Speaker 1: Hey, I feel like that went good. Welcome to another
Speaker 1: episode of Racing with the Boys. We have a massive
Speaker 1: guest on this week. Chase Elliott rated the most popular driver.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many years, I believe it was eight,
Speaker 1: an absolute legend in the game. Before we get into
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Speaker 1: go racing. Enjoy this interview with Chase Elliott.
Speaker 2: We are rolling ladies and gentlemen. It is racing with
Speaker 2: the boys. Another episode with a fan favorite, the one
Speaker 2: the only Chase Elliott's give him rid of a pause.
Speaker 2: His fans are called, well, Chase sexuals. Now, you did
Speaker 2: an interview not so long ago where a guy referred
Speaker 2: to them as Chase sexuals. When you sat back stoically,
Speaker 2: and you're like, well, I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 2: Have you done any investigative reporting on why your fans
Speaker 2: are called Chase sexuals?
Speaker 3: The only the only information I have on this is
Speaker 3: what I've been told, and honestly, It's kind of more
Speaker 3: fun that way, because I don't know how much I
Speaker 3: want to know about this. Yeah, so I'm I'm good.
Speaker 3: I'm good with it. They've been good to me, But
Speaker 3: I don't know what they're called.
Speaker 2: I'll say this about you, Chase. We've only been on
Speaker 2: here for a couple of minutes. You've got a nice
Speaker 2: bear strong, jawnline, handsome boy. You're a little you seem
Speaker 2: a little more like an observant type of cat. And
Speaker 2: I think that's why I'm starting to figure out why
Speaker 2: they're calling them Chase sexuals.
Speaker 1: Because they're into them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they're into them. Yeah, they's Yeah, it could be.
Speaker 1: I know, having somebody like Chase Elliott on anybody that's
Speaker 1: come on the bus, whether it's William Byron, Kyle Larson,
Speaker 1: Ryan Blaney, everybody said Chase Elliott, it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting to see if we can get much out of him,
Speaker 1: because apparently you're you're you keep to yourself.
Speaker 3: Man. I don't know why they give me such a
Speaker 3: hard time, especially Ryan, Like we're we're pretty good friends.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I don't feel like I'm not complex.
Speaker 3: I don't know why this is being assumed towards me.
Speaker 1: You've been voted the most popular NASCAR driver for eight years,
Speaker 1: but you also seen to be be voted the most
Speaker 1: private guy in Nascar. What what keeps you so private
Speaker 1: in wanting to keep whatever the like whatever the things
Speaker 1: you do in private away from the public, not whether
Speaker 1: it's personality, like yeah, private popular, Why are you the
Speaker 1: most private guy in Nascar as well?
Speaker 3: I mean, I wouldn't say I'm necessarily the most private.
Speaker 3: I just, uh, I don't know. It's not that I'm
Speaker 3: like out trying to be super private. I'm just also
Speaker 3: not like putting everything I do on blast, like I
Speaker 3: guess that's probably more of my route. Like I'm just
Speaker 3: not uh, I don't know, Like I just don't care
Speaker 3: to let the world know my every move as far
Speaker 3: as like, you know, I feel like some people wake
Speaker 3: up in the morning they post that I'm going to
Speaker 3: get breakfast or I'm going here. You know, my coffee
Speaker 3: this morning was incredible or whatever it was. But I
Speaker 3: don't know, I just yeah, like, I you know, I
Speaker 3: have a good group of friends around home, and I
Speaker 3: feel like my circle is pretty small in general. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say I'm like super shy per se. But
Speaker 3: I just uh yeah, I just choose not to put
Speaker 3: everything I do on on blast out there. I guess
Speaker 3: it's not like I'm trying to be any certain way.
Speaker 3: It's just a little bit of how I am.
Speaker 1: I suppose you'll just do your thing, just drive fast
Speaker 1: the only thing he can be with.
Speaker 2: The boys, Yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: Can we start with some light questions?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's start with some fun ones. Let's let's let
Speaker 2: me ask you a question. Well, if you had to say,
Speaker 2: like your favorite band of all time, what would it be?
Speaker 3: Favorite band that's fun music?
Speaker 1: I'm not like I I enjoy music, Yeah, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong. But as far as like naming my favorite
Speaker 1: band of all time, like I don't, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't really have Let's just say, yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2: We'll say CDC, I'll go Chase, I'll go Blake. What
Speaker 2: Edie Too is my favorite band? What is your If
Speaker 2: you're putting on a song and you're like, I need
Speaker 2: to get the juices flowing this morning, I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: post about it, but I'm still gonna enjoy this in
Speaker 2: my inner circle. What song are you putting on?
Speaker 3: Man? A song in particular is tough. I mean, Blank one,
Speaker 3: Eddie two is a strong choice. I'm not gonna lie,
Speaker 3: all right. I love that like punk rock, early two thousands, Blake.
Speaker 2: On, Eddie two, pop punk bands, you're into it, early
Speaker 2: two thousands. Give me a barrage of bands you like
Speaker 2: to listen to.
Speaker 3: I'll wait ten seconds, waiting ten Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 3: love that era of music for sure. I always you know,
Speaker 3: like the Green Day vibe back then, I thought it
Speaker 3: was incredible. It's kind of a shame. Like Ryan and
Speaker 3: I actually talked about this not too long ago about
Speaker 3: how no one has really or maybe it just hasn't
Speaker 3: got popular, but no one has really tried to bring
Speaker 3: that back like all you. I mean, you have like
Speaker 3: some of those older bands that are trying to stay around,
Speaker 3: but you haven't really seen a new rendition of that.
Speaker 3: So I would love to see it. But I would
Speaker 3: say nowadays, I'm probably more of a country guy. Love
Speaker 3: Eric Church. Been a big fan of his for a
Speaker 3: long time. Yeah, he's uh, he's pretty tough to beat,
Speaker 3: I feel like in the music industry. And then also
Speaker 3: kind of more on the up and coming side, Musket One, Bloodline,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Crew, Yeah, they yeah, they probably Yeah, I
Speaker 3: would say Charlie, I could see him. I could see
Speaker 3: him being on board.
Speaker 1: If you had, like how baseball players have like walk
Speaker 1: up songs, w W, they have walkout songs. If you
Speaker 1: I had one song and you were driving out to it,
Speaker 1: what would it be?
Speaker 3: Oh? Man, I would say, let's say holding my own
Speaker 3: Eric Church.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, that's a good pull. I would have said
Speaker 2: The Outsiders by Eric Church. That to me is a
Speaker 2: song that just kind of in twenty sixteen, that was
Speaker 2: our go out song as an offensive line when we
Speaker 2: go out for warm ups, and then you know, it
Speaker 2: started going there the encraft where the other ones and
Speaker 2: has it started getting going a little bit? So yeah,
Speaker 2: walk out song ec he rips Muscatine bloodline they also
Speaker 2: go and I want to get back to it. Feels
Speaker 2: like there's not a lot of bands out there that
Speaker 2: are doing that old type of genre anymore. I have
Speaker 2: you doven into Machine Gun, Kelly, Suaco, those types of guys,
Speaker 2: because like Machine Gun Kelly, he was doing rap for
Speaker 2: a little bit and he's come up with three albums
Speaker 2: in that pop punk kind of era, and man, what
Speaker 2: is it? Tickets to My Downfall is the first album
Speaker 2: he came out. Think it was like twenty twenty, the
Speaker 2: same year you want a cup series and Buddy, I'm
Speaker 2: telling you, if you're into that music, you will get goosebumps.
Speaker 2: Then you put on the first track of that of
Speaker 2: that album, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I am also not like it's my way
Speaker 3: the highway on the music thing. I'm open. I'm open.
Speaker 3: I'm open to ideas. I'm open to new music. So
Speaker 3: I'll give it a I'll give it a run.
Speaker 1: How about this, like question Chase, what's a fast food
Speaker 1: order that you would die on a hill for, whether
Speaker 1: or not people would trash it or not. What's the
Speaker 1: go to fast food order for you?
Speaker 3: Man? I go to food? Man I, it's really hard
Speaker 3: to go wrong with it. M well, trying to think here.
Speaker 3: I mean Chick fil a, like if I don't care
Speaker 3: if you're having a good day or a bad day,
Speaker 3: Like the Lord's Chicken.
Speaker 2: Is is tough beat the Lord's Chicken? The Lords do
Speaker 2: they have so.
Speaker 3: Many sauces anything? Anything?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the waffle fries, the milkshakes. I'm a big ice
Speaker 2: cream guy. The milkshakes just go out of hand for me.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love them. I'm a big milkshake.
Speaker 1: He's not wrong either, because the Chick fil A menu
Speaker 1: it always is like it's not like I do have
Speaker 1: like a go to with a spicy chicken sandwich. But
Speaker 1: no matter what, anytime I hit the drive through on
Speaker 1: jet Chick fil A, I almost don't know what I
Speaker 1: want it first, whether it be the chicken nuggets and.
Speaker 2: Anything you do, the sandwich, anything you do get, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a good order. Do you want You guys got
Speaker 2: a lot of good son take five of each through
Speaker 2: them in the bag? You let meet a sever bag
Speaker 2: of sauces. What's your stance on ranch versus blue cheese?
Speaker 3: Just never know? Oh, blue cheese is just simply not
Speaker 3: an option. I just if you like blue cheese, I
Speaker 3: worry about you. I really do.
Speaker 2: Chase, let me tell you somebody so far we could
Speaker 2: listen to music together and it sounds like we could
Speaker 2: dip some sauces together, because to me, like, if blue
Speaker 2: cheese was a human being, I'm committing first degree if
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I think blue cheese is one.
Speaker 3: Of the most things all the time full support. Yeah
Speaker 3: you yeah, you'd be here like it's on. I find
Speaker 3: it to be comical, like when you're you know, you
Speaker 3: go somewhere and you get wings and they're like ranch
Speaker 3: or blue cheese. I'm like a man, like, why why
Speaker 3: are you asking me this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like, are you trying to think your culture? Because
Speaker 2: you have moldy cheese in my dipping sauce. That's disgusting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I'm just I'm not I'm not
Speaker 3: grasped that, but I'm definitely a ranch guy all the way.
Speaker 1: Then you can't help but to throw a little judgment
Speaker 1: at somebody that does order blue cheese.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you go up to Buffalo and they
Speaker 2: all will die on the hill of blue cheese is
Speaker 2: the number one thing of all time. And you're like
Speaker 2: these people just don't know.
Speaker 1: And they think they're better.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, oh dude. You go up to like Rochester.
Speaker 2: We were in Rochester for the Bills Trading Camp last year,
Speaker 2: and you go up there and it's like wings, that's
Speaker 2: like their thing. They made it popular. And then they
Speaker 2: it's like you if you ask for a ranch at
Speaker 2: the restaurant, they're kind of like you're like going to
Speaker 2: a nice steakhouse and asking for like a dipping sauce like,
Speaker 2: oh well this this state doesn't need it. It's like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: give me the sauce, give me the bernie, give me
Speaker 2: the peppercorn, all the stuff. I want, all the sauces
Speaker 2: with my steak. Got a big sauce guy?
Speaker 3: What was it like interesting getting into a little I've
Speaker 3: never been to a place that people preferred that, So
Speaker 3: that's good to know. And I like, you know, I
Speaker 3: like pulling for the bills, you know, like I don't
Speaker 3: they seem like a good crew. So yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: I questioned that a little bit.
Speaker 1: You're not like pulling for the bill. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I would.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna find a more rabid fan base of
Speaker 2: blue collar individuals. And in Buffalo, those people, the tailgating,
Speaker 2: the mustard, the way they get after a week in
Speaker 2: and week out, they're number one. I saw you're a
Speaker 2: big Georgia fan just in sports in general, big Georgia
Speaker 2: bulldog guy. What about the NFL? Like, are you a
Speaker 2: NFL at all? Are you mostly college sports?
Speaker 3: I would say I probably like from a football side,
Speaker 3: I definitely am probably bigger into the college stuff, but
Speaker 3: I love watching it all. I mean, I'm I'm a
Speaker 3: big sports fan in general. I don't I've never really
Speaker 3: had a like a a NFL team. I've always kind
Speaker 3: of been one of the guys that you kind of
Speaker 3: and I guess the NIL thing has probably changed this
Speaker 3: sum but used to it was like, man, you know,
Speaker 3: Matt Stafford spent four years at Georgia and and you
Speaker 3: know you had all these different players whoever, it was
Speaker 3: like name your favorite player from your favorite school and
Speaker 3: they go off and they play in the NFL. You
Speaker 3: kind of I don't know, I kind of gravitate to
Speaker 3: watching certain players that I enjoy watching in college on
Speaker 3: on Sundays. But I don't have a like one team
Speaker 3: where I'm like, man, this is this is my crew,
Speaker 3: which maybe I should pick one, but I don't know.
Speaker 3: I kind of become I just kind of become a
Speaker 3: fan of of certain guys and I like to see
Speaker 3: him do well. And they might you know, might be
Speaker 3: a few different teams. But I love watching. I mean
Speaker 3: there's especially like for us, like you know, we're in
Speaker 3: the bit, we're busy obviously on Sundays, but like those
Speaker 3: Monday night games and Thursday night games. Yeah, I love,
Speaker 3: love sitting down and watching, and I pretty much watch
Speaker 3: whoever like I don't, I don't really who's playing.
Speaker 1: Did you think it was crazy being a Georgia fan
Speaker 1: after you guys whooped Alabama's ass in the SEC championship game,
Speaker 1: do you feel like they should have got knocked out
Speaker 1: of the playoffs?
Speaker 3: Uh? Man, I I don't know. I feel like Georgia
Speaker 3: has been on both sides of that fence before. I
Speaker 3: feel like, you know, there's been years where they've gotten
Speaker 3: you gotten through, So I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 3: enough about all how the politics of the behind the
Speaker 3: scenes of that works. But as a bias Georgia fan, yes,
Speaker 3: I think they should always get in every year, no
Speaker 3: question whether whether they won all the games or one two.
Speaker 3: I think they should get in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said you you like to root for certain individuals,
Speaker 2: not just specific teams. Who is your favorite player of
Speaker 2: all time? Like you're you your biggest fantom. You brought
Speaker 2: up Matthew Stafford. He obviously won a MVP last year
Speaker 2: went to Georgia. I can see that being easy down
Speaker 2: the middle strike for you. But is there anybody else
Speaker 2: you're like? I love watching this guy play.
Speaker 3: Ball, Dude, right now, it's been Josh Allen. I just
Speaker 3: that guy, uh, back on the Bills, back on the Bills.
Speaker 3: I know he loves he loves the Blue. I don't
Speaker 3: I don't want this to be like confused. I'm not
Speaker 3: a diehard Bills fan, but I do love watching Josh
Speaker 3: Allen play football. I think he is uh, you know,
Speaker 3: he's just an electric player. I mean, he lays it
Speaker 3: out there. He is obviously, he's a big dude. He
Speaker 3: takes some tough hits, takes some big runs. Like just
Speaker 3: he's willing to He's willing to lay it out there,
Speaker 3: and it's it's fun to watch. So I think he's
Speaker 3: been the most entertaining. And also to like his story
Speaker 3: of not having gotten over the hump yet, I think
Speaker 3: makes it really, like really easy to pull for him.
Speaker 3: You know, I just I don't know. I just I'd
Speaker 3: love to see him get one. And I thought last
Speaker 3: year was it. I had a I had a pretty
Speaker 3: strong feeling that that was their year. But yeah, I'd
Speaker 3: love to see him him get it done before he uh,
Speaker 3: before he hangs it up.
Speaker 1: How mad were you when he fumbled before halftime against
Speaker 1: the Broncos.
Speaker 3: I felt the.
Speaker 1: Same way like they it was. It felt like that
Speaker 1: that could have been. You know, Josh All He's obviously
Speaker 1: got to put the cape on at times, but yeah,
Speaker 1: the couple turnovers.
Speaker 2: A couple turnovers are tough. They were my preseason team
Speaker 2: last year to go to the Super Bowl. Get over
Speaker 2: the hump because I'm the same way as you, like
Speaker 2: Josh friend of the show. Great guy. You see how
Speaker 2: much talent he has, and you just want like the
Speaker 2: Bills being like the team that they go four years
Speaker 2: in a row in the early late nineties, early two thousand,
Speaker 2: early where they go for Super Bowl straight and can't
Speaker 2: get over the hump of getting one, and that fan base,
Speaker 2: it's like they those people, those people deserve one. They
Speaker 2: deserve to grab it. Did you you grew up obviously
Speaker 2: your dad was one of the most beloved racers of
Speaker 2: all time in NASCAR. Where did you guys watch football
Speaker 2: together as well? Was he a big football fan?
Speaker 3: He really isn't, and he wasn't really as I was
Speaker 3: growing up. I think I kind of was the sports
Speaker 3: fan in the house. So he watched football, but it
Speaker 3: was because I wanted to watch it. I don't think
Speaker 3: as much because he you know, he wanted to watch
Speaker 3: growing up, but he became a fan to you know,
Speaker 3: watching guys and like when I was a kid and
Speaker 3: still living at home, like you know, that was the
Speaker 3: Tom Brady era, you know, so it was really easy
Speaker 3: to really you know he I think he liked him,
Speaker 3: like watching him play, you know, through that time, but
Speaker 3: he was never yeah, never super into it. But I
Speaker 3: appreciate him toughing it out and watching it because I did.
Speaker 3: I definitely got the sportsbug at a pretty young age.
Speaker 1: What do you think your dad was most annoyed with
Speaker 1: you on growing up?
Speaker 3: Oh? Lord, man, I don't know what was he not
Speaker 3: annoyed with me on I feel like more than anything,
Speaker 3: but I think, uh, goodness, that's a really tough one.
Speaker 3: I think just in general, you know, heh his his
Speaker 3: upbringing and and kind of the past that they that
Speaker 3: they took was you know, really different than than mine.
Speaker 3: And you know, he just had and I think early on, uh,
Speaker 3: he taught me some really valuable lessons just about the
Speaker 3: race and thing and and how serious it was. And
Speaker 3: I probably get some of that from him, Like I do,
Speaker 3: I take it serious, you know, and and it's uh also,
Speaker 3: I mean, look, I try to have fun too. But
Speaker 3: he he definitely instilled early to hey, look, if you're
Speaker 3: going to do this like, we're going to do it
Speaker 3: right and and this is gonna be uh, you know,
Speaker 3: it's not all fun and games. There's there's a time
Speaker 3: and a place for it. But I think I think
Speaker 3: I was probably on the, you know, too much of
Speaker 3: the fun side early on, and and that probably didn't
Speaker 3: set well. So he, you know, in the right way,
Speaker 3: you know, in the right way definitely taught me that
Speaker 3: lesson early and really ever since then. I can remember
Speaker 3: some specific conversations where you know, it was brought up
Speaker 3: and then from there it was you know, hey, I
Speaker 3: get it, and I respected it and respected him enough
Speaker 3: to you know, want to you know, try and do
Speaker 3: things the way that he wanted him done.
Speaker 2: Was What was it like growing up with him as
Speaker 2: a father. We had Dale Earnhardt Junior on the show
Speaker 2: multiple times, and one story told about his dad how
Speaker 2: his dad was extremely strict. He was obviously nicknamed the
Speaker 2: enforcer for a reason in NASCAR, Butty was that way
Speaker 2: at home as well. Intimidator excuse me. He came home
Speaker 2: one time after doing something wrong and his dad essentially
Speaker 2: hit the belt, like started to unloosen the belt and
Speaker 2: Dale ripped it out and head behind like a bail
Speaker 2: of hay until nightfall took place, and he's like, I think,
Speaker 2: now that's been hours. I kind of cus back into
Speaker 2: the house and everything ended up being okay. But he
Speaker 2: was talking about how strict he was and how it
Speaker 2: had to be done a certain way. What was your
Speaker 2: dad like growing up?
Speaker 3: Similar in a lot of ways. I mean I I did.
Speaker 3: I got the belt when I was young too, so
Speaker 3: I definitely understand that. I definitely have my share of
Speaker 3: trying to get away from that too, like everyone. I
Speaker 3: don't know how much nowadays, but probably you guys probably
Speaker 3: had to had to had to do some run on
Speaker 3: that front to take the type. Yeah, like you were,
Speaker 3: you were going to get your ass for sure if
Speaker 3: you did something wrong. So I very similar, you know,
Speaker 3: I think from from the outside, Dad probably had a
Speaker 3: little different complexion just from you know that you just
Speaker 3: don't know, right, like you don't know people super well
Speaker 3: unless you unless you know him, and so yeah he was.
Speaker 3: He was tricked in a lot of ways. But what
Speaker 3: was really cool for me was as I got older,
Speaker 3: I felt, you know, especially as I started racing more
Speaker 3: and kind of started doing the NASCAR thing and was
Speaker 3: taking some of those bigger steps. I just felt like
Speaker 3: he respected me a lot and he trusted me a
Speaker 3: lot too at the same time. And even though there
Speaker 3: were days that you know, like I remember there was
Speaker 3: a race I I was racing for the lead at
Speaker 3: at Bristol and ended up crashing and and you know,
Speaker 3: messed it up for a few of us there. But
Speaker 3: you know, he just kind of looked at me on
Speaker 3: the ride home and he was like, you have to
Speaker 3: kind of know him, but he not a word other
Speaker 3: than I don't think I would have done that. That
Speaker 3: was it, and that was it. It was just I
Speaker 3: don't think I would have done that, and I don't know,
Speaker 3: I just felt like he he he grew to have
Speaker 3: a lot of respect for me and how I raced,
Speaker 3: and if there were ever days that he might have
Speaker 3: gone about something different, it was typically a you know,
Speaker 3: a sly comment like that. Yeah, it got the message across, right,
Speaker 3: and it made me think twice about something like that
Speaker 3: in the future. And those are all all good lessons.
Speaker 3: But I just appreciate the way he you know, he's
Speaker 3: shown me respect as I've gotten older and and he's
Speaker 3: kind of let me do my thing my way a
Speaker 3: little bit, you know, which I think is cool.
Speaker 2: Well, I was gonna.
Speaker 1: Say, when you look back at some of the tough
Speaker 1: moments you had with the whole all, there's dynamic. What
Speaker 1: is something that you appreciate now that you didn't appreciate
Speaker 1: back then growing up?
Speaker 3: Man so much? I mean, I you know, especially you know,
Speaker 3: I have buddies that have kids now and you kind
Speaker 3: of see them parenting, and I think about my dad
Speaker 3: and kind of the way he parented me through some
Speaker 3: of those through some of those situations. So I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think your perspective on all of that stuff changes
Speaker 3: a lot as you get older, and and just the
Speaker 3: different variations of ways parents like connect with their kids,
Speaker 3: or you know, discipline their kids, or try and teach lessons.
Speaker 3: So I don't know, that's that's tough to pick one thing,
Speaker 3: but my perspective has changed so much. I I I
Speaker 3: don't know about one particular thing, I guess is the
Speaker 3: short answer. But I definitely respect kind of how he
Speaker 3: went about my childhood and me growing up, just because
Speaker 3: again there was discipline and there were things that he
Speaker 3: wanted to make sure his point got across and they
Speaker 3: were definitely understood, but there was also a lot of
Speaker 3: respect given too, and I just felt like that it
Speaker 3: was always an option for me to not race or
Speaker 3: do whatever I want to do. There was never any
Speaker 3: pressure there. And you know, looking back on that, I
Speaker 3: really appreciate it because I think it would be really
Speaker 3: easy for a parent to have a lot of success
Speaker 3: and a sport and like, you know, just drill that
Speaker 3: in you and not really give you an option, and
Speaker 3: that wasn't the case at offer him. So I always
Speaker 3: thought that was really cool.
Speaker 2: That is a very unique perspective to have because having
Speaker 2: kids now, for me, the only thing I knew growing
Speaker 2: up was sports, Like you play sports throughout the year,
Speaker 2: you do it. So none of my kids have a
Speaker 2: nine year old and as soon to be six year old,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I'm giving them every chance to love sports.
Speaker 2: But my nine year old's more like wants to go
Speaker 2: dance with the Dandy Lions and do her thing. So
Speaker 2: that's like hard for me to have to be like, well,
Speaker 2: the only thing I know sports, so usually go play sports.
Speaker 2: And so we've had a couple back and forth on
Speaker 2: that but overall, you have to let your kid be
Speaker 2: your kid. You mentioned your dad grew to respect you
Speaker 2: as a racer. You felt though he respect good respect
Speaker 2: you as a racer. Was there a moment for you
Speaker 2: after a race, during a race, maybe something happened the
Speaker 2: way you handled that that adversity that your dad might
Speaker 2: have said something to you and be like, you know what,
Speaker 2: I feel like he's actually starting to respect me in
Speaker 2: the lane he was so successful at.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really good question. Yes, the there's a
Speaker 3: big short track race in the Southeast. It's called the
Speaker 3: Snowball Derby. It's down in Pennsacoha, Florida. It's every December,
Speaker 3: and that's kind of the biggest asphalt short track race
Speaker 3: in the country. People travel, you know, all across the
Speaker 3: United States for that race, and you know that was
Speaker 3: you know, really that through those years that I was
Speaker 3: going down there were some of the most influential of
Speaker 3: my whole career. Truthfully, without the success of some of
Speaker 3: those seasons and some of those years, I don't really
Speaker 3: know that I would have had the opportunities later on
Speaker 3: down the road. But long story short, we were fortunate
Speaker 3: enough to win that race, and you know, I just
Speaker 3: I remember him coming on the radio there after the race,
Speaker 3: and I can't remember the exact words, but you know,
Speaker 3: just basically saying, man, you need a damn good job today,
Speaker 3: and and it was just like I was kind of
Speaker 3: wild at the just the way he said it. You know,
Speaker 3: things just mean a certain way at certain times, and
Speaker 3: that specific time, I was like, man, you know, I
Speaker 3: I feel like I really, you know, I really made
Speaker 3: him proud today and winning that race and kind of
Speaker 3: the way the way we navigated the whole weekend, it
Speaker 3: was just all a really really good weekend for us,
Speaker 3: and I felt like I felt like I earned a
Speaker 3: lot of his respect throughout the course of not maybe
Speaker 3: not necessarily just that day, but kind of a few
Speaker 3: of those years put together of just putting my head
Speaker 3: down saying, hey, look I'm gonna take this serious. This
Speaker 3: is what I want to do. I want to show
Speaker 3: you this is what I want to do. And you know,
Speaker 3: obviously he you know, he was a big supporter and
Speaker 3: all that, and I remember kind of getting through with
Speaker 3: that one and thinking, man, you know, I feel like
Speaker 3: we you know, we we we made him proud. And
Speaker 3: that was really really a cool moment for me, that's.
Speaker 1: A badass story.
Speaker 2: It is I want while while you're like telling that story,
Speaker 2: you're like showing, hey, I want to do this, this
Speaker 2: is what I want to do. Was there ever a
Speaker 2: point in your life you're like, oh, I don't want
Speaker 2: to do NASCAR, Maybe I want to do something else instead,
Speaker 2: or was it always kind of like your dad questioning,
Speaker 2: but you'd be like, no, no, no, I want to do this,
Speaker 2: Like how do I show you?
Speaker 1: And even just to build on that too, like being
Speaker 1: featured in something like Where Will They Be? When you
Speaker 1: were one of fourteen youth Prodigies on Sports Illustrated, being
Speaker 1: that young being like, man, is this the career I
Speaker 1: am going to go after?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I fortunately for me, And again it
Speaker 3: wasn't like it wasn't like I was. It was never
Speaker 3: forced on me. You know, I had such a unique
Speaker 3: perspective of race, and you know, I think racing in
Speaker 3: general gets some probably an incorrect vibe. You know a
Speaker 3: lot of people go to races to watch RECs, and
Speaker 3: they go to races to you know, if we get
Speaker 3: in a fight or the chaos or the crashing or
Speaker 3: you know whatever. But I had such a unique perspective
Speaker 3: growing up of kind of what went on behind the scenes,
Speaker 3: and you know, the amount of work and effort and time,
Speaker 3: and how much of a team sport it was, and
Speaker 3: just all the men and women that were behind the
Speaker 3: scenes to make it happen. But then also beyond that,
Speaker 3: the craft of driving that made a guy go from
Speaker 3: being good to being great, and all the details that
Speaker 3: are behind that and just the small little things behind
Speaker 3: the wheel that we're looking for on a weekly basis
Speaker 3: to be a little better than the next guy. And
Speaker 3: I fell in love with that, you know that that
Speaker 3: was what I fell in love with, was just all
Speaker 3: that little stuff and the little thing that you know,
Speaker 3: made made people great, you know, throughout those years of
Speaker 3: just being a fan and watching and being a kid
Speaker 3: and just taking it all in. But you know, of course,
Speaker 3: when when you're you know, especially back then, I mean
Speaker 3: NASCAR was rocking and rolling through the early two thousands,
Speaker 3: and you know, my dad was a part of the show.
Speaker 3: Like what what kid would not want to go and
Speaker 3: do that when you are sitting there, you know, going
Speaker 3: to the race at Bristol in the fall and it's
Speaker 3: a packed house of one hundred and however many thousand
Speaker 3: people and your dad is a part of this event,
Speaker 3: right like I just I mean I was. My jaw
Speaker 3: was on the floor constantly every week as a six
Speaker 3: seven eight year old kid. And so of course that
Speaker 3: makes you want to do it, and at least you know,
Speaker 3: your interest level is super high. And then you get
Speaker 3: older and you start kind of going down the path
Speaker 3: of doing it. And to me, that was really when
Speaker 3: the question you had to answer it for yourself, Do
Speaker 3: I really want to do this? Am I good enough
Speaker 3: to do this? Do I do I actually have a shot?
Speaker 3: And you know, fortunately the you know, missing things at school,
Speaker 3: missing you know, events with my buddies or friends going
Speaker 3: off to college and you're not going and you know,
Speaker 3: wanting to hang out with them and all those little
Speaker 3: things that you kind of miss out on. Over the years,
Speaker 3: I think you kind of come to a crossroads of like, man,
Speaker 3: you know, am I okay with missing all these things?
Speaker 3: Do I want to go and do this? And and
Speaker 3: for me, the answer was always it just continued to
Speaker 3: be yes, like, yes, I still want to do this, Yes,
Speaker 3: I still want to pursue this dream. No, I'm not
Speaker 3: tired of it. I think I'm good enough to do it.
Speaker 3: And the opportunities, and fortunately enough success came along with
Speaker 3: that that you know it, it worked out and the
Speaker 3: stars lined and you know, Rick got involved and and
Speaker 3: wanted to help for some reason back then. I still
Speaker 3: haven't figured that out, but fortunately he did. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I kind of let it to where we are today.
Speaker 3: But it's been a fun road and certainly thankful I
Speaker 3: stuck with it, and just thankful that my desire and
Speaker 3: drive and passion for the sport and the craft and
Speaker 3: all the little things that go into it never never
Speaker 3: went away.
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Speaker 1: It's not that funny you speak about falling in love
Speaker 1: with like the actual sport of NASCAR and everything that
Speaker 1: goes into the sport. If you could change one rule,
Speaker 1: what would that rule be?
Speaker 2: Great question?
Speaker 3: One rule? Boy, you won't get me in trouble. Uh,
Speaker 3: that's really tough right now. I would I would lobby
Speaker 3: for more Saturday night races. It's really simple, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's not necessarily a rule, but I think that our sport,
Speaker 3: especially at this time of the year. Like I mentioned
Speaker 3: it a second ago, like unprompted that Bristol, the Saturday
Speaker 3: night race at Bristol in the fall was like like
Speaker 3: there was nothing, there was nothing any better than that.
Speaker 3: And I think our fans and the people that watch NASCAR,
Speaker 3: I think we all miss that Saturday night energy and
Speaker 3: that vibe around the races, and I would love to
Speaker 3: have more of them. We don't have a lot of
Speaker 3: them in general. We have some of these Sunday night races,
Speaker 3: which I think are just kind of awkward for people,
Speaker 3: you know, going back to work on Monday morning, you know,
Speaker 3: and then certainly unfortunately when you have a rain de
Speaker 3: lay like we hit it Atlanta, we were we finished
Speaker 3: at two am, so you know, kind of tough. But
Speaker 3: I just the energy and the atmosphere that is extracted
Speaker 3: from our sport. On a Saturday night race especially some
Speaker 3: of these short tracks is pretty elite in my opinion
Speaker 3: in sports, and I would love to have more of them.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree with you more like having a Sunday
Speaker 2: where fans want to go and want to drive out
Speaker 2: to wherever the racetrack is and they want to get
Speaker 2: after it to have fun and experience that user harder
Speaker 2: and money to watch you guys do something at an
Speaker 2: elite level. It's like and not fake about Monday. Now,
Speaker 2: I think about Monday because you're like in your head
Speaker 2: like I really want to let loose and have fun,
Speaker 2: but there's something in the back of here, got yeah,
Speaker 2: I gotta get.
Speaker 1: Going Monday, Like I can't miss this Tomorrow's day.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, yeah, I'm with the Saturday move. You were saying,
Speaker 2: like a lot of fans kind of misconstrue how like
Speaker 2: NASCAR really is and they want to show up for
Speaker 2: the crashes and the party and all that. That tells
Speaker 2: me that you're on the stance of anti Talladay. Good nights,
Speaker 2: am I am. I correct in saying that, because look
Speaker 2: the cool the cool thing here with me. Sorry to
Speaker 2: cut you off. We've had so many people on the
Speaker 2: bus now multiple guys at one time, and then you
Speaker 2: know individuals as well, and it's been such a crazy
Speaker 2: contrast of eye opening. That movie is a disgrace to
Speaker 2: our sport, has literally been said on this bus, and
Speaker 2: then it's also been called a documentary. So I need
Speaker 2: to know. I got to know where you stand on
Speaker 2: Teldega Nights.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not a fan, okay, all right, yeah, not
Speaker 3: even a little bit of it.
Speaker 4: Not.
Speaker 2: Are you a will fail guy?
Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah? I like some of his movies, but here, listen,
Speaker 3: you have you have to understand there is a This
Speaker 3: is not me saying I don't like to have a
Speaker 3: good time, because I one hundred percent do. I think
Speaker 3: there's a time for that, like Talladega, you know, especially
Speaker 3: the infield and all that. Like I've been there, I've
Speaker 3: done it. It's the blast. Don't get me wrong, if
Speaker 3: you haven't been, go it's fun. I just think that,
Speaker 3: you know, there is a time and place for that,
Speaker 3: and then there's also space in that too, respect the
Speaker 3: craft of what we do. And I kind of like
Speaker 3: to have a little bit of both where I don't
Speaker 3: think Talladay and Knights is a very good representation of
Speaker 3: the driver's viewpoint of what we do behind the wheel.
Speaker 3: So I think that's where probably more than just me,
Speaker 3: it sounds like, just feel like man, it's such a
Speaker 3: misrepresentation of our jobs and the work and the time
Speaker 3: that we put into our craft. None of that is
Speaker 3: felt or understood in that, you know, in that movie.
Speaker 3: So I think that's where I'm just like, man, this
Speaker 3: is just such a terrible representation of every piece of
Speaker 3: what we do and why I think it's cool. But
Speaker 3: I also understand that people think things are cool for
Speaker 3: different reasons. But I just don't think the reasons that
Speaker 3: I respect and love our sport are exemplified very well
Speaker 3: in that movie.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this, it's a good breakdown.
Speaker 1: I almost feel like I can't like it as much
Speaker 1: as I do.
Speaker 2: My stance, I'm telling you that's going to stay the same.
Speaker 2: I can respect Chase, I do love the movie. Here's
Speaker 2: the two things. One that I kind of gathered when
Speaker 2: I was in Nashville for the race. I grew up.
Speaker 2: My grandfather would take me to the pir We would
Speaker 2: go to those races every single year and you'd watch it.
Speaker 2: But as an eight year old, You're like, this is
Speaker 2: just really cool. Look how fast they're all going. You
Speaker 2: don't understand it. Fans. People will become fans if they
Speaker 2: go to the race. You hear the roar of the car.
Speaker 2: You get able to watch the pit stops in live time,
Speaker 2: seeing the cars going around. But I think another thing
Speaker 2: that needs to happen is someone needs to kind of
Speaker 2: break down when you got you know, three y guys
Speaker 2: are drafting, they're making a move, how somebody shuts them down?
Speaker 2: Like when we see that happening in real time. I
Speaker 2: know for me, I can't break down like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is what the driver's doing from a defensive standpoint and
Speaker 2: the other drivers doing from an offensive standpoint. I wish
Speaker 2: there was somebody that could go and whether it's YouTube
Speaker 2: or during the broadcast, or they're showing how people are
Speaker 2: using their feet and pedals the whole thing to kind
Speaker 2: of show how they're manipulating their car to get one
Speaker 2: up or be defensive, and I just I don't know
Speaker 2: how that looks. But because all all the things you're saying,
Speaker 2: the thing that is going against you is you're inside
Speaker 2: of a car, So I don't get to watch all
Speaker 2: your mannerisms and movements of what you're looking at everything
Speaker 2: like that as opposed to like a football or hockey
Speaker 2: or baseball or anything like that. Am I on the right
Speaker 2: page here?
Speaker 3: I think yeah, I think you are for sure. And
Speaker 3: I think that, like, you know, I wish more of
Speaker 3: us had on board cameras too, like, because I'm fascinated
Speaker 3: today to this day, I can sit and watch somebody's
Speaker 3: on board and just be I mean, I can be glued.
Speaker 3: I could. I could watch the race from somebody's on
Speaker 3: board camera, watching a driver and watching outside of their
Speaker 3: car all day. I mean I can sit there and
Speaker 3: watch it. And I think that for me, it's because
Speaker 3: you know, I do have an understanding of what's going on.
Speaker 3: But I would love to incorporate more of that into
Speaker 3: our broadcast. I think that TV sometimes they find themselves
Speaker 3: in a little bit of a tough spot here because
Speaker 3: and I can understand both sides, where you have a
Speaker 3: fan that might be watching for a long time or
Speaker 3: somebody like me who just wants to see it onboard
Speaker 3: and talk about all these little details like you're mentioning.
Speaker 3: But then you also have fans that are new to
Speaker 3: our sport that don't understand any of this that's going on.
Speaker 3: And it's like I think they they sometimes worry if
Speaker 3: they get too far into the details, are they going
Speaker 3: to lose the people that have just started watching and
Speaker 3: not bring them closer to it and almost push them away.
Speaker 3: And I think sometimes that's the that's the fear. But
Speaker 3: I love that stuff. And I told a lot of friends,
Speaker 3: like we've watched a lot of over the Winner, you know,
Speaker 3: this yearly, and like like I'm like, man, I've watched
Speaker 3: I've watched enough football in my life now that I'm
Speaker 3: almost to the point where like I love watching the
Speaker 3: game and I entertained by the game, absolutely, but I
Speaker 3: want to know more, Like I want to know why,
Speaker 3: you know, if the linebacker moves left or the safety
Speaker 3: drops back and the quarterback changes the play, well, what
Speaker 3: did he see? Why? Like why did that happen? Can
Speaker 3: someone explain this to me? Like I want to start
Speaker 3: learning more about about what's going on. So that's me though,
Speaker 3: and it sounds like that's you too, And I think
Speaker 3: there's a lot of people out there that would love
Speaker 3: that type of information given. But it would also take
Speaker 3: a little work, right, Like it's not just something you're
Speaker 3: going to pick up overnight, and you've got to be
Speaker 3: willing to put the time in to learn it. And
Speaker 3: I just think if people were willing to put some
Speaker 3: extra time into learning about all the details that our
Speaker 3: sport has to offer, I think it would I think
Speaker 3: you would be hooked even more than you are already
Speaker 3: worth to begin with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I remember, like to bring it back at
Speaker 2: Dale who was on the bus and he was talking
Speaker 2: about rising through the ranks of NASCAR and he had
Speaker 2: this driver. He didn't say what driver it was, what
Speaker 2: how would they'd come around this turn, They'd be in
Speaker 2: this certain position over and over again, and the driver
Speaker 2: would always get the best if and his dad referenced
Speaker 2: using his break a certain way on a turn, and
Speaker 2: he did it the next race and tap the guy
Speaker 2: just enough. He ended up getting run off into the
Speaker 2: grass and he won the race. And it's like those
Speaker 2: little small, inchricate details are so fascinating to me because
Speaker 2: when you're talking about why is the linebacker moving the safety,
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, well, in my head, I'm playing the
Speaker 2: reasons why people can do that because we've been in
Speaker 2: it for so long, and it'd be really cool to
Speaker 2: see why you would hit your brake versus a gas
Speaker 2: and where you would position yourself on a car because
Speaker 2: you see the takeovers and they're awesome, but you know,
Speaker 2: you don't know the full detail of everything going on. Yeah, yeah, what.
Speaker 1: Would on that note? Is there like how do you
Speaker 1: go back in twenty nineteen and Charlotte where you hit
Speaker 1: your brake, slock, you go into the wall, you go
Speaker 1: from first to last, and then you still end up
Speaker 1: winning the race, Like is there a crash course that
Speaker 1: you could give us in fans on how the hell
Speaker 1: you even pulled that off? And then obviously celebrating with
Speaker 1: a little burnout and running yourself into the wall for
Speaker 1: some fun. But how does that even happen?
Speaker 2: I like to point out before you answer that question,
Speaker 2: that's a teleg a night's reference. If you're not first
Speaker 2: your last? Yeah, just so.
Speaker 3: Right? Yeah, I get it, but I yeah, man, it
Speaker 3: was a it was a wild, wild experience. I uh,
Speaker 3: you talk about a roller coaster of emotions. Now, I
Speaker 3: was on it. I was driving the train. Uh that day,
Speaker 3: for sure, it was. We were super good that weekend,
Speaker 3: you know. And and boy, if you needed me to mess,
Speaker 3: if you needed a guy to mess something up. I
Speaker 3: was him. I was the one, and you know, we
Speaker 3: had to restart, and at the time to kind of
Speaker 3: give you some more detail, you're asking for details, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna give it to you. We the restart zone at
Speaker 3: that particular race was not the same way we exited
Speaker 3: the last corner onto the stre right away during a
Speaker 3: normal lap. So at Charlotte, the road course kind of
Speaker 3: goes through the infield. Well, Nascar I decided that they
Speaker 3: didn't want the restart to do the same thing because
Speaker 3: the field was going to be shrung out so long.
Speaker 3: They wanted to just have a normal restart, like you
Speaker 3: were running the oval and then you would then break
Speaker 3: and go into turn one. Well, I miscalculated my breaking
Speaker 3: spot because I was going way faster than I had
Speaker 3: been going on a normal lap. And I had gotten
Speaker 3: so used by my cadence of like when I was
Speaker 3: breaking and when I was stopping. I had gotten so
Speaker 3: used to doing that over and over and over again
Speaker 3: that I kind of drove to a similar mark. And boy,
Speaker 3: when I stepped on the brakes, I was like, this
Speaker 3: is not going to work. We are not going to
Speaker 3: make it. And yeah, I just locked it up, drove
Speaker 3: straight in the fence, and fortunately there was a bunch
Speaker 3: of tire barriers in turn one, so it was actually
Speaker 3: really soft, like a pretty off hit, and yeah, somehow
Speaker 3: it it didn't tear the car up all that bad.
Speaker 3: And uh, yeah, we threw some duct tape on it
Speaker 3: and line back up there last and there was just
Speaker 3: enough laps to to get back up through the field.
Speaker 3: But we were we were really fast. We had a
Speaker 3: really good run of road races there for a few years, honestly,
Speaker 3: where we just had a ton of pace and things
Speaker 3: rock and roll, and I was really comfortable in the cars,
Speaker 3: uh and the setups we had going on, and yeah,
Speaker 3: kind of cut back up through there and got back
Speaker 3: up to like I don't know, tenth or eight they're somewhere,
Speaker 3: and had a couple of cautions and I was like, man, Mike,
Speaker 3: we might actually have a shot at this thing now.
Speaker 3: And yeah, the race kind of kept playing along, kept
Speaker 3: falling our hands, got the cautions at the right time,
Speaker 3: and I was able to get back up to that
Speaker 3: even had a few laps to spare. We got out
Speaker 3: front led the last last handful, So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Is there ever a moment where you're once you're in
Speaker 1: the lead on the last few laughs where you just
Speaker 1: kind of, I don't know, laugh with the boys on
Speaker 1: the mic, like if I can't believe we just went
Speaker 1: from how about that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean that was definitely the
Speaker 3: day for for sure. I think for me, like I
Speaker 3: was so I wanted to crawl in the deepest hole
Speaker 3: you could find because I thought that I had thrown
Speaker 3: this race away, you know, I mean like I just
Speaker 3: felt like such an idiot, and so yeah, I think
Speaker 3: for me, my my emotions were just so all over
Speaker 3: the place. It probably took me a bit to realize
Speaker 3: just exactly what all went on. How funny the whole
Speaker 3: situation was. But I can tell you this, boy, it
Speaker 3: was not funny in the moment. It was I thought
Speaker 3: they were I mean, I'm sure they wanted to kill me.
Speaker 3: I'm sure everybody did. Like we were, you know, we were,
Speaker 3: we were chilling, and yeah, didn't work didn't work out
Speaker 3: for a bit, but thankfully it came back around.
Speaker 2: You talk about guys wanting to kill you, what's the
Speaker 2: what's the biggest running you've ever had with like a
Speaker 2: crew chief or a pit crew guy or someone of
Speaker 2: your team that. Have you ever just pissed them off
Speaker 2: beyond belief for they're chewing your ass out?
Speaker 3: I mean I have for sure. I mean, like on
Speaker 3: my team in particular you're talking about, Yeah, ah, man,
Speaker 3: I I feel like my guys have been pretty nice
Speaker 3: to me over the years. Like I don't know, I
Speaker 3: can't think of a time where we're like, you know,
Speaker 3: at each other's throats by any means. I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: sure there's days where they are not happy with me
Speaker 3: and the decision that I made on track, but they've
Speaker 3: always given me a lot of respect. So I can't
Speaker 3: say I've I've had a bad run in internally like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, certainly I've gotten into it with some other
Speaker 3: drivers over the years, but for the most part, I
Speaker 3: feel like we've we've stayed locked arms pretty tight throughout
Speaker 3: the course of my career.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, when that situation happens in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen and you're in last place, the cars running great,
Speaker 2: and you want to crawl into a deep dark hole,
Speaker 2: what are the comms like with the radio? Is a
Speaker 2: little more quiet for a little bit. He's got the
Speaker 2: duct there. You're you're just You're just ways racing quietly dark.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to hear a word. I didn't want
Speaker 3: to hear a word. I'm sure nobody wanted to speak
Speaker 3: a word to me. And and honestly, it is probably
Speaker 3: the best It's probably the best medicine I could have
Speaker 3: got at that point in time because I locked in,
Speaker 3: and I mean I I didn't think there was any
Speaker 3: shot we were ever going to win that race after
Speaker 3: I crashed, so let's be clear there. But as we
Speaker 3: got back rolling, my hope, my hope meters started to
Speaker 3: grow and I thought, man, there would be no better
Speaker 3: way for me to fix this and go and get
Speaker 3: this done. So it, Yeah, I was pretty motivated to
Speaker 3: to do everything in my power to uh you know,
Speaker 3: try and get back up through there. And yeah, the
Speaker 3: moods were the moods were much different than I thought
Speaker 3: they were going to be, no question.
Speaker 2: No doubt.
Speaker 1: Is there a crew from another team out there that
Speaker 1: you've pissed off that's kind of gone under the radar
Speaker 1: over the years.
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I mean, I would say in
Speaker 3: those instances that I've gotten into it with some other drivers,
Speaker 3: like you know, Denny and I had a couple of
Speaker 3: runnings there at different points in time, Me and Harvard
Speaker 3: got into it. At one point in time, those erased
Speaker 3: Joey and I crashed. I think I actually kind of
Speaker 3: ran him in the fence inadvertently. So I'm sure that
Speaker 3: you know, there have been team guys that are mad
Speaker 3: and probably want to come, you know, run me up
Speaker 3: the road, but they haven't. I feel like it's been
Speaker 3: more you know that they left the drivers and they
Speaker 3: left their guy kind of handle it the way that
Speaker 3: they see fit, and I think that's pretty normal, you know,
Speaker 3: like the on track stuff I feel like is for
Speaker 3: the most part, between the drivers, like we're driving the
Speaker 3: cars and we you know, uh, try to take responsibility
Speaker 3: for the things that happen, whether you're in the right
Speaker 3: or in the wrong, and sometimes you're not going to
Speaker 3: see ey to eye. But like for the most part
Speaker 3: of their crew guys kind of let us, you know,
Speaker 3: let us handle that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're when you're coming up in the ranks,
Speaker 2: like when your first time you're getting the Cup Series,
Speaker 2: Like what's the most intimidated you've ever been by another driver?
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be an interaction between the two
Speaker 2: where you guys getting the crash, but maybe you see
Speaker 2: somewhere you're like, holy shit, that's so and so I
Speaker 2: can't believe on the same track as them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for me, I would say it was
Speaker 3: that rookie year at at Talladaate or I'm sorry, at Daytona.
Speaker 3: We went down there for the five hundred, and you
Speaker 3: have to you have to remember, like I grew up
Speaker 3: around these guys like like you know, and and my
Speaker 3: dad and all these different guys that were racing still
Speaker 3: when I first started. I'm talking like these dudes were
Speaker 3: a big deal for me. You know, like I have
Speaker 3: spent the majority of my life watching these guys race
Speaker 3: on TV and you know, being around them. So it
Speaker 3: wasn't necessary rookie hundred for me. On the pole, we
Speaker 3: set fast time in qualifying and you know here I was.
Speaker 3: I was, I was twenty years old. I just stepped
Speaker 3: into the twenty four car. Jeff Gordon just retired. I was.
Speaker 3: I was the guy to you know, replace that seat,
Speaker 3: and I had, you know, probably no business being there
Speaker 3: at that point in time, and you know, here I was.
Speaker 3: It was it was time to go, and I was
Speaker 3: starting first for the Daytona five hundred and twenty sixteen
Speaker 3: it was. And I just remember getting done with driver
Speaker 3: intros and you know, my car was at the front
Speaker 3: of the grid obviously started first, so I'm literally walking
Speaker 3: by guys that you know, I had grown up watching
Speaker 3: my entire life, and I'm you know, fixing to lead
Speaker 3: the field to the green and I just remember thinking, man, like,
Speaker 3: I don't know how much business I have doing this
Speaker 3: right now, but here we go. And it was It
Speaker 3: was a lot, but it was a lot of fun
Speaker 3: looking back on, and I'm so thankful for those memories
Speaker 3: and you know, all the all the nerves and just
Speaker 3: the excitement that I had and just kind of seeing
Speaker 3: a dream, you know, literally come to reality in that moment,
Speaker 3: and it was, Uh, it was wild. So it wasn't
Speaker 3: necessarily one person, but just literally walking past all of
Speaker 3: the legends of the sport of that time. Uh, to
Speaker 3: go and start that race was was pretty surreal.
Speaker 1: Especially getting into twenty four. What's the what's the story
Speaker 1: behind you making the switch from twenty four to nine?
Speaker 3: Yeah, actually a pretty cool story. I I I mean
Speaker 3: nine has always been my favorite number, so you know, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: it was my dad's number, and you know, they had
Speaker 3: a lot of great success with it. But I really
Speaker 3: just love the number. I just thought it looked good.
Speaker 3: It was kind of all I ever knew. I wasn't
Speaker 3: trying necessarily to like, you know, copy him. I just
Speaker 3: I really love the number. And as I raced more,
Speaker 3: it became it became kind of home for me. It's
Speaker 3: kind of just, uh yeah, it's just what I, you know,
Speaker 3: what I wanted to be if I had a choice,
Speaker 3: that was always what I you know, what I picked
Speaker 3: through sports, t ball, you know, whatever it was, and
Speaker 3: obviously got to racing and you know, ran around doing
Speaker 3: the short track thing for many years and and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, we had had enough success to kind of
Speaker 3: get to the next thing and the next thing. And
Speaker 3: obviously when I started, you know, Jeff had stepped away,
Speaker 3: and really the only change in the twenty four car
Speaker 3: was me, you know, Jeff. Jeff stepped out and retired,
Speaker 3: and the rest of the team was all the exact same,
Speaker 3: including the number. So you know, first off, what am
Speaker 3: I going to do if if if Rick Hendrick walked
Speaker 3: up to you and said, hey, I want I want
Speaker 3: you to I want you to drive the twenty four
Speaker 3: car next year, what I I'm not I wasn't going
Speaker 3: to sit there and tell him, sorry, sir, you know,
Speaker 3: I can't do that unless it's the nine. So that
Speaker 3: that wasn't going to happen. And I just never felt
Speaker 3: like I was in a position to ask for that,
Speaker 3: and I was never going to. I mean, I'll tell
Speaker 3: you straight up, I was never going to ask to
Speaker 3: swap numbers. It just it wasn't my place. He has done,
Speaker 3: you know, and he had had done and has done
Speaker 3: since way too much for me to really ask for
Speaker 3: much of anything. But what had happened was we had
Speaker 3: had another driver change at HMS there going into the
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen season, and it had gotten announced and I
Speaker 3: had I had, you know, one afternoon, I had a
Speaker 3: text from Dale Junior and he's sent a message and
Speaker 3: he said, hey, if you want to be number nine
Speaker 3: nine again, now's your chance. And I was like, man,
Speaker 3: you know, I just and I told him the exact
Speaker 3: same thing, just told y'all, I'm like, how can I
Speaker 3: ask if I can ask anything more? And he said, look,
Speaker 3: he said, you know, now's the time to do it.
Speaker 3: It fits it's you, it's it's your family. It's an
Speaker 3: opportunity if that's what you want to be you know,
Speaker 3: this is going to be your last opportunity to do
Speaker 3: it with the changes that we had going on an organization.
Speaker 3: I said, well, I'm I said, of course I want to,
Speaker 3: but you know, I'm going to need your help, Like
Speaker 3: I'm going to need you to kind of help, you know,
Speaker 3: talk to the boss and make sure that I'm not
Speaker 3: you know, overstepping my my boundary here. And so he did,
Speaker 3: and and he kind of helped kind of push me
Speaker 3: to start asking questions. And then I think he also
Speaker 3: kind of gave the boss a nudge about, you know,
Speaker 3: how cool it would be to make that swapping, to
Speaker 3: make it happen. So Rick ended up reaching out to
Speaker 3: Richard Petty at the time, who owned the nine and
Speaker 3: through the different ownership in just throughout the years that
Speaker 3: had wound up with you know, with Richard, and he said, look,
Speaker 3: you can have it. He said, if you if you
Speaker 3: want it, you can have it. And he gave him
Speaker 3: the ownership rights to the number, and and off we went.
Speaker 3: So long story short, Dale Junior is the reason for
Speaker 3: the switch, and I'm thankful for it because it definitely
Speaker 3: feels like home for me, you know, for a lot
Speaker 3: of different reasons. The number is special to my family
Speaker 3: and and all the people over the years that have
Speaker 3: kind of helped my career and my dad's career become
Speaker 3: what it was and what it is today. So I'm
Speaker 3: grateful for that. And yeah, and also kind of the
Speaker 3: story and the run of being so close to winning
Speaker 3: in the twenty four and just never got over the hump.
Speaker 3: And then you know, it got to twenty eighteen and
Speaker 3: we swapped numbers and that was a year I got
Speaker 3: my first win, and it just kind of seemed like
Speaker 3: the that was the way the story was meant to be,
Speaker 3: and it was, you know, really really part of that's sick.
Speaker 1: Shut on Dale.
Speaker 2: Dale is the man for that.
Speaker 1: You know, he's probably playing college football twenty seven right
Speaker 1: now as we do.
Speaker 2: This with a new with the new group of boys too.
Speaker 2: He got kicked out of his league and.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, we lost him.
Speaker 2: Chase, you got us, buddy.
Speaker 1: Chase, you got us.
Speaker 3: I think I lost to you again.
Speaker 2: Oh we're back.
Speaker 3: I lost you again. I think I got you back
Speaker 3: to perfect?
Speaker 1: Yoh man, did you have a good college football twenty
Speaker 1: seven joke in there? On Dale Junior?
Speaker 2: It sounds like he did.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that, then you're probably right. I bet
Speaker 3: he is. He is playing, or if he's not, he
Speaker 3: will be. He will be soon. He's a big he's
Speaker 3: a big fan.
Speaker 2: He's got the playbook out right now, he's down and
Speaker 2: everything in there. I just saw a think on college
Speaker 2: football twenty seven. Everyone who's played it through a season
Speaker 2: so far, Bryce Underwood always transfers all I hate that,
Speaker 2: Chase I went to Michigan. That's our quarterback, Bryce under
Speaker 2: what it's it's uh, it's heartbreaking that video game trying
Speaker 2: to put that kind of evil on me. Before we
Speaker 2: get you out of here, man, I want to ask
Speaker 2: about one individual. I ask about him every single podcast.
Speaker 2: NASCAR probably told you this idiot, Taylor's going to ask
Speaker 2: you about this guy. Talk to me about Carson joso Arc.
Speaker 2: It's third last week. Every driver that's come in has
Speaker 2: been a little more like, ah, you know, some guys
Speaker 2: are more blunt than others. But what has your experience
Speaker 2: been like with Carson Josavar. I wore number seventy seven
Speaker 2: football when we started this show. I was like, I
Speaker 2: need to get back into this. Who should I root for?
Speaker 2: Overwhelming was Carson Hoosa Art it seems like a guy
Speaker 2: who's loved and hated at the same time. I beg
Speaker 2: ying and Yang takes place. He doesn't mine running somebody
Speaker 2: in the wall. When he needs to, he'll hold a grudge.
Speaker 2: What has it been like for you and him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I I it's kind of funny you ask. I
Speaker 3: know he's been a hot topic here lately, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I have no issues with him. I really don't. And
Speaker 3: you know, he's a guy that you know, he's he's
Speaker 3: racing me hard, and there's been a couple of times
Speaker 3: I felt like, maybe, like right around his rookie year,
Speaker 3: that he kind of me the wrong way a couple
Speaker 3: of times. But you know, I do remember having a
Speaker 3: couple of conversations with him there early on, you know, respectfully,
Speaker 3: you know, just the best I knew. How and ever,
Speaker 3: since then we have been totally good, and I feel
Speaker 3: like he always treats me with a lot of respect.
Speaker 3: On track, he races hard, but I'm okay with that,
Speaker 3: you know, unless he's running me in the fence or
Speaker 3: crashing me or you know, something stupid. I'm kind of
Speaker 3: good right now, so subject to change. I mean, who knows,
Speaker 3: Like you never know what's gonna happen next week. But
Speaker 3: I feel like he's given me quite a lot of
Speaker 3: respect really ever since those those early on incidents that
Speaker 3: I wouldn't even say incidents, but just conversations we had
Speaker 3: just kind of you know, racers talking back and forth.
Speaker 3: So I wish I had something juicier and better to
Speaker 3: give you, but I don't. We've kind of been good,
Speaker 3: so I'm uh, I have no, I have no issue
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Did you talk to him the same way that Bubba?
Speaker 3: Did?
Speaker 2: You know there's a viral video of Bubble kind of
Speaker 2: like getting it sitting like up on the wall a
Speaker 2: little bit and he's like kind of talking at him
Speaker 2: a little bit. Was that kind of your conversation or
Speaker 2: was it like, hey, just so.
Speaker 3: You know, I haven't seen the video of that, But no,
Speaker 3: it was. I mean, I wasn't talking at him by
Speaker 3: any means, like I think it was just more of
Speaker 3: a conversation of you know, hey, maybe I would have
Speaker 3: done this, I guess, coming back to my dad's way
Speaker 3: of telling me, I wouldn't have done that, so inadvertently,
Speaker 3: but probably more that route than than I was, you know,
Speaker 3: talking at him. So yeah, maybe nothing fiery, nothing mean
Speaker 3: nothing dramatic, just hey, you know, let's let's think about
Speaker 3: this a little differently. And I feel like with me,
Speaker 3: at least, it's been it's been all good.
Speaker 1: Nothing juicy with hosts of ar. But how about a
Speaker 1: juicy little fun fact about your teammates at Hendrick Motorsports,
Speaker 1: William Byron and Kyle Larson, any juicy fun factor sittings
Speaker 1: you'd have to describe them that people wouldn't know.
Speaker 3: About man trying to think. I mean, you know, Kyle
Speaker 3: obviously is uh, you know, out racing a lot, and
Speaker 3: I get to see him not as much William. William
Speaker 3: really has fascinated me, h throughout the course of his
Speaker 3: career and just his path and how different it is
Speaker 3: and has been, you know it like for me and
Speaker 3: and Kyle both. And honestly, I would say the majority
Speaker 3: of the guys that race in the field no different
Speaker 3: than blood and golf or t ball or football at
Speaker 3: a young age. I mean, you're starting to do these
Speaker 3: things when you're heck, I don't know, six seven, eight
Speaker 3: years old, right, like maybe even younger nowadays. And that
Speaker 3: was not the case for William, like and and it
Speaker 3: just mind blows me that this guy I started racing
Speaker 3: as late as he did. He spent the majority of
Speaker 3: his time racing on ie racing like online and and
Speaker 3: has has legitimately become one of the best guys and
Speaker 3: the most talented drivers in the field every week at
Speaker 3: any track. And so that that you know, not that
Speaker 3: it's like some you know, juicy, funny story, but that
Speaker 3: part about William for me, he has been so cool
Speaker 3: to watch and also a great lesson and just kind
Speaker 3: of there's not one right way, Like this guy has
Speaker 3: defined every right way that I thought there would be
Speaker 3: to do this, and I just think it's really cool.
Speaker 3: So his perspective on things is totally different uh than
Speaker 3: mine is like in our meetings and stuff. But he uh,
Speaker 3: I think that different perspective has has also made us
Speaker 3: stronger and it's also opened my eyes to just being
Speaker 3: open to you know, looking at things a little differently too.
Speaker 3: And he's a he's a good dude.
Speaker 1: Well, it is a very fascinating career path that he's
Speaker 1: kind of had to get in a NASCAR. What is
Speaker 1: something that William does better that people don't realize?
Speaker 3: He is just so smooth with his inputs and I
Speaker 3: think that he probably gets some of that from the
Speaker 3: online stuff that you know he did over the years.
Speaker 3: And and also what I think is really cool that
Speaker 3: that really has worked in his favor a lot is
Speaker 3: he didn't know what he didn't know. And you know
Speaker 3: that sounds so so dumb, but he had no he
Speaker 3: had no bad habits, right and you know, he comes in.
Speaker 3: He ran a couple of years in the old generation car.
Speaker 3: He was he was really starting to get going towards
Speaker 3: the end of that, and then we swapped cars and
Speaker 3: right when that happened, it was like right up his alley.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of that was because he
Speaker 3: just he didn't know any different. He didn't have a lot,
Speaker 3: he didn't have years and years and years of doing
Speaker 3: things a certain way that he had bad habits to
Speaker 3: have to break. And just being super open minded I
Speaker 3: think has helped him excel quite a lot. So it's
Speaker 3: been it's been really cool, really fun. Like I said,
Speaker 3: just super interesting. I wish you guys could just see
Speaker 3: the things behind closed doors a little more to understand
Speaker 3: what I'm exactly what I'm talking about. But yeah, it's uh,
Speaker 3: it's been impressive.
Speaker 1: We'll have to get out there and I'm gonna be honest,
Speaker 1: we've done this interview. I don't even know what people are,
Speaker 1: the drivers the boys are talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, crack up. It's like he seemed like
Speaker 2: he was ready to go the whole time. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: was really blinquant. I to set it off for all
Speaker 2: of us. The greatest band of all time got it
Speaker 2: all done.
Speaker 3: They saved us.
Speaker 2: They say the Blue Cheese started shallen, Yep, it started
Speaker 2: this entire relationship. Man, It's absolutely beautiful. Dude. Listen, ball
Speaker 2: is in your core when it comes to this friendship.
Speaker 2: You want to make it bigger. You're more than welcome to.
Speaker 2: We love to do some stuff with you.
Speaker 3: Will.
Speaker 2: Oh you're good. I thought you. Yeah, I did not
Speaker 2: again get nervous. You're the man, dude. Everyone's a fan
Speaker 2: favorite of you. We're fans of you as well. We
Speaker 2: appreciate you taking the time coming on, even if it's
Speaker 2: Ja zoom. You're taking the time out of a busy week.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Man, Well, sorry, it hadn't worked out the last
Speaker 3: couple of times we tried to schedule it, but I
Speaker 3: appreciate you guys having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3: We'd love to do it again. So uh, we'll have
Speaker 3: to try again sometime.
Speaker 2: I love it. Brother, We'll get in a car. You
Speaker 2: can show us all the ins and outs. Yeah, start
Speaker 2: ripping around the track a couple of times, perfect.
Speaker 1: And right before you get off, would you just be
Speaker 1: would you just want to take the stance that Ryan
Speaker 1: Blaney he's a shitty golfer, like you're the best one
Speaker 1: of the group.
Speaker 3: Well, the thing about that is I've played enough golf
Speaker 3: with Ryan Blaney to know that that is not true.
Speaker 3: So he dude, I've played a lot of golf with Ryan,
Speaker 3: and I don't think we have left the golf course
Speaker 3: one time and he be paying me. I think I
Speaker 3: think I had been paying him every time we have
Speaker 3: left the golf course with any wager on any game. Ever.
Speaker 3: So that should tell you all that all that you
Speaker 3: need to know.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, all right, shout out right, golfer, great
Speaker 1: golferod driver, Chase, you're the man.
Speaker 2: Let's give Chase one more.
Speaker 3: Time, great, great, great mustache. One last week like we
Speaker 3: just we can't roll, bro.
Speaker 2: You broke up a little bit. I heard great mustache.
Speaker 3: No matter what.
Speaker 1: One day, we're getting him were the bus.
Speaker 3: We're getting the.
Speaker 2: Morning on the bus. But we appreciate you. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for coming on racing with the boys.
Speaker 3: You're the man cool.
Speaker 2: See you ball.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys. Have a good day, you too.
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