- 6 weeks ago
NASCAR's Alex Bowman chats with the HOT ROD Pod about his passion for wrenching on high-powered C6 Corvettes
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00:00So I grew up in a body shop, like always getting put to work. At first it was pulling weeds,
00:04but then it turned into prep work and kind of all kinds of different stuff as a kid. So I've
00:08always had like a mechanical background, worked on my own race cars a lot growing up, not because
00:12I wanted to, but because I had to. And now that I don't have to, I want to. So it's kind of funny
00:17how that works. Hey everybody, it's Brian Lones here with John McGann, the editor of Hot Rod
00:27Magazine, and we are back with the Hot Rod Pod where it all began. We're at Charlotte
00:32Motor Speedway. We're continuing a lot of great conversation we've had with some of the best
00:35NASCAR drivers out there on the circuit today. This guy, the driver of the number 48 Chevrolet,
00:40Alex Bowman, is our next guest. And thank you for coming to hang out on Coke 600 weekend.
00:45Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
00:46Before we get into the meat and potatoes driving a stock car, we need to talk about your Corvette.
00:51Which one?
00:51The 1,000 horsepower drift car is pretty flippin' awesome.
00:55Yeah, started as a base model C6, kind of a COVID project a little bit. And then it's
01:03had a couple different iterations and kind of just scope crept into a full-on race car.
01:08I mean, it's still got carpet in the front half of the car, and we built like an aluminum
01:12center console with cup holders, so it's still a street car, but it's a race car. It's a
01:17Dart LS Next Block. It's a 468, 6XD Sequential, Winner's Quick Change.
01:24Hell yeah. That's awesome.
01:26Yeah, it's a cool car. So, I don't get nearly enough time to drive it.
01:31We're kind of in like the teething process a little bit. Every time I drive it, something
01:34breaks. It's kind of like I need enough track time to break all the things that are going
01:38to break and get it all the way dialed in. But yeah, it's been a fun project. It makes
01:44like right under a thousand wheel on a 150 shot of nitrous. So, nothing crazy. I have
01:51a 1200 horsepower ZR1 too. I'm a big C6 Corvette guy.
01:56Dude, they're great cars.
01:57Yeah, they're the best. Super fun to drive, like super predictable, even at really high
02:03power levels. So, my C6 ZR1, I mean, it's made over a thousand wheel for, gosh, nine years
02:11now.
02:11And what's the combination in that car?
02:13So, it is stock bottom end, heads cam, fuel system. It had a stock ported blower on it
02:19for a long time, and now it's got a Kong 2650 on it.
02:22Nice.
02:22So, it's, I mean, built trans, built diff, but still stock bottom end for 10,000 miles
02:28at that power level, which is insane.
02:30Yeah. As two guys that spend a lot of time at the drag strip, when we hear guys talk about
02:33stock bottom end LS motors, it's one or two things are going to happen. This is going to
02:36be super impressive, or the crankshaft is going to be laying on the ground at some point.
02:39Yeah, for sure. I'm pretty surprised it hasn't broken yet. When I had the stock blower on it,
02:45we had a little bit of nitrous on it, and it didn't really care. And then we put the 2650
02:50on it. And it is probably a little easier on the rotating assembly because it doesn't hit as hard
02:55down low. But yeah, it's pretty rowdy for a stock bottom end car. I was at Chevrolet, gosh,
03:05maybe seven or eight years ago, talking with one of the engineers that was actually on that project
03:10when that car was new and talking about what we're doing with it and how much power it made.
03:14And he's like, stock rods in that thing? Yeah. He's like, there's no way. I'm like, yeah,
03:18it lives. They're great. They love it. Yeah. It's a cool car for sure. Obviously,
03:24you're a very diversified racer in terms of everything you've driven on dirt and on asphalt,
03:28but I think it's really cool that you're actually just into hot rods and cars as well. And that has
03:33to go way back as part of your life too, right? This isn't something you just decided one day,
03:36oh, I like C6 Corvettes. Yeah, for sure. So my dad is a car guy in a different sense than I am.
03:43Obviously, I'm pretty highly modified, can't leave anything alone. As he would say, I ruin
03:48everything. Okay. So he's the restoration guy. Yeah. He's like the, I'm going to look at it in
03:53my garage and never drive it. It's never even been washed type of guy. So, which in my opinion is the
04:00worst, but no, he's like the stock, like got to be perfect type of guy. But he had a small body shop
04:08at home when I was a kid and still has it. It's definitely grown since he stopped following me
04:14around racing. He was able to grow his business, but yeah. So I grew up in a body shop, like always
04:19getting put to work. At first it was pulling weeds, but then it turned into prep work and
04:24all kinds of different stuff as a kid. So I've always had like a mechanical background,
04:28worked on my own race cars a lot growing up. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. And
04:34now that I don't have to, I want to. So it's kind of funny how that works. But yeah, I've always got
04:39different projects going on. Always love turning wrenches. I mean, I'm guessing that's, that's the
04:44type of guy that's going to give you attention to detail, right? Stylistically, you're into different
04:48things, but a guy like your dad, who's into that, that level of restoration, that is a, that has got
04:52to be a detail oriented guy. Yes and no. Okay. You would be surprised. He, he's not the cleanest
05:00person in the world. Him and I have, we're very different. We're almost opposites at this point,
05:07but he's very like, my car was clean 10 years ago when I put it on that lift and everything's
05:13still perfect. And I'm like, everything around the car is clean. The lift is clean. The car is
05:18clean. The floor is clean. Like, and I've driven it twice this month. So everything's good. Like,
05:24and it's clean. So his garage is a disaster. He's a hoarder. Whereas as the guy that drives the trash
05:33truck and picks up my dumpster every Friday, I love to throw stuff away. He knows. So yeah, it's I,
05:41I throw stuff away all the time. So we're kind of opposites in that sense. I kind of, I think growing
05:46up, I kind of feel like I've seen it kind of with our generation a little bit. Like guys my age,
05:53when they were kids, their parents were like cluttered and had stuff everywhere in a sense.
05:58So I want nothing anywhere. I just want to throw it all away. All has to be out of sight.
06:04So kind of different there.
06:05That makes sense. And you kind of like somewhere in between the two, you've got like a whole person
06:09almost. It's like a well-rounded person. But I know how you can, you can, one thing leads to a
06:16different dichotomy in the next generation. So yeah, for sure. You know, let's talk a little bit
06:21about that. You know, you mentioned the fact that he was highly supportive of, of getting your career
06:25off the ground and really kind of put his own self-interest aside to, to kind of help you
06:29elevate what you were doing. Talk about some of the fondest memories you have, whether it was on
06:34the road, whether it was a race win, like talk about some of those moments that will never leave
06:38your mind from the early days of your career with your dad.
06:40Yeah. The business suffered second mortgage on the house. I mean, the business failed then second
06:45mortgage on the house. Like he, he was all in and it still wasn't enough. I mean,
06:49wow, as you guys know, getting started in racing, it's crazy. It's only gotten worse and worse and
06:54worse. So, um, certainly didn't have the zeros in the bank account to, uh, yeah, we didn't have
07:02enough commas to make it. Um, but certainly he, he tried everything he could and, uh, sacrificed a lot.
07:10So super appreciative of that, but yeah, traveled up and down the West coast a ton as a kid racing
07:15quarter midgets. Um, and then still when, when I ran the midget stuff, um, kind of started
07:22transitioning to drive for other people after that. But yeah, I mean, just, um, gosh, I, I mean,
07:28I would race Sunday somewhere in the middle of California, sometimes even Northern California
07:34and somehow make it to school on Monday morning. Like it was, it was wild. I mean, there were nights
07:39that we would drive through the night, not sleep. And he wouldn't, we wouldn't even go home. We would
07:44just pull up to school and get out and go to school. So those are my memories because I would
07:50always, my, my thing was we would have to drive through Phoenix to get to Tucson. Right. And
07:55depending on Phoenix traffic, you never really knew when you were going to make it home. But
07:59there was like points on the drive home from Phoenix to Tucson that I'm like, Oh, I'm this far
08:04away. And I would wake up and be like, Oh, I'm 40 minutes away. And school starts in 45 minutes.
08:11I'm actually going to make it. I don't want to go. I'd be like, Hey, I think, I think we
08:15need gas. I think I see one of the tires coming apart on the trailer. Like we got to stop.
08:21Yeah. This is dangerous.
08:22I cannot make it to class. Um, and then I got yelled at by my teachers a lot. So yeah,
08:30I mean, it's, it's a crazy, that's a crazy lifestyle that people just don't understand.
08:34You know what I mean? Like if you're the, the, the, you know, not to disparage them, but like
08:38a regular person that is not in this world or is not trying to achieve in this world,
08:43just doesn't get it. And you're not ever going to be able to explain it to them.
08:46Yeah. I mean, I spent like my childhood was racing, which was awesome. Working on race cars
08:54in the garage. Awesome. Doing makeup homework all the time. Not awesome. Not as awesome. So,
09:00um, certainly, you know, that was probably the hardest part about like my daily life growing up
09:09was getting so behind in school and trying to catch up all the time.
09:13Cause there is no balance. You can't strike a balance. If you strike a balance, it's never
09:17going to work. Yeah, for sure. It was racing was priority all the time. So, I mean, I went to school
09:21Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and sometimes Thursdays. So, um, and I graduated a year early. I had an okay
09:29GPA. Um, yeah, it was, it was tough. I think that was probably the hardest part was if I got a C,
09:37I was in like big trouble, like not allowed to race for a little bit. And then it got to the point
09:43where it was like unmanageable to not get a C. And if I got a C, it was like, well, you messed up
09:49and I'm disappointed in you, but we're still going this weekend. Um, high school got rough, but, um,
09:55yeah, it was, uh, I mean, I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure. So were there any teachers that
10:01were supportive of, of the, what you're trying to do? Did you, did you have like a shop class or
10:06anything even that honestly, um, I had one cool teacher. I hate to say that because it's like,
10:15there was no shop class at my school, which is disappointing. Cause that's something I would
10:19have loved. And I've gotten to tour a lot of schools since then and go to a lot of shop classes,
10:25which has been really cool. Um, and obviously that's something that gets more and more rare
10:29as, as it is the years have gone by, unfortunately, but yeah, just being from Tucson, Arizona, telling a
10:35teacher that you're going to make it in racing, they're looking at you like, what are you talking
10:40about? Like asking for a pony, right? No, you're not come to class. So you're wrecking,
10:46you're ruining your life. Yeah. Yeah. I had a math teacher that actually, he still comes to some
10:50of the races, which is really cool. He actually comes to a lot of races, which is, is really neat.
10:55And he was always really cool about it, but gosh, I mean, I remember I had a Spanish teacher who just
11:00hated me. Like, absolutely. I can't believe you're doing this. Like your parents are off their rocker.
11:08Like it was, it was wild. And, um, I think junior year, the school,
11:14I hate to say it was because of me because there were so many kids there, but like maybe because
11:20of me, they implemented a rule. Like you could only miss 12 days of class per semester. And I was
11:25like, I'm moving to North Carolina. I'm out. See you guys. Yeah. Alex Bowman clause. Yeah. So, um,
11:31just quit working out for me after that. As your young career evolves, uh, the aspiration is obviously
11:38to make it to this level. And, and one of the things that's kind of a, has been a signature in your
11:43career is, you know, you're a guy that, that Taylor and our junior looked at and said, you know, this
11:46is the guy that, that should be in this car. And then obviously in the 48, now you're, you're coming
11:50in behind Jimmy Johnson, uh, and everything he's accomplished there. What do you think it is about
11:55you and what you were doing, especially early on that you became the guy that somebody of the
11:59caliber of, of junior looked at you and said, this is the kid. I got really lucky, honestly. Like,
12:04I mean, that all kind of happened. Um, I was driving for a really small cup team in 2014
12:12and I qualified next to Dale at like Richmond, I think. And we were riding around the truck
12:19pre-race together. Um, talking about, I was trying to get in some, some good Xfinity cars at the end
12:25of that year and have, uh, have some good races. Cause running for small teams was, was definitely rough.
12:32And, um, he had some openings in at, at JRM, the end of that year that I was able to, to get into
12:39kind of took off from there. So obviously, um, you know, it was crazy set of circumstances,
12:45obviously with him getting hurt. I was driving the SIM for Hendrick at the time. Dale was a big
12:50supporter of mine and, um, and called me and kind of forced Hendrick to use me in a sense, I feel like
12:56because we all found out so late, but, um, super fortunate to get to fill in for him and then
13:02share the car with some guy named Jeff Gordon for the rest of the year, which was wild to me. Um,
13:08and they have, I haven't, somehow I'm still here. So, um, it's been really cool, you know,
13:14obviously to get to drive for HMS, but to get to follow, you know, Dale and taking over the 88 and
13:20then Jimmy and taking over the 48, it's just been crazy. Like things that I never thought would
13:26happen. Um, you know, when I, I mean, if you would have asked 16 year old me, if it was going to
13:31happen, I would have said, absolutely. Absolutely. The best there ever was. Uh, then you quickly
13:35realize how hard it really is. And you're like, well, damn, I'm in trouble. So yeah, it's been a
13:41common theme. You know, we talked to, we talked to Daniel Suarez and yesterday we talked to Joey
13:44Lugano and you and Suarez were in that 2011 NASCAR next class together. Um, but I think to a man,
13:51you've all said the same thing, which is when you've actually, when you actually get onto the
13:55stage for the first time, you look around and you think, Oh God, like faking it till you make it may
14:00end right now. Right. You have to really step up. It's tough. Cup racing is, is really, really,
14:05really difficult. And there's so much that goes into it. Um, you know, obviously the team has to
14:11perform the driver has to perform, but there's so much more than that, right? Like there's so much
14:15that goes on back to the shop. So many organizational things, so many things have to go your way
14:20throughout the day. There's like a million things that can ruin your day that you have zero to do
14:25with. So, um, yeah, it's just really difficult. Everybody here is really, really good. Every team
14:31member here is really, really good. Um, the little details matter so much. It's incredible. So to get
14:38things to go your way is, is really difficult. That's the thing we've heard. Yeah. Is, um,
14:43it's that thing that, that separates the, the, your success versus not, I mean, pulling the car
14:49out of the trailer. Yeah. What was it? Daniel said that? Yeah. It's like, if it's slow when you load
14:54it in the trailer, it's not going to be faster when it comes out of the trailer for sure. And I mean,
14:58the difference between slow and fast is a 10th and a half. Like it's this next gen car. We're all the
15:04same speed. That's why we can't pass each other ever. So it like, you have to qualify well because
15:10you can't pass. And then if you don't qualify, well, you have a bad pit stall and all just kind
15:15of explodes and you can't get back on the other side of things. So it's, it's really tough. It's
15:20easy to let one bad race kind of compound because then you qualify early the next week. So you're
15:27probably going to qualify bad and you're probably going to get a pit bad pit stall again. And it just
15:31over and over and over yet. Absolutely snowballs. So, um, yeah, I mean, we're, you're dealing with
15:38such small margins, like smaller here than probably most other motor sports. Um, it's,
15:45it's pretty wild. When we look at the results this season, there's been a lot of top fives.
15:49I was a lot of top tens, uh, several top, top five runner up at Miami. Yep. Um, so when we're only
15:56what about a third of the way through the season. So when you look at that body of work so far,
16:00what is it telling you as a competitor? Is it what's the trend you're seeing and maybe what's
16:04the step forward for the team? Yeah. I mean, I don't think our finishes probably tell the story
16:10accurately. Like we've been really, really fast lately and just haven't, you know, had things go
16:17our way, haven't executed well in some senses have had a lot of things outside of our control. Um,
16:22some mechanical failures here and there. So, uh, just, you know, we need to finish how we run.
16:28And I think that the page would look a lot better, but, uh, yeah, we've been close to
16:33winning. I feel like we've had race winning speed really. I mean, Texas, Kansas, um, Wilkesboro,
16:39we struggled a little bit, still ended up four. So that was five of the all-star. Yeah. So that
16:43was good. Um, I'm, I'm really excited for this weekend in Charlotte, obviously, but just,
16:47I think the next step for us is just executing and not having anything go wrong. Like
16:52Texas, we had one bad pit stop. Um, we came in third and restarted, I don't know, 20 something
17:01and then suboptimal immediately crashed on the restart. We didn't even make a single lap after
17:06the restart and the field crashed in front of us and we crashed. So it's like, you just can't do
17:10that. And our pit crew, they're super fast, right? It was just a bad, one bad stop kind of gets you.
17:17So, um, a lot of different things can happen. Just got to continue to plug away at it.
17:21And that's the interesting part about, about this is like, you can, you can be victimized by,
17:25by circumstances well beyond your control. You know, if you're not, if you're not back there
17:29in a, in a part of the, in a part of the field, that's probably not going to make the best decisions
17:34in front of you. Uh, you have a far better chance of not getting caught up. Right.
17:38Yeah, for sure. You know, that's just part of what we do and that's what makes it a team sport,
17:42right? Like all the parts and pieces have to go together. Well, um, you know,
17:47the driver, obviously it's my name on the car and, um, you know, kind of my name attached to the
17:53result, but there's a lot of people working hard to, to support that. So, um, I mean, there's
17:59600 and something people at Hendrick motor sports, right? It's incredible. Um, the tools we have in
18:05the sport we have from, from Mr. Hendrick and everybody there is pretty awesome.
18:09You own a midget team. You own a sprint car team. Obviously after 23, you get out of the sprint car and
18:13put a driver in there, but you know, you are a team owner. Yeah. So talk to me a little
18:17bit about that. I mean, you know, it's not quite 600 employees like Mr. H has, but it's
18:21me. Um, yeah. So really, I mean, since I got hurt, I've tried to scale the sprint car team
18:29back. And, um, last year I'm like, Oh, we can just run a couple of races and it'll be
18:34fun. And I still ended up doing all the work and paying all the bills and having none of
18:38the fun. And I was like, this sucks. Um, so I sold all the sprint car stuff, but I still
18:43have the midget stuff and I, we really, we just go to chili bowl. Um, which I don't
18:49know if you guys have ever been, but I've never been, but I watch it every year. So
18:52it's really just a party and there's a, there's a racetrack on the end of the building that
18:57you walk up to sometimes, but, uh, it's a really fun event. Um, and I think for me, I
19:04liked that event because there used to not be any rule book. So you could just run what you
19:10brung. I mean, didn't tires, engines, cars, like you can whatever you want. So it was
19:16wider wheels, bigger tires, lighter race cars, more power. And it was really, really
19:22cool. Well, for some reason, we've decided to add a couple of rules in the last couple
19:26of years. We're starting to reel the fun. Um, I, I guess, you know, probably needed to
19:33happen at some point cause it got pretty out of hand, but it's fun to just kind of
19:37build cool stuff and be able to do things differently. Um, and, and I really enjoy
19:42that. So it's, uh, it's been a cool event. We've had some successful years, had some
19:47years where my, uh, finances fly through the air and flip over and over. And it's
19:52like dollar signs falling off the car. I've hurt a little bit, but, um, it's been a
19:59really fun, fun thing for me to get to do. And, and honestly, like I do 90% of the prep
20:07work on those cars myself. Like the one thing I'm not good at is, is the fabrication
20:12side of things. Like I'm not patient enough and I'm not good enough to do it at a level
20:18that I'm happy with. So I have a lot of great friends at HMS that, that helped me on the
20:24fab side of things. But, um, beyond that, I'm, I'm doing all the prep work myself and
20:29working on myself at the racetrack crew chiefing home. And, uh, it's a lot of fun.
20:33It sounds like a good outlet for whatever might be stressful during your, your career
20:39here doing it as a race car driver. And that's a good outlet to probably keep you
20:43energized and passionate. Yeah, for sure. I think that's definitely where it started.
20:48It was a great outlet. And then I probably grew it too much for a while. Like this year
20:53I took four cars. Um, I'm an idiot. I don't know if you guys have picked up on this.
20:59Um, it's like a lot of work for chances to win, not just three or two or one. So, so we
21:05race Phoenix. That's our last race of the season. Fly back. You, you land 4am on Monday
21:12morning, less than a month to get all this stuff together, right? Or it's like a month
21:15and a half. Yeah. But it's every single day in the shop. And, um, my girlfriend, Chloe,
21:20she said, you can't be in the shop on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or Christmas. So I was there every
21:27day except those three days and it was a ton of work. So I'm not ever going to take four
21:32cars again, which is funny because two years ago I took three cars and I said, I was never
21:38going to take three cars. I'm not going to take five. I'm not going to take six. I'm not
21:44going up. We're going down. Um, but yeah, so I think like, uh, like taking two cars gets
21:52pretty simple to put them together. If nothing goes wrong, something always goes wrong. So, um,
21:56I'm sure there'll be some extra work here and there, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's fun.
22:01It's a fascinating thing across all motor sports, whether it's drag racing or it's stock car
22:06racing or even open wheel stuff that racers, they cannot help themselves and they have to
22:11go racing in some form. Like a lot of the, the guys that run professionally on the drag
22:15racing side will go sportsman racing on the weekends or, or guys that run open wheel
22:19cars will jump in a go-kart somewhere. And, and it's, it's different than almost any other
22:23sport. You know, a guy who's, who's bashing his head in playing NFL football every week
22:27is not going, Hey guys, let's, let's run down the park and throw the ball around on Wednesday.
22:30You know what I mean? What is it? Why, why is this such a thing that nobody can escape?
22:34It's an addiction. I think at the end of the day, like, I mean, it has to be an addiction
22:40because there's, you can do all the things you want, but there's like no profit in any way
22:48for any team owner ever really. Like, um, you know, if, if a team owner is breaking even on
22:54racing, they are, they're killing it. They are absolutely crushing it. So, um, at that point
22:59it has to be an addiction, right? Cause it's work, it's stress, it's all the things. Um, and then
23:04from the driver's side of things, I think that's definitely an addiction in some ways. So, um, yeah,
23:10I mean, for me, I really just drive the cup car these days. I think I'll probably go back
23:16sprint car racing at some point. If Chloe will let me, that's a, that's a big sticking point
23:21in my house lately. But, um, yeah, I mean, I think, uh, I think we all love it for sure.
23:28The sprint car experiences, I mean, those guys race in incredible, I mean, as, as gnarly as
23:33the NASCAR cup schedule is, those guys are racing multiple times a week. And obviously now you got,
23:38you got Kyle Larson's high limit series, uh, that, that really kind of shook things up.
23:41World of outlaws has been around forever, but it blows my mind. You know, Donnie shots is a guy
23:46I talked to every once in a while. And it's like, it's just unbelievable the way that these guys race
23:51and it's a, it's a punishing form of competition too. It's not like it's gentle on your body. I mean,
23:56these guys get beat up. Yeah. I live that life. I live that firsthand. I broke my pack, but, um,
24:03yeah, I mean, I think it's very different schedules, right? Um, our schedule we're on the road for 40
24:10weeks, uh, roundabout, we have one off weekend. It already happened in April. So we're rest of
24:16the year. Yeah. Um, I think the thing about our schedule really as a driver, like it's hard to
24:23complain, right? Like we have a bunch of meetings at Monday and Tuesday and we're in the sim and
24:28sponsor appearances and kind of get carted around here and there and whatever. Like this. Like
24:34this, um, but I think what people don't see is like the, the road guys. Um, so they're kind of,
24:42I would separate it into shop guys and road guys. So shop guys, they, they work their ass off in the
24:48shop. They work a ton of hours. They work super hard. Um, but they don't travel. So you get some
24:55weekends off. Sometimes they're working on the weekends, the road crew they're here every weekend.
25:00They don't get weekends off. Their family doesn't get to travel with them. Like, like my family does.
25:06Um, kids, baseball games are not going to, they don't have a single weekend off for the rest of
25:12the year. Uh, you know, they're the hours in the shop get insane. I mean, they're weeks that
25:18Wednesday nights they're loading at two o'clock in the morning. Like that's, that's just part of it.
25:23So, um, the schedule that those guys keep up year round is, is pretty wild. I will say the sprint
25:29car side of things is just different because it's, you're racing all the time. You're actually
25:34like, you race, you show up at, you know, two o'clock to the racetrack. You sit in line to get
25:43in, you unload, you finish your maintenance from the night before you race, you go to the car wash,
25:47you do some maintenance, you go to sleep, you drive to the next place, or you drive to the next
25:50place before you go to sleep. They don't, they don't have the meetings and they don't have like,
25:57it's stripped down. It's like stripped bare. It is. It is very like condensed. Um, and they get,
26:03they just get to race more. So it's just different. Like I would say the physical fatigue is probably
26:08more there on the sprint car side of things from just the sheer, like we're going to race 112 times
26:14this year. Um, but the mental side of like what the shop guy or what the road guys go through and,
26:21uh, kind of the travel aspect and, and all that. Um, it's like they're home, but they're not really
26:27home type of thing. So, um, it's definitely tough and, and definitely appreciate how hard those guys
26:32work. Cause I don't, I think every, like the drivers see the schedule come out and they're
26:36like, man, we get one off weekend. Are you kidding me? And it's, I, I don't feel bad for myself. I feel
26:41bad for, for the road crews for sure. And look, I think that's part of your perspective and the way you
26:46grew up. Yeah. Cause you were basically, you were basically one of the road crew guys as a kid.
26:51Yeah. So you probably have a better appreciation of that than most people. Yeah. And when I ran the
26:55sprint car, I was always working on it too. Like I managed the team. I worked on the car. Um,
27:03I had, I had two guys working for, I had Joe Gertie working for me, which was awesome.
27:07He's an absolute legend. Yeah. You know, my level OCD clean is probably higher than, than,
27:14than Joe's Joe's Joe's. He was getting the maintenance done and the car stuff done, making
27:20sure it went fast. And I was OCD on making sure everything was clean and the trailer floor was
27:25clean. And like, so I was always working too. I was always at the car washes with them.
27:30I don't know how Kyle Larson does it because I traveled with him for a little while and I'm like,
27:36man, I don't know how you do this all the time. Like I am so worn out, but then I'm like,
27:41I see Paul Silva at the car wash while I'm at the car wash with Joe and Kyle's not there.
27:46And I'm like, that's how he does it. I I'm learning. Yeah. But, uh, it was a lot of fun
27:53getting to do all that. Was there something that you could point to really early on in your life
27:57that made you identify this as something you wanted to do? Um, I mean, certain car,
28:04certain person in your life. Uh, I mean my, my dad for sure. Like he, he's a big NASCAR fan.
28:11He doesn't really come from a racing background, but, um, a huge Jeff Gordon fan. He brought home
28:17a quarter midget when I was seven and it kind of snowballed from there. Um, but he had a bunch,
28:23like he had some cool stuff when I was a kid, for sure. He had, um, a bunch of Mustangs that he
28:28had restored. He would always restore and sell. It wasn't like he had a huge collection. Um, I remember
28:34going to an auction with him and he was selling cars to pay for racing, which was rough on him.
28:41So definitely appreciate that. Um, he had a nine 30 that he still has. That was like his prized
28:48possession. Um, so that, that car probably started my car addiction more than anything. Uh, it was like
28:56a factory slant. No, it was nine 30. Yeah. Those are big turbo. Um, super, super cool. He, he still
29:03has it. He says he's going to get buried in it one day. So he's like, absolutely. You cannot have it.
29:08I'm getting buried in it. Um, if, if they won't bury me in it, we're crushing it. You still can't
29:13have it. You can't drive it. He let me drive it one time and it, uh, the fuel pump failed when I
29:20drove it. Oh, so there you go. So then I, I'm calling him from the side of the side of the road,
29:25like, Hey, your car that your most prized possession that you finally let me drive one
29:29time is a broken on the side of the road. And it wasn't the fact that it had been sitting for six
29:35years that made the fuel pump break and had a bunch of old fuel in it. It was the fact that I
29:40was driving. So, um, I think we took about 10 years to get past that one, but we might be past it
29:46today. I'm not sure. Last and final question before we let you go. If you had not gotten
29:51the quarter midget when you were seven, if you had not gotten in and moved your way up through a
29:55career, what would you be doing today? Probably painting cars in my dad's body shop. Honestly,
30:00I was never really good at much else, uh, aside from the mechanical side of things. Like, uh,
30:07you know, I feel like I can spin wrenches pretty well at this point. Um, something that I really enjoy.
30:12So maybe not so much the collision side of things, but I feel like I would have fallen
30:17into that since, since that's what my dad does. Um, but probably something, you know,
30:24something to do with cars really hard to say and really glad that I don't have to work with
30:29my dad on a daily basis because we would kill each other. I can guarantee you that it would not go
30:36well, but, um, but yeah, something, something with cars and, you know, I've used, I'm 32 now. Um,
30:46I've been cup racing for 11 years. You're always thinking about like, well, when cup racing's over,
30:52like, what am I going to do? And I mean, that's like, do I start a shop? Do I like, what kinds of
30:59things do I want to do? I would want to start an aftermarket shop and then the EPA would like shut me
31:03down probably. So I'd get myself in trouble, but, um, yeah, it's, uh, there's so many different
31:11mechanical things you can do, but something in that, that genre. Well, thank you for coming in
31:15today, man. Good luck this weekend and, uh, congratulations on, it looks like forward
31:18momentum, man. We're, we're looking at it that, uh, top five at the all-star races proof. Yeah.
31:22Thanks guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Gearhead NASCAR racer, the latest cast on the hot
31:28rod pod. We will see you next time. John, Brian, Alex, we're out.
31:33We'll see you next time.
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