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Speaker 1: for this? Sean Merriman A one hand effect. Boom boom,
Speaker 1: boom out, go to light This is Lights Out with
Speaker 1: Sean Merriman. What's up, guys. We're back again with another
Speaker 1: Lights out podcast with me Seawan Merriman. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: told you it's NASCAR season. Uh. Normally I get out
Speaker 1: to at least five or six tracks. Last year just
Speaker 1: completely took that away from us with this little thing
Speaker 1: called COVID, uh not allowing with fans to come and Daytona,
Speaker 1: Daytona weekend, Uh, the Expinity races and the Cup races
Speaker 1: Sunday and Michael McDowell big win for him, and UH
Speaker 1: really happy for him. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: just by the interview using people talking uh after the race,
Speaker 1: a lot of other people are just really excited for
Speaker 1: him and and and his journey and went in his
Speaker 1: first race and it just will happened to be in Daytona,
Speaker 1: the big one, so um way to start the season off.
Speaker 1: Should be a really good conversation coming up. Michael McDowell, Hey,
Speaker 1: what's happening? The champ is here? Yeah? Thanks man, that
Speaker 1: was that was dope. Man. I was so damn happy man.
Speaker 1: And see you after the race. Um, you know I was.
Speaker 1: I was in Daytona, LA. Actually the last couple of
Speaker 1: years I've been down and uh, that was a sight
Speaker 1: to see. Man. How are you feeling? I feel great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh yeah, it's incredible obviously. But yeah, right now
Speaker 1: I'm in that little bit of the no sleep, getting
Speaker 1: more out, trying to keep the energy level high. So
Speaker 1: so how's that right? Because I know, um, you guys
Speaker 1: like have signings before some of the races where you
Speaker 1: have signings and all this other stuff. What's the schedule
Speaker 1: like now? I mean interviews and people wanted to talk
Speaker 1: and how's how has things changed over the last few
Speaker 1: days or so? Yeah, I mean it's been awesome. I
Speaker 1: mean I wouldn't change it for the world. But you
Speaker 1: know that that race got delayed, you know, five and
Speaker 1: a half hours for the for the rain, and so
Speaker 1: we we already had a race that's long, it's five miles,
Speaker 1: and then you got that that five and our delay
Speaker 1: and you know, for me, that first night, I didn't
Speaker 1: sleep because by the time I got done with media,
Speaker 1: uh and the car went through inspection, you know, the
Speaker 1: sun was coming up. So I just kind of powered
Speaker 1: through that first day. And you know, today is has
Speaker 1: been fun. You know, I've I've been all around, um,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as zoom calls and live TV
Speaker 1: and radio and um. But it's awesome. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: what it's all about, you know. Gives me a great
Speaker 1: opportunity to you know, share my story and and to help,
Speaker 1: you know, bring some some some cool stories to NASCAR
Speaker 1: that people probably haven't heard yet. And uh, it's a
Speaker 1: different face, right, you know, people are used to seeing
Speaker 1: Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano and Jimmy Johnson, right, and
Speaker 1: uh so it's fun to to interact with everybody and
Speaker 1: and have some fun. You know. So I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask you and not been in this situation before where
Speaker 1: you kind of all pumped up for me on my side,
Speaker 1: all pumped up for a football game. You're ready to go,
Speaker 1: You pound a chest, your adrenaline is rushing, and you
Speaker 1: go out and you play a quarter and then a
Speaker 1: range of thunders and you got to go back into
Speaker 1: the locker room. How was that up and down man?
Speaker 1: To to find that same adrenaline to go back out
Speaker 1: there after the rain delay stopped. Like you said, it's tough, right,
Speaker 1: and and it's easy to get. I don't want to
Speaker 1: stay lazy, because that's not it, but it's easy to get.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna just hang out. I'll rest a
Speaker 1: little bit here, kind of kick your feet up. But
Speaker 1: you really got to stay in the game. You know,
Speaker 1: you gotta stay hydrated. You got to make sure that
Speaker 1: you're eating right, because you know that's six hours and
Speaker 1: normally you know you're in six hours, you're going to bed,
Speaker 1: you're already asleep, and so you know, I had to
Speaker 1: eat an extra meal. You work on my hydration. You know.
Speaker 1: I studied some film and just try not to get
Speaker 1: out of the game. I just tried to stay focused
Speaker 1: during that time. And it's weird because in our sport,
Speaker 1: you just don't know when you're gonna go back racing,
Speaker 1: especially when you have a rain like that, so it
Speaker 1: could have been the next day. And then you're like, man,
Speaker 1: why do I eat this extra meal? And I drank
Speaker 1: all this water and you just feel like junk. But
Speaker 1: you know, our races are so long that you know,
Speaker 1: hydration is such a big part of it, and you
Speaker 1: just got to kind of power through it. Did did
Speaker 1: any part of that help you to to go back
Speaker 1: and reset after you guys kind of started and got
Speaker 1: things going, and did did you go back and calibrate anything?
Speaker 1: What's your team? Um after you guys initially started up? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did. You know, there was that that big accident
Speaker 1: on the front end of the race where it took
Speaker 1: out about ten or twelve cars and and we were
Speaker 1: able to escape that in but we got a little
Speaker 1: bit of damage. You know, I just brushed the wall,
Speaker 1: missing a couple of those cars that were coming down
Speaker 1: the race. You actually have to productate, right, you have
Speaker 1: to productate. Yeah, so we we had to work on
Speaker 1: a strategy. You know, there's there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: that are moving obviously in NASCAR, but you know, one
Speaker 1: of the rules that they have is that if you're
Speaker 1: in an accident, you only get a certain amount of
Speaker 1: time to fix your car before you're disqualified from the race.
Speaker 1: And and so that's to help prevent guys going out
Speaker 1: there with cars that shouldn't go on the racetrack that
Speaker 1: are unsafe, right. But the way that the perfect storm happened,
Speaker 1: the rain came and that clock started for us, and
Speaker 1: so we had a pretty short window that we we
Speaker 1: had to make those repairs. And so we strategized on
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do and how we're gonna do it
Speaker 1: so that you know, we could get our our loft
Speaker 1: stop stop forward Mustang back in good shape where it
Speaker 1: was competitive, but also not making mistakes because if that
Speaker 1: clock runs out, you're done. And we knew that our
Speaker 1: car was good. We just we just needed to make
Speaker 1: sure that we executed all that perfectly. I'm surprised you
Speaker 1: haven't gone back to your team and they're not reaching
Speaker 1: out the duct tape for a sponsorship, because I was like,
Speaker 1: hold on, did he just did he just win? You
Speaker 1: got duct tape from his damn parks? You went you
Speaker 1: went into the wall. You went into the wall early on,
Speaker 1: like you said, And I was like, hold on, this
Speaker 1: is this is crazy, right because now you get a
Speaker 1: chance to go back and get said but somebody on
Speaker 1: your team gotta be reaching out to duct tape for sponsorship.
Speaker 1: Not if not, I'm putting that deal together for all right.
Speaker 1: It sounds good. Let's work on it. So so, so,
Speaker 1: what's so, I've watched so I've watched the race and
Speaker 1: and my favorite part of Daytona has always been like
Speaker 1: the last ten and fifteen laps always, and yeah, I
Speaker 1: love the aggressiveness and the styles. And I had a
Speaker 1: Gray Golding on about a week or so ago, and
Speaker 1: he said that he would wreck his mom in order
Speaker 1: to win the Daytona And I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I would too. So who who are your family? Would
Speaker 1: you would you wreck in order to win that damn race?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's funny, you know. It's drivers are like that, right,
Speaker 1: We're greedy, you know. And and I think that competitive
Speaker 1: sports are like that. You know. I think that people
Speaker 1: think about NASCAR and motorsports a little bit different, Like
Speaker 1: they think it's real personal if you run into somebody
Speaker 1: and they crash, but it's not personal. It's racing and
Speaker 1: and we're all trying to win the race and um,
Speaker 1: and so there's this fine line in motorsports. And I
Speaker 1: don't know how it is because I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: do a lot of stick and ball sports. But if
Speaker 1: you play paid me to play football, I'm gonna hit
Speaker 1: you as hard as I and every time I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hit you as hard. Now, I'm not gonna take a
Speaker 1: cheap shot at you, and I'm not gonna do something
Speaker 1: that is intentionally trying to hurt you. That's illegal. But
Speaker 1: if I can hit you hard, I'm gonna hit you
Speaker 1: as hard as I can. Right And in racing there's
Speaker 1: that fine line too. You know, we're not we're not
Speaker 1: doing bumper cars where you just go to crash somebody.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna race as hard as I can. And
Speaker 1: if you block my move or if we make contact
Speaker 1: and you crash, that that's a part of the race,
Speaker 1: and that's part of racing, and so it's a fine line.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I would crash my wife if
Speaker 1: she was in front of me and she was bloff. Um,
Speaker 1: And I expect that you guys go back. You and
Speaker 1: your wife met sixteen years old. If you're saying right now,
Speaker 1: you crash your wife, and don't don't even mistake it.
Speaker 1: She crashed me too. She's more competitive than I am.
Speaker 1: She's she would go for it, you guys. At the end, Um,
Speaker 1: I think it was Chase, Uh, was it Brandon? And
Speaker 1: it was some it was someone else right at the end,
Speaker 1: they were they were right in front of you. And
Speaker 1: what I noticed was even after the race of the
Speaker 1: crashes and you just said about everybody kind of being
Speaker 1: even killed and as a part of sport, I still
Speaker 1: thought that. You know, when cambras get put in front
Speaker 1: of guy's face, they will say, oh, you know, this
Speaker 1: is some BS and I got it out it up.
Speaker 1: You know, it was like people were genuinely happy for you, man,
Speaker 1: Like when logonod talked and had an interview afterwards. I mean,
Speaker 1: all the drivers were genuinely happy, happy that you want.
Speaker 1: I mean, how did that feel? Yeah? That was special.
Speaker 1: I mean it really was because you know, for me,
Speaker 1: I haven't always been in the most competitive situations, right
Speaker 1: And I've driven for you know, teams and driven cars
Speaker 1: that that just weren't competitive. I mean that's just the
Speaker 1: only way to say it. And I think that those
Speaker 1: guys have seen me, you know, over the years just
Speaker 1: work hard and grind it out and and to stick
Speaker 1: around and you know, drive things that most people wouldn't drive,
Speaker 1: and and work really hard to you know, just to
Speaker 1: stay in the sport so to finally get a win.
Speaker 1: You know, I I really like I said that part
Speaker 1: of it is special to me that that they want
Speaker 1: to have respect, you know, for me, you know, and
Speaker 1: and what I've done in the sport to to get
Speaker 1: to this point. And I think because they know, they
Speaker 1: know how hard it is, they know how hard it
Speaker 1: is to win a race, they know how hard it
Speaker 1: is to to drive for one of those elite teams,
Speaker 1: and um, and so that's cool. I think that you know,
Speaker 1: that says a lot about not only what you've done,
Speaker 1: but how you've done it right. And and if you're
Speaker 1: constantly doing people wrong, you know they're not pulling for you,
Speaker 1: and so you know, to be a fierce competitor but
Speaker 1: still be liked. I think that you know, that's that's
Speaker 1: a compliment for sure. When did they finally hit you right,
Speaker 1: because obviously was um, you guys have to stop or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then you you you will come into the clothes
Speaker 1: at the end. Did were you talking to the your
Speaker 1: spider in the ear like you wanted to finally realize
Speaker 1: you were in a position to to take that thing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we were waiting, right because once I made
Speaker 1: it through the accident and I put that block on
Speaker 1: Chase Elliot, they threw the caution, and and I knew
Speaker 1: that we were in the lead, but it was close.
Speaker 1: You know, Chase was right next to me, and Austin
Speaker 1: Dillon was right there as well. And I'm not looking
Speaker 1: exactly to see where their position. I'm trying to stay
Speaker 1: ahead of them, right And so, um, you know, they didn't.
Speaker 1: They didn't come over the radio, and I had a
Speaker 1: feeling that we want and I you know, I started thinking,
Speaker 1: I think we wanted me. I think we just want
Speaker 1: the daytime on five hundreds. Uh. And then immediately my
Speaker 1: mind went, man, what if we didn't. What if they
Speaker 1: say Chase Elliott won this thing. I'm gonna be so upset,
Speaker 1: you know that that we were that close. Um. And
Speaker 1: so that was a long sixty seconds, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't actually know how long it was. It
Speaker 1: might have been. It might have been less, it might
Speaker 1: have been more, but you know, just waiting to hear,
Speaker 1: you know. And and NASCAR said thirty four to victory lane,
Speaker 1: and that was I was just overwhelmed. Man. I was
Speaker 1: not just with excitement and joy, but a relief. I mean,
Speaker 1: for me, I put a lot of pressure on myself.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I've been in the sport fourteen years and
Speaker 1: I'm finally in a competitive ride. And man, if I
Speaker 1: go for teen years and four hundred starts and I
Speaker 1: don't win one of these darn races, that's not gonna
Speaker 1: be okay with me and um and so to finally
Speaker 1: get a win, and for that win to be the
Speaker 1: Dayton of five, I mean, that's just incredible. I mean
Speaker 1: I was looking at it and I was excited. We
Speaker 1: never met in person. I've spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: at the tracks, but we uh, you know, just looking
Speaker 1: from the outside end, I was, I was extremely excited
Speaker 1: and happy for you, man, because I know how long
Speaker 1: and how hard it is, especially when you're we don't
Speaker 1: have the right equipment, you don't have the upper hand,
Speaker 1: and some of you know, parts of your career and
Speaker 1: to stay what is this long? Because it's easy for
Speaker 1: people get discouraged. I mean it really is when you
Speaker 1: when you're doing it for as long as you have.
Speaker 1: So did any of that happened over the course when
Speaker 1: you sometimes wasn't putting the best equipment or you didn't
Speaker 1: have the best situation? Where did you have a question
Speaker 1: yourself at all to where you are right now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think it's natural, right, It's it's very just in
Speaker 1: our nature to to get down at times and and
Speaker 1: the question things right, but it's it's just all about
Speaker 1: not staying there. And so for me, even when I
Speaker 1: wasn't in the greatest situation, I always held on to
Speaker 1: the hope like if I work hard and I give
Speaker 1: it everything I have, there will be an opportunity. One day,
Speaker 1: I'll get an opportunity. And I just always felt that way,
Speaker 1: you know, and you just take it one week at
Speaker 1: a time, and and and one year at a time.
Speaker 1: And I just felt like, man, I if I just
Speaker 1: stay after it, I'll get an opportunity. And and and
Speaker 1: the opportunity started to getting a little bit better, a
Speaker 1: little bit better, a little bit better, and I started
Speaker 1: to prove myself just a little bit more, a little
Speaker 1: bit more. I mean, I would love for it to
Speaker 1: be much quicker than it was. But I finally got
Speaker 1: an opportunity at front Row Motorsports and competitive equipment, racing
Speaker 1: full time and having a partner like loves Travel Stops,
Speaker 1: and we finally have a real deal, and I have
Speaker 1: a good team and a good group of people around me,
Speaker 1: And so that that focus shift from maybe I'll get
Speaker 1: a chance to Man, if we just stay after it
Speaker 1: and we keep putting ourselves in position time and time again,
Speaker 1: eventually one it's gonna go right. One day everything's gonna
Speaker 1: go right. We're gonna win a race. And and some
Speaker 1: people might think that's crazy because you know, nine times
Speaker 1: out of ten we're not in the conversation about winning
Speaker 1: the race. But every week when I show up, I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna win. I don't know I'm gonna win,
Speaker 1: and I don't plan, and and you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: an egomaniac, but I go there with this might be
Speaker 1: the weekend, This might be the weekend everything goes right,
Speaker 1: and our car is perfect, and we call the race
Speaker 1: just right and we're at the right spot and we
Speaker 1: win a race and and we finally did it. And
Speaker 1: so it's, uh, it's crazy. Who was who was the
Speaker 1: first person you talked to? After you one? Who what
Speaker 1: you do? As soon as you want, who was the
Speaker 1: first person you've reached out to, We'll reached out to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know who was the first that
Speaker 1: reached out to me. My phone it just went nuts, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure your phone was born. I'm sure your phone
Speaker 1: was born. You know. The first person that I called
Speaker 1: was my wife, and she had our kids there, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, they were at home and and the kids
Speaker 1: were sleeping, right and my wife obviously wasn't but hold
Speaker 1: on your your kids were hey, we got school the monday,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, and it was it was, you know,
Speaker 1: twelve one o'clock in the morning when the race got over.
Speaker 1: But my wife woke everybody up after I won the race,
Speaker 1: and so they could see, you know, just the celebration
Speaker 1: and victory lane and the interview and and so I
Speaker 1: got to talk to them for just a few seconds
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, and you know, those are special times.
Speaker 1: I would love for them to been with me and
Speaker 1: have that experience. But you know, things look different right
Speaker 1: now and that's part of it. And yeah, but to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, my family is the most important thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, NASCAR is awesome. I
Speaker 1: love it. I love what I do, but it's not
Speaker 1: who I am. Right, I'm a I'm a dad and
Speaker 1: I'm a husband, And and that's your legacy. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what you leave behind, right and uh, at trophies
Speaker 1: and rings and watches, those those make terrible gods. Right,
Speaker 1: And so the legacy that you leave is your family
Speaker 1: and your kids and um and to have this moment
Speaker 1: with them is is special and it's a life lesson
Speaker 1: for my kids too. Don't give up. You just keep
Speaker 1: fighting hard. You just never know the last thing. Um.
Speaker 1: So you you're talking about your team and did you
Speaker 1: get a chance to talk to Bob and sitting out
Speaker 1: with your team dad and discuss like where you guys
Speaker 1: are right now and what's the were you planning on
Speaker 1: doing next? Yeah, obviously Bob is a static you know
Speaker 1: it's yeah, tell tell me, tell me a little bit
Speaker 1: about you know, how how was that conversation. You know,
Speaker 1: Bob and I have a very unique relationship. And and
Speaker 1: Bob is a friend to me. I mean he really is.
Speaker 1: He's a friend, and he's a mentor. And and so
Speaker 1: when I get on the phone with him, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about man, what's what's my owner gonna say?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna be you know, upset with me if
Speaker 1: I did you know this or that? And and so
Speaker 1: we have a you know, a great relationship, and and
Speaker 1: it meant so much to him, not that his team won,
Speaker 1: but that I won because you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: this that he does, he's doing it for me because
Speaker 1: he feels like I deserved a shot and and so
Speaker 1: for him, I think it's super gratifying that you know
Speaker 1: that I was was able to do it, and to
Speaker 1: do it in his car, and um, you know, to
Speaker 1: lock us in the playoffs, you know all those things
Speaker 1: that come with it, you know, to be in the
Speaker 1: All Star Race and you know, to be in the
Speaker 1: clash and all the you know, the perks that come
Speaker 1: with winning. You know, the Daytona five hundred. We both
Speaker 1: get the experience and you know, it kicks off our
Speaker 1: season right and you know, it gives us a shot
Speaker 1: in the arm and some momentum. And we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to this year. We're looking forward to the playoffs. You know.
Speaker 1: I mean, we know, hey, we're not gonna win every weekend.
Speaker 1: We know that. We know that, you know, there's five
Speaker 1: or six guys that win majority of these races. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep grinding just like we have. We're gonna
Speaker 1: keep fighting, and we'll keep working hard at the shop
Speaker 1: and at the racetrack and and maybe we put ourselves
Speaker 1: in position again and do it again. You just never
Speaker 1: know absolutely. Man. Well, Michael, I appreciate it. I know
Speaker 1: you've got a thousand different things going on, and uh,
Speaker 1: this won't be the last. Man. I gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: feel in this this confidence boos. Just just just walk
Speaker 1: around your chest out a little bit more, you know.
Speaker 1: Now you're feeling good. Uh, congratulations again man, and thanks
Speaker 1: for I'm going on appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks guys
Speaker 1: for listening. And I really appreciate that. Uh. Looks as
Speaker 1: a NASCAR season, man, you know what it is, Um,
Speaker 1: it's always a favorite time for me because I have,
Speaker 1: you know, tons of friends across the NASCAR circuit and
Speaker 1: I get a chance to kind of dive into the races,
Speaker 1: the tracks, uh, and I will be back at tracks
Speaker 1: this year. And it was a great conversation I've just
Speaker 1: had with Michael Um. And the cool part about that
Speaker 1: is is that you know, he understands, uh that there
Speaker 1: he he's not gonna win every race every single week
Speaker 1: and a week out, and he understands that he comes
Speaker 1: into races underdog, and uh, the attitude and the positivity
Speaker 1: and the confidences he had now going into the next
Speaker 1: step and his team and Bob Jenkins and those guys.
Speaker 1: That were the big congratulations, and I told him I'm
Speaker 1: working on that duct tape sponsorship. He went into the
Speaker 1: wall and one of one of race with duct tape on.
Speaker 1: How about that? Uh, So, thank you, guys, I appreciate
Speaker 1: it for listening to another lights Out podcast with me.
Speaker 1: Sean Raymond continued to download, subscribe, lead those great reviews
Speaker 1: that you guys been leaving. Um, I belief we're over
Speaker 1: a few hundred thousand downloads now and it's really all
Speaker 1: because of you guys. Will be honest, UM shows me
Speaker 1: you really enjoy what we're talking about and uh, just
Speaker 1: listening to me Rambalogan, So I really appreciate that. Again.
Speaker 1: Next week you come in hot with another big one.