The Dale Jr. Download - 373 - Austin Cindric: Opportunity Knocks

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

He's only 23-years old, but Austin Cindric is already a Daytona 500 Champion and an accomplished racecar driver. Today, he sits at the big table with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Davis so the world can learn more about the young-man beyond the flashbulbs and trophies.At first glance, his life seems like an arranged marriage. The son of Tim Cindric, the president of Team Penske, driving in NASCAR"s top series in the famed Penske No. 2 car. There are some that feel Cindric had a path forged in gold before his feet. What most don't realize is that his parents didn't even want him to race a car. Most also don't realize how hard the Mooresville, N.C., driver has worked to make the most out of every opportunity he has gotten. Oh, and about those opportunities... he's made the most of them.From sportscar racing, Global Rallycross to NASCAR and in between, Cindric hasn't been average. In his rookie of the year attempt in NASCAR's Truck Series he put the bumper to a competitor at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to get into the series' playoffs. Austin admits to Dale and Mike that it was a move that drew a lot of criticism and he shares how he learned from the experienceNext was his big shot in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The opportunity was something he admits he wasn't exactly ready for. The first year came with its challenges, hopping between three different rides. One of which, through their struggles, taught him another valuable lesson in his young racing career. Getting the nod to fill the seat of the Team Penske No. 22 ride was no surprise, based off of his pathway into NASCAR and his family dynamic. He took the opportunity and ran with it. Soon, Cindric developed himself from a road course threat to a winning racecar. In 2020 he won the finale at Phoenix and stuck his flag into the ground as a Champion in NASCAR's Xfinity Series.The next season, the winning ways continued, but a championship did not. With the knowledge he was already moving up to the Cup Series in 2022, Austin wanted to go out on top. A last lap move by Daniel Hemric stole that from him. In post race interviews, he handled it with the poise of a racer well-beyond his years. Dale and Mike discuss the approach with Austin.There's much more to Cindric than meets the eye. First off, his size. He's a tall racecar driver which is uncommon. He also plays the tuba. Yes, the tuba. Everyone talks about his racing lineage on his father's side, but did you know his mother's side has roots in Sprint Car racing and are winners of the Indianapolis 500?Open SegmentBefore Cindric entered the studio, Dale and Mike decided to grab JR Motorsports Xfinity driver Justin Allgaier and pull him into the Bojangles Studio for a quick chat. The driver of the Brandt #7 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series recently tested his car and a Chevy wheel-force car at the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. As we go into this race with so many unknowns, Allgaier shares details on his first hand experience at speed and going backwards at the tricky Georgia speedplant.Dale Jr. also shares an unusual story about how he once had a beer with George Strait in Key West.AskJrHannah Newhouse brings a bunch of great questions from the fans on social media and DIrty Mo Media's live Youtube Stream. Topics covered: DJD's new TV home on Peacock. DEI's number choices. Dale Jr's Super Late Model regret Carson Kvapil's 30k pay-day Time for a racecar speedometer? and a conversation that somehow includes Bryan Adams, Aerosmith and Trevor Bayne. 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.

You know what? I've got a fun little open for you guys to put you in a good mood. We haven't done this in, like, a long time. For, for, for, for, for, for, for. So this is a good thing. For, you know, for, you know, for the for, you know, for the, for, for the, for, for. So this is a good thing. For, you know, for the dirty mo media brand.

Wow. What a pile of grit. So this is a good thing, right? So, we're rolling with it. Damn. Smooth. Butter. Smooth.

Smooth. Smooth. One of the greatest examples of this is... No love. Greatest examples of this. And I've ran around. Oh, that he. You know, for us and...

But really? No luck. You know, for us and... But really? For the... I remember back, you know, if you guys... I remember back, I'm 45. My first sort of...

What lit the fire, I guess. I'm 45. for the, for us. What lit the fire, I guess, to create a show. Mystery, right? And then it became smooth. Mystery. So I'm like, I'm gonna die.

Smooth. Mystery. Like, I'm not willing to die on that hill, but I'll fight on it for a while. So I'm like, I'm gonna die. Oh, shit, this sucks. So I'm like, I'm gonna die. Man, it's a shame we don't have an open. Oh, man.

pretty good. I missed that. That was good. It's been a while since we've been goofy. A little Bismarkey flare. Did I detect that? Dude, is that what that was? A little biz marquee flare?

It's going to be stuck in your head all day. Yeah. Rest and peace. Well, welcome to the Dale Jr. Download. I'm Dale Jr. Mike Davis, my co-host, Matthew Dillner with the amazing intro. And we got Newhouse back.

Newhouse came back. Two weeks in a row. I know. We're lucky. Yeah. I appreciate it. It is good to have you back. It is.

The plan was never. to start you on the download this year and then go immediately the door bumper clear to fill in. That was never the plan. You did it. I appreciate it but it was never the plan. Yeah, we're really confused. Am I allowed to like invoice for the frequent driver miles back and forth a dirty mow now

too? Why should just move in the door bumper clear studio, you know? Yeah. Well, listen, it's not that far away. I know, it's not that far. Well, we're glad. We're glad she's here. Ah, thanks. We got a great show for you. We have Austin Cendrick is the guest today. Austin and his crew obviously won the Daytona 500. He is an established racer but has a pretty unique past and the way he came up through and his connection to the team he races for

is a unique one. We're going to dive into it and I'm looking forward to talking to him and finding out what's behind the exterior, right? The exterior, if I may say, seems to be a hard shell to crack. Would you say that? Is it fair to say that? We've never tried. We're going to swing. We're going to find out. We're going to see. So I'm looking forward to that.

I think he's a good dude. But we're excited to welcome Austin into the Bojangles studio here in a bit. Before we bring in Austin, who I think can tell us a little bit about what to expect this weekend in Atlanta. I thought we might talk to a guy who's actually here in the building. I think he's in the building. Justin Algeyer has tested the Xfinity car and the Cup car, the Wheel Force car, at Atlanta. Yeah, the reconfigured Atlanta. All right. This is, we've had a home run start to the season.

A lot of energy, great vibes. Sports really on this big upswing, everybody's pumped. New cars fun. Guys are, you know, guys are racing well. The product is good. All right, now we're going to the reconfigured racetrack. Now, and you'll remember when they announced the reconfiguration. A lot of drivers weren't real excited. Because they weren't consulted. Nope, they weren't brought in. Their hands weren't held.

I know. And they didn't get to have some sort of influence in. And so they were upset narrowing up the track. Why are you doing that? And anyways, we've now got a, you know, got the reconfiguration done. They've had to make a few adjustments to that, which we could ask Austin or, or Justin about. But I'm curious, you know, hey, man, this is, we started. the season so strong, this is a big question mark. What are we going to get this weekend?

Could this be our first dud? Or is it going to be like Daytona Talladega? You know, pack racing? What can we expect? So I thought we'd see if Justin could come tell us. Let's see. Is he here? Yeah, I actually was talking to him yesterday. He was at the beer toast yesterday. And he said he was going to be in this morning. I'll text him. I know the door bumper clear guys had him on, but I'm sure they didn't ask him really good questions. No, definitely not. You know those guys. sure of it. There he is. All right, go ahead and sing your song.

What song you want me to sing? Whatever you came to audition with. You don't want me to sing. Freebird? You want to do Freebird? No. So, Justin, just real quick, man, I wanted to talk to you about Atlanta. We got, you know, kind of an unknown for a lot of us coming up this weekend, but you've

been there and you tested in the Xfinity car and in the cup car. and you know the drivers all most of the cup drivers weren't super thrilled about the idea of reconfiguring the race track they didn't narrow it up like 15 feet it's still about the same width as charlotte when you go around the racetrack does it feel narrow um i wouldn't say that it feels narrow that's probably the one thing that i was mostly surprised with when we got there

i felt like i was going to you know be really funneled in and it didn't seem that way the biggest thing that i noticed is the angle of the front straightaway So when we went there and tested the first time for the GoodyR tire test with the Xfinity Series car, the front straightaway angle, none of us had ever really noticed it, right? I mean, I don't know, I guess because the infield was pushed out, it was more noticeable, but you came off a turn four and you were looking at a wall that was coming straight on at you. How did that change? I don't know how it changed.

I don't know if the angle of the approach changed or what, but we noticed it on our day, and then especially the cup guys, Kurt Busch was one of the, them that was really vocal about it because i mean i i think you know everybody talks about as you get older you probably lose your uh you lose your uh reaction time and all that i think you just crashed enough that you lose the ability to want to hit a wall right so kurt was pretty adamant about it we all talked about it the racetrack actually came in and uh the guy that reconfigured it actually came to came to came to us when we went back for the for the Chevrolet test and they took uh you know they went from a 450 foot radius to an 800

foot radius and they moved it in and they did all kinds of things to change the the angle of approach and when I looked at it I was like man that's actually now it's visually not that bad it's pretty appeasing so I think they fixed that part of it didn't make the the front straightaway really any narrower it didn't make it look any different probably the biggest thing now though that that is the unknown for me is because it's a different shape and because it is a little narrower you know we've had what three tests there technically we had our test day with which was trucks and Xfinity. Cup had their open test day or Goodyear test day,

and then we had the manufacturer test day there. Nobody's moved off the bottom. Right. We've all run right around the bottom because it's single car. I mean, you go to Dayton and Talladega. You're not going to drive around the top if you don't have to, right? There's no reason to drive around up there. So that's my only concern.

And with a new racetrack and new asphalt and a really hard tire, they're going to bring a hard tire. It's really hard. Yeah, they're going to bring a hard tire. They don't want to take any risks. about any tire issues, so they're going to overshoot on that. They always do. And that's understood.

But it tends to make for a really sketchy feel. You'll drive the car, and it'll get faster and faster each lap. You'll get more and more comfortable. The tire feels better and better. But then there's this drop off like a cliff where all of a sudden it just spins out or just kind of starts chattering, but it's really fast. I imagine in the cup car with the low profile and the, you know, the treacherous issues we've seen there in the last. couple of weeks that it's even more sketchy and treacherous, right? So are you noticing that? Yeah, so the Xfinity Series car was interesting because I feel like when we looked at the

speeds that we ran with the, you know, because we have the super speedway engine package. Yes. The aerodynamic package is our standard, you know, normal down for us. Yeah, short spoiler, normal downforce. But then when you add in that super speedway engine package, for us, it seemed really, really slow. I mean, that was, that was. was my first instinct. As soon as we made laughs, I'm like, man, I'm pretty confident I could drive around the apron. And I'm still, I'm still confident of that by ourselves. When I drove the cup car, that was a little bit different for me, because it's not the same as what we have in the

Xfinity series side. It's a little bit faster, a little more power. Aerodynamically, it's a little bit probably less drag than what we have on the Xfinity series side. So even with that big giant spoiler on the back? Yeah, as odd as that sounds, it was a big difference. I, I, I, like a big difference. And so, you know, you were, instead of being able to run the white line kind of all there on a race track, you were actually having to, you know, let the car kind of track out off the corner and do the things that you would normally do on a mile and a half by yourself. I can only imagine what it's going to be like in, you know, the draft.

I don't know that I particularly envision year one, three wide, you know, 10 deep. I just, you know, I think that's the envisionment of what they would like to see long term. and we might get there, but I don't know that we're going to get there right away. But I have a feeling that it's going to be a little sketchier because of the hard tire and because of the fresher pavement than what we thought it was going to be originally. So I'm going, I've got a ticket. I'm going to the Xfinity race. Tell me what kind of racing I might see. Oh, I think in the Xfinity Series race, I think you're going to see a lot of two wide racing.

Are you going to be running down the bottom of the straightaway like you do at Talladega down the back straightaway? By yourself, qualifying for sure, absolutely. No question. Once the race gets started and the speeds pick up, you know, we project a second to a second and a half with a pack of cars, right? We picked up about a second with three of us, so we have to assume that with, you know, multiple cars that we'll pick up about a second and second a half. But I'm interested to see in the race, you know, it's abbreviated practice is still. I mean, we do get a longer practice than what we have been getting, but it's still an abbreviated practice compared to what you and I are used to from, you know, days of old. So I'm very interested to see like, okay, is it like Daytona Tala? Do you have a group waiting to go out there and draft right away and just go out there and figure out there and figure out there and be too wide?

Or are you going to see a bunch of single car runs and everybody runs right around the bottom? You know, that's going to determine, you know, long term what the race looks like. So, I mean, I will give them credit. You know, one of the things that is not normal for a repave, you're going to see a lot of patches. I mean, there's a lot of places on the racetrack. They've gone in and they've patched. and it's not because it's not because of any other reason other than they want to fix it to be perfect. You know, they're trying to go in and any oddities, I guess, in the asphalt or bumps that they found after they paved it.

You know, all these things, they've gone in and they've been trying to fix it and trying to fix it. And so I at least give them credit. They're not, they're willing to try and fix it whenever they've got an issue. But, you know, it doesn't look like a normal repave. It's kind of already worn in a little bit. So with the Xfinity car, you can run around the bottom, holding it wide of them really comfortable. You might need to get a bit of an arc or chase the car up off the bottom just a little bit. In the draft, yeah.

In the draft, when the PICS picks up. With the cup car, you said you definitely need to feed the car out off the bottom a little bit. You can't stay wrapped around the bottom like you would at Daytona or Talladega. Did you ever slip the car in the Xfinity car? Did you ever slip a tire? Never slipped a tire once. I spun the cup car out, actually. How did that happen?

That's a great question. So we were looking at the data, actually, post-test. And, you know, we had done some things to kind of simulate drafting and get those drafting speed. So we were kind of at a projected draft speed versus, you know, by yourself speed. I got to the middle of turn three and four. And I had run, you know, two and a half days. I mean, it's not like we're talking about, like, this is a person on the racetrack.

Yeah. We're driving around, and we were lap five of a 25-lap run. And I went off in a turn three, and about mid-corner, I felt it snap, and I chased it and chased it and chased it all the way until the front straightaway. And I actually thought I was going to miss everything. I didn't hit anything until the front straightway, and I caught the edge of the grass. And we don't know if I caught a sprinkler head or something, but something in the grass that I caught going backwards,

it tore up the wheel force car a little bit. I tore the sensors off the right rear wheel. So I was pretty bummed on that. Obviously, I flattened some tires, but I felt pretty good about not hitting anything because that car is pretty expensive. I mean, the data telemetry that's on that car is pretty incredible. So pretty bummed that I spun it out.

But, I mean, literally, I went from being perfectly stable to backwards before I realized that we went back and looked at the data and they're like, yeah, you know, for two and a half days, we were actually a lot looser than what we thought we were. But from a driver's standpoint, I just thought I was on, like, pretty comfortable and everything felt good. So I think that's the thing with this new next-gen cup car is, especially a place like that where you're, you're not trimmed out, but you're literally maxed out, right, and you're on a hard tire. I think you,

perception of grip is probably a little skewed. So I think that's why you see some of these guys having issues where, you know, we know lower is faster. We, we know, lower is faster. We We know all these things that years have taught us what makes a car go faster on a racetrack. And I think that this week's going to be no different. You're going to find those moments of like, hey, we're going to trim it out. We're going to do all these things to make speed. And then as a driver, your mindset is to go out there and, okay, it's going to have grip. And it does until it doesn't.

And then you're backwards and you've got to figure out how to fix it. What am I to make of running a Super Speedway motor on a intermediate track? I mean, like, there's got to be some variations or differences to that, right? You know, the one thing that I noticed, and this is going to sound really odd, but is desal. Right? So on a super speedway, you're wide open all the way around. You know, deceleration is minimal, right? You take all the...

Oh, yeah, on a super speedway engine. Yeah, you take all the rotating weight out of them and try to just make them run at that certain RPM kind of all the time. So when you do lift off the accelerator or go to half throttle, you're not active. slowing down, right? Like it doesn't, the engine, the engine braking is not there. You go to a short tracker, a mile and a half, and they can actually tune on this. You lift off the accelerator and the car stops really quickly. The gear does that, the trans axle, just the rotating assembly slows you down, but the engine has a lot of engine braking in it. Superstuter engine doesn't have that. So when you go to a place like Atlanta, and you, you know, your concept of, like,

going to half throttle in traffic and being able to desal and work, you, and work, you know, your, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're work the draft, I'm not sure that's going to be there, right? I'm not sure exactly what to expect, you know, in the draft, what that's going to look like. So I'll be very interested to see if somebody missed times something, you know, because you're used to a mile and a half. I mean, it is a mile and a half. The shape of it, your natural instincts go back to, hey, this is normal Atlanta. If you don't time it right, you could potentially run right in the back of a guy. And that sounds really odd. I mean, I think a lot of our race fans look at it and go, well, you're just going to run right in the back of somebody.

But if you're used to doing something the same every day, I mean, if you brush your teeth with a toothbrush every day and the next day somebody puts a hair comb in there and you've got to brush teeth, you're going to look at it like, what do I do with this, you know? That's kind of what we're up against. That's an interesting analogy. Yeah, yeah.

It's the same concept. They look the same. They're just different size. Yeah. So the last thing, I guess, is with the cup car and you're feeling like it's much more right at the edge or you can push that car to the edge. over the limit. No one's going to want to go into the corner on the outside of anybody.

Like on restarts, everybody's going to be trying their hardest to get to the bottom. Wouldn't you assume? I would assume. I'm hopeful because, you know, I think what... At any point during the test, did you see a car in that second groove? I did. And what happened? They spun out. They were not going at full speed, so I don't know. You know, that was one of the other manufacturers, they do kind of a weird sequence, right, and they run the whole racetrack at a reduced speed, right? Whatever they got a fixed speed.

They must be mapping it or something. Probably, yeah. And so, you know, you see that, and you watch the cug around there, and you're like, well, you can only judge speed, right? So I'm going to say, okay, they're going 150, right? At 150 it stuck. But what's the limit, right?

Is 155 the number and it doesn't stick? Is it 175? Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the things that we saw. You know, I think everybody kind of tried some different stuff at Atlanta based on, you know, we know what the package is now. But I know one of the other manufacturers went to a full mile and a half package and ran around there. The mid-corner speed was pretty incredible. I mean, you know, I was a firm believer we could go to Atlanta with a normal package, everything would be fine, right?

No need to go super speedier package. Then you see the mid-corner speed and you're like... What was it? We were told it was over 180 Mid-corner speed, which is... That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, that's ludicrous speed. That's fast.

Anybody get the reference? Yeah. Luda. That wasn't what you were trying to get to. Oh. Luda. I thought we were going to wrap here for a minute. So what's mid-corner speed with this package that you tested?

It's in the 170s. I mean, you're still in the 170s, you know, mid-corner speed. So, I mean, it's still really fast. I mean, I know that's one of the complaints, right? A lot of our fans have kind of complained about the speed of this car. And it's not, this car may not be as fast at the end of the straightaway, but it's flying through the corner. Like, I think people don't necessarily give that as much credit.

I mean, we both crashed at high rates of speed, right? But typically, like, 160 has been like a good mid-corner, desal speed. Yeah. I never mind. I never mind. That's a great comment. I never minded much how fast I was going at the end of the straightaway. It was always the center of the corner that bothered me the most.

Because if you keep on bumping that speed up in the middle of the corner with down force and when you take power out of the car, you can actually go through the center of the corner faster. And you have a problem, things get pretty serious in a hurry. Yeah. I mean, you look at Ross Chastain at California. Yeah. I mean, he didn't even know what he was going to have happened. I mean, like he got down to the bottom and thought he was good.

And they, boom. And, you know, they didn't even look like you weren't sitting there watching that going, man, they're flying through the middle corner. Oh, somebody has a problem. They look normal until he was out of control. And then you're like, holy cow. Right. That was a hard hit. Right.

And that car doesn't seem to absorb. The hits seem very brutal. They seem different. Yeah. You know, but when you look at the structure of the car, I mean, it's a lot different than what the old series car was. And more like what our Xfinity series car is now, like, you know, the old series car was. like basically the same as our car. Yeah.

And you look at the front suspension and you look under the hood and you're like, man, one of these is not like the other, right? I mean, it's a big difference. Oh, yeah. And I think that, you know, this car for whatever reason, you know, especially with what we're able to do to them like as far as suspension, the independent rear. I mean, all these things are new and everybody's kind of learning them.

But we're faster already than I thought we would be at the end of the year. Yeah. Like I thought the speeds we're running right now and the racing we're seeing right now was going to take all. year to get there. I did too. When they were testing at Charlotte in the winter,

the sky was falling. You know, couldn't make a lap. Cars drive terrible. Don't know what we're going to do. I thought we were going to get a few guys retiring after the Charlotte test. Like, I mean, I really thought that. They've made leaps and bounds of, as far as, you know, comfort and grip.

There's still a long way to go. Still a long way to go, but the racing has been way better than I think anybody anticipated to start with. So, I mean, Yeah, it's been good. Appreciate your stepping in, man. Absolutely. We'd be remiss if we didn't congratulate Justin, actually,

before he leaves on finally making it in his life and his career after your announcement yesterday. Justin's going to be driving a door bumper clear paint scheme at Dover, April 30th, and I want to just congratulate you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You feel special? My Twitter has blown up of people that have pre-ordered the diecast car,

so racingunsa.com, they're doing the diecast car. and it's been wildfire. So I told him yesterday though on the, hey listen, I told him yesterday on the podcast because Brett asked me what I thought about if, you know, having their faces on my car. And I told Mike this yesterday, I said, my only comment was I didn't know if the car would fit in the trailer because their heads were on the front of the car. I didn't know if it would fit in the trailer anymore after we. And that's not an inflated ego. That's because the circumference of their heads is living. literally too big to put on the...

I don't know. They're pretty jacked on being able to do this. So their heads might be a little big this week. Dale's not happy with him because I think they caught him an idiot on Twitter. Yeah. DBC did? They're on the shit left. Well, don't take that on me.

Take that with you man. No, you're complicit. No, you're in. You are. Guilty by association. Well, hey, thanks, buddy. Thank you. I'm excited that you're talking about what's going on with, like, these races, right? Like, this is important, and I think our fans are really going to...

Dude, I know. I'm excited to see what they think. We're going to cut this up, put it on YouTube, and you're going to tell fans what they expect this weekend. I hope I'm not doom and gloom. You're not. I hope I'm realistic. I feel like I'm excited about it.

Yeah. I've been there twice for multiple days, and I still have no idea what to expect. So I think we're going to see, you know, whether you were going to see a comedy or a horror flick, you're excited, you're looking forward to it, right? I'm hoping it's more comedy. I think we're going to see something good. Yeah. we're going to be entertained.

This is going to be a thriller. It'll be a thriller. Action thriller. There you go. I think it'll be an action thriller myself. I can't wait to watch it. Yeah, I'm thrilled. All right, buddy.

Thank you for coming in. Just an Algarh. Stepping into the studio, the Bojangles studio here, the Dale Jr. Download. We won't hold that against him working with the door bumper clear guys.

Or will we? No, no, no, we will not. We need a driver. Somebody's got a drive. I like that was dirty bow media across the side. It looks cool, man. It's not just door. bumper-pum clear, man.

There's a big difference between not holding it against him and really getting excited about it. Oh, yeah. Okay? Yeah. I'm a little excited about it. I'm very excited. That paint scheme looks cool as hell too. It's pretty cool.

Dirty-mo, me, don't do no bang-up paint scheme? Come on. Look at both of them. We've got Ryan Williams up there doing his work. All right, so we've heard from Justin about Atlanta, and we got Austin waiting out there in the studio waiting room. Yeah. See if he wants to come in here and tell us about what he thinks. Atlanta's going to be like.

Daytona 500 winner, rookie of the year candidate, and champion in the Trinity series? He's a rookie of the year candidate. I forgot all about that. Rookie of the Daytona 500. How weird is that? He seems like he's been around for about 10 years.

He's been around a while. Right. Let's go. All right, let's bring him in here. Cendrick is going to bring them to the line way up high to block Ryan Blaney and at the line. Cindrick beats Bubba Wallace by half a carling. Austin Cendrick, the winner of the Daytona 500. Oh, look at this.

Look at this guy. What you got there? Bowling balls? Show and tell. So that's the first guest that's actually brought, well, there's a few pictures here and there, but he looks like he's got some legit stuff in the bag. First one double-fisted. I mean, he came in, yeah, this is interesting.

The problem with that, and I laughed about it with Matt when I talked to him last night, is that it's a podcast, and I'm bringing show-and-tel items. It's like, it was clearly a problem. Yeah, you'll be the first TV show. the year on Peacock and later, I mean, they'll run it all year, USA. I mean, so do we get to know what's in the bags, or is that for later? I think it's for later. Okay.

Surprises. Well, I'll see what the questions are like first. He may leave with the gift. He may. So, Austin, man, thanks for being here. Yes, sir. Where did you come from? I came from about five minutes down the road in my house.

Yeah. You live close. I live really close. I bought a, I'm not going to tell you. Not exactly. I'm not going to like specifically give you my address, but at least over the air. but no it's literally right across the lake off you know so for me when i bought a house i wanted to be as close as humanly possible to penske racing so where'd you grow up i would consider myself a native of

morseville i've lived here pretty much since i was eight years old um born ohio lived in redding pennsylvania for a while they moved the indycar program down here and i've kind of lived here ever since so did you go to moorsville schools no i went to canaan school in concord which uh funny enough Harrison Burton and I both went to the same school, had the same teachers. But yeah, pretty much second grade all the way from the time I graduated high school. And the moment I graduated high school, I drove to Charlotte and qualified my truck and race that night. So your dad, what's he do?

My dad is the president of Penske Racing. Okay. What was his position when you started racing? President of Penske Racing. He's been the president forever. Since 2005, when they really merged everything. Yeah. Like when you're coming up through the ranks, right now, I mean, you've been driving for Penske for how long? Really, like full time since 2018. How does that work for you in terms of negotiating your contract?

It's short. Yeah. Really short. No, I mean, I don't think that's really ever been a focus of mine. You know, I guess. Does he say, hey, man, this is the deal? So, this is the plan? He has made a point of being as far away from my racing career. under the shop, under the roof of Penske Racing, as far away from our racing career as possible. Right. And so a lot of any of those conversations, I'm not going to go to him. It's usually Mike Nelson, Travis Geisler, like those are the guys I go to. If I need something, one something, have a question, have a problem who are going to discipline me if I've created a problem. Does that happen?

Not often. It's happened before, though? Not really, honestly. You're all right. I try and stay above. I try and stay above the line. So going back to his question, though. So when you, so you've done one contract, how many contracts have you done at Penske?

Probably two. Two. Was there a negotiation involved? Do you have an agent? Well, I think what made at least me easy, obviously it's a little bit more in house as far as the trust process. But there was kind of already a process in place with Ryan Blaney. And so I pretty much followed in the footsteps of what their process was like with him. and his development and, you know, kind of what they did for, you know,

I think the only difference between the two of us is that I had the opportunity to run full-time and he didn't with just with the way the rules worked in Xfinity. Yeah. So other than that, I pretty much was, you know, the concrete copy. What does the contract say for Daytona 500 wins? There's good things. A bonus? Good things.

Okay, good. Says good things. Making the playoffs says good things. How old are you? I'm 23. Would you say that you're in, full control of your finances and everything going on in your life? If you would have asked me the same question two months ago, I would have said yes.

If you would have gone to my house on the Saturday of the LA Coliseum when the power was off because I didn't pay my electric bill. Shut up. And I had to call my mom and ask her why my security system was telling me my power was off. I got the same security alert this morning. Different reasons probably, but maybe I don't know. Maybe he didn't pay his power bill either. When it says 2% of the people in your area are experiencing the,

issue it's probably just a you issue so uh yeah pay your pay your electric bill and power stays on shocking so you're so you're paying your bills when you're paying them yes but uh all right that's pretty cool you know when you're young did you have i guess the first question is is like when was this when did you have that moment where you were like oh racing cool that's neat i can't say there's probably and you can't really relate to this but i don't think there was ever a moment where I didn't think racing was cool, and like racing wasn't relevant in my life. Right. I mean, there's a picture of me from, you know, Aalio went in his first Indy 500, and I'm, you know, three or four years old.

Apparently, I almost knocked over the Borgorner Trophy that same day. I'm just running around. But, yeah, I've never known anything but racing. So for me to, like, pursue a career, have a passion in it, I feel like is fairly normal. But I would say the moment that I wanted to be a driver, I kind of kept to myself for a while about that. I mean, I played with the Hot Wheels, played with the hot wheels, played with cars went to races, you know, every summer. But I walked in my parents' bedroom when I was nine years old. And I looked, and it's kind of a weird way to put it. And I have no idea why I did.

But I said, I want to have a life-changing discussion. My parents are like, at nine years old? Yeah, nine years old. And my parents are like, what is this? And I'm like, oh, I want to be a race car driver. Like, I've always wanted to be one. Like, I want to try it. And my dad's like, instantly, he's like, you're going to be too tall. I'm like, what? What about Michael Waltrip? What? What about Justin Wilson? I hit him back with us too, and he's like, okay, he stumped him for a little bit. And we kind of talked about it, and I kind of left the room thinking it probably wasn't going to happen. Or, you know, he's obviously seen a lot of the sport and knows how challenging it is.

And I think his mission statement is it's always been my idea, definitely not his. But before my 10th birthday, we went to the summer shootout and hung around Mike Wallace. And, you know, his kid was racing Bandoleros. And that was the first time I'd honest. I'd never been to a go-kart race or anything. It was the first time I'd seen kids my age driving race cars. I was like, oh, I can do this. Like, come here, dad.

Like, this guy's my age. This guy's younger than me. Yeah. I can do this. And for my 10th birthday, I got to test to Banderler at the 5th mile. And which was probably, my racing career is probably mostly in thanks to Ken Reagan. Ken Reagan. Because I think he convinced my dad that it was an okay idea.

Because he was there. Yep, he was running 600 racing US Legends at the time. And he was around for my first. first laps in a race car and probably primarily responsible. By the way, if your dad's literal excuse was you're too tall, I think he always wanted you to be a race car driver. If that's what he came armed with, that was it. I think he was...

I think that means he never wanted me to be a race car driver. Really? Oh, yeah. I don't think so. He would much rather me be playing basketball or doing something else. I can promise you that. I'll be the president at something. Well, maybe he still will be.

I mean, you know, race car drivers eventually. Is that... Did you ever... prior to be anything else? Like did you ever, because did you play sports in high school? I ran cross-country middle school, but at that time I was already racing. But I actually played the tuba. Oh, as one would. As one would. Through middle school and all the way through high school. And I was actually good at it. And I'm not afraid to admit that.

When's the last time you played the tuba? Probably in high school. I mean, I feel like I could still play it right now if I had the chance. Matthew, bring it out. You got one for you. Yeah, of course. It's tuned up. Is it one in the bag? No, no. There's not a tuba in the bag. No, so.

Were you thinking professional tuba player? Well, my band teacher would always preach that tuba scholarships, like colleges love tuba players. And my mom's family is like die hard Ohio State people. That's the tuba player at Ohio State's like better than the football players, right? Well, I don't know. Am I supposed to answer that? Is that like a rivalry question? No, I'm just saying.

The tuba player is the one that dots the eye. Dots the eye. So my dream as a kid was to dot the eye in the Ohio State marching band. You know what we're talking about? Yes, I do. Okay. So if there's ever a day that that could happen, that would be massive. Oh, yeah.

But until then, I haven't picked up a tube in a little while. But I actually like jazz music, like playing jazz music. I was in the jazz band. Come on. No shame. Come on. I wouldn't have any shame either if I could do that. I loved it.

Yeah. That's pretty interesting. Yeah. So you had a band? No, it was a school band. So the school had a jazz band? Oh, yeah. I got a text from my band teacher after went in the Daytona 500, and I didn't know he had my number.

But he texted me, and it was funny. We were texting back and forth, and I was like, hey, man, I woke up in the morning and listened to some Lester Young before the race, and he was pumped. Like, he was sold. So it was pretty cool. Are there pictures of you in a band uniform? No, but there is plenty of video of me getting up and doing solos in the middle of band concert. Well, that's cool. Hey, listen. Yeah. Is this common knowledge? Amy's, like, Amy's got a cousin that plays the sax, and it's pretty awesome. See, that's

cooler than playing the tuba. Well, I just, you know, he's in college now. Okay. And so, we're starting to see these videos on his Instagram and stuff of him playing. And it's, I'm like, dang, I remember when, I mean, I remember this guy 10 years ago who didn't play. He just, I've watched him learn how to play. And, uh, and he's great. So, so, I mean, Yeah, I'd love to see some videos. I do too. Yeah, I can't imagine. I think they're back there looking some stuff up.

They're seeing what's on the internet right now, just trying to figure it out. There's something somewhere. Christmas and Davidson, me and my buddy, he played the drums, and I played the tuba, obviously, and we did the Christmas song, the chest notes resting on an open fire song, and it was killer. Like, I nailed it. It was awesome. That one's somewhere on the internet, but I'll be really impressed if you find it. When you started racing, did you?

you have a specific destination? Like were you IndyCar open wheel? Were you stock cars from the get-go? You didn't care, didn't know? I don't think I had a specific destination. I mean, my childhood really revolved around IndyCar racing. You know, my, you know, I hadn't missed an Indy-500 until the one got rescheduled because of COVID and we were in Dover. And last year, I pretty much accepted that was my last ND500 I'll see in person until I'm out of a job or on the grid. So from that standpoint, IndyCar is like really really. been everything, even kind of my idols in the sport, whether if that's your Rick Mears, your L. O'Elau, Castro Neves. And my first number of racing was 77 because of Sam Horace

Jr. And he was like the only guy that I really like knew and followed really well when I started racing that was in NASCAR. Obviously, Bandelares and Legends cars, that's obviously stock car racing circle. And I got exposed to a lot of that after we moved to North Carolina. And so I was 77 all growing up through all my racing because of Sam. From an influence standpoint, I've always looked at it the same way and it's hard enough as it is to make it as a driver and beggars can't be choosy so if you've got an opportunity to do one thing or the other go do it you know some people don't have that chance and some people are you know strictly passionate about one thing right but for me i've just loved driving and the more different things i get in the more different cars i drive the more

i want to drive more you know different types of stuff and i have had less of that in probably the last five years just from, you know, having a focus primarily in the stock car stuff. But, yeah, it's something that I've really loved and I feel like that's something that's made me probably different compared to a lot of younger drivers in my career. Yeah, your path is kind of unique. Wasn't it a couple years back you were racing sports cars primarily, right? I guess, like you say, you know, whatever opportunities are in front of you, you're like, I'm going to get in, whatever I can get in, right? And that just led you uniquely to stock cars. Yeah, so at the end of 2016, I had really great opportunities to go full-time racing in sports cars. And that's kind of an

opportunity that I've been working for, you know, probably for the last two or three years leading up to that. And in sports cars, really, really the path is to either, A, you know, find a good am that you can go race with and go be successful with. I think, I think Andy Lally's a perfect example of that. And he's someone who's made a really great career, or you can be a manufacturer-backed driver and that's that's like your goal as a young driver in sports car racing and you know i've done a lot of racing with ford you know at the time i'd i'd been racing with with claren in gt3 cars you know i went to spain to do a test with them like you know did a did a test with lexas at the end of the at the end at the end of the year and in trying to figure out what that roads looks like and by

the time 2017 rolls around i have the opportunity to either go full-time racing manufacturer-backed sports car route or go race full-time in NASCAR truck series for BKR. And that's like the world's at your oyster. Like the world's your oyster there. Like you can't ask for anything else. And I would say that was the hardest, the easiest hard decision I've ever had to try and figure out what to do. But I think a career in NASCAR and the opportunity to make a career in NASCAR does not

come more than once. There's very few times guys get a second chance. Did you think that if the truck deal with Brad didn't end up working out, the effort and the work you'd put in at sports cars would maybe be there. I felt like a young driver in NASCAR, I think at the time I was probably, what, 18? A young driver, yeah, I had to be a race truck. So I was 18. A young driver in NASCAR is not much older than 18.

And a young driver in sports car racing is probably still in his 20s. So just from a number standpoint, yes, I felt like not that it was a fallback by any means, but I felt like I had the chance to continue one if the other didn't work. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So you get into the truck. Did you go test it? I mean, I got to ask you, man. So racing stock cars, they are hard to drive.

They don't do everything you want them to do. They damn sure don't drive like a sports car. They don't stop. They don't turn. They don't, you know, they'll lose grip instantaneously for no damn reason. You get in behind the wheel of a truck. First off, I guess, what experience? were you leaning on that helped you?

In 2015, I did an arc a race at Iowa. It was the first time ever in a stock car. To this day, I've still never driven a late model, never even sat in one, which is kind of weird. Looking at my competitors, but did a couple one-off arc races that went fairly well. I was in really good equipment. Did some K&N races in 2016.

I won both of those. Did some more truck races. My first truck race opportunity actually came because Austin Tario had that injury at Vegas. Vegas and they needed someone to drive at Martinsville. And it was Brad's idea to put me in, after I done those two Archer races, put me in a Martinsville, which I was in way over my head. Markville's a tough one.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd never said, it was Wednesday before the race, and I'd still, I'd sat in the truck. I didn't know anything, never even seen Martinsville. And my first lap out on track, I already got the middle finger from Matt Crafton. So it was kind of trial by fire, but it actually went pretty well and got up inside of the top five and got dumped at the end of the race and whatever else. But from there, it was just a bunch of part-time stuff.

and my first full season in the stock car was my first full season in trucks. Yeah. And that's on TV. Everybody has seen every good and bad day I've had in a stock car. Yeah. Yeah. So you had a little bit of time in different cars, arc of cars, trucks and so forth. I guess what about stock cars was so interesting to you?

I mean, I still feel like that, you know, you, you know, EMSA and sports cars has kind of got their hooks in you. you, what was it that wanted you to go drive in NASCAR? Why did you want to go that route? I feel like there's great opportunities, you know, between you have the manufacturer backing that sports car racing has, but you also have the corporate sponsorship. And, you know, when it comes on how to make it as a race car driver, you need someone to back you. And there's a lot of backing in NASCAR. And from that simple standpoint, it's certainly an attraction.

But even from the Rallycross side of things, you know, there was a time that where that a career I was pursuing and had a really good shot to make that work. But for me, I think that's made racing in NASCAR so fun, enjoyable, and has benefited me in other forms of racing that I've gone back to is I've become a significantly better racer compared to just driving. I could always do a lap. I could always put a lap together. And right now that's where I'm at cup racing. I've got great Saturdays. Sundays haven't been so good. But I've always been able to put the laps together, just not the races.

And I've become so much better of a racer since I've gotten into stock cars because you spend the entire time racing. Like you don't race one guy, pass them and leave him. You're stuck with them. And whether if that's from a social standpoint or just from a mentality standpoint, you know, when I've gone back and driven these other things, I feel like I'm five steps ahead. and that's been really exciting to kind of see that play out like two or three years down the line racing stock cars come back and do some stuff in IMSA and I'm you know put on the guy's doors and

side drafting people back and things that they're not really even used to like close proximity racing and it's it's been a lot of fun to be able to apply that stuff when I watched you in the Xfinity car when you first came when you first kind of got stable in the Xfinity series and was running that car full time you came a long way in like two years there was a you know, I mean, and this ain't a knock. I mean, Jeff Gordon did it. Jeff Gordon, I think, bent 24 ball joints in his rookie year. I don't know how.

It's a big number. But a lot of rear clips, a lot of front clips, we all kind of have to go through that. And I was, you know, some don't fix it. Some don't figure it out. You know, your race craft, you got better. You figured it out. Was there, I guess, was there a point in that first year of Xfinity when things were tough, when it was hard for you to understand how to finish race?

races and why can't I well what happened there why was that my fault you know all the frustrations that you have when things don't go your way how are you dealing with that I guess because it was watching it from the booth I was like you know you obviously had the pace like you say you could put the laps together but the racecraft was was something you really had to work on yeah I think the racecraft as well as like the way thing changed and why you know with racetracks rubber build run in different lines. You know, I've had to turn a lot of those weaknesses into strengths, and those were just things I wasn't exposed to,

something like running the fence. Like, when will I ever run the fence racing around Road America? Right. Or Daytona for the, you know, Rolex. Like, that's never going to happen. Not even in a rally cross car, you're going to, you know, put two inches off the wall at 190 miles an hour. And things like that.

And even the way race tracks change, you know, usually you go to like a street course like St. Pete, and you continuously put rubber down throughout the weekend. and the track gets faster. Whereas like the fastest a NASCAR track will probably be is like when the track's green and has no rubber on it. And conceptually that is like so far off of what I know is correct. Yeah.

And understanding why that is. And the more I've been able to arm myself with that and understand why things are, you know, I think people get confidence from different areas. I'll pick on Tyler because he's my friend. But Tyler Reddick is like the king of blind confidence. Like he will go in there because he knows he can do it and like just accept it and deal with it later. Yeah.

Whereas I have, like, I get confidence from knowledge. Like, the more I arm myself with knowledge, whether that's through preparation or experience or whatever else, like, I will be able to do it and do it over and over again. And that's where I get confidence from. And sometimes that's the people around you. Sometimes that's what you do. And sometimes you just have to go live it. And there are days you're just going to have to, you know, bomb it off in there and hopes

it sticks and have confidence that you've got to be able to drive out of it. But otherwise, I think understanding that about myself, I think in 2018, I learned a lot about myself. And, you know, from driving a car that was hardly capable of running in the top 10 to the next week you're in a car that should be winning nearly every race. Yeah. And, and there's a lot to focus on and a lot of people want to help. But, you know, I think there's a lot of days that I realized how very unready I was to race Xfinity in 2018. You know, in 2017, BKRA shuts down. And, you know, I've got support from Ford and they've been great supporters of me really early in my career, but there was no Ford truck teams in 2018. And I was kind of the same boat

as me and Briscoe were in the same boat. You don't have the chance to say no to an opportunity in racing. So that was the opportunity. And obviously making the most of it was was the goal in learning the most. And just glad that those that supported me stuck by me. How did that end up happening? I mean, because then you went straight to the Pitsky Exfittanyi car, right? No. No, what happened? Went to rouse. With a rouse car. Yeah. So, 2018, I drove for Rausch and drove two different cars for Penske. So I drove the 60, the 12, and the 22. Okay.

That was difficult from a broadcaster's standpoint. I can imagine. It's best of ones that start now, right? To Mike's point, like, you know, the Roush car performance was not quite where it needed to be. You and Chase had pretty much similar experiences, mostly rough and difficult ones in that car. and literally you're back and forth between driving a great car that can win that you know can win

if everything goes right and then being in this car that's that's not doing everything you want it to do what was that experience like? Are you getting anything? I'm sure you are. What are you getting from driving the car that's struggling?

Obviously, aside from being just only appreciating a good car. Yeah, I think perspective is probably the greatest thing to gain. You know, I think in probably this sport more than any other former motorsport, you give a lot of opportunities where you can look at a guy and say, hey, that guy's doing a great job with what he's got. You don't say that in football.

Like, you know, maybe other than like a quarterback with a bad offensive line. But, you know, and I'm not going to sit here and talk about how bad the car was or the experience or whatever else. Like, it was what it was. And I don't think there's like one single reason why we didn't run well. But it was culture change for me going racing with Rouse because, you know, there's just more of an old school environment. And I think being exposed to kind of a different way of thinking was,

was certainly helpful because I think the more open-minded you can be to different philosophies and such, I think are good in just being exposed to different people. But there is a time where it becomes overwhelming. You know, I was going to Roush and Penske every day. You know, I'd go to Rouse in the mornings and I'd go to Penske in the afternoon. Like, that was my day every day. But I think there's challenges and there's advantages because, you can pick and pull from other things.

But when you get in a situation that, you know, you're not racing where you want to be, you kind of know what these other guys are dealing with. And you appreciate that everyone's literally trying as hard as possible. And a lot of the racing outside of the top 10 is a lot tougher than the racing inside. Like the top five, like you like being the top five. It's a lot safer. You can focus on your car and just some of the small things. When you're outside of the top 10, I mean, you are.

The racing is ruthless. Oh, my God. It's ruthless. And I think to be exposed to that and have to learn what that's like was really good for me because I like I said before, I needed to learn what racing was like. I needed to learn how to be a better racer. And there's a lot of racing that goes on, you know, back in the weeds. What is your dad's role now at this point?

Because where you left off in the story, he didn't want you to be a race car driver when you were 10. Now you are. And you're going back and forth and you're, you know, splitting time at an organization that he runs. So, okay, how involved does he get at this point of your career? Um, not very. Not so he stays hands off. No, he stays hands off. And I think that's always been the way he's looked at it.

Um, you know, I, I'm glad for that because it's given me the opportunity to be my own person and to have the people around me trust that I am my own person. Um, and kind of the more I go further in my career, the more I appreciate that because, um, it's kind of let me develop my own relationships. let me develop who I am and, you know, how to deal with my own problems. Because otherwise, I've been fairly independent, really, since, you know, since I was in senior year in high school. So I say that, and my mom has, like, been there for every step of the way. She's, like, been my rock throughout my racing career, just, you know, whether if it's, you know, driving me home from a bad day or, you know, being my roommate in hotels when, you know,

I couldn't do anything else. And, you know, whether if she's just baking cookies for the guys every single weekend. I mean, it's not lost on me that that was who you called first when your power was out, right? You called your mom. Did you say that? Correct. Okay. What's her name?

Megan. Megan. Megan, okay. Shout out to Megan, right? She's a champ. Here's what I'm curious about, ultimately. And listen, I can ask this question because you've done nothing but back it up, right? You've done nothing but back it up and you've proven how your ability is in a race car.

You're also at a table here with somebody else that has always had that, you know, whether it's a stigma, false, whatever it is, false stigma, false stigma that he's got opportunities because of his name. I'm curious on what your perspective is on that. Up into this point, it sounds like you're going through challenges, you're going through all this stuff, but yet I would imagine at this point as your name starts to become a little bit well known, they know who your dad is. There has to be an instant assumption by just general race fans that you're where you're at because of who your dad is. Is that fair to say? I think that's very fair to say. How do you have to be? How do you have a handle it. I still have a job to do. Um, past that, it's, you know, it's a lot of external stuff. I

think the only times I've worried about it is how, how does it affect the people around me, whether if that's the people working on my race cars or making decisions or, um, you know, those are, those are the things that I need to make sure that everyone knows who I am. Um, but from, from that standpoint, whether if it's race fans or, you know, people or even other drivers, you know, maybe even primarily other drivers, like those are things I can't affect. And the only way to affect it is by performing well and that's the job anyway and that's what I want to do so that kind of goes hand in hand so I say that like it's easy and it's you know some days it's not but I think at this point in my career it's it's it's fairly normal and I think it's you know I'm at

least in a good spot with it the funny thing is though like he would never come to a neck in an Xfinity debrief like even even when there was an Xfinity program like before me wouldn't really ever come to Xfinity Debris but like now he really wasn't going to come to an Finney debrief because he didn't want to be in the room, but now I'm in cup debriefs and kind of has to be there because, you know, he's the president of the company. So it's kind of funny you walk in and he's like, oh, hey, hey, funny seeing you here. Like, it's kind of weird. But that dynamic has been, has certainly been a storyline for my career that, you know, I can't, I can't avoid, but you might as well embrace. Yeah, I've seen, and in certain situations in the past two or

three years, I've seen you and you're measured. Whether, you know, Cendrick pushes you out of the way for that championship or whether you win a race good or a great moment or a difficult, challenging moment. When you get out of the car and your faces in front of the camera, I watch you and you're measured about how you react. Like you're, you're cognizant, you're aware that people are watching you, judging you, ready to judge you, right? I think that that's always sort of in the back of your mind was it was always in the back of my mind, you know, people assume everything. So I know that's got to be something you walk around with every day. I think, I think that's an opportunity to know that when you walk in the room, you will not have the benefit of the doubt. And I think that's been a very,

once I get that in my head, once I got that in my head, it's, it's easy. Honestly, it's easy to deal with because you don't have it, you don't have any expectation of anyone to cut you any slack because, you know, you want, and I'm not saying that from like a sympathy standpoint. That's just how it is. How did you reach that conclusion, though? I hate to be, I figured you guys would be the one to bring this up, but I hate to bring it up. You're bringing it up for the record. I didn't realize the influence, maybe even just like the sport in general, but after I won that race, the truck race in Canada, like I didn't have cell service because we're in Canada. We land in New York to go through customs.

I opened my phone. I just won truck race. We're in the playoffs. Nothing good happened when I turned on my phone. Oh, no. Like, nothing good. Like it was like, oh man, we like got in the rate, like won the playout, like this is good. This has been a good day.

Turn on your phone. It's not good. Not a good day. And I think that was very clear to me, you know, it depends on, you know, the situation. But that was probably something good to happen early in my career to understand, you know, just prospectively where I stand. But that could go either way in terms of, like I say, like when you get out and take your helmet off and people looking at you and you've got to speak, you got to react and how are you going to handle this, that could go either way. And I hate to pick on him, but I think Kyle Bush would

even admit this. Like when he was younger, he went the wrong way, many, many times when the helmet came off, right? When he had this, when his personality, you know, was there for everyone to see, he, he chose the wrong path on several times, you know. And I think I probably did that as well. all right we all we all we all sort of are we put into situations and people want to see how we're going to if we're going to deal with it right and they're going to either go well that's a guy's a or man that's a great way to look at this you know and so i feel like that you you you at least try to you know you can't do this in every situation and i think you you realize that but you you're you work really hard not to come off as a you know some some entitled you know pompous

jerk. You know, it's important because, like you say, you don't get the benefit of the doubt. So you almost have to work extra hard, right, to prove people that you're, you've worked really hard to get here, right? You put in all the effort. You're, like you say, you're a roushing. You're at Penske every single day at that particular point in your career. You still work as hard as you can every single. You know, you put all the effort in more so than most drivers, probably. But so I think that you have to work harder to prove to people who you are, right? Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think every driver has something that's, you know, holding them back or has something, some obstacle.

And I think the one advantage, the one great advantage I have from, you know, how I've grown up, the people I've grown up around is that what you just described is what's acceptable to be a driver at Penske Racing. And I've spent my entire life with the example that Roger Penske set, whether if that's, you know, how do you shake someone's hand? How do you look them in the eye when you talk to them to, you know, what's, and sometimes it's by the wrong example, but that's, it's just, it's just how you have to be to drive for Roger. And, you know, who else would you want to drive for, in my opinion? And so I've learned that to be my standard. I don't really know anything different. So to hear it coming from somebody else and the impact that it makes is greatly appreciated,

but at the same time, like, I haven't known anything else. Like anything less is not acceptable. trust me if I had anything less I would certainly hear from it from my mom or my dad yeah like even from like a radio etiquette standpoint I never get I never get told that I was good on the radio for a day it's like if I say one negative thing my mom's calling me and asking me you know you should really think hard about what you said today yeah I'm like oh I thought I finished in the top five I thought today was a good day is like no today was not a good day Austin I think that you know the one of the probably most difficult moments in your career last year at Phoenix when you're getting ready to move into the Cup series, you want to go out on top,

right? You want to be a champion leader. Right? And you get that taken away from you. And the way you handled it, you got out, and you took a breath, you composed yourself, you had a, you know, you didn't blow off the interview, you caught it like you saw it, it was pretty straightforward. I mean, those are the moments that define, that, that right, that little moment right there

will follow you everywhere you go the rest of your career, right? And a lot of people don't realize it in those moments, but they're really, they're stamping their personality. You know, I think you've done a really good job of just trying to, you know, trying to minimize people's assumptions and, you know, the harder you can work at doing stuff like this, right, and putting yourself in, you know, comfortable, genuine scenarios to talk, you know, explain who you are is going to benefit you going forward.

I want to go back to where you started figuring things out in the Xfinity car, right? You went from a wild man to the guy to beat. You know, there was that point in the season a couple years ago where you and Briscoe battling for the championship. And in that year, I think you turned the corner and became a, you know, a dependable, the top guy in the series. And you weren't going to make the mistakes that you'd made before. were you feeling that was that you know was that all making sense to you while it was happening

yeah i think so and i look at my career i haven't i never stay anywhere very long i stayed in the infinity series for four years before that the longest i had ever stayed in anything was a legends car yeah otherwise it was one one thing to the next every year and it's it was the best actually I'll go back to when I was searched around a sports car stuff. I mean I found the pavement call whoever ask advice and there's a guy that worked at Porsche and I pretty much talked to him once a year asking him you know if you had any opportunities or whatever else and he'd always tell me that I needed to focus. I needed to just pick something because otherwise no one's going to know what you are and I always kind of laughed at that like I took it as a compliment because like I've done so many

different things and racing the Xfinney series was the first time I've like sat down and like focused on something and had the opportunity to do it. And I know. a lot of drivers don't have that opportunity, but given the chance to be able to refine those small details is everything. And I think it's really prepared me well to race and cup. I think staying another year in the Xfinity series has prepared me well for those exact reasons. But that opportunity I may have undervalued a little bit in the chance to really refine who you are and have a focus. I mean, that was huge. So to be able to work with the same group of people for year after year, I mean, I could tell you when as a race team, we went from, hey, this is how we showed up with, you know, Brad and Joey for the last six years, and we've won all these races, went from that to like, hey, we're going to trust your feedback and we're going to go in this direction.

We're going to pull the same rope and work as a team. You know, those are things that I think a lot of drivers have to get over and really kind of be their own person and learn in their own way. And some of that's me figuring out, you know, classic example of freeing up a tight race car and being way too loose in the race. Like those are things you have to experience. You can't let someone do that for you. Because if you do that for you, don't learn it. And then when you get in that situation, you're like, oh, why did this happen? And then you can't prevent it.

And a lot of those things I had to learn through my own mistakes, and I'm glad people let me do that as far as trusting my judgment and even when the days weren't the right days. But I think the relationship that Brian and I both developed in the Xfinney series and a lot of guys on that team, you know, Brian and I, you know, his first win as a crew chief was in ARCA with me. And, you know, same with my car chief. You know, a lot of those guys moved up together.

Even a lot of my pit crew guys now that are on the two car moved up with me from, you know, truck six finity and cup. So to be able to move up a lot of those guys and kind of learn from each other and key off of each other is a great experience because you can, you can have some consistency. And that consistency was pretty important, you know, kind of an information overload in 2018 to 19 having some consistency and then to be able to execute the next two years, I think is probably in the simplest terms of how I've seen the last couple of years play out and why I've found myself in a position to be expecting to win races and reasons to back it up.

How do you find out you're going to drive the two car in the Cup Series? Obviously, I was already slated to drive the Wood Brothers car. That was, I mean, from the beginning of 2021, I mean, talking to Len and Eddie, like, I'm their driver, you know, and that was really cool. And that's obviously an experience I'm not going to have. and I really enjoy my relationship with Eddie because I feel like he's someone that I could call literally at any hour of the day and just vent to him about everything. So that was all a unique process.

Obviously, Brad's announcement was pretty much the catalyst for me understanding that that was, obviously there's rumors for months of whether that was going to happen, really from the end of the Daytona 500 of 2021, of whether that was going to be a thing or not. And so obviously you can't be. aligned to all that but from my standpoint the cars come out of the same building and it's the same opportunity so um from from a from a legacy standpoint i i guess that there's certainly a difference as far as driving for the wood brothers versus driving the two obviously there's weight and a pride level with both but it's it's an amazing opportunity to have to to be able to race you know a flagship car for

for one of the top teams and that's that's no one there's never been a rookie in the two car never and that says enough. Like you have to be ready for that. And there's an expectation of success for that car. So I think that certainly changed the game as far as... Do you remember when you learned about that, though? It was kind of a gradual process, if I'm being honest. So there wasn't like a...

It wasn't like a phone call or go to dinner with a family and, hey, guess what? None of that. No. No, I mean, talking with Roger and understanding, okay, this is happening. kind of thing. But yeah, I would say it was, it wasn't like, oh, here's a surprise, this, you know, this gift, this opportunity for you. It was, it's kind of weird how it all played. It was funny how long it took for the media to transition to that too. Like everyone just kept asking me about driving the 21 car next year. I'm like, guys, I'm driving the two car now.

Like this, it's, it was kind of an interesting process, but I think everything happens for a reason. Well, hey, if that's a process that happens over time, are you allowing yourself to get excited about it? About the two? Well, I'd already gotten excited about driving. in the Cup series the next year. Right, but those are two different rides. Yes. I mean, like... I think there's different reasons to be excited.

And the one I described before, like, I think with the Wood Brothers, it's a different opportunity because there's probably not, there's not as much pressure to succeed. Not that I'm really, like, an externally motivated person, but from, like, a team standpoint and a sponsorship standpoint, like, the two cars expected to be in the playoffs every year, expected to be win a race is, like, whereas, like, the 21 car has... has primarily been a development car for Penske, really, you know, starting with Ryan. You know, so for us, it was, you know, okay, how do we build on this? You know, we build people through the X-F20 series and really sometimes through that car,

but otherwise it is the same equipment. So I think it's the same driving opportunity, but it's certainly different externally, which I try and subjugate for sure. Hey, I'll take a little bit of the pressure off Austin and ask you both this question, because I'm curious, if you're talking about how there were rumors about Brad, leaving, you know, for months and months, like when you guys have teammates that are in the rumor meal, either, you know, on a contract year or whatever, what does that do to the dynamics internally?

It's not good. It's not? Do you guys actually, do you try to just avoid it and act like that there's no problem? No, you can't. No, because you're in front of the media every single weekend. And they're asking you about it. Yeah. They're going to try to get a sound bite or get some kind of insight if they can if you're willing

to slip up. What about for you? I've gotten a lot of Brad questions. And I know Brad well, and he's filled a lot of different roles in my career. And I don't think it's really changed our relationship from my standpoint. But you can certainly use that opportunity to alienate that relationship. So I've really enjoyed that. And I think he's been a great leadership role for our team for the last, I don't know how many years.

So from that standpoint, I think it's clear to everyone. It was his decision to move on. And if you have any other questions, ask the guy. That's the guy. He's willing to tell you. Any chance it gets, right? So as a rookie in the cup series, who do you go to? Who's your guy?

Who you're leaning on? The driver. That's a great question. I would actually say, out of all the drivers, even out of all my teammates, I talk to Briscoe more than anybody else. Like he and I've kind of been through this all together. So he and I talk fairly often. Obviously, we're on different teams.

But with our own walls, I feel like, especially like you had Braden in the mix as well when I was coming up through Xfinity, you have three very different race car drivers between Ryan, Joey, and Brad. They're all very good. I think they're some of the best. And I feel like I've tried to pick and pull the different things that I think make them good and make, you know, or maybe even weaknesses in trying to eliminate those from myself. But I think I've had more, better examples than anyone else has really had as far as how to be

and what to do and what to focus on. And so knowing those things ahead of time going into Racing Cup, I feel like it's helped me be able to understand, you know, okay, why is he doing this? Why is this happening? And why is he stronger here? Why is this, you know, I think it's been a good opportunity. What's it mean to be a teammate?

It's a great question because I haven't had a teammate in like four years. And I feel like that's an area that I am committed to not pursuing, but it's certainly a gray area. It's an opportunity to move the team forward and expectation within our team, but for me, I think understanding the situations is important because I can say confidently that I'm probably more committed to the team's success

than selfishly any other driver would be for probably obvious reasons, just from, you know, it's how I've been, it's how I've grown up, that's what I've seen. You know, I've kind of found that that's being a good teammate is relative to who your teammate is and what they're willing to accept and how open they are to work together. I thought, you know, with TrueX when we were at DEI, being a good teammate,

was being buddies, you know, being their friend hanging out. And we never spent time really at the track going, hey, man, did you try that right where spring? What did it do? You know, it's more like Tuesday bar? You know, and then I had teammates that we just didn't communicate, period, you know. And it's crew chiefs for other, for teammates that I didn't communicate with. And then I went to Hendrick when I got to work with Jimmy. I don't know if that was the first time, but that was a really good experience for me

as far as understanding how he could help me and how I could help him on a Sunday, you know. he was one of the first guys that was pretty innovative with his cockpit and what he would do with things and where he would move stuff and why you know the new technology that he could use to help himself get better and I could kind of pick and choose what I liked about that and he was open to being like hell yeah here it is check it out this is why I do it it. It made me want to be better you know as far as appreciated like an like you know when you go sit in that debrief that there people are going to be looking forward to hearing what you have to say because what you have to say because what you have to say. say typically helps everybody in the room, right? So, yeah, that's going to be a pretty interesting experience for you, I think, especially you've got two different types of guys in Joey and Ryan. And so, and plus who else is in the debrief as far as drivers? Does Harrison sit in? Yeah, Harrison will be there as well.

And so, yeah, you've got a lot going on there. I think my philosophy with teammates has always been, like, especially like sports car racing, road racing like your teammate is like your number one enemy like anybody that watches like formula one drive to survive like first person you got to beat is your teammate first person you got to wreck is your teammate like yeah the best way to finish in front of them at least is to take them out with you like that is that is that is the mentality and that stuff's crazy and even when I race that stuff my mentality has always been and I think the way you project yourself externally is is it lines up with this is that you have to have enough your self-esteem has to be

high enough to understand that if you tell your teammate who has the same car as you, everything you're doing, you have to have the confidence in yourself that you are a better race car driver that even if he has all that knowledge that you have that you've shared with him, you can still beat him. And that's kind of been my mission statement as a teammate. Like, I'm an open book. Like, if you ask me a question, I'm going to answer it because I know it makes us all better. And especially, you know, from that same point, like, that makes somebody more willing to help

you. And right now I need more help than I can help if that makes sense. You know, as far as being, as far as being a rookie and having, you know, experience and understanding what's right and wrong. And so, so for me, that's, that's always been my statement. I think the drafting thing and super speedways and all that, it's obviously brings in a much bigger dynamic and that's probably more of what I thought you were asking about. But from it, from how to be a good teammate, I've always been as open as possible for that exact reason, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it shows everyone around you that, you know, I have the confidence that if I, you know, tell him that I'm breaking at the 200 board and using second gear and, you know, I think that

you need to have a gradual, you know, throttle input, like all those things. If you ask me that and I tell you, like, that's because I have confidence I can still do it better than you. Yeah. Now, on the racetrack, I was not dependable. Now, I would help you sometimes, but you just didn't know when it was coming. And I think it's, you know, when you're on a racetrack, you got a pass to be selfish, you If you want to hear how his teammates, just listening to Jeff Gordon's radio channel during a Talladega or Daytona race. There's always a lot of entertainment. He said the same things when I drove the eight car. No, you're right.

He did. He did. I don't know if he knew I was his teammate when I was driving the 88. He still expected you to help him, even at DEI. I failed my first attempt at being a teammate with Ryan during the duels. No. Did he let you know? Oh, the first, like, I instant regret.

What happened? So it was like four cars left at the end of the day. race you know is is uh brad ryan me and briscoe and we're racing to the end of the duels and blaney and brad go tandem we've taken the white pushes away and so i've got to keep the 14 lined up so i can get a big enough run so i'm like i'm big this build this big run and bring it to ryan like promise you that's what i was thinking and so we build this big run on the back straight away and they kind of come on attached and they're both kind of equal momentum and i've got this huge run coming to Ryan. I'm like, S&T said it was like seven or eight miles an hour faster. And like,

I'm like, come on, man, like cover it, make a move. I'm going to push you by. And like, I pull down with this run at the last second and I pass him and almost past Brad and ended up finishing in front of him. And we easily probably could have beat the six car. And like, right when I pulled out, like made that run, I'm like, man, I am the ass of here. Like, I just passed him. Like, I didn't want to, but I did. I just passed him like blew his doors off. and like instant regret came out to him out like dude i'm like so sorry didn't think that was going to happen like the run was for you even though you were probably smart not to cover it because it would erect you like so that was uh my first failure is my first attempt to be a teammate and uh my first

failure so what was his response uh he was pretty cool about it i mean just he's he's he's a pretty chill guy but he uh i mean i i i owned up to it pretty quickly the funny thing is you know exfinity i never I never had a teammate Speedway Racing. And I went out of my way in the Ford group of drivers, which was usually one or two other guys. You know, for a while it was me and Briscoe. And that was fun. Like, Speedway racing with Chase and I was fun because he and I are two completely different

people. He is taking every run, like doing whatever it takes. And I'm a lot more, probably a lot more calculated and maybe a little more conservative. And that combination actually was very successful for us, more successful for him because he was usually the one getting pushed to stage wins. But we never ended up winning a race together because of it. But that was a pretty cool dynamic because he and I are pretty close to where we talk about things, whether it's restarts, runs, like share everything we know to make us better because we've got, you know, four JRM cars, three college cars, you know, all the JGR cars.

We're like, odds are completely against us. So in those races where it was like the two of us like fending off the field, like he would know that when I was throwing a block, it was for him, not for anybody else. Yeah. And that was fun to experience that. But even if you, like, beat them, it didn't really matter because, like, you're still on different teams and you can still race to the end of the stages where, like, now it's a lot more absolute as far as the teammate standpoint.

I can't really generate my own belief on what that is or isn't. It's a lot more challenging, especially the more cars you have. Sure he is. Do you get the feeling like everybody listening to this right now, they're just saying, well, this is the point where we have to talk about the last laugh of the Daytona 500 then? if we're talking about teammates and everything, because I want to say something. I will say that you probably assume

that we're going to scrutinize the teammate relationships off the last lap. Oh, yeah. I thought that was exactly where that was going. I could tell, I could tell. But I would make the argument that you guys, if you took the whole body of the race, I don't know that anybody was more cohesive than Penske.

Or certainly the forwards. I mean, you guys were in lockstep. You were doing exactly what you had to do to get to the final lap. I had no problems with anything that you guys did, and I have no idea if it became an awkward situation with you guys afterwards, you did everything perfect. I don't know what you could do to give you a hard time about that. Yeah, well, I think it's exactly what you said. It's the last lap of the Daytona 500. So from that standpoint, I don't really have any reservations.

But when it comes to Ryan, I've really observed over the last couple years, and like you said, our cars have worked really well together in the past. And I feel like Ryan's been the glue for that. I really do. I'm not just saying that because of, and I've said it to him, like, he has been the consummate example of what a teammate should be for our company. And he proved it on the final restart, he proved it on, you know, the last lap trying to make sure we both had a shot to win the race. So from that standpoint, I think that shows a lot of leadership for him that, that I think is unique in the entire field. So from that standpoint, that's a great example being set for a young

driver as in me of what the right things to do, at least within our company, and that have obviously worked, you know, as far as from a success standpoint, as far as from the ability to win those races and at least be in front and have a chance. So from that standpoint, I think that's what makes Ryan unique. I think that's what makes him a leader. And I think that's something that gave us both a really great shot of winning that race, not just, you know, being able to just block and defend everybody, but, you know, two of us both had a shot to win the Daytona 500 coming off of turn four. Can you talk us through the last lap from your vantage point and kind of what you were thinking and how, I mean, you're out front. Yeah, you got that red flag.

You got the red flag. That's right. The entire time to think about what's going to happen because you're leading the Daytona 500. It's a green white checker. Like I've never, like all my biggest moments in my career have always been green white checkered restarts. Like not a single one of those damn races have gone green. Never does. Yeah, now that you say it, that's kind of true, right?

Oh, both Xfinney races, like both Xfinney championships, like the regular season deal at Bristol. The Bristol deal, right. Like, it's always the overtime restart, which is fine. That's the sport. That's the expectation. Now, I'm watching Noah go out and win this race in Phoenix this last weekend, without a caution, didn't piss me off. He did a great job the whole time, but like, man, there's no caution.

Like, given both nuts for that to happen. Okay, last lap. Yeah, so last lap, bottom lane was dominant. felt like it was easy. We got out front trying to control the runs. And in the back of my mind, I want to try and keep the second row side by side because that makes my job a hell of a lot easier if they stay side by side all the way the line. When I cross the start finish line, get the white flag. Obviously, I know the race ends it, so I want to make sure I stay in front the entire time. And then I start getting way too far out in front because they all start

lifting. They all start lifting. Right when I cross start lifting, it's like, boom, I'm way too far out in front and they've all started lifting trying to get runs. I'm like, oh, this is it. These are like, you got to hold off the wolves. That was my perspective change. So you cross the white and it's like, man, I got to lift a lot. Like I went from being 80% 90% throttle to 20% throttle, like crossing the start finish line, 20% throttle. 20% to try and stay close. Of course. Yeah, but wow, 20%. And I don't know if that's directly the two guys behind me or the entire field behind me or whatever else, but like perspective changed immediately. It was probably good that it happened that early in the lap and then it's just keeping everybody lined up and we're watching it

let's see here walk us through here all right so as we pick this up where are they taking the white flag yes we just taken the white flag and at this moment I'd already realize that they'd all start backing off and so I'm trying to keep everybody close yeah and from there you know I think being able to stay tandem with Ryan at the right times was important oh yeah they totally too far out too far out As long as the second row was side by side, I was okay. And this was a big push. And I didn't really want to go tandem here because I knew I was going to be way too far out in front. But I think Ryan wanted to go tandem here to make sure I was too far out in front to prepare for exit of four.

What I didn't anticipate happening was Brad getting hung three wide. And then from here, Ryan's got to run to the top. And then Bubba's going to have a run to the bottom. And then you just kind of have to chuck your race car wherever everybody else is. but I didn't want to put myself in a position where I made somebody lift for me because throwing a block, especially with those cars with the way the bumper's lined up,

you do that and you're probably just getting spun out. So I'd rather have door-to-door contact than bumper-to-bumper contact because all day long. Otherwise, they're probably just going to stay on the throttle and drive straight through you. So that's why you saw me more the door-to-door than the bumper to bumper because I felt like doing a late block was going to just have me wrecked in front of the field. Of course. Yeah. I mean, listen, Joey and Brad proved that last year,

right, the Daytona 500. Was it Joey and Brad that wrecked? Yeah. And honestly, that was a major talking point within our team. Was it? Heading into this year's 500. 100%. And the funny thing, I'm sitting there like during these meetings, I'm like, what are the odds that we're all just going to be at the end of the race, racing for the way? Like, come on. Like, let's be realistic everybody. Like, how is this going to happen? Oh, yeah. Two years. years in a row. But I saw that that developed for a long time. This developed for a lap and a half. Right. Whereas that developed single file for 15 laps. And I went from, we had a problem on our pit stop. We were running that we are actually the first four to pit, like leading the thing and the Dayton 500.

My first 500, like, I thought that was the day that I gave up having a shot to win the thing. We had a bad pit stop, lost a draft. There's like me and two other wrecked cars. And we're getting pulled from the whole train of cars, a single file by the wall. And with about 10 to go, we catch them. I'm like, oh, God, they're all lifting. Like trying to stay lined up. I'm like, okay, they got to go too wide at some point. They got to go too wide at some point.

And they never did. They never went too wide. I got the biggest run coming to turn one on the white flag lap. I was going 209 miles an hour into turn one. And I could barely turn to the bottom with this run that I created because they're all still single file. And then obviously they all tried to stay stacked up and lined up and they're lifting for each other because they didn't trust each other. Oh, yeah. And that's the problem.

Like, you can't have that, especially his teammates. And like I said before, I feel like Ryan's been a great leader and probably the best leader in our race team for that. And like I said, I think we both had a much better shot at winning the race because we worked together. Well, okay, what was the talking point specifically? Don't do that. Make sure a car wins. Make sure the car wins. Make sure a car wins.

Don't do what they did, right? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, in the simplest terms, yes. I mean, at least do it when you're on the other side of the racetrack and at least have a chance to get shot. shoved across the line when you're right right how did the Daytona 500 change your life um in some ways I don't think it has I started to take the trash out when I got home on Monday but uh otherwise I've been really busy lately but it's like a dream come true it's something that I still haven't really come to terms with if I'm being honest um where's your trophy my trophy is coming with me

to Michigan um I'm going to from here I do try and dress well but I'm probably overly dressed well today because from here I'm going to spend the day at Ford and at Penske Corp. So I got to be dressed well to be in Roger Penske's office and in Jim Farley's office on the same day. I'd imagine you do. So the timing, obviously being the president's Dale Jr. as well, I should be dressed well. I thought this was just the Penske way. It is. It is. I mean, it's pretty much how they're nicer pants than I usually wear on race weekends, but in nicer shoes, less comfortable shoes. But otherwise, it's been a lot. And I've, I've had the opportunity. I've had the to talk with some really cool people, one of which Coach K, he's got a radio show.

I talked to him. I would say that he wasn't overly knowledgeable in racing, but it was really cool to talk to him. And so cool that I was like, man, I got to write this guy a letter, send him like a hat or like a thank you or whatever. Obviously, it's been a big month for him because, you know, it's the last game, it's like end of an amazing career. I'm not going to pretend that I know a bunch about college basketball, but the guy

sends me a letter before I even have the chance to think about sending him one. And so that just shows you what kind of a person he is and the professional that he is. And he beat me to it. But can I just say that that's our experience with Roger Pinsky? When we had Roger on Mr. Pinsky, I'm sorry, because that's, yeah, I mean, he's the man, right? Every time I call him Roger, it makes me feel weird. Yeah, I just felt, he's been Mr. Penske my entire life. I felt gross right now.

I was my own self-check. We had him on the show via Zoom, I believe. It was in, you know, during the, you know, height of the pandemic. And we got an email from him, right? Just being saying, thank you. And I was like, this is amazing, right? And like, wow, I would go to war with him. I would fight for him.

I mean, that's a leader right there. So, yeah. I mean, when you're talking about Coach Kay, yeah, there's people, they, they don't rise up by accident. You know, it says something about character. You'd agree. 100%. Yeah.

What is your relationship like with him, by the way? It's obviously in a lot of different ways. And I feel like after Phoenix last year, I've lost the championship, whatever else, I've never felt like I've had support from him more. Like, when I showed up at the racetrack on Sunday to watch the cup race, like sat down next to him, watch the cup race and like, we are a team. And whether it's things he said to me or, you know, just as far as like, let's move forward and do things together.

It's simple things. And like you said, it makes you want to go to war with him. But I feel like out of any other time in my life that I've been a driver for him or any other time, like it's more of a partnership. And before I looked at it, he's the boss, he's the captain, and now it's more of a partnership. It is, I'm his driver. You know, we're doing this together. And I don't know if it was just specifically because of that day or now that I'm going cup racing or what. But that was a change in our relationship.

And it felt really cool. Yeah. Because obviously I've known him my entire life. And I've learned a lot of things through example from him. And to be able to find myself in a position in my life and my career that, you know, we're going to war together is pretty awesome. He's 85th? 85th birthday.

Sharp as can be. But you have to imagine that, you know, if everything goes as planned, your cup career is going to surpass his direct involvement, influence over the company, right? Do you allow yourself to think about that? Do you allow yourself to think about the future of Penske beyond Roger himself? I'd be lying if I said no, but a high percentage of me thinks he'll just live forever. So I'm happier with that idea. It's easier to believe that. Yeah. I mean, like you said, he is like on it. He came to the shop the other morning. Ford held to like a team breakfast together at Penske to celebrate the Daytona 500 just this past week. And man, he came to the shop. And not a lot of people get to see like kind of all sides.

of him and like I've gotten to see like he's really funny like he's a funny guy especially when he gets going and man he was taking shots at every single driver in the room during our team breakfast like calling me out for getting you're being in the way at the clash and you know calling i think he called out every he called out scott who just won his first indy curry he's called him out for running in the back all year like every driver in the room i think joey was the only one that didn't get anything but uh i'm sure he's got plenty when you get him going man it is awesome and and I love the energy that he has, the enthusiasm that he has is a motivator

and obviously his leadership in the example that he sets, but it's hard to imagine the race team without him, but at the same time, the culture that is there that is independent without his presence on a daily basis, I think is something that will probably last forever. Yeah. Unique thing about Penske is all motorsports are under one roof,

roof for the most part does and we talked about how teammates in indi or or if one every everywhere you go teammate the vibe with teammates is a little different so does the indy car program and the culture of that series and organization influence anything y'all do on the nascar side even unintentionally and vice versa i think probably within the last 10 years and i think some of it honestly has a lot to do with my dad being more involved with the whole company. I think once they came under one roof in 2005, like before then, two completely separate race teams. And I think kind of his role has combined that a lot in the culture of that. So if I was to say one thing that he's done for the company, that would be it, you know, as far as making it one race team. And I think that's kind of a natural

modern progression. Is it cool to be able to interact with the IndyCar guys? Because I know y'all do a lot of social media content together. It's normal for me, but I think it's probably abnormal for some of the other guys. That's the way I see. When I'm watching it, I'm like, damn, that's one cool thing about being an Indy car or a driver Penske on the NASCAR side is you get to interact with these guys.

Otherwise, we'd never see them. Right. Like Scott and I work out together. Like when we go to, we got a trainer of Penskees, he does all the picker guys and he and I go to the gym. We're teammates. And like Will and I will go to the go-kart track. He's got his will-power cart.

And I probably say out of all the guys, I probably have like the closest team relationship to Will, probably more than anybody else. Just because like he and I can be very, he's a thinker, but he's also like in left field a lot of the time. And that's what I love about him because you can have like deep discussions about like life and racing and like some of the weirdest things. We go to just go play ping pong and talk about.

life, like, or go to the go-kart track and talk about what it means to be a good race car driver and things that other people do well. And those are the types of relationships that you can probably have that aren't, you know, directly your competitors because I probably will never have that with like Joey or Ryan. Yeah. But I really, I really enjoy that dynamic because it is a different mentality. So next gen, you've been driving his car for a couple weeks. We were, I was talking to Justin and earlier today, and even Steve LaTartre yesterday, the difference between how the cars drove at the Charlotte Test, where the world was on fire, and now is huge, right?

Yes. And the comfort and, you know, there's still some room to grow and still some ways to go. But, I mean, the cars look like they're a lot more underneath you, but there's still this element of, man, somebody could spin out any minute. We saw Chase Elliott, you know, spin out off a two. Like what?

How does this happen, right? And I guess, you know, first off, how are you enjoying the car? I know your season is a whole other conversation, and you're definitely going to keep digging there. But where are you think we are with the car in a general sense? We are at a sustainable enough point to make good races. Yeah. And I say that it sounds like the most measured answer as far as like non-committal. but to your point that Charlotte test was like okay we we got to do some work together and I think

the coolest part for me about that like it's probably old hat for some of those other guys like I sit in this room and we get in the driver's meeting room after this test and like there's everybody and like from NASCAR all the drivers and everyone sharing their opinions I'm like there is no other race series in the world that does this there's no other race series in the world that goes out there and does a test and lines up and does a 20 lap race like Formula One's doing all their preseason testing with all their new cars and new stuff I mean they've got to as big of a transition right now in F1 as we've had in NASCAR. Maybe not as big, but still, pretty big transition. And they're not lining up and doing race. They did a standing start

practice, but they're not lining up and doing races and going side by side and asking each other what they think. And, like, that's the, for me, the coolest thing. Like, yeah, I'm like, oh, my God, the world's on fire, but this is really cool. Because, like, there's no other sport in the world that does this. And I think that's what makes, it proves to me how social it is, but it also proves to me like how different and how much of a community racing in NASCAR is. And I think from that meeting moving forward and even like the driver chats and stuff like this, like it makes us unique, but it also helps us kind of push in the same direction. And it's no surprise to me that the car is, you know, at a drive-up point. Like you talk about, you know, all the mechanical differences

with the car, you have a sequential shifter and independent or suspension and the steering rack. Like every car in the world is a steering rack. I don't even know if they, you know, they make a production car anymore, that is a steering box. Like, we can figure out a steering rack. Yeah. Like, that's no problem, in my opinion. So for me, like, the biggest differences are honestly an arrow. Otherwise, it's a car.

It's a car underneath. We're not doing anything that hasn't been done before underneath. On the outside, we're doing things that haven't been done before, especially when it comes to stock car racing. So I feel like that is the biggest difference for all the drivers and teams right now as far as how to figure out the car. And so do you enjoy it? Do you enjoy driving the car?

There are days I enjoy it. There are days I haven't enjoyed it. What do you not like about it? You try and tell yourself to be open-minded because even though I've only been doing it for four or five years, there are things that I've finally figured out that are normal and, like, your comfort zone and, like, areas to work around and things that you can give up and not have to worry about. And a lot of those things are different. And you try not to be mad when things are different. You know, change is an opportunity.

And I've always looked at it that way, whether it's from working with new people or having a new car. But there are times that they're like, this isn't this way. This shouldn't be that way. and like you get frustrated because, you know, it's not right. Yeah. What is right? Like, you have to redefine what that is. And some days it's going to be easier than others.

And some days you're just going to show up and you're going to be bad, but you can't change anything and you've got to deal with it. Do you mean in technical nuts and bolts set up, things like that? Technical nuts and bolts, traffic situations are a lot different. How the car is in traffic. Yeah. It is a lot different. What's it doing? I think the biggest thing that you can probably see,

on TV is that you don't have the side force anymore. Right. And that does that does two things. One, you can't drive the car sideways. Like, you just can't. You spend out. You've seen more guys spin out over the last three weeks than you probably have in the entire 2021 season. People spinning out all by themselves. I can't tell you the last time I spun out all by myself. Like, that's a long time ago. Yes. And the side force piece, I think, plays a big role in that. When you're running by yourself versus side by side by side, do you feel a difference or is it no side force all the time? So I would say that's the biggest difference is that there's no more sucking air of somebody's door. That's gone. Pretty much it's gone. So there's no big,

the shift is maybe still a little bit there, but because you have none, when somebody puts it on your door, it's not like you're losing something. Yeah. Because you don't, you don't have anything. That's got to be kind of nice. It is nice, but there's, there's a, there's a social piece in this that's kind of been frustrating because I've noticed, I know, I know, I know, notice it right away at the Charlotte Tess. And I feel like I'm racing against guys that are smart enough and intelligent enough to realize that the same thing. So I feel like sharing this is not new knowledge. But when you get in racing situations and you put it tight on somebody's door because you want track distance, not because you're trying to piss them off. They still get pissed off

because they're used to being pissed off because you're on the door. And that's hard to figure out as a rookie. Like, I don't want to piss anybody off because it's going to be really easy to, but I still got a race. Yeah. And I think learning all of those things and like also making mistakes, like trying to figure like when you get super aerotight and like just fly up in front of somebody and almost put them in the fence because you weren't expecting it tight. Like, hey man, I'm really sorry.

That was my fault. My bad. Thanks for saving us. But like, don't be mad. And those are, those are things that you're just going to have for the for the first four months of this car when everybody figures out what right and wrong is. Yeah. And how to navigate that has been, has been interesting to observe and be a part of.

of. So what do you think is going to happen this weekend Atlanta? Yeah. Did you test there? I have not even turn a lap on the simulator there. What? Yeah. So I've honestly have no idea what to expect. I think it's going to be probably similar to like our 550 packets last year, like kind of like a Kansas or something like that. I expect it to be, you know, easy, wide open and qualifying. I expect tires to fall off enough in traffic to where you're going to finally stop being a pack. It's just how long the pack last in my opinion. So you think on restarts new tires, you'll have a little pack racing and that'll dissipate over a period of a run.

Yeah, I think the first time somebody washes up or makes a mistake and makes everyone have to lift, that'll be single file. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At least, you know, until you get runs and, you know, I don't know how much tire fall off. You still got to remember it's a repave. Like, all of those things are very much unknown. Yeah. Golly.

I can't wait. I can't wait to watch all the racing that we're going to see this weekend at the new reconfiguration at Atlanta. I would not want anything to do with it as far as the driver. You know, so I'm wishing you all the best, but I wouldn't want to be in your shoes having, this is a major challenge. I hate going into a situation where I have, I don't know anything and I don't get to do a lot of practice. I don't get to go and work my way up to it. I've got to go out there.

You'd hate to be a cup driver right now because that is life. Oh, he'd be ornery all weekend. I know how that would be. Yeah, he wouldn't be fun. I'm waiting on pins and needles to see what the schedule is for Martinsville. see how many, you know, what if any practice that we get on the Xfinity series that weekend because I'm going to run that race. But so I'm sitting there thinking, man, I hope we get a little bit of practice.

I don't even know they might not practice at all, right? So, yeah, I'm pretty nervous about this weekend. You know, it's going to be completely different style of racing on the Xfinity side versus the Cup side. The Xfinity car has no power. They have basically the Talladega Daytona power with the traditional spoiler where you guys have the full plate package. But the, but talking to.

Justin, who tested both cars, he tested the Will Force and the Xfinity car, he said the Xfinity car, you'd basically drive it right around the line like you would at Talladega, right around the bottom. You don't need to arc the corner. You don't need to let it feed up off the bottom at all. But the cup car was on, was to the edge of the grip, and that you needed to get out there to be able to arc the corner, and you needed to feed it up off the corner. He thinks when you get in the draft and you pick up that second, it's going to be even more treacherous, especially since there's, you know how the repaves are,

there's zero outside groove. There's zero grip when you go out there. That's going to be hell for the guys who have to restart out there. I'm looking forward to washing Exfini and trucks trying rubber in my racetrack. Yes. That is the best part about all of this is that I don't have to be the one to clean it off. But from that standpoint, yeah, I agreed all of those points. I feel like the Xfinni race will probably be a pretty large pack.

Whereas like our race handling will be important. Yeah, I'm nervous for everybody. It's going to be fast and it's going to be treacherous, I think, with the surface and the tire. So I don't know how much time you have left in this. Yeah. I do have my show and tell items. Oh, yeah, let's see it. And the one piece that I kind of touched on, probably should have taken advantage of it, is family and racing.

I have family history on both sides of racing, and I brought some artifacts. I see them. The side of, you know, my family that most people know about this is probably more well documented is my mom's side of the family. And my grandfather, Jim Truman, drove. This is his helmet. All right, so tell us who he was. So Jim Truman owned a race team called True Sports.

When Bobby Ray Hall won the Indy 500 in 1986, he was driving from my grandfather, who at the time, I guess I'm starting with the end, who at the time had battled cancer for several years, and he actually passed away 11 days after winning the 500. So that's kind of the penultimate point of that story. But he had a lot of sports car racing, owned a race team. He was a businessman.

He owned Red Roof In, the hotel chain. So like any time you see, you know, sleep cheap or Red Roof In on a race car, it was because of him. And I actually learned a lot about him and his life watching the Willie T. Ribs documentary because he was someone that supported Willie. Quite a lot. Enough to where, like, my mom would laugh, watch. in that documentary and say how many times he would call the house while they were eating dinner. He would always call when they're eating dinner.

This is one of the kind of the sports races that he drove, but he drove with guys like Al Holbert and race camel GTP stuff. And so he was around racing. My mom's brother did a lot of driving. He is a pretty car. He owned Mid Ohio for a long stint. My mom's family owned Mid-Oyeau up until 2012, up until 2012, own the racetrack. So that's kind of always been a fun spot to go race because I know it really well.

just, you know, what corners are good places to watch and just kind of fun atmosphere. I keep a pair of his gloves in my gear bag everywhere I go. Really? It was actually something my uncle did. My uncle Colin drove Formula Atlantic for a while, Indy Lights, and he carried his gloves with him. I mean, he was driving a lot more after his father had passed, but it was funny because he raced against guys like Jack Phil Neuf in Formula Atlantics. And it was funny because my mom did a lot of marketing stuff and was like PR.

for the track at Mid-Ohio, but she also had to be like podium presentation. So she was like the trophy girl at Mid-Ohio. And she doesn't like that title. I bet. But she was telling me before the 500 this year because Jacques Vilni was doing the 500 and that I had to ask him about if she remembered a time, they used to give out like medals. And the metal got stuck on Jacques's head when he was on the podium. He just left it there. So I got to talk to him about how my mom was the one that put the metal on his head during driver intros. But anyway, so that's kind of the abbreviated version of my mom's family side of the sport. So she grew up in it, knows so much about it.

And it's been fun to learn more kind of about that side. Obviously, my dad's been in racing his entire life. You know, his father built engines for indie cars, worked in the sport for a really long time, was kind of a pioneer. And I brought some photos of when he raced. there goes my tea um he grew up in my my grandfather uh carl syndrick grew up in california love drag racing love short track racing um i've got actually his nascar license from 1966 when he drove um there's ascot speedway in los angeles wow and uh i have some photos of when he was racing

when he was driving and he's awesome he passed away last year i got to learn a lot more probably about his driving career and kind of his early career you know see a lot of these photos. What a cool car. They, uh, it, I think that was when the car was new because all the rest of these photos.

It's brand new. Looks like she's in good shape. You'll like the rest of these photos then. Because, oh, got he turned. You're looking back at the guy. You're going to see a common theme here in a lot of these photos.

It's pretty much just him getting left reared or like literally every photo is him getting left reared. Boy, you ain't lying. Look at that. But knowing my grandfather, he was probably just cutting people off. This is, this is, this is,

This is the last one because this is kind of an older, a newer image. But you can see him not chopping the guy off looking at him like he learned something. The car looks a lot nicer. Dude, look at this. This is so funny. This is awesome. What track is these photos taking at? I think these are all from Ascot Speedway, which I think it was originally called Los Angeles Speedway,

and then it was Ascot Speedway all the way up until, like, 91. But his trade was an engine builder, and so he spent a lot of his career after driving, building engines for sprint cars, building off the engines. And this is a photo of him, Joe Sal Dana, and Don Brown. Driver, chassis builder, and engine builder. And they went around the Midwest and raised sprint cars. And the car in that picture, they nicknamed the Mechanical Rabbit. It was the first offset motor sprint car.

And it set track records at Knoxville and went on a bunch of races. And my grandfather's relationship with Joe, I'm sure a lot of, A lot of sprint car fans know the name Sal Dana. They were best friends to the day he died. And he went to Indy with Joe. First time Joe qualified for the Indy 500. It was an engine of my grandfather built. So their relationship was pretty cool to learn about

and kind of throughout that process. And he's someone that's always been really quietly passionate about racing. Just a hard worker. but my favorite thing that I have is his helmet and it's like really old and I tried to get all the dirt out of it because there's still dirt like just falling out of it. Leave the dirt in. But this one's...

Oh my goodness. Look at this thing. Hold on. There's goggles somewhere. Oh, look at those old goggles, man. Open face helmet. And yes, I've put it on before. How bad?

Who doesn't have. You have to. Yeah. The funny thing about this is like both of these helmets were probably about the same time frame, just different cultures. I know. Jesus.

I think this thing weighs. There's probably a point. It wasn't like in the 20s or 30s, like the heavier helmet was, like the safer you were if you went off to war. Yeah. It's probably wrong in the same lines. But anyway, I know how much you like appreciate the history. And I've seen like recently put out a bunch of like pictures and stuff, old race and stuff.

I just get in these moods sometimes where I just feel like Sharon. I have a phone full of photos that I've collected. and I even like organize them into little sections but I can also appreciate you sharing your family history on both sides because I kind of have the same thing everybody knows my dad everybody knows Ralph his dad and the male side of my lineage but my mom's family was involved in motorsports as well and and I'm equally as proud you know that and it's but it doesn't get talked about as much. But it's pretty impressive, man, to learn your roots.

You know, and I think a lot of other people are absolutely unaware of them and are going to find that pretty admirable that you, you know, you're, you didn't just show up on the scene, right? This is, you were born out of this. It's very much a family sport. Yeah. Like, in so many ways, it's very, it's very rare that you meet someone that works in racing for a long time that was the first.

in their family. Yeah. So, man, I'm telling, hey, I can't thank you enough for coming here today. We've wanted to get you on the show. So happy about your success at Daytona and winning the 500. We've raced you against you, and raced you hard for years now, and I love seeing you up in the Cup series,

trying to figure that out. I know you will with your work ethic and the way you apply yourself. It'll be a matter of time before you're where you want to be. I think a lot of people are really good. I appreciate getting to know all the layers, you know, and just how deep you're rooted into this into motorsports overall, like across the board. It's quite a thing, you know, so it makes me appreciate you. I already did, but I appreciate you even more now knowing these things, and I think the people that listen to this podcast are certainly going to have that same experience.

So thank you, Austin. No, thank you. That's cool to be on here. And this has always been like my road trip podcast. So we appreciate you. you listening to us, man. No, it's awesome. We have a blast in here. Glad I could share some stuff. I knew you'd especially appreciate the kind of the old school stuff.

Sure. The pictures and all that. So Mike Dale, thanks for having me. Austin Sendrick on the Dale Jr. Download. Amy's got a birthday coming up. So Amy doesn't like surprises. So? There's a long story that I'd love to tell on this podcast one day about how,

how I met and had a drink with George Strait on a weekend with my wife, and she happened to miss the whole thing. What? Hold on. This is a good story. We don't want to tell it today. We can. I'll tell it.

So I went to Key West several years ago. We took, it was me and Amy, her sister and husband, and another couple from Texas. So six of us from Texas. And all of those people were big George straight fans. George happened to be in Key West recording a record. There's a small, tiny recording studio. You wouldn't even know it was there right in downtown. So around lunch, accidentally, me and my friend Billy, who's with us, one of the guys on the trip, got split up from the rest of the group.

So me and Billy Are wondering We're wandering around Key West The rest of the day Looking for them And they are wandering around Key West looking for us

Literally the whole day And We went to the house twice Nobody's there Where we were staying We went to all the bars We thought they might be And we kept missing them

Or but we never saw them All day long Hours and hours And hours and we had dead cell phones and no cell phones, so there wasn't like this obvious way to reach out and connect. And we couldn't get into the house because we didn't have the key. It was just a mess.

So we spent the whole day wondering around QS like, hey, man, we'll find them eventually, right? It's not that big of a place. So we end up going back to this bar called Schooner Wharf. It's an open area bar, and we sat down. It's late. It's like 10, 30, 11 o'clock and we're tired and we're just going to wait soon enough they're going to come here soon enough this is kind of the last place we always end up right there sits george straight having a drink

and so i told billy i said man maybe he will he i know he hunted with dad i know he knows dad and as we're kind of having that conversation he looks over and his son's with him and his son walks over and goes hey dad would like to have a drink hang out so they approached you Yeah. And I was like, of course, you dang right. George straight, you bet. And so we sat down with George. We took a picture. We talked. He told me about hunting with dad. And we had a beer. While this is happening, it dawned on us. If George's son was okay with it, we could use his phone to text the picture to them, to our wives. And we did. So we send them the picture on his story. phone. We're like, man, we ain't got our phones. They're at home. We have to find our family, and if we could use your phone, we'll send this picture

that we just took of George straightened us to them. We do that. George stays for another couple minutes. Says, hi, I'm going to head home. Thanks, George. Appreciate it. Appreciate George's son for helping us, all that. He leaves.

As soon as they walked out, literally, moments later, here comes our gang. wide open, loud. Where's George? Where y'all been? Barreling into this barren, right? So they got the picture, clearly.

Yes. And they were out of breath trying to get there fast enough. Where's George? And so he's gone. He left. What? Are you serious? And then, you know, the attention went from that to this was all our fault.

You messed up. Where are we been? You messed up. Where are we been? Where we've been hiding? Yeah. We've been out running around all day. With George.

With George. And it's been, this happened years ago. And it's been an ongoing joke. I have that picture of me and Billy and George Strait in my beach house. And for Amy to see every day. She don't let you live it down. No, I don't let her live it down. Okay.

It goes back and forth. So I have to think you've done something George Strait related? Yes. So on March the 20th, he plays in Houston. And so I'm taking Amy for her birthday with the same six people that were on that QS trip to see George play. And hopefully have a chance to say hello and take a photo with the wives. That's the hope, right? I can't hinge all of my, I can't hinge the entire enjoyment of the day on the fact that whether we get the meme or not.

We're just going to go enjoy the concert. And hopefully all that works out. We're going to have dinner, but it's a big birthday. So I'm going to, I got a few other things to do too. That sounds good. Yeah, that'll be good. Dude, you're killing it. Yeah.

You're doing the husband thing right. I'm trying, man. I mean, you know, my wife is so good at being so thoughtful, and I'm working really hard on trying to have some of that quality. Give me a level real quick, Hannah. One, two, three. No, Hannah. Hello.

One, two, three, four, check, check, check. Check. Coming in hot. Hot might. Like a fajita. Start streaming now. All right. We are live right now on YouTube.

Awesome. All right, everybody. Thank you all. This is the Ask Junior portion of the show. And we had Austin Cendrick in here, I guess. But we got some great questions that you guys have all sent in on Twitter to Ask Junior. And Hannah's going to tee them up for us. So let's go.

Well, first and foremost, the question that Paula Gunderman asked, as well as pretty much everyone else on Twitter, it seems like, are the Dale Jr. download episodes being televised? Well, this one is. So Mike's got some information here for you. I'm happy to report that this week's episode is going to be on Peacock. It debuts on Peacock Thursday afternoon, March 17th, 6 p.m. The Austin Cendrick episode. And it says Friday, the Al Unser Jr. episode airs. That's 6 p.m. Yeah, all episodes will be available on demand on Peacock. And that also includes last year's shows, which I've already seen, those are there.

Those have been there for a couple weeks. So you can go see all of our season from 2021 right now. Yeah, so you can go to Peacock and you can start watching. You can watch all our past stuff, but you can start watching new episodes this week. We have been recording the episodes this year that we've been doing, up to this point. So those will, those possibly could make TV as well and be available to you,

such as case in point, the Alistair Jr. Uh, interview. Um, but yeah, going forward, everything's going to be on Peacock.

We're excited about that. Um, and, uh, yeah, we feel whole again. So, um,

yeah, hopefully, uh, you guys are going to be enjoying, enjoying, uh, enjoying the TV version of a podcast, but it's an abbreviated version of about a,

you know, an hour and a half long podcast. So, you're going to be missing out on some of the great content if you don't listen to the whole thing. All right. Next one comes from Scott. How are the next-gen cars adjusted during the race? There's no track bar or wedge that can be cranked in now.

Yeah, I mean, there's still ways that they can change wedge and stuff. They have to go under the hood. We saw that somewhere a couple weeks ago where they had to go underneath the hood, actually raise the car up off the ground. I think it might actually been Fontana. with as bumpy as that racetrack is. So there's ways to make adjustments to the cars. It does take a little bit more time.

They can do wedge. You know, it's a, if you think of a traditional shot collar on a coal over spring, it'd be similar to that. But, yeah, I think, you know, they're still able, during pit stops and so forth, they're a little bit more limited on the adjustments they can make in terms of the old car. But during practices and so forth, even as abbreviated as they are, They're still trying front sway bars and all types of things. So there's tons of components that are still similar to the old car that they're changing during these practice sessions.

Obviously, they're not getting a lot of time to really go in and science all this stuff out. So it's going to be a process throughout the year to see what changes are doing what. Because we sit here and talk to Austin Cendrick, and he said the biggest problem for him is a lot of things that he's learned in terms of, some of the technical stuff on the car, like what a right rear spring, more right rear spring might do or what a bigger sway bar might do. All that stuff has to be relearned because it might not apply the same way to this car. You put a bigger front bar. It might do something completely different than what you were expecting it to do. And so, you know, and a lot of the arrow stuff is very foreign to them as well as far as how the car is affected in traffic and so forth.

So it's a learning process for everybody going forward. Matthew, you got some dad? They still have, you've been in one of them. Do they still have the break bias adjustment? Yeah, the drivers can do. Okay, cool. Cranking front brake into them. Next one, Chris Murphy. A question after the DEI show last week.

How did DEI end up with the car numbers it had? Eight is obvious, but what was the connection to one in 15? Well, the 15 I think was dad. Maybe, I'm just going to guess here. I don't really know this for sure. but the connection to the 15 was, I believe, dad's history with that number with Bud Moore. He ran that number when he drove for Bud Moore in 82 and 83.

The one, somebody's going to beat me, somebody's going to do better than me here, but I think Dad wanted the number one because it's the number one. I can't remember any other reason why we would have went after that number, but I think it was because of it, you know, it's the number one. Yeah. There's no like history to it that we have. But I think dad appreciated the, you know, the prominence of the number itself.

Great question. I've never thought about that. I never even thought of that either. Yeah. Kind of going a different direction. I've actually had a couple people ask this in the YouTube chat. Obviously, you have investments in late model racing, but have you, yourself ever thought about going and maybe trying to run the snowball derby?

No. No, man. You know, I, uh, I don't know. You know, I, I, I will probably regret not trying to do some of those things, you know, when I was younger. Yeah, I'm probably going to regret that a little bit or not knowing what going and doing that would be like or feel like or what those, I never drove a super. late model ever. I drove

kind of an outlaw late model at Shady Bowl Speedway. Like the wedge body ones? Yeah. You know, where you could see through the car because they had no rear bumper. So I kind of you know, but I never drove like a left-handed you know, super late model like Concord

or anything like that. So you know, I always looked at, you know, I was to a fault, I was really loyal. So when I got into late model stocks, I was I was like, that's the best, you know, that's the best late model style racing there is. This is better than super's. This is better than pros.

You know, I'm a loyalist. Loyalist and to the fault and thought driving late model stocks was a better experience or better for you, whatever. It's not true. But so I probably steered myself away from driving superers or ever trying them. It's crazy how localized lay model stocks is to the southeast. too, because I didn't even really know about him being from the West Coast until I moved out here. They're only in the Mid-Atlantic part of the country, and that is a unique thing about them, where superers and pros are all over the country, right? And, but yeah.

Speaking of lay model stock, too, did you happen to watch Carson, Quaple, of course, driving the Junior Motorsports car this year? I sure did. Cash a 30K check this weekend at the Cars Tour race at Carraway. That was amazing. And we're excited about Carson. Travis and I never really had a relationship of any kind when we raced against each other. I knew him. He knew me. But we didn't otherwise just, you know, walking by and waving, saying hello in the garage was it.

I'm excited to get to know him better, get to know more about his family. They're racers. They're true racers. It's what they do. It's what they're committed to. He's so entrenched in his son's racing and their futures and what they're doing now. It's admirable. I want to know more.

I want to be involved. It may, you know, when you're around, when you watch him and them work together and go to the race track mill bridge or run their pro or their super late model, wherever they go. It just makes me curious to know more about them and get to know them as people. Carson's a cool kid, quiet, unassuming. He won the biggest late mile race, late mall stock race of his career. You know, this race next to the Martinsville race is maybe one of the best. biggest ones this year, the 30,000 to win car store race at Carraway this past weekend, and he got out and had no clue what he had done, you know. And so I just appreciate how new

and innocent he is to all of it, even though he's a racer and he's got a lot of experience. I mean, what he's doing with us is kind of a new thing, and he did a great job. They pitted a 200-lap race. They pitted at lap 100. You can get two tires. the rest of the field came at lap 150. So he was sitting out there in the lead with 60 laps to go with 50 lap more, 40 lap more laps on his tires. And held him off convincingly, drove so smart at the end. I was so proud of him.

So, you know, there's going to be ups and downs. He's got to learn the late mile stock will drive differently. It'll need different things than what he's used to as far as the super. It won't get him out of trouble as he's. easy as a super wheel with the motor. But he'll figure it out. I think you can drive. And that hair's definitely fun too.

I still got that mullet. Next one is from Brian W. Why don't race cars have speedometers? If NASCAR wants to be precise on pit road speeds, why don't the cars have them? RPM and colored lights just seem so easy to be foolish on. Yeah. Good question.

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we, I bet you, you know, they did have. them at one time back in the 40s and 50s. It was a street car. They basically took a car straight off the assembly line and raced it. So it probably had a speedometer in it. I like the fact they don't because, I mean, gosh, don't make it easier for it.

I'll hold their hand. I mean, let them have to work for it a little bit. Guess that pit road speed. Yeah, we need a good pack. Use a tall bush meltdown after a speeding penalty. Where would you be without that? You know, I feel like that maybe it's time. we revisit that and lose the tack.

You could have a digital tack and speedometer. I don't know. Why not? I'm sure, I mean, with the technology we have, I'm sure they could put the speed on the dash. Of course they could, yeah. Why don't they? You got a logo. There must be a reason.

There must be a reason. I say we have digital rearview mirrors now. I feel like we can have a speedometer. I imagine they probably can put the speed on the dash. They probably could do it right now, and I wonder why they don't. Why don't just go ahead and give them a radio while we're at it? Take the mirrors out.

Mike's like, take the mirrors out. Get rid of the radios. They coddled enough? I mean, come on. Now you're trying to stoke them. Take the right pedal out. Gas only. Flintstone that thing, man.

All right. Another one here is from Izzo. As a big music fan and you are as well, could you name a musician that you'd someday love to have on your show or maybe a few that would come to mind. You're laughing because like you know this, Mike. You do? I don't just for some random idea that he had just thrown at us in a meeting a few months ago that we didn't see coming.

He said he wanted the dude that sings Summer of 69. Who is that? Brian Adams. Out of the blue. Brian Adams. Most out of the blue one. Right. I've always loved his music.

Really? Yeah. I mean, who doesn't like. Who saw that coming? Summer of 69. I mean, it's a great song. If you don't like that song, I don't know. No, no, no.

The song's great. again, if you'd give me 100 guesses on musicians he would take, I did not see Brian Adams anywhere. I am, you know that I've gotten super nostalgic, and so I've always kind of, I really don't want to ask Brian anything other than take us back to when, you know, that was happening to you in your life, right? You've got one of the biggest songs, and it cuts like a knife,

and then he sort of had a little old. then he comes back with the, you know, when they had the, what was Peter, what was the movie? Robin Hood. Oh, yeah. You know, and then he comes back and has these hit songs and he's big again, and then he's going, you know, then he kind of lulls back to where he was. So he's due. He's due for another.

I don't think he's due. I think he ships sailed on him. But I think it'd be cool to have someone who's kind of experienced the highs and lows and reinventing yourself, be it. interesting to hear, you know. Matthew, why haven't you got that? Dear Brian Adams. John Travolta.

In the actor's sense, like, you know, he's Greece, huge. You know, he's got the, what was it, Welcome Back, Cotter, and then he does Greece, and he's this huge thing, right? And then he kind of disappeared. And he comes back with Pulp Fiction. Now he's big again. Does a couple movies. Look who's taught.

What was the, is it Look Who's Talk? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't think so. It was some other. Look who's talking. Is that right? Yes.

It's not like the dad and two kids or what? No, no, no. He was in Leku's talking. But anyhow, like, you know, I just, I'm just. Urban Cowboy. Oh, that's a good one. So he's had all these incredible highs and some lows. You know, how do you deal?

What happens? Why do you end up going, you know, into, you know, why do you, how do you disappear and then come back, right? Because they can. I know it. They can't, I mean, they take a couple years old. Erasmith will be a number. another one because so Aerosmith

right they had the big hits in the 70s they just kind of went away faded into oblivion and then boom they come back and have to say they become one of the biggest things again right how does that happen I don't know but we've got some L.A. people in the room and I'm sitting there throwing glances over there to them just saying hey you know like maybe they

just have Aerosmith in their phone I don't know having that like lightning striking twice is the thing yeah right That happens in all types of entertainment But it's I think it's interesting when Like you're on top of the world

You In a sense maybe this is overstating it a little bit You lose it all And then you back on top of the world Did you think it was ever going to happen again? Give me any racing Is that? A.G. Omdinger

Yeah But I mean we know what happened to him We know why shoot shoot yeah but we know why we know that story yeah but it's cool to yeah I get it I was just what was

I yeah I want to know no give me the racing example of the person that disappeared and we don't know where they went why they went there LW right oh that came back yeah

I don't know yeah I'll have to think about that one I'm prepared to sit on this stream and think about it actually until I come over the answer all I know is yeah Brian Adams I didn't like that idea until you explained it.

Let's say, forget that they, let's just say a racer didn't go away, but they won a huge race, they went a long spell without anything, and then they come back and win a huge race, and that was their win. I thought Trevor Bain's not far from that. Yeah, sure. Trevor Bain's very similar. Yes. So that's a great one.

That is a good one, actually. Very good. That's a great analogy because Trevor goes away. A lot of people don't know where he went. A lot of people don't know what he's been up to the last couple of years, and now he's back in a big way, you know, literally running right up front. like he's never left. So the problem is, you've got guys that do it in different areas,

but to go away completely is tough. Yeah, it is. Anyways, to me, that underdog story, the underdog story, the redemption story, that's the hook. Only on Ask Jr. do we go from Brian Adams to Trevor Bain? And they have something in common. Anytime you get some Arrowsmith, I'm good. All right.

Last question here comes from Dustin Harding from our chat. We often see drivers like to race in multiple disciplines of racing nowadays, getting in just about anything they can. Do you think we'll see a day where Kyle Larson will try and run the Indy 500? Yeah, I mean, he's talked about it. I think that he'll get to a point in his life when he starts to really take stock in his age and his, you know, how long can, if he's going to run the Indy 500, he wants to run it to win it.

And he needs to do that in a certain period of time before he ages himself. out right and his chances of being competitive in a competitive car and all that goes away so um i think that he definitely has plenty time to worry about this he doesn't have to be in a hurry but if he wants to do it he'll eventually start to really take some serious stock in making that choice and doing the things that put him in the position to be able to do that so i think if i'm if we're betting i put my money on him actually absolutely running it maybe more than once i think that his The only thing that gets in the way really is the manufacturers, sponsorships, conflicts like that. Those are the only limiting factors for a driver in today's era of motorsport.

You know, it's not years ago you could drive one make and then hop in another make and not, you know, you can work it out. You could massage everything to keep everybody happy nowadays. Like he can't, it's got to be a Chevy. It's got to be something aligned with Chevrolet or it's got to be something aligned with his partners and getting all that right is sometime impossible. That's the biggest roadblock. Alex Zinardi.

Disappeared? Alex Zanardi. It's on top of the IndyCar world. Has that bad crash in 2000. Loses his legs. He's out of the motorsports world completely. A few years later, he's competing in Paralympics and bicycles.

and then he's back in a race car. Yeah. Maybe. But I feel like he stayed in headlines. Yeah, he didn't disappear, but we also know why. Trevor moved to Tennessee and opened a coffee shop. Yeah. It was a good coffee shop.

Good attempt. I like your... Trying. Trying. All right. Well, that is it this week for Ask Junior. All right, everybody. I appreciate all the great questions.

Some good questions, man. Some thought-provoking questions. And it's been a good show. It has been. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you what. Austin Cendrick,

didn't know what to expect with him, but was pleasantly surprised. And, yeah. You know, Austin is, he's been around, it seems like a long, long time. I was really surprised at how deep his history goes into sport on both sides of his family. He, you know, that's got to make you appreciate him, knowing that he's invested, and he's, you know, he didn't just show up on the scene, and here he is. He's been around since he was a little boy, wanting to be a race car driver, and he's worked really hard. I mean, he puts in the effort every single day to make it work. And it was great to learn about him.

You know, I've kind of, we've raced against him here at junior murder sports. He's been tough on the racetrack to beat in the Xfinity Series. Now he's moved on the Cup Series, but I knew nothing really outside of that. So it's kind of cool to get to know him as a person. And, yeah, won a Daytona 500. Says it still hasn't sunk in. I know, right? Yeah, it's a, you know, when you're that young, man, it's hard to really.

Hey, as we wind this down, I do want to mention real quick for people that are still going to be listening to us here. We will be announcing new dates for the ultimate experience this week. We've got dates coming, and I want to put that out there, so just be looking for an announcement. What's the ultimate experience, man? Well, we wanted to try to go to a cup race and do a luxury suite and give fans and listeners of our content here a chance to experience the luxury suite. and all that comes with it, we put together a really good package, and we did it at Las Vegas, and it was an amazing experience for even me, Brett, Freddie, T.J., Jeff Burton, stopped by. It was just fantastic, and so we've got some stuff coming out this week.

We're going to be doing it again, and I will be telling you guys the races and events and dates here in the next few days. Awesome. Yeah, I would like to experience that. Yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. It looked like it from social media. I was happy that that was a success. All right, everybody, it's been a good show. I'm glad that I'm glad we got Austin in here, and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Have a great week. Thanks for all the great questions, and we got a hell of a guess next week. Can we, could we tell me? Oh, no, I say we, no, we got to like tease them all week. Hey, two Daytona 500s in a row. There you go. Two Daytona 500 winners in a row.

When the feed put out the teaser about who this one was, I saw the name for next week in this week. That might be too much of us. He gave it away. No. Gave it away. No. Yeah, too easy, Mike.

All right, y'all. Take it easy. Check out Dirty Moe Media. Check out Dirty Mo Media. On Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.