The Dale Jr. Download - 503 - Austin Hill - RCR's Next Man Up

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is joined by the driver of the Richard Childress number-21 Xfinity Series entry Austin Hill. Although Hill is locked in a fierce NASCAR Playoffs battle with JR Motorsports drivers Sam Mayer and Justin Allgaier, he and Dale set their competition aside for the day to better get to know one another. Austin explains that when he was a young boy he became enamored with NASCAR after his father began watching the sport. Taking inspiration from his childhood favorite driver Jeff Gordon, Austin proclaimed that he wanted to pursue racing, and at age six he entered the quarter midget driving ranks. After spending his formative years working on his own cars and competing in family-prepared entries, Austin won his way through the K&N East Series and began seeking out opportunities in the NASCAR Trucks division. He recalls his first full-season ride came thanks to Young’s Motorsports, which brought about his first Series top-5 finish at Texas Motor Speedway in 2018. His impressive and consistent performances in the underfunded equipment impressed executives at Hattori Racing, and Austin locked up a multi-year deal driving not only the number-16 Truck entry but selective attempts in the Xfinity Series. After the deal fell apart due to funding issues, Austin disclosed how his current deal with Richard Childress Racing came together, where he continues to forge his path and establish himself as one of the premiere rising talents in NASCAR. 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, Delenhard Jr.

The Bojangl Studio. We'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.

I was 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, welcome back to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Wednesday, October 25th, and we got a great guest coming into the show. The Bojangles studio is open.

And Mike Davis is here to help us today for this interview. Thanks, Mike, for being a part of the show again. You're welcome. I appreciate you being here today. Appreciate you being here again. Thank you. I see what you're doing. Because I missed one week.

Oh, did you? It was last week, but who could think that far back? What was wrong? I was sick. As a matter of fact. We heard you were very ill. Well, I didn't have a voice and one might think that you gave it to me. Who knows?

What? I mean, did you get tested for pneumonia? No, I felt like the diagnosis was pretty clear. based off of who I'd been around with. Okay, all right. All right. I'm playing. Well, hey, it wasn't from you.

I bet some people were happy you lost your voice. Oh, that's nice to say, thank you. I mean your wife, that's the joke. Oh, is that what it is? She was probably thankful to have some quiet. She didn't even use that joke on you? No, no, no. Did your girls, did your, me?

Oh, did your girls laugh at your voice? Because I heard it, it was pretty funny sounding. Really? It was funny, saying? I called you multiple times. What did it sound like? And I really had to control my laughter. Well, that would have been something being that you sounded just like that the week before.

I did. Yeah, yeah. Don't you love it when your voice does that, though? Not really, no. I do. I haven't been, I still don't sleep on. You remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe, you know, gets that at? Yeah.

That thing. And she sings, she goes and sings to coffee shop, and she's so good. And then she gets over her sinus and she. or whatever and her throat clears up and she loses it incredible singing voice that's well that's not what that's what i think about yeah i didn't have an incredible singing voice i didn't have a voice at all yeah you don't know did you try to sing yeah you tried to sing yeah along with my playlist that i don't tell you about how did it go Alabama is that how it went you just like that right did your girls not pick on you they seem like the kind that would pick on you when your voice does what to be honest with you i

stayed away from them as best as I could because, again, I, we didn't need that running rampant through the house. I bet they didn't appreciate that. Again, I'm sure you, that's sarcastic. Look at your face right now. Your face can't even look at you. Everything is sarcastic. I don't know, man.

We got a great guest coming in here. You want to tell everybody who it is? We've done, told them. But, you know, maybe they didn't listen to yesterday. Yesterday, well, it is Austin Hill, who we are competing with in the Xfinity Series championship, but also somebody that I've never met. And I don't even know how well you know him, but I'm eager to get to know this guy. All right.

Austin Hill, not an ally. Yes, right. So this, not this week. The guest segment is brought to you by ally, but we're just going to go ahead and be honest about this. We're not going to bullshit you. Austin Hill is not an ally. He is a competitor. We're racing against him, like you said, for the Expedited Series championship.

But I will say, I got a lot of respect for this guy. Really talented. No nonsense. since, we've seen him stand up for himself inside and outside the race car. I think he's a great fit at RCR, which I have a personal connection to, right? That's right. And so I don't know a whole lot about him. I'm eager to get to know this guy, and he's came here today to sit down,

even considering the awkwardness around our battle for the Xfinity Series championship, and what may happen. I'm thankful. Nothing has happened since we booked him. him a couple of weeks ago. No run-ins. That would have made it really hard. Right.

Especially that you've been in a race since we booked him with him. Thankfully, you didn't run into him. Right, right. That's true. I didn't think about that. We're clean and green, and he's here today. He's going to come in here, and we're going to sit down and talk to him. But I want to thank Ally for bringing this guest segment to us every week.

They do a great job supporting us here at Dirtimo Media, and they also do a great job investing and supporting NASCAR as a whole, obviously sponsoring the primary on the 48 car over at Hintra Motorsports. But let's get started, man. Let's bring on Austin in here and get to it. Austin Hill, the Dale Jr. Download. Thanks for coming. Yeah. Appreciate you coming today.

Yeah, thanks for having me. You all got pretty busy schedule this time of year, man. It's tough. We are. Yeah. Yeah, very busy. Yeah. A lot of preparation to get ready for these playoffs, you know.

Yeah. Especially with Martinsville coming up. and us being, what are we, like plus three to the cutoff. I know. Man, it's. I guess people don't understand the hell that that puts a driver through, having to sit, you know, having to sit all week at that number, just right there at that cut line, not being safe, not knowing your fate, right?

Yeah. No. Going to Martinsville of all damn places. Yeah, Martin'sville especially. I mean, if you look at my stats there, they're not the greatest. I mean, I've ran, you know, finished well there, but throughout the race, you know, through the stages and things like that, you know, normally I don't, I don't run very well there. So the stress level is very high this week. And I'm normally one guy that doesn't stress out much.

I'm normally pretty even kilt. But this week, you know, knowing that I am plus three of the cutoff, and I've seen it kind of go this way before, you know, even when I ran trucks, we, you know, I've been right on that cutoff. And it seems like every year I'm eluded the final four. I'm always missing it by, you know, five points six points whatever it is so hopefully we can change our fate this this go around yeah well man it's it's great to have you here been looking forward to talking to you you're 29 years old won six races in the Xfinity series I want to learn I don't know anything about your your youth and your where you came from what you did how you got here so where were you born yes I was born in Winston jen

Georgia, which is about 30 miles west of Atlanta. Basically, the easiest way to put it for people that don't know where Winston, Georgia is, is you basically go down I-20 West to go to Talladega. You have to pass right by where my house was. So we lived right at an hour from Atlanta Merse Speedway growing up, and then I was also about an hour and 15 minutes from Talladega. So both of those were kind of my home racetracks in a sense. So have a lot of races under my belt, you know, racing in Atlanta, Merse Speedway.

you know the quarter mile racetrack bandeleras legend cars things like that so uh yeah that's where i was born and raised until i was 18 and then moved up to north carolina what'd your family do what was your dad and your mom what were they into yeah so my mom's stay-at-home mom i have two younger brothers and then my dad he's he's in the steel erection company so basically he does like big steel warehouse he puts all the still up for you know you say your big amazon warehouses things like that. And very successful businessman. You know, he's, he's the reason I'm where I'm at today. We've always done it ourselves, though. You know, it's always been up until we got to the truck level, we've owned our own race teams, we've done our own deal, and it's just been, it's been a fun journey.

It really has. And once we got to the truck level, you know, we realized very quickly how hard that was. and then we started wanting to race for different race teams and sell off our stuff, and we didn't want to do it no more, and we didn't want it to be Austin Hill racing anymore. We wanted to race for a race team. So, yeah, I mean, we, it's been a grind. You know, I'm definitely on the older path.

It's taken me a little bit longer to get where I'm at, but I'm very thankful for everything that I've accomplished. Yeah, I don't think it's, you know, I grew up 29, was young, you know, and I still feel like that, damn, man, I mean, if you wanted to go to the Cup series, which I'm sure you do, you want to get successful enough to make it there, you got, you know, minimum 15 solid years, right, which is a great Cup career if you ever, you know, if that were to what happened. So I think my dad's first real successful year in Cup was at 28, 29 years old, you know, and he had all right time. So,

He did okay for me. Yeah, he did decent. I'm anxious to learn, you know, what you've learned about him since you went over to RCR, but I want to continue talking about your own, you know, you said he had two younger brothers. How many siblings do you got? Yeah, so I have the two younger brothers and my middle brother. He kind of followed in my footsteps for a little bit, so I started racing when I was six years old. I started in quarter midgets and kind of just worked my way up through the rankings there.

Did quarter midgets, bandeleras, legend cars. also played sports in school. Yeah, I did some sports in school. You're a big boy. So, you know, what was your, what position did you play in football? Well, I didn't do a ton of football. I did a little bit. I did a little bit of football here and there, not much.

Did a little bit of, a little baseball. But I actually played basketball. That was kind of one of the biggest things that I did. Yeah, I did a lot of basketball. So, you know, it's, when I was in school. Have you played Austin and M-boys? Austin Dillon Austin Dillon and the

deal he's got so I was on his team this year We won the championship Okay so yeah What deal? So he's got his own Austin Dillon's got his own like league Did he take about our league that he used to play? Uh-uh That's where he probably got the damn idea

Oh okay Yeah He never told me about that He played in my league I got a court at my house and we used to have a league But it was the no hustle league Mike was in it And you weren't allowed to be good

Oh okay So if you were good you had to play down. You had to play bad. So Austin wasn't able to play much. Austin played for one year and he didn't understand the rules. It was no hustle. He couldn't chase for balls out of bounds and nothing.

I'm very competitive, so I'm like diving for balls. Oh, yeah. In fairness, there's a context of you. Well, yeah, Dale would dole out technicals if you felt like you were trying too hard. I mean, technically like three-offs. He would say, all right, that, yeah, technical file right there. You looked like you were trying to get that ball going out of bounce. But in fairness to Dale, the first year,

had our league and I'm curious to know if this is the case in Austin's league. We had about nine or ten pretty severe injuries. We did. That's why we had to go to no hustle. Right. He was doing it more for liability. So when I first started over there at the start of the year, I was on a different team and I got traded. Austin Dillon wanted me. So when I was on the other team, someone did get injured during a game and I don't know whatever happened with his leg or whatever, but he twisted his ankle pretty bad and it was pretty swollen. And so there have been a few injuries and I was always worried about that. I'm like, man, the last thing I need to do is to, you know, put my foot down and try to laterally move.

And then next thing you know. I was going to sell Austin my court. I had it sold to him. Okay. So I had this guy, this is off topic, man. But so I was, I priced the court out, right? I'm going to get a court because Mike blew his knee out. And we had a guy do a spiral fracture.

of his upper arm. Yeah, going for a loose ball. Yeah. Wow. It was all the engine guy at Hendrick Motorsport. So it's sort of important too, not that you need his arm to do his job. It was gruesome. It was. And so, and we had a couple, we had a couple knees. ACLs were a common thing. You know something that would have helped that. Everyone get kind of, you know, liquored up, get a few beers. We do. You know, you get six, seven, eight beers in you, and you get that, you just get loose. The surgeons disagree with that. Oh, I don't know about all that. But anyways, I had this guy, I priced the cord out, and I took the cheapest option, but it happened to be the best option because it was the same people that put the cord in at the Hornets facility.

And so it was a great court. It's got all the shit underneath the boards, you know, it's all that squishy stuff. Yeah. So it's like four inches thick. And now in my life, I'm like, well, I don't want this. I want to get this out of here. I want to park some stuff here, whatever. And I called Austin.

I said, man, I'll sell this to you for what I paid for. It's really nothing. And so he's like, yep. done. I'm going to put it in my barn. He had that barn he was doing. And the guy that put it in said we would destroy it if we pulled it up. Like you couldn't, it's all those strips of wood, you wouldn't be able to put it back together. And so I ended up, I have to live with it, right? But not a bad thing to live with. But my girls hopefully get into basketball because I got a half court. You got a half court. A full half court. Gotcha. Y'all probably play a full court, right? Yeah, we do full court. So we play

at, I don't even know what the high school is called, it's up in welcome. So we went up there, you know, the season's over now. I don't even remember how many games we played, but it was a fun time. Like, you know, when I first started over there, I was kind of on y'all's deal, just kind of just for some cardio, take it easy, just kind of enjoy it. You know, I hadn't played basketball since I was in middle school, so just something fun to do. And very quickly turned into a lot of competitiveness.

As soon as Austin Dillon traded me, I'm like, man, I got to step my game up here. I mean, I got to- You got to- You got to play. He's won, I don't know how many championships over the last few seasons, and I'm like, man, I got to contribute. So, yeah, that was a lot of, like, you know, scuffed arms and things like that from diving for the ball. Yeah, so it was good times. Yeah, Denny has his deal, and I think Austin might have played Matt a year or two. so it's funny everybody kind of creating their own thing but you got to have that man it's a great

way to it's also amazing for camaraderie like you didn't grow up around austin but i bet you playing basketball with him the things y'all been out there's trust in the bond that y'all being able to create just by doing just that alone it's probably been pretty good no yeah it has been and i think that you know him and i have really the same values and things like that so we just we get along really well um you know we like to do the same things we like you know you playing sports we like hunting fishing things like that so we get along pretty pretty well it was kind of when i started over at rcr it just kind of clicked yeah it wasn't something that it didn't almost feel like it was a new territory it just kind of you know from your you match yeah yeah what they're

what they're looking for right yeah i mean i thought that it was just kind of one of those match made in heaven type deals and and and it's been really really fun these last two years getting to know richard and Austin and just the whole RCR team. Yeah, I think that that's a great way to put it. I told Danny Lawrence and those guys over there that I thought that, you know, whatever their vision or mold is for a driver, you fit it just almost perfectly for their style and how they go about it. They're racers.

And they don't take a whole lot of crap. And, you know, you're kind of like that same guy. Right. Back to your youth man. What was your... So you said your brother raced a little bit. How far did he go? So he only went until...

I want to say he was like 12 years old. So he did quarter midgets. He did bandaleros. And then right as he was kind of on the cusp of going from the bandolars to the legend cars, he kind of just was like, hey, I want to go play baseball. So he had always played baseball and raced at the same time. And so he just was like, hey, I want to do the baseball. thing and he did play baseball and he took it very serious all the way until uh basically his senior

year high school and and once he graduated high school he you know he could have went to play at a college level but he decided not to um so he uh so he works for my dad now in the still business is what he does but he does the the drafting where they like do all the computer stuff to design everything he does all that and then my youngest brother He has dabbled in the racing a little bit, but it hasn't been much. I mean, I want to say he's probably raced a total of, I don't know, 10 races in his whole lifetime. And we're all five years apart.

So I'm 29. Oh, wow. And then, yeah, so 24 and then 20. So, yeah, it's just us three. What got you into racing? So, yeah, that's a great story. So my dad, you know, at a very young age, I was two, three years old.

My dad just, he started getting into watching the races on Saturdays and Sundays. And he always pulled for Jeff Gordon when Jeff Gordon was coming into the scene and into the rankings. And man, I just remember back when I was three years old or so, like I would be glued to the TV at three years old watching four-hour races on Sundays. Like me and my dad would sit on the couch and we would literally just tune in. and when I was five, I'm like, hey, I want to do that. I want to be a race car driver someday. I want to make it to NASCAR and do all these things. And my dad just kind of blew it off here or there.

Well, you know, six years old, we're at the Georgia State Fair, and they have these quarter midgetts set up, and they're kind of giving out these flyers and things like that about, you know, North Georgia Quarter Midget Association group. And they raced in Coming, Georgia, which was about an hour from my house. And my dad, you know, talks to him and everything like that and ends up getting one a few weeks or month later or whatever and thinking it's just going to be a little hobby for father's son and you know we're going to have a good time doing this and uh i think my first race

i finished like second or third something like that and man it just it just took off i mean i was like i was like i said when i was in middle school i did play a little basketball here and there when i was in high school talking about football the football coaches wanted me to play on the team really, really bad. And I just kept blowing them off. I'm like, I am focusing on racing. So right after middle school, I was going to try out for basketball in high school. And I was going to maybe do a little football. And at that point, in freshman year, I was like, I'm fully committed. It's all racing or nothing for me. And that's just, that's just what I did. And I was lucky enough that my family supported that. And they supported me. I'm the first, you know,

racer in my family nobody else race they just enjoyed watching it on tv and um you know it's kind of grown grown to what it is today um you know it it wasn't easy by any means i've i've worked on the race cars myself i've at a young age i started working on the race cars um you know dearen was it 2008 when when the economy wasn't really really well my dad's business wasn't doing good so for about two years i didn't race much at all and my dad basically was like you know if you want to race you're just going to have to do it on your own and you're going to have to spend your money you're going to have to do it whatever so I ended up working for my dad for those two years or so and had bought a little like 10 foot open trailer like lawnmower trailer and would take my legend car and have to take the front and rear

bumpers off of it to get it to fit in this lawnmower trailer and I have a few tools and stuff and I'd get to the racetrack and I had some some buddies that I that I've grown to know in the legend car world and I would lean on them for, you know, if I needed a tool or something, because I didn't have, like, no equipment or anything with me. I'd just go there with four tires on it. And, you know, if I needed to make an adjustment, I had to borrow a quickjack from somebody to make an adjustment. That was the most fun I had racing was those two years going around. You know, I'd go to Georgia, I'd go to North Carolina. I'd kind of travel kind of wherever and race. And I probably won more races out of that little open trailer than I did when we had our like big stacker trailer so it was so much fun doing that

it really kind of made me appreciate you know how hard it is to work on these race cars how hard it is to make these things go fast and and what it takes to do it and so I just grown in an appreciation for it and after those two years we finally got into finding some sponsorship and we got with United Rennels and started kind of having some sponsorship with those guys and you know it was it was something that just kind of took off from there. I got into the NASCAR K&N level, and we had our own team there. It was, I think at the time, we called it Hill Brothers Racing

because my youngest brother, we didn't know, even though he was like done racing, we didn't know if he was going to come back, so we called it Hill Brothers Racing, and then we switched to Austin Hill Racing a few years after. Had a lot of fun on the NASCAR K&N level. We had two full-time employees, and then me working on the car, and we would actually bring just a random crew chief to the racetrack.

Like we, each and every, we didn't have like an actual crew chief that we paid a salary. Like we just do like a weekend deal. Like, hey, can we get this guy, that guy, whoever it was,

and bring him to the track. And we had some success on the K&N side. And that kind of grew to the truck level. And that's where when we got to the truck level, I ran like 10 races on the truck side. I think it was back in, I don't know, maybe 2014 or so.

We realized it at a very quick, that how hard it is to be competitive in the truck level because we won races in the K&N level and we felt like we were outperforming guys that were spending a lot more money than us and when we got the truck level we just realized quickly that this isn't going to work out we got to find a race team to race for because we just don't have the resources you know the K&N deal is pretty impressive you talk about how you know your family run team and y'all are winning races what were the opportunities that were coming to you you know you start your own team then you quickly think, you man, I've got to get it, I've got to, you know, we've got to,

we're going to sell our stuff, we're going to go do something different. What opportunities came to you? Yeah, so the first opportunity that came to me was in the end of 2017 going into 2018. Tyler Young with Young's Motorsports came to me. And we had been leaning on them a little bit the year prior. I guess it was during 2017 of, you know, set up stuff and things like that. And we got to talk in and he's like, man, I would really like for you to race a full season.

And I'm like, I'd love to race a full season. We just, we got to make it all work out. We don't have the money to go run a full season. He's like, well, you bring all your equipment to me. We'll make it all work out. We'll run some of your equipment here and there. We'll buy your equipment off. And we'll put a little bit of money into this deal and we'll go do a full season.

So in 2018, I got the opportunity to run a full season for Youngs Motors Sports. And, you know, we had some success there. You know, we ran, there were times that we ran inside the top 10. We finished fifth, I think, one time at Texas Motor Speedway at the end of the year. And I've never been a guy that's like went and knocked on people's doors. I've never been somebody that's really been, you know, that guy that just, you know, just tries to go find the next best thing. You know, I was trying to make Youngsmir Sports into a really, really good race team.

And I didn't know how long I was going to be there, but I was, trying to make it work. And during 2018, Mike Gritchie that was with, that was the manager over at Hattori Racing Enterprises, HRE that was run the 16 truck that won the championship that year, came to me. And I had known him from the K&N side because we raced against him when he was with, I don't even remember the team name that Turner Scott or whatever it was, that he was kind of the manager over there for.

So he comes to me and he's like, like, hey, I'd like to sit down with you and your dad. I've always thought that you're a good driver, blah, blah, blah. He kind of gives me the spill. And he's like, I'd like for you to race for us for HRE in 2019. And I'm like, man, like, I have never, you know, been offered this. I've never had somebody come to me saying, like, we want you to race for us. And during the 2018 season, we ended up a few months before the end of the season.

We made it work out, made the dollars and cents kind of add up. and we had some sponsorship from Shiggy Hittori, the owner, from Japan. He had some sponsors that was coming in, so we kind of just kind of put our money together and made it work. And 2019 was kind of my, you know, turning year on getting my name out there. Started the season off with the bang, obviously, with winning at Daytona, and then we won four races that season. Yeah, you know, you got in that truck and won a championship, right?

The year before. had they not yeah they had won the championship the year for Brett Moffitt right and then I got into I know yeah I remember that and I was thinking you know I was wondering how much pressure you felt getting in it were you so young maybe to I'm not young but were you were you so naive to to to that that didn't affect you at all well you're looking at it going damn I'm getting into one of the best trucks this is amazing yeah you know so there there was a little mixed feelings for that I mean, I was definitely when they won the championship, I'm like, all right, well, I got to go out and perform. If I don't, you know, if I don't go out and at least compete for wins or win races, I could very easily, after 2019, my racing career could be over or, you know, we might be back to square one and trying to make our way up again or having our own race team again.

We didn't know what was going to happen. But at the same sense, I've always had a lot of confidence in myself. I've always felt like if I got the right opportunity that I could go win races, I could compete and run up front and I could do all those things. So there was kind of those mixed emotions like, you know, I'm a little nervous about what's going to come for 2019. But at the same time, I had all this confidence in myself that like I can go do this. And, you know, I'm seeing other guys that I've raced with and grown up with winning races and stuff. I'm like, well, if that guy can do it, I can do it, right? You know, that's the way that I thought.

And when we started the year off in 2019 that year at Daytona, I was like, okay, we won at Daytona. That was amazing. But I'm like, we got to win other races. You know, that's a Super Speedway. Now, I'm not taking anything away from Super Speedway racing because it's tough to win those races. I mean, you know, I mean, they're just tough to win. So, you know, I kind of still had that chip on my shoulder.

You know, you see on social media and all those things like, oh, he won it. He won at Daytona, but that's all he can win at. And we did have a rough patch there throughout the first part of 2019 was after we won that race. I mean, we didn't run very good. We had some mechanical problems, this, that, and the other. And I remember, I don't know, it might have been eight to ten races into the 2019 season. Mike Gritchie sits me down in one of our meetings and goes, you know what? I know what the problem is.

I'm like, what's that? He's like, you suck at restarts. I'm like, okay. And I've never taken anything. I just take stuff on my shoulder and I just deal with it. Like I want people to be honest with me. I'm a very straightforward person. That's just the way I was raised.

You have to be honest with each other. You have to be straightforward no matter if it maybe ticks you off or not. Like you just got to be straightforward with each other. And when he told me that, I went to work. I mean, I did. You just saw a change after those like first eight to ten races where it was like almost a light switch. I started watching a lot of film, a lot of restarts, a lot of in-car cam, things like that. and within the next few races I felt like I was just as good as anybody else

or one of the best restaters. And then you started seeing me on restarts. I was always a guy that was making it three wide and going through the middle of the bottom, top, whatever the case may be. And I thought that that was one of the biggest difference makers was having a guy like Mike Gritchie come to me, tell me what my flaws were, and for me to dig deep and start working on it. And I think that that was kind of the turning point in 2019 where I knew that I needed to work harder at it. And, you know, to this day, I mean, I, I thank him all the time.

Like, thank you for being honest with me because who knows if he wouldn't ever came to me and told me like, hey, man, you got to step your game up. Might not have won the races that I won later that year. Has you had an idea that you could improve on restart or was this breaking news to you? I wouldn't say it was breaking news, but I did think that my restarts were decent. But there were times that I would restart and I'd be like, man, I lost two or three spots. But, you know, the year prior in 2018, like, we couldn't wreck our trucks. Like, we could not wreck our trucks. Like, there was no, we did not have funding to.

So I would always on restarts, just take it easy. I'd kind of fall in line. But, I mean, you know, you know how much clean air means. So it's like you've got to be aggressive on restarts. And I kind of took it to that next level once he kind of brought it to light. And from then on, I felt like my restarts have been pretty good. You know, this season, for whatever reason, I've had some trouble on restart. So Darlington sticks in my mind really bad.

I wish I had that race back. Denny getting me there was frustrating for me because, look, Denny Hamlin is one of the best, if not the best at Darlington. But I thought that I could go toe to toe with them and outrun them and kind of kick myself in the butt, you know, kind of all the next week just kind of like going through data and looking at SMT and looking at what I could have done differently. you know, a lot of people are like, well, why did you choose the bottom? Well, I was, my restarts were better on the bottom than they were on the top. I was spinning my tires really

bad on the top. So there was a lot of things that went into that. So yeah, I'm constantly working. I'm constantly trying to, trying to get better. I watch in-car cam. I feel like I work as hard at it as you can. I mean, I think that I feel like I eat, sleep, and breathe, racing for the most part, and I try to balance that with family and all, but I'm very in tune with what's going on with the race car. That's one thing that I wanted to talk to you about your family. So at 29 years old, your husband and a father, and actually, to be honest with you,

that's part of your life that I don't know that it's intentional or not, but not a lot of people know about. Certainly, you're still relatively new to a lot of fans in our sport. But how do you talk about how hard you work, you talk about how much you put into it, how does that affect your your opportunities to to be the best husband you want to be and to be the best father you want to be? And how's that experience, I guess, like, how young were you when you got married? How has that fit in this path?

I mean, to be where you are in racing, you've got to prioritize racing. Right. You also have to prioritize your kids and your family, right, in your home life. So that's got to be a tough balance because, you know, it's easy. easy for a, you know, a guy that's established in the Cup series, been there five, ten years. He's sort of got some stability and comfort. You're still trying to go there, right? Right. So that's got to be a tough, tough balance. Yeah, I mean, the balance there is tough. It's not the easiest thing, but, you know, I have a wonderful wife. We actually, just a quick little

story here, we actually met back when I was 13, she was 12. Like, we're, six months apart and i was 13 she was 12 we we we we meet um i was racing against her brother at the time uh he was racing bandeleros and he ended up as he got older he ended up owning his own bandolera legend car business and does some late model stuff here and there he kind of dabbles in that and so i actually got to know him first i got to know her brother first and we kind of became friends and then i then i met her when i was like i said 13 and you know you know, at the time, like, you don't know what, like, you're not looking for a wife. Yeah, you don't know what love is or anything at 13, right?

Like, we were just, we were kind of talking this and that throughout the summer shootout. It was up in Charlotte because she's from Canapolis. Okay. So she's from Canapolis, North Carolina. That's a plus. Yeah, so, yeah, so, and with me being from Georgia, like, we would race on Mondays and Tuesdays up at Charlotte every week with the bandalaires and stuff and legend cars and all that. So we, for 10 weeks, we would talk every Monday and Tuesday, you know, whatever. And, you know, we, we ended up becoming friends.

And we kind of stayed that way for a little while. Well, then for whatever reason when we were 15, you know, we had each other's number, blah, blah, blah, this and that. Whatever reason when we turned 15, we just kind of quit talking. Like we just kind of went our separate ways. We quit talking to each other. and I don't know what it was, but my best friend in high school and I, we're just one night, we're just hanging out at my house.

It's like two in the morning. We're playing video games and we're 17 years old at the time. We're playing video games, this and that. And I don't know what kind of struck me to like call her up at two in the morning. Like she's probably asleep, right? I'm like, I'm going to call Ashland. He's like, who's Ashland? Like, you know, he didn't even know at the time who that was.

and I'm like, something's just telling me I need to give her a call and I'm like, I'm going to give her a phone call. So I give her a call and not thinking she's going to answer, I'm just going to like go to voicemail

and be like, hey, give me a call in the morning, text me, whatever. She answers and I'm like, all right, so we get to talking and we talk for an hour or two that night and it just was like a trifecta. Like, I mean, we just, that, going into that summer, I was coming up racing with that,

that open trailer I was talking about earlier. and I would park my open trailer and my car and everything at their house because I was friends with her brother still. And we just, we got to talk in that summer. We started dating later that summer. And we've been together ever since. We got married when we were 20 years old. And then we had our first daughter at 21. And it's just kind of spiraled from there.

Now we have three kids. What kind of dad are you? I mean, I think I am the, I think I'm the fun dad. Like I think I'm the, you know, my wife, she's like, so it's a, it's funny. It's my oldest, Linley, she has this thing. She says, moms are to keep us alive and dads are for us to have fun. And so like it's like, I mean, that is true.

So I'm the dad that like I'm helicoptering them from the ceiling fan down to the, you know, body slamming them. I'm doing all these things when it's bedtime. My wife's getting mad at me telling me, you know, it's time to go to bed, quit, you know, getting them wound tight and wound up. And I'm like, just having a good time. But you're talking about the balance and all. Like, it is a tough thing to do. But I think with her growing up in the racing industry and her growing up racing

from the time she was little as well, you know, it just, it's just all kind of, it's worked out. She understands it. She knows that I got to put, 100% effort into this racing deal if I'm going to be successful, if I'm going to win races, if I'm going to have a chance at winning championships. So she understands all of it. And they've been in the racing industry for a long time.

Her dad actually worked with Mike Herman Jr. For a while. So like, yeah, we just, it's just been a- Canapalas connection. Yeah, that's that Canapolis connection. So, yeah, I mean, we've just, you know, when I turned 18, I wanted to follow the racing dream. So I moved up to North Carolina and we kind of moved all over.

and now we reside in Katava, and that's where we've been for the last four years. What is it like for your girls as they're growing up, right? You've got kids that are starting to really understand what you're doing, right? Right. Is that fun? That's been pretty fun for you. So my daughter's five.

I love that she's starting to really kind of know what we're at the racetrack. She knows, man, the last two years when I'd get in the car and go out and run, she couldn't connect me being in that car that she's watching going out of the track she thinks I'm going to walk in the bus any minute during the race right he's I don't know the I can't understand where he's at yeah um but your daughter's uh at least your oldest daughter's old enough to really kind of get it yeah um is that fun for you uh and how how much are they interested in what you're doing yeah I mean they're they're they're my biggest support system they really are I mean, they love what I do.

You know, they talk about it all the time. They haven't told me that they want to drive a race car or anything like that. So I'm not sure how that, you know, is going to go in the next few years if that's going to change. I can see that my youngest, Barrett, my little boy, I can see that he's going to want to probably do something racing. I don't know yet. But you can just, you know, you can just have that feeling. You have that. He's always wanting to sit in the seed.

He's always wanting to turn a little. the steering well he's always saying car he's all you know he's always saying race car blah blah but um yeah i mean my oldest she she likes to watch the races in the stands and if if she doesn't come to the races they don't come to all of them but if she she's not at the races then she's normally watching on tv like she's very invested in in racing and she gets mad at me if i don't win i mean this past weekend she's like dad why did you finish fourth i'm like i'm trying lindley trust me i am trying i wanted to win the race like i'm trying here And then my middle one, Kinsley, she's getting, she's getting it.

She's five years old as well. And she's starting to get it. She knows that I race. It's funny. So my oldest, Linley, last year, she's in second grade this year. So last year she was in first grade. She starts talking about me racing and stuff, right? And the teacher's like, what are you talking about?

And she's like, my dad, he races and he does. does this right well the teachers and stuff don't don't believe her right this and that so they end up pulling me up and um she's like yeah that's that's my dad right there well they still didn't believe her so like i come and pick her up in the car rider in the line one day and her teacher's standing out with her and she's like hey just got a question are you you know Austin hill blah blah i'm like yeah she's like oh well lindley was telling me that that you drive a race car that's really cool like we didn't know this and that so you talking about like a lot of people not knowing who I am and stuff I've just always just been the guy that's like I'm not really on social media much I'm not I don't I'm not the

guy that like really cares if people know that I race like I don't it doesn't I don't know it's just not not been my forte like I'm not the guy that's out there on social media trying to you do I see you on there no yeah I can tell it's you I could tell it's somebody else no yeah I run my own deal about like I don't you know I don't tweet much I don't yeah it's people try to tell me all the time that I that I need to tweet more and do this or that but I just feel like it's very easy to get in trouble doing that and the last thing I want to do is say the wrong thing yeah you see it all the time sure it just hey Austin I'm curious so going back to your family you know you came in here talking about the anxiety you have this week yes and the championship and

you know Dale and I love asking these questions and we're you know getting to know you but we're also curious on what is the family dynamic like this week? Does your wife, is she the kind of person that's like, y'all leave him alone? He's got a lot on his mind. Because, I mean, you know, our wives are really tuned into the things that, like, hey, just, you know, let him do his thing. What is this week like with your family? Do you come home and bring that anxiety end or do you try to avoid it? What do you doing?

Yeah, normally I leave racing at the door. And I feel like I do a fairly good job about that. There are times that. It's ours. Yeah, there are times like after races, I am mad. You know, I'm just mad about how the race unfolded, how this or that happened. And on Sunday, I just kind of want to be left alone sometimes. It's just, it is what it is.

I mean, we're human. We're going to be mad about things, and it takes a little bit to get over it. But for the most part, I feel like I do a good job of leaving it at the door. And when I'm at home, I'm at home to be a dad. I'm not at home to be watching film and doing all this. Now, once they go to bed, it's film time. It's time to look at in-car cam. and this this or that so i'm you know uh yesterday for example you know they wanted to go to the

patterson farm pumpkin patch so we go there right we go there and we're we're hanging out we're having a good time end up seeing some of the other drivers there and stuff and and we have have fun hanging out well they wanted to go um to dinner out to dinner and stuff and i'm like yeah i just you know i just didn't really feel like going out to dinner blah blah and we had we had drove separate just in case I didn't want to go to dinner. So I go back home and I was like full-blown since they wasn't there, I was full-blown invested in Martinsville. You know, it was starting.

Like I was ready to get prepared for this coming up weekend, watching last year's race, watching in-car cam, you know, watching SMT, looking at all the data and things like that. But as soon as they got home, shut it all up, went straight to daddy time. So yeah, I think it's not an easy thing to do. an easy balance but I try to do the best I can with trying to when I am at home I try to get you know

let them have my fully undivided attention back to your career you're racing at Hattori you ran there three years three years yeah and so are you getting opportunities calls some of the teams I was who so during 2019 season RCR gave me a call so they actually they gave me a call Austin Craven gave me a call and told me that a colleague wanted to talk to you, caller racing. Because they got a connection, right? Right. So we talk a little bit that year, didn't really go nowhere, and then 2020 comes. Did you want it to?

Yeah, no, I did. We didn't have the funding at the time. We didn't have the funding to go to RCR. We didn't have the funding to call. We were barely making ends meet doing what we were doing in the truck level. So during the 2020 season, towards the end of the year I went and sat down with Chris Rice

and we talked about going into 2021 being, you know, with collag racing and being in the Xfinney series. And the deal could have been done. And I ended up actually calling Jack Irvin with Toyota and letting him know that, hey, I'm thinking about going and doing this deal on the Xfinney side.

And that's because, is a, Tori is Toyota. Yeah, Tori is Toyota. So I'm like, you know, I'm not the type of person that ever wants to burn a bridge. I want to always keep the door open. You never know when you're going to cross that bridge again. So I've always just been that type of guy. And so I call, you know, Jack Irvin first and start talking to him.

And I'm like, hey, I'm thinking about letting the team know here in the next week or so that I am thinking about making a change. And he's like, well, I really want to keep you. Like, I want you to be at Toyota. I want you to be. if you are okay with being a Matt Crafton of the truck series, I want you to be that guy. And I'm like, well, you know, let me think about this a little bit.

And, you know, we go back and forth and there's some offers thrown at me and things like that. And ultimately, I made the decision. I'm like, this could be a good deal. Like I can race 23, 24 races a year. I can spend a lot of time with my family. I'd have a lot more time to spend at home with the family. And I was really, that was way in.

on me a lot was like I'm going to have a lot more time to suspend with the kids and we all made it kind of work out for 2021 to to stay at Toyota and at that point my mindset was is I'm going to I'm going to race in the truck series like there I was just I was I've always wanted to make it to the cup level it's not like I didn't but I was like I'm okay with this like I'm I'm to the to the age now that it's not going to be something like well what could have happened right and so during the 2021 season we run the season have a successful year and towards the end of that year um shiggy hatori the owner of hry he is having some trouble with his sponsors from japan and things like that and they kind of let us know like hey the the price is going to have to go up like we're not going to be

able to keep doing this well we didn't really have the money to you know give out any more than what we already had. And so during the end of, towards the end of 2021, we get to talking with, I end up calling, Austin Craven up cold call them. And I'm like, hey, man, I know I had told you about, you know, this whole Toyota deal and that I'm going to stay with Toyota for a long time and that we have a long term contract, this or that. I'm like, I think that we need to have a talk.

And at the time, he's like, well, we already have all of our stuff. booked like all all of our cars are you know signed for this and they were talking about the 21 car was in the works for another driver taking that ride that there was something with wording and things like that that had to get changed but that it was basically a done deal I'm like man all right well we start looking around different places that what are we going to do like where are we going to run. We knew we didn't, didn't have the money to go run back at HRE with what they were wanting us to bring. And he ends up calling me a few days later. Craven does. He's like, hey, you haven't done anything, right? I'm like, yeah, no, I haven't. And he's like,

come talk to me. He's like, we're having something go down with the 21 car. It might end up being open. I'm like, okay. So we go and talk to them and somehow made the deal work. I mean, when we come into the program at the end of 2020 going into 2022 we didn't have full funding like we didn't have the funding to run the full season we didn't have full funding and uh we went to work uh austin craven and i he's he's my manager now we go to work we start talking about you know what are we going to do sponsorship wise and we get to talking to my dad and you know thinking what b-to-be deals can we do and that's where bennett came along uh been at transportation logistics and we go and talk to them. They're based out of Atlanta, Georgia, so they're not far from

where I grew up. And we get to talking, and my dad, he's always with, you know, freight and everything that goes out with the steel. He's always just used whoever the lowest bidder is, and he just kind of sends it out that way. Well, he ends up talking to Bennett, and we work out a deal with them, a B-to-B deal where now he does all of his freight, all of everything, all of his steel, everything, goes straight through Brent Bennett because they use their flatbed trucking and everything, and they send it all out and that's how that's how that's how the whole bennett deal came came together was a b-to-be deal with my dad and them and and that's what kind of merged the gap on us making it work for 22 and now this year in 23 so we're we're fully funded these last two years which has been and great

I mean my dad has spent you know a lot of his hard-earned money to get me to where I'm at and now I can you know sit here and say that we are fully funded which is a great thing that that's kind of taking some weight off my shoulders because I've always always told my dad like don't don't put yourself in a bind like I'm not that type of not that type of son or driver whatever where you know you just want your your dad to keep flipping the bill like I wanted I wanted him to see a path to where he didn't have to bring no more money to the table like we wanted that's that's that was our ultimate goal like don't don't we don't want my dad to be spending the money um any more than he has to and now I can sit here and say that we're fully funded and it's

it's a great feeling. I want to talk about a moment that I thought was really impressive. Back in the truck series, I'm not sure exactly what year it was. You had to run in with Sauter at Iowa. I thought that that was an interesting moment for you personally because, so Johnny Sauter is sort of, I think bully's a strong word, but he was kind of the tough guy of the truck series, right? Yeah, he kind of pushed people around a little bit. Not a lot of people would push back Right. At Johnny. I always like Johnny thought he was a great driver, and I like that attitude, to be honest with you.

If I had a driver like that, I wouldn't try to change that out of them, right? But when you're racing against that kind of guy, it can be tough. But you stood up to him that day. You know, that was kind of an interesting moment for me watching you because I think we're all seeing you run well in this truck. You're winning races. We now know who you are. We know your name. we're starting to ask ourselves what we think about your talent, right?

We're curious about, like, really what, you know, how far you could go. And then we see you, you know, go toe to toe with one of the tough guys, right? Right. Which was, I mean, you're a big guy. It wasn't no big surprise, but not many people would push back to Johnny. Do you look at that moment as, you know, were you, was it a time for you to really kind of say, hey, it's an opportunity for me to show everybody what I'm willing to do and what I'm willing to stand for.

Because I thought it was a pretty, I thought it was a pretty impactful moment for your career. Yeah, so, you know, growing up, my dad always had a saying where he's like, you know, don't put up with nobody's shit. Like that's just the way it is. And, you know, I just remember from back in middle school and high school and stuff, like I wasn't this size that I am not. now. Like I was not, now I was six foot, six foot one, two, whatever. But I wasn't, I was like, I think when I graduated high school, I was maybe like 170 or something. Like I was pretty,

pretty slim. Like I wasn't like what I am now. And so there were times that I got bullied in school and I used to just kind of put up with it. And finally one day I go home to my dad and he's like, well, you know, go tell the teacher, go tell the principal this, you know, go tell the people that you need to tell. And if they don't do something about it, like, you, you, you know, you know what you got to do. And I'm like, man, I like, I never fought before, didn't want to do it. And I remember, like it was yesterday, I had a kid in, you know, I had a kid in school. We were, I don't know, we were in the gym or whatever and comes up pushing me in that.

And I'm like, man, please just go away. I don't want no trouble. Keeps on, keeps on. Well, then I finally just lost it. And, you know, we throw down. And from then on, that was kind of the turning point for me that, like, I, I'm not going to put up with nobody's shit no more. Like I'm going to, I'm going to, I don't care how big you are.

Like, I'm going to go toe to toe to with you. And that day, I knew Johnny Sauter. I've seen him race. And that day, you know, it happened before Iowa. I think it was the week before. I don't remember where we're at, Texas or something, Vegas maybe. I'm underneath him, and I felt like he ran me really, really tight into the corner. Well, I get loose and I chase up the racetrack.

and not malicious. I'm not trying to wreck him. And I hit him. Well, he ends up hitting the wall, pancake in the wall. And he keeps going. But then every caution from then on, like, I don't think NASCAR saw it or anything,

but every caution from then on, he is like, even if he wasn't behind me on the racetrack, he would come find me, every caution and, like, hit me in the back bumper. He would, like, swerve and, like, try to, like, spin me out. And I'm, like, on the radio, like, is NASCAR not going to do anything about this? Like, what are we doing here? Like, he is trying to wreck me under every caution.

him. And then after the race, I didn't even know that he was standing at the back of my hauler, actually. I had no clue. I go and walk off, and I guess he yelled something at me, and I never heard him. So then my, I think it was my grandpa, because, you know, my grandpa comes to a lot of the races, and he's like, hey, do you hear what, you know, Johnny just said? I'm like, no, I didn't even know he was at the back of the hauler. Like, and he tells me like, oh, he's, you know, you got one coming, and I'm like, all right, whatever, so don't think nothing about it. We go to, I guess it was the next week. I don't remember exactly, but we go to Iowa, and he drives into turn one,

just hooks the back of my bumper and drives me into the corner, like, trying to wreck me. And I'm like, all I can handle to keep it under control. And I come off of turn two, and I'm like, all right, I'm not putting up with this. Like, I was raised that if you're going to, if you're going to bully somebody, if you're going to mess with them and you're going to try to rough them up, then I can rough you up, you know, two times worse if I need to. And I drive off into three just not knowing that I was going to, I basically in my mind was to go into the corner, hit him,

and just shove him up the racetrack the same way. Well, I hit him in the left rear just a perfect way to where obviously he loops it around, he wrecks it, and then we have the whole caution come out. And he's like running me over under caution. And I mean, I was ready to throw down that day. It was like one of those first moments where I was like, I mean, I was mad, very mad. And from then on, I thought that I got the respect in the garage. I thought that I got the respect from Johnny from that day.

Did you ever talk to him? Yeah, so it was a few races later. It might have been later in the season. We actually are in the same truck together doing a ride around. It always happens. It always happens that way. So I think it was that one of the road courses, we're in the truck and the ride around. We're not really saying much at first.

and he like says something about man these young kids you know they just they don't race with no respect where they're like man i agree 100 percent like i i think you know these kids they don't race with respect and uh from then on it was like we were cool and anytime we were around each other we gave each other respect on the racetrack and and i've always raced that way i've always raced that you know i'm going to respect you and race you the way that you race me if you race me like a dog i'm going to race you like a dog you know it's just that's how i was kind of raised is like You just, you don't put up with nobody's stuff. And that's just kind of the mentality that I have.

I want to race clean. I want to race with respect. I don't want to go in there and just wreck a guy. But if you're going to try to rough me up, I'm going to do it back. And if I do it two times worse, then so be it. I mean, I'm going to, you know, get my point across. Yeah. You're telling that story about the gym, you know, your first fight.

And I got to be honest with you. And I can't be the only one. There's probably people listening thinking there's similar. similarities to hear. Not only are you now, you know what you have to do handle your business, but you do give them an out. Like they can walk away. And that is the thing that I remember most about last year at Martinsville. Yeah. And I know, I'm sure we're going to end up talking about it anyways, but like you, you aren't looking for the fights. I don't want to be in a fight. No. And also, I wondered when you were bringing up that story about the school line and the teachers,

and if they went and Googled you to find out if you're a racer, like, that whole deal at Martinsville was sort of a big deal and everybody remembered and then videos were going around and I was wondering if that in fact if the teachers end up finding that out about you too yeah I so yeah I mean that was like you said I didn't want none of that to go down I didn't I didn't want with my it yeah I didn't but you guys had you none of the flights I've ever been in throughout my life I've never wanted it to go down right like I've always been the guy that's like please just walk away like I just don't want to don't want to do this. And I've gotten my ass kick before plenty of times.

I mean, it's happened, you know, but I've always been the guy that I'm going to stand my ground. I don't care, like I said, how big you are, how small you are. Like, if you're going to come to me and threaten me or say things to me, like, I'm going to put my foot down and hold my own. And, you know, that day at Martinsville last year, you know, I'm, I think at the time I'm racing like for six or something on a restart. I get turned by somebody.

I go to the back and I'm trying to make my way back up to the front. And you're trying to make the playoffs. And trying to make a championship round. Trying to make the final four. And I'm like trying to get up through the field. And I felt like, you know, you look back and everyone's going to have their own opinion about the wreck that happened between my and I. But I felt like I had my nose in there. And at that point of the race, I'm not backing out.

Like I have my nose there. I'm at your left rear. Like, if you come down, that's on you. And I felt like he turned across my nose, came down. and kind of wrecked all of us. And then the thing that happened next was after the race. I get out of the car. And I've never been one to really go up to somebody after a race,

like go up to their car. The only time I've ever done that was Josh Barry and that was in 22 at the start of the season. I remember that. But even in doing that, I had plenty of time to calm down. And all I did was go and shake his hand. I'm like, I'll remember that, you know.

And then we talk about it and we're good. like Josh and I are actually buddies. Like we talked about it and we were good. I understood the situation. He didn't mean to do what he did. He got in my left rear and I couldn't hold on to it. I got in the wall. But anyways, so I get out of the car and I've just, like I said,

I've never been one to go down to another man's car. Like I've just, I don't think that that's right. I don't think, I think if you're going to talk about things and talk about it outside the racetrack or whatever, give each other a phone call, maybe meet up and talk and have a, have a beer and kind of settle it that way. So I get out of the car and I'm like, Like in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to go say something to him. I'm going to walk down to this car.

I'm going to go say something to him. I'm going to at least have a conversation. And I said, no, I'm too mad right now. Like, I recognize the situation. I'm too mad. I just missed out on the final four by seven, eight points, whatever it was. I'm like, it's probably not the smartest thing for me to do. I don't need to go down there and start anything with him.

So I'm like, all right, I'm not going to say anything. So I'm sitting there talking to my crew guys and we're talking about the race, talking about the car, you know, what we could have done better. and blah, blah, blah, and everybody's kind of high-fiving and saying, you know, good season, this. And I just remember talking to one of my guys, and I, like, glance over, and out of the corner of my eye, I see somebody in a race suit walking towards me. And I'm like, I wonder who that is. And I, like, glanced over and right when I, like, glanced over, and right when I, like, glanced over,

I saw that it was my, and I'm like, gosh. I'm like, I don't think it's a good idea for us to talk right now. So I look at Austin Craven. I'm like, don't let him come up to me. I just, I don't, I don't want to talk. Let's, let's talk about it tomorrow. When we, when we've kind of settled down, let's give each other a phone call. Craven walks up to him as like, hey, don't, uh, Austin don't want to talk right now.

Let's just not a good time. Well, he kind of like shoulders Craven and just walks by, I don't know we're talking right now. And I'm like, I literally like look up in the sky and I'm like, just give me the strength. Like, I just, I don't want nothing to go down. Like, I just, because I knew I was mad. Like, I knew I was really, really mad. And he comes up to me and we have our. our discussion, we're bickering back and forth about what happened. Obviously he has his view on it.

I have my view on it. And when he first walked up, I said, might walk away. Like, we just don't need to talk right now. And he's like, no, we're going to have a conversation. So we're talking, well, then middle way through the conversation, I'm like, my, please walk away before somebody gets hurt. Like, I just, I don't, I don't want to do this right now. Like, I'm, I could tell that my blood pressure is getting up. Like, I'm starting to get mad. Like, my face is getting red. I'm boiling and because I didn't didn't agree what he was saying he didn't agree what I was saying and there was a third time I said it I'm like please just walk away before somebody gets hurt I'm really I'm over it I'm done talking to you and I just remember like he goes to I don't remember

exactly what he said like how he said it or what he said but he goes to say something that was kind of off racing topic it was not really like something to do with what happened on the racetrack it was like off racing topic and right when he did he's did that, he went and said that and he had had his hands in his pockets the whole time. Well, he goes and takes his hands out of his pockets when he goes to say that. And you can't see it because the video is so far away. He goes and takes his hand out of his pocket. He takes a slight step forward towards me.

And when he did that, like I reacted. Because I've always been told that whoever gets the first hit off is normally got a higher percentage of one in a fight than the guy that throws a second punch. Especially if they throw like you do. well and so so yeah i mean that that's kind of how it went down is like you know i warned him i did this that and like i did not want to happen i felt terrible about it the whole next week i actually i didn't have no service the whole next week because me and uh richard we went elk hunt elk hunting up in montana so i had no cell service where we were at and i get back and when i get cell service i'm

hearing all these rumors i'm hearing all this stuff about lawsuit and this this stuff going on and i'm like what are we talking about like what so wayne oughtn calls me and gives me a run down says hey we need to have a conversation when you get to phoenix let me know when you're going to be there we have the conversation um we talk about what went down and and and how it happened and ultimately i apologize to him told him that you know i didn't want it to happen i didn't want that to to go down the way it did and i think the thing that bothered bothered me the most is knowing that you know I have kids and I didn't want them seeing that. I don't know if they've seen it.

I don't think they've seen it yet. I'm sure one day they'll probably see the video and I'll have to explain what happened. But, you know, having three kids at home and stuff, the last thing I want is them to see dad out there fighting. And so I felt terrible about it. I really did. And I, and Maya and I, we've talked since then. What other conversations have been like? They've actually not been bad.

You know, obviously we're not going to. we're not to the point where we're like going out for a beer together and buddy buddies but like we've had conversations you know he's been doing some of the the broadcast stuff or whatever so he'll come into me and and ask me questions about the car and and what you know what what what this weekend looks like and we have we have conversations and it's fine like I asked him when we had the conversation with Wayne and I remember who else was in there but we had the conversation with Wayne and I made sure he was okay. I made sure that like, you know, nothing was wrong. You know, luckily where I connected was like over off to the side so it like really didn't do a

whole lot. It kind of like stumbled him, but that was about it. So yeah, I mean, we talked about it and we kind of got over it and it's kind of behind us now. Yeah. Man, that was a, you know, I'm sure you don't love to have to bring up that conversation or go through it and I appreciate you doing that. But I will say, man, I, we have disagreements and arguments between drivers from time of time and you think that it might come to blows, but rarely, rarely does it. And that video was profound, man. You know, to see you to actually get to that point.

Yeah. It was pretty interesting. Not, not good or bad. Just, you know, it's just rare that we ever really, really get to see. drivers have that kind of emotion. But, you know, I think it's your brand, its own brand with who you are and as bad as, you know, and I understand you wishing that it didn't happen and having some regrets about it, but it sent a message intended or not. Don't piss him all. Through the rest of the series. Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, I've just, the way I was raised and

stuff. I just, I've never been the guy that like shoves people around. You know, you see, you see drivers getting fights all the time where they're like, they push and shove. Like, I've just never been the pushing and shove. If you push me, I'm probably not going to push back. It's just going to be a closed fist at that point. Like I, that's just how I was brought up. I mean, I don't want it to get that way. And I've never wanted to fight. I don't, I don't look for trouble. It's not like I'm going out trying to find trouble each and every week. And, you know, I feel like for the most part, since that's went on, like, I haven't had any real run-ins.

You know, I haven't had any run-ins. I've had, you know, some guys come up to me, like, maybe mad and about certain situations. You know, perfect example was Chandler Smith and I at Michigan. We got together off of turn four coming to the white flag. Did not mean to hit him in the left rear and turn him like I did. And we talked about it after the race. And I've done a better job since then of just kind of controlling my emotions a little better. and I have. I've kind of been like, all right, I need to work on this a little bit more.

Like, maybe I should have, maybe I should not get to that point so easily. Like, maybe I should, like, try to control my anger a little bit more. And so I've done, I've worked at it. It's not like I haven't. And so Chandler and I talked about it. And then, you know, we had another conversation come Monday morning because, you know, Colleg and I, our colleague and RCR, we have that alliance with each other. So, like, we talk during our pre-race meetings, or post-race meetings, rather, every week.

And so we had a conversation about it, and we were able to handle it like men and move on. Well, here's what else is on brand for him. He is, you know, one of the best drafting track. I don't know. You probably don't know this. We did have that conversation. We had a conversation several weeks. Did you hear that?

I saw the clip. I actually commented on it. I said, don't hate the player, hate the game. That's right. That's exactly what I said. So I do want to talk you about that. Let's do it. look I you know I you're going you've wanted other racetracks I've won other

racetracks people still like to I don't know if it bothers you maybe not not not not yet but um you're really really good you know at Daytona Talladega and Atlanta and I understand why you're good because I know it takes a certain mindset and mentality. There's a certain way that you've got to be thinking and things you want to be doing all the time around that racetrack. Yeah. And, you know, why, what, you know, do you, do you, did it come naturally to you? Was it, you know, was that win in the truck series at Daytona, sort of like the catalyst, or what is it about drafting the air that you understand that seems to make sense? It's not, it.

It's not a constant. Like every time you get in that Xfinity car, I don't care if they don't change the rules. It's different. It's a little different. Some things work a little differently than others, and some things have changed. But you seem to always find your way to the front.

And you're really hard to be. You really are. And a lot of times you're a one-man show. You know, we had four damn cars. You know, at Daytona leading the race. And I actually felt like I was in a decent spot. Right. Like, even though I had all four JRM cars lined up behind me, I'm like...

Why, did you think they would wreck each other? Well, no, I just have the confidence. I just have the confidence that I'm like, man, I just, I know that they could gang up on me here, but I'm like, I felt like I was in control. I did. I thought I was in control. But yeah, I mean, you're talking about the Super Speedway stuff. So the funny thing is, is I have always hated Super Speed Racing.

Like, I have absolutely hated it up to, I guess, through the middle. middle part of the season last year. So when I first came over to RCR, they're like, oh, you know, we feel like we have some really good Super Speedway cars and how do you like Super Speedway racing? I'm like, I hate it. Like I do not enjoy racing super speedways. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, I know I've had success, you know, back in 2019.

I won the Daytona race and had some success, you know, in the rest of 2019, 20 and 21, like always running up front. It seemed like I always would find myself up front, but I never really thought about it that I was good at it. Like I never really, and then when 2022 started and we won right off the bat at Daytona and then we went to the next one and I ran up front. I think I finished second at Atlanta or whatever. I'm like, well, maybe I have a little bit of something here that some other guys don't have. And it really started to like set in for me, I guess midways through the year last year where I'm, I'm like, maybe I am pretty decent at this stuff.

And maybe I need to take a different approach instead of being so, like, I know they pay a, you know, they give you a trophy at any of these things, but I was just always dreading them. Like, I just would not care to go do it. I was just always waiting on when the big wreck's going to happen and when I'm going to be in it. So my mindset has changed over the last year and a half where I enjoy going to the Super Speedways now and talking about that mentality. I just, I've always had that mentality of where, you know, I feel like a lot of,

lot of drivers they when a move is is happening and and things are happening and you have to make a move at the right time or a certain time you can't you can't think about it you can't second guess like should I make that move by the time you thought about making that move the the the hole's already closed right so like I've always just been the guy that like I've just I just go with the flow of like wherever my my body like takes me like I just I've always just kind of feeling like where the car's at, where the runs are coming. And if I feel like I need to make a move, a lot of times, like, I'm making a move before my spotter even says that the move's coming because I already see the, you know,

the runs that are generating throughout the pack. And I've just became over the last year so where I've really started to understand that. Before it was just like, oh, I'm just going to go out there and just try to do the best I can run up front. Now I'm actually like thinking about these things a little bit more and I'm able to apply it. So I, yeah, I mean, I feel like anytime we go to a super speedway, I really have the confidence that even if I don't have help, I can still get the job done by myself. I think in the Xfinity car as well, it allows you to be in more control of your own fate. Whereas I've never raced a truck, but I've watched enough truck races at Daytona to know that you really don't have much in your own hands.

No. You're in that line either on the bottom or on the top and constantly, it's hard to make it. It's hard to make anything happen. Hard to make anything happen. The way the package works there, it looks very frustrating. Yeah. And I, and, you know, like with the Super Suisse, I'm still learning. Like, I made a mistake at Atlanta last year, or this year, rather,

where, you know, you had the three college cars lined up, and I'm fourth, and I'm like, I'm going to outrun them here. I'm going to, I'm going to beat them. Like, even though there's three of them, there's one of me, I'm going to, I'm going to do it. And I had really good run. on the two that were in front of me, side-drafted them, cleared back in line, and I got to second, and I just took the run too early. Like, I just, you know, you're always, you're always thinking of that next step, and I,

and I thought that I had a big enough run to where I could get side-and-side-draft, Justin Haley, and clear him, and I just, I didn't clear him. You know, I was waiting on the spotter to tell me clear, and he just never told me clear, and the next thing, you know, I fall back, we end up wrecked and all that. So I'm constantly learning. I'm constantly getting better at the Super Super Super Bowl. way stuff. I think there's still things for me to learn and to do a better job at, but I don't know what it is about the Super Speedways that it has just kind of came natural to me to start with,

and then I've kind of added on to that, that, you know, being it being natural. I've just kind of added on to it with the knowledge and everything that comes along with it. And, you know, every time we go to the Super Speedways, I think that I can go lead all the laps and win the race, no matter if I have my teammate with me or not. Right. When you get in the cup car, you've had some opportunities drive to a cup car next gen at the Super CUA race. I know it's a very small sample

size, but that car in your opportunities to drive it, is it a car too that, much like the Xfinity car, you're more in control of your own destiny as opposed to maybe how the truck package worked. Yeah, I think it's

almost think it's like in the middle of the two. I think the Xfinity car, you can definitely control your own destiny and you can make things happen with the Xfinity car the truck obviously we know how that is and then I think the cup car kind of like fits right there in the middle I think that you can make certain moves happen and make things happen a certain way but I do think it's still harder to make certain runs happen I think that you stall out a lot quicker with the cup car and that's something that I've had to get used to is like how the times that I've ran the cup car they just stall out faster

you go to pull out of line and you go to side draft and pull away and try to like slide up back in line it just doesn't happen as easily as it does with the exfitting car the exfitting car you can just drag people back so easily if you have that that gap in front of you and you can slide up in line and kind of like you know leapfrog and forward you can't really do that much in the cup side i know you see it sometimes but they have to have a huge massive run for it to happen so i think there's kind of a i think the cup car is kind of a combination of the exfinity side and the in the truck side as far as how the drafting works there. Yeah. And I'm still trying to figure that out. I mean, it's so, I mean, you know, the cup, the cup side is just tough. You know, everybody from first all the way back to 38th, they're just good. And it makes it really, really hard. So just trying to figure those

cars out have been been interesting. Yeah, I know. I, um, I enjoy watching you get those opportunities because again, I mean, it's just like for me, um, and my colleagues at NBC, I mean, we're still like scouting you, right? Um, as you've came up through the truck and then Xfinity. You look like a driver capable of getting to the big time, capable of being able to win races at a cup level, and seeing you get real opportunities is exciting. What is the future?

So we're going to shelve the rest of this season. Yeah. You know, I hope you have a great finish to your year. Obviously, we're competitors in a sense. Yeah. But what is, what is your, you've seen measured on, how your career progresses, you know, and it's not like a take every opportunity, take every run kind of thing.

Yeah. You seem very, you know, I want to make sure I'm making the right choices. So you've been piecemealing together some cup opportunities. You certainly have a great situation and a great fit we talked about at RCR. So in your mind, what is the perfect scenario for you? Yeah, you know, I've definitely tried to be very strategic with all of my moves. that I've made throughout my career, especially as I've gotten older. You know, with us signing with RCR for a multi-year deal, you know, as of right now,

it's set up to where I'm going to run Xfinity races for them. And, you know, I had the opportunity, and there was some opportunities there to go cup racing for the next season. You know, I just, it was one of those things that I, Colleg was another, you know, again, And we had talked to Colleg again. I had talked to him. We were thinking about going cup racing with Colleg and really, really thought long and hard about it, had to make sure sponsors were all on board, obviously.

And we were kind of closing in on a deal with them. And I was like, you know what? I need to take this time before I get too deep into conversations with Colleg. I need to take this time. I need to have a sit-down chat with Richard Childress, and I need to talk to him about things and I value his opinion a lot. You know, over the last two years I've gotten and known him, he's just a great guy, and I value his opinion, you know, a lot.

So, you know, I sit down in his motorhome. I think we're at, I don't even remember. I think we're at like Atlanta, maybe, and I'm running the cup race that day. And I sit down with him. I'm like, hey, Richard, you know, I have this opportunity. You know, I'm talking to them. And I don't know if it's all going to work sponsorship-wise, but we're going to try to make it work, I think, and what is your opinion on it?

And he's like, man, you know, I don't want you to lose an opportunity, but I would hate to see you go. I'd hate to see you leave RCR. I really love you being here. You know, I love you as a, you know, a driver of mine, and I want you to stay with RCR. But if you have, you know, an opportunity that you think you need to take, you know, take it. I'm not going to stop you from taking the opportunity. So we had a really great conversation that day. There was a lot of things that we talked about.

We went into detail. We talked for, I don't know, an hour or so. And when I left that day, I was like, man, I am very torn now. Like I, you know, I just, you know, talk to Richard Childress, and he's kind of talking about how much he values me and he wants to keep me around for long term and make it work for a long time. So I was like, I got a lot on my mind, a lot to think about. And I thought about it for the next few weeks.

There was some other teams out there that we talked to. I talked to Stuart Haas a little bit, but that never really went anywhere. Like it never got to that point of like, hey, we want you or anything. Talk to Spire a little bit. And that kind of went somewhere, but not fully. And so I'm sitting there thinking about it, and I'm like, I don't know what I want to do. Like, I'm back and forth and hadn't even mentioned it to my wife or anything. Like, I've been doing this all on my own.

I hadn't mentioned it to my dad, like what I'm thinking. I just kind of almost kind of went into my own little shell and was like, I'm going to figure this out on my own and figure out what I want to do. And there was a lot of factors that kind of went into me deciding the decision that I decided is, you know, I want to make sure it's the right opportunity, not saying that Colleg wouldn't have been the right opportunity, but I just wanted to make sure it was the right opportunity for me. I'm very loyal to a fault, and I'm very loyal to every race team I have every race.

for and Richard has just been so good to me. I'm like, man, I just, I don't want to leave Richard. Like, I don't want to leave RCR. I want to keep building this program. I want to keep trying to win championships at the Xfinney level. And, you know, the way I saw it was, you know, if I can keep performing on the Xfinney side, who knows, maybe one day I can, you know, run on the cup side for RCR is kind of what my mindset was with my decision was like, hey, maybe maybe one day that this might work out for me in my favor and a couple years down the road or so they might have a third charter they might have an opportunity for me to run um you know in one of their cars and and i can you know get the shot over at rCR to run full season and um you know that's kind of what what it kind of led me

down this path is you know i i love running the experience series i think there's so much fun to race and i have a blast at it um you know the other thing that kind of weighed on me a little bit is you know, I like having my Sundays right now. I like having my Sundays with my kids. I like, you know, you know, hanging out with all three of them. And each week, each Sunday, you know, sometimes we're lazy and we watch football and we hang out together. But there's other times we go to the parks. We go do Chucky Cheese.

We go do things together. And I like to have that time with my family. And I like to spend that time with my family. They're kind of my number one priority. So, you know, that kind of weighed on me a little bit. But at the same time, if the ride opportunity, if it's like a perfect opportunity presents itself, like I would take the ride to go to run on Sundays. Like, sign me up.

But I just thought that with the situation I was in and sponsorship kind of played a little bit of factor in some of the decision making, I just thought that staying with RCR was kind of my best bet for long term. That's what I've been looking for for a long time is, you know, each and every year you kind of see it in racing. Like you just don't know when it could be your last year. And I really wanted to have a long-term deal. And with us having a multi-year deal, that really kind of almost like open my eyes a little bit on, okay, I'd rather have a long-term deal than like a one or two-year deal type thing. Yeah. Have you been to the museum?

I have not. No. I have not. That's a problem. I know. I drive by it every day or every time I go up there. You race there. It's your history.

I know. Your own, you're carving your own legacy there. I know. So the problem is, is I want to go up there, but I want to do it when I'm able to bring the wife and the kids up there with me. And I want us to all see it at the same time. And it just, I could have made it happen by now. I just haven't done it yet.

You got to get Richard to take you through there after hours one day. Yeah. No, that would be a, that'd be a great idea. I do need to. Every time I drive by it, I'm like, I need to go in there. Yeah. Because you can see, you know, some of the cars and stuff just from the outside and you're like... You grew up a Jeff Gordon fan.

Yep. What is it like now learning a little bit about the Earnhardt legacy or the history at RCR? It has been, it has been great. Like, it's been very, very eye-opening and some of the stories that I've heard and stuff of just how, you know, your dad kind of handled himself and did things. you know, I hear it sometimes they'll, they'll kind of, Danny Lawrence will kind of say like, you know, you have that, you have a little bit of that Earnhardt in you. And I'm like, look, don't even compare me to that guy. Like, I am like far from Delernhardt. Like, he is, he is the man. So, like, you know, when I was younger and I was, you know, rooting for Jeff Gordon,

I always respected your dad. Like, I never was like, oh, man. Yeah. Screw that, screw that, screw that Dillard heart guy. Like, I want Jeff Gordon to win. I never was that way. I always just like seeing them race each other and just the competitiveness between the two was always there and it was so so awesome to see. But yeah, I mean, it's been, it's been great just just hearing some of the things that they talk about. And, you know, I'm sure that there's a lot more stories to be had that that we'll talk about. There's, there is one thing that I've noticed, though, that Richard, he doesn't really get into talking about your dad a ton. You know, I've never been the one to just ask him point blank, like, oh, how was it?

You know, working with Dill Earnhard or whatever, but, like, I can tell that he doesn't, he doesn't like to talk too much about it. But Danny Lawrence and I, we've had some good story. Danny's such a good guy. He is. He's such a great guy. He's so incredible. Yeah.

It's been fun working with all the guys over there, especially Danny. You don't get to see many of the fine aces. around the racetrack that much. You know, Will Lynn and chocolate and those guys have kind of gone on to do different things. Chocolate's around at times. But I see Danny every week. I mean, he's still there, which I can't believe because he's been doing this for so long. But every time I go in the Exfinity Garage, he's right there with those guys still a big part of their Xfinity program.

Yeah, he basically oversees like the Xfinity program. Like that's just kind of what he does. And he really, you know, he really kind of puts that on his shoulders. like he wants us to go out there and kick everybody's ass every week like that's he still got that he's just got that fire in him yeah he does the junkyard dog yeah that's all brand for him yeah i wanted to ask you both um you know deal with your two exfinity series races did you guys ever get to race against each other find each other we race to each other a little bit at homestead uh you were you were running me down there i don't remember what i think it was during the third stage maybe you were running me down and my spotter's like hey the 88's like you know on the wall he's making time on you but he's run you

you were running the bottom and one and two. And I changed my line around for a few laps. Kind of dirtied the air up. I kind of dirtied the air up for them for about five or six laps. I started kind of creeping away from him. But we never really got racing side by side much together. But, yeah, I was sitting there. I was like, come on, Jr.

You got to find a different way around because I'm not going to make it easy on you. He did. You found another gear, man. When you got up into that third groove and three and four started easing up toward the wall. I mean, that's one thing, though, that I've never been the greatest at, and that that's one thing in my arsenal that I got to figure out is how to rip the fence better. Like, I've always been that guy that's the bottom feeder. Like, I've always been the Harvick line type guy. Like, if we go to any racetrack where you can put your left sides on the white line, on the apron, and find speed there, I can find it.

But when it comes to, like, ripping the fence and being, like, inches off the wall, there's just something there where, like, I just haven't gotten it figured out. And once I figure that out, I feel like my arsenal is going to be pretty good. But if you ever get an opportunity to do a tire test or anything at homestead, don't turn it down. Oh, no, for sure. Yeah, that's what I've heard. That's the box and that's the key, you know, is just to go there by yourself, run all day long. I know. That's what makes it tough is like you don't have that. You know, you don't have that like the old days where you just, you could go run and figure it out. You have the simulator where I touched the wall in the simulator and it like literally brings me

through the wall. Like you can't. There's no sound. Yeah. And you can't, we talk about this on the show. You can't, you can't feel like,

that you don't, there's no air. Like, there's no. How much do you think that simulator costs? I don't even know. Like I don't.

Let's just say it's three million. It's go conservative. Yeah. And there's not any, there's no sound when you hit the wall. There's no scraping. No, I mean,

and there seems like the simplest. This bothers me, by the way. Yeah. So I was, I was in the Chevy Sim and I'm like, man, that's a pretty good laugh.

They're like, well, you're using the wall a lot. That's why it was faster. And I'm like, well, I didn't know. There's no sound. You don't have a scraping sound or nothing. How much does that, is they like put a quarter in and you get the scraping sound? Yeah. So when I ran Homestead.

That costs extra. Yeah. So when I ran Homestead all week last week during our sim session, you know, I wanted to run the wall because I'm like, I know I can run the bottom. I can run the bottom all day long and I can do it. I feel like I have the confidence that I can do it with the best of them, running the bottom because there is an art running the bottom just like there is an art running the fence that's my personal opinion and I they're you know they're telling me the same thing they're like well that was a good lap but you kind of were in the wall there and I'm like man I can't tell and then

I can't tell you how many laps I'd run four or five laps and next thing you know I'm like it literally sucks you into the wall and you go through the wall and you go outside of the racetrack and you're just reset it they have to reset it and I'm like this is just pissing me off like I'm just like yeah I'm just so I had this but I had this I had I had the best experience running the Sim for Bristol. And at Martinsville, I had the opposite. It was just like, I don't know if this is, no way the car drives this way. But in that last third stage, so in the Sim, like, I was wrecking loose in and then tight on the throttle.

And I'm like, this ain't going to do this in real life. And damn, it didn't drive exactly like that in the last stage. I was like, I better pay, I better give that Sim a little more credit. Yeah, no, I do have to give the Sim a little more credit. I felt like how we ran at Homestead. was how the car kind of drove in the sim but there are times though that you leave the sim i can't tell you how many times the last two years where i've left the sim and just not felt good about it and i'm like man we are going to struggle and then we go out there and win the race or we have a shot at winning the

race we run inside the top five all day then there's times i leave the sim and i'm like if it drives like that we're stinking up the show all day right and then we get the racetrack and we run like 10th all day or 15th all day and it's like what are we missing like there's just it's so finicky on like the the tire scaling and there's just so much that goes into it. If you miss it just by a little bit, it just will throw it off. But I just think I grew up in the wrong era. I'm like, I wish I could have grew up in the era where you had those times to be able to go. Well, let me ask you, I feel like, so I was joking around on social media a little bit with Andretti,

who ran the truck races past weekend. And, you know, I got there and I ran 15 minutes of practice. I felt like, yeah, I wasn't lost when I got done with practice, but when they said, hey, man, you're first to go and qualifying, I was spun the hell out. Like, I'm going to go out first. I got no idea how hard to get in the corner. I got no clue.

Yeah, you got to go like three seconds faster than what you practiced at, whatever it was. Yeah. And so I wish, and then I talked to a couple drivers at the intro stage, and they were like, yeah, I was like, man, I want an hour of practice. I want to, I want two sets of tires. I want to be able to bold on mock up, right? And they were like, some weeks, yes, some weeks I like it like it is.

You know, where is, what's the perfect balance, you think? You know, I think that having like a 45-minute practice would be great for us each and every week because there are times that, you know, with how practice is set up with the 15, 20 minutes that you get and you go straight into qualifying, like I wanted to run the fence and be like on the wall more in practice, but I was scared that, like, like, man, if I mess up and I get in the wall and I damage the car, I'm going to miss the rest of practice and we're going to be struggling to even make a qualifying lap if I damage it enough. So like I was like all kind of like I almost think that, yeah, we have the 20 minute practice.

And if that's what it is, say we have 20 minute practice. I'm almost like thinking can we not qualify like after qualified or after cup practice maybe, like let the cup cars go practice and then we qualify and then the cup cars qualify after us. just to give you that little extra added time because there are times that I want to do certain things on the track but I'm like nervous that man if I slip up and I damage this thing just enough to where I don't get to turn a qualifying lap we're in the hole like we're in the hole to start the race we're starting in the back so it's kind of a but yes I do think having like a 45 minute to an hour of practice each and every week would be would be better for me in the in the In the truck series and in the Xfinity series, y'all often have those drivers that are going to run five races a year, right? There's young kids that are spinning every dime they got to get in that 74 car or whatever, right, and go out and try to make a race. Yep.

You know, and they've got to go out in the first 10 cars. They're going to get 15 minutes of practice because they got to stop early to get ready for qualifying because they go out so damn early. I don't know how they even get even close. I don't know how they're not, I don't know how they're learning anything. Yeah, and you know, the guys that are doing that, they don't have the simulator tool like I have. You know, they don't have that.

All they have is irasin. If they have it at the house, then they have irasin. But that, you know, eye racing is great, but it still is not, you just don't have that same sensation. You don't have that same feeling. It's all, you know, normally it's not motion.

It's all static. So it's like there's just a, it's tough. It's really, really tough. tough. I mean, especially for guys that you, like yourself, that have, you only ran the two races this year. Like, it makes it really hard on you to go out there and perform. It was an experience. It woke my eyes up, man. So you like to hunt. You like to fish. Yeah. I'm going to give you one day off. What are you going to go do? And what are you going to go take a rifle, take a bow, fishing rod, what are you going? Yeah. If I have a day off, more than likely, if hunting season's in,

I'm probably taking a compound bow and going deer hunting somewhere. So we have, I have some land that I lease up, me and my dad, and have some land that we lease up in Illinois. We've been doing that for the last few years. Haven't gotten anything yet, but we've seen some stuff on camera. Man, hunting's hard. Like, it's just, they don't call it hunting for nothing, you know, like, I mean, New York, it's tough.

So we actually just ended up buying some property up in Kentucky. we actually acquire it sometime in the middle of November so I'm really excited about that but yes probably probably if I had a day off I'm probably going to go up to Illinois or something and try to try to see if I can't get something I mean that's that's a little far though for a day off you know I do have a little bit of land at my house I'm on 10 acres and it kind of backs up suit to some properties so might would even hop in in the back of my woods and see if anything comes by but also have a small pond at my house that my kids and I, we take minnows down there and have a really good time catching some largemouth bass. So yeah, I mean, stock it? It was already stocked when I bought

the house. Nice. Yeah, so I moved in to Katava. So I moved in there in 2020 right before the COVID hit. And so we've been there ever since. And yeah, there's some some really good large mouths in there. I think the biggest one I've caught so far is six pounds, I want to say. But you can go there and catch 20 or 30 easily. You know, it's almost, you almost catch them too fast, though. Like when you're wanting to fish with minnows, you know, you want to get your chair out there. You want to throw your rod out. You want to sit it down.

You want to crack a cold beer, you know, kind of relax. But you catch them so fast, you're constantly just reeling them in. You're working. It's almost like work. You're not even really, you know, relaxing. I'm like, men. Yeah, I'm like, y'all just reel these things in. I'm going to drink some beer real quick and kind of relax.

so well man we appreciate you coming by today it's been fun getting to know you better um thanks for coming to see us uh we are we are in the thick of a battle for the championship i wish the best for you um i know you're going to race all of us hard i hope you race that 20 car and your mother boy is a little harder um but anyways man uh you're a good dude a hard racer and uh you're a great asset to the series of the xfinity series and and hopefully one day a big asset to the cup series as well man enjoyed talk to you today thank you yeah thanks for having me on uh it's been been a pleasure um you know i hadn't even watched really much of the the junior download stuff so i was actually watching a little bit of it last night just seeing how what it was all about you know see what it's all about but you know we

we had met one other time you know me and how you have like never really talked um as i've gotten older but we met one time i don't even remember what racetrack it was but we were i think i think i I want to say it was, I have a picture of it somewhere. I'd have to find it and I'd have to show it to you. But I want to say Martin Truex Jr. was maybe running a car or something for you. I don't remember exactly like what happened. But yeah, that was like one of the only times that we had talked. So it was really cool to kind of bring that all kind of back around.

Do you know where that was at? I'd have to ask my parents. Man, it was so long ago. I don't remember. But there is a picture of it. I need to see it. Yep. Yeah, there's a picture of it.

So I have to show it to you. I need to see it. That's cool, man. Great. Well, we appreciate you. Thank you for coming through. Austin Hill on the Dale 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 to come back. I want them

to feel like an ally to Dirtymo 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.