The Dale Jr. Download - 441 - Tony Stewart - Never Say Never

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

The last time Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis sat down with Tony Stewart, he was single and embarking on a 90-plus date sprint car schedule. Now, just four years later he’s happily married, owns an NHRA team, and is a Top-Alcohol Dragster event winner. Tony fills the guys in on his efforts to get in shape and where he and his wife, fellow NHRA competitor Leah Pruett, are thinking of settling down. They also discuss the difficulty of trying to run sprint cars on a part-time basis, and how competitive the dirt ranks have become in recent years. Another new development for Tony was the 2020 formation of the Superstar Racing Experience, in which he won the inaugural points championship. Tony explains the vision behind the racing series, which drivers have impressed him thus far, and where he envisions it going in the future. The interview also covers how Tony and Leah met and how he ended up in the drag racing world. 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.

Following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. There he is. Come on in here, buddy. Have a seat. Hey, everybody. Glad you tuned in. It's time for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. Mike Davis, Dellenhart Jr.

The Bojangl Studio. Got a great guest today. Well, how you doing, Rhiz? I'm doing fine right now. This is every week, okay, Bob. Uncle in. You died on that hill. Your career died on that hill and you were hardheaded.

You were the bigger idiot. I didn't even think about it. You thought about it and didn't ask. That makes me the bigger idiot. I think so. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again. Another episode of the Dell Jr. Download.

Load, load. Nice sound effect. Thank you, man. Hey. I didn't even tell. I tried to help Alex. Wait, wait. Was that you?

I try to help Alex wherever I can. Appreciate it. Mike Davis is here, my co-host, and we have a great guest coming into the show. We're going to welcome to the Bojangles Studio. Tony Stewart. It's going to be a lot of fun talking to Tony. Tony's doing a lot of things now that he wasn't doing last time he was on the show. One of them was drag racing.

I can't wait to talk to him about that. So I'll stop right here, not really get into too much detail, but Tony's an ally. I want to thank Ally for all of their support here at Dirtymo Media. here at the Dale Jr. download, but also other things that they do outside of this building, they certainly, you know, sponsoring race cars, they're a massive part of the NASCAR machine. And we appreciate those type of partners that sort of involve themselves in many different ways to help this sport move forward. Ally is definitely one of those, and they help us bring this guest segment to you every week.

And Tony Stewart, absolutely, has been an ally of mine over the years, great friend. He will tell it to you straight. One of those guys that's not going to sugarcoat anything. You've got to have those kind of friends in your life. Right? Yeah, he's been it. He's definitely one of those. But his life has changed tremendously.

He's buried now. I can't wait to talk to him about it. So let's go ahead and get him in the studio. Tony Stewart on the Dell Jr. Download. Where's your headphone volume out? The hearing impaired? Yeah, now that you're a drag rate. Yeah, I lost a bunch of it before that.

What was left is gone. You lost the rest of it. Yeah. The rest is gone. How's that? How's that? One two, one, two, one. Yeah, that's way better.

Thank you. Oh, here's your water if you will. We got another stuff. We have any beer if you want. I wish, man. I'm on a diet. Are you? Yeah.

Dude, I've lost 14 pounds in two and a half weeks. Yeah. It's stupid. Yeah. I thought you. What are you eating? That shot. Oh.

So it's like once a week for 12 weeks. And I went for 20, seven and a half hours for I ate my first meal after I got. Wait a minute now. You did what? You got what's in your arm? You get shots. You get a shot once a week. And what is this shot for? To help you lose weight. Okay. So what it does is it curbs your appetite. Like went for 27 hours and I'm like, still wasn't hungry. And I'm like, why am I tired? And why do I have a massive headache? Yeah. Because I haven't ate. Yeah. So, it needs a protein. Yeah. So I've noticed, man, that you've been slimming down, but for months.

Like, I mean, I thought, I thought you'd lost a little bit of weight over, you know, the last 10 months. But now here you've been big. I stopped drinking as much beer. Yeah. And literally, it was as simple as quick cram and so much crap down your throat. Yeah. You know, cut it back 30%.

And I started seeing difference. So then you do that. And you got serious. Well, and then after a while, then that 30%, now you go, ah, and I cut it back another 20 because that becomes your baseline. again. And then I heard a couple guys in our industry that had done

the OZempic deal and I asked our doctor and she goes, I got something way better than that. And the lady, one of the nurses in the office, she was I'm starting it too tomorrow. I said, well, I'll come in tomorrow too. I'll start with you. And I've seen her every week because we get her shots the same day. Plus she works there. But she's, I can see

the difference in her too. And she goes, I can see the difference in you. So it definitely is working. So I was watching, the screen grab, I've seen you on social media and TV and stuff over the last 10 months and I've been seeing a noticeable difference in your in your health

and how you look and then on Kenny's show, the screen grab that he used to advertise it on YouTube, I can't even recognize you almost because you look so much better, man. I'm really happy for you.

And that's tough. I mean, it's tough to like you say, like I fluctuated a lot with my weight, I go like 172 to 190 back and forth every probably two or three years. And try, I don't, I get, you know, when I get to 190, it's like my pants stop fitting and you get depressed and get disappointed. And then you got to bust your ass and try to lose 15 pounds. And then you get happy again.

And then you just go back the other direction and trying to find some, you know, lifestyle that will sustain what you want to be, where you want to be is tough. It's not easy. Yeah, my wife is very healthy and out. athletic. I mean, hikes a lot. Yeah. Runs a lot. We bike. We bike some. She's got me hiking with her out there in Arizona and you hike up the hills. There's one hill we hike a lot and I die twice on it.

And she waits. And then we get to the top and hang out for a little bit and then we hike down. Going down, I kick her ass going downhill. Yeah. Because I got gravity and momentum on my side. But it is helping. I mean, it's just all those things. and, you know, she eats a little healthier. She eats a lot healthier and I do, but it's starting to get me to eat a little healthier as well.

I had the same experience when I got with Amy, and she has a, you know, she's got her own lifestyle in terms of how she eats and how she works out and all that stuff. And I'll never be as dedicated to it as she is. But I think have you experienced just being around her, how that's changed some of the decisions you make, and you're more influenced to make the better decision now when it comes to, you know, what you're going to eat for dinner, what you're going to do with some, you know,

a couple hours of free time in the middle of the week. Yeah, and I don't know if you've met my wife or not, but she has that uncanny ability to sit there and go, are you sure you really want that? God, and when she says that. Somebody else gets that too, good. Now it's feel better. And it's, she's not saying, no, you can't have it, but she's saying no, you can't have it. Is that a good decision?

It's just a translation is all it is. She's like, you sure you really want that? But, nah, I probably want this instead. You're right. Where do you spend most of your time these days? Man, we're still trying to get a pattern. We just haven't had a pattern. I mean, we met the Monday before COVID hit.

And from that moment on, my life has totally been different. Her life has been quite a bit different. This year, we started the year. We went to Habesu for a couple weeks. Flew to Florida the week before Daytona, did the spring. car stuff for a week, was at Daytona for a week, went to Gainesville, to preseason testing. I flew out to L.A. for the Coliseum Race, came back to Florida, was in Florida another week for testing, and baby Gator Nationals, and then Gator Nationals. We were down there for five straight

weeks, then left there, did the show at Atlanta, flew from Atlanta back to Havasu, and we've really been in Havasu until this week, and I'm finally back here, and then after here, we'll go back to Indy, and we've... start back on the East Coast races now. What does, so I saw probably six months ago, so you got this house, right? You got this property. Where is that at exactly? In Columbus, Indiana.

So I've been watching you for years, massages land and shape it like you want, and you got this incredible house and this massive helmet collection and your own, you know, the old Indy car hanging on the wall, and you were going to sell it. And I thought, wow, why would he do? that. And so, you know, I was, it was, I was, I got a little sad almost because I was thinking, man, you just built this thing. Have you been there? No, but I mean, he's sad over the house he's not even been to. If he comes to it, he's really going to be sad if I sell it. It's like he built this

in his own, you know, he did this with his own work, hard work. Right. All the, all the, all the, all the years of racing and grinding through all the cup schedules year after year, that was the result, right? But it's simple, though. This is why we did it. Everybody was mental at that time. I mean, if you had an acre of land that had rocks on it, people were buying it because they just were buying land. And I thought, we'll throw a number out there. And if somebody wants to buy it, they can have it.

And the other reason was Leah and I like to surf a lot, wake surf. Well, for us to go wake surf where we live, it's an hour, hour and 15 minutes. By the time you get the boat ready, get it to the water, get it in the water. And then it's an hour and a half coming back. You've got to take all the time to clean it and dry it when you get it out. So I thought, well, we'll look at it. If it sells, we'll find some place on a lake where we can literally just drop the boat in and go surf, and it's not a production to go surf for a day.

When you and her talk about where y'all want to put roots, like, do you all have those conversations? And what is, like the conversation like? It's like a tug-of-war match with two evenly matched teams. It just keeps going back and forth. I mean, I like Lake Havasu. Lake Havasu is fun. I mean, you can, we literally, from where our house is now, we can bike four blocks and be in the desert, go up the hill. You can boat, you can serve, you can hang out on the channel.

Spring break is insane there, which it's cool to be around except for you don't like to be that creepy 50-year-old guy that's watching all these kids on spring break. But it's a fun town, and it's got a lot of racers. You wouldn't believe all the races there. Really? Wayne Rainey, the motorcycle rider. One of the super cross riders that's retired lives out there. Billy Moyer Sr., the Dirt Lake Model guy has a house there. But it's a big car culture town.

So every Thursday they shut this main, well, they don't shut the main drag down, but everybody parks in the parking spots with their cars. And it's a really cool deal. So it's just a very, very laid back town. And from the atmosphere that you and I are used to being in, the time. It's nice to live in a town where people know who you are, but they also are just chilled out and respectful and just hang out. They don't make a big deal about it. That sounds fun, man. I mean, I know you probably got some cars that are fun to take out to

things like that. I've got a few. And when the community gets together and everybody's kind of showing off their stuff and admiring each other's cars and it can be a great experience. But wait a second. You said that you got sad when he was about to sell. Did it actually sell? No, we took it off the market. You took it off. So it's as soon as the market changed.

So it's the plan? Do you go there? Yeah. Actually, I went there the other day. Like I said, we've been in Arizona and I had an appearance in Nebraska and I got to come home for three days. I landed and I'm like, man, I probably should stop at the gas station down and ask for directions. Yeah. But got to stay there for three days.

And it was crazy because, and I even called Leah when I got everything unloaded. I'm like, I started down the driveway and I saw a deer and I stopped and watched that one dough go across there. Then I got down and I saw two turkeys go across the driveway. And then I went past and actually went past the house across the dam a little bit and looked out in the field to the left and seven elk are down there. There's two more turkey running across. There's deer everywhere. Saw a raccoon. I'm like, why did I put this thing on the market in the first place?

I couldn't believe. I turned into a kid when I went down the driveway the other. day. That's awesome. It's amazing. But you're so busy and you're all over the country. What is your involvement with sprint cars? Your team owner, what all do you have going on in dirt racing? This is the part where it's actually legitimately sad. So the happy part is I still have Donnie shots and he's running full time with the World of Outlaws. Still have the All-Star Circuit of Champions sprint car series. You own a series. A series. Yeah. So I want to talk you about that. And then we still have Eldora, obviously.

But my side of the sprint car stuff, I haven't ran a sprint car for two years, except for doing, I've done some testing with Donnie and the team. And I did the Hoosier Tire test at the end of the year for the new sprint car tire. All right. So you just literally don't have time in the day to do it. I could go run a race here or there, but the sprint car series is so competitive. And you've got these young kids that are coming in. And I mean, they stand on the gas.

I mean, and the cars are getting so good that even when the tracks get slick, they're flying around there. Right. And if you're going to run with those guys, you better be running 60, 70 nights a year. You can't run a dozen nights a year and expect to run with them. Right. And I don't go to the gym. You know, at 50, it's hard to run with those kids. So, you know.

Physically. Yeah. So if I'm going to do it, I don't want to do it to just do it. If I wouldn't try to run a sprint car race right now, it'd be an accomplishment. just to make the A main each night against the competitors that are out there. There's so many good sprint car teams. You're feeling that in late models, aren't you? Yeah, so when we had Casey Kane here, and I was talking to him about racing, this was a couple years ago,

but he was like, man, I said, you're going to run your wing car a little bit this year, and he goes, yeah. I was like, it seems like it's tough for you to get the results, and he's like, I need to run every week for six months to be able to get to where they are. Yes. And I get it now. You know, I mean, that discipline is so unique and so damn challenging. I've been going out to Mill Bridge with our family and all the people in this industry and, you know, that go over there. And just that, just watching it from that perspective, it's a bit of a small sample size toward, you know, what a guy might experience in World Outlaw. But our stock car guys and all these guys that don't know dirt, they get out there and get their butts kicked.

and the only way for them to ever really get reasonably competitive is to be doing it every single week. And, you know, nobody has, nobody at the truck Xfinity level really has the time to be able to put into it. So I was talking to Josh Barry last night. He's like, I wrecked the micro, and I was like, damn, I was like, you know, take it easy, buddy. And he says, man, every time I get in, it's like starting over. It's like, I'll, I don't drive. I got to drive it every single week because every time I get in it, I, I, I, I, I have to relearn everything.

But that's the way all the motorsports is now. I mean, back in the day, you remember guys that used to, even the guys that ran the Indy 500. The night before, they'd go run a dirt race the night before. And then go run the Indianapolis 500 the next day. And it's like, we look at that now and go, these guys are insane. Yeah. And nobody does that. But, you know, it's kind of a, we see a trend now where everybody really gets focused and tunneled down one goal.

And you have to. I mean, you have to work that hard to get there. but the encouraging part is you got guys like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe and these guys that will sit there and Alex Bowman sneak off and go run dirt races when they can and when you and I were running it was hard to get our car owners to let us do that.

And for the exact reason of what happened that Chase Briscoe would break in his finger but that's I think what makes these guys even better when they get back in a cup car is just you don't get stuck in one field. But isn't a guy like, so some of these guys it seems like, you know, I think it's, I love the fact that, you know, a Bowman or, or Briscoe will go out

and do those things and I like to see them in different disciplines. But isn't Larson like this alien? Yes. Where he, he's the guy that can take off a month, jump right back in one, and be the fastest guy there. He's the, he's kind of like you were in your prime, A.J. Foyt, a Mario Andredi, a guy that can jump in anything. had been, you know, Mario Andrade can jump in a cup car and win a Daytona 500, you know, and AJ Ford could come be competitive after not driving a cup car for six months. And vice, so on the other end of the spectrum, Larson, I know he races a lot of dirt, but there are times when he has to take breaks or get away from it.

It goes right back to it, right back to winning. Do you see, like, I mean, I know this is common knowledge, but you're smart enough to know a little bit more than we do when you're watching him race. He's special. Absolutely, no doubt. I mean, the funny thing about that kid, it's like you just pick him up, you put him in a car, go play nice with the other kids. Just send him off. You don't want to tell him anything. You just send him off and let him drive. And he figures it out. Yeah. That kid can take a, he can take a couple weeks off. It doesn't phase him. But you got to remember in the weeks before that, he's running three nights a week, four nights a week somewhere. So he's current. You can take small breaks, but when you're trying

run against guys like that. I mean, what he does going from late models to sprint cars and then getting in the cup car and how good he is at all of them, you don't find guys like that anymore. He is the diamond in the rough for sure. Can I just say, though, I'm hearing all you guys talk about this. And I remember a night, this may turn into Tony Stewart's story hour here, and that's okay. But I'm just saying, is it, you know, you guys did used to go break away from the cup schedule and maybe like a Walkins Glen weekend or something and go hit some tracks appearance stuff. You wouldn't drive, you'd flag it and maybe sign some autographs.

You, on the other hand, I remember specifically, because I was there with Spencer in 2003, I want to say it was that old Shangrily that got turned into Tioga that now no longer is anything, maybe just a cow pasture, but you ran in several races, several divisions. one, two of them, I think that night, and it was a late model, and it was something else.

And then the one that you didn't, I think it was in a modified, you were leading and somebody wrecked you. And if we're just going to take this all the way through, you guys, and I don't know if you remember this. I do. You got put into what, I think, was a big styrofoam wall on the front stretch.

You got out and you took a big old chunk of that styrofoam and waited for him to come around. and when he did you wedge that son of a right into the front. Do you remember this? I loved it. The place, Dale, it was going bananas, man. Everybody was up on the fence.

Tony, this was the first race that night. He goes in and wins the next one in some other division. And I'm like, wow, Tony on a cup weekend, breaks away, goes to this animal house, and that is exactly what it was. It really was. It was an animal house.

I got punched in an autograph. I cut the line, a Spencer line, one of Spencer line. A guy was not going to have any of it. Right in that. Jimmy loved it. So, so, so, so this animal house and Tony goes in there, wins a couple races, gets in a fight, goes back to go run as a cup deal the next day. I was like, that's the man right there.

That's the line right there. That's the ultimate lie. I'm going to tell you something. I'm sorry. Kyle Larson doesn't do that. I don't see the guy. He's good. I got it, but I'm still.

Tony's the guy that could do that. Kyle's not a fighter. I got a fight. I text Kyle after the Bubba incident at Las Vegas and I was like, listen, I understand. pushing you once but the second time he did it that's enough and the third time he pushed you that i laid his ass out yeah i said what what are you doing he goes man i've never been in a fight in my life and i didn't want to get my ass kicked in front of these people yeah it's like i get it all right we're going to teach you out of fight though bud so you going back to uh talking about the dirt stuff

you bought the series right so um me and harvick and burton and justin marks bought into a series of our own Give me some advice. Get thick skin real quick. Yeah. Because you'll go run an event and it'll go flawlessly. And from the outside looking in, from your perspective, there's not going to be anything wrong. And somebody's going to complain about something. Somebody's going to have had a bad night.

And somehow you're going to be the blame of it. And what I've learned, and it took a long time because I don't, you know, the guy gets in my face and starts yelling, I yell back normally. And what I learned with having the series and I, and it, and it, And I always go back to Mike Helton because Mike's probably taught me more life lessons than anybody in my life. And he always goes, don't make it personal. I said, okay. So I think about it from their side when they're doing it and they're trying to, they're yelling at you and they're kind of making you feel like it's your fault. That it's like it's really not personal.

It's not that they're mad about this. They're mad about the outcome of how it affected them. So as a series owner at the end of the night when somebody comes up and they're mad, I just listen to everything they've got to say until they're kind of done. talking about it and they're waiting on me to say something finally well by the time you get to that point they're halfway calm down yeah because they just got it off their chest and even if they don't like the solution at the end of it if you say this is and it goes back to the help and deal if this is you show them this is why we have to do it this way even at the end of it if they don't agree or like

what you said they'll their temperament's way calmer you know they and you agree to go you agree to disagree sometimes and you go on and go to the next night and go race again but i think it's i've gained a lot a respect from our guys that run our series and races because you at least listen and take the time and not argue with them and go, well, you're stupid, you're dumb, you did this. It wasn't our fault. It was your fault. You were supposed to do this. You did this. Just listen to what they have to say and let them get it out and you're halfway to the solution. Out of, you know, owning a race team, owning a racetrack, on in a series, like, what's your, is there no, is there no objective in terms of like, here's where I want to be in 15 years with all of this? Or is it, are you just,

these are things you're doing just because you love being a part of that world? Well, that and I think it, you know, take the Sprint Car side, for example, the All-Star Series, there was a couple of the car owners that were splitting away from it and starting a new group. Well, neither group was probably going to survive because they weren't going to have enough cars on either one of them to make it work. And it was going to kill a series that was the original touring Sprint Car series in the country. and I bought it just to try to save it and make everybody happy that the owner of the series was the problem. Yeah. So we bought him out, got him out of it.

The other group decided, you know, we all got together and brought it back to one, and we built it. And it's healthier and it's ever been now. So now I'm all right if somebody wants to come and buy it. It's like, I don't need the extra work. I don't have any extra time right now. But I enjoy making it healthier and better for the competitors and the tracks that we go to and see in the crowds. that are coming. That's the reward for it. It's not necessarily monetary value. It's that attachment of knowing that you're doing something good for the sport. You talked about being 50 years old and how

difficult it is to get behind the wheel of a sprint car these days. Do you feel the clock running out before there's a time when you won't physically be able to get back in there and drive? And that's the thing. It's like the sprint car. Could I go run a race? Absolutely. Could I run well? Yeah. but can I be in that elite group nowadays? No. And after you've been there to just do it, it's as much as I love it, I'm still way too competitive to want to settle for 10th, 15th, 18th, knowing that I used to be a guy. I mean, I used to be like Larson. I could show up at a world outlaw race and actually be competitive and won a couple races. But to sit there nowadays, you know, life's priorities are starting to change.

And now running a sprint car 60, 70 nights a year with my wife and what she does for a living and, you know, all the projects we've got going on. It's, I'm okay with not doing that. It's okay to let that aspect of my life go now. It doesn't mean, you know, we're still going to run the SRX series this year. I'll still go race with my dad who, if my dad's an example, what the rest of my life's going to be like, we'll be fine. He's 85 and he's still racing a three-quarter midget. Yeah. So I still go race with him a couple nights a year with the.

the TQ series in Indiana. And, you know, until I physically feel like it's, it's hurting me or I don't feel like I'm competitive, I think it's a worst thing I could do is stop racing. I mean, that's what, that's my sister and I, it's, we use my dad as an example. It's like, if we told him he couldn't race anymore, he'd go downhill immediately. But he's energetic, he's got a goal. He's passionate about it and he loves what he's doing. So it's kind of the path I'm taken of, you know, the day that I feel like I'm not as,

as good as I need to be to do a good job in the race car. I'll stay doing it until I can't do it anymore. What's the identity of the SRX series? As far as. Well, what do you want that to become? What is it to you right now? When Ray came to me with the idea, it was about reviving the IROC series, but with a twist. And it was like, you know, the basic format of the IROC series was very basic, very simple, very easy to understand, and then having the opportunity to run heat races and to have a crew chief and you could actually make changes to your car. You and I both ran I rock and you'd get in a car and you're like, man, this thing is way too tight. Yeah. And it's like, man, if we could just get them to make a change, then we'd be okay. Because you can't have 12 drivers and they all drive the exact same setup. You know, and that was the whole premise of IROC was you had to do it all the same for everybody and let them drive it. But some guys like tight cars, some guys like loose cars. So you get the different tracks and it worked out different for everybody. But I like the opportunity to make changes.

I like having different celebrity crew chiefs come in and work on the cars with us and get an opportunity to race for them and go to these cool short tracks that need attention. So we've been to some cool places. I'd never been to Slinger. And Slinger was my favorite of all the races we've ran with SRX. I mean, we went there. And I walked up to the fence. I'm like, oh, my God, all of our cars are going to be destroyed by the time we went here.

I'm like how we, and I watched the first set of hot laps and I'm like, my God, that's one car going around there and there's not enough. I don't feel like there's enough room for one car. How are we going to run two? And Luke Fenhouse and I ran about 40 laps side by side and had a blast. I mean, they had sprayed some VHT on the top and I got it and got it, and got it cut in finally. And him and I ran side by side and it's like you'd feel the tire get hot and get greasy and then you'd have to back off a little bit. And then he'd go by and he'd pull away for a little bit. And then he'd get his tire hot. And then I'd run him back down. And it just, that was probably the most fun race we ran in SRX this year. But I think in the big picture, though, we just want to keep doing what we're doing. I mean, there's a lot of interest overseas even about bringing SRX.

So, you know, the hard part is you got a small crew that's trying to maintain 15 race cars. And the logistics of it. I mean, some big things would have to happen for us to be able to expand more than what we're doing right now. One of the things that I'm noticing about the series is the drivers that you guys are bringing in are now, current cup drivers. How does that, how do you have, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, to, to, to NASCAR in that way? At first, it was a big challenge. I mean, Steve Phelps was not happy about it. Um, others in upper management were not happy about it. But there were others in in upper management that thought it was great. And so they were conflicted in their own organization. But what we explained to them is it's like,

we're not trying to be a competitor. IROC was fine, but it was fine then because NASCAR had a hand in it. And it's so because they didn't have a hand in this, then it was ruffling their feathers. But I said, we have the ability when Chase Elliott came and got to race against Bill. That's a huge story. He never got to do that. So to get to do that and then go run the race.

the next day, well, then the next day they were talking about it during the broadcast. So it's a way for us to help promote NASCAR, and that's what it's been all along. It's supposed to help IndyCar with IndyCar drivers. It's supposed to help promote NASCAR, supposed to help all these other series that guys are coming from. It's not meant to take away from anything. It's meant to add for everybody. Yeah. Did you specifically have to go do all that?

I don't want to call it politicking, but the fact is that I feel like that you have a rapport. I mean, you've got such a heavy presence in the series, already that anything less than you yourself probably wouldn't have succeeded as well in getting people to understand your identity. Is that the case? As far as trying to get everybody. Yeah, especially NASCAR. Because again, I think, listen, I was blown away the fact that you had a TV deal in year one. And then you're packing them out. The grandstands are slam full in year one. If I don't have my hand in it, I would look at it as a threat. Yeah, but it's not meant to be. And that's what we had to convince these guys of this isn't, this isn't in any way,

shape or form going to hurt you. You're not trying to grow this thing into a, you know, a competitor series in which the drivers then want to go run 36 races of SRX, is what you're saying. No, exactly. And that's not what it's going to grow to be. I mean, and that's part of the reason we went back to Thursday nights. You know, I said, hey, I'm telling you, this is going to be way bigger if we can get it on Thursday nights.

I know it's a weekday deal, but that's how I got to NASCAR. Thursday night Thunder was how people. People knew who I was and saw me race. So it gives these guys an opportunity, and it doesn't take anything away from the NASCAR weekend. It doesn't take anything away from the IndyCar weekend. I feel like that was a step for us that helps these series not feel threatened. There's room for everybody. How would you explain your involvement?

Like, is it day-to-day? No. Do you help with scheduling or tracks you want to go to? So I get the six weekends. And what I did over the winter was try to make a list of the drivers, kind of a wish list of drivers that I want to come run the series. Yeah, man, I'm sorry, you almost made the cut. You were so close.

You're so close. You didn't want the drama, did you? No, no, not at all. You felt like those drivers that complain, you kind of felt like he would be one of them, right? Well, and then I thought... That you need thick skin for? Then I thought after the race, it'll take four and a half hours again on the racetrack because he'll have people standing on top of people,

standing on top of people to watch him drive a car. So I'm trying to remember why I was going on. Yeah, I interrupted you. Oh, yeah, the schedule, the drivers were the first part of it, make the wish list, and then give it to Don Hawk and let him go try to get these guys. And then I literally sat down with a big U.S. map, and we had the request list of all the tracks that were requesting races. And I tried to lay out what I thought was logistic-wise was the best schedule and the best places we could go. What tracks asked to be a part of it that you want to find a way to get to?

Vegas. The Vegas Bullring is one. Fontaine was one. Fontaine of the big track. No, no, no. I'm sorry. What's the track out there in L.A.? Irwindale.

Oh, yeah, that'd be cool. And I'd love to go to those tracks. The hard part is when you're running six consecutive weeks. The hard thing is... It's six straight. Six straight weeks. Logistics. And that's the hard part is, you know, not just getting there,

but these guys also have to fix all the stuff we tore up the week before. So you've got to get them out, get them out of the venue, get them to the next venue, get them set up and let them repair everything before we all come in on Saturday. Yeah, that is tough. For Thursdays now. Especially when you got Paul Tracy in the field, I mean, there's a lot of –

Dude, I love that guy. I absolutely love Paul Tracy. His car's always got the battle scars from the week before. Well, yeah, because they run out time to fix all his stuff. But Paul is great. I think Paul's great for it. I mean, and everybody goes, why would you want him? He creates so much chaos.

I'm like, exactly. Perfect, yeah. I said, he races hard and he wants – he's not going to give you an inch, and he doesn't expect you to give him an inch either, but he's one of those guys that has embraced the idea and the concept of, you know, entertainment. Yeah, and he's the entertainer out there. It's like the comic book theory.

You've never bought a comic book or read a comic book that had a hero that didn't have a villain. Yeah. It doesn't work. You have to have the villain for the hero to be the hero. How happy are you to see what Marco's done with this opportunity to run in the series? He's, you know, as an IndyCar guy, everybody just assumes that they're sort of road course specialist and he's he grew up in this whole other pipeline he comes and drives a stock car on a short track and is competitive and everybody and i've talked to marco a little bit over

the years about this and everybody's now it's sort of sparked this hey maybe we should get you know we'd love to see this guy drive an infinity car or whatever it's like created a conversation around him possibly getting those other opportunities in stock cars um i guess one were you that Were you kind of surprised just a little bit about his competitiveness on all these tracks? Yeah, I hadn't ran with him in anything. So how did he pick, you know, being an oval guy plus a guy that has any car experience and knows just about every discipline there is, how do you explain his ability to understand the short track discipline, you know, lifting, getting on the, you know, getting on the right rear

and getting against the edge of adhesion and knowing when to throttle up and how to diamond or shape the corner and all those things? Eye racing. Really? You're kidding. Every week before we go to the track, if it's a track that's on eye racing, he is religiously running laps on it, getting ready. Okay. He has the same desire and dedication that cup drivers, Xfinity drivers.

I mean, he puts the time, he puts the effort into it, and he'll call me and he'll go, hey, I don't know about this place. You know, what's this place like? I mean, and I'm like, dude, you'll be fine. we get we get we get five laps two different sessions you'll be fine 10 laps you'll figure it out and we're going to go race after that and i laugh at him because it's i just love his enthusiasm i mean everybody shows up and we're all just having a great time he shows up and has a great time but i'm telling you he prepares for every event before we get there it's just it's crazy how much effort he's put into it and work okay so let's keep this going who else has really like impressed you

in a surprising way like you didn't know anything about him but you're like damn Ernie Francis. There you go. I am a huge Ernie Francis fan now. Yeah, we had him on the show right after he won that SRX race and I admittedly didn't know who he was

and he wins that SRX race and now it really did a lot for his I don't know if he was doing it for publicity but it did wonders for it. Ernie Francis impresses you. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and that was Ray's pick. I mean, Ray goes, hey, I want this guy,

you know, trust me, he's good. I'm like, cool. I trust you on it and brought him in and I had never seen him drive a car. And I remember watching his first session. I'm like, not bad. I'm like, he's figured this out pretty quick. And you get racing with him.

I love racing with that kid. Now, I grabbed him by his collar at South Boston. Yes, you did. And everybody was like, man, what is he so mad about? Well, somebody had got underneath him, and as soon as they could, the bumper's cleared, he just turned left. And I was there. I was half a car link behind.

So it comes right across the nose. Almost took me out, tears the car up. And at the break, I'm like, you're better. than this. I said, don't ever do that again. I said, you got a mirror. I said, did you even look? He goes, no. And he knew he had done something wrong. But that's how we get, that's how we were taught. Your dad grabbed me by the collar a couple times and said, hey, you're doing this wrong. And, and I was mad at Ernie because I love Ernie so much and I love watching him race. And I'm such a big fan of his now that I was so disappointed that he was driving like some of the other guys in

the race. Yeah. I said, don't be like them. You're better than that. Yeah. And that's what I was telling him during that break. Yeah, there was, that was a race. That was a race. where I feel like that there was some uncharacteristic, you know, rough housing and guys had kind of lost their cool a little bit. Some of the guys got frustrated with each other, which rarely happens in that series. In the two heat races, I had been run over by everybody in the field but two guys. Everybody in the field had hit me at some point. And Marco in the second heat race, we started in the back. He had won the heat.

We was starting last because the invert. and I was on the bottom, a foot off the line on the bottom, and he's all four wheels on the apron, comes up and just slams right into me, knocks me out of the way, and I'm like, man, you need that spot apparently better than I do right now. So I let him go, but man, in the feature, I was like, all right, bud, now you're going to get a little dose of what you've been dishing out, and I moved him around all night.

He'd get the lead, I'd just move him around. And finally, you'd just wear him out to where then you'd get by. And then on the restart, he'd get by, you'd move him around, again and I at the end of it I said how'd that feel he didn't like it that well he finally crashed himself I mean I think Biffle was behind him and he turned down in front of Biffle and it spun him and put him in the back and I said how did you like that I said imagine that's what you were doing in the heat race when it didn't matter yeah I said in the main event when it mattered now we rough how's you yeah but like I said he that's how that showed how determined and how much Marco wanted to win these

races and win that championship last year I mean he went a little bit overboard at times and some Some of the guys did, but, you know, it's, I get to play Mike Helton in those scenarios, which is kind of fun. You know, after the race or the next week, I get to pull them into the motor home there at the track and sit there and go, you know, remember what we're here for and remember what we're doing and why we're doing it. We got that car or you have to drive that car the next week. You tear that thing up. I'm not going to tell them to fix it. If you tear it up, that's the way it's going to show up at the next race. Yeah.

Then the next thing you know, they start racing a little bit different. They're still having fun. We don't take the fun out of it. the atmosphere at the races and I wish you know we talked about doing some behind the scene stuff but we always have two motorhomes each week for the field half the drivers are in each one and the conversations and the camaraderie and the bus and the storytelling and all that that is the best part of it aside from the racing for me is just sitting there listening to these guys and you've grown up you've watched them you may or may not have raced with them but you get to meet

their families that they're bringing to the tracks and you listen to stories about the race they ran the week before and it is unbelievable. So for us, I think all of us enjoyed it's we do it all in one day. We get practice in. We take a break and everybody just hangs out and has a great time. Yeah. So, you know, I didn't think that you would ever be married. So did the rest of the English speaking world. That's right. What was the, what changed your mind? When was that moment? When did that moment happen when you thought, I'm going to go down. this route of changing my my approach or the way I look at it do you remember yeah but I'll go just a tick back before that don the snake per dome we were out riding in the sand dunes and he goes hey you need

to meet this girl and I knew who he was talking about how did you know well because he said he said who it was he goes you need to meet Leah and I knew exactly which Leah he was talking about and I'm like I'm engaged he goes I don't mean that way he goes you guys just would get each other he goes you guys, you guys just need to know each other. I'm like, all right, and got us on the phone one day, and we were talking. I was engaged. Leah was married and just introduced us, and it was just casual conversation, you know, just, hey, Snake says we need to catch up and have lunch sometime and just meet each other. So we were both on board with that. Nothing really happened, and then I canceled my engagement. Leah had got separated and was in the process of getting divorced,

and we were riding again in the dunes, and he goes, hey, I'm going to be. telling you, you guys need to meet. Got on the phone, talked again, and literally the Monday before COVID shut everything down, we went on her first date. I was running my sprint car. I had been in Mississippi and Alabama and was coming across Florida, and I was supposed to run Georgia the last weekend. Where did you take her?

Went to lunch in Gainesville, in Gainesville, Florida. She was there running the baby Gators the weekend before the Gator Nationals. I just finished in Alabama. and she texted me and was telling me what was going on. And I said Gainesville and pulled up the GPS. I'm like, that's six and a half hours away. This is 11 o'clock at night. I'm like, I'm on my way.

She was, no, you're not. I said, yeah, I'm on my way. So I packed everything up, had the dogs in there. We start rifling down the road. She called or text an hour later. She goes, you're really coming? I took a picture of the Spenometer. I was running 90 and a 48,000-pound motorhome,

running 90 mile an hour down the interstate heading that way. I said GPS says I'll be there at 6.30. So I remember pulling in the shopping center across from the hotel she was at and parked. And at 630 on the nose, she texted me. She goes, how you doing? I said, I got parked. I'm halfway set up. I said, I got to take a nap, though.

I said, come beat on the door at noon and we'll go to lunch. So, I mean, punctuals can be 12 o'clock on the nose, beat on the door. We go to lunch at the campus there in Gainesville, and they were like, now what are we going to do? So she's like, you ever been to Bike Week? I'm like, nope. I always wanted to go to Bike Week, never been there. She goes, I've never been here. Let's go there.

So she orders us an Uber to ride two hours and 15 minutes to Dayton and an Uber. Holy shit. Because we knew we were going to get banged up. I mean, you're not going to go to bike. We could not get banged up. What a commitment right out of the gate. Yeah. That's love.

Yeah. I mean, well, two hours. or Uber with anybody. You're going to find out whether you're a match or not. Oh, yeah. Right, right. But literally that whole night, we get back at like five in the morning. She's got to be on a six o'clock flight to fly to Vegas to do a trade show.

And I remember sitting there because I didn't have to be anywhere until Atlanta that weekend. And I sat in Gainesville for a couple days. And I'm like, that was different. Yeah. And I guess that was the moment where I said, you know, there's something different about this girl from all the others. and literally, you know, that next weekend, COVID kicked in. They canceled the NHRA stuff a day before NASCAR and IndyCar shut down. And I called her, I said, well, I'm going home to Indiana.

I said, I'm going to restock the bus. I'm going to go up to Chicago and get on Route 66, and I'm going to drive the motorhome all across Route 66. Because we never get two weeks off. We've never had two weeks off. Dude, I've been wanting to do that, like the original. Yes. Like the old Tulane.

I've been wanting to do that. It goes from like Chicago to L.A. or somewhere. All the way, yeah, all the way on a pier. Yeah. And I don't want to drive the motorhome on the pier, but I wanted to do the whole thing. I'm like, we'll never get this opportunity to do it. All those old diners and stuff? Yeah, and I was just going to go by myself.

And she goes, well, I'm in. I'm like, that's even better. I'm like, we're going to be stuck in a motorhome together for two weeks probably doing this. And by the time I got to Indy, everything had shut down. I said, I don't think this is going to work out. I said, you know, we might get going. and there may not even be gas stations open. Then we're screwed.

So two days later, she was, hey, why don't you come out to have a suit for a couple days? All right. So went for four days, four days turned into four and a half straight months. So you think right in a two-hour Uber tells you whether you like somebody, live with somebody you don't know for four and a half weeks or four and a half months. She asked you to come out to like have a soup for a couple days. When we were out there, then the state of Indiana shut down for two weeks.

And my pilot's like, I don't think I can, I don't think legally I can come out and get you. Yeah, he stayed for four months. Yeah. Together. Yep. And it worked. 24-7 with each other. And it didn't take long.

So this just kind of morphed along. And we got a call from Ken Block. And Ken and Leah are good friends. And, you know, he invites us to go out to place in Utah to go ride side by sides. So we do that. And by the time that's all over with, we're like, yeah, we're going to do this. Yeah. You know, we're going to date.

Damn, that's cool. And then we had to sit there on the ride home and figure out, we got problems, we got hurdles we're going to have to cross here. First one was she's sponsored by Penn's Oil. I'm sponsored by Mobile One. That's the first hurdle. She's sponsored by Dodge. I'm sponsored by Ford.

Oh my gosh. And then Dodge and Ford. So it's like, man, what are we going to do? So no joke. I called my PR guy and I said, hey, this is what's going on, because nobody knew we were doing anything together. Like there were two or three people that knew who I was. with and where I was at. And I said, we got to figure this out. And so we were proactive. And I remember

on the way home from Swingarm with Ken, I'm driving the motor home. She's on the right side of the motor home. And I'm on the phone with Mobile One. She's on the phone with Penzoil. And we hang up from that call. And I'm calling Ford. And she's calling Dodge at the same time. And we're three feet away from each other having these conversations and not one of our partners had a problem with it and said yeah we'll work around it you know we said hey when when i go to her events i won't wear any branding when she goes to my events she won't wear any branding and that's what we've done and that's it was very successful with that wow so what um how long you've been married now a year and a half what do you and she's still not filed for divorce yet it's amazing when did it's crazy okay hold up

so we kind of had we kind of had a little bit of fun at Tony's expense a few weeks ago here. I don't know if you remember this. But I think it was Tyler Redick that was on, and we were all kind of sharing our own stories about when we got married, what was the first thing, what was the first rule that we had?

Yours was like the toilet seat. I think Tyler's was, you know, he can't wear your shoes in the house. And we were joking about you saying, yours was you got to start a drag racing team. Yeah. That was the first one. All jokes aside, though,

like when did the drag racing thing start coming into the conversation? Like for you to start to start a team? I mean, when we started, when we started dating and then once, you know, racing started coming back, the sprint car stuff started first. And she went to my races. And it was funny because, you know, when we set up for a cup weekend, we park and we're there for the whole weekend. But guys got to get rental cars and go back and forth to the hotel.

Sprint car deal is different. We were running two-day shows at the same track. And we'd load up at the end of it. And she's losing her mind. Like, why are you guys packing up? You're racing here tomorrow. Well, that's their vehicle. how they get to the hotel and they got to go to the car wash. They got to get up in the morning.

They got to service the car in the parking lot and then they come back to the track. What should you think about all that? She couldn't wrap her head around it because it's a toll lops at what they do in NHRA. But I started going to her races shortly after and I fell in love with it. Yeah. And I had been to a couple before with Tony Schumacher and Don Schumacher because of the U.S. Army partnership. And I liked it. Austin Prock, that's a top fuel driver. He used to run his midget out of our shop before he got in NHRA. And so we would watch qualifying shows and stuff, you know, in between Xfinity stuff and all that. And, you know, that's how I saw Leah, too, was on the same shows.

But we were watching Austin and we would see them. But I just got hooked on it. I mean, I love the atmosphere there. You know, I think it's so cool that when fans come to a drag race, when they buy a ticket, it gets them everywhere. Everywhere, but on the starting line. That's the only place you're not allowed to go. But they can sit in the stands. They can watch the runs.

Then they can come down and they literally can watch. the crews, rebuild the motors, service the cars, talk to the drivers while they're packing their shoots or mixing fuel, whatever they're doing. And it is a cool atmosphere and way more laid back than what we've been used to. What was the process of how do you get from never having raced in a drag race to winning a drag race? No different than never driving a sprint car and you get in there and four races in you, win a sprint car race. Yeah, but do you test?

Do you go practice somewhere? You have some private times where you're, you know, how helpful was Leah in that process of like, hey, man, this is, you know, you're going to face this, you're going to experience this, this is going to happen, you've got to do this, got to make sure you're paying attention here. Like, I struggle with the paying attention part, by the way. Yeah. But, no, you're right.

It's, there was, this all was very nonscripted and there wasn't a plan. Yeah. When we, that year that we started dating at the end of the year, I'd been to enough races that I knew the crew, I knew the crew chiefs. She kept telling me come in the lounge for the debriefs and I didn't want to be in there. I'm like, that's your guys' work area and I don't need to be up in there and be a distraction. Sure. And I'd sit there like this and try not to even breathe. I didn't want to move or anything. But then you start listening to how she's describing the run. It's like the run was 3.7 seconds. She's talking about it for 15 minutes. I'm like,

how do you know all the shit that happened in 15 minutes? And so at the end of the year, said, hey, I want to go, what do you think about me going to Frank Holley's? And she goes, what is that? That's a driving school, drag racing driving school, and the best drag racing driving school you can go to. I said, I want to go to Franks, because I just want to learn what you guys are doing. I said, I hear what you're saying, and I think in my head, I know what that's supposed to feel like, but I don't know what I don't know. And I'm like, I just want to know what it feels like. So we called Frank and did a private school, did a two-day deal, and he goes, What is his car comparable to what?

He has multiple cars. So he has super comp cars. You kind of start in something easy and get faster and faster. Yes, absolutely. What do you start in? A super comp car. And it's not the super comp cars that race. It's very user friendly.

But just learning simple things like how to do the burnout, how to back up right, how to get lined up, how to stage, all the simple things that we watch on TV. And we're like, oh, yeah, that doesn't look too hard, way harder when there's all these steps. and processes that you have to do and you have to do it in a cadence that's correct. So I started in the Super Comp Car in the morning. In the afternoon, you know, we kind of got everything figured out and that thing was, he goes, you're going to get bored after about three runs.

Well, it took six until I started really figuring it out. Then we moved up to his alcohol car. His alcohol car runs 220 miles an hour in a quarter mile. So it takes us a lap to get to that, you know, in our cars. So it was fun to run the rest of the rest of the car. that day and run the next day and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I was like yeah I kind of understand some of the things you talk about but when I left there were so many things that procedure wise I didn't do as clean and as well as I wanted you know how we are we

always just we want to do it right and that's important to me if I'm going to do something I want to do it correct I want to do it right so booked another school and went back again same one and just drove the alcohol car ran five runs each day in it and by the third and he's like I don't have anything to critique you on on it. He goes, you did it, you did it right. And he told me something the first day. He goes, this is a different sport than what you're used to. He goes, you're not the determining factor in this. He goes, your crew chief is. He goes, but you can screw this up. Yeah. He goes, if you do everything right, that's what you're supposed to do. Yeah. He goes, if you do something wrong, they're all going to, they're not going to pat you on the back and

say, hey, you did a great job. You did it right. You do something wrong. They're going to tell you did it wrong, though. That is so true. Man, I don't know if I like this, you know. Right. And, I've always liked, we had the ability as drivers to make the difference. And we really can't, but there's a lot of things driving. People think these things just go in a straight line down through there. They don't. You know, Leah and Matt, I went up there and they go, well, Pomona, for example, the right lane. And Matt reminded me before I went up for my first qualifying run because I was in that lane.

He goes, you've got to be careful. He goes, that lane wants to pull you into the inside all the way down. And why I don't know what it is, if there's contour in it that's, that's weird or what, but he goes, that lane always tries to pull you to the inside. So you either got to be ready for it if you're square or point out a little bit, and that way it's going to get you where you want to be. So it's so detail-oriented. And just like our sport is, and every sport is.

But it's things like that as a driver, you're like, well, okay. What about the tree and trying to understand how to improve your reaction time? And all the games that go in with the driver's God. Yeah. Yeah. The concept of staging is really simple in all reality. So there's a pre-stage beam, and that's the top ball or the top half of the blue circle. And everybody just kind of goes up there and they wait until each other gets pre-staged. Then they stage.

Well, when that first person gets that stage ball blit, it starts a seven-second timer. And that other driver has seven seconds to get his self-staged. It doesn't matter if it's in the last quarter of a second or if he goes in the last quarter of a second, or if he goes in the first quarter of a second. He's got seven seconds to go in. But just like in our sport, there was etiquette involved. Those guys get really upset. And there's a reason they get upset.

You know, everybody's like, well, if they got seven seconds, what are they complaining about? Well, that other driver's already out of the clutch, and it's just sitting there building heat. It's like an automatic transmission. When you put it in gear, you've got to hold the brake to keep the car from moving. Now multiply that by about 15.

And that's how hard it's trying to pull you, and you're holding it with the brake, and it's pulling the motor down, and you're hearing it. You know, it's sitting there on that clutch. So every second you're sitting there, it's just building heat, building heat. Well, if it builds too much heat, then it sticks the disc when it goes and doesn't do what it's supposed to do and it burns tires off of it. So there's an etiquette involved in it.

Or you get somebody like John Forrest, and this guy is the master of this. He's so good. He'll sit there and you can go into the stage bulb, but you've got about seven inches in front of that stage bulb when you hit it until you red light. he has the ability and there's guys that will roll through the pre go so far into the stage light that they get past the prestage bulb and it shuts that bulb off well when it goes it tricks guys into leaving too early sometimes and it gets a mount of sink and force is great at it and it makes everybody so mad and i laugh i'm like he's not doing anything that's illegal he's just doing what is going to give him the best opportunity to win that round if he feels like this is a guy that he's got to get a little ledge on he's got to get a little edge on he's got to those tricks in his bag. And it's like, yeah, I can see where they'd get frustrated, but you've got to go, add a boy. He knows all the tricks. He knows when to use them. And sometimes he may do it on purpose. Sometimes he may not. But it's really cool to see that, especially with the four wide, it's real difficult with the four wide. The hardest part of that, it's the easiest two lanes or the

outside lanes, because you know if you're in lane one on the left, you're just looking at the far left ball. Lane four, far right ball. If you're in two or three, you better know what lane you're in when you go to stage and don't get distracted because you've got to watch your bulb. Hagan was telling me he thought he was staging and he was watching a bulb and the light changed and he was sitting there. He thought he was already in and he wasn't in, but the timer started. He timed out. That happened recently. Like I was watching some race where like Sean Langd, there was a couple guys. Was that the one? Like Hagen, multiple people timed out. And it was just this weird confusion. They were all mad at themselves, but there also seemed like there could have been this breaking etiquette by somebody.

and they weren't sure, you know. Yeah, and I wasn't up there to see the run, but I heard the announcer talking about Langdon time down, and I thought, Sean Langdon is, I think you walked through the pro pits, and they will tell you, Sean Langdon probably does the best job of understanding the staging sequence and lights and timing and all that

for every class in the field. I mean, he drives multiple cars, and Leah has high praise for him, but how technical and good he is at analyzing everything. And I found, the story out afterwards and Josh Hart is a new guy in the top fuel series. He's run a couple years now and he's good, but I guess he was just taking a little longer to stage than everybody else and it was frustrating him. So Langdon had the mindset that he wasn't going in until

Josh went in. Well, Josh went in at about six and a half seconds. And Sean didn't have enough time to get in and he timed out and lost the round because of it because he was so mad at this guy and he's like, I'm not going in until this guy goes in. And so it's crazy. And Cruz Petrigan and I are buddies. And I was sitting there with him, I'm like, why do you guys all get upset? I said, nobody's doing anything illegal. So how do you get upset about it?

And he goes, you're right. He goes, we shouldn't. But they do. And it's all about the clutch. That's literally what it's all about. What's your intentions? Everybody's been asking that the last six months since I ran Vegas in the fall. I don't have any.

I mean, it's, you know, going back to that test session, I left the test session. I went and ran a test in Leah's car with Don Schumacher, which was the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life, by the way. After it was over, you get home, and you're like, that was really stupid. Shouldn't have done that. And you're driving a car that can run 330 mile an hour. I went 318 that first test. Wow. And the car was so far ahead of where my brain was.

I'm like, as long as it goes and does what it's supposed to do, it's fine. But there's a number of things, you know, a cylinder goes out. And when a cylinder goes out, it pushes the car that. that direction. And it's like there's so many things that could go wrong, but if you're not on top of it, you're never going to catch it. It'd be bad.

And I realized that when I left, I finally was like, this is crazy because when we started driving different cars, you just work up to it. You just run part throttle or this and that. It doesn't work that way in drag racing. It's all off the timers and everything else. So how they do that and get you used to it is you go a shorter distance.

You go to the 330 cone. Then you go to the 660 cones and then you do full poles. So that's the steps I went through in two days driving that car and got back. I'm like, man, that's the dumbest thing I've ever done. But I kept testing with them periodically. And I literally last year after the Vegas spring race, the forward race, I tested. And I never felt the tires spinning. Like we'd get out 200 feet and you're already running 150 mile an hour by then.

And it starts spinning tires, but it's still pulling at 1.6 Gs. And you're like, all right, my brain's catching up. No, it was spinning the tires. And I had no idea that that's what was going on. So I got done with that test, and I said, I'm done testing with you guys. I said, of all the racing I've done and all the dirt racing, if I can't feel the tires spinning, I don't need to be driving this race car. So her car chief worked two shops down from ours. And when he came over and joined our organization and he started our team, he goes, hey, I got an idea.

There's an alcohol team over here that runs. And they said they'd let you do some testing. you wanted. All right, well, that's a 275 mile an hour car. We'll try that. And went and did a test session with him, literally hit it off with Rich and Richie, its father, son, Rich McPhillips, senior and junior, and hit it off with these guys and did a couple tests. And after the second test, we were coming back after a run, and Rich told me, he goes, I'd feel comfortable taking you to a race. And I'm like, you're crazy. And he goes, no, he goes, you're doing everything right. He goes, you're smooth with everything.

He goes, you're ready to go try this. And I laughed about it and kind of blew it off. I mean, literally got back from that and had a meeting with Don Hawk and we were working on the TV deal. And so I didn't think anything about it. My head got distracted. And I told Lee on the plane about it. She goes, yeah, you're doing a great job.

And I just, again, blew it off. About two weeks later, I got the phone call from him. He goes, hey, seats opened up for Vegas. He goes, probably won't run well out there because the blower cars have an advantage because the altitude's so high, they can change pulley combinations and get the boost back. And I said, yeah, I'd love to do it. I mean, I just want to get the experience. And, you know, little things like at the end of the run when you go past the line, you throw the shoot, shut the fuel off, you're on the brakes. There's a guy standing there with flags.

And you got to know what he's telling you, if this guy is allowed to go first or you're going first or whoever's turning off. And it's like, I don't even know what the flags mean yet. Right. So I remember when he called, I said, hey, can I call you back in five minutes? He goes, yeah. Well, I hung up and I picked up the phone called Leah. I said, hey, should I do this? It's like, I didn't even have the confidence to do it.

And she goes, yeah, she goes, I think it would be great. She goes, we'll all be there, we won't let you get in trouble. So that's how the Vegas race in the fall happened and got that first race in her about. Yeah, that's fascinating that at your age and everything you've ever done and you know you'd think you'd had had the shit scared out of you where nothing would be in you know nothing would you'd lack confidence in nothing but um you're transparent enough to to admit like hey man you know I wasn't sure whether I needed to do this or not or could do this um so you go drive that car and how does that experience go the race was awesome out there I mean we were second

quick qualifier and that's all a car that's not me but my reaction times were good and through the race weekend we make it to the finals. I line up against a 19 year old girl that her family has a big history in drag racing and it was her first appearance in a final round at a national race. And so here you got two rookies, you know, first time for her international finals. I'm in the finals my first time and I'm like, man, this is just, this is awesome. I mean, I got to run all the runs through the weekend going to the finals. So I didn't really didn't care if I won or lost necessarily because I was there. to get the experience.

But we get down there and I lost by one inch. There's 15,840 inches in a quarter mile. And I lost by one inch, two, ten thousandths of a second. And as much as I wanted to be disappointed about it, when I pulled off there, because we don't run radios in our car. And so I don't know until I turn the corner of whether you won or lost. Wow. Yeah.

And I saw it wasn't us. But I remember looking over when I got down on the car and I looked at Madison when she got down on the car and how excited she was. And I thought, this is really cool. I said, this is the perfect scenario. I said, if I would have won that race, everybody would have said, hey, this class is easy and it's not easy. We just had an awesome weekend and I did a fair job at my part of it and the team did an awesome job. But to see her win her first national and I even spent time with her the next race at Pomona and we talked for 20 minutes. and the staging lanes.

I wasn't racing, she was. And listening to that 19-year-old girl talk, the composure she has and her mindset, she's a buddy of mine now. I think the world of her, I think she's an awesome racer. And to me, there's absolutely no shame in saying I got beat by a 19-year-old girl in that scenario. The hard part was getting through the weekend. And before we even left, all the guys going, yeah, you were short by one inch. And then here comes Leo over your shoulder going, yep, that's what I get every night when we go to bed.

Oh, man. So the car you're driving today is your car. No. No. You're still driving. I'm still driving for Rich and Richie. It's not even the same car that I ran in Vegas last fall. So they run Jasmine Salinas' car.

They run a car that Mike Coughlin and Matt Cummins split. They run different regions and split the national races. The car I'm driving was a car that they were building for. for Rich Jr. to drive. Even before I did the first test, and at the end of the year after the Vegas race, they started talking about, hey, do you have any interest in doing something next year?

So we put the package together. What is the package? I'm running 12 of the 14 national events. They don't run every race that top fuel and funny car run. So running 12 of the 14, and then there's about four, maybe five regional races that we're going to run, and that's more just for the points.

than anything. You can't win the championship just off the national points alone. So your race for the championship? That's what Poppso wants to do now. So, you know, Rich Senior's the boss. And he even said that, he goes, you know, if we get off to a good start, he gives we need to run some regionals because you'd have a shot at winning a national championship. So right now, as we sit, we're second in points. But there's throwout races and you can't claim all the races you run anyway. So, you know, points don't really mean anything this early in the season. But we're off to a good start. Have you ever said no to anything?

No. No to no. Yeah. Other than just testing in Leah's car anymore, I'm like, yeah, I'm good for a while. You're good for a while. So, I mean, I think that if I, you know, I'm going to play Tony Stewart fan for a minute. You know, I love that you're racing and you're, I love that you're, you know, this experience you're having with Leah has taken you into this new world and you're diving in headfirst and you're competitive and I hope that somehow some way you end up you know at the top ranks competing right

I love to see you know this entirely unique new chapter of your life happen and you know is that a possibility is that for people that are out there that are wondering where you're headed and what you're going to end up doing, is that, are you open, you got the door open to something like that? I think you and I have been in this business and we've been around each other long enough. You know that I've kind of adopted the attitude of you never say never. You know, it's, I never thought I'd own a racetrack. I never dreamed of owning a race team.

Never dreamed of own in a series. None of this stuff was ever planned. There was never a master plan for any of the things that I'm doing outside of me driving race cars. Everything else just has happened in circumstances. So I'm not going to sit here and say, no, I won't try to drive a top fuel car. Hagan absolutely wears me out about driving that funny car. And I keep telling him, I'm like, I don't want to drive that funny car.

He goes, but you are a funny car driver. You just don't know you're a funny car driver. He goes, you'll get driving this funny car and you won't want to drive at Dragster anymore. And J.R. Todd says, and Ron Cap says and Cruz Petrigan, I'm like, you guys are all brain dead. I said, if that thing blows up in the drakster, it's behind me. The flames are going behind me. You blow up. You drive right into the fire, and it's right in front of your face the whole time.

And then you've got to try to figure out how to get stopped without crashing. I said, I'm good. So he has said no to something then. Yeah. Well, funny car. Yes and no. For now. Yes and no.

Because we all know one day. Ron Cap said his championship speech last year. at the end of the season was giving me a hard time. And he's a speech even about it. He goes, we know you're a funny car guy. We've got to get you in one. And Hagan is sitting beside me because we're at our team table. And he is kicking me under the table like, I told you so.

So I told him, I finally gave in, I said, I'll do a test day in it. So when is that? I don't know yet. I've got to make sure my life insurance policy is occurring and all that stuff. But, I mean, this guy is relentless, man. I mean, he will not let me off the hook. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to try it. I actually went, my dad at 85, Lee and I got him for Christmas, got him a Frank

Holly driving school deal. So he went, drove a super comp car at 85. And I drove Frank Holly's alcohol funny car just to get used to it. But it's a way different deal in driving that dragster. You hit the gas. And the first run I made, it was like, all this silver stuff was in the air. And I'm like, whoa. And that's the clutch. You know, it's clutch dust and stuff. And then I'm like, crap, I'm still driving this damn thing. I'm running over a hundred mile now. And I'm sitting here looking You get like, wow, butterflies and stuff. Looking at this clutch dust, but I wasn't ready for it, you know. So it was good to do that, and that's kind of the approach we're going into this test of, you know, drive Frank Holly's car, get an idea what it's like and, you know, crawl before you walk.

You've been broadcasting. You've been in the booth at NASCAR. You've been in the booth at drag races. What do you get out of that? What's that experience like for you? I love it. Yeah. And, you know, I get to work with somebody I really like with Clint Boyer, and I love Mike Joy.

I mean, Mike knows more about cars and has forgotten more about cars than you and I love. ever learn combined. But I really enjoy it. It's, um, I wasn't sure whether I was going to like it or not. And, and I think it was more the fans response kind of was what kept me motivated to do more of it. Right. Seeing the response on forums and this and that. And, and I don't normally get on that stuff, but it's like, man, if I'm bad, I just want to find a way to get out of this gracefully and let somebody else do a better job. But I thoroughly enjoy it, though. I like, I like it. Do you agree at the beginning of the year to do a handful of races, or do you do it almost on a race-by-race basis?

And then they just invite you back and see if your schedule is available and that kind of thing. At the end of the year last year, they said, let us know what races you want to do next year. And so we sat down once we got the NHRA schedule. And basically the races that I've done this year are in between or off weekends for the NHRA series. We're taking a couple weeks off here coming up, Leah. This is the balance in life that I'm having to learn. I just get ready to ask that.

She wants some family time and wants to go, you know, she has a couple weeks off with the NHRA side. So she wants to go boating and surfing and hanging out with her friends a little bit. So, you know, it's creating that balance in our life now of, you know, work when we can. And as much as I can, I like to work. I do better staying busy than not being busy. She is the opposite. When she gets away from the racetrack, she wants to be away from the racetrack. So I think that's one of the reasons that our relationship works that, you know, we're directly in line on a lot of things, but there's things we're polar opposites on.

But the broadcast and stuff's fun. I really enjoy it. One of the last things I want to touch on with you is your, is Stuart House racing. You know, that's been something you've been involved in for a really long, long time. You were, you know, you became a car owner where you're still full-time in a NASCAR series. It seems like a lifetime ago when we were driving in NASCAR together. but with all of these things that I see that you continue to add to your life, how do you manage that ability to stay focused on what your involvement is with NASCAR, with your team, their direction.

You got a lot of big things happening within that team, new drivers coming in, Harvick retiring. Where is your involvement currently with Stuart Haas? You know, and I'm glad you asked that because, all the time you're like, oh, he doesn't care about NASCAR anymore. He doesn't care about sprint car racing anymore. It's the farthest thing from the truth. I love our race teams.

I'm still passionate about our race teams. But I get to go race with my wife on the weekend. So sorry, I may not be at the track on the weekend. But that doesn't mean I don't care about what's going on. It doesn't mean I'm not involved in what's going on. But the reason we're able to do this, and this has been a long time in the making. I mean, we've had this for a long time as structure of with the sprint car series. I have a key point person that reports to me.

El Dora, Jerry Gappins, does a great job for us at Eldora Speedway. He reports to me. Kelly Antonelli runs the drag race program. She's the one that reports to me on the NHRA side. Greg Zipideli, Brian McKinley, they're the guys that report to me on the NASCAR side. So we have a good structure of people. And when I need to get involved and make big decisions, I do that. And when they call and say, hey, you need to make a phone call of this guy.

This is what's going on. I need you to help us with this. Absolutely, I get involved in that. But if anybody and all these fans think that I'm sitting there making set up decisions and making calls, they're wrong. You know, there's smart people in place that are way smarter than me that are making those calls. My job's putting the right people together. Yeah. And if you do that, then you sit there and you let them do their jobs.

When things get sideways, then you got to intervene. I mean, you have teams, you know that. When things aren't going right, that's when you got to intervene and you got to start trying to help steer the ship in the right direction. And, you know, the last couple years, because I've been with Leah and because of this new car, we haven't had the performance that Stuart Haas Racing is accustomed to and that we want to be at. It's learning a new car and venture. There's teams that with this new car have got better. There's teams that have been on top of their game that struggled with this new car, and we're one of those teams.

But, you know, how you do it is having strong people behind you and in your camp. I mean, you, the empire you've built and what you have, having the people you've surrounded yourself with or why you're successful with what you're doing now. You have to guide the ship, but you have to have people that can also pull the rope and do the work and know your vision and how you want it. And that's what we have all across the board with all the entities we have. We have people that they know I preach, the biggest thing I preach with them is communication. I can't fix a problem if I don't know there's a problem. And I literally called one of my cup drivers last night and had a conversation with him and he's like, well, I don't want to bother you.

I'm like, are you kidding me? I said, that's the dumbest thing you could say. I said, I own all this stuff. I said, I want it to be successful. I'm not doing this just a habit. I said, I want to win races. So if there's a problem and there's something that you and I can talk about to make it better, I want you picking that phone up at two in the morning if you think of something. That's what I signed up for.

So there's a lot of phone calls. There's a lot of meetings. But we've got great people in place that do a good job. Yeah. Kevin is going to retire at the end of the year. you were able to bring Kevin over to Stuart Haas Racing. I remember the very first test at Charlotte Merge Speedway, and I looked at LaTart after we ran 240 lap mock races with about three quarters of the NASCAR field out on the racetrack,

and I said, we're going to have a problem on our hands with this four car because he was the fastest thing there. Went on to basically, you know, no disrespect to anything. Kevin ever drove before, but I think we truly all got to realize what the real potential was for Kevin Harvick driving your cars. Pared up with an incredibly great crew chief with Rodney, Childers. They were a great match and won a championship, a lot of races. How do you celebrate and honor him this year?

I'm sure you don't want to tell us everything you might have in store, but I guess, you So what do you have to say about what he's been able to do with the second half of his career, what he's been able to do while driving your race cars and how you want to see him celebrated and honored? I think even before he came over, when I drove for you in the Xfinity Series Semin, I drove for Kevin a lot in Xfinity. And I knew, I learned so much more about him when I drove for him than when I was racing against him and how good he was at understanding the whole picture, the business side of it,

how to build successful race teams, how to put those right people together. And when he came over to SHR, he goes, we need this guy, we need this guy, and we need this guy. I mean, Kevin handpicked those guys, him and Rodney together and built that team, built that four car team, and that's why they have the success. I think that's one thing that I feel like it's important for fans to realize, whether they like Kevin or not, he's one of the most well-rounded drivers that NASCAR has right now. He understands all of it. And he's passionate about all of it. If somebody's screwing up, he's going to tell you you're screwing up. And he's not telling you that and trying to make you mad. He's not trying to belittle you.

He's telling you that because he wants you to be better. And he wants the scenario to be better. So I'm a huge Kevin Harvick fan from the outside, let alone working with him, because I see how he runs and operates these teams. teams. He makes my job a lot easier on that four car. The rest of them are a lot harder to deal with, but Kevin has his hands around all of it and understands it better than most people in the industry do. Well, man, I appreciate you coming today. It's been a lot of fun hanging out and talking with you. I've had a lot of curious things about, you know, what you've been up to and, you know, don't see you as much as I wish I did. And your life has changed tremendously since we, used to spend a lot of time around each other and see each other to racetrack every weekend.

I'm happy for you. Being able to do everything you want to do, get involved in everything you want to do, but also find this balance in your personal life that you have been searching so hard for all of your life. You deserve it. You deserve everything you got coming at you. And you do a damn good job. I admire how you're able to juggle all the things you do. Because I think there's some similarities in our lives where we don't say,

know to too much. That's a fault for us. Sometimes we wonder whether we need to be doing all the things we're doing. But you're somebody I look up to in that regard of being able to really kind of manage your time smartly and just wish you well, man. I'll be following you along in your drag racing and wherever that takes you and whatever you end up doing next. Hopefully we get to see you keep on racing for a long time.

That's the plan. Like I say, I never know what it's going to be, but you can guarantee I'm going to be something for a long time. Funny car. Join it. God, I hope not. If they're right, it's going to be bad.

You're a funny car driver. Yeah, he's a funny car driver. He just don't know it. I think I'm just funny. I think we just stop with that. I appreciate you coming here. I know you got a lot of things going on as we talked about. Thanks for giving us a little bit of your time today.

No, I appreciate it. It's great hanging out with you. I miss our conversations. We've had a lot of fun together. We've had some great heart-to-heart talks together about life and stuff and how how this transition in our lives should go or how we think it should go. And don't worry, there's going to be some phone calls. I feel like coming up in the next six to 12 months, I'm going to need some help maybe on.

Damn, icebreaker. I'm getting some heat. I can help you with all of those questions for sure. We are neck deep and all that. But again, man, thanks a lot. Thanks for coming to see us. It's always a pleasure. Tony Stewart on the Dale Junior Download.

Man, I'm really excited to have Ally help us bring the guest segment every week. It's one of my favorite parts of the download. We get to talk to so many different people in racing, outside of racing. But everybody that comes in here, I want them to have had a good time. I want them to want to come back. I want them to feel like an ally to Dirty Mo Media. Thank you, Ally, for your continued support of the download and the entire Dirty Mo Media team. Check out Dirtymoe Media.

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