The Dale Jr. Download - 263 - Hailie Deegan: Bump n' Run

Episode Date: July 2, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Kelley Earnhardt Miller get to know young female racer Hailie Deegan.  A conversation about owning her aggressive racing style, growing up with "bad ass" dads, the female racer label, standing up to the boys, the sketchiest of flights, making frienemies, not taking duck-lip selfies, giving it 150-percent and more.  DJD breaks down Alex Bowman's charge and cavalier post race moment.  Dale and Kelley talk about their father's pinball machine and much more..  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Guys, it's Dale Jr. We're back again for another Dale Jr. download. Matthew's shaking his head because he hates this introduction. Well, Mike Davis is on vacation. So he's not here. You're not going to hear him today. So all you Mike Davis fans, turn off the podcast now.

But all the Kelly Earnhardt fans, keep listening. That's right. She's bad. I brought Kelly in. God is a guest. But she's the co-host, man. You know why? Because we got a great guest today, Haley Diggin.

Yes. And she's a race car driver, and I thought, who better to help me interview her and my own sister? Oh, man. You see all these gloves? I do see all these gloves. Do you know why they're laying here? I do know why they're laying here. Well, why don't we tell everybody?

Yeah. All right, so there's 55 drivers that are going to be participating in this gloves program this year. We did this last year. But this year, we got 31 cup drivers, 24 Xfinity drivers, their signature skeleton design gloves, featuring the colors of the Nationwide Children's Hospital. That's right. Yep.

Of the Nationwide Children's Hospital logo. They'll be worn during the Kentucky Race weekend. Last year, I think they wore them during the Watkins Glen race. Chase Elliott won the race. He had the gloves. They went for a high bid. It was awesome. Everybody else's gloves went high because we started high.

Well, I hope they go just as high, and we're going to start low this year. Great. So great. and that fans, we're starting low. How low we're going to start? We're going to start at $30 this year. Does that make you happy? Yes, it makes me happy because last year when we did this gloves program,

that was the one thing everybody was saying on my Twitter timeline was the gloves started too high. So let's start them. Low. So that's it, fans. They're going to be at 30 bucks. Gloves are autographed by each driver and myself. They'll be auctioned on 712 through 719.

What month is that? July. July? July? Okay. I don't know the month's number. except for October. 10.

Number 10. Number 10 is Aubrey James. 712. So that's July, folks. July 12th through the July 19th. The glove auction site is www. www. nascarfoundation.org. org slash Dale Jr.

Dot org slash Dell Jr. Org. Org. Org. The bed starts at 30 bucks. All proceeds are going to benefit the Dell and Amy Earnhardt Fund. at the nationwide children's hospital, which supports pediatric injury, rehabilitation, research, and prevention.

And so this hospital needs these funds to be able to do this research. And we've already raised over a million dollars for this fund. They've already put some of that money into researching ways to do things differently and better. There's this one program where they use dogs in some of the rehabilitation. of these kids, and they're researching how to improve that process, how to do a better job of actively using these dogs in the rehabilitation for these kids. So it's training the dogs and so forth. So anyhow, this money is really going to get put to some great use.

Again, starting low for you fans, man. I know they're going to be so happy. They're going to be so thankful. They are going to be happy. Last year's program raised over 50,000. $1,000. Another thing, too, man, I want to make sure that we thank all the drivers. Yes. Because not only are they doing us a great service by wearing these gloves, but it, you know, it's a skeleton glove.

Maybe they don't like skeletons. Maybe there's some drivers out there that don't like this design. They're scared. Just don't like the design. Or don't like new gloves. You know, you break your gloves in. I would break in a pair of gloves and never want to put on a new pair of the rest of the year. It's like a pair of shoes.

You break them in. It's still good. Yeah. New shoes blister and not comfortable. But not these gloves. So breaking in a new pair of gloves, they'll be good after the first practice. Any requests, we'll just break them in for them. I'm so thankful for the drivers.

They're doing us awesome. All of us, I say us. All the drivers have initiatives, programs. Everybody is equally happy to jump on board and do whatever it is they need. and in this case the drivers are going to bat, loving it. It's going to help a lot of people. What else are you going to talk about, Kelly? Well, let's talk about.

How's your, yeah, go get out of topic. Well, I mean, let's talk about Chicago. You're back in the booth. Yes. So we're back. NBC's back covering NASCAR. I was nervous about just, you know, I wasn't nervous like last year.

Last year it was really bad nervous. This year, I was excited, looking forward to it. I wasn't nervous on TV. I wasn't nervous during the race Were you nervous when you're about to get blown away? I was nervous when the storm came. Where did you sit during the storm? In the booth.

You did? Yeah, and it was moving and shaking. It was pretty scary. And we're pretty high up there, really close to the clouds. Could hear the thunder was a little louder up there, up there close to it. So I have the funniest story. We went to... Oh, you were there.

Kelly, you were in town as well. We were. And so I went up, me and L. Dub and Carson Wyatt went to see. Dale up on the sixth. It was the sixth floor of the tower. Okay. Well, apparently, our sweet, our little ticket said sweet 600, but on the little lineup in the elevator, it did not say sweet 600. It just said, floor six, you know, broadcast. So I say to the lady at the elevator stand, you know, do we go to the sixth floor that says 600? She said, yes, ma'am. So we go up there, and we get off. And we are like two security guard, women's security guards get us off the elevator.

And she's like, where are you going? And I said, well, our passes here say, sweet 600, it's supposed to be on this level. Okay, let me just tell you guys, there are some very important steps out here. You do not go up those steps. The spotters are on this stand.

And if you climb those steps and go to those spotters, you are likely to cause a distraction. and that can cause a very serious accident out on the racetrack. My goodness. Wow. It was your first. I wanted to laugh so hard, but I was trying to take her serious, you know, and I'm thinking in my head, yeah, I got, I mean, and it was the day of the Xfinity race, and so I'm like,

yeah, I got four cars out there racing. I get it. I know it. I know the spotters, you know. And so we were walking. She had to escort us to our little place so that we wouldn't climb the stairs, I guess. And so she's like, you guys, I said, She said, they just don't let anyone up here.

And I said, yeah, we're special. And she said, yeah, you must be very special. We were going in the booth next door to see Dale. So we went and seen him do his thing. Yeah, what did you think about that? Well, your folks said that you were very relaxed and that you did a good job. But it's really, it's similar to, like, the radio stuff I do for serious. So you've got all your times and your breaks and all that kind of stuff, you know,

and you've got people telling you what to do. But it amazes me that I like to do things when I'm looking at the person like me and you. I wouldn't want to be, you know, in a separate room speaking to you. And it amazes me that they're doing their booth calling with Jeff and Rick, in this case, this past weekend, in one booth, and Dale and Steve and another. And it sounds so cohesive, you know. And so I think it was neat.

Yeah. Man, I'm going to tell you, I know I didn't get a chance to. It's so different, too, because you hear everything flow on the TV. You're watching the action. And so it's together. and when I was watching you, I couldn't see the action and just listening to you talk about what you were talking about. It just is more separated up there, I guess, from my viewpoint.

And it's just amazing that it all comes together. It's amazing to me that you have time to tweet during your breaks. Like, my phone would go off. D'Hill Jr. and tweeted. I was like, oh, my gosh, how is he doing all of this? I know. It amazes me too. I'm so amazing.

I'm a tell you, Kelly. I know I didn't get a chance to really talk to y'all. But that meant the world to me for you to see it, for LW to see it, and you brought everybody up there. It meant a lot to me. You helped me get in that position and put myself in that position to be able to broadcast and gave me the confidence to go do it. And you're in my corner all the time.

And so I've, you know, to, take you or Amy or anybody up there so they can just see what's going on. It means a lot to me. It's not rocket science. You're not seeing something that's going to blow your mind, but certainly that support is appreciated. The race was great. I couldn't believe what I saw. We had like 12 laps of Green Flagford.

We got some weather. And those 12 laps were insane. And it was kind of like sat down to eat and being hungry and somebody letting you take a bite of something really good like Chip-Flea sandwich and then taking it away. Yeah. And I was like, doggone it. I went to wait. I can't wait for that.

But the race started back up and it continued to be great. The restarts are awesome because the guys, the restarts are wild and the intensity stays there for several laps. It doesn't just dissipate after the first couple of corners. And another thing that I found, just really strange that I'm going to have to continue to clue in on and figure out why that happens is, for example, at the end of the race, you know, Kyle Larson passed the winner, and then he, you know, Bowman passed him back.

I was so impressed with that. Right. Yeah. There were moments in the race where, so Harvick's leading and he appears to be driving away, and then next thing you know, the top five are within a second and a half of each other. And then it looks like, you know, Larson's passing for third and looks like he's going to drive on up to the lead and then, then, you know, he fades. Or I thought Jimmy was struggling and then the next thing, you know, Jimmy's battling for the lead. It just, I couldn't, the coming and going of each individual car every four or five laps was really surprising.

Yeah, but that makes it exciting for fans for sure. So Jimmy was sitting there running behind Harvick, and I'm like, oh, Jimmy's running Harvick down. Jimmy's got the better car. Then for the next four laps, Harvick drove away from him and put like 20 car links on him. And then Jimmy's falling into the clutches of the rest of the top five,

and he fell all the way back to fourth. And I'm like, oh, Jimmy's struggling, maybe. His car's not good. And then Jimmy drove back up to second. And then he was in 20 car, and then he's like 20 car lengths away from Harvick again. I'm like, how did that happen? Like, what's going on?

I need to talk to these drivers, understand sort of that ebb and flow and how a car comes and goes like that because it must be some of the draft. I'm not really sure of guys are sort of peddling and not trying to keep, you know, trying not to wear their tires out. I love it.

The tire situation yesterday was really interesting. That's what I like in a race is when the tires, you have to manage the tires, right? Yeah, I agree with that. We had the weather and that washed all the rubber off. So that brought the tireware, skyrocketed the tire wear on that first run. And we saw some guys have some issues,

and it became part of the strategy. became not a concern, but something to think about and something to manage. And I love any kind of, you know, I love any kind of challenges or things like that put into the driver's hands. And so that, I wish that was the way our tires performed every week. We have some tires that are bulletproof. Yeah. And some tracks, you just can't wear the tire out.

It's more about heat and so forth. But that was fun. That was fun to watch. And we had an awesome race all the way. through, again, thanks to Kyle Larson for the most part. He put on a hell of the show last year and again this year, came up short again. But we saw Alex Bowman win his first race. Kelly, you've been involved in his career as I have.

He's raced here for us at Junior Motorsports that had to feel good for you on a personal level to know that you had a role in him getting his opportunities. So talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I just, I love to see, I love to see the emotions. that was within Alex. I know he was trying really hard not to cry on national television. You could tell that he didn't want to go there,

but it was real unnatural. And just with the announcement, with Nationwide leaving their team, and him finishing second so many times, and Greg, and I just know how hard it is and how hard each and every week it is to win, and Hendrick really needed that win, was great for Alex and to see that.

And I was wondering, like, I mean, I know how much his grandmother and his dad played a role in where he's gotten to and just thinking about the emotions there for him because family's so important. So it was awesome. Yeah. So there was a point in his career. I tweeted about it last night where he found out that he had lost his ride with Tommy Baldwin on Twitter.

Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. And six months later, he was helping me as I was needing some help in the Cup series as I was out with injury. and it's just weird how things work out. He would come here and run a handful of races. That's all we could put together. That's all the, you know, he would,

much like we do with other drivers here on the eight car this year, he would have the funding and some partners willing to do X amount. And every time he was in our cars, I was impressed. Before he got in our cars, he was with another program in the Xenity series, and he would qualify on the pole. And I just knew, like, man, this is. This guy is fast. He has a speed, and he seems to get more out of his car, or at least get everything out of his car.

That's all you can ask out of a driver. Not every driver is that way. Some drivers, you got a car's got to be perfect. Yeah. You know, and he just, you knew when he was out on the track that there's no question, that's all the car has. And we went to Phoenix one time with him driving our car. And it was actually the race where Chase Elliott wrapped up the championship. I'm sitting on Chase Aelex box down in the middle of turns one and two,

and I watched Alex run turn one into every single lap. And I'm going to tell you, he was within three inches of his line, every single lap. And he ran great. He ran up in a top 10, top five, and he was just so smooth, perfect. Never slid the back, never overdrove the entry and pushed. He never was making mistakes. And he was running as well as any of our other cars. And I was just like, man, this guy, I think he can do it.

I think if he'd gotten some really, you know, gotten a really good opportunity in the Cup series that he would make the most of it. You know, and obviously they struggled for a couple years. I think Alex was wondering what, you know, what's happening. Is it him? Is this going to work out? Is this going to be a failure? Is this going to be disappointing?

Well, they put all that to bed yesterday with this win. Look at Hendon Motorsports. All four cars in a top ten. We've been talking. I've had the unfortunate situation and position of telling the truth when I'm in the booth. Chevrolet has been struggling. The new Camaro has not been performing on the Cup Series. Hendrick's been struggling.

Everything turned upside down. They're turning it around. Oh, they did. I mean, they turned around for one week, right? Can't win them all. But it looks like they've got it going in the right direction. They found something that might work going forward. And that's a track that in my mind is very similar to Homestead.

and if any track is similar at Homestead, it's Fontana, Chicago, and so forth. And so that bodes well for those guys if they can put themselves in position to be one of the four at Homestead, either one of the Hendrick teams or any of the Chevroletes for that matter. But it's just good to see a Chevrolet run well. Obviously, in my heart, I've got a connection to HMS, so it was great to see those guys have success. I did not see them having a great – you know, I didn't see them in the picture as the weekends started in practice. I know Alex had great cars. I thought, well, Alex probably finished second again.

And it looked like there with a few laps ago when Larson went by, that that was what was going to happen. Yeah. But, man, he dug down. I said it on the broadcast. I said, it'd be interesting if he can put something together. I mean, we've seen it all race long where, man, you think a guy's taking a lead and he's going to drive away, and all of a sudden he's getting another battle.

The guy he just passed is on his quarter panel. Like, what the heck? And he was aggressive when he got back. And all of that lap traffic, too. I mean, they were, you know, in the middle of the lap traffic was frustrating for everybody. Yeah. It was just great, man. I enjoyed it.

Got home a little late. Didn't get to see my wife. Missed my baby. I got up this morning, and we got to hang out just a little bit. So looking forward to spending some time with them this week. And then we're on to Daytona. The Daytona, to me, last year was wild. Lots of crashes.

Rick Stenhouse was part of most of that. For whatever reason, his fault or not. But anyhow, we had a very wild race, and Ricketts Tenhouse was in the middle of most of those things. And I think we're going to have another one. We had tons of lead changes. They were 35 lead changes at Talladega, talking to the drivers that came out of that race. They talked about how the cars were able to get really, really big runs. And when the cars would get big runs, it'd give them the confidence to do something with it.

So there's a new rule package that they are running, that they're. They did not run at the Daytona 500. So we had old rules for the Daytona 500. At Talladega, we went to this new rules. The guys are saying the cars are more responsive on throttle, and they're able to get bigger runs, bigger runs, gives them more confidence. We're going to see guys pulling out doing things. I also think handling is going to be critical.

Handling was pretty important at Talladega. Which you usually don't see as much in Talladega. Daytona, you can argue this, but Daytona, for me, as a driver, feels more narrow, and it does feel like handling is always, a more critical factor because of the location of the track down in the sand of the sandy beaches of Daytona. It gets blasted by that sand and wind all year long, and it's just sandblasts that grip out of that racetrack. And it's really getting slicker and slicker. So it should be fun to watch those guys have to manhandle his cars. I think we're going to have a wild race.

This is also a race where a lot of guys feel like this might be their only opportunity to get a win and lock themselves into the playoffs. I think that's why you see Ricky Stenhouse and guys like that step up and get aggressive. And so it should be a wild night. And then I'm going to take a couple days and spend some time with the family down there in Florida. But I'm excited to be back in the booth, man. It's going to be a good run. Our team's fired up.

All the folks in the, you know, all the folks that there's hundreds of people that make this production happen that are at the track that people don't see. Yeah. And it's all familiar phases for me this year. So it's going to be fun. The hardest part, I think, though, is the toughest part for me is it's difficult for Amy. It's difficult for me. It's difficult. Well, Alla doesn't know.

I'm watching videos of her, Amy's sending them to me over the weekend, and Alice seems totally oblivious to the fact that I'm not there. At this age, I don't know. But it's hurting me and it's hurting Amy. That's different than it was last year. I got home, and we really missed each other. So that's going to be a very difficult part about this next couple months. And I think it's because of where Isla is in her. Yeah, just in her life.

She's that toddler figuring things out every day. These are important days. Yeah, yeah. And it's hard. So anyhow, you know, that's what I got going on. You're talking about the crew that it takes to do your broadcast. I was asking a lot of questions, too, about when they get into the racetrack. And so that rain delay yesterday and finishing the race last night,

they have to be set up and ready to roll. Tuesday in Daytona. So that makes that whole process very tricky for them and getting that. Because I was curious about just all the equipment and how they get set up and when do they get in there and get ready to roll. Well, I hope that you'll come to another race soon and I'll get the chance to give you a bit of a tour of the TV compound and so forth. I would like to take you into the truck where the producer is.

I was asking all the questions. So Dale has three buttons. He can mute himself so he can call for do whatever. And then he has a button that all four of them can talk to and hear each. other Steve, Jeff and Rick, and then another button that he talks to. And she said the producer, I was thinking one of the people in the room, and she said he can talk to Renee, the producer, down in the truck out in the parking lot, you know, so calling the shot. So yeah, it is very cool. Yeah, there's a button to the producers basically to say, hey, there's a great battle for this

position. Maybe we should watch that. Or somebody. And I noticed you saying things like that. Somebody's hit the wall. If you got a replay, we can show. If you see something that you think fans will love to see. Yeah. You can let them know that. But pretty fun. Before we bring in our guests, let's talk about my relationship with Vivalene.

It is really special. Yeah. Heck yeah. Been a long one. Been a good one. You've done some fun stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Everything we've done has been custom on a personal level. Being the only motor oil brand with a dedicated engine lab makes them a great partner outside and under the hood. In 2014, they let me do a build of one of my all-time favorite car bodies. It's a 74 Chevy Cheyenne, you know. You know that one. Shortbed pickup truck. Yep.

Beautiful. 1974, that was the year I was born, Kelly. No way. Yes. So that's why I did that year. So memorable for me. I got a little brother. We took that baby out there and we raised some hell.

Thanks to Vavilene. We had a good time working with those guys, not short on some funny moments. In 2016, they made me into a bobblehead for their pit pal's promotion. I remember that photo shoot, and I didn't think that was going to turn out as good as it did. But it was really funny. Only your true friends make you a bobblehead. Yeah. But I tell you, no other motor old brand goes the extra mile to build a relationship like Vaville does,

which is why I trust them in my engines, and you should too. From high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film to new rides that have carbon buildup, check out Vavilene.com slash Dell to find the product that's right for your engine. That's Babylon.com slash Dell. Favillin.com slash deal. Now let's get through our guest, Haley Diggin. All right. You hear it.

Haley Degan here in the show. I'm excited about this. Haley is, you've become like an overnight sensation, but I'm sure that's not the case, and that's what we're going to learn about as we talk to you today. But over 20 cany starts in the West Series, 10 starts on the East Series, nine top fives on the West, three wins, three Arka starts. I want to know, I want to ask you later about your feelings when you pulled out on the racetrack at Pocono for the first time and went down that front straight away.

Man, that was different. Yeah, right. That was the unique feeling. Pretty incredible. I'm such a huge fan. I think that, you know, you're an amazing personality. You're a lot of fun to watch on the racetrack and, you know, got, you know, got a lot of energy that the sport needs. But I want to learn about, like, how this all started and how you ended up in stock cars.

So can you tell me, like, what was the first thing you ever called? climbed on with a motor, anything in competition. Like, what was the first thing that you got on and went like, this is, I want to race, I want to. It was really back. I was seven at the time. My dad just made the transition from freestyle motocross to sport that he helped start to off-road trucks, a little safer, a little less broken bones, a little nicer to the body.

And I went to one of his races, and it was back in 2008, and I saw these little kids there between the age of eight and 16 racing. And I was like, I wanted to do this. I was the little kid that when I wanted to do something, I begged, you could tell me no, and still begged for it. And I just begged and begged and begged and on my eighth birthday. They ended up getting me an off-road truck. And ever since then, I fell in love with it, and I couldn't stop.

I never really wanted to stop. How long did you do that? I raced off-road trucks in that class for about two, three years. And then I started winning after about two, three years, and I started getting better equipment. We kind of got the little, you know, always first car, a little cost-effective. and we ever since then started moving. Won a couple championships there, a ton of races. First go over there, I went.

And really around age 15, I was kind of at the top of my level for off-road. There wasn't much more I could do. And I didn't even have my license at the time. I was like, I can't peak with my career, and I only have my license yet. So I ended up Toyota end up kind of seeing me out. But first before that, my mom actually signed me up for the Drive for Diversity Program, legend cars. And I ended up getting in that. I race at the summer shootout.

for one of the little summers there. And it was fun, a lot of fun. Legend cars are a pain to drive. They're really hard. If you can drive a legend car, I feel like you can drive anything. And I still haven't mastered that. It was still have some work to do there.

But I ended up doing a test. My parents kind of just set up in a late model after the Summer Shootout series. I was like, well, what do we do next? And I just did a late model test out at Greenville Piggins. And Hickory. We did like a back-to-back day test. and the guy was like, can I call Toyota?

And tell them about you. I was like, yeah, go for it. Like, I had no clue. I had nothing. Probably didn't even know what that meant. No, I didn't know anything. I didn't know about Toyota's development program. I didn't know about K&N racing.

Like, I was still new. I still probably much didn't even know the difference between a super late model and a late model. Like, I was still learning everything because I just, I grew up in off-road racing, which was a different, almost like a different sport, just because it's so separated. And so they ended up calling Toyota. Toyota tested me out out in California. at a couple of the short tracks there. And next thing now, I'm contracted them for a couple years,

and we're going K&N racing. So Jimmy Johnson came out of the stadium trucks, too. And obviously, there's something that you learn in that discipline that helps. What are some of the similarities, or what do you think that maybe helped you that you brought over from the trucks, is it car control, how to get around a corner, things like that? Because I've always been curious as to what Jimmy's used

from his experience in trucks, racing other jumps and stuff, to transition into stock cars. I think the biggest thing I noticed right off the bat is initial speed. You get up to pace a lot quicker, like I didn't need a lot of time to get to a pace. And then also just looking ahead. My biggest thing is I was always good at looking ahead at wrecks and stuff. It's just stuff that would happen really quick and aggressive. I think the biggest thing taught me growing up was to be really aggressive.

People I get love hate for it, but in the end, I do what? have to do in races. Yeah, I was listening to a podcast that you did recently where you talked about being aggressive and you feel like that that's something that you have to do and that you feel like that a lot of girls in racing aren't as aggressive as they need to be. Yeah, exactly. I think that there's a lot of girls that have tried to make it in racing and there's a lot that haven't and there's obviously a reason why. There's just no blank answer. There's a reason why there's so many pieces to the puzzle, especially if you're a girl in stock car. I know dirt racing, there's obviously a lot more girls a lot more. I feel like girls are a lot more talent, raw talent for racing there.

But just in stock cars, it's a different story that shows kind of like a blank canvas. I can name almost every girl in stock car racing on one hand. It's just how it is. And I think there's a lot of room for improvement there. But just growing up seeing all these other girls try and not make it, even talking to them and asking like, why do you think you didn't make it? And hearing all their reasons why it makes me learn as a driver what I can do, what I can do, what not to do, what to do, what I hear from everyone else saying what to and not to do. And it just helps me in the development process. So you're asking these girls that have raised before for that advice, what are they telling you?

Yeah, I asked Julia Landauer. She's the first son. I was like, why do you think so-and-so didn't make it? Why do you think this girl didn't make it? And there's a lot of, there's reasons of, oh, she just drove over her head but never got the results. There's, oh, she didn't have the right off-the-track attitude. Oh, she was too old. There's just so many pieces to the puzzle we have to have right. What do you think about? Haley and I have done some things together on female panels and whatnot, but what's your stance on being called a female athlete in the sport? Because it's a man's world, and there's, you know,

some people just want to be treated like everyone else. Some people want to call out the female aspect because, I mean, it's important and different, and some people don't even want to act like it exists. So what's your, where do you see it? I would say I would use the female card more if I wasn't winning. I'd say, no, I just want to be a racer. I just want to win. I just want to be a good driver.

Maybe I would try to use it a little more if I wasn't winning or if I needed it more. But as a now, I want to all be on the track. I have probably one of the most aggressive looking. My car's all black with monster logos over it. It's not like it's a little pink sparkly car. Pretty intimidating. Yeah. So, yeah, we put like shark teeth on my grill at the dirt track.

Like stuff that's just different, cool. I think that when it comes down to the on-track performance, that's what makes it count. I take every race like my rides on the line. Every race like it could be my last. And that's how I treat every single situation that I'm in. I don't get sponsors to race second. My sons aren't happy when I finish second. They're happy when I win, and that's how it is in all racing.

Yeah, this past weekend you ran third and your post-race social media videos that you do, which are great. You talked about how disappointed you were. I was surprised that. I mean, you know, because third is, I mean, it's hard. Racing's hard, you know, and a top three finish is usually something to be pretty satisfied with, but you're not even close to satisfied with top three. I think that when you get a taste of what it's like to win, anything else besides that, it's just like.

You knew, I guess, in that night that you had enough car. You probably should have finished better than third. Yeah, I for sure should have finished second 100%. We just, we were in this. It was so weird this track because last year it was so much better. The initial restart on the outside was good, but they ended up throwing down the speedy dry stuff on the whole outside of the track. It was three-fourths of the track on the top line had it. And it just killed us on the starts.

And so once we got filed back in, we would get up to third. Okay, have a restart. We'd start behind the leader again a second. Then the next caution would come out would be on the outside. And so then I'd play it a little bit, try to settle in third, but just didn't come back to that rotation when I got back in second in the end. So I need one more caution when I was in third. have a shot at the win but we just didn't get it but you're going to have those races in the end yeah of course how are you how are you using social media to to help you sort of navigate through

through these early years in your career yeah i love social media i think that people in nascar don't use it enough there's so much so much you can do with it it's just there's this platform where you don't have to have announcers telling the story you don't have to have commentators telling you what happened in the race. You can do it yourself. You can give your side of story. I think it's something that drivers need to utilize more where, okay, if you want to state your opinion against, oh, you think this guy's wrong, then tell it on social media. You guys have these platforms with followers. You might as well do it. And in the end, there's a lot of drivers. I think everyone gets a little, I don't want to say petty, but like these grudge matches where you

don't want to get involved with other drivers, don't want to build their social. But in the end, you're helping build a sport. You build a sport. You make more money. Have a better career. good racing. How is it that you understand all this at such a young age? I think it's from my dad. I grew up around his whole era. His whole career was based off a big show of what they did with these crowds and what everyone saw and people were intrigued because it was just things that they never did before and a lot of the stuff was televised, a lot of movies were brought out on it and he made a whole wave of just craziness. and it was just all brought out within the social media

when it started bringing up with all the younger, I guess, kids coming up. There's a lot of, in the Hoff Road community, the dirt community, I'd say it's a younger generation, especially dirt bikes. There was a lot of kids, the whole X-Games era. That was just, it's a younger generation. NASCAR is a little bit older generation. I think with the younger kids coming in right now, it's going to bring that new wave of kids.

because the older generation, they're just getting on the older side, and they're just kind of dying off. And I think there's just a new wave of people coming in, especially with social media, because let's face it, it's usually younger people on social media, not usually, your grandpa's not usually on social media, unless he's just following. We don't want some of those older people on social media.

Yeah, some of the older ones get after on Twitter. There's some people on Twitter, like Twitter, if you go on there, it's like ruthless sometimes. Twitter's a dark place. It is. I'm like, I don't know if it's just the older generation of people are on Twitter because it's always that guy that Bob and wherever with this like American flag background always has something to say.

Haley, one of the things that you do on social media, like, you're not afraid to show like the non-perfect side of you. One of my favorite videos is when you put the wrong gas in the band. A lot of people would have never admitted, like, they messed up. Like, you put it out there. I'm a human. I messed up. This is what happened. Like, I love that so much.

So, like, keep doing that because I feel like social media, everybody tries to make it perfect. And it's not. Nobody's life is perfect. So I applaud you for doing that. Thank you. I had a few of my friends texts through the next morning, because I don't even know why I did that.

I was one in the morning. I was bored in North Carolina. There's nothing around. My mom's vacuuming. And I'm just staying there. I'm like, I'm just sitting here eating food at, like, one in the morning because I have nothing else to do. I was like, might as well,

post and stuff on social media. You can only scroll through, like, the news feed so much and see stuff. So I was like, I won't make something. So I end up telling that story because my dad texts me. He's like, hey, he's like, you did something to the van. And I was like, God, I was like, I didn't really know what happened. I was like, I really don't know what I did to the van. It just started cutting out.

And he's like, it's $14,000 to fix. I was like, oh, my God. And I was like, please don't come out of the race budget. I was like, there is no way. I was like, come on, we could just, just say, come on, we got to do something we can do. We end up losing a fuel pump in it after we did that too. But I thought I would just tell the side of that story. I feel like it's better to call out yourself.

Than someone else do it? Yeah, it's better to call out your kind of weaknesses, your bad, and I wouldn't say bad things about you, but things that happen that aren't always the best. It's ready to have you call it out. Life just happens. Yeah. Yeah. In the end, no one's perfect.

We all make mistakes on and off the track. and it's just how you face those and how you show people how you're going to take them. You mentioned that you're in your house at North Carolina. So I had no idea that you had a house in North Carolina. I thought that you spent most of your time on the West Coast. So where do you divide your time? And how often are you over here in North Carolina? Because, I mean, we look at Mooresville as sort of, we call race to the USA, right?

And I don't even know the number really, but in my mind all these years, like 90% of the NASCAR crowd or the cup crowds. sort of works here, lives here. Yeah. So how much time are you spending in this area? I'd say as of now, it's almost 50% of my time. Really? Once we get towards summertime, I'd say between the months of June and September, I'm really out here a lot for racing because we come to the East Coast for a lot of the,

even the West races will come to like the mid area. But it's just for the, how NASCAR is in Mooresville is how dirt bikes and off road is in Southern California. And so that's why I'm there. That's why my dad's there for his career. It's not like my dad has a business over here, just racking in the dough. We race and we get our money off racing.

That's how he supports my racing. That's how he supports all of our lives. And Hayden's racing coming up, the pinnacle for coming up in the dirt bike community isn't in North Carolina. It's in California. That's where you have to be. That's where all the sponsors are.

That's where Kawasaki, Monster, everyone is, KTM. You just have to be out there. And so now with me going the stock car way, with him going the dirt bike way, just directly on the opposite side of the country. So it just takes a little work, a lot of five-hour flights going from east to west, but we're racking in the miles. So what's your impression so far of the East Coast and North Carolina? I would think since it's like the whole NASCAR world out here,

people move a little quicker. Really? Yeah. Man, people are just... We always get accused to be a little slower. Uh-huh, yeah. I would think they would move a little quicker, but everyone loves going five under the speed limit here,

love going too wide on the freeways. Man, there's nothing that frustrates me more than people just to go too wide, or semis in the fast lane. It just gets me so heated. And so that's just something I have to get used to. Everyone, when you go places, like say you go to a grocery store, everyone just works a little slower, but I guess I'll have to get used to it. That's like you said the pet peeve right there.

I saw something where you said one of your biggest pet peeves is people that post yoga photos. Oh, I hate that too. Yeah. And what I'm impressed with you is I had a conversation with the racer a few months ago about female racers. And a lot of them post the duck lip selfies and things like that. I can't do it. Not many of them post pictures at a race car. And I look at your feed as compared to some of the others.

I like it. Let's see race cars. Yeah. In the end, I'm a racer. I'm not a model, obviously. I lost about a foot of my height for that. And so in the end, I'm not trying to be one. I'm trying to be a real person and try to be a racer.

You don't see Jimmy Johnson out here modeling. You don't see Kevin Harvick modeling. So why should I be if I'm trying to be an upcoming race they're trying to make it in this world? Yeah. Who are some of the people you look up to in racing? I'd say my dad's the biggest one, just growing up in the off-road world, now coming into stock car racing, watching a lot of the old footage.

It's been your dad. Really? Uh-huh. A lot of it, just watching those. old races. I love the aggressive drivers. I like Kyle Busch. I love his driving style. He might not have the most positivity off the track, but I do like his driving style. And you see him at some of the tracks, and just his lines he runs are crazy. The amount of momentum he's able to build at these tracks. And watching him in the truck series blows my mind because you think of the heavy

hairs, you think of the Johnny Sawers, Matt Crafton's the guys that have been there for a long time, you're like, oh, they're the best. You can't get any better than that. And he goes out there and just whoops them all, and you're like, how did he do that? How did he just go from the back all the way back to the front? It's now leading by five seconds. It's just stuff that doesn't happen he can do. And so I think that's one guy that I look up to where I'm like, I want to have his driving stuff.

Yeah, well, his attitude off the track has gotten a lot better over the last several years. Yeah, I has. So you ran a couple of arc of races. K&N West, K&E, quite a busy schedule. You went to Pocono this year. year probably i mean that's got to be the biggest track you'd ever been on yes very intimidating entering turn one down at long straight away you're building up so much speed what are your thoughts going in that corner initially getting on the track turn one wasn't back so i didn't have my speed up yet but what

really got me was turn two the tunnel oh yes that one was a little sketchy it just rained before practice so the track was a little slick and so i was going off i every single driver that i knew i got their notes from there i was like i just need all the information i can get Like, we're, and I'm the type person where if you tell me, break right here, gas right here, I'll do it. Just tell me where to do it, and I'll do it. And so I got everyone's information from there, and it was good. We had some good tests. I think we were seventh in practice one of the days, and we ended up qualifying fourth,

which I felt like was good in my race. Racing's kind of where it threw me for a loop there, just all the drafting and stuff. I've never experienced that. What did the draft feel like? It was, the weirdest thing on the first lap there was having. the side sealed off, because I've never had that in K&N, that's all new for me. So all the air was super still. And all of a sudden down the straightway, I'm starting to turn right. And like, I'm turning right. I'm going to a tunnel turn. I'm like, why are we still going right? And I feel

it's like the rear end going on. I'm like, this is a little sketchy. And the nose is a little dardy. You can feel the wind. And those were just all new to me. And one of my other teammates, he had tested there as his first time lost Super 3way. And he was like, I totally agree. He goes, that was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced it. Yeah. Who do you seek advice from? You're talking about talking to other people. And also, what do you do to prepare in the stock cars and other racetracks, new tracks?

I would say there's quite a few drivers, let alone. It's just like my teammates. One actually might kind of go to because I know he goes to all the tracks is Noah. We're actually, Noah and Riley. We're kind of kind of good friends. We grew up kind of in the same off-roading world, and we're trying to take the same pass. or I'm trying to take their same pass. And so he's always one kind of I go to for some notes.

And he's helped me out of the tracks. And we actually race against each other at Sonoma. And I out-qualified him, which I was super pumped about. That was my one goal. But there's a lot I do for races. It's mostly just a lot of seat time. Since we go to a lot of short tracks, I go to the go-kart track a lot. And the go-kart track I go to, you can reconfigure the track.

It's not like a pole position. It's like an actual go-kart track, like a GoPro, where you take, like, your tag car, shift your car's out and I can reconfigure the track to make it a circle track. And it's like, it makes it a pretty decent size, like probably a quarter mile. And so I go out there and I'll just do hundreds of laps. And I'll do that a couple days a week just to get ready for all the short tracks. My driver coach, he owns the go-kirt track.

And so he'll get out there with me and we'll practice just bump and runs all day. Really? Yeah. Now wonder you're so good at it. I've been working on it for a little while. You train a lot. Like you're very, I think you take your physical conditioning very seriously, so tell me about that. Yeah, when I'm at home, not at the race track, I'm at the gym in the morning.

I usually at 7 a.m. after that, I go to the go-kart track, come back home, and I'll even go, like, spin class with my mom and stuff. And I always end up working out at night, too. So when I'm at home, I'll work out at least two, three times a day. Once we get to the race tag, it's a little harder to work out that much. But the K&N Series is nice because you don't have to get to the track to like a lot. that's when gates open. So I can work out in the morning, kind of getting my little routine. When it starts getting hard, is when you fly in at, like, from four in the morning

and you go to the race track early, that's when it makes it a little tough to have that training aspect. But I try to keep it pretty and checked if I fall off for, like, two days, get back after it again. Have you been to spin class, Kelly? Well, I haven't been to spin class, but I did Sherry spin along. Sherry Pollux. That's the same thing, right?

Yes. I wasn't qualified to be there, but, yeah. It was rough. I did a spin class. I did the same one with Sherry, and I was like, man, I'm going to be good because I ride a cycle. And then they said, all right, pick that bar up. The one, you know, I'm like, I didn't know he's doing arms. Yeah.

They're like, hold it out. I'm like, oh, this sucks. Yeah. I didn't realize that either. First time there, I was like, why are we lifting weights over here? I thought this was cardio. Exactly. Yeah, that was miserable.

So in your mind, you know, what are the next steps for you? I think why that's such an important question. is because people are fired up about you. People are eager to see you move up. I know that there needs to be some patience there and you want to do it the right way. But in the perfect world, what are the next steps for you? Perfect world, I would say, when at ARCA,

between the series next year, what's going on, how they're combining the K&N ARCA series. What does that mean for you guys? I don't really, I mean, I guess as a driver, you have a different perspective than I would. So what does that mean for the drivers when they're doing what they're doing with Arc and Canaan series? If I can get a deal to run the full K&N and Arca series where they combine it, I think it ends up coming to 32 or 34 races, that would be prime for me.

I would love to do that and maybe a couple of truck races by the end of the year. I really want to race Aldora next year. This year or next year. Next year. I just don't want to make the mistake. I feel like I have one shot at, for myself personally, I see I have one shot at this to go out there and be a heavy hitter. I want to go out there and be the best I can possibly be. I don't want to go out there and be like,

oh, man, I should have just spent a couple more races, done a couple more tests. I don't want to regret anything. When I go, I want to make sure I'm ready. And so I think that Eldora would be a good place to go next year, for sure. One of my favorite race tracks is Iowa. I would love to go Iowa in a truck just because you don't have to mess around with so much drafting, which I'm still learning. It would be a little help for me.

Go on to race tracks like Talladega, Pocono, Daytona, of those ones where the air starts messing with you a little bit. I think those ones would be a little harder. So I definitely want to make sure I make the right choices when it comes to that. But for next year, I'd love to run the full 32 races there and a couple of truck races. Yeah. I wouldn't be in a big hurry to go to Dayton or Talladega. Yeah.

I had known, you know, if I knew, of course I was extremely excited to be there when I went for the first time. But I wrecked and crashed and broke stuff the first several trips. and even if you're really, really good at racing at short track or even mile and a halfs, Daytona Talley are so different that you just have to go. You're going to make those mistakes when you go there, even if you have a ton of experience at other racetracks. It's just such a different discipline, and it took me a long time to figure that out. If you look at my track record, it's pretty bad starting out of those tracks.

But what are some of the, you know, you mentioned Iowa. That's a war out slick racetrack. I talked to the guys about Iowa. they say the same thing about this weekend in Chicago that reminds them of a dirt track. You seem to really appreciate the dirt because that's your background. Yes. So do you like those old war-out race tracks that wear the tires out and you get to sliding around a lot? Those are the ones that are fun for me.

I really like I liked high-banked tracks. As soon as we get to those long flat tracks, not my thing. Are you running New Hampshire this year? Yes, I ran New Hampshire last year. And I was like, man, coming in the corner, I was like, I do not like this. And I like those Bristol tracks where you sail it into the corners, no brake, and you just feel the car, sink down. Yeah, it's not just like the rear that sinks or the front, oh, it's good on the right front. It's like the whole car plants.

What was your thoughts on the first time you walked into Bristol? Bristol was a little nerve-wracking. Isn't it crazy? Well, after about two hours, I couldn't hear anything, so I'll just cite after that. And so hat track, I have such a love for that track just because I feel like it favors my driving style, and it's just so much fun. I don't think there's a track that could get more fun than Bristol. For good racing, though, I feel like Iowa is one where you can run the top side, run the low side. We were running on the bottom there when I was racing there, but then I lost my brakes,

and then I ran the top side, and next thing you know, we're in third. So it was good for me, and so there's just those tracks where work in your favor a little bit more. Yeah, I went to Bristol for the first time, and it's so fast. And even, so it took me like 40 laps for my mind to sort of figure out what was happening, like me for me to catch up. Yeah. And I thought, you know, I thought that would go away. But every time I went back there, I mean, even the last year I ran there, the first 10 laps on the track, it's like everything's in fast forward, right? And it just doesn't, and then it finally slows down and gets comfortable.

I was always kind of intimidated by that track, but loved it at the same time. It was one of my favorite races to go to. If you were going to say, all right, man, 12-year-old me, where do you want to go? what's the one race. You can go to one race. It was always the Bristol night race. Oh, yeah. Man. Yeah, that would probably be my pick, too. But I think it's just such a unique track, and I wish there were more tracks like that. I do too. Yeah. It just, there isn't, which kind of sucks. But in the end, that's what makes that race that much better in that track, so much more valuable when you go there. Yeah. What are the K&N tracks like as far as the surface out there on the

West Coast? Because one thing I don't think of fans understand is how different the surfaces of these racetracks are depending on the geographical location. So what is it like mostly out on the West Coast? A lot of these short tracks, they'll repave them one year like we just, when we went to Colorado, like that place, it was all repaved. The year before it wasn't, and you're practically jumping through one and two because there's so many little like humps on the bottom. And so it changes it pretty much every single year. You go to some tracks like Tucson, just depending on how much it range, just how much wears on the track. Like last year at Tucson, I was like going and qualifying, and all of like my car hits the tracks so hard a hole like concrete comes out in the cement part and so there's

they're rough tracks the short tracks that we go to a lot of times it's really hot out there so they're always slick and so it's just finding a way how you can set up your car to favor that slick driving where it's going to be okay you need it slick and qualifying but next thing you know it's going to tighten up for the race but then you have to gauge how much because you only go there one time of year so it's not like you know and they're always changing from the years before so it's just it's different but I like when we go to Bristol tracks, the Iowa's. Those are kind of where it's really a lot of fun. I'm super excited to go to Phoenix this year.

They added that to the K&S schedule for the – it's going to be the last race. So hopefully we'll be in the points battle by then, or maybe we'll have a secured up by then. So that would be really nice, but I'm excited for that. I just wanted to kind of get a better glimpse into your childhood. So Del and I obviously grew up with the famous father in our sport, and you grew up with the pretty famous one in y'all's world, I actually met someone, well, I actually know someone who their son is named after your dad,

or y'all's family, his name's Deegan. And they had to explain it to me, but back then when I met them, it was probably seven, eight years ago. But so we're used to that, too, in our world. But you were a young kid, you know, and so how, what was that like for you growing up? because, you know, it's always strange people coming up to your family at dinner, asking for autographs, or just making such a big deal about your dad. He's your dad, you know? And so what was that like for you guys?

It was always, everything felt normal to me. Like, oh, our family trips were going to the L.A. Coliseum watching Dad, like, and X games. Like, that was like our vacation for the year. Same. Like, that's what we always said about Daytona. It's like the beach. It was a different lifestyle that I was so accustomed to, just, because I grew up in it. I was the first kid. And so everything, my dad, he had the whole

male militia thing going on, very rough, tough. And my mom's over here trying to put me in, like, pink hair bows. And obviously it didn't last for very long. But it was just a crazy lifestyle that we grew up in. And it's just so much chaos now that I look back at it. And just being around it all, it was just, it was different. But like, we would go to the mall. Like, me and my dad would go to the mall. And like, we get stopped every 10 feet. And I was like, Like, dad, come on, like, come on. It felt normal to me. And it was just, it was different things like that.

But over the time, obviously, I realized that it wasn't normal. Yeah. But one thing that about stock racing, a lot of people have this mindset of, oh, dads, like, don't let your dad like get too ahead of himself. Don't let him get too involved where something happens. And I think that a lot of people that say that don't have dads in racing. And don't, if you have a dad that races or you have raced before, you know that your dad is usually pretty valuable.

for you, especially if he's raced before. And I think that's something that my dad has done a lot for me. I would not be at the place where I'm at right now without him. And he's the one that goes to the go-car track with me and practices with me all the time. He goes to the gym with me and just everything we do, we do together. He's the one sacrificing his time from his career, because in the end, he doesn't have a business where he's just laying back, whatever, chilling. He has a racing career of himself. He's sacrificing that to come to these races with me to make sure I'm at the top of my game. You graduated at Haskell, right? Yeah, I did last. you guys. I thought so. So obviously you want to, to a career in NASCAR. I know that's your number one

goal and I have a daughter that races too. But I'm also constantly on her about, you know, just school and that kind of thing. Are you doing any college or are you doing anything else or just focusing on your racing right now? So I kind of based it around when I started homeschooling. I was 12, no, 14 years old. 14. I was 7th grade. And I remember my parents would not let me homeschool. I was like, come on. I was like I've gotten straight days ever since kindergarten, please. I was like, come on, I really want homeschool. And it was during winter break. And I was like, I need homeschool. I was like, I want to so bad. Keep in mind, I'm still in like little junior cards over here just, you know, racing, but I was winning at the time. And I ended up writing like a five-page essay of why I should

be homeschooled. And I gave it to them before we went back for Christmas, over Christmas break. I was like, come on, please. I was like, I will do anything. And so I ended, they end up lame me homeschool after that and I kept those straight days. I didn't take any summers, no breaks off and I kind of just did all, I didn't want to say skip because I didn't not do like all the work. I just did all the work at a quicker pace to where I wouldn't have to stay until I was 18. So I made sure I did that so I'd have these primers where I can focus 110% on my racing. So I kind of staged that out so I could focus on my racing. In the end, if racing doesn't work out, which I really hope it does. But if it didn't, I still have, I'm still only 17. Like,

I still have time where I could do all the college stuff. Yeah. So you finish high school, all the high school credit stuff early. Yeah. So I just did it all, I just did it all quicker just because I knew my schedule would just be compacting a lot more, getting a lot crazier, and I just wanted to make sure I had it all done. That's crazy. I wish I would have wrote a five-page essay to tell my family not to send me to military. I should have tried that. I just was like, Okay, I'm going. Cool acceptance. That's awful.

Kelly, Mike Davis is usually my co-host. He's out on vacation this weekend. So I was super excited to have Kelly here to help interview you. She herself raced. And I'm curious about, Kelly, your emotions, when you're thinking about Haley and her future and how she's doing, you as a driver, you know how that world is. What kind of emotions do you have? when you look at her and see her having success and knowing that there's potential there.

Well, I think the cool thing is, like, I always tell everybody I live vicariously through Danica when she was here because, you know, I race too and it was a different era. I'm glad I'm in the business world now, but seeing your spark and just your personality to also go along with your talent is awesome. it's hard to support female racers like you said that have a lot of other motives and performance and what they're doing on track doesn't always look like it's the most important thing that they're doing you know so I think seeing that bundled up in you is really cool and I just want to see I want to see more than one of you make it you know at the top level

because I think there's a lot of opportunity for you guys. There's a lot of sponsor opportunity. But that's why I was asking about the female aspect of it, because I think it should be celebrated. And especially when there's few and far between that get to, you know, the NASCAR ranks. And you look out, like you said, you look out over the dirt world, and you look out in late models and all of this. There's female racers out there, and there's a lot of them.

They just all don't get the opportunity to get to where we are. And, you know, people ask me what, you know, why, why don't females make it? And the number one reason to me is that nobody will give them a chance. You know, there's performance out there. There's lots of raw talent out there. But a car owner and or a sponsor will not give them a chance. And taking it, I wanted to elaborate on to you what you said about taking it slow because that's important. It's important because of your age.

for one because like you said you're gonna right now it's like you get in and you need to have results quickly or it's um or you're you know you're set to the side really quickly so um i think that's really smart of you too to to take as many years as you need i wish danica would have stayed with us a full another full exfinity year you know she was here two half seasons essentially while she was running indy cars and then only one um season with us and you know i think if she could have got had she was improving and she could have got some wins under her belt in the Xfinity series that would have helped her when she moved to the Cup series you know as well so I'm excited for you it's uh I just love it I mean I want a female to make it so bad I grew up

I mean I grew up with Shauna Robinson and Patty Moise and and people like that that I was big fans of and cheered for and I just think that the sport needs it and that they want it the fans want I mean, I think that's why they're so wrapped around you and engaged in you because you're engaged. And so I'm ready for it to happen. Thank you. Yeah, but I totally agree. I think that if I have to spend another year down in ARCA in the K&N series, just so I could have a five-year-longer career, I'm willing to do that 100%.

Like, I just don't want to go too fast. But also, I think being a girl in racing has its pros and cons. I feel like it has, okay, you're a girl, you get a shot. you have some money behind you, but in the end, not everyone's willing to work with you. The hardest thing for me going into the K&N series that I didn't realize was going to be a problem is having crew chiefs work with you. That's the hardest thing is having crew chiefs work with you. Because first of all, they see you as a little girl, and they are like, oh, she don't know what

she's talking about. And so it took the longest time for me to earn the respect of these guys that have been there forever, all these mechanics and everyone in these, you know, Just that I've been doing it for a long time, when you get these older guys that just are set in their ways, it's hard for them to move out, be in a different situation. And so that took me a long time. I'd say I lost about half my season, was just meshing with the crew chief. And I'm on my, like, fourth crew chief now.

And just, it's finally, I'm finally realizing what I need out of a crew chief, and crew chiefs are now realizing what they need out of me. And I'm, I feel like a talkative person, so I give a lot of information. and so it's been helping, but that was the hardest thing for me was just getting crew chiefs and people to believe in me. Absolutely. That's hard whether you're a guy or a girl. But to draw some parallels with Kelly's late model career,

I was with her when she would go to the track, help build a couple, help build one car at least. But I worked on a car on a weekend, and that was the one thing that stood out to me in her career and seeing other female drivers from a bit more distance is getting people to believe in their future and getting people to believe in their ability and trusting what Kelly's saying about her car and how it's driving and what she wants it to do and what it's not doing. Typically, we would always, we had a bad habit of trying to tell Kelly to change your driving style.

Yeah, I've had a lot of Coochis tell me to change my driving. I'm like, I know how to drive one way. And so I'm like, you can't change it. Exactly. You know, like you'll fix the car if you do this. Yeah. And it's and you just, but I, so I can totally, and the longer I worked with Kelly, the more I got to seeing how difficult it was for her, you know, emotionally to like,

somebody listen to me. This thing will not turn in the middle of the corner. It doesn't drive off the corner well. So that can be really frustrating. But I've been in parts of my career too where no one believed. Yeah. You know, no one on the team, it felt like believed that I was, the guy for the job and that can be really frustrating. Do you feel like the guys race you harder?

That's like the most debated question on social media right now. And in the end, at the beginning, yes, I felt like I was very taking advantage of people would, oh, she's on my outside, we'll use her up a little bit more, she ain't going to do anything about it. And I was like that in the beginning because I was just so new to it. I was like, oh, I don't want to wreck the car. I don't I don't know how much the nose can take. And just coming from off-road racing, it was halfway through the season, I just changed my mentality. I was like, you're not screw it.

I'm over this. I was like, we're going to go get after it. I was like, I'm over these 40-year-old guys thinking they can just push me off the track. I was like, listen here. I was like, I am coming for you guys next, okay? And ever since then, I just started throwing my elbows up, and I'm like, I don't care what people say. If you're going to run me hard, I'm going to run you hard.

Just because you take the first swing and I finish it. doesn't mean. I was like, you're the one that started. If you want to start it, I'm going to finish it. And so, and everyone's like, oh, well, the only reason you win race is because you pass them on the last lap. I'm like, no, I don't pass them on the last lap because that's the only time I can. I was like, I pass them on the last lap because I know they're not. That's when you need to. I was like, I know they're not. I have this all planned out. Like, I could have, for my first win for, just there's different times. Like, I could have passed this person. I could have hit them two last before. I could have gave them a little nudge up the track. but chances are they're coming back after that so i have this all planned out it happens always in the

last corner always in the last corner and that's something me and my driving coach have always went over over the years of training and just perfecting how two laps to go okay we have our kind of allies before the race but two laps to go and no one's your friend and especially now since we've been running a little harder and everyone we've all been running each other harder i've noticed less people talk to me at the track. I have spent a lot more time hanging out in my holler. So it gives me more time for social media, but it's just different because in the end, I don't want to have to run people that hard, but I do it for a reason. I just don't do this for no reason. Like this last race at Oregon, all of a sudden we're running, okay, running good,

and then we're running clean. I was like not going to knock the nose off of it, just making clean passes and all of a sudden this guy comes back behind me and hits me and I was like game on let's go and so after that I was like okay bumping runs are coming next to you know four bumping around later we're past people and so once people started it's just it's fair game after that yeah have you noticed the change in other people's driving style since you've become a little more aggressive on the track and they're not maybe they're not pushing around quite as much oh uh 100% I wouldn't say they're not pushing around as much is a couple guys that I don't want to say it, but I have learned their lesson to not like, oh, she's around us.

Like, I make sure I don't hit her. And so there's guys that'll play it smart. There's also the ones that haven't learned. Like, I can name a few. I'm not going to. But there's probably one specifically where you get next to him purposely turns like out Sonoma. We're going down to the turn 11. And I'm on the inside perfectly at his door.

It turns four times into my door. Thank God there's a caution because I went spinning on like the infield area. And so it was just different things like that, but obviously if I'm going to give it, I have to be able to take it. So I'm okay with it now. Now that I'm like, okay, we've got our wins. I've capitalized on everything. I was kind of expecting that I told the guy that I deal with for all my deals and races I'm going to. And he's like, how do you feel about the car?

I was like, the car is not the problem. I was like, there's an a recent chance I'm getting taken out this race. It's like, if not, we have a shot at it. And so I've accepted it now. and I think that I'm okay with it, obviously. I'm not going to win every single race. I'd rather have a wreck going for a win than settle in third. That's the hardest thing for me is settling in third and just seeing back.

It's just like, oh, I could have done so much more. Sure. Knowing that you could have done so much more, you didn't lay it all on the table or have the best finish for what your crew gave you, those are races that hurt the worst. Yeah, absolutely. I think a driver's worst, I don't know if it's not the worst fear, but the one thing, like, if you get bumped,

you have to go back and give it back to them because you'll get a quickly, quickly, especially like the higher you go and the Xfinity and the trucks in the Cup Series, especially the Cup Series. If they all see it, you know, you're out on the racetrack and a guy bumps you and you don't do anything, everyone saw that. Oh, everyone does, yeah. And everyone goes, oh, okay, he's not, you know,

he's not going to do anything. And everybody starts using you up, driving you into the fence off the corner. And it's like, yeah, you got to stick up for yourself. Yeah, got to put your foot down. Absolutely. So recently you went to a local short track and you got to do a match race with your dad. Oh, yeah.

Is that true? It was Roseville, right? And so we, my team owner, he holds, he actually bought that track, which is cool, kind of one of the not my favorite short tracks. Why not? This track is just, I don't, I think it's like built backwards or something. Like, there's just something that's just something that's just something that's just. just wrong about it. You drive it and you're just like, this is just wrong. And so you come into the first corner and it's just like you straight stop on the bottom and all of a sudden you get the car

turned. But then there's like a lot of wall out. And so you're like, okay, there's room. You're like, what the heck is going on? You can't roll the center. You cannot roll that corner for the life of you. And then all of a sudden you go into the next corner and you're climbing like up a hill and then you drop down. But then all of a sudden the wall is like, even when you're on the bottom, only like five feet out. You can't fit two cars wide. And it's like, the wall's all jagged. So, like, my first time there, I'm going straight. And all of a sudden, like, the car hits the wall. And I was like, I swear I was straight. I was like, I did not lean to the right at all, but the wall just comes out that much further. And it's just, it's an odd track. And so me of my dad went there. And my team owner asked

if I'd come out. We flew out on a little plane that he had us. I kind of put it on my social media. That was the funniest part. He goes, first he's like, oh, I'll get you a jet out there. I was like, from Sonoma. I was like, wow, awesome. Yeah. all of a sudden, oh, jet doesn't work, okay. And then all of a sudden we go to a dual prop plane. So I was like, okay, I was like, not horrible. And so I was like, that's not that bad. And then we go to, and then it's like, oh, that one doesn't work.

So we have a helicopter. I was like, okay, I've been in a helicopter before. That's fine. Next thing you know, we're in like this crop duster. And so I was like, oh, my God. We get in it, and I'm like, look at the plane next to. I think it's that plane. And I was like, this is scary.

sketchy and our pilot's probably pushing 80 and like I was like I don't know what's older the plane or him like I'm looking at the little like there's like little like cigarette pockets right there and they're all rusted in orange I was like and they have like the little evacuation sheet and this thing looks like it's all in newspaper and I was like this is not good and so we're flying and I'm just panic mode and this plane can't even get the high high enough to where I still had service to post everything as it was going on and so it was just so sketchy and so we land there it's during the day I was like oh I got we made it, whatever. You're all kissing the ground. Yeah. So there was three risky events that night. It was the plane right there. It was racing against my dad, which I feel like we don't go easy on each other ever. And I got like super bad the seatbelt.

Since I had a regular t-shirt on this old school NASCAR T-shirt on, it's just like a basic white t-shirt. And I had these belts on. And I got hit. And then I like went off the side of a jump. And it like necked myself. And so my whole like right here was all bruised, like bad. from the car.

And so I was like, that was not the best idea to do that race. But in the end, it was a lot of fun. It definitely a little sore the next day. But in the end, put on a good show. The next thing, I'd say the riskiest part of that night was the third challenge. I felt like I was in like a game of Jumanji over here, just things getting constantly throwing at me. And it was flying home in the dark in that plane.

Oh, man. And keeping that mind, Sonoma, San Francisco, super overcast. So we're going. Is that overcast or smog? Am I? I think it's a solid 50-50. I think they both add up. It just gets denser.

And so you can't see anything. And we're going to go land. And I'm looking at this guy just like flying the plane. And I see him go through the clouds. And the like landing ship's like, oh, like a half mile over there. And I'm like, we just miss a landing ship. And I was like, did we just really miss a landing ship? I like, look at my mom.

We missed it, didn't we? And so it was. he's like, oh, we have to circle back around. And we're, like, trying to find the landing ship. Oh, no. Oh, my God, this is so sketchy. It would not be good. Yeah, we made it through those three events.

That was, like, the final challenge, and it was a good night. Made for really good Instagram content. Yeah. So, you neck to myself must be an off-road term. Yeah. Yeah. That's the first time I heard that one, too. But I can imagine with all the jumping, my seven-year-olds into watching Monster Jam,

and so we were talking, he's a, He's like, man, that must really hurt when they land and do all these, you know, and just I can imagine the force and all the movement. Have you driven a monster truck before? I have not driven a monster truck, but by what my dad says about it, it is painful. Yeah. It looks painful. Yeah, there's some older guys in Monster Jam and stuff, and I'm like, dude, you guys are taking beatings out here.

Yeah, I'm like, and you see those tires, they just, like, absorb. Yes. But then you know that don't absorb everything. And so that's one of looks like the more hardcore hurting sports, but the class I race in offer My dad has a little more suspension than me. I've driven his truck. I'm like, oh, my God, it's like jabby on a cloud. And so my truck, it's like, I see it as like a brick.

And bricks don't have suspension. And so my truck doesn't have the most suspension in the off-road series. I don't know why. Like, we've been trying to get him to fix it. But they make these huge ski jumps to flats. And I don't know why. All the tracks, they just love it. And so we go these jumps and you have to sail it off.

And everyone you always talk about, they're always like, you clinch. After every jump, you just clinch. These tracks are short, and you have, it's not that many laps, but it's like 15 laps at 150%. And it's just, it's all craziness. And just so much that's happening, everyone's like, oh, why is she so aggressive? And I'm like, you should see my dad in racing. You should see where I came from in racing. And you just, on these restart, so whenever there's a yellow in off-road racing, you know if you're the leader, you ain't finishing there.

Ever. And so it's just how it is. You're a sitting duck, and you're just waiting to pretty much get either cleaned out. lift it up and pushed off the track, spun out, or just straight door slammed in the first corner by guys who pretty much cut the inside track. And so it's just, it's a different type of racing that it's, how do I change my ways when I've grown up racing in this series for 10 years? That's what was instilled into me from half my life. And so how do I change that automatic people? Oh, she's too aggressive.

Oh, she knocks the nose off of it. And it always, everyone always says, you need to stop knocking the nose off of it. I was like it could be worse. I could total. Don't change anything. Yeah. And so it's just getting past that and in the end I'd say it's a solid 50-50 of people saying oh you need to do this oh you need to do that and people are like stay the way you are. And so in the end I'm not changing. So if people have their opinions but in the end I am who I am and I don't think that's going anywhere. Your parents are here and the whole interview, your dad's been back there smiling from ear to ear. I can't see behind me. Is it? I mean, and you talked about he's with you all the time.

How, how I know it's important to have his leadership and his knowledge, but how awesome is it just as a daughter and a father to be able to experience all this together? It's awesome. My dad's like my best friend. My mom's like the girl best friend I have in my life. And so my dad, he's straight up like my best friend. We go everywhere together. We do everything together and people are like oh, you know, and people go

in that age of teenage area, like, oh, my dad's not cool. My dad's, my dad's badass. Hey, like, yeah, bring him here. There's hope for me. You'd be a cool dad. My daughter's not going to disappear. Stay away from the plastic khakis. You'll be alright. Yeah. When we had Ila, we had

We were on vacation in the Keys, and we're strolling her down the road, and she's, like, eight months old, and we're just so proud. Me and Amy, we're walking. It's quiet, and this guy comes walking by, and he goes, she's going to break your heart in 15 years, and I was like, Amy, that ain't true. That's sad. You better get some tips. Yeah, right?

I think you'll be a cool dad. Has there ever been a time where you and your dad kind of, like, butt heads? because I'm a lot like my dad, and when I was a teenager, like, we butted heads hard. And now he's my best friend again, but, like, has there ever been a time that you guys have butt heads on something? Man, honestly, I don't even think so. I would say, that's awesome. The biggest thing we butt heads about is if I do something on the track and we get, like,

he were like, oh, you should have done this. Oh, you should have done this. Because he'll spot, he spots. He's my spotter. And so he will always kind of, most of the time, only time budding heads is, when he's telling me, like, do something more on the track and be more aggressive, do this. And I'd say it's the only time, but I take my dad's opinion to the full force, and I usually do pretty much everything he says, especially when it comes to racing.

I think it's like you said earlier. I mean, you cannot not take his advice when he's have the experience and the success and talking about other dads in the sport, you know, where they're not racers or whatnot. I mean, you kind of have to listen to your dad. Yeah. I think I have a strong, good force behind me. direction. You mentioned earlier your brother. How younger is your brother? You want to talk about someone that butt heads? Me and him. Yeah. But you said he wants to race too. Yeah. So I have two

little brothers. One's 13. One's nine. The 13 year old's actually out here. He's just as determined as I was as a kid for a dirt bike racing. And he's out here training at his friend's house. He legit will stay the night there for a week and just practice every single day. He's a few fastest kid in the nation for his age bracket right now. And he just, I call it stupid because it's so crazy the stuff he does. And I'm like, I will never be as cool as him on a dirt bike or pretty much anything in Morris says. I was like, my only hope is that I can make more money than you. My only hope is that I could buy cooler things than you.

And me and him, it's always the battle of Instagram followers. And it's this like ongoing battle. And I used to be so far off of him. And now he's at 600,000. and I'm almost at 500,000, and I'm like, I am gaining on you. I'm like, I am going to pass you here soon. And we just, that's pretty the only thing we butt heads about. And I'll come home from races and, like, say something happens, I wreck.

And we take little jabs at each other all the time, always taking little jabs of, oh, well, you should do this. Oh, well, you didn't win that race. And, oh, just going at it about that stuff. But me and him are actually really close. Like, he is actually a cool little kid, and he's getting cooler now as he gets older, a little more mature, and we hang out more. or I'll take him to the movies, and he always wants to go hang out and do stuff.

So he's cool. He's fun to be around. You talk about your dad and your mom both being your best friends? What sort of role does your mom play in your career? She takes me into the races. She's my cook. She's like, oh, my God, like, there's something on your face. Let me get that for you.

I make sure everything's good. I haven't been around her very much, but to me she seems like the level. Yeah. Like, let's keep it level. Always. Throughout my whole childhood, she's always kept me in the right direction. I think I'm the person and have the right morals and who I am today and have my priority straight because of her. I think I have my racing for my dad, but definitely she's kept me on the right track to making sure my career is my priority. You've got to have that balance. Exactly. Yeah. And I think I got both

sides of it, so hopefully it makes up 100%. She's done pretty much everything for me from sacrificing, hanging out with my little brother, is to be at the track with me, even though I know she would love to be spending time with my little nine-year-old brother. It's still a little kid. And there's a lot of things that she's taking her time out to do. And we have, my mom's the girl role in my life,

whether she's the one that I go to the mall with, and the only really girl role I get. And so in the end, I'm in a male sport, and I've accepted that I'm going to be, all my friends are pretty much going to be guys. And so it's just how it is. From you growing up in the day, dirt world, that's probably your friend base, I would imagine. I know my daughter, yay and

nay. My daughters both always talk about how hard it is to talk, they both, you know, race outlaw carts and Carson and the midgets on the Dirt series now, but they talk about how hard it is to make friends. Like they have a bunch of guy friends, but they're not really sure if their guy friends are really their friends because, you know, they're, they're competitors, but it's hard for them to have real true friends, and it's hard for them to talk about racing because people don't get it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So do you find that too? I totally agree because in off-road racing, I had my little posse, but everyone broke up. They all went not racing, went to college, did their own thing, whether it's still racing. And off-road community, it's a little more

rough, edgy California, a little more party, and that's just not me. I'm focused 100 times down my career. And when you're off-road racing, it's because everyone's not there for a career that's more I'd say a hobby there's very few people that make it a career my dad's been lucky to be one of them and made a really good career off of it but everyone's there to kind of do their own thing and so I don't get too involved with the off-road people as much obviously like the fans and everyone that comes out and supports me but I only do a couple of off-road races a year which I want to keep doing throughout my career to keep that aggression up with me but stock car racing I started out with a nice big group of friends

and it's very minimized now it's very very small and so I've realized over time who are my real friends and who aren't and those people who have your back those people when you get in wrecks when things happen that are still sticking with you and support you those ones

where even if you're racing with each other they'll still help you out like before Sonoma Noah went up to me and I was like okay what do I have to do qualify faster and then I out qualify him he goes I gave you too much information I was like you did And so it's different things like that.

But the test is if he'll do it again in the future, right? I know, yeah, exactly. So as long as I'm like, keep getting notes will be good. But it's just you find your circle. And I think those are, it's better to have a couple true friends than a ton of acquaintances. Yeah. One of the things that I'm real passionate about is driver simulation. And there's a lot of various types of those in the sport.

And it's getting more and more important, I think. And useful. You got the big simulators that Chevrolet, Toyota, and all these guys have. You have SIM rigs that drivers have at home. Noah's got one at his house. How often are you able to use simulator? Did you use simulator to go to Pocono to prepare for Pocono or anything like that? Oh, yeah, 100%.

So when I do simulator work, I usually go to Toyota simulator just because there is a such top of the line. I'd well go to the Mac Daddy. Yeah. And so just top of the line. And I'm like, if I'm going to do it, like I'm going to go there and spend real time doing it, make adjustments on the car, feel everything that make sure everything feels as realistic as possible. If you got a hookup for simulators, I need one for out in North Carolina. So I'm still working on one out here, so hopefully I can get one soon out here.

So since half my time's out here, I need one. Yeah. And so when you get, how helpful was that to be able to go and get in a simulator to prepare for Pocono? Like when I would use a simulator, you know, I'd been to most of the ovals, but for example, we went to test it road Atlanta one time and I'd never been there. Of course, I mean, I'd seen the track, but I drove around it. And the simulator was like cut like I'd spent if I hadn't had the simulator out I'd probably spent the first day all the way up to lunch just learning the track

and then when I got there I was like oh I feel like I've been here this is all like deja vu driving around and we were right up to speed so is that are you using the simulators to learn the tracks how quickly is it helping you get up to speed because you can have limited amount of practice at ARCA and stuff like that and I'd say last year is really like Sonoma I went there on the Sonoma track and we went there and qualified third. So it was good. I felt like the simulators helped me a lot. I went there

before Bristol this year. And we were fast at Bristol, but we just got screwed because qualifying. We didn't get to qualify because my morrow blew up right before in practice, and it was 15 minutes later to qualifying, and I didn't have time to change it. So we were really fast, though, and in the end, I went to the simulator, and I did 350 laps. I just sat in there and just pounded out laps. And that helped me so much. And before New Summer in the first race this year, where we were dominating until my car ended up breaking, but until then we were at top of the board every single time. I went there at New Smyrna and just did tons of laps,

and I feel like it helps so much. Seat time is invaluable, and that's the thing I lack right now, especially with this only being my second season in a stock car. I just, I lack experience on pavement. And so as much as I can get, or at least mimicking as much as I can get, is extremely important to me. Yeah. I was talking to Jeff Burton this weekend about simulators, and he feels like that that was the one thing that we lacked when he was driving in the Cup Series

and before was being able to hop on eye racing and run for four hours the day before going to a new track or a road course. That's a perfect example. Going to Sonoma for the first time. I mean, if you've never got any laps there and you've got to show up there and practice without a test or anything, the weekend's going to be miserable. And the ability to be able to have a simulator in your own home even that's so advanced for the drive. that, you know, such as Haley and all these young guys is invaluable. I'll try my best, try to hook you up or something.

I'm actually in the middle. I think, yeah, we might know a guy. I just sent, I just sent Kelly an email. You want to rent that thing out? We can pay for it business purposes. Yeah. I'll promote you guys on all social. Just anything.

I need a simulator. I just sent, Kelly, a email. Yeah, he's like, send a check for this. I'm getting a simulator. I'm going to find this sim rig, man. I'm finally going to get one. I've had a desk forever. Oh.

So we talked about earlier, like, what's next in the, you know, in the distant future? What you got coming up in next couple weeks? Next couple weeks, I have another arc race coming up. We're at? I think it's, I want to say Elko. Yes. Elko Minnesota. Yeah.

I've never even heard of that racetrack. Oh, it's an awesome little short track. Oh, it's a short track? Yeah, yeah, it's a small track. Flat, bank? It's like in between. It's not a high-baked race track. ASA used to run there, and it's a hotbed of late model racing in that region.

So I have that. Iowa is coming up in K&N. So the next K&N race I have is an East race, but the combination race for actual West points is Iowa, the next one. So I go New Hampshire and then to Iowa, so I'm super excited about that. New Hampshire will be great because we'll all be there. Yeah, you guys. We rarely cross-pass. We watch a lot of your races after the fact because they play a couple weeks later on TV.

so it'll be great to see your race in person. Yeah, hopefully. Set up there, I was, I don't know if I was lost. I think it was a solid 50-50. We struggled on setup, and I was just lost. Because that was the first bigger track I've ever been to, especially in a stock car, and I never really experienced anything like that.

So I was a little lost last year, so hopefully we'll come back this year's swinging. Obviously, you had your contact with your teammate. You know, we kind of talked about your aggressive. Colorado to win a race. It seemed like you guys are getting along pretty well. You know, he won this last race. So y'all patched up.

Me and Derek have the weirdest relationship ever. I call it frenemies. And so we are friends in the sense. We talk, have conversation. But our conversation usually consists of us taking jabs at each other. And so it's just, it's different. Like in the end, he's one of, before Colorado, he was kind of like one of the only person,

people I really talked to at the track. After Colorado, definitely lost some distance there. And so we would, just funny stuff. Now it's just we laugh about it. But in the end, I feel like the competition in K&N is so there's four solid cars.

I feel like that can win. And me and Derek are one and two of them. And so I feel like it's going to come down to it again. And in the end, we're both aggressive. And so I feel like contact is in our near future. And so, that's the hardest part of the sport. I mean, Dale was talking earlier about, you know, being able to take it and give it back on the racetrack and people seeing that you can give it back. But, I mean, that is the hard part, no matter what level that you're playing at is you are competitors.

At the end of the day, everybody out there is competing. It doesn't matter if you're competing for a crew person role or a crew chief or a driver or whatever it is. And those relationships are very difficult to manage. You know, it's family business, difficult relationships, but competitiveness is, I mean, that's the number one thing that drives what you do. And so it'll, that's just always going to be a challenge. I really is. I had friends, you know, I had great friends that I raced against, but I always had to

remind myself that the people that really matter when I'm on the track or in the, in the pits, my crew chief, my team, I got to do whatever they're wanting me to do. Exactly. You know, and I would be racing with Matt Kenseth. That's one of, we were great pals. And I want to, I mean, to take this spot, I'm going to have to use him up a little bit. You got to put these guys in bad situations and take advantage of them on restarts and things like that. And it's not in my nature to do that, but I had to make myself do it, thinking about the guys and the pits going, hey, you're going to pass this guy or not, you know.

And so it's hard to separate those friendships. And I would just, my advice probably would be have, you know, like you have, trim it down. Keep the good ones that are important. Absolutely. Man, I've enjoyed talking to you. Appreciate you coming all this way. I know you flew out here to do some media, and I'm glad that we were part of that.

We are huge fans of yours. Look forward to seeing you race in person in New Hampshire, and can't wait to see what you're going to do next, wishing you all the success. Thank you guys. So you got a lot of folks in your corner, and we're some of them. It means a lot. Yeah, absolutely.

Very cool. Thanks for coming out. Awesome. Yeah, thanks for having me. You got it. Packing your toilet trees somehow always involves a delicate game of stacking and space hacking. That is so true. It's weird.

You try to fit all that stuff into that little bag and it barely fits. Mine doesn't fit. And don't get a started on lotion exploding all over the place inside your bag. I don't have that problem. I've had that happen. Really? Yeah. You never have?

No, I carry my bag with me in the compartment that I'm used. So I don't, you know. It doesn't subject itself to any kind of pressure. But that's, you know, that's not a problem if you got quip. Quip is the electric toothbrush and it works just as well at home as it does on the go. The compact and wireless design tucks easily into the corner of your carry-owned or your back pocket. Hey, if you don't carry it around back there, you're spending the night somewhere, shady. The multi-use cover works as a stand and it can mount to your mirror.

It's awesome. Sounds pretty awesome. Quip's three-month battery life will last through a season filled with weekends away. I know all that because, you know, I got one. I'm on the road. I'm with NASCAR doing NBC stuff, and the quip comes in handy. That battery life is important. Who remembers to bring the charger every time?

No, three months. Set it on the chart. I'm not setting that thing on the charger every time. No. You see, Quip, they got a built-in two-minute timer that pulses every 30 seconds to remind you when to switch sides and help you clean your mouth evenly every time. Why is that important? it because up to 90% of us don't brush our teeth right way.

We don't use the full two minutes. We don't clean evenly, Kelly. Brushheads are automatically delivered on a dentist recommended schedule of three months for just $5. You know, a lot of people. That's all $5 for brushheads. Wow. Ain't you got that friend that's got that toothbrush that wore the hell out?

The things are split. Yes. And the colors all gone. The bristles are all different colors and then all that's all wore out. A friendly reminder of when to change them from, from, Quip, they're going to send them to you every three months. That's why I love Quip. They're always taking care of me.

And it's why I'm taking it on the NASCAR Road now that I'm traveling every weekend, doing the booth work for NBC. Dillner, he just got his quip. What do you think, Dillner? One weekend, I feel like my teeth look like Mike Davis. Let me see. Oh, wow, that's impressive. Is that a good thing?

Yeah, Mike Davis has the best teeth in the east side of the Mississippi. I've never looked at Mike's teeth. I can miss him. I can miss them. What are you kidding? You never looked at Mike's teeth? It's like a billboard. It's like it's more.

ever look at people's teeth. It's not that you look at his teeth. It's like they look at you. He smiles and they are like, hey, look out. Hey, what's going on, Dale? How are you doing? We're going to use Mike up now that he's on vacation. You say, you walk in the room and say, what's up, Mike?

And then you say hi to his teeth. How you doing? Quip starts at just $25. And if you go to get quip.com slash Dale Jr. right now, you can get your first refill for free. That's your first refill for free at G. E-T-Q-U-I-P dot com slash Dale Jr. All right, it's time for Valeline DIY.

So, Dale, you've got two race car restoration projects going on. They're out here in the shop at Junior Motorsports. The guys are working on them. We're going to give us an update on where you are with those and what's happening? Yeah, the number eight bush car is stripped down. It says on this page you're number three. It's number eight.

Did it say number three? Yeah, you got it down there's early. Remember, I told you to blame. You've got to know your history. It's okay. You had a lot of stuff to put together, they're doing it's all right. I just like to give him a hard time.

I know, but I like to give people grace. So you give the hard time and I'll give them grace. Well, Uncle Robert, who helped build this original number eight bush car is back there in the fab shop working on that car. It is stripped down. It's been sandblasted. We're documenting the process. The whole company here is sort of pitching in. What about the seat?

You were really excited about that. Oh, Corey, Lillard. So Joy sent me a picture of the seat that he's building for this car, and it looks like the real thing. Very cool. He is very proud of it. I'm a little nervous on how much he's going to charge me. That's a replica Banjo Matthews. Absolutely.

Replica. Replica. Banjo Matthew Matthews. The Osterlin, number two, Monte Carlo from 1980, is decowed. I sent a few pictures on my social media out about that. A lot of fans can see it in the shop when they come over here to visit Junior Motorsports. it's right next to where the fans can stand and look into the shop area. And we're going through the hubs and drive train on that car to make sure that all is safe.

So those processes. Safe as in. What are you going to do with it? We're going to enter it in a race. Some kind of race. No, I'm not. The one thing I want to do with both of these cars, people have asked me that. What are we going to do with them?

Well, I'm going to keep them. Right. I'm going to store them. I'm going to keep them clean. I'm going to crank them. I'm going to drive them around to keep them. to keep everything working. Make sure the brakes are right and everything.

But what I'd love to do is for years down the road is to be able to take these cars to Darlington or to Daytona for the 500 and set them, put them out and let people display them. Yeah, let people see them. Take them around the track in front of the field, maybe. If we get an invite for that, I don't know. But I just want people to appreciate them as much as we have.

We're going to put a lot into them, and I definitely don't want to put them under lock and key. Very cool. The stickers are all on that thing, and man, it has come to life. It looks great. The Monte Carlo number two is decalced exactly the way it ran its last race. I'm talking about we looked at picture after picture after picture, and I placed every decal is exactly in the right position that I could. Jordan Erickson, who works here at Junior Motorsports, has helped me a ton.

He's even had to hand draw a few of those. He did have to hand draw a lot and they look identical to the real things. Very cool. Very thankful. From high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film to newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to vivaling.com backslash Dale to find the product spec for your engine. We're live for Ask Junior. Oh, we got Live Asr Jr.

We have music. Wow. That's impressive. Hi. Ask Junior Live. Thanks for everybody for tuning in on our. YouTube channel, Dirty Moe Media. Make sure you follow all of our social media handles,

Dirty Moe Media on Twitter and Instagram. Facebook and YouTube. Facebook and YouTube, thank you. Social, she's going to step in. This Ask Jr., presented by our friends at Nationwide. They're on your side. And I'm sure we've got some great questions to get started today. We do.

Let's start with a question that came up after we announced that Haley was on our show, John Duncan, given that Haley and millennial drivers, are the sports future, yet NASCAR wants to appeal to its traditional fans. Some may call them old school. What do you want to see from young drivers to keep traditional fans engaged? Well, you know, I don't know, I don't know why an individual, I don't know why you might get connected to a driver or an athlete.

Maybe they're from the same state as you. Maybe they go to, maybe they went to the college that you liked or whatever. Maybe it's some similarity in hobbies or what have you. But I kind of put it like this. Like the drivers have to be able to showcase who they are. They got to go out there. You know, just going to the racetrack and driving and putting your helmet on and going out there and winning isn't enough.

In the world today, with social media and all the abilities and avenues to be able to connect to fans and activate and showcase your personality, drivers have to always constantly be doing that. and I guess today, Haley Diggins, she's a great example. She's active on social media. She's showing you what she's interested in and what she's doing during her week. I think that's the one thing that, you know, when I was racing, people wanted to know what you were doing on Monday, what was Tuesday like, what's your Wednesday like?

They see you at the track. They see you racing. They see those things. That's well documented. They want to see more. They want to see behind the scenes, you know. And they want to know really what you. you like and don't like.

They want to see the human side of you, the mistakes, the flaws. To be able to open up is really critical for a lot of these drivers today. And there's no better place and platform than on social media to do that. And, you know, you've got to be open and willing to come on this show, do podcasts, do all kinds of media opportunities when presented them. You've got to be willing to do that work, get up in the morning and call into those radio shows. and just continue to market yourself. And, you know, Kelly, you're very aware of how important that is as a race team owner.

You manage and juggle a lot of different driver personalities. What works and doesn't work? Well, I was thinking about the question, you know, in terms of bridging that gap. And the first thing that comes in my mind is just be authentic. Be who you are. Be yourself. And, you know, like you said, there's still, you, you, you, you may have to step out of your comfort zone a little to do some things that maybe you're not comfortable doing.

But as a driver, I mean, people just need to be themselves and not try to be anything that they're not. And I think that'll connect, like you said. Yeah. I think that also some of the fans, the old school fans, can see some attributes in these young drivers that remind them of Cali Yarborough or whoever. I mean, I'm just picking names like Dale Earnhard or whatever. but like that's when I was racing or you know you always got you know boy Matt Kensley he reminds me of Bobby Allison or whatever it was you know everybody would always pick a young guy and go he reminds me of this old guy well I mean that's going to happen today with these young kids that are coming in they're going to

some of them are going to remind you of somebody and going to connect you to that driver because they're like the you know they're like the veteran driver that you've always pulled for and so but it's up to the drivers to be able to to to give you that opportunity to see it. You know, the drivers, the young guys, it's so frustrating. The young guys that are great, but you only see them on the racetrack. You don't see them anywhere else. It's so frustrating because you want to know more about them. You want to know who they are.

You want to know that, you know, they're great and they're fun and they're funny and all that. But if you don't see it, you don't know it. And it's hard to pull for them. It's hard to become a fan. of theirs, to be honest. Yeah. That's the frustrating part, I think, in our sport. We're getting a lot of questions about

Alex Bowman's win. We talked about that earlier, but Grodhaus wants to know, have you ever gotten a car stuck during a burnout? Yeah, yeah. We were just talking about it on Twitter the other day. We won an Xfinity race in that pink Menard's car at Daytona in July one year. And I think I either broke the transmission or high-sided

the car on the apron. and yeah I can't remember what happened there but I did a little burnout and I think I might have high side of the nose on the because I was kind of on the apron and the racetrack at the same time so that was stuck whether it was a broke transmission I don't remember but that was funny and so the reason why Alex is so easy to like is because he got out of there and owned it and was so cavalier and casual about it I'm the stupid guy that got the come stuck in a Like in the middle of one of the biggest days of his life, you still saw his authentic self. That was amazing.

Sometimes when we get put in front of a big crowd or put on a big stage, we lock up, we close up, we clam up. You know, and you get down from that stage and you go, darn, man, I didn't, you know, I wasn't myself. Or I didn't talk or I shut up and I clamped, I locked up. But man, it was his off. That's who he is. That's his sense of humor is one of the things I appreciated about him. He tweeted. He was getting ready to bring that up.

Yeah, this morning. He led 88 laps to win the race at Chicago. He reached 88,000 Twitter followers this morning, and he woke up wondering if he might have drank 88 beers last night. He's still going. He has not been to sleep yet. He hasn't. I got up this morning at 6.30, and we have a group text with the 2,000,

17 number 88 cup team and Alex is in there and we I was congratulating some of the guys that are on that team and I reached out this morning to them and I said y'all still going after it and I think Greg guys had just pulled into his driveway. Oh my gosh. So they went after it pretty hard last night. Good for them. They should. Yeah. I was I had to go home and get in bed and get up this morning to come to the podcast. I'll try to catch him on the next one. Colby Rohan wants to know. Who has the high score on the pinball machine over there? So the pinball machine, is that a legit question? Or did you work that? No, no, it's just because that pinball machine, I've been dying to talk about it.

We even moved it so you could talk about it. Yeah. So the pinball machine, and Kelly 's probably got some great stories about this, that's a comet pinball machine. And it's from the 80s, I believe it's from 1984-ish. Me and Kelly, when we lived with Dad on the lake, there was a pool table downstairs in this sort of living room area. One night, we come, one night this, we get home or get home from school or whatever, and there's a comet pinball machine down there. And I'll be damned if Dad didn't play that machine at every single opportunity.

That's so funny. Every night over and over and over hours of playing this thing. And he got good at it. Like he would play in every game he was close to his high score. And he had all the high scores. It keeps like four high scores on there like a typical pinball machine. And he had them all on there. And it was like $3 million or some stuff.

I can't remember the number that was a high score. And he was forever trying to beat his own high score. and he finally did one night, and he's screaming and cheering and jumping up down the house. There's this one little thing that you activate while you're playing the game that gives you a chance to get a million points if you can jump the ball. A million. That's what it says. It would keep saying that over again.

The whole time that you had the opportunity. Yeah. I can hear every sound that that pinball machine makes in my head. It's called the Comet, and the theme. of it is a carnival sort of roller coaster theme, and you're playing in a carnival and atmosphere. Has the ducks that go back in, your ball goes, right, right, mac, right, right. Yeah, where it's like shooting the ducks, and then it has the dunk, the dunk tank with the dummy in there, and the guy's going, hey dummy, dunk me, dunk me, dunk me, hey dummy, and you got to hit him with the ball,

and he does, ah, and when you go down the roller coaster, it, it, has the people's, you know, sound. Yeah, cheering and carrying on. Yeah, like you're going to the, you know, down the road. But Dad played this out. Well, Dad played it for hours, and we just stand. The sad thing about it was, is like, we're like, hey, cool, we're hanging out with our dad, but all we were doing was watching him play pinball.

And he'd probably pick on you for playing video games. We would sit there and watch him play pinball, and he literally played for an hour or two every night, and we would stand there and watch. We would just got to play it. Yeah. Yeah. So we have it in here. I've had that thing in all over the property, but it's, yeah, pretty cool.

So that's a pinball machine story. All right, guys, that's all we have time for today. Well, that's a shame. Those are some great questions. You didn't want that one to end. That was fun. Yeah, thank you for tuning in. Mike Davis will be back, but Kelly, thank you for being a co-host.

It was fun. Yeah, thanks for having me. Ask Jr., presented by Nationwide. Thank you guys for tuning in. Keep coming, bud. White flag, right there, white flag. All right, white flag. Dale, have you ever apologized for something publicly?

All the time. All the time? Well, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. We have a public apology for you here. Weekend Money, I guess a play on Sunday Money is the guy's screen handle. He said, awesome show, awesome guests, awesome hosts, became a filter time customer and a pristine auction watcher because of it. That's awesome.

Became a fan of Junior at the Spring Martinsville Race in 2006. Awesome comeback that day. I became frustrated with Junior for some reason, though, that he can't remember, and then he would go on to comment mean things on social media. And he thought you lost your edge. So he's really throwing some shade at you on social. Once he announced his retirement, he said, I became saddened by my actions and overcame with regret.

I belittled one, if not, the best spokesperson for the sport I love so much. I was excited when he took over the job at NBC and love that the fans can hear his passion and excitement every race now. I got a copy of the book, Racing to the Finish, and now I've really started to understand his struggles. I related to the story and could feel the pain. Dale is an honorable dude and a huge asset to not just NASCAR, but motorsports as a whole. Thank you, Dale, for your passion, love, and stories of the sport, sincerely an apologetic and grateful fan. Man, are all the reviews this good? Are they all like this?

I need to go read. I apologize. Yeah, I know. I need to go read these reviews more often. For some self-satisfaction. Just to make you feel good. All right, J.D. Ray, 99. We love these Apple podcast reviews, so keep them coming, folks. So good, I listened to Pajino twice. Wow. All right. There you go. That's a compliment. The questions are great. The follow-ups were perfect. Dale, you've been working on that. Your interview skills are definitely have improved in the year and a half we've worked together. Thank you. Dale read my mind asking Simon to expand on some of his answers. Loved Simon describing racing in the wet. Side note, I was in a work meeting.

describing an impact test using a slide fixture and spontaneously shout it out slide job nobody got it and I quickly moved on so keep those Apple podcast reviews coming we love them

heads up tune in there's a very special NBC sports NASCAR America live from Daytona 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time so make sure you look out for that of course watch the Dale Jr. download on TV, on NBC Sports Network, 5 p.m. Eastern this week on Tuesday, and the re-air, which you've got to love those re-ares.

You like that re-air, Dale? I'm thrilled that we're re-airing. Well, it'll be Wednesday, 11 p.m., so for all your late-night people, if you miss it, you can catch it then. I re-air last week did better than the first run. Really? Oh, that's good news, I guess. Well, a lot of people watching TV that hour. Yeah, there you go.

Well, finally, July 8th is something really big. It's my wife's birthday. But that's not really a white flag item, but where I'm taking her will be because I'm bringing her to go see Crowder play live at Whiskey River in Charlotte, July 9th, 730 p.m. I've been to a few Crowder concerts, and they are freaking awesome. You know, I met him actually in the TV compound in Charlotte a few years ago. He's a great dude. The concert benefits to Dale Jr. Foundation and, of course, motor racing outreach. So if you want tickets, you still got time.

MRO, give him a call 704-45-38-38 to purchase tickets. And one last thing sitting next to me is the social queen. Make sure you hit up Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, whatever. Do we have a MySpace? No, no, no, no, no. We should get a MySpace. And YouTube, and yeah. I have enough on my plate.

No, you don't want MySpace. I don't want MySpace. All right, Dale Jr. hit us in the face with some odd history. Okay. On July 4th, 1954, the NASCAR Grand National Series was racing at Asheville Weaver Speedway. in North Carolina, it's a half-mile dirt track and qualifying track promoter John Little John. Joe Little John, sir.

Joe Little John, yeah. That'd been better. John Little John got permission from NASCAR to ride in the passenger seat of Herb Thomas's famed Hudson Hornet. Despite the added weight of the South Carolina native on the right side of the 54 Hornet, Thomas broke the track record and won the poll.

It remains the only time a NASCAR Cup car qualified with two people in it, Oh, my gosh. It's crazy. Thomas's number 92, minus its passenger, went on to win the 200-lap event and score his 38th career NASCAR victory. Crazy because this went down in the midst of the glory days

of Thomas and the Hudson Hornet, which included back-to-back 12-win season. A passenger. That's pretty awesome. You ever have a passenger in your car, like on a test or anything? You ever do something stupid? You hear old stories from back in the 70s and 80s of people doing dumb stuff like that.

Can't. Can't say I have. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I enjoy pristineauction.com. Man, they've been a part of this show a while. They've involved us on a few different levels. Pristine is an authentic sports memorabilia website where you can get some cool stuff. You can bid and win without going to the auction house, which that's nice. You can be at home listening to this show, sitting on the couch, bidding on great items.

You're not going to listen to the show in bed? Do you listen to podcasts sitting on your couch? People listen to podcasts driving to work. Yeah, which I'm not going to bid while I'm driving. I know. But if your ass is at home. If I didn't have a wife and kids, maybe I would. You better not be listening to a damn podcast.

Why not? Why? You can do it on your TV now, man. No. What are you going to watch TV? You're going to listen to a podcast on your TV? Whatever. What the hell?

Matthew. Do you come on? Well, wherever the heck you're listening to. to the podcast. Yeah, mowing your yard. Yeah, there you go. The great thing about podcasts is it kind of makes bad experiences go buy fast. All right?

So you do it when you're driving a long time or at the dentist. Yeah, sitting at that dentist chair. Try pristine's daily auctions. They also have this 10-minute auction I like because it's fast. And I feel like that I'm the only one bidding on this stuff. And the 10-minute auctions I like, I got everybody sleeping. I'm going to get this for free. But that's impossible because they all start at $1.

They're good deals. And you know what? That reminds me. We got our gloves program. We need to start that bid low. This is a lesson from Pristine. We'll talk about that. We need to start our bids low like Pristine.

Keeping it reasonable, ladies and gentlemen. We know these gloves are authentic. The great thing about the items on Pristine is the authenticity. I've signed for them. I know they're legit. There's no fakes, no phonies. We see them on other. other sites, fakes, phonies.

And that makes me angry. Not because somebody has faked my name, but I know that somebody's getting ripped off. You're not going to get ripped off on Pristine because everything is authentic. Before the show, we spotted a Doug Williams, quarterback for the Redskins, won the Super Bowl, autograph jersey.

Bids are just 20 bucks for it. That's a deal. Yeah. So I'm telling you, man, everything on there is a reasonable price because it starts at a buck. We should take a page out of their book, Kelly. Check out Pristineauction.com. com now. It's free to register, free to bid, and of course you only pay for the items you win.

That's pristine auction, spell P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E, auction.com. And when you register, be sure to select Dale Jr. Download podcast from the drop-down menu and the how-did-you- hear about us section. That way, they might keep sponsoring this show. Bidding out and enjoy the week, everybody. This bit of bad-assery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirty Mo!