Bussin' With The Boys

Best of the Bus: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Is A CFB25 SICKO + The Cost To Get A Car Into The Daytona 500

169 min
Feb 21, 2026about 2 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Dale Earnhardt Jr. discusses his NASCAR career, team ownership of Junior Motorsports, his passion for College Football 25 gaming, and his recent Daytona 500 entry with his team. The conversation covers racing details, family life, and his transition from driver to owner and media personality.

Insights
  • Successful team ownership requires meticulous data analysis and process documentation—Dale maintains detailed spreadsheets for his College Football 25 dynasty mirroring his racing methodology
  • Nostalgia and tradition in sports marketing remain powerful; vintage branding (Budweiser continuity, Washington Commanders logo) drives fan engagement and emotional connection
  • The middle class in professional sports is being squeezed by rookie salary floors and one-year prove-it deals, shifting contract structures away from multi-year commitments
  • Mentorship and knowledge transfer create competitive advantage; Dale wrote an e-book for a competitor, elevating the entire league's play level
  • Post-career fulfillment comes from process and people, not just winning—Dale misses practice and team collaboration more than he anticipated
Trends
Vintage sports branding and throwback aesthetics gaining traction in modern marketing campaignsOne-year and two-year contracts replacing traditional multi-year deals in professional sports free agencyGamification and simulation-based preparation becoming standard competitive practice across sportsOwner-operators leveraging data analytics and spreadsheet-driven decision-making for competitive advantageFamily-integrated fandom building generational loyalty in sports (kids wearing jerseys, watching games together)Charter/franchise valuations in NASCAR doubling annually, creating investment opportunities similar to traditional sports franchisesContent creator influence on competitive gaming strategy (YouTube tutorials, Discord communities driving meta shifts)Transition from athlete to owner-operator as viable long-term career path in motorsports
Topics
NASCAR Team Ownership and OperationsDaytona 500 Entry Requirements and CostsCollege Football 25 Dynasty Gaming StrategyNASCAR Charter Valuations and InvestmentBudweiser Sponsorship and Brand ContinuityDriver-Crew Chief Communication and Team DynamicsPost-Career Athlete Fulfillment and PurposeWashington Commanders Franchise TurnaroundSports Free Agency Contract StructuresVintage Sports Branding and Nostalgia MarketingSimulator Training and Competitive PreparationFamily Fandom Building and Generational LoyaltyRacing Superstitions and Mental PreparationJunior Motorsports Development ProgramData-Driven Sports Strategy and Analytics
Companies
Anheuser-Busch
Dale's primary NASCAR sponsor from 2000-2008; $10M annual deal was largest in NASCAR at the time
Hendrick Motorsports
Former employer where Dale drove; helped facilitate his Daytona 500 entry through Traveler Whiskey partnership
Junior Motorsports
Dale's race team co-owned with sister Kelly; operates in Xfinity Series with 90 wins and 5 championships
High Rock Vodka
Dale and wife Amy's spirits brand; allowed Traveler Whiskey sponsorship to avoid direct competition
Traveler Whiskey
Sponsored Dale's Daytona 500 entry in 2024; required approximately $750K minimum investment
FanDuel
Sports betting platform discussed for parlay betting strategies and March Madness wagering
Dirty Mo Media
Media company working with FanDuel on sports betting content and partnerships
Wick Customs
Custom vehicle wrap company that refreshed the Bussin' with the Boys bus exterior
People
Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Dale Jr.'s father; legendary NASCAR driver whose legacy and team (DEI) shaped Dale Jr.'s career
Kelly Earnhardt
Dale Jr.'s sister; co-owner of Junior Motorsports; described as tough businesswoman and negotiator
Rick Hendrick
Owner of Hendrick Motorsports; facilitated Dale Jr.'s Daytona 500 entry through partnership
TJ Majors
Dale Jr.'s College Football 25 league rival; won 3 consecutive national championships with Michigan
Justin
Driver of Dale Jr.'s Daytona 500 car; finished 9th in his first Daytona 500 attempt
Jaden Daniels
Washington Commanders quarterback; first overall pick; met by Dale Jr. at Chicago game
Dave Butts
Former Washington Huskies lineman (1984); gave Dale Jr. his game-worn helmet as gift
Kurt Busch
NASCAR driver known for radioactive moments; example of vocal driver-crew communication
Kyle Harvick
NASCAR driver who publicly demanded pit crew improvements; influenced Dale Jr.'s communication approach
Samuel L. Jackson
Referenced as Morehouse College student involved in 1969 Board of Trustees protest
Quotes
"I would do anything in the world to make sure that they are equipped with all the tools when they leave the house to be adults"
Dale Earnhardt Jr.Bud Light question segment
"You called the car a piece of shit. Don't do that. All the guys that build that car and work on that car are listening to you."
Tony Eury Sr. (referenced)Pit crew communication discussion
"I need to be able to take it everywhere I go because I'm always thinking about this"
Dale Earnhardt Jr.College Football 25 strategy discussion
"One day there'll be a day in a very short period of time where I won't practice again"
Dale Earnhardt Jr.Practice nostalgia discussion
"I'm going to miss watching my guys that I love. I love these guys. They're my guys."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.Retirement reflection
Full Transcript
You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers. Most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is the story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Lettby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? I've used to make a fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Lettby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to the A building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fellas, we're here. We are here. We did it. We just did the reveal of the bus. The bus looks fantastic. A little backstory on that. It was obviously wrapped before. And then we had some guys come in and shout out Wick Customs. They came in and they were kind of giving us a, hey, this 50-50. When we started to take this thing off, it could just ruin the entire paint. So seeing it for the first time, it's pretty pristine. I don't know but the 8 out there has got a little wear and tear That's alright I kind of like it It's nice man Bus looks great, it's good to be back Thanks for having me back I'm excited about y'all's new partnership with Bud Light I've worked with Anheuser-Busch For years, still got a Relationship with them here The die-cast car You're Bud Heavy though We call them Blue Coats and Red Coats Blue Coats and Red Coats The Bud Heavy But I enjoy plenty of Bud Lights in my lifetime. So it's cool you guys got that relationship. So glad that that's kind of what has allowed you to kind of get back to your identity and bring the bus back and all that. Yeah, man. Thanks for coming out, too. I was telling when you were over here taking a Tuesday, he came in and he had all these gifts. I'm like, yeah, you're like the best guests. Like you're flying in for the boys. You're coming with gifts. Very rarely do guests come and they bring gifts. Yeah. Us giving out stuff. But yeah, I was like really running over here, take my little afternoon twosie, and you were like pulling up, and he had like, what, multiple helmets in your hand, a bunch of stuff. I was like, oh man, he's bringing some cool stuff. I didn't think it was going to be for us. Yeah, I brought these koozie. The helmets weren't. The helmets weren't, but I got these dope koozie. You said your dad made these? So I remade my dad's koozie from 1981, and back in 81, that was a koozie, like the foam boat float in the water kind of thing. Yeah, so I had a company remake those for me because I just love the nostalgia and all things Earnhardt from back in the day. And I brought you some more modern, the Bud 8 koozies that we had made. It is badass, man. Just some gifts, some drink, some fun. Yeah. I wonder when, because we were talking before this started, Jack McPherson had a nice little tweet about the 2004 Bud Light can. Like, when are we going to bring these back? We need to talk to Bud Light about what does Bustin' with the Boys have to do. to bring back a vintage can yeah yeah but just in general like i feel like the 80s and 90s that vintage type of style needs to make a comeback in some way we might be the podcast and you might be the individual as well to help us get that done yeah i think it's i mean it's recognizable all those all the logos they kind of change and evolve over time some people come in and put a new modern take on yeah on the on bud light or something like that but it is kind of cool those cans become collectors you know bud light always does this annually where they'll um Where I live, they do Panthers cans, Carolina Panthers cans. So it's all black with the Panthers and all that stuff. And they did that for Washington one year. I still got like a case of Washington cans, right, that I'll never drink. And so it's kind of cool, all the things that they do. But it would be cool to throw back the Bud label. Bring the frogs back. Bring the OGs back. I feel like if you did a callback on a couple of those commercials, people would just stand and applaud in their living room. So pause it and be like, let's just get a round of applause for that. So back when I was working with Bud Hardcore was 2000 all the way up until 2008. And I was at the National Sales Convention every year where they would unveil the commercials before anyone else got to see them. And Bud and Bud Light specifically had the best Super Bowl commercials. You know, you mentioned the frogs and the lizards, the was-ah guys. I mean, every year we would go to these National Sales Conventions. There would be probably 50 celebrities. Everybody they were working with was there, singers, bull riders, actors. And we all sat in the same spot. There would be 5,000 people in this room, like bottlers and retailers and all their people, all the Bud people, for all of their brands. And we all sat down and were like, can't wait to the commercial part, right? We were going to watch all the commercials, and they were great because they were really funny as shit. Some of the best commercials. Remember the Bud Bowl? the football bottles out there playing during the Super Bowl. They had the Bud Bowl. As a kid, that was cool as shit. I wasn't even holding up to drink beer. There was one they did for the Super Bowl that was a bunch of horses playing football. And then one of the Cowboys out there was like, that ref's an ass. I believe it's a zebra. What a commercial. I'm a teenager watching the Bud Bowl and I'm watching the Super Bowl and I'm like, I can't wait until the fucking Bud Bowl comes back. I want to see if Bud Light wins. You're like legit bought in. The damn thing, it's just a gimmick, right? Yeah. So when you first start, when you get into NASCAR for the first time, everyone always has their presenting sponsor. Yours was Budweiser. Was that like pretty clear, tight, easy to get done? Yeah. Or were other people trying to get you before? Oh, I don't know. I wasn't involved. I was so young, and my dad was doing the wheeling and dealing in the background. And the Bud deal that we did at that time in 2000 was $10 million a year. It was the biggest deal that anybody had. They were coming from Hendrick Motorsports, where they had been for quite a while. And so that was pretty unique. Because Hendrick Motorsports, as I would drive for them down the road, they're a well-respected company. And so to kind of pull a brand like Bud from them, and Bud was taking a chance on me to be good. And so it was really cool. I remember August Bush rides into our shop with the Clydesdales and the dog on top of the bud, you know, the big wagon and the stagecoach, whatever that thing was. And they roll into our shop and he comes down, hops down. August Bush, the guy that owns the company, shaking my hand. And, man, I remember going to the brewery or the business downtown in St. Louis and walking through there and just being amazed to be connected to such an iconic brand back then. Did you ever get to influence like a decision with them sponsoring you? Well. Anything creatively? No, not really. The car? No, no, no, no. So. Hey, bring the vintage cans back. No, the one thing, so they were funny because there's some healthy competition between Bud Light and Budweiser and all their other brands. Like they compete inside the business and kind of like teammates, racing teammates competing in each other, but it's healthy, right? Raising everybody up. And you don't want to get beat by your teammate. You want to be the best teammate, right? And so there's a little healthy competition inside the business with Bud Light and Budweiser. And so I went to them one time. I didn't know about that. I went to them one time. I said, you know what would be cool? I was like, what if I drove a Bud Light car one race? I always drive a Bud car every week. What if I did a Bud Light car? I think that'd be cool. And they're like, hell no. You're never running a Bud Light car. Shut it down immediately. Yeah. They were like, no. That does sound crazy. I think of it as just like Bud Head. They're all together, right? Yeah. We met with them in New Orleans during the Super Bowl. I think I said something about Bud Weiser and Bud Light to one of the guys, and they kind of looked at me like, we're not going to do that. And the other thing that I learned from them that was really – I've hung on to this. I don't know right or wrong. I thought this was, hey, they're successful, so I'm going to believe in this idea, is they rarely wanted to change the car, the way the car looked. They love the continuity and that you could look out in the field from the grandstands and immediately see that car. And it looked the same all the time. And they they love that continuity, the car being the same. Whereas today, you know, there's there's different sponsors, different. You know, your favorite drivers driving a different looking car every week. And it's tough to sort of follow along. And and there's no there's no equity built up in a in a look, in a look of a car. right uh but man when i drove budweiser like you can show fans this car and they they're like right away that that triggers their nostalgia and they're like oh man that was my car um because i ran that car and it looked like that for five six seven years and we never changed it they just um we would bring them all kinds of ideas and we did some one-off stuff with baseball and other people here you know they had an all-star car and they did they they did some music stuff with different brands but for the most part like they didn't want to change the look of the car too much i adhered like i i kind of like believe in that idea of building equity and continuity and in a in a brand and the way it looks like i don't mind modernizing the logo but it's got to have it's got to still look like the original yeah right yeah just like you're saying like if a casual thing goes and watches a nascar race and they're able to point out a vehicle that they've seen before. That's like, I feel like they're more a part of it. I know. They feel like they know a little bit more about the race now and everything, but if you're changing colors, like when we were at your shop, it seemed like you guys had a different paint scheme for everything. The way, modern NASCAR today, everybody runs a different looking car because you need so many partners, so many sponsors. You can't have one sponsor that can fund the entire season, so we have to run a different sponsor almost every other week. But like, if you look back in the history, everybody remembers the Black 3 car. Dad had the same sponsor for many years. Jeff Gordon in the Rainbow 24. You remember those cars because they were in that same car every week, every year for multiple years, and they built equity and value in that. They still lean into that today. So we do, too. Like I ran this car, this little late-mile stock car. I ran it at a place called Florida, South Carolina last November. And, man, we unveiled the idea that we were going to do this, and people went and ate shit and just bought right into it, right? And all the people started, you know, everybody on social media sharing stories about their experiences and watching, you know, the cup version of that car back in the 2000s run and where they watched it race. And it was really a great experience. Dude, that is awesome. Yeah. Did you ever have, like, in your racing days where you might have finished, like, 12th or middle of the pack and it felt like a big win? Oh, yeah. So there's this one race I always talk about. So it's always great to celebrate the wins, obviously, but I'm sure you all had games where maybe the overall outcome wasn't what you were looking for, but you had those moments, right? Maybe it was a sack or an interception or something like that. Or you just had a great game that nobody's going to remember but you. there was a race at Martinsville, North Carolina or Martinsville, Virginia probably 2004 2005 we start to race big crash in turn one I'm in it and tear the right front off of my car and the damage the back of the car, there it is right there on the screen, so by the time we got the car kind of repaired and able to get back on the track that's what it looked like I'm out there getting race it's like five laps into the race it's a 500 lap race at this tiny little bull ring and i get back out there and i'm like god dang this is going to be a long day i'm my car's wrecked it's not going to be competitive i'm gonna be in the freaking way all day this is gonna suck we get to running and running along there nothing's really happening but as the run as the laps start clicking off start passing a few cars start going by a few more guys my car's feeling good guys are getting worse and i'm just starting both i drive through the field all the way up into the top 10. I'm like, shit, we're good. This is going to be, this car is great. And got, yeah, I drive up into the top 10. I spin myself out right here underneath the 12 car, have to go right to the back of the field again, drive right back to the front. Ended up finishing like fifth, fourth or fifth in the race. I'm in the, I'm in the photo as we're coming off turn four, battling for the win. I'm there, I'm there. Right. And you know, I just always, I got a, Somebody made me a custom die cast of that car. It's like the size of this thing that I have in my collection. I got a little modest collection of custom shit. And so somebody made me one of those. And I'm like, this is like my favorite race I didn't win because of all the shit that went wrong and how bad it should have been. But we just didn't stop trying. And the car actually was badass. So the fact that the fender's missing, it kept the right front tire cool and allowed the tire to really outperform everyone else who had a tire that had a big fender on it that was in there getting cooked by the brakes and the engine and everything else. And so the fact that my car's out in the wind actually was an advantage over the long course of the day. And that's why the car, I think, actually ended up being really more competitive than it should have been. There's obviously rules and regulations of how a car's supposed to be set up and all that. but do you ever think, I wonder if there's a tear away. It's kind of like the pants. We talk about it. I joke. Maybe just hit the wall real quick. All right, baby boys, that happens. That's a good business. With the pads, you take out certain parts of your story pads. Michael Bennett used to do that. He used to do that last little pad. There is an advantage if you lose the tailpiece of the car. NASCAR won't let you run that. NASCAR makes you come down pit road and reinstall the tail if the whole tail comes off, so the back bumper. If that back bumper being on there creates a lot of drag underneath it, air comes from under the car and gets into the back bumper. So if that were to come off, that's kind of an advantage in some scenarios. And so NASCAR makes you reinstall that. But after this happened, I joked with my teams for the rest of my career, like, hey, when we go back to Martinsville, you know, if the front fender falls off, it's okay. Like, don't, you know, if there's a reason why. You're in that Tom Brady nudge. Like, hey, the footballs are actually better when they're deflated. They're not telling you what to do, but if we could have a little less time on there, I wouldn't be mad. Why is Dale driving into the wall? There's a process. He's acting a little weird, huh? So when you went back there, you were kind of hoping. No, I just knew. And there was a picture of a guy named Harry Gantt, and he won that race in 1981 at Martinsville, and he had damage on the right front, the right front tires exposed. He won that race again in 1991 with the right front fender completely gone. Same guy. And then probably a handful of years ago, I think Martin Triggs Jr. or somebody else ran really well with a lot of damage in the right front tire, the left front, right front tire, I think, exposed. And so, I mean, it's kind of common knowledge now, but you can't build a car to where the shit would just fall off for you. Yeah. It would catch you. Yeah, it would be tough to do that. When you have success the way you do there, like, I don't know about you, but like in the football world, like a lot of guys are superstitious. Some guys lay their stuff out. They listen to certain music and stuff like that. Did you have like a game day ritual that you would hit every single week? Or you just woke up pissed excellence and got out of it? My superstitions were all the general, traditional, common knowledge superstitions, like walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, the number 13. In racing, people used to say the color green, that was like a widely hard adhered to superstition. The color green was bad luck. Now, that didn't make any sense to me because there were green race cars. Money is green. There was moments where green didn't seem to bother my luck, right? And so I didn't really buy into that. Peanuts, for some reason, peanuts around a race car, there's people that are old heads kind of believe peanuts is bad. Okay. Just having peanuts around. Yeah, don't eat too much around my car. Get away from my car. Does it matter if they're sheltered or unsheltered? No. These are pistachios. Yeah. All he's going to do is let them go. But that's a bit of an older wise tale. But, man, I was one that kind of believed in, like, the traditional stuff. And, like, yeah. What's the weirdest superstition you've ever seen from a different driver? I think the ones you hear about, I don't even say they're even hard to believe, is like race car drivers wearing the same pair of underwear every race. Like they got a specific pair of underwear that they had to wear that day. Yeah. Or, yeah, I don't, I've heard some kind of strange stuff like that, but nothing too crazy, to be honest with you. I didn't, I didn't, I, I was more worried about like, don't eat anything that's going to fuck your stomach up, you know, or like. Have you ever gotten the bubbles, like a bubbly, like bubbly gut, bubble gut? Yeah. Like races? Yeah. Bubble guts? Yes. You got a bubbly head, a boob light. You got a pant, a boob light. Hold those cheeks tied in there, huh? Yeah, that's so tough. So you had it when you're out there racing? Have you shit yourself? No, I never shit my pants. Have you ever shit yourself? Oh, yeah. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yes. So on the hot days. You got bubble guts, bro. There's no, I mean, you can hold it in, but it's going to, you have a slight release, like, let me try to get some air out. But you're like, there's no room for air here. I think for the normal population of people, you're very aggressive for getting the air out of your butt. Like, you'll take a chance that most people, I remember being in the airport with you and being like, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick. I just shit myself. You know, I feel like you kind of don't possess the quality of thinking like, oh, poop might come out here. There's an art to getting the gas around the poop. Yeah. And getting that out. I agree. But when you've got bubbleguts, it's kind of going to know. Well, no, no, no. So, like, the shit's coming. You're going to shit, right? But if you can get the air around the shit that buys you a little time. Yeah, you just, yeah. That takes the pressure down. The shit's going down. You've got to get some weight off to slow the shit from second. That fires you about ten minutes. You're coming out and wrapping around the turd, almost kind of pushes it back up a little bit. It just takes the pressure down. That's basic science, is what you guys are talking about right now. That's hydraulics. Yeah. You didn't put anything back. I was pretty good at just making... I could fart. If I needed shit, I could probably... I can relieve the pressure without shitting my pants. And so I never shit my pants. Okay. But with bubble guts. I'm never able to hold it in. Yeah. I mean, the problem is, is though, do you, I mean, this is funny. We're talking about this, but do you not, does I, my problem was, is that when the, you know, whatever the moment is, right. Whether you're in a race or you're driving home and you're like, holy shit, I got to get to the fucking toilet. It's coming. Your body knows when you're near that toilet. Isn't that crazy? Cause like you, you're like, all right, I made it into the driveway. I'm going to be fine. And then as soon as you get near the front door, it's like, fuck no, we got to go now. Got to sprint. It's like the time is now. Yeah. And you fortunately just get your pants down right in time, like, as you just start going into the toilet. There's now a couple of those situations where you're literally flying by the seat of your pants, where you're, like, unbuckling and kind of, like, doing this hit maneuver to jump onto that toilet just in time. You're hitting the toilet at the same time things are coming out. Yeah. That's a wild deal. Your body knows. It's like, hey, man, you're not fooling me. You're near a toilet. Yeah. You're happening. I got to go. But pissing yourself, that's status quo. So this is the thing with pissing yourself. Can I? Yeah. I want you to explain this, but then I also want to know probably on a percentage on a race, how many of those guys have wet pants? To be clear, we're not shitting ourselves regularly. Yeah. However. We do pee on ourselves sometimes. This happened to me probably a half a dozen times in my career. So the inside of a race car is a good day, 120 degrees, 125, 130, and on a bad day, 150 degrees, super hot. So when you know beforehand, like on a Thursday or Friday, you're like, it's Sunday race day. It's going to be 95 degrees. It's going to be so miserable inside the car. And so you start thinking about that, and you start hydrating, right? You're trying to do a little extra hydrating. You get up in the morning. You're drinking water and everything. And there's a lot of things that are happening right before you get into the car, a driver's intro and a couple other things, handshaking and gripping and grinning photos that are roadblocks to pissing. Like you can't get to the John. And so you don't get to use the bathroom and make sure you're good to go before you get in the car. So you hop in the car, you buckle up, start your engines, you're in, you're committed, right? You're going to drive this thing off pit road and start this race. Then you're like, shit, I got to pee. And I got a three and a half hour drive in this car. I got to piss. You can't focus if you're holding a pee. You can't. Like, you know, you're miserable. Cossie comes out. You're like, shit, you're, you know. Sometimes when you're driving in the race, green flag, there's enough focus that it can take your mind off of it. But, you know, caution comes out. You're like, fucking, I'm just going to piss. And so. It's kind of hard to piss yourself. You over hit it. You're trying to, like, relieve yourself. It's like doing it in front of somebody. You know what I mean? You have to be fully relaxed. Yeah, yeah. The minute you try to flex. Like, I'm lame, man. Like, hitting a turn, you got to strain a little bit. Like, it closes the back up on you. You have to do it under caution. I don't think I've ever been able to piss driving in green flag conditions because you're focusing so much and thinking about driving the car, you know. But the times that it's happened, you just can't get – you're not going to get to the finish. You're not going to – you're going to piss yourself. It's going to happen. You've got to accept the situation you're in. It's not a big deal because you're sweating your ass off. It's miserable in there anyways. It's already gross. Yeah. and so when you go the only problem is so you get done and I always had white suits right and so I'm like so I'm thinking like I got this white suit I'm like I'm shit's going to be obvious right when I get out people are going to look at me and go damn so I can piss at himself that's going to be obvious like water boy sheets over there hanging on the side and so what I would do is I would say if I had pissed myself I figured it out I got I'd say hey bring me an orange Gatorade when I get done here when I pull up when i'm done i pull up onto the pit road and i'm gonna get out like bring me an orange gatorade and i would pour that orange gatorade all over to like blend it in so you couldn't see yeah that's some dehydrated piss yeah well it's change it changes the color of your clothes yeah and so i get i'm just you know i don't want people to go that look dude got him and so so i would kind of blend it in and then i would get out of the car and um then you have to tell the interior guy there's a guy that's responsible for the interior of the car that's his job he works on that part of the car all week long and he's got to clean up the interior and then he's got to get it ready for the next race and so he's he's that's his role and he's your buddy because he knows everything about what's going on inside that car with you and he knows everything you touch and you and him talk all the time about let's move this knob i can't reach it or let's put this over here that'll be more comfortable and hey man i need to change my seat it just don't feel All right. And so you and him are close, good buddies, texting pals. Right. And you got to tell him, hey, man, I pissed the fucking seat. You know, you're going to Monday morning. I'm sorry. You're going to take this seat out. I'm sorry. You know what? I mean, you feel bad. You kind of want to go and and help him get this seat out. Sometimes that's not possible. Yeah. He has to pull the there's an insert. The seat has a foam insert that's that's made perfectly for you. So he just has to pull that out and then, you know, steam it down or hose it or pressure wash it or whatever. Hang it up. Yeah. But that's tough telling a guy, look, you got to put up with this shit. Yeah. Have you ever puked yourself? Never. While driving? No. No puking. Like you just got the helmet on and you're just like, oh, I'm not feeling right. And you start puking down there. So there's some guys. You're actually pretty badass. Yeah. I know some guys that have done that. And I can't imagine being so miserable that you've got a full-face helmet on, right? And you may be comprised. I mean, when you've got a puke, a lot of these guys are puking during the race while they're battling, right? Running in eighth place. And all of a sudden, I had this one guy that was driving my car. And he's racing along. And we're having a good day. He's running like seventh or eighth. And it's coming down to the end. And he just kind of goes high and loses a couple spots. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? He was throwing up. He just got sick, and he's like, pushes his helmet up just a little bit, and he's like, throwing up all over himself. And it was like shredded chicken. Whatever he ate, he'd ate something that just was bad news. And it just was everywhere. When he pulls in after the race, it's just everywhere. It's one of those things, you know, when your kid throws up, it just goes everywhere. Yeah. And you're like, ah, you know, you're the one that has to clean it up. You're looking in there, and you're like, God dang, man, that's just, it's everywhere. You don't touch anything because it's all over the place. But so that luckily never happened to me because I was specifically like my morning meal. I usually wasn't a breakfast guy. So my meal before race was bread and and and like ham and mustard. And like this is basic. I wasn't going to ham sandwich. You ain't going to grill me a piece of chicken. Separate. Bread is bread. And then I'll have the mustard on the side. I'm not going to be like a grilled chicken. I'm not going to risk, you know, eating something that was not cooked properly. Even though it was like highly unlikely you were going to have a problem, I just wouldn't risk it. So I eat something very basic and just get the foundation in there and then go to work. It's like rookies being super nervous about their first NASCAR race. Yeah. You're kind of getting in. The elements are kind of getting to you. You just start to get a little dizzy. You're like, yo, I got to puke. Yeah. The guys are like guys puke before games. I know guys that Noah Gregson drove for us, and he's in the Cup Series now. He had a situation or an issue where I think he was holding his breath a lot at the end of these races. And so if you know how, like, if you guys maybe, like, went a little bit too hard in a sprint or something, and you get done, and you, like, your body, like, sort of has this sort of moment where it's like, you fucking overdid it, you know, and you get a little sick maybe. he would hold his breath I think late in these races and he would win a race, get out and you get the other thing too, I wonder if this has happened to y'all guys in football but there's Noah, he's a wild one so go ahead and zoom in on him real quick this guy's got a he's a wild man he's got an attitude about him he's like a modern day Tim Richmond he's like Paul Swan with his hip down he's great In a sport that succeeds on personality, he brings a ton. So he would get out of the car, and I think he held his breath a little bit in the last few laps after trying to win these races. And then he would get out and expel all of this energy over being excited. And then it would hit him, and he would just bend over and throw up right on the front straightaway, holding the checkered flag. He's like, yeah, look, there he is. That's after winning a truck race at Martinsville. He's throwing up on the track. How do you get to where you're holding your breath at the end of the race? You're just so focused, so you're just not breathing? Yeah, I think that you – because when you go into the corner, you sort of – when you go into a turn, you, like, flex every muscle in your body. Like, you just – you're pushing against the seat. You're pushing against the steering wheel. Like, if the steering wheel was made of aluminum, man, you would just probably twist that thing right off the steering shaft. And so like every time you go in the corner, your legs are going against the leg braces and you're just every muscle is just flexed all the way. And you you you know how like guys if you ever go up and with the with the Blue Angels or any of those guys, they have those grunting practices when they get into the G's. Yeah, you do that, too. Not because of the same reason they do. But you just you go in the corner, just trying this car. and so like you don't breathe for a minute like for a brief 15 seconds right then you might breathe down a straightaway then this corner comes again and you hold your breath and i think that he was probably doing that to an excess and then he gets out wins race gets out and goes yeah you know it just goes expels all of this excitement and then and then he goes you know he just gets sick I mean I wonder like if say take yourself to like you know a moment in a game where you're playing hard you're using all of your energy right you're pushing yourself almost to that limit you know where that limit is where you can ride all day and you're right there and then you have a great play that you expelled a little more to get that play to happen right and you're like I went a little hard there. And then you maybe celebrate, you know, and there's this sort of your body sort of says, fucking calm down, man. You know, you're about to throw up. Yeah. Or have you ever had that happen? I've never had it, but I know guys do throw up. Like, I mean, when you're exerting all that energy. Yeah. Even with workouts, guys would be puking after like GPP or something when you're doing like work capacities. Yeah. I never, I only threw up. I don't remember ever throwing up in a game. I know what you're talking about, though. of the exertion of energy. For me, it always came like long drives, and you think you score. And then you're getting hyped with the boys, you're celebrating, and then there's a flag, or they actually call it back, and you have to do another play, and you're like, okay. Because your body has a sense of being like, okay, it's over. I'm expelled. You can rest right now, because you know you have a break coming up. That's perfect. And it's like, oh, no, no, no, you've got to go one or two more plays. That's perfect. But I've never ran into a situation where I threw up. We played a game in London, and I think it was 2016 against the Chargers, and my left guard got hurt and then Corey Levin, shout out the boy who just actually re-signed, he didn't think he was playing. So he's having pints in London with the boys. He's enjoying London a little bit. And I remember like right when he got in the game, we had like an 8, 9, 10 play drive and we're in the middle of the field and we're in the huddle kind of waiting. I think it was like a TV timeout or an injury timeout or something like that. And he just starts puking. I'm just starting rubbing his back. Hey, you're going to be all right. You're going to be okay. But there's nothing worse than, I can't imagine the feeling of being in the middle of a game than throwing up. I'm not a puker. I can't. I have one situation. I can get shit hammered drunk. I feel like I want to throw up and I know that I will feel better if I do. I had a stomach bug last week and I'm laying on the couch like, God, if I could just throw up. But I ain't got it. I'm not like that. I can't do it. We had some bad oysters in New Orleans. And it was like I'm laying in bed and I'm thinking the same thought you are on the couch. I get, man, I just got to throw up. And I'll just sit there and gag myself until I throw up. I don't think I can. See, even trying that, I've tried to do that back in the day. I just can't. It's got to come out the other end. Yeah. I mean, you go. So you've never puked? Not many times. Like, I did get real. So I got one time, and I remember the last time I threw up. Puking rally, Dale. Yeah, I remember the last time I puked drunk. That was a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. The drinking always gets me. We do beer Olympics. I do. I can hold myself for a while. I can't do shots. But once I know the game's over, I'm done up. I'll go on a trip with some buddies, and I'll tell them in a text message before we leave. I'm like, don't even fucking talk about shots. I drink beer all day. I know my thing. I got a damn plan, right? I know my pace. Yeah. Especially when you get up there when you're getting older. The pace matters. Don't throw a shot into the middle of the day or 8 o'clock at night after we've been going for 8 hours. Don't be throwing a shot in there because that ruins it. When you've been going for 8 hours, I am a villainous friend to have when you're out. Because I'll start to get a little cooked up. And then when I put the on switch on, I want to go. But I don't want to go alone. It's not fun to go alone. You want to bring your boys with you. So I'm definitely the guy that's always buying shots. I'll buy like, hey, let me get 20 of them. And I'll just start dishing them out. I'll go to Will, did you take it? I know Will is big on, like, I got you, buddy. And then one, two, three. Where he'll, like, sit in the corner. So I've got to stay on. Stay on, Will. I'm watching. I'm watching. Yeah. I can see. Somebody's getting a freaking shot. They're getting shots, fuck. I'll chug my beer so I can spit the shot in the beer. That's my plan. I'd rather chug a full beer than to take that shot. But usually, like, there's a couple sips left in the beer. I'm like, I'll see it coming. I'll be like, all right, I'm ready to take this shot. Put it in your mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The whole, the drinking thing. Eight hours into boozing with the boys, though, and shots get brought up, it kind of, it always sounds like a good idea. Yeah. But it always sounds like a good idea. I mean, if your job just really knows that you're not really in the mindset of saying no anymore. Yeah. Real maturity is realizing like around 11 p.m., you stop drinking. Yeah. Like, you're like, let me try to, that's when your brain starts to be like, hey, there is a tomorrow. Yeah. If you're lucky enough, there's going to be a tomorrow. Yeah. That's when it becomes tough, man. You were talking about all this stuff that happens before the race. So I won't speak for Will, but for me, the most anxiety I would have before a game would be jogging out. They're doing announcements. Hey, how we doing? Everyone's kind of dapping up. Guys are in the corner praying. Then all of a sudden the national anthem happens. And when that national anthem happens, it's like my heart rate is probably higher than it will be the entire day. I'm just thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong, what these plays are, these specific ones. So my anxiety is so high. What's it like for you when it's like you're doing the announcements and then you have to go shake the hands, kiss the babies? Like I can't imagine being social before a competition. Is that a very difficult thing for you? Very difficult, yeah. Yeah. Our sport prides itself on being really accessible. So we did it because it was like we're roasting on our sport, right, and our industry, how people can come up and shake our hand or say hey to us right before climbing in the car. but it was hard mentally to like really listen to a conversation if somebody somebody wanted to take a story like hey man we met oh that's how it always is i'm like yeah i can't really tune in right now i'm gonna sit here wrinkle my forehead nod yes i really don't you hate when people too are like hey you do you remember me yeah like all we've met before you're just thinking bro what do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you I'm Ben Higgins and if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul a place for real conversation each episode I sit down with people from all walks of life celebrities thinkers and everyday folk and we go deeper than the polished story we talk about what drives us what shapes us what gives us hope we get honest about the big stuff identity when you don't recognize yourself to be more, loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer no doubt, no question, of his life and that's the unicorn no one had ever seen anything like that it was unbelievable this is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets listen to the Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level that the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Lettie on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been as fascinated, and Black America is at a breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The Aid Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm about to jump in this car right now to go race. You want me to recall, remember the time that we met? People got to have a little awareness. Like if you're about to go jump in a car and do 500 miles. Anything happening like in that two hours before the race, before you're climbing in that car, feels like just a big obstacle. And you cannot wait to get in the car because you can't be reached. You're in there and no one's coming in there with you. And you finally get some – and you're sitting on your ass, right? So you're like relaxed and you're in your seat. It's custom made for you. Everything feels good and comfortable. And sometimes on the hot. I don't know if you guys ever did this thinking about the hot days that we had. I would get a water bottle, multiple water bottles, a hole in the end of it, and I would soak my entire suit before I got in the car. And so my thought process was my body sweats to cool me down. if I'm already wet, I'm already kind of beating it to the punch, and it's still going to sweat, I'm still going to burn, you know, lose some water. But I'm like, you don't have to rush to do that job or get that started in the first hour of the race, right? And so if I soak the suit, now it's not poor, it's just wet. The whole fucking thing's wet like you put it in a bucket and wrung it out. Man, I'd get in a car, and I'm pretty comfortable, even on like a 95-degree day, and as soon as I get moving, any kind of air moving, it's like cool. and like some guys like to take the water bottle and just squirt it all over the house before a game I feel like when you first start sweating too like if you get in the sauna and the first five minutes when your body begins to sweat you have like an irritation almost like you're like kind of itchy and then finally you get into a good sweat and you feel good so I like that move so the point you sit in the car is when you feel like relaxed because for us it's the first hit like we get the first play done yeah you get your first play of the way and then you feel me really good. Let me put my hands on somebody real quick. How are we really feeling today? That's when we know what kind of day it's going to be. Yeah. Because you get the first couple plays in, and it's like you might maybe mess up on the first three plays of the game. Yeah. That's a different mental warfare right there. Yeah. How long? Do you remember games where you were, like, struggling to find yourself to fall into that, like, comfortable space? Not like a full game? Yes. Yeah, I mean, I guess for an alignment, it feels a little bit different because I feel like you're kind of in sync on doing the same thing. Like if you're blocking well, you're blocking well. But between like if you have a bad run play or a pass play on defense, it wouldn't really be something that it just like consumes you, like goes into your play the rest of the day, but it's more so like it's that play that's just sitting in your head the entire time you go back to the sidelines. So you might make a play. You're not even really caring that you made a play. Yeah. Because you're just thinking about what you messed up for. Yeah, for me. How a coach is going to coach you when you get in the film room and everything else. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I wish there was a way to combat that because I feel like it goes through every player's mind. It's like, what are the coaches going to say about this on Monday? And you're in the first quarter of the game. And you're like, oh, I can't wait to get past that point. You don't need to worry about that. Yeah, for offensive line, it's very like, there's a lot of precision that goes into it, especially with pass blocking. So for me, it was like feeling out the speed of the individual. I'd watch them on film like, okay, this person's faster. They're a little slower, but they're more power. It was really just like feeling them and understanding, like, hey, what does my tempo have to be against this person all day? And that first couple of pass plays, whether it was in the first drive, luckily, hopefully, you don't go three and out. But if you have a good 6-7 play drive in the first series and you're able to kind of put your hands on them and feel it, that's when you feel a whole lot better. The tough is that first third down. Like the first thing you brought up, I remember we were playing the Saints. This had to be like 20-21 or early, like 20-20 or 19, and we played the first series and I overset a guy, big guy from University of Texas, El Paso. But I overset him and that was the first third down of the game and you just get in your head and you're like, and we got off the field after that and you have to think like, okay, what did I go, what went wrong there? How do I have to fix this? Do I need to be sure? Should I get out a little bit more? And then you start second guessing all of these things you're doing from a technique standpoint that was always like just a mental game that was going on while playing. I didn't think about that. Like, that's crazy Because, like, when I'm watching a game and there's a three and out, especially the first drive, you're thinking about the confidence of the quarterback. Yeah, damn, is this an omen for the rest of the day? Can we stop the other team from putting points on the board, getting behind? You don't even think about, like, the other individuals on the field and how they're, you know, because I can't see the details and go, damn, O'Lyman's feeling pretty shitty about that, right, because he did this or that and the other. you don't even think about those guys walking off the field and how that affects their confidence. Yeah, it's interesting. We talk about football all the time, obviously, with football podcasts, but like 11 guys in the field have to do their job, especially with the offensive line. It is such a mental game that goes along with the physicality of it, especially in pass pro, because that's how you get paid. The less sacks you give up, the more money you make. And so those are like run block for show, pass block for dough. And if you can get in there and really just feel confident early in the game, it makes everything so much easier. And you just know, too, just being a competitor and being an athlete with the NASCAR, like if you take a turn wrong, it's more about like you having the goldfish memory of thinking, all right, this is correctable. I got reached on this run play. I was in a bad position. I took a bad first step. Like you just got to correct the process and you were like, you know, your preparation to be in a better position. But if you end up letting that stuff consume you, like, oh, I'm taking these turns wrong. or, oh, I'm just not playing well today. And then it just kind of consumes your entire being. And then you have to be able to start stacking and stacking and stacking. Yeah, you have to be able to put those, like, plays behind you if you're going to get out of whatever that said run is because usually it's just like a technique thing. But when you're talking about, like, you don't think about the offensive lineman, like, when I watch NASCAR, being a casual thing, I know how to drive a car. I can drive stick. But I'm not thinking about the technique that you guys are going through. I'm just thinking, like, hey, they're breaking pretty hard in that turn, it seems like. But, like, what are, like, the small pieces of the game that you would, like, kind of focus, like, what were, like, kind of your mental hurdles you had to go through? So, yeah, in the conversation we were having, the car is a really big part of the success or failure that you're going to have that day. and so your guys it's your body and it's your preparation and all your you go out there and if you're talented and and you pray prepared and you know your opponent you go out there and it's you right but in as a driver you kind of a lot of times are at the mercy of the ability of the car and if it can do it or not and you'll go and start those you'll start the race and run like a handful of corners and you're you're judging the car you're going is this damn thing any good Is it going to be better? Is it better than that guy? I'm catching him. I'm caught in there. Yeah, okay. I'm doing this right. It's doing that right. And or it's sucking and you're out of control and you don't have the grip and you're losing positions and guys are on your ass and breathing down your neck. And your confidence in the car determines whether you spiral down or continue to do well. And so in the very first handful of laps a driver is really just judging this car and critiquing the car And okay if it not great we going to have a chance to fix it on the first pit stop Pull down pit road tell the crew chief everything you can to give him all the information you can so he can make the best choice to fix the car, improve the car. He gets a chance to improve it. You go back out there, all right, did he fix this son of a bitch? We're going to get the ring flag and continue the race. Either it's improved and you're happy. hey great job man you fucking fixed my problem i'm better or he didn't fix it at all it didn't it didn't make a damn bit of difference and now you're like doubting the ability of your team and yourself to even make the day better and sometimes it doesn't get better sometimes you just have a car that doesn't do what you want it to do and you got to drive the son of a gun for three and half hours and it sucks but some days you start with a bad car make it better and you have a great day and you're proud of that you're proud of your guys and you're and some days you start to race and shit's badass and it's awesome all day. But you're always reliant on this car to do things. And you can be the best race car driver, smartest guy, know everything you need to know. And if your car sucks, you can't overcome that. You can't wheel that car into being what it can't do. Yeah. With your drivers, have you ever been with the crew on race day? Like you went from driver to the stuff that you do. Obviously, you do media stuff. But have you ever taken the chance to put yourself in as a coach, like Coach Earnhardt? A little bit. Not a ton. But we ran the Daytona 500 this past February for the first time as a team. So my team that I've owned as an owner runs in basically kind of what I'd call the college level. And we have four full-time teams, and they race on Saturday before the big boys on Sunday. and so that's what we've been doing this february this past february we entered a car in the daytona 500 which is the biggest race of the year for the for for nascar and uh i was uh i had a i had a lot of fun because i was way more plugged in way more vocal i was on the radio during the races talking to the driver and i worked on the car a little bit in the garage and like it was just i was able to be more I was able to be more hands-on and I don't necessarily coach coach the drivers all that much it's hard I was talking to one of my drivers this morning about a race coming up this weekend and I'm sitting there and I'm like trying to explain some things that are unique about this particular racetrack and you're just wondering you know like how much of it they're picking up because they're young and I remember being young and damn you could tell me all kinds of awesome freaking information but i might not be like processing it and taking it in i just got to go out there and experience it right and see the wrong and the right and and and adjust and fix and you know just learn by doing but um so i try to coach but a lot of times man they just look at you with this bewilderment and they're like young and like yeah i know what you mean and you're like I'm not sure you know what I mean. And we'll see. But, you know, my dad, you know, tried to help me a little bit with some advice in driving. And it was really good. And so, I mean, I try to talk to my drivers sometimes. But a lot of times they just got to go out there and see it and do it. Is there ever a time where a driver comes in and you got to get hard on them? Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, there were some, there's definitely times when they're, they're just not, you know, they're, they're, they're making, they're doing things that are detrimental to their success. They're getting frustrated and, and, and arguing or fighting with other drivers or doing things on the racetrack with the car physically with other drivers that this, that you're hurting yourself, you know, and you're, you're, you need to have your focus on trying to win this race today. and I know you're pissed at this guy and you want to get his ass back, you know, but you can do that, but it's going to keep you from trying to win the race. Yeah. And so there's some times when they, or, you know, maybe they're not putting in the week-to-week work, the work, studying, prepping, taking, you know, physical care of themselves or things like that. Sometimes you might get on a driver about his focus, like week-to-week focus, because they got to, it's competitive, man. the everybody that matters toward this guy's career every everybody that matters toward a young driver's career is paying attention to the things he's doing and it's the details and and is he studying is he working out is is he got himself in great shape is he all fucking around drinking beer with his boys all night long every you know during the week um do we know where he is right on a Monday night, on a Tuesday night. And so the people that matter are paying attention, and that's what I try to tell them. Everybody's watching, right? Everything you do. So do the right shit. In your mind, what does a week routine look like? You're like, okay, that's a good routine to have. You race on Sunday. Yeah, they race Saturday or Sunday, but they're going to be in the sim, which is basically, we don't have practice. We don't have a lot of practice where you actually go to the racetrack and take the car out and run it around. So we have simulators, big, giant, multimillion-dollar simulators that you climb into and you drive in a virtual world. And the manufacturers, Chevrolet, Toyota Ford, they've spent millions of dollars on these simulators. And getting a couple hours in one is very valuable. And any time you get an opportunity to do that, you do it. And you've got to volunteer to be in that simulator, right, to be able to work on your craft. You can work on the setup of the car, new ideas, run and practice different lines and stuff like that in the simulator, and it transfers over into the real world. So on Monday morning, I think you either need to be working out. There's a group of drivers that work out together. All of the Chevrolet guys work out together. They have a Chevrolet program where there's this coach. His name is Josh Wise, and he coaches all of the Chevy drivers on. They do reaction time games and shit where the light on the wall, and they're doing. Oh, yeah. Those are awesome. Right? They're doing all of that shit. And they'll go jump in the lake and swim across the channel and do ridiculous things. And he never tells them what they're going to do. You just show up. And you might go ride a 20-mile, 40-mile bike ride. Just be ready. And so that's Mondays. That's every morning, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning. And when you're not working out or doing those things with Josh, they need to be in the simulator. They need to be meeting with their crew. They got to meet with the crew chief, go over last week's race, what went right, what went wrong, what did we learn. Are you watching film? Yeah. Then they'll watch film of last year's race. They'll watch the whole race. They'll say, okay, here's eight guys that tried eight different strategies, and this one worked really well. We may do that. So, you know, get the driver's mind kind of prepared on what kind of strategies might pop up during the race so he knows what you're asking him to do when you're telling him to come down pit road and get tires and fuel. And so that's several hours on a Tuesday or Wednesday. There's tons of meetings. And, yeah, I mean, those are the most important things. And drivers need to be there in person. I know they can Zoom in and they can kind of half-ass it a little bit. And I know there's places they've got to be, too, for sponsors. There's requirements for them to be out and doing things. You all know what I'm talking about there. but being present and being in person and um filling out you we give them no you know we the teams give them a note a big sheet or one sheet or to fill out after the race like fill that shit out be be be precise be descriptive we're going to lean on that note next time we go back to this racetrack in six months so give us everything you can give us right and so those guys sometimes i remember being half-ass about some of that shit like filling the notes out going i was annoyed But the car didn't fucking turn. That's what I wrote down, right? Yeah. And I need to tell them, like, why didn't it turn? What did it feel like? What did I think the problem was with the car specifically, the details of the car's mechanics? And try to give them some route to a way to solve that problem, right, instead of just being frustrated and mad about it. Now, do you get – do you kind of come unglued or get the parent voice going on with some of these guys? Like, you have a very calm demeanor. No, I don't – no, I don't get too mad. I want to. So sometimes... I mean, that's the perfect Dale explanation ever. Like, stays calm in every situation. However... Oh, no. There's been a couple times now. He's been through his head, I want to. Well, I... And you know, he's thinking about one guy right now. There's a couple times... There's a couple. Well, no, there's a couple times when things didn't go well in the race. And, I mean, you know, you could go into the room with... When they're meeting the teams and the drivers and the crew chiefs, You could go in that room and you could slam your hand, you know, fist down on the table and, you know, what the hell are y'all doing? Why did y'all do it that way? Don't ever let that happen again. They don't, people don't, people don't absorb that, right? They don't go and fix it. They go, damn, we got her ass to you today, you know, or damn, Dale was mad. And you've got to go in there and say, hey, why did that go that way? What are we going to do about that? How are we going to fix it next time? I know we all got a plan, right? Y'all got a plan, right, to fix that? Do you ever listen to the driver? You all got a plan, right? Yeah. Are you ever listening to the driver knowing that you've had your experience on the road and you're listening to a driver and you understand the team, like what they're doing for the car and everything else to where a driver comes out and they might be complaining about the car. or they're saying something in a way to where it's like, hey, bro, you're full of shit right now. You just need to figure it out, you know, X, Y, and Z when you're out there on the road. You're trying to blame too many other things. I think the one thing that happens, and I know this because I did this, is a lot of times the driver has one line of communication, and that's the crew and the team and the crew chief, right? And so when you're mad at the driver, you have only one line of communication. Like anything you say, right? This car's a piece of shit. I'm fucking doing all I can out here. I'm busting my ass, y'all. This thing drives like shit. All of that information is going directly to the people that actually put that car together, that actually are there to help you. And the ones that will fix it if it gets fixed, right? And so a driver gets, we get confused because we're in that car. We're hot. We feel like we're on an island. I used to say I felt like a castaway out there. Like I'm all by myself, man. Y'all don't have an idea what's going on. I'm all out there by myself fighting this damn thing. Y'all don't know what it's like. Yeah. And I'm like, this car is a piece of shit, biggest piece of shit I ever drove. That is the worst thing to say. These guys are the ones that built it. They brought it to the track. It's their car. Yeah. You know, you can't call a car a piece of shit to the people that brought the car and fixed it and readied it for you. And so, and you can't sit there and rant and cuss about, I'm busting my ass. you know they know already that you're busting your ass they're watching it you don't have to tell them you don't have to come you know and i did this i did this like i can and so i'll hear a driver today he get they get they they need you to know like they're giving it all they got man they you're they're suffering they're they're hemorrhaging confidence uh you know and they're getting insecure the car's not good they're hemorrhaging all of these things and they need you to know they're they're fighting and their heart work they're trying they're trying to make this car that you you built work and they but we have a terrible delivery and we end up really saying things that are detrimental to that relationship between a driver crew and crew chief and so sometimes i will have to say or or i remember something i did and i'll hear another drivers say it and i'll go hey you got to remember these guys are here to help they're the ones that are going to fix it they're the ones that you've got it you've got to talk to them in a way that they want to fix your problem and if you piss them off or you talk to them in a negative way and not you know not a supportive way you come down pit road they're gonna be like fuck that guy you know and so when you're you're coming to get help and service and get your car adjusted they're gonna be like screw this kid you know he's just a punk yeah and so you know i learned that the hard way a few times and um i thought you know oh i know these guys well enough to tell them their car's a piece of shit but it's never a good idea right because they were somebody that pulled you aside to be like hey man yeah how'd you learn that lesson was it your old tony jr my cousin tony jr my my uncle tony senior i worked for them on the bud car back in the 2000s and they told me they said hey, you called the car a piece of shit. Don't do that. All the guys that build that car and work on that car are listening to you. Not only the guys that are in the pits and at the racetrack that day, also all the guys that are sitting at home. The guy that painted that car is sitting at his house on the couch watching you run, hoping you win, and it's going to paint your car next week. He's the one that heard you call that car a piece of shit. All the mechanics that are not travelers that are sitting at home with their family, all of that information, they might not hear it in the moment through the airwaves or through TV, but they're going to get that information. They're in no use of that. Word travels quick. Yeah, and so, you know, you just don't want to get this reputation within your own team of somebody who just kind of comes unhinged in the toughest moments and is combative or abrasive, right, in those moments. But it's hard, man. You feel like you're out there by yourself, and you feel like that nobody knows how hard this is but you. and you feel like you are feeling a sense that you're letting your team down but your reaction and your words are guys I'm doing every fucking thing I can with this thing it won't do anything right and what they hear is the car sucks I'm fucking I'm not the problem and you're thinking too the audience is watching the race or seeing me not perform as well it's just me they're blaming they're not seeing that it would be a car issue casual fans are thinking about everything that goes in the week before they're thinking about this driver that car The car's got to be perfect This is the top of the line Dale's really down this year We're not getting it done There's what they call Radioactive And that Every driver has Multiple YouTube clips Of themselves that fans have put together Of all of their worst moments Beautiful There's some good radioactives Like hey this one's funny This is 8 minutes of Dale Jr. being funny On the radio during a race And then there's like, you know, here's five minutes of him being a complete asshole to his team, you know. Yeah. And there's, you know, our driver's just completely coming on hand, just screaming curse words into the middle distance over the airway. You know, you got to mash that button because if nobody hears it, you don't get the relief. Yeah. So there's a no-talk button you have in the car? You got a button that you mash to talk to the team. Okay. And, like, you could be in there mad in hell and you could scream. It don't feel good. You got to mash that button so somebody hears you. you know and that's the worst thing right so when you smash that button that's the same thing that the fans can make you buy the headphones right yeah so people if you're talking shit so all these youtube videos and you consciously went and be like people someone needs to hear this right now yeah i gotta get this off i gotta get it doesn't feel good just standing in the abyss i need someone to have i need to hurt somebody's feelings today over this situation And then the TV sometimes takes it and puts it on the actual broadcast, you know, and then now it's there. It's common knowledge. And then you get up Monday morning, you're like, damn, I shouldn't have said all that. That day, the next day, after you make a couple of actions you wish you didn't. I said, there's one. I'm sorry, Steve. I haven't listened to a damn word you said the last one. there was one there's one clip on there where i um i'm driving around and i had had a couple loose wheels and the wheel fell off um a wheel i'm they didn't get the wheel tight and the wheel come off the car and wrecked hard as shit at atlanta and um that we're we're at another track and i got a loose wheel and i was so mad i was like y'all like the loose wheel the wheel comes off at full speed. You just fly into the wall and it's nasty. It's a hard wreck. I come over the radio and I was like, if this fucking wheel comes off, I'm hitting every one of y'all in the hand with a hammer. What a crazy show. I was like, I don't know how to make y'all understand. This is not fun for me to be out here wondering if this wheel is going to come off or not. I'm going to fly into the fence out of control. Is that an inexcusable mistake though? It happens. It happens rarely, but I was like, y'all, you can't leave my wheels loose. You can't. And that was my only way to like, I thought that was a great analogy. Like, I'll hit y'all with a hammer. And I see that clip on YouTube, and I'm like, God, that's stupid. Why did I say that? That was so rude. It's a crazy shot. Unnecessary. It's a crazy shot to say, I'm going to hit your hands with a hammer. Yeah. I bet the guy. I mean, imagine the guy standing there. even though I know that they're my guys, right? We're a team. And I know they're probably standing there going, well, fucking asshole, right? Yeah. Are you going to hit me with a hammer? Yeah. Is there, like, with the wheel being loose, is there, like, in football, there's, like, basic one-on-one shit that the coach will get up and be like, LaJuan, like, this is basic one-on-one football. You can't be doing this. Is there something, like, in the pit crew standpoint, they're like, you, this is something so basic that you should not be messing up, that they deserve an ass trip for that. I don't know. Got to fill with gas. Yeah. What are we doing? I don't know. I mean, there's everything and everything that I can think of is like, it's a human error. It's a possibility at any moment. Very forgiving individual. Yeah. I mean, some guys are like zero tolerance. But, I mean, I've lived it long enough to know that to have zero tolerance is an expectation is not realistic. Yeah. When you were. Theirs is. Yeah, that's the line. If the wheel comes off and I hit the fence real hard, I get to whack every damn one of you with a hammer. Yeah. God, that is hilarious. Yeah. Is there a specific individual that comes to mind from, like, your generation of racing that, like, was just a known hothead with his pit crew? Well, I mean, there's some guys that were pretty – Kurt Busch has some good radio actors on YouTube. Kyle. Harvick was pretty vocal about his team. Like, he demanded – He was one of the guys that would publicly say, hey, our pit crew has to improve. And he would talk on the radio that would end up on the broadcast about his team needing to be better on pit road. I wanted to say all those things. I have felt those things and wanted to say all the things that they said. But I didn't want it to get into the broadcast. I didn't want it to be fodder for the media. Yeah, that layer. Right, and so there was times I slipped up, but for the most part, I don't have too much radioactive bullshitter out there. That's funny, dude. Yeah. If you could change any rule in NASCAR, what would it be? Shit. Just any rule. I mean, I wish we could figure out a new package for the Daytona Talladega racetracks. I would probably work on the rules that affect how the cars race at those two places. Daytona and Talladega. So we go to the Daytona 500 and the cars the way the race is the way you watch the races you guys might not pick up on it but some of the details of how the cars race and why they do some of the things they do are kind of it's not as great as it used to be or it could be better than what it is today and I think and I don't know the answer the specific technical thing that needs to change but I would love to be in the process of how we can make the cars do different than they do there how they race together but um i'll be honest man racing right now the race i'm no bullshit like i'm i'm i'm a critic of the sport i i hold them accountable when i believe i know what's right yeah but things are really good right now things are really really good i did not think that's the direction you're gonna go yeah i gotta be honest i was we ran daytona and i was there, right? We had a car in the race. I was really frustrated with the way the cars raced and the way the product, on track product. I was frustrated with it. A casual fan would have watched the race and not seen the things that I saw that bothered me. So there's that. But I saw things that I'm like, I wish they would fix this shit. Everything from that moment on all the races that we've ran have been fantastic, spectacular. And we have this sort of very informal poll that goes up on Twitter after every race by a guy named Jeff Gluck, who's a journalist in our sport, very respected. It's the good race poll. And it's a yes or no. Was it a good race? And there'll be thousands and thousands of people that vote on this poll every week. And it's very informal, just for fun. But we've been doing this poll for years, and so like a really, really good day is a high 80. That's like a really great, that's like everybody's fucking happy with that, right? everybody like this and so our races have all been trending in the really really good high 80s and 90s and you know there's rarely a race where people are just like hey if that's fucked you know 50 50 50 yes no um and i know that's very rudimentary but i you know hey it's it's a it's a small glimpse into the public opinion of something i know it's you know on x it's not the entire world on x but it's a it's a it's an idea of what people yes you might think it out man these are the few things that i would change i wonder if other people are catching it too you go and just be like hey was this a good race you see like 85 percent you're like hey i loved it that's i know so the the racing's the racing has been highly complimented and so when that's going sometimes you got to go hey maybe i don't fucking know what is best all the time right if fans are loving what they saw Sunday, maybe, you know, I'm, maybe I am, I am a traditionalist. I am nostalgic. I am like one of those people that go, Oh, those are the best, you know, the eighties and nineties. So, so awesome. Um, and you can't, you'll, you'll, you can't never put the tooth. What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins. And if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folk, and we go deeper in the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff, identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore, loss that changes you, purpose when success isn't enough, peace when your mind won't slow down, faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. 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Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to the A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's back in the tube kind of thing. And so sometimes I have to kind of check myself with my nostalgia and my hanging on to the history of the sport so tightly and go, look, it's more modern. It's different than I remember it. But people today, the fans that are tuning in, love it. Yeah. They love it. And so I'm bullish on the sport and think it's heading in a really good direction. I feel like more men than not are guilty of that, though, like finding the nostalgic peace of being. It used to be great then. You can go in any genre, any category of anything, and someone's going to have an opinion about back then it was better because of X, Y, and Z. You bought it a couple times. Targeting. Bring it back. Bring it back. The old kickoff rule. Yeah. That needs to be changed immediately. You know? Yeah. But anyway, you talked about you for the first time, your team had a car in the Daytona 500. First off, there was a round of applause. That is amazing. And we kind of did just rush over that. That is huge. That was awesome, yeah. So congrats on that. Thank you. Like, what is the process of being like, okay, we feel good enough to put a car in the biggest race of the year at all in NASCAR? So Traveler Whiskey was a brand that came to us. And so I got to shout out Traveler Whiskey. Shout out High Rock Vodka. All right, take it easy, Dale. Shout out Nutrient Seltzers. Yeah. So, they came to us and they were like, hey, they came to another program at Hendrick Motorsports. And they were like, hey, we kind of want to do the Daytona 500. Hendrick's like, hey, we don't have any room. We're full inventory. And so, but my buddy Rick Hendrick, he's like, I know my friend Dale Jr. wants to enter the Daytona 500. It's a dream of mine to enter a car as an owner in that race once. Just to go. I wanted to go to the track and do all of the things as an owner. and push a car out on the grid and go, there's my car, and there it goes, end of the race. And so they hooked us up with Traveler, and we took Traveler to Daytona. And it was really emotional. We weren't locked in, so there's cars that have franchises or charters, and they are locked into the race. They know going down there, hauling their car to the track that they're in. There's a handful of cars in this instance this year. There were eight or nine of us that weren't guaranteed a spot. We were going to have to earn it by either qualifying really well or running well in what's called the duel, which is on the duel is two races. And if we do well in the duel, we lock ourselves into the race. So in the duel, we're running. We didn't qualify well, so we couldn't lock ourselves in that way. So now we got the duel to run and we're trying to. OK, we're going to go out here. We got to beat a couple of guys. What's your stress level? Very high. It doesn't go well. I was embarrassed. Chris, so in qualifying, all of the industry is on pit road. All the engineers, crew chiefs, everyone that matters and everyone that knows anything about the sport is standing on pit road. All the cars are lined up going out qualifying one at a time, and you're with your car. And you're pushing your car as it's getting closer and closer to the front of the line. And right, you know, you get down to the end, and you push your car off. It cranks the motor, pulls away, and he's going to go run his lap. and you stand there and you watch him run his lap. And there's a couple of big giant jumbotrons and you're watching a little bit on the jumbotron. And he comes by and you look at the lap and you're like, that ain't fast enough. And now you've got to walk through that entire group of people that all know that you didn't make the race yet, right? And it's embarrassing. You know, you've got the equipment that you think is good enough and something y'all didn't do right didn't help the car run the lap time. And so it's a bit tough kind of walking back through that whole mob of people toward your garage like we failed. And so – Yeah, like we weren't good enough. Yeah. Like everybody looks at us like, man, damn juniors. It's just – Great driver. Yeah, great driver. Who knows, man? It might be similar to going into the tunnel at an opposing stadium after a loss, right, with the fans going, get out of here, assholes, you know, Philly. Or just like say you're a middle schooler or high schooler and you're going to see if you made the team or not and all your boys are standing there and you're like, hey, is my name on there? And it's like, you should check it out. Maybe I didn't see it. You turn around. What a feeling. Yeah. It's a tough time. Kind of similar. Yeah. You've had that happen? No. Okay. I was just saying. I was in life. Empathize. You just did a movie scene to me. I was like, that's crazy if it's happened. But you know how, like, before you even go up to look, it's like, man, what if I don't make it? Like, I'm going to feel so stupid. You just kind of have an idea of probably what it feels like. Yeah. It just seems. Okay. If you weren't good at sports, what would it be like if I sucked at sports? That's probably a bad feeling. We ended up qualifying in the duel. We ended up racing our way in the duel. So basically, we're in one of the duels. There's two. They split the field in half. So we're in a duel. There's about 20-some cars in that race. We only have to beat like two guys. There's two guys that we just got to finish ahead of. And we are in the race, and they're out. and so coming this duel's like 50 laps and we're coming to two laps to go and we're not in, we're behind those guys and the field's a big blob all tight together within one second, they're just all together, running around the racetrack two and three wide and I'm like, Justin's our driver I'm like, damn it Justin, you gotta figure this out, I don't even know what he's gonna do I don't know what he could do Are you saying this to him? Are you saying this to him? No. Yeah, I thought you hit the button. No. Yeah. But he just figured it out. Like in the last lap, he just figured it out, got the run and diced around. And when we crossed the finish line, we're ahead of the guys that we needed to beat. And so that was when it was like, you know, that was the moment where if you talked, you were going to have a hard time not crying. You ever been in those moments? Oh, yeah. I'm not going to cry as long as I don't have to talk. Yeah. You know, once I start talking about this, it's going to get hard not to cry. Right. And so I get we're doing some media and I'm like, I know I got about 10 words before my voice was going to crack. So I was trying to say something like we're in the race. Yes. And before I started like losing it. Yeah. But it's just that emotional. And I've lived this. I've lived this sport my whole life. This was a dream of mine. And we had finally. This is like on a Friday, I believe. And so that night we're like, we get to race on Sunday. We don't have to go home. It was either, you know, the way that race turned out was like we're loading our shit up and we're going home or we're going to race on Sunday. And so it was a big relief. The next couple of days, man, we're in there looking at our car, sitting in the garage and we're massaging on it and fixing it and tweaking it and messing with it. I'm hands on. I'm working and piddling with the car. And we just went all proud and getting it right. And then, yeah, we pushed it out there for the race on Sunday. Went through the whole pre-race ceremony and just the pride of being out there and then getting on the pit box and watching your car pull off pit road. And you're like, we're doing it. Moments here. Was that a win right there? Yeah. It didn't matter. No, it didn't matter. I appreciate it. It's a goal I've always wanted. I told my driver. It sounds like you didn't win. Ninth. Yeah. I told my. No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's nice. Yeah. I told my driver, Justin, I said, I said, Hey, you know, I, this is the way I am with Justin. I'm like, all right, man, look, I don't, let's not worry about, let's not worry about like, Hey, top 10, top 15. That'd be a great day. Let's not even have that conversation. I was like, let's cross the finish line when the checkered's waving. I don't care where we're at. I want, if we, I just want to sit here and watch the race and my car be out there. and we won't have a we won't have like a high hopes or a or a darn you know we'll just say hey man if we cross the finish line when the checkered flag waves if our car has finished the race and we've ran all the laps we're blessed and so it's coming down to the last couple of we're making it through all the problems we had a couple of dust ups and gotten a few scrapes but we're our car we're patching it up it's still pretty good and it comes down to the last lap and there's a big wreck on the back straightaway and he missed the big wreck and we're standing there like all right where we're he's coming around like where are we gonna be and he crossed the finish line and you look at the score monitor and his name goes boop ninth place and you're like shit top 10 that's awesome you know yeah not only did we come here and like get in the race uh but we ran ninth out Out of the 50 that tried to run it, that came here, we're ninth. Like, we're a brand-new one-race team. We're, like, one race old. We're, like, brand-new. Yeah, every time your team has been in the Daytona 500, you guys have been top ten. Yeah. How many of the programs can say that? What do you think when Dale's giving the little speech to Justin, you think Justin's probably, like, Justin's probably trying not to piss himself. That was like, he's full of water. He's an older driver like myself. But me and him both get nervous easy. And so I can tell, like, I need to talk this guy down a little bit. He's nervous as shit. He was so nervous. And he told me. Okay, yeah, yeah. He told me. And he told me, he's like, dude, I was terrified in this moment. In this moment, I ain't never been that nervous in my life. And we've raced for championships. We won championships in the Xfinity Series last year. And we've raced together for over a decade. He drove for our team at Junior Motorsports for a long time, won a lot of races. And I'm like, he's like, dude, I was so nervous, so much pressure, so much responsibility being the driver of your car for the Daytona 5Runner for the first time. He was like, it was awful. And so I knew that, like in that moment, I was like, hey, no, let's not even worry about where we're going to run. Let's not even set a goal or an expectation and worry about being pleased or upset. Let's just say, hey, cross the finish line, checkered flag. Let's feel good about that. And that's it. I don't want anything else. I wanted him to know, like, I don't want anything else. You go out there. You have your own expectations. That's you. But you don't worry about me. Don't feel like everybody here in the pits is going, Hi, fucker. Hi, come on, Justin. When are you going to pull the trigger? Let go. You know? Hey, that's a hell of a speech. That's a great speech. I just wanted to let him off the hook. That's a fire speech. Yeah. Now, Justin, he's been racing with you for so long. Has he ever raced in the Daytona 500? Before, a long time ago. A long time ago. Okay. I mean, that's got to be, what a feeling, man. And for him, I mean, I've ever received, I've pictured that speech as him, and he's already in the car in my head. Not yet. No, I'm just telling you where my head's at. Moments ago. It's like they're about to start the race, and before he tails off, you're giving him this, like, one for the life. It was literally right before he climbed in. And I was like, just don't worry. You just go out there and do you, man. I'm not, I have zero expectation, but I do want you to finish. So don't, like, don't get wrecked. Don't get wrecked early. Don't wreck out. Right. And there was that one last little part of the race where there was a big, big pilot. Big crash, and he weaved through. Really? Yeah. Other than that, it was pretty smooth? Yeah, it was a couple dust-ups. A couple dust-ups. A couple close reps. A couple close calls. You mentioned dust-ups a couple times. I kind of want to pry a little bit more. No, there was just some wrecks that happened where you had to kind of knife through, and maybe you got dinged up a little bit on the corner of the car, got beat up a little bit. But it was still in relatively good shape when we finished. The top ten, baby. That's awesome, man. We'll take it. That is cool. That paid good. I bet. Yes. That matters. Now, is this whiskey company sticking on? Well, we only had plans to run that one race. That was it. Have they called sense? They're excited and happy with everything that happened. We'll see what happens. Gosh. It's a dicey thing. So there's some – we had a little damage to fix. But we did. We fixed it. It's a little bit of a dicey thing because me and my wife started the High Rock Vodka, right? And that's ours. We have equity in it. And Traveler came on to – Traveler's like, hey, we want to help you. realize this dream so i had to call my friends at high rock vodka and say hey y'all mind if i do this thing with this whiskey and they're like well it's not really a vodka so it's not competing directly and they're like we don't want to get in your way uh we don't want to get in the way of you realizing this dream this is really how this is only gonna it's only gonna happen because you know the the traveler came in with the with the check that it was going to take it's going to take a lot of money to go to daytona and so they high rock my high rock folks were good yeah to let me do that We can bleep it if you want, but how much does it cost to get into the Daytona 500? To race in the Daytona 500, you're going to need three quarters of a million dollars. Okay. All right. Three quarters of a million dollars. All right. Minimum. You got that math? Yep. We don't have to say that loud. Yeah. Yeah, we can just leave it. You know, bygones be bygones. Yeah. No doubt. having the Earnhardt last name you're obviously involved with a lot of different things off the track, on the track, everything in between what is the first thing you kind of dove into to where it felt like this is mine outside of having, because you carry the legacy of your old man and you have the Earnhardt name, you're Dale Earnhardt Jr. you're the son, what was the first time you realized and felt like a sense of pride, alright this is a thing that I see as like something I've done probably junior motorsports the race team that we have we've ran in the Xfinity series which is again that's the kind of the college level we've ran there for um seems like 18 years a long time we've won 90 races five championships me and my sister run that together and she's hands-on my My sister is, she is a, she's tough, really, really tough businesswoman, savvy. And so, like, in negotiations, she never loses. That's her. And so she's tough. She knows what the value of. Hey, that's badass. Yeah, she knows the value of everything and understands what's realistic and just sharp. And so I'm very fortunate that I got her as a teammate. And so we have ran junior motor sports together. Our dream or our idea, the idea was that me and her would be involved at DEI, which was my dad's race team, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. Our thought was that that would be what we would do all of our lives, right? And so a lot of things happened. Dad passed away, and we ended up leaving the team over the course of the six or seven years. And so that didn't happen. And we started this other team and started it with one race car for three or four employees, very modest. And we've grown it into a really successful deal. We love being at that level where we graduate people up into the top series. Right. So drivers come through our program, crew chiefs, mechanics, engineers, even people in our office, marketing, licensing. they all come and work at our business get educated, get a great experience, get a reputation and then they get a call from a cup team. It sucks to lose great people but it's also like a big reward like we're doing it right. We're doing something right where people are wanting to hire our good people. And so when a driver gets a phone call, they'll call me. I remember one guy called me and he's like I got some tough news. He's like one of the cup teams called me and I got to do it. I was like that's not tough news. That's what we, that's like winning a race. That's, that's a victory for you, for me. That's why we did this. Well, I did this so that you would get this chance, not that you're going to be a career Xfinity racer for me, right? Hopefully, if everything works out, most of our drivers are only there for a year or two and they move on to, you know, to the cup level and race on Sunday. And so that's, that's a fun thing to do. I can look in the cup field today. The field that runs on Sunday, I can look in that field and there's at least a third of the field that raced for me on Saturday. That's bad. At some point in their career. There's mechanics, crew chiefs, tons of people in the industry that have came through our race team to get to the top level. That's badass, man. That's fun. So I'm proud of that. That's mine. So do you ever want to get your race team into the Cup Series? I do. And so to race full-time in the Cup Series, you need a charter, which is basically a franchise. Think about it as like a franchise. There are only three dozen of those. There's an agreement between the teams in NASCAR that there is only a certain amount of charter. So to acquire one, you've got to buy one from somebody. And they're selling for anywhere from $25 million to $40 million. And so you've got to buy the charter. And then you've got to buy the cars. They're $350,000 apiece. You've got to have an engine program. You've got to upscale employees. to race full time in the Cup Series. You might be able to do it on $20 million a year. So it's $100 million to get started, right? To buy a charter or two and then have the funding annually to run at that level. You've got to have a massive commitment from corporate America somewhere to be able to fund the team annually and long term. And so our, yeah, to go from where we are now in our business model is a massive jump and a huge commitment. Scary. Sounds like it. Yeah. I mean, $100 million to get started is wild. Yeah. You've been close. Is anybody like people come out of the woodwork? We've had some really cool conversations. We've had a conversation with one of the largest or most popular sports franchises in the country. so I mean there's interest so the interest that I believe a team like mine or a person like me to be able to get into theirs it's going to have to be it's going to have to be like an investment firm or a current like a current entity that's owning sports teams right yeah I think you have a couple. Yeah. I can see a couple of miles right now. Yeah. And so there's been, there's interest. There's, and the investment firm thing is kind of new, but it's getting, it's gaining some popularity. There's been a lot of, there's been a lot of these sort of groups that have started to invest in race teams. So like certain race teams have taken on investors and sold equity in the ownership of the program. So that's kind of promising for somebody like me. It's like, hey, I've got the, I know how to run a race team. Kelly and I know how to operate this thing and be successful. We know how to do it and not lose money. And we know how to be successful. We have a lot of equity in our name and our reputation. And so I feel like we're very appealing for anybody that's like, hey, I'm brand new to this. I don't know anything about racing, but I think owning a charter is going to be very valuable. So the charters have doubled in value annually. So like if you bought a charter six years ago, you might spend six to twelve million dollars. Now they're worth 40 million dollars, 35, 30 million dollars. I believe charters in 10 years will sell for 80 to 100 million dollars apiece. So, I mean, I think if I was a person that had that kind of money to throw around, buying a charter or investing just in a charter, getting some equity in a charter would be easy. An easy yes, right? Because that is not going to lose value. Think about Dan Snyder bought the Washington Commanders in whatever year, 89 or whatever, for $600, $800 million and sold it for $6 billion. And so NASCAR charters are similar as they are a franchise, a sports franchise. And now they won't ever get into the billions or maybe not even into the, you know, $500 to $700 million range. but they will increase in value from $30 million to $40 million now. I think, realistically, it's $150 million value. I would put that on. I would say I would confidently expect that to be the value of one in 10 years. And so why wouldn't you, if you had that kind of money, invest in it now? Sounds like you need some bus with the boys backing. Bank of bus and go back. High interest rates. Bank of bus and your home investor. Yeah. This is our team. We're talking about some serious shit. That's awesome, man. Congratulations. Yeah. No, it ain't happened yet. Yeah, it hasn't happened yet. Yeah, but congratulations on it happening in the very near future. That'd be nice. Knowing just very surface level stuff about those conversations, I know it seems like it's very hard to just even be in those rooms and have those conversations. Yeah, I mean, we've had some fun conversations with some people that we're interested in, but it's got to be perfect. I'm not a risk taker. With my finances. Yeah. And so like when I had kids I was like all right I got to be a little smarter Like I was going to bounce my last check That was the way I was going to live right Yeah When I was a single dude just raising hell and doing my life i was like i don want to i ain leaving shit behind but then when i had kids i was like now it ain mine no more yeah it all theirs right now i'm spending their money there's a massive curveball for them sitting there getting the will rid out of him yeah by the way he didn't leave anything he left nothing gone your guys's facility is so badass it is like going out there there's people like there's people out front waiting for you to just get done with work. Yeah, you bring up the equity of the name. Yeah. We were there on a Tuesday. Yeah. And there's a bunch of people just waiting out there to catch a glimpse of you. Just tailgating. Yeah. Do you think he's in there right now? Yeah. And we just walked in. You thought we were royalty. I wonder, like, go listen to the boys. You're going on a radio podcast? I'll say this. I'll admit this. Your podcast and your brand is incredible. And do people not know where you are physically right now? Do they not? If they knew where you were, they too, and if they knew when you recorded, if it was a consistent, like, hey, we record every Tuesday, there would people be standing out there. We appreciate that, Dale. I don't know. I mean, there have been some poppins. There's been a couple of people like this. Oh, not up there anymore. We had a Tannehill sign. Like, somebody broke in on one of our old places we were at, broke in and didn't steal anything but left a gift. That's nice. Yeah. And they were wrapped, too, right? The best breaking in. Somebody too was right there. He would go to work. There's another cat. He'd be going to work, and he'd notice that when the door slid up, he'd see the bus inside. He's like, so I know you guys have been here, and I was just waiting to get an off day or something. And we'd just go and just sit and wait. Ran hard on. We showed up and just kind of guessed. Ran when he was the GM for the time. He just sent somebody over here one day. Yeah. He just ran. It's all what's up. I'm like, oh, what's up, man? Hey, I was going. Ran told us we can come by. Yeah. I said, oh, okay. No text or nothing. He just showed up. But it is cool, though. It was cool to witness. Yeah. Just people. I think that was during one of your guys' weekends too. Well, the Wings was in Charlotte. Yeah. Okay. Oh, that matters. Yeah, everybody comes into town. But they know we record on a specific day. Yeah. They know that. Is that each time you record? Every Tuesday, yeah. You got people sitting out there waiting? Yeah. That is awesome. They know you're just in there. But even your studio is awesome. I love the setup, the back. You got the photos, the portraits of drivers. But then there's the window with your dad's car sitting right out there, and you can see all the guys working. It's an awesome setup. Yeah, thanks. It's super clean, too. Really? For having a garage. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the race shop's got to be clean. You want a garage right now. It looks nothing like that. Yeah, mine neither. My house is a mess. But the race shop's got to be honest. You're in the game of collecting things. Has there ever been a car you sold that you regret selling? Hell no. I regret buying cars. That's like crazy. Everything with wheels, as soon as you buy it, it depreciates like half as soon as you drive it off the lot. But I shouldn't say that being in the car business. But, oh, man, I bought a Callaway Corvette. That was kind of a thing back in the day, Callaway Corvettes. I bought one of those, and it was the dumbest thing. I had it for a while and finally sold it for, like, a fraction of what I paid for it. But my buddy had a motorcycle and dropped his motorcycle on the nose of this Callaway Corvette, and the foot peg went straight through the nose. and luckily he owned a body shop to fix it up for me. Just a bad experience. No, I mean I had a Biscayne that I maybe should have hung on to. Kind of a rare car. What's a Biscayne? That's my Callaway that the bike fell on. Oh, that's it? Yes. I was stupid to buy that. I did not need it. And it had this like it had this little weird noise in the in the rear one of the wheels a brake caliper something like a tick that wouldn't go away um that i wasn't smart enough to really fuck with but that in your mind like when i get a green truck noise that green truck it's crazy this is my daily driver that green truck right there and it's the 48 and i did a lot of own i did a lot of my own work on this truck and so it has a it has a modern vortex engine in it it's nothing crazy or special but um like i put them rails and wood rails on the back but in the inside of this truck i think it was kind of during covid i decided to cut the inside and redo it myself and i put some pictures on the internet and stuff of me working on it but i did a lot of woodwork inside and put new inserts on the seats and my two-year-old grabbed a sharpie and ruined the brand new inserts so i had to take to speak back out and redo it. But I did the console in the floorboard is I made it out of sheet metal from one of my Bud cars. So it's like that Bud Weiser, like a half of the Bud Weiser logo in the floorboard of the console. Dude, that's awesome. It's just really kind of a grunge truck, you know, what we call a grunge truck. Is that the Biscayne? You're a daily driver? Yeah, that's the Biscayne. Yeah, I kind of wish I'd have kept the Biscayne. There you go. Kind of cool car. That was like 20 years ago. I sold that. But I don't know, man. I always was weird with my I was I was I did some foolish stuff with money. No, I'm not going to lie. But I also was kind of oddly tight. And my the buddies, my buddies that I race with back in the day always joked with me about being a tight ass. And so like I if I I got like 12 cars. Right. I'm a car guy, so I'm going to have a little collection, right? And I'm okay. That's okay. But I got 12 cars. And if I see something that I liked, and I still do this today, like if I see something, I got to be willing to sell one of my 12 and buy it. Like I won't buy it and add to it. I'll be like, do I want it bad enough that I'll sell one of these? And if I will, I'll sell one of these. All right, man. Cut one from the roster. We had fun. That was good. All right, you're out. A lot of different car owners out there that are willing to give you a try. Yeah. I got an umbrella and everything's got to fit under it. And if it don't, you know, I'm not, I don't want to be, I don't know. I shouldn't, I'm probably overthinking it. But I was just, didn't want to be ridiculous and have like cars everywhere. Because it bugs me to have a car that I don't drive. And that one time I get in it, it battery's dead. Fucking tires shake because they're square because it's been sitting too long. Or their brakes shake or something. It doesn't drive well or right. I'm like, all right. I don't have – I love this car, but I'm not driving it. It's not doing itself any good. I'm selling this. Yeah. I'm getting rid of it. What's been your biggest impulsive buy? Impulsive where you've splurged, too. You're like, that was it. That was dumb. Oh, man. I mean, the Callaway Corvette was stupid. That was another one. That was over $100,000. That was dumb. I feel like being a car guy That green truck That other green That's not square body I want to brag on that son of a bitch Look at that thing Look how bad that is Look at that freaking Look at that damn Plaid fucking insert On that seat That shit's badass I love that truck Square body trucks You can't bring back They're coming back They need to bring them back In a big way Oh they're back They're back Are they? Oh hell yeah You gotta send me the newspaper Because I haven't seen that Well if I Take this bad boy out It It turns some heads Um You know Dale's just driving to see and watching everybody. Yeah. It's always the construction workers too. On the side of the road, they just kind of do this. I don't know that I have like a, I don't know that I have a bad regret on like a big time financial thing. But this is one thing my wife and I talk about is she'll be like, hey, our couch is destroyed. Like we've, you know, kids and dogs and all this couch is just fucked up. Time for a new couch. All right, let's get in. and she'll show me, hey, how about this one? And I'll be like, damn, that's a couple thousand bucks. And she's like, that's what couches cost. And I'm like, that's a lot of money, man. I can't believe couches cost that much. You know, you watch. What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. 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It'll cause so much harm at every single level that the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Lettby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lamuba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been as fascinated. And black America is at a breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protests. It featured two prominent figures in black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. to be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people would die. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should, and it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple will show you stuff, and you're like, there's no way that's like a normal price for that, right? That's way too high. But if a new, so I'm a gamer, and I'm a PC gamer, and so like if the 5090s just came out, and there's like a massive shortage, and so I'm sitting there going, I'm looking at eBay, and I'm like, God dang, they want $5,000 for that 5090 NVIDIA card. my buddy knows a guy at the micro center maybe i can get one from the micro center um nine days they're coming in nine days they might get me one in nine days i'm like like fiending on this like yeah this uh yeah or new monitors you know i gotta get this new monitor man the refresh rate or the you know it's uh it's over it's like 200 and you know whatever megahertz i gotta get that's better than what I got. And that's going to be like $1,000. I got triple screens on my racing rig. Triple screens. So, you know, $1,000 on monitor. And I'll be like, Amy, Amy, I'm thinking about building a new computer. Going to get me a 5090 new CPU, new motherboard, new case. And she's like, how much is that going to cost? I'm like, I don't know. $4,000? $5,000? And she's like, and you want to raise hell about this couch? But you'll just go buy it. I would literally just go buy this and not even tell her, right? But I want to know how much the cows cost. Yeah. So that's how I operate. That sounds like every guy ever. You're telling me the story. I'm thinking of multiple conversations my wife and I have all the time about things. And I'm like, dude. When Charles brings up a couch, I'm just thinking. I feel like, what's wrong with this couch right here? I feel like such an asshole. And we might have talked about this on the show. But, man, when we were booking, we did a planner for our honeymoon. And we went to Hawaii. And when that lady came in, you know, the planner plans this trip, right? We're going to stay in, we're going to be in Hawaii two weeks, and we're going to be at this place, this hotel, and this hotel. Yeah. When that lady came back with the quote, I was like, ain't no way. I was like, what room are we talking about here? There's got to be other rooms. And I go to Amy, and I'm like, why can't we do these rooms? These rooms are way less. We're going to be in the room. We're just going to sleep in the room. She's like, come on. This is your honeymoon. You're doing this once. Literally preaching right now. It was awful. And I look back on it now. I'm like, it really didn't matter. But, man, I was turning my guts looking at the price in those rooms. And I'm like, we don't need this. We can stay in this room. And it's nice. I don't know. That was tough. I always hit it with budget stuff, man. I built my house. I had a budget. I got to pee too. We have a budget. It's like, hey, this is going to be, this is how much money we're going to spend to build this house. So I would go to the people and be like, hey, when we're looking at fixtures, show me what's in the budget. Low end, high end, but it has to stay in the budget. And every meeting I would go to, whether it was like, I don't know, plaster on the walls or something like that, they would show me two things or three things. But then they have one in the corner over here that wasn't on display, but it was right there. And either me or my wife, probably more times not me, would be like, well, what's that one? What is that right there? They're like, well, you don't want to know about that. That one's actually outside the budget. And then there's always this game that you play. It's like, okay, well, if we do that, then we can move a little something over here. It's just how the male mind compartmentalizes how to spend money. At the end of the day, you're doing it the same way. But it's just fighting a way to justify. You've got to justify it. It's a pain in the ass. I remember when, so we have a banquet for our championship at the end of the year. This is back when me and Amy were just gotten pretty serious. And I'm like, all right, man, we're getting ready to go to the banquet. I'm getting whipped out my tux. I wear the same. If it'll fit, I'll wear the same damn tux for 12 years. I don't give a shit. I don't need new tux. I'm wearing this thing once a year. And so, but she's like, I'm going to get a gown. And I'm like, all right, yeah, we're going to get you a gown. We're going to get a gown. I ain't never bought a gown. You know, I don't know gown prices. Yeah. And she comes with this gown price. And I was like, what the hell? What the hell? I mean, it was crazy. I would have never even came close if I had to guess. And, man, I'm on the phone with my sister. I'm like, you believe this? And she's like, that's what gowns cost. I'm like, for real? She's like, yes. I was like, all right. I was like, damn, man. It makes you feel better when you know what it costs. When you first see the price, you're like, what the hell are we doing here? And then she gets the gown. She looks amazing. and I mean again like this was years ago I feel I know I was foolish but she looked amazing and we get back and I'm like it dawned on me I was like so she's like I'm going to put this away and I was like you don't wear it again she goes no never wear it again I was like you don't sell it because she would sell some stuff from time to time she had a little i was like you don't sell a gown i can't sell it she's like hell no i don't need to sell this gown i'm like man i don't understand this at all like you you know you spend all this money you wear it once and then you're going to put it away and keep it and wedding dress gowns gowns ball gowns and stuff like that i was blown away the first time i paid for a gown it was another big giant wake up it was like the couch story where i was i called i I called back up. I was like, hey, I called my sister. I was like, it's down. She's like, yeah, that's reasonable. I was like, horse shit. There's no way. You brought the tux thing about having just like one tux your whole life. And when I was playing, I was 316 pounds. Like we'd always, you know, every Sunday guys would want to get the fits going, something like that. So every couple of years I would go get a couple of suits, but I would always go to my suit guys and be like, hey, when I obviously, like eventually I'm going to have to retire and lose weight, like I'll be able to bring it all in where I can still win. wear these and like oh yeah no problem and now i'm like 60 pounds less than i was before and i've brought these suits to people and they're like there's no way you can't think you can't so i've spent an absurd amount of money on clothes that just sit in my closet i look at them like i could never wear this again i had a bunch of my buddies that were still playing i let me hey come over to the house and i said like this probably closet besides like this suit and that suit like the suit i got married in and then i have like a custom one that has like my daughter's names on it that are like bedazzled or whatever. I was like, yeah, that suit too. I was like, you guys take whatever you want. And they just ransacked the whole thing. It was like Ruse and Raidens came over and did all that. But some of the money you spend just on dumb shit. Like I look back, I'm just like, what was I buying suits for? Who cares? For what, a photo? When I got it. Post on the Instagram. Yeah. When I got it. That is what it's for. That is exactly what it's for. Because you don't even, I don't know how you were, but I never even fully put the suit back on, like even on game day. No. Once you get the photo to get on the plane, you loosen the tie, you untuck it a little bit. Once you get that Graham photo. Oh, my God. Once you get that photo for the Graham. No one talks about suits. You see these people, you go on Pinterest, and you go on Pinterest, and you go on Pinterest, and you start looking at ideas. And you see all these suave gentlemen with the suits perfectly laid out. When I put that shit on, it looks good for 45 seconds. and then it starts like wrinkling up at the top or I get a little sweaty so I move it. It's never tucked in long enough. It's just a pain in the ass. My biggest problem with pants or suits is the calves. Like I can't, it can't, my calves are, I don't know. I have problems with the pant lid being too tight. But we have opposite issues. And so when I. You see these little guys right here? Sorry. You got a little ass. When I got. You got some. Them boys haven't seen the sun in a while. He stays in jeans. He's loose to it. Come on, get him. Oh, shit. Let me get the sun off. Get the lights out on me. Yeah. Yeah, you got nice calves, though. You got nice calves. Me, I've always had these prey legs, man. National Geographic getting chased by lion legs. I get a new suit, get it dry cleaned. Now I can't wear it because it's got a hold of my calf, man. I can't. It's uncomfortable. That's another thing, too. I always have to push it down. Are you jeans all year round, even in the summer? I mean, he has no question for us. I think he is. I'm in pants all the time. But, I mean, as white as I am, you've got to be careful on the color of short you wear because it can make the whiteness even whiter. So you've got to be like a very tan, kind of off-white. You know Dale when he takes his shirt off. His face from the shoulder down, he's got a tan. He's not out there evening things out in the summertime. As a broadcaster, I can't wear jeans, so I wear a lot of Lulu. Lulu Lemon. Yeah. Oh, I've seen that they've had some stuff come in about how their material lowers your T-levels. T-levels. Yeah. T-levels. Testosterone. Testosterone. You know what you should look into is True Classic. Hey, Will, can I ask you a question? Ask me. Dude, what do you love about the True Classic brand? What don't I love about the True Classic brand? That's fair. The first thing that comes to mind is their T-shirts. They fit snug. They fit right. And your boy, I got a little extra going around the, what do they call it, the muffin top? The spare tire. Yeah, the spare tire right above the belt. True Classic, it grabs you perfectly in your chest, grabs you perfectly in your arms to where it gives you a little leeway down by the low tire. So it gives you a perception of, oh, this guy's body compass went down. That is what I love about True Classic. Their jeans are also nice, snug, but you can also have a looser option. And they're very breathable. So you can bend. You can hit low ass-to-grass squats if you wanted to. Absolutely. But those are the things that jump out when you ask me what I love, True Classic. What would you say you love about True Classic? My favorite thing about True, I love what you say about the t-shirts, and I love how there's no branding on it. I think a lot of times people get mixed up with the big, bold letterings on things. If you want to keep it true and you want to keep it classic, the best thing to put on your body, no branding. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. The kiss method. That's what I love about it, dude. I love these jeans. You were talking about AstroGraphs. Like, I wear these babies every single day. I got mobility out the Yazoo. So you can't mess around with these bad boys. And the shirt, you said it perfectly. You take your shirt off, you look yourself in the middle and be like, okay, yeah, I can see where I've let myself go in a couple areas. You put the shirt on, then all of a sudden you're like, maybe I can have that cheeseburger. Maybe I can have those little sneaky treats in the pantry lately at night when I've had a couple of extra vitamins. Because this T-shirt makes everything just look a little bit better, dude. Yeah, it does. Simple. Look good. Feel good. True classic. Back to this episode. All right. True Classic, they have a new material that just came out that is rivals Lululemon. It's got that stretchy but still fits good kind of feel. Their stuff is elite. That's like kind of been the saving grace is the jeans and all the shit that stretches. Yeah. My body changes all year. I'll go up and down 10 pounds all year long. Yeah. Down and down, holidays and shit like that. Once November hits, man. November, that's when you've got to buy the pants one extra size up. I need my shit to be able to work with me. Yeah. Move a little bit. Yeah. He would be incredible with true classic stuff on. Yeah. I mean, that's his style and his flow. There's like no branding on it. It's very clean. Yeah. I like that. I kind of like a boot cut. Like, I don't like a tapered pant. Done. You got that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kind of the look. I'm going to go for the loose. You are. You do seem like a big time boot cut guy. Yeah. I'm boot cut. Boot cut only. Oh, yeah. Boot cut, yeah. I can't wait for a belt. Nice and long. Make you get that baggy cowboy look. Yeah, I ain't going to be no queer. Yeah. You guys got your tight tapered face. He looked at me, looked me up and down the first time. I mean, I'm like, what is this guy up to? He's like, oh, you got to check out these. What do you want? Metrosexuals with their pants on? Like jeans. Yeah. Yeah. You big boot guy, though. You like the boots? No boots. I just like wide. Fair enough. Relax. Yeah. Just in case you fall off a skyscraper, you can parachute down. Something nice. I feel you. Got to stay safe out here. Got to stay safe. We need you guys. We need you guys. It's like when you sit down and your pants come up and you see your ankles. Yes, sir. No, I'm with you, brother. I'm with you. Now, if you've got some good calves, though, and you've got some good ankles. You see my legs. I don't need nobody to see my ankles. You don't need none of that. You don't need anybody seeing them legs. I know. What am I going to do? It's too late. I'm 50 years old. Like getting a tan or any kind of base, I'm past the point. Like when you go to Hawaii, are you wearing pants on the beach? No. Yeah, they make a special swimsuit for him. No, man. Honey, come on. You know Dale walked into his wife's house like a year ago with the pants that you can unzip. Sweetheart, look how nice these are. These are pretty crazy, right? He probably wears pajama pants, too. Probably. Just put on some nice pajama pants. You do strike me as a guy with the buttons, too, like the button pajama shirt. No! Only on Christmas. Yeah. They kind of do that. How elite is the matching family pajamas for Christmas? Really? That is nice. We've got a couple of sets of matching pajamas, but I don't know the brand. Yeah, so the matching pajamas for Christmas. What do you mean pajama pants? What's wrong with pajama pants? So you wear them. Yeah. There ain't nothing wrong with them. We know you do. There's nothing wrong with them. Oh, I don't know, man. I didn't know there was a thing. You showed us the leg. It's like, okay, he doesn't show his legs. Yeah, because legit light bulbs. If I'm not leaving the house, I'm putting sweatpants on or pajama pants. Yeah, big sweatpants guy. I'm saying when I sleep, it's either I'm just in my underwear or I got shorts on. Yeah, I'm an underwear guy. I'm an underwear guy. Yeah. Okay. That's why I thought you were a lot of pajama pants. Oh, I'll sleep in pajama pants. I would have guessed. You can't. I'm still not sewing the button thing. If you get in the bed. What are you pulling up on this computer? If you get in the bed with pajama pants on, they rise up to your knees. You're always pushing them down. I can't do that. No. That is a fight, man, the pajama pants. Should we dive into the most important thing of this episode? Can I please pee? Go pee. Oh, yeah. I might do it. Take a leak. You need to take a leak? Go ahead. Pause. You wait. I'm going to show you all my shit. Yeah. Preparation. That's where, what is it? Where preparation meets opportunity. Dale, I didn't bring this up to you, but I texted him on our flight to Vegas. I'm like, he's journaling. And then you posted on Discord, you were doing your playbook. And I was like, what? Dude, that's awesome. I'm like, hey, we've got to get a game in. And you're like, oh, no, no, I don't play. I would. I would. I just didn't want to make it. I didn't want that to be the dominant thing about this meeting. Brother, I love simulation. Like the fact that you're simulating the game, right? No. Fuck, we play it, man. You play? I play the games. Oh, so when you're winning, you're controlling the user? Yeah. I thought you were saying you don't play. No, I don't. I meant like I didn't, I don't like, I don't, so this is, this is, this is how I do it. I will play in this franchise with them. I'll play them. Are we recording, Mitch? Yeah. Okay. I don't get on there and go, I'm just going to jump in a random game with some Yahoo online. Yeah. I don't do that. It's weird to me. It's weird. I will race on the internet against anybody across the country, you know, 20, 30 dudes. Yeah. But I can't, it's weird to me to play like a one-on-one. What's up? College football? Yeah. 25. This is what you want to talk about this entire podcast. A little bit. So Dale and our junior is the most recent national champion college football coach in his league. Okay. All right. So I don't know if everybody can see this, but this is my gift from Charlotte, the 49ers, UNCC. I am in a 23 person league friends, buddies, people I know some people I don't and I started as a one star with Charlotte and recruited them up to a four and a half star and beat Michigan who's a buddy of mine he's the best man of my wedding, TJ Majors he's Michigan, won three in a row 90s in a row and I beat him in the last national championship and so Unseen at a dynasty. It's a fun. Unseen at a dynasty. Confirm college football sicko. It's fun. And he's a better user. He's better on the stick. So he's, and there are other people in the league that are just a little better on the stick, right? Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. Well, I recruited, worked hard. So I was going to bring you my, sits in my iPad, my own personal iPad, right? So. So, literally halfway through this podcast, I was looking. I was like, why does he have an iPad with him? All right. Well, it's the only way I can really help you understand, like, the work that goes into this. So, I have a spreadsheet on my dynasty. And this is my offense. All right. And so, like, this is your depth chart? Yes, depth chart. Red is seniors, juniors. You know, it's color-coded for players. And these are all my red shirts. and these are scouting. These are guys I'm scouting. This is how many points I've got on them, where I am in the scouting first, first, you know, second in scouting. And so there's defense. All right? Yeah, this is a full. This is a manifesto. This is a Conor Stallions manifesto. Yeah. That is my depth chart, right? And that's how I. You have stuff on the game where you can see the depth chart. Yeah. But you need it on a one screen. I need to be able to take it everywhere. This is what Dale is showing why he's been great his whole life. I need to take it everywhere I go because I'm always thinking about this. And I'm always like, oh, I've got to move that guy. So the outside linebacker speed rusher is broken, right? In the game, they can't improve. So if you've got a speed rusher outside linebacker, you've got to move him for him to really realize his potential. So maybe there's something like that going on, and you're like, I'm going to move into defensive end. So I've got this with me all the time. This is probably the real money. This is all the success. So this is my playbook. So these are all run plays. These are pass plays, RPOs, screens, right? And so these numbers is the average yards per use. So if I've used the plays 100 times or 30 times or how many times I've used the play, this is average yards on that play. And so this is where the play is in the situation. So first down, these are all the run plays in first down. This plays. So this is your call sheet. It's my call sheet. And so I will, and like, you know, there's a, you know, I don't know, 40 run plays. All of these aren't in my playbook. I do a custom playbook. But this is how I customize it. I run all these plays. I play multiple games. And then I'll look at the average yardage that I get for all these plays. I will then rank them in their ability to gain yards. And then I will customize my playbook and to make sure that when I'm, you know, on a first and 10, I've got it suggesting to me. I use suggestions only, which is kind of a no no for most people. Most people don't think suggestions is the way to go. but I use suggestions, but I have my custom book tailored to suggest to me the exact play I need. That's probably got the most, the play that's got the most probability to get the first down. And there's, you know, and then on second and short, second, medium, second, long, all the situations, right? Going for two, goal line pass, whatever. It's going to give me at least, you know, five or 10 of the best, most highly successful plays for that moment. and every six or seven games I go through and look at all my plays and and make sure to update the average yardage per use and because that moves it in that moves the play up and down the list right and maybe there's a new play that I and the other thing I do I got on my on my youtube I've got this long curated playlist of videos I follow about three or four or five content creators around NCAA, and I watch all their videos, and I write down everything that they're learning and all the tricks, the cheese, whatever you want to call it. And so there's all kinds of quirky, broken things about the game and recruiting and player progression and stuff like that. Do you follow Kurt Benkert? Probably not. He's a quarterback for the Packers, but he breaks down College Football 25. Really? I need to follow him in. Yeah, I think you'd like to. I follow these guys that are making content daily and always finding something new and unique and how to make the best coach build and whatever, right? And so I write all this stuff down and have all this information ready to go and make sure I'm doing everything I need to be doing to be successful. And so when I go play my buddy, TJ, who's probably going to beat me one-on-one if we just sat down and both took Alabama, I got to be ready with everything I can bring him, right, to beat him and Michigan. He'll come up to the line of scrimmage. Every damn player's got a star under it. He's recruiting better than anybody else with his pipeline. So, I mean, he's got amazing players, and he's good. Your squad's got the – But I'm doing the work. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing what an entire football staff is doing. Just one individual. That is hilarious. And so you won the National Championship. You don't play. I do play. He does play. He corrected that. I guess that's what he now means is I'm like, hey, if we got a game in. For him, it's like, nah, we ain't. There's no, I don't sit down and play the football game and I pick my favorite team and we play against each other. I won't sit down. He's thinking that iPad goes, like, he plays at his spot and his spot only because he's got everything dialed in. Right. I play this dynasty and nothing else. You don't do away games. I don't sit down and do a one-on-one with some random. Right. Right. I'm not into that. You're going to make it to your league to even have the opportunity. I play my league. I go and play my league games. That's what I play. And there's 23 of us in there. And some of us, I got two teams. I got Stanford, too. And so I just started using Stanford just to kind of kill the time between advances because sometimes our advances are four or five days, so there's a little bit of dead time. I was going to ask, like, what's the cadence with this league? Yeah, every four or five days is an advance. And so he commissions it, and he's like, hey, you can't let everybody know for 24 hours. So before we started the podcast, Will was saying that you don't play, but you actually do. I do play the games. You're on the sticks. Yeah, I play the games. We don't send the games, but I don't play outside of this dynasty. Like, I don't play just pickup games with regular folks. I mean, I think it would be fun, but I don't know why. It's weird to me. It's weird to me to play one-on-one in any kind of console game with a stranger. I don't know why that's weird to me, but I do like being in, like, group activities, like where you play with, like, on my PC games, I play a game called Hell Let Loose, and it's a World War II shooter, so you've got to squad up with six guys, and you've all got to be doing your jobs and shit like that. Put them on, Will. And then you've got to go race. That sounds fire. You've got to play PUBG? I played PUBG back in the day, but I'm on Hell Let Loose now. But on iRacing, right, you race against 20, 30 dudes on iRacing, on my Sim, my Sim rig, I do that any time. I don't mind doing that. But this deal here, and I'll say this, and you guys can probably appreciate this, I mean, I've already appreciated everything that you've laid out for us with that iPad. The detail. You have a full call sheet to tell you what situation is called. Here's a massive respect factor that's taking place right now. What you've done here. That's crazy. It's unnecessary. I know it's unnecessary, but I need to do it because I love the details. I love the data. I love the information. and like when I would when I was working out and trying to stay in shape as a race car driver what I enjoyed doing was road bikes I hated the freaking ride I hated the 40 mile ride I dreaded it what was hanging out there in front of me was all of the data I got from the ride my average watts my you know all of the information that I would get from my um you know my technology and all the all the crap you could put on the bike to tell me how I did compared to my last ride. That's what I rode for. And that's what made me want to ride was to see if I was faster or better. And, and that's, you know, and, and I think too, like as I've retired from racing and I don't have that consuming my brain all the time, like these little hobbies are what keep my mind sharp at like 50 years old. Like I need, like, I need this mental gymnastics that's in this, you know, that's this bullshit that I'm playing with my buddies, right? And I take it way too far, right? But I'm like, hey, you know, that's my chance to win. That's how I'm going to beat TJ is to be like, make sure that I am calling the very best play every single moment I can possibly call for myself. And I know this because I've looked at all these plays and I've ran them and I've listed them and I've got them right here and I've created this very, you know, custom playbook. And so, yeah, it's fun. I tell you what, you need to hit the next level. We need an inspiring song. I don't know what the next level could be. I mean, I think it's already him talking about it. When I was racing, and it was the 40 miles, and I dreaded it. I hated it. It consumed me. But all the technology, all the details, the process, the loving it. And he's like, that's when I get out of College Football 25. He's like, I don't have that anymore. And, you know, when I'm coaching, what's the mascot for Charlotte? The 49ers? The 49ers, yeah. When I'm coaching those boys, the Charlotte 49ers and Samuel, he's elevated his GPA and now he can play and he is eligible this Saturday. That's what I get out of this game. When I got a guy who's on the outside linebacker spot and I know he's reached his maximum potential. So I move him into defensive end and I get to see that spark in his eyes. I'm jumping to the next level. We've had one-on-one conversations. I'm like, no, you belong on the edge. and he's trying to tell me I'm a stand-up backer. And now I need to trust this data that this has given me. I showed him the sheets. He doesn't believe in the sheets, but eventually he did believe in the sheets. And what happened? He's a five-star. Now he's a blue blood. Yeah. And now he's a champion. Yeah. Because he listened, because he took the coaching out, he's a champion. I have it on good. What the hell does Amy think of all this? She hates it. Yeah. Amy hates it. And I've got to know you're Caden. Okay, your games, your weeks are four or five days long, right? But you're clearly, you're every day. I'm every other day probably I'm in the I'm in the war room every other day working on this you know those off days too he's thinking to himself I want to be back in there so bad there's real life work not real life work it's the time home he's like alright we're going to be watching this TV show tonight I gotta stay in bed that was last night we're not doing it tonight watch this show Gotcha. You've got to be there for my family. I've got to get on the simulator real quick. I guess I should work on my cars. I do have a game that I've got to play against App State. App State's my co-pilot. He's with me here in Nashville. He flew to plane. He landed to plane here today. And his name's Alex. And I played Alex a couple seasons ago and beat him really bad. And so I spent the time on the next flight that we were flying somewhere and wrote him an e-book. And I gave him my play book. You wrote him an e-book? I wrote him an e-book, emailed it to him. I'm like, here's everything I do with scouting. Here's everything I do with plays. Wow. Here's Australia's shit. He's a punter stallion for 25. And then I sent him my playbook. I sent him my playbook. He wrote his buddy an e-book. He wrote his buddy a manifesto on how to become a better 25 player. And he's dominant now. And now, like, when I play him, it's like, I know I've got to have my shit together because he's going to call all the same shit I call. and I don't even know how to stop some of the shit I call. Yeah, you'd regret something. You've transcended. I know, man. Like, if I was playing myself, could I even beat this? And it's so funny because the passion oozing from him, he really asked himself that kind of question. He knew how good he was doing. And he's like, have I done it? Have I cracked the code on this game? I've given him everything that I know. And now I'm going to be playing against him. And he's going to be calling the same shit that I call. And I'm wondering, can I even stop myself? And you see the look in his eye like he's got Daytona this weekend. Oh, my God. Oh, that's a great question. Do you have a picture of the war room? Oh, it's just my house. I mean, it's just my game room. Yeah, but is it a picture? No, no, no. You've got to have a cork board somewhere. No, no, no. It's just a room with a couch and a TV. What time? You've got a cork board with some sort of... There's none of that. I can't have... Hey, there can be no physical evidence. Maybe print out the form. There can be no physical evidence in the room. God, you've got to stream this. What time of day does this happen for you? Like, does Amy know when it gets to, all right, kids go down by 7.30? Yeah. She knows. Kids go to bed about 9 o'clock. I mean, I can't imagine you putting down your kids at 7.30, 8 o'clock, or they go to bed at 9. I can't imagine that. Like, the pregame jitter. What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper from the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Faith when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's the unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict? A villain? A nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level that the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lamuba. Listen to the A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. They want you to read the book. They want you to tell the story. and you're thinking, it's week one of the big season. Hey, great point. This brings it all back around. Dale sent me his children's book and I'm reading it to Rue and I'm thinking, this is the longest fucking season book I've ever read. So he ain't reading it. He's always here to his boys. This is a long time. He made this book for his boys and his week that he knows his kids. And now they can't focus. They gotta read this long ass book. So we're gonna read Go Dog Go. Yeah. It's about eight pages. Good night movies. Eight pages? Dude, those are the best ones, too. When you tell your kid, go ahead and pick out a book, and they bring back those real thick ones. Oh, my gosh. But the pages are that thick each. There's only about eight of them. You're like, hell yeah. Okay, well, only one tonight, though, okay? Only one tonight. I meant to do a write-up on Twitter about your children's book, because I remember being in there one time, and you'd be like, oh, sweetheart. She wants to go back and see the cars in the garage. There are some books that you're like, damn, I should take that one out of rotation. Everyone should buy that book there. Hey, anyone out here listening, please buy the book. You see a little one go walk over to the shelf and like, God, why didn't I grab that? That one right there. Yeah. Trip to Victory Lane. My, my. How many pages is that thing? What does that novel look like? My, my six-year-old Isla is the long book person. And my little four-year-old is like the cardboard heart, you know, cardboard. Yeah. Open it up. It's like three words each page. I love it. Hell yeah. My seven-year-old is in Harry Potter right now. Yeah. We're busting out Harry Potter, but it used to be a chapter, a night. And you haven't seen me read on this podcast yet, but it's slower moving than most. And so I go to like the five pages saying, my four-year-old, she's the same way with like the little pop-up books. She wants to put stickers on a page. I'm like, we'll do one page. And I always let her do two because I'm back out of dad. And then we get her out of there. It's no bullshit, man. I be sitting in there in the middle of the book going damn this book And then and then I have to remind myself I like what an asshole you know Yeah I going to miss this Yeah, man. And I'm like, I'm telling myself, I'm like, shut up, self. Just read the book. Just enjoy the book. Get in the book. I think one day you're going to wish you were back in this moment. Then just sitting under your arm. My little four-year-old is smart enough to know I'm half-assing this, right? Yeah. and she's like what's the deal with this guy yeah I was as passionate about this as I am where's the voice inflection yeah yeah yeah you gotta change the voices too for all the characters I really enjoy doing that I don't read enough until you do that I do that because I have to do the audio for our book you know what's messed up you know what's you do in books I love that I get into it you know how they say in books there's the quotes where somebody's talking and it says like Darla said it's like blah blah blah blah, blah, blah, Darla said. That's annoying as hell. Darla says in the beginning, so I know to change the voice inflection for that. Because I started going across these lines. That's right. And I'm like, what voice am I supposed to be doing here? That's Darla. And I feel like I have to go back and read as Darla now. Yeah. And Darla's a made up. Sure, Mom, I'm glad you brought the info on the children's book. I saw the age range was four to eight. I'm like, okay, so Roo's got a couple years. I shouldn't even crack that. Right. If anything, it's inappropriate. Yeah. Yeah. That was your fault. Yeah. Your brother's going to be learning about victory. I'm thinking like, oh, man, super nice of them. Coincidentally, all his buddies in the league, their kids are all between 4 and 8. That's how this all happens. You get freed up around 9? Yes. So you'll play from 9 until? A game's an hour. But you ain't just with Alex. I know. So you've got recruiting every week. You've got to go in there and go, all right, man, I've got a big lead here. I can spare some points and put it on this other guy where he's in second. And now I'm at a 5 1⁄2 star or a 4 1⁄2 star, So I'm going up against some big schools trying to beat Michigan and other people. Michigan got two wide receivers from me already in this round. We're in week four, and they got two mid-90s wide receivers. But I got one guy. So there's just one guy I think I might win. So you'll play until about midnight? Midnight, yeah. I'm looking at the clock. But then, man, you get up, and you're like, I'm going to go sit on the couch and eat some junk food. Sometimes, man, I just can't go down. Well, yeah, you have a big game. You've got a big game. It's hard to come off of those things. Those things coming down, it's hard for him to come down. It's hard for me to come down. You get done playing a big 60 minutes of football right there. Especially when you win. Win really good. Yeah. I get nervous. Eat some food, send your boy a message. How'd that go for you? Did that go the way you wanted? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a little something. I beat, to get to the national championship against Michigan, And I beat Texas State with a last-second field goal. Texas State? So there's somebody else in there that's pretty good at recruiting. Dominic Corelli is his name, and he's pretty tough. And he's got a fast quarterback, and he knows how to use it. Sounds like he's involved with the mafia with that name. Yeah. So I almost didn't even make it to Natty. How many years has this dynasty? I won year 29, 2029. It took you 29 seasons? No, 2029. So four years. Four years. Oh, okay, okay. Sorry. And so you've unseated a Michigan team that's won three national championships in a row? Yeah. He won one with South Carolina. And then somehow or another, he don't do his recruiting or used to not, and his team took a shit. And so you've got to. I've got to work a lot. He's got a job. Yeah. I know, man. My time's limited, man. I can only put this much into it for a short period of time where I have to pull the plug and do something else. We used to have a Madden League back around 2012. He was in that too, and it was full, 36 or however many, 32 full members. Everybody had a team. I was Washington. And I got this fictional running back. I'll never forget his name, Nick Hubbard. Insane. I pulled him off of free agency. He was like a 68 overall, but he had 97 speed, 98 speed, and a lot of strength, and a good trucking ability. And so his overall was so low because his awareness sucked. But if you're usuring the player, it don't fucking matter if they've got bad awareness. So I blew this dude up. He was nasty. And I destroyed the league for three years in a row, won three Super Bowls in a row. Got that kid paid. And then I was like, this is boring. I'm out. I quit. Now, is this... It's so funny. Sherman, did you pull up the game, the Hell or High Water? Hell Let Loose. That's it. Hell Let Loose. Dude, it's fun as hell. Yeah, it's like Call of Duty. It's kind of like Call of Duty. It's really slow. So, it's kind of like Call of Duty, but... It's slower. Yeah. It's slower pace. Yeah. It's like one shot dead. You've got to really kind of... You don't... You know, you're going to die a lot if you move too fast. Yeah. So, you've got to be smart. So, you've got to be methodical. Yeah, I like it. Do you respawn a lot, or do you get one life and that's it? No, you can respawn. Okay. So, Sherm, could you imagine if Dale was gooning with us on PUBG one night? I like the real historical. Oh, PUBG is real? What are you talking about? That's like military, 100 on an island. I like the historical World War II era. So PUBG just had a time. I used to play PUBG on mobile. It would be good. A crap ton. On this thing. I used to play PUBG on iPad because you could take it anywhere. Yeah. And play anywhere. And it was not bad on a mobile. It was pretty good. Yeah. PUBG's a lot of fun. Did you ever play Red Dead Redemption 2? Yeah. Give me your take on that game. Did you play it all the way through? I don't think I finished it. Dude, it's a lot. It is a lot. You got to have the book. Did you get the book to finish it? Because you've got to, I mean, sometimes you'll get in some of the scenarios and you're like, I really don't know what the fuck to do right here. Like the book tells you every little. Yeah, I guess maybe all the side missions. Yeah, I feel like trying to find a treasure map or go skinning animals or something like that. But if you're just playing the storyline. I think I did the first one, Red Dead Redemption. Yeah. And then. That was a good storyline. But I didn't do the second one. I, what I want is, and it may exist, but I don't know. I got into Red Dead Redemption 2 on a PC, and I want to, like, I want to, I want a world that's existing all the time that you can drop into. That's a wild, wild west, and, like, you are, you're a character, and you're always developing that character. I know that you can jump into online play on Red Dead Redemption but it's kind of quirky it's not like a authentic realistic experience you run around shooting people they shoot you whatever but it would be cool if they could figure out a way or if there is a way to have a character that's everlasting like that's your character you drop in, you play this guy, you're this guy you go put your ass to bed next time you log in you get out of bed and you go run around and do some stuff. Does that make anything to you? No, it does. I'm just thinking like, I wonder if there's anything in VR. And then I'm thinking like, VR. Buddy, you might get consumed by this. Yeah, yeah. Dale, of all the people, I would never expect this, but I think Dale, Ready Player One. Have you seen that movie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where he put the thing on and all of a sudden you're in that world and your real world kind of goes to shit. Yes. But this world, you're like, because I'm the same way, I could definitely fall into that trap. You get up, you take your ass to bed and I'm just thinking you played Harvest Moon before? So in this Red Dead fantasy you have it's a western game but you can like build a home buy land so you can essentially live a real world so there's a game called Ark I tried to put Will and the boys on it they weren't really having it but essentially you start out as like a level zero and you're like a caveman you're living in dinosaur times and you're essentially just like trying to survive for your first 50 levels But you can learn to make tools, learn to build structures, learn to start farming things. And eventually you can get so good at ARK that you can have like technological advances where you have like jetpacks. You're flying on things. There's dragons. And that is a world that is everlasting the way you're saying. You can live in that. And people can come to your world and take all your stuff. And you basically have to start all over. Yeah. That's kind of like Day Z. or was it Day Z? We played Day Z for a while. Day Z. Yeah. My whole thing is you build that thing up and you die and you get taken over. It's over. The Asian clan is coming. You start over. Day Z is like the zombie apocalypse. You launch into the world and this thing's been around forever. And it kind of goes through these certain periods of popularity. But you land on this big giant island and you got nothing, right? You've got to eat. Your guy will die if you don't like feeding food. And you steal from people, and you build houses to hide your shit in. It's kind of the same way, but it doesn't really progress beyond the technology. Bare basic technology that you have is what you have. Did you ever play Skyrim? No. That was a great game. That's a fun game. But we need to go back to Red Dead Redemption real quick. You need to go play, too. You need to play it all the way through. you need to play the storyline and fully invest in Arthur Morgan. To me, this is the greatest game ever created. When I got my ACL refixed in 2021, I had eight days. When I played the entire game in eight days, I had nothing else to do. I sobbed. At the end of the game, I had no joke, tears streaming down my face. It's me and my wife, and I cried. And then there was a break in crying, and as I was going to sleep at night, I started to re-cry about the game. That's how... How did your wife take that? She was like, yo, what the fuck? These pain pills are on. It must be way different than anything I've ever taken. I'm already getting a lot of shit about the NCAA football I'm playing. I'm not sure how she might react if I cried over a game. Arthur, no! Just from the other room. That might push her over the edge, man. I'm getting emotional thinking about it now, to be honest with you. I'm getting emotional thinking about Arthur Morgan right now. And I know there's a bunch of tier ones right now saying, oh, you need to double stream. I'm going to double stream. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Oh, bro, you need to... They can't, they shouldn't leave you alone. You said something, you haven't even answered them. I actually have. You need to focus on my Twitter account. You still talk to Billy? You talking to him every day? I don't talk to people every day, but I sent a little PSA. I said, hey, I know I said I was going to do a double stream. I've been made aware of it, and it was right above the tweet you made. Billy, oh, no. I will eventually do a double stream. You're streaming your game? Yeah, we'll stream Tuesdays around 11. What platform? What's that? What platform? I think we're just doing that on YouTube, right? YouTube or Twitch? Yeah, oh, yeah. Not Twitch? No, I don't think we've dove enough into it. We should definitely dive into that a little more. I don't know much about it. Oh, really? Yeah. Because when we were doing it on PUBG, Coop, he does it for a PlayStation. They were talking about Discord. That's what we have in our college football league is a big Discord. That's how we communicate every day. and everybody's in there running their mouth and bullshitting about shit that don't even matter. That's their life. I'm going for a job interview today, guys. We're like, all right. Good luck. Good luck. You better strap the fuck up. Job interview. Man, are we, we feel good? Yeah, we need to ask him the Bud Light question. Sean, do you have that? Yes. What he would do anything for. Yes. our Bud Light question segment and again stock up now on Bud Light head to BudLight.com to find a store near you but our Bud Light question there's talks what people would do for a Bud Light what would you do anything for like what is that for so for example Steve Rinella he gave us a great story he's like by the end of my life like I don't care I will do I will move heaven and earth to create this little docuseries I won't say what the concept is because he told us afterwards he's like I can't tell you guys but I will get this made I don't care how many views it gets it doesn't matter like I want this story to come to life somewhere somehow he would do anything to get this docu-series created what is something that you use anything for me my life has been amazing there ain't shit um I don't know I mean I don't want to say that I mean obviously the traditional things I have to probably say some people on that are watching this don't go what the fuck's wrong with this guy my wife and my kids but um And outside of, like, I would, I think I would probably, I mean, the things that keep popping in my mind are, like, getting my kids through college. Or, because my life has been, I've already done all the things. I've already done everything. I did it all. I did everything I wanted. There's nothing sitting in front of me where I'm like, shit, I hope that happens. Not even the cup stuff. Like if the cup thing happens. Yeah, I was going to bring that up. I wouldn't do anything for that. You know, I'm kind of 50 and good. And I want to be more excited, invested in what happens between now and my kids graduating school and moving out of the house, right? Are they going to play sports? Is it going to be dance? whatever the hell it's going to be, right? What are we going to get into? And my goal, I think, is all of that, whatever that is in that, whatever happens between now and them graduating college, which I hope they do, all that's fine. They choose. But, like, I want to make sure that they are, when they leave the house, right, to be adults, that they are equipped with all the tools. and so like I would do anything in the world to make sure that that is what situation they're in you know what I mean there ain't nothing in front of me personally professionally that is that I'm like oh girl you know gotta get it it seems like back to back titles in Cosmo it seems like you said a generic answer and made it beautiful the way you just explained that for your kids. Dude, I'm going to tell you right now, I got on my podcast this week, we played a clip. TJ's my podcast co-host, my buddy that I beat with Michigan. We played a clip from the coach of the UNC 49ers congratulating me. I got the helmet, a jersey, a hat. I told all my buddies in our Discord, I said, hey, I just booked a spot on Bustin' with the Boys to go talk about the Natty. I called him that two weeks ago. And they're like, what? That fires me up. Yeah, and so I've been running this into the ground, and TJ is over it. And so, like, if I don't beat his ass this next time, it's going to be hell. I just booked a spot on Bustle the Boys to go talk about the Natty. If I don't win, he is going to. When does the next season start? It's already started. We're like three or four weeks in. So I think we'll play the national championship probably in about four, five, four weeks maybe. Oh, it's a short-lived celebration. You're on a tour of celebrating your national championship in the middle of it. next season. Okay. And so, he's, he's the favorite to do, to win next, the next Natty. And he's already probably behind the scenes planning his celebration. Yeah. Because he has some connections. He has to. He has connections at Michigan. Does he? He knows some people. All right. So it could be rough. But I told him, I'm like, live it up, man. Who would have thought Charlotte taking them down? I would not have thought. I wouldn't have guessed that. I would have lost a lot of money on FanDuel. Before we end this, I just wanted to, I brought this helmet. Now, we didn't talk about this, and there's really nothing to it. There's not a story or anything. Other than, you know, y'all both know that I love Washington. And when I went to, in 2015, I had an appearance to go to the College Football Hall of Fame. And I'm standing there. I'm also meeting a Make-A-Wish kid there that particular day. We were going to tour the facility, right, and look around, all the cool shit in there. I'm standing there and Dave Butts the lineman for Washington walks up and he goes hey and he introduced himself I was like I know who you are and he handed me this helmet I want you to have this so it was a big surprise that he was going to be there for me and somebody had set that up and so Dave Butts walks up and he gives me this helmet and he's like this is my helmet from 1984 I immediately obviously recognized it was a game war helmet and he's like I want you to have it and so people ask me all the time like and I thought to bring this today because people ask me all the time what's your favorite piece of memorabilia of outside of racing and so this is it this is my favorite piece of shit that I've got right of all the all the Washington I got helmets tons of helmets I collect helmets I got I got 180 ish college and football helmets right of all types of teams and this is number one out of helmets or any other piece of uniform, signed jersey, anything. This is my holy grail. And Dave gave this to me. And I thought y'all would appreciate it. Being players, knowing what this probably went through, knowing what Dave went through. You spent the battle scars on it. Do you mind if I, can I? I thought I needed to bring that. I wanted to bring it for like maybe some inspiration. That's a different world. Different world. Yeah. I mean, that is still badass though. He was throwing a logo, too. Yep. I know. I mean. It's back, man. They kind of thought, hey, we're bringing it back. It's nice. Have they been bringing it back? They talked about the logo can come back, and they're going to use the logo in some marketing and some things because the family that designed it was like, hey, you know, this is something we'd like to have happen. So I think there's been some conversations around the logo itself being used in some marketing stuff. Bring the logo back, man. I don't think the logo was ever coming back to the helmet. Right. But, yeah. Pretty neat, man. And I just. Washington's in a good spot, man. They are? Oh, are you kidding me? In a great spot. They're in a great spot. It was fun watching them last year just make that run and beating the Lions. That was crazy. It had been. They performed the entire game, too. Yeah. I hadn't ran around. I was in Texas. My wife had some friends and family we were visiting, and I was running around in this person's living room like a maniac during the game. Amy's invested. Amy's into it. The kids are into it. They wear jerseys and they get the little cheerleader uniforms. And my little girl, Isla, six years old, is like, hey, Commander's playing today. Are we wearing the jerseys? We got to wear the jerseys. I'm like, yeah, let's get the jerseys. And so, I mean, the fact that they're good, the fact that they're winning is all like happening at the perfect time for me because my family and my girls are kind of impressionable. and when they were winning those games at the end of last season, it brought me back to my childhood because they hadn't really kicked real ass since 91. I remember where I was when they won against Denver in the Super Bowl, against the Bills, against Miami, and I remember physically where I was standing or what I was doing and I hadn't been that happy. It was so nice to be happy and, like, really, truly, genuinely cheering about your team going that deep into, you know, the postseason. I know I'm overstating it a little bit, but I'm a fan, right, so I'm biased. But, you know, you played there, and you know the history and the legacy of that team and what that means for the fans that go to those games and all the teams you've played for. You know how passionate the fans are. And, God almighty, we've been waiting a long time. I mean, there's other teams that have been waiting a long time, too, but damn, it's been tough. Just the story of Washington. It's been rough. Snyder, the ownership, the cloud that's kind of been there. You root for them, but you're like, I didn't. They couldn't do anything right. Owner off the field. It was always bad news. You're like, nobody wants to play for us. Look at all the shit going on. We can't escape the bullshit. And then they get new ownership, new coaching staff, and it feels like it's positive. Turned around and insanely quick. And then they get the players in and them have the success that they've had so quickly. It turned around insanely fast. I've been watching for you. You see, I'm looking at my phone every day following JP and a couple of those guys going, hey, man, what's the update? Who is it today? John Conn. Yes. Who's the update family? Yes. I'm like, oh, man, those are my guys. Yeah. And I'm like, what's the news? You know, let me know. Oh, because we're all fired up about our GM and we think he walks on water. Yeah. And we're like, hey, man, now that we've shown everybody in the league what we can do and everybody's excited about Jaden. All these players are like, I want to go there. Let's see it. Here's free agency. Let's see who signs up. It does use love. It's neat. Dale is when he's just a fan of stuff. He sounds like a passionate man in general. The thing I love you talking about, though, is your kids getting fired up watching the games with you because my oldest daughter started to hit that with Michigan. This year, every Saturday, we'd have a game on or whatever during the day, and we'd either watch it casually, and I would go back and watch it, or she would sit down and watch with me. And we played Ohio State this year, and we won. I remember she was in the other room because she was doing something. Her mom and my youngest daughter sprinted in the room. We're all high-filed. They were truly about it, which I thought was the coolest moment. I didn't meet my wife when I was at Michigan, but she knows I enjoyed playing there and stuff like that, and I've recently become a bigger and bigger fan and really dived into the culture. And to see my 7-year-old be about it, And then here you talk about your kids about it, putting the jerseys on, all that. It's very similar. Yeah, it's like this is how fans are built. This is like organically how fans are just made, and it's awesome. Teaching Rue the Go Big Red chant. Did Dad have football? Like, yeah, we're going to watch football today, sweetheart. We're going to have that on. We're not going to be watching Daniel Tiger. Daniel Tiger kick rocks for just 12 hours, all right? We'll get back to you tomorrow. Little Bear fans. Yeah, this is me and my daughter. I took her to Northwestern. So that's the game before Ohio State. and I mean they dropped like a 50 burger on North last night so a win was kind of dialed and I talked to the team before too so I was like maybe something's in the air and technically they're undefeated since me and my daughter went to that game so I don't want to you know me and Amy were at the Chicago game where they had the Harold Mary oh no shit insane that was so wild we were sitting there in the is she a fan? is she a fan of football? yeah she likes it because I like it and there's not been a lot to there we are we got to go down on the field So probably about 20 feet away from us. You know that moment, right? Everybody's gone. The whole stadium's empty. Jaden's about 20 feet away doing an interview, and I would get to luckily get to say, hey, man, I'm a big fan of you. You're badass. And so that was a cool moment for us. I wonder if Jaden even understands how big of a deal that is. Like Dale Earnhardt Jr. came up for years. He doesn't know. He waited for you to finish an interview. He has other things in his mind that are big deals, right, that are cool. and his generation and the people that he, like, holds at a certain level of, you know, celebrity status or whatever. But we were, I wore my Riggins jersey. I'm like, they let me go sit in the owner suite. Like, that was automatic when Dan was there. When Dan on the team, I was getting invites every week. And then the new people come in, and I'm like, man, I wonder if I get that invite. Yeah. And so they sent one, and we're like, all right, we're going. We didn't know where we were sitting. But they walked us in there. I'm like, oh, hell, they done. We redid the whole thing. The whole owner suite is like a whole different color now. And we sat down on the front row, watched the whole game. And it ain't looking good. Everybody's leaving. Everybody's kind of leaving, even their owner suite. And he's like, what are we doing? I was like, we ain't leaving. I was like, you know, even if we lose, we're going to lose. We're going to stand here a few minutes, throw it in. We'll just wait. We're standing here a few minutes. We ain't leaving. We ain't leaving. And we're standing there and, you know, he's the ball up in the air. And, you know, we're watching. And they fucking caught that pass. And what people were left, it was like pandemonium. Like, Amy, I was like watching Amy go crazy, like loving that because I'm like, shit. You know, my wife is a big Commander's fan now. And I don't know, man. That was a, to have been there and seen that in person. And I remember, like, watching the one guy go down the field, number 23, that was taunting. Yeah. I'm watching it, and I'm like, hmm, here's an opportunity. This fucking guy is not paying attention. I wonder if anybody else notices this, like, you know. He went viral. Yeah. And so I'm thinking, man, this might be a chance. There might be a chance here. And, of course, you know, y'all know how it went down. But God Almighty, y'all have probably seen the Hail Mary moment or the buzzer beater. Y'all seen that because y'all are in sports so much in college, high school, NFL. You've probably been part of those moments, right? That was my first, like, real, like, buzzer beater, like, prayer, one in a million. Yeah. You know, and then for us to go on and do what we did the rest of the year, right? Because that was kind of early in the season. but I mean it's just incredible but especially against like Caleb Williams who was the first overall pick there's like obviously that like yeah Swift busted this big long run off in the third quarter and I was like here we go fucking falling apart yeah our defense had held them up for so long and now it's like they found the holes they found the kryptonite they're gonna damn just destroy us destroy us or you know they're gonna win the game yeah we got it that is so awesome that was a fun season last year I hope this year's good I hope so too You worry about the sophomore slump. That's always a worry. Yeah. That's always a little bit of a deal. We've done some good things. We've done some good things. Looking better through the draft. We've only got five picks, so I don't know what that means. And I keep hearing that this is just – Washington just picked up somebody for agency, right? The left tackle from the Texans. That's right. That's right. Tunsil. Yeah. Yeah. He's good, too. Yeah. He's got good footwork. Good. Yeah. Good footwork. What's that? Good lungs. Good lungs. Strong lungs. As long as it learns the game, actually. What do you do when the headlines don't explain what's happening inside of you? I'm Ben Higgins, and if you can hear me, it's where culture meets the soul, a place for real conversation. Each episode, I sit down with people from all walks of life, celebrities, thinkers, and everyday folks, and we go deeper than the polished story. We talk about what drives us, what shapes us, and what gives us hope. We get honest about the big stuff. Identity when you don't recognize yourself anymore. Loss that changes you. Purpose when success isn't enough. Peace when your mind won't slow down. Fake when it's complicated. Some guests have answers. Most are still figuring it out. If you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Lethe. Lucy Lethe has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level that the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's the unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to the Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. At a Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to the A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But they gave him. They're going to break him off. I don't know if he signed a new contract yet, but Houston got a whole bunch of picks. They're going to have to pay him big time. Well, they've got to pay Jaden, too, a couple years. The good thing is they have Jaden on the rookie deal. They can just get other businesses around him and see if they can win. At least two more years. Two more years, yeah. It's funny to watch them work, man. The free agency, you know, besides the left tackle from Texas, the players that they bring in, you're like, hmm, never heard of this guy. Who's this guy? What's his story? And their story's really not like he's dominated. You know, it's kind of like, well, he's a journeyman, dependable. He'll get in there. He'll do the job, you know. And that's what they did last year. They had all these one-year deals. I don't know shit about this. like you guys, but he, you know, I'm watching, I'm like, it's, it's, it's strange because everybody's, everybody's now signing like one year deals on these, you know, these, you know, these veterans that are in like the 70, 60, 70% mark of their career. They're kind of, they got a little left in the tank, but I mean, how is, is that the way it's always been? Because it feels like, I remember it felt like for years when free agency came, everybody signed like three, four, five, six, seven year deals. and now everyone is doing these like one year, two year, little rinky dink. You'll play here this year, maybe not next year. The journeyman, I think, has become more and more casual now than ever. This free agency has been very unique in the sense that the market keeps getting higher and higher just in this pocket of this couple of weeks. Max Crosby was the number one highest non-paid quarterback of all time and then a day later, Myles Garrett. and then a daily, then like, you know, now he's like the fifth highest paid. So it's really interesting to see these like markets, like these cap setting contracts happening. But a lot of times, like you get through the first wave of that free agency, which is like your, your top guys who are able to get away from their teams are going to pick up. And then you get like a lot of the guys that have like, you know, they're signing usually the one, the two year deals. It's like, is he going to work out? We know he's got talent. Can he really get it done? So I think too, there's not as much of a market because the structure when the new CBA and everything else, the minimums went up for rookies, it kind of squeezed that middle class a little bit more because the rookies, they'd be on cheaper deals. So you would see more three, four, five-year deals of like middle tier guys. But over time, it's like the floor has raised for the rookie deals. And it's like, we're going to have this rookie for three or four years. You don't necessarily pay the middle class as much. You can kind of put all your eggs into the guys that you want here long term. And guys will take those one or two-year deals because they're essentially trying to be on prove-it deals to where they haven't seen the guarantees that they would like in a full contract. Because if you're a good player and somebody's offering, let's just say, three years, $30 million, but only five to ten guaranteed or something like that, then that player probably thinks in his head, I will just do a one-year deal, get a guaranteed contract as much as I can, and then hopefully try and hit a lick the next time around. The middle class is kind of getting squeezed out because you'll just sign guys on one-year minimums one year for lower money, but you don't see those middle-tier contracts being laid out as much anymore. And Will just structured it out with a three-year, $30 million, $10 million guarantee. That's a three-year deal, but really it's a one-year deal. That's a prove-it deal. Or it was of the past because of this whole, what Will just said, the middle class getting squeezed. Because really, all you have is your guarantee. A lot of these guys want to look at the total contract number. These guys are making whatever, $200 million contract. Oh, it's awesome. But then it's like, well, you only got this much guaranteed, though. The guarantee is what is the most important thing, not how big the number is because they could walk away from you or they could backlit the contract and all these different things. So there's a lot of shenanigans and savvy things that take place during the free agency market. Yeah, it's pretty fascinating to watch, and we'll see how it plays out for my team. Is there any free agency type stuff in NASCAR, or are you pretty just built in? We're going to pay you the X, Y, and Z a year bonuses based on if you win. Yeah. They're not really a free agency. There's some drivers that will become available where their contract comes up, and they probably know they want to move to a different team, and they probably – or they're getting calls from – like there's no tampering rules or anything. So like an owner can call a guy and say, hey, how many more years you got on your deal? Or can you leave your deal? Can I buy it out? Would you want to come to my team? I want you as my driver. What do we got to do? And so you may be able to pay that team money to get him out of his contract early. Does that happen very much? It has happened in the past. It's not a very common thing. But, I mean, there's no real rules to our – we don't have a free agency period or anything like that. Have you ever poached somebody or gotten somebody? I've not. You know, my team's kind of like taking these rookies and these up-and-comers, and we've got more people. That's true. I guess you're here. We've got more people kind of coming to us than we have seats to have people. But in the top tier cup level, it's probably a lot more cutthroat and a little more competitive. How many times when you were a driver did you get called from other ownership? Once in my career. So, like, my deal at DEI at my dad's company was ending, and I had two or three teams come to court me or, you know, pitch me their deal. and I knew I wasn't going to stay where I was at. So I was all ears and went and met with everybody on each team and kind of took the one deal that I liked. But that happened once and I was happy where I ended up and wanted to stay there until I retired and I was lucky enough to do that. That's awesome. I know we're wrapping up, but like in football when you're playing or any sport in general, like there's things you hate doing, but then when you leave the sport, you're like, man, I missed that. Practice. Like, that's what you miss? Practice. yeah i hated practice because practice was a lot of times like testing was testing and practice are very similar in testing you go to a racetrack in the middle of the week way before weeks before you're going to race there and you're by yourself usually there might be another team there but usually you're by yourself and you're out there running alone and it's you and your team you go out run five ten laps come in make a change and it's very monotonous and boring and you're just running and running and you almost get bored of telling them the feedback okay yeah that made it a little better i didn't feel anything we're just doing nothing here i'm just spinning my wheels and but the team's got a process and they're they got a plan for those two days you're testing and they are going to get through that plan and learn everything they want to learn and then go home you don't realize that as a driver you're just bored to death running by yourself when you practice on the race weekends everyone else is out there but it's the same thing you're practicing and changing things your team's learning it's not a race there's no checkered flag there's no winner loser you're just making laps and it's like an hour whatever and um i hated it i thought it was boring and i hated to get ready and go do it and um it was getting in the way of whatever i wanted to do but i wanted to race race the race was fun i was excited about the race but the practice was just kind of boring um but right in the last year i was sitting in my car and i think i was at Kansas Motor Speedway and we're in the middle of practice and I sat there and it just dawned on me I was like one there'll be a day in a very short period of time where we won't I won't ever practice again and I was like and I was watching my guys they were meandering around the car changing little things jacking the car up gonna adjust this gonna adjust that and they're just moving around and I got to watching them I'm in my garage stall it's every other car's in their garage stall people pulling in and out going running laps and it's busy and I was just sitting in there I was like yeah I'm gonna miss this part I hated this part and I should have appreciated it more but I'm gonna miss I'm gonna miss watching my guys that I love I love these guys they're my guys I'm gonna miss watching them work I'm gonna miss coming in here and taking this car to them and saying hey can you fix it I got this doesn't work right or this doesn't turn good or it doesn't It doesn't steer right. And they're going to try to fix it. I'm going to miss trying to fix that puzzle with them and work on it. And, you know, I think I knew I was going to miss driving in the race. I knew I was going to miss the competition, right? But it was the prep work that I thought I hated that I ended up missing as well. Beautifully said. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Do you ever remember those times? Like, I can remember a few situations where you're kind of sitting there and you're kind of taking it in. just being like as much as this shit sucks because practice did like training camp you know there would just be them days where you're just in the middle of the season or whatever but you're just sitting there taking in the breeze taking in the scene the heat if it's training camp you're just like one day we're not even going to be able to do this anymore yeah i feel like we're always like during camp like you like you were getting those beautiful situations where you got a small group the boys and we're just fed up and everyone just wants to vent and talk shit about how this is just bullshit all this we're doing sucks and like you let everybody vent and you're sitting there whether it's like we're all sitting in the cold tubs after like die like a couple guys are cramping in the corner and he's just like this is such a hot day we got to do it again tomorrow everyone's just complaining but then eventually that conversation would turn to someone to bring it up you're like it's crazy this is not gonna last forever and that's like a moment you have you're like holy shit like yeah this is kind of these are these are the good old days right now you're in it just sucking is the good old days because it is the stuff like practice sucks like camp august i wake up now in august and i smile to myself knowing that there's about 2 000 guys out there dying yeah i'm just in this cozy bed right now i might go hang on my kids for a minute before i go to work yeah something like that that's kind of nice but then there's like a PC, it's like, man, it would be nice to have like 53 guys that are just like embracing the suck together. Everyone's handling it a little different way, but we're all feeling the same thing, which is, this is really hard, and we're doing it together. That's the beautiful part about it. Yeah, I agree. Dale, this has been awesome. Yeah, it's fun. Thank you so much, man. We had a little marathon here, man. Yeah. How long was this episode? 245. Damn right. Good work. What's the average these days for you guys? We spent well above 130 mark. in a very good way. You said 90 minutes is solid. Like 90 minutes, I think, is our average. That's good. All right. Maybe on the high end. I'll call it a success. So much fun. Thank you for the gifts. Yeah. I hope everybody enjoyed Big Hugs, Tiny Kisses. Don't forget to subscribe. Congratulations to Buston, man, and the success. The new partnerships with Bud Light, FanDuel. Hey, I'm on Team Anheuser-Busch. We work with FanDuel over at Dirty Mo Media. Let's go. We need some more bus with the boys. I need an Xavier win tonight. I know that. That's going to get my parlay hit. Who do you got to win in the national championship? Michigan? March Madness? Yeah. Have you done a bracket yet? No, I haven't. I'm a Tar Heel fan, and I know they're in a bad way. They played last night, yeah? They did. They did. They were one leg of my parlay. It was Alabama State, Carolina, and now Xavier tonight. You know, Fando, you can put futures bets together as a parlay. Yeah? Yeah. Really? I know. Plus 813 if you want. I hate staring at that damn thing. I did that with Caitlin Clark's average points for a rookie year, and I'm like, golly, every time I log in, I'm like, it's staring me right in the face because it's not over. You know, you've got to wait months for this thing to finish out. And I'm like, so I'm not in a quick. But the futures parlay with Fandle, and obviously this is actually while March Madness is still going on, but you can parlay futures of teams getting two Sweet 16s, the round of 33 Final Four, and you can parlay them together. And I got a plus 3,000 if you are interested. 3,000? I saw that. 3,300, something like that. You saw you beefed it? No, I saw it on social media. I know what you're doing. You like it. I know what you're doing. I did, I got on a parlay that you had during the NFL season, and it was a rough one. I don't even want to admit what we bet. No amount of money. I had one unit, but, like, the teams we were betting on, it was a – Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I know, yeah, because we were texting them. Yeah. The fall, you'll see more of those parlays as well. Yeah. They play off with the parlay. Yeah, yeah. Like, damn, dude. Will and I got to this point late in the season last year where it was like, The higher the plus odds, the better the parlay was. Nine legs plus 10,000. Right. That's ridiculous. But if it hits, that's no way to live. You're going to be pissed. That's no way to live. You bought an iPad showing your college football 25 big counts of everything. Yeah. We can put together some spicy parlays. Like my spicy parlay, and I might get clowned for this, but like I'll go in. It was right before March Madness. And you can do this now with the ones versus the 16s, but I like stack all the ones, you know, the ones to beat the 16s. So I'll build like a plus 200 with like nine legs. See, that's a crazy way to live in my opinion. But those are almost automatic. But you're getting to plus 200 odds with a nine leg parlay. And they all should win. I would say in the past month, I am probably 18-2 with seven or more legs in my parlays in basketball alone. Hey, I was going to stay. I'm going to have to call Dale. I'll show you. I'll open up my. Where's the iPad for that one? I'll open it up. I'll show it to you. If you took half the effort, you'd be a billionaire. Yeah. You got to get careful because, I mean, you got to do like 400, 450, 500 odds on seven or nine parlays to get to like plus 100, 200, 300, or something like that. But it's, you know, it's going to usually pay out. That's probably not a popular way to do it. Now, you just said 18 and two the way you did it, and I'm trying to criticize. Like, I'm two and 18. Well, you're betting just each three. You're at plus 10,000 odds. Oh, buddy, I've won a few games. That's kind of the number. No, parlays, I'm like, I said, I'm betting straight up. Yeah, parlays, I'm. We do a thing on our gambling show. I want to join, I want to tell some of your bets, man, but you're going to clean it up a little bit. Come on. We will, we'll clean them up. We'll get dialed in for football season. I'll even run them by you. Let's go. Yeah. Hey, I'll tell you best. I ain't scared. There you go. Appreciate you, Dale. Appreciate you, brother. Appreciate y'all, man. It was fun. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Big hugs, tiny kisses. Three-hour pause? Damn right. You can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty. I'm Ben Higgins, and If You Can Hear Me is where culture meets the soul. Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers. Most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on my iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Lettby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.