Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to another addition of Club Shasha. I am
Speaker 1: your host, also the proprietor of Club Sha Shay and
Speaker 1: the guy that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today.
Speaker 1: Is the first African American driver to win Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year in NASCAR. He's the first African American driver
Speaker 1: in fifty years to win a nas NASCAR Truck Series.
Speaker 1: He's the highest finishing NASCAR driver in day t on
Speaker 1: a five hundred history finish second in twenty eighteen, the
Speaker 1: long uh African American full time driver in NASCAR. Bubba
Speaker 1: Wabba all my life, the grinding all my life, sacond fice, hustle,
Speaker 1: back pricing, one slice got the bone, dice swad all
Speaker 1: my life. I've been grinding in all my life, all
Speaker 1: my life, then rinning all my life, sacri fice, hustle
Speaker 1: back price, one slice got the bone dice swaddy all
Speaker 1: my life. I've been grinding in all my life. Bubba,
Speaker 1: How you doing, bro? I'm all good, brother. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you having me on. Thank you for coming on. I
Speaker 1: want to ask good question. When you were growing up
Speaker 1: and your friends started calling you Bubba, did you object
Speaker 1: to it? At first, or you're like, Okay, I'll be Bubba.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I don't. I think it's weird for people
Speaker 1: to call me Daryl because I'm so used to Bubba.
Speaker 1: Like it started out with my sister the day I
Speaker 1: was born, and so all of my family, cousins, uncle's, auntinance, everybody,
Speaker 1: just everything was Bubba. And so once you got to
Speaker 1: the race track, we were we were using Daryl a
Speaker 1: little bit, and so I was so used to Bubba
Speaker 1: that it never really felt different to me. So how
Speaker 1: was it when you got around people that didn't call
Speaker 1: you Bubba and everybody else referred to you with Bubba
Speaker 1: and they're looking at you like, that's Darrell. Why they
Speaker 1: call it you Bubba? Yeah, So that was funny seeing
Speaker 1: playing the name game with a lot of people. You know, now,
Speaker 1: I've I've kind of used the Bubba brand in the
Speaker 1: racing career, so Bubba's kind of the household name now.
Speaker 1: But there's only a few people that I won't allow
Speaker 1: to call me Bubba, which is funny. My girlfriend, when
Speaker 1: she says it, it's it's almost like she's making fun
Speaker 1: of the name or joking. It's her tone just doesn't
Speaker 1: sound right, So I do not allow her to say Bubba.
Speaker 1: So so hasn't always been like that? Has all the girlfriends?
Speaker 1: If Daryl, everybody else is Bubba. Yeah, that's how it's
Speaker 1: always been For some reason, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I haven't accepted her to be able to say that yet. Bubba.
Speaker 1: You're in a sport that's very unique because your super Bowl,
Speaker 1: your championship starts first. You look at football, is the
Speaker 1: super Bowl end of the season, Baseball World Series at
Speaker 1: the end of the season. Most sports, their championship is
Speaker 1: at the end of the season. Your sport, what you
Speaker 1: gear up for is at the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: How excited are you in twenty twenty one about the
Speaker 1: daytone of five hundred and your chances of winning that race? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pumped because this is an incredible opportunity for me,
Speaker 1: and I think if we look at the statistics they
Speaker 1: told it might be my best race track from the
Speaker 1: number standpoint, but for me personally it's it's totally different.
Speaker 1: But from numbers and just how it comes down to
Speaker 1: the data, it is my best track. So we've always
Speaker 1: had a really good speedway program, you know, being a
Speaker 1: part of the Petty family for the last three years.
Speaker 1: Now switching over to to MJ and Company with twenty
Speaker 1: three eleven Racing and Toyota, I'm excited about that. So
Speaker 1: getting getting there's there's so many emotions going into this race,
Speaker 1: just from a new team, new personnel, new opportunities, got
Speaker 1: to capitalize on everything. So I'm excited about it. So
Speaker 1: ready to get things going for our biggest race of
Speaker 1: the year. It's always been like that and so it's traditions,
Speaker 1: so we're all used to it. What So the transition
Speaker 1: was talking about a Richard Petty going back, but the transition,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, to a new team Jordan Brand Jordan
Speaker 1: this is his first time. I think he's team built
Speaker 1: with Danny Hamlin and you're driving the twenty three car
Speaker 1: to jump Man car. What's it beam awake and what's
Speaker 1: your expectation with this new team? Yeah, it's it's actually
Speaker 1: been really well, really going. Things are going smoothly, and
Speaker 1: that's from my point of view. You talked to crew
Speaker 1: chief and competition director, They're like, we need a lot
Speaker 1: more time. So for us, I was actually in the
Speaker 1: shop today getting seat belts fitted, getting the seat fitted, right,
Speaker 1: So it's crazy to think that it's already January fourteenth,
Speaker 1: so basically halfway through this month and two weeks, two
Speaker 1: and a half weeks, we're heading down to day telling us.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of moving parts that we still
Speaker 1: have to get going for us. But I'm I'm excited
Speaker 1: and pumped with the direction that we're heading. Having conversations
Speaker 1: with people that have been around Jordans that are part
Speaker 1: of our team is helping everybody grow together and kind
Speaker 1: of understand the expectations. And So I've yet to meet
Speaker 1: MJ in person, but we've really shared some some text
Speaker 1: messages back and forth. Yeah, I think the weather's too
Speaker 1: nice down in Florida for him to come on up here.
Speaker 1: I'm not time to speak for him though, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's uh. I think it's gonna strape up
Speaker 1: to be a really great year for us. We get
Speaker 1: through the first couple of races, it'll be good. Well,
Speaker 1: you do know, I don't know how much you haven't
Speaker 1: met him, but I don't know how much you've heard
Speaker 1: about him. But he's not a guy that you know
Speaker 1: it's gonna take time. He's not a time type of guy.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that wants to win now immediately, like yesterday.
Speaker 1: So I think I'm safe to My first encounter with
Speaker 1: MJ was on the phone. Denny Hamlin had text me, Hey,
Speaker 1: are you free around four o'clock today? I'm like, yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: So four o'clock rolls around. If you know Denny, he's
Speaker 1: he's usually a couple of minutes late. So it's about
Speaker 1: four thirty. He calls me. He's like, hey, what are
Speaker 1: you doing. I was like just sitting here messing around
Speaker 1: on my phone. He was like, here's somebody wants to
Speaker 1: talk to you. And I had no idea MJ where
Speaker 1: he was with at the time. And you just hear, hey,
Speaker 1: if we do this deal, there's no more running in
Speaker 1: the back, all right. I'm like and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's MJ. So that was that was my first encounter
Speaker 1: with talking to MJ. And so he's I know he's
Speaker 1: a business and so am I. So I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: So expect he said, he meant that. I mean he said,
Speaker 1: I'm sure he fitted in a joking manner, but he's
Speaker 1: absolutely for So what what what are your expectations? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know you got you gonna have the best of
Speaker 1: the best. This is no no, you know, shotting. We
Speaker 1: might run ten races, we might do five races. This
Speaker 1: is full time and you're you've got Danny Hamlin, You've
Speaker 1: got MJ back into thing one hundred. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And my mentality, My mentality has changed. My mentality changed.
Speaker 1: When I watched the Last Dance. It's like, Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: I see, I see what I need to be like
Speaker 1: as an athlete if I want to reach these goals,
Speaker 1: and this is what I need to be like. I mean,
Speaker 1: he put that no fear and put the fear of
Speaker 1: God and everybody else mentality, It's like, okay, you know
Speaker 1: that's that's what you gotta have. And hearing stories about
Speaker 1: MJ and uh, like I said, he he has people
Speaker 1: from his camp being a part of this team. Craig
Speaker 1: Robinson got to meet him talk with him. He said
Speaker 1: for his motorcycle team, he would sit there on the
Speaker 1: grid and watch certain drivers and riders and be like,
Speaker 1: look at the way he's walking. He don't want it,
Speaker 1: he don't want it, he ain't got it, And it's like, damn,
Speaker 1: I better make sure I'll walk and talk the right way.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of pressure, but I keep telling them,
Speaker 1: after the year we had of twenty twenty, pressure is
Speaker 1: nothing but a thing. Now the Daytona five hundred is
Speaker 1: your biggest race event. Obviously there are others. You know,
Speaker 1: you got Charlotte, you got the six hundred, and you
Speaker 1: got Talladega, but there's nothing like Daytona the pageantry that
Speaker 1: goes along with that. What would winning that race mean
Speaker 1: to you and what you're trying to accomplish. I think
Speaker 1: you know that that race anybody can win. The Speedway races,
Speaker 1: four races that everybody in the field has an opportunity
Speaker 1: to win. Now you go out and capitalize on It's
Speaker 1: very hard to do, you know. It's it's an incredible
Speaker 1: feat for Dinny to be, you know, back to back,
Speaker 1: uh you know, three times day twenty five winner right
Speaker 1: now and and and so being able to do that,
Speaker 1: I would love to to start to shut up some
Speaker 1: of those haters that are right there. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, we got it, but knowing hardly knowing that, hey,
Speaker 1: anybody can go win this race if you line your
Speaker 1: your if you put all your eggs in that basket,
Speaker 1: got your eyes and cross your tees. You know, anybody
Speaker 1: can do it. So Daytona would just be the start
Speaker 1: of that, and then we build off that and then
Speaker 1: we go win us another one and then it's just
Speaker 1: like looking the mic and are looking the camera and
Speaker 1: drop the mic. So that's that's kind of what we're expecting.
Speaker 1: You're on the final lap, you're balls, Denny Hamlin, You're
Speaker 1: in Secca, and you might have to bump and run
Speaker 1: in or you might have to do something that you
Speaker 1: you know, if it's anybody else other than your ball,
Speaker 1: you might you no problems. What would you be willing
Speaker 1: to do to win that race the final lap? Your
Speaker 1: bass is in first, Bubba Wallace is in Secca. What
Speaker 1: would you be willing to do to win that race? Well,
Speaker 1: let me say Denny's the minority. Let Denny's minority owner
Speaker 1: MJ's majority. He so okay, So for me, I've always
Speaker 1: and you race how they race you. And if he
Speaker 1: didn't wreck me to get by me, that I won't
Speaker 1: wreck him. But I'm gonna do everything but that to
Speaker 1: win my first race today. Look, I understand you, but
Speaker 1: you say you do everything but wreck and if he
Speaker 1: didn't wreck you, well, if he if he wrecked you,
Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't be in that position, so you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to get you better wreckt me good enough. He
Speaker 1: better rereckt me good enough, so I don't get back
Speaker 1: to that position you I mentioned earlier. You came from
Speaker 1: the Richard Petty, who's the godfather of NASCAR, the King,
Speaker 1: he's the king. Yes, And I grew up being from
Speaker 1: Rule South, Georgia, and I knew Richard Petty and Cale
Speaker 1: Yarboro and the Allison and Sterling, all those guys, Harry Gatton,
Speaker 1: h Bill Elliot, Awson Bill from Dawsonville, He's from Georgia.
Speaker 1: What was it like to be around him, to pick
Speaker 1: his mind and to to hear how he looked at
Speaker 1: racing have appolled to how you viewed Raife. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was totally different. So there was obviously a huge error
Speaker 1: era gap there from when he climbed out to when
Speaker 1: I climbed in and and hearing the stories between, there's
Speaker 1: there's no there's not a better duo in the racing
Speaker 1: world than Richard Petty and Dale Inman. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that I will will miss
Speaker 1: from that organization, but those two guys are at the
Speaker 1: top of the list for just from hearing those stories.
Speaker 1: And so, I mean they were they were racing three
Speaker 1: or four times out of the week, driving to California
Speaker 1: on Monday, being in New York on Wednesday, and it's
Speaker 1: just like, holy cow. So all those stories that you
Speaker 1: heard of what they've gone through, what they had to do,
Speaker 1: breaking down on the side of the road, driving the
Speaker 1: race card to the racetrack, you know, those are those
Speaker 1: are the true American badass hero days back then. And
Speaker 1: while things have changed and evolved and gotten much bigger
Speaker 1: and faster and lighter and whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: the racing is totally different from back then, and so
Speaker 1: you had to learn how to adapt to that. And
Speaker 1: both of them get it, you know, Richard, for both
Speaker 1: of them being in their eighties, it's incredible how in
Speaker 1: tune they were with the race cars, with the format
Speaker 1: of the races, whatever the ins and outs of NASCAR.
Speaker 1: They were in tune with what's going on. So while
Speaker 1: it was a little difficult here in some like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what we tried back here in the seventies
Speaker 1: and eighties. Try this, and it's like, well, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit different. Now we're a little bit faster, the
Speaker 1: cars are built a little bit different. So it was
Speaker 1: good to hear and understand the knowledge that they went
Speaker 1: through and that they utilized to be the best that
Speaker 1: they can be. Please tell me that when you drove
Speaker 1: with those three years, if I'm not mistaken, he drove Dodges,
Speaker 1: so he had all the himis the big so he
Speaker 1: had the Kudas, and he had the challenge of them,
Speaker 1: the charge of than the super Bees. Please tell me
Speaker 1: at a part of your deal you ended up getting
Speaker 1: one of those. I did not, and maybe that's maybe
Speaker 1: it's coming down the road. We had a great partnership
Speaker 1: with Chevrolet when I jumped on, so uh yeah, and
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't get that in the deal. The
Speaker 1: first thing I got for him, which I thought was
Speaker 1: cooler than anything, this is when I filled in those
Speaker 1: four races in twenty seventeen before signing on full time.
Speaker 1: He called me up. He said, hey, I want you
Speaker 1: to come up to the level Cross to Petty's garage
Speaker 1: the museum, and at the end of that tour got
Speaker 1: to see all the race cars there, the Dodges and everything,
Speaker 1: and he I walked away with one of his cowboy
Speaker 1: hats that he signed. And this was before I was
Speaker 1: a part of the team or anything cool time, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was one of the coolest things. So
Speaker 1: it's a centerpiece here downstairs in my living room. That's
Speaker 1: a great conversation piece, for sure, but it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a centerpiece on my table. I always have that pre COVID.
Speaker 1: What is it like at one of those race tracks
Speaker 1: to hear one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand fans and
Speaker 1: to hear that crop as you go around that track,
Speaker 1: because you could hear it, hear it building, and then
Speaker 1: when it's coming down to the end, Okay, you got
Speaker 1: the final couple of les and that everybody is all
Speaker 1: their feet. It's it's there's nothing like it, you know,
Speaker 1: there's I just can't wait until everyone is safe and
Speaker 1: healthy from COVID and we get you know, the vaccines
Speaker 1: in place, and just get this virus out of here.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for fans to come back to full
Speaker 1: capacity because everything that went on in twenty twenty has
Speaker 1: brought a new demographic, has brought a different face to NASCAR,
Speaker 1: and I want to see that in person, and I
Speaker 1: want to feel that vibe and that energy, and I
Speaker 1: feel like it'll be much greater than anything that we've had, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, different from what other people say. I strongly
Speaker 1: believe that the vibe that NASCAR is putting out right now,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of momentum behind what we're doing,
Speaker 1: and so pre COVID it was great, and I can
Speaker 1: only imagine it's gonna be ten times better than that
Speaker 1: once we can get back to that that that category
Speaker 1: of no no fear of of having a virus or
Speaker 1: anything like that. You got thirty thirty forty cars on
Speaker 1: the track, eight hundred forty horse power. Can you hear
Speaker 1: the crowd over all that engine noise? No? I can't.
Speaker 1: You know, when we're in the car, we're you know,
Speaker 1: we're locked in. We got spotters and Crucie's talking to us.
Speaker 1: But now I cannot hear the crowd. I wish I could,
Speaker 1: but we we still put on a show if we
Speaker 1: can't hear him or not. You know, I'm interested to
Speaker 1: know how much like if I'm playing obviously, if I'm
Speaker 1: gonna play a game to super Bowl, I'm gonna go practice.
Speaker 1: You know, change you practice golf? You practice? How do
Speaker 1: you practice and ask how much of an actual going
Speaker 1: to the course and driving and how much is the simulation?
Speaker 1: Was simulation we don't practice anymore, you know, there's no
Speaker 1: too risky, A lot of a lot of it has
Speaker 1: the fun thing to do with it. They're trying to
Speaker 1: bridge the gap from the big teams and the small teams.
Speaker 1: You know, back in say ten years ago, you could
Speaker 1: go test Monday through through Friday, and you know, you
Speaker 1: could test Monday through Sunday if you had a soul
Speaker 1: test team to go out and do that while while
Speaker 1: we're racing on Sundays. So but then you started seeing
Speaker 1: some of the disadvantages for the smaller teams. They couldn't
Speaker 1: afford that, And so now it's about ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: tests that NASCAR puts on. They send one car from
Speaker 1: every organization to come out and test and be a
Speaker 1: part of it if they if the teams allow that,
Speaker 1: or if they if they choose to do that. But
Speaker 1: now with COVID testing is out, and then now with
Speaker 1: the schedules, we're showing up and just racing, and so
Speaker 1: now it's gone all to simulations. So I'm on a
Speaker 1: new schedule with the Toyota being a part of the
Speaker 1: TRD family, you know, being up at the simulator every
Speaker 1: Wednesday now for a couple hours or a few hours
Speaker 1: a week doing that stuff, figuring out what we need,
Speaker 1: figuring out you know what helped us this weekend, implement
Speaker 1: that in the next weekend and get a feel for
Speaker 1: you know, it's not one hundred percent true to feel,
Speaker 1: but it still gives you a general idea of what
Speaker 1: to expect when you unload, and it gives the engineers
Speaker 1: some data to look at to get that much closer.
Speaker 1: You just it's we're fighting for thousands of an m
Speaker 1: three thousands of an inch, you know, that's you can't
Speaker 1: even I can't even even show you that on my
Speaker 1: hands on my finger serial, but that's what we're fighting for.
Speaker 1: That's how you get that edge in front of people,
Speaker 1: how you know. And I'm trying to equate what you
Speaker 1: do to what we do. Like if I play one opponent,
Speaker 1: I might have a certain group of plays, and then
Speaker 1: I played the next opponent, I have maybe some of
Speaker 1: those same plays, but add some different plays. On how
Speaker 1: much is right? How much different is it from track
Speaker 1: to track? It's it's very different. As much as you know,
Speaker 1: there's we call on the cookie cutter tracks the mile
Speaker 1: and a halfs that all kind of looked the same
Speaker 1: to Charlotte. It's the Texas the Kansas. They might look
Speaker 1: the same, but they totally race different. Like it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, some places have a lot of character, a
Speaker 1: lot of bumps, nooks and crannies that you gotta muscle around. Uh.
Speaker 1: Texas is mainly one groove right around the bottom. Charlotte
Speaker 1: is from the bottom lane to the top and bumpy,
Speaker 1: and so you just gotta figure things out. And so
Speaker 1: you have a notebook, you have you know, the debrief
Speaker 1: notes from years prior, racist prior where you are, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is what we did here. You're rolling out of
Speaker 1: the break. Here, you're picking up the break here, you're
Speaker 1: picking up the gas here, certain things like that. So
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty similar to for you to plan different opponents.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, we got to bring this set of
Speaker 1: rules out. We put this one back, we put this
Speaker 1: back on the shelf, bring this one out. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you definitely go through a lot of different mind changes,
Speaker 1: mindsets for different racetraints. I'm curious because okay, they say
Speaker 1: a car just just say for the take of arguments
Speaker 1: a particular car gets. My car gets thirty five miles
Speaker 1: to the gallon, but I need to do X, Y
Speaker 1: and Z in order for it to get thirty five
Speaker 1: miles to the gallon. You might say, well, I can
Speaker 1: go twenty laps on the on the tank of gas
Speaker 1: high with middle left you go. How much variance is
Speaker 1: that for speed? If you say I'm going to go
Speaker 1: somewhere between one fifty five eighty and if I go
Speaker 1: three or four laft, I'm going one seventy five to
Speaker 1: one ninety. So how much variance is that if far
Speaker 1: with gas mother than what you're doing actually in the car. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of variants, especially at the speedway stuff,
Speaker 1: because you think everybody's just wide open, turn and left
Speaker 1: and whatnot. But it's funny the leader is mainly the
Speaker 1: only one that's wide open. Everybody else is saving fuel.
Speaker 1: We're riding around, riding around half throttle, quarter throttle, like,
Speaker 1: trying not to use as much fuel, and that that
Speaker 1: number starts to rise, that all of a sudden, your
Speaker 1: strategy starts coming to play. Oh we can pin on
Speaker 1: that nineteen. Nah, he just got another lap force. Now
Speaker 1: we can put on lap twenty, then you start, you know,
Speaker 1: plugging in those numbers. This is why I just drive.
Speaker 1: So I'm taking my best edge of macated guests because
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to go against my engineers here. But
Speaker 1: there's a lot of variants at the speedways and then
Speaker 1: even at even at other trace tracks, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: we need you to save like a lap and a
Speaker 1: half a fuel year. You start to do different things,
Speaker 1: shut the car off while you're racing, in and in
Speaker 1: the corners, using the clutch to refire and get back going.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things we can do inside of
Speaker 1: the race car to to advance our prolong our fuel mileage.
Speaker 1: Does anyone outside of you and your team know you're
Speaker 1: actually doing that? Can the fans in the stands tell that?
Speaker 1: Because I know we can't tell that at home. I've
Speaker 1: only been to a handful of race tracks. I went
Speaker 1: to Sonoma, which are the road course, which is totally
Speaker 1: different than anything the big speedways because it's a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, you get up like a quarter of
Speaker 1: a mile and you go foot and then you back
Speaker 1: into a corner or curve. So that's very But does
Speaker 1: anybody else know besides you and your team that you're
Speaker 1: actually doing that in the car. Well, it depends on
Speaker 1: who's listening, you know. Now the access to that that
Speaker 1: fans have, that the media has, everybody can listen to
Speaker 1: what we're saying. And so when the spot or the
Speaker 1: crew chiefs comes over and it's like, all right, we
Speaker 1: need to go in fuel saving mode, then TV picks
Speaker 1: up on that and it's like, oh, twenty three cars
Speaker 1: out saving fuel. We might have an end car camera
Speaker 1: that weekend. Then they can come in and hear it all.
Speaker 1: So yes, and anybody, if they're listening at the right time,
Speaker 1: at the right moment, they can understand it. Here you're
Speaker 1: driving for Jordan now and to have that twenty three
Speaker 1: or you have that jump Man logo, you know what
Speaker 1: that logo represent. That logo more than anything, represents excellence,
Speaker 1: It represents collectness. It represents if Bubba Wallaces have a
Speaker 1: chance to win the raids within the last two three
Speaker 1: four lafts, Bubba Wallace needs to make sure that twenty
Speaker 1: three car is in victory lane. Yes, absolutely, I know.
Speaker 1: It's a It's like I said earlier, it's a total
Speaker 1: different mind shift that I've gone through, and I've been
Speaker 1: racing for seventeen years, and I can't remember a time
Speaker 1: like this where the opportunity is so high and you know,
Speaker 1: myself being mentally prepared, physically prepared to capitalize on that.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest thing. I have to make sure I
Speaker 1: show up for thirty six weeks with one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty percent effort. Jordan wants a two hundred percent, So
Speaker 1: I mean restate that I gotta show up with two
Speaker 1: hundred percent effort. Now he's gonna text me and he's like, no,
Speaker 1: I want three hundred. It's always he wants more, and
Speaker 1: and I love that mentality. I love that that pressure
Speaker 1: that's gonna come with that, and it's going to motivate you,
Speaker 1: and not only myself but for chief engineers people at
Speaker 1: the shop. We have to execute and be on it
Speaker 1: from the time we rolled out for Daytona until we
Speaker 1: pack up at Phoenix. We have to be on it.
Speaker 1: And so there's gonna be some bumps and mistakes along
Speaker 1: the way, from myself, from our crew, but we're in
Speaker 1: it together as a team, and as long as we
Speaker 1: minimize those mistakes and put our best foot forward each
Speaker 1: and every each and every weekend and give it our all.
Speaker 1: Then Hey, that's what we got. This sport, more than
Speaker 1: any is, is about sponsorship. It's not like the NFL,
Speaker 1: where everybody you have a salary cap. Everybody gets to
Speaker 1: spend up to here and nobody can spend below that.
Speaker 1: It's like that in a lot of sports. Baseball is
Speaker 1: a free ball. You spend as much as you want.
Speaker 1: And I know it's been somewhat challenging for you, an
Speaker 1: African American and a sport of nascard that's been predominantly
Speaker 1: white since this inception. Talk to me about how much
Speaker 1: of a disadvantage that's been in Europe racing NASCAR. And
Speaker 1: now you have someone that Michael Jordan can go out
Speaker 1: and get those corporate dollars to help you become a
Speaker 1: more can put you in with the all those because Lowski,
Speaker 1: the Danny Hamley, even though he's a minority, owned those
Speaker 1: guys to put you right there on the level playing
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah. Well, and years prior we were always
Speaker 1: fighting for that and I was trying to do everything
Speaker 1: I could off the race track on the race track
Speaker 1: to attract those sponsors. And you never know how they're
Speaker 1: gonna come about. And we look at twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: everything that went on there, bringing in brand new partners
Speaker 1: into the sport with Door Dash, Columbia Root Insurance, you know,
Speaker 1: having McDonald's come on board, if for sure, they've been
Speaker 1: a part of my program for a couple of years now,
Speaker 1: and and Dr Pepper, those five partners. I got to
Speaker 1: see our schedule for this scump coming year, and there's
Speaker 1: not one empty slot, not one empty slot. And years
Speaker 1: years prior it's been eight fifteen slots that are open,
Speaker 1: and we were a question. We were looking at each other, like,
Speaker 1: how are we going to make this work? We always did,
Speaker 1: we always did, but hey, knowing that we are fully
Speaker 1: funded throughout the year, it's a pat on my pat
Speaker 1: on the back to my camp. I'll give a pat
Speaker 1: on my back to myself, but just everything, everybody in
Speaker 1: my corner that's helped me get to this position. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a heck of a year. We got no excuses.
Speaker 1: That was my motto coming into this year, no excuses.
Speaker 1: I got the funding, I got the car, I got
Speaker 1: the people. Just gotta have the driver, so we're good.
Speaker 1: You also drove for Joe Gibbs. I played in the league.
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember I played against some of
Speaker 1: his team, Coach Gibbs team. What was it like? What
Speaker 1: type of man? I know, he's a man of faith,
Speaker 1: But what would be like around the track? The same
Speaker 1: as what you know? That's that's you know, that's very
Speaker 1: powerful because that's how I like to align myself. Is
Speaker 1: what you see me talking to you today, is how
Speaker 1: we would be sharing a drink here on the couch
Speaker 1: here or wherever you're at, you know, hanging out. I
Speaker 1: don't change for anybody anything, and and that's how coaches.
Speaker 1: Coach wants to win. He has that winning mentality, but
Speaker 1: he doesn't change who he is, you know, depending on
Speaker 1: where he's at, He's that same man, the same man
Speaker 1: of facts. Great great got to be a part of
Speaker 1: aligned with and honored to say I've race for him
Speaker 1: and kind of racing for or with him this year
Speaker 1: with the partnership with Toyota and JJ are there. Let's
Speaker 1: get to NASCAR. We know what NASCAR has been a
Speaker 1: predominantly white sport since his inception product A lot of
Speaker 1: the majority of their fans I've say ninety five the
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of their fans have been white. You're
Speaker 1: the lone full time black driver. Normally, when people are
Speaker 1: the only they tend to sit back. I don't want
Speaker 1: to ruffle any fathers. I'm happy to be here. I
Speaker 1: don't want to cause a rut us. I don't want
Speaker 1: anybody to look at me. Why was it so important
Speaker 1: for you to say, NASCAR, there's something things that's going
Speaker 1: on here that's not right. And if we tried to build,
Speaker 1: get you know, build and bring more people, we're gonna
Speaker 1: need to change some things. Why was it so important
Speaker 1: for you to take that stance? You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's necessarily important or it is. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, it is important. But I think that's part
Speaker 1: of my personality. I'm not a person to sit back
Speaker 1: and not want to ruffle any feathers. I am the
Speaker 1: if you've seen in years past, my mouth's got me
Speaker 1: in trouble a lot. It's got me some good deals,
Speaker 1: it's got me some bad deals, and I'm the one
Speaker 1: to cross the boundary and apologize later, asked for forgetting
Speaker 1: this later, you know, And this was something that you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of it came from talking to or seeing
Speaker 1: what others had to say, and so you were kind
Speaker 1: of peer pressured into it a little bit, not saying
Speaker 1: that I was pushed to say what I wanted to.
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know what, there's a point here.
Speaker 1: Let me do some more research and understanding of what's
Speaker 1: going on and figure out how we can make this
Speaker 1: a better place for everybody. And I was just like,
Speaker 1: you know what, social media so powerful. It's the quickest
Speaker 1: way to help you and its quickest way to hurt.
Speaker 1: You pick your poison, which way you want to go right,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you're trying to go one way and it
Speaker 1: ends up another. And so you just have to be
Speaker 1: comfortable with what you're saying, comfortable in your own skin
Speaker 1: what you're doing. And for me, I just just like, hey,
Speaker 1: this needs to change, This needs to stop. We got
Speaker 1: to do better, and let's make this a more inclusive place.
Speaker 1: And while there was everything's fifty fifty last half full
Speaker 1: last halff, there's a lot of good that come out
Speaker 1: of and there was a lot of bad that come
Speaker 1: out of it, but so be it. I think I
Speaker 1: think actually there was more good to come out of
Speaker 1: what the changes have made for NASCAR. The biggest thing
Speaker 1: for us is okay, we can't get staggning we have
Speaker 1: to keep going, we have to keep pushing for more.
Speaker 1: There's a never ending process in the direction that we're heading.
Speaker 1: So what are we doing. What are we gonna do
Speaker 1: to keep making this more inclusive for everybody to be
Speaker 1: a part of it. The Confederate flag with prominent it
Speaker 1: way proudly behind those campros, those Winnebagos, those trucks. You
Speaker 1: as an African American understanding what that flag actually meant
Speaker 1: and how many people died behind that flag. What was
Speaker 1: your feelings like seeing that flag, knowing that you had
Speaker 1: to go race those tracks? And then what was the
Speaker 1: conversation like when you had you had with NASCAR saying, guys,
Speaker 1: it's got a change. So honestly, Shannon, I didn't understand
Speaker 1: the full effect of that flag until this past year. Okay,
Speaker 1: this was this was another flag to me, like I
Speaker 1: kind of knew like the rebel flag, and you know,
Speaker 1: never really I kind of just kept it at that
Speaker 1: and then didn't really say Confederate flag. And then starting
Speaker 1: to see more conversations and I remember certain tweets I'll
Speaker 1: never go to a NASCAR race because of the Confederate flag,
Speaker 1: or I'll never go back to a NASCAR race. Because
Speaker 1: of that, I'm like and I'm like, hold up, come out,
Speaker 1: let me confederate flag type it in. Do my research,
Speaker 1: which a lot of people don't want to do nowadays.
Speaker 1: They're just so quick to jump to conclusion. It's like,
Speaker 1: do your research, get an understanding for yourself, do your
Speaker 1: due diligence. So I did that, and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is causing a lot of hurt and pain, and
Speaker 1: it's isolating, you know, our demographic to where we're at.
Speaker 1: And it's like we I know for a fact that
Speaker 1: NASCAR provides so much more opportunity than what it's given
Speaker 1: and what the it's labeled as. And so how do
Speaker 1: we get past that barrier? Let's start with Confederate flag. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a bold move, risky move for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Are gonna lose some fans. Now,
Speaker 1: you know you're going Bubba. You know you knew as
Speaker 1: an African America because they say, okay, you come in here,
Speaker 1: you upset an Apple car. You knew you were going
Speaker 1: to take some criticism for this, right Oh every just
Speaker 1: by me waking up saying good morning, I start criticism.
Speaker 1: I learned that Okay, Okay, there's people that don't like
Speaker 1: that you woke up breathing. I have accepted that a
Speaker 1: long time ago. Okay, so it doesn't matter if I'm
Speaker 1: handing out on a hundred dollar bills to people they're
Speaker 1: just mad at that. So I have stopped caring about
Speaker 1: what other people think. And and so I knew going
Speaker 1: into it. It's like, Okay, get ready to roll your
Speaker 1: sleeves up because it's about to get feisty. And you've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of people leave the sport and never
Speaker 1: gonna pay attention to the sport again. But those are
Speaker 1: the same people that are still tweeting at you bad things.
Speaker 1: And it's like, I thought you were gone. Are you
Speaker 1: still here? You move on or not? Where are you
Speaker 1: gonna Where are you gonna win a race? Bubba? Exactly?
Speaker 1: It's like, bro, you're you're you're barking up the same
Speaker 1: old tree, Like, okay, give me a chance. Here, we
Speaker 1: got it. So okay, Yes, I knew going into that
Speaker 1: it was going to be a lot, but hey, NASCAR
Speaker 1: was on board. Everybody in my camp was on board,
Speaker 1: the drivers, of team's crew members, everybody a part of
Speaker 1: the whole sport was on board with the direction. If
Speaker 1: they weren't, then they were gladly shown the door and
Speaker 1: that was it. How do you, yeah, sure, the drivers,
Speaker 1: the crew chiefs, I mean, I'm sure maybe something like
Speaker 1: that's nothing wrong the flag, But how do you convince
Speaker 1: the hundred thousand that's been doing it this way for
Speaker 1: seventy plus years? Because you mentioned you want to make
Speaker 1: it more inclusive, which means you want others, others that
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily look like them, to come and have an
Speaker 1: enjoyable experience at the track like they're having, how how
Speaker 1: do you convince the fans that they can still enjoy
Speaker 1: the track without that flag flying. So I have seen
Speaker 1: there's there's three people, three types of people. The ones
Speaker 1: that will never accept change, the ones that will consider change,
Speaker 1: and the ones that are like, Okay, yeah this is
Speaker 1: changing and I'm off for it. Those are the people
Speaker 1: that are doing the homework and seeing that life is
Speaker 1: much bigger than themselves. It's about our brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: and our neighbors and making this a better place. And
Speaker 1: so while it's like, okay, the ones that aren't gonna change,
Speaker 1: we don't want you, the ones that are considering it,
Speaker 1: let's let's have a drink, let's have a beverage, let's
Speaker 1: talk about it. Let's let's get you on the other
Speaker 1: side of the fence. Then you decide if you want
Speaker 1: to go that router. If you don't, we ain't pushing you.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to help educate. And then the ones
Speaker 1: that are are for the change, it's like, okay, give
Speaker 1: us some time. We're coming up with the game plan.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep this going. And so that's that's what
Speaker 1: we've kind of looked at as a whole of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the three sections that we got. We got seventy
Speaker 1: five thousand people over here and that won't change. We
Speaker 1: got one hundred and fifty here and the maybe considering it.
Speaker 1: And then we have three hundred thousand. Okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: target this area. We're not you know, those people appreciate
Speaker 1: your time, but we are. We are moving on with
Speaker 1: or without you. Memorial Day weekend, George Floyd. And then
Speaker 1: we saw the uprising and people like watching a man
Speaker 1: die on wide television and then you see the atholete
Speaker 1: from Lebron James into Serena Williams and all the pro
Speaker 1: football players. What did Blah Blah Wallace feel and what
Speaker 1: did you feel your responsibility and what did you want
Speaker 1: to do to get your message out and to say America,
Speaker 1: enough is enough? We got to be better. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just so tough because people people see it as and
Speaker 1: people of color understand it totally. And it's hard for
Speaker 1: people that are not of color because it's like, well,
Speaker 1: this doesn't affect me, right, well, yes, but now that's
Speaker 1: that can't be thinking exactly, and it's like this should
Speaker 1: affect you because at the end of the day, take
Speaker 1: skin color out of it. This is human beings, is people? Right?
Speaker 1: You wouldn't want your family treated like this, So why
Speaker 1: are you letting some person that you don't know being
Speaker 1: treated like this? And so trying to convey and orchestrate
Speaker 1: that message and get that out to your peers and
Speaker 1: your colleagues has been another challenge, uh, and getting them
Speaker 1: to understand because you know, inside our walls, inside our
Speaker 1: four walls and NASCAR, there was five or six of
Speaker 1: us that that would say something, and that leaves thirty five,
Speaker 1: thirty four of the people out there that are silent.
Speaker 1: And it's just like saying the right look, you know,
Speaker 1: you guys got to step up in a powerful way,
Speaker 1: in a positive way. And so while we're still working
Speaker 1: on that, you know, for me, it was this was
Speaker 1: you know, I've gone through racial discrimination from law enforcement.
Speaker 1: I've just to an extent obviously, I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: my story. And we've lost a lot of of people,
Speaker 1: a lot of wonderful people to you know, law enforcement
Speaker 1: just abusing their authority. And it's just like, man, this
Speaker 1: is when is this going to change? And how how
Speaker 1: do we get a chat? How do we make it
Speaker 1: to where you know, this is the most important thing
Speaker 1: talked about. And a lot of people they'll say, shut
Speaker 1: up and dribble, shut up and play football, keep politics
Speaker 1: out of the sports. So, you know, because they look
Speaker 1: at us as the entertainment and they don't want to
Speaker 1: see us as anything else. You're an entertainer, that's it, Nah, brother,
Speaker 1: we are people. And then when this starts affecting us,
Speaker 1: that's when it rises us up to say something. Now,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, that whole entertainment role is out
Speaker 1: the window. Yeah, We're still gonna entertain because that's what
Speaker 1: we do, that's what we know. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: we are going to try to make this world a
Speaker 1: better place for our kids coming up through, for our
Speaker 1: next generation coming up through. So get with that or
Speaker 1: move on, because this is what's happening. And so while
Speaker 1: sports have been in a position to talk and use
Speaker 1: their platforms, which is so powerful, and I encourage all
Speaker 1: athletes from all backgrounds to do, there's still a lot
Speaker 1: of work to be done. You look at what happened
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago where people were upset at
Speaker 1: the election they lost. It was a fair election, it
Speaker 1: was free election. It was the most secure election in
Speaker 1: the history of our country. But the person that they
Speaker 1: wanted to win did not win, and they felt the
Speaker 1: recourse that they needed to take was to overthrow, basically
Speaker 1: a coup, overthrow the government and put our guy in
Speaker 1: place again. If the very thing that you notice, Bubba,
Speaker 1: when blacks have a grievance, if they have a complaint,
Speaker 1: if this country is so bad, leave It's almost as
Speaker 1: if we this is our country. We have a right
Speaker 1: to criticize this, We have a right to complain. Black
Speaker 1: shut up, be grateful that you're here. You get gable employment,
Speaker 1: and we don't want to hear from you. So what
Speaker 1: how do how do we how do we convince those
Speaker 1: to see us as equal to say, we have flesh
Speaker 1: and we have skin in the game. Also think if
Speaker 1: we knew that answer to be a much better place.
Speaker 1: So I think I think, you know, there was a
Speaker 1: show of entitlement that we've seen there at the Capitol. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think that's the same show that
Speaker 1: we have when we show up to the racetracks or
Speaker 1: the basketball course. It's like, this is our court, you know.
Speaker 1: But this is on a much broader scale. Take takeout, sports,
Speaker 1: take out. This is dictating how our life is running
Speaker 1: and control basically correct. And it's like, Okay, like you said,
Speaker 1: we have skin in the game too, Why can't we
Speaker 1: express that? Why can't we show that? I don't know
Speaker 1: why it's not allowed just because well, I think they're
Speaker 1: scared of us. Oh no, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: this have to do Bubba. They look at it. If
Speaker 1: you're like black and successful, why do you care about
Speaker 1: someone that's black and not successful? Why do you care
Speaker 1: if you have if you have a you live in
Speaker 1: a gated community, you have nice cars, you have a
Speaker 1: nice bank account, shadow, why do you care about them?
Speaker 1: Because I'm human because I have something called empathy. I
Speaker 1: have something called compassion, and if just not, I've never
Speaker 1: looked at it bub But I don't know, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to speak for you, and I won't to
Speaker 1: speak for anybody else. But I've never been one that
Speaker 1: says because I have everything is well as well in
Speaker 1: the world. That's not how I look at it. That's
Speaker 1: not how I was raised. Nope, Nope. If I show
Speaker 1: up in a nice car, I'm hesitant. I'm not the
Speaker 1: boastful like, oh check me out. This is what it
Speaker 1: is, is is what it's all about. You know, this is like, hey,
Speaker 1: if you work hard, you can get to these levels
Speaker 1: one day. And I encourage everybody to work hard and
Speaker 1: do what you gotta do and push people to be
Speaker 1: better from all aspects. That's what that's what it's about.
Speaker 1: It's about lending that helping hand. How can we get
Speaker 1: you to the next level? And whatever aspect it is
Speaker 1: in life, whatever job, whatever career you have, you know,
Speaker 1: how can you be better? You know, seeing what I
Speaker 1: do as motivation, use that. Seeing what you do as motivation,
Speaker 1: I use that. You know, It's it's not being the
Speaker 1: jealous type or the two good from one another, because
Speaker 1: I know where I came from. I ain't have nothing,
Speaker 1: but if you work hard and put your mind to it,
Speaker 1: anything is accomplishable. And so it's just man, it's it's
Speaker 1: so tough to have all the correct answers and how
Speaker 1: making this world a better place. That's why these conversations
Speaker 1: are being had, is to figure out all that and
Speaker 1: and for us to sit down and have that dialogue,
Speaker 1: have that fellowship, and then other people will start to
Speaker 1: watch and latch on and be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: these guys make a pretty good point. But I think
Speaker 1: showing that we all bled the same, we all cry
Speaker 1: the same, we all put on our pants the same way.
Speaker 1: It's like, we're not saying we're better than you. You're
Speaker 1: not better than us. We're all equal. When when can
Speaker 1: we understand that what's it gonna take. Obviously the looting,
Speaker 1: the rioting and whatever we've seen that was the chaos
Speaker 1: capital that ain't the right way. That's just expressing your feelings.
Speaker 1: Yeah sure, but that still ain't the right way to
Speaker 1: do things. So we got to see when they did that,
Speaker 1: they say, those are people that are pissed off. But
Speaker 1: when black see people, we protest inequality, We protest police brutality.
Speaker 1: We protest things of that nature. Oh well, well, if
Speaker 1: an excuse, excuse, excuses, excuses all day long. Excuses are
Speaker 1: like elbows. Everybody's going close. Said that. I said that
Speaker 1: in the nice way. You know what I was gonna say. Yeah,
Speaker 1: since we're talking about social issues, one of the greatest Americans,
Speaker 1: one of the most famous Americans, has a birthday coming up,
Speaker 1: Doctor MLK, Doctor King, What does he mean to Bubba Wallace?
Speaker 1: And what do you think if he was alive today,
Speaker 1: what do you think, after what he had gone through
Speaker 1: in the late fifties and sixties, if he was alive today,
Speaker 1: what do you think he would say? I think we
Speaker 1: want to know what that dream was that he has.
Speaker 1: Is this a part of that dream that he had? Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I sit there and think about that
Speaker 1: a lot. I think about Not to get off topic,
Speaker 1: but I sit there and think about how the music
Speaker 1: industry would be different if Pocket Biggie were around, how
Speaker 1: racing would be if Dylan Heart Senior was around, you know,
Speaker 1: how how things would be different if if the certain
Speaker 1: leaders that we had in this world were around. And
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what he would say, none
Speaker 1: of us are happy, so he wouldn't be happy, but
Speaker 1: maybe he would have more more pushed to uh to
Speaker 1: create change. I don't know. That's just tough. And I
Speaker 1: think about that constantly from every aspect, for every profession
Speaker 1: and whatever, leaders, music, racings, whatever it is. I'm always like,
Speaker 1: what would they say? And I never have the answer.
Speaker 1: What what did your parents? Did your parents talk to
Speaker 1: you about, doctor King? I'm sure in your situation, they
Speaker 1: probably experienced some things that were very unpleasant. What what
Speaker 1: was it like with your background? Honestly, I grew up
Speaker 1: in a diverse neighborhood. I had friends from all backgrounds.
Speaker 1: I went to school in a majority white school. I
Speaker 1: would say. I asked my mom this U two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I was like, Hey, do you know the numbers on
Speaker 1: Northwest where I went to school? And she was like no,
Speaker 1: I was like majority white. She was like yeah for
Speaker 1: the most part. And I was like, yeah, I would
Speaker 1: think so, and but I didn't. I didn't understand no
Speaker 1: those things. I just thought every school was the same,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, there's all black school. I didn't
Speaker 1: understand that stuff until actually I got out and got
Speaker 1: to experience the real world, it's like, oh, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: there's different demographics here and there. But for me, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: if we if we treat each other with respect, then
Speaker 1: we can be friends. And and if we don't, it's
Speaker 1: not it's not the respect deal. Obviously respect everybody, but
Speaker 1: is if we don't agree on something, this is what's
Speaker 1: wrong with the world. People hate you because you say
Speaker 1: something different instead of just being like, all right, I
Speaker 1: don't agree with that. I don't I don't hate them,
Speaker 1: but I just don't agree with that and move on. Right.
Speaker 1: You know, I've had plenty of people come through my
Speaker 1: life and say some some hey the sky is red,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't agree with that. I don't
Speaker 1: know if we can, you know, vibe, but hey, have
Speaker 1: a good day though, you know whatever, respect to you
Speaker 1: now it's now now it's like what you say, okay,
Speaker 1: now you know, we gotta fight. I gotta kill you,
Speaker 1: I gotta do this. I gotta hurt you because you
Speaker 1: said some dumb stuff. It's like, that's it's not a
Speaker 1: place we should be in a violence. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I didn't have it hard growing up. I like I said,
Speaker 1: I experienced those those runnings with the law, and hey,
Speaker 1: you got drugs or guns? You have a nice car here.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, I don't, but I know why you're
Speaker 1: asking this because of the way I look, and that's
Speaker 1: not right. But I can buy you one if you won't,
Speaker 1: one big dog. But hey, I didn't. I didn't, I
Speaker 1: didn't go there on, I didn't go right, Doctor King
Speaker 1: says life most pressing question is what are you doing
Speaker 1: for others? Do you feel a sense of responsibility that
Speaker 1: you're in the position platform that you have not only
Speaker 1: to speak out, but to do to make sure it
Speaker 1: is better for the next generation, because everybody keep saying
Speaker 1: it's gonna get better, it's gonna get better. And I'd
Speaker 1: like you, man, doctor King, in your dream, how much
Speaker 1: worth did it get before it got better? Exactly exactly?
Speaker 1: And I think I think we all got to go
Speaker 1: through adversity, we all got to go through a low
Speaker 1: point in life, and and I hope this is our
Speaker 1: low point. I hope it don't get much worse than this,
Speaker 1: because it's pretty bad across the whole board, for for
Speaker 1: our world right now, right with this virus and then
Speaker 1: everything that's going on in our nation. But you know,
Speaker 1: God has a plan for all of us, and that's
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of stand behind that. And everything
Speaker 1: happens for a reason, and it's so it's so weird
Speaker 1: to think, but things happen for a reason, and that's
Speaker 1: that's what it is, and that's what I go off of,
Speaker 1: And so I don't kind of go too far off
Speaker 1: the deep end and try to figure out why this
Speaker 1: has happened. It's just because it did. And so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we, like I said, we all got to
Speaker 1: experience some bad before we get to the good in
Speaker 1: our life. And and it's how you it's how you
Speaker 1: come out of that bad. It's how that bad shaped you,
Speaker 1: shape you the right way to the wrong way. You
Speaker 1: got to pick and choose your battles. There you you
Speaker 1: were in a program called Drive a Diversity. Tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about the program. Yeah, so when we
Speaker 1: jumped on it was a brand new year for years past.
Speaker 1: You went through a combine type deal, competition based deal.
Speaker 1: We had sixty drivers. They would windle it down to
Speaker 1: ten and then they would ship you out across the states,
Speaker 1: you know, go to certain teams. You'd be there for
Speaker 1: a full season and whatever series it was and that
Speaker 1: was it. And when I jumped in, everything was in house.
Speaker 1: Everything was moved to REV Racing right there in Moresville,
Speaker 1: and all the drivers were in the same team crew chief,
Speaker 1: same area, like we were all you know, four kN
Speaker 1: in cars, six late models like we were. We were
Speaker 1: all in house working together, and you know it was
Speaker 1: it was documented on BT, you know, changing as we
Speaker 1: got the experience off track publicity just as much as
Speaker 1: the on track publicity coming out of the gates for
Speaker 1: us winning me winning the first race at green Wall
Speaker 1: Picking Speedway there in twenty ten, and then kind of
Speaker 1: kind of you know, hey, I'm here, I'm here in
Speaker 1: the sport. I want to make this my career. And
Speaker 1: then we went on to win four more races in
Speaker 1: those two years, winning Rookie of the Year, putting together
Speaker 1: a great kind of foundation to the NASCAR ranks. And
Speaker 1: so you know, now it's continuing to buy to provide
Speaker 1: opportunities for minorities that necessarily feel like they don't have
Speaker 1: the funding or the resources to get in to that
Speaker 1: next level. And so now it's like, okay, we'll get
Speaker 1: you guys together. You send in your resumes, we look
Speaker 1: it over and if we think that you have it,
Speaker 1: we'll give you a shot. Doesn't mean you're in. We'll
Speaker 1: give you a shot, and they'll hold a three or
Speaker 1: four D eight test session for all the drivers and
Speaker 1: again windle it down to I think it's it's a
Speaker 1: little bit less thing. It's six an hour or so,
Speaker 1: so the spots are a little bit more slim. But
Speaker 1: you know, if you show up with the with the attitude,
Speaker 1: the mindset that that second is not an option, then
Speaker 1: you gotta show that and you gotta carry that. And
Speaker 1: that's that's the one thing that you see kids coming
Speaker 1: up through. Now, how critics have said, man, this ain't
Speaker 1: nothing but window drifting for affirmative action. How do you
Speaker 1: respond to that? Obviously, there's like I said, glass half full,
Speaker 1: glass half empty. This is a great opportunity for minorities.
Speaker 1: This is a handout for minorities. You you walk your walk,
Speaker 1: you talk your talk. You this is your path. You
Speaker 1: stay on it, don't let the naysayers get in your head,
Speaker 1: and you prove them wrong. And once we win this year,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna prove everybody wrong. You were born in Alabama,
Speaker 1: you've raised in North Carolina, which North Carolina is considered
Speaker 1: the Nascard the raising capitol of the world. And you
Speaker 1: you're you're in Concord round Mooresville, Connapolis. I've been up
Speaker 1: in that area. I got my dog from there. What
Speaker 1: was it like growing up in North Carolina? And did
Speaker 1: you always want to be a race car driver or
Speaker 1: did you want to play football? Basketball? Baseball? How did
Speaker 1: how did math card getting your blood? Yeah? So we
Speaker 1: actually lived ten minutes from the speedway, fifteen minutes from
Speaker 1: the speedway, and two times throughout the year. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that it was May in October, but it always
Speaker 1: happened to be at those times. And you hear race
Speaker 1: cars over there, and it's like, what's that. It's like,
Speaker 1: that's the race track over there. It's like, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go back outside and play with hide and go
Speaker 1: seek and tag with my friends or whatever. And that
Speaker 1: was that. And I started playing basketball at the age
Speaker 1: of five and did the little rec league stuff. And
Speaker 1: my sister, she's five years older than me, she was
Speaker 1: she was playing travel au ball and so we were
Speaker 1: always traveling around following her, and I enjoyed it because
Speaker 1: her her teammates had brothers and sisters that we were
Speaker 1: all in the same age groups. So we were out
Speaker 1: around in the gym having fun, and I would play
Speaker 1: basketball when i'd get back home. And then I when
Speaker 1: I was seven and eight or now, actually I was
Speaker 1: eight and nine, I jumped on the travel au ball team,
Speaker 1: and I kind of thought that was my career path
Speaker 1: love playing basketball, didn't really necessarily know of anything else.
Speaker 1: I remember going to the speedway when I was probably
Speaker 1: five or six with my parents for a dinner for something.
Speaker 1: I don't know why we went, and I was like,
Speaker 1: can we go home? I'm ready to go home. I
Speaker 1: play it outside. And when I was nine, my dad
Speaker 1: had bought a Harley Davidson, took it to a bike
Speaker 1: shop to get it all customized out, and the guy
Speaker 1: who owned the bike shop called Are invited us to
Speaker 1: come out one weekend and we became really good family
Speaker 1: friends even to this day. And next thing you know,
Speaker 1: it was like sitting in the stands that weekend my
Speaker 1: dad I was like, Hey, you want to try this,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, sure, why not. I remember going to
Speaker 1: the racetrack. Actually my dad had a go cart and
Speaker 1: I would go to the racetrack with them and I
Speaker 1: would play with the race cars and the dirt and
Speaker 1: and do all that stuff. But that never was like
Speaker 1: I want to do this. My dad flipped. He raced
Speaker 1: three times, and he flipped every single time. He flipped
Speaker 1: three times, and so I definitely at my driving skills
Speaker 1: from him. He was he's always been a racing fan.
Speaker 1: You know, he's from Nashville. That my family. Part of
Speaker 1: my family's from Nashville. So they raced sit there at
Speaker 1: the fairgrounds. But it wasn't until we were sitting in
Speaker 1: the stands he was like, you want to try it?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, sure, why not? And that was it.
Speaker 1: We went out and bought a go cart the next
Speaker 1: weekend and started testing and running. My first race was
Speaker 1: a national event. We wrecked out cart was mangled and destroyed,
Speaker 1: and I was like, hey, can we fix it, get
Speaker 1: back out there. My dad was like, all right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be in this sport for a while. Once I
Speaker 1: asked that. So the rest is history. No no, so
Speaker 1: basketball first love and ben Nast card. No football, no
Speaker 1: baseball I did. I did peewee football, and I hated practice.
Speaker 1: I played football. I members I will never forget this.
Speaker 1: I was a nose guard, whatever position that was basically
Speaker 1: the same. When I was five years old and I
Speaker 1: remember making a player something and I was so tired
Speaker 1: and I saw I walked over to the sideline and
Speaker 1: everybody's like looking for me, where's he hat? And I'm
Speaker 1: just sitting there like, yeah, where am I hat? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, so they had somebody else come out there.
Speaker 1: I think that was my last game. I was like,
Speaker 1: that was the last time with football for you? Huh, yes,
Speaker 1: that was the last time. So your dad take you
Speaker 1: to the track at nine years old, asking did you
Speaker 1: want to try it? You go try it. You wrecked
Speaker 1: the car, I mean you wreck the gold cart. And
Speaker 1: then I remember we had a gold cart. My brother
Speaker 1: and I had a gold cart. We had it came
Speaker 1: in like three uh three horsepower five and eight eight
Speaker 1: was the biggest you could get, uh for a gold cart.
Speaker 1: That was a twoth because it was we had a seat,
Speaker 1: you had a single feeder and you had a tooth feedter.
Speaker 1: My brother and my brother had we had a twoth
Speaker 1: seedter d never forget. And then my brother one from
Speaker 1: my cousins, a black when they had a five horsepower
Speaker 1: engine that was a single feater. So when you get
Speaker 1: started and I guess you go from gold cart and
Speaker 1: you graduate the midgets, how fix fifthful were you? And
Speaker 1: then you were you going all across the country racing
Speaker 1: these things. Yeah, so we were covering about a four
Speaker 1: four hour radius once we kind of gotten established in
Speaker 1: the sport. But in our go cart days, we were
Speaker 1: racing in Virginia. We were racing my first race, like
Speaker 1: I said, was a national event in Florida. First ever
Speaker 1: time basically on the racetrack was in Florida. Three hundred carts.
Speaker 1: So we were traveling kind of all over Jasper, Florida.
Speaker 1: Was that it was the was the town there. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that speedway is still there, but but
Speaker 1: it took us about a year and a half. We
Speaker 1: spent about two years in every series. We felt like
Speaker 1: that was the right amount of time and every series
Speaker 1: and it's like okay, here's a new, bigger and faster car.
Speaker 1: But it took us I don't know, I don't remember,
Speaker 1: let's say six months and it was like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: starting to figure this stuff out. I remember in Bendalerro's
Speaker 1: our first year was growing pains. In the second year
Speaker 1: we won thirty five out of forty eight races that year,
Speaker 1: and and we were traveling all over and then Legend
Speaker 1: Car days. Did a lot of the kids look like you?
Speaker 1: Because I'm thinking there's gonna be some resentment you went
Speaker 1: in that minute raised this as the only black and
Speaker 1: this is the majority of them are white. They're like,
Speaker 1: hold on, what's going on? Did they kick the gold card?
Speaker 1: Did they think you had something special? Oh? Every week
Speaker 1: we got dq before we even got off the racetrack.
Speaker 1: Bro it was, it was. It was pretty bad there
Speaker 1: for a little bit. When we got to the Bandalara
Speaker 1: ranks and legend car stuff. We were our mentality. I
Speaker 1: have a good friend that we raced against each other. Now,
Speaker 1: Daniel Henrin, he said, he says we were either winning
Speaker 1: and fighting or losing and fighting. We weren't going down
Speaker 1: without a fight. I mean we were. We were in
Speaker 1: your face, yelling, calling you every name in the book.
Speaker 1: But we were there to win and we were done wrong.
Speaker 1: And so many ways from the officiating to wherever it was.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget we had won a legend car race
Speaker 1: and uh at Charlotte over at Speedway and and I
Speaker 1: go and do my interview and as I'm coming in
Speaker 1: to pull in the tech. My dad's standing there pointing
Speaker 1: me by with a very aggressive point like, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what's up. We're supposed to pulling here. He's like, nope,
Speaker 1: they d qt us. They said, we don't know what
Speaker 1: you got, but we know you're cheating. You're dq go
Speaker 1: back to the haller and and it was like okay,
Speaker 1: so that we kind of knew our place there. It's like,
Speaker 1: if they can't beat us, they're gonna protest us and everything.
Speaker 1: And hey, we got caught cheating one time. That was it,
Speaker 1: and it was for something that was some bogus stuff.
Speaker 1: But hey, other than that, we won fair and square.
Speaker 1: I'm reading, so I guess the legends it is kind
Speaker 1: of like AAU for basketball, Like you travel you go
Speaker 1: around the country and the BEF team from the in
Speaker 1: the age groups all over and you're with So I
Speaker 1: guess if you know, if I got a good AA
Speaker 1: you traveling basketball team and I'm winning all the tournaments,
Speaker 1: people are gonna naturally think I'm recruiting the players. So
Speaker 1: they got you got to be doing. There's no way
Speaker 1: Bubble could win all these races. Forty eight races he wins,
Speaker 1: thirty five he gotta be doing something. Let's check his Injine,
Speaker 1: what's he doing that We're not They they always sourced
Speaker 1: uh suspective, Yes, suspicious of something going on. They never
Speaker 1: wanted to accept the the experience or the the talent
Speaker 1: that I had. But hey, so be it. It's it's
Speaker 1: fun talking about those stories now looking back on all
Speaker 1: that stuff, seeing where we came from, where we went.
Speaker 1: I'm reading that your mom would the track star at
Speaker 1: the University of Tennessee. Talk to me about your mom
Speaker 1: and her influence on you and racing. Yeah, mom has
Speaker 1: been the backbone for my sister and for myself and
Speaker 1: our in our careers and and it's been it's been
Speaker 1: cool to see. I remember, I'll never forget it kind
Speaker 1: of two thousand and nine, twenty ten, when we kind
Speaker 1: of signed on with JGR and that was kind of
Speaker 1: their big break, you know. Two thousand and eight we
Speaker 1: spent a core of a million dollars for myself on
Speaker 1: to stay on the race track, and that was probably
Speaker 1: our best year in racing for sure, in the late models.
Speaker 1: But two thousand and nine, two thousand of funny story
Speaker 1: about that two thousand and nine was when we signed
Speaker 1: on with JGR and started getting you know, a couple
Speaker 1: grand here you go, give you some oil, give you
Speaker 1: some product to help you out. That was our worst
Speaker 1: year ever. I quit. I quit halfway through two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine. I said. We were showing up to race
Speaker 1: tracks where we had run second, we had run top
Speaker 1: five at and we show up in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: we were getting lapped in the first twenty laps and
Speaker 1: I said, I quit. I'm done. I didn't come here
Speaker 1: to run, to run this bad. And so we closed
Speaker 1: up shop in two thousand and nine and then luckily
Speaker 1: the drive for Diversity Days coming about. But my mom
Speaker 1: was always there, supportive of everything that went on and everything.
Speaker 1: You grew up in a buy race your household, which
Speaker 1: is very difficult, especially in the South, because on one
Speaker 1: side you're black, but they say you're not really black,
Speaker 1: and on the other side you're not. You're definitely not white.
Speaker 1: So you caught it on both sides. So how what
Speaker 1: was it like growing up in the South from a
Speaker 1: biracial household man? I never felt like I was just
Speaker 1: always that, I guess, happy go lucky kid and just
Speaker 1: didn't didn't necessarily notice if anybody was giving me a
Speaker 1: side eye or treating me different. I was just like,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I guess he ain't cool whatever,
Speaker 1: And he just kind of move on about it, and
Speaker 1: you don't think of you don't think about why. It's
Speaker 1: just like, well, hell, I'm gonna hang out and do
Speaker 1: all the fun stuff. You can sit up here and
Speaker 1: be mad for whatever reason you're mad about. But I
Speaker 1: honestly don't know of how bad I really had it.
Speaker 1: And in those terms, I'm not saying everything was perfect
Speaker 1: and I grew up in this, you know, wonderful. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. Maybe I was just so young
Speaker 1: and naive that I was just like, hey, I'm ready
Speaker 1: to play Hide and go Seek with friends, let's do it,
Speaker 1: and not really understand why why can't why can't little
Speaker 1: Johnny come out and play today? Because and then the
Speaker 1: parents will close the door and it's just like, okay,
Speaker 1: you must be in trouble. And so not knowing that
Speaker 1: I was probably the issue. But anyways, I'm sure my
Speaker 1: parents got to experience a lot unfortunately, but you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't really have those conversations of you know, hey,
Speaker 1: we experienced this today, you know, this is what happened.
Speaker 1: It was. I'm sure they kept that to themselves, but
Speaker 1: once we got into the racing world, we were able
Speaker 1: to talk about a little bit more. When Dale Scott,
Speaker 1: he's the only other black driver to ray full time
Speaker 1: on NASCAR, What was it like meeting him and what
Speaker 1: does that mean to carry the legacy because they haven't
Speaker 1: been very many and they haven't had the longevity that
Speaker 1: you seem to be had. I think, yeah, yeah, I am,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to know his family and and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget meeting Windell Scott Jr. And hearing the
Speaker 1: stories about you know, their dad and what he went through,
Speaker 1: and and and then being a part of Petty and
Speaker 1: knowing that how big of an influence that Petty was
Speaker 1: to to Windell Scott and giving them basically hand me
Speaker 1: down parts and pieces to to help him, you know,
Speaker 1: stay on the racetrack and compete the following weeks. And
Speaker 1: so I just, you know, you know, live for all
Speaker 1: those stories and knowing how much of a pioneer he
Speaker 1: really was, and you know, he I felt like, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of like him. He's just there to race. He's
Speaker 1: not there for any of the other bulls bull stuff
Speaker 1: that that's going on. To to you know, to the
Speaker 1: media side of things. It's just like, hey, man, I
Speaker 1: might look different, but hey, we all still driving, you know,
Speaker 1: sixty laps here, Let's give it our all and and
Speaker 1: then you know, shake hands after. But it wasn't that
Speaker 1: easy for him as it is today. But knowing that
Speaker 1: he just wanted to show up and drive, that's all
Speaker 1: I wanted. But the bagine, I mean, you drive cars.
Speaker 1: Let me atch your question. If something goes on with
Speaker 1: your car, could you fix it? To an extent, it's
Speaker 1: so it's so engineer based now, it's so engineer based.
Speaker 1: Now that's gonna be my excuse. There's so much intricate
Speaker 1: stuff that I wouldn't know what to do. But to
Speaker 1: an extent, I could put some air in the tires
Speaker 1: and fuel and the tank. We could be going. Now
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about your race car. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the car if you drive every single day, if something
Speaker 1: goes over with that, I will see now now, and
Speaker 1: those they're so intricate, Hey, your your your blinkers not working.
Speaker 1: That that affects every something in the fuel line, and
Speaker 1: that affects something and it's like, jeez, just give me
Speaker 1: the old school stuff. I'll be good. I read the
Speaker 1: story about Window Scott and how he would deny a
Speaker 1: trophy in a windows check he won, He won a
Speaker 1: race by two laps, but he would denied the trophy
Speaker 1: and the check. Yeah, that's when uh NASCAR was trying
Speaker 1: to find their way. I'll say that because this was
Speaker 1: an obviously different time and society and in our history
Speaker 1: to where you know, colors weren't accepted and so him
Speaker 1: showing up on the scene, you know, he wasn't accepted
Speaker 1: from the sanctioning body. And obviously things have changed tenfold now,
Speaker 1: you know with me and all the African Americans that
Speaker 1: are part of our sport are welcome with open arms,
Speaker 1: and so you know, seeing that, it's like, man, just
Speaker 1: it just makes you appreciate the history and see how
Speaker 1: far things have come and still how far things have
Speaker 1: to go. And then I read that they denied him,
Speaker 1: but once the fans left the track, they gave him
Speaker 1: the check. They gave him enough money to cover his
Speaker 1: gas expense, and handed him to trophy to get back
Speaker 1: to where he came from. So basically it wasn't about
Speaker 1: they knew he had won, but they couldn't give this
Speaker 1: man the winner's check and the and the presentation in
Speaker 1: front of the fans, and they said it was a
Speaker 1: miss scoring. Yeah they oh we had this miscorre here.
Speaker 1: So yeah. So it's just it's just crazy to think that,
Speaker 1: you know, look at the technology and the people that
Speaker 1: were in place, and how much of its wint to technology.
Speaker 1: And you know, back then they were people. My mom
Speaker 1: had to do this one time, had to write down
Speaker 1: a hash mark for two hundred and fifty laps. It's like,
Speaker 1: if we knew the system, hey give me an extra
Speaker 1: lap so I'm ahead of the field by lab. It
Speaker 1: was that's how people used to time and score with people.
Speaker 1: You'd mark, you cross, the start, finished on, you'd mark
Speaker 1: a lab, you'd mark another lab. I would fall asleep
Speaker 1: if I was doing that. And so seeing how that
Speaker 1: has gone from people to now technology we have timing
Speaker 1: and scoring, we have transponders and whatever. It's just like
Speaker 1: man's crazy but still not acceptable. One are some of
Speaker 1: the other Window Scott probably the most famous of the black,
Speaker 1: but you got Bill Lefter, Willy t Rives, the Lives Buoy,
Speaker 1: Mark Davis. There's so many that obviously didn't get the
Speaker 1: fanfare that Window Scott Gotten. Now you with social media
Speaker 1: and television and marketing the way it is. Now, what
Speaker 1: are some of the other guys the influenced African American
Speaker 1: driver the influence Bubba Wallace. Yeah, I remember showing up
Speaker 1: when I was in the Legend Car days and actually
Speaker 1: seeing Mark Davis racing and getting to know him, become
Speaker 1: friends with him, and watch him come up through the ranks.
Speaker 1: And I remember sitting there at Hickory Motor Speedway when
Speaker 1: and my dad would be like, you know, watch watch
Speaker 1: how Mark's racing here, because he was fast, he was
Speaker 1: really good, and you know, trying to learn from him,
Speaker 1: understanding the history and seeing that Bill Lester was in
Speaker 1: the sport. And I remember playing some old NASCAR games
Speaker 1: and Bill Lester being, you know, one of the drivers
Speaker 1: you can pick from, and I would pick him, and
Speaker 1: I'm kind of thinking, like what my mindset was back
Speaker 1: then when I was ten eleven years old, was it
Speaker 1: was I picking him because he was a black driver,
Speaker 1: or I think it was because I was like, this
Speaker 1: is pretty cool, so I'm gonna use him because he
Speaker 1: looks like me. And it's like, okay, I'm gonna pick
Speaker 1: Bill here. And now actually I had a great conversation
Speaker 1: with with with Bill Lester last week on how we
Speaker 1: can make this better sport for minorities coming up through
Speaker 1: UH and just and motorsports in general better for minorities.
Speaker 1: So it's it's pretty cool to see how everything come
Speaker 1: full circles. Well, but when you really look at it,
Speaker 1: there are certain sports that are kind of cost prohibitive,
Speaker 1: especially from minoritiest. You look at golf, you've got green thieves,
Speaker 1: you've got clubs. Uh. You look at tennis, you need
Speaker 1: normal to be a club. They're not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of public tennis courses. And racing cars, gold cars even
Speaker 1: at every level of gas is expensive, parts is expensive.
Speaker 1: How do we get it so my more minorities can
Speaker 1: get and get involved because it's right. It might be
Speaker 1: a little cost prohibitive for a lot of minorities. It is.
Speaker 1: And that's the guy's honest truth. And and you know
Speaker 1: those are the phone calls that we've we've constantly from
Speaker 1: not even minorities. This is coach s Gibs, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be Denny Hamlet, Michael Jordan calling up now and
Speaker 1: being like this is way too expensive. Lower the price
Speaker 1: on this stuff. So it's all of us coming together
Speaker 1: as a collaborative group to figure out how we can
Speaker 1: be more cost efficient from all aspects on the race car.
Speaker 1: I mean, every every part in piece is X amount
Speaker 1: of dollars. That adds up to a multimillion dollars bill
Speaker 1: and you know, even getting into the lower ranks. You know,
Speaker 1: for me, I got back into the go car stuff
Speaker 1: about four or five years ago, and I was dropping
Speaker 1: thirty five hundred bucks to five grand just to get
Speaker 1: in the go car stuff and then spending eighteen hundred
Speaker 1: bucks on tires every week, Like people don't have that,
Speaker 1: and so it's like, man, how do we how do
Speaker 1: we you know, cut the costs down a lot? And
Speaker 1: the supply and demand is crazy right now. When you
Speaker 1: go to a race track and you see people that
Speaker 1: look like Bubba Wallace, what are you feeling? H out
Speaker 1: for sure? Because you know some I've seen though don't
Speaker 1: even know who I am, and that's totally fine. They
Speaker 1: got on some other gear and I'm like, hmm, what
Speaker 1: if they know that there's after American out there? You know,
Speaker 1: I need to be like yo, look here, But I
Speaker 1: think it's it's super cool. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: people coming up through the ranks, Uh, from drivers to
Speaker 1: just fans that are minorities from after American background, from
Speaker 1: all backgrounds really that that want to be a part
Speaker 1: of the sport or are tuning into the sports. So
Speaker 1: it's super cool, uh and incredibly grateful for the opportunities
Speaker 1: that I've had and looking to further that, looking to
Speaker 1: further those relationships and just make my name more of
Speaker 1: a household name on the race track. I remember you
Speaker 1: showing up to the track and you're driving the all
Speaker 1: black Black Lives Matter car. I can't breathe t shirt.
Speaker 1: There's there's just something about Look, you're they're difficult. You
Speaker 1: can have a yellow car, you can have a green car,
Speaker 1: but there's something about a black car, just something about black.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe because Dale Earnhardt and being timber data, maybe
Speaker 1: he made it cache and he had the guy going
Speaker 1: glasses all and you know he would bump you and
Speaker 1: he he pitch you and to win. Maybe that's what
Speaker 1: it is. But there's something about a black car. When
Speaker 1: you showed up in that car and what was going
Speaker 1: through your mind, what made you decide to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: today is the day that I'm gonna do this, well,
Speaker 1: listen to the irony that you say. Man, black is
Speaker 1: so sharp, Black cars are so sharp, Black people are
Speaker 1: so sharp too. Yeah. Yeah, people don't want to accept that.
Speaker 1: But that day that, I think it was like a
Speaker 1: week and a half before that, that race I was
Speaker 1: it was brought to me like, hey, this is race
Speaker 1: is unsponsored. This was right around the Blackout Tuesday, when
Speaker 1: that movement was going through, and I thought my Instagram
Speaker 1: feed was broken because it was just a bunch of
Speaker 1: black squares. I'm like, what's going on right now? And
Speaker 1: then I finally understood what it was. It was that
Speaker 1: day it's like, hey, what about a blackout car for Martinsville.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, that'd be pretty bad ass. That's cool,
Speaker 1: let's do it, you know, all black car, no sponsors.
Speaker 1: And then we got to toss arounds ideas it's like, well,
Speaker 1: instead of a black car, let's let's figure out an
Speaker 1: organization or something to kind of give back and show
Speaker 1: yeah cause to uh to give to and and and
Speaker 1: make it that and I'm like okay. And so it
Speaker 1: took me about ten minutes and I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's just put hashtag black Lives matter. Just put that
Speaker 1: on there. I don't have to call directly to somebody
Speaker 1: and ask for permission, just put that on there. And
Speaker 1: so that was that was that, that was it. And
Speaker 1: then Richard Petty was like, well, let's put the peace
Speaker 1: symbol here, Let's put some something on the hood. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, let's make this a love, compassion and
Speaker 1: understanding car that you know everybody can rally behind. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously you put that hashtag on the car than you
Speaker 1: are ever Oh yeah, it's like, oh you you stand
Speaker 1: for this, you stand for that, and out of this
Speaker 1: and that, I'm like, man, dang, I should have put
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter two on the race card t oo,
Speaker 1: just to be like, hey, my black my black lives matters,
Speaker 1: you know, just as much as yours does. Like, hey,
Speaker 1: I just want to put that out there. But now
Speaker 1: it was. It was a very controversial deal but ended
Speaker 1: up being one of the best races of my career
Speaker 1: for sure. A ton of fun that night at Martinsville,
Speaker 1: and just just an incredible moment for sport, for the nation,
Speaker 1: for the world. Really, you mentioned about your encounter with
Speaker 1: the police, you got pulled over. Talk about what happened
Speaker 1: and what was going through your mind, because you know
Speaker 1: how sometimes encountered with police officers and African Americans doesn't
Speaker 1: always end with a friendly outcome. Yeah, now for sure.
Speaker 1: I was going to my friend's house in Virginia on
Speaker 1: the first occasion and got pulled over for not using
Speaker 1: my turn signal and going down seventy seven there, and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, my bat and comes back hands me.
Speaker 1: I think I got a ticket for that, and he
Speaker 1: does the old here's your license and registration back. Wait
Speaker 1: a minute, Yes, it's a nice car. You got guns,
Speaker 1: drugs and weapons in here. I was like no, I
Speaker 1: sure don't. And he was like, well, mind if I
Speaker 1: searched a vehicle and I was like no, go ahead,
Speaker 1: And I was just like not really understanding the moment
Speaker 1: there until I talked to my family after and and
Speaker 1: I was once I realized, I quickly realized. They asked
Speaker 1: me to get out of the vehicle. I stood about
Speaker 1: twenty thirty yards away, had three other cop show and
Speaker 1: went through my whole car. Didn't find anything. I had
Speaker 1: just got my car cleaned that morning before I left,
Speaker 1: so it was spotless. And and so that was they
Speaker 1: were like, well we didn't find anything. Have a good day,
Speaker 1: and it was like, yeah, I told you that before
Speaker 1: this thirty minute or deal, and so went upon my way.
Speaker 1: I was pissed. I was frustrated, called my mom and
Speaker 1: then went to This was fast forward. That was twenty ten.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to about twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen. I'm going
Speaker 1: to the golf course, I believe, and and I'm going
Speaker 1: down Highway three here right here in Cannapolis, and a
Speaker 1: car pulls out right in front of me, and so
Speaker 1: race car mentality, you pull out right in front of me,
Speaker 1: You got you got a couple of seconds before I
Speaker 1: I want to hit you, but I'm not going to
Speaker 1: hit you because then it's obviously insurance and stuff. But
Speaker 1: I'll get I'll get this close. And if my girlfriend's
Speaker 1: riding with Michee, she hates that, she freaks out. I'm like, chill,
Speaker 1: I know what I'm doing. But I got right up
Speaker 1: on the bumper of this car, and I'm like, what
Speaker 1: the hell go? So I slammed on my horn to
Speaker 1: go because I was going it was it was fifty five,
Speaker 1: so I was going probably sixteen and fifty five and
Speaker 1: this car pulls out going twenty and so I slam
Speaker 1: on brakes and everything, so honk on the horn, throw
Speaker 1: on their hazards. So I'm like, okay, obviously this person
Speaker 1: is struggling with something. That car is beat. It was
Speaker 1: an old beat too, So I look, nobody coming, double
Speaker 1: dalow lines, hazards on. So I go around them, pull
Speaker 1: up to the stoplight. Three cops get out, guns out
Speaker 1: of their holsters, not pointed at me, not pointed at me.
Speaker 1: They're like, pull over here in this parking lot. And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, undercover car. And then they were
Speaker 1: like some bounty hunter type people, and so I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: so I'll pull over here. And I'm like piste off
Speaker 1: at the whole situation, Like it's like, you guys pulled
Speaker 1: out in front of me, and it was like, will
Speaker 1: you pass us on a double all line? Well you
Speaker 1: pulled out in front of me, Well you pass us
Speaker 1: on it. It's like all right, I ain't gonna win
Speaker 1: this argument. And so they come over and it's like
Speaker 1: I'm driving Alexis at this time, and and he walks
Speaker 1: over and he was like, man, this is a nice car.
Speaker 1: Can you afford it? What do you do? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: what kind of would you have me? There? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I said, doesn't matter what I do, and yes, I
Speaker 1: can afford it, and I was like yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I just because I wanted to say, yeah, I can
Speaker 1: have you one here tomorrow two big boy, but because then,
Speaker 1: because then that would have been another hashtag. So that's
Speaker 1: that's you know what I hate. I hate when they
Speaker 1: do that. When you pulled me over and you get looked.
Speaker 1: You can either write me a ticket and tell me
Speaker 1: to slow down. But I'm not gonna let you lecture
Speaker 1: me and give me a ticket. Now you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to do one or the other. And whatever you do,
Speaker 1: don't patronize me. Man, it's a really nice car. Ruh.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and write the ticket and let me
Speaker 1: be on your way because I ain't got a whole
Speaker 1: lot of conversation for you. I ain't got anything. I
Speaker 1: just want to get on my way. Yeah, but you
Speaker 1: did you. I'm reading that you had a cousin that
Speaker 1: lost his life at the hands of the police. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1: I was eight years old. I believe whatever, however old
Speaker 1: you are, in fourth grade, I remember fourth grade, and
Speaker 1: we were in somewhere. We may have been here. I
Speaker 1: want to say we were in or something out a
Speaker 1: basketball tournament for my sister, and I remember running through.
Speaker 1: I remember eating one of those big remember those big
Speaker 1: fat pig you still get them, the big fat pickles
Speaker 1: in the packages, the spicy Yeah, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: me with pickles. No, okay, all right, Well I remember
Speaker 1: having one of those and running around the gym or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I will never forget this day. We were in
Speaker 1: the parking lot and I just hear the most terrifying
Speaker 1: scream from my mom, and I'm like eating my pickle, Like,
Speaker 1: what's going on? What happened? And it was our cousin
Speaker 1: Sean was shot and killed the night before and or
Speaker 1: maybe early that morning. I think it was early that morning,
Speaker 1: two or three am that morning. But they said they
Speaker 1: said that they were at the gas station there in Knoxville,
Speaker 1: at a Wiggles there in Knoxville, and they were playing
Speaker 1: loud music like a little little block party at the
Speaker 1: gas station, and they said the clerk got scared of
Speaker 1: all the black people. They were called the cops, and
Speaker 1: and they said that there was one officer on the
Speaker 1: side of the car, there's one officer at the back.
Speaker 1: And they said, my cousin wants to go reach for
Speaker 1: a gun, but there wasn't. There was a gun, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't on his side of the car, and that
Speaker 1: was that was that he was shot in the back. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that that had a lot to do with your
Speaker 1: perception of how the the unfair treatment and how sometimes
Speaker 1: and how police look at black motorists as a poll
Speaker 1: to how they look at our counterparts. Then eight years old,
Speaker 1: I was just like, no, not then, but now, oh yeah, now, yes,
Speaker 1: for sure, for sure, I got a total different understanding.
Speaker 1: When I was about fourteen, I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: see why he was killed now, you know. Uh. Then
Speaker 1: I was just like, wow, we just lost our cousin,
Speaker 1: you know, and that was that My parents, everybody else knew.
Speaker 1: But when you're that young, you don't think about you
Speaker 1: just you just think about a loss in the family.
Speaker 1: And my family still greaze over that to this day.
Speaker 1: You know, I just passed your Knoxville for our Christmas
Speaker 1: break and you see Wigels and all you can think
Speaker 1: of is is that moment and uh and so yeah,
Speaker 1: we've lost We've lost family to that. You know what,
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to know this because I go back
Speaker 1: and forth and I hear a lot of race car
Speaker 1: drivers say they are athletes. What type of physical conditioning,
Speaker 1: what type of shape? I know, you got to be
Speaker 1: in mental shape because you can't have enough. Moment you
Speaker 1: go in one hundred and eighty miles an hour and
Speaker 1: you're two inches away from another car, a car or
Speaker 1: the wall. So I get, I get the mental but
Speaker 1: what type of physical shape do you need to be
Speaker 1: in to be in a race card five hundred miles
Speaker 1: or fix six hundred miles? Yeah? So back when, obviously
Speaker 1: pre COVID, you know, I'll tell you my little secret
Speaker 1: what I was doing. I was sitting my happy ass
Speaker 1: on the couch every day not doing a dang thing.
Speaker 1: I wasn't working out. I hate working out. It's just
Speaker 1: I get so just sidetracked and unmotivated. And then and so,
Speaker 1: but pre COVID, we were there from Thursday to Sunday
Speaker 1: every weekend, and you were getting your workout from driving
Speaker 1: the cars. They're not the easiest thing to drive, and
Speaker 1: so there's no power steering. Yeah, there there's power steering,
Speaker 1: but you got power stearing in those cars. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: we got power steering. Yeah, I thought you. I mean
Speaker 1: any car, any car, does not have power steering. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about Formula one, but we have power steering,
Speaker 1: but it's not it's not uncommon for a power steering
Speaker 1: a lining to blow off and then next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: you that's when we need muscles like you to get
Speaker 1: around the race track. And so knock on wood. That
Speaker 1: hasn't happened to me, so hopefully it doesn't. But now
Speaker 1: this year, like I said, my mentality changed after watching
Speaker 1: The Last Dance and watching if you haven't seen it,
Speaker 1: the F one doc mentory, I think Drive Your Survive
Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, watch that and seeing their mentality.
Speaker 1: Those guys are obviously you've got to be very lean
Speaker 1: and fit to be in those cars. Yeah, you fit
Speaker 1: in those cars, yes, and you get slim all every
Speaker 1: I think every driver is super slim and tall either
Speaker 1: small and skinny or tall and skinny. But you know,
Speaker 1: it kind of changed my mentality. It's like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: can't sit here and just be lazy the whole time.
Speaker 1: I actually got to get up and work out and
Speaker 1: so years prior it was probably the first three races
Speaker 1: I was sore and whatnot. But then you get into
Speaker 1: a rhythm and you kind of start getting that workout
Speaker 1: back in. Well, when COVID hit whoa, there's no more practice.
Speaker 1: You're jumping straight into the race for four hours, four
Speaker 1: hundred laps, whatever it is, It's like, damn, I need
Speaker 1: to start working out. So, uh, signing on with Toyota
Speaker 1: this year brand that relationship back. I was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I need to get in the gym and be a
Speaker 1: part of the TRD you know, organization and facility that
Speaker 1: we have here in North Carolina. So it's it's been good.
Speaker 1: I've been in the gym a couple of times a
Speaker 1: few times a week, which is way more than I
Speaker 1: have been in the gym uh in the last three years.
Speaker 1: So I will say that, Well, I know Carl Edwards.
Speaker 1: I've seen him workout, and I've seen him in Men's health,
Speaker 1: and I think Jimmy Johnson is a big a big
Speaker 1: workout for that. He's triathlon, yeah, he's running the Iron
Speaker 1: Man's and stuff. Yet other than that, all of us
Speaker 1: are kind of like, hey, I'm doing some workouts. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: It's it's more it's more of this kind of working
Speaker 1: out exactly, Doctor Peppers. I got a drink so what
Speaker 1: is it like that. I mean, obviously you have all
Speaker 1: this equipment, you're strapped in, the doors are well to shut.
Speaker 1: But to hit a wall going one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: plus miles an hour, it's not It's not the fun
Speaker 1: most fun thing that you can do. You know. I've
Speaker 1: had my fair shares of hitting the wall. Our brakes
Speaker 1: went out there Pocono, and I thought I was I
Speaker 1: thought I was dead, just the way the angle and
Speaker 1: I was gonna hit at and luckily at the last
Speaker 1: second it turned a different way and was able to
Speaker 1: walk away from and I'm back in the following week.
Speaker 1: But it hurts. It hurts for sure, the initial impact.
Speaker 1: You brace for impact and that's it. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's inevitable, what's gonna happen. Just have to be
Speaker 1: able mentally when you're younger. No, if you hit the wall,
Speaker 1: it's like everything's gonna be all right. You just gotta
Speaker 1: get back in and keep doing it. What's Bubble Wallace?
Speaker 1: Personal car? Personal car? Right now? I got I got
Speaker 1: my new twenty twenty one twe a four runner on
Speaker 1: the way, so right now I'm in a loaner four
Speaker 1: runner right now? What's your favorite car of all time.
Speaker 1: But all the cars that Bubba Wallace is own, what's
Speaker 1: his favorite? Mhm. My dream car has been an Audi
Speaker 1: R eight, Okay, and I may not have treated myself
Speaker 1: to my dream car in the recent weeks. If if
Speaker 1: you could have any if you could have any car,
Speaker 1: old school new, if you could have any car, I
Speaker 1: mean from a sixty eight Mustang or you know, whatever
Speaker 1: it may be, two fifty GT Ferrari, whatever it could be.
Speaker 1: If Bubba Walla could have you get one car what
Speaker 1: you're taking nineteen nineteen sixties Porsche three fifty six eight
Speaker 1: little Speedster. Yeah, those things are going for about two
Speaker 1: hundred three hundred thousand, So I gotta win a couple
Speaker 1: of races for that. But that's that's my next car.
Speaker 1: Fifth you you you're a race car. I'm affuming most
Speaker 1: of you guys have lead feet and you have a
Speaker 1: problem with speeding. Does Bubba Wallas have a problem with
Speaker 1: speeding from time to time? If you take the old
Speaker 1: Audi out, you know it's yeah for sure. But honestly,
Speaker 1: I look at it from a standpoint of the safety
Speaker 1: of the race cars is right way better than a
Speaker 1: street car. Oh, I can get out I can get
Speaker 1: out after hitting the wall at two hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 1: I ain't getting out if I hit the barrier or
Speaker 1: a tree at two hundred miles an hour in a
Speaker 1: street car. So I know my limits and I'm good. Obviously.
Speaker 1: In North Carolina, you drive brand Jordan. Now do you
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to go to get the very menial
Speaker 1: Hornets game? And what do you think about LaMelo ball?
Speaker 1: Duff bar So, I've been to a few in my
Speaker 1: uh in my lifetime, I say, I'm not really I'm
Speaker 1: more of a collegiate football I'm Tennessee fan obviously, and
Speaker 1: uh and so hold on, t about You're born in Alabama,
Speaker 1: you up in North Carolina. How to it took you
Speaker 1: that long to ask that question? Yes, for sure? And
Speaker 1: all I know is is Tennessee or my mom's from
Speaker 1: obviously Knoxville, my dad's from Nashville. My family's big ut fans.
Speaker 1: So I was kind of just thrown into it. But
Speaker 1: I am Alabama over Auburn, I will say that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know, obviously, my Charlotte Hornet's days will
Speaker 1: go up a little bit more. And then I'm watching
Speaker 1: what LaMelo ball is doing, and it's good. I've seen
Speaker 1: some of his stats today actually for the rookie stats,
Speaker 1: so that's pretty cool to see. And I think there's
Speaker 1: a I think there was talks about a little crossover
Speaker 1: happening with with him and myself, so we'll see. What's
Speaker 1: your favorite your favorite team for your favorite team, favorite team, sport? Professional? Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean Charlotte doesn't have too good a reputation of
Speaker 1: professionals because I already know you have. You have Tennessee football, yeah,
Speaker 1: Tennessee football fan, oh man, professional. I kind of just
Speaker 1: have certain people that I've I've got to meet and
Speaker 1: respect and grow fum. Right now, I will say, right now,
Speaker 1: I'm pulling for the Saints because of Alvin Kamara. And
Speaker 1: he was he was from Tennessee, badass running back, he
Speaker 1: is going. He's originally from Georgia. He went to Alabama also,
Speaker 1: So I just thought we're all just messed up. Is
Speaker 1: in that somewhere, We're all that stuff. So I'm I'm
Speaker 1: pulling for them. Other than your boss, Michael Jordan, your
Speaker 1: favorite your favorite basketball player, man, I was always mj fan.
Speaker 1: Right now, that's tough. I'm a big lebron fan, so
Speaker 1: I know that's right up there with you. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm you know what I'm reading here that
Speaker 1: you're a big Drake. You know, Drake is your favorite artist.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever call you Drake? Do you? Guys? You've gotten
Speaker 1: out a lot, a lot. I'm like, man, I've gotten
Speaker 1: Drake and Russell Wilson. So it's just I guess it's
Speaker 1: the hair. I don't know. We got to So so
Speaker 1: what before a race? What are you listening to? Are
Speaker 1: you listening something to get you up? Are you listening
Speaker 1: to something to kill Sean Day, Jail Scott, something mellow.
Speaker 1: I like some Jill Scott. I like some Anthony Hamilton's Smilitias, Yes,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. You know. But I am a metal head.
Speaker 1: I am the heavy metal, scream oh death metal, metal
Speaker 1: core that's me, and as crazy and loud and screaming
Speaker 1: that is, that's what calms me down. If I'm listening
Speaker 1: to some to some Anthony Hamilton or some I am
Speaker 1: jam and I am pumped up. I am just in
Speaker 1: a total different And as to where it's the metal stuff,
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, let's mellow out here, let's enjoy this,
Speaker 1: let's let's get ready, but but thankf for the time, Bro,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Good luck this year we need
Speaker 1: about we need a least we need a least four
Speaker 1: wins we get. I'll tell you what win day TOLDA,
Speaker 1: and I don't care what you do after that. I said,
Speaker 1: two years, two wins. This year we'll start there. We'll
Speaker 1: start one day. TOLDA. We're good. We're good. That's right, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: Thank you, brother, thank you, thanks for coming over with me, Bro.
Speaker 1: Good luck you, thank you brother. All my life, running
Speaker 1: all my life, sack fights, hustle, back price one slice,
Speaker 1: one got the rolling dice that swap all my life.
Speaker 1: I've been running all my life, all my life, been
Speaker 1: running all my life, sacrifice, clustle, bay, the prices. One
Speaker 1: of the slice, got the rolling dice that sway all
Speaker 1: my life. I've been running all my life