Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John And this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it, Good do it. They's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard am about it?
Speaker 1: Then we're about to let you know. It's all that's hurt.
Speaker 1: What up? What up? What up? Man? I got a
Speaker 1: story for you. Oh so with chit chat and you know,
Speaker 1: just trying to be a lot more not a lot more,
Speaker 1: little bit more approachable. All right. So I was talking
Speaker 1: to my neighbor and he he was telling me the
Speaker 1: story and like everybody else, you know, how you live
Speaker 1: in neighborhoods and there's people you talk to that's really
Speaker 1: like what they're either on your in your radius of
Speaker 1: like a cross the street or to the right of
Speaker 1: to the left of you, but very few people really
Speaker 1: interact with depending on the size of your neighborhood, like
Speaker 1: somebody that's in the front interest if you live in
Speaker 1: the back, or maybe just like your next door name. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So this is like across the street. Like our kids
Speaker 1: play together a lot, so we're you know, hey, how
Speaker 1: are you doing, how's your week? Blah blah. So this
Speaker 1: one of my neighbors. He is like a cyclist, like
Speaker 1: mountain bike, has the outfits like he's he's the guy
Speaker 1: like on Sunday when you maybe Saturday, or during the week,
Speaker 1: or even in the afternoon if there's like a hot day,
Speaker 1: he's outside like redoing his retooling his bike, washing the bike, golf.
Speaker 1: You know. He about that life. He's about that life.
Speaker 1: So he tells me about some folks in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: He goes, Man, I rode my bike. I got invited
Speaker 1: to ride with some guys in the neighborhood. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, So I'm telling the story as my neighbor.
Speaker 1: Just man, I'm riding a bike. And he said, Man,
Speaker 1: we go and I don't know. But he says, riding
Speaker 1: a bike with speed it's important. But also you have
Speaker 1: to know your surroundings. So they're in a they're riding
Speaker 1: a bike in the area he doesn't know. So this guy,
Speaker 1: he says, the neighbor in our neighborhood. He says, first
Speaker 1: of all, I'll never ride bikes with this dude ever again.
Speaker 1: I said it was that bad. He goes, let me
Speaker 1: tell you why it was bad. I said why. He said,
Speaker 1: they're riding. So now he's riding his bike in a
Speaker 1: unfamiliar trail. So he's ride and he says, every single
Speaker 1: time he catches up with the guy, the guy takes off.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's trying not to be rude, but he's like, man,
Speaker 1: this dude needs to slow down. But every time he
Speaker 1: catches up to him, the guy takes off. So he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, and he doesn't want to be the guy's like, hey,
Speaker 1: slow down, you're going too fast. Because he's a new
Speaker 1: guy and if these guys are cool, he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to lose the opportunity to ride bikes with some new guys.
Speaker 1: Because this guy just moved. He moved to several months
Speaker 1: ago from Detroit. There's a whole etiquette behind this. Yes,
Speaker 1: but he said, this dude is really just he's like,
Speaker 1: he's huffing and puffing like and guy's like you all right,
Speaker 1: and he's he you know, his his breathing is no,
Speaker 1: but he says, oh, yeah, I'm fine. But he says, Steve,
Speaker 1: I am dying, like this dude is kicking my ass.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, what's the problem. He said, well,
Speaker 1: here's the problem. This dude. Does it really look like
Speaker 1: the guy that should be peddling consistently as fast as
Speaker 1: he's peddling. I said, I don't get it, all right. Look,
Speaker 1: the dude is a little bit. His weight and his
Speaker 1: speed don't compute. Okay, big big bones, bones, But he said,
Speaker 1: just pounding his ass off. And he said, bro. And
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a pretty good writer. You know. I don't
Speaker 1: mean to judge, but I understand why this dude it's
Speaker 1: killing me, Like I'm killing me. So he said. This
Speaker 1: goes on for the next hour, in twenty minutes, so
Speaker 1: he's going, He's going, And then they finally finished with
Speaker 1: the trail and he's like, man, he was like, how
Speaker 1: are you doing? He's like, man, it was all right,
Speaker 1: it was cool. You want to come next week? He's like, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta talk with the wife and see
Speaker 1: how and things going. So it was three of them,
Speaker 1: my neighboring and the other two guys, he says. The
Speaker 1: friend spills the beans. The friend tells them the guy
Speaker 1: that invited him over. This dude is riding guess what
Speaker 1: an e bike? Mm hmm, he was riding electrical bike. Cold.
Speaker 1: He said, if I had Superman heat seeking eyes, I
Speaker 1: would have killed him on the spot. He said. It
Speaker 1: was so the dude, you can still generate the pedals
Speaker 1: even on an e bike. Bro, I guess the e
Speaker 1: bike is doing all the work. You can do it.
Speaker 1: But he said, the dude, but here's the party, He said,
Speaker 1: he was piste off about the guy who invited him
Speaker 1: didn't even tell him. His body told on him. So
Speaker 1: the whole time transmission, for the whole hour and a
Speaker 1: half to do our fifty minutes just bike ride over
Speaker 1: thirty forty miles fifty miles, this dude barely did anything.
Speaker 1: So I said, what are you gonna do? He said, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not riding with that dude ever again. And that
Speaker 1: just kind of like, it's so, why are you telling
Speaker 1: the story. What's the whole point? The point is made.
Speaker 1: People are doing things and just cutting short, capping and
Speaker 1: snitching is what I got from that story. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine me you working out or something like in a
Speaker 1: gym and I got I got forty five place, But
Speaker 1: they really attend they just look like for yes, and
Speaker 1: you keep them clean though yeah we we we max
Speaker 1: and you maxing like to fifty times. But really yes,
Speaker 1: like you got you got their weights from like say
Speaker 1: a movie. Yeah right, they got him at like the
Speaker 1: here in Charlotte is this little discovery place where they
Speaker 1: look they look like they're heavy, but they're really not. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it was just I was like, man and they
Speaker 1: just told his story and I just thought it was
Speaker 1: hilarious because really, how many times have you done something
Speaker 1: or been with somebody and co and you comparing and
Speaker 1: realize you're comparing the to a person who's really not
Speaker 1: even putting it in that work. So I just thought
Speaker 1: that was I thought it was a stop yes, you
Speaker 1: leading people astrain? Yeah, yeah, and stopping for doughnuts after
Speaker 1: the bike in the pacie didn't match up, not even close.
Speaker 1: So who we got coming up on the Cut to
Speaker 1: It podcast, We've got Jeff Gordon, the retired driver of
Speaker 1: the number twenty four car. He's a four time NASCAR
Speaker 1: Cup Series champion and he has there most wins in
Speaker 1: NASCAR history. Right now, he's a Fox Sports analyst for
Speaker 1: the NASCAR Cup Series. Jeff Gordon joined us in studio
Speaker 1: for the Cut to It podcast. Jeff Gordon, thanks for coming,
Speaker 1: my pleasure. Always been a fan of this guy over here, Steve,
Speaker 1: and um, I think we met a couple of times.
Speaker 1: We don't really hung out, but but but we've met,
Speaker 1: and mad respect for for what you did on the field.
Speaker 1: I think I think I've told you this. You know,
Speaker 1: a long time forty Niners fan. But I've lived in
Speaker 1: Charlotte for uh who many years, going back to you know,
Speaker 1: early nineties when I came to NASCAR, and so uh
Speaker 1: you know when when the Panthers came. I always always
Speaker 1: had a special place there that as long as you
Speaker 1: were playing my team and uh but huge, you know,
Speaker 1: fan of your work and and always always loved what
Speaker 1: you brought on the field. Well he's fan of you
Speaker 1: as well. Um, I'm actually a four friends so that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. So yeah, so this is this is gonna
Speaker 1: start off from the Bay Area. You know, my family's
Speaker 1: for Monterey and then my my folks moved down to
Speaker 1: l A. So grew up in l A. Um but
Speaker 1: so cold man, beautiful place it sure he is, isn't it.
Speaker 1: There's no place like it. Traffic and all. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why I don't live there. I'll be honest. I
Speaker 1: like to drive. I do not like to sit. I
Speaker 1: need to be moving. I just like going fishing. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to just put a hook in the water.
Speaker 1: I want to actually catch some fish. That's why I
Speaker 1: don't fish. You don't have the patience for it. I've
Speaker 1: never something got to go with the right people. Someone
Speaker 1: invited me to fish. I will not say the name,
Speaker 1: because you hit me with the flex and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going fishing and you want to join. I said,
Speaker 1: maybe we could do something else, but I don't fish.
Speaker 1: I used to be yeah, you don't fish with the
Speaker 1: right people. I used to be like that until until
Speaker 1: I started finding the right experiences where I was like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a whole another level fishing right here, and
Speaker 1: I can get into So you're fishing up nor No. No,
Speaker 1: I mean my parents have a pond that they stocked
Speaker 1: and and I'll take my kids out there and we'll
Speaker 1: do a little you know, kitching release. Yeah, just like
Speaker 1: bass carp stuff like that. But I've been with with
Speaker 1: Rick Hendrick on his his fishing boat and we actually
Speaker 1: did a Trea. You didn't want to play, Yeah, those
Speaker 1: arms are coming out of the head of that button
Speaker 1: fish with that guy, it's it's the next level. So
Speaker 1: a little little side side story. Uh, I purchased word
Speaker 1: on the Lake Norman streets. I think I purchased your
Speaker 1: old condom up in Lake Norman. It used to be
Speaker 1: Queen's Landing across. Yes, I had that back in UM.
Speaker 1: It was actually people used to think I was trying
Speaker 1: to hold out when I told my hand Frakes and
Speaker 1: I had said, if I wanted to hold out, I'll
Speaker 1: just go up to my lakehouse. And there was a
Speaker 1: lakehouse right up there. I had a boat at the UM. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: it was. It wasn't flexed because here's why I learned
Speaker 1: very quickly electricity and water equals a lot of expensive repairs.
Speaker 1: So I had I had a I had a boat,
Speaker 1: UM and then I had had that condo that was
Speaker 1: up there that they said it was yours when you
Speaker 1: first came here. Yeah, that was I first I lived
Speaker 1: out near the speedway and that didn't last very long
Speaker 1: and boom, I was I was up to the the lake.
Speaker 1: So it's true. Huh man, I sold the change on
Speaker 1: the which if our first segment is called get ice
Speaker 1: We haven't even started. Yeah, we just we went straight
Speaker 1: into it. But our first segment is called get ice Up.
Speaker 1: Their random icebreakers developed by some many. You don't know
Speaker 1: what's coming up. There may be a follow up, there
Speaker 1: may not be. It may be a about who's your
Speaker 1: favorite me go. I have no idea, but Smithie go
Speaker 1: ahead and give him the first one and we'll get
Speaker 1: your iced up. Are you ready? Uh no? But it
Speaker 1: is a test about yourself. So if you fail, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm myself, got it all right? So automatic or stick shift? Oh?
Speaker 1: Is paddle an option in there? Paddle is like, what
Speaker 1: kind of paddle are you talking about? Well, we're not
Speaker 1: that first. You know, I'm a technology guy, like I
Speaker 1: love technology, and to me, these days, what's happening in
Speaker 1: automobiles of I mean, you could even go electric. There's
Speaker 1: there's no gears at all. Um. But but okay, I
Speaker 1: grew up racing with stick shift, so I love stick
Speaker 1: But these days, you know, the fastest race cars on
Speaker 1: the plane are all paddle So you know, you just
Speaker 1: got the paddles on. I know someone I didn't know
Speaker 1: it was a paddle. I just knew it was the
Speaker 1: thing on the back of the sterium wheel. I don't
Speaker 1: just talk about something now, so it probably leaned more
Speaker 1: towards believe it or not. Automatic. These days, these like
Speaker 1: ten speed automatics are faster than than than you know,
Speaker 1: just a manual stick shift. So I'm all about speed.
Speaker 1: Favorite vacation spot. Oh so, I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is the top of my list, but but
Speaker 1: I gotta say that my wife playing this trip pre
Speaker 1: COVID where we're going to go to someplace in in Alaska,
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, Alaska. You know that's cold.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of snow and ice and and but
Speaker 1: I love the mountains. And she didn't give me the
Speaker 1: full low down on on how remote this place was.
Speaker 1: So we finally technology guy, Yeah, we made we just
Speaker 1: made up this trip. This place was spect accurate, Like
Speaker 1: it was one of those things where I got to
Speaker 1: the airport and I was like, okay, you know what
Speaker 1: what what? What's the plane? So I was in Phoenix
Speaker 1: at the race, finished the broadcast, flew to Seattle, met
Speaker 1: up with the kids and my wife, Ingrid, and the
Speaker 1: next morning we're taken off to go to um to Anchorage, Alaska,
Speaker 1: and so we get the Anchorage, Alaska. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what's what's the plane here? What's going on? I like
Speaker 1: to be surprised sometimes on on the my wife's pretty
Speaker 1: good at it. I never lose faith in her abilities
Speaker 1: to uh to come up some pretty spectacular things. Anyway.
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, it's it's like a blizzard outside,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how are we gonna get there? Well,
Speaker 1: where they're the only way you can get to this
Speaker 1: place is either by a plane that can land on it,
Speaker 1: like on the on the snow, or a helicopter. And
Speaker 1: there's no way we can helicopter in this weather. So
Speaker 1: they pick they get us out of the plane, and
Speaker 1: they it gets over this hangar with a helicopter pilot.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, you know I've flew in the military. Um,
Speaker 1: you don't have anything to worry about. I wouldn't fly
Speaker 1: if it was dangerous. We're all good. He's like, it's
Speaker 1: clear five minutes from here. We just got to get
Speaker 1: through the first five minutes of snow. I'm like, snow
Speaker 1: in a helicopter, Like that doesn't that's that. But I
Speaker 1: gotta say this guy was one of the most spectacular
Speaker 1: pilots I've ever flown with, and and he was super confident.
Speaker 1: We got out there and he was right. It was
Speaker 1: Blue Skies five minutes away. And and we flew into
Speaker 1: the Denali National Park. And I didn't, you know, I
Speaker 1: know about Denali, heard of it and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: but it never really knew a lot about it. And
Speaker 1: I gotta say it was just one of the most
Speaker 1: spectacular places I've ever been. Just the beauty. Um you
Speaker 1: know that I learned so much about, uh, the glaciers,
Speaker 1: how how you know, how they melt and how the
Speaker 1: snow builds up on hom of the winter. How tall
Speaker 1: Denali is, you know, when the tallest mountains in in
Speaker 1: the world, certainly tallest peak in North America. So I
Speaker 1: gotta say that on was fresh on my mind right now.
Speaker 1: Prior to that, we did a trip a few summers ago.
Speaker 1: We went to Indonesia. My son love uh Komodo Dragon
Speaker 1: still does, and so every time, you know, we go
Speaker 1: to a zoo or something, or he's watching the show
Speaker 1: on TV's like Komodo Dragons, Comodo Dragons. So my wife
Speaker 1: she's like, well, We're gonna take him to see Komodo
Speaker 1: dragons on Komodo Island. So so we went, we went Indonesia,
Speaker 1: not just not just ask bur Zoo Indonesia. Man, I
Speaker 1: feel terrible. I'm like, I'm not trying to flex. Time
Speaker 1: is a habitual flex. He flex effortlessly. Yes, I know,
Speaker 1: he's a vis I'm just living my life. Sorry, I'm
Speaker 1: just asking to answer the question. I said a favorite vacation.
Speaker 1: I didn't say my favorite vacation. I just asked the
Speaker 1: man about it. So, I mean those are probably so
Speaker 1: tell us about vacations I've been on. So you went
Speaker 1: on the glaciers, and then you saw how they make,
Speaker 1: how they make and invent dragons? What else? What else?
Speaker 1: Magic dragon? We're going to see you know, next week,
Speaker 1: we're going to see you know where rock they pulled
Speaker 1: the sword out of the stone. Right when my wife says,
Speaker 1: I've got this, Uh, I got this idea of going
Speaker 1: somewhere on a vacation. I get, I get worried. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh boy, I gotta work. Okay, So I think I
Speaker 1: know by your face. What do you get worried about
Speaker 1: the location? How much it's gonna There's only one thing.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm an adventurer. I'll go anywhere. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it takes a lot to make me nervous. But but
Speaker 1: paying for that's my first question. How much it cost? Hey,
Speaker 1: we can go, how much it costs. I've actually had
Speaker 1: to tell myself to last two or three times, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: don't let that be the first thing that comes out
Speaker 1: of your mouth. I know you're thinking it, but you
Speaker 1: have to have with yourself. With my I'm talking to myself,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm don't do it, don't do it, don't
Speaker 1: do it, don't do it. So I didn't realize how
Speaker 1: hard it is. It is so hard for me not
Speaker 1: to immediately just go, well, that sounds expensive. Same thing.
Speaker 1: We just we just booked our summer trip, and I
Speaker 1: was thinking that the whole time. Now you stay in
Speaker 1: domestic with all the COVID stuff, I know it's hard.
Speaker 1: So we actually, my wife has been trying to get
Speaker 1: me so long, and so we finally committed that first.
Speaker 1: She'son was trying to get me to buy a sprinter
Speaker 1: van and in the RV and I said, let's rent first.
Speaker 1: Let's rent let's rent this first to see So we're
Speaker 1: taking a So we're taking I think it's like twelve
Speaker 1: thirteen days flying to l a driving to Orange County,
Speaker 1: standing for a couple of days, then driving to Lake pal,
Speaker 1: then from Lake pal going to Moab or Zion, glamping,
Speaker 1: glamping under the lights, under the star. So inphasis on
Speaker 1: glamping because his brother right here, I don't camp. Oh
Speaker 1: you're gonna glamp, I'm but it's got a little like
Speaker 1: the No, it's called glamping, so it's it's open tent
Speaker 1: with a shower, no technology, but we can have lunch
Speaker 1: and breakfast in a low So everything's under a tent,
Speaker 1: no open doors. So I'm a little worried about that,
Speaker 1: though I'm a little bit nervous about something walking up
Speaker 1: on me right a nothing. It is worse than having
Speaker 1: to go pee and something sneak up on you. That's
Speaker 1: the whole point of camping. You suppose that your survivalist
Speaker 1: does this ninja look like you want to camp. See,
Speaker 1: I don't worry about I can't camp in Jordan's about bugs.
Speaker 1: I don't like mosquito bites and stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: but the like snakes and bears that don't bother me.
Speaker 1: I just saw afraid a guy said, a grizzly bear
Speaker 1: cound get up to thirty miles per hour. My peak
Speaker 1: was good. The man, don't add up, man, get some
Speaker 1: sparking me twenty five point seven. I'm still short. The
Speaker 1: first thing is don't try to outrun the bear. I'm
Speaker 1: a brother, that's the first instinct. Yeah, I ain't got
Speaker 1: the outrun the bear. He gotta catch me. I just
Speaker 1: got the outrun. But the last guy can't be with
Speaker 1: your kids. Yeah, so damn shame't what Steve didn't want this?
Speaker 1: You left them home? Um, and then from there we're
Speaker 1: driving to So I love that. I love hearing this
Speaker 1: because to me, that that's that's that's my kind of vacation.
Speaker 1: That's not my wife's kind of vacation. That's my kind
Speaker 1: of vacation because every year I run an airstream and
Speaker 1: I go somewhere and I just but it's just me,
Speaker 1: like I just kind of do my my zen solo
Speaker 1: trip once a while. I just rent this. You get
Speaker 1: a pass for that. I do. I do every year.
Speaker 1: My wife said, you're gonna go to you can't get
Speaker 1: an air stream to a campground by yourself. And I'm
Speaker 1: like yeah, she's like hmm, She's like, gives me that look,
Speaker 1: give me inspiration. Jeff I'm gonna try this. But I
Speaker 1: just did that trip a few weeks ago and I
Speaker 1: went to Santa Barbara, So I highly recommend I go
Speaker 1: to some places like that with that, with that spiring. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna drive up and down the coach. So we're
Speaker 1: going l A and finishing Utah. Hey man, we got
Speaker 1: some of the most beautiful landscape national parks in the world.
Speaker 1: So you and it sounds like you're going to hit
Speaker 1: a couple. Yeah, we're gonna say that. That's the whole
Speaker 1: point of of seeing seeing some stuff we like to
Speaker 1: travel around with before the pandemic, we all we had
Speaker 1: a two week vacation for Israel, but that got canceled,
Speaker 1: and sure it took me. Just imagine what's going to
Speaker 1: happen when when things finally get back to real normal. Right,
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a real normal. I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's a new normal. We have to take a
Speaker 1: break and the morning thing, we gotta pay some bills.
Speaker 1: You got checks. I love cut to It, and I
Speaker 1: love it even more when you download us and subscribe
Speaker 1: and you can follow us on social media too. Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at that's at? Cut to It? On Instagram,
Speaker 1: what about Twitter? At cut to It Facebook, cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr what about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcast. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. I always like to grill, like at
Speaker 1: the racetrack, grill like grill out, steaks, chicken, just basic stuff.
Speaker 1: You put fish on the grill. I'll put like salmon
Speaker 1: on the plank. That's the right way to do it.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna do it, I know what. I know
Speaker 1: what Steve's gonna go. Don't let him go. Don't let
Speaker 1: him take you down. His bad. He doesn't believe that
Speaker 1: fishould go on the grill. Well, I agree. I do
Speaker 1: a lot of pan searing stuff. I like. I like
Speaker 1: that a little no no pants on the on the
Speaker 1: on the But that's what I was going to say
Speaker 1: is that the cooking through covid has been holding next
Speaker 1: level because it's like get on Instagram and you find
Speaker 1: you know, the chefs that were doing stuff like doing
Speaker 1: cooking lessons on Instagram. You're doing you know, all kinds
Speaker 1: of you created dishes and yeah, you just falls I
Speaker 1: mean I can. I'm good at fallowing direction the gas exactly.
Speaker 1: So like my wife loves steak up, so you know
Speaker 1: we we did that one night. But the other thing
Speaker 1: is that like a ribby or no, what that be.
Speaker 1: The other one you're gonna laugh at is d Jyne,
Speaker 1: who way, don't just kind of hold up. Wait now
Speaker 1: I know that Nelly rapped about you, and ea, I
Speaker 1: know jay Z wrapped about you. So now we got
Speaker 1: DJ jazz Jams. That name was already it's already taking
Speaker 1: I'm not qualified to have a DJ name that DJ.
Speaker 1: But um So I went to a Bisa or a
Speaker 1: the a few years ago, several years ago and had
Speaker 1: had had a good vacation there, went to Burning Man,
Speaker 1: which is just mind blowing experience. And ever since those
Speaker 1: two experiences, I've just you know, like I was like
Speaker 1: partying and having fun you know, with my wife with friends,
Speaker 1: but all the club music that don't don't don't was
Speaker 1: never my thing until I went to these two places.
Speaker 1: And now I'm like, okay, it's funny even people that
Speaker 1: know me for years, like they're like, damn, Jeff, I've
Speaker 1: known you for a long time. You surprised the hell
Speaker 1: every time. And I've always loved music, um, you know,
Speaker 1: all kinds of music from growing up as a kid
Speaker 1: in California. My sister hadn't influence on me four years
Speaker 1: older than me, and so it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: Tom Jones and the Beatles and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, okay, that's not necessarily me and
Speaker 1: then okay, okay, I was like, how didn't usual? No? No,
Speaker 1: I was like right, and so him like okay. So
Speaker 1: then then I got into more like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: pop and in some rock and roll and you know,
Speaker 1: a C d C. And then I started breakdancing and
Speaker 1: getting into you were no, did you have a jacket?
Speaker 1: Did you have a jacket? Oh yeah, I was baby Smurf.
Speaker 1: That was that I had the jacket. Baby. I was
Speaker 1: in a group. He was he was a cruel So
Speaker 1: he was like doing. He was on the ground, like
Speaker 1: doing all. I just did stuff on the ground. Okay,
Speaker 1: you got it. You were like electric boogaloo. No, No,
Speaker 1: I didn't do any popping. It was just he stayed
Speaker 1: within his his genetics, Jeff break break dancing, and then
Speaker 1: you do a little smurf are you? Are you DJ Smurf? Now?
Speaker 1: I try, but that's what backstage things. So my music
Speaker 1: like has gone all over the place. And and so
Speaker 1: right now what I'm what I'm like, and what's been
Speaker 1: fast about this whole um conversation, But this whole journey
Speaker 1: is I didn't know. I always is fascinating in the
Speaker 1: club watching the DJM, like that's cool, that's cool. I
Speaker 1: wish I could do that. Yeah, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know about a race car driver with a
Speaker 1: helmet on inside a race car that's loud. But I
Speaker 1: still wanted to be on the stage. You know. I
Speaker 1: like to entertain, but I didn't. I couldn't play an instrument.
Speaker 1: I couldn't sing or you want to party? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like that. I like entertaining people, and so so um,
Speaker 1: what's been fascinating through this is learning how all this
Speaker 1: DJ equipment equipment and the software and the computer and
Speaker 1: all that stuff plays a role, and you know, and
Speaker 1: how it sinks the music and and and you know,
Speaker 1: then you've got all these different platforms SoundCloud title of
Speaker 1: where you're getting all your music from and and so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's I mean, should to build your library up. God,
Speaker 1: it takes so much of your effort and time. So
Speaker 1: I have a whole new appreciation. And I've got a
Speaker 1: few friends there DJs I know, Dip Blow and Change,
Speaker 1: Smokers and some of these guys. So I just met
Speaker 1: him over the years, and so we're gonna I expect
Speaker 1: to see Jeff Gordon now like DJ Coachella, is that
Speaker 1: next not entertained? I got good, but I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: it sounds like I'm not gonna be fancy, like the
Speaker 1: verse of DJs are always the best ones. Well, you
Speaker 1: can take me from genre to genre. Definitely, dude, I
Speaker 1: got a lot of different music. But anyway, so it's
Speaker 1: it's super cool. Brother in laws getting married. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: reach out to my wife was here, She'd say, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's gone a little crazy with this DJ stuff like
Speaker 1: I have in my garage. I was actually moving before
Speaker 1: I came over here. I've got I've got to eighteens
Speaker 1: and two fifteen. Its first, what kind of amp you
Speaker 1: running with it? So these are all powered subs, so
Speaker 1: you don't need you don't need the amp because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not all into to that. I just
Speaker 1: want plug and play. But I've got this this den
Speaker 1: and um DJ controller that It's like, what the hell
Speaker 1: am I doing with this thing? I mean, I could
Speaker 1: play four different things at one time and it's lit up.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, I'm like that guy that shows up
Speaker 1: the golf course with the set of brand new pings,
Speaker 1: like he looks like he knows what he's doing. But
Speaker 1: but and then to wait until I hit the ball.
Speaker 1: I have no idea where it's gonna go. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a DJ bad You and Chet because DJ's now too,
Speaker 1: so we got this cross over. Well well yeah, and
Speaker 1: then what I've learned about all that, right is is
Speaker 1: you know, you go hire somebody to help you kind
Speaker 1: of produce your your your show. So I'm not that
Speaker 1: another level. We're gonna we're gonna get Jeff Gooden new
Speaker 1: DJ Jeff alright, last one. I just got schooled. Man.
Speaker 1: This is damn. I we weren't prepared for this. Was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: when in the research stop it, you're a little smurf
Speaker 1: Frien sur when he on the ones in two it's rocky,
Speaker 1: do get it? Twisted, no cats, Hey, your head out
Speaker 1: on his airstream, But we go fishing playing dj D S.
Speaker 1: I'm so screwed. I like it though, I like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, So last one, uh, you know, being from California,
Speaker 1: which I knew, UM, and we do it as well,
Speaker 1: Um a fellow California, California rolling stop or a full
Speaker 1: complete stop? Does anybody come to complete stop these days? Uh?
Speaker 1: I'm yeah, I'm I'm probably. I like to follow the rules,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm muna say I follow the rules. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I don't think my tires have ever just come to
Speaker 1: full stuff. The rule we say in our family in
Speaker 1: the neighborhoods no cop, no stop. Yeah, that's what I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, is if I see something out of
Speaker 1: the corner of my eye that I need to stop
Speaker 1: full absolutely, Yeah, all right, let's go. Let listen. That
Speaker 1: that was the best ice thing we had. We always
Speaker 1: get something interesting that I guess, but that that's about
Speaker 1: far the most interesting. Probably I probably this is you
Speaker 1: know what I learned the TV is you don't want
Speaker 1: to empty the bucket too early. I think I just
Speaker 1: said no, but we appreciate you it on our platform
Speaker 1: all right, So where are you from in a place
Speaker 1: you call your hometown? So man, I'm like, I'm like somebody,
Speaker 1: it's all from all over the place, right, Because my
Speaker 1: birthplace Valeo, California, that I lived and tell us about
Speaker 1: fourteen took me then racing two Indiana to a place
Speaker 1: called Pittsburgh, Indiana. So for the longest time I always
Speaker 1: called Pittsburgh my my hometown. Um, but but then moved
Speaker 1: to North Carolina. So I'm I'm in Charlotte, you know. Now,
Speaker 1: that's where I spent most of my time. And my
Speaker 1: my business is obviously racing in NASCAR, and and whether
Speaker 1: it be working for Fox Sports or Hendrick Motorsports. I've
Speaker 1: got a couple of dealerships in North Carolina. So this
Speaker 1: is where my kids are in school here. So this
Speaker 1: Charlotte is my my home. But we would love to travel,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, so I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: if we can be locked down any one place for
Speaker 1: too long. I challenge people all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: even my wife. You know, my wife's from Belgium and
Speaker 1: we met in New York. I brought her to Charlotte
Speaker 1: and she's like, you know, I'm used to New York.
Speaker 1: She's a little spic so so. But you know, I
Speaker 1: challenge anybody of find a better place to bring up
Speaker 1: your kids. Um, you know, better place to the There's
Speaker 1: lots of opportunities here, whether you know, if you look
Speaker 1: at it and you've got the seasons, but nice weather.
Speaker 1: My my family all followed me here. My my mom,
Speaker 1: my stepdad, my sister, my stepbrother all came here because
Speaker 1: they loved None of them wanted to go to Indiana,
Speaker 1: but they all came here. That's cool, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a it's a great place not to age you. But
Speaker 1: growing up in Vallejo, growing up Indiana, you know, growing
Speaker 1: up in those places. How did this shape your view
Speaker 1: on the world as you see it today? Yeah, probably
Speaker 1: growing up in Valeo more than anything else, right, I
Speaker 1: mean very diverse school, um public school. Didn't go to
Speaker 1: private school. Um, you know, from getting in fights at
Speaker 1: school to um the type of education you know that
Speaker 1: I got probably more life less in education than than
Speaker 1: anything else. I didn't think my my education I got
Speaker 1: at school was very good, like it just I wasn't
Speaker 1: that interested. I was more of an average student anyway,
Speaker 1: because I wanted to race my parents introduced me to
Speaker 1: racing very young at five. So school was like I
Speaker 1: just think something I felt like I needed to do.
Speaker 1: But you know, the kids that I interacted with, UM
Speaker 1: taught me a lot, you know about about life. Just
Speaker 1: just things happened fast. Man, just being introduced and seeing
Speaker 1: things that that I didn't see anywhere else. Um, kids
Speaker 1: bringing guns and knives to school in in in you know, uh,
Speaker 1: seventh and eighth grade. Um. You know, just clothing, music,
Speaker 1: you know, just different cultures, different um you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know, lifestyles, just a little bit of everything. And
Speaker 1: it was very you know, you know, Invaleto, it's a
Speaker 1: big Filipino population, Mexican population, African American population, white population,
Speaker 1: and just kind of all congregating in one place. And
Speaker 1: I went from that to go in to Indiana and
Speaker 1: it was people with tractors and not on farms and
Speaker 1: you know, milk and cows and things like that. Um,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to race, so but but I
Speaker 1: always fell back when I came to Indiana and I'm
Speaker 1: you know, talking to the kids, they're like, man, you're
Speaker 1: from Mars. Where are you from? Like where did you
Speaker 1: learn all these things? And men, you grow up fast,
Speaker 1: you know, in in a place in California, didn't I
Speaker 1: didn't grow up in a in a fluent, you know,
Speaker 1: wealthy family. My parents worked hard, but but they you know,
Speaker 1: they got me into racing too. So it wasn't like
Speaker 1: we're poor or anything. But um, you know, I got
Speaker 1: I got to see them have to work, you know,
Speaker 1: as hard as they did to have the things that
Speaker 1: that that we had and and and what that created
Speaker 1: also in uh, in racing. For me, that's interesting now
Speaker 1: that you say that, how does that with everything you
Speaker 1: experience at such a young age growing up, how does
Speaker 1: that play into your parenting here in Charlotte, Because Charlotte
Speaker 1: is Charlotte has this places, but it's not the way
Speaker 1: you're talking about. In the eighties and nineties, California was
Speaker 1: just a different place, right. You have Reginald Denny Rodney King.
Speaker 1: Uh you up in northern California a little bit where
Speaker 1: you have the Black Panther movement as well. Uh. The
Speaker 1: influence of that Oakland, California, San Francisco, all of that
Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties was the It was a
Speaker 1: hotbed for whether it was racial injustice, equality of justice.
Speaker 1: You have gay rights as epidemic. H m hm um,
Speaker 1: poor folks, people getting beat by the police, a myriad issue.
Speaker 1: And then you got l A the l A riots
Speaker 1: down you know, five hours down the street, which I experienced,
Speaker 1: and going through all of that and seeing that and
Speaker 1: witnessing that, and now you're a dad, and you know
Speaker 1: what you were taught and learned in the seventh grade,
Speaker 1: what you experienced, it has to at least play. I'll
Speaker 1: just said that. I want to say it is I
Speaker 1: find myself at times parenting out of fear because I
Speaker 1: know what I experienced. And how does that? How does that?
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about that? Or do you look
Speaker 1: at yourself and say, man, and my parenting for the
Speaker 1: best way on my parenting out of fear because I
Speaker 1: know what I experienced and what I didn't need to
Speaker 1: know at twelve years old that I know my kids
Speaker 1: just can't handle it or or I just desire for
Speaker 1: them not to be exposed to it at such a
Speaker 1: young age. Yeah, I mean, gosh, this is this. We
Speaker 1: could do a podcast or just this subject alone, right,
Speaker 1: because you know, parenting, I think it's the toughest job
Speaker 1: there is on the plans, and and I thought my
Speaker 1: parents did of course, it's like I told you, my
Speaker 1: mom my stepdad. I thought they did an amazing job.
Speaker 1: But I think most of what they did was kind
Speaker 1: of out of necessity of that's how our lives just worked.
Speaker 1: And and you know, I think now I won't let
Speaker 1: my kids leave my driveway. When I was living in Valeo,
Speaker 1: I'd get on my bike and I'd go ten miles,
Speaker 1: you know, and you're just going for the afternoon. Just
Speaker 1: be home before the streetlights Colt. That was it and uh.
Speaker 1: And it was seldom when I got home before the
Speaker 1: street Maybe that was just our room, but you had
Speaker 1: to be back home if if I yelled Steve on
Speaker 1: one mode, damn time right. That just made me think
Speaker 1: of one story I was probably I think I was
Speaker 1: six or seventh grade, six or seventh grade still remember well,
Speaker 1: somebody has got a whooping. I should have got whooped. Um.
Speaker 1: But but I was. I was always pushing the limits
Speaker 1: right of being home by dinner time or light you
Speaker 1: know when when when when um it got dark? Lights
Speaker 1: come on? Uh. And so I was across the neighborhood
Speaker 1: like a mile or two, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to my other buddy's house that's just
Speaker 1: around the corner, and then that way. I'm close to home,
Speaker 1: so I only have a five minute you know spring.
Speaker 1: I was either a bike or skateboard. That was that
Speaker 1: how I got around, and always on wheels, man, and
Speaker 1: these wheels unlike those wheels you gotta wheels didn't take
Speaker 1: me far. But but so this guy he had they
Speaker 1: had a pool in the back of their house. That
Speaker 1: was a big deal, right, absolutely pool. And so I'm
Speaker 1: at his house and I'm watching the clock, and right
Speaker 1: as I was getting ready to leave, I stepped off
Speaker 1: into the pool. Actually, like we were messed around the
Speaker 1: backyard and I run around. Oh, I wouldn't even supposed
Speaker 1: to be at his house? How are you going to
Speaker 1: explain this? And then now I'm I'm soaking wet from
Speaker 1: the waist end. So I I did one of those
Speaker 1: walk in the front door. Hey, They're like, whoaa, come
Speaker 1: in here? And my it was literally like they're like,
Speaker 1: what happened. I'm like, I don't remember what. I'm like,
Speaker 1: stepped in a puddle or something. You know, they hadn't
Speaker 1: rained in Damn, My month came out better just saying
Speaker 1: that urinated almost well, I don't mean this to make
Speaker 1: this a bad joke. But what kind of puddle. I
Speaker 1: don't know, you're not tall, but you ain't They even
Speaker 1: sent me to tall. I don't think they knew that
Speaker 1: I hold steps in the puddles. He's went from the
Speaker 1: waist down. I stepped in the puddle. Hey, I didn't
Speaker 1: say it was the sharpest night. But anyway, I don't
Speaker 1: know what made me think about that. But going back
Speaker 1: to the parenting, you know my parents, I don't. And
Speaker 1: I asked him this every once in a while, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've gotten a straight answer. But
Speaker 1: I worry so much about my kids now, right of
Speaker 1: thinking all the things that I did, thinking about the
Speaker 1: things that are happening in the world, and I want,
Speaker 1: I want them to experience all these things. But I
Speaker 1: just have such a hard time letting go. And and
Speaker 1: I don't, you know, I don't know if it's who
Speaker 1: I've become them through racing, but I definitely I want
Speaker 1: to control them more than I should. And and that's
Speaker 1: when I when I'm you know, battling with my own demons,
Speaker 1: and and you know, me and my wife are trying
Speaker 1: to talk about parenting. It's how you know, how you
Speaker 1: let go. My daughter's thirteen now, so I have no
Speaker 1: choice but to let go. She's she's like on her
Speaker 1: own path and care about what I did, who I am.
Speaker 1: She barely cares that I'm her dad right now some days.
Speaker 1: But but we we gotta. We got a cool relationship too,
Speaker 1: so I want to keep and maintain that. So it's tough,
Speaker 1: but I do want to, you know, bring up on
Speaker 1: one thing. You know, when I lived in Valo and
Speaker 1: I left Valleo and I moved to Indiana, and then
Speaker 1: you know, if racism or something would get brought up,
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I don't see people
Speaker 1: for for the color of their skin. I I judge
Speaker 1: each person individually, and and you know, I want to
Speaker 1: I want to know who they are. I don't care
Speaker 1: about anything else that's influencing that. But as I've gotten holder,
Speaker 1: I realized that I actually want to see person for
Speaker 1: you know, who they are, the color of their skin.
Speaker 1: Head has a story about who they are, and and
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's been I think more of a
Speaker 1: change of since I've become a parent, and how I
Speaker 1: want to teach, you know, those things to my kids
Speaker 1: about that you know, it's not just you know the
Speaker 1: way a person looks, it's you've got to go deeper
Speaker 1: and find out, you know, really why they're who they are,
Speaker 1: good or bad, because because you know, we've all we've
Speaker 1: all had some major influence, whether it be our parents,
Speaker 1: life's experiences, um that that like you were mentioning to me,
Speaker 1: you know what what I mean. I you know, I
Speaker 1: got in a fight in school one day, and I'll
Speaker 1: never forget that. I'll never forget that moment. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you a quick story on this one. So me and
Speaker 1: this kid we didn't get along and and I can't remember.
Speaker 1: He was calling me out on something in one of
Speaker 1: our classes and and I was like, man, I'm you
Speaker 1: after school and he's like, all right. So now I
Speaker 1: usually wouldn't mess with somebody that I didn't think that
Speaker 1: I had a shot at right. So he was a
Speaker 1: little taller me, but I was like and I wasn't
Speaker 1: a big kid, so it wasn't like I was messing.
Speaker 1: But I was like, I'm like, all right, I think
Speaker 1: I got and I was a pretty good like grappler
Speaker 1: wrestler type, like I get him on the ground that
Speaker 1: but I never punched anybody. So so that's that's been
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of needed. Yeah, maybe the chest or
Speaker 1: something like that, but never like wham. And so so
Speaker 1: I get after school, he meets up with me, and man,
Speaker 1: I take him down and I'm on top of him.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, what am I going to do? And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like lights, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and cops come by and I'm like whom We all
Speaker 1: scattered and and so the next day show up at
Speaker 1: school and he walks up to me and he's like,
Speaker 1: he's like, hey, man, where'd you run off to? Oh no,
Speaker 1: he sucker punch you ain't. That's that's that that's the
Speaker 1: that's the lesson I should I should I should have
Speaker 1: known that was coming. Yes, absolutely, the police stopped it.
Speaker 1: The police stopped it. You said a fight, not a
Speaker 1: wrestling match. That's right now. You're right. You don't want
Speaker 1: to three game over right now. Here's so I learned
Speaker 1: to less Where he hit you in the face. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a black eye, but I definitely am
Speaker 1: say whoa? And he knocked me back, and as I
Speaker 1: came for him, then everybody pulled us apart and we
Speaker 1: both got suspended. He saved you. No, no, oh, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I had this guy. I meany times, you're gonna take
Speaker 1: him down. But but he he was smarter than me, though, Jeff, Joe,
Speaker 1: hold on, you can't get hit and can't win a
Speaker 1: smart photo. You can't hit him in the face and
Speaker 1: then take him down and put him in a peaky grappler, right, say, uncle,
Speaker 1: say uncle, Jeff, Alright, you can't just put someone in
Speaker 1: the curt ankle an it's gonna be at that point,
Speaker 1: I was ready to hit them, Okay, so I did
Speaker 1: the police. Jim got street crab man. So my point
Speaker 1: is that you know I learned that day man. Never
Speaker 1: let your guard down. Never never, never think you're in
Speaker 1: a safe place environment and you know, unless you know
Speaker 1: what the other person is thinking, and you never can
Speaker 1: know what There's what I love what you said that
Speaker 1: I think sometimes a lot of us right now and
Speaker 1: this time we try to skirt over and try to
Speaker 1: avoid the word you use with the j judge. You
Speaker 1: know you said you judge people for who they are.
Speaker 1: A lot of times we don't want to say, well,
Speaker 1: we're judging people we are. We judge everything. We we judge,
Speaker 1: is that flavor good or not. I love what you
Speaker 1: said because I think that is important. It's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with judging someone, it's when you start to judge them
Speaker 1: and put them down or on a preconceived notion. Like
Speaker 1: what I love that Jeff said is that I went
Speaker 1: from saying I don't see color, just saying I see
Speaker 1: color because that's who God made your. God God made
Speaker 1: you with your with your color. So being able to
Speaker 1: see ray says I see that person for who they are,
Speaker 1: completely who they are, and that one is a testament
Speaker 1: to growth and to it is a testament to everything.
Speaker 1: That Steve saying is that yeah, you you you build
Speaker 1: an opinion off someone, but based off of their whole self,
Speaker 1: and you allow that individual to represent themselves whether it's
Speaker 1: good or bad. Because there are times we represent ourselves
Speaker 1: very poor depending on the day. Like I mean, there's
Speaker 1: some days you get up on the wrong side of
Speaker 1: bed and you just are not as outgoing, You're not
Speaker 1: as nice, you feel groggy to day, or you just
Speaker 1: feel like, look, I'm being sweatpain. It's t shirt, shoes,
Speaker 1: no socks, and that that day you woke up saying, hey,
Speaker 1: this is who I am, and there are some people
Speaker 1: who will see that and go, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be next to that person or that person seems like
Speaker 1: you're feeling. Yeah, some days I don't want to be
Speaker 1: next to myself, and that's great. I just I just
Speaker 1: thought that I wanted to point that out because there
Speaker 1: are times people just try so hard. I don't judge.
Speaker 1: We all do. We all do we whether we want
Speaker 1: to or not. I won't to admit it. We do.
Speaker 1: And I think in the right context, judging is okay.
Speaker 1: Whether it's okay or not, it it's happening. And so
Speaker 1: you've you've got to get thick skin yourself and then
Speaker 1: and then you've got to you get I I always
Speaker 1: like to give people the benefit of the doubt, you know,
Speaker 1: and and I like second chances, and I like, you know,
Speaker 1: to to try to be more thorough in my judging.
Speaker 1: Like if I only had a quick interaction with somebody,
Speaker 1: you know, and I didn't like the interaction, I'll go, well,
Speaker 1: I wonder what it was to your point, Like was
Speaker 1: it something that happened to them in their life that day?
Speaker 1: Whatever you say, Okay, I'm not gonna let that you
Speaker 1: get to me. Now if I get to know that person,
Speaker 1: and I realized that person is a real jackass, and
Speaker 1: and every interaction I've had, I'm gonna judge him as
Speaker 1: a jackass. I think it's about that time, just so
Speaker 1: I'll take a little breathering, good, good, good, getting down
Speaker 1: to do it good. Hey Gerard, why did you get
Speaker 1: that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You talked about you getting into racing
Speaker 1: at such a young age, at six years old. I
Speaker 1: don't even remember what I was doing a six year old,
Speaker 1: But you know, the closest thing I had to any
Speaker 1: vehicle was I had a Duke's a hazard set, which
Speaker 1: was the big wheel, and then the card that was
Speaker 1: a pedal. I was not thinking about six years old,
Speaker 1: clutch reverse neutral. There was no clutch on the big wheel, wasn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I I think I think my dad brought
Speaker 1: home a race car before I ever brought home a
Speaker 1: big wheel. I mean, it's just I did race bicycles.
Speaker 1: We had a BMX bicycle track up the street. Uh
Speaker 1: it was. It was a cool track. It was like
Speaker 1: like you had you had the baseball little league fields,
Speaker 1: and then not too far away from that you had
Speaker 1: a drive in movie theater and and then on the
Speaker 1: corner was this this BMX bicycle track. And that's just
Speaker 1: the kids in my neighborhood, that's that's what they did.
Speaker 1: And so I was again little kid. I was the
Speaker 1: youngest kid. I was always hanging out with older kids,
Speaker 1: and my sister was older, so I hung out hang
Speaker 1: out with her friends too, And so I learned to
Speaker 1: ride a bike really young, but racing the whole different thing.
Speaker 1: In kindergarten I learned. I learned how to ride a
Speaker 1: bike in kindergarten on a beach cruiser. See that that's
Speaker 1: l a right. There never one beach cruiser that definitely
Speaker 1: weren't a beach cruisers in Valeto here. But there were
Speaker 1: some low rider bikes. So there's some of those cool bikes.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, so I was so I my my
Speaker 1: stepdad this, Yeah, you have to understand him to understand
Speaker 1: my whole story, because one he met my mom very young,
Speaker 1: my mom and my dad, uh split up when I
Speaker 1: was just a baby, and then she met through work,
Speaker 1: you know, my stepdad, and then they got married. So
Speaker 1: I was I don't know, maybe one or something like
Speaker 1: that at the time they got married, and he just
Speaker 1: took to his step kids of man, I want to
Speaker 1: I want to give them, you know, opportunities and present
Speaker 1: some things to them. And so I don't know, somehow
Speaker 1: he saw right away I had good hand eye coordination,
Speaker 1: and boom, by the time I'm three, I'm riding a bicycle.
Speaker 1: And by the time I'm four, I was racing bicycles
Speaker 1: at you know, at this track. And I mean I
Speaker 1: was okay, you know, because I because you were four, right,
Speaker 1: how does how does it? Four year okay? But there
Speaker 1: weren't a whole lot of four year olds, that's my boy,
Speaker 1: you So you were pretty good without even being there.
Speaker 1: I mean that I'm not trying to knock you, but
Speaker 1: there's a high problem. You still had at least pull
Speaker 1: up on that night ridings in day. But I was okay.
Speaker 1: Just the fact that you were riding about four years old,
Speaker 1: you were probably okay going to get six year olds. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know how old out the kids were, but
Speaker 1: I mean I was holding my own. And then there
Speaker 1: was one kid. I remember anytime he showed up, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh man, and so so you'd hope he'd go down
Speaker 1: or something in the first turn. But there was There
Speaker 1: was a couple of recks of some other kids, and
Speaker 1: I got into a small one and my mom was
Speaker 1: telling my My dad's like, she's like, I don't know
Speaker 1: about this. You know, I see him getting hurt. And
Speaker 1: so he had some friends that race cars. So you know,
Speaker 1: six months later, the next thing I know, he's bringing
Speaker 1: home this this little car. So my little Jeffy, he's
Speaker 1: gonna get hurt Baden bikes. So let's go get this.
Speaker 1: Let's go get this because he ain't gonna get hurt
Speaker 1: going faster in this car. This is how good of
Speaker 1: a salesman my state that is because he convinced my
Speaker 1: mom he's like, no, no, he's got a helmet, seat belt.
Speaker 1: He does kind of sound like an upgrade when you
Speaker 1: think about it. He made her believe that, so up
Speaker 1: to the mom it does kind of sound Gona. This
Speaker 1: is a non African American conversation because I ain't no ninja,
Speaker 1: I don't know, cannot stop from BMX to car. There
Speaker 1: were still some there's six people in neighborhoods who couldn't
Speaker 1: drive four year old driving a car. I like at
Speaker 1: grandma whose sixty still ain't got My grandmother her first
Speaker 1: car she got when she was I would say fifty.
Speaker 1: Grandmother she got it because unfortunately my aunt got inhering
Speaker 1: some money and so she bought my grandmother. It was
Speaker 1: a Dodge Colt. It was four I remember four Dodge Colton.
Speaker 1: Now we was in there. Uh we were still driving
Speaker 1: that cold when I was in high school. But that's
Speaker 1: another story. So the fact that you go from more
Speaker 1: efty to a bike to a car again you still
Speaker 1: probably and pull ups that night and it dries behind
Speaker 1: the wheel, behind the wheel. As long as I got
Speaker 1: four wheels as a car, I don't care what Yeah,
Speaker 1: now this it was crazy. Man's still a car. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean now, I'll be honest. Now I
Speaker 1: know people, but I don't know back there what you
Speaker 1: are doing for the we can help hield driving driving
Speaker 1: what a car? Hey? You would there's a track out
Speaker 1: in Connapolis. Uh, you would not believe the number of
Speaker 1: kids out there racing. So that that does lead. So
Speaker 1: that that like it opened up my eyes to this,
Speaker 1: like you think of of of your Pop Warner or
Speaker 1: literally whatever whatever you were being not I mean, yeah, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe be a little bit and I was probably a
Speaker 1: little bit on the young side for most of you.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna tell you what, right now, you go
Speaker 1: out there, there are six and seven year old kids,
Speaker 1: and there's some four year olds out there that can't race,
Speaker 1: but they'll let them drive. I'm telling you it's crazy.
Speaker 1: They can't. They'll let him practice. They'll let him practice
Speaker 1: until they get to five. You gotta be five. So
Speaker 1: I mean you kind of walked into the question right
Speaker 1: into it. I know the pathway. If I wanted to
Speaker 1: play football, I know I can play Little League or
Speaker 1: Pop Warner football. If I want to play basketball, I
Speaker 1: can go to a y m c. A or or
Speaker 1: rexent or or AU team. What is the pathway of
Speaker 1: entry into NASCAR? Because it seems like we've had young
Speaker 1: drivers on we've We've mentioned Chase Elliott or William Byron
Speaker 1: and they've had very different entry points into NASCAR. But
Speaker 1: from from your standpoint, what what is that pathway to
Speaker 1: take in order to become a NASCAR driver or a
Speaker 1: race car driver overall. Yeah, I mean somebody is going
Speaker 1: to have to introduce you to it. Somebody is going
Speaker 1: to have to um have the initial cost of it
Speaker 1: because it's not cheap, right, there are less expensive ways
Speaker 1: to just get introduced to it, um and then there's
Speaker 1: you know, like the less expensive ways like well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you you could have somebody that says, hey,
Speaker 1: I got a car here, you want to you know,
Speaker 1: you want to drive it? I mean no, it could
Speaker 1: be no cost, right, but somebody else who has to
Speaker 1: give you that opportunity if you wanted to just go
Speaker 1: out by your own stuff. You're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: top notch quarter midget engine, chassis, trailer and all. I
Speaker 1: mean you probably eight ten dollars just to get that car,
Speaker 1: you know, on the track. So it's not cheap. You
Speaker 1: have that the Sporting good Store. Yeah exactly. So, I
Speaker 1: mean this is this is something that basketball shop. I
Speaker 1: would love to see more of an initiative to introduce
Speaker 1: kids to it. You know that they can't afford it,
Speaker 1: that maybe our interests racing, maybe they watch racing or
Speaker 1: or whatever like cars that they like a little a
Speaker 1: little slot car video game and say, okay, how do
Speaker 1: I how do I go racing and have whether it
Speaker 1: be a scholarship, whatever it may be. UM And I
Speaker 1: think there's some opportunities out there for that, but they're
Speaker 1: very very few. So it is it is, you know,
Speaker 1: an a sport that I would say, compared to other sports,
Speaker 1: is expensive to get into even at I definitely see
Speaker 1: even from the expense standpoint, but even are their initiatives
Speaker 1: that potentially happen even to just um create just that,
Speaker 1: Like I said that that barrier of entry to to
Speaker 1: be able to create a pipeline for people to know
Speaker 1: if I going through particularly this program or this initiative,
Speaker 1: that it puts me on the pathway to become to
Speaker 1: becoming a driver. Yeah, I mean, because I think that's
Speaker 1: great because you look at all the other sports they
Speaker 1: have some sort of developmental they or some of them
Speaker 1: are using ethnicity as an opportunity, like first Tea for golf,
Speaker 1: yeah right, and um Arthur Ashe program for tennis. That's
Speaker 1: how I was introduced to tennis when I was a
Speaker 1: young boy, right, it was all about Arthur Ashe and
Speaker 1: then you know Venus and Serena, you know those uh,
Speaker 1: young women seeing people that look like them be able
Speaker 1: to even though it wasn't as many being able to
Speaker 1: see that. You have basketball obviously, basketball is what it is.
Speaker 1: You have football what it is. Um you know, Soccer
Speaker 1: and I believe racing are the last two sports where
Speaker 1: the developmentally or easy accessibility it doesn't really exist, like
Speaker 1: you said, and I don't think people really know how,
Speaker 1: Like I have no idea how to get involved, like
Speaker 1: you're telling me. Like Chase was different because he's third
Speaker 1: generation of racing, right, he has this whole little world
Speaker 1: out there in Georgia, right William Biden with the technology
Speaker 1: right and what he the technology aspect, but then also
Speaker 1: he had been racing. But you are so unique because
Speaker 1: it has been ingrained from you since such a young age,
Speaker 1: racing and speed and then a success we haven't had.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I know, I know Dale and
Speaker 1: what he's experienced with second and third generation, but no
Speaker 1: one ever it's getting more and more rare. Yeah that
Speaker 1: that h And by the way, in Valleto, California, there
Speaker 1: was nobody racing. I was the only kid in that
Speaker 1: that was racing. NASCAR really hadn't made it out there.
Speaker 1: But you have to understand this goes way beyond. I
Speaker 1: didn't even know what NASCAR was back then. Like I
Speaker 1: didn't know what NASCAR was until I was in my teens.
Speaker 1: But but there's there's dirt track racing, sprint cars. Um
Speaker 1: there's there's indy car I knew with me too, but
Speaker 1: I did not know what NASCAR was till I was older.
Speaker 1: So you know, when you grow up in the open
Speaker 1: wheel because of quartermages I'm talking about, that's what they're called,
Speaker 1: and and go carts, that really leads more to the
Speaker 1: path of open wheel racing and not necessarily stock cars.
Speaker 1: Stock cars didn't really become big out in California until
Speaker 1: much later that they are now. I mean we've had
Speaker 1: do you think about Jimmy Johnson, myself and Kevin Harvick
Speaker 1: all champions of NASCAR from California. That very very rare. Um.
Speaker 1: So now it's opened up more opportunities in doors. You know,
Speaker 1: to try to answer your question right now, for a
Speaker 1: five six seven year old kid, somebody's gonna have to
Speaker 1: take them to the racetrack and show them these types
Speaker 1: of race cars and and then figure out, Okay, how
Speaker 1: could we do this? Is there is there a way?
Speaker 1: But once you get older, there are some some paths
Speaker 1: there that young. Um, NASCAR has some some different initiatives.
Speaker 1: What do you want to be a pit crew member? Uh,
Speaker 1: NASCAR official and engineer? Um? You know. I think also though,
Speaker 1: I think of of somebody like maybe dani Ka Patrick
Speaker 1: or a Hailey Deagan right now as a female racer
Speaker 1: who's who's young and up and coming, Bubba Wallace. I
Speaker 1: think this is some of their long term opportunities, Like
Speaker 1: they're changing how people view the sport and and they
Speaker 1: have a long term impact totally and so so I
Speaker 1: think that I could see them playing a bigger role
Speaker 1: in this. But we all got to play a role
Speaker 1: in it, um And because to me, I want to
Speaker 1: see a NASCAR that everybody goes. Man, this is for everybody.
Speaker 1: This is for anybody. If you have talent and you
Speaker 1: have interest, you can excel at this and it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter where you came from. Well, we got to stop
Speaker 1: right there. You thought that was it, but but there's more.
Speaker 1: There is so much more. Come back in the next
Speaker 1: episode when you hear DJ Jeff Gordon hits his on
Speaker 1: the one and two. So come back to part two.
Speaker 1: You are a unique person. You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith, singer, I'm Gerard Little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Singior.
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