The Dale Jr. Download - 277 - Bubba Wallace: The Battle Within

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

In a powerful interview, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets Bubba Wallace to open up about how the young driver handles conflict and his brave decision to come forward about battling depression.  The two discuss dark days, the battles of a young career and family issues that have helped mold Bubba into the 'wear it on his sleeves' emotional person he is today.  They talk about their love for Late Model Stocks, why he was so pissed at Alex Bowman, the lone regret he has about the "water bottle massacre" at Charlotte and much more.   Dale Jr. proudly welcomes his Late Model driver Josh Berry to the show for a celebratory chat about winning the prestigious Martinsville grandfather clock.   DJD  speaks about North Wilkesboro progress, Halloween costumes and the mysterious tale of Talladega sabotage.   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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for the Dale Jr. download. We got a great show today. We're bringing in two guests. So Bubba Wallace is going to come in here. Can't wait to talk to him.

Also, a winner from Martinsville at the 300-lap. Late model stock race, Josh Barry's going to stop in and tell us all about winning the biggest race of his life. Mike Davis, Matthew Dillner, Leavon. Everybody ready to rock. Let's do it. All right. Here we go.

Listen, before we get to our guest, I want to take a second to tell you about our other podcast. That's door bumper clear. Say your average. Unfiltered commentary and an abundance of opinion. Mr. Nice guy or Mr. Get a fuck out of my way. Like Johnny Cash, we ain't afraid to walk the lie. I'll walk the line. Listen to door bumper clear.

Available on all major podcast platforms. It burns, burns, burns. Ring of fire. Door bumper clear. Door bumper clear is awesome. Frady Craft is a regular on the show. He happens to be a spotter for our guest, Bubba Wallace. Yes, right.

So let's bring him in. Bubba. Bubba had a great run at the Daytona 500. Pull it together, bud. Pull it together. You just finished second. It's awesome. I just try so hard to be successful at everything I do.

Darrell Wallace Jr. is going to get his first win in the kid being a truck service. I won't put up no shit. I'm gonna get my respect on the track and I don't care who it is so So I flat out wrecked his ass back I don't know it's not supposed to happen according to Twitter We're supposed to run 25th to 30th all week and crash cars Oh this is gonna be big we're not supposed to run with these big teams what the hell Somebody can drive

Uh yeah I'm gonna chug this and then it's gonna turn into something else out of this is we're gonna go party so Appreciate y'all hell yeah Hey Bubba oh here he comes how's it going man oh bubba all right have a seat now explain to you why we're doing it this way So if we all hop up and shake hands and say hello, which is really the nice thing to do when somebody walks in a room. It takes us about 10 more minutes to sit back down and get our shit started. We got nothing but time. We start chatting.

We hug. Then we realize that we used up all the good stuff and not for the podcast. Donor told me to be here at 9 and we're 7 minutes past. Well, you're fine. That's good. Where's donor out? I'm back here. That's seven more minutes of sleeping, dog.

Yeah. Is he still be sleeping right now? I woke up before my alarm today. Look at you. Man, what are you a dad? I hope not. That's some dad stuff right there. Yeah, this is what we wanted to talk about.

Are you a dad? Well, I just know, like, I wake up before my alarm. I don't even need to set one anymore because I'm getting my asses getting up whether I'm ready to or not. So what's been going on, man? You got a lot happening? Yeah. Just finally getting over a head cold from this weekend. so that's been nice.

It was a blessing. It was a blessing and a curse because obviously you feel bad. Going for the weather change, it was 94 when we left, and then we landed in Dover. It was like 55, 60 degrees. So that triggered it. But it saved me a lot of money. Did not go up to a casino, so that was nice.

Yeah, laid in the bus for three days straight, so it was good. Yeah. I stayed in the casino for the first time. I've never stayed in that. I said that once. Did you? Not bad. No, did you have a track view?

I did. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Which was very weird. It is weird. Like, what has happened to my life? I used to be down there in the bus lot. Yeah, yeah. Tracks are kind of weird.

You know, that quiet track thing that Gluck does? It's kind of like that on steroids. Did you find yourself just peeking out the window going, look at that all quiet track right there. It's all about all the years in history. Man. Hey, did you know that at Dover, the front straightaway, the backstretch used to be the front stretch?

I was told that. Yeah, there's a picture I saw this weekend on social media. on Twitter that So that big building where everybody sits and gambles on the horse races Right? It's in the photo and there's the flag stand It's just past the gate.

Wow. Yeah. I don't know when they moved it. When do they do the horse racing there? You know, I think it was I think it was the ones where they ride in the carts. Oh. Yeah, there's a name for that.

Like gladiator style. Two wheels, yeah. They got two wheels. Ben her. Yeah. There's a pick. So back in 1980, they had the drivers do a promo where dad, Bobby Allison Dara Waltrip, and one maybe more got on those and rode them around that horse track.

That's cool. Very dangerous. Harness racing, perhaps? Harness racing. Yes, you're right. Very dangerous. Do you like Pocono? I've actually grown to like Pocono.

I went there 13 in the trucks. And I think it's because it was such a momentum place and going there for. for the first time, three different corners. Yeah. I felt like one and two was pretty easy. And then they were like, yeah, just basically hold a wide open. And I'm like, wow. Through the tunnel turn and I'm like, nah, this place is kind of cool.

It's different. It's cool. And shifted and stuff like that, made it interesting. So, um, so yeah, I like Pocono. Do you? Yeah. Did I ask me if you like Pocono? You did.

I don't know why we switched to Pocono. And my follow-up question was going to be to Dale. And that was, why are we asking him about Pocono? I was like, oh, okay. We talked about sleep. Do you like Dover's the, Dover is the most badass racetrack on the circuit. Dover?

I love Dover. Really? Just the feel of it. Going there for the first time, K&N car, we had just raised, I think, Martinsville, finished third there, and we were driving up to Dover. And Andy Santerre, old Bush North guy, he was running our program over at Red Racing, and he said, all right, bud, to make this work in a really thick northern Maine accent, to make this work down into turn one, hold wide open.

And I'm like, okay, simple enough. The drop off there slams the racetrack, and I'm like, hell no, no chance, no, absolutely not. Unfortunately for me, my excuse, we had motor problems from start of the weekend to the end. And so we were sputtering all the way down straightway. So I was about two, three cylinders down. So it made it a little bit easier hold wide open, but absolutely not. Ended up blowing a right front tire lap 37. Go back to next year, and I'm like, all right, I'm manning up, wide open all the way around.

Set on the pole, won both practices, won the race, and I'm like, coolest racetrack ever. And then, yeah, for the next three, two, three years, qualified on the pole for the truck races, the Xfinity races. So the only thing I have a pole is a cup car there, and it's killing me. It's coming. I love qualifying there. It's coming. I don't wish it was asphalt. I would like to see it asphalt.

That'd be cool. I think it would be a whole lot cooler. I think it'd be a lot better racing. I do too. Hopefully that doesn't give me a visit to the hall. Why would you get in trouble for saying that? That's totally... You're skinned.

You can say it. You can't. I've already said one race was bad and I got called to the hall. We'd have to say the race is bad. You can just say this race would be a whole lot better if it were. You know, you've got to put one down. Well, Junior can say it. You don't have to put one thing down to prove your point.

If you have an opinion, you can just say this would be cooler. That's true, yeah. But you can't have your opinion in the sport, especially me, you know, coming in, borderline, sophomore year, no wins, no championships. I don't have 10 championships. I can't have an opinion at all. Well, that's really hard for it. That's actually a fair point. I mean, you got to feel like your opinion is going to be validated.

I mean, it's valid. Like you can offer it because nobody likes people giving opinions when they don't feel like, you know, they've earned the right. You know, Jeff Burton could give an opinion. right you know there's your dad rusty wallace they had opinion they were the opinion givers so i get it maybe a few years you didn't lay the asphalt to them you know what i mean lay the asphalt by the way dale i wasn't molded that way is is there right yeah yeah we'll talk about that uh is there a track anywhere that you feel like concrete is the way to go no all right so like asphalt everywhere right concrete is like have you it's like uh driving i mean surely people have

went down a concrete interstate or and it's like, cuttun, cuttun, cuttun, that is true. The joints in the concrete. And Dover still, Dover has that.

And so when the tires and Goodyear used to get so pissed off at me because about middle way through the race, I'd say, these tires are bouncing like basketballs. And they would say, you know, stop talking about our tires. We really don't appreciate you talking badly about them because I would say,

oh, they're like plastic hot wheel car tires or they don't have any grip. That's funny. You know, I'd use. references that every man might understand. And so, and it, and it,

and it basically, when the pressures build up and the track rubber's up, it bounces on them joints. And, I mean, it'll rip the interior out of a car. The straightaways are really rough. I'm sorry.

Yes, they are. They're so rough. They are. So, um, I was racing there one year, and it shook the interior out of the car, like spot welds and the interior broke out of the TV panel across the back,

you know, across the back where the shocks are mounted to that bar. Mm-hmm. And I mean, just, are throwing fricking axles out yesterday and the 12 car

burn up a barrel of brakes or something said the left front hub or something. Right. So it's a beat-up old rough track and not, you know, that's great. I like things that are...

Not in the right way, though. Yeah. I like things that are going to test the equipment because it's rare that we have equipment that fails, but we want the drivers to be challenged

physically and the cars to be challenged. But I think, man, when they used to have asphalt, they would smoke the tires around the corners and you could, I don't know,

it was cool. Yeah. I just feel like concrete's just a lazy way of making sure you don't have to repave the track for 40, 50 years. That's true. That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. That's the only reason they paved it with concrete was to save their ass from having to repave it. Well, it rains all the time up there too. So I think concrete's a little bit easier to dry.

Is that, am I right on that? I have no clue, but maybe. I would wonder the time frame from asphalt to concrete. Yeah. I think you maybe have something there. Maybe. I'm going to go with it. So this has been an interesting year from you, and there's a couple things I want to talk to you about. And one of them was you came out about depression.

And so for a lot of people that are struggling with any kind of depression or anxiety issues, it's really hard to probably talk to anyone about it, much less make it such a public confession. because, you know, I guess your fear is that a lot of people aren't going to understand or what you're talking about, understand what your experiences are, or think that you're weak or that you just need to tighten up or pull yourself together. Like, you know, they're going to say things like, well, everybody has problems in life. Everybody has struggles. So I commend you for coming forward about that because there are a lot of people that are struggling.

And when you share your story, you support and you hold them people up. and so that's pretty amazing that you did that. Appreciate it. And I guess what made you want to say, hey, I'm having this problem. What made you want to reveal something so personal? I guess I've never looked at it as a sign of weakness or coming out and talking about any issue that I have. I think, hell, you asked me, I'm going to tell you.

and you don't see, I guess, I don't know if it's like the bigger picture or the light at the end of the tunnel. But I was definitely in rough times there. It was Kansas. So whatever race that was, 10, 12 on the schedule. And they were like, what's going on? You seem different? And I'm like, I'm depressed. That's simple as that.

And then for weeks and weeks, even to this day, I'm still getting thanked for coming out. and talking about depression. It's helped so many other people. And I'm like, oh, I didn't know it was such a big deal. You know, I was just asked what was going on and I told them, because I'm an open book, you know, what you get is what you get, what you see what you get. But it's such a bigger deal than just talking about, hey, I'm depressed. Yeah. Hey, I'm going through this and days are dark and days are long and quiet and lonely and people are like, I've never been able to come out and talk about that and I I don't have the time to sit down with them and be like why just talk about it and you know it is signs of weakness and whatnot and and I think it's it depends on how you let others

affect you and like how you tell your story like if if you're if you're worried about what other people think then it's I broke out of that show a long time ago back in high school I always used to care what people thought and I wouldn't come out about anything like I had to be dressed down of the nines. I felt like if I wasn't, then I showed signs of weakness and it was embarrassing. And then finally I woke up one day, I'm like, this is stressful. I'm going to show up looking like a bum. I don't care. You know, I'm ready to just live my own life. And that's how I am today. I don't, I do care to an extent, but on those things, I think talking about those things, the people, you're put on a pedestal, you're putting in a spotlight. That's one thing I hate about

being an athlete or a competitor or just an icon or whatever it is. You're put on that pedestal. whatever you say is magnified. And it's brought out to a huge audience. But man, I just, it's what I felt that day. And it helped out so many other people. So I thought that was really good. When you say they asked you what's going on, you mean the media. The media.

Did your team notice anything before that? So this was the first time you had admitted it to anybody. I'm pretty good at holding things. And that's my problem. I held it in for so long. And it had just built up. So I don't, I don't talk. When I'm mad, I just hold her all in.

And I don't talk. And that's what's ruined relationships and whatnot. I just hold her all in. And then a day later, it blows over. Hey, what's going on? But you don't realize the damage that you've done. That's crazy. It's almost like this paradox where you're known for being an open book.

And yet you're saying that you can seal and hold things in. And that's got to be exhausting almost. It is now. Is it? So when you admitted that to publicly, did that feel like a regret? or a release? A release, for sure. A release of emotions, anger, frustration, tears, sadness, darkness, loneliness, everything.

You know, when he talked about it, it was just sitting there. And it's emotional to think about to this day. There's still days, it's been a lot better. But there's still days I'll go home and sit on the couch and look at a blank TV. Yeah. Are you taking steps to get yourself some assistance with that? Is that something you've been proactive with? I tried.

I went to counseling and people are like, man, there's nothing wrong going to counseling. I'm like, I know that. Stop telling me that. Who said there was anything wrong? Yeah. I'm like, it's a matter if I want to get up and go or not. I don't, if somebody wants to talk to me, sure. So I went and did that twice with a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

And it was very weird. It was just sitting there talking like, this is what? what I'm feeling. Well, why are you feeling this way? I don't know. I just am. And they said, you got to give it time. It's not really going to go anywhere in the two weeks.

And I stopped going. Of course. I was like, I can't do it. Sure. I would say that you probably didn't make a connection with that person on a personal level. I didn't. And I love therapy and I've been for many reasons in my life. And I feel like that there's times when I went and met people, I went to a therapist.

And I'm like, I don't mean. you aren't going to click. And then I went to some and I've been like, this is an awesome person and I'd like to spend more time with them, you know, and they become really close friends. But hopefully you land on that one that you like. Yeah, it's been three or four months now.

So it's been a little bit. Well, man, I've noticed, though, that, you know, you're emotional. You wear your, you know, your feelings on your sleeve. Is that sort of an extension of that? that's how it's always been really you've just always been that person like when you run second at Daytona and you had those emotions in the media center with your mom there and yeah um you just seem to be that you know even with uh bowman there at the end of that race like you just seem to have your you just you're you just you whether it's positive or negative yeah you seem to be very

volatile if you will for lack of a better word is that sort of just always been your personality? Yeah, I think I'm guilty of doing before I think, especially on the negative side. Yeah. You know, it's like, ugh. Probably shouldn't have done that. Whatever. How old are you?

26. I'll be 26 tomorrow. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, when you're in your 20s and at least into some of your 30s, that's just how you're going to do things. I know. And that's like, there was a lot.

Can you survive it and get to that point? I'll try. I'll try. All you can do is try, right? Yeah. But, yeah, I think. I've always, I've always been that, that guy. I've always had a little bit of a temper. Right.

I take after my dad, who has a very, very short temper. And that's been kind of the downfall. So I hate that. I kind of took that aspect from him. But, you know, Daytona was, was a lot to do with my dad. And he wasn't even there. So not many people know. My parents went through a divorce at the beginning of 2016. Yeah. And when was that Daytona race? Was that 17 or 18? 18. Okay.

And family went this way. Oh. Yeah. And so it's super tough to talk about even to today. We're obviously in a lot better place, but my dad and I are. But, you know, this is the first time I've ever. I like this show because honesty comes out. Yeah, this room has some kind of weird.

I know. It's like, speak the truth, nothing but the truth. He's got this truth serum that fuses from the table. So 2016, I think. think it was that year it was uh i'm sitting in my house and um my mom comes barging in at like nine 30 10 o'clock at night i'm sitting on the couch i'm like what mother that's how always that's all always that's always talking to mom she hates uh um and she i was like what are you and dad arguing about now not even like being serious like well what do you do now because they never argued at least

you've seen and she didn't say anything she sat down on the couch and i'm like what is wrong thinking like what what the hell's going on well me and your dad got into it and lot and i so forth so on and light switch went off i got the truck went over there fought my dad thought yeah yeah okay yeah like swinging fist yeah just did before i thought physical altercation physical altercation and since that day that's when family went me and him it was for that was for 15 years of racing at that point. For 15 years of racing, it was me and him, like this. And then that day, that was it.

And so the next morning was Media Day down in Charlotte. I was racing for Jack and whatnot, and they sent out a thing, hey, wear black pants, button down, whatever. I showed up in a T-shirt and jeans. And Jack looked at me, and I looked back at him with the same look, and I said, you can say what you want to say, but you ain't going to win this argument. And we went and talked later that afternoon.

He called me in his office. He said, hey, what was that all about? You're not being a part of the team. And I'm like, I don't care what I'm a part of right now. That's the least of my worries. You're heading somewhere else. Absolutely. I don't even want to be there.

I got, what do you feel about this season? Yep. You feel like you're into, yep. Yeah, it was a bad day. And so. Did you tell Jack what happened? I think I eventually told him what went down. And he understood.

but I think this year has been like finally my dad and I are kind of making some progress and if you know my dad he's who he's super hard-headed to talk to and just to make him understand things and whatnot still love him to death no matter what right wrong and different he's my dad but I forgot where we're going with this story well I don't care because this is this is really good I mean, I'm curious about how you guys started making progress this year. Like, did you have to be the bigger man and make the first, you know, extended olive branch to him? Or like, how did you guys start doing?

Multiple times. Multiple times I did. And again, that's where I say reaching out to my dad, his favorite saying was, time shall heal all wounds. Hey, man, you want to talk? Time shall heal all wounds. I'm like, okay, took a couple months later. Hey, man, I want to talk, time shall heal all. I'm like, God, Almighty.

He can't tell you. Yeah. You know what else? Hills wounds? You know, actually conversing about it? Yes, yes, yes. So it's still, you still have a little bit of that awkward tension there. And it's part of it.

You know, growing up around him, you see, like, kind of his antics and how he is. And you try to be around that. My mom and I, she came to the race this weekend. We were talking. And I was like, yeah, I got something on my dad. It may have been his temper, like I had just said. And I was like, I hate that. I got that side of it.

But all in all, it's all right. We stand up for what's right. You know, my dad was always, he always wanted the right way, the fair way. He felt like if we were done wrong, he'd go back. He's an eye for an eye guy. That's it. And he would, I remember we got thrown out at Kentucky in Legend Car. The bumper got pushed in.

It didn't get knocked off. It just got pushed in, bent in the frame rails. Just pushed it in a little bit. And they were like, nope, your bumper is detached, your black flag. And we're like, I didn't know. I was just sitting in the car mad. And he was like, go to the hauler. and I think he threatened to whoop his ass or something.

And so he was suspended indefinitely from Kentucky Motor Speedway for the legend stuff. And the guy that suspended him comes down the next week and my dad like kisses him on the cheek just to fire up that emotion. And I'm like, dude, what are you doing? That's just how my dad is. And that's where we just, we push people's buttons. That's all we do. Constantly push people's buttons. So has he been to the racetrack, you know, since you guys are getting back on the same?

Yeah, yeah, he came to Bristol. He came to Darlington. He was at the Roval. He's come to a handful. A lot of it has to do with his brother, though, my uncle. Does it help you? Do you like having him there? Or does it not affect you one way or another? A little bit because it's like, all right, is there going to be any drama today? You know? Oh, man. That's a lot. Not like it's a burden to have him there. It used to be because it was like, we're not on good. terms. He was like, hey, man, it seems like you don't want me to come. Do you want me to come or not? It's like, hello, good luck today, nothing? Just, do you want me there or not? And it's like, no, that attitude, no, I don't. He was like, man, should I even get a hard card this year? I'm like, oh my goodness. That's so frustrating. You know? And we've made things better. And this isn't a bad talk about my dad, but this is a big chunk of the depression that I've gone through is losing your best friend. Exactly.

I would think that would play into it. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So, like, when my parents, when they split up, it was always like, your dad did this, your mom did this. And it's like, go, time out. I am straight down the middle. I don't care what BS y'all have going on. I said, you're my mom.

You're my dad. That's it. Well, your mom did this. Oh, gosh. So I didn't talk to my parents for months on months at a time when they were going through things. Mom would call me, hey, how are you? Fine.

Well, guess what your dad did they? Click. Hang up. I don't care. I don't care. Stop trying to pull me one way. We're not trying to pull you one way. Yes, you are.

Yeah. That's amazing to me how even at 25 years old, divorce can affect you. You worry about people or kids going through a divorce with their parents when they're young, not understanding or too young to really know what relationships are all about. But even at that age, it can be such a burden and so tough and emotionally debilitating. For sure. Yeah. Insane.

I didn't know if, I didn't think you were going to talk about that. I kind of, you know, knew that you had had some things like that going on in the past and knew that that was weighing on you. Mm-hmm. But I'm glad that things are, yeah, time here's on. Some well, yes. I'm glad things are improving a little bit. Yeah, for sure. For you and your father, especially because of the racing relationship.

Yeah. All right. Let's take a real quick break from Bubba to tell you a little bit about an important part of ours on the Dale Jr. Download. Yeah, man. hiring is a slow process. That's why it's important to hire using ZipRecruiter. Okay, let's tell you about our buddy Dylan Miskiewicz.

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When you raced in late models, so the first time I remember seeing you was in the K&N cars. But I remember your late model car. I remember that paint scheme, but I never saw you race. I still owe Daven sights of wrecked. For what? I know who Dave. Yeah. So I know David.

He wrecked you? He wrecked me at Concord. Really? And he was like, yeah, that was the excuse. I'm like, what? That was it. That was it. I still owe him one.

He's out there still grinding. Is he? He ran the motor. He ran Martinsville. Did he? Yeah. That's funny. I saw him a couple.

I saw him last week. He takes me. I talked to him probably once a month. We had a big charity event called Brenda's Betts for Pets and he was there. That's cool. What was your experience in late models? You ran a late model stock. I ran late model stock.

It's the only late models that are true to what? what stock car racing is. Love what you're saying. Love it. You know? Not driving to the, not driving to the center of the corner and stepping back on the gas, the center of the corner like a super late. Blaney and Chase, we can argue that every weekend. Yes, every weekend.

The sound, Blaney's impersonation of late model stock car is actually pretty funny. It's super high pitch. Sounds like a bumble beat. I think they sound sexy. I think it's awesome. Then you got the really deep super late model. But anyways, our late model success, I was running late models when I was, let's see 12

wow but I was 14 yeah birth certificate oh yeah you you can oh we had we had five or six birth certificates what yeah Lynn Carol and I and my dad are not good friends oh wow yeah we

um Myrtle Beach we got there for the first time hate that place by the way I know you love Myrtle Beach I hate it's tough it is which one of those birth certificates gives you a birthday for tomorrow or is that is it really your birthday tomorrow it's really my birthday tomorrow okay yeah and I don't even know what to

I don't know. I don't know. We went to Myrtle Beach for the first time. We made, like, one lap. And they were like, hey, pull it in. And Len and Carol's standing there on the lift gate. And he brings us in. How old is he?

My dad says, how old do you want him to be? He says, give me a fax number. He'll be 16 in a matter of minutes. Oh, my goodness. Fax number. And we ran that race and whatnot. But we had to have, like, special insurance to run with UARA back then, now at the car store. but yeah we were I think we were 12 when I first started running 12 13 which is the normal age now they've lowered the age and stuff but we didn't have a ton of success on late models we ran really good but like the wins and stuff every car you know every bigger car you got into the winds kind of decreased and that was that was the case we won we won one UA R ERA race and when de Benedetto finished he finished second at Bristol second or third this year he finished he finished

second. Second. Yeah. He always won. Yeah. I was going to tweet out a picture because my mom was in the middle of selling her house, but now she decided to keep her house. So we took all the racing trophies.

There's stuffed in my garage now. And there's the Caraway trophy where I got to him with 10 laps to go, gave him the bumper. And me and him, we did not like each other. He didn't like me because of that movie. I didn't wreck him. I was just like jacked him up, got him out of the way. And I was going to send that picture. I was like, man, second place sucks done to the Benadetto.

But I was like, ah, I'm not going to do that. That's my personality. See, I just push buttons. And so I got one UARA win. We won a bunch of times at Franklin County, which is an awesome place. Franklin County is wild. It is wild. It's like, I wouldn't give it the Bowman Gray status of, is it Virginia?

West Virginia. They had that YouTube show on there called Buckwild. They did. They did. They were. You ever seen that place? No. So is that, Virginia?

Did you ever watch those videos? I did not. Oh my gosh. So, Kyle Dudley? That sounds right. Yeah, he used to race there. They were crazy, man. What did they do?

Just kind of like Bowman Gray. On a little bit lower scale and I say a lot more redneck. I don't know. I don't know. More redneck. More redneck. He would know. He would.

He would. Matthew said. Let Matthew say that. Corey. Corey Lerjoy was with me. He came up for a race just to help out. I think U.A. was running there.

come to help you this is years ago? This is years ago. He'd come up just to watch. I think UAR was going there later in the year, so I think he wanted to see the track because he was running at that time as well. And we were watching the street stocks race, and they get into a physical altercation,

and there's one guy, Corey does the best impersonations of anybody, and there's this one, I don't even know what class it was, maybe even the four bangers, whatever it was. I'm a damn driver, just yelling, yelling to the police officer, I'm a damn driver.

I whoop his ass. Like, what? This has nothing to do with what's going on. It was the craziest thing, one of the best stories. Corey, you have to ask Corey about that one day. We got to. That would be funny. List your friends that you, like Corey, Blaney.

I didn't know you and Corey had any kind of connection. Yeah. So go back through, even, you know, from any driver that I might recognize the name that is in that circle. Yeah. So I'd say if we start back from day one, when it started. Who was, who did I become friends with?

I just keep my friends very, very small. You race against Matt. I raced against Matt. That was a little later. So I met, if we go back to the go-kart days, Jake Crum, he came up through the ranks. He was like the man to beat in go-carts. He was like, man, he did all like the big cahuna stuff,

dirt and asphalt. He was the one to beat. Ryan Galinsky, remember that name? Yeah, he runs a little bit of late model stuff. and then when I was running, I think when I hadn't gotten in the Bandeleros, Blaney was running Banaleros, the white and red tin.

And I started hanging around them, I think mostly because his older sister, I thought she was hot. Did he know that? Does he know that? I don't know. He does now. It's a good-looking family, man.

They're family now. They're family now. That's a good-looking family. The main reason I have. hang around is because Lisa, mom, of course. Come on. That's what I'll hang around. Let's see, Blaney, I met him first of kind of like all the

people because right at that moment, I hadn't even met LaJoy yet. Actually, I did. It was LaJoy. He was running bandos at the time. He was in Outlaws. I think that was, or no, it was Young Guns, bandits, young guns, outlaws.

It was Lejoy, McReynolds, Himrick. We were all kind of running through there. So we knew the names. Yeah. But Blaney and I obviously we were in banits together, little rugg rats running around, didn't meet Chase or know of Chase until he came in legend cars and had the ugliest legend car ever, green body, green wheels. Oh, it was terrible. It was absolutely terrible. So that's where I known him from. And then he went to Struplayed model racing. Blaney and I hung around, had some

good races in banaleros and legend cars until he got suspended after one year for soaking tires, I believe he did what yeah he's still suspended yeah but he still so you can go that you can go back but i was i was suspended indefinitely for what uh you may bring out the list oh you did a lot well i mean don't know the start with your age dillner knows he's laughing matthews they're laughing yeah all right dillner and i used to i met dillner before anybody we used to be part next to each other is there a short list matthew of things that uh bubba had done to get himself suspended i mean i'm i'm assuming his age well it just seemed like every every week It seemed like he would either be winning and crying or losing and fighting.

And like his dad and him were the most passionate people. We sucked. I had my niece there and we were awful. So we were at the low end of that. Y'all were at the high end of that. We were getting in trouble running in the back and getting run over. Y'all were getting in trouble getting wrecks up front. Yeah.

Yeah, it was we had one or two instances where we were DQed before we even got to tech. It was one of those things. he's not supposed to be outrunning those guys. Yeah. You're doing something. You're throwing out. Oh, man. Yeah.

And then there were some, like, we used to put buckshot in our A-frames and stuff on the bandel arrow and throughout the frame rails of the car. They finally found that. We got protested for, we didn't get thrown out of this one, but Kevin Yates, we used to run up against them in Legend cars up in Virginia. Shannon Doe. We showed up for the first time. My manager and I, Kyle.

we show up to Shandah and wax their ass and one, two, checked out and they come up, protest. You got traction control on your lid. So they made us take every piece of lead off

and you think about it, how can radio waves travel through lead? So it doesn't make any sense. So we would show up, we'd run really good in Legend Car. We were solid in Legend Car. We bought that car.

The car we had was from Reed Sorensen back in the day. I think the story is my dad, I think Mark Martin had it. So they went down to Mark's house in Florida and bought it and my dad was hung over and threw up in his front yard. I think that's the story. Wow.

Yeah. And we got that legend car. And we sold it for some reason. It was the fastest legend car on the planet and we sold it. And now we got another one that's pretty good. Yeah, so I noticed you've been running some legend cars this year. Why you want to do that? It's the most fun race car that I've ever driven in my life.

It taught me so much. Power to weight ratio. Power to weight. Have you run a legend car? Yeah. Yeah. Years ago. And I just remember growing up, that's where all the memories came from, running the shootout, remember in there being, how many mains do we have in semi-pro donor?

G, almost like chili bowl? It seemed like, yeah. I remember one time 2008 when I was running and not qualifying every week. Yeah, I remember that. I would be in the C-main consistently. What class were you? And there was like 28 semi-pro. And there was like 28 to 30 cars they'd send home every week.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. There was a lot. And I think I may have even been banal arrows at that time, and we still had 40 plus bandaleros. Legend car count was 130 just in semi-pro. Dang. And it was insane. Now it's 130 total car count between Legends and Bandaleros. It's like, man. But Legend Cars is the most fun car ever. You just get out there and slide, and you go out, and they got the bumpers on there for a reason. And they preach to you, don't use the bumper in the driver's meeting. It's like, okay.

All right. We'll not use the bumper. How do all those guys feel about you coming out there and running after all these years? So we'll go back to while I was DQed. I would go run the road course. Lord knows I need all the road course help I can get. So we would go run the road course just because it was fun. And not even knowing, I was running a legend car 2015.

So even when I was at Xfinity, I was still running it the whole time throughout the summer. And getting thrown out every other week. So we go run in the winter heat series, go run the road course. We show up and first lap in practice, break a lollipop on the left side. Okay, come in, fix it, go back out second practice, break the right side lollipop. It's like, Jesus, let's just load up and go home. And we're not even cheating. There's no reason to cheat at the road course because it's not going to help me at all.

So I think we make it through qualifying, go to the heat race, and run in third or so. And I'm like, all right, good day. Boom, drive shaft breaks. like, oh my God, the wrecker comes and gets us and drives through the sewer hole, the man hole, big tip, knocks a car off, legend car, rips the whole body off. Dang. Oh, it's just a miserable day. So my car looks like Frankenstein from hell, taped up, whatever, 600 or Inax,

whatever you want to call them. I will give you a new body. It's like, absolutely you'll give me a new body. It's mangled. So we get out in the race running pretty decent, boom, break the left side lollipop again. and it's like all right never coming back again put us on the record again my man takes a right instead of a left i was like oh trailers that way he's like no they want you in tech it's like for what so obviously a frustrating day and uh they come up to us take your motor out my dad's like hell no take

the whole car we're not running this car ever again it's cursed they're like no we want just the motor it's like after the day we've had we're not taking out the motor take the car we're not going to run this car again you can have you can sell it if you want to you're suspic you're suspended indefinitely get out. That's exactly how it went. I feel like we're missing something. God can strike me down right here. Take the whole car.

We're not taking another part off this car, especially the motor, just so you guys can have it. They've always been suspicious of our motors. That's why. But it's like, if you want to take the whole car, take pictures and show the world what Bubba Wallace is doing, there's your chance.

Do it. Find out where we're cheating. Nope, you're suspended indefinitely. So we were done from 2015 until they called me the day and the guy who threw me out he got fired and they were like hey he's gone you want to come back i'm like hell yeah i'll be back i'm back so so you go back so back to his question the the reception for you to oh yes so coming back um a lot of people were pumped so the first week back uh michigan i was pumped because we knew for a couple months that i was going to be back

in the shootout and i was just going to get my feet wet again and um michigan rained out on sunday and so they start off now with a double header for the shootout monday and tuesday so i missed Monday. So I'm like, dang it. Points are basically gone. I was going to try to run for points. So we show up on Tuesday and go out and qualify. And the way they do it now is totally different. You group qualifying and whatnot. We used to draw and just go for heat races and stuff like that.

So now you actually go qualify. And I go out and make my laps and they say, I hadn't even been there an hour. And they say over the, over the receiver, 76 card of tech. And I'm like, oh, here. we go again. Same tech people are still there from the days that I still am not a fan of. And I'm like, here we go. First day back in four years, straight to tech. And they're like, where's your transponder at? I'm like, and I think of Chris, I'm like, damn it, Chris, you didn't put the transponder on. We didn't get a, we didn't get a time. We'll start last, whatever.

And they were like, all right, you're good. Roll on. And I'm like, what the hell? And they were like, hey, come see us at the tech shit. I'm like, okay. They were like, apparently the one we gave you was dead. And so they were like, I was like, so am I starting in the back or am I getting to re-qualify? What's the deal? I'm okay with starting in the back. I don't care.

They were like, how fast can you get in your car and go out and re-qualify? And I'm like, five minutes. Shot out there was straight to the top of the board. Yeah. Oh, I walked in that tech shed because now they, they redraw, you pull a, you pull a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a I don't sponsor's it. They have three through eight. And so obviously top eight were redrew that week.

And so I walk in all top eight drivers at that time. And then I qualify on the poll. And there was a mom in there. Oh, no offense. We're glad you're here, but this just isn't right. And I'm like, really? Yes. And I'm like, I said lady.

I said, I said, yep. And I was like, I looked at all the other. I knew some of the younger guys because we run against each other. And I'm like, I ain't got time for this. So I walked out because she was just going off. her son had qualified eighth and when i went when i went back out i bumped him a ninth so ninth on back it's to run a heat race and at the end of the day what i should have said and i'm glad i didn't if your son qualified better we wouldn't be in this situation okay that's just how i am

yeah so so but other than that everybody was pumped to be back for to have me back uh we had some good hard racing um chris ferguson was the car to beat every week he would have two three second leads checked out gone i'm i'm coming off turn two he's going into turn three caution would come out two or three to go bumpers are made for a reason but the first the first week back um or it may been the second week he he's checked out caution comes out and i'm like all right i used to just go in there and run over people and it's not that's not how you do you get on somebody you lay on them and you push them that's how it was so he got i got a really good restart and i'm shoving him through the restart zone and I'm like, I'm just going to lift or not lift a little bit later than you.

Shove them out of the way and whatnot. Ladiga, who works on Tim Ladiga, works on Austin's car. So we're obviously, we've known each other, parked against each other, just I'm going to kick your ass this summer in the shoot out, just going at it. He comes in, that's all you got. Just run over us, knock us out of the way. And I'm like, Timmy, you're talking about me? Because the third place guy comes and shoves us both out of way.

Rexus destroys us. And I was like, he's like, hell yeah, I'm talking about you. And I'm like, Timmy, you got four cameras on this car. go back and watch. He texts me later that night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were good. I shoved you. I'm like, I know, you didn't need to tell me.

I didn't knock you out of the way. I moved you out of the way. There's a big difference. So there's just a lot of drama, a lot of excitement that comes out of legend car stuff. And, yeah, we were, week one, we were part of the drama. Pissing off moms. That's the worst. I mean, it's, you know.

Soccer moms. It's like, come on. Get out of the tech room. It ain't even the drivers you're worried about. No, it's the moms. Yeah. Yeah. And the kid was just, like, sitting there like, Mom, stop.

Yeah, just stop. Nothing worse. Your mom go fight your battles. Exactly. I just love that we're talking legend's drama. That's the most drama in racing. And not even cup drama. This guy's going like out of with Kyle Bush and guys like that.

We're talking about Lentz. It's awesome. Legend cars cup racing. Wow. So this year had been a real struggle throughout the season, but then you get to Indianapolis. and I mean you've had other runs that were impressive besides that but that one was in particularly a very strong run for you guys

and you talked about that car itself was some new and improved machinery but man I mean I'm sitting there watching that race and you'd worked your way into the top 10 and then you went into the top five past a couple guys you got out and you're like hey I guess I ain't forgot how to drive Yeah. So how gratifying? I know that it sucks that you only get that moment every so often,

but how gratifying is it to be able to go out there and prove to everybody, especially to be able to compete against some of the teams you were competing against on a grand stage like Indy? You know, I never lost doubt. Actually, I take that back. You start getting into, ever since, you know, going to Rauch, it was an ultimatum of do you want to stick around JGR and have a very limited number of races, if that, or go to Roush, who's in the struggle points right now,

and try to rebuild that program, full-time ride. And so we went full-time ride. And, you know, it may have seen like that that had been the downfall of my career at the time. And I questioned that move. I wouldn't say every day, but, very frequent. Like, what if we would say to JGR? You know, they've never been on the downside in their Xfinity program, Cup program,

anything. You know, maybe those four or five starts could have been four or five wins. And now I'm 0 for 72 in the Xfinity side, I think, something like that. I look at that stat a lot. I should know it. But ever since then, you know, getting the opportunities that I've had, I don't know if I would have gotten the opportunity. Being lined up with Ford at the time.

Eric getting hurt. I'm a Ford driver. Hey, I want a shot here. to the 43. If I would have stayed at JGR, it just could have been five races this year, three or four of the next year, maybe seven, you don't know. So I don't regret making the move. But being in the situation I'm in now, and for a smaller team, you don't know how you're going to run. Kyle Bush can show up every week, and he's like, I can win every race if I want to. The 19 can do that. Any big team that shows up, they're like, yeah, we can have a good

chance at running top five. I told Blaney, or some people asked me, Blaney was pissed at me after the race, at Indy because I basically chopped him. I was like, dude, you're going to show up next week and run fifth. We show up to Vegas and where did he finish? Fifth. We finished 23rd. I don't know what I'm going to have when we show up. You know, actually, I figured that we were going to talk about this topic.

And I had thought about I needed some firepower to kind of answer this question. We go, there's some tracks we go to Darlington, for example. And I show up to the car for practice, you know, not exactly on time, but saw a lot of people wait there to get rubber on the track and stuff. But I felt like we were a little bit late getting on track, so I thought a lot of people had went out. And so I go through turns one, one and two with a new package wide open now. Super easy.

And cars driving decent. And that track, Darlington's one of the tough tracks for me. And I'm like, man, we're not bad. I don't feel like. And my spotter's like, yeah, P17. And I'm like, that's good for us. I'm like, okay. And I make a couple more laps.

By the time I get back in the garage, P27. And I'm like, oh, God. and that's it and it's like oh so we're not 17th a bunch of cars hadn't gone out 10 cars hadn't gone out yet and so that's that's how it goes so when we go out early it's like i don't get my hopes up anymore you know when we run good so we went to uh indy the next week and wide open everywhere but turn one just a little bit and i'm like dude this car feels stupid fast and my spotter's like i mean you're p5 on the board and i'm like all right p5's a little bit different p-17 right and i get back in p-5 on the board p-5 the next 30 minutes 45 minutes and i think we

ended up p-5 or something like that uh so i was like all right this car's pretty good so we fire off in the next one and we're p i think we ended up i think we were p-7 or p-10 at the time and people did mock runs so we were like p-13 or so we didn't do a mock run that time and i'm like all right so we qualify qualified pretty decent inside the top 15 i believe and like And lap 13, pit road. We still don't know what happens, but we feel like a good idea what happens. Chase wasn't paying attention as I bailed off in the pit and just runs me the hell over. Yeah.

No, NASCAR, I'm not blaming it on. Most popular driver, but it was his fault. But it was. And I was like, when you're sitting in the car, you don't know how much damage you, especially when you get super hard and you're like, oh, our day's done. Bumper's probably pushed out like a parachute, destroyed. Great car. and that's like that's our freaking luck you know we um we we have these opportunities and they're

taken away from us just like that and it's like that's that's why i don't get my hopes up i remember that um there was a lot of cars got damaged yeah it was like seven or eight yeah a lot and i'm looking at everybody i'm like man all these guys with bare bond and tape yeah that guy he's done he's yeah true x i was like good yeah yeah i didn't know what happened and and then i sit there for a second and i see cars just going by and i'm like that's one that's two that's that's two that's That's three. That's holy cow, how big was this pile up? Yeah.

And I look back because I was going to try to back up in my stall, and the nine was sitting perpendicular to me. And I'm like, geez, I had to go out, and we started last on that restart. And next thing you know, like you said, we started picking our way up through and got inside top five, top, or top ten, top five. And Clint was the best about it. I've seen him at Vegas. Bad time to be around Clint in Vegas.

He was like, I went up to Blaine, and I told him, you stupid, you're an idiot for trying to pass Bubba, you knew he wasn't going to let you go by. Yeah. It's exactly right. I'm going to do everything I can without wrecking, obviously, to hold you back there. It's what's called racing. Yeah. It's what you do.

You defend your disposition. There's a very big misconception, perception, what everyone would call it, of racing today, I feel like. And that's a sore subject with me. But the only defense I had, for error purposes, our dumbo mirror, the side mirror, was moved up to the top and way behind the driver's net. So I had no visual because usually my spotter says inside. I'm like, is he really inside? We always second-guess our spotters.

It's like, I couldn't see anything. So I'm like, well, I'm not going to put my right front out here in the crap and get super tight hit the fence. So I'm like, I'm going to pick this line and run it. And you hear my spotter like, inside, inside, inside. Yeah. All right, he bobbled about back. You're clear. 24 is behind you now.

I'm like, I may have chopped him a little bit. But we finished there and it was awesome day. So, I got a question. I've been wanting to ask you. What did Bowman do for you to be flipping him off at the road wall? Never cleared up. What had you flipping him off? Lap one.

Really? Yeah. That mistake. But that was... One, three, four. That was strike five. Yeah. Yeah.

What were the other issues? One, two, three. You don't have to, I mean... No, no, we don't forget. Obviously, race car drivers don't forget. This is fine. I actually had to talk with Scott Miller and Jay Fabian. And they were like, what went down?

I'm like, well, let's talk about it. Strike one was Martinsville earlier this year. I've never had a run in with Alex on the track. I've just, we just, there's a couple guys at the racetrack where it's just like a, so keep walking. Bowman, Newman, Almerola. We just, I don't hate you. I just, we got nothing to say.

Sure. No, no disrespect. We race each other with respect on the track, except for Bowman. Martinsville over this year, we restart around each other, get going. The top usually rolls on restarts. He's like, Freddie says, clear in front of the 88. Coming off a two, get down in front of the 88, doosh, knocked up the racetrack, third groove.

I'm like, damn, bud, I was clear. I didn't chop you at all. Wasn't one of those going into three, like, clear yourself. Off a two, clear. It runs me up the racetrack. And so I'm like, okay. And then down the front stretch there, I was trying to, this is where I cleared myself and I'm out wrecked.

and that was my fault there, but it was just like, dude, what's the point? Like, not even like a, like, never lifted. I was his brakes. That was that. All right. So then we've had a couple more, like, small instances on the racetrack. That did, I didn't really count. It was just whatever.

It's just like, okay, this is how we're going to race all year. So Richmond, a couple weeks ago, we had a really good car in the race. We were really good in a long run. And I remember battling the 34 and the 22 for the lucky dog. and I'm catching the 22 and the 88's catching me. Boom! Right when he gets to me. Knocks me up the racetrack.

And I'm like, I know we got to go. I'm not sitting here trying to ride around and waste time getting around his 22, but can I get a chance to get by him? Knocks me up the racetrack. So what do I do? Hold him tight. Get in the three. Runs me up, like gets loose on the inside of me.

He drove it in too hard, runs me up the racetrack, third roof. Now we're three wide with the leader. And I was like, that's it. 88's getting wrecked here if he ever gets around me. Our car was good enough. We spanked that tail. Never seen him again. So that was third strike.

Yeah. So you didn't reckon, you were saying your car was good enough. I took the higher road. I didn't slow down weight on him and wrecked. I just drove away from them because after that, never even heard of the 88 again. Got it. Once I, because I, at that moment, drove up to the 22. And it was like 88, not even in the picture anymore.

It's like, give me a chance, but you might be faster, but the way of the racing is, It's like you catch somebody, you lose two or three tents. You know, give me one lap. Didn't even give me a corner. It runs me over. So then his run-in with Austin, you know, the Silver Spoon comment, whatever, I don't. That's, I'm not a part of that. Then he, what he says in the media center at before, or before the race at the Roval,

talking about we don't see Austin at these types of places. It's like. You felt like that was a little bit of a dig. And then he wads his stuff up in practice. It's like, who's starting back there with us now? who's starting back there with Austin starts right behind us we go into the backstretched chicane

drives in I see the 88 out of my I'm like I'm taking it easy here just kind of cruising I see the 88 three car links deep boom runs into the three bam runs into me shoves me through the chican gives us a penalty

oh that's it I'm hot I'm pissed it's like dude it's lap 1 and you've already run over me three four times now and you made that comment about Austin you run over him it's like

dude that's it. So when he gets back to me, Freddie's like, hey, man, 88's here. Don't waste no time, but don't make it easy. I can do that. I can make it really hard. I can try to be Ryan Newman. Try to make it.

Try to be a kidney stone. And that's what I did. And so I'd get, like, all right, you're clear by two now. Boom, out the window. It's like, you deserve that. You run over us many times throughout this year. And then off a two, or I'm sorry, off of one, onto the big track, over one.

I had checked up. I was like, all right, I'm done with this guy. Just go. And I lifted, I felt like for 10 seconds. And I'm like, damn, he's spent out? Where'd he go? And I look back, and he's just now coming up on the banking. And I'm like, well, damn.

So I gave up, I'd give up a lot of time. And then, so I get back in the gas. And he shows me through the chican, shows me through the chican, and then right rears me. Boom. And I didn't really think about the right rear technique until after the race, but right rearing somebody on an oval track, that's ground. for taking gloves off and in the middle of a fight and getting your ass whooped, right? Am I wrong?

No. Anytime I think you might dump show on purpose. Intentionally, it's time for... Exactly. If you were to spun me infield, like, left, I think it'd been a little different, whatever, lazy spin, right rear, driver's side on the wall. Boom. Now I'm pissed.

Yeah. So we had a restart. We're coming down. We're the last car on pit road. and we're coming to the green and they're like hey go up there and get behind the 22 it's like 10 rows ahead of me 43 get up behind the 22 we're like okay puts me right next 88 freddie freddie is like 88 outside outside outside outside 88 is outside and I'm like nah whatever I doored him off of four and I was like whatever we'll be fine drive away didn't hear the 88 anymore

and uh this was even after the spin where I'm like I'm going to go erected this guy. And I was like, nah. And then it seemed like every other caution we were a part of, and I was just over that race, 100 laps to go. I was done. I was like, this is stupid. We're wrecking race cars and whatnot. We're just running over everything, destroying stuff, red flags. And I could not calm down after the race. And I had actually walked up there and I got 10 feet away and I seen them on the ground and I'm like, oh, dang. Nah, I'm still walking up there. I stopped for a split second. I'm like, I'm going to walk up there. Was anybody with you?

My PR person, she was like, hey, your golf carts this way. Where are you going? I'm like, Courtney, stop. I actually, I had looked over at my pit box. I had something that made me look over. My gas man, Ian, he's looking right at me. And I give him the head nod, like, let's go. So he drops everything he's doing.

He walks over the wall because I didn't know Alex was on the ground at this time. And so I walked up to him and it was it. Yeah, water in the face. So I guess my question. Power rate in the face. Yeah. It was not water. I guess my question is, so I, you know, I'm trying to think in my mind if I've ever

been wrecked on purpose, like legitimately hooked on purpose. But I've been, I mean, I've had things in my career happen to me that I just can't forget and I can't get over and I can't. Like nothing helps me. Time doesn't make it better. And God did me wrong. and I'm still bothered by it today. How will you work?

How will you get beyond that? So, like, getting hooked like that intentionally, you can't just shove that aside or shelve it. No, no, but I think it's where I had messed up, we go back to Watkins Glen, we get dumped by the 18, and I said the 18, just dumped me. And I'd say another word on radio.

and retaliated. 88 don't me. I said, wow. I said he must not have watched Watkins Glenn. Said that over the radio. And then I was like, I just said too much right there. They're kind of monitoring that. And it's like, I shouldn't have said anything.

And so I went back. If we want to get even, the ball's still technically in my court, because I'm 26th in points, my man's going for a championship. It's kind of the same situation I was. in with Chris Busher back at Roush when the Dover incident. I remember that. Yeah. Door slammed each other. Could have finished second at worst, $100,000.

Instead of we finished, I don't know, 15th lap down or something with 10 laps to go. And I could have wrecked him that year and he wouldn't have won the championship. Chase, I think Chase was in it again. I didn't think he would have won. And I didn't. And it's like there's something telling me like if you go and retaliate and end somebody's championship hopes. Yeah, that could be huge. It's big, and it's like, yeah, it's like, it's almost like fixing a race, you know, the way I think of it.

And it's like, man, it's not like that. But I will tell you, if the 88 touches me again on the racetrack, I don't care. Yeah. And we race clean. Like, he was behind me, Fred. He's like, yeah, he's just two or three back last week. And I was like, all right, I'm running the car too hard. I'll get out of the way.

And it was fine. It was all good last, or yesterday at Dover. So it's just like, just race clean, race with respect, and that's fine. I mean, I guess an important question then on how you handle it moving forward is to address this question. And that is, do you have any regrets on anything that you've done up until now? Absolutely not. No regrets. I regretted.

You know, if we go back to the Roval, obviously Jeff Gordon was standing there. Dr. Angie and Jeff Andrews were standing there, kneeling there, laying there with him. What are you going to call? And they were a part of the spray masker. And I text Jeff a couple hours later I said hey man sorry about that He's like I get it You know you had all the right to be mad

But obviously the timing of it was off He was like next time Please make sure it's just water because it was a little sticky Oh my good He would That was but I said Man you just won the race too That was pre-celebratory

You know Power rate spread And And I didn't know who the other Hendrick exec was at the time And I was He's a good guy He is he doesn't care And I was like, I was like, who was that?

And then at the E&T. Jeff, Andrews, it's fine. All right, Jeff, Dale said it. I mean, like, did it occur to you? I mean, listen, when it happened, because I really like you and you know, I mean, I've just, I've always had a big admiration. Why don't I feel like there's a big butt coming? No, no, no.

It's not, it's not that. It's simply that because I'm such a fan of yours, I did have a cringe moment when it happened because the optics of it was. I just knew that that was going to be hard for you. Yeah. That was it was. I felt like that it was justified. I didn't know.

exactly what, but I mean, you're sitting here talking. I think it might even be more justified than I even realized, and that's certainly usually the case. But the optics of it. And so what, what did you regret that? I felt like that once you saw, like, you know, you kind of cooled off and everything, that the paramedics being there and everything would probably make you regret that you handled it that way.

As soon as I walked away and got back in the bus, I take a shower after every race. I looked at myself in the mirror. I'm like, you shouldn't have done that. And I regretted it. and I deleted Twitter, Instagram, all social media. I was off social media until Saturday night. I noticed that. I was off there.

We did one appearance posts, but that was Kyle posting for me. I think that's a great smart move. Yeah, and it was tough. Like some of the messages, we were out of time, sorry. No, we're not. Yeah, okay. Some of the messages I was like, you know what? Some were like towards my mother and stuff like that.

I'm like, you know what I'm done. The worst of the worst on Twitter. Yes. Well, I said it on this show last week. week and I'm not saying it just because you're sitting here, but I didn't, when it happened and I saw it, I thought, I thought zero about it. It's a racer. Not a thing.

He didn't think of a thing. I was like, yeah, that's funny. You know, if anything, it was funny. Yeah. And then everybody goes, man, that suck. He did that. And that girl got wet. And then I went, yeah, okay, I can see that point.

But otherwise, I mean, in the moment, I'm like, yeah, that's nothing. I mean, all's fair, all's fair, you know. Right. Being intentionally wrecked, right rear, versus. is power rate of the face. I was like, right, right, right. I still didn't get even yet. But I did because of the spotlight that it was in at that time.

So apologize to Dr. Angie. She was super cool about it. I met with her before the race yesterday. And she was like, let's go talk in a private room. I'm like, okay, I don't know if she's going to be mad or whatnot. She was like, look, she was really, like, honest and, you know, very. She just said, you're on a pedestal, man. And that's just tough.

And I feel sorry for you. Like, it's one of those deals. And I'm like, you know, you're exactly right. Right. Yeah. I think it would be only surprising if it was a driver that was typically very low and even keel. But, you know, knowing you and knowing how emotional he is, and you're like, I expect Bubba to say something, do something to react. And the fear is that things like this, I think this probably played into it again, is that I don't want Bubba to change, right?

It would be hypocrisy for us to get mad at you for how you handled it, but then still want to see transparency from drivers and still want to see emotion after race. still want to see that it matters. Yeah. And it still matters to you. And you know what? Hearing you talk about the ups and downs, I mean, you remember lap times of practices and qualifying laps because every lap matters more to you. Hungry dogs, man, they fight harder.

Absolutely. And it means more. And so I don't want you to change. And when you went silent on social media, it did worry. Did you feel that? It did. I was proud of you, Bubba. I was proud of you because I, you know, because we can really make fools of ourselves

on social media. Like if we think that we can make. People will give you a molligan because after a race, none of you guys are thinking clearly. No. We privy to a lot of context that you have no idea, right? And that's part of the entertainment value. But on social media, you can really look like an idiot, right? And that's where people in their worst, I feel like, are on Twitter, and that's where you see it.

And so I thought that was a good move, but I didn't want to be a long time. Well, I came back this morning and had a buddy of mine out at the row. took some really awesome shots. And if you go on my Instagram, it says, have a Coke and a smile. Some of you need it. So I'm back. So I got one final question for you,

where you just slightly a little jealous when you saw that PubG Mobile paints dude, yes, I meant to text you. That was awesome. So I'm sitting there in the bus. I was like, I said, does that say PubG? And he'd come by again?

I'm like, yes, PubG! I'm still waiting to play around with Dale. He's text me, hey man, I'm on PubG, let's play. It doesn't matter. I got home last night and I jumped on for two hours. I didn't go back to one playing PubG. When's the last time he played I racing? I jumped on for the Roval.

I get so bored with that. I got a sick ride coming today. Oh, you told me about that. You told me about that. Why do you get bored? I mean, it's just not the same. It's just not the same. Ray and dirt?

I have, and I was on that for like three months. Like right when it came out, I'm like, oh, this is badass. I'm going to run chili ball. Yeah, I'm bored now. Well, I'm all, we'll get on the PubG Mobile. No, not mobile. No. All right, all right.

I want you to at least. try. I tried it and I I'll give another try. All right. Let me know on iPad. Okay. Do you have a pro? No. All these stipulations. Okay, try it on an iPad Pro. They're making me spend money. I know. I wouldn't cross Bubba. I'm just

saying. We've detected a theme here. Crossy, man. I don't know. He can on the PC. I hate how you have to tell it to pick everything up. Like just give me what's better on the ground. So that's, yes. The looting, the looting system. Yes. Like in mobile, you walk across something, and if it's a better gun or it's a better option.

It picks everything for you. It picks it up and puts it on your gun. It does it automatically. You just run around grabbing stuff without ever doing anything. And then you're ready to, you know, shoot somebody. Yeah. It's tough. It's a very tough game. And the PC, man, you've got to be using all them fingers.

All of them. Well, it's tough. I've lost touch with it and I'm pissed because I used to be pretty good. Yeah. But I didn't know all right. I did a five kill last night. What are you playing now? PubG. Dying Light. You ever played Dying Light?

I've heard it. of it. So it's like a... Yeah, you were into that a while back. Yes, me and Blaney played in three days and scared. We were in our apartment, so this was 2013, 2014, yelling, screaming, just so scared. It's about zombies and stuff, but the new one comes out in the spring of next year. So I fired it up on PC to get back because it's like parkour in zombie time. So you're like escaping and stuff. It's really fun. Crazy. Yeah. And you can do co-op campaigns. So yeah. Have you tried VR? I have not. On our race and I have not. Yeah. I would wait. Iron out the kinks.

Needed a few more. I went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. That's all that. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. We didn't get to jump. I was going to jump out of a plane for the first time. It was too windy. But we did, they have gliders.

So there's a plane being towed by a tow plane. Right. Unhooked in the middle of air and you glide it back down. And they were going to put me on one of those. And I'm like, no. I don't know about that. But we got to do the VR of that. Yeah.

And I've done a lot of VR stuff where it's like, obviously, okay, I'm wearing a VR headset. But I did the glider. and I'm like, went down with joystick, and I'm like, whoa. I'm like moving to the, yeah, and I'm like, all right, now I need to try IRIS and see if it's real. It's pretty good, but I would try it on someone else's read. Go to, I don't know, I don't know who has one. Harrison Burton has one, I think, in VR.

Do you don't have VR? I did, but I sold all my VR. I'm going to wait another few years. It needs to get better. Drawing distance isn't good enough. It's blurry at drawing distance. Like if you come off turn two, all the stuff in turn three, turn three is a little blurry. One thing I don't like about irisicin, it's a great program.

It's a great video game. I'm going to say video game. I'm going to piss off all the way. You're going to piss off. I'm backing out of this one. I love it. I love it. Steve Myers mad at me.

Is, like I used to do stream a lot, and I hate that that didn't take off. But I'd sit in there and be racing there like, hey, man, move your field of view all the way up to the dash. I'm like, what? They're like, yeah, it's like three-tenths better. If you just move your field of view forward. So you're basically, if you're thinking about it in real life, you're sitting on top of the dash driving. And it's like, okay, yeah, this is real life. This is real life.

That's going to, okay, let's move your seat up in the car and see if you pick up three tents. No. He ain't buying it. No. And then they run the top at Richmond coming to the green, like run against the wall. And it's like, okay, go try that in real life. Yeah. So, hey, I'm opinionated about that.

There you go. Keep your opinionated, man, your opinionated side. Oh, of course. It's awesome. I will. You got to have it. I will. All right, man.

What an awesome time. I appreciate you coming out to do. Absolutely. Great interview. Absolutely. Thank you. Good luck. Your rest of the season.

Have fun. I'll try. And let's get on that PubG mobile. Dang it. You're doing that mobile. I'll see you. I'll say you. Raggedy old sweatpants.

They're great to wear around the house, but you don't want to be seen walking around in public. You know, raggedy sweatpants out at the bar or shopping. Bar, people wear raggedy sweatpants in the bar. That is. That's some serious game right there. Well, I mean, when's the last time you've been? To the bar.

To the bar period. To the bar? Good point. Good point. So they might be a lot of folks. A lot of changed maybe since I went. Walking around in sweatpants that need a little help. That's right.

That's a good point. All right. They're comfortable. We know that, but it's hard to be taken seriously out in public wearing sweatpants. That's just, I mean, you do it. But it's hard to be taken seriously. Now there's a pair of sweatpants that you can wear outside the house. Public rec is the brand, and man, they're awesome.

I'm wearing them right now. Public wreck. That's easy to say, you know, just thinking about crashing. Public wreck. Yeah, so we've got to specify. It's not WR-E-C-K. No, it's R-E-C. Public rec sweats are comfy enough to lounge in and stylish enough

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They are built to fit you perfectly. The fact that it has a, what's that? What the hell is that? Okay. So the front fly is fake, all right? But it's, I don't want you to be looking at my fly, Mike, so I'm not going to stand up and show it to you. Thanks for telling me ahead of time. But it has like, it appears to be like a pair, like it would appear just like a pair of slacks or a pair of jeans.

Oh, I see what you're saying. I got you. I got you. It has deep front zipper pockets and it gives it a formal look. I really do like it. I put them on this morning. Amy looked at them. She's like, they pass.

Oh. Wear those out. She's a harshest critic for me. Wearing her for the Adderid is pretty impressive. That's commitment. Yep. So, uh, I got on some names. Maybe blue ones are, yeah, and they have nine color choices.

I didn't know that. What if they got orange? Ooh, my favorite color. You'll be getting some of them. They're called all day, every day for a reason. Public rec sweats are perfect for about any dress code. I throw at them, all right? Prove me wrong.

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EJR for 10% off. Public Rick! Yeah, a new kind of baller if you went to a prom and sweats. Well, you don't tell him. You can't give it away. See, you would do that, Matt. You'd wear these thinking I can pull this off and walk in there and go, hey, man, I'm wearing sweats.

I pulled it off. It's a clean sweep of a night for Josh Barry from the pole to lead every left, never broke a sweat. He wins it tonight in the Valley Star Credit Union 300. Here he comes. The big winner! King of the clock. King of the clock.

That's my new name for him. I don't know if that's a good one. That's what I'm calling him. Do you like that nickname that Mike's trying to give you? No. Come on now. Yeah, that's weird. What am I going to call you?

What do you want me to call you? If he made the best clock in the world, then you could call him King of the Clock. I do. He won Martin. Listen, I am so happy for him. I don't want to come off this happiness. And that's giving me happiness. That's part of it.

Hokey. Hokey names. That's okay. Let me just deal with my hokeyness in. All right. So, Josh Barry is here. Josh Barry has won the biggest late model stock race of the year. Ooh, man.

And I'm a take. So I tried to go run that race when I was younger and I embarrassed myself. A couple times I didn't even make it into the race. 80 cars 69 or something showed up for this particular event 80 cars 80 some cars showed up for the test They get some of them get so demoralized at the test they don't even come back for the race Mike It is a tough tough event top 20 make it on time then the rest of the field is filled out in heat races Consolation races it's expensive it's tough but these teams and these family teams these family run teams these small small teams spend the entire year planning to get to this event.

It is by far the most prestigious late mile stock race of the year has been for I can't even remember how long. And I didn't think that we would ever win it. We've been going for years. And it's just last year we led every single lap. Most of them, most of them, yeah. And then got wrecked at the end. It's okay.

You know, when it was, I was, it's frustrating in, and sucks, but I just, you just know that can happen. So we were sitting there in the same situation this year, and I'm thinking, I'm not, I almost, I got up from watching on the iPad. I'm sitting there watching on my iPad, streaming it on fan choice TV, free. And I had to get up when the last call should come out.

And I thought, I walked into the bathroom and thought I'd just sit there and just think, I couldn't watch. I got you. so I just couldn't watch. And I was just going to hope that I would look on Twitter and see that we had one. But I decided against that. The costumes were so long. I had plenty of time to think about it.

Yeah. You can only be in a bathroom for so long. Really, I don't know how to categorize this without, because I don't want to take away from anything we've ever done in the Xfinity level. But honestly, I have such a passion for our. late model program. It's where I came from. It's the, it's, it's the most fun I remember having as a driver and a kid and a younger, you know, my younger self. Those are just some great times going and racing with your friends. And this is the biggest race you can win. And it, there won't be

another race like it. And so we, Josh has taken the car and worked his guts out for how many years now, eight years? Nine. Nine years. And won that race. Went and won that race this year. It dominated. Yeah, dominated. So they paid $5,000 for the poll. You had a 75 lap segments that paid $1,000 to lead. You got $25 a lap that you led. And the purse for the race overall for the winner was 20-something?

32. So in all, you were handed, and I have the picture of it, a check that says $44,000 on it. And the clock. And the clock. That's a good weekend. You're still not. It's still not sunk yet. No, it still hasn't.

It's like everything he said. Like last year, you know, it was well documented what happened at the end, kind of, and I went home and worked on stuff myself and watched the race and just tried to be better. And every year we went there, we just never really had speed until last year. Like, not the, you know, we were decent, but we were good enough to win. Top five. Yeah, if situation's happened, but we didn't have the speed.

Well, last year, we got that, we fixed, you know, we got there. We were in contention. And let's talk about what happened. last year to give really, really wait to what happened. Well, my side of the story is we were leading, and they still didn't even change this, but on the, there's a restart line, in my opinion, second place jumped the restart, beat me to the line. Absolutely. Caution come out in turn one. They swapped us. So they gave him the lead, which I think is still, and they still did this Saturday night, I think it's ridiculous. But, I mean, it's whatever. It's what they do. I don't know why it's

like that. But then on the very next restart, we go into one. and, you know, I was on the outside. I got, I mean, I got a better restart because I was like, I mean, he just jumped it, basically. I did the same thing. He, I beat him to the line. Peyton Sellers was inside of me. We went into one and I turned and he didn't.

And he hit me in the left rear, spun out, you know, I mean, I maybe could have given him more room. You know, I never really could find a really good replay of it and just spun around. And that was it. That was a race. That was with, what, two to go? Three to go. And so, and so where Dale Jr. said that he was like, you know, look, you know,

look we were there they knew we were there but you know trying to compartmentalize the disappointment how how devastated were you um not as devastated as you would think or anything because i think and he when i talked to him about it he made a really good point to me and he and i think it might have been on this podcast when you were talking about it you said that um so hands-on with it that a lot of times in my sake the performance outweighs the finish and and when he said that it kind of clicked and you know And really, a lot of the times, especially this year, we've had some stuff happen, but I'm never too, you know, excited or never too upset. You know, I'm kind of right in the middle. Like, if we keep working hard and our cars are fast, like, the other things are going to happen.

I mean, sometimes you break, sometimes you get spun or whatever. But to me, knowing that we, even in any race, not just Martinsville, I mean, if we dominate the race and have the best car and somebody takes me out at the end, I mean, yeah, I'm pissed. but I mean at the same time it's not like our cars are slow. I mean, that makes me really mad. Yeah, absolutely. I think, and when you look at, when you look back through the history of that series and those cars and the drivers that have been in that Winston Racing series sort of circle, running all over the short tracks of the country,

you don't really remember the statistics as much as you just remember who dominated. Right. Man, you used to run the beach, Robert Powell, couldn't. be beat down there. So good, so fast for so many years, or Barry Beggarly. There's guys in every sort of corner of the country in any pick a decade, the 70s, 80s, 90s, and you just want to be one of those guys. And nobody's ever going to remember how many track championships you won or how many clocks you won. They're going to know that, man, when I, remember Josh? Oh, man, that guy, so fast. God, I don't even remember how many races he won. Fast, fast, fast, fast.

Pass. Car store, had to beat Josh. And that's what you want people to remember. That's your legacy. You know, that's right. And so I can't say enough about Josh and what he's been able to do. What do you got, like 50-some races now that you've won? Yeah, I think we're probably 55, 56 somewhere now. It's hard to do because how many do we run a year?

Probably 15 to 18 is what I ended up running. Right. I mean, I ran, I could count on running 22. events at the least in the mid-90s when I ran late-mile stocks and that was all at the beach and then we had a couple other races we'd go to we'd run Friday nights at I-95 so maybe I'd run upwards in the 30s but man Josh is running 18 times a year on our budget you know we would run more yeah you know if we could but we don't and so for him to have logged that many victories just an incredible career 29 years old

and has just now finally won, I think, the pinnacle, the top prize. What else is out there? I know you're not even, I know this one hasn't even registered yet. What is, what are your goals? I mean, Saturday night, before Saturday night, I would have definitely said win Martinsville, but I don't know, man, I just feel, I really, I feel like that was one of the last things really for what we do and how we do this program, you know, how many times we race and where we race and all that.

I mean, that was the last thing really big that we needed to check off. So now we go try to get a second one, I guess. Can you take us through the weekend and just lead us through, like, you know, you're talking about all these things you were racking up? I mean, did you go into the weekend feeling like you got a better chance? You seemed like you had put last year behind you. That's awesome. Now we know that.

You're coming in here. You knew you had a fast car win. Well, we tested last week. I know I spoke with Dale. I mean, we had a really good test. And I don't know, man. it's weird. I got a funny story about this, too.

So me and my wife are riding to the track Friday or whatever, and I'm like, I told her, I'm like, I think I'm going to win this race. Like, I think this is going to be the year. And she's like, shut up, we always get wrecks. Don't say that. You know, blah, blah, she's like all superstitious. Yeah, she's like, don't say that. You know, whenever we think that, something happens, you know.

So she's like, it's kind of an inside joke between the two of us, but she wants a Tahoe one day, right? that she's like, I want a Tahoe. And she's like, if we win Martinsville, I'm getting a Tahoe. And I'm like, okay, no. I'm like, we can't do that. I'm like, but I'll make a deal with you. I swear, this was on the way that I said, I'll make a deal with you. If we sat on the pole, lead every lap, and win the race, then we get Tahoe.

She's like, that's never going to happen. And I'm like, yeah, that's never going to happen. So we win the race. Oh, my goodness. And here she comes, and she's all, you know, she's all happy or whatever. We're like, this is after we cleared tech and anything, because she didn't, she didn't say nothing really until after that we clear tech we're like loading the car she comes up and she's like you remember what you said and i'm like no no what do you what are you going here she's like you say if

you win the pole and lead every lap we get in tahoe i'm like all right hold on but but tan just back to your question uh i don't know i just i had such a good feeling about it like i guess after last year's because martinsville's such a lottery like it was a big time lottery last year at the end of that race You know, I kind of always said, like, even if we won and weren't the best car, like, the fact that last year, you know, we were on the other side of it is going to be, I'm going to be perfectly fine taking whatever, however we would get it, you know, because we've been there and been in the other side of it. But I could have never dreamed of how good we were and dominant. And, I mean, everything just, it was just, like I said, it was just, it was just unbelievable. I mean, I could have never dreamed that we would have dominated that race. I mean, that race is so competitive.

And everybody brings their best stuff there. Everybody's got their best motor, their best chassis, their best parts, pieces. I mean, some people go and, you know, spend insane amount of money on tires and stuff just to, and to go there and be that good with everybody there is just, I mean, it's just unheard of. Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, I think for me, for this, that race, like, what we did Saturday night is going to be talked about forever. Everybody's going to be, every year from now on, they're going to be like, do you remember that time that Josh Berry kicked their ass all night? Yeah, I mean, people were coming up to me and we're like, that's never happened here.

I mean, nobody's ever dominant. You know, the people are going back into like, I was reading some comments on the Internet and going back into the 90s and saying, you know, such and such, I think he led this and this, this, but there was nothing compared to what we did Saturday Night. I mean, it was just unbelievable. Name the guys that they're helping you. Brian, Schaefer, Stephen, Civa, Ther, they work out of a shop. They're both great, and then.

Where's your shop? It's LW's shop over by the drag strip. Yeah, yeah. and Ryan, Matt, Ernie, Justin, who Justin works in the paint shop over here, he's been with me for a long time. And, man, you're going to make me forget somebody. I just wanted them to be able to hear their names and they're appreciated. No, yeah. I mean, a lot of those guys, I think one of the biggest things I pride myself on is that we've had the same group for a long time.

I guess, and, you know, I have to give myself some credit on that. I guess I do a good job of, you know, treating them right. Not running them off. and not run it. I mean, it's people have come and go, but nobody's, you know, it's not people didn't quit because they, you know, they just quit because they just want to do something else with their Saturdays, you know, I mean, so to have that group, I mean, it's just like, unbelievable like Jordan, that, you know, he just moved on to Penske

from here. Jordan Erickson, he'd come, he come, he was at the race right now, he'd come over yesterday and help me put the clock in the house and set it up and stuff. I mean, it's just. Of course he did. Yeah. He's perfect for jobs like that. What is, and so what does it look like, right?

Where is the clock? It is in the corner of our living room, like kind of right next to the TV, right in the middle. Right, where you can see it. Every day, just see it. Is it as awesome being a grandfather clock owner as I've always heard it is? Is it just, I mean. It's pretty sweet. I mean, when you think about just racing in general and trophies and stuff like, that one just always sticks out to me.

I know it did for you. I meant we race some hell after you won. We did. After you won. That is by far the most excited and most fun I've ever seen. I mean, watching you win that race, I felt like I won it. Oh, yeah. I mean, and then, like I said, we raised a lot of hell afterwards, but,

man, that trophy, it's like, it's a special. It's polarizing. You know, I mean, it's just something, it's different. You know, I mean, if you win the Indy 500 or Daytona 500, I mean, you see the trophies in Martinsville, you get that clock. I mean, like, it's real. He's down there, and I'm like, hey, tell me how tech's going. I wasn't going to tweet or do anything on Twitter until we cleared tech because I didn't

want to jinx us. I'm very superstitious. And so he's like, yeah, everything's going good. All right. And I said, tell Clay Campbell that I won't duplicate. Yeah, clock. And I don't know why that's hard to say. But I want the clock.

And so he's like, all right, I told him. And then I got up the next morning and I text Clay. And I said, hey, I want a duplicate clock. And he's like, I'm on it, man. Josh told me. I'm getting it. No problem. You're getting a clock too.

Hell, yeah. We're going to bring it and put it here in the studio. Oh, my goodness. Are you kidding? We're going to have a clock in here? Duplicate. We're going to put it right back in that corner. Duplicate.

All because of your victory, buddy. He texts me that. And it was funny, he was just over there because I guess he come down whenever they were like, all clear for tech or whatever, he'd come down and, you know, talk to all the guys. And I went up to him. And I was like, hey, I got two things. I said, first, thank you. Second off, Dale wants a clock.

He's like, I'm on it. First day Monday morning. I can't freaking wait, man. Oh, I can't either. I'm so happy that this. Can I just say, and I want to ask you this, because I'm, I was part of a text thread between Dale Jr. L.W. yourself, and it was about a month or so ago when Dale Jr. got Bubba Pollard to run our second car, the Junior Motorsport's second late model car. And I remember Dale saying to you, you know, this is going to be a good thing to bring to the late model, you know, aware of it. for the late model this is a good thing and so we're going to do a video Matthew's going to do this

video and announcing Bubba Pollard because Bubba is arguably, you know, one of the hottest drivers in the land right now in late models. And so he's a name. I mean, we know Bubba Pollard. And because you always do this, you are so classy about it. And drivers are territorial. Drivers are insecure sometimes. You know, when somebody else comes into your stable and, you know, you don't, it messes up the dynamics a little bit. I remember you having to deal with this when like Mark Martin shows up in the Hendrick car and starts, you know, doing well. I mean, it's, it's there. It's a pervasive thing. You go out and just annihilate people in that weekend. It is the ultimate mic drop response. The most classy, dominating response to that. And I just, I'm so proud of you for that,

but also want to know when Bubba Pollard was announced to come on board and run the second car, what was your feelings? I was honestly 110% completely for it. We had talked about it before amongst ourselves, and I was the one that called him the first time and talked to him. I mean, I'm a fan of his. I mean, from the bottom of my heart, I completely was totally for it. There was a lot of people that we could have had that I wouldn't been as for, but for that and for what we were trying to do. And a lot of it, I mean, it just goes to our group. I mean, it was just a great, it was a great situation for us in our program to bring some attention to it. But it was a great morale booth for all of us.

I mean, having two, going there, having all those guys having two of, you know, two of the best short track racers, you know, in the country in your cars. I mean, it was, everybody was so excited. And it was awesome. He was great. He was great to deal with. And, you know, after the race, I talked to him and I went up to him. And he's like, man, I was an ass kicking. You know, I'm like, yeah.

And I was like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, Like I can tell that you're disappointed because you're like me. If I, you know, even though I would have been happy to finish fifth, I can still tell you're disappointed. I said, but if you look at it this way, I've come here eight years and only finished once. Only finished the race once. Wow. And I've been here eight years.

And that finish was 14th or something, I think. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't. Right. I mean, I'm like, so you, that's pretty good. I mean, this place is tough, you know. I mean.

I would, if I had a fifth on my resume, I'd be pretty damn proud of it. Yeah. You know, you text me and said that Bubba might be interested in doing some things, additional runs with us in the future. I'm excited about that. I'm glad you are, and I think it would be fun for our program to continue that relationship. So we'll see how that goes. Man, I hate to end of the conversation.

I know. Maybe we'll just sit here at this table and just look at each other oddly, basking in this win. Feel the pride. In all serious, just congratulations, dude, and thank you. Thank you for being. You're such a company, man. I mean, God, you have represented the late model program. You represent our company so well.

You do anything anybody ever asks of you. And then you go out there and you lay the wood. You deserve this more than anybody else. You know, you deserved it. Your day was coming and you got your day, dude. I can't be more happier for you. I'm just so happy. Like I said, it was unbelievable.

Like you said, it really still hasn't sank in. You know, I'm just so, I don't know. It's a weird feeling, man. It's like when you have something, because ever since I started driving, for Dale and run the late malls. I mean, everybody, Martinsville, Martinsville, Martin'sville. I mean, even the first year that we went with Richard Boswell drove, I mean, I remember, I mean, there were this Martinsville motor breaks, all this, like doing all this stuff for Martinsville because it was so important, you know, and then I went there and experienced it

with helping when Boswell drove. And I'm like, wow. And then like every year, you know, we've had successful seasons. We've won a lot of races, but, but, well, now every year we've always It's always been but, you know, what happens at Martinsville or what, you know. But so it's definitely a weird feeling being here now and I'm checking that off. Like you said, I mean, it's like I said, it's going to take some time for me to process what happened. But. You're going into a race to finish off the Cars Tour series, the final race of the year. You've had some wins this year, but also some failures and breaks and crashes.

Guys getting into you and so forth. And it's been a up and down year. We've had a, we've had a, we've had a lot of. conversations and you've had to really deal with some frustrations. But you go into that race with a small chance to be able to win the championship, which is going to be fun. But you also have a big race at Myrtle Beach at the end of the year, one of my favorites that I remember running when I ran at Myrtle Beach every year.

I've been trying to push him to go down to Myrtle Beach for his season and try to win the track championship for me because I could never win one. Yeah. I mean, I think honestly that that's something that has. has crossed my mind, especially around this time of year, you know, is going like a place like that and running and, you know, the problem is just trying to figure out how to make it work because it's so demanding. But, I mean, I think if you went to race at Myrtle Beach and Hickory for a season like that and filled out, I mean, I think you could contend for a national championship,

you know. Yeah. You'd have to run both? I think, I mean, I think we'd have to race every single weekend from the start, you know, and it was just, it's just so demanding financially. But, I mean, Really, that would be the only thing. I think that would be two good places, you know, for us if we wanted to go do that where we could do it. But like I said, it's just so demanding on everybody. It's on your cars, your equipment, your people. I mean, it's just hard to. At the same time, I like doing what we're doing, you know.

I couldn't imagine battling and winning a national title. Incredible. Yeah, I mean. The car store, though, has been great to us. We love running there. They have a great organization, and they run a smart program. They have a lot of, you know, good car. count every year. They have good shows, entertaining shows, even though we end up on the bad

end of it sometimes. It's still, they're entertaining. And they stream. So you can, you know, you can watch if you want, which I think is important for our partners and sponsors. It's important for you, too. I mean, for you to be able to, I mean, think of how many years that you rate, you know, obviously a lot of you were racing. When y'all ran at Murdo Mile, I never got to see them race. But yeah, you never got to watch our cars race until really that car. I couldn't tell. I mean, he ran. for me for four years or so, and I really didn't know much about him as a driver, right, watching him turn and his intruded corner and all the things he's going to do in certain situations and judgment calls and things he's going to have to make.

And so I love being able to watch. That is pretty nice. It's a big deal. And between that and that fans' choice where they step that up and they've done a lot. I mean, they've got all kinds of racing on it. A lot of our races are on it now, and then all the K&N races, stuff like that. modified I mean there's a lot out there I mean that's a good yeah I mean that's a good deal and whenever we look at you know sit down and look at things I mean that's a big deal to us being

able to have it on I mean because it's good it's good for me I mean it's good for my family it's good for you to be able to watch and Kelly LW and everybody that wants to watch and you know it is it's a it's important part I think I forget that when I tell you to go race for a track title at beach I forget that I wouldn't ever get to see well Myrtle Beach is on fans choice yeah this year it was It was. But, yeah, I mean, even, like you said, our partners, I mean, Mark Thomas, with all things, automotive, he wasn't, I think he's been, he come to Martin's until last year, but he couldn't come this year because he had a conflict of schedule, whatever. But he watched every lap of the race on fans' choice and was excited, excited for us. And I hate he couldn't make it.

But, yeah, that's a big deal. Like, I mean, like you said, they can be able to, they get more return on what they're investing in us. Right before we let you go, there was one thing I wanted to get. to and you obviously you drive the late model car what other things you've gotten into some other things to you know create income but also some you have a passion for and this i think i don't want to speak for you but this may have started through this late model program what are some of the other things you're getting into here last year too yeah just more and more i've been just doing some coaching and stuff and and you know at the beginning of the year especially more the beginning of the year i worked a lot

with Sam Mayer, which he drove for us last year. He went to GMS to do K&N and Arcadiel. And I did a lot of testing and stuff with him early on and kind of got and helped get him going and helped get their program going. And, you know, it's been a big help for me. That was, it was more help than I think I realized it was going to be, because I met a lot of great people there. Marty Lindley runs his deal.

I've become a really good friend of him. And he's helped me a lot. And I think I've helped them a lot. We both have had great seasons. So got an opportunity with Visconti Motorsports. I went and did that K&N race a couple weeks ago and finished third at New Hampshire. Never been there. So that was pretty cool.

And, you know, I mean, there's a possibility of working on some stuff to do with them next year. But, yeah, that part of it, I guess, I don't know, I guess I always try to even not fully commit to it, but just think about what's going to happen if I'm not racing anymore, like what path I want to take. you know, sometimes I saw Rodney tweeted me and said that he thought I'd be staying on a pit box one day. I don't know about that. It's harder than, man, so that was, so when we took Sam to the Bobby Isaac Memorial at Hickory like a month ago, and that was my first real race, I think, where I was, you know, that Adam Lemke ran our 98 car, Sam ran the 88 car, I was the crew chief for it, it was my responsibility, and plus I guess, as much as I had worked with Sam,

throughout earlier in the season I guess that made it but I mean at the end of that race when he was leading I was a I mean you want to talk about being nervous I mean I walk two laps around the infield as I'm like what if the caution comes out what if we break you so I'm like because I you know what I mean like it was almost like last night I mean like I mean like I mean like I mean like I yes yes I don't I don't know about that I know I know I'm you should be an owner it's as bad oh yeah I can imagine no I mean I don't know it's just I guess when you're driving I guess you just feel more in control. You know, I know, I know what's, what the car's doing, how it's feeling, what, you know, how hard I'm pushing it, you know, if I got anything left or not, you know,

but when you're watching, especially these younger drivers that are learning and developing, I mean, you don't, you don't know what it's going through their minds, honestly. Yeah, you just don't know. I mean, they could be out there driving the hell out of it, you know, you don't know. It feels like everything, actually. Yeah. That's worried all the time. You just never know what to expect with them, you know. So I was like, man, I hope the caution don't come out. You know, what if he's burnt the tires off of it? Something, you know, blah, blah, blah.

But they ended up working out and he won. And that was a big deal for our program because he, you know, he spent a whole season racing for us and learning and for him to come back and just see how much he's improved as a driver and come back, you know, so doing those things are fun. Like I said, I think about, you know, if I would ever spot or, you know, coach or whatever. But I really love the short track racing, you know, I, I could see myself being on pit box one day, but I don't think on, on a, you know, a cup car, I'm not sure of Xfinity car,

but I could definitely see, you know, being like a Marty that's a Creechy for a short track racing, you know. Why not Xfinity? That'd be so easy. You get three sets of tires or whatever for a race. You know, when to put them on. There's no secret, you know, there's no trickery or strategy. You just kind of, all right, cost us out.

Here we come. Everybody's coming. Follow them on down. I think we've got a few cruchies here. It might take a little bit of exception to that. Goes fast as you can on this fist stop. Yeah. I mean.

There's no strategy. That's all there is to it. They have the tires. They know when they put them on. The part that gets me about a lot of that racing is how many people just do the same thing the leader does all the time. That's what Steve Lutarch says. He was the best at that, one of the best at that. Like, he's like, do the opposite.

You should watch it from, you know, 30,000 feet. Like, seeing it from our view, it's like, oh, that's so easy. You should have done the other thing. But when you're down there on pit road, road and all this, you know, everything's happening, and you've got people in your ear and everybody, all these engineers and everybody, you're like, just do what they do. Right. You know, I'm going to put myself on an island.

I don't want to be the only guy that makes a mistake, you know. Yeah. I don't know. I think one thing that I have working against me in that is not have an engineering degree. But for some reason, I feel like that the sport is going back towards the way to more of race. And it seems like whenever a racer, like, I mean, you look at Matt McCall, Rodney. all these people that were racers that seem to have success in that area not that i mean boswell i mean he's doing a great job with what he's doing i mean it's the crew chief it's not about being a racer or an

engineer it's about being a people guy you know you're the crew chief isn't really going to be solely responsible for the performance of the car that's going to be your lead engineer's role um here's a setup man all right you're tight here's what i do he's going to hand you that information you're going to pick pick the best thing to do in that moment but overall the the crew chief is is just a great people person, a manager of folks. And you seem to be doing that. So you got a lot of opportunities down the road, and I wouldn't even worry about them right now. I try to keep digging in that late model car and all the while working in the background,

trying to see what other opportunities you can get in racing. Everybody wants to see you. Just like you said, you'd love to have more opportunities in trucks or Xfinity if those come about, and we're always digging in the dirt to see what we can scrounge up. but you know you got a lot of you had a big win enjoy that let that sink in race on the rest of this season enjoy the off season you got a lot of things in your personal life to be excited about and including a Tahoe yeah I don't know about the to talk about that oh my gosh I could I cracked up when she come and said that because I said it I said I did I said that's exactly and then

if you were going to get one what color would you get what color she liked Well, she was there for a while she said black, but I said, man, that gets too dirty too quick. Probably white. White? I think so. I would have to ask her. Equally is dirty. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe kind of like a charcoal or something. Yeah, I would like that, yeah. I would have to ask her, but that was so funny. That was so funny. All right, buddy. Thanks for coming. Thank you, yeah.

Thank you, buddy. We are technically streaming, and are we up? Technically. Technically. Technically. Technically. Hello, we are live. Hey, everybody.

All right. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. for the Dell Jr. download live on the Ash Jr. part of the show. Presented by Nationwide. Leah is going to bring up the question, so let's get started. Hello. First question from Mike Fitch wants to know,

are you in favor of changing the penalty for speeding on pit road, especially at tracks like Dover? I don't think putting a car two plus laps down for an extra tenth of a second. They may be gained as fair punishment. Perhaps let three cars pass you, or maybe a stop spot like the Roval? No. No thing.

I mean, I appreciate the thought there, and I understand what he means. That track and other smaller tracks, if you have to pit for whatever kind of penalty, it's much more excessive than it would be at a bigger place like Indy or a road course even. So, yeah, it's like the punishment doesn't meet the crime or fit the crime,

but I think that you've got to have consistency. The rules need to be the same. every chance we can make them the same or simple. So they're simple to understand. So when you go to this track or that track or that track, it's the same rules, same penalty. I would be opposed to changing that. JFZ28 on YouTube.

He wants to know if there's any update on North Wilkesboro. Yeah, we're moving along. A lot of emails flying around between Marcus Smith with Charlemere Speedway and the owners of North Wilsonboro, the ira racing folks that are going to come scan the track once we have it cleared and Mike Davis and myself and a few other people as well. So yeah, we're moving forward on that. We're going to keep you updated.

Once we get there and handle that, I think Dirty Mo Media is going to capture some content of that particular event in us doing that. So we're going to put out a piece, much like our time machine piece that just recently came out on our YouTube page. If you haven't seen that, go see it, a time machine on this YouTube page for Dirty MoMA media. But yeah, we're going to, we'll let you know. It's still a month or so a little further out.

Getting a lot of questions about how. A couple of different ones. The first one, do you have a favorite costume that you dress up as a kid? And then does Isla have one this year? Amy keeps changing Isla. Every day she comes home and goes, she should be this. We should dress her like this. And they're all great ideas.

Amy is so creative. Amy is so smart and clever in those type of things. So it's going to be great, whatever it is. This year, well, this year I'm going to dress up as the, wheel from the Price is Right. So that's going to be a costume this year. Wait, what? Yeah.

How do you dress up as a wheel? Hey, we're going to wait. I can't wait to see this. But I will be the wheel from the Price is Right. The big wheel. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, I'm going to an 80s-90s themed birthday party and I needed a costume.

So I bought that for the themed party and I'm just going to, that's going to be my Halloween costume. But my favorite costume is a kid of a football player. I had the pants with the pads white, no stripes, red jersey, shoulder pads, no numbers, just the most basic retail football uniform you could find. I mean, it was sad, didn't even have numbers. I had the plastic white helmet with a plastic bar, but I wore that thing until it was too small. I wore it like, I was a football player like four years in a row. I wanted to be a football player so bad when I grew up, and then, you know, I didn't

grow up. I didn't get big enough. You didn't grow up. Jason Probus wants to know, do you think it would be wise for a major network to televise dirt racing, USAC or World About Us? Locally, it's obviously popular and covered on the internet in ways, but it would be super cool for it to be mainstream. 100%. I would love for there to be a racing channel. You know, a lot of people were going to say, well, there's speed and MAF TV does a lot of racing, which is great. I check that. that MAF TV channel every once in a while, see if there's anything good on there.

NBCSN is showing K&N races and a lot of other motorsports events more frequently. But I would love, like a, maybe not even a NASCAR channel, but just a racing channel where I know I'm going to turn it on and see cars racing all the time. I don't want no damn restoration show

or no auction show. I don't want none of that mess. I want racing 24 hours a day You know it's like Everybody with me At those casinos When there's always that one channel

The hotels and casinos That one channel that has the horse racing on it Like you always turn it on and there will be Always horse racing Yeah it's always horse racing But you want that for Yeah I hear you

I want it to be that Dependable Yeah You know I do I do like watching the car auction sometimes But I if it's a racing channel It needs to just be always racing That is a good idea

Express Long Care Services they have a question about your shoes. What type of ASICs do you wear? These are Mexico 66. That's mostly the model of ASICs that I wear. They have all types of colors. And I think that's why I like them because they're kind of like wrestling shoes

in the way that they're very comfortable, very little soul, and very flexible, and kind of like wearing bedroom slippers, to be honest with you. And I like the retro look. Heather Rogers wants to know, do you think Indie could be a night race? Uh, be a lot of, take a lot of lights. Yes, it would.

Yep. I don't know if the sun is bright enough. It would take a ton of lights to light that place up, and I don't know if anybody wants to spend that money. All right, that's all we got today. Well, I appreciate everybody tuning in. Asch, Jr. live, presented by Nationwide. Keep coming, bud.

White flag, right there, white flag. All right, it's time for White Flagg. Guys, we have a guy who works here at Junior Motorsports. His name is Ryan Dextreys. You know him. And his daughter, Kenley, is being honored at the White House this Friday, along with her 12 and under softball team from Roane County because they won the Little League softball world series in Portland, Oregon last month. Can you believe that? That's unbelievable.

So they went undefeated in the postseason. Their final two games were live on ESPN, right? And this little team for Roan won the whole smash. And as a matter of fact, Kenley Dextray's starting shortstop, made the final out to win. the thing. It was amazing. I even watched some of this last night on YouTube. So I just, I love the story. I wanted to lead off white flag with a big congrats to Kenley to Ryan, because listen, as fathers know, you're very much invested into the emotions and everything else that comes into that. And so what an amazing accomplishment from, from this, this group of girls just

nearby, the World Series. I'm so impressed. All right, moving on. Here's something else. Coming out this week, as a matter of fact, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 8th, is the paperback edition of Dale Jr.'s New York Times best-selling book, Racing to the Finish. This paperback edition has bonus material that was not in the original version, so if you've not read Del Jr.'s book, or if you know somebody who needs to read it, there's always those people.

This is a good time to get it. Racing to the finish is available wherever books are sold, and you can also go to Dale Jr.com slash book. The Dale Jr. Download TV show is on NBC Sports Network this Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, and that will be the only airing. So you got to catch it then. Follow Dirtymore Media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Speaking to YouTube, our most recent project, Time Machine is there now.

We had a great response to that. We've got a big weekend at Talladega coming up. It's the 50th anniversary weekend. I believe, did I see where we're going to have the silver and black number three car pacing the field? Did I see that? That would be cool. It's also the grand opening of the Talladega Garage experience. That is a major renovation and overhaul there.

So they got all kinds of stuff. events and concerts going on to get tickets, go to Talladega Superspeedway.com or call 855-518 race. Apple podcast reviews. Moye 1020 writes this 51-year-old grandma from Myrtle Beach cannot get enough of this podcast. I'm hooked. I just downloaded 30 old episodes to listen to on a cruise next week. Kind of makes me feel bad. I never liked Junior

when he was a driver. Well, you can always come around here. Hot red, hot rock Rod Welder writes, I just watched Time Machine. It's amazing even on a computer screen. You can feel the emotion that Dale has for sports, for the sport and his fans, as well as the adoration the fans have for him. It made me well up with tears at least four times. Nothing else to say, Dale, but respect. And then Derek 7513 writes, I've been listening to DJD since its first season.

However, now as a father to a one-year-old, also named Ila, I find myself listening more for the inside into Dale's life with his daughter and wife. I just watched Time Machine and said to my wife, if I can be half the father and husband that Dale Jr. is, I'll be all right. So Derek, mighty fine words. Wow. How nice. And so thank you guys, everybody who left us ratings and reviews on the Apple podcast. Lastly, I just want to say, happy birthday to somebody this week, maybe even Thursday. You didn't think we forgot about your birthday, did you? Forty-five. Dale Jr., happy birthday, brother. And I hope it's a good one, man. You deserve it. So maybe, I don't know, as a gift, I want everybody to Sendell Jr. Flood his timeline with happy birthday messages. Cupcakes. There you go.

All right. Some odd history. All right. We're headed to Talladega this week, and that reminds us of one of the great unsolved mysteries of our sport in the early morning hours of August 11, 1974. Just an amazing year. An unknown vandal snuck through the garage area in Talladega and sabotaged the cars of the top 10, qualifiers following... For the following days,

Talladega 500, he was very selective. Top 10 qualifiers only. That's right. All right. He finished the line. So he's paying attention. Yeah. So that's the first clue.

When the garage opened that morning, the damage was found by the Team Pinsky crew, which expected sabotage, had been happening all season. Oh. What? Yeah, it's crazy. As a protection the night before,

Roger Pinsky told the crew to disconnect the fuel filler from the tank, And the following morning, crew members found sand and rocks sitting on top of the fuel cell. So they disconnected the filler neck. And so when someone would put anything in there, it would just fall into the fuel cell trunk area. So all the other teams were warned. And the top 10 starters found their cars were damaged as well. Richard Petty had the tow in adjusted on his car. David Pearson's car had the tow in off by as much.

is two inches, two inches, and they cut oil pump belt. Holy moly. Buddy Baker had tires slightly cut, so that they wouldn't blow out immediately, but until the race begun. Kell Yarborough had soda and rocks poured in his fuel cell. A caution was thrown around lap five, so teams could check their cars and ensure that

there wasn't anything wrong, and the repairs could be done quickly. That was tough for the teams and the drivers alike. Pearson said, I'm trying to block it out of my mind. You noticed that I said that I was trying, said old David Pearson. He's trying. Of course, there were suggestions of taller fences and more security, all right, for the garage area. I'd say so.

Benny Parsons had one of the more popular ideas among the garage. He wanted NASCAR to use dogs in the garage overnight. Benny said, I mean mean dogs, ones that are hungry. Don't feed them. And all you need are too. He knew he just need two dogs. Benny, very specific. He knows something about him, I guess.

Very specific in his demands. Mean dogs, hungry dogs, just two. Just two. Despite two security guards patrolling the Talladega garage overnight, none of the vandals were seen. It was believed they either hopped a fence or hidden a van that was already parked in the garage until everybody left.

Teams felt whoever did this had extensive knowledge of the cars and a lot of the time to be able to work on them. So whoever did it remains a mystery. No one was ever caught. I be damn. I can't believe that. Never called them.

I tell you what, Talladega. I mean, the last couple of weeks, we've had a couple of security breaches at Talladega between the guy that took the paste car and then this. I can imagine that this has been contemplated for, I mean, obviously since 1974, but it sounds like to me it was another team and some crew members on that team

probably hit in one of the haulers until the garage closed. They come out of the hauler with stuff that they had already brought to the track. They had been in their trailer all weekend. And started fooling around with the top ten. They picked the top ten. So I would have suspected the 11th place qualifier. Did you not got that guy? I would have went and looked in his hauler.

I don't know. Maybe it was LW. right. But, you know, he's nowhere to be found either. All right. Good stuff. What a show. It's a good show, man. I'm thrilled with this show.

I think it's going to be a great. Matthew, he's got a lot of work to do. Get to work, Matthew. Get to work, Matthew. Have a great day. This bit of bad assery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirty Mo!