The Dale Jr. Download - 346 - Clint Bowyer: Shake Things Up

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Can you contain Clint Bowyer? Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis attempt to do so in a fun conversation with the NASCAR driver turned broadcaster.Bowyer discusses Jeff Gordon's recent departure from the NASCAR on Fox booth and looks ahead to what may be next for the network's team. He also keys in to what life working alongside a former rival was really like. Both Bowyer and Dale Jr. discuss what it is like going from the view out the front windshield of a 200mph stock car to the elevated window of a television booth and how that adjustment has gone. From production meetings, wearing suits to forgetting notes before the biggest race, Bowyer, as always, has the whole room in stitches. He even admits to some of his short-comings and a mistake his network made in not showing Dale's nostalgic Nova during the pre-race show at Darlington Raceway.What does the Kansas native think of the sport now and the direction it's headed? He shares those thoughts and more from the technical side to activation between sponsors and race fans.With his young son Cash Bowyer sitting on the studio couch, Dad opens up about racing with his little boy and shares some fun about what it's like to be alongside other racecar driver dads like Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson in the local dirt track scene.Ask Jr. gets Dale to open up about the recent premiere and excitement surrounding the launch of season two of Lost Speedways on Peacock TV. He also shares his thoughts with race fans about double-header weekends and where it may or may not work? The two-time Daytona 500 winner also speaks to the recent ramping up of the Charter market in the NASCAR Cup Series and admits how out of his range the prices have become.Oh yeah... and about that boat Dale Jr? Mike and Dale try to find middle ground about the great boat debate of 2021. They also share what had steam coming out of their ears this weekend at the track and the golf course. 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 Dirtymo Media. It's time for the Dell Jr. Download. Let's start the download. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And with me is my co-host, Mike Davis. Hey, Mike, how you doing? Doing well, how are you?

We got Matthew in here, Leah in here. Today we got a great show for you. I'm really excited about this one. Today's guest, Clint Boyer, fresh off of his first year in the TV booth. I got a lot of questions to ask him about how he felt he did calling these races. And what's changed in his mind about the perspective of the sport? Mike, let's talk a little bit about what's been going on in our own lives. So people talked about the boat, the boat thing blew up.

Have they? They've been talking about the boat? What would they be saying about the boat? Yeah, okay. Don't play down. No, I'm really curious. Ben, you had a conversation yesterday. Do you want to be honest?

Mike said, I think we need to talk about the boat. mode on the show because as much as it pains me to talk about it. I'm curious. I think we should continue that conversation. It's painful, but I think we should continue. You and I, you said after last week's show that you thought 50-50 people would be on my side or be on your side on the deal. And I'm wondering if you stayed away.

Well, I didn't stay away, but no more than I look at social media these days, I can't tell you what people were really saying. I saw a few things here and there. Most of what I saw, which was half a dozen posts said, Just get the damn boat. I know, I saw those two. That was it. Just get the boat.

Y'all just get it. You didn't see any that said, Mike, you're right. I didn't. Oh, I did. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you go looking for it, you can find it. I didn't have to go looking for it.

Okay, sure. People just came out of the woodwork. Oh, I'm sure. You're 100% right. Dale's out of line. I was like, well, you know what I said? You know what I said, go easy on Dale. That's an interesting choice of words.

Go easy on Del. Dale's out of line. They said, Dale, and I said, trying to help the man out. I said, I said, I said, you go easy on Dale. He doesn't deserve that kind of response. That's what I said. My gosh. All right.

TJ. TJ, yeah. Did you ever talk to TJ? No. Should we set this up a little bit? If you go back to last week's episode, if you go back two weeks episode, two weeks ago, Dale Jr. came to me and said, hey, you want to go have these on a boat? And I said, yeah, I love this idea.

Let's go haves he's on a boat. And then in the, you know, ensuing week, I get it. excited about it. We're a little boat shopping online. Hey, what? Dale goes and texts me, says, hey, you want to get TJ in on our pontoon company? You were boat shopping? We were looking at, Kelly was involving me. Yeah. Y'all were looking at boats? Yeah, she sent me pictures of them. So in anyways, we're getting excited. T.J's getting excited. And then last week on the podcast, if you guys might remember, Dale Jr. said, actually, I said, hey, let's talk about our boat. And Dale's like,

well, and I was like, oh, he's changed his mind. I saw this coming, and he got another deal. He got another deal that he didn't need partners is what he said. Now, did I do a good job of setting the table? Okay. So this week, is there a development? I mean, like, I just... I still don't have a boat.

You don't? No. I've been offered some other deals, and I'm not in love with them. Really? Yeah. No, I'm not love with them. We talked about me and you talked yesterday on the phone, about what you'd be willing to spend if you was going to be a partner.

Back when I was a partner, yeah. No. If you were going to be a partner tomorrow with T.J. or anyone. With me and T.J. We had a conversation. Yeah. And you told me what you were willing to spend. And that's roughly where I'm at.

I don't want to spend more than that. The options that I was given, I'm not liking them. Really? Yeah, I don't like them. You're missing your friends, aren't you? No. Yeah. Come on.

Come on. We'll let you back in the group. Well, I mean. We'll let you back in. I don't know, maybe we won't. PJs. Okay. I'm of the opinion that we all should have our own boat.

Okay. And that we all should strive to get that at the most minimal investment possible. Mm-hmm. Right? I spent most of my life not really worrying about the financials and just if I needed or wanted it, I just got it and didn't ask any questions. And, man, have I regretted some of them decisions? Many, many decisions I have regretted.

Cars, stupid, stupid decisions. Not doing that. Not doing it right here. I don't want to be a partner because I'm afraid that there'll be days when we both want to use the boat. That's going to get awkward. There will be positives to the partnership where we would want to use it together, maybe. I don't know. Expenses and stuff.

Of course, there's some positives to the partnership. But I think that I want to exhaust all avenues to find out how we can all get. what we want. But I'm not really loving my options. Where you were going to basically get loaned, lent a boat, and you were going to give it back. Well, no,

I got another option where I'd get the boat outright. Oh, would you? Yeah. But what I'd have to give up for it, I don't like it. I got you. I don't know. I mean, just not sure. So for people, you know, I had a boat that I sold. Gosh, man. I've had a few boats

in my life. Yeah. Man, I've lost tail. You had Aquaholic. Yep. Aquaholic 2. Yeah. Aquaholic 2.5. Alcoholic 2.75. No, I'm just kidding. I had a, that was such a great name. It was hard to turn loose of that one. I know. And then you had loose change.

Loose change, yeah. But anyways, boats are not an awesome investment. I mean, somebody proved me wrong. Tell me different. And I'll go that route. I can make a case. There's cars that depreciate as soon as you pull them off the lot. Most of them do. Some, some automakers, you know, you've got pretty decent resale value in that automobile even a couple years later.

Boats, I'm not so sure. Every time I bought a boat, when I went to try to sell it, ain't got no takers, Mike. And you've got to take pennies on a dollar to get that thing off your hands. So you say boats depreciate way better, way more than cars do. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay.

That's a fair point. And so I don't want to make another poor decision investing in a boat. Now, I'm going to get a tritune, I think. Okay. My brother, Kerry, says those are more stable and comfortable. Yeah. But I want a short tritune. I don't want this big, long, giant barge.

I want a small thing that just we can go out. Cruise, I'm five miles an hour. I'm not going faster than that. I'm going easy. Small breeze. A couple of cold beers. Sunset. It's all on.

You got it all figured out in your head. Of course. All the way up to the park. The vision. Except the start. Vision is clear. How you're going to get that boat? Vision is clear, but how do I get this boat?

Well, look, a couple developments. I got a couple responses to everything you said. One is I definitely understand how boats depreciate. I also understand how your approach to the world is, are you able to resell? I mean, that's just about everything. Like, I look at things that there are some investments that are just enjoyment investments. Yeah. You don't get the investment.

You don't spend the money thinking that you're going to be able to sell it for the same amount that you pay. Some of them you're just getting because you enjoy them in. a boat would qualify in my opinion. You know you're not going to make money on it. So enjoyment investments. Two, I'd say, I mean, T.J. and I are still talking about buying a boat going in together. So that's something that...

I think with what you told me that you're willing to put in, and if he's willing to put in the same amount, you're going to have them really... I mean, that will get you a very, very, very good boat. I didn't speak for T.J. I only spoke for myself. But what I want to tell you about that point. I'm curious. Well, okay. But...

If you're going to partner with somebody, TJ or anybody, or you're not going to expect 50-50, yeah. Right. Okay. Right. I mean, I can go lower if he doesn't want to pay what I said I was going to pay. I mean, we can figure it out. It just depends on what boat it is. What I would tell you, though, and TJ and I talked about this this week, a lot of people that would say, hey, Mike, you just need to use the boat, you idiot, you know, whatever.

They'd say it. And I understand the point. You know what occurred to me? It occurred to me that usage of a boat is not actually my issue with that whole thing. if I wanted a boat, I could go get a boat. I mean, like, I'm not deprived of access to boats. I can always go get a boat. I've always had the opportunity to get a boat.

T.J. and I both agreed that the thing that was appealing to us was going in on something with friends and with you, where you aren't having to pay a dime more than everybody else. For the first time in your life, everybody had equal stake in the game. You weren't having to be as generous as you typically are with everything. I mean, like, we're always bumming from you. And I know people are like, Mike, you're not being a mooch. Now, listen, everybody, the reality is because Dale is such a generous person. We mooch on Dale every day, and we don't even know it.

The fact of the matter is, a lot of people say, you're mooching off Dale just by being on this show. Mike, you went to Nashville last week. Well, who's plane did you fly on? Well, it wasn't Delta. So we do, we all benefit. Everybody in this company benefits in some way by being associated with you. The boat was going to be one example where that was not the case, where you paid as much as everybody else involved. And that was something that we both actually look forward to.

And the other thing I would address is, you're right. What happens when people need to go in or want to use the boat at the same day? Kelly and I had already started approaching that, and we had come up with, I thought, a pretty fair solution. One is, I would say, you get first right of refusal. See, that doesn't make. You know why? Because the boat has to stay somewhere, doesn't it? Yeah.

Where would it stay? On your property. Sure. So that ought to mean something. That means if Dale wants to use it on a day, I want to use it. Well, you know what? There ought to be a little bit of way, even though we all paid the same. There's something to that.

So I would tell you that we had all that figured out. All that being said, I always told you, if you got the right deal, I don't blame you at all for taking those deals, right? Yeah, I understand that. And that was that. And TJ and I, now after, you know, this week talking about, I think we're still going to go get a boat. We're going to find one that we want to get and just, you know, split it. And I think that typically what TJ and I'll do, T.J.'s gone every weekend. I already go in knowing that weekends are probably going to be my boat days.

And since he's only home on Mondays, Tuesdays, I'm going to let him. I'm not going to go take a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday because that's really only time he's got to use it, you know? So we all just have understanding as partners going in. That's how I would approach it. Interesting. But anyways. Well, it should be fun to see how this works out. I still ain't real sure.

Well, me and TJ, you have to be invited back in if you want to come in with us. I'm kidding. I know that. I'm kidding, everybody. Yeah, I know that. Hey, you called me this past weekend. Are we got time? Do we got time for one more little story?

Yeah, I want to hear it. All right, all right. You guys can tell you. So this thing happened. I feel bad telling it now. Like, when I called you the other day, I was pissed off. Okay. That's fair.

And I was like, Oh, this will be, let's tell this one on the open segment. You were like, yeah, I had something similar happened to me. And now I'm feeling like I'm piling on days after the fact that I feel like I'm a little, I'm making, like I should be over it right now, right? I kind of, I mean, I am, but I do want to say. So, y'all can just hear the story. This, I never happens to me.

Everybody is so nice. You know, everywhere we go, I'm like, Amy, those people we just met, so nice. she goes, of course, everyone is nice to you. You're not a normal person and get treated like everybody else. Everybody's super nice to you. And it annoyser. And so when I'm racing online with my friends, I'm like, yeah, man, had a great run. They're like, everybody pulls over for you.

They don't race the shit out of you like they do us. And I'm like, wait, what? And they're like, yeah, everybody's really nice to you. They get out of your way. And then they race the shit out of me when I come up behind them, right? So that's life, right? That's the way people view my world, right? And I just love it because everybody's so nice, right?

I mean, if it's, if Amy's right, she's right. But I'm still enjoying the niceness. Don't hate the player, hate the game. So I am in the booth. This was Saturday. We did the cup race, right? Everything's going great. We had a great broadcast, great mood, right?

got my backpack on my shoulder. In that backpack is my identification and my NASCAR credential. Okay. Well, I come out of the TV booth and I look down the hall and there's this big cluster of people at the elevator. So I'm thinking, I'll just take the stairs. And the stairs lead down to the grandstands. And I'm going to walk down through the grandstands toward the flag stand. And I'm across the track.

There's a couple areas in the fence where they open a gate and they put these stairs out and people can have access to cross onto the racetrack and go into the pits or garage. I get down there, and there's about a 25-year-old dude standing there at this little hinge gate, just a typical small fence gate, that's going to give me access to go through onto the racetrack.

And he's standing there as a guard, right? Security, whatever. And so I walk up and he said, as soon as I walk up, there's about 10 people standing there that are race fans come to the race. They're standing there. They've watched the race in the grandstands, and they just kind of come and stood around this access point.

I don't know to see who might come through there or what, but they're standing there, right? And as soon as I start getting close, they're like, hey, Dale, hey, picture of selfie, autograph, yeah, all right, no problem. So I'm doing these selfies and autographs right there at this gate with this guy. And he's like, standing there. And he's got his hand on the gate behind him, and he's standing in front of the gate.

He's holding this gate. And I'm like, hey, man, you're going to let me through? And he goes, I need to see your card. And the people, I didn't, I'm not, I would never, I'm going to promise you, Mike, and you can back this up if you want, you don't have to, but I have never in my life uttered the words, do you know who I am?

That's true. I've never said that. I'd never take that stance. ever and I stood there and the people around me are doing that for me right they're saying it's Dale you know it's Dale they're laughing at the guy like are you serious uh you don't know who this guy is and I'm standing there and they're doing it right I'm not even having to say a word and the guy just got this eating grin on his face holding that gate he's like I don't care I need to see your card and I said man the card's in my bag I have to search for it and I'm telling you man like I'm taking pictures

inside. I mean, it's a little, I was flustered a little bit. I was doing a few things all at once. And so I said, come on, man, my card's in my bag, and I have to go look for it. And he goes, I need to see your card. And the whole time with that, I eat and grin. I love it. And so I take a few more pictures. I get my bag, and I set it on the ground, and I go digging into it. And I get the card out. I pull up front. Laundry, lunch. Just a bunch of notes. Tuna sandwich. Notes and about 15 ink pens and, yeah, some snacks.

And so I get my card and I pull it out and I hold it in front of him. And man, he waited a beat. He wasn't like, thank you and open it up or all right. Here you go. He stood there smiling just for like two and a half seconds. Like I had you. This power. I'm in control.

I'm in control the whole thing. Ain't nothing you can do about it. And I was like, and he waited long enough for me to go, all right, man, come on, you're going to let me in? Are you going to move? And finally he slides out of the way, opens the gate. A couple more people said, hey, can I get another selfie or two? So I get on the other side of the gate, and he shuts it,

and I take a few more selfies over the fence, just a little waist-high fence. And I said to the guy said, that was such a d-a-ed move. Like, I was astounded. Like, not like, hey, you're a d-a-oh. I was more like questioning him. I'm like, man, that was such a d-a-thing thing to do. Why? It's his job.

Okay, Mike. Me and Mike had this conversation on the phone. Totally different response. I know. Here you're on the podcast. I know. It's going to go delude you to get over yourself. I got.

We're going to sit in it. I just was like, you know, so I walked away thinking maybe I had one of them coming. No, I'm playing. I mean, look. Mike. I will Valtry. You've had situations where you should have said, look, don't you know who I am but you have never gone, you've never played that card.

I've been in the car when you've got pulled over, and you still never used that card. I wanted to go back Sunday and see if it happened again, just to go back through the whole process again. At least I'd see it coming. That'd be funny. Yeah. Yeah.

I knew, I mean, probably down there. Probably guys probably down there working after Gray Sunday. He didn't bring him any donuts, did you? Oh, God. Why didn't I? Henry Benfield had a solution to that. That's a good point. That's where I needed Henry.

Henry could have solved that problem. I would have come back with the whole thing of donuts. I never crossed my mind. It's probably a good thing that crossed my mind. That's good time. But, golly, that really ticked me off. Man, I was madder in hell for about an hour. Yeah, you called me.

I had just had an experience where I was kind of mad at somebody, too, and so we could kind of relate. What happened? Listen, I'll admit by saying that I don't know if this is, proper golf course protocol for golf clubs, golf courses. It may be. So I may be completely in the wrong. I don't play golf enough to know. So maybe the listeners can tell me if I'm wrong. I went to Atlanta this weekend and I had some time on Saturday and I wanted to play golf. I've been kind of feeling good about playing golf lately. And so I went and I caught around, found a

public course nearby. It was called the golf club at Bradshaw Farms. And I set a tea time. I called him, I said, look, I'm by myself, I'm out of town. I just want to play, you know, on my own. And, you know, if you don't have a tea time available, that's fine. But he's like, nope, 121 is your tea time. So I go drive over there and I go to the T-box at 120. And I'm greeted by, I mean, the T-box is empty, but when I get there, there's an official, probably in about 65, 70 years old sitting in a golf cart, and he says, who are you?

And I said, I'm the 120 tea time, or 121-2. tea time and he says yeah I don't think so and I'm like well I just paid my money you know so now he calls the golf club he calls the main clubhouse uh with the radio and he's talking on the radio and he comes back to me and he says here's what you're going to do you're going to not tea off here you're going to go on and and right over to tee box number two and you see that group down there there's threesome down there playing there on the first green you wait till they get to the second T-box and that's who you're playing with. And I said, I don't know them.

And he says, they're very nice. And I said, you don't know them. And he says, well, they look nice. Oh, gosh. And he goes, when you're done with your round, you can come back here and play this hole, you know, and he goes, if you can't play this whole, then take an eagle. And I'm like, oh, what a kid move. You know what I'm saying?

Again, I thought that was that, what that was. I really was going to go back to the clubhouse, get my money back and leave. But I didn't know what I was going to do for the. the rest of my day. I ended up playing, I ended up going to the T-box. Such an awkward conversation to have when these three people approach and I'm like, can I play with you? I mean, it's just so awkward. Five-year-old. You know, they don't love it, but they happen to be cool. And in fact, one of them went to the same college that I went to, Georgia Southern University, played baseball there, was there at the same time I was there. Yeah, crazy, huh? And I played the round.

Then I go back and play the first hole when I'm done. And another official comes and gives me grief saying what are you you're unaccounted for and i'm like no i'm actually doing exactly what y'all told me to do he calls the radio club house and i'm just like i am so sick of getting the run around here i mean i am just just over this thing but so i so i'm literally coming off the course after i played that final hall and dale calls me with the polka no gate story and i'm like what is in the what is in the water today with people i don't know we just feel like we're getting screwed with i i don't know so now again maybe if if an a lot of lone player like myself, if I'm there, maybe they do put put you with another group, and even if

you don't know them. Maybe that's what people do. I'd never really heard that, and it wasn't comfortable. Listen, here's to hoping nobody screws with you today. If you're out there listening to this podcast, and if they do, screw with you, write us at Dirty Mo Media. Tell us all about it. Tell us your story. Tell us about it. We'll talk about it on the next podcast. There we go. We had a bit of the week. I love it. Hey, let's bring Clint Boyer into the studio. Oh, man.

We bought the racer. What's up, Cash? Could be fitting for all of them. Good to see you, buddy. Man, my 80s. He's now the crazy right here. Take it in. Take a moment.

I know it, right? Yeah, I got to be close. It's changed a little bit since you were here last. Just keep adding stuff. Something tells me it just shows up, too. You know? Doesn't it? Yeah.

It was all our stuff, but now people were bringing their own stuff. Like the Dick Pitt sign is somebody else's. We got a suit. Cal Yarbril suit going up in that case over there that somebody else's. Yeah. Just hands it to you. We're the keepers.

Eerie sideboard. Isn't that like a sideboard off an wing? That came off of a dirt car. Yeah. It's a window. Side window. Oh, it was a window? Yeah.

Right side window. It looks like a sideboard off the... Well, it was a dirt car he ran. The last dirt race he ran in 1981, it was a Falcon, fiberglass body, Concord dirt track. Heck yeah.

A little feature wind sticker up there. Isn't that crazy that? door off your car i remember that that dieca i mean much money you think you made off that die cast alone just that door right there i can tell you gazillions kelly could tell you gazillions this is a cool car right here so what's up what's happening man is this a podcast we're doing it we're podding we're podding we're tv show all at the same time yeah yeah i see they put you in a cage over there fish tank so so you just got done doing your first year that's a can't I think I know what that is.

He just found the drink. I wonder if they'll allow that in a racetrack right now. Why would they? Oh, yeah. They fixed the cooler ban? They banned the cooler, but they ran out. I heard about that. Yeah. The concessions ran out of water.

Did they run out? Yeah. Yeah. They ran out. You can't give a cooler ban. Put a cooler ban on somebody and then run out of water. I heard that they were telling them they could just go back to their car if they needed to get a drink. Who does that?

I heard somebody say that. I couldn't remember who was. Surely not. I think so. I'd come up with a better solution. Yeah. Let them bring in the drink. The last ditch, you never send them back out the gate.

Whatever they keep him in the gate. I don't care. What you do, come up with a solution, but it must be in the gate. Did you watch the race? I did watch the race. Didn't you go to Nashville? I was in Nashville. That's how dumb I am.

On paper, it looked terrible. I know. I'm like, why is he not in the Bahamas somewhere? Like, you just finished your broadcasting season. There is, on paper, it looked terrible. You know, all your friends are like, what are you going to do with your first day off in your whole adult life?

And I'm like, man, I went to the races, but I didn't go to the races. I was in Nashville, went over to visit some friends in the Leepers Fork area around Franklin and brought our Harleys over there and rode around a little bit. Had a good time, man. But we definitely left on Sunday morning.

So, broadcasting. When I started broadcasting, it didn't take long from a lot of the things that I thought about the sport to change, like to turn to like 108 degrees, right? So did you have that experience? I did. As a matter of fact, you know, your perspective on everything changes as soon as you see it through that lens, you know, that's a whole, you ain't no visor anymore, you know,

nothing to flip down that camera lens and, you know, the, uh, the, the entertainment aspect of it. You know, we've always been competitors and what's fair for the competition, fair, you know, screw fair. When you're up there in the booth, I don't want fair. I want to see controversy. You know, that's the only thing you want is as much controversy as you can because you know that's going to be excitement and entertainment.

You know, so, yeah, through that lens and that different perspective has been a massive change for me. Did you have a hard time calling it straight, like, because you've been racing against these guys. You got a lot of friendships out there. Fair. Going right back to fair and not, you know, you know, you don't want to piss the guy off and say. It's a weird. You don't know where the line is, though, right? How hard can you go on somebody without pissing them all?

For me, you know, going to coffee with my own man and all his cronies, you know, any given day in a poor he can, just helps me when I'm up there because that's the angle that I feel like it's my new job. You know, I want, if it's not an impactful situation on the racetrack, I know they're not going to be talking about it on Monday morning in the coffee shop. You know, so I always kind of take their role, you know, how those. guys are going to be able to see, man, you know, Dale Rick, you know, everybody would, how are they going to see whatever happened on that racetrack? And I feel like that's the perspective I try to take up there in the booth is, you know, being a fan, put yourself in the seats, you know, you got to take off that driving suit

and that helmet and try to try to call it, you know, from that perspective a little bit. I, it's easy for me, you know, they, Mike, you know, all my guys call it dumb it down. that's just kind of the world I live in. I feel like, you know, there's so much of our sport that's so technical. And, you know, Jeff and a lot of our guys, I talk to Burton all the time about, you know, things and pick his brain about stuff. And, you know, our world is so technical. And there's a fan that loves that side of it and needs that side of it. But there's also a fan.

I used to do this with Brett all the time, you know, on Saturdays we go watch the Xfinity race in a bar somewhere, you know. and you can't hear it. You can only see it, you know, and I think that's an important perspective of something of, you know, kind of what I'm talking about, dumbing it down a little bit. You know, you've got to be able to show somebody and not always tell them, you know,

and I feel like they do such a great job of that, and that's that different lens that I learned this year when you're trying to explain something, you know, you got to show them, you know what I mean? And because you never know how somebody's listening and how somebody's taking in our sport. But the thing is, we've been knocking out of the park this year. I feel like the racing's been phenomenal.

That helps, you know, everything. As a fan, you get in there. And, man, you fan out, man, I do. I was wondering. So you're watching. Are you having moments where you're like, damn, this is awesome? Like, because one of the things that I saw when I got up there was like,

holy shit, they race hard in the back. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. I don't, you know, we, you're out there and you just, you just see guys that you're a, round when you're in the car. But damn, everybody's racing hard from like first to last. They're all out of control, even the guys than last. All right. You set it right there.

First thing you do, you get up there and you're all out the window. You know, you're up. You're out of window. I still am. And your producer, Barry, and Artie, you're like, go, damn, don't talk about that, you know. And you look down and Artie's not on that. You're talking about, you know, somebody battling out for 25th. It's not relevant at all, but it's pretty damn good. racing so you're like oh now i'm looking out there and looking on the screen trying to figure out trying to follow you know along and that was the hardest thing for me right off the bat learned it a little bit got my feet wet somewhat doing those exfinity broadcast but you know that you get up there and you ain't paying attention you're just following kind of double a and having fun with it and just

kind of rolling through it but you know when they actually pay you to do it you got you got to you you know got to pay attention a little bit what is Clint boyer like in a production meeting. Terrible. How so? Three million ideas throwing at a dart board and about two of them hit the board. And, you know, but I'm... Did you ever sit there?

I'm going, how did I end up here? Like, I love the production meetings. Don't get you wrong. But I sometimes will be doing things in this job and go, I never thought I'd be sitting here. Right? Oh, yeah. I was hosting the host to Countdown to Green this weekend. I'm like, the hell, who thought this was a good idea?

Oh, definitely. So ours are on Tuesdays, and honestly, they're the most fun meetings that I hate meetings. I was always terrible in competition meetings, everything else. I know you guys, that's probably a shocker to you with the attention span that I have. But, you know, when I go in a meeting, I want to know, I don't want all the bull of shit. I want, you know, let's get to the five things where we all know that we're in here for, you know. But that side of it, a production meeting, you know, with Barry, our producer that runs that on the Foxside, he kind of walks all the way through, you know, the whole weekend. And, you know, the thing that I do like about that is I hate looking in the past. I hate looking in rearview mirror and talking about what happened last week's done. You know, he, he's definitely a move

forward, look out the windshield type of guy. And I dig that. Helps me stay focused on the task at hand and prepare, you know, I've, that's what it's, that's what it's for. Those, those production meetings are, are to prepare for what's coming. But for me, I liked it because it gave me an opportunity to listen to their perspective. And almost every single week, I felt like from my perspective of being in that car, I could bring something to the table, you know, and it was like you felt, you know, you're worthy. You know what I mean? And that's, that was, that's the, been the most fun thing for, for me and in this new position is, is no different in that car. You just wanted to be, you know, if you could make a difference and, and that's what made you feel. That's

what tripped your trigger and helped you out and you know you're i guess your psyche or whatever else you know it certainly helped me a lot and and moving forward of of hey man did you guys ever you've had this or you'd use that shot or did you use it this way or you know when i was in that car i think this would have been a good idea and that's what helped me you know through the whole thing is is i tell you what the other thing jeff gordon told me this right off the bat and anybody that knows me knows me i'm gonna I'm pretty vocal. I'm going to just say, you know, how it is. He's like, man, be careful not to empty your bucket.

And I was like, what in the hell does that mean? What are you talking about, you know? My bucket is, damn, that thing's gallons. It ain't no five-gall bucket. Right off the bat. We're in it, you know, through the shootout and stuff like that. I'm like, oh, damn, man, I see what he's saying now. Daytona 500.

I've got to save some of my goodies for the 500. Oh, so you're talking about from an informational standpoint or from an energy standpoint? Like both. Energy's information. I think, you know, you know, energies, I kind of go and I'm wide ass open and then all of a sudden I'll start running out of gas, you know, but I can catch myself. But I think that you have to play with the race. Hey, if it is boring, it's boring. But you also, you know, that's where those Tuesday meetings and kind of what I was talking about, I could come up with some ideas that I thought, you know, some important stuff that happens in the pit area or something like.

that. I was like, you know, maybe we ought to, let's go here. You know, that thing's strung out. Watched it at Nashville. You know, that was, you guys was rocking along and it put me right back in the saddle up there, you know, you're rolling. Everything's going good. And he's like, oh, they're strung out. Now what are we going to do, you know? And it happens. Commercial break. You know, no, you're throwing a paper wad at the window next to your NASCAR. Throw the damn caution, do something. Five cars got debris. Go to it. Yeah, exactly. But that, What you just said right there is where the racer up there sees that that they don't. You know, and that's not a knock to them, but that's, honestly, that's why we're up there

because we see things no different driving down the road. You know, my wife tells me all the time, like, how the hell do you see that? I'll see a, you'll see a flat tire or a wheel coming off. It'll keep it loose, you know, on somebody's car or a trailer going down the road when you're on a highway, you know, almost we live off of 40 highway. you have to go about 12 miles. If you go anywhere, you're getting on 40 highway. And every single day I see stuff.

I'm like, what in the hell is that idiot thinking? He left the house that way. Same way on the racetrack. When a producer is in your ear while you are talking, tell me that's as funny as I hope it is. When Clint Boyer's trying to get a thought out and then there's somebody in your ear talking. Well, first of all, I've lived my whole life of about 15 producers in my ear the whole time. Now he's got a real thing.

real producer. It's a real life person in there now. So you're already tuned up. I'm trying to decide her if he's real or the fake ones in there. But no, when he's in Mayer, that's the hardest part is it happened at Daytona. Barry's a funny guy, man. He's witty like I am and, you know, very, very conversational. And I got to answer him.

You know, if you heard me early a couple weeks, we get to Junk Club, me like, oh, you know. Oh, shit. That was the hardest part for me right there is not go, oh, shit. My heart, the hardest part, I think with the producer in your ear was when you would be mid-sentence and he starts talking, even if he ain't talking to you, I'd stop talking and listen to him. It'd be easy to do that. Yeah, definitely. And then you're like, now you're inside joke going on and nobody knows about, you know. Right.

And that's extremely hard not to do. Actually, after Daytona, I'm like, dude, you can't do that too. Because I was answering you here. Nobody even knows what's going on. So when you're watching, you're a fan, I say that all the time too. I'm like, man, I am a fan up there. Yeah. But you also come out of the driver's seat.

You love racing. You know, it's not like you just flip a switch and that goes away. Do you have moments when you're watching them and going, oh, God, that looks freaking awesome. I wish I was right in the middle of that shit. Well, again, going back to Jeff, you know, there's that moment. And I don't know when it was for you. For me, it was Daytona 500. I looked over my shoulder, we're up there on the stage, and I see them putting their helmets on, putting winning that up.

I'm like, oh, man, what the hell have I done? I don't want to be out there, you know. Sonoma, cool racetrack. Yeah, one of your best racetrack. One of my best. It was hard to call that. Is it like an all-day eating at you kind of thing, or is it just for a moment? No, it's just moments.

You see somebody, you know, didn't take. could poke at somebody or got off the corner better than somebody else. Like that was something I was good at. And you're like, man, that was it right there. He had it. He had a shot at it.

You know, the all-star race with Brad, you know, it was such a moment that it was a big moment in our sport, a moment for him, a moment for that race, a moment for a million bucks, you know,

for somebody. I was in there like, oh, go for it. I want to hit, you know, come hell or high. Well, if he wasn't,

clear. I felt like that was the moment we just going to find out. For a million bucks, it was worth trying to figure it. You know, it's like going in to get your ass whoop. One of us is going to walk out of here with the job done. One of us going to walk out of here with our ass kicked. You know, that was that moment that, you know, I felt like you either went for it or you didn't. And if it worked, that was a million dollar winner. And if it didn't, you know, you's going to go off into turn one side by side and you're going to be a loser. So that was one of those moments for me in the booth that I was like, man, I'd have went for it. right there. I probably would have wrecked and everybody had hated me for a couple weeks,

but I'd have went for it. How are you replacing the rush that you would get that satisfaction and enjoyment out of racing that you would get, I mean, I'm broadcasting probably does a lot, but not everything. Yeah, I think you can relate to this. I think, you know, when you're contributing to the, to the product and I guess you're wanted or whatever, you know, you feel like you're bringing something to the table, part of the team. The team aspect is certainly still there and TV. You have success. Yes, you win, you lose. 100%. You leave Sunday and feel like you did good and contributed to the overall outcome. Sometimes you leave there like, dang it. I wish I'd have done that a little better, you know, screwed that up. So I love that aspect of. It still trips

that trigger and the competitor in you still lives up there in the booth. You know, you want to be, you want to be good. You want to be, you know, make everybody happy. You know, no different than you did in racing. I think you can you can probably attest of that. Just like you were in the car, you want to make everybody happy. You came into the podcast today with Cash, and he's been racing. He's probably, yeah. He's on his phone over there, writing in some notes about what kind of air pressures he's going to run this week ago. Now, he's on my phone. No damn telling what he's looking at. But he's behind the wheel. Man, there's been like this. It's like everybody, it happened to everybody at once. Yeah, it did. You, Larson, Wyatt got into it.

Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch's boy. It's funny because Kelly's kids raced over there at the dirt track for years, and then there was kind of a lull, and then now everybody's back in it, you know, and it's kind of this thing that comes and goes and ebbs and flows,

but how are you enjoying that? I know how he's enjoying it probably, but how are you coping like this? You saw this coming, right? Yeah, but honestly, we've tried all, you know, a lot of things, baseball, which is a lot of fun. It's fun to watch those kids compete. He's really good at soccer, which I was like,

but he's really good at it, you know. know and at the end of the day you want him to to be passionate about something just like we were in racing but you wanted something for me i want something to do as a family you know and that's that's been that racing in his carts and stuff over there at millbridge you feel like you're doing it as a family you look over your shoulder and here's Kyle bush and samantha with brexton you know Kyle and kately with with the owen and and all the families out there it reminds me in my upbringing when we were on two wheels racing motorcross, but it's exactly the same.

You know, you're way more competitive in your kid. It's always the dads. I remember now I know. I remember my old man being up there, belly rubbing, you know, somebody pissed off after the race. You know, your kid, you cheated me. It's just the same thing, you know.

It's just on four wheels instead of two. I love watching those kids learn, and, you know, we tried it. I took him once, and I don't think he was old. enough you know and Laura was like well how'd it go I said I don't think he's ready and we wait wait you did this kind of a practice or something we went to yeah we went in practice and drove a car and and I watched him and he just wasn't you know wasn't didn't have that fire and I think you

know how it is you see kids and he lived it you know when they take to it and they want to go out there and come hell or high water they want to win they don't want that kid to win that's when they get it and you want to go and you want to be there every weekend because of his fire and their desire and their passion. So I could definitely went after the race. He's pounced just like I did. You know, Laura's like, hey, you can't let him do that.

Hey, he just let him be right there. He's fine. He's like, no, no, no, man. Hell yeah. It was a bad day. We got our ass kick. Let's go to the house on the tail between her legs and work harder next week.

That's racing. So I guess there was a time. I mean, if I'm understanding you right, there was a time y'all went out and tested or something, he didn't really have that fire. So you said, maybe this isn't for him. And then you kind of returned to it. It wasn't, it wasn't ever, this wasn't for him. I just knew he wasn't ready.

He wasn't old enough. I mean, he was, I think he was only barely five. And we went out and run. And he just was running laps, you know. Now he comes in and, you know, wants to know where, what did I do wrong? You know, the first thing, just like every kid out there, they cut the corner off. How does he do? They don't arc the corner enough, and you're out there like a damn maniac.

Standing on the track. Go around me. My dad did the same thing. I'm like, golly. Burton told him to get tennis balls. He'd go out there and throw tennis balls at him. I'm telling him, I'm fixing to go, what is it, pin? I'm going to own some stocking pin here soon.

I need a tennis balls everywhere. But how old is he now? He's six. Yeah. It'll be seven in October. I got you. And so it gets competitive. Is it getting competitive amongst the dads?

Is that what you're saying? Oh, dude, it's way more with the dads than it is at kids. And so I would assume, tell me if I'm wrong, Larson's pretty chill, you and Kyle Bush, LW, you know, never seen a fight he didn't like. So, I mean, I would say between you, Kyle, and LW, is that, does it get? Kyle's pretty chill. I don't know.

Kyle Bush? At the dirt track? I mean, I've never seen him at the dirt track, but I've been there and seen Brexton race. He's a Bush. Dale. I know, but they're, they race and... This Kyle has more shit on his car. Telemetry, throttle, brakes.

Oh, my, the whole day. They're in there like an engineer already. I'm like, Kyle, what are you doing, man? Laptops everywhere. Like Formula One cars don't have all this stuff. Damn, he's lifting. Look at this data right here. I'm like, this data, this kid's six.

Oh, yeah, that's the bushes. And I tell you, Brexton is extremely fast. off the bat, speed, you know, galore. Cash doesn't have that, but he races well. You put the, you know, the rabbit out in front of it. Well, you put the rabbit out in front of him. He'll chase it, you know, a little bit harder. Every one of those kids is different.

Owen, you know, same demeanor as Kyle, super quiet, and then gets in there as a damn grizzly bear, you know, and he's like, where did that come from? It's amazing how you, well, your kids are just like, the end of the day they are. It's crazy. I watch Carson and Kennedy race and, I mean, they are dive bombing and door slamming.

I'm like, that's like they're a completely opposite outside of the cart, right? Yeah. You'd never be like, that's not like you, you know? Yeah. Burry it down in there. But them kids, man, they'll shock you. Helmut, baby. Chin strap.

When Carson was running like at Chili Bowl and stuff, it seemed like you were getting real critical of stuff you would do and then would almost like a dad would. Yeah. And I didn't know if you were even enjoying it. She flipped and get out and walk away. You know, everybody's standing around her team and guys at the car car's hanging in the fence and they're all just looking at it like i was going to get this down and she's stormed off i'm like

don't do that bitch car help you guys you know yeah same thing your dad you should say to you do you hear that gosh you hear that no don't go pout yeah my man's he's yeah he doesn't like losing i don't know many of that do not the good ones uh-uh so i went to uh what's that one over there by newton mountain creek Yeah. How cool is that place? Very cool. It's down in a hole, Mill of Woods. It always comes back to people.

You know, those guys are farmers. And that place was built just for their little enjoyment and fun with their family. Next thing they know, they invited some friends over. Next thing you know, I told that guy, so, yeah, next thing you know, you're in business. It's got races on Sunday. I used to go. Hundreds of people in your back yard. I used to drive that road to go to work at the dealership when I changed oil with the dealership

didn't even know that was there. Oh, really? Yeah. And I just went for the first time like three months ago, two months ago. And then I went last week or two weeks ago and Brexton ran and I'm like, I text Kyle. I'm like, dude. Rolling. He's damn good.

Yeah. Like he won't, he run good. Wow. What was Paisy like? Did you do good? Did you love it? Yeah. He was nice.

He was nice? He was, well, what the hell is that mean? We had to work together. He was good. Yeah. Like, he wasn't, he didn't come in there, uh, high maintenance, uh, you know, have his own makeup lady and all that good. You know, he didn't have people fanning him, keeping him cool.

Dude, it was new. Was it hot over there? It was blazing. It was nuclear and the All-Star race at Texas. The hottest. I heard it was bad. I couldn't believe it. Yeah.

Dude, we, I had to change clothes. Like, went to the backup. That's one of the things. That's one of the things that I saw that on your social media. That's one of the things I don't envy. So we don't have to wear suits and they don't put us on pit road in a suit. You know what I mean? I mean, I don't, the booth guys with NBC.

rarely are we down on the racetrack like y'all y'all they put y'all on the track do the pre-race and then y'all got to go up y'all got a lot of oh yeah i saw yeah yeah DJ and then we're down there they look like they do at three o'clock in the morning out of the bar i say this boy they ain't in a bed yet that's exactly what they look like us yeah but usually we just start in a booth i'm glad that we don't have to do the pit road stuff because i know i see y'all doing that and i'm like that's my favorite i honestly that's my favorite of the weekend the pre-race stuff and getting everything going being excited you know that that puts me right back in the fan, you know, like in the grandstands.

I get jacked up before the race, and I did, you know, when I was racing, that was my most exciting time, you know, when you'd have sponsors there and you get to see friends and stuff. Everybody's excited about the race. It got me pumped up. I can't wait until they'll get you to do a play-by-play for an Xfinity race or do host the pre-race. That'll be fun to watch. Will they do that on Fox?

I don't know. We're giving them the idea. See, I don't like, I like, I need a guy. I know, but I saw you host last week, and I wouldn't be good at that because all the business side of it and all that, have to go to break in and out of breaks and stuff. I love. I don't know how to do that. My man, I never done it before.

I like going to follow some guys lead. Let him take care of the business and bring in a guest in. Like you had, Paisley, that's my favorite, you know, because you can banner. He can handle the business and you can just focus on being in. I want you to make yourself do it one time. There ain't no way. Hell yeah. No.

It'd be fun to watch. Got a lot of idiot in me. I can't handle that. It'd be good TV. Everybody would be watching. Everybody would be like, watch that. I'd be like, yes. Get them.

Was there anything you did this year that you were just like, God, that was the biggest screw up I've ever done? All of it. No, no, that's not true because you were good. And I know you're going to be humble and talk about it, but you were good. But I'm saying is it was there as a moment where you were like, okay, that was bad. That sucks.

it. Yeah. The biggest thing, and I know I should, but I can't. I cannot go back and watch myself because the whole time I'm like, God, you sound like an idiot. I've never done it either. And, you know, all my peers, like, you must go back and, you know, perfect your craft, you know.

And I'm like, dude, I sound like a complete blooming idiot. I can't go back and watch that. And I know I should because there's things that I would have done different and things like that but you know Mike joy tells he's said he's been around so long and so professional he'll tell you you know we don't rehearse you know because they they want it natural and oh yeah don't rehearse no there's a lot of the things that I wish we did rehearse because I know I could do it better no different now next lap on the racetrack you know if you go out and run a qualifying run a qualifying lap you know if you had another set of tires on it cool this baby off

I go out there and get me another half a tent you know it's always that way you know when when you're in the booth or you say a comment or, you know, anything. You always feel like, man, I wish I had that to do over again. But it's no different on the racetrack. Yeah. Do you think you ever race again? Good question. And it's been on my mind here.

This was the first weekend. It kind of freaked me out. There's no, I was telling I was over with friends, and it's like the damn rabbit just fell off the front of the car. You know, I've had a rabbit to chase my whole adult life. And even in the TV side of it, when I got that opportunity to start to see. season with that you're chasing a rabbit your your mind's chasing something you know you want to be good at at what you're doing it just shut off the faucet just shut off and i just watched you pick up the rabbit and take off chasing it you know and you're like oh shit well hey man give me give me something

you know so i don't know i'm i don't i might try to do something and try to race something i love racing i love competing what but i don't like and this is where i it was bad for me is i don't like and I didn't like the feeling of letting being let down, you know, and it just got to where it was too much for me. It drove me nuts. And it actually changed me as a person. The one thing that I hated most about being a race car driver was living with disappointment. Even the guy that's successful is only winning a small percentage of the races, right?

Well, except for now with Kyle Larson. It'll change. But everybody, I don't care what driver you are, you've got to deal with disson. disappointment and failure. And I could, I got, I never got better at that. I got worse at that, right? And by the end of it, I'm like, when I finally retire, I was like, I'm so glad. I don't have to deal with carrying that frustration and disappointment through the whole

next week. And we got in the booth and Jeff Burton goes, hey man, we win and lose up here, but nobody cares when it's over with. They're talking about this guy down here, not us. You know, we can, we walk out of this booth and we don't have to worry about all that. It's changed Monday mornings, you know, and all the way. way through. First of all, the race home. You know, you're always with such a race getting out of there. Got to be home. Got to be home. Got to be here. Because your mind was, you know, had to get back

to the shop, figure out why we sucked or whatever else. It pissed off. You know, you guys want to, you want to hang out Sunday night? You want to leave or what? Like, ah, just, if I can make it home to take the kids of school Monday morning, it'd be good to me. I don't care. You know, you're just no longer in a big hurry and a big rush to get everywhere. So it's kind of calm me down in that sense, too. But yeah, Those peaks and valleys. You know, competition's full of peaks and valleys. And forever, those peaks, you know, even if it was a sharp peak, was worth those valleys. And whatever hell it drug you through.

And towards the end, I was just like, man, it's no longer worth that one special moment anymore. What about your dirt team? Yeah, love it. You know, and I think it's an opportunity for me to spend some more time with it. And looking forward to maybe Cash and I going on the road with him and trying to help them. out a little bit. We've been traveling a lot already. My wife, my God, I've looked at my phone, look at the schedule. I've never, I know you kind of know me. I don't keep a schedule. I don't, when I go on vacation, everybody, you'd get somebody new that has a wife that wants to,

you know, hang this guy. I need to know what we doing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. 10 a, what? We might be up for breakfast. If we're not, I don't give a damn. I don't care what we're doing 10 p.m. let alone. We're just going to go. We're headed to Destin. That's where we're going. We're going to the beach. I hate the beach, but we're going to figure it out. Maybe we'll find something to have some fun with. You know, so the schedule, I looked at it and God almighty, we're here, there everywhere, you know, bouncing back and forth to go to racing. Yeah, moving forward all summer long. You're busy. Wide ass open. With cash. Cash, Tuesday's cash, and then they race some on Saturdays. You know, but again, I don't want to get full-blown.

It's baseball deal. And I don't, you know, everybody, I would love to have him play some more in baseball just because I like the aspect of the team side of it and what you learn and how to get more out of people, have them help you get more out of yourself. No different racing, but it's actually more because there's more hands on the ball, right? I like that aspect of it, but I hate the fact that you're either all in or you're not good enough. You know, it's these guys are, you know, the tournaments all weekend long, three or four, games you're stuck you're married to it and I've heard some of those professional

baseball players I know that's the commitment that you take that you have to be to be the best but they're six years old we don't know if they're going to be you know the next babe ruth or not you know and I think at some point you still have to have a balance to have some fun and not be so down a path of something that they can't see the rest of the world because that's that's some things that we didn't do you know what I mean we went to the damn racetrack we'd just chase a dream and there's a part of me that would have liked to see some of those things. And the other part of me is super glad that I didn't because it made me good enough at a

craft that I was good at. So that balance in an early life, I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet. I don't know. I think there is a balance, but it's a hard one to find and hit, right? The commitment for kids this age, I know, I mean, you got Girls Dale, I've got a couple girls and if you get them into a sport it doesn't take long for them to all of a sudden they're traveling and everything else and it's a full-in commitment and you don't have time for anything else so you're forced to pick something yeah you really are and and it's it's kind of a shame that it's that way but again that's what makes kids passionate about something and in my opinion that's important you know moving forward that they're passionate about something in life and and

work hard for it yeah i wanted to ask you when i asked you about if you drive again and you said Yeah, maybe. I've been thinking about that. At what level, what's interesting to you? What are you curious about? Maybe what's unfinished? Well, I don't think it's a fact of unfinished because I think all of it was on borrowed time. You know what I mean?

Caught me off guard with all of it. But I think it would be fun to go back and run a dirt modified or something. Or, you know, those late models, that's a commitment. Yeah, yeah. You know, I feel like I could get in a modified and a few races be competitive, you know, somewhere, right? Like the late model stuff, the level that we have, that might as well be the Cup Series. Right. I mean, it is full-blown engineers and, you know, way down a path.

You're not just going to get in those. Kyle Larson, best driver going right now. He's got in and won, but he's also got in and struggled, you know. But if he did it a lot more regularly, he would be able to run with those guys. It's hard. That's the hardest thing that I've seen with racing as it's evolved and, you know, engineering and everything else, you get down a path, you can't outrun those guys. You know, you can't get in and compete, and you've heard, you know, I've talked to Kenny Wallace

about that. Like, he races a lot almost every single weekend. And, you know, when he first starts, you have to stay competitive to we can run with those guys. But I think that goes right back to your community. Just the local show, though, you might go do that and have some fun. So if you, right, something like that would be fun. And, you know, at the end of the day, right now, I love our sport. I feel like it's in a healthy spot.

I think that's important. You know, it's important that I try to give back to the sport. It's giving me so much my whole damn life. You know, it's always been, like I just said, it's kind of on, not borrowed time, but it's just all unexpected, you know, and it's the appreciation for the sport and how healthy it is all the way through.

It excites me. It keeps me intrigued on the business side of, the partnership side of it, hospitality at the tracks. You know, I want everybody to get to a racetrack and enjoy every minute, you know, and pisses me off. We had an opportunity and couldn't get people in there. You know, I was excited for our deal, but, man, I wanted to be there. Hannah, get me tickets.

Let me get in here. You know, let me help you get you. Your damn water ran out of water. I'll go get waters. You know, like, that's just, but I mean, that's the way I am. I want everybody to love our sport and leave there and go back to that coffee shop Monday morning and say, man, that was a kick-ass time, and I can't wait to go back next year. You, as an analyst, you're fresh out of the car.

You, when you watch a guy run a race or watch our driver's race, all the things that you experience as a driver come back to you, and it's all fresh, and you've got all kinds of great insight because all that stuff's just right in the rear view. How would you, as a broadcaster, and I'm asking for a friend, prepare for the next-gen car? Will you go drive it? So I was wanting to, and it was the plan.

And, you know, I had actually talked to Scott Miller and Fabian about doing that earlier in the season. I was supposed to, where do you say that? My seat was in that car when the pandemic hit. Oh, really? My seat was in the car to test Atlanta after, you know, because we all got off playing Atlanta. Got the call, get back on it. Big Daddy, Mike Elton calls and say, hey, where are you at, boy? Where's your team at?

Like, what are you staying here to, where everybody's trying to figure out what's going on? Well, sit right there. I knew, I was like, you got to be kidding me. But I was supposed to get in that car, the next-gen car, and run and test that car. I still want to do that. I'd like to get in it and feel it, understand it. Nonetheless, I feel like, you know, your experience is just like I was saying at Sonoma. You see a guy get a run off a corner or see things from a perspective of years of experience that other people can't see.

And that's not a knock to them. It's just they haven't visualized. that from the seat of a race car. They haven't felt a car get loose or, you know, a wheel come loose. You know, wheel coming loose at 180, 190 mile an hour. Pretty sketchy. Yeah.

Damn, I hope it don't fall off. It's going to hurt, right? That hurt, you know, how, what do you mean hurt? We know how, hell, he knows better than anybody. You know, that's a level that of experience that only we can share with somebody. So it's our job to make sure that we, We convey that to a fan and, you know, at the end of the day, enjoy what they're seeing. Yeah.

I hope we can create opportunities for us to get in those cars, though, so we can at least go, all right, this is what acceleration feels like. This is what the rack feels like, steering. But you got to be careful of what you asked. You do know what O'Donnell wanted us to do. Uh-uh. He wanted us to run. I probably shouldn't say that.

Oh, the race. Surely it's, you didn't hit the red buttons yet. Yeah, they wanted us to run the All-Star race, like a damn celebrity race or something at the All-Star race. in the next gen cars and Gordon called me. He said, hey, man, I don't know, man. I think we ought to bow down out of this. Didn't they try that at Bristol and somebody ended up in the hospital, like a couple years ago?

Yeah, but I think that guy was like 106 years old or something. Jeff called me and I told him what the rate was and he didn't call me back. You said what if it was going to call? See, hourly wage? hourly rate? You're going to have to just go ahead and write me the winner's check. So we back down out of that. But I think it would be interesting.

I think there's a lot of things about that car that are interesting. I don't like, you know, every since our cars went to, you know, no ride height and got them glued down on the racetrack and things like that, not like this, right? Way off the ground. I feel like there's points as we've went along that I didn't like. I thought that that was maybe a setback.

You go to the car tomorrow. when that thing first started, it looked just like this. It was even on the sides. By the time it's evolved to now, it almost is, it's not quite as bad as our cars were in 06 where they're all twisted up, but they pretty much are. They got a billboard on the right side, left sides. I doily fender on it. And, you know, they're all, it's like, how did we get here?

You know, this crafty some bitches, you know, but we got to get, we got to get back to that. And I think this next gen car is going to do that. I want to see guys, I saw it this weekend, and it was a first, time and a long time at Nashville, how long has it been since you watched two or three different people just spin out? Right. Right. Yeah.

You know what I mean? That resonates to me. That makes it. That's cars hard to drive. Yeah. You know, they just busted their butt by themselves. No, no help, no nothing. They just wrecked, you know, and I feel like the sport, there's a balance there.

Can't get people hurt. But I can tell you this. When I got out of the car, there was only two tracks. I was not scared of. but you thought, man, I could get hurt at, Dayton and Talladega, you know, never would cross your mind at a mile and a half or a short track or anything else. And it was because you couldn't spin it out. You could not wreck, you know what I mean? And I want to see in-car cameras in there with those guys, now that I ain't in them.

I want to see in-car cameras, them guys like, their eyes this big because they're scared to death. Tell them your idea. Let's get his reaction about taking off a spoiler. Yeah, I think they should take it all. off? Yeah. Well, I think at the end of the day, see, you know what? I think you keep taking it off until you see cars doing what they were doing last week. They used to race cars in the 70s without spoilers. We used to, when I first started in a sport without fail, there was at least one car that would wreck and qualify them by themselves. I'm not saying we got to go back to destroying

cars and wrecking and stuff like that, but I feel like they have to get to a point where they're that hard to drive. You know, I remember in 06 and those cars were, dude, other things were, you respected that car. Qualified was hairy. Yeah. Because you's like, this old girl's going to bite me if I don't I mean, it's going to hurt. And you

go off in the corner, a handful of wheeled it, you know, flat to the floor and that thing, when it broke loose, it was done. It wasn't even coming back from it. It was, you were walking back trying to tell them boys super sorry and helping them unload the other car. You guys have gone straight to the other side now. Look at you. Y'all

broadcasters. They're like, make them harder to drive. These drivers need to have a test. Listen to y'all preach. I'm telling you. I've said it for the last several years that they need to be harder to drive. Yeah. I agree.

This weekend, what did you think about Nashville Super Speedway? I liked the opportunity. I loved what I saw of the fans, the turnout. I liked the activation, you know, and I think that's where it all lives. You know, I feel like we need to get back in, you know, my ideas. I got a lot of ideas, but my ideas. ideas is in market activation we've we've lost that you know and that was the first stab at it you know i want to see the sport we're coming out of a pandemic you know and i feel like every sport has to do this

i i feel like we needed to unroll roll out a new plan you know a new rollout plan of of a new experience at a racetrack you know this is an opportunity for a lot of sports to be better than they were and and and and and and and and and and necessarily just on the racetrack you know we're we're taking huge strides in that with that next gen car and there's a lot of unknowns those unknowns are excitement you know and I feel like you got to take advantage of that with your your you know in market activation which I saw in Nashville I mean look at the grandstands I think it spoke for itself I think it also you know brings up a new idea of there's some tracks out there that have been around that what it was it 10 years you know whatever it was that that that

set out there and what I would call a, I don't know, I get failed racetrack. It was or it'd still be going. But I think it's a proven point that you could come back there and put on a show, clean that place up. They did a phenomenal job. That place looked awesome on television. It looked like it was a brand new venue that we'd never been to before. And it looked like that on the racetrack.

And it also looked like that in a grandstand. So I think it may be an eye opener that we could go to some of these other tracks. You know, look at Gateway sitting over. over there. Maybe you could go over there and roll in with the boys, you know, with the whole circus, not just a part of it, you know, all of the acts and really put on a show and be impactful with that market. And maybe it doesn't work for many years. Maybe you move, maybe you take four or five racetracks and move them around or maybe just it's two or three. But I love what they're doing in NASCAR, finally swinging a bat and taking some chances. I think that's going to be a huge

momentum gain for us and again going back to the in market activation that's where it all you know those people got to know you're in town and have to know that it's going to be something that they haven't seen in a long time how much did you enjoy working with jeff loved it i i knew that it was going to be fun just because of our relationship you know everybody thinks we just because on the race track but man we had so much fun at champion year in championship banquets and things like that and everybody kind of always has you know how it is everybody's kind of clicky in the sense but we are always usually by the end of the night there was only a few men standing and he was one of them you know and i knew that he ran hard damn right and he was fun you know it wasn't necessarily about running hard

it's just he was a lot of fun to be around so i knew that that was going to be a lot of fun in that booth that you're our bosses they was their sales pitch to me is man i know you guys have had your differences and I just think you guys would be I'm like stop that'd be that that'll be awesome trust me that's the least of my concerns me and my dumb ass being good at something I don't know but I don't know what's going to happen with the rest of it but he was a big help to me you know because I could I knew that we could pick on one another have a little bit of banner a little bit of you know you see a wreck one way I see it the other you're out of your damn mind you know that that kind of banner that I felt like was fun and entertaining,

but we could do that and not, you know, rub each other wrong or, you know, piss each other off when we left. You know, every week, one of my favorite things was to get on the plane with him and talk about the race and what we saw and have a beer and actually enjoy, you know, leaving that racetrack with that celebration, like we used to do, you know, after a good run,

or maybe it was, damn, I wish we'd have done that better, but those conversations on the way home were a lot of fun and you learned a lot from. Learned a ton from him. You know, that cat, he's the rock star. And, you know, he's going to be moving into a different role. And we have to, we need him, man. I told him, I was like, you can't just walk away from this TV deal. Like, I don't care when you can do it or whatever.

The sport needs you. I don't need you. The Foxy, the sport needs you, you know, and you, Dale Jarrett, when he's out there, those guys are our rock star. you know and it's our job now to make rock stars out of these other kids you know but it's also their jobs you know through interviews and things like that i was proud of you know one of our interviews one of my most memorable interviews was with chase elliot at coda you know we did a lap and i told i was like man bring you damn it i want you to be be the man here you know and he did it was an

awesome walk around a lap and he was way more conversational than i've experienced and steam, you know, in this job. And I was like, yes, you know, damn, that's what I want. Good job. Y'all walked the whole lap? Yeah, well, no, he just, you know, talked us through a lap as we ran some sort of camera angle around there. And I thought he nailed it and knocked out of the park. But I thought he did it for himself, right? And it helps you do your job. When those guys, you know, it helped me be a lot more conversational because when those guys lock up or I don't care who it is.

You know, I shouldn't pinpoint him out. But when somebody locks up in your interview, you all of a sudden start locking up. Oh, yeah. You know, when you're on the same page and you can bring some energy out of them, you know, I know that I was out there acting like an idiot sometimes, but I was trying to, you know, jazz them up to where they felt comfortable and say something stupid. That's what I do.

Outside of working with Jeff and Mike, I'm sure, who in y'all's group did you have the most fun with? Who was fun to get to know? Jeff, without a doubt. Jeff, but Chris Myers, you know, I think he was a voice and Mike Joy too. Let me tell you, you know, I think you're probably the same way when you came in. I didn't know Mike Joy. He'd been in a sport since I first walked in the door, and I had said hi to him. Hi, Mr. Joy.

You know what I mean? It was that kind of relationship. But when I got to work with him and you know the history and you hear it every day about all the things he's been a part of and his knowledge, his encyclopedia knowledge about our sport, I just loved it. I was attached to it. I couldn't get enough of it. And then Myers, you know, his perspective and his role, my appreciation for him, was probably one of the biggest because of the fact that he didn't come from racing. You know, he has to come in and study his ass off to be good at that.

I couldn't do that. There's no way in hell. It'd be like us going to try to do bowling or something or baseball or another stick in more sport. But those guys, it's incredible the talent they have of the studying and the work ethic they have to be able to come in and go through a broadcast as if they've been in racing their whole lives. That's pretty incredible. Lee Diffie, Rick Allen, Mike Tariko on the NBC side, they get sent to do all these different types of sports.

You know that they haven't watched any of what's going on in that particular sport that season. And like you say, man, they go in there and they show up and it's like they've been there. It's like they've been plugged in the entire year. They're talking your talk. They're literally talking. They're bench racing with you as if they've been in every single race. Every single lap.

The one thing about him, who did you mention? Chris Myers? Yeah, the one thing. Chris, so when, I'll never forget this. Do you remember when we were in the playoffs? We were at the media. We were, I think we were at Vegas Media for the kickoff of the playoffs one year. And he was given Casey Kane a hard time.

I remember you spoke up. Do you remember that day? Oh, I don't remember. We were on stage at a, at a. an event with fans and he was hosting it and all the playoff drivers are sitting on that stage and you were sitting next to i think you were sitting next to casey and so was i and he was harp you remember that was in Vegas yeah i think he was given casey we all started feeling bad and i think you said to him hey man i think you need to knock it off it was a sounds like

something you'd say it was the coolest but that's always you know i've always been raised that way I try to help that, you know, somebody out out of a, my dad was a tow truck driver. Every time I see him, I'll think about that. Yeah. But he's that way, man. He's very witty. He's a smart ass, you know, so we get along well. Dad Joke City, you know, and I enjoy him a lot.

But, yeah, I remember that. What did you do when you were off? Do you find it hard? Like, you asked me a question. Do you find it hard watching us do the broadcasts? You see things. You're like, man, they were damn. I'm competitive, so I learned a lot from you guys,

but I also saw things like, damn, I wish I was up there with him. I would love, love to do a race with y'all. And there's been, like, every once in a while, there's like whispers of, hey, man, maybe we'll put you in the Sonoma broadcast, so it's a bit more of a team-style handoff, right, while we're on the same team working together.

Yeah. Where y'all won't, like y'all's numbers are really important to us. like y'all's success because that momentum carries right and we pick up right where y'all leave off and so we wish we like all year are wanting y'all to do well and so it's this weird thing where we're not we're like playing for two different teams but we won't be same goal it's weird but uh i just like learning it you know i learned a perspective that i've never seen you know in the car we are dead jealous about y'all being able to do the 500 because like we talk about let's and Burton were like, man,

we just want to do the Daytona 5-Rondon one time, just one time. Because the feeling and the emotion and the energy, the rush, right? You get that rush. You're standing up there. It's like 10 minutes before you're going on air, and you're looking around, you're like, this is freaking it.

It wasn't a rush. It was nervous city for me. Really? First time since I was probably 24 years old and rolled in driving for Richard Chilis, I was dead. Oh, my God. I got up there.

I'll tell you how bad it was. And you're going to laugh. I was with all the way through to production, me, man, I was taking notes. And I was looking around, you know, all my peers are taking notes. So I'm dialed in, you know, don't have a damn clue about the 200s, 300s, 4,

whatever the hell they're talking about. Yeah. I keep writing notes down. Get up there to the stage. I look over. I didn't have a note one. Forgot the whole thing in the bus. I was like, oh, damn.

I looked at Jeff. I was like, I don't have any notes. What do you mean? I was like, I don't have anything. They're all on the bus. do he's like dude you got to go get him you're you're gonna freak out i was like take it away chris we just started going and once i finally got going yeah but i'm telling you when i first went on and they hit that red and i was freaking out oh yeah god yeah because that 500 you know once you get past

that one that's all that's the opportunity all eyes are on you know and and you start out the pre-race and and all the energy all the excitement all of it you you got to perform and that was hard for me. It scared me today. I imagine going back and doing it next year, you'll enjoy. Like, you'll enjoy that. Because if you're anything like me, like, I'm terrified from the minute I get on the plane to go to the first one, right? I'm scared through all the meetings, all the talk, all the conversation, all the buildup,

not just the 10 minutes, you know, not just the day or the morning of the broadcast. Like, I'm terrified. I'm telling Amy, I'm laying in bed. Oh, God, this is going to be here. I'm going to blow this. this is going to suck. I'm scared to death. So you were that way with Nashville?

Are you talking about back when you... They told me I was going to do countdown to green. I was talking to Amy like five days ahead. Was that your first time doing that? Yes. Yeah, I'd have freaked out over that. I was scared to death. Did you guys...

Do you rehearse a whole show? No. We just had a production meeting. We rehearsed the intro. Like, welcome to that little five seconds. So check this out. So they were like, hey, man, you're going to host a show. Countdown to Green with Brad Peas.

Oh, my God. I'm going to throw up. And so I know this, right, for a couple weeks. I'm preparing. I'm watching Old Countdown to Greens with Christavoda and write notes and how she sends it to commercial and brings it back and all the things, right? So feeling better.

Saturday morning before the Xfinity race, we get into the production meeting, and they hand us the sheet. And it's like, Dale, you're hosting the Countdown of Green today. for Xfinity race. I am? They're like, yeah. You and Dale Jarrett.

What? Like, I ain't ready. I don't know what the hell. I would have loved that, though. That's a practice round, man. I threw up in my head. And then five seconds later, that's what that? And then five seconds later, that's what I thought.

I'm like, no, no, no, no, don't do this. Don't, don't, don't, don't spiral. This is a good thing. This is a good thing. You're going to get a run here. You know, tomorrow will be way better. Get a mock run. That was like completely out of character.

for me to like not spiral into you know just explode go I ain't doing this you know because I would totally do that I'd go into the I'd go into my boss and go Jeff Bicki's my boss when uh at the race weekends I'd go Jeff I can't do this you got to do something you know I'd freak out but that would have been hard but they had you do the play by play and sit in that number one chair and you came back ready to be Chris Oconomackie all of a sudden you were ready like man I want more of that yeah I know so it's just like when they said we mean play by play play play like what Mike Joy does for y'all and what Rick Allen does for him. He sat in that once.

Anchor the booth at the Xfinity race. No chance. So I was the same way years and years ago. Like they would be like, hey man, you're going to go present at the MTV Awards. I'm like, hell no, I ain't. Yeah. I mean, everybody in there, everybody that you know is like, why wouldn't you do that? And I'm like, huh, terrified.

No, I ain't doing it. I'm getting up front of all the people, national TV. But you do it. You're terrified. You're like, why did I agree to do this? You're standing there like moments before you go out there. Why did I agree to do this? This sucks.

And then you do it and you get done and you're like, hell yeah. That looks awesome. I want to do that again. But getting started is the hardest part. And you have to do that right off the bat. That's what would have been struggling. Because I can't even put a sentence together. And then all of a sudden, you know, like your first opening comments of the week, dude,

I blow it every single weekend. You come back up from that commercial break. I'm dialed. I got it then. You know what I'm saying? It's so hard to do right off the bat and everybody's excited. You ran into the booth and you're trying to, all right, man, I think this is going to happen. Keep an eye on this guy.

This is my guy here. I'm flubbing all the way through that and then come back from that commercial break. I'm rock out. Hey, you're so self-deprecating. So why are you, was the idea to do TV and do a career in TV? Did somebody come to you with that idea or did you come up with that idea? No. You never once said like I may have a career in TV afterwards.

No, they came. We did those. Finity broadcast. Oh, that's right. Yeah. That kind of got playing to see with you too. So we all got that opportunity to do drivers only. And that was easy, you know, because your AA's up there and you're up there with your peers and you're

just kind of talk a bench race. No pressure. No pressure at all. Like literally didn't feel any. And then we did those, you know, when the pandemic hit, we got to do those eye racing events. And that's where Jeff and I had fun and I knew it. I knew. I was like, it just hit.

You know, our relationship worked. We were having fun or banner back for the conversation. It just, it worked. And I kind of, that was my first time that I was like, eh, maybe, maybe a little call. And they did. But, you know, I don't know. I think it was probably a year before I was ready for it.

But it was one of those opportunities that you just have to call it. Do you let yourself think about the next package for that booth? Yeah, absolutely. But I guess I think it's, at the end of the day, it's not up to me, right? But I feel like it needs to be. You know, it needs to be somebody that you can, hey, in anything in life, it can be better. You know, I'm a racer, man. Every lap you take, you think you can, maybe, but you think you can go out there.

I can get just a little bit more out of that. You know, give me another opportunity, another crack at bat. I don't know. I don't think, you know, right now. I don't think that I think what we had was spot on. It was a lot of fun. You know, when you're having fun doing something, I think it shows. And we enjoyed no different than you guys do as a team.

You really enjoy your teammates, you know, and that's why it works. You know, there's no, no butthole. You know, everybody, there's every single one of our guys was a lot of fun and a factor, right? And we all got along together. We all ate dinner together and we were all a team. You know, there was no jerk that nobody. liked you know there was no win-law that was a jerk and and we we we must have went on laws that you don't like no you know what I mean like we went on vacation and

everybody got along everybody knows what that's like but but our team our group was a lot of fun and and I think whoever that is or or maybe it doesn't exist you know I think that's a that's a really important part of the equation when I moved out of the driver's seat I was like man it's how to figure out how to feel this time and in like two months I was up to here with to do. Oh yeah. So like are you sitting there, are you surprised, I guess, by how much, how easy it was for things and people and responsibilities to fill up that void?

No, well, I think timing's everything and, you know, running through the broadcast, our part of it was pretty much on the pandemic, where there wasn't a lot of fans there until right there the last few weeks, couple weeks. That's what I like. That's what I'm, you know, kind of good at is, is I feel like, you know, is bringing some people in, showing them our sport. I know where to go. I know where the funds out. I know where they're going to see it. So I always liked bringing a sponsor and a partner in and be like, hey, man, let me show you this, you know, let me show you that. Showing off our sport in a different, you know, opportunity that they can have. I didn't have that

this year. And if I did, that's that extra day, that Saturday, you know, that I could have really, again, you know, helped our sport and done a good job. So I think next year, there'll be more of that and some of those opportunities. There was some, you know, there's no question. I was busy, but honestly, it was, I think a lot of that had something to do with it. Do you, how much practice do we need? How much practice do we need? And what would you do with qualifying? You got control. You're running it. I think the proofs in the pudding, we've had practice and it does that absolutely nothing for our product. Again, it's through the different lens you're looking at, you know.

It's just, it's a fact. You know, nothing changes. Honestly, I think it hurts it. I think it closes the window up to where you don't have a guy miss a little bit or hit it, you know, and smoke them. So I think for whatever reason, I think the more they shake things up, you know, go into a season, things shake up, a lot of parity, you know, that was a topic of conversation. And I talk, we talked about a lot, you know, for the first. month and a half of just how many new winners you know first-time winners you know your your big

winners from last year Kevin Harvick still hasn't won a race you know true exit won so many races all those different things it's a different different thing going on so it's all the sudden you're starting to see that same guy win a bunch of races you know when when when the window closes up people perfect it the engineers get better at it they they narrow that window up and I think it hurts the product I think you know practice does that for our sport. Moving into the next year with this car, you're going to have to have it. I do believe that we have to have at least two days at the track. Yeah. You have to have fans interact and enjoy the weekend. I get that. You know, I don't like going in one day and being the only ones there,

you know, and I think it's very important to the overall impact of the weekend to have everybody there at least for a couple days. I feel like with my job, it adds some layers. of storylines when you see some things happening in practice. And so I kind of like a little bit of practice. And I like single car qualifying. And they go so fast now because they got two cars on the track. One goes. They send another one.

They send another one. And it's a quick show. You know, you get a chance to talk to drivers. You have them up on the pit box to talk. I kind of like that a little bit. I like qualifying, but I also like, and it goes back to dirt racing and where I came from. An inversion. Yeah.

Does good. How do you fit the inversion into the stock car racing? When we first came back from the pandemic, I thought it was the best. When they did like the top 20. And then they went to that 13 or whatever, and it protected those guys. I didn't like that. Actually, it was a, I proved it to them. And then two weeks later, I was the damn vocal about it and shoved it in their face.

If they changed the rule, I'm like, you can't do that. I actually, I finally broke the bubble and got back into the top 13, went to getting my stage points back. Yeah. And Jimmy Johnson stayed back there in 16th or whatever it was. He couldn't get them. You know, and I just kept getting far and farther away and made the playoffs.

No problem because of that. Soon as I showed, like two weeks went in. They changed the rule. But I went to this formula, which I don't like. You know, a lot of confusion and things like that. But I think the inversions, you know, the All-Star race, there was a lot of rules, but there was a lot of moving parts and a lot of storylines that you kept track of. You know, I think you could simplify that a little bit with some graphics,

some good graphics where people understand, you know, where those cars are, why it's so important because they were incentivized every single run to have to pass cars. And they couldn't pass, you weren't going to be the guy, right? You weren't going to have that opportunity. Those guys pass the cars, and I know the fastest cars will pass the most cars. I get that. But you also have an aggressive Ross Chastain, a guy like him, a Kyle Bush, you know, that didn't have the fast car, but he passed a lot of cars.

You know, he was able to make some noise within that race. race. I think at the end of the day, through our races are a little bit too long still, and I feel like if you shorten that up a little bit with a little bit of inversion, you know, I think you got a lot of atmosphere within a race. But you said something, and I was going to ask you, one of the hardest things when you go off a broadcast is, you know, you brought it up at the top of this deal. You know, you get done and you're like, man, did I, I don't feel like I helped him out enough. You know, do you ever feel guilty after the race?

It's helped like your partners? Didn't say enough. No, no, no. Not about partners, not about business. Just about. Your booth mate? No, a guy out on a racetrack. A driver out on the track, you know.

You missed it. You looked down and a guy that shouldn't have been, maybe hadn't been running in the top ten, got him a top ten. You're like, sorry, dude. So, you know, Larson crosses the finish line and now he's doing whatever he's doing. 20 minutes later, the rest of the field did? Yeah. Yeah. But he's driving around straightaway getting to the interview.

And I'm looking at the rundown. I'm going, hell, Joy, 16th. I'm just saying names, right? Anything that I saw that I'm like, I don't know how this sounds. Probably sounds like some idiot redneck broke into the booth. But it hit you. And it does. Like you realize it.

You try to take care of everybody, you know, because you don't want to make anybody mad. But there's relevant guys that are relevant to the race. And then there's also relevant drivers that did a good job. You're right. I was curious about this. How do you deal with people that critique your performance or TV performance? Because there's armchair quarterbacks every Monday and they're going to sit there. And I've got to be honest, I think we might have been one earlier in the year at Darlington

when we were trying to like, why are they not showing Dale's car in the Xfinity race? And now I'm taking Barry Landis's job from him and all this stuff. Well, Kelly had called or said something. I saw her tweet something. I looked at it and I was like, man, she's right. right, you know, and why didn't we do that? And I called him immediately. He said, well, we did it out of pre-race before, and we thought we did a good job.

You know, hey, people miss the ball every now and then, right? And have a different, they thought they did good and was really excited about it. And then you get back and you're like, oh, no, we didn't mean to do that, you know. So you do miss every now and then. You know, you're focused on something else and you think. Because I think when you go into a race weekend, you've got to try to focus, you know, it's our jobs to help them forecast. what's going on.

Those Tuesday production meetings, they're going to lean on the drivers. All right, what do we need to see in this weekend? What do you think the perspective is going to be? So you try to use your background and your experience to, all right, paint this picture of what I think it's going to go like. Well, every now and then it doesn't, you know,

but you've got your focus, your attention, your mind on that path. You think you're doing right. And if it throws you inaudible, you've got to bob and weave a little bit. And sometimes you do a phenomenal job of that. Sometimes you miss a little bit. But it's real.

You know, I think it's, there's a, there's always a path, and you try to go down that and try to take care of everybody. That's the hardest part, taking care of everything. You know, there's a lot of business behind it. There's a lot of drivers. There's a lot of personalities that you try to touch on all of those, and there's not enough time to do it. Do you guys seek out the feedback or the criticisms?

Oh, yeah. Sorry. That was ADD that just kicked in, didn't, didn't answer your, It's okay, but I'm curious on both you guys. I like it a lot, and my peers are like, don't listen to them. Don't look at that. People are unfiltered on social media. They're going to, hey, you just are.

It's just what it is. But usually where there's smoke, there's fire, you know, and you can see through it. If a clown's got one follower and you look down to last 25, you know, posts were something negative about literally everybody that exists, you're like, man. You know, you don't even look at that. You just put it off. But if somebody says something, and, you know, I learned so much by that, by those people, because I believe that there is some validity to what they're saying, their comments and things like that.

And, you know, a lot of it's praise and things like that. But you don't learn from that. You know what you did good. You know, it's no different to race car. You know what you're good at. You need to know what you're not good at. And in TV, that's the hardest part. you never have your bosses or anybody tell you do you like that or do you not like that

that i can't get my bosses to come in and say you didn't nail that right you know they're all like hey good job they're trying to pump you up they're trying to lift you up every once in a while i'm telling them i'm like give me honest truth like what sucked you know and they're like i'm busy do you have time to like give you that kind of detailed analyst so do you do you look at it and try to decipher through something? A lot. Yeah, I read it a lot. Like I go on Reddit, Reddit has a race,

Reddit has a race. Reddit is kind of like Twitter, it's another social media space that there's a lot of great conversation in, and they have a race thread where it's just comment after comment on everything that's happening in the race, and it's a lot of comments on the broadcast, something I said,

something Burton said, something we did, something we didn't do. and so yeah I read through that stuff and I feel like I got a pretty good you know understand I can see I can go okay that's that's good criticism or this guy's just

just trying to show off it's pretty easy to decipher through it really is do y'all get defensive if they're critiquing your booth mates like if somebody's like Jeff Gordon sucks that's natural though that's always been natural for me yeah so I'm gonna defend my boys

and my buddy but you know they don't you know what I mean honestly for the most part people give you a lot of praise and it makes you feel good and it keeps you up but honestly it's no different we you just said both of us and it's the same thing you learn from from criticism like what I don't need to know what I'm doing good at I want to know what I'm not good at and I need to make that lap better that comes from racing and being competitive yeah well man it's been a good conversation it has I don't think cash is yours because he just for an hour hour and a half that kid is just sitting over there you know, behaving himself.

I think that he can't be a boy. There's a shop over here that's got a bunch of electronics and remote controls and stuff in it on. We, you know, we live about an hour from here. When we come down here, I'll take him in there. So he thinks he needs a new hoverboard. His hoverboard blew up. Probably does.

I told him if he's good. It sounds like he does. And see if we can't pick out a good hoverboard to make mom mad at. And that's why. Yeah, you bribe. You bribe. You bribe. I don't know, man.

Thanks for having me, boys. It's a lot of fun, Clint. You think we'll get fired? I know you won't. I hope I don't get fired from this. You're not going to get fired from this. Kicked out of the sport, pissed every fan off in existence. You fans love you.

I don't have to tell you this, man. I don't know. I don't think, I don't know that you see any criticism because when I look at social media all year long, all I see is praise. Everybody loves the job you're doing. I love the job you're doing. You're a huge, huge asset to the Fox side of the broadcast. Thanks, man.

You've changed it up. You've had a lot of great energy that's always important at a broadcast booth. Love what you're doing, man. And I'm excited for you to be able to enjoy going to the racetrack with your boy and the things that's happening there, and hopefully I run into you at a racetrack somewhere. Well, if you see, if I get this could happen. If you look over in the infield and you see old Clint with his bus out

and it's sitting on a cooler of beer and taking in what you guys are doing the rest of the year, don't be surprised. I will be surprised. You need to take your ass on vacation, buddy. That's what she always says. I don't vacation very well. I always wear, man, I'm terrible at it. The first day of vacation, I blow it out like it's not going to, it's, that's it's normal.

And I feel like the whole vacation until the last day you get to feeling better, then guess what you do? No, I'm going to hit it one more time. Have a little fun, do a little day drinking that day. And then you feel like it all the way home. you're like, I blew the whole vacation. Sounds like every trip I've ever took. I bet he's in an Xfinity race before this year's over.

That, hey, I asked the question because if you got an itch to scratch, man, we can help you out. We can help him out. I have an idea, and before we go off, I think it needs to happen. I've been, this was one of the things I wanted to do. Your car is right there that you built. First of all, that I followed along with that, and that was one of the neatest things that I feel like you've ever done. that was a kick-ass project it's cool that the back story behind it all of it's so cool I hope that you can continue to find cars like that and find some some you know backing to

be able to build those and bring that history back to the forefront I thought that was such a cool story but I want to see a chase Elliott or a Kevin Harvick or something like that I want to go back you're such a history guy and I talked to Ray Everton here about this because he's got a bunch of them and have them go out and compare. You know, I want to see some. Legit run hard. Right. Because you always see, you know, you always hear the day old conversation of, you know,

man, them guys ain't as tough as these boys back then. You know, they were such more badass racers. I would like to see a guy today's day and age get in one of those cars and really put it out there and get it on and, you know, do a comparison a little bit. I'd love to see. Put telemetry on that thing and see. what it did, you know. Yeah.

I was just going to get Brexton Bush's stuff. Kyle Busch's got something handy. I was just thinking, I mean, we should do that. The challenge is tires, like you're trying to find good quality buy supply tires to take something like that. Yeah, but it still is to this day. And a tire is always a challenge, man. But it's, that's, because it's what sticks our product to the track.

You know, it's a challenge because it's important. It is very important. And I feel like they can do that. I think it'd be cool. Yeah, man. Do it. Do it. Maybe not that one.

Not that one. Hell no. She's a win as fast as she's going to go. But Ray's probably got one. Ray Everingham's probably got one like you said. You'll tear his up? Yeah, Terry's got one. Yeah.

He's got an old Monte Carlo, Dave, Marcus Monte Carlo. But Richard Chilis does too. He's got a lot of your dad's whole cars that still got patinaed out. I think it'd be cool to see somebody get out there and see what it has. I'm with you there, buddy. That's your segment. That's your segment for next year for one of your races. That was an idea.

Clint Boyer on the Dale Jr. Download. Well, we finally made it to my favorite part of the show, guys. Ask Junior, brought to you by Xfinity. Co-host Mike Davis is here. As usual, Leah's got your questions that you guys have sent at Xfinity on Twitter, so let's go. Our first question from Stephen Rogers, with us coming out of a double-heder weekend, do we look at having more double-headers, or is it time to start looking at running a track one time a year as other race series do now? Yeah.

I would always say that going to each track once is plenty. You know, we should be going to as many tracks as we can go to, not to go to any track twice, even maybe Talladega and Daytona. One street course, one doubleheader, one dirt race, just try that for a couple years. I mean, if a doubleheader is wildly successful and sustains that success and grows to be this sort of, preferred experience for fans, then you think about doing more than one double header,

but let that be special and unique to Pocono. Every track needs to have its sort of thing that it's known for, that it's special for. You know, Pocono is a destination. People go to Pocono just a vacation. So that's why I think the doubleheader can work because you're coming into town to a place that you want to be and you're going to have fun. Plus you're going to have two days of racing. Maybe you come into town for a three-day weekend, four-day weekend, whatever.

But if you have a double-header at a place that's not a destination, not necessarily a vacation town, I don't know if it works as well. So, you know, you got to, we're always, we always need to think about offering the fan an experience. And that race is only a piece of that, right? I think you do it at Pocono. We had an amazing weekend. Let's celebrate that. Let's celebrate how much fun the races were,

all the campers and everybody having fun, and just keep doing that for a couple more years before we really go doublehead or somewhere else. Next question from Zach Albright. What's your take on the current shuffling of Cup Charters that is happening? Yeah, the Cup Charter conversation is crazy. We learn something wild. We hear a new rumor every week.

colleague hearing they spent 10 million dollars a piece on each of those charters. Don't know if that's true or not. You're hearing that now I thought that the charter market was around 5 million, 7 million. Now you're hearing it's north of 10 million for a charter. You don't know what to believe.

But that's way out of my range, buddy. I'll tell you that. Junior Motors ain't going to be racing a no cup series. If that's what the charters are going for, I'll just be honest. With that said, man, that's a great thing. The fact that the charters are going up in Just as we speak, that is exactly what they intended.

I mean, if you're an owner in this sport 10 years ago, if you wanted to sell your team, you had nothing to sell. But parts and cars and pieces that are going to be sold for pennies on the dollar. That was it. When you got out, you really took a loss. Kind of like buying and selling boats. Anyways, that's another story. What is that about? Well, I've never had a boat appreciate, and I've never been able to sell one.

for what I paid for it. And that's the way race teams are, and racing equipment is the same way. You know, when these teams fold or sell, they auction this stuff off and people get it for, you know, a tenth or 20% of what it was worth. So now, if you're an owner and you have a charter, you got real value. You got something that people want and something people are willing to pay for. That's, you know, if you're selling a charter, you're making, and you're selling it for 10 million, that's 10 million dollars that you weren't going to get when you sold your team

five years ago. So that's amazing that they've somehow created this charter system and it works. So as bad as I want two charters for junior motor sports to go cup racing, I love the idea that these things are expensive and they're going up. And that's a good thing for all of us. That's a good thing for the whole industry. Next question from Bob Turbuko. I have this memory stuck in my head of your dad breaking a camshaft very early in a race and then seeing him actually tearing it down on TV, turning wrenches and getting it fixed and getting back in the car before the end of the race for points.

Am I imagining it? Charlotte. Charlotte Merse Speedway. They were into points battle. I think that year they might have lost that championship to Rusty. But they broke an engine in the middle of the 600, and they typically, I mean, if teams broke motors, they loaded it up.

You blow the motor. There's too much damage internally, and it's just going to break again. But in this particular instance, it was early in the race, and they thought, let's fix it. Let's figure out how, let's tear it apart as fast as we can and get it back out there. And I think they did.

I think the car got back out there and finished the race. Fortunately enough, the cam broke and didn't do too much damage to the rest of the engine, and they were able to get it going. Next question from Ryan Jones. How was the Lost Speedway's premiere party last week? It looked like a fun time. Oh, man.

The Lost Speedways season two comes out July the 1st on Peacock TV. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, but I think it's in front of the paywall. Am I right? You just sign up? I don't actually know the answer to that. That's a great question. Well, I know season one, you just signed up and created an account on Peacock TV, and you had access to season one, and then you could browse and see everything else that

Peacock TV has to offer. It's a fast-growing platform that NBC is using. You know, that's where you're going to be able to watch. Lost Speedway Season 2. Lost Speedway Season 2, season 1 was great. We got a lot of success out of that season. We got a great reaction. We learned a lot.

And so I think when you watch season 2, you're going to see how much better we got. You're going to see better directing. You're going to see better photography. You're going to see better editing, sound, the storytelling. I think even me and Matthew might have got a little better. The episodes to me are just more robust

and they have more meat on the bone. So I'm excited for people to watch several of those episodes and get y'all's reaction. There's some great ones, man. I learned so much in season two. We went into season one, and I think I knew a lot about most of what we were doing and going to find and see an experience. In season two, I went into a lot of these not knowing as much, and it was a great experience for me to have that education,

and I hope that the shows do that for you guys. All right, one more question. This one's actually from Jenna Fryer, who wrote an awesome article about Lost Speedway Season 2 and was out the premier party. She says, actually, I have a question. How many T-shirts does Dale Jr. own? I saw that. So I got a big, I got one Tupperware that's full. And those are too small or shirts Amy won't wear.

I went on this spree where I was buying any size. If I liked it and wanted the shirt, I bought any size to keep, right, put-away store. Maybe my daughters are like them or wear them or want them. them discover them one day in the storage. Bought a lot of shirts for Amy thinking she might like them. Some she did. Some she didn't. She wears a couple, but the rest went into storage. And then I have a rack of my own that I actively wear. So on that rack, maybe there's about 150 shirts. So I got about 300 shirts, maybe. That's a lot. I've been going, I mean, I still, I look on eBay every two, three days, just browsing, skimming through. And there's some people. And there's some people

people out there selling, you know, there's some people out there that sell them and buy them and go and kind of their like pickers for like T-shirts and keep up with those guys and see what they got. Brent, Brent Wince, he's always getting cool stuff. And if he'd just reach out to me, I'd pay him for it right then and there, but he'll post it and list it and it'll be gone before I ever learned that he's got it. It ticks me off because I'm a good customer of his. All right, that's all for today, guys. Well, that brings us to an end of Asr Jr. It always seems to end way too quickly.

That's true. It always does seem to go quickly, but not nearly as fast as Xfinity X-Fi. Well, X-Fi is fast, but it's more than that. It's also reliable and powerful, meaning that everyone can do more of what they love with faster Internet. You and your crew can stay connected with Wi-Fi coverage that delivers the speed your devices need. And remember, send your Asked Junior questions to At Xfinity Racing, on Twitter. Thanks to Xfinity,

proud Premier partner of NASCAR. All right, everybody. Dale had to run out. He had to go. He had to leave. Couldn't wait to the end of the show. So we're going to do last call. Me and Matthew Dillner,

tell you what's going on this week. First of all, Lost Speedways Premier. We had this. What a fun event it was last week. Did you enjoy it, Matthew? Oh, man, it was more than I could even imagine. Yeah. It was like being in a fantasy world.

A red carpet. Yeah, I had a red carpet. It made a big deal. Hey, we're a big deal now. Yeah, we know. Race car drivers there, historians. Now if we could just get people to watch it, we'll be real good. So it happens this week, July 1st, and it is on Peacock.

And listen to everybody, I'm telling you something. I wouldn't lead you wrong. If you have not watched Lost Speedways, season one, you needed to do that. And then know that season two is better. We feel good about this. It's what we do. And by the way, it doesn't have a season three unless you guys watch it and watch it again. So if you want a season three, you want a season.

three, if you want us to continue doing this show, then it really is in your hands. We're leaving it to you. Everything we could do, Matthew, we've done it. It's now up to our fans. Don't let us down. Yeah. July 1st, Peacock. No pressure. Yeah, all episodes will be streaming. And then let us know what you think. Let Matthew know. We'll probably have a little fun. You know, last year, Matthew, you and I did a YouTube live and, you know, talked about it. Maybe we'd do something like that again. I like it. It was fun. Let's see here. Door bumper clear. Door bumper clear. What did they say this week? I mean, they're always talking crap to us. Did they do it again? Let's just, let's hear. All right, go ahead and play. Hey, Del Jr. Download listeners, this is T.J. Majors. Are you tired of hearing my former boat partners blab on and on? Well, I know just what you need to do.

Come listen to our show. Like right now, why are you still listening to this? Come listen to Doorbumper Clear now. This is Freddie Craft and there's a ton to cover after the Pocono doublehead. That's right, old Frederick. Brett Griffin here. And this week, we will talk Kyle Larson losing in the final corner. Sunday's fuel miles finished and Brad Keselowski to Rouse Fenway Racing reported as being a done deal. Listen to door bumper clear right now, available wherever you get your podcast. Promise not to screw you on a boat deal. Hey, listen, I can't really blame TJ.

I'm as mad as he is about the boat situation. I don't believe him. So, you know, I won't disagree than that. But if he's going to try to get listeners out of his misfortunes and, you know, let's not grovel. let's not be that. You know, earn them. Earn them, buddy. But listen, in all seriousness,

I love door bumper clear. And Matthew, do you? Do you love door bumper clear? I love door bumper clear. You know, when you get through, T.J.'s whining. Yeah. All of them. They're all whiners.

I mean, look, that's what they are. But that's... He's still mad at me. T.J.'s mad at you? He's mad at me because there's a Dick Pit, Dick Trickle, pit sign here. And the first picture we took when it was in the studio, his head happened to be in front of the,

the top word, not the pit word. So he thought it was on purpose that I did it. And he still thinks it's on purpose. I thought it was on purpose. I'm not that smart. I don't know. I still think it was on purpose. I wouldn't take credit for it.

Like, yeah, that would be creative way of doing a T.J. Got to be honest. Anyways, door bumper clear. And see, the Dale Jeter downloads on TV. You know what is it on TV? Door bumper clear. Oh. I don't know if anybody knows that.

Burn. Dale Jr. downloads on TV. It's on NBC Sports Network. Although it will be on a different time this week. It is at 7 p.m. Eastern on NBC Sports Network. Clint Boyard interview. So that was a lot of fun. So anyways, yeah, that's going to be on NBC Sports Network.

What else? Is there anything else we want to talk about? Hey, Dale's not here. We could talk about him. You know, on last call. Did you see what that guy was wearing today? I can't because he wears all the vintage t-shirts. You know.

We can't get him there. What can we get him on? I don't know. I mean, like, we got this opportunity. We can talk about him. And he's not here. I mean, I did include the beer thing last week that, you know, I think we'd get along better with a beer. Maybe it's just my way of trying to drink more beer.

I got you. Well, I tell you what, I appreciate everybody to listen to this. We're not going to talk about the guy behind it. We'll do it not on the podcast. Matthew, let's go somewhere and talk about it. But in the meantime, thanks everybody for listening to this show. Dale Jr. Download. We'll be back next week.

I hope you're here. Take care. This bit of bad assery was made. by Dirtymoe media. Dirtymoe.