The Dale Jr. Download - Jordan Anderson Stopped Driving So His Team Could Survive

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

Jordan Anderson's path to becoming a NASCAR team owner was anything but conventional. From pitching sponsors as a 12-year-old to selling his Super Late Model after being caught in the fallout of a series of bounced checks, Jordan shares the moments that kickstarted a racing career that began with one simple goal: making a single NASCAR Truck Series start. That one start turned into a full-time season, which ultimately led to the birth of Jordan Anderson Racing. From handshake deals to changing engines in hotel parking lots, Jordan was willing to do whatever it took to survive. Along the way, he met his future business partner, John Bommarito, whose mentorship helped take the organization to the next level. Jordan explains why he eventually stepped away from chasing his own driving dream, how he built an O'Reilly Series team from the ground up, and the business decisions that have helped the organization survive and grow into its current technical alliance with series powerhouse Richard Childress Racing. Jordan also reflects on buying scuff tires instead of attending driver introductions, balancing budgets while trying to stay competitive, developing young talent, and why fatherhood has changed the way he leads his team. This episode of Business of Motorsports is packed with lessons on perseverance, leadership, and building something bigger than yourself. 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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Welcome to the business of motorsports. It is yours truly, Kelly Earnhardt Miller. You know, one thing that I really hope that this series does is open up people's horizons. I got in a lot of trouble and I got challenged luck. I don't know why you're coming here. You don't trust us. I said, no, it's not I don't trust you.

I'm running a business. A lot of people kind of feel like, well, we're. We're never getting back to where we were. Why did we ever get to where we were? There's so much more involved in decision. I mean, I want to rip somebody's head off every day. I'd say yes to me. Oh, you say yes on the phone.

Well, he made me say. This episode of Business of Motorsports is brought to you by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. All right, welcome to this week's episode of Business of Motorsports. This week I've got Jordan Anderson here of Jordan Anderson Racing, driver and owner of that organization. Jordan, excited to have you here, just kind of reading up on some of your history.

You and I don't know each other very well. But you were a kid with a dream to race cars, played a lot of video games, but also at the same time had that itch to be an owner, I think. and you were doing a lot of things with an eye on that prize. So I want to talk about that. You grew up in South Carolina, like I said, playing a lot of NASCAR games. So how much of that kind of steered your interest in racing and kind of where did that come from? Yeah, no, it's quite a journey from day one. You know, I was probably four or five years old and told my parents want to be a race car driver.

And in our family, that was probably like saying, hey, I want to be a spaceman, a cowboy. And they're like, yeah, follow your dreams, you know, do whatever you want to do. In the background there, they've got some laughing faces going on. I mean, so my dad was big in flipping house, his rental properties, and my mom owned a hair salon was hairdressers. So they both work for themselves. They kind of, if you're an entrepreneur, you kind of are built a little bit differently. So I grew up around that in the crazy hours, and they were supportive of me. And, you know, didn't really have anybody in my family that was in racing.

So, you know, getting on video games, NASCAR racing two and three on the PC, that was kind of my introduction to this. and the old NASCAR races on classics, ESPN classics, and all that kind of stuff. So did they rock races? No. No, I mean, you know, my grand... So you just kind of found this interest. Yeah, I kind of came out of nowhere. My grandfather worked for GMAC for a long, long time.

So we would get tickets to go to Darlington and Charlotte and go to some hospitality stuff and watch some races. And so had some opportunities a kid to do that, but never thought the opportunity to be in. It would be there. But, you know, got racing go-carts when I was probably seven or eight. And that was the craziest story. there was an old dirt track I-20 in South Carolina, and there was a go-cart track beside it. We had gone there to watch a go-kart race and sat with a family in the grandstands, and they had a son that raced that was a national champion in WK the year before it broken his wrist.

And he said, hey, I'm going to go out to this track in Palmetto, South Carolina. And when I get my cast off and go test, if you want to come with me. And I'm like, oh, yeah, of course, let's go do it. And we went there, and I think I ran 10 laps. I was like, Dad, this is it. This is what you want to do. And the rest is kind of history from there. Wow. And so now you've talked about your parents in that entrepreneurial spirit. So there, I can, I know where that comes from now. But really at that time, did you, did you want to focus on driving? Did you think about ownership and how to wear that? Like what was, where was your mindset as a kid thinking about what you wanted to do?

Yeah, it was, it was for sure. Because your parents are owning businesses so you can kind of see that. It was, it was there. And I think early on, it was 100% to be a race car driver. This is what I want to be. You know, I want to make it an ass car. I want to get. there. And that was that was 100% the dream. And I think it was somewhere around maybe when I was 12 or 13, my dad came to me and he said, hey, you know, when we go to the racetrack, all these other kids have logos on their cars and sponsors. And, you know, we can certainly take you to a certain level. But if you want to go more, you got to figure out of do it. And this is my partner on the team, John Bomberito. I had this conversation with him another day. I've been around car dealers. I feel like my whole life because we had an introduction from a family friend who got me to go meet with the car dealer Dick Dyer out of Columbia. He had a Volvo Mercedes store and a Toyota store,

and they got me set up to go meet with them. And I'm 12 years old. So I've got my three ring binder. I've got newspaper clippings, you know, slid in the clear sliders, and I've got pictures of my car. And I go in there. And I think we had just gotten a bandelero at the time. So I had it all solid white with a number on the side. And I'm pretty sure I went in there and I gave the best pitch a 12 year old could give at the time. And I'm sitting here meeting Dick was probably 75 or 76. the time. It was a little intimidating, but gave me a pitch. I would say. I said, hey, you know, here's what I can do for your business. And back then, you know, we ran the summer shoot out at Charlotte. You know, it's going to be on TV. I'll do appearances

at your store, autograph cards, all this stuff here. And I remember I left his, his office overlooked the showroom. So I walked downstairs, down the staircase. And I almost get to the door because my mom and dad were waiting out front for me. He had to drop me off. And they didn't even go in with you. No, by myself. And Dick leans out. He had this like sliding glass over the showroom and yells me to come back up and I'm like, uh, did I do something wrong? Am I in trouble here? And so he goes back up there. And I think at the time, I'd ask him for $2,500 to be on my hood. And Dick sits me down and goes, hey, I'm going to do the sponsorship. I'm in, but I'm going to give you $10,000. I'm going to teach you a lesson. And I'm sitting there like, okay, where'd this come from?

Oh, sir, what is this lesson? You just gave me four times what I asked for. And he literally said, you're selling yourself too short. He said, you're capable of more. You're devalue. You're devalue. and what you're worth, you're devaluing, you know, what your racing program's worth. Oh my goodness. I'm going to give you this. I want to be all over the car. I'm going to be on the hood, the sides. I only told him the hood.

He said, I want to be on the sides too. And he said, I want you to always shoot for more. Don't ever settle for less. And for a 12-year-old kid, that was pretty impactful. And Dick ended up being a, I mean, he basically, I called him Uncle Dick after a couple years. He was such a close family friend and he taught me a lot. And that was kind of like the first taste of it.

It was like, you know, hey, this, if I want to keep racing, I've got to figure out to fund it and do a lot of sponsorship stuff. And that was just the beginning of it. You know, we did Bandolero racing and Legend car racing. And I think fast forward five or six years later when I was running Legend cars, we had a sponsor deal fall through for, I think it was 2007, the summer shootout. And Dick had the idea. I said, hey, throw your Legends car on an open trailer and let's go around Columbia.

And for $100, somebody could sign my Legend car. And that deal ended up turning into, I think we raised right at $20,000 that year. because we would meet people that would start out at 100. And they said, well, hey, I want a bigger logo. I want this or I want that. And so that's how we funded the summer shootout. And we'd go run Lanier and Hickory and all the place around with ledging cars back then. So a lot of unique deals that kind of through the years led to this journey of understanding the sponsorship and business.

And, hey, if I want to go race, I got to figure out how to fund it and keep this thing going. And you did that when you started, what did it look like in 2017 when you, when you kind of were coming on to the NASCAR scene. What were you doing until that point and kind of talk about that year and what that was like? Because you took what you were just describing and learned and used that to your advantage that year. Yeah, no, it's through the years that led us up to that,

was pretty crazy. You know, I did, ran dirt late models throughout the Carolinas, got a super late model ran that for a couple years, and met a guy in 2014 that wanted to go East Racing back then. And we had run Greenville Pickens earlier in the year. And we went to Richmond and ran a race. And we were on the race. I got caught up in a wreck, tore the car up.

Not a very good day. Well, I got a call a week later from the crew chief and from Penskeyshocks and from NASCAR and all these other people that the checks had bounced. You know, check bounced. Are you going to square up with us? You're going to pay it. And I think at the time it came up to probably, and this is like if where's the turning point?

And there's two of them. There's this one. and then there's the one when we started the O'Reilly team in 21 that I looked back in my career on pivotal moments. Not knowing that they were really those moments at the time. Oh, 100%. Which happens every day. Door slammed. There's another door here.

And it was about $40,000 of bad check, stuff that had gotten written. And I just had hung a brand new body on my super late model. I had a hamkey car motor in it, everything like that. And I called my dad. I said, hey, I need some advice. Here's a story. Got caught up with the wrong crowd. This whole deal here.

I'm in a tough spot and he said, you need to do the right thing and you need to make everybody whole, even if it cost you, your driving career. And so I sold my super late model. I listed it for sale. I found a guy out of the West Coast that bought it. And I think from the cell, I sold everything I had. Kept my trailer, but I sold everything for like 55, $56,000. So I had a little money left over, paid everybody off. And I figured, all right, you know, my driving career is done.

How hard was that? It was pretty sad. Because you say it like, okay, I talked to my dad. I hung up the phone and I did this. Did it really go that way? No, it was several weeks of like, you know, I had it listed online and people wanted to buy it. I'm like, do I want to call them back and make the deal? Like, it was tough.

And when I finally sold it, I had enough money left over. So you know what? I'm going to go run at least one truck race. I'm going to make that my goal just to run at least a NASCAR race so I could say I did it at this time. And this was 2014. And I found a couple team owners I talked to and found a team owner back. in 2014 for Phoenix, the 50 truck. And they said, hey, if you'll come out here and cover the tire bill, you can run the truck and did it and had enough money left over to do that. And the race went

pretty good. I think we finished 22nd or 23rd. And this was back when it was Phoenix and then Homestead. And the race went really good. And they said, hey, if you can do the same thing, come run Homestead next week. And went and did Homestead and ran pretty good. It stayed out of trouble there. And then over the offseason, that was kind of got going with, I got to meet my Carmen and the 74 truck. met him over the offseason. He said, hey, if you want to run this program, this is where I got interested in as Mike was running his O'Reilly program at the time, and the truck was just over in the corner. And he said, if you'll take it over, you can work out of my shop. I've got some older engines here, and we'll do that. And so 2015, we ran the full season with one truck. And I kid you

not, like, we took it to Daytona. It went to Atlanta. It went to Martinsville. It went to Mossport. Like, same truck everywhere. We ran old SB2 engines. And that was kind of the jump that got things going. But if it hadn't been for that deal that happened at Richmond, I might still be racing late models at this day. Like that was the thing that kind of like pushed me out of my comfort zone, scored the dead up, went and ran those two truck races. And it kind of parlayed that into the deal in 15. And yeah, I look back on that moment. I'm like, man, I figured that was in the world. I was going to go get a job at a bank or somewhere because I'd go into college. I went to Belmont Eddy College. I got a business management degree in their motorsports program somewhere. I got a college

degree. I can go get a normal job. It's probably less stressful and go do something, you know, routine, a nine to five somewhere and, you know, get after it. And I look at something that was so bad in the moment and it was a blessing of skies because it opened a door up to something and a whole new opportunity for me. I know. I want to stop on that for a moment just for our listeners of motorsports and to think through that because that is, I mean, those times are so tough in the moment when things don't go like we plan for them to go or how we wanted them to go or whatever. and it's so easy to, you know, shut the door on that dream or whatever it is. And like you said, look elsewhere.

You're going to look, you know, what's my regular, now what's my day job going to be, you know. Right. And then being able to persevere and continue in spite of the adversity to look for those opportunities and take those opportunities, which a lot of people, I think, you know, in the sport today, they are trying, they try to decide. What's the risk in taking those types of opportunities versus not, versus being in equipment that's subpar versus being in better equipment? What am I giving up? What am I doing to myself? You know, I think about Dawson Cram, who I love and his family and just they grind every single year, grind after grind, you know, trying to get himself, you know, in rides and get that opportunity to look at.

So you're doing this with Mike Carmen. You're doing this with one truck, old engines, all of these things. in 2015, which is the perseverance that it took for you to be able to look back on that moment and really see that it was a consequential moment at that point, right? 100%. I think back to a quote that my dad told me that year in 2015, and we're a big faith-based family. If it wasn't for that, I don't know that we would have made it through the stuff that we are today.

And I look back at that year, and my dad told me, he's like, you know what breaks the rock down? And it's the water. He said it's not the power of the water. It's the persistence of it. staying after, staying after. And I guess that's always been the biggest thing in my race career is just survival. Like, hey, if I can make it a next year, we'll keep going. You know, hey, if I can make it through the off season, we'll keep going, you know. And so we did that for several years, you know, we did the duly and the goose neck driving across the country. I mean,

there's a funny story. There's a guy. His name was Dylan that came to work with us in 2015, and he ended up work with me for several years. And this was back when we would run Iowa first in St. Louis. And he came to work like the Monday before we were leaving for Iowa. And we get in the car and away to Iowa. And I said, hey, by the way, you know, we're going to stay out here. He said, what do you mean? We're not coming back after the race. I'm like, no, we're going to be out here for two weeks. And it was just, we did stuff on the fly like that. And, you know, we worked at a hotel parking lots. And, you know, we changed motors in hotel parking lots and rear gears and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, I think running early on that

way, you know, you had to take care of your equipment. He's like, hey, I'm going to take this 20th place finish instead of wrecking going for 15th because I got to run this. thing next week. So you understand from the bottom of the top what it costs and what it takes and the hours to turn these things around. So yeah, that was a lot of fun. And I think that's what really led up to starting the team in 2018. We started it was, you know, I ran for Mike in 15. I went and ran for another truck team in 16 that was like my first ride opportunity. And then that fell part in the year. And I went back to kind of driving another interest in deal with harm and another team owners. So it's like three years, three different deals. And I'm like, man, I got to

figure out of control my destiny. It's either going to be through a sponsor. I'm going to take to teams or I'm going to start my own team. In 2016, I actually met John Bomberito. We were out there racing at World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis. And we were working at a Kenny Wallace shop there in Arnold. And we had a sponsor for Iowa, didn't have one for St. Louis. So I'm just, we finished the truck on like Wednesday. So I start calling around and Cole calling. And I actually called somebody at the track. I was like, hey, do you have anybody that's bought a suite or is advertising the track that may want to be on a truck this weekend. And I joke with John to this day. He's like, I'll buy you two sets of tires. And I don't think you knew the time what tires cost.

I'm like, all right, well, here we go. It'll be, you know, five grand. He's like, what do you mean five grand? I'm like, what's their $2,500 a set? And so we ended up putting them on a truck that weekend and started that relationship. And a few years later, you know, at 17, we were back Dooley and Gooseneck driving across the country. My Dooley broke down. We go back to St. Louis. And this is where you meet crazy people when my duly broke down in 17, the wrecking company out of Columbia that towed us off the side of the highway, Capitol City towing. I told him and said, hey, I'm going to Martinsville. I got to get there. He's like, well, I got a duly at the shop you can borrow.

And I was like, really? So he basically toes our old duly off. He gives us his. And we used it that weekend. I called him on Monday. I said, hey, you know, when do you want me to bring your duly back to you? So just keep it. Keep it until you figure out what you need.

and we use it for four months. Wow. All across the country. Of course, you know, I was checking in with him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, he's all about, he's like, throw a decal on there and keep using it. So when we're out in St. Louis, we go to dinner with John and, you know,

my transportation is the, the hauler. So I'm out here in the steakhouse with the Dooley and Goosnick parked in the front parking lot. And he goes, what's the story with this, you know, it says capital city hauling and towing 24-7 on the hood.

He's like, what's the deal with this? And so I told, a little side get going. on between race weekends. I told him the story. I'm like, this guy let us borrow Julie, Joel Black out of South Carolina

and he just said, use it till we needed it. And he's like, I'm going to fix that. Call me next week. And then, you know, about two weeks later, John said, come out to St. Louis. I got you a new duly. You know, Chevrolet 3,500, going to pick it up and use it for the rest of the year.

But Joel, when we got a 53-foot trailer, he heard about it. He said, all right, I want to be a part of this. So the Kenworth that pulls are 32-500. Haller is one of his tractors still. So this is, that was 2017. 10 years later, nine years later. Yeah, he's still a part of this program. He literally told us off the side of the road. And it's just, that's the thing I think I love about racing is

the people you meet, the, the, the relationships. You know, we can talk all we want about, you know, the ROI and numbers on TV and B2B and all the stuff, but it's the people at the end of the day from the, you know, how you build the cars to the sponsorships and the people you meet along the way. And I think that's the thing that's so hard in life and in business is even when you're in these really tough situations or you're going through the lowest of lows, like sometimes the people you meet there, you're there in that season of life for a reason. And kind of trying to open your eyes and be aware of that, that, hey, there's a lot of positive things that can come out of what seems like the end of the world right now.

Hey, this is Dellenhart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the Imo Drink Some Beer T-shirt we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.durdymomedia.com for all the latest merch. What was the genesis for you to decide that you wanted to own your own team versus, and you continue to drive, but what was, what was that decision like? I must have fallen out of bed one morning. I hit my head really, really hard. I just like, you know, but I called John somewhere toward into 2017, and I said,

hey, I think I can do this on my own. I said, if you can help me, you know, get a couple motors and help me buy a couple trucks. We had another family out of Texas that helped us buy our first truck. We actually bought it from Nice and then we rented shop space out of the back of Nisa's shop when they were up in Statesville. And I bought a Speedway truck and a Downforce truck. And that was the start of our team. And this was 2018. The Downforce truck was an old Turner truck. So the time it was six or seven years old and had that nice silver paint on it. And, you know, it was pretty interesting. But that's where we got going. And our first ever race, we went to Dayton. And I'm like, hey, can't wreck this thing. I'm just going to try to

stay of trouble all day and we finished ninth in our first race as a team. And then we went to Atlanta the next week and finish top 20. And I'm like, all right, this is, this is kind of working here. So we kind of went through that whole first year and it worked. And I was able to make the, the budget bounce at the end of the year. And we were able to add some more inventory and, you know, we were able to buy a hauler at the end of the year. And, you know, things kept kind of going from there. So I think the biggest thing was just kind of figuring out to do it on our own terms, even if it was harder. It was the willingness to say, hey, you know what, I'm building something thing for the future here. And I think that's when it kind of started to change for me that

maybe this isn't so much about you being a race car driver, but it's, there's a business opportunity here to build something that may be bigger than me one day, you know, whether it was me getting out of the seed or, you know, and there was some times along that year like that very first year, we put Newman in the truck at El Dora. And that was something that a mutual friend connected us and he had some sponsorship for the race. And, you know, we did that race. And I think that was kind of when it first kind of clicked for me and he was up top five most of the night until he got wrecked. I was like, I got as much fulfillment out of watching him in our truck run up front as if I was running. And I think that was kind of where I was like, this is cool. Like, this is cool to be a part of

something that's successful and growing and it got a lot of coverage and exposure. And Ryan had a good time working with us. I mean, I still have good memories of he came in the shot one day and had some crazy idea about a right front lower. And he cuts it up right there in the shot and rewelds it. And, you know, that's what we ran on the truck. So we had a lot of fun. It was very, bare bones the first couple years. We did a lot of stuff that right now I even look back on. I'm like, I don't know how we did it. I don't know how we did it.

I don't know how we made, I mean, I kid you not, this was back when, you know, the O'Reilly cars, the cup cars are the same tires. I think I made our series director in the truck series mad a couple of times so I would skip driver intros because I was back in the cup garage buying tires off their cars from Happy Hour from their mock qualifying runs. Like just like to heck with driver intros. I got to get tires from the race.

You know, exactly. So there was a lot of times where I don't. think, you know, the funding that we had that year, I mean, it was very, very low budget. And I think if you tried to do that today, I don't even know that you could just because of, you know, the cup cars. Well, for one, we're talking about 2018. Yeah. Yeah. Hit some some crazy inflation from that point. But yeah, it would be very hard. So it's hard to replicate those kind of things year after year. I mean, the growth that the world has, the growth that the teams have, the growth that the sport has and all, you know, it's hard to think and going back,

thinking about even the way my dad or Rusty Wash or anybody came through the sport, you know, you don't get to replicate those kinds of opportunities as much anymore. 100%. Which is what you're talking about in through 2017-18. So take me to when you decided to go Xfinity racing and the decision process there between kind of trucks and Xfinity and what you were thinking. Yeah. So we had run the truck program for several years and had kind of dabbled in a second truck some.

We had had two brothers from Alabama, Bobby and Roger Roos that we had taken a Mossport. We had put, uh, host of our ex who made his truck debut with his Eldor and we took a second truck to Phoenix for him and done some other stuff. And so we kind of started to dabble into like, hey, is there a way where I can race and maybe do more? Just trying to figure out to get better because I felt like after a couple years, we'd kind of hit a ceiling. And John was helped me at the time. And at the time, it was just, you know, 100% me, the, the, the, the ownership side. And, uh, you know, we'd had some success. I felt like at the time in 2019, 2020, we were a top 15 truck team, which at the time was, we still were very bare bones, you know, it was maybe

three or four of us that were working. We were still driving to all the tracks. You know, I still remember the days of us, you know, early in the year, we would do like that Daytona and you run Atlanta, and then it was Vegas after. And we'd work all week till like Wednesday night, hop on the duly at like midnight and start our trek to Vegas. And, you know, you can only drive for an hour or two because you're just so tired and somebody else drive for an hour or two and you kept swapping. And so I think in my mind, I was, don't you wrong, I had a blast. Those were some of the most fun times I had racing because there was no expectations. Like the only goal was to make it the racetrack and get home. Exactly. Like it was just survival and it was a different type of

stress. I guess if that makes sense. You know, the stress now is the people, the budgets, all this other stuff. The only stress back then was like, hey, am I going to have enough, you know, money on my credit card to pay the fuel bill to get to the racetrack? And you, and in one of my previous business of motor sports, I talked with Mike Davis about owning part of Dirty at this point, it's all about you. It's all on you. You know, you're not, you're, you don't have a lot of sponsors. You don't have a lot of things going on. So you're piecing the things together that you can make it work. And so if it doesn't, it's you, you know, and as you grow, they're sponsors. There's people. There's your employees. There's, you know, there's so many more people that you're, um, trying to hold up.

Yeah. Yeah. You make a mistake. It's just you look at them here. I'm like, man, what you do that for? Yeah. But you can keep going. Exactly. And so I think. I think we did all that stuff. And I'm like, you know, I just want to, we're all racers. I want to be competitive. I'm like, all right, what can we do to go to the next level? How can, you know, we figure out to get more funding in this thing to take you to the next level? So we ran all those years in the truck series and just felt like we were at a ceiling.

And so John and myself and Shane Martin, our Chevy rep, we kind of got together. And I said, hey, you know, what's the path forward to go O'Reilly racing? And Shane made a couple introductions for us. And over the offseason from 2020 to 2021, we bought five O'Rilely. cards from RCR up there to kind of get us going and bought some motors. And we went down to Daytona. And at the time, I was like, all right, I'm going. I'm going to keep the truck program going. And I'm also going to run this, the O'Reilly program. Can we figure out how to make both of this work? And we went down to Daytona. And this is where, again, the story of this racing program, it's always

high highs and low lows. So we go to Daytona and for the second year in a row, finished second in the truck race, You know, missed it by, you know, just a few feet. And come back up the next day and we were like top 10 in practice in the car. And this is going to be like my shot. This is the first time I've been in really good equipment. This has got really nice stuff. We're going to run for rookie of the year. This is kind of in my mind.

This is like this is my opportunity. And we show up that morning. It's a little overcast like Daytona is sometimes. And qualifying gets rained out. And at the time, we had no owner points. We were a new team. We have to load up. And this is still during the COVID, you know, weird deal, no qualifying after Daytona.

So the way they had it structured was if you qualified for Daytona, it locked you in for the next 10 races. If you miss qualifying like us, you were basically sitting home for the next 10 races. I forgot about that. So thankfully, we had the truck team. So we kept that deal going and I sold some rides for it and kept running it. And that kind of, I didn't let anybody go during that time because my mind was, race number 11 the year will be back at Cota, we'll do this. And this is where things get interesting. So we keep running the truck deal. And in that time, I get talking to Shane Martin a little bit.

I said, hey, you know, who can we put in here to go run Cota that, you know, don't get me wrong. I'm a competitive driver, but I've only run at this time five or six road course races at Mossport. We did one a year in the truck series. He said, how about Tyler Edick? Why don't you give Tyler a call? He's really good. And, you know, I think he was up at RCR at the time. And so he called Tyler and talked and we basically made a deal to put him in the car at Coda and then at Charlotte. There were two races back to back that had open qualifying and would basically put us a shoe in the car. So I stepped aside. I'm like, you know, the rookie of the year season is already over. We've missed 10 races. So, you know, it's so agonizing to watch us every week because I'm watching like 40th

place and points. Who's going to be down there to try to beat? So we go to Cota and Tyler finished eighth got some stage points. Decent outing for us as a team. Then we go to Charlotte the next week and we finish fourth with Tyler and got some more stage points. But we're still outside looking in. We were like, I don't know, 10 or 15 points out of 40th. So then we get looking in the rule book, trying to get other stuff figured out. And I had to tell people say, well, don't you look at the winter provisional for the year. And we get looking at it.

And at the time, it said if you put a race winner from that year in your car, it would guarantee that car provisional. Well, Josh had won at Martinsville for you guys that year, but was running a partial sked So Shane and I think Joe connected up and we talked through it and we said, hey, let's put Josh in the car at Mid-Ohio, which was the next race. So he put Josh in the car at Mid-O-Hio and he's like, hey, I'm not really a road racer either. I'm like, it's going to be in the race. Like, let's just, if we can finish it and he goes out there and he finished, I think he finished seventh or eighth, finished top 10. So here we are, brand-new team right out of the box, three straight top 10 finishes and now we're top 40. But now we're in.

And it bumped another team out. we didn't buy under points. You know, we figured out put drivers in. We figured out some people call it a loophole. Some people just reading the rule book, but we're in. So we ran the rest of the year that year in 2021. And I got to run some. We had Ty and Austin Dillon ran some.

Sage Karen ran some races. Tyler ran some more races. Josh kind of helped us finish out the year of that season and was kind of onto something. I was like, man, this again, this is just as much fun watching these guys run and compete and running our stuff. And at the same time, we're still trying to run the truck team. So somewhere along the lines of 2021 to 2022, I said, hey, I need to probably start slowing this truck deal down.

This is the O'Reilly program is where we need to be. And Mike Snyder came in 2022 with Tax Slayer and some other things and basically said, hey, I'm looking for a full season opportunity. And I was like, you know, this is probably it for me as a driver. But man, what a great opportunity. This is for the team. And that was kind of when it took off in 2022, where we had one driver for the full year in that 31 car. and, you know, it was kind of all from there. So that 2021 was a pretty pivotal year for us to look back on what we thought the year was going to look like,

what it ended up being looking like all the things that we learned where it kind of catapulted us as a team. What's carried you to today. Yeah, what a year that was. I mean, that was probably the closest, again, ever since that 20, what was it, 2014 to 2021, you know. And then this is where it gets even crazier in the year. Obviously, it was a very tough year with COVID and everything else going on. And John had helped me buy some cars at the beginning of the year. year and had loan me some money and we got to the end of year. I said, hey, instead of this

loan that we got figured out, why don't you buy into the team with me and join as a partner? So I think we have one of the longest team names is Joy Anderson Racing, Bomberito Auto Sport, got a really long name. But John joined in as a partner on the team that year. And he's just been such a good mentor to me and helped on the B2B side of things with partners. And it's kind of what's helped elevate the team. But yeah, what a journey. I mean, from that point, all through that year and all that we did. And, you know, we survived. You know, that's the big. biggest thing. And that's kind of where I think the pivotal turning point came from, you know, Jordan chasing after being a race car driver to being a team owner. You know, we all have those

moments in our life where you have to kind of look in the mirror and make those tough decisions. You know, it went from me caring about this to, hey, the guys that work here and their families and, you know, covering payroll every week. And how do you kind of grow something that's, it just, like, it just grew bigger than what I was and had a lot more meaning and purpose behind it. And it really was a pretty cool turning point for our team. You brought up a lot of things that made me think about, like, in that, in that conversation about sometimes making decisions that don't make sense, right? Like, you know, putting Josh Berry in the car, okay, you're diving in on the backside of what things look at, look like, and making a decision that maybe the fans don't understand or what's happening or, you know, how come you're not racing? what's happening.

You know, this year we've had that. We're working with you on Raja and he's running races with you. And, you know, the question's always popping up. Well, I can't jerry. I'm filled Raja full car and things like that. But, you know, what you just described is what we are all doing in the background, trying to manage our,

the stability of our company, the organizations, the, you know, looking forward to future years and what they're going to look like, making those decisions in the current year so that we can make it to the next year, you know, and we all do it, no matter if we're, you know, a funded four-car team, if you're two cars with a part-time third, so on and so forth, you know, we're all making those same decisions no matter at what level that we're playing at. And also the other thing is like you talked about something earlier, you know,

kind of opportunities that you have to do to kind of bridge. And the truck team, thankfully, was there for you to kind of do. that in those 10 races where you, you know, didn't qualify and had that missed opportunity there to just take a season and do what you wanted to do with the way you thought 21 was going to look like. But, you know, there's those situations in our sport and with our teams that we look at, too, is like, how are we going to, what makes sense, what opportunities are in front of us that makes sense to bridge us to an opportunity that could be bigger, greater, better, whatever that look like. So at this point, you're owning teams. And in 20, you know, in 2021, you're signing the

checks. You still strap in from time to time. You're still racing from time to time. What, as a driver or owner, are you a more aggressive driver or are you more conservative driver as it comes to having your own team when you're in the car? It's funny because it kind of depends. I'd say that, you know, kind of my MO, because here lately, I've run a lot of the speedway stuff. Yeah. Daytona, Taday, you use. see me pop up at those. And my goal has always been, you know, you're not going to see me until 20 to go. You really won't because it just, you know, with me not running a full time, I don't need stage points, you know, stage wins don't pay. I can go win stage one and two and it's not going to pay me

anymore. And so it's kind of always been my strategy. And I've always since I was racing legend cars, I guess I've always been a little paranoid about what it costs to fix a car when you tear it up and, you know, just race a little bit differently. But, you know, when it gets to about 15 or 20 to go, it's like, all right, I'm going to hit the switch here and go for it. And it's, It's worked out really well sometimes. I mean, I think there for Daytona, I think, you know, I had four or five top tens there at Daytona. Almost, if I could have made maybe a different move in February this year, maybe could have got by the 21 for the wind down there. And then Atlanta this past weekend, I had a great idea to try to make it four wide into one.

There was a hole there. It wasn't a very big hole, but there was a hole there. And again, it was down to 15 to go. And I said, all right, this is it. So when those opportunities aren't, I'm not racing every week. So, you know, thankfully to point out with our team where when I can run, I want to get to the end, you know, try to make it through most of the race and then definitely turn up the aggression there at the end. But, you know, you kind of mentioned a point there on running the

team. And this is kind of where probably while you don't see me as much is it's, you know, making the decisions to keep growing this thing. You know, racing is always, I tell people, it's this weird balance of it's not like a normal business. It's not like a company that's, you know, maybe they're a laser cutting company that's making parts and pieces that you get processes in place. And you can put that process in place. And it's the same for five to 10 years. You know, racing isn't like that. It changes daily, weekly. I mean, you have real, real changes. You're trying to figure out to make your cars go faster. You've got different drivers that come in that are looking for a different feeling. You've got, you know, different engineering things that come in place. So I think that the gap that we as a team have gone through is we went from just like the underdog to just surviving to get to the racetrack to, you know, we were a competitive team that was, you know, maybe a top 25, top 20 team to where, you know, we won that race at Talladega with Jeb in 20. 23, we made the playoffs that year. We've competed for some victories here and there and kind of had a shot at it. And now to go from that to being consistently in the top 10, that's even harder.

I feel like than where we were to there, but it's trying to figure out how to survive. And I think the way that I've tried to build our, you know, behind the scenes of like week to week is I try to always almost plan for the worst. Like if I lost all sponsorship, if everything went bad, can I keep this team operating? And so we've always probably been a little heavy on. on parts and pieces. I mean, you probably would still see me at SRI or Circle Track digging through used parts, you know, trying to, if it's a piece of carbon fiber, this that doesn't really affect the performance, but I can get it for half price, you know, we'll get creative on that. But I think that's the thing that we've done. And it's really put us in a good foundation where, you know,

hey, up in Statesville, we own our two buildings that we're in now. And, you know, we own our haulers. We don't owe anybody any money. So, you know, we've just tried to be very selective about what we do and how we do those things. And I think by planning for the work. When everything does come together, it puts you in a good situation. But just trying to be fiscally responsible because, you know, the race for me wants to go by. Latest, greatest, cut front clips off, put new noses on it, do all these things every week. But you got to find that balance between, hey, we need to survive. We need to be healthy, you know, because racing season stops in November.

And you don't race again until February. So you got to make it through the off season. And we've got to be ready for rule changes. So it's just this fine balance. And I think for me, you walk through our stuff. I definitely probably put a lot in investment into making our stuff look nice in the wraps and our shop and, you know, want to be prideful of our stuff. I've always told our guys if we have a bad day at the race track, even if our stuff looks good, we still have something to be proud of at least. And, you know, trying to find that balance between all that stuff.

So it's definitely a very unique business model. You try to explain it to a businessman that doesn't understand race and they look at you like you have two heads. So it's definitely, you know, nothing that I don't think I learned in my business classes applies too much to this racing stuff. I just had an intern-upstairs asked me about that. They're like, you know, what would you tell me that I'm not going to learn in school? And I'm like, oh, in this business a lot. Yeah, buckle up. Yeah, you talked about winning in 23 with Jeb and making it to the playoffs.

For your team, what did the new change this year for the point strategy look like for you? Your 21st and second, I think, right now with Jeb and Blaine in the point series was how does that change affect your team? Yeah, you know, it definitely for us, we were for sure one of the teams that benefited from the win in your end. You know, we were kind of a wild card that would look really closely at the Daytonas in Talladega to try to win those. But it definitely played a role in how important it is to have a good entire season, you know, no parts failures, all those things. So that's something that we've definitely had to buckle down on this year and figure out to make those processes better and you race a little bit differently. So I wouldn't say this year it's really affected our season a whole lot. That year in 23 with Jeb.

I mean, we pretty much pointed our way in as well, just because we, We had such a consistent, solid schedule. But it does change the way you race. And I think it's heating up as you get closer to the cutoff year. But, you know, I think what this year is done for us is we started that third car for the first time. We started it really, the first time we took three was when we put Catherine leg in the car last year. And we ran those races with her. And, you know, so we acquired a third hall or we acquired the third pit box.

We kind of started to understand what it took to field a third car last year. And we said, you know, there's an opportunity here to kind of maybe create an all-star car of sorts for this year. And, you know, we had the opportunity to kind of help fill out rods the schedule this year. We put Ross in the car for some races. You know, I've been able to run some races. You know, we've, we've had a lot of fun. The coolest story that we've done this year is Andrew Patterson that's run the 32. Andrew actually came down here in 2020 when we were still run the truck series. Had a mutual friend that connected us up. And he was 16 or 17 at the time, racing go-carts, but wanted to break in as a mechanic in racing and learn that side of it. And Andrew's

worked on the team as, you know, interior guy. He shop the, shop the, you know, slip the shop floor, done all the different things. And got a late model, started doing some market stuff. He asked my opinion last year about what he should do. She'd take his funding to go drive for a team. I said, go buy your own car. Go do your own thing. Work on it. He ran a bunch of races last year. And then I think he had a chance to go get in Nitro's car at Berlin and went, finish second. I'm like, all right, you've got, you've got some talent here. And so we put together a eight race schedule for him to run for us this year. And, you know, he finished top 20 at Dover for us. He just went to San Diego and finished top 15 out there. And so he's, it's cool. I mean, he's like, I almost look at

him like a younger version of me because he doesn't come from a racing family. And, you know, he's worked hard to understand this stuff. He actually lived in an apartment behind our truck shop for about four years. So it's, it's pretty cool. For me, it sounds like a Josh Barry story. Yeah, like, 100%. Right. I'm coming over and live with my mom. But those that, um, you know, you get to, you're almost like the dad in the situation, you know, because you get to have them under your wing and give them that advice to progress and then watch them progress, right? And then watch their talent come to fruition and the things that you're able to do for them. 100%.

And that's what we're all doing this for, right? I think that's, that's probably one of the neat. To see people succeed. The neatest things is you talk about people. And that's one thing you'll hear me say a lot is it takes a village. And from the front office to the shop, you know, getting to know these guys and and men and women that are part of our team and see them succeed. And you have some people that come in that, you know, graduated from, you know, high school and want to get into racing.

Don't know anything. We have one guy that started like that as a fabricator and now he's a finished fab guy. You know, he didn't even know what a pop revict gun was when he started. But that's what he wanted to do and he learned. And, you know, he's been most for a while now. So it's cool to watch. And that's what I tell our guys, anything that you need, I try to tell him, anything you need to make your processes better to make it more efficient to make you better at what you do. I'm all for it. And so, you know, that's what we've tried to do. And it's, it's a, there's a great feeling to to give people the tools to see them do it, to see them succeed, to want to do good. And I mean, it's, it's, it's crazy. We had a conversation yesterday. I've had some guys doing me for four or five

years now and having that longevity with people and getting to know them. It's, it's, it's a good feeling, but it also carries a lot of weight knowing that you got to continue to keep the books balance to take care of them and their family and make sure you have all those things. So there's a lot that that parlays into it. But it is, it's a, it's a great feeling to see that. see people do good. What have you seen going to three cars for your organization from one car? Like, that's maybe a surprise of what's been helpful, you know, what's been a challenge. I know for us, you know, running more cars overall obviously puts a lot of burden on competition and different things like that. But at the same time, you know, it opens up a lot of different

opportunities for us to bring in sponsors to have more placement or whatnot overhead, things like that. Yeah, I'm sure about me, told me when you guys did the West Coast swing, I think you guys had, what, 21 or 22 cars together. So I'm sure you love the West Coast swing there. But it has been good for us because it's challenged us. You know, thankfully last year, we got a lot of the foundation pieces put in place. I mean, when I talk to people about things like trailers and pit boxes, they're like, oh, that's no big deal.

You just go out and buy one. I'm like, no, you just don't go out and buy a hauler. You know, you can't go out and buy a pit box, you know. So finding those things was some of the hardest parts and pieces to fill. And, you know, that's one thing along the lines of, you know, always looking of how to make stuff better is acquiring things that build up the core of the team. But this year, having the third driver's been good. You know, when we've got Jeb, we've got Blaine, you've got the same driver all year.

Those guys are good at feedback. But bringing in, you know, Raj and Ross and Andrew, it gives us a different set of opinions, information. You know, Raja will come run for you guys. And then he comes and runs our car. And he kind of talks about the differences here and there and what our stuff could be better. Ross comes over and he says, hey, you need to work on this, work on this. So we've gotten some good feedback from those guys about how to make our stuff better. because sometimes it's just so easy to get into rinse and repeat of, you know,

this is what it's supposed to feel like or what we're looking for. And then when you get outsiders that come in, that, you know, Raj will come run for you guys for two or three races, hops in our car. He says, oh, here's a list that we need to work on. It's super helpful for us to have that. Yeah, for sure. You also made an alliance with RCR. That was after, was that last year?

That was this year. This year's your first year. This year's your first year. What does that mean for your team? How does that help? What does it look like for you? Yeah. I'd say the biggest thing is, you know, on the chassis and parts, again, you know, with the cup cars going away from what we were using, you know, used to find an abundance of chassis and parts and pieces and the stuff's harder to find now. So being able to get the chassis and parts from them has been a big help. So, you know, we elected this year, even doing the alliance with them, we still hang our own bodies. We kind of elected to go to that path. And that's been a growing part of the process as well. But we've got three body plates there in Statesville. And we've got 10 guys in that shop that kind of are over our fab department there.

So that's again, that's kind of a new project that I've taken under and want to see that side grow, even outside of the race and side of things of, you know, seeing the fab side of what we can, making what we can do and trying to get that to work and stand on its own. But it's been good. You know, anytime you can have information and share information and even, you know, working with Raja and learning from him and working the relationship with everybody over at Hendrick and Chevrolet and kind of learning from them and learning from everybody at RCR, it's just been good. I mean, having people that are willing to lend to E.

and advice. I mean, that's one thing I'm super grateful for over the years is I've had a lot of people that have taken time to, you know, answer my questions, answer my phone calls, answer my texts, and be willing to help because it's, I'm still figuring it out, you know, sometimes I say, hey, I got it all figured out, but, you know, I just turned 35 this year and I still learn new things every week and every day. And there's new surprises every Monday when we come into the shop. So it's very good to have people that you can, you know, hey, I'm having trouble with this. Can you help me navigate this and troubleshoot through it? So that side with our char has been super helpful to have some information to learn from them on that.

So we're in the throes of already putting together 27. What does something like that look for your team? How do you decide what races you're going to run? Are you still going to run some? What does it look like for you going forward, you know, in having your full-time cars, having your full-time cars, having your part-time car, whatever that looks like? How do you go about that process of making this decision? I think one thing I've learned is a lot of times the last several years, it's been October, November, putting some deals together.

And, you know, I will say here in your own bill and Joe Mattis has been a good source of some wisdom for me. He said, hey, you know, don't wait. You know, you need to get it done today. And, you know, learning from those people that have been around the sport for a while has been super helpful. And I think now we're trying to start sooner than we have before, you know, hey, let's not wait until November. Let's start in, you know, July or August and get our driver stuff figured. I get our crew stuff figured out. So, you know, I think for us next year we want to try to do is I like this model that we've

had with the two full-time cars and the third car, the rotating car, the All-Star car, whatever you want to call. And I've had a lot of fun doing that this year, not just because I get to run some, but also having some different drivers in the car and, you know, give other guys opportunities. So if there's a way where we can build it, where we've got two guys that are running for points and, you know, maybe there's an opportunity you look in, you know, I watch a lot of the Arka race is still right now. You look, there's a lot of talented drivers that are there.

You look at, you know, look at what Justin and Trackhouse did bring an SVG over. Is there a guy that's, you know, running supercars or maybe somebody's not in our NASCAR world that we could bring in for a couple of races? You know, being able to do just something different, I think is something that we would have a lot of interest in next year and keeping it going that way. But, you know, obviously at the end of day, we got to figure out to make it all work and keep our partners happy. And I think one good thing that's been super helpful for us and how we do it is a lot of the model that you look at in our series. And it's so crazy when you look at, I think, Cup is funded and driven a lot by the team partners and they can go pick the drivers they want. Whereas you look at Truck and O'Reilly, a lot of it's from driver funding and driver sponsors. You know, they spend the hours and time and build those relationship with their partners.

And they take it to a team that fits the partner best, that fits the driver best. And it's the business model for our series. And where we've been able to kind of close that gap a little bit is through my relationship with John and his auto group side of things, you'll see Easy Care pop up on. our cars that does his extended warranties. You see BG and FVP that are his lubricants. You know, a lot of the other partnerships, Fast Trek, that's his auto carrier. We have a lot of those relationships with John that are B2B driven through his dealership. He's got over 20 dealerships there in the St. Louis area. And it's kind of allowed us to go to our drivers and say, hey, you've got this, we've got this. Let's put it together and figure out how we can kind of raise the bar a little bit

for what our program could be. So that's where, you know, when our guys come in, they typically with their partners are getting two-thirds of the schedule. And the other third is our partners that we fill in on top of it. And I feel like that's what's allowed us to get beyond just breaking even every year. We've been able to invest back in the team. We've been able to invest back in our people and the benefits and insurance that we're able to offer them. And, you know, the two buildings that we own in Statesville, you know, for years when I was racing, I was renting buildings. And, you know, every November, you're like, can I renew my lease? Can, you know, and it happened. I think the first four or five years I was racing, and we hopped around from shop to shop.

every couple years just because the lease expired. So, you know, being able to own our buildings and have that stability there is huge for us to invest back in this thing for, I mean, this for me, it's as I've gotten out of the driver's seat, it's like, hey, how can I build this for the next five years, 10 years, which is crazy to think about because when I started racing, there was no business plan. It was just wing it and go race. Yeah, I don't know if you have a business plan. We've never had a business plan either because you're forced in this sport to, to adapt, you know, sometimes react. You want to be as proactive. as possible, but it's difficult to be proactive.

And you talked about something I want to touch on too, and we go through the same process of, you know, those decisions, you're talking about your partners with Bomorito and drivers coming in that may have relationships with partners already and things like that. And we go through the same thing. And you're trying to cultivate sponsors. And then you try to cultivate that relationship, but you don't have a driver to pair them with, you know,

or vice versa. You have a driver come in that doesn't have extra room, you know, to take on another sponsorship. And how you're, we're doing that all year long, you know, like we're upstairs on the business side. But then you talked about Joe, you know, if we have, we're working on three or six partnership proposals. And then you're thinking to yourself, okay, what does 27 look like? Am I going to have the bandwidth? Am I going to have drivers? What drivers am I going to have?

Because all that stuff has to come through a plan of some sort. You know, you just can't decide, you know, today. Oh, okay, I sold you X, Y, Z partner on three races. Now let me go figure out what driver can come and race those three races for us, you know. And the same thing happens on the driver's side, you know, you talk to people and they're like, if you can just tell me that, you know, I can have X many races or this, that, and the other, I'll go sell the sponsorship. Well, I wish it was, you know, I wish that was the way we could do it a lot, right?

100%. But if you can start kind of meshing those things like you're talking about and then your bandwidth to have this third car, you open up that bandwidth to have that flexibility, which is super important. As you kind of keep the stability of your other cars and full time and all those things to kind of start building the next team as your third team and things like that. So that's really awesome. It never stops. No, it never stops.

You're always trying to figure out where the next catalyst is to be better, to make the team better. I mean, I think one of the craziest roller coaster of emotions I tell people is the first. 10 days of a month because you have, you know, the, the partners come in, they make their payments, they do all this stuff here. Well, then you also get invoices that come in. So you see it all come in your bank account. And there's like three or four days from like, I sleep really good at night. Everything's good in the world. This makes sense. I'm glad I'm doing this. And then you pay all the invoices and you're like, oh, how am I going to make it back to the first or the second again of the next month? So it's just like this roller coaster of emotions because it just, it comes and

goes very quickly. It takes a lot to keep this rolling and, you know, payroll every week. And, you know, the fuel to go up and down the road and the engine bills and tire bills. And when those things are fluctuating, like this year, we have seen such an increase, obviously, in the fuel prices that the whole world has. That fuel surcharge that comes every quarter for airplanes and, you know, champion with the pit boxes and all the different things. Something that you don't get to plan for necessarily that affects us all. All right, everybody, the 2026 NASCAR season is officially here. And you know what that means? New rides, new paint schemes, and another year of unforgettable moments on the track. And if you want to bring all that action home, you've got to check out

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You talked about John Bomarito a lot. Who are people that you look at from a business advice? What's some good advice that you've gotten? Talked about Uncle Dick and the advice he gave you to go big and Don't sell yourself short. Yeah, no, I think I've gotten several of them. I mean, John has definitely been on me since day one about being physically responsible. Don't get yourself stretched too far. And John is in a racer. He didn't grow up being a big race fan.

He was a car guy. You know, he was big in the automotive world. So it's good that he's kind of the one that's been the one that's kept me grounded, I would say. You know, my wife, I'm very thankful. You talk about the family side of this. This is a tough sport. It's long hours, late nights. I mean, there's times where, you know, a Monday for me, you might get there at six o'clock in the morning.

You're there until 9 or 10 o'clock at night just because everybody leaves at five. And now you got four or five hours where it's quiet. And, you know, I mean, there'll be nights where I walk to shop and just put an inventory on stuff to look at things. But, you know, my wife's been a good grounding boy for me, Kendall. And then you talk about her. She grew up in the racing world. I was going to say, I always said to myself, I wasn't going to marry anyone in racing. But you almost, if you grow up in racing, you almost need to marry someone racing so that they understand and get it.

And Kendall, definitely, Kendall is the daughter of Larry McReynolds. And I was going to ask you if you get to get advice from America's crew chief from time to time. Yeah. No, Larry is, there's been a lot of times. I've called Larry. I said, hey, what do you think about this? And he says, well, do you want the, do you want the father involved or do you want the real answer? And he's not an ear massager.

He says it to me all the time. He said, I'm not going to massage your ear. I'm going to tell you the truth. And it's good to have that, you know, because I can, I can go to him and trust him. and know it's going to stay between us. And, you know, I've run a lot of ideas by him. So he's been a great sounding board. You know, John's been a great sounding board.

You know, my dad, I got a good relationship with him. He still does his houses down in South Carolina. He comes to a lot of the races, but he's very hands-on. And, you know, he's kind of like my prayer warrior, my faith guy. You know, when I go to him, he'll kind of pray about some things. And he always is quick to give me some good scripture to get through some times when things do get tough. And, you know, also to stay humble when things are good on both sides of it. You know, you mentioned Joe.

Joe's been a good sounding board to me this year. You know, my brother-in-law, Brandon, he's in the sport as well. So he's been good to talk through some things. And, you know, just very fortunate to have that. So, you know, I've got a lot of good people. My competition director, Shane Whitbeck. So Shane, this is an interesting story where, I mean, you guys have got kind of bummy that oversees your shop. I've got Shane Whitbeck.

That is kind of my right-hand guy that does this. And I met Shane 20. This is an interesting story. This goes back 2018 when I started the truck team. I bought owner points from BKR when they were shutting their team down. And Shane was kind of like the last employee at BKR. He was a shop foreman at the time. And that year when Brad's building was sitting there, I would take my truck down there at night.

And he would help me pull my truck down. And, you know, he was still working for Brad and would help me with all these different things here. And we stayed in touch over all these years. And, you know, Shane had gone and worked for some different teams. And in 22, when I was looking for a crew chief from I had, I called Shane up. And I said, hey, you know, any interest in there. He said, well, I've never crew chief to, you know, Exfinity car at the time. I've done truck stuff. I'm like, well, they have truck arms, every housing. You know, we have a hawk eye, so it's a little different, but you'll figure it out. And he jumped in with me in 22, and he's been with me ever since. And he went from crew chief and my to jumping over, crew chief Jeb for those years. And 25, I'd say, beginning of 25, kind of transitioned into this competition director role. And I'd say that role really doesn't even fit him well because he's, he's, you know, helps me with HR. He's at the fab shop. You know, he's on the plate with the guys.

So Shane's been kind of like my right-hand man. I mean, Kendall, she sent me a TikTok the other day. And it was like, you know, I wish that I could be the person that my husband talks to all the time because, you know, we'll be on vacation. And I'm talking to Shane about, you know, ideas and things. So she's like, I think you've talked to Shane more than me sometimes. But it takes having that guy that you can, you know, 110 percent trust. And Shane knows, you know, all the things that take the team to keep it working. And I've been very, very blessed, very fortunate to have somebody like.

like that in our corner that helps keep things going because he gets it and he doesn't just live in his title. You know, I think that's the biggest thing that, you know, you talk about the advice that, you know, John gave me your honest, he's like, don't keep people structured to a title, you know, and obviously as we grow, people can get more specialized in certain roles. But I think it's been one of the biggest things I've looked for over the years and bringing people on to be a part of our team is people that are willing to go outside of, you know, what they're supposed to do, you know, if, if I walk from here to the other side of your shop and there's a couple pop rivets the floor. I'm going to stop, pick them up, put them in the trash can. People that are willing to

go that little extra step to pay attention to stuff and change that guy. If he goes in our bathroom and it's out of toilet paper, he grabs it, puts toilet paper on a roll and goes about his day and doesn't think twice about it, but it's kind of a mentality thing. And it's been good to have people like that in my corner. You know, with your team and really all of us, I feel like since COVID, you know, we've learned and adapted to a different workforce of people. And, you know, people, even when they're working for, you know, top-notch teams are looking for different things than they used to, you know, the sport used to fulfill you just from the competitive nature of it and the adrenaline and the travel and all of those kinds of things. But it's been different since COVID.

How do you navigate that in your position with Jordan Anderson Racing and not losing people, you know, that maybe want to go work for a bigger organization and whatnot? Because that's a, I mean, that's a struggle for us just from going to cup teams and stuff, you know, know. And so I can imagine that's, that's something that you deal with as well. It is. Yeah, gone are the days of driving to all the races. I think if I try to do that now, they get halfway to Vegas and they begin out and get trying to find a OA back home. But it is. And it's just, I think as a sports evolved, and we've got the opportunity to have more funding, you know, it's like, hey, how can we take care of our people? And it's, you know, obviously we do the victory deal. We fly to states. So what

a unique business model that is. Like when I tell people like, hey, there's, you know, this is this is company that has 10 airplanes that flies at Estatesville and we fly out and they don't leave till we're all done at the racetrack. And, you know, that's, that's the crazy thing about race. And we have all these weird, you know, champion that carries our pit boxes like, you know, exactly. But I think that's the bigger thing is it's trying to keep a, a pulse on, hey, competition is important. The statistics are important. But our people are also important. And as it's gotten more competitive in the workforce, I mean, outside maybe a couple cities where, you know, maybe it's, a tech city or maybe it's this, where else in an industry is, you know, what is it, 98% of

teams are in a 20-mile radius, you know, it's just as easy for a guy to roll his toolbox in the back of his truck and drive two exits down and go to another team and probably can get a job. You know, it's, it's tough in our industry right now. There's, the workforce is, is very tight. It's very condensed. Talented people are harder and harder to come by. You know, a lot of them have either retired, they've gone to work in the hot rod world or gotten out of racing just because they didn't want the week to week stress of it. So, you know,

when you do have good people, you know, how can we take care of them and how can we give them, you know, almost ownership of the team to say, hey, you know, I'm going to give you the freedom to kind of do what you, you know, what needs to be done, you know, let you do it and not micromanage those people. And I think that's been the biggest thing. And I've got several guys that have been with me for several years now that, you know, I don't have to talk to them. I just know to do and let them do it and trying to get far enough ahead to where, hey, you know, we have enough cars and parts and pieces and just continuing. I think the biggest thing is just showing people that you're trying to get better.

Yeah. And there's a constant, you know, internal struggle for me of like, I'm always looking at, I think as a business owner or whatever it is and my wife and I talk about this all the time, it's like, I don't, I can't tell you, I think the last time that I was like content. Like truly, you know, 100% like everything's good. There's always just like I can walk in our shop and I look at a light and like that light needs to be tilted a little bit this way or I'll walk out to the hall. I'm like that decals a little bit all for, you know, looking at all those kind of

of things, but having an eye of like, I think it's a blessing and a curse because you're always wanting to make stuff better. Yeah, you want to improve. Exactly. And, you know, being able, the first time that we were able to get insurance for all our guys and offer them benefits. I was like, all right, this is, this is a lot of money every week, you know, and that thing goes out monthly, but it's like, you know, hey, as I've gotten older and, you know, we just had our first son, our first child, we had a son back in September last year, seeing the hospital bills roll in. I'm like, these are real things. So I think as I've gotten older, realizing the, that everybody has got something going on. Yeah. And, you know, our team is small enough to where I can walk out in the

shop and pretty much tell you everybody's name. I can tell you their wife's name, their kids' names, all the different things. And, you know, getting to know these guys, everybody's got stuff going on. So trying to be able to make sure they're provided for and their families provided for. We do a lot of things. I think that's one thing that we do that people probably think I'm crazy about is I don't do per diem for our guys on the road. You know, what I do is I say, hey, you know, we're all going to go out together as a team, you know, for dinner. So, like, you know, we were, uh, you know, this past weekend in Atlanta, you know, we went to an Italian steakhouse and we had a table of, you know, almost 30 guys there and we all ate together as a family, you know. So that's good group bonding

things. It is. I love that. It is. I mean, that's, we're with each other more sometimes than we are our own family when we travel with those kind of things. So, you know, getting them together and having that fellowship and, you know, that time together. It's, it's not only good for us as a team, but it's, it's fun to get everybody together. And I mean, and I like to eat good. So it's, you know, We're going to go eat somewhere good. You know, we're not going to get, you know, truck stop food or something like that. We do like to go eat good, exactly. You mentioned your son and being a father, which that also teaches you a lot, right, about business and life and different things.

How has that made you look at your team, your company, your organization, and what are you looking forward to the future? I've got to show you, and I'll pull my phone out here, and this was probably one of my favorite pictures. from this past weekend. This was actually in Atlanta this past weekend. We're sitting there on the grid. And I'm like, let's throw them in the car. And so we throw them in the car there. And then the next picture, he's looking over me like,

all right, I'm good. You can leave me alone. So his name is Banks. He just turned nine months. And it's, for us, it's been the biggest blessing that we could ever ask for. You know, it's changed. my life. It's put a lot of perspective in my life, you know, a day like Atlanta where that was not the best night, not the best day. You know, Kendall walked up to me when I got back from the care

center and I held him and I was like, all right, it's all good. Tomorrow's a new day. And so I think this chapter life for me, it's, you know, maturing as a person and kind of thinking about things a little bit differently. And, you know, there's a lot of our guys and our team have kids and, you know, understanding the importance of, you know, schedules and hours and them spending time with their family. And, you know, but for me, it's like, hey, this is a new season of my life of, you know, perspective and spending time with him. And, you know, this sport is crazy. And it's, it's, it's been a huge blessing for me because I can come home and have a super stressful day and be wigged out about something. I come home and see him. And it literally, it's like the best medicine ever.

Everything is, everything is all good. And he's the happiest baby. He's, he's literally a free range chicken right now. I mean, he's crazy. He's crawling. You know what they say about the second one then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the. The funniest thing was Kendall actually sent me. They came out. We did the West Coast swing together. She came to San Diego and Sonoma with them. And when they had the wreck during the red flag, when the Turn 1 wall got knocked down, she sent me a video. She said, you're not going to believe it. And I watched the video. He crawled for the first time in the lounge of the hauler. So I'm like, it's very fitting. You know, the first time you ever crawl was in the lounge of a hauler. But making a lot of good memories together. And it's just cool to have him around. You know, I bring around the shop. Everybody knows him. And he's moved around the shop now. So it's fun. And, you know, I'm like, man, between the race team and, you know, my brother-in-law that's married to my sister, he races, dirt modifies with Brandon and his involved in the sport, the race team. You got Larry Mack, America's crew chief is your grandfather. I'm like, yeah, probably be involved in this some way or another.

And it's destined. It just puts a lot of it that puts a little bit more pep in my step of, you know, hey, I'm not just doing this for me and Kennell anymore. It's, you know, to provide for banks and him. And everybody always told me your life would change. you have kids and like, yeah, yeah. Just sitting there how? Okay, sure, you know, but now truly experienced it's put a lot more meaning in my life.

And, you know, I just thank God every day that we've got a healthy little baby boy. And it's, it's been a fun season with him. But it's also, again, it's made me, I think, hungrier to keep building this thing and be able to provide for my family and do things for them. Because, again, 10 years ago, it's like, hey, if I, if I can stop by and get fast food at midnight and I can pay my rent and I can keep my race car on the track, I'm good. I'm good. So it's just, things have changed. little bit, but it's all for the better. Yeah, you just have a few more people that you're looking at that for. Man, I've really enjoyed this because I didn't, I didn't know a lot about your story

and this journey for you for ownership in this series and how it's come together. Do you feel like there's more stories that can be built like this and owners in our series? It's definitely gotten harder. I'd say, you know, where I'm at, it's, I've kind of mentioned a few times, you know, about my faith. I think where I'm at right now, it's one of those things I can very pointily say that, you know, the doors that God's open for me and where I'm at. That's the only reason why I'm at where I'm at today, because if you do the math on paper, you know, you and I both are, you not supposed to work out. Exactly. You and I look at a lot of spreadsheets and budgets and you can typically see a good pattern of, you know, this is going to work and this is not going to

work. And this shouldn't work. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be, probably shouldn't have ever been able to have a chance to race and make it as far as I have. And, you know, just very blessed. and very fortunate and met a lot of people along the way that have been a part of this journey. But I think the biggest thing, and I have a lot of young drivers come up and ask me for advice, and it makes me feel really old at times. They're like, hey, how can we do this? I honestly believe, I mean, it's tougher than it ever has been before, but there's always opportunity out there.

And if you're hungry enough and, you know, you're willing to do the right thing and you're willing to try to do things with integrity. And, you know, that's what I've always kind of believed is if you do the right thing, things usually have a way of falling into place. And people see that and your people that work with you see that. And it's just you try to build that culture around you. But no, I think, you know, it's definitely getting harder. I mean, that's the cup side. I mean, people ask me all the time like, hey, what's next? You ever going to get the cup series? I'm like, well, with the charters nowadays. And I mean, I read all the articles about you guys talking about all the time. It's, hey, you know,

how do you make business sense of it? And it's, that side has definitely gotten tougher. So now it's like, hey, you know, we're going to try to build this program the best that it can be at where we're at right now and continue to grow it and hopefully compete for wins consistently at some point down the road and build it the best we can. If opportunities are there, it might happen, you know. I still tell, this is a funny story I'll tell. There was an opportunity when we started the O'Reilly team, Xfinity team back then. There was a cup team for sale. And I think at the time we could have bought their shop, the hauler, some other things. I think it was like $8 million. And John was like, oh, that's crazy. It'll never be that. And so whenever he like pushes his back against me, I was like, hey, remember

that one time we could have bought that charter for this. Same. We've been in the many of scenarios like that, but you just, yeah, you, you know, you don't know. It is. It is. It is. At the time, it's kind of like buying a house, you know, at the time you can't afford the $400,000 house.

And then all of a sudden, all houses are $400,000 right now if you want to get a starter home, right? Exactly. I mean, I think it's just being, you know, in the moment, in the season, you know, if opportunity to present themselves. Exactly. And you've said this the whole way, you know, you got to do what's right fiscally for your team, where you're growing, what's going to come next, what investment can you make next?

How can you keep taking care of your people? You're doing all of those things, which is why that didn't make sense. Yeah, 100%. You could have done it back then. You might not have made it the first year, you know? So I look at where we're at now and what we've got. I mean, it's, there's a quote that's out there. It's like, remember the days that you pray for what you have now. And so whenever you have a bad day or things aren't going right. And this is not just in race. This is just life in general, it's like, hey, you know, sometimes even your worst days now, you would have killed for those days five or ten years ago. So I think keeping that stuff in perspective and you look at what you got going on and you just kind of make the most of every single day. So that's right. Find the moments of

gratitude. Exactly. They're all around you even when you don't think that things are going right. This is true. And I think in business, that's the biggest thing because, I mean, just like racing, I mean, business, it's, I tell this about racing a lot in football and baseball and soccer. One of the teams usually walks away a winner. And racing, it's not the case. I mean, you know, we're fortunate. We got that win back in 23, but, you know, we haven't won since. And business is the same day. I mean, you can go years and not have a win. You can get knocked down, but it's like, hey, you just got to keep moving forward. I mean, that's the thing that kind of built our team is embrace the journey. That's what we talk about a lot is embracing the journey. And this is an interesting story I'll

share with you. First time I went to Daytona, 2015, this is where Embrace the Journey came from. I'm on top of the world. I got no idea about the truck series. I have a short track truck at Daytona. So everybody around me is probably like, man, the rear end skewed out. Like, it's not. But anyway, we go down there and we practice and we qualify and we miss the show. And I'm sitting there on pit road kind of dejected.

And Mike Midler's truck was right beside ours. And Carl Edwards had come out to pit road and was talking to Mike and car leaned over to me and kind of talked a little bit, asked my story what I was, what I had going on. He said, hey, don't get so caught up. been, you know, the end goal. You have to learn to appreciate the things along the way. He's like, you're here at Daytona, you've got laps at Daytona. How many people would kill just to run a lap at Daytona? You're here. You're on this level. Embrace the journey. You know, learn to appreciate the not the mountaintop, but the journey from the bottom of the top. And that always kind of stuck with

me of embracing the journey of, you know, appreciating the challenge of building something. You know, if you, if you're always so caught up and, hey, I've got to hit this objective, I got to do this, I got to do this. It kind of goes back to what I talked about earlier about never being content. You're just, you're always going to be fighting that. So learning to be happy in the building point, I don't think any business has ever done. Yeah. And you can say it's healthy. It's not the people that are still climbing the mountain are going to come and pass. They're to pull you down. Exactly. So learning, learning to just enjoy the building part is, is really fun. Well, this has been a really cool conversation. I've enjoyed it, Jordan. I've enjoyed learning

a lot about your journey and where you're at. It gives me a lot more appreciation for what you're doing in the sport and who you guys are and I'm going to be a cheerleader from here on out for sure and enjoyed working with you this so far this year and I appreciate you coming on business of motorsport so it's definitely been fun. I appreciate it. We're going to put our best foot forward at Indiana. I know Raj's 17 points out so hopefully we'll have a good run there and we'll get them in so I appreciate it. Thanks for having us on. Hopefully the story's not done. Hopefully we'll come back in a couple years. Yeah, we can come back in a few more years and continue the story. All right. Thank you guys for listening this week on

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