The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car made for fast driving. People talk about it a lot in racing because it can be driven hard. In the podcast, it’s brought up because someone had a wreck while driving one.
A “lucky dog” is a rule that helps the first car that’s a lap behind get back on the lead lap when there’s a caution. It’s basically a way to give a struggling car a second chance so it’s not stuck a lap down all day.
The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small, everyday car. In the podcast, it’s used in a common expression about making something happen unexpectedly. The point is the strategy and timing, not detailed car specs.
A “stage break” is when the race is split into parts. Teams can pit and adjust their strategy at that break, and drivers can earn points for how they finish in each stage.
“Cycled” here means they pitted and then rejoined the race, ending up in a new position. It’s basically describing how pit timing shuffled their ranking.
A “caution” is when the race slows down because something happened on the track. Drivers have to be careful, and teams often change their game plan for the restart.
“Tech” is the inspection where officials check the car against the rules. If it doesn’t pass, the team may have to fix something or swap to a backup car.
A “backup” is a spare race truck the team has ready. If the main car can’t race (like after an inspection issue), they switch to the backup so they don’t lose the event.
A “standardized body” means the race trucks are supposed to use body parts that are built to the same rules. That helps keep the competition fair so teams can’t gain an edge just from custom bodywork.
“Composite bodies” means the car’s outer body panels are made from engineered materials (not just steel). The goal is often to make them lighter or easier to standardize, but repairs and fitting can be different.
Downforce is the “push down” effect from the car’s shape and wings. It helps the tires stick to the road so the car can go faster through turns. The tradeoff is that it can make the car harder to move through the air.
The Ford Mustang is a famous Ford sports car. Here, they’re talking about it in a racing context—meaning the Mustang is being used as the race car that won.
Diffusers are parts under a race car that shape the air flowing underneath. They help the car stick to the track by improving downforce, so taking them off changes how the car feels and handles.
A “wake” is the messy air a car leaves behind as it drives. If another car follows too closely, that air can reduce grip and make the car harder to control.
Term
big arrow
When they say “big arrow,” they mean a big rear wing/spoiler. That wing pushes the car down onto the road, which helps it grip and stay stable at speed.
A “Hall of Fame” is an award/recognition for people who were the best or most influential in their sport. In racing, it usually means they had an outstanding career.
Reaction time is how fast the driver gets moving after the lights tell them to start. Faster reaction time can help you win because it counts toward your overall time.
Term
rt
RT just means “reaction time.” It’s how quickly the driver reacts when the race starts, and it’s part of the timing score.
Term
et
ET is “elapsed time,” meaning the total time it takes to run the drag strip. It’s one of the main numbers used to judge how fast you went.
A hydraulic cylinder uses fluid pressure to push or pull parts. Here, it helps control how the clutch engages so the launch is consistent and controllable.
Ignition timing is when the spark plug fires during the engine cycle. Changing it can help the engine make more power and run more smoothly under hard acceleration.
Fuel pressure is how hard the fuel system pushes gas into the engine. For drag racing, teams tune it so the engine gets the right fuel when you’re going all-out.
To “flood” a cylinder means the engine gets too much fuel for the spark to burn it correctly. When that happens, the engine can misfire and the car can get pulled around instead of accelerating cleanly.
Place
English town
“English town” is a drag strip in New Jersey (Englishtown Raceway Park). The speaker is talking about going there for drag-racing events with their dad.
It means one part of the engine isn’t firing correctly, so the engine makes less power. In a fast race car, you can often feel it right away because the car’s acceleration changes instantly.
Clutch timing is about exactly when the clutch is engaged during launch. If it’s off, the car can hesitate or spin; if it’s right, it accelerates hard.
A funny car is a drag-racing car built for short, straight runs. “Alcohol” means it uses a different fuel than regular gas, and that affects how the engine is tuned and how the car performs.
Term
build piston racks
Pistons are parts inside the engine that move up and down to make power. A “piston rack” is basically a way to keep pistons organized while the crew rebuilds or repairs the engine.
A “blower” is a device that helps the engine make more power by pushing extra air in. “Lift blowers” means the crew has to take that big part off and put it back on during work on the car.
In drag racing, the clutch is what helps the car launch hard. A “clutch specialist” is the person on the team who focuses on getting the clutch built and ready for the next runs.
A Top Fuel dragster is a super-fast drag racing car built just to go in a straight line. It’s famous for being incredibly powerful and going extremely fast over a short race.
Junior dragster racing is drag racing for kids using smaller cars made for their size and experience level. It’s often how people get started in racing.
The eighth mile is a short drag-racing distance—half of a quarter-mile. Because it’s shorter, the race happens faster and the car’s acceleration matters a lot.
Auto shift refers to an automated gear-shifting system that changes gears without the driver manually operating a clutch and shifter. In racing, it’s often used to improve consistency and reduce missed shifts, though some drivers prefer manual control for feel.
Shirley Moldowney was a pioneering drag racer in the NHRA. She was one of the first women to compete at a fully professional level and helped open doors for other women in drag racing.
Shirley Sheahan is credited here as the first woman to win an NHRA drag racing event. The host also says they met her and highlights her historic first.
NHRA is the main organization that runs and organizes drag racing events in the U.S. The host is talking about NHRA history and milestones for women racers.
Antron Brown is a well-known drag racing figure. Here, the host is saying the driver is part of Brown’s program that helps racers move up toward the top fuel class.
An “alcohol run” refers to drag racing runs using an alcohol-based fuel rather than gasoline. Fuel choice affects how the engine makes power and how the car behaves during the launch and acceleration phases.
G forces are how hard the car is accelerating, measured compared to gravity. In drag racing, those forces can be so high that they feel like your body is being slammed.
A “g meter” is an instrument that measures and displays the vehicle’s acceleration in g’s during a run. The speaker describes it “laying over” from about four g’s down toward three g’s as the car continues accelerating.
RPM is how fast the engine spins. When the clutch grabs, the engine can slow down briefly, but the car still accelerates because the power is being transferred differently.
“G’s” is how strongly the body is being pushed during fast acceleration or turns. Positive g’s press you into your seat, while negative g’s can make you feel like you’re being lifted or pulled the other way.
Funny cars are a type of drag-racing race car. They’re built to go extremely fast in a straight line over a short distance, and they usually have a special body and chassis made for racing.
Junior dragsters are smaller drag-racing cars for younger drivers. They’re like a training step that helps drivers learn drag racing before moving up to bigger, faster cars.
A top fuel car is the fastest, top-level kind of drag-racing car. It uses a special fuel and engine setup made for huge acceleration over a short straight-line run.
The Toyota Tacoma is a pickup truck, meaning it has a cargo bed for hauling things. It’s made to be useful for both normal driving and tougher roads. The podcast mentions it because the speaker has been driving one since they were a teenager.
“Swamp donkey” is slang for a truck built to handle mud. It usually means it’s lifted and has chunky tires for traction.
Term
cruise shifting
“Cruise shifting” in this context means shifting gears while you’re just cruising around. The host is using it as a funny way to describe how the truck is driven.
Cletus McFarland is a popular racing personality who puts on events and posts race videos. The host says they raced at one of his events and saw the burnout setup.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast sports car designed for performance. People often talk about it when they’re discussing racing or drag-style driving. In the podcast, it comes up as an example of a Corvette being driven for maximum speed.
“Four wide” means four cars race at the same time, side-by-side, on multiple lanes. It’s harder to judge what the other cars are doing because everything is happening at once.
The “tree” is the set of lights at the start that tells you when to launch. If someone isn’t ready, the lights can start changing and it throws off everyone else’s timing.
Pre-stage is the first “ready” position at the start line. It’s like telling the system you’re there, but you still have to fully stage to be ready for the actual launch lights.
“Late” means you didn’t launch at the best moment when the start lights signaled. That usually hurts your run because you lose time getting up to speed.
Pro Stock is a specific drag-racing category with very specialized cars. The goal is to accelerate as fast as possible, and drivers have to shift at the right times.
An injector is part of the fuel system that delivers fuel to the engine. In race cars, it’s controlled very precisely so the engine runs correctly at extreme RPM.
A two-step is a launch helper that holds the engine at a set RPM while you’re staged. If it’s not working, you have to control RPM manually so the car doesn’t rev too high or launch poorly.
Dropping the clutch is how you start the car from a stop—release the clutch quickly so the engine power goes to the wheels. In drag racing, timing it correctly helps you launch hard without spinning out.
A “tack” is the RPM gauge on the dash. If the shift lights aren’t working, the driver uses it to know what RPM the engine is at.
Term
handbrake clutch rev it up
Using the handbrake plus clutch control is a manual way to hold the car stationary while revving the engine to a safe target RPM. In this context, it’s a workaround for missing launch/shift aids so the driver can stage and launch without over-revving.
The throttle controls how much the engine gets to breathe. “Wrapping the throttle” means quickly pressing it (or opening it) a few times to make the car respond the way you expect.
The Dodge Ram is a large pickup truck built for hauling and towing. The podcast mentions it in connection with when the “Ram” name was rolled out and how that affected what people were getting. It’s being discussed as part of a timeline of the truck line’s branding.
LIVE
All right guys, holy moly what a race last night we saw in Nashville, I think collectively
between Ryan and I sitting here in studio we have a combined three hours of sleep so
no rest for the weary because we have an unnascar related guest that seems to be taking the HRA
garage by storm she drives for a dear friend of the show and Ron Caps so we're able to get
Miss Maddie Gordon's gonna be joining us here shortly but we want to recap a little
a little Nashville because you had you didn't go triple duty you went double duty
I went triple duty race on Friday and the old modified oh Franklin Franklin County what a
cool little racetrack let's talk about that guys honestly Franklin County Virginia
is in the hills bro brother we took we took the directions that it gave us and we came through
down this mountain road 90 180 degree turns I didn't think I had any brakes left in the truck I
looked at Dylan and I was like brother if we lose brakes call your loved ones or better yet
shoot him a text right now to get ahead of it but dude that's been so much fun with the modified
going to all these annual little tracks and we ended up winning that's a really cool track a
little bit of a the facility is a little antiquated but the racetrack it was antiquated when I went
there when I was 14 running a late model but I love that like it was it was great it was so much
fun you know that you're at a good old good old-fashioned short track when you go into the
bathroom and there's no ceramic place to urinate it's just the floor no that one that the bathroom
was was better than okay it could be that that they it was really cool and there's a lot of people
there Chris Williams at the smart tour did a great job so shout out to all the short tracks out there
that has just the trough shout out the flow to putting jay mcmary's ass on tv oh I sent that text
after you sent me that picture to jay me I showed the dale jr yesterday before the race he goes
what the hell are they doing they didn't know man and all he's like also what the
hell's jay me doing yeah who's racist commando I was like I don't know man I guess he didn't want
sweaty drawers after a race well all those guys race with no underwear on because of what happened
to dale when he drove that camaro so blaney told me that so when dale wrecked that camaro years
ago he was on fire his underwear burnt to his because they were like the microphone they're
just like the your regular um like boxer briefs and the elastic burnt to him so they don't run that
they take free ball with long underwear underneath um but so you won uh then same night I raced the
truck um and it was a struggle with pace with our mo paul ryan uh all of our all our teams
struggled to fire off we went a lap down early got the lucky dog free the truck up got a driving a
little better we almost pulled a rabbit out of the hat we played a little strategy in the second
stage put four on it with like 15 to go put rights on it at the stage break cycled to fifth
maintain fifth sixth seventh somewhere in there the rest of the day caution come out with
I don't know 15 18 to go line up on I chose sixth and I think ben rodes had a tire come and loose
they ultimately fell off I don't know if it broke the studs or something went into one he did the
old hospital hop got me in the left front up the hill we went so that was unfortunate we also that
was also like 1 30 in the morning because we got pushed back with rain that was a late one
but it was heartbroken for raja too in the truck yeah driving driving cob was his number 700 cars
dot com silvrato he he was in control similar similar story to was it was last year he was
able to defend and win that race he was in the same position but lane lane riggs lane riggs
holding the mail let's give him the credit he deserves that 34 and the 38 truck
were both unbelievably fast his fastest lap was four tenths faster than anybody else well yeah
yeah dude and how about the first time I've in a long time we want to try contract unloaded
and went through tech and they were like nope loaded up an east truck I was a nice truck they
were like loaded up bring out a backup the bot it's a lawless game with those bodies they need to
get to a standardized body for them well that's a whole nother conversation because I think that
trucks I thought the truck should have been the first series to go composite bodies because they
spend college spends so much time just getting bodies to fit templates they can't even really
reset and rebuild a body to make it look like a tricon truck or to make it look like a front
road truck yeah you can see them pictures like we want to look like that but we physically can't
fabricate this body fast enough to make it look like that so we just need to go to the racetrack
and as big as windshields are in those things as big as the spoilers are in those things
you're talking half inch here three eights here on the roof location it's massive amount of dragon
downforce so we're off on that by a lot but my guys are hard to work at it we're going to
michigan this week which finished fifth there last year we we were okay at the end we shot to win
that thing you didn't have a shot to win it we were we could not turn the 40 acre field if I could
turn to a 30 acre field I'm probably would want it but well if you're drag racing you've been all
right I know I know and I'm excited to talk to Maddie I have been just generally interested
in an HRA and particularly Maddie because you know anytime there's a rookie coming in especially
when it's a young female it's like okay how is is it can she rise to the occasion against the big
and also shout out to Austin Proc his first win with the TASCA group in Ford
home from Proc man leaving leaving uh John force in the off season he was a three-time champion
back-to-back champion we'll talk about that with Maddie once he gets here but he struggled to start
the year and like when we saw him at Charlotte he was wearing it but us but he put up he put
the pieces all together and got his first win in a Ford Mustang freaking impressive that they
were able to do that quickly um and then we fired up prime oh dude O'Reilly race was sick I I was
asleep oh my god it was so good uh the seven racing for the win with the two and the two had a loose
wheel and then uh he was racing with Brent Cruz like and when they passed each other they couldn't
get away from each other such a good race just an all-guyer talking about retirement and the kind
of one that one kind of snuck up on me I didn't realize he was thinking that hard about retiring
and Dale kind of opened up about his family business maybe needing him and his wants and needs
changing but uh nonetheless Justin Allgaier on a heater this year yeah it's it's cool to see a
Texan I said man you're like a fine wine getting better with age he's got to be having fun this
year as fast as that car is Brent Cruz running up to dog once he wins his first dog he might win
five in a row I mean he's gonna what he missed the first four races five races here and he's he's
already on just outside the chase so he's gonna be in the chase he's gonna be a championship contender
once it all resets so be on the lookout for that kid because once the floodgates open for Brent
Cruz it's it's there's no telling where it stops and then we got then we fire up prime man the our
second one out coming that coming off the I'd say a great race in the cook 600 a tough week
certainly with the news of Kyle Busch and we collectively you know in all of our production
meetings we're wanting to like let's ramp the energy up a little bit let's certainly pay our
respects and acknowledge Kyle Busch and the family and RCR and everything that sport went
through the last two weeks but like let's celebrate what we're doing let's let's get the energy up
let's put the you know they didn't even put that Fogarty Eric Church song last week because they
just wanted it to be respectful of its own but they're like hey guys let's let it rip and let's
let's do these guys well and let's let's show the sport how we know we want to so we were able to
to really let it rip a little little rain to start we had to bust in with the boys
on saw them to and you had Mark Barton which by the way somebody raised his chair which camera
which camera's on me that middle one let me tell you something one it was cool to
meet Will and and Taylor every time I saw Taylor if you're watching this you're not but you're
watching this social media clip every time I saw you you were wearing a different shirt
picking allegiance bro I was looking at one of the time you're wearing an Austin Hill shirt
next time I look you're wearing a William Byron shirt pick one pick Lane man you got to pick Lane
so guys just trying to be a people pleaser he is people pleaser and he was hilarious up there
we only had him for three minutes and then he had someone news leading he's give me that guy's shirt
all right he's out yeah yeah he was holding all three shirts when when the Gibbs the Gibbs
teammates took the white three wide it's like which one am I going pick big Paul swan fan too I love
that uh so yeah they they honestly are doing a collaboration with NASCAR racing with the boys
first episode with Bubba and Blaney I didn't get the chance to watch I saw some social media clips
where Bubba called Carson Hosebara who you see who he called he looked like a who from the Grinch
oh man Bubba that's tough bro uh but I think Carson haymaker them guys a little bit too got
it kind of funny how it all worked out right he goes there Carson he got a couple of them by proxy
last night he whistled into one shears off the bottom crowds the 17 17 has like the big whoop whoop
yeah Bubba ramps his right right rear in defense brother get rid of the diffusers now that race was
awesome it was and like we took the diffusers off simple floor big horsepower they I was watching
and they like they wouldn't get that big arrow tight big wake behind them like yeah this is less
sick well dude I mean I was walking around the garage with Mark Martin it was really really cool
to uh to work with him and how excited everybody was to see him in the garage I got to walk around
with him and and I'm real good friends I would say with with Gustafson and he worked with him for
two years right and he finished runner-up in the championship to Jimmy and beat Jeff Gordon in 2009
I think so it was really cool to be a fly on the wall between Mark and Alan and that conversation
and talk to Alan a little bit about just the strategy that I got to get any time I get the
chance to give Alan his flowers man that guy's a Hall of Fame he's such a good leader such a
smart guy been doing it at a high level since 2003 yeah oh 23 years that guy's been on the box so
you know I think inherently we talk about Chad Canal seven time champ right we talk about Ray
Evernham and these guys that change the game like why isn't Alan and Alan's one with every
driver he's ever had literally from Kyle Bush in the five car Mark Martin like everybody he's
ever had Mark was like he won five races with a 50 year old and I was like well you think about that
that would be eight years from now with Denny Hamlin yeah now Mark does say hey we had a
considerably higher competitive advantage than what Denny does these days now I don't know dude
three Gibbs cars bro well those things yeah well if the five has a bad day when it was
correct Mark drives 2009 right you can drive back to eighth with your eyes closed yeah and then
you're in the mix and right obviously it's tough I don't know the Gibbs cars are so good right now
they're the Toyotas are hauling the mail the second week in a row where it's been three of the top four
at last week it was four of the top four so the Gibbs cars considerably considerably better than
the field what did you think about Denny getting into the 20 there coming to the white like I was
electric bro dude it was electric I thought it was all fair yeah race for the win they didn't wreck
right no and I was sitting there watching like all these boys are gonna wreck each other and it's
gonna be a whole thing for the next two weeks on just Toyota on Toyota crime like like Danielle
said in our post race where you just hate to navigate anytime teammates run into each other
but that was all fair and and Chris Bell was our first guest right in the show it was he hadn't
been out of the car three minutes when he gets up there like the the head stock lines were still
on his face like it's that that fresh right it was he was understandably distraught and and
frustrated because when they line up for the restart he felt like it was his race to lose
and and you know Mark was like well buddy circumstances sometimes you know are out of
control and he was like no Mark I think I appreciate you saying that but I lost that race
and it's like well what is a good point today no okay I was like he left I'm like it's one
of the ways where you're trying to make it feel better and keep digging the hole deeper and Kim
back to you in pit road dude SVG bro what a stud talk about a cheat code second week in a row 38
and and honestly we saw how good he was obviously the first race he
came and kicked everybody's ass Chicago but honestly I didn't think he was going to be
as dominant when we went to walk in squad and when we went to Sonoma and we went to any other
road course because I felt like the cup guys I had more faith in the field than I have once he
gets here and shows him shows us and proves to us how much better he is than everybody but now
he's like when bin yama don't know who that is he's like the guy that's eight feet tall for
the sport oh yeah like he's just good he can it's like when a guy is that tall if I'll use this
for analogy when the guy is that tall he can't he shouldn't be able to shoot threes right he
should be just standing in the lane and running slow this guy can run point guard shoot threes
and block any shot within like a 15 foot radius of the hoop now SVG is like good everywhere and
he's starting to be like I watched him specifically on a couple of resorts like oh
SVG like he ain't taking no shit the thing with SVG that people like we see F1 guys or guys that
are great at road courses that have raced road courses their whole lives SVG is like the crazy
New Zealand that's raced everything started in quads did open wheel run spring cars run rally
drift car like he races everything so and and he's putting the work into oval track whether it
be the summer shootout or running the truck last week and it's like man he's getting better and
better and better and it's been really cool to see ran really good to coke 600 had a little
hiccup at the end but still ran backside of the top 10 finish wise and then this week was up front
all race long if it wasn't for the Gibbs dominance what do you finish fourth fifth fifth he was right
there at the line but he I mean that's really hard to do and that's a racetrack where it's really
hard to get track position back the strategy was so funky yesterday comers goers when you put tires
on fuel window zane smith give him his flowers too and I man I've been working with Carson a little
bit and we've set him back on pit road but he gasses it up he always gets spots on the dude
always never going backwards so yeah it's been it's been really fun to watch um and fun to be
a part and mark mark martin he's like I like him I'm just glad I don't have to be on a racetrack
with him that's it you know that's it uh so yeah and that's what it was because like the first
incident there he I think it was something before maybe the whole crisp busher bubba thing
and mark was like yeah that rings true um but you do have to appreciate what what he can do
to manipulate the car in traffic because I get oh well hey I mean he's exceptional right he's just
got to put it all together well let's let's go ahead and get it get her in walking into nonsense
garage please help me welcome 22 year old from pass the roadways California driver the car
loud top fuel dragster maddie gordon hey I'm Cory hey maddie that's right floris well you're
coming in here why does progressive work hard for truckers because truckers unite the world
they unite kids with their first drum sets and parents with earplugs but truckers can't do this
if they're not on the road that's why progressive has over 360 heavy truck employees to help truckers
stay on time and on track quote truck insurance today in as little as eight minutes at progressive
commercial dot com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates literally just walked in
the door you don't know us from from adam so I'm Cory this is the nonsense garage this is
stacking pennies this is our our team behind this very nice in here I love it thank you it's
kind of it's kind of a man cave we put some tender love and care into this thing I saw my boss's
signature right over there yeah spotted it yep yeah he's been on I think he's been on several times
with us yeah so we have some cool things so we had some great guests but we get to add another one
today so you raced yesterday of Maryland right bud's creek how'd your day go honestly I was I was
covered up yesterday in Nashville so yeah um it wasn't our greatest showing yet but um we had a
really consistent car went down three out of four runs in qualifying and the last round we didn't go
down I don't want to say it wasn't it wasn't a huge shocker didn't go down because we were pushing
pretty hard so crutchies were like we were trying to set low e t so if it went it was going to haul
but but it didn't go and they weren't super shocked by that because they were pushing so hard but the
other runs we made nice consistent runs qualified six out of 15 out of a 16 car field and um felt
good going into sunday and we had will smith who's another rookie this year I we've ran him previously
as well in in a dragster yes and we were trying to run a mid 70 like a mid 75 a 76
a 375 yes 375 or a 376 and that should probably put us at around 335 miles an hour and no big
no big deal just cruising down on the average sunday right yeah um but the car ended up running
a 380 instead but I missed the tree also so we ran a 380 with a five and our opponent
ran a 380 with a two so if I would have had a really good reaction time you know maybe we could
a whole shot at it but I was late on the tree and I was pretty bummed at myself that I was late
you know it would have been nice to kind of try and steal that one away for our team but
you know couldn't get it done so well that that happens and also hey you're a rookie so sometimes
you could chalk those up um as as learning now it's like is every tree this this is a dumb question
all my n hr questions are gonna be dumb because I'm a general fan but is every tree the same the
lights from your stage to the green are random correct correct so they used to be the same
so they used to be exactly the same and john force figured out how to time it I don't know
what he did but I heard I haven't heard directly from him but I heard he would say like alligator
and just hit the gas that checks out like he wouldn't even just look for the light
it would just like alligator bam and so he was like crazy how was john force a 16 time champion
the alligator the alligator and it was something like that and so they made it so it's a half a
second delay the professional class has a bigger delay than any other category so you have a half
a second it can be either be a half a second quicker or slower whatever it might be so it always
kind of keeps you in your toes and jeez a half a second feels like three hours when you're sitting
up there I'm sure yeah so that kind of keeps you on us so for the fans like us right
et is elapsed time and then your rt is your reaction time exactly so you add those
up and that's your full pass run right exactly yes and then you guys like you just talked about at
the tree like the biggest thing that you guys kind of judge yourself on is your reaction time yes yes
so for like us drivers in these cars we're not shifting so they're they're one to one no transmissions
um the crew chiefs go off of a million different things they can you know control the tire slip
with they have uh clutch they have a uh basically it's a bearing controlled by hydraulic cylinder
that will push that bearing in which applies clutch quicker or slower and more aggressively
they have ignition timing they have fuel pressure they have so much stuff um so we don't have shift
points we're looking at for us we're really focused on our reaction time and then just trying to keep
this 12 000 horsepower race car between the lines and um because we have so much horsepower each cylinder
is more horsepower than an entire nascar engine thanks so um it's pretty insane when we flood
a cylinder and basically it tries to yank us all around the racetrack so um that is that's kind of
our main thing is you know reaction time and then trying to keep this between the lines
to we went to charlotte i've a huge drag racing fan i always have been got my winston drag racing
shirt on i grew up by english town but i my fondest memories are my dad bringing me to
english town for friday night qualifying but i bring my daughter religiously like we go sit in
grandstands and this year we went and sat kind of low and down towards the end it is scary because
there's no catch fits i'm like these things are really close but what like i didn't i learned more
every time i go uh but when you guys do lose a cylinder it moves that car quick crazy like it's
can you feel it right away oh yeah so i was i was hanging out with caps and and paul and you're in
the hospitality and ron's got a dialed in hospitality over there he does it right and you talk about all
the things that the crew chiefs have right you got clutch timing and all fuel and all the stuff
you're in the mix like i was watching you know ron's over here and you're over here you're like
not only entertaining sponsors right you're like and like awesome proc was i was hanging out with
him a little bit too and he's mixing the fuel like a little chemistry project like breaking bad i'm
like like wow like he's like heisenberg in the back of the hall and and you you said you grew up
you know racing with your dad and your family team it seems like you can do
almost everything on the car i definitely can't do which is cool but i i do really enjoy that side
of the race car i've always said i from the day i started driving when i was eight years old i have
never wanted to just be a driver i want to be part of the team and i don't want to be the person
rolling in just hopping in the race car to fire it up and then that's that's just not me yeah and
so in 2020 when all school went online my sister and i took full advantage of that and we became
our full my dad's full-time crew members on the alcohol funny car and at the time i was 15 and
she was 13 so like we had to lift blowers lift engines build piston racks lift the body it's
250 pounds and my dad's like hey here's the deal like i want to give you guys this opportunity but
you got to get stronger like there's no way around it we're not going to go ask some guys in the next
pit to come lift our engine we're like figured out figured out eat some weedies exactly like cool
that's something we could fix so we went to the gym got stronger and um so ever since 2020 we have
been fully engulfed in the race car um so when i was driving in 2024 and 25 i was our clutch
specialist so i would build the clutches take transmissions in and out and then if we blew
up an engine which we did every once in a while um you know i could help my sister my younger sister
and my dad uh put the engine back together clutch specialist is like the number one job
yeah you know that's why i actually love that's my favorite 600 degrees too i mean how how hot are
they when they come off um well i actually i don't know whatever this one is yeah i've got a scar here
from grinding clutch just i thought that it'd be um it'd be faster if i just didn't spin the
cutter all the way up well then you cut your hand um you'll do that once yeah but
i mean yeah i there's been times where i accidentally you know i drop a nut and it just trickles down
my arm and then you've got exactly all the way down um but yeah it's not really hot we got them
from brake rotors we all have like from working on the short tracks we're working on the car you're
reaching there oh brake rotor yep but you said you started at eight like what's your and you're
22 now yes so what was the progression of your career from eight years old to get you to where
you're at now so i went to my first race at eight days old and um so i've been in at my whole life
and you know every saturday's race car shop day you know either you're at the race car shop or
you're at the races since i was born and um at eight years old well a little bit prior to that i
was in your mastic broke my collarbone twice i always wanted a race car but it's never worked out
after that my mom who's not a race car driver the only one in the family she says that's it
put in a race car it's gonna be safer it's funny how racing families work oh yeah that's a true
story it's like hang on let's let's strap my daughter eventually into a top fuel dragster
on a 335 yeah that's way safer than gymnastics summer salts on the padded mat
literally literally and um so we went and started junior dragster racing when i was eight years old
my sister's a year and a half younger and then so when she turned eight she started as well
and we drove those cars for 10 years until i turned 18 and then in the mix of that we also
drove an additional race car each of us it's called a junior comp car okay and it's a little bit of a
six times in the eighth mile paddles or uh we had buttons okay so we had we had auto shift too
because it was way more consistent but i mean there's times when it didn't shift i actually
prefer it when it didn't shift so then i could do it myself and it was way funner because you know
you could wrap it up and try and get ahead of the guy and um what's what's the movie on erica and
enders um that one is google that i'm thinking of heart like a wheel but it's not that one
because my kids love that i've seen that movie in about four minute doses a thousand times
it was a movie on right on track was it right on track that's what it is oh yeah
yeah so that that's so erica and i don't know a ton of history on females in drag racing right but
it seems like were they one of the first ones to kind of break in who kind of set paved the way
Shirley Moldowney, Shirley Moldowney was the first professional woman to kind of
be really engulfed uh Shirley Sheahan was the first woman to ever win and we actually had her out
in Pomona it was really fun i got to meet her previously but she was the first woman to win
an NHRA event but Shirley Moldowney paved the way really for women in the NHRA uh she was the first
like fully professional woman and she won a lot of races and um definitely took the the the heat
for some time um but she did a great job and um you know i think something special about drag racing
is there's a lot of women out there but in all different categories professional sportsmen um
all the categories even the bikes and she Smith just won this weekend yeah yeah
she had a Shirley Moldowney had a pink car too right i remember being like as a little kid being
like this is the girl she's awesome she's in the pink car but she owned her own teams like she was
badass yes very much so she was actually out this weekend 90s like that would have been in the 90s
90s yeah probably 80s late 80s early 90s and then yeah that sounds right and then like
he had Angel's ceiling Savoy Angel yes uh Sampey Sampey yep she was the she was on the bike she
was awesome she won i believe 48 events she she killed it and she's still out right now she runs
eight field dragster now okay yep yep she's on uh Antron Browns i think it's called the A B
accelerating program so basically where he tries to bring up drivers through categories to the
top fuel ranks and she's one of the drivers so you've you've obviously been just born and raised
in drag racing right is it is it wild now because like you grew up probably like like i did look in
at the Jeff Gordon's and and fill in the blank Adele Jr's Tony Stewart Tony Stewart right it's
like when it when i got to the point where i was on the same racetrack with those guys and like
holy shit like this at jimmy johnson like yeah these guys i've looked at as literal gods and i get
to line up next we want to restart Kyle Busch yes you know it's like so when you're lined up next
to somebody like that like is it like are you thinking about that or like no it's just another
guy on the other side of the track that i need to beat definitely like when i'm suiting like suing
up or rolling into the lanes i'm like Tony Stewart was my first side-by-side ever and in a top fuel
car did you beat him well technically yes yes there's no abstract on it it was testing but
technically i made it to the finish line first okay um right good racers always keep in count
that's right yes so i mean that was huge like i you know rolling into the lanes
knowing you're gonna run against Tony Stewart and like Clay Millican i've watched him my entire
life i can remember i love that guy he's so awesome oh my gosh but i can remember my dad racing on the
east coast so he's three hours ahead you know i'm me and my sister were both young so we'd wake up
and we'd be running out in our pajamas to watch down the tv and we'd stay and watch
ron caps clay millican and it's like i want the same ladder with these guys like i'm a driver
intro sitting next to clay millican and Tony Stewart and Doug Coletta like what life's weird
man life's crazy and um yeah so it's uh it's an honor it really is and it definitely i
after the weekends over is when i go through all the pictures and in our social media and just kind
of i just i'm in awe every time i really am it's like a pinch me moment it is holy crap that's really
me my face is on the back of our trailer like me and ron we're walking back that's weird that's
weird to me i that was always a request to me like hey what do you want the trailer to look like
whatever it is do not put my face granted my face doesn't look like yours so oh my gosh like
leave my mug off the side of the truck you put my name small great how is always like a non-starter
for me i worked for tony won a championship with tony um on the cup side how has he been
to compete against i guess a competitor oh he's been wonderful i love seeing his pack his
obviously is so passionate and um he hates losing oh man he hates it yeah and um i i think like
we were we were in chicago and he he lost and he comes over and he's like you know what i hate the
most in my life like what he's like losing i hate it i hate everything about it i hate losing but
that's like like that's like a passion you want i mean that's what our sport needs is that passion
in the fire and having him in our category is so awesome he's brought so much light um and he's
he's been wonderful to race with like when i ran against him you know we're testing like they need
they need data and i'm this is my first test pass like maybe i was gonna mess up maybe i was
gonna take too long and i'm like hey would you be okay i ran against you it's my first time he's
like oh a heck yeah i don't even think twice about it i'm like okay cool he's it was always crazy to
meet with him not to get too far on the tony's store topic but like when he was okay with losing
and when he wasn't because there'd be some times where he'd be like you thought he was gonna be
pissed off he's like yes how goes and other times where you wouldn't think it and he'd be like don't
even talk to me i'm like where where is the scale here where's the line see do you guys work with
like in nascar we have manufacturers i know slugger labby's been working with toyota side over there
like how does that work uh with manufacturers and kind of teammates and sharing data yeah so um
i learned this this weekend the toy i learned i learned this talking to slugger this weekend
i was like hey how's the nhr stuff going because well toyota's not really in it anymore right really
yeah they were in it they were with ron for for a lot of years and were really really huge they have
a lot of like they bring their data trucks out and the track data that they gave to ron and
all the teammates were huge um so the the toyota camaraderie was really big for a lot of years i
know one year jr blew up i want to say he blew up twice at a race and he was out of bodies so ron
gave him one of his bodies to run in the final i think it was in brainard what a guy what was that
what a guy i know right and he ended up losing by like five hundredths and it was a super big
bummer but um so the camaraderie was huge was it like nap it out on jr's car it was nap it out
interesting they they did end up putting like some dhl logos i think on the the wing in the back
but it was nap it out oh that's cool so it was really special jr chuck won into the gravel pit at
charlotte and they just unloaded the backup car like oh we gotta keep going keep going that's crazy
to me i didn't know that they could do that they were like no this one's bad get a whole new car
i believe you can only change once you can change once in a week and i believe which we only bring
two cars most time you have a spare one they might have a spare one back at the shop but
we always have two cars like ready to go so we have our main car and then we have a backup car
we haven't ran our backup car yet but it's completely wired all you gotta do is drop an engine
and clutch in it and we're ready to go do they drive like do you find a car that you like and
you just want that one or do they drive different are they all pretty close i've only driven one
so yeah it's hard to tell they might be different i don't know but um yeah as far as i know they
drive pretty much the same but i'm sure they both had their little their own little quirks you kind
of have to get them set right um and it probably takes a couple runs well and eve is so much down
to like steer and wheel placement and throttle i'm sure that everything has their own little
nuances about it i'm just so fascinated of like the load on your body and
so you ran how much alcohol did you run before so i uh crewed for six years and drove for two of
those years yeah how much of a jump is it from your alcohol run to a top fuel run um the speed
is massive it's huge and the g forces is on i mean it's hard to explain like the best way i can
explain it is i mean just off the line you hit the gas and you're pulling close to four g's and then
the g meter does slightly lay over to like three g's at about 300 feet but then the clutch literally
locks up that's what i heard yeah and you can hear the engine rpm drop but you would think it's
gonna go slower but these things like low like it drops and it's like it wants to go
the exact noise it does it sounds mean and uh then it locks up and it just starts pulling like
legit the first time it started pulling like five nap cheese i thought my arms were three miles long
i'm like i have no idea how i'm holding the steering wheel like like star wars like warp speed
like literally literally a hundred percent and like i imagine my face i don't know what it looks
like but i imagine it looks like fighter pilots when they're trying to stay awake you know i mean
literally like like trying to fight to stay alive and then you hit the parachutes and then you just
fly forward yeah you think you're tight yeah you're not every time it feels like my face hits
the dashboard that's exaggeration but yeah well you're going from positive four g's to negative
45 probably positive six to negative six okay and that immediately so i was one of those
people that got to fly an f-18 with the Thunderbird yeah yeah we pulled 9.2 oh my gosh and i started
the window started to close in i didn't go black but boy i was one of those guys like
and then they let off the stick well i got you know i i almost got sick right because
you're there's no reference you're above the clouds so you don't know what's up or down and he's
doing all these two early worlds and upside down early worlds and all of a sudden because i don't get
carsick or anything but there it was my lunch was here i'm like buddy give me a minute and he's like
hey you want to grab the stick usually that helps guys settle down i'm like uh yeah so it's literally
like a joystick you'd play with like uh nintendo 64 you know and you're messing around with it and
that's got got me my my stomach settled and he's like all right you ready to pull because like
nine g's is when you get the pin right that's like what you try to go do is you try to get ready to go
pull nine g's and then i go all right buddy you ready to pull nine g's i said let me tell you
something you better make sure damn sure we get there because if we pull 8.9 i ain't gonna be happy
about it he goes 10.4 and they get going up and they pull it down like this
and there was like uh you know you're looking at the back of a guy's head right and there was like
they're like just focus on something oh it's it was i could imagine like the sensation now i wasn't
in control whatsoever i was just a passenger but that's feeling on your body it feels like and i've
said this multiple times it feels like god's got a bungee cord on your soul ripping it out of your
body that's a good way to put it now he says it's ripping out of your butt holes out of your ass
i think that's what he tried to make it he tried to make a pg for you let's try to make a pg that's
right yeah she's a drag racer man she knows she's come on come on yeah yeah so i i have a little bit
of idea what 9.2 and also a human body's not made to feel that they so they let you grab the joystick
yeah do you think anybody went ah just yanked it they let me do a big circle really yeah it was an
unbelievable experience if you ever get a chance to do it do it that is insane that would be so insane
i will say today i went down to the charlotte um motor speedway yep and i had no idea how steep
the bank was ever notice how life's best stories don't happen in your living room they happen on
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that was crazy to see crazy do you watch this circle racing and interest you at all you just
straight line fan i will say i watched almost the entire coca-cola 600 um so long on the
pick i didn't you got a shorter one i think i skipped maybe like a hundred laps i will say
but i i watched most of it okay and um i watch i really watched that ride watch that race two
years in a row because we always watched indy car race and then watch that race but um i really
want to see the cow bush tribute and watch that and oh my gosh that was brutal man
so special that they were able to do that though you know for him and his family what was very tough
what other kind of motor sports are you into drifting like you dirt racing what do you what
do you like are you like it like i know you're drag racing family through and through but like
what else peaks your interest what's on your instagram storyline there you go so um i mean
you guys know like everything in order to be successful you're just like pinned into your sport
but as far as like other motor sports that pique my interest uh i really find like dirt racing
pretty cool because uh back home i grew up with uh one of my friend's her brother ran
sprint cars so i would go to race with them when i was younger and watch them where you from uh
california okay past robles i don't know where that is if you like wine we're
huge into wine up near sonoma so we are a big competitor of like sonoma and nap of valley
so top side of california middle central so sonoma's here la's here we're right in
the middle on the coast okay super good weather good wine we're making the trip we're going to
san diego meet my wife and the kids we're going to disney land and then driving up that way
you go to stop if you like wine and well unfortunately for pasto it's not a great spot for
i mean i don't know i don't want to say it's not a good spot for kids but it's bars wineries
and we do have a water park though let's go so there you go that's all you need there you go i mean
for carissa you got the wine yep kids got the water park that's right it's perfect uh what are you
going to the hpx show tomorrow okay we've got a panel tomorrow and um and then we're gonna
head out to boston on wednesday uh because we got a race in epping new hampshire highway
an hra an hra oh yeah but isn't there some stuff there so we were going to go uh there was a
itery race in redding which is a whole napa carlile exactly so that's where right near
redding racetrack is where all the napa batteries are made and then also where all the carlile
toolboxes are made yep so we were gonna uh race that race were so many more but so that was
let's see that was not last you know two days ago but it was the weekend prior and they got rained
out okay and i guess it they canceled the money before which is super early to cancel but evidently
it rained like the entire weekend so it was a good call that they canceled it is redding's
not maple grove is that different it okay okay i'm like i'm putting my bearings together yes
because we would go all over there so there so and it will give you a tour of the shop here in a
second so so my dad's business has been aluminum racing seats for since like the late 90s so you
could when somebody would send their seat back i'm not going to name names michael walter when he
would send the seat back and not a guy a long time right paul i'm sure is familiar with him uh
when he would send his seats back if you had to do any cutting grinding or welding on it it was
in the aluminum it was it was bad oh boy it was bad yes i that's what because i appreciate
and don't want my interior guy to have a really bad monday morning i do not
paul just sent me something you guys are having a car show at bentley's garage in
in new hampshire dude june third and fourth bentley have you been the bentley's you had a
saloon have you ever been up there no you know bentley worn i have not been i've not been absolute
american badass i cannot wait ron has been talking so much about it he he is really excited
about it ron caps has the coolest friends in motorsports who knows more guy
people than that guy i can't i can't remember who it is i need to know but he's friends like this
big band like this big rock band you know it's like call them up and like talking like these
big rock band guys i'm like what how do you know them oh through this friend and this friend he's
well he's been racing for it's probably around for something he's been racing for a hundred years
too yes yes what do we got keyed up here we got a video keyed up here funny cars
what is this give me some context chase uh okay so i saw actually a t-shirt uh of yours that had
this backstory behind this well let's hear it so so your last one of the stage line yep playing
the game right how he blows up we win hey so you started in funny cars so i started in junior
dragsters junior comp then i went to super comp which is a smaller traction than the one that i run
right now and then i went to alcohol funny car drove us for two years so this weekend was the
middle of my rookie season uh i think july or august july um and my first ever national event
win i dreamed of this moment i kid you not i have woken up in the middle of the night just dreaming
of doing an interview at the top end and um and holding a wally so this weekend
ron approached my dad in the staging lanes and asked him if i would be interested in driving a
top fuel car for him in 2026 and this was the first week i ever heard of this there was no
talks about this we had never approached ron asking for this opportunity no and um so he approached
my dad and basically you know so this is what i wanted to do you know don't tell maddie did it you
know this weekend i don't want to distract her well that lasted about two hours and then my parents
told me so we had a meeting with him that weekend and he's like oh my gosh i'm gonna mess her up like
she probably isn't gonna do good this weekend well we ended up winning the race and became the
hundredth different female to win that weekend and so people were like oh that's the biggest weekend
for you ever and i'm like yeah i can't even tell you half the reason why yeah how how gassed were
you like just to even hear the news about the opportunity um my parents told me when i was
on a motorcycle i thought i was gonna crash like i genuinely was like like what like i'm gonna run
like i i can't even focus like and we thought like like how every opportunity is in top fuel you
have to bring millions like that's just how it is and so my dad before we had the meeting with ron
he said hey just be honored that he he thought of you but you're gonna have to bring millions of
dollars and let's do that millions sitting around that we don't know about you know it's not gonna
happen but just be appreciative that he thought of you and i'm like totally get it dead absolutely
so he walked in and and you know we're talking to him and and my dad goes so how much does she
have to bring and he goes oh no she doesn't bring anything and my dad's like what
he's like no no she'll be a paid driver this will be her job and she will be this will be her
her profession and he's like i'll be honest i don't have the funding i don't have it yet
but we're gonna find it we're gonna build this team around her and we're gonna find it and we're like
what pinch yeah pinch me yeah oh my god i'm gonna fall over and he did everything he said
and then said man that was a year and a half before and he 100% did everything he said got
carlall on board is that through a napa connection it is yep so carlall tools is napa's uh tool brand
so they're sold through all the napa stores sold online um and uh yeah so it's a absolute blessing
because for me i've worked with tools my entire life and prior to this year we were on a tool deal
with them in 2025 on the outcall car so we i've been using their tools for over a year on our funny
car and so when i talk about their tools you know i talk about them from experience it's all fancy
and you know why why you should use them because i can tell you from first hand experience and so
it's it's just such a blessing to have a partner that you get to work with every every day and that
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price and coverage match limited by state law so like what's the feeling like when are you able
to peek at the wind light or or you're just kind of like looking at the other lane if you
nose ahead so we have um they basically have wind lights down there for the drivers so
a decent ways past the finish line they have lights on each end of the guard rails so the
drivers can see because some drivers are able to actually like pass a thousand feet look up at
the scoreboards because they're usually at the quarter mile i haven't done that yet so i don't
even know if i could see at this point in my career yet but i always look for the wind light
and in these cars they've advanced the safety so much that the the roll cage sits so far out and
like we sit so far back that if you see the other car ahead of you they're like almost a whole car
ahead so it's a big deal usually if they're ahead of me and i can't see him i can hear him because
the engine is now like right here in my like right next to me and i could hear like first
round yesterday i could hear his engine dammit oh no and um so always looking for the wind
light though and you know there's been times like you drive it a little bit far because
you're like driving till you see the wind light you know and uh obviously that that's you know
you're you're gonna let off at just but it's usually like you're waiting for that wind
light in those late rounds you're just like driving till the light comes on but um that's
how you know we win sometimes there's been one time like ron in the final of charlotte the wind
light was burnt out oh the worst you know if he won or not but we have the right to change the
light bulb marcus mitsy's marcus jeez we got four lanes john force grandstands we got three bulbs
sorry the times are tough over here that's right so i guess also in addition to that question it's
like are you equally is not equal are you that much amped up regardless of the wind and then like
the dejection of not potentially going to the next round like you don't show it but your body's
still just like vibrating from i think i always show it i don't think i've never been a time where
i've been like anti climatic because i just i just kind of how i am i'm a very like just
bad and expressive personality and like for me i live for this like i live every single day and
i think about being in the race car and driving the race car and so like when i get to when i'm
in there i'm jacked up like i'm i'm pumped and um especially after getting a win like getting
like that wind light we're like drug addicts for that wind light i mean we really are and uh so get
out of the car for one you know you're all excited because you won two you're probably two monsters
deep at about three o'clock absolutely absolutely and then you drink a monster after the interview
for sure and but like your body it it takes a lot of force on your body like you wouldn't think you're
out of breath but you're always out of breath after the run uh and then of course you have your
team there too so your team's there they're pumped up so then if i'm already pumped up and then
they're excited so then i get more excited um so there's never been a time where i've not been
you know kind of jacked up after a run you ever wear a heart rate monitor no so what so what we
saw like pit stops right because we we run work nine seconds at a time but everybody thought like
oh control your heart rate well our heart rates good guys are really low really until after the
stop and then when everything's over it goes pow like goes way up and i wonder if it's the same
for you guys because you're so focused then when you're finally done it's like it's like a dump
and you're like whoa and then you finally take a breath so that'd be that'd be really interesting
to see what a heart rate monitor looks like on you guys that would be i i really do think you're
right because sitting in the water box sometimes it's like a big round like i can hear my heartbeat
in my ears like it's it's but once the car fires like i am not nervous anymore it completely goes
out the window and i'm just just just locked in but then after the run you know
then i'm like shaking shaking like yeah but i think i bet you you're probably right that would
that's probably what it is yeah it's great i didn't think that that that would be that way but
are you a car person in general yeah what do you what should i would i mean i would say like
i love old cars i don't have one myself but i think they're really cool and um i drive uh i
drive a Toyota Tacoma but i got it when i was 15 and a half because it's like a smaller truck
that's how young she is she still counts half years it's only 15 and a half i was not 15 because
i got it when i got my permit and um but i got it because i could pull the trailer with it
and it's just small enough we could whip it around town but i didn't like a stock Tacoma
so i put a six inch lift on it and 35 inch uh tires okay we call those swamp donkeys
what's a swamp dump that's what you're driving
one with mud tires it's swamp donkey okay fatty gordon drives a swamp donkey
that's what i got i i respect it uh yeah if you had like what era of old cars do you prefer
i like the is this the square body the chevys i think those are pretty
trucks the trucks oh yeah i love that those are slick what yours is a four i got a four
that's square body my kids love it like i got my dad had it i bought it from a guy he sold it to
and like we're just taking to go get ice cream like that's the fondest memories and you you know
if your dad was probably a car guy but as any good racer you probably dumped all his money
in the race cars on our street cars exactly yeah but this is one that like got for the kids to
drive around but there's nothing cooler than just going get ice cream and pickup truck that's so cool
four deep i had cruise shifting on the shifter like it's hilarious what's uh what would be like a
like if you're going to mess around with like a street car and make it like a drag car like a
cletus mcfarland type corvette and like how much do you like do you follow along with what cletus
is doing these days we actually raced it one of his events um in 2024 that was actually my first
regional event when was that his down in his place yeah it was at his event they had a burnout
pit going crazy tons of fans in there have you met him no i didn't get to meet him dude he's
got it going on hey he was doing well this week a couple tough moments he ran nascar race at nashville
oh rally race a couple tough moments but he but he was way better i tell you one of my favorite
things to see is his post race videos i like a bald eagle he's awesome he he just is having so much
fun he's not jaded yet by the sport and i like i that i appreciate that he's way cool he and he
puts on good events and he's doing he puts on good events people love that guy we went down
there to the freedom 500 last year and there had to be 10 000 people oh yeah they just show
up they show up because he's there i know he's got a straw hat on his gun's hanging out people
just got around like he's the whistling diesel guy was hanging out behind our box this week
was he because we met him and i was like he's kind of looking at me like didn't he do some
stuff with karson recently this mo i don't know i thought he's in prison um but i was like this mo
photo i remember i'm not going to say i'm not going to say just a little bit of tax evasion on a
ferrari ball but like minor details that guy's wild yeah well he's standing there like behind
our box because karson's like he's all youtube guys and i was like he don't remember i'm not
going to go up and be like hey we met i was like i'll just sit here in my cowboy fire suit and
mind my business do you have like do you do youtube at all do you not have time for that
i don't do a lot of it i do more like watching more like social media stuff um because we don't
have a youtube maybe we might get one a little bit later in the year for our team but we don't
have one so i spend a lot of my time more like on like the social side like instagram instagram
what is it so people can follow on well oh uh maddie gordon racing for instagram facebook and
then x and um we have all team accounts on those as well you're not a tiktoker i'm
that's yeah hey i know i respect i'm not having a tiktok but i don't love i love jeff gordon
and he's gonna be on our prime broadcast at san diego see the tiktok i mean they got sex man four
times wait listen if you you have four boys if you had a little girl i know i guess i'd be doing
stuff you do if you're a little girl can't that's right tiktok we got wrong we got ron doing some
fun stuff i will say i mean ron don't want to do anything he is he's up for anything i'm like
ron we got this funny video we're like oh that looks weird is that weird like no it's not weird
he's like okay cool let's do it literally we're doing this one we're at the photo shoot with nha
and we're like ron we need to do the jc penny awkward photos and we show him this one he goes
that looks weird are you sure i can do that i'm like yeah it's not weird it's cool he's like
all right okay we'll do it ron caps makes anything look cool american badass he really how
how old how old's ron 61 61 but i'm telling nitros in real in real years is 82 but the
nitros kept them down with 61 yeah it's right i can't like that's like you age slower than
everybody else you age slower that's right should we do three questions no we gotta
do three questions we ask same three questions uh it's all of our guests most of them are
nascar drivers so the the question generally is if you had to pick one race track and one race car
the race the rest of your life can't race anything else what do you pick one race track and one race
car one race track i i would say i would go charlotte and that's super good facility
beautiful facility the track is super smooth and the night runs are really fast yes and of course
the top feel drag sure that is the four wide sensation different it is for sure way different
um you can never give up like when you're running two cars if you smoke the tires and the guy goes
rooming past you you're not going to get on it because you're not going to blow up your parts
well if you smoke the tires this guy goes screaming past you you have no idea what the two cars the
lane are doing you can't see them so you literally never give up until you cross the finish line
so i think that's a pretty cool factor and also the starting line in the staging can get so
confusing if somebody forgets like what lane they're in and what bulb is theirs and if they don't
stage so like if everybody pre-stage and then one guy doesn't stage after eight seconds the tree is
dropping but you're still going to be looking oh is that guy gonna stage when's he gonna stage
well the tree drops like so basically you have to have a mental countdown once you stage
14000 okay everyone stage now
focus there's a lot of alligators it's a lot of alligators that's right then you're gonna get
fused how many alligators did you count and then the next thing you know you're already at the end
of the run then the alligators then you're alligated out and the tree already dropped and then you're
late uh that's never good uh question number two is what's the most embarrassed you've been at the
most embarrassed
also a sign of youth has to think about it us older fellas are like I know exactly the day
date the time trauma from this particular event I'm trying to think I'm I know I've been embarrassed
a lot of times but I'm trying to think of a specific time um it's gonna be something like
probably in the pits for sure um there was one time oh well I think it was my fault that this
happened yeah this was my fault so we we're pitting us to Brian how he's got a really beautiful rig
really really nice trailer I think it was raining we're in Topeka rain is we've got like those
streamers coming down so then rain can come out the awning well we were just in a massive rush
we were in the final dumping oil we're dumping it in the jugs we got these um you know plastic
jugs we put it in so we had no time to like drain it into our buckets so we just put it in the jugs
and just put it out next to the trailer we're getting the car together we run up for the final
and full of water oh no we come back and these streamers for the rain they they like
dip down like a pixie stick they go down to the oil flap around in the wind and slap all over his
trailer oh yeah oh yeah just like you imagine those things those sticks you lick and you put
them in the dust just dip down slap on the trailer dip down slap on the trailer oh no oh so we come
back right and we're like what is all over the side of his trailer and then I realized and I'm
like oh my gosh so I run up dips down bam slaps me in the face whole face of oil my sister comes
running maddie bam boom right in her face and oh my gosh and we just lost in the final on top of it
oh it was literally a slap in the face literally a slap in the face it was yeah about like yeah 5w
10 oh my gosh yeah there's there's was there any other witnesses besides your sister my entire
family and then brian who we ran the final got to come back to his trailer what that was that's
what it gets for beating you yeah just drenched with oil so we cleaned his entire trailer and I think
my grandpa like paid for him to get like a big wash and it was a mess mess uh question number three
is do you do you know have you ever seen men in black okay yeah okay well it's a good one uh it's
got it's got the other will Smith not your teammate the other will Smith's actor use the
fresh Prince Bella yeah she doesn't know what that is I know what that is okay yes so in the in the
movie they have this pen it's called a neuralizer right they zap it and you forget everything you
saw within a certain time right so if I had the neuralizer pen and zapped all of your racing
memories okay and you only got to keep one what memory do you keep I keep this is for sure uh
I keep the first round of Pomona in I think it was the International's 2025 we maybe it was the
finals we had a malfunction with the car and basically we had had all a lot of our stuff wasn't
going to work and we didn't know until we fired up so you fire the car it's first round we're you
know we got it up we think we're good and then we realize my dad gets on the radio as I'm back
here from the burnout hey you're not going to have any shift lights no shift lights at all
and in the car I was in the shift the rpm ramps up so fast were you in a pro stock top alcohol
funny car and their shift lights so we have a shift light out that's right in front of the
injector so the injector is here the shift light outside the the body and so the first shift we
typically shift about 10,400 rpm and the second one's about 10,100 rpm well the first shift comes
so fast I mean literally you snap your fingers and you're 300 high and it's going to blow up
so as I'm backing up he says no shift lights you're gonna have to shift on your points which we
shifted around 330 and around the eighth mile so he's like you just need to just pay pay attention
when you get close and to start and it sounds right shift and be a race car driver be a race car
driver I'm like all right okay cool backing up he gets back on the radio um also the two steps
not gonna work at that time basically we would I would roll into stage I would mat the gas all
the way drop the clutch and that's how we would go so if the two steps not gonna work basically
if I didn't know that I would have mat the mat of the gas it would have gone up to 11,000 rpm
probably kick the rods out in the starting line so now I had to just foot right to just rev it up
just just feel it rev it up look at my tack and go to like 6,800 so you're sitting here making
that just that's your handbrake yeah handbrake clutch rev it up all right you know look at my
tack and then roll it in with my brake all right cool so I get on the radio all right dad what do
you want me to leave at this is all like as I'm backing up rolling forward I'll leave a 6,800 cool
I look down rpm tax at zero I'm like all right cool this is gonna be really exciting oh no you have
nothing no absolutely nothing the engine is running and I have I have no data that I can look at and
I'm like cool all right so I wrap I roll in and so my dad he told me wrap the throttle a couple
times like wrap it a bunch so the other guy knows what you're gonna do because I would have screwed
yet him up not he not knowing what I was gonna do because I totally changed procedures on the other
guy so I'm wrapping it and then I roll in and I'm listening and the dash
is starting to vibrate and I'm like yeah it's not high enough I roll a little more I'm like that
sounds good that feels so I bump it in and leave and I figure the things
that smoke the tires like we got nothing's working oh we're trucking I'm like all right cool we get
a 330 shit like that sounded good all right the rods are still in it shifting on the next one oh man
I don't see him and I throw the parachutes in we freaking won let's go that was the
most exciting round of my life that was most exciting story I've ever heard make it work
it was awesome I was riding with you oh my gosh unbelievable no the storyteller oh my gosh yes
well I've had a blast Maddie and and everybody go follow along to Maddie's journey this year what
when when are you gonna get in victory land do you have a particular event that you just the next
one like I hope this weekend let's go where are you guys we're going to epping you want to epping
my first time in epping we have a big lobster dinner we're doing we're just gonna be super
exciting let's go we have Carlisle shipped in a bunch of tools so we can be cracking our lobsters
with some vice grips what was that just some like some adjustable pliers I believe so I
haven't seen him I'll have to let you know this weekend 100 pair of adjustable pliers yes let's go
so do you need to work on your cars or crack lobsters Carlisle's got you covered whatever you
hey we've we've all worked in the shop long enough to know that we find ways tools and they're like
yeah this is this is how this works like yeah so that's great good stuff man and you get to hang
out Bentley I'm pumped you guys go check out you guys are up there go check out their car show
June 3rd and 4th at Bentley's yeah we're going up there on Wednesday we'll be there Wednesday
I've never been to Maine Bentley's before so it's a magical place up there it's
something I can't you're gonna see some stuff you've never seen before up at Bentley's Saloon
for sure um well that that's all I got we're gonna put a bow on later in the show or we land
in the bird landing but let's let's land this thing up so um core of the joy here alongside
Ryan Flores and Maddie Gordon had a blast today so good luck to you everybody follow on Maddie's
journey I certainly will be as well along with Ron Capps and Austin Proc and all the friends of
our show so enjoy your time in Charlotte yes thank you guys we'll be keeping up with it it's uh
yep this weekend where we go Michigan Michigan I'm just doing the cup race so we'll see you there
you're doing your truck and going to Stellantis HQ Dodge HQ on Thursday I'm excited about that
so that's that's uh that's cool stuff big week for those guys that's a year from where they
announced the whole ram thing so they got some you know some emotional attachment they do to
that place so hopefully we have a good run for them we'll have some fun on the broadcast this week
tune in stag and pennies on Sirius XM channel 90 on Spotify wherever you find your
podcast or YouTube and at underscore stag and pennies on Instagram guys at maddie gordon racing
at maddie gordon racing follow along uh there's no excuse not to follow everything we're doing
each other day you guys keep stag and pennies get you where you want to go in life have a fantastic week
goodbye
About this episode
Road-trip stories kick things off, from Franklin County mountain roads and a brake scare to race-week production shifts after Kyle Busch’s news. The conversation then jumps between NASCAR-style aero and strategy—diffusers, downforce, and body rules—and NHRA drag-racing details: ET vs RT, missing the tree, clutch timing, and why teams keep a backup car. Ron Capps comes up through the guest’s Top Fuel opportunity, plus women’s NHRA history and the realities of funding and sponsorship.
NHRA Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon joins Corey LaJoie and Skip Flores to explain what 12,000 horsepower really feels like, how she earned her way in the shop, what Ron Capps saw in her, and how she once won a round with no shift lights, no two-step, and no data.
Corey and Skip also recap Nashville, SVG’s continued rise, Denny Hamlin’s move, O’Reilly racing, and why simple floors and big horsepower might be the answer.
