Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a hand effect. Boom boom, boom out go to light. This is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up, guys. We're back again with another Lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman. Um, and we're going NASCAR today. Man, it's it's cool. And I feel bad because normally I would get out to about ten tracks, whether it's short tracks or you know,
one of the main tracks a year. And uh, the last two years, man, since the pandemic, I just haven't been able to make it out to as many tracks as I would like to. I mean, hell, I would even go to some of the dirt tracks if I could. Anyway. Kyle Larson a couple of big victories over the past three or four weeks, just completely on fire. Glad he was able to take a few moments a day to jump on with us. And for all your NASCAR fans, we got a treat for you, Kyle Larson. Kyle, what's up?
What's uping? My dude? How are you man? Good? Are you good? Man? I finally found somebody was harder to get a hold up than me. I was, like I thought I was bad. But uh, you you've just been You've been busy, man. But the last few weeks, man, it's been crazy. Yeah, it's been good. Been winning a lot, it's been fun. I feel like crap because I've only
been to a couple of race tracks this year. Normally I get out to about tend Up and I'll jump on the jump on the plane and come out on the weekends and I'll come back and try to hold some stuff for football. So I haven't been out to admit the tracks this year. But this last few weeks, man,
you've just been on fire. Thank you. Um. One of the things I wanted to ask you about because and I've been around I've been around the tracks, man for twelve years, so we I don't know if you've seen my big gass and not just walking past you're trying to push you push your car through inspection on the
driver's meetings or anything like that. But it seems like you you've always been close to having these kind of weeks right back to back weeks, but lately you guys have been executing like hell, man, what's what's been What's been a big difference? Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a call the nation of a lot of stuff, But I think the biggest thing is the race car
being really fast. I think when when your race cars as good as ours has been here lately, um, you can kind of slow things down and and not you know, try to overdo things. And um, our car has been so fast, you're lately, you know, our pickture has been doing a great job. When your car is a good you don't have to be as aggressive on the racetracks. You make less mistakes and things like that. So, um,
it's a fun place to be in my position. And I just hope we can continue to uh keep keep our cars as fast and you're try and get them even better. Yeah, speak speaking of your car, man, and and you're cruel and everything. You know, just tell me, tell me a little bit about Cliff Daniels and in
the job that they've been doing. Um, and you know, I brought up execution because a lot of people need to understand, like what what goes on behind the scenes and your team and an adjustment you guys made over the last month or so. Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure what adjustments we've made. I think probably just you're tweaking things make them all all areas better. But yeah, Cliff daniels Is is such an awesome crew chief, a
very you know, great leader. Um, very intense. I think, you know, he kind of reminds me of probably like what a football coach would be, you know, the way he he's intense. That I was, I was just going, I didn't want to make that correlation, but I was just going to say that because I've come across Cliff
and got a chance to talk to him several times. Yeah, like his you know, pre race speeches and post race motivational things and stuff like It's It's honestly something that I didn't think that I needed, um, But now that I'm around it and around you know how he works, I really love it and it and it definitely motivates me and and I think it keeps us all positive and um you knowing things that you have a bad race, you know, he he knows exactly what to say to
kind of pump you up and keep you digging and keep you working hard. So um man, he's a super smart, you know, human being in crew chief, and um, I
think it shows on the race track. No, no, absolutely, And you guys, um for many reasons have been kind of turning it up lately, and that's why I keep bringing it back to the execution part because you've been like, in my opinion, you've just been disclosed from doing that even though you you know, first time you've kind of done this, and I think you guys just beat the what the Petty the Petty group, right, Yeah, you just
beat that landmark. You talk talked a little bit about that, how big that was because Petty group the reason why I even got involved in NASCAR back in two thousand and I think seven or eight, um, and just being a part of that group thick, you know, the Petty experience and and just being around. But you guys just
crossed over that landmark. Yeah that's cool. Um. Yeah, So you know Rick Richard Petty was the winning is you know team or driver and team whatever with two sixty eight wins um where you now Rick Hendrick and Indrick Motorsports has accumulated uh and surpassed you know, his his records. So it was coolly a part of that and cool to be the guy to win the race to get him over that you know record breaking UM deal with
Richard Petty. Uh, it was very important to Mr h that's uh that we get it and get it quickly, and yeah it was cool, you know it. You can definitely tell. I could tell every time I talked to him that it was important to him. So nice that we're able to to do that, And just shows you know how how big of an impact Richard Petty as well as Rick Hendrick have had on the sport of NASCAR with all those wins combined. How much? How much
has that talked about? Right? Because I always ask guys, and you know, me being a former player, I will look up and see how many sacks I had, right and like, okay, I got two more sacks and you know I'll lead in this category, all right? So whatever the landmark? Maybe how how often is that talked about? Or is it not really important? Or someone might come into the garage and be like, hey, by the way, you know you guys do this, this this is the
landmark you're going to cross. Is that ever brought up in a conversation at all? Um? Just I don't know, Uh, I don't think so. I mean for me though, you know, I like to you know, I've had a great year, so I like to go and kind of look at my stats and compare them to say, you know, like last year, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, it seemed like,
you know, they dominated the season. So you know, I've recently went and looked at their stats and um, you know, like laugh sledding stuff, and we've already led I think, almost as much or more than than they had last year. So I was like, wow, that's crazy to think, you know, um, but then they also had a lot more wins you know, the year, but we still have a long ways ago. So yeah, I mean, I definitely try to look at that stuff and and it gives you like a goal,
um to get to UM. But then yeah, there is also some like analytics guys out there that keep track of everything and and you know, sometimes they produce an article that tells you about your your your pass rating and stuff like that and restart your retention and things. So it's it's cool to to look at that stuff. And it definitely if you're if you're loan in a category, it definitely you know, tells you an area that you
need to get better. And um. Work on Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. Yeah. Obviously I've been around the sporting long time, so I try to explain to people to analytics, like, right, so this weekend, you you guys are, you're coming up when Texas right for the All Star All Stars play you place poll? Right? Yeah, it was a random draw, um, and we got lucky
and drew the poll. No, come on, hey, yeah it was random, so I mean it is all luck and uh, thankfully we got the poll, so that should help out a lot. How much do you guys believe in momentum? Right, because you've had You've had a great I mean a great year, but especially the last you know, three of you know, last month or so has been big. How much do you guys are banking on a momentum Like Okay, hey we were here, we need to go here. We're here, we need to go here and take advantage, you know,
of this momentum you guys have right now. Yeah, I think momentum is huge and in any any sport really, um, but racing, you know, it's it's important as well, just because you can kind of ride that wave and keep pilot on your hopefully good finishes. So these last five weeks have been great. We haven't been out of the top two and have had shots to win even a
lot before that. But um, and two, I raised a lot outside of NASCAR, and even that racing has gone really yeah, and that's gone well for me to last few weeks. So it really does help my momentum and my personal confidence, and I think that's definitely a good thing to go out there and continue having success. I talked to a couple of guys who do you know racing the dirt tracks? And I talked you guys who racing the short tracks or whatever? And how do you
meant like mentally switched gears for that? Do you have to you know, kind of say okay, I gotta get back into saddle this or you can just go bounce back back and forth, no problem. Well, I think for me, I might be different than some of the other drivers just because I do it so often. Um, like this week, you know, I'm running four nights in a row in a late Model before I go to you know, Texas or on the cup car, and so I think when I do it that often, you know it's I don't
have to think about it much. But I know, you know, my good buddy like Ricky Stenhouse, who he doesn't do a bunch of dirt racing, but he ran, you know, midget last night in Indiana, and I'm sure, I'm sure when he buckles in, he's got to like think about Okay, you know, I'm in a midget. How does this drive? All? Right? I need to like remind my brain a certain thing. But for me, I've gotten so used to jumping in and out of race cars that uh, I feel like
I can adapt pretty quickly. But you're not. You're not racing the full season right on the dirt track. You just kind of bounced back and forth between races. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have time to race a full season and chase points or anything like that. But um, this year, I'm raising a bunch, but I can still pop in and run those those series and stuff. But yeah, so I can be a little bit more aggressive probably than than other drivers, just because I'm not chasing points. No, absolutely,
and good luck this weekend. But last thing, I want to ask you about your foundation, man, because I was checking out your website. Um, actually last night and this morning,
tell me a little bit about what you got going on. Yeah. Thanks, No, I've started the Kyle Larson Foundation here this year recently, and um, last year I got to you work together with a lot of well a few different foundations and hang around their their communities and stuff, and they're they're important part of me in my return back to Nascars.
So you know, this year I started my foundation to try and raise money and awareness to help out their communities, you know, Tony Sonny Foundation and Urban Youth Thracing School and uh the hender Cares program. So you through it like this year. With each lap completed and top fives and wins and stuff, the money kind of piles up. So already this year we've raised sixty eight I think sixty eight thousand dollars so with a goal of getting
to five hundred thousand. So still a long ways ago, but um, it's been cool to kind of get involved and get out there and do stuff. I've always wanted to start a foundation. I just didn't know like what that was and what I wanted to support. Um, but yeah, it's been good and I hope to uh to grow it into something even more impactful. Down the road, and
how can people be involved. You've got a website, right, you have the website if people to check out the information, Yeah, it's uh Kyle Larson or yeah, Kyler's Foundation dot org. I believe and you can go on there and and you'll learn more about it as well as there should be a tab in there to to help donate and help me reach that goal. Awesome brother, a heavy uh kick ass weekend. Keep that momentum going, you on fire.
I'm we was able to sneak you and I'm like, dude, we gotta we gotta get cow man, we gotta get cow and uh So I appreciate you taking the time and I'll be at the track soon. I'm gonna come stop by the trailer man say what's up when I get out there? Okay, yeah cool, Yeah, I look forward to thank you. Okay, you gotta man take it easy.
Yeah you too, see it? Thank you guys. Listening in to another lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman and uh wow, you know it's it's funny because being a former athlete, I always feel I'm not gonna see bad, but I always have a certain feeling when I when the guy's on fire. He's you know, he's hot, and he got a bunch of things going on. Kyle Larson has you know, been just killing it the last month or so, and he's not a great year, but this
past month or five weeks has just been incredible. And I'm like telling my guys, we gotta we gotta get cow on, we gotta get cow on. And uh. So I appreciate him taking the time to day so uh, and I appreciate you guys. Man. It's it's just been really cool for me to see these numbers grow and you guys described and leaving these reviews and comments. You know,
I was give you a funny story. I was in Miami a few weeks ago and I was walking down of my hotel and um, you know, two guys walked up to me this for two seconds, hit man, we love your podcast. And I was like, man, that's that's pretty damn cool. And they kept it moving. So obviously you guys are likeing and I appreciate that. So keep listening and keep subscribing to the Lights of podcast with Me, Seawan Merriman and uh We'll be back with another one next week.