Latest / Bleacher Report / Dale Earnhardt Jr. Asks Kyle Pitts Questions at 125+ MPH

Transcript

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Asks Kyle Pitts Questions at 125+ MPH · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody's stelling hard junior. I'm a Kyle Pitts tight
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: end for the Falcons. We're going to take a couple
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of laps around Atlanta Murder Speedway.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Are you ready?
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: I'm ready.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: All right, let's go.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Let's do it in my head on four you know.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going right now.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: We're doing about one hundred miles an hour.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: I'm trying not to screen.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: There you go, all right, here we go.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: I'm excited. Man.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you're from Philly, you live in Atlanta.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Got drafted number four overall, highest tight ends ever win.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: That put a ton of expectations on you.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I kind of know what that kind of spotlight might
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: be like being a junior famous race car driver. These
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: expectations with every athlete in sports. Tell me how you've
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: kind of managed the expectations and the pressure of just
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: playing football, going out there and just trying to be
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: your best over the course of your career.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: My initial thing was get drafted in the first round,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: top ten. That was my goal. And to be able
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: to be drafted top five was life changing. And when
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I got the bone call from that four or four
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: area code, it was it was like whoa Okay, yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: you're no longer in college. This is like the real thing. Yeah,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: so it was it's cool to see an expectation like yeah,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: that comes with it. It comes with it at every
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: level of sport. And you know with this job we
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: have cause it's a production based business, yes, but it's
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: it's also good to have people around you that support
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: you and keep your mental state in a good spot
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: so that that doesn't really distract you. And knowing that
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, it's still a game,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: you know, similar to you driving, it's still you know,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: we're going in circle. So to say, yeah, but it's
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: you know, something that you have been doing since you
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: were young, so that it's not anything that you know.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: It's different going into it now when you were young
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: versus you know, being twenty years in the game. My
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: question for you is, like you're riding these intense situations
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and you have to learn about patients and you may
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: have to take the car and you know, go into
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: the pit and restop. How do you keep your patience
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: at a a good level so that when you get
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: out it's it's you know, unshaken fear.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I know that there's a lot of people that are
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: watching on television, and there's a lot of people in
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the grandstands that either want to see me succeed or
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: want to see me fail, and so that motivates.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: That was motivation to me. Maybe that's not some of
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: the best things to.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Be motivated by the expectation, but I mean I used
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: it to kind of make me push myself, like to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: go out there. We you know, if we went to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Tallade or Daytona, those are two racetracks. I had a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: ton of success at I was like, I want to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: be leading at lap four.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm gonna lead.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna be in the lead as soon as I
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: can get there.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And I challenged myself because I knew that it was
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: either gonna make us, it was gonna make a lot.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Of people happy, and then some people, the haters, they
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: were going to be mad.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: And so it kind of drove me to my head.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: On Foard, you know, you played five seasons with six
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: different quarterbacks, and those guys, I know, some of them
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: have the first not all of them are high character guys,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: great quarterbacks, great people. Marcus places for the Commanders, Yeah,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: great dude, or Matt Ryan, awesome guy, great career. He's
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: now president and operations Football operations. That's like, you know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: getting a new head coach every year, getting a new
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: crew chief on your.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Race car every year. How do you How challenging.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Is it to develop the rapport because everything's timing with
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: y'all with throws and your cuts and everything, and how
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: hard is it sort of develop that?
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I think it's pretty interesting because everyone throws a different ball. No,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: I mean kind of like living in life. No two
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: humans are the same. So I look at it as
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: you can learn so many different things from each person
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: and how they like to view the game and how
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: they read defenses, and how they will like for their
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: receivers to play or their you know, their their tight
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: ends and running backs to be a safety blanket or
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: you know, an asset form of like, Okay, you're always
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: going to be my guy in these situations and if
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: you can. If I can't build that trust with you,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: then I know, okay, we'll get a lot of more
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: situations where I may look I may look bad, but
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: you'll make me look good. In a vice person. Yeah,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: so it's pretty cool to see. But in your world
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: of Creachie, can you explain how that would differ with
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: the quarterback.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it feels like it would be the
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: same way, because I'm gonna tell him, Man.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: My car feels this way. It's doing this, it's giving
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: me this sensation, and me and him have to figure
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: out how to communicate. So wheready understands how big of
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: a change I need? Is it bad? Bad?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Do I need big swings to make my car handle better?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Or is it just this tiny subtle thing that I
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: need help with? And so learning that cadence or that
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: communication also, like some guys are like I had one
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: crew chief.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: He was a massive cheerleader.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: I loved it.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I had one crew chie that would say, come on, man,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: you know, get going.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: You're not you know, you're not driving well enough.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And the other crew chief would be like, hey man,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: my car, your car's not good enough.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I need to give you a better car. I didn't
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: give you a good enough.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Car to day, and I thought, damn, that's awesome. You know,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: he ain't putting it on my shoulders. Different styles, he's
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: kind of helping, he's kind of telling me we're gonna
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: build this together. Everybody communicates differently, and you kind of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: got to know what buttons to push to get them.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: To work with you and respond with you.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: And I imagine it's the same way with quarterbacks.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: They all have different egos, demeanors, personalities, right, and you
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: can you could go the wrong way with that or
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: go the right way with that, and trying to learn
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: how to manage those relationships. I guess with grit che's
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and drivers, it's almost got.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: To be like a marriage.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Really.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't have any tension. You got to work
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: through all the problems.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: If there's any kind of a confrontation or disagreement, it
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: can't play fan fester.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Right, So could you give me an example of like
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: a mid race not crisis, but like a disagreement that
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: you have to get over in the middle of the
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: race that you know, say you're in third and you
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: need to slingshot the first What is something that you're
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: telling him, like, we need to go so we can.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Well, every race car doesn't drive perfectly.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're gonna go in this corner and the back's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: gonna try to swing around, or the front's not gonna
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: turn and the car is gonna try to drive up
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the track. So you're always telling the crew chief something
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to work on. Okay, and the crew chief might suggest
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: some changes that he wants to make, and if you've
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: got a lot of experience, you're gonna go, I don't
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: like that change, and then you're gonna argue, you're gonna
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: talk him into something that he doesn't want to do.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: And then if it doesn't work, it's you're you know,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you're the one that drove him to.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Make that choice. And so sometimes you just got to
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: let the crew chief.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Crew chief, You've got to get out of his way
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and let him make the decision and.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Make a call and believe in it. Right.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: But if you're a hardheaded race car driver, you have
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: to be pretty pushy. You can kind of steer them
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: down the road you want them to go, but it
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: might not be the right path in terms of adjustments
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: changes to the car.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: You know, Like I said, I'm trying to learn this
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: slingshot term. Hell yeah. Like my next question will be like, okay,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: so if I catch this corner right yep, and I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: know I can leave him, how does that uh, how
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: does that translate on on on this race track to
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: sling shine the round? Okay, I know this is the
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: perfect lap to do it.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Well, so I won't probably make that pass in the corner.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it on the straight away. So dam
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: we got a car in front of us, and he's
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: gonna run the middle or the bottom race track.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna go up here. And what that's gonna
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: do is create a little bit of a little bit
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: of distance between us.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: He's driving the shorter route and so he's getting away
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: from us a little bit. But that's gonna allow me
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to get get my run, create my run from the draft.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: So as we come off the corner, we're gonna we're.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Gonna fall into the same line as him. We're gonna
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: catch his draft. We're gonna start catching catching him, catching
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: him real fast. Now he's gonna try to block us,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: so we might fake high and go low. Okay, right,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and then we get to the inside. Now we're side
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: by side with oh and we're going by and we
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: clear him into this corner.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Really yeah, Okay, I didn't know it was that.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, that's how it's kind goes down.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: So with you being the the pace cars of the
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: pace center, how fast is race time, Talladega? This pace
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: car going, well, I.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Don't know about the street car but in in around
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: this racetrack, our guys are gonna.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Go one hundred and ninety miles an hour. Really, yeah, so.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Can we pressing a touch? Yeah, we're going oh bread,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: that's brob.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah right now this is yeah, right now, we're doing
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: about one hundred miles an hour.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: This is this is amazing.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: My favorite lane is up against the wall. We're gonna
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: go in the corner here, oh yeah, up against the fence.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: And this is what we call patients because I'm trying
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: not to screep, you know. Yeah, but I'm I'm with
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: the best, so you know, I'm trusting it. It's amazing.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: So the pace car tomorrow's per say, it'll be going
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: two hundred, not.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: The pace car, but yeah, the pace car has pace
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: car controls the speed of the field under caution, okay,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and so the pace car will lead the field during
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: during caution lamps and kind of keep them at a
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: slow case it stops had then guys can get down
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: pet road, change your caires, get gassed. When the green
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: flag drops, pace car pulls off the field, and then
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the race resumes and yeah, you know, the.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Cars just all ass. That's cool. My legs are exhilarating.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: I wish you could see like my mighty heating up.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: My legs are very.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: High that so thank you man.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. All right, good boy, there you go.