The Dale Jr. Download - Bonus: Speed Street Final ROVAL Expectations w/ Corey LaJoie

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

Conor Daly's NASCAR Cup Series debut is upon us and Speed Street returns for another episode to break down his final preparations. First, Conor and Joey talk about some IndyCar news with Colton Herta extending with Andretti Autosport, Arrow McLaren SP setting their number lineup, and discuss a couple of tracks set for repaves. Then, they talk with the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports car in the NASCAR Cup Series, Corey Lajoie, about some final tips for Conor about his upcoming race, setting realistic expectations for a small team, and the difference between his "flow" and a mullet. Finally, the guys answer some fan questions.Follow @SpeedStreetpod and @Dirtymomedia on Instagram and Twitter. 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.

This is a production of Dirtymo Media. Welcome back to Speed Street. Back again. I'm back again. Joey Molanaro here after a week off of a little paternity rest there. You know, I had my boy, didn't really take much time off. I said, hey, I need some sleep. He's not sleeping much, so I did it.

And thankfully last week, Connor and Chase Briscoe and Ben held it down, of course. But we are here again. IndyCar, the season has been over, but we are far from done on. Speed Street because we are nothing without the co-pilot, the co-host of this show, and NASCAR driver, Cub Series driver, Connor Daly. What's up, man? How you doing? Oh, you know what?

Just doing the research, taking notes. I spent two and a half hours yesterday watching the race from last year, watching a little bit of Road America from this year because Almondinger told me that I should watch Road America or Sonoma because I got to listen and understand how the gearbox works better and see how aggressive they can break the cars. So yeah, just trying to basically, it's very different, the preparation for this type of a race. But you try to flood your mind with knowledge. And then hopefully by the time you get in the car Saturday, you can weed out what you don't need and then focus on what you do need.

Right. You can trust your butt as our guest this week said to you. Coriol is going to hop on. You love them. Driver number seven car, the Cup series. He's pal of both of ours of the show, Stackin' Pinnies podcast. So he hops on, gives Connor a lot of advice, and we chop it up with him. Great conversation.

Don't want to miss that. But man, I mean, this is like, we're doing like, you know how like on Fox or CBS they'll do like a crazy crossover where stars of different shows will go on? Like the Simpsons will be on Family Guy and Family Guy would be on The Simpsons. I mean, you're looking ahead and you got Marco Andretti and the Exfinity. You got you driving cup. You got Sage Karam, of course, he's been doing Xfinity, but, you know, he's an Indy guy at heart. And then we get the news that Haley Degan is going from trucks over to Xfinity next weekend.

I mean, it is wild times in motorsports, dude. Yeah, there's a lot going on. And what's also funny about the entry list, there's 39 cars on the entry list, right? So a lot of cars, a lot of cup cars this weekend. I was texting Marco this morning about like, hey, RD, like, do you run Friday? I don't even know the schedule, right? I was like, do you practice Friday? He said, nope.

And he's been on the simulator. and I know Sage, so I can't wait to see those guys. But what's really funny is that I actually get to race against Danny Kiviat as well, who rush in Formula One driver now in the Cup series. First time I've raced with Danny since we fought for the GP3 championship in 2013. So we have had, I was messaging him last week when I was doing the seat fit in the cup car. I said, are you racing this? Because it wasn't announced yet that he was racing in the Cup series yet.

And he's done a couple road races. And I said, are you racing this again? He said, yep. I said, man, imagine, you know, 10 years ago, we're 2012, 2012, 2013 racing GP3. The next time we'd race each other was in the NASCAR Cup series, I would have thought you would be crazy. So very hilarious reunification there. Look forward to seeing him.

Really want to beat him really more than anyone. And that's pretty much my goal. So it's been a fun, you know, fun to see the response, you know, to the announcement. obviously, you know, having Floyd Mayweather have some quotes in our press release too is really cool, you know, being affiliated with that team. Obviously small part-time group that are, you know, up and coming. But a special group for sure that I look forward to competing with. And my crew chief, I mean, Tony Yuri Jr. is obviously super experienced. And it's been fun to chat with him this week. And I love the dedication that he brings to it and the experience that he brings to it. And yeah, you know, we're ready to go. I mean, it's been a busy week, and I'm still going to do some preparation later today. Still going to look at as many things as I can. But, you know, at some point, you just kind of got to get in the seat and go.

And once Saturday is over, the practice and qualifying, that's when I'll have a better idea of, okay, I have information now that I have felt with my own butt cheeks. So what do I need to then tune for the race on Sunday? Right. So you said you were watching Road America, the Roble from last year. And I'm thinking like football players watching game film, right? You know, they're watching the All-22. They're seeing how they misstepped here and whatnot. How does a driver watch game film?

Like, what are you looking for in those scenarios? What are you trying to pick up when you're watching a race like that that you can remember to help you in your race? Well, I mean, it's interesting because I watch all the NASCAR races already. So I see them as pure entertainment and I watch them as a fan because I'm like, I'm a race fan. But when you know you're going to be racing against these guys, you know, you kind of go, I guess one level deeper, kind of look and listen to the gearbox, look and listen to the brake zones. You know, are they locking up the rears initially in the break zone? How often are they locking up the rears? You know, if someone's trying to pass someone, let's say at Road America, you know, how aggressive are they when it comes to the brake bias front to rear?

you know, one thing I noticed is there's not a lot of front locking. Like, so that means the brakes are fairly stabilized. It looks like you can get the brake balance to be where you can, you know, lock the rears rather than the fronts, but it's somewhat under control. So I don't know. There's a lot that you can watch. Obviously, there's certain drivers that I know to be careful around, right? Like, we obviously see drivers that hit other people more than others.

There's obviously drivers that, you know, are more so there to definitely keep the cars clean because they got to race them again next weekend. You know what I mean? The smaller teams. So it's an interesting group. But again, so many cars. You know, the most cars that we race against, obviously an indie car is 33, right?

The Indy 500, biggest field of the year. You know, sometimes we'll have 27 at a road course. That's a lot. There's 39 cars. You know, that's a ton of vehicles. But, yeah, it's something that I, sometimes these days leading up to the race are kind of annoying because you're just like, I don't know what else I can think about this car until I actually get in it.

And it was the same when I went into the Xfinity car, same when I went to the truck. But obviously the truck, when I raised the truck for the first time, we had no practice at all. We just went straight to the race, which is by far the craziest thing I've ever done. So at least, you know, now we have a little bit of practice. You know, we get a qualifying session that we can also use as a practice, essentially. and yeah, like we see our guest later, Corey, you know, tell me about it, it's tough. This is a tough series to get into and be fast immediately. Just because everyone is so good, everyone is experienced.

A lot of the big teams have, you know, a level of information or a level of development that, you know, my team can't possibly have. So it's going to be interesting, but it's going to be fun. I love weekends like this because again, no expectations. I just, I want to plan, I want to do all the laps. I want to get to the checker flag and I want to see how it goes. And that's, you know, it was the same goal with the truck race that I did for the first time, you know, get to the end and it went great, you know, finish inside the top 20.

So very, very excited for the opportunity. Joey, I wish that you could be there. I know that you were working on it. Is there still a possibility or are we doing dead things? Well, I know, man. It was a possibility. but then actually something came up heading down to Dallas, Texas, actually, with Aflac. I'm going to be doing a little campaign down there for the...

With the duck? Yeah, for the Texas, for the Texas Oklahoma game. So, I mean, just pretty straightforward. They're, you know, they're paying me well. And so I got to put food on the table. I got to go down to Dallas, but I will certainly be keeping up with... And I'll be back on Sunday in Indy, so I'll be able to watch... you race because I certainly, well, we got Kenny Pickett at the helm now, so that's exciting,

but my team sucks. So besides watching Kenny, there's really no other reason to watch him. So I'll do the double screen with you there at the Roval, but keep it up with Marco on Saturday for sure. We keep it with him and Sage, like always. I had so much fun at the Roval last year, man. God, I know we talked about it before, but it was a freaking blast. I don't know if Cole Swindell is going to be there again this year, but he was last year and he had the after party at his bus inside the track. And it was fucking awesome. So make sure you try to, you know, if he's there,

work that out once you finish the race. I've never been to a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. So that's the funniest part. Like I've obviously, this track is new to me. The only time I have raced at Charlotte Motor Speedway was on the go-kart track inside of turn three. Okay.

I think it's inside of turn three. So that is the last time that I have raised in Charlotte Motor Speedway. Let's say 2005, 2006, maybe. I don't know. Does it kind of feel in a way, like you mentioned, like, looking at a weekend like this, like you kind of feel like you're kind of reverting back to like younger days, like go-kart days, just like the excitement, like just kind of, I don't know, it feels like, you know, any car that's your job.

I mean, this is your job also, but like, you know, the pressure is super on there. Now you just go out let it fly and then let it ride. Do you kind of feel like you're kind of reverting back to a younger stage at all? Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's a little bit different, too, when you're a story. when you're kind of like, I would consider myself an established professional now. I mean, I've been doing this racing stuff at the highest level for several years now. And so, yeah, it is, it is really fun to jump in for the first race because, again,

it is a little bit more carefree. People are like, hey, yeah, you know, as long as you don't crash, it's a great weekend. You know what I mean? Like, you're getting out there, you're doing laps. You know, my first Xfinity race, you know, it was a very similar vibe. Like, I really enjoy being a part of it. You know, it rained for the first practice, so it didn't have much dry practice before qualifying, but we qualified the car 15th. And I was like super pumped about that. You know, first time ever

and that was when there was a lot of really good guys in Xfinity just like there is now. And so, you know, I know I can drive a stock car. And we had a great race going, potentially finishing the top 10 until the chassis broke. So, so like, it's something that I'm excited for. It's something that, again, I'm not setting expectations for myself. I'm just going to try to take it all in. You know, if there's a Cole Swindell bus after party, probably going to go there. You know what I mean? Probably going to enjoy it.

You should. Obviously, Charlotte is the home of NASCAR, right? So it's something, well, I mean, obviously, Daytona, they consider that to be a home as well. But realistically, most of the teams, most of the drivers, all are in that area. So it's going to be fun to be there. It's going to be fun to be a part of it.

And you know what? I've got, it's only two days, which is crazy. Like, I'm going to get there Friday, you do a little bit of work Friday. But realistically, you're only on track for two days. But that's two days that I'm going to really try to soak in. Yeah. No, as you should, man. It's great.

I'll never forget walking on the track on the right, right by the start finish line. And like just looking at the banking, it was insane. Me and me and my wife were just were blown away by that angle of the bank on the track. Totally crazy. But it's beautiful. It's awesome. This is funny. I do, I do remember.

I have actually driven the IndyCar two seater at. Charlotte, which is funny. People might not know that, but we took the IndyCar two-seaters to Charlotte when I was the driver, and we did a full day there for some, for a company or something like that. And the one thing that I had to say about Charlotte in an IndyCar, the two-seater, was that was very bumpy. So I'm very curious to see, you know, the difference in, it's probably been 10 years since I drove the IndyCar two-seater there on the Oval. It wasn't the road course. But that's that's the amount of experience I have on the, Charlotte Motor Racing Circuit. Speaking of bumpy kind of repaving, did you see Kyle Kirkwood? Do you have any news about Mid-Ohio, Rhode America being repaved? Or Road America already is, but it's Mid-O-Hile? I didn't hear anything about Mid-Ohio, honestly. I don't know why he put that tweet out super early in the morning.

I almost tweeted about him saying, like, bro, it's too early for this type of stuff. Like, let's just wait until at least one o'clock or two to get into track repaving drama. But we definitely know Laguna's sake is being repaved. We definitely know Road America is being repaved. Mid-Ohio, I think, is great. But if they want to repave it, I love that. So let's just keep on trucking. Yeah, lots of IndyCar news as well.

Obviously, we know the season's over, but a lot has been happening. A lot has been going on. And what was that? No, we see Colton Herda, if you want to dive right in. Colton with a multi-year extension. Yeah, I find that really interesting. Everyone wants to see if he's going to be a Formula One driver. But obviously Andretti hope to have their own Formula One team as well.

So good for them for locking him up like that. Obviously, they want to have control over what he's doing. And I assume they put a very hefty buyout on the contract as well in case he does go to Formula One. So everyone becomes happy. I think Colton is probably, I hope he's one of the highest paid IndyCar drivers now in the series. He deserves it. but yeah very very interesting um i guess to put that out now i i don't know i mean i didn't know

i already thought he was in a multi-year deal so maybe i maybe i was lost but good for him golden deserves all the all the all the happiness and success and then you have alice palo with the news that okay so we've already had news about him right after the season he's back in the 10 for 2023 ganassi and it comes out arrow mclaren 2024 So he's got, we've gone from nothing to having two plus years planned out for the guy. I mean, if we've seen anything, though, and if we've learned anything, it's this, we have no idea what to expect. So I think there is a general outline of what he's going to do for the next two years.

But, yeah, fascinating situation. You know, there's, there are people suing each other, but then he's now driving for the team again. And then he's now driving for the next team the next year. Very, very curious to see when we get to the end of next year, You know, what happens? Where do people go? What, you know, what buttons are being pressed?

Who's Sue and who? Very, very excited for that, you know, for the future of IndyCar. I think there's a lot of exciting things going on. I have those lawsuits dropped, or do they just like, you know? I have no idea. I assume that someone paid someone to go away. I don't know. But McLaren also announced the restructuring of their team a little bit.

They got Brian Barnhart now. They've given the numbers out. Alex Rossi will be number seven. Felix Rosencris will be number six. And then obviously, Pat O being number five. So they sorted that all out. We figured out who's going to who. And there's a lot going on over there at McLaren.

Are they going to run Kyle Busch in a fourth car at the Indy 500? Who knows? Is Kyle Bush going to be in the Indy 500 next year? I hope so. Bring it on. Yeah, exactly. Bring it on. I actually plan on asking him about it.

If I get to interact with Kyle at all before the race this Sunday, I would like to ask, Hey, are you going to do the Indy 500, which I'm sure he'll look at me and say, who are you? And then probably not. I look forward to hearing the response next week. Exactly. If anything comes out of this weekend, let's finish the race and then let's see what, let's get some one-on-one with Kyle Bush, see if he's going to venture to Indy in May.

Yeah, I still think there's a few drivers that I haven't actually met. Like, I don't know if, like, I don't know if, if, if, uh, Kevin Harvick knows who I am. You know what I mean? I don't know if I'm trying to think of who else. Like I've met most of everyone else, but it is going to be funny to like be a, hey, great to see you guys. Like I know you, but like you don't know. Like I don't think I've ever met Martin Turex Jr. To be honest. I, I, Cole Pern was my engineer for the ND 500, but I don't think I've met Martin more than maybe like a brief handshake. So that will be a very hilarious experience, I think. I've hung out with Martin Truex Jr. once before.

You know where? Where? Cole Swindell's after party out of the roval. I thought you were to say the Wild Beaver or something like that. No, that would be a story to tell. But nope, at Cole Swindell's, Martin Shurex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott there. Great time. Anyways, Martin's a great guy.

Great guy. We're going to call Kevin Harvick Mr. Harvick. I might call him Mr. Harvick. Yeah. Like Mr. Harvick, great to see you. I know you're very successful. You have cool suits, and I like Bush Light. So that's maybe what I go with.

Can't get off on the wrong foot that way, man. Exactly. Yeah. All right. You want to get to Corey before we get to our Q&A? Absolutely. Yeah, let's get to our fantastic guest. Corey LaJoy, NASCAR, Ace, NASCAR pilot.

I'm excited for everyone to listen into this interview. We have an incredible guest here, Corey LaJoy, very, very, talented racing driver, talented American man, father, a person who really deserves to win a race very, very soon. He has been close several times. And I'm a big fan. He drives the number seven car for Spire Motorsports. Don't know what it's going to look like this weekend. I assume you have some sort of energy brand on your car this weekend. Corey, what's your weekend sponsor for us? It'll either be some sort of protein bar or floor supplies or you are correct. It is raise energy this week.

We are pushing our new joy juice flavor to the boys. Well, I couldn't think of a happier thing to celebrate this joy juice. So I can't wait to see that sucker on track. Corey, what was your initial reaction to seeing me potentially, well, not potentially, but actually participating in the NASCAR Cup series this weekend. And I have sent several text messages out to several different drivers that you compete against, just trying to ask for advice. What was your reaction?

And what would be the first thing that I need to look out for when I become a cup racing driver? Well, first, congratulations. I know this is a, oh, you're going C4 today. It's not even new. No joy juice. Let's keep away from those. stay away from those on Sunday because we're going to need you to be calm, cool, collect.

Oh, yeah. But of course, man, I'm pumped up, man. It's obviously you take the, I feel like you are the indie car version of myself, right? Proud to be American, proud to do what we love. And don't take it for granted because it's been a fight and a scrap and a grind. So anytime you cross over to race against some buddies or wearing Chase Brisco shirt with, I don't take offense too. That's fine.

race is okay. I don't take offense to you bail on me for the kickball tournament either. That's fine. I will remember that, though, if we are racing on our restart, just so you know. Hey, I'm doing it for the kids. It's the big brothers and big sisters charity event, dude. I know you're supporting people's feet, but, like, I'm trying to support the kids. I hear you.

So whenever you need me to cut you a break in the restarts, just remember, it was for the kids, too. For your kids. You're trying to put food on the table. I'm trying to put food on my kids' table. I respect that. It's going to be fun. And I'm sure that everybody's going to tell you a lot of similar things. But the respect level between the drivers has gone down significantly over the last,

I don't know, two, two and a half years, particularly with this car. It can take a lot of punishment off cosmetically. It can take a lot of punishment off the front bumper. And guys aren't scared to use it. And as height and as hard to pass as it is the roval, man, you got to fill every. every ounce of asphalt. If there's not a car in it, it's going to get filled, right? So whether it's on the inside, outside, middle.

If there's a gap, somebody's going to fill it. But, man, if I'm you, I just want to tell everybody to start. I don't care if you are Ty Gibbs or Conner Daly for the first time driving a car this race three times. Do not get on television because generally if you are, you're having a bad day. like that's a good point they're going to show you Connor Daley led 12 laps at indy 500 once big time indie car got that was that was an insult you were considerably a better ind card guard than I give you credit for that's tough yeah it was several more than that but no worries continue yeah anyway yeah well the 12 laps in that one race yeah yeah and I almost won that one race

until I got crashed just like every other but exactly they're when they talk about you like that You're going to be driving around. You're going to be hitting curbs. You can be out there having around, like having fun, you know, lack in pace because like we talked about before we jumped on, you don't have access to the simulator. The car that you guys have, they don't have access to the latest simulation.

So the setups probably not going to be very good. You're going to be out there just logging laps and enjoying the experience. So with that being said, you do not want to get on television because generally you did something bad. You got in the playoff guy's way. You stuck it in the barriers. You hit one of those signs and you drug it around for two laps and everybody makes fun of your memes for the next 12 years.

Just don't be one of those guys. You can do it. No pressure. Yeah, no pressure at all there, Connor. A lot to avoid with all that going on. Corey, last time, when we first met last year, Robo weekend as well, you had the lettuce that you still got. And at the time, you were like, I don't know, I think I may be chopping it too.

What's the word, man? You still got it a year later. Man, the lettuce has been almost part of the brand now. Like, people recognize me by the flow. It's a, it's like a tight balance because if it gets a little long, it gets straight. And then you look like you have a mullet, which kind of pisses me off because people like, hey, man, no smolt. It's not a mull. It's long on top.

Well, it's funny you should say that because our co-host had a mullet and he just cut it. So do you disagree with that decision? Are you good because he cut the mullet? I'm going to say whatever says that's what goes because my man is outpunting his coverage currently. Yes, Gore, you are correct. My girlfriend is far better looking than I am,

and I appreciate that. I have got a lot of angry tweets and angry messages saying, how could you have cut your mullet before your first NASCAR Cup race. And to be honest, when I got it cut, I had no idea that I would be doing a NASCAR Cup race. It happened very, very fast.

Now, it's interesting that you said that don't get on television. It's very, very aggressive. So the common theme that I've got from several of the drivers so far is that everyone will hit you. And I said, you know what, that's fine. I actually expect that, and I don't mind. I've done GT racing before. I know how it works. I know this is probably even more aggressive.

I even had this weird dream last night that if for some reason I was restarting on the front row, but outside, that I would literally just get sent into the wall directly and never have a chance to stop the car, which again, totally, totally. I would actually get out and I would be like, I had a great time. Like, that's exactly what I expected to have happened. But what I find exciting about it is, as you said, we're probably not going to have the latest and greatest stuff.

It's going to be tough. It's a part-time team. We know how that works. But there is such a, still a vast difference in, I would say, not necessarily the equipment, but how everything works team to team from the top teams down to, let's say, the lower-level teams. And you obviously experienced that. You know, Spire Motorsports, I like the folks there, great people there, whatever it is. But let's be honest, probably not spending as much money as Hendrick or probably not spending

as much money as RCR, whatever it is. Is that still difficult for you to grasp as you're out there, you know, fighting your freaking balls off trying to win these freaking races against these guys and knowing that sometimes it's going to be a little bit tougher than others? Well, you get a bit used to it. But so that I think the better way to explain or an easier way to explain it, right, because you can look at like budget people and all this stuff. But now the OEMs, all the technical information filters through the OEMs, and all the OEMs, whether it's Toyota, Ford or Chevy, have their key partner teams in which get all the arrow, the wind tunnel data that they go and do the wind tunnel hours. Chevy's totem pole of teams, right, a lot of the times that information of the latest wind tunnel test or damper build or shot or tire model on the simulation. doesn't trickle down.

So we just got done spending four hours in the simulator, and you can change the rear ride heights of one of these next-hand cars at the Roval, even though you're not going very fast, 40,000s, and get on the bump stops too hard, and you can't make a lap. So that's how finicky these cars are. So when you start adding up those 40,000s in the 60 or 70 areas that these cars have adjustability at, no different than what it is on an indie car,

they are just as sensitive. So we are playing a little bit of a catch-up game in terms of trying to understand what a good baseline is. But we've had some good speed in the last couple weeks. But it is hard. It's hard. That's where stacking pennies comes from trying to set realistic goals to achieve every weekend. Because if you can start achieving your bare minimum goals, then you can start adding stuff to it. You've got to run 20th before you get run 8th.

But before you run 8th, you've got to run 15. And we're on the trajectory now. We can run 20th if we don't have any issues, not say easily, but we can any given week run between 18th and 20th on raw speed. And then the natural progression for us is to get more top 15s. And then we'll get more top 10s. And then for the speedways, you pull the belts tight and you jam it in there to try to win the race. But that's what we're going to do.

And I'm just excited to run with you, man. I just said it before we, when we started going, of like, you can appreciate guys that don't give up because I'm one of them guys. And a lot of times you can see these guys that have just like a nice golden brick paved road to the promised land of getting with the teams that are capable of winning championships. But the ones who had every opportunity to hang it up and be like, you know what, I'm tired of, like, I'm tired of getting my teeth kicked in. I'm tired of not making a lot of money.

I'm tired of working harder and see everybody else get the job done. And you've done that on your side of it and you haven't stopped grinding. That's why the opportunities pop up. So that's why I don't mind sleep on your couch. Now, I will make sure it's shine a black light. I do not want to look at a black light rendering on that couch. But, you know, it's a nice. It's a wonderful couch.

It was cheap because, again, as you said, we were tired of not making money for many years. So I had to stick within my limits. And it's very, it's very funny that you, you kind of, it was a, we actually got a question about, like, does, like, ask Corey, does every team have a shot at winning a race in NASCAR? And it's, I don't believe that's true. But there have been a lot of winners this year. There have been a lot of winners, which is really cool, I think, to see. And this, the new car was supposed to bring everyone a little bit closer, which, which it has for sure. But as someone who I guess has not. been in that type of experience before, right? Like, anytime I get in something, I'm going to go out there and try to be as competitive as possible. Like in the IndyCar, you know, sometimes we know that we're not going to be as good as other places. But realistically, when it comes down to strategy and stuff like that, a lot of people have a shot at winning. But I think what would be reasonable goals for me to set? Like, obviously, if you're struggling to finish in the top 20, or you're like,

yeah, we're just now getting to the top 20. Like, is the top 20 a win for me? Or, Are we looking at top 25? Like, there's 39 cars. So there's a lot of things going on out there. If you run top 20, you go to the Oakmont, and you go point at that bottle at the top shelf, and you pop that sucker. And you drink it all. Because that, my friend, would be a win. That would be a win because there's not much attrition at these road courses because these cars can take some punishment.

Man, as dumb as it sounds for you, run it. Like a penny for me is running all the laps. You got to run all laps to finish in the top 20. Now you can be a lap down and run in the top 20 some places, but run every lap. It's a road course. You're not going to get a lap. Number two, don't cause any self-inflicted damage, right? Don't hit the wall.

No mistakes. No mistakes. Don't smoke a wheel, flat spot it. Come down for an unscheduled stop because then you're off on tire sequence, right? Just don't smoke tires. It's easy to hit the wall when you merge up on a turn one of the big, track because you're trying to get the power down. You've driven a stock car before, so how crappy they break isn't new to you.

And these next-gen cards do break better with the wider tires and bigger rotors. But don't smoke a tire. Keep it on the road just because I'm sure you've done it on iris and a lot now. That's the only tool you have to really just get the visual markers dialed in. but like under the bridge is turn three is a right right real slow really easy to lose left for traction there you're on the edge of slip a lot of guys plug one in there um a lot of guys plug one in at five which is that right kink up the hill you're on the verge of sideways there in between a down shift from four to third to second um so i would creep up to those those markers and just find

the tire, you know, because you don't have the taller sidewall, like the externity car you drove, a little bit of that forgiveness, and you'll get a chatter before it'll just break, where this thing, it's either got a ton of grip or it's got none, and it'll break on you, and you'll be backwards. And also, nobody is putting any higher expectations on you than you are. nobody expects that 50 car to be in front of anybody on like legitimately anybody on the racetrack because no just that's what it is because even though like bj mcclough run he's like the you know he's the least capable least funded team bj is a good driver i don't think i think Kyle tilly's he's a road course guy i guess i think he's going to be driving it but like that's a team that

doesn't have the resources doesn't have a motor program doesn't have the the setup knowledge, but you're going to have a hard time raising the Mac guy. You know what I mean? Like, and when you get into like the 31st, 30 second, I mean, Mike Rockenfeller, 24-hour Lamas winner driving the 77, my teammate run 32nd at Kingsclent. Like, there was 31 other guys in front of him. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And he had a, he had six hours on the DIL simulator. He had a test session at VIR with Timmy Rikin. He had every tool that you could possibly get to get him up to speed and still got smoked by me and I suck on road forces. You know what I mean? Like that's how hard it is. Great. You're going to do great.

So going into this weekend when Conner gets down there, is it like high school click kind of? Like are you all going to kind of like bully him, shove them into a locker or is it going to be like welcoming? No. Or is that only like Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott and then everybody else will be nice? I think, well, Conner's unique where he's got a rapport with a lot of these guys, right? And like everybody, I think there's a general level of respect across motorsports.

You know, whether you know somebody or not, like, I don't know Alexander Rossi, but I have a one, we have the same birthday, which is pretty cool on the same year. So I have a birthday to him last week. But like, I don't know him and he doesn't know me, but I have a already. a level of respect because he doesn't mind putting his ass on the line every week like me. A Chase Briscoe, a Chase Elliott, Dennyham, anybody that can respect somebody that is crazy enough to drive a hunk of metal at 200 miles an hour. In his case, 240 or whatever he wasn't. Like, there's a general level of respect that you're not going to get absolutely

annihilated when it comes to being on the racetrack. But then again, if there's one chicken wing left on the plate, somebody's going to be reaching for that. damn thing. I promise. You're not wrong. I really am excited about this being because again, I get, I do know a lot of you guys, but I don't, I don't necessarily get to see everyone a ton, you know what I mean? Communicate with people like, heck, even Noah Gregson's racing in the cup race, you know what I mean, in the 48 cars. So like, obviously no Noah has been on the show before, friend of the show. But I think the most interesting part about it is kind of keeping things in

perspective. I got some, are you how to drive-through? Anyway. No, it's fine. I like what's happening here. I am excited to get there, talk with everyone, but also see how, I guess, receptive people are to either giving me some help or not, because, again, we had no time on the simulator. We had no test laps, whatever it is. You know, this car hasn't run since the 600, I don't think. So, yeah, there's a lot there.

But AJ gave me some break points. AJ gave me some gear numbers for the corners, Olmendinger. And no one has race there in the new car yet. So is there, is that a good thing? Is there going to be still some things that people are going to try to figure out there? No, because we had a two-day test at the roval in the offseason. So I had to turn, but we have a significant heads up.

head start on your on your NASCAR experience so after this please send me a text on front and rear springs that would be awesome i would love to know all those numbers yeah that'd be perfect dude i'm telling you you like they are so finical dude one one notch or rear blade is like the difference of busting your ass or running a three quarters a second faster like they are so set up It's ridiculous. And is there, when it comes to the pit lane speed, right? I don't have pit lane speed limiter. Are you guys basically, are you guys using first gear in pit lane?

Are we using second gear? It depends on the driver or what's, how difficult is it to keep that under control? That's all, it's not really team specific. It's whatever gear ratio, the gear pack in the trans, and then kind of up to your engine tuner, I guess, to build the lights. So there are certain RPM ranges where the engine bucks real bad, like, right, if it's down real low in RPM. So they'll more than likely be first gear to get the RPMs in like a 4,000 range. And what helps me is drag a little brake, like 10% break.

That way it doesn't roll with like elevation. If the pit road changes, you can keep some break and just for one, you're not going to be losing a whole lot of, like you're not going to be gaining a whole lot of pit road. if you try to keep your lights perfect, but you will lose a lot. Yes. Especially under green. You try to short the stage and you speed on pit road,

trying to push it for no reason. You lose track position and then you've got to work for the next 30 laps to try to get back. So give yourself a lighter two to get it to get it figured out. Corey, last one for me. Do you want the brickyard to go back to the oval or do you like a road? Yeah. Oh, that's not. not even a question.

Yeah. I mean, I've politiced pretty hard to get it to change. Obviously, it's not changing for 23, but it's just different going across the yard of bricks backwards. Fair enough. You know what? That's understandable. I, however, would like to run the road course in a NASCAR cup car.

But, you know, that's just my, that's my own personal preference. Corey, I appreciate you being here. This is basically part of our NASCAR advice segment. We've had Chase. I have text Danny Hamlin. He has not yet responded to me about a potential question on advice. But you know what? I'm going to also get there.

I'm going to walk the track on Friday. Does anyone in NASCAR walk the track or not? I have, yes, every road course I'll walk the track for sure. And occasionally if I'm feeling spunky, I'll walk in Oval. But those longer ones, I'm like, I'm good. All right. Yeah, but I'll do, I think I'm going to be there, whether it be. Saturday, I think there's a track walk.

I don't know. I text you, but we can go, there's the rock and filler figure out with kind of positioning and where you want to be and partial throttle because the infield section of the roval is tough and it's not straightforward because you're not going to the maximum braking capability of the car, you know, you're a lot of partial throttle, a lot of dragging brakes to try to get the front to turn. And there's certain areas where you can. and be way late on apex.

So I'll get with you there and I'll give you a helping aim. That'd be awesome. I plan on being out there Friday afternoon. No big deal. And if it has to be Saturday morning, I will be there as well because I'm going out here out of here to learn. Love a good trailbreaking situation. Can't wait for that opportunity.

So yeah, man, I appreciate the advice. I'm very excited. And you know what? If I get to see it all during the race, I'm going to take a mental photograph because it's going to be something that I will remember. And hopefully I get to do more races in the first. future. But if not, we're going to remember this one. Well, dude, I try to do the same thing, man. You never know it's going to be your last one.

So, no matter if it's race 30, race one, race the last one, right? You like, you are one phone call away from it being your last race. So I'm glad you're doing your first in this weekend, buddy. But I'll offer one last thing. And you know this because you are a professional racing driver. I don't need to tell you this, but I will tell you. That is true. I get caught up and yes, do I know a lot of guys to ask opinions and this and that and tips? Like, trust your butt. Trust your own experience and learn it at your own pace. Because how Denny Hamlin drives his car is different than how I drive my car,

different than how Chase Briscoe drives his car, right? Because A. gentleman dinger might be able to get it to this five and a half marker into the backstretched chicane, and I've only been able to get it to the six and a half. You know, like that's just. what it is. I don't like, you know what I mean? So he told me the six. It's your own pay. Yeah, in the simulator, I was just before the six. If I got into, if I got to the six, I would carry too much speed in that left curb and, and miss the corner. So I would start at the

seven, then maybe creep on up a bit too. All right. I love it. So far I've got, AJ said maybe if you're pushing, go to the five, but really the six. Now I'm thinking seven. No, no, the five is deep. I got to go look at my, I got to go look at my notes from the test. But if you went to the six in the simulator, you were off in the Toley Bushes. So don't go off in the Toley Bush. I have a whole notebook that I've written on all these notes. And so now I'm going to write next to the six marker, maybe seven to start.

Yeah, is that a question mark in there? Yeah. No, granted, AJ's, like, when you look at the scoreboard after road course, AJ's numbers up here and mine's down here. But I would base my weekend off of me. And if I get to the six, I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm fucking getting after that. All right.

Perfect. Corey, thank you so much. I now know where to break for the back chican. Can't wait to start somewhere and hopefully not end up in the bushes. and good luck this weekend. Hope to see it to finish line and definitely for maybe a cold cocktail or beer of sorts afterwards.

Are you sticking around town? Absolutely. I know way am I going to leave Charlotte Sunday after a motor race. Yeah. All right. We'll coordinate. Thanks, Corey.

Talk soon, bro. See you all. That was Corey LaJoy, our friend, our pal. I know both of us can't make it to the kickball tournament this year, unfortunate but hey maybe 2023 we'll do the kickball tournament connor will run a cup series again then we'll all go party on coles windell's bus will be a grand old time until next year um yeah i mean i have a charity event to do so i i i told core earlier in the year that i would like to do his

event but you know what someone's got to accept money to be speaking at the n naps order speedway for this event and i i am going to be that guy with my with my other boss ed carpenter so hey sometimes you got to do things for the kids you know what i mean no sweat off my back. I'm just changing shitty diapers and getting puke all over me. That's the reason I can't go. So you have a much more valid reason, I guess. All right. You put it on Instagram, a little Q&A, little questions. What do we got? You want to fire some? Yeah, we got a couple questions here. You know, one of them right at the gate from Max E's one. Would you like to go NASCAR racing with your ECR teammate, Reinas. If Reinas has a chance to do that, you know what? Why not? Renus, I think,

has many, many years in front of them to do whatever he wants to do. So that is always a potential. Real quick about your teammate. I don't know if you're able to divulge this or not, but is there a documentary coming out about him? I saw an IMDB. There's something that's already called BK. Okay. Yes, there is. I don't know why that hasn't really been officially announced or anything like that, but there was a whole camera crew, Philman Rinas, most of the beginning of this year. They interviewed me for it at the Indy 500. They interviewed, you know, obviously that they were kind of falling around. And it's going to be, I think, on Amazon, but in the Netherlands.

So it might be a little bit more difficult for us to find. But cool, good for him. I mean, it's, it was very, very special. And IndyCar needs television shows. Sadly, I don't know if it's going to do much for our ratings in a lot. America, but it's, you know, great for the home country. So yeah, that'll be cool. Cool. Have another question from Dan Hetfield. Have you heard any news or announcements about the IndyCar

video game? I have not heard anything. But I hope it happens because I love video games and I love IndyCar racing. So it's 2023, right? I mean, that's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there's a lot people who have questions about it. But I'm excited. I love IndyCar video. And we had a bunch of cameras that were looking at our faces to be in the game. So here's to 20203

and having a great indie car game that people love and we can play on all of our devices and we can hopefully get more ratings with it. You know what I'm going to do in that game? What? I'm going to do what I did when I was like 9 and 10 years old in the NASCAR game. I'm just going to like halfway through the race when I'm out,

I'm just going to start taking my car backwards and going around the track and trying to stop everybody. It's an opportunity that you can't pass up on. Can't do that in real life. No, can't do it. Yeah, if you want to be, you know, if you want to be Tony Kahn or Roman Grojean and you want to drive backwards and crash into everyone, this is your opportunity. We have. So another interesting question from Schmo for, what's the hardest, biggest difference between driving IndyCar and NASCAR? Well, I don't know yet.

But the biggest difference in general, like, A.J. Almondinger is a great person to ask about this because he drove indie cars when they were way more performance, like when they were way faster than the cars that we have now. It's just the weight. Everything happens slower. So, you know, when I get into this car, it's going to feel like it has a lot of power because it does. The cup cars have a lot of horsepower. hour, but the break zones are, you know, several hundred meters longer, several hundred yards longer if you're an American person. We just use meters in motorsport for some reason. And, you know, everything has to be just slowed down a bit. But again, you're trying to drive it

as fast as slow as you can, essentially, which doesn't make sense. But love that. Put it on T-shirt. Exactly. You can easily overdrive heavy cars. It's very simple to get the braking wrong. And when the breaking goes wrong, it goes worse for you than, let's say, would for an IndyCar. In an Indy car, if you break a little bit too late, you might be able to catch it. You'll miss the apex by, you know, a couple feet. But in the cup car, it seems like if you do happen to lock it up, let's say lock up the rears, you're sliding all the way off the track.

And potentially, if you're locking the front, I watch Ross Chastain, you know, outbreak someone at Road America. And, you know, he locked the front all the way in and, like, missed the apex by, you know, two car lengths. Didn't go off the track, but it can be like that because of how heavy the cars are. So again, I will have a better idea after this weekend. But yeah, the break zones are longer. You know, definitely have to watch out for traction. Everything's a little bit more old school. You know, we've got a five-speed sequential gearbox, which I haven't driven a sequential gearbox since I won the Pro Mazza championship with sequential gearbox. But sequential gearboxes are fun,

I think. Like, I like sequential gearboxes. So, yeah, it'll be interesting. It'll be cool, and I'm pumped for it. Interesting questions. What are the chances that the Bitnial number 20 mixes up liveries next year from A.A. Ron, George. I do believe that we will have a different livery next year. I don't know what it is yet, but I do believe that there will be some changes in the future, which will be cool, I think. I always like, you know, cool cars and seeing what it'll do. but I actually love the way Bitnial looks on this NASCAR cup car is fantastic.

Like I've got sent a couple. I haven't seen it in person yet. I will see it on Friday, but I've been sent a couple photographs of the car that I've put on the Instagrams. And it looks great. The blue pops on it. I'm very, very excited about it. And realistically, just a quick shout out to Bitniel again,

because they're the only reason this is happening, obviously. I wasn't drafted into NASCAR because some, wanted to give me a chance. Like we made this happen. They made it happen. And it's an incredible opportunity to be given, you know, when you have a supporter that truly loves the business of motorsport. It's benefiting them. It's also benefiting me. And they believe in their driver, which is me, thankfully. So very, very special to be associated with Todd Alt. Everyone that has, you know, that has supported our program all year. Everyone that continues to support the program this year. You know, All's the Men, turn on green, an incredible group of companies and people

that have been so supportive, the singing machine as well, which is now part of our group also. So, very, very happy to be, you know, affiliated with them. And there's a lot of exciting stuff in the future. So, another question. What's the number one thing to expect this weekend? Well, contact. That's what I've been told from several different drivers is just be, be, be, prepared to be muscled around a little bit. Yeah, is there a way to like prepare physically for that? You know, is it just more so mentally wrapping your head around the fact that it's going to happen? Well, apparently I need to look out for concussions because goodness gracious, there's three drivers out with concussions right now, which is insane. I think they're from what it looks like on the outside, again, I don't want to say anything about NASCAR yet because I have not been involved.

But it seems like there's a safety thing that way that probably needs to be addressed. But again, I haven't hit anything in an S-car cup car, so I don't know what it feels like. But I'm actually very curious to get boots on the ground there and kind of get a general feel from the drivers as to what's going on. You know what I mean? Why is this happening? How is it this aggressive? But that's the one thing that I have been told to expect, but I hope to avoid. So we'll see.

We got a question here from Yellow Vet. any future plans doing the Rolex 24, I'd love to. I would love to do the Rolex 24. Usually people do not call upon me to do that unless we can bring money to do it because I'm a gold rated driver and those drivers are usually already employed. So that's a difficult one to do, but I would love to do it. I think again, all this GT racing that I've done in the past that people seem to forget about winning a bunch of Lamborghini Super Trafeo races doing the Rolex a couple times before.

I would love to go do that. And I think we'd be really good at there. So we'll see. Thoughts on, this is an interesting, I don't know if you saw this rumor article, Joey, but thoughts on Kimmy Rikin and possibly racing for Chip Gannasi racing. Did you see that, Joey? I did.

And I had some people back and forth kind of saying spotty reporting. We don't know. What's the word that you've heard? Because I feel like on paper in the report makes a lot of sense, right? Keeps, you know, keeps JJ in the series, keeps him doing ovals, keeps another big name, you know, star coming in and it feels good on paper. What have you heard? I, I don't see it happening, but I also have no idea because, again, how many things have we looked at this year where we're like, yeah, that's insane, never thought that would happen,

you know what I mean? So I don't know, I know, though, for a fact after having some conversations with people in the NASCAR world that, you know, he does have an interest in doing more NASCAR races, right? I think he got his NASCAR experience, got a little bit short there at Watkins Glen getting involved with that accident. And I know for sure Justin Marks would love to run Kimmy again at 1,000 percent. And I know that car probably can draw sponsorship quite easily. But maybe it's the same thing in Indycar. You know, maybe all of a sudden, Kimmy's been slow playing it down on the down, down low. And he's like, yeah, I'll go IndyCar race. racing, why not? And who knows? Maybe Jimmy's sponsor, Carvana. Maybe he's got another sponsor that

wants to be involved with Jimmy, but it was also like, holy crap, we can be involved with Formula One World Champion Kimmy Reichenen as well. He parties on boats and doesn't give any Fs about anything. Oh, yeah, we love that. So, you know, who knows? Maybe that's the case. But again, does Kimmy want to take a giant pay cut from Formula One to go into Karachi? I don't know. I don't see Kimmy doing it. I really don't. These articles are always based on something, though. So it is very interesting.

But that 48 car is going to be one to watch for sure. Kimmy Reikinen and Jimmy Johnson sharing a car. I mean, it sounds like some sort of storybook. Like it sounds like a fictitious. It sounds like we're in like make your own Madden team and you put Patrick Mahomes on the same team as Saquan Barclay or something like that. you know what I mean? Like Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers quarterbacking the same team.

Exactly, yeah. Like we're going to play Tom Brady the first half, Aaron, the second half. Like very, very odd scenario. But I love it. I mean, would you not go watch Tom and Aaron play on the same team? Like, I would for sure. Yeah, definitely. Aaron doesn't have any family to go watch him.

So he needs a family. It needs people to come watch them. Either just Tom now. Right. Neither is Tom, apparently. Yikes. Yikes. There's just two free, free,

Free living bros right there. Couple of dudes in the ayahuasca trees just doing everything. Have we heard anything more about Jimmy Johnson now? Have you sent him Texas away? Is he coming back? Is he doing the 500? I don't know.

Jimmy's probably having a nice time. He was doing the Petit Le Mans race, I believe. He was on the podium at Petit Le Mans, which is great. That was a wild race that I didn't really get to see much of because I was spending time on my lady out West. but great sports car race. We had some wild contact in the last 25 minutes costing the Wayne Taylor guys

the championship, which was, oh, that was brutal to watch. Kyle Kirkwood, our pal, he won in the GTD class or whatever that Lexus is in, which was awesome. Great to see for those guys. That was a great race. Honestly, sports car racing is great to watch. I really do enjoy it a lot of the times.

But yeah, have not heard from Jimmy. I would like to get a bottle of his bourbon that I think he promised me at one point. So maybe the one thing that I would like to do at some point during this winter is just sit down in like a leather chair and just have a drink with Jimmy. Like I just, I want to sit in like a lofty like bookroom. And like there's football on the television and we're maybe smoking cigars, maybe having a bourbon.

That's kind of my dream in the offseason. like a deer head hanging on the wall. Giant animals that have been, you know, big game hunters type scene. That's what I want. That sounds pretty awesome, man. You want to come, dude, Joey? Yeah, pull some info out of them.

I'd love to. Everybody's got their own fucking bourbon now, you know? We need to get around bourbon. Well, hey, with Speed Street single barrel coming up, yeah. Speed Street single barrel. Yeah, maybe not, maybe not bourbon, but we go something a little more on brand with the 500 or something. Yeah, I mean.

We'll just get our own brewery to make something. Yeah. One last question here, which I thought was funny. This is from my friend Evan. He said, what's your catchphrase going to be when you take the green flag in the cup car? Interesting. Should I do like a pre-raced speech on the radio to my crew? Should I do?

Should I quote Top Gun Maverick? What do you think I should say? Do I pick up an accent? I don't know. Do I try? What do I need to do here? you know what i think so yeah i have a little i think i can assist in this area in a little bit in a roundabout way all right obviously i'm not behind the wheel of a car

that's going 200 miles an hour very often but and broadcasting you know as a former broadcaster still kind of am in a little bit of ways you know a lot of people a lot of times are like well do you plan on like what you're going to say for like when somebody hits a home run or whatever and from what i've heard from the best in the business and from personal experience you just got to let it come with what goes with you know with with what your what your gut says let the heart let the gut speak just let it fly because if you're planning it yeah you're planning it then all of a sudden you stumble and then it's like corny and then it's all fucked up and it's like nope just like whatever you're feeling at that moment you know and your and your little your

grapes down there and it's they're getting you going in your belly let it fly what's really interesting i think about this weekend also i i've i've talked to a j all week. Obviously, I've mentioned that a lot, AJ Almaninger. He said, you are going to be deaf by the end of the weekend because the cars are so loud. Apparently the new cup cars are wildly loud inside the cockpit. So, but I'm excited for that. There's something about driving a NASCAR vehicle, a stock car, as people would correct me upon. Like when I got in that Xfinity car, man, it sounds great. You know what I mean? it sounds like you're driving something built for American greatness. You know what I mean? Like it's it's something that I can't wait to experience. And especially now, like with the

sequential gearbox, you know, the shifting's much crisper. The engine sounds great. I think it sounds awesome. We're shooting flames at the side of the freaking thing. I'm, I'm very excited to just kind of get in that sucker. And I might even say, Yee-Ha, first time I drive it. I don't know. I might go down that back straight, trying to hunt for that break zone that AJ and Corey are vastly different on break points for. But I plan on going in there. I might just say, we're going fast. I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe that's disrespectful. Maybe because I love, I just know that if I do say that, I am going to be having a great time also. I think just speak from the heart, man.

You'll speak from the heart, the gut. The heart, the gut, your balls, all three in that line right there. Whatever you feel, go. I would also like to say that over the weekend in L.A. I was at a like a basically like a flea market type situation. And there was a bunch of old racing shirts. Nice. And yes, I did buy an incredible Daler and Hart shirt for this weekend that I might wear to the track. I'm not sure.

But got some incredible merch, 1993 Indy 500 shirt. Wow. What's wild is this is, I had a conversation with this guy. Obviously, Los Angeles, who knows if there's going to be any NASCAR fans there, obviously. I think there are some, but not in this area. This was like very, if you're an influencer, you were probably going to be here just in a wild scene. And, you know, there was a lot of kombuchas and juices and stuff like that. Yeah. And this guy had this tent where he was selling a bunch of NASCAR jackets, a bunch of old NASCAR shirts and a couple like really cool old IndyCar shirts too. And there was like a Penske,

like a 1991, like Rick Mears Marl like Penske T-shirt, looks like it had been, you know, worn aggressively in the past, right? I said, how much is that right there? I'd love to get that. He's like, $200. I was like, what? $200 for a shirt that potentially is older than me

and that looks like it smells like an old attic? But again, how often do we see old racing shirts It's like on celebrities now or like in the scene. You know what I mean? Like it's the cool thing. And I will not lie. This Dale Earnhardt shirt that I saw, it is potentially the coolest shirt I've ever seen.

It has the intimidator on it. It has the, you know, the number three, the full car on the front and the back. I spent $150 on this T-shirt. And I was like, I had to have it though. I might never see this T-shirt again. You're raising hell about 200. and then you stooped just 150?

Yeah, I did it. I said, you know what? I'm getting a little, you know, I'm getting a little extra money in my life by racing the Cup series this weekend. I'm going to show respect to the history of the sport and I'm going to buy me a nice Daler and Hart shirt. I don't blame you, man.

Yeah, I think, I think, you know, when you're out there doing the track walk on Friday with Corey, if you're not wearing that, then you're messing up. So I say, go for it. I think I have to. It's in the wash right now because I'm basically double-trip of washing it after it's hung up at this odd festival in the streets all day. Probably good.

But I am excited to debut my Dale Earnhardt shirt at some point, maybe even the after party, Sunday night. Who knows? But I just, I respect the history. Interesting how so many Dale Jr. Shirts and jackets are at these types of events. Our boss is very well represented out there in the streets of Los Angeles. Many, many 88 and 8 shirts.

hats and jackets, but had to go with the classic Dale Senior shirt. And I'm very excited about it. People love Dale Jr., man. Yeah, it was really cool when that little promo that they did that Ben and Jason put together just hearing Dale say, jelly. I was like, oh, that's me, dude, he's that one day. That's cool. My aunt, my grandma, I'm super excited. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. All right, man. You want to wrap up with the random E5500 driver of the week? Yeah, sure. I think we can get that going. I, again, very, very excited. I almost thought about this week doing like a random Daytona 500 driver of the week, but no, we stick with our, stick with our NEP 500 history.

We're going to 1980, the 1980 and D500. We're going to go with the 21st place finisher. Jerry Carl, Jerry Carl finished 21st. and Jerry was from Queens, New York, New York guy, and driving the USAC and Kart Championship Series, starting out in midget car racing, obviously, as most of these drivers do, made his debut in 1969, qualified first, first Indie 500 in 1973. So yeah, interesting history, race for another team in 74, returned to drive for some guy named Unich in

1973 or 74 and finished 13th at the Indy 500 So yeah Very very interesting career Lots of lots of Indy 500s Like this guy tried to do A ton of Indy 500s One two three four five six

Seven eight nine ten 11 12 13 14 14 16 Indy 500 You tried to try to race in And only made five only made five of them. That's tough. That's tough. And you know what?

He was persistent. You got to appreciate that. 75 is best finished, 13th. All right. So we get top 15 there. I respect that. Man, my goodness.

Jerry Carl tried to qualify every year's poor guy. Two first names. Let's get you in there. Yeah. Rest of peace. J.K. He passed away. Passed away February 16th, 2008,

and Baltimore, Maryland. But there you have it. Jerry Carl. All right, man. Here we are. The weekend is getting ready to be upon us. We're going to see Connor Daily behind the wheel of a NASCAR Cup ride.

Very, very exciting times. Again, you got Marco, Sage going on Saturday and the Xfinity. Then, of course, Connor on Sunday. What network are we on? Are we on the Big Bird? Big Bird. Big. NBC.

Wow. Yeah. That's big. All right. I love it. Big time. All right. That's going to be a blast. I'll be in Dallas hanging with the duck, the Afflack Duck. Super excited about that as well. But yeah, be sure to follow us on social media, Twitter, Instagram, Speed Street Pod. You know where to find us. Keep growing that. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review. Love seeing those as well. We take me into consideration. We love seeing what you guys have to say. You want to leave us something that, hey, try this segment out. Love to flirt with that as well. The offseason an Indy car. All right. So we got time. It's going to be a blast. Appreciate you guys. And yeah, let's be chairing on our guy CD on Sunday in Charlotte. We'll talk all about it next week on Speed Street.

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