Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Ryan Blaney Interview

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

In Episode 48 of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Kaitlyn Vincie and Mamba Smith sit down with NASCAR star Ryan Blaney for an insightful and dynamic conversation. Ryan dives into the controversy surrounding Austin Dillon’s recent win at Richmond, sharing his perspective on the race. He also reflects on the incredible support he received from his family and fans in Iowa following his own major victory. Ryan offers a closer look at the special relationship he has with his Crew Chief, Jonathan Hassler, and shares the excitement of planning his upcoming wedding. This episode is packed with exclusive insights, passionate discussions about racing, and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of NASCAR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're in a desperate situation, but to me that was kind of overkill. Like that's, where do we get into as a sport of where that's open? Yeah, we're all four hard racing. It's been a contact sport for a long time. But I feel like that was just kind of a step over. Like that was just too excessive, too much. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. I'm Caitlin Vinsky.

He's Momba Smith. And we got Ryan Blaney with us today, the reigning champion in the Cup series in the house here on the Happy Hour set. It's great to have you. I'm so glad he made time for us. Oh, I'm excited to be here. Yeah. I'm sitting in Kevin's chair. It feels great.

Big shoes to fill over here. I know. I almost didn't want to sit in it. No. And I noticed on the, you know, watching this entrance and, you know, the introduction. The introduction. You know, it's just Kevin. Like, where are y'all's promos?

Oh. Graphics. Like, that's a good point. We've never actually thought about that. Yeah. You know, you know why I love our bees. Because, yeah, B, this is the same thing when, you know, when we weren't putting him on the promos.

Oh, shit, that's right. He was like, hey, I was like, damn, he's right. We need to get Ryan on the promo. It's Kevin Harvick's happy hour, but y'all are a big part of it. You need to have some superhero cutaway shot to y'all. I agree. I mean, I already look like a superhero right now, so. Yeah, so we always go through the fits here on the show,

and you obviously have a nice one today. I like the shoes, Ryan. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I figured I'd break the boots out today. There you go. I was clearing some limbs that were down this morning. Okay, doing a little work. The little hurricane.

storm that we had. I had some down stuff. But yeah, and it came right over. I promise that chair has never seen boots. No. Kevin doesn't know him.

Maybe when he gets back from his vacation, he's in Jackson Hole right now. Kevin is. That's why he's not with us right now. Slum in it. Maybe he'll have boots on though when he gets back from there. I doubt it, but he should.

He should. Get him a nice pair out there. They sell a lot of boots out there. Yeah, probably do. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's a big time broadcaster now. Big timer.

He can get some Lucchasees or something. Yeah. We miss them, though. We hope he's having a good time out there. He's fine. He's fine. Big weekend out there in Richmond. Man, there's just nothing to talk about after that.

Yeah, not a lot of talking about. As soon as that happened last night, like, one of my first thoughts was like, man, I got this podcast Monday. We're probably going to be a lot to talk about. It wasn't a boring Richmond race. It was pretty exciting with the tires. And obviously, the finish was insanely wild. and a lot of controversy around it, obviously, from multiple angles and whoever you are, either you're happy or you're really mad.

So, but yeah, it was a good night. Weather was awesome out there, which is always a pleasure. No rain. And Richmond, yeah, it was great. And so, yeah, it was definitely an entertaining night for some people. You mentioned the tires. That's really what I wanted to ask you about. Because it seemed like, like for Suarez and for McDowell, it looked like they had the golden

mushroom from Mario Kart. Yeah. Golden mushroom. And just going through the field. when you got those tires, because you kind of did the same thing, a couple points in the race. Did it feel as much as it looked? Like, was the difference that vast? Yeah, you know, I think that was a big conversation piece of how our team's going to strategize with it.

You know, are you kind of maybe towards the back? You're going to throw your reds on early in the race and try to get your track position and kind of reset yourself and try to save a set for the end. You know, like you said, you saw Suarez, you saw McDow do it and it got them the track position that they needed. and we did it. I think most of the field kind of put them on in stage three, the start of stage three, and we did that, and then we threw our reds on the last green flag run of the race.

And I was surprised more guys didn't do that. I think they pitted with like 60 to go. We ran long, threw them on with like 45 to go, and drove back up to the field into the top 10. And I didn't have reds for the last restart and cost us a couple spots, but I thought that was the right place. So it was interesting to see kind of how all that played out. I thought the delta between the reds and the yellows was pretty significant.

Like the reds would haul ass for a little bit. I don't know if I can say that on here. No, you're good. You can haul ass. They could go really well. I guess we'll say that for a while. But then they'd kind of fall off a cliff and the yellows would kind of come back a little bit. So if you had a long run, it kind of stabilized.

So I thought it was a win for sure. I felt like when we tried it at Wilkesboro, it wasn't what we thought it was going to be. But I figured going to Richmond more falloff, like you're going to get that discrepancy and tire fall off and like the positives and negatives to it. So hopefully that kind of leads into maybe playing around with it more in the future at certain tracks. So the tire is obviously a big conversation point. The other one you referenced it, the finish. So fair or foul on what we saw here with Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Joey Legano. You know, this format lends itself to these type of scenarios where you're going all out to try and get a win doing whatever it takes.

Do you agree with what transpired, huh? Yeah, you know, I feel like it's like, on that side of it, yes. Like, you got to do whatever it takes to win. He's obviously way outside the playoff bubble. He needed to win, the three car. And getting into the 22 and ended up spinning him out from way back. You know, it wasn't like he was a car length back of him into three. He was five back.

And I don't know if he ever touched the brake pedal to get to the 22. He missed it so bad that the 11 was going to pass. Right. And then he gets, he kind of hooks the 11, you know, so. I feel like that was another step further in the controversy of, okay, yeah, you spun the leader out from pretty far back. And then you kind of double down and then hook a guy to win. And, yeah, I mean, you're in a desperate situation. But to me, that was kind of overkill.

Like, that's where do we get into as a sport of where that's open? Yeah, we're all for hard racing. It's been a contact sport for a long time. But I feel like that was just kind of a step over. Like that was just too excessive, too much, you know, to really be, like, psyched up about. Yeah. You know, like, that's maybe not right the right way to do it. But I don't know.

I'm not in his shoes, right? Would you do that, though? No. Okay. No. I would never do that, like intentionally. Like, yeah. All right, you get into a guy, maybe you don't mean to spin him out.

But, you know, but then you hook a guy again, another guy that because you missed the corner so back to get to a guy. So I would like to say I wouldn't do something like that. I mean, you got beat on the restart, you know, I mean, fair and square. Yeah, you were going to win the race before the last caution, but this is motorsports and unproductive things happen. And you have to, you know, kind of go with what's given to you. And he got beat, you know, he got Joey drove around him on the top right away and got

away from him. And, you know, you had your chance to win at fair and square there on the restart. You know, you run maybe, you know, if you run Joey up and one and two on the restart, that's one thing, right? You kind of bang doors, whatever, go on your way. But then I feel like that was just kind of a step further. Yeah, in for a penny, and for a pound is what the three... Oh, for sure.

He was in for multiple pounds. Yeah, Tim Dugger, our buddy Tim made a tweet. Musician. It was great. Tim had a tweet said, everybody has a bucket of fuck it. And the three dumped it out. It's empty now.

Yeah, it's empty now. And like... Actually, sounds like a good song. He might be... He might be a... Drop that out of a lyric. That shouldn't be a good song. I don't know.

I think for them, for the three, and that group has been such a terrible year. Yeah. And it's been a really pretty hard, like, couple years. So I think he was just like, we did everything we were supposed to do to win. And they were in contention up front the whole race. I will give them that. It's one of the best weekends they've had all year. He went up and passed the 22.

He passed the 11. You know, he did everything right up into that point. And, you know, yeah, I mean, like he said, right, he's had a rough year, right? It hasn't gone their way. They've struggled a little bit. And this is your night, right? you have opportunity to win and lock yourself into the playoffs. But like I said, you had your shot on the restart and you lost it.

Should have used them up on the restart. Yeah, if you're going to use somebody up, use them up on the restart, but just kind of over excessive there. So how do you see this going for him in the playoffs? Because we know drivers don't shy away from serving it back. It's going to be rough. Be rough, he says. You know, he only doesn't have to watch out for one guy.

You got to watch out for two guys, you know, now that you wrecked. Not afraid. Yeah. Not afraid to use you up, you know, when it comes down to it. And, you know, I, and also, I honestly don't feel like it's even those two guys he has to be kind of looking at. I think a lot of other drivers in the field are they're not going to look too kindly on that. You know, they're not going to cut you any brakes. You know, they're going to run you pretty hard.

And, but he's in, you know, I mean, he's in. And, you know, but it's going to be tough when he get to the playoffs for sure. You're not going to get anything. It's going to be interesting, to say the least, for the three. Hey, I'll watch it. I'm not part of it, but I'll watch it. Yeah, we're here for it. We're here, too, for the season you've had so far.

It's been a great year for you and your team. Already two wins on the year. I want to go back to the Iowa win for a moment because I feel like this one was very significant for a lot of reasons. When you think back on it, having all your family there, first driver to win in all three series at the track, which I said that to him like an hour beforehand. I was like, have you considered this? And you're kind of, oh, you know, that's the...

I'm not going to think about that kind of attitude. But hey, it happened. I was thinking about it. I just told you I won. No, yeah, we've had a really good year. You know, I'm really, really proud of the effort we've put in, honestly, the last two months. Like, we've just really turned it on and the speed we've had has been fantastic. And, you know, I feel like we haven't really deserved to finish outside the top 10 in, like, the last two months, you know, besides of getting spawned at, like, getting wrecked at Darlington and getting spawn at New Haven.

Hampshire at the end of the race running second. And, you know, I feel like we've, we've had a great, great kind of last two months and really proud of the effort. And you just try to keep that up, right? Like, you know, we caught fire last year at the right time in the playoffs. And I feel like we're in even a better spot. You just hope to continue that, right? Continue learning and continue to improve and have good momentum going in, going into the

playoffs. And even if you don't, you know, you just got to be able to kind of flip the switch on and be able to find things at the right time. but I'm proud of the effort that we've put forward. I feel like our whole group, like all the team Penske's been running really well. You know, Austin went in, Joey went in Nashville, Joey winning the All-Star Race. Joey having a great shot to win last night. Like, we've just performed really well as a team.

And that's the product of a lot of people working hard. You know, it's not just, you know, also on the racetrack. It's everybody back who doesn't travel, you know, who are working their tails off to get better forward and Rouse Yates and everybody and definitely something to be proud of. Hopefully we can keep it up. I asked you about Iowa, though. didn't answer that. Oh, yeah, sorry. No, Iowa was really special. You know, I had a ton of family

in the area. My mom grew up in Sheraton, so just outside of Des Moines. So I had like 70, 80 people there. And we got a lot of them to Victory Lane, which was cool. And some of my family members or cousins or, you know, distant relatives, I've never met before, you know, so they, I was cool to like, Hey, nice to meet you. Welcome to Victory Lane. Welcome to my life. You're the coolest family member. Yeah, so I definitely met a lot. And to have my mom and dad and uncle there too, on top of that family was great. Father's Day weekend was neat as well. So, yeah, that was a big one for us and to win there in all three series. Like I got my first truck win there in 2012, so like 12 years ago, just crazy. But now it was a special night. And then to go to Pocono,

you know, a month or so later and do it again was good. So hopefully we can keep it up, like I said. It was, I think we lived together at 2020 and 21. Yeah. And it was at the end of, it was at the end of, I think it was at the end of 20. We were talking about the season because he had, you got out a good run. But like, I just, we were just talking around the kitchen having a couple of drinks. I was like, man, like, what do you need to do to make this next step?

Like, where is it? And you're pretty candid. You're like, well, there's some things that I could do better here, here and here. And there's some things the team could do better here here. and here. And then the next year, it looked like you made that jump into 21. Yeah. And I think you had like three wins that year.

He was like, okay, this might be it. And it wasn't quite it. Yeah. And then 22 is like, oh, this is it. And then it just fell apart right at the end. And then 23. So like putting all that together from that conversation to now you're the reigning champ. What's that been like?

Well, it's been a fun journey. You know, I feel like I've always tried to set a precedent like to myself and everybody that we work with on my group, like, just improve every year, right? Like, hone your skills every year. You want, every year you want to get better, right? You have more experience each year. You go through this, learn from those, continue to get better. And really all I ask of anybody and myself, like, did you give 100% of your effort on the weekend? You know, through the week, your prep work. And that's all you can ask for. If it works out, it works out. If not, you know, you did your best that you can. And I feel like when this group, like I've had a great group around me, it's been pretty much

the same group since 22. A lot of the same people, even in 21, and then when Todd retired and Jonathan came in, there was a couple new people that came in, but, you know, it's been fun to kind of build it up with them. Like, you know, we can do it. We can do it. We're getting better. We're getting closer.

And then finally doing it has been, you know, pretty neat. So I'm just proud of the whole effort of everybody. And I feel like, you know, once we won the championship last year, like just the confidence level and everybody picks up. Like, man, we've done this before. We know how to do it. you know, how did we continue to evolve ourselves even to getting better, you know? And people say, oh, just do the same thing you did last year. I'm like, well, no, things change. You have to

constantly improve yourself and things like that. And I think we've done that. And it's about fast cars and execution. And we've had both those things and hopefully we can continue to have both those things. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you've been a great champion of the sport, I might add. You referenced your crew chief, Jonathan Hassler. That relationship seems very solid. Like, what has he brought to your life to your career? Yeah, Jonathan's great. You know, and in 21, when Todd told me he was retiring, it was like, all right, well, it kind of stunk at the time because I'm like, man, you know, Jonathan and I are just a year and a half in and we're kind of really starting to mesh. And it was weird because we started together in COVID. Like we had a month and then COVID hit.

And then it's like, all right, well, that kind of really hurts you of just getting to know each other and like working through these practices and things like that. And it took us a little bit to kind of get going. And then 21, we really got rolling. And then it's like, all right, I'm retiring. You know, I'm getting out of it. It's like, okay, well, who's my next guy? You know, and Penske gave me a lot of kind of a leash to let me pick out my next guy. And I knew Jonathan, he was at Penske for a long time.

He was an engineer and he crew chief of 21 car, the second half of 2021. And I thought he did a great job. And he and I just went to dinner one night and had some drinks and I just liked who he was as a person. I knew who was a smart guy and just his demeanor about everything is great. Yeah. You know, he works. And his work ethic is second to none.

And he and I just get along, you know, click. And that stuff just gets better through the years. So I definitely think we still have our best years in front of us yet. So I'm looking forward to continuing that. But he's awesome. I couldn't imagine being with somebody else and happy that it worked out that we could work together. Someone who's kind of behind the scenes there, too, at Team Penske is Jefferson Hodges. Yeah.

Jefferson is a part of every single car on the NASCAR side that Penske puts out. And you see him in Victory Lane. and you see him on the pit, but you see him helping everywhere, having a do-it-all guy that can fill that role for the team. How important is that? Because not everyone has that, but they do, and it might not be someone at his level. Yeah, you know, I feel like there's a couple guys in our group that, you know,

are kind of that role, you know, Jefferson and Travis Geisler, who are a huge key parts of us, you know, through the week, getting things done behind the scenes and then even at track two. You know, they travel to every race. And, you know, without those two guys, I don't know where we'd be. You know, it's just, it's little roles like that. Not little. You know, they have massive roles in our company and our success in the sport.

But kind of behind the scenes, guys who aren't, you know, a part of one singular team, you're right? They oversee kind of all three or four cars of ours. And, you know, they don't maybe get the recognition that, like, a crew chief for driver or crew members get. But they are a huge part of how everything ticks and works. And I feel like without those two guys, like, it'd be anarchy over there. You have to have a couple people like that to really, you know, kind of steady the ship and get you all on the same path. And but also be open to if you want to try new things. And those guys have been awesome to do.

Travis has been there ever since I got there. Jefferson, you know, has been there for the last handful of years. And those guys are fantastic at what they do. And, you know, they definitely, they don't want the spotlight because those guys just aren't what they are. But they deserve it because they make a lot of things possible. Takes a village, as they say, to make these race teams successful. You know what I love about this is I was sitting here thinking about it. It reminds me when we did the NASCAR next reunion.

That's right. Only it's like a mini reunion, you know. You two were drinking. I was not. Yeah, Caitlin, as always, was directing the ship and we were not. Doing my best. Yeah, that was funny. Talking about those memories of when you guys were coming along.

Yeah. Young cats. Caitlin in that interview. Yeah, it was a lot to manage. A lot of big personalities on that. Yeah, I mean, and we were kind of, so that's kind of how, when they asked us who we wanted to have on, I'm like, oh, let's get RBA on and kind of talk about it. I enjoy the show. I enjoy listening.

I've been fortunate to be on it a couple times via kind of Zoom. As a winner. I'd be sitting here. It's nice. It's nice. It's nice. Yeah. Just get nice chairs.

Can come on anytime. I know why the camera likes to the chair. So everything in the racing world is going well. I want to talk about some of the things that you do outside of the track. And I want to go back to the S-Bs where you once again saw Daisy Ridley. Yeah. From the Star Wars franchise, obviously. Ray.

If you did. Ray, yeah, right. So you met her seven years ago? Seven years ago. But now, once again, how was the second interaction? Were you nervous or are you just rolling with it? Like, you're a champion now. I met her in the spring of 2017.

You're a big deal. Yeah, I made her in the spring of 2017 in the walkout tunnel at a Lakers game. I remember it like it was yesterday. The Force Awakens just came out. Yeah. The first movie they made in a while, and she's the star of it. And I was like, oh, my God. And she was very nice.

And then, yeah, she was at the Espies. I think she presented an award, so she was there. And I met her backstage for a little bit. And it was like the same interaction. I was like, I kind of feel bad. Like, I don't like to butt into people's conversations, especially if I don't know you and you don't know who the hell I am by any stress of the imagination. I bet you remember.

No, yeah, no. So, yeah, it was nice. We just took a picture again, and I said, thank you very much. And that was we went our separate ways. I haven't said one word to her besides, can I take a picture? It's nice to meet you, I'm a big fan. At least she's nice. I love when you hear those stories of celebrities being polite and gracious.

Yeah, I mean, she might have hated every second one. I don't know. But she was very nice enough to take a picture. And, yeah, it was just funny, like seven years later. And things have definitely changed since then. Yeah. I have a fiancee now. I approach it a little bit differently.

Yeah. Seven years ago, I was like, oh, my God, let's go get my wife one day. And now it's like, oh, I'm just a fan. Can you get an autograph for the picture? Yeah. But the ESPs was a fun experience, you know, the kind of overall, I was lucky enough to be kind of up for an award. I knew I wasn't going to win it. But it was cool to kind of be around all different athletes that you enjoy, coaches that, you know, you enjoy watching.

And I thought that was Prince Harry was there, which was crazy. He gave a heck of a speech with the. with some foundation work he does and for veterans. But yeah, I think my favorite part of the SBs was besides meeting Daisy Ridley again was Nick Saban and Don Stanley, the coach of the women's South Carolina team. Their speeches were incredible. Like just I love listening to coaches because, especially like a college level coach, because you're molding, you know, young people to do the next step in professional sports.

and just kind of hearing how they approach things and their mindsets was really cool to kind of hear their different analogies of kind of how they, you know, like to coach up their players and the kids that play for them. So that was a, that was a neat experience just because it's a long production. Is it? It's a long night.

You guys looked sharp, you and your fiancee. Yeah. Cleaned up well. That was fun. Yeah. It was a long trip to L.A. for that. Did you pick out your outfit or did you? No, I was like I'm wearing this suit.

Yeah. You have good fashion style? Like you know. You know, like, a lot of these drivers have to get dressed. Some dress them. I feel like, I mean, she's a great help in like, yeah, that looks good or no, don't wear that. Yes. So that part's nice to have that, like, background because what I think looks good might not look good to other people.

But I'd always try to, like, dress like, I think this look good. I'm going to wear it. I don't care. But stuff like that, she's very good at, you should wear this. Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay, take your word for it. I trust you.

Has she gotten her wedding dress yet? Do you know? Yeah, she has. It's already, oh, there you go. So, yeah, let's piece of that. So I just was at Redick's wedding in Wisconsin over the break and then went to Swar's wedding in Brazil. So I have a good, those are very vastly different places, you know, and then yours is going to be in, we're going. I'm in Colorado.

Yeah, in Colorado. It's going to in the wintertime. So I'll be, I've never done a real winter area. So how excited are you about that? Because I'm pretty stuck. No, I'm pumped. It's been fun to kind of plan it. There's a lot that goes into wedding planning.

Yes, there is. It's wild. but it kind of has its like peaks and valleys. Like, you know, it'll get busy for a little while, you know, like a week. And then, okay, it'll kind of numb down for a little bit, you know, and okay. And then it comes back up again. So, but it's been fun. Like, it's been fun like planning, we want this and this and this and this and kind of going through like,

well, we can kind of back off on this to get more of this, you know. So it's been, it's been neat to, you know, kind of go through that process with her. And I've come up with a pretty good strategy of, I've just let her try to be hands on with it. Hey, you and I are going to be there. Our friends and family are going to be there. That's all I want. That's all I need. As long as we have fun, whatever you want to do.

But she'll come up to me with these questions like, what do you think about this? And I'll just flip it. I'll be like, well, what do you think? And she tells me what she thinks. I'm like, yeah, that's perfect for me. You do have two requests, though, the cowboy hat maker and the in-person cigar roller.

Yeah, those are my two things. I was like, I want these things. That's so cool. Great ideas. Yeah, being in Colorado, I was like, well, we've got to have a custom hat maker out there. You'll come home with a custom hat. Yeah, when I was in Nashville, I got a custom hat.

That thing was sharp. He wore it on the show. You'll have to wear this one on the show. Oh, yeah, I'll come back on. The Ryan Blaney wedding hat. Yeah, that one, and then the cigar roller. I was like, that'd be cool to have. Cigar roller is always like a little old lady, like rolling cigars.

Yeah, I'm here for that. That sounds like it'll be quite the wedding. Yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be fun. It's coming up like quickly. It's coming up very quickly. It'll be here before you know it. But, yeah, we're pumped.

It's going to be fun. And I'm just, I'm at that point now, you know, we're three, four months away. like, I just want it to be here. Yeah. I just want to get out there, have our week, have our week with our friends and family, and just go through it. And everyone tells me, like, the night goes by super quick. Yeah.

You know, all this prep work for years or a year, and boom, it's over in a night, you know, in a handful of hours. So just try to, like, really appreciate it and have fun with it. So would you guys end up doing on the break? I mean, we saw some of the photos. Obviously, you were somewhere tropical-ish. Yeah, we went down to St. Martin. Since Martine, depends what side you're on.

It's a French side on the north and much on the south. But yeah, we loved it. It was my first time there. It was both of our first times there and went down with another couple. And we had a ball. I loved that island. People there were great. Very hospitable.

Beaches were beautiful. There's a lot of different islands you can just like hop to, you know, fairies and stuff. And so, yeah, we had a blast there. And then the second week, we just stayed home. Like, it was awesome. So when I went to do research for this interview, I always go to the news items that come up. And the first thing that came up when I googled you was Gianna's bathing suit pictures made some, like, news item. It was like, Ryan Blaney's fiance's stunts and bathing suit.

I'm like, well, there you go, man. That's how you know you made it. That's how you know. Yeah, exactly. When your significant other is in the tabloid. It's in the news. So, yeah. Perfect with me.

That's great. Yeah, that part's good. Yeah, you won't see me? No. Ryan Lady stunts in Speedo. Did you bust out the classic dance move from when you were on vacation with Hemrick? I didn't bust that one out. No, you didn't bust that one out?

No. I don't have the hips for that anymore. Are you good dancer? I'm getting older. No, there's this video that goes around. We were in, uh, we were in Turks and Kekos with like Hemricks and Bubba and his family or his, uh, and Amanda. Oh, my gosh, we had a ball and yeah, I was, you know, I was feeling the music. But I get older now.

I just, I can't move like that. You don't have the rhythm you're saying or you just don't, it's just your hips you're saying. Bones are brittle now. I don't know. He's like Forrest Gump. I start moving my hit. Yeah. I'm like the opposite of Forrest Gump.

I got leg braces. I'm just digressing. We're going to have to use, we haven't taken our annual cookies and cream, uh, picture. So we have to do it at the wedding. What's that? I know. I don't know. Like one.

What's a cooking and cream picture? Yeah. So we're at Ricky Stenhouse's house at the pool one after. noon. It was like, I don't know, like 19 or something. And someone took a picture of me, Bubba, and Ryan. And like, we were just laughing, having a good time. Well, then the next year on the boat, like, it just, by the time you knew it, it was like five years in, we had taken a picture together off doing something together fun. And so now it's like annual. But what's the cookies and cream? Oreo, cookies and cream. That's our group. That's our group.

Oh, okay. So yeah, I was not understanding that portion. The Oreo. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. I'm in the middle. Yeah. If you look at the pictures, Ryan's always in the middle. Me and Bobba at the pictures. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Don't worry. We'll get you there. I'm getting there. I'm catching up. You referenced, though, earlier the fact that you guys lived together. So what was he like as a roommate? Was he a total pain? Or was he...

No, we... He's a good roommate? We lived together in multiple places. We had that apartment in Charlotte. Two and a quarter because you had the old house. You had the old house, too. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I forgot about that. No, it was good. It was always like... Is he clean? Pay the bills on time? Fairly. Fairly clean. Fairly clean. I will say. I thought it was just fun. You know, you always come home and your buddy's there and you just kind of hang out. I remember one year we... At my current house and like I wrecked out of the 500 early. Oh, yeah. It was like 21. Yep. Yeah, 21. And then it rained delayed. So I was home before like it restarted. So we watched like two thirds of the rest of that race on the couch, drinking. That's nice. And, like, it was a weird experience for me. Like, you're home watching the rest of the race.

But it was, like, I had a lot of fun. Yeah. Like, it was a blast. Like, like, so, and luckily, because normally, you know, the team planes, you need at least, like, two teams. Yeah, it's a wreck. If another one of his teammates went out, then they probably would have been sitting there. Lucky enough, a lot of the cars got wrecked and there was a big rag.

A plane I could catch to get out of there and get home. So he comes back and he's just like, I'm like, hey, man, you feel always like, yeah, get on the couch. we're just like, just like washing it. And I'm like, I would love to hear that commentary that was going down.

It was, it was the year that, um, Brad and Joey wrecked one, run a one two. Oh, wow. And it was like,

oh, no. I'm sitting there like, oh. I wasn't there. I'm not part of this. The best part about, the best part about this house,

right, is so the, I don't know, the family had like, they were like dog, I don't know, there weren't doggy doors, but they're like,

kid, little kid doors that went from... Kid doors. Yeah, so at this house, above the garage, there's a full-blown apartment. So that's where I lived. So if I didn't want to see me,

he didn't have to. So you had your own space. Yeah. But he would come through the guest bedroom and there's a little door that was right next to the TV. A little half door. The door would open and he go,

hey, you know, like, yeah, let's go. That's awesome. It's straight out of, like, Amityville horror. Like, no little rooms and doors that they had. I'm like,

creepy, right? Under the stairs. A scary movie. like a James Juan movie. It was good times. But like when he won, I'd be happy as hell. I'd be,

because it's before I was on the road or anything. So I'd be going to go on the car, getting beer, getting beer, getting, it was like everyone would come over. I never had to worry about it being stocked. Right. He had your back on that. After a win or after a bad day, it was always stocked.

Yeah. That's a good roommate right there. It was. Who of the drivers would make the best and worst roommate? Oh, man. Worst roommate. We can start with worse. That's probably easier.

roommate. I don't know. Who would you never want to live with? Are you moving into their house? Are they moving into yours? Moving into yours. Okay. Because I would move into Denny's because his house is super nice with the basketball

corner. Oh, I definitely move into Danes. Yeah. Okay. Would he be a good roommate? I think so. Okay. His house is so big that you'd probably never see him.

Never seen him. He's on end. That's right. You could just find in separate wings of his house. Separate wings. Okay. Yeah, well, I would move into Denny's house. House is sick.

Yeah, for sure. Like, yeah, I feel like you'd want like a big house if you're moving into somebody's house. Like, you won't want to live in like an apartment because then you're on top of each other all the time, unless you really like the person. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know, like a worst roommate. I don't know. Like, I wouldn't want, like, I feel like when you're younger, roommates are cool. Yeah.

You know, you're like, oh, yeah, roommates, bro. We're, you know, hanging out. As you get older, you're like, I just want to be alone. I want to be alone. I like my own space. So, yeah, I don't really know. I feel like roommates with your buddy is fun, right? Like, it would still be good as opposed to someone you don't maybe admire too much.

Yeah. You got one? Huh? Who I wouldn't want to be roommates with? I think probably the younger, even though I like going out, still like the younger guys because they're out differently. They're out different. Like, I don't need to be, I don't need like a rotating door, you know,

on my hinges where like random people are coming through all the time. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that balance and we're on the same mindset as your roommate. That's important. We had a good situation. Yeah. It sounds like it.

Yeah, no. It sucked because COVID happened. And then like we couldn't use all the amenities. Like there's a rooftop pool and all this stuff. But like overall, like we had a good time. Good memories. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So how do you balance everything? So we're talking about all the things in your racing career and then your personal life. It is a lot. I mean, and you're the reigning champion. I feel like there's just a lot on. your shoulders and responsibilities to the sport. Do you ever find that to be difficult trying to all of it? Or are you just used to it now? Yeah, I think you get used to it like over time.

I mean, I feel like it was people ask like, oh, do you get asked to do way more stuff because you're the champ, you know? And it's like, yeah, a little bit, but it's not like overload. And I, you probably like it. I mean, it's nice to be the champ. I try to put it in my mind like, hey, you're pretty fortunate to be in this position. So, and get asked to do these opportunities. So, you know, go do this stuff, you don't want to enjoy every second of it. And I feel like that's like a good mindset to have that I've tried to just beat into my head. It's like, you know, hey, it's better than has to be doing nothing. You know, as much as I like being home and I like being around, you know, my house and my dogs and Gianna, you know, it's go do this stuff. You're still

going to be home, you know, but, no, I feel like it's, I've always tried to do a good job of separating the two, like my work life, my personal life, my other responsibilities. Like, trying to turn off work for a little bit, you know, whether it's once a week or whatever, I think that's important. Like, I don't think you can, I think it's unhealthy to like be so encapsulated in what you do 24-7, you can go insane. You're going to go nuts. So it's like, how do you just at least have one day a week to where you can just step away,

not worry about any of that stuff? And then once you get at the race act, turns back on. You know, so it's how to you kind of balance that out. And I feel like I've done it for long enough to where you can do that. We've tried to, for like driver intros, we've tried to emphasize the champions because I feel like too often you win the championship and then it's like you celebrate for like two months and you're back into it. It doesn't feel like you're the champion, even though you're the reigning champ. So this year, this year we've changed. Yeah.

Have you liked that? So if you haven't been to a race yet or seen it, we play the champ is here for RB and like we kind of like set the tone for his walkout. It's a little longer. It's a little dramatic, a little cinematic. You're good with that. Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. And I know it's coming every week now.

It's great. I like how we've just kept going on until someone else wins a championship. Keep at it. Yeah. And then the next person, they can have that too. Yeah. I think that's nice. Yeah.

Could be you again. I hope so. Seems like you're poised for such. We'll see. Keep at it. If you do, we can keep the handshake. Because right now that one's... You have a handshake, special ones?

Yeah, we have a good handshake when he comes across the state. Did you, like, predetermine that? Did you like predetermine that or did you just say, hey, here's what it's going to be. We figured out a media day. Okay. About that time. I kind of wish I could see it. I mean, it's pretty simple.

Yeah, it's pretty simple. It's just a little belt. Oh, what's the belt mean? The championship belt. It's just like the champ belt. Okay. So who came up with this? I did.

You did? It was not a collaboration. I mean, you're like, hey, here's what we're going to do. Yeah, I'm the creator. I infused something that I thought that he would think would be cool. Yeah. Oh. It's quick and easy.

You know, speaking on the championship stuff, like, then trying to win it again, I really want to do that because, like, you know, you win it for your first time, everything goes by really quick. Yeah. You know, and like you're trying to take everything in. I feel like if you can, if you get the privilege to win it again, you get to like, you'll really slow everything down,

like, and appreciate other things that you didn't get to maybe appreciate the first time you did it because everything is just coming thousand miles an hour. Yeah. You know, so I think I really want to do it for that side. of like, I've done this before. Now I'm going to kind of pay attention to different things, you know, especially that night. Like, my gosh, you're there. There's a track for four hours after the race, five hours.

And just it felt like 30 minutes. Hard to soak it in, yeah. Yeah, it's like, yes, you have no time to soak it in. They're pulling you every way. And I feel like if you get to do it again, it'd be really cool to just be able to, you know, take a little bit of a step back. And you know, you know what to expect a little bit more. And then you're going to experience some different things, different emotions and stuff.

I wanted to, that I didn't want to forget this. almost did. So before you won the championship, the media was they were high on you, right, as a personality, but they weren't high on you as the driver in the winner.

Yeah. Right? And they're like, maybe he's just, I remember, maybe it was Kyle Petty. Someone was like, it's going to be like Casey Kane. And you're like, it's actually not a bad comparison. Like Casey Kate won like a lot of races. Crown Jewel races. Yeah. But like they were kind of dogged you. and, you know, obviously we're boys.

So I took a stance. I'm like, no, he's going to get it done. He's going to get it done. Yeah, I never dogged you either for the record. And when you finally got it done, like the way, like, I know for you just as buddies, like I know that that was like, everyone can just kind of shut it. It's very validating for anybody, right, to win. Yeah.

It shuts everybody up. It's great to do it like that, you know. And I feel like my career has kind of been like that. Like, you know, I go back and watch old races and stuff. Yeah. And like when I was coming up through trucks and Xfinity, like, they never, like, showed me on TV and stuff or talked to me. And, like, never did any of that.

That's not entirely true. I don't know. Like the coverage that some young guys get now. And the coverage maybe is better. But I'm like, damn, I never got any of that. Like, no hype, no nothing. And, hey, I'm not saying I deserved any hype. I was just a young, dumb kid trying to do it.

And, but, like, it's nice to kind of validate, like, yeah, Mephyrs, I'm here. Like, that part's good. And the best part, the best one, was when we won Martinsville. I forget who asked this in the media center. They were like, it seems like you found Jimmy Johnson's lucky horseshoe, you know, and you've been really lucky up to this point. And, oh, that ticked me off so much.

It's like, what's been lucky about our performance? Like, we've been dominating the last five weeks. And it was nice to just kind of, like, just show everybody like, man, we're for real. And nice to do it again. And if it wasn't for a snafu, I think it was, what, Vegas. In 22? In 22. Oh, yeah, I wrecked at Vegas.

And I messed up at Homestead. And then the Homestead. that deal, you're in the final four just off of points that year. And then you went like... Yeah. You're here. You're here to stay. And we appreciate you being here

on the show. This has been so fun. Thanks for coming in. This has been a dream come true of mine. There you go. When do I get to stop calling you Y or B? Like how long? Because you're like like, are we still young? He's still young. Are we just... Young enough, hopefully? YRB. Yeah. I like that. Like 40, 45. Then we'll transition it.

All right. Thanks again for being here. We appreciate it. And we encourage the closers to keep subscribing on YouTube wherever you get your podcast. And we will see you next Tuesday.