The Dale Jr. Download - Live from Daytona with Jimmie Johnson

Episode Date: February 18, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis are live from the Daytona 500 at the Chevy Experience, joined by 7-time NASCAR Champion Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports VP of Competition Chad Knaus. Jimmie chats about what it's like being back in NASCAR, how nervous he was qualifying and more. Jimmie and Chad also discuss Garage 56 and the car that's being built that will run at Le Mans. 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. I bet somebody ain't come in here and screamed in 30 years, but they used to. They used to. You're going to do it. You're going to win it. Right with you. You're clear. Check a flag.

You're win. The 2004 win is one of my favorites, man. Don't be something. John, I want to see some doughnuts. The first truck to ever paste the 500, Chevy Silverado, I remember coming into this victory lane. I can't believe this. This is fair than the first. This is a Chevrolet experience.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download with my co-host, Mike, we are not at the Bojangles studio. No, we're not. No, we're not. Yeah, so luckily for us, obviously with the Daytona 500 right around the corner, we are in Daytona. And we got a special treat for ourselves and everyone listening today. We're here in, I guess we'll call this the Chevy Studio. The Chevrolet Experience Center. Am I close?

Yeah. Jim Campbell's giving us the nod. So that's what we need. This is a really unique spot in the infield of Daytona. This was where Victory Lane used to be, where I actually celebrated my 2004 win. So, you know, this is where Dad pulled his car into Victory Lane when he won in 1998. So Chevrolet has kind of taken over this space. It's really cool.

They have a great display over the years for the fans to come out and see some really cool cars sitting out here. So I guess, you know, if you're in Daytona for the Daytona 500, it's absolutely something you want to check out. And we've done this before. We've came here and recorded a podcast in the past. We're going to do it again today. You've got some great guests coming on board, Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy Johnson is going to come in here. Yeah, he's going to be in the Daytona 500.

Obviously, Shaggan House is going to join him. These guys, Chevrolet invited us to come do this show. They had a big announcement this past week. They've unveiled a car. They're doing this Garage 56 program, which, you know, I don't know how much you know about Garage 56, but we've got the guys coming in to ask all of our questions. I'm sure our listeners are going to want to know about it.

I'm going to want to know about it. So we've got the car right behind us. Jimmy and Chad are, Jimmy's one of the three drivers. Chad's running point on this project for Hendrick Motorsports. I'm excited to ask them about this thing because they're going to go to LaMalle, race this thing. I don't know. Has Jimmy even been to LaMalle?

I have no idea, but we'll ask him. We'll ask him. He got us here this early. It's 8.30 in the morning. Only Jimmy Johnson has the kind of pull to get us here doing a podcast at 8.30 in the morning. So we might as well just go ahead and put him in the hot seat and grilling. What do you think? Well, I think we definitely got a lot of questions about the car.

I know they've been testing the car. and I you know there is a an excitement around the idea of getting NASCAR and the cup car closer to the you know the potential of running an endurance race right every we you know when the Daytona 24 hours happens every year I'm I'm I instigate the conversation or someone else does about whether NASCAR cup cars could run an endurance race, right? And whether one day maybe that's like kind of the next frontier for our, you know, for NASCAR and our cup level cup level cars and owners and drivers is to somehow find a way to incorporate them into a 6, a 12 or even a 24 hour event. You thought the 600 was a long race. And so now you're going to have, now that you're not full time, you just go ahead and send them into a 12.

It's not a new conversation. It's not. No, it's not a new conversation. And there's people that, you know, there's people there's, you know, Doug Yates believes that the motors would be able to do it. But then there's the naysayers. There's people that say, no, no, the cars don't have lights, couldn't do this. This is a reason why it couldn't happen. This is the reason why it couldn't happen.

But anyways, this, this right here is, you know, the plan to take this car to LaMau. gets them closer, they're going to learn so much to this experience. What will it take, you know, to maybe find a way to get our Cup series schedule. That's my hope, right? I know there's a lot of objectives at play here. There's a lot of things that, you know, obviously a lot of boxes that want to get checked here. But my hope is that this somehow influences NASCAR to find a way to get on this, you know, to become either part of a 24-hour event

or incorporate an endurance race into our own season. Right. And so that would be really fascinating for me as to how that might work. Well, this Camaro Z-O-1 behind us is the step in that direction. I know that there's a lot of technology going into this. I'll be curious to ask Jimmy and Chad,

what are the differences between this Gen 7 car and the one that we will see at Daytona and then the one that's going to go race at Lamont? I think that there are some, you know, looking at just a special. spec sheet. There's some, you know, there's some changes that we want to ask them about, but there is a lot that's the same. There is a lot of components on this car that are the same components they race on Sunday in the Cup Series, which is what you would hope. You know, you don't want the

car to change so much that it's no longer comparable, right? Right. It is very, very similar. Obviously, there are some things that have to change to give the car the ability to go out there and compete in an endurance race, I think that would be an incredibly fun challenge. Yeah. Right? You know, a lot of these teams that are going to go run, whether it's Daytona, whether it's Lamont, C-Bring, wherever it might be, you're going to take a car that belongs to a class. You're going to, you know, all of the things that you know about this class that you're going

to run in, all the things you're going to do this car, they're tried and true, right? You've got teams that have experience to lean on, knowledge from other races. This is really taking something completely new. And what a risk it is, right? That the car can go and withstand everything that it's going to go through. And to me, that's what motorsports is all about. The quote that used to say, you know, when they were teeing up in a event, a test of man and machine.

Yeah, that line right there is what motorsports is about, right? Testing people, right, and testing the equipment. The event, you know, is a true test of machine. Right. Right. And no event is more of a test than LaMalle. And so you're taking something that hasn't raced, hasn't been on a racetrack, hasn't performed under those conditions.

conditions and you've got to hope that all the engineering and all the planning and all the thought process that went into this is going to work. Right. Right. And this thing's going to stay together for the drivers. That's going to be interesting, fascinating to watch. It's a collaborative effort. It's a massive effort.

You've got NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, Goodyear, everybody contributing to this thing. Chevrolet, I asked the question, why Chevrolet? And the fact of the matter is, Chevrolet's got a deep history at LeMont, right? with the Corvette Racing, Cadillac Racing is even back at LaMont. So they've got 20 years of experience at LaMaw, success at LaMaw. This is the group that needs to be doing this. And Chagin House and Jimmy Johnson, I can't wait to get him in there. In fact, you want to just go ahead and bring Jimmy in?

I'm ready. Let's go. Let's bring Jimmy Johnson in. This guy's done well for his life and his career. Let's see. Here you get, Legacy Motors, the Legacy Motor Club guy. Here he is. What's up, but.

What's up, pal? Good morning. How are you? Good to see you guys. Good morning. So thanks for coming, Jimmy. Thanks, buddy. I know it's, you've got a long day.

What's going on today? I haven't even really looked at my calendar very well, very closely. I know that I'm here first. You're going to be busy. I just woke up. I hope everybody can see it. But it was a late night last night with the truck race and all that. Yeah.

I didn't make it to the end of the truck race. No? No. I had me and Amy and I were in the bus and none of us, none of, I was going to watch the last 40 laps and Amy said, no, you're going to turn that off. Janie's not here. I wish she was. I wish she would have shut me down.

I was like, come on, man. We're at the racetrack. So anyhow, yeah, it is an early morning. We want to thank you for giving us a little bit of time because we are so excited to talk about the experience of not only the car behind us, going to LaMalle. We have so many questions about that. We know you've been behind the wheel of the car.

We'd love to talk to you about your experience this weekend, how that's going back in a cup car, back in the cup, you know, back in the cup garage. Let's talk about that first briefly. Does it, does it feel exactly the same? Is it, is even in the short period of time your way, has it evolved and changed a little bit moved beyond what it was? How, how seamless was it for you to come back? The bulk of it is still the same. That was the nice thing about it. From the laps I had in Phoenix, It still is a stock car. Like once it loads up and gets in the turn, you feel the mass, you feel the downforce level,

it's still a stock car. But, you know, there are many nuances that are different. And I think that last little bit to put yourself in the top 15, top 10, top five, you know, just incrementally gets more difficult and more specialized. And it is different. Here at Daytona, I was really surprised how familiar it felt. Like once you got it into high gear, because there's five gears now, it was really, really, really similar. The draft is a little bit different where you position the car,

but the goofy thing off of turn four that happens with the wrong wind direction, that was still there. Getting to pit roads a little bit better with the brakes on the car now and you can get stopped a little easier, but it's still the same dash and light strategy that I had two years ago. So it was nice to have so many things that were familiar and stop thinking like last two years in IndyCar, everything was new. And the whole time I was trying to think through every step that I needed to make. And it's nice to be back into a car where I can just relax on my experience

and really just focus on the part of driving. So one of the things that I feel like would be terribly challenging is the low profile tire, the sensations you get from that tire, where the limit is, how quickly it might slip, how to handle all that.

You've been racing on those tires the last couple of years in Indy car. Is there similarities in that that actually you can pull from your experience in Indy car with that type of tire? Yeah, you're absolutely right. That yaw window or slip window is much smaller.

I'd say it's probably 50% smaller than it was. And then also the new gen, or next gen car, has less side force and certainly doesn't pick up side force in yaw. So once it steps out, it starts to move quickly. But it's slower than the Indy car stepping out. I was good for that first year. I was good for four or five cautions a session. That was backwards a whole time.

And then you can't start it yourself. You've got to wait for somebody to come save your button, start the car up and send you off. That's right. I forgot about that. Okay, so how nervous were you qualified for this race? I was extremely nervous. We didn't get the radio completely sorted out when I left pit lane.

So I go up through the gears and hit my marks, and I pull it into fifth gear. And the RPM is so low because of the drag on the next gen car, I thought a spark plug wire fell off. So I had no clue how it was going, and it felt really slow. And I couldn't talk to anyone. And when I came around on the pylon to look to see where we were, the pylon was like on a commercial page or something. So I didn't know where I was, just freaking out. Then I finally saw my crew, and they were very happy, so I know it was good. That's the thing, man. You'll cross the finish line. This happens all the time. You'll cross

the finish line, even when their crew can talk to you. They're all looking at their stopwatches, looking at their tablets and all that stuff, and nobody's telling you what you ran, right? You're coming around going, well, I wonder if that was good enough. How was it, boys? Somebody tell me where we are. Right? Are we on the pole, last? What's going on? Oh, yeah, the driver. He doesn't know. He doesn't know. Why is that? Why don't they tell you guys anymore?

They just assume we're blown away by that. They're in their moment, high-fiving each other, and they just think the driver automatically knows, and we have no clue. You have no clue. No clue. They assume that we have some gut feeling. Right. Like, I know I laid one down right there.

And that's where I was so thrown off because the RPM change, I felt like it was awful. Like, I had no clue that it was a good lot. So you hadn't had any practice. here in Daytona. Would you have wanted to an hour, 30 minutes? I would. I mean, I get why we don't. But yeah, of course, especially the situation I was in.

Now, if I was driving the 48-card Hendricks still, no chance. I'd love it just as it is. Yeah, because they had, yeah. You can let everybody catch up to you. So with a little bit of time now, you're going to be able to get back on the track, a little bit of practice before the race start. One more practice. What is the objective now that you, you know, you're in your qualifying race?

What are the things that you hope to get to work on in this practice? This practice, we're going to try to get some more single car speed out of it. I think we're going to do a handful of single car runs and see if we can speed the car up. Last night it drove really, really well. And Todd Gord, it's been interesting to work with Todd because we've raced against them all these years. And at Penske, you know, there's a type of car that we think that they build in the way that they drive and the cars push really well and receive a push very well and they handle very well. So that is the case.

And Todd is very focused on that. And coming from Hendrick, we were so worried about speed. We wanted to create our own opportunities to pass and had fast cars. So we've spent a lot of time focused on handling. And last night it really paid off. I had a great driving car hooked up with Chase. The pushing is much like it's always been how you're able to link up and push someone. It's not as comfortable into the corners or into the tri-oval as one would like,

but you can certainly pick up some lap time. And our car did that really well, and we ended up top of the board. But I do feel like when I pull out and try to clear someone and take a spot, that I just kind of stall out a little too quick. So with that in mind, we're going to do some single car runs today and see if we can get a little speed in it. Cool. What do you want to walk away from on Sunday?

What will have you smiling? Winning? Well, obviously, winning the race. No, it's not crazy to think. I think that, you know, obviously you and your experience, that puts you in a great position just because, you know, a lot of guys, Denny Hamlin said it best this week. You'll look into one, but you won't look into two. You won't look into three. You have the ability, the knowledge, everything that you need in terms of the mental attitude to start to race and everything get going.

But, you know, outside of a win, what is going to make you happy? I'm going to take a page out of your book in what you used to tell the team. You just wanted to be in that photo at the start finish line. That's such a great way to put it, which, you know, just being in the race, being around quality racing, quality passes, no mistakes, and just having a shot on that last lap. And obviously with stage racing and the fact that cars are pushing, anybody might be caught up in something out of their own doing. Yeah. Just how it is. So trying to survive.

but I feel like you can't ride in the second pack with this car. You have to stay attached to the main pack. Otherwise, you're going to get dropped and belapsed down. So this car really does require one to race. And if that's the case, you know, you want to be closer to the front of the field and miss the stuff. So that's really our plan. Unfortunately, and I still don't understand how this works out, but finished 14th in the duel, and I'm going to start 39th.

I was confused by this. No one could give me an answer. Half the websites had you start in 29th. the other half had you start in 39th. You finished 14th in the duel, but they got you starting 39th. What's that all about? I have no clue. I still hope it's a typo, but I'm understanding that it's not.

So there's some layer in this that I don't quite understand. Connor Daly's starting five spots in front of you. I can promise you he didn't do better in his duel than you did it yours. Yeah. Cars that I pass that were lapsed down in my duel. Right. They're starting in front of me. So I don't know.

That doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. I even went to Bob Pockras because you got to explain this to me. He's like, well, these guys. these guys had to go get in on time. He had an answer though. He did. You want to hear it?

Yeah, he even sent me the rule book. Then I'd believe it. Don't you wish we could go. If Bob said it's true, I believe. He said, look like a Wikipedia. That would be nice. Man, let's just change this rule right now.

Let's get on our phone. He said, Jimmy wasn't top driver in duel and got his spot on speed so he starts 39th. The last row is the two drivers who got in on speed. Everyone else is where they finished in their duel. To which I said, well, then why did Jimmy have to race in the duel then? If you knew he was going to start in the back. I heard something that if I didn't race,

and the duel. I don't know, that wouldn't have worked out. I think it had something to do with where Zane finished ahead of me in our race that sent it into this mode. Yeah, Dale, this is what you go change the rule.

Had you been the first guy? Uncreddered car. I think I would have had myself. You held your spot. Correct. Interesting. I know. You could go change that with that car.

You can do it. You can do it. I don't love the way all that plays out. I'm with you. I wish it was much simpler, you know, but anyhow, Now, is what it is. Let's talk about, one of the things, though,

does it, have you thought about the fact that, like, you don't have to, you mentioned the stages, right? You don't have to worry about where you're going to finish in a stage. A lot of guys may feel some pressure about, oh, I got, I need a stage point. I'm in 12th. Maybe I could do this or that and the other and get me a couple points at the end of the stage. You don't have any concerns over that at all. Does that, you know, I miss, I miss being able to, like, drop.

the green and what do I need to do to get to the checkered. I never have to, you know, worry about where I was at stage one or two. And now all of the drivers in the field, that, that's a factor into their day. Yeah, that's a concern and something that takes their kind of, you know, focus off of the ultimate prize where you don't have to worry about that. Is that kind of a nice bit of relief? It is. And even when I had to worry about stage points, I was terrible at getting them. So I'm glad that I don't have to worry about it. I never won a stage. In the one year that we race for stage wins, I never. I never. I'm glad that I never. I'm glad that I never. I'm glad that I I never got one of those green.

I think I got one in the infinity race, and I have it boxed up and mounted in my house. My only stage win in my career. Amazing. Well, I think, you know, because I believe that that's something where you can take advantage in terms of how you pit the race, the strategy you call. You don't need to put yourself in a situation to try to gain those points, and that could be an advantage down the road with Todd. I'm sure he's thinking about that. And as the strategy changes throughout the race, that could play in your hands. Let's talk about Garage 56.

When did you hear about this idea, or when did you get the call, I say, about maybe possibly being a driver for the car? I think I was in early conversations and understanding the project, and as it was coming along, I've been very fortunate to be able to help develop the car before the driver lineup was announced. Driving at Action Express over the last few years in their MSA program, I was able to hear a few rumblings of what was coming on. course the long relationship I've had with Chevrolet. So very thankful to be considered from the beginning and to understand the development of the program, be a part of the development of the program. Then obviously Mike Rockenfeller has, we've shared a car through Action Express in the

MSSys series and Mike has been kind of the cornerstone from the driver's side and developing the car. So it's been an amazing experience, one that I'm truly excited for and look forward to representing, you know, all the partners so proudly. showing France and all the motorsports world what one of these cars are capable of. Yeah. If anybody out there just doesn't know what we're talking about when it's garage 56, and the layman's turns, how do you describe that to somebody that needs to know?

So from the way, I haven't read the exact classification of it, but at the 24 hours of La Man, you have all the categories that we know of, but they have an additional category for a car that, kind of a new technology car, something that hasn't been seen or done, something that they approve and they only allow one car in the field to do so.

So of course, NASCAR and everyone has been through the steps to present the car on the project to the folks in La Maugh and they've accepted. And I don't know if we formally have the invite yet, but we're feeling like it's coming. We feel good about it, don't we? But obviously the project started, the car development has happened. I think we're, I think we have four cars now in the pipeline that have been developed. original one that action had that I think for Hendricks building three

of course we need to take a backup car over there the way that it works in NASCAR so it's just been amazing to watch this thing grow and turn into what it has and we leave here after the 500 and head to Sebring to do our 24 hour simulation test so all right so there's

four cars that get built total and one will be the final version and then there'll be a backup car what happens? What are the other two? Are there just older versions that are outdated and obsolete? Yeah, I think so, especially as the, you know, through the chain of building each car. I think the final two would be the same, but we didn't have a rulebook to necessarily follow, but we certainly want the DNA of a NASCAR vehicle to head over there. You know, the NASCAR vehicle versus a GT car, it goes down the straightaway really, really well.

the cornering with the amount of down force and how light the GT cars are. You know, that's where we wanted to make sure that we had some performance and could be on pace with those folks. So literally the fuel cell location in this car is in a different place to help with balance and the longevity of the car over a stint. It's more centered in the race car. This car has been put on a huge diet, so it's, you know, hundreds of pounds lighter than a traditional NASCAR vehicle. And then the amount of down force it has, you know, it's, you know, it's a lot of, you know, It's significantly more around double the downforce, which has made it extremely fun to corner on the brakes, too. It has carbon fiber brakes.

So I would say it's much closer to an IndyCar and what I've experienced the last few years in IndyCar racing than an NASCAR vehicle. What are the limitations like what you can't do? Was there anything that y'all wanted to do the car where they're like, man, you can't, you're not allowed to have that? No, that's kind of been the beauty of it. And it's been hard for us to recognize that at times because you think you have to go through templates or not templates anymore, but you go through the Hawkeye machine

or all the different details that you have to worry about, but you don't. It's really just been, I think, our efforts of keeping the NASCAR DNA in the vehicle. Something's very important to Chevrolet, a NASCAR, everybody involved. I mean, it really needs to be a NASCAR vehicle heading over there. What do you think the objective?

If you put one objective at the very top of this, What is the main objective for Chevrolet for NASCAR? I know you guys want to go and finish the race, have a great experience, but what is like the overall reaching goal for this? Yeah, I truly feel like a certain level of performance and going the distance. I do feel like with the pace we've seen, we'll be in the mix with the GT cars, which I think will impress many. But I think the ultimate goal is to really make the 24 hours clean, safe,

you know, no issues and to really show that we've been able to go around the clock with the rest of the field. Do you think that this is a one-off deal or is it something that develops into something more? I don't know what the long-term plan is, but you haven't asked that question? I have not, no. I disagree. I bet he has. I know he has. You know, when you announce your end of the room that might have to answer.

I don't have to have it, though. Listen, you came on our show a few years ago and said you were thinking about, you'll figure out retirement. and then like a week later he announced his retirement from NASCAR. Then in the Indy car, he announces retirement and says, you know, I'm thinking about Lamont probably, maybe. I'll do something like that. And then we're like, of course he'd, and now with lining it all up. You are well ahead.

You're just playing like, you know, playing cool about it. For myself, I know what I love to. You've got your next five Lamont artic book. You've got them all booked out. You've got them scheduled. I bet. No, I'd love to do five trips to Lamont. That would be amazing.

But I don't have that part baked out yet. But, you know, I think the car itself, you know, it really, I don't see how we build many more of these. It is a very specialized vehicle for the race at LaMaw. That being said, I'm probably going to be incorrect, and maybe there's a category next year of these cars in LaMaw. There's a guy named Chaginouse. Chaginous can make it happen, right?

He can build these things. Yeah, he can. Is he here, by the way? Tell him just to come out. Let's get him out here. You've got to leave in a few minutes. You've got to leave in a few minutes. What's up, buddy?

Morning. This must be a big deal. A deal is not a business really? Oh, my gosh. You know what? You can't escape those jokes, can you? You'll never be able to escape them. This is just like a Hendrick Motorsports meeting, right?

Back in the days. Certainly. You've got to line them up. Oh, my goodness. I've lost my little foamy thinger. Good morning. We're trying to get Jimmy to just go ahead and admit that he's got his next five, six years of Lamar racing and that you've already built all these cars out and that this is the plan.

We like to do it at last minute, you know. Let's just go ahead and try to get this done in a bunch. of years time and see what we can make happen so we wait to the last minute. Here it sounds like a lot of time until you get in the middle of it and you realize it's not. Yeah. Indeed. It goes by fast. It does. So quickly. Talking to Jimmy about the garage 56 car and everything that he's experienced so far,

we were asking about what the overall objective is. Now, take performance, take the race. We know you want to run all the laps finish, cross the finish line. hopefully error-free, have a great race. But what is like the purpose for going and doing this? Yeah, honestly, Dale, we want to try to really showcase what NASCAR race cars capable of doing and put that out there in front of the world to see it. I think we have a reputation of being a non-technical sport, and F1 is highly technical,

which it is. We all understand that. But quite honestly, I think people, once they see what we've done with the car, see how we built the car, they're going to realize that the technology in a NASCAR race team is pretty amazing. And that's what they want to do. Just showcasing what our cars are capable of. Yeah, man. That's what's what's all about? What has been the reaction so far to this car? He's a NASCAR cup guy, but we have non-NASCAR

Cup teammates and so forth. What has been the reaction to the Lamont world to this car so far? I think it's been overwhelming. Honestly, a lot of positivity. Jensen, he's a hoot. Jensen, he hopped in the car. We were in Sebring testing a couple weeks ago, and he's like, this is a proper race car. This thing's awesome, right? And we had all of our engineers there

and our telemetry systems, and the car was all kidded out with the data acquisition system, and he thought that was pretty impressive. Rocky's been very supportive, and he's been in it since the very initial start, like the grind, man. Like he's worked a lot on that car. So I think it's been received well.

I think when we go over there, it's really going to be interesting. to see the performance levels because we don't know. Lamas such a unique track. You know, it's five super long straightaways. You know, so how we get through those straightaways, how we manage the high speed curves, how we do that there. That's where the true test is going to come into play.

Three of the straightaways used to be one. That's how long the straightaways are. Have you guys been over there? I have not. Chad's a couple times. A couple times. All right. It's amazing, right?

There's nothing like it. No, it's such a, unique place. Actually, last year I walked to the track, 8.3 miles. And it's just amazing. As you're going down the Mulsan Strait, it's like going down a back road in Concord, North Carolina. It's like going down Highway 73 in Concord at night. Just a regular road, small apron, and straight away as long as you can see, and you're flying down there. So it's really pretty awesome. And it's public roads back there until the day before test day. And then they come in and lay out the guardrails and put up all the barriers and the fences and all that stuff. So people are literally

driving on that street the day before you start to race. And then it transitions into a proper racetrack. And the front straightaway is just epic. It just stands on both sides and the garages and the suites and the cars and the pick crews. It's just really, really awesome. So if you could, I don't know if you'd be able to, you know, officially say, but like from the moment you had the first you know version of the car to now about how much if you took those cars to Sebring about how much time have you gained how much how much how much how much speed have you improved over the over the time that you started with this car we've picked up I guess from where we started with this car I would easily say three seconds a lap time I think right

now we're probably we're actually going to be testing with the cup cars in Coda in a couple weeks with wheel force transducer cars. So we'll get a good back to back on the performance level from a proper cup car to to our little car repair binds. What are some of the things? Hold tight real quick. We've got to cut Jimmy Luce here a minute. Because you got a meeting to go to.

Yeah, got a busy morning. Perfect. So just I want to make sure that we say that so he can have a proper exit before we get out of here. You want to let him go? Well, I want to ask you one question before we let you go. You got Jensen Button and Mike Rock and Fellar. Yep. As your drivers.

And our coach Jordan Taylor. Your coach Jordan Taylor. What an eclectic group here you have, Chad. You see the video he put out last year? I saw it, yeah. I'm glad Jensen looks far worse than I do in that situation. Just tell us what we can expect out of this group. Who's good at what?

What are your specialties? And then you've got to go to a meeting. We're all very talented in our own ways. Jordan wins for digital content. Jensen is just always got the wit. What would you say about Rocky? He's a German. That's that, right?

True and true, man. It's real. Great balance of directness and humor. And clearly stands on the gas, and then I'll let other people say what they want to say about me. Okay, I think we will, actually. We will. I'm sure you will.

Thank you for stopping by. Thank you, guys. I'll go ahead and figure out the rest of the car for you. We'll let you know what we decide. Let me know how many years I have on the Lamont program. everybody thank uh jimmy johnson thank you everybody thank you guys good to see my man see you buddy oh okay switch seats and chad uh do you have uh hard out here you got a few minutes you can hang with us yeah you got a couple of us here okay so have you've been

you've been involved in the car from the very beginning i have i have and so what was um what was probably the the biggest performance upgrade from a traditional cup car? The weight or carbon brakes? Oh, boy. There's... Downforce? Yeah. What's the one thing you both on there?

There's not one thing, and Dale, you've raced along enough that you understand this. This has been a situation to where we've taken the DNA of the cup car and said, okay, let's blow this thing apart and attack it individually. It's got the composite discs, like you had mentioned, with the brakes. It's got a NASCAR V8 style block, but then, and it's got the ECRE individual port injection. It's got all the downforce stuff. The underwing on the car produces about twice as much downforce

as what we've got on the cup car. The car in totality is about two times what we race in the cup series as well. So it's got a tremendous amount of downforce compared to the car that we're racing right now. The weight is a big deal. Worked really closely with NASCAR and Delara. And if you look at the car,

it looks like, you know, same front clip, similar rear clip, same center section, but if you really start to interrogate it, it's not. You know, the composite interior panels are a lot lighter than the steel. The front clip is welded with lighter tubing, so there's a lot of stuff like that. I was wondering how y'all were finding ability to remove weight from the car, because, I mean, traditionally, the way they build the cup cars, there isn't a ton of lead. You know, you're going to be able to find all that weight you need. Are you just kind of up against the barrier now? I think it's at 2,900 and something pounds?

It's, it's, it's, it's, we kind of run out of. Run out of options on where to find ways to take weight off the car? Well, we're probably out of ways to take weight right now, unless we start to eliminate things. So that's going to be tough, but we're still working to find some down for us. Greg Ives and I were chatting yesterday, and we found about 25 counts more CL that we think we can put on the car, which is good. So we're going to be making some more bits for the car to try to make it a little bit better from a handling standpoint, a little bit more aerial efficient. So Greg, you mentioned that name. Everybody knows Greg.

He's a cup crew chief for years, and I worked with him. You worked with him as an engineer when you won championships with Jimmy. What's his excitement over working on this program this year? He's really excited about it. Obviously, stepping back from full-time crew chiefing, and he still wants to, excuse me, he still wants to race. So he's going to work on our Xfinity cars, and he's going to do this project for us,

and he was kind of thrust into it. I was like, okay, I'm super busy. I need somebody to help me out. And so Greg and Ben Wright really stood up, and Greg's been grinding it out, man. Like, he's doing setups. He's doing simulator time. He's trying to figure out how to manage four

and four drivers for 24 hours and driver stints and all of that. And you know drivers. Nobody ever wants the same thing. So every time a driver gets out, this driver wants this bit. And then this driver wants another bit. And Greg's like, these are a lot of bits. And I'm like, yep, put those bits together and we'll go racing. So he's learning how to navigate that.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to do it now for a couple years on the sports car side. So I've kind of gotten familiar with it. I'm like, look, it'll work out. So his eyes were pretty big initially, but he's definitely getting his arms around it. Yeah. He's doing great. Does the sanctioning body, the AOC is the sanctioned body of this. The ECO.

Yes, there you go. Yep. Are there rules for this garage 56 entry? There are. There are. They're mainly from a safety standpoint and a race configuration standpoint, right? So we've got a Morelli system in the car, which all the cars over there have. And they kind of let you know what's happening on track where the safety and the speed zones are and how to do

all of that. All that's got to be put in the car, clearly, headlights and taillights, safety, seat belts. We have to, if you look at the roof of the car, there's two pins in the roof. We've got to be able lift the car up with a crane. Wow. Right. So there's, there's a lot of those things that they're mainly focused on. The rest of it is, is kind of been open. That sounds like a checking house dream. Man, I'm telling you, if we could have just taken it. If I may say so. It was amazing. Okay, safety. Yeah, we all need rules for safety. But everything else is an empty. It's just an open canvas for you? Are you kidding? Hold on. We still had restrictions, right? We wanted to keep the Camaro body, you know, which is beautiful and I think it looks awesome.

We wanted to keep it looking like a NASCAR car, right? So if you look at the uprights, they're basically the same upright, but a little different, right? And if you look at the wheels, they're basically the same wheels, but a little different, right? Like, it would take even a good NASCAR guy to look at this car and see the things that are different. Like, we really tried hard to keep the car looking like a proper NASCAR car. Yeah. So what, I have an agenda in my mind. Probably different than everybody else is in the room. I've always wanted there to be some connection between endurance racing and NASCAR. And I really didn't feel that way until I started coming to the 24 hours of Daytona races the last couple of years.

And I was like, why can't we figure out a way to either have endurance racing in NASCAR or become. some component to the 24 hours of Daytona. And so do you, I know that that's not the intent of this program, but does that create that fantasy in your own mind about, man, you know, six hour of in NASCAR or a stock car class in the 24 hours of Daytona some year down the road. Does this get us closer? Oh, absolutely. And I think that you'd be shocked how many people are saying that.

You know, we need to get a NASCAR car in the 24 hours of Daytona, and I'm like, let's get through Lamofford. But I think that endurance racing, I didn't really get it, to be honest with you, until Mr. Hendrick asked me to go work with Jimmy on the 24-hour race two years ago with the Action Express Cadillac. And I was blown away. Now, trust me, I was up for 42 hours straight, and I was dog tired when it was all said and done. But what a neat experience, right? You talked about the different drivers we have on this program. I showed up at Daytona, and again, I was just doing strategy. And I was working with Kamoui Kobayashi from Japan, Jimmy, Mike Rockenfeller, and Simon Pajunod.

So we got French, Japanese, German, El Cajon, California. And oh, yeah, by the way, the engineer was from Scotland. So I was like, whoa. What is going on right now, right? I'm just used to NASCAR one-on-one type thing. So I think, you know, the diversity that we have in sports car racing and showing this is really growing that idea of, hey, I want to drive a NASCAR. You know, you see Kimi-Riking and driving last year at Watkins Glen. We saw Rocky drive at Watkins Glen.

There's been rumors of other folks coming this year. So what we've got is an amazing product, right? And we all know how close and competitive it is. That's what they want. You know, our car, we don't have a BOP because we do our BOP on the front of the. side and it's a different type of culture. So it's a really fun class. Yeah, I think I even, I think even me, I'll be surprised or shocked at how much interest

this will create for NASCAR outside of our little, you know, our little world. I think that this is going to really, I mean, a lot of people will be seeing a stock car for the first time. Yeah. Over in, over in LaMalle. You've been over there to some of those races. I've heard stories about it, help us understand. About me?

No. About the race. Sorry, yeah. That kind of did sound. That didn't make it all the way back, did it sound like that. I knew a thing or two. I heard that, you know, so Lamont is this old town or small town, right, in France. And they have kind of like a tech inspection slash parade of the cars down Main Street.

A week or during the week before the race. It's an incredible thing to see. It really is. It's such a show, and it's really neat. I hope NASCAR doesn't hear about it because I don't know if I want to do it every single week. But, yeah, so you go through and shoot, it skips me right now what it's called. John, what? Scrutinering. There you go. Scrutonering. Scrutonering. That's what they call it. That's what's called. Man, that's amazing. That's what they need to change the NASCAR tech inspection. Scrutonering. Going through scrutiny. Yep, yep. So it sounds funny when you say, hell. Yeah, I'm sure.

Everything does. So what they do is you unload when you get there at the racetrack in La Maugh. Remember, everything is shipped over there, especially for us because, you know, the folks in the United States. So you unload these big semi-containers, they go into the garage area. We put up wallboards and get all of our equipment set up. And then shortly there afterwards, you load your race car, everybody does, onto a flatbed-style truck, drive it down to the middle of La Maugh, you know, and whatever number it is. I don't know exactly how they pick the cadence.

And the team is there, and the car goes through inspection right there in the middle of the lawn. It's fenced off, and it's huge fanfare, and the folks are there, and they're drinking wine and eating cheese and doing the things that they do. Kids running around all over the place. It's amazing. It's magical. It's really cool. In my mind, this is happening like at night, like 10 o'clock at night.

Is it all day long? It's all day long. Yeah, all day long. And there's how many entries that have to go through this process? Oh, there's 60-something entries. Yeah. So, and then what they do is later on in the week, they have a huge parade. So they put the drivers in all these cool cars, and they run down through the middle of town,

and the drivers are, you know, throwing key chains and whistles and T-shirts and all that. It's amazing. I can't imagine. I can't imagine what type of reaction this car will get when it goes through that process, because it being, it's a unique, you know, special, you know, invite for this race, and it'll have a spotlight on it like no other. I have to think so. And the other thing that's so unique is like even if you put this car next to the Corvette,

it dwarfs the Corvette. Like the Corvette is tiny. This thing's massive, right? So I don't know there's a car this big in Europe, honestly. So when this thing shows up, people are going to be like, holy smokes. Look at the size of this car. And then when you light it up, man, it's going to shake the walls, right? And it's going to be awesome.

So where are we in the process? I think this is the latest iteration of the car, right? Jimmy said there's going to be a total of four. So have you built the one? He must think he's getting one. Okay, got it. He said there's four versions that will be built. Well, maybe he's, yeah, kind of, not really.

You tell us, tell us, I don't want to say he's completely wrong, but he's not completely right. Basically, we've got number one here. This is G56,001. we're in the process of building G56002. 002 is the car that we intend to race in LaMaw. This car will be the backup car. Now, again, we're working through all of this stuff. We're going to test this car next week, Monday and Tuesday,

and Sebring for 24 hours. We're going to take you one one-hour break for lunch on Monday afternoon. Then we're going straight to 11 p.m. the next day. And then we're... Sorry? Will you have all three drivers, obviously? We're going to have all four. Name all four drivers.

So we got Jensen, Rocky, Jimmy, and Jordan our coach. Okay. And so are you going to have... The digital content grid. Are you going to have the line... The way that they run that test, is that the planned at this time? That's the plan... The cadence of how that...

No, not yet. What determines all that? I mean, well, it's a little different. We want Jordan to run at least one stint at night, or a double stint at night just to get his feedback because he's got so much experience at LeMont, especially with this type of racing that we feel like it's important to have him do some night running.

He's going to run just a little bit during the day, let the other guys drive the majority of the day. When you go over there, the other thing it's a little unique is nighttime is really short. Is that right? Because of the time of the year. It's kind of like when we're in Michigan or New Hampshire. You know, it gets late, really, really late,

and the sun comes up really, really early, right? So we will work on our drive. schedule to try to make sure that the drivers are most comfortable. The guys are most comfortable at night. We want to make sure that they're in the car at night. And the guys that maybe, you know, don't like it as much. We don't want them in there. And another thing, as you know, from your sports car racing is twilight and daybreak is really tough, right?

You know, the sun's just coming down. Is the sun's just coming up? Right. So we got to make sure that the guys are comfortable in those spaces. So with one car, the only car in one class, what is qualifying? What is all that? Yeah. How do you all go through?

You know, quite honestly, I don't know exactly how that's all going to shape. up right now. You'll just probably go out and do the thing. Make a couple laps and see what happens to. And who decides, I mean, they're all going to be arguing over who gets to do that, you know. Oh, do you mean the drivers? Yeah.

We're not going to let them argue over. Just tell them. Yeah, would they be arguing over who gets to start the race? Yeah. Who gets to finish the race? Yeah, I mean, all that stuff's going to work out. Well, the thing is, is that, you know, the thing. That's probably the one thing that's probably the toughest.

This is what I'm saying. car from from it's the drivers imagine it's all about emotions right you know i want to do this i want to do that but i did in again but they're awesome guys sure they're awesome they're some of the classiest drivers i've ever worked with in my life um they all understand and get what we're trying to do and that's represent our partners with uh you know real style you know you know the hendrick style and what we do we want to be on point we want to go and we want to run we want people to be impressed with what we do We've got a tremendous amount of people working on this from every aspect. Chevrolet, NASCAR, Goodyear, EMSA.

You know, I mean, it is really going full on. We've got about 10 full-time folks working on this project right now, and then everybody else on the company has had their hands in on it, right? And then the NASCAR engineering staff, the Goodyear staff, I think we went to, where was it, we went a couple weeks ago, see here. We were here, and I think they had like 600 tires. Yeah.

That opened up the next round of questioning. So what has been tire development? Was there a tire already sort of targeted in terms of something similar that they ran, maybe at Indy or something they've done in endurance racing before? How did you develop this tire? Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but it's wider. And so when we started this thing, it was just going to be on the standard NASCAR tire. And we were like, man, we need to, we got to continue to up the performance.

right so we we got to work worked with bbs on a wider wheel and NASCAR came uh good year came back with an inch and a half wider rear tire a whole new tire a whole new tire a whole new front tire so they changed the carcass shape they change the sidewall construction so they've done an awful lot to to get this tire where it is right now we're pretty pleased with it and a new rain tire so they have to build they have to build a rain tire just in case yeah right and so this is an one-off one-spec tire Indeed. That they have created. Yep.

My goodness. So how many of those, I mean, they've got to ship all these overseas. I mean, how many tires do you think you even know? I don't even know right now. We haven't gotten to that point. My goodness. You know, our runtime is going to vary a little bit. I think we're probably going to be in the 50-minute range for runtime.

Which is a little bit longer. So you'll probably get more stints out of your tires maybe. Yeah. So I know you're having, you'll take a backup car. right and so there'll be a physical car there but what as far as components i think that's where jimmy got four so we're going to have another rear clip another front clip uh bolt on ready ready to rock and roll well some different stages depending upon what we're going to need complete body work set up we'll have two additional complete body panels minus greenhouse we get to the greenhouse we probably

don't worry about that um just be straight right sure um so we've we've got a lot of components in And it's that stuff. And it's real in the world. We all know this from a manufacturing standpoint. Getting components and components manufactured right now is a challenge, especially low bits. Like if you're only doing one or twos, like a lot of companies move those priorities down. So if you're doing 500, people are like, yeah, let's get it built, right? So it's hard to kind of get this whole thing fit in because this has been truly a passion project as opposed to a manufacturing project.

So a lot of one-offs, a lot of, okay, we need to go run the upright, make sure. it works. Okay, now we'll make more. The dampers. Dampers are brand new. One-offs, right? So, like, okay, let's run the dampers, make sure they can handle the loads. All right, now let's get sets, spares, twos and threes, right? So all of this stuff takes time. Why did you have to make new dampers? Why were the dampers? These are lighter and they were able to run bump stops and different things like that. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. Let me tell you something. I was on the back straightaway here watching this car go through the back straightaway chican, the Lamauches came back there.

And it's nuts how fast it goes through there. It's nuts. It was going through there almost as fast as the Corvette GT3 car when it was here. I don't know if I can say that. Can I say that? Jimmy. I just leaked it. How's that?

And it wasn't quite as fast, but it's so big and it goes through there so well. I've never seen a cup car transition through that sequence of turns as well as what this did. Yeah. When I'm watching the race, what a match? What? Like that's the Thunderbirds flying over for those I wonder who's in there I know Jimmy went for a ride Noah went for a ride yesterday but I'm sure they got

somebody strapped in there one of the cup hopefully they've got a cup driver strapped in there when I'm watching the race right you're I'm I'm going to be excited to see the car out there I'm going to be thrilled to see how you know how how how how it gets to the finish line I know that's going to be sort of like the one thing that is a bit of an anxiety for everyone as the race goes on. What are some of the things, I guess, that you might try to pick up on that as I'm watching the race I could pay attention to. Where do you hope the performance lines up with? What other class do you think would be, okay, we're pretty competitive with this car.

This is a good thing. Yeah, the GT class over there is really pretty. pretty diverse. Got a lot of manufacturers, a lot of different levels. And we're targeting a lap time that's going to be not as fast as the fastest guys. That's just truly unrealistic. But we want to try to be in the mix of this thing. And, you know, and I don't want to say an OEM, but, you know, some are faster than others.

Let's just be honest, right? And as the race gets going and you get all these cars on the racetrack, there's a lap time that we'd like to try to be in. And that's around just under four minutes a lap. Just under four. Yeah. So if we can get in that range. I think we're all going to be pretty pleased in race trim throughout the meat of it. And that's what a lot of the guys run it in the normal race over there in this class.

In the testing that you've done, have you been happy with tire degradation and how that's? We're working on it. We've got such a big car, heavy car. It's going to beat the tire up a little bit more maybe. It does for sure. But we've worked really hard. It's got traction control, right? So we're working through all of that.

The tire itself, we've got a really important test coming. in next month, early next month, with... That one's really having a good time. With the 002 car, where we're really going to hone in on the tire. It's a little bit more representative of what we're actually going to be racing at LaMalle, because here, when you test, you've got so much load going through the corners, right? Just the vertical load and lateral loading. It's not indicative of what you're going to have.

So the margins that you put in from a safety standpoint, at this track aren't what you're going to need to do over there. Same with Sebring. Sebring is just so bumpy and so rough. You just abuse the car and abuse the tires so much. It's not really indicative of what we're going to have over there. So the COTA test is really where we're going to kind of get honed in on there. Listen, I can't imagine you preparing this project and also cars to sit on the front road for the Daytona 500.

I mean, talk about multitasking. That is an impressive feat. Congratulations on all that. Thanks. Okay. I know you've got to get out of here soon. but just go ahead and tell us what we can expect tomorrow from the Hendrick camp. We're really excited.

Our cars performed well in the one qualifying races. You know, the 48, he got, you know, his car was really super trimmed out. He got a couple good shots, and he was like, I think I'm just going to make sure we start this race with this car. Right. But he looked really good yesterday in practice, so I was really excited about the 48. The 5 and the 9 look great. The 24 looked really good. I feel like, you know, we missed it on the pit cycle with the 24 in the qualifying race.

If we hadn't done that, he would. have been in position to win that race. He was right in the mix of it. So we made some maybe wrong calls on how we pitted theirs. But I think our car's going to be pretty good. And you know, as well, as anybody, this race, it turns into an endurance race most of the time. You know, who can make it? Who's got the longevity? Who can have a good car at the end of the race that's capable of going fast? You know, if you get to the end of this thing and you've got all four corners on it and everything's lined up straight, you got a shot because there's so many cars that are going to be beaten up and banged up and torn up. You know, I hate to say it, but the reality is we usually

finish this race with about 20 cars. And not all of those are in great shape. Yeah, the Daytona 500 is the longest 500 mile race they'll run this year. It's so tough. It is so hard. It is. Well, man, we appreciate you coming by and talking to us a little bit. We're so excited about Garage 56.

Thanks for giving us some insight and what to look forward to. Good luck this weekend. Good luck tomorrow. Thanks, sir. And we hope you put a Chevrolet and Victor Lane. All right, man. Thank you, sir. Chad and ass, everybody.

Thanks, Chad. See, pal. Take care. All right. I feel like we just got a master's class in Garage 56. I'll tell you what. What do you think? But we're going to have a Q&A real quick in a second,

but what do you think about all that? Well, I think we got some questions answered. I'm sure if I sat here for another couple hours, I'd think of some more things that I'd want to know about the car and the experience. You know, it is what I guess I learned, it is what it is. It's kind of an old throwback vibe. about doing something because you can. Yeah.

You know what I mean? There's an opportunity at LaMalle to take an experience or to have, you know, they have this one available open for an idea. And we've seen that before at LaMalle where cars have shown up and they're just one-off experiences that are unique. So Chevrolet stepped in and said, we'd like to have that, you know, we'd like to take that opening. We're going to bring something, we're going to bring a cool experience over there

and try something that has never been tried before. That's not entirely true. Cup cars have raced at Lamont before. That's right. NASCAR's had a presence, Bill France, back in the 70s, took some people over. Herschel McGriff in 1970s. Certainly not to this extent. I mean, those were true, full-blown cup cars with a couple headlights taped on.

but so this will be you know I think no better time than now with with with with how the next-gen cars came into NASCAR how much development engineering technology that's bolted into that car this is a perfect time for us to get snuggle up a little bit closer to that that endurance racing that's right um which I think it's incredibly fascinating I'm just looking forward to it can't wait to turn the TV on and lock in for 24 hours hours and see how they do. Listen, this was Jim France's idea. And when I grilled everybody around, like, was this really Jim Francis idea? It was Jim France's idea. This is coming straight from NASCAR from the top. And then they go get the best manufacturer to go lead the charge. They go with Hendrick Motorsports to go build these things. They get good year involved. They get all the

people, everybody that's involved in this to go do this right. Here comes an air raid. So with all these tightens in the industry, all collaborating on this, man, it is exciting to watch. I can't wait. This is racing at its core. Man and machine, like you said, the test of man and machine. They will be tested. They will. Even with all of the preparation that we're hearing about,

the various versions of the car, the improvements, the gains, the track time, there will still be a lot of questions unanswered when that race begins, and it will be a true experience for this team trying to get through that race. Well, best of luck to them. a couple real quick notes. We're going to put this podcast out today. So anybody for the Dale Jr. download feed, you can find this live Dell Jr. download from Daytona from the Chevrolet Experience Center on that, also on our YouTube page.

I always like to end these live shows with a little bit of Q&A. If there's anybody, we have an audience here. The audience is about 20, 30 people. And if there's anybody that just has always had something they want to ask Dell, by all means, here you go. We've got the band right here. Go ahead. And I can repeat it if we can't hear.

So when tennis goes to Wimbledon, and they say there's Bill Jr. Are you kidding me? Yeah. I'm there. Let's do the show in the garage area. That'd be a delight. That'd be, I'm there.

Yeah, let's go. Dude, are you serious? That'd be fantastic. Is this on EMSIS Bill? So, yeah, let me see. say for our audience at home. Mike's like, who's favorite? We've just been invited to go to Lamont.

Do you want, is this on Emses' bill? Is this how this works? Or is it, are we going to send an invoice to Chevrolet? Hey, we can do that. On the garage 56. All right, garage 57. Well, Chad Gnows could pay for it. So, listen, yeah, that would be amazing.

Listen, the scrutineer, what's it called? Scrutonering. Scrutonering. Do y'all need some help? We can scrutineer. You speak French? I can learn. I took two years.

Well, it was the same class back to back. I finally passed it. We speak French, yeah. I know croissant. Yeah. I can count the 20 maybe. In French? Yeah.

I can count the 12. Yeah. I can. I need to hear. Dude, I'm not going to do it. Do it right now. No? I probably will get it so bad.

But I can. I took French in high school. So I might, you know, some things may make sense. You went to six. 17 different high schools. I mean, like, I can't even imagine you. Come on, Mike. What an incredible gesture.

And I, as a growing up as a race fan all my life, the idea of going to LaMaw has been on my bucket list. And I've wanted to go so badly. And Ron Fellows, a driver for the Corvette, program for years and an incredibly great friend of mine, just an incredible great person, has invited me and asked me to go and we couldn't never really get it lined up. And I'm just like, one of these days I'm going to get there because it is to me one of the most important motorsports events in our history, right, in the world. So we would love to go.

So we got to, we're going to, we're going. Well, I should have asked this at the beginning. When is the Lamar race? Like, we need to know. I've got, we've got to go run our schedule by, we've got to get permission and hall passes. When is this? June 10th and June 11th, right?

Starts June 10th and June 11th. Okay. Okay. We're going. We're going. All right. We're going, guys. I think that's it.

We're going to Lamont. Let's do that. Right. Look at my production crew. They're being like, you know, you're going to need help. We need to do more Q&As, Mike. Yeah, we do. This one's starting off good.

Forget Chad and Jimmy. Why didn't we even bring those fools in here? Should have just started there. All right. Thank you. Okay, is there anything else in here? Try to top it if you want. No one else is going to ask a question.

No. Who else wants to invite us to cool places? Anybody? No. Todd? Nothing? Okay. He says no.

Okay. Well, let's end on that. No kidding. Man, what an amazing deal. Cool. I, you know, I'd love to be there in person to see the car and again we you know talking to the scrutiny going into la ma the town and seeing uh how how they do racing right how they how they how them all happens yeah um will be an incredible experience firsthand

uh and something that you know every we tell people all the time man you got to go to the daytona 500 you got to go to the indy 500 you know you if you're a motor sports fan these key events you have to experience at some point in your life and so how about that man we might get we're going to get a chance to actually go do it think about this we started the year Dale and I talking about entering the 24 hours of lemons yeah right do y'all know about this race the tour the lemons race where you only pay like 500 bucks that's still that's still thing still thing we may hit lemons and lamar all in the same year gosh almighty that's that's uh yeah that's that's that's the that's the that's the that's the there's There's Daytona 500, Lemons and Lamar, right?

Indy 500, maybe we do that. Well, thank you guys. Listen, thank you to Chevrolet for having us do this again. We did it in 2020. It was a blast. We're back here in 2023 at the Chevrolet Experience Center. Man, I tell you what, nothing beats it. We're at the World Center Racing, and we're here with Chevrolet.

This is what it's all about right here. So I hope our listeners enjoy this. Learn something about it and be ready to ask us more questions. and we'll see you, Lamag. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.