Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a
Speaker 1: hand effect. Boom boom, boom out go to light. This
Speaker 1: is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up, guys. We're
Speaker 1: back again with another Lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman. Um,
Speaker 1: and we're going NASCAR today. Man, it's it's cool. And
Speaker 1: I feel bad because normally I would get out to
Speaker 1: about ten tracks, whether it's short tracks or you know,
Speaker 1: one of the main tracks a year. And uh, the
Speaker 1: last two years, man, since the pandemic, I just haven't
Speaker 1: been able to make it out to as many tracks
Speaker 1: as I would like to. I mean, hell, I would
Speaker 1: even go to some of the dirt tracks if I could. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Kyle Larson a couple of big victories over the past
Speaker 1: three or four weeks, just completely on fire. Glad he
Speaker 1: was able to take a few moments a day to
Speaker 1: jump on with us. And for all your NASCAR fans,
Speaker 1: we got a treat for you, Kyle Larson. Kyle, what's up?
Speaker 1: What's uping? My dude? How are you man? Good? Are
Speaker 1: you good? Man? I finally found somebody was harder to
Speaker 1: get a hold up than me. I was, like I
Speaker 1: thought I was bad. But uh, you you've just been
Speaker 1: You've been busy, man. But the last few weeks, man,
Speaker 1: it's been crazy. Yeah, it's been good. Been winning a lot,
Speaker 1: it's been fun. I feel like crap because I've only
Speaker 1: been to a couple of race tracks this year. Normally
Speaker 1: I get out to about tend Up and I'll jump
Speaker 1: on the jump on the plane and come out on
Speaker 1: the weekends and I'll come back and try to hold
Speaker 1: some stuff for football. So I haven't been out to
Speaker 1: admit the tracks this year. But this last few weeks, man,
Speaker 1: you've just been on fire. Thank you. Um. One of
Speaker 1: the things I wanted to ask you about because and
Speaker 1: I've been around I've been around the tracks, man for
Speaker 1: twelve years, so we I don't know if you've seen
Speaker 1: my big gass and not just walking past you're trying
Speaker 1: to push you push your car through inspection on the
Speaker 1: driver's meetings or anything like that. But it seems like
Speaker 1: you you've always been close to having these kind of
Speaker 1: weeks right back to back weeks, but lately you guys
Speaker 1: have been executing like hell, man, what's what's been What's
Speaker 1: been a big difference? Yeah, I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: it's a call the nation of a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: But I think the biggest thing is the race car
Speaker 1: being really fast. I think when when your race cars
Speaker 1: as good as ours has been here lately, um, you
Speaker 1: can kind of slow things down and and not you know,
Speaker 1: try to overdo things. And um, our car has been
Speaker 1: so fast, you're lately, you know, our pickture has been
Speaker 1: doing a great job. When your car is a good
Speaker 1: you don't have to be as aggressive on the racetracks.
Speaker 1: You make less mistakes and things like that. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's a fun place to be in my position. And
Speaker 1: I just hope we can continue to uh keep keep
Speaker 1: our cars as fast and you're try and get them
Speaker 1: even better. Yeah, speak speaking of your car, man, and
Speaker 1: and you're cruel and everything. You know, just tell me,
Speaker 1: tell me a little bit about Cliff Daniels and in
Speaker 1: the job that they've been doing. Um, and you know,
Speaker 1: I brought up execution because a lot of people need
Speaker 1: to understand, like what what goes on behind the scenes
Speaker 1: and your team and an adjustment you guys made over
Speaker 1: the last month or so. Yeah, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what adjustments we've made. I think probably just you're
Speaker 1: tweaking things make them all all areas better. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Cliff daniels Is is such an awesome crew chief, a
Speaker 1: very you know, great leader. Um, very intense. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, he kind of reminds me of probably like
Speaker 1: what a football coach would be, you know, the way
Speaker 1: he he's intense. That I was, I was just going,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to make that correlation, but I was
Speaker 1: just going to say that because I've come across Cliff
Speaker 1: and got a chance to talk to him several times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like his you know, pre race speeches and post race
Speaker 1: motivational things and stuff like It's It's honestly something that
Speaker 1: I didn't think that I needed, um, But now that
Speaker 1: I'm around it and around you know how he works,
Speaker 1: I really love it and it and it definitely motivates
Speaker 1: me and and I think it keeps us all positive
Speaker 1: and um you knowing things that you have a bad race,
Speaker 1: you know, he he knows exactly what to say to
Speaker 1: kind of pump you up and keep you digging and
Speaker 1: keep you working hard. So um man, he's a super smart,
Speaker 1: you know, human being in crew chief, and um, I
Speaker 1: think it shows on the race track. No, no, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And you guys, um for many reasons have been kind
Speaker 1: of turning it up lately, and that's why I keep
Speaker 1: bringing it back to the execution part because you've been like,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, you've just been disclosed from doing that
Speaker 1: even though you you know, first time you've kind of
Speaker 1: done this, and I think you guys just beat the
Speaker 1: what the Petty the Petty group, right, Yeah, you just
Speaker 1: beat that landmark. You talk talked a little bit about that,
Speaker 1: how big that was because Petty group the reason why
Speaker 1: I even got involved in NASCAR back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and I think seven or eight, um, and just being
Speaker 1: a part of that group thick, you know, the Petty
Speaker 1: experience and and just being around. But you guys just
Speaker 1: crossed over that landmark. Yeah that's cool. Um. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: you know Rick Richard Petty was the winning is you
Speaker 1: know team or driver and team whatever with two sixty
Speaker 1: eight wins um where you now Rick Hendrick and Indrick
Speaker 1: Motorsports has accumulated uh and surpassed you know, his his records.
Speaker 1: So it was coolly a part of that and cool
Speaker 1: to be the guy to win the race to get
Speaker 1: him over that you know record breaking UM deal with
Speaker 1: Richard Petty. Uh, it was very important to Mr h
Speaker 1: that's uh that we get it and get it quickly,
Speaker 1: and yeah it was cool, you know it. You can
Speaker 1: definitely tell. I could tell every time I talked to
Speaker 1: him that it was important to him. So nice that
Speaker 1: we're able to to do that, And just shows you
Speaker 1: know how how big of an impact Richard Petty as
Speaker 1: well as Rick Hendrick have had on the sport of
Speaker 1: NASCAR with all those wins combined. How much? How much
Speaker 1: has that talked about? Right? Because I always ask guys,
Speaker 1: and you know, me being a former player, I will
Speaker 1: look up and see how many sacks I had, right
Speaker 1: and like, okay, I got two more sacks and you
Speaker 1: know I'll lead in this category, all right? So whatever
Speaker 1: the landmark? Maybe how how often is that talked about?
Speaker 1: Or is it not really important? Or someone might come
Speaker 1: into the garage and be like, hey, by the way,
Speaker 1: you know you guys do this, this this is the
Speaker 1: landmark you're going to cross. Is that ever brought up
Speaker 1: in a conversation at all? Um? Just I don't know, Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean for me though, you know,
Speaker 1: I like to you know, I've had a great year,
Speaker 1: so I like to go and kind of look at
Speaker 1: my stats and compare them to say, you know, like
Speaker 1: last year, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, it seemed like,
Speaker 1: you know, they dominated the season. So you know, I've
Speaker 1: recently went and looked at their stats and um, you know,
Speaker 1: like laugh sledding stuff, and we've already led I think,
Speaker 1: almost as much or more than than they had last year.
Speaker 1: So I was like, wow, that's crazy to think, you know, um,
Speaker 1: but then they also had a lot more wins you know,
Speaker 1: the year, but we still have a long ways ago.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, I definitely try to look at
Speaker 1: that stuff and and it gives you like a goal,
Speaker 1: um to get to UM. But then yeah, there is
Speaker 1: also some like analytics guys out there that keep track
Speaker 1: of everything and and you know, sometimes they produce an
Speaker 1: article that tells you about your your your pass rating
Speaker 1: and stuff like that and restart your retention and things.
Speaker 1: So it's it's cool to to look at that stuff.
Speaker 1: And it definitely if you're if you're loan in a category,
Speaker 1: it definitely you know, tells you an area that you
Speaker 1: need to get better. And um. Work on Fox Sports
Speaker 1: Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. Yeah. Obviously I've been around
Speaker 1: the sporting long time, so I try to explain to
Speaker 1: people to analytics, like, right, so this weekend, you you
Speaker 1: guys are, you're coming up when Texas right for the
Speaker 1: All Star All Stars play you place poll? Right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a random draw, um, and we got lucky
Speaker 1: and drew the poll. No, come on, hey, yeah it
Speaker 1: was random, so I mean it is all luck and uh,
Speaker 1: thankfully we got the poll, so that should help out
Speaker 1: a lot. How much do you guys believe in momentum? Right,
Speaker 1: because you've had You've had a great I mean a
Speaker 1: great year, but especially the last you know, three of
Speaker 1: you know, last month or so has been big. How
Speaker 1: much do you guys are banking on a momentum Like Okay,
Speaker 1: hey we were here, we need to go here. We're here,
Speaker 1: we need to go here and take advantage, you know,
Speaker 1: of this momentum you guys have right now. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think momentum is huge and in any any sport really, um,
Speaker 1: but racing, you know, it's it's important as well, just
Speaker 1: because you can kind of ride that wave and keep
Speaker 1: pilot on your hopefully good finishes. So these last five
Speaker 1: weeks have been great. We haven't been out of the
Speaker 1: top two and have had shots to win even a
Speaker 1: lot before that. But um, and two, I raised a
Speaker 1: lot outside of NASCAR, and even that racing has gone
Speaker 1: really yeah, and that's gone well for me to last
Speaker 1: few weeks. So it really does help my momentum and
Speaker 1: my personal confidence, and I think that's definitely a good
Speaker 1: thing to go out there and continue having success. I
Speaker 1: talked to a couple of guys who do you know
Speaker 1: racing the dirt tracks? And I talked you guys who
Speaker 1: racing the short tracks or whatever? And how do you
Speaker 1: meant like mentally switched gears for that? Do you have
Speaker 1: to you know, kind of say okay, I gotta get
Speaker 1: back into saddle this or you can just go bounce
Speaker 1: back back and forth, no problem. Well, I think for me,
Speaker 1: I might be different than some of the other drivers
Speaker 1: just because I do it so often. Um, like this week,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm running four nights in a row in
Speaker 1: a late Model before I go to you know, Texas
Speaker 1: or on the cup car, and so I think when
Speaker 1: I do it that often, you know it's I don't
Speaker 1: have to think about it much. But I know, you know,
Speaker 1: my good buddy like Ricky Stenhouse, who he doesn't do
Speaker 1: a bunch of dirt racing, but he ran, you know,
Speaker 1: midget last night in Indiana, and I'm sure, I'm sure
Speaker 1: when he buckles in, he's got to like think about Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm in a midget. How does this drive? All? Right?
Speaker 1: I need to like remind my brain a certain thing.
Speaker 1: But for me, I've gotten so used to jumping in
Speaker 1: and out of race cars that uh, I feel like
Speaker 1: I can adapt pretty quickly. But you're not. You're not
Speaker 1: racing the full season right on the dirt track. You
Speaker 1: just kind of bounced back and forth between races. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't have time to race a full season and
Speaker 1: chase points or anything like that. But um, this year,
Speaker 1: I'm raising a bunch, but I can still pop in
Speaker 1: and run those those series and stuff. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: I can be a little bit more aggressive probably than
Speaker 1: than other drivers, just because I'm not chasing points. No, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and good luck this weekend. But last thing, I want
Speaker 1: to ask you about your foundation, man, because I was
Speaker 1: checking out your website. Um, actually last night and this morning,
Speaker 1: tell me a little bit about what you got going on. Yeah. Thanks, No,
Speaker 1: I've started the Kyle Larson Foundation here this year recently,
Speaker 1: and um, last year I got to you work together
Speaker 1: with a lot of well a few different foundations and
Speaker 1: hang around their their communities and stuff, and they're they're
Speaker 1: important part of me in my return back to Nascars.
Speaker 1: So you know, this year I started my foundation to
Speaker 1: try and raise money and awareness to help out their communities,
Speaker 1: you know, Tony Sonny Foundation and Urban Youth Thracing School
Speaker 1: and uh the hender Cares program. So you through it
Speaker 1: like this year. With each lap completed and top fives
Speaker 1: and wins and stuff, the money kind of piles up.
Speaker 1: So already this year we've raised sixty eight I think
Speaker 1: sixty eight thousand dollars so with a goal of getting
Speaker 1: to five hundred thousand. So still a long ways ago,
Speaker 1: but um, it's been cool to kind of get involved
Speaker 1: and get out there and do stuff. I've always wanted
Speaker 1: to start a foundation. I just didn't know like what
Speaker 1: that was and what I wanted to support. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been good and I hope to uh to grow
Speaker 1: it into something even more impactful. Down the road, and
Speaker 1: how can people be involved. You've got a website, right,
Speaker 1: you have the website if people to check out the information, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh Kyle Larson or yeah, Kyler's Foundation dot org.
Speaker 1: I believe and you can go on there and and
Speaker 1: you'll learn more about it as well as there should
Speaker 1: be a tab in there to to help donate and
Speaker 1: help me reach that goal. Awesome brother, a heavy uh
Speaker 1: kick ass weekend. Keep that momentum going, you on fire.
Speaker 1: I'm we was able to sneak you and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta get cow man, we gotta get
Speaker 1: cow and uh So I appreciate you taking the time
Speaker 1: and I'll be at the track soon. I'm gonna come
Speaker 1: stop by the trailer man say what's up when I
Speaker 1: get out there? Okay, yeah cool, Yeah, I look forward
Speaker 1: to thank you. Okay, you gotta man take it easy.
Speaker 1: Yeah you too, see it? Thank you guys. Listening in
Speaker 1: to another lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman and
Speaker 1: uh wow, you know it's it's funny because being a
Speaker 1: former athlete, I always feel I'm not gonna see bad,
Speaker 1: but I always have a certain feeling when I when
Speaker 1: the guy's on fire. He's you know, he's hot, and
Speaker 1: he got a bunch of things going on. Kyle Larson
Speaker 1: has you know, been just killing it the last month
Speaker 1: or so, and he's not a great year, but this
Speaker 1: past month or five weeks has just been incredible. And
Speaker 1: I'm like telling my guys, we gotta we gotta get
Speaker 1: cow on, we gotta get cow on. And uh. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate him taking the time to day so uh,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you guys. Man. It's it's just been
Speaker 1: really cool for me to see these numbers grow and
Speaker 1: you guys described and leaving these reviews and comments. You know,
Speaker 1: I was give you a funny story. I was in
Speaker 1: Miami a few weeks ago and I was walking down
Speaker 1: of my hotel and um, you know, two guys walked
Speaker 1: up to me this for two seconds, hit man, we
Speaker 1: love your podcast. And I was like, man, that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty damn cool. And they kept it moving. So obviously
Speaker 1: you guys are likeing and I appreciate that. So keep
Speaker 1: listening and keep subscribing to the Lights of podcast with Me,
Speaker 1: Seawan Merriman and uh We'll be back with another one
Speaker 1: next week.