Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3:17)
Guess last week felt extremely long because we were. I was Transforming from the Amazon 5 race schedule to the TNT 5 race schedule starting in Atlanta. I was excited, but at the same time, you know, had never worked with most of the people that are going to be on this TNT production. And as we said many times with the Amazon 5 race schedule there was a kind of like a top layer of Amazon people and then underneath that, in the actual bulk of the cake were a lot of familiar faces from NBC. So that's, you know, that's why that, that's kind of why that worked as well as it did in such a short span. When I worked with NBC, we had 20 races and we would spend half of that time working out little kinks and never really feel like we were doing our best work or at least I felt like I wasn't doing my best work till later toward the end of the year. We got five races here to, to get this right. So pretty smart for Amazon to, to bring in some of that experience that NBC has. The weather threw us some curveballs and we had this stage that we were going to use behind pit wall we didn't get to use. We had to rush our pre race team up to a booth that we weren't planning on using and it just, I hated it because it just didn't give us a chance to get off on the right foot. We had a plan that I thought was going to be great and we didn't get to utilize it as we had prepared and expected with all that said, you know, I feel like that we've got some really great ingredients. We got all the right people in terms of talent to have a great show. And I was really happy with how the race was cut. I really am happy also with the temperament and approach of the producer. So I think we're going to make a giant leap forward. I was pretty pleased by the end of the day with what we did as a broadcast team. And I was. Obviously, the race itself was incredible. No matter where or no matter where that race was broadcast, it was a great race. But I feel like that, you know, we. We've. I've talked to a lot of people in the past 24 hours with our TNT team and. And I expect there's a. There. There will be a big chunk of a big leap forward, I think, in. In how we do the job and how well we do it. Anyways, I was glad to get one in the books for tnt. I'm ready to go on to Chicago. With all that said, let's look back on. On Atlanta just a little bit. There's an interesting sort of. And I don't think this is a big deal. Listen. Old Atlanta versus New Atlanta. I think that judging just kind of by surface level peaks into social media and things like that. I feel like that 80% or more like new Atlanta. Old Atlanta, worn out was a blast. As a driver, you loved it. You moved all over the racetrack. It was fun as hell, Cars sliding all over the place. But those races were hard to watch as a viewer and there ain't no denying it. The crowd was suffering. We weren't selling any tickets. And Marcus Smith, who owns that racetrack, was in a spiral. If he didn't make a change. There was. There wasn't much opportunity or any kind of neat idea or anything that was really going to bring that interest back to Atlanta without a big shift and a big change. So the reconfiguration was done. A lot of pushback from drivers. Oh, no, don't we love it? Of course we did. I loved it. I loved Old Atlanta. But they needed to do something to get some new energy and have people go. Let me take another look at this. I hadn't been. I haven't really paid Atlanta much attention or I hadn't really. I don't rank Atlanta very high on my list. Let me take another look. And it's produced the best, most exciting show that we have currently. Now that could change in the next year or two. Something else might be awesome or Atlanta might sort of revert back to its old self. I think that's happening, actually. But there's this sort of, you know, post race, there's this sort of conversation, I think, happening of, you know, people just will. Some people will see that race Sunday and have a problem with it, which, you know, or say that it's. It's not. Not the kind of product or kind of race that they. They want to see or they don't like what, you know, they saw all the cars crashing and half the field get knocked out and that kind of stuff. So, you know, I feel like that people have to. You know, people have to understand. I had to think about it like this, too. Like, I won't. I want Atlanta to survive. Not only do I want the track itself to work and function in nascar, but I want the area around the track to develop. You know, when you look at the success of some of these racetracks, you know, you could kind of check out the property and see Kansas. Yep, Kansas is a good one. Casinos, hotels. There's a potential project of big development that I believe is already on paper and ready to go for Atlanta if the race can return to its sort of peak, you know, peak demand and peak audience. We had a really good crowd this past race. Probably they think, they said the best crowd in the last 10 years. Those are good signs, I think. Nascar. I think that's kind of all a NASCAR thing where crowds are getting better everywhere. But that's a good sign for the future of Atlanta. So the configuration was necessary, and the product that it puts on the racetrack is drawing a lot of interest to sort of unlock these. This. This process of development and excitement just around the property to really bring all of that up, right. And make the race even more of a. Of a great experience. Imagine, like, when you go to a race, if you're camping or you're tailgating outside and you want to run down to the Arby's or something, but it's 20 minutes away, right. If you want to go grab you a breakfast sandwich or something for lunch or, you know, you forgot something or you want to add something to your tailgate. The development. The development right around or in near proximity to the racetrack makes that an easier process and a better experience, I think, for the weekender. Honestly, though, I'll say this. They did not. They did not have to change the banking or the width of the track to have this kind of racing, the kind of racing we're seeing right now at Atlanta. They probably don't know that, and they probably don't really care at this point. But if you had repaved the old Atlanta and put this package on the racetrack, we would probably see the exact same race. The racing at Atlanta is unique to itself. We could, we, we've, we've let sort of this, this younger demographic of race fans, people your age, Travis, come in to the sport. Right. And welcome you in. Right. You're a new fan. You've been a fan for how many years now. And there's a lot of other younger fans coming in and y' all come in and this is something I got to get used to as an old head. Y' all change some of the language. You know, you'll name things different. Like a long time ago, restrictor plates came into the sport and we, we called those tracks where they random restrictor plate tracks. But Atlanta got reconfigured and we started seeing a similar style of racing there. And it's not a, they don't have restrictor plates anymore. They have, you know, carburetor spacers and different things and different ways to limit the horsepower. We didn't know what to call Atlanta because it's not a restrict plate track. They don't, they don't really, those parts and pieces aren't around anymore, so we call them drafting tracks, which I hate. But it is what it is. I don't get to choose. But we don't really see the same type of racing at Daytona and Talladega that we see at Atlanta. Atlanta is its own thing and it has a little bit to do with the shape of the track and, and the, the how short it is. It has the dog leg. All those things produce a unique style of racing we see nowhere else.
