The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: What'd You Say? (feat. Ryan Blaney)

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

THAT'S WHY THEY CALL YOU MAVERICK!!!!!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo. Cuervo.com, please drink responsibly. Queerville. Welcome to the Big Suey, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast.

I'm sorry, I'm not gonna apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar. I was laughing on the way home yesterday because it is a particular kind of funny to speak to somebody who's not nicknamed Iceman and call them Iceman. Like of all of the nicknames,

calling someone Iceman who doesn't go by Iceman is funnier than just getting a nickname wrong. Like Frank Ossoff. Yeah I mean just it was ridiculous what I did. It actually restored my faith in humanity a little bit because I put that 100% on AI. That's what AI said Christopher Bell's nickname was. That is not just AI, it was also Wikipedia. So we're joined now by Maverick. Ryan Blaney is with us.

And I'm very pleased to have one of the most popular drivers around with us as Homestead Miami Speedway is hosting the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend, Sunday, March 23rd, that is FS1, 3 p.m. And I wonder about this because, Zaz, I don't know how your ears are doing in radio. I know that I, all of a sudden. My wife says bad.

Yeah, all of a sudden, I'm asking my wife all the time to repeat things, and I've got to imagine just given how loud he's only 31 years old Thank you for joining joining us Ryan But I got to imagine that one of the many drawbacks that happened from doing a dangerous thing like this for a living This has to affect your hearing how loud all of this is, correct? What did you say? Yeah! That's why he's Maverick!

That's why they call you Maverick! Comedy! Iceman, good job. Man, you're over two. I'm actually Iceman, but it's fine. No, no, thanks for having me, fellas. I appreciate it. But yeah, I mean, it's loud, man.

I mean, I've been doing this since I was nine years old. I grew up watching my dad race. So I've been around the track forever And it does I mean we do the best we can of like wearing In the ears in the car stuff like that to try to just muffle some of it But it does digress a little bit you see a lot of drivers that have retired they are on hearing aids now But it's just one of the drawbacks. Did you have a choice in terms of what you were gonna be other than a driver? Because anytime I'm around you guys,

everyone starts at eight years old and everyone inherits it from their family. Yeah, it's always what I wanted to do, just because I grew up around it and it was what I was most comfortable with just watching my dad do it. I played other sports as a kid. I love playing basketball, I love baseball,

but then I kind of had to come to a realization, I'm probably not gonna make it. I have my father's genes, I'm probably gonna be 5'9 and like 140 pounds and racing is probably the best route for me. Um, but my dad never like forced me to do it. Like he was always, are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want to go to the next step? Uh, so it was something that I just wanted to do what my dad did. And I got lucky that I was able to get the opportunities and make a living off

of doing this. Do you have other places where you're an adrenaline junkie? I'm being honest with you like not really I don't really have to search for adrenaline too often people ask all the time like oh it's just is it just an adrenaline boost for racing cars and like not really like you're not white-knuckling out there all the time I think it's just what you're used to but I try to find things that are more like relaxing to me like going you know you know, skiing, you know,

I play a lot of golf. Those are relaxing things to me where I can just kind of decompress and just like be out there and not really have to worry about too much. So I don't really search for adrenaline too often. Do you drive too fast when you're away from the track? The opposite, complete opposite.

I am a very slow driver on the roads. I have nowhere to be quickly. I always tell people like, I get paid to drive really fast for my job. And the only thing I get if I go fast on the roads is like a speeding ticket, a fine or go to jail. So it's like the trade off is not worth it to me. My wife is actually the speed demon behind the wheel. I kind of, if she's driving, we're getting to the place we need to go to quickly. And I try not to be a passenger, you know, passenger driver, I guess, and tell her what to do.

But she's the speed demon on the roads. I don't really get anything for that. Do you have a number of tickets you've gotten? Like is there a number that you would assign to how often you have broken the law while driving away from the track? I mean, everyone gets tickets, right? I mean, everyone does it.

I haven't had one in a good amount of years. I'll tell you, my last one I had was, I was a junior in high school and my mother put a stop to that right away. The fear of mom got put in me after that speeding ticket, because it wasn't a great one. It was a uh-oh moment. And so after that one, I've been very,

I just think of my mom when I'm driving like I can't. I don't want my mom to get away. Give it up. Wasn't a great one, give me the details. What were you doing? You were going 175 miles an hour. No, I was going, I mean it might not be impressive, but to me it was bad.

It was, I was going 80 in a 45. You crazy person. It was not. Yeah, yeah, crazy, I was a crazy guy. Yeah. You're dangerous, Iceman. I passed the cop. I came over to the hill and passed him,

and we locked eyes. And immediately I'm like, oh no. So I just, I literally, I just pulled over and stopped, and I waited for him to turn around. So I was already stopped by the time he even turned around and turned the lights on. Do you ever get road rage when you're driving a regular car

on regular streets or the highway? Sometimes I get a little annoyed with the drivers on the road, like everybody. Like, you know, people merging, kind of being foolish. I'll tell you what bothers me the most is no turn signals. That really annoys me, especially if you're like stopping in the middle of the road to turn and you don't put your signal on,

I'm like, what do you want me to do? That part really kind of grinds my gears a little bit. Put it on the poll please, at Lebatard Show, what annoys you more, a no turn signal or somebody who has their turn signal on all the time? Because that's the problem we have in South Florida. The problem in South Florida is old people who always have their turn signal on, but we also have the other problem as well. So I just want to know. We have it all. Yeah, we have it in. Well, have you noticed? I

don't know if you've been driving very much around Miami when you're not at Homestead, but it's gotten really bad down here. You're not going to be able to get anyone while you're here and you should travel by helicopter. Yeah, yeah, I get down there today. I have noticed, it's funny, we travel across the country and each state has its own work as far as people drive in and kind of what they do. You know, you got like the big cities like New York and stuff like that where I don't know how people drive

in New York in the city. Everyone's just honking at each other. But then you got Miami, like you said, where people are just all over the place. I would say no turn signal bothers me more. If you have your turn signal on, you probably have your music playing too loud and you forgot to turn your turn signal off. I've done that before. But if you're still going and your brake lights aren't on, like, all right, you're not turning anytime soon. So I don't really worry about you. It's been a hard luck season for the 12 car this season so far.

You've been having good cars and just, well I guess the sentiment can be expressed best by calshycy on X when he tweeted out, can't wait for Homestead where Blaney will lead the first 266 laps and then get struck by a f****** meteor on the last lap. So I guess Ryan, are you gonna get struck by a f****** meteor on the last lap this week?

I tell you, if that does happen, I can't be upset about it. You know, that's a, that's a hell of a way to go. That's an amazing scientific thing, right? A meteor coming to get you. That's like the odds have to be higher than getting struck by lightning on that one. It's like, all right, well, if it was meant to be, it's meant to be, um, I guess for our year it's been like a super scrappy year so far. Like you said, the last couple of weeks haven't really gone our way, but I've always related

this sport, just because I can relate to it the most, is like a big wave. You're going to be down a little bit, and then you've got to learn when you're riding the wave and you're running really well, you have to enjoy that stuff. But not to let it bother you if you're sitting out in the ocean and no waves are coming at you or you're getting crushed by them. It's just part of it and you just know that you're gonna race next week and you can try to do some difference. So we haven't really gotten too down about that. I think that gets better as you get older and just understanding that, you know, there's sometimes nothing you can do and you just got to keep going. Well, you're the 2023 Cup Series champion and the runner up last year.

So when, uh, you know, some turbulence strikes, does doubt make an appearance or is your confidence so solid that you assign it to other things and it's not your fault? Um, I think it's, it's situational. Like, um, you know, I'm not really like the, I don't lose confidence. I've just never been that person. So I try to just not let doubt get to me. And I always just try to go back

if things aren't going our way. Like, we got to, our whole team is really great at what they do. You know, all 15 guys that we got in our camp are amazing. And I have all the faith in them. I feel like as a driver, if you make a mistake, just you, I try to learn from it right away. And I don't think you try to let doubt creep in your mind

like, oh, I don't know if I can still do this. That's not a good way to think. So if those thoughts do kind of creep in, it's like, all right, Eddie, get them out of here right away and just try to think positive. And if you do make a mistake, how do you learn from it and move on?

That's like the best way that I've tried to learn over my years of doing this for so long. You mentioned that you're not out there white-knuckling it. I suspect that there's not a lot of emotion. I suspect that you're pretty disciplined about how you drive. Can thoughts make an appearance while you're driving about other things,

or are you so focused that thoughts about other things can't be allowed because you might hurt yourself? In moments, sometimes your mind will wander, but those are rare. In certain spots, like we were running around, like Daytona or something, and're kind of just saving gas and not Really a lot of stuff going on you might you might think about other things a little bit What you watched on TV this new song you heard?

But that didn't go on for very long. So it's it's very rare that that happens. I don't know I can't speak for anybody else. Maybe I'm a little Got a little like 80d or something like that that I have to like but sometimes I think about other stuff, but It doesn't happen very often. You're you're so just engrossed in this, you know Competition that you're doing that you can't really let it wander So I would say like that's a 1% of the time that that'll happen The nature of what you do is so competitive and obsessive compulsive The nature of what you do is so competitive and obsessive compulsive.

When you actually sleep, do you dream of racing? Like are there things that make appearances because you have to be obsessed with this? The only times I dream about racing is like fears. Like one of my biggest fears is sleeping in and missing like the start of the race or missing practice I've had a couple of those dreams, right? I wake up in the dream and like cars are on the track and like I've missed practice or the race like that's the biggest Thing of me being late, but other than that, I don't really ever dream about racing. It's always weird stuff

You know like normal dreams are but those are the only racing dreams I have because I think it's just like a big fear of mine because I have Slept in before and I've been late That was way back in the day, but I think that's that's the only thing that ever creates then I don't know how common a dream that is for everybody But I found it to be a pretty common dream for people who have an enormous amount of responsibilities and constantly find themselves under a certain kind of stress. We talked yesterday with Christopher Bell

about the pressure that surrounds this particular economy. So you love driving, but what about everything else around it? Yeah, there's a lot of stuff outside the racetrack that you have to do. And it's being on a great plane with your partners and doing all the stuff off the track that I don't think people really realize a best of, whether it's, I mean, a great example,

like running through a weekend, you'll get there on Thursdays or Fridays, usually have like a partner dinner on one of the nights and then all race day, you probably have three to five partner appearances, kind of meet and greets whether with you know customers of that sponsor that you got you know people who work for that company there's a lot of stuff you do right before you get in the car and then even through the week you know I got to go to Raleigh next week to do a photo shoot for

advanced auto parts you know so you're kind of constantly running around that stuff's important and I think I got a good look at that growing up, you know, watching my dad have to do all that stuff. So it wasn't just racing. It's how do you also can connect to people that, that help you out, you know, and they kind of honestly put up the money to get you on the race track, right. That's sponsored your race team. So all that stuff's really important.

And I've been really lucky to have great relationships with all my partners over the years. And it's neat because you get to meet awesome people that have the same interest as you. They're race fans and and they love the sports and and then they can you know ask you questions about kind of the inner workings of it so it works out it's just part of the job and we're pretty fortunate to be able to do that so I never get to like oh I got to go do this for a partner. It's always exciting because you're, you're happy to have them with you. What is the worst part of the life?

The worst part? Uh, wrecking. That sucks. Like that's the worst thing ever. Um, some of them are, Hey, I got a pretty good gig, man. I'm really lucky to do what I do. It's a privilege to be able to drive cars for a living. And that's just part of it, right, is you're going to get in wrecks and some of them are

going to be worse than others. But that stuff sucks, whether you kind of get a little hurt or just know that you're done for the day. So that is by far the worst part of it. That's the only complaint I have about my sport is the wrecks don't feel very good. I started following NASCAR closely last season and there have been really some spectacular looking yet really awful wrecks and knock on wood every time

the driver gets out, gives a signal to the crowd that they're okay and I'm astonished by that. All the sign said has gone into protection and then they show the camera inside and I see the driver's neck get knocked around. I don't know if you ever get to sensitize with the wrecks being having the job that you do, it's a part of the job. But does it ever change the feeling when you know you're about to wreck and you you

close your eyes for a brief moment you're like this could be it does that ever go away I'll tell you the worst wrecks are the ones that you see coming like okay I get example probably the hardest strike I've had in the last year was right where I take on a you're riding around there in a big train and I got hooked in the right rear and you go right head-on into the fence, right, going 200 miles an hour and that half a second by the time you get turned, by the time you hit the fence it feels like an eternity, you know, because you know there's nothing you can do about this, you're just waiting for a big hit, those are the worst ones by far.

Some of them happen a little bit quicker that you don't really expect it, but if you get to think about it before you actually hit, that's the worst part. The safety side has gotten, just in the last 20 years, I think has gotten pretty amazing. I mean, there's still things that need to get better, But yeah, the ones that take the longest and I mean, take the longest by like, half a second a second you realize you're going to wreck those ones that usually are or bad because then you like you tense up, you know, and everyone's always like, well, you know, if you're gonna get the car right,

just relax. That's really easy to say. If you've never been in a car, it's super, it's super easy to say yes, it might die. Just relax, just relax your body. It's super easy to say, yes. You might die, just relax. Just relax. Just relax, it's fine. You're about to just hit this fence at 70 Gs, you're fine. Just relax. And it's like, alright, you've never been a part of this before.

Can you give us the most extreme example of you being a Star Wars dork? I have Star Wars tattooed on my body. That's probably pretty extreme. They don't wash off for those of you who are wondering. They're there for life so you better be a fan of that thing for your whole life. So I got a couple of Darth Vader tattoos. So I yeah I grew up. My mom took me to go see Phantom Menace. It came out in 01 or 99 when I was like six years old and I was hooked ever since then so I got to go to the The last Jedi premiere which I thought was good think what you wanted the movie But it was pretty neat being in that atmosphere of like, you know

It's a Star Wars film coming out and I get to be the first to see it. That's very sucky to you so, yeah, I have a huge obsession with with the franchise and It's been a little up and down lately But I have hope for the future So we'll see you knew better or know better than to try and insert any Star Wars theme into your wedding, correct? Oh, my wife knows better and I know better now too because my wife taught me The star war stuff is pretty much taking down in my house before her and I got together. I had a shrine and pretty much taken down in my house before her and I got together. I had a shrine and

when she moved in, she was like, yeah, we're, we're going to get rid of this. You have to put it somewhere else. I would imagine that a NASCAR wedding, if Baba, if you've got Baba as a groomsman, I would imagine that a NASCAR wedding would be a, a frolicking debauchery affair. I think any wedding is any wedding is excellent. Point of debauchery, you know, like I think I don't know what it is about weddings, but people just go nuts. It's like their free pass. If they go to one or three weddings a year, like if they're free pass, just get absolutely belligerently drunk and no one judges them.

They're like, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, it's a wedding. You can go do whatever you want. It's fine. But yeah, we got married out in Aspen, my wife and I, in a beautiful place. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. So we did it right, which was cool. Weddings, they go quick though. That was the only bad thing about the wedding is it was over before you do it. And then you wake up the next day, you're like, man, we planned this for a year and now it's over. So let's go home. So we had a good time. Put it on the poll, please. Do you think that a NASCAR wedding is more debaucherous than the average wedding at LeBotard show?

In honor of our guest, the Maverick Ryan Blaney, I put together a top five list that I think plays well. This is top five guys in sports that can rock a cap. He wears a cap well. No. I appreciate that. You're about to find out. We don't know if he's on, you don't know if you're on it, Ryan. We'll find out.

Yeah, thank you later. Oh, okay. Number five, Fernando Rodney. Strong, the best. Iconic. I'm going to start wearing mine like that. The best. Iconic. I'm gonna start wearing mine like that. Number 4. Kyle Shanahan.

Oh yeah. Yeah, come on. That brim hat for Kyle Shanahan is a go to. Your thoughts, Ryan. I like it. Yeah. I got to meet Shanahan in Sonoma a couple years ago. Cool guy. Number three, CC Sabathia. You're just doing it sideways.

I'm not. How's Shanahan wears the flat brims. And number two, Jay-Z. Obviously ranked ahead of CC Sabathia because he can make the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can. So, and number one, race day, Ryan Blaney. Yes! Oh wow. Congratulations. Unreal's congratulations.

Wow. This is an older photo. Ryan Blaney with the hair flipped out in the back. That is peak. No one is better than that. Yeah. Long hair, full beard is pretty strong when it gets to November and I don't shave or cut my hair. That's a good one. But hey, I appreciate that. I feel like it was skewed a little bit only because I was your guest. I was number one, but I'm ranked ahead of

a lot of great athletes, great coaches. I appreciate that. That really got my morning started off. Congratulations. The highest honor of your career. You were the inspiration. You could watch the number 12 Team Penske Ford car as the NASCAR Cup Series hits Homestead, Miami Speedway. It's this Sunday, 3 p.m. Eastern on FS1. A pleasure, sir.

Thank you and congratulations on all your success. Appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me. Had a lot of fun. Thank you. Howdy, everybody. It's Mike Ryan. Thanks for having me. I had a lot of fun. Thank you. Howdy everybody it's Mike Ryan. Have you heard of Gold Belly? I hope you have because that means you listen to our show and you know how much I love this amazing site that I order from all the time where you can get some of the most iconic famous foods from restaurants all across the US

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99% of America. Seriously. Visit BoostMobile.com or your nearest Boost Mobile store location to learn more. The Boost Mobile network, together with our roaming partners, covers 99% of the US population. 5G speeds not available in all areas. Don Lebatard. What is the worst part of the life? Stugats. The worst part of the life of what?

This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stugats. I wanted to ask the group a few questions here and the first one is I am asking everyone here including basketball expert Jonathan Zaslow to pronounce the name of the San Antonio Spur who scored 34 points in fewer than 20 minutes last night and then during the sideline interview brought out his good friend Flavor Flav to be a part of the shenanigans. Does anyone wanna take a chance, a shot at this person's name? Sinaro is the first name, correct?

Nope. Everyone pulled back. No, it's not. It's not Sinaro. Sandro. Okay, Sandro is the first name and the last name is. We've got nothing? We've got nobody here can name the spur who scored.

Did you really do that? I did. Sanaro is the first name and then it's actually Sandro. That's right. I misread my handwriting. That's what just happened. Sandro Mamukhalashvili. That doesn't sound right.

Mamukhalashvili. No, that actually sounds right. That sounds like I kind of nailed it actually. His ass like keeps shaking ahead. I want you to try. How about that? I'm afraid of this one. Don't be afraid.

You're okay. I'm with Andru Mamu Kela Shvili. No, I can't say it. I don't know his name. He was 13 for 13 from the field. I'm sorry. 13 for 14 from the field and 7 for 7 from 3. That's a good game.

In fewer than 20 minutes. He was awesome. Spurs are trying to lose games. I don't know if they would say he's awesome. He was wandering around the locker room saying, I don't know what just bleeping happened. That's gotta be a pretty good feeling, right? I can't imagine that there is stuff

that feels much better in sports than feeling like you're six for six for three and taking that seven three and you just know everything is gonna go in. I've only felt anything like that one time in like an intramural basketball game I was playing in college where I just, you know, I was able to make four shots in a row. One of those nights, huh, Dan? Everyone still talks about it, Dan.

One of those nights. I can't imagine how good that has to feel to be wandering around after an NBA game saying that you don't know what happened. I want more details about that pick-up game. How old were we? What type of shots are we talking about? Put some respect on it.

It was not pick-up, intramural. Sorry, intramural. At what point did you know you were in the zone? Were you wearing a headband? Did you take a heat check? Yes, I took shots from further and further out, but what I remember about that game is how the shorts I was wearing

and how short they were, and I'm pretty sure they were terry cloth, because I'm pretty sure they were terry. Something like the material. Scary terry. How dare you? How dare I wear Terry cloth shorts to do an intermural? Did you do like the three goggles? Put it on the pole at Leventhal show we were overmatched

We did not have a very good team and I was the only player on our team. We lost by a lot. So But I was making you had to our team we lost by a lot, so, but I was making a... You had to put the team on your back. Well, for... You had the Horace Grant goggles, yeah? For a stretch, they were coming out to guard me a little deeper than they would. Guard Terry Cloth shorts over there.

Thick wristbands on both wrists. Knee braces. That was when I was younger. My father still hasn't let go of the fact that I was a hot dog as a soccer player when I was young wearing headbands and wristbands, and he would always say to me, what are you doing? What are you doing?

Why do you have to do that? That's generally not the aesthetic for that sport in particular. And terry cloth shorts, usually not what you go with in intramural basketball either. Short, but I remember they were short. Well, your passion for it. Short is back, by the way.

Short is back. Yeah, but this was the 90s. Yes, Tony, thank you. I've noticed this. I don't know when this happened, but recently I have noticed that very short ass hanging out of your shorts is back. It's back in.

But also, baggy is back. It's a weird time. Baggy is back in some cases. Not in sports. In hoops, you cannot wear baggy shorts and go out there and play unless you're Adam Sandlin. My favorite is when they show highlights of the 2008 March Madness and you're like, what is this?

Skinny tops, but they got capri pants? Tyler Hingebrow is the ultimate example of this. The tightest jersey you've ever seen, and then pants down past his knees. Blousy. Dan, we have an issue. We've knocked it out the park with both of our NASCAR interviews. They both went so well, Iceman and Maverick.

Maverick went so well that we actually once again forgot to play Vroom or Vroom Vroom, which is a game that we've spent a lot of time in pre-production for, so we need to find another NASCAR driver named Goose, preferably, and play Vroom or Vroom Vroom, because these are really good questions I'm sorry that that has happened the last couple of days

I haven't really been buying in on vroom or vroom vroom. What is vroom or vroom vroom? I'm glad that you asked it's a game that we play with our guests and vroom is just like Oh, you know that's that's okay vroom is like meh. Yeah, I kind of like that. That's all right, but vroom vroom I really like you're in on that. I'm good at that game I'm good at that game. Do you want to play the game with us or you only want to play it with NASCAR drivers? I well it doesn't make sense with you guys. Well are they just racing questions or are there other questions? No, no, they're they're not questions about racing whatsoever But that's how you get them, But that's how you get them.

But you don't, I mean, it went so well. NASCAR drivers as personality types, by the way, have come a really long way since I was a kid. And it's something that these teams, they look for because his schedule is insane. With all these events, I mean, when you think about sponsorships in sports, a lot of people think about NASCAR's. They have obligations for like every single one of those on race week.

They're doing interviews moments before they hop in the car. They're doing interviews while they're racing. It's pretty crazy. And they have to be good at it now. They really value that. You have to essentially be an alien from another universe. You have to be Verstappen level to not be marketable. Well, this is something that I have found interesting in a couple of different places when it

comes to how do you go about selling your sports and when you get to the most popular of sports how do the burdens of fame make athletes or coaches be in a position where they don't want to be doing sales, which is what it is. So obviously in NASCAR and racing it's the sport most associated with sponsorships and you have to take care of the sponsors. But one of the reasons over the years that I have always objected to having college coaches on any form, television, radio, anywhere, is just because the whole job is sales. So much of their job is just to be a salesperson and so they just say anything that fits under the umbrella of sales and it's not quite

what that interview was where you've got a willing participant who's answering questions Honestly as opposed to going to his sales talking points, which are meant to reach recruits It's one of the reasons that I hate Talking to coaches so much because I don't want to spend a lot of time in any in any place that I am talking to Salespeople well, it's stock car racing in any place that I am talking to salespeople. Well, it's stock car racing. So they kind of legislate parity within the sport. Some teams have more resources, some teams have charters,

and they've been doing this a long time, and some teams are just better when they build out better pit crews. But there's not, what I'm trying to get at is, there's not a lot that separates these drivers because all the cars are meant to be kind of equal. You have faster cars, no doubt, but they're meant to be kind of equal. You have faster cars no doubt, but they're meant to be equal. In coaching, what makes a great coach, I imagine the distance

between, hey, can this guy sell our program? Like, you don't care about that so much. Give me the best coach. Give me a tactical advantage. Yeah, give me some guy that can recruit and maybe his team is good enough that the program can recruit itself. But in NASCAR, you need the total package. You gotta be a good driver, absolutely. But you have to knock these media availabilities out of the park because we're trying to grow the sport. And people forget, like, NASCAR is an immense weekly property.

You get four million people tuning into a race on average so far this season. That dwarfs the NBA. When it comes to appointment television on the weekends, when there's not NFL football going on, it's this right here, NASCAR. So you have to essentially be a CEO of your team because you're often representing them in public and you have to try to win new people over constantly. Well, so he was a good talker, so they're all good talkers now? All these NASCAR guys

are all out there cutting good promos. My favorite driver, Kyle Larson, is probably one of the weaker talkers of the big drivers. And that's because if anybody, Kyle Larson won a dirt track race last night, and now he's headed to Homestead. He's the guy that is like Verstappen level. You have to be an insanely talented driver to overcome deficiencies in marketability. At least from what I've gathered, I am a Johnny-come-lately to the sport, but it is night and day from when I was growing up watching these guys. Do you

think that most people listening to this as sports fans are ever doing any kind of conscious watching of the college basketball coach when they're being interviewed Bruce Pearl or whatever and saying that person's good at sales that person's job is to be a salesperson. No, no, I don't think regular sports fans see it that way. I think they, especially fans of the team, they just like, they like seeing their guy on television. They like hearing from their guy,

and they love the idea of him going out there and sounding like he knows what he's talking about, like he's personable, he's affable, I don't think they see it as everything that's coming out of his mouth is a sales pitch. Well, but part of the job, I don't know what you would say it is, but whenever it is that these interviews are taking place, one of the things that's in play

is very often is that person qualified to be face and voice for our team? It's not just coach the players, right? Like obviously someone like Belichick was aggressively against that and football coaches don't actually have to do this because their sport is so popular, they don't have to do sales.

It's, they have to do media obligations, I suppose, but they don't, there's no importance in them having any charisma because the point is almost to get away from the microphones without showing anybody everything. But your sport is so popular that you don't have to do anything in the way of selling it. But college sports, college basketball and college football, every time you're at a microphone,

if you're a coach, you have somewhere embedded in your understanding, you may be talking to a recruit's parents while watching for the first time. And so therefore, what it is that you're doing has to be packaged a certain way. And it's like prime example with Dion, right? Like Dion can go in, he knows, he's always on, he's always on camera, he's always doing something

with the idea of I'm gonna get the next guy who can change the program that I'm at. I'm surprised though that more of them aren't more charismatic, right? Because when I just go, when I run through that list of over 65 coaches that are now in the tournament, Bruce Pearl is that, Tom Izzo is that, it's just, it's a likeability, it's a charisma,

it's slap you on the back, hit you on the knee, and make you forget that they're in sales mode because they're presenting as a leader instead of a salesperson. I feel like the older guys are the ones who are most charismatic in the college basketball game right now, right? Patino's good at that, I wouldn't say Rick Barnes is particularly good at that.

I think there's something about the hiring process that kind of, it diminishes that aspect of it. It's such an incestuous business, such a networking based thing. Guys, they have their career arcs. They get taken from one staff to another and it's just all who you know. I mean, maybe the older guys are more charismatic because they've been around long enough to know that they have the security

so they can just show their personality. Reps too, it's also reps. Yeah, but it's just not, they're not often, when you get to the high level of running like a big time program in college basketball, like they offer you the job, you don't necessarily always have to interview for it so you don't have to peacock

and you just get fortified in your ways. Are we calling Rick Pitino charismatic? Absolutely. Yeah, he has a lot of charisma. Really? Have you seen some of the things that he's had people do to him under a table? I do not see.

Charismatic. I do not see what you guys are seeing. You don't think Pitino's a good interview? I don't, I haven't really listened to a lot of interviews with him, but when I see him at a press conference, I'm not like, oh man, that is a charismatic coach. When you see him at a press conference, he's saying things like Larry Bird ain't walking listened to a lot of interviews with him, but when I see him at a press conference, I'm not like, oh man, that is a charismatic coach. When you see him at a press conference,

he's saying things like Larry Bird ain't walking through that a lot. He's got one of the most famous lines ever. I'm not saying he's, he might be a decent quote, but just like, he doesn't ooze charisma. No, he has charisma. He has a lot of charisma. Riz.

He's got Riz. Agree to disagree. Okay. Does he know? Riz Patino. That doesn't really. Does he know? Honestly, me too. That doesn't really work in terms of the sports debate culture. Let's create a show, Agree to Disagree.