All right, our guest this week is Ryan Blaney. This is our first NASCAR guest ever, Ryan. Thank you for that. How you been? How's everything going? Yeah, going good. Thank you guys for, uh, for having me on, um, you know, fans of you guys and cool.

That you invited me on the show and honored to be the first NASCAR guy you've been on. Well, I got to be like for me, I got to be honest. And then I wasn't jumping here who's gotten me into NASCAR more, but I feel like the last couple of years, the sport got really, I don't want to say younger, but it felt like you got more exciting. And then there was like the gambling element that kind of came in and like for me, I was like, Oh, shit, I'll just start gambling. I see the odds. I just pick a few. I was like, I'm going to these guys going to hit, but then West started writing a lot more. And I

feel like for me, a lot of the misconceptions of NASCAR kind of like went away. And then I know West had a lot of a question on that, but do you feel like you got younger and more exciting and just a little bit different these last handful of years, the sport itself.

Yeah, I think so. You know, I think NASCAR and the drivers have done a pretty good job of maybe reaching a different demographic, you know, younger demographic maybe and just kind of how we've gone about things. And there's been, you know, a handful of younger guys coming in and doing well that I think, you know, a lot of the younger generation can associate with.

Just because they're closer to their age. So I feel like that's that's helped out too. So there's a combination, a combination of things, but yeah, just, you know, that's what's all about trying to reach fans who've never seen NASCAR before, young or old, you know, trying to reach them and maybe it catches their eye and they enjoy it. That's what that's what a big part of kind of what we do is right is being entertaining to people watching and just trying to put on good races. I think that's what draws people in is trying to make the race and as good as possible too.

I think for me, like, I probably started watching last year during the pandemic, NASCAR was kind of the first sport to like come back. That kind of makes sense, you know, and so I'm like, you know, I'll turn it on to country folks like it. I grew up in a small town. Never was really into it, but I turned it on and I'm like, holy shit. This is so fucking cool. Like you guys are flying. And first of all, I thought NASCAR was like football where every track was the same.

And then I'm like, no, there's different tracks. There's different. You got to turn the car, depending on the track. And then within a few weeks, I'm like screaming at the TV. And so I think for me, like, and there's like, you know, people fighting on pyro get to hear you guys on the radio, be like, what the fuck's he doing? And like, so I feel like there was so many misconceptions for me and asking you as a driver, like, do you think that's something that you guys as a sport have to kind of contend with a little bit?

Where somebody that's never watched NASCAR before just has this picture of what it's like in their mind and couldn't be further from the truth or.

Yeah, I think you said it well, you know, and I think you're a good example, you know, never watched it before.

I decided to turn it on and became a fan of it just just understanding it more, right? And kind of that.

You start learning what all goes into it. No, we go to different. There's all these different size tracks, all different style tracks.

You're tuning your cars every single week. It's all at something different.

There's a lot of kind of competitiveness and drama in the sport. There's a lot more to it, you know.

And so now, since your fan haven't even watched it, there's going to be a whole different experience when you get to go to a race.

That's a different. So even better in a better way.

So I've always told people, you know, if you've never watched NASCAR or you have a kind of just your blend and, you know, don't have a great opinion about it.

I doubt you've ever been to one, you know, or even just go to a race and you'll feel the excitement, you know,

and to see the cars, how fast we go, to hear the excitement in the stands and the engines, that's just, it's something completely different.

So you've got to get to a race next and that's going to be a whole new experience for you.

Well, I looked at the 2021 schedule and they pulled the Chicago land speedway off. So I was like, yeah, that's not good.

And the production, yeah.

One, obviously, when we post about you, people love it and people are actually asking us questions on Twitter as well.

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