't have a chip. It was I never got
Speaker 1: a I never got the benefit of the doubt. Like
Speaker 1: I broke my neck in college. You know why they
Speaker 1: infused my neck because I was told if you got
Speaker 1: your neck fused, you automatically were not a draft eligible.
Speaker 1: Fourth round draft pick Chris Winky, he broke his neck
Speaker 1: in Florida State one Heisman. You know what they did.
Speaker 1: They fused his neck. He actually signed two days before
Speaker 1: listen this. He signed two days before training camp as
Speaker 1: a fourth round draft pick and got more signing bonus
Speaker 1: money than me. Well All and Steve All, I can
Speaker 1: tell I don't know a lot about sent Tony Moss.
Speaker 1: I know the name, but I've watched a lot more
Speaker 1: uh you know, Panther games than than then. I watched
Speaker 1: whatever team he played for, And what I saw in
Speaker 1: the field was a guy that was just a fighter,
Speaker 1: man like like you, just digging, just getting after every
Speaker 1: single play. And maybe it was exactly that meant. You
Speaker 1: know what I like about my side of view and you, right,
Speaker 1: is that now as I've gotten to know you better,
Speaker 1: especially sitting down here, is all those things that happened
Speaker 1: in your life, like that was in you on that
Speaker 1: field right, that that was making you do things that
Speaker 1: were pretty extraordinary and and it might have been something
Speaker 1: you were you're battling with, you know, emotionally and internally,
Speaker 1: but I think there were a lot of positives that
Speaker 1: came out on how you played the game. I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: just after talking to you, I'm like, you know, we've
Speaker 1: been here twenty years. We met each other here and there,
Speaker 1: but man, never really I've met one or two other drivers,
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, I I just don't see and
Speaker 1: identify and kind of see the relationship just because there's
Speaker 1: just two different sports. You Also, I felt like at
Speaker 1: times I'm getting that best version of them. And when
Speaker 1: I get the best version, I'm like, man, I'm still
Speaker 1: figuring out my version of me. So uh man, after
Speaker 1: hearing you talk and just man, it's like, man, I
Speaker 1: love the you know, grab a bite to him, to
Speaker 1: grab a bite with you, just kind of chomp it
Speaker 1: up and talking and here the more parts of Jeff
Speaker 1: Gordon that that makes you you. I appreciate Listen. I
Speaker 1: love opportunities like this that you've given me to to
Speaker 1: kind of pull back the layers and open up a
Speaker 1: little bit more and and hit me with some different
Speaker 1: things that you know, I don't normally get hit up with.
Speaker 1: So that's cool and uh and just mad respect to
Speaker 1: you know. Definitely I love being able to sit down
Speaker 1: and hear other people's journey. Yeah, so we gotta we
Speaker 1: gotta get that bite if IF, IF I'm coming is
Speaker 1: probably gonna be mixed with some kind of a beverage.
Speaker 1: I feel you, but but I would love I'd love
Speaker 1: to uh listen to hear more about your journey. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do something different. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm a
Speaker 1: Little John, and I'm Jeff Gordon and this is cut
Speaker 1: to It. You are a unique person. You are well
Speaker 1: worth it, you are competent and most of all, your lovable.
Speaker 1: Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me
Speaker 1: is a production of Cut to It LLC, Baltoe Creative Media,
Speaker 1: The Black Effect, and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Speaker 1: from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co
Speaker 1: host Gerard Little John, Talent and booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Media. Cut To It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic
Speaker 1: and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production
Speaker 1: Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and
Speaker 1: vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all