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Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes Cleetus McFarland back to the Download on the heels of his polarizing NASCAR Trucks Series debut. The beloved YouTube-content creator and part-time ARCA competitor joins the show to share some big news: he’s moving up in the world of stock car racing. McFarland explains that he recently received an offer to join Richard Childress Racing for select O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts over the next two seasons. The team is eager to work with McFarland to help give him proper seat-time experience and training to help unlock the racer he has shown glimpses of being. He will take his next step at an upcoming test at Rockingham before making his series debut at the track on April 4th.
Cleetus recently garnered negative attention when he crashed out early from his Trucks series debut at Daytona, a move brought on by a lack of experience and lap time. Dale Jr. explains that while he is moving quickly into his racing career, the incident has happened to even veteran racers such as himself. He goes on to reassure Cleetus that the training and education he’ll receive at RCR will expedite his growth as a racer, giving him information he’d never be able to gain in the ARCA ranks. The guys also discuss the inherent danger that comes along with Cleetus’ stunt work, the prospect of going late model racing, and even share a little liver mush snack.
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It's one of those things, you know, I think being a YouTuber for so long, like I've just,
I've had everything in the world said about me.
People can say whatever they want, but when, when I keep coming back every time and they realize
that their words don't affect me, time and time again, they're gonna run out of breath.
As long as I'm having fun, I'm gonna keep showing up at these NASCAR races.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media.
You're a Dale Junior.
Should I say it?
It's Dale Junior Fockets, I gotta say it.
Hey everybody, it's Dale Junior back again for another episode of The Dale Junior
Download in the Arby Studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three
bucks. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. Arby's, we have the meats.
We also have a great guest for you today.
Cleetus McFarlane's coming back to the studio. You know,
Cleetus wasn't here too long ago, but lots happened in his life since then.
And he's continuing to dive hit first into driving race cars and trying to be a part of the
ARCA NASCAR ecosystem. And he's got a big announcement for us today.
And so he called me about a month ago or so, maybe more and said,
Hey, I got this opportunity. What should I do? And he's really, really,
you know, vetting this out. Is this something I should do? Are you sure?
Call me about three or four weeks later. Man, they want me to sign this deal.
You still think I should do it? Well, he's here to announce what he's going to do.
I'm excited about it. You know, we saw things didn't go exactly as planned in the truck race
at Daytona. Got out there in the ARCA race the next day and had a decent run.
And he's going to take on more ARCA races, maybe another truck racer too.
He's going to do more racing this year. He's told me that he might be getting a short track
car to run somewhere. I encourage him to get behind the wheel as often as possible.
And he's going to come here to talk about the day. Let's get started. Let's get this guy
in the room and see what the breaking news is today.
It's cool to put my sponsor hat on the table. Okay, cool.
Well, there's your sponsor. Yeah, I just, yeah, Tommy's express car.
Check that out, man. So this deal. There we are. Yeah, this deal. Let's talk about this deal.
You got the hat on rocking a little bit of a giveaway. I know the RCR have it.
So let's just get the cat out of the bag, man. Um, you're here to make an announcement.
You're here to tell the world about some great news. Yeah, got some really exciting news,
which you you knew about maybe a month ago. Yeah. Yeah. RCR called me up offered me a ride
there. A rally car for three or four races a year for two years. Yeah.
It's pretty unbelievable to me. And I'm just so thankful and excited. And like I said,
we got a sponsor in a day and now I'm assigned a paid driver. Well, got a $1 salary.
So for Richard Gilder's racing, $1 salary. Yeah, I just am so excited. It doesn't even sound
real coming out of my mouth still. I'm like so blown away. Yeah. So this is a great opportunity.
And we're going to get we're going to dive into what you've experienced since the last time you
own the show and all the race and you're doing and your life's completely changed. Yeah. And so
a lot of your life is still the same, but there's some there's some new things. But the
opportunity to race with RCR, I think is a very good one. I asked you. You're the first person I
talked to when they first got ahold of me. And you said, absolutely, that's something you got to
do. And even after my trials and tribulations in Daytona, when I was a little scared at that
point, when I called you on that Monday, I was like, am I jumping the gun or a text to you?
I said, am I jumping the gun? I got to sign this contract. They're asking me to sign it.
So that was a lot to take in. Yeah, of course. I mean, this is the whole thing, man.
You're your pathway into all of this is absolutely unusual in all the docs. But I think about like,
you know, it's not precedent. It's not it's not the first time that it's ever happened this way.
Kyle Petty, you know, one of his very first races was that Daytona and the ARCA series,
which he would go out there and win. And Richard Petty, the king of NASCAR, right? He is the
king of NASCAR, the all-knowing being of NASCAR, right? And he's sitting there going, yeah,
you don't need to mess around with this and that and the other. We're going to put you right in
there. If you're going to race cup, you might as well drive cars and get right in there and do it.
Now that was 50, so years ago. But you know, the idea that there's only one way in is not correct.
You are trying to become a race car driver at a late point in your life.
Yeah. But you two were trying to become a race car driver. Yeah. And you know that, right? And so
if that is what you want to do, the best way for you to do that is get around people that can
actually give you the preparation and the tools. And that's why I like this thing with RCR. So
you can, you know, you can run some ARCA races, which you should still try to do. Yeah,
I'm still doing that. We're going to dive all into that. You got a lot of you got a lot of things
you want to try to achieve to continue to give yourself time behind the wheel. But
getting better behind the wheel, it takes experience, but it also takes sim, people telling you,
people helping you, people willing to be in your ear. You had that with Greg Biffle, right?
You had somebody that was a mentor, somebody that was always going to be telling you the right
thing to do. What to be focusing on in that moment when you're making mistakes, how to fix them.
You had that. And I think you'll have that with RCR. And that's why I like their, I think that
they're kind of aligned in terms of how you'll fit the person you are, the individual you are. But
they have, they have all of the tools to be able to make you a race car driver faster.
Yeah. Which is what we got to do. We got to do. That's right. They, you know,
yesterday we sat in a room with a simulator, you know, and I'm just on there. And there's like
five people, you know, working on it, talking to me, giving me data and like just
the amount of time I was able to improve the laps was so much shorter than if I sat on my own
simulator doing it by yourself for hours. And that's kind of, it was a, and that's the difference.
Yeah. That's a difference if you're racing in an arca car, right? You go run the arca car,
I don't know. There's people there to try and help you. But this RCR deal, they are going to
totally they're going to be there for overload you with like all of the tools to try to prep you.
They don't want this to fail, right? They won't, they absolutely want this to succeed. So they're
going to try to do everything they can. Yeah. The arca car, you know, I was trying to explain
down my channel yesterday, you know, they give me a great car. That's their goals to give me a
great car and put me out there. But really beyond that and beyond what Greg has taught me,
Biff, I just, it's all on me at that point. And I don't train or do anything. I mean,
when I was in that truck, right? That was my second race every day. Tona, the first time I
crashed in 17 laps. So that was like close to my 20th lap every there. And, uh, you know,
so I didn't have, I'm just such a rookie. And I think, uh, I've created an expectation to my
followers too that like, I'm going to go do this and it's going to be amazing. And sometimes it
just isn't, you know, and like I, it was a tough day for me. Man, I mean, I got literally chewed
up and spit out by those guys, which was a humbling experience. But I'm so excited. Man, going
through our CR yesterday, the amount of tools and equipment they have to, uh, help me versus
just the car is significantly different. Like the darker guys, that's great. They help the car.
They make the cars good at it as it can be. They help me a little bit. RCR, I feel like there's
a lot more opportunity for me to grow as a driver too. And when they called me, you know, they,
they kind of said, we want to help you become the driver. We think you can be. And that, I don't
know. That's just, it's really exciting to me to get that. It feels crazy that they would
want to do that. Yeah, for sure. I, you know, I, I, here we are. I know. I think about the things
that you do, um, that are applicable. So in, in the, in the years that I've been around the sport,
we've had, you know, uh, motorcycle racers, uh, come in and ask our, we've had, we've had people
from different disciplines that are driving vehicles of different kinds, two wheel four wheel,
stadium trucks, whatever, Baja, they, they come from all types of disciplines and each one of those
disciplines, they're controlling something that's trying to go out of control, right? And
there is a way to sort of, uh, there is a way to sort of port the understanding of driving a
vehicle at, at its limit into this, in the NASCAR end of driving a stock car. It's, it's,
you're taking a vehicle and trying to push it to its limit, entire slip and all of those things.
And if you understand that in motorcycles or whatever it may be, you can apply the same
logic, right? And you, you've spent a lot of your life taking things to the limit.
Right. Yeah. And so, you know, and I think the more of that you do, especially behind the wheel
of a four wheeled stock car, the more it's going to start to make sense, right? The more it's going
to start to click. So like, I'm encouraged by, I would encourage you, like, if you truly really want
this, like, absolutely go for it, right? Absolutely. And so these are the things that you, you,
you can't turn down, right? Yeah. Um, these are the opportunities that are, that, you know, to your
point, you're, how, how do you? Oh, 30. 30, right? So you're trying to become a race car driver at
30 when a lot of guys, you know, have been driving cars since there was five, 10 years old, right?
Young. Yeah. They've driven thousands of laps by the time they actually get a truck ride or
something like they've raised for, for years. You know, and you're trying to, yeah, you're trying
to do all this in a very short period of time. And so that's why I think this is a great opportunity.
Yeah. I mean, like I said, it's unbelievable. They even called me and, uh, the hard thing that I've
talked to, I've talked to, I mean, primarily Ty Dillon got ahold of me. And then I've been working
with Mike Berlander, Mike Dillon, Richard, um, and that, you know, and then it trickled down. We had
the first meeting, you know, and I just couldn't believe that like, they wanted to do it long term.
Well, two years is kind of short term, I guess, but like that to me is long term. Yeah.
It's more than just one year and, you know, wonder, uh, couldn't believe it. The, the thing that's
so hard about the sport too is to get seat time. It's very expensive. And there's not really a good
chance to practice. So now I'm looking at buying a late model for myself, because I think that's
the most comparable thing, right, is to go drive late. Yes. You have, you own a racetrack. I know.
Right. What an idiot to not have a car. You should have a car. And you should be right
at last. Yeah. So I just sat in a late model this morning. Yeah. Over at Port City, uh,
race cars, yeah, felt good. I said, guys, give me some final price and I'm going to buy one.
I don't know what I'm going to do because we only have two late model racetrack. I might have
to host some more. I'm going to start doing that. I'm still doing Arca. If they call me to run
the truck again, I'm absolutely going to do it. You know, and then I'm just going to try and do
my absolute best in the Riley's car. Yeah. Obviously, it's crazy that I'm going up this fast.
I don't want to be one of those guys that you mentioned that comes into the sport and just forces
their way. I mean, you didn't mention anyone forcing their way up, but a lot of people have
joined and immediately tried to speed your way through climb to cup. Sure. I don't want to drive
a cup car right now. But brother, if someone calls me and says, we got a spot in a cup car,
the Daytona 500, I mean, what am I supposed to do to say no? Right. Yeah. If you're clear to race,
you'd have to consider. I mean, I'm thinking nine and nine times out of 100. I'm saying yes to that.
So, and I think that's another perspective I've had on all the hate I've been getting. You know,
this sport is so critical. Oh, yeah. It's pretty well. Yeah. I think that's how it is in all sports.
Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know the way it's I guess I got a bigger taste of it. Maybe the other way.
Well, you know, which I deserve. It's unprecedented what you're doing and not that that means it's wrong
or bad. But you know, if you're going to you have to realize that you're coming in
without any experience and how you're coming in is very unorthodox. You don't have that sort of
you know, and so people are you're open yourself up to. Oh, I get it. Yeah. I mean,
well, I would totally understand it from the outside of someone's race forever. And then
Cleetus is all of a sudden jumping past them. That would annoy me too. And that part I don't
think is the problem. I think it's the I think what people want to probably see. I think what's
they start seeing you like, Hey, man, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to climb in my late model
and I'm going to just run some laps all day. People need to see you that see that, right? And see
you actually, Hey, man, I'm taking I'm acknowledging that I need experience that I need to do
this and that and and that I'm and that I'm I do want to do better. I do want to understand. Yeah,
you know, how to not put myself in the situation I was in in the truck right off Turn 4. I mean,
I have a car control to save it. You know, but I mean, that happened to me like I wrecked I wrecked
Cupcar ball by myself. I've turned four like that is a that is a common
a problem to get off that corner and get loose. Yeah, especially on the inside. You just didn't
know it was coming, right? And so I didn't yeah, right? I was settled in. I mean, we as short as
whatever six laps is I was settled in like all of a sudden we're running the bottom. I know
they're three wide. I'm feeling great. Yeah, trucks awesome. I'm hanging on for dear life having
the greatest time ever. Honestly, I was so excited, but I couldn't even talk in my radio because I was
just so death gripped on the wheel. And then it stepped out. Yeah. And when I went up, I literally
was like, I'm about to wreck all of these guys. And I just put too much wheel in it. Yeah. And
there I went. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's a it's it's easy to do there, but it's kind of that
thing. When it happened, I'm like, man, he had no idea that was going to happen. And it's like,
how do you prep somebody for that? They warned me. I know. I warned my ex-finity guys the very next
day. I'm like, y'all saw y'all see that right there? That could happen to you. You could easily
find yourself in that same situation. And a couple times they almost did, right? Yeah. It's just
but if you don't do it and you don't you're you had if you had in the harker car, I was waiting for
it. Right. You know, the next day. Yeah. And then they probably never in our car with a different
tire, different arrow. Yeah. Just one time stepped out a little bit, but I just had it. You know, like,
but you know, when I circle back on all of that, I think to myself, even after you know,
everyone's like, please just wow, you know, why would you go in a in a truck without any more
experience than you had? Still after how bad I did. If if Pastrana called me, you know, and said,
hey, I got a truck ride for you. Do you want it? I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. And I think so with
everybody else. So with everybody else. Yeah. So although there are I need to see time. You do.
There's I'm going to take those. Yeah. Opportunity. There are thousands of examples of drivers that
have driven cars with very little experience, little to none in our industry and truck and cup.
You know, there's thousands. If I go back, I'm a very traditional, a big nostalgic fan of the
history of the sport. And if I go back to the 70s, 80s, 90s, there were guys showing up to the
the sports and race, the Bush race, the Xfini O'Reilly race, you know, the Cup race even with very
little experience. The arc race was was the arc a series up until, I mean, even today still,
part of its core identity is there'll be guys out there that have never been on a big track,
a track bigger than you know, half mile, you know, that was the that was kind of like the
the draw really was like, oh man, I'm going to watch like 15 of these dudes that have never
raced on anything bigger than a half mile. Go out here and run Daytona. They are cracking down a
little bit. Yeah. Well, they have to have some sort of like balance. Yeah, because George tried
to enter Arca at Daytona and they said, George, my, oh, yeah, they they turned them down.
Yeah. Well, they said, we need to see you run. They drew the line. Yeah, they drew the line.
So, and that was before I crashed. So, yeah, I mean, I understand there's a balance to it.
And it's it's probably really hard for an ass card to navigate. It is. Well, it is. I mean,
I think they go back and forth, depend upon, you know, what happens on the racetrack. They kind
of seem to ebb and flow with where the line is. All right. Before we get to our next topic,
I want to tell you guys about a new show here at Dirty Mo Media. It's called Suns and Daughters
hosted by Shannon Spake. Shannon is going to be interviewing notable athletes, singers, celebrities,
anyone else that is at the top of whatever they do. Everyone has an origin before I was a broadcaster,
I was a daughter. And that part of my story never changed. So in this series, I'm going to talk
with people whose achievements you know, but whose beginnings you don't. The family, the identity,
the moments that shapes them because every extraordinary person starts as someone's child.
I'm Shannon Spake. This is Suns and Daughters. And new episodes drop every Wednesday. You can watch
on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. All right. We can't wait for that to come out.
The first episode drops March the fourth. It's Marty Smith. And after that, it's Coach Kay
going to be a lot of great guests coming down the line. Please check it out. Subscribe so you don't
miss anything. Currently, you're at 4.65 million subscribers. Yeah. You wake up every day.
Feel in the pressure of having to deliver content. Oh man. Go bigger and bigger every time.
I don't feel any pressure of that. You don't. Well, so I tune in. I tune into one clip and you'd
given all of your people that work over it to the freedom factory or you gave them all those
freaking super fast jeeps. This is ridiculous. Yeah. So y'all start running around the yard
wide-ass open. And I'm thinking to myself, the liability alone would I would have so much anxiety
over somebody like rolling one of the things over. You don't even think about that. I mean,
what are you doing? They're all wearing helmets. I know. Does everybody sign a liability waiver?
Do they? So like when I would have parties in my house back in the day, like in the
bud days, we'd have big ass frickin parties. Yeah. I would have everybody sign a waiver before they
came in. Like, you know, well, what you don't see what you don't see on video. And I do have is I
this may or may not hold up in court. You know, I'm a law school dropout. So I say on video
during these group things, I say, with all the engines off and everyone's saying there, I say,
you do not have to ride right now with this group. You can sit and watch. I'm not sure that's
enough. Please. If you would like to join, we're gonna ride, but understand you are off the clock
and what we are doing is at your own risk. And I say that. And then everyone
doesn't even think for a second, they stick their hands on what you have fun. I guess if
so I do have that clip. I guess if that, you know, the splash palette is the little splash
page that would come on before every jackass episode that would say, don't try this.
Pretty cool. If that was enough to clear them for a mini liability, then that's probably
enough for you. I think I do expose myself to some liability here and there. They were they
you probably haven't even seen the Honda video. I'm thinking of oh, well, no, I knew when I was
watching that video, y'all on the jeeps. I'm like, I'm probably not even seeing the worst of it,
but this is making me nervous. Oh, no. Yeah. You have not. Those jeeps are fast.
Did everybody take their jeeps home? What happened? Yeah, they take them home. They're theirs.
They're property. So they're riding their stuff on my property. Yeah, there's there's some liability
solid point. Yeah. Got you thinking. Now you got me thinking. You don't even do this. I
contain. I mean, you don't sit at home. You know, when the day is done and you've like eight
you're dinner and you're getting ready to get a bed, it's 9 p.m. and you're like, shoot. Man,
that was dangerous. Well, I'm going to be honest. I had one of those moments in December.
My one of my employees, Zach was in a pretty bad crash on your property. It involved in something
y'all were doing. Oh, I'm going to have to talk about it. Oh, yeah, it's on the
internet. I'm going to have to pull the clip. Okay. I mean, we're talking rushed to the hospital.
Oh, correct. Situation here. But, uh, you know, when you're saying you feel the pressure,
though, the videos, my best performing videos are when I'm just having fun with crappy cars,
like the RV content. That was like our best performing stuff of the year. So yeah, I don't have,
I don't feel that pressure too bad. And honestly, I just love doing this stuff. All right,
3 million views, by the way. How do you come up with like what you're going to do every day? Like,
I would that, I guess the like, you don't, the brother, there's unlimited content at my
facility. Wow. The freedom factory. I know. But like you're just, you just haven't been there.
You know, I know, is it all your folks to coming up to you every day going, we ought to do this.
We ought to do that. You just kind of keep a little mental note. I think it just so naturally happens.
I don't know. It's just for people around in myself with week. Have you ever came up with something
and you did it and you're like, yeah, that button is good. Yeah. But we still posted anyway,
because people are like, so this, this challenge I bought, I gave each of the guys in the shop,
1200 bucks. It was the video is the $10,000 Honda Civic challenge. So there was
enough for us to all have $1,200. I think I read about this. I don't think I've seen this clip.
I think I heard a Civic and then I set up like the OG fast and furious race for the jump
the bridge. That was the theory. Yeah. So we take off in a great race. And you have to go under
a semi truck that's moving and then run this crazy race. Well, we're getting to the finish line
here. And I'm chasing down George. My buddy's act is chasing down both of us. His Honda's got
a back half on. It's ripping. Well, the bridge jumps coming up and he doesn't lift because he's
just trying to inch out George. He hits his baby hard. So I'll just let it play from this point.
So this is me chasing George right here. This is on your property.
Dracks. Right. Where's the bridge? Oh, we built it. Oh, you built a bridge. It's a jump. I got you.
So one more turn here. Back into the drag strip. Contact. So Zach's behind us. You can't see him.
Just a regular ass seat belt. And by the way, you guys can overlay the video on top.
Oh, Zach's going to come flying by me here.
Is this him? I did not put his in car footage in the video because it's so violent.
Very. Yeah. There it is.
Damn. Yeah. Yeah. I would have been painting.
So yeah, we had to back her down a little bit after this one. Right.
What was his, where, how is Zach? Zach is good. He had what's called an AC separation.
That is like a task. It's it's a like I guess in your shoulder, you have three ligaments that kind of
hold your scalpel in position and they tore. All right. It's very common in football. I guess
because they're head down and eight. Well, his entire Honda Civic landed on his shoulder
because the A pillar crushed and had no head injury or no neck injury.
So in the end car footage, he goes like this. I have that. I'll show you after in the
end car footage when the front end hits. There's some other funny parts of the footage. I'll show you
later, but the car turns a little bit. And so he goes like this and lays back just naturally.
And so the entire Honda Civic then lands on him because the roof comes in and
by some miracle. Damn it, dude. You're such a crazy man. So yeah, I do feel like you're talking
a little bit. After that one, I was like, all right, we're going to back her down a little bit.
Yeah. I was watching when you had Hose of R over to short track. And he, he like sent it over
the jump in the, in the minivan and note said it wasn't that. Who was still the minivan up on the
nose? That was one of Travis Pastron's best. Okay. He about damn ended up on the roof.
Well, even or not, he's done that. That's the same jump. Yeah. Same jump that caused the Honda
to go over. Maybe let's take that jump and we're working on a redesign. Okay. Right now the design
is a triangle. We're going to work on a different shape. A little longer. Yeah, something.
I don't know. Most you can't tell, but none of the cars actually touched the end of the ramp.
They just ricochet off the front. Yeah. Interesting. So we're working on that. Yeah. Yeah. I think
there's, that's probably necessary. I mean, there's got to be a little worried about you. Yeah. I know.
Like your, your ass is, you know, you're kicking ass and yeah, yeah. I don't want anyone to get
on the line. I know you don't. So we just get carried away some days. We really, the other thing too
is it's like the thing that I enjoy that I hope maybe you're unaware of is the
evil, evil, con evil aspect or the, the risk to you that you put yourself into, you know,
your ability to like, I've always marveled at stuntmen and people that are above and beyond.
Right. The, you know, doing things that have never been done before jumps and, and yeah,
you've talked about like last time you're here, you're talking about some kind of a stunt.
You're going to pull off land in a plane and they're like, damn it. You know, that's like,
you're the one solely at risk in those moments. Yeah. You've been in some moments where
a thing, you know, one little, one little thing goes this way or that way. But you know, you're,
I mean, do you idolize, you know, the evil, the evil, the evil of the world or those kind of
guys, they don't even know. I mean, I think those are so much higher risk. Yeah, but I mean,
it's very, that's like the version of, you know, but they probably think maybe the same thing.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I watch those stunts and I'm like, wow, that's unbelievable.
I mean, jumping a motorcycle 500 feet, but they're very planned, you know, even though some,
most, most times they can go wrong. They're still some planning engineer. Yeah. You know,
your stuff is like seriously by the sea to your fucking pants. I mean, the good news about my stuff
and by the way, I appreciate you bringing this stuff up. It's sometimes good for me to hear it,
you know, but most of the time I'm protected by a race car, you know, so that does help.
I think, but I do worry about it sometimes, like the big car eagle, you know, that I have,
I don't like going to 60. I don't, you know, I have the fat, I'm the fastest guy to ever drive on
a radial tire in the quarter mile, you know, and like that record is cool, but I really don't love
letting go of the button in that car. That thing is so fast. So I mean, that's one that I've
been thinking about marking off just being done. Sure. You know, you do other stunts with, you know,
outside of driving race cars, you do other things that are very risky. And I feel like that
it's in the same vein as a, as a evil, cannibal style. What you are, you think, you know,
besides the airplane on the barge? That, right? That alone. That's very dangerous. Well, the airplane
on the barge to put your mind at ease. I mean, I'm touching down at under 30 miles an hour,
you know, that's pretty slow. Okay. And then worst case, I end up in the water. And it's like
the plane floats. Okay. You know, it's not going to just sink like that. So yeah, I mean,
that one, I think, is probably one of the least risky. Maybe, yeah. All right. What do you think
about an ask car? Are the cars risky? Very safe. Yeah. I mean, I think very safe. Outside of
concussions. Yeah. Concussions are the main concern. That's my main concern. And I'm back in
injury 100 percent. Back injuries are pretty rare. But it's the head injuries that are probably
more common. They're more common than I think we realize. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it
years ago, I could walk up to that race car. There's a car sitting here in the shop that's from 1980
that my dad raised. We could walk up and look at that car and go, it's missing 80% of the safety
that we got today. Yeah. No headrest, you know, everything seats bad, everything's bad. You know,
and they walked, they walked up to that car in 1980 and thought, this is way safer than this is
very safe. This is very safe. We've been working for years to make it safe. Look at how safe this
is. Yeah. You know, and I started driving race cars that didn't have had, we didn't have had
rest. Then we started to use one. Then we had two. Then we had nets. Then we had, you know,
now we got this massive cocoon. Yeah. Like I've seen this crazy evolution of safety.
With the drag cars. Yeah. Tons of safety poured into the interior of the car over the last 20,
25 years. But I thought they were pretty damn good 25 years ago. I know. That's a good point.
But we're massively forward. And we always are like, oh, why do we got to do this? You know,
when they make us add a certain safety, you come and ask them like, this is crazy. And then two
years later, I'm like, oh, I'm glad that's there. Yeah. I wouldn't race car without that. Exactly.
That's like that. So Tom had the concussions. Just a little funny thing about that. I was out of the car
in 16, getting trying to heal from some, some concussions I had. And I was going to come back. And
in all season, I had a meeting with NASCAR. And we're all sitting up in this office here to the top
guys in the, in the, in the safety car, you know, competition side of things were there. And
I was like, I want a job to come here. I wanted to meet with y'all. I'm a race next year,
but I don't want to use a headrest. I want to go back to my old, it was a, we used to run these
um, headrests that when you, they were just eight inch aluminum. And when you would hit anything,
they would just bend out of the way. Okay. You know, and your head would go this way or that.
And I was like, I don't want to be boxed in on that hard foam because I think, you know, when I
hit, I just hit the foam and my, and my brain bounces around on my head. I mean, I want my head
to go this way and not my brain just taking all of that abuse. And they were like, yeah,
now we're not going to let you do that. You're not going to be the only guy out there with like
1995 headrest. You know, and I'm like, well, that's, that's what I think is better for me.
Because we got the hod's now. And that's going to keep my head from being ripped off my shoulders.
And so that should do all the, and they just immediately were like, no, not doing that. I like,
yeah. I mean, I will say NASCAR's safety stuff is like leaps and bounds ahead of other stuff I've
done. I mean, I've already, I got fine a couple times for not wearing the right stuff. And I'm like,
damn, they are on me. And then after the arc race, they came and checked all my underwear.
Yes, they will. I'm like, they, I mean, they do not play. That's the way. Which is good. We got
rules. It's good. It's just, it was a little bit of shock. Well, I think that we realized I
remember you, you were somewhere and you didn't have something. Huh? Was it your, what did you
want to have? I wore, I wore a Simpson hybrid sport, not the Simpson hybrid. Got you. You
know the right thing. And I remember that. And you were like, you were kind of taking a back.
They were like, so particular. Yeah. And I think that well, I know. And your reaction to that
made them go, we might better watch this guy. And now you're getting a little more retention,
you know, until I just wear it by the book. I think until they feel like you've got it covered,
they'll keep checking you. Yeah. Right. And it's not out of, they're not picking on you. They
just want to make sure you're safe. I mean, honestly, those circling around on the whole safety
thing, it's, it's good for me to have people that hold me to that standard. And it kind of helps
me in all my other stuff. I, I used to not wear underwear in my drag cards, put on my suit.
And after I went to the R&D center and they showed me burns on people,
I just wear my underwear now, even though it's a pain to get out. It's uncomfortable.
Yeah. So if I'm in my fast car, like I'm putting that stuff on. So, you know, I, um,
oh, we got a quick, we got a quick surprise for you.
Got you guys. I said, drop. What did you do it? We got some liver mush.
Hell yes. Okay. What's some toast with mustard on it? What? So we wanted to get you locked in.
Yeah. What is the deal with liver mush? Like I just, you told us in the last podcast,
you liked it. Have you ever ate it? I had it one time. I did not like it. So I'm going to try it
again today. You're going to try it with you. All right. And we got to how you want it. Then
yeah, crispy. That's right. So what are we doing here? All right. The way people at home,
this is liver mush liver mush. I wish they didn't call it that. It's, um, it's kind of like
ground up sausage. I mean, it's got, you know, what I heard, um, apparently they take the head
of a pig. I hope not. And they boil it until everything is out of it. And then they pull the bone
out. No, no, no. It's only what I heard. I don't know who told you that. George, is this accurate?
I'm 51 years old and I've never heard that. I'm not really sure what I'm eating right now.
I'm not either. I can't even describe what it tastes like.
It's just liver mush. I'm going to go ahead and folder up. Yeah. You know, keep it over here. I
don't want to, I don't want to waste it. It comes in a, it comes in a square. And they had this
stuff up north, but it's called like Scrapple or something. But, uh, it's a much better. Yeah,
little bit. Scrapple sounds appetizing. Yeah. Man, thank you. I'll give it a, I'll give it a
five point five out of 10. I would say that would be my personal man. I mean, I can tell by you,
you're thinking nine and I like it. Yeah, I like it. I do. I do. I've went this long in my life.
And I just say, I just go, go ahead and ride this out. Okay. I won't say it.
Thank you, George. Yeah. Thank you, George. That was very nice.
Let's talk about Arca. What, how many arc races do you run into here? Well, first of all,
I love Arca. What do you love? I absolutely love Arca. I don't know, man. Ripon and Arca, I love
love the, uh, the cautions where you're, you just have all the time in the world. I love
everything about it. Yeah. No, no, there's no competition. There's no, uh, there's no last stops.
Yeah. It's right. Yeah. It's like, I don't know what they call them. They're semi-live pit stops.
Or, you know, it's badass. You, you're out there with a bunch of people learning, you know,
for the most part, you're too wide that you get, so you got a lot of room and it's not the most
competitive thing. Like, Biff told me this, an Arca, there's going to be about 10 cars that are
competitive in truck. There's going to be 20 trucks in a rally. There's going to be about 25 cars
that are competitive. And then Cup, it's going to be like everyone's competitive. So, you know,
an Arca, I can do well. I don't have as much pressure on the pit stops. Oh, they call them modified
live pit stops. That's what it is. And, uh, the way that they slow everything down for us,
drivers is great. And also the laps are not ridiculous. Yeah. I mean,
how many laps they do? They tone a 200? I love the long wait. Yeah. I like the long. Yeah.
You do like the long wait. I feel like that. I feel like that I'm a good game manager.
So, like, the longer the race, the better shot I have. I'm not a hot lapper. I'm not going to
do well in the short ones. I can tell you, though, that at most of my Arca races, I wish there
was 20 more laps. So, I do feel that a little bit. But like, I just love it, man. Like, I'm really
enjoying it. I'm doing, uh, did Daytona. And then I'm doing rocking him. I'm doing Kansas,
Dowd Dagger. And then Michigan. You ran Bristol at the back end of last year in the Arca race. And
you were, I gotta ask you something. Yeah. You were live, uh, you know, everybody was able to ride
or long and watch your in car. I watched your in car the entire race. You can see you, you can see
this massive like change in how you drove the car. You just like, it was like, and it was really,
I mean, you know, not, not, not many times do we really have an opportunity to ride on board
with a, with a person mid-packer in Arca race, right? Yeah. To your point, most of the people out there
are learning and trying to figure it out. Yeah, specifically someone who really doesn't know
what they're doing. Right. And we, you've been around the track before. So you kind of knew where you
were at, but watching you and how you used the throttle and all that stuff was so fascinating.
Yeah, because I actually saw your clip, you know, last week when I was under criticism.
Do the difference between the first 10 laps and the last laps of the race was insane.
What was I doing so wrong? Just, just off top of your head. Well, a lot of times there's two ways
to sort of do it. When you get out there, you're going to either overdrive it. You're going to
drive off in the corner way too far, have to stop and have, have a really slow minimum speed
in the middle of the corner. But the most common thing is to not get in there far enough,
and deep enough, and you're picking the throttle up way too soon. And you're coming up off the
corner, losing the nose, getting tight because you're carrying way too much speed on exit. And so like,
you were kind of, you were probably under driving the entry and, you know, and you get down in the
corner and you're back in the gasway too soon. But like, you started to shift that as you got more
and more comfortable. It's still a little scary. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I think everyone
watches from TV and they know the cars are fast. But when you're in there, it's super fast.
Super fast. Yeah. So I was a little cautious at first, but then Biff was kind of talking to me.
He's like, further, further. And then I started hearing the chip. And I'm like,
that must be going way further now. But, uh, but you can see, although once you start to get the
car down in the corner deeper and you're moving your throttle around, and that that kind of puts
the corner together better. Yeah. Because there's some times when you come up the corner and you're like
plowing in the door, you know, because you're got the gas way back there. Yeah. Literally yesterday
in the simulator, they pull me out. They overlay Jesse's data. Yeah. They're like, you're just off
too soon. And I was doing the same thing. And I mean, looking back at the footage, I think that's
what I was doing at rocking him too. I think that's why I hit the wall at your test. Yes. You were. Yeah.
So, um, that is, that's it. If you are, if you don't take the RCR deal, you're not sitting there
overlaying your data to Jesse, a guy who knows how to drive the car. Yeah. And you're not able to
look at it and go, there's what I need to do different. That is, I need to do this exact thing.
differently. You can't see that. I can't any other way. I could run ARCA for three more years and
and not see that is why I take in the RCR deal is going to make you a better race car driver.
And not only are they passionate people that actually want to do the right thing and help you
and give you those tools, right? And have you in the sim and they seriously want to take on this
challenge, which would be fun for them and you. Yeah. But that's exactly why you should do it.
That's why I told you to do is because you're getting data, you're getting real information
that you truly can understand and go, all right. I see. Yeah. I need to go from and instead of
lifting a 300 mark, I need to lift it to 200 when they show me the the data. I'm like, okay,
so what is that like a tenth of a second? He's like, clicks a button, clicks another button. He's
like, it's 240 feet. I'm like, what? He's full throttle 200 feet longer. Yeah. I just couldn't,
I'm like, how does it make the turn? Yeah. And then he's like, oh, well, he's 150 pounds more
brake pressure. I'm like, damn, yeah, I'm a woozy. You know? So then I just sat down and the
simulator did the same thing and like knocked you tense off my time. Yeah. So now, I mean, I think
realistically, the problem that I am facing is consistency. You know, like I was trying to do
what he was doing, but I just couldn't do it more than, you know, two, three laps in a row.
And then I tapped the wall or get loose or go high in the turn because I didn't get down to the line.
So I think my outlook on now going to rocking him in the O'Reilly's car is just finished the race
as priority number one and get gets money laps as I can. Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough thing. When you're
in the car, your competitive nature gets the best of you. And if you don't feel like that,
you're measuring up to your own personal expectations, much less what you think everybody else wants
you to achieve. That's when you can overdo it or start pushing yourself too hard. Yeah. You have
to figure out a way to understand what the game, what the game day goal is and adhere to it
all times. So like my Xfinity guys are going to code it last weekend and I told one of them,
he's like, you know, I've been, I've been working hard on the sim. I've been trying my
soft try to get faster at road course racing. I'm not very good at it, but I'm working hard.
And I'm like, you're going to start the race. You're going to be really slow. You're going to
qualify bad. He did. I said, when the race starts, you're going to get faster every lap. You're
going to be smarter, faster, smarter, faster. I said, by the end of the race, you're going to be
really proud of yourself, but you still need to remember what the ultimate original goal was
it to start and not to try too hard, start getting too confident, start making mistakes.
That's what happens. Like you'll get out there and you'll be cautious just like you were in
that arc car and you'll be out there driving it and that's what you need to do, right? And then
at the end of the race, you're going to think you got more the opportunity to push. That's when
you're going to have that thing step out like the truck did it rocking in, right? And that's where
you got to be careful of, right? He's like, all right, I'm in the final stretch. Let's get it home.
I was having too much fun. Yeah. Yeah. And even the truck at Daytona, you know, I remember in my
brain, just my entire goal was to stay on the dude in front of me's bumper. And if I just let that
go a little bit, I wouldn't correct because I was so hard in the throttle to keep up with the guys.
Yeah. And going back, I wish I would have just stayed, you know, a little bit more distance,
given the truck a little more room. I wouldn't have been so hard on the throttle getting out of
forward to chase the guy down and then I wouldn't have blew it. But yeah, these races are longer
than you think, you know, and in your mind, like that very, that thing you're discussing about being
on that trucks, you know, being on the bumper of the guy in front of you, that seems to be like
so critical in that moment. But it's not. But I mean, what 10, 20, 30 minutes later, it's not that
important that you did that, right? Yeah, it's not. And in the arctic car too, you know, last year,
I really, as everyone thinks that that person erected me, that spun out in front of me. I don't know
if you recall. I erect myself by not just slowing down, but I was so scared to lose in the patch
that I kept driving too long. I saw the smoke. I should have bailed when I saw the smoke. This year,
I saw the smoke. I bailed and missed the accident. That's right. And lived to see another day.
But I was also, when I got on that arctic car this year in Daytona, I was like, I cannot do
anything stupid today. After you know, last night, I mean, I was literally on my best behavior
as far as, you know, the best I could do. And then it worked out great. So like, I just got to remind
myself that like those little moments don't matter as much as I think they do. That's right.
And then at the end of the race, you know, I'm like, draft and bobby or hard word for it.
And it was so sick. And we, you know, we're passing people having a blast. And those last 10 laps
are what I really look forward to again, is like getting back out there and are good at doing that again.
Yeah, I think that, you know, that'll be the challenge for you.
We talked about just literally just having seat time and understanding throttle and how deep
to get in a corner and all of those little, you know, nuances. But the patience, you know,
and patience isn't something that you've had to really have in your line of work, right?
You're all about to see the pants just going all the time bigger, bigger, bigger. And just
the bigger and the wilder it can be, right? So but in racing, it's measured,
approach, everything's measured, everything's fine. Everything's perfect. Everything's, you know,
there's moments now when you've got to hang it out. There's moments when you're like,
all right, down in this corner, here it is. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who's going to be?
Who's going to be the one? Yeah, you got to be able to make something great half in one account.
In those moments when it comes. Yeah. If there's a guy smoking in front of you, I definitely know now.
I'm waiting for the caution. Yeah. Yeah. Live just I like to say the phrase of living for the next
corner, living, living to race the next corner. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. That is. I mean,
you're learning so much so fast. And you know, I don't envy the, I don't envy the position you're in.
I'm lucky. I'm fortunate that I grew up around it and was a witness to it. And like before I ever
drove a race car, I sort of had some idea of what I was getting myself into, right? And I don't envy
you coming in here trying to tackle all this at the rate you're trying to tackle it, but you know,
hey, I actually am like excited. I'm just so excited about stock car racing, which I didn't think
would ever be possible. Yeah. Because when I left Daytona, all I was thinking about was like
NASCAR. I mean, five years ago, you weren't. Oh, it wasn't even, I mean, two years ago,
wasn't even on my radar. But I'm just really excited about it. And I think the most exciting thing
is seeing all of my followers getting into it. Like we're actually having a great time with it.
And the videos are doing well. So I don't think I'm annoying them with it yet. Right. That's the
next thing. That brings up a great topic of conversation. So you've been making a living as a
content creator and you're, you're doing a bad ass job, right? You're, you're very successful.
And you know exactly what kind of content your fans want. Yeah. But you have this other thing
that you're now interested in and want to do, right? And you want, you, you know that you have
to dedicate some time to this. How do you have you? Do you think about like the balance? And yeah. So
I mean, I feel as though the drag racing program, we have to stay committed to that through all this.
You know, my goal, like, and last year, we had a great drag racing year. You know, we won a very
big race. We won a grudge race. We took the cars out and did awesome things. We broke the
radial mile per hour record. We did a bunch of great stuff. So like my goal is to, you know,
if all these, these people came and followed me because of what I was doing at that moment, drag
racing. I don't want to let it go and go chase this new dream. But also just based on the views and
comments, there is indication that they, they like it too. So, you know, I'm announcing this
big deal. But at the same time, it's only three races. So it's, you know, I think I'm, I'm
maintaining a decent balance of it. They'll let me know if I'm not because my, my fans are not
afraid to speak up and be like, please, it's the same. We've done some stuff where they said the same
it. Really? Yeah. So right now, I'm just kind of getting more and more into it. I don't know that I
could do more than what I am. But I have a question for you at the end that that'll
I can ask it now. Yeah. I was going to say like just without thinking too deep into it. If someone
called, if you were me and someone called you and said, we want to give you a full-time
cup ride, you know, what would it take to accept that deal? And would it be worth
the experience to go do the 38 race season? Right now?
I'm just saying if someone did at this moment. Yeah. Man, I'd have to say no.
That's kind of what we think, too. Yeah. I mean, George and I have talked about it a lot. And if
someone said we got a full ride for like part of me would be like, oh my god, I get to do it. But
I just don't think it'd be worth it. I would tell. I mean, I don't, I think for me, I don't
either. I think it would go horribly. I think you would, I think you would be miserable. Oh,
in that. No, I think I think I don't know that the car would be good enough for you to even know
what a good car feels like. I don't know. Oh, and I'm saying also think of it in a not just cup.
Even in the O'Reilly series, like rent a full season. I think I think of it less about
the race car side more about the being gone. Yeah, yeah, I guess I you trying to teed it up as
cup only. Let's let's teed up as cup only that would go horribly. I totally agree with that.
But think of it more in like giving up my time home every weekend away from the YouTube channel.
Yeah. No, I think there's a, I mean, personally, if I think that finding a something limited is
you do have a lot of things to lose. And you've created an empire that's very lucrative and very
important. You got a lot of employees that depend on you. Their livelihood depends on you.
You got a lot of things to consider, right? Outside of your own enjoyment and whatever you might
get out of racing in the darker trucker infinity or a rally level. So, you know, I would, I think
that there's a decision to make for you personally, man, right here and now I can enjoy this.
I can do these, you know, 15 races a year, some arcades, some truck, a rally. And we'll just kind
of see how it goes. And I'll just, I'm all, I'm all study hard. I'm a work hard, but we'll just see
where this, see where it goes. Or, which is probably what I would, I would suggest, or you dive in
with everything you got, right? And you would, you would probably give up your drag racing.
You would probably give up a lot of things to really eat, sleep, live, how do I become a racecar
driver? And, and I don't love it. You suggest the first. I don't suggest the all-in option.
Yeah. And you know, and you can, you're going to listen with the, with the limited option,
the, they're still the potential that it becomes more. You know, what if you, what if you do develop
and what if you do start to show some real promise and somebody says, Hey, there's the glimpses
that we need to see. It's there. And things start to click. Then, you know, you can sort of pivot
a little bit, but I would just stay, stay a core. Yeah, because you, you have too much stake on
the other end, right? With all the other things you've created and developed. Yeah. And I've
thought about, you know, what I could do in the situation, but it just seems like no matter what,
if I were, no matter what I do, the balance, the greater balance is going to be throwing off
of being with my family, most importantly. You got to know, yeah, your family's growing.
Yeah. So I think you're right. And I'm just, isn't a couple races a year, the fun big ones.
Yeah. And then you might enjoy this late model, you know, and you'll get in your late model and
run a couple races at your track. Yeah. That could grow into something. And that's, that's,
that's affordable in, in the game of things. And close. Yeah. From my house. Yeah. And there's
racing in Alabama, Georgia. Yeah. You know, you can go and travel and pick you a day. I'm
dozen races around a year. Yeah. I think that the late model, like, it's just going to help me get
that car control. You know, the, the wedge in the cars is what's throwing me off. Look, I can save
a car from getting loose. Right. No problem. Yeah. And normal car. You know, like I sent you a video
that Cadillac drifting like that stuff. I love doing that. But the wedge and the trucks and the cars
is just that's what's once you go back the wrong way back the other way. Yeah. It opens up. Yeah.
So weird. Yeah. And I don't have enough experiences. Yeah. It's got all the weight on the right
front and the left rear. And when it turns right, it dumps on the left front. When I was in the truck,
I didn't even hit the wall. I just over corrected it. Yeah. Yeah. So I figure that out. Yeah. Well,
the truck you were out there by yourself and that's a new really repaved track and repaves are
sketchy. Yeah. You know, you're, there's a lot of throttle. There's a lot of speed and you're,
you know, when it does, it doesn't have a big moment. It's like it's, it's a quick snap. Right.
When you race at your track. Yeah. Right. With that worn out asphalt,
the car steps out real slow, right? It's like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, drifting and all those
things. It's very similar at a very high grip racetrack with the radial tire and driving that truck
in or the rally or the cup car at a high grip, newly repaved like rocking him. The moment's going to be
like, yeah. And there's no room like you're in the wall. Yeah. Yeah. When you're three wide, you're just
yeah, you're a big trouble. Yeah. Yeah. So I just got to work on learning that car control. Yeah.
I'm curious about your late model stuff because so that's what I'm racing now is like late model
stock stuff. I was going to talk to you about the late model because there's pro and super,
but the supers race at my track. That's right. But the pro is the cars tour, right? Well, we have,
yeah, we run the pro car and pros run. It's just the engine. Yep. Just an engine. Same car,
create engine. Probably a couple hundred less horsepower. So I'll probably just, I have to have a
tall man car build. That's the problem. Oh, because I would love to just rent a late model. Yeah.
But I have to have the tall man car build. So that's why I got a lot of them thing. Yeah, that's
I'm buying it. My car, you're going to have to have somebody, you know, kind of run it, maintain it
for you. And then I'm hoping I can just plug it into fun races. Like I want you were Kevin to hit
me up and say, this is the one you're going to come to and I'm going to get. Yeah. Okay. So I think
you can absolutely plug it into races. Like that's short track grassroots local racing. You're
aware of that. You've got them. They run races at your track and you kind of see what those outfits
look like. It looks like fun. It is fun. That tires a gumball, that old Hoosiers, a gumball sort of
not a radio, right? It's got a lot of it. Wallers around like a street tire, like a regular. Yeah,
you'll love that. But I think you're going to enjoy that. I hope I do. Yeah. Because it's kind of
a little project. Yeah. Well, I would buy the car. I mean, you can, if you want to get a pro
because it's a little bit better or more of an entry car than the super, the super is going to be
more expensive because of the engine. Yeah. And to maintain it, you could just have the pros come
to your track. You just get one of the locals, you know, get a pro series call up some of those guys
and say, hey, man, let's have a pro race. Our super super super to come in. Let's have a pro race
the day before. That's true. I could just tell them who's your sanctioned body that comes to your
track. Well, we have Ricky Brooks. Right. Tell Ricky Brooks to bring a pro class. Have a pro race.
You'll run it. Didn't even think of that. He'll say, hell, yes, if you're going to race it,
I'll definitely do that. I'll have a pro race. Say no more, brother. And you could do that
the night before or the day before the super. And I was already thinking like the super sounds like a
lot. It is probably for the first. Yeah, I was like, I want to start out. And if you like your pro,
you still got the car, you just change the motor. Yeah. So, you know, the big lead, which is our big
one, I could just change the motor. If I'm feeling good, if I'm feeling spun, you could definitely
right. All right. I like that. Yeah. I appreciate all the advice you've been giving me too.
I'm always hoping to help you, man. I mean, you're a good guy. I want you to have a great experience.
I think you're genuine at heart. And I think you really do want some, you don't want feedback
and helpful information. Yeah. Anytime I've been critical, you text me and say, hey, man,
I saw your thing and I appreciate this stuff. You know, I saw what you said. I appreciate what you
said. You know, sometimes people don't take that stuff very well. You know, some drivers don't
know how to, some drivers don't know how to hear criticism. Yeah. It's one of those things.
You know, I think being a YouTuber for so long, like I've just, I've had everything in the world
said about me, you know, and I expect way more. When I went into drag racing, I was the class
clown. They all thought I was a joke because of the way I had my car set up and the way we ran it,
it was a joke, you know, and I think right now I'm, I'm the rookie and people can say whatever
they want. But when, when I keep coming back every time and they realize that their words don't
affect me time and time again, they're going to run out of breath. Yeah. Because as long as I'm having
fun, I'm going to keep showing up at these NASCAR races and whether I'm an ARCA, Trucker O'Reilly's,
their words on Facebook will not change the fact that I'm going to come back.
And try again, as long as I'm having fun. I love that. I feel like, I feel like that.
Everybody can get behind the idea of partnering up with RCR because of the tools and the help
that they'll give you to get better. I think everybody can get behind the idea of you getting a late
model and just even if you're just racing laps at your own track on this Tuesday afternoon,
just getting laps, right? By four sets of tires go out there and spend four hours by yourself.
It don't matter. I think when people see that and then you run an ARCA board, just a little bit of
work. That's all I think they need to see. And I think to your point too, it's like for me,
the getting a sponsor is a lot of guys have to rely on their driving skills to get sponsorships.
And for me, I'm relying on something else. So to have this take it in with no driver skills show
up and just do stupid stuff like I absolutely understand the criticism. And that's why I'm hoping to
do exactly what you said I should do. And then understand that wedge a little more. I didn't
realize you know, in stock car racing, the crown, the crown Vic stuff is great, but it's symmetrical
load and it just doesn't teach you what you need. And the wedge is, that's what I got humbled by.
Well, I look forward to seeing what you do this year, man, and talking to you over the course of
the process. And I appreciate you coming today. So do you know the races you're running?
Can you tell us what race you're running? Yeah. Okay. So this is actually something I meant to talk
about. So I had we intended to run the super speedways because I told them that's what I want to do.
I love the super speedways. But NASCAR said I cannot run Talladega unless I go to rocking him first
and do well. So the plan is I run rocking him. Don't do anything stupid. That's soon.
That's soon. Yeah. And I get a rookie test. Yeah. And then I'm going to go to rocking him,
do the actual race. Is the rookie test at rocking him? Yep. Yep. So do you know what that is?
I do. Can't tell me. Do you want to go? I don't want to say it on here, but okay, he'll stop. Yeah,
you can tell me later. Okay. Just so it's, you know, yeah, we're not being filmed. Don't want to be
I don't want everybody. I just don't want any pressure. I know. But if you want to go,
that's great. I love that. Dude, you're like, that's what people want to see. Is that you're like
self-aware about, you know, man, hey, I want to go there. I don't want any pressure. I just want
to focus on this. I want to do this. That's all I want to do. I like if I have to almost take off
my YouTuber hat when I get in these cars, which is not the usual case. In the drag cars,
I can stay a YouTuber. I can stay cletus. But when I get in these damn NASCARs, I got to start
taking that hat off. Yeah. But all right. So you run a rocking ham? Do rocking ham.
Everything goes well. Yeah. Then it's it's in NASCAR's hands too. Oh, one, oh, just rocking
ham. And if you do well, that might clear you for, or tell it out there. That's the goal.
I would love to run this towel day. I love towel day. It's so wide. I mean, yeah. Let me tell you
something. They'll be judging you about how I like to know this. There is a chance that you
will be passed by the leaders. Correct. Right. And rocking ham. You will be judged by how well
you get out of their way. That will be a thing that people will pay attention to. And so I would
have conversations with with RCR about what the etiquette is, what they would expect in certain
situations. You know, and do your best like in those moments again, it's like, damn, I don't want
to give up a ton of lap time here. But do just do what you need to do to make it easy for those guys
when they're trying to go by. In that moment, just just just and that's a stay bottom.
To have conversations with RCR, I'm not going to tell you that that's that's a good point. That's
for the team to tell you probably going to be their cars and your cars coming around. They
need to tell you and you need to hear from them on like what the etiquette is and what they would
expect. And I would, you know, that will be a moment where it could go really good or really bad.
Right. If you impede, even if you were just to impede somebody and cost them a position or something.
Right. I mean, that's going to, people are going to latch onto that. Right. So like, you know, I,
I will give you some advice on, on, I won't tell you what RCR is going to tell you to do. But like,
if, if a guy's trying, if you, if it's very bottom dominant, which rocking him typically is
pretty bottom dominant. Right. There's not a, there's not a high groove. So the guys is they're
driving around the track. I mean, guys, they're trying to get into the corner and get right into
the bottom groove. And if one of them's coming by on the outside, don't drive into the corner
with them and not allow them to get that bottom, like just lift that car length earlier to let them
clear in in front of you. Right. If you go into the corner and make them work the corner on
outside the groove, they're a little annoyed by that. So just silly little nuances like that.
Don't worry about it today. But have a conversation with RCR and they'll give you the tools and
information to be like, I mean, when the leaders come, there's a couple things they like.
This is a couple things that I probably would be paying attention to. And it's less like the,
the more you can make it a non-issue, the better, right? The, the, the, in that moment, be the
non-story, right? As the lapper, as those guys are coming by and they're racing side by side
and stuff, you want to be, you want nothing to do. Yeah. Just want to be a blur on the screen. That's
right. Okay. And that could happen in, in, in parts of the race. And that's fine. You know,
I got slapped in all my first races. I don't, you know, I went to Daytona and I wrecked,
I went to Daytona and Talladega and wrecked out of the first five times I ran there before it
actually started like clicking. I wrecked, I wrecked Daytona, Talladega, Daytona, Talladega,
Daytona, Talladega, over and over and over before it finally started like making sense. So I mean,
it's, it's that kind of thing where like when you're running that race and you're sitting there
going, I'm 25th or whatever and it's, and I'm not fast, I'm, and here comes the leaders,
as it's hurt, it's hurting my pride. You know, you just got to kind of stay the course.
It's a humbling, it's going to be humbling. And just don't, don't worry too much about that.
People are going, you're going to, you're going to make yourself and a lot of people happy.
If you bring that car to pit road in one piece when the checker flag is over, all you got to
worry about. I do feel really, really good about the, the pressure side of things. Like,
I'm not going to feel bad if I'm 30th. Nobody's going to end. And RCR,
but on that same page, Tom is expressed, we told them this is going to be, you know, a total
learning thing and like they, they were on board with the fact that I'm getting this opportunity
to learn and they know, you know, when someone is going to care. Where are you finished?
It ain't about a performance thing. Can he get out there,
have, understand the etiquette and the racing and, and get it home, bring it home. Yep. Yep.
I like that. Yeah, man. Well, RCR is a great group of people that can help you do that, man.
And I'm glad you're getting this opportunity. Thank you. Thanks for coming through today.
Thanks for the advice, too. Appreciate you, man. Hey, man. Thanks for living with us.
brother. That's right.
Cletus McFarlane, Dale Juneer download.
All right. That's a great conversation with Cletus McFarlane. Just, um,
appreciate him getting in here and, and he takes me a while back and it's like, man,
I got this opportunity to do this deal with RCR. I was like, I was like, well, I don't know if
you're ready for the rally series, but you're damn sure ready for some, you know, an opportunity
to get schooled and, and look, he can, he can run all the arc races in the world, but
the knowledge that he'll gain from being in an organization like RCR, that is exactly if he's
really going to do this and really going to try to get better, that's how it's going to happen.
And so they'll give him the, you know, the information and they'll know they'll also be smart
enough to know how to reign it in, right? Um, he needs people around him that are going to go,
that's don't you're getting too far out of the box. Let's get back in here or you're not ready
for this. Let's do this instead. And so that's what I think is great about the RCR deals. So I'm
pumped for that. And I think they speak the same language, uh, Cletus and RCR, you know, they kind
of are very similar. I just think it'd be a good fit. So hoping that's exactly what happens.
And, um, you know, I, I've, there's this debate about his inexperience and, and what happened
at Daytona, look, a lot of people spent off turn forward at Daytona. Um, I've done it and, uh,
it just, it can happen to anybody. I wish you'd have had more experience. So maybe he could have
called it because I wanted to see how he was going to do in the race. I hate we didn't get to see
him race the race is really the only thing. But I go back and forth on the eligibility and, and
what people need to do to be cleared to race. I go back and forth with that. There's times when,
there's times when I'm on the side of man, there needs to be a system. There needs to be checks
and balances and you've got to have done this to get to this. And then I think back,
and I know this won't be a popular opinion. It won't, but it is the truth. I'm, I am very nostalgic,
and I can't help it. I really can't. And so I don't try to ignore it. Um, but when I look back
at NASCAR, at all levels, uh, back in the 70s, 80s, 90s all the way up through, there's a lot of
examples of people that went to race Daytona and Talladega and had no real experience at any big
race track. And now we've learned a lot from those scenarios. And there's been some, you know,
some things that probably shouldn't have happened. But I don't know that we, I don't know how we
could draw like a finite, perfect line of, you know, that here's what you have to accomplish and do
in every single scenario to get to that next opportunity. Um, I battle back and forth with
that one. So I really, I mean, I'll be honest. I think the only truly way, I think the only
truly great way to have a sort of a governing over leveling up is through a committee of drivers.
And so, you know, there's this fun story about how they used to have a Ricky test at Darlington.
You could go race, um, at other race tracks on the NASCAR circuit without needing to do a test. But
at Darlington, you were going to have to do a Ricky test. They did this every Darlington race through
the 60s, 70s, 80s. And ATA for it signed up to race at Darlington for the first time. I believe in
81, 82, maybe 83. And he was forced to go through the Ricky test. And he would, he would go out on
the race track and run laps in front of a cup driver. And that one of those cut drivers that day was
Ricky Rudd. Half the man's age had not ran in any 500 or hadn't really ran, but about six or
so years of NASCAR. But Ricky Rudd was going to be one of the people that approved AJ foight.
And of course, AJ passes the Ricky test with flying colors. But the fact that he was put through
that same process that everyone else had to go through, I really love. And I also loved that the
drivers were the judge and jury for the rookies. And I think that in the only scenario that I like
where you would govern something like that is through a driver committee. And so if you were
trying to be clear to race a cup race, it would be a group of cup drivers that would make that
decision. If you're trying to be approved to race in the O'Reilly, it would be O'Reilly drivers
that would share the race track with you that would make that decision and own down the line.
That would be the perfect way in my opinion to do it.
But I'm excited for for cleanest and looking forward to everything he's going to be doing this
year. It'll be interesting to see if he can actually start to make it click, you know, and start
to understand what all this is about and pretty remarkable. Hopefully, yeah, hopefully everything
goes well. And I know we'll be watching to be interesting to see. I think it's a massive
undertaking to go to Rockingham. Rockingham is a brand new race track in terms of surface,
just treacherous. So he's got it. He went there and truck tested, got a little out of shape,
got in the wall, and I think the, or the infinity O'Reilly car is going to be even more difficult
to drive there. So he's taking on quite a bit. So he'll have to be very reserved, very conservative
and maintain that conservative nature all the way to the finish line so that nothing goes too wrong
to be a roadblock to his racing more in the O'Reilly series. But all right. So I'm excited about
the opportunity that Cletus has this year with RCR. I think that's a great decision and we'll be
looking forward to seeing all the races that he's going to run. And when you might get in that
late model, fun to have him here in the RB studio. Remember, uh, RB's new meat and three
bucks. You get more meal for your money at RB's. We have the meats and we also have Cletus McFarland
on the Dell General. Check out dirtymo media on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.
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