The Dale Jr. Download - 335 – Josh Berry: It Changed My Life

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

Josh Berry won his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway! Dale Earnhardt Jr. dedicates the entire show to reliving this emotional and heartfelt victory for JR Motorsports.Before Josh joins the show, Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis share what seeing Berry win meant to them and the company. Dale talks about Josh’s rise through the racing ranks, his success with the JRM late model program, and how the opportunity to put him in an Xfinity Series car came to fruition.Dale gets deep talking about the pressure to perform and how he handled it during his career. He shares what he learned from seeing Chase Elliott 'enjoy the opportunity' and how he thinks Berry is currently handling it.After the No. 8 car crossed the finish line on Sunday, Dale openly admits to crying tears of joy. He talks through the reasons for those emotions overflowing and makes a revelation we didn’t see coming.Then Josh joins the show and the crew hears what it has been like since capturing the biggest win of his racing career. Dale relives how he discovered Berry as a driver in a very unconventional way.Berry shares his origin story, discussing how losing his mom at a young age completely changed his life. Then how he and his dad racing helped them overcome the tragic loss. Josh shares how he ascended from racing at the local level to getting bigger opportunities. Plus, he explains how his path to this victory involved a decade of work in the shop.Find out why the 30-year-old almost gave up on his chances of making it in NASCAR last year while wrestling with big life and career decisions. Then hear how everything changed a day after coming to that realization.Six races into his Xfinity Series stint in 2021, Josh talks about feeling like a highlight reel and why he was down on himself after his crash in the grass at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hear what he did over the off-weekends to reset and prepare for Martinsville Speedway.Mike asks Josh to breakdown the finish of the race. Hear what was going through Berry’s mind as he got passed by Ty Gibbs and how he got back around him. Then Dale tells us why he’d give the free pass to someone using the chrome horn in that situation.Dale Jr. admits that he couldn’t watch the finish to the race and talks through the emotions he was wrestling with as the checkered flag neared. Josh reminisces about his feelings in the final laps and what the victory felt like afterward.Josh sticks around for Ask Jr. Presented by Xfinity. Fans inquire about the post-race phone call between Dale and Josh, who would win in a head-to-head late model race and Dale explains his comments about JR Motorsports’ Cup Series interest.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. The Dale Jr. Download. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again. Another episode of the Dell Jr. download with my co-host, Mike Davis. Sheltz is here. Leah is here. And we also have a great guest, Josh Barry, coming off of his win at Martinsville in the Xfinity race.

If you haven't heard, it's pretty special. And this podcast is going to be about that win. and we've had Josh on the show before, of course, but we're going to talk about some new things and kind of where he goes from here. So it's been a wild ride already this year for Josh, and I can't wait to share this story with you. Going to be a great show.

We got Ask Junior. I tried to turn it into Ask Josh because Josh is going to be part of Ask Junior. He's going to be sitting in on some of the questions, and that should be a lot of fun. We haven't done that before. But we've got a great show for you. So let's get started.

All right, man. So, you know, Josh is coming on the show here later. But, you know, we had an amazing day. I mean, I have a hard time putting it into words just how special. And I can't even, I feel like this weird sense of, why is this so special? What makes this big of a deal? That's a great question. I thought it was a big deal before it happened.

You know, man, if we could win one race, if we could just get one win with Josh. And we've worked for years to try to get more opportunities for him and create buzz for him, right? And we win race after race after race in the late model car. We race for a decade. He's won like 75 features, multiple track championships, a national title last year. And we're just working and working and working. We've got some great partners that have been able to help us sustain, you know, continual, you know, performance and stay on the racetrack in the late model program to be able to, you know,

he just keeps working and keeps trying to improve and getting better and better. And, you know, once you think he's got it mastered, he ramps it up a notch and becomes even more unbeatable. And so I can't oversh, I don't think you can overstate how competitive he is in the late model car everywhere he goes. He's the guy to beat or one of the top two or three cars to beat. And, you know, when we think about putting him in an Xfinity car for, more than just one or two races.

We've had a couple races. He only ran about 15 or so in his career. 13. He had a few races in 0. When the hell? Two years ago. Yeah. 16, 14, 50. Ran at Iowa, ran a couple places.

Yeah. And I remember running at Homestead. And they were good. You know, we had a real positive run at Richmond one night that I remember sitting down at the media center. We had won the race and Josh had run really well. I remember sitting in the media center after. that race just pleading with someone to come on board and help us take Josh to the next level

and I'm so disappointed by the lack of sort of response from that you don't have expectations I mean I was disappointed and thought that maybe that might be what would help us sort of you're just spending your gears and you're hoping that the gears are going to mesh and all of a sudden it's going to start you know the machine's going to start working and it's going to start moving forward. But we still haven't sort of caught that cog yet, right, to get us into the next level. We had a lot of things happen. We had some things situationally with our programs shift around and open up a void. And we've sort of, without really getting into details, owning a Xfinity team is, you know, really we budget to break even. We budget to, we budget to. To not lose money.

Yeah, we budget to handle payroll. Right. Right. Get everybody the money we owe them and pay them the salary they deserve and what we agreed upon and all that good stuff. And we don't, you know, we budget to go race and we know what we got to, we know what engines are going to cost. We know what tires are going to cost. And we, we go race. And this thing doesn't make money.

It's not designed, you know, to make money. And sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't, right? And we've been doing this Xfinity program for a really long time. And we've had more better years than we've had bad years. And when we do have any kind of a profit, we've saved that, right? We put that behind, we put that in a little safe place in case of any kind of, you know, necessary need for that type of, you know, a quick recovery or any kind of savior.

or we've really built up a great little, you know, cushion to have in case of an emergency or something like that. And here we are with, we had a little void of races that we needed to feel. And we had talked to a lot of drivers. Corey LaJoy was one guy I was excited about, possibly coming here because I knew Corey could go out there and win. Everybody's down to see him really get that opportunity. But we had talked to a handful of other drivers and just for.

really never came to finalize any kind of agreement with anybody and I was sitting there, I don't remember how the conversation started, but I think I reached out to Kelly or LW and said, hey, you know, what about Josh? Like, can we make this work? Could we figure this out?

And so, we figured it out, right? And we kind of basically what you do and it's not, I wouldn't suggest this for anybody, but it's what some people do as owners and people that racing, even drivers that own their own cars, is they'll commit to go race and they'll try to

cure those, you know, acquire those sponsorships as they're going, right? And so that's kind of what we hoped would happen. As we got into the season, we would start to pick up partnerships right at the doorstep of these races, right at the, right at the, you know, and you'd love to have a package signed months ago last year, right? We'd love to have something signed now for next year for anything for all our cars but um we went into this without any guarantee on partnerships and so forth race but race and we just we piece these together this is something we've done in the past yeah you know we've went to racetracks uh we've we've we've committed to seasons with unsponsored races and we figure it out right we figure it out and so we thought all right we're gonna josh has won

a national title this is it this is now or never i knew that if we didn't make this type of a commitment at some point, I was going to regret it for the rest of my life. And this was that opportunity. Yep. This was it. Joe Mattis, by the way, to go on what you just said, I was asking our vice president last night about it. And he said, we made the decision to bet on ourselves.

I love that, right? Sure. Because Josh Barry, you've been advocating for him for so long. And it's like, now we have this opportunity. Let's go ahead and make our bet. We didn't have the funding at the time to go back that up. You're betting that Josh Barry will do what he, we think he can do. Sure.

And so, you know, we're going to get into it with Josh a little bit, but obviously there was a lot of great excitement. We had him here in the studio on the show when we told him about his racing in the Xfinity series. You remember? That's not how to happen. But go ahead. Well, I remember him sitting right next to this table doing some media, and I broke the news. You told him in this room.

You told him during that media. Yeah, during that media after the fact. He was doing media for the national championship. I'll never forget it was in this room. Right, right. That was it. For what show, who knows? But that was right. And anyhow, yeah.

So he, you know, we've talked and talked and talked a lot about, you know, trying to not feel pressure, not, not, you know, just. One of the things that, one of the things that I always had a bad habit of doing is feeling all the pressure and letting that weigh me down and letting you just cut you take yourself right out of the game right last year i believe it was or maybe it was a year before i might have been coming into phoenix i can't remember when this was but uh feels very recent i saw an interview with chase elliot and uh they were like hey man you know you're you're here you are for an opportunity to win a championship you know how's the pressure and and

And my mind immediately went to, golly, I hate that performance pressure. I hate it. It was miserable. You got the way, everybody in the world expecting you to go out there and get this done. You got your family. You got your crew, your team, your fans. And man, you just don't want to let anybody down. You just don't want to let everybody down.

And how are you going to face them when you don't accomplish this goal, right? And Chase Elliott said, man, this is an amazing opportunity. I get to go for a championship. ship this weekend. I can't believe it. This is going to be a blast. Like, what? So there's two types of athletes, I think, in that sense, right? There's the kind like me that are going to go, oh, my God, this is hard, and I'm so I'm nervous, I'm going to fail, and this is miserable. And then there's the other guy, right, Chase that's like, hell yeah. They embrace it. Ben, damn, let's do it. I'm down for this. What a great chance, right? I can't believe I've

this chance to do this, right? And he embraced it, and I think he won that championship. I think that's the year, I think this happened last year right before the race weekend got started. I remember the interview was right. I feel like the interview was right on the backstretch of Phoenix. Anyways, that really hit me, and I said, in that moment, it really helped me understand like a flaw of my own, right, that I had all my career. And anyways, when I was, was talking to Josh at the start of year, and I've tried to help him kind of maybe take that frame of mind. Sometimes in conversations over the last several weeks,

he's like, man, this is it. Like if I don't do it, this is it. This is the end. He thinks, you know, he's sitting there in moments at his house or in a shit to track or whenever, you know, he's having these thoughts in his head. Like, you know, he's crashing. He's going through the grass at Atlanta,

and he's having, you know, he's having a great run. Phoenix and gets spun out and, you know, he flips the bird and he's all over the media, you know, he's all over social media because he's done something unperformance related, right? And it just isn't going. It's smooth. And you were getting frustrated. You were getting frustrated yourself. And he's sitting there going, man, I'm a, this is how this is going to go.

And then at the end of this 14, whatever races, the door's going to close and that's going to be the end of this. and then I'm going to have to turn around and go back to running the late model car and I always wonder what if or what could have been. And I'm like, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't. I'm trying to like, don't do what I would do, right? Yeah. Think, like, look at this like, man, it's here. What I wanted is right here in front of me.

Yeah. And yeah, maybe last week didn't go the way I wanted it, but I get to go again. Right. Right. And I get to go back. Seize it. Yeah. Yeah.

I get to try it next week. man I can't wait you know and start like try to look at this as like the gift under the tree that you wanted all year long and it's finally Christmas morning right and keep that sort of attitude throughout this process and be thankful that it happened you know what I mean when dad passed away the like when you lose somebody a lot of times we you know we mourn and we get sad and we get upset and a lot of that is some some of that is some being some selfishness because we want them right we want that person here we want them in our lives we we want what they provide to us whether it's happiness and companionship and all these things but a great reaction to losing somebody that i think

helps you sort of process the loss is to appreciate the fact that you've got to be with them right that they happened, that you happened, that this happened, right? And be thankful, like, golly, I got to be with them for a moment, you know, you know, and be thankful for what time that you spent with them, right? And so it's that same sort of mentality. And, you know, this really, like, this is how much it matters. I know I'm blowing this up into something really, really huge, but that's really how much it matters to Josh.

And I feel it. I can, I totally relate, right, to, to how, what he's going through. In this moment, you know, this guy, he's like every other, like, you know, every other driver out there that's wanted this chance, right? And now he's in the throes of it, and he's, it's, it's been up and down, down, down, and up and down. And, and he has no guarantee, no, he has no idea whether this is going to pan out or whether it's going to develop into more stuff.

more racing, or if it's going to be a seat at the table just momentarily, you know, that he's always wanted to sit at. Nobody knows that. Nobody knows it. We all want to know. I know. And that's tough. That's frustrating.

And people that just assume that you have so much control over that situation because you're a team owner. How do you address that? Because they're like, Dale, just put him in a car. I know. I see that. I've seen that for years on social media. Yeah.

Such a great part of social media is being able to get fan reaction right at your, right, right at your fingertips. And anytime a driver like goes out there in a truck or Xfinity car, you know, like Brett Buffett, I've been a huge, you know, fan of his way back when he showed out in Michael's car at Atlanta that day when he filled

in for Bickers, anytime anybody goes out there and does something good, but doesn't really have the connections of the funding or the means to advance their career themselves. Yeah, you hear it. You know, like, hey, put him in one of your cars. Sure. You got cars? And I try and try to, you can't just flat out open your books and say, hey, man, this is how we run our business and this is why this isn't possible. Right. But I mean, you try to tell people like, look, man, this, I don't, people will

say, hey, man, can you sponsor me? Right. I'm not a sponsor, right? I'm an owner. I need a sponsor just like you need a sponsor. And we all have the. same problem, right? We have to find those partners and those commitments from, from businesses that want to advertise what they do in their service. And so, it's just not, you know, it's just not easy. Every time we've had Josh Barry on the show, that's always the natural reaction from people. It's like, hey, if you want him so bad, put him in a car. Do it. And, you know, it's like, we don't need to go into the, what I would assume is just kind of common sense thing, is that the financial implications are one the business models too

we've got promises to people that are in seats right now you can't just move them out what would that be and so yeah of course we would love just throw Josh in a car that would be awesome wouldn't it yeah and it's fun but you know getting it paid

for is also a big chunk of the equation and that's oftentimes the most difficult right you got to pay for it and in this case these 12 races like Mattisette said, we bet on ourselves and you thought this is Josh's window. I want to ask you this question because you threw a lot of people by surprise when you said you just broke down and cried.

And I was going to ask why that is. I think you've been explaining it honestly. That was just a surprise. You've been explaining all this stuff that you've been saying about Josh. But do you sense that there was an element of vindication for you because you've been such a Josh Barry advocate. Do you think there was any of that? No. No. I mean, I'm sure there's some of that. I'm sure I feel some of that personally, but it's, you know, this is, you know, we've, I don't know where that emotion comes from because, you know, I'm standing there in my, in, in the house watching the race

with Amy and Ila and everybody there. And I think that emotion comes from wanting Josh to get there, wanting Josh to show people what he could do. Why is that? Why did Josh all of us, why did Josh get that out of you as far as, you've had a lot of people that drove for you? What did Josh do to earn your desire for him to succeed so much that it would drive you to an emotional reaction such as that?

I think that, yeah, I don't know, man. You know, I miss driving really, really bad. And part of that emotion, you know, part of the emotion is that. I miss, I don't know, man, I don't really, that emotion, that moment was happy for Josh. You know, knowing everything that we've put into it for a decade, knowing how he's, you know, looked up that ladder at all those, other people that are going by him into the truck series and the Xfinity series and him wondering like when's this going to be me that's that's that will it ever be me yes missing racing missing my dad any other little tiny tinge of emotion anything that would give you any emotion

going on in your life yeah your kids uh whatever all that just come pop pile you know it's like when you, if one little thing that happens to you in the day makes you emotional, all the other emotions just are pressing sort of come out with it, right? I got you. And so I think that was part of that. I've been missing racing pretty bad recently and don't know how to, it's gotten worse as I've been, as I've moved away from the day I retired, to getting further away from it, it's not gotten easier.

It's gotten harder to, it's gotten harder to come to terms with the fact that that that's it. You know, that's the end, my career's over. You know, I miss being a regular, I miss going to the track and being in that fraternity. And now, you know, there's a lot of things about it that I didn't enjoy that I've forgotten. Does that make sense? Yeah, I could think of something right now. Yeah. Like you would, you'll, you know, you'll, you'll, you'll have.

that relationship, you know, you're young and your teens or 20s or whatever and you got this relationship that you think is great and then then you see the flaws in it and you decide that it's not for you and you move on. And then six months later, a year later or whatever, you see that person and you think, oh man, I like that relationship. I want to get back in it and you do, right? You both make that choice to be back together. And then I mean in a week, you're like, oh no, I forgot about all the things. that I didn't like about this. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Right? So I know that that's there, that I just don't realize, like, man, you've made the choice and you made it for a reason and it's made and you're, you got to figure, you got to come to terms with it,

but it's... But that's okay, you can still say that you miss racing. I do. You miss racing. This is a profound development right here. It's not profound. It is.

I'm telling you, I haven't heard this. I miss it. So you miss it. And that's okay. So are you saying that Josh's success is sort of helping you

process this? I mean, like, how are you tying this to Josh. I don't know. I'm just saying that... You're just saying all the emotion that you released... And it released... ...came out at once.

I got you. And... I got you. So, yeah. It was... I have wanted to... I feel like, too, you know, there is something to... There's some guilt with not being able to provide Josh with better opportunities, right? There's some... There's... I feel like that I have...

I always go back in my mind and go, man, did we miss this... What we're doing today? with Josh what we're doing with this little package of half a season. Was this there? Was this opportunity there before that we just didn't figure it out? Did we not try hard enough to make this happen? Did we miss something? Did we miss a chance to put him in a car more often?

And so I feel so much responsibility, right, to help him, you know, get where he wants to go. And he's looking around going, man, this, what? what's the missing piece, right? You got, I look at this shop and you got, working, everything's working well, you got all the employees and all these cars everywhere, right? I can look out there now, there's just cars, all colors, right? There's white and gray, red, and orange,

and there's people and there's stuff, and there's, why are we racing? Why can I race? Why can't, why, right? I feel this responsibility when he walks in here and looks around. I'm like, yeah, I know it looks like we could just load up and go, but it's not that easy, and I feel like, And for the record, that's all self-inflicted.

Josh has never once done anything to make you feel that way. No, he doesn't put that pressure on me. Right. Josh has never asked the question, dude, you know, what's up with all the race cars? Yeah. Right. You know, you feel that pressure, you know, you feel people, just like the people ask on social media, like, wait, wait, why is this so hard, right? Sure. I know why this is.

Yeah. You said it. There has never been anybody, and I can't think of anybody in any sport that's been more of a team player. that you want to succeed and you want to repay the favor. He has mentored people that are racing in Cup today. Yeah. And process that and never once complained. So, yeah, I'll tell you this about Josh that really impressed me.

He runs his late model, he runs the late model program, right? And he has his car, and then there's a couple other cars available to the program. We bring in a young driver, and Josh tutors them. analyzes them, assesses them, right? And he goes, they go through this whole season and he's like, you know, he'll come back to me and LW and be like, this is what I think of that driver. Right. And let's take Sam Mayer, for example.

They work together in the late model program. And then when Sam moved on, I thought, you know, we'd get the next guy in and plug him in, right? And we did. We got another driver. and Josh went to work with him. And one weekend I said, hey man, what you got going on this weekend,

where are you racing? He goes, well, I'm going to go help Sam. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, Sam's running a can in car at such and such track, and I'm going to just go up there. I'm like, man, you know that he would continue to support somebody's career,

even though they've moved on to something different. And William Byron. Great example. William's texting me going, man, that's awesome. I'm so happy for Josh. Well, Josh and William worked together in the late mile program, and Josh, you know, helped William with a lot as he was coming through that before he went on and raced in the truck series for Kyle.

And so, you know, Josh has not only, I think, helped these young drivers, but they thought enough of that experience to maintain that connection, respect and communication where they still think of Josh as, somebody that they respect and love, you know? And so I think that says a lot. You know, when you work with somebody and y'all split up and one goes one way and one goes the other, and if you maintain that relationship, that's because there's some respect there and appreciation for each other. And, you know, those guys don't have to maintain that level of respect for Josh now that they've gone on to bigger things. So that says a lot about his character. But he's a special guy, man. I'm telling you.

It's been fun. We really, this is really something that started from nothing. It came from nothing. And, and it's been, it's been awesome. I'm so glad that he's remained committed to it all these years so that we can experience days like we did this past Sunday. And I'm so glad that we never gave up on that idea. That's the thing.

Like, it would have been so easy for him to say, you know what? I've been running running late models is a great time. He has a lot of fun and he knows how to, he's got to appreciate that opportunity. He's got great cars. It's a good little program. But he's been doing it for a decade.

Yes. You know what I mean? He's been going to these tracks, week in and week out, grinding away. And I'm sure at some points he's got to feel some desperation or some exhaustion of just, man, is this who, is this my life?

Is this who I am? is who I am. And so I'm glad that he has the mental fortitude. He's never let off the pedal as far as his work ethic and preparation and just continuing to have a plan year in and year out and go out and try to achieve it. He's never let off the gas. And it's brought him to where he is right now with a real opportunity to go out and win even more affinity races this year.

So I think if at any point in the last, three or four years if the passion and energy had waned a little bit, this wouldn't be happening. No way. So it's a pretty cool deal. Is he here? He's right here. You know what?

I am looking forward to this conversation because the winner is coming into the studio. Coming to the checkers. How about that, baby? All we do is win big. Take what? Win big. How's your gosh, man. Hell of you.

Winning bigger and better. It all comes together. When I'm balling him, I name calling. Stay focused. They notice you're very flinch in a cinch. You want to be a champion. Fight the battle every inch of the game. Thank you guys for believing in me.

There he is the man. Josh Berry. He's beaming. He's still, still beaming. Threading the needle from media event to media event. From interview to interview, he has made time to come to the podcast. I'm a busy man. You are.

And it's nice to say that. Yeah. He was on Motor Mouse last night. I know. Yeah. I mean, you know, he's probably thinking that it'd be nice if I wouldn't pop up in the middle of everything he's trying to do over the last couple days. Did you hear my answer to your question? I didn't.

What was the best meal? Let me set it all up. Yeah. So I'm, you know, Jeff Mickey works for NBC's kind of a boss for me, one of my bosses. And we're emailing about other things. at work and he's like hey man Josh's on motor mouse I'm like thanks that's awesome appreciate you guys putting him on there

oh yeah could you call in I'm like sure I'll call in send me the information so he sends me the information and I called in and they put me on the line actually I was sitting there and I they told me they like call in at 615 sharp or something like that whatever time was and I I'd ran I'd done something I'd went to do something and with one of my girls it wasn't putting them in bed

it's too early but I was doing something upstairs with Isla got back down and it was 6.30. I was like, oh no, I messed up. Dale Jr. was late. I am jocker. Dude, I can't remember I'm never good at that. And my phone, I can't figure out how to get my phone to start making noises when it needs me to do something. So, you know, I used to be on top of technology.

Yes, you are. On top of it. And now I am the worst. We're having to explain to him what alerts do on the phone. Yes, what the hell? Who am I? So, anyhow. I'm thinking shit.

I missed it. I missed the window. And I call it anyways. And they're like, oh, we had some technical difficulty and didn't get him on until late. And so they patched me in. And I said, they're like, hey, we got a surprise caller.

Taking some calls from fans. Here's one. And I said, hey, big fan, long time fan. What was your favorite meal when you were living with Mom and Willie? And I didn't hear his answer because they didn't have meat. I could only hear the hosts.

Oh, what was your answer? Crab legs. What? Yeah, she would make crab legs on a Wednesday night or something. Yeah. She'd cook them in the oven. It was good. Yeah.

We used to get crab legs from... Wild Bill. Wild Bill. That's right. Oh, man. He would send us a... These things are massive. But she was getting hers from Gersh store.

Yeah. That was before Wild Bill. So you got your question in for Dalli. So how's this week been so far? Man, it's been hard to process, really. I mean, it's such a big deal. I mean, winning these races are... I mean, I knew how big of a deal

one in these races were, but I mean, this was, this one was pretty big. How about all the media? It's been fun. I really, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty busy today. Really haven't had a whole lot yet, other than just a whole different things. So today's kind of the day. Yeah. Motor Mouse good time last night. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah. Those are some good guys on there. They are, yeah. Yeah. So, let's go back, man. Let's, uh, let's talk, we've had you on the show several times. I did not listen to any of that stuff beforehand. So I don't know what we've covered, uh, and what we haven't. But, you know, we, to sort of, to people that haven't heard your story, we raced on I racing, and you were good, and I was okay.

And you're still really good, by the way. I was racing in a super late mall race with somebody the other day, and they're like, man, I race with Josh sometimes, and I'm like, yeah, he's like, he's fast. I'm like, yeah, he's pretty fast. So you got a great reputation. And you've kind of become, there's like a handful of drivers, real world drivers that are on the, on the service and were probably more sim racers at one point than they were professional race car drivers right like jesky and a few other guys you're you've turned into one of those guys

you're instantly now more recognizable to a lot of the people in the service and they're going to know that man he he was discovered on i racing you really were there's it's not overstating that and so we're racing together and uh you were like we struck up a conversation and friendship, communicated over several weeks, me, you, and a whole circle of other people. That's the great thing about I racing is the community. And

you sent me some videos. We were just BSing after some racing one night, and you sent me some videos of you racing at Nashville in a legend's car. You run a little quarter mile. And you're like, yeah, man, one handful races, track championship, just me and my dad. Tell me a bit about your parents.

Tell me about your dad. Tell me about your mother. Set that up because that's That's kind of a... So I actually lost my mom when I was 13 years old unexpectedly. So it was really just my dad and me and my dad together. She had a heart attack in her sleep, yeah. Yeah. And so really it was just me and my dad, and we just kind of raced.

That's kind of what we did. You know, we didn't really do anything else. My dad owned a restaurant, like a local, like meat and three type deal. And, yeah, I remember going there. What's a meat and three? I don't know, like meat and three vegetables kind of deal. That's what they call it. Yeah.

I never heard of it. Yeah, there's not a lot of them around here because I never really, I haven't really been to one here yet. But anyway, so yeah, he did that and we race go-carts and stuff. And we did that, you know, when she was still alive. And then she passed away that kind of put a pretty big, you know, financial burden on us. How was that like, you know, I mean, I've, how are, how were, what did you and your dad do? What was that next year like in y'all's lives? Did y'all, were y'all, like, listless?

Like when something like that happens to somebody and you lose, you know, somebody's such a key figure in the family, where did you guys sort of like tie together and say, look, man, we're going to figure this out, we're going to get through this together? Was there like a year of, you know, like wondering like what's going to happen? How did your dad react? I mean, because you guys, y'all had to have some sort of conversation, right? Yeah, I mean, it was hard. I mean, you know that. I mean, it's hard.

Like, I think that racing was kind of what kept us together. close you know, it kept us closer. You know, it was, it's tough. Like, you don't really know what's next. You know, you don't really, like you, it makes you, I think, look at things a lot differently. And, you know, I think it, I don't know, it changed my life. And, you know, when you get in these moments, you know, you kind of, you see this

happen all the time. I think you can, you know, some people, you can either, you can go about it two ways. You know, you can accept it and move on and try to become a better person from it and try to learn and appreciate things more. Or, you know, you see a lot of people that kind of, go, you know, crazy, you know, kind of use it as, like, an excuse. And, you know, for me, it was, man, it seems like so long ago, but it was so, it was so tough. And like I said, really the racing part of it really kept us together. Yeah, I think it did. And we, you know,

had to grow up pretty quick. Right. So that's, that's another thing that I think, it had an, it had an effect on you, I think, at that age, and that did help you mature to, allow you to do some of the things that we're going to talk about in a minute. But you're racing at Nashville Fairgrounds. You're winning races. You send me these videos. You know, when I watched the videos, the one thing that I paid attention to was how you drove your entry and how you rolled the center and how you exited the corner.

And I was like, because you had in-car footage. Yeah. And I was like, man, this guy knows what he's doing. Like you're, you know, you can tell when people drive shallow on entry and don't know they're doing it and they just win because they just have a superior car and it just sort of masks some of the problems or issues they have with their ability right and i'm watching the you know some of the things you're doing in the corner and and thinking man you know it kind of knows what he's doing i've always even especially back then i've always had this idea that man if you can if you know

how to put a corner together i don't care if it's in a real car or on a simulator it's the same theory it's the same, you're doing the, you're moving the same pieces around on the table, right? If you drive shallow, it's going to not turn in the middle. It's going to hurt the exit, all those little things, right? You can see that in a simulator, just as you do at the manufacturer simulator, right? Y'all compare lines and throttle and steering and all those things, right? And it's, I always felt like, you know, man, if you're probably, you know, your, your eye racing is making your legends racing better and your legends racing is making your eye

racing better and all that stuff works together. So I thought you'd be a great test subject, for lack of a better term, to prove to people because back, it's still a bit of an upward battle trying to prove to people that eye racing can be used as a legitimate tool. And it's more than just a video game, right? But this would be a great way to prove to people like, man, this stuff really can be helpful and I think you can see talent, right, in guys that are racing on a simulator. So, anyway.

So you notice this in his in-car camera? Yeah. Yeah. Anytime you watch somebody's in-car camera, you're at, if you're a driver and you watch any in-car camera footage ever at any point, you're absolutely analyzing and critiquing what they're doing, right? Is that why you had the camera to begin with? I'm just, I don't know, probably.

I was like 18 or something. I probably just thought it was cool, too. Yeah. Right. Yeah, like that was, that point of my life, that was a lot of fun, really, really. racing back then because because like I see um ever since I moved here and I've been to you know some of the like the summer shoot out and some things like that it's kind of wild you know but really like the group that we had racing there was like we're all pretty similar age pretty similar equipment

you know it wasn't like you know we had these huge huge budgets or all this you know these people with you know 12 legend cars and stuff like you see nowadays especially out here but so it's kind of like a pretty knit group and we always just rate you know we raced really hard and and and none of us really liked each other. We just, you know, I mean, it was what it was. I mean, they probably, I'm sure some of them guys still don't like me to this day. But, you know, it was always really close and, like, they would, you would qualify, and then you'd do an invert, and, like, you get the pole, and then you got to go back to six.

And it would be so hard to win or something just because everyone was so close. And it was so much fun. I learned a lot about myself and that, because, you know, really the fact of the matter was is my dad, kind of, I got to the point where, you know, he would help me, but really it was kind of my decision making on what we did and working on it and maintenance in it and cleaning it. And it really, you know, he helps some. But really it kind of turned it over to me to, you know, if I was going to race, like it was up to me. And, you know, at this point that Dale's discussing about us talking and, and sharing, you know, sharing, you know, the videos and all

stuff talking like, I was at a real interesting point in my life because, I mean, I was 18, I just graduated high school. I was racing. We really, I mean, we really didn't have the money to keep going. We were relying on some sponsorships and, you know, some people that helped us out locally. And really, I was at an interesting point where I worked at a bank, actually, as a teller. I think we've talked about that before. But like we didn't, I guess I should say I didn't know, you know, with everything that our financial situation and my mother passing away, I was not sure that I, you know, continuing to race like that and putting all this time and money was the right thing for my future. You know, I didn't want to be, you know, I always

said, oh, well, you know, should I go to college? Should I, you know, try it working and then maybe go back racing at a later time, you know, so we was really kind of at that point. And, you know, that's where he came in. And, you know, it just, I remember it all like yesterday, and I remember going to testing and everything. And, like, I mean, it went well, like surprisingly well. I mean, not, you know, I think, and even, I mean, my first race, late model race was at motor mile speedway, and there was like 32 cars or something. I was like, holy cow. Like, yeah, I mean, it was amazing. So we ran a couple races, and the rest is history.

You've got 75 feature wins, something like that. You've added a couple more this year already. One of the things that I'll tell people about you is, you know, we brought you here. You were mature enough at a young age to move away from Nashville. Leave your dad, leave your job, leave all the things that are comfortable. You moved in with my mom and Willie, who you had no clue who they were, right? you level them for a little while until you got your feet underneath you

and you even worked in the shop for a while cleaning parts tearing cars down things like that you've done anything and everything we've ever asked you to do a lot of times you bring guys in and you say all right you're going to drive this late model car and yeah they learn a little bit about what a part is and whatever you know they learn the tools what a 916th is and get me this allen wrench

and they can do it they can change a gear maybe set the toe and they start learning little things as they go But never, do they ever, rarely do they ever, turn into the type of mechanic and manager of a whole program where they can really just kind of take it over. Because when he came in, Willie was part of the part manager, then it was LW running the program. And we had, you know, we had to provide Josh with, you know, some knowledgeable people. and he still has some great guys working in that program without a doubt that he will credit to the success and performance of that car that absolutely have a direct effect on the way the car runs. But Josh has now turned into a guy that can do anything and everything on that car, knows everything about everything, every part on it, knows where it came from, how much it costs, what the program spends, what they're going to do as far as their budget, where they can race and what they can and can't do. And he's a mentor for these younger drivers that have come through the program.

He's responsible for them. We're like, hey, here's your guy this year. Here's your new driver. I was telling Mike, before you came in here, I said, you assess them, right? At the end of the year, you're sort of the guy that goes, you know, I think this guy has this much ability, right? And so it's been a lot of fun. And I was telling Mike also that we're lucky that you've stuck with a plan and you stayed on the gas, right? You've had, you've done this for 10 years. Going to the late model

program, going to the late model tracks and racing, weekend, week out, a lot of fun. Anybody would love to do it, but a decade of it is that it takes a ton of effort. Yeah. How do you sustain that motivation, right? Because if you let off the gas a little bit, you don't get to do what you're doing this year in this Xfinity car. Yeah. You know, if you lose that passion, lose that energy, all this doesn't happen. So, and you could have. You could have just said, I'm burnt out. How did you not get burned out? I think just the amount of just hands-on that I've been with the program.

And even here, I think, I mean, that's a pretty cool story, just the fact if you think back that I worked here. I mean, I watched the cars. I cleaned the parts. I learned. And, you know, there's just been so many key people that I can think of, like over the course of this time that's just kind of molded me and probably had more of effect on me than they even realize.

You know, Gordon Gibbs, he was here for a long time. He was a shot for him. and he passed away a few years ago, but he was tough on me and pushed me. And Tony Barclay, he's still here in the suspension room. I mean, he taught me a ton about race, just how to prepare a race car, how to go about it, like how to think, you know, how to stay organized.

I mean, a lot of, he, I mean, he really dramatically helped me. And then, you know, with our late model program, you know, we've had all these guys, but, you know, Brian Schaefer, he's been around forever. I mean, he was a crew chief for a Bush car, one at Hickory with Dick Trickle. And, I mean, he's really been, like, a second father to me. He's taught me so much about race and gave me so much confidence in myself.

And so I guess to answer your question, I think, you know, over all these years, I was knew I was getting something out of it. You know, I wasn't just, you know, for the longest time, you know, I was just kind of learning how to race and how to drive. And then when we started winning all the time, well, then I'm learning how to work on the car better. I'm learning how to crew chief the car. I mean, I'm more or less crew chieffing it myself when I race. I mean, I'm not knocking anybody, but that's just what it's become. That's how our program operates. You know, I set up the car, I take it to the racetrack.

It's ultimately my responsibility. So I've learned all these things, and, you know, there's been all these people that have helped me along the way. And really, I think I took a – over the last couple years, I've just learned so much more. I know I've probably mentioned him before, but I'm pretty close friends with Marty Lindley. He's a – now he's a truck crew chief for Kyle Bush, and they've already won. Well, he won with Kyle and Martin already. and he's pushed me, he's like, you, I mean, he tells me, I talk to him almost every day, and he's like, you can be a crew chief at this level. You are smart enough to do it. You can do it,

you know, and it's just so funny how dramatically things have changed in six months. You know, when I sat here last time, we had just won the national championship, I'm like, man, that's a huge deal. I left here, I came here, left here thinking, like, I'm going to be a career short track racer that's going to be, you know, a very good one. You know, I mean, I'm going to, you know, I've done a lot of great things. I wasn't going to quit racing or nothing, but at this point, you know, I've accomplished a lot of things and that was a huge deal. And we were coming off this amazing season.

And, you know, two days later, boom, you hit me with this 12 race opportunity, right? And just my mind right then goes from like, you know, I'm thinking, literally two days before that, I'm thinking, you know, that's amazing. We're going to go keep racing late models until, you know, to be honest, whether if I decide that I need, I'm ready to do something else or if I need to do something else for, you know, my family to make a living or if I want to, you know, because I've had those conversations that at the same time you see these drivers that are, you know, like a Rodney Childers or Matt McCall or Richard Boswell, these people that are great crew chiefs now, you know, they had to make the

decision, well, I don't want to stay racing too long and not give myself enough time to go up the ladder, you know, so, I mean, those are things I think about all the time, but at the end of the day, I knew the whole, man, as good as we were running and how much fun it was, I mean, it's hard to step away from, you know, and I wasn't prepared to do that by any means, but And then this opportunity comes about. You know, I spend the whole, I'm thankful that I got, that it was early enough that I got to spend a lot of time over the winter thinking about it and preparing myself for it and working for it. And I went into this and I know that when we first sat down before Daytona, I remember you, how nervous you were about me not having practice. And I was like, oh, man, it'll be all right.

Well, let me tell you, it's hard. It's a lot harder than I expected. I'm telling you, when I roll out on this mile and a half track that I've never even seen before and I'm dropping the green flag and I'm, starting like eighth and these guys, man, they're like sharks when they get around me, you know. So you got to go down the straightaway and go, I don't know where to lift. Really not a clue. I'm just going to follow this guy. So even this whole, this opportunity, man, like, I think beforehand I was like, man, I'm a way better race car driver than it was before.

I'm way smart about race cars. I'm going to be great. And then, you know, Daytona, we wrecked Daytona, you know, didn't have a great run really at Homestead. You know, had a good finish at, like four or five weeks. and I mean, we saw the last couple weeks, they've been well documented. I've been a highlight reel. And I was down, man. I was after that, after that, I was down.

I think a lot of people knew it. And, you know, honestly, I said, I told my wife, I said, you know, we're going to go get the late model car. We're going to go race it a couple weeks. We're going to go. It don't matter. You know, it wasn't like I had to go win to think that I knew how to drive. But I just needed like a reset.

I mean, because it kept me busy. I mean, I worked on it all week, take it racing, come home, clean it. You know, take it racing again. and I don't know if that had something to do with me going into this weekend, but it definitely didn't hurt. Yeah. Well, I'll definitely want to unpack your first five races before Martinsville, but you said something that I have to ask you about.

Last year, October, you said that you said to yourself, I'm just going to be a career short track racer. Did you say that in convincing yourself that you've got to be okay with that? Were you discouraged by that realization? Not necessarily. You know, I just think I, I kind of thought that that's what I was meant to do. You know, I didn't really necessarily think, I guess I just, you know, I don't know.

And then even when we sat here and talked and the things Dale said to me that day about me being, you know, the fact that I was 30 and I was still young and he just looking at me and how he almost left me speechless. I remember I texted you that night and told you how much it meant to me the things you said. You're talking about on the show? Yes, yeah. So, yeah, October 20th, the last year, you were on the show. I remember we had Steve O'Donnell actually was on a video message congratulating you.

You just won the Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series National Championship. Big deal. Dale Jr.'s talking about how it's like the highlight of this company's, you know, like it's the greatest thing we've ever done. And he meant it. I really think I took that away too. Yeah. And at that point, you are like, this is literally going to be the top of the mountain for me? Well, I mean, a wave, and that's what you said.

You're like, man, no matter what we do from here, you know, this is going to be the, the best thing and all this. And I'm not saying that I didn't think I was ever going to get an opportunity. I mean, you never know, especially in these times with everything going on. I didn't, you know, I hadn't necessarily given up. But I think I had accepted that maybe that's what I was going to be. And, you know, like, I mean, then I get this opportunity and then Sunday happens. And, I mean, you have this next moment that, I mean, I don't know where you, where you would rank that first the national championship.

But, I mean, that was a big moment. The national championship didn't make him cry. This one good. Yeah. I mean, for real, this was big. Yeah. I would think that, you know, you talked about being down. You talked about kind of being frustrated.

I was talking to Mike about the two sort of mindsets that I see a lot of people, myself, included, have where you, I, if you push me into the playoffs or a must-win situation or a championship situation, I don't crumble. it's not like I'm already defeated before it's happened, but I look at that a hurdle or object, I look at that as a hurdle. I look at that as a challenge or a heel to climb, right? Man, this is going to be hard. Oh, there's so many people that are going to be disappointed if this doesn't happen.

And I feel the weight of the team and the expectations of everyone, right, the fan base or anything, right? My own expectations, right? My own dreams and wishes of being in this position. And it's a miserable emotion. And I can't, I can't, that's who I am, right? It's my wiring.

Chase Elliott, going into his championship opportunity, I believe last year, was asked basically to sum up the same emotion. And he said, what a great opportunity. I can't believe I'm here to get this chance. This is going to be a blast going for this. You know, a totally different way of looking at it. Like he was looking, it saw downhill from here, right? Yeah.

You know, and so I was trying to, I think I've tried to tell you over this course of this, as you've gotten beat up by the results and the disappointment, you know, you're running third at Phoenix. I get it. You're sitting there. I knew exactly what you were thinking when you got in that position. Like, this is the day it's going to end well. Yeah.

I'm in this position. I'm better, I'm better than third. This is going to be great. And then a series of events happen. in the wall and turn four and all hit you know it just it was awful yeah but i was trying to i think i've tried to tell you like man you know we can and you're like i this i just have this feeling and this motion that this is it like after these races this is going to be the end of this and then i got to go back to doing what i'm doing or i got to figure out how to you know once you you got a taste of what this is

what this could be like you've got to go back and accept what what the reality of you know what's the is, right, and that you might not never run more races, right? And I was like, oh, no, no, no, that's not the, don't do what I do. Yeah. You know, look at it like, man, my opportunity's here. Even if it is just 12 races,

it's 12 races you never had before, right? And I know that is so hard, the competitor in you, the racer in you, it's impossible almost to look at it that way. But. And Phoenix was race four of 12. Like, you have all these races left. I know, right, right. Not like, oh, they're dwindling away.

It's not over. Yeah. Right? Like, look at it like, I know. And I guess where are you with that? And it's maybe easier now with a victory under your belt. You've accomplished one of the goals, the massive goals that you set out for yourself. But can you allow yourself to enjoy it, right?

Yeah. And not because if you don't, you're going to wish you did. You're going to, you know, a year from now, two years. from now, you're going to go, damn, why did I make, why was I so hard about that? Why didn't I, why didn't I really relish in that experience, right? Right. Even if you do get an Exfinity ride and you do get to keep going, you're never going to have this type of situation with Taylor and that team, right, where you are all fighting

for that next opportunity, right? You're all, they're doing it. Yeah. Right. Taylor's doing it. Yep. Danny Jr. is a car chief.

All of them are trying to get. to the next race, right? And, you know, so I wonder if you can enjoy it, right? I know the win was easy to enjoy. Yeah. Success is easy. But can you go to the next race with a mentality of, man, what, I'm so thankful. I know you're thankful.

But can you go to that race and go, hell yeah, this is awesome. I mean, I think this is going to make it easier, definitely. But, you know, just like the last couple weeks especially, man, it's so hard for me, even in these situations to, you know, you get wrecked, right? and what things happen, you know, you hear it, but the type of driver that I am and type of racer that I am, like, I'll look back on these things and no matter what happens, whether you, like, if you just end up in the wall and you say, oh, well, I got wrecked, whatever, then you're not learning from it. I mean, so I'm sitting there thinking back, and I, and I overthink things all the time,

and I'm thinking like, man, I should, you know, when that dude ran me up in the, out of the groove, I'm like, I should have just backed off. What was I doing? You know, like, I feel, you know, and then I go from angry at him, you know, frustrated, and then you think on it and you're like, man, I could have been better in that situation. Or, I mean, obviously the deal Atlanta, I mean, the no-brainer was to go down pit road, but the instinct of a racer is to try to continue, you know, I just, I mean, I never thought that was going to happen. I mean, I learned a valuable lesson with the grass deal or whatever.

But yeah, everybody's like, oh, well, what an idiot. He should just went down pit road. Like, I mean, I think, I think that's where I said that I was kind of down on myself because I just, I was frustrated by those moments. And I think that I, and I talk to, I know I talked to Taylor and Tab both about it going into this week. And I was like, if something unravels in our race, just make sure you just pump the brakes on me. Like, don't, you know, because sometimes those guys, they are like, all right, man, we got to go, we got to go. You know, and I think they make you kind of get fired up or whatever.

And I think I just could have maybe done some, you know, better things to just bring the car home in one piece. And we still might have had a better, you know, a good finish. Yeah. It's just, it's hard to get in these situations. and if you just if you don't look at it that way you're not getting any better you know you can't you know if you're running in the back and you get wrecked or something you got to and that all come from late model racing you know that's come from from brian being hard on me and lw being hard on me about and even him oh he's hard on me yeah he is yes he is i've sensed it yeah i mean he is i mean he don't he's not but that makes you better i mean that's what you need you know that's what i need i mean it it's obviously worked you know i mean it's obviously not um yeah we've had some excitement, I guess you could say, but our speed's been there and we just needed to put it together. And I think, you know, like I said, I needed maybe a little bit of a reset and to take a deep breath and go into this and say, we're going to Martinsville. This is a place I'm comfortable.

You know, we can go have a good day and then we killed it. Ty Gibbs, you took the lead and Ty Gibbs passed you back for the lead with 57 to go. Now, you have been really up front, you know, most of the day and your restarts were amazing. But when Ty passed you, with 57 to go. What's in your mind right there? So we were a little bit freer that run, and I was, I was definitely nervous about that, but I knew that I was given a little bit up on exit because, I mean, I could have just hammered down off the corner, but it was going to get loose. So I said, you know, my biggest thing was, like, you know, I thought he was really good at that point of the race. Don't get me wrong. And then it seemed like after a while, like he was better off the corner,

but then he started building tighter, and I could see me inching back up on him, and I put a little pressure on him and I could see he got a little tighter yet and like my exit started getting even with his because you know my car tightened up a little bit his got too tight and I was underneath of him and the cost should come out and I was like like I was I that was it was you were almost passing and I mean I'll be honest I said that when I got back to him I was not going to waste any time I was going to go and we were going to and that was it like I got back to him and got to his bumper I was going to I was going to push him out of the way yeah I was going to push him out of the way and try to win this race I didn't want I did not want

want to, you know, get home on Monday and be kicking myself and saying, man, I should have just moved that guy because, I mean, in the situations, you got to go. You got a free pass. If we're going for your first win, you absolutely can use any part of the chrome bumper to make it happen. You got a free pass. Yeah. I don't care who you are driving for me or anyone else. Did drive, you've race with Ty before. You all have ran together in a cars tour. Did that make things easier, I think, not easier to beat him, but like sometimes you don't know how to drive guys, race guys, you're unfamiliar with how they're going to react to the way you race them. Yeah.

But you and Ty have some respect. Yeah, I think so. You know, he's been, you know, he's young and I remember him coming in and young, but, you know, he's one of the guys that has always stood out to me that has just always had a lot of respect for me. And, you know, I think he knew the situation, I'm sure. You know, I think he probably wasn't, wasn't real happy that he got, that. he got moved out of the way, but I think he knows that, you know, he knows who I am,

and that's not what I'm just out there just being reckless doing it, that it's situational, and that was my day. Yeah. So were you, I couldn't watch the race. So I watched the whole thing, really, and then when it got to 20 to go, I had to walk outside because I was going to vomit. For sure, for sure. I was literally going to throw up.

We have been, me and you, we have been in these situations. in the cars tour and all these late-mile races, the late yellows, you'll be dominating a race, just driving away, fastest car, easily the winning car, and a late yellow and you get run over. And I've seen it in the cup. We've seen it in these cup racing and Xfinity races,

and your races this year just have been berserk, right? And I was sitting there thinking, man, I'm not going to allow myself to think about what winning this would feel like. I'm not going to even go there. And so I walked outside, Amy was working, and she's putting some flowers in, her pots. And I said, he's still leading with 20 to go. She goes, really? She starts putting everything

down. I'm going to go in there. I'm like, let's not go in there. Let's not go in there yet. And I said, let's just sit out here. And she's like, screw that. I'm going in there. Come on. I'm like, no, I can't. I was like, just tell me when they get close to five to go. And I'm picking through the window. I can't really tell what cars are on the screen, but I can just tell they're moving, right? They're not under caution, right? And I'm like, okay, no caution. yeah good good hopefully he's still leading and finally she's like there's two to go and I'm like all right I came running in there and uh y'all come off to turn four and took the white flag were you that as nervous as I was like what are you going what's going through your heart in that

moment so yeah I remember when I got the lead and we got about 25 to go like tabs count starting to count off the laps he's like 25 to go and he's like 25 to go and he's like 20 to go and I'm like I'm thinking I feel like we run 100 laps right there I'm like there's still still 20 to go, you know, and I'm just going, going, and I'm watching. And, like, I felt really, I mean, the bottom line is this, you never know how you're going to be in those moments until you get into them. You know, I was, you know, I dreamt about that day, you know, ever since I stepped foot in here and things have changed, you know, maybe when I first moved in, I was, or moved here, it was winning my first late model race or running my first Xfinity race. So now we have all this

opportunity and I've accomplished all this thing. Now it's winning, winning my first Xfinity race. So, you know, I had, you dream about those moments. And, you never know how you will be until you do you get there you mean you're well how are you i was good that when you caught when you come off a four and you see the white i was like thank god because the car store has this ridiculous rule whether if you take the white you can come like you can take the white fly you could be from here to us apart from the start finish line the caution comes out they'll re-rack them and that's got me a couple of times before but when i saw the white i'm like yeah like no had closed in a little bit but i was just trying to be a little overly patient with the lap cars a couple of them

had got kind of squirly in front of me, so I was just making sure I kept myself out of a bad position, and I knew that I would have a good exit and be fine, but I was good. Yeah, I surprised myself a little bit in that moment. You know, honestly, I was surprised that I didn't really cry. I guess, you know, I think you could see the emotion of my eyes that I was fighting it a little bit, but, you know, I was good. I was, I was ready for the moment. You got out of the car and you did an interview, and then you looked over at the flagstand,

you said your dad was over there. Yeah. Have you had a chance to see your dad? No, I haven't. No, I didn't get to. He had to, he went on back home, but there was a bunch of, my dad was there, my wife and my little girl was there. Really? Yeah, so she wasn't going to go Friday night, but we had a, the rained out, kind of screwed up and thing.

We didn't have anybody to watch her, and the race was short, and we were like, whatever, just bring her. So she was there. My in-laws were there. Did your wife get to come across into Victory Lane? Yeah, Ryan, I don't know if that was. It's fine. We should talk about that or not. But yeah, Ryan,

Ryan Sweet talked to security guard and got them and my little girl across, so we took a picture of Victory Lane on the stage. But there was all kinds of people. They were going crazy. A lot of the guys from our late-mall team, even from the past years, they were there. It was pretty cool.

That's amazing. Oh, man. I can't even imagine. That was when, that was the most, you know, you love to see true, genuine thought coming out of somebody's mouth when they're giving an interview. whether it's a sit-down interview at this table or in Victory Lane.

And I know when you turned around and look at that, you know, you pointed to them people to recognize them, that was like the coolest most throwback thing. Yeah. You know, like these are, so one of my favorite movies is Last American Hero, and there's sort of a similar moment when Junior Jackson wins at Martinsville, the finale. He wins his first cup race, right?

and he's proven everybody that he can do it. And his buddies that have raced his late model car all the years are in, he's like, there's my guys, my buddies, right? And people that kind of believed in him all his life. And so it was really a cool throwback moment. I really appreciated that. But I tell you, man, it's how do you prepare for, you got a weekend off, right?

you're not going to go race your late model you've got some plans with your family I think it's important that you prioritize spending time with them in the middle of all this chaos I do appreciate you running your late model car a little bit here and there because that program's really strong we certainly don't want to lose any momentum there we have with that program no matter what you know the future is for it down the road but it's hard to get your it's hard to be good in the late program and we don't want to not be good. But I wonder where your head's at for Dega.

I remember sitting down with you going into Daytona. We watched the race and talked about drafting and all the things. And you did as much as you could to prepare. Then you go and run Daytona. You did well, right? And they complimented you on the broadcast about how smart you were and just being patient. So having that experience under your belt. Talladega is pretty similar, a lot more room.

Yeah. But you can still find yourself in the same silliness getting wrecked. But where's your... Yeah, I feel like obviously I'm glad that I have Daytona on my belt to get the experience there. I think I learned a lot. And really the last half of that race, we made some good moves, got up front, was in a good position. You know, I would have done some things over, kind of like the same thing. Like I would have done some things differently at the end of that race if I had to.

I think. And, you know, Taladaiga, will you watch that race over? Will you watch Daytona over? What will you do? Probably, yeah. And I'll probably watch the Talladega race before. And you never know.

This year's been pretty wild, like we mentioned. But it seems like Talladega is usually a little calmer maybe. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there's been. A little more space. Yeah. You know, so it might not probably have to try to stay up front a little bit better than what we were able to do.

But, yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's going to be tough going back there and doing that again. like I said, it's another place I haven't been, and the Speedway racing itself is just, it's so new to me, it's so different, you know, but like I said, I feel like I learned a lot. And, you know, maybe now, you know, at Daytona, I thought there was times that some people, and I know you mentioned this, maybe kind of went the other way versus working with me, maybe now racing with me some and now being a winner, you know, maybe I'll get some, yeah, I made a pretty, I kind of ended up teamed up with Cendrick there for a long time. I think he was kind of looking for somebody. And I just,

was kind of pushing him along, almost too much. But it was... You push wherever you need to push. Yeah. I never believed in manufacture your loyalty or some teammate loyalty to a point, right? But, man, you've always got to be doing what's best for you. And sometimes you'll find the most unlikeliest friends out there and they'll be there when you need one.

I wish we were going to Talladegh this weekend. I'm not... You know, I'm ready to get back to the track and see kind of... where you're at. I feel like getting a win, you're going to be a completely different driver. I don't know what analogy would be best to explain that, but when you get a win,

you peel away this sort of layer that's a bit, you peel away a layer of anxiety and frustration that is a bit of an inhibits your performance or your train of thought a little bit. think so that's gone going forward and I feel like too like you said competitors will now look at you differently yeah I think I mean I think you're right I think going forward it's things are going to be a little bit I mean obviously like you said that you know a little bit easier I think you know just no different than talking about the you know the frustrations and doubt that I've had I mean that's

I mean I'm a winner I've done it I can do it it's probably going to make me feel more patient knowing that, I mean, look, we went to Martinsville, and I'm not saying that I was confident going into Martinsville, but, you know, I was definitely more comfortable going there, having, having race there and seen the place and experienced Martinsville many times. So it just makes me feel, you know, a little bit more patient going forward, knowing that I don't have to be necessarily so hard on myself, because at the end of the day, I'm going to all these places for the first time. And I think that's going to be a good thing for me. I think, yeah, I'm going to go experience some, I mean, like I said, really the remainder of the tracks, I think I ran one Xfinity race in a back marker ride at Darlington,

so I've seen Darlington, but it's been so long ago and it was so different that it'll be different. But really all the rest of them I'm going to be going to for the first time again. So it's definitely going to make me feel better going forward, I think. Yeah, Dalton is terrifying without any practice laps just to hit the track without nothing, man. Especially that first set of tires. It's going to be like cheese grater out there. You got you got Dover after. Darlington, then you go Charlotte, Texas, Nashville.

Those are your, the rest of your stuff. It would be pretty awesome to go back, go to Nashville and race in your hometown. Yeah, definitely. That'll be an exciting one for sure. And we get practice for there and Charlotte, so that'll be good. Absolutely. Well, man, you got a couple logos here on your shirt and your hat, tire pros. Tell us about that company.

Yeah, they've come on board. I think they had a big part in this opportunity, just a huge network of tire dealers. and they work with American Tire Distributors and just a huge network of all these different companies and they're all franchise owned by individual people. There was like, when we met, I don't know, what, 20 of them yesterday. They were here and so that was exciting. I feel pretty confident that they've enjoyed working with me

and enjoy working with J.RM going forward and hopefully we can turn that into some more opportunities later down the road. Yeah, Tire Proes has come on board. To support Josh in this effort this year, I think that knowing NASCAR fans, they are extremely loyal to the brands that support their drivers. You are quickly gathering a fan base over the last several weeks, and everybody learning your story has really latched on to it, and they're going to support anybody that supports you, right?

So if you're looking for some tires, tire pro is a place to go. And you want to talk. Yeah. Tell them Josh Barry sent you. So we look forward to seeing you, you know, at Talladega. I think I'm going to make the trip and try to sit on the pit box and try to help you navigate the draft there. Yeah. And that should be a lot of fun, man.

I can't wait. The only thing better would be out there pushing you around there in a car myself. So enjoy today. Enjoy all that media. Right. I used to not appreciate that. And, yeah, there would be a day when no one's going to be asking you to do any more interviews. So you might as well enjoy it while it's happening.

Yeah. And I told you this as soon as we got on the phone the other day, there's only one first, right? The rest will not be like this. The rest will feel different, but that first one's so special. So enjoy it and have fun with all the media and all the attention and take advantage of it. You know, promote yourself and your partnership. and we'll see if we can't make something out of this. Yep.

So Josh, before you go, man, we do a part of the show called Ask Junior's, my favorite part because we actually get to talk to people that watch the show and listen to the podcast. And so we get to hear from them, and they'll be on our YouTube channel. So would you stick around? Yep, sure. It's Ask Josh, presented by Xfinity. Well, he finally made it to my favorite part of the show. Ask Junior brought to you by Xfinity.

Let's get some great questions in here that you guys have sent to Add Xfinity Racing on Twitter. All right, everybody, thanks for tuning in for the Ask Junior. We're going to call this to Ask Josh part of the show because Josh Barry's here with us. Thanks to everybody who's tuned in. We know you guys are the hardcore supporters of the podcast and the Dale Jr. download and Dirtymo Media. Thanks to Xfinity for supporting this part of our podcast. And the Xfinity winner from Martinsville is here. So Leah has the questions ready.

We've been gathering questions throughout the past several hours since we announced Josh was going to be a part of this part of the show. So let's get them, Leah. All right, our first question is coming from Dan Kerrigan. He says, congratulations, Josh. Was it more reassuring to see your teammate behind you those last laps or were you worried that someone would decide it was time to pay back Noah and cause a restart? Well, you know, I felt pretty good racing around Noah, honestly.

me and him have developed a pretty good friendship. And, you know, honestly, in that moment, I felt like he would take care of me. He was racing for the Dash for Cash Deal. He had his own kind of race going on there. So I felt good having him behind me. This is from Matt Roth, and it's for both of you. Can you talk about the phone call, Dale to Josh, and what you guys talked about? Well, I felt bad that I wasn't there.

NASCAR has a policy where only one owner from the team can go. and Kelly and LW went Friday and they said, you know, they, I had something going on Friday. I was working on the house and I said, y'all go to the race. I want to go to, I want to go to Degah. And so they went,

but then it rained out and they didn't tell me they didn't go back. They had something else going on with Wyatt racing. So I'm texting Kelly and I found out they weren't at the track and I was like, bang. But when he won, I shot a text to, to you. Yeah.

And I said, hey, man, can you, can you get me on the phone with him somehow? So Pemberton was standing there, but I was still in, I was still broken,

broken down a little bit when we had our conversation. I was like, I could describe you as emotional. I could tell that, so whenever we sat down afterwards, and you said that you had cried, I said, yeah, I thought you had.

He had been, he was a little choked up. Good. It was a great moment. Awesome. It sounded like Chewbacca on the other line, right? And I was crying, and Dale's texting me, I need to talk to Josh. And I'm like, I can't even deal with this either. Yeah, honestly, so it's funny that she says that because probably the most emotional I got was watching her video.

Because you just never, like, she's, we know each other a little bit, right? But you just never imagine that you're going to have that kind of effect on somebody, just what you're doing, you know, for Taylor. because I know that, you know, it meant a lot to, obviously, it meant a lot to me and all of us, but I know how how Taylor had been working. And for her to show her emotion, for how excited she was for Taylor, that was a great moment. And honestly, shed a few tears watching that one. Yeah, I told Leah that we sounded identical in those moments. Yeah, it was great to be.

Rick always gets on the phone with the driver in Victor Lane, and I'm like, that's so cool, man, to be able to talk to him. So I was lucky that I got to talk to Josh in that moment because I wanted to hear you know, what you were feeling. So it was great. All right. Our next question coming from Josh Denton. Hickory Motor Speedway, who wins between Josh and junior and a late model?

Oh, that's easy me for sure. Josh has this. I know Josh wins everywhere he goes, but he has something special that I don't know anybody right now. I don't know any driver that has what Josh has at Hickory. It's just you've found a tenth there that isn't obvious. to most racers. And I don't know, maybe you can describe it. I don't know.

Ever since the first time I took laps around that place, it just came to me, I don't know, just you've got to be really patient with getting the car turned and come straight out of the corner and just how you maneuver the car in there to get to that point. I just, and I've just always, it's got me in trouble almost at times because I've been so good there that sometimes I don't,

it's hard to figure. out how to make my car better, really, because I'm always like, really whether my car's good or bad, or not bad, but one of my car is very, very good versus when it's all right. Most of the time, I'm always in the top five or top three. So it's been a great place for me. I think we talked, I think I'm, I don't know if this is official, but like I'm third now and all-time wins there. I'm like two behind Dennis Setzer is my next one. Really? Yeah. Yeah, is Dennis Sessor and what Max Press would? Yep. Yeah. Two legends. Yeah. So, I mean, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, put yourself on that list that just tells you right there and you know they ran you know max

ran hickory for for a really long time but uh special place as a follow up to that what about myrtle beach thinking you'd give him a run for your his money there you're pretty patient at saving the tires you might you probably we'd need a long race you'd be good you'd be there would be good yeah it might have a better chance there for sure than hickory anything can happen at mirtle beach that's what i've learned to love about that like even when you're uh like that's what you see in these races, and I saw a little bit that of the dirt race at Bristol, like, when there's that much tire fall off, it kind of, it opens the door for a lot. I mean, you saw, like, Stenhouse, how good he was at the end of that race. I mean, I feel like he had managed his tires, and he made a push

at the end and was there, you know, anything can happen at those places when there's that much tire wear. Next question coming from Lee Landisauer. Hi, Josh, did your wife end up getting a Tahoe after leading every lap and winning with the late model? And if yes, what is she going to get with this one? Oh, well, so, yes. And I honestly haven't made a lot of light about this because I hadn't to go about it, but Dale hooked us up. So, you know, I didn't, I was at a weird point that, like, I was, I was very excited for it. She's been very excited for it. And we use it all the time with the little girl.

But, you know, at the same time, I wasn't sure how to go about it, you know, but, you know, because, but it was a, it was a gift. and I'm very thankful for that. Yeah, we haven't really thought about it. We'll have to see. I mean, that kind of stuff happens organically or naturally, really. You know, we don't plan it. But maybe you never know. All right, our next question comes from.

Charles Payne as for Josh, how do you prepare for the wide range of racetracks that you experience in the Xfinity Series? You know, I've been doing a couple different things, really, this year. I've been part of Chevrolet's development, deal with Josh Wise and Scott Speed. So we've been experienced some of the things there. They just go over a ton of data, just restart data and analytics and stuff about how the race will play out.

And then really you have that and, you know, just time on the simulator or irascing. And really, that's kind of it. I mean, you kind of watch the races back, try to prepare yourself. You know, but it's a fine line that I'm trying to learn what works for me, you know, because sometimes the conditions and everything could be so different. You can almost over-prepure in a way and get a kind of. So it's like Martinsville, you know, that was more, you know, I watched the race back. just kind of naturally went into it like I would any other race.

But some of these bigger tracks, you've got to work for it for sure. I'm curious to know how you feel about the manufacturer simulator. So when I was racing cars, a lot of guys didn't really spend much time with it. You know, you're going to get practiced. You're going to go out there and race and figure it out on the track. But now that there is no practice, it's certainly become a tool that a lot more guys want to utilize. certainly a lot of young drivers just use that thing up. You come in sort of in the middle of that.

You've got a veteran mindset. You definitely don't have a ton of experience in the cars or on some of these tracks. So we talked earlier when you just started racing at Daytona and so forth, you were clawing to get any time in the simulator at the start of this season. Now where are you? You know, kind of middle of the ways there.

I still think it's definitely a valuable tool to use. it's just kind of like anything, and you know this from Sim Racing, like the Holy Grail is the tires, right? Like getting the tires feel right, getting the right amount of grip and the tires in the track. And, you know, that's what the constant battle with that is, just trying to figure that and get that right. You just got to be careful, I think, that your speeds are close.

And, I mean, it's tough for these guys. I mean, they're kind of guessing, too. You're guessing off the setups of the car and the conditions of what to expect, and that there's been a couple of times where, you know, we ended up going to look too fast. in the sim versus what it felt like when we got there. But at the end of the day, the environment's the same.

We've done some cool things with ghost cars and stuff like that to kind of experience the negative effects of dirty air. And, I mean, it's been a good tool for me to use. Nice. All right, our next question coming from Ryan Kennedy. You guys can both answer this if you have an answer for it. After seeing the Rick Ware drivers this weekend, I want to know what was the madness you've ever been at a teammate.

They were all. mad at each other on Sunday. So mine would be Christian Echis and me were coming to, I was leading the Myrtle Beach 400, yeah, and he just kind of ran me in the fence for the win. But at the time I was pretty mad, and that was an interesting point in my career. Like I had won a lot of races, but the whole, you know, the crown jewel events were something that really hadn't had a lot of success in. So that was the closest that I'd been to winning one.

but he had had a tough season, had a lot of misfortune, and hadn't won, and that was his day. So that was probably the maddest. I got over it over time. We went back the very next year and won it, and that was a big deal for us. I'd have to think about it. I've had a lot of teammates, and I've had a lot of discussions with them. But Mark Martin ran me in the fence off the turn two at Michigan one race. I was pretty mad about that, but kind of, you know, the same thing.

thing last lap or something and just used up more racetrack than that was there and squeezed me in the fence and that kind of stuff really annoys you because I wouldn't done that you know I wouldn't just have throttled it up and been like screw it he'll be he'll get over it but uh there had to been a Jeff Gordon moment in there somewhere I don't know I can't think of it you could probably be radioactive or something somewhere I can't I remember the radioactive on that Mark Martin deal I always knew that I was going to have to see them a lot. Try not to get too tore up about it.

All right, one more question. This is for you, Dale, from Jeremy Talent. Rumors are circulating that you and Kelly have been talking about starting a cup team. Any truth to this? Well, we just basically all that me and Kelly have done is said with the new car coming, and I think that everyone is doing this, not just us, but like with a new car coming, does it make more sense, right, for us to go into the cup series if we were ever going to go? is this the time to do it?

I think if they weren't bringing in the new car, it'd be status quo, we probably wouldn't consider it, wouldn't have any interest in it. We got a great business model financially. We know how to do what we're doing. And we definitely don't want to upset that and put any of our employees' livelihoods in danger

or at risk with taking a big risk. So, but we have to ask ourselves with a new car coming in is if there's ever a time to make that transition, maybe this could be it. So we, we just have to explore what that means financially. It's highly, highly unlikely because it's just such a commitment. We're going to need a lot more support in terms of cash to make that investment for the cars

and everything else, all the technology that comes with it. So it's hard to change this too, right? We have what behind this glass on the other side of the glass, man, it's a smooth working machine. We just won two races in a row, and we've got this figured out, and we're successful here, and it's hard to, why would you want to change that? It's doing so well, and you enjoy it. And plus, you know, we're right in the middle of this quest to figure out how to get Josh in a car full time. We're right on the cusp of really creating that as a reality.

So that's where, like, all the energy is right now is, like, keeping four cars on the track at the Xfinity level and trying to figure out what we can do with Josh and keeping the rest of our drivers happy and in Victory Lane. All right, guys, that's it for today. All right, y'all. I appreciate everybody for tuning in some great questions.

Thanks, Josh, for joining us for the Ask Josh, presented to you by Xfinity, premier partner for NASCAR. Josh, I appreciate you joining us for the Dale Jr. download, buddy. It's been a lot of fun. Thank you. You got it, man.

Have a great week. Enjoy your off weekend. Well, that part of the show seems to always go by too quickly, Mike. Yeah, it does always seem to go too quickly, but not nearly as fast as Xfinity X-Fi. Well, X-Fi is more than just fast, Mike. It's also reliable and powerful, meaning everyone can do more of what they love with faster Internet. That it is. With X-FINITY, you can do more of what you love with faster Internet.

You and your crew, you can stay connected with Wi-Fi coverage. It delivers the speed your devices need. And remember everyone, send your Ask Junior questions to at Xfinity Racing on Twitter. Before we hit the road, thank you, Exfinity, proud premier partner of NASCAR. All right, last call, man. Great show. Always awesome to be able to talk about what we're doing on the racetrack and Josh's win was a special one. And you'll be able to see the TV version of this show on Thursday at 5.30 Eastern Time.

The Dale Jr. download on NBCSN, Thursday at 530, the edited. down version of the podcast. So also doorbubber clear. They have a new episode after Martinsville, post-Martinsville. It's available now. T.J. Brett and Freddie, they discussed short track rain tires, the choose rule drama, and what the post-COVID at-track experience could be like. Give them a listen.

Doorbubber clear available on all major podcast platforms. I really enjoyed the conversation we had with Josh, Mike. I know you enjoyed that too. We've had Josh on the show a few times, but we really finally had something to celebrate. So it was great to get him on. It was special, and I appreciate him for making time for us. And, man, good job.

And appreciate you guys. Appreciate everyone listening to our show. So never take that for granted. We don't. We don't. Thank you to our listeners for supporting us. We've got some great guests coming down the pipe for you guys. And we know we like to hold on to that information.

but you guys are going to be pumped about the next couple weeks. So keep your ear to the ground. Have a great week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.