NASCAR Driver William Byron

All right, Hey gee, what's up? Man? What's up? I'm gonna not say what's going on, so I'm gonna try to switch up mind, switch it up, switcher whoa, that's afternoon afternoon, Good day, afternoon, my after room, Good day, mate. You just didn't purpose um. You know it's There are some funny people in the world, and in our production team, we have a young lady named Sarah. The Sarah is O c D. She makes sure we do this this She's like, wait, like you can't let just when we

need to start. She's awesome because I am not O c D. I'm kind of like whatever. But Sarah came in today and she had on glass. She had glasses on her shirt in the middle, hanging from a shirt, hanging from a shirt as if they are reading glasses. However they are not. No, so I said, those are nice glasses, and they are very nice, glass smooth, except their fashion accessories. They do not have a prescription, not one thing. Now, I said to Sarah, I said, there

was your god. She says, oh, no, tell my glasses. They just look good. But yes, she puts them on before we start recording. She needs them to see which is the best. But it gets best. But there, So I said, well let me. She said, what you gotta always have accessories. No, that's a female thing. So I don't get it, and I get it. So I said, I said, so if you were to get twenty minutes down the road to your house and you have to take you twenty minutes to get back, would you go

get him? She goes, oh no, I would not. Oh okay, but she said, but I would for a red bull when one of her vices. But here's the best. Then she tells me when she's driving, she's she's a police officer. She takes the glasses off, as as if it's gonna make some sort of a difference. She goes, I don't want to get pulled over or look bad and they think I need them, Yes, and I did, so that led me to and I said, are you a bad driver? Still again her glasses, her non prescription glasses on her face.

Her response is, or I'm a horrible driver? Like how many? How many times have you been pulled over? Just just just raise the number twenty six or twenty seven? Top? And why have you been pulled over twenty six or twenty seven times? She's not a good driver, suspicion of something. She needs to probably get her eyes checked. We'll get off the most wanted list because you got twenty six

pullovers and you're wearing now prescription glasses. You probably need to get your eyes checked, right, and and your and your record expung And she and now she has her glasses on and she's recording. They're not real. We love, we do, but this is hilarious, though, it is hilarious twenty six times, like out of the twenty six times, like give us examples, like how many of them have you gotten tickets for? Just number? How have you gotten fifteen tickets and still have a driver's license? Did you

have to go to court for it? No? Actually a lot of times I get like a you know, like a warning because I'm a girl. But you know you're talking to two brothers, so we don't know. She was like, you know, I'm like, no, my black gas, I got going over twenty six times. I got a record my car getting searched. What you're doing over here? Can I help you? I'll get back onto microL fifteen times. But my lawyer when you say, oh, my lawyer, you gotta

do it, don't retain them. Yeah, I got a public defender because if I get another ticket at like a moving violation, um, then they could take my license away for a year. And most people that doesn't happen to unless they've been breaking. So okay, so what is some of your movie violations that you have experienced? Please please take us down that road? Just speeding and then so like a bunch of recks, are you okay? A bunch of recks which you've never been injured? Right? Okay, Well

that's that's the most important. He has not been injured. But she what what I've total three cars I've had. I didn't know this was gonna be about me today. Listen, Karen, don't get off. We're trying to we're trying to welcome people into the cut to it room, the aura. Everyone has to know about our teams, and you were just first on the list. I've only total three cars. How do you total three? Complete? Take us through one of the car accidents? Please? Oh? Um, one of them wasn't

my fault. Hey, that's what I swear. It wasn't me. That's what every criminal says. It's a jailhouse full of folks. It wasn't me. I tried that once. It didn't work. What happened? What happened? Um? The my hood flew up while driving, so I pulled over. You were full and just surprises you close it first? How did your car hood? I don't know. It's really old vol though. Okay. I just so happened to be near a fire station, and thank goodness, these fire remember helping me try to close

thet I know the sounds unbelievable. Well I don't hold on, hold on. Let me tell you what I tell you who it sounds unbelievable for for some of the black pholds. Listen, that's who sounds unbelievable. They're just some things. We just have different learned speed. We do have different learning spirits. Like a black guy with a tattoo stops in front of the firehouse right in my hood of an old vovo pops open. Three firemen are not coming to assist me.

It was it was three. Oh yeah, and some guys too, weren't there search on? So three guys with brad approach. A black guy's a bad joke, so go ahead. They were hoping to try to close the lid and make it so latch. Such good samaritans. A drunk driver plowed into my car. Okay, So I wasn't even in the car for that one. Okay, Hey, you missed the key word that one. What about the other two? Really? Okay? So I flew off an embankment and dune we're doing nice off, We're just gonna. I didn't really need to

wrap this band up. Please take me through flying off embankment because I didn't. I just got the look my biscuit that flew off the plate. I didn't drop some crackers on the floor. My dog has eaten my salad. But flying off hi bank I just have never heard continue. Um, I you know, whenever there's like no, no, I do not know. You know there's a pothole and and well I overcorrected. I mean there are some wine and roads and boone, so maybe that's it over corect. I miscalculated

that one. Go ahead, Michael Jordan's I took out part of a guardrail and two trees and they had to cables. So you went out in the blaze of glorious. What you say, Hey, did they do a sobriety tests on site? I have had to sobriety tests, but not that day. Um, and both times I had not been drinking at all. It was just I was driving a little bit a little bad. Did you notice the speed in which she tried to at the end of that sentence? Beginning next

she hit that. I was driving that bad the same way she hit that in bank two day fast all right, last the last one. Please, I'm loving this because you do such a fantastic job with our recording. But I did not know you are kind of bad, kind kind kind. I didn't see this one coming, like when you see people you go. She didn't hit it in bank, man, Oh sorry, go ahead, go ahead? Last one, last one. I had a CRX. You you had is the right word former in high school, and I did not see

a car that was stopped. It was turning left and I just wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, the car was at a bleat stop right. I would say, I'm distracted, you know with what driver? Well, I don't know. You got distracted about podcasts or that was actually in high school there wasn't a podcast the radio. I would say, Actually, podcasts have helped I haven't had a wreck. Um, I've

had a ticket in like three years. I haven't had a wreck intend And I think it's because I stay on task better because I'm listening to to podcasts as opposed to music, which makes me kind of you know, daydream, you know, you know, m hmm. Podcasts have saved her life. Have you all been in rex Hey? Not to that extent, Like we do to all our to all our guests, we thank you for your time. Um, we value you and m God bless all the other view close. That's on the roll with s get out the way. Hey,

who do we have next? Coming up? On the cut to a podcast? We've got William Byron, driver of the number twenty four Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, a former Rookie of the Year in the kN N Pro series and one of the up and coming young stars of NASCAR, William Byron on the cut to a podcast, William coming up, You're about to get iced up. Their questions selected at random that you have no idea of what's coming. There also may or may not be follow ups to each question,

So Smitty, go ahead and ice them up. Your favorite ice cream flavor. Flavor? Uh, probably chocolate chip cookie, though Jerry's as pretty good. Will knows that Chi. Can we call you chill? Will chill? Will you? It's good? So did a little research research team. Best scene in the

movie Forrest Gump. Best scene? So I was in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago, and I would have to say, like the shrimp boat scene when he when he jumps off and he just starts Yeah, when Lieutenant Dan is just like finally happy with himself and he he jumps off and goes rides off into the sunset. Okay, like that one. If you can lose one of these senses, Okay, which one would you be okay with losing? First of all, do you know whoa any of the how many six right?

Sixth sense was a movie? Yeah, it was a movie. It's only five five. Let's let's go, let's so, what what are the what are your six? And then tell us for the rest of us mere mortals clearly, Yes, he is a man. I mean if I had to lose one, no, no, no, no, let's say all over, let's give us a six of your taste, hearing, vision and uh feel I guess yeah, and then yeah, like, okay, good job. Now which one of the five would you would you would? Would you be? Okay? Were losing for

the rest of your life? Done zo? You know? Probably since I race, probably smell I don't you smell a whole lot car? So I can I can do without that? Okay, all right, you don't need to know if something's burning. I mean you can. I'm just saying, don't you smell something burnon? Yeah? Maybe so rubber? Yeah a little bit. Yeah, he's only had a track, all right, last one? Last one? Which superpower? Would you choose? Flying or being invisible? Uh? Flying? Why?

Just because you could? I mean, you can cover a lot of ground if you're invisible, like you're just not noticed by anybody. So that doesn't sound too cool, sounds kind of creepy, like that Invisible Man movie. It's kind of creepy, So I got it. Cool. Cool, alright, so let's get down to it. Take us through. Who is william as the twentysomething your old NASCAR guy? What was your upbringing here in Charlotte? Yeah, what did you experience? So for me, I, um, so I played a little

bit of football as a kid. That's pretty I was like linebacker actually, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah. I stopped growing out in ninth grade and then I went to racing. But now, I I played a lot of different sports as a kid, but really for me, racing was kind of what I watched all the time. So when I, um, when I would come home from school, I think I was probably four or five years old, probably five years old, and I turned on the TV and watched a NASCAR Truck Series race And so to me,

that was what got me hooked. And so my dad every year would ask me, you know, what's one event that you really want to go to and and uh be a part of. And you know, is it a football game? Is it? Um whatever? Baseball game? And I said a NASCAR race? And so we we went to Martinsville Speedway in Virginia when I was six years old and uh sat up in the stands, watched the race

and was hooked ever since. I went to probably six or seven races a year after that until I was fourteen years old, and then got into um a race car for the first time. I didn't know how to use a clutch, didn't know how to use sick shift anything like that. So it's kind of difficult. But once I got going and kind of um, you know, got the rhythm of it. Um. It actually started before that on on I Racing, which is kind of a virtual

racing platform, so um. So yeah, it's just been something that's been kind of at my heart ever since I was five years old. Really, all right, so you brought it up first. So I spoke to a few NASCAR guys, right, regular fans, and then some other fans and then some other people that are in NASCAR, and so I asked that there's two gentlemen that that kind of my uh

NASCAR liaisons. Yeah, we got some inside we got but but these two guys, uh that I know, one of them U fifty sixty years old and they are NASCAR through and through, and so I asked them about you, right, and I consider them true blue Nascar. Um, yes, they like live and breathe. They said, look, if you're not my driver, I will talk about everyone else as like they're nobody, but my driver is the best. And I was like wow, And so I said, okay, so William.

What about William as a driver. What do you think about him? They said, Man, he's a young I Racing virtual racer. MM, well, explain what a virtual race I racing is, because I don't know like we think of When I first heard that, you are just some PS five kind that's what I thought. I was like, I thought it was like somebody gave him the NASCAR oh three and so yeah, he played it online. Give us, give us understanding what I Racing is. Yeah, So I

Racing is. It's probably closer to like a flight simulator. For you know, if you're so if you're trying to be a commercial pilot or you're trying to be a private aviation pilot, you're probably gonna have some kind of flight simulation training. And I feel like I Racing is is definitely closer to that. You know. Now for for somebody who's never been on it, it's probably they don't understand that because So what they do and I racing,

is they scan the tracks. So they go and it's like a bunch of money to go and scan each race track. And they stop a golf simulator, so I get it. They go in and literally scan the whole golf course, like the river, the pond, the old bee, which I'm add a lot of times in the out of bounds sections, right, And so I get that party. I did not know that they did that for the iration because I just I thought they just it is a PlayStation on steroids. That's what I saw, the same thing, right.

You know, we don't have some dumb questions, Yeah, I say super dumb. I'm talking about when they when they say there's no dumb question. No, we got a whole shuffled dumb questions. Yeah, I'll put myself out there. I'm gonna ask. Yeah. So they scan the tracks every every

like oscillation in the track, every bump. So just like the you know, racetracks have like small like if you're driving down the road, you're going eighty miles, you might feel a couple of every nook and cream kind of every pothole and every little there's not a lot of potholes but but yeah, like it'll be you'll have like banking changes in little variations in the banking and they'll have all that stuff simulated. And is that only like the is the bank is like the high area where

the wall is and stuff. Yeah exactly. Yeah. So so so you're in this eye racing virtual. Why does that benefit you in becoming a NASCAR or does it keep your your tools sharp? Like what is the benefit of that, because a lot of the narrative has been well you just eye racer, just virtual NASCAR guy, you know a real racer. Yes, you're not a real racer. That's that's

what some people would say. I don't believe that we use simulation as like it's a monumental tool and racing now, so we don't have any practice now with with the

COVID situation. So so all the teams do is use simulation to to basically simulate what the car needs to be set up as so like the ride high, the shocks in the springs, everything in the car is all based on The teams have a computer basically and they say this is an ideal LAPP that the driver would would drive and this is how we're going to set

the car up. So that's really what I Racing is a part of that, and it's more of a part of it for a driver perspective, to try to sharpen your tools, like you were saying, and um, you know, it's just a tool. I mean, but definitely when I was getting started, I had never been in a real race car at you know, thirteen years old. It was

the only tool that I had. So how can you not be legally capable of driving a regular car but you can get a NASCAR can drive yeahs waivers, Yeah you have to sign a waiver, but you don't even have a Yeah you're not legal. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean you So, racing is kind of like a fraternity, right, It's like it's like a community that if you are chosen to be a part of somebody's race team, you can you can submit an application. What do you do

a fraternity sponsorship there? So you can buy your way in. No, I mean there's some of that, but it's there are some drivers that are considered um rich racers. I'm not going to say who. Yeah, No, I mean there it's it's kind of a balance of like the guys that you know come in and they are from a racing family or something like that. You know. For me, I wasn't part of a racing family. So for me, it was going out to the Legend Car Track which is

out at Charlotte, MA Speedway and racing. Um yeah, it used to be lows and so they have a fifth mile track outside. It's kind of like where you cut your teeth. So I think, um, you know a lot of kids do that and kind of work their way up through those different ranks. We have to take a break and the morning anything, we gotta pay some bills. You got check. I love cut to It and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie

where where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Um yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a

Podcast dot Com. So I was talking two m R. Hart Jr. Talked to him about you and he gave me this information, which is basically, you've embraced the narrative of being known for a I racer virtual racer. But he told me that that's not necessarily true. You have been, like you said, racing at a young gauge. So well, is is he kind of true on that or you just kind of embraced that. Yeah, I'm an eye racer, but you've really been You've been UM driving for a

long time since you're what years old, fourteen? And so really for us, um, you know, when I was so I raced for Dale in late models, which is kind of like a it's a it's a full size car, but it's not a full speed car, like it doesn't go two miles an hour. But that's how I got to know Dale. And I do really think the I racing thing has become definitely part of my my story,

but you know, it's not all my story. Like I I really I raced, Um, I've raced for ten years now and a pretty long time, not as long as some of the kids, you know, grew up racing seven years old, but you know, really for me, and you know, I've been able to win in each series and and progress forward and um, you know one Rookie of the Year I think four years in a row. And and you know, won the championship in the in the series right below the Cup series, which is kind of it

would be like your college level sport. And so you win that championship and then you're able to move up into the next level. So um, so yeah, I raced for Dale in that series and we have a great relationship through that. And then you worked with Kyle Busch as well. Yeah, so I know Dale and Kyle are very similar working with um. Would you say, no, I know, if you picked you quit down Kyle is Uh. I've been in some meetings with Kyle where he just lays it,

lays it to everyone, and Dale is a little bit calmer. Yeah, it doesn't really do that much. But but but wouldn't you say obviously both of those individuals having as much success of both of them having UM, would you say you picked up a little bit of everything from both of those. Yeah. Kyle to me, Kyle kind of taught me the uh the basics of of racing racecraft, you know, like he he taught me, you know, how to be aggressive, how to how to manipulate other cars, other people on

the track. Uh, Dale was more. You know, Dale taught me a lot about the off track stuff, a lot about how to handle yourself, how to manage your team, you know, how to encourage your team to get better.

So I'd say totally different guys. M So you got to you got on racing expertise, Yeah, and then you got off racing expertise with which and NASCAR is extremely horton because you can just from an outside perspective, you can be average, are okay, but you can make so much more money if you have the right personality and conduct yourself in the right way off the field as well. Yeah, yeah, definitely true. And why why do you believe that is? Why? That is? Um? I think that fans gravitate towards Like

you said, fans are really loyal. So like you, you spoke of two examples of two guys that you know are loyal to their driver. Right, So that's how NASCAR fans are. Like, if they have a driver, it's like that guy. They with that guy for a long time, like, and it doesn't matter if he changes teams. Or you know, whatever he does there with that dude, So it is

part of that, you know. I've always come at it of from the performance side, where it's like, if you're not performing, I don't see why you would be popular. But I think that it's, um, there's two different ways to approach it. For sure, you can be a popular guy and not as as mounted. But I think as the sports gotten peeled back and people understand it more, um,

people are gravitating towards the guys who are successful. If you're not into NASCAR and you're being a driver, yeah, can you see how people are a little bit confused on what the purpose of driving in the circle? Always it's a good point. It's a good point. I mean, I mean, I guess it's a simple concept. It's one big left her. Yes, it's a simple like I guess

I'm trying to get you. I've lived in Charlotte long enough to know about NASCAR, but I'm trying to get you to make me a believer into getting into the driver's where I'm literally I'm I'm your biggest fan. Like breakdown, why Nascar? Why do I need Nascar? Like so it's very technical, so like it's a you know, it's a sport that like if you And the reason that that I Racing platform is so good is because it brings a casual fan in, right, who can just say how

much is that? How much I race? I raise and virtual you could do it for probably three hundred just like Okay. So when I was looking at a day in of life with William Okay, I saw you had it in your in your living in your apartment. In your apartment, I think it was in your guest room or your your primary bedroom. And it's probably some time after he recorded back. Yeah it was. But how much is that one cost? Just to give the fan? Who means that's a lot of money he got, he got technology,

all that stuff. How many screens? Didn't have three? Three screens? H D four K? Does it? Is it a lot of HD M I cables? Ye, there's a lot of yes. No, No, it's it's um. That one was probably twenty grand, right, but yeah, but I've had it since I've started racing in Cup so that's probably two three years. So I used my money to buy it because I was like, you know, it's important. Does your trainer come over your pit pit coach chief come over to help you. I'm

not trying to be funny, I'm really asking now it's true. Ever, actually this afternoon, my uh, one of my spotter he you know who like communicates with me on the radio. He's coming over to to help me rinch this. So he stands on top of the grandstands and he he is my eyes and ears. It's almost like offense coordinators in the box. Yeah, so you think of like if they're calling a play, he's kind of a play caller.

So if somebody's like there's plays in NASCAR somewhat like restarts, like every restart, so you have a caution flag and yeah, as soon as you have the yellow, there you go. That's what I'm talking about. You see how anywhere else but here. Yeah, so as soon as you have that, you have a restart is double file and it's like they call it. Yeah, so you'd be like like you were on the interstate and there's like a start line. So you have a box and the leader controls that.

So your spoder's job is too it's like being ablementry school when you like a single file line. So your spoder's job is to kind of communicate yourself, will you like communicate where those guys are and how to how to take advantage of it? All right, let's talk ball. Okay, they say it's no dumb question, but we're gonna ask a few dumb questions. Let's do NASCAR one oh one. So you're sitting around, How long is it NASCAR race? Probably four hours? Four hours and a half, four hours,

three and a half hours. Now I've seen they come out on stage and they announced all the drivers, and some of those drivers have sponsors, liquid sponsors, say, some have Coca Cola, Pepsi, some have water data rade. All of them will be partaking into a liquid that will at some point come out. So, if you're in a car that long one year exhalted, you are spending a ton of energy. You're sweating. So have you eaten prior to your race? So yes? Okay, all right, Okay, you

eat quite a bit, okay, burning lots of calories. Well, these calories are getting stripped down, and your body will despose, will get rid of. These are useless pieces of food that you no longer use after three or four hours, How you do number one and number two? Because I ain't never seen a TV time out of Nascar. Yeah, there's not. So so you're just holding your booboo. You don't the whole time. You don't. I mean you can go number one. I mean you can go number one.

You can't you just go Yeah, we ain't gonna just skip over there. Like so you're doing one, you'll say once in and what six? So you're telling us, and I'm using air quotes, you've been in the car, yeah, six hundred times, and you're telling me you pet on yourself once. But I know, damn well, you didn't pete in the pool several times in your lifetime. So you're telling me you got that kind of power. Adrenaline, man, adrenaline. It's like, as soon as you're in the car, you don't,

you don't think about anything. There's only one race, and the reason that happened was because there was a raind lay. So it's stalled kind of my like, um, what do you call your routine? Pregame routine? So I had a routine of like going to the restaurant and probably fifteen minutes before I get in the car, and that it all got messed up because rained lay. So I had sat for like two hours just sitting there waiting let me ask you this being around Smitty and I know

you're also you're a you're a football fan. You're from Charlotte, so you're you're your Panthers fans. So you probably have some memories of this guy, of this guy playing um when on Saturday afternoons. I will remember him turning into if you ever watched the movie Gramdmas. I don't know how old you are, if you ever watched the he may or may not have saying it. So, so you know, you have Gizmo who's nice and cutly, he's friendly, and then like a little bit after let me, let me

get to the point. And so then after in the room, I know you're I'm a co host. I mean you're you're still here, so you you know, he go from kind of the Gizmo to the Grandplin. Like around Saturday afternoon is when he would seriously when he would start preparing pre gaming for you an get irritable. Yeah, So so around start as when you started building up with him. For you, when do you typically start getting amped up for a race? Because we know you typically have commitments,

whether it's a sponsor opportunity to whatever the case. Maybe when do you typically start like getting up getting yourself ready, man, to be honest with you, probably Friday afternoon, like I start to do I start to watch some film and do some things there. And so we have like our meetings on Tuesday, I'm sure, like similar to any other like athlete or sport, Like you go into your meeting and you talk about what went well, what didn't go well. We watch film. We have a lot of metrics to

measure and that film. How do you watch film on driving? Yeah,

so we've got ah. It's this app called smt or it's a basically a computer um simulation, so it shows all your all your inputs, like like your driver inputs would be your throttle or your you know, gas break and you're staring wheel so that it's different for every driver, so they can ding you on you know, you're not being tending to on the st rool, Yeah, if you do, if you're not driving it right, it's like a question that it's kind of like a whole performance report, like

you you getting graded it you are like PEP getting graded on pit road speed, which is critical like when you come down pit road with all the other cars you know, a fraction of a few miles an hour can make a huge difference. So we come down to the roads. Is there a limit? Is there a speed limit on pit rolls? Now, it's just based on human air, it's just human error. So you just you hold your foot and you drag the brake at the same time and it's like going down the highway trying to hold fifty.

So so that's how sometimes I've seen pit guys get hit at times. So it's not like a it's not a local speed or designated speed that's supposed to have. Yeah, you have to. I mean there is a local there's a um speed that you have to run. But you try to push that like to you know, we're like point four miles and in football we call that to

two and through the whistle. Yeah yeah, And so okay, so you they're telling you input so gas and throttle, UM, hand placement um, and then you said pitt roll kind of pit roll speed and then um and then what else are you watching film on? So restarts? So like the restarts we talked about is uh, you'll go back and look at you know, who took advantage of you. You know, did a guy did a guy gets your outside? Did he push you in the corner? You know, did you make the wrong move? So you kind of you

kind of analyze what you did right or wrong? Are there any unwritten rules in Nascar? Like I noticed if somebody gets bumped, people get upset. Take that. You take that the hard Why because y'all for me? Like for me, I think y'allving bumper cars. So you kind of come parent that to like a late hit, like I'm gonna remember that you yes, right, yes, right right. Let's say you're raising a guy for a position and he gets

underneath of you and he's trying to pass you. Right, Well, if he gets frustrated and he moves you up the track after a few laps, kind of you kind of take that to heart. So you're what do you do? Man? Next time I get back to him, I'm shipping him into the corner. Shipping, I'm sending him for a ride. I'm going to push him into the corner faster than he can get. How is that received? When that has happened, it's like checks and balances, right, It's a shouting match.

It's a shout at each other. When I see you again, I bro, you're gonna see him in like fifteen more minutes when his next left his car. His pit crew is right next tell you they'll take care of it if I your crew is ready for the bah. Yeah, so you got ready? So yeah, I got. I got a guy that played uh, he played football, Clemson offensive line. And I got a few different football players. And you've got a new wide receivers because those are the real

all stars. You got all slow power people. Man would be ready for the people go down, Like I would take a I take a I don't even know the instrument. I just pick up something. One of those mechanical tools come across this line. I saw on your show you had your daily goals. Yeah, and you had win a race. You've had some top ten, some top five finishes, a couple of seconds. Right, What would be the ideal place

to win your first race on? What track? Like the super Bowl of NASCAR when you can win your first race? What track do you want to win your first race? Um? To be honest, Charlotte just because I grew up here, So that's probably the the most relevance to me. You know, if I go and win at Charlotte, MO Speedway, It's

gonna be a big deal for my family. It's gonna be a big deal for me because I grew up like I grew up at that track thinking what would it be like to to race here, you know, with everybody so or a NASCAR So that one's probably big. Dayton of five hundred is the biggest race of our season, so that one's probably isn't that the first race? Yeah, first race of the year. So why is the first race the most important? I wouldn't say it's the most important,

but it's the biggest magnitude. Like it's got like tone almost it does set the tone, and it's one of those things like you either win a championship or your Dayton five champion it is because you just it's almost you almost think of your your biggest game almost being your last game. That's when you win a championship, and for you guys, it's your first game. So it is almost different from probably what you think of like a football or basketball or even baseball. With the World Series, Yeah,

it's different. It's different, and we have you know, the championship though, has taken on way more relevance over the last fifteen years, and so it's I mean, I'd rather win a championship than I would the dates. You know, either one, you're going to be considered like one of the grades. Probably in football learned sports they have the locker room yea. For NASCAR, what is considered the locker room where the where the young guys get to learn

from the older guys. It's more within your team. So you have your race haller, so it's like an eighteen wheeler. You're eighteen wheel haller and um that goes down the highway and all your team guys, everybody lives in that space at the track. So once you arrive at the track, everyone goes to that haller and hangs out. So you know your picker guys, your engineers, and and myself. So that's kind of your area for your own team. The interesting thing about the sport is that you don't really

there's no locker room for the drivers. Like the drivers all hang out separately. So I think that's why there's like kind of that animosity sometimes because you don't ever get to talk to me before a young guy like you, how are you able to interact with some of the veteran drivers like uh, I mean, I know Jimmy Johnson as a teammate, But when do you find those opportunities to to be able to glean from someone who was

a little bit more established or a veteran. So you just have to reach out, like you just have to like go and say, hey, I need some help or I or I need to learn this or that. I you know, I sat down with Kevin harvick Um a few years ago when I was a rookie just to understand what to learn from him. Jimmy obviously is a teammate,

and Dale and Kyle, so people you know. And then if you have an issue, I think the best way to handle it is to text or call the guy or go see him and say, hey, listen, you know I wrecked you or I screwed up or or if you he wrecked you, then you expect kind of a

phone call or something. I just I just never thought about, like you you know, the drivers kind of operate like a solo independent maybe even like if I if I take that, and then I think about, like what you Steve, what would happen if you were a young gun locker room and you never got experience or you've never been never been around the bedroom at all. That's what I'm sitting there when you were saying, I'm like, wow, so yeah, so how much I don't know I'm going on ledge

does it get lonely kind of race him? Yeah, you have to kind of have like the thick skin, like because somebody will say, like in racing, I feel like what happens a lot is like you don't talk to people, right, So another driver, if he's mad at you, he might say it to the media, you know, or he might say, like in his post race conference like this, y'allo beef. Y'all will beef in a minute, that beef through the media,

but won't say nothing to each other. Like I know, because I've seen the Hollers are like they're they're close to each other. It ain't like he over you. Ain't that y'all? Not a Disney World where his his his trailers parked by small world and then he's over there in a whole different part that they're pretty close together, Like well, what do you do with like, uh, to leave? I actually mean to leave at that moment, we weren't seeing that. But I mean I've when he was with

I think Denver, when he was with Denver. I UM. I was in Philadelphia covering UM A game, and then I wait stayed after the game. I was watched the game and my summer was with me, one of my boys, and so to leave actually came up, took a picture, not actually have the picture with Boston and said, which was very surprising to leave, said, I hated to go against your dad because he always made me work hard and it was really cool, and I was shocked that

he was He said that to my boy. So, you know, there are some guys that we just don't mess with, Like there's some guys, some players that you're like, I just don't see out eye. There's some guys that I would see them right now. They could be on fire and now drive by. But then there's some guys where you know, maybe it was just a little bit of rambunctiousness in the in the game, but you're they're mature

and you're mature sometimes to talk it out. But then there's some other guys where you're better off talking to a wall than communicating with them because they have a death set their mind. But but I think the difference with your sport and ours, in football or any other ones, I think tennis and golf is pretty similar like that just so independent. I think it's um. I think that's a good thing because it teaches you a little bit of mental toughness. But I also think it's kind of

a it's cold. Yes, Like you go by, like when I was a rookie, you'd walk by, um, an older driver, right, and you'd be like not you know, You're like not sure what to do, and he just just looks straight through you. So it's like you're kind of like, alright, what did and how did that play into your psyche? That same driver that, let's be honest, you grew up here in Charlotte. You've already told us since the age of six you fell in love with with with racing.

You weren't born, you weren't born from a racing family. So you see this legendary driver we're got gonna name many names were not about that, and he looks through you. Yep, that must have some type of intimidation factor that the next time you see that dude, he's right next to you on the track on the fourth turn, what do you do? Do you bump them? Do you hit him a little? Oh? You're not going ignore me now playing. Yeah, yeah, I think it's a it's a respect thing, like it

takes it. Gosh, you know, I see a rookie driver coming, Like I'm in my third year now, if a rookie driver comes in, I kind of do. I learned from the veteran guy. So so so you're not gonna change a little bit. So you're not gonna change anything. You're just gonna kind of go. So you're not really gonna do what you're supposed to do. You're not gonna do what you have what you call to do because you have to you I would say you would have done

the same thing. Shut up. So like there's a we're really good friends, so we just get to tell how we feel. Shut up. Like I see you on the

fifth term, sucker. I mean it's true because like there's this there's this like code right that we were talking about, and like that guy has to earn it from you, so like he has to pass you a couple of times, he has to race you a certain way over the course of a few races before you're like all right, okay, Like but each time that guy passed you the first couple of times, you're like, I'm like, I'm going right

back after you. Like, it's not gonna make it easy for you to because it just wasn't easy for me to go up against a forty year old guy, you know, and you don't like four year olds. He took it, he took offense today, nothing to get some nothing to You're gonna get forty at some point. How long do you want to race? Gosh? I mean as long as I can, as long as until I until my reaction time and my senses are not strong enough to do it. All six? Yeah, all six. I think it's about that time,

So we'll take a little breathing. Good do it, Good, do it. Let's getting down to do it. Good? Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. You're racing a lot. You grew up here in Charlotte, North Carolina. You've been

around some great racers. You talk about Jimmy um Dale. Our heart lives here. Kyle Bush. A lot of these other drivers live here in North Carolina, ain't Heck, you were probably in the same subdivision or neighborhood with some of these racers. How do you how do you stay grounded? And where does your faith for you kind of where

does that play in in your in Nascar? Because for me as a believer, at times I have struggled with the the physicality of ballum, the the the macho demeanor, some of the language that is used, and I felt on it as well as how does you how do you stay grounding in your faith and in in not allowing your success to make you feel like you've done

this all by yourself. Yeah, I mean that's a great like question, I think honestly, for me, like my faith probably grew the most once I got out on my own in racing, which was really like once I was out in the car on my own, trying to make it a Nascar like, it really becomes about, you know, your faith, because you know, there's a lot of things that go on inside of the car that you can't always control, so it's like you have to like somehow

let that stuff go. Like I still find myself it's a tough balance because you know, I probably are not the perfect Christian by any means. Like when I'm in the car, I might cut the word on the radio or might say whatever, but it's like to me, that's

the heat of battle. But like when I'm outside the car, I think about the blessings that I have to be in in that opportunity and try to make the most of that, and you know, just try to understand that it it's bigger than just you know, that one race or like there's got to be a plan that is in place for me to kind of try to live

up to and try to achieve. So well, this part of our podcast, who had to call it a deeper three and these next three questions just allow us to take maybe a little bit of a deeper dive into you as a person beyond your jersey or beyond your car, or for your profession again maybe even your wensy. Yeah, but but first question, Smithy has up on deck and we'll enter the deep three. Cool, how long do you

plan on racing? Realistically the next ten years? I'd say, I hope, so that's not bad, and keep racing then and then you're just gonna disappear. I don't know. I'd like to race some other stuff like maybe some Indy car um, maybe some like dirt stuff like dirt racing like uh rally cars. I don't know, just whatever I could get my hands on. Honest, I'd like to do something. Maybe not full, maybe not thirty eight races like we do every year, but race, you know, fifteen to twenty

times a year. It would be great. You've mentioned a couple of people that you know, whether it's Dale or whether it's Kyle or people at Hendrick. You've had people on the track who have been able to impact your life. Who are who are? Who's that one person or maybe a couple of people that you have off the track that invest in you that maybe you looked to as

a mentor. Uh So there's two guys. There's uh Dennis, this guy Dennis Lambert, who he was my original crew chief so it's kind of like my original coach when I first started racing, and he kind of taught me the ropes and he was pretty hard on me. So he you know, kind of he was always honest, like he was never gonna like look at a race and be like, oh he did great. You know when he didn't, so he's good. I always always text him and we

go out to eat and stuff. And then this other guy, Max Pappis, who's an Italian guy, and he's, uh, he used to race Formula one and like IndyCar and all that, um, all those kinds of races, so he kind of understands the industry. So I to him with any questions I have about, you know, what he sees in the sport, what he sees me doing versus maybe where I could be. So just kind of those two guys, i'd say, final question, M I like this question because it's a different one.

You can answer however you want. What would you say your relationship where racing is relationship? Um, it's really pretty consuming for me, Like I'm it's probably most everything that I think about every day, Like there's not much else that I would want to do. Like I feel like if I went a week without doing it, I'd be like I start to go insane. So I think it's kind of I have a girlfriend, I have obviously a great family, but it's definitely like I'd say eight or

ninety percent of my life is probably around racing. So so you are fully committed at this point in racing. Yeah, I mean there's random based off your m answer, so everything else is back seat somewhat at this point. Yeah. Like it it definitely like if I'm not doing what I want to do in racing that I'm not happy. Like it's just kind of how at this point twenty years old, Like that's what I that's what I want

to do. He's kind of what I want to achieve. Yeah, but you have all the chips in racing, Yeah, but should it be that way? I don't know. Was it like that for you in football? That's a great question. When you got too deep forward, you just completely messed up our segment, will you? I think at different times it has been and and then there's times where I want to know parts of it just because you were checked out. I think it's just that I really you

haven't raced enough yet. Right, You've had three years of you know, three years of success, but then there's gonna be you can have three years of success and then that rough year or that rough patch can just do a number on you, right and and and that's where I started to realize and I started to come to the conclusion of I love ball. I lived it, breathe it. But there were times that I lined up and I was like I could do without this. Sometimes what was

it before? After your three year? More? It just it varied. It really depends on it. Like the time thing. No, it wasn't a time that it was just sometimes the circumstances or it'd be how you know when they say it arrange the poors? Just how bad is pooring? Right? Just like when you it's like that two hour you

had that our delay. It messes up everything, and then that messes it up and then it's a chain reaction and then next thing, you know, let's go and then now you all now you're all fickled and intense, and it's like, man, I can go home right now because we are perfectionists, right, So yeah, now that's good to know. Yeah, I'm curious. I was curious about that. Like, yeah, I mean there's some days, man I would I wanted to do it till I was fifty, And then there's other days, Man,

I don't want to do this. You don't want to, Dane, I don't even want I don't even want this past all right, were you sitting on the sideline and you go and that sucks, right, So yeah, that's cool. Yeah, Well, I just want to tell you, man, I really appreciate you taking the time, thanks for having me watch you. If you were believer, but after talking with William, I just want to ask you, like, are you a believer? And that's funny? What do you mean believe? Are you

saying like it's a cult. I learned a great deal of information. I got to ask some questions that I kind of felt dumb asking a regular NASCAR guy that outside of the podcast, because you don't want to be like Steve's over there asking the dumb people questions, right, So I felt well comfortable. I think he was really shocked at some of the questions we did ask and

how we asked. I really love how you talked about the culture being lonely, being on the road, um, talking about how the veterans cheat the young guys, and then also how as a young guy he said, hey, when the other young guys come on due do those guys

the same way. It was really good to hear his perspective and the ins and out of NASCAR outside of the dudes constantly just hitting the left in banking, you know, doing all of the uh, the glitz and the glamor of Nascar and understanding the nuts and bolts of it. It was really cool. Yeah, I agree when he talked about the drivers maybe not always coming together and not having this you gotta look on the outside and like, all right, they all those guys have to talk to

each other. They operate in silos. Every car is different, every racing team is different. So he definitely gave us a lot of insight into disbanded some of those things that you just kind of think all those guys know together, all those guys are cool. No, not necessarily, you know what, I forgot to ask him, what's that? Man? You know one thing I noticed in Nascar there's two different people you either a villain as a NASCAR driver or a hero. That's it's like w W, but except they ain't acting

and they really they really got beef. They really got beef. But um, I think he's young enough. I think he's question is gonna be he's the young hero right now. Eventually when he become a villain, I don't know, we'll see, time will tell, but you gotta watch him. No, I ain't got a villain bone. His body cut to It with Steve Smith singer. That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black

Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from i Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. From Cut to It Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer co host Gerard little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, social media manager Payton Smith from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Balta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with

production assistance by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. If you ain't heard about it, then without to let you know, you know it's It's all