Jordan Anderson Stopped Driving So His Team Could Survive

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: Jordan Anderson Stopped Driving So His Team Could Survive
Date: July 29, 2026
Host: Kelly Earnhardt Miller (Business of Motorsports, Dirty Mo Media)
Guest: Jordan Anderson, NASCAR Driver & Team Owner

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the entrepreneurial, personal, and professional journey of NASCAR Xfinity team owner Jordan Anderson. Anderson shares how he transitioned from childhood racer with big dreams to team owner, the sacrifices he made along the way, the art of surviving as an underdog team, and the unique challenges of balancing racing, team management, and family life. The discussion examines the realities of team ownership in modern NASCAR, the business side of sponsorship, building organizational culture, and advice for those following in similar footsteps.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Childhood Aspirations & Early Lessons

• Jordan’s Racing Origins: Raised by entrepreneurial parents in South Carolina, Anderson fell in love with racing via NASCAR video games and visits to Darlington Speedway with his grandfather (03:26–05:25).
• Development of Entrepreneurial Mindset:
  • Anderson’s parents taught him that to advance in racing, he’d need to learn about business and sponsorship.
  • Memorable Anecdote: At 12, Jordan pitched for his first sponsorship. Dealer Dick Dyer gave him $10,000—far more than he asked—saying, “You’re devaluing what you’re worth. I want you to always shoot for more.” (07:26, Anderson)

2. Early Career Setbacks & Perseverance

• Critical Career Crossroads:
  • In 2014, caught in a sponsorship scam, Anderson chose to make things right, liquidated his assets, and feared his driving career was over (10:08–11:05).
  • His father advised: “You need to do the right thing and make everybody whole, even if it costs you your driving career.” (10:12, Anderson’s father via Anderson)
• Underdog Resilience:
  • Running on shoestring budgets, Anderson recounts driving the same truck everywhere, traveling cross-country, and scrapping to survive week by week.
  • “I think the biggest thing in my racing career is just survival. Like, hey, if I can make it next year, we’ll keep going.” (14:39, Anderson)

3. The Business of Racing

• Learning Sponsorship Hustle:
  • Early lessons in sponsorship, such as selling space on legend cars by the signature, and the necessity to be creative and relentless in funding efforts (08:57).
• Relationships Matter:
  • Many of Anderson’s pivotal moments came from relationships—mentors, sponsors, friends willing to lend a truck or advice.
  • Quote: “That’s the thing I love about racing—it’s the people you meet, the relationships… sometimes the people you meet there, you’re in that season of life for a reason.” (18:55, Anderson)

4. Founding & Growing His Team

• Genesis and First Steps:
  • The drive to control his racing destiny led Anderson to team ownership (2018) despite barebones resources (21:13–24:08).
  • “I got as much fulfillment out of watching [Ryan Newman] in our truck run up front as if I was running.” (23:14, Anderson)
• Making the Leap to Xfinity:
  • Strategic decisions: blending truck and Xfinity efforts, enlisting drivers like Tyler Reddick and Josh Berry to navigate points and eligibility loopholes, and emphasizing flexibility and fiscal responsibility (24:46–33:20).
  • “You just try to build that culture around you.” (71:13, Anderson)

5. Scaling & Adapting in Modern NASCAR

• Business Model & Fiscal Challenges:
  • Anderson’s approach: Always plan for the worst, keep overhead controlled, and invest strategically in people and infrastructure (haulers, shops, insurance) (37:45–42:01).
  • “If I lost all sponsorship, can I keep this team operating?” (40:13, Anderson)
• Technological and Rule Evolution:
  • Changes in NASCAR’s points system, inflation, and rules have made "scrapping by" harder today than even a few years ago (42:21).
• Alliance with RCR:
  • Recent technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing has provided access to crucial chassis and parts, while Anderson’s team still maintains hands-on fabrication and body hanging (48:13).

6. Building Team Culture & Talent Pipeline

• Team Building:
  • Emphasis on giving employees ownership and responsibility; hiring based on attitude and willingness to pitch in beyond formal roles (58:53–66:27).
  • Practice of “family style” team meals on the road to build camaraderie (67:30).
• Mentoring the Next Generation:
  • Anderson shares pride in supporting rising talents, notably recounting how crew member Andrew Patterson moved from shop floors to the driver’s seat (44:41–45:05).
  • “It’s a great feeling to give people the tools to see them succeed.” (45:05, Anderson)

7. Personal Growth, Family, and Balance

• Fatherhood’s Impact:
  • The arrival of Anderson’s son Banks in 2025 brought new perspective.
  • “Now, truly experiencing it, it’s put a lot more meaning in my life… I just thank God every day that we’ve got a healthy little boy.” (69:19, Anderson)
• Grounded by Faith and Family:
  • Multiple references to how faith, family, and mentors like wife Kendall (Larry McReynolds’ daughter) and his dad have kept him focused and motivated through the ups and downs (58:04–59:10).

8. The Future: Opportunities & Realism

• Growth Mindset & Facing Headwinds:
  • Anderson acknowledges it’s harder than ever to climb NASCAR’s ladder, but insists entrepreneurial opportunities still exist for those willing to grind, hustle, and act with integrity (71:13).
  • “You just got to keep moving forward… Embrace the journey. Appreciate not just the mountaintop but the climb.” (74:24, 74:29, Anderson)
• On Missed ‘Cup’ Opportunities:
  • He shares a near-miss story about passing on a Cup Series charter and shop: “We could have bought that for eight million. Now look at what it would cost!” (73:19)

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Early Business Lessons: “You’re devaluing what you’re worth. I want you to always shoot for more.” — Dick Dyer to Anderson (07:29)
• On Adversity: “You need to do the right thing and make everybody whole, even if it cost you your driving career.” — Anderson recalling his father’s advice (10:12)
• Core Philosophy: “It’s not the power of the water, it’s the persistence of it. Staying after, staying after.” — Anderson’s father (14:39)
• On Team Ownership: “It just grew bigger than what I was and had a lot more meaning and purpose behind it.” (32:01)
• On Mentoring Up-And-Coming Talent: “You get to have them under your wing… then watch their talent come to fruition.” (44:45, Host)
• On Business Uncertainty: “The first ten days of a month… you see it all come in your bank account and there’s like three or four days where I sleep really good… and then you pay all the invoices.” (55:20)
• On Fatherhood: “It’s changed my life. It’s put a lot of perspective in my life… tomorrow’s a new day.” (67:46)
• On the Reality of Modern Team Ownership: “On paper, I shouldn’t be here… but if you’re hungry enough and willing to do things with integrity, things have a way of falling into place.” (71:13)
• Life Mantra: “Embrace the journey… not the mountaintop, but the journey from the bottom to the top.” (74:24, Anderson referencing advice from Carl Edwards)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Jordan’s Racing Childhood & First Sponsorship: 03:26–07:29
• Paying Debts & Career Setback: 10:08–11:05
• Transition to Team Ownership: 21:04–24:08
• Navigating NASCAR’s Rules & Eligibility: 24:46–33:20
• Team Structure, Growth, Fiscal Discipline: 37:45–42:01
• Mentoring Young Talent (Andrew Patterson): 44:41–45:05
• Family, Faith, and Personal Evolution: 58:04–59:10 & 66:02–70:54
• Reflecting on Missed Opportunities and Industry Evolution: 71:13–74:00
• Embrace the Journey Story: 74:24

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Episode Takeaways

• Pursuing a racing dream today demands resilience, a sharp business sense, and well-tended relationships.
• Modern NASCAR team ownership is a delicate balance of passion, pragmatism, and adaptation—resting equally on grit, fiscal restraint, and creativity.
• Success is deeply tied to people—the mentors, friends, partners, and team members picked up along the way.
• Perseverance and embracing the journey (not just the finish line) underpin both Anderson’s advice and his own story: “If you do the right thing, things usually have a way of falling into place.” (71:13)

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Final Thought

This episode offers not only a behind-the-scenes blueprint for building (and saving) a NASCAR team but also an inspiring account of resilience, integrity, and enjoying the process—no matter how tough the days get.

Transcript

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[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Welcome to the business of motorsports. It is yours truly, Kelly Earnhardt Miller. You know one thing that I really that this series does is open up people's horizons.

[Jordan Anderson]

I got in a lot of trouble and I got challenged. I don't know why you're coming here.

[Commercial Announcer]

You don't trust us.

[Jordan Anderson]

I said no, it's not. I don't trust you.

[Commercial Announcer]

I'm running a Business.

[Jordan Anderson]

A lot of people kind of feel like, well, we're never getting back to where we were. Why did we ever get to where we were?

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

There's so much more involved in decision.

[Jordan Anderson]

I mean, I want to rip somebody's

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

head off every day.

[Jordan Anderson]

I say yes to him.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Oh, you say yes on the phone?

[Jordan Anderson]

Well, you made me say yes.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

This episode of business of motorsports is brought to you by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. All right. Welcome to this week's episode of business and motorsports. This week, I've got Jordan Anderson here of Jordan Anderson racing driver and owner of the. Of that organization. Jordan, excited to have you here. Just kind of reading up on some of your history. You and I don't know each other very well, but you were a kid with a dream to race cars, played a lot of video games, but also at the same time had that itch to be an owner, I think, and you were doing a lot of things with an eye on that prize. So I want to talk about that. You grew up in South Carolina, like I said, playing a lot of NASCAR games. So. So how much of that kind of steered your interest in racing and kind of. Where did that come from?

[Jordan Anderson]

Ye. No, it's quite a journey from. From day one, you know, I was probably four or five years old and told my parents, want to be a race car driver. And in our family, that was probably like saying, hey, I want to be a spaceman, a cowboy. And they're like, yeah, follow your dreams. You know, do whatever you want to

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

do in the background there. They've got some laughy faces going on.

[Jordan Anderson]

I mean, so my dad was big in flipping houses, rental properties, and my mom owned a hair salon, was hairdresser. So they both worked for themselves. They kind of. If you're an entrepreneur, you kind of are built a little bit differently. So I grew up around that and the crazy hours, and they were supportive of me and, you know, didn't really have anybody in my family that was in racing. So, you know, getting on video games, NASCAR Racing 2 and 3 on the PC. That was kind of my introduction to this and the old NASCAR races on classics, ESPN classics and all that kind of stuff.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

And so did they rot traces?

[Jordan Anderson]

No, no, no. I mean, you know, my.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

My grandfather kind of found this interest.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, it kind of came out of nowhere. My grandfather worked for GMAC for a long, long time. So we would get tickets to go to Darlington and, and go to some hospitality stuff and watch some races. And so had some opportunities a kid to do that, but never thought the opportunity to be in it would be there. But, you know, got racing go karts when I was probably 7 or 8, and that was the craziest story. There was an old dirt track i20 in South Carolina, and there was a go kart track beside it. We had gone there to watch a go kart race and sat with a family in the grandstands and they had a son that raced that was a national champion WK the year before. Broken his wrist. And he said, hey, I'm go out to this track in Palmetto, South Carolina, and when I get my cast off and go test if you want to come with me. And I'm like, oh yeah, of course, let's go do it. And we went there and I think I ran 10 laps like, dad, this is it, this is, this is what I want to do. And the rest is kind of history from there.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Wow. And so now you've talked about your parents and that entrepreneurial spirit. So there I can. I know where that comes from now, but really at that time, did you, did you want to focus on driving? Did you think about ownership and how to wear that? Like, what was, where was your mindset as a kid thinking about what you wanted to do?

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, it was, it was because your

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

parents are owning businesses, so you, you

[Jordan Anderson]

can kind of see that it was there. And I think early on it was 100% to be a race car driver. This is what I want to be. I want to make it a NASCAR. I want to get there. And that was 100% the dream. And I think it was somewhere around maybe When I was 12 or 13, my dad came to me and he said, hey, when we go to the racetrack, all these other kids have logos on their cars and sponsors, and we can certainly take you to a certain level, but if you want to go more, you got to figure out how to do it. And this is my partner on the team, John Bomberito. I had this conversation with him the other day. I've been around car dealers I feel like my whole life because we had an introduction from a family friend who got me to go meet with a car dealer, Dick Dyer out of Columbia. He had a Volvo Mercedes store and a Toyota store. And they got me set up to go meet with them. And I'm 12 years old, so I've gotten my three ring binder, I've got newspaper clippings, you know, Slid in the clear sliders, and I've got pictures of my car and I go in there and I think we had just gotten a bandolero at the time, so I had it all solid white with a number on the side. And I'm pretty sure I went in there and I gave the best pitch a 12 year old could give at the time. And I'm sitting here meeting Dick, was probably 75 or 76 at the time, was a little intimidating, but gave him a pitch, I would say, said, hey, you know, here's what I can do for your business. And back then, you know, we ran the summer shootout at Charlotte. You know, it's going to be on tv, I'll do appearances at your store, autograph cards, all this stuff here. And I remember I left his, his office overlooked the showroom. So I walked downstairs down the staircase and I almost get to the door because my mom and dad were waiting out front for me, had to drop me off. And they didn't even go in with you by myself. And Dick leans out, he had this like sliding glass over the showroom and yells at me to come back up. And I'm like, did I do something wrong? Am I in trouble here? And so he goes back up there and I think at the time I'd asked him for $2,500 to be on my hood. And Dick sits me down and goes, hey, I'm gonna do the sponsorship. I'm in, but I'm gonna give you $10,000. I'm gonna teach you a lesson. And I'm sitting there like, okay, where'd this come from, sir?

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

What is this lesson? You just gave me four times what I asked for.

[Jordan Anderson]

And, and he literally said, you're sell. He said, you're capable of more. You're devaluing what you're worth. You're devaluing, you know, what your racing program's worth. I'm gonna give you this. I want to be all over the car and be on the hood, the sides. I only told him the hood. He said, I want to be on the sides too. He said, I want you to always shoot for more. Don't ever settle for less. And for a 12 year old kid, that was pretty impactful. And Dick ended up being, I mean, he basically, I called him Uncle Dick after a couple of years. He was such a close family friend and he taught me a lot. And that was kind of like the first taste of it. It was like, you know, hey, this, if I want to keep racing, I've got to Figure out a fund it and. And do a lot of sponsorship stuff. And that was just the beginning of it. You know, we did bandolero racing and Legend car racing. And I think fast forward five or six years later, when I was running Legend cars, we had a sponsor deal fall through for, I think it was 2007, the Summer Shootout. And Dick had the idea, said, hey, throw your. Your Legends car on an open trailer and let's go around Columbia. And 400 bucks somebody could sign my legend car. And that deal ended up turning into, I think we raised right at $20,000 a year because we would meet people that would start out at 100, and they said, well, hey, I want a bigger logo. I want this or I want that. And so that's how we funded the summer shootout. And we'd go run Lanier and Hickory and all the place around with legend cars back then. So a lot of unique deals that kind of through the years led to this journey of understanding the sponsorship in business. And, hey, if I want to go race, I got to figure out how to fund it and keep this thing going.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

And you did that when you started. What did it look like in 2017 when you kind of were coming onto the NASCAR scene? What were you doing until that point and kind of talk about that year and what that was like because you took what you were just describing and learned and used that to your advantage that year.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, no, it's through the years that led us up to that was pretty crazy. You know, I did ran dirt Late Models throughout the Carolinas, got a super late Model, ran that for a couple years, and met a guy in 2014 that wanted to go east racing back then. And we had run Greenville Pickens earlier in the year, and then we went to Richmond and ran a race, and we were on the race. I got caught up in a wreck, tore the car up. Not a very good day. Well, I got a call a week later from the crew chief and from Penske shocks and from NASCAR and all these other people that the checks had bounced, you know, check bounce. Are you. You're going to square up with us. You're going to pay it. And I think at the time, it came up to probably. And this is. This is like, if. Where's the turning point? And this. There's two of them. There's this one, and then there's the one when we started the O'Reilly team in 21 that I looked back in my career on pivotal moments, not knowing

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

that they were really those moments at the time. 100, which happens every day.

[Jordan Anderson]

Door slammed. Hey, there's another door here. And it was about $40,000 of bad check stuff that had gotten written. And I just got. I just had hung a brand new body on my super late model. I had a ham key car motor in it, everything like that. And I called my dad, I said, hey, I need, need some advice. Here's a story. Got caught up with the wrong crowd. This whole deal here, I'm in a, in a tough spot. And he said, you need to do the right thing and you need to make everybody whole, even if it cost you your driving career. And so I sold my super late model. I listed it for sale, found a guy out of the west coast that bought it. And I think from the sell it, I sold everything I had kept my, kept my trailer, but I sold everything for like 55, 56,000. So I had a little money left over, paid everybody off and I figured, all right, you know, my driving career is done.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

But at least how hard was that?

[Jordan Anderson]

That was. It was pretty sad because you say

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

it like, okay, I talked to my dad, I hung up the phone and I did this. Did it really go that way?

[Jordan Anderson]

No, it was, it was several weeks of like, you know, I had, I had it listed online and people wanted to buy it. I'm like, do I want to call him back and make the deal? Like it was, it was, it was tough. And when I finally sold it, I had enough money left over. So you know what, I'm going to go run at least one truck race. I'm going to make that my goal, just to run at least a NASCAR race. So I could say I did it at this time and this was 2014. And I found a couple team owners. I talked to and found a team owner back in 2014 for Phoenix, the 50 truck. And they said, hey, if you'll come out here and cover the tire bill, you can run the truck. And did it and had enough money left over to do that. The race went pretty good. I think we finished 22nd or 23rd. And this was back when it was Phoenix. And then Homestead and the Grace went really good and they said, hey, if you could do the same thing, come run Homestead next week week. And went and did Homestead and ran pretty good. Stayed out of trouble there. And then over the off season that what's kind of got going with. I got to meet Mike harmon in the 74 truck and met him over the off season. He said, hey, if you want to run this program, this is where I got Interested as Mike was running his O'Reilly program at the time and the truck was just over in the corner and he said, if you'll take it over, you can work out of my shop. I've got some older engines here and we'll do that. And so 2015, we ran the full season with one truck and I kid you not, like, we took it to Daytona, it went to Atlanta, it went to Martinsville, it went to Mossport. Like, same truck everywhere. We ran old SB2 engines and that was kind of the jump that got things going. But if it hadn't been for that deal that happened at Richmond, I might still be racing late models at this day. Like, that was the thing that kind of like pushed me out of my comfort zone, squared the dead up, went and ran those two truck races and it kind of parlayed that into the deal in 15. And yeah, I look back on that moment, I'm like, man, I figured that was in the world. I was going to go get a job at a bank or somewhere because I'd gone to college. I went to Belmont Eddie College. I got a business management degree in their motorsports program. So I got a college degree. I can go get a normal job. It's probably less stressful and go do something routine, a nine to five somewhere and get after it. And I look at something that was so bad in a moment and it was a blessing in disguise because it opened the door up to something and a whole new opportunity for me.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

I know I want to stop on that for a moment just for our listeners of business, of motorsports and to think through that because that is, I mean, those times are so tough in the moment when things don't go like we planned for them to go or how we wanted them to go or whatever. And it's so easy to, you know, shut the door on that dream or whatever it is and like you said, look elsewhere. You're going to look, you know, what's my regular now? What's my day job going to be? You know, still got to pay the bills and, and then being able to persevere and, and, and continue in spite of the adversity to, to look for those opportunities and take those opportunities which a. I think, you know, in the sport today, they are trying, they try to decide what's the risk in taking those types of opportunities versus not versus being in equipment that's subpar versus being in better equipment. What am I, what am I giving up? What am I doing to myself? You know, I think about Dawson cram who I love and his family and just they, they grind every single year, grind after grind, you know, trying to get himself, you know, in rides and get that opportun. So you're doing this with Mike, Carmen, you're doing this with one truck, old engines, all of these things in 2015, which is the perseverance that it took for you to be able to look back on that moment and really see that it was a consequential moment at that point, right?

[Jordan Anderson]

100%.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah.

[Jordan Anderson]

I think back to a quote that my dad told me that year in 2015. And we're a big faith based family. If it wasn't for that, I don't know that we would have made it through the stuff that we are today. And I look back at that, that year and my dad told me, he's like, you know, what breaks the rock down and it's, it's the water. He said it's not the power of the water, it's the persistence of it staying after, staying after. And I guess that's always been the biggest thing in my race career is just survival. Like, hey, if I can make it next year, we'll keep going, you know, hey, if I can make it through the off season, we'll keep going, you know. And so we did that for several years. You know, we did the dually and the gooseneck driving across the country. I mean there's a funny story. There's a guy, his name was Dylan that came to work with us in 2015 and he ended up working with me for several years. And this was back when we would run Iowa first in St. Louis and he came to work like the Monday before we were leaving for Iowa and we get in the car in the way to Iowa and I said, hey, by the way, you know, we're going to stay out here. He said, what do you mean we're not coming back after the race? I'm like, no, we're going to be out here for two weeks. And it was just, we did stuff on the fly like that and you know, we, we worked out of hotel parking lots and you know, we changed motors and hotel parking lots and rear gears and all that kind of stuff. And you know, I think running early on that way, you know, you had to take care of your equipment. It's like, hey, I'm going to take this 20th place finish instead of wrecking, going for 15th because I to run this thing next week. So you understand from the, the bottom to the top what it costs and what it takes and the hours to turn these things around. So, yeah, that was a lot of fun. And I think that's what really led up to starting the team in 2018. We started. It was, you know, I ran for Mike in 15. I went and ran for another truck team in 16. That was like my first ride opportunity. And then that fell apart in the year, and I went back to kind of driving another interesting deal with Harmon and other team owners. So it's like three. Three years, three different deals, and I'm like, man, I got to figure out how to control my destiny. I got. I. It's either going to be through a sponsor, I'm going to take the teams, or I'm going to start my own team. And in 2016, I actually met John Bomberito. We were out there racing at worldwide Technology Raceway in St. Louis, and we were working at a Kenny Wallace's shop there in Arnold. And we had. We had had a sponsor for Iowa, didn't have one for St. Louis. So I'm just. We finished the truck on, like, Wednesday. So I start calling around and cold calling, and I actually called somebody at the track. I was like, hey, do you have anybody that's bought a suite or is advertising the track that may want to be on a truck this weekend? And I joke with John to this day. He's like, I'll buy you two sets of tires. And I don't think he knew at the time what tires cost. I'm like, all right, well, here we go. It'll be, you know, five grand. He's like, what do you mean, five grand? I'm like, what's. They're 2500 a set. And so we ended up putting them on the truck that weekend and started that relationship. And a few years later, you know, at 17, we were back dually and gooseneck driving across the country. My dually broke down. We go back to St. Louis, and this is. This is where you meet crazy people. When my dually broke down in 17, the wrecking company out of Columbia that towed us off the side of the highway, Capital city towing. I told him, I said, hey, I'm going to Martinsville. I got to get there. He's like, well, I got a dually at the shop you can borrow. And I'm like, really? So he basically tows our old, old dually off. He gives us his, and we use it that weekend. I called him on Monday. I said, hey, you know when you want me bring your dually back to you. So just keep it, keep it till you figure out what you need. And we use it for four months.

[Commercial Voice]

Wow.

[Jordan Anderson]

All across the country. Of course, you know, I was checking in with them.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jordan Anderson]

You know, he's.

[Commercial Voice]

He's.

[Jordan Anderson]

He's all about. He's like, throw. Throw a decal on there and keep using it. So when we're out in St. Louis, we go to dinner with John. And, you know, my transportation is the hauler. So I'm out here in the steakhouse with the Dooley and Gooseneck parked in the front parking lot, and he goes, what's the story with this? You know, it says Capital City hauling and towing 24. Seven on the hood. He's like, what. What's the deal with this?

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

And so I told him, side gig going on between. Between race weekends.

[Jordan Anderson]

I told him the story. Like, this guy let us borrow his Dually Joel Black out of. Out of South Carolina. And he just said, use it till we needed it. And he's like, I'm gonna fix that. Call me next week. And then, you know, about two weeks later, John said, come out to St. Louis. I got you a new dually, you know, Chevrolet 3500. Come pick it up and use it for the rest of the year. But Joel, when we got a 53 foot trailer, he heard about it. He said, all right, I want to be a part of this. So the Kenworth that pulls our 32 hauler is one of his tractors still. So this is. That was 2017. Yeah, he's still a part of this program. Like, he literally towed us off the

[Commercial Voice]

side of the road.

[Jordan Anderson]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

What was the genesis for you to decide that you wanted to own your own team versus can you and you continue to drive? But what was, what was that decision like?

[Jordan Anderson]

I must have fallen out of bed one morning. It hit my head really, really hard. It's like, you know. But I called John somewhere toward the end of 2017 and I said, hey, I think I can do this on my own. I said, if you can help me, you know, get a couple motors and help me buy a couple trucks. We had another family out of Texas that helped us buy our first truck. We actually bought it from Nice and then we rented shop space out of the back of niece's shop when they were up in Statesville. And I bought a speedway truck and a downforce truck and that was the start of our team. And this was 2018, the downforce truck. I was an old Turner truck, so the time it was six or seven years old and had that nice silver paint on it, and, you know, it was pretty interesting. But that's where we got going. In our first ever race, we went to Daytona. I'm like, hey, can't wreck this thing. I'm just going to try to stay out of trouble all day. And we finished ninth in our first race as a team. And then we went to Atlanta the next week and finished top 20. And I'm like, all right, this is kind of working here. So we kind of went through that whole first year, and it worked. And I was able to make the budget bounce at the end of the year, and we were able to add some more inventory, and we were able to buy a hauler at the end of the year, and things kept kind of going from there. So I think the biggest thing was just kind of figuring out how to do it on our own terms, even if it was harder. It was the willingness to say, hey, you know what? I'm building something for the future here. And I think that's when it kind of started to change for me, that maybe this isn't so much about you being a race car driver, but it's. There's a business opportunity here to build something that may be bigger than me one day, you know, whether it was me getting out of the seat or, you know. And there were some times along that year, like that very first year, we put Newman in the truck at Eldora, and that was something that a mutual friend connected us, and he had some sponsorship for the race, and, you know, we did that race, and I think that was kind of when it first kind of clicked for me. And he was up top five most of the night until he got wrecked. I was like, I got as much fulfillment out of watching him in our truck run up front as if I was running. And I think that was kind of where I was like, this is cool. Like, this is cool to be a part of something that's successful and growing. And it got a lot of coverage and exposure. And Ryan had a good time working with us. I mean, I still have good memories of. He came in the shop one day and had some crazy idea about a right front lower, and he cuts it up right there in the shop and re welds it. And, you know, that's what we ran on the truck. So we had a lot of fun. It was very bare bones the first couple years. We did a lot of stuff that right now, I even look back on, I'm like, I don't know how we did it. I don't know how he pulled it off. You know, I don't know how we made. I mean, I kid you not. This was back when, you know, the O'Reilly cars, the cup cars are the same tires. I think I made our series director in the truck series mad a couple of times. So I would skip driver intros because I was back in the cup garage buying tires off their cars from happy hour, from their mock qualifying runs. Like, just like the heck with driver intros. I got to get tires for the race, you know. Exactly. So there was a lot of times where I don't think, you know, the funding that we had that year, I mean, it was very, very low budget. And I think if you tried to do that today, I don't even know that you could just because of, you know, the cup cars.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

For one, we're talking about two, 2018. Yeah, we've already hit some. Some. Some crazy inflation from that point, but, yeah, it would be very hard. So it's hard to replicate those kind of things year after year. I mean, the growth that. That the world has, the growth that the teams have, the growth that the sport has and all, you know, it's hard to think and going back, you know, just thinking about even the way my dad or Rusty Walsh or anybody came through the sport, you know, you don't get to replicate those kinds of opportunities as much anymore, especially what you're talking about and through 2017, 18. So take me to when you decided to go Xfinity racing and the decision process there between kind of trucks and Xfinity and what you were thinking.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, so we had run the. The truck program for several years and had kind of dabbled in a second truck some. We had had two brothers from Alabama, Bobby and Roger Roos, that we had taken to Mossport. We had put hosts of our. Actually made his truck debut with his Eldora, and we took a second truck to Phoenix for him and done some other stuff. And so we kind of started to dabble into, like, hey, is there a way where I can race and maybe do more? Just trying to figure out to get better because I felt like after a couple years, we had kind of hit a ceiling and John was helping me at the time. And at the time, it was just, you know, 100% me. The. The. On the ownership side and, you know, we had had some success. I felt like at the time, in 2019, 2020, we were a top 15 truck team, which at the time was. We still were very bare bones. You know, it was maybe three or four of us that were working. We were still driving to all the tracks. You know, I still remember the days of us, you know, we. Early in the year, like that Daytona and you're in Atlanta and then it was Vegas after, and we'd work all week till like Wednesday night and hop on the dually, like midnight and start our trek to Vegas. And, you know, you can only drive for an hour or two because you're just so tired and somebody else drive for an hour or two and you kept swapping. And so I think in my mind I was. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast. Those were some of the most fun times ahead racing because there was no expectations. Like, the only goal was to make it to the racetrack, not wreck and get home city. Exactly. Like it was just survival. And it was. Was the different type of stress, I guess, if that makes sense. You know, the stress now is the people, the budgets, all this other stuff. The only stress back then was like, hey, am I going to have enough, you know, money on my credit card to pay the fuel bill to get to the racetrack? And you.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

And in. In one of my previous business of motorsports, I talked with Mike Davis about owning part of Dirty Mo Media. At this point, it's all about you. It's all on you. You know, you're not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

You don't have a lot of sponsors, you don't have a lot of things going on, so you're piecing the things together that you can make it work. If it doesn't, it's you, you know, and as you grow, there's sponsors, there's people, there's your employees, there's, you know, there's so many more people that you're trying to hold up. You know, you make a mistake.

[Jordan Anderson]

It's just. You look at the mirror like, man, would you do that for, you know, but you can keep going.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Exactly.

[Jordan Anderson]

And so I think we did that, did all that stuff. And I'm like, you know, I just want to. We're all racers. I want to be competitive. I'm like, all right, what can we do to go to the next level? How can, you know, we figure out to get more funding in this thing to. To take it to the next level. So we ran all those years in the series and just felt like we were at a ceiling. And so John and myself and. And Shane Martin, our Chevy rep, we kind of got together and I said, hey, you know what, what's the path Forward to go O'Reilly Racing? And Shane made a couple introductions for us. And over the off season from 2020 to 2021, we bought five O'Reilly cards from RCR up there to kind of get us going and bought some motors and we went down to Daytona. And at the time I was like, all right, I'm going to keep the truck program going wing, and I'm also going to run this, the O'Reilly program. Can we figure out how to make both of this work? And we went down to Daytona and this is where again, the story of this racing program, it's always high highs and low lows. So we go to Daytona and for the second year in a row, finished second in the truck race. You know, missed it by, you know, just a few feet and come back up the next day and we were like, top 10 in practice in the car. And this is going to be like my shot. This is the first time I've been in really good equipment. This has got really nice st. We're going to run for rookie of the Year. This is kind of in my mind, this is like, this is my opportunity. And we show up that morning, it's a little overcast like Daytona is sometimes, and qualifying gets rained out. And at the time, we had no winner points. We were a new team. We have to load up. And this is still during the COVID you know, weird deal, no qualifying after Daytona. So the way they had it structured was if you qualified for Daytona, it locked you in for the next 10 races. If you miss qualifying like us, you were basically sitting home for the next 10 races. I forgot about that. So thankfully we had the truck team, so we kept that deal going. And I was. I sold some rides for it and kept running it. And that kind of. I didn't, didn't let anybody go during that time because my mind was race number 11 of the year. We'll be back at Cota, we'll do this. And this is where things get interesting. So we keep running the truck deal. And in that time, I get talking to Shane Martin a little bit. I said, hey, you know, who can we put in here, here to go run coda that, you know, don't get me wrong, I'm a competitive driver, but I've only run at this time five or six road course races at Mossport. We did one a year in the truck series. He said, how about Tyler Eddick? Why don't you give Tyler a call? He's. He's really good. And, you know, he. I think he was up at RCR at the time. And so he called Tyler and talked and we basically made a deal to put him in the car at Cota and then at Charlotte. There were two races back to back that had open qualifying and would basically put us a shoe in the car. So I stepped aside. I'm like, you know, the rookie of the year season's already over. We've missed 10 races. So, you know, I'm. It's so agonizing to watch this every week because I'm watching like 40th place in points. Who's going to be down there to try to beat? So we go to Coda and Tyler finished eighth, got some stage points. Decent outing for us as a team. Then we go to Charlotte the next week and we finished fourth with Tyler and got some more stage points, but we're still outside looking in. We were like, like, I don't know, 10 or 15 points out of 40th. So then we get looking in the rule book, trying to get other stuff figured out and I had a couple people say, why don't you look at the, the winner provisional for the year? And we get looking at it and at the time it said if you put a race winner from that year in your car, it would guarantee that car provisional. Well, Josh had one at Martinsville for you guys that year, but was running a partial schedule. So Shane and I think Joe connected up and we talked through it and we said, hey, let's put Josh in the car at mid Ohio, which was the next race race. So I put Josh in the car at Mid Ohio and he's like, hey, I'm not really a road racer either. I'm like, it doesn't matter. You're going to be in the race. Like, let's just. If we can finish it. And he goes out there and he finished, I think he finished seventh or eighth, finished top 10. So here we are, brand new team right out of the box, three straight top 10 finishes and now we're top 40. So now we're in. And it bumped another team out. We didn't buy on our points. You know, we figured out, put drivers in. We figured out. Some people call it a loophole, some people just reading the rule book, but we're. We're in. So we ran the rest of the year, that year in 21 and I got to run some. We had Ty and Austin Dillon ran some Sage, Cameron some races. Tyler ran some more races. Josh kind of helped us finish out the year that season and was kind of onto something. And I was like, man, this again, this is just as much fun watching these guys run and compete and running our stuff. And at the same time, we're still trying to run the truck team. So somewhere along the lines of 2021 to 2022, I said, Hey, I need to probably start slowing this truck deal down. This is the O'Reilly program is where we need to be. And Myatt Snyder came in 2022 do with tax slayer and some other things and. And basically said, hey, I looking for a full season opportunity. And I was like, you know, this is probably it for me as a driver, but, man, what a great opportunity this is for the team. And that was kind of when it took off in 2022, where we had one driver for the full year in that 31 car. And, you know, it was kind of all from there. So that 2021 was a pretty pivotal year for us to look back on what we thought the year was going to look like, what it ended up being looking like. All the things that we learned where it kind of catapulted us as a team.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

You to today.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah. What a year that was. I mean, that was probably the closest again ever since that 20. What was it? 2014 to 2021, you know, and then this is where it gets even crazier in the year. Obviously, it was a very tough year with COVID and everything else going on. And John had helped me buy some cars at the beginning of the year and had loaned me some money. And we got to the end of the year, I said, hey, instead of this loan that we got figured out, why don't you buy into the team with me and join as a partner? So I think we have one of the longest team names. It's Jordan Anderson racing Bomberito Autosport. Got a really long name, but. But John joined in as a partner on the team that year, and he's just been such a good mentor to me and helped on the B2B side of things with partners, and it's kind of what's helped elevate the team. But, yeah, what a journey. I mean, from that point all through that year and all that we did and, you know, we survived. You know, that's the biggest thing. And that's kind of where I think the pivotal turning point came from. You know, Jordan chasing after being a race car driver to being a team owner. You know, we all have those moments in our life where. Where you have to kind of look in the mirror and make those tough decisions. You know, it went from me caring about this to, hey, the, the guys that work here and, and their families and, you know, covering payroll every week. And how do you kind of grow something that's. It just like it just grew bigger than what I was and had a lot more meaning and purpose behind it. And it really was, was a pretty cool turning point for, for our team.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

You brought up a lot of things that made me think about, like in that, in that conversation about sometimes making decisions that don't make sense. Right? Like, you know, putting Josh Berry in the car. Okay. You're, you're diving in on the backside of what things look at, like, look like, and making a decision that maybe the fans don't understand or what's happening or, you know, how come you're not racing what's happening? You know, this year we've had that we're working with you on Raja and, and he's running races with you and, you know, the question's always popping up, well, I can't. Jerry on field, Raja, awful car and things like that. But, you know, what you just described is what we are all doing in the background trying to manage the stability of our company, the organizations, the, you know, looking forward to future years and what they're going to look like, making those decisions in the current year so that we can make it to the next year. You know, and we all do it, no matter if we're, you know, a funded four car team, if you're two cars with a part time third, so on and so forth. You know, we're all making those same decisions, no matter at what level that we're playing at. And also the other thing is, like you talked about something earlier, you know, kind of opportunities that you have to do to kind of bridge. And the truck team, thankfully, was there for you to kind of do that in those 10 races where you had, had, didn't qualify and had that missed opportunity there to just take a season and do what you want to do with and what you thought 21 was going to look like. But, you know, there's those situations in our sport and with our teams that we look at too is like, how are we going to. What can we. What makes sense? What opportunities are in front of us that make sense to bridge us to an opportunity that could be bigger, greater, better, whatever that looked like.

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[Jordan Anderson]

Forward.

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[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

So at this point you're owning teams and in 20, you know, in 2021 you're signing the checks and you still strap in from time to time. You're still racing from time to time. What, as a driver or owner, are you a more aggressive driver or Are you more conservative driver as it comes to having your own team when you're in the car?

[Jordan Anderson]

It's funny because it kind of depends. I'd say that, you know, kind of my mouth because here lately I've run a lot of the speedway stuff. Yeah, Daytona, tall day, you usually see me pop up at those. And my goal has always been, you know, you're not going to see me till 20 to go. You really won't. Because it just, you know, with me not running full time, I don't need stage points. You know, stage wins don't pay. I can go win stage one and two, and it's not going to pay me anymore. And so that's kind of always been my strategy. And I've always, since I was racing legend cars, I guess I've always been a little paranoid about what it costs to fix a car when you tear it up and, you know, just race a little bit differently. But, but, you know, when it gets to about 15 or 20 to go, it's like, all right, I'm gonna turn, hit the switch here and go for it. And it's. It's worked out really well sometimes. I mean, I think there for Daytona, I think, you know, I had four or five top tens there at Daytona almost. If I could have made maybe a different move at, in February this year, maybe could have got by the 21 for the win down there. And then Atlanta this past weekend had the great idea to try to make it four wide into one. There was a hole there. It wasn't a very big, big hole, but there was a hole there. And again, it was down to 15 to go. And I said, all right, this is. This is it. So when those opportunities aren't, I'm not racing every week. So, you know, thankfully to a point now with our team, where when I can run, I want to get to the end, you know, try to make it through most of the race and then definitely turn up the aggression there at the end. But, you know, you kind of mentioned a point there on, on running the team. And this is kind of where probably why you don't see me as much is it's, you know, making the decisions to keep growing this thing. You know, racing is always, I tell people it's this weird balance of. It's not like a normal business. It's not like a, a company that's, you know, maybe they're a laser cutting company that's making parts and pieces that you get processes in place and you can put that process in place and it's the same for five to 10 years. You know, racing isn't like that. It changes daily, weekly. I mean, you have real, real changes. You're trying to figure out how to make your cars go faster. You've got different drivers that come in that are looking for a different feeling. You've got, you know, different engineering things that come in place. So I think that the, the gap that we as a team have gone through as we went from just like the, the underdog to just surviving to get to the racetrack to, you know, we were a competitive team that was, you know, maybe a top 25, top 20 team to where, you know, we won that race at Talladega with Jeb in 2023. We made the playoffs that year. We've competed for some victories here and there and kind of had a shot at it. And now to go from that to being consistently in the top 10, that's even harder, I feel like, than where we were to there. But it's trying to figure out how to survive. And I think the way that I've tried to, to. To build our, you know, behind the scenes of, like, week to week is I try to always almost plan for the worst. Like, if I lost all sponsorship, if everything went bad, can I keep this team operating? And so we've always probably been a little heavy on parts and pieces. I mean, you probably would still see me at SRI or Circle Track digging through used parts, you know, trying to, if it's a piece of carbon fiber, this. That doesn't really affect the performance, but I can get it for half price. You know, we'll get creative on that. But I think that's the, the thing that we've done, and it's really put us in a good foundation or, you know, hey, up in Statesville, we own our two buildings that we're in now, and, you know, we own our haulers. We don't owe anybody any, any money. So, you know, we've just tried to be very selective about what we do and how we do those things. And I think by planning for the worst, when everything does come together, it puts you in a, in a good situation, but just trying to be fiscally responsible because, you know, the race for me wants to go by latest, greatest, cut front clips off, put new noses on it, do all these things every week. But you got to find that balance between, hey, we need to survive, we need to be healthy, you know, because racing season stops in November and you don't race again until February, so you got to make it through the off season and we gotta be ready for rule changes. So it's just this fine balance. And I think for me, you walk through our stuff. I, I definitely probably put a lot in investment into making our stuff look nice in the wraps and our shop and, you know, want to be prideful of our stuff. I've always told our guys if we have a bad day at the racetrack, even if our stuff stuff looks good, we still have something to be proud of at least and, you know, trying to find that balance between, between all that stuff. So it's definitely a very unique business model. You try to explain it to a businessman that doesn't understand race and they look at you like you have two heads. So it's definitely, you know, nothing that I don't think I learned in my business classes applies too much to this racing stuff.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

But I just had an intern upstairs asked me about that. They're like, you know, what would you tell me that, that I'm not going to learn in school? And I'm like, oh, in this business a lot. Yeah.

[Jordan Anderson]

Buckle up.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah. You talked about, about winning in 23 with Jeb and making it to the playoffs for your team. What did the new change this year for the point strategy look like for you? You're 21st and second, I think right now with Jeb and Blaine in the point series was how, how does that change affect your team?

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, you know, it definitely for us, we, we were for sure one of the teams that benefited from the winning year in. You know, we were kind of a, a wild card that would look really closely at the Daytonas and Talladega to try to win those. But it definitely played a role in how important it is to have a good entire season. You know, no parts failures, all those things. So that's something that we've definitely had to buckle down on this year, figuring out how to make those processes better and you race a little bit differently. So I would say this year it's really affected our season a whole lot. That year in 23 with Jeb, I mean, we, we pretty much pointed our way in as well just because we had such a consistent, solid schedule. But it does change the way you race, and I think it's heating up as you get closer to the cutoff here. But, but, you know, I think what this year has done for us is we started that third car for the first time. We, we started it really. The first time we took three was when we put Katherine Legg in the car last year and we ran those races with her. And, you know, so we acquired a third hauler. We acquired the third pit box. We kind of started to understand what it took to field a third car last year, and we said, you know, there's an opportunity here to kind of maybe create an all star car of sorts for this year. And, you know, we had the opportunity to kind of help fill out Raj's schedule this year. We put Ross in the car for some races. You know, I've been able to. To run some races. You know, we've. We've had a lot of fun. The coolest story that we've done this year is Andrew Patterson that's run the 32. Andrew actually came down here in 2020 when we were still running the truck series. Had a mutual friend that connected us up, and he was 16 or 17 at the time racing go karts, but wanted to break in as a mechanic in racing and learn that side of it. And Andrew's worked on the team as, you know, interior guy. He shopped the shop, the, you know, swept the shop floor, done all the different things and got a late model, started doing some market stuff. He asked my opinion last year about what he should do, should take his funding to go drive for a team. I said, go buy your own car. Go do your own thing. Work on it. He ran a bunch of races last year, and then I think he had a chance to go get in Nitro's car at Berlin and went right, finished second. I'm like, all right, you've got. You've got some talent here. And so we put together a eight race schedule for him to run for. For us this year. And, you know, he finished top 20 at Dover for us. He just went to San Diego and finished top 15 out there. And so he's. It's cool. I mean, he's like. I almost look at him like a younger version of me because he. He doesn't come from a racing family, and, you know, he's worked hard to. To understand this stuff. He actually lived in an apartment behind our truck shop for about four years. So it's. It's pretty.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

It sounds like a Josh berry story.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, like 100, right?

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Coming over and live with my mom. But those that, you know, you. You get to. You're almost like the dad in the situation, you know, because you get to have them under your wing and give them that advice to progress and then watch them progress, right? And then watch their talent come to fruition and the things that you're able to do for them. So 100% and that's what we're all doing this for, right?

[Jordan Anderson]

I think that's, I think that's, that's, that's probably one of the People succeed. The neatest thing things, as you talk about people, and that's one thing you'll hear me say a lot, is it takes a village. And from the front office to the shop, you know, getting to know these guys and men and women that are part of our team and see them succeed. And some. You have some people that come in that, you know, graduated from, you know, high school and want to get into racing don't know anything. We have one guy that started like that as a fabricator, and now he's a great finish fab guy. You know, he didn't even know what a pop rivet gun was when he started, but that's what he wanted to do and he learned and, and, you know, he's been with us for a while now, so it's cool to watch. And that's what I tell our guys. Anything that you need, I try to tell them anything you need to make your processes better, to make it more efficient, to make you better at what you do, I'm all for it. And so, you know, that's what we've tried to do. And it's. It is, It's a. There's a great feeling to give people the tools to see them do it, to see them succeed, to want to do good. And I mean, it's. It's crazy. We had a conversation yesterday. I've had some guys doing it for four or five years now, now, and having that longevity with people and getting to know them, it's a good feeling, but it also carries a lot of weight knowing that you got to continue to keep the books balanced, to take care of them and their family and make sure you have all those things. So there's a lot that parlays into it, but it is, It's a great feeling to see that. See people do good.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

What have you seen going to three cars for your organization from one car? Like, that's maybe a surprise. What's been helpful, you know, what's been a challenge. I know for us, you know, running more cars, cars overall obviously puts a lot of burden on competition and different things like that, but at the same time, you know, it. It opens up a lot of different opportunities for us to bring in sponsors to have more placement or whatnot, overhead, things like that.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, I'm sure Bummy told me when you guys did the west coast swing, I Think you guys had, what, 21 or 22 cars together. So I'm sure, sure you love the west coast swing there. But it has been good for us because it's challenged us. You know, thankfully, last year, we got lot of the foundation pieces put in place. I mean, when I talk to people about things like trailers and pit boxes, they're like, oh, that's no big deal. You just go out and buy one. I'm like, no, you just don't go out and buy a hauler, you know, you can't go out and buy a pit box, you know, so finding those things was some of the hardest parts and pieces to fill. And, you know, that's one thing along the lines of, you know, always looking of how to make stuff better is acquiring things that build up the core of the team. But this year, having the third driver's been good. You know, when we've got Jeb, we've got Blaine, you've got the same driver, driver all year. Those guys are good at feedback. But bringing in, you know, Raja and Ross and Andrew, it gives us a different set of opinions, information. You know, Raja will come run for you guys, and then he comes and runs our car, and he kind of talks about the differences here and there and what our stuff could be better. Ross comes over and he says, hey, you need to work on this, work on this. So we've gotten some good feedback from those guys about how to. To make our stuff better, because sometimes it's just so easy to get into rinse and repeat of, you know, know, this is what it's supposed to feel like or what we're looking for. And then when you get outsiders that come in that, you know, Raja come run for you guys for two or three races, hops in our car, he says, oh, here's a list what we need to work on. It's super helpful for us to have that.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah, for sure. You also made an alliance with rcr. Was that was after. Was that last year?

[Jordan Anderson]

That was this year. First year.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

This year's your first year. What does that mean for your team? How's that helped? What does it look like for you?

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, I'd say the biggest thing is, you know, on the chassis and parts again, you know, with the cup cars going away from what we were using, you know, used to find an abundance of chassis and parts and pieces, and the stuff's harder to find now. So being able to get the chassis and parts from them has been a big help. So, you know, we elected this year, even doing the alliance with them, we still hang our own bodies. We kind of elected to go to that path. That's been a growing part of the process as well. But we've got three body plates there in Statesville and got 10 guys in that shop that kind of are over our fab department there. So that's again, that's a kind of a new project that I've taken under and want to see that side grow even outside of the race, inside of things of, you know, seeing the fab side of what we can make and what we can do and trying to get that to work and stand on its own. But it's been good. You know, anytime you can have information and share information and even, you know, working with Raja and learning from him and working the relationship with everybody over at Hendrick and Chevrolet and kind of learning from them and learning from everybody at rcr, it's just been good. I mean, having people that are willing to listen, lend an ear and advice, I mean that's one thing I'm super grateful for over the years is I've had a lot of people that have taken time to, you know, answer my questions, answer my phone calls, answer my texts and be willing to help because it's. It. I'm still figuring it out. You know, sometimes I, I say, hey, I got it all figured out. But you know, I, I just turned 35 this year and I still learn new things every week and every day and there's new surprises every Monday we come into the shop. So it's, it's very good to have people that you can, you know, hey, I'm having trouble with this. Can you help me navigate this and troubleshoot through it? So that side with RCR has been super helpful to have some, some information to learn from them on that.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

So we're in the throws of already putting together 27. What does something like that look for your team? How do you decide what races you're going to run? Are you still going to run some. What does it look like for you going forward? You know, in, in having your car, cars, having your full time cars, having your part time car, whatever that looks like, how do you go about that process of making those decisions?

[Jordan Anderson]

I think one thing I've learned is a lot of times the last several years it's been October, November, putting some deals together and you know, I will say here in your own building, Joe Mattis has been a good source of some wisdom for me. He said, hey, you know, don't, don't wait. You know, let's get it. You need to get it done today. And you know, learning from those people that have been around the sport for a while has been super helpful and I think now we're trying to start sooner than we have before. You know, hey, let's not wait until November. Let's start in, you know, July or August and get our driver stuff figured out, get our crew stuff figured out. So, you know, I think for us next year we want to try to do is I like this model that we've had with the two full time cars and the third car, the rotating car, the All Star car, whatever you want to call it. I've had a lot of fun doing that this year. Not just because I get to run some, but also having some different drivers in the car and you know, give other guys guys opportunities. So if there's a way where we can build it, where we've got two guys that are running for points and you know, maybe there's an opportunity. You look in, you know, I watched a lot of the ARCA races still right now. You look, there's a lot of talented drivers that are there. You look at, you know, look at what Justin and Trackhouse did, bringing SVG over. Is there, is there a guy that's, you know, running supercars or maybe somebody that's not in our NASCAR world that we could bring in for a couple races? You know, being able to do just something different, I think is, is something that we would have a lot of interest in in next year and keeping it going that way. But you know, obviously the end of day we got to figure out and make it all work and keep our partners happy. And I think one good thing that's been super helpful for us and how we do it is a lot of the model that you look at in our series and it's so crazy when you look at, I think cup is funded and driven a lot by the team partners and they can go pick the drivers they want. Whereas you look at truck and O'Reilly, a lot of it's from driver funding and driver sponsors. You know, they spend the hours and time and build those relationship with their partners and they take it to a team that, that fits the partner best, that fits the driver best. And, and it's the business model for, for our series and where we've been able to kind of close that gap a little bit is through my relationship with John and his auto group side of things. You'll see easy care pop up on our cars that does his extended warranties. You See, BG and fvp, that are his lubricants. You know, a lot of the other partnerships, Fast Track, that's his auto carrier. We have a lot of those relationships with john that are B2B. Driven through his dealership. He's got over 20 dealerships there in the St. Louis area. And it's kind of allowed us to go to our drivers and say, hey, you've got this. We've got this. Let's put it together and figure out how we can kind of raise the. The bar a little bit for what our program could be. So that's where, you know, when our guys come in, they typically, with their partners, are getting two thirds of the schedule, and the other third is. Is our partners that we fill in on top of it. And I feel like that's what's allowed us to get beyond just breaking even every year. We've been able to invest back in the team. We've been able to invest back in our people and the benefits and insurance that we're able to offer them. And, you know, the two buildings that we own in Statesville, you know, for years when I was racing, I was renting buildings, and, you know, every November, you're like, can I renew my lease? Can. You know, and it happened. I think the first four or five years I was racing, we hopped around from shop to shop every couple of years just because the lease expired. So, you know, being able to own our business buildings and have that stability there is huge for us to invest back in this thing for. I mean, this. For me, it's as I've gotten out of the driver's seats, like, hey, how can I build this for the next five years, 10 years? Which is crazy to think about because when I started racing, there was no business plan. It was just wing it and go race.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah, I don't know if you have a business plan. We've never had a business plan either. Because you're forced in this sport to adapt sometimes react. You want to be as proactive as possible, but it's difficult to be proactive. And you talked about something I want to touch on, too. And we go through the same process of, you know, those decisions. You're talking about your partners with Bomberito and drivers coming in that may have relationships with partners already and things like that. And we go through the same thing. And you're trying to cultivate sponsors, and then you try to cultivate that relationship, but you don't have a driver to pair them with, you know, or vice versa. You have A driver come in that, that doesn't have extra room, you know, to, to take on another sponsorship. And how you. We're, we're doing that all year long. You know, like we are upstairs on the business side and you talked about Joe, you know, if we have, we're working on three or six partnership proposals and then you're thinking to yourself, okay, what does 27 look like? AM I going to have the bandwidth? Am I going to have drivers? What drivers am I going to have? Because all that stuff has to come through a plan of some sort. You know, you just can't decide, you know, today. Oh, okay, Okay. I sold you XYZ partner on three races. Now let me go figure out what driver can come and race those three races for us. You know, and the same thing happens on the driver side. You know, you talk to people and they're like, if you can just tell me that, you know, I can have x many races or this, that and the other, I'll go sell the sponsorship. Well, I wish it was, you know, I wish that was the way we could do it a lot, right?

[Jordan Anderson]

100%.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

But if you can start kind of meshing those things like you're talking about out and then your bandwidth to have this third car, you, you open up that bandwidth to have that flexibility, which is super important as you kind of keep the stability of your other cars and full time and all those things, to kind of start building the next team right, as your third team and things like that. So that's, that's really awesome.

[Jordan Anderson]

It never stops. I mean, that's one thing. It's, it's. You're always trying to figure out where the, the next catalyst is to, to be better, to make the team better. I mean, that's, I think one of the craziest roller coaster of emotions I tell people is the first 10 days of a month because you have, you know, the partners come in, they make their payments, they do all this stuff here. Well, then you also get invoices that come in. So you see it all come in your bank account and there's like three or four days where I'm like, I sleep really good at night. Everything's good in the world. This makes sense. I'm glad I'm doing this. And then you pay all the invoices and you're like, oh, how am I going to make it back to, to the first or the second again of the next month? So it's just like this roller coaster of emotions because it just, it comes and goes Very quickly. It takes a lot to keep this rolling and you know, payroll every week and you know, the fuel to go up and down the road and the engine bills and things are fluctuating.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Like this year we have seen such an increase obviously in the fuel prices that the whole world has that fuel

[Jordan Anderson]

surcharge that comes every quarter for airplanes. And you know, champion with the pit boxes and all the different things that

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

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[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

What about business advice? You talked about John Bomberito a lot. Who are people that you look at from a business advice? What's some good advice that you've gotten talked about Uncle Dick and the advice he gave you to go big and don't sell yourself short.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, no, I think I've gotten several of them and John is has definitely been on me since day one about being physically responsible. Don't get yourself stretched too far. And John isn't a racer. He didn't grow up being a big race fan. He was a car guy. You Know, he was big in the automotive world, so it's good that he's kind of the one that's been the one that's kept me grounded. I would say, you know, my wife, I'm very thankful. You talk about the, the family side of this. This is a tough sport. It's, it's long hours, late nights. I mean, there's times where, you know, a Monday for me, you might get there at 6 o' clock in the morning, you're there till 9 or 10 o' clock at night just because everybody leaves at 4, 5. And now you got four or five hours where it's quiet and you know, I mean, there'll be nights where I walk to shop and just put an inventory on stuff to look at things. But, you know, my wife's been a good grounding board for me. Kendall. And then you talk about her. She grew up in the racing world.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

I was gonna say, I always said to myself, I wasn't going to marry anyone in racing, but you almost, if you grow up in racing, you almost need to marry someone racing so that they understand and get it. And Kendall, definitely Kendall is the daughter of Larry McReynolds. And I was going to ask you, you if, if you get to get advice from America's crew chief from time to time.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yep. No, Larry is, there's, there's been a lot of times I've, I've called Larry, I said, hey, what do you, what do you think about this? And he says, well, do you want the, do you want the father or do you want the real answer? And, and he's not an ear massager. He says it to me all the time. He said, I'm not going to massage your ear. I'm going to tell you the truth. And it's good to have that, you know, because I can, I can go to him and trust him and know it's going to stay between us, us. And you know, I've run a lot of ideas by him. So he's been a great sounding board. You know, John's been a great sounding board. You know, my dad, I got a good relationship with him. He's, he still does his houses down in South Carolina. He comes to a lot of the races, but he's very hands on and you know, he's, he's kind of like my, my prayer warrior, my faith guy. You know, when I go to him, he'll, we'll kind of pray about some things and he always is quick to give me some good scripture to get through Sometimes when things do get tough and you know, also to stay humble when things are. Are good on both sides of it. You know, you mentioned Joe. Joe's been a good sounding board to me this year. You know, my brother in law, Brandon, he's. He's in the sport as well. So he's, he's been good to talk through some things and you know, just very fortunate to, to have that. So, you know, I've got a lot of good people. My competition director, Shane Whitbeck. So Shane, this is interesting story where I mean you guys have got kind of bummy that oversees your shop. I've got Shane Whitbeck that is kind of my right hand guy that, that does this. And I met Shane. Shane 20, this is an interest story. This goes back 2018 when I started the truck team. I bought owner points from BKR when they were shutting their team down. And Shane was kind of like the last employee at bkr. He was a shop foreman at the time. And that year when Brad's building was sitting there, I would take my truck down there at night and he would help me pull my truck down. And you know, he was still working for, for Brad would help me with all these different things here. And we stayed in touch over all these years and you know, Shane had gone and worked for some different teams. And in 20, when I was looking for a crew chief for my I called Shane up and I said, hey, you know, any interest in there? He said, well, I've never crew chief to, you know, Xfinity car. At the time. I've done truck stuff. I'm like, well, they have truck arms everywhere in housing. You know, we have a Hawkeye, so it's a little different, but you'll figure it out. And he jumped in with me in 22 and he's been with me ever since. And he went from crew chief in my to jumping over he crew chief Jeb for, for those years. And 25, I'd say 20, beginning at 25, kind of transitioned into this competition director role. And I'd say that role really doesn't even fit him well because he's, he's, you know, helps me with hr. He's at the fab shop. You know, he's on the plate with the guys. So Shane's been kind of like my right hand man. I mean Kendall, she sent me a tick tock the other day and it was like, you know, I'm, I wish that I could be the, the person that my husband talks to all the time because you know, we'll be on vacation and I talking to Shane about, you know, ideas and things. So she's like, she's like, I think you have to talk to Shane more than me sometimes. But it takes having that guy that you can, you know, 110 trust. And Shane knows, you know, all the things that take the team to keep it working and been very, very, very blessed. Very fortunate to have somebody like that in our corner that helps keep things going because he gets it and he doesn't just live in his title. You know, I think that's the, the biggest thing that, you know, you talk about, the advice that, you know, John gave me early on is he's like, don't keep people structured to a title, you know, and obviously as we grow, get more specialized in certain roles. But I think it's been one of the biggest things I've looked for over the years and bringing people on to be a part of our team is people that are willing to go outside of, you know, what they're supposed to do. You know, if, if I walk from here to the other side of your shop and there's a couple pop rivets on the floor, I'm gonna stop, pick them up, put them in the trash can. People that are willing to go that little extra step to, to pay attention to stuff and change. That guy, if he goes in our bathroom and it's out of toilet paper, he grabs it, puts soil paper on a roll and it goes about his dad and doesn't think twice about it. But it's kind of a mentality thing and it's been good to have people like that in my corner, you know,

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

with your team and really all of us. I feel like since COVID you know, we, we've learned and adapted to a different workforce of people and, you know, people even when they're working for, you know, top notch teams are looking for different things than they used to. You know, the sport used to fulfill you just from the competitive nature of it and the adrenaline and, and the travel and all of those kinds of things. But it's been different since COVID How do you navigate that in your position with Jordan Anderson racing and not losing people, you know, that maybe want to, to go work for a bigger organization and whatnot, because that's a, I mean, that's a struggle for us just from going to cup teams and stuff, you know, and so I can imagine that's, that's something that you deal with as well.

[Jordan Anderson]

It is, yeah. Gone are the days of driving to all the races, I think if I try to do that now, fly everybody, they get halfway to Vegas and they'd be getting out and get, trying to find a way back home. But it is, and it's just, I think as a sport's evolved and we've got the opportunity to have more funding, you know, it's like, hey, how can we take care of our people? And it's, you know, obviously we do the victory deal, we fly to Statesville. What a unique business model that is. Like when I tell people like, hey, there's, you know, this is company that has 10 airplanes that flies out of Statesville and we fly out and they don't leave till we're all done at the racetrack. And you know, that's the crazy thing about racing is we have all these weird champion that carries our pit boxes like, you know. Exactly. But I think that's the, the bigger thing is it's, it's trying to keep a, a pulse on, hey, competition is important, the statistics are important, but our people are also important. And as it's gotten more competitive in the workforce, I mean outside maybe a couple cities where, you know, maybe it's a tech city or maybe it's this where out, where else in an industry is, you know, what is it, 98% of the teams are in a 20 mile radius. You know, it's just as easy for a guy to roll his toolbox in the back of his truck and drive two exits down and go to another team and probably can get a job. You know, it's, it's tough in our industry right now. There's, the workforce is, is very tight, it's very condensed. Talented people are harder and harder to come by. You know, a lot of them have either retired, they've gone to work in the hot rod world or gotten out of racing just because they didn't want the week to week stress of it. So, you know, when you do have good people, you know, how can we take care of them and how can we keep give them, you know, almost ownership of a team to say, hey, you know, I'm gonna give you the freedom to kind of do what you, you know, what needs to be done, you know, let you do it and not micromanage those people. And I think that's been the biggest thing and I've got several guys have been with me for several years now that, you know, I don't have to talk to them, I just know what to do and let them do it. And trying to get far enough ahead to where hey, you know, we have enough cars and parts and pieces and just continuing. I think the biggest thing is just showing people that you're trying to get better.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah.

[Jordan Anderson]

And. And there's. There's a constant, you know, internal struggle for me, me of, like, I'm always looking at, I think, as a business owner, whatever it is, and. And my wife and I talk about this all the time. It's like, I don't. I can't tell you. I think the last time that I was, like, content, like, truly, you know, 100, like, everything's good. There's always this, like, I can walk in our shop and I look at a light, and, like, that light needs to be tilted a little bit this way, or I'll walk out to the hall and be like, that. Decals a little bit off or, you know, looking at all those kind of things. But having an eye of, like. I think it's a blessing and a curse because you're always wanting to make stuff better.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah. You want to improve.

[Jordan Anderson]

Exactly. And, you know, being able. The first time that we were able to get insurance for all our guys and offer them benefits, I was like, all right, this is. This is a lot of money every week, you know, and that thing goes out monthly. But it's like, you know, what? Hey, as I've gotten older and, you know, we just had our first son, our first child. We had a son back in September last year. Seeing the hospital bills roll in, I'm like, these are real things. So I think as I've gotten older, realize realizing the. That everybody has got something going on.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah.

[Jordan Anderson]

And, you know, our team is small enough to where I can walk out in the shop and pretty much tell you everybody's name. I can tell you their wife's name, their kids names, all the different things. And, you know, getting to know these guys. Everybody's got stuff going on, so trying to be able to make sure they're provided for and their family's provided for. We do a lot of things. I think that's one thing that we do that people probably think I'm crazy about is I don't do per diem for our guys on the road. You know, what I do is I say, hey, you know, we're all going to go out together as a team, you know, for dinner. So, like, you know, we were this past weekend in Atlanta, you know, we went to Italian Steakhouse, and we had a table of, you know, almost 30 guys there, and we all ate together as a family, you know, so good group bonding. It is. I love that it is. I mean, that's. We're with each other more sometimes than we are our own family when we travel with those kind of things. So, you know, getting them together and having that fellowship and, you know, that time together, it's. It's not only good for us as a team, but it's. It's fun to get everybody together. And I mean. And I like to eat good. So that's. You know, we're gonna go. We're gonna go eat somewhere good. You know, we're not gonna get, you know, truck stop food or something like that. We do like to go eat good. Exactly.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

You mentioned your son and. And. And being a father, which that also teaches you a lot, right, about business and. And life and different things. How has that made you look at your team, your company, your organization, and. And what are you looking forward to? The future.

[Jordan Anderson]

Future. I've gotta. I've gotta show you, and I'll pull my phone out here. And this was probably one of my favorite pictures from. From this past weekend. This was actually in Atlanta this past weekend. We're. We're sitting there on the grid, and I'm like, let's. Let's throw him in the car. And so we. We throw him in the car there. And then the next picture, he's like. He's looking over me like, all right, I'm good. You can. You can leave me alone. So his name is Banks. He. He just turned nine months. And for us, it's been the biggest blessing that we could ever ask for. You know, it. It's changed my life. It's put a lot of perspective in my life. You know, a day like Atlanta, where that was not the best night, not the best day. You know, Kendall walked up to me when I got back from the care center, and I held him, and I was like, all right, it's all good. Tomorrow's a new day. And so I think this chapter of life for me, it's, you know, maturing as a person and kind of thinking about things a little bit differently. And, you know, there's a lot of our guys and. And our team have kids and, you know, understanding the importance of, you know, schedules and hours and them spending time with their family and, you know, but for me, it's like, hey, this is a new season of my life of, you know, perspective and spending time with him. And, you know, this. This sport is crazy. And it's. It's. It's been a huge blessing for me because I can come home and Have a super stressful day and be wigged out about something. I come home, home and see him and it literally, it's like the best medicine ever. Everything is, everything is all good. And he's the happiest baby. He's, he's literally a free range chicken right now. I mean he's crazy. He's crawling.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Save a second one then.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, yeah. That's the funniest thing was Kendall actually sent me. She, they came out, we did the west coast swing together. She came to San Diego and Sonoma with them and when they had the wreck during the red flag when the turn, one wall got knocked down, she sent me a video. She said, you're not going to believe it. And I watched the video. He crawled for the first time in the lounge of the hauler. So I'm like, it's very fitting. You know, his first time he ever crawl was in the lounge of a hauler but making a lot of good memories together and it's just cool to have him around. You know, I bring around the shop, everybody knows him and he's moved around the shop now, so it's fun. And you know, I'm like, man, between the race team and you know, my brother in law that's married to my sister, he races dirt modifies with Brandon and his involvement in the sport, the race team, you got Larry Mack, America's crew chief as your grandfather. I'm like, yeah, probably be involved in this some, some way or another and it's destined. It just puts a lot of it, that puts a little bit more, more pep in my step of, you know, hey, I'm not just doing this for, for me and Kendall anymore. It's you know, to provide for, for banks and him and everybody always told me your life would change when you have kids and like, yeah, yeah, okay, sure, you know, but now, now truly experience, it's put a lot more meaning in my life and, and you know, I just thank God every day that we've got a healthy little baby boy. And it's, it's been a fun season with him but it's also, again it's, it's made me I think hungrier to, to keep building this thing and be able to provide for my family and do things for them because again, 10 years ago I was like, hey, if I, if I can stop by and get fast food at midnight and I can pay my rent and I can keep my race car on the track, I'm good, I'm good. So it's just, it's Things have changed a little bit, but it's all for the better.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah, you just. Just have a few more people that you're looking at that for. Man, I've really enjoyed this because I didn't. I didn't know a lot about your story and this journey for you, for. For ownership in this series and how it's come together. Do you feel like there's more stories that can, that can be built like this and owners in our series?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It.

[Jordan Anderson]

It's definitely gotten harder. I'd say, you know, where I'm at, it's. I've kind of mentioned a few times, you know, about my faith. I think where I'm at right now, it's one of those things I can very pointly say that, you know, the doors that God's opened for me and where I'm at, that's the only reason why I'm at where I'm at today. Because if you do the math on paper, you know, you and I both are supposed to work out exactly. You and I look at a lot of spreadsheets and budgets, and you can typically see a good pattern of, you know, this is going to work and this is not going to work, and this shouldn't work. Shouldn't. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be. I probably shouldn't have ever been able to have a chance to race and make it as far as I have. Have and, you know, just very blessed and very fortunate and met a lot of people along the way that have been a part of this journey. But I think the biggest thing. And, you know, I have a lot of young drivers come up and ask me for. For advice, and it makes me feel really old at times. They're like, hey, how can we do this? How can we do that? I honestly believe. I mean, it's. It's tougher than it ever has been before, but there's. There's always opportunity out there. And if you're hungry enough and, you know, you're willing to do the right thing and you're willing to try to do things with integrity and, you know, that's what I've always kind of believed is if you do the right thing, things usually have a way of falling into place. And people see that and your people that work with you see that, and it's just you try to build that culture around you. But no, I think, you know, it's definitely getting harder. I mean, that's the cup side. I mean, people ask me all the time, like, hey, what's Next, you ever going to get the cup series? And like, well, with the charters nowadays, I mean, I read all the articles about you guys talking about all the time. It's, hey, you know, how do you make business sense of it? And it's. That side has definitely gotten tougher. So now it's like, hey, you know, we're going to try to build this program the best that it can be at where we're at right now and continue to grow it and hopefully compete for wins consistently at some point down the road and build to the best we can. If opportunities are there, it, it might happen. You know, I still tell. This is a funny story. I'll tell. There was opportunity when we started the O'Reilly team, Xfinity team. Back then there was a Cup team for sale. And I think at the time we could have bought their shop, the hauler, some other things. I think it was like 8 million. And John was like, oh, it's crazy. It'll never be that. And so I, whenever he like pushes his back against me, I was like, hey, you remember that one time we could have bought that charter for this. So it's same.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

We've been in many scenarios like that, but you just, yeah, you, you know, you don't know. It is, it is kind of like buying a house. You know, at the time you can't afford the four hundred thousand dollar house and then all of a sudden all houses are $400,000 right now if you want to get a starter home.

[Jordan Anderson]

Right, Exactly. I mean, I think it's just being, you know, in the moment, in the season, you know, if opportunities present themselves.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Exactly. And you've said this the whole way, you know, you got to do what's right fiscally for your team, where you're growing, what's going to come next, what investment can you make next? How can you keep taking care of your people? You're doing all of those things, which is why that didn't make sense.

[Jordan Anderson]

Yeah, 100%. You could have done it back then. You might not have made it the first year.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Exactly.

[Jordan Anderson]

So.

[Commercial Voice]

Exactly.

[Jordan Anderson]

I, I look at where we're at now and what we've got. I mean, it's, there's a quote that's out there. It's like, remember the days that you prayed for what you have now. And so whenever you have a bad day or things aren't going right, and this is not just in racing, this is just life in general. It's like, hey, you know, sometimes even your worst days now, you would have killed for those days five or 10 years ago. So I think keeping that stuff in perspective, and you look at what you got going on, and you just kind of make the most of every single day. So.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

That's right. Find the moments of gratitude exactly all around you, even when you don't think that things are going right.

[Jordan Anderson]

This is true. And I think in business, that's the biggest thing, because just like racing, I mean business. I tell this about racing a lot. In football, in baseball and soccer, one of the teams usually walks away a winner. And racing, it's not the case. I mean, we're fortunate we got that win back in 23, but we haven't won since. And business is the same day. You can go years and not have a win. You can get knocked down, but it's like, hey, you just got to keep. Keep moving forward. I mean, that's the thing that kind of built our team, is embrace the journey. That's what we talk about a lot, is embracing the journey. And this is an interesting story I'll share with you. First time I went to Daytona, 2015, this is where Embrace the Journey came from. I'm on top of the world. I got no idea about the truck series. I have a short track truck at Daytona. So everybody around, he's probably like, man, the rear end skewed out. Like, it's not. But anyway, we go down there and we practice and we qualify, and we missed the show. And I'm sitting there on pit road kind of dejected, and Mike Mittler's truck was right beside ours, and Carl Edwards had come out to pit road and was talking to Mike, and Carl leaned over to me and kind of talked a little bit, asked my story, what I was, what I had going on. He said, hey, don't get so caught up in, you know, the end goal. You have to learn to appreciate the things along the way. He's like, you're here at Daytona. You got laps at Daytona. How many people would kill just to run a little app at Daytona? You're here. You're on this level. Embrace the journey. You know, learn to appreciate the. The. Not the mountaintop, but the. The journey from the bottom to the top. And that always kind of stuck with me of embracing the journey of, you know, appreciating the. The challenge of building something. You know, if you. If you're always so caught up in, hey, I got to hit this objective. I got to do this, I got to do this. It kind of goes back to what I talked about earlier, about never being content you're just, you're always going to be fighting that. So learning to be, be happy in the building point, I don't think any business is ever done.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah, you can say it's healthy, too. The people that are still climbing the mountain are going to come in, they're

[Jordan Anderson]

going to pull you down. Exactly. So learning to just enjoy the building part is really fun.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Well, this has been a really cool conversation. I've enjoyed it. Jordan. I've enjoyed learning a lot about your journey and where you're at. It gives me a lot more appreciation for what you're doing in the sport and who you guys are. And I'm going to be a cheerleader from here on out for sure. And enjoyed working with you this, this so far this year and appreciate you coming on business and motorsport. So it's definitely been fun.

[Jordan Anderson]

I appreciate it. We're going to, we're going to put our best foot forward at India. No Raj is 17 points out so hopefully we'll have a good run there and we'll get them in. So I appreciate it. Thanks for having us on. Hopefully the story is not done. Hopefully we'll come back and.

[Podcast Host (Business of Motorsports)]

Yeah, we can come back. Continue the story. All right, thank you guys for listening. This week on business and motorsports. We hope you've enjoyed it. Thank you for joining us on business and motorsports in the Arby's studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meet in three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meets.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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