Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a
Speaker 1: hand ef back Boom boom boom, out go the lights.
Speaker 1: This is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up, guys.
Speaker 1: We're back again on the Lights Off Podcast with me
Speaker 1: Seawan Merriman. We have a special to guests today one
Speaker 1: of my former drivers in NASCAR. We've taken it all
Speaker 1: the way to NASCAR today, h Jesse and Wouji uh
Speaker 1: former football player went to Navy. Uh I always get
Speaker 1: on him. He was he was okay, he was okay
Speaker 1: though he was he was really good. Uh, defensive back.
Speaker 1: But just my involvement in NASCAR over the years. Um,
Speaker 1: I give a really funny story about how I got
Speaker 1: started in NASCAR, being invited out in two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight by the Richard Pettis Group and uh I was
Speaker 1: the Grand Marshall to the Fontana race. And I came
Speaker 1: up and I had no idea about NASCAR. Remember I'm
Speaker 1: from Maryland, Washington, d C. Area. I got no idea
Speaker 1: other than watching NASCAR and TV. It looks like a
Speaker 1: bunch of fast cars going to circles and Uh I
Speaker 1: was in for a treat. Two thousand eighteen, Grand marshal
Speaker 1: of the Fontana Racist and I'll tell you if one
Speaker 1: of my most nerve wrecking days because I had no
Speaker 1: idea there was gonna be sixty plus thousand people there
Speaker 1: at the track. I had no idea that getting up
Speaker 1: there that close on the tract and filling those cars
Speaker 1: and the energy was gonna make me nervous where I
Speaker 1: almost dropped the damn flag. So bringing in Jesse Wilgi,
Speaker 1: we almost Also, we're gonna talk to about the Dallas Cowboys. Man,
Speaker 1: that's his favorite team, and some of the things that
Speaker 1: coming out of the locker room and Mike McCarthy uh
Speaker 1: coming out interview today saying that guys should be talking
Speaker 1: to him direct if their men. So, um, we we
Speaker 1: jumped from NASCAR to football. It's gonna be a really
Speaker 1: good show, Jesse and Wulgi. Jesse, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: Nothing much, you know, just living life. You know, ain't
Speaker 1: nothing cooking over here but the chicken in the pot.
Speaker 1: But the chicken would be cooking if the water wasn't hot.
Speaker 1: You know what, I knew he was gonna start something,
Speaker 1: saying saying something right because you look, because I know
Speaker 1: you've been up and you've been up since since five
Speaker 1: thirty already, and you probably accomplished fifteen thousand things already.
Speaker 1: So it's a few things and you can take off
Speaker 1: that trash, that trash Navy shirts. You want to go.
Speaker 1: Navy beat Army. And we almost be that one year
Speaker 1: two that five, I think you had just graduated, but
Speaker 1: we almost. I was. I was still I hadn't gotten
Speaker 1: to nab kept me yet. I was still a year away.
Speaker 1: But we got close. We got closed, and then a
Speaker 1: corner that we had missed tackle with one of your
Speaker 1: running backs. Next, you know, you know that fourth down
Speaker 1: or whatever it was converted and then we lost the game.
Speaker 1: I remember that game, and the reason why is because
Speaker 1: that was kind of like the drop off of us.
Speaker 1: It was like we to Navy. But you know what
Speaker 1: teams like Navy was always tough, tough, Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: that was always a problem. Like we had a we
Speaker 1: had we always had a problem with Temple, We had
Speaker 1: a problem you know, A beats any any one of
Speaker 1: the scrappy schools. I mean we used to sometime go
Speaker 1: and have problems with Duke. Yeah this is before they
Speaker 1: actually got good. It was just one of those scrappy teams.
Speaker 1: That always give it a problem with Yes, to tell
Speaker 1: people a little bit about before we jump into all
Speaker 1: all your NASCAR stuff, but um, your football, yeah and
Speaker 1: playing you know when you know what years did you
Speaker 1: go to play football at Navy and how how did
Speaker 1: you get there? Yeah? So originally from Dallas, Texas, and
Speaker 1: I grew up there. Both my parents came from Nigeria
Speaker 1: to the US, so we didn't have you know, football
Speaker 1: wasn't something in our family, um, you know, and not
Speaker 1: like my dad or my grandparents or anybody played football before.
Speaker 1: It was really us me and my two brothers and
Speaker 1: my sister. My sister probably could have played football, honestly,
Speaker 1: but both of my brothers and us, we we all
Speaker 1: played football in Dallas and you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: high school football in Texas is huge. So um, I
Speaker 1: had a big goal to go off to college and
Speaker 1: play college football. So it worked really hard to put
Speaker 1: myself in position to get recruited UM, and finally by
Speaker 1: my junior senior year start getting recruited by a few
Speaker 1: schools and UM Naval Academy is the best of the bunch.
Speaker 1: So I just looked at it as a great opportunity
Speaker 1: to go to really good school, get a great education. UM,
Speaker 1: played football for a team that was winning a lot
Speaker 1: of games, and UM be able to have a career
Speaker 1: UM as an officer and the Navy after after I graduated.
Speaker 1: So it was just a win in all different ways. UM.
Speaker 1: So once the Naval Academy got their two thousand six,
Speaker 1: UM started playing football there all four years. Also ran
Speaker 1: track while I was there. UM we played against a
Speaker 1: lot of great teams. We had winning seasons all four years,
Speaker 1: went to bowl games all four years. Beat Missouri. UM
Speaker 1: our final bowl game, which is my senior year. UM,
Speaker 1: and that's when Blaine Gabbert played there as quarterback, and
Speaker 1: we we roasted Missouri. I mean we it was forty
Speaker 1: be forty something to like like they scored less than
Speaker 1: ten points, Like we killed them. So UM. And that's
Speaker 1: with our little Navy team that we have a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of undersized two star athletes. That's that's what I got.
Speaker 1: I got a couple of a couple of three stars
Speaker 1: here and then it was one watching the Blue moon.
Speaker 1: Y'all catch a three star? But how was that? How
Speaker 1: was that? Bod Man? Because you know, I try to
Speaker 1: tell people all the time, like when I was when
Speaker 1: I was in school. You had obviously your classes football, Um,
Speaker 1: any kind of study hall workouts when it work out?
Speaker 1: How was that man? Because you also had to you
Speaker 1: had duties, right, I mean outside of football, you had
Speaker 1: tracked what what was what was that schedule like? Because
Speaker 1: that had to been grueling. That had been crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was grueling. I mean you know every morning you're
Speaker 1: up at you know five something, six something. Um, you
Speaker 1: still have your military site type stuff that you have
Speaker 1: to do. You still have, you know, morning formation, you
Speaker 1: still have you you're wearing uniform every single day. Um.
Speaker 1: At the Naval Academy, you're not allowed to leave campus
Speaker 1: throughout the week. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Um, you
Speaker 1: were stuck on campus. There's no going out, going and partying,
Speaker 1: going to Georgetown wherever during the week, none of that stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: you gotta stay on campus. Uh, we have other formations
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the day. We have other things
Speaker 1: you have to do as far as this leadership stuff
Speaker 1: within your squads that you have at the academy. All
Speaker 1: that stuff you got to do outside of your regular classes.
Speaker 1: Then when you get to your classes type of classes
Speaker 1: were taken, Um, you know, we're we're everybody. No matter
Speaker 1: what major you are, whether it's English history or whatever,
Speaker 1: everyone has to take Calculus one, Calculus two, Calculus three, thermodynamics,
Speaker 1: electrical engineering one, electrical engineering too, physics one, physics to
Speaker 1: chemistry one, chemistry to um uh, everyone has to take
Speaker 1: all those classes are just name no matter what your
Speaker 1: major are. So um, it's a it's a technical school
Speaker 1: for a reason where everyone gets a technical type degree. Um.
Speaker 1: But uh, it's it was tough, It's not easy. And
Speaker 1: then throw up football on there, which is like a
Speaker 1: full time job itself. I can't I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: because I was looking at like our our study hall
Speaker 1: hours and classes and win to workouts and you know,
Speaker 1: depending on what kind of study halls you had out
Speaker 1: just like Jesus Man. Like, college to me was not fun.
Speaker 1: Everybody said they had so much fun in college. At me.
Speaker 1: I love going to University of Maryland because the campus
Speaker 1: was was bar none. I mean it was a beautiful campus,
Speaker 1: but my memories of college was not fun. Like she's christ,
Speaker 1: I want to get to the league. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get to the pros. And that's why you After my
Speaker 1: third year, man, I checked your duce. I was, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it is. It's tough, but it wasn't easy
Speaker 1: at all. A lot of people will say, you know,
Speaker 1: especially going to the naval cabin it's like a great
Speaker 1: place to be from not always at because you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a college kid. You know, you're looking at all
Speaker 1: your friends having fun, party and all these other places
Speaker 1: your especially because you know, right when I was getting
Speaker 1: into college, that's when Facebook was becoming a thing, and
Speaker 1: it was the first time you got to really see
Speaker 1: people's lives everywhere they were. Um and and you got
Speaker 1: and all these friends posting all these pictures of them
Speaker 1: doing all this stuff. I'm like, man, they look like
Speaker 1: they're having a great time, but I'm over here studying
Speaker 1: super hard, working super hard in football, studying super hard,
Speaker 1: just never having time for anything. Um. So it's tough.
Speaker 1: But you know, if you want to go do something big,
Speaker 1: like play college football on national TV, you know you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta make those sacrifices. So that so that
Speaker 1: was like our connection, right. So I want to explain
Speaker 1: to people how how we met. We met um at
Speaker 1: one of my lights out of events downtown in Los Angeles. Uh,
Speaker 1: through a mutual friend of ours ja yeah, yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: with Jay Mendoza. He was kind of a social media star,
Speaker 1: and so I'm having this event um downtown and he says,
Speaker 1: this is my boy, Jesse Woolgi. You know, we played
Speaker 1: football at Navy, and I was like, okay, cool, So
Speaker 1: you got that that connection there, and he was telling
Speaker 1: me about a couple of things. But the last thing
Speaker 1: that he did was kind of I was like, you
Speaker 1: remember I had it was reporters, it was all these
Speaker 1: people I was talking to, and I remember him saying
Speaker 1: that he also it's in Nascar, and I was like,
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, hold one time out he blacked though.
Speaker 1: That was the first thing that went in my head.
Speaker 1: I was like, hold on, he's black dude the NASCAR.
Speaker 1: And I was like, the only person I knew of
Speaker 1: at the time was Bubba, but I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: know of any other black people in Nascar. I just didn't.
Speaker 1: So out of all these things that was going on
Speaker 1: at the event, I like stopped in my tracks and
Speaker 1: I with a cold on the time out and He's
Speaker 1: just saying Nascar and then we started, you know, he
Speaker 1: introduced it and we started talking. You know, we talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about football, but I had no idea,
Speaker 1: um about some of the other circuits that was in NASCAR.
Speaker 1: Which is the which is the which is the can
Speaker 1: in So how how how did that start? You left
Speaker 1: so you left school, um, and you had your duties
Speaker 1: and things like that, But how did NASCAR come about?
Speaker 1: Because it was just so it caught me so off
Speaker 1: garde when we started first talking about it, I was like, wow, man,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. Yeah. So you know, yeah, when I
Speaker 1: graduated from the Naval Academy, became a surface warfare officer,
Speaker 1: so you know, I was basically going off to the fleet.
Speaker 1: I was on ships my first four years. I was
Speaker 1: on two different ships, went on two different deployments. Uh
Speaker 1: after and but during that time, like when I was
Speaker 1: back home in San Diego at that time, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I would come back to San Diego and I had
Speaker 1: two cars that were you know, performance sports cars, and
Speaker 1: I would take them to um drag strips and road
Speaker 1: course tracks in southern California. A lot of fun doing that.
Speaker 1: And after a few years of that, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you know, every time I go to the track, you
Speaker 1: know I do pretty well, you know, why not try
Speaker 1: to take this to the highest level, Like, why not
Speaker 1: try to become a pro driver something like that. That'd
Speaker 1: be a really cool goal to achieve. So I I
Speaker 1: wrote it on my whiteboard, UM as a goal, UM,
Speaker 1: become a professional race car driver. That was around two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen, and U from now I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do I make this happen? And I did a
Speaker 1: lot of research, did a lot of networking, and put
Speaker 1: a lot of pieces together to even get to a
Speaker 1: point where I could find my way into a racing series.
Speaker 1: The first racing series was UM a late model racing
Speaker 1: series at Irwindale's Speedway. So I was getting into circle
Speaker 1: track racing. Yeah, sort track yeah yeah. So UM I
Speaker 1: got there and I was like, hey, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: this is where I belong, Maybe this is where I
Speaker 1: can start. You know, there aren't black people really racing
Speaker 1: and nascars. I'm a lot um There was Bubba Wallace
Speaker 1: at that time, and really that was all I knew
Speaker 1: who were in the National Series. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I need to get to the National Series level and
Speaker 1: race there too. So I began working my way up
Speaker 1: the ranks and started in late models. From late models,
Speaker 1: moved onto the NASCAR K and N Series which is
Speaker 1: now the ARCA West Series. Um, but uh yeah, started
Speaker 1: started running in there, and then a year into that,
Speaker 1: that's when when we had linked up. Remember telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I was just thinking at the time, because
Speaker 1: I was always about networking and trying to just figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, odd ball ways and continue to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: make this journey you know bigger. Um. So then when
Speaker 1: I when I linked up with you, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I was like, what if we figured out a way
Speaker 1: to kind of make you part of everything that we
Speaker 1: were doing. You know, at that time, the team I
Speaker 1: was running with, we were very um we had a
Speaker 1: very open type environment where we could just just do
Speaker 1: just do whatever we could, like whatever odd ball things
Speaker 1: that most people wouldn't think of doing. I was like,
Speaker 1: why don't we make you, you know, former NFL star
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Once you make you like a team
Speaker 1: owner basically like a car owner in the series, I
Speaker 1: was like, who's doing that? No one else is doing
Speaker 1: Let's do it ourselves. And um, you know then that's
Speaker 1: basically where the relationship pretty much began. And it was
Speaker 1: cool doing that In twenty seventeen, I guess was the
Speaker 1: season we did it Ineen and um man uh fun times.
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of ups and downs on
Speaker 1: the races, but we did what we could what we
Speaker 1: had and um, you know you had a lot of
Speaker 1: great contacts too and helped us with the sponsor that
Speaker 1: we had that year, and um, you know it always
Speaker 1: well so, um it was cool, cool way of doing things. No,
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was different. I was just
Speaker 1: thinking outside the box and just my involvement to what happened.
Speaker 1: How I got in a NASCAR was in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight when I was playing with the charges the
Speaker 1: Richard Petty group. They invited me out for the Richard
Speaker 1: Petty Experience and they came out and they made me
Speaker 1: the Grand Marshal of the Fontana Races. Um and I
Speaker 1: came out and at that time that from PG County
Speaker 1: and Watchington, DC area, we wasn't watching NASCAR. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you did watching NASCAR, it was on TV. It
Speaker 1: wasn't that exciting. You didn't really understand what was going on.
Speaker 1: Just looked like a bunch of cars racing fast in
Speaker 1: the circle. You didn't know. And you know, like in
Speaker 1: the hood, like back where I'm from, you knew about
Speaker 1: the Dale earned hards and like, you know the bigger drivers,
Speaker 1: but you didn't know. You didn't know about the actual sports.
Speaker 1: So me being invited out for to be the Grand
Speaker 1: Marshal in two thousand and eight, they came and they
Speaker 1: told me everything else gonna do. Mind you. I didn't
Speaker 1: know how big it was. I think it might have
Speaker 1: been thirty to fifty thou people that day at the
Speaker 1: track in two thousand and eight. It was. It was huge.
Speaker 1: I had no idea that I think at that time
Speaker 1: it was like probably it might have been eight. It was.
Speaker 1: It was massive. And they told me what I was
Speaker 1: gonna do. I got there to the track and they said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna give you this flag. You're gonna walk up
Speaker 1: on the ladder. We're gonna announce you, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: start to waive it, but don't drop the flag. And
Speaker 1: I'm looking at them like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's a damn flag. You know, I mean,
Speaker 1: who can't swing a flag around and whatnot? Right, So
Speaker 1: I got there and I'm about to walk up the
Speaker 1: ladder and I looked back and they told me, they said, look,
Speaker 1: don't drop the flag with gonna announce your name. So
Speaker 1: the announced my name, crowd goes crazy. They allowed and
Speaker 1: then I look back and I said, I got this.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about. It's a damn flag, right,
Speaker 1: So I walk out there and almost in the middle
Speaker 1: of the track, and I got the green flag in
Speaker 1: my hand and they start the cars up, and you know,
Speaker 1: you're that close in the track, and your adrenaline starts
Speaker 1: to go and you're like, holy shit, right and just
Speaker 1: oh my god, they started, so your adrenaline is going
Speaker 1: and my hands started to get wet. My hand start
Speaker 1: to get wet. So I'm like, I'm like, please, I said,
Speaker 1: hold on. I look back again and I'm looking and
Speaker 1: I just remember them telling me don't drop the flag,
Speaker 1: and I go and I started to wave it. My
Speaker 1: hands are I mean, my hands are soaking. So I'm
Speaker 1: out there. I'm nervous as hell now, so I'm saying,
Speaker 1: please do not drop this flag. Now they start the
Speaker 1: cars up, and that I never forget that the energy
Speaker 1: that goes through you, like your body being that close
Speaker 1: to the track. And that's why I tell people to
Speaker 1: get if you are in a NASCAR you ever thinking
Speaker 1: about it, get to the tracks, because it's totally different
Speaker 1: when you get there. So I'm standing in the middle
Speaker 1: of the track and they started engine up and they
Speaker 1: started to take their you know, the warm up laps around,
Speaker 1: you know, cleaning the tires off and doing all this
Speaker 1: stuff they're doing. And they said, okay, go and I
Speaker 1: started to wave the flag and not now I hear
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking I'm gonna drop the band flags. I said, please,
Speaker 1: don't do that. There's gonna be the most embarrassing ship
Speaker 1: that happened me before in my life. And so anyway,
Speaker 1: but what that day is why I got into NASCAR,
Speaker 1: because going to the tracks, to me was it was
Speaker 1: a game change. It was way different than watching on TV.
Speaker 1: I got a chance of sitting the pitch for the
Speaker 1: first time. You got, you got, and I'm adrenaline junkie man.
Speaker 1: I like energy, and I like, you know, stuffed, and
Speaker 1: it's there's no better adrenaling that he had being that
Speaker 1: closer to track right those thirty or sixty seconds however
Speaker 1: long it takes, or fifteen seconds however long it takes
Speaker 1: for them to coming to pit and leave out, that
Speaker 1: is a total a whole different adres rush. So that
Speaker 1: was that was my get into NASCAR type of type
Speaker 1: of deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: It's uh, the rush is crazy. I mean yeah, we're
Speaker 1: people who haven't been to the track before. Once you
Speaker 1: get there, um, you know, being able to just yeah
Speaker 1: feel like the engines, the sounds, just the energy around
Speaker 1: and there's so much going on even when they come
Speaker 1: in for the pit stops. I mean, I I tell people, like,
Speaker 1: that's one of the coolest parts to me is just
Speaker 1: coming into the pit stops, having these guys jump over
Speaker 1: the wall in front of these cars that are coming
Speaker 1: in at fifty sixty miles per hour into a box.
Speaker 1: Basically imagine driving off of a highway, you know, at
Speaker 1: whatever highway speeds you are into your garage and stopping
Speaker 1: just in time without hitting anything. And by the way,
Speaker 1: five people are jumping out in front of your car
Speaker 1: to uh to to take off your tires and and
Speaker 1: replace them with the other ones and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's uh, it's pretty crazy. So yeah, So
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, I went to From two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight to the time that we kind of
Speaker 1: linked up in two thousand and seventeen, I've probably been
Speaker 1: to you know, ten to fifteen tracks or something like that.
Speaker 1: I will go to at least three or four tracks
Speaker 1: a year. And when we finally linked up, and and
Speaker 1: and my whole thing and why we kind of doing
Speaker 1: what we were doing is to get more acknowledgement in
Speaker 1: the sport, you know, with minorities and blocks. Like to me, man,
Speaker 1: that was that was huge because when I went to
Speaker 1: the track, you didn't see it. You didn't you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't see car owners, you didn't see team owners,
Speaker 1: you didn't see really any black people or minnorities at
Speaker 1: the track. And I said, damn, you know, people are
Speaker 1: kind of missing out a little bit. And like, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe to me, maybe it was. And I was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out why. I was like, maybe it's the
Speaker 1: not having access to be able to go to a track.
Speaker 1: I mean, growing up where I grew up, it was
Speaker 1: no attract nowhere near I think the closest track might
Speaker 1: have been over over over, yeah, you know the Marster
Speaker 1: Mouth so um, but that was still what a couple
Speaker 1: of hours away from from where I was, so we
Speaker 1: didn't we couldn't afford going there. We couldn't get to
Speaker 1: the track. So NASCAR was never really an interest going up.
Speaker 1: But I was like, you know what, maybe if we
Speaker 1: you know what we don't want to say, we me
Speaker 1: and you and we link up and and and kind
Speaker 1: of bring more eyeball to the sport, uh and do
Speaker 1: something that hasn't been done here. Uh, maybe it might
Speaker 1: be different. Maybe you might have more people of color.
Speaker 1: That's going to be interesting in getting to the tracks
Speaker 1: because it needs to it needs to happen. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: was definitely, yeah, exactly, Yeah, and um, you know it
Speaker 1: was cool, especially like you know, I think I can't
Speaker 1: remember which year that you did the thing where you
Speaker 1: brought all the kids to it was a twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: or eighteen, um, yeah, so like things like that. I
Speaker 1: mean that was like really cool and something um I
Speaker 1: feel like was needed, Like I feel like right now
Speaker 1: with like again, I saw all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: what does nascarny to do to continue to build diversity.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, obviously you know on the driver's side, um,
Speaker 1: crew side, and you know, um all that stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a pipeline and stuff that they're working on.
Speaker 1: You know, they got the D for D program, all
Speaker 1: these other little things that they're doing to help build
Speaker 1: that side. But as far as the fan base, you know,
Speaker 1: doing things like you did in eighteen, just bringing a
Speaker 1: group of kids and and I know you brought a lot,
Speaker 1: but um, you didn't even have to be that much
Speaker 1: as that. Maybe it's just twenty kids or something like
Speaker 1: that from you know, different inner city areas near the
Speaker 1: tracks and just bring them and have an exposure because
Speaker 1: like you said, getting them to the track is what's
Speaker 1: going to create that fan And then all of a
Speaker 1: Suddeny're gonna tell their friend, They're gonna tell their friend,
Speaker 1: they're gonna tell their parents. Makes you know, hopefully the
Speaker 1: next year of the family makes a trip to come
Speaker 1: out there, because a kid all years like I want
Speaker 1: to go back. I want to go back. So um,
Speaker 1: you know, doing things like that I think is huge
Speaker 1: and and what the sport really needs to continue to
Speaker 1: build diversity at the youth level. Yeah, So one thing
Speaker 1: what Jesse's talking about is UH in two thousand and eighteen,
Speaker 1: I got the opportunity to bring about sixty kids from
Speaker 1: the inner city UH to the track and Delaware to
Speaker 1: the Monster Mile. And you know, the whole cause behind
Speaker 1: that from the start to meet was is just get
Speaker 1: them there right, let them see, let them be there,
Speaker 1: because there's so many different opportunities in NASCAR, and it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily always being a driver, Like every one of
Speaker 1: those kids are not going to be a driver. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna have an opportunity to be a driver. But
Speaker 1: there's so many different jobs and opportunities working at this track.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can be a tract president or whatever that
Speaker 1: turns out to be. That opportunities there. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunity and nascars And what's crazy about that is, um,
Speaker 1: some of those kids from that day in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eighteen, they still reach out here that send me
Speaker 1: direct message on on Instagram. I get letters you know
Speaker 1: for at least about fifteen kids. And for me, if
Speaker 1: five of those if five of those kids that day,
Speaker 1: if they get a chance to go and one day
Speaker 1: working the NASCAR circuit wherever that might be, I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's to me my job to win. It's a win
Speaker 1: big time. And what what do you what do you see?
Speaker 1: You know, because we obviously being there and it's certain
Speaker 1: diversity programs is set up, there's certain things that is
Speaker 1: going on a NASCAR, but I just and NASCAR is
Speaker 1: totally receptive and they're open to to open the doors
Speaker 1: to more black people minorities. UM, but some just to
Speaker 1: me it's like that it's not enough, Like it's not
Speaker 1: enough that the that that bridge isn't built and how
Speaker 1: people get what do you what do you see as
Speaker 1: missing right now that whitneys to happen? Yeah, UM, I
Speaker 1: would say missing wise UM like like you said, like
Speaker 1: with what you did, like that particular type of program,
Speaker 1: I think it's huge. I feel like that should be
Speaker 1: happening at every single track um around the country. UM.
Speaker 1: Not just you know that one time at Dover. You
Speaker 1: know it's great and all for that time, but we
Speaker 1: should be doing that every because we do it for
Speaker 1: the military and we don't bring fifty sixty people to
Speaker 1: every track, but um, each track for the most part
Speaker 1: that they go to, they have a program where they
Speaker 1: do troops to the track where they have you know,
Speaker 1: usually anywhere between you know, ten the twenty people that
Speaker 1: they bring military service members who are from the bases nearby.
Speaker 1: And it's a cool program because it provides that um,
Speaker 1: that experience of these guys who sometimes have never been
Speaker 1: to a track before, providing that same opportunity I think
Speaker 1: to minorities, who who who just don't have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to come to the track because of maybe lack of
Speaker 1: money or lack of whatever, or just you know, parents
Speaker 1: are working super hard. I mean, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: you know, I mean you go to a lot of
Speaker 1: these families and it might just only be a mother
Speaker 1: who's taking care of the whole household and she's working
Speaker 1: every single day, hours and hours and hours. I mean
Speaker 1: she just doesn't have time, you know. Or maybe it's
Speaker 1: a single dad who's just working hard to support the family. UM,
Speaker 1: they just don't have the time to take their their
Speaker 1: kids to you know, things like NASCAR or even any
Speaker 1: other sports. UM. So if if if NASCAR could kind
Speaker 1: of be that bridge to help bring these people in, um,
Speaker 1: to to give them that opportunity they just don't have,
Speaker 1: that would be huge. UM. You know. As far as uh,
Speaker 1: past the ARCA level, there really isn't. UM. I would say,
Speaker 1: like another driver diversity type program that's um really I
Speaker 1: guess UM continue to push people into like uh, you know,
Speaker 1: truck's affinity and cup you know, right now, it just
Speaker 1: really ends at the ARCA level. UM. Not that you know,
Speaker 1: there are people who do go from defer D too,
Speaker 1: you know, and eventually into the National Series and stuff.
Speaker 1: You have Daniel Suarez, I believe Kyle Larson was part
Speaker 1: of the group before Bubba Wallace obviously. Um. And then
Speaker 1: on the crew side, there's been people who've done the
Speaker 1: Deeper D program who've moved on to be on Cruise
Speaker 1: like Brianna, Um, Brianna Daniels, she's she's doing really well
Speaker 1: and Cup awesome, She's doing a really really good, really cool,
Speaker 1: cool person. So, um, you know, but as far as
Speaker 1: the driver's side, UM, I feel like there's not really
Speaker 1: I guess a drive for diversity program in the National Series. Um.
Speaker 1: Now it's tough because it just costs money. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, no matter what we all do.
Speaker 1: Tires aren't free, UM, vehicles, all this stuff isn't free
Speaker 1: just cause money. So you know, at the the the
Speaker 1: companies that make all this stuff, they gotta be their
Speaker 1: families too. So UM, there's a so just breaking just
Speaker 1: break it down to people, what what what does the
Speaker 1: average cost so they so they know, let's started a
Speaker 1: decent team that's on the Cup Series. What does it
Speaker 1: cost to race pro you a decent team? Image when
Speaker 1: she say what you mean by decent um, I mean
Speaker 1: that's that's called that's called a mid tiers. Okay, we
Speaker 1: can break it into three tiers. Like let's say I
Speaker 1: just say a lower budget team, mid budget team, and
Speaker 1: high bud of team. The lower budget teams in the
Speaker 1: Cup Series would say each race, you know, depending on
Speaker 1: what they're doing and how they're making their money work,
Speaker 1: they could be spending anywhere from fifty two hundred fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars per race um uh. And then mid budget
Speaker 1: teams they're probably in that two hundred two four hundred
Speaker 1: grand type uh per race budget and the higher budget
Speaker 1: teams I've heard of cost up to eight hundred thousand
Speaker 1: per race um and the hurdy give you more actually,
Speaker 1: um so uh it's could it could be really high
Speaker 1: and it's pricey and um yeah, I mean you gotta
Speaker 1: think about it, like on you know, right now, COVID
Speaker 1: time has kind of um really um changed a lot
Speaker 1: of different things. But prior to COVID, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: for a full lot men of tires in the Cup
Speaker 1: Series for a full weekend, I believe it's like forty
Speaker 1: grand or something depending on what track with like forty
Speaker 1: grand or forty five something like that. Um, I mean
Speaker 1: that's a lot that's just on tires for the weekend,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean that's not including um, all the travel.
Speaker 1: I mean, think of all the hollers, the race cars,
Speaker 1: getting two of them ready for that weekend. Could gotta
Speaker 1: have the backup car. UM, all the people that you're bringing.
Speaker 1: And you've got all these people that gotta come to
Speaker 1: attract to work on these cars, all the hotels, the flights, UM,
Speaker 1: the food, all their all all their cruger that they're wearing,
Speaker 1: their equipment, the pit boxes, and mean those things cost
Speaker 1: as much as the house. You know, so all this
Speaker 1: stuff that's going on. It just that's why it costs
Speaker 1: so much money to race. And the funny thing is
Speaker 1: as much as it cost to race, you know in
Speaker 1: NASCAR here, it's nothing compared to what Formula one is
Speaker 1: around the world. And Formula one there's their budgets are
Speaker 1: like ten times the amount. Oh, it's it's ridiculous. And
Speaker 1: that's that's my reason for being in m m A.
Speaker 1: Now it's it's pricey, but it's fun and then and
Speaker 1: you know there there are good to have money. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's being thrown away. I mean as much
Speaker 1: as you know I just named listed a lot of
Speaker 1: kind of what things cost, it's not being thrown away.
Speaker 1: A lot of good is being done. Um, and and
Speaker 1: companies who are sponsoring are seeing great marketing benefits out
Speaker 1: of it. So um, there's a reason why I cost him.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can you can go spend a ton
Speaker 1: of money to have a thirty second commercial on whatever
Speaker 1: you know, TV channel, or you can spend you know
Speaker 1: that kind of money on you know, sponsoring a car
Speaker 1: in a race and having a you know, three four
Speaker 1: hour rolling commercial for the race. So you know, it
Speaker 1: just depends on you know, what you want to do.
Speaker 1: What's your uh, what your marketing initiatives are? You know
Speaker 1: what I would surprised me what would kind of being
Speaker 1: a NASCAR uh for the time that I was. It's
Speaker 1: not just the lack of diversity part of it and
Speaker 1: people not being in there, but also these these companies,
Speaker 1: these black owned companies, these big black owned companies like
Speaker 1: the like you just talked about the opportunities in NASCAR
Speaker 1: and them not being in it. I'm like, man, do
Speaker 1: you understand like if you have a for example, if
Speaker 1: you had a product you were trying to sell, if
Speaker 1: you're trying to have a product placement or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: There's grocery stores, there's convenience stores, there's all these you know,
Speaker 1: different companies there's in NASCAR, and there's one or two
Speaker 1: pits away from you, then one or two sweets away
Speaker 1: from you. I can't tell you how many meetings I've had,
Speaker 1: you know, when the race before racis startus obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll be there for the drivers and the team owner
Speaker 1: meetings and things like that. But right after that, it
Speaker 1: is meeting after beating for me. And you know, I
Speaker 1: was just always surprised that there wasn't more big companies,
Speaker 1: black owned companies that got in a NASCAR because of
Speaker 1: the opportunity there is just on another level, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a lot of black owned companies
Speaker 1: that probably could get involved. Um, you know, and and
Speaker 1: you know, we're still obviously working on diversity side of
Speaker 1: you know, having more diverse drivers and things like that,
Speaker 1: so maybe they weren't getting involved before because they didn't
Speaker 1: see that diversity um right now, I mean, we obviously
Speaker 1: are trying to change it. It's still not where it
Speaker 1: needs to be yet. Um. You know right now in
Speaker 1: the National Series, you got me, you have Bubba Wallace. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, Kyle Larson is gonna be really reinstated, um
Speaker 1: here at the beginning of next year. UM. And then
Speaker 1: uh Daniel Suarez, uh you know Hispanic driver. UM. And
Speaker 1: then you know there's females coming up to by the way,
Speaker 1: So you know when I said milorities, don't just talk
Speaker 1: about color. It's about females too. So females are are
Speaker 1: coming up the ranks too. So UM, a lot of
Speaker 1: different uh diversity initiatives are happening. We still need more,
Speaker 1: you know, we need we need a lot more color,
Speaker 1: a lot of different variants and genders, UM, all that
Speaker 1: stuff just to continue to to to represent what America is.
Speaker 1: You know, America isn't just one race. America is a
Speaker 1: lot of races. So UM, let's represent what the country
Speaker 1: looks like in our sport and UM, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: give opportunities to people who who can excel and being
Speaker 1: great ambassadors as a sport and UM, you know that's
Speaker 1: gonna help out. But yeah, I feel like you know,
Speaker 1: black owned businesses, UM. You know time is now jump in,
Speaker 1: you know, support UM, everyone's talking about wanting to support
Speaker 1: diversity initiatives and things like that, we'll want to support
Speaker 1: in Nascar. I mean, NASCAR is making a huge push,
Speaker 1: I think, bigger than any other sport out there. They're
Speaker 1: taking hard stands um more than any other sport out there,
Speaker 1: and earlier than any other sport. A lot of other
Speaker 1: sports are taking a while to make decisions on Okay,
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do here, We're gonna do the
Speaker 1: NASCAR just stood up and was like, look, we're to
Speaker 1: band the Confederate flag. We're gonna do this. We're gonna
Speaker 1: do that, and and and they did it like that.
Speaker 1: Was it like thereone's no red tape. It was just
Speaker 1: we're gonna do it. Um and and and I love
Speaker 1: that NASCAR's gonna to take the nice, the good stands
Speaker 1: that they've taken to to help make it more inclusive.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure that wasn't easy for them either, to
Speaker 1: make those decisions. I mean, you know, the the years
Speaker 1: that we were working together, and I was flying to
Speaker 1: short tracks, the big tracks wherever it was, you know,
Speaker 1: whether it was Iowa speedwaye it was the track in Monroe.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll never forget, you know, coming there
Speaker 1: and now flying into town wherever you were racing and
Speaker 1: kind of meet you there and going to get my
Speaker 1: rental card and drive into the track and going through
Speaker 1: somebody else neighborhoods depending on where the track was. Well, you,
Speaker 1: it was one time, and I don't know if I
Speaker 1: never told you or not, but uh, it was one time.
Speaker 1: I think I was one of the tracks. I can't
Speaker 1: remember the track it was. I landed there and I
Speaker 1: was using ways to get to the track and it
Speaker 1: just took me through some weird neighborhoods and I got it.
Speaker 1: I said. It was Confederate flags everywhere. It was everywhere,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I was like, I gotta go
Speaker 1: back on I gotta go back on the Google man,
Speaker 1: I kind of gotta stay in the main road. That crazy, uh,
Speaker 1: but you know I was. I was proud and I
Speaker 1: was happy the way that you know, when the whole
Speaker 1: bubble wall this thing happened, and how NASCAR came out
Speaker 1: and it wasn't like an indecisive thing. It was like,
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do, and whoever don't like it,
Speaker 1: deal with it, period, and how everybody came together because
Speaker 1: that was a big step, especially in his a sport
Speaker 1: like Nascar and kind of from the outside looking in
Speaker 1: and how some people may perceive the sport and the
Speaker 1: fan base. So when they took that stands, I was like,
Speaker 1: right on, that was that was dope for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was great. You know, Um, with the
Speaker 1: Confederate flag, even the military. It's funny a lot people
Speaker 1: got upset with it, but even the military, the thing
Speaker 1: that everyone supports. We also banned that flag too. I
Speaker 1: mean we we, we really did a long time ago,
Speaker 1: but no one really pushed it enough. Um, and now
Speaker 1: it was like official, like, hey, that light does not
Speaker 1: belong anywhere on any base because you know, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: part of history, but it's not a nation like the
Speaker 1: the Confederate flag represence and in the nation that no
Speaker 1: longer exists. The US beat them in a war. It's done. Um,
Speaker 1: We the United States of America owns all this. Now
Speaker 1: we're not split anymore. So let's let's get rid of
Speaker 1: the flag with keep it in the history books. And
Speaker 1: that's it. You know, speaking of history books. Your your
Speaker 1: Dallas cowboys over there, and they're making a lot of history.
Speaker 1: They're they're going through. It's it's tough. I I you know,
Speaker 1: obviously Dak Prescott is hurt right now and and hopefully
Speaker 1: gets better soon. Um and can you know come back stronger.
Speaker 1: Um it really there's injuries. It sucks. I mean that
Speaker 1: that's not a great place to break anything. Um but
Speaker 1: uh um you know besides that though, but prior to that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what was going on. I felt like
Speaker 1: we had a strong team again coming in the year.
Speaker 1: We have all talent in the world. I mean, the
Speaker 1: offense was producing numbers. I mean, if you look at
Speaker 1: the number, I mean, Dak was out there slinging four
Speaker 1: hundred plus yards a game. Um, you know, touchdowns, being scored,
Speaker 1: all this stuff is happening. I just I don't know
Speaker 1: what the defense was really doing. And we were just
Speaker 1: lating up too many points. We're making too many mistakes. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't don't know. Man. It's the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Every year. It's just like they gave you a lot
Speaker 1: of hope. That's the thing like this, There's some teams
Speaker 1: out there who just gave you zero hope to even
Speaker 1: start the year. The Cowboys give you a ton of hope.
Speaker 1: That ly, so you leusally start on a high before
Speaker 1: you start coming down. You don't just start down. Tricks tricks,
Speaker 1: tricks on paper, on paper. Everybody hyped up all year,
Speaker 1: and they trick you. That's what they do. And then
Speaker 1: you know, from being from Maryland, either a res Cans
Speaker 1: or a Cowboys fan back if you rank as a
Speaker 1: cow But that was it. It was in one of
Speaker 1: the two, and so I got to hear it either way.
Speaker 1: And I'm looking man, and the first thing cume in
Speaker 1: my mind is they kept Jason Garrett two years too long,
Speaker 1: and they brought the coaching Mike McCarthy to hand over
Speaker 1: the keys to a Ferrari that was kind of like
Speaker 1: damaged already. You know, offense line is beat up, and
Speaker 1: and you know Jeeke had with three fumbals the other
Speaker 1: day and they're just not playing well across the board.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, you know you got players
Speaker 1: in the locker room to speaking to the media behind
Speaker 1: closed doors. Now I don't know if you've seen that,
Speaker 1: but they came out and said how unprepared the coaches are.
Speaker 1: And this is coming from the players. And you can
Speaker 1: you can tell by watching the game when you play ball,
Speaker 1: like you know, when you're starting to lose the locker room,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what guys do, like start talking to the media,
Speaker 1: start going to do stuff behind your back, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's just it symbolizes a very bad team, and
Speaker 1: that's what they are right now. They're a bad team.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's it's fun from me because I
Speaker 1: get a chance to talk track and some of my
Speaker 1: family who are cowboys fans still. Um, but yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: how does how does that work? Man in the locker room?
Speaker 1: And or just even with NASCAR? Right, Um, how does
Speaker 1: that have? Because people always thinking of the drivers. They
Speaker 1: don't understand like how much of a team Nascar? It's
Speaker 1: like everybody around if you don't if somebody is not
Speaker 1: spotting the race correctly, and and and I spotted a
Speaker 1: race before, which is kind of crazy. You know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell people with spotting the race if they don't already. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for it to be a spotter in a race, you
Speaker 1: basically when the drivers on the track, you only have
Speaker 1: a certain field division. You can only see you know,
Speaker 1: like this much. You can't really see anything behind. It's
Speaker 1: not like in a regular car where you can look
Speaker 1: behind you and all that stuff. You can't do all
Speaker 1: that because you're just stuck in the seat and the
Speaker 1: full containments say, you just can't see. So um, you
Speaker 1: need somebody who's on the radio with you, um, looking
Speaker 1: around you and behind you to let you know that, hey,
Speaker 1: someone's right behind you there on your right rear, left rear,
Speaker 1: you name it. So um uh that person is called
Speaker 1: the spotter and they're sitting high up in the stands
Speaker 1: where they can kind of, you know, give you that
Speaker 1: information and yeah, you're spotted for. I think it's a
Speaker 1: Colorado or something like that. Um, it's funny, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was. I was nervous as hell too. Yeah
Speaker 1: whatever that, Yeah you got. You know, you just spied
Speaker 1: you you you the eyes and the ears for for
Speaker 1: the driver who can't see in certain blind spot. So
Speaker 1: you know, I just kind of going out saying do it.
Speaker 1: But no. But back to my point, I was saying that,
Speaker 1: you know, people understand how much of a team NASCAR is,
Speaker 1: and you have sometimes the same type of thing happening
Speaker 1: where you know, stuff gets out of people talking behind
Speaker 1: closed doors or what's going on with the team like
Speaker 1: that is not accepted either. I mean, that's that's really
Speaker 1: frowned upon. Yeah, I mean that can happen. Um. You
Speaker 1: know with NASCAR, a lot of stuff is media. Um,
Speaker 1: you do a lot of stuff with the media period.
Speaker 1: And you know you can you can tell when certain
Speaker 1: teams are having issues throughout the year. Um, you know
Speaker 1: the uh driver isn't getting them out of you know,
Speaker 1: results that they want. What are winds or whatever it is? Um,
Speaker 1: And you know they might say something they needia like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know it's they could blame it on themselves, they
Speaker 1: could blame it on the team, pick, crew, crew chief, whatever. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, people throw blame all over the place. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think the day it's a team sport. Um,
Speaker 1: it doesn't take just one person to go win a race.
Speaker 1: It doesn't just take two, It takes like the whole
Speaker 1: entire team. The crew chief could be phenomenal, the driver
Speaker 1: could be phenomenal, but if the crew screws up there
Speaker 1: pickers gives up, all of a sudden, you know you
Speaker 1: can't win the race. The picker could be phenomenal driver,
Speaker 1: it could be not having a great day and crew
Speaker 1: chief make the best calls and then you know, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you don't win. So you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff can happen. So um, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: everyone being on the same page, everyone always communicating, and
Speaker 1: that's what keeps the team together, that's what allows people
Speaker 1: to progress because you're not gonna win every single race
Speaker 1: but as well, but but you can't make progress and
Speaker 1: you can't be doing the right things to set yourself
Speaker 1: eventually up for a win or or a string of
Speaker 1: wins eventually. So, um, it's tough. Nascar is very different
Speaker 1: than any of the sport. Every other sport is just
Speaker 1: one one group versus the other and just one one
Speaker 1: of them's gonna win. And Nascar you got Ford cars
Speaker 1: out there, so you compete against forty different people to
Speaker 1: try to forty different people to try to get one win.
Speaker 1: It's it's insane, man. So so tell what what's next.
Speaker 1: I've seen you've got some stuff going on with the
Speaker 1: Exfinity Series now right yeah um yeah yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: so what's so what's I'll do now? And I wanted that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're moving right now. I mean that from
Speaker 1: the from the plan we first started talking and starting
Speaker 1: on the Cannons series which is now the ARCA ARCA West. Um,
Speaker 1: but and now moving up to what what you know,
Speaker 1: you went to the truck series and now yeah so yeah,
Speaker 1: so um, you know, went from you can and stuff, UM,
Speaker 1: and then ran a little bit of ARCA, UM, moved
Speaker 1: up to trucks. Ran trucks really since the end of
Speaker 1: UM and then uh, I've still run trucks this year.
Speaker 1: I've been running trucks this year, but I started running
Speaker 1: Axfinity stuff as well, and I will finish off the
Speaker 1: rest of this year running Xfinity. UM. This weekend, we're
Speaker 1: running racing at Texas Motor Speedway, so I'll be racing there.
Speaker 1: I'm actually flying out today to go to Texas and
Speaker 1: uh and then I'll be racing also at Phoenix International Raceway.
Speaker 1: So um yeah yeah, Phoenix is awesome. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: being able to add the opportunity to racing community series
Speaker 1: has been you know, something I've been looking forward to
Speaker 1: for a while. Uh and uh, you know my end
Speaker 1: goal is eventually raising the Cup series. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: just it takes time, takes a lot of money, a
Speaker 1: lot of networking, a lot of partnerships, a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff to get there, but UM, working on getting
Speaker 1: there and eventually we'll get there. Just is it takes time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, working on that and then um, you know,
Speaker 1: working on a lot of other big things too. That's
Speaker 1: in the works for you know, next year hopefully god willing.
Speaker 1: UM you know, really trying to boost up the E
Speaker 1: sports component of UM racing and as far you know
Speaker 1: in and we're in the middle of putting together E
Speaker 1: sports tournament UM called Yeah, so it's called Eracing Association
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be right now. Like there's there's other
Speaker 1: you know, like eye racing type UM tournaments that people
Speaker 1: are putting on eye racing that will um, you know,
Speaker 1: they give away money and stuff. The tournaments that we're
Speaker 1: gonna be putting on on eye Racing will be giving
Speaker 1: away big money. M we're looking at giving way ten
Speaker 1: thou dollars for the prize school, um for the tournament.
Speaker 1: So um, there's not a lot of tournaments in the
Speaker 1: past we have done that kind of money. UM there's some,
Speaker 1: but not a lot, and we want to be that
Speaker 1: one to do it and create a series of events
Speaker 1: where people can go compete when money and this December
Speaker 1: hopefully someone's gonna have a lot of Christmas money. So
Speaker 1: so basically what you're saying is when you get up
Speaker 1: to the Cup Series. I gotta come back on board
Speaker 1: because we need to put together some money. If you
Speaker 1: got some stuff you can bring over, let me know,
Speaker 1: let us know. Yeah, No, it's uh, you know, it
Speaker 1: just it it takes time and money. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just you know, like I mentioned earlier, you know, nothing's free.
Speaker 1: You know, the tires aren't free. You know, equipment isn't free.
Speaker 1: The times it's just cost money. There's no way around it.
Speaker 1: So putting together the right partnerships are what it takes
Speaker 1: to continue to move forward. Or just having a really
Speaker 1: big business empire outside of it and just funding it yourself.
Speaker 1: You know that works too. All right man, Well, look,
Speaker 1: appreciate you for coming on. Good luck this weekend. Wish
Speaker 1: I didn't have to fly out for business because I
Speaker 1: damn sure. I love the Texas Speedway out there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: are you? Are you right in Arizona? Right after that,
Speaker 1: we'll be raised. Phoenix is November seven, So we skip one,
Speaker 1: skip one weekend, and then skip one weekend just following
Speaker 1: one week right, Okay, maybe maybe I'll meet you out
Speaker 1: there in the Phoenix. Now I like that that uh
Speaker 1: that track, Yeah, it's cool track especially since they since
Speaker 1: they've redone it. Oh yeah, yeah, they they in the infield. Well,
Speaker 1: the thing is with with the way COVID stuff is,
Speaker 1: they're not really letting anyone on the infield but um,
Speaker 1: which kind of sucks because that's where like all the
Speaker 1: fun is down there now. I mean, they really revamped
Speaker 1: the whole place. It's really really nice. It sucks. I
Speaker 1: can't really use it this year. But hopefully next year
Speaker 1: things will be back to normal. We'll see, okay, cool man, Well,
Speaker 1: good luck this weekend, We'll well, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: I'll get out there in the small tracks maybe four
Speaker 1: the years out. All right, cool, thank you. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for listening in to another episode of the
Speaker 1: Lights Out podcast with me Sean Merriman. One think about
Speaker 1: jesse Man. He's one of the most hardest working guys
Speaker 1: I know, seriously, and he talked about um, you know,
Speaker 1: him being in college playing football, but also being having
Speaker 1: his duties being in the military, and his transition into NASCAR,
Speaker 1: which was crazy. We got a chance to meet in
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen and trying to bring really programs and
Speaker 1: more diversity to the sport. We feel like it was
Speaker 1: more opportunity that can be done and more things that
Speaker 1: can be done in NASCAR, not just necessarily being a driver,
Speaker 1: but also UM having you know, inner city kids being
Speaker 1: able to go to tracks and see what NASCAR's about.
Speaker 1: Um also talked a little bit about this his terrible
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys and what they're playing like this year and
Speaker 1: the things that going on in the locker room. But
Speaker 1: always always great talking to Jesse. Wishing a lot of
Speaker 1: luck this weekend at the Texas Speedway and in a
Speaker 1: few more weeks at the Phoenix Race tracks down there,
Speaker 1: which I'll be going. So thank you guys for listening
Speaker 1: in to another episode of Lights Out with me Shawn Mariman,
Speaker 1: and make sure you keep on and end subscribe, rate
Speaker 1: us do all those great things. We're getting some great
Speaker 1: reviews all because of you guys, So I appreciate you
Speaker 1: for listening to it. H