The Dale Jr. Download - 456 - Ryan Blaney - The Drought is Finally Over

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

2023 Coca-Cola 600 winner Ryan Blaney joins Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Davis fresh out of victory lane to discuss how he celebrated and what the win meant to him. Dale and Mike ask Ryan to weigh in on the Chase Elliott/Denny Hamlin incident and what he saw during the race. They also discuss Ryan’s time in the broadcast booth and how it makes him view driver feuds and conflict differently.The guys look ahead to this coming NASCAR weekend in St. Louis at Gateway International Raceway and Ryan gives his opinion of the new NextGen short-track package. They also reflect on the race at North Wilkesboro and how Ryan liked returning to the famed oval after its nearly 30-year absence from the NASCAR Cup schedule. Ryan’s victory at the Coke 600 was special because it snapped a 59-race losing streak, and he fills listeners in on what kept him motivated during the tough time period in his Cup career. 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.

Calling 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, Dale and Hart Jr. The Mojangles Studio. You've got a great guest today. Well, how you doing, Rhiz? I'm doing fine right now. This is every week, okay, though? buckle in. You died on that hill.

Your career died on that hill and you were hardheaded. You were a bigger idiot. I didn't even think about it. You thought about it and didn't ask it. That makes me the bigger idiot. I think so. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. And this is Wednesday, May 31st.

And I'm sitting here with my co-host, Mike. It's great to be back in the studio. It is, man. We have a great guest coming in today. Ryan Blaney So long story short Ross has been booked as our guest We book our guests

Several days if not weeks out And We've been trying to get Ross here For quite some time And he was eager to come on the show He really was He had a Small

Issue that He had to cancel I don't want to get into it Good Yeah But yeah You certainly leave it up for people to start to wonder, though.

Well, he's perfectly fine. He's good. And it is not because he ran bad. I just don't want people to think that he ran poorly, so he said, I don't want to do your show because I sucked at the 600. That's right. I can vouch for that. He did not, he did suck, but that's not why he canceled.

The one race where Ross, the one race with all the drama and 600 miles and all kinds of crap coming home, and Ross was not involved in any of it. There you go. I was sitting there watching that 600, and I'm like, come on Ross get in the middle of something so is I yeah right

dude you're coming on the show right and he's in the talk about 20 second back you know it was weird there was a there was Rex there was uh controversy there was even amarola pushing bubba Wallace

Ross was in the middle of none of it and I don't know how to behave I don't know what to do with my hands I don't know what to do about that Ross is always in the middle of it yeah so anyways Ross is fine he's going to be great he's going to reschedule

and um I had to call a friend So the first person I called was Ryan Blaney. And I said, hey man, what are you doing? He's like, man, I'm running. I'm going to work. And I said, okay, competition meeting, I'm sure.

He's like, yeah, we're going to have a beer toast or a toast to our win. And I was like, well, look, I need about an hour if you give it to me. You're the first person I'm called. I'm just trying to find somebody to come in here and talk to us. And he said, no problem. Didn't even hesitate. A hell of a man. I'm going to tell you, man.

I mean, I'm not overstating this. You win a race, everybody's calling you. When you win a race in NASCAR, there's already like the set package of media that's required. You've got to go on XM, you've got to do this, that and other, right? And so he knows he's going to have a busy week, and then he's got to go to St. Louis. It's a short week.

They raced on Monday. So that's just really cool. He had every excuse and every reason to say he's too busy, but he was actually excited. He said, he can't wait. and so Ryan's going to come in here today. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it because there's actually a lot. I mentioned it yesterday's show,

but there was some similarities between his drought and things I remember from yours where people started really questioning your talent. You know, listen, Kyle Petty was vocal about, you know, whether Blaney was, you know, on his way to be another Casey Kane, which I don't, I think I know what he's trying to get at, but still Casey Kane's also one of 75 NASCAR greatest drivers too. So, like, I'm just saying is that people started questioning, You were questioned.

I remember Darrell Waltrop saying maybe Dale just needs to go to the truck series. Everybody has a solution for you. Everybody has a solution for Ryan Blaney. And honestly, the way he reacted in his win and he got emotional made me think, you know what? He's been going through it. He's been going through it. We're not necessarily aware of it. And we're going to get to ask him that today.

All right. So we talked about this yesterday, Mike. Before we get to our guest interview, NASCAR announced penalties for two. for Chase Elliott. We didn't think it would happen until today, but they got right on top of it. Yeah, they did. And yesterday's show,

I think we both agreed that it was going to be a surprise. If they didn't penalize him, they did, they set him out. And so, okay, that's that. Going into St. Louis, they're going to be needing a driver to fill in for the nine. And all of the Xfinity drivers are in Portland, so the driver who's been doing that, Josh Berry would be on the other side of the country.

But a driver that a lot of people were asking to get an opportunity in this car while Chase was coming back from his injuries, is Corey LaJoy. And Corey's going to get to drive the nine car this weekend. Fascinating. This is the break of a career for a guy like that. This is exactly what Corey

was hoping for an opportunity even if it's a race, right? Who's driving Corey's car? Carson Hosevar. Carson Hosevar. So Carson, an incredible break for Carson to be in a somewhat competitive car as well. Carson has excelled in everything he's drove. I feel like, you know, I saw him this past weekend driving our Xfinity car at Charlotte and doing some really good things with it.

So this is a great chance for two young guys. I don't know if Corey's still young, but I'd kind of. consider him young. Yeah. And, you know, I think for me, this is exciting for fans because I know a lot of people were wanting Corey to get this type of an opportunity. So in a good way, this is a great spin. I think that's a positive way for Hendrick and everybody to spin it, right?

And, you know, for Chase, it'll be interesting how he responds. it'll be interesting to see Chase's disposition in future interviews and so forth. He's going to get asked about this, right, at some point. And so I think a lot of people will be paying attention to how Chase responds on and off the track. I think a lot of people will be hoping for Corey to go out there and do great things so that this might be the catalyst for Corey to get more opportunities. Yeah. At the same time, you know, Spire has been putting themselves in a better situation ever, you know, this year.

They came into the year making a bigger effort monetarily, spending more money to run more competitively. Think about where this team was five years ago, three years ago, four years ago. I mean, they weren't even putting sticker tires on their car all race long. You know, they were just trying to get to the finish line and racing, managing, you know, how to run. 30th to 33rd, right, or trying to run 25th to 30th. That's right. Well, they're running much better than that these days. Thanks to Corey.

Thanks to Corey. But also, thanks to their own efforts, right, to try to be more competitive. What does this do to that plan? That's foreseen or to be learned, I guess, down the road. I mean, if they can nail down, if Corey ends up launching himself into a better opportunity, I hate to even say better, because I think that Spire things, getting good. Yeah, but it's better for sure.

Yes. To be able to... Right. If this launches Corey into a better opportunity, what does this mean for Spire in their five-year plan? There's other talented drivers out there

that I'm sure they'd be able to continue their progress with. Yeah. But yeah, fascinating stuff. Yeah, you know, it feels a little bit like that Jimmy Means situation when he feels in for Tim Richmond. It does.

Yeah. And that was for Hendrick. motor sports as well. So that was the first thing that came to my mind. Let me just read real quick what the report was on Chase. This came out from NASCAR yesterday, but they ruled that Elliot intentionally crashed Denny Hamlin on lap 186 of the Coca-Cola 600. They cite section, you know, they cite all the different rules that he violated, but here was the quote from Elton Sawyer. Drivers need to understand they have to handle that in a completely different way. That's the extent of his quote. Hey, they didn't go into too deeply detail. Elton Sawyer,

We kind of called that one. You did, right? Elton Sawyer is a former driver, knows if anybody in NASCAR in their industry knows what went down, it would be some of the drivers that are now employees at NASCAR. So interesting for him to leave the comment there. Yeah. Again, I'm interested to see where Chase goes from here. I imagine Chase will, you know, just button it up and go race and not have much to say about it.

can him and Denny find some common ground down the road? Probably not out of the gate. Probably not in the near future. I wonder where Danny is on this. Does he feel justified? And we will see.

But this weekend, everybody's going to have a new storyline and that's Corey LaJoy driving a race-winning car, a car that can go up there and get things done. What can he do with it? I mean, think about this.

you got one shot. As far as he knows, this will be his one chance in this car. Yeah. And, you know, I think that a lot of people will be clued in and trying to see how well he can do, hoping for the best. Hendrick decided they're not, or they at least announced they're not going to appeal it. And so we'll see, you know, if they stay with that, I imagine they will. All right.

And we'll see. Cori LaJoy in the 9, Carson Hosevar and the 7, Chase Elliott at home for a week. That's right. All right. So while we're sitting here jibber jabbering, we got the World 600 champion out in the hall. Do you think he's going to bring anything with him? Do you think Ryan Blaney will have anything,

maybe like a race-win die cast, a line-ail die-cast for our table? That would be amazing. I think it would. Yeah. You know, I don't know that we have a race-win diecast on the table. I don't know. I'm looking. Maybe that Ross

Is that Ross Chastain? If it's not a race win it looks like there's confetti all over it. Either it's a race win or it's a bad paint scheme. That's right. Well, whatever it is, it looks like it might be a race win. And we need more next gens. We did. So let's see.

If we don't, if we don't get one, I know it's probably bad to anticipate free gifts. Yes. Yeah. If we don't get one, we're going to put an order in. Race win. World 600, Race Win and Diecast. That's right, from Lionel.

We're going to get one for this table. I love it. Well, we're lucky that he's here. He's out there in the lobby, so let's go bring him in here. I just want to say, ally sponsors our guest segments. If there was ever the perfect, perfect connection between an ally coming and sitting at this table, this is it. Yeah. A guy really coming in clutch.

That's right. That's what an ally is. And so thank you to Ally for supporting everything we do here at Dirtymo, Media. and the Dell Junior download. Ryan Blaney is certainly an ally, and he's out there in the lobby. Let's bring him in the studio and get started. Oh, look at it.

One of the ring they gave you for him in that race, yeah. You get that? You get that? Yeah. Yeah. It's like a Super Bowl. I got one for the Roble, and it's not nearly as much.

As it should be, right? Yeah. Dude, that's a ring that'll whoop a little ass. Oh, man, he got to use his left hand to get in his right pocket now. I mean, can't get in. there with that hand. Not with that ring on.

I'm not a jewelry guy, so. But I figured the day I'd wear it around. Yeah, I ain't either. But I'd wear that. Yeah. Dude, you're blinged out. That thing is massive. Look at that.

Huge ring. So did you see New Gardens ring come apart? No. I did. I noticed that. Yeah. He's in Victor Lane. It looks nearly similar to yours.

And he's in Victor Lane and the top come off of it. No way. And he's fidgeting with it. And they went and zoomed in. And he's like, it's the rings in two pieces. Gosh, I don't think this one comes off. Yeah. Might be a solid piece.

That is a massive ring. Yeah. It's like Super Bowl champion ring. Yeah, it was really cool that Marcus, you know, gave it to me in Victory Lane. And, you know, I got one for the Roble, and this one's a little bit of a step up from the Robles. So really cool. Tradition, you know, you don't see rings very often unless they're championship rings. But, and Daytona 500, I think, gives a ring out, right?

So really cool that they have that tradition for a race like this. I agree. The best, you know, sometimes a race can be important only because of the hardware, just like the clock for Martinsville, right? Martinsville might just be another race on the schedule, but the clock makes it more solid after, right? That's a different unique trophy that only you win there. So that's pretty cool.

First off, man, I have to say, we book our guests days or weeks in advance and Ross was going to come and he had something come up so he could make it. And he's going to be fine. and I appreciate him, let me know. And I called you, and you're without hesitation, man. I mean, you're a business guy in the sport this week coming off of this big win, and you were like, no problem. I can be there at this time, and I appreciate you making that work.

Yeah, no problem. I was happy to get text from you this morning asking me to come here. It's been a little bit since I've been here. Last time was with your dad. With my dad, right? So, yeah, it's cool to be back. I appreciate you thinking of me. And, yeah, I mean, in these circumstances,

Since Ross couldn't make it, yeah, I was happy to jump on here. I was able to make it work. Yeah, it's, it's, um, I told Ross, he feels bad. And I was like, man, we actually had the winner of the 600 coming in. So we're going to, you know, we're going to be great. Yeah, you know, I cancel a lot of stuff to be here today. Yeah. I'm just kidding.

I just want to highlight on, you know, just how good of a guy you are and out of the gate. You know, people, people think about our race car drivers sometimes as, you know, rarely do you guys get humanized, right? It's, you're these gladiators. You're out there doing uncharacteristic things and incredible things out on the racetrack and you had this immense talent and your lives look so glamorous, right? But you got great character, man, and I appreciate you coming in strong for us. So I appreciate that.

I think there were a lot of people so happy to see you win, especially after the race. We'll get to the win later, but I wanted to see you. tell you, man. When you do win a race, all right, what does your week look like? When I, when I raced, there was sort of this box of media that got shoved over across the table when you did that. So what's your week look like? Yeah, honestly, it's, you know, Monday, I think Monday races, some of that stuff gets kind of canceled out, right? It's a little bit different. I think if you do it on Sunday. With the week being shorter, honestly, there's not a lot. I mean, like today we had our team toast at the race shop, which was huge. We do that after every win. We call it a happy hour. And, uh,

you know, every member from Team Penske is there, Indy car, sports car, NASCAR side. And it was a big day because, you know, we were doing the double, you know, the indie, indie guys won the 500. And for us to finish the sweep off and win the 600, it was a really cool, Joseph wasn't able to be there. He's in New York. I was going to ask. The media stuff, but, uh, really cool to see all those men and women, you know, work so hard. I mean, you know it here, right? There's so many people involved, uh, just to make a car go on the racetrack. And so it was cool for me to experience that and to contribute to the sweep. It's hard for me to believe that no one's ever done that. Roger's never accomplished that. It's amazing. Ganesi never accomplished

that. So it was cool to be a part of it. But yeah, really that today. Do this, you know, now this afternoon. I call into Sirius tonight and that's about it. Yeah. You know, I'm sure there could be a couple media things that pop up, but it's actually a surprisingly relaxed week. If half of the Penske employee base is not hung over today, then you have not done it right. Am I wrong? I mean, really? If all of the, after what they just did this past weekend, even a polished organization, professional organization like Penske Racing, still, somebody had to come in late. Looking at the eyes of everybody in there.

That's what we wanted to hear. That's the question. What did you do last night? You know, I didn't get out of the track until about 1130, so I got home about midnight. And yeah, I just had some friends come over. There was only like eight of us, really, that Bubba was there. Byron came out. So that was cool.

and I stayed up only for a couple hours. You know, after a race, it doesn't take many for you to get where you want to go, you know. What does that mean? You don't have to drink much to get, you know, over the level. You're dehydrated, you got no food in your belly. Yeah. Yeah. And you're going right to the alcohol.

Yeah. So it's like I was like six deep and I'm done. I'm ready to go to bed. You know, just so dehydrated, especially after that race. So we only stayed up until about two and went to bed. And then I was up at 7 a.m. this morning and just getting ready to go. Yeah. You're tired.

You got to be gone. Not really. I'm just kind of still riding the wave. So that part's cool. You know, the morning and after it kind of hits you, you're like, man, we did that last night. Yeah. That's pretty cool. So that's kind of keeping me going on.

You talk about William. So he's going out with your sister, right? Yeah, he dates Aaron. Right. And so how long has that happened? Hell, heck, they've been going out for over three years. I mean, going on four probably this year. Yeah.

So is, is it fun at the family reunions? Like what? Yeah. Yeah. I know he's a great dude, right? And you two, I would assume y'all probably have no, you know, pretty comfortable hanging out with each other because you're both similar in personality. Yeah. No, Williams are great. It's, it's been fun to get to know him, you know, from a very personal level now, you know, especially him being a bunch of the family functions and all that stuff. He's a great kid. I mean, he's an awesome guy and, you know, I really enjoy being around him. So, and then racing him, you know, is, uh, it's one of those things, right? Like we race, it's like racing one of your good buddies, right? You race hard, but, you know, you have respect for your. each other too. So, but yeah, he's been cool to get to know. Y'all both are very clean racers. Now, if he was a jerk on the track, then be a little different. Be a little different. But he's like super smooth. Aaron picked a good one. Easy to be around. Yeah, Aaron picked a really good one. Some of the other guys, I probably would be like, I don't know. I don't support that,

but he's really good. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because, you know, people have asked the question, you know, who, they would ask NASCAR drivers, who would you let date your sister or who would do it, babysit your kids or something. He's literally living this. You are literally living it, right? And, you, and will. William Byron would be the answer most people would say. Yeah, no, he's a good guy. Fantastic. His family's great. It's been fun to get to know those folks.

I have to hear it nonstop from fans, though. Oh, I bet. Byrd going out with your sister, huh? I'm like, yeah, what's the big deal about that? It's really, it's better than her dating a bum. Right. All right. How often do y'all ever find yourselves talking about racing,

talking about your cars and so forth? Yeah, every now and then. I feel like whenever we see each other, kind of comes up, like, oh, how's things going on your side, you know, to each other and stuff like. that so as a Penske driver I know you love where you are but do you ever wonder like so when I drove at DEI I had no clue what it was like behind the door at HMS right so if I had the opportunity to sit with William or anybody like that I'd be like all right man so what's it like how do y'all do you all do this how do you do that yeah we do talk about that you know being buddies with you know

William and Chase and Bubba you know there's kind of three different worlds right from HMS to You know, kind of JGR and 2311, the Penske side. We talk about that stuff like, oh, you guys do it that way? You know, we do it kind of this way. And what's the dynamic like in your meetings? How do you guys approach stuff? Yeah. Not so much on a technical level, but just the kind of the flow around the shop.

Yeah, the culture. Yeah. And yeah, you wonder that, right? Like, I wonder how they do it over there compared to us. And if it's better or worse, if you would like it more or not. And I think that's, right. Like the other teams, I like kind of how they operate maybe in some areas, more and then some areas I'm like I think we do that better you know so but you're always

going to have that yeah you know I was curious as hell wondering what it was like to drive you know drive those cars over at HMS and what why do they why are they so different and faster and all the time yeah I guess to the point that you decided I'm gonna go find out myself yeah I want to go do this so um we got to ask you did you see uh the chase dinny situation it was yeah I don't know what do you guys think of it so let me ask you this I know I'm putting you a tough spot. I talk to, you know, I talk to O'Donnell and Denny and everybody is pointing to SMT. You know, help me understand how much can you look at the SMT as evidence of anything, right?

Is it black and white? Is it like, yep, there it is. Yeah, I don't think it's black and white. You know, I feel like S&T is a good and a bad thing, right? It's good to look at sometimes, but I don't think you can like fully rely on it. Yeah. Right? I mean, because you don't know.

You can't see intent. No, you can. And only that person is going to know what their intent was. You know, you can't get inside of someone's mind of what they were thinking in that moment, what was going on. You're trying to gather the car up, you know, are you pissed? You know, what's going through your head at that moment? And everything happens so fast.

Like, it's really hard. So I don't, I've seen they're all looking at SMT and here it is, the script and black and white. And I'm like, I don't think it's black and white. You know? I know. I didn't envy the position. this puts NASCAR in to have to make a call based strictly off of SMT because pretty much, you know, Chase did a, case did a good job not giving away too much in his interviews and so forth, which everybody's learned

that that's kind of the route you need to take. Not to be, not to have an admission to guilt. Yeah. And so I think it puts NASCAR in a tough spot. It is a tough spot, you know, because you look at, you know, the deal in Vegas last year with, with Bubba and Larson, and what came out of that, right? and NASCAR had to make a decision on that and they're kind of in a similar spot now to where they have to make a decision. The precedent has been set. It has.

If they do something or if they don't, people are going to be upset. So it's just like whatever side of the fence you're on. Whoever you're a fan of, you're going to agree with. Which leads to the next thing I wanted to ask you. So there is, for whatever reason, man, and you've sort of been in the sport long enough

to see this transition. There is a lot of drama. And I know, you know, there's certain people that seem to be in it a lot, you know, so it could be situational. It could be certain new personalities that have come into sport, but, you know, Chase and Denny have a history, but they're not problem causers, you know, they kind of, you know,

they don't do stuff all the time, but it seems like to me that, man, when you came into the sport, there was a lot of give and take. Hey, man, go on by, I'll see you later. I'll help you here in this part of the race. You'll help me later next week, right? it's gone. Yeah. What has happened?

It's like everybody races these shit out of each other. I think there's multiple reasons behind that. So I think the first reason is, you know, when I initially got started in the Cupside, when was stage racing involved? 17? 17. So my first like year and a half, half of 15, 16, you know, no stages, plenty of time. You just let them go, right?

And you're like, all right, I'll maybe get you back later. And then maybe you'll throw me a bone. right later in the race. I think that was a big part of it. You know, no stages now. Stages are super important. So if you're coming down to 40, 30 to go in a stage, you're not going to let anyone go.

You have to go for every point. And I feel like the cars are so close to each other now. It's hard to make up spots anymore. You know, it's hard to let someone go because you don't know if you're ever going to pass them back. So I think there's some of that going on. It's why the racing is so tough nowadays. and um i'm fascinated as much courtesy i know i'm fascinated that it ever happened that the shift

i i didn't think we'd ever get to where we used to be like in the 80s and 90s it seemed like they raced the hell out each other back then and then we kind of shifted into this like mark martin sort of i ushered in this strategy of man i'll when i catch you later just let me go remember i'll let you go and so but now it's like uh you know watching watching denny and chase watching that go down and then later in the race and then later in the race Stenhouse and Kyle Busch had this little episode for a couple laps that was super entertaining where Stenhouse was pissed and man, he finally did get back to Kyle and hooked him into the grass on the frustration and Kyle saved it.

Oh, wow. I didn't see that one. He sent him across the turf, like, you know, hooked him as they're going through the travel. And if he could have gotten me up on him a little further, I think he would have sent Kyle around. Yeah. Kyle was able to get out of it. I know that the drivers are maddering shit in the. moments but I can't tell you how much fun it is as a fan and even a broadcaster it is so

entertaining to have these moments happening in these races they were not happening years ago yeah you know it's a balancing act right it's like okay you want entertainment you want people to race hard and from a like in the booth perspective a fan watching at home that is exciting and that causes you know enjoyment and watching the sport and something to talk about so but then you have people that are like, you know, giving you grief for racing hard. It's like, well, what do you want? Do you want us to all just let each other go and be kumbaya and not have any intense moments? Or do you want us to race hard? Like, you can't be wishy-washy. I know. I hear you 100%. And when I hear the noise, for the lack of a better term, on the backside of something such as this week that went down

with Jason Denny, when I hear all of the noise on the backside, I got on social, I got on social media for a minute during the race. and man it was a blaze you know every there was both sides just like hammering each other yeah and anybody that stepped in the room like you know metaphorically like you're like oh shit yeah get out of here yeah um and so and and all of that noise is exactly like what naskar needs and should won't right you would like hey man i'm i'm hell yeah we're making we're making waves yeah um you've been in the booth right you've been in the booth part of the broadcast. I want to ask you, like, you've probably called some snoozers and some very interesting races where some weird shit happened.

And so now I think, I would hope that having been in that perspective, you much better appreciate, I guess, like, you used to annoy the shit out of me when I got my ass in some kind of a mess with another driver because they'd used that video or they'd ask me about it in the media center for weeks. And it's like, just can we put this behind us? but they keep on regurgitating it up. You kind of have to appreciate that now, right? Because you know why it happens.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's something to talk about, right? It makes the sport exciting. Yeah. It draws new fans into it. If you're on the bad end of it as a driver, at this point, you just have to be like, it's what it is, you know, and you have to accept it. And whether you carry a grudge over from it or not,

you know, that's your personal thing. But, yeah, I mean, I've been in the booth where it's snoozers and it's hard to kind of create excitement for people watching. So, yeah, when you have to have, have this stuff that, you know, creates that excitement. It's always something good. Has that helped you in the booth understand the, you know, kind of the, I never really got it as far as what, I knew what my job was as a race car driver, what I was trying

to do with my team. But I never get, I didn't know what the damn objective of the network or the broadcast was. But now I kind of, I'm like, wow, I really wish I'd have known all this stuff as a driver. You and so many other drivers in our industry are getting this great perspective that they, you You know, so I have to imagine that really, really helps you when you're dealing with things outside of car, media, and all kinds of things. It really does. You know, it opens your eyes when you can go into the booth and kind of see what all goes on up there and just puts a different perspective, you know, in your head. You know, we're so used to, you know, we are the drivers. We drive the cars. You know, we don't watch the races, right?

You know, obviously while they're happening, you go rewatch them, but you don't know. And then you don't know the inner workings of it, right? You're just seeing what's on your screen. Yeah. and when you're actually up in the booth and in it and doing it and see how much information's up there and what you have to talk about to create an enjoyment for the fan watching. Yeah. That part is super cool. And I've really enjoyed doing the booth. How hard was it to finish your thought when the producer starts talking in your ear?

So tough. That is this. I mean, it takes me forever. I mean, it's like you're mid-sentence and the producer's like either telling you information or counting you're down and you're always, you have to pause. I almost stop talking. Yeah. Accident. You're not supposed to.

Don't you want to just say, shut up. Yeah. No, dude, it's crazy. It's like talking in the back swing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like here, you remember we used to introduce ourselves at Bristol? Yes. And you hear the echo?

At Bristol. Oh, is that what was happening? I didn't know that. So you get, it's like a delay at Bristol when you introduce yourself. So you're like, hey, Ryan Blaney driver. Hey, Ryan Blaney. It's like three words after you're speaking. Yeah, that would be tough.

So I heard you talk about that this is because of stage point. and I've heard you just say that it was because it's hard to pass those make complete sense. What I didn't hear you say is that there's a lack of respect out there, but I do hear a lot of people insinuating that there's less respect being thrown around to the drivers. So that's my question to you. You don't have to name names, okay? But is there a decrease in respect being shown amongst you drivers? I don't know.

It's hard to, like, it's hard to define, you know, okay, what is a lack of respect, and what is you have to race really hard now because that's just the way it is. And I don't know if I think sometimes maybe it's a lack of respect. Like, oh, I don't give a shit about this guy. I'm just going to use him up. But other times I think it's just, you know, you have to race hard. You know these things. Like on road courses, I always point this out.

Like Indy, Coda, you just guys, guys, just bowling over you, right, for no reason whatsoever. And, you know, I think some of that is like, you know, the cars are really resilient. So, like, I can just use this guy up and then pinball him off these guys. and I can go forward. The cars wouldn't handle that back, you know, before this one. So I think that kind of limited to what you can do as far as the aggressive level. I don't know. I'm not going to say I think some guys don't respect other guys, you know, but that's always been the case, right, with certain drivers. Like this driver hates this driver. I don't give a shit about this driver. I'm going to use him up. But yeah, I don't know. I've always

kind of been the given respect, you know, you kind of just show it to each other, right? And if you don't get it back after like a couple times of showing respect, then it's like, okay, well, this is worthless, I'm not going to show you any. But some guys don't even have that. Some guys don't even show you any respect and they'll just go out and go over and take it. You have respect and you show a lot of respect. So you're not even the best person to ask that question, but you do see what you see on the track, right? Like you may see, you know, what might be people that are harder to pass than others. I know, I can see it coming if I see two guys and you know a guy that's like, oh, I know how he kind of races, he uses people up,

lacks a little respect for maybe this driver in particular. You see it coming. You're like, I know what's going to happen here right in front of me. And sure enough, nine times out of ten it happens. That's actually what you were saying about the Denny and Chase thing. You saw that happen in a couple laps before. Well, they had contact when Amarola hit the fence on a restart. It's just after coming through turn four after a restart and Amarola hit the wall.

Denny and Chase, Denny slid up into Chase, almost identical to to what happened two laps later on the wreck. Yeah, and I think that stuff escalates, right? Yeah. Like, okay, he slid up to me once. I knew, I mentioned that on social media. I was like, I knew when that happened, Chase had already had enough.

Yeah, like his, his, you know, meter was empty. Oh, you again. So it's like, if there's one little more thing, yeah. Like, you usually get like one or two. Like, oh, just racing deals. But I think once he kind of did it again, Chase was probably pretty upset. I mean, it was identical to the next time.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, have you all loaded up for Portland yet? I saw the trucks leaving. One just left, yeah. Yeah. That's a quick turnaround for you guys, huh? With the race being pushed back, I mean, two days, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. I think I don't want to say anything that's going to piss off my truck drivers. But the schedule, I mean, this is what it's about. It's about getting there anyway anyhow and making, you know, making the sacrifices, unlimited sacrifices, right? They used to drive around in 15 passenger vans before we had airplanes, right? You'd drive into Dover and Pocono and all over the place and getting home on a Monday and turning around.

And they would, did you know that in the, even the late 80s, they would open Charlotte for practice on Tuesday and Wednesday? No. The track would be hot from 8 to 5. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah. You know, back in like the late 70s, you'd be at, Charlotte all day, Wednesday in the garage, running laps, going out, come back in four or five hours, fart around, change something, go back out.

Yeah. And then Thursday, again, practice would open. They'd have first round qualifying. Then Friday, practice again, second round qualifying, you know. And it was a whole, you know. They had one day, they had one day when they were at home with their family. Right. With the schedule changing to what it is now, right?

I mean, it's sometimes you forget of how much they were on the road. Yeah. It's not favorable what's happening this week with the Xfinity guys, but dude, I mean, it used to be so much worse. Right. And there's a lot of convenience. I mean, those haulers, I know these guys, they're going to be pissed. Those haulers, they're nice as hell, right? Yeah.

Houses, right? And they, you know, for the Portland ride, we get two people in there sometimes. Straight off driving and all that. But y'all are going to St. Louis. Yeah. A lot of shifting. Yeah, a lot of shifting. That place was fun last year.

I thought it was a cool racetrack. They do a good job there. They're working really hard to stay on the schedule. They are. And I think they deserve to be. They did a good job of entertaining everybody last year. Now, they had Nelly performing on Saturday night. That was an awesome concert, by the way.

And, yeah, it was fun. I thought the racing was good. I wish we were going with a low-down force package to that race because I thought that was a perfect track for it. But yeah, we're shifting a lot there. So they're not taking the short track package, right? You would think that they would, you know, in today's world, they would consider that a short track because anything under a mile now is called a short track

even by some of the purest in our sport like Jeff Burton. Yeah, I would think they would have brought it there. Yeah, that's surprising. Speaking of the short track package, how do you fix it? I don't know. Come on. I have no idea. I mean, I mean, like, so I think the biggest thing, there's like two things to fix it.

I think, you know, remember in the cars we would run before you retired were you could get someone loose on the left for quarter panel? Yeah. That doesn't happen anymore. You need that to come back. And you need to be able to peek out, like only a headlight. Remember if someone missed the bottom by like this much, you were like, thank you for missing the bottom so I can actually get some on my headlight. Now you need like half a car, three quarters of a car with, to kind of get the same as we used to get, and you still can't loosen anyone up on the left rear.

Like, Wilkesboro would have been so much better if you could do that. If you could just drive in on someone's left rear and get them loose, era-wise, there would be a lot more passing there. That and, yeah, put like 900 horsepower back on them. Really? Yeah. I mean, these cars would be so, they're hard to drive right now, but they would be so hard to drive with like 900 horsepower in them because there's no side force in the things. if you snap them loose, they're really hard to say.

If you can't drive them sideways like you could, the other car, I think that would be fantastic. What did you think of Wilkesboro? And be completely honest. You know, forget all my connections and all that stuff. I thought the whole event was awesome. The reaction it got from the people around there was great. I went to a Walmart appearance that Thursday or Friday, and the amount of people that were

there and just super excited that the race was back, that they were racing. in general since 96 was, I met so many people that were like, we've been waiting decades for this to come back. We were at the last race in 96 and we're so happy it's back. I thought the racing, I wish the racing was a little better. It was hard to pass. I thought the sealer or whatever they put down hurt it, honestly. Because like three and four, you had to have your lefts in it.

If you missed it, you were done. Yep. So hopefully, you know, we could mess around with that a little bit. I don't know what you do now. Do you repave the whole thing? Right. So more than likely the race, let's just assume that they go back there for the All-Star race again next year. That's the question is do you seal it?

Do you resonate? Do you what, you know, do you do something to try to improve that outside groove in three and four? Because I think one and two kind of isn't too bad as far as an outside groove, but you can't, you know, that driving down across the apron on exit of two is something. But maybe you do pave it. Denny Demi proposed. Denny proposed a really cool idea that I would love to see happen. And that is, and I've talked to Marcus about this.

I was like, Marcus, if you do any of this stuff, you need to involve the drivers. And not just, you know, I think, honestly, Marcus could sit down with four or five guys that everybody in your driver's group appreciated being there. and design the surface. And it doesn't need to, they don't need to change the banking or anything, just like different grades or styles of asphalt per lane, right? So maybe that bottom lane has more aggregate in it,

so it's a little less tar, less grip. Each lane gets a little bit higher in grip. And then I believe, you know, I think it would. You don't change really the banking or anything about that or the profile of track. It just kind of has a little more grip the higher you go. The other thing, too, I wanted to ask you that I just thought of,

Charlotte, why does it race so well now? Two years in a row, it's fantastic to watch. It looks fun. We were just talking about that. Is it as fun as it looks? Yesterday, yeah. The track was awesome. It's full of resin.

It's got resin in the middle and the top. Is that matter? Is that helping things? It does. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I mean, gosh, you know, we used to go there and that almost put on the worst race, honestly. And yeah, whatever reason with this car, with the way the tracks have been aging the last couple years, it's put on a hell of a show.

I mean, you got options. You can run the bottom, middle, top. Like, it's been aging nice. Three and four is getting so rough. Where? The whole way. Yeah. Like, you remember you had, like, those washboards into three?

Yep. That's like the whole corner now, from the bottom to the top. And it's good. It makes it tough to get around. Yeah. You saw guys messing up in three and four all the time. And that's good to have. So, yeah, I don't know what it is, but it was an awesome race.

I mean, you had options, and that's what makes for good racing. I love it. It's fantastic. I, um, I, um, I, I think you can see these massive cracks developing in the surface of the racetrack. It's interesting because the surface of the color of the track still looks like newer asphalt. Yeah, still dark. But it's cracking up, busting up.

You know that that turn three and four is built on top of the landfill. Yeah. And so as all of that stuff underneath the caves and the roads away and rain and all that stuff washes it into pockets and carrying all that. It's just collapsing, right? Yeah. It's happened year after, it's happened for so many decades. I mean, we went out for pace laps and I was like, I could already tell going slow. I'm like, three and four is way rougher than last year. Wow.

Hopefully we hit this right because it's good about being, but still even your head is just rattling the whole way. Like, it's crazy. But it's good. That's what tracks need. Yeah. When they're talking about track surfaces, you know, any of them, how much do track presidents and NASCAR come and seek your opinion on that? Like as far as like resin? Yeah, on what you're just, yeah, on what you're just, yeah, on what you're just, yeah, on what

you think and do you even want to be that guy? We don't get a big say in it. Sometimes they'll ask our opinion and it's sometimes they listen to us. Sometimes they do the exact opposite. It's just kind of, it's the tracks preference, I feel like. The tracks and mainly NASCAR, their kind of preference of what they want. We give our opinions, but it's not like, hey, what do you guys want to do? Whatever the vote is that you guys have, we're doing.

That never really happens. But they have listened to us. like they, great example in New Hampshire. You know, they put resin in the first and third lane or PJ or whatever it was back then. And then I think it was getting too dominant. And we asked them to just stop putting it down. There's left over.

There's remains there. It'll wear out in a year. And then you'll have three good lanes racing and they stopped doing it. And I think the racing there last year was pretty good because you had actually three lanes you could go in. So there are times though to where, yeah, they do listen to us. I'm just curious. You know, when you were racing, Dale,

Jeff Burton was kind of like the mayor, and that's where he got his nickname, and so people listen to him. I'm just kind of curious on who is the driver right now that holds the most clout with NASCAR that can speak their mind and then actually be taken seriously. Who is that? I don't know. I feel like all those guys have made NASCAR mad in like the last couple years. Is that right? Yeah, you know, like, Dedy and Harvick, right?

They're very opinionated, right? They're very vocal, whether it's good or bad. and that's just the way they are and I appreciate it about them not they're that way so yeah I don't know I mean I think you know those guys speak up a lot Joey's a big you know

speaker in that side of it so yeah I think those three guys have been perfect for those roles there is a group I wouldn't call it a text but there is a group where there as far as I remember

there's a driver group where you guys communicate with each other right yeah that's still going right Yep. Where it's literally just a group chat. And then there's another one with some industry guys, some NASCAR industry guys, O'Donnell, right? Yeah.

So be y'all still sort of form an opinion in the group chat, then go over to the other chat? Sometimes. And that's still sort of... You better make sure you're on the right chat. Has there been some mistakes? I think early on, we might have... Someone might have sent it in the drivers and NASCAR chat,

like a question about that they only meant for the driver chat only. That's interesting. By the way, this sounds amazing. and I don't even want to know what's in it because the mystery of it, from my perspective, is way better than what the reality probably is. But right now, just coming off of the Coca-Cola 600, it sounds amazing to see what that driver's only chat.

There's been nothing in the driver's only chat. Nothing? Crickets? No, crickets. Yeah. No, we don't get on there. Denny and Chase don't, like, go at each other. You should chime in by like, how's everyone feels.

You should chime in by like, hey, everybody, that was a great race, don't you think? You know, I mean. I don't really, I don't get on there much. I just read it. When I was driving, when I was racing, there was one week where Denny and Harvard got after it, like right after the race. Oh, yeah, there was one, I think there was one week where I was giving Carl Edwards a hard time. But it was, it used to be where, like, you know, everybody would run their mouths a little bit.

It still gets that way. Yeah, we had, I was laughing at one the other week. You know, some guy said something and one guy clapped back at them. And I was like, oh. That's the thing, man. You better, you better know who you're talking to. And like, I wouldn't, there's some verbal, there's some verbal sparring that I would not do with some people, you know, some drivers because they're really good at it. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you don't want to get your ass and hand it to you right in front of all your peers. But if I know you, you seem like somebody that would have instigated some, too. Well, you get it. I mean, I get a couple of ears in me. I'm willing to do anything. I think we were, I will, I can say this now. I wouldn't say it back then, but we were, um, we were racing somewhere and Carl,

Carl fenced me at Charlotte. And somehow, oh, and then we went to Phoenix and I won, uh, rain to, rain, uh, rain, the race got stopped halfway, right past halfway for rain and I won. And Carl was like, uh, getting, uh, knocked out of the Final Four. And so he was saying something. I was still pissed at him for a wrecking me at Charlotte or something. He was saying something in there.

And I was like, man, I'm glad your ass got knocked out. Oh, you said that in the chat? Yeah. Nice. Keyboard warrior. I'd never say it to his face. No. He's big as he is.

He'll come at you. How about him at Darlington? I know it. Looks the same. And so he got like the best ovation. Did he? I was working with him. We went to a couple stage things out front.

and everybody's like, yeah, Carl, come back, when are you coming back? I mean, everybody wants him to come around a race so bad. That'd be so cool, man. I mean, it's just, I've always liked Carl. Yeah. He was always super nice to me and fun to race with, and it's one of those guys that just, just gone. You might have seen it on the, you might have seen it on Instagram or something, but the funniest part of the whole.

With Cowbush. Yes, God Almighty. It shows you how just. He was so taken aback. Off the reservation he is. He was like, what's that all about? Yeah. I was like, yeah, you have been, you really have not been paying attention.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw that. It was super funny. Yeah. I would love to put him in a junior motor sports car. That would be awesome. God, golly. I think he'd do it.

If you, you know, write scenario, hey man, here it is. Turnkey, come do it. Just hop in. See you later. I feel like he's at the point now, too, of how, because how many years it has been since he ran? Since 18, 16. Four or five, right? Yeah.

I think you get to that five-year mark, and you start kind of missing. in it, right? That's what Conan asked me, Tony Kahn asked me at Indy. He's like, does it get easier? Tell me it gets easier. And I said, I'm sorry, but not for me, man. That first year was a piece of cake. Like, I was like, thank goodness I don't want to do this shit this year. Yeah.

And then the next year I was like, hey, man, I kind of regret my decision. And each year after that, I'm like one of, it's worse and worse. You know, you miss it more and more the further you're removed from it, which just seems like it'd be the opposite. Yeah. Yeah. Some of our listeners might not know this, but our friends at Lionel Racing, the official

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You've ran, you've raced for stretches. You know, 59 races can go by and you not think nothing of it. But when you kind of get into this drought after having tasted victory and no, you you know, and you have a lot of, you know, pressure, the personal pressure. You know, we saw the emotion at the, after the wind, which was so good to see. I want to touch on that in a minute, but I want to know, you know, how low does it get during that stretch, right? How, what are the things like people, people would not believe that you would ever doubt yourself. Yeah.

People would never believe. that Jimmy, Jimmy Johnson, a seven-time champion, would ever doubt himself. But I've had conversations with him. I know that those things happen to all of us at some point in another.

But like, you know, help me, help everybody understand, I guess, you know, how difficult it is and where, were, you know,

what race did you walk away from completely freaking frustrated during that span? Like, you're like, this is it. Yeah. Um, what you said in the beginning, 59 races does go by really quick.

Yeah. You know, I mean, gosh, Daytona 21 seemed like yesterday. You know, and all of a sudden you're like, holy shit, it's been 59 race since I've won a freaking race, you know? And one of the, the race that I probably walked really, like, really frustrated in the middle of that kind of streak. I don't know. I feel like, you know, obviously that the 22 Daytona 500 was tough. But that wasn't too far into like the winless streak. That was just a frustrating race.

I feel like... Well, that would be frustrating being that you were... It was frustrating. It was for your teammate on the last lap. But like the one that we were, you know, you're getting into not winning for a while, you know, you're trying so hard was probably Phoenix of November last year. Gosh, we had the fastest car to win the race in circumstances. I just, you know, couldn't pass Joey at the end and, you know, not able to get around him and trying super hard. And I thought we had the car to do it.

And I was like, man, this is perfect weekend to do it. I think we can, you know, have a shot at winning this race. And once I didn't win that one, I was like, my gosh. And then you go a whole year without winning, right? To end the season with a race-winning car and just not quite have enough at the end to pass for the lead, that sets in the realization and the frustration of I went a whole freaking season without winning. All-Star race, you know, whatever. But that was frustrating for me.

And you don't get to go back the next week to try. Exactly. You have to sit all winner of knowing you didn't win a race. all year. Yeah. You probably could have won four or five. Yeah. I screwed up in the round eight at Vegas and Homestead and kept us out of the final four. Uh, so that was a really frustrating time. Yeah. And it's easy to doubt yourself. You know, I'm not the most, I'm not a very confident person by any means. I lack confidence a lot. I just don't, just don't have that gene and ooze it. And, uh, you know, when you're not doing well and it seems like you can do nothing

right to win, you know, you start questioning yourself. You're like, man, am I good enough to still compete? Do I still have the talent? Am I smart enough to win? Are these mistakes that I'm having? You know, is that for me being frustrated or not winning? You know, what the hell is going on? Especially after coming off three wins in 2021. So yeah, it's definitely easy to kind of self-doubt yourself and, you know, realize that maybe, you know, gosh, when's the next one going to come? Can I still compete like I used to? I felt, I also wonder if the new car makes that worse, makes you more likely to start thinking about what you might be doing. Because when the COT came,

I felt like that that flew, that COT flew in the face of everything I knew about driving a race car. Yeah. Right? And I could not ever get comfortable with it and never get to where I wanted to drive it, right? Yeah. And I've stuck with it.

You know, and I was wondering like, man, is that I know now, you know, you won this race this past weekend. You had a completely fast car, very comfortable. But as you're struggling to get these wins and you got this new car and all the challenges of that, the challenges of manufacture versus manufacturer, everything. Yeah. Did you ever, like, were you ever sitting there just like, of all the f***ing times for them to bring a new car into the shit? You know, right in the middle of my career, you know?

Yeah, I mean, I didn't think about that much. I was, it was honestly more frustrating to me because I felt really good when the new car came out. And the preseason testing, I'm like, man, I feel like I feel pretty good in this car. We're fast. You know, we were in contention to win a handful of races last year and we just didn't do it. And didn't execute or I screwed up. We, you know, lost it on pit road, whatever it was. I felt really comfortable and confident in this car to do it last year.

And just, it's frustrating when it doesn't work out. But I always just kind of kept thinking, it's like, man, he just tried to stay in it. What about the biggest thing? What about all the things you've got to do during the week? You've been in this long enough that the week's worth of meetings and preparation, SMT data, blah, blah, blah. That's completely different than when you started.

Yeah. I mean, are you. Well, you know, when we didn't win for a while, then you start thinking, okay, do I need to, change up what I'm doing during the week because obviously that shit ain't working, you know, anymore. So I need to change up my prep work and what I'm doing to prepare for these races. because what I'm doing is, yeah, yeah. I mean, going to this year, I completely changed up how I approached.

How did you determine what change to make? Did you go to your teammates? You take direction from your crew chief? Me and Hasser, my crew chief, talked a lot about it, you know, of what I want to get better at. How can I be more involved in a certain thing or kind of approach it a different way? And then it was kind of a lot of me asking myself, you know, okay, do I need to change this up?

This up? Do I need to put more effort into this one and less effort? into this thing, you know, so I was just kind of picking and choosing. How much did outside noise contribute to this lack of confidence? Not a lot. I don't really give a shit about what anyone else says. Is that right? Look, I know that that's the token answer, everybody. But I've long believed that you actually do give you and all the other drivers. Listen, I lived it with Dale. There's a lot of experiences that are similar to Dale's drought, new car, Dale with a drought,

and you could not get away from it. I mean, you can't get away from it. You can't get away from it. nowhere to hide every freaking weekend, right? Somebody's reminding you. Media member asking when do you think you're going to win? Exactly. So you're telling me that literally has zero effect on you? Yeah, I might have lied to you at that point.

I mean, I think it does. It would be normal if it does. It's just, it gets annoying, right? I mean, everyone's, when are you going to win again? Why haven't you won? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know why we haven't won. I mean, we've given some away and just, it's not, you don't have a good answer for that stuff.

I admire, I have been a. able to witness a lot of the preparation that goes on for the cup guys during the week and talking to Josh about his experiences this year and being connected to some of the teams. I can't, I couldn't do it. I could not apply myself the way that you guys are forced to apply yourself to compete these, you know, in this environment. It is incredible what you have to sacrifice and to be successful. It's so much more and their teams expect. so much more from you. And you're, it's, it's something else.

I mean, to be a, to be a cup driver is glamorous, is exciting. You're paid well. But there's the, the amount of effort outside of the car today versus five or 10 years ago is multiplied by at least two or three. Yeah. And throw this in as well. This is, again, was another similarity. You're talking about Phoenix from last year.

Well, your teammate is winning freaking everything in the book at the time. He wins a championship. Joey wins a championship last year. So not only are you experiencing a drought, but now your freaking teammate who you're supposed to support. Yeah, it's not from a lack of good equipment, right? I mean, like my teammates are doing it. I must suck because I can't win in it like he can.

Even Mark Martin's old ass was going out there coming out from his 17th retirement and, you know, in doing well. Thanks for reminding me. Just reminding you, yeah. So outside of your crew chief, all the people that would absolutely be supporting you through, through something like that. Who is helping you, you know, keep to keep yourself calm and keep your confidence up? Is it, is Roger having conversations with you? Yeah. Is it family? Is it your girlfriend?

Who is helping you sort of keep your head on straight? Yeah, kind of all the above. You know, it's always nice to talk to Roger whenever you have tough weekends. And, you know, he's always been great to me as, you know, reassuring and, and putting some confidence back in me, you know. So that's, that's something I've never been able to thank him enough about. But yeah, I mean, my family, dad's always been, you know, really supportive of me. Gianna's obviously been a huge part of, of kind of making, letting me, helping me forget about all the bad stuff. So that part's been been good. So yeah, I think it comes from all angles. Tell us about Gianna. Yeah, what do you want to know? Where did I meet her? Where did I meet her? How long have y'all been going

We will be, it'll be three years this June. Yeah. So that's been, that's been fun. So we met at a racetrack. She was, uh, she worked for Hooters and she was the countergirl. And when Hooters was on Chase's car, they were at the race and they bring a few them out. And so I just saw her and we just got kind of talking and, uh, she blew me off for a few

months, which was good. I heard it. She made it difficult on you. Yeah, she did. She did. And that was, that was nice. And, uh, but then, yeah, we finally got, got talking again, uh, you know, and like, gosh, it was just right when COVID started, honestly. And, uh, now here we are, living together a couple years now. Yeah. So my, uh, the, the, the, the, the impression I get from the outside is, is that you or, you and her both have taken a very moderate, you know, modest sort of steady, no rush, no hurried approach to, to, to, to figure. this out but it's been been a while you know y'all been going out for a while i'm not saying i'm not saying i think you're trying to say so i'm not i think you are no i mean would you agree like it's you've

sort of you you just seem like the kind of person that you you come across to me as even when you are excited about something even when you do get excited you really keep that measured you know and you you're careful about showing or wearing that on your sleeve right and like you you don't want to, I don't know if it's, you want to jinx anything, or you just, you just kind of keep a very measured sort of even moderate tone about your, your disposition, even though inside, I know there's great things that you're thrilled about going on in your life. And, you know, I think that typically when, when guys get themselves in these type of relationships, they get in a hurry.

Race car drivers, you know, are always in a perpetual state of hurry. freedom this, all right? Rush, rest, I want it now, give it to me. I want my car to turn. I want to order this truck. Where is it? Bring it to me now. And, you know, so I think it's pretty interesting to me, and I commend you, I guess, on being careful, you know, with this very amazing thing happening in your life. You've been very smart about it. Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, so I was not a relationship guy. You know, I just didn't have any love. long-term relationships growing up. I just never found the right person. And, you know, then when it's funny when you find that person that you really enjoy spending time with and you have a lot in

common with, you know, we've just kind of been enjoying our lives so far together. And, yeah, I've never been one to rush many things. I guess I'm the opposite of kind of what the average normal kind of racer mentality is like. But no, we've just been enjoying it. And it's, I mean, it's probably getting time. Yeah. It's probably getting close to that time. Time for what? I don't know, whatever he's implying over there. I'm not. Y'all are making this. It's in your head's not much.

Oh, yeah, no, no, I don't know. No, but it's been a lot of fun. It's been a blast for her and I to get to know each other and kind of go through this mid, late 20s span of our lives together. Yeah. And, you know, hopefully a long, long time, you know, to the future now. Yeah. Well, you know, it's sort of this, during the race Monday night, you know, they're showing

everyone on the pit box, her included, everybody has biting nails as it comes down to the end and you're working your way through. Traffic trying to get back to the lead and then the celebration and elation of winning and all of that. And so it's just, you know,

I don't know, man, I'm not saying anything other than the girlfriends, the wives, they live this life, right? they become part of this life. And it's a really unique, it's a really unique thing.

Like when Amy and I got together, I told her, I was like, if you're coming this way, you've got to do everything. You're coming this way, you've got to give it all up, and this is what we're doing.

This is the plan. It is funny, you know, she knew nothing about racing when we met. You know, she didn't, I mean, when she started going on the track with Hooters,

it was like, she had no clue. No clue. She just didn't grow up around it. She didn't have any family that watched it. And when we first started, dating and then you know it's like hey this is the deal right here this is kind of i'm gone it's this

is you know what's happening i'm going to be in this place this place this place you know my weekends are shot all that stuff and then her kind of getting to learn of the grind it is and then moving in together now her coming to all these races yeah you give up a lot you know yeah home you know for you know significant others it's it's it's a lot of you know even though they're not driving the car it's it's a lot on them too they do everything else but drive the car, right? Everything you do, they have to be along with that. Yeah, and she's been really great at kind of understanding and accepting and now enjoying the sport and getting to know it more and more over the years. You know, she's, she's really been great.

She's doing the better half dash. That's awesome. So that's good. So we've been testing it at, it's not called GoPro anymore, track house. So what is the format this year? You know, it's been online. It's been, it was, it was Bandoleros. What are they doing? So they're racing at the motorplex, go-carts. Okay. GoPro. Yeah. Yeah. Justin Mark's place.

So that happens here in like two weeks. Okay. Something like that. So we've been practicing once a week here for the last little bit, trying to get her dialed in. How's that going? It's been going okay. It's been decent.

She lacks a little bit of confidence, surprisingly. She's living with me. But, you know, I rub off on her. But once she gets comfortable, it's crazy. She's such a wild driver on the road, like very fast. Like she's always over the speed limit by a lot. But like we get her in a go cart and she's like timid, right? Right.

She's timid and she thinks they're going to flip over. Like, you know, she's not used to being the wind hit me in the face and you're going 50 miles an hour, right? That's scary if you've never done it before. Yeah. So we're working up her level of commitment, which has been good though. But it's been a work in progress. You know, I got a lead and I like put my arm out where to break and not. And then we'll swap and I'll bump her in spots that she needs to go faster in.

and she doesn't like that at first. But I'm like, I'm trying to help you out here. Have you handicapped the field? Like, who else will we got to be? I was just thinking of that. Yeah. Oh, man. I mean, Kenzie Hamrick is going to be tough.

She raced late models for a long time. She was really good. She was a hell of a driver. Yeah. So she's going to be tough. I think her name's Holly. Eric Jones girlfriend. She used to race a lot.

So she'll be hard. And I think there's one other one that's going to be pretty tough. they used to race. Wow. So she's got a, her and my younger sister Aaron's doing it too, so I think they're going to be neck and neck for like P-17, 18. Yeah, it's going to get competitive between you and Byron? Yeah.

I don't think so. I don't know. Yeah, in the pits. We'll be rubbing elbows and fighting after the race if they wreck each other. We should stage one. We should stage a fight. You should totally do that. That'd be cool.

You should do that in front of, you know, and punk the girls. Yeah, punk the girl. Oh, man. And you and him be like, eh. All right. Wait to release this episode. Cut this part out. But Chase and I, funny, we talk about stage and fights,

Chase and I have been talking about stage in one for years. A very public fight? Like, kind of rub each other a little bit on the racetrack. Like, at the end of the race, get out, and just go to town on each other. Like, could you imagine the headlines? And say, it's on. Yeah. That would be so cool.

Yeah, I don't know. I could totally see Chase being in that moment. I don't. I'm going to get, I would get destroyed by all the L. at fans out there. You would. Oh, yeah. You're not going to win the bout.

You're not going to win. After what I saw on social media yesterday, I would not want anything to do with that. No. No. Because what's going to happen? What's going to happen is half of them aren't going to learn that it was a, it was a prank.

No. And they're going to believe it was real forever. You'll get booed. I thought you were friends. Oh, I would. Yes. I would. Just like after I spun you out at Martinsville.

At Martinsville, like for three weeks. You boo! For real. Oh, dude. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. See, you know what, thinking back,

You know, you were talking about earlier how, you know, the media will kind of like expound upon these little things that are not that big a deal. And the thing that was coming to mind was like when you guys, was it at Martinsville? Yeah. And, you know, there was a little rough up stuff, but it was like, wait a second, their neighbors. He lives. They're supposed to drink. This is going to end their friendship. Yeah.

And this was a thing for like, you know, wow. And you guys were like, it's not that big a deal, really? And I'm a rookie. I'm like, oh, God. Right. I've ruined my career. You say what you say on the radio and all of a sudden it's broadcast to everyone. and you know you can't even have a moment in the moment to yourself right well yeah i chuckled

it was funny yeah so all right so um you go and absolutely wipe the floor in this 600 i i really felt like this was your race i mean you had how many left did you end up leading oh i don't know a ton a ton right i mean like did everything from the start of this race just feel like it was on and And I'm curious about how the change of time, the Monday, the time of day, we hear so much about how the track is affected by temperature. Like, did any of that stuff make you nervous or were you just in the zone this whole time? Yeah, I mean, we started the race off when we were, you know, super fast. And that gave me confidence that the speed is there. But then, you know, by the comp caution at 30, you're like, man, we got 370 laps to go on this thing.

Like, we're going to have to do a good job of keeping up with it. And there's been plenty of times you fire off a speed. And then you just lose it, right? You lose the racetrack and everyone gets better and you don't. And especially when it's early like that in the race, you know, you're kind of nervous that, okay, was it just the green racetrack? Our car kind of handles good. Can we keep up with it?

And as the night went on and we kept our speed and we kept adjusting to the racetrack. And I'd tell you the biggest, you know, thing of what helped to swim the race. You know, at end of stage three, like Redick and Truex were all. all over me. I was getting super loose and the track was cooling down and we made a big decision like I need a big swing to tighten me up here to be competitive and luckily we able to hit that right. And then by the start of stage four, I was like, yeah, I think we definitely have the best car. I can probably do this. If things play out, you never know how they're going to play out. You had a coming off pit road for that last pit stop, though, you had lost two or three spots.

and you know I know you're you know you're had this amazing race going in that moment are you like a shit you know can I get by these guys

barren was going to be hard to pass yeah he was he's going to be hard to drive up there and go around yeah I think we restarted like fifth yeah and uh forget how many last there was like 50 to go

yep I'm like okay hopefully if this goes green I feel pretty decent about you know trying to get up through there but you never know and my biggest thing

while my mind was trying to get in front of Reddick. You know, he was kind of our closest competitor. So I feel like whoever got in front of who right there was going to have the best shot at winning the race. But no, we were just able to get to, I think we passed for fourth, and the caution came out again. And then I think we got to third on the next restart, then we got the second. And once we got back on the front row, I raced William, you know, with him being the leader a lot that night, you know, and kind of was able to judge where he was good at or not. And once we got to the front row, I felt pretty good about it.

And then once we got to be the leader and control the next restart, I felt really great about it. Right. But yeah, just, no, I didn't think anything. I mean, our pit stops were great all night. We just had one to where we lost one spot or two spots and just kind of got to realize there's a lot of time left. And our car was super fast. Yeah. You don't think it's a big deal.

But the, you know, yes, you had the best, you had a great car. You led a lot of laps. Had that pit stop issue not have happened. you go and win the race, Ryan Blaney has snapped the winless streak. But I felt like having that little bit of adversity and having in that moment, it's basically pull your ass together, win the race, or go nuclear, and it all goes to hell. Right? That's kind of what a driver is faced with in that moment.

Yeah. And you methodically, you know, did everything that needed to happen toward the end of the race to get back your track position and win the race. I thought that that was really, for some people, yourself included, that might have doubted Ryan Blaney in the past 59 races, that little bit of work in the last 50 laps might have been more impressive than anything that happened all night long. Because that is a difficult emotional thing to overcome.

You know, kind of like New Garden and the Indy, hit the red flags and he talked about the emotion of sitting there and thinking about oh damn what do i do what's what could go wrong um some some only very few people can think positively and correctly and get through that a lot of people implode yeah right and even great amazing race car drivers implode in those moments um and you've you've dealt with you know some short tempers and and fuses and so forth in your own career but i i really think that that was a watershed moment for you to lose that track position, dominate on night, and then sort of bam, bam, bam, bam, do what you needed to do and win.

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Yeah, that's what I kind of reminded myself, right? You just got to kind of keep your head in the game. And that's something I've been, yeah, I've been known to kind of, I don't ever really blow a fuse, but when I do, it's a big fuse. Yeah, but it's quick. And it's very, very quick. But those things do take your mind off the task at hand.

And, you know, last night, we just stayed focused on, I didn't even care about where we came out, really. I just, you know, we just kind of kept our head down and focused on the task and had faith that we could do it. And, you know, fortunately, it did happen. Well, man, we are happy for you. That World 600 is a big damn race. Thanks. That is super cool. That is a big one to win.

And, you know, the ring is appropriate. I appreciate it is. And I appreciate you again for coming out here. It is literally 30 seconds to go in an hour. I asked you for one hour, and you said, no problem. I'll see it one. And it is 20 seconds to go. Perfect.

Before we click on that 60-minute mark. It didn't feel like an hour. No. Do you have to go somewhere? I have nowhere to go. Okay. Let's sign him up to a podcast. Yeah.

You want to host a podcast. Yeah. All right, man. Ryan Blaney, I appreciate you, buddy. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. Go see you. 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 Dirty Mo Media. On Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.