The Dale Jr. Download - 477 - Shane Van Gisbergen - Just The Beginning

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Shane Van Gisbergen stops by the Bojangles Studio to chat with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in preparation for his highly anticipated return to NASCAR action this weekend in Indianapolis. After a stunning upset victory in his first NASCAR Cup attempt at the Chicago Street Course, SVG announced his plans to follow up his impressive debut by invading the Racing Capital of the World. He has also made it clear that he’d like to pursue NASCAR racing full-time in 2024, and he unpacks what that may look like with Dale Jr. and Download co-host Mike Davis. But before that can become a reality, SVG is set to see how he’ll fare in pavement oval competition as he embarks on his first NASCAR Truck start for Niece Motorsports at Indianapolis Raceway Park. SVG explains that most of his experience in oval racing came early in his career in the quarter midget ranks, as well as some winged sprint car races he ran more recently. Dale Jr. provides some pointers on how to get around the 0.686-mile speedway and what to expect from Trucks competition. They also discuss SVG’s use of heel-and-toe shifting, the world of Australian V8 Supercars, and the rest of the ringers for this coming weekend in Indy. 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 Bojangl Studio. You've got a great guest today. Well, how you doing, Rhiz? I'm doing fine right now. This is every week, okay, boy? Huckle it. 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. Welcome back to another episode of the Dale Jr. download here on Thursday, August the 10th, 2003 in the Bojangles studio with my co-host, Mike Davis.

And we've got a great guest, Shane Van Gisberg. and is coming on to talk to us about his past experiences in Chicago. We've heard a lot of rumors, Mike, about what's going on with his career and what could be happening, and he's racing this weekend at Indy. So he's back. He's racing at a couple racetracks, not just the Indy Road course in the Cup series, but IRP Friday night. That's a big deal, too.

So, you know, he said that he wants to come over here full time. We're going to obviously talk to him about that. but this weekend is going to be a big weekend for SVG. Yes, we've got to thank Ally for helping bring the guest segment to us every single week. Allies just done so much for NASCAR. They do a lot for the industry as a whole, major sponsor in the Cup level for Hendrick Motorsports, and they support us here at Dirtymo Media and at the Dale Jr. download. And so, again, we're going to try to make Shane an ally today.

We're going to have a great conversation with him. Let's get him in the room and get to start. to go here he's going to have to be perfect Shane and Disburg into the inside 60 years since a driver has won

in their series debut an experience in the crowd out in like this was so cool and that's what you dream of it's right here this is you right here hop down and put your headphones on

you like it man's wearing his shirt let's see it Got his Shane Man Gisbergen shirt Hey So So who's pronouncing your name right

And who's pronouncing it wrong Have you been keeping tabs? Yeah, you were pretty good I was good There's no way You just forgot the van every time I did Yeah

He doesn't pronounce Current NASCAR driver's name's right So there's no way he got yours right Yeah So the van Is that like not a middle name Or is that just part of the last name Part of your last name

I wore it loud hair So it's easy Yes VG Very cool G not Jack Yeah, Mike. Yeah. Lathart was doing the J.

Yeah. So, man, first of all, thanks for being here. You've been traveling all over, doing everything, and you're a busy guy. Thanks for carving out a little bit of time for us today. It's no problem. Thanks having me. Yes, sir. When did you get back into the States?

Sunday morning. Okay. And you're in the middle of your season at Supercar. Yeah. Our season's pretty long. We have 12 weekends, starts, start of March, ends in December. So it's a long year, pretty spread out at the moment, but some. But you won. You won this past weekend, right? Last weekend we did. So you, you celebrated a little bit and

then, and then got on the airplane and come over here? What happened? Yeah, or we didn't celebrate too much. We had like a, we do sponsor ride days after, so we had to take passengers the next day. So I couldn't celebrate too much, but it was good. We've had a tough couple of rounds. Yeah. Well, you, I didn't know if 11 races is actually considered a drought, but would you consider 11 race drought because that was your fourth win but you had gone a few months without a victory. Other people say so, but we'd still be getting

a lot of podiums and stuff. Absolutely. It's been going good. Points wise, yeah. Right on. So, hey, when did you start racing in Supercar? In Supercar's middle of 2007. So I've been doing it a while now. When I was 18 I moved to Australia. Where were you?

Oh, New Zealand. So what did you race in New Zealand? So I started in Speedway and quad bikes when I was younger. What's Speedway? Speedway is like quarter midget, so like a mini speed car or midget car. And I was eight when I started and, yeah, I grew up. What's Speedway over here? Quartermiggets, right?

It's quarter midgets, yeah. Is it dirt or? On dirt. So, yeah. Quarter mile track, yeah. Yep. So when I went over there, I went in 06, I think, to hang out with Paul Morris. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And, yeah, it was good times. And took a bunch of my friends. And we went to watch the Outlaws race at a dirt track, and we went over to Paul's place and run his cars a little bit. And then we went to Phillip Island for the race, for the V8 Supercar race. Saw the Utes run, which is this little S-10 pickup truck. Yeah, they call them Trucks Day out of here. Yeah.

And the Utes have, dude, the Uts are badass. They, so everything, I'm going to ramble like crazy, but everything that Australia does with cars, even like their road cars, they do really well. And so the Ute is the truck over there. It's like an S-10. It's all lowered to the ground. Ground effects.

It's got like a Corvette engine. They don't sell anything stripped down. They don't sell any car low options, right? Everything's got the biggest motor you can buy. Everything's got the best wheels, right? Like the Holden car ends up becoming the Pontiac G8 over here. Right. And so I bought a whole, I bought a Pontiac G8 and then bought all the shit from Australia to turn it back into a hole.

I did. I still got it. I was wondering if you still had it. Hell yeah. I haven't seen it. It's awesome. And so I'm a huge fan of VH supercars and a big supporter of all the things y'all do. You remember Owen Kelly?

Yeah, yeah. So he came over here, you know this, right? I'm sure, but he came over here and lived for a while and raced our late model stock car. That's right. and one at Carraway. Yeah. And I'm telling you, man, a couple things go just the right way for him, and I think he'd still be here racing in Xfinity or Cupsie.

It was only a couple of years ago he'd still come and do the Xfinity stuff. I gave him a call before Chicago just for some tips and how it works. Oh, he sort of just told me how to fit in, you know, just all the terminology, and there's no understeer or overstere here. It's loose and tight. Yeah. Just small things like that. Yeah.

Yeah, he loves it here. He was full encouraging me to go and do it. Where is Owen these days? He's in Tas. Mania now? Where is it? Melbourne. Melbourne.

Really? Marcus is Tasmania. Marcus is in Tasmania. Well, anyways. I, um, so I went to Australia in 06, I think Chevrolet was creating, Chevro was building the new or testing the new Camaro that, you know, the old Camaro. But back then it was, the Camaro was coming back. And they're like, man, we want you to go to Australia.

I'm like, hell, yeah, I'm taking all my buddies. We got, we packed a plane, we got Mr. H's plane, a big giant plane, flew about 10 of my buddies. over there. Soon as we land, Owen's there. Don't know Owen. But Crusher and Paul Morris are like, you need to,

you know, Owen's going to show you around as soon as you hit the ground. And so, but we had a blast, man. It was a great time. And so when I heard you were coming over here, and obviously Marcus had a great, you know,

run with us in NASCAR and he was big, he was really helpful in getting me that trip to Australia and make sure I was connected to the right people. Cool. But we're really excited about having you part of our, part of our, deal man to have have you come over here and race i was just excited for you to to come compete um

and then you you went to chicago when you go what did you do to prepare before you got in the car that weekend uh pretty much as much as i could i watched all the film i could obviously there was nothing from that track but um i just watched um sonoma i watched coda first and that was just mayhem i was wondering what i'd got myself into yeah but then yeah sonoma was a pretty good race and You're just trying to learn how the car's race, how the driver's race, and then, yeah, getting over here, just learning the team, did a lot of simulator stuff. Was that helpful simulator? Yeah, definitely was, yeah.

The track was a little different, I guess, because they didn't have the surface right yet. It's good just to get an idea of even just how to talk to the crew chief, to talk to Darien and the engineers and stuff, just to learn how the dynamic of it all works. Yeah. It was difficult. There's not much practice here. Like, we have a lot more practice. weren't to learn a new track especially.

So I think it was extra for Chicago, but still only 30 minutes or something. Yeah, very brief. Well, I mean, the thing that blows everyone's minds over here is just the change in the side of the car that you're driving on and the shifting. You actually didn't seem like that was the biggest hurdle. Am I right? Yeah, I drive GT3 cars a bit. Their left-hand drive.

And my rally car last year was left-hand drive. And that was a sequential as well. So that wasn't as big a deal. We were impressed, though. I thought that was amazing. I'll take it. I'll take it. Yeah, yeah.

But it was a struggle because the NASCAR is so wide. And on the walls, the car is so far away from you. So on the right handers especially, I struggled getting close to the walls there. And I forget the corner, but before you go out by the fountain where Chase had the accident, that wall was very hard to judge. Right, yeah. Right. So a lot of people were, a lot of people were making a big deal out of healing too. And so, you know, healing, so before we, you know,

25 years ago before we made transmissions that would allow you to not use a clutch to shift, right? Every driver in the Cup series, let's say 86, 87 had to heal until you had to. You'd tear the transmission, wear it out, doll, yeah. And so,

but we did it out of necessity. Whereas, and help me if I'm, clean this up for me, I guess. I watched, so there was a bit of a debate about two or three, four years ago, and the supercar about paddles and shifting

and how that would affect and take away some tools, right, and hill and toe. And so Paul put this video out driving around his course, showing like why heel and toe is important and why it makes the driver unique and how a driver uses it to change the balance of the car. Yep. I'd never heard it.

I'd never knew that, right? Yeah. Well, we need it on our things because we have a solid axle, a lock differential. So you're trying to run as much real. brake as possible to turn the car and use the brake to turn it so you can use the clutch to take away a bit of rear brake in the straight line and stop the rear locking yeah i could use it a bit in the nascar but obviously that diff is more open so it's not as critical but i saw a lot of people were struggling on the bumps

you know with that helpful for me well for me it's just normal but i guess it did it was a bit helpful so if it's a if there's a lot of content in the track um definitely be helpful all the bumps you can just dip the clutch over the bumps and it takes away all the compression. Wow. It does make a big difference. Okay. So I guess in a breaking zone that gets ripples and so forth, you know, you get a lot of content in some of the breaking zones, some of the racetracks.

Yeah, I was really impressed by that. I mean, I kept texting back and forth with Paul about it and he was giving me some great information. But I felt like, you know, trying to help people understand how heel and toe, it's a habit if you're racing a car that has to be used that way with the transmission to keep the transmission from blowing up but it's also you know trying to help people understand how you can affect the balance of the car and it and it kind of turns a car into the corner yeah it's also what I'm used to like when I go and drive a GD3 car I still right foot break you know left foot's

probably faster but out of habit it's what I'm used to breaking with my right foot so yeah for this weekend in the truck I think I got a left foot break and load it up it's like it's a new skill I got to learn yeah yeah yeah So that'll be interesting, man, when you go, what oval experience do you have? I started speed. I did speed away when I was a kid. And then over last summer, I did some sprint car stuff. But yeah, I haven't done a pavement one.

Where did you run sprint cars? At Western Springs, which is where I grew up racing. Okay. So that's all dirt. Yep. Which is fine, because, I mean, you know, we got a lot of guys that are very, very good in our cup series that came from dirt. and they adapted pretty well. What are you worried about?

You're going to IRP in a truck, a little bullring, flat, odd corners, weird groove, multiple ways to get through the corner. So I watched the race coming over here, and it doesn't look like they race with a lot of respect for each other. It's completely different, and there's no rules about it if you take someone out, really. You've got to do something pretty bad to get in trouble.

But yeah, it looks like carnage and quite tough running up by the wall and stuff. It's just going to take time. I sat in the truck yesterday and I arrived there and the left front wheel looks like it's broken already hanging off. The Canber. Yeah, it's a completely different world. Looking forward to trying it, seeing what it's like and the pit stop stuff, that's pretty difficult for me. Normally we press the button and just hold our foot flat. Ah, yeah, so maintain the speed.

Yeah, so I lost a little bit at Chicago on one of the stops. So I've got to get better at that. and yeah, just understand how it all works. And it's probably a good place to have a first race. It doesn't look too fast and too much banking, but the carnage might be a bit much. I'm assuming you were able to do some pit stop practice, though, while you're here?

Have you been doing that? Yes, I'll do some this afternoon in the cup car. And, yeah, it's completely different. Normally all the guys are there already waiting out for me. And the first time they jumped over the wall, it scared the crap out of me. I was locked up, and they're like, no, don't even worry about it.

If you hit us, it's our fault. Brief. It's way different. So, yeah, I would tell you, man, I always aired on the conservative side on my pit road speed because the penalty is really severe, right? Having to come down on pit road, and it ruins the race for you because of how competitive the fields are.

So I would be, you know, I would be fine if you were conservative if I was working on your car. But, yeah, I think racing, you know, you're going to try to gain some experience. on the ovals, if you're giving more opportunities, you're going to take them. I can't think of them more, yeah, I could, but IRP is very challenging, as you said. Like, not only is the racing aggressive, not only are the truckers rough and tough, you know, beating on each other and stuff, but the way you get around that track is kind of wonky.

You know, it's kind of weird how you drive the racetrack. Yeah, normally I'm always trying to hit the apex or the shortest way around. It looks like the opposite. Right, yeah. And there's multiple, you can move that apex wherever you want at that track, right, depending on the balance of your truck. And so it's not as straightforward as a lot of ovals, right? Is it because the surface is better?

Well, there's more banking up there. How does it work? Yeah, I think it's because it is, there is a little more banking in the top groove. And so if you need to put the right rear up there and get some turn, you know, if you need to drift up there, if your truck's turning too good, you certainly don't want to get up on that. You want to kind of hang lower and run tighter. Okay. Getting up underneath people, that was the hardest part at IRP for me was you can run a guy down,

but then when you try to go low to pass him, he's got the momentum on the top, right? And he can make it really hard and not getting into the corner too hard and getting loose and backing myself in the fence. That's like the common mistake at IRP is once you catch them, I didn't try to go past them is you drive into the corner and get loose under them, right? Because it's flat. and almost a little bit of opposite bank on that left front or that lower groove. And so you can get in there and get the thing backwards and then you're backing into the fence.

Sounds fun. Sounds pretty challenging. Did he just picture all your nerves? Now you feel good about it? Yeah. It does look hard to pass from what I saw. It's very hard to pass. You get pinched up pretty quick.

And I think that's why you have to be aggressive. And, you know, people will take advantage of your inexperience, you know. I'm sure that'll happen here. So you'll just have to like know that that's coming. Give it to them back. Yeah. I don't want to do that yet. If you watched, if you watched Cota, right, you saw a lot of those guys

just taking advantage of, right? They weren't, they had no idea how bonkers that entry to one was going to be on those restarts late in the race. The intensity completely changes in the third stage. Yeah, like the start of our race was pretty cruisy at Chicago and I let someone go and I think it was Tyler Redick. He let me go back. And then at the end,

one of the race dots it was just it was like a switch was flipped yes it was nuts so that's that's another thing yeah so stage one like with the beginning of race everybody's cool hey we got ways to go you know and then stage two it's like yeah we're still you still want to survive everybody take care of each other and then like stage three it's like screw you yeah you know screw everybody um and especially like at indie indie indy's going to be very similar turn one to indies very similar to coda right wide racetrack bottleneck down into nothing yeah i think they've moved the restart zone. They did.

I was most worried about that, joining double file restart and you get stuck on the outside. It looks like it's all over for you. With a different position, it might be a bit better. Hopefully that change in the start, finish or the restart zone moving that around a little bit is going to improve things.

It's exciting to watch, but being in it, you probably don't want to be on the outside. So as a broadcaster, some of that is good. Like some of, you know, obviously you want some, you know, the stage three to be crazy.

You want that wild. restart but I think what we're saying what we saw at Cota we don't nobody wants yeah nobody wants that do we have a reputation for being idiots oh not idiots being aggressive yeah for sure like every highlights real you see like the most or the best one ever i think is that wakins race with marcus and brad and call that was that was loose but that was amazing but at the same time dude when i started watching v8 supercars back in the early 2000s that y'all drove the same way similar Yeah, but now like, the contacts way down compared to 20 years ago. Yeah, like I got a little bump last week when someone brake tested me,

prop them up and I bumped them a little bit. Yeah. Straight away a penalty. So it's completely different. I was watching a race with you and Brody. I think it was earlier this year at Perth. Yeah, that was awesome. And it was insane racing.

You were right on his tail. You gave him nudge. There was some contact, right? Yeah, and he was blocking. And that was great. But then it's like whatever mood the guy's in today, he's penalizing tomorrow. He's not. So as a driver, you have.

No idea what you can do or not. But that Perth race was, it's like the most watch race, the best supercars race in years. It was sick. Now they've changed it, yeah. How much have you talked to Brody about this weekend? Yeah, a little bit. We race a lot on the Sim together and stuff and then every week in Supercars. Yeah, he's going to be really good this weekend, I think, yeah.

Those cars were good there last year. We sort of handicapped Kobayashi, you and Brody. And so you're pretty. aware of Kobayashi right and his speed it's ridiculous yeah i heard his have you heard about his tests no i heard it was lights out where he test i don't know exactly but i heard compared to i guess i just heard that his speed was pretty ridiculous so i was i watched him in some mpsa races doing the broadcasts for the 24 hours of day toning stuff and the guy's a phenomenal just very fast right yeah i think he'll be good he'll be tough yeah uh i think jensen's doing it again

as well, isn't it? That's right. A few of us now. Yes. But I think, you know, you're in a great car. Kabayashi's in a really good car as well. Brody's car, I think, would be good. I'm not, I mean, if you put the same driver in all three cars, I think, you know, RCO is going to be pissed at me. But I think that that car is just a tenth or two off.

Really? Okay. Yeah, the third RC. They were pretty fast there last year, weren't they? Yeah, but things are, I don't know. It's the third car. It's not the top car. It's not the A car.

car. Okay. And Brody, you know, I mean, I know he's got some Oval or stock car experience. It's not going to be completely far into him. And he's been running tons of SIM for RCR, so maybe I'm handicapped him a little hard. But I'll be, I'll be curious, I guess, as to how he'll run. And he doesn't take any stick, so he'll be not afraid to give it back up. Oh, is that right?

Yeah. Tell us about it. He'll dish it out. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's not scared. So it would be very good. He doesn't really, I shouldn't say he doesn't care, but he's. he's all in it's pretty cool

I'm curious I'll be good to watch I in my mind though it's like that's all Australians all New Zealand's y'all are just all like that will power yeah all of y'all are the same

in terms of like we're pretty reserved like the racing rules are so strict like you see here you see the races here it's nothing we don't get that messy yeah I don't think it used to be oh all right do you do you guys feel that Shane's success at Chicago adds pressure to the Brody

Kostekis and the Kobe Oshie Like, do they actually now have, it feels like the supercar series, and I want to ask you about supercar series, but like it feels like you really elevated the supercar series just by coming over here and winning Chicago, right? And then I wonder if, I mean, you and I, Dale, we're sitting here excited about Shane being back in the race and Brody and all this. And I'm just wondering if there's pressure on all of those guys to kind of come in here because of your victory.

I guess there's expectation. Like you come in and win a race you're expected to do well at the next one. makes it tough, I guess, on those guys because Brody's ahead of me in the championship, so he's a good driver. He's going to be, you know, they'll be expecting him to do pretty well. But how we go, we have no idea.

This track's going to be tough. The street circuit was perfect for me. No one knew it. I race street tracks a lot. Whereas here, they've been here the last three years, I think this race has been going for. They know, they've got a lot more information about it. It'll be tough.

And we only have 20 minutes of practice. It's going to be difficult. I think everybody said, you know, after Chicago, they were like, yeah, if he comes back and he runs a track that, we know what the results will be somewhat different. But to your point, man, I didn't even think about that. Like your race, your practice will be super limited. Everybody's going to have all kinds of experience and knowledge.

But I believe by the end the race, man, I mean, you've got it all figured out. Yeah, hopefully. I mean, how much, how big was, how broad was the swing of progression from the start of the race at Chicago to the end, right? And your speed and your ability, knowledge of the break. breaking performance and all the things. Yeah, like I was quite weak in under braking mainly and qualifying. And then in the race, I just learned more and more every lap, particularly when it dried out.

And I kind of got in a spot where I had the track to myself and just I tried some things and got better and got better. And then by the end of the race, I was fine. But it's just there's so many little nuances about this car and trying to learn how it works. And it's a pretty different tire how it works. The tire is really good compared to what we have. But it's difficult how it works and just trying to learn how it works. to learn and there's no um no tire pressure rule here so you're running the thing so low and when you leave the pit lane on the low tires it feels like someone's around yeah yeah it's it's crazy

but you get so much performance from it so um do you think you take anything from your experience here back home uh to help you in the v8 supercar there's a little bit of stuff like the preparation here is awesome like the the cars and all the stuff you do during the week you mean yeah the simulator of the driver the preparation and the pre-race stuff um the cars here are relatively simple i guess but all the little details matter like they the way out the crew chief does and all the sim the engineering like it's pretty it's at a very high level here and stuff like we haven't really seen before so my engineer in australia he came over with me and he learned a lot as well so in in chicago yes yeah so and he was able to help a little bit with i guess philosophies for street circuit stuff and

you know he would have learned some stuff as well Is he back for this weekend? No, he didn't come this weekend. He can't really help you at Indy. No, we're racing again next week. Who did you bring? His name's Andrew Edwards. No, who did you bring this time?

It's just myself this time. By yourself? Yeah, and Ainslie who looks after all the social side of things. Yeah, just me. Everybody says very loosely that the next-gen car in the Cup series was built and based off of a lot of ideas from the supercar. Now that you know them both really well, Are they that similar? Yes and no.

They are in some parts with the way the chassis is. So, you know, it's the same between everyone. All the components are the same and the front and rare clips. Yeah, they're pretty similar in some ways. But the weight of the car is, it's 300 kilos, I think. I don't know the conversion, sorry. Yeah, me neither. There's so much heavier.

The tires much wider and all the downforce underneath with the underbody. And whereas ours is on the top with the big wings. So the way they drive and react is very different. Especially because of the spool diff we have, like our cars don't turn. So you're constantly trying to get turning them, whereas these cars, it looks like you're trying to get rear grip on exit with all the power. So it's very different. But yeah, I guess the overall concept is similar.

Yeah. Yeah. So you're racing in the truck series. And what other opportunities or conversations are going on in terms of this year? outside of this weekend coming up? I think that'll probably be it for this year. No! Yeah.

Come on. I'm not too sure. I'm trying. Yeah, I really enjoyed myself here. I did a few Rolex 24s and North American endurance, and I forgot how fun it is over here. When did you run Rolex? 2014, I think, was my first one,

and 2020 was the last one, so I did it a few times. Okay. Yeah, just I love the style of racing here. And, yeah, it's been a bit difficult, I guess, in Australia or a bit different after, doing well the last couple of years and the way the sports changed it's like oh it's kind of entertaining now to come here and maybe try something else so that's a great point um the fact that the fact that the next gen car is now independent rear diff or in i mean independent rear suspension

the way this thing's built much more similar to the supercar but also more similar to anything out there in road course racing it's more relative yeah that's why we're seeing guys like you Josh, and other people more interested or eager to take opportunities and come run? Yeah, well, even seeing that truck yesterday and all the bits that are on it, how they make it turn, and all the technology, like, it's so far and it would be so difficult to come and just run those cars. Where you're right, like the new next-gen thing, so it's more relative to the rest of the world. And the independent rare end, like it feels like a normal race car when you're driving around. So I'm sure the truck's not going to feel normal.

It's going to, those things are going to take a while to get used. too. Yeah, it's kind of, it'll have a lot of similarities because the tire, you know, the tire will have a little taller sidewall. That sort of low air pressure wallering around and all that thing, all that stuff's going to be there as well. But I think it'll be somewhat similar, but yeah, the truck, the truck's going to be a little bit different. Yeah. Yeah, I had some good tracts with Marcus about it and he's in a similar position where he just won his two championships and then, you know, The sport was a bit different, and he was looking for something else. And, yeah, he said, it's pretty similar our stories.

And, yeah, he just had to come over here, and he just loved it. What was his advice? Just get over here as soon as you can. Go and give it a crack. You've got plenty of years left. And just go and get amongst it, live over here, and, yeah, just embed yourself in the lifestyle. And that's your plan, right? I mean, I've seen that.

I've read it recently. You want to come over here and do this full time, right? Yeah. Coming here, just open my eyes. Like I watched it obviously, but never been to a race. And going to Nashville, it was like, it was a whole new world. Like, how long has this been going on? It was, it was epic.

And like, my partner and I, we were just walking around the track. And we just went, walked up to the backstretched wall right on the track and just watching the cars go by. It was, it was epic. Yeah. You know, and seeing all the fans on the fence, like, parked up in the motorhomes right on the fence. And then track house wins. Yeah. Like, I obviously lived all the highs.

You know, they won that race. one Chicago. I haven't seen any lows yet. Yeah. I just had an awesome time and, you know, so. So what's your plan? We've got to just go ahead and roll out the plans. Let me ask you this. What would be the best scenario for you? Right. I don't think I could jump straight into the cup stuff. You need a lot of time to come here, adjust to the lifestyle, see how it all works. You know, I'm used to driving 12 to 18 weekends

a year, not 36. So it'd be a big adjustment. And then learning all the oval stuff, how it all works and the routine. So I need a lot of learning time and yeah, trying to work through it with Justin. That's who I'd love to be with. Like the trackhouse team is awesome. I've really enjoyed my time with them and, you know, way listening to how Justin speaks and what his plans are. It's pretty motivating and something I want to be a part of. I think that is the perfect scenario and situation for all the things that you're going to need to do and learn. I think that Justin's sort of vision and his ambition would really match well with what needs to happen. for you. And he's done it himself from circuit stuff. He went and did a bit of oval, so he knows

what I'm going to go through. So he'll be very good for some advice as well, and he'll know that I need a bit of time and to be patient. So to have someone who's going to afford to give you that patience would be awesome. Yeah. So, you know, you have a whole career going on in Australia. How do you, how do you make these decisions? When do you make these decisions? Yeah, I think I'm working with the team now, because earlier in the year, I signed a deal to, to carry on. for one year at least and then yeah I didn't obviously expect the NASCAR race to go so well and it has been a bit of a struggle there with the way the series is at the moment we're it's not as enjoyable so what's going on yeah why oh just just a new car and stuff and there's

so much background what's different about the car they changed it a whole new chassis and concept and everyone's the same same parts it's very similar to here like yeah it sounds like a cup series yeah delayed but um yeah when you read all the articles from last year about the drivers problems and stuff. It's very similar, you know, so. But yeah, like the qualifying there is awesome, but the racing sucks. It's so boring. Like you're driving around it 30% trying to keep the tires and everyone's just following each other and all the parts are the same and the car's got a very narrow setup window. Everyone's running the same setup basically and there's a minimum tire pressure rule 17 pound. So everyone goes out on 17. They come on at the same time,

drive around at the same pace and the tire just explodes because it's running too high. and you just follow each other around. It's mind-numbing. Wow. Yeah, so I come here and like the race is just to hustle the whole time. You just driving flat out and that's what I love. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because, you know, Paul Morris has been sort of,

I guess critical is the right word. I mean, he was very vocal as he always is. Yeah. Especially after your win, he was vocal about some of the, we'll call him some of the imperfections of the supercar series. I mean, was he right? In some ways, like I think fundamentally, it's an awesome car. It's just, it needs time.

changes and it'll come but yeah i don't know it's like you've gone through such a high in your career and now it's like i don't know yeah if you're going to make a change these are probably now a good time yeah and all right so um so you have to work you have to figure out a way to work out from under the current contract yeah but my team is awesome they're like they're like i've heard i've i've heard quotes and so forth they're like hey no he wants to do it we're not going to hold him back Exactly. And all the bosses you speak to, like, from the main one, I got to text after the race. He's like, you've got to get over there next year. So they're fully supportive, which is awesome.

But I've got to get, you know, there's got to be another driver to fill the seat. It's the best team in the pit lane. Do you know who that is? They just announced it, didn't they? I don't think that's official. That's just gossip. What's the gossip? They're saying Will Brown.

And I know he's good? Yeah, he's very good. He's second in championship. So there's like three or four guys on the short list. And, you know, I know he's one of them, but they don't have anyone official yet that I know of. But yeah, the articles yesterday, I read them. Do you get to influence that decision? No, no.

Not at all. That gives me a bit of hope that there's someone good going to be there, and I feel better about leaving. Yeah. That's important, I guess. Yeah. So do you, what all has to come with you? If you're going to move over here, right? Yeah.

What are you bringing? Just my partner, Jess, and our dog, I guess. That's about it. Yeah. That's it. A couple of suitcases will be away. And you'll buy a home, I imagine. Probably not to start with, I guess, rent someone or look around.

Okay. Dale's got some rental properties. Yeah. Half the NASCAR Cup series has lived with Dale's, right in his rental houses at one point or another. Ross was a, perfect. Ross rented from us literally up until just a couple years ago. Hell, he still might. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. Ross was in one of my rentals, like about a mile from my house, forever. Yeah, it seems like about 10 years. Probably the best way to do it, figure out where you want to be and what's cool around here. We're good to rent from. He could let you know. He'll be your teammate. Testimonial.

Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. Well, and I guess Paul and Owen would tell you what it's like hanging around us. Maybe you don't want to. Maybe you don't want to go. I've heard some stories. We had a lot of fun.

Those were some good times. They were a good time. These questions are tough because I want to ask you whether you like, you know, you think truck racing, Xenity racing, how do you get this Oval experience, right? Yeah, I don't fully know. You don't know because you, you know, you're going to go drive a truck in an IRP for the very first time. Yeah, I might hate it, but who knows. You might.

I mean, you know, I think you would just, I don't want you to get out and go, ah, you know, that sucks. Because, I mean, the racing, it's going to be frustrating, right? It's going to take a long time. It is going to take a long time. And watching Nashville, you don't see the stuff that you see on TV. Like, I was taking note of Daniel because he had to start in the back of a backup. And just seeing those guys scrapping for everything for 85th that looked like. And they're just dogfighting.

The racing in the back half of the field is more intense. Yeah, it was crazy to watch. Yeah. They were free wide, but you don't really see that kind of stuff. They all take advantage of each other, putting each other in bad. situations but it looked awesome yeah oh it looks great yeah yeah i didn't like i never wanted to you know come and race nascar but doing that i was itching to get out there it looked like fun man it's fascinating because um i think myself and i think a lot of people want to see this work

and a lot of people want to want to see because man marcus was awesome he was marcus was such a great guy yeah he was so great to have around uh our you know and he was successful he was fast yeah i don't I don't think he ever won on the Oval, but he got a lot closer and he got a lot more consistent. He was progressing every year. It was cool to follow that. I wonder if Marcus has regrets. Maybe he's even expressed him to you. I wonder if he had something that he wished he'd have done a little differently.

I don't know. Did he say anything like that? No, not regrets as such. But he said it was the best thing he ever did. Is that right? Was coming here. I'm glad to hear that, actually. Because he was a good one, man.

Super talented. I find it hard to believe that Indie's going to be your last race this year. Schedule-wise, schedule-wise, you have breaks, you have opportunities. Yep, for sure. It's hard, I guess, with the Cup Series stuff to come in, especially in the playoffs. Like, that means so much to everyone. You wouldn't want to come in. That's a great point.

Yeah, like I know this weekend, it's the first playoff race for the trucks as well. And not that I expect to be up front mixing it with them, but you still got that in the back of your mind that it's someone's championship. You don't want to muck it up. So if I did Charlotte Roval, for example, like you wouldn't want to be mixing it with those guys and something go wrong and you wreck someone's yeah i would i would hate to do that so that's absolutely true um talk about bathurst so i want to i want to i want to discuss that a little bit because um i believe that mount

panorama and bathurst i think that that to me is the most challenging treacherous dangerous have you been there yeah well i drove around it in a rental car i've never drove a race car around it On the speed limit, of course, yeah. Yeah. I've raced at a many, many laps on simulation and video games and all that stuff. But the, and I've watched a bunch of, you know, a bunch of supercar racing. I know Boris went over there, Matt Neal went over there to run, just mentioning a few guys that were sort of outsiders and how damn challenging it was for them to find pace.

It's very rare. Someone goes good there in the first year. It takes a long time. it to me deserves to be like put up put up at the very top in terms of racing venues that are the most challenging in the world yep is there anywhere else comparable

uh spa's pretty tough i race race there a couple of times and that tracks that tracks pretty tough but bathurst is is it like to do a lap around there on the limit like it's crazy and all the walls on the top of the mountain like you have no room for for error yeah It's pretty tough. Yeah, that's one of the coolest places to put a lap down.

And qualifying when you have that, you get into the, we call it top 10 shootout. So you do your qualifying session, the whole field, and then the top 10 get into the shootout, which is on the Saturday, qualifying Friday night. And Saturday you have a little practice in the morning. You wait around all day, and then at 5 o'clock the shootout starts. And the top 10 run in reverse order, 10th to 1st. You get a warm-up lap and one lap to lay it down. And you spend all day thinking about this lap and then you've got to go and hit it.

Like it's one of the coolest, coolest moments ever. What's the quickest lap? Because I was watching, like I saw Scott McLaughlin's lap a few years ago. I think I've done a mid-203 in a supercar and a 201 something in a GT. That's sick. But yeah, when you do that race and you got the whole track to yourself and the place is packed, it's a cool feeling. Are you just holding your breath? Across the top, yeah. Across the top. I mean, it's treacherous.

You get to the straight and you just. just like hanging on and then have a little break yeah right and then you look at your reference on your on your dash see if you're done a good lap or not you don't know till then yeah you have no time to look at it across the top is there a little bit of a desire even would there be opportunity for you to go back and still race bathurst even if you came over here and we're doing this full time of course schedule permitting and all that stuff yeah i think next year maybe if i'm doing a partial it would be good to to go and race with my current team i'd love to do and do that but because they have multiple drivers they have two drivers for bethers so they'd love to have it

A thousand kilometers, two drivers. It's about seven hours the race. Oh, my God. It'd be cool to do it. How long are the stints? Like, how long would you be in the car? Probably two and a half hours in the last one. Yeah, the main guy does the whole last bit.

It's two and a half hours. Yeah. I remember driving over there in these giant purple, these giant fields of these purple flowers. I don't know what it is. I'm not sure. Yeah. Of all the things. I mean, of all the things.

It's a long drive to Bathurst. Yeah, I guess so. You got lots of time, Mike. Oh, you're talking. about on the way there yes i see yeah it's a kangaroos you got to worry about yeah yeah i never we never in the 12 hour ran across any kangaroos that weren't in captivity i guess in the 12 hour this year in the morning stint one run across the track and front of like yeah like it's crazy yeah and you wouldn't want to hit one of them like we've seen guys hit them and they don't show it

on tv but you go out for the next stint and you can see where it's been hit and there's blood all up the track and it's nuts like they take they take cars out of the race is it There's not enough to worry about. Then you get kangaroos crossing the track. It's crazy. So you're a Red Bull athlete. How long have you been a Red Bull athlete? Since 2016 when I joined my current team.

And what would happen to that relationship? I don't know. We haven't got there yet, but it would be awesome to have them come over here and get back into NASCAR side of things. Couldn't agree more. Yeah. Like they had a maybe the timing was a bit different, but they had some success in NASCAR. And yeah, they haven't been here for a couple of years.

and hopefully after Chicago, that entices them a bit. And maybe next year I'm doing a whole bunch of cool stuff. And yeah, hopefully they come on board. We'll see. Well, man, I can't wait to find out. I guess so is, so when you, with this potential, you know, opportunity next year, some interest and possible, or agenda to try to get Red Bull to want to be a part of whatever that is.

your win at Chicago and how good you were. Do you feel like the indie race performance, the end result is a big part of flipping all of those switches? I guess it would help. I haven't put pressure on myself to do it. Like I've prepared hard and if I go well, naturally I think it all help. But yeah.

And even the truck race, I don't know. Like people are obviously going to look at it and see how I go. But you probably can't have that. Nobody's expecting much. No, exactly. Right. So I'm just saying, like, it would be quite honest, like whatever happens in the truck race, I'm going to look at that and go, yeah, okay, that is what it is. Yeah, like I hope to be competitive this weekend. There's no reason why I'm not. I'm in good, good car for the cup race and awesome team again. So I just got to put it all together. But results, expectations, they're obviously going to be pretty high after Chicago. You went and miss that, yeah. You'll win the race in your first time out.

Yeah, it's hard to go journey better. You're not flying under the radar. Exactly. I have no idea. But for sure, it's going to be, you know, people know who you are now. I think half the drivers didn't know who I was. So now I'm sure they'll see those yellow stripes and pick on me. Yeah. So all the drivers after Chicago got out and just, you know, were really hard on themselves

and how bad they were and you're going to go home and tell everybody how sucky all the cup drivers were. Did you get a laugh out of that? Yeah, I laughed about it. It's not true, of course. That's what I'm used to, though, street circuits. and I wasn't the fastest car all day, like a couple of them ended up in the fence, but it was pretty cool. Who oppressed you on the track?

Tyler Reddick was very good at the start, Christopher Bell in the wet. Like, we've done a few wet races. We don't race in the wet all the time, but it's pretty relatively new here, I guess, to race in the rain, and those guys were awesome. They were picking the right lines and being patient, and, you know, they let each other through, and, yeah, they just seemed really sharp and switched on with the surroundings. but everyone I got around when I was passing, like everyone had good awareness

and no one was just doing stupid stuff. It seemed pretty good. Yeah, you got Indy Road course. We'll see some stupid stuff. Yeah, watching that race last year was crazy. Even the pilot we had at Chicago was nuts. I was cheering. I thought I made 10 spots up,

and then they let everyone back through. I didn't know what was happening? That is weird, didn't it? Yeah, I thought I got a free kick. Yeah, well. That is funny. Well, yeah, that was your first introduction into how we govern our sport,

and sometimes it's just kind of fly by the seat of our pants. It seemingly seems so. But I'm curious, though, were you, it's interesting. I would take NASCAR fans, and Dale, correct me if I'm wrong. You know, the loyal people, you know, you have somebody come in from Australia or New Zealand, I'm sorry, and come in and say, win on your first time out. Chase Elliott's like, they're going to think we suck and everybody. But it feels like you've done something.

something that I wouldn't have predicted. And that is you won over fans. Like people generally love that you're back and we want to see you succeed. Do you get that feeling? Do you see that? Yeah. And I think that's the way that track house tells the story of the Project 91 and inviting people to come over, Kimmy, myself, whoever's next for that car, if there's someone else.

And the way that it's all put across is done very well. Like it's been awesome to see that media side of things and the way we told our story leading up to the race. like the support we had was awesome not just from people supporting me in australia and new zealand like i had ford fans saying we were cheering for you last week but not this week you know when i was back racing just the support was was awesome like it was um yeah it was pretty humbling to see how many people reached out afterwards and before it was awesome so uh while the race was going on i was over in turn five at the chicago race and paul's texting me and he says everyone in australia and new zealand's

watching this right now Yeah. And he was 100, he was so confident you were going to win. And so when you did go home, right, did you, I mean, how many people in Australia and New Zealand are aware of what's going on? It was ridiculous. Like, not even, I don't get that for a Bathurst win or championship, how much it blew up. Yeah. It was so cool. I guess we haven't had anyone since Marcus go well over here.

And it was cool to be a part of and just all the people that reached out. and, you know, are interested in NASCAR again. They're watching all the races since and get people texting me about it. And, yeah, it's been cool to see. There's a ton of pride. Like, you know, when I went over there 20 years ago and all the way through Marcus's experience here, there's a lot of pride in when, if y'all come here or you come here to race,

that it goes well. Yeah. Where does that come from? I guess we just believe in how strong it is our series there. you're all in your little bubble, we're in our bubble, and half the drivers, and supercars probably don't know the NASCAR guys, if they don't watch it,

you stick with what you know. And our series is pretty good. Like the top 10 guys are very good drivers, and they could come here and run a good race, probably like Brody's going to. But it'd be good to see what NASCAR guys do if they went down to our world and see how they went. Was it that some of Paul's criticism after your race?

You remember this? He was like, that the Supercar series makes that, almost impossible for NASCAR racers to be able to come over. They have some silly super license system. But I think it's gone now. I'm not sure if that was due to point. It went away? It helps, yeah.

That was quick. An Instagram post, wow, the power of Paul's Instagram. It's been a lot about it. Paul was trying to talk me into coming over and running the support series. What's it called now? Super 2, yeah. Yeah, they used to be sponsored by something else. I think it's called the Dunlop series now.

Yeah. But it's basically older supercar. Yeah, his son runs in it now. now and he's he's going he's going well he's getting better how is nash doing he's awesome dude when i won his last race when i was yeah like when i was there nash was like five yeah and um and so i've watched him sort of go up through like he didn't want a race or piddle with ray he didn't

race professionally until just like the last he just started yes so we we go to norwell paul's place and do laps there yes nash is awesome like when we do the driver coaching and we swap where we're going 10th for 10th yeah he's getting better and better yeah and he's learning every one week yeah yeah i see him paul's got him driving something different all the time he's in porches and best way to learn yeah he was unreal in the porches last week yeah he made the highlight reel every race he won two and spun him the last one i heard me come back to finish second though yeah everyone was watching him yeah it was cool yeah there was a lot of cars in that race in the porches yeah i saw

it's all levels of drivers and in that series but all the top guys are young kids trying to make it yeah just it's good to watch yeah you think nash is going to get there i think so and paul is the perfect person to support him and got all the contacts and stuff. If he wants to do it, he'll be able to make it happen. Yep. So, yeah, I hope all this works out, man. It's been, you know, there's a lot of rumors, a lot of conversation going on in a background, and I know you're trying to figure it out, and you got Justin in your

corner, and he's, like I said, so ambitious. If anybody can make this work and have a... us, you know, Marcus Ambrose 2.0, you know, I think he can do it. Yeah, it'd be cool to have a crack, I think, yeah. So when do you go home, right after Indie? Yeah, I race next week in Adelaide, so on Monday. Adelaide's another street course. No, it's a circuit now.

Yeah. Is it? The street race is at the end of the year. So there's a street course and a... Yeah, it's in Tail and Ben. It's like an hour out of... Oh, okay. They're built a new track.

Really? It's very cool. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Do you, have you ever been over to the Thunderdome? I have, yeah, we do ride days at quarter sometimes. Yeah, the road course there.

Yeah, I've never driven around the oval, though. Yeah, I've done a drift event there. We used to do a TV show called Lost Speedways, and that would be like the epic episode of Lost Speedways. They have a big oval over there. You know about it, Mike? No, what, tell me. So back in the 80s, they built this oval,

kind of like Charlotte Motor Speedway. Okay. I think it was a copy of it. Yeah. And they went over there and ran a couple, couple races, Neil Bonnet won one. I think dad might have, I don't know if dad went, but there was a couple, you know,

three or four years there in a row where there was some cup racers that would go over and race, they were buying a bunch of cup cars and having their own races, right? And that place was, the Oval ran for a long time, several decades. It's a bit of a ruin now. It is. You fly over into the airport, you can see it, and it's pretty cool to look at seeing this thing,

but it's surrounded by houses now as well. So you could never really bring it back. Never come back. The circuit, they still do a lot of, drifting and stuff. That's interesting. Drag racing, I think. But do you still see the configuration of the track?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's still there. So it's just overgrown. All the grandstands are there. Oh, wow. The bankings. The track's still there. Yeah.

That'd be amazing. Thunderdome. Even the cool name for a track. Yeah, it is. Yeah, they had some good racing. And then they used to use, like, their lower series was road cars and they'd go the other way because they're right-hand drive, you see. Yeah.

The pictures and highlights you see from it look crazy. Where do you live in Australia? I live in Brisbane, yeah. So my team's based there. Most of, there's a couple in Brisbane, but most are based in Melbourne. Where do you go to vacation in Australia? New Zealand. New Zealand.

Yeah, yeah. So you go home. I go home as much as I can. Okay, so when I went, we didn't go to New Zealand, right? So we went to the Gold Coast. We went to Hamilton Island, I think. Okay, yeah, I've never been there. Yeah, we were all up and down, the East Coast, Brisbane.

And so if I'm going to New Zealand, where do I need to go? Queensland. Queensland's awesome. It's a cool place. Auckland's where I'm from, North Island. some cool things, but the views and the lifestyle at Queenstown. It's a awesome place. It's snowed under there at the moment, and it's epic with the late.

It's backwards. So, yeah, their seasons are upside down. Or is ours upside down. So when it's summer here, it's winter there. Come here and it's hot now. Yeah. It's meant to be winter. No, which actually, so y'all, when does, tell me when the season is again for Supercar?

Start of March to December. Yeah. So we run through the winter, basically. So basically, Mike, if we wanted to go to a supercar race, when our cup season ends, like, there's still one or two races. Yep. What's the last couple races of the year? It's Gold Coast, end of October, and then Adelaide last week in November.

Okay. And the Adelaide race. It's awesome. Okay. Man, that would be insane to go to a supercar race. Yeah. I love those things. Yeah.

It's time. It is time. Right, so here's the deal. Adelaide might be the last one. You've got to come. I love how a plan comes together. So you'll rent from Dale and then in return, and Dale will go in, we'll hang out,

and we'll go to the supercar race, and then we'll hang out in New Zealand for a week. Sounds good. Let's do it. Love it, right? That's how it'll work. Yeah. Yeah, well, we got a little

box race. We call it with our friends. We race all in the dirt. It's a week after Adelaide, so. We love box races. Come and do both. Tell us more about that. It started at my 30th birthday.

We wanted something cool to do, so all my mates, we come up with a race that you've got to build a car, and there was no spending, It's got to be front wheel drive or rear wheel drive, and the car's got to stay there after. So you can spend what you want in these cars, and it's a little dirt race,

and the first race was just mayhem. And then the last couple we've done, it's a full timing system, three-hour race. Cut a track in the field? Yeah, we put up big hay bales and stuff, and I made a big, my car had big wings on it, and had DRS moving wings and everything. Jesus.

Some of the guys have crazy cars. These are just your friends? Just our friends. Just our friends. Just our friends. No, it's all just my friends over there. So the first one, we had 45 cars or something.

Godly. Yeah, the last couple we've had, mid-20s. Okay. A three-hour race is only 10 running at the end. So that it's awesome. Right, it sounds a little like the 24 hours of lemons race, right, that we have. Pretty much, yeah. But you got to leave it there.

You can't. Yeah, so you can spend what you want, but you've got to leave the car there. So I think my car is $800, my last one. So not too bad. Yeah. Some guys spend crazy money and it doesn't go that well. They get picked on. Do you paint it up?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my car's been all painted up like old race cars the last couple. That sounds amazing. It's been good fun. You post all this on your social media in the past? Go check that out. Okay. That's interesting.

But that's a week after Adelaide, I think, if you want to come. All right. Adelaide sounds good because then you stay for the race. I'll build you a car. $800? Are you going to go put in, pour in all your money? I might be less. I don't want them to beat me.

Right. What would anybody say if he came over there won in his first race ever? What would they say? It'd be tough. The competition's tough. I went over there and ran, so when, I guess, in 06, they were, a new Holden was coming out, and Paul had built a new one for Russell in, Ingle. And he let me drive the last year's car for the whole day, and I was with Owen.

And I put a video up on YouTube. It's been on YouTube forever. I think I've seen that, the onboard at Queens and Raceway. Yes, yeah. I had a lot of fun. He was like, man, let me put some tires on. He's kept telling me all day long. He's like, I'll put tires on him.

I'm going to take tires on it, you'll run a good lap. I'm like, I don't want to know what I'll run. I don't want to know what I'll run. I was like, I just want to ride around on this overall way out stuff. What did you think of the cars? Very, very comfortable, you know, and the tire was, I could relate to the tire. The tire, to me, felt like a bias pie and old, like if you're going to race a late model stock car or something in a short track here. Yep.

Like a super late model or something like that. It felt like that is a lot of forgiveness. A lot of movement sliding around. There's some lateral grip, but you could, you know, it was an easy. You get to the limit pretty easy. Yeah. I understand the big, big box as far as forgiveness. And balance-wise, I mean, it was good.

I enjoyed it. The tough part for me was the shifting because it was still an age pattern. Oh, yeah, it would have been back then. Yeah. And so it was on the wrong side or on the other side. And they were very narrow gates then. Yeah. So I had to be real careful.

And there was a couple mistakes I made. I thought for sure I'd blown it up. But it was one time I downshifted too early and went to wrong gear or something. It was a mess. Yeah, the first year I drove was H-Pattern and it was difficult. Yeah. It was big skill. Marcus was the best that it'd go from six to second on a down change and stuff like that.

Good heavens. It was awesome to watch those guys. That was a proper skill when it was H-Pattern. Yeah, yeah. It was a challenge. Well, man, I wish. we could talk more. I could sit here and talk to you forever. Just about the truck racing.

I'm not in our good heavens. We're going to be watching that. I would love to sit down with you right after that and talk about like what's you thought about all that. It's going to be difficult. I think there's only 20 minutes practice or something. Not a lot. One lap qualifying and then you're racing.

Yeah. It's going to be tough. So when you're, uh, you're doing, I imagine you're getting a little bit of sim work for that, right? I haven't done any yet for the truck, but hopefully tomorrow. Yeah. We'll do a little bit. Well, listen.

I know it's, it's, I know it's not. a manufacturer sim, but if you can even get on eye racing or somebody's rig. I did that at home, yeah, before I come over. That's helpful too. Yeah. Because that track on eye racing is really close, in my opinion, grip and all. And so I think that would be helpful to you just to be able to just run anything, right? Get all you can.

Have fun. Don't set any. I know you're going to, I know you're a legend and driver and successful and know all of these things. But man, don't put any pressure on yourself. in the truck at least you know what you got to do in the cup car and know what you can do but with the truck man just learn have fun let the you know watch watch some guys use each other up and hopefully got through it learn how it works yeah right yeah just try to keep keep the fingers off the tires and keep it on the track that's all you can do sounds easy right it sounds real easy yeah i don't

think it's gonna be that's a tough place man that's a tough place but i'll be watching everybody be tuning in wishing for the best thank you again thanks for coming Yeah, thanks for carving out some time for us. You've got a busy week. You ought to be sitting in a simulator right now, and I'm glad you're not, glad you're with us. We're off there now. All right.

Thanks for having me. Yes, sir. Thank you, Shane. Shane Van Gis Bergen on the Dell Jr. 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 them to 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 Dirtymo Media. On Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.