The Dale Jr. Download - 584 - Blake Koch: "Laid It All Out On The Line"

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoys a conversation with his business partner in FilterTime and former NASCAR competitor Blake Koch where he learns more about Blake’s journey rising the ranks as a driver to his never-quit mentality starting a business.  In modern motorsports, becoming a successful racecar driver takes drive, dedication, and perseverance. These qualities are also present in successful business owners, which is something Dale Jr. took note of when Blake first approached him about getting involved with FilterTime. Dale recognized Blake’s hustle when he was assisting Matt Kaulig with starting Kaulig Racing, for which he raced with during the 2016/17 NASCAR Xfinity seasons. And while Blake was let go for Ryan Truex before the 2018 season, his character as a hard worker who was not afraid to take on challenges was demonstrated.  Blake found his way to the big leagues of NASCAR with limited stock car experience. He explains that after racing motocross most of his life, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to become a professional and was ready to hang up the helmet. His stepfather called him about trying out a FASCAR Pro Truck in 2007, which got him into the world of short track racing. When sponsorship became difficult to secure for late model rides, Blake shifted his focus to the ARCA West Series (which was then the NASCAR Camping World West) thanks to a break from Richard Childress Racing and the Golden Gate Racing Team outfit. With a full season under his belt, Blake traveled out east and began competing in NASCAR Xfinity events for various teams before linking up with Matt Kaulig at TriStar Motorsports.When Matt expressed he was determined to begin winning, Blake set out to find out how much money it would take to become a winning team. Once the answers became clear, Matt decided to start Kaulig Racing on his own with Blake in the driver’s seat. His 7th place points effort in 2016 would be his finest achievement in racing, but when the window closed suddenly he realized he needed something more stable for his growing family. After brainstorming business ideas, he came up with the concept of a subscription-based home air filter service, and soon FilterTime was born.   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 again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download, and it's the ally guest segment. This show brought to you by Filter Time, and I've got the owner, the co-owner, because I'm the other owner. The two owners of Filter Time together today at this table. Blake Cook's going to come on and tell us all about not only Filter Time how he started that business, but also his racing career and how he put that together and made that work. He came out of nowhere. I didn't know where Blake had gotten his start, but we're going to learn. all about it and should be a lot of fun let's get started the following is a production of dirty mo media hey everybody dale jrbler dail jrudeau back again the ally guest segment today two owners a filter time together Blake cook's going to come on and tell us all about

filter time how he started that business you only get one shot tell Dale what you want what do you like like tell them what you want so when we met I just laid it all out there here's what I want do and you agree to it. All right, so we're in the Dirty Mo Media Studio and back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download and the ally guest segment and I've been wanting to do this for a while. Blake and I have been

friends, you know, we kind of became friends during his driving career, just keep it in touch a little bit. For no real reason other than that we were you know, he was asking for advice on certain things but, you know, I, you know, I really enjoyed his attitude, his personality, the way he kind of

approached things, and then he comes to me one day and says, man, I want to start this new business, filter time. And he just wanted me to help him figure out how to get the business going, but I wanted to own part of it. I was like, man, I believe in you, and I believe that whatever you put your mind to, you're going to make it successful. And I want to take advantage of that opportunity. It was a great chance for me. As I was transitioning out of the race car as well, Blake and I both were kind of getting out of driving full time.

I was looking for business opportunities. I'd been doing PSAs and these one, two, three year deals as most drivers do throughout their careers. And I was looking for the same thing that Blake was, and that was something to build, to leave to our families and generations down the line. And so here was a great opportunity walking into the door. And now we're business partners and great friends. So I wanted him to come in here and truly tell that story

and give him a good amount of time to do that. So it's going to be a lot of fun learning about his driving career, where he came from. I'm like, you know, I remember him racing in the Expedity Series, but I don't know what he did before that. And I still really don't know a ton about it, even though we've been working together now for five years, on filter time.

We're all going to learn today. Let's get Blake in the room. All right, so Blake, my partner at Filter Time on the Dell Jr. download. I've been wanting to get you on the show for a while because you've got a pretty cool story. But I want to, I remember when you came into the Xfinity series, first off, say, hey. What's up? So people can hear you. Yes.

I'm glad you're here. Yes. You came into the Xfinity series and look, I mean, I'm just going to be straight up. And this ain't, you know, this is kind of way it is with a lot of these guys that are in the series. You don't always know exactly where people come from, right? Yep. What kind of racing they did? You assume they race somewhere, right, to get to that level.

You don't know what they're, I mean, I could name a long list of drivers that I know raced somewhere before they made it to the Xfinity series. Don't know where. Don't know what kind of races they won or track championships or whatever, right? But, you know, they've done something, right?

Yeah. And so I don't even want to name any names of current guys because they'll be hounding me on social media, but you could pick there's a dozen drivers in the Xfinity series now that I'm sure myself and lots of

fans would not be able to point to what they did and what type of level success they had. Same for you. You came in the Xfinity series and I'm like, who is this guy? Where is he from? And, you know, you were driving for colleague at one point and when they were sort of still sort of finding their legs. And I went to, this was funny. this is kind of what triggered me to want to know more about you.

I was in California in L.A. doing something. I don't remember exactly what was going on, what race weekend it was. It must have been Fontana or something coming up that had us out that way. And I filmed something with Mark Wahlberg, and he had some sort of a reality show that he had been doing, and they had me meet him somewhere with another guy, and we just sat down at a table and we're just bo-shed for 10 minutes, and that was it.

That was it. Yeah. And while we were, between shooting that, he was there for 20 minutes maybe, he goes, you know, Blake? I know Blake. And I was like, really, you know Blake? I'm like, man, this is intriguing. So, you know, maybe, you know, those little tiny little things make you kind of ping on people.

And from that moment forward, I kind of like, you know, was a little more curious about you. Yeah. Blake's never won a race, but Mark Wahlberg knows Blake Cook. Yeah, so, all right. Where were you born? I was born in Daytona Beach at Halifax Hospital. Really? Yeah.

Right next to the racetrack. Yep, right next to race track. Where were y'all living? My parents lived like, I've never seen the house, but it was the exit south. House you lived in, you never seen it? I left before I was two years old. We moved down to West Palm Beach, Florida. So you lived in Daytona, born in Daytona, and then moved to West Palm Beach.

Why? For work, I would assume. Your dad? I've honestly never really asked. Yeah, dad and mom moved down there. They got to, well, they got a divorce quickly, right? My mom was 21, dad was 26. They tried being married, like, before I was two.

Oh. Yeah, really quickly. And then they became great friends. Okay. So I remember growing up, and they still lived together, and they weren't married. And she would go on, like, she'd get Friday nights out, and he'd stay with me, and he'd get Saturday nights out. It was definitely different. Yeah, that is unique, for sure.

So you grew up in West Palm Beach. Yep. what was your what was your high school like your childhood were you a kind of sports guy yeah so I grew up playing hockey baseball hockey yeah ice hockey in Florida we had a great rink at Palm Beach Gardens and really liked racing dirt bikes I drove my first dirt bike when I was nine years old

my uncle had like a hunting lease in Florida and all I wanted to do all day was ride this dirt bike in circles yeah And I got my first dirt bike for my ninth birthday and started racing and race dirt bikes all the way till I was about 18. And once I was 18, I realized I'm not going to go anywhere with this. I'm not good enough to be pro. I've already had some serious injuries at this point. Like what? Concussions, two knee surgeries, collarbone surgery, just a ton of broken bones.

It's a crazy sport. Yeah. Yeah, dirt bikes. But I wanted to be pro. Like, that was my goal was to make it. How close did you get? Not very close. No.

No. I mean, closer than the average person, but nowhere near good enough. No. So what turned you to oval stock car racing? Yeah. So after I was done dirt bikes, I went to school for marketing at North Wing University. And my stepdad called me. My stepdad's the one that I always raced with.

His name's Tim. Yeah. He's the one that got me into derbikes and lives for racing. Your mom remarried. Yep. Yep. Mom remarried. So Tim was just loved racing, anything racing.

And we were racing dirt bikes, and I stopped racing dirt bikes, went to college, and he was just probably having withdraws from not racing anything. And he called me, he's like, hey, what do you think about racing these trucks? There's a series in Florida called the Pro Truck Series. And I think I'm going to get one. I was like, yeah, I don't really want to, I don't really, not really interested. So I'm 20 years old at this time in college and have never even watched a NASCAR race in my life. And I was like, it doesn't really, like, I'm having fun. in college and not really looking to give up my weekends.

You know, I grew up racing every weekend on dirt bikes and I was kind of enjoying this new chapter. Yeah. He's like, all right, we'll have Eric drive it, which is one of our neighbors. I was like, well, before you do that, let me give it one shot. And we rented the track at Orlando Speedworld. Yeah. And I went out there and Jeff Choket was neighbors with us too, not direct neighbors, but he lived out there in Loxahatchie where we lived.

And he went out there and they showed us how to like set the sway bar and do all this stuff and showed me what to do. with that truck, you just put it in second gear and go. And I was fast, day one. Like, I loved it. To me, it felt very natural. It was fun. I felt like I was going 200 miles an hour, it was loud.

And it was just awesome. And I fell in love with it that first day. Orlando Speed World. Yep. The big track. No, it's like a three-eighth mile. Oh. Decent banking.

Really? Yeah. It's near the drags trip. Is it still going? I don't know. No, probably not. I don't think so. Yeah.

Maybe. Huh. Well, so. So this is a fast car pro truck It's called a pro truck Yeah it was the fast truck series Ross Chastain raced in it with me So he was in the fast kids

I think he was like 12 and I was like Well maybe he was a little older than that But yeah Ross was in it Some other people in Florida were in it And I did that for one year All of 2008 Just the year yeah just Oh 2007 actually

It didn't in 2007 One year and then And then I wanted to be an assortarer car driver right away. All right. So you ran this truck. How to go? I didn't, I don't think I won the first year, but I did win a race. And I'm the kind of person that's like, like, what's next? You know, what's next? What can I do next? So I think later that year, I was trying to figure out how to make a career out of this because there's a lot of fun. I was watching people on TV do it. And I thought, well, if they can do it, I can do it. It's not that difficult is what I thought to myself. I was

I said, well, we need to get late models. So my stepdad bought a late model at the end of 2007, maybe early 2008, and I race that a few times. I actually won a race. One of the races I won, I was in an ASA, like, crate motor car, and we got to race super's. And I think I think it was Stephen Nassie. I was racing for the win, and I got him and won that race at DeSoto. Yeah. He had to have been super young.

Young, young. Yeah. He was really young. And I was like 21, you know. What is the bulk of your short track racing careers? It literally just a couple of years running this truck and some late model races? That was it. I probably did 10 truck races and 10 late model races and went right to the what was then called the NASCAR Camping World West series.

Where is that? Now it's K&N, right? It's called the K&N series. Went out west? Yeah, they had an east and a west. What the hell? It was where the opportunity was. I started. Had the opportunity come out? Well, the reason why I even wanted to get there was we didn't have money to erase late malls. It's very expensive. Sure. So I was trying to get sponsors for late miles. It just wasn't working. So I was like, man, there's a series called the Camping World West series or the East series, and it's on TV. It's on speed channel. And we probably have a better opportunity to get sponsors if you're on TV. And I started calling around and I started calling Gibbs and Hendrick and RCR. Like,

everybody like I'm your next guy like give me a shot and the reason why I glaned in the west series is because Mike Dillon actually called me back after I left a message at RCR and I was calling every week I just like hey I'm Blake Cook I'm gonna be a champion and I need a shot and finally got to talk to Mike he's like listen you need to talk to Steve Portengay he runs our RCR development program out west in the West series is a lot cheaper and it's a good entry level to get in so I called Steve and wore him out. He's like, how many races you want? I was like, none yet, but I'm going to win a lot, you know. And finally, he called me like three weeks before their championship race in 2008, David Mayhew was their driver. And he's like, hey, it's a championship race. We'll bring a little

trailer in a backup car for you, and we'll give you a shot. We'll let you, we'll let you race this thing. I remember getting in it. And I've never even drove a stick to. Wait, wait, wait. Wait. So, Where is this at? What's right? This is a Roseville, Roseville, California. Bill McAnally was the promoter. Got you. So you and who flies out west? My dad and I.

You and your dad. Yep. Okay. So when you see this car for the first time, you brought a seat. They had a seat, nothing. You didn't have nothing. Nothing. And so you go out there and you sit in this car at their race shop and...

I think it was a Ryan Newman seat. It was so big. I was sitting in this thing. Couldn't see you over the wheel. What'd you do? They adjusted it an hour before practice and padded it up. The first time you got in it was at the track. Yeah.

And you had never seen the track. Nope. And so you're just going to run this race. I mean, yeah, why not? I was super. The biggest thing I was nervous about was shifting. So I'd never driven a stick shift car. All the cars you drove, you just put it in a high gear and go.

Yeah, my late model had the brin transmission where you just push the clutch in to go. And then you put it in. Like a dirt. Yeah, like a dirt. Yeah. So I'd never driven a race car. So had it good? Yeah.

It went good. Well, the first thing I did was ask Steve, I was like, hey, is this just four gears? And when I asked him that, he's like, oh, shoot, what are we doing? Like, are you ready for this? Right. Steve was always very honest with me. Yeah. He said what was on his mind.

Yeah, he did. And this is the part I really remember about that day is, of course, the only thing I'm thinking about is how to shift. I just want to get this thing in fourth gear and I'll be good, right? and I was blunted up on the track and it was kind of angled and the official stopped me and I was like, oh no, it's like on a hill and I stopped and I didn't know what to do my feet and then the car lines up behind me. I was like, oh, here you are. And he weighs me on and I just moved my feet as quick as possible and like lit up the tires and did a burnout. And Steve's like, the official said you do that one more time. He said, you're going to get in trouble. I mean,

I did a burnout right by the guy. Anyways, went out there and it was pretty quick. Ended up qualifying fourth. Damn. Out qualified their primary driver. Really? Yeah. Qualified fourth. Drop back quick because I think I literally went from like second, third, fourth as

quick as I can just because when the race started, that's all I wanted to do. Get into gear. Yeah, get into fourth year. I lost some spots and then we lost breaks and crash. So it wasn't a great outcome. Yeah. So what happens after that? After that, they called and they were serious.

They're like, hey, we want to talk about next year. You know, Mayhew's not coming back. We have an opening and let's work on getting you a development deal. And we had to come up with a certain amount of sponsorship. How much? We had to come up with $300,000 for the whole year. That's a lot of money. It is. It is.

Yeah. So where did you find that? Well, I had a very wealthy family friend in West Palm Beach. His name was Wayne Heising, a junior. And I didn't know him well, but I was like, if I can get a meeting with them, I would love to like just show them what I'm trying to do and see if you'd want to help me. And I told him like, this is what I want to do. This is how NASCAR works.

This is how I can get there. And he's like, oh, that'd be really cool. You know what I want to do? I want to put, there's this ministry I'm supporting. It's called God speaks.com. It's like billboards across the country and it has these little sayings. And it just, I'm supporting it. And maybe we can do that on your race car.

Like the hood will have a little saying. And it'll be awesome. So let's do it. That's what happened? Yeah. So you went to Canaan East or West? Canaan West. For how long?

Year and a half. How'd that go? I finished second. It was my best. Led some laps at Colorado National Speedway. Ran the outside, drove the lead from the outside, and then blew it right front. I was the only one up there. But it was good.

I raced with, man, I don't think there's anybody else I'm racing now, but like Paul Hiaraqa did a little. on NASCAR, Jason Bowles I raced with. He was like who I raced against hard with Jason Bowles. This is 09. All right, so you're out in the Canyon West and you did that. You finished eighth in points

and then you would come all the way back to the East Coast and land in the Xfinity series. Yes. So up to this point you've ran 10 late model races or so. Like let's say a dozen truck a dozen pro truck, a dozen late model races, and a year and a half in the K&N series,

which was maybe another dozen races. Yeah, probably a dozen. Right? Yeah. And you're going to run the K&N series. So how did you, who did you call? How did it just? For the Xfinity series?

I'm sorry. Yeah. So the first time, I made my Xfinity start in October of 2009. So still my first year in K&N, I went and did an Xfinity race at Memphis. For who? Brandy McDonald. McDonald's. McDonald Motorsports, number 81.

How'd you, yeah, yeah, how'd you call, would you call them up? No, we were at like an event, and we met this guy named Del Hamilton, and he's like, oh, you know, they were kind of following my career, and we become friends of them. He's like, Randy's got, you know, Randy's been putting different drivers in it, and we'll see if we can get you in the car. I'll sponsor you. I'll put up some money. I was like, okay.

And I wasn't ready at all. This is the Xfinity series. Like, I was not ready. And I didn't know what to expect, and people were starting to make me nervous because they're like, oh, you're about to feel radial tires. And I was like, well, what's a radial tire? I don't even know what that is, you know. And I got there and had to make the race, I think. At that point, there used to be almost 60 cars then, and it was extremely difficult.

And I just remember being super nervous and it was cold out. And I don't really remember practice to me, honestly, at all. But I have no qualifying. I went out there and coming to the green. I was dead sideways facing pit road. It was cold out, tires were cold, I didn't heat them up, and I almost wrecked coming to the green, my debut in Xfinity.

And gathered it up and qualified somewhere decent, I think in the low 20s for Rani and finished on the lead lap in 17th. Damn, son. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So you're going to move,

are you having fun in the West Series? why do you want to come back east? Is it just kind of like you say, the next thing, you're looking for the next opportunity? Yeah, I didn't have, like, I was able to get money to run one year, and then it was done, right?

Like, it was just kind of a gift. Yeah. And it's not like... So how did you land in the Xfinity Series and who with? Well, Dale Hamilton definitely supported me. He put, I think there was a country singer on the hood, and then the next year...

What car? Who's car? The 81, McDonald Motorsport. Did you drive full time for them? in 2011 full time and I haven't had to think back this far in a long time so it's a little a little cloudy but too I think I made another start in 2010 for Wayne day do you know who wayne day is I think so yeah yeah I ran his car at Iowa and you know didn't run it I think I ran my late model three or four times that year so ran my late model three or four times your Florida car yeah

yeah with my stepdad and then one Xfinity race in 2010 yeah I think that was it in 2011 and McDonald Motorsports gave me a shot to run full year, like the full season. Yeah. A lot of times it was on like, you know, we'd buy two sets of stickers. And I think he did it on an entire year on $600,000. Like, that was the budget for the year. We were trying to beat Timmy Hill for rookie the year. In the Xfinity series?

Yeah. I thought my career was over when I didn't win rookie the year. I thought that was like the deciding factor, whether I was going to make it or not, was winning the rookie of the year. When I look back now, I'm like, that's not that big of a deal. No. But it was a thousand dollars a race back then. It's a big deal to Timmy Hill, I guess.

Yeah, it was. Well, you, back then, you get a thousand bucks a race if you were. I forgot Timmy Hill was in the Xfinity Series full time. Yeah, same year I was. This may be my favorite time of the NASCAR season. It's when the on-track drama starts to ramp up and each driver fights harder and harder because each win might mean survival and a shot at the championship. And hardfought battles on the track

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You drove for Rick Ware in 2012. Yep. What was that like? What's driving for him like? I only raced a few times for him, and then we lost our sponsorship, and that's really where things changed for me. What do you mean?

It was like, well, I had, to this point, it's been pretty easy for me. Like, I didn't grow up in a race and didn't know anybody, got a K&N car, got an Xfinity car, and like, it was just, kind of flowing together got a full-time ride in 2011 without any money right and 2012 signed with rick ware we lost our sponsor right away my wife was pregnant i bought a house here moved here and now i'm like out of a job and i'm like oh no what am i going to do you know so 2012 i started starting

parking exfinity cars and trucks different people yeah different people whoever pay me and in fact then you get one lap of practice, and I haven't been, I've only been to these tracks once, right, the year before. So you get one lap of practice because you can't put many laps in those tires because your teammate that's racing needs those tires. And so you need to qualify in them, then give them to your teammate with two laps on them, hopefully. So was starting parking, Xfinity, starting park some trucks for Jennifer Joe Cobb. I was driving Trevor Baines bus to the racetrack for some money. Yep, I was his best driver for about half the year. And I was I was spotting for Michael McDowell in the Cup series when he was racing for Phil Parsons.

So I was doing like, I actually had a couple jobs that weekend. Then I would stay with Trevor and his bus because we're buddies. So I had a place to stay. I got paid to start and park a couple cars, paid a spot. So I was able to make ends meet and continue to pay the mortgage. So you made your cup debut for Levine family at Sharpe? Yeah. Yeah.

How did you talk? That was that Dell Hamilton guy I'm telling you about. That was the same thing. Del, he's... What is he? Who is he? He's just around and he's connected and... What's he do?

What's his job? I think he owned a staffing company. Yeah. Why is he helping you? He liked me and he liked racing and he also liked small teams. So if he could connect, he really has like this passion for the small teams. He likes the accessibility they give. He could sit on the pit box and they just like, if you could,

he felt like he was always treated very well. So when he could connect the dots of like small money under dog drivers with a small team, like I think that was his market. That's what he liked to do. So how do you end up getting in with leaf filter? So leaf filter. So at this point, well, for one, 2013, I actually drove Robbie Benton's car at the 99. And this was kind of this switch form.

me where I could barely make races qualifying the 30s, high 20s, just there. So I got in Robbie Benton's car, that 99 car. Alex Bowman got kicked out and they put me in for the championship race. And I qualified second. And I was like, holy cow, like I qualified second. And I started getting phone calls after that. And Mark Smith at TriStar actually hired me to be his driver, like house driver. You have to start in Park Zone.

If I get a sponsor, you'll race. and I had a job, a very good job, a well-paid job. Like what? How much paying? $100,000. Yeah, for me. That was good. Yeah, it was really good. Yeah.

What were you making, driving the bus? Oh, $1,000. Yeah. And I'd make a couple hundred spotting, and I think you'd make a couple grand if you made the race in the Xfinity car, but I never missed it, so I made them all. So, it was good. But just the steady income. Sure.

It wasn't that I made more. It's just like, oh, my gosh, I know we're going to make money this year. And so I forget what you asked me. How did you get with Leaf Filter? With Leaf Filter. So I got a call from Archie. Who? Archie, he was the owner of Go Fast Racing, Go Green.

Archie. Why did he call you? Why would he know? Because he got a sponsor for the Charlotte Race, and JJ Yelly was his driver. And Leaf Filter was their sponsor. Yeah. Leaf Filter put up good money to him. them. They bought pit crew suits. They bought JJ Yili for one race. Fire suit. They put up a lot of money.

Yeah. Wanted to look good. And JJ called and said, hey, I'm going to race for BK racing. Like, I think that week, that Monday. And Archie thought of me because I was the same size as JJ Yeli and I could fit in the suit that they bought. And I could fit in this car and kind of like, just plug me into it. And I was like, well, how much are you going to pay me? You know, And we worked up with the deal, and I went and raced that cup car, the Lee Filter cup car, and met Matt at the racetrack. Just once. Just once. Where?

It was Charlotte. I think it was October in 2014. How'd that car drive? Actually, it felt pretty decent, but it was very slow. Why? I don't know. I think I qualified second to last or last. I remember thinking, like, man, a lot felt pretty good.

But it was like, last. You know, and I race Joe Nemechek and Michael McDowell all night. It felt like forever. There's no stage breaks, right? It was just like, oh, man. I was just trying to be the best lapper possible to stay out of you guys' way, you know. But me and Michael and Joe Nemechek, I was like, we were making it fun for each other racing. So you met the folks at Lee Filter at that race and talked to them.

How did you convince them to look in the Xfinity? series. Yeah, well, they sponsored me again that year at Homestead, and we ran pretty well at Homestead, um, crashed late in the race. Me and JJ Yili actually crashed into each other at that race. And in the off season, I think Matt was being pitched to sponsor, um, Matt's the owner of the midfiltor. Yeah, Matt Collig was getting pitched to sponsor the cup car full time. Yeah. And they weren't going to have me drive it. And Matt's like, well, I want Blake to drive it. And they're like, well, I want Blake to drive it and they're like well i'm sorry we can't and matt's like well what do you want to do i'm at i can we can go expini racing at tristar he's like all right let's do that i'll stick with you i want to go with you

yeah and that's what happened try star was the uh number 11 at your time tris star was number eight eight yep number eight i was number eight who had drove for them mike bliss drove eric mcclure drove the hefty car for a while yep uh lots of drivers gave a lot of people a lot of opportunities over there. All right. So where colleague did they buy into a team create their team from scratch?

So when we, I think Lee Filter sponsored me half season in at TriStar at TriStar 2015 like half the year. And he wanted to sponsor me full time in 2016. So we started talking about it pretty early

and he wanted to run good. And I was like, okay, well here's you know, he wants to compete for wins. He wants to throw a win. I was like, all right, well, let's go talk to Robbie Benton because that's kind of the only person I really knew. And I got some prices. I was like, here's kind of the range of where we need to spend.

And we were eating lunch. He's like, Blake, if I'm going to spend that much money, I think I'd rather start my own team. And I was like, okay. Like, well, we could probably do that too. So I immediately called Chris Rice, because I know, the only reason I know Chris is because when I drove Robbie Benton's car, the 99,

car at Homestead. Chris was my crew chief. And I was like, well, I know Chris can make a car go fast. Like I drove his car once and it was fast, you know. And Robbie Benton's team was a small team, pretty small, but it looked really nice. The stuff was nice and it was fast. So I felt like Chris would be a good person to at least have a conversation with. And Chris was able to kind of break down the numbers a little more. I didn't know why things cost what they did or how to go build a team. And me and Chris were like, yeah, we could get an alliance with RCR. So we started talking to Mike Dillon and was going to see how much that would cost and how much hollow would cost and all these things.

And this is like November, right, pretty late, November 2015. So I think Matt finally committed to starting the team December and we hired Chris. And then we went to Michael Waltrip, bought a bunch of tungsten, bought toolboxes. Michael was getting out of cup at that point. Yeah, he was selling all. selling everything. Yeah, selling everything. About scales.

Do you give me an idea? Give me a rough number of what you think it costs to start that team. I think it costs $5 million. Yeah, about $5 million. Buying everything. Yeah, and racing. I think the first year it cost about $5 million. That's not too bad.

Yeah. We bought the cars from RCR, and I think they were, you know, they weren't set up and ready to have a whole other team that late. Sure. They were a little bit older RCR cars, but having that helped us because we didn't have engineering. We didn't have a lot of people, really. So I think NTS, that truck team shut down right at the same time, and we took most of their

truck guys over to colleagues. And we were just happy to leave the shop to head to Daytona in 2016. Yeah. With Colleg Racing as the first race. So you went to Daytona and earned a top 10 finish? Yeah, my first one. and that would be the best finish you would have in the Xfinity series no I think I finished sixth a couple times twice you finished in the top 10

five times qualified for the playoffs yeah made the playoffs 2016 yeah missed I think we went into the second to last race behind all guy are about one point so we were only one point out of the top four going into the cutoff race. Say again? Yeah, we were one, we were like tied for fourth with Justin going into Phoenix then the race before the championship. Yeah. And I was

in front of them for a while, outqualified them, and I knew I just had to beat Justin to make the final four. And he ended up passing me and beating me and we missed making the final four by a few points, I think. That's insane. Yeah, it was cool. That was year one. So how do you

ended up 17 points? So that's the part that surprises is surprising to me because I remember when you were racing in the Xfinity series you ran relatively well with a new team everybody would look at that team and any team that starts up that has really no like Collie had no there was no frame of reference there was no background there was no history and of course Chris Rice was a was an important part of the performance and being able to start the team and the team being competitive but um a dry an unknown driver an unknown on or coming in and being any type of competitive

was an impressive thing. And so now even knowing what little true experience you had, it makes it even more unique. You race for that team for 2016 and 2017. By all accounts, it was going okay, right? Yeah. What happened that put you in a situation to be replaced by Ryan Truex?

I don't, I mean, what I was told, well, this was a, this was a shock to me. It was a shock, right? Went to the Christmas party and went through the holidays, and I was out to dinner for my wife's birthday on January 9th, 2018. And Matt called me. He's like, hey, I just want to let you know, we're not going to have you back. Press release is going out tomorrow. So, Ryan, Drew X's... Overnight.

I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, overnight. And I was hurt, right? Sure. I understand business, so I would have understood if he would have told me before. Yeah. And it would have felt better, right? So I found out, and I was like, well, can I read it?

You know, the press release before it goes out. And he's like, well, probably shouldn't say. I was like, I would never, like, I just want to see it and be prepared to answer questions. It's like this is probably going to be a shock to a lot of people, not just me, you know, but my family, friends, fans, fans in the industry in general. So he sent it to me. I read it that night. I was like, oh, that looks pretty good. But what I was told was like, yeah, I mean, he was, Matt was paying me to drive and I was bringing nothing.

Or he could have a driver that brought some money and didn't have to pay that much. So I was like, well, that does make sense. Yeah. And I wasn't winning, right? It's not like I was, we did good, but Matt's new, Matt was new to the series too, and he's probably being told, oh, you're spending all this money, you guys should be winning, right? Like, like people get in your ear and you start to, you know, think things, and I wasn't winning. And I may have.

Brian, two years with the guy. Yeah. And the new team. Yeah. Truex gets in it. Truex was running, Trux had some moments in the truck series and other, other opportunities that he had. the K&N series. He had created a buzz that was worthy of getting an opportunity, right?

Unfortunately, it was at your expense. You passed on opportunities to continue racing, to be a driver, coach? I passed. Well, when I got let go, there was only two people that offered me a job. racing. Seag. So the Seag's called me. I think Danny does a lot of their stuff. And he's like, hey, Blake, we'd love to have you drive our car, have it race it when it's funded, when it's not. You know, we'll figure out what to do, but like, we want to offer you a ride. And I thought that was really awesome. Like, I felt really good. Why didn't you do it? It wasn't, I couldn't make

enough money to do it. And I was at the point where I wanted to continue improving and being competitive and I was giving my all to try to win races and run top five. And I wanted to continue that. And I couldn't pay my bills and be gone all year for what I could make. Like, it just wasn't going to work. Sure. You know. And then Spire Premium offered me something with their cup car where they had,

they weren't a full-blown team yet. And it was just something that wasn't going to fit what I was trying to do. Right. So those are the two offers I had. was it. So is this the car that Ross Chastain took to Dover and ended up running relatively competitive? Is that Black 15? Premium? I think that was around the same time, wasn't it? Yeah, I think Reed Thornton was...

Yeah, Reed Thornton was driving it. And when Chastain got in, whatever he got in, he did well. He did good, yeah. He did good. Everything. Yeah. And Chastain does a really good job. And this is one thing I probably wish I would have done different throughout my career that Chastain does is no matter what he's in, he feels like he could beat you. And he could be in the worst car on the track and he's going to race you like he's in the best car on the track. And I wish I did that. That's a great way to describe the guy. It's worth spots. It is worth spots. It is worth spots. Yes. He's a pestering. Yeah. When he would drive that JD Motorsports car in the Xfinity series,

you know he took a car that was probably a 15th or 20th place car and would run just a bit better every time and just worry our guys to death you know yeah him and uh i remember at wakins glen not too long ago 2018 19 20 or something his last year his last year i think in that car he him and justing got in this duke it out battle running 12th. And I'm like, what are you doing, Justin? Right? But, I mean, he's going to beat the shit out of you as you're trying to go by, you know, and worry you to death.

I've been dealing with that since he was 12 in the fast trucks here. I've been racing Raw as a long time. Yeah. And he's really good at putting you in a bad spot. Yeah. He puts himself in a really good spot often. He's selfish in a good way. Like if that dude.

Strategic way. He's very strategic. Are you interested in filter time? Do you want me and Blake to mail you filters to your front door? Just to remind you to change your air filters. You can sign up. There's no contracts so you can cancel any time. You can determine the frequency of how often you want your filters.

Every one month, two months, three months, six months. It's up to you. Just let us know. Go to filtertime.com, sign up and use the promo code Dale Jr. right Blake for the 20% off your first order? Yeah, customers get 20% off their first order when they use coupon code Dale Jr. Or go to filtertime.com slash Dale Jr.

Click how many filters you need, how often you want us to ship them, and you can cancel any time. Yeah, give us an opportunity. Try us out, let us earn your business. So you went to becoming, you went to driver coaching, which was kind of a new,

I guess around this time, 2018-19, driver coaches were it isn't what it is today in terms of like Josh Wise and you still continue to dabble in that and mess with that a little bit but you worked as an analyst for NASCAR race hub

so you're dressing up and putting yourself on television trying to stay relevant I imagine and you were intending on joining that JD Motorsports to race for them and you were going to bring

sponsorship Yep. From filter time. Yep. What happened there? Well, a lot happened, but Ross's deal fell through and an opportunity for him to come back to J.D. was there. Ross's the Xfinity thing with Gannasi. Yeah, it fell through.

And we didn't have much degree. I remember all this. Because you and I were kind of bull-h-h-a-l-a-l little bit. Yeah. Well, I was going to race for me at this point, it was all about filter time and business. Yeah. So this is right around the time when you fired that up.

Yeah, fired, well, fired filter time up January 29th, 2018. Yeah. So, like, quick. I had to figure out what to do quick. So when you got replaced, Mm-hmm. Give us a frame of mind in terms of where you are in turn. You know, I know what, we all kind of know what happened to your career in racing.

help us understand that frame of mind when you got fired how you had to come up with something quick what was yeah so i allowed myself to pout for like a day yeah that was it yeah yeah a day i was it yeah yeah a day i was like poor me yeah this is wrong i was treated wrong and i'm like well nobody's gonna help me like i'm on my own right got kids my own my own my own responsibilities and i remember just thinking to myself that night man i've done so much. I've worked so hard throughout the last decade of promoting other people's companies, businesses, building their businesses, building race teams, right? Like, I would run good enough to get myself out of a job, right? Like, you perform yourself out of a job if you don't

have money, really. Yeah. And I was like, if I would have done that for my own company, my own business this last 10 years, I'd be in a much better place right now. And that was when I decided, like, okay, I'm going to take some time. I'm going to start a business because right now I've I have nothing to leave to my kids. I have nothing, like, nothing. How old are you at this point? Probably 33, maybe, 33. I'm 39 now.

So how did you come up with this idea to sell and create a home air filter subscription business? Yeah, so I got this notebook, and I started writing down business ideas, and this would have been probably January 15th. What were some of the ideas? Well, one of the ideas I had was driving to my neighborhood. I was like, oh, these houses are all really nice, but they all have these ugly white garage doors. Like, what if I started wrapping people's garage doors, like, to match the house and made it look nice?

I was like, oh, this is great because, like, I don't know how to wrap, and I could have done all this. And I was like, oh, that would be kind of a lot of work for not much money, like, and not scalable. I'm looking for something scalable. And I wrote down some silly ones, some good ones. One really, really good one that I don't want to share yet because it's still my half at one day. I mean, you'll sit down one day and talk about it. And then I was going to Lowe's and I was going there just to buy air filters. And I went there, spent a couple hundred bucks on stuff I didn't need from my house, left, pulled in my drive.

I was like, dang it, I forgot the freaking air filters. The whole reason I went there. And I started running through. I was like, air filters are such a pain. Like they're big. You have to look through your phone to find out what size. You're looking at this wall of like, what kind of call my wife? kind of filters we buy last time? This number or that number, I have no clue, right? And I don't

know my size is when I changed them last. You have these little systems. And I was just remember thinking, like, as a homeowner, for something you do at least four times a year, it's a pain. Like, it's a pain. I wish a box would just show up at my door with the filters I need when they need to be replaced. That would be awesome. So I was like, well, I'm going to do that. Like, that's perfect. I'm going to do that. That's it. That's the business. I'll make it. So I wrote down air filters auto ship on a pat and just went to work. Stayed up all night that night. Stayed up all night.

What did you do? What is the first thing you do to start this business? Google, like, air filter manufacturers. How much does it cost the filter? How do you ship them? Where are they made? Like, how do you build a website? How do you get a trademark?

How do you start a business? How you did all this? All this. It just, I have notebooks full of these answers, right? And just figuring out. how to do it. Like, how do you buy a domain and how do you protect it? And I didn't know anything.

I just drove race cars, right? So just started going to work. And over the next couple months, we're talking, you know, three, four hours of sleep. Just, you know, 2 a.m., this logo pops in my head with a F with the air swipes on it. So I actually drew this logo and illustrated myself at like 2 a.m. And made the logo. And just went to work. And I remember driving and thinking, I'm starting to get doubts.

I'm like, what's it going to make? I'm really excited about this business, but is everybody else going to be really excited about this business? And what's going to make people trust, like, this new company to put their credit card online. And, like, I just started having these doubts. And I remember thinking, man, if I could have like a familiar face, like a trusted person behind the company, the brand, I could do it.

Like, I could take this to the level I want to take it to. And you popped up in my, in my, mind because you're doing that show on the DIY with your remodeling show in the Keys. Yeah. I was like, well, Dale's doing like this remodeling show and like the, you know, the most trusted face and fan base and like everybody trusts you. Like you're just a good person. And people know that. And I was like, if I could get Dale Jr. holding a box of air filters on my site, I can crush this. And I text you. And I was like, hey, man, I want to talk to you about this business idea. I'm going to take all the passion I had for racing and poured into this business and

we'd love to pick your brain. And you're like, perfect. Let's meet soon. And I was like, oh, I'm not ready yet. Like, I just went and text you and you're like, oh, meet with Kelly. Let's talk. And I wasn't ready. And then so like, I didn't, I text you back and I didn't hear from me. I was like, thank God. He doesn't want to meet yet. Because I wasn't ready. And this was like April 1st. And then I launched the site, May 28th, sent you another text. And you're like, let's meet up ASC. say P, Kelly's going to call you. And Kelly, calling me, she's like,

can you meet with us Monday? And that was like two days to prep. And I still didn't know what I was going to ask you or what we were going to talk about. And I texted you this before with me and Josh Wise. We were sharing a hotel room in Iowa. I was like, Josh, I got to move with him. What were you doing?

We were coaching. Yeah, I was coaching Matt Tift at the time. And he was Gannasi, so whoever was there, we were sharing a hotel room. And he was just helping me brainstorm. I was like, yeah, I think I'm just going to pick Dale's brain on marketing. He goes, no, you only get one shot.

Go ask what, like, tell Dale what you want. What do you want, Blake? Like, tell them what you want and what you got to lose. So when we met, I just laid it all out there. Here's what I want to do, and you agreed to it. It's pretty cool. Yeah. So one thing, you're leaving out something.

Probably a lot. Yeah. One thing I remember is you came in there and said, I want you to do some social media posts. I don't know what it's going to cost me, but I wanted you to do some social media posts. And I was like, no. I was like, no, let's not do that.

Let's do something more than that. Yeah, well, that's, that's, I didn't imagine you wanting to own it with me. Why? I didn't know you were interested in owning businesses and I have no past success with a business. And like owning something together is a big deal, right? Like it's a partnership, not just an endorsement. So when I was talking to Josh and kind of playing it all out, I was like, well, I could pay a deal like a royalty per filter soul. or whatever, and I just, whatever it takes to get a picture of him on the site holding the box

filters is like what I want to do. So I didn't even think about offering you like equity or an ownership. It just didn't come to my mind. I didn't think it'd be an option. So when I presented that to you in the meeting, you were a little more, you were a little more okay with that than I thought you'd be. Yeah. You're starting as a brand new business, right? You don't want to carve off equity right away, right? Well, I did. Yeah, I mean, well, for, one, I was like, you're like, I'm not really interested in that when I asked about the social media post and the pain. And I remember feeling like, oh, that sucks, you know?

And then you're like, but I am interested in partnering with you on this, in owning this with you and going on this journey with you. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, I could have freaked out, you know, but I didn't. I helped my cool. But I'm the kind of person that I like partnerships and I like friendships and I like friendships and I like sharing things and bouncing ideas off. So for me, it was a no-brainer.

And you could help kickstart it, you know? Like, it would have been a tough grind without you. Very tough. Well, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to partner with you is because having, it's, you know, going back to watching you in the Xfinity series, you always, so that start running with that new team and trying to, you know, to get the bugs worked out and you yourself still learning and growing as a driver, that whole combination could go so many different directions.

And in most cases, it could be completely frustrating and debilitating and confidence could be lost and maybe, yes, you might have dealt with some of that stuff. but all through all of that you always had a smile on your face every time I saw you at intros or anywhere around the racetrack you were always in the best mood you could be in

considering circumstances right and when you told me you said hey man I'm going to take all of the energy that I have for racing I'm going to put it into this I went and that guy's going to succeed especially in the business world and where you've got to try to convince people to do something that maybe they're not entirely comfortable with, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Buying a subscription to air filters, people have always went to the store and bought them. And yes, that's a pain in the bud. And a lot of times it does get forgotten and you end up going way too long with dirty filters in your house. But, you know, how do you get them on to this new more convenient method, right, that you want to help them? help them enjoy, I knew you would succeed, you know. And so, and I'll be honest with you, man, there's not, not every day that somebody walks into the building and says, man, I got a really

good idea and I got, I got the right amount of energy and passion for it. And I'm, I'm charming and likable and easy to be around and I'm going to do everything I can. I knew you had to win. I knew you had to make it succeed, right? You had. I had to. You had to. There was no option for it to fail. Right. There still isn't. Right. Yeah, it has to succeed. Yes. And so having all those things, you know, I knew that, I knew this was going to work and you had some other relationships in racing, other friends that were still competing that you could have went to. That would have been great partners. That would have helped you as much or more than me, right, to continue to move this forward. And so I thought it was an incredible opportunity for me. And, and,

and, you know, shared that excitement with Kelly. And I trust Kelly as a business manager. And she's pretty good at reading the temperature of opportunity and understanding what she thinks is a good thing to take a risk on or a good thing to get involved in. And so, man, I was really pushing her to embrace this as something that would be really good down the road. So, you know, we, I guess, tell the story of, you know, getting that business started, how maybe task, you know, how that task your family, challenged your family, your wife.

She had to be all in. Everybody had to be all hands on. You also had kids that were growing up that had their own things that they wanted to do, that you would need to support and nourish. So the first, I just remember like, you know, I guess we're in year four now, year five. I just remember the first year, year and a half being really stressful. Yeah. Yeah.

Still stressful. It's still stressful. But man, I mean, to think back on. Yeah. You told me you said you wanted the business to double every year. Yep. You've done it. Yep.

That's happened. Yep. Yeah. I mean, all of the things that you set out goal-wise, you've achieved. Mm-hmm. And, well, the key part of that is goals, you know, having the goals and setting those daily. I like daily goals.

So I have to beat yesterday. So there's been times where people probably see me on Twitter of like, filter time, filter time, filter, I'm just wearing it out because I need two more subscriptions today to meet my goal. You know, I'm going to do a story. I'm going to text a friend. I'm going to text you. Hey, can you do a tweet, a post? Like, because I have to get to that goal for the day.

Yeah. And I know if I can meet these daily goals, it'll meet the monthly goals and the yearly goals, and then our five-year goals and 10-year goals. So for me, it's been all about goals. But to your question of how, like, starting it with my family and the stress, my wife, my wife doesn't, she never showed stress or worried. She showed so much belief and confidence in me when I told her this is what I want to do. And this is, I think I could make it happen. She's like, okay, awesome.

And just like, when I lost my job, we lost 100% of our income, right? So it was... I wanted to go back to that. So to kind of clean all that up, Ross had been driving for JD and was presented with this incredible opportunity to go race full-time for Gannassian Xfinity Series. And you and Ross, you somehow had formed a friendship with a friendship with a friendship with. those those that whole group that was going to take ross xfinity racing am i right well somewhat so jd had it was going to be a grotto like when ross left you were going to go drive for jd and have filter time on the car and i was going to be no i was going to race for free yes and when they didn't have

sponsorship who was going to put the money forth to allow you to put filter time on the car well they had some team funding and some sponsorship yeah i remember so we're like a half a year so we're like a half a year into filter time. Yeah. And you called me and you said, hey man, I'm going to go racing again. Yeah. And I was like, oh. Yeah, I know.

It was hard. I was like, wait. And the way I was looking at it. Yeah. I was like, I was going to use it and invite property management companies to the track. He and air contractors to the track. Oh, yeah. He sold it.

Fan giveaways and like and still race. Yeah. But looking back, I knew in my, it was me holding on to racing. And when it came out that Ross, was out of a ride. And Johnny Davis is like, yeah, like, this would be good. And I was like, this is the right thing to do. Ross is racing.

I need a, I have a business. It was right as we were going to announce you being a partner with me too. And the right thing to do is me take advantage of filter time right now. Yeah, the opportunity. The opportunity I have to build filter time is far greater than any racing opportunity was available. It could have been available. I mean, filter time is such a blessing.

Like we're my family is in a better spot today than we've ever been right so ever Yeah like you know I was trying to make a race to to have income to pay my mortgage and like I've never even in my racing career I never had a driver contract So even at colleague I didn't have a contract that's why you can call me Jeremy and I to be like you're done like I didn't even have a driver contract So my my income could have stopped at any moment and it still could right with filter time then the our customers are who have to make happy and they could fire us at any time. But we're doing a good job of keeping them happy. Yeah. But my family, my wife supported it, is very stressful. It was, you know, we went on lockdown, quit spending, sold vehicles, and just, I did some driver coaching. I was coaching quite a few drivers at the time to make money so I didn't have to pay

myself with filter time and we can reinvest everything into growing it. And it's, I was on your podcast like over five years ago. And I was, you know, announcing our partnerships. Five years has flown by. It has. What's interesting about filter time is, is you've, you struck up your friendship with a filter company that manufactures our filters in North Carolina just down the road, which is very convenient. And also great for our story, right? I'd really admire how you went, you were really truly able to shut down the urge to try to find that next opportunity in racing. because it's like a drug.

You put yourself in that building where those filters are manufactured, and you were built a team of gals that boxed them things up, and you and that team were shipping out filters, and you were sending me these pictures five years ago of a stack of 30 filters. Here's what's going out today. Man, we're doing awesome. 30 filters out today. Yeah.

Next, you know, six months later, that's 150 filters on that stack. And then two years later, you're sending me pictures of the back of the truck, completely full, FedEx truck, just slam full, UPS truck, whatever. And, you know, you, your energy and excitement for those victories, those new victories in life were really inspiring. And so it's been a lot of fun. watching this business develop and you create something from nothing. You even called one day and you said,

we got to sell filters for RVs. Yeah. And I was like, I don't know, Blake. I didn't even know RVs had filters. It's like, you sure? Like it's, you know, we're, when I'm talking to you and I want people to understand, like, we really have a streamlined tight budget. Yeah.

Right? On what we can spend marketing wise. people think we can just, why don't you just spend what you, just go where you got to go, make Super Bowl commercials. You know, but we run on a tight, you know, streamlined budget for the business. Yeah, we're bootstrapped. Yes. And so you're like, man, we're going to get into our heat filters.

I was like, they even got those, I don't know, man. And so, but that ended up being like a really great idea. Yeah. And, you know, and we, but most of the things. mostly you work to be able to get them in areas where people, you know, spend money and buy RVs or shop for, you know, materials and camping equipment and whatnot. And now that part of our business is actually doing really well. Yeah. And we've, yeah, we're in every single camping world across the country. Right. Our RVs. Yeah, it's awesome. And that's how it's

So I don't know if you know this. That all started from a tweet from Marcus Limonis of me even thinking about this. He's like, we're in racing. If you have a business in racing, let me know. We all need to help each other out. And I sent a tweet. I was like, hey, we make air filters and you have like 120 locations that use air filters. He's like, email me.

And I emailed them. And I was like, here's what we do. And at the very end, I was like, or we could create an RV air filter for RVs. And he's like, let's do that. You work hard. I'll work hard, let's do it. And I was like, okay, well, if we can get in camping world, it's definitely worth putting some time and effort into developing this. And at the time, my son was racing dirt bikes and I was in a camper almost every weekend.

And I was looking at my camper air filter and it's just screen. It's doing nothing. So I talked to Jeff, who's our manufacturer. I was like, hey, it's not a filter. It's just a screen. It doesn't. I get a, I'll send you to after, but I got an email from somebody of like, we woke up sneezing every morning in our camper. For the last two years, we just put your filters in.

this is the first time we woke up feeling like we had good air. And I was like, man, that's, that's pretty cool, you know. But we tested probably 60 different filter materials in my camper, did airflow testing and everything you could think of. And I finally, we came up with the perfect match, the perfect formulation. Yeah. And just figured out how to make them. And Mark is like, here's the purchase order. Like, we got in every camping world. And then I put them on Amazon. And we turned into like the best seller on Amazon for RV filters pretty quick. And it's crushing it. Yeah. It's crushing it.

Where do we go from here? I mean, for one, it's all about our customers, right? You've always told me that. Everything I've asked you, like, just keep the customers happy no matter what. And we're fortunate enough where we don't have, we control it. So if we need to lose money to keep customers happy, like when I say lose money, not make as much. If someone's not happy after a year, like we just cancel a refund. We keep everybody happy.

We did something crazy. when, I guess when COVID or something was going on, something happened where we had to, we dropped our prices or didn't raise our, everyone was raising prices. Yes, and we didn't. We didn't. For years. Yes.

And then we finally had to a little bit. So we raised our prices and it was like 5%. It was something very small. It was due to shipping costs too. That was the only thing for us. That's it. Yeah. So, yeah, something was going on where it was like shipping went way up.

And me and you sat down and we were like, I mean, it was kind of fun because we were trying to like do the right thing. Yeah. You know, and we did it. And we hung in there as long as we could to keep our prices as low as possible. You mentioned customer service. How long were you the one person answering every single email coming in from filter time? Yeah, so it went to my cell phone from May 28, 2018 to October 2020.

You did every. Everything. I didn't have an employee. And you didn't answer, you didn't let one not go on. No way. You answered every single one. Every single one. Every email, every phone call, every text, every mark. Like, I was filter times only employee till October 2020. And like, if you remember 2020, you were on. You were on Fox racing the filter time car. And like, we exploded. And I was still the only one. Where's my filter? I ordered yesterday. It's not here yet. You know, we're still a small company. And like, it got to the point where I could finally hire somebody. Yeah. You know, we, like you said, we're on a strict budget, and I'm going to stick to that budget.

And we got to a point where I could afford to hire somebody. So we hired Crystal, who's still with us today. Yeah. And how many employees do we have? We have Crystal, my mom, which my mom does our bookkeeping accounting and our business-to-business stuff. Perfect. Invoiced accounts receivable. all that on the business business side.

Crystal's our VP of operations. She's running. Just make sure the company stays running, right? My wife handles all customer service now. So Shannon took over all customer service. Like, I'll be in bed. It's 10 o'clock and she's still answering customer emails. And it's awesome.

Like, we want to control customer service. That's the most important part of our entire business. That's one of the things I think that we have done really well is, you know, our customers hear from us. If they have an issue, there's a response. Yeah. Yeah. Instantly.

Sunday at 10 o'clock will respond. Yeah. And I wish people knew it was us. Some people are kind of rude. Well, they're learning that right now. Yeah, they think we're a chat bot or like, whatever. It's a real person. It's Blake's wife.

This is my wife you're talking to here. And she does a lot better that, like, I remember you and I are talking. We were concerned with like, Blake, you think they'll do as good as you, a customer service. I'll think, I don't know, you know. But they're actually much. better because I took it very personal. If someone complained or had something to say, it was very personal to me. Yeah. And I probably wasn't the nicest response. Might have been short or sweet,

like, yeah, no problem, whatever, you know. And it got old too. Like for, I just, you know, stress and dealing with customers and marketing and shipping and invoices like you, it got kind of a lot. Yeah. So it was a how many employees do a half total? Well, we have seven total doing the pickpacking shipping in the warehouse all day every day. Thousands. And thousands. And you have. And, You're in their majority of the time. Yep. Also doing. Yep.

Checking in and trying to keep the energy up. You know, we'll bring lunch and breakfast on Fridays and just keep the energy up. You know, when those employees walk in on a Monday and they have 2,000 shipments to do, it's like it's never ending. Right. Like when they clear it out, the next day just loads back up. They just do the same thing all day, every day. So I'm always just trying to like make sure they know that they're appreciated. Yeah.

And our entire business relies on them. Like, they put the wrong filters in the box. Like, that's a bad experience for our customer. So they're really, really good at what they do. So we have seven there. We have some contracted marketing people. There's probably 20 people that I work with on a daily basis in general with filter time. Keep it wrong.

One of the things we've been working on, you know, obviously we grew from the ground up off of single home customers, right? Yes. And residential. And so one of the things, though, we've been focusing on in the last probably year or six months is partnering with some of the businesses and people that own a majority or a bulk of rental properties. Yeah. And so we're trying to get into those spaces as well to try to grow, which has been a lot of fun. It's been a good learning experience. You've been traveling a lot trying to go to different areas to.

learn more about that part of the that part of our opportunity in business. And so, you know, what I guess what's the goal for this year? This year is to get more, well, for one, keep up our direct consumer customer base. Keep them happy. Get new ones, you know. People can always use that coupon code, Dale Jr. for 20% off the first order. So we offer that discount for your fans. But I really want to grow in that. single family property management space and the multi-family apartment complexes and stuff. The reason I want to grow in that space is because I feel like we're wanted and needed, and that's nice.

I went to my first property management show for an organization called Narpum, April and Amelia Island. And there's 500 property managers there. And every one of them, like they walked up and they were so excited to see we were there and that we are available and there was another option for them because there's one other company in that space. And until now, there's only been one company. So we're coming in and giving people an option for an alternative.

And we've done zero outreach except for that one show. And we've just been acquiring all these new single family rental properties. And it's been great because one single family property management customer could be thousands of shipments, homes. And on a business on paper, one of those homes is equivalent to a customer on paper. Sure. But my passion is still that customer. Because it, linking back to racing, it's like fans. Like you care about your fans, building your fan base, promoting, earning trust.

So our customers feels more like that to me. Or it's still my passion. But on the business side, on paper, is very nice. Yeah. Well, I love it because, so I get, I got a place down in South Carolina and I have my shipment sent there every three months. And I know, you know, it's. In the heat of the summer, those air conditioners are running wide open all day.

Doors are open and people are going in and out of the house. We got friends and families staying there all the time, and dust and things are just getting kicked up all the time, and then we won't be there for a month or two, and the house is collecting dust, and we walk in and kick all that stuff around. And it's pretty interesting to me how some filters are just completely nasty after three months, and sometimes it's not so bad. I know those air handlers are working overtime in the summer.

That box will show up on the front porch. Instead of me having to remind myself to get whatever batch order, you know, bulk order I've went and picked up from the store, down from the crawl space and the attic to change out the filters, it's all in this box. And it shows up on the front porch and I'm like, all right, I got five minutes. I'll change all five of these filters or three of these filters. put all the dirty ones back in the box and it's down by the trash can and done in 10 minutes.

And it's the same costs. You know, I'm buying the filter for relatively the same, if not a cheaper price. And the shipping is basically, I count the shipping for the gas that's going to take me to get to, you know, wherever I'm going to buy these filters. And so it's just the convenience of it is really, really nice. and I've all, you know, I didn't realize that when you wanted to start the business and I wanted to partner with you. I didn't realize what that experience of being a customer would be like and how nice it is, but it truly is a, you know, kind of set it and forget it kind of deal, which is nice. And I think, you know, your AC units and your air handlers and all that stuff are, you know, going to survive and last a lot longer.

I have failures at times in my house because it was built in this house I live in here in North Carolina's built in 08 and so we're all the water heaters and all these things are starting to fail and having to replace this and another but using this type of a service is going to extend the life of my error handlers and my HVA system is going to appreciate it long term and I think that's why it's appealing to those bulk you know, those, you know, those companies that have those hundreds or thousands of rental properties is because they are the ones responsible for fixing and repairing the HVACs when they do fail because of their rental property tenants not replacing them on time and keeping things up. We have some stats on that where it saves you like $300 a year per property

just by changing your filter on time. because for one, let's just assume they're going to change your filter. Like, you want to make sure they're using the right one. Not some super high capacity, hepa restricted filter in an old, 20-year-old rental property that can't handle it. So, like, you're providing them with the correct filter. You're giving them the correct size. Some people think, like, the size they had didn't work, so I'll just put a random

size in it, and it's not doing anything. So the fact that they get the right filter, the right size, at the right time, saves them a lot of money. and it's been very fortunate for us that side of our business is growing. Yeah, for sure. All right, ma'am. Well, you can go to filtertime.com.

I mean, that's probably the easiest way, right? Yeah, go to filtertime.com. You can go to filtertime.com slash Dale Jr. And what it will do is it'll auto-apply that coupon code at checkout, 20% off. So, yeah. And you can cancel any time. Yep.

We're not committing. Free shipping too now. Free shipping, too, now. That's probably one of the things. As we've gotten bigger, like, we've been able to keep passing those savings. to our customers. So free shipping on every order. Damn, that's nice. Yeah. And you, I like the cancel any

anytime part. Yeah, me too. So like if you, you can just try this out, if you don't like it, if it's not for you. Yeah. And we do a full refund. Full refund. So it's almost like a free trial because like if you're not happy, you keep the filter and we refund you. 100%. You never did tell me how you knew Mark Wahlberg.

So Mark Wahlberg, I aquahydrate, his water company he was invested in or ownership. sponsored me at California Speedway 2015 and he came to the track. He wanted to come and be our guest and he showed up and just him and his two boys I think he came in my hauler we hung out and I'm a huge Mark Wahlberg fan too so I was trying to be like just not too excited sure right and he didn't want to ask her to know he didn't want anybody know he's coming he just wanted to come right and experience

it and he walked with me to the car and he went to the driver's meeting and sat with me and like people started to realize he was there and he just wanted to you know he got on my truck and did the drive around really yeah yeah and then sat on my pit box for a little bit and and took off yeah it was really cool got to know him well uh we text back and forth uh quite a bit and uh he's just a great guy and i'm a big fan so we do have this one thing that we're going to do it's going to be kind of fun um we're going to surprise some customers yes if when people use the code dale junior we should we should call him we're going to call him yeah we've done we've done we've done we've done Have we done this before?

No, not you and I together. Okay. I'm sure I've talked to a lot. I'm sure you've talked to a couple. But I feel like we should pick some people that are new, some people that have been with us for a long time, and just have a conversation with them. You and I, maybe schedule a Zoom call or FaceTime and just thank them, get to know them, ask them what they love, how we could do it better, right? Just talk to some of our customers. That would be cool.

That would be fun to immediately call somebody who just signed up. Yeah, that would be awesome. We should do that. And talk to them on the phone. Hey, man. Yeah. So you just signed up. They'll be like, what?

Really? Yeah, we have to make sure they use code Dale Jr. Because then they'll actually care to hear from us. Not some random person. Yeah. All right. Let's do it. How many you want to do?

How many you want to call? Let's do five. We'll pick five and then we'll do it. We'll consistently do it. But like five at a time, we'll do five people. All right. Your brother. What's his name?

Christian. Christian. Your brother has now sort of gotten the entrepreneur bug and started a business. And I'm a little bit disappointed that me and you, I don't know, maybe you are an owner, but I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't get involved on this one, man. Not yet. Well, it, I want to, I better get in there. It's about to get expensive. I know. Because this stuff's good. I wanted to talk about it. It's jerky boys. Yeah. So Jerky Boys, he started, I love beef jerky. I ate beef jerky my whole life, right?

Slim gyms, all that stuff. But he started making this in his, in his shop, right? His little grotch, right? was his grandfather's recipe. Yep, started making it and wanted to start a company. I don't want to get on too much of a rant, but some of the stuff out, you know, the typical stuff that you walk into, you know, a target or somewhere, wherever you're going,

I just don't like it. I can't dig it, man. I love homemade jerky because it's just, it just tastes so good. And this is homemade. I mean, it literally is a homemade jerky sold in a package that you can order online. And so,

everybody I've introduced it to so the slogan could use some work because you do share it. I can't have the slogan. It's so good you'll want to share it. At least that's my experience. Well, dude, I'm going to tell you it's been a lot of fun partnering with you

with filter time and me and you had become really good friends. When I still ride my road bike that I picked that habit up from Jimmy Johnson back. around 2017 and pretty much every time I ride it's me and you we got another buddy of virus named Chris that goes with us but we always had a lot of fun riding out on Broly School Road going over to the tavern at Lake Norm Tavern and having some lunch.

Yeah it is fun. Yeah, but it's been a great journey dude. Yeah, and just getting started. I know it feels like we've created this really great company but to be honestly, yeah, it's still very, very young and where we want to be. is way up this hill. Yeah. But I feel confident that if anybody can get to the top of that hill, it's us.

I agree. All right, ma'am. Blake Cook on the Dale Jr. Dallin. All right, so there's the Blake Cook interview, and I'm glad we were able to get him on here and share with everybody who isn't aware that we were partners at filter time and what filter time is all about.

And the one thing that, there's a couple things that I wanted everyone to try to learn and maybe this come out in the conversation and we were just kind of talking about here in the studio. Blake became a race car driver and didn't let his lack of, you know, legacy or family history or his lack of total inexperience getting away or really deter him. or persuade him to to think differently. He, you know, he drove, he, his, the amount of racing he did to, to get to the Xfinity series was relatively limited and,

and that was totally fine. He's like, hey, I'm just going to take the next opportunity and just keep looking for opportunity. And he did. He produced it. He networked, created relationships with people that were able to help him become an Xfinity racer. It's not supposed to work that way.

it's supposed to be, you know, when we look at, we talk about it. It's incredibly difficult to get into a full-time ride. I have drivers all the time coming up to me going, what do I need to do? I just want one opportunity, one chance, you know. And Blake is over here just, you know, just Petering along, finding his way, and became a full-time,

Infinity Series driver and did relatively well for what knowledge and experience he had. And, you know, he was also smart enough to realize when that was maybe going to become more difficult, he needed to start something new. He didn't have anything to fall back on. He had, I think his family and his sons, his kids, that motivation of, I got to build something for them. They, they, I just can't, I just can't keep, um, treating myself with this racing career that I love and sacrificing so much in, in, in, uh, for my family. And so, uh, he, instead of getting a job, somewhere, a really good paying job in another organization, he creates his own business. I just knew having watched him and having been around him at the racetrack and just kind of

being an observer, I just knew that if he put forth the same commitment toward filter time that he had for his racing, it was going to win. I was like, I don't want to just post on social media and get this thing off the ground. I want to take this ride with you. I want to be part of this. So I didn't know much about starting a business, but we've learned together. I've learned a lot from Blake.

And he's been able to achieve the goals that he sets out annually for the company. And so the company is surviving. It is functional. And like he said, it's put him and his family in a really good position. financially to be stable. And we've been very tight to stick within our means financially.

And so I think I'm very proud of that part too. I've not just, I've not, you know, me or Blake, we haven't poured a bunch of money into this or borrowed and poured a ton of, you know, we haven't taken a big giant risk financially in any way. it is created itself off of its own profit and its own success and continue everything we get we pour back into the business to keep trying to grow and make the hires that we need to make when we're able to make them and it's just been a lot of fun for me and I'm glad to be able to share that with everybody today there are a couple other maybe some similar examples

of things that I've done like this in the past but I'm very very, very proud that I would have had the opportunity to partner with Blake and proud of what what filter time has become. You see me, I'll wear the shirts from time to time and I've talked about it on the show from time to time and

I'm really thankful that and hopeful that this is just the beginning for this business. Thank you, Ally, for bringing the guest segment to us every single week. Ally does such a great job allowing us to just basically bring anyone

one we want in this room. And I get to talk to some incredible people in this industry and learn so much about the history of our sport and people even outside of NASCAR. But it gives us the opportunity to bring in our friends as well, like Blake. We're all better off with an ally. I'm certainly better off with Blake in my life. And we're having a lot of fun together working on filter time. And no matter what you're saving for, whether it's race tickets to the next race or a new

car or a new home, we're all better off with a national. ally. All right, it's time for the white flag. Dropping after the race this weekend in Talladega, The Tear Down with Jeff Gluck and George Mianke. I need to tell you, those are two good dudes. I listened to The Tear Down after Bristol.

And man, they were so nice. They sent some really, really kind things about me. And I text them on, I listened to the Tear Down on the way to take Isla to school Monday morning and immediately called them, dropped dial off and got on the phone or text them, I'm sorry, a word of thanks for that. But anyways, it's a must listen every week. They do such a good job breaking down the initial reaction of every race event. And sometimes that's the best time to put words to paper or put your voice to a podcast is right after the checker flag.

And they get right to it. Two good dudes, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi working their guts out for us. on the NASCAR beat. Dropping Monday, action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin. We'll hear everything Denny had to say about the race this weekend. Doorbump are clear.

The spotters, they'll be all worked up. You know, honestly, coming out of what's probably one of the more important races for a spotter, I always felt like that, I always used to say that TJ used to earn his money at Daytona and Talladega. And so those guys, if they've got any energy left,

they'll leave it on, they'll leave it on the show. Dropping today is a new episode of Speed Street. And then Thursday, DJD reloaded and Dirty Mo Doe. They'll be setting up the best bets on Dirty Mo Doe as they do every week for the upcoming race. And recap how things went from Talladega. So it should be a lot of fun to listen to. And yeah, that's going to be it for me.

I'll see you guys next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Thank you.