The Dale Jr. Download - How Supercross Built (and Broke) Aaron Plessinger

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sets out to learn more about the world of motorcycle racing as he sits down with championship rider Aaron Plessinger. He recounts his worst injuries, biggest struggles and greatest accomplishments in the Dirty Mo Media Studio. Regarded as a fan favorite on the AMA Supercross and Motocross circuits, Aaron grew up around the sport thanks to his father Scott, who was a champion off-road motorcyclist himself. Aaron explains that he followed in his father’s footsteps into the off-road world in the Grand National Cross Country Series, but ended up giving motocross a serious try and found a knack for it. He would get noticed during an event at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch and sign a deal with a factory Yamaha team, Star Racing.Dale and Aaron discuss the different forms of motorcycle racing and how prevalent injuries are in the sport. Aaron explains that racers rarely complete the entire season due to the likelihood of getting hurt, and he shares stories of some of the attrition he’s faced over the years. The guys also chat about the training motocross racers go through and how bike setup and crew chiefs make a difference in the sport. Dale asks Aaron about the difference between good and great riders, to which he explains that confidence and mental toughness plays a major role in racing success. They relate over the pressure that professional racers face and methods they’ve used to overcome nervousness while competing. Finally, the guys chat about Aaron’s move to the Red Bull KTM team, his admiration of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and navigating fatherhood. 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 Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. 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.

I was jumping pretty far off of the finish line jump and just to flat. I hit a hole one lap and it kind of shot my body back. The bike came right out from under me. I smacked the ground on my back and then it literally destroyed my bike. Ended up like spitting blood for like 45 minutes and they thought I was, they thought something was seriously wrong internally. The following is a production of Dirty, Mo Media.

Hey, everybody is Dale Jr. And we're back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the guest edition here on Wednesday. And Aaron Plessinger is our guest. He is a motocross, supercross rider. And I saw many months ago when they were at Daytona. He got on the podium and he had this Dale Earnhardt shirt on. And he was acknowledging, you know, my dad, which I thought was incredible.

all kinds of people were sending this to me. Noah Gregson, some friends of his were sending this to me. And I was like, hey, let's have the guy on the show. Let's learn about him. Let's learn about his career. Let's learn about the sport he's in. Let's learn everything we can. Because I mean, I've followed it from years in the past, in and out,

depending on who the big players are. But I don't know much about it. And it's fun sometimes to have non-N NASCAR, non-stock car racing. and folks in here, and we get to really kind of take a little break from that and try something new. So this will be that. It's going to be a lot of fun.

And I think he'll be entertaining because those guys are crazy. I've hung out with them over the years through the Budweiser deal and all kinds of stuff. And so let's get started. Let's bring Aaron in. By yourself? Yeah, by myself.

All right, man. Well, here's your seat. Your microphone, headphones, water. Appreciate you coming here. I know that ain't like the easiest things. just to jump up and go do something. You guys are busy. It's a lot of traveling.

We usually fly commercial. Sometimes me and I don't know if you know Ken Roxon, he rides for Suzuki in our sport, and he's a really good dude. But sometimes he'll have a private flight back and he'll invite me on. That's nice. And it's amazing.

Well, look, I know you came out of your way to be here. I'm thankful. It's unique for us because we do. do sometimes get a non-NASCAR personality to come on the show, but most of our people are local, right, live in this area because all the NASCAR is in this town. So I'm very thankful, man. Aaron Plessinger, Plessinger. Yeah, either way is good with me, but I always... What's the proper way? I always say my... Plessinger. Yeah, my dad's mom always says it

Plus Singer, like if you take the two S's and separate them, plus singer. But... Grew up in Hamilton, Ohio. Yep. What part of Ohio is that? That's... East, coast, east, west, south-north... About as southwest as you can get before getting to Cincinnati. Yep.

I got some land in Shokton, which is southeast. Okay. About a thousand acres have been hunting there for about six years, me and some buddies. That'd be real... Is it mountainous up there? Not really. Okay. Okay.

If you head up north a little bit, it probably starts to get it. Yeah, we're kind of southeast of Columbus. Okay. So, but I like it, man. A lot of nice folks out there. Yeah, yeah. Hard workers. Awesome people.

Awesome, awesome people out there. You're a second generation professional racer. Your dad raced. What did he race? So he raced GNCCs, which is off-road. It's Grand National. Four tires? No, no, two tires.

Yeah, yeah. So he, it's called Grand National Cross Country. And you race through the woods, and I did that growing up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, and we had a few races down here. It's a big loop, though, right? Yeah, yeah, it's about 12 miles, the track itself.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. I love it. It's still my favorite kind of racing. But, yeah, he raced in the 90s growing up, and he didn't get on a dirt bike until he was about 15, I think. But he was exceptionally good, and him and my uncle would go to these races, and he was a hard trainer. That's what he's pretty known for.

He was training really, really hard. And then he had two GNCC championships and two, I hope I don't botch this, National Harris Cramble Championships. So he was really, really good, and he was not lazy. So growing up, when I used to be lazy, he would not be happy.

No. So you followed your dad to the racetrack as a young kid, grew up around this. Help me understand what is the difference, I think I know, but what's the difference between Supercross, motorcross, all the different disciplines? Yeah, so, I mean, there's a bunch of them that we have. There's like, I mean, obviously there's off-road, and then there's motorcross and supercross, which off-road is through the woods and stuff, and that's what I did growing up.

And I was actually going to go pro-in off-road before we switched. And my dad, in 2013, my dad was like, why don't we just try to go and do one year of motocross because you haven't tried that yet? We've just been doing both. Had you not, you haven't raced in competition, but you've probably been on in that,

you know, you've probably been on. tracks and stuff. Yeah, yeah. I had an idea, right? Yeah, so I grew up doing both. Yeah. And in the GNCCs, you couldn't race like when I was like eight and stuff. We had like they're called 50 CCs and they're real little and they didn't have those in GNCCs yet. So I would race like arena cross, which is in like real small like hockey arenas and basketball places. Yeah. And I would race that and then I would race like local races and motorcross. So I had done like off-road and motorcross pretty much raced it my whole life growing up and then I never really focused on just one. Yeah. So that's why my dad was just like, why don't we try it. Are you what you

would call an independent at this point? Yeah. Yeah. Like we, I had a, I did Yamaha support. but we're still, you know, paying for bikes and paying for parts and we'd get an allowance. But, yeah, it changed in 2013. Like, I went down to Georgia and started training with this guy Matt Walker. What's training to look like? I mean, amateur is a lot different than pro. Like, I would ride four days a week, sometimes five days a week, and just kind of work on skills and stuff. Like what?

Like, help me understand. Like, just setting yourself up for different, different obstacles, jumps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like working on corners. And like Matt Walker, he was a professional. So he just watched. And sometimes actually my first day, my first day there, I was kind of wondering what I got myself into because we would do sections, right? And he would watch us. And sometimes he'd pull us off and talk to us.

and we were doing this section right, and it was like a left-handed turn or something. We were coming into it and just doing it over and over again and trying to perfect body position, this and that. And he pulled us off, and this is my first day there. And he goes, some of y'all are hitting this corner pretty good, but some of y'all need to go home. And I was like, man, I hope I'm not one of those that need to go home.

But it turned out me and Matt had a really, really good relationship. But that's how we do it. Like, he would have us do sections of the track, just like two or three corners at a time. And he would stand back and watch. And if you were doing something wrong, he'd pull you off. And he'd be like, hey, why don't you try this or try that and get off the back brakes and just roll through the corner, use roll speed and stuff. And, yeah, I mean, I was there.

for two years, but that first year, I ended up winning, I think, six amateur championships, and then I got noticed by a factory team. Yeah. And they wanted me to race their bike at this, it's one of the amateur races, like the, like the pinnacle of amateur racing. It's called Loretta Lens. and it's actually at Loretta Lins range. Yes.

So I went there, I rode the, it's called Star Racing, Yamaha, and I rode there 250 there, and I actually, I won six out of six motos there that year. And I was doing pretty good. Yeah. And yeah, and it was just funny because before that, nobody really knew who I was. I mean, I'd show up every now and then at an amateur motocross race and just get like fifth or six or something like that. But I was more into off-road at that time,

like GNCC's racing in the woods and stuff. So it was quite the change. And then that year, I ended up breaking my ankle at the end of that year, didn't get to finish. And then 2014... How'd you break your ankle? It was at a track in... It's called Muddy Creek.

in Tennessee, and it was my first lap on the track. And usually I'm rolling the jumps on the first lap, like just taking it easy. For some reason, I jumped this double and overshot it into the triple landing, and I thought it broke, but I wasn't sure because I'd overjumped it, and I'd slammed right into the next landing

or the next face of the jump. My ankle just kind of, buckled and I felt it. I knew, I kind of knew in the back of my mind, but I was like, dude, no, like that can't happen. So I rode the rest of that practice, which is like, like 20 minutes long. And yeah, I couldn't barely get my boot off and it was all swollen up and, and yeah, went to the doctor, sure enough, broke it, like chipped the little bone off of the bottom ball and, uh, Yeah, that was it for the rest of the year. Injuries in this sport are common.

Very, very common. I got a few scars on the wrist right here. Same injury or two different injuries? Two different ones? Damn it. Yeah, the first one, I mean, they happened pretty much the same. Like, the first one, I caught my foot, I was riding a motocross track.

There was this inside single that you would come over and do this face of this jump. And I jumped the single. a little bit too far, caught my foot, and it drugged me up the face of the jump, and I endowed, jumped off the bike, and pretty much punched the ground, and dislocated my wrist, broke the scapegoid on the inside, and then it's called a trichetrum out here on the outside. And that was about three months. And then second time hit neutral coming out of a corner.

over a jump pretty much the same thing punched the ground and my my radius pretty much swallowed itself it was just like did that dislocated again and yeah it was uh it was gnarly but injuries in this sport are very very common yeah it's like it's it would probably make history if if all of us made all 17 rounds of supercross and the injury going to Outdoors, it's pretty gnarly. Supercross and motocross. Supercross is outdoors, right? Motorcross is outdoors.

Yeah, motorcross is outdoors. And motorcross is there's these massive elevation changes, huge, you know, downhills and uphills. Is that, are you more prone to accidents and injury there? Or is the... I think Supercross is more prone to injury. because everything's so tight yeah everything's so tight so tight so on a super cross track you have you know sections of jumps all the way down all the way back and you got these

whoops that you got to get on top of and you got to stay on top of them so you got to be perfect how hard is it to do that to get on top of the whoops I mean we see you guys get through sections like that and make it look pretty easy but it does probably take some like it it it took me a while. Yeah. Yeah, like, I mean, if you don't have any fear. Yeah, if you don't have any fear, you can, you can just do it whatever. What's the trick to getting you there? You got to come out, like if, say, if a set of whoops is right out of a corner, right? You got to click up a few gears, so usually we hit them in fourth, third or fourth, so you're coming out and you're lugging pretty bad, and you've got to use the clutch a lot. And the trick is,

to try to get your bike, try to lift your bike up on top of them and then get it squatted so you have traction going across the top of them all the way to the end. But usually, like it almost happened to me this past weekend, you try to come out of the corner and you get on it real hard and you lift the front wheel up and then you set it down in between two. And then you're doing that. Yeah, it's like a bull. And you just got to stay on to the end.

But, yeah, it's, it's, uh, whoops are, are really, really a tough one. But in Supercross, you got to, you got to be so perfect. Yeah. It's like, even during the week, like we track, or we try to practice on, uh, everything similar to what we're racing on. So we build, you know, we got at, uh, the place I train at. Yeah. Uh, we got three Supercross tracks.

and they're all to scale and nothing's like it's all real. So you've got to be so perfect throughout the week and into the weekend. And even if you're tired, it's like you just got to do it. And sometimes, you know, when you're sick and you think you can go out there and do it, timing's off, depth perceptions off, and that's when things happen. Yeah. So on the motocross track, there's more distance between obstacles and challenges and there's time to sort of prepare and it's more momentum and getting into a rhythm. Yeah.

And is there, so where, in what discipline is there a time to be conservative? So it feels like watching Supercross that it's a sprint and it's all out and it's 100, everybody's at 100% to the very finish. whereas in a motorcross, it feels like a longer race. Yeah, yeah. Get a little bit of distance between you and the guy behind you. You can calm down, not take the risk assessment changes a little bit. Is that true? Yeah, yeah.

And it's like if a supercross is 20 minutes long and the tight stuff. And then outdoors, you just get a little bit more leniency to kind of mess up if you do mess up. It gets rough and rutted and gnarly. Perfect. Yeah, it's like, I don't know, outdoors. It's always been my favorite outdoors, and you just, I don't know, you can just get with it in outdoors. You can just hold it wide open. Like we race these sand tracks where, you know, it gets rough, but in the corners and on the bumps and on the straightways, you can just let her eat.

Yeah. And that's always. That's always been my favorite. But yeah, you just have a little bit more leniency to get sketchy, if you would. Yeah. So you got into motocross full on, had some good success at the amateur level. Help me, I guess, understand. So when I watch a race, whether it's outdoors or Supercross, there seems like there's

you know, a big discrepancy between someone who's very good and someone who's not so good. Help me. So I guess when I'm watching an ASCAR race, I watch a guy and I know, I'll tell you, hey, man, this guy's probably going to run top five and this guy runs in the back all the time. So help me understand that in your world. There's people out there that know that they don't have the equipment nor the ability at that point or that day to compete, you know. What's driving that person to keep going? I think, I mean, I might be wrong, but I think just the love of two wheels.

Are there guys out there that are like journeyman riders that you know they're probably not going to get that full support, but they're grinders, they're going to be there and show up every time? Yeah, yeah. I mean, a lot of the privateers, man, and it's awesome because our sport would be, We'd probably be nothing without those guys. And I feel like most of the fans can relate to a lot of those guys a lot more than they can with these factory guys and get everything. What's the percentage, I suppose, if you show up to a motocross race,

what's the percentage of privateers in the main? Probably, like if all of us are there, there's about 15. of us that can win like factory guys and then and then after that um in a supercross race there's there's 22 uh 22 guys in the main event and then outdoors there's i think 40 so i would say the top there's a lot of privateers yeah yeah the top 15 or the top 10 are or factory guys and then after that what's separating the factory guys and the privateers Are there privateers with true talent? Oh, yeah.

True ability, just don't have the equipment. Is there a big difference in the equipment? And more so in the 250 class, in the smaller class, because, I mean, these 250s. The tune of the bike? Yeah, they build these engines that push like 55, 56 horsepower and under, you know. What about the setup of the bike and the mechanic, crew chief and all? You all have crew chiefs?

Yeah, yeah, we have crew chiefs. we have uh tell me what uh you know tell me some of the things that you adjust to change the way the bike handles and so i me i i usually change the suspension like the power to the bike i mean they they'll ask me like is it running good or is it you know is it fast enough or this and that and uh like the speed of the bike for me it's not too big of a thing unless i'm getting pulled on the start or something. If I'm getting yanked off the start, I'm like, what are we going to do here? But suspension is, I'd say, one of the biggest parts to success, because if you don't have a good bike setup and you're coming across these bumps and you're getting to kick sideways

and you're, you know, crashing, it's a lot harder than somebody who's got a perfect bike setup where, I mean, nothing's really perfect, but like if they love their bike and if they're, if they're really jelling with their bike, you can kind of see that. It's tough. And that's one of the biggest things, I think, is them not having, like, the access to a bunch of these, like,

parts in the suspension or, like, tuning-wise. They really don't know what to do, the privateers because they're kind of relying on themselves to kind of figure it out. Right. So is it shocks and springs? Yeah, yeah, shock springs.

Y'all get to run. Y'all get to run. Like our pistons and our shocks are pretty complex, and there's a lot of, you know, a lot of adjustment and different types of spritons you can run in the shock. I was actually in the shop yesterday with Noah. Yep. And some of your guys' shocks look similar.

They're very similar. but our reservoir is off to the side to where your guys is on top. But it's very similar like there's a bunch of shims and oil and pistons. Are there mechanics or cruechies in the business that are in high demand specific individuals that are thought of? It's like this guy's a badass, you know, man, if we could get him or whatever, right? Kind of, but everybody has kind of everything figured out already. So it's like there's not just one guy who's like, oh, that's the crew chief that we need. I mean, all the crew chiefs are really, really good.

But they don't really figure out stuff that everybody else hasn't figured out yet. You know, they're always, they're all good, but, Everybody knows all the stuff. Yeah, everybody knows everything already. I imagine there's pretty good rules and regulations to be able to kind of keep everybody in a box where there's not a lot of real creativity and freedom. Yeah, yeah. So.

You know, to get anything going. We have to race, like, what comes off the showroom floor. Yeah. And so in Europe, the motocross series over there, they can, like, manipulate their frames and do stuff to make the bike works. What would you do a frame if you could? I don't know. I've never been able to do it. I don't know.

I don't know what it would feel like to do anything, really. Do they come over here? Sometimes, yeah. Do they have to change your shit? Pretty sure. Yeah. And do you go over there? I've been over there twice now.

And you noticed there? So I couldn't change my bike because it was. So you have to kind of. Yeah, I went to France. It was my first time out of the country in 23, I think. and went to France and it was I mean those guys are fast over there really but they ride they ride they ride a motorcross 12 months out of the year so we got to do we got to do supercross from October or November until now yep and I think it hinders us a little bit and outdoors

because we only get what a week or two to really test and get our suspension right and everything to where those guys are getting ready for it pretty much all year long. And you're training and testing and stuff, you get to shit going, right? You get the bike kind of feeling really good. How much of that are you, how far do you deviate from that as the year goes on? I mean, I'm sure you're still tweaking and playing, but once you get like a baseline happy spot, is that kind of what you ride as long as you're competitive?

or you all always like Yeah I mean Like The suspension guys will Come up with stuff on You know Throughout the season But usually

We don't really stray from it too much Like unless something goes really wrong And we got to figure stuff out But usually You can do Like on our suspension You got like I think three or four different like screws like high compression low compression uh rebound um

you got the same on the forks and uh we usually just do like a couple clicks here and there whether it's feeling good or not but if somebody's really struggling like you know they'll come from california fly down to florida test with you and bring you know everything that they can and and get you happy before the next race. Yeah. So it's, the teams work freaking hard. Yeah.

I mean, it's, it's a wonder because I don't, yeah, I mean, without them, we've, we'd be lost. Was that,

back to your career, when you got the opportunity to run a factory bike and amateur, was that the, was that the, the entry into the doorway of factory support? So that you,

you went from amateur into, the pros with that factory support? Yeah, yeah. That was, yeah. So star Yamaha, they let me ride their bike at Loretta Lins and did good. And then that next year I did all right. I was like, you know, I was okay.

I didn't have like the greatest season. But I went that end of that year. And I don't know if you ever heard of this race called Monster Cup. So it was a race. They don't do it. Now they ended, I think, when COVID hit. But it was this one-off race, and it was in Vegas. It was at San Boyd Stadium.

And they had it, they call it the Monster Million. So the 450 guys, the big premier class, they would race, and if you won all three races, you'd get a million dollars. Damn. And then early on, if you got all three whole shots in the, in the 450 class, you won a Toyota truck. It was pretty cool. Yeah.

But in that same race, they, they raced two amateur classes. One was on real small bikes, real small two strokes, and they called them super minis. And then one was us, like amateur guys, like up and coming amateur guys. And they called it the All-Star class. And I went there and I won that. was two modos. Yeah, got to start, beat everybody in there twice. And then that race solidified the signing of my pro contract for the next year.

So what is that like? What was that feeling like when you? It was awesome. I mean, I was just, I was more nervous than anything. Like, I was excited for sure. But I was more nervous than anything because I'd, you know, I'd watch these guys growing up. Nervous to be going pro. Yeah, yeah.

Nervous just to be there with everybody. Yeah. And it was like, on one hand, it was a dream come true. On the other hand, I was like, am I going to be able to do this? Like, I don't know if I'm that good. And, yeah, so it was. What separates the driver from being great or being good? What's?

Confidence. Confidence. Yeah. Yeah. And that's something. Confidence to do what? Just confidence to know that you're. To mash the gas?

Yeah. And confidence to know that you're one of the best. Do most of the guys out there ride with a little bit of fear? I would say so. Or is that what's holding back somebody more than anything else? Is this the lack of like. Yeah, the lack of confidence. The mental toughness, I think.

And man, a bunch of guys. have really, really good mental confidence. Like a guy who just won the championship, Cooper Webb, he's actually from North Carolina. And his mental toughness is unmatched. It's like him, and I don't know if you ever heard of Eli Tomac, he's another one that actually just got hurt this season. But those guys, they know.

They know they belong up front. And when you know you belong up front, it's like it's way easier to get off the start gate and out front. And it's wild because I give me an example. So earlier this year, I don't know why, but I was kind of nervous to come in this season for some reason. I kind of. At this point, how many years you've been pro? this is my no this is my 10th year

I think I turned pro in 2015 so yeah it's my 10th year but I crashed pretty hard going into our boot camp so my second day arrived and I crash pretty hard and I don't know why but I kind of scared me and

I was really lucky to not get hurt but kind of scared me and it was just like I had a like a mental block for the rest of the off season and into our season and it was just like I was like what's wrong with me

like just loosen up get out there and go ride you've done this so many times before and I carried that with me from round one until about round seven and it was not good

it was like I finished ninth in the first race I got two DNS, crashed out of one, crashed into somebody, tore my cable or my throttle cable off. So that ended my race. And then the next couple, it was just like, I was just riding in the back. I was just riding in the back, not, like, not where I belonged at all. But the whole time, I'm like, I'm like, what, what's going on?

What, like, what am I doing? And I get on the gate. And I'm like, I finally noticed that I was just like scared. I was like going to the gate scared for some reason because it wasn't like, it wasn't, I don't know, my bike was working fine. I was in shape enough, you know. And I actually started listening to these like self-confidence videos on YouTube. Yeah. And I would, I'd ride to the track.

I was staying in California. would ride to the track about an hour and I would, that's all I would listen to. And finally, you know, I don't know what clicked, something clicked. And I was like, dude, I belong up front. I should not be back here. I need to get out front. And I think it was Birmingham that I got one, I got a whole shot. And I was like, all right, because I had been getting starts. I've been getting starts and starts and I would just fade back. So Birmingham, I was like, all right, if I can get a start, at some point it's going to stick.

And that was a triple crown at the time, so we do three races in one night. And got the start, and I was like, all right, it's just 12 minutes. Just hold out front, hold out front. And I did for a while, and I think my teammate got by me. And that race, I finished second. And it was just like, man, it was just such a monkey off the back. And like the night wasn't done. We had two more races left.

But it was just like, I can take a breath of air. Like, I was like, all right, I know how to do this. I didn't forget. Yeah. And then my confidence just started built and build. And I got, I think I got third that night. So I podium that night. And that was my first podium of the season.

And then I went to the next weekend. And I think maybe that was Daytona. And I got another start. And the Cooper Webb and Kenny Roxton got past me, but I stayed in third right there, and I podium there again. And it's just like it's crazy what the mind can do in our sport. It's like if you don't believe that you're not,

if you don't believe you're a front runner, probably not going to be a front runner. But if you come in with confidence and you know you belong up there, it's a whole different dynamic. You can really, really be dangerous in our sport. When I was racing in NASCAR, I had tracks I hated.

And one of them was Darlington and Sears Point was another one. And I dreaded them coming up on the schedule. and I would go to those races and have a miserable weekend, have a miserable race. When the race was about to start, I'm just thinking, damn, this is going to be miserable. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm not going to like it. And I got toward the back end of my career or the back half of it, I was like, you know, I was like, I was thinking to myself, I was like, I'm just kind of attracting

this into, I'm like manifesting this result because of the attitude that I have all week leading into this race. I'm like, you know, if you go somewhere expecting to have a bad time, you're more than likely going to have a time, right, and no matter where you're at, what you're doing. And it ended up working out to where those two, I started going to those races and not putting so much pressure on myself to get the result and just trying to find something about the track. that I enjoyed or something about it that I felt was a challenge that would be fun. And by the end of my career,

I enjoyed both of those tracks a lot. Ended up going back when I would run a one-off over the last probably six or seven years, one of them was Darlington. Like if I'm going to run one waste a year, I picked that track. It ended up being one of my favorite tracks. That is awesome.

You know, it's just, I've always, I've always, that's one of the things I think that I felt like was my weakness in, in NASCAR and racing was that mindset. I was, I saw a, I saw a video and I've talked about this a lot where Chase Elliott, young guy going into his very first opportunity to win a championship in NASCAR and they interviewed him on championship weekend.

He's young. He's a kid and he's going to race, he's got a lot of pressure, legacy. His dad was a famous guy. Yep. So he's, of all people, he should be feeling quite a bit of pressure. and they said it's like Friday the race of Sunday

they're like man how bad is the pressure to come in here and try to win this championship with the Elliott name and the most popular driver and all that and he's like

this isn't it's not pressure this is opportunity like I'm dreamed of this opportunity I've put myself here yeah like I'm supposed to be doing this

and I'm excited because there it is yeah and I was like holy shit man it's it sounded like so easy for him to say but for somebody who's not used to having that kind of mindset,

it's so hard to get into that headspace. Yeah. You know, and have that kind of confidence. Instead of looking at it, like I always looked at everything, like pressure. Like, God,

everybody expects me to do this. I expect this, or I badly want this result. And my God, if I don't get it, what am I going to do? That's the way I lived. And it's not the right way.

It's not the right way to be productive, right? You kind of bury yourself before you even start. And but I've always, but you're right. Like if you can figure out a way to kind of like change the way your mind's working and the way you, the way you approach things and see things, it will truly make a difference. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. doubt, but I'm like, what if I go out there and I don't do what I'm supposed to do? And that triggers

something in my brain to where everything's like, oh shit, like don't do this here, don't do that here. Spiral. Yeah, it's just like a spiral and it happened this past weekend. I mean, kind of different, but I got the whole shot. And Cooper passed me. And, Cooper passed me. And And Cooper and my teammate were battling the championship. So Cooper had passed me. I looked to my right and I saw my teammate. And I was like, oh, wow. Like, don't mess this up for him.

Right. Do not mess this up for him. And I went outside of one of the corners, jumped close to the hay bales, and I had to double this section that you couldn't get back from. So I had to double all the way down. Cost you a ton of... Five positions, gone.

Just like that. Yeah. And yeah, it was just like... Yeah. If I just focused on myself and do what I needed to do right there. He was going to take care of himself. You'd have been fine. Yeah, he would have got by me, no problem.

Yeah. And I would have been fine. I probably got third. Yeah. But just that being in my head. Yeah. And riding around me and not for me, it was just like that ruined the whole thing. But I definitely relate to that mindset a lot.

It's tough. And I think that's the, a lot of people don't know when people look at what you do or what I did. It looks like it's obvious or what needs to be done is obvious. But they don't, when they're put it, when a, you know, human beings put in those situations, it's freaking pressure. Yeah. And you feel it. Yep. And only, you know, and I believe that, um,

I didn't understand that. The first half of my career, you know, we all wish we could go back and do things differently. But the first half of my career, I did not understand the mental preparation or the mental framework that you needed or the foundation that you needed. I just race, show up race. Good week, bad week. Damn it. Ah, that's awesome. Having fun.

Not having fun. Up and down, up and down. And then the back half of my career, you're 10 years in or whatever, right? And you want to keep doing it, you know how much work's going to be involved. It's going to be a grind. And that's when the mental part has to really work. Yeah. Because the youth is gone.

The passion is still there, but the youth and the energy and the excitement you had as a young rookie is gone. You know, and it's about you're a veteran. Everybody knows your playbook. you know and you kind of got to go out your mental the mental toughness really is what you rely on on the back half of your career yeah and damn it's tough to get in that right head space yeah and it's like like our our career like longevity yeah it's pretty short quick it's I mean on average it's probably 10 I mean you made it 10 years you're you're doing pretty good yeah and and and it's cool nowadays it's like

Like, everybody, like Ricky Carmichael, he retired when he was like 27. Yeah. And I think James retired when Stuart was, he was young when he retired. And it's cool now because a lot of us, like I'm 29 now, a lot of us are in our 30s and like mid-30s. And you never used to see that, right? And it shows that something's changing in our sport, you know, for the better. and like maybe, I don't know what it is, but it shows that a lot more people are starting to understand

that mental game now, I think, because when you're, you know, 33, your youth is pretty much, it's gone. And you can't rely on yourself to get hurt and bounce back like you're a rubber band anymore. Yeah. We used to say these kids that were really fast and they come onto the scene and they're flying

and everybody's bragging on them. The broadcasters, damn, dude, he's got raw speed. And you're this 35-year-old guy, and you're like, he just hasn't hit anything really hard yet. Because that'll slow him way down. Hey, T.J., 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.

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Chevrolet, together, let's start. drive. I want to kind of get back to your career a little bit. So what's the difference between ride and the 250 and the big bike? So 250 and 450, I mean, it's obviously a faster bike. Physically is the bike larger? No, they're about the same. Really? It used to be, they were a little bit different, but now they, yeah, it's like, I think it's the same frame. So when you jump on the 450 for the first time, what's the absolutely first thing you noticed? Torque.

Heavy. Heavy. Heavy. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Because it's a lot more heavy, I think. And then, dude, it moves in a totally different way, especially on a super cross track.

It's lower. Yeah, there is so much speed. Yeah. And I don't know, it's like. It's harder to get it to. Yeah, it's harder to get it to turn. It's harder to get it to, you know, stay on top of the whoops. And then, like I said, it's got, I don't know how much horsepower it's got, but it's got a lot.

And it's just hard to control. So you've really got to figure out how to control a 450. And then, like, along with the bike, the competition, right? Like, I won two championships in 250 class. And then I go up to the 450 class, and it's like, all right, you did good. but every one of these guys now has done what you done. They know what you know. So now go race these guys and see where you fare.

And then like my first two years on 450 was horrible. I shattered my heel in the first season at Daytona. How'd that happen? I came over. I was actually really, really sick going into that race. I had the flu, like, super bad, and they were, like, pretty close to not let me race, but I just wanted to. And I was doing all right, like, nothing crazy. I wasn't, like, a breakout rookie or anything, but I was doing pretty good, got a decent start. And then it was like all of us rookies. There was, like, four of us, three of us, four of us. We were all together. Yeah. And I was like, all right, I'm going to beat these guys.

And I came over, there was this long, long rhythm section. You came over this big single, and you carried a lot of speed, and it was a, it was a, it was a triple. And it was like a ski jump face kind of, like more of a flat face. So I had jumped, I jumped and I cased it. I landed on top of one of the jumps and that like flipped me forward, my weight forward. And I went off of this tabletop on the bars. Like my stomach was on the bars. I was on the bike pretty much like that, like Superman action.

And I ended up ditching the bike in the air and I came down on the backside. to one of the jumps on my feet like that. And it's a wonder I didn't break my legs or something like that, but all that gave way was my heel. And I shattered that in six pieces. I got a plate and four screws in that. And it took me actually from, I was actually looking at it out here. It took me from March till June or the start of July to be back.

Yeah. And it was a rough process. It was like my incision where I got surgery, didn't heal, they had to, they had to use this cotton with this bleach stuff on it to heal the incision from the inside out. And yeah, my team manager at the time called me and he was like, what the hell's going on down there? Where are you at? and I was like, dude, I got a, I got a freaking four-inch hole in my foot.

Like, what do you mean? And he was like, let me see it. I sent him a picture. He was like, holy shit. I didn't know stuff was that serious. And I was like, yeah, like, if I'd have waited one more week to come to this skin doctor, I was like, they'd have to take the thing out and redo the whole surgery again. So it was definitely wild, my first two years.

and the second year well that was 2019 my second year was 2020 so yeah we all know how that went and everything got canceled and then we uh we did we ended up doing

uh seven races within three weeks and uh we would race on I think it was Saturday and Tuesday or Wednesday and we did all that in Utah where I just came from but then that team got sold to what is star racing now. And I was pretty much back on the same team I was on 250s.

And it was like right out of the gate, I was better. And it was like, I mean, the bike I was on it was still a Yamaha, but it was a factory Yamaha. It was different. And it was, man, it was so much weight. And I don't really know what they, they did or what parts they had on the bike to make it act the way it did, but it didn't work too great. So when Star got a whole of the thing, they pretty much gave me a stock bike and said,

here, just go ride this for a couple weeks and right out of the gate. Like, it was so much better. And yeah, and it was wild. And I actually, the, when I broke my wrist with the, I did that right before they sold the team. So they were going into outdoors in 2020. I was like one week away from the season starting and shattered my wrist. And then yeah, they ended up, you know, selling that team to star racing.

And then I had the best 450 season of my career, pretty much my best season overall other than winning the championship. being chips in the 250 class but that's when I got my first first podium at Daytona yeah and that was cool yeah it was it was fun and and that whole season was really really fun it was just like I was kind of inconsistent and I do good here and then for the next two races I'd be back in the back or out of the top 10 and then to end that season I uh I uh We were upstate New York. It's called Unidilla, and it's a motocross track up there. And I was battling for a Moto win and jumped off this, at Unidilla, the finish line, they call it the gravity cavity.

And you turn left, you jump off into this real deep goalie, and you come back out and you land and you land. it's just flat. So I came back out and I was jumping pretty far off of the finish line jump and just to flat. And I hit a hole one lap and I bottomed the forks out and it kind of shot my body back a little bit and I went whiskey throttle. What does that mean? Whiskey throttles when you get throttle lock and you can't let go.

and the bike came right out from under me. I smacked the ground on my back, and then it literally destroyed my bike. Like, I mean, the pipe was off. The subframe, which is what connects the back of the bike, pretty much like the back fender of the bike to the bike. That was torn off. It was like, it looked like a bike that came out of a,

like a junkyard. Yeah. And ended up, like, spitting blood for, like, 45 minutes. And they thought I was, they thought something was seriously wrong internally. And they ended up flighting me to Albany from Unidilla, which was like a 45-minute helicopter ride. And I'm deathly afraid of heights. So that was fun. Yeah.

It was definitely an experience for sure. Yeah, so that kind of ended my season. I got checked out. Everything was all right. It was just some bruising on my lungs while I was spitting blood. But yeah, that kind of ended my season. I tried to race the next race, but it was my, I got 15 minutes in and I couldn't breathe. Yeah.

It was just like everything blew up. It was just like, I was breathing like, it was just not good. So yeah, and then after that, I signed with the team I'm on now. It's Red Bull KTM. Yeah. It's been a ride for sure. Yeah. It's been wild.

So what's the difference like when you switch bikes? What's the, you know, bikes are all the same? Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of weird because I mean, I didn't ride for, I think, a month before I got. I went to get on the KTM. So it wasn't like too, too weird. Yeah, it wasn't too, too weird because I was kind of not used to the Yamaha at the time. And yeah, so once I got on the KTM, it was, it actually came pretty natural.

Like it was, I mean, in a sense, they're all two wheels and they've got handlebars, foot pegs and stuff like that. So it's not like, it's not like crazy, crazy difference. The Yamaha, I think, had an aluminum frame to where the KTM has a steel frame. And the steel frame flexes a lot more under you. And you can kind of feel it a little bit in some instances, but like I couldn't really tell a difference at first. And like all that stuff came when I was actually pushing the bike.

And like outdoors, you can kind of tell a little bit more because it's a lot more rough, rugged. But it wasn't too bad. It was just like the height from the foot pegs to the seat was a little bit different. How? I think the Yamaha, I think it was shorter. You can't adjust that? You can if you want to, like, like if you want to carve the seat out a little bit.

Oh, okay. But, yeah, it's, I think. I think a KTM set up more for a taller person than a Yamaha. Yeah. But yeah, it's just tiny, little tiny stuff. How big is the, how big are the, is the competition, I suppose, between manufacturers? Does one, you know, the engineer out sort of out engineer the other? Kind of like.

Go back and forth, heaven flow, or is it more even these days? Yeah, it's, it's a little bit more even. Like, it almost works like backwards. almost kind of because we'll get a new bike like they'll they'll manufacture a whole whole new frame like it happened in uh 20 22 like my first year with ktm they've manufactured a new bike and different frame different like a pretty big changes and going into the season we had really no data to go off of yeah and like all our testing was pre-season and We didn't have anything to go off of for all the tracks, right?

So we were struggling hard. And we didn't really know what to do to the suspension to get it to do right. And that year was pretty tough. And I ended up that's where this scar came from, hit neutral. It was like every year you had a major injury. Yeah, yeah. It's been a tough ride. This is actually the first supercross season this year.

that I've finished since this 2021. Yeah. It's been tough. But now that year was tough because we didn't really know how to work with the bike yet. And it's like over that off season, they did. They busted their ass and tried to get everything right. Like after the 2022 ended, they were testing, they were doing this. They were doing that.

They were busting it. And the next year, the bike was a lot better. Yeah. A lot better. And, I mean, it wasn't, like, domination factor, but it was up there. I mean, I think our team won a few races. And I got a couple podiums that year, too. And then 24 was even better.

I had a new teammate at that time. And he ended up winning the outdoor championship. And all the while, like, the guys in the team are doing work and just going back and not stopping working. Just trying to get our bike to be the best bike. And so it's like, we'll get a new bike. We'll struggle for a couple years. And then it'll be on top after, you know. And that happens.

like that happens with every team. Yeah. And they get a new bike. They don't know what to do with it. They figured out, and then they're back on top. And somebody else, then the next manufacturer builds a bike. It's kind of flips. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know how much you follow other forms of motorsport. But when I look at teammates, for example, I want to ask you about teammates. So when I look at teammates, the way teammates act in NASCAR is different than the way teammates seem to act in F1. And like there's a lot of competition between. teammates in F1? No, yeah. There's some sort of, you know,

little animosity and tension. Doesn't seem like there's a ton of transparency in certain forms of motorsport. What's it like in your world? What are your teammates? Are you, I know that it's probably a loaded question because you actively want to be great friends

with your teammates and keep relationships good, but can that relationship be very beneficial to both parties? Is there a lot of transparency between, what they're doing to their bike and what you you know hey i learned this or i did this or we changed this yeah i mean you can but i uh man i'm i set my bike up so different than than anybody that it's like these guys they they like their bike to be a little bit front heavy for the turns and and stuff and when i get my bike front heavy i just shut down i don't know why i i have to have like the front wheel feel like the forks have to be pretty stiff for me and the in the back i like

my bike like i always say chopper out like just kind of like that and uh so in in that sense like some people can help each other yep but um but in in our sport i feel like it's it's more like F1. Yeah. You guys are more independent. Yeah, yeah. It's like you're doing it for yourself. Do you have teammates for long periods of times?

Is there a lot of turnover? Are you able to establish, like, you know, dependable relationships? Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, pretty much, like, the people you, you already know the people. Like, in our sport, it's such a tight-knit, like, family sport that my teammate now, I've known him since he was like eight years old. And just like my other teammates, like I've known them. Like we grew up racing together and we would see each other at the amateur races and stuff like that.

So yeah, like I'm friends with pretty much everybody on the track. They call me the nice guy. Yeah. But there was, you ever heard of Ryan Dungey? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So he actually came back, came out of retirement for, I think, the outdoor season of 2022. Yeah.

And that was, I was kind of starstruck at that point. Like, I knew him, right? But I'd never raced with him. Sure. He's a big deal. Yeah, and he just like that. And then this other guy, he's, he's, at the time. Italian, his name's Antonio Corolli, and he was like a so many-time champion. I don't want to say a number

and I don't want to mess it up, but he won so many championships. And he came over, and that was essentially to, like, help with the bike set up in 22. But that I was, I was kind of starstruck at that point. Like, like, I've been watching these guys since I was, you know, since I could watch Supercross and motocross. And, you know, I was. And, you know, I was. And, you know, I was. And, I was just like, these guys are going to be my teammates. And I was just like, wow. Yeah. Like that is something, something else.

But now I'm usually, I make good friends with my teammates. No matter who they are, what they are, I like to think they like to be teammates with me. Because I'm always just kind of very, very lighthearted. I never like take anything too serious. on race day. Obviously when we get behind the gate, it's a little bit different, but I'm always joking around laughing, signing autographs for people, just like kind of hanging out with the fans. Yeah. And it's just like a, it's a good time to me because we train, we train all week to go there

and do our best, like show our skills. So at that point, like, I ride the best when I'm happy. And so I'm going to try to be happy all day long. Yeah. So, yeah. Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our Star Stripes and Bears Collection available now? We've got tanks, teas, beach towels, and more just in time for summer.

Check it all out at shop.dirtymodea.com. Let's talk about Daytona. This is how, this is kind of one of the reasons you're here today. I saw where you rode and finished on the podium. Yep. And you had a, you acknowledge my dad.

Yeah, yeah. And so that's a big deal for me because the, it's a bit of a surprise to me, I suppose, when someone that is a generation younger or even two generations younger in some cases even knows his, you know, what he did for NASCAR, his impact on a sport, or even acknowledges him in any way, right? So I'm always, I just always assume that over time, you know, people would kind of forget his impact or his, you know, it wouldn't be easy for someone who'd never seen him race to know why,

why was he so cool, right? I get that question today a lot of times. You'll see people say, man, I hear about, I'm a new fan to NASCAR, I hear about this guy all the time, what's the big deal? You know, tell me about why everybody, loved him. Not everybody, but you consider him to be the goat. Yeah. How long had you been a fan? Was your dad a fan? What was the connection there? So my dad, he would have NASCAR on like pretty much every Sunday. And when I was running around through the house, I'd pay attention to it. And I'd, you know, I'd see it every now and

then but but but what always stuck out to me like growing up was your Budweiser car oh and that like I I got a die cast car with me and it's Budweiser car and and it just reminds me of my childhood I don't know like just growing up and I always see that Budweiser car and and and yeah and then like later on I you know I found out like I was born in 96 so I I didn't really see your dad race. Yeah. But growing up, I would just, I would just see these videos of this number three car going around the track.

And, like, I just thought it was his want to win and his will to get by somebody to win. To win in that mentality, it's, like, it kind of gives me chills because I'm, I'm like the opposite. I'll do everything I can to be nice to somebody to get around them. And, and I say it's like, it's like opposites attract. Like I was, I'm so attracted to how your dad got to the front and how, like, how, how, how bad he wanted to win. Like, it was like he, you know, went, like, that's, that's, that's how my dad was. It was like, win or go out with a bang. Yeah. And, um, Yeah, it's just that mentality. Like his mentality really, really intrigues me.

And then, I don't know, I thought you guys, you guys, I could relate to you guys a lot more than anybody else and, like, any other sport, really? Because to me, you guys were like the normal guys who, like, yeah, like the normal guys. It's like everyday guys that I would see around my hometown that could just, you know, got win a NASCAR race. Just like you guys, to me, were a lot more relatable than the other guys. Yeah.

And I try to be that now in my sport. Like I try to be very, very relatable in a sense to where if, you know, a kid wanted to. to become a professional dirt bike rider. He could look at me and be like, well, he did it. He's just dude out of Hamilton, Ohio. Yeah. It just, you know, carved his own path up to Supercross and Motorcross. And he's, you know, very well liked.

And I just, I don't know. It's weird to think about it because I really don't try to, I really try not to have a big head, but I think it kind of gets in the way of like my confidence a little bit. But I just don't like bragging on myself at all. Yeah, I sure me neither. I understand that. I, so you're going to go to Daytona, so you get your, you know, you decide to do this tribute. How did that come about?

So I already had the, I already had the Dale shirt with me. I already had the number three shirt with me. And, and I told myself early on in the day, because I, and I'll back it up a little bit. In 21, when I got my first podium, I, I can't remember exactly what I said, but I was like, I just cut my hair into a mullet. I just shaved in this mustache, right? Yeah. And it was my first podium. So I went up there and I was like, yeah, I'm super excited to be up here.

I just wanted to come up and show my mullet off, show my mustache off. And yeah, it was a really, really good race. And everybody was like headed out of the stands at that time. And they were all pumped and whatever, but half of them had left. And I was like, at that, end of the interview, I was like, shoot, do it for Dale. And dude, it was like, it was like there was more people in the stadium than there were before. They got so loud when I said that. It was like, I don't know, it was, it was, it was crazy. And, and yeah, I don't know, it just, it just

showed me the respect that, that, that, those words had. And, and it was really cool. And, and, and it was really cool. And then, so this year, I had the Numbers 3 shirt with me, and I was like, I was like, all right, I don't care if I get in trouble. I don't care what anybody says. I'm wearing this up there if I get on the podium. And I ended up getting on the podium. And I said, first thing I said when I come off the track is, where's my Dail shirt? Where is it at? And they had to actually run back to my camper and get it. They came back. I put it on and yeah, it's just like I feel like at that speedway, I feel like a lot more people are going to resonate with that. Sure, yeah.

Like other than a football stadium or whatever, I know because everybody around it, every single race, at least four or five people come up to me, hey man, do it for Dale, do it for Dale. and but I just feel like the people down there are going to resonate with that a little bit more so yeah it was just it was just a kind of a special moment because when I put that on it it started getting loud again man and now nowadays like back in the day they didn't let people they didn't let the fans come on the track and get up close to the podium

so this time there's actually slow-mo videos of them letting the fences open and people just it's it's carnage getting up to the podium. But yeah, man, it's just like, it was just a cool experience because everybody, everybody there was just like super, super stoked for me and excited for me that I was on the podium again. And then I was just stoked to get to wear that shirt up there. You took that moment, your moment. Yeah, yeah. And it's just like, I don't know, that's. And share, you shared your moment, something that was really important to you. And I acknowledged him in that moment.

I'm so thankful you did that. Yeah, yeah, man. Because I, I'm thankful because it made me take notice of that. Some people shared that with me. Noah and some other friends were telling me about you. And it brought you here so that we could talk about what you do for a living and your story. And there's a lot more to it that I want to get to. but I was worried when Dad passed away

that there would be a come of time when people just didn't remember what he did because I would think back to I think back to other legends, right? In our own sport or you probably have some in your own sport, you know, these people that are around the day never saw them race and just don't appreciate them as much as they probably should, you know?

And I do that's probably a potential for Dad to fall into that sometimes. point down the line. And so when somebody like you does that, it's just a neat thing because, you know, it's just a real genuine gesture. I wanted to talk to you about being a dad before we turn you loose. Yeah, yeah, man. How do you?

I'm 29. 29. You got, you adopted Hadley? Hadley, yes. Yes, my oldest daughter. She's 15. 15, 15. Just turned 15.

He just started driving. And so. Watch out. Yeah. So, and you have a boy and another girl? Yeah, yeah. So my 6-year-old Jake, he's, yeah, he'll turn 7 in July, and then I got a 4-year-old Savannah. Yeah, I have a 7 and a 4.

Let's go. Two girls. That's awesome. What is it like, you know, when I think about, you know, motocross, super cross, I think about, you know, young kids that aren't ready to be parents that probably aren't even married yet, you know, You know, it's a young man's game. You talked about the short brief careers that you guys have. But here you are a dad competing, still competitive.

You're a parent all at the same time. How does that dynamic kind of fit into your world? Because it's very chaotic, you know, your world in that sport. How does that work for you? And how do you make sure you're devoting the time and being what you need to be. So I'm still trying to figure it out. Yeah, right?

Like, so I've had kids for a while now, but, you know, I, man, it's so much traveling, right? And they don't, they don't come to many of the Supercross races, but I like to bring them out for the outdoors because outdoors we bring our camper and it's like a better environment for that. Yeah, it's like a camping. Yep.

Yeah, trip. So I like to bring them out for that. But it's so hard because especially during outdoors, you've, I'm so tired. Like I'm so, so tired at the end of the day. And my boy, he likes to throw football, or he likes play football. So he wants to go out in the summertime. And it's like 3.30 in the afternoon, four in the afternoon. It's 105 degrees out.

He wants to go throw the football. for a little bit and and I gotta just remind myself that like I am tired but he's not going to want to throw the football with you forever forever yeah so it's instances like that to where I'm like you you got to get up dude just get up off the couch and go do it and it's it's hard because like I said it's it's just such a grueling sport and then We get home on Sundays after the races, and it's like, I just want to chill. But you got to dad up, you know, you got to do the dad thing. But no, I just, I just try to balance it a little bit, but it's hard.

Like I said, I'm still trying to figure it out, but I'm sure it'll come to me sometimes. What was the motivation behind adoption, especially someone that's half your age? I mean, or... Yes, so... Had that work out? My... When I got with my wife, I'd known Hadley since she was one years old. How?

Right. So I was... My sister was friends with my wife before we even started dating. And I met her through my sister. She had already had already. Hadley and and I just kept friends with her for a long time and I didn't know I mean I thought she was beautiful right but I didn't know I was like attracted to her like that yeah and yeah fast forward three or four years I she was single at the we were both

single at the time and I was at her house made a move on her didn't know if it was going to work or not. And she's, she's, she's like four to half years older than me. I got you. And, uh, made a move on her. Didn't know if it was going to work or not. Turned out to work. And, um, and yeah, yeah, we were, we were secretly dating for. Why secretly? Because she's your sister's friend. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't know if anybody would care or not. And we were just kind of nervous a little bit. So, uh, yeah, she actually, she actually came up to my house to visit my sister. we went um well i was going snowboarding she was going skiing and uh we would just like kind of passed by each other in the in the ski slopes or whatever and kind of wave whatever but nobody just

nobody knew we were dating so it was just like a secret but um but yeah and then um yeah so we stayed together from then i think that was like 2014 somewhere around there and And we pretty much stayed together. And she came out and visited me one day or one week in California. And get a phone call a couple weeks later. And she's got a pregnancy test positive. And I was like, okay, let me process this real quick. and at the time

it was like the worst time for her to call me right because I had this blister on the bottom of my foot and I was putting you ever put new skin on a blister? Yeah. You know how bad that hurts? So when she called me, I was doing that. And when she said, I'm pregnant is the first time I touched the new skin to the blister. Yeah.

so I'm like, I'm freaking. I'm like, ah! She didn't know what the hell was going on. Yeah, she just started crying. And I was like, oh, no, like, no, that's awesome, but, ah. Like, like, shit. But, but yeah, so I didn't know what to think. I was 22 years old at the time, and I was just like, what, like, what am I going to do?

Yeah. And I called my best buddy. And he was like, what was the first thing that came to your mind when she told you? And I was like, well, I'm going to be a dad. And he was like, all right, you're going to be a dad. Congratulations, dude. Yeah. And after that, it was just like kind of easy.

I just thought, like, I don't know. I was just freaking out for no reason. and I didn't think I was ready to be a dad. Probably wasn't at the time, but it was just like, I don't know, I had to man up. You don't get a choice. Yeah, yeah, I had to man up and just do it. Which is kind of the way it probably happens for everybody.

We just don't, you know, the guys don't really talk about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I just had to man up and, man, man, it's been the best experience ever. because, you know, I had to learn how to be a dad and race at the same time. And that was kind of a loaded year. Yeah. It was 2018. And she had called me, like, I think it was the November or December before New Year's.

And my dad wasn't too sure about it at first. just like Annie Dad but I I swear that made me focus more on what I needed to do

Yeah I could probably see Like I didn't have children When I was in the middle of my career It was actually after my career was over with And I always kind of wondered I always said You know man maybe I wouldn't have been able to be a great dad because of how much your career

demands Yeah. But it might have made me actually a better race car driver because when you don't have kids, you're not married. You feel all of the time when you're not racing with fucking off. Yeah. Doing shit that probably isn't important. Not really helping you become better.

Don't need to do that. Yeah. And you wouldn't have time for any of that. Yeah. And that's how it was. Like I, she, after I found out, I moved her out to California with me. and then I ended up winning, that was the year I won both of my championships

in 250 o'clock. Because it was almost like, look, you don't, you don't, it's not a want anymore. It's, I have to. I need to do this. Yeah. I got to do this.

It's like, I got a family to support now, so I have to be here. Yeah. So I won my Supercross championship. and we were in Vegas and I go up on the podium to get my trophy or whatever and I'm one of my best buddies

run me a ring a ring and I ended up proposing to her on the podium the night that I won where was she? She was she came up right there with you yeah she was she was right there with me

and it's funny if you listen to her tell the story because I was like Like, my mom was on one side of the podium, and then she was on one side, and she had, like, walked over to grab my helmet, and I had it in my hand, and I was like, no, go back over there real quick. And she thought I was mad at her. Oh. So she, like, kind of ran away, and my mom stopped her, and she was like, turn around. Your mom knew the plan. Yeah, and I had the ring in my hand already, and I got down on one knee, and I asked her right there.

It was pretty wild. So that year in a hole was pretty, like, that was the best year in my life. Yeah. Honestly. Man, that's a hell of a story. I got to say, dude, you're doing a really good job being relatable. I appreciate it. You are.

Thank you. It's been fun sitting down here and talking to you. And you're, you know, I've been friends with guys over the years, over the course of the last several decades that have been in your sport and I've always kind of admired, kind of look at you guys like bull riders,

working with Bud. I got to work with different people in both professions, and y'all are pretty wild. You talk about having to be fearless and the confidence, and it's a unique elite level of fearlessness that it takes to do what you do. and to continue to put yourself in danger and know that injuries are just part of it,

not if, it's when. Yeah, it's win. Really. But I'm thankful to be able to sit down with you today and learn more about it, learn more about your story and what it is you do. I'm also thankful that you, as we spoke about, took the time to take a moment that was your moment in Daytona and include my dad and acknowledge him. That was very special for me.

Yeah, I appreciate me. All of his fans. Everybody that sent that to me on social media, just fans and followers of yours and hours. I want to reassure you, though, that your dad's legacy, I think, is not going anywhere. It's surprised me. It's not going anywhere.

Honestly, because of things like what you did. Yeah. Those things are like, I'm like, oh, okay. you know because even when I'll say I mean when he passed away man I had no I thought he was a big deal I learned in that week after he died of all the things that I saw on TV and all the people that talked about him that I thought didn't even know who he was and so I mean it's been surprising over the over the years and there's moments like this that continue to to sort of bring great reminders of of you know his impact and and and what he means

and continues to mean. Yeah, man. But I appreciate that, man. I'm glad to do it. You got a new fan here in all of us. You do. You know, I kind of go in and out following the sport, depending on, you know, what's going on. And at times, man, there's some very, very compelling storylines and so forth.

And so I've, and, you know, I've worked with, Gregory, Jeremy came and drove our late him on a car for a couple, like a year, many, many years ago. That's pretty, that's pretty awesome. He came here and raced our car a little bit, took him to try and out in, ran with him a little bit up the road, and me and Car Michaels kind of crossed past several times. So I've kind of been in and out of the deal, man, but now, you know, now I got somebody to really, to be rooting for every single race, man. Thank you.

I'm going to be home for the best, Aaron. Thanks for giving us some time. I know you came out of your way to do this. You're a great dude. You're a great example and reflection on the sport and your partners and sponsors, KTM, Red Bull. They got a good guy. I appreciate it, man.

Coming from you, that means a lot. Like I said, it's, I mean, you're one of the racers that I've looked up to for a long time and to sit here and talk with you. It's very surreal. I told Noah this morning that I was nervous as I'll get out to come and talk to you, but he was like, man, he's so easy to talk to. He's such a good guy.

And yeah, it's just he told me that I was going to have fun. And man, it's been an awesome experience. Thank you for having me on. And I really, really appreciate it. It's been great for us, man. Talking to you, I think we got a lot of commonalities, man, in the way we look at things and the way we approach our jobs and maybe even our relationships with our dads,

a lot of similarities there. So pretty cool. Yeah, best of luck, man. Safe travels. I appreciate it. Thank you. Like I said, thanks for having me on. And hopefully we can do this again sometimes.

Absolutely. Aaron Plessinger on the Dell Jr. Download. The Cowboy. Hew. All right, so that was a pretty interesting conversation. Awesome to have somebody that's not in the NASCAR world on the show from time to time. And when I saw that Aaron

was, you know, Aaron was doing anything around recognizing my father, especially like in this cool moment when he's in the middle of something that's, you know, that's a big deal for him, personally. Pretty neat. So I've talked about that on here from time to time where, you know, I wonder how dad will be remembered as we get many, many years down the road and all the people that, you know, some of the people today that are 20 years old, 30 years old, hadn't never even seen him race.

It's always surprising to me how his impact is still kind of resigning with some people. Just also fun to hear Aaron talk about his world and how he got involved in it and how he works himself through the ranks and dealing with injury almost. like it's just part of the game and part of the process. It's pretty fascinating. I had a ring ceremony that was involving all of the Junior Motorsports employees that was happening right at the back end of this interview. So we had to be kind of concise.

I would have loved to have spent more time with Aaron and really dive into some of the notes here about his career and some of the specifics to certain moments. But honestly, just a great opportunity to get to know him, introduce him to some of the people that follow our show. And, yeah, I think I want to be a fan of other forms of motorsport or other sports. I just need somebody to cheer for, right?

It's what we all kind of get drugged into these things by either a chance interaction or meeting. with a certain athlete or performer. And that's all it takes. And then you're like, hey, man, you know, you're checking in and seeing how they're doing, catching races or whatever it may be when you can. And so, you know, Aaron will be somebody who I pay attention to

and follow over the next, you know, several years or however much longer he will continue to compete. So it sounds like he's in the, you know, the back half of that career and be fun to see knowing the challenges he's facing with the younger drivers, younger riders coming up. So pretty awesome. Thank you, Aaron, for giving us the time. Thank you all for tuning in and enjoying this segment in this episode.

And it's time for the white flag. All right, it's time for the white flag. The tear down was live after the race on Twitter and YouTube, reacting to Larson's win. And on Monday, actions detrimental. Denny Hamlin had Kyle Bush in studio. And you don't want to miss that one. door bumper clear also had Austin Dillon, Kyle's RCR teammate. And then Herman Schrader Speed Street, all that stuff is coming out today.

Just a lot of great insight from Herman Schrader. But Speed Street is really critical around this time of year because of the N.500. Daley gives some great insight on what he's experiencing there and what's going on around the sport. That race is closing up quickly. And then Thursday, tomorrow, another episode of Bless Your Heart with my wife, Amy. And the Dale Jr. Foundation's when Dale Jr.'s ride raffle is underway. This was kind of special because we're going to give away a 2025 Chevy Tahoe. But what the best part is, it's loaded full of stuff.

Me and Amy's put in there. I mean, literally, I've taken hats out of my closet. I get these hats made from time to time, maybe a patch or something that I get made special, and I'll have a couple dozen these hats made. Well, I pulled these out of that inventory. to put into the back of this Tahoe. There's a beach shade that me and Amy use out at our beach house in South Carolina. If you love going out on the beach, you'll want this shade.

Amy has this slushy machine that I got her last year that she loves. And JBL speaker that I go everywhere with and all kinds of stuff in the back of this Tahoe. And we're adding more and more things. Some of this stuff is actually our stuff. It's kind of like a solo stove, but it cooks. and I've had that thing in my garage in a box and I just haven't gotten it out to use it. I said, hell, I'll throw it in the back of this Tahoe

so I can win it. So there's literal things that have come out of our house that are in the back of this Tahoe that you can buy a $25 raffle ticket to try to win. And hey, you're supporting the Dale Jr. Foundation and all the great things we do. And this raffle's been quite popular because of the,

I know the Chevy Tahoe is cool, but I think it's the stuff in the back of it. go to the Dale Jr.foundation.org. Just go to the Dell Jr.fondation.org. Look at the video. There's a video of me and Amy telling you everything that we put in the back of this thing. And tell me if you don't want to buy a raffle ticket

after you see all that. Great information on that website. Purchase your ticket. We'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.