Bussin' With The Boys - Steve O’Donnell On Becoming The First CEO Of NASCAR + The Future Of Of NASCAR | Racin'

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Recorded: July 21st 2026 | Welcome back to another episode of Racin’ With The Boys. This week we have a very special guest and the first CEO in the history of NASCAR, Steve O’Donnell. The boys immediately start off the pod on Steve’s journey to becoming the first CEO of NASCAR and all the “luck” that went into his rise to the top. He reflects on some decisions he’s made that were wins as well as some decisions he made that may have not been the best. Will and Taylor then ask Steve what it will take for NASCAR to reach the dominance it had during the 90’s and early 2000’s. Steve gets into how every decision he makes, he tries to listen to the core fan base of NASCAR and make sure that they like the direction the sport is heading. Will and Taylor end up giving some ideas to Steve that may actually help. One of which being a ranking system sort of like how high school football uses the star system.  Finally the guys get into what the possibility of NASCAR free agency could look like. Also what it would look like if there was an F1 v NASCAR series or what it would take in order for NASCAR to reach the same height as F1. Steve is unlike any CEO/Commissioner of any other sport. He seems to have his fingers on the pulse and is not your typical corporate CEO. With Steve at the helm of NASCAR, there is no place for the sport to go other than up. Enjoys fellas.   0:00 Intro2:48 Getting To Bring The First CEO Of NASCAR6:37 The “Luck” of Getting To Where He Is8:57 Big Decisions That Were Wins 11:18 Mistake That Were Made13:32 What Needs To Happen To Bring NASCAR Back14:50 Bring Back Rivalries19:54 Listening To The Fans When It Comes to Decisions26:46 Who Is NASCAR Competing With? 29:44 Barrier Of Entry Of NASCAR 39:11 Getting Back To The Old Practice Ways40:20 F1 vs NASCAR?44:04 NASCAR Free Agency?48:54 Big 3 In NASCAR50:52 Vision For The Future Of NASCAR54:42 Separation Between Professional And Personal 57:27 Not A Corporate CEO59:41 Growing Up In Egypt1:03:11 Offseason Hobbies1:07:36 What Made NASCAR So Miserable A Couple Years Ago1:12:07 Growing The Sport For The YouthSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It just came out. Jeremy, what did you just do? You just sit yourself up for failure. I've never heard you tell this story. I've never told this story. This must have been tucked deep, deep in the Jeremy Lynn file. My name is MC Jen. I'm excited to tell you about laugh but not least.

I'll be chatting with guests from all walks of life about the power of humor when it comes to facing difficult times. These will be conversations that remind us all. Life is hard. Laugh harder. Listen to laugh but not least with MC Jen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone?

Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green. We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm Emily Astor. I'm an economist. data expert. And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor. And this is our new podcast, Wellness Actually. You're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information and some of it is awesome.

And some of it is, well, actually, bullshit. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore. Listen to Wellness Actually on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When teenager Joy Morgan discovered the religious group Israel United in Christ, she believed she'd found the truth. Many believe she found a cult. Then she disappeared. The new podcast The Missing Sister explores her story, the family she left, and the religious group she found.

You know when you get that a feed, I'm like, I don't want to be here. I want to get out. I want to go ahead now. All episodes available now to Bench. Listen to The Missing Sister on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I feel like that went good You guys are going to love this episode of Racing with the Boys We head on Steve O'Donnell who is the CEO

The first CEO in NASCAR history We dive into all sorts of conversations Growing the sport, fighting being back Things he wants to do what's his whole trademark the hell yeah Like bringing it all back into NASCAR This was an incredible conversation That I think you guys are going to love and enjoy Highly encourage you all

If you're just tuning in for the first time Or you've been watching each week and you might not copy. Here's your reminder to make sure you are subscribed to all of our channels following us on all podcast platforms. As always, we are brought to you by the number one sports book in America, and that is Fanduel. And boys this weekend, the Cup series heads to Iowa for the Iowa Corn 350. And if last year's race was any indication, we are in for another good one. It's a short track, which means close racing, plenty of passing, and the kind of late race drama that can flip the leaderboard in a hurry. And if you're thinking about getting in on the action,

Fandle has an offer you do not want to miss. They're giving new customers up to $1,000 in bet resets. And here's how it works. Bet $5 daily and unlock $200 in bet resets every day. That's right. New customers can place a $5 bet each day and receive up to $200 back in bonus bets daily, up to $1,000 total. That's five days in a row for the mathematicians out there.

Just head to fando.com slash bussing, place that first $5 bet, and let's go racing. And guys, something awesome coming in the NASCAR world. It's called the Mega Brands That Built America. There's a fun one coming to the History Channel, and it's on August 23rd. It's part of the latest season of the Mega Brands that Built America, and this episode dives into the deep cut of NASCAR's creation. From its bootlegor origins to the Mega Brand that is today, Kets racing to the top on Sunday, August 23rd,

at 10 Eastern 9th Central on the History Channel. Let's go racing, boys. All right, dude. We're rolling. We're rolling. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Racing with the Boys. Our guest today is a man from Humble Begivings from the Northeast. Came in, started working for the wonderful NASCAR entity in 1996,

worked his way up so he never expected to be a CEO. But we have Steve O'Donnell on the pod. Give a round of a pause, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. First off, great to be on the bus. Yeah, dude, great to have you. Thank you. Dude, how in the hell do you go from passing out hats, setting up victory lane to now you're running?

You're the first CEO of NASCAR. Yeah, it's a great question. A lot of luck, right? Some good people around me. But, you know, I've worked hard and tried to be around good people, hire some good people. But it's been a really good run, man. I've got to do all kinds of things. And you guys have been around NASCAR.

And it's a lot of cool people, right? And so you get to know a lot of folks, work with them. At the end of the day, you know, you've got to tell the truth. You got to kind of be a stand-up guy, which I think I am. And it's worked for me. Yeah. You was, we brought up the like passing out hats. Yeah.

I started like very like bottom of the barrel stuff when it comes to NASCAR. Yeah. How like at what point from 1996 till now were you like, I actually have a shot to become the CEO of NASCAR. That's great question. So when I started out, I showed up at the office. I'd come from the citrus bowl over in Orlando. Went to the office. NASCAR had maybe 45 people or something.

so and I was like ah cool you know where's my office and my boss was like no we're down we're down at the warehouse by the river I was like what so we go down there it's me and him big warehouse full of gatorade coolers and hats and our job was we had two jobs it's basically all the all the cars had the decals on the front quarter panels so we would sell those to sponsors payment will go out to the race teams and then we went to the race you know we're doing the hat dance we're handing out gatorade coolers so you know I learned pretty quick like when you're in victory lane and doing pre-race, you're with the guy who's, you know, driving the truck, the team sponsor to the CEO of whatever sponsor. And, you know, you get to know some of those folks. If you're any good

or good personality, I think people are like, all right, this guy may, this guy may make it. If not, you're pretty quickly out at NASCAR. So I had a lot of good mentors during the time. And I think taking that job and working hard prior, you know, intern and just just working hard trying to, you know, just get the job done, right? It allowed me to move over eventually into the competition space, which gave me a really good feel for marketing, sales, competition. And, you know, from there, I had some luck, right, along the way. You know, somebody may have left or something happened and I was able to move my way up. But it's, it's been great. There is, I mean, you say, like, there is luck involved in everything. You're climbing the ladder, yeah. Becoming successful,

successful, whatever it is. But, like, was it a goal of yours when you're coming in and starting off like was it a goal like you all want to get as high as I can like it'd be sick to be a no clearly there wasn't there wasn't close to a CEO back in 1996 yeah what was the goal when you're coming into it yeah for me um I mean I know this sounds crazy but it was just I wanted to be in sports right so I had I had tried when I came out of college played baseball for a little bit and um were you obese no I wasn't that's that's why I got cut quickly um but I wanted to uh I was trying to get a job minorly baseball and that's how old I am you know sent letters to all the teams 150 rejection letters of, you know, so I was just like, I just wanted to get in. Yeah, yeah. That's a good point.

So I just wanted to get in. And then with NASCAR, it was, you know, the sport was really growing. So it was an opportunity to get in and see what could happen. But I just wanted to be part of a sport and be around good people and see where it could go. I never sat around and said, you know, I want to run this thing. Still kind of pinched myself sometimes, you know, but it's, I think it's just about NASCAR has been a place where we've had so many good people. And for me, I, if I wasn't doing this, I'd be teaching and coaching. And so to me, that's what it's all about right now is we've got good people. I want to see the next generation kind of come up and see what they can do.

And it's good opportunity. We've had a lot of like very successful people on this podcast. And a lot of them actually mentioned if I wasn't doing this, I'd be teaching or coaching and giving back to their communities. Yeah. So that's, I think it's like a good natural trait for somebody to have if they actually want the best vision for whatever industry. Totally agree.

You mentioned luck a few times. I had to get lucky. How to get lucky. you said on two separate answers. Do you remember any specific moment where luck took place for you to be like, okay, this is the move, the chess move I have to make now to become a CEO or take the next step of my career? Yeah, I think, you know, some of it is just maybe somebody left.

Okay. Like, so I remember being at NASCAR. I was probably 10 years in. And I was kind of thinking, you know, what else is there for me? You know, I've kind of hit the ceiling. And I had a new boss who, you know, I wasn't, it came from the outside and wasn't really sure. This was this was the place for me. Talked to my wife and was thinking about, all right, you know, I'm not sure what I'll do.

But and I came in. You're thinking about leaving at this point. Yeah. And I came in the next day. Sounds like his boss was an ass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Perhaps, yeah. But I came in.

He didn't say, we're speaking with each other. That's right. That's right. He's right. He's right. Yeah. Boss was an ass. But it was a, it was a short term.

It was a person from the outside who came in. And I came to work the next day. And another guy came in. Did you hear about so and so now I quit? I was like, for real? quit? And this was the guy who's my boss. I was like, fantastic.

So I ended up getting that job. You said a Marachi band. Yeah, exactly. It's like my birthday. It's like, yeah. Let's go. So, I mean, one of those, it just worked out. And then, you know, I had some good people who, you know, maybe took a shot on me of like,

hey, let this guy is pretty young, let him try out this job. So, you know, just good people along the way who believed in me that didn't have to. You know, I think that that worked out really well for me. The people who are taking a shot? Are you managing people at this point? Are you, they level on you up, hey, let's, let's love on you up. hey, let's let's let's see what he's got, what kind of skill set. Let's see if it goes beyond his obviously do your job, work ethic, showing up the same guy every day.

100%. I think, you know, right now my job is, you know, put the next generation in place, right? And what I struggle with a little bit, you know, I'm on the older end right now, right? And you look at someone who is my age, you started. And I'm like, man, that person's awfully young. And then I kind of take a pause and go, wait a minute. Someone gave me a shot at that age. Let people go. Let people do it. You know, things are changing content, different things. And what I find is all the young people got the, they've got the cool ideas, right? So we got to go and take some risks and let people make mistakes.

You know, I mean, we were for a long time, we were too afraid to make some mistakes. And I think now the culture's getting to where, hey, have some fun for sure, but work hard and let's see where the sport can go. Yeah, the sport definitely hear a lot of conversations. Like we've had drivers on here and they're like, hey, back then, back in this day, we guys used to get into it.

It was a little more this or that. And you read about once you became CEO, kind of every move that's been made in this modern era with you, like your fingerprints are on it one way or another. And you're like, NASCAR is making the decision for what happens to NASCAR. What are like some early decisions you made that you're like, oh, that's a big win. I'm glad we did this. And where are some other ones that are like, well, we kind of fucked that up a little. Yeah, yeah, no, that's fair.

Or don't do that again. Yeah, no, I think I'll go back to how we're going to do the championship this year. Right. So, you know, I study other sports, right? You got to see what's going on out there. You guys play football. And, you know, I'm a Giants fan. And so if the giant, when the Giants.

You know, optimistic, you know, obviously, you had the Creetian Caucasians. Yeah, right. Jackson's art. You're two pass rush. Jackson's art, right? Yeah, he just did a backflip on a bum ankle. He heard him so.

We're in a good spot. He fell back, but that's called Torque. He's got a good coach. Yeah. Yeah. So, but when the Giants won the Super Bowl, right, it was a wildcard. Everyone was Giants are Super Bowl champions. In our sport, you know, we had a one race championship.

And I think the thinking was, hey, new fans will come in and watch this. It'll be legit. And what happened. And what happened was anything can happen in one race. And a lot of the drivers were starting to question, like, I've had a great year all year long, and I'm rolling the dice for one race. And it's not just me versus you. There's 34 other guys, 35 other guys out on the track. And it just started to get really tainted.

And we weren't bringing in as many new fans to watch that last race. And our kind of core fans were like, this is not NASCAR. And what got me the most was drivers coming up through the system looking at NASCAR, looking at these guys who were going to come in next with pre-nacar. or Busher and saying, you know, those young guys, if they want to be a NASCAR champion and they've rolled off 20 wins during the year and it comes to one race and they don't win that race, they're not the champion. You know, you do that a few times. People, drivers are going to start looking at NASCAR.

Is this a legit sport? Like, is this truly a champion? So this year we got the whole industry together, went back kind of old school to, you know, every race counts. We get the chase for 10 races. So I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the teams and drivers speaking up and saying, hey, this is where we got to go. And then when we all get together and rally around a decision, we're in a good place.

It's when we don't communicate and everybody's pointing fingers. That's when we're in a lot of trouble. So I'm excited about this year. I think it's off to a good start. For you kind of being like the first CEO, love being transparent. It seems like fans can kind of like almost tangibly consume everything that you're saying, kind of be in the room with you. When you were talking earlier about mistakes that took place back in the day,

like you were there in the 90s when you did your first job, You're part of like the era, the good years. Looking back, now that you are the CEO, like, what were some of those mistakes, if you could talk transparently to the fans that you feel like happened that their voices were trying to be loud, but maybe not necessarily heard? Yeah, I think we got a little bit away from who we are, right? So when I was growing up and NASCAR, guys like Mike Helton, Jim Hunter, kind of old school guys who when you went to the racetrack, you know, we've got our hauler where all our officials are,

and they just sit out there. And guys would come by and just shoot the shit. shit, you know, what's going on and in contact with everyone. And you kind of had a good pulse of what was happening. And our drivers were real people, like fans saw them and they could interact and they'd go have a beer with them. And as the sport exploded, we went to some new places, which were great. But we kind of left some of the fans and we didn't really message it the right way. We kind of deserted them a little bit. And I think what you're seeing now is drivers embracing their home tracks, embracing where we came from, understanding what's going to grow the sport. We got to

awesome group of drivers right now that want to be out there with the drivers. And the NASCAR folks, you know, we're spending a lot more time with the teams, the drivers, just old school relationships. That's what's going to drive the sport. And I know it sounds simple, but, you know, we weren't talking for five or six years. We were kind of, you know, we had a lawsuit last year. And so everybody, you went to the garage and everybody went their own way. And now that's changed. And we see everybody. And, you know, we're not always going to agree, right? But people are coming in talking. fans are there. You can feel a little bit more momentum.

We still got a long way to go, but the foundation is there. And I think we're just going to build on that. Yeah, we've talked about this on the show before where the best way to get new fans is just get them to the race. Because Will and I, we've been to a few races, but literally going this time, the amount of access that NASCAR gave us and the common fan is able to walk around pit road, drivers are walking back and forth and be a part of it. It's like, it's awesome.

Like, it really humanizes these other drivers. You talked about like when NASCAR was booming. As a casual now casual NASCAR fan, can you give me like an era? Was it like the night late 90s? Was it early 2000s that like NASCAR was truly at like its peak in the moment? I think late 90s through early 2000s, right? So late 90s early 2000s, what was going on then that still needs to happen now? So yeah, yeah.

Great, great question. I think drivers were superstars and the drivers were. sponsors activation you saw them in commercials you saw local market activation and we're seeing all that come back so for a while over the last i'd say you know five to 10 years sponsorship got tough all the money went into the race cars which we get right you got to go fast you got to win um and i think that the money was there for the drivers a little bit more so than it is today and that's coming back but the reason it's coming back is you know drivers are out there hustling you know they're they're making their move on the track but they're doing things they're going out they're going out on

podcasts or going out with sponsors. Sponsors are coming back. They want to feature drivers in their ad campaigns, which is great. And so getting more of that back is really good. And then just having them out there is telling their stories. People want to know who these guys are. And I think we're doing a better job of telling the stories about, you know, what's unique about each and every one of them.

Rivalries. Yeah. Nets of Rivalry. That's like storyline plays. Yeah. Ten times out of ten. Rivalries, a thousand percent. I mean, you had Gordon Earnhardt.

You had all those going on. And look at Hosevar. I've watched your podcast. I know you, everybody asked about Hosevar, right? I was talking with, when we were sitting with Gordon yesterday, I'm sitting there,

we were bringing up Hosevar and stuff like that, but after the pot, I'm like, it's just, it's crazy the Hosevar stuff because legitimately, Taylor was just a fan of him because he just wore 77. I was like, oh, I like this guy.

And people were like, I don't know. We're like, oh, something there with Hosef war. When we were going to start this, I just put out a tweet like, hey, I'm getting into NASCAR, who should I root for?

and big the comment section was like dominant on host of our this is your guy youtube all these things this dude's ride people on the wall he's not messing around he's rocking seven so clearly i'm like this is going to be my guy 100 percent but every driver that's come on whether they're on the bus or right after we get done like their their view is like he's all right as goes from that that's probably the nicest it gets to no fuck that guy that's kind of like as far as we go over there yeah and so that storyline to me is like i love it and the more these guys don't like him more I'm kind of like I'm kind of in on this host of our guy I want to see what he does next yep so when it comes to rivalries like Jeff Gordon was on that was on the pot with

with Will in Charlotte yesterday there's that video of him that we brought up a couple times on the show was it uh yeah yeah because Laszlowski and they're getting a big fight and that's taking place clearly I'll say it for us all as as NASCAR CEO we don't want to we don't want to see fights I'm okay well get me now we don't want to see fights taking place but from a you know, endorsement, entertainment. We see what the

WWE does. We see the UFC and kind of these sports that are not like your core sports in America. Might be the move. Might be a little more lenient

is I don't know. Maybe like a step in the wrist. I think that's fair. So we went through an era where, you know, too many fines, right? We're fined everybody.

But what happened was, if you go down pit road right now, a lot of guys look like you, big dudes, right? And some of our drivers aren't that big. So guys were getting in fights and the crew guys were piling on.

But those crew, dude, who guys were different animals. Yeah, it got a little dangerous. So where we're at is if the drivers want to handle their business, great. When the crew guys start piling on us, that's when we got a challenge. So I don't disagree with you. I think, and with Hosevar, to me, he's doing everything we would want from a driver getting out there. Now, on track, right? You need him to win. But you also, you know, he's going to make his

moves and drivers are going to, you know, they'll handle what they need to handle out on the track. right so that that's on him to do that but in terms of how he races what he may or may not experience because of how he races on track that's one thing but off the track it's fantastic i mean we're at north wilksboro speedway last weekend he's walking down pit road and everyone's chanting his name and so there's a lot to that and i think our drivers you know some of them get that some of them don't want to be that guy and that's okay but we need rivalries we need villains right any sport you need personalities you need a reason to care yeah yeah and it sounded like talking with Jeff because he was alluding to,

he doesn't think there'll be times where drivers are just dominant anymore. Because I guess aerodynamic science, all the stuff you've brought in with the newer generation cars, to where there's a lot more equality on the track versus back in the 90s where Jeff Gordon or Earnhard, whoever was,

Jimmy Johnson, guys could just dominate to where they have the championship wrapped up two or three races before the final championship. But, you know, they're busting balls. They're talking shit on the mic a little bit. To where you just knew, This dude is probably going to win the whole thing because he has the fastest car. He's the better driver.

So there's a lot more, there's a lot more like equality on the track to where it's like, I think in my head, like how do you get to where some of these rivalries can be built up? If it is so, everybody kind of has the same car. It sounds like we kind of have a little foundation right now, right? Yeah, no.

So whatever's fight, pit crew guys stay out of it. That's right. You guys that work the mic a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I agree. But even the race car now. So I think that's fair.

But that's why we went to this new format, too, because what was happening was if you won any race, you're in the playoffs. So, you know, you can go to the fourth race of the season, guy who's 35th in points win a race. And all of a sudden we're talking about the playoffs. You win the Daytona 500. And instead of talking about the winner of the 500, we were saying congrats in the playoffs. It would be like opening night, Monday night football. Yeah. And it's crazy.

So now you're seeing guys who are winning more races. We're talking about it. Redick rolled off a bunch. Danny Hamlin's rolling off a bunch. I think you will. I think there's more to do, but this format, hopefully, we'll get back to some of that, too, talking about guys who are dominating. Because what was happening is, if I won five races in a row, it didn't matter. We were talking about this guy who just made the 16th spot in the playoffs, and it just didn't flow. So we've got to talk about winning.

Right. Yeah, exactly. I was going to say, has there been a decision you encountered, whether before CEO or currently being in the seat that you are in now, to where you're hearing a lot of different opinions with your board or counsel or everything. everybody who's involved in like the front office of NASCAR, but you feel a completely different pulse. Say, I'm going to say on the internet because that's where the fan base can try and be the loudest to where they're kind of differing. Yeah. You see one decision got made that didn't feel like it was in what you were feeling on the pulse of the internet per se. To where you saw that

decision roll out and be like, oh yeah, that was kind of the wrong call. We do need to kind of lean, not we need a lean this way of what we're here, what noise we're here and out there about our fans, but we, I need to do a better job of listening to what the fans are saying. I think if you look at just chasing fans, right? So you want the sport to be as big as possible, right? But instead of being proud of kind of who we are and really pushing that message and pushing who we are, we try to do some things just differently that didn't feel like NASCAR thinking new fans would come in. And our existing fans kind of called bullshit on us.

And so, you know, you weren't gaining and you were losing some of your core. So I think by moving some of our races back going to the Bowman-Graise, going to North Wilkesboro, we can't have 36 of those, but our fans are like, okay, these guys are listening and they haven't forgotten about us. You know, you're not just going to overseas for races or to new markets. And it's important for us to, you know, listen to that core fan base. You know, they got us to where we are. And the goal isn't to have core anew. The goal is to have all these people be core fans as we go and have them be proud of it. So, you know, I grew up in Jersey, right? So a lot of my, a lot of my buddies may or may not have been NASCAR fans. But if you told those guys, if they're going on a golf

trip or a football game or something, hey, I'm going to Talladega out at Alabama with my boys, that's a cool trip, right? And guys would talk about it's fun. And we got to get back to that, that, you know, celebrate what NASCAR is about, have fun. Younger kids want to have those experiences. So to me, it's just pushing who we are and being proud of it versus kind of trying not to be somebody as well we've got to go. Yeah. Is there ever a struggle as the CEO, as a guy calling all the shots when you're like, be what NASCAR is about, but a person who doesn't consume a lot of NASCAR thinks himself, oh, it's just a big party. Yeah. It takes place. It's rowdy. There's one race that has a jail inside of it because that's how

crazy it gets. How do you balance as the boss of being like, yeah, we got to emphasize how much fun you can have a NASCAR without just turning into complete shit show. Yeah, no, it's a great question. I think it depends on where you're racing, right? So, you know, what markets you go in, how you're talking to different fans. And then doing a really a much better job of when someone comes to a race, it's hard, right? It's not. like, you know, going to some of the other sporting events, you know, what's going on here, doing a much better job that if you show up, here's where to go, here's where the fan zone is, here's where the drivers are, pre-race, you know, what time to get there in and out. So

we've got to educate new fans when they come out to a race, you know, this is kind of what the flow is. And, you know, here's where maybe the party's going on and here's where, you know, some families want to be over here. But the great news for us, too, if you go, I think in Michigan, we had 5,600 campers. So it's, it's just fun. People are bringing their kids. They're there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So, you know, making it an event, making it a place where families can come out as well, have some fun, listen to some music, be around people you want to be around and, you know, making an event versus just a race. You know you just had a couple races that are on Saturdays and some drivers have spoken up about

we'd like to have our race, the big race, on Saturday as opposed to Sunday. And it makes a lot, to me, just looking at at face value, it makes a lot of sense because people want to come, they want to have a good time, they want to booze it up a little bit, family affair, on a Sunday, but at some point, when it's 8 p.m., you're thinking yourself, oh, shit, I got to go to work on Monday. Has NASCAR thought about me pushing everything back a little like a day to be on a hardcore Saturday? You know, it's tough. We do some Saturdays, but, you know, at the end of the day, you got to grow your ratings, right? And so Sundays are, you know, where it happens, you know, we got to play for about 4 o'clock Sunday, Sunday night games, all that. So for us, that's been the

sweet spot is Sunday is where the most eyeballs are on the sport. But it's a balance for it. us, you know, Saturday, we've Saturday night, Friday night, you got all the short track races going around around the country, so we want to make sure we don't step on those toes also. So, you know, I still feel like Sunday is kind of the right mix for us. But I think in the future, you know, as we look at when we race, where we race, could we do a midweek race here or there as well? So there might be some opportunities to do that. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Midweek race would be a good time. Because I definitely see what you're saying. Like even if you're not boozing it up, you're thinking you're going to go out there for an entire day on the track.

Then you've got to be back. Yeah. And then you've got to be back. You've got to be back. you got work the next day. You got all these things to where it's like if there's a rain delay that happens. You're like, yeah. And we kind of need to cut the court on this because we have to wake up the next. Yeah, you got to go to work. No, that's fair. Do you see much, do you see much drop off or any drop off at all for like fans on site, Saturday

versus Sunday? No, I mean, Sunday's still the big day. I think what we've got to do a better job of is, you know, people are out there camping, you know, four, four days hanging out. Sometimes on a Saturday, you know, they're in their camper outside the track versus coming in. So we're trying to create some more things actually. actually in the facility. So you can go have fun with your with your buds and some beers or different games that are going on with the kids. But making sure there's enough incentive to come in,

you know, kind of all three days as well to the facility. Yeah, so fans can take it. Yeah. Yeah, that is crazy. It is wild when you pull up. Again, Nashville's not the biggest one. No, but it's still even that. Yeah. But just driving through and seeing all the campers and everybody. Yeah. Kind of just enjoying and being there the entire weekend. They do, man. Yeah. They make it something the tradition. Yeah. Yeah, the, the incentive part of bringing guys into the track. What are some things that you guys have integrated to be like, hey, I know you guys are having fun out there in the campers, give yourself a little nap, but why don't you come in here and take this out? Yeah, I think it's building up some of the drivers on Saturdays, right? So we got some cool young drivers who are

coming up. Those names are starting to matter more. CW's doing all the O'Reilly races now, which has been huge for us. So people are all of a sudden starting to say, hey, what's going on on Saturday? I got to go check this out, see who's racing. Some of the Cup guys are coming back and racing on Saturdays. We went, we went for a little while where we didn't ban the cup guys, but we really limited how many races they could come in. And we kind of expanded that again because it puts more eyeballs on the series and more of the young guys get to compete against some of the best. So, you know, looking at some of those things. And then, you know, concessions, you know, what can we do around that? What can we make it easier for fans to get in and out,

some cheaper tickets as well. So a lot of stuff on the board to keep it going. Quick break from the episode. I hope you guys are enjoying Steve O'Donnell. We are brought to you by Form Energy. Form Energy delivers best in-class taste with natural flavors and zero sugar, has natural caffeine derived from green tea. And Form comes in a variety of flavors like Screaming Freedom, Blue Blitz, Orange Fury, to name a few, and is perfect for those who put in the work. For the person who wakes up in the morning, gets a workout in, puts in a full day of work

and still gives it their all when they come home. You are a Form Energy guy. Form Energy. We do the work. Back to the episode. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Oh, my gosh.

Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish, right inside the free IHR Radio app. Gets the blood going up. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry

with all the hilarious moments you've been missing. Right on your screen. Cheers. Open the free IHRRA radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. We've all been there. We've had so. seasons that have shaken everything.

The question is, what remains when the shaking stops? Hi, I'm Gary Valenzano. And on my podcast, Unshaken with Gary Vee, I sit down with amazing personalities and we talk about the seasons that nearly broke them, the lows that carried them to their highs. Listen to Unshaken with Gary Vee on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can

ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms. We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online.

Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. to a felon right now with face tattoos, and I cannot decide if I like him or not. That was a caller from my podcast, Therapy Gecko, where I speak with anonymous callers about their problems, relationships, and anything else in the depths of their mind. It all happens on my show Therapy Gecko, where we have real conversations just like this. Sometimes I'll have my girlfriend pre-chew, spicy food, and kind of baby bird it into my mouth. Is that weird? This

week is Human Connection Week. We're taking a peek into the lives of various strangers who found my phone number online. We'll hear their funny moments, their difficult ones, and their unexpectedly profound ones. These are real conversations with real people figuring out life one call at a time. So if you're trying to get out of your own head and into someone else's, this is the podcast for you. Listen to Therapy Gecko on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's so interesting to see the game of just like getting NASCAR back to what it is. Because when you're there, you absolutely feel it. For the CEO of the company, what is your competition?

Do you look at another organization or another business and be like, okay, we're essentially competing with them? Or is it just, you're basically playing against your former self every single day? No, I wouldn't say our former self. I would say, you know, that's something aspirational, which I think we can get to. It's really every form of sports and entertainment now. I mean, you can do anything now, which is cool, but also a challenge. So for us, it's, you know, we've got to be culturally relevant. So when your kids are growing up, you know, you have a football in the backyard, basketball,

soccer ball, whatever it is, how does racing get into the conversation when a kid's in elementary school, middle school, and you're not the kid who's dad may be in racing. You're just a fan and you're just starting to look at this. So sneaker culture, car culture, music culture, all those things where we're starting to really, see NASCAR get back a little bit. You know, when we were going, Dale Jr. was in MTV videos and those kind of things. And we're seeing our drivers get out there

and do some of that. And as that comes, I think the sport more and more will grow and then where we're racing, right? So we're not in the Northwest right now. We're not in Denver. You look at some different markets. Love to be in New York. So if we can get into those places and just, you know, put a race where people are,

I think that's another area to really grow also. Who's a league or an organization? that will, that you always kind of gravitate towards to see what they're doing. Because you got a white stretch, whether MLB, NBA, you got Goodell with the NFL, you got Dana White with the UFC. Like now you being in this seat, the first one being in the seat, who, like, what's a league and organization or one of the commissioners? You'll like stop and be like, I want to listen to him. I want to see what he said.

No, that's a great question. So I'm clearly not Dana White, right? But I love how they've gotten out there and really kind of broken through. And I think they've done a lot of cool stuff with the younger generation. If I look at products for me, which I hate saying the word product, because I just, so grew up soccer as well. So the English Premier League to me is just the pinnacle of soccer. They don't want music. They don't want it.

They just want the game and they want stars. So how do they get that passion? How do they have that true passion from a fan so we can study that? And then more recently, I think what the PGA is doing, I think Brian Rolap came in from the NFL, spent a lot of time talking to the players, where do we want to go. Let's build a new model. I've kind of done the same thing right now, just doing a lot of talking to people, looking at where we're at, and seeing where we want to go directionally. So it's a little bit of everything. And then probably if you look long-term internationally, I think the NBA has done a fantastic

job of putting leagues in different countries, but everybody aspires to still come to the NBA. I think if we were ever there, which one day, we will be. You know, you're going to see NASCAR around the world, but you always want to come race here against the best. Yeah. It's so difficult, though, because like the barrier of entry to become a driver so expensive. Bubble was on here talking about $250,000 as a kid trying to like basically take these steps towards being a NASCAR driver eventually. We talked about like the marketing, the shoes, the cars, all those things, which I agree. Like those are, that's what's cool. Like an old school cotton, badass graphic NASCAR tea. It goes, like, it goes.

a long way. Right? I've still got a Dale Earnhardt one in my closet right now. But if you're looking at these kids and you're like, I want to elevate the game, we want to have lifelong fans. Like are we thinking of ways to how do we integrate, you know, eight to 14 year olds until let's get them in some go carts. Let's get them into the start racing and make a little bit more affordable.

Because you look at basketball, like the talent is, you know, there's so much talent everywhere with basketball, but any kid can pick up a basketball. Yep. Soccer to the same thing. Soccer the most popular sport. You just go out there. It doesn't matter. Kick a ball around.

Yeah, how much money you have or anything. You're just kicking a ball around. You can see the small transition just from like soccer, basketball, to hockey, which is like, you have to have to be above average household income to even, you know, have the entry there because it's a very expensive sport. And the NASCAR is its own entity way up here. It's like you got to have money to do it. So.

A lot of luck involved. With every driver we've had on, there's a story that I kind of, there's stories that you gravitate towards because it does seem like luck plays a big factor on who you meet, who you you know, being patient enough, just waiting on the opportunity, and then fortunately it happens for guys. I think two things on it. I think great, great points. So if you look at carding and the really young age carding compared to soccer and all these groups now, you know, travel ball, right? And it's a lot of money people are spending. And I would put kind of that carding experience with the real youth up against that to be in the game where we've got to fix it is once you get

out of that realm, you know, late model stock, whatever it is, that's where it's hard. And we got to figure out a model that goes from, you know, six to eight year old all the way through. And it's a big task force right now because I think that's spot on to make sure that it's accessible. I mean, you know, it would be cool as you go in a dick sporting goods, right? Buy your go card kit, show up and go race on a local track. Yeah. That's one solve, which I think we're on. But then you've got to fix it to that.

It's not so expensive to get up to the next level. And so that's, that's a longer term, but something we absolutely have to do. I agree. We'll be cool, too, as well. I mean, this is a brainstorm. We're officially in a brainstorm. Yeah, this is good. You guys, there's nobody.

This is good. I love, like one thing, just being a football guy. Yep. Like, when I was in high school, it's the rivals. It's 24-7. You're looking at a ranking that you have. Oh, database. Yeah.

It would be sick if NASCAR had some sort of database. That was like looking at these guys that are on the come up. Rank them. So fans can be like, oh, who's this guy coming up? He's a five-star athlete. I can't wait to watch his career. Now, when he makes it into the Cup series, everyone's like, hey, I've been watching you since you were.

That's a fantastic idea. Thank you. Yeah. No, I think that one's free. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. Exactly.

That's awesome. What else we got, man? I mean, you guys make a website, $24 a month. It's that easy. Like, you know the guy who started all those companies. We can get them in touch. Yeah, yeah. We get shenan tarium.

Because what happens right now is the OEM's, you know, Toyota GM 4, they've got their charts. But I think that would be awesome now. That would be really cool. And a draft. Maybe a draft. Yeah. Yeah. I've tried that one more.

I know. We're out on that. That would be so cool. It's a brainstorm. Yeah. But you're like you're right. That's Jeff Gordon's thing, a draft for crew guys. Really?

Yeah. It is like when you're talking to everybody, there's part of them. It's like, how do you even find these drivers? Right. But if you do have a database, you do are able to kind of follow these kids and know like this has been a prodigy since the beginning of time or this is an up-comber. Because, you know, I'm a huge, just sports fan in general. So you'd go out to, you know, Florida high school football is awesome, right? So we'd go when, you know, when my kids were high school, you'd be like, oh, this five stars coming into play.

As kids going to Notre Dame, I'm going to watch that. game, right? Just to see who they are and then you follow them. Yeah, you want to go to high football. Did you say you play college ball? I try. Play like six months and then got the ax. Okay, but even even even got the ax or called that time I'm out of no I got no they were like, hey man get off the get off the beer you're not good enough right yeah. But even as a high school athlete in coming up like for me like the the neck of the woods I was from in Bonten Missouri there wasn't a lot of football recruiting in our area like I would be obsessed with being on rivals or now yeah 24-7 or scout.com back.

then and seeing like, oh, they have Nike camps here. They have stuff where I can go get in front of coaches or go to Notre Dame or go to these, you know, immersive camps that you can go to to get in front of people to where it's like, I'm sitting there dreaming and being fascinated, like, oh, I think I could be a three, sir. I think it could be a four star. I think I could be a five star. But you knew these are places in Indiana or Arizona or California or Missouri, where you could go to have a camp and showcase your skills. As a kid, you become obsessive, like, oh, I need to go to these camps. where you could have, I'm sure you have plenty of young drivers out there, young kids,

who would be fascinating to be a race car driver one day to where they're wearing, you know, brisco jerseys at the house, where they're wearing Dining Hamlin stuff at the house, playing the video game, or it's like, man, where could I go to showcase or what's a race that's out there around the country, whether it's go-karting or the stock cars, whatever it is, to know, like, these are the ones to go to, mom and dad in the summertime, could we save up to where I can go to this race? This is a race where I need to be in front of people. To where there is that database around it.

like the scout combines that they would have like regionally. Yeah, where you just know where to go. It's not like you're going to your county track and like one day so you get tapped on the shoulder. You're like, I don't even know how this happened. I kind of got lucky. Just get a little invite. I think that's great idea. I think that the drivers, right?

And the parents probably know, but to your point, no one knows. Right. So telling that story, I think would be huge for us. Oh, yeah. Just the amount of kids that are out there racing. I think people don't even know. Kids who are obsessed with it and their parents might not be. They're like, oh, Mom and Dad, could I go to this thing?

Yeah. What is this thing? I've been doing all the homework and all the research. I love that. These are the places I need to go to. Imagine a track that people go to in regions where all the cars are the same. You go, you sign up, and you put your name in, you put in the database. Pick a car.

There's a combine, some sort of combine. I don't know what drivers have to do for a combine. So we do that now for a, we've had like a driver program trying to develop drivers. It's much, much smaller. But, you know, that's how Bob Wallace came up through the system. Daniel Suarez came up through the system. But that needs to be times 1,000, right? It needs to be everywhere that you can do these kind of things.

because kids who I think want to race but have no idea how to do it. You know, eye racing's been fantastic for us, so you're able to do some sim things and translate that, but unless you can go out and do the real thing, it doesn't matter. So I like the way we're thinking here.

Okay, all right. I hope someone's got a not a pen. This gets two ideas. I think we're kind of thinking right now. Yeah. Well, you see the trickle-down effect, too, even in all sports, whether it's baseball, football,

like NIL, such a big thing now in college football. Huge. Huge. How it trickle down so much into high school to where it's starting to touch middle school it's crazy right now. These kids have all these dreams, right? And then you have the influence of social media to where the athletes or the racers themselves

to where if in this hypothetical world there is this database. But kids become their own kind of influencer. They use their own social media to try and get their name out there. Which is what we want. So if there is a pull to of like, hey, I'm rated this and the NASCAR or the racing circuit at a lower level to where kids are wanting to create content around it, to where you just, you just see the domino effect of this world that the, or that football basketball basketball, basketball has created. So I think it would be...

No, I think that's great. That's awesome. Do regions everywhere and then have like each region, racing each other. Yep. Yeah. And then you have one, this person wins a X, Y, and Z chance to go racing this series. You're dropping your photo on the top of the podium.

I'm coming for this regional race. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. You kind of can't help but look away. Right. And then somebody in the big leagues like NASCAR, they just could be on the internet at some point time and just come across this kid.

Or one of our cup guys talks about. Yeah. Who is this kid? You know what we need? We need a mouthy young kid who's a prodigy. So if you can find one of those, that'd be awesome. Yes. And then get a veteran racer and then have them do like a one-on-one race.

We'll do 15 laps right now. We'll see how good you actually are. Well, you'll kind of create those kids. They'll kind of create their own personality because they're not even, they're not there yet. So they're going to be young-minded thinking like this is the way you're going to do it. They'll get humbled in the big leagues. But you'll still, those personalities will start to get created because there's a formula and platforms out there to kind of showcase. them being at the top of the podium,

dropping a little noise with the caption. Right, because you brought, you brought up ir racing, which is awesome. Was it William Byron? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Him, his come up doing that.

That's awesome. Yeah. But from me, like, if I'm consuming content and I'm watching these racers on the internet, it's like, it's not grabbing me being like, I got a watch this guy

kind of tilt back and forth in this really cool machine for him. No. But like, you want to see it. You want to like feel it and be a part of it. You want to be out there. Yeah.

I think, I think it's a good training ground, right? But Ryan Fries and, push around when we're coming over here today, we're talking about this, that they're on the sim, which is great, but it's not translating to when they actually were able to test with their crew guys and talk about, here's what I'm feeling, here's what I'm doing, versus talking to a computer, right? It doesn't translate. So we got to get back to a little bit more of that interaction between the driver, crew, here's what I need in the car, so more testing. But to your point,

eye racing is good to a point, but then you've got to get on the track and apply it. So I think having that ability to go out there maybe in a cheaper way kind of iris but then got to be able to do late model racing got to get out of rip you you so you said two things during that that I got my mind going one is since 2020 you guys is race your week you're weak and how guys are allowed to train how much time they're allowed on the track are we ever going to get back to pre-2020 type of practicing thing but so was it like three hours yeah three hours a week and that's it to be in their car it kind of fine-tuned things I I think you'll see a little bit more practice, so we've tweaked it to a much longer practice now that we have, which will be good. So we're going to see how that works. We did a qualifying for the All-Star race up in Dover, which we had the cruise involved, where guys would go out, bomb a lap, come down pit road, change tires, back out one more lap. So it's kind of a three-lap qualifying versus just the car going out. Cruise were involved. Fans loved it. I think you could see more of that at select races. So we kind of bring the crews and drivers into it, more content that we can put out.

So I think we'll see more of those things and test some things as we go. You know, and then have drivers just doing more which they're doing right now when they're at track. So it's just good once they're there. The on track content's good, but also just interacting with fans, I think, is what really drives the needle for us, too. Yeah, that's the key. And then the other thing that came to my mind was, why not call out another league and get some ways against them? Like, F-1's out there. They're pretty mouthy.

They have other documentaries. Like, they think they're so sweet because their cars look different. Like, why don't we get them? stock car and be like give us your best and I hate to bring it up but I bring it up every time Talladega nights it's kind of what happened in it and I love to know your opinion on that movie that's fair I love the movie oh you love the movie I love the movie man yeah we got to grow the sports so you know we got hopefully you know you know fingers crossed we might have a days of thunder two coming out so hopefully that'll be cool have you already on the casting on that that wouldn't

be us that's that's the paramount guys you go ahead and let them know that will you guys are oh that's no this is good to know we're available we'll talk perfect perfect perfect that's good We're not too desperate, but we are. Yeah, but we are not desperate. I had a Marriotra ban here five minutes ago. I clearly. And I LVIL for the movie. Like if they ask, we still might say no.

Yeah, exactly. Depends on what goes out. But if we thought about taking and being like, you know what, dude, fuck your league. In a respectful way. This is just me, Taylor talking. You know what, dude? You guys think you're so great over there in Europe, dude. That's not cool.

What's cool is America? Get a European over here. Get a European over here and see what he can do. Or send a NASCAR guy. Here's what. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. No, no.

our home field advantage. Here's how I think about it. So we have a NASCAR Europe series. It's really small. We race at Brands Hatch and there's 50,000 people there. It's crazy. And the whole race is around like Americana. You go there, you'd be like, what is happening? They got guys in football helmets, cheerleaders. They're just like celebrating everything about America. So what I do know is we took the garage 56 car that this was Jim Francis Vision over to Lamont. Everyone was, they loved it. It was incredible. They just love the NASCAR sound and feel. So I think the next step for us is just plopping a race in Europe and saying,

this is how we race. This is, this is in my opinion what NASCAR racing is all about. And I think fans will love it. And I think they'll realize that, you know, hey, there's more beating and banging. It's more personality.

You know, we're not F1, right? That's a different, different feel, different vibe. And they've got their own lane. But I think we can translate more to, you know,

just everybody who's kind of growing up, just like in sports, wanting to reround people. and, you know, F1's that aspirational brand. To me, you know, we're kind of a common person. Let's go and let's go have some fun. You know, I want the sport also to be a place where, you know, athletes come to other events and you get hounded, right?

And it's a challenge. For NASCAR, I want it to be a place that, you know, you're in the NFL, MLB. Come to NASCAR, hang out, have some fun with your buddies, and just let loose, be yourself. And then, you know, no one's going to buggy, have some fun. And Marshawn Lynch came to Daytona. You know, we had him do the Daytona 500. and unsolicited said, I want to celebrate my birthday at Talladega.

We're like, what? Showed up. I mean, we spent two days with the guys in the infield, cruising around, having a good time, and just loved it. And that's the experience we want to have and bring to everybody. This is the sports for everybody. You can find your own lane and just have some fun when you go. Yeah. And you, too, when you bring up NASCAR Europe, like plopping a race there, when you say, like, it's a badass American sport,

You need a little bit of country versus country. Yeah. I like that. You need the nation, the Olympics is just a place. Like, that's the shit that gets people a fucking going. No, the passion, right, that you saw all the World Cup. I mean, it was awesome watching some of those guys. Norway doing the whole thing.

It was USAB. I don't know what happened there. Yeah. She was a golf too, right? I was out. The Rider Cup. Yeah, the Rider Cup. Yeah, same thing.

But just get some of that. No, I like that. The country pride. Yep. Yep. That's good. Take down the four ins. That's cool.

We joke on this. We're having a fun time. We're available for the next days of thunder. We're having a fun time. NIL deal. Yeah, NILD. Yeah, for sure. Go ahead. I was going to, I was going to go back into us ID-Aid. Yeah. Back to a brainstorm. And our wheelhouse is football. It always has been. Always will be. Nebraska, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Michigan? Yeah, went to Michigan. Yes, sir. In the NFL, the NFL's done such a great job of having the sports seem like it's all year round. Yeah. schedule releases, draft, free agency. Is there ever going to be a world to where there's like an open market window of free agency

in NASCAR? Because that in itself, as far as selling or entertainment to the fans, again, just spitballing. Just spitballing as a fan. I'm being quiet, but I'm agreeing with you internally right now. Yeah, somebody becoming available. Yeah, I don't know. Because there's a lot of loyalty in NASCAR. When we do try to pry on contracting and stuff like that with guys or there's ever a time

that you were going to leave. And if there was just a window to where guys are up for grabs or pit crew guys are up for grabs. Yeah. And there's this market going on to our damn, you know, Hendrik got, you know. I think that, I think that. Yeah, it's a salary cap. And we need you have an Adam Schaefter that reports of all these driving news. Breaking news.

So I saw a deal 15 million. Oh my God. 20 guaranteed. It's like, oh, what a snake move from this motors sports crew. Now you got. That's a good. That's a good question. I think, I think it happens, right?

It happens. but outside of the media with teams. So, you know, we got a new model now with the charters, with the teams, long term. Who knows? You know, I think we got to look at, you know, the pit crews are so valuable right now. And, you know, you guys saw it, I think yesterday, right, with Gordon and the setup, right? It's incredible what they're putting into that.

So, you know. Dude, I wouldn't there. I would love you to talk. But you saw, you probably saw the clips of their facility. It's like Nebraska's locker room. Yeah. Dude, it is nuts. And I'm sitting there asking us off, you know, off the camera, because you can't have

some stuff can't be on the camera, but I'm like, are you guys just, you recruit or somebody takes a visit here, they go take a visit somewhere else. And it's like they're the first ones with a facility like that. I'm like, well, you guys are heading shoulders above everybody else. In my opinion, I've only been to one spot. Right. Right. But I'm thinking that is nuts to where if you do have some of this, you know, it is entertainment value to the fans, the inside of it or you're going to play for this team or that team. It is incredible what they have over there. Well, I think in the the storylines, we've got to do a much better job. And I have heard this from some, some of the folks when you talk about F1, you know, what do they do better? What could we learn from?

So F1, you know, you got the drivers for sure, right? But then you got the team principles, you know, to argue in between each other. You got a lot of different people. We have so many stories we could be telling about, you know, who's running this team, who are these guys on pit road? And not just a quick like, you know, 30 second feature on, you know, that guy was a starting quarterback at Nebraska and now he's on the pit crew. What? You know, holy cow. And those are some of the stories that are happening, but we need to kind of dive deep in that. And so, So, you know, start talking about the front tire changer from the, you know, the 88 car versus the 77 car and what happened here and who are these guys.

So there is a lot more to do their content. Dude, 100%. Because then people will come up like, oh, do pit group guys make anything? It's like, oh, they make a good deal of money being in the pit group. And they're former athletes or people who come from different trades. And even when we were getting the tour there yesterday, like they have a fucking combine that takes place there. I love that. Where they're like 100 people come in.

Then they trim them down. Then they get to like 20. And then they're like the 20 guys kind of on call for a potential roster spot that could open up. Yep. And to me, I'm like, you know, that is fascinating. And how much, how much of that is being put in the media? Not enough. Not enough.

No, no, it's a fertile ground. Because they got their own squads, like their own money. They got to be, they got to keep the secrets in tight. Right. But I'm like, you guys are running a fucking operation. Don't open the whole door for me, but just crack it a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You've got to look in the cookie jar from the fan perspective.

Exactly. Because people would have no clue. It's just, it's the front-lation driver. And then if you're a sick, you know the cruise. You don't show me a little bit, right? I don't know what I don't know. No, how guys are carrying jacks, swinging jacks around now that never used to have. There's so many things that go into this.

And, you know, once one team does it, others are trying it. It's unbelievable. Yeah. So these guys running. Yeah, legitimately. And then I'm like, okay, so what do you do for the combine? They're talking about changing direction and I coordination. Who's commenting this combine?

Where's Rich Eisen? Yeah, yeah. We need some coverage on this. We do. We do. Is that 185 on the bar? We got to bump those numbers up. You do.

Yeah. And one guy were walking through, beautiful, sauna hot tub, cold tubs, like the whole nine. Dude, it is unreal what they got. And this is Hendrit, correct? Yeah. Training rooms with tables for massage soft tish, tape and wrist, high. Not ankles. Commercial grade hyperbaric chambers, red light beds, whole nine. And then there's one cat who's sitting in the sauna and our boy, the guy who was giving us a tour, Evan, he's like, oh,

his brother's with the chargers right now. And I'm like, and he's in there sweating. It's athletes in there. Motivarsity in the song. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. After it a little bit. Like, what's this guy's story? I want to know this guy's story. And so Hendrick, this is, they're the only one with a facility like this right now.

So that brings me to Hendrik is essentially the New York Yankees as far as like money that's able to come in. You could say, you could say when people talk about it, they talk about Penske, Hendrick and Gibbs is kind of the big three. Those are the big three. Yeah. Those are the big three. Somebody like Gibbs, I know a facility like this. He sees this. He's going to piss him all.

We need to get a family right now. Yeah. Yeah. He's got a nice mahogany desk and he's sitting behind it with a cigar going. And guys like this, you need the camera on him with his reaction. Yeah, I was in a meeting with him last week. And he had one of the first things that you see that facility over there. Because they pride themselves on what they do on pit road too.

So it'll be interesting to see where everybody goes. Oh, yeah. The game's changing. Oh, yeah. Games changing right from our eyes right now. Yep. So with these three having the most money, is there a cap involved or are we not even near a cap? That needs to happen.

When it comes to getting racers, sorry, getting drivers, getting pit crew guys, who's the best, you know, chief of work? whatever, like these types of things, clearly I'm green in this stuff. But it's great question. All these things, if you want all the best guys, it's like money solves most of those problems. Yeah, so right now there's no cap. There has been a lot of discussion with the cup teams. I'd say 70% for it, you know, the guys who are winning a lot, maybe not.

I mean, you're seeing this in baseball right now, right, with, you know, the Dodgers. Yeah, you got the leverage. You don't want to give it up. And so, yeah. And so that's, I think we're definitely going to look at something. I don't know if it'll go through, but it's, it's, it's, more so, you know, not to, not for driver's salaries or anything like that, but just what, what is the amount that can be spent to go racing on a team? And it's complicated because a lot

of these guys are in different businesses, you know, and it's not just the race team. They've got different entities that are involved in helping fund the race team. So it'd be hard to police. But, you know, we'll look at it. I think it's, you know, as a sport evolves, we got to make sure that we put on the most competitive races. And, you know, we don't want to see where three organizations win every single race. That's not good for the fans. So we've got to, you know, look at at how we balance that, see how it ebbs and flows as well. Yeah. Do you have a vision that you can share in the future that you're like, damn, it would

be really cool to see something like this happen? Overall for the sport. And I'm asking the question. I'm like, who knows how much you can even share? No, I think. What do you got around the corner for us? Yeah. Yeah.

Give us some blue balls a little bit. Yeah. When I look at the sport, I think it's a lot. When I look at the sport, I think we still have so many places we can go race and do some different things in places we're not, you know, want to take races to new markets, you know, want to be in New York, want to be in the Northwest, want to be in England somehow and do some cool things. And then have drivers, like, get ahead of it. So ideally, you know, start rotating our championship race. You know, right now we're going to be in Miami for one year, maybe two. But start getting on this cycle where, you know, we're going to announce our 27th.

schedule probably in a couple weeks, right? That's great. I'd love to be announcing the 2032 schedule, so fans can be like, oh, this is awesome. I can get my arms around this. This is how drivers are going to race it, you know, start to get some, you know, appreciation for where we're going. So it's more about where we're racing. And then the biggest thing is just working with the drivers to show them, you know, what could be. And if you just step out of your comfort zone just a little bit. You're going to make more money. You're going to have some more fun, hopefully, and just help us grow the sport. So I think, you know, this comes down. A lot of it for me right now is just communication. And it's getting, we're all over the place. And now it's just trying to work

together as a sport and take advantage of what we have. And we have a cool sport. And I've said it, right, we've got a badass American sport. Let's embrace this thing. Let's take the momentum and let's work together to grow. The fans are there. The fans want us to succeed. And we just got to get out of our own way sometimes and deliver a great product. Our fans out there with a voice wanting you to be in certain cities or at certain tracks. I think you're like, we hear you. Yeah, I think they want to balance, right? So there's fans who are like, why are you in a street race in Chicago?

Why did you go to San Diego? You know, for us, 70% fans that came to those races had never seen a NASCAR race before. And then they stuck with us. So it's pretty cool. But we got to balance that. We got to make sure we don't desert kind of the most. markets where, you know, we race in Darlington, we race in Talladega, you know, we race in Daytona, and the fans know those brands. So it's keeping really your core racetracks and then expanding

out here and they're maybe rotating some races in the future. So you don't always have to go to a racetrack every single year. You know, could you put one on a rotation every two or three years is something we might look at? Number of races, who knows where we go in the future, you know, with new media content, do we look at mid-week races? So we're all kind of getting to right now as an industry and sitting down and saying, all right, in 2030, what do we want to look like? Unless I'll work together to make this thing go. And that's drivers, owners, everybody, fans have an input to put this together and all get on the same page. Yeah, that sounds like you need some driver buy-in too. We do. No, the drivers. Not that they're being selfish, but-

no, whatever we do, right, they got the microphone. And so they all leverage themselves well enough to have kind of their leverage. Yeah, we at least got to listen to. We got to listen. I think we do a great job when you compare us to other sports. I mean, I'm at just about every single race. You know, we see these guys every single weekend and we talk to them. I don't think other leagues are doing that, right? And so that's good and bad. We always get the input. But as long as we're listening and then what I've learned is you better, if you're going left when they wanted to go right, you better have a reason why you did that, go explain it to them. And then for the most part, they're okay with that. It's when you go left and you haven't had the conversation and you say,

I'm not going to listen when we're in trouble. And so we're not doing that. With the drivers, how difficult is it for you to have these personal relationships with all of them, get to know them, and then still keep business separate from all of it and make those decisions? No, it's hard. So when I was on the competition side, Kevin Harvick and I, I don't know what I almost came to blows, but there was one meeting, drivers meeting that got really heated and he was

pissed. And it was like, that was the closest, I think, it's ever come to like, but he's a passionate guy so am i wear my emotions on my sleeve and he told me at the end of this if you do your job well you're going to be the most hated guy in the garage area and it was tough to hear because you got to make tough calls right you you want to be friends like you want people to like you but that's been the biggest lesson for me is you know you're not going to be everybody's friend just because you got to make tough calls you got to call someone up and say hey we're fine and you that's part of the job you don't want to do it but you you know you're the government right you got to do some of these things

So the drivers, for the most part, all I can hope for is some level of respect, right? That they're not always going to agree with me or where we're going, but at least there's that open door to have the conversation is that that's kind of how I try and go about things. Guys, listen up. We need to talk about something very serious. Oh, no. Breakfast. Okay, actually, yes, very serious.

Because for too long, breakfast has been either nothing but coffee, which is a crime, or a full production. chopping, prepping, cooking, cleaning, and by the time you're done, it's basically lunch. Exactly. And that's why we are fired up to announce that Kevin's natural foods now has breakfast. Kevin's for breakfast. You guys already know we love Kevin's for lunch and dinner. And now that we get to officially add breakfast to the morning routine with their scrambler starters,

which means you can now eat Kevin's all day, every day. That's a complete system. That's a winning game plan. Kevin's scramble starters are legit. They're made with tender protein, crisp vegetables, and a creamy sauce with insanely good flavors like Denver-style ham and white cheddar and spinach and bacon Florentine. Just add eggs for a delicious scramble in minutes. Plus, they're made with real ingredients. No added sugars, gluten-free, soy-free, and no mystery meat.

Just high-quality protein. You got that right. You just take the scramble starter out of the freezer, throw it in a pan, add your eggs, drizzling the sauce. and in about 15 minutes you've got a real breakfast that's better than anything you've ordered at a restaurant. But without waiting 45 minutes for a table. So yes, Kevin's Natural Foods has breakfast now. Find Kevin's Scrambler starters in the Frozen Isle at Target, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Giant, and Hannaford stores. Kevin's for breakfast.

Morning's just got a major upgrade. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello. My gosh. Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish. Right inside the free IHR Radio app Get the blood going up

Catch every laugh and eye roll On shows like the Tom Green Farmcast And park the bus Now with full video We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk It's the same hosts and the same chemistry With all the hilarious moments you've been missing Right on your screen

Cheers Open the free IHR radio app Search video podcasts And tap watch We've all been there We've had seasons that have shaken everything The question is what remains when the shaking stops?

Hi, I'm Gary Valenzheno, and on my podcast, Unshaken with Gary Vee, I sit down with amazing personalities and we talk about the seasons that nearly broke them, the lows that carried them to their highs. Listen to Unshaken with Gary Vee on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Julianna, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask chat GPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting? or just negotiating.

Oh, and I still do need to know why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right? Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana.

The podcast. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting.

Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leve, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolf, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name.

And this season, I've sat down with Joshua Hami, Sarah McLaughlin, John Legend, and more. Check out my new episode with Phineas. So I went home and I asked Billy if she wanted to sing it. She immediately made it her own thing. No faith.

You really know how to make me cry when you give me those oceans. So come hang out with us in the studio and listen to playing along on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, it said when I was reading on your notes on everything of being a CEO, how you've kind of like, it seems like you've completely shied away from like, the typical corporate CEO. Was that a conscious decision that you made? Or was it just kind of the upbringing of where you started and how you got to where you're out now? I think it's just who I am, man.

And you talked about, you know, did you ever aspire to be a CEO? No. You know, I always wanted to do well for myself, right? But my parents were educators, you know, grew up, you know, and just feel like I want to treat people a certain way. And, you know, everybody counts in our business. You know, there's guys who are driving the trucks

to each and every race. If they don't show up, we're not racing. You know, when you look down from race control before the race, the guy who's just as important to put on a race is locking the fence and making sure it's secure, right? If he doesn't do his job, God knows what can happen. And so all those people matter. And I think to me, it's having relationships listening to all those folks. You know, you've got to deal with different folks. And you've got to move around, you know, some of the sponsors and CEOs, which is part of the role.

I enjoy learning from them. But to me, it's just being accessible, being available. I'm not always going to, you know, and being willing to make mistakes. stakes and admit it. You know, I know that I'm not perfect, but get good people around you and try some new things, take some risks. But, you know, just try and put the sport in a better place than when I started. What did a young Steve want to be growing up? Man, that's a great question. Young lad playing with some Legos. Yeah, I probably, I probably saw myself playing for the Yankees. Yeah, my grandfather's out there throwing ball. Yeah. So I got, so it's funny. I grew up playing

baseball and then my dad got a job overseas so he's principal of an international school we moved to egypt baseball is not too big in egypt right so we started a league there and we ended up playing in the big league world series representing africa and europe like and it was crazy because we showed up in miami and all the media was like do you guys ride camels you know we're like we're all americans like it was but it was it was weird playing that so i still thought i had a shot and then we played like you know USA East Venezuela. I think we lost like 24 to 2. I was like, all right, all right, my time's over here.

But I still love the game. I'm a big sports fan. I love all kinds of sports. Dude, how is Egypt? I'm just trying to envision. The only picture I have in my head of him playing baseball in Egypt is what pyramids in the background? No, yeah. Baseball in the sand.

We had one field. I think just to start here, do you think those pyramids were built by man or by aliens? It's a great question. Did you climb any? I did. So my graduation high school photos were all sitting on the pyramids. Yeah, it was wild.

Your graduation photos, you guys just chilling on the pyramid. Yeah. And you're not thinking about the movie, The Mummy, at all. No, I don't know what I was thinking. So we probably had a few beers in this. There was no drinking age either in Egypt. So it was a good. Nice, wild.

Yeah, it was good. So I came, when I got to college at Rawlinson and Florida, I was like, what do you mean? Like, what are we doing here? Yeah. It was a little bizarre. But no, Egypt was- Kind of bragging about how you could drink. Yeah, it was like, what happened here.

It was great. I loved it because you got to travel around the world. Like, so for here, you know, if you're going to, If you're playing football, basketball, baseball, you go to a state tournament, right? For there, if you're playing basketball, you're going to Europe and all the international schools are meeting. So, you know, it was cool. We had the same high school that Steve Kerr actually went to. You know, you got some people who you met along the way, you know,

visiting different countries. So it was a good time. It was good time. So let me ask you this. Do you think the pyramids were made by man or by anyone? I'm going to go. I'm still going to go, man, but I don't get it. I still don't get it.

Yeah, it's pretty insane. It's pretty insane. Yeah. When you see it, you're like, I don't get it. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't done a deep dive enough. Yeah. But just surface level.

I feel like the aliens. There's something. There's something. I don't, I've never claimed to be a smart man. And I'll buy anything and I'm going to buy into the idea that that's extraterrestrial. Yeah. I just think, yeah, it does seem a little too impossible. Seems a little fishy.

So I'm going to go aliens here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. I have no good basis or points on it. That's fair. I love that.

Let's get a couple Joe Rogan pods. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It is the aliens. He's on that one. They're up to something over there.

They know what's going on. Where else is you lived in Egypt? Yeah, so I lived in Jersey, born in Jersey. I lived in Massachusetts for six years, Egypt, and then I've been in Florida for 35, 40 years, but spent a lot of time Florida and North Carolina. So I'm back and forth. How many days are you on the road during the NASCAR season?

Oh, man, I'd say. Too many. Least half to more. Yeah. So I kind of split time between Florida and Charlotte, other offices and then go into the races also so trying to get to as many as I can what um do you have an embarrassing fun fact about you oh yeah embarrassing fun fact about me if you want just to yeah just to break the ice i wet the bed till strongly you know what you know i might have to go with that till to what

what age probably about 14 is when they started it oh man oh hey listen i want to put my boy on blast but i think there was one about a few months ago right we had a little dribble oh yeah that's fair that's fair i did I have peed the bed twice at the age of 36, but new researchers came out. I have a system of my brain that could be playing. It's benign. Nothing scary. No, I'd probably go with that until about, yeah, yeah. I was a little older than I should have been still.

Yeah, I remember. Oh, you were bedwether? Yeah, yeah. How old is that? I haven't really looked back into that, but old enough not to be doing it. Yeah, I remember. Come on, I need an age. You can't just say old enough.

You could say eight or nine. I'm like, all right. We're in different leagues. Yeah, no, I think it was eight or nine. Yeah, yeah, I think it was eight or nine. eight or nine. It was in Massachusetts, so that's when, yeah, yeah. So eight or nine. Did you when you were an adult at all? No, man. Like I might have one a year. No. That reminds me. That doesn't happen, man. I can handle my drinks.

Handle your drinks. I know Doc would say no cool eight after seven and it shook me. When it is the off season, what do you like to do to enjoy yourself? I'm a big traveler, even though I travel all the time. I like family. Like we usually do one big trip trying, you know, a year, see someplace new or go out and just have some fun. So It's become a thing where my kids all look forward to it. Like, hey, we're all going to be together for at least a week or 10 days. So I went to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa. So just kind of checking things out and having some fun along the way.

What's been your favorite? I hear a lot of good things about South Africa. South Africa was awesome. I would say it. Yeah, you got to go. You've got to go if you've never been when the kids are of age. Take them on a safari. It is just the coolest thing going, man.

It's fun. The people are great. And then I would say, I mean, I love Europe. New Zealand is born. I'd live there, man. It's just beautiful, man. Because no one, you got all these cool outdoor places and no one's there. So you can just do whatever you want.

It's great. But it's my favorite's still Ireland. You know, grew up Irish. So still love going to the pub and having a pint and maybe playing a little golf every once in a while. Throw some fists with the boys. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah.

With the locals. Yeah. With the lads. Were you a big McGregor guy? I was. I was. No, up until this past week. So what I loved about McGregor was just what a personality talked.

shit and and his press conferences to me were a must watch right loved loved what he did love the personality he brought and something for us and i don't know how to balance this right but we've looked at you know we're in a dangerous sport right these guys are out there you know three wide 200 miles an hour and it's a balance of family and then racing right and the difference in ufc you know when our kids are when our drivers are going to driver intros you know they're with their kids right and it's hard to kind of show that you know these guys are then going to get in a car and go 200 miles an hour it's like the switch how do they do it right versus McGregor coming in with the music and you know the tattoos you know it's a whole image and so we're trying to steal a little bit from them on how

they do it and in the atmosphere but yeah this last fight that was that was awful man it was not good man yeah it was just hard watching him walk out i was just getting over it didn't look he didn't look yeah it's right he didn't look the same he was uh will was on a family trip in it'll he was all over the world, man. He was traveling everywhere. But the goal was he was going to land in Nashville around six, get on a plane immediately and come to Vegas. Go to the flight. And it just didn't, it ended up just not working out. He wouldn't have made it anyway because you had a delay or something like that. But these fights come up, we're at the early prelims. We're watching all of them go down. And when he started to walk out, the music starts, your, yeah, goose, it's unbelievable. It's racing.

Holloway looks loose and ready to go. And then he comes on the big screen. The crowd erupts. And I get excited. I'm looking at him like, this dude's not mentally here right now. No. I just didn't feel like he was ready to go. I went to the McGregor Diaz fight years ago in Vegas. 2016?

Yeah. I was there. It was the first UFC. Unbelievable atmosphere, right? And just crazy. Yeah. And I was like, how do we repeat that?

Yeah, it was unreal. But yeah, it didn't look like the same guy. Right? Yeah. It's just a bummer. You ever thought about like if there's like five drivers that in this new, this new playoff layout,

five drivers are all close. They could all, they could all. I'm trying to think of the press conference. And you just have a little presser where it's just the individuals, guys who might win it. You just get them on the stage. Get him here. Yep.

And talking about like, yeah, remember with McGregor, who the F is that guy? Yeah. It's one of the greatest lines going, right? So I think that would be cool. And I think we're getting back to that with the drivers. So when you talk about, you know, back in the day, the rivalries, we would do some of those things. We had the at the time, the chase and we had all those guys up there. So I do think that's something we could do.

Yeah. Imagine just him sitting at the podium, taking questions. Yeah. make a line of NASCAR fans, they're able to ask these drivers. Or if they're a little reserved again, we could still say no, but we, we don't have you guys. Have you guys there? Absolutely. Little, little money deal. Little NIA on the show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll tee it up. No, that's fantastic. No, that's fantastic. What did you say about when he said this about you? Yeah, exactly. That's awesome.

I can't, I can't wait for the day. We have hosts of our own. We can just play back all the. Has he not been on you? No. Oh, man. And I'm not taking it personal yet. But it's getting close. I'm getting close to it. Because he's turned us down a couple times, I believe. I think he said not it's not a good time for him guys focused on driving focused on driving still my favorite I seem going to the SPs and S SEPs he's just come to Nashville real quick bigger than the SPs come on yeah this is bigger than the SPs yes absolutely what are we talking as he's pretty morning I just yeah I saw a couple clips and I was like yeah yeah Mitch you got any questions you're you're our NASCAR guy

I don't I don't know necessarily have a question just more of a statement I worked at NASCAR back in 22 and back then it just kind of felt more corporate yep and then this you with like the kind of the the slogan for like hell yeah and like you saying it's like an American like the badass American sport I just and like hearing everything you just said it's like I'm super excited for where the sport's going and obviously it's a lot to do with you so I just want to say I'm super excited and I appreciate that's that's that's good to hear and then that's because I think we got to be proud of who we are right we were trying to be somebody we're not and got us in trouble so I think you know embracing who you got racing you know there's there's going to be some

challenges as we go along, but just, you know, I said this sounds really not, but bringing some fun back. I mean, the garage area during that time, right, was, it was miserable. I mean, people were coming in the garage. Everyone went their own way. And now you're seeing people excited, you know, it's a grind. It's a long season, but I think people are excited, each and every race we go to and just have some fun, man. We're pretty, we're pretty privileged to be able to do what we do. And, you know, if the fans don't see you having fun, why would they want to watch, right? And it's big time sports. I get that. But you got to invite. them in to, you know, have a little relief from what they deal with each and every day.

What was the one or two things that made it so miserable? When you're thinking back at the time and you're like, man, it just felt miserable kind of coming in. I think, you know, we were going through a time when we were chasing a lot. Sponsorship was down. Our ratings weren't doing great. So everybody's kind of pointing fingers. There wasn't a ton of direction. And I think now when you look at the sport, everybody's rallied around.

Like, we have a big opportunity now in the next three to four years to kind of come together. You know, right now I'd say, you know, we're nice to have. sport, you know, when you look at networks and everything, we're not a must have. And, you know, that's the goal. We want to be a must have sport that if you're any one of these networks, any one of these, you know, digital streaming, you better have NASCAR because that's where eyeballs are going to be. And we got to put ourselves in a position to do that. And I think we're on our way. I think people are coming. People are experiencing the sport. So, you know, more of that we can do. We can get away from, you know, where we were in the past and

truly get back to those, you know, when I started, we were literally chasing Indy car. And we said, that if we can just be bigger than any car, this will be unbelievable. You know, now, you know, I want to look at, I want to be the fastest growing sport in the world. And we got some work to do to do that, but we got to rally around that and go. Have you seen this, start to do this a little bit?

Yeah, attendance is up. Braiding's are up, but the biggest thing for us, Taylor, we're seeing is young people. So we used to be, you know, the king of the 55-year-old demo, right? And that's growing. And the young, we were struggling.

And now with Amazon, Fox, everybody we're seeing that younger demo grow which is big for us now we got to keep them though it's it's our job to like all right you know people are coming in sampling it you know don't just go to one race and that was cool you know how do we keep them going and keep them interested and you guys talked about it man more stories more content more stuff that they're involved in that's you know we're just scratching the surface storylines are king man yeah the storylines will play everything you guys haven't you know you guys paying attention to sports huge for us I mean that's you know we appreciate that and uh that's going to help us grow do we appreciate

You appreciate you allowing us into the world. Oh, absolutely, man. I meant it when I said at the beginning of the show, like going to Nashville, we felt, I mean, I felt like royalty. Everyone was like, hey, thank you. I'm thinking of myself, no, no, no, this is, we appreciate you just allowing us to be a part of it. Oh, man. But the access, it all comes back to you. If these fans can just go to a race.

Yes. They will understand what NASCAR is all about because it is, it's badass. Yep. We need to get these pit crew guys. We need to have more cash on them. I agree with that. Yeah. Having some of them as guests.

Those dudes, too, the way they're hanging out, like I've said this so many times. but when we were at the race, a couple guys, they brought me over and, like, showing me the cameras of, like, them literally watching film

every single stop. And how, like, they're joking around and messed in, then as soon as a caution comes up or they're getting ready to do a pit, it's like, they completely go to switch.

And it's like, oh, shit. Yeah, badass. Yep. A couple guys pretty performative. They knew they're being watched a little bit. I like that.

It's awesome. That's good. I'm all about it. I'm all in on it. Yeah, to your point, too, just all the access.

Like, it's not just, like, this VIP experience that's separate from everything else. Because your guys is hosting us was unbelievable. But all the, it felt like everybody's involved in everything that is happening and going on. Yeah, we got to be the easiest sport to want to come and be a part of. And we got to be a sport that it's not something you have to do that you want to do.

So we're getting there. So it's good to hear. This has been awesome. Jack, do you have anything? Anything off top? I have an idea and a question. Okay, Jack, get a mic. Yeah, we need a mic.

Yeah, we've had some good ideas. already. This is good. Shout up, Jack, producer of our show. We got the CEO. Growing the game,

you know, talking about that and getting kids involved more. The idea is like a Hendricks or, you know, every, every team doing like a camp for kids,

you know, grow the game, get the guys out there. And, you know, get it going that way. So, Jack,

that's the idea. Jack, do you have a contract here? Can we? I'm kind of everywhere. All right. All right. Yeah.

Well, I think it's an awesome idea. So one of the things we're looking at, and can I put this out there too. So the team brands, right? The teams don't have, you ask who the Yankees, right? People are like, there's Hendrick Motorsports, there's Joe Gibbs racing, and those

brands aren't big as well. And I think we want to look to grow those also with the drivers so that people know that if a driver comes in for a year and he's gone, you know, what's the culture? What is Hendrick Motorsports all about, right? What do they stand for? What's Roush Racing all about? What do they stand for? So doing a better story, but the camps would be huge.

I think that's a great idea. camps. I mean, in every sport there's camps, you know. Start with go-karts and work your way up. I love it. We got a bunch of good ideas out of this. Good brainstorming. This is good, man. Absolutely. And then the question is, do you always travel with a mariachi band or is that just a thing? I do. So I told Jen, I'm not coming unless I have some intro music. I chose mariachi today. I didn't know it was your birthday, so I apologize.

I did not want to get in front of you, but, you know, I got to have my, you know. It's right. I'll have many days in this life. Yeah, I appreciate you guys letting that happen, too. Yeah, that was just 10 to 10, man. 10 at a 10. In this spot, I feel like, like you can just, Steve can go in and be like, hey, guys, we're just gonna, we're gonna watch this podcast today.

Yeah. And then let me see, let me hear your takeaways. Yeah. Let's see what we got. Is there a board? Is there a board? Is there a board? Just a bunch of old salty white guys?

No, it's the owner. So yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was just kidding. No, that's all right. Oh, no, they're going to hear the part of like cap and everything else. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You just, you don't want a cap. you start funding these kids the youth to get into your brand up yeah yeah yeah let's turn your brand into a billion dollar company and then everything goes yeah yeah they're gonna get your agency good ideas good ideas good good men so yeah we'll invoice you for the ideas thank you i appreciate and thanks again for the time guys yeah thank you let's give you round applause man how incredible time thank you great to have you on race with the boys and make fun

at priests when he comes up here we'll do we will we'll do we will we'll do NASCAR is all happy that baseball did not work out so that way you could be in this seat. That's fantastic. Thanks, man. Thanks, both. Thank you for watching, race with the voice.

Please subscribe, leave a comment. Big hugs. Tiny kisses. Love it. Dude, that was awesome. You were. Thank you. Yeah.

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. Fanduel.com. Gambling problem. call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-789-777-7 or visit ccpg.org

slash chat in Connecticut. Hope is here. Gambling helpline, MA.org, or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Visit www.md.mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Call 1-8-Hop-N-Y or text Hope N.N.Y. 467369 in New York. It just came out. Jeremy, what did you just do?

you just sit yourself up for failure. I've never heard you tell this story. I've never told this story. This must have been tucked deep, deep in the Jeremy Lynn file. My name is MC Jin. I'm excited to tell you about laugh but not least. I'll be chatting with guests from all walks of life about the power of humor when it comes to facing difficult times.

These will be conversations that remind us all, life is hard, laugh harder. Listen to laugh but not least with MCJN on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Emily Astor. I'm an economist and data expert. And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor. And this is our new podcast, Wellness Actually.

You're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information, and some of it is awesome. And some of it is, well, actually, bullshit. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore. Listen to Wellness Actually on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone? Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human.

Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green. We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast.

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. When teenager Joy Morgan discovered the religious group Israel United in Christ, she believed she'd found the truth. Many believe she found a cult. Then she disappeared. The new podcast The Missing Sister explores her story, the family she left, and the religious group she found. You know when you get that feeling, I'm like, I don't want to be here. I want to get out.

I want to go ahead now. All episodes available now to Bench. Listen to The Missing Sister on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. podcasts.