The Dale Jr. Download - 533 - Abandoning The Amish For NASCAR: The Captivating Marlin Yoder Story

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with Hendrick Motorsports mechanic Marlin Yoder to discuss his departure from the Amish community and his one-in-a-million journey to becoming a NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning crew member. The conversation begins with Yoder’s perspective of living in a strict Amish community and his first time discovering NASCAR via the radio he smuggled into his bedroom. He relives the dramatic moments of leaving his family and community behind to chase a dream in an unknown new world. Yoder didn’t know what a racetrack or the race cars looked like until he first laid eyes on a NASCAR television broadcast after leaving home. He instantly caught the bug to pursue a career in racing, and details his early days racing at a local short track. Dale Jr. and Yoder also discuss his efforts handing out resumes at race shops, breaking through in the lower levels and achieving the impossible at NASCAR’s highest level. Yoder’s story is one you won’t believe until you hear it for yourself.21+ and present in NC. First online real money wager only. $10 Deposit req. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov. 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.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back inside the Bojangles Studio here for another episode. And we've got a guest today that many of you probably have never heard of. But it is a special guest that I'm extremely excited about. Marlon Yoder is coming on to the Dale Jr. download, coming into the studio here and sitting at the desk. And Marlon left the Amish community at a young age to get involved in NASCAR. And he has had amazing success since doing that. I need to learn all about this. So let's get started.

The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. In a Dale Jr., back again. Hey, everybody's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. Boggangler Studio. Hey, everybody. In a way, it was scary.

But now, looking back, seeing what I do now and the type of person I've become, It's that challenge that I enjoyed. All right, so in the Bojangles Studio for the Allied guest segment, Marlon Yoder's coming in here. But I mentioned the Bojangles Studio, and don't forget, now through May 5th, you can get your hands on two free bird dogs. If you use the code Dale Jr., D-A-L-E-J-R at participating stores,

you have to order on bowjangles.com or on the app and you get those two free bird dogs using that code. I'm seeing these on my social media. So apparently a lot of people are very excited about this, being able to activate this code. It's still going with Bojangles. Only on the app or Bojangles.com. I mentioned Allies, the supporter of our guest segment.

They bring us great guests. And, yeah, so I'm excited about that. And this guest actually worked on the Ally, Chevrolet at one point in his career. And I mentioned how Marlon grew up Amish and left the Amish community. And, you know, we know that there's TV shows about this. And we're curious as to what goes behind that decision or how do you make that decision to leave the community. But then, you know, you're severing these very strong relationships with your parents and your siblings and friends.

but and you make that choice and there's no turning back. And so I am so curious to have this conversation and learn about what this must have been like for him. And not only that, he leaves knowing very little to nothing about racing and NASCAR and in a very short time ends up becoming the front end mechanic on one of the best teams in the sport and wins the championship. What are the odds of that? He's going to come in here and tell us all about it, so let's go ahead and get Marlin in the room. What have you been up to, man? I've been working a lot outside of my normal job.

Yeah. And then working on a race car. Yeah. Getting ready for your street stop. Yeah. Getting ready for the next race. So I ain't seen you since Florence. Me and you ran into each other at the, I guess the icebreaker.

Yeah. Right? You've been beating up on them street stock guys around here with that car yours? Yeah, it's been a really good couple of years. Yeah. When we decided to build that car, there's a backstory to it from when I race in Wisconsin where I get my butt beat all the time. So I wanted to build a car from the ground up that was going to be bad ass.

In fact, the guy, Travis McIntyre, that helped me build it, I told him I was going to build the baddest street stock in the country. And he was like, yeah, okay, you know. And then we started building it. And as we kept going, it took us a little over two years to do it. And then, man, it's the first year would have been 2021. With COVID, we were, I was traveling part-time on the five because of the roster cut. On your cup car.

Yeah. So we race 10 times that year, and we were on the pole like five times, and then we kept breaking stuff. Like we just wasn't finishing races. We won two races that year. And then last year, yeah, ran 18 races, 17 quick times, won 11 times. Yeah. So it was a really good year.

You got a special race car, man. but so the reason why I'd heard about your your story a little bit and I really wanted to bring you on to the show and I know you've done a few podcasts about your life and your choices and all of that but I wanted to dive into it today you were born Amish and left the community and so you know there's even been TV shows about this right that you can watch on TV to learn about you know that that lifestyle and and we've all i say we've all i mean if anybody's seen any of those uh those tv shows you you you see that it's a very difficult choice right to leave yeah so you're born in missouri right um y'all moved to wisconsin when you were nine yep right so when you were born um what i mean Are there levels, I don't even know where to begin yet, but I'm just going to go with my gut. Are there levels of strictness in terms of adhering to the traditional Amish ideals, right?

There is. There's levels, right? And so where would your family fall in? I'd say we were pretty much in the middle. Like if you have a scale of one to three, of three being super strict and then one a lot more lenient, Yeah, I'd say not only like my family, but the community where I grew up was probably right there in the middle. So what are some things that you were allowed that maybe the stricter community wouldn't have? I mean, there's a bunch of different things, but like a strict community, like super strict wouldn't be allowed to say have chainsaws.

Right. where they would have to do everything with the big cross saw, like the old school way. And where I grew up, we could have chainsaws. Okay. So why would one community maybe be different? Why was... It's kind of like an evolution, right? Through, it's just a very slow evolution.

But as time goes on, and if you get a certain group of people, in a community where they want to evolve more. Basically, like, once a year, the Amish have this, like, special segment on Sundays at church where they'll vote on if they want to allow something new, right? So if the, say, if the community isn't allowed to have chainsaws or to have cordless tools, they will, they'll bring it to the church. members' attention that they would like to to vote on that. So on Sundays, everybody

that has joined the church, that's members of the church, will vote yes or no if they would like to allow that. But it's sort of like at the same time it's kind of politics involved,

right? Because depending on who the bishop is, the bishop might say, yeah, this is not a good idea. so a lot of people will like follow his lead like if the bishop says no we're this is on the bishop's good side exactly right yeah and so um do they do these do these are I don't even want to say arguments do these voting uh instances become animated uh or is it hey man all right that's the vote and that's that's the way it is it's it's uh it is what it is and it's all unanimous.

Really? Yeah. So, yeah. It's got to be unanimous to win, right? So, no, so what I'm saying is like, you don't know what the next guy voted. Right. So, like, when they vote on Sundays, like, they go over to the separate room and they cast their vote and nobody knows who voted what.

That's kind of nice. Yeah. So you grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. Yeah. What is that? So it's like a slang of. German. It's sort of like a modern, like if I was to go to Germany, like their actual German that they speak there, I have a hard time actually understanding it, and I can speak

very little of it. It's like a, it's what pretty much all the Amish have, what they speak. And it's their first language, and it's the only language they use at home. Yeah. So I didn't learn English until I went to school. Okay. You didn't follow sports or nothing? Nope, not allowed. Not allowed. No football, no, and even if you were, besides reading it in the newspaper, like, you're not going to be able to follow it. Right. But so you could, you could keep up if you, if you read it in a newspaper. Yeah, if that was okay. You weren't supposed to. You weren't supposed to have a newspaper. You were, you were allowed to newspaper, but you weren't supposed to, like, follow sports. or be a sports fan or talk about it.

Yeah, like that's a no-no. And where I grew up. Now, some communities, like a community where it's less strict, they'll allow it. Do you look back on, you know, do you look back on that and find that fascinating? What is, how do you, when you think about some of that, is it, that's completely normal?

for for when you're there growing up like you don't you don't think about it you don't know because you don't know any different what about friends my impression is that um every part of your day is to be productive geared toward you know there's a lot of work and effort and and you have responsibilities and and i wouldn't i would say what we would you know call chores you know but yeah it's all because of this sort of, this sort of ultimate goal, right, of success for the family and for the community, right? Yeah. Where do friendships and relationships fall in?

A lot of that happens on Sundays. When you go to church on Sunday is when you get to see your friends. You don't get to hang out and shoot crap and BS and... No, like, I was never... During a week. And it's pretty common. Like you're not allowed to go, A, you don't have time. Right.

But you're not allowed to, like, go fishing with your buddies or to go hang out and do whatever. Like, that very solemn happens. If that happens, it's because the whole family went to see your cousins or something. Okay. But you did hunting fish. Family did hunt and fish, right? But it was to, it was because it was a, you know, there was a goal to catch fish and put food on the table. Put food on the table.

So you wouldn't do that with your buddies. You weren't allowed to, hey, man, y'all go catch a fish? Not generally, because we always had chores to do. What were your chores like? So, like, I'll walk you through a day. So you would get up early in the morning, you know, 5 o'clock in the morning generally, and go to the barn to do chores. And growing up, we always had between 20 and 30 horses, 80 beef cattle,

one or two milk cows that we milk by hand for the family's milk supply. We always had two dozen chickens, egg land chickens for our own egg supply. We always raised usually around a hundred meatbirds for chicken for the family through the year. We always had our own pigs for our own pork use. Like we raised everything, right? So you had, you had, you know, our own pigs for our own pork use. Like we raised everything, right? So you had morning chores. You had to get all the horses in, feed them grain. And that's when you had your day planned out, and you knew which horses you need to keep in the barn to get ready, whether you had to go down the road, go do field work that day, like, keep the work horses in, get them harnessed up. So you always had like an hour and a half worth of chores to do in the morning or an hour or something like that.

and then you would eat breakfast, and then in the later years there, my dad had his own sawmill. So I would go work in the sawmill for like an hour or so until I had to go to school. So go to school, come back from school, I go back to the sawmill, help my dad until, you know, 6 o'clock at night, and then go to the barn, do that same round of chores again. and then it was time for dinner and off the bed. Yeah. So one of the things that I think that Amish are really known for is a quality of work. And so when out on a hunting property that we own,

we've had some fence work done and lean two's built and the amount. and the quality of work is insane. Would you agree? Like, that's, is that like a pride and respect thing? It's just, like, there's this sort of perfection, even in something as simple as a fence? Yeah, I think that's a lot of it is just the perfection fact. Did your, I don't know.

don't know if you were in that you experienced this because of your dad's sawmill and every you know you worked in that in that circle in that bubble but when when someone in the community would go out to was it common or or did it did you did you ever know of anybody that would go out and do work for someone outside the community right yeah what would what is the what are the thoughts and concerns, I suppose, of that happening because I would assume I want to have the most, I want to be really respectful toward this because I do appreciate you and appreciate the Amish community and I don't want to be, I don't want to, I don't know nothing about it and I'm very curious to learn, but I would assume, right, for your family doesn't want you to leave.

Right, right? They don't want you to leave. And so there's this, there's a bit of an assumed risk when you, you. you or anyone in the community were to go out and do any work correct for someone outside of the community and so how how does that process happen with with that in mind does does what does the father have concerns does he share those concerns hey you're going to see things you're going to you're going to you're going to see things that you've never seen before you're going to experience someone doing something that you've never done or can do, right?

Yeah. What is the thought process behind that? Yeah, there's definitely a big concern about that because they don't want to expose the kids to the outside world. Right. They want you to see as little as possible. So, like, when they go to the grocery store, if they have to, like, they won't take you with.

Because, like, I remember when you, When I was pretty young, I was, I don't know, 11, 12 years old. I remember going with my mom to Walmart, and I don't remember what we went for, but we walked by the TV section, and I'm like, whoa, like, look at all this. This is so cool. Yeah, right? But, like, mom would, like, hustle me through there and, like, don't look at the TV.

Like, I wasn't allowed to look at it, but I'm, like, you know, checking it out. Sure. So, like, that, they tried to not expose you. to any of that so you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what's out there. You don't know that there's something else other than the life that you've been taught and lived. And then that plays into the working part of it too, is they will try to keep you at home

on the farm as long as possible until you're 18 or more to try to minimize that. And then as you get to be 18 to 21 years old, is when they kind of start releasing you to like, all right, you can go work for this construction guy that builds houses, right, or whatever. So it's common for Amish boys to seek employment outside of the community. And that was okay? The contractors are Amish. Oh, okay. So they work for Amish contractors that build house. build barns, whatever.

Out and about. Outside the community. Yes, that do work outside of the community. I got you. Dang. All right. And so that's probably the most vulnerable that you'll be. Pretty much.

Case in point, right? You're the case and point of that, right? And so, you're a great example. And so, all right, your 15 years old and a friend in the community gave you a radio. Right, and that's not allowed. No. Definitely not allowed. How much are you risking doing this?

At that point, I was risking on Sundays when we go to church. Like if I get caught with the radio, right? My dad's going to smash the radio, and then I'm grounded, which means on Sundays, when we go to church, right after church is done, you know, a lot of the, like my mom and dad would stand around, and BS with their friends for a couple, you know, hour and a half or whatever,

before you had to go home. Yeah. Well, that's when we got to have time with our friends. Yep. Well, if you got in trouble for something, like I'm within 10 feet of my dad all day. The rest of the day. For however long that I'm grounded for.

Yeah. Right? So now you don't get to see your friends. You don't go to hang out. And everybody knows why you're in trouble. Yeah. Because word gets out in a hurry, right? Yeah. Of why you're grounded.

So, so yeah, that's that, and then there's always more chores, right? You get in trouble for something like that. It's doing more. Yeah. That's like your, uh, so where'd you keep the radio? I hit it in the, in the hay barn, most of the time. That sounds like a place that it could get found. I had some, I had some pretty good spots.

What was it? Um, the first, first one, uh, the best spot I ever had was in the joist. above a door, but the only, well, not above a door, but beside a door. And the only way you could get to it was stand on the feed trough for the horses, where I would feed the horses. I would have to stand on that. And it was like up and over, like in behind a board. Yeah.

And I knew he'd never find that. And so where would you listen to the radio? So that's where I first kept the radio. And then I also, as I got braver, I would keep it in my bedroom. Jeez. That's when I got in trouble. So he did catch you? Yeah.

So. What were you doing? What, tell me, walk me through that. My mom found the radio when she was cleaning. Where was it? So I had a, I had a little dog and I had an old couch cushion that were, for the dog bed. Yeah. Well, I took that foam out of the couch cushion and I had hollowed a hole inside of that.

And that's where I hid all my stuff that I wasn't supposed to have. Did you have all the stuff side of the radio? Yeah, I messed around with, you know, smoking cigarettes. Oh, no. They could smell it. Like, it would be so, you know, like, there's no smoking cigarettes, so that, like, you could pick that up in a second. Yeah, I would always do that, like, Sunday afternoons,

which was usually, like, I listened to the radio sometimes at night before I went to sleep. Just super low. Yeah. Well, I always had earbuds. Like, that's the only way I could listen to it. But I was always scared, scared shipless that I was going to fall asleep with my earbuds on. And then I wouldn't hear my mom or dad hollering in the morning. And when they come up to wake me up, they're going to catch me, right?

So that was scary as shit. But most of the time when I listened to the radio would be Sunday afternoons. like we would get home from church and I'd go to the back 40. All right, go for a walk, right? So I would either saddle the horse and go riding or I'd just walk, clear to the back 40 and just hang out back on the hill. And they, I mean, you know, if you're a dad and your son's taking these walks or whatever, you know, going and disappearing for a bit, you've got to, you know, your dad's smarter than you think.

Oh, yeah. Right? And so he knows. what you're doing but he knows you're not just taking a walk no he that's why eventually would get caught because he they suspected something yeah so um what so you got the traditional punishment yeah yeah and that was embarrassing yeah um eventually though um who was the friend that gave you the radio do you remember uh alan where is he he is still in wisconsin um he owns his own business, building barns and pole barns and stuff. Is he in the community still? No, he left.

He actually left the Amish a year and a half before I did. So when I left, eventually, he's the one that helped me. Help you leave. Help me get a job. He picked me up. Yeah. He took me for my first haircut. Gotcha. So at one point, your radio, that radio gets smashed, right? you get another radio out of an old truck yep so this is a car radio or old style truck radio yeah it was a it was an old cab over semi truck and you're sitting in the weeds and you had to wire this thing to a battery yeah

till let's do it so you kept this down in the woods yeah yeah that I still to this day don't know how I ever figured that out how I first off took it out of the truck and like just like pulled the wiring out took the antenna out

took the antenna with like I took all that but then I don't ever I don't know how I ever got it wired up so it would work yeah I don't know how I knew like which wires were speaker wires which riders were power and ground like you messed with it I guess I just messed with it and you had it down on the back side of the farm right

Yeah. In the woods, you kept in a bag. Yep. So where's that radio? Is it still down there in the woods? When I left, it was still there? When I left, it was actually still in the barn. Oh.

So I'm sure. You got moved up to the barn? Yeah. So. Because I would take, we had a 12-volt battery in my buggy. So after I turned 16, Sunday evenings is when all this young folks would get together. Yes. And do our deal.

Do your deal. I had a 12-old battery. What do you mean do your deal? When you turn 16, until you get married, every Sunday night, all the young folks we called, we were called, we get together for, you know, I don't know, four hours or so, five hours maybe. And we would eat dinner, and during the winter we would play card games, play volleyball during the summer, that type of stuff. and then when you left there, if you were seeing a girl, you would take her home from there. Yes.

And that was like the dating scene. Right. But yeah, I had a, so my lights on the buggy were driven by a battery. A 12-volt battery. So when I got brave enough and I brought the radio in from the woods, I would put it in my buggy and take it with me on those occasions. What was that? What did your friends and the girl, I suppose,

think about, were they nervous? Like, I wasn't seeing a girl at the time. But you're playing this radio on the buggy? Yeah. Riding around? Yeah. But, well, that's the thing.

Like, you only tell, like, the ones you trust. The ones you trust. Right. In the Amish community, that's a very tiny, tiny circle. So you're talking, like. All right.

Why were you wanting this radio is about? What were you needing to listen to? I, it started with, I wanted to, I wanted to see what was out there, and I didn't have any way to know what's outside of the life I had without seeing it, listening to it, whatever, right?

And the first trigger of that was just to listen to music, because you weren't allowed to. What songs? What kind of music? Country. Country. Okay. Toby Keith, Alan Jackson. And we live kind of down in the hill,

so it's the only station that I would get. Gotcha. And then that's how I got started listening to the NASCAR races on Sunday afternoons. And I would do that. It's the only station I got. And then all of a sudden I'm hearing this crazy stuff on the radio. Right. And so that's interesting to me because I don't know.

I'm trying to put myself in your situation. I don't know that I would have been interested to listen to a NASCAR race when the music. Music is so incredible, right? And hearing something like that for the very first time, like you would. you'd be like, what else is out there music-wise, right, and not tuning into a sporting event, maybe something more traditional like football or baseball, major league baseball, right?

Something more Americana, right? Where, I mean, not that NASCAR isn't, but what was it about NASCAR that was so compelling? Well, there was a few things that played into that was, one, it was the only station I could get in. Okay. Two, that would make sense. My close group of friends would talk about this NASCAR racing thing.

How did they know about it? They had radios before I did. Yeah. And one of my buddies was Allen's brother, who ended up leaving the Amish about the same time I did. So they would talk about this NASCAR racing. So I was intrigued by it. Like, what's this all about? It involved fast and loud cars, right?

So that was part of it. Was the automobile itself this sort of missed, you know, sort of really curious thing? Because, right, you know, you probably wanted to own a car, right? Wanted to work on your own car, have a car? At that point. Was that part of it too? At that point, like I was 16, I wanted to drive a car. Right.

Like I just wanted to get behind a wheel and see what it felt like. That was also what drove you to be curious about motorsports, right? Yeah. These guys are racing cars, right? Yeah. I just wanted to drive and on a car. Yeah. I just wanted to get in something and drive down the road to see what it was like.

Yeah. Like, I was probably, I was probably 13, 14 before I realized that turn signals weren't automatic. Like, when you start turning the steering wheel, that the turn signal comes. on but it never made sense to me why it didn't do it in the driveway like I don't know like that was over my head yeah and when I discovered that I'm like damn that makes sense yeah right but like you're just so secluded um from everything but no so going back to to the NASCAR thing so my buddies would talk about it and I started listening to it and the PRN and MRN guys do an amazing job of painting this picture um like

you've you're to help people understand when would you let's not jump all the way i just want you to answer this simply when did you see your first race when did you actually get to see it the day i left okay so that was at what age i was 17 17 so you're listening to racing at 15 yeah right and you don't know what it looks like no idea no clue but you're painting that picture in your head by the voices of the MRN guys like Bagley and all those guys. They do it so well. That's impressive, man. Yeah, I don't know what a racetrack looks like.

I don't know what the cars look like. I've never seen it. Yeah, not even pictures. No. Damn. So, how, if there's 10 boys your age in the community, on average, how many are going to leave? Less than one.

Wow. Like, it's probably one. 100 honestly. No shit. Yeah, it's not. It's very uncommon. And then on top of that, 90% of the time they go back. Why did they, the first year? Why did they go back? The biggest thing is they miss their family. They're used to such a tight-knit group of their family, their friends, people, you know, in Amish community, like where I grew up, there was 50 or 60 families. So, So you know everybody. Yeah.

And now all of a sudden, you're out in a world all by yourself. You've got nobody. You have nobody. And trying to navigate that is probably as neat as something as simple as going to get something for lunch at a fast food restaurant might be. There's probably a bunch of very frightening, you know, etiquette. Yeah. just people can be rough, right? Yeah.

And they're not always going to have the grace for somebody who's out in this world for the first time, right? I imagine it could be pretty, you know, uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. Right. So I want to talk to you about your thoughts of leaving. When did you first start thinking about it? I was 16.

And how is your relationship with your family, your mother, your father? How much of, how difficult was that? I didn't have a good relationship with my dad. Why not? He was a super hard, super, super hard guy to work for, work with. He was always super hard on me, which now looking back, like I don't regret it. Yeah.

Because I learned, he, like, he taught me a lot. At the time, I thought he was a asshole, you know, which he could be at times. Sure. I mean, at some point, everybody is. Yeah. So I didn't have a good relationship with my dad through, you know, that 15, 16, 17, 17-year-old, which I don't think is super uncommon, maybe. Not really.

No. What about your mother? I always got along good with my mom. Is the relationship, like, you know, I'm pretty emotional in terms of, like, my connection to my family, my dad, my kids. Is it, is the Amish way of life, it appears that there's a lot less emotion, I guess.

Yeah, they don't show any. Right? In the personal relationship, whether it's brother to sister, son to mother. In what relationship is there that connection and that emotion? Does the mother-daughter's relationship have that? Man, there's not much. Why?

I don't know. Like, I cannot remember one time, not once, that I heard. my mom and dad tell each other that they love them or that they loved us kids they like you just don't show emotion they they like I don't I don't really remember ever like my mom and dad showing each other emotion like love right like it just is that does that common or is it just do you think more unique to your family it's pretty common yeah um I have it I am I I don't know. It might have been a little bit more.

But it's pretty common. But that's normal. Yeah, it's pretty normal. It's okay. Yeah. So like, so now. Let me ask you this. Like when you're, did you ever have a girl in the community that you, that you had, you know, feelings for that you liked? Did it ever at any point? I did. Right. And so, you know, how do you navigate that?

Knowing the traditional sort of approach, you know, to relationships that you just mentioned between your parents and siblings and when you're starting to have these feelings for someone else for the very first time, right, how do you manage that? You know, when I'm young and I'm, you know, I'm in school and I get the hots for this girl, we just kind of we let them know and we go about our you know we we try to go out and go get some food or whatever and do whatever we want and you hope that it works out and you hope she likes you and whatever happens happens but i imagine in in your world it's in only being able to be around that person a very small part of the week right it's this very very yeah frustrating process that's so

slow yeah that and then I was never I was never I wasn't old enough nor joined church so I couldn't why explain that to me like you hadn't joined the church officially yeah so what was the process of that so like the from what I understand it's standard out here for like you to baptize your baby right yeah you're the kid when they're small. Yep, right? Well, for the Amish, they don't do that. They wait until you're 16 to 18, 19 years old

for you to make that decision on your own that you want to get baptized. And when you do, that's when you become a member of the church. Okay. When you get baptized. So until you're baptized, you are not allowed to date. You're not allowed to see girls.

You're not... Did y'all break those rules? Or were you tempted to break those rules just like you were with the radio? I mean. Absolutely. Yeah. But you had to be super secretive. You had to be careful with it.

You didn't trust anybody because people would just talk. They would want to, I could see maybe somebody like, you know, governing, like older kids. Like, you're not allowed to do that. I'm going to tell. Absolutely. That happened a lot. Right. It's like a self-policed.

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NC.com. With the NASCAR season well underway, it seems like the new die cast releases from Lionel racing just keep on coming. You got Chase Elliott's universe throwback. That's the throwback to my victory in the 2014 Daytona 500. There are late model diecast built on Lionel's brand new tool that we were begging them to release. And then you have the raced win cars that Lionel offers every week. For collectors like myself, it can be a lot to keep up with. So if you want to make sure that you don't miss an important diecast when it's,

offered, then you'd be wise to sign up for the latest news from Lionel Racing, the official diacast of NASCAR. To sign up, just go to the homepage of lionelracing.com, scroll to the sign up for emails box and enter your email. It's that easy. And for the latest diecast content, don't forget to follow Lionel Racing on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok. So going back to the decision to leave, what are your apprehensions? The biggest one was I was scared Of what?

Of leaving and like being on my own And then I knew If my dad was ever to get a hold of me Like I better run as fast as I can run So if you made the choice to leave And he then when you make the choice to leave,

you're also making the choice to never see them again, right? Correct. But if he were to see you later, he would be upset and he would make that known? Or is it like, hey, man, you made your choice, your problems, see you later? No, I knew that if my dad got a hold of me, the day that I decided to leave and I told them that I was going to leave

it wasn't going to happen like I was probably going to get my ass beat right so you couldn't tell them so I couldn't tell them damn but a lot of kids do they tell them they tell their parents like I'm leaving like I'm leaving like I'm this isn't working

right I'm going to leave so I was scared of my dad so I wasn't going to tell them like I'm going to sneak out right be gone so so once I the really the trigger that that that I'm like all right I'm done I'm going to leave was I got caught with cigarettes and my dad grounded me for a month or something and I'm just like man this is this is too much for a couple cigarettes you know but and I was just over it I was over it I was over it wanted a different life. I wanted, I was curious about the outside world. So I made the decision like from the time I was like, I don't know, to, I'm leaving was like overnight. Yep. What do you do?

So it's Sunday morning, March 9th, 2008. I have five siblings. So we had a double-seater buggy that mom and dad would take to church with four of the siblings. And then I would take the single-seater buggy with my sister that was just younger than me. How much younger? A year. Okay. A little over a year. So she was going.

I'm sorry. Are you and your sister and your other siblings very close? Is there like any kind of a trust bond where you might share how you're feeling? No. No one has a clue. No, because I knew if I told anybody, they were going to go straight to mom and dad. Yeah, immediately. Immediately.

Okay. Because that's a, like, that's just a no-no. You're on an island. Yeah. All right. So I, mom and dad always left first to go to church, and then I would leave, you know, five, ten minutes after them with my sister. So, mom and dad leave. usually when I would be done with chores

Sunday morning I would go to the house get dressed for church and then I would come back out hitch the horse to the buggy pull up to the house my sister would get in and we go so this day I didn't go to the house to get ready

but nobody noticed mom and dad and the rest of the family leaves I get the horse ready I pull up to the house my sister comes out and I said you're going by your yourself I'm not going to church today. Didn't tell her I'm leaving. I just said I'm going

I'm not going to church today. Was that uncommon? Oh yeah, you don't do that. Yeah. You don't rebel like that, right? So. What's you saying? Oh, she started crying right away because she knew. She said, are you leaving?

So she did love you. Yeah? Yeah. So there was a relationship and you just weren't allowed to you know, so there was some emotion. Yeah. it just you're not allowed to show it yep and she you think she you know loved you like a like a traditional i think so yeah and that was that was tough i bet for her yeah so she starts crying she's gonna but she knows how to take this thing to church oh yeah she's gonna do it yep so i said you're

going to church by yourself today i'm not going so she said you're leaving aren't you i said don't worry about it, just go to church. And she leaves and I'm like, all right, I got to go. Yeah, you got to, because I know she's going to go to church and tell dad, of course, and dad's going to turn around, come right back home, so I got to be gone. Yep. So I run across the street to our neighbors. This guy drove an 18-wheeler and he had a big shop and he had an office. And he had an office out there with a phone in the office. And whenever my dad needed to use the phone for business reasons or whatever,

he would go use this guy's phone. Like they had like this deal worked out. So I had never used the phone before. Damn. Ever? No. So I'm like, so but as soon as my sister leaves, I'm like, all right, I'm going to go call Alan.

Well, I had his phone number memorized just because I knew one day I was going to need it. Damn. And I run across the street and I tried to dial it and it wouldn't go through. Like I'm dialing the number and it's just like I forget what it told me. Yeah. It wouldn't go through. And then I remembered like I sat there for a minute.

I'm like, man, what am I doing wrong? Like I know that's the number. I know it's right. And then I remembered like some couple years ago, long time ago, I remembered somebody talking about dialing one before the phone number. Yeah. So I'm like, I'll try that. And boom, it went through. Oh, damn.

And I'm like, whew. So he didn't answer. Oh, no. I'm like, shit. So I leave him a voicemail. And he, I knew he worked at a farm to where, like, he would work in a milk parlor. He milked cows for some big farmer. Yeah.

So I'm like, all right, well, hopefully he's almost done milk and cows, and he'll get my voice. smell. So I told him who I am, where I'm at, and I want to leave. Like, I need him to come pick me now, now, ASAP. I go back over the house, and I had a radio again. So I put my headphones in. I'm sitting in the recliner. We had a big bay window that pointed out towards the road that goes up the hill. I'm sitting in this big bay recliner, or this recliner by this window, and listen to music, but watching the road, because I know I've done. dad's coming back, he's coming back down that hill right there. So you're either waiting on this buddy to come get you or your dad.

It's one of the others. It's one or the other. But I trusted that Al was going to make it. Like I don't know why. I didn't like just tell Al to pick me up like a mile down the road or something. Like looking back like that was kind of dumb. I know. I'm like, damn, I wouldn't have been nowhere near where my daddy would have been coming.

Yeah. But like church was like six miles away. And that's a long ways to go with a horse and buggy at, you know, six miles an hour. Okay. But I forgot that dad would be, you know, hitting 25 mile an hour on the way back. Because I knew which horse he had. Because I figured that he would jump in the single-seater that my sister just showed up with and come back. So I'm sitting there and waiting and waiting and watching a clock and watching a clock. And it's like, man, this is like this is taking too long.

just saying good and all of a sudden here comes a horse and buggy absolutely flying down the road and it's my dad and I'm like like I'm s-o-l like I got to I got to do something so I'm like running all these scenarios through my head if I just run out back or like do I just go upstairs lock myself in my bedroom Al's going to show up at some point like I just know he is and so I'm like, all right, I'll go upstairs and lock my bedroom, right, lock my door. And that was fit to be tied. So he's in the house. He comes in, and he is about to knock my bedroom door off the hinges and drag me to church.

Like, he's telling me I'm grounded for X amount of time, like I'm in all this trouble, and I need, you know, I need to get out of there before he rips a door off the hinges, he's going to drag me to church, like, who do I think I am and all this stuff, right? And I'm just like, shh, it's not a good situation. And this is going on for like a couple minutes. It seemed like forever. And I hear a car pulling in the driveway. So I look out my window and it's out.

He pulls in, makes a U-turn, stops at the sidewalks. And my dad says, well, who's that? I'm like, oh, here we go. And so I told him. So that's Al. And everybody knew who Al was because he lived not far away. Yeah. And he had left.

Yeah. He'd left like a year and a half, maybe a year and a half before that and stayed in the area. So dad says, well, what's he doing here? I said, he's here to pick me up. he says what do you mean i said i'm i'm i'm leaving like i'm leaving with al he's here to pick me up and my dad's attitude like change 180 degrees right and he started crying and i i'd never seen my dad cry yeah ever like i'd never seen real tears and begged me begged me to not leave and he sits so he goes downstairs and i didn't i didn't have anything to take with me like i had like

i don't know four dollars and something and like quarters and pennies and stuff i put that in my pocket and i got to go downstairs and walk past him and he's sitting on a recliner and absolutely like has lost it and is begging me to not go not do not walk out that door do not step out that door and I said no like my decision is made I'm I'm not gonna go back on that like I'm gonna leave and I walk out and Al wasn't expecting to see a buggy a horse and buggy there so he's like nervous he's like who's that like what's that buggy doing here I said that's my dad let's go so So I get in and we leave. And that was Sunday morning of that day.

And it's now looking back, I'm like, man, I could have handled that a lot differently. Why? How? My thoughts about it is I wish your dad would have asked you to stay the night and it'd let you leave the next day, you know, so that y'all could have had a minute to at least sort of explain. he knew you probably going either way right right and then maybe I don't know him but having like just a minute to to come to some terms right some sort of common ground and I probably wouldn't have done that because I wouldn't have wanted to face my mom oh because like I broke her heart right like way more than dad right like that so I would that would have been tough

I was like I did not want to do that. So you left driving out the driveway, man. Are you, is this giant freaking weight falling off your shoulder? Do you remember feeling the freedom? Do you remember feeling liberated or what was the emotion? It was some of that of a relief that I finally did it. I left like I'm leaving. But at the same time, I've got this whole.

whole ass world in front of me that I don't know anything about like I I know very very little about what's going on outside of what I grew up doing so in a way it was scary but now looking back and looking and and seeing what I what I do now and the type of how the person I've become It's that challenge that I enjoyed as I'm learning all these things when I leave. Yeah. And yeah, it was scary for sure. What'd you do? It was the first thing you did?

First thing we did was we go to town on the way back to Allen's house, and we stopped at Walmart. And there was a cost cutters, haircut cut in place. And, of course, I had the Amish haircut, like, long hair all the way down. And Al takes me in this haircut place. And I'm, like, looking around, like, I don't know anything. Like, it's all new to me. Yeah.

And he says, yeah, I want to get this Amish boy a haircut. And it's not the first time he had done that. And so the ladies in there knew him. And they were like, all right, what do you? Not the first time that he's brought somebody out of the community? Yeah. Oh, heck. Al's got a reputation.

Big time. Yeah. It was not good for him for a while. But so, so yeah, they asked me, what do you want? Like, what cut do you want? I'm like, what do you mean? Right. So Al tells them what to cut me.

They cut my hair. And then we go walk around Walmart. I'm like checking everything out. I'm like, man, this is wild, you know. And he's, like, talking about video games and TVs and stereos and stuff. And so then he buys me some blue jeans and some T-shirts. Yeah. Because I didn't have anything, right?

Nothing. had you born traditional like no you'd never worn anything like that right and so what what was that was it comfortable was it uncomfortable did you feel it was weird right you feel like you're dressing in a far you know like I would imagine like going and wearing some you know something foreign that you know yeah it might be common in that country right but you're not like I don't want to wear that that's not what we wear like when I go overseas I dress like this and people look at me because I look funny, right? Because I don't dress like of people that live there.

So maybe in something like that. Yeah, it was. It was strange. So you're... I didn't care because, like, I'm like, I got to get out of these Amish clothes ASAP. Right. In those first couple of hours,

is any of your mind, not wanting to go back, but is any of your mind, like, thinking about how your mom's reacting? Right? how your family is sort of processing this. Yeah. How did you feel about that?

I mean, you can't communicate. You can't go back. You can't call them, right? Hey, Mom, you're doing okay? Is that the way I, when I have something going on in my life that I can't control or I can't fix, right? And there's an ultimate result that maybe I don't love.

I just have to put it on I just have to put it on the sideline right it is what it is and I can't I I try to put a bunch of distance between me and that thought and that emotion right and eventually it will disappear in the background I mean is that kind of the method

yeah that's that's why it came down to not only those first couple hours but for weeks I couldn't sleep at night damn so like I had to figure out a way because I was determined I was going to make it. I was going to survive. I was going to be successful.

And like going back was not an option. So like I had to work. I had to make money. I had to find a place to live because I could only stay with Al for so long. So like I had to save up money to buy a vehicle. I wasn't 18 yet. So trying to navigate, okay, I can't get my license until I'm 18. So like all these things, I knew my mom and dad weren't going to give me my social security number, my birth certificate, and I needed all of that stuff.

How did you manage that? How did you get it? That was another very bad situation. Once I turned 18, I asked my mom and dad multiple times because they would, at some point, they started, they started, would call me. Really? Yeah. Well, my dad didn't.

My mom does. All right. So I was wondering, like, have you heard from them? So, yes, there was some communication immediately after you left. There was, and within, like, a week, because they knew where Alan lived. Okay. So they knew how to get a hold of you. So they come down there.

They came there physically. Yeah. And saw you. Yeah. And tried to drag me home. Like, begged me. Physically or just? No, just begging you.

Begging me. Like, mom. I'm lost, you know, it was, it was hard. Yeah. Like, it was hard to see my mom that way. What were you trying to tell her? I told her, I told them that I didn't want to live Amish. Like, I wanted something different.

I wanted to drive a car. I wanted to have electricity. I wanted to listen to music, you know, watch TV. Like, there was all these things that I wanted to do. and have that I can't have. And they weren't, and there's no compromise. No, there's none. Yeah.

So please come back. Yeah. So they, I think they came down twice, came to his house twice. And by the end of the second round, dad just basically said, well, you're not welcome back on the farm. Don't even come visit unless you're coming to stay. So don't even come. Right.

Don't even come by. So, and then time went on. They, mom would call me a couple times a year. She still does. Really? So you hear from you remember. What are those conversations like? There.

Is she curious of what you're doing, catching up on you, how you're living? So it took about 10 years for that to happen. Well, closer to 50. 12 years. Yeah. That for a long time, they never asked me what I do, how my life is. Even after I moved from Wisconsin to here and got into racing and all of that, they never, they never asked me.

It's like they didn't want to know what I do. Yeah. And it wasn't until just a couple of years ago, where they got curious enough, I guess, or they, like, I don't know, just what, they laid everything else off to the side, whether it's their church stuff or whatever, like they decided that they want to know about my life.

Yeah. And they've, they've, mom started all of that. Dad didn't. Like, dad still wouldn't have those conversations until last winter. I was actually, went back for over Christmas time. And me and my dad actually had a really good conversation. The first one?

No, no. The first conversation? No, I've been back multiple times. You go back and visit. I do. I go back about once a year. And you stay in the house. For a couple hours, yeah.

You're not able, you don't spend the night. No, my mom wants me to, but I don't. Sure. You won't do it. Would your dad allow it? He would. Yeah. How about your siblings?

They're all married. they're all married and their lives are... Yeah, they've all got families. Down the road with their lives. Do you see them? I generally do when I go back, either on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Like if I get off time off of work, I go there. And mom always will call me like a couple weeks before Thanksgiving to see if I'm coming

up over Thanksgiving or Christmas and figure out a day. I'm jumping way ahead. But so when you're... When your mom and your dad ask about what you're doing and what you've done, have they seen the, have they seen any of the imagery of you as a mechanic in the cup series as a champion? No.

They don't know what that looks like. No. But you've had conversations where you've done your best to describe what your life's been like. Do you tell them, when you tell them that, that I've had this great journey and I've achieved X, Y, and Z. Are they, do they show, are they proud? Are they?

I don't, I don't know if they're proud or not. Part of me says they, I think they are, but they would never say that. But they'll never tell me that, if they are. But you, they ask what you're, you know, they, what, just, I guess, tell me, help me understand, like, kind of what the conversation is like with your dad, that good one that you said you just had this past winter. Like what was good? Why was it good? Yep, that conversation was good because dad has never,

we've never had a conversation about what I do, whether it's my personal racing that I do or my racing, my racing career as a mechanic. Yeah. Dad has never asked me about that. So how did it go? Mom kind of kicked the conversation off. We're sitting around the dinner table talking, and mom kind of asked a couple of questions.

about like, well, how's your racing going, you know? And so I tell them, and then dad, like, starts asking questions. Dad's big into, like, he likes, like, engines and that type of stuff. So he starts asking those type of questions, and he's never done that before. So it ended up being a good conversation, just they don't understand it. Like, they don't understand. They can't picture the different. of the car, my street stock that I race that I drive versus Kyle Larson.

Right. Like they, that's the same. It's the same. So do you tell your mom that you win? Yeah. I did last fall. It's so weird. So like I tell them this and they can't, they can't fathom the difference between what I do at the

short track, the local short track, versus the big cup stuff. That's why I'm wondering, I mean, I know they're not. I imagine this would be against their practices or you know, you wouldn't, you wouldn't be able to come to the house with an 8 by 10 and say, here's me winning in a championship. So this is what this looks like. They would look at it. They would look at the picture. They would give it to my siblings to look at it.

And then they would throw it away. Oh, you wouldn't be a cake. They wouldn't keep it. Oh, right. And if you gave your mother a trophy. They she wouldn't keep it like she'll give it back. Yeah. Because it like it's just they're not allowed. I get it. I mean there's there's there. They're still there that that world there in is that that's the world. Yeah. Right. And so no disrespect, but this is this trophy means nothing to me. Yeah. When I. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So like it's weird. Uh, last time I talked to my mom about it last Christmas, she's like scared. of fame.

Like fame is a bad thing. Dangerous. Yeah. It's not, it's against their rules, obviously. Like,

it's just because it's not how they're, how they live. Like prosperity, like they don't like it. They're just, they don't, they don't like that type of stuff.

So, mom is concerned that the racing I'm doing, I'm going to become famous and like it's it's going to be it's going to change me as a person or like in and in her eyes like that's a bad thing right so like I told her I'm like no like I'm not going to be famous like the racing I'm doing is just a hobby like that's just what I so then trying to explain to them like the the difference in the racing versus my the car i drive versus the car i work on at work yep you know the millions of dollars of of difference that it is of what i do yeah but it's just it's and you'll never be able to take them to it no never i got to i'm so relieved man that you still communicate with them because the traditional idea for people like myself is that once you leave

year you never go back, you never communicate, it's over. You have to completely lose that life. You don't get to choose. Yeah, so there was one span probably about two or three years after I left where they were really hard on me to come back. Like every time mom would call, it was a one-sided conversation begging me to come back, like come back Amish. You know, what you're doing is wrong, I'm going straight to hell, like all these things. And finally I said, you know what? I'm not going to do this anymore. I told her, I said, I'm not going to answer any of your phone calls anymore.

You flipped it. And if you want to have a father or a mother, son, or a father's son conversation, once you decide that you can do that and we don't talk about you trying to get me to come back. I've already made my decision. I'm not going to come back. You might as well accept that. And it took them about 10 years to accept that.

I mean, they probably still haven't really. They don't love it. Yeah. So it went about two and a half years until finally, because my mom will send me a couple letters a year or two. And one of her letters, she said that she wanted to talk and that they wouldn't bombard me with that anymore.

Nice. And that she just wanted to have a mother some conversation. Yes, she just missed you. Wanted to stay in touch. Dang, that's cool, man. You went to local racetracks. Now, you're out, right? You're on your own.

Did you tell Al, hey, man, I love racing. how do I go to races, right? How does this happen? So the day I left, we go back to his house, the Atlanta race is on. It's Sunday. That afternoon. Yeah.

I've never seen a race. Was he a fan? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, avid race fan. He wouldn't miss any of the top three series. So, and he was Jimmy Johnson fan. and we

so we sit there the race starts and I'm like what like this is amazing like this is incredible because I didn't I didn't know what it was like besides listen to it I had never actually seen it in picture

all right you're in that moment of your life as far from being a mechanic as you could possibly be Oh, yeah. Your buddy is a Jimmy Johnson fan, and you ultimately would end up winning a championship, right?

Yeah. Working on Jimmy's car. Right? Or Kyle's car? Kyle's car. But you worked on Jimmy's car in the last couple of years of his career, right? That seems like the most impossible thing. Yeah.

Looking back now, I, I, I, I, I, Still don't understand how this has all unfolded. So that's what's so incredible and why you're here today is because obviously I'm curious about the choice to leave the community and what that must be like and never have I been able to actually have somebody who's done that to talk to and ask the questions of you. But then you not only get involved in motorsports, but you reach the pinnacle of it. It's like a one and a million chance. I know. It's, do you really know that?

Do you realize that? It honestly, it never really hit me until like, until after, probably about a year after we won the championship in 21 with Larson. I win that championship and I built my own street stock. and it's super fast and then it just kind of hits me and I'm like and I think when it really hit me

was when I was talking to somebody about that about how I left and now and looking back it seems yeah impossible like there's like no chance of that happening. You're a 12 year old in that barn one morning

you I couldn't I wonder I mean the odds are ridiculous of you accomplishing what you did. I wonder what that odd would be. I mean, the odds are you one to a hundred of you even leaving. Yeah. Right? Much less, what are you going to make yourself when you go out there?

You could be anything. You could become anything. And it seems like you chose one of the more, most, more challenging paths. But you go to local racetracks. Yeah. Right? So that day that I left, we're watching at Atlanta race. And their pit stops are going on. And I point at the TV, I said, ow, like, why are they putting worn out tires back on the car?

Like, why would they do that? He says, oh, no, man. He says, those are racing slicks. Like, those are race tires. And I'm like, what? Because I'd never seen anything like that. The only thing I'd ever seen was tread of tires on cars. So, yeah, so fast forward a couple months.

we start going to the Dells, Slinger, to watch the races every Saturday night. Sitting in the stands. Sitting in the stands. I bet that was insane. That was... Some grassroots short track stuff.

Yeah, that was some of the best times. Like, just to try to understand what's going on. Sure. We watched it on TV. Processes, right? Yeah, like, how does this all work? And then so we sit there, and we're watching and watching every...

weekend and finally we were like we watched the the hobby stocks peer stocks uh we're watching them and we're like you know we could do that we could we could we could buy one of those is you and al yeah this is me al and his brother okay because his brother had left a couple months after i did got you we're like we could buy a race ready car because we don't know how to work on it like we certainly can't build right but we could buy one that's race ready what is your employment at the time I was roofing. Okay. Doing a lot of roofing.

So like, winters were slow because it's cold. But, yeah. So we decide to split it. All three of us go in. We're going to go buy a car. So we find one that had won the championship at Slinger in, like, the 90s. Old. It was an old car.

And so we buy this thing, and we have. have nothing but problems. Like we just we have overheating problems every weekend and we don't know why. We just just problem after problem. And then like Al's driving it because I'm not 18 yet. His brother is barely 18. So I'm trying to work on this thing, trying to figure out I, you know, how to wrench on stuff. And he would come in after practice and be like, yeah, it's, you know, it's pushing. it won't turn in the middle of the corner, like it just won't turn and won't turn. And we didn't know how to fix it.

Well, you're going to have to like figure it out because we don't know. And then finally we like would get together and we would split up and we would all go different directions down pit road.

And we're like, I'm going to go talk to this guy down here. Like he's pretty fast. You know, tell him what the car is doing and see what he says to do to the car to fix it. Right. Like to make it better.

And we would all do that. We would come back and we'd all three have different answers, like completely opposite. And we're like, yeah, so what do we do now? Yeah. Right? And we didn't know, like, most of the people,

or some of the people are not going to tell you the truth. Tell you the truth. We didn't know that that's how it is. And so we did that. We struggled through, but we had a blast. Man, it was, it was, we had so much fun, you know, riding to the racetrack on an open trailer. half-time pickup truck, you know, barely anything for tools.

Just, man, it was a, those were some, it was some, it was like, it was a lot of fun. But like, we were just there, we weren't there to, to like, oh, we're going to try to win today. Like, we were just there to have fun and, like, enjoy the experience. Yeah. You know, yeah, it was, that's, and that's where it really. The bug. the bug really bit. So you start driving this car? So that car I tested a few times like when we go on a Saturday or a Friday or Wednesday night test or something. I drove it a little bit, not a much

until 20, 2014 where my finances got better and I was making more money and I'm like, all right, now I can afford to, we can do something different here. So me and Malin, Al's brother, we decided we're going to go buy another car. Me and him would split that, right? So we do that, and we're going to split driving duties in 2014. We had an engine built for this car that we bought, and we're like we're going to run all season. We'll split duties and see if we can win the rookie of the year, you know, do something like that. And we go out the first, first day, first race day, we got out in practice and the motor's freaking smoking.

Like, it's bad. There was something wrong with it so we couldn't race. So we just spent like $3,500 on this motor. So we're like, damn, like, now we can't, we don't have an engine. And the guy that built it was being pretty difficult to work with. And so we were like, well, our next option is to buy a crate motor, but we were going to have to wait a few months and save some money. So that's what we did.

So by the end of it, it was a couple months later. We'll go buy another engine. And like this whole time, like up until 2014, we, I didn't have a lot of wrenching experience besides what I was doing. Yeah. But going into. 2014, I was starting to help a lot of super late model guys work on their car. So like after work, if I wasn't working on my car, I would go work on, help them on their

super's like getting their late models ready for Saturday and then go with them to the racetrack on Saturday night. So we get our car put back together and then we're like, you know what? It's only like seven races left in the season or something. We'd be better off if only one of us drove it so we can get better feedback and figure out how to make this thing, how to make this car better, and then figure out what we're going to do next year and split driving duties next year or buy another car or something.

So we decided I would drive that those seven races, I think it was either seven or eight races. And it went okay for not really knowing still what we were doing. I had met a couple of guys at that point that were trying to help us that would give us advice that was truthful and accurate and we like for we would have like 15, 16 cars and I would generally almost qualify in the top six so I would be able to run a fast dash and which was like a eight lap

yeah like heat race and that was a big deal because then they would invert the the fast dash guys and that's how you started the feature yeah and uh so yeah it was it was it was it was it was quite the experience it was what makes you move to north carolina uh towards the end of 14 i was working a lot working on my car or our car trying to get that thing better like trying to to figure out how to go faster. I wanted to learn more. And I was almost every night of the week helping buddies on their cars, their late models,

for multiple reasons. One was I wanted to learn how to work on a car, how to make it go faster. Yep. So by the end of 2014, I'm like, man, like I'm war out. Like I'm working all the time on race cars at night. And I loved it.

I freaking, it was amazing. So I'm like, man, I wonder if I could go to North Carolina. Because at that point, like, I had kind of figured out that this is where everybody was. Everybody's in Charlotte. And I wonder if I could go to North Carolina and get a job to work on race cars for a living. And I had raced against a guy, never talked to him, but I raced against him a couple times at the Dells in 14. and I had seen he had moved here. So the first two weeks of 15 in January,

I took off of work, which wasn't a big deal. It was snowing and windy, so we weren't doing roofs. And I drive to North Carolina. I'm going to go find a job. I gave myself two weeks. If I can't find a job in two weeks, then I'll figure something else out. I'll stay in Wisconsin.

for another year and try to figure out a different route or something different. And, of course, I had a bunch of resumes made up. And, I mean, there was nothing on it, right? I was a roofer that worked on my buddy's late models and did a little bit of my own racing. So I came down and got a long-term, like, hotel thing, motel thing. And I stayed there. and every day I would go

to race shops I would hit like six or seven or eight race shops a day everywhere Moresville Concord I was everywhere anything from modified teams late model teams

cup teams it didn't matter I dropped one off here really? Yeah and the first week goes by and on Friday I talked to an ARCA team down in the drag strip park

and he sounded somewhat promising that he would consider me so I'm like all right that's my first hit right everybody else was like didn't want to talk to me didn't have time like yeah put your resume in there we'll look over it right the second week rolls around

Monday comes and goes we're driving all the way all over the place two my buddies came down with me just to hang out Yep. And Monday, nothing. Tuesday, it was like mid-morning. I stopped by Richie Waters, Waters Motorsports, late model team. And he was doing some truck stuff too as well.

And I walk in, there's like, I walk up and there's nobody in the office. Like the office is empty. I can see through the glass windows. So there's a door off to the side that says employees only. And I'm like, well, like, yeah, let's see what, you know, what's behind this door? Because at this point, I don't have anything to lose. So I open the door and I look in and there's like a bunch of late models lined up. And I'm like, man, that's awesome, right?

So I walk in and there's two guys working on a setup plate. One younger kid about my age and another guy, older guy, it wasn't that old, but grumpy old feller, Bobby Gill. I walk up to him and Bobby looks at me like I'm in the wrong place. Like, what are you doing in here, you know? But that's just how he was. So I'm like, yeah, here to drop off a resume. And I'm like sweating bullets.

I'm like, man, I shouldn't be in here, right? So I'm handing my resume. He says, yeah, boss is upstairs. I'll get it to him. I'm like, all right, thanks. and I go out the door and I'm like, well, that was a waste. Like, he's going to throw that right in a trash can. And so we sit in the parking lot for probably five minutes,

and I'm on my maps trying to figure out where this archa team was that I was at Friday, because I hadn't heard from him, so I'm like, I'm going to drive over there and just show my face again, like, see what I can make happen. and so we leave and my phone rings and it's a 704 number and I'm like all right this is that archa team calling me so I answer it and it's Richard Waters he says hey he just dropped the resume off yeah can you come back talk I'm like yeah absolutely it'll be right there so make a you turn go back and I go up in his office and we sit down and we talk and work out a deal, talked in for like 20 minutes,

shook his hand, I told him I could start on Monday. Yeah. This was Tuesday. And I'm like, okay, like, I'm starting Monday. I still got to go back home to get my stuff and take my buddies back and come back and find a place to live. Yeah. So we go back home.

Before we went home, I messaged this guy that had race against in 14, but I'd never met him. I'm like, hey, like, I'm in the area and, like, looking for a job. So I had met up with him, like, over that weekend. He's like, yeah, if you get lucky enough to get a job, like, yeah, you can sleep on my couch, you know? So I call him after I left Richies, hey, I need a place to stay. next week and I go home. Yeah, that's how that's how it started. Loaded up my stuff and came back and started working for Richie.

So you go to the Snowball Derby with Richie in 2015. There you established contact at MDM Motorsports. You worked for them in 2016 under Marty Lindley, who's here. You ran K&N East in an arc series with drivers like. Kyle Benjamin and Harrison Burton and Zane Smith, and that's recent. Yeah. You had a cousin that worked over at Gannasi and got you hooked up over there to interview with Chad on the 48 car for Jimmy Johnson.

Yeah, so Ron, Ron Malick, was car chieffing on the 48. So his now wife, Ashley, was at Gnassie. so my cousin Rubin was in con like knew her yep so that's how the contact happened with Ron do you remember going into Chad's office or did you have a yeah so you'd been around for let's say three and a half years kind of so the conversation with Chad actually started in early of 18 like like the end of 17 yeah so had been at been at MDM for two years but Chad wouldn't hire me he said I didn't have enough experience right like I was way too green I didn't know what I was doing sure I'm like man all right so we talked that whole

winter like back and forth and then Ron came off the road Jesse becomes a new car chief and now I'm like in contact with him he's he's Jesse's still trying to get me on January rolls around and I tell him, I'm like, look, I'm going to commit to MDM and to Marty to work for them for 2018 through the championship. We're running for the championship with Zane Smith and ARCA. So I'm not going to walk out halfway through the season. So, like, just so you know. So I would really like to make this happen, like if we can. And Chad wouldn't do it. He said I didn't have enough experience still. So I'm like, all right. So it goes a couple months into the season. My phone rings. It's chat. He says, hey, I need a mechanic. I'm like, so as time had gone on from when I

became a race fan and like figured out how the sport was, the 48 was the pinnacle, when I moved here, that was my goal. I wanted to work for the best team. for the best crew chief driver combination, like they were the best. Yeah. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the best, be part of the best, beat the best.

And now we're, you know, a couple months into the season, and I tell them, no thanks. Like, I turn it down. I tell them no. Like, it's what I wanted. I wanted to work on the 48, but we're in, I think it was like June. and I'm like, no, like, I told you beginning of the year, if I commit to something, like, or commit to someone, that's what I stick to.

I can't, I can't bail halfway through the season. And I'm like, man, like, this is probably a mistake. I will never get that opportunity again. Yeah. Never get it. And then as that summer went on, they stayed in contact. and sure enough it all came down to in October they hired me we went to Kansas for our finale archa finale our race is Friday my hire date was Saturday at Hendrick and MDM guys I helped them

we loaded everything they went home Chad left me his his keys and his rental car and the address to their hotel and like I didn't know any of the guy I knew Jesse sort of like I had met with him I think twice during that time but I didn't know any of the mechanics like I didn't know anybody and so now I wake up the next morning in their hotel and go with them to the racetrack like trying to meet everybody and just like figure it out as I as we go so they have a filling front end mechanic and I'm supposed to shadow him all weekend all right so i like watch everything he does figure out how how everything works and we go back to the shop tuesday morning or whatever it was that next week and all right you're the front end mechanic on 48

like i'm like i thought i was going to shadow him for another like week or two or something yeah nope it's all you so we go to martinsville and i'm the primary mechanic on a cup cup car, and I've never worked on a cup car. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. Jesus. But at the end of day, it's nuts and bolts and wrenches, and I figured it out. So you worked on that team until they change over to the five in Kyle Arlalsh and comes to race and y'all win a championship.

You also, as we've, as you've mentioned a couple times, you build a street stock car and you're back to driving and you're driving good, you're winning races. You moved off of the road off of the cup stuff, right? Now you're kind of, you're doing some track cars and turning old gen 6es into public, you know, cars to sell to public. Folks, you worked on the garage, 56 program as a front-end mechanic there. You went overseas to the race. Yep.

And you started an automotive repair company called Yoder Automotive Automotive, based in Canapolis, North Carolina. Yep. Are you, what's your plan? My plan is to do short track racing. That's... You love driving your street stock. I do.

You want to do that as much as you can. I want to do that as much as I can. That was the motivation for, you know, you won this championship as a mechanic on the five car for Larson, but that was the motivation to make. move away from that because you hadn't been there long yeah right you could have stayed there made great money right yeah but you're like i got to drive i want to race that part and part of that decision to

to leave cup racing also happened with NASCAR going away from the car you knew the practice oh practice yeah and so when we had the one hour practice sessions or hour and a halfs you could work as a mechanic, I could work. Like, when we had changes, spring changes, shock changes. Like, whatever it was, that, the competitor in me, like, it was, it was, yeah, it was a team aspect, right? You're trying to win as a team. But at the same time, I was, I'm so competitive that I, I would watch other mechanics do their shock changes, their spring changes. I would like count in my head how long it took them and I'm like, I'm going to beat that. I'm going to be faster and better than that. And I'm just super competitive, right? So when practice went away, now that goes away. Yeah. You don't really have that

anymore. Yeah. So I needed another challenge. I needed a challenge. And it, kind of fell into the same time my car was done we were winning races cars fast and it rekindled the passion i had for racing which was on the short tracks like that's the reason i got into racing was because of going to the short tracks yeah we watched it on on tv but that's that was the whole reason So now, that's my goal, is to do short track racing, race my street stock. I'd like to move up in the late models at some point, you know, if money happens, right, sponsors, that type of stuff, and run Yoder Automotive, repair shop. And, yeah, that's...

Right now, where do you work? I work at Hendrick Performance. All right, and so what, where, Yoder Automotive, is it a physical building? Yeah. And it's business. Yeah. You manage it for you. I do.

But you have another, you're at Hendrick. You work there. I work like 80 hours a week. I work my 40 hours a week at Hendrick. Is there, are you hoping that, you know, the Yoder Automotive is eventually your sole responsibility, right? Yeah, that's my, I want to get to that full time. at some point. Who's helping you with that?

Nobody, just me. No partners. Nope. I would like to expand and maybe, like, get some investors involved or something. Like, my goal is to have three and five-bay repair shops, multiple locations, eventually. But right now, I'm just doing it in my one-bay shop at my house. And I'm busy. I'm slammed.

Like, I'm working every night of the week, weekends. Fixing what? Everything? Everything? anything mechanical, whether it's brake jobs, struts, water pumps, suspension components, anything mechanical. Is it paid well? Compared to, you know, compared to somebody who works in NASCAR?

It does. It does. So, so, yeah, that's my goal is to do that full time. And you're at a Tri-County Speedway Track Champion in 2003 last year. Yep. Yeah, we had a pretty good season last year. So if everything works out perfectly, in, you know, five or ten years, you're going to have a couple shops, Yoder Automotive and racing short tracks. That's that's what you want.

Yep, I want to do that. And then, like, my ultimate goal is to, is a couple things with the repair shops. Once they get lucrative and get financially in a good spot, I want to do some non-profit stuff with helping veterans. There's a lot of things that they need help with. so like that's part that's like something something more right another goal between doing that and helping local local racetracks supporting racetracks supporting racers with sponsorship opportunities supporting racers supporting racersics with sponsorship stuff like that's what i want yoder automotive to be able to do on down the road.

Man, that's incredible. And I don't see why that won't happen. You've made the impossible possible. And I wonder if, I mean, is there other, let me ask you this question. When you think about other people that left the community and had success, are they, you, when you were living with your parents, did you know of Al and what he was. doing did you know of other people that had left and what they were able to do do do you think that people back in your community that want to know what you've done know what you did if they want to know

they could find it out right have you do you know anybody that left after you besides al and and those close relationships there was there was a couple guys that left that were like in my same age group. Yep. And then... Do you think you influenced anybody? I don't know. Do you think anybody...

Has anybody ever came... Have you ever helped anybody? No. I never... I... There was a couple... Well, yeah. The biggest...

My cousin left, and he was... He's three years younger than I am. Four years. Do you think you influenced him? I think a little bit, but he already knew at a young age that he wanted to leave. By the time he was 15, he knew that he wanted something different. Is there anybody that left the community like that you still communicate with?

That you... There's a few. Isn't there people in the industry, in the NASCAR industry? My cousin is one of them. My cousin Rubin is one of them. Actually, he just left as well and started his own business a year ago, started his own RJ's home improvement. So he kind of is leaving the racing industry.

He helps me on my car on weekends, loves it. Sure. He supports me financially with sponsorship stuff through his company. There's another kid that actually works with me at Hendrik Reformation. Furman, he left the Amish community probably five years after I did, but I didn't know him. Yeah. I met him after he left. He already gotten out and figured it out.

Yeah. Do you have conversations with him that you wouldn't have with maybe me or somebody else that might work there with you. Is there sort of this understanding or this, you know, it's out of a trust maybe because you, they know. Yeah, there's definitely a different connection. Right, yeah. Yeah, definitely.

What about the sport of NASCAR excited you, surprised you? Think back of your whole journey, right? You're coming, you're, you're entering the world. all anew, right? And you know nothing about NASCAR and you're going to go and sit on the couch with your buddy and watch your first race. Now you've been through that whole process.

What about the sport? What's the best about it? Tell me why you love stock car racing NASCAR and cup cars and that whole process of being involved in that side of the industry at the elite level. for me it came down the competition side of it how competitive it is not just on the racetrack

but in the industry working for for race teams um i'm i loved it i do love it because of the of the competitive side of it yeah um like i'm super goal driven so and competitive. So whatever I do, I have this laser focus of being the best, and that was what I loved about cup racing was not only were you as a team, with your team, every Sunday,

trying to be the best or beat the best. As a mechanic, I wanted to be the best mechanic on pit road. Yeah. In the garage. Like that was that was part of it That's what drove me to want to do it And and it all was born from the sounds, the smells,

The smells, watching it being there When, when, you know, that first couple of years after I left, We would go to all the races close to us. I would go to Kansas, Chicago land Iowa to watch the races. Milwaukee got to see the last, what was in, nationwide race at Milwaukee. Like that, that was just, that's where it was born.

And I love it. What are you going to miss about it? Now, you know, I know you're racing your streets dot car, but I mean from the cup level, your involvement as a mechanic and seeing the pinnacle of the sport as a champion, what will you miss? The biggest thing I miss is the team. The camaraderie.

The team, your other mechanics, your car chief, the engineers, your pit crew, the connection that you have, or that we had anyway, like on the 48 and the five, I felt like it was probably, I don't know, maybe even better than a lot of teams have, but the camaraderie of that team aspect, I miss that. Yeah. I do for sure. Man, I'm telling you, I'm thankful for you. I appreciate you being, I'm glad I ran into it, Florence.

I wanted to personally, you know, I wanted to get you on my show, and I was lucky to see you there and be able to ask you if you'd come on. I wasn't sure exactly how comfortable you'd be sharing your experience. And with what I heard today, man, it was a tough process and an emotional process, one that still affects you today. But what a story, just an incredible story. I appreciate who you are, the example you set. and good luck on still competing and racing on the grassroots level, whatever that may be as you try to grow that part of your life.

Also this automotive business that you've created that I am sure. I'm almost assured it'll be a success because of the person you seem to be. but man it's i've really enjoyed this this was as fun as i thought it'd be it really was and thankful for being transparent open about it yeah no thanks for having me um it's i've been very successful in i feel like a pretty short amount of time from leaving and and doing everything i have but it comes down to people, you know, meeting the right people, surrounding yourself with the right people. And I just, I've been super fortunate.

Yeah, that was one of the things I was thinking about when you were telling me about the way you got yourself involved in racing. One of the hardest questions that you and I probably both have gotten asked at some point is how do you get into racing? How do you do it? People think that there's this magic door you walk through, and and, or there's this, there's, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you where you need to go apply for a job and that's, that's how do you, that doesn't exist, right?

But you're, the way you did it. That's how you do it, right? You help this guy on his super late model car at night when you're done with your day job. You go to the racetrack and grind and, and, you know, volunteer a lot of time. Give away. a lot of time just because of the experience that you gain on working and learning how cars work, right? You're a perfect example of how you get into racing.

That's how, right? And it is possible to run up that ladder very quickly if you're applying yourself and, like you say, meeting the right people and building the right relationships and recognizing that person. that could help you and assist you in that next opportunity. Pretty incredible, man. Good job. Marlon, thank you for coming. Thanks for having me on. All right, Marlon Yoder on the Dale Jr. Download.

All right, so we just had Marlon Yoder on the ally guest segment. And it's a long conversation, but I didn't want to, you know, the conversation about him leaving the Amish community is one thing. and then there's, you know, you've got to allow this guy to tell his story about how he gets into racing, right? How he becomes successful in racing. So I wanted to certainly give that its due. And I don't know that I've ever been in such suspense in this room at this table as I was, hearing him tell a story about what's coming up the driveway.

Is it going to be his buddy owl or his dad? and so we go through and he goes upstairs and locks himself and they are oh man and then you almost could see how affected he is emotionally by you know his mother and his father the relationships and the dynamics there and how that how that might have hurt his mother how it did hurt his mother you know broke her heart and how that affects him personally but how determined he stayed to the task, right, or to the plan.

And this business that he started, Yoder Automotive in Canapolis, North Carolina. Got the business card. Yeah. That's, listen, remember this, Yoder Automotive, I promise you that you will be hearing, you know, I promise you that that business will succeed. Right?

When you sit down in front of people and meet them, I don't hardly know Marlon. I hardly know him. But when you sit there and listen to his story and know everything that he did, and he's telling you he's starting this business, it's not going to fail. No, I don't think so.

It's not going to fail. So just impressive. Very impressive. And so thankful for him to come on to the show. I know it's not necessarily our traditional guests, but it's a great story. and one of the best stories I think you'll hear out of the Dale Jr. Download guest segments this year.

It's one of my favorites for sure. And so we're thankful, and that's going to wrap it up. Thank you, Ally, for everything that you do. Supporting the guest segment on this show, week in and week out, Ally, no matter what you're saving for, whether it's race tickets, whether it's a street stock car, a new engine, or a new home even. We're all better off with an ally.

Let's get to the white flag. As usual, the tear down and Jeff Gluck with Jordan Bianchi. Actions detrimental to Denny Hamlin and door bump clear. All those dropped. If you haven't listened, get on it. What are you waiting for? Also, Dirty Air came out yesterday. Chase Elliott called in, the winner from Texas.

We debated whether we need more practice. and is Texas a good racetrack again. Which, by the way, to tie it back to the interview, Marlon said he wanted more practice. That's one of the reasons why he moved on. I know. He kind of took his job away. It's the argument for more practice. It is.

Dropping Today's Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden with guest Kyle Larson. And then dropping tomorrow. Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTart. They preview Texas. We talked about that a little bit on dirty air, and it's so compelling. Now that North Carolina is open as a state that allows sports betting, man, is it? It's been a lot to learn. So if you want to know more about it, Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTart this Thursday,

DJD reloaded. Carl and the gang are back at it. Last week, they talked about charters or the lack of charters for some of these open teams like Carl Long that plan to compete this year. How do they go about that? They make money. Can you make money? Not owning a charter in the NASCAR Cup series.

What will they talk about this Thursday? It's been a great show. Carl has done a great job out of the gate this year, taking ownership of DJD Reloaded, and it's quickly one of my favorite shows, quickly becoming one of my favorite shows we do each week. Because of the versatility and the different conversations that tend to happen, it's not been the same show yet.

Anyhow, that's it for this week. For me, I will see you. guys next week. Talladega this weekend should be a blast. I'll be tuning in. Who's going to win it? I mean, you've got to think that Blaney's got a great shot. He's one of the better ones at Talladega and at Restrictor Plate racing. He seems to be

running right there at the front when they're making those final moves. Can Chase Elliott build off of the momentum from his Texas win? He's got some success at Talladega. Maybe there'll be a first-time winner. Somebody knew, similar to what we had at Atlanta,

where someone maybe, you know, unfamiliar with the top 10 or the top five in points, punches their ticket into the playoffs. That'd be cool. You love it when somebody, you know, an underdog comes out of the weeds and steals a win, so it could happen. Anyways, we'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.