Ryan Preece: Race The S*** Out Of It

Summary

Podcast Summary: Ryan Preece: Race The S* Out Of It**

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Dale Jr. Download
• Host/Author: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
• Episode: Ryan Preece: Race The S*** Out Of It
• Release Date: July 30, 2025
• Description: NASCAR’s 15-time Most Popular Driver and winner of two Daytona 500s, Dale Earnhardt Jr., hosts his podcast, offering unparalleled perspective and candid commentary into the life of a broadcaster and celebrated racer.

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of The Dale Jr. Download, host Mike Davis sits down with NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece. The conversation delves deep into Ryan's racing journey, his relationship with his father, pivotal career moments, and the challenges he has overcome to reach the pinnacle of stock car racing.

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Early Racing Days and Family Influence

Ryan Preece's passion for racing ignited at a young age, heavily influenced by his family's involvement in motorsports.

• Ryan Preece: "It was the same track as Joey Logano. So we came in a year after him. And that was really what started the bug for me." (07:03)

Growing up in Berlin, Connecticut, Ryan recalls his father building late models and fostering a racing environment.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "We built them for ourselves. That's where a lot of my memories came from." (04:00)

Ryan began racing quarter midgets at six years old, sharing his first race car with his older brothers until he soon ventured into more competitive categories like go-karts and modifieds.

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Transition to Competitive Racing

Ryan's dedication and natural talent led him to significant successes in his early teens.

• Ryan Preece: "When I was 13, I won out there at Indianapolis Speedway. Racing against adults was intense, but it fueled my desire to compete at higher levels." (07:03) (paraphrased)

His first major win in 2008 at New Smyrna marked the beginning of a promising racing career.

• Ryan Preece: "Winning that night in 2008 was when everything started clicking hard. It felt like yesterday." (09:25)

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Building a Racing Career Amidst Challenges

Navigating the financial burdens of racing, Ryan made pivotal decisions to sustain his career without over-relying on his family's resources.

• Ryan Preece: "I didn't want my father and my family to go broke because we were racing. I had to find my own way." (29:44)

This determination led him to take bold steps, such as racing modifieds while simultaneously seeking opportunities in higher-tier series.

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Breakthrough into the NASCAR Xfinity Series

Ryan's perseverance paid off when he caught the attention of Tommy Baldwin in 2013, securing his first race with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in the Xfinity Series.

• Ryan Preece: "That race at New Hampshire where we finished second to Kyle Larson was a turning point. It changed my life." (41:12)

Despite financial constraints, Ryan leveraged sponsorships and personal investments to race effectively, demonstrating his capability to compete against seasoned drivers.

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Stepping Up to the NASCAR Cup Series

In 2019, Ryan made the strategic decision to transition to the NASCAR Cup Series, replacing AJ Allmendinger in the No. 47 car for JGR.

• Ryan Preece: "Moving to the Cup Series was a huge risk, but it was a necessary step to advance my career." (48:52)

His move was fueled by support from key figures like Kevin Harvick, who provided mentorship and sponsorship assistance, enabling Ryan to compete at the highest level.

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Team Dynamics and Performance Improvements

Joining the Cup Series introduced new challenges, including adapting to team dynamics and improving communication with his crew chief, Derek.

• Ryan Preece: "Communication was a massive barrier initially. Learning to effectively convey what I needed to improve the car was crucial." (52:15)

Collaborating closely with teammates like Chris Gabehart, Ryan honed his racecraft, leading to notable performances at iconic tracks like Daytona and Richmond.

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Overcoming Crashes and Embracing Racing Philosophy

Ryan shared harrowing experiences from severe crashes, highlighting the importance of safety and mental resilience in racing.

• Ryan Preece: "When the car got completely quiet and I was weightless in the air, I closed my eyes and wanted the ride to be over." (76:40)

These experiences reinforced his relentless approach to racing, focusing on execution and maintaining a winning mindset despite setbacks.

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Current Season and Future Goals

As of the latest season, Ryan is focused on key races that align with his strengths, such as short tracks and road courses, aiming to secure his place in the playoffs.

• Ryan Preece: "I live for those high-pressure moments. Executing a solid restart and pushing aggressively is what drives me." (86:38)

His strategic approach emphasizes teamwork, continuous improvement, and leveraging opportunities to maximize performance.

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Reflections and Advice

Ryan reflects on his journey, emphasizing the importance of self-belief, effective communication, and building a strong support system.

• Ryan Preece: "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard enough." (69:42)

He encourages aspiring racers to bet on themselves and seize opportunities, even when faced with significant risks.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Mike Davis commending Ryan's resilience and strategic mindset, portraying him as a deserving and inspiring figure in NASCAR. Ryan's story underscores the essence of dedication, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of excellence in the demanding world of stock car racing.

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Notable Quotes:

• "I bet on myself and won that bet multiple times over." — Ryan Preece (97:08)
• "Communication was a massive barrier initially." — Ryan Preece (52:15)
• "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard enough." — Ryan Preece (69:42)
• "I live for those high-pressure moments." — Ryan Preece (86:38)

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Key Takeaways:

• Ryan Preece's early exposure to racing through family and local tracks set the foundation for his professional career.
• Financial challenges in motorsports required Ryan to strategically seek sponsorships and make critical career moves.
• Transitioning to the NASCAR Cup Series was a pivotal moment, facilitated by mentorship and support from established figures like Kevin Harvick.
• Effective communication and teamwork have been essential in improving Ryan's performance at the highest level.
• Ryan's experiences with crashes have deepened his appreciation for safety and resilience in racing.
• His current focus on leveraging strengths in specific racing formats aims to secure playoff positions and further career advancements.

Ryan Preece's journey exemplifies the blend of talent, perseverance, and strategic decision-making necessary to succeed in the competitive arena of NASCAR racing.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Mike Davis]

Ranch snack wrap, Spicy snack wrap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You broke the Internet for a snack. Snack wrap is back.

[Mike Davis]

I want to talk to you about the crash, the flips.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I remember getting hit and it turning towards the infield. And I can run through this in my head right now. And then all of a sudden, the car getting completely quiet. That is something that nobody will experience. Because at that point you're like, you don't know what's going on. You think you're just going in the air. And at that point, I closed my eyes and I said, I want this ride to be over.

[Mike Davis]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. All right, so we're gonna have a great guest on the show today, Ryan Priest. Been working on getting him in here, and sometimes it's tough getting the current guys in. A lot of them have their, you know, their sim sessions or competition meetings all around Tuesdays, and. And it's tough to bring them in. But he's. He's made it work, and I'm looking forward to talking to him. I think that he has a very old school, traditional route into his opportunity at Cup. He's a racer, and I mean the purest form of racer. And those are two things that are awesome. And I think, you know, if you don't know a lot about Ryan Preece or you think you don't maybe know everything about Ryan Preece, this is gonna be a fun interview for all of us. I know a lot, but I don't know everything. And I think I have an idea on how this is gonna go. And if it goes the route, I think I'm gonna really appreciate it. Cause I like Ryan. I see him around and I want to celebrate him. And so that's what today's about. I'm thankful he's here. Let's get him in the room. All right, so Ryan Priest has joined us today, and I've been looking forward to this. I see you at the racetrack. You're a short track guy.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And so when I see you, I'm. I like short tracks. And when I see you, I go, hey, short track. But where if We're a road course. We go, hey, road course or whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Mike Davis]

It's just fun. You got a great personality. You're, you know, you've worked really hard to put yourself in this position. I kind of know a little bit of that backstory, but we're going to dive into it a little deeper today. 30 years old, 2013 NASCAR modified champion, two time NASCAR XFINITY winner. You took a bet on yourself at multiple points in your career, but one in particular that I want to get to at some point. But first off, where were you born?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Berlin, Connecticut.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

What was the racing scene for me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

As a kid growing up? I mean, I remember my father. So the story is he never got to race growing up. He loved racing. My grandfather loved racing. And when him and my mom got married, she actually bought him his first street stock. So he would race Riverside park, which was a local track that's not there anymore. And, and. And then him and his high school buddies, they actually built late models. So him, the prior brothers, they. They built them. And so fast forwarding to when I.

[Mike Davis]

Built them for themselves or other people for themselves.

[Ryan Preece]

Yes. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. So they built them for themselves. And that's where a lot of my memories came from. I remember going to their shop and the prior brother's shop and just being there. And the big thing was, is my dad would always. We would go get coffee, make sure we brought coffee for him.

[Mike Davis]

About how old are you there at this point?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Four or five.

[Mike Davis]

Oh, young.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I remember.

[Mike Davis]

You remember it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Those are the memories that I have.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. So that's what we did, you know, between the race shop and remember my dad. And one of my first memories was riding up and down the road, him shaking the car down, putting me in the passenger side and just going up and down the road.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, that was. That was really cool.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

So when did you decide or how was it decided that you would drive anything and when did that happen?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so when I was. It was 1998 is the first year. I think it started in 97, so I was six years old at the time. Yeah, there was Silver City Quarter midget racetrack in Meriden, Connecticut. It was six minutes from our house. And I remember my dad took myself, and I actually have two older brothers, so he took us all over there. I think he was like, do they have interest? And you know, as a kid, you're watching this go around, you're like, oh, yeah, I want to. I want to go do this. This is fun. And so he. He bought a He bought a race car from. I can't remember who it was, but both my, myself and my brothers, we shared that car that first year until, you know, it ended up being my brother and I were racing, you know, three divisions, four divisions a piece. And my dad's doing all this, but yeah, that's pretty much how it started. It's the same track as Joey Logano. So we came in a year after him. And that was really what started the bug for me. And you know, it wasn't much longer after that when my brother turned about 15 years old, he was racing 600 micros. Well, I couldn't race quarter inches anymore. I had to follow him. And I was racing a go kart at a dirt track in Massachusetts and my brother was winning micro races and you know, Matt ended up getting his licen. And you know, I was the one who really, really wanted to do it. And before I knew it, my father and I were traveling out to Indiana, Pennsylvania, racing micros, running Kenyon midget and doing all that. So dirt, dirt, a little bit of dirt for about a year and a half, two years. And then when I was 13, Brian Clawson used to race for Mill Canyon and we actually rented Kenya midget one night I won out there at Indianapolis speed drum. And you know, we joke about me being a modified guy, right. I grew up having a huge passion for you sac midgets, sprint cars, silver crowns. Like I wanted to follow the Bobby Santos route, but I was racing at Mahoning valley in Pennsylvania. It's a quarter mile racetrack. I was racing a TQ Midget and, and winning. And I was probably 13, 14 years old, racing against adults.

[Ryan Preece]

And.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And the guy next to me who was parked next to us, his name was Billy Schwartz, said, hey, hop in my race car. I'm probably 140, 150 pounds, you know, not very tall. But I think I'm an adult at that point in time. And they just stuff padding in there for me. And I go out and I run and we're fast. And that's how the whole race car thing, the, the car that I drove, it was a troyer. It was probably like a 94 troyer at the time. Yeah, yeah, you didn't need. You didn't need the 2000, you know, 2002, 2003. Big 18 degree motor. At the time it was probably at a 23 degree motor. Don't know much about that one. Yeah, I do know my first modified though.

[Mike Davis]

All right, so you get into that car and that was your introduction to modified racing. And that was, was that a massive like is that sort of the. The derail or the turn that you made away from the Bobby Santos path?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, definitely. I think my dad was happy about it too cuz the racing even though. Because I couldn't race until I was 16 in Connecticut. So we actually came down here. I raced against the Myers brothers when I was 14, 15 years old running Friendship Speedway. That was the year that my father. We sold the TQ Midget, we bought a. It was a 1993 Troyer modified with a 23 degree motor and we just went to Pennsylvania, North Carolina speed weeks. Just my father getting me laps. He wouldn't actually let me race.

[Mike Davis]

He'd make.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, he, I would race but he would put me to the back every restart. Make me start last. Cuz he wanted me to learn. Don't. Don't be wrecking people, you know, and doing all that stuff.

[Mike Davis]

So how long did that happen?

[Ryan Preece]

About a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Probably six months to six months of.

[Mike Davis]

Hey, go to the back every restart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, pretty much. Damn it.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Y. I've never heard that before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't think you want to be replacing right fronts from your 14 year old kid. It gets pretty expensive, I suppose.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, I mean yeah, maybe me and Carrie should have been doing that. We destroyed a bunch of our first year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I destroyed a lot of too.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

So the success. How I mean in the modified. When. When did you start to. To get to where you were winning races?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was 2008 is when I won my first race. 17.

[Mike Davis]

How many years into the driving box?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Three. Three years.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean and it was, I remember it was a brand new car, new smyrna Speed Weeks, 2008. I remember I ended up on the pole. Jimmy blew it as you know him starting right behind me and you know this guy driving for Eddie Partridge had big Hutter motor and this was our family team. So we're just like I was nervous. Nervous, yeah. And we ended up winning that night and it was like that's just when everything started clicking hard. And I remember that night like it was yesterday.

[Mike Davis]

The hudder engines, man, they were something. I had hudders in 98, 99 and in the Xfinity series and if you didn't have a hudder you were in trouble. And a lot of the modified guys from like Steve Parks Circle and you know we kind of got introduced to those guys. Steve come down and drove for us and Bono, Kevin Manion came down to crew chief and be a part of dei. So we had some modified influence in our program around that period of time. But, you know, Modifieds to me, the Modifieds to me were a very northern thing. We did have a big race at Wilkesboro every year and Obviously the Cardinal 550 and things that were going on at Martinsville every year. And they were a companion to like an 80s and 90s. When I was a kid, they were a companion to the Martinsville cup race and. But otherwise, you know, I didn't. Bowman Gray. I didn't know nothing about Bowman Gray. Like, that didn't really become a thing to me until people started getting cell phones and cameras and, you know, that's when Bowman Gray kind of. I know Bowman Gray has this incredible long history, but I didn't even, as close as I was to it, didn't know anything about it all through the growing up in the 80s and 90s. And so the modified stuff to me was like, you know, Jeff Bodine and the Bouchards and, you know, we'd go up to, you know, it was all a very northern existence, at least all the really fairly fast modifieds. I know you kind of go back and run modifieds when you can today. And so, you know, how ingrained, I guess, is that car, that car itself and that style of racing, how woven into the. Your DNA and the fabric of who you are is, is the modified.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would say it's like larson with a 410. I live and die by it. I mean, it's made me who I am as a racer. Racing Stafford on Friday nights, Thompson on Thursdays, what used to be weekly, and I'd go to Riverhead on Saturdays. And then the run the Wheel Modified Tour as well as all the other series, the Race of Champions and the Monaco Modified deal. I'm pretty heavy into it. It's just, you know, I don't, I don't. It's my father and I's way of going and having fun. And when I say having fun, I mean trying to win. I don't enjoy going out and running 10th or 5th. Like put a lot of effort in when I do it. So when I do it the short, you know, the only few times I get to do it a year, I want to make sure I'm showing up to win. Like I'll, you know, there is no amount of hours, like if it's 8 o', clock, I don't say I'm going to bed. I will work through the night to do whatever it takes. So as far as modifieds, Yeah, I agree with you. As I, as I learned when I moved down here to North Carolina, this is late model country. I always used to see super light models show up at, at New Smyrna Speedway. And I think, man, those things are really cool. What I quickly learned is it's not felt the same way, you know, when you watch. I don't think every late model racer wants to race a modified, you know, and what I'd love for them to experience is it's like a super light model, but on steroids. Yeah, it's just super fast. And yes, we have 15 inch wide tires. Those tires durometer at like 32 points, which if you durometer a late model tire, they're 48 points. So they're soft tires. They feel gripped up for about five to eight laps. But once you get into lap 10 or 15 at New Smyrna, you are driving your ass off. And it's so much fun because you're just like the only thing holding you back is yourself at that point or, or making your car better. Right. But that's the part I really enjoy about it. And there's no arrow. I mean, arrow is a thing, but you're not catching somebody and getting arrow tight and feeling like, man, I can only do so much right now. Yeah, it is. Go high, go low. Fine grip, you know, put the car where it needs to be. Put the.

[Mike Davis]

I love that you still go back and do that from time to time. You know, how do you, how do you manage? I guess opportunities, you get to. You get to have the cup. Schedule's very thorough, very busy, not a lot of off time. So, you know, how do you, how do you. How do you not go?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what?

[Mike Davis]

I'm just gonna not do it because I don't. I'm busy, I don't have time. And I'll get back to that down the road. You know, I'm always gonna have an opportunity to go back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, no, that's. Honestly, I've had those thoughts at times. I think the big thing is though, is for a race car driver, it's no different than when you see Kyle Larson go race a. You know, it doesn't matter if it's a sprint car or a late model. It feels good to race as a racer. You want to race. And this is, you know, when I was racing modifieds, I was running, you know, 80, 100 times a year. So it's all I would do. You'd just be in a race car all the time. And so to me it doesn't feel normal not to race. But at the same time, my priority is cop. Sure, I'm gonna put the same effort that I put into, you know, if I was racing my modified full time, the amount of hours I'm gonna do to take, you know, what it takes to win. Yeah, I'm gonna do that for my cup job. So my father and I have, you know, have had conversations of, hey, I'm not going to do this if this is going to take away from what I need to do for my team or for me or as far as the preparing side.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So when I set the schedule out this year and went to Brad and Steve about what races I wanted to do, when I looked at it, I love New Smyrna because it's a great way to get in the car after two months of being off. Like it's every night. So that's a great way to kickstart it as well as I love racing Stafford like it is. I don't know if you've ever been there. It is one of the best facilities in this country. And until you travel around the country and you have the opportunity to go to all these places, people in Connecticut, you don't realize how. How great of a racetrack it is, how tricky it is. But as well as, you know, how they're always building it up, it's. That's the nice part as well, you know. And then the wheel of modified Tour stuff, I do that because they're usually paired with, with the cup weekends and a day early. So it makes sense from a logistics standpoint. I don't have to fly, you know, I don't have a private plane, so I'm not flying to here to get back to here. It's. It's all. It all has to make sense. And, you know, there's. Obviously there's. I actually have my modified at my shop right now. My dad, you know, it's very helpful that he's able to bring this stuff down to me. And I'll. I'll spend the next three weeks getting it ready for Richmond.

[Mike Davis]

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[Travis]

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[Mike Davis]

I kind of want to know some of the peak moments of your modified career and some of the things that you thought or the moments that you thought might have been able to really get you on the map or get you recognized.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So when I think of those moments I think of more of like what shaped me as a race car driver and as a person for where I'm at now. You know some of those key moments. 2010 I won my first modified race wheel and modified tour race at Martinsville in 08 and but the one that really started Helping my career path to where I separated from my father and started making a career out of this was 2010, I was racing Stafford Speedway weekly in their SK Modified division. So I was racing against Ted Christopher, Keith Rocco, Woody Pickat, you know, national champions. And it was intense. And so 2010 I was racing for Chassis Dynamics which was a chassis builder as well as Bob Hitchcock who who owned, you know, partners in on with this guy. And we won that first, that first race where he had like this development front Geo deal going on which then led into 2011. I actually ended up doing things completely backwards. So I had a wheel and modified tour ride where I was succeeding, finished second in points and you know, it's not cheap to race. And that was during that whole era where I remember, you know, hearing conversations I said I'm not going to put my parents through this so I can race. I'm going to figure out a way to make it happen. Well, I had been starting parking for a team at Thompson and this is how I met the Chat Dynamics people. Yeah. So Woody Pickat and Rowan Pennock were their main drivers at points or not Woody, it was Rowan Panic. But I would start and park their second car. So this is how I ended up meeting Mike Paquette who owned Chassis Dynamics. And then that ended up being to where, hey, let's go run Stafford sometime. I got, you know, a guy that's going to put a motor in this car. Went and did that. We'd rip the top like I could run the top of Stafford Speedway like nobody else. Everybody else would jump to the bottom like Martinsville going into turn three, I'd roll the top right on by him. And so I ended up winning. We ran really well. 2011 comes, I end up racing now for, for the people. Alan, Kathy, Mona is at Thompson Speedway. We end up running full time because we ended up getting a sponsor for Stafford as well as a motor sponsor. And so that just kind of kick started things and I'm gonna end up fast forwarding through here. So 2011 I don't have a wheel and modified tour ride. I start off, we do the first three races didn't make a whole lot of sense financially. I said no, we aren't doing this anymore. And so I'm racing Stafford and Thompson weekly. I end up getting a call from a guy named Bill park at Riverhead Raceway. So now I'm racing, you know, three times a week. Not on the wheel of Modified Tour. We had our family car. I would go run that here and there, but just racing we Were winning. And at the end of the season, Mike Stefanik, he raced for this famous number 16. You know that was one of those rides. There was, there was a handful of rides on the wheel and modified tour. You would get paid to race them. Okay, so I was racing at stafford. I'd get 400 bucks if I win. You know, this was, I was 19, 20 years old. I'm like, hell yeah. You know, I'm racing, making money. And so Mike and Eric Sanderson end up splitting at the fall final. And this is leading into the world series which is the NASCAR Whale modified Tour's final race. So Eric calls me, says hey, like you to drive my car for this race. Would you be willing to do it? I grabbed my seat in my garage, drove the hour to Palmer Mass. We put it in, we ended up going to that race and we were really. My family car was really fast at Thompson that year. So we took our setup, put it in the car. We were fast in practice, qualified on the pole and we ended up breaking a motor during the race. But like I'm thinking, well that was fun, you know. The next day I get a call from Eric, you know, hey, come up, I want to talk to you. Says hey, I'm going to, I'm going to give you an offer here, you know, the performance percentage deal. And I'm, you know, 20 years old at the time. I think I just turned 21. I'm like hell yeah, I'm gonna make money racing. This is great.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that goes into 2012 and I ended up winning the Stafford Speedways weekly championship that year. So we go into 2012 racing Stafford, Thompson Riverhead full time running the wheel modified tour. We would come south with my father's car. So we'd race that probably five or six times a year. But you know, this is. We end up getting a bunch of polls, winning, winning a lot of races. I end up winning the Thompson Thompson Speedway championship weekly deal 2012 and we end up second in the wheel modified tour points and, and all really good. Obviously the next year I win 13, but I'm racing with these guys. So going back instead of just giving you that little bit. 2010 went in that first race of Stafford, got my career path to where I'm starting to separate from my father and people are wanting me to drive for them. 2011 comes, have a lot of success. I think we won eight. I don't know how many races it might have been 10 at Stafford and that, that ultimately got me set up with Eric Sanderson 2012 comes, we're getting polls, we're winning races, I end up second in points. And then 2013, I win that wheel and Modified Tour Championship, have a lot of success. And I felt like those were what made Ryan Priest the driver, showed that you can not wreck race cars, not need to put a front bumper on it every week, you know, and win races. Well, what really made me who I am today as far as being very hands on, probably sometimes too much, knowing too much, was 2016, 2017. And so 2016, I was racing for a guy name Andy Partridge, and I moved to North Carolina, though, to race for Johnny Davis. So we would house the car.

[Ryan Preece]

You.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Know, and do all that stuff. But I became way more hands on on it. And when I tell you in 2017, one of my most successful years I've ever had, racing modifieds, the things that I did, and I look at it now having a way more understanding and knowing, you know, what things do rather than just what they make the car feel like. I can't believe we won as many races as we did. It was wild, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Like, 2017 was just so much fun. Between speed weeks running the wheel and Modified Tour, I didn't even. I mean, I leaned on my father so much, but like, just kind of going to racetracks and I'd throw springs at it. I'd loosen the Panhard bar mount and move the rear, slide the rear, because the background, you always put spacer on, right? So I'd always think, oh, well, you know, I'm gonna stick the right rear outside the right front. This will make it turn. And just doing things that felt right. But now I look at it, I'm like, man, I was an idiot. No wonder why everybody thought I was nuts, you know, so. But that. So 2017, I come home and I'm going to a race. And my father, when I remember, wasn't happy that I moved back to Connecticut to work for Eddie full time to race these cars. Like, he thought if you wanted to make it down here, you needed to be down in North Carolina. You needed to be, you know, racing for a team. And, you know, in 2016, we weren't. We weren't running great. Like, I'm used to winning, you know, I'm used to. I thought that I could make a big difference. And I just. I was living in Bono's garage at the time. He had an apartment in his race shop, so I lived there. And my wife, my now wife, she was living in Massachusetts. I'm away and I'm like, not doing this. So I end up moving back and we, we head to Monadnock Speedway. I'm running this race and my father didn't go with us. It was just me, my father, my friends, my father in law and, and the guy who spots for me who's, who's well known up there, Waddell. And we end up winning that night. And I remember the next day my dad looked at me and he said he was proud. Like that was that moment right there. That takes the cake.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that was that. And you know, I think of those moments like those are really what made me who I am today.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Your relationship with your dad and that's emotional. And you say it, you've said it a couple times. I separated from my dad and I want you to kind of clarify like what you mean by that, because I think I know what you mean. But why. Why is it so important for you to succeed? I don't know, you know, outside of that, you know, without him or not, you know, not always with him.

[Ryan Preece]

Right.

[Mike Davis]

I didn't mind being under my dad's wing and I would have been under there forever. You know, it wasn't, I wasn't always. It never occurred to me like I want to do this in spite of being related to him. Right. Or being. Or that he's opened doors for me. Yes. And it's got me into some opportunities. But. So tell me, like, explain that's emotional to you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I saw the financial burden that it was. You know, I didn't. My father has a H VAC company, you know, mechanical contracting company. And in Connecticut, him and my uncle, and there's about eight or eight or nine other guys. And as you know, racing is expensive, you know, so I, I didn't want my father and my family to go broke because we were racing. Now my father, when things are really good or even or right now, we can go race modifieds, but we weren't going to be able to go do ARCA or K N East or Xfinity or any of those things. Like it. Financially, it just, we weren't, we weren't that. And I, you know, I guess at an early age, I, I don't know, I, I just didn't want to see my family struggle. I wanted to figure it out for myself at that point.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I, I guess I, I don't necessarily think it was that I was separating. I think I said separating from my father, but I wanted to find my own way.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You Know, I wanted to build it up without.

[Mike Davis]

And then getting that. Getting that praise.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The approval.

[Mike Davis]

Approval from him.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Having gone that route.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And then getting that approval down the road. Was he hard got to get approval from?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You had to earn his respect. Just like, that's why I think most people have to earn my respect.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, but that's just the way I was. You know, it was my father growing up racing modifieds. We were at that race shop.

[Ryan Preece]

If.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you don't go work, we're not racing.

[Ryan Preece]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, that's the way he was. He's very. I don't know if you want to label it old school, but that's the way he had to do it. So that's the way I was going to do it. You know, he. His father didn't. Didn't build him a race car. He had to do it himself. And. And, you know, that's the way he raised me. And I've said this before, when I was at New Smyrna, I'll never forget. I was probably 15 years old sitting on the end, and they're replacing something. After one night I wrecked the race car, and he saw me sitting there. He said, pick up trash. He didn't want to see me sitting there watching everyone else work. So he made me work.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that's just kind of the way it was. And, you know, it's made me who I am because of that, though. Like, I am relentless when it comes. Most people, when they. When they hit a, you know, hit a closed door, they're gonna say, well, I'm gonna turn around and go, whatever. I'm gonna find a way to break through it. You know, I'll find a way. So, yeah.

[Mike Davis]

How do you end up creating you. You end up driving for Johnny Davis in Xfinity series. I remember being at Dover and you run in 12th or something and thinking in that moment, I was like, all right, you know, Johnny Davis's cars were reasonable, and a lot of people. Chastain. Other people have been able to get in those cars and make them run better than they probably should. You're one of those guys. But I want to know how. How did you create an opportunity for yourself to get into Xfinity knowing that the cost involved.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So the. The Xfinity side and the real story behind it was Tommy Baldwin in 2013. Yes. So 2013, he called me, and I was actually going to do the peak challenge they had where Briscoe actually ended up being in it. Patrick Star Poly, many others. And I submitted my video, and it, like, I was going to Michael Waltrip facetime me the whole thing. I'm like, hell, yes.

[Mike Davis]

What is the peak challenge?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was where they brought a handful of drivers in that we were going to do a bunch of different things and have the opportunity to go, you know, race. An ARCA race.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or Cannon race at the time. So I was gonna go do that. Well, then Tommy Baldwin calls sponsor mine at the time and says, hey, you know, I have. I have New Hampshire open, an Xfinity car. Does Ryan want to come do it? So that's how that whole path ends up going down. So I do that one race in 2013 with Tommy. With Tommy.

[Mike Davis]

How'd that go?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think we ended up 19th.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Didn't tear it up. Like, how did.

[Mike Davis]

Did you know Tommy well at all?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, didn't know Tommy, but he's a modified guy. He's a modified guy, but he.

[Mike Davis]

The Baldwin family's legendary.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. No, I. I mean, were you nervous?

[Mike Davis]

Intimidated by him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Intimidated by him.

[Mike Davis]

He's intimidating.

[Ryan Preece]

Dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is he. I think the. The northeast mentality is intimidating.

[Mike Davis]

You think everyone's like, Tommy.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Mike Davis]

He's a regular guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's a regular guy. Oh, he's funny.

[Mike Davis]

He comes down here and it's like, yeah, you don't around with him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, yeah, you don't want to, but no Tommy. So that was 2013, and I mean, yeah, you respect the guy. And for me, when I respect somebody, I don't know how to really talk to him yet until I earn their respect. At least that's how I feel like, you know, until I earn the respect, I don't know how to. How to speak to them.

[Mike Davis]

Sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. So, yeah, 2013, do that. 2014, we do the same thing at New Hampshire. I also run Homestead. And what his whole plan was. Yes. Yeah. In. Sorry. In Tommy Baldwin's Xfinity car was getting me through NASCAR's approval process because I didn't have. You know, I didn't have millions to spend to get through this. So that's just what I had to do. And then 2015, I ended up racing Tommy Baldwin's, one of his cup cars at New Hampshire speedway that we ended up making it look like a modified. Which was pretty cool. And I also ran for cup races for premium Motorsports, the final four races of the year.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, like, for most people, I had.

[Mike Davis]

That opportunity come about. They just call you. It was Tommy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everything was Tommy at that point in Time.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, Tommy, I don't know what the plan was. I was just, you know, I was a 22, 23, 24 year old kid. Like hell, yeah, I'm going to go race cup car, you know, but here's the challenges that most people don't know. You don't put tires on it every time. You know, the Xfinity races. We, we, I want to say the first few times we did we put tires on. But you know, the cup races, it was put scuffs on.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you know, for the public eye, you think, well, you're not fast. Like. Nah, it's not apples to apples here. So that was a challenge. Then 2016 came about. Tommy brought me over to Johnny Davis. You know, he, he said, listen, we're going to try and pull this all together. You got to go to your local supporters and Mohawk Northeast, which he's, he's been a supporter mine since, you know, since that year, 2016. And between him, my Thompson Speedway folks and, and quite a few others, I pulled money together to go run a full season with Johnny.

[Mike Davis]

What did that cost, do you remember?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Half a million.

[Mike Davis]

Half a million to do a full year.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which is, you know, pennies compared to some.

[Mike Davis]

But sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I'll be honest with you, it was. I was scrapping for everything I could.

[Mike Davis]

And still racing modifieds.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, the, the.

[Mike Davis]

Eddie, did you dial that back?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, no, I was racing. I mean, I remember Landon and I.

[Mike Davis]

Did anything have to sacrifice, I suppose, to be able to run, you know, full time with Johnny Davis?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, because I was getting paid to race the other stuff, you know, that's how I made my money.

[Mike Davis]

Gotcha.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because I, you know, I'll be honest with you, when I was racing for Johnny, it was a thousand dollars a race. That's all I, that's all I'd make.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what, no matter what, it was a thousand dollars a race.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I mean that's just, that's what it was back then. But you know, as a, it's awesome as a 25 year old kid, like I want to, I want to try and. Yeah, I'm going to do what I can. I don't know.

[Mike Davis]

That will be one of the things that people draw from this podcast. He got $1,000, that's it. To race Johnny Davis's cars. People will remember when you drove that car and have no clue that you walked out of there with just $1,000 in your pocket. Ten $100 bills. I know, but it's what you, I'M just saying, putting it on the table and saying, hey, you're gonna go to Dover and run the Xfinity race. Now, a lot of people would say, well, I'd do it for nothing. But you can't live off nothing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can't live off nothing, not if you're trying to be a race car driver.

[Mike Davis]

So I didn't know that. So you ran Johnny's car for one year?

[Ryan Preece]

Yep.

[Mike Davis]

And then you had an idea.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I. When I moved home, I had no intentions of trying to come back. No. I was racing for Eddie. I was gonna run full time wheel modified tour. I was working for him full time, you know, making however much a week.

[Mike Davis]

You were done with Xfinity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was at that time, until I was getting ready. I was. I remember where I got that phone call, and it was from Bono, because he knew the situation, the whole thing. And when Carl Edwards retired, that triggered the domino effect. And that domino effect was Daniel Suarez moving up into cup and leaving an open seat at Gibbs. So he called me and said, hey, do you know who Steve d' Souza is? Said, no, you know, I just lived in my circle. Said, you need to call him. I'm gonna send you his number. So I ended up calling him and asking him, hey, who is he? Steve d' Souza was the president of the Xfinity side at Joe Gibbs Racing. You're really good at telling, you know, under. Making sure the audience gotta fill it in. You gotta fill it in. So. So I end up calling Steve and, And saying, you know, hey, Ryan Priest, I don't know if you know me, but I'd really like to know if you have any available races this year. And he tells me, you know, we're filling up pretty quick, but I think, you know, if you. We're able to commit now, these are the ones that we'd have open. And it ended up being New Hampshire because nobody wanted to race New Hampshire. I'm like, hell, yeah, that'll be great. You know, I got sponsors up here in Iowa, and I was like, I wasn't even that excited about Iowa.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, I ended up going to Mohawk, my Al Hanke, who still supports me and sponsors me to this day, my Thompson Speedway owner who, who sponsored me in that event, as well as a local construction company in Connecticut, an asphalt company in New Hampshire. And then I borrowed money from. From the Eddie Partridge and Connie borrowed money from them as well as a guy from Long island that had been a good friend of mine. And yeah, nobody, nobody will ever know that that Whole thing. But I remember putting my license on my credit card. Like, my wife, we just got married in 2017. She didn't know half of. Half of what I got myself into, but, you know, I was 26. I knew that if I had. I knew I had what it took to win races, if I had the people around me.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And, you know, I'm thankful every day that. That I did what I did as well as meeting Chris Gabehart, who's. Who's now where he's at because he's a leader, and it was fun working with him, but that. That whole deal changed my life.

[Mike Davis]

And you went and raced five races for Gibbs?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, it was two races.

[Mike Davis]

Two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had enough funding for two.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then the other two. I mean, Kentucky, they didn't have anybody for that, so they ended up.

[Mike Davis]

What happened in the first race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We ran pretty well. I ended up. I remember Brad Keselowski was in at Kyle Larson. I think they ran a little short on fuel, but we. We ended up finishing second to Kyle, so I. I would say I kind of had a lot of things go my way for that second. And then. And then we went to Iowa, qualified on the pole. We were fast in practice, and I remember we were leading in stage three, and I'm getting loose, like, real loose. And my thing with modifieds at that point in time was I was really damn good at burning a right rear off. And I am just driving my ass off, moving up, trying to get grip. And Kyle Benjamin's coming, and we start getting cautions. And those cautions ultimately, I think, saved that race for me because it, you know, as far as restarts come, I'm really, really good when it comes to restarts. I feel like, you know, passing cars or making speed, doing what you need to do for two laps. And beyond that, once she's burned off, she's burned off.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And, you know, that final restart comes. Do everything right. Clear Kyle, and, you know, win the race, change my life.

[Mike Davis]

Did you know what you had done? I guess when you, you know, you win the race, cross finish line, get out, massive, you know, adrenaline rush.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yay.

[Mike Davis]

Excited. Just through the moon. Then like, what, three hours, four hours the next day. Did you realize what you're done, and did you wonder if it was enough?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I mean, I. Yeah, I'll get to the enough part, but it just kept setting in. It was like winning. To me, it was like winning a race. I knew what I had to do to get there. So emotionally, it hit me. Yeah. Because, I mean, what I sacrificed for my wife and myself and, you know, doing and putting together everything that I did. Yeah, I felt that emotionally. What was cool is when I landed back in Connecticut and the next day, I actually. I put the checkered flag out in my flag pole at the condo I was at, and my friends came and stole it and said, if you want it, you got to meet us at the bar.

[Ryan Preece]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I went. We went out and did that, and it was just. It was fun. Because what was really cool about it is the people that you race against, even if you had the biggest rivalry with them, they respected you enough to say, man, that was. It was cool. Watching you win was like one of us.

[Ryan Preece]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean? So earning the respect. I mean, I had the respect of the people I raced.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it was. That was the neat.

[Mike Davis]

They were pulling for you. The people you were beating, you know, beating bumper bars with.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Stafford and Connecticut and all those places, all those years where were also in your corner when you went up.

[Ryan Preece]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then. So Kentucky happens. I think it was Kentucky. I. I get that call to go run that race because they didn't have anybody. And we go down, and I remember Chris says over the radio, we're running second, Tyler Reddick. And that was when Ganassi was like, lights out fast there, and he asked me, do you want to finish second today? I said, hell, no. What do you need to be better? I need to be freer. I need to roll the center. We freed it up a lot, and I was too damn loose and finished fourth, I think. But that's the mentality we have. You know, I didn't show up to lose.

[Mike Davis]

I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not here to lose. So ultimately, probably should have taken second, but that's not who I am. So we tried, we swung and then. But speaking about, was it going to be enough? No, I. I didn't know what was going to happen because I remember, you know, that was pretty much it at that point. I think it was October, early October. I was taking my brother on his bachelor. Not bachelor party, but kind of out before his. His wedding day. We were golfing. We're heading golfing, and I'm golfer. And all of a sudden I get a call from Steve d' Souza saying, hey, Ryan, you know, what do you want to do? Are you busy next year? Would you be available to run so and so races? And it ended up being 15, 14 or 15 races. And the reason being is Christopher Bell was going in the 20. I think it was. Yeah, it was the 20 ream was supposed to be on the car, but I guess there was 10 races where there was another sponsor, so it was a conflict, so they had to put 10 races somewhere else. So they end up calling me, saying, hey, we're going to. We're going to put you in for these 10 races in the 18. But also, Stanley Black and Decker was located out of New Britain, Connecticut, seven minutes from my dad's shop, our house. Well, Stanley, you know, DeWalt sponsored JGR and a close friend of mine who did our tires that I've known since I was a kid, ended up selling a car to somebody. That was it at Stanley. And, you know, they ended up talking about racing somehow. And like, hey, do you know this Ryan Priest guy? Oh, yeah, he just. He just won with Gibbs. You know, we sponsored that team. He's like, oh, yeah, you know, I've helped him for so long. And he ended up giving my tire guy his business card. And next thing I know it, they're sponsoring me for four. Four or five races of Craftsman when they were bringing that brand back into JGR, and that ended up being 15 races or 14 races in 2018. So that's what kind of got me there, how that all Ream and Craftsman is. It's wild.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And so you. You run 15 races with Joe Gibbs racing the next year when Bristol still modified racing.

[Ryan Preece]

Yep.

[Mike Davis]

What's. What's. How do you end up in Cup?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I went Bristol at that point. You know, Kevin Harvick was sponsoring Stafford Speedway. And I remember I told him, I think it, you know, it was 250 bucks a week. And, you know, me being a local racer, that 250 a week if you won was a big deal. Like, that makes a big difference. So I went Bristol, and, you know, I. I remember saying to him, I need help. Like, I need help finding sponsors. I need help management. I need. I just need help. I don't know what. Where to go, what to do. And he ends up helping me a lot. And I end up meeting Tad Schecter and Jody Go Schecter. And that's ultimately how I ended up at jtg. And I remember one of the first questions I asked was, do you guys buy the entire tire allotment? Yeah, but that's a reality. That. But I did, you know, so that. That got me to 2019, which was being teammates in the second.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

In the second car in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was in the 47 that year. Yeah, the first time.

[Mike Davis]

Okay.

[Ryan Preece]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So. And then Being teammates of Chris and learning how damn good he is. Oh, you know, most people didn't. I don't know if they gave him enough credit at the time, but it was, yeah, he kicked our ass in.

[Mike Davis]

A roush car at Homestead, won the championship and that's. Ever since then. I've had a lot of respect for him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've had a lot of respect for him and he's been a great teammate. You know, it's been a lot of fun being with him.

[Mike Davis]

With him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But yeah, that was the, that was the beginning.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, I've never even thought about that. Y' all are back. Y' all have been teammates in a past life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, we're, we're very much alike, but yet very different. I'm a car guy, you know, as is he, he just likes his cars like five feet off the ground. I like mine on the earth, so. Have a lot of similar or common interests.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, I'd say.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

So you replaced AJ Allmendinger in the 47 and man, look, you, you've had some good results at Daytona's Talladegas. You're, you're smart, you got racecraft to go out there, know what you have and know how to get that car home. But you know, that team and that and organizations you've raced for prior to this year, you know, the equipment really wasn't front running equipment. You had to understand, you know, kind of what your goals were. And that's probably not how you'd ever raced before in your life outside of, you know, premium and a start here and there and Tommy's cars. But you're in the cup level, like, how do you balance? How do you balance? Like, hey, this is where I want to be. This is what I need to do it. It's hard, right? But I, I know, I know I need to be here and, and waiting for that opportunity to finally be in something that you know can get the job done.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's a tough question to answer, to be honest with you. The, the 28 year old Ryan, I remember getting that contract and saying, I gotta do this.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean? Because it wasn't. I didn't have a whole lot of sponsorship. I couldn't dictate the path. I think the 28 year old Ryan probably needed to be able to spend a year racing Xfinity with a good team and learning mile and a half and doing those things and going to tests and getting that practice. But that wasn't in the cards.

[Mike Davis]

You didn't have that Deal on the table.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We didn't have that deal on the table. You know, I mean, maybe if I waited, it potentially could have came.

[Mike Davis]

But risk.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a risk. So I, you know, Tad, I had met them.

[Ryan Preece]

They.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're great people. And I said, all right, I'm going to do this. And I remember I lived in Connecticut all the way until 2019. We moved down in December of 20, 2018. My wife was crying. You know, we moved down in our U Haul, bought a house. First house I bought because we lived in a condo. She was a teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts. This was a big move, man, and this is a lot of risk.

[Mike Davis]

What kind of teacher?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She was an elementary school teacher.

[Mike Davis]

Dang. She told second. Did she keep working down here?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She ended up being a homeschool teacher.

[Mike Davis]

Hey, that's cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At one point in time. But now she's, you know, we're having our second kid and I want her to be home. But, yeah, so it was a big move.

[Mike Davis]

She's crying because she's moving away from family.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. But then she jokes, she said after four days and the sun popped out and she walked outside and she didn't have to put on three coats and shovel snow and all those things, she said, I think I could deal with this. So now I think if we ever end up moving back, it's going to be a tough transition.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. But. So, yeah, 2019 comes, you know, the super speedways, I always look forward to those. But I think you and I have had conversations in the past of, you know, hey, why don't you. Why don't you race hard and get in the pack? And to be honest with you, I was told, don't. You can't. So then it puts this mindset in you of, I gotta hold. You know, it's like a horse racer holding back and holding back and. And then just ultimately hoping for the right situation or everything work out. And, yeah, I mean, it was. It wasn't the way I wanted to race, but it was what you had to do for the organization or take advantage of the points on those days or whatever it may have been. So, yeah, there was a lot of. A lot of growing up to do, you know, I think on the racing side of things, to understand the business of it, but also, you know, just trying to maximize those days.

[Mike Davis]

When you look back, even, I know it's just a couple years ago, but when you look back to that first year in the Cup Series, if you could, if you could. If you could tell yourself something that you Worried about that you didn't need to worry about, or if you could tell yourself something that you should have focused on that you didn't see was maybe that important. Like, I. I know that you're. You're really. You're. You're really smart about, you know, making, you know, understanding what's important, understanding what you need to be worried about, what to focus on, what isn't. What do I need to do to get this better? But you walked into cup racing like, unknown, you know, not knowing anything. Right. And trying to. Still trying to figure out stock cars and the tracks and the bigger tracks and all that stuff. Like, what would you say to yourself that would help. That would have helped that learning curve.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Communication. And the reason I'll say this is I feel like there was a massive barrier on what I was trying to communicate, on how to make the car better or what I was feeling. I think that was one of the biggest things. And I've. As I've gotten older and. And, you know, I always leaned on. On gabehart quite a bit because I. I trusted him. I felt really comfortable around having. Having conversations with him, and he was somebody I would lean on. And. And so that was always something that I tried to get better. As I figured it out and learned what I needed to do, that was probably a huge piece of it. Yeah. I just. I don't know, man. It's. It was. It was really challenging. I think there's. There's a lot of things that could have gone better, you know, for sure. But one thing I'm. I'm super grateful for was the relationship I had with Tad. You know, he's always been. Him and Jody were always great to Heather and I, and I think that's ultimately. I wish I communicated better as a race car driver to whatever it may have been, whether it was the crew chief at the time or whatever, and probably listened a little more. I was very stubborn with some things. You know, I'm not perfect, but coming from the northeast, I think, you know, dealing with personalities, as you joke about Tommy, one thing that. That you really need to do down here is be willing to listen.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, so feel like as I've gotten older, I'm. I'm way more open to listening and. And trying to work on communication, man. Chat. GPT really helps with a lot of things, but no.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Definitely had. Had some maturing to do.

[Mike Davis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Mike Davis]

The 37 car, which is a car you're in in 2021, shut down after the end of the season and you have to re evaluate your next steps and you don't get to continue full time racing but you start working at Stewart Hawks Racing. Walk me through that process.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so 2021 came to an end. I was working on putting a sponsorship deal together with a, with a good friend of mine that ended up like kind of getting started. Didn't really know if anything was going to come from it but we were able to put together this deal where I would run, you know, a couple, couple Xfinity races with, with SHR as well as two cup races. And then I had run for David Gill and which was DGR at the time in that truck.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you know, David wanted me to run in that truck on a handful of times, however many it was. So I was able to put together a decent amount enough schedule with the trucks, the Xfinity car and the cup car as well as racing modifieds which I was running for Eddie at the time. This was a way to make actually 2022 he had passed away. So I was, I was running my own deal at that point in time and make some money through, through running that. And yeah, ultimately just we had some success in that truck. We ran really well with it with Chad Johnston and had a lot of fun doing it with them. And you know, a handful of times we were in those Xfinity races. We ran We. We had speed. We never put a race together to where we won. And, and then the cup race, you know, Dover, I remember we were fast in practice, qualified really well, ended up burning a plug wire at the beginning of that race. And it didn't go phenomenal at Dover and then bottomed out. Charlotte early on in the 600 broke tow link, couldn't change it in time. Was done in like 12 or 812 laps. So that was less than ideal.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But on top of that, I was doing sim work. I remember. You know, this comes back to doing whatever it takes.

[Ryan Preece]

I would.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I tested at Daytona or at New Smyrna on Thursday, took a flight early back in the morning to go do my job for eight hours in the sim on Friday to fly back to race Saturday for the. Or whatever it was with the modifieds. And, you know, those are the things that you just did for opportunities. Right. And, you know, it took sponsorship dollars to put that together with SHR to do those Xfinity races and, and the cup races. I'm not going to sit here and act like they didn't just appear. You know, it takes dollars to make things happen. So I was lucky enough. United Rentals and Mohawk and, you know, people like that came in and we were able to put that together. And then that ended up ultimately putting a deal together in 2023 with United Rentals, Milwaukee Northeast, Hunt Brothers, Pizza, Morton Buildings, you know, and quite a few others to make that full season in the 41 happen.

[Mike Davis]

So the. The support that you. The relationship that you created with Kevin Harvick, incorporated, the support and representation that they provided was a. Was a real godsend, I would say, I would suppose, in this transition from. From TAG's organization into Stewart Hoss Racing.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And kind of kept you. Kept you in the ecosystem. Yeah, right.

[Ryan Preece]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that's where I remember calling Kevin, asking him, you know, not understanding it, the whole picture at the time, but like, hey, man, do you think we could take some of your sponsorship and put it over here? When I was trying to. To get that last little bit together to get in that 41, and now Kevin was a huge piece in. In making, you know, I'm sure Tony feel comfortable doing it.

[Mike Davis]

And we talk about. So the thing about Kevin is, like, a lot of people don't know how involved he is behind the scenes. So yesterday on our Dirty Air show, we had Bubba call in because he won Indy and he was like, yeah, I was. I got back into my. I got back into Legends car racing. It wasn't going too well. And Kevin Harvick called me, said, come run with us in our outfit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It'll be better.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And he said, not only did I get to race in a, you know, racing better, but I got to talk about life and learn a lot about, you know, just talking life with Kevin. And I know Kevin's called a couple other people, just called them some other drivers that are kind of struggling to sort of help him understand the mental side of, of of the sport. And I don't think a lot of people appreciate or maybe they do, but they don't really know just how many people Kevin kind of lends advice to or support and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

So I think that's pretty neat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, the JTG thing without Kevin wouldn't have happened.

[Ryan Preece]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, as well as putting it all together in the end with shr same thing. Now, Kevin, you know, has been a huge part in help and in getting the career to this point and all of that. Even as far as them and their family. Delena.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We have a. I, I like old school rap. You know, I like a lot of Ice Cube. I like Easy E, NWA all that.

[Mike Davis]

Martin over here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gucci Mane.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Young Dolph.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what I listened to in the shop. And a lot of that came from those nights in the race shop. But Delena has those same types of songs that she likes. So whenever I throw up something or she throws up something, I'll throw a little Notorious Big you know, emoji or whatever.

[Mike Davis]

But yeah, that's funny. Stewart House Racing is going to shut down. Everybody's, you know, you're you and you're living that. Right. And which is not a fun experience ever. You know, it's a little emotional. But you were part of that process. At what point, I guess is. At what point is there a. Is are. Do you know where you're going? Do you know what you're about to do? Is there a bit of a moment when you're like, damn, they're shutting down. I don't know what I got going on. Like it. Or was it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was looking for houses in Connecticut in August.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because I had no intentions on living here if I wasn't, you know, if I wasn't racing. I'm not living. Yeah. My family's up in Connecticut. You know, her family's in Massachusetts. So I'm. We're figuring out what we're going to do. How are we going to do it? I remember I had a bunch of crypto stock like, that I had to sell. And I was pissed because it ended up taking off three weeks later. But I sold it because I had every intentions on buying, you know, putting a down payment on a house. I'm like, I need this. And yeah, so I remember April. We were running halfway decent. We were like in 20th or whatever points before, you know, May came. And there was a team that ended up reaching out to me that possibly wanted me to drive for him. And. And I, you know, I was like, okay, yeah, you know, every agreed to everything. And then May came. I remember Dover. The exhaust manifold came apart, the header came apart, end up, you know, car catches on fire inside, burns the foam and pull off and. And then we have a bad race. I remember it was just like a snowball effect. It was three weeks leading up to when they were announcing that SHR was. Was going to shut down. And it was just as bad as you can get right there. And then we go into June, in July, and it's less than stellar. Like, we're just. It's not going well at all.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, and I drug Chad Johnston into. Into the SHR deal. Like, he was a great crew chief with me, and I liked working with him. You know, he was a. He was a midget guy. He helped my modified get better. We actually ended up winning Martinsville, and. And my whole 41 team came to that race with the modified and we had a lot of fun, but just unfortunately, the situation and everything, it just wasn't ideal. And I remember he looked at me and said, you know what? Screw it. I'm going to do it my way, and I'm going to. We're going to figure this out. And that final 10 races, like, we put together a solid last few races, whatever. It was like we ran respectable and we were running. I felt like the best in the organization at that point. And it was just. Yeah, but going back to what you were talking about, of thought I had a deal.

[Mike Davis]

What was the deal?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not. I can't. Can't speak.

[Mike Davis]

Why?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because it's not. It's not my story to tell, I guess.

[Mike Davis]

But how does that deal fall apart?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We started running like. And they thought it was probably me. I don't know. You know, it wasn't. You know, are you going to hire a guy that's running 30th every week? Yeah, but you. You know, that's. That's the tough side. And this is the part that I have a strong understanding. I feel like the sport and race cars and you Know if it's not working, it's not working. Doesn't mean that you're not a bad driver or not good driver. It's just, it's not working. And so yeah, I thought, you know, I was going to agree to a deal and it just went completely quiet. And I remember there were some rumblings about everything coming together with, with rfk. I remember Brad calling me. So he called me. He was on his way to a test. Hey, Ryan. Brad Keselowski. And I never got to know Brad. Like when I say I'm in my own world, I focus on my team, my car, my house, my family. Like that is my world. Other than, you know, Josh Barry or Chris Busher, I didn't really talk to a whole lot of people. You know, I talked to the people I have a lot of respect for but didn't ever hang out with anybody but Josh. And I had a lot of great conversations throughout that year. And, but Brad calls me, says hey, if there was an opportunity for starting a third car, would you have any interest? And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, because you know, I'm watching that organization go from what?

[Mike Davis]

Better and better.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And just getting better. There was, there was a stretch of weeks where Brad or Chris was like second every week. And for a two car organization to be in the top two, like that's not easy. You know, it takes a lot. So that happens. And I'm still not sure if everything's going to play out like. And ultimately ended up, ended up working out and you know, thank you to, you know, Tad and Bam and Kroger and Mohawk and you know, Al Hankie. It's like you try to get these opportunities and I really thought I was moving back to Connecticut and I was going to be looked at like this guy that could never do it. Now I haven't won. That's the goal. That's what I want to do. I know I can though. So every week it's a grind. Just keep putting ourselves in those situations and inching up on what we need from, from what we need or I need to make the car faster and keep things that I can keep doing better. Yeah, and we'll get there.

[Mike Davis]

So the, the, the impressive thing for me I guess for this year is a two car operation that is overachieving for good reason. Now they run good and won races because they, they're good people and smart and they very, very clever with the resources they have. So a lot of credit to Chris for working on his team and keeping his team Better and Brad and RFK and everybody for doing what they did in previous years. But a third car coming together in an organization to build a brand new car and a whole new team, I mean, it's a great opportunity for you, but I would have not held it against you if it had struggled and if the results had been similar to the previous year with shr, I would have thought, well, it's a new team. You know, it's. It's kind of. It's. It's a little patchwork. They got to figure it out. It's going to come together in jail. But you have, you know, you've ran as well as Chris throughout most of the year and at times been the best car. And Brad's had a. Had the year that nobody saw coming. You know, it's been just a tough year for Brad, but your team is on the cusp of making the playoffs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know? Yeah, that's.

[Mike Davis]

I don't know if. I don't know if you're satisfied, but, you know, I think. I imagine you're sitting there saying, you know, yeah, I want to win races. I'm not checking that box. It's not what, you know, got to get better. But honestly, dude, I feel like.

[Ryan Preece]

Y'.

[Mike Davis]

All are exceeding expectations. And, you know, for whatever reason, that car and that team has come together really quickly. Where. Where I guess is your assessment of. Of the season and your do have you. Has the goal post move? Have your expectations changed when you came into it? What did you think you were capable of versus today?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My. My mindset when it comes to racing is win races. And, you know, I adjust accordingly each and every weekend. I think the biggest thing is the support system that RFK has had. Like, we have a. We have a gym strength coach, and I enjoy the conversations that we have. And one of them is. Is in love. The process. So the process can love you back. And I live by that. You know, I live by my team. And, you know, one thing that I say to them is hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard enough. So we. We live by that. And, you know, I feel like just the entire team that we've somehow fallen together. You know, we joke because it came together so late. A lot of. We didn't have a crew chief until the end of January. With Derek, it was the wildest thing.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And, hey, and Derek is like a reborn. Like, you know what I mean? I've known Derek forever, and I never saw. I never saw Derek in this position.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At this point in his Life personalities.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

His personality in my personality apparently just works really well together. Yeah. And I think it's come with maturing on my part and like I let him do his job and part of this goes. I'll never forget this moment. And I think this is actually when Chad and I started running better too. Is I communication. I remember going into his office and I. It's like trying to, you know, forces square, square in a circle hole. Like I am just trying to explain what I need. And I remember looking at him and I could see this blank stare back and I'm like, am I confusing you? And he looked at me and said yes. But I wanted that honesty. And from there on out I was like, I'm doing more harm than I am good. Like wanting to help, but it's actually hurting. And I think between that the perspective. I talk about perspective but really leaning on Brad. I hold Chris to a pedestal because I was already teammates with him. So when I look at our organization, you know, I look at Brad and Chris, but Chris is really good at getting, getting that extra bit of speed and I'm trying to find where we can keep getting that now we execute races really well.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I felt like, you know, as long as we don't beat ourselves, we're going to be there and we'll have those opportunities. But Chris is somebody I really lean on to to keep making myself better. And I always had other drivers come up to me like Doug Kobe. He's a however many time champion in the wheel modified Tour. And he always said to me, he's like man, you always pushed me to be better. And Chris is that guy that pushes me right now because I, you know, been teammates with him and Brad, to be honest with you. Brad has been fast as lately and just things haven't worked out. He's. He's gonna, I think these next 14 races or even over the course of the next four has an opportunity to win. And we, I think, you know, strong statement but I feel like Iowa, Watkins, Glen Richmond, Daytona are places that are going to fit our styles. And you know, it's, it's not over. I joked with Bubba Wallace because I texted him. He's always been a great guy to me and a great person. So I text him, hey man, congrats. Him and Freddy Kraft. Bubba said, immediately texted me and said you probably thought that fourth place was going to be good enough, huh? Yeah, but yeah, so. But yeah, this team, man, at that point when everything came together late in January, you know, as far as the Entire team. I've kind of said to him, we didn't pick the team. The team picked us. And it's just been. It's been easy to work with. And, you know, one other Derek story since, you know him, and as I've gotten to know him, because it's so difficult to go to lunch with somebody and say, yeah, I'm gonna work with this guy.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, it doesn't work that way. And we. We're at Daytona. We're about to head into qualifying for the 500. And he looked at me and he's like, well, man, you know, I think she's gonna drive good. She's probably not gonna be the fastest thing in the world. I said, all right, well, I don't believe you, but, okay, whatever. And then he flips on rap, like, my style of music. And I'm just like, who is this? You know, me and. Me and this engineer Brent, who came from Thor sport that this is his first year in cup, never worked on a next gen car in his life. And it's just. Everything's gelling and, yeah, it just ended up working out.

[Mike Davis]

I know it's a fascinating thing, the team, how it came together and how it's performed. I think a lot of people are impressed. I want to talk to you about the crash, the flips. You know, I. I know that, you know, those were pretty visually dramatic.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

You know, in. Inside the car, Is it as wild as it looks? When you got. When you went down the back straight away and flipped so violently in the next gen, in the night race there, was it as bad as it looks inside the car or looks at. I mean, looks on the broadcast? Is it bad?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What did you do when you would wreck?

[Mike Davis]

So you want my honest opinion? So the first time I flipped was in 1998 at Daytona. I only flipped, like, four or three times. Two times in my life.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

But the first time it happened, I had watched flips all my life as a kid. Right. I've seen many cars flip and went, wow, it's wild. That must be scary. And hard and terrifying and dangerous. And I was in the Xfinity car, and we got turned down the back straightaway, and I was sliding, and all of a sudden, I just got weightless.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And I didn't know what was up and what was down. And I felt like I was in a car sitting on the ground, and they were moving the world around me. And like, they. That's like somebody rolled a grass prop wall, a wall, a board wall on wheels with Grass on it, rolled it up to this. The door, and they put it here, Then they put it here, then they put it here, then they put it here, and they put it here. And then it stopped.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you had a good experience.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, my experience was great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, I felt. Not jarred at all. Yeah, it was just like, oh, I'm in there. You know, I knew I was in the air. Weightless. Yeah, I was weightless.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And I was like, oh. And then when it landed, you're like, okay. When I landed, it hurt. I hit my head on the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay, I thought you meant even when you were landing.

[Mike Davis]

No, when I landed. Well, when that car landed, it landed on the left front, and I hit my helmet. Hit the door top.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And. And so that sucked. But the actual going in the air part was like, holy. And then for the rest of my life, I was like, you know what? I experienced something that very little people in this world know.

[Ryan Preece]

What.

[Mike Davis]

Know what? It's like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's funny you say that. I'll get to that after, but when I happened very similar at the beginning, I remember getting hit and it turning towards the infield, and I can run through this in my head right now. And then all of a sudden, the car getting completely quiet.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That is something that nobody will experience. Because at that point, you're like. Because I can't see anything.

[Mike Davis]

You don't know what's going on.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't know what's going on. You think you're just going in the air. And at that point, I closed my eyes and I said, I want this ride to be over. And then I just remember kind of, you know, putting my window net down and getting out of the car.

[Mike Davis]

And was the flipping. Like. Do you remember the spinning, hitting, rolling, tumbling? None of it just, like, just. It was just really.

[Ryan Preece]

Boom.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was quick. It was violent. I mean, I would imagine I've never been in a tornado, but it was. It was loud and aggressive, and I had a lot of black and blue on me.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, that following week. But I am. I am the type of person, when I'm coming to the wall and I know I'm coming and it's gonna hurt. You know, I've had throttles hang, and when I head into the corner, I'm, you know, close my eyes, tense up real tight, and just brace for impact. That's it. That's all you can do. You're helpless at that point. So for me, you know, as far as the flipping and all that, I'd Be lying to you if I said, yeah, man. You know, tumbling and. And, you know, all this stuff, I just was ready for it to be over. And it was over. But, you know that. I remember being in the hospital, so I had. My daughter was two weeks old. Time. I refused to buy a motorhome back then just because, you know, from a expense standpoint, it was expensive. So my wife was home with her friend, and TV's only showing them what they're showing them. My dad's at the racetrack. And, you know, for most people on TV at that moment, like you and I, we're racers. We. We know that wrecking is a thing, but when you see something that violent, even when I look at it, I look at guys flipping. It's flipped a race car, you know, he wrecked. He's gonna get out.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah. Where's the next car?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But in all reality, like, something could happen.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, so, you know, I looked at it, damaged. The halo right by my head. It wasn't too far from my headrest, but it was far. You know, it was close enough. And, you know, it held up. And I was. I remember the next day, I'm. I'm heading home, or my dad picks me up at the hospital across the street because they refused to let me leave. I remember it was 11:30 night at Daytona. I actually took pictures, like, in the hospital. It's 11:30. I got a picture of me. It looks like I got my ass kicked. And I got dirt all over me. You know, the dirt. And so they made me stay until 6am the next morning. And my dad drives me home, and my dad had two of his buddies time. And they see me walk out of the hospital. And, I mean, I look like black and blue on my eyes. I look like absolute.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they look at me and you know me. I didn't look at myself in the mirror. I'm just, you know, hey, good to go.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And. Yeah, that was. That was when I realized.

[Mike Davis]

Drove home.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did not drive. He drove.

[Mike Davis]

But y' all drove.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Six and a half, seven hours.

[Mike Davis]

God.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Can't believe nobody sent a fucking plane to get you. Jesus.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, man. We had a. We had a rental car.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we drove. We drove back home.

[Mike Davis]

I would have sent my plane to get you. I didn't even know that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, that's what it was. And I remember I showed up to the house, held my baby. I had black and blue all over my. My collarbone, all on my hips, right on my thighs where it hit the Steering wheel and broke it. Like, like it destroyed the steering wheel. So yeah, that was, that was probably the biggest one. But coming back to most people can't relate. I ended up getting a few phone calls from people that had been in like major accidents in their life that impacted them and we had conversations because it like I could tell they, you know, they could relate to that moment. So yeah, you know, most people don't go through that style of wreck, I guess.

[Mike Davis]

And yeah, that's funny because we, it just, we are sent.

[Ryan Preece]

We're.

[Mike Davis]

It's kind of normalized a little bit because like I say, I grew up watching cars. Yeah. We're numb to it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're numb to it.

[Mike Davis]

That happens. And you're like, damn, I tore up a good race car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I mean. Yeah, I mean I'm desensitized.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

And my wife would be like, yeah, I'm never going to get back in that ever again in my life. No, not doing that no more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. But like I've had, you know, not that this is supposed to happen. I've had throttles hang on me. I remember a Thompson. There's a YouTube video out there. I'm sure somebody will find it. Now hung going into turn one at Thompson at test.

[Ryan Preece]

No thanks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I mean those, there's no safer wear barriers.

[Ryan Preece]

It's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's concrete walls with dirt behind them. So that was a heavy one. And then I actually had a throttle hang at Bronson Speedway leading into speed weeks. I launched it over the fence. I remember the fire extinguisher launched out of that thing and I mean closing my eyes, opening my eyes after I see this guy, this guy running up to the fence. Hey, Southern. Southern modified racer. Hey, Brace, you alright? Yeah, I'm good. Like just sitting over here. Things absolutely KO'd.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But those are the moments. Like to your point, we're racers. Like if you wreck, I'm gonna fix the damn race car and go racing again. And that, that. Yeah. So.

[Mike Davis]

All right, so you have, you have opportunity to get into the playoffs. It got a little tougher after this weekend with Bubba winning in Iowa. Could be a good place for you. Yeah, we were talking about it. We do a little dirty. Mo Doe is kind of like a gambling segment in our podcast. And you're, you're a really good bet because Vegas doesn't think you got a shot. But there's a lot of people in the, in the industry and in this room that think that that's actually a great place for you because of your not Only because your past success there. But it's a short track. You're a short track racer. If there's one thing you do know.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

It's how to bring it home at a place like that. And you're. And you can't judge your past experience there because you're with a completely new team with new opportunity, new performance. So, I mean, do you. I was thinking about Bubba and they, they were like, hey, man, we might interview Bubba sitting on pit road brain delay. And I was like, what in the hell would I ask Bubba right now that wouldn't be just, you know, predictable as. And I'm sitting there thinking, I bet Bubba's going crazy in there because you know how Bubba is. He's really emotional and very mental driven guy. And I bet he was spiraling out of control thinking about, you know, oh, is it going to rain? Is it not going to rain? We're going to race, we're not going to race. What's going to happen? How am I going to lose? And I thought, man, if I got the chance to ask Bubba, what, what would I ask him? I was going to say, man, you've lived for this opportunity your whole life. What a great chance. What a great thing to be sitting here with this chance. You know, I always been amazed at that. So I raced and lived my whole life thinking about, how is this going to fall apart? How am I going to lose this race? You know, how is this going to go wrong? And that's just my, that's always kind of been my mentality. Yeah, I never, I never woke up, went, man, I'm going to kick today's ass. I'm going to win this damn race. I'm going to go out there and make this happen. That wasn't the way I thought. And Chase Elliot was being interviewed on. I'm going to get to the point eventually. Chase Elliott was being interviewed before the, the championship race in Phoenix. It's his first time racing for the championship and he goes out and he, he wins it that year. But they interviewed him on Friday on pit wall. He's. It was a, it was a staged interview. No, nobody's at really at the track yet. No practice, no track activity. They took him over to turn three or turn two now, I guess, and he's sitting on pit wall and they're interviewing him and they're going, hey, man, a lot of pressure. Chase Elliott, Bill Elliot's son, raised for a championship, man, this gotta be tough. And he's like, are you kidding me? He's like, I've waited my whole life for this. This is amazing. I am, It's a blessing. And I thought, holy, he's gonna win the championship because that attitude is like, hard to beat. I want, I imagine that you're similar in where you feel like you are with this opportunity to try to make the playoffs.

[Ryan Preece]

Right.

[Mike Davis]

Or to even be in this car that's competitive.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Like I have dreamed of this. I'm here, I'm living this dream. Is that something that you think about? Is that something you try to harness? Are you like a, you know, willing into existence law of attraction? I'm gonna go, I'm going today and I'm going to make this happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would say so. I mean, that mindset kind of what you were saying, how am I going to give this away or how am I going to fumble that? That doesn't even, yeah. Register like that. That's not me. For example, this past weekend we, we got off on strategy. We stayed out. Right. We were running. We're kind of stuck in 25th, so we stayed out. And my job at that point was execute a solid restart, get the lead, and then do everything you could from there. It was not what happens if I lose the lead or, you know, I'm not going to execute here is because the way I look at that is that's no different than a green white checker. You know, if you're leading that and you need to execute your job and win right there, it's the same thing. It's just a different point in the race.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I live for those high pressure moments, to be honest with you. And you know, my wife looks at me like I'm crazy sometimes because she, she'll be the opposite at times. She'll. She'll be the devil's advocate and try to keep me on planet earth at times. You know what I mean? And there's a balance to it. Like we complement each other. I'll, I'll tell her, hell yeah, you can do that. And she'll be like, hey, do you really think you should take on all this? You know, sometimes so it really works out. But now, yeah, I'm, I am 100% the type person. I'm. I guess if you say it will into existence and not think about, well, if this doesn't go my way or what happens if this one happens. And yeah, I've never been that way.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

So you mentioned the races coming up. Which, you know, where do you feel like is Yalls main focus. I think that, you know, you have to be looking forward to Iowa but you have been great at Daytona. You kind of know how to get, you know through those races to where you're around at the end with an opportunity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I feel good about Iowa, I feel good about Richmond. You know, just being older, having a stronger understanding of where we need to be and not being caught up in lap time. You know, it's easy as a racer, young racers to get man gotta have fast slap now I want my car to have good pace lap 510 on. You know what I mean? So understanding those things. Watkins Glen I enjoy road racing. I always have. Just hasn't been the best for me, you know, over the past, you know, however many years. We've had success at times. Even when I was at JGR Racing against Brad, I think it was in 2018, kind of went toe to toe him with him there. But yeah, going to Daytona Super Speedway, racing like Talladega, I would say that conversation, you and I I forgot where it was. But I remember you were walking, it might have even been Talladega, Daytona. And you asked me hey, why do you ride around in the back? And at that point in time it was that's my job.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean? Why don't you race? You know, let's. But people earn that respect with you, want to work with you. Because I would couldn't do that before. But now, you know, I remember, I think it was last kind of last year. At some point I just said screw it, I'm racing. And then this year, same thing. Like Brad, the mentality that we have is race the out of it.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, go race. And we did that at Talladega. Both my teammates end up getting wrecked out pretty early and it's just me. So at that point I said I am taking control of this. I am going to push the hell out of people and I am going to be aggressive. And I remember we came out of the pits there and we were in a position to take control of that lane. I think I was third row and I just, I was going to do what it took to, to get to that front row and give myself the opportunity to win that race. So that's what I did and that's what I'm going to do at Daytona. So we're just going to be aggressive. I said it to Derek. We, we've gone on different strategies, we've been bold with things that we do and we're going to keep doing that because when you play everybody else's game, you don't win.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

I love it, man. Well, hey, Ryan, I think you're awesome, dude. I pull for you. I like your attitude, I like your style. I like the way that you've carved out this opportunity for you over the course of the last decade or more. I think a lot of people after the show, they're going to know more, but if they truly knew the work that you did to create the opportunities that you had, they would really, really admire the effort that it's taken for you to get to where you are. You don't see it that often. It's very rare. So wish any of the best. Thanks for giving us some time today. I'm finally, we, we working hard with you current racers. Just, you know, to get into this studio is tough. You guys are so busy, y' all don't never have any time off. But I'm thankful that we got opportunity today to talk and looking forward to seeing how the season pans out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, no, and I appreciate you having me on because as a racer, being able to come on here, this is like one of those, one of those highlights in your career. Like you feel like you earned your way onto your, your podcast, you know what I mean? On this show. Not podcast, but show. So for me to have you or to be able to come on here and speak with you and you hear my story from my point of view and my words, I think it's. It was really neat to be able to do that.

[Mike Davis]

Well, you're a real racer, buddy, and everybody can appreciate that. Good luck and thanks for coming on, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you.

[Mike Davis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Mike Davis]

That was a great conversation with Ryan Preece. Man, he is a, he's a cool dude. Every time I see him at the track, he'll be walking through the garage or whatever. Out in the pits, we just smile and laugh. And wherever we're at, short track, road course, Daytona, we go short track racing. You know, it's funny. Just a thing. I remember when he was contemplating running these two races with, with Gibbs and he called me, he texted me and he goes, hey, I'm Ryan Preece. I was like, I know who you are. He's like, I got a question. I need some advice. And so I called him or we continued this text conversation. I can't remember exactly how it played out, but he was like, I got two options. I can do the same thing I did last year, but I really don't want to do that. I don't feel like that running another year running, you know, 10th or 12th every week in the Xfinity series is really going to get me an opportunity. I don't feel like that's going to get me a phone call from somebody. He's like, I can take all of this support that I have to run the full season and I can put it in to a two race deal at Gibbs. And I said, man, I think winning a race, but you have to win. I was like, I think if you get in the Gibbs car and win a race, that will do more for you than running 10th or 12th every week in a JD car. And that JD car would run 18th and 15th and 12th and, you know, all over the place, but nobody was really paying attention, right? And he said, all right, that was, that's. That's what I'm, that's what I'm gonna do. I think he probably already made his mind up at that point, but he was just kind of bouncing it off a few people and, and I was one of the people he reached out to. And I was like, dang, you know, I didn't know what all racing he would. I guess my, my concern, I guess, is like, okay, you know, you're going to not, you're not running all of the season. You're just now going to run these two races and hope that that turns into something else, which it ultimately did. I wasn't aware that he had a ton of late, a ton of modified races that he would continue to run or be able to Run. So he was going to be busy. It just in my mind felt like that he was going from, I can run the whole season in an okay car or just two races in a great car. That's a real hard decision. And. But he had to make. He had to make the one he made to get his chance. You get in a good car, this makes sense to everybody. Until you're in this, you're in the situation that he's in, this makes easy sense to everybody, unless you're living it. If you get in that car and something happens, you get swept up in a crash, the motor brakes, you've ran your two races, nothing, you know, nothing moves, nothing changes. The phone don't ring and. But he had, you know, he had to do it and he did. And he goes out there, he runs second, and he won. And it, you know, steamrolled and. And into something else, something more quickly. It went from, hey, can I drive your car? To, hey, will you drive our car a little more? Well, you're pretty good, you know. Want to see a little bit more here? This is. You might have a little something, which he flipped it really quickly. So I've always wanted to get him on here to be able to kind of tell his story, because I don't think a lot of people really appreciate how Ryan Preece bet on himself and won that bet. And he's done that multiple times over and over and over. He's a Cup racer at the highest level, and he did it on his own. He had support from friends and family and partners and sponsors that were part of his ecosystem from up north where he raced locally, which everyone needs that support, and it's going to take a little bit of support no matter who you are. But his route to the cup level is that one that everybody feels is just and deserving.

[Ryan Preece]

Right.

[Mike Davis]

And so I think that you out there should put him on your. On your list of drivers. When people say, hey, who you watching? The. Who do you watch out there on Sunday? Who are you pulling for? I think you ought to put Ryan Preece on that list because he's a real racer. He'll drive, he'll go to the ends of the earth to compete, and that's my kind of guy. So I think he's a good guy, too. I think he's a good person and that matters. But thankful for him to come on the show. I love when we get the current guys in here, and I love when they're open and willing and happy to be here to tell their story. Really, really cool words to hear from him about how he feels like coming on this show is an earned opportunity. I love that. I didn't know we really had that reputation, but I love that we do. And so, yeah, this was a good one. The other thing I want to say before we start the white flag is that bumper bar that he gave me for my first modified race, which I don't know if I'll ever run, is heavy. Damn it. I mean, that thing is no joke.

[Travis]

You don't know if you're gonna run it.

[Mike Davis]

I mean, I'm. I don't know if I ever did. I'd call Ryan, say, hey, man, let's go play somewhere. Let's go test. Let's go to Florence. There's no walls.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

I get in trouble. I'm not gonna hit anything. I'm too old to be hitting and running into. And that's the thing about modifieds, man. They know fenders like a jump tire. What if I jump a tire? Getting up and get. And climb over top of something.

[Travis]

That was something we were talking about in the hallway was like, would you ever run a modified? And Ryan, I don't think he asked you the question, but he's like, I.

[Mike Davis]

Would love to know if Dale would end up. I would go to a track with him.

[Ryan Preece]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

You know, and play, and maybe that turns into a race somewhere. All right, I know. I mean, I like Florence because I know the track well. It's worn out, slick, slow, and, yeah, the fact that it doesn't have walls is kind of nice for an old man like me. The teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race door bumper clear dropped on Monday. I'm shocked that Freddie actually made it in to do the podcast after the big win. It ended with Bubba Wallace, but Mark Martin was on, and, you know, Mark Martin don't give a damn. He is telling it like it is. He is on a tour, a world tour of telling it like it is. I love it. He's inspired me a little bit. Actions Detrimental. Also dropped on Monday. Also dropping on Tuesday was another episode of Dirty Air with TJ Majors and myself. We had a lot of fun talking about all the things going on in the industry. Had a great ass Junior, during that show. Dirty Modo. Just a lot of fun. Herman Schrader, Speed Street. That's going to drop today. And then tomorrow, an episode of Bless yous Heart with my wife Amy. And then the Z Max Cars Tour is racing the Throwback Classic at Hickory this weekend. It's the biggest night in pavement racing on the year, or maybe in history, I don't know. $50,000 to win the late model stock race. $30,000 to win the pro late model race. That's 80 grand up for grabs for the winners of those two events. That is this weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway, exclusively on Flo. I'll be out of town, so why don't you do like I'm gonna do and tune in to FLO Racing on Saturday to see who brings home the $50,000 and the $30,000 in the Pro and Late Model stock races. Man, it's gonna be insane. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.

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