The Exchanges

Q So what was that? What was that like? And did you always just feel like I should be here? Like you never had any sort of sense of self doubt, even though you were the only woman or you looked a little bit different than everybody else there?

A Um, I, I feel like self-doubt in, in, in questioning your talent or your skill is kind of human nature. I don't know if, I don't, I don't know, maybe you've met someone that's gone through life where they have never had a moment of waver on their skill set and their ability to execute or rise to the occasion or measure up. I think that everyone does have doubt, and so I do too. Um, and I would, you know, have those moments in private for sure, time to time. And, you know, it's definitely a curious question for people, like, what do you do when you doubt yourself? And so, for me, I leaned on my body of work. I was like, ok, I've been racing for 22 years now, or I've been racing for 25 years now, or whatever it was, and it's like, ok, I've done this, I've accomplished this, I've been around a long time, and you can't, you can, you don't stick around on a fluke for decades, right? So that's the kind of stuff that I would look at and, and think to myself. And then I'd also be like, man, am I going to remember this? Am I going to remember how I qualified at Richmond, the, the, the fall Richmond race, not even the spring Richmond race, uh, in five years? Like, no, like, I, I'm not even going to remember next year. So these aren't, these are things that also help you cope to move on. And then the, then the, then the third one, which is a bit more of an action is like, Well, if you don…

AI assessment note: “I think that everyone does have doubt, and so I do too.”

Q Um, how do, how do you do it? Yeah, what's the process?

A The way he teaches it, um, is you think about whatever it is that you want. Okay. Um, so in my example that manifested in two hours, I wanted to go to Egypt. So you put an E, put a little bubble around it on a piece of paper. On the other, on one side of it, you write A handful of reasons why. Adventure, mystery, learning, like all, whatever your reasons why. And then on the other side of it, you write another handful of elevated emotions that you will feel having accomplished it. So you'd be like, and you'd be, um, you know, joyful, uh, you'd be humbled, um, and you write these emotions down. So then the meditation happens, and then at the end of it, he's like, all right, you go to, go to, go to what is that you want, think about why, and then you go into the elevated emotions, and that is the part where you visualize. So I pictured myself looking at the pyramid, feeling this awe, overwhelmed, like, actually feeling it, because I'm looking at it now. I'm looking at it, and I'm actually there. I've made it, and it's spectacular, and I feel, like, elated and, like, like, humbled, and you get all the whole feeling. And it becomes visceral. Like, so some, when you do it, you might get cry, you might laugh, you might, heart rate starts going up, you might get warm, start sweating, whatever it is, but, but because you're actually in the experience, and you're having a feeling, you'r…

AI assessment note: “The way he teaches it, um, is you think about whatever it is”

Q And what I thought was interesting about this is that you even thought to, one, speak to them. So, like, what was going through your head at the time? Do you do that often? Was it like a one-off thing?

A Oh, yeah. Going at, like, mothering fans or yelling at fans or whatever, however you want to look at it, um, is for sure rare. Um, and, uh, yeah, I was like, I think I was at Pocono, and I was walking back from Pitt Road, and I might have been after qualifying or something like that. Generally always very busy. I mean, we're working, and so I'm walking back, and I think people think that if you're on TV or on a, your phone or, um, behind a railing somehow that you're not real, and you don't have feelings, but they said some smartass comment, and I was like, And I, like, rationally was like, alright, that is inappropriate, and, like, I just wanna go tell them, like, and I wanna go, I'm gonna go tell them how I feel about it, which was I walked over there, and I was like, look, that hurts my feelings. Like, you think I don't, oh, I didn't hear you? Like, I have feelings, too. I'm a person, like, you think that that doesn't hurt me at all? It does. It does. And, like, I feel like I did, like, a little mothering act on them, right? I kind of just.

AI assessment note: “Going at, like, mothering fans or yelling at fans... is for sure rare.”

Q in general, maybe in general, but you know, so that might be mine. Or, um, and that it, that it didn't mean anything that I lived, that like I didn't do enough while I was here, quote unquote. Um, do you have a death fear? Because it seems like embarrassment or, or public failure. You're like, no, fuck it. I just, this is just, you win some, you lose some.

A No, it was about failing. It was about, it was just about not succeeding. And that's why also like money has never been a goal too, because I know that money's a byproduct of succeeding. Like I don't have to have a goal of money. All I have to have to do, I have just to have to have the goal of succeeding. My goal is, well, first off, whenever I'm starting something, whether it was racing or any other company that I have, I start with a dream, which is actually why I named my wine Somnium, because it means dream in Latin. Um, and so there's, there's already like a built-in passion for it, and then from there, it's like, it's like a seed, and then it becomes something, so these passions turned into businesses. Really what I wanted to do was I wanted to I wanted to be successful. Like, I just want to be really good at it. Like, everything I do, I want to be good at. And even, like, my podcast, too. Like, I think to myself, I look at these other people, and I try and learn, and then maybe this isn't a good thing for me to do, because the competitiveness in me wants to go, like, how do I become really great?

AI assessment note: “No, it was about failing. It was about, it was just about not succeeding.”

Q in life, thankfully, most things are not a zero sum game. You know, if I grow my business, somebody else can grow it too, and nobody has to see me as I didn't win or I didn't lose. So when you were running these races and they were zero sum games, how, how do you mentally prepare for failing or not winning in front of hundreds of thousands of people?

A Yeah. You basically lost every weekend. I mean, like, the best of the best, like, I'm trying to think one of my very good friends, Kyle Larson, he might have won, like, 10 or 11 races one year, um, which is, like, a crazy amount of races out of, like, 40 or 39 or something like that there was, so the ratio is pretty good, but that's, like, insanely good, like, that doesn't happen that often. If you win five in a year, that's really good, so the rate of failure is super high, um, and I think that, uh, I think that's why athletes are really pushed in the mental category very hard, because there's a lot of losing. Um, and so I, I think that's also why so many don't make it. That's why skill isn't really enough in sports, and that you have to have more, because you lose a lot.

AI assessment note: “rate of failure is super high, um, and I think that... athletes are pushed”

Q What other advice have you gotten from your dad that's left a mark on you?

A The first one that comes to mind wasn't from my dad. I'm sure my dad's taught me many other things, but it was my, um, My first, like, real boss, Bobby Rahal, and I was young, and he said that he wanted to create, uh, a financial situation for himself that allowed him to have the same kind of lifestyle after racing as he did during. I guess that would be assuming that he spends his money while he's racing, and then when he's done, if he has none left, you know, um, save. So he told me to save, but he all, but, but, he said, don't spend all your money, but he started other businesses. So he, like, got really into car dealerships and different things. So, Um, so I always thought about that, about a, a general infrastructure for my life, not just like a racing situation, um, that would extend beyond my career and be something that I could lean into for other forms of revenue.

AI assessment note: “The first one that comes to mind wasn't from my dad.”