Speaker 1: Welcome back, all the smoke and the beautiful Blue Wire
Speaker 1: studio in the wind Hotel, All the smoke time, Nascar. Man,
Speaker 1: We've got a very special guest today. You know, someone
Speaker 1: I've looked up to in this sport because this is
Speaker 1: not really a sport for our people, and this guy
Speaker 1: has definitely held it down for all of us. So
Speaker 1: welcome to the show today, Bubba Wallace. What up, Bubba Man?
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time. Ye man, how are you man?
Speaker 1: We're good, We're good. How's life You told you got
Speaker 1: into town wednesday, you got a chance to play some golf,
Speaker 1: you got a big race this weekend. What's what's going
Speaker 1: on in your personal life right now? Uh? Life is
Speaker 1: actually really good. My fiance we flew out here with
Speaker 1: another couple that we're really good friends with, and um,
Speaker 1: just come out here to relax a little bit. Kind
Speaker 1: of hard to do in Vegas, right, So up beat here,
Speaker 1: but um just getting away from the maddis for a
Speaker 1: little bit. I've played seventy two holes in the last
Speaker 1: four days. Yeah, I'm trying to uh this the end
Speaker 1: of the season's creeping up, so we're kind of getting
Speaker 1: a little antsy ready for it to end um. But man,
Speaker 1: we've been really solid second half the year and it's
Speaker 1: been fun talks. As we learned today when we did
Speaker 1: a little pace car I didn't know your guys a
Speaker 1: seasons from January Thumost November mid November. So we are
Speaker 1: the first week of February to the first week of November.
Speaker 1: That's a long with one week. Yeah, this is a
Speaker 1: one office so every week and you guys are racing somewhere.
Speaker 1: That's right, always on the road. What a mental ground.
Speaker 1: You also mentioned your fiance. Congratulations, you got a wedding
Speaker 1: date set. Yeah, yeah, I just got married last year. Yeah, congratulations.
Speaker 1: Brother is right, Yeah, trying to be there, you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: our date is New Year's Eve, So I mean we
Speaker 1: have a small window where we can pick from unless
Speaker 1: we do a midweek wedding, but not everybody on a
Speaker 1: guest lists can make that happen. So we're doing New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve and we're excited about that. No, we're doing it, Charlotte.
Speaker 1: Our guest list is yeah, so it's it's gonna be
Speaker 1: good to have everybody there and then making the most
Speaker 1: of it. Going to raise in Mobile, Alabama. Talk about
Speaker 1: your upbringing what was like, Yeah, so I was born
Speaker 1: in in l A, Lower Alabama. Um, but I'm moving like, Um,
Speaker 1: but I moved from there where I was two, so
Speaker 1: I really don't remember a damn thing about Mobile. Um,
Speaker 1: but I moved to Concord, where I currently lived now.
Speaker 1: So the last twenty seven years, Um, mobile is just
Speaker 1: kind of on the birth certificate. I still uncle that
Speaker 1: lived down there, and um, you know, ever since living
Speaker 1: in Concord, it was just you know, all about having fun,
Speaker 1: no responsibilities and the next thing, you know, you get
Speaker 1: into racing and you climb the ladder. And for me
Speaker 1: it was different. Um. They were like you know, do
Speaker 1: you see did you see yourself? You know, twenty I've
Speaker 1: been doing it twenty years now, twenty years ago, like
Speaker 1: starting out like this is where you wanted to be?
Speaker 1: Hell no, really I didn't didn't watch it, didn't you know,
Speaker 1: not a negative way. I didn't care for it. Like
Speaker 1: we lived fifteen minutes from race track, could hear him racing,
Speaker 1: but never was like hey what's that? And next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, it was like we would race in one series,
Speaker 1: get really good at it, moved to the next one,
Speaker 1: get really good at keep moving, moving, moving, the next thing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, hey, NASCAR's next. It's like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: let's keep going. That's that you mentioned. Uh so you're
Speaker 1: in Concord, That is that where you went to high school?
Speaker 1: At everything? So what is that like? Because I know
Speaker 1: now I go back, I do some work in Sacramento
Speaker 1: with the Kings, and I go back and it's kind
Speaker 1: of mixed. I feel like you can't get the love
Speaker 1: without the hate. How was the reception of you? Could
Speaker 1: you kind of pretty much been in your hometown as
Speaker 1: a star now as well? Yeah, so it's crazy. Uh,
Speaker 1: Concord my high school. Um, we had Corela Joy, he
Speaker 1: was two years older me. He raced in the Cup Series.
Speaker 1: Now myself that Corey Seeger, you know, his place for
Speaker 1: the Rangers now Bradley opinion, but I think is the
Speaker 1: kicker for the Bucks maybe. Um and then um justin
Speaker 1: c the Seeer boys, all three of them, we all
Speaker 1: went to all school together. So it's kind of crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in different all different spaces. Yeah, exactly. So, Um, but Concorde,
Speaker 1: you know, you it's all industry people that you see.
Speaker 1: So if they love you hate you, you see them
Speaker 1: every Sunday. Um. But the notoriety and then recognition has
Speaker 1: definitely gone up, but it's still kind of more in
Speaker 1: like race markets and stuff. So, uh, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: been cool. It's been a tough kind of um alright,
Speaker 1: not tough, but a fun journey to to navigate. You
Speaker 1: used to hoop what happened. I used to just hold
Speaker 1: the picture in my little wreck ball, you know, just
Speaker 1: to make your mom happy. Exactly. Yeah. I wasn't looking back.
Speaker 1: I wasn't very good, yea, but yeah, I followed my
Speaker 1: sister split steps in that. So my sister was a baller.
Speaker 1: As you get into a race of cars. Uh, I
Speaker 1: was nine, and uh we had just moved into a
Speaker 1: new house, moved away from grew up in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: and all the friends, all the kids all went school together,
Speaker 1: and we moved away from that. So I hated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we moved fifteen minutes down the road, still in Concord,
Speaker 1: but all new school. And my dad actually end up
Speaker 1: buying Harley Davidson and he wanted to get it fixed up,
Speaker 1: make it look good, customize it out. And a family friend,
Speaker 1: Chris Rogers, who owned that bike shop he raised go
Speaker 1: carts out of the back and we were formed a
Speaker 1: great relationship with him, and he invited to come out
Speaker 1: one day and we were sitting in the stands watching
Speaker 1: kids go around and my dad was like, what do
Speaker 1: you think? My dad had a go cart and he
Speaker 1: attempted to raise three times and he flipped all three times,
Speaker 1: which was easy to do. Unfortunately, I've never flipped yet
Speaker 1: and I've come close, but um, but yeah, it was
Speaker 1: umpthing that even my dad. When my dad did it,
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to do this. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to do that. I didn't have a dream to
Speaker 1: do that. Um, but when he asked if I wanted to,
Speaker 1: you know, attempt it, finally I was like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: why not. You know, there was kids my age that
Speaker 1: are doing it and seemed like they were having fun.
Speaker 1: And we went race and I had just made the
Speaker 1: second year a U basketball team the week before and
Speaker 1: UH called him up. They I won't be in this
Speaker 1: season and never look back. I'm hanging up my shoes. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was better defense and offense. There you go. So
Speaker 1: I made fifteen years that would be in better the
Speaker 1: defense and offense? What was I mean? Everyone thinks, you
Speaker 1: know you jump in the car. We go fast on
Speaker 1: the freeway and I can race. What are some things
Speaker 1: about NASCAR that people have maybe have a misconception about it,
Speaker 1: just how tough it really is. Yeah, it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: people think, you know, three and a half four hours
Speaker 1: you're in a race car. That's a long time. So
Speaker 1: stamming aside has gotta be in check. But what's got
Speaker 1: to be a top priority is the mental state. Like
Speaker 1: as soon as you have a lapse of of of mindset,
Speaker 1: that's when the mistakes happen. Right you start thinking, man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting a little tired byam hit defense and
Speaker 1: it's like, damn, you just lost two tents, you know,
Speaker 1: And so like when I was leading the last sixty
Speaker 1: laps at Kansas earlier this year, you know, it was
Speaker 1: those moments of oh, man, you know we're gonna win.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm feeling I hate and I would be like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, fucking stop. You know, think about hitting your
Speaker 1: marks and making sure that you don't you don't set
Speaker 1: yourself up for failure. And so it's it's super tough
Speaker 1: to do because you can start to wander in those times,
Speaker 1: especially when you get sprung out and you're running kind
Speaker 1: of just by yourself. Uh, it's it's tough to do.
Speaker 1: So the mental state has to be very tough. And
Speaker 1: and me, I'm always calculating, whether it's in the race
Speaker 1: car or on the regular roads, of how to get
Speaker 1: to the destination the fastest. Not speeding, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's like six cars are in one lane, one car
Speaker 1: and the other one. This lane is gonna move, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a semi trucks and at the first car in
Speaker 1: line of semi truck and I gotta get over and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna beat him. And so my fiance is starting
Speaker 1: to pick up on that because usually she would sit
Speaker 1: behind the same mind it's like, oh, killing me. But
Speaker 1: my I noticed now like my mind is always thinking
Speaker 1: like like, oh, let's see, let's subtract that car. Let's
Speaker 1: see if I can fit in that hole. And it's
Speaker 1: always like that. I love to know now that my
Speaker 1: mind is like a NASCAR driver on the street. I'm
Speaker 1: doing the same. You can ask Lonnie the way I drive.
Speaker 1: I'm always navigating. There's COO cars over here. There's one
Speaker 1: I think I can get that little yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: it's not really like cutting them off. It's not like
Speaker 1: shoving your nose in there. It's like, oh, we call
Speaker 1: it sleeping on restart. When a car doesn't take off
Speaker 1: or creates a hole at a stoplight, you can take
Speaker 1: advantage of sleeping on the restart. It's on the phone.
Speaker 1: On the ref start to be on their phone and Zach,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that. Yes. I was surprised to hear
Speaker 1: today when we were at the track that you guys
Speaker 1: can't just get out and race around the track whenever
Speaker 1: you want. And that was crazy to me. So how
Speaker 1: do you outside of your car stay fit? Obviously said
Speaker 1: the big part is mental, But what kind of stuff
Speaker 1: do you do for training? So we have our biggest
Speaker 1: thing is all three manufacturers in the sport have a
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar simulation rig. It's full motion. It's it's basically
Speaker 1: the center section of our race car on actuators that
Speaker 1: move it and just like just like, just like just
Speaker 1: like real life, although it's the virtual side. And for me,
Speaker 1: some drivers can get in and and make it happen
Speaker 1: and be with it, but I have a hard time
Speaker 1: like disconnecting, like hey, reality versus virtual. So I get
Speaker 1: so mad, I'm like, this isn't real they're like, no, ship,
Speaker 1: it's virtual, but you can develop bad habits doing that.
Speaker 1: So you go to these places. Um, the biggest advantage
Speaker 1: for me is is when we go to like road courses.
Speaker 1: So we went to the Rovo in Charlotte last weekend
Speaker 1: and on Wednesday before we were in there for a
Speaker 1: couple of hours and it's like, Okay, I remember this bump,
Speaker 1: I remember this corner. Now it flows after this one,
Speaker 1: like okay, it feels good. But then you start running
Speaker 1: more laps and laps and laps and the thing's not
Speaker 1: really vibing with you, and it's like, oh, ship, Well
Speaker 1: when I get there in real life, is this gonna happen?
Speaker 1: So you can can you go into it hesitant, and
Speaker 1: when you're hesitant in a race car, you're slower, and
Speaker 1: so it's you gotta take some of the stuff with
Speaker 1: a grain of salt. But that's probably the biggest tool
Speaker 1: for everybody in the field is simulation time. And it's
Speaker 1: not just a video game that you turn on and
Speaker 1: press play and you know, we can take our set up.
Speaker 1: Are set up is all build up by numbers that
Speaker 1: you plug into the computer and so you feel everything
Speaker 1: and so they're like, hey, we want to make a change.
Speaker 1: They type in something different, send it out and it's like,
Speaker 1: oh okay, yeah I felt that. I felt that in
Speaker 1: the right rear on entry into one, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna put that in the car. Serious. So it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty advanced. So that's that's the cool thing about it. Though.
Speaker 1: You spoke to the mental side um of it. I
Speaker 1: mean for mentally for us, it's you know, it's watching film,
Speaker 1: watching our opponent who regarding how we play it is
Speaker 1: this similar to you guys watch film, what kind of
Speaker 1: stuff do you do mentally to stay sharp? Yep, So
Speaker 1: we have, um, we have now you know, being a
Speaker 1: part of this team. You know Denny who is a
Speaker 1: co owner with MJ. We race against him. He is
Speaker 1: big in the data analytics stuff, so we're looking at
Speaker 1: film and all this stuff. I've never really been big
Speaker 1: on that. Uh. There's a there's a software that had
Speaker 1: come out called S and T and it's basically like
Speaker 1: a video game to where you can plug in and
Speaker 1: take your car versus my car, and you can match
Speaker 1: him up head to head and you can see what
Speaker 1: you're doing. You can see your throttle application your brake application,
Speaker 1: your steering traces, so you can see like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is how you get around this track. So it kind
Speaker 1: of took the art away because before or it was like, man,
Speaker 1: how's how's Bubba driving in that? Like what's he doing?
Speaker 1: What's like I'm doing something with wheel have to break
Speaker 1: at the same time. So now all your data pops
Speaker 1: up on the screen and so you can use that.
Speaker 1: Is that advantage or disadvantage? Like I mean, I probably
Speaker 1: an advantage to learn, but it's an advantage to learn.
Speaker 1: But it's like, well, ship, you know, everybody is gonna
Speaker 1: copy what I'm doing when we're when we're good there,
Speaker 1: So it's part of it. We've accepted it, we've adapted
Speaker 1: to it. Um. But you go back and rewatch races.
Speaker 1: We have a bunch of engineers that will put in
Speaker 1: a one note a debrief sheet of things to look
Speaker 1: at and makes it makes it pretty easy head into racist.
Speaker 1: So two thousand and ten Rookie of the Year honors
Speaker 1: first ever African American to receive the award. Um okay, okay, okay, congratulations,
Speaker 1: although you know years later, but that's dope. Original thoughts
Speaker 1: when that happened. Yeah, I think, Um I was. I
Speaker 1: had to think, like, where was that was? Um? I
Speaker 1: was insto the ball kids Damn m hm, that's right
Speaker 1: in the streets doing some other things too, But that's
Speaker 1: not that's the playoffs for the first time. Yea. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was one of those deals that
Speaker 1: we were we were just racing too race and back
Speaker 1: then that series was so stout, like everybody in two
Speaker 1: thou ten iss who I'm racing. It's now in a
Speaker 1: couple level. Yeah, majority of all the young kids, there's
Speaker 1: like seven or eight of us, and so it's the
Speaker 1: same thing today. You had to bring it and um,
Speaker 1: I mean that was a really cool feature for us
Speaker 1: to to win, and the way it happened was dramatic fashion.
Speaker 1: Um Our last race of that season was Dover, Delaware,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if I've ever been in that
Speaker 1: casino up there and over it was a casino as
Speaker 1: it's a horse track, but it has a mild concrete
Speaker 1: track around it. It's one of the baddest race tracks
Speaker 1: to go too. It's good in a good way. It's uh,
Speaker 1: it's a roll a coaster. And so going into there,
Speaker 1: the guy that was helping run our program at that
Speaker 1: time Andy sent there. He said, Hey, I've raised here
Speaker 1: a lot of times in this series, and turn one
Speaker 1: is tricky, like you're gonna have to drive over the
Speaker 1: hump and to turn one and let the car settle,
Speaker 1: and so you fire off and practice and and then
Speaker 1: you know, you go to these places for the first time,
Speaker 1: these are cup tracks for the first time, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this place is massive. You know, it's like coming to
Speaker 1: Vegas for the first time when you live in a
Speaker 1: small pro dunct city and it's like, wow, this is incredible.
Speaker 1: And so you figured all out as you're going. So
Speaker 1: I go out, get up through the gears, and I
Speaker 1: go through three and four and it's a little rough.
Speaker 1: You're kind of bouncing around and come by to take
Speaker 1: the green and and you go over the hump like
Speaker 1: you said, but it's like a ski jump and you
Speaker 1: come down and slam the ground in. You don't, but
Speaker 1: it feels like, yeah. The sensation is like oh and
Speaker 1: you get slammed down. And I said that absolutely not
Speaker 1: like and uh, I'll take this to my grave. The
Speaker 1: whole weekend we had motor problems. The motor was stumbling.
Speaker 1: I could never get it figured out, so I was
Speaker 1: slow to big and went so I was like, thank god, um,
Speaker 1: and the guy that we were battling lap twenty seven,
Speaker 1: he blew it right front tire and so I was like,
Speaker 1: oh sweet, that sealed the fate for winning the Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year. And then lap thirty seven I blew
Speaker 1: a tired so it was like wow, yeah, yes. So
Speaker 1: fast forward to the next year, I went in to
Speaker 1: that same place and I was like, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring it. I'm forget that said on the pole,
Speaker 1: won the race, you know, did the whole deal. So
Speaker 1: we kind of feel like in the n b A, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't really know that you could. Everyone
Speaker 1: could play basketball obviously, and you see some tremendous rookies
Speaker 1: and stuff, but we feel like you don't really learn
Speaker 1: the game until like your third or fourth year. Absolutely
Speaker 1: similar in your sport, you know, learn the nuances once
Speaker 1: you kind of get your feet under you for sure.
Speaker 1: So my deal was was a little different. And the
Speaker 1: way to to to get into the cup level is
Speaker 1: the way it used to be used to be. Whoever
Speaker 1: was the best driver is like, hey, we want you
Speaker 1: to come drive. Well, the sport has gotten really really expensive.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's multimillions of dollars to run a
Speaker 1: competitive Cup team, and now it's like, Okay, you're pretty good,
Speaker 1: but how much money are you bringing? You know, It's
Speaker 1: like some kids, there's I'm sure we always say that
Speaker 1: there's probably the best race car driver that was somewhere
Speaker 1: out there that never got an opportunity. We didn't have
Speaker 1: the mone because they have the money to do it,
Speaker 1: and so I was kind of one of the last
Speaker 1: ones to be able to come through without money, and
Speaker 1: you know, I had enough talent to compete, but obviously, yeah,
Speaker 1: the the skin color, you know, people were like, oh,
Speaker 1: he happens to be good too, We're gonna give him
Speaker 1: a shot, and so that helped out and we attracted
Speaker 1: some sponsors, but some like for the longest time, we
Speaker 1: could never get sponsors. I remember you talking about that
Speaker 1: publicly too. Yeah, and it was like super frustrating because
Speaker 1: no offense to some of my friends, but they're all
Speaker 1: kind of boring and cookie cutter, right, and I show
Speaker 1: up and I'm I'm ready to you know, change up
Speaker 1: the scene. And so it's like, hey, sponsors, we want that, right. Anyways,
Speaker 1: we're here now we're in a great spot with sponsorship
Speaker 1: money Line's partners. That's yeah, that's right, that's your plug.
Speaker 1: But um coming up, you know. And when I got
Speaker 1: to the Cup level, I was driving for the forty
Speaker 1: three Richard Petty the King and the King the King,
Speaker 1: and historically they were a mid pack team, you know,
Speaker 1: not downplanet, they were midpack. They would have four chances
Speaker 1: to win races. That was Dayton on Talladega and you know,
Speaker 1: a couple throwing a couple of surprise races here and there.
Speaker 1: And so for me at that time, it was it
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out like, Okay, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be really competitive. I want to go win, but the
Speaker 1: car is sometimes not capable enough to do that, and
Speaker 1: so you start to build up a lot of self
Speaker 1: doubt and you go into these situations like you know,
Speaker 1: this is all I got, and then sometimes it's opposite
Speaker 1: car is really good and I don't have I failed
Speaker 1: to deliver. And so you know, I did four three
Speaker 1: years with them, and we kept improving each and every year,
Speaker 1: but it was still like a big step to get
Speaker 1: to the top ten tier, right, And so I looked
Speaker 1: at this opportunity of eleven when m J and Denny
Speaker 1: came together and decided to make it all happen. It
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, you know, this is a team that's
Speaker 1: gonna take let's say a year to get our feet
Speaker 1: wet and get everything underneath us to go out and
Speaker 1: be competitive and go in races. And still our cars
Speaker 1: are really fast, and we had some races where you know,
Speaker 1: we have a partnership with another race team that's kind
Speaker 1: of like our mothership, j g R Joe Gibbs Racing,
Speaker 1: and you know, their cars are running one, two, three, four,
Speaker 1: and then I'm fifth, running twenty and it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: you still don't have it. Cars are the same now,
Speaker 1: like you can't use that excuse. And things started to
Speaker 1: finally click. At the end of last year, ten Races
Speaker 1: left crew chief. We brought in Booty, who's my crew
Speaker 1: chief now, and things started to click and it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: now we're climbing a little bit. And we won Talladega,
Speaker 1: which was big, big, and it was like, okay, it's
Speaker 1: still a plate race, which is totally different. But then
Speaker 1: this year it was like, hey, brand new Carla race.
Speaker 1: Plate race is a restrictor plate race, so basically we're
Speaker 1: wide open whole time, and so it's it's way different
Speaker 1: than what we'll do with Vegas. Vegas, we're lifting, modulating
Speaker 1: in the car throughout all this stuff. Like we're fighting
Speaker 1: it Daytona Talladega basically sit back, one hand on the
Speaker 1: wheel cruise although you're two and a mile an hour
Speaker 1: this far apart from each other, you know. So it's
Speaker 1: it's totally a type of racing. And when one rex rex, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the chance your chances of winning are really really
Speaker 1: high if you can miss the rex. But you still
Speaker 1: gotta be good though, So if if we go to
Speaker 1: if we say Vegas is uh luck versus skill uh
Speaker 1: Daytona and Talladega is sevent luck. So it's a big jump. Um.
Speaker 1: But when I was getting at is we we come
Speaker 1: into the season and I kind of noticed, like about
Speaker 1: five races in, I'm like, we're pretty solid here. If
Speaker 1: we can put it together, like we're gonna start clicking here.
Speaker 1: And we had some issues of our own doing my
Speaker 1: own doing wreck in the car, bad pit stops, whatever
Speaker 1: you name it. The whole team was not the stars
Speaker 1: were not aligned for our team. But two months ago,
Speaker 1: three months ago now, we've been a top five car
Speaker 1: every week and it's like, okay, this is what it takes.
Speaker 1: It takes that. But then for me, the mindset and
Speaker 1: the skill set there Chief tells me and he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: you drive it so far on the entry and make
Speaker 1: the car working and worry about the rest later. And
Speaker 1: it's like basically like, hey, drive the damn thing and
Speaker 1: then we'll figure it out. And it's like big difference
Speaker 1: the game. But it took me, you know, five years
Speaker 1: to figure that out. And now it's like, okay, we're
Speaker 1: getting the respect from the other guys and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's love this cars. Wanted to watch out for it
Speaker 1: in our game. I think it's kind of lost now.
Speaker 1: But back in the day, like the younger guys used
Speaker 1: to have the o G s the mentors. Is it's
Speaker 1: sim because obviously this is such an kind of an
Speaker 1: individual sport. But are there older guys that you can
Speaker 1: kind of lean on the soak up game or it's
Speaker 1: not really like that in your sport. No, it is.
Speaker 1: We have a couple of of veterans we call them, um,
Speaker 1: you know Denny's he's obviously uh he I think he's
Speaker 1: on the end of his career. Obviously, he's purchased the
Speaker 1: race team and he's been a big help. You've got
Speaker 1: Kevin Harvick who has been doing it for a while,
Speaker 1: our teammate Kurt Bush who's out with concussion protocol stuff.
Speaker 1: But they've all been big helps. And they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what I did in your situation twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: You need to do this, this and this, and it's
Speaker 1: like man, this you know, but yeah, this is the
Speaker 1: new age stuff, but it still carries a lot of
Speaker 1: weight and a lot of power behind what they say.
Speaker 1: So it's cool thing. Yeah, you joined M M J
Speaker 1: and N by also Danny Ham. How did they reach out?
Speaker 1: So Danny, Danny and I share the same agent, and
Speaker 1: so Danny and I we've we've been around each other.
Speaker 1: We've had some run ins throughout the years. And it
Speaker 1: all started kind of, you know, the race team that
Speaker 1: I was with the forty three, they were looking to
Speaker 1: do something new and kind of changed the game and
Speaker 1: and and rebrand basically, and they wanted Denny to be
Speaker 1: a part of it in some capacity. And the way
Speaker 1: it all kind of worked out, like rumor mills start,
Speaker 1: you can't control the rumor mill bullshit right. Well, then
Speaker 1: it was like Dinny Haml and MJ starting a team,
Speaker 1: which was it wasn't even true. It to no, no,
Speaker 1: it's nothing. And so Denny fired a text to MJ.
Speaker 1: It was like, look at this, look at this crazy tweet,
Speaker 1: you know, and m J spotted back, well, let me
Speaker 1: know when you want to make appen, probably off the tequila,
Speaker 1: like let's make it. Yeah, and it was like okay,
Speaker 1: and so in at the meantime, I'm still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out I had a couple options on the table
Speaker 1: um and it was like okay. And then Denny starting
Speaker 1: to text me like hey man, you know we're this
Speaker 1: this may happen, and I'll never forget what I sent
Speaker 1: him is. He was like, dude, this has happened, is it?
Speaker 1: This is It's gonna be great. And I sent him
Speaker 1: the Kobe Bryant video one where he's in the press
Speaker 1: conference and he's not smiling. The reporter asked, He's like, hey,
Speaker 1: managed up to one, like job's not finished. I've had
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of moments like hey man,
Speaker 1: this is gonna happen, like you're about to be a star.
Speaker 1: And then call them on Monday, Hey what happened? They're like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I talk to you later. So I've
Speaker 1: been let down so many times and so I was like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: no disrespect, but sending that video, I said, when it's
Speaker 1: finished and I'm signed, we can go celebrate. Question like,
Speaker 1: so when do you guys you said you have to
Speaker 1: do you Is it like free agency somewhat or how
Speaker 1: does that changing teams kind of stuff work? Yes, somewhat. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we lock in. You know, drivers sometimes lock
Speaker 1: in five years, one year, two years and the silly
Speaker 1: season this was what we call it there at the
Speaker 1: end and drivers will you know, exercise the options, see
Speaker 1: what's see what's available from them. So I think the
Speaker 1: biggest one this year so far as is Kyle Busch,
Speaker 1: who's been a Toyota teammate of mine for the last
Speaker 1: two years but been driving the eighteen Eminem's car for
Speaker 1: the last I don't even know, eighteen years, maybe longer
Speaker 1: than that, And it came to track the year and
Speaker 1: it was like, wow, Ile is not gonna be back
Speaker 1: in the eight team and so he just signed a
Speaker 1: deal with a new team. So it's kind of it's
Speaker 1: a big, big change yeah, a guy of that stature. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can have you can drive cars for a long time.
Speaker 1: What is is there an average? I mean, I know,
Speaker 1: with the average, I mean if you're good, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know, like the our oldest in the field is
Speaker 1: forty four and still like still getting it done. I
Speaker 1: mean we've had guys racist when they're seventy and eighty,
Speaker 1: not nineties, but set in their seventies really, but they're
Speaker 1: just kind of yeah they can just because they can.
Speaker 1: They'd love it, right, I mean, hell, you love it?
Speaker 1: Keep doing it up though, Yeah, Yeah, any funny stories
Speaker 1: or he tells any stories you had running with m
Speaker 1: j U m j UM. I thought it was I
Speaker 1: thought it was really cool of how it how it
Speaker 1: all came about. Um. Then he went down to play
Speaker 1: at the growth and uh, he texts me. He's like, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you doing at six thirty. I was like, nothing,
Speaker 1: sit on the couch, all right, I'm gonna calling you.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there six thirty, six forty five. Then
Speaker 1: he's notoriously late six seven o'clock, rolls around calls me, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? I was like, sitting on the
Speaker 1: couch because here somebody wants to talk to you. It
Speaker 1: was m J. This is my first time I ever
Speaker 1: talking to m Jack And he said, hey, if we
Speaker 1: do this deal, right, no more running in the back,
Speaker 1: like alright, digging at me. And I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: sounds good. Yeah, okay, So I thought that was pretty special. Um,
Speaker 1: but m J. Man, he's just he's competitive and uh
Speaker 1: loves to loves to poke the bearon bet against you
Speaker 1: and uh just just to push it, just just to motivation.
Speaker 1: And he'll he'll like in the moment he's you know,
Speaker 1: joking around and hey, I'll bet against you here. But
Speaker 1: then he'll pull you aside and he's like, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm doing right, and then get results and he'll
Speaker 1: be like he did that to us in practice. So
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing when
Speaker 1: he was a race weekend. When you're getting ready to
Speaker 1: go into a race weekend, music wise, what you listening to? Man,
Speaker 1: I'm different. I'm into the heavy metal stuff. Metal cores
Speaker 1: of stuff you can't understand when they're screaming and shouting
Speaker 1: the energy. Yeah, but it honestly, it's it does the
Speaker 1: exact opposite of what they're outputting, Like it calms me down. Interesting.
Speaker 1: So we always call it angry music for happy people.
Speaker 1: And it's something that I found in two thousand four
Speaker 1: or five, and I liked it mostly because of the drumming.
Speaker 1: I have a drum set at home. I like to
Speaker 1: walk around a little bit every once in a while,
Speaker 1: and it was nice. It was easy for me to
Speaker 1: shut out the words and just listen to the drum
Speaker 1: track and try to replicate that. Like. I enjoyed that,
Speaker 1: Like that was cool. And then the more and more
Speaker 1: I got into it, got to know some bands and
Speaker 1: appreciate more the music and the art of it and
Speaker 1: how normal they are outside of the performance, and then
Speaker 1: they just turned into a maniac and so it's like
Speaker 1: the whole respect level has gone up for them. But man,
Speaker 1: just the breakdowns. The breakdowns were the best part of
Speaker 1: that music. And they put you in this mindset where
Speaker 1: like you can't be messed with, And so I enjoyed that.
Speaker 1: But I enjoy all types of music. Really, I got
Speaker 1: one room. Don't touch my drums set. I might put
Speaker 1: my nuts on your drums. Did you touch my drum set?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you got a lot of victories. What's the
Speaker 1: sweetest any anyone stand out, Um, I'd say all all
Speaker 1: of them are very important to me. My first truck
Speaker 1: win at the national level, you know, that was big.
Speaker 1: That was you know, late in the season, not really
Speaker 1: the best of seasons racing for Kyle Bush and his
Speaker 1: truck team. He's winning every time he gets in the truck.
Speaker 1: And then we went out and won martin Zille and
Speaker 1: like that was like, hell, yeah, we did it. And
Speaker 1: then we show up the next year we won four
Speaker 1: more and then since uh I was winless and then
Speaker 1: this one's probably number one. Going into that season, lack
Speaker 1: of funding, lack of sponsorship. From the rip of the
Speaker 1: start of the year, it was like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be able to race all the way
Speaker 1: throughout the year. We're gonna go until we can't know more.
Speaker 1: So it's like okay, and just so happens, we put
Speaker 1: together our best year. Were fourth in the points at
Speaker 1: race number eight and going into Kansas, the forty three
Speaker 1: car in the Cup race, the driver at that time
Speaker 1: broke his back and a crash and that was a
Speaker 1: forward car. I was driving from fourth at the time
Speaker 1: and got on the phone. I was like, I hope
Speaker 1: he's all right, but I need to be in that ride.
Speaker 1: I want to fill in, you know, until he gets back.
Speaker 1: And so agents were working on it and through all
Speaker 1: that stuff and all worked out by I think it
Speaker 1: was race number eleven or twelve. UH. We got the
Speaker 1: call like, hey, it's your times next weekend at Pocono
Speaker 1: to drive the forty three. But hey, also, you're done
Speaker 1: racing Xfinity, Like we're shutting it down. So it's like
Speaker 1: you're gonna be out of a ride. But for the
Speaker 1: next four year in so I was a substitute and
Speaker 1: put together our best races. It was good. And then
Speaker 1: they were like Eric's back, the guy who broke his back,
Speaker 1: he's back, So thanks for your time, see you later.
Speaker 1: I was on the couch. I was on the couch
Speaker 1: from UH late July two August or September. It was
Speaker 1: like four or five weeks. I was on the couch.
Speaker 1: Then Michigan rolled around and a team called a truck
Speaker 1: team called and he said, hey, we want you to
Speaker 1: come drive my truck. I was like okay, and we
Speaker 1: went out there and we won it. And so it
Speaker 1: was four years, three years of just getting kicked in
Speaker 1: the dirt, and it was like Boom obviously won. I
Speaker 1: had that one race I won. Then I was back
Speaker 1: on the couch, so I was like, damn, I know,
Speaker 1: I still got it. We went to work and I
Speaker 1: got a cup ride the next year driving the forty three,
Speaker 1: and then the second one. Talla Diego was big last year,
Speaker 1: but this passed when at Kansas just because of the
Speaker 1: way the racing was. We dominated the last third of
Speaker 1: that race and we wont in that fashion, and it
Speaker 1: was one of those It's like, okay, no more. If
Speaker 1: I could say sh about this one. You know, Talla
Speaker 1: Diego was a rain short and race. We knew it
Speaker 1: was gonna rain, and we drove up to the field
Speaker 1: and took the lead and rain fell and races over
Speaker 1: with right. But we always had that bullshit like you
Speaker 1: always had the asteria inside that because you didn't go
Speaker 1: the full distance. Even I put Astra inside it. But
Speaker 1: the races where I was doing bad, I would be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you only want that because you because it rained. You know,
Speaker 1: I'd become a hater myself. I'm like my biggest enemy
Speaker 1: but also my biggest cheerleader at the same time, and Kansas,
Speaker 1: I can't even say ship to myself. On that one
Speaker 1: because it's like we did it, we did it right.
Speaker 1: So that one two high ups. I got two questions.
Speaker 1: Are you saying truck team because the truck the name
Speaker 1: of the drivers on the truck. Why are you saying
Speaker 1: why do you keep saying truck? So the truck series.
Speaker 1: So there's three cities, there's three levels when you get
Speaker 1: to uh NASCAR. So for ball I would go, I
Speaker 1: would go maybe maybe high school or Juco and then
Speaker 1: collegiate ball and then pros pros Cup. Right what we
Speaker 1: race on Sunday, Xfinity is collegiate and then truck is Juco,
Speaker 1: high School. And so that's the levels where you get
Speaker 1: to and it's a stepping stone. Some kids can come
Speaker 1: up through because they got money and boom to the top,
Speaker 1: but their experience shows. And I don't know if the
Speaker 1: answer how many races in this season two exhibition races? Uh? Yeah? Racist.
Speaker 1: Um of late athletes have come out and been brave
Speaker 1: enough to speak on mental health, which I think is important.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's always been something that's kind of hush
Speaker 1: hush or not man enough to really talk about. You've
Speaker 1: struggled with depression throughout your life, Um, How did you
Speaker 1: get through it? Do you still go through it? Um?
Speaker 1: What's the process with that? Yeah? I think I had
Speaker 1: a I was having a couple of days of depression
Speaker 1: last week, actually on my birthday. No idea, why comes
Speaker 1: and goes? Yeah? That was Yeah, that was the first
Speaker 1: time in in a while. But uh, I thought I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I'm twenty nine, like birthdays or just
Speaker 1: another day to me. But that was on Saturday. And
Speaker 1: then Sunday we raced that Roval, which is the worst
Speaker 1: track on the schedule. Every driver will tell you, and
Speaker 1: it's just what Charlotte, it's our home race. So we
Speaker 1: got the big Coke six hundred, Uh, the big race
Speaker 1: and then they used to be a smaller race, used
Speaker 1: to be the Bank of America on the big track,
Speaker 1: but now they made it a road course race and
Speaker 1: terrible idea. But anyways, that's another story another day. And
Speaker 1: historically never really run well there, and so it was
Speaker 1: always one of those deals like you show up to
Speaker 1: a game, it's like, man, I'm gonna play like today.
Speaker 1: Just you just always feel it. Yeah, And I struggle
Speaker 1: at road courses in general, but we've gotten better and better.
Speaker 1: Long story, short qualified decent start the race, really good.
Speaker 1: In lap four I messed up and almost spent out
Speaker 1: and wreck all right in last for the the race,
Speaker 1: and then we make it through the Rex and the Carners.
Speaker 1: We finished seventh, like damn good day. And I got
Speaker 1: out of the car and I was like, yeah cool,
Speaker 1: and I was I was riding home. I'd have a
Speaker 1: motorcycle read in Harley's and I read my motorcycle home
Speaker 1: and I was just like, what the hell is going on?
Speaker 1: Like I'm not pumped, I'm not excited, and I was like, ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: just turned twenty nine. Thanks were great, you know, finished
Speaker 1: seventh at your worst racetrack, Like so it just happens,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, for me, it's woke up the
Speaker 1: next day and they pumped, like just just like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I don't do anything different. I just know like
Speaker 1: the grass is always green on the other side, and
Speaker 1: son's gonna wake up. Our son's gonna rise tomorrow. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of my mentality going with it, and every
Speaker 1: it is different and how they deal with it, and
Speaker 1: for me, it's turning on that music to help get
Speaker 1: it out and then things are good. Uh. In your
Speaker 1: team made national headlines with you know, what someone thought
Speaker 1: was a noose fount in your garage, FBI investigation, a
Speaker 1: lot of yeah, no, yeah no. Can you break that
Speaker 1: without going too deep into the situation. Can you break
Speaker 1: that down for us? And what happened? Um Talladega? Um,
Speaker 1: you know with everything that was going on, George Floyd
Speaker 1: all that, you know, just got rid of the Confederate
Speaker 1: flag and our sport and we're going to Talladega. You know,
Speaker 1: heightened awareness is at all times, so it's like, if
Speaker 1: something's gonna happen, it's something's gonna happen there. And um,
Speaker 1: at that time, it was COVID. So we got rid
Speaker 1: of practice, we got rid of qualify, and we just
Speaker 1: show up and race. So we're sitting in the bus,
Speaker 1: Blannie and I. We're sitting the bus playing two K
Speaker 1: or something, and we're like, let's go to dinner soon,
Speaker 1: all right. So we're about to go get some uh
Speaker 1: some pizza or something, and I get a call from
Speaker 1: the president, Hey, what's up, President of mascart, Steve Phelps,
Speaker 1: what's up? Hey, here's your bus. It's like, uh yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: see in a minute. I'm like, oh ship, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: like so I go up, pull up, like the receipts
Speaker 1: on my phone. I'm like, what about tweet? I'm like, Ship,
Speaker 1: you know, I've gotten in trouble for Twitter a couple
Speaker 1: of times here and there joined the club, and so
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, you know, I see him walking. I
Speaker 1: opened up the door for him, Hey, you want to
Speaker 1: bottle of water? Like, what's up? And it was one
Speaker 1: of those looks I never forget. It's just dead pan,
Speaker 1: tears in his eyes. I'm sorry, Ship, you know. And
Speaker 1: he told me, you know, crewmember found what a noose?
Speaker 1: And so I was like, oh, Ship, okay, like all right,
Speaker 1: and obviously long story short investigated. Not a noose, not
Speaker 1: a threat towards me. Looked just like a news tied
Speaker 1: up just like this whatever it might be the size
Speaker 1: of your pinking but still looks like that. Um you know.
Speaker 1: Throughout that whole deal, it was just like damn, you know,
Speaker 1: and I knew. I called my crew member who had
Speaker 1: found it. I said, hey, ma, you sure, because I
Speaker 1: was like, this is gonna look, this is gonna be bad.
Speaker 1: And called him my crew chief called me. He's like, dude,
Speaker 1: fucked up. And I was like, all right, what did
Speaker 1: you learn from that if anything, Um that honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't really know. I mean, you know you always have
Speaker 1: to just you know, keep your head on a swivel
Speaker 1: and just look out for self, right, Like that's the
Speaker 1: important thing with life. And you know, I hate that
Speaker 1: whole SCENEO went down and now now from from going
Speaker 1: from all that and people think it's a play and
Speaker 1: you know, a plot for me to you know, always
Speaker 1: losing his r eye Like I was good. I had
Speaker 1: had a really good deal going. You know, the results
Speaker 1: may not have shown that, but we were we were
Speaker 1: solid and uh and so you gained i'd say majority
Speaker 1: of your fan base, but you've also gained a whole
Speaker 1: new fan base. Um, not from that, but seeing what
Speaker 1: all stem from it. You people show their true colors, right,
Speaker 1: even even close people like they were like, oh yeah
Speaker 1: that's Bubba for you. M like whoa, all right yeah
Speaker 1: and um and so you it's like all right, you know,
Speaker 1: I keep my circles tight and it just got tighter
Speaker 1: then and and that's okay with me. Um, But you know,
Speaker 1: ship happens and you you you grow on and move
Speaker 1: on from it, and you know it, you know, it
Speaker 1: made me more aware of my surroundings in everyday life.
Speaker 1: So I'm always you know, who's here for me and
Speaker 1: who's not. You know, you go to the track now
Speaker 1: and Kyle's Kyle Bush still gets the most booze, but
Speaker 1: you know his is his is different. You know, my
Speaker 1: ship is like more personal, and so it sucks. But
Speaker 1: throughout all that, the people that really understand the story
Speaker 1: and and and and know the facts, like you have
Speaker 1: a whole new fan base and it's and it's been
Speaker 1: very supportive, and I've been appreciative of it because they
Speaker 1: weed out the bullshit just like I would. And uh,
Speaker 1: they're there for you. So it's cool to have people
Speaker 1: like that. Being the only black driver in NASCAR, um,
Speaker 1: I remember when Tiger Woods kind of broke that barrier
Speaker 1: and kind of opened the door and got you know
Speaker 1: a lot of minorities, particularly African to Ericans into golf.
Speaker 1: Do you do you think about that at the beginning
Speaker 1: middle now? Does it not cross your mind? I know
Speaker 1: you just want to be known as a racer because
Speaker 1: that's what we are. But do you ever think about
Speaker 1: kind of your historical significance in this spot you're in,
Speaker 1: and and and the ability to encourage the next Bubble
Speaker 1: Wallace to come along the lines I do when we
Speaker 1: talk about it. Okay, Um, you know, like I said
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, we just go up, show up,
Speaker 1: and race, and when go home, race and win again,
Speaker 1: race and lose. We just kept doing that. When I
Speaker 1: won my first race at Martinsville, it was like, yes,
Speaker 1: you know, great job, dude, you you did it. You know,
Speaker 1: you won your first struck race. And then you get
Speaker 1: out and they're like, Bubble, who was first afric American
Speaker 1: to win? And it's like, oh ship, right, wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't even cross your mind now, No, it's it's there.
Speaker 1: And so I in my tweet, Uh that's pinned since
Speaker 1: seen is you know, you're not gonna stop hearing about
Speaker 1: the black driver. There's only one one, and so accept it,
Speaker 1: embrace it, and enjoy the journey because that's what I've done. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of hearing about it. But media's got to
Speaker 1: get their click bait and all this ship. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not just gonna put Bubba Wallace one of race.
Speaker 1: People are gonna be like, who the hell's at they
Speaker 1: put black driver? Yeah, the viewership goes up. Some black friends,
Speaker 1: my best friends blay four. Um, but you know it's
Speaker 1: it is what it is. But I don't It's not
Speaker 1: like I, you know, run away from that. I accepted it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and try to make it better. And I'll say
Speaker 1: everywhere we go, now there's minorities that you know that
Speaker 1: are fans. They're like, hey man, we're fans because you like,
Speaker 1: we've never watched NASCAR, and it's it's super dope. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm one of them. Yeah. I was surprised today when
Speaker 1: we went to the thing, there was like a lot
Speaker 1: of black people. And it sounds maybe crazy to say,
Speaker 1: but I was surprised. We saw like a a lot
Speaker 1: of black people worked and I'm just like, m okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it's that was. That was one of
Speaker 1: the things that my mom at Richmond, we had one
Speaker 1: Richmond and two thousand eleven and um, this was this
Speaker 1: was more like a kind of more like JV football
Speaker 1: or j V ball and we won Richmond and my
Speaker 1: mom was like, hey, you look up in the stands.
Speaker 1: What do you see? This is after the race? Like
Speaker 1: now they're empty. It's like no, look and it was
Speaker 1: just Hispanics, minorities, black cleaning the stands and there she
Speaker 1: was like they probably have no idea that there's a
Speaker 1: black kid down here dropping and it was like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty interesting. And Richmond, Richmond is in the hood.
Speaker 1: It is right next door to the hood, and it's
Speaker 1: incredible to see now, like I said, eleven eleven years,
Speaker 1: like how much that's changed. We're doing these deals called
Speaker 1: Bubble's Block Party. We just did one in in uh
Speaker 1: in Birmingham, which was super dope. We had DJ Many
Speaker 1: Fresh Out and Big Crip Fresh Fresh and uh the
Speaker 1: crowd was awesome. Done in the black folks like it
Speaker 1: was super dope and they were interested in they were
Speaker 1: pumped to see me there, right, but we weren't at
Speaker 1: the racetrack and and I wasn't performing. It was just
Speaker 1: one of these deals, you know, and it's like, Okay, now,
Speaker 1: this this is the real job. How do we get
Speaker 1: this crap to carry over? What's the carry over? How
Speaker 1: do we get this Let Manny Fresh come DJ that
Speaker 1: motherfucker that might be. So that's the real process of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we got these people knowing about NASCAR and Bubba Wallace
Speaker 1: and all of our partners here, but they're still not
Speaker 1: at the track, which is i'd say the goal. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: so we've still got a lot of work to do there.
Speaker 1: And what that answer is it is who knows, you know,
Speaker 1: what is the how do we do that? It's a
Speaker 1: it's a journey, not a destination right right time? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean obviously all time, you know, it's on our minds.
Speaker 1: And like you even said, like I didn't. Movie is
Speaker 1: known about Nascar, but I didn't started paying attention until
Speaker 1: I simon, this is my color. Like we're close. He's
Speaker 1: a little he's he's staying oven a little longer. I mean,
Speaker 1: you were kind of similar. So I just like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's someone hey. True, no, but I think that's dough. Um.
Speaker 1: You've always been someone to use your platform to kind
Speaker 1: of speak on important issues, talk to us about your project,
Speaker 1: lived to be different. Yeah, so we're all different. Right.
Speaker 1: You guys can't drive a race car. I can't play ball.
Speaker 1: We're different. I can attempt to, Yeah, you can shoot.
Speaker 1: I'm not even I can't get in the car. And
Speaker 1: I told a buddy of mine that I told a
Speaker 1: buddy of mine it might be in this room. I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: you might be able to take pictures and shoot videos.
Speaker 1: I can do that same ship too, but you can't
Speaker 1: drive race So just remember that. Remember that when you
Speaker 1: want to talk, Hey man, my picture better than yours. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do your job, you can't. He a little
Speaker 1: bit of reality. I just speak facts. But again, we're
Speaker 1: all different. We're all different. And you know, is it
Speaker 1: my purpose in life to be a race car driver?
Speaker 1: You don't know? Is it your purpose to was it
Speaker 1: your purpose to play ball? You don't know? But you
Speaker 1: live it out every day to figure out what your
Speaker 1: purpose is. And it's different from everybody else. And so
Speaker 1: as I've always said, live to be different. Like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm different the way I look in the sport, and
Speaker 1: so I'm not letting that stop me. So I encourage
Speaker 1: other people to live on life, have fun with it.
Speaker 1: Only you can tell yourself no. People gonna try. But
Speaker 1: you gotta be strong enough mentally and physically to say no.
Speaker 1: That mental part. How do you reflect on your career
Speaker 1: with this so far? What's what anything you want to accomplish?
Speaker 1: Like on the first thing on your mind? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you know. It's it's really big, uh to be successful.
Speaker 1: For me, success reads everything, winning means everything everything, and
Speaker 1: realizing that there's so much more to life than that.
Speaker 1: Like I've I've started to learn that, Like I I
Speaker 1: made a big mistake and when you know, I wasn't
Speaker 1: running well and I told my fiance like, hey, Rasin
Speaker 1: is always gonna come first. That was a massive stakes
Speaker 1: racing thing. Always gonna be there, right, you know, and
Speaker 1: understand that life is super important and the people that
Speaker 1: you're surrounded with is super important. I started to appreciate
Speaker 1: that a lot more. And we're in a great spot,
Speaker 1: better than we've ever been. Um. And so understanding that
Speaker 1: part of it has been really really cool. Um. But
Speaker 1: from the racing side of things and my career, there
Speaker 1: is is you know, Bubba wins Talladega, it's a massive story.
Speaker 1: Bubba wins Kansas, It's a massive story. I want to
Speaker 1: get to the point where it's like, oh, Bubba, just
Speaker 1: want another you know, but but did it again? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's and it's just like Okay, that's it and
Speaker 1: not be some like oh ship like I'd like to
Speaker 1: text go from four hundred down to twenty. Hey man,
Speaker 1: nice job, good job. That's it. Super appreciative all foreign
Speaker 1: people that text me. But it's one of those deals
Speaker 1: is like it's a surprise. Still, it feels like a surprise,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to get it to where it's like
Speaker 1: a normal occurrence. So if you're going to do this
Speaker 1: for someone in years to be able to have it,
Speaker 1: just another one. It's another one? Is it? Who is
Speaker 1: Bubba Willas outside of the homebody? I don't I don't
Speaker 1: like PC. Yeah, PC, So I'm on that wars on stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: see like okay, let me tell you something. When somebody
Speaker 1: say they're a PC, they mean they cheat. They got
Speaker 1: aimed bats, somebody just moving the moss and shop you
Speaker 1: can aim assists with the controllers. Yeah, but it's just
Speaker 1: so so you know, it's easier with their mouths recoil.
Speaker 1: Jack just behind and try to snipe people. He's not
Speaker 1: really out there. I'm gonna picking teams. It's a good leader.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick you and the rest of the guys.
Speaker 1: It's gonna do a lot of killing. And I was
Speaker 1: gonna call people out in snipe just getting carried. I'm sniping. Hey,
Speaker 1: someone came and played Jack on Call of Duty Murray
Speaker 1: on our show, they do a knife and kill Jack
Speaker 1: with a knife and jack knife on the game. I'm
Speaker 1: shooting everybody doing a knife in me. Yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: a big gamer. Um. There's a couple of us that
Speaker 1: get on uh about every night, nine thirty, ten o'clock.
Speaker 1: It's the what's up? It's time? All right, baby, I
Speaker 1: got a text. You gotta go killing the chill. That's
Speaker 1: what I was trying to me with bonds. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how we're killing the chilling. I love that. Besides that,
Speaker 1: I'm golfing. Try to golf once twice a week. Put
Speaker 1: your handicap a twelve. Okay, you're okay, Yeah that's weelve
Speaker 1: and it's so frustrating. Shot eighty seven a day, eighties seven.
Speaker 1: Now we didn't get to finish, so I can get
Speaker 1: the score. But now I'm I am a hater of
Speaker 1: myself when it comes to golf. Oh you don't want
Speaker 1: to play around me because I used to get super
Speaker 1: fucking mad. I'll enjoy the moment, but I'm just madam
Speaker 1: competitive and I'm like, you know what to do, do
Speaker 1: it and I can't do it. So but yeah, golf
Speaker 1: and just relaxing at home like parties. I'll party all
Speaker 1: day if it's at my house. Yeah, I'm not going out,
Speaker 1: hate the city, hate traffic. Just I lift eleven minutes
Speaker 1: from the airport. Get on playing, go home race, do
Speaker 1: all that come back? You're driving enough. I want to
Speaker 1: be home too quick. Hitters, coming down to the end
Speaker 1: of the show. First thing across your mind. Let us
Speaker 1: know top five NASCAR drivers of all time in your
Speaker 1: opinion Richard Petty got, Dylan Hart, Jimmy Johnson all seven
Speaker 1: times champions. Uh you know, I didn't really pay attention
Speaker 1: to the older stuff. Um so people are gonna be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you didn't say like Kelly Yarborough or you know, Davey
Speaker 1: Allison's your list. Yeah, uh so I got those three
Speaker 1: and then right now current time Kyle Bush, Kyle Larson,
Speaker 1: stuck on the island. Three shows are movies in rotation Friday. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm a horror movie fanatic. And Halloween came out today.
Speaker 1: Uh it was thirty the thirtieth Halloween, thirty one. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be asked, but that's all right. I was watching
Speaker 1: Halloween when I was like four or five. So yeah,
Speaker 1: like a lot of parents, my friends that we could,
Speaker 1: we couldn't watch watch all of it. Uh So Friday, Halloween,
Speaker 1: let's go more suspense um like law abiding sis and
Speaker 1: one night in Vegas on the money line cardcause everything
Speaker 1: is on the house. They got a lot of money
Speaker 1: over there. Three people you'd bring with you past or present?
Speaker 1: I'm not in Vegas and you're not party or but
Speaker 1: tonight you're gonna party because it's I'm money line swipe it. Um.
Speaker 1: Let's see who who would I bring present? That's tough,
Speaker 1: better alive? One night, yeah, one night in Vegas. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to go with I said Friday, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to go with Tucker Smoke Okay, yeah Smoky
Speaker 1: because I was too. And then who's another solid one?
Speaker 1: I would have to probably invite Wayne out wheezy oh
Speaker 1: yeah yeah uh. And then the third the third I
Speaker 1: party with m jam right him Jam yeah yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just speaking and cigars, so that's you got some. I
Speaker 1: already got some good tea if you like that, and
Speaker 1: I don't like that, and like that any pre race
Speaker 1: routines you've got, Our schedules are so like compact on.
Speaker 1: We try to time it out to where I'll have
Speaker 1: like forty five minutes to an hour after all of
Speaker 1: our meet and greets and stuff at the track. Uh
Speaker 1: to go back to the bus eat Uh, shower if
Speaker 1: you need to, but just get ready. But I'll put
Speaker 1: music on. I put music on and go to the
Speaker 1: back room of the bus and blast it. So did too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just done out. So it's it's funny. I always
Speaker 1: tell the new people that I meet. It's like when
Speaker 1: you'll see me at the track, you know, doing the
Speaker 1: meet and greets, it's, hey, what's up? How are you?
Speaker 1: You know, everything's great, like welcome out. But then when
Speaker 1: you see me again, like no disrespect, but I'm you know,
Speaker 1: because it's so different for us, Like two hours before game,
Speaker 1: you guys are in locker room, you know, getting Fred,
Speaker 1: We're signing autographs, get some babies, We're doing all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And even before we throw a leg in the car,
Speaker 1: we're still doing that chip. So it's always always in
Speaker 1: the moment. You guys can see that. On Sunday. How
Speaker 1: fast do you get in and out of the pits? Uh?
Speaker 1: Average average? So the pit stops the pit stops alone own.
Speaker 1: Uh if you can bust off an eight five, let's
Speaker 1: getting eight seconds really eight like a change of blown
Speaker 1: tire whatever. The blowing tire is different because you gotta
Speaker 1: get the car up. But if it's a come in,
Speaker 1: come in, a clean stop and everybody executes, it's eight
Speaker 1: point five and nine seconds and the slowest. There's some
Speaker 1: teams that, you know, maybe developmental teams that are excuse me,
Speaker 1: doing fourteen fifteen seconds, but you got no shot every second,
Speaker 1: and that's changing all four tires and what else? And
Speaker 1: fuel four tires and fuel enough. Yeah, and so if
Speaker 1: you ask for an adjustment that slows down your time
Speaker 1: by a couple of few tenths, have it. No, So
Speaker 1: you have to be spot on every time. So eight
Speaker 1: eight five, I think is our fastest recorded stop. It's
Speaker 1: not hours, but in the sport for this new car,
Speaker 1: because it used to be it used to be uh
Speaker 1: ten seconds, but we've gone from five lug nuts to
Speaker 1: one lug nut, so you think about that time. It
Speaker 1: decreased that time, so it took three second. It's tough
Speaker 1: to deal. Here's the real question. Five dinner guests better alive?
Speaker 1: Um U plus five? Okay, So there's two sitting in
Speaker 1: the room right here, right let's right, my boy, my boy,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a good time. I'm gonna make sure
Speaker 1: and I'm more secured. Um, let's go with uh, you know,
Speaker 1: let's go with Prince. Uh, Prince, let's go with him.
Speaker 1: Let's go with h. I think it'd be awesome to
Speaker 1: sit there and have a conversation with Obama. Oh, have
Speaker 1: a have a have a drink, have a cocktail? One more? Um, Kobe,
Speaker 1: m there you go. I'm bringing the wheat. If you
Speaker 1: could see one guess on all the smoke Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: who would it be? Um? Before you answer the question,
Speaker 1: you have to help us get your answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll see if I can make a phone call get Yeah,
Speaker 1: what made you think of Mike? I didn't think of that. Yes, yeah, Michael,
Speaker 1: makes sense. Might come on through. Yeah, there you go. Well,
Speaker 1: Bubba man, we appreciate your time. Best this weekend. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be out there cheering for you. Um Man. Best
Speaker 1: luck the rest of the season. I know it's coming
Speaker 1: down to one end. Jack, you got something to give him?
Speaker 1: What we got? Let's go. You can sit while you
Speaker 1: playing CD. Yeah, all the smoke shirt. What I'm saying,
Speaker 1: are you chilling or killing? He said? I love it?
Speaker 1: Thanks once again, Bubba Wallas, big shout out, money Line,
Speaker 1: Blue Wire Studios, the Win Hotel. You can catch us
Speaker 1: on Showtime Basketball YouTube and the I Heart platform Black Effects.
Speaker 1: We'll see you all next week. Put Up n Street,
Speaker 1: everybody in