Ep.314 – Ross Chastain

Complete psychopath an actual watermelon farmer not just a not just a gimmick and Ron Hornaday Jr.'s designated driver

Yeah, Ross Chastain if you could describe this dinner you just had in one word. What would it be watermelons? Oh, come on, dude

Really? Really? Really? It's what I am

So I mean I see come on

It's easy. Yeah, low-hanging fruit

Nooo!

And now for dinner with racers presented by Continental Tire with your hosts Ryan Eversley and Shawn Heckman

Please hold the radio

Welcome to dinner with racers. I am Shawn Heckman

I am Ryan Eversley and we are sitting here on year 10 year 10

It is year 10 of doing this podcast with you, which didn't see that coming remember 2015 when you're like, we're gonna drive

Yeah, like what do you mean in our car together like we're gonna get our rooms, right? We'll get our own hotel rooms. No

No, we're on a budget. Yeah, well, we've been doing this for a long time

That's because you guys have been so great and you know who else has been great. Hmm the guests

We we have had some of the best guests in the sport some of which you have never heard of before us and some of which that you

Absolutely knew who they were right and I'd say this falls into the absolutely know who you never heard of

You never heard of Ross Chastain. Okay. Well, Ross Chastain. Tell me more. I'll tell you all about him about Ross Chastain

Number one Ross Chastain is our boy. He's our he's our new buddy. So we we love this guy and I guess the backup story to this is that you

And I have had a hard-on for the watermelon story. Yeah about him like let's just a watermelon farmer for years

We've talked about this online for years, and so we're like does he really like does he really care the NASCAR media?

Ross Chastain has won. Yeah

But he's always played up is like he's a watermelon farmer, right? You and I have always been like is he though?

Yeah, and like how small the farm is this? Yeah, but we got to sit down with Ross courtesy of Justin Marks being such a great friend and good friend of

The show and I don't know that Ross really knew us too much. Like he was like he was warm and nice

But but at the end of it, I think like the three of us were like bros

Yeah, absolutely was awesome. So but if you don't know Ross, you don't follow NASCAR

He's a current driver for trackhouse racing in the NASCAR series

He's also driven for teams like a nasty and bounced around in the trucks and extended with a ton of teams for a long time

But his family owns JDI farms in Florida, which is kind of what set the whole watermelon

You know background up JDI standing for just do-it farms how he hasn't got a cease and desist yet

I'm not sure but he really knows his stuff

Before we get in any other rush has to round up what you and I were talking about in terms of being a little skeptical of all the media

Fanfare. Yeah, he's the real deal in terms of his love for watermelons like he knew like the the nerds that are you and I get into like you

I don't get the minutiae. Yeah, like we got a crazy minutiae in this episode. How much makes the edit? I don't know

Yeah, but

Sorry fans, but we wanted to know and to be blunt

He knew all the answers like he's a real watermelon guy who knows this stuff and he's sincere about it

Like he had to run from our episode

To an actual convention. Yeah, an agriculture convention

The funny thing about it was if you listen to it, he's he's

Questioning why we're so curious. Yeah, and I think he thinks that we don't believe him

And we clearly believe him, but we're dorks

We've done so much watermelon research that we're like, well, I want to know this stuff

And so he was kind of like looking at us funny like what is this talking about racing?

But then once he kind of understood who we were he was all in and that was what made it so much fun

But some of the things you're going to learn about during this episode is well a solid three hours about watermelon farming

How you learn that your sponsor is under an fbi investigation and talking about the famous hail melon maneuver

He pulled at the martinsville nascar playoff round in great detail. So we uh, we

So we went down to the china grove family house in china grove, north carolina one of a kind restaurant

Yeah, not a chinese food place. No, yeah china grove has nothing to do with china

Yeah, not at all

It's basically like a like a breakfast diner kind of spot, you know, and so I believe I had pancakes

And I had a chicken sandwich

Yeah, sure you did and we just got to know ross and and the funny thing about the episode

Was that he literally had to go not private. He was flying out of charlotte

You know, he had to go to the actual airport commercial airlines to go to this ag culture show on a wednesday night

Because he was flying on a wednesday

He had the ag show on thursday and they had to be wherever the nascar race was friday

So he's not taking the extra day off. You know what I mean?

He's he's that serious about this industry and that was really really impressive to us

But also we were getting nervous for him because he's getting later and later and we're like you're gonna miss your fight, dude

But he was all in man. Like what a cool guy. I liked him before this

I think you're on the same page as me like we're big ross chastain fans after this episode

so

One of the things you can do is you can join our patreon at patreon.com forward slash

dwr show

Well, we'll probably give a little bit more behind the scenes information on episodes like the ross chastain episode as well as others

We're doing our own personal race previews and race reviews as well as letting our hair down about once a month and doing a review on

What's going on in life? What do we think about the show?

Some of the inside jokes we've had for the past 10 years and this isn't a lot of fun for us

So once again patreon.com forward slash dw r show and that's that's a lot of fun

But you know what else is super fun? All right having sponsors for 10 years. Oh sponsors

I think you're talking about continental tire

I am absolutely talking about god metal tire and that whole hashtag dinner with conty

And we say this in every episode and it's repetitive and I don't care

If you use that hashtag dinner with conty on instagram or any social media it goes a long way

So if you want to take a photo of tires that you bought or a continental tire product or whatever

Something to do with the show and you don't care

Using that hashtag dinner with conty tagging continental tire goes a huge huge way towards

Justifying their involvement with us and saying what we do actually works

And if you're not a social media person no problem if you go to dinnerwithracers.com or our instagram profile

There are trackable links that send you to continental tires if you go to dinnerwithracers.com look for those continental tire links

When you click on that that tells continental tire that we sent you and that is incredibly helpful towards telling them that what we do

Is actually working and keeping this show free for maybe 10 more years, right?

You know who races with ross chastain?

Uh, well a bunch of people our our driver shame egg is we're their teammates. Oh the one who drove us around the country

They're teammates. Yeah shame. Yo, we need to stop for some wendy's saucy nugs. All right. Cool. Sure

All right with that

Ross chastain

Me

All right, we're gonna start in five four three

two

How we doing? I'm good. How are y'all is this your spot? I've been here a couple times. No, um

Pretty close to the house. Uh, I gotta run by there before I fly out tonight. So okay. Oh, where you headed?

Uh

Piora peoria illinois. Okay, so there's a big farm show out there. Um called farm progress. Okay. It's where all the uh big companies

Basically unveil their new tech for the next year. So I'm out there with cabota. They've got some new stuff

Sure tight and tire they make a lot of the ag tires and wheels

Okay in the industry and is it a sponsorship thing or a jdi thing?

Uh, it's um, these are partners of mine. Okay. Yeah, I mean I try to surround myself with ag as much as I can

Yeah, I got cabota and then I was like so I was seeing good your tires on tractors. Sure. I'm going

Well, there's got to be a connection right. It's the same logo, but I don't know really I knew some I knew a couple guys

uh rick heenwright on the

race tire side and like in morseville, but

Thank you

Didn't know how to like what what the connection was like they're obviously the tires look a lot different

but still the same logo so

I was at farm progress

Last year the year before and I just walked up with their booth

I was there with cabota and I just went to the titan booth

Well, I went to where I saw the good year sign and I'm like

Hey, what is anybody here? I could talk to and I told him who I was and they passed it along up the chain

um

Which brings up a bigger topic right like when you're in racing and you're young and you want sponsors

You can talk to everybody and no one will sponsor you right and then once you

Succeed in racing you talk to somebody. They're like, oh, yeah, we'd love to sponsor. Yeah, right

Well, let's put at the point of the year a cup race winner. You know what I mean?

They're like, how can you help us? Right? Whereas when you're starting out, you're like, how can you help me? Right? Yeah

so

So I learned that titan tire is a manufacturer and they

Create I'll say nine out of ten wheels you see on tractors. Okay across all tractors

And then they make a lot of different brands and good years of one of them

So they're in an old or they're in a facility in Des Moines, Iowa

When I've visited and they're making all kinds of tractor tires. So it's once we use at the farm. Yeah

So selfishly I put an order in for the farm because we needed some tires

And then I work with them on the commercials, you know business side of racing and bringing people to the track and

Showing them the racing side. They just have a partnership with Goodyear

To to brand the Goodyear tire onto the

And when you say the farm or do you mean something out here you mean in florida florida. Yeah, so jdi farms

You mentioned so yeah, that's my dad's farm and the watermelon farm. I grew up

We grew up we grow watermelons. That's what we do. Oh hadn't heard that. So you're ross chastain. Okay, right

Okay, yeah watermelon. Tell me more. Yeah, I've got an idea for you if you win a race then

So, yeah, uh, yeah, that's all down there. Um, nothing no watermelons for me here. It's all race cars. Okay

But jdi farms. So that's your dad's farm that he's he's a seventh generation watermelon farmer

So this goes way back it does and like it goes good. No good. Why watermelon?

Because it was a cash crop and they needed money. So it was just that was what they could grow

It was just quick. Yeah, they grew other stuff

But it was

It was a cash crop and it would you go back to the generations

My great-grandfather moved the family to south florida in the 50s because they originally was south george. They were in georgia

And they were going for an earlier crop

So they were what they could sell the per pound of watermelon was less than what some florida guys were getting

So they went went south the punagorda area

Before that there were several generations in georgia. There was a time in south carolina

and

Time in virginia that goes all the way back to like when the first guy came over from france. There was a big

Religious group that came over maybe the I don't know if it was like huganots or is that so we're talking like early

1700 1700 it came over in 1700 just happened to be the year and all that goes back to water and settled

No, they settled in virginia and they were just trying to live

From what my dad had a great-aunt carolin that

Is passed away, but that she they were big into the history

So they did a deep dive

Yeah, you would you would get awarded land if you would come over here

And a large group of them. Yeah, so pier chastain. He actually there's like a pier chastain family

Tree of people that get together and now racing has brought me and they want me to be like

In it. I'm like, well, y'all got it. Y'all just do your thing

We're just going to be down here in florida with our little group of chastains, but

Still it's cool to hear other people that have done history and and where our different families spiral out

Yeah, different branches branch out. So, um, yeah, settled on watermelons along the way and have

They've tried different things and came back to watermelons and

My grandfather

My and then my dad and uncle and other parts of the family have worked in it and then we've been in south florida

But those weren't the good old days. It's not like we're this we were this large farm with all this land

We've moved

Along the way generationally and then it just continued to try to they were just trying to survive

I mean my granddad

Grown up in south georgia

He remembers plowing with a mule. Yeah, right. That is a different world than we live in. Yeah

They the tractors drive themselves. They build tractors now with no cab. You can't even sit. You can't even drive it

It's all autonomous. That's how good a kubota tractor is. There you go

So

To think about, you know, the granddad. I had dinner with sunday night. Yeah, like after daytona saturday night

I went over and saw my grandparents and we had dinner to think that that guy

Plowed behind a mule south georgia because they had to now there were tractors out, but they didn't have to be conforted

Or you just to have one. Yeah, so now I mean, we're definitely living in the the good old days now

right and we've grown the the family has grown the farm and

My dad and uncle and that generation has partnered with other families

So we're partnered with other family farms across the country and

Um have continued to grow it to where now we can sell watermelons every day of the year

Watermelons aren't known for that. Sure. Sure 365. We're selling them somewhere. There's a grocery store somewhere behind them

So that takes farms and you can produce enough to put them out over the course of the year

Right that takes farms domestically from us in south florida all the way up to missouri

Over to delaware and kind of everywhere. Yeah, so what I read was there's like a small window like a hundred days

To to to get a watermelon to grow it to grow it. Okay time we transplant it from the greenhouse

And we put a plant in the ground. Yeah, which is where my dad's job comes in

And then he grows it and then there's the sales side that comes in and harvest it and manages

Packing it and shipping it to your so from the plant to

It's now on a truck and it's somebody else's problem. What's that time a hundred days?

That's a hundred days

And so can they start over again or is it because the land or the the weather won't allow for it because florida's hot enough

You're around I would think you'd be able to it's too hot. Oh, okay

So we have to go early. So we're planting in january

Say the first week of january and then we're harvesting middle of april through say memorial day

I mean that's all it's good for until the next and then it basically starts raining every day in june and july

And it's the fields that we farmed and you know and had plants in that were dry in february or now

There's water standing in them. So you you couldn't grow it. Gotcha. So the season goes to north florida

It follows the warming

A pattern of the country georgia carolinas out

We go over to owensboro, kentucky up in the missouri now and then over delo or maryland that peninsula like an hour south

At dover is huge farmland

Farm country that land is really fertile. They make a ton of so to be year-round

You basically have to follow the wetter patterns going up and then it comes right back and it comes working back down

And are these all jdi properties or nope just jdi is a is a 400 acre farm in south florida

That's that's my dad my where what I grew up going to work for my dad and then I have a younger brother chad

Who's six years younger than me and he's worked that farm?

Throughout you know from high school on and he did a little bit of racing

But what stayed living down there and working the farm every day and now has taken on a larger role

Yeah, looking looking up you guys look like he's more of the day-to-day guy. Yeah

Yeah, so then how is I just trying to understand the business side. So if it's

You guys only have jdi is the one farm in florida, but you can self

You're round. How does that work because you're following the

Basically the weather to be able to do it. So do you you guys own property in other places or so?

There's a there's a network of farms. Yeah

It's not a co-op. It's gonna sound like a cop. It's not there. So there's basically 28 jdi farms

Okay, there's 28 separate ones. Gotcha, and those are different families just like us. So we just realized we need to partner together

And we need to find the green family in georgia the plus family in georgia

If I had a farm in delaware, I could still be jdi. No, it's there their own farms

Okay, so the gibbons. So it's like gibbons produce the gibbons brothers scott and quarry

They're up in the delaware maryland area right on the state line down there around laurel and they

They're just they they have their season. They grow for melon ones. So the center entity is called melon one

That's the the label for us that you would see in the store. Okay, not that anybody's looking sure a label on the watermelon

Right, you're looking for the best one. You're right. People have their thumping patterns

They want to look for the stripes and whatever it is

But our all 28 say around it kind of fluctuates

But yeah say just under 30 farms all to spread it out over the year all sell to melon one

Melon one handles the packing the shipping is melon by you guys

We're a partner in it. Okay, but there's several the lapeede family and the dicks family that are the partners

They partnered more than 30 years ago. Okay

So basically you grow from one farm that you guys own

But then you buy and sell through sort of a different entity that you're part of and they've got a larger network

Beyond just your specific farm. Correct. Okay, there's in our area. There's

Five farms that all are growing about the same time because we the volume is there that

Come april and may the stores are ready to start ramping up, you know

Sam's club or a walmart. It'll take a semi load a week

Right to keep that store stock right in the summertime now in the winter they're going to take like one bin

10 watermelons and they're going to cut it into quarters

Yeah, they're going to cube it and put it plastic right and you're going to pay way more per ounce

But it's going to be convenient. Yeah, you have it right there

So why would you do if you're say the the heckman farm in Delaware?

Why would he partner with you versus just doing his own thing because i'm assuming you're getting you're getting your profit cut

Is that correct? Like if you're your own your own farm and you take your melons to market and you get 100% of that

Why would I do that versus partner with the bigger? Yeah, I wouldn't sell direct to a grocer. Yeah. Yeah

Who's your buyer at the grocery store? Steve. Yeah

James he's a kroger

It's a relationship thing

Basically, you guys have the bigger accounts. Well melon one is in the business of selling watermelons. So they eat shirt

Well, we think we think they do it great. We do it. They do it great

And they we know that they're going to be sold back in the reason it started really was my dad and his younger brother Richie who was really the

He was the one that went out and partnered with the lapides and the dicks to bring us all together

We were growers in florida and they sold some the dicks were mainly

Salesmen in south carolina and they grew some and then the lapides were buyers out of brooklyn new york in the terminal market

The market up there. So we were selling a lot

we've got like

they found an old check that

Lawrence lapide john now john who

We work with who runs melon one his father

Paid my dad for a little watermelons before the partnership ever happened. He was buying directly from us

So my uncle and john partnered together

Well, we're technically hammy and john partnered first and then my uncle joined them to

And it was a way to solidify our farm

More than 30 years ago when a lot of people just sold weekly. So my dad would

Bulk pack a semi load back when they would load them basically in the field or maybe the packing house

On the floor of the semi like on hay and then that semi would drive store to store and they would load them out the side

And they'd unload 30 watermelons at this pigley wiggly and 30 at this public's and 30 at this walmart

And then in the as distribution centers became a thing and you would ship there instead of straight to the stores

Produce was starting to travel on pallet in cardboard bins. That was that was coming their way

So they they all partnered together to solidify us and and try to grow the business and put some

Confidence in the farmers that you weren't going to grow your crop and then sell it. We're going to have the sales ahead of time

Yeah, that's I guess kind of where you're going. So if I have heckman farms in Delaware

Um, and I'm just starting out the bottom lines. I don't have the accounts

To sell like I can try and pet all individually to maybe some independent grocery here and there

But through melon one you've got you've got the walmart or the I don't know what all the major groceries

All the major grocery stores

So I can probably make just as much without having to deal with the sales process

I just focus on you guys growing your crop

Growing the best crop and you've got other farmers to lean on if you

If you have a question and and then the melon one groups traveling

Seeing all these farms. They've got advice or they see something they can point it out and it's it's their

It is their job like they and it's what they do they focus on selling watermelon

So we we don't try to get into other stuff. We don't try to get into other produce. There's a lot of

Farms that diversify and great, but we've just stuck to watermelons. Yeah. Yeah tried to be the best

We're not going lemons over here

Wait, so it was the strong arm then so if I start a farm

Yeah, they're like, whoa, whoa, buddy, you can you can use us and you can sell at costco

Or we'll just see what happens. No because I look I in racing. I've met so many other farmers and so many other

They're competitors of melon one and although my family sells

Exclusively through melon one because it's my dad and it's his brother that's a partner in it. It's it's something that

I I'm friendly and invite other competitors of melon one to to the to the racetrack and and we

We have a great time and I I'm kind of this middle ground of like

I'm promoting all watermelons even though. Yeah family like my family. I didn't get to pick them

They were I was assigned to them or they were assigned to me

Um, so I just yeah, of course. I mean selfishly I want my family's watermelons to sell but

I when I hold it up at the watermelon, it's for all watermelons like a rising tide raises all ships

And it's the truth

Like we don't get into the you know, I'm not I mean we we bring our buyers

But I just in indianapolis like for the brickyard. Yeah

Had another farmer and their buyer and I went did a store promotion for them and brought them out

Showed them a great time. You know fed them put them on pit road put them on the pit box all that stuff

It was um, it was really neat because um, there's been a lot of questions over the years in the industry of

of

You know should the industry sponsor me, right?

Big one like big. Well just the different companies. Okay. What's different? No, you're not big watermelon. No

Just the different companies the ones that are behind the scenes selling the products that grow the crops

And there's promotion boards and there's state association. I mean it's it is a it's a family

It's a big industry, but it's a family affair

Not that we're like blood related, but we're all in the same industry and watermelons is a specialty

Crop. Yeah, but we try to promote together and that's just how it was set up 100 years ago

And we've always done it since so I promote all watermelons. Yeah a high tide raises all ships

There's got to be a watermelon version of that reference we can come up with when watermelons float. Yeah. Oh, see see

Yeah, we'll get it. Is there a is there a watermelon convention like sema for automotive stuff?

Yep, what's it called national watermelon convention? Okay. All right

There's a national so there's an association for the each state that has a significant amount of acreage

Where there's enough reason for the business the people in the business in that state to get together

so from your farmer to your

Your buyer and then your your shippers your seed salesman your product chemical salesman

Whatever fertilizer you're using

All the shipping companies

And is it like any trade show where it's like some big convention hall with different booths?

Um, yeah, there's booths in different states or different sizes and then there's a large one that that moves every year

So we've been all over the country rather clicks

Like oh, we don't we don't deal with the california watermelons

Can't stand those Florida guys. Yeah, they're they're like the wild west. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's it's like that scene in

Anchorman

Yeah, yeah

And there's those seven are in the off season for racing sure sure that makes it real nice

There you go. Yeah, like bushbeer bush light. That's right. Yeah, and I always like don't either fly out or have to leave until like late the next day

Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be a it's a bad day to be a bushlight in this watermelon convention

It's the most ross chest thing ever how's the mascot game at these things. Oh, yeah, okay. No mascots. No big inflatable anything

No

So

Jdi farms just do it. Yeah, okay, so is there not been a cease and desist? No, how have you gotten away with this?

I'm worried the more I talk about it. It might happen one day. I was like you're in the same sport as michael jordan

I can't believe this hasn't happened. He's not litigious. Yeah

We know he's got lawyers. Yeah, if his while you're called we're just shutting it down. We're not trying right, right? No, it's um

Yeah, it's been my dad's kind of motto and and the farm used to be every version of

Chastain brothers chastain and sons chastain farms and

And he just wanted it to be different and it's been since I guess since I was either really young or around the time

I was born somewhere in there

They changed it over and I mean it was it was just like he had it for his hat

Like he only had like one hat when his hat would get dirty go to the little

Employee to shop in town and like hey, can I get another hat?

Yeah for 15 bucks a embroider jdi on it right and

Yeah, yeah, it's um

No, nobody's ever said anything. So we're not selling. You know, we'll just keep believing jdi every time in this episode

They're like, what are they talking about?

So your brother chad he's quite a bit younger

And he's still doing the family business. Is he close to taking over from pops?

I mean your dad's got to be at close to retirement age

Or is your dad one of those guys will work until until he dies. It'll work. That's my life to the end. Yeah

Yeah, yeah, my grandfather

My dad's that he retired early

My dad's definitely not not that so, um

Yeah, he's just he's got his equipment where he doesn't have to

Doesn't have to he's and he's done it so long and he's got he doesn't have brand new tractors

Although we've got a few new cabotas that i've contributed. Right. I've contributed to the uh

To the little lineup

To put some more orange down there. Um, yeah chat, um chad's been

The first one at jdi

Since since he had his driver's license basically and definitely once he got out of high school

He was the first one there to open the gate and he was the last one there to close in and that gave my dad some

A chance to step back and my dad told people like hey chat's the one making the decisions and that's it's my farm

It's my son. I this is what I want

Um, so don't call me anymore and if chad makes the wrong decision

We'll deal with it and was there to guide him but also gave him a chance to come to war races chance to travel

Um, and my mom recently got remarried and so they're they're great in traveling and enjoying life. Um, so it's it's giving him a

chance to do that, um

Yeah, and uh, whatever chad decides to do he's gonna be in ag and watermelons and there's opportunities for him to

He's in missouri right now working with another farm

Helping manage the harvest so he's not strong arming to make sure they go melon one. No, they're already going one. Okay. Okay

Yeah, because he already got there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're a real simple group. Um, that name of that farm is that sounds threatening

gid

Get it done

That farmer his motto is just

Well, I can't do get it done and that's bob steward. So, um, okay

Yeah, it's um to chad's out there with them. He's been over in just south of raleigh

Managing farms. Uh, last month and was in cordial, georgia

With hecman farms is do your job

Which is all about sports phrases here. Are you gonna put periods after each letter in the in the logo? That's a great

Yeah, no, you're going three periods. Yeah. Yeah, my dad's is like when he types it out

It's like j period d period when he texts you that's that's just trying to get away from the litigation

There's a period

Three periods

I chatted a little bit of racing too, didn't he? He did. Yeah

Yeah, he started at 12 years old kind of like me or 11 in the pro trucks down in florida. Those are like metric chassis money carlos

Yeah, uh matt martin made them kind of famous down there mark son

Mike skinner and his family raced them and got him going and that's how my dad got into racing and he

Back in like the late 80s early 90s. You could rent them at our local track the promoter bobby deal

would rent them to people and my dad raced like in

Leather, you know cowboy boots and jeans and a racing jacket and right but for him

It was like an arrive-and-drive deal where you didn't have to deal with you just show up

Right and he did that a couple times then he's like I like this

So he bought a truck bought an open trailer and him and his brother-in-law my uncle dug and dentists rockin house

great friend of ours they all bought trucks and got into it and

Um had some heated battles back in the day right whole videos of them running into each other

It's like oh guys like you all traveled together

So yeah, a lot of the suspension was stock you had to pull it off of Monte Carlo's in the junkyard

You pulls and stuff. So I spent many

Sundays after I'd crash my dad would make us go like if I tore the right front suspension off of it

It's like we'll get the frame straight into fix, but we're going to get the suspension and pull it and it's like you're out there

It's hot. It's south florida july and we are just trying to pull this stuff off. It's frozen on rusted on just frozen right like

Now was that to make you mechanical or was that to teach you a lesson about crashing like we just did lunch with hornaday

Yeah, and his whole thing is like every kid if he corrects a car and does something stupid

He should have to fix it himself to learn. Yeah, uh, what was this with with unidad? Yeah, uh, I'm sure both

I think one he wanted to get it done quicker. So he knew if he took me I would he'd make me do it and um

Yeah, it uh

That's how we did it. So Chad. So anyway, we raised those things you could race them at 12

So you had a full-size race car at 12 years old right racing against other kids

And so as I got into the adult class and Chad raised the kids

Um

And raced it like now the freedom factory down there

Yeah, it was the soda speedway punigorda speedway, which was 417 and then is now a dirt bike track crazy enough

I just drove by it on monday

So yeah, it's um chad did that and then as he got older

I was already up here living up here and then there was opportunities as he turned 18 to

There was races and little sponsors I had that I couldn't fulfill

So I'd push them his way and I pushed them to other drivers and we put other

Other drivers in cars that I had sponsored, but I couldn't race and trucks and xfinity and stuff over the years and

um

Yeah, chad did a couple to some truck races some xfinity races with mario gazelin and east motor sports and trucks so

um

You know always

Had the dream he had the dream just like I did like a ton of us had right of trying to make it and then it

Got to a point where

The thought of trying to make it meant moved to north carolina

Live it every day take every ride. You're gonna be in the back of the back. You might have to start in park

That's really seeing it with you. I assume he'd seen yeah, I moved up here in 2012

My first truck race was 2011

I got hired to drive a cup car in 2021. It took right. Yeah, yeah from 11 to 21 to get there to where I wanted to be so

um

And there was opportunity at the farm to grow into the business and to be there and if you step away from any industry

You're gonna fall behind. Yeah, you're gonna have to read you know re

You have to learn what everybody else has been learning if you ever come back

So he's watching all the shit that you're eating and looking at what's going on with the family farm and realizing

This is probably the best best bet for me. Yeah. Yeah, so

Um, yeah, it's been it's been great. They've been able to grow the farm and and him

Grow in the business. He's married his high school

his

Love of his life lacy

They're expecting in november. So it's great

So it's a 400 acre farm the the one florida and you guys make can grow 2,500

per acre

Is that right 2,500 watermelons per acre a chat gpt tell you that I did my research

I went to like ag.com and all this stuff like I've got yeah, I don't know the actual I mean I could do the math

Um, so we do it more by the semi

um

So, I mean, yeah, if you you figure um about a semi to the acre

Okay, I said I could hold anywhere from 40 to 45 000 pounds ish

Because we have we we basically weigh the semi when it comes onto the farm

And then we load we load it based on that weight to get it as close to 80 000 pounds

You want to stay legal, but you want to maximize every load. So

We're selling by the bin

And a bin can have anywhere from 36 to 45 to 60 watermelons is the three

Main sizes there are bigger and smaller than how heavy they've been usually

Just depends on the amount of watermelons and which size and so there's a they're all different. Yeah

Yeah, so to harvest these things there isn't a harvesting machine. It's so it's you and your brother. No, definitely not

You see these pythons here. I got no these arms aren't picking up too many. No, we've got a great

Crew that we use the h2a program primarily. So it's a government program where we

submit in to what we want and there's men and women that come from

Mexico or wherever to

To come harvest and we we work with them basically up the coast from florida starting in

April all the way up. They're still still working. There's only a few weeks for the work specific to your farm

Like six weeks in each area say a little under two months in each area

So you work with h2a and then some other farm will do will take the next rotation for them or whatever

Yep, and that's where melon one comes in to help help keep all that flowing well

So that when when the farmer in george's crop is ready the

Yeah, the muscles there and because you have to pick it up

Out of the field into a school bus and you have to pick it up out of the school bus back into the packing house

And then off the bench after it gets size sorted clean the sticker put on it off the bench onto

Into the bin that how you see it in the store. Those are hand placed in there

There are some machines I see out there with cameras in a suction system that are picking them up, but they're so slow

They're not economical yet. It's like prototypes working through is it less

Mechanized because the the sizes are so different. So the same plant you'll pull a watermelon off of it three times

you'll you'll harvest say

For us in florida say you harvest april 14th. Yeah, you'll come back and harvest

April

24th 10 days later say

Another watermelon off that same plant when you pick the first one. It's big. There's another one that's the size of a baseball

Okay, oh interesting and there's another one that hasn't even flowered yet

And then if you pull that first one at the baseball two of them are going to grow and then

Three more three more flowers are going to set on a different vine on the same plant

So with corn or beans, you see the big combines go through right it's one time and it shreds everything and

Okay, shells corn

If you you can't we don't have a plant a variety of watermelon that will produce the tonnage

Like won't produce all of the watermelons at once because every watermelon takes so much

Energy for that plant when you pull the first one other two are like a trickle charge going in

And then it all the energy goes into the other two. Is this what you thought you'd be doing?

Yeah, I've tried red gels email. I actually I I thought we're not talking about racing

I wanted to tell some you know, I figured y'all could tell me some stories about just along the way

No, no we do want to talk like

We're dorks like we really do find all this stuff kind of fascinating like the behind the scenes

But also like so much about it is your life

And I get the sense from doing my research on you that you're going back there

Once you're done with what you want to accomplish in racing because you're really passionate about it

And you seem to really understand that it's it's an important market, you know for people like yourself and your family

Especially I mean the melon thing has such potential to look like a gimmick in the sense that

Like you're doing the stuff fine, but you know, they can also go one or two ways where either a

Behind the behind the scenes you might be tired of

Doing all the stuff but based on everything you're saying here you like being the spokesman, which is kind of nice

Yeah, but also it's real. Yeah, you know what I mean?

So the the gimmick so to speak is based out of something that's actually very genuine

Yeah, like my last line item in front of me. It seems to actually know about this

Just I'm going through all the interviews and yeah talk about it. Yeah, well, I've been raised in it

And early on I had questions of was like Gallagher jr. You know, I like go to some school like no one's going to get that

Anybody anybody born after 1980 does not know you specifically would know Gallagher even though you're you're younger

It's comedy fans. It's like great reference. Yeah Gallagher was an amazing 1970s AIDS comic. I think he's still around or did he die?

He retired at least

I think he's retired for sure, but like he was like a wild prop comic

But his big thing was he would smash watermelons and you had like a splash zone as if you're at sea world

I'm getting hit by watermelon during his comedy act and you're the new Gallagher

Yeah, that's what people ask and it's like I just chuckle and if you want to think that it's fine

But no, yeah, it's the literal reason I do it is to try to sell more watermelons for the entire industry

Is to put it in a spotlight and there's no better time as a race car driver than when you win

Everybody's watching sure right they're all watching you get out of that car like nobody looks away

It once you get out it

I mean it it's like driving a new car off the lot

It's depreciating quickly and the TVs are turning off

But everybody waits and watches the burnout and the driver get out I think so

It was very intentional that if I ever won in nascar like growing up

We didn't we we had watermelons at the track like our short tracks

But we didn't like we didn't lean in as much and once I got in the sport. I realized

I'm just like everybody else all these guys and girls are racing and

I mean, how do you ever break through it?

To stand out as a race car driver. So I leaned into what was real and it's ag watermelons

Now when you go to these conventions with you that I mean are you like the watermelon god?

Is there kissing the ring?

No, the watermelon gods are there

I see I see the men and women that are in the industry actually selling setting the price

Got you right that have been in it for some of generations of their families or they've they've came in and grown an empire

Um, I've got great relationships across the entire country to the vanguard against out west in california

And and people through texas indiana over in delaware that are are really great. They're the giants in the industry

Um

It's it is a little tough for me sometimes to be honest because I'm not in it every day

Sure like I would be if racing had failed I would be

More knowledgeable and watermelon and I'd be more up to speed

I'm I'm always like through a phone call playing literal telephone to try to keep up with the industry and what's happening

Um

And because I don't need to know all the details, but I want to

Yeah, right. Yeah, so it's um, but selfish well also as the face of this this, you know

Plant crop, you know, not is it a fruit or a vegetable in your mind? I'd say it's a fruit

Is it now? I guess it's a vegetable right because it grows on a vine. Is that no, that's all right

I always consider a fruit. What do you it seems like a fruit to me?

But it's all but it's a vine right plant on the ground so technically then

That I don't know classifies it a vegetable. Yeah, I don't yeah somebody tell me I'm gonna defer to your expertise on that

What I was gonna say is because you're the face of this thing if you don't know basic stuff

It looks like it's bull. Right. Yeah, you know what I mean?

You're just some kid that's getting a race and you have watermelon money

Yeah, the fact that the first half hour of this whole conversation is dedicated means it's not a gimmick. Yeah

That to me that was a big thing. Yeah. No, yeah, we did find it funny that

Uh, the way that it would be portrayed some of the first races that you were doing

Like when your early days of like trucks and infinity is like you're just like this dumb old watermelon farmer

Like this poor little kid that's got no chance in the world and it's like, I don't know that seems like they're selling a lot of

Watermelons like they're doing a good job. It is like it's not like a stand outside of his house

You know what I mean? Yeah, and so we used to laugh about that because we're like we looked you up like

Long time ago. We're like, no, this is a really successful farm. Yeah, like they're very good at this

Yeah, but some of the broadcasts because it's a better story. It was yeah

It was and we would try to tell them and they're like they're like so you are trying to get ahead of this

Yeah, guys, it's a little misnomer here. Yeah

um

No, I I mean why should have

I mean I call myself more of a son of a watermelon farmer, but okay a watermelon farmer

I'm doing air quotes for everybody. They can't see me

Like why should he be able to make it a NASCAR? So whenever we did start having success

I was I had a bit well, Justin said it was like imposter syndrome, right? Yeah, that's our first win

We were at the win

Celebration at track house and we're in the big conference or the big like break room where everybody can fit sit down on a table

And I'm just like looking around wide-eyed and Justin comes up puts his arm around me. He's like, what's wrong?

Like I just I've watched kurt busch celebrating here. I've watched kyle arson celebrating here

Um, I've watched you announce those drivers matt kenseth kurt busch. I was the third driver

I was running two races one year like we stood up here in the same spot and now we're celebrating our win

And ganassi's gone. It's now track house. I'm like, I'm just I'm struggling man. This doesn't seem something seems off

It doesn't I'm like waiting to wake up, right because growing up at the farm. Why why should I make it?

Yes, we're a successful farm and yes, we rented race trucks like my very first truck race

We we paid just like Justin had been paying. Yeah, everybody pays to start racing. I don't care sports car

What anybody says

And people in NASCAR don't like to talk about it. Right. I feel like it's more open in sports cars of like

only because the age of half the gentlemen drivers, but

Yeah, everybody. It's everybody's a pay driver. Absolutely. Somebody's paying for absolutely somebody. Yeah, because right now

We don't have sponsors like they have in NASCAR. You know what I mean?

But it's pretty obvious when the guy that owns crowd strike is driving the crowd strike car. Yeah, you know, you're like, well

Yeah, that's probably that's

We're a little bit more over but you still see younger folks try to come in and pretend that that's not a game

so I like I was there was watermelons on my truck because

My family put in money the industry put in money other companies and they weren't trying to sell their product

They were trying to sell the farmers at these conventions that I talk about

And then we would leverage our farm and look we we did sacrifice a lot

To to get those early truck races. So when you're racing these, you know, you said it was like a Monte Carlo truck

Yeah frame like you start moving up the ranks

How quickly do you recognize that there's some actual talent here that it's worth pursuing to the level that you're at now?

2011 we won the world series in the late model division at New Smyrna. Yeah, and once we won that

that was like

Okay, my dad actually said it to me like we we got a we got a look at some NASCAR trucks like the trucks like we had

We had watched it and we had

Through Mike Greenwell who ran a couple of truck races, but he played for the Boston Red Sox

He introduced us to Todd Bodine. Yeah, they were friends

So Todd when he was winning those truck series championships would come down and see Mike

Who lived down the road from us? Okay, and my dad and Mike went to high school went to school together

Okay small world thing

So we got to meet Todd like Todd came to our race shop our barn and signed the hood of my race truck

And the the Monte Carlo like the hood of it had a fiberglass truck body on it and

So we asked Todd like hey, we've won this. He's like, oh, I know I saw it

And we're like what should we he's like well, let's why don't you come up talk to the team owner see who has availability?

It's

Early in the year everybody's signed up, but let's maybe later in the season or next year

Maybe we'll see what the prices are and you know referred us to bobby daughter. Yeah

Stacey Compton is who we ended up talking to and stacey called

We had met with him and then on the phone and I think maybe one in person

and

He called us one day and was like hey the 66 trucks gonna have some availability and we're like

So yeah, Justin is gonna step out. Right. There's gonna be some other drivers

We've already got some lined up later in the year, but yeah, Justin your current my current boss

He was driving the 66 gopro truck. Yeah for stacey comp and turn one racing right teammates with colwitt

Red Bull back then. Yeah fuel doctor. Yeah

And just at the gopro sponsorship and there was some

contingency on gopro and nascar and getting all that to grow and

There's never been a gopro in a nascar race sure like they wanted. Yeah, which I would think would have been great

But yeah, there's not right so

IRP was the first open and yeah, I went to nashville watched justin race and then

And then I raced IRP was my first race and we paid to rent the truck now

When you're there does justin know that you're looking to fill in the rest of the year

He only knew me because I needed seats. So my late mall seats were not

Nothing that would work in nascar. So when I went to the shop

They were like just sit in the truck and we didn't got to find you a seat

Yeah, so they had a little joy seats. So I sat and I was like, uh, so he padded it up

And they're like, yeah, that's I think it could work. Why don't you call justin and ask if you could use it

so I think he let me use it the first time and then

Was gonna then we decided we were gonna run more and so they're like, well, you're gonna have to like buy

I'm from him and if you want to keep them. So I called and he said, yeah

How much and I was like, uh, I'd ask the team like what they're like, uh

Tell them $800 a piece or something. Yeah, right $800. He's like sure man. Just bring the bring the money by whatever it was like

Check he's like cash. I was like cash. Yes, sir. Yeah cash. Yeah, go get the money

So let's explain this real quick. Um, because this is not a thing in sports car racing

In stock car racing you oftentimes have your own seats that are like made to fit to you

That can fit into any of these cars because they're all very similar inside, right?

So like Randy LeJoy's known for making them. Uh, Hendrick, I think makes the car makes the carbon ones that are like phenomenal

But those seats follow you around, you know from truck to truck or car to car or whatever because they are built specifically to you

But they're also very expensive. Is that and then so if he's selling you a seat at 800 bucks, what did a seat actually cost?

Uh, I would say back then maybe three or four thousand. Yeah, brand new

Yeah, yeah, so him going yeah, the team just said like I don't know Al from I don't we don't see if he'll take right 100. Yeah, okay

so um, so yeah, I had text with him and

He had like told me good luck at nashville like hey, man. I know you're gonna drive next

You know in two weeks or whatever here. Um, good luck, you know told me about the team a little bit and I

Didn't have a clue what he was talking about. I never driven anything like it

So he's talking to me about you want it to feel like this in the right front to compress and coil bind this and that and spring rubbers

I'm like, I don't know. Okay, man. Yeah. So so anyway bought two seats. Um,

Yeah, and um off to the races. I ended up running Bristol

Kentucky, Texas and homestead in the year. How'd it go? Terrible

That first race went great

Qualified 15th finished 10th like missed all the wrecks. Everything was great. Never

IRP fit me well. I was able to like hustle the truck but be in control

Bristol crashed in practice

Backup truck qualified last crashed twice in the race. Right Kentucky

Spun out by myself because I hit the so tight. I had my arm like crossed over and I hit the kill switch with the elbow

Oh, Jesus

Texas I blew the motor because I didn't know how to shift it right

So in practice I missed the shift and then blew it up and qualifying and then had to start in the back and didn't run good

But I'd still I'd done enough to like want to try it again. So then we

Had met bobby daughter and it was a better price and we were able to run the full

Season we thought and I only had to start in part one time that year out in phoenix just to get the homestead at the end

Just to to get there

But I got to moved to north carolina live in bobby's shop, which he's still in running the XFINITY cars now

There's an apartment and for that year I drove for him. He let me live there for free. It was a no

I mean, that's the most expensive apartment in the world, but

You got to pay the drive, but right, right

But I got to get to live there and I got to learn a lot about the the trucks

And we had to sacrifice to sell some land and do some things back home to make that work for people who aren't necessarily as

NASCAR savvy

Greenlight was a team name. Yes. That's right. Yeah. So so green light

In the grand scheme of truck teams not a front. No front

That was back when you had to you had to run built motors. So they were renting motors from mark smith pme

We were running the toyotas. We blew up a lot

We never had the like we would like I would race around brennan gone a lot

And he's an rcr truck and we'd take off on a restart. He would like just pull away

I mean just

Second and third gear weren't even and I not that I was a great racer

But like I would I could match the rpm and I could it was attracts without wheel spin and he'd just be gone

The ecr engines were good. Yeah, which I've got those down the cup car. Which is so cool

They're great

But to that point that you know, your family is selling land

You're you're probably above your means in terms of how you can make any of this work. Yeah, and it's for a program

I mean, yes, it's nearly full season, but it's not making it look good. I didn't think that I thought it did

I because it it got me reps at all the tracks. Okay. Um, there was no expectations. Okay

We ran seventh at martinsville. We ran third at bristol

And then the rest weren't there was a lot of like ninths and tenths a couple and then a lot of them

We were in like we were always like 12th place. Yeah, um, which now that level truck team runs

28. Yeah, right? I mean it's it is crazy how deep the the funded truck the series the truck series has more funded trucks now than I've ever

Right. Yeah, seen which funded just, you know, they've got everything they need. They got new bodies. They've got

They've got the ill more engine and it's fresh. They've got good transmissions. They've got good chassis

Um, right they get they get help from their whoever's hanging their bodies has one tunnel time through their oem

So it's pretty crazy now. I I wouldn't make it in today's world. I don't think you don't think so

No, why is it because the cost cost? Yeah. Yeah, because people pay more for really good stuff. Yeah, and it's expected

Yeah, I I still believe that you can go and get quantity

And learn to race and then get quality and put all your eggs into a small basket

You basically took yeah, I didn't mean to

We tried to run for keselowski's truck team in 13 my third year. We ran a part-time season

And brad was trying to grow his truck team. So blaney was in the truck full-time 13

I was in a part-time and um, I wasn't ready for that

But we were just trying to go in and that was like the best right and for the dollar it was the best deal

Right. That was the best deal in the truck series for a I'd say a 10 year period. I've seen better deals now, but not back then sure

Now there's now there is there's truly drivers getting hired for their

Driving in the truck series right now, which is crazy. I didn't think I would see that again

Yeah, we're actually having lunch with ron hornet earlier and it was like we're talking about how it's gone the other way for so long

Now it's become kind of the norm to have these wealthy young kids that can buy whatever they want

He talked about landon louis. He says he did. Yes. He did. Yeah, and I think landon I think landon can make it

I think with the small amount of dollars they've got that with ron and khi helping him

I think that they can

Position him to get hired to drive race cars in the truck series very soon and that's that's impressive

Yeah, so in that 12 season you sort of consciously take a mid back to your backdoor team

You get a full season's worth of racing to your point if you're in the back in that car

It's expected. Yeah, so the leg expectations are low

So you've had that years years with experience when you do a part time brad keselowski season

Um, how leverage is your family at this point? Very. Yeah. Yeah, we knew I knew it was the end. I knew it was

That was it and it was

So this has to work

It was yeah needed to win and when and we thought incorrectly that it was a path to penske

I thought the team penske. Oh, right. Yeah, that makes sense. I thought I thought there was a path

Well, there was for ryan because right he had he was already signed at penske and then he got placed at bpr

race, right? I signed with bkr

and

Thought I could grow into it and one I never won ryan won that year

Um sat on some poles let a bunch of laps had chances to win but didn't get it done

And at the end of the year there was somebody with double the money

And they got the ride full time they could pay full they could pay right double the rate and pay for all the races

So Tyler reddick got the ride. Yeah. Yeah

I didn't hold against them. We were out. Like it was like

We were like I'm done like we're tapped out money. Right. I still wanted to race. So then I took a

nosedive into

Ricky Benton's truck team the 92

Got fired after two races only time I've ever been fired in my life. How does that happen?

I crashed the field at daytona. Yeah

Trying to push parker cligerman and I spun him out into one with a bad bump draft

and then at martinsville I

We got rained or snowed out or rained out and instead of racing like friday

We raced like sunday after the cup race basically right monday after the cup race

And I thought

That we needed to tighten the truck up. Okay

I was like we got to tighten all that all that rubber is going to be down. It's going to be slick

Everything I know we got to tighten it up. So they listened and they're like, I don't know but

And the crew chief trip bruce is the same guy had originally worked with

After my first race for all the bad races in that 66 truck

He's like, I think we need to loosen up and I convinced him to tighten it. Well, then we spent the whole race trying to free the truck

It was so tight we went laps down and right and in their opinion, we would have won the race if we had to free that

So they fired how do they fire it? Like how does that call? There's a phone call. Did they no money deal?

No, I was paying a I was paying the tire bill. So it was the cheapest deal

It was the I had been able to I mean it was like all I could muster together without family money

It was my first time doing it on my own right

Just with the partners I had and just pay the tire bill literally the good year bill

Exactly, but to look at another way they're paying for a lot of this then too

How do you get fired? Do they call you and tell you do they so trip and I were living down in

sarah gordo, north carolina, I think they're over on the coast is where ricky lives and

Mikey worked there and and uh, that's where they had to shop and they would come up to morrisville to buy parts and stuff and

Yeah, uh ricky called or trip said hey, we need to get on the phone with ricky. So we went in and um

Conference called in ricky called in he lived say 45 minutes away or something ricky

Fired me on the phone and um, I looked at the trip and asked him if he agreed and he said yes

And he should have agreed it was his boss, but and he believed his conversation prior

Yes, they had had it and he and trip believe he believed it too

According to the articles that I read that the specific phrasing was you need to stick to watermelon department that they actually looked

Oh, yeah, and said this. Yeah, how old are you?

21 I guess that sticks. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, it still rings in my head. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah

So how did that how'd you go home? Uh, I just drove back to morrisville. Um

It's 21 drinks a beer. Yeah, um

Look like my wounds a bit and um, just realized like my dad and uncle ritchie

They were like you gotta just go find something else. What's next got it. So at no point is it like i'm going back

There's questions. Yeah, um, but never never pulled the trigger

I mean, and I think I probably went back and forth to home a bit

Yeah, and um, they're like, oh go go figure it out. Like you've got some sponsorship

Pull it together and see what you want to do and um end up meeting, uh, running in the bruce cook, uh, crew chief

At lunch one day. I think just in morrisville somewhere and he's like

You haven't been driving the 92 and I was like, no, sir. Oh, they fired me. He's like

We've got open races in the nationwide car at the time. Oh, johnny solder can't make

Sorry to get fired from your truck deal, but how'd you like to move up? Yeah, and he's like

Uh, johnny can't make it. He's in a truck race somewhere. We're going to michigan. Would you want to drive? I'm like

Yeah, yes, that was a question, right? Yeah, and he's like well follow me over so we can finish eating

I'm like so excited. I follow and i'm thinking it probably won't happen

But follow him over to shiggie's shop in in morrisville back kind of behind like the uh, this is hitori racing

The hitori yep, um behind the I think we were probably like buffalo wild wings or something

and uh

Go back over there. It's got a gibbs engine in it. It's just immaculate xfinity or nationwide car at the time xfinity car

It it's like beautiful and he's like, yeah, we're going to michigan and we're gonna have this

Um

Rubbered up right rear spring. It's gonna be like max traveled all the speed where you use the you know all the power

It's like oh

And you never do that one of these yeah, right now

So you're funding at this point is and I don't know it's it's part family

Then it sounds like there's sort of watermelon industry affiliated partners. You've got whether it's the board or the ancillary companies

Yep, so when you're shopping around from

Kind of piecemeal ride to piecemeal ride

How does that work? Do you know how much you can spend?

Is it a matter of you like literally having a conversation each week having to then make a call back to the family and back to the partners

Well by 2014 I wasn't pulling I wasn't calling in the family anymore

Right. These are all legitimate sponsors of people that I've met and that work in the ag industry

Gotcha. Um, they're business and and it's a constant. Hey, I have this opportunity

Would you like to be a part of it and it's a race to raise the yes or no? Yeah

Yeah

Daytona was big for us because a lot of the companies are in florida, right?

Um, or do a lot of business there

Um, charlotte was a good one because it's memorial day weekend. That's a big watermelon market for the weekend

for the whole country

and um

And yeah, it was just constant calls and emails and texts and trying to leverage relationships

Every couple weeks are getting this call. Oh gosh. Oh, it's yeah

Yeah, people didn't answer people that

That did and helped or that

Tried and would go up the chain of command at their company and

Um, you know because on the farm side we knew like the salesman or saleswoman

And then they would try to get us up to their director of marketing or their cmo or their

CEO or their vice president. Yeah trying to get us to the right person does the

In those kind of calls

Does the success amount one in the chastain family carry weight?

In other words, like you can get to a cmo easier because you're

Part of this this family. I mean, I can't get away from my last name

Well known in watermelons. So yes because of who I was

People would would take the call. Yeah, and there was sometimes a question of is this a

Call for melon one or a call for ross as this, uh, you know, there was questions back my way of

What can you do for us? Can you guarantee us business? Can you and the answer was usually no if

There was sometimes where we would you know, I'd push my dad to hey

If it's the same price and the same product we buy it from this company

They're gonna sponsor me for sure

But a lot of times if the question if the answer was no, we don't think the farm needs that

Product or something then I would just have to tell them up front like no

This is just a sponsorship some marketing and the answer was usually no

But some some along the way some

Some helped because they just wanted to help me some help because they knew they could grow their business with the family

Right and um

And the family was happy to to help as they could business wise then

Um as long as it made sense for the farm the farm always had to come first right and still does

That's why I had to stop spending money. I spent my inheritance. Yeah, I got that I got that at this point

It seems like you become this

kind of journeyman guy that we see quite often that

You know bumps around infinity rides and trucks rides just trying to find something that'll land and become the big deal

And I'd say that's probably the hardest thing in your side of support to make successful because you're very rarely going to get

Good equipment unless you come up with a really good sponsor. What are the chances?

that a guy sees me

Getting a motorhome pumped out like the the black tank gray tank getting fresh water put in it that I've driven to the track

Sees me in a fire suit and goes

I've seen that color red and then watches like practice and goes. Oh, there's a red car. There's two more

Right. Wait. Why is that red car ahead of the other three?

Well, let me look at my phone. Who's oh his name is ross

Oh, there he is again two hours later doing something with the camper. Yeah

Hey, what's what's his deal and then an agency telling that sponsor about it? Mm-hmm one year later. I'm in the same track

I didn't have to drive the motorhome this time and I'm driving the ganassi infinity car because that sponsor wanted to do it

and gave me three races

That was dc solar. Yeah

Wow

All just because they had seen it and wanted to help and wanted to help

Yeah

Somebody wanted to have their own driver and ganassi wanted to they had their driver to build. Well, ganassi like chip and

Doug do car they wanted them to

They wanted to take care of them

And what wanted them to be a part of the team and and they had sponsorship on the cup car with larson, right?

mcmurray

a little bit with

Kurt bush, I guess at the time mcmurray was still there in 18

and just

Yeah, it's like, yeah, well like

Yeah, we've got some open races. John hunter was driving the car a part time that year

And well, we got darlington and eventually or originally it was eight races talked about

And it whittled down to three. So we're talking about jeffrey karpoff. Yeah

So had you met him prior to all the ganassi feeling? Yeah

He just saw you. Yeah. Wow

Spire sports entertainment don so spires a

Big management group and a lot of different sports

But they're a huge player when it comes to sort of NASCAR management and and moving pieces around well, they were now

They're racing now it's a different deal. Yeah, they're a truck race winning team and a cup competitor that's on the

Doorstep of yeah, I mean my gosh, that's they those cars pass me all the time

Yeah, but jeffrey karpoff and his company dc solar kind of shows up

and

NASCAR racing is one of the handful of sort of big spends that they're involved in to promote their company dc solar

And they're with they're with ganassi, which is independent of you at this point

Um, but somehow he this guy grows to like you. Yep. How does it how does this transpire? He asked

Some of the group at spire. What's that kid's deal and they told him and I had met with spire in 2012

Driving for ss screen light and they

We needed help finding sponsorship. Mm-hmm. They didn't do that. They I mean they would

Spire they would for like a driver. They thought could make it

They would try to sign them and then try to sell them, but

They're mainly in the sponsored like management. Yeah, they're sort of they're not going to go out and find it for right

So we didn't think that it was worth

I mean the cost to put them to get on like retainer and pay a monthly amount of them

Didn't make sense to us because we were funding the truck anyway. So it's just totally good

It's like one less race by the end of the year every every few years in sports cars

You see a sponsorship person and then it becomes that they they disappear after a year or two because yeah, there's no commission of nothing

Yeah, so um, but I stayed friends with them

I and then they hired me to drive carry agagianians motorhome who that that's who they were using

And that was the original owner of mmi. Yeah, so you're still driving

I was racing the Xfini car for johnny davis and then I drive couple times tyler young drove it brandon mcriddles drove it

But they had real motorhome drivers. I'll call them

When those different guys couldn't do it, they'd give us 500 bucks

And then I could like tow my truck and then I'd go to the hotel

But I have the camper ready. So the bus it wasn't a camper. It was a thing. It was a beautiful, right? Yes, right?

So, yeah

Yeah, like pull it to the pump

You know a truck stop and slide the credit card out and carry agagianian's name

And I didn't know it before I got in racing, but then I had seen the name

I've done a bunch of research now. I see the credit card. I realized yeah, I'm like, why'd I like I'm using carry

Yeah, right, right credit card. This is awesome

Made it. Yeah, um, and that's how carpuff and that meet they spire introduced us and then

You know this was off to the races after that with the the three race tryouts because spire had

A commission in hand basically they could then bring you into their deal for sure and wow so okay, so how uh, yeah

What was your first meeting with jeffy carpuff like?

Wow, so ganassi at this point now has to take you because

DC solar wants wants another guy in so they worked it out where they had some races. We ended up on three

Um, gosh, I don't remember the first time. I mean I got to where I

Spent so much time with the carpuffs that I just they all blur together. Honestly. I mean

um, maybe bristol

I feel like I was around them before I raced for them. Maybe like spring bristol

And that car specifically was sort of a rotating seat including justin

Yeah, right. So justin would run a handful of races with his budget and then dc solar would pay for a few races for you

Got had larson in it. Mcmurray john hunter had his sponsorship to run his races

Um, but it's a ganassi car. Yeah full. And so yeah, this is your chance. Yeah, and jeffrey carpuff

Yeah, jeff and paulet. Yeah, they were great. Um

They spent so much that it in the

In the paperwork that came out of the fbi and all the investigation. Yeah, we just got to the punchline. There's a line item

ross chastain races

100,000 times three

That's what that's what in the costing. Yeah, which if I I could have never gotten that rate like I could have never

Right, we're spending so much globally in ganassi that it was like

Yeah

300,000 dollars changed my life. Right. Yeah, absolutely

I I didn't have that much in sponsorship, right, but if I'd have known I could have gotten in that car

I probably would have found it. Yeah, right here pretty crazy

Yeah, I mean what that's done now and because what else you have this point

But now you've got a three or four rate how many it was three races those three races

Yeah, was it always three races then it was originally like eight and it went to six five four normal deal

Yeah, as it got closer it was like oh john hunter picked up another one all we're gonna run somebody else

Yeah

But you got three opportunities now in what is known as top equipment. So you're either performer. You don't yeah, so it went to

darlington

we're like

second in practice

Qualified on the pole

Let a bunch of laps and end up crashing with harvick at the end. Yeah, I would like 20 to go 30 to go

There's like a lap car. Yeah, I got stuck behind him and then we got too wide and yeah crash

Yeah, but how quickly when you get in a ganassi car you're like, oh god like this thing's a different level

It's like in sports cars things a lot less common that the equipment's that different

Right, you know what I mean?

Like you can see like mid-mid-class teams still do well and win and stuff

But it seems like in NASCAR, especially in the cup side, but you know, you're sitting at that point. It was amazing

You have to be in the good equipment

Like you have to be in the good equipment and so you get in the ganassi car and immediately you're running in the top

Two and getting the pole. Yeah, I mean just cranking it up the exhaust system sounded different and it was uh

You're like gee. Is that hendrick engine? Yeah

Yeah, I mean just the steering was so smooth pulling out of the garage. It was scraping the ground pulling out

I never felt like at darlington. I know my car always sat up and it would you know

The springs and shocks that johnny ran would it would travel down, but it didn't want to beat it

It wasn't always I mean that thing it was like a third cup car for ganassi. Yeah, right?

Yeah, like the chassis everything was optimized mike ship with the crew chief nick harvey was running that program

josh wise I met him to coach me

Um and just pulling out. I remember like just turning right in the left a whole like left half

Nate warned me they're like, hey, you know

If you see like a raised spot like go around it with the left side because it's going to be on the ground and in the garage

In the garage. It's already pinned. That's how

And then you get on track and it travels perfect and it's scraping just

Beautiful the power was great

The brakes broke in a great way where it helped me get into turn three, which is a real awkward corner at darlington. Okay

um

Yeah, it was just amazing and um

And executed through all the way till the end of the race and I didn't I didn't ask for the right adjustments at the end

I didn't know what to ask for and harvick caught up and then we were side by side then we crashed. Yeah

But between the performance and the headlines, but you put yourself on the map in a way you hadn't prior

It actually helped kevin got out and

Bad mouthed me. He said that's why he'll never get the chance to drive many more of them or some version of that

Well, I had text from jeff. I had

chip

I ended up talking to chip for the first time on the phone after the race. I never talked to him before

interesting, yeah

He's busy guy and he wasn't there for that race and

Um told me had the two more races for sure and we were he said we're gonna work on more

We've seen what we needed to see you just yeah, yeah, right

Mind you, I'm in the cup race the next day for premium motorsports right in the slowest car

Right. Yeah, I'm out there grinding on for 500 miles. Yeah. The goal was to stay single digit laps down

nine or less laps

That was a success. Yeah, so how would you rate the rest of the season them?

That year. Yeah, we went to indy the next week. I was back in the four car

Yeah, he's had to get through that one

We went to las vegas the next week and we won the race. We within five fifth. We led like

80% of the laps in the race. Yeah

dominated it and just cruised around and won

and

They ran second at richmond a couple weeks later

Made the playoffs, but was in johnny's car for all of the playoffs. So

Didn't make it through the first round, but I'm sure

Worked on it and announced that phoenix at the end of the year. We're going to drive full time

for cgr in the xfendi series announced it in the press conference in the media center

um in november and

Doors got knocked down in december. So sponsor was gone xfendi team had to be shut down

So, you know, we we kind of got to the punchline already

But uh, so dc solar was was sort of the funding source for a lot of chipkin asking these xfendi program at the time

Why you got those three races? Why you're able to look so good?

Were there any initial red flags for you as to

This company wasn't all on the up and up

Um looking back. Yeah, yeah

We did a full a couple hour call one time where they briefed me my dad my uncle on like

dc solar on the business side so I could speak about it. Yeah, um

tax credits

companies investing

Rentals back for you to be a spokesman or as it could have applied to the farming world

No, I mean if I mean that way if I met people I could talk about it

Yeah, yeah, I mean uh,

Since you're a factory driver, right race car drivers are salesmen and women. Absolutely. We are selling our product

and so if

I came across somebody

That that would work for them. I would know I would already know if it would work for them

And then present it to them in the right way and then get their sales team involved

But I could do the first one the elevator pitch. Yeah, right and um, yeah looking back there was red flags for sure

You bought the unit

You got the tax credit

They then depreciated it. They then rented it out

You got the rental monthly amount for these mobile solar generators to go out and instead of a diesel generator

Crank the diesel motor crank the light up real high and shine on the parking lot

It was solar powered

You would get the rental from these

rental money back, um

And then after five years

They would buy it back from you at a at a depreciated value of what whatever percentage it was agreed upon

We were in year six and they hadn't bought it back. Uh-huh. Yeah

When are you hearing that nobody's buying it back?

We were in the sixth year when I was driving for him and my dad was like, hey

He asked them and they were like, oh, no one's we haven't actually done that. We've just

Rewritten the con we did a amendment and we extended it to us like a sixth year or something or a seventh year to

Right. Um, now your dad's not involved with them though. No, but

But my dad's involved with everything I do. So he's at the track. He's talking to him. He's trying to understand their business

But where are you hearing that no one's buying these back? Like is it like? Yeah, we asked. Oh, I see. Okay

We asked their their team. I mean, they had a lot of employees a big warehouse

They're building a lot of those guys don't know what's happening. Nope. So they're telling you like, yeah, but we will we will

Like right boss. Yeah, right. Yeah, uh, that was a red flag. Um

Yeah, just uh, I mean, I guess that was that was a big one. Um

Yeah, I mean we had a heck of a fun christmas party with a fun christmas party pitbull performed

Um

Had a company christmas party in california

A weird theme in your career. Yeah, yeah, he got paid

He got paid before he flew

Yeah, there's no way that because yeah, he flew his jet from miami performed for two hours and then was on the jet that night back to

Miami. Yeah, you can do that for pitbull. Yeah

So as you say that the walls came down in december, but you have a christmas party and everything's still on the up and up

Two days after the party

They got raided. Yeah. Wow, but you didn't hear about it until the raid

Uh, right. Uh, I actually didn't hear about like two days after the raid. Um

Because it they all went silent out there and then it slowly trickled on like a local news link got sent to somebody and

and some other people

knew

But they didn't tell me till like a couple days later and then inspired tj poosher and

David erickson called me and was like, hey, you need to sit down and I was like, what?

You need to just sit down for a minute. We got something to tell you and they told me I was like

But you had to know at this point if you're seeing links. No, they sent me the link. Oh, I see a couple nights later

But it was like middle of december

So from news story to program shutting down. What's the timeline?

Um, most people were already taken off for like christmas holidays vacation

But we had an idea and then we all came

As over the break they were starting to let us know like hey, this is we're not gonna be able to it's already

Middle of december. We're not gonna be able to come back january 2nd and

Replace the funding. Yeah, right. It's it's it's not we know

We know the board. We know our partners. Nobody is going to step up and sponsor this thing

Of course, I was begging to just start the season. Right. I'll I'll piece it together

Let's pick some races. Just keep a core group. Let's take the cars that are already built like

Minimal funding will pay the engine bill the tire bill travel bill

And the salaries like all you can win just we're gonna win races and they were like

Nope

Not chance. It just didn't make sense business wise

Uh, they were because they had lost so much sponsorship off the cup cars as well

Well, because for for ganassi, it wasn't just sponsorship gone. I'm assuming and I don't know

Sponsorship bills from the previous year are unpaid. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know how that worked

I'm not in the race car owner business. So I stay out of that

But you end up going back to jd and uh doing doing the year with them essentially

Signed up to do the year handshake. Yes. Just back run it back. We've already done it for four years

I'm also driving for a small

The two a two truck team in the truck series called niece motorsports. I had driven at bristol

We got going that season and I would like oh, wow, this truck's really fast

Yeah, the extended car still wasn't johnny was a low very low budget

Yeah, yeah very low and the truck was actually pretty fast and and then they built a new truck

And we went to kansas in like may and we won. Yeah, right. I got in the truck series in 2011

I didn't win until 2019 right right and that's a lot of races and

We won and I was like, oh, I might have claimed points in the wrong series

It's too late now. Um, so we end up switching points a few races later

Um, you can make one switch each year. You have to you you give up all your points

You've gotten and you start from zero

I have to be sure from here. So if you've done a previous handful of races, those don't accumulate, right?

Yeah, the wind doesn't get you in playoffs. No, I mean it got me a lot

Which is fair because you can't be like wait, this is good. I'll just do this right. Yeah, not fair

So, um, yeah, we switched we had like I would say 10 races to get to top 20 in points

And win another race to to get to playoffs and we did we're able to win, uh, three more times

That year and and go fight for championship. We're gonna finish in second after crafting. Yeah, please mr. Trucks

Three-time champion top top equipment. He didn't want to race that year. Yeah

That's crazy the only time. Yeah, he ran second in the championship race. I ran fourth. I couldn't couldn't catch him

Yeah

He nailed it. I think he beat us like I'ma say say he beat us five times total that year one of them was championship

But at this point you are now becoming on my like just as a fan of NASCAR

I'm seeing your name everywhere now. Like you're always doing something and you're running well

And one of the things that I've learned about you is and this is why I think this is happening for you

Is you are very good about remembering where you came from and taking care of the people that take care of you

I've heard so many different stories about you where you take time for the fans that other drivers won't take

And I'm guessing that translates over to the people that are taking care of you

Which is how you're getting these opportunities all the time because you're doing like all the races

I mean you're doing a lot of stuff at this point and not that one before that you're doing two races here

Three races over here. Maybe some over here. So at this point, do you start to see the writing on the wall?

They're like, hey, I'm gonna make a living at this if I keep this going

So chip kept me as a sim and reserve driver. Oh great. So my

Based salary that they had built into the contract for the Xfinity car and then it was highly incentive based

For most of the the money I would get paid. They kept that salary

Which was incredible. I would do their dio work Monday mornings at 7 a.m

Get stuff ready so that larson and kurt could come in

Um on tuesday wednesday thursday whenever and drive the pratt miller rig over in hunter's hill

And just for a fan. What is dio driver in the loop?

So it's a simulator. Yeah, it's a simulator that you crawl into a center cockpit. It's got steering wheel gas brake seat

Looks like the dash and then it's the the track is projected on a curved wall by a bunch of projectors

And the rig is on some sort of hydraulic steel wheel thing that moves and makes it feel like

You're accelerating and braking and turning with airbags and tensioners on the seat belts that um

Make it feel like you're at kota or you're at darlington

But for every week you have to load up new tracks and they need somebody else just to get it dialed

You get it ready and the tires are a big thing correlating the tires to reel. Uh, it's it's a it's a

Called a dark art. It's it's confusing. We we're struggling with it right now

Anyway, but you're gonna base out for this so you have some money and then and then dug dukart told me go race

Go race trucks xfinity cup whatever you can get we got nothing for you

But we're gonna keep you here and if somebody gets hurt somebody can't race

You know, we want you to be our guy

Um, so I did

Switched an ease for points in 19

I ended up running some for collie racing that year had a couple races

um

Had a small two-ray sponsor for ekonasi that was going to be in 2019 season like

DC solar was going to be off the car three times and two of those was going to be this company called nutrient ag solutions an ag

Retailer largest ag retailer in the world. We had landed them

Elliott Sadler Brett Griffin had passed it along to me Elliott was retiring so I was

I was more of a farmer than Elliott. Yeah, you know Elliott owns way more land than I do farming wise

I was I was the farmer for this ag retailer. They sell products to farmers

and so

We grew that into like six races that year at collie and then a full season in 2020

Still under contract with ganassi

The whole time doing their work

You know a couple times wake up sunday morning larson's got sniffles. They're like be ready

I'd have to get out of the premium car. We'll find someone to put in that but you'd come and drive the 42 or the one

um, that never happened, but just was gotta be ready. Um

Actually, I said recently I'm like, who's our reserve driver? Our guy just broke his collarbone

So it's like what what happens if I wake up and I and I can't go. Yeah. Oh, who do you have now? Justin?

I've begged him to drive that car at walkins glenn. Come on. Would have been perfect

He's like, oh red bull. I'm like take the stickers off

Run a great car. Just peel it off. But leave shabby on it and put your face on it. I thought the same thing to like

Who could they get him like the boss?

Come on. Oh my gosh, that would have been awesome. Yeah

So, yeah, we uh, we run the full Xfinity season in 2020

And then chip calls me like that september and says I want to put you in the cup car

Uh, 42. Yeah for 21 and um, it's a pretty good deal. Yeah

crazy

Yeah

It was um, he's they stuck with me. They continued to let me train at simulator

They let me stay with josh wise and grow through that program. I mean, I couldn't run a mile

Like josh is like, I need you to run a mile. Tell me what the time is. I'm like, gosh, I don't have around a mile since like eighth grade

Like yeah, I got go to planet fitness and I grab like three machines

And I like just break a sweat and then I head out and go to cook out

Go to wendy's get some drive through. Um, I have hope

So, um, yeah, they uh, they they basically molded me into the driver

They wanted and and they put me in the car in 21

So what i'm not hearing in any of this process because it wasn't till 21 till you probably have like a proper full season deal with a good team

um

At no point am I hearing you giving real thought to getting out of this deal

When they knocked the doors down in california

I drove I drove home

And for christmas in the years, I told my family i'm done

If this sponsor's gone, I'm not going back. Yeah to johnny's

I'm not going to the truck team that maybe can run 10th and the xfinity team that's in 15th in the cup car

That's in 33rd. I'm done. Is it finishing mid-pack or is it chasing the money to finish it everything? Yes

I mean you're like 10 years in basically. Yeah 11 to 19. Yeah. Well, and you're like younger brothers probably killing it

Seeing what you did went f*** that

So yeah, it's trying to track like you're an idiot. Yeah, right? Yeah

um

And then I woke up january 2nd

Hung over way too much bush light and I really did drink bush light long before they sponsored me

I really did I no one will believe me, but I did no

I had swapped already because I didn't originally when I turned 21. I was not a bush light drinker. So

january 2nd woke up and I was like

I gotta go I gotta go back to North Carolina. I gotta try. Yeah, I got my truck and I drove back up and

Started making calls and talked johnny talked to alneese

Jay robinson was like

Even though we were gonna run the xfinity car in 19

I was still gonna drive the cup car for premium. I was gonna drive the truck some

Um, then I tried to put the other somewhere for nutrient solutions to go. So that went up to colleague

So I had teams all over the state basically from welcome to statesville and concord, but

Yeah, kind of ran a square there of all that in the simulator included in hunter'sville

But yeah, so that that was the only time that I was serious about quitting right and then that only lasted from say the 18th of december to

January 2nd is that time where I was I truly believed it and I woke up january 2nd and I thought

I gotta get back up there and I was like

I can never think that again

If I think I'm gonna quit then I probably will next time

Was there a specific thing that you woke up to to remind you why you want to go back out?

No, you didn't see a photo of something. Well, the farm was there and it it would have been a good time to

Commit to it. Yeah, and to yeah, but do you want to do the farming stuff or I do but I wanted to race more. There you go

Yeah, that's why I just got my truck and drove. Yeah called my family once I was on the road

I'm like, oh, okay. We're yet. We'd been camping out in the woods for new years and all that and I were yet. I'm like

I'm in

Jacksonville

It's christmas a big thing with your family. Oh, yeah

I imagine if it's if it's a close family and christmas time is really valued going through that with your

World kind of collapsing right in front of you that makes it extra

It's almost like if it happened in middle of may it may not have been as big of a deal

Yeah, and I would like look around and I'm like this is supposed to be the happiest time of the year

Yeah, I am I am just wanting to be anywhere, but any I don't want to be anywhere

Yeah, right. Yeah away from everybody and they would all you know grandparents. It'll be okay parents

Siblings cuz my brother uh my cousins are all like it's gonna be okay

Whatever you decide you're gonna kill it to be good and I was like now it's over. Yeah

How I've chased this for so many years and wait, it's just and now it's over

You're right, right. No, like well you can go back like I don't want to go back to the losing

I've already won now. I want to win. I'm not having fun. Yeah. Yeah, but I I

Chained it switched back January 2nd, and I never looked back

So you get the ganassi ride and then very shortly after that ganassi decides he's gonna sell

To some dude from california named justin marx. I think it's his name the guy that used to rent the xfinity car

Right. Yeah, that's yeah. I've a stacey cop to dude

Yeah, but he used to drive the xfinity car for chip and now he's calling him and he's gonna buy the team right right

And so you had had a good experience. You I mean you did kind of shorten him on some seats basically

I paid for him

My biggest thing was I wrecked him in like 2016 at dover. Okay, so I wrecked him at road america

Daniel wrecked him at dover. Okay, so you wrecked him on a road course, which he's probably gonna do well at

So you're really gonna win. Yeah. Yeah

He was passing me because I was on old tires

On a restart and him and james davidson were going around me on both sides

And james was in the gibb's car and I I stayed in it and they pinched and they went

I'm like, well, they're with the two winners like the two that were gonna race for the win

And it was it was terrible. I felt terrible. Yeah for justin. Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, I was at a I was at a

gen seven test

For chevy

Uh at dover it was after pokono

We were used to on the doubleheader two cup races one saturday one sunday at pokono

And then uh monday tuesday wednesday test at dover and we um

I got a text and it said justin bought chips and it was on a text with tj poosher and david erickson who I mentioned earlier

Um had told me about dc solar and they were a big part of getting dc solar to sponsor me

Yeah, and I was like I immediately I knew what he meant, but I just like impulsively text back. I hope you

Um, like I hope you mean

Lays or uh, I said something about like like a bag of chips and and then they he called me

He's like, no, it's real like it's happened. They're announcing it in an hour

I'm like

Oh my gosh, I look over keith rodin was running the wheel for his car. He's a buddy of mine. Yeah

And keith is like, hey, man, you ready to get back in the car and I had already looked over at darien grubb who was uh

a manager at gassey and I was like

I looked at him and I guess I had this look on my face and he's like what and I was like

And he's like looks at it. So I like held the phone up where he could see the text

And I was like it's real and he's like marks

Because they were already running

At children's in the 99 remember they've rented they like leased the charter and ran like a third or fourth car

So he's just out of our car thing is already happening. I mean they were putting themselves. Yeah, and he's like marks. I'm like

Yeah, he's like

I gotta go make a call. So he starts calling people. I

Called tj and david and we come up with like, what are we?

What how are we gonna? I only had a one-year contract at kanasi like what there was more plans

But nothing in contracts and like so they're like I gotta reach out to justin. Well, he's

Busy we're trying to come up with a text and I just text justin. I want this

He texts me back

Right away

I know you do

Thanks for reaching out. I have a lot in front of me. That's yeah

Give me some time

I'm gonna need time and it took about a month and I we signed up to drive the

One car for track house the next year or a two-year deal actually 22 and 23

That speaks to justin is because you know, he's not going to leave you hanging

Even if the answer is no, I think he'll tell you no, you know what I mean

So at least he got back to you like hey, let me just figure this out first. Yeah

I mean he didn't you know he got a chip one day and they got it done quickly a very small group of people

And and then justin had to learn the team learned

He wanted to bring daniel in and travis mac as crew chief and ty norris was coming in to be high up guy and

Manage the team for him and

Yeah, I was like, I don't know how so they kept the whole 42 team basically and just plug this into the number one

Yeah, so after you destroy justin's chance of winning at rote america. Who's not your boss?

Do you guys squash that pretty quickly after that or we had already squashed it

Okay. Yeah, we had already squashed it that was a couple years before and I

I mean, I truly meant the apology and and apologized several times and and he just put his arm around me

I know man just next time lift whenever the fastest cars come and buy you on new tires

Yeah, don't stay three wide at rote america up under the corvette bridge. Yeah, that's good. Good idea. Yeah a good advice

So when you get the text that justin bought chip is the concern that the uncertainty because he's probably got his own plans

And so you're not in the same relationship you are with with gay massie and

In the organization

I thought chip had been in nascar for 20 years and was going to be in it 20 more right relatively young owner for owner standards

Right, right established. We were building sponsorship around me

clover was a huge partner of kyle arson and cgr in general and as a whole and I thought we were building something good with them

Um, I thought we were going to grow a couple of their small partners advent health was a huge partner of mine

They put me in the third car, which was a 77

But out of the ganassi shop

I thought chip was going to be there 20 more years right right and he sells in august

Normally you can get a smell or you can get a sense

Yeah, right hear things and all that when something is changing and certainly in our world. That's very common

But you had nothing you get a text out of nowhere. Nobody knew and they were announcing that day. Yeah, right

It was wild. I cannot believe they kept it as tightly wrapped as they did

Which I think shows their professionalism that they they have a tight group

They trust their group and that's it and they got the deal done

And the assets of cgr. We're going to be track houses come whatever one day after phoenix, right?

We have a patreon now with uh for like our dinner club basically for our vip fans john mitchell asks

What is cool about track house to you? Is it the whole edgy innovation thing? Is that really your thing in 2022?

it was we did come in and

We did things different than cgr had there was a lot of employees from what chip had built over a couple decades

Now we just care about going fast early on. We had like speakers behind the holler

We had live musicians playing guitar up on like it was like Broadway. It was like a stage at Broadway behind our hollers

We don't do a lot of that. Uh, we're there to try to win. Um, now they still do creative stuff

They just move those those events to like other markets, you know in town or down at a bar or something with track house live and stuff but

Um tried to just just focus on competing. It's so tough. Um

Yeah, I'm not gonna I don't I don't believe that a

A young aspiring musician that's going to play for track house behind the holler is any kind of distraction

I I thought it was cool. I like some I just sit there and play an acoustic just strumming a guitar and singing a little bit

um

But the optics aren't always the best um of what we're focused on and getting results

People have questions all the time. Um, but I

I love whatever Justin mark says we're doing. I'm I'm ready if he points me to that wall

I'm running into that wall head on

Because I I believe in what he says and he doesn't he's never gonna say anything

He hasn't put thought into he doesn't have a plan. So when I hit that wall, it's actually going to be a door and it's going to open

That's how I view anything he says we're doing and I'm like, yep. Okay. If he says it, it's it's the rule. It's golden

We do a pass-along question and we had lunch with uh, ron hornaday jr. This morning

And uh, he asked why don't you love him anymore?

Stop

He took all my money in poker. Oh, there you go. Yeah, you tell you I live I lived with him

Yeah, you're in the camp hornaday. Yep kind of thing. Yeah

Yeah, um, mine was a nice bedroom with a door that closed and and I was 20

So I was it. I was his dd

He always forgets to tell people that

Yes, I was 20. Um

Yeah, it was uh, it was a great time. I was staying in a hotel

I went to dinner with brennan newberry. I was trying to drive for nts ron was driving for him

Great galling ended up getting the seat

that year and

Ron asked what I was doing us after dinner. I said, I'm just going back to my hotel

He's like, aren't you up here for like three weeks? I was like, yeah, I just have like a

Extended stay something concord. He's like

No, no come to the house and I was like, well, he's like, you're not even gonna you can get your stuff tomorrow

I got toothbrush. I got a pair of shorts you can wear

Let's come to the house. Come on. It's late. Well, now it's weird. Yeah

So I did I just followed him and I walked in the door and miss lindy. Yeah

I heard us coming in the garage and she said something about hey ron

I need you to need your help with this and she goes looks at me

He goes, who are you?

What are you and then she said ross. Yes, ma'am

And ron goes, hey lindy ross is going to stay with us for a little while till he finds a place

A little while turned into be like, I don't know eight months nine nine months or something

We were racing against each other and finally he's like you

You've got to find somewhere to live. Yeah, like I had a lot of fun that summer played a lot of cornhole

That's cool. Learned how to play poker

Ain't a lot of good food. Yeah a lot of el sarah reyes

Mexican restaurant over there by their house and and drove them around

And met a lot of people I mean lived with somebody that long you meet all their friends and yeah

It sounds like he was big on having parties and having people over and stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah, and um

Yeah, you end up put me in contact with a group that rented townhouses and and moved in with one of his mechanics

Now a car chief on the 45 car maybe

Because he was basically saying like hey, don't spend your money on rent build up a little bit

So you go get a down payment on something nicer. Yeah, it was pretty cool. So I never did the down payment thing. I rented from

2013

until

2020

Yeah, not the smartest not my smartest business decision decision if I'd have bought back then oh, yeah

Put a down payment down. Yeah, nickel and diving everything you can to get around. I put it all in the racing. Yeah, that's right

And there's there's guys out there doing it now in the Xfinity series

I know that are

Taking a very like just enough to live. Yeah, and then just putting it all and I've even told them like

Do one less race and then build towards your future right think outside the box one less race like do one less

Or just don't do the best motor or all the tires somewhere when it doesn't matter

And just and then put that money towards your house pay your house off sooner like

It's it's hard

It's impossible to do when you're in that position because you think the next race is going to be the one

That I can win and get noticed and or something good happens

We don't know who our next guest is going to be initially it was going to be waddell wilson

But he had to cancel last second

So can you think of just a generic racing question to ask whoever our next guest will be and it's not just drivers

It's oftentimes drivers, but crew chiefs media members. Yeah, it could be anybody

Well, I gotta know how they like to eat their watermelon. There you go done. Yeah, it's perfect. You put anything on it

I just eat it

That's the right way to do it. I just cut the heart out and eat it eat the center

Like my competition

And then also what's what's that? I'd stare that came with it that I like we're finally getting what we want out of this

This is the rush. I think we're done. We had and then what's the what's the cool thing in racing you've seen that wasn't legal

Oh, that was actually one of my questions for waddell wilson. Like what's your favorite thing?

Yeah, it was yours

I don't know

I mean I've seen some cool like the noses that float on the front of race cars on like the truck series back

When they didn't have splitter rule, but just that was I just remember that being that was the first thing

I saw that was like not legal, but yeah

35 pounds of force would lift it like three quarters of an inch

So it would just go over the bumps and it would skim across and then you could have the whole truck lower

and

you can't do that now with the

with the splitter bar rules, but um, I just remember that being cool early on

You punched Noah Gregson in the face once. Yeah

Appreciate that um

We used to actually have a question on the show the first year we did it like if you could punch anybody in the face

Who's got the most punchable face? I mean it was a lot of uh, uh, well an askar. I would say you probably figured it out

Was it Noah? Yeah, I mean that's who I think a lot of people want. I wouldn't mind taking a shot at him

Um that haircut needed to be punched. It did. I mean he knew it. Yeah. Yeah

We were actually in the gym the next morning Monday morning shook hands and worked out together. There you go

That's so great about guys and like we didn't hold a grudge

We just and we raced is everyone that way or no not everybody but

The fact that it just happened. It was over. It was right. Yeah, you've had a few run-ins with people

um

And so that doesn't seem like it's too out of character for what what you're capable of

But it seems like you have two switches like right now

I don't see the guy that's like a psychopath, but you've notoriously become this guy that is willing to put other people

Into a tough spot on track so you can get what you want

And I don't have a problem with that at all because you're successful if you're not successful doing that

You don't normally last too long

Where does that

competition come from

It's like on the watermelon side of things you seem to be like you're hoping everybody has a good chance to grow something and grow

Like actual, you know from it. Uh, it seems like when it comes to racing, you're like, it's me and I don't give a s*** about you

Yeah

Well, I've been beat up way more times than I've ever won. Um, I'm not a fighter and I don't want to fight anymore

Um, I hope my those days are behind me, but um, I'd say the like the worst one just to tell myself, uh, texas truck race

2015 16 somewhere in there or xfinity race. Sorry xfinity race

Um, I'm racing against brandon gone again. I'd race with some in trucks now. I'm racing with some in xfinity

I'm in johnny's car. He's in rcr car. We should not be together

But too many weeks we'd be side by side and I would

Door him and beat him right at the line and he didn't like it and I wouldn't have either. Um

It was great. I would like rotate through

Of the good teams one of their cars. I would race against so like one week it'd be a roush car

Yeah, right one we could be rcr one we could be a gives like if they missed the setup

Then there I was and then they would they'd have to deal with me

Texas they

Shane wilson rcr group brandon they um

They wailed on me. That was bad. Yeah, but like beat that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah drug me around. It was I don't I mean I've

Blacked out. I was it was that that was a good thing. Yeah. Yeah

Deserved it taught me a lot. It did and I learned from it. Yeah

And I didn't back down from racing him. I just I did I mean it did what they wanted

I did take care of his left for your quarter panel or you know, I didn't pinch him down quite as hard

rest that year

Um

Yeah, I've never forgotten that because that that'll humble you you think you're

You know doing everything and you got life by the tail until you get punched in the nose and I did

Yeah, I think some people probably should get and I I feel like I can say that because it's happened to me

Yeah, well if you've taken a couple licks you're allowed to talk about it. Yeah

Um, but yeah, my dad growing when I was growing up my dad was calm mild manner

Never seen him start a fight. Yeah, I can't say so much for his brother my uncle richie

I've held his watch before as a kid

Um

Right and my dad was not like that. He's like d like escalated fights, but not been in them and um

That I ever saw yeah, but on the radio when I was racing

I was not I was told not to let him by pass

Even if I wasn't a fast truck in short tracks, sometimes they'll do an invert

Yeah, slow trucks are up front. Will that be me? He's like you hold the bottom and there's no outside lane

I'm not gonna go by you just turn the wheel hard aim for the grass and break heavy

And they'll just run into you and we had like square bumpers so it wouldn't pick it up

Yeah, just kill the run off and then you go going again. Yep. Yeah, and guys would be so mad at the other kids and then adults and

Um, I'm one of my first gt race like that

Don't miss the effects. Yeah

So, uh, my dad was always so I've just had that in my head of on the radio him early on when I was 12

13 14 years old all those years all the way up to 18

Just it it didn't matter. Uh, just just do not let them pass. So that's that then was built into me

Sure. Um, it's something that I've realized other racers weren't raised that way. Sure

If they were faster even in a short track, they just let the person go and try to pass them later

No, it's not how I was raised and it's stuck with me. I've got a little more cooth about me now. I think but

I started pretty low. Yeah, well even going back to last night. I mean

Yeah, we were we were shane and breaking down. Okay, obviously his road courses. He's okay

But uh, but you know the ovals he's still trying to figure it out and and he compares himself to you and how you perform

on the ovals compared to him or even daniel and and

He said the number one thing that sticks out when they do the post-race is

Your restarts and he said specifically your willingness to put yourself in very uncomfortable positions to where your car is that he

at this point in his career is not willing to do and

He was actually very keen on this in the sense of like you got to talk him about this because he he made it sound like

You're just this psychopath

That you don't give a where you put some what position you put somebody in front of you in on a restart if that's the case

He we've talked about it and in my opinion. I trust the drivers. I'm racing against

We might touch but the cup cars are in a position right now where they can touch

As long as you don't hit wheel to wheel and been a bend suspension

Toe link is the hot topic. Uh, but but any of the suspension with the lowers and uppers

You don't

You know detach the splitter from the nose

You don't you know do anything knock the nose down that you don't want to do that

Or up or anything kink anything. Um, I just trust the guys I'm racing around

I've raced against a lot of them through trucks, you know, there's like a group of us that have came up together

We got to cup at different times, but I've raced against them for a decade and and I think for shane

It's how I am when I go to another series

I'm like, who is that on my right side?

Yeah, okay, and I just glance I know it but I when I'm in a different series

I think that in cup. I know every car. I know every possible paint scheme. I've been racing. I've been watching

Um, my my entire career

So he was off winning a ton of races, you know across the pond and um, I believe it's a it's a comfort thing that

Yes, it looks crazy, but I also trust I know the driver. I've raced against him enough to know the tendency

Is he on a lift? Is he not?

Um, and sometimes you crash when you miscalculate for sure. Yeah, but um

Yeah, like I mean Michael McDowell and I wrecked at indy

Who would ever thought I'd get spun out by Michael McDowell right on lap like 14 of a cup race

I I never thought that would happen in my life

And it happened. It was just a miscalculation on everybody's part right there and we stacked up and he hit me and I spun out

But to your point there are things somebody you haven't raced side by side as much as some of the other guys mcdowell

Yeah, I no I have I just mcdowell doesn't usually touch anybody

Oh, he's so clean. He's what I mean. I just calculated that if I covered the bottom

He would break hard enough and we were all breaking so heavy

Because of the stack up just a normal corner entry that he just got into me and I spun out

So I feel like yes, I and I am comfortable making other drivers uncomfortable. Yeah, that's like good. I've used that as a slogan

There you are. Yeah, yeah, but uh, but but but yes more than I think it's because I'm comfortable around the driver

Well, Shane took it a step farther though because he said if you he finds you fascinating

the the way you

Calculate things and the things you do and obviously the the what they call it the hail melon

Yeah, that maneuver, but also he even referenced the way you got into it with Noah like the way you were like calculating

Okay, I'm gonna if you're gonna grab me here. I'm gonna grab you there

You know what I mean and then how you like handle it after like in the scuffle itself

So he's thinking about it from that that regard that like this kid is so calculated the way he does things

It's really impressive and so we both recognize like based based on how you race and just like our takeaway from you

I think is that you're the right kind of psycho that we like, you know, because I love seeing like that

I want to see the guy that's willing to be like, hey

I'm gonna put it in this in this spot and if you can't deal with it and I hold on to it

That's on you, you know what I mean because like a lot of racers don't race aggressively like that

and now there can be like

If there's too much contact and you're putting people in the fence or we can then eventually

They're gonna find a way to get rid of you

But if you're winning races and you're a threat all the time, then it's like, dude, that's my guy, you know

But even like the hell melon you plan that

To an extent 15 seconds before

A whole 15 seconds

Like that's like why not is that literally why not? It's like a motto. It is a motto

It's actually a a clothing brand some buddies

Run back home and and it's on our hats and t-shirts. Why like why not?

You want to do something? Why not? Let's go do it. Yeah, and it was ringing in my head

Run the wall. Why not? And I was trying to think but I only thought of it off turn four

I could see the white flag it popped in my head

We talked about needing two spots and then in turn three I did it. So no, um, okay

I like played it. I played video games. That's what I'm saying is I thought I mean probably on a game cube when I was

Game cube that's what I had

I thought the nintendo game cube was gonna be the next thing. You're like, that's the end nothing better than that

PlayStation what a number of PlayStation game cube man. That's awesome. I had a game cube

How do you have the word with all the upshift? I was about to hit the chip. So we have a digital dash

That's psychopath, right?

I had to

Like the lights normally there's nine of them. No, I only went to four

And it was four five six seven eight and I was like, I got a long way to go to get to the wall

Yeah, you're a nut job, dude. I love that. Yeah, you're my guy

Um

Wasn't it didn't you have to beat denny hamlin? I had to just I had to gain two spots to beat him

Yeah, to get the points right so like you but you went by him as it happened such a

Did you talk to him after that like in the like after the race?

No, I maybe I think in phoenix. I think we saw each other and he just shook my hand and he said nice things in the media

Right after the race I saw that week, but we had had a bunch of run-ins that year. I had spun him out a couple times

He got me back. Yeah. Yeah, there was the famed hunting incident. I think was that same year

Yeah, yeah, see louis or my technology. Yeah. Yeah, so it was just poetic

Yeah, right. Yeah, dude. It's awesome like across the line. Yeah, the first thing I saw was purple

Yeah, I heard an echo when I heard exhaust. I looked over and it was just a blurry purple

As I was regrabbing the wheel because I'd let go of it, right, right

That's fucking awesome, man

So, uh, as you're going around the thing, are you like this is working or are you thinking anything at that point other than just like

Keep your foot in it. Keep turning just keep the gas tried to hold on the wheel

Very early on in the corner less than a second into the it took four or five seconds to try to get around there

It was shaking so bad the wheel. I was like, I'm gonna break my arms. I was trying to hold it

And it was it has straightened itself out like I was turning left and it just jerked it straight

So I let go my arms they like got pinned across to the right

Like left arm across my stomach and right arm on the floor

I remember the heat from the floor. I remember the vibration was felt terrible. Yeah, everything went blurry

Vision wise, um, I thought I was gonna flip over so the left front tire those cars are so rigid

Yeah, it squatted it so much on the right sides at the left front. There's a picture and there's a there's an air gap

Look at the left front tire, which is just a wild

They've tried to I've tried to ask them like

Describe the forces that take yeah, right and they can't we don't have a way to like

Measure the force that we were putting in the wall with you know, 670 horsepower right and

The wheel grinding along the wall had you know and all that so

um

I thought about the turn for gate, but I trust that I trust these walls like they're they're flush

Yeah, yeah has to be I flashed back to my my dad at our my short track

There was an opening on the front stretch to walk under the flag stand like normal short tracks

Like a stairs cut out in the concrete

Well, we had watched the race truck

Get put in that hole and it ripped the suspension off the right side of my dad's like this is

This is dumb. We need to build a gate like we need a steel gate

So we went and drilled into the concrete and bolted a piece of steel that would

On hinges. Yeah, you could open it to go out and then you could chain it shut

And so I thought of that and I remember

And of course like a couple seconds a couple seconds, but in those moments, I mean stuff's just happening

And so thought about that and then I popped out saw the purple

Do it was the 11 ran in the back of the six got on the brakes and the right front suspension was broken

So it would pull me away from the wall and then when I'd let off the brakes I would turn it back

So I just turned right I hit it like two or three times. I was like that feels terrible

I just pinned it against the wall and kept slowing down through turn one right

Do you think do you have that sensation of like I can't believe that worth? Yes. Yeah

I get you're just a dude. You're like do that work. It worked. They were screaming on the radio

I was going crazy, but then I thought about I got penalized at indy on the road course that year. Oh, you were straight, right?

I went straight on a long cut. Yeah, right. It's the designated access lane, but I did it too well

Yeah, I remember being like nailed it. Yeah, and I almost won. Yeah, right. I went from fourth to first and then I ended up finished in second

Yeah, um

And they penalized me 30 seconds. They said I because on the data you could see you could see where I floored it

Yeah

Now like this is to avoid a crash or if you missed the corner you should be breaking

I'm like, I didn't say that it says go around this pole turn right go through the wall

Yeah, follow the lane back to turn two. Yeah, three and they penalized me

So I I actually waited a couple minutes like a minute

I'd say I looked over an official and I asked them like hey are they

Are they talking about the one car on the chain on the NASCAR channel there? He's like no

They're just telling them telling the 20 to go to give them a minute. They got to pull the stage out and they're talking about that

I was like

So that's when I started celebrating if they weren't talking about it. That's good. So obviously you can't do that anymore

You've ruined it for everybody. Um, you will go down in history with NASCAR now

No matter what happens you from here on out if you retire right now you will go down in history with the greatest move

Maybe in racing history. Yeah, like you realize that

I realized that night. So we were driving back from martinsville

Some of my family was there

TJ we have mentioned a couple times he

We were all celebrating going to get to go to phoenix. They're obviously just in but a group of us were driving back

And tj stayed with us through all this stuff and he's like i'm just i'm not leaving till y'all are

And so we're headed down the little roads coming out of virginia and we're all

Starting to call each other like we're hungry. We got to stop somewhere. Well, there was a waffle house open

It was already late by this point until we stop in it

We're the only people in this waffle house that we're talking and my head's killing me. Yeah, I mean it was a crash

Well, let's say you and

Interview you said you'd kind of had shaky vision from all that. I remember thinking like oh, I wouldn't say that. Yeah

And I looked at tj. I just remember and I was like i'm gonna talk about this for the rest of my life

Absolutely. It's like, yeah damn right you are. Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the coolest things we've ever seen

So I I I accepted that that night. Yeah, you raced in the the mpc class last year at imsa. I did

Any takeaways from that?

To have an astin martin in the gs class. Yeah, I would skip arbor. Yeah, so that started as I

Before we went to kota the first time and I have to tell the story

It all culminated in that and it's it's a testament to just always

Looking for opportunity and always always trying to find the next thing

Um, we were gonna run kota in 2021 in the cup series. Yeah, I didn't know what kota meant

Cota race track

I probably bought it with a k the first right right and see I'm like, okay. I've seen this track in another series

Okay, I've seen yep. Okay, and I start looking up the onboard videos. I'm like those cars are too fast

I don't watch for me one. I need to watch I need something watch something slow heavy and a lot of power

So I find these different like track day cars that guys would mount a gopro and

Watching it and then I'm like, okay do that a couple nights and this is

tail end of maybe 2020

Um, but I know I'm gonna be in the cup car and I know we're gonna go to kota. So I'm like

type in like, you know driving school car kota and um to like this like long horn racing

Thing popped up and then skip arbor and I went

You know skip arbor was in business. Well, that was like yeah, right?

I remember I remember knowing about skip arbor and I actually remember seeing it in seinfeld. Yeah on the fridge

It's gotta be long gone and there was a phone number

And it like 10 o'clock at night. I was like, I'm just gonna call and leave a message and then call me back tomorrow and a guy answered

And

Hello

He I gave him my credit card information. Like I don't know if this is uh, this is real

But I gotta get on the books and he's like I got a couple openings and

In like march and the or in february and the race was in march or april might you'll sign me up

So I go out drive their school cars

um

Meet this guy who's like directing the cars and I just happened to talk to him and it's anthony de bonte

He owns it. He runs the company him his brother and I'm like

What you've he's like, yeah, this is my business what I do

I got on the other side of the cash register used to be in the bush north series and all this so

um

End up doing more school days and let me drive a formula car. Oh, I'd never driven a form an open-wheel car

I still haven't since I got to do like eight laps

Uh that day on top of all the coaching um in the stock car the

I'm not gonna say the name the

And um

Yeah, it um

It was it was uh, I ended up signing up for more school days at other tracks

Then they were like we want to sponsor you. I'm like, what?

Yeah, we want to be on like your trucker xfinity car on a road course

Like if you're going to our school, we want you to be spokesperson for us. So they end up sponsor me at mario gazelans

Um, I think out at sonoma, maybe a couple other places and we've built a great relationship

Over the years and um, I've sent other drivers that I work with now through the agency

Uh at mmi which goes back to kary agagianian. So you light up earlier with that name. That's a legend

You know the whole family legendary talk about him, but it's it's crazy now that I I want a piece of the agency with him

Um that manages me and other drivers

And so we've sent young kids up to vir in different tracks

And I've went back to school with them a couple times and um, wrote atlanta

I like had a bucket list just and I did a day at road atlanta. That was we went crazy. We were we were

We were mean to those cars, but um, yeah, it's um, it all culminated in I wanted to run the new pavement at road america

So I was trying to find what series I could run. I have a dream that nascar goes back there

So I want to be I wanted to have a feel for the new asphalt

So I had like a data point on the old then I had a new and then by the time we go back it'll be aged

I knew that but um, I wanted to do it and end up talking with the

brothers the demonte brothers and skit barber and um, they got me a seat. Um,

You know to do it and that and I was not good. I mean, I was I've never driven a car like that

And I didn't know you saw those controls and and a car the car controlling a lot of the driving

Yeah, right. Um, didn't understand the pit procedure

You dropped the clutch at the wrong time and took off when they were still fueled and splashed fuel everywhere

It was a mess, but uh, didn't know we were coming to a restart one time

Like no one told me I'm like warming tires and I'm like, oh, they're oh, they're gone. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, they're hang on

Hang on. I didn't have enough power to catch up. Yeah. Um, so yeah, um

It was uh, it was a great experience, but um,

Yeah, no sports cars in my future. So if someone clicks on this episode say 10 years down the road

What would you hope they take away about like your legacy?

Hopefully I'm still doing it and I'm still showing up and going to work like I'm still grinding through

A great cup career. Um

You know, I don't I don't know. Um

I don't know what'll happen in 10 years right 20 35. That's crazy to say

Why'd you do that? Um

But yeah, just that I've just kept getting up and going to work and life will look different the team will look different for sure

um

Yeah, it's um, just just that I kept getting up going to work like this and it's nothing special

It's just if you if you get up and try to work at something

You meet just keep trying to meet people and that that takes investment and travel that takes investment in time

And commitment to it, but I just

Have committed my career to it ever since I was I moved up here when I was 19

And I only had a couple weeks where I quit right and I think it's okay to quit short term. Yeah

Yeah, gotta get over it. Everybody needs a break every now and then we don't know exactly when this will come out

But probably december before the holidays. So uh championship's over. How'd you do?

We won the southern 500. Nice. Congrats, man. Nice job. Yeah, we saw that was great. Yeah, because we're in the future, too

We went into the round of 12 and um, we did enough to get through

Um, chain won the roval, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah

Uh, we went in one los vegas and we went fought for a championship and uh, you bleeped out what happened in there

And now and now if it's december, I'm at I'm in south florida. We're getting our field ready to plant

We're gonna put our plants on the ground in january. There's already some in amokalea florida 45 miles south of us

Uh, that have been in the ground and growing so i'm down there checking, you know seeing bob stewart

Who's currently growing a crop in missouri? I'm living in a double-wide trailer

Out of the farm away from everybody. I can say with my parents my parents have a

Beautiful house. Yeah, my brother him and lacy have a barn dominium they live in right could be there with them

They're gonna have a new baby by then. Okay. Yeah, I'd rather be out with the cows

I'm only there for december. I don't have to live in the double-wide, but I want to it's an old office trailer

We've converted into a camp and I just stay out there

They my family like they're up there working most most some of them

But like my grandparents right up see me or I'll go down see them in town

They're I mean not only 20 minutes away, but I'm like

Out of sight out of mind. I want to be able to walk outside and not see anybody

All right. Well, I'd say with that continental's got the check

Oh

And move to the suburbs

Barley moved out of state

Don't go to the next world just to get away

Oh

I'm a bad, bad, bad

Cause I'm a no good fool

And I mess around

And I'm a no good fool

I'm low down, I fuck for the night

But I ain't no good for you

You're dancing with the devil

When you dance with this no good fool

Cause I'm a no good fool

And I mess around

And I'm a no good fool

I'm low down, I fuck for the night

But I ain't no good for you

You're dancing with the devil

When you dance with this no good fool

Ep.314 – Ross Chastain

Continental Tire

Titan Tire

suspension

Chevrolet Monte Carlos

Xfinity Series

depreciating quickly

burnout

NASCAR trucks

custom racing seats

coil bind

Bristol

Homestead

built motors

Toyota

engine

OEM

Hudson Hornet

Chrysler Daytona

bump draft

Trip Bruce

Hitori Racing

Xfinity car

Ganassi Racing

Volkswagen Bus

Ganassi car

driver in the loop

Chevrolet Corvette

horsepower

About this episode

Original notes