Your Big Moment Runs on Private Work | Drag Racing Lessons

This show is powered by Others Over Self. Hit that subscribe button to keep training your brain. You feel it before you hear it. The ground goes first. There's this shiver that climbs up through the soles of your shoes, and it settles right in the bottom of your rib cage. And then the sound hits. Your whole body flinches. Heaven forbid you've got your face down staring at your phone, because it feels like somebody slammed a door right inside your chest. By the time you open your eyes, the car is gone. Under 4 seconds and 1,000 feet later, all that's left is smoke, the smell, the delicious smell of burned rubber, something sharp and chemical that's making your eyes water, and a grandstand full of strangers yelling like they've known each other their entire lives. Then the number goes up on the board so fast. 3, 346.95. That's 346 miles an hour, the fastest run in the history of NHRA drag racing. And I was standing right there with my son. I am still on the high from an incredible event. From Others Over Self, it's Hardcore and at Ease, a show about people who are keeping their edge without going over the edge. I'm host Shelly Rood. You've poured months into something big and you're working in isolation. Nobody's cheering, and you wonder why you keep showing up. Monday, a record-breaking drag race shook my ribs. Your big moment runs on the work nobody's seeing, and you'll leave this episode ready to keep showing up before the applause. This is Hardcore and At Ease. My witnessing this glory almost didn't happen, so let me set it up for you. Sunday was my husband and my anniversary. We're celebrating 9 years of wedded bliss, however you want to define that. We drove out to the US-131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan for the Dodge National Hot Rod Association Great Lakes Nationals. This was huge for our state. NHRA hasn't held a national event in Michigan in over 66 years. And this track has been running open since 1962 without ever hosting a national event. We knew we were in for a treat. We did not expect to watch history be made. We woke up early, got the kids ready with their babysitter. It's about a 3-hour drive for us across the state, and it definitely was raining. We had been watching the flood warnings happen all night long, and the officials said on the website the gates were supposed to open at 8 AM, and then it got pushed to 11 AM, and then it got pushed to 1 PM, and then they eventually just called the day. Yeah, it was a little bit of a mess. And we made it onto the racetrack on Sunday. We were able to walk into the event, do a little bit of shopping, see our fellow race fans. But then we did end up just going to a nice dinner and heading back home on Sunday. Very disappointing. You know, you pay all that money, you got your ticket, you're there, you see the cars, and you just never get to hear that thunder in your chest that comes from the race. So very disappointed. My husband had to work on Monday. He is in paramedic school and couldn't get out of it. But my 16-year-old happened to have the day off of school, and it's his birthday this week, so got to treat him to a really special mother-son event. And we headed back out first thing Monday morning, another 3 hours on the road to make it out there. And this episode today really outlines what we witnessed together as mother and son. It's a beautiful, wonderful overcast day. The perfect temperature, not too cold, not too hot. Perfect to make sure that that rubber doesn't melt on the track, and it's also not too So let me take you to the pits, because racing is like half of what you're there to see. The pits and the paddock are so much fun. Every team that you see has a huge trailer where they work out of like a garage, and when you walk from one pit to the next, it feels like you're spinning a radio dial. The crews have their own individual cultures. You've got one crew that had smooth sailing R&B, A couple of tents down, you've got Motown playing. And if you go even one more over, you're gonna find some classic rock that you can tell, like, even the people that walk by are like, yeah! And you can just see each team's personality, the way that they move around the car. They're all very serious as they're working on these cars, tearing the engine down to the bolts, putting it back together in between rounds. Every crew had a rhythm, and the music showed you what their culture was. You can hear it here for yourself. And then you walk back toward the bleachers, and you can feel the air around you changing. You can smell the sulfur. To me, it smells like a beautiful morning at the range. You can feel the hot rubber, that nitro smell, right? It, like, gets into your nostrils, and it stings the inside of your nose. You're in the car hours later, and you can just still smell it on you. Different engines all around the facility are firing up and being shut down. And from time to time, you can't have a conversation with the people around you because that's kind of the whole point. You want to experience something other than people talking. And the crowd— Monday, a workday, those stands were packed. The drivers noticed it. The announcers noticed it. John Hall, who won the Pro Stock motorcycle, he said that seeing the stands full on a Monday was really cool. Heck yeah, Michigan showed up on Monday. Here's the part that most people will miss, and it's the part I really want to dig into today. The records set, they didn't start on Monday. Earlier this year, years ahead, long before the show ever came to town, this track put in major improvements to the places that nobody buys a ticket to see. The area of the track, the stretch where the cars slow down after the finish line, the pits where the crews work. Then all weekend long, they took care of that track, resurfacing it like it was a newborn baby. A beautifully resurfaced drag racing strip is a gorgeous, shiny black sight. And the teams noticed. On Friday, one of the veteran crew chiefs looked at the track and said it could handle a whole lot more power than anybody was giving it. So the teams started pushing, and by Monday, the foundation was already there, and the big moments started stacking on top of each other. At 2:54 that afternoon, Sean Langdon lined up his dragster against his own teammate, 12,000 horsepower, and he went 346.95 miles per hour, the fastest run in NHRA history, beating the record he had set himself back in May. About an hour and a half later, he came back in the final, went 346. 105 miles per hour and won the whole thing. That's the 2nd fastest run ever. So the 2 fastest runs this sport has ever seen happened on the same track in the same afternoon in Michigan. And I watched both of them. This is a Michigan story all the way down. Langdon's team is based here over in Ypsilanti, and his crew chief is a Grand Rapids guy. Here's what I love. Right after he made history, Langdon said, it just goes to show it takes everything. And then he gave the credit away. He thanked the track for taking so much pride in its facility. He thanked his crew. The fastest man in the history of the sport, and the first thing he did was point at the foundation. Now think about what that one run does for everything that comes after it. A track hosting its first big national event now gets to call itself the home of the fastest run in NHRA history. You can't buy a headline like that. And the dates for next year are already on the calendar. I do plan on attending. I hope that you'll join me. September 17th to 19th, 2027. A record like this turns that return to the same track From just being a hope— this was the inaugural event at that track, maybe they'll come next year— and it really became a promise that everybody wants to keep. One success made the next one easier. The track built the foundation, and the foundation gave the teams the confidence. The teams gave us history, and history gives the track its future. This same feeling played out all All day long on a smaller scale. Let's talk about a couple of the comebacks here. Jordan Vandergriff started Monday morning ranked dead last in his group of 16 cars. His car wouldn't get a clean run all weekend. In his first race, the tires went up in smoke right off the line, and his day should have been over. But then the other driver left too early and got disqualified. Vandergriff got a second chance. Listen to what his crew did next. They went back to the pit, they looked at everything, and found the one problem that had been haunting the car all weekend. They fixed this foundational issue, and once that was right, the wins started stacking all the way to the trophy. No one had won from last place in his class in more than 20 years. Then you have John Hall, who won on the motorcycles. He admitted that earlier the same weekend, he He was ready to quit racing. Can you imagine that? Earlier the same weekend as the national championships, he was ready to quit racing. His words, I was so down on myself, and that's what drag racing does to you. A couple of days later, and he is holding the trophy. All right, one more for you. Troy Coughlin Jr. had gone 41 races without a win. 41 times he showed up and went home empty-handed. Monday in Michigan, the wait ended. Think about these— this guy in last place, the guy ready to walk away, the guy who kept showing up with nothing to show for it. All 3 of them went home winners on a day after a rainout. Here's your champion, Corey Taylor. What you're listening to here is a video of me walking into the pit for Skag Racing. Skag runs a program called Simply the Brave. Their 4 huge race cars carry military tribute wraps, and they open up their pits so that veterans and active duty service members can sign the cars. So this video is my son holding the camera and following me as I'm walking into the Skag Racing pit By the workers that are tuning up the car. I get to go all the way around to the front of the actual vehicle that's racing, and I'm leaning over the hood right over the word Jackal. And on the huge S for Skag, I get to sign Captain Shelly Rood. Such a meaningful moment walking into Daniel Wilkerson's pit, leaning on the car that he's driving and placing that exclamation point after my own signature. You have to see this car. Every inch of it carries a name: Marines, sailors, soldiers. Semper Fi, as big as it can be. Someone signed in memory of a Marine who wasn't there to sign for himself. And in a very weird way, standing there with my hand on the hood of the car, it felt like roll call. Now that particular car won its first race of the day just. Barely, and I signed it after that. So when it rolled up for round 2, I was in the stands next to my son, and I felt like a gambler, like I had just put thousands of dollars on this car. I don't gamble. I don't recommend it, but I had that same feeling, like all of a sudden I had stake in the game because my name was on the hood of that car. And no, it didn't win that particular race, but it was so exciting to just feel that added layer of meaningfulness to the 4 seconds of track adrenaline. I also want to mention about Skag Racing that there is a Bible verse on the side of that car. Skag Racing also hosted the chapel on Sunday morning that was held. Between the Bible verse, the Sunday chapel service, and putting veterans' names on the cars themselves, Skag is making room for faith and for service. in the loudest place on earth. Thank you, Skag. You made one veteran and her son feel like part of the team. When you plan something big, you want to see the foundation going in strong and right first. A facility that fixes up the parts of the track while nobody is watching. A crew that stopped and found the one broken thing before they tried to max the limit. This behind-the-scenes work doesn't usually make it onto the highlight reel, but all of it makes those highlights possible. Once the foundation holds, greatness gets exponentially easier. Grab that with me. Once the foundation holds, greatness gets exponentially easier. One record gives a brand new event a new reputation, and that reputation brings the crowds back, and the crowds Bring the teams ready to come back and push even harder. That's what generating momentum looks like. Each win hands the next one a head start. These teams are living right at the edge. What keeps them from going over the edge is everything that's underneath them. The prep, the work between races, the crew chief who makes the call. Keeping your edge without going over the edge And nobody on that track sets a record alone. So here's your permission slip for this week. I want you to give yourself permission to spend time on the part of your big plan that no one will ever see. It's me putting sound effects into a podcast episode because I know it's going to put you right there at the track next to me. Give yourself permission to stop living out loud and fix the one thing that just keeps your tires going before you even try to go next level. Whether it's hitting the gym, eating clean, kissing your spouse in the morning, give yourself permission to go back to square one day after day, whether it rains or not, day after day. Give yourself permission to go back to your foundation, make sure that it's solid, get that healthy, good food in your body, get the sleep that you need, make sure that you're sweating out all the grossness from the days, whether it's at the gym Gym or pounding miles on the track. You've got to put these measures into your life before you even try to go out there and next level or hit some type of record or just push as hard as you feel like you can. The foundation has to be there. Give yourself permission to go back to the beginning so that you can launch forward because it's not a straight line. Life doesn't move in a straight line. You navigate life, you don't win it. And with every move, you're the one that's authoring your own life. You're the one holding the pen, telling the stories of your own experiences to yourself as they come. That is lived authority, and it's already yours. I so hope that you enjoyed this recap from my experience at the National Drag Racing Championship. This past week, the joy that I felt, the dopamine hit that I was able to receive, I didn't want to keep it to myself. I wanted to bring it out to you so that you could share in that with me. You made it to the end of another episode. I am so proud of you. I'm host Shelly Rood. Thank you for sharing your day with me. I will be back next Tuesday on schedule with another story of lived authority. Until then, Stay hardcore, be at ease, and trust the process. You're listening to Hardcore and at Ease. Keep the conversation going at join.othersoverself.com.