Interview Quotes

The Roots of NASCAR Fandom

"My father, actually, you know, he was a diehard mechanic. He used to work on all the neighborhood cars. You know, he would fix our cars. We would never send our car to the service. He would figure out a way to fix it. So I think it gravitated into his love for cars. And he likes driving fast. My mom likes driving fast."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:01:09

"Yes. We drove- We drove to Darlington, Charlotte, Rockingham, all the local places. We would leave early in the morning on Sunday morning. And then we'd spend the day and come back, you know, later after the race. And my brother and I started looking forward to going to those races, you know. And my mom would go. The whole family would go. And we'd pack it up and just go."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:01:31

"And I just, it got into my blood, you know, just seeing what, you know, how competitive NASCAR was. I was a big Richard Petty fan. My father was a big Richard Petty fan."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:01:56

The Competitive Spirit

"I'm excited. I'm excited that, you know, I'm connected to this sport. You know, I feel like when I watch the sport, I watch it, you know, with the lens of my father, with my family. And that matters to me."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:02:24

"I think I'm cursed. I'm cursed with this competitive gene that anything that I do is from a competitive lens, you know? And in some ways that keeps me young, that keeps me aggressively thinking positively."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:03:24

"I think that my appetite to prove as a kid created this competitive thing within me that has transcended and taken over everything that I do. And I think it's a good trait to have because some people don't have that trait."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:05:06

"And, you know, my mentality was, I want to win. I want to win. I want to win fast. I want to do it really fast. And he was the type of person to say, hey, slow down. There's stages to this."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:07:08

"Oh, I take it as a lesson. We learn, you know. Any successful person has had to deal with failure at some point in time, you know. So we don't let it get us down. We figure out, okay, we've got to get ready to the next. Let's learn. Let's get back to the next one. Let's make a big difference for the next one. So, I mean, that is a part of my DNA. I do not like losing, but I'm not afraid to lose. I learn from losing."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:09:11

Changing the Game

"Yes. One hundred percent. Well, when I got into the sport, obviously, as I learned, it was a lot of things that I wasn't really happy about. And I felt like looking at it from a sport, the sport was not set up for success long term for the individuals that's involved in the sport."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:10:17

"When you look at NASCAR, I felt like it was lopsided. And the people that were putting on the show was not getting the type of recognition. Compensated fairly."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:11:00

"And even if I get kicked out of the sport, even if I lose the lawsuit, I'm going to wake up some people to understand what they are actually doing is wrong, you know. And I've been a fan. It's not like I just woke up and said, you know what? I'm going to go and I'm going to attack NASCAR."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:12:19

"Oh, yeah, I was definitely nervous. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I was nervous. Any courtroom makes me nervous because that's not where I want to be, really."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:13:17

"And I went in with the idea that, I don't care, even if I lost, I won."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:16:32

"I can't. I can't fit. No. Do you want to? I wish I could. I probably, yeah, I would want to. But, you know, knowing my competitors' uses, you know, I would probably try to go as fast as Denny Hamlin and some of these other guys, knowing I don't have the talent to do so, I'd probably run straight into that wall."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:17:09

A Quieter Life, a Persistent Passion

"It's a quieter life where I'm not really the show, even though as of late, you know, I've been in the forefront a lot more than I probably anticipated. But I think the sport needs it to some degree, and my team needs it."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:18:11

"When I say I wanted to retire and get to a quieter life, I wanted to get away from basketball in terms of what I represented in that, in that arena and what, you know, how big I've gotten. And it was such a huge burden for me in that sport. Here, the burden's not quite the same, you know, and I'm not, I'm not in that same realm, even though it has evolved to be that now because of the lawsuit, obviously because of the awareness that I'm being, I'm bringing to NASCAR."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:18:40

"The burden of living a certain way, you know, living up to, trying to maintain whatever everybody's perspective is for you or was for you, that is a, that is a burden, you know. And it's a lot of people that have to endure that."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:20:14

"Oh, 100%. It's not just a teeny, it's a huge beast. But I, I, I, I've compensated that, that, that feeling through NASCAR or through fishing that I go, and fishing, but that urge to dream that if I, I wish I can still pick up a basketball."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:21:14

Beyond the Stigma

"There's no such thing as goat, you know, to me. Not to me. It's only because I think, you know, we are transcended from other people, other, other athletes. We learn from other athletes, we progress the game as we move further. To say that one is better than the other, it's not really right."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:22:21

"I'm pretty sure there is a stigma. I think it's changing. I think, you know, generationally, you know, change has to happen. You know, it's how you connect to that next generation is going to be the biggest key."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:23:04

"I think that's where NASCAR is going to be challenging, where we all can help, you know, because of, you know, change. You know, being able to connect to more African Americans watching NASCAR or more, you know, people getting involved, young. I mean, to me, that's where I think change is going to happen, you know. And the perception of this whole thing that we're doing now and us winning, I think it's a step towards that, you know, people watching NASCAR that they never watched before because, obviously, because we're winning."

— SPEAKER_01 • 00:23:24