Bussin' With The Boys - Jimmie Johnson On His Rivalry With Jeff Gordon + The Feeling Of Winning 7 Championships | Racin'

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Welcome back to another episode of Racin’ With The Boys. This week we have an absolute legend in the sport and 7-time champion, Jimmie Johnson. The boys immediately dive into Jimmie’s start into racing and how he went from 2 wheels with dirt bikes to 4 wheel with stock cars. He shares his story of how he got his shot and talks about how much luck truly goes into finding a ride/sponsor. The guys then into Jimmie’s racing career and his relationship with his crew chief, Chad Knaus. Jimmie talks about why they worked so well together and what all went into him winning those 7 championships. He also shares what the journey was like going from underdog to then becoming a champion. He says how him and Chad still had that underdog mentality even after winning two championships and it didn’t go away until he won the third. Jimmie dives into how he felt Jeff Gordon was his biggest rival and how he, in a way, looked up to Jeff when he got his start in NASCAR. He also talks about the different stresses that go on now being an owner vs when he was only a driver. Jimmie gets into the differences between this new 7th gen car compared to the older generation cars that he was used to driving and dominating. Finally the boys end the pod with Jimmie giving his Mount Rushmore of drivers which you aren’t going to want to miss. Enjoy hearing an absolute legend talk about the sport he dominated for so long. ----- ⏰ Timestamp Chapters:  0:00 Intro2:36 Growing Up In California 6:22 Two Wheels To Four Wheels8:54 Dirt Trucks To Stock Cars11:03 How Much Luck Goes Into NASCAR?13:41 SIM Racing Changing The Barrier Of Entry17:11Why Switch To Indy Car?18:39 Chad Knaus And Jimmie’s Relationship 22:00 Press Going From Underdog To Champion 26:29 Work Life Balance Of NASCAR28:37 Racing In Coronado 29:28 Differences In Being An Owner v Driver34:01 Playing Defense In NASCAR37:28 Biggest Rival41:28 What’s More Stressful, Driver Or Owner?42:26 Who Is Jimmie Jam?47:31 Was Jimmie Superstitious? 51:11 What Do People Get Wrong About NASCAR?54:03 What Was His Weekly Routine? 56:09 Difference In This New Car vs The Old Ten?59:06 Does He Still Have The Itch?1:00:36 Mount Rushmore Of DriversSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was?

If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika and I'm out. Listen to you're the problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. My first guest is Terence Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerrin. Have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group check comes to life.

What on? You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst. It's lemonade. This is a super. Sweet 305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet 305 with Llepon's on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Raiders of the Lost podcast, we explore cinema like no one else, including huge interviews

with stars like Ryan Gosling on Project Hail Mary. It was like the Jaws Shark. Didn't always work, came with its own problems. That's what made it great. The cast of Obsession. On set, there was so much magic happening. with each scene we were putting together. Deep dives into classics like 2001

of Space Odyssey or Fight Club, plus weekly episodes on all industry news. Listen to Raiders of the Lost Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow at Raiders of the Lost podcast and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, I feel like that went good.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an icon, an icon in the NASCAR world joining us for a conversation today with myself and Delaney Walker. We were out in Charlotte. We got to sit down with Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon. He's going to be coming very soon, but an absolute legend. And if you're new to the show, and if you might be a casual like the boy, tuning in and wanting to learn a lot about these racers. This is a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, the only driver in NASCAR history to win five consecutive championships. 83 Cup Series victories, two-time Daytona 500 winner, four-time Brickyard winner, four-time Coca-Cola 600 winner,

named the Associated Press male athlete of the year in 2009, which is the only, the only race car driver to ever win that award, and also the co-owner of Legacy Motor Club. Ladies and gentlemen, this interview is with Jimmy fucking Johnson. And as always, before we get into the interview, We are brought to you by the number one sports book in America, and that is the Fanduil Sports. Boys this weekend, NASCAR, heads to one of the most iconic venues in all of motorsports. Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Brickyard 400 is one of those races. Every driver wants on their resume. It's a place where history has been made, and Fandle has an offer you don't want to miss. They're giving new customers up to $1,000 in bet resets. Here's how it works. You bet $5 daily to unlock $200 in bet resets every day. New customers can place a $5 bet each day and receive up to $200 back in bonus bets daily, up to $1,000 total.

One of the oldest operating racetracks in the United States, one of the largest sports seating facilities in the world with more than 200,000, 250,000 seats, known as one of the greatest race courses in the world. This place and this race are iconic, and you can meet the moment with Fanduel. Whether you're backing your favorite, tailing a long shot, finishing somewhere in between. Fando has plenty of ways to get in on the action this season. Just head to fando.com slash busting, place that first $5 bet, and let's go racing. Enjoy this interview with Jimmy Johnson.

Now, yeah, it grew up wearing vans being from California, and that's like our staple. Hell yeah. Where in California? I grew up in South Central, L.A., Los Angeles. Yeah. Yeah. We had an awesome little bicycle shop and a couple of skate shops. it and then a van store popped up across the street.

I'm not sure it was the first one, but certainly one of the early ones. In your area? Yeah. Yeah. And so, I mean, we had just, like, loiter between those three or four shops whenever we had a little window of time and dream about a new bicycle or new skateboard or new pair of shoes. I would assume, I mean, you started in dirt biking. Yeah.

So, like, I'm sure that was like riding bicycle, BMX is what, what, what you have, a BMX, a Mongo's, what was your first bike? A Diamondback was my favorite. A diamond back. Yeah. Diamondback and then I'm trying to think of my skateboard combo. I think I had a caballero because Steve was from San Diego. Were you nice on the skateboard?

No. Looking back, I mean, I thought I was great. You know, I had the cool mullet going. Oh, you rocked a mullet? Of course, man. Especially like East County is what they call the area where I grew up in, you know, San Diego geography. In East County, man, you had to have a mullet.

Standard operating procedure. I mean, I didn't. I'm a little older than you guys. It might come back. You have some Jerry girls? I had the Jerry Curles. I had the Jerry Curl. I was California.

I had the Jerry Curl. I had the footh, but that was later down the road. You know, because you was from Al Cajoon, right? Correct. Yeah. How far is that? Oh, we're far away because he's in a San Diego area. Yeah, a few hours away from each other.

But he's like in a cooler, a cooler area. Oh, I don't know that area too well. Mine was pretty rough. It was rough. It was 15-minute drive to San Diego. You'd be in La Jolla, Del Mar, all the good spots. But El Cajon was very rural, which was incredible from my interests, just endless trails to ride dirt bikes on.

Like none of it was developed. And the culture in that kind of time frame in El Cajon, all the supercross champions and motorcross champions in general were born and raised there. So they had all these. tracks. You know, I could ride my dirt biking go watch the current champion on his practice track. So there's just deep culture around dirt and two wheels. So mountain biking, BMX, you know, all that was, was real big. What events did you do, sorry. What events that you do in dirt biking? Like, what did you do motocross or was it just? Yeah, motorcross with the jumps. Granted, I look

at motorcross tracks today and we didn't ride on stuff like that. The, the motorcross. scene was all my heroes were on two wheels and raced on the dirt so to end up where I have took some kind of reinvention steps along the way but the dirt bike scene was was so prevalent and popular I had my kind of local track and then would ride in our state qualifiers and then from there if you qualified you'd go to the nationals in the summer so we'd travel to Oklahoma and Tennessee for the amateur nationals and then make our way back to see seeing you go back to school. Dude, I'm sitting here listening to you.

You're rocking some sick vans. Listen to him, talk about two wheels, dirt bikes, everything else. I'm like, man, the boy Taylor would be sick to not be here right now. He was a dirt biker. Yeah, Taylor, yeah, he loved dirt bikes. We actually had Travis Pistrano on not too long ago, and that's like one of his goats. And you just tell he's like a kid in a candy store, just talking about dirt bikes growing up, loving it, heroes, all that stuff.

Yeah. And just listening to you talk about it. like, oh, Taylor would be loving singing with Jimmy Johnson right now. What switches you from two wheels to four wheels? If your interest is, it sounds like you just loved dirt bikes and everything that you were just talking about. Yeah. What takes your interest from like, I want to be a supercross guy to now getting into racing?

Largely, my dad's passion for motorsports. And to back up one quick step, my grandparents own one of the three motorcycle shops in El Cajon. It's called K&R. Kalasaki, Ken and Ruth were their names. And that was the kind of starting point for racing. My dad raced a little, drafted to the Vietnam War, and thankfully wasn't deployed. No war ended before he was called into service. He comes back, thinks he's going to get his racing career going, back up and going. My grandfather's like, nope, you're coming to work.

You got to run the service department. So my dad's extremely savvy with wrenches and working on stuff. And as I was doing my dirt bike racing, he transitioned from being a heavy equipment operator to a mechanic and then actually leading a off-road buggy or a team that raced an off-road buggy. And for me, that was that next progression and certainly a safer way to go about racing. You're still in that three-dimensional world of leaving the ground, but now I had four tires and a roll cage around me. And you just dive in. Like when you're doing all the dirt biking and everything else, you're thinking this is going to be my next step. No, there was a bit of a pause.

Every time I hit the ground, I broke something. And so I had a bunch of injuries. And my last injury was at a state final race that we had. And I broke both my feet and toes and had some good injuries from that. My parents were like, we can't do it anymore. And, you know, I was growing a little fatigued of being so busted up. And it was at a point where the physical training. became such an important part. I was 14, 15 years old. And that next step on bike size,

you know, you needed some strength on you. And riding my bicycle, riding my skateboard, playing with my friends, there was that next step. It almost becoming a professional that looked a little daunting. I was banged up. My dad gave me some hope around, you know, maybe we can find a way for you to end up in one of these cars. We didn't have the means to do it our own, on our own, but through my dad's persistence and networking within the industry, I get a shot here, get a shot there, snowball starts rolling and off it goes. When was the turning point to where you knew this was going to be a career of years, or something that you could at least pursue to be a career of years?

I'd say late 90s. So there was a lot of racing before then and a lot of dreaming, but when the elements really came together was probably late 90s. Okay. So as you moving up the charts and all? off-road trucking driving for you to even be seen as a stock car driver. How does that work? Like, how do you move from one driving off-road trucks to stock car racing?

Timing and meeting the right people. I eventually, after bouncing around this little stadium buggy that I was in, was bouncing around on the stadium floor at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the head of Chevrolet Motorsports was there. and he watched me have a great night, did a decent interview on the Jumbotron, or putting the car back in the trailer after the races over, and a guy in khakis and a sport coat walks up. And you don't see sport coats at dirt races, right?

So I'm like, who is this guy? Metam shook hands. He wanted to take a picture. He had a Polaroid camera of all things. Took a picture of me, and little did I know who he was, but he took that Polaroid picture back to Detroit, sat down on one of the planes. meetings and said, you know, let's put this kid under contract. And so at that point, Chevrolet

brought me into their pro truck racing program in the stadium. And then eventually into the, so that's kind of a winner, or was a winter series. They have a summer desert racing series with these long distance races and, you know, very cool trucks that can get over the terrain. And they, they brought me into that. And all along, this, this guy, Herb Fischel had a vision or hopes that I could make it to asphalt racing and one of the Chevy offerings that was out there. And, you know, doors kept opening, kept getting in front of the right people. Eventually, it was paired up with a team that had similar ambitions to get to NASCAR. And so with their resources and commitment with Chevrolet's help, that got me into stock cars and got me into NASCAR. How much of it, how much of

it is luck in your guys' industry? I feel like we hear, man, my brain is fleeting. Everybody knows that listens to Bustin' with the boy's nose. My brain can be fleeting. Who is the cat we had on that moved out to Charlotte and spent three years there? It was sweeping shops. Oh, Jesse, yeah.

Yeah, Jesse Love. Yeah, and he's telling his story. I'm in love with his story because he talked about sweeping shops or picking up any work he could, hoping, basically betting that's Chase Brisco. Okay, I was going to say, when you said Jesse Love, I was kind of like,

oh, that doesn't sound. Yeah, Chase Briscoe. And just waiting on an eye. opportunity to the point to where after three years, he's driving home thinking that it's over, and he's kind of emotional on the phone with his mom. And then he gets a call from an investor or somebody that says, I want to take a shot at you. After waiting for three years, and it sounds like your situation, too, I feel like every driver has like some moment where it seems like there's so much more luck involved that people realize. Yeah, they're without question is that element.

thankfully mold enough now and can share some advice and have chase briscoe and Jesse Love that was mentioned seeking advice and when I kind of distill it down in the beginning every opportunity came from who I knew not necessarily what I knew or what I could do but getting your foot in the door there's such a corporate piece to this and well maybe not corporate but someone's got to spend someone there's a team owner that has to trust and believe in you to give you that chance and, you know, maybe take a loss for a year or two before it pays them back or a sponsor or what investor, whatever it might be.

So every door opened for me based on who I knew. And then they were a little patient and then I had to perform. And I watched so many young people, which is important as well, but to be focused on the craft and ignore the networking component, ignore showing up on time, showing up dress for the job you want, not the one you have. going to these events that are monotonous, but, you know, showing up to these auto shows. So when Chevrolet first hired me and put me on the, under their wing, taking me around, I went to every auto show throughout the country for like five years straight.

I would sit down at a table and try to sign autographs for people, and they thought I was there selling a car. They had no idea I raced. So, I mean, you're just taking it on the chin and like, it's never going to come. But eventually all those touch points and the momentum behind who you. no built up to the right moment and then then it was time to do my job since we on this topic do you think simillate the sim world now because you see a lot of drivers getting into this world by the simulation the same driving do you think that is changing the way things are now because when

you was coming in it was a little different you didn't have the sim you didn't have the social media you didn't have guys like seeing what you can do you got to go to every out of job you had to go to every yeah you got to go there you got to watch them those guys got to be you're in the seats, you know, the television, obviously, contracts. Do you think it's changing a little bit? Without question. I think we're maybe in our second or third evolution of the impact Sim has. In the beginning, we knew there was a tool out there that we as a team needed to use. So that can be gen 1. So we were dabbling with it during the kind of end of my career. And it was tough to trust it, But we still had access to use racetracks to validate and try to, you know, create this,

this loop that we could use and use that tool. Then William Byron shows up on the scene and ends up in the Fame 24 car and had all this skill and talent and exposure to fast cars and these big tracks and knew the line that you had to go on the hard way before. You needed years of experience to get it. And then William kind of surprised everybody. And that was that chapter. and now we're at a point in time where all the on-track opportunities to develop your product

have been shut down for cost savings. So now you have to live in this SIM world. And if you take a Gen 1 person like myself to today's world, all of my skills were developed on feel of a car. You cannot model that identically in today's, F1 has some, you know, $30, $40 million simulators that are getting closer, but the physical aspect you can't get those sensors dialed in. It's all visual.

And so through these three generations of SIM having its impact, you now have drivers that have the vision for the simulator and also the fuel from the car and can marry the two together. And it's out of my skill set. You know, one that really stands out to me is Alex Palo in IndyCar. We were rookies together at Chip Ganassi racing in 2021. And he is a SIM kid, but he flies on the track. And I watched him single-handedly restore the Honda simulation program

because he would go and spend the time. There were a lot of older guys like myself that couldn't get the correlation right. But he had the eyes and the fuel for it on and off the track to dial it in. What goes through your mind when this generation of Sim racers is coming through? Like when this 20-something-year-old is just blowing. by you and he's got all this simulation experience and you're thinking yo um jim one i've done this our way you know five straight titles seven championships in nascar and this dude's blowing by me because he's phenomenal in a simulator what what's like the uh the resentment what's like the initial resentment

that's building up in your mind some resentment but then some annoyance at myself you know i was like this isn't going to play out you know i what i've developed in the car um that'll know never be replaced. So there's some arrogance around that that I wish I would have not had near the end of my career because I think it would have helped my final few years. Yeah, that's wild, man. What even what even entices you to hit the restart button going into Indy after you were so accomplished in NASCAR and to be a rookie in your 40s? Yeah, now having some time to look back on it, the grind of the season, the age of our children, just kind of life where it was, the the commitment it takes to run a 38 race schedule.

And we still had testing going on and this sim thing coming to life. Plus, I had 150 sponsor appearance and obligations to make throughout the course of the year. I was just cooked. Bottom line. But I knew, I think it was like 47 or something, took good care of myself.

Many champions and heroes ahead of me had their best years in the 50s. You know, you had all this experience you could carry over. And so I didn't feel like I was done, but I knew I needed a fresh start and I knew I wanted less races. IndyCar was really my childhood four-wheel dream as a kid. There were a lot of motorcycle and dirt racers in the Southern California area that made it to IndyCar. And so as a kid, that was kind of a dream of mine. And I'm like, I'm just going to give it a shot, man.

This is for me. Like I was over all the outside pressure and noise of competing. I'm like, I don't care if I run last. You know, this is something I want to do and it's for me and found the right team and right sponsor and put it together. That's nuts, man. Yeah, that's crazy. Getting on the NASCAR, so now you sign, you got Chad.

You got one of the greatest, arguably one of the greatest crew chiefs in the game. Like, how does that dynamic work? man we we had so much in common that you know it was really easy out of the options that hendrick presented to be you know for me to choose from to be the crew chief closest in age we're both single we both love two wheels um we both subscribed to work hard play hard and i mean we just hit it off and it was really a gut feeling at that point but as time went on the thing that surprised me the most was the engineering mind he has, which is self-taught, doesn't have an engineering degree, that mind could understand what I was describing in the car, like vividly understand what my

sensations were, not being in the car. I mean, it didn't race. And so, you know, the big unlock that we had, I could feel what the car was doing. I didn't necessarily know how to fix it, but with my dirt background, I think it opened up my window of understanding vehicle dynamics and car sensitivity. And I could describe what was bothering me. And he could see the wheels moving in his mind and how downforce worked. And we could just put the puzzle pieces together. It's wild. What is one thing y'all may have butted heads, though, that no one knows about, but y'all two butt heads over the car? The NASCAR world is, you know, tier one. one or pillar one in the priorities that hold up the whole show is entertainment. And so with that

being said, the, all of our radio transmissions between the driver and the team are public consumption. So everybody heard the spats that we would have. And he loved coaching me from the car. And so we, I mean, I would ask, do you want me to pull down pit lane and you take this thing? Do you want to drive? No, no, man, I'm not saying that. I'm like, leave me alone. Let me do my job. I'm not telling you what to fix them there. So we had play. Many of riffs around that. But at the end of the day, he truly wanted what was best. And that's what made it work so well for so long, is it was never personal.

And he and I would have a beer after the race. And he also had a rule that come Monday morning, you know, that's in the rear view and we got to look forward. So hash some things out over a beer and then heads down and get to work. Was there ever a specific moment to where the clock didn't reset on Monday? Or maybe you guys were close to splitting up that people might not know about? Yeah, the clock resetting was easier said than done. Yeah. And towards the end of our career and the pressure around everything, you know, it changed

our dynamic some and it did become a bit more personal at times or at least perceived that way. Yeah. And, you know, there were some moments where we almost broke up before, you know, Rick eventually separated us. So I finished my last two years with different leadership on my team and Chad went over to the 24 car and in rain, William Byron. But looking back, I wish, I wish we could have been adults at that point in time and closed out. He only went two more years as well.

I mean, we're so close to get a full pool on 19 years. Ego's a bastard, man. It is. Ego's a bastard for all of us. You were talking about as you guys are growing together and the celebrity status, the fame, the expectation, pushing past like all the trophies, everything that you've accomplished. like again like the greatest dynasty in NASCAR um what was it like going from um underdog to you're the expected champion and you're obviously you had five straight but the moments where

there is a mental pressure that takes place can you put us in your mind on how you and or your team dealt with that pressure i think for chad myself we we were the underdogs that were given a shot at Hendrick. And I don't think we ever let go of that until maybe at the end. And that's where the expectation around trying to win, you know, a seventh and then an eighth got the best of us. But for the bulk of our tenure, I mean, like, it's weird. I didn't feel like I deserved the praise as a champion until I won my third.

Like, it's just these weird monumental marks inside of me that I, like, I wasn't free in the garage area until I'd won three championships. So my junior category years, I did just enough to stay alive. And opportunities all came together for me in 2002 at Hendrick. But I had at least two generations of talent passed me up. They showed more speed. They more flashy, whatever it was, opportunities happened. And they went on. And I thought it was over many times. It wasn't going to work out. Chad had a similar journey as a crew chief on his side. And when we got together, I mean, we were just head down, focused on, you know, proving ourselves. And then when success came, we both were fearful, we're going to wake up from a dream.

And, like, you know, but wouldn't real. And so that, that was something we had in common that helped us so much. But when is it enough when you win seven championships? Like, is it enough? Or you always. Even when he says the three part. I know. I'm like.

So you won two. And you're thinking, you're my. not free of nothing until you get a third. But then you get a third. And again, you want a five straight. So it's like you get to a third. Then there's almost like, even the three don't matter until I get a four to validate the first three. Then you get four and I need. I know, but when is it enough though? Like at the end of the day, we just chasing these championships, even though we have so many in the bag, when is it enough? It's funny. I don't know if I ever thought of it that way. racing a car and leaving the track, you know, personally satisfied was my motivator.

It wasn't about trophies and championships because my dream was to make it to cup. And like the highest watermark I could set was to win a race. And then 10 races into my rookie season, I'm like, well, shit, that just happened. Now what? So I don't know, man. I just was never motivated by that. And I really think and I'm proud of how long it took me to be in the spotlight because I think the reasons were all very pure. Like I just wanted to compete and I love to grind.

And I was just caught up in that space and it wasn't about accumulating things. I think towards the end when we had six and knowing that the legends sit there at seven, it started to shift a bit. But I would tell myself, man, you're playing with house money. You were trying to win one race and look where you are. So I'd play some mind games with myself. When you're full grind, obsessed with the process, love the process. Is there a moment throughout this run to where you're able to pick your head up above water and appreciate the things that you're doing and accomplishing?

Not to the level I should have, but I guess subconsciously it was useful. When the door finally opened, excuse me, when the door finally opened to appreciate the success was when I got my nomination. for the Hall of Fame. And not that it was a surprise, of course, because what happened, it felt like I was going in. But I finally had the awareness that I'm not chasing another championship. I'm not chasing another race win.

Like, stop. You know, hey, dumbass, stop and enjoy it and let it in. And then that whole year until the induction ceremony, it just kept getting better and better. And that was really the starting point. Thinking about, thinking about, I'm fascinated with, You're somebody who also pushes yourself off the track as well.

Like you're somebody who you're a fitness freak, somebody who brought, maybe not brought fitness into NASCAR, but somebody who is at the forefront where you're cycling, you're swimming, you're doing all these things. So I'm also assuming that you're probably big into mental psychology and sports psychology, all that performance that goes on from the neck up. When did it get to a point with all your success and everything that you're wanting to do where it's grind, grind, grind, grind, process, process,

process, does the family element and the dad element also start to kick in toward you're having to, okay, maybe I shouldn't be doing this much or maybe I'm doing too much for myself. How does that work-life balance, if you want to say, take place for you as you're maturing and growing in the sport? It's now looking back, in comparison to maybe other drivers in our industry and the little world that I know, I stood out in a good way. I was an example of somebody who was making time and available and such. But if I didn't have my wife and if she wasn't so authentically and deeply committed to this journey for us, man, it could have been so different. Now having time away and

reflecting back, the pressure of knowing that next race is out there, that next season is out there. I was more physically present maybe than some others in the industry, but I wasn't emotionally as available. And that's kind of the journey I'm on now. And I've tried to retire three times now. I have a race team. And physically I'm as busy as I've ever been. And I do feel like I'm doing a better job emotionally in being there and being available and enjoying the moments. I still got to get this balance right because the scale is tilted pretty far. You know, we've a startup essentially. But it's wild the awareness looking back now.

Yeah. Yeah, man. Sorry, were you going to ask something? Yeah, to go to somewhere else, you know, I remember you racing at Coronado. Yeah. And being so close to that area, I think both your grandfathers was in the military. One was actually a Navy captain, correct? Correct.

And then your father was in the military. So how was that being able to race on a live, active naval base so close to your hometown? I'm sure you probably had a lot of family members going there. So how was that? Yeah, my mom's father was a safety captain on an aircraft carrier that was docked in Coronado. He's resting at Fort Rose Cranes kind of overlooking the base. And then my dad's father was in the army and was in a tank. And so all four my grandparents are up there resting.

And just to have them there be so close to home, that was really, really cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Which one, what's the difference between being the race car driver and now being an owner of a team? The selfishness required as a driver in all forms. And more specifically, just about like the show and the product on track. drivers have such unique experience in what they think makes good racing. And I was I was pounding that drum for years. And I think there were generations of cars that my class of influencers led to a better driver experience that didn't create a better fan experience.

And now that I've got my owner's hat on, I've recognized that every time the driver's bitch can complain about the track was no fun and it was too rough or to this or to that. TV loves it. Fans love it. I as a fan watching, I'm like, that's chaos. That's awesome. So there's definitely a different lens that are drivers looking through

versus an owner. Dude, I feel what he's saying. You remember times just as a player, you'd be bitching him on about the same stuff and you think your own unique experience as the player knows more than people on the other side. Then now that even being in the media space, being on this other side of it,

I completely get a lot more of the media stuff and the front office stuff and things like that. Dude, it is crazy. Was it hard for you to transition and compartmentalize and remove yourself from the drivers that you understand where they're coming from? But now you're having to be in a seat across the table at times. Yeah, I've been fortunate to really take since 21 to now to grow. And I still have so much more to learn. but I got a taste of kind of managing a team in 21 when I went IndyCar racing.

My office managed the partnership with Carvana and the relationship with Chipganasi racing. And it wasn't a huge lift, but a bit more exposure and understanding two years there. And then became an owner in Legacy on a minority level in 23. And again, surrounded by great people and mentorship. and, you know, weighing in, but not like dropping the hammer or having final say to where I am now as controller of the entity and, you know, doing the best I can to be in that leadership group and running it. So it's been a slow evolution. I've also been slow and cautious about the various councils on the team ownership side and on NASCAR side to steer the sport.

I've been involved, but kind of fly on the wall. And here in the last six months or so, since some new committees have been formed post-lawsuit, post-settlement, you know, I'm one that has to live it and understand it before I weigh in and really give an opinion. And, you know, I'm becoming more confident in my opinion. And I think I've put in enough time that the collective space realizes I'm not just popping off, you know, out of nowhere with ideas. Yeah. Is there a driver from legacy that kind of reminds you of yourself? I would say Eric Jones in his racecraft.

Eric, Eric on Sunday, Eric deep in the race, what he finds on the track in North Wilkesboro over the weekend, his creativity behind the wheel and how to work traffic, how to defend. There's just a little different dimension in there that, It's such a small track, and I was doing the T&T broadcast, so our booth was outside of the track, overlooking turns three and four. So it's the closest I've ever honestly been to cars going by and being able to see that racecraft. And that would be the moment I've had recently. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month,

price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell. Connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist, Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days.

So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moment. to take over your entire timeline. In the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports.

Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat Sabalinka. Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports.

Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years,

but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it.

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chryssel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerrin, Samira and Gracie. I'm so excited on the bouncy bed. You have surprises, many surprises.

Welcome to Sweet 305, where the group chat comes to life. What a fuck. It's like a way to say, like, Oh, my God, oh, my best Amiga, oh, my brother. What a... Look, never I've ever had to be able to have to be about, except with my

my children, my my wife, uff! Uph! That's incredible, yeah, the telenovela. You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst. It's all I'm a lady.

You're like you say, like you'd like to collaborate with this person. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my culture. Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ladies gentlemen, we're going to interrupt this episode. I know I'm not in this episode, so I'll be tuning in just like you are.

It's good for you to see your face. Yeah, I just wanted to show it a little bit. And happy belated birthday. Thank you. Yesterday was your birthday. Yesterday was my birthday. I appreciate that. We're brought to you by Form Energy.

Former delivers best in class tastes with natural flavors and zero sugar. Forming has natural caffeine derived from green tea. Form comes in a variety of flavors, screaming freedom, rocket pop, inspired, grape smash, blue, blitz, orange fear. Perfect for those who put in the work, form energy. We do the work. Get back to this iconic episode right now. How do you defend in race car driver?

I mean, use that word defending. I'm still in my head. I'm mine. I'm like, how do you defend? You talk about like playing defense? Yeah, he like defending. Like what does that consist of? Like you defending in your car.

Like you defending for your teammate, your team driver. What does that mean? Really for yourself. We call it arrow blocking. now just as technology comes into the sport you just you cannot let's see downforce you know the air coming over and under the car is the primary source of traction um that's what chad canals exposed a couple decades ago before anyone else really caught on to it and where where we had such an advantage and now it's so refined that cars are very equal and that sensitivity is higher and literally in the

mirror, you don't have to physically block the person and upset them. But if you're just smart and kind of shade down and put them into a dirtier air situation, because the cars are so big and massive, if you think of a boat going through the water, you know, that wake, this is like a big bull-nosed vehicle punching a huge hole in the air. And then there's also the over-the-vehicle dimension that spins the air around. So all you have to do is like put the car behind you in a third to half dirty air and it crushes them they can't go anywhere and you said dirty air is like closer we get down to down to the bottom because it's gravel here right and that's kicking no no it's the trailing car so the first car on the road the air is stable and then as you go through it it creates

turbulent air which we call dirty air yes and so the further through the pack you go the more turbulent dirty it is in the less grip the car has and so you can just look at in your mirror and you know if they come into the corner a little before you do you just just move down a little put them in enough they're moving up you just shade up and you can just stop their progress but there's an art to doing it where the guy in front the guy behind you is like he's he's doing it right or being smart about it um there are other other ways you can do it where you just upset the guy and we have bumpers on these cars and they'll just send you those ram in knock you out of way god i love that we're talking ball right now on track i got i got one more

with that. So because now when I'm thinking of that and I always heard of drifting, like so is that not a thing? Like if I stay close on you and then so I can get a pass, does that give me a slingshot momentum? Is that such a thing? Because we always hear about that. I know in Tatea.

Tallyga, nice. Let's go. We just in this season with the boys. Drivers do not like Tala Degan Night. Yeah. I love it. You got to have a sense of humor. Yeah, you got to have a sense of humor. So I always thought like, is that a real thing or it's just movies they just making it up it is it depends on the track you know if the corner radius is is the

tight of the corner radius is the more you need that grip in the car um if the corner radius is wide and forgiving and you have a nice long straight away you know you can use that to your advantage so say indianapolis Daytona taladega you Atlanta you know there are some tracks where absolutely the slingshot works okay but the bulk of our season you know we're on on on track where the corner radius is the priority. And what you lose in the corner, you don't get back on the straight. On a straight away.

Yeah. Who's been your, who's been your biggest rival? Or maybe somebody that you've rivaled that maybe they didn't even know that you were rivaling them. Oh. I would say Jeff Gordon. Oh. And here's why he opened the door for myself.

and Tony Stewart and all these other drivers that didn't grow up in stock cars. And so I was the biggest Jeff Gordon fan growing up. That's the one die-cast car, like, collectible thing I bought was his. And the fact that one day he knew who I was, I'm like, wow, this is awesome. And then I get hand-picked by him to drive, you know, under the roof of a team that he co-owned. And he introduced me to my wife. He mentored me along the way. And first indirectly and then directly, you know, as I got up to speed, I was more concerned about where he was on track, what he was doing.

And all for good reason. I mean, he was a freaking man, right? So that one maybe for the, in a certain window at time when we're competing for championships and race wins, there was an official rivalry. But through a large part of my journey, he was. was the benchmark. And I had the inside look at all of his data. And he was so kind to share with me all of his lessons not only on the track, but off the track. And that's one thing he really exposed to me is like, you've been racing your whole life. Like that part's going to make sense. But when you come to the cup level and drive for this company, the spotlight's going to hit you.

And here's how we need to build your schedule. Here's where you need to focus. So I'd say the longest rivalry was Jeff. Some of the other shorter and spicier ones would be like Kurt Bush. Who else is there? Ryan Newman, a couple in there, you know, just little hot spots during my time. Yeah, just getting after verbally. You're putting hands on anybody? No. One, I'm not a fighter. I think I've been in two high school fights and my dad always said if you the first punch you're in big trouble so i got punched twice and then fought back and i did beg kurt bush one time to punch me or you know throw a punch and he didn't do it um so that as close as i can do a lot of chirping go on when y'all get into pits and stuff how does that very rarely

um i'm mixed on it but helmet on we're all we all weigh the same we're on that 3,600 pound car drivers hit the radio button and say all these awful things you're going to do. And they get out of the car and they just like shoot mean eyes at someone. It's like the internet on the radio. It's like football. It's like football. We do the same thing. We turp, talk.

Yeah. I see you in the streets and get you. Then you see, hey, what's up, big dog? It was just a game. Okay, good, I feel better about us. Between the lines. It's just a game, man. You know, I was talking.

I didn't mean none of that. It's good to hear. It happens all the time. I love how you're playing the long game, though, with Jeff Gordon. He's got you in the house. He's showing you all the stuff. Here's all the tricks of the trade. Maybe forcing some tricks of the trade on you.

And then you're thinking in the back of your mind, I'm going to get you one day. Have to, man. We're competitors. We're competitors. You know, timing is another big part of, I think, opportunity that happens. And Jeff just won his fourth championship, sports thriving. They want to expand to a, fourth car he wants to put his own money into starting this team and you know he was I've heard

him joke about it and he even has to me a few times around man I shouldn't have showed you so much I was too relaxed about all of this and then I of course say we own 50% of the car we were both making money we should be good good for the sport yeah do you feel like it's more stressful being an owner or a driver different reasons but driver You know, when I look at the course of a year, that driver pressure is the most. What really stands out to me as an owner is the decisions, you know, I make, we make is a group. Right now we're at 150 people and on our way to 190-ish for our third car that's coming in. They all have families.

This is their livelihood, you know. So there is that pressure, but I do feel where we sit today in our commercial value and the health of the sport and where things are going. to be able to provide for our employees and make sure they have health insurance and are fairly paid and all those elements. And our stamina, longevity, our existence, you know, we're going to be around. And so I feel good about that and that pressure is lifting. But kind of two different ways in how it hits me from, you know, the competitor and now the owner. I got one for you. Who is Jimmy Jam?

Do you have any bourbon around here? We'll find out. Dale Jr. has been championing this for a while. He is. I love it. That's the guy that when I mentioned earlier of work hard, play hard, somehow I kept the play hard bit under wraps for ever and ever on outside of the sport. But man, we had a lot of fun on the road and on the journey.

And there's a big lake just up the street. You know, Wednesday nights were a big night for us all to go tie up boats. have some fun and then when I was racing on Saturday before I had my cup start Saturday's a big day on the lake I'm sorry Sunday would be a big day on like we'd race on Saturday and maybe had a little name recognition tie up the sandbar and like hey how's it going so I don't know that there we all have the alter ego in Dale's mind it's Jimmy Jam and Jimmy Jam did an interview at the 24 hours of La Ma this year and I just got these envisaline things, mixed out with a good marathon of enjoying a race and a festival.

I thought I was speaking clear and, you know, legible English, but it was not the case. And that came to light and Dale ran with it. But others tend to do stupid things, you know, when that alter ego shows up. So Stu, or stupid has been another alter ego. Oh, yeah. Who's, when you're throwing them back with O'Dale Jr., who's the last man standing? That's a duel. He has some stamina and the Johnson side has stamina. I think we've had to wave the white flag collectively in years passed together. We're last one standing between the two of us. I'm trying to think of someone's. Kenseth usually fatigues, although he'll keep trying. He loses a little form. I'm trying to think through. Who falls off early?

You mentioned Travis Pistrana earlier, the lightest drinker I've ever run across my life. Travis Pistrana? No, Draft. I can see that, though. He, you know, he was the good boy in the motocross back in the day, so I could kind of see. He had this event out at his place in Maryland a long, long time ago, Nitro Olympics. So he brought two athletes from all walks of life. So we had two monster truck guys, two NASCAR guys, two Indy car.

two BMX, two skaters, like a whole barrage of people in three days of just doing stupid things. And the last night was college night. So we had to play Birpong, Rochambeau, and Buck Hunter. And Travis was convinced

because he's pretty good at Buck Hunter. So it comes to the finals and it's the freestyle motorcross guy. So it's Travis and that didn't have with him. Anyhow, I forget. Me and Brian Vickers have the NASCAR side. We win. Travis could not comprehend why he lost it. Buck Hunter. Well,

it was after the two drinking games. And he was so out of form playing Buck Hunter. He couldn't hit a damn thing. He sneaks off and goes to sleep. And we conspire and we're like, he can't be asleep. There's no way. All right, let's go mess with him. So we go down to his warehouse play shed thing that has half pipes and foam pits and all the stuff in it. And his friend Andy Bell, that was his teammate was Andy. Andy's like, I know he's got the door lock, so I'm taking a sledgehammer. Victor's grabs a leaf blower, and then there's a boxing ring, so I grab a right-handed glove. Bell blows the door off the hinges. Victor starts the leaf blower, hits the bed, and the comforter blows off, and Travis sits up in his boxers wondering what the hell's going on.

I drill him in the chin. That's a story right there. From that point on, he's going on. He's like tried to break into my room. And I literally, when I go to races and I know he's there, I put one room in my name and then have a different name. And he's broken in both times and sends me a text, where are you, damn it? Because he's still trying to get me back. And he had jokester, too.

So I know he'd be trying to get you for sure. He's going to get you double time. Yeah. He's trying to get us out. Who's the driver? They like hold some race at their, they have like a racetrack at their spot. Cleetus? Oh, Cletus.

Yeah. Have you gotten to do one of those? I don't even know how many he's had. Yeah, that looks like so much fun. Yeah. The safety I'm a little concerned with. Yeah. But fun meter is going to be high.

Because that's like an old racetrack he owns, right? Like a... I think they've been moving around. Maybe there is a track that they own as well, but it's like the freedom... The freedom something. Yeah, yeah. The molly. Yeah, yeah.

It seems like a fun time. No, he carries. Great group people. It seems like a good time. What a superstition or ritual you still have to this day? I've always been a numbers guy and where it cemented the most, well, I guess a backup step. Hendrick's starting this fourth team. They don't have a preexisting number.

They give me a list of numbers that are available with NASCAR. And at the time they had like the 24 and 25 car. and they thought maybe 23, 4, 5. All right, you know, a little MJ vibe. You know, I get the sequential numbering system. But all of my championships came from the number four or the number eight. And I saw 48. And then I'm like, well, hey, Jeff, you're 24, 48.

I want to be twice as good as you. You know, just like lobbying what I could. And I'm like, yeah, that works. You know, we'll do it in the same font and that plays. So that was one of the elements coming to life with numbers. And then prior to my rookie season, the number 13 showed up everywhere. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm doomed. Like, bad luck's coming.

Where's the black cat? You know, just thinking, you know, pessimistic mindset on it all. I win my first race. I'm sitting in the media center. And first question from the media was how does it feel to win in your 13th start? I was like, son of the bitch. It was a good sign all along. And so numbers, like I see numbers at different times.

I'd set my alarm clock for 548 instead of 6 o'clock instead of a minute on the microwave, it'd be 48 seconds. So I've just had this number thing. Okay. Still going. It's still going. That still goes. I like that.

Yeah. I know. Some of the boys got us wearing their sock. We're in their sock on their driver's foot. Yeah. What's that? Waxing Crescent, I never, I was just never really picking. I'm just like, okay, I guess they're talking about, I guess a waxen crescent moon affects the

grip on the track, on the racetrack. Oh, that's reaching far. Yeah. But I'm sitting there. You know, I'm green in this industry. So I'm just like, oh, they is messing with you. Yeah, I know. I get that now.

I get that now. But even on, does anybody Googled it? Does Waxing Crescent really exist? No, we didn't go. We just took it. They may just be totally pulling your leg. Oh, yeah.

And then they also got us on the wearing a sock at all times. They're like every driver does it. Every driver sleeps in a sock. on their right foot on their right foot their driver's foot the night before a race huh no it was blowing smoke up our ass with that potentially either one thing i do know with the generation before me is some were really sensitive about peanuts being bad luck and one of my mentors this guy named ron hornaday and everybody knew that do not bring a bag of peanuts around him especially the you know the one still in the shell. And one night in his, you know, ascent to the top divisions at a local short track,

he went to get in his car and somebody threw a peanut in there, the shell on it. And he had a terrible accident that night and like had stay cold nights in the hospital. So he's absolutely adamant about peanuts. And there are a few of the old school that believe in that. And then the other was green cars. And when Bobby Labani showed up with the interstate battery green car, I remember that car. Everybody's like, oh, you're doomed and you won a ton of races and championships. And I'm like, man, we're all chasing green. You know, we want greenbacks.

Like, how is that bad luck? Why is that color bad? So just another one that was there previously. Green. I didn't, that, yeah, you had never thought about that one. The peanut one. The peanut one. No, I can see the peanut one.

That's when he has, there's a peanut in your car. Yeah, so that's bad news. Is there, what is, what is something that people get, wrong about your era when talking about NASCAR or something that they might not think about or appreciate that happened back in your day back in your heyday yeah i would say honestly it's been an issue for a while um but just the athleticism required to you know to do the job um i think it's popped up recently with stephen a you know saying the drivers aren't athletes and um you know that's that's just one that's been tough for the industry to shake and certainly not true.

How do you prove them wrong? You just, you can't. I think as the sport becomes more understood and people around it and get it, it's slowly shifting and changing. I don't think that some of the athletes in the sport take their job as seriously as they could and you know from nutrition hydration different elements so they maybe don't appear is what one would you know think as an athlete but uh and all you got to do is go sit in one for an hour and it becomes crystal clear how uh how much do you try to imprint on your drivers when it comes to

taking care of your body taking care of your health and all the things that you did as a driver yeah i think recoveries if you're on a full-time schedule you know you you can you build your fitness in as the year comes along, you know, certainly you want to start fit and ready and all those things. But the thing that stands out in the most is just recovery in hydration. You just get such a ratcheting down effect with fatigue and your recovery cycle that you just don't show up as sharp as you need to be. And I think a lot of that, when guys aren't fitted, it detours them from having a, you know, some kind of light cardio on Monday to flush the body. And then once you realize, you know, if you flush the body, get hydrated, Tuesday, you're actually ready to train again.

And then you kind of get ahead on the schedule and come time for the race or a big impact, you know, the more muscle mass you have, the better the outcome in those instances. So I don't think that globally, the drivers maybe represent aesthetically what, you know, athletic prowess is needed. But in the professional areas, there's much more of that. But guys are always so protective about what they do. You know, you don't want to tip your hand to anyone else. I didn't care. And I was such knucklehead and loved to suffer. I got into endurance sports.

And I'd ride 100 miles on Saturday on my bicycle and go run a 500 mile cup race the next day. Damn. Yeah, you definitely strike me as somebody very detailed. In your performance recovery, your day-to-day, what did a weekly routine look like for you? As far as recovery goes, taking things of that serious. living in the details of it. For me, the mental aspect of being switched on and how I felt gave me such an advantage

on Sundays. And if you look back at my rookie year, I didn't enter the Cup series as an athlete should. And about quarter of the way through the season, I was cooked between all the testing, the at track, didn't have recovery and all that stuff in place. And, I mean, I was struggling to get to the end of a race. And so I found myself back in the weight room and doing things that I thought I needed to do. And they were helpful, but it just continued to open doors. And then I saw where I needed to really apply myself.

And when I got into the endurance side and the accountability to get up for the morning master swim or to get up for the morning speed workout with my training coach, to then have a second workout in the afternoon for either stretching or some weights. and then cycling and how that all layered together, when I figured out how to manage all that and the recovery that came with it and the hydration and nutrition to feed myself for that output, man, the crispness, I mean, just everything felt so good. My mind was sharp, and I was winning championships.

So I just kept leaning further and further into that discipline. More a couple non-negotiables when it came to your recovery, like things that you had to do and hit during the week. For me, it was fluid intake, and it took me a while to realize that. I had some pretty bad cramping moments coming out of the car or even in the car. And that was a big thing for me to learn. And I kept adding volume and it didn't get any better. And then I did some sweat test stuff and found out that I just sweat double standard.

I sweat double the minerals than somebody typically would. So once I got the kind of salt intake up and magnesium potassium intake up, the cramping went away and just changed things dramatically. Damn. Hey, do you have one? I was going to see if Mitch had anything for him. Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit.

Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the host of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days.

So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments to take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat. Sabalinka.

Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the Iheart radio app.

Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years. but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast.

Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do you think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My first guest is Paris. Token, Shakira, Luke and Yirin, Samira, and Gracie. I'm so excited on the bouncy bed. You have surprises, many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305 where the group chat comes to life. What a . It's like a way to say like, Oh, my friend, oh, my best amina,

Oh, my, my brother. Look, never I've ever been to have to be a bled. Except with my children, my children, I know. I'm a man. Oof, yeah, that's incredible, yeah, the telenovela. Yeah, the telenovela. You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst.

It's lemonade. And no, there's someone. I'd like to collaborate with this person. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Culturea Podcast Network on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sure. Sure. Yeah, the, I guess we're in our seventh generation car.

I think I've been a part of three, if not four generations. But this Gen 7 car is really a standardized car. Everything before that, the teams could manufacture and build their own vehicles. And that's been a massive shift since, I guess, the 2021 season. And the reasons behind it are all entertainment driven. NASCAR wants all of our communications public because there's colorful things said and storylines can develop. They want equality on the track so that it really

comes down to the human dynamic and outracing someone or having strategy. And so that concept has created a lot of cost savings, which I wouldn't be an owner in the sport if we didn't have this kind of soft cap that's indirectly built in. But when this car came about, there was a philosophy of trying to create the downforce between the bottom of the car and the road versus overbody. And so everything I race, the downforce was built by the spoiler and the shape of the sides and the nose of the car. Now that's pretty basic. And yes, the nose and tail represent the manufacturer that you're driving and some character lines on the side, but the underneath of the car is equal

amongst all three makes and is everything. And if you think of a vacuum kind of sealing the car to the ground, during my generation, we didn't have a suction taking place, and you could actually slide the car. So my dirt background served me very, very well. This car, once you, you get like a few degrees of slip angle in the car, it breaks the suction. And so the driving style now, I used to drive the car with the right foot and would always power slide it around. Not possible now. Now you need a driver that really drives the car off the right front and uses more of their hands than their feet. And fundamentally it sounds easy, but when you grow up a certain way and coming through junior categories, you just have these defaults wired in you what you're looking for. And it's

shifted. Now the car's been around a bit and we're seeing guys come out of junior categories and it's not as easy to say, hey, this guy runs great on Saturday with the old style car where you can slide, just plug him into a cup car. He's good to go. It doesn't happen anymore. And we're seeing guys like Shane Van Ginsberg and come in from a car that had a lot of downforce created in a similar way over in Australia. And he shows up and is doing an incredible job. So it's an interesting time. right now like how do you get young drivers ready and it's really fundamentally due to the just different generation of cars that are you know the one that's in play now I know we got to get you out of here you ever get the itch I do that's

that's why I'm still screwing around today's world and I got a good taste of this in Indy car and the sports car stuff that I did you know if you're not in the car all the time or necessarily grow up in that style of car all the time they're they're different and there's these subtleties that that matter. So I go IndyCar. I'm trying to rewire all my defaults and I get to a competitive place but still a long road ahead and I just didn't have that fire burning to chase it. I thought, man, I'll go back to Cup. You know, run 8, 10, 15 races in Cup and now on this team it'll help. But the car is so different now. That generation thing I just spoke about. And the technology is

moving so quickly that if you're not in the car every week to understand these nuances, is you don't have a shot to win. And I really don't want to be out there running a mid-pack. So, Daytona 500, 2020-27 will be my last cup race. We'll make a big deal out of it and have some fun with it. But other categories, other forms of racing, you know, off-roads, what I started in, I raced an off-road truck in March and had a great time and hope to do some more of that in 27. You know, I'll find ways to scratch that itch.

Yeah. But, you know, the tip of the spear, you know, those days are behind me. Yeah, the immortality. man. The immortality comes for us all. Yeah. Dude, this has been awesome. Anybody have a question for him before we let him go?

Jack. Oh, there you go, Jack. Mount Rushmore NASCAR drivers. Okay. Getting confused with Trump trying to put his face up. So I'm not to glorify it. Mount Rushmore, Petty Earnhardt. Gordon and Johnson

can be the four for me. Okay. We like that. I like that. I like that. Great question, Jack. Yeah, that was great question. Cool.

Hey, Jim. Wrong order. Jimmy, thanks a lot, man. This has been awesome. Good luck with everything. We're massive fans. You're obviously an icon in the sport and a legend. Everybody at home or listening in your vehicle,

tuning in. Make sure you're subscribed to everything. Everybody, this was Jimmy Johnson. Big hugs, tiny kisses. We will see you next week. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you, man. 21 plus and present in select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Opt-in required.

Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-789-777. or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Hope is here.

Gambling helpline, ma.org, or call 80032750 for 247 support in Massachusetts. Visit www.m.w.md.gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Call 1-8-Hopheny or text Hope N.Y. Or text Hope N.Y. 467369 in New York. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On Raiders of the Lost podcast, we explore cinema like no one else, including huge interviews with stars like Ryan Gosling on Project Hail Mary. It was like the Jaws Shark. Didn't always work, came with its own problems.

That's what made it great. The cast of obsession. On set, there was so much magic happening with each scene we were putting together. Deep dives into classics like 2001 of Space Odyssey or Fight Club, plus weekly episodes on all industry news. Listen to Raiders of the Lost podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow at Raiders of the Lost podcast and at TikTok podcast. network on TikTok. My first guest is

Karas Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerrin. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group check comes to life. What on? You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst.

It's lemonade. This is Sweet 305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get you. Podcasts. Hey, Portlandia fans.

Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysler, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. A.O. Rewatch on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.