The Dale Jr. Download - Casey Mears: Chasing A Milestone

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with longtime NASCAR competitor and former Coke 600 winner Casey Mears to chat about his recent return to the driver’s seat. With the goal of reaching 500 career Cup starts in mind, Casey returned to Sunday competition this past weekend at Martinsville. Casey explains that the inspiration for the push to get 500 came from an interview he did a couple of years ago, where a journalist informed him that he had 489 starts. Thanks to time on the simulator, Casey was able to jump back behind the wheel after his five year absence and complete the race without too many mistakes.Casey and Dale discuss his upbringing in Bakersfield, California, and his time spent racing Stadium Super Trucks and off-road racing. Casey’s relationship with off-road trucks stems back to his father Roger, who was prolific in the division, earning four class victories in the famed Baja 1000. Casey shares his experiences from the event and gives listeners great insight into what competitors face throughout the race. The guys also chat about Casey’s time in the open wheel world, making the transition to stock cars, Casey’s current day to day life and their friendship over the years.Dirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia 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.

And I grabbed him. I wanted to just knock the shit out of him, you know. And every word that come out of my mouth, I would have decked me so hard. If you would have heard what I was telling to him, I needed to be hit. He hit me. And he got me good. And then I chased his ass back into the holler. He'd ran and the guys helped me back.

I didn't get a chance to get my shot in. I've never had a beef with anybody in the garage. The following is a production of Dirty Mode Media. All right. So Casey's coming in here. and I want to tell you, obviously, we're very lucky to get him after he's stuck around in town running his Martinsville Cup race. He stayed in town this week, and so he's going to come through. This is perfect.

Guy lives way out in Phoenix, and so getting him into the studio, not all that practical, but I've always wondered kind of what he's been up to. And me and Casey used to be pals back in the day, I mean, we've always been friends, but we used to hang out. Like, hey, what's you doing Tuesday? What's you doing Wednesday? Let's meet you at the bar. See you at the lake. We got a weekend off. What are we going to do with that?

And we always kind of navigated toward each other and had a lot of fun. And I've kind of forgot about those days because then he got married and I didn't. And then I got married. And now, you know, we spent many, many years not quite as connected, not really connected at all. And then Jimmy Johnson planned a trip over to Europe for four nights, five days, Mackenzie, Casey mirrors myself and all of our beautiful wives. And holy moly, that was fun.

It was great to reconnect with Casey. And anyways, it's got me curious. I get to learn while you learn about his childhood, his family, how he got starting racing. All I remember is him coming into the Xfinity series. I have no idea about the rest of it. and everything that happened before that. And so my wife Amy, she would say, wait, y'all are friends and you didn't ask him that?

No, guys don't do that. Guys don't do that. Happens every day. I'll go somewhere. Hey, you know what I heard? Such and such is not feeling too well. What's the wrong with him? I don't know.

I don't know. I didn't ask. He didn't tell me. But anyways, You know, me and Casey, we had a lot of fun on that trip, and then he comes, and we talked about it on this trip. He's like, man, I'm a few races away from this milestone in my career, and I might go run, and I didn't think he was serious.

And then this news pops up that he's going to run at Martinsville. Like, well, wow, he's really doing this. So it'll be fun to hear how his experience was this past weekend at Martinsville, whether he plans to do more. And what he's been up to since you left. Let's get to it. Let's bring Casey into the room. Good to see you.

You got me? What's up? Good to see you, buddy. Dude, you don't age. Yeah, right. What's the deal? I don't know. I was looking in the mirror this morning thinking just the opposite.

Yeah, right. I appreciate the compliment. You see all the things that we don't. We got to hang out. Jimmy Johnson put together a little trip where we went with our wives to Europe and spent about four or five days together. I mean, I had the. best time. There were a lot of great things about that trip.

And I'm very thankful for Jimmy, as we all are, and his wife, Shannie, for organizing such thing. But Matt Kenseth and Katie were there, and it was awesome being with everybody. But, man, I think you were the life of the party. You kind of, you know, I don't know, man. I've always, I mean, I've known you for a really long time, but I don't know what, I don't know why, but it feels like. that where you are in your life now, you're so much more comfortable.

There's a lot less anxiety that we all think, I think we all share when we're out of the muck of a, you know, a racing career. But you seem just happy. And, man, you were every day, we were all getting up with a headache and a little hungover. And boy, the first text you would send would be some goofy picture or something about the day. We'd all go, man, yeah, this is awesome. We're all lucky to be here together.

And I love your, I love your attitude, man. I don't know, I don't know really where I'm going, but I just wanted to say that. I'm thankful that you're here today. I was excited to hear that you were going to race in the Martinsville race. I want to talk about that with you. You, you know, you got in Carl's car. It's a struggle because Carl doesn't have a ton of support. It's his own car, his own engine.

Right, right. You know, some of the races that Carl does, there will be some support. But in this certain instance, this was all you and all him. How did this deal come together? When did you start talking about doing this? Well, first of all, I just want to comment on the first comment you made. I really enjoyed that whole trip with you guys. We had a blast.

And I think that you and I early on, you're one of the first guys I met when I first moved back here. You know, we were hanging out and having a good time back in the day. There's a time throughout our careers where, you know, we didn't hang out as much, you know, towards the middle end of my career. And I was having kids early and, you know, my life kind of changed. We went different directions. And you've always been super supportive of me and I really appreciate that. And one thing I'm never going to forget and the reason why it's on my mind is because I just ran Martinsville. And one night, and I don't even know if you remember, I think I brought it up to you before. I don't even know if you

remember the night, but we're all having a good time like we used to have, you know, probably too much fun. Yeah. And I was just beating myself up. because I absolutely hated Martinsville. Like, I didn't hate a racetrack more because I come from IndyCar racing where, you know, I never run anything under a mile. Yeah. Right? So I didn't short track race like you guys did growing up.

And I went to that place and you could have just blown it up and put fishing and I wouldn't care, you know? And I was so pissed off one night and I'm at your house and we're having a few beers. And you and I ended up being like the last two up or something we were talking about it. And he told me, you go, dude, you know, the first time I went to Martinsville, I hit every single thing. and I think he said even including the pace car. He did, right? And he goes, just so you know, it's a hard place to drive. And you kind of just settled me down and got some perspective on that.

And I think we stayed up and watched a couple old racing videos. Damn. End up going to bed. But anyway, coming back here and running Martinsville this week, that thought was fresh on my mind, you know, knowing that I was going to come see you today. Yeah. So when you, when I saw you at the trip last year,

you were talking about this milestone, that you wouldn't mind reaching. Right. What is that milestone? Well, yeah, I was doing an interview, and Jimmy was, I think, doing a test for a first time back in a stock car after being an indie car for a while. And a reporter came up to me and he goes, yeah, man, he goes, you've been around quite a while. You know, you've got 489 starts. And I think he was asking me about the new car or what I thought about it, something like that.

I can't quite recall. And I walked away from that interview going, dang, I'm 11 away from 500. Yeah. You know, that'd be a nice, nice milestone to have. And so I lightly started reaching out to people, you know, walking through the garage saying it's something I'd really like to do. But, I mean, I've been so far removed for so long now that, you know, I really never thought would happen.

Yeah. And a friend of mine, Doug Barnett called. He used to do a lot of stuff with when I was with Germain racing. And he's always constantly trying to get me a little something or try to figure out how to get me in a car again. And he goes, man, you should just call a car along, you know, and just see. And so we started talking. We ended up on the phone for about an hour.

We started BS and about the old day. a little bit and Carl goes, hey, would you really be interested in maybe driving my car? I thought, well, what the hell? You know, I mean, back in the day, I probably wouldn't have, you know, because, you know, I was fresh out of some good cars. And, you know, last thing I wanted to do was getting to something that didn't have a good chance of being competitive.

And, but now with that goal in mind, it's a totally different perspective. And I thought, well, sure, man, I'd be interested in that. And shoot, I think he'd call me back a week later and said, hey, I got something. You want to go? I said, okay, let's do it. That was it. You didn't have to bring any money?

No, I didn't have to. He actually found a couple things. He goes, he was excited because he felt like I was sellable. Yeah, right. Some of the younger guys that he had in his car, he didn't know how to sell it. And he felt I was sellable. He called me and he was able to sell it. Fortunately, I had a sponsor that's their friends of mine.

I work with them with an Acquishirt Protection Group. And, you know, they jumped on board to help out as well. And they came to me at first and said, hey, we want to be a part of that. And I said, well, I don't know if you really do. you know because I just didn't know which direction it was going to go. And they're like, no, no, no, we want to support you. We want to be a part of it. And they're in the auto business.

So, you know, with auto dealers and things like that. So being in NASCAR is a great place for them to be. And anyway, anybody, everybody had a great time throughout the weekend. We didn't run like we wanted to. Had that conversation from you prior to the race. And I did a good job of soaking it all in and enjoying my family being there. And looking up in the grandstands, you know, and appreciating all the fans that had positive things to say throughout the weekend.

God, I had people that flew in from different states that hadn't been to race in eight or ten years and said, man, we just came to see you. And I was like, damn, okay, that really hit home for me. I mean, it was a personal good feeling to know that you had an impression on somebody like that throughout your career. They, you know, the thing that I like is when we decide that we're not going to do this anymore, we, you know, with some people, I don't know, I, I, I love, to just scratch the itch. I just need to go, I just, I don't, I'll be, I'll be brutally honest. Like when I, when I was running those Xfinity races once a year, right?

And it was, I was lucky to be able to just say, hey, I want to run one a year. And had this little, had this really successful team to do it. And so, but I would get halfway through the race and I'd be like, me, pretty good. Yeah. I've got everything I needed, you know. Yeah. whatever happens happens i'm gonna finish this race but i love the smells smells and the sounds and i love standing there before uh i love there's a moment after intros you did get done with intros and you're

just standing by your car and you're you got your kids there your wife and there's just a little bit of time to to to be with them and to like watch them or really soak it in yeah you know appreciate it i mean so cool i never i just i never did that like When we were full time, you probably didn't either. No, you have a damn gun to your hand. Golly. Right? It's like you got the sponsors looking at you want to do good.

You got the team you got to perform for. In your heart, you want to go beat every damn guy out there. And you got this intensity on your mind, you know. And when you're trying to do it at the top level, beat the best guys in the world, you don't have time to sit back and go, oh, man, it's really cool to be here. You know, you're there to beat them guys, you know. And so it is special. You know, this was a special weekend for me for that reason.

And I appreciate the reminder prior to the race to soak that in. And, you know, I did, though, the one thing I did do, I could tell once I knew that I lost my ride in the Germain car, I was running out about the second half of that year. And I used to call Booty Barker to the window every now and then. And I'd grab them out and be like, hey, dude, you're a NASCAR Cup crew chief, and I'm a NASCAR cup driver. So this is pretty badass. Yeah. So let's go have some fun. We do that before practice.

And I tried to soak it in as much as I could, but you can't. You know, you get some of it in, but not all of it. I hadn't been in a cup car in a competitive race in nearly 10 years. What did it feel like? What was it like for, I'll never do it. I'll never go run a cup race. No? Nope.

Never will. Good thing you got that car now, so maybe I can. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to April Fool's you a little bit. I was going to get on here and announce that we got 10 races in the 40 cars. Hell, man. I would love that. No, but go ahead. I'm sorry.

But I, what was the, you know, once you get in there, it all kind of changes, right? You can't help it get a little competitive and, and you got to be, you know, focused and locked in. But like, did you have, did you have a couple moments during the race to sort of, you know, go down, man? This is, you know, what was different? Did it feel different? Yeah, I mean, the car itself obviously is a different car. I think, and this is me assuming this, because I haven't driven the bigger tracks in this car, haven't even been on a road course or anything like that in this car, but I feel like Martinsville is probably going to be the least discrepancy between what I had drove in the past and what

the current car is, right? It's a really mechanical track. There's not a whole lot of arrow. Outside of shifting, I mean, even at the end of the cars that we drove prior to the new car, you know, getting the platform really stiff, no role, you know, they were getting really flat and that kind of thing. I felt like immediately five laps in, I was amazed how comfortable I felt right out of the gate. Yeah.

Like five laps in, I was like, oh, yeah, I've been here like almost 30 times before. I'm fine, you know, and immediately I just went to, well, the car doesn't work. I got to get this thing fixed. I got to go faster. You know, it was just, it just came all right back. That's in practice. Yeah, it was in practice. How was the shifting?

The shifting wasn't too bad, you know, and I had a, I have a Simcraft simulator. And, you know, I racing, all those guys, they really do a pretty damn good job. job of getting it close. At least, you know, sometimes you don't have all the feel, but all the indicators are right, and the track is extremely accurate, right? The timing of when to shift and downshift was almost identical, you know. So I ran probably, you know, 15 or 20 races, you know, shorter races, like 15-minute races on the simulator. And I, when I unloaded in the car, I felt like I'd been there, you know, yesterday. Damn, you know, so it was super cool. But right away, it was like, oh, my God, I got to get this thing fixed.

What was wrong? We had a couple different issues. At first, it wouldn't even drive straight down the straightaway. Like, I'm in the gas. You know, when you're in the gas, if I could keep it loaded all the way down the straightway, it would be fine. But I had to lift to shift, you know, and the transfer of the load when I'd do that, man, the thing would, when I'd shift and downshift it was doing this, I'd get on the brakes. I'm like, oh, they got.

Now I'm on the brakes. They did? There was air pressure in the left rear help the most because we couldn't really fix what was wrong. you know we're pretty far over Cambered but we didn't fire we didn't figure that out until we got there and then once you get there you can't change it you're kind of locked in yep and so we inherently had some things built into the car that were were a mistake unfortunately um those guys honestly i i i i hats off to car along's team i mean they it is very very difficult to do what they're trying to do i mean he's got nine guys at best probably three full-time guys that are working on

that car and you know he's juggling sponsors trying to run some exfinity stuff trying to on some truck stuff and they got a small program and you know we we had lost a sponsor right prior to the race you know and then some other guys stepped in and picked it up which was super cool and uh but he had a lot way on his mind so so to so to make sure that car was perfect before it left would have been very difficult but um at the end of the day we massed it the best we could with some stuff and and got me some laps you know we were trying to make some changes that wasn't quite working out either so i was like man just let me go out there and get all the laps in i can yeah and we'll make something prior to the race and uh they they got it straightened out they got a little better they found

the right rear shock. You know how you wind the right rear shock all the way in to and then count your rounds back out to know where you're at? Well, there's like 40 rounds you can do on that when it's all the way in. And we wanted to be 38 out and it was all the way closed. So through practice and stuff. So that and some left rear pressure straightened me out quite a bit. How did your experience in the race go? I mean, forget the net result. I'm just saying like as you're running the race, did you have a great time? Did you have some funny moments or any kind of tough moments? Yeah, I mean, I, uh, there's a couple times I downshift a little too early when the tires were wearing and I got the, I got the rear end kicked out going in the corner, which got

my attention, you know, and one thing, you know, one thing I really appreciated coming back was I didn't know how I was going to be received amongst the other drivers. And I knew I was, so happy to see you. And while I knew I was in a position too where the, where I was probably going to struggle with the car. Yeah. I didn't want to be that guy. I've raced around those guys. I've, you know, I get frustrated with those guys when I'm out there being competitive and there's somebody I'm, you know, seeing every 15 or 20 laps, you know what I mean? And, uh, but the respect amongst their garage was, was pretty awesome, you know, it was really cool to see a bunch of guys I hadn't seen a long time. And the newer, younger faces that I never raised with, I never, I never seen.

They knew me, but I didn't quite know them, you know what I mean? Because they, they grew up watching and, uh, and the respect from those guys was great, you know, and, um, it was, it was funny because, uh, that, that Carson host, host, host, you know, he's a trip. I've been watching him, and he's doing a hell of a job. Faster than all get out, but he's raising some attention for himself, you know, not always in a positive way, but a super nice kid. And we were in practice, and I think the tin car hit him or something like that. And then he got me confused with him, and he went by me, and he flipped me off down the straightaway.

You know, I thought, damn, that kid is like what they say. So I went up to him after he qualified after me. We talked for a little bit, and I said, you know, it's probably, not a good idea to do that because you're going to see me probably multiple times throughout the race as you're going by and you don't want to piss off a guy like that because he's too close and you got a lot to lose you know and we just laughed about it and had a good time but do you remember back in the day there was an era where like there were birds coming out the window like every other lap of everybody remember that oh yeah oh yeah you remember how pissed off you'd get when someone flipped you

off i said that was one of the there were a lot of people that would flip you off but being flipped off is probably one of the things that makes you the maddest oh my god for some reason you can run into my car. You can give me a donut, door me in the middle of the corner. I'm going to get more angry with you flipping me the bird as you're driving away. A hundred percent. That's such an F you. If you're going to flip someone off, you better be fast. And you got to be fast at least for a good 10 laps better than that guy. So he has time to cool down. Because if he can catch you within two, you're done. I know. Yeah. All right, man. Well, I'm glad you had a good time. And I assume you're legitimately going to go after that milestone. I really do want to. Yeah. I just

I did have a good time. It was fun being back. There's not many guys that they got 500 starts in the Cup Series, you know, and I'd like to be one of the first 50 to do that, you know? You have your eyes set on any other opportunity or any other racetrack, or it's just kind of feeling it out, or is it still pretty early in the process? It's early. I have a couple guys. What was so great about doing this is it drew a lot of attention to it. There are some sponsors that have interest in helping me make that milestone. It's a very difficult landscape right now with the charter programs.

A lot of open cars. There isn't a lot of open cars. And there's very few cars that you know you can get in and be competitive that are open, you know. And so it's a difficult landscape, but there, you know, I got my eye on a few things. I definitely need to make some phone calls behind the scenes. Carl, you know, obviously it was great for this weekend and may be great in the future as well. But, you know, I'm open to anything. Obviously, I'd love to go out and be as competitive as I can.

and accomplish that goal on top and have some fun. Is there a track that you miss that you might would like to go to? You know, Martinsville was one of those. I mean, I hated that track and it became one of my favorites at the end of my career. You know, I'd like to go there and run more competitive. I mean, I think it goes without saying, even though, you know, super speedways are kind of the odds of getting in a crash are very high at Talladega or Daytona. But the open cars can be more competitive there. 100%

100% and I mean Daytona's just special right I mean no denying it's the biggest race we have all year long and I'd love to do that

I mean how cool would it be to be in the Daytona 500 for your 500 start yeah you know what I mean if I could time that somehow yeah I really always enjoyed the road courses

walkins glen was a really fun track for me I really enjoyed that obviously Charlotte's a special place yeah it'd be cool place to go hey everybody you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel

visit shop dot dirtymomedia.com. We're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a t-shirt. Again, check it out. It's shop.dardomomedia.com. All right, well, you were born in Bakersfield.

I just went there like last week. Did you really? Did you go the track out there? No, I had an appearance. Did you? Yeah, a little speaking engagement. Okay. I got some El Sombrero. El Sombrero, did you? A little Mexican place?

Yes. Yeah, oh, yeah. I actually text Harvick, and I said, I'm in Bakersfield, man. He's like, get some El Sombrero, so I had some of that on the plane. There you go. What was the racing scene like in Bakersfield back when you were growing up? You know, it's funny. You say you're from California, and people go, oh, man, where's your surfboard and your damn long hair?

You know what I mean? That's immediately what everybody thinks. But Bakersfield was an oil and farming town growing up, you know, and amongst all that, there was some badass racers that came out of that town, you know, And, you know, my dad and my uncle obviously made a big name for themselves coming out of Bakersfield. But a lot of guys that came in and raced at Bakersfield made a big name for themselves. A guys like Ron Hornaday and guys like that.

So it was a lot of fun. I mean, my dad owned a race shop and race team as I was growing up. So I never even came home from school and went to the house. I always went to the race shop. What kind of cars? He was racing off road at the time, you know, the Baja 1,000. And what was really big back then was the Mickey Thompson off-road series where he race inside the stadiums.

Oh, hell, yes. Yeah, it was so much fun. You want to talk about the kind of racing that's the closest thing to a boxing match? It was that right there. That honestly, shout out to that because when that deal was going strong, I never missed it. Really? Like when it came on TV. Okay.

I think it was on ESPN or whatever. It was, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember, I think I remember, God, I want to say Robbie Gordon doing it a little bit. He did. But that was.

They had video games. Yeah, they had that Ivan Stewart game. They did. Yeah, they had the stand-up arcade game like you'd go into a bowling alley or something and play it and had the four steering wheels. Right. But they also had like a console version or something like that. They did. And I loved it, man, because it was contact, parts falling off, you know, noses and quarter panels and things.

Yep. And to a kid who just loved racing in motorsports, it was. I don't know, it was full contact and, but, you know, and a lot of energy and cool little contained tight course, like short track racing. And so you're, that's what you kind of grew up around those type of vehicles for the most part. But then you have the other extreme of that, the Baja 1000, where you just like get in a damn, you know, get in a vehicle and just haul ass across the land. The desert as fast as you can. Right. Yeah. And so I'm going to bounce around.

Yeah, no worries. I was telling this story the other day, and this ain't no shit, man. And you were around when this happened. Robbie Gordon was driving that Monster Energy Hummer. And I'm not sure if you had the Monster deal on it then, but he had this Hummer that he was messing with, and he'd take it to Dakar and a couple other places, I think.

Yeah. in between his cup stuff that he's messing with. And we're at Phoenix racing, and we got a night race, and so we're sitting around all morning on Saturday or something or Sunday. And he texted me the day before, and he goes, I got my Hummer here, you want to go for a ride? We didn't talk all that often, but we, you know, we were nice. And he was messing with our, he helped us run a little race for us at Michigan

and a couple races for us in our junior motorsport stuff back in the day. But he just texted me and say, hey, man, I'm a little go run my, Hummer across the ground tomorrow, you want to go. And I thought, and dumbest damn thing ever, I said, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I get, he pulls up in the morning, it's like 10 o'clock in the morning, pulls up in front of the bus. And I get in that thing, and we took off, left the racetrack out the tunnel,

and took a left and went down the highway. And we're driving down the highway about three or four miles, and he just turns in through the ditch and off we go. Yeah. And he, we were on a path of some sort, so it wasn't like we were. just driving through the bushes, but we were on some path, and he is just hauling ass, and it's just straight, straight, straight forever. And I'm like, I don't know if he knows where we are or where that, what's in front of us. We're flying. Right, right, right. We're fucking flying.

And I'm like, we're going to, we're going to go off in a cliff. We're going off into a ditch. We're going to wreck the freaking hell out of this thing. Yeah. And he's not, I can't talk to him. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, I have no idea if he knows where he's going. Yeah. I was so scared. I got to tell you, man, he's, you know, for Robbie, for all the right or wrong reasons, man, I got a lot of respect for what he's done throughout his career his whole life. I mean, that dude has driven just about anything. And I'm telling you right now, my dad's my hero when it comes to off-road racing, and he is a bad dude in the desert.

He is a bad dude in the off-road. But Robbie Gordon's one of those guys that really has something special. He does. I mean, he has a next level in the desert that other people don't have. And when you're in a car with him or a... truck going through it's it's going faster than it should yeah you know and he's okay with that he's comfortable with where that is and i felt like i was flying through freaking space dude you know that like in star wars where the stars are flying by i'm like literally i'm like it felt like we were going 500 miles an

hour yeah and i look over to him and he's as comfortable as can be of course the ride quality and those things are amazing it felt like we're just on pillows just floating across the the tires are just trying to tapping across the ground as we're going and but i did I was never, ever in my life more scared. Like, I don't get scared. We race, right? But that scared the shit out of me. And when we got done, I was so glad to get the hell out of that thing.

And I'm like, this little, and I'm like, you know what? I wish I had that ability that he has to say, I'm going to take somebody that typically doesn't get very scared and scare the shit out of them. Right. And you're right. Like, now, I never really thought about it like that, too. You mentioned that. what a what a talent he is what he does have something special and I was able to go across the

desert firsthand be a part of even for just a mere full moments and witness it so getting back to your story you grew up you know around those type of vehicles um racing the Mickey Thompson Stadium tour and stuff like that but also the the big thousand mile races or the thousand the kilometer races or the Baja and all that stuff. Yeah. The Baja is intimidating. It is. It can be. Right. Yeah, it is a very unique race.

You know, for me, I was growing up with my dad was doing it. I didn't spend a lot of time down in Baja when he was doing it because I was so young. I was a part of the stadium off-road stuff, you know, because I got to participate in that. And then I started moving into Formula cars. But I always wanted to do the desert. I always, that was always something I wanted to be a part of and do because I just loved it. loved watching my dad. I played around out in the sand dunes.

Help me understand what that race is. Like in my head, like in my totally novice mind, I think, okay, they must have a starting point and there's a finish line somewhere out there, a thousand, how far is it? Yeah, a thousand miles. The one I run the year before last. Is it the same course for the most part?

They use various parts that are the same, but it typically changes a little bit every year. I mean, two years ago, it was actually 13. 1,500 miles. Last year it was roughly 900. You know, they always call it 1,000, but they're always kind of trying to find new routes, but they run portions of the course that they might run every single year. How many cars or vehicles usually are in this event? Hundreds of cars. Yeah. Hundreds of cars. Is it simple? Thousands of vehicles. Yeah, between like four-wheelers and dirt bikes all the way from those, you know, little Volkswagen bugs to trophy trucks. I ran a

class one car with burning gone the last couple years. Yes. And that was a lot of fun, too, rekindling that relationship. How many, and then you got to chase vehicles and all of that following you everywhere you go to prepare, pit, fix. Can you? Do you camp? Do you race from town to town? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you do.

I mean, you run a portion of the race. You know, when I did it, I did it with Robbie one year in his truck. That was a lot of fun. His truck was amazing to drive. And I got to drive the middle section, which is cool because my parents have a place down there and I was able to base out of their home to do all the pre-running and everything else. Oh, what's pre-running? I was pre-running.

to look over the course, take notes, try to get a good idea of what's going on. A lot of the reason why you do it, during the day, you can see pretty good, you know, if you're not in the dust, and you can kind of judge what's coming up and be pretty fast, but nine times out of ten, you're in the dust, so you're really running blind. So to know what's coming up is really important. And then at night, things are different too, right? So I ran at night my first couple years in the Baja 1000, and you can't tell at night with your headlights, you can't tell if a hole is a foot deep if it's a 20-foot deep hole. Damn.

Right? Because all you can see is the high spots. And so you have to think when you're pre-running, okay, if this is at night or if I'm in the dust, what do I need to know

so that I can stay in the gas when I can't see? Because you can't lift. Don't lift. You don't have to lift. If you're lifting, and the next guy doesn't, you're losing it.

You know what I mean? So it's the competition that makes you do that. And I got to say, it scares you to death because I don't know how many times throughout the race, you know,

I get scared because you just, there's so many unknowns. I mean, you're running wide open, you can't see. I mean, I was running 120 miles an hour down a road that I knew I could run wide open down, but I couldn't see 40 feet in front of me. And the co-riders going, yep, keep digging, keep digging, yep, straight, go. And as soon as they stop talking, you're like,

did his mic stop working? You know what I mean? Is there a 90 coming up and I don't know about it? Yeah. So there's all these little heart-stopping moments throughout that race. And I guess to a lot of people, that wouldn't sound too intriguing. but the level of, you know, adrenaline that you have in that race the whole time just, you know, pushing yourself to the limit to tackle this course, you know.

Where do you stay at night? You know, well, I ended up usually run my portion. I usually go back and I stayed at my dad's house or we'd go back to the hotel depending on what section. So you run a distance and then you can leave and go to wherever and then come back and run the next leg? well you only run one leg so like if there's if there's a thousand miles you know you have one job i run my 300 and whatever 400 miles that's it and then that's it i hand it over to the next guy he runs and then i go get some sleep if i run one of the early legs i go get some sleep and i wake up early in the morning to catch them across the start finish line you know and insinada or or calbor or la posse

how many so how long's the race take to run um i would say roughly 20 to 24 hours isish yeah yeah yeah it's pretty long fast actually i thought i thought No, I thought it would be days. Oh, no, no, no. No, it's, it's, I mean, these trucks are hauling ass these days. Yeah, damn. They're running fast. Sorry, I mean, I'm learning.

This is what's great about this show. Yeah, I mean, has there, give me some moments where you, your pants. Well, I mean, there's, we've been talking about that on this show quite a bit here lately. Yeah, there's, there's one, there's one time, you know, we're in the race. There's a, there's a water crossing. Right after the water crossing, there's this massive tree. and it's a straight uphill climb.

You know, that's pretty gnarly. Like you've got to get around at the bottom to make it all the way up at the top. And there was a guy that was broke down right at that tree. Outside of that tree, there was about four feet and then like a bunch of bushes and rocks. And then up the hill, there's a big bush and rocks, right?

But you can't see up the hill because there's this big ass tree in the way. And so we kind of assess what's going on. We go, okay, we're going to go around in those rocks, but we got to haul ass because I got to make it up this hill. So I cross that damn water and I stand in the gas and I freaking clip the back of this guy's truck and put my right sides out in the rocks and plow over a couple trees and jump back on. And when I jump back on to go up this hill and I finally clear the tree where I can see, there's a buggy that didn't quite make it.

He's back and back down the hill to try to get down. And I'm about to just destroy this guy, right? So I fire off out in the bushes and see a tree that's probably about eight feet tall and we blow right through that freaking thing. I don't know if somebody's camping on the other side of it. I don't know if there's another car on the other side. I know nothing, right? And we blow through out the top of this tree and get the other side, and we made it. But, I mean, that whole time, I was just in the gas and just praying that nothing bad was going to happen.

But that's what I had to do to get through, you know. There was another time where it rained like hell, 2019. It was the very first time I ran the Baja 1,000, and I ran with Geyser Brothers. And Exalta actually was the sponsor. They wanted a NASCAR guy to be a part of it. I just happened to move to Arizona at the time and was dying to run the Baja 1,000. So I went and run with these guys, and it rained harder than it had ever rained. It flooded Ensenada is the first time, here I am, knowing that I'm in a series that definitely

isn't going to get canceled because of rain and have to race on Monday. First time in ever, it did it. Oh, wow. I might have brought it. And so we had pre-run. We kind of knew what was coming on and coming up because we had made all these good notes. I was on a real flat, fast section with a couple big rises, you know, that were just, you put an airplane. If you know it's clear, you can stay in the gas over the rise, you know, that stay in it and go.

And it was one of those. I'm doing 120 miles an hour again and going to stay in it over this rise and hope that a donkey or a civilian isn't driving a car on the road or something on the other side. And I jump up my getting there and know about 100 yards, it's about four feet deep of a lake. Oh. Because the water just filled in. And we landed in that thing. It freaking dumped through the whole deal. But you didn't know because when you pre-rounding of that stuff was there, you know.

and it was fenced on either side, so you couldn't get out of it. And I start chugging through, and it started about to get stuck. So I stand in it, and I stand in it all comes through the hood again. I spin out, neither one of us could see. I just stayed in the gas, and I just knew I didn't want to end up in the water stuck, you know. And we ended up way off out to the side, you know, facing the wrong direction. But I was in some dirt that I could get a hold of, and we turned around and took off again. but there's moments like that throughout that race and what is a really cool.

I mean, we have moments throughout our races, right? There's always a story. It doesn't matter how you run, whatever. Something happened to you throughout that race that was a challenge to get through. And Baja's no exception. I mean, the stories that you get out of that event and sitting around a campfire with, you know, 10 or 15 hundred guys that just did it with you, it's a, you know, it's always been a place where we've just loved it and enjoyed it and had fun.

But we've always known that, I mean, in Mexico, you know, there's a little less rules, right? That's part of what's fun about it. You can go down there and have some fun. Yeah. You know, and then, but at the same time, there's little less rules, right? So if you end up the wrong place, wrong time, you can be in a bad scenario. You know, uh, uh, dads come back after the race with like bullet holes in his truck, you know, and nine times out of ten, they just think it was like drunk ranchers that and probably didn't really approve that you're running through their land or something like that, but we were racing through there anyway. Um, and it definitely changes your mind. I think the, the, the, the, the, the,

the atmosphere down there right now is a little bit different than it has been probably in the last 10 or 15 years. You know, and there's been a bit more of that going on in Baja where you didn't really, you know, deal with it in the past. Do you think you run more Baja races in your future? I want to. Yeah. You know, I really do want to. I love it. I mean, it really is.

There's nothing like it. I'm telling you, once you're a part of it and you do it, it either gets in your blood. Either get down there and you love it or you absolutely can't stand it with your whole heart. and we're the other way. Yeah. We love it with our whole heart and have a good time with it. Hey, TJ, you know that I got my own

Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida. We're part of the Hendrick Automotive Group. Yes, I have heard of Darren Hart Jr. Chevrolet. I bet you'd be surprised on what type of Chevrolet vehicles we specialize in. If I had a guess, I'm going to say it would probably be Chevy trucks.

Well, we definitely sell plenty of those, but actually we're really big in commercial vehicles. We actually sell a lot of crane trucks. or the number one seller actually in crane trucks. Okay, I definitely did not see that coming. Yeah, pretty neat, huh? So for any of our listeners shopping for commercial vehicles,

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Chevrolet, together, let's drive. I guess I want to give you opportunity to celebrate the Mears Gang. Okay. You sent me and Amy some Mears Gang. Yeah. Hats and T-shirts, and we love it. The Mears name, now I understand, and I don't know where the rest of the world is,

but I'm sure racing aficionados or racing fans are aware, but maybe the casual fans, not so much. But in my mind, the Mears gang, there's a lot of racers with the last name Mears, right? And very similar to the Unruiser. and the Andretti's. Right.

You guys aren't quite as out there with it. And I would say the other thing that I think is unique in your family is you all had different disciplines like you went into stock car racing, you know, and there's the, there's the Baja and the buggies and the trucks and the Indy car and all kinds of stuff, right? So everybody was kind of doing a little bit of everything. 100%. But there's a ton of success there.

I guess Help me understand what that was like growing up Did you realize, I suppose? When did you realize that there was some real legacy And in a story Yeah Told Yeah, so first of all,

One thing that was just the coolest thing ever Was seeing Amy and the girls Sent that video, Race Morning. You know, that was the cutest thing ever. So that was super cool. I want to tell her thank you. That was blast. It was so cute, and Trish and I loved it, right?

Yeah. And the Mears Gang to me is, it's a big place in my heart. You know, my grandfather started racing back in 1946 in Kansas, and it did really, really well. Won a bunch of races. They used to call them the jalopies back then. Yeah. And, you know, it was the old Model A, Model T's with no fenders on them. And they used to do crazy stuff, like run their car around in the parking lot with the steering wheel turned all the way to get the,

tires to where to where it would create an edge on it and they could flip them backwards, run them on the car. That's the stuff they used to do back then to get a little bit of advantage, right? And so my grandfather had a huge passion for racing. That's what he loved. That's what he did. But he had a backhoe business. That's how he paid the bills. He moved to California and my dad was, my grandma and my grandpa both moved to California when my dad was five years old. Rick was just born. And my grandfather ran a backhoe and still. was into racing and having some fun and pretty soon my dad my uncle both started cutting it getting into it and from what I understand talking to my grandma skip

grandpa we've lost both of them now but they were starting to get into racing dirt bikes and and they're starting to do real well and have a lot of fun with it but my grandma wasn't having any of it she did not like them on a motorcycle and they ended up somehow I can't remember the whole story they ended up getting a buggy started racing some local races down in Ascot, which is south of Bakersfield. Yeah. And they went down there and just started winning everything, started winning a bunch of races. My dad and my uncle both, my grandpa would hop in and drive.

And they used to come down with a big group of guys that would always help them out. And some media affiliate down there dubbed them the Mears Gang. Like, oh, no, here comes the Mears Gang. You know, and there was for two reasons for that, because they either beat you on the track. If they didn't beach on the track, they usually got in a fight in the pits. on that too. So that was a, but what's weird about my family, not weird, but my dad and my uncle and my grandfather, they're always known for being super nice, super easy, super down to earth, but they just took zero

shit, you know, so if something wasn't working out for them on the track, they usually figured it out in the pits later, you know? And so they got dubbed the Mears Gang. My dad saw that as an opportunity to create some sort of family legacy, and he actually drew the Mears Gang logo. The one we see today? The one you see today. Yeah.

And this is back in the 60s. That's badass. And so then they started putting it on T-shirts. They go down there with white T-shirts with these big Mears Gang logos, and that was our posse. That was our crew, and that was prior to me, you know. And I always grew up, Mirz-Gang T-shirts, everything. My dad, when we went to the off-road races, it was a Mears-Gang logo with the truck in the center of it. If you went to an IndyCar race, it was the Mirz-Gang logo with my uncle's Indy car in the middle of it.

And that's just how we rolled, you know. And it was always really important to me throughout my car. career to keep that going, keep that family legacy alive, you know. And that's, that's kind of where we got with it today. So how did you begin your racing career? What was the first, what was the kind of first thing that you saw and you went, I want to do that? That's, that's where I'm going to. The very first thing I raced, I was five years old, and I raced a 73-wheeler, flat track stuff out of Biggerstool Speedway. Damn. And so I raised flat track and a three-wheeler and then jumped up to four-wheelers when they first came out.

And on a flat track. Flat track. It was a part oval, and then you'd go in the infield. Oh. You know, a bigger full speedway. Yeah. And jumped up to 80s, then went to modified 80s. That was really cool because we built these really custom.

They started out as a dirt bike because they had the horsepower and what he needed out at an 82-stroke. And people were converting them into four-wheelers. A really good friend of ours and a close friend of my dad built mine. Does the track have a jump? No jumps. Just flat track. Just flat track. All flat track stuff.

Yeah. Yep. And a good friend of my dad's, Billy Anderson, a really good friend of ours. He's going through some health issues right now. But he built this quad for me and I have it to this day. Really? I hung on to it. Yeah.

It's a really cool little piece that he built and that thing was so fun to drive. But went from that to racing goat carts. Went from goat carts to Formula Mazda's, ran Formula Mazas for a long time. Got in Indy Lights for four years, dabbled in Indy Cars. My first IndyCar race was for Bobby Ray Hall at California Speedway, finished fourth, and led the race.

How were you? I was 19 or 20 years old, something like that. Yeah. Somewhere in that range, I believe, I could be off on that. Your fact checkers probably get me on that one. But yeah, we were running California Speedway. We'd average 236, and in the race, I got as high as 257 in one of them cars.

And they were just rocking. ship's man fun to drive unreal back then and then randomly I had just a brief story of how I got to stock car racing was obviously we had a relationship with Roger Pinsky with my uncle racing there and Dan Luganbuehl

who was Roger Pinsky's right-hand guy for I had to be 30 years or more had become a pretty close friend and he knew that I was coming up through the ranks you know doing the Indy light stuff dabbling an indie car and he had a friend Wayne Jessel with Jessel Vowtrain that was that was just getting ready to buy into that CC. It was CC and somebody ended up being C.C. Welliver, I think it was at the time.

Oh yeah, yep. So he bought into that. Yeah. He bought into that. So it was Wellever Jessel. Yeah. And that's when Hank Parker Jr. was racing there. I know you guys are buddies. We are. Yeah. And so I was at Indy one year. That's a whole other story. Gosh, thing, that was a crazy month. But I was at Indy one year trying to qualify for the 500. I was in a terrible situation. and just missed the show. Ended up just missing the show to make my first Indy 500, and I was just a wreck. I was so upset about that.

Ran into Dan Lugan Bill on the way out of the Speedway, and he goes, hey, he goes, I got a buddy of mine. He's starting a Bush team. You know, we're looking, I've been talking to Roger, we're trying to create some sort of feeder program for the Cup program, and, you know, Rusty's probably going to retire in a few years. This might be a good opportunity for you getting this deal. Maybe it goes the right direction, you know.

And I thought, well, what the heck? You know, because Cart and IRL had split at the time. And nobody knew if Cart was going to be the series or if IRL was going to be the one to continue to go on. So I thought, what the heck, I'll go try it. If it doesn't work out, maybe by then I'll know what IndyCar series to go back to. And by chance, I got this ride through Dan to go run the Bush Series. And that was, it was a tough, that was a tough year. Transition.

Yeah, it was a tough. Oh, my gosh. From driving an Indy car to go into a stock car. it was like apples and oranges big time, you know. You think you made a mistake. Yeah, now looking back on it, I think it would be easier to go the other direction. Oh, yeah. I mean, when you go to an indie car, they just, they turn better, they stop better.

They, you know, everything's better, right? Except for the racing and the fans, you know. And so we, and so then I get to that. And another really, really crazy story was so I drove for those guys. It didn't really go well, but I got a lot of experience. I had a two-year deal with them, but it was just, they didn't know if they're going to have a sponsor. for the following year, it just wasn't working out. And I got a call from Ricky Hendrick, who was a good friend of ours.

And we started talking quite a bit. And Brian, let me see, Brian Vickers and I were kind of going back and forth a little bit in the Bush series at the time. And Ricky called me and he goes, we were at his house one night. And he goes, man, I'd really like you to drive that five car. I said, you got to be kidding me. I'd love to drive that five car. Are you kidding me?

You know, to get that chance to drive for Rick Hendrick, my second year back here in the stock car world. And so he set me up with, I mean, I had the ride, you know, through Rick. We talked about it. This is the five Xfinity car? The five Xfinity car. Yeah. And so Jimmy was my best friend at the time. And one of the only guys I knew when I moved back here, he had Alan Miller, who's been a good friend of a lot of ours and really done a lot of good things for me over the year. But Jimmy goes, man, you really need to let Alan take a look at this, just make sure that he's got things squared away. And I said, dude, I don't care what I'm getting paid. I don't care what that contract looks like. Yeah. I want in that five car, you know,

and he goes, well, you know, you should really have somebody look at it. And this is going to paint Alan at a bad light, but he's, he did so many good things for so many of us. And he continued to work for me beyond this, but, or work with me. But, but for some reason, whatever conversation Alan had with Rick, Rick called me and said, sorry, man, I thought he was calling to Kerr, congratulate me. Hey, you got the ride, done deal. And, um, and he said, no, and he said, not going to work out. What? And I was like, what, how, why, what's going on, you know?

And anyway, I lost that deal. In the meantime. Is that all you know? Well, I need to sit down and talk to him more and really understand what happened in that conversation. Yeah. And I probably should have that conversation when I drove for him again in the Cupside, you know,

and just kind of understood why that didn't work out. Oh, man. But he, so I didn't have that deal. I lost it. And in the meantime, I had had to go to court to get out of my current agreement that was a two-year deal with the previous guys. So I went and got out of that deal,

thought I had the five deal lined up. It didn't happen. And I'm getting ready to go to the race of champions with Jimmy and Jeff, right? And I'm going as a tag-along. They're both going to drive, and we're going on this European trip. Now, mind you, I just got into the Bush series.

I'm not making hardly anything. Jeff's got a damn boat. He's got a place in New York. He won the championship. He's Jeff Gordon, right? Jimmy's successful in doing well. He's in the Cup series. And I'm getting ready to board this plane to go on this trip with these guys.

And I can barely pay for the hotel rooms that I'm getting ready to go to, right? And I know I don't have a job. I'm like, this is ridiculous. What in the hell am I doing? And as I'm walking down the jetway to go on this trip, it was at the end of the season, I get a call from Chip Ganassie or Andy Graves at the time. The very first stock car that I ever drove, was for Gannasi.

As I was still doing Indy car stuff, they let me do a test back here for Sterling Mon's Cup car, the very first stock car I ever drove. Wow. And it went well. It went pretty good. One of those two called me,

and I'm walking down the jetway, and they go, man, we got to have you. And I thought, okay, cool, I'll be driving an Indy car for Chip. This is going to be awesome. And they go, we got to have you. And I said, okay, all right, well, what's the deal?

What are you thinking? You want me to get back to Indy? And, oh, no, no, no, this is for a cup car. I said, a cup car. I said, I've just had one just really mediocre year in Bush and you want me to go get in a cup car and they're like, yeah, we've got to have you.

And so they go, man, we got to have a good, clean cut, young guy and they can represent Target and their target audience was young moms, you know, and all this goes down. And I said, well, I said, I can't get in that damn cup car for a year. You know I only got a year of Bush experience.

I mean, get in there for a year, you're going to spit me out at the end. end of the season. My career is not going to go anywhere. And he goes, no problem, four-year deal. Damn. And I was like, perfect. I'm in.

And so I walked on that plane. Jimmy and Jeff sitting in first class, I'm getting ready to go back to my, you know, back row seat. And I'm on the plane like this. Yes. Boys, we're going to have a good time on vacation. I'm back. I'm back.

I'm back. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I'm going to be racing with you boys next year. And that was a really cool. I bet. Really cool moment. Holy shit.

Yeah. Chips is a good dude. He is. Yeah. As y'all's, I'm assuming y'all's relationship still really good. It is. And, you know, Chip's always been, Chip's,

Chip's his own guy, right? I mean, I think we've all had conversations with him, and, you know, Chip's not like anybody else. He's his own man. But I got to tell you, deep down that boy, he's got a big heart. And he, Chip Ganassi, prior to getting that deal in the Cup series,

when we were doing our Indie Lights program, which is Team Mears. And it was my dad, my uncle, together and ran my cousin and I in Indy Lights car for a couple years. That happened for a number of reason, but there were times where we were really tight on budget. And Chip Ganassi on multiple occasions, you know, walked up to my dad and my uncle and handed him a check just to help out, you know, that would buy a set of tires that weekend or help us out. And I got to tell you, he told me he's going to give me four years in the Cup series, and he did. And I would have

never had the career, I don't believe, if I wouldn't have got that opportunity with Chip. I like him. He kind of reminds me, he's like the Dana White of cup owners. And, you know, he's no bullshould. Tell, tells you, he's kind of guy that, now I don't know him as well as you, nowhere near. But he gives me the vibe that he's the kind of guy that he'll do what he says he's going to do. He was a racer himself so he can understand some of the things that we're challenged with, right? Right. Some owners that aren't, some owners that haven't ever driven the car, there's a bit of a disconnect.

For sure. Right? Oh, yeah, for sure. They can still be incredible owners and very successful. But man, when you've got an owner that's drove, it's like you can speak the same language. When things aren't going well, especially, you can go, hey, you've been there. You know this is, I need this part of this peace change or this person in me. We're not, you know, whatever it is, they can, you feel like they can understand where you're coming from.

Yeah, and I think there's 110% something to be said for that because I drove for guys that weren't, you know, drivers and guys that were just like you, I'm sure throughout your career. And, you know, a guy like Chip, he'd sit in the driver's meetings, you say, hey, I need this, I need that. They immediately get to work on how they can fix the car to make it better, right? Or on the side of thinking along those lines. You drive for guys that haven't driven before, they're just, they're looking more at you, like, how can you figure this out better? How can you change? You know, how can you change? What can you do different?

you know, a team owner that's been a driver, they know how important it is to get that car the way you need it, you know, to go fast. And that's, I think, a key component in a lot of ways. So, I think that your experience at Chips was a lot of fun. You had a lot of good speed, ran their Xfinity cars from time to time and had incredible speed. What are some of your proudest moments, I suppose, driving the 42 and being a part of that team and driving the 41? in the 42. Yeah. You know, so as you know, my first crew chief there was Jimmy Ellage, you know, and you know him well. And we had a lot of fun together. It was the right match, I think, for me early on, you know, to really learn and understand the sport and have a guy that I could relate

to as well. And, you know, sitting on the pole at Indy was a big moment for me. You know, we had some really fast race cars there back in like 0405, you know, wind tunnel was working right. Everything was just kind of going in the right direction every time we built a new car. and we finally figured out that Coalbine thing. And I know there's a lot of guys that think they had it figured out, but I think we were one of the first that really had it figured out. I mean, we had that Coalbine thing worked out real well. And we went to Indy sat on the pole,

and obviously that's a special place for me, all the success that my uncles had there, my dad's race there, the mayor's name is really well known when you go to the Speedway. And when I ran that lap, I knew I was fast in practice. I knew I was fast in practice, and we knew we had a shot at it. and went out there and put that sucker.

That car was so fast. I remember that lap like it was yesterday. And we crossed the start finish line. And back then, you know, before we had these new cars, you taped up the grill. So as soon as you cross start finish line, you cut the motor off, right? Keep the thing from blowing up. And so, well, cross the stripe, cut the motor off. I was like, gosh, dang, that felt good, you know?

And I hear on the loudspeaker, because your motor's off, Del Carnegie's there still at the time And he said, And it's a new track record And by then I'm rolling around three And coming into four and at indie The grandstands are so close Narrow, right?

Right, right. Like the outside grandstands are right there And then they got the inside grandstands And the sound of the crowd And how crazy they went And how loud it. I get goosebumps talking about it right now. You know, that was just probably

Definitely one of the coolest moments I had With Ganesi. Now, I'll be surprised if I'm wrong here but I think we be and him both qualified in the top three. I think I remember that. At Andy that year? Yeah. I think I remember.

I know when you and I qualified, we qualified one two at, at Pocono one year. Because we were both about ready to go up. We were last couple guys to go out and the rain came over. Oh, and it cooled the track off. The track off. We hauled ass. I think I sat on the pole. You might have been outside front row.

I can't remember, but both of us hauled ass because it like cool off like 20 degrees. Yeah. Major advantage. You would replace, you went from the 41 to the 42. when replaced Jamie Murray. I think he was going to Rouse. Yeah. And then they brought Reed Sorenson in, I believe, to the 41.

They did. Anything, you know, anything odd or unusual about that? I mean, it's rare you see, I guess, the driver slide from one car over to the same, a different car in the same organization. But I'm assuming it just was a rebrand of the sheet metal and not so much anything else. We actually swapped teams. Swapped entire teams. Yeah, we did.

I went over to Don. Wingo and that was that was Jamie's whole deal all them guys and reed Sorensen slid in with with with with elage and I we got a great relationship man I like that guy we had so much fun together and uh but there was some tension like that that the first part or middle of that that third season that I was with ganassi where where you know things aren't quite working like you want to and the the finger points I think it's him he might think it's me you know type deal and and and so there was there was some decisions made really early in that third season that we were going to make a change because they knew Jamie was going somewhere else. And they knew that they had Reed coming in.

They're trying to figure out where to place him. And so we decided to change it up. But the funny thing is about mid-season that third year, we started absolutely hauling ass. And we were like, dang it, what are we doing here? Now we're changing it all. And but we went ahead, made the change. I went to Donnie Wingo, love him too. Great guy. Shoot, we went right into Daytona that year, and that was the first Daytona 500 that Jimmy won. I got second. And I'll never forget Dodge being so pissed off because here I am with a run. I'm third, and there's Newman and Jimmy. And Newman's in a Dodge. I had to pick somebody, right? I couldn't go. I wasn't going to go buy both of them, right? And so my first thought was, I'm getting behind Jimmy,

you know? And I pushed him to his first win at Daytona, and I ended up getting second. And I'll never forget, that race, Tony Glover, right? We were pretty tight. And after that race, I finished second. I was like, gosh, dang, I was happy for Jimmy about, gosh, dang, second, you know? Yeah. And he goes, Mirz Gang, let me show you. See, he always called me Mears Gang. He put his hand around me. Mirz gang, let me go show you something. He walked me over to the NASCAR hauler. And back then, they post the winnings on the side piece of paper, right? I think it was like 1.6 or something for a second. Damn. Yeah. And he goes, look at that right there. and I was like,

damn, I had no idea. Like, I never, I've been racing, you know, for three years in the Cup series, and I'd never looked at the damn prize money won. Yeah. One time. Yeah. And so I felt a little bit better after that. I bet.

Yeah. So I want to talk to you, I think first off before we go to Hendrick is about the 2005 Homestead race, leading the race was 17 laps to go and the cost should come out. You feel like that if, We talked to, me and Carl Edwards had had this conversation.

It's not a new conversation and it's not a new idea. Right. That NASCAR had a very, NASCAR was very quick to throw a yellow. Some of the races would have these long green flag runs. We just signed a new TV contract. TV was probably putting some pressure on NASCAR about the entertainment value. you and, you know, it was, it didn't take a lot for yellow to come out. Did not.

It could be, you know, it could, it could, if you and I looked at it now, this is, you know, there's a corner worker or a spotter or whatever for NASCAR, there's an official that's in the corner, you and I will look at something and go, yeah, that's not metal. That's, that's a bare bond or that's duct tape or that's a, that's a, that's not a metal piece that's in danger of doing anything, but they look at it and they'll be like, I don't know, could be. Yeah. Caution.

Right. Put it out. And man, if there's a graph that's a lot of fun to look at, I don't know if you've seen it. I don't think I have, no. I could probably tell you what it looks like, though. Yeah. There's a graph that kind of tracked cautions per race from like, I don't know, the 80s. And it's literally like 1.7 pretty much every year, right around there, pretty flat. New TV contract around 2000, 2001, and it starts ramping up. And it goes up to like three and a half, four and stayed there. And it would spike every once in a while a little bit. But it's two cautions per race on average

more than it had been for 30 years. When they introduced stage racing, what do you think happened? Back to 1.7. Yeah. And so they, I feel like that, now, Now, my personal opinion is that we all put so much pressure on them, complained so much. Carl jokes that a lot of the debris cautions were for me because I was getting ready to get it lapped. Could have been the case in this race, Homestead, 2005. But, you know, all of us, I think all of us in the industry back then felt this way about it.

You know, the cautions were a bit egregious. Some of them were unnecessary. A lot of times they'd throw cautions and not even be able to. able to show you any reason for it, right? There wasn't even anything on the track. But when NASCAR, you know, when NASCAR felt that pressure, they, they, the networks and them go to the drawing board, come up with stage breaks. Now we're going to have cautions.

Right, right. Now we don't need to do this anymore. You felt like, you know, that, that was a late yellow in that race that you were going to win. 100%. That was probably unnecessary. 100%. And you feel like that if you had won that race, your whole career might have been different. Well, I mean, your life and your career is broke into these moments, right?

Yeah. Each moment dictates maybe that next moment, right? Just such as life and anything. And we had, well, not just that one. We had three races that year. We were leading Texas at the end, had a caution with like five to go. We were leading Atlanta. had a caution with like six or eight to go

and we were leading Homestead with 17 to go. And, you know, I don't think that they did that in a way of, you know, we need this other guy to win the race. No. It was purely an opportunity to make the racing more exciting. And I got to say the fans, from a fans perspective, to get like a green-white checkered or a late race run, I mean, it was exciting, right?

It saved the day. Yeah, you bunch everybody. up and everybody goes racing again. And for that period of time, you know, I can't say that it was wrong, you know, but I can say it didn't work in my favor, you know, a handful of times. And, you know, that particular one, um, why I was, I was leading by a fair amount and I had a car that wouldn't fire off good, you know, for five laps, for whatever reason, that car and the way we had our setup, for the first five laps, I'd swap flies for about, you know, eight laps. And then the back end, we'd get in the track. We'd start taking off at about 15, lap, 15.

15 or 20, that thing was a rocket ship. It'd just take off and go. And, you know, we'd come in first, going to the pits, come out six or eighth, you know, swap flies for a little while, go back on up to first. I mean, we, by far had the fastest car in that race, and I was getting ready to lap Tony.

And it was a year Tony was going to win the championship. And I know if I would have lap Tony, it definitely would have put, could he still won the championship? Absolutely. but I think it depended on where Biffle finished in that event pretty heavily and Biffle was running good. So I got within, I don't know, probably 10 car lengths of Tony and 17 to go and here come that caution, you know, that we knew was going to happen. And we came in the pits first.

I think we'd come out fourth. We ended up finishing third or fourth, you know, with a short run to the end. but for sure there was some times where you know if I would have won a Texas if I would have won Atlanta if I would have won Homestead I mean not many people win three races in a season no you know and that that that puts you in a different category right it gives people that next team you go to or the next deal that you do when you're looking at that crew chief in the eyes and you're going man I need everything out of you I need everything out of this team I need you to treat me like I'm Jeff Gordon when you're working on this car not Casey Mears yeah you know and and and

And it makes a difference. Yeah. You know, they know you can do it. They know you can get it done without a doubt in their mind. They're going to work on that car and give you the best piece that you have. I mean, I worked with several crew chiefs that were great, but there's times and you have too. I'm sure you look that guy in the eye and they goes, he doesn't believe in me right now. We talked about this on my show yesterday.

Yep. Somebody was asking me about, so Denny's got a new crew chief this year. And they were just saying, you know, how do you know when it's working? I was like, you'll walk in the hauler and you can look that crew chief in the eye and you can know right away whether he believes in you or not. And there's nothing they can do to hide or fake it. 100%. And when you walk in the hauler and you know that guy's trying to turn over everything,

every stone he can on that race car to help you, he believes. And if you look in his eyes and you see doubt, it's freaking over. Yeah, 100%. You're not going to change it. Yep. And that happened to me a couple times throughout my career. You know, it did. and Alan Guffson, I love him.

I really do. I would have that dude tune on my car and a heartbeat tomorrow, you know. But there was a moment where he lost that in me. You know, we had a tough year. That year, actually you were there that season. Remember, Rick, were you there that year when Rick told us to go to Nashville?

He said, I don't care if you guys are going to be there for six months, figure out how to get these cars working or don't come home? Yeah. Yeah, that might have been prior. and anyway, so we went and did that test, and that was a headache, but we got our cars working a little bit better. Point being, the first part of that season, you know, he just, you know, Kyle Bush just got out of that damn car and I got into it. Yeah. Kyle's a bad M. Fer, right? He's a good

driver, you know, and I think I can hang, but now that I can, now that I'm on the backside of my career, he's got a, he's got a notch ahead of me. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, notch ahead of a lot of people, right? Yes. And so, you know, he, you know, he, you know, Allen had Kyle and, you know, we were struggling, but the whole team was struggling. But he lost a little faith in me pretty quickly, you know. And then I think once they announced that Mark Martin was coming into the car, there was a sense of urgency of, oh, shoot, we got to get this figured out. And it was the year that Jimmy and Jeff were fighting tooth and nail for the championship.

Like one guy would win a race one weekend, next guy, Jeff would win one next weekend. Jimmy had won one. We got figured out midway season. both those guys made the chase, I missed it. But if I would have made the chase, and back then I think it was 16, I would have finished third in the championship if we had performed the way that we performed the second half of the year. Yeah.

You know, we were the third best performing car that season, but Mark was already tagged to be in it the following year. Yeah. And so that was one time, you know, and there's other times throughout my career too where, you know, it's a performance-based deal, and if things aren't working, people start looking other directions. the one guy that I just absolutely loved working with, and he gave me, without a doubt, in my mind,

110% of everything he had all the time was Todd Barrier. Really? Yep. Yeah. So I went to, I got shipped over to RCR, which was awesome to get to drive for that organization. You know, your dad drove for them for years. To be able to drive for a team that your dad drove for was really special for me.

Yep. and to drive for Richard. And, you know, we got there, and it was another one of those deals where NASCAR changed the rules. None of us are running good. I think me and Harvick were flipping each other off for, like, 30th or something at Pocono, you know? Yeah. Because we were just, we were terrible. And Harvard got all pissed off at his crew, and he had Todd Barrier, and he had the baddest, I mean, the baddest freaking pit crew in the world, you know, at the time.

But he got all pissed off, and he wanted to change, so he took all my crew, right? And I get Todd, and I get his pit crew. and we start racing, we're still struggling, you know. But Todd came to me and he goes, he goes, I need to know right now what you need out of me. And I said, here's what I need out of you. I need you to treat me like I'm a multi-time championship driver. And if you make this car right, we're going to win races and we're going to win championships. Treat me like I'm Jeff Gordon.

And as long as you do that, I said, we're going to get along just fine. And he said, no problem, got it. Yeah. And he did. we were struggling that year everybody wasn't running good we'd just built all these brand new race cars because NASCAR changed the rules

and Todd is like Richard I found out I think I found out what the problem is these things but we got to build some new cars we've got to build them differently and Richard's like BS we're not doing that we just damn built 30 of these damn things you know

I'm not building new cars figure out how to make these things work and and so Todd and I think I can say this now because Todd somewhere else. He's over at Gibbs. I won't get him in trouble, but he, he, uh, he got in with the fab shop at midnight and built me a brand new car, you know, without nobody knowing. And we showed up to, I want to think it was Richmond. And I had Kevin's pit crew, which was just badass. I'd never had a pit crew that fast before in my life. And we, I think we finished inside the top 10. And all them guys still finished like 25th or 30th. And we went on for about four or five races doing that

before Richard finally asked what the hell is going on over here. You know, and I remember Todd stood up and said, remember when you said, don't build no new race cars? Well, about five weeks ago, I went and built one for us. At midnight, you want more of them? Richard goes, yes, sir, let's build some more of those. We were teammates for, it feels like longer, but one year in 2008. One year.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, don't, I don't know what you might remember about that experience, but, you know, And that was kind of toward your toward right before you left. But I enjoyed, I enjoyed kind of being teammates with you, but it was a very short, brief period of time. It was. It was.

I thought that was a cool moment because, you know, there was a core group of us as drivers that, that I feel like hit it off and would even hang out off the track, you know, and Jimmy and Jeff were a couple of those guys. You and I were, were a couple of those guys. So that group together, you know, outside of the racing thing, I just thought, was kind of special. Yeah. You know,

that you had a group of guys that were friends and buddies. Yeah. As far as four teammates, I don't know that you could get four guys to be more friendly. Right, 100%. Usually there's always,

and not a bad apple, but a different one in there. Right, right. 100%. So I thought we all got along real well. We shared everything. You know, I think everything was open book on the table.

I don't know that it was the best years, you know, at Hendrick as far as, like, what was the product that was getting put on the track at the time? We had a lot of struggles with that new car, you know, trying to get things right, trying to figure it out.

But for sure, man, we had a blast. Had a great time. And that was a real cool moment in my career. You talk about going on to RCR and running there for 2009. You went through a lot of crew chiefs, but eventually you landed at Germain. And you would race there for five years. Yes. And you mentioned Booty and working with him.

I feel like that you found a way to really appreciate the, you know, the, that was a very small team. Very small. Very small. Limited resources, limited funding, but you were, y'all showed up every week. And Booty worked his ass off. Was he your crew chief the entire time? He was, yeah. So I was, when I was, right after you,

left there and they had Todd Dylan in the car. I think it was literally the next year. So I'm walking around in the garage and I was working with LaTard at the time and I was thinking, so I was pretty aware of some of the stuff we were doing to the bodies and some of the trick things that we were trying to accomplish. And I walked by that car and I went and I went back to Steve and I said, man, I am really surprised at how hard booty works, even though he knows. nose, he's probably down a little bit under the hood. He probably down a little bit everywhere.

Right. But he still does, he still is in the details. Yeah, I got a huge appreciation for Booty Barker, man. The guy just absolutely works his butt off. We took a program. When I got there, it was a tough, it was a tough ride to accept at the time because Max Pappas, he had worked his butt off. I mean, you remember, I don't know if you remember how much time he spent at the track. trying to get an opportunity and trying to get into this world. And we all know Max, he's just an outstanding person.

He is. He is. He is. But for whatever reason, it wasn't working at the time, you know, and he just had limited experience in these cars. And I got an opportunity to replace him and go in that. And, you know, when I first got there, this will paint a picture a little bit. They had, Germaine had a truck team that was really successful.

successful with Todd Bodine. They did. And those guys. They won a bunch of races, did really well. They had this cup program that was kind of like a side gig. You know, they're running, you know, start and park some races, run half the season type deal, but they're trying to grow it. And so I come into there and I go to fit my seat. I'm fitting my first seat. I'm getting everything dialed in and and booties in the window, hey, what do you need? All the cars were different. Not one pedal was the same from car to car. Not one seat was the same from car to car. It was all just from wherever they could get a car, right? And I'm fitting this car, and my seat,

my seat mold won't fit in the, in the seat that I currently had, and I couldn't figure out why I was, I pulled it out, and I had a hex-head bolt on it, you know, on the seat belts. And I said, oh, okay, that's the problem. Those are thicker, and I can feel something underneath my seat. He said, just replace those with buttonheads, you know?

That's what I've always ran. And but he's like, man, we're going to have to ask Mike on this one, Mike Hillman. And I said, I said, what do you mean? I said, just put button heads in there instead of hex heads. And he goes, you're going to have to go ask Mike. I said, I got to go ask Mike for a buttonhead bolt to put in my seat.

And he's like, yes, sir, you need to go up to the front desk and ask Mike. I was like, all right. And I walked in Mike, and I was kind of laughing, you know, because I thought Bouti was, there's a camera somewhere, right? And I walk in there and I go, hey, Mike, I really need some buttonheads for my seat. Booty said to come asking you. And he just goes, man, I don't know. How much of those you think they...

I don't know if we can get button heads, you know? And I said, you're kidding. I'm like, you're kidding me. Seriously, that's how we started. I mean, it was that tight. And the reason why I found out was so tight was we were getting a check for that cup car. And I think it was helping feed the truck program a little bit, right?

Long and short of it is, Booty and I worked our butts off together real tight and real close with Bob Germain and with Ikeau, who was a sponsor at the time. And we really cultivated and built a team there. and over time built a budget to where we could really go racing and start competing. And that's one of the more proud moments I've had in the sport, to be honest. You know, we took a team that was a start and part program all the way to a team that could actually go out and halfway compete,

looked a lot better on the weekends and turned it into a program that somebody else desired to be a part of. Yeah. I was thinking that when I was asking this question or setting up the germane racing conversation is, out of everything that you did, I mean, running up front and winning races and being competitive. is obviously whatever driver wants. But there's a lot of moments in a driver's career that have nothing to do with winning that are rewarding. Huge, yeah.

Things that people will never remember. I've got races that I ran that I'm really proud of that no one remembers, right? I remember something that happened or something we did. And I have to imagine, I do remember how shoddy sort of patchwork that program was and really unappreciated really by a lot of people in the industry.

Didn't know one to take it really that serious. Very similar to kind of furniture row when they came in. It was like, oh, right, right. You know, and Max was struggling, didn't have a lot of oval experience. They just weren't a threat. And from 11 to 2016,

it truly did turn into a successful one-car operation. Yeah. And I think that you would go to the racetrack and overachieve nearly every weekend. Yeah, and that's, that was, and that's a good point because we did in a lot of ways, you know, and we had a good culture, and I think the culture had good perspective as well, right? We had a sponsor that really understood what we were fighting and what we're working on. They knew what kind of money they were given. They knew what kind of money other people were getting. They felt like they were getting a good value for what they're investing.

Bob Germain always wanted to do better and here's a guy that never raced a race car, right? But I was able to have some really good conversations with him to explain into where he could fully understand of what our uphill battles were. And we used to sit down sometimes and he'd go, man, what do we got to do to get better? And I said, Bob, I said, you know,

another million dollars isn't going to change this program. Another $2 million isn't going to change this program. I said, if we want to step up and we want to spend another $10 or $15 million, we're going to get to that next level. You know what I mean? You know that gap. Oh, yeah. Right?

So I felt like we were kind of in that sweet spot right before the really big budget team programs. And I felt like we were getting good finishes and good results for what we had. And the whole team kind of knew that. So that's what kind of kept that around for so long. You know, everybody was on the same page. There wasn't a team owner expected way more than he should get. There wasn't a sponsor that was expecting way more than they should get for their money.

And we were just able to cultivate a good relationship, good opening relationship throughout the whole thing, build the team, build the program. and I can look back on that and say that I was really proud to be a part of that. I want to ask you about Richmond 2014 Marcus Ambrose. Yeah. I saw that video the other day somehow come across my social media. Did it? Yeah.

Well, I've never had anybody swing on me at the racetrack that I can remember. Yeah. Did you, if I remember the video correctly, I think you both were ready to go. Yes. Yeah. What happened? And so learning later about this, and Marcus and I, we never did sit down to have that beer. We always said we were going to.

He went to Tasmania. Yeah, he took off and left after that. He's hard to reach. I didn't realize that he had a lot of things going on behind the scenes, a lot of pressure on him. Like, he was either going to be out or in. I didn't know that at the time. I was with a 13 car, which I very rarely had a good, like, when you know, when you're with a team and you'd never have a good car, but maybe like four or five times a year, and you actually have

a good car that weekend. You're just dying to get everything out of it, right? And I had a really good car. Richmond. I had a top 10, top five car, legit, with the GEICO program to beat all these big teams, you know, that day. And Marcus was, didn't know if he's going to have a job. And under three or four restarts in a row, I'm on the bottom.

He starts behind me. He goes all the way onto the apron at Richmond, just misses the inside wall, and then body slams me to get by me, right? And he did it three times. and so I'm freaking hot. We ended up having a halfway decent result regardless of what happened there. We pull into the pits

and he just happened to be walking by me and he's pissed off because he had a bad day. And I grabbed him. I wanted to just knock the shit out of him, but I thought gosh dang it. I don't want my team to lose points. I don't want to get fine,

but I got to tell this guy how I feel right now. And every word that come out of my mouth I would have decked me so hard I mean, if you would have heard what I was telling to him, I needed to be hit. You know what I'm saying? But I just didn't want to hit him. And he hit me and he got me good. And then I chase his ass back into the hauler.

He'd ran and the guys helped me back. I didn't get a chance to get my shot in. But the odd thing about that is Marcus Ambrose is one of the coolest guys in the garage. Yeah, I know. You both are. And then from my standpoint, I've never had a beef with anybody in the garage. You're both two great dudes. It's like two most mellow kind of easy-going guys got into it. It was so odd. So later we ended up

talking about it. And I said, man, I said I would have hit me too. Don't, you know, but, you know, this here's what happened. Here's why I was pissed off. And yeah, it was just an odd deal. But, you know, and I hate that it happened too because Marcus is a good guy. And I mean, we did, I take that back. We did talk later on the phone. We never did have that beer. But he said, man, he goes, that's not who I am, you know. And he goes, my kid saw that on TV. and he goes, he goes, I was so ashamed I did that, you know. And so he's a good dude. But he is.

You know, the passion of this sport, man. And people don't understand the pressures that are going on behind the scenes. They really don't. Oh, my gosh. Let's talk about the end, all right. Learning that you're going to not be in the car the next year. You know, what other opportunities did you have? How did you navigate all of that?

And how did you come about the decisions you made? Well, you know, there's a handful of things that were frustrated. in the way that that all transpired. Obviously, knowing that I was a huge part in building that program, I mean, there was a lot of people that were a big part in building that program, but I was a pretty big part in building that program, and I had a lot of pride in that. And I almost felt some ownership to a standpoint at some point, you know,

just because I felt like I was a part of that program even more than maybe Bob Jermain was at the time for the amount of time that Booty and I put into it to build it. Yeah. I pushed for us to have a relationship with RCR because I felt like it was the best chance for the value that we are. An alliance. Damn. Right?

To get, we needed the motors. We needed a lot more help. There's no way we're going to do it on our own to make it to the next step. And I pushed really hard for that. And being at RCR before, I knew a lot of the guys there. I felt like I was going to be able to tap into that maybe a little more than some other places and it was a big help at first at first they weren't quite given us exactly everything you know how that works right there you're not going to get the first part that's built it's going

to go to one of their cars and eventually a few months later you're going to get it because you're a B program but it helped our program a lot unfortunately it made it a really good feeder for RCR for RCR and so Bob Jermaine came to me one day and said hey man you know rich Richard called me and, you know, I think he wants to, you know, he wants to get tie somewhere and, and, uh, you know, probably discounted engines and other things. They're going to take care of our motors. They had like another million, million and a half to bring to the program. And, um, he goes, he goes, man, I just, you know, you know, I think for us to grow, this is kind of what we need to do. And, and, uh, I was heartbroken on that deal.

Sure. I was like, gosh, dang it. I feel like I kind of helped bring that relationship together. and then for that relationship to take it from me was really hard to swallow. And I told Bob, I said, listen, man, I said, I understand why you're doing this financially. I really do. And Ty is a good driver. And I like Ty.

I mean, he's a good kid. It really is. I mean, he's not a kid anymore, but back then he was a kid, you know? And but I said, listen, you are not going to run any better. I said, you are not increasing your performance by making this decision.

And it was nothing against Ty. It was just the resources and still the way that that thing was ran and the budget that we had, it was going to run kind of similar regardless, right? But I said I can understand your financial decision you're making, and, you know, he's going to put a couple million in his pocket. And this guy, Bob Germain, I got to hand it to him. He pulled a lot of money out of his own pocket to go racing every single year.

Yeah. You know, even though we had budget, I mean, this guy pulled a million, a couple million out of his pocket every year to go racing and to let us do what we got to do. So when I went back home that night afterwards and I'm thinking about it in my head, and I'm going, here's a man that's invested. God knows how much into this sport, into this team. It's probably towards the tail end to his run, right?

And he has an opportunity to maybe recoup and put a little bit back in his pocket for all the years that he's put in. So I never blamed Bob Drameen for that. And I never blamed Richard for trying to find a good spot for Ty. And I never blamed Ty for taking the deal. You know, I would have done the same thing. But it was really hard to swallow. So I think when that happened and I knew that that was the last time

it was going to be in that car, I saw myself in a car from there on out that was going to be pretty undesirable. Probably not making the money that I should be making. You know, you're going out, even though we love what we're doing. I mean, at the end of the day, you're kind of putting your life on the line going out running these cars. And if you're not making any money, you're away from your family and you're out there running circles and something you don't want to drive. What are you doing? Yeah.

And really, my wife was kind of key in it because she goes, one day I rolled over in bed and we were waking up one morning. And she goes, you ready to move? I was like, what are you talking about? She goes, you ready to move? Let's go to Arizona. And I got to say, it was probably one of the best things I ever did

because the last thing I wanted to do was be a guy that was running around in the back of the pack, something I didn't want to drive, away from my family. And I got to tell you probably the last eight or ten years being to be right with my son and my daughter

through almost every single thing they do growing up has been probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. You sell everything you have over here? everything moved to Arizona we moved it we sold I had a storage had a house a couple of everything picked up and moved we got three Penske Pinsky trucks we loaded them up hooked trailers to the back of them my dad my dad drove one I drove one my and uh Donald my motorhome

driver back in the day drove the other one how close are you to your family now um my father or like anyone uh why Arizona Arizona was... Why did you pick where you pick? So I wanted to be back towards the West Coast because I grew up on the West Coast. I didn't want to be in California, even though I love California for various reasons. There's a lot of reasons why I didn't want to be back in California. And, you know, but Trish and I met in Arizona. And I always felt like, I always felt like when I got off the plane at Arizona or even California Speedway,

I'd just get off and it felt like home a little bit more. You know, and the fact that Trish and I had met out there, she loved it. She's from South Dakota originally, but she loved Arizona as well. Growing up racing with my dad out in the desert, you know, following him around, there was tons of races that were in Arizona and, you know, the Mojave Desert and stuff like that. So it just felt like the right place to be. I wanted to play around in the sand dunes, wanted to play around off-road stuff. Yeah.

And I remember one time, I remember one time we were drinking some beer. A bunch of my friends were over at my house drinking some beer, and you drove your side-by-side. The sand car. Yeah, the sand car. Yeah, it was a tank. Adam Sandcar had. Was it purple?

Blue? It was blue. Blue and silver. Yeah. God, that thing was out of control. Yeah, you went for riding in it, didn't we? Yeah. Yeah.

That was prior to the beer drinking time. Yeah. That was when I first got there. Yeah. That was fun. So you would left the stock car world behind. Did. You did not come do a one-off or anything.

And you put your roots down. in Phoenix and you got into your sand cars and your hobbies and what else what else have you been doing uh you know raising kids my dad my boy hayden's playing baseball my daughter's in competitive cheer and she just won a national championship in texas which is just amazing so proud of those guys and my boys full-time baseball what are you doing what are you doing with your time i'm spending time with them you know i really am and i mean that's what we do and and uh you know i do a one-off little races here and there. I did a, last year I went to, up in Connecticut at Lyme Rock Park and did a little

like TA2 race, kind of pro-am style event. And Biffle and Newman were there. And some IndyCar guys, Boris said, Danny Sullivan, you know, was in it. So that's the type of stuff that you get to do once you're out of cup that you would have never got to do otherwise. It was just a ton of fun, you know. I did a Porsche Cup race with Jimmy Adams who owns Featherlight. coaches. He invited me to come run his Porsche at Dakota, which was a lot of fun. I did a race in

Mexico City with Michelle Jordane and Adrian Fernandez and Mark Blendale, Paul Tracy, Max Pappas, and that race was prior to the Formula One race. We were the race before. Yeah. And so that was cool, 300,000 people in the grandstands. Didn't you do that damn Robbie Gordon's truck Veele once? Yeah, I did that for about three or four, three or four years. years. Those things were fun. I never was consistent through the whole season. Oh, man. But I'd jump in for a race or two. It looked like just chaos. It's some of the most fun ever. And you go, I got to tell you, I've never seen a reaction out of fans like I've ever seen after one of those races. I mean, the energy and the level of the people running back to the

pits where the trucks are after the race to like high five you and almost say thank you. That was the coolest freaking thing I've ever seen. I mean, he really had lightning in a bottle there and still kind of does. Yeah. You know, why that has never completely taken off? I have no idea because live, there's nothing beating it.

Yeah, it was pretty spectacular. You decide that you're going to get back in a cup car. Leaving full-time NASCAR whether you want to leave it or not, whether it's made for you, whatever that decision is, right, is not an easy one. And even though, you know, you went on and you found happiness, comfort, you're content, family, you've got purpose.

Why do you want, I mean, I know you get 500 start milestones, cool, but you know how, you know how this stuff can be. Sure. You know, was there hesitation? Yeah, I mean, you know, I guess if I'm really honest with myself, I'd show up to those races at Phoenix, and those cars would fire up and they'd go out, and I'd be like, that dude's still here, why aren't?

Well, I'm not in there. I used to beat him. Why am I not in that car? You know, so there was just, there was an itch. I mean, listen, we start racing because we absolutely love it. It's a passion. It's something that's in our heart, in our soul, in our DNA. It makes us who we are in a lot of ways, which it shouldn't, right?

It shouldn't define you, but sometimes it does, right? Because you love it that much. And, you know, when you have a long career, you battle through the ups and downs that it takes to get through this sport, the sponsors that leave, the team owners that maybe you didn't have a good relationship with, the races that didn't go your way. I mean, let's face it, 95% of the time for the majority of us, we're going to go home disappointed that night, right? Throughout your whole career.

And that kind of takes away. You know you have love for the sport, but there's a moment towards the end where you build these things and they keep getting taken away from you, that you just kind of, you lose that a little bit. You lose the passion for it. But it never completely went away. It never completely went away. And when I'd show up to the track, I just felt like I needed to be out there. And I didn't have a good reason to go do it.

But then when I started thinking about having a goal, having a milestone, having a different reason to want to be out there, right? I mean, of course, I want to go out and be competitive. Gosh, dang, how amazing it would it be to go out and win a race? you know when my last 10 starts to try to reach this 500 goal but really the goal is to get to that 500 yeah and and so for that reason it allows me to be a little bit more lenient in how i do it who i do it with you know how is it all going to transpire and it's just purely scratching an itch like you said you know getting that getting that feel again and uh you know accomplishing that goal one of the other things i think i was just thinking in my mind about what i think you might enjoy is

me and Harvick on the cars tour and now they have a West where they race at Kernan County and a couple of different places. And it's really casual like one one or two races a month. And there's probably like a, I don't know, 12, 14 race schedule in the whole season. And so like I run about four races in my late model car. That's perfect. And it's perfect. I got one coming up in two weeks and then I won't race again until August. I'll go through the whole summer just doing work.

And you never did that. You never really had that short track grassroots chapter. I never did. No. No. I've never raced the late model. No. And I think you'd enjoy it.

I would encourage you to see what local opportunity might be out there for you. I'd love to do that. And I know watching you do it is inspiring. I think it's super cool that you get out and you do it. You got to be willing to get your ass kick. Yeah, because these guys do it every week. They're going to be good. Yeah.

But it is that it does scratch that itch. Gotcha. And you don't have to go far to do it. I've been meaning to get a hold of Harvick because now that he's done all that with the current Speedway, and I just think it's so cool that he's... Great facility. One thing he's done a really good job of,

and I was never quite in the position that he was in to be that guy to really support our hometown. I was always every year wondering where I was going to be here if I was going to have a job. But he's done a good job of giving back to Bakersfield. I know he's donated a lot to the... the schools and things like that. It's neat to see him go back and be a part of that, you know, and try to help revive

what always was, you know, a really big racing town. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, seeing him run, you know, not too long ago in that car out there was pretty cool, and I'd like to do that, too, someday. I think you would enjoy, man. Yeah. All right, outside of trying to get to 500 starts, how old are your kids? My son, Hayden, is 13, going to be 14 in May.

He just got long until he leaves. Right? Yeah, you got four years. Samantha is 16 years old. Two. And driving. Yep. Yep.

And so they're getting big fast. Getting close. In five years, you're going to be an empty nester. That's crazy. Five years, dude. That's going to be here and gone. I can't believe, I mean, 16 years has gone by like that. You know, everybody always says that, right?

You watch the old guys. Oh, it goes by so fast. And you're like, yeah, whatever, I'm racing. I got stuff to do. And then you realize it's just, it goes by like a flash. Yeah, it's crazy. You've got to start figuring out some something to do because you don't want me sitting at home. Yeah, no, I can't do that.

Yeah, no, for sure. They're going to go off to college. Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, no, it's crazy to think about. They're good kids. You know, you hope and pray that they make good decisions and you hope that you're instilling the best side of who they can be. And they take it and run with it.

And, you know, I'm excited to see what their future holds. And, you know, that's going to be a fun chapter two later on in life. But it's going to be hard to see him leave for sure. When you leave here? When do you go home? I'm sticking around now. I stuck around for this show, which is great. So happy to be here.

And then I ended up getting a hold of Marcus Smith. And they're doing a grand opening for that new 10-10s race track. That's right. Club track across the way. And they got a few events throughout the weekend. So I'm going to stick around through Sunday. Oh, wow. Yeah, someone will be here for a little while.

When you go back home, you go back to Phoenix, you'll, you'll, or Arizona, and you'll just go back to normal life. Go back, taking the kids to school, and I'm going to do all I can. I mean, we've raised, you know, there is some people that are interested in doing those races. I know. The challenge is going to be, you know, how do I make that happen? You know, who is it with? How does it all work out?

So hopefully I have those tough decisions and tough things to figure out. I just wonder, though, when you get in the car and you get in the car line or taking the kids of school, if you'll be sitting there when they're getting ready to hop out of the car and go, damn, I just ran a cup race. Yeah. You know what I mean? It is. It's odd.

Because I didn't ever think you were going to come back and do that. No, I had that moment this morning. I was sitting there and getting ready to go. I was at Jimmy's house. I've been there a few times, you know, over the years after racing. And I was like, damn, I just want a cup race. I just did that. Yesterday.

Yeah. Yeah. That was fun. And you know what was cool about that. My kids are older now. Yeah. They can soak it in and understand it. What did they think?

They thought it was pretty cool. You know, I could really tell that they understand now a lot more about what I did for so many years, you know, and that was cool to see. And, you know, I was really blown. I know I said this already, but I was just blown away by the fans. I mean, there was, I can't believe the amount of old cars I signed. You know, I did a little appearance with Bob Pockris outside. He calls it a tweet up. You know?

I went and did that deal. Yeah, there was a bunch of people who showed up. to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wanted to do it. Yeah, no, I'm so I'm saying. You get, you get to work. That's not like a, that's not a posture ship or, or, or an ask. Yeah, you appreciate that stuff now. You know, before it was an obligation, right? Because you're so busy doing all this stuff. And it was one more thing you had to do. And I always appreciated it, but not fully. And, and I, I, I appreciated the fans this weekend a lot, you know, their support. It was super cool. And I think for my kids to see that, that was, that was rewarding for me for them to see that, you know, their dad built something over the

years that people appreciated and wanted to be a part of. And that was cool. And then one thing I would like to comment on, too, prior to leaving here is, you know, you've always been a great friend. I know there's a period of time where we didn't, you know, spend a whole lot of time together. They kind of went our separate ways. Stuff was going on. And I really enjoyed, you know, all of us four together, our eight together when we're on that vacation. Just being all to reconnect, you know, at a different level, a different time in our lives, rehash some of the old stuff that we did over the years. And I just feel like it was super cool to reconnect with you like that and kind of root that fringe back in again. I agree. I, I mentioned that at the top of the show, and that's a

great way to close this conversation. We had, I think that I'm choosing my words, but we were, we were really fast friends back in the day. Right. You know, and I did, I didn't, really remember or appreciate, I guess, how much we did spend time together. Early on. We weren't teammates. You and, you know, I think the connection a little bit was Jimmy Ellage. Yeah. And how he was part of my life as well.

But we just liked to do the same things and go to the same places and drink beer and hang out. And spend time out on a lake. You know, we always go back to your place after the races and have a good time. You got married and started building a family and your life went another direction. before I got that part figured out. So yeah, man, when Jimmy brought us all together, I was really, I knew Matt and I knew Jimmy, I hadn't seen you in a long time.

Right. But again, man, you were kind of like the glue that held the whole trip together. You and your wife both were this sort of great energy that would kind of be this tone setter, I suppose, every morning. I remember coming down, I forget what day it was. It was one of our first days in London, and we had been pretty hard in Scotland. Yeah, we did.

There wasn't a pub that we passed much. I mean, it was hard to get by those. But I remember getting up that one morning, and I was like, I am dragging. I'm not feeling that great. And I come downstairs, and you and Jimmy were already going. And y'all were like dressed up all in your stuff. And I'm like, all right. Get back on the saddleman.

I thought I was the one that, you know, would be the one that would be running. Yeah. But it was impressive, man, and you all had, you had such a, you got great, such a great attitude. You got such a great, you got a really great personality. You're a good dude. You care about everybody. You want everybody to be, you know, having a good time. If you see anybody that, that's down or little, you're always the first person to ask, is everything okay?

Is there anything I can do? you just got a really great quality about you man i appreciate you i'm thankful that we got to go on that trip and reconnect me too i'm thankful that you got some motivation uh to come and drive a race car and have some fun you should be able to enjoy that and do that on your own accord and however you however you choose um i'm happy that you're um satisfied and stable and and productive in your personal life and doing what you want to do and um thanks for coming to over today. I know you've got other things you could be doing. Thanks for coming over today and sitting down and talking to us. Everybody, you talk about the fan reaction and how awesome it was

and how taking aback you were. People will watch the show and listen to it in audio form and have that same exact reaction and want to know where you are, what you're doing. I have guys in here all the time with similar sort of, they're in similar places in their lives, right? And people haven't heard from in a while. I love watching it. Dude, they want to bring people on here all the time. I'm like, damn, I haven't seen that guy forever. Well, the fans love to know what you're up to, and they don't need a crazy story or any splash. They just want to know you're all right.

Yeah. Yeah. Because they do, you know, for lack of a better way to describe, they do fall in love with you in your career and support you. And, you know, your fans in particular, right, or they're every single day through that fight. I can't tell you how many people you know that you've seen the same people week in and week out

coming into, you know, 30 races a year, 25 races a year. I mean, they put a lot of heart and soul into it. And one thing I do want to say, too, is I'm really happy. I feel like this is a love fest right now. He's settled down a little bit. But it's super cool, man, to see you where you're at now, too, in your life. You know, you and Amy and the gruel's the life you guys have built is super cool. You couldn't have found a better girl for you. You know, you guys are a pair. It's fun to do. And then lately, you've been catching glimpses of the show here, you guys doing some stuff together. I mean, gosh, dang, that's the best thing ever. The radians got to go through the roof because you guys just, you share it and you have fun and have a good time.

And I love seeing that. Thank you. I'm proud of Amy and I'm glad for friends like you that knew me 20 years ago to see where, you know, what is happening in my life and how she's a part of it. And I know, I know that you knowing me the way you do to see how Amy's changed me so much. It's got to be like blowing your fucking mind. But, yeah. Because gosh, I'm different. You are.

Yeah. You are. Same but different in a lot of good ways. Yeah. For sure. Well, man, hey, we'll end the Love Fest right here. I'm thankful that you came out. Thanks for Brisbane.

I can't wait to go on another trip. I'm ready. You're a damn blast from the past. And I can't wait to see. I guess, yeah, I can't wait to see what you do next in NASCAR with the next race you might run. And hopefully, yeah, you do go to Daytona, Talladega and get one of those in. That's always a blast. Right.

That's one I kind of do miss the most is running Daytona. Yeah. I tell you what, there's an art to those places. It is. You know, once you figure it out, man, it's just a lot of fun. Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you, good to see, bud. Casey Mears on the Dell Jr. download.

Awesome to talk to Casey. I did, we did goof around and party together back in the day. And I'll say this, man, when I was, when we were, younger and we were in the middle of our racing careers, 2005, six, seven, and so forth, man, a lot of times when you go into a week, midweek social function, bar, party, whatever it is, and you see the other drivers, even some of your friends, man, y'all all got to be too damn cool for school. All the time. What's you doing?

What you're doing? I don't know. What's you doing? You know, you got this damn, I don't know, you got this ego. But Casey never was like that. Every time I ever saw Casey, he greeted you the same way. Big smile. Hey, big smile, what you doing?

High five, whatever. And he didn't have much of an ego at all. I think race car drivers really can't help it. but get some sort of an ego think they're badass even these truckers and extended guys man you watch them and they get in them they get their ride and they're like

oh yeah I'm here I made it but especially when you get to the Cups series holy moly but Casey man he was pretty unaffected by it and that's one of the things I appreciated about him is the guy that he is today it's the same guy he was back in the day

now he's a little more he's a little more calmer now or happier and content because as we talked about it in the middle of a cup career there's a lot of anxiety and pressure and can and you feel that and you see that and everybody i saw it in him back in the day but just a great dude man just such a good guy and fun to catch up jimmy johnson is the kind of friend that will you know we i might not talk to Jimmy for months, but he'll call you and go, hey, man, I'm going on a trip and I think y'all would be great to come along. And, you know, he's one of those guys. He's like, hey, me and me and Kansas are going. We want to see if y'all want to go. Hey, Mears is going to go. You know,

and it's like, well, damn, now I'm going on a trip with three guys I raced my ass off with back in the day that I never would have planned on my own. I never would have called them, invited them on the trip and we went to Scotland and London, which are two places I'd never been. So pretty incredible. And just in a brief, you know, five days made a lot of great memories and just had some really awesome experiences. But it was fun to be around them again, especially Casey. I mean, he's just so fun, such a good dude.

But anyhow, thankful for him to come through. Hopefully you enjoyed the conversation. Great to catch up with these guys after they've been out of the time. of the sport for a while and they go on and do other things and it's kind of always fun to ask them where their mind's at and where their heads at after their careers are over with and they've had a little bit of time to sort of sort it out but seems like Casey's in a pretty good place yeah let's get to the white flag all right the tear down was live on Twitter and youtube Sunday after the race if you hadn't checked it out you're getting instant reaction from

Jeff and Jordan. And probably instant overreaction. Because I think all of us overreacted a little bit right after that Xfinity race. There was reason to react, no doubt. But after a couple days, I think we all walked back just a little bit in terms of what we think should and shouldn't happen to a few drivers. But on Monday, Denny Hamlin was back in the studio after his first win of the season. Denny not only gives us a great insight into how he put that

wind together on Sunday, but he also comments on the other shenanigans going on at the racetrack over the weekend and his sort of view on how to handle those things. Doorbup are clear also dropped on Monday. We had an incredible guess. Mark Martin dropped by on via Zoom and gave us some incredible insight.

Y'all be paying attention to Mark Martin because I think this is a guy who is trying to find his lane as a contributor in the current landscape of whether it be podcasting or YouTube or what have you. I feel like, you know, Kenny Wallace came in and did what he did and you saw Rick Mass and now Schrader and all these guys, man, they are watching this stuff. and I think Mark Martin's like, you know, I've got a little something to say.

And so, Mark, thank you for joining us this week on Door Bumper Clear. Yesterday, me and T.J. talked a lot about our thoughts about the race weekend and the upcoming race at Darlington on Dirty Air. You want to check that out. We did a little Dirty Mo Doe as well in that show. I know a lot of people keep telling me or I keep reading online, I miss Dirty Mo Doe. Well, it still lives inside of the Tuesday Dirty Air Show. And we're still working on giving you the best content we can in that segment.

We want to be able to really truly feed you something that you feel is useful. And that is a work in progress. But I have some big high hopes for the Dirty Mo Doe segment. Today also coming out is Herm and Schrader and Speed Street with Connor Daily. And then tomorrow, bless your heart with my wife, Amy, another show. That one's as much fun as you could possibly have, I think, podcasting. I'm loving the feedback that we're getting. Keep the feedback coming because not only is it fun to read y'all's comments

and how hysterical or silly or funny you might find some of the things we talk about. But the feedback is also something that if positive and if helpful, I take to Amy. She's not going to seek that out herself because she's pretty nervous about it. But when I start to tell her, hey, I read some good feedback, she is absolutely curious as to what you were saying about the show and how, you know, there's people even that are like, look, it's not my cup of tea. I'm glad they're offering some sort of a lifestyle piece of content because a lot of people are kind of glad we've moved a lot of the lifestyle stuff out of the Tuesday Dirty Air Show. And now that's kind of where some of that lives on bless your heart. Because trust me, a lot of guys that tune in or a lot of listeners that tune in for Tuesday want to hear race reaction.

That's what they want. They don't want to listen to what the hell we did Tuesday and some crazy thing that happened in our lives. so that's where things are going to live on bless your heart on thursdays and amy's really enjoying being the host of that show and we're loving the excitement and growth around it don't forget to head over to shop dot dirtymodea media.com that's a website shop dot dirtymoedia.com long long website my apologies but if you want awesome hats and shirts and sweats and swim shirts of all of our podcasts from Dirty Mo Media. If you're a big fan of, you know, Denny's show, or you're a big fan of Doorbopper Clear, or maybe you listen to Bless Your Heart,

you can get dedicated merch for each of the shows. And I will tell you, I don't think any of the other hosts are that involved in the creativity, like Amy is. So the Bless Your Heart stuff, she's got her hands on it, the whole team over at Dirty Mo Media are putting together some great pieces for every show go to shop

dot Dirtymoh Media three more words dot com some mouthful enjoy the show and yeah we'll see you I guess I'll see you all Thursday on bless your heart

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