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The Dale Jr. Download
Tony Stewart & Rico Abreu: "It's Like Bringing The Band Back Together"
01:19:50
Dale Earnhardt Jr welcomes in legendary racers Tony Stewart and Rico Abreu to make an exciting announcement. Starting in 2026, Rico Abreu will join Tony Stewart Racing to compete in the High Limit Series & other select events. The two discuss how this deal was years in the making, Donny Schatz’s departure from the team, Tony's drag racing career, and much more.
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- [00:00]
A
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B
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A
Available in classic black and vanilla sweet cream. Get 20% off these new community coffees by using the code DALE20@communitycoffee.com that's code DALE D A L E20 for 20% off only@communitycoffee.com this is pretty incredible news. I think it's going to energize a lot of people. You got a massive fan base. High Limit's got a great thing going. This guy's Tony Stewart. Putting all that together is a win for everybody.
- [01:22]
B
You know, Donnie wanted to make a change. It was our loss and it was Rico's game. And the great thing is it's kind of like bringing the band back together, so to speak.
- [01:30]
A
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dale and Hart Jr. Another episode of the Dale Jr. Download here with a guest segment. We got a big surprise for you today. A big announcement. We have two guests coming on the show. Rico Abreu and Tony Stewart are going to come in here and talk about some announcement that they have. I bet you can imagine what this may entail, but it's pretty exciting. As a motorsports fan and not only will we talk to Rico a little bit about what he's got going on with High Limit, he's the points leader, won a lot of races this year, having a successful season. We're also going to talk to Tony about driving in nhra, the crash that he had this past weekend, his plans going forward. What motivates Tony Stewart these days at 54 years old? I love that he's still active and still driving. How much longer do you think he's going to do that? Should be A lot of fun to talk to these two guys. So they've been waiting patiently to come into the room. So let's get started. So you two guys are here for a pretty damn big announcement and a secret I don't know how you kept.
- [02:47]
B
Yeah, especially because I know him and I know me and I know other players involved in this, and none of us are good at keeping secrets.
- [02:55]
A
Oh, my gosh.
- [02:56]
B
So.
- [02:57]
A
So Rico's going to join Tony Stewart racing. Yep. And you. So Rico drives. You drive for your family team, right In. In High limit. Very successful. You're leading the points, winning races. Tony, you've had a winged car for your entire life. You've owned a team with Donnie, been very successful. You decided to make a change. And so I want to know. This is pretty incredible news. I think it's going to energize a lot of people. You got a massive fan base. High limit's got a great thing going. This guy's Tony Stewart. Right. Putting all that together is a win for everybody. So how did the conversation start?
- [03:42]
B
We actually. We've been friends for a long time. I mean, when Rico decided he was going to bring his team to Indiana and race in the Midwest in the summer and start traveling, Stayed at the ranch with us, which at the time, seemed like a great idea, by the way. But you realize you have been down this road, same road you've been down. You realize in a short amount of time that inviting him and his team to stay in your house is a terrible idea. But because of that, we built a great friendship. And it was probably, I'm gonna say, four, maybe five years ago, was the first time that we had a discussion about him being a part of tsr. But just everything didn't align, and the variables weren't right at the time. So. So come down the road. And now we're in a situation where we're ready to make a change. We know we have to make a change. And his program, and I will say this, as long as I've known him, I mean, he's the guy that's always the one cutting up and having fun and crazy pranks and all that stuff. In the last two years, this man has literally transformed. He still does all that stuff, but he's added another dimension. He's added the dimension that you and I have had to do and add the business side to it and management side to our program. And what he's done with his program now is he's built it into a professional. A very, very professional race team. Where he's taking care of the sponsors, he's doing all the sponsorship packages and proposals. He's running the whole race team. He's taking care of the budgets and the books. And now we're just in a situation where I think for us, it made sense to blend our teams together. Rico gets to run the whole program, which is great for me. I've got enough on my plate. I don't want to have to run a program anymore. You know, we had always let Donnie schatz run our program in the past, and, you know, that kind of got us down a road we didn't really want to be in. But Rico's done such a great job these last couple years building this that, you know, got a phone call out of the blue from him, and he goes, hey, what do you think about merging our programs together? And honestly, it was the first time I thought about taking two programs like that and merging them into one. But it was his brainchild. I mean, he's the brains behind the idea. And the more we talked about it, the more it made sense. And. And like I said, the last two years, what he's turned into as a business guy, on top of being an awesome race car driver and a great friend, he's ready for this transition.
- [06:03]
A
So, Rico, what does all this mean physically for your team, his team? How does all this happen?
- [06:08]
C
You know, I just.
- [06:10]
B
It's.
- [06:10]
C
It's a mega opportunity for me to race for a top tier team that's a championship molded team. I felt like probably over the last decade, I've, you know, invested my entire life into sprint car racing, you know, and I got the opportunity to race some stock car stuff in 15 and 16 and just realized that, you know, it takes an army of people to get a driver to the next level in this industry. And I started to really understand the process of the sport and where you need to be to be in position to be a successful race car driver. And I. And I kept pushing back to sprint car racing and how much I love sprint car racing and the people and the control I had with the three employees that I have working on my car, no matter what year it was, and just the parts and pieces of how you dissect a sprint car team to operate at a professional level. And thinking about all this tsr stuff over the last few years, and just my relationship with Tony, I think it's. I felt like it was very fitting for me to have a conversation with Tony about it and just see if there was potential thought there. And I Thought that the way originally when I sat down and approached this to them, it got kind of complicated on how we would, you know, blend partnerships. And everybody, you know, was continued to stay invested into the programs. And then I just thought. I kept thinking about it and kept thinking about it. And then I called Tony one day and I just said, like, why don't we just simplify this? And we, you know, we just bring. Figure out how to get me over to your race team to continue to have it operate at a high level. And it's always operated at a high level. But to get the infrastructure to where, you know, I feel I could bring that positive energy into a establishment that was exciting and I was ready to take that next step in my career. And I just feel that, you know, to align myself with a brand as big as Tony Stewart's is quite amazing for me to have that chance to just allow our partners to be a part of that. I think that when you look at this thing, it's, you know, I've built these amazing partnerships with Rico abri racing, and now they're going to get the opportunity to come be a part of Tony Stewart racing. And the partnerships Tony Stewart has built is going to get the opportunity to be a part of Rico abri.
- [08:41]
A
Where is your race team ran out of?
- [08:43]
C
I run my team about two miles away from Tony's shop in brownsburg, indiana.
- [08:48]
A
So you're just going over to his shop now?
- [08:50]
C
We're going to go to Tony Stewart racing.
- [08:52]
A
What about people, employees? How's all that work?
- [08:56]
B
We're just bringing his whole program over, essentially. I mean, we. We have one of our guys that currently is our crew chief. He. He wasn't a crew chief till the very end of last season. And. And Rico's crew chief used to work for tsr and was Donnie's crew chief for years. And, you know, Donnie wanted to make a change. Couldn't work with Ricky anymore. So, you know, it was our loss and it was Rico's gain.
- [09:18]
A
Yeah.
- [09:19]
B
And the great thing is it's kind of like a bringing the band back together, so to speak, but bringing a positive energy with it, like Rico mentioned, and positive attitudes. But Rico's got a great team established. And, you know, you and I both know we've worked with many crew guys over our years, and when you find a group that work well together and gel together and. And honestly, in the sprint car deal, I feel like it's even more critical than what you and I've been a part of, because there's only Three guys that work on this race car. Those three guys travel together in the same truck and trailer all year long. So, you know, if one of those guys has a bad day, that's 33% of your program versus, you know, we're used to 300 person programs. You have a guy that has a bad day, it's 1/3 of 1%. So I mean it really puts the importance on how these guys jail. He's got a great group.
- [10:04]
C
Not to interrupt you, but I feel like that's one thing that's really made my team run at a successful pace is just my availability throughout the week and just the passion I have for making sure the employees are in a great atmosphere. I think that's 85% of sprint car racing. Just with the travel down the roads, I mean it's nonstop. I'm at 60 something races this year and I'm probably over 200 days in a hotel room just with. And we travel with my team. So my wife and I, Megan, have a merchandise trailer. We take to all the races and try to showcase some really cool merchandise to the race fans. And the growth of sprint car racing right now is tremendously like rapidly happening fast. And the stands, you know, countrywide are full. One thing I've really noticed is the youth of our industry, the kids that are coming to these races and you know, my friend Toby Vobon and I have really worked on a YouTube channel and I've really seen that the kids are really active to the YouTube side of the, you know, social platforms. And that's been really cool to see where our sport is going. And it's going very quickly with VAT SF, excuse me, FS1, you know, just covered Eldora Speedway and it was, you know, as much as the event had some scary crashes, you know, the fans got to see a little bit of everything there with how good the racing looked.
- [11:31]
A
How about the equipment, the physical equipment? Like you've got, you know, you've got race cars, he's got race cars. How do you, Are you bringing all your stuff over?
- [11:40]
C
Blend it, blend it together. Blend it together and you figure it out later. I told, I'm not going to sit here and nickel and dime them over some of my parts or his parts and yeah, I just feel like you just push it all together, you simplify it. Yeah, you know, it's. We're in a performance based business. So you're going to buy parts that are operating in the industry and if they quit operating, you're going to change pace and buy something Else.
- [12:03]
A
When do you guys go down the road as a race team?
- [12:06]
C
This will be 20, 26. Right. So we'll start February, March time. Yeah, it'll. It'll be happening really quickly.
- [12:13]
A
Yeah. So you have a plan to finish out the rest of the year? Y' all don't. Y' all don't have much racing left. Your final race, I guess, in High Limits in October.
- [12:22]
C
Yeah, we got 10 high limit races left. We just took the point lead over the weekend. The points are tight with the top three. We got Reitzel and Sweet. That's, you know, there are obviously no slouches in the series. We're leading the series in most wins right now. Leading high limit in historical most wins. So it's been really cool to kind of get on the other side of, you know, just my career. I feel like I'm in the prime of my career, 33 years old, and just have worked really hard and dreamed of being in this position. And I know that it takes like everything I have to continue to stay at this level. And a lot of it's the team. I have an amazing crew with Ricky Warner, Zach Middlebrooks. They've been with me for four years now, full time, and it's. We've become a family. And I feel like that's what it takes to operate at a very high level. And that's what I envision. I continue to envision it and I continue just to work my ass off for it. And I feel that, you know, with our sport, with how many races we run, you know, you're going to have up and down nights, and I get quite hard on myself with the down nights just because I know where the team needs to be. And I put a lot of that on myself when we get out on the racetrack because you're really just trying to drive the out of this race car and it's a sprint car and it's, you know, it's really exciting to shift in this point in my career to the good side of it all.
- [13:49]
A
Yeah. The High Limit Racing developed a franchise system. The franchise that y', all, you know, this team will utilized will be the one that's yours. How do y' all manage that Piece of the puzzle? You know, we look at, you know, NASCAR and the charter system and the values of those charters, and you would hope that this franchise gains value over time. And this is a very important piece of the puzzle for you yourself, personally. Long term, you've been gifted, you know, this opportunity to have one of these. And if High Limit continues to grow and expand. You know, the big, the big asset for you personally beyond your driving career and whatever you do successfully is the franchise. Right. So how help us understand, I guess as, as, as fans that are kind of new to this, how the conversation goes around the franchise you lease. What's. What's going on.
- [14:46]
C
Yeah, there. So the franchise, the vision that Kyle and Larson and Brad Sweet and Flo, you know, Mark Floriani have created here is very appealing as a business owner to be a part of something like that. And ultimately that was, you know, one of my major decisions. To compete with High Limit full time and you know, to be rewarded with a franchise and possibly the number one franchise next year if we can win the championship is going to be a huge step for me on the business side of operating my race team financially. And I feel that it's become very sustainable business. And this is, you know, another reason why I, you know, wanted to push towards this partnership with Tony and you know, us collaborating on, on something really big here. And you know, we just discussed Tony leasing the franchise from me and High Limit approving the lease. So Tony Stewart Racing a lease the franchise from Rico Every racing.
- [15:43]
A
Wow. So do you understand, I guess through this process the value of the franchise?
- [15:54]
C
Yeah. I know over time that how you continue to perform. Right. It's going to be performance based on where you're seated over a two year period. So I know that's how important it is to perform and continue to perform. And ultimately it's winning races. Right. And that's performing and winning championships. And you know, Tony Stewart Racing is a championship molded team. And it's, I felt that in order for me to get to the next level, to continue that, that championship mentality, you know, aligning myself with Tony and his infrastructure internally at Tony Stewart Racing is going to be the ticket to continuing that franchise and keeping it at high value.
- [16:36]
A
How difficult was it, Tony, to, to end the relationship with Donnie after all these years?
- [16:40]
B
Yeah, after 18 years it's, it's very tough. I mean it's, you know, for 18 years I let him guide the ship, you know, from day one. And you know, you talked about equipment and everything. Literally we had a program, we had Danny Lasoski at first, brought Paul McMahon, Craig Kinzer in and then when we brought Donnie in, I mean we literally had two different chassis packages, two different engine packages and Donnie was able to kind of dictate what we did over there for these 18 years. But you know, when you look at the records of what we did during that 18 year span, I mean, we won a lot of races, a lot of crown jewel events, a lot of championships. And my goal was to ultimately, at the end of the day, I wanted Donnie Schatz to retire as a sprint car driver driving in a TSR car. But, you know, you've been around us long enough, and really, in the sport of sprint car racing, we probably have the longest relationship of any full time team right now. But it just comes to a point where it's, you know, things cycle through and decisions are made along the way and the variables in the equation change. And finally it just got down a path that we couldn't recover from. And you have to make that tough decision. In all honesty, I probably should have done it two years ago, you know, for the, for the sake of our people. But, you know, I was very loyal to Donnie as long as I could be. And finally, you just get to a position where you realize you have to make a change. And I literally remember going to bed the night before, I called Donnie and I said, I feel like I'm getting ready to sign divorce papers tomorrow. That's how bad it felt.
- [18:05]
A
Yeah, it's hard.
- [18:07]
B
I want him to succeed, I want him to get back in form. But just you get to a point as a team in an organization where you've got down a rabbit hole for so long that you, you just realize you can't fix this. This isn't going no matter what you do, no matter what you change, no matter what shock program, what engine program. I mean, we changed everything. Anything he asked for, we gave him. And we just can't get the results. And you just realize at some point you're just butting heads and you're not going to fix it. So it is a hard decision. But, you know, that's what's so great about partnering up with Rico now and having him come on board is that I told Misha driving here, I said, I haven't been this excited about sprint car racing in a long time. I mean, it's always my number one passion, literally, of everything I've ever driven. Sprint car racing is my number one passion. But it's been hard the last couple years to get excited about going to the racetrack because it's just been so much friction and such a toxic atmosphere with Donnie and the team that.
- [19:05]
A
You.
- [19:05]
B
Got a lot of other things going on. You get married, you're starting a family, you gravitate toward those things and put the energy over there. And I told Misha, I said, I haven't been this excited about going sprint car racing in a long time. It is my number one passion. But doing this and finally having an opportunity to do it with rico is something that we literally talked about for years, and it just wasn't the right opportunity until now. So, you know, for me, it's a new start and a fresh beginning again.
- [19:31]
A
What's your excitement level around competing in the high limit? Knowing the connections.
- [19:36]
B
Yeah. And we sold our all star series to Brad and Kyle, and it was part of an effort to help build high limit. We have a great partner with world of outlaws as well. I mean, obviously world racing group and Brian Carter and his staff. We've worked together a long time and had a great partnership there. This isn't an easy decision on that because now you have two major series. But I like what Kyle and Brad are doing. I think Brad really pours his heart and soul into this. And not only is he running a series, but he's competing in it at the same time, which is very, very hard to do. So I like the concept of what they're trying to build and how they're going about doing it. And I think they're doing things for the right reasons. And because of that, and obviously knowing that he has that charter available to him, you know, it's. Or I keep saying charter. Yeah, the franchise.
- [20:30]
A
Franchise.
- [20:30]
B
That's from us being ingrained in what we do. But, you know, I know what that value means to him. So, you know, I wasn't going to ask him to switch. I mean, it's a great business opportunity for him and that he deserves. I mean, you listen to him and how he's talking about our program right now. I mean, he's. He's worked hard to build himself in a position to do great things for.
- [20:50]
A
People that, you know, myself too, I'm a casual fan. You'll run how many races? Give or take, next year I schedule.
- [20:58]
C
85 and probably end up about 70.
- [21:01]
A
And every single one of those will be in for Tony Stewart racing.
- [21:05]
C
Every single race next year will be for Tony Stewart racing.
- [21:07]
A
Outside of. Outside of high limit. How do you choose where and when you're going to race?
- [21:15]
C
I like to look at logistics and travel and just some of the cost of, like, wear and tear on the personnel internally in the team. Like, I'm not going to Send my guys 5 hours to west and then turn around and send them 10 hours east overnight. And so it's, it's, it's. It's got to make sense. But I really focus on the racing around, you know, first and foremost, the High Limit series and the scheduled races and being at those races. But then, you know, you have the Knoxville Nationals and the Kings Royals, so it's important to get to those tracks before those events. And I tried to get to Knoxville a few times this year before the Nationals and felt like we tested there a couple times and just get the team up to speed to. When you do get to the nationals, you know, you have your playbook on how things lay out for the Nationals and the formats are different, so it's not something we're used to racing at and when you get to these events, but you have preparation of, you know, balance in your car and stuff because it's. Our races are so quick pace. They're two laps to qualify or three laps to practice and two laps to qualify in a heat race and a 30 lap main and you're on the road to the next track.
- [22:24]
A
Yeah, I was going to ask the question. With the High Limit schedule, you do go to those racetracks for their weekly regular show ahead of time to be able to, you know, get your opportunity to be there now to kind of.
- [22:39]
C
Brad and Kyle have been really flexible with opening the schedule up and not competing against major other events. So it's allowed us to go to those tracks. Um, High Limit doesn't go to Knoxville Knoxville Raceway, but they go to Eldora Speedway. Um, and it sounds like, you know, this year there's going to be possibly a little more flexibility in the schedules to get to Eldora or Knoxville again prior to those events. So that helps us out a lot too. So when we do show up at a World of Outlaw race, we're, you know, up to speed pretty quickly.
- [23:13]
A
What do you think is the next evolution of.
- [23:16]
C
Of high limit linear television? Getting. Getting linear television, really?
- [23:21]
A
Yeah, I think I know the answer to this. But you think there's a. Without alienating the Flow audience, obviously. Right. So like, I feel like. And we've. We've. You probably had this same. Same experience when you were on FS1. Our audience on Floating Change now. And so there's like a. I think.
- [23:38]
C
That was really impressive.
- [23:39]
A
There's a Flow fan.
- [23:40]
C
Yeah.
- [23:40]
A
They're going to watch it on the Flow.
- [23:42]
C
Yeah. You know, and that's all with the comfortability that Flow's created for that fan base of the viewers. Right. And how easy and accessible it is to utilize their platform to watch the races and hell, my dad used to come to almost every single one of my races. And when Flo started the Streaming. He'll call and rip my ass after the race.
- [24:05]
A
Yeah.
- [24:05]
C
And it's a lot easier to just to. It just makes things.
- [24:09]
A
It's convenient.
- [24:10]
C
Yeah.
- [24:10]
A
Yeah. I love it. I tell people today, I'm like, man, people are so spoiled. Because I remember not 10 years ago, I couldn't watch a weekly show on a streaming platform. And now there's. You know, there's multiple types of platforms where you can almost see about any race going on anywhere in the country just by mashing a couple buttons. It's just like the convenience of use. I think we all forget just how easy that is and nice it is.
- [24:42]
B
But I think that's also why short track racing and dirt track racing for us has grown so much in the last couple years is it is more accessible. And I think immediately the first thing that happened when all the streaming and when Flow came around and Dirt Vision had their set races and everything. But I think everybody from the promotion side owning a racetrack, I was worried about, how's it gonna hurt my gate? Is it gonna hurt ticket sales? And it didn't. And in all reality, what it did is it went the opposite way. Because now people that didn't have a chance or an opportunity to go to your racetrack now see it on a streaming platform and go, I really want to go. I got to go to that place. And now you got people that are coming from clear across the country that have never been that have heard of it and know it's a great track, but, you know, it's clear cross country. We're not going over there. Then when they get a chance to see it on a streaming platform and see a race there, they're like, we've got to go now. So it's fun for us to go across the country and doing all the different things we're doing in motorsports and hearing people go, hey, I'm coming to your track for the first time this year. Well, how did you learn about it? Well, I seen it on Flow, so that's the great thing for us is just I think that's how strong Mark and everybody at Flow has worked to ultimately change the game. I mean, it has totally changed the game of how our race fans engage with. With our sport.
- [26:04]
A
Yeah. Hey, tj, you know that I got my own Chevy dealership down in Tallahassee, Florida. We're part of the Hendrick Automotive Group.
- [26:11]
B
Yes, I have heard of Darren Hart Jr. Chevrolet.
- [26:13]
A
I bet you'd be surprised on what type of Chevrolet vehicles we specialize in.
- [26:17]
B
If I had to guess, I'M gonna say it would probably be Chevy trucks.
- [26:20]
A
Well, we definitely sell plenty of those, but actually we're really big in commercial vehicles. We actually sell a lot of crane trucks for the number one seller actually in crane trucks.
- [26:32]
B
Okay, I definitely did not see that coming.
- [26:34]
A
Yeah, pretty neat, huh? So, for any of our listeners shopping for commercial vehicles, here's some things you need to know about us at Dalenhardt Jr. Chevrolet. We have hundreds of trucks in stock, so you can find what you need fast. And we have people there that can help you with custom orders. So if you want to build the exact vehicle you need, we can do it. We offer complimentary delivery anywhere in the continental U.S. plus, Hendrick Automotive Group is the nation's top rated dealer group for online reputation. Visit dalejrchevy.com and click Commercial to explore the wide range of available commercial vehicles. Our team at Dalenhardt Jr. Chevrolet will give you a world class experience. Chevrolet together.
- [27:19]
D
Let's drive, guys. Fall is here. Travis, you know, the beers are colder. Football is back. I know you gotta be excited about.
- [27:25]
E
That is my favorite time of the year. A little crisp in the year you crack that cold beer open, it's. Oh, I love it. It is the best.
- [27:33]
D
That's right. But if you're still rocking, you know, the old beat up boxers under those flannels and jeans, you know, we gotta talk.
- [27:38]
E
It's time to upgrade to me undies. These things are ridiculously soft. They're perfect. Whether you're just gonna be hanging around watching football games on the couch all day, or you're going out tailgating, going to the games, and it doesn't matter. Me undies is perfect.
- [27:50]
D
Yeah, Travis. I mean, they're made with a fabric that feels like a cloud, but they still breathe. You know, when things heat up and you know they've got legit stretch, whether you're crushing wings on the couch, tossing the pigskin around, I mean, you're covered.
- [28:02]
E
That's what's important to me is I think people have seen what I'm like at a football game. I'm up and down, I'm crouching, I'm jumping. I can't be having my. My underwear riding me like that. And me undies, not an issue.
- [28:13]
D
I'll tell you what, this is my favorite underwear to wear at the track. And I know that might might sound strange, but when you're walking around the track, it's a long day, you're swe hot. It is like the perfect, most comfortable thing to wear.
- [28:23]
E
Yeah, you're on pit road. You got your, like, your audio belt on. You're trying to get to your next interview or the driver or whatever. You ain't got time to deal with the wrinkles and all that stuff that happens with the old boxers.
- [28:35]
D
Absolutely not. You know, with Halloween too, you can get some fun Halloween themed underwear. You see any of that? There's one with a bunch of different things on there. There's like a skeleton, there's ghosts, pumpkins.
- [28:47]
E
It's perfect. Like, you don't want to just have like the boring, like just, just blue, black colors. Like freshen it up, guys.
- [28:53]
D
Come on, give me some good designs. Yeah. Right now, as a listener of the show, you can get cozy and spooky for less with deals up to 50% off@meundies.com dalejr and enter the promo code.
- [29:05]
E
Dalejr that's meundies.com dalejR promo code dale junior for up to 50% off me undies comfort that's made for fall.
- [29:15]
A
I've been watching you over the last several years. I find your direction and choices in life just fascinating as hell.
- [29:26]
B
Like the change of wind direction or something.
- [29:28]
C
Yeah.
- [29:28]
A
I just have always kind of wondered why you make some of the decisions you make. We've been such great friends for so many years. But you got into drag racing and have poured yourself into like, you don't do anything half assed, but you not only engulfed yourself into the world of drag racing and NHRA as an owner and building a team and managing all of those things, but you learned how to be a winning driver. And I found that incredibly fascinating and have wanted to celebrate you because of your ability to do that at this point in your life. We get to a certain age and we decide that we're done taking chances. But there's some things that you're willing to take a chance on, take risks on. And you experienced the blowback on that risk this weekend or this past weekend and the crash you had. I'm kind of, it's a big question, but what motivates you at this age? And that motivation has other things working against it or pulling it in different directions because of becoming married and having children. And I knew how having a child was going to change you and you'd never experienced anything like that in your life. And now you're in the middle of it and your perspective on everything gets altered in that process. But what motivates you? You know, I'm imagine I imagine your love for your wife has motivated your involvement in NHRA and why you wanted to, you know, why you've sort of become such a big part of that. That's become such a big part of you. What motivates you to keep racing as an owner in sprint cars, in World Outlaw or in high limit, you know, and what made of it? What motivates you to decide where that, you know, you're a racer, right. And you've got a pie that you got to cut into pieces and what motorsport and what are you going to. What's going to get in that pie? Right. Stock cars was there for a while, no longer. You know, different things change. So what, what is the driving force behind you every day?
- [31:58]
B
I think it's the same thing as what got us into it. It's just that passion and that drive to do it has never changed over 46, 47 years now as a race car driver. And I think it's a lot easier situation on the drag side when your wife is a racer too. It's a very unique situation versus getting married to somebody that doesn't drive a race car and doesn't understand that truly doesn't understand inside our head why we do it, what it takes to do it when the demands it takes to do it.
- [32:29]
A
Before you started that relationship, what did you know and think about drag racing? Did you ever think you would ever find yourself? Absolutely.
- [32:39]
B
Absolutely not. Didn't have. I was a casual fan, sure, I enjoyed watching it on TV if it was on, but I didn't search for it and didn't plan my day around watching a broadcast of it or go to the races. I mean I, I had the opportunity when we started Stewart Haas racing through the US army, who sponsored Ryan Newman with our program, got invited to go to the U.S. nationals and hang out with Don Schumacher and Tony Schumacher who were sponsored by the army as well. So that was the first time I really got to be around it and you know, got invited to the U.S. nationals. Well, that's our Daytona 500. So as much as they're inviting you to come in the trailers and look at all the stuff, I'm just wanting to be outside because I'm like, this is your biggest race of the year. Year. I don't want to be distraction so I'm standing out. But, but at the same time like, man, this is crazy. Looking from the outside, looking in and then years later meet Leah and especially during COVID and get the opportunity thanks to Don again. Don invites me to, to be with Leah at the races and, and had permission to be around the Team where during coven if you didn't work on those cars, you weren't allowed to be even in the pit area. So I got a really neat opportunity from Don Schumacher to do that and, and really started seeing it from the inside out. And that really sparked the fire. But to get a chance to do it with someone you love and care about and is your life partner and, and to get to see her passion and drive and it's the same. We. I tell Everybody she is me 17 years earlier, right. With a lot of aspects of it and. But to see how excited she is and then it just. That draws you into it even deeper. But to get to the. Go to the racetrack each weekend, get to do it with my wife, to now have our son there. And because of what our schedule looks like at the racetrack, our hospitality is in between our two race teams with Matt Hagan's funny car team and our top field team. He's 30ft away from me at all times, all times. I can go run in that trailer anytime, hug him, kiss him all I want, play with him when I have time. And that's something we didn't have that luxury of doing. I mean, when we had an hour of practice, we were solid hour practice. We weren't getting away from that. So it's variables like that in the equation that are so unique in this situation that that passion's never went away. I mean, I even think about not only going to the sprint car races. My dad's 87 years old now. We race three quarter midgets together. And so getting to race with my dad occasionally, that's something that I haven't had the opportunity to do before. And I think once you're a racer, you're just always a racer. I mean, that's. And I'm sure there's going to be that day that something's going to change in the equation and I'm going to go, you know what? I don't know that I want to take this risk anymore. I mean, our crash the other day happened at 240 miles an hour, you know, and I never thought about that. You just don't see a lot of crashes in nhra. But even when that happened, all I cared about was, all right, well, what do we got to do to get ready for next weekend, which is Charlotte coming up? And so the great thing is we had a backup car. We got. We had the opportunity to test with Leah on Monday. She got to make the hits in the car. I'm banged up a little bit. Doctor's orders, did not get in the car. So having my wife get in my car and shake the backup car down, that's pretty cool deal for me. So I. I think there's just variables that are just way different than, than what a normal, what we would call traditional racing family, where, you know, one of them, one person's driving the race car, the family supporting him. We are just truly a racing family. Like what you grew up in.
- [36:06]
A
She's going to get back behind the wheel next year. And so what I heard is that you borrowed her seat while she wanted to become a mother, and that you're stepping back out of the way, getting out of her way to get back in her ride. What does that mean for you?
- [36:24]
B
Yeah, I think it's. I think it's an element of my life where you kind of realize, and to a lot of people, they won't realize that. You've known me long enough to know. It's one more step in the growing up process. This wasn't about me, you know, me driving her car was about her and her decision for us to start a family together. And she got to dictate the timing of it and all that because I felt like that was really important. You know, she's giving up what she loves to do the most driving that race car, but somebody had to drive it in the meantime. So because of the time in the alcohol dragster that I drove the year before, I felt like that was a logical step. But ultimately it was still her decision. Her and the crew chief made the call of two of us that were on the card of who to pick. And I told him, I said, pick who you think is going to give us the best opportunity to have the best results at the end of the day. And so to be able to step in and fill in for her. I feel pride in that as her husband, but love the opportunity as a race car driver to go to another form of motorsports, get in another type of race car that people are going to say, ah, he's not going to figure this out. He's going to get his ass kicked and be able to sit there and perform and get up to speed and win a couple races. And now we're in contention for a world championship and won a regular season championship. So that's what I take pride in as a driver. But, you know, at the end of the day, it was bittersweet when we had to do her announcement. And it's like there were a couple small moments where I had to bite my tongue. You Know, and because I'm like, I really don't want to get out of this race car, but I do because I'm doing it for the person I love and I know how much she loves being in it. And it was the first time that I actually stepped back and said, I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I can't believe I'm okay with owning the race team and just getting out of the car. But it was the plan all along. And I have this very sneaking suspicion I'll find something to do to where I can still be involved myself at the same time.
- [38:18]
A
Do you know what that is?
- [38:19]
B
I do. I do. And this week we'll all know what it is. But yeah, it's. Let's just say it's next year is going to be a lot of fun.
- [38:28]
A
Oh, man.
- [38:29]
B
You know, if racing with Rico is not fun enough, it's, you know, this just encompasses all of it and the season we're going to have next year and the things that I'm going to get to do and to have Rico in our shop, I mean, literally our, our funny car team, our top fuel team, and Rico sprint car team, we're all in the same building. We're one team, all team.
- [38:47]
A
Are you far from being done competing?
- [38:50]
B
I don't see an end anytime near.
- [38:53]
A
That's good enough for me. That's good enough for me.
- [38:55]
B
We've had a lot of our, our friends that have sat there and said, you know, when's enough going to be enough? You know, And I'm like, I don't know. But my brain doesn't say that this is it yet.
- [39:04]
A
Well, you're. I would tell you too, that I think in the past two or three years or maybe even more, I don't know. But you've really taken a. And made an effort to take better care of yourself. And physically, you look incredible. And I imagine you feel great. To be able to get in that car and drive it the way you need to has to keep you in good shape. So, I mean, if you wanted to keep digging, I don't see anything that slow you down. Certainly not your physical.
- [39:35]
B
I think it's going to be just like it was for you and I, you know, with, with being full time cup drivers. I mean, we love the sport, we love, we love that excitement of getting to the track Thursday night and doing what we do for three days a week. But there's just that morning you wake up and you're like, yeah, I think, I think I've had enough. You know, and not because you don't love it and you don't like it. It just that you physically and mentally have to make a change. You know, there's just part of it where your body and your mind tells you it's time to do something different.
- [40:03]
A
But I ran some Xfinity races, and they're about 300 laps, and I'd get about halfway through them and go, yeah, I could get out. So now I just run 125 lap late model stock races. They got five in the bank getting shorter and shorter and shorter. But I want to know if. How do the two operations complement themselves? Like you would know, Tony. Like, I'm sure you have partners that are probably intertwined within both programs, the drag racing program and the dirt Dirt program. Do they sort of lift each other work together at all in terms of your partner's experiences and so forth, or are they completely separate in how they operate?
- [40:45]
B
No, we've had a lot of. That's one of the. I won't say main reasons. The main reason to have all these teams in the same building together is it just brings the energy of the building up. I mean, Rico's been to our shop a million times through the years. And, you know, it's one thing, like I said, you have three guys working on a car, so they're in this big concrete building, you know, working on sprint cars together. And it's just that group, and they work together, they travel together, live together. Now you add a whole different form of motorsports, and the sprint car guys sneak over and they look at the dragster and the funny car, and the funny car and dragster guys sneak over and check out the sprint cars. And I think that's. I think there's value to that, but there is for our partners as well. And like I said, Rico's done such a great job with his sponsorships and the partners that he's bringing. And, you know, our partners on our side knew our struggles internally, knew the things that we didn't say in the media during the announcement of making changes, but they knew internally what we were fighting. And they know Rico, and they know his passion and his energy that he brings. And our current partners are excited about him coming on board. I mean, it's. You know, we've got somebody that is willing to take the time and energy to work at making the whole package work versus just, you know, showing up and driving the race car and going home at the end of the day. So I think it just brings such a new Energy. Having him come into that building, he single handedly will change the whole atmosphere in that entire building. You know, the drag side, I mean, they know the struggles we've had on the sprint car side and it kind of everybody mingles around each other, but not like they did at the start of it. And I, I guarantee our guys knowing this week that he's coming into that building, they're going to have to start locking the doors to keep our guys on the drag side, on their side more and working and being productive and not wanting to hang out with him and his team because he just, he brings a whole new dynamic and energy to the, to the whole facility.
- [42:34]
A
On the lead up to this announcement, how, how have you had to kind of negotiate keeping this to yourselves and not letting the cat out of the bag there?
- [42:45]
C
Yeah, it was. Right. You get anxious and you want to, you know, talk to those people that are really close to you. First and foremost. When this, all these conversations started, I had to, you know, have these discussions with my partners internally, right. On the Rico Avery racing side of things and just make sure they're comfortable with this transition. And I approach them to, you know, as in, this is a, you know, opportunity to me for me to be aligned with a top tier team and that they're, they're going to have the, the, they're going to come with me and, and we're going to integrate all this together. And I felt like everybody I spoke with was really encouraging and exciting about, you know, the movement on this once it really had some legs to it. And I think that you can really look at it as a, you know, a chance for them to, to be a part of something really ginormous. Right. With the NHRA side of things, you know, what Tony's got going on and just how he's changed so much over the last decade on how he, you know, is more accessible at the races. And I think that's really beneficial on my end for my partners that want to come be a part of, you know, what he's got going on over there too.
- [44:00]
A
Yeah, you're, you know, you mentioned it earlier about your experience in NASCAR and came in, if I remember correctly, you ran a little bit ARCA and then a truck deal, correct?
- [44:11]
C
Yes.
- [44:12]
A
And so I think a lot of people were super, super excited when that happened. If you could tell yourself, you know, that was 10 years ago. If you could go back and tell yourself something about that experience to better prepare yourself for what you were going to get involved in, you know, what would you say, or what would you maybe do differently?
- [44:31]
C
Yeah, I would have done, uh, two years. So I. I got the opportunity to race with Marty lindley. Um, and. And I would have. I would have done. Needed to figure out how to do another year racing with him. And I think that's where I kind of missed the boat. And I got. I wanted to. It was. It got. We got in a hurry and pushed through the programs too quickly. And then I felt like when I got to the. The truck series, I was just so inexperienced. And then these investments that people make to. To get those opportunities, it just didn't align really, with where I wanted to be, you know? And I. I don't take anything away from it. Right. It was an incredible opportunity for me. Incredible experience. I got to learn a lot of things, got to meet a lot of new people, see the other side of the industry of motorsports from just the grassroots racing side, what I grew up doing. And. Yeah, but if I were to do it again, I would do two years in the east stuff or the k N stuff now or arca stuff now, and then potentially move to the truck series. But I just think I move too quickly.
- [45:35]
A
Outside of the winged outlaw car, what else will you race next year?
- [45:39]
C
Just wing sprint cars.
- [45:40]
A
Nothing.
- [45:40]
C
410 sprint cars, no chili bowl. All I want to do nothing. Nope.
- [45:44]
A
Just a 410.
- [45:45]
C
I just want to race 410 sprint cars when it.
- [45:48]
A
Will there ever be a day where you would entertain other things?
- [45:51]
C
I mean, I told Tony I could get his junior dragster ready for don. I wouldn't mind taking a crack at it. I would do it. I gotta get my cart right. Your hard card or can you just sign up and be a top fuel driver? I'd have to go through some steps. It's not. A, we could work towards it, Oddly enough.
- [46:13]
B
It's not a hard process. And of all people, I mean, he's the kind of guy, actually, that the way he adapts, he would figure it out pretty quick, honestly.
- [46:23]
A
Oh, I'm sure.
- [46:24]
B
And maybe at too fast a rate to where I would be embarrassed about how long it took me to learn how to do it. But he. I honestly think if he wanted to drive a top fuel dragster, a, he could do it and B, he would be really good at it because the things that we take from, you know, especially on race day and being able to catch it if the tires spin and all that. He's so good at that anyway, because of all the time in a sprint car, he would catch on to it. Fast.
- [46:48]
C
That's all I ask. I always ask him. I said, like, how can you feel when the tires are spinning? Like, if you're just making a run. And I'm always curious to know, like, if you can tell, like, the difference. And obviously, it's. You make a couple runs, and you figure it out pretty quickly.
- [47:03]
B
Yeah. When you. When they spin the tires half track and your head tries to hit the steering wheel, you realize the tires are spinning. It's pretty easy.
- [47:09]
A
Oh, my God. I was. I feel like a fool saying this, but I. Cletus took me to. We were out at Talladega, and he had that truck out there, and that thing goes 140, and. And I've never in my life I had a line lock on a Camaro that I'd mess around in my driveway, just burning the rear tires off of. But I've never in my life went down a strip of any kind at any kind of accelerated speed. And so. But, I mean, he's giving me a hard time about whether I was chicken to do it. And I'm like, all right. You know how we are. We're like, all right, I'm gonna do it. Damn it. I'm not going to. You don't call me no chicken. So I get in that thing, and he's telling me what to do, and I'm like, here we go. And when I'm. When the thing takes off, like, it took off so fast that my foot come up off the floorboard, because I wasn't expect. I didn't think that I needed to really mash the gas any harder than I was mashing it. Right. I'm mashing it. Like I drive anything. And when it took off, all of me went back into the seat, like. And I even got a little dizzy by how fast I was moving instantly. And my mind immediately went to you, and I was like. And you had just won somewhere. And I was like, holy. And it feels like, you know, from my perspective, the distance I have from you, it feels like you learned how to drive a dragster and become a winner in, like, 12 months. I'm sure it was a longer process than that, but it just feels like you just, you know, you went. Did it. Learned it, and now you're good at it. And I'm like, damn, that was only, like, at 120 miles an hour. And you had to figure out a way to, like, condition yourself to all of those sensory overload moments and things that your body goes through in one of those runs. I can't Imagine, like, how foreign that must have felt the first few times you did it. Did you even think to yourself, you know, I don't know if I will be able to adapt right, to what's happening here. Right.
- [49:22]
B
It's funny for me because I went to Frank Holley's driving school, and it literally was from sitting there and listening to Leah talk to her crew chiefs. And I'm sitting in the debrief, and I don't want to be in there because, you know, it's in the lounge, just like we had our lounges in cup. And I'm listening to the crew chiefs and her talk, and she's talking about a run that went 3.7 seconds, and she's taken 20 minutes to talk about all the stuff that happened that she felt. And I'm like, listening to her, I'm like, I think I know what that should feel like, but I don't know what. I don't know. So I went down to Frank Holly's driving school, drove his super comp car a couple runs.
- [49:55]
A
How fast does it go?
- [49:56]
B
I got in his alcohol. I don't know how fast his super comp car ran, but his alcohol car ran 220 miles an hour. And I remember leaving that. And she goes, if you had to give yourself a grade, what would it be? I said, a C. She goes, why? Why do you say that? I said, well, there are a lot of things that I knew in the procedure that I did wrong that didn't necessarily hurt the car, but you could tell that I made mistakes. But how the car ran down the track, it didn't change it, but a lot of things there that I needed to clean up. And then so I went back again and just her and I went back, didn't bring film crew and all the stuff we did for YouTube and all that. And she goes, I remember being in a hotel. She goes, what's the one thing you want to clean up and fix in these two days that you're going to run? I said, to get my eyes off of the tree and on my focal point faster. And it absolutely amazed me. It was three months in between when I went to the school the first time and second time, first. First run out of the gate. My eyes went from the light straight on target and came back after the first run. She goes, how was it? I said, you are not going to believe this. She goes, what? I said, my eyes locked on immediately. And I tell people that our brain is amazing. And you've learned that. I've learned that through the stuff we've been through with concussions and everything else. But it is amazing how I feel like our brains are like a smartphone. It's like we might have three or four apps open at the same time, but you're working on one at a time, but the rest of them are still operating and working in the background. And that's. I feel like that's what happened between the first time I went and the second time was my brain didn't shut that aspect off, and it said, hey, we didn't do this right. And my brain figured out how to make the adjustments to where when we went back and did it again, it sorted it out, and it was ready to rip. But that is literally the hardest thing about driving and learning how to drive a top fuel car. That's, you know, in the first 60ft, it's running 82 miles an hour already in 60ft.
- [51:53]
A
Yeah.
- [51:53]
B
So it's insane how. How quick these cars accelerate. So the first cone that the fans see is the 330 cone out there, and the car would be at 330ft, and my brain's back at 200ft going, wait, what the hell's going on now? Yeah, what are we doing? And it's like, as long as the car does what it's supposed to do, you're fine. But you and I both know, and the three of us know that you get behind the car. What can happen? And my brain's way behind this race car. It literally took the seven runs that I did the first time I drove Leah's car at Las Vegas at a test, did that test, came back and ran after Charlotte. The day after we ran the Charlotte event, I tested again. I ran three more runs, and actually, Kyle Larson was there that day. And Kyle and Rico go way back too. Kyle was there, and Leah brought him up to the line, and he just turned his head and just shook his head like, this is nuts.
- [52:42]
A
Yeah.
- [52:43]
B
And she asked him, and she's video, and she goes, you want to drive that? He goes, hell, no.
- [52:46]
A
Yeah.
- [52:47]
B
Boyer. Boyer is probably the craziest guy. We both know Boyer wants nothing to do with, but it's literally. That was the moment that was 10 runs into it that I realized I'm like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. I said, I'm a bust my ass and get hurt.
- [53:01]
A
Yes.
- [53:02]
B
Because I'm way behind this race car and didn't realize it, but you're listening to the guy that owns the car, Don Schumacher, and you listen to the girl you're dating at the time that you think loves you, she says, hey, this can be great. This can be fine. And she says, this is going to be okay. You're like, all right, well, if she says it's okay, must be okay.
- [53:21]
A
Yeah.
- [53:21]
B
It took 10 runs to realize this is not okay.
- [53:23]
A
Yeah.
- [53:23]
B
And this is a really bad idea. This is the dumbest thing I've ever done.
- [53:26]
A
Yeah.
- [53:27]
B
And you realize that you need to do something different. And like. Rico talked about his journey into NASCAR and how things move too fast. I said, we're moving way too fast. I said, I need to do something slower and work my way back up to it. So got out of a 330 mile an hour car and got into a 280 mile an hour car instead. But it was the step I needed to take back. And it took a little time to get used to that, but I adapted to that car a lot quicker. And then literally from the time that it took to get used to going from the alcohol car to the top fuel car, it was that same transition all over again. So I felt like it was a way better step. And just like what Rico said, I mean, if he had the chance to go back and do it again, time frame wise is probably the things that we would do different. I would do the same thing. As much as we've accomplished in our careers and the accolades and awards, we've got some things you just. Our natural driving ability doesn't catch you up right away. It doesn't mean you're going to jump in something else and immediately be good at it. And these are cars that they're accelerating so hard. Like you mentioned, I still have trouble. I mean, I'm in year two of it, and there's times that the crew chief will pull up the throttle trace which we're not doing footwork. You know, it's the light changes. You hit the gas, you hold it wide open unless something catastrophic is getting ready to happen. But he'll sit there and have to go, hey, your foot came off 8%.
- [54:48]
A
Yes.
- [54:49]
B
At 600ft. And it's. And honestly, it's a situation for me now where I'm now getting so comfortable in it. But what you and I are used to on how hard we had to hold the throttle down, you have to hold twice as much throttle pressure because now you got this big vacuum cleaner up there sucking air in and it's trying to shut the blades. So it's little things like that that are the splitting hairs. Things that we're Having to learn now.
- [55:12]
A
Hey everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time. Especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com hey race fans.
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B
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- [57:42]
E
Just go to indeed.com dalejr right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.comdalejr Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.
- [57:55]
A
Rico, you can probably appreciate this. There's a conversation around the greatest race car drivers in the world over the course of the last century, and you have AJ Foyt's and Mario Andretti's in that conversation. Kyle's been dropped in that conversation several times as well. Kyle Larson, you were in it because of your diversity and all the different types of cars that you drove. But I feel like with the success that you've been able to experience in this short period of time, you drove drag racing, that you've kind of. And I know you won't take this mantle, but you've sort of put yourself at the top of that list because all the guys on that list all raced ovals, you know, any car, stock cars, this, that, and other dirt. But nobody has done what you've done to run short, you know, dragsters and quarter miles and so forth. And coming out of, you know, at your age, when we should be done learning new things, you know, so pretty impressive. The when. When you talk about getting behind the car, you know, up and before this weekend, you've had to have had moments where, you know, you about busted your ass. I don't even know what that looks like in a. In a dragster, in an hra. But what are. What. What. What are. What is a moment when you're like, holy. I just, you know, I just barely got out of that one without any problems.
- [59:27]
B
Yeah. And it's not always crashing the car. The thing that's real important with nitro cars is that the motors want a standard load. So how you know for qualifying for Rico? I mean, everybody, most of the time, on the majority of the tracks during qualifying, you can run wide open around there. Well, the guy that gets his car freed up enough will make better corner speed. Same with us. We. We always wanted our cars not loose, but we wanted them to be as free as possible. It made them go faster. The problem with a nitro car is you don't want that motor to get free, so you want to underload it. That's what keeps them happy. If it loses that load Then it puts cylinders out and that's when they blow up. If the tires free up and start to slip too much, it'll put the cylinders out. So one of the biggest things of what makes the three of us good race car drivers is a different criteria in drag racing. It's cadence of staging the control of your car during the burnout and staging catch in the car. And that's honestly probably the biggest thing that, that you have to be careful of is if that motor frees up and you stay in that gas too long and it starts just pumping raw fuel in there. Well, fuel doesn't compress air does. Fuel doesn't. If you don't catch it quick enough, it's, it's for sure in the five digit range of what it's going to hit in your budget and sometimes can be in the six figure range what it's going to hurt in your budget on that one run. So it's variables like that that change that. As a driver you realize the focus isn't the focus. Driving the car literally hitting the gas and driving it to the finish line is cut a good reaction time, keep the car in the groove and be ready if you have to pedal it. If you have to just abort the run, you have to. I told our cup guys last year, you know, bunch of young guys, and they all wanted to know about it. I said, you know how we make split second decisions when we drive? We all know that now take that split second decision and make a split second decision off of that. That's how fast your brain has to react to what is going on and what Rico asked me, when feeling the tire spin, I hit the gas. Somebody, somebody asked me the other day, they said, what's it feel like when you hit the gas in those cars? I said, I really don't know anymore because yeah, it's accelerating like crazy. But as soon as that light changes and my eyes go to my focal point, my brain goes to the back tires to feeling what those tires are doing. If it's, you know, starting to shake a little bit, if it does start to have a light shake, will it drive? Can it drive out of it? You have to make all these decisions so fast off of feel. So your brain literally goes backwards to the car while your eyes and everything else is going forward. You're trying to put your brain on top of those tires to feel what's going on. So it's just a whole different discipline. You really don't see cars crash very often. And the crash that Doug And I had. I mean, Doug and I raced USAC for years together, never touched wheels. And that's. That'd be the place where. If it's gonna happen. Yeah, that's. That's where it's gonna happen. But it's. It's not common in drag racing, first of all. And that was a situation that he did everything in his power to keep that from happening. I mean, we're both in the first round of the countdown. You know, he's second in the points at that point. We're leading the points on that run. And now we just crashed our cars that got us to the dance, so. But there's nothing he could do, nothing we could do. And, you know, it's. But stuff happens very, very quickly in those cars.
- [62:50]
A
Yeah. You said you were knocked out for a little bit. Had you ever been knocked out before?
- [62:54]
B
I've been knocked down a lot. That's the problem. You know, for us, I think it's kind of like when people get heat stroke, it's the easiest thing, I feel like, that you can compare to. And once somebody gets heat stroke, it's easier for him to get it again. And with concussions, it's the same way if there's not enough time in between to let your brain catch up and heal, and it'll heal. You know that if you don't give your brain time to heal, you're susceptible to it, even easier. And, you know, we had an event at Norwalk where we literally. The two qualifying runs on Friday blew up. Blew up again. First round of eliminations on Sunday and still won the round. Had changed motors and get ready for second round. But then the next week, the next event, we go to Seattle, we blow a motor, and I get a concussion out of it.
- [63:39]
A
How?
- [63:39]
B
Because of the power of the explosion of it. And you. If you watch a slow mo. And I was. And I asked the same question. I asked Leah, because Friday night, after the two at Norwalk, I said, why do they keep asking me if I'm okay? And she goes, watch the replay. And she goes, don't watch the tires and don't watch the pipes and the cylinders go out. She goes, just watching. Focus on your head. Watch your head. And we're talking about a car that when it blows up, it's not decelling. It's not like you're hitting the brakes all of a sudden. You're just not accelerating anymore. But I watched the replay in slow motion. My head. It looks like I'm trying to shove my head through the dash. It goes forward.
- [64:13]
A
So from the compression of that explosion.
- [64:17]
B
And that's what, that's what gives you the concussion. So, you know, we talk about wrecks and crashes and stuff. It's. It's not physically crashing the car in. When those things blow up, it is violent. And we're talking about a dragster. Imagine Matt Hagen and John Force and J.R. todd and our buddies that drive funny cars, what they go through, because it's like being inside a trash can and somebody throws a quarter stick of dynamite inside when those things blow up. So they're just violent race cars. And the stuff that we're used to and the things that were variables we had to watch out for are different variables that we have to do on that side.
- [64:54]
A
Yeah. Damn. Yeah, I saw in the video after the wreck you're getting, you're a little bit slow moving, but I don't move super fast anyway. I know what you should look like.
- [65:07]
B
Wasn'T the one you're used to seeing.
- [65:09]
A
Yeah, you just move a little slow there. Yeah. But you sound great.
- [65:11]
B
Thanks. Yeah, no, I feel fine. I mean, I felt like somebody dropped, literally dropped a 15 pound bowling ball off a top of a large step ladder right on top of my head for about six straight hours.
- [65:21]
A
Yeah.
- [65:22]
B
But, you know, that got better. And it's, you know, here we are three days after it, and I just feel like a telephone pole walking around. Like all the muscles are tight. So we're just like when we. If we had bad wrecks and cup cars and Xfinity cars and sprint cars. I mean, that's the way you feel the next day. But the best thing you do is just get right back in the car. That's what loosens it up.
- [65:42]
A
Yeah, I'd say driving sprint cars or world outlaw and wing sprint cars. And the high limit is quite spectacular at times as well. I don't, you know, is a very high limit element of danger. You talked about the wrecks at Eldora. The, you know, how do you, how do you manage? Because I went to. I went to a race, my first race, I think a year or two ago, Lernerville, I think you went to Learnerville. Never seen anything move as fast around an oval at the limit or out of control, literally. To your point, everybody out there is driving them to the edge. And the commitment that you have to have just watching a car run by itself in time trials is. Is really impressing impressive. But then to see you guys out there in the race dodging each other for clean air, dodging what's Happening to the racetrack as it starts to sort of degrade in certain areas. I, you know, just, it, it's, I don't know if, I guess it's, it's so risky. I guess you have to kind of compartmentalize that and set that on the sideline and not worry about it ever.
- [67:06]
C
Right.
- [67:06]
A
About what might or could happen when things go wrong. Because you know, we've seen some pretty scary things happen in, in that type of racing.
- [67:14]
C
Yeah. And I, I mean you think about it, I mean, while you're going out there, right. And over the last few years, you know, previously years I've had some big wrecks. I mean you've seen the violent wrecks, sprint cars can, it can happen. And you know, from blowing a tire and hitting the wall to, you know, crashing and wearing open wheel cars so they're not meant to beat and bang into each other, you know, and I've, I've really studied, you know, the racers that I race against and their awareness of who's around them and how they race when they get around guys. And I, I've really understood that if I want to be in this sport long term, you know, you can, you can't have crashes like that and put yourself in those positions of uncomfort and really tried to learn like how can I continue to do this without rattling my head every other weekend? Or even just big rough tracks where you're bouncing against this headrest in the seats. I mean you can get a freaking concussion doing that. So it's, it's about managing all of that, you know, understanding where you're racing, who you're racing against and, and not pushing that extra bit when you're outside of your comfort zone. I think that you, you know, you can put yourself in big, big bad spots and it can be catastrophic at times if you take those big wrecks and then you got to turn around and race the next night. That's, that's the toughest part. So it's, it's, you know, I've really tried to learn not to put myself in bad spots. And you know, if I have a 15th place car, I'm going to finish 15th tonight and I'm going to make sure this car rolls into the trailer so we can work on it and get better for the next night because everything just starts right over and it's, you got to appreciate it and you got to respect the sport that we're doing out there.
- [69:04]
B
Yeah, that's the hard part about it too is, you know, you take a traveling Series like High Limit or World Outlaws and they're going to a track that is a weekly track. Well, yeah, he can study the guys he's racing with every week that are running the touring deal. But now you roll into a place, you don't know this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy. And you don't know what their characteristics are. You don't know how they race. You don't know if they're respectful or if they're guys that kind of race a little on the dirty edge, you know. But that's the things that you have to. That's the hard part about running any kind of a touring series that you're going and racing with weekly racers is you. You don't have that opportunity.
- [69:41]
C
Like what Rico says, they're amped up to come beat you too, more than your traveling guys because this is their opportunity to come beat the best. Right. You got your national series coming into town and they're gonna do, you know, wild things to try to run up front and that can, you know, it can affect the race for sure.
- [70:01]
A
Yeah. How do you, you know, this is a huge announcement, gonna create a lot of momentum, a lot of buzz at the same time you're in the middle of trying to win the championship. What, what is your, you know, how do you, how do you keep the momentum, how do you keep this, this together while at the same time sort of posturing and shifting toward what Yalls plans are for next year. There'll be the physical move and, you know, the logistical side of that, but also you're wanting to not lose any momentum on what you, what you got going on now.
- [70:37]
C
Continue to win races and win a championship here. So I think this is, that's what's exciting and to get this thing out of the way and then get back to work. You know, we're going to go on a four week run here to finish the season out starting Wednesday tomorrow. So It's. We got 10 races to go and then we'll come back here and run world finals. But I'm just excited to navigate this whole thing for Tony and be a part of it with Tony and, and really try to just keep him up to speed on what's going on. I think that's going to be the fun side of it. And he's, you know, he. Allow him to enjoy watching the sprint car races and cheer for a car out there and you know, and finish. For us to finish the season out. I think it'll be a nice hat tip to try to win this championship going into, you know, an organization that has won a few amount of championships.
- [71:25]
A
Who are the can you discuss who your partners are for next year that are going to be featured on your race car?
- [71:33]
B
Yeah, I think you know we have advance and Carquest on our cars and you know that was the very first car call I made. Like Rico said, started calling our partners and they immediately were on board and excited about it. You know Mike Curb from Curb Records, Mike Curb and Cary Agajanian, they've been partners for both of us. So that was a no brainer. That was easy to. They're already on both of our cars anyway. So called Mike Curb and he was excited about being a part of it again. So you know we've started with that. Rico's got a big list of partners that he's currently working with and we're just trying to figure out how to blend them all together and make sure we're taking care of all of our partners and give them what they deserve.
- [72:12]
A
Well, 2026 can't get here soon enough. It's going to be awesome to see you two working together, continuing to build your own individual legacies. But doing it in a partnership is going to be fun for everybody in the world of motorsports. You got so many fans and people that respect you, Rico. Tony Stewart is one of the icons of motorsports across the board. One of my favorite people and so it's going to be fun for a lot of people to be able to see what you guys can do together and wishing you the best. Thanks for coming in today and giving us a little bit of time. Excited you chose us to be able to make this announcement and yeah. See you guys soon.
- [72:50]
C
Thank you.
- [72:51]
A
You bet.
- [72:51]
B
Good to see you friend. Tron. Ares has arrived.
- [73:05]
A
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- [73:12]
C
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- [73:17]
B
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- [73:18]
A
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- [73:23]
B
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- [73:33]
E
This show is sponsored by Better Help. Hey Andrew, I got a question for you. When you're dealing with problem in life, like who do you go to to help solve it for you?
- [73:40]
D
Man, God bless him. My parents and my girlfriend and they are just the best listeners, best people for advice. So they're the ones I go to.
- [73:48]
C
What about you?
- [73:48]
E
Sometimes it's a group text with the.
- [73:50]
D
Boys, I see you on Twitter a lot too.
- [73:52]
E
Twitter. Sometimes I don't know if I should take Twitter as where my problems are at, but a lot of times it's the group text with the friends, but I don't know if that's the right place to be going to.
- [74:02]
D
Yeah, well, there's a difference between that and actually talking with a therapist. And that's where better help comes in. With clinically trained and licensed therapists, they've been around for over a decade. They've helped millions and out of Travis get this 1.7 million client reviews, they've got a 4.9 rating.
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E
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- [74:39]
D
Yeah, Travis, I've used it, I've talked about it on this show, how much it's benefited me and maybe it could benefit someone like you out there.
- [74:46]
E
How much do you like just being able to the, you know, versatility of being on your couch and doing it.
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D
Or it was easy.
- [74:51]
E
You don't have to go in.
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D
I, all I did was I jumped on a phone call in my room, you know, and it was, it was, it was, I had my own privacy. I was able to talk to someone. It was about a 30 minute session. And I'll say it did wonders to kind of help me realize what was stressing me out, what was causing problems.
- [75:06]
E
Yeah, you're not having to get in your car, drive 30 minutes, deal with traffic, then you're getting upset about traffic or whatever.
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D
It's pretty easy to stay brick and mortar place.
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E
Like it's so much easier.
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D
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- [75:35]
A
So great conversation with Rico and Tony about their announcement. We're so thankful that they chose Dirty Mo Media and the DJD platform to make their announcement because it's pretty cool. Again, I think the world of Tony and we had such a great friendship over the years. And still do today. And Rico used to come around back when. Back when Kelly's girls were getting into driving the Micros and all the things that were going on around Millbridge, when that was kind of starting to fire off. Jimmy Elledge, who is my niece's father, now owns a manufacturer for the Micros and so forth, brought Rico around. And, man, I, you know, he was this young kid. This was before the stock car stuff, and had this bright, you know, future ahead of him. And. And I think when, as I mentioned in the show, we all got super excited when he got into the stock cars, and I thought, man, I hope this takes off and works. And unfortunately, you know, his path went back toward. Well, fortunately, I guess for him, it's where he wanted to be, but his path went back to sprint cars. And what he's been able to develop into is pretty impressive. And the season that he's had this year really is pretty cool. So now you, you know, hope that they end the season successfully and, and. And start into 2026. I don't know how everybody else that's watching this feels, but, like, High Limit's been a big deal this past couple of years. What High Limit has done, what they're doing, how they're operating, the success they're having has been great to watch. And while I love the idea of Larson and sweeten those guys competing in the series, and I understand why they need to compete or want to, would want to compete in the series to try to raise the elevation and profile of the series, this right here, you know, Tony Stewart, Rico teaming up to go and compete kind of gives it a big pop. Gets me excited about 2026. Makes me want to tune in, to follow this partnership and watch it develop. And so that's got to be exciting for High Limit. And outside of Larson and Sweet, I know Rico is a big deal. And there's other drivers as well that are in and out of the High Limit series that are names, recognizable names to the dirt world. But what is also good for, I think, High Limit in the dirt world is to figure out a way to. To trigger or captivate or grab the attention of the fan who's not always looking in their direction. The casual fan. I would put myself in that box as a casual fan. I keep my ear to the ground about what they're doing and who's winning and what's going on. But this type of announcement, this type of team developing and forming to. To compete in the series is a big deal. They need more of this for sure to continue to take them to where they want to go. So excited for them to take the opportunity to bring that news to us today. And a lot of fun to be able to talk to Rico about other things going on in his career, catch up with Tony, ask him a few questions about his passion for racing, his passion for motorsports, what motivates him, what he plans to do going forward. Says he's got some news to to to share in the in the coming days about his physical driving plans in going into next year. So that'll be nice to learn. Anyways, just a lot of fun catching up with those two and two great people that are. They've got a lot of fans here in the in the Dirty Mo media studio. So thank you, Tony and Rico and it's time for the white flag.
- [80:00]
B
White flag.
- [80:02]
A
The teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race. I don't know if I should talk about this, but I guess a fan put up on social media. Was the teardown a good podcast? And Jeff Gluck reacted to the results and was actually like seeking out genuine feedback. Oh, no, how can we be better? It wasn't obviously a 100% positive post, which is fine and to be expected. Nobody loves everything. I would assume that if we put up a poll, we would certainly get mixed reviews, but Jeff Gluck was like, oh, no to those who voted. It wasn't a good podcast. What feedback could you give me for us to make it better?
- [80:51]
D
And then the guy who put the poll out said, well, I don't vote or give my opinion.
- [80:56]
A
Like, well, I think that that's him saying, you know, I'm, I don't want to be biased or swing the pole. It's like Jeff Gluck couldn't, you know, Jeff Kluck might, could after the fact tell you I voted X, Y or Z. But he, he's not going to tell you during the polling. But I would say to Jeff that the tear down is a good podcast regardless of the results of the poll. Someone told me, very, very smart woman told me a couple weeks ago, when people are indifferent, that's when you need to worry. When people are indifferent, that's when you got a problem. If you're trying to create content right now, you would love for them to all rave about it. But either way, some may love, some may not like. And that's, I think, a product of the teardown because you have two voices often disagreeing with each other. So that's going to form two different opinions of the show. So it's working as designed.
- [82:03]
D
I would say that's what makes a good show. You don't want. You want differing.
- [82:07]
A
I want to disagree with one of the guys on there. Right. If I'm tuning into the tear down with Jordan and Jeff, my expectation is to have a different opinion than one side of the conversation. Right?
- [82:21]
B
Yeah.
- [82:22]
A
What fun would it be if they were both saying the same thing and I agreed with both of them?
- [82:26]
D
That's right.
- [82:28]
A
Not fun.
- [82:28]
D
Although. Should I disagree with you right now in this conversation?
- [82:31]
A
We're not having a. We're not debating.
- [82:33]
D
Oh, you're right.
- [82:34]
A
That's what the teardown is. At times of debate now, they do agree with stuff, but hey. Actions detrimental dropped on Monday, Denny Hamlin again gives us his honest review of the race weekend. The tire. All the things I think Denny's show, man, I mean, I think Denny's show is one of the most important shows in the podcasting ecosystem. Even outside of Dirty Mo media, there's not many drivers that are sitting down to give their. Give us an hour of everything they thought about the race weekend. So quickly, he comes right home, right. Jumps right in the studio and gets it done. But he does it honestly, for the most part. He's unbiased. He's truly giving what he believes is his opinion for the betterment of the sport or for the betterment of the decisions being made about tires and all the things. Right. That they talk about, playoffs, whatever. I think it's one of the most important shows because what other drivers are out there doing that?
- [83:37]
D
I don't think anyone, especially.
- [83:39]
A
I mean, now I would love for some of the younger guys to do shows, but I'm. I'm going to. How many are. Wouldn't you listen to more or more? Wouldn't you trust, I suppose, someone who's been doing it for 20 years, right? So, like, man, I like that Denny's doing a show and I wish that there were a couple other drivers with his. With the experience that he has also doing the show or even being on his show. Right. Giving air. Do they agree? Do they think differently? But anyways, actions detrimental dropped Monday. Door bumper clear Also dropped Monday. They had Jeff Burton on as a guest, pounding the table.
- [84:24]
D
It was good.
- [84:25]
A
He.
- [84:26]
D
He did not hold back. I'll tell you.
- [84:27]
A
He doesn't. He's very passionate about his opinions. I love that about Jeff. Me too. Maybe not. Maybe I don't always agree with everything he says, but I know that he believes it, right. And he's privy to A lot of the, you know, behind the curtain, he's in this position sort of as the go between, between drivers and nascar, but he's also on the network side. So he sees a lot of what's going on with tv. He also sees a lot of what the drivers are all working toward or trying to fight for or what their complaints may be. And he also speaks with NASCAR a ton, understanding what challenges they have. And so, yeah, I like to listen to Jeff because I feel like that he's not just feeding us a lot of bull and he's not posturing right for one side or the other because he's got to be kind of, he's got to be neutral in the role he plays as a broadcaster. And as I go between for the NASCAR and the drivers, he's sort of the head of the unofficial driver council. Maybe it is official, I don't know. But he's kind of got to be neutral. And so I think, you know, awesome to have him as part of the door bumper clear group. I'm glad he joined us. Thank you, Jeff. On Tuesday, TJ Majors and I discussed our opinions about the race and everything else going on in the sport. And we did some, we did some parlays and so forth for the fans that like to play a little bit with the sports books, which I'm one of those. And we didn't ask Junior segment. It was a lot of fun. It's a good show. Herman Schrader and Speed street also have their episodes dropping today. And then tomorrow another episode of Bless yous Heart with Amy. And don't forget, if you, you know, maybe you don't listen to all of these shows. Who would listen to every single show? I'd love to meet the people that actually do listen to every single show. They exist. I'm sure they do. But some, I bet there's a large majority that don't. Right? Some are. Maybe they're the 80 percenters, the 60 percenters, 40 percenters. Well, there's a show called Dirty 30 that comes out every Friday. It's a 30 minute recap show of all of the things that we thought were the best moments in most of our podcasts. Now, not every podcast will be represented every single Friday in this 30 minute highlight reel, but you can bet you'll see some Tuesday djd, some guest segment Wednesday, maybe some, bless your heart, maybe another nugget or two from the tear down actions detrimental or Herman Schrader and Speedstrade. It's just gonna be a little bit of everything, but it's every Friday. It's 30 minutes. People are loving it. The numbers on this thing are incredible. Little highlight reel for you on Friday to kind of get you up to speed. And that's the show. Thank y'. All. Thank you, Tony and thank you Rico. I had a lot of fun today and we'll see you tomorrow. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok. This episode is brought to you by Huggies Little Movers.
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