The Dale Jr. Download - 380 - Ricky Carmichael: The GOAT

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

"The GOAT" Ricky Carmichael sits down with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis for a fascinating discussion about his decorated career as the greatest motocross and supercross, rider of all-time, his brief go at NASCAR and much more.Dale Jr. admits that when Carmichael enters a room, the room changes. Ricky brings much more than an impressive resume to the Bojangles Studio. He brings honesty and openness about the ups and downs of his career. From dirt to riches, he details his humble beginnings in Florida and how a 5-year-old went from riding a three-wheel bike to becoming a 2-wheel racing icon. Carmichael admits, he didn't race for himself, but his parents. They were the motivation he used to succeed in his early riding days. He reveals that for years, he actually hated dirt bikes.Racing MX / SX takes more than just God-given talent, it takes bravery. Dale Jr. and Mike get Ricky to talk about the mindset that it takes to make it in such a wild sport. At first came failure, than a dedication to his craft that led him to finally beat the great Jeremy McGrath in 2001. Then, in 2002 and 2004, Carmichael did the unthinkable. He was perfect. 24 wins in 24 races, for two seasons, solidified his status as a legend of the game. But in between the success' was heartache, tough business decisions and injuries, that threatened it all. Hear how Carmichael raced through a torn ACL to try to progress his racing career.RC talks about his current life as a broadcaster and how the passionate and vocal Supercross fanbase makes his job even more of a challenge. He opens up about the business side from the various perspectives he's had as a rider, a broadcaster and a team owner in the MX/SX ranks. Do present-day riders get paid what they should? "Someone's making money," says Carmichael.Ricky's retirement form motorcycle racing in 2007 sent shockwaves across the sport. But it wasn't the end of his racing career, he just added two wheels! A conversation with Kasey Kahne and a test session in a Ray Evernham Late Model at Hickory Speedway in North Carolina, led to the start of his Stock Car Racing career. Ricky details why he made the decision to sign with Ginn racing over the Joe Gibbs development program. The move put him running Super Late Models in his home state of Florida under the tutelage of NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin. When the Ginn team collapsed, the next move put him in an ARCA racecar for the legendary Ken Schrader's team. Their success led to a call from Kevin Harvick and a shot at the big leagues in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In three years he racked up four top-five finishes in the Trucks and a handful of Xfinity Series starts.With long-time partner Monster Energy, the next step in his career was just one signature away. The plan had Carmichael splitting the seat with Kyle Busch in a Kyle Busch Motorsports Xfinity Series car. Just how did two separate Busch brother controversies lead to the collapse of a deal in the final hour? For the first time, Carmichael opens up about what happened and how it pretty much ended his NASCAR career.OPEN SEGMENTBefore Ricky Carmichael came into the studio, The Download welcomed Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks to the table. They touch on the sudden success of the new team. But, what Marks really came for, was to reveal the Darlington throwback scheme for both of his NASCAR Cup Series cars. The announcement and execution of the liveries had Dale Jr. breathless.ASKJR PRESENTED BY XFINITYHannah Newhouse brings fan questions from Xfinity Twitter and the Dirty Mo Media YouTube about: JRM's 1,2,4,5 finish and how Door Bumper Clear is the Kyle Busch of Motorsports media. Monday Night Racing and how it has led to an increase in "wreck avoidance". How to achieve a Throwback Eclipse in NASCAR How Ross the Renter is a bona fide contender for the child. Oh, and Dale gives insight into Chastain's post-race talk with Martin Truex Jr. A possible DEI racecar graveyard Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirtymo Media. They've been wondering how we made it to the top, yeah, we worked for. Ain't nobody give us nothing so we worked for a dirty because we got it out the mud, who we worked for it. I never let you take it from us because we work for. I came from the hardworking side of the track, pipe racing. Take it from us because we worked for. About a hard work for my saxophone.

You drive with a... I don't know, with a sincerity. You're real serious. Hey, everybody. Dale Jr. back again. Another episode right here in the Bojangles studio. The Dale Jr. download. Mike Davis, my co-host, he's here.

Matthew Dillner. Hannah, everybody is in the house. We're going to have a great show for you. Ash Jr. coming up later. We got Ricky Carmichael as our guest today. that's going to be exciting to learn about his career, Mike. But also a big surprise, man. Our open segment is going to be a little bit different today.

Yeah, we've got Justin Marks going to show up, and he's got to unveil something for us. We haven't seen this. So I want to see what he's got. Yeah, Justin Marks has got a big surprise for us. And so why don't we just go ahead and get started and bring Justin in? What's up, man? How you doing?

Have a seat. Throw on that headset. You have, I bet. is he winning. I mean, it's a good type of busy to be. Yeah. So Justin, man, I appreciate you coming in here today. We want to get you on for the whole show so we can talk about all the amazing things that trackhouse has been doing. I mean, you've got to be on a high right now that's unbelievable. It's, I mean, it's what I tell people is like, I didn't start, I didn't start this team, start this project to run 15th or 20th. I mean, we started to try to build a winning organization.

It's just that the spectrum of time has been. reduced drastically. It's just happened really, really quickly. I don't think it's ever happened before. I can't really think of another scenario where a team came in out of the gate. I mean, I know that every team that's ever been created in this sport is a collection of people that have been in the industry a while. There's nobody that comes in with a crew chief that's never crew chief before and a car chief that's never car chief in NASCAR before.

I know you've got parts and pieces of different organizations and people with a lot of history, but it's never really came together so quickly. Well, I mean, I think that's the key. I mean, there's two things at play here. One is the fact that we've got, you know, a collective experience of like hundreds of years in this industry, right? It's like, it started with Ty. I mean, with Ty basically was like, you know,

we have to create our core group of people, you know, public relations, sponsor relations, management, things like this, just to make sure that we hit the ground with experience and we know what we're doing. And then it's, honestly, it's, I believe really it's the promise of this new car. I mean, I think this new car, evens the playing field and I'm a huge believer in the fact that we can be successful with this car if we build an organization that's where like the culture is right and the mood is right because we can

no longer beat everybody with with superior equipment we can't design a car that's just fundamentally faster than other cars on the racetrack so it's about just how we execute and that's like been the MO since day one you mentioned tie and tie's done an amazing thing I know he's been around the sport and I worked with him at DEI for many years we he was part of a very very successful organization at DEI he helped build Michael Walter Bracin really from the ground up into a winning playoff caliber organization and it's really in helped you do the same thing. Yeah I mean you know what's so valuable is is his experience is all the experience doing that like he knows you know he's won and he's lost and he's succeeded and he's failed and now he's

sort of at a point in his life where he can be very reflective and say these are the things that worked in my in my career and these are the things that didn't work and now we can apply those to trackhouse where at his age is sort of the last big project in the sport that he's going to do so i think i've got the best version of ty norris that's ever existed right now which is which is really really great for track house but um but yeah i mean having that i mean he showed up in 90 90 91 when he was working for Winston i mean so so i mean he's been he's been in the trenches for through multiple eras of the sport and be able to have that kind of experience and that that sort of history and knowledge base to lean on has been great for trackhouse but he's also very open-minded when i went to him with

the vision of what we're trying to do and that's create a brand that's bigger than any one person to try to look different and do do something you thought of things in a different way um that resonated with him and he was excited about it because i think he like all of us you know recognize it right now in the sports the great time to do that and you just mentioned it you look different and we me and mike were talking about uh y'all's paint schemes this year they're right they're out of they're outside they're out of the box and i know this new car kind of lends itself to a lot of new freedoms and stuff in design where the number's been moved and so forth. The sponsors have different placement. And it's really allowed teams to think differently

about how their cars appear on the racetrack. But nobody, I think, is doing a better job than trackhouse. Where's the influence come from for some of the explosiveness in some of y'all's paint schemes? Well, I mean, I think, you know, it started with me sort of just, you know, putting a directive out into the company and just saying, you know, challenge everything, right? And things that typically don't resonate or people don't think about actually can make big differences like the haulers, right? Like the haulers tend to be kind of an afterthought, right? It's just like it is, you know, our hauler assets, something that's in sponsorship agreements. But for some people, yes, for some people know, it is a billboard going down the highway.

But it wasn't really something that we were selling. And so I said, well, let's look at the haulers and let's do something completely different. And I spent way too much money wrapping those haulers. I mean, I bought, you know, a lot of square footage of this reflective stuff. But the thing is, is that when they roll into Daytona, that's what everybody was talking about. And so it's kind of like the aggregate of all those little things added up to really kind of creates this, this thing for a trackhouse that just different stands out. It looks different. And when it comes to the schemes in the cars, you know, one thing that we've got a great designer and Kyle Sykes that works for us who has been in the sport for a long time. And, you know, we go to our part. And, you know, we go to

our partners and we fight with we fight to get him as much artistic license as that's really cool here yeah yeah it's so cool to hear and I want to I'm glad you mentioned his name because I think some of the unsung heroes in our sport are these designers especially now because you in years past you know you look at the cars on this table you know there's not they're cool there's some great look at race cars that we've seen in the history of the sport but today it's almost a competitiveness or a competitive atmosphere to really bring something special, to really set yourself apart.

And these designers have become quite valuable. We have people, we have Ryan here at Ryan Williams in our building. And I think he's one of our key pieces that helps us really set ourselves apart, at least get noticed right, in a very crowded field. I mean, optics are hugely important, especially in this day and age. I mean, at the end of the day, I look at it and I go, like, We're a marketing company that happens to race, right? We're not a racing team who tries to figure out how to market and get sponsorships.

We are fundamentally a marketing company. That comes down to building a brand and it comes down to the optics of everything and how everything looks. And to your point, you know, nowadays, we have this incredible forum of creativity out there with ir racing and with all these people that have these templates and these kids and these people are able to get super creative. So the addressable market of designer talent is an order of magnitude bigger than it's ever been because anybody with some artistic ability and some ideas considered a computer. and create something looks pretty darn real. And, you know, that's what Kyle was doing.

He was doing a lot of iraicing stuff. He entered a design contest and won and was able to get on a truck or something like that. And that's amazing. And that's how we found them. About 25% of my social media on Twitter, what I pay attention to is designers. And a lot of these guys aren't actually hired or working with teams. They're just aspiring. Or guys that just have creativity and are just like, hey, look, what I think this is cool?

You know, and it's pretty amazing what's going on. there. There's a lot of, there's a lot of opportunity. I already have our 2023 haulers and pit boxes done. And I'm just, I'm just because it's a whole another, whole another concept, a whole other idea that's going to be awesome. Take that Penske and Hendrick, better step up. Pinskies are, you know, that's a great, that's a great example. Pinsky's had, Pinsky has an identifiable look. That's right. A brand, an identity that's, that's, that you know it, right? And I think that that's important. Well, you, you've got something cool you wanted to bring to the table today. So

Let's talk about that. Yeah. So, you know, huge fan of the history of the sport. I think it's important for these teams, even the real new ones like Trackhouse, to be stewards of the history of the sport and to help, you know, do little things to preserve the history of the sport. So we had this opportunity of both cars at Darlington this year, and we're like, okay, what can we do throwback? We've had a number of years now with the throwback that it's kind of getting a little bit more difficult to think about. We were just talking about it. I mean, at one point early, and even before, like, last year, a track house, I was like, man, we need to throw back something that's not even racing, like, do an old Wayland Jennings car or Johnny.

Like, just throw, like, an American cultural throwback, right? Anyway, we've got these two Chevroletes. We've got great partners in Coca-Cola, and Ty and I were talking about, you know, how to do something impactful and meaningful. We've obviously got the one car and the 99, and Ty told me a story about a shoe and told me a story about Dale Jr.'s first time in a cup car. and we started talking about it and we came up with an amazing two-car throwback to your first time in a cup car race against your father in Japan

and here to show you what we're going to do. Let's see it. History will be made here at Japan when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. race against each other for the first time. Look at Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his dad right behind him father

and then his tire tracks. Dale Earnhardt Jr. No, Air. Earnhardt Senior. Don't call anybody little in this one day. This is one of the battles everybody's been waiting for. Earnhardt picks it up another notch. Held him off.

Oh, about that. Oh, my gosh. The one car almost takes my breath, because it's the car. It is, you know, when you do throwbacks, we were talking earlier. It's really unique. It's almost like an eclipse when you can do the sponsor, the colors, and the number. That's right.

And the right font and everything. And that's the car. That's the car. That is the car. Yep. And, man, it's pretty special. And you're in a unique position to include both cars, right? Yeah, that's right.

So it's a, exactly. It's such a special thing that'll, I don't know if it'll, if you'll ever have that all come together like that again. It's, you know, we, Kyle and, like, we had to, like, they, we couldn't find the polar bear artwork. Oh. And we had to recreate it.

Yeah. And so we had to go on the computer and completely recreate it and look at all these old pictures and everything. So, I mean, to your point, that one car is, I mean, that is the car. Car is about $185,000 more expensive now than that one was. You're right. So when you took this idea to Coke, what was their reaction? They loved it. I mean, yeah, they absolutely loved.

Coke's been a great partner of ours. They're a big supporter of Daniels. They're big supporter of Trackhouse. And, you know, Coke's been a big part of the sport for a long time. obviously. And, you know, for them to be to be a part of a throwback to really go back to, you know, look at themselves in the history of the sport and, and just kind of see a modern day visualization of the commitment that they made to your family, I think they were super excited about it. Yeah. You want to talk about lunar eclipse like stuff. Having a sponsor that was still around 24

years later and giving you the opportunity to have the same sponsor on the car. That's more like a Haley's comic. Is that what that is? I got it. All right. We're going even more. We're going very astronomical here. So it's great for us as track house to be able to do something that's not just, not just finding an old cool car, but one that's actually got a story and it's got historical significance and it's important. And, you know, I've, I raised, you know, we were track houses out of RCR last year. And I heard that Andy Petrie, you know, still owned Harry Gantz, Mr. September car.

And he had it up in his barn, Nashville, North Carolina, I say, if you ever want to sell that thing, you call me first. And about three months later, he called me. said, I got it if you want to get it. So, track house bought it. So it's sitting in, and it's turnkey, and it's race ready, and it's the car, the old old school bandit, and it's sitting in our lobby, and I'm going to go take

laps at Darlington right before the cup race on Sunday. What? Yeah. You got to be kidding me. Which I'm super pumped about. I bet. Yeah. So Fox's going to come put a camera in it, and I got a helmet being, school bandit, helmet being done. Oh my God. And the racer and me went back on racing reference to figure out what the poll time in 1991

for a darlington race was. I was like, I'd probably need to slow that roll. You're going for it. You're going for the record. You need to get with Clint because the other week, when he drove the Davy car, he had a skull-bandet helmet, so you should get with him, get that. Man, that's going to be special. Yeah, well, thank you. No, I mean, I appreciate your – I appreciate – you know, I don't know you that well. We haven't spent a lot of time around each other. But I want to say that everything that I see about you, everything that I'm learning about you, I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.

Obviously, what you're bringing to the sport as an owner, and the opportunities you're creating for people in your business and throughout the sport, the way you're changing the mindset and the thinking, and you're creating real opportunities for future owners, a pathway or a blueprint. And that's a pretty honorable thing. But also your appreciation for the history.

I mean, it's important that we kind of stay linked to that in some way, you know, and acknowledge it and celebrate it. and the fact that you really do appreciate that means a lot to me. Well, thank you. I'm just living a dream. I love this sport more than just about anything in the whole world, and that fire burns as hot today as it did when I was playing the hot wheels on my grandpa's carpet watching races on T&N from North Wilkesboro. I mean, I just, I love it, and I've always wanted to make a difference in the sport

and do something. I tried to do it behind the wheel, and that became apparent that that wasn't going to happen, and I had to find a place in the sport where I could make a difference and try to build a legacy. So I'm just a lucky person. Well, I think that the stuff you did behind the wheel was the foundation for what you are today. So I would be very proud of all of it. I want to get you in this room when you can.

And we need to talk about how you did all this. Yeah, let's do it. We'd love to do that. But for now, we just want to thank you. This is honor for me. I'm very touched. It's going to make a lot of Earnhardt fans. Del Earnhardt fans, very happy to see both.

those cars out on the racetrack and you guys have been knocking out of the park and performance so I'm sure they'll be up toward the front for a lot of the fans to see on TV be pretty cool put one of those things in victory lane you know what would mean more take your shoe off and throw it out oh yeah Daniel to throw it to be to be correct Daniel would have to throw his shoe at Ross that's right after the race at some point in a in a rented modular home a spot it's about to have the size of this room. Let's do it.

That'd be quite the optic. Do it. Thank you. You got it, buddy. Thank you. Justin Marks on the Dale Jr. Download. As usual, I'm pretty excited to have Ally help us bring in the guest portion of our show. Having allies and connecting with great allies has always been really important to me throughout

my career and continues to be important to me today. And we got a great guest coming in the show. Ricky Car Michael. It's going to be pretty awesome, Michael. I love when we do the non-NASCAR guys, but hey, he has a little bit of a NASCAR career. I think a lot of us, you know, kind of think about him as the goat and the greatest of all time in motorcycles and racing and motocross. But he did race stock cars for a while, so we can tap into that just a little bit. That's right.

He had a little bit of success, but he is the greatest of all time when it comes to that motorcycle and that super cross. And, man, we're filling our Supercross vibes this week because you've got the championship on CNBC this weekend. Can't wait to watch that. But if you're going to have the vibes, bring in the goat, right? The goats, who you got to have and we've got to hear about it, right? He's got a lot to tell us. We've got a lot of questions. I can't wait to have him.

Well, the great thing about that nickname is, you know, he earned it. That wasn't something that he gave himself. Right. And, you know, you got, nicknames are only good when they're earned. They're given to you by the fans or by the industry or by your peers. And this one is certainly as well deserved. I mean, the guys just had an incredible career. And now as an analyst, you know, he's kind of carving out his own identity

and brings a ton of passion. And still, you know, even after all these years, just loves what he does. And I think that that really matters to people. Listen, if you go two seasons with perfection, like you don't lose a race, you are in the conversation of goat. Then you add in all his championships, he is the goat. There's no close second.

Let's bring him in. You want to? Bricky car, Michael. Let's bring him in the studio. There he is. All right. What's up, guys? They have me hemmed up out there.

What's happening? You doing all right? What's shaking, guys? Man, we're just getting through another day. How about you? I'm all good. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course.

This is awesome. Thanks for being here. Yeah, yeah. I hadn't been up here in a while. We were talking. The last time I was here, I was at Hammerhead filming a comedic gasket's commercial. Yeah. So we were there, and then that's the last time.

That's been a while. Yeah. That's the last time you've been in the, even in the area, like North Carolina, Charlotte area. And you used to be up here quite a bit, I imagine, when you're racing the stock car stuff. Yep. So where's home? Tallahassee, Florida. How do you like that?

It's good. It's all right. You know, it's, I always tell people. any much happening there if you don't go to Florida State or you ain't in politics. Yeah. Yeah. He's got a couple of dealerships down there. Yeah, you do.

I know. I've bought an escalade from there a couple years ago. Yeah, they have great customer care, actually. I love it. They have great customer care, so that's nice. Yeah, that's kind of the M.O. at Indricado. Yeah.

How awkward would it have been, though, if it was not good customer care, and he's at the table and he's like, I've got to talk to you about that later. We have to take care. They're good. No, they're good and take good care of you. And take good care of me. So what are you doing these days with your time? So I'm an analyst for Motorcross or Supercross, Monster Energy Supercross series on NBC.

So that takes up, let's see here, that's 17 weeks of the beginning of the year. So you know how that goes. We get one weekend off. Normally it's around Easter. But it's not bad. You know, it's every Saturday. We fly out Fridays, fly home Sunday, a couple of production meetings. you know how it goes with the NASCAR stuff and being an analyst.

So I like it, though. At first, it was tough. It really was. It was harder than what I had thought it was going to be. And our fans are pretty brutal. I always tell people I like our fans in Supercross are, I mean, from a respect standpoint. And I love them, but man, they'll, they'll tear you a new one. Yeah.

What were some of the things that you found challenging? Well, first of all, I really didn't know what my job was to, like, like the second year I went in there. I was like announcing the races. Yeah. And yeah. And then I remember I was watching Sunday night football and Collinsworth and the back and forth that he had going. I'm like, oh, okay, I just do the how and the why.

So then I let my play-by-play guy, you know, do the 30,000 foot view. And I'm like, okay, well, this is how the guy passed him and this is what he did. And then, and that was, that was, once I learned that, like I didn't have to announce the race then it wasn't as quite as challenging did you want to announce the race was that like did you did you did you did was the play-by-play something that was interesting yeah yeah I think it was I I enjoyed doing it yeah I enjoyed it it just kind of came natural to me so the the one thing also that is challenging about an animal being an analyst for Supercross is the time how everything happens so fast I mean you know you have the The track is probably 50 seconds, super crosses are.

So, I mean, it's shorter than stock car tracks for the most, or longer than stock car tracks, a mile and a half miles. But you have, you know, there's six lanes on a track, you know, and things are happening so fast. And, you know, there's no pit stops. And the timing is really hard to get what you need to get out and say enough so that the casual fan is knowing what I'm talking about, that's still to this day the challenging part for me.

It's tough. I agree. I find a challenge in trying to explain something so that everyone can understand it. But there are people that want the nuts and bolts, right? And you've got to try to give them a little bit of that too. And we are my boothmates, we have that conversation about, are we getting into the weeds here? Are we getting too far into the...

See, I like... I love when y'all get in the weeds because, you know, I have a little bit more experience than maybe the casual man does. And I like to know your insight and like, man, what was he thinking when he was in that moment? And then I try to put myself like it would have been nice to have known that if I was in that moment. And sometimes I'll do that on our broadcasts, but it's so hard. And then Felt Motorsports, who are the producers of Supercross, you know, they really want us to get at a ground level. You know, we're trying to broadcast to the people that have never won a super cross race. To the point is like, hey, that Suzuki, that yellow Suzuki or that blue Yamaha.

And then going, making full circle back to the fans, that's when they really tear some new ones. Like, oh, yeah, we don't know that Yamaha's blue. And, you know, it's just stuff like that. That's the negative part why I don't like it. I was going to ask that. What is the criticism typically from fans that are watching? And are they criticizing your broadcasting? So that is, how do you handle it?

Does it affect you? No, it doesn't. It doesn't affect me. It doesn't. It's frustrating. I wish that I wish they wouldn't be so critical, you know. I'm not perfect by any means, but I feel like I bring some good insight. And I wish that they would respect, whether it's me, whoever it might be.

I mean, they tear us up. And it's just, I mean, if you say one wrong word, boom, they're on you. Oh, yeah. Sometimes I'll have a great broadcast. And then I'll see where somebody said, hey, you called time. Ty gives, you know, Ty Dillon, right? Yeah. We heard that.

We heard you make that mistake. Yeah. Same thing. I'm like, well, yeah, okay, I screwed up. For a freaking both named Ty. You're running 100 miles an hour, right? Yeah. In your mind and you're just spitting everything out.

The last one was, and this is where I love social media until I don't. So we're in Foxborough last weekend, a weekend before. We're just in Denver. So before Denver. And the dirt was like, you know, like they were calling it like moon, moon dirt, you know. So I'm like, well, and Diffy was my play by play guy that weekend. I'm like, Diff, I said, listen, man, I've never been to the moon. But if I did, I could imagine this is, it's probably, this appears to be like moon dirt from what I've seen on TV.

I mean, the broadcast wasn't even over. And there's memes and they had me an astronaut suit on the moon and all that stuff. I mean, just, I was like, well, what do you? do and I tried to make light of it, you know, but it's fun. I've been enjoying it. I hope that NBC and FFEL continue their partnership, and I'd love to, love to keep doing it. I thought that I would never travel as much as I'm doing now with just the analyst stuff, just because when I retired from Supercross and Motocross, I said, I'm never going to travel this much, you know. I'm working harder not driving. Right. That's what I found. Yeah, because you can't tell no to people.

I mean, you can't, but you can. Yeah, but you don't. Yeah, I know, right. Absolutely. Yeah. It sucks, but it's great. Y'all just air everything out you need to air out, but broadcast and stuff. This is the place to do it right here.

We can finish each other. Yeah, I mean, I was like, there ain't no way I'm traveling, but here I am. You know what I mean? So it's funny. Sometimes I'll post on my Instagram, so with budgets and everything, you know, super cross budgets, a lot different than NASCAR budget. I'm assuming on the TV side. But anyhow, I don't get upgradable fares, you know, so I'm back in the common man's seat, you know, and I'm okay with that.

It takes me back to my roots, grew up from nothing. But it's tough sometimes, you know, because when things were good, I was chartering and all that stuff and I was racing, and it was worth it. There's no doubt. I think it helped my career and helped me get a few more years down the line, just from being able to be home a day earlier and leave a day earlier from the track or whatever it might be. But yeah, it's fun to kind of go back in time and realize where you came from and people love it. Like, oh, man, you should be first class and blah, blah, blah. You're home. Diffy's always like, you've got to step up your contract game, man.

I'm like, listen. Honestly, I think that that's a sign of good character, somebody that can be in either position, right? I mean, I feel like that some of my happiest days in my life were some of my more simplest times, It was like when I was a dealership service mechanic. You know, I wasn't making $20,000 a year, but things were simple and easy and I had fun. And I always felt like that if I had to go back, I could do it. And I've always trying to not keep that too far away, right? And so that ability to make those adjustments because the money train ends.

It does. It don't last forever. A friend of mine that used to racing the Cup Series, him and his wife said that this past week. The money train comes to an end. You better be able to make those adjustments. Exactly. When we're doing well and we're winning races, championships and we're in our heyday, you know, you can just, you don't really have any worries. But then when that when that pay train stops and you still continue to have that lifestyle of what you have when you're winning all these races, it dries up real quick. Yeah. And luckily for me and how I was raised and all that stuff, I, you know, I was able to scale it back. And, you know, there's something to be said for, I always tell people this.

I'd always tell people with this, but I mention it sometimes. Some of my great friends in Tallahassee that, you know, they just got a normal nine to five job. They're happy. You know, they're content. They know what they're going to have every single year. And they're just rolling on through life, man. And they're enjoying themselves. And there's something to be said for that.

Sure. So let's start back. Where were you born? I was born in Clearwater, Florida. I was born in 1979. Good year. Yeah. So what was the connection to?

motorcycles. My cousins would ride once in a while. My dad was really close with their dad, Jason Overstreet actually, and his late brother, they were riding. And my dad was like, just recreational? Yeah, racing locally also. Yeah. And Dade City, Florida, that was where I did my first race. Race there, the first couple of years of my motocross career. My dad got me a motorcycle in 1985 on Valentine's Day of all things. And he got me this. this Yamaha Trisinger. Y'all might have seen them back in the day, but they were those three-wheelers

that there would be outside of a grocery store and you put 25 cents in and you get on it and the thing would just be like you're riding a wave. You know, like a blue one with a red, or a blue one with a black seat and like a yellow one with a red seat or vice versa. And so I started riding locally, you know, around Central Florida,

where I grew up and started racing locally. then started racing regionally, then nationally. And yeah, my amateur career, so basically from 85 until I turned pro in 97 was my first season. It was every single weekend. We were traveling somewhere, South Georgia, North Georgia, North Florida, anywhere around the southeast. We were going and racing. How old were you? I was five years old.

Five. Yeah, I was five years old when we started. At what time. in your life, is it reasonable to start looking at you? What age, I guess, is it reasonable to start looking at a rider and go, he's got something special? Yeah, eight years old, I would say. Yeah, when I was eight years old, I signed my first contract with the manufacturer, Kalasaki.

It was funny. I still got it. My mom still has it. I got $300 parts allowance. That was my first contract with Kalasaki. And I was with Calasagi, basically, from my eight years old until I was 21 through 21. I ended up leaving them at the end of 2001. But they had a great amateur program, one of the best amateur programs.

What's great about it? What makes the program good? Well, just their learning process and how they took care of their riders, their amateur riders, and everything about their development program. So you guys know how that side of things are. their development program was awesome and then you could segue into their pro team if you were doing well enough so they just had the whole thing going on what does take care of drivers mean you know how the support the amount of support you get whether it's how many bikes you get parts you get

think yeah resources like that so yeah I signed my first contract with them when I was like eight years old and we're we're traveling all over the place we're hitting all the big amateur nationals there's probably five, six major amateur nationals a year, but you also can race every other weekend, like regionally and stuff like that. Next thing you know, shoot, I'm getting 10, 12 bikes a year for free, you know. And then as I go to the race, the manufacturer are actually bringing my race bikes. So we're just showing up. Help me.

I've watched off and on all my life. I've seen motocross. And I've always wondered, as I've seen, you know, guys like you and Jeremy. and Stewart and others kind of come and dominate and then somebody else rises to the top. What is it about the individual that's making a difference? Like, how are you better than that guy that's running 15th? I had a gift and I don't know what it was, but I knew at a very young age, and realized at a very young age the sacrifice my parents were making for me.

And it was basically fire or flight. and I played baseball, like Little League and stuff, and I really loved that to me. I still love it to this day. I remember my mom and dad telling me after one of my baseball games, like, okay, you've gotten to the point where you're doing well in racing and you're doing well over here. We don't care what you do, but you need to pick one because we can't afford to do both. And whichever one you pick, you're going to do it right or you're not going to do it at all. So that mentality, doing it right, not doing it all, I end up picking dirt bikes.

not because I thought it was cool. And in fact, I used to be embarrassed. Like when I was 10, 11, 12, 13, going through school and all that stuff, people say, what do you do? I'm like, I ride motorcycles. I just, it wasn't a cool thing back then like it is now. And I just, I was just, I had this gift of, you know,

knowing what my parents had done and I could see. And so basically, I just, I raced for them. I don't even think I raced, I didn't race for myself. I really, I really didn't. When I would win, yeah, I was happy for myself, but I was, I was more happy for them. And really, from that young age, I just, we went to win. Yeah.

We went to win or do your best. And most luckily, my best was we were winning most of the time. But, yeah. But when you're on the track, you know, and technique and all those things. Like how does one guy, and I know it's probably that this it factor, you possess an ability. You know, guys, we talk in stock car racing, the guy just has raw speed

or he has a great feel or great car control, and Kyle Bush can sort of run a car on the ragged edge where another guy can beat him some days, but he can't get to that edge all the time. I could run that edge. I just had that need and the ability to go a little bit harder into the corner. And, you know, just being hard-headed. Some bravery?

Yeah, bravery. And not to the point where I was stupid. Right. But, you know, like, damn it, you ain't beating me into this corner. And then you're not going to beat me coming off of this corner. And, you know, for the start, you know, I'm going to beat you there. I'm going to do everything I can. not not not to be cocky at all but i just i was it was more out of stubbornness yeah that makes

sense i think most normal people have that uh that their fear factor sort of kicks in at uh like a 70 or something if we were to apply a scale to it whereas the people with the instincts where that fear factor doesn't really kick in until an 80 or an 85 and they know where to still be able to keep it in control and i think that's what sets apart the greats right instinctually they can go further before the normalcy of a human kicks in. 100%. That is like people would often come up to me and say, man, you almost crashed. Your bike was stepped out so far?

I'm like, was it really? I said, I don't remember feeling that. And that's to your point. Someone that would shut off at 70% fear factor, you know, and I'm willing to go to 85, whatever it might be. That's what gets you. And then you guys know at that level makes it. big difference and that maybe that's how it was it is for Kyle or guys that drive on the edge.

Yeah. What, so you talked about the bikes being with, being with Calasaki for all those years. What deter, I mean, are, do the bikes and their performance ebb and flow as far as the manufacturers? Because, you know, we see it in like F1's a great example where McLaren's got the upper hand for many years and, you know, somebody will develop a new car, Ferrari or whoever, right? And we have it also, I guess, in, in stock cars with the organization. where Hendrick is on top for a while.

They seem to be the dominant team last year, and then another team will come in and have a run. Are the manufacturers pretty much straight equal, or is there times when, man, I'm on this bike, but this guy, he's got this bike, and he's got an advantage. Yeah. So, yeah, they go, you know, they kind of rotate a little bit. Now, with how precise tooling and dime is now and machinery,

everything's much more efficient and close. So that definitely helps things. Bikes are a lot closer. You can get on a Kalasaki. You can win. You can get on a KTM. You can win. You can get on a Suzuki.

You can win. You can get on a Honda. You can win. They both do things really well. They all have some things that they could be a little bit better at. But for the most part, nowadays they're all good enough to win on. And some have maybe have their advantages, but you can get on any bike and win. Give me some examples of the...

of what you do to a bike to make it handle. Okay, so I feel like, I'm gonna try to parallel this for you. Imagine like a big block, how you just, they're so like throaty and torquey and you put the power to the ground and you get on something light and, you know, like an F1 car be like, you feel like you'd be riding on ice. Yeah. For me, I feel like when you're able to have an engine package that you can put the power to the ground, it's gonna make the,

the suspension handle well. It's going to make the chassis feel good. So that was kind of like, and every rider is different. You know, some guys like more top end, some guys like low RPM torque, which is what I liked. I like my stuff to be really snappy. I love to have a lot of bottom end. As far as setup goes, chassis-wise, some guys like the bike to set nice and neutral. Some guys, we call it choppered out.

Some guys like to have the rear end up. Really? Yeah, yeah, depending on what. So a platform could be adjusted. Platform can be adjusted, and we call it SAG. So if you run less SAG, that means the rear end is going to be a little bit higher. You have less preload on the motorcycle. And you put preload on it.

Sorry, when you put preload on it, it gets higher. It's reverse. So you tighten the spring down. The back end comes up. You loosen the spring, take less preload off. It lowers down. Myself, I liked it myself to be really choppered out just because I was smaller. and I felt like I had more control of the motorcycle

when it was a little bit lower. Now, I would lose travel, you know, in the rear end because of it being so low. So that would create like on big jumps and stuff a lot of rough a ride? Bottom out, yeah, bottom out. You just run out of travel. And, you know, once a shocker spring gets to the very bottom,

there ain't but one way forward to go. And that's up. So, yeah, I mean, there's so many things. that it's not too bad. I mean, there's so many things you can do just like, you know, with suspension. I mean, you guys have four ways where we have the shock and the fork. We have adjustability like fork height. You can slide the fork tubes up and down in the clamps.

You can change the angle. You can change the race as far as you can move the, you can keep the same angle in the front wheel, front wheel, but you could move it further and back. Creating less trail. Yeah. Creating less trail. That's so interesting. Yeah, and it's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun. And the crazy thing is when we went from steel chassis to aluminum chassis, that experience for me was a lot of fun. And I'm very thankful for the years that I grew up racing in motocross and supercross and supercross because I got to go from steel chassis to aluminum chassis, and I got to go from two-stroke to four-stroke. and it was such a learning experience. And today, a lot of the tricks and fun things that we used to do,

especially to the aluminum chassis, to get them to flex a little bit more and not be so rigid, they have implemented all of those onto the production models. So a lot of those tricks and trades that we did back then have our own full production now. It was crazy, man. We'd have these engine hangers, and they could change them by a millimeter.

and it would take the bike to where you couldn't ride it or it would be like, oh man, this is perfect. I mean a freaking millimeter. It was unbelievable. Can you remember a race where your bike was just like not? You missed a setup? Yeah, so 2003, I go back to 2003. Let's see her.

Yeah, 2003 really stands out in my head. I was on factory Honda at the time. Our engine package wasn't that great. so it affected the chassis. And what I mean by that is we had no low RPM torque, and it was all top end. So you had to ride it really high in the RPM and use a lot of clutch. Well, then when you do that, to try to get it coming out of the corners, then you're lighting up the rear tire.

You know, you just couldn't ride that thing in low RPM. So when the tire's spinning, then the suspension isn't working well. And then my competitors at the time, Chad Reed, Australian kid, his bike was, it was a dream, you know, but that year was just absolutely miserable. Hated going to the races. Couldn't fix it. No, couldn't fix it. And in fact, the Japanese engineers came over from Japan to our test facility out in California,

Honda's test facility. They all have private tracks out there. And they basically told me that, and we were still on two strokes at the time, he just basically said, we can't give you what you want with our engine package. He says, your best bet is you probably should try our four stroke. I'm like, man, rarely do you hear Japanese engineers basically conceding and saying, we can't get that for you. You know, they'll try everything.

And they were, but just their engine package that they had and how the exhaust valves were, they weren't going to be able to get it. So what did you do? Well, we limped it through, and then we got on the four-stroke. And so forgive my ignorance. So you could run a four-stroke against two-strokes? You can. You could, yeah.

And can you do that now? You can, but the technology in four-strokes have come so far. You know, back in the day, they felt heavy, how the inertia was, and just the technology in general was just behind. Well, over the last 10 years, they put so much time and effort in them to get them to handle the same way as a two-stroke did. I mean, the biggest complaint was, you know, oh, they feel so heavy and they're not nimble enough. so they just worked and worked and worked on it to have the power the low-end torque but still have that

nimbleness to it you said this this down season was 2003 right yeah did your perfect seasons not book in that year like wasn't your perfect seasons 2002 and 2004 so also had you not just switched manufacturers yeah so 2002 2003 2004 I was at factory Honda okay so and I want to hear that story because like I think that's a pivotal point in your career. But at the same time, if you just had a perfect season in 2002, and then as you describe it, like y'all could not figure this out in 2003, and you didn't even want to go to the track, that has to be quite dejecting, confusing, and I wonder if it made you start questioning things,

even after a remarkable season like you just had. Yeah, I mean, and we won, so you have Supercross Championship, motocross championships, very confusing to the casual fan. Like, wait, there's two championships. in a season. It's two forms of racing. And I always explain it like it's basically the road courses of NASCAR. So imagine you guys race on ovals for 17 rounds and then you have a 12-round road course series. And at the end, it's a grand national championship. So that's what ours are. And I won both. I won the Supercross Championship, barely. And then I won the Outdoor Motocross

championship barely. Now, motocross was a lot easier for me. Just because the harder you work, the better you do, you don't have to rely on talent so much. So if you're willing to hang it out and work your tail off, you're going to have a great, great chance to do well. But yeah, I was like, I was so focused already on 2004 and how are we going to get this bike better for 2004? Because I know there's no shot we're going to win in 2004 if we're on this same bike.

So the Japanese engineer comes out in like September of, 2003 to start getting ready for 2004 and that's when you said hey we can't do that where there's no shot we're going to be able to get this for you and then I ended up running the the four stroke at the testing track and I wrote it loved it I'm like man this is what I'm looking for yes it's not as nimble but I think we can I think because a horsepower advantage is so good and I can put the power to the ground I feel like it'll make up for its lack of being able to maneuver it well. Changing directions.

That's right. That's important. Yeah. And you really had to plan further ahead. You know, so you're going through this rhythm section. Interesting. And you just, you plan early, you know. Plan early.

Yeah, you had to really focus ahead. So this is the shit I want to know. Yeah. It's like the, it's fascinating. I always thought of motocross and supercross as, like you said, the outdoor. I always, I know that Supercross is in stadiums and some of them are not indoors, but I always thought of it as an indoor outdoor. That was the way I sort of determined between the two.

And motorcross tracks are big or longer. A lot more elevation changes where Supercross is pretty much a flat course and is high confined space. What is the different technique? What's the difference in technique? Do you write them the same? Yeah. So timing is everything in Supercross. It is everything so tight.

It is a talent-driven discipline of dirt bike racing. Everything is so tight every single weekend that they go to the track. It's a new course. They had the same obstacles, but they're in different configurations. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, and then, yep, so they get out there. They have a warm-up practice which is about eight minutes, and then they have two other eight-minute practices after that.

So these guys learn it within probably four or five laps, and then they're just putting in cue laps every single time after that. So that's the difference between Supercross. I mean, precision is everything. You have to be precise, articulate, and you have to plan ahead where outdoor motocross, I mean, you can just, you can bulldog it. You know, the harder you ride, the better you're going to go. There are certain areas where you need to pull back just a little bit and adjust your lines

that if you go a little bit slower in certain areas, it'll be faster on the stopwatch. But that's basically the difference. And outdoor motocross, and the lap times you're different also. So in Supercross being in a stadium, I'd say average lap is 50 seconds. Outdoor motocross is probably two minutes. Yeah. It's like riding in the natural terrain, uphills, downhills, and the speeds. Obviously, the top speeds are considerably higher. Back in the day, my impression of the two was that Supercross was kind of the rock star or the top of the mountain.

Is that true? Yeah, Supercross now is the pinnacle. Yeah. Supercross now is a pinnacle. And that's, I feel like times change. And I hear you, you know, I watch you on your, you know, the Instagrams and the Twitter and I feel like NASCAR needs to be shorter. I feel like the races with the world that we live in today. People don't have the bandwidth or don't want to spend the time to sit around there for four or five hours. Yeah. You know, and I feel like motocross is going through a transition like, stock car racing is and we've got to do something to cater to the younger demographic that don't have the bandwidth to do stuff or sit there and put in that time. And so that's why I think Supercross has surpassed Motocross. And it's sad because Motocross is what is basically how Super Cross is founded. This is where it came from Europe. It originated in Europe and then came to the

States. So now Supercross is it's a show but it's fun we go to big cities it's easy to get to you can bring your sponsors you can get sweets and these beautiful stadiums so it makes sense it makes sense and it's it is the pinnacle you can ask any kid what what what what that race is dirt bikes you say hey man what championship do you want to win they're going to tell you supercross championship well motocross seems like more of a purest origin sort of core core yeah When you're racing, when you're switching back and forth, is it as challenging as maybe like racing a truck and it? It's a same racetrack in the same weekend. I know you're not doing the same events on the same weekend in motocross and supercross back in the day, but how challenging, I guess, was it to switch back and forth?

Oh, it wasn't that bad because we only did, we did Supercross and then we did motocross. It's split in half. Yeah. So split the year and a half. Once Supercross was over in May. So you could focus solely. That's right. That's right.

That's right. So it wasn't bad. And motocross was always easy for me. I know you've dealt with a bunch of injuries over your career. What part of your body is getting beaten up the worst? I feel like everyone is different. I think you either have bum shoulders or bum knees. For me, I was fortunate.

My shoulders were good, but I had both of my ACLs repaired. So how did your ACLs get damaged? I never even crashed when I did my left one or my right one. That's the crazy thing. How does it happen? So my right one, I was 13 years old. I came up short on a jump, like a double jump. When I come up short, boom, like my lower leg just went forward, and my femur bone stayed there.

Wow. And I couldn't, I had to go, I had to run it for three years. I couldn't have it repaired until I was 16 because my growth plates had to close before they could repair my ACL. So that was, yeah, I want to say that was 93. 94 and then I tore my I tore my left ACL I was coming out of a corner as it's super cross-track this is when the Japanese engineer was there and we were trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do for the 2004 series I come out of this corner I just caught my toe just caught my toe and it twisted my foot sideways pow on the ground yeah I was coming out of the

corner my toe was on the foot peg I was laid over just a little bit oh my God and it just It just, it just, yeah, just that quick, pow, and I knew instantly. I'm like, oh, this isn't good. So it hurt for about two minutes. It felt like it was on fire. And then I pull off and I'm like, man, my knee, I hurt my knee. But I think it's okay. I was wishful thinking.

And we ended up finishing out testing and I got home the next week and I had an MRI like, no, you're a CL shot. So I didn't say anything. I heard. Yeah, yeah, I didn't say anything. And I'm like, man, okay, we're going to try to run this thing. And my goal was, and I was up for a contract year, so I knew that. And I was trying to re-up with Honda to go 2005, six, and seven.

That's what I wanted to do. And I was like, okay, I'm going to try to get through the Supercross season, 2004, on this four-stroke. And then I'm going to take off the outdoor series, because I feel like the outdoor series, you know, with the high speed. speeds and things like that, I would have more of a chance of doing more damage to my knee. I'm like, there's no shot I'm going to be able to make it through that series. And let's see, I tore it in September of 2003 and it was like right before Thanksgiving 2003. I was in the air on a super cross track and I was just gripping my bike in midair. Just like, you know, just applying pressure on the outside of the gas tank, knee pops out in midair. And I couldn't get it back in.

And I pull over and like I ride back to the test track and I'm sitting there and like now I'm now I'm in tears because I know like now we're to the point. I have to have the sink fix. So there goes my season. So it be like you you guys test, test, test and then you know you hurt yourself and you can't drive the first 10 races and you're screwed for the for the series after all that hard work and you know you had a good chance to win. So it's pretty emotional. So I got there. I'm like, like, hey guys, I didn't tell you guys this, but my ACL's been torn for a couple months, and I was going to try to make it through Supercross. And, I mean, I had all the team members around, suspension engineers, chassis engineers, engine guys. And I just said, yeah, I'm sorry. I said I was going to try to make it through Supercross, and I can't do it. So I have to have this thing, I have to have this thing fixed.

So I took off. It was four months. and then I came and raced the Outdoor Motocross series that year, and I won, I came back and freaking won every race, man. So when you get an injury like that and get it repaired, how do you build the confidence that it's good? Yeah, it's funny. So you almost want to, like, test it out and, like, dangle your foot in the dirt.

And, like, you want to do it, but you don't want to do it. It's like, this ain't going to hold. So you start back riding after the four-month mark. You know, you get the clearance to get back out there, ease into it. And really, you just, it has to happen so fast you can't be thinking about it. But then when it does and you don't have any pain and you didn't tear anything else, you're like, okay, I'm good now. Right. I remember a couple times, like when I first started going, like the first weeks back, and I was being extra careful with how I was going around the left-hand corners or where my foot was on the foot pegs, you know, the right placement so it wouldn't catch my toe.

and I remember riding back to the shop sometimes when we're done doing whatever we're doing on the track and I would like dangle and let my toe hit the ground just at a really low speed just like kind of testing it probably wasn't doing anything but in my mind I thought I was but yeah I mean I think it's just you have to have that type of situation and it needs to hold up and if it does you're like shoot man I'm good but you came back in four months from ACL surgery yeah four months so Mike's had a Mike blue Yeah, I'm comparing notes. So he's had this experience. My story wasn't nearly as cool as yours, though.

I tore it because I was old and out of shape. But like the fact is that maybe that explains my answer. That's also why I probably took a little longer than four months. But I remember when I tore my ACL, though, I could do things in four months. I mean, like when you go through physical therapy, which I'm assuming you did. Oh, yeah. The physical therapy is pretty rigorous, I was saying, right? All right.

But could you have, like, run a 40-yard dash or anything like that? Like, were you fully back in four months? Fully back. I started riding at three and a half, or three and three quarters. But I was, after the four-month mark, I was your full noise, do whatever you want. Yeah, I was still milking my injury in three and a half a lot. Yeah, I mean, most people, you know, it's like four to six months. Yeah.

Or now it's six to eight. I think they probably's personal protection, you know what I mean? And doctors like, here, you just hang tight for like six to eight months. but I think athletes are able to get it going. That's the difference. And I think, and for me, like, yeah, we're on our feet. We're moving around, but I feel like football, they probably want that six months, you know, because they're pivoting and doing –

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So I think it's sports-specific related. You talked about being with Kalasaki for over a decade. How difficult was it to make the decision to leave? It was really, really difficult. You know, I've been very loyal my whole career. It was tough.

You've been with them for so long. But in 2001, I was able to beat Jeremy McGrath, and he's got more records in Tsewer Cross that no one will ever touch that. There's just no shot. 72 wins, seven championships. And when I beat him in 2001, Honda was actually, they talked to me before the series even starts, said, hey, we want to, we know your contract is up after 2001,

before anything happens, even if you don't win, we want to hire you for 2002. Who does Jeremy Ride with? He was with Yamaha at the time. Yep, he was with Yamaha at the time. And I'm like, man, all right. And so my management company and all, we were like, what do you think?

Like, all right, well, let's just see what they, had to offer and they came to us a week later and just gave gave us an outstanding offer I'm like wow this is unbelievable and so that that definitely caught my attention but I still was felt loyal I needed I needed to show my loyalty to calisaki and we're winning all these races we're doing well and we're living the dream I'm like it it was it was clear that I was going to win the supercross championship you know the pinnacle of the sport and it came to a point where I wasn't signing my Honda deal and they basically they gave me a deadline I said listen you don't sign

it in two days we're going to retract the offer and I end up signing Did you take your deal to Caliaseco? Yeah they all had first rights and what they say about it they weren't happy they weren't happy it was and they couldn't match it but they had first rights to match it yeah and they couldn't yeah they just they never even gave

me an offer you know well sometimes you just know yeah I mean they just knew and it was bad. So that whole process was really a bummer because I went up at the last Supercross race and I wanted to tell my team manager, I said, hey, I wanted to tell you man to man, like, this is why I'm doing this. I know that I, in 2002, I have to be on something better. And I know that we probably aren't going to have anything better.

And this is the reasons that I'm doing this. And now, prior to this conversation, Honda came to my, my, my facility in south Georgia and they let me ride the motorcycle so I knew what I was going to be on so that was pretty that was pretty cool and my man this thing is nice

you know and we were back to back in it on what I currently had had and definitely there was a lot more potential there so at the end of the day I feel like I could have stayed at Kalasaki but and push the issue but I knew I didn't want to be there so I'm kind of glad that they didn't

and they didn't match it. But it was tough, man. That was one of the biggest, biggest moves of my life. It was a great contract at the same time. You know, it was, I mean, basically, I mean, just being frank. So if you won the Super Cross Championship, the manufacturer would pay you $500,000 as a championship bonus. And Honda offered me and said,

we'll give you a million bucks if you win the Supercross Championship. So I'm like, me at that time, I was only 21. I was like, wow, man. You're doing that. Yeah. I'm doing it. Everybody's doing that. And it was a three year.

There was no contract clause in it. And this will eventually get to when we left Honda, why I left Honda. So, yeah, I had no entry clause. It was basically guaranteed. I think my salary was one and a half per year. I think it went to two on the third year, I believe it was. It was nice, very lucrative. The salary from the team is that plus your manufacturer's

Yeah, the crazy thing about motocross, supercross racing is the manufacturers carry a lot of the burden financially. They pay your salary. They pay your win bonus per race win bonuses. And then they pay your championship bonuses. They pay everything. The manufacturer does. That's incredible. It's crazy now they're compared to NASCAR.

This is why I'm asking because just in terms of the financial model, the differences seem very intriguing, frankly. You want me to tell you a crazy story? This is going to blow your guys as mine. Do it. So in my short-lived four-wheel career, okay, what, two and a half years of trucks, a handful of X-Finity races, I made more money in winnings than I did from the AMA, American Motorcycle Association, made $500 grand with all my wins from the sanctioning body. and I made that in NASCAR in two and a half years.

Yeah. And I won a lot in dirt bike racing. You can't, you can't, you can't make a living in motocross off of the purses. On the winnings. On the purses. On the purses. Yeah. 500 grand.

And then, yeah. What's the model today? Same? It hadn't changed. Yeah. It hadn't changed like 25 years, maybe a little bit, but nothing to, nothing to mention. It's tough. Yeah.

It's tough. So can you imagine? And I, it's wrong. So you think it should be different? I think it should be a bit different. How different? What do you do? I think, I think that the, I think the purses should be a little bit bigger, you know, from the, from the promoters.

Somebody's making money. Yeah. Somebody's making money. But, you know, but, hey, at the same time, if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have no place to race. Right. So how many guys are going to start the Supercross race? 22. 22.

How many of those, all of those factory riders? No. How many are? Probably 12 guys. 12 guys. Half the field. Half the field. What do the guy, what do the other guys do it? They're privateers. Now, they're meal piecing it together. They're independent. Independent. Really? Yep, they're independence. What's their chance? It's tough. I mean, they're making a decent. Oh, I say a decent. I mean, for the risks that they take, they're not making enough. But I bet they're probably 150 grand. Where are they finishing? 12 on back.

No, they're not beating a factor guy. beating up back. They're earning 150. How much are they spending? I think at the end of the day, they're making 150. Oh, okay. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, they're, they're clearing it because they're getting their bikes for free. They're getting their gear for free. They're just, they're having to pay track. It's subsidized by sponsorship. Okay. But you're saying they're getting their bikes for free, but they're not factory. No, they're not factory. No, no, no. So it would be, I wouldn't know how to parallel it in your guys in stock car world. Can a guy ride in the Supercross and show out really well as an independent and get the factory ride or the factory guys

brought in from from from motocross or somewhere else yeah so most of the factory guys are brought in from like like my route you know all these manufacturers had amateur programs and they just move up up the ladder and then they they segue into from the amateur program into the professional program like a lot of amateur kids towards the tail end of their contracts, they'll sign like a four-year deal where they're two years an amateur and then they get their first two years of professional. You know, they get that locked up. And that's really what you need two or three years,

guaranteed for your first three years. So that's what they're doing. So most of the factory guys are, they've come up and they've been factory along or had great support. There are some guys out there that did it on their own and got a chance and made it happen. But it's really rare. Yeah, very rare. It was, I would assume that that Honda championship bonus or whatever the bonus program was was

unprecedented at that time. Has there ever been anything like that since? To your knowledge. Yeah, yeah, since. Yeah, now it is. Now the per race wins. So the per race wins when I was racing for Honda, I get 50 grand. Now they're 100,000 if you win.

So these guys is going to, but what the manufacturers are doing now, and I know this because Carrie Hart and I had a race team together, and we are, they, they're insured. So we go get insurance policies to cover the insurance. It's crazy. You go get them, though. Yeah, we go get it. So championship, like championship bonuses to 300 grand premium. And now the, you know, the insurance companies, there's like an algorithm. So you pay the two or three hundred thousand premium for a million and a half payout for the championship. Right.

But if certain riders are in the championship, your rider that you're paying insurance on has to win X amount of, so give you an example. So you're racing the Cup series and your championships can be. be $10 million and your premium is going to be $2 million. Okay, if Jimmy's in there, smoke's in there, you only have to win two races and you win the championship. They pay, they pay out. If smoke and Jimmy ain't in there, then you got to win six races for the insurance company

to pay out. I got it down and it's like right there. So Carrie Hart and I, we had Ken Roxon. He was a German kid, extremely fast, one of the most talented guys I've ever seen on motorcycle. And it got to the point where we had a chance to win the Supercross Championship at the last race in Vegas. This is going to take some luck. Ryan Dungey ended up winning. I mean, Dungey was going to have to get, like, dead last, and Ken would have had to win.

It would have been a scenario. But Ken had to win six races that year. And he had only won. he had only won four. So it's almost like you're going into this last round, and it's like financially like, man, we want him to win the championship, but if he does, we're out our premium plus the million. It's crazy, man.

That is crazy. It's backwards. It's backwards. And you're right. They probably have that figured out. Like casinos have it figured out that if we get them to spend this much money, and the chances of them winning or losing. I mean, like, what is your odds?

Well, you know what's silly is that this is how divided. This is what I always loved about when I went into stock car racing. And I'm like, man, everyone for the most part, they're in for the greater of the good. We're going to protect everyone like the Manufacturers Championship or whatever. So there's only one guy that's going to win the Supercross Championship. But every single team is paying the same insurance. agent insurance company that premium for their star riders oh my god so it's like why don't i i i had i had

an idea carry and i did like dude why don't we just carry the insurance that's right i knew you were going there right right right right i'm like why don't we just put up the million and a half and then we'll have honda pay us two 200 per rider 200 per rider and we'll make a couple hundred grand right now but because of yeah because of like regulation and stuff like like that we couldn't do it but it's so crazy because all these manufacturers and then we were a private team you know so we had to before we spent a dollar we had to earn a dollar we're all paying for the same championship that only one guy's going to win it's crazy yeah it's crazy good lord how do you decide to quit i had been very fortunate throughout my career where i didn't have a lot of injuries

and didn't have to take a substantial amount of time off where a lot of a lot of kids do You know, they take months and months off. And the only time that I had gotten to take off is when I had my knee repaired and didn't race 2004 Supercross Series is actually a blessing in disguise. Because it gave me that extra years, 2005, 6, and partial 2007. So it was, let's see, or 2005, and Casey Cain's manager had reached out to me at the time and said, hey, Casey's a fan. and, you know, he'd love to meet you. And so they ended up coming to a race. And then as they came to a race, they, you know, talks had kept progressing like,

hey, would you ever want to drive a stock car? I'm like, well, heck, yeah. And at this time, like, I know, like, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I had signed with Suzuki. I had my exit strategy. I knew where I was going. So I'm like, yeah, man, let's do it. So a long story short, I go to drive Evernham's late model.

He had a development guy driving at the time. I can't remember who it was for the life of me. We went to Hickory. And that was in 2005, I believe, 2004, 2005 in the summer there. And, man, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. That was really kind of what sparked it off. And from that point on, we started looking towards the future.

and I knew what my exit strategy was on two wheels. So from that moment on, things started to progress. Well, as that's going on, those last two years, and you guys stop me if I'm rambling, but Gibbs wants to have a Moto team. So J.D. calls me. He tells me, you know, what they'd like to do. He's asking me all these questions.

And so he's like, hey, you should probably come up to Charlotte. So I come up to Charlotte and we have some conversations and then coach met. They took me to lunch and all that fun stuff. So I got those coach and J.D. And I don't think Koi was there. But it was me and my manager and we're going through things. And they're like, hey, you think you could get, you know, Suzuki to sponsor our effort. And if you did that, then we'll put you in the development program, you know, two or three year, two or three year deal.

Whereas I would fall in line. I think Lugano was on the development program, and then had another guy after him, and then I was supposed to fall in line after that. Things start to progress, but at the same time, my management company knew Bobby Ginn. So everyone knows in your guys' world how that all went down. One thing leads to another.

I end up going a meeting with Bobby Ginn, and he tells me, hey, I'm going to purchase. It was MB2. Yeah. This is our goals. you the drivers we're going to have and we'd like to you know like to have you come aboard we think it'd be fun and we'll run you out of mark martin's shop for the late model efforts get you some seat time he's in florida you're in florida it just makes sense i could start driving instantly with him

the gibbs thing i i i didn't have that opportunity i was waiting in line and i just felt at the time like i needed to start if i wanted to make this a reality i need to start driving right then and there and of course like Mark Martin mentoring me and helping me with the late model stuff. I mean, it just seemed like a no-brainer. Right. I wasn't going to have that at Gibbs. And then financially it was pretty good. So I went that route.

Did you know that Jeremy raised our late model? I did. Yeah. I did. I don't even remember what year that was. It would have been about 0-6, 07. So you ran a late model before him? I did.

It was in 2005. Yeah. I was learning if either one of y'all had ever had a conversation. about that. We probably did. It was kind of weird because I almost feel like Jeremy, I'm not going to say he was copying me, but it's like, how all of a sudden, like, wait a minute, you've been retired for a while. Right. But now I'm wanting to do this and you're flying back to Charlotte every weekend. I felt like that one had, one had started the other, or one had knowing the timeline now, I think that you sparked his interest where he was like, oh, I'm going to try

that. Yeah. That might be fun. Might be. I don't know, but that's how I started, but then I completely forgot about him driving the late Model T. He said that. And honestly, I was, I was a little jealous. Like, I'm not a jealous person. I'm like, I was saying like, dang, man, how do he get, how did he get that opportunity? But how did he get that opportunity? He just called and we said, yeah, come. We went to test. We took him and went to test. I went over the Tri-County Speedway with him, and I drove the car a little bit, and then he drove it. And then I think he ran two races or a handful of, it was very short-lived. Yeah.

And he was only down here a couple times. Great guy. Oh, yeah. We had a great time with him. But after a couple races, it was like his attention went elsewhere. And that was that. But we were happy to do it. But you were much more, you know, committed, plugged in.

Oh, yeah. You made the decision and you dove in head first. Yeah. And, yeah. So did Ginn's deal, and that was good. and the wheels fell off of that. So I had Monster. That was my people.

They were my people. Still today, we are partners, and I'll forever be thankful. I've been with them since basically the inception of Monster Energy, 2004-5, I think. And everything went sideways again. That ended. And then I got an opportunity. Monsters like, hey, what do you want to do the next year?

And then I ended up doing the East Series. And I drove for Shrader. It was freaking awesome, man. I love that, dude. Time out, though. What happened again? What went sideways again? Yeah, the whole thing.

It went up in. Yeah, I think Bobby, I think Bobby's investors said, hey, we're out of money. We're out of money, and we're going to quit giving you money if you don't sell this race team. I don't remember. That's how Ginn ended. He had the resorts, right? And he was funding all, he was buying and funding everything. And he was like, hey, man, this is not going to work financially. You got to stop.

So he had to. That was it. Racing ended. Yeah. All right. So you went to Schrader. Went to Schrader, and I ran the East Series, and did pretty well. Did pretty well.

Got a poll at South Boston. I can't remember what I got overall in the series, but the crazy thing was the dudes that I was racing at the time. Austin Dillon, Trevor Bain, Jeffrey. I want to say Al Marolo was in there. Probably. Was he for the D.I.'s development? I actually flew. up and met with DEI one time with Mark. I flew up and we're going to because I had the monster money

and we had a meeting and anyhow it didn't, obviously it didn't work out and I'm glad that I drove for Schrader because it was just I had a hell of a time. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. I felt like he gave me so much advice that I could bring along. So race the East Series. That would have been 2008 I believe yeah 2008 and I'm sitting in Charlotte Airport and I get a call from Kevin Harvick and he says hey man what's happening next year been watching you on the East Series and I ran good at Loudoun too I think it was shortly after Loudoun I think I got fourth at Loudoun that year and he says what are you doing next year he says we'd love to have you drive for for our truck team I'm like man that's awesome so

I contact Monster and we fly out or we meet with everyone at KHA. And they say, hey, this is what it's going to take for the full year, but this is what we think you need to do. And I ended up running a partial schedule. Yeah, that was it. That was it. So after that was 2009, after that, they're like, hey, this is what is going to cost to run the next year full time. So that would have been 2010, 2011. And Monsters like, well, we just have this much.

So you need to figure out what you're going to do with this much. We'd really like to see you in the full series. So at this time now, Steve Turner starts a race car team. And he was going to be an alliance with K. H.I. And Kevin hooked me up with him, says, hey, he'll run you the full series for the money that you have. and then I went and we did a two-year deal there with Steve, which Steve was always great to me, and it was a great experience for sure.

And basically that was how that got going. Went good, did some good things, ran good at some places. I think the highlights of it is I got fourth at Talladega, fourth at Dover, I got the pole at Atlanta, led a bunch of laps at Martinsville. I absolutely loved Martinsville because of the timing. you know, on the brakes, off the brakes, gas, it really brought me back to Supercross

and having to be, have that precision and timing and breaking. And if you didn't break right or didn't let off right at the right time, you paid consequences. You know, there are consequences, as you know. So this gets into the next fun thing. At the end of my two-year deal at Turner, monster comes to me and says, hey, we're going to sponsor Kyle Busch's nationwide team.

I'm like, all right, then they're like, we want you to be the driver of the other, the races that he doesn't do. So however many X-Finity races there was at the time, let's just say, well, how many are there normally? Dale, Ex-Vennedity races. In a full season? 36, 36. 36. So he was going to do, let's just say, 13, 4KBM, somewhere around there, and I was going to do the remainder. And I'm like, man, this is an incredible.

opportunity. Got a great mentor. Guy knows how to drive. Everything's good. We're sitting in a parking lot. My manager and I, now my best friend, he does all my stuff now. And he's talking with Rick Wren, and like, okay, all the financials set and allowances, blah, blah, blah, and the plan. And this is Friday, the morning of the truck race, the fall truck race at Texas. And he says, fly up to Charlotte on Tuesday and we'll sign this thing. Perfect. So it's done. I mean like this thing is done. Now you're figuring out when signatures and announcements are happening. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm flying up here Tuesday to sign. To be done. Yeah. That that night at the truck race, Kyle spins horn out and under caution laps. Yeah. Oh yeah. The Ron Hornaday does the major one. Oh yeah. So Sunday.

or Monday might have been, they call and they're like, hey, can't come up to, can't come up, let's wait. There's a lot of moving parts, not sure. Kyle's busy. Kyle's busy. What's monster going to do is monster going to step in if Mars pulls out, you know, I mean, I'm sure you guys heard everything happening. And so I'm like, oh, man.

So anyhow. Oh, that's right, because Mars was threatening to pull out of the whole smash, like the cup, everything. Kyle was effectively trying to fight for his career at that point. 100% after one weekend that's right yeah that's right so anyhow wheels get back on track so we're going to homestead everything's good we're like shooting high fives right and then i think i think i think kyle raced the truck race that that night at homestead and like hey fly up on wednesday um you that way give us a chance to do the ex finity banquet and the truck banquet down there i'm like okay

no problem and so Sunday if you go back this is when Kurt was driving for Penske and he had he had that issue with Doc Punch yes he cussed Dr. Jerry Punch out he's blew the engine in his car last race of the year gets out in the garage and they're waiting on the interview to come live Dr. Jerry Punch is waiting on the booth to send it down to him and he's like hey Kurt sorry for holding you up and Kurt just starts chewing his tail It's all on video. I haven't even seen the video. You have it? It's worth it.

It sucks. You feel terrible for Dr. Jerry Pudge. It was Kurt at his lowest. He might have actually been lower. It was him at the end of his rope there. So as you can imagine, I mean, now that you guys know what happens now. So I get another one of those calls. on Monday. He's like, hey, can't come up Wednesday. I'm like Groundhog Day over here. It's like,

okay. No, wait a second. You are fair to ask, though, this is the, this is not the right bush. So why am I worried about it? Yeah, but I kind of had like, so Penske fires occurred on Monday, right? Okay. Or released, rather. And they call me. I'm the next call. And they're like, hey, we're not don't come up Wednesday there's some things that are going down we'll get back with you like all right and as soon as soon as he got released I knew exactly what was going to happen they were going to hire him I mean it's his brother I mean and he's better I would have still thought it was a coin flip because I'm not they may be brothers but they didn't always like each well but at the same time I know Monster likes to win and I know Kyle does and Kurt's a hell of a lot better

driver than I am way more accomplished so the riding was on the wall I wasn't stupid and I I appreciate monster even considering me to be a part of that program went from the inception but as soon as that so anyhow long story short a few weeks went by and they they called me my boss at monster call me says hey man this is this is the route we're going to go and blah blah blah and and I was totally understandable so at that point on boom I was dust in the wind my my four-wheeled career ended boom just like that right like that you're almost in this car one of the it was going to be a two year deal one of the one of the better cars this series and i have a question for you yeah i was going be in that as two year deal yeah and um it's going to be fun man's because like danico is coming up

and like i remember like monsters like dude if you could just run with her i think it's a it's a cool story you two are kind of on the same progression and you're coming from this complete you're then this end of the spectrum she's coming from there there was a story within the race but I want to ask you had I went there and it worked out and it being a startup team do you think that it would have given me everything that I needed or what I've been better at a more established organization well I think that Kyle's team at the time was uh you know so Kyle would run his own car and then Kyle would run give stuff and you could then very easily kind of compare where Kyle's personal team was versus the cars that Gibbs could provide him.

He could see a difference and how far KBM had to go to get where they wanted to be. They eventually shut down his Xfinity program for whatever reason. Had he maintained that program, I think that he would have similar success as JRM. He could have maybe even became the Joe Gibbs Bush outfit, where Joe's drivers would drive for Kyle's. team. And maybe Kyle envisioned that happened in one day, but you would have, you know, you would have probably not, it wasn't the very best car, but it was a top 10 car, you know, and Kyle could get in it, and you could see how, you know, where he was dominant, literally almost a lock to win in Joe's car, he would drive his car the next week and everybody could run with

him and you could beat him. You know, that was the difference in, in his team at the time. So I don't know how that would have worked out for you. I really don't. Yeah. You know, that might have been a good experience. It might have been, it might have been a frustrating one or a difficult one. They only won, and they only won one race at here. Yeah, with Richmond, right? Kurt at Richmond. And Kurt's way better drivers than I am. What's interesting is probably the difference in expectations. I would imagine Kyle would have an expectation, regardless of your inexperience or whatever, but like if, you know, he wants to win. Yeah. Monster said they just want you to be Danica. Is that what you...

I mean, that's kind of what I got out of it. I don't think that really matches that well. Like those two things. I don't know how... Okay, yeah, like Monsters' expectations. And Kyle's expectations, right, right. You know, I don't know. It's shocking, though.

I mean, how did you... What did you do? I think a lot of people in y'all's world always wondered, like, man, what happened? Right. And, like, even in my world, people's like, why did you quit racing? You know? And this is the first place. This is the first time I've ever really told the story, you know, across the air.

You know, it's been so long now. So the next season. Yeah, it was, but I'm done. Right. So then I'm just hanging out. But I had Brandon, so into this day, I'm still, I'm a brand ambassador for a lot of my sponsors. Still Monster, Fox, the apparel company that I always wore their gear. I'm an ambassador for them, Triumph motorcycles now.

at the time I was still busy with Suzuki being an ambassador for them, riding their race bikes and testing and development, things like that, dabbling a little bit at the Supercrosses and the TV. You were done because you didn't have any other opportunities there. However, it's fair to say that you've got a lot of opportunities. I mean, like people were calling you up. Why is Casey Kane even calling you up to offer a late model at the time? Why are these people doing that?

And so you had all these opportunities. Now you don't. So how hard did you beat down the drum and knock on? doors to go try to find another ride. I didn't because I'm not that kind of guy. I, I am horrible at asking someone for, hey, man, will you? So you didn't even go to Monster and say, I know y'all are doing this thing with Kurt and, but, you know, is there any opportunity for me to be anywhere?

I mean, I may have, but I don't, I don't, I knew, like they, they just said, hey. What was your, I got to ask you, like, out of all of the things that you did, right, and the late model in, you know, in Florida, trucks, when did you have the most fun behind the wheel? Like, what car did you? In the E-Series and the X-Finity series. You enjoyed those cars. I loved, I always felt like I did better in the cars than I did in the trucks.

I think the way that they were shaped, arrow. I mean, I go back to the truck series, and the guys that I was having to race, Hornaday, Skinner, bow dine i mean you name them i mean i mean those guys are aces man they raced in the cup series and now they're racing in a truck series and i'm i have literally zero four-wheel experience and i grew up on dirt my whole life and i don't know anything about aerodynamics and as soon as i figured out arrow and how to pass and when to when to use it to your advantage it was too late it was like the last half of the year of the truck series. And I was, at that point, it was, it was over. Yeah. But I, I liked the

Exfinities. I liked those cars. I felt comfortable in those cars. And then, and then the, uh, the, uh, the E-series was a lot of fun as well. When you saw Jeremy McGrath get into Xfinity series, did you already have sort of an understanding of exactly how that was going to go for them? Oh, you mean, uh, uh, uh, Shrana. I was, when you saw that happening, I bet you were like, oh, buckle up. Yeah, yeah, it was going to be, it was going to be a handful. And I know how Travis is. I mean, the guy is super talented.

It's unbelievable. I mean, he's a talent and he can do a lot of things. But I just, I always felt like it wasn't high action enough. Like going, it was too redundant for him. You know, like you have to focus. And that was one thing that blew my mind. Like, if you would, if I would talk on the radio, It was like, oh, your lap time was slower.

I'm like, come on, man. Yeah. It's unbelievable. I had the same problem. I'm like, they would be like, shut up. Yeah. So. I was like, yeah.

That's an interesting. That's a hell of a thing. That makes so much sense with Travis because he seems like the kind of guy that he needs change. He needs new challenges at every corner. And even though he might have went through that turn and it was a great turn, right? He did a good job. He's going to go through it differently the next time because he's going to try to make it better.

And his like, where NASCAR is almost a game of repetition and calmness and smoothness and doing the same thing over and over and over, I could see where that would conflict with his own personality. Yeah. And I don't think he was in good cars, the ral stuff. Yeah, I don't know how good that stuff was. At that time, yeah. I wonder, did you ever talk to him while he was going through that experience? I didn't. I never had the opportunity, yeah.

So I know y'all didn't have similar, y'all weren't parallel in all's careers, but... I had some run-ins with him, though. You did. Talk about that. Yeah. 2002 was a real crappy year for me from a fan standpoint because I just beat the king of Supercross. And the crazy thing is, man, it's like 2001. The fans loved me.

I mean, they were like so amped, right? It's like, yeah, man, you beat the king of Supercross. This is great. and then we go in a 2002 series. I move manufacturers. Everyone thinks that Honda bought me. So I, and then Feld, they're like lowering me down. We did this like promotional race or exhibition race at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

100,000 to win. It's like a two-night deal. It's a lot of fun. We go there and they drop me down and opening ceremonies in this, like, cage and I'm wearing like in sitting in a king's king's seat and I'm wearing this crown and they're telling me this I'm like man I don't want to do this and I was just a young kid at the time like this don't seem right I'm poo-poo and the king is super cross over here I said it's just not a good look no it'll be good I'm telling you I'm telling you do it it's it's it's gonna be awesome people are gonna love it you're the

new you're the new guy you finally you finally dethrone I'm like man please I just I don't know no you should do it I'm like all right and I do that I'm coming down and And like I said, the fans had loved me until then. Come down, I hear some booze. I'm like, man. So anyhow, we get through that race, and then that was in October. So then we go to the season opener. We go to Anaheim, and the place just booze me out for the opening ceremonies.

I shouldn't say booed me out, but there was just as many booze as cheers. I'm like, man, that's messed up. And I remember my engine guy, they've been at Honda forever. He's like, hey, man, don't worry about that stuff. He said, it's directed more towards Honda. They just think we bought you and all that stuff. He said, don't let it bother you. So I'm like, all right.

So fast forward to Indianapolis Supercross, about round seven. We're seven, eight laps into the race. I'm right behind Travis. And he's starting to get a little bit tired. So for you guys to be like, you see the dudes' tires are getting, they're at the end of their life. And he's missing some corners right here, getting a little sloppy. and we're at Indy, like a home race for him.

So right before the finish line, he misses his line. And I had this dude behind me, David Vielman, French guy, and that's the guy that I was battling for the championship, and he's just all up on me. I'm like, man, I got to force the issue here. So anyhow, he misses the line, and I go, and I'm like, okay, boom, there's my opportunity. I'm going to take it.

I should have taken the opportunity three or four laps, but I was being nice. And as I get into this rut to make the turn, he's pointed this way and just goes right in front of me and I run into him like that. There's nothing I could do. Completely his fault. He missed the corner and he was trying something that there was no shot he was going to get back by me. He crashes.

I mean, as soon as that happened, I'll never forget, man. I was jumping in the place I looked over and the dude just had his middle finger up at me. I mean, I couldn't even do my post-race interview on the podium. The place booed me out of this. booed me out of the freaking out of the stadium. It was unreal. Did Travis say anything? No, he didn't. He didn't there. Then we got into it. He called you a name. Did he? I think he called you a asshole, didn't he? He probably did. He probably did. Probably more than that. Well, the crazy thing is, in the next year, we get into it. We're in a heat race at Anaheim. I don't

know. He passed me, and I went to pass him back, and he's on the outside. I'm on the inside. and I go to block him so he doesn't come cut back underneath me. And he sees that he wasn't going to be able to. So he just kind of ghosted the bike at me and just like launched it and just went from under his legs. And so the fans thought that I took him out. So here we go again. A year later, I'm with the chosen one. And, you know, I took him out.

Well, I got to give Travis credit. So Travis had to go to the semi-qualifier. He won it. And then he got on stage. And he told the fans like, hey, guys, you, you. You were rough. I can't remember exactly what he said, but basically took up for me and said,

hey, that was my fault. You guys take it easy on him. It was, that was cool. I think Travis's comment about you being an asshole was more of a compliment. In 2015, he said that he goes, in some ways you were kind of an asshole, but you had to be an asshole to be the greatest, and that Travis wasn't willing to go there.

And I think that that, a compliment in my eyes. Like he didn't have he didn't have the ability to to do what it took to be the goat and sometimes

to be the goat you know you shut out everything you sacrifice everything you beeline right by everybody no eye contact through the garage you know you're not there to make friends you do put yourself on an island you do you put yourself on an island

and that like he he he had other things that were lucrative at the same time also with the X games I mean he was becoming he was becoming that guy so he had a lot of distractions so he was supposed to be the guy that was going to knock me off and and I knew that he wasn't because I could see that he had these other distractions you know to be to be to reach the pinnacle and have a lot of success you cannot have any distractions you can't talk about you just you mentioned how you know Travis got tired in that race, and I think that when I watch motocross or supercross, you got guys that are fast, but then the guys that win are the ones that have that durability and that physical, you know, sustainability to run the race, right?

You learned early in your career about training and how you had to incorporate that into your career to be great, right? Speak to the importance of that for motocross and supercross riders. Yeah, I mean, the physical aspect of Supercross and Motorcross is second to none. I mean, we focus probably just as much on our body, what we put in our body, how we train, what we do, cycling, running, strength training. You know, we work really, really, really hard at that. I mean, your body is your engine. So the deeper you can go into these races and not get tired is going to pay off substantially at the end of the race.

So you can pick guys off. Say you get a bad start and you're coming through the pace. I mean, the last five minutes, you can pick guys off so easily. It's like free speed or free, free positions. Because they're so done. The guys are just, yeah, tongues dragging. So it's cool. And I think at the end of the day, I feel like that's why we don't get the longevity that we possibly could because the burnout factor is so high.

You know, like every single. Every day you're training or if you're not racing, you're training. Or you can't do anything because you got to recover to train the next day. So it's, I think it goes unnoticed, you know, just because a lot of people, we don't talk about it very often on the broadcast, just because we don't have the time or we don't show it. Nowadays, with social media, it's, you can see a little bit better. But, yeah, it definitely goes unnoticed, and it is part of the element, an important part of the element for sure. And it goes back to, and I wanted to tell you guys this, because I think, like, I hated racing dirt bikes. I absolutely hated it for the most part, especially when I was a young kid.

And I remember there were times, and I shared this with Sam Jones, great friend of mine on his off-camera show. And it's like I just did it for my parents. There were times where I was hoping that it would rain after school, so I wouldn't have to go practice. There were times where I was, and I felt so bad, I feel so bad for my dad. but it's like I was hoping my bike would break that day at practice so I could be done early. I just I hated it because all my practice stuff was always junk.

All our practice tracks were crappy and not prepped and, you know, we're just riding at local spots. And I still had to do my schoolwork and all my friends are having fun. And these are, this is like from age eight to 14. Once I got past 14 and I could see there was some light at the end of the tunnel and these manufacturers were courting me trying to sign me, then it got better. But those races, I mean, I can't tell you the amount of times that I wanted to quit. I mean, it wasn't, yeah, it wasn't fun. There's no doubt about it. It's weird, man.

Yeah, I can imagine it was a difficult balance of, you know, being a kid, you know, watching what your friends are doing and knowing that, you know, you've made this commitment. to your parents, right? 100% to go through this. I'm going to tell you, man, it's been an amazing opportunity to talk to you, learn about you. Really enjoy getting to know you more over the last couple of years through our relationship with NBC and hear a lot of great things about you through Diffy, and I know you love him. Yeah.

An opportunity to work with him. But I just want to thank you for giving us some time today to come share your experiences. I know you're humble and you probably, I don't know your comfort level with it, but when you walk into a room, you change it. And there's only a few people in the world that really can do that. You earn the moniker of the greatest of all time. It's well deserved. And we're very fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to speak with you.

So I know a lot of people that listen to this are going to love all the details and information that you gave us today. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I love you guys' work. Always been a massive fan. And like, I don't get star struck much. But when I'm around this, when I'm around this dude, man, it's, yeah, but I'm proud of you,

proud of you guys. And thank you for having me on. It's truly a blessing. Thank you. We're lucky for it, man. Thank you. Rick and Carmichael on the Dale Jr. download. You know, Mike, whether I've been in the garage, right, as a driver or in the studio as a member

of the media, the biggest lesson I've learned over the years is that we are all better off with an ally. a friend, a partner. My favorite part of the download has always been the opportunity it gives me to connect with such a wide range of people. They love racing as much as I do,

and it means so much to me that when we leave the guest segment, I leave it with a feeling that I can call each and every guest on the download of true ally. Thank you, Ally, for your continued support of the show and the entire Dirtymo Media team. There we go.

All right, we are live on YouTube. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. at the Dale Jr. Download. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for supporting our YouTube handle at Dirty Mo Media and everything else we do on social media. Tell your friends about it. Thanks for Exfinity supporting this portion of the show, the Ask Junior segment. You guys have sent all your questions to at Xfinity Racing on Twitter, and Hannah is going to gather her favorites, and hopefully she selected your question.

Let's get started. Well, the first one comes from Beer Guy. it says 1-2-4-5 finish for junior motorsports at Dover and Xfinity. How about that for that dirty-mo media, right? How cool was that to see? I was, you know, there's so many people that love the door bumper clear show. And then there's some people in the industry that do not love it. And boy, do I hear from them.

And so that made me want the car to win for the haters. And so, you know, Doorbubble Clear is an important part of the industry. I think it's necessary. It's kind of fun. They're not always, I don't always agree with them. And they are hard on us. They give us a hard time. But, you know, kind of like Kyle Bush, right?

He's necessary. You might not love his personality. You might not love his attitude. You might not love the things he says or does. But our sport needs that. complexity and you know everybody can't be the same everybody can't be the hero everybody can't be the villain you know you got to have a little bit of everything and they certainly bring their own you know their own sort of niche to the sport and we love it but of course we love it because

they're underneath our banner but um here lately they've been causing a lot of noise and and i like it man bring it come on brett let's hear the noise every week i can't think of a better example than calling them the cow bush of dirty mo media that that is perfect for them of media of media they can be cowbush and i cannot wait to tell them that that's what they are yeah cow bush loves dbc and they'll eat it up too because that's i mean brett's just out here causing a ruckus he lives for it he does all right we've got one coming in from the chat which i actually found was funny uh did you enjoy your race last night on monday night racing because there was there was cuss words in my household oh really yeah yeah

did not have a good race. So Monday night racing is, it's a great series on iRacing and there's several of them out there that I competed in over the time. But yeah, I race with Dylan in that race last night and he competes. So when I get into a planned event on i racing, I feel like that I'm kind of a guest. I'm just there to hang out. I'm not going to be the loudest guy in the room. I'm not going to be obnoxious and put off a bad vibe.

So I just kind of hang out and just laugh at what I'm watching and seeing. And boy, there was a lot to laugh at last night. And I think Dylan could have used that approach and might not be cussing. He might not be cussing and having such a terrible time. If you go into it, just knowing you're going to see some things that are going to be entertaining and try not to be part of those. It was awesome. I increase my rec avoidance.

You know, if you could, you know, as you're, you know, like in Madden, the players have awareness level. This guy's got 99 awareness. Is rec avoidance an actual score that you make in Irish? I think there's, no. No, you're just talking about it in general. Yes. You made it up.

Okay, got it. Reck avoidance is something that every driver needs. If you don't have rec avoidance, you're not going to keep your ride too long. Isn't it possible that they think their wreck avoidance is way better than what what it actually is. Like TJ, I could see TJ being, man, my rec avoidance is at 99. Yeah, well, no, I don't know.

I just think that there was a lot of practice last night for rec avoidance. Some guys were great at it. Some guys were lucky like me. And, yeah, I was in, there were so many wrecks that I avoided. If I was in the next one, I would have still felt really good about the night.

But it was, I love racing on I racing, and Monday Night Racing is a good series. Obviously it happens pretty much every Monday night. Yeah, good time. Perfect. Next one. With Darlington coming up, or this one comes from Hall Motorsports. With Darlington coming up, what are your top three schemes that you would like to see done as a throwback? Man, what have put me on top three?

I mean, it's impossible to do that. So, you know, if I'm on social media and you give me a couple days to think about it, I would probably be able to answer that question to you. But on the spot here to pick your top three, honestly, I walked into Junior Motors When I come in to do this show, I park in the back, and that allows me the opportunity to walk through the shop and see whoever I see as I'm coming to the show. And all of the throwback cars for Junior Motorsports are sitting on the service plates right now getting ready for Darlington. Well, three of the four are over there. They look great.

The car that Justin Algear is going to run is a throwback that it looks really, really good. It actually has the correct number that, you know, everything about it is correct as far as the colors, the numbers. One of the things that annoys the hell out of me is that when people will do a throwback, but they'll do the throwback in their colors, right? It's not the actual, it's not the colors of the throwback car. Say like, you know, this number two might curb a car that dad drove in 1980. Somebody might do a throwback of the same design but use different colors. and that's so, it doesn't check all the boxes. Defeats the purpose, I feel like personally.

Yeah, some of the sponsors just can't loosen up, you know, and just let it happen. And so sometimes, you know, when the number lines up with the throwback, it's like an eclipse, right? It's like, damn, they're doing a throwback, and they have the right number. So that's always pretty cool, and it's rare, you know. And so that's why I use the eclipse analogy, Mike. Happens once just to know. Yeah. So anyways, this Justin Algar one is one of my favorites that I've seen,

that I haven't seen in a long time. The one that Josh Berry is going to run, you know, it's, I'm partial to it. It's right here on the table. This car right here has the right, hey, has the same number, right? And there's another car that Rick, or Rick Mass throw back, right? Same number. Same number. So I guess, I can't tell you.

you in my top three. It probably changes every year. But when you can name, when you can get the colors of the car right and the number together, you have hit pay dirt on the throwback weekend. Next one comes from Ricky. It says, true or false? Would you say that Ross Tustane is a legitimate championship contender at this point in the season? Oh, yes. Sure. I mean, without question, Ross, you're waiting on them to show up and run like you expected them to run every week. You're waiting on them to go to a racetrack and struggle to be 15th. I think that everyone in the room, everyone watching right now, nobody guessed that they were going to do what they're doing.

If you say you thought this is what they could do, you're lying. And let's be honest, right? This is pretty incredible what Trackhouse has been able to do this year, but they keep showing up and they keep backing it up. They keep running into top five. They're leading laps. Ross's team particularly of the two has been the most impressive. And so, you know, I know Daniel's wanting to get up there and be able to put up the same numbers.

He's the first driver that this team hired. And I believe he will. I believe he will have his moments this year. But they're both running way better than any of us could have guessed. And Ross is a championship contender. watch some of the post race. Truex goes up to Ross on Pit Road. They had a conversation.

And so it was, I talked to Truex a little bit last night, and he told me it was a, it was a good conversation. But that was tough to watch because I'm a huge, True, Truex is my buddy, right? Big fan of his. I know a lot of people have feelings about Truex, you know, that he won't win the war, comment that he made and damn if Lugano doesn't go win the war passes him at Homestead

right and there seems you know Turex gets pretty animated over the radio and a lot of those comments can rub people the wrong way but Torex is a clean race car driver he's not going to go out there and run

run over somebody at least unless he's pushed too far anyways also on the other side of that Ross rented from us forever. Ross lived less than a mile from me for years as he was trying to work his way through the Xfinity series, through the truck series. And so I've had a lot of conversations with him over the years about different things and, you know, him trying to get his career to where it is today. And it's been fascinating to watch Ross move up through the ranks and do things that,

honestly we didn't think we're possible win races and compete the way he is in the Cup series so Ross has a lightning rod at this point and not to go on and on about this but you know we all know that Ross isn't there

to make friends we all know Ross is there to do what he needs Ross is all about him not in a I guess in a selfish way but you can't fault him for it he's worked really hard to put himself in this position and he's not going to give up anything to lose it.

He's not going to, he's not there to be friends with anybody. And if, and whatever he does on the racetrack, he doesn't apologize for. If you can't handle it, you can't handle it. If that means you don't want to be his buddy, then he's fine with that. It's quite interesting. As much as I love Truex, and he will always be one of my best friends, and I think that he is a cool cat because, you know, he's that blue collar hunting, fishing, outdoorsman kind of guy that we need in the sport. Ross is that, I don't care, I'm not here to make friends a guy that we need in the sport.

And boy, have we lacked some of that. Ross is a guy that's in there and he's out there racing like he's not getting a check. You know what I'm saying? He's like every spot he's racing for is worth food on the table. a bit of a throwback in the way he drives, in my opinion. He doesn't give an inch. And we need a lot of guys out there like that. More the better.

I got a giggle when they asked him afterwards, you know, what him and Truax were talking about. And he's like, we were just figuring out where we're going fishing next week. And everyone's like, okay. Yep. It was actually not as mean of a conversation. I talked to tricks a little bit about it. They just had to.

They were talking about what it's like to rent from Dale. That's a good point. Rent from Dale. How is Dale as a landlord? That's the new. I forgot that Turex actually rented from us as well. Rind from Dale win cup races. It's pretty simple.

This is the formula. Didn't he live with Stephen too for a while, Stefan? Yeah. I don't remember. Who, Truix? No. Oh, no. It was okay.

Way to go. Way to ruin it, Dillner. Got the facts straight back here. Got to have once a show. All right, last one here. This one actually has been on the chat for the last couple weeks and finally getting to it. It's come from a couple people. This one being C.L. Tucker and Marsha.

It says both alluded to having your dad having a possible race car graveyard with several used cars on the edge of the woods behind the chicken houses. Do you remember that? Actually, that might be true. If it was several, we're talking maybe, you know, five, four, five, not a lot. He didn't have, it wasn't a purpose. It wasn't a purposeful thing. So by the chicken houses, there's the big DEI that you drive by and see every, you know, if you're, driving down Highway 3, there's the giant garage mahal DEI, and then just down the street,

there's a gated driveway. That was two dads' house. Beyond that is another gated small building, and in that building was the truck team at one point, and then the A.C. Delco car that I drove was in there, and Michael Waltrip's cut team was in there for a period of time. There were some cars around. I mean, it's literally in the, you go through the same gate, and there's that shop, and there's

your chicken houses, so there were some cars destroyed that were in, you know, in proximity of all that, but there wasn't like a purpose. There wasn't like a place you'd go where, I don't know, I'm checking, you show you a bunch of cars that we've wrecked or piled up over here. Usually,

um, the cars that we crashed would go down to Doug Wayne's junkyard, which was, which is still there. It's Wayne's, Wayne's Auto, Wayne's salvage or something on the right, if you're driving towards Charlotte down Highway 3, there's a junkyard. I got all of my streetstock parts out of that junkyard. I've crawled underneath giant, you know, big old Lincoln's to get the giant right front spring out of them

and underneath all kinds of Chevroletes to get ball joints and a frames and uppers and lowers that we've bent. And carried a toolbox in the back of my S-10. We drive back in there, climb under a car, get what we needed, and drive out. and we could do that because we had their logo on our street shot car. And when Steve Park drove, I think it was Steve Park, it was either him or Hornaday drove a blue, what was that blue number 14, something with, racing for children? It's like a tealish blue.

Yeah. So that car, that was dad's very, very first cup car, I think. You got the die cast over there. Anyways, that car, yeah, that car, that car crashed. somewhere and it's in it there it is racing for kids magazine so yeah this car there's no driver's name on there i think park drove it and maybe hornaday drove it definitely no maybe but um i think this might have been i feel like that either the there was a burger king cup car in this car maybe in the same year um but anyways that one of those chassis with the shell and every

everything I think is still on that property at Doug Wayne's. A wrecked one, yeah. But anyhow, all of our cars typically would go to Doug Wayne's, and so there might be a couple of roll cage and chassis back in the junkyard somewhere. By the way, Stephen corrected me. He lived with Barry, not Turex. Sorry, Stephen. Wrong driver.

Well, that is it for this week's Ask Junior on YouTube, so. I'm sure we start. I'm sure that that created more questions. More questions. Oh, yeah. That Ask Jr. It was a little bit all over the place. But hey, that's what's great about that segment.

We really appreciate all the great questions you guys are sending in to Xfinity Racing at Twitter. If you want to really, it's kind of an ask me anything portion of the show. And the more creative you guys get the better. So we appreciate that. Thanks again for all the support at Dirty Mo Media. And it sucks when it ends. It goes by too fast. It goes by way too fast.

Yeah. Too fast. It's almost like it goes. by at the speed of Xfinity X-Fi. Yeah, Exfinity X-Fi is more than just fast, though, Mike. It's reliable, it's powerful, it's secure. That means everyone can do more of what they love with this faster Internet. That's true.

You can keep your crew connected with Wi-Fi coverage that delivers the speed your devices need so your crew can stay in the fast lane on race day. A lot about your crew right there. A lot about your crew. Remember everyone to send your Asked Junior questions to Xfinity Racing on Twitter. That's Add Xfinity Racing. Your crew, you know, I think my crew is like my family, my wife and kids, right? Right, your crew.

Cool, boy, we have a bunch of devices. Do you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many devices. You just think about it, right? All your TVs, your tablets, your watch. Your watch?

Your phone. Everything. Everything is wireless. So, you know, if you, it's funny, I'll go into my app and look at all the things that are connected. And I'm like, holy moly. So, I just, you know, I'm just blown away that I can, you know, X-Fi for me, I think I get 200 megs in my package. And it's more than enough to do everything I need to do. I got a million devices connected. Plus I'm, plus I'm gaming.

That's, you know, gamers are critical. That's right. Well, you cannot be, you can not have a bad connection. Can't have a glitch. You'll get clown by your buddies. They will. So, yeah, Exfinity X-5. gives you all the speed that you need, all the bandwidth.

Before we hit the road, though, we want to thank Xfinity. They do so much for this podcast, so much for the entire sport. That's why they're the proud premier partner of NASCAR. All right, man, that was a great show. Ricky Carmichael is a great guest. Awesome to have that paint scheme unveil. I love the flexibility and freedom that Justin Marks and Trackhouse have to be able to do really kind of what they want.

You look at their paint schemes, and they are pretty aggressive, unique. They're really busting out of the envelope, right? Yeah. And they have this sort of opportunity and freedom to do cool opportunities, or cool things like this with their throwbacks. Not only you get,

those two cars that me and dad raced in Japan, that was a great moment in my life. My first time racing against my dad, and you smoked him. Well, it's a great story, and they're doing a throwback not to one, but to both. It's amazing. It really is kind of cool.

So appreciate that, and I hope fans enjoy it, and they'll look great out on the racetrack. Yeah, we're pulling for them. And Ricky Carmichael, fantastic. Enjoyed having time with him. Yeah. Yeah. What a career he's at.

Not bad. Anyways, guys, great show. Hope you guys have a great week. Episode 380. We're out. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.