How about inside a car?

I don't know, it's been a while.

Yeah, like, even, like...

I mean, I get nervous at, like, Daytona or Talladega, like, from a crashing standpoint.

Like, I'm just like, man, this will hurt if I crash.

But, like, as far as, like, nerves go, even last year, it really surprised me at the championship race.

Like I had blown two tires, I think.

Being teammates now with him for two years, what is the big takeaway you've learned from him?

What is that one?

Yeah, so that was Indianapolis.

Uh, I don't know.

It was my rookie year, so 21, I think Yeah, everybody thinks still that I, I wrecked Denny on purpose that day.

And, uh, I would take a lie detector right now on the show just to, uh, verify it.

But yeah, so that day, Indianapolis, obviously my home race, it's a rookie year, it's the road course, and, uh, I, I started I think on the front row, led some laps, then we had brake issues.

And, um, so yeah, we, we like short pitted at the very end hoping to catch a caution, and we somehow caught one, so then I found myself on the front row after being like 34th, and we had a restart.

That's right.

what is that one?

Yes as Indianapolis? No, it was my rookie year said 21 I think I Yeah.

Everybody thinks still that I, I wrecked Denny on purpose that day.

And, uh, I would take a lie detector right now on the show just to, uh, verify it.

But yeah, so that day Indianapolis, obviously my home race, it's rookie year, it's the road course.

And, uh, I started, I think, on the front row, led some laps.

Then we had brake issues.

Are you like, is any of that in the back of your mind when you're coming into pit or is just so much going on? You're not thinking about it.

He got on a hell of a run early on, was winning races, and so you guys have really put these things together, but hopefully it's working out for you at the right time because I remember last year, I thought you were going to win the Brickyard 400, and it just came down to bad luck on that pit stop where you were on your way in to the pits, and then your team had to send you back out, no, go back out, back out, and it just really kind of threw the balance of the day off.

Yeah, for sure.

Last year was one of those ones.

I felt like we certainly had a car capable of winning.

I mean, it was fast to sit on the pole.

And yeah, that's Indy, though, for you.

One caution can completely change your day.

How do you approach the season any differently knowing that that is coming into reality?

You know? But that was a, uh, when he hit me going into the corner, that was a 14 G hit.

So what...

I don't...

What even happened? I saw, like, some clips online, but I don't really understand why it escalated to that.

Figgy was.

I've...

So I had met Figgy one time when I...

It would've been 2016 doing ARCA stuff.

Peux-tu expliquer les différences ?

Oui, c'est différent.

À SHR, on allait chaque week-end essayer de gagner.

On essayait de gagner chaque week-end.

Mais en réalité, on savait qu'il y allait y avoir des semaines où on allait gagner 8.

C'était une bonne journée.

À JGR, si on allait gagner 8, on se demandait ce qui allait mal.

Qu'avez-vous fait pour les équilibrer ? Vous essayez de faire en sorte que vous puissiez être dans la voiture et mettre de la nourriture sur la table, mais aussi être là pour vos enfants.

Take us through the progression of that day for you in getting that first victory on a mile and a half oval for you.

Yeah, it was, uh, an interesting weekend, you know, just going to a track that we hadn't been to in, you know, seven or so years and just trying to, to relearn the racetrack.

A lot of things were very different than what I remember it being.

But yeah, just, uh, you know, had to constantly kind of evolve our race car.

I had to constantly evolve, you know, obviously what I was doing as well.

And to be honest with you, starting Sunday morning, didn't necessarily see that result coming.

Uh, it'd been a, a little bit of a struggle with our car kind of all weekend.

How much were you watching out that rear view camera, and how much were you listening to the spotter wanting to know how close he was?

... a lot of change with the racetrack it looked like.

Yeah, there was...

It was definitely a odd, honestly, just an odd weekend, not even an odd race.

You know, the, the weekend started and, you know, what I remembered Chicagoland being, it was very different than that.

And maybe some of that's just the next gen car.

Like, if I was in a O'Reilly car, it would've felt the same, but it had way more grip than I remember having.

You know, the bumps were somewhat similar, but, but still different at the same time.

[laughs]

In your early years.

Yeah, so i- it really, that's the hard part about NASCAR.

It's not like the NFL or, you know, NBA or MLB where if you're the best whatever sport it is, you're gonna make it, right? NASCAR, a lot of it is pay to play to start, and like I had no money.

So what I did, uh, I graduated high school, moved to Charlotte.

So Charlotte's essentially like what Nashville is for country music.

And uh, yeah, I just slept on a couch for three and a half years I'd give my buddy that had a place that I was able to stay at, like 50 bucks here and there.

And I just volunteered at all these different race shops.

Mm.

Here's what he had to say.

Uh, just frustrated.

Uh, yeah, just so much can change, obviously, at the end of these races, whether it's a caution coming out or just a restart, uh, not going your way.

So yeah, just nothing kind of went my way there.

I felt like I had all the potential to, to, you know, get a run, and I could just never really build it and then was able to get the top of three there, and then just everybody [laughs] goes in and slides up to the top, and that just kind of left me in no man's land.

So yeah, frustrating, uh, how the finish ended up.

Uh, so yeah, happy for JGR, though.

Y'all schedule, from what I understand, is pretty hectic during the week, right?

Yeah, so that was one even misconception for me, I think, before I got into it was, you know, when I would watch as a kid or, you know, as an early teenager.

You know, I just thought the guys went and raced on Sunday and, you know, during the week they hung out on the lake and kind of did nothing else.

And that's really the farthest thing from the truth, especially over the last couple of years, just grown, you know, into such a. a bigger thing than just driving the race car, you know, driving the race car is actually the smallest piece of our job.

Um, so just to walk you kind of through a week.

Um, so we obviously race Sundays, you know, we're typically get done with the race, say at say it's six, seven o'clock, you know, we'll be home by 10 o'clock normally.

Um, you know, so I'll go back.

So I have to ask you, how was fishing with Kevin Van Dam?

[laughs]

And Fincham bails, uh, just because like we...

I mean, we were trying to go, right? And, uh, so anyways, we were running, and I knew within four or five laps that we were screwed because we were running wide open, and the pack was still 10 car lengths behind us.

And so we were just burning fuel, and everybody else was saving.

And then when we finally pitted, the Fords were literally side by side with us at the front of the field, and we'd ran 100% the whole time, and they had been running 40 or 50%.

So yeah, we did not do a very good job.

But it's hard whenever you're in there and you don't know what the, the plan is.

[laughs]

When you go to these NASCAR events, you have a line of fans waiting to meet you and it's crazy for you?

Yeah, it's definitely just crazy the fan access that we have in NASCAR.

It's kind of unlike any other sport.

I'll have a couple buddies from baseball or football come and know like they're literally standing with me at the national anthem fans are there getting pictures as i'm climbing into the car and they're like mind blown right the fans have that kind of access so that's the cool thing i think about nascar is just how integrated the fan base is and i mean they're literally in the garage area with us they're on pit road with us like i said literally can stand kind of beside me during the national anthem and yeah two minutes later i'll be climbing in the car and racing what's the fastest speed

But when you're at a race, that adrenaline in person, even if you're just watching people warm up, it just gets all through your blood and just lights you up, doesn't it?

Yeah, for sure.

That's the hard part, I think, though, about our sport is like a lot of people can't relate, right? Like people can go and throw a football or try to hit a baseball or even shoot a basketball, but not very many people can climb in a race car.

So it's hard for us to kind of let them know what it's like.

So... went to go see him and there was like i've never seen anything like in my life like a thousand people waiting in line to get his autograph yeah right and then we sat i got to sit in the stands and have the headphones on while you're talking to him while he's driving and that was really cool so when you go to these nascar events i mean you're that's you have a line of fans waiting to meet you and it's crazy for you

yeah it's definitely you know just crazy the fan access that we have in nascar it's kind of unlike any other sport right i'll have a couple buddies from you know baseball or football come and They're literally standing with me at the National Anthem.

Fans are there getting pictures as I'm climbing into the car, and they're mind-blown.

The fans have that kind of access.

That's the cool thing, I think, about NASCAR is just how integrated the fan base is.

They're literally in the garage area with us.

They're on pit road with us.

But when you're at a race, that adrenaline in person, even if you're just watching people warm up, it like just gets all through your blood and just lights you up, doesn't it?

So... went to go see him and there was like i've never seen anything like in my life like a thousand people waiting in line to get his autograph yeah right and then we sat i got to sit in the stands and have the headphones on while you're talking to him while he's driving and that was really cool so when you go to these nascar events i mean you're that's you have a line of fans waiting to meet you and it's crazy for you

yeah it's definitely you know just crazy the fan access that we have in nascar it's kind of unlike any other sport right i'll have a couple buddies from you know baseball or football come and They're literally standing with me at the National Anthem.

Fans are there getting pictures as I'm climbing into the car, and they're mind-blown.

The fans have that kind of access.

That's the cool thing, I think, about NASCAR is just how integrated the fan base is.

They're literally in the garage area with us.

They're on pit road with us.

But when you're at a race, that adrenaline in person, even if you're just watching people warm up, it like just gets all through your blood and just lights you up, doesn't it?