Brian Deegan, Ten-Time X Games Medalist and Motorsports Icon – UNLEASHED Podcast E322

One of the most versatile professional racers tells it like it is! Ten-time X Games medalist and motorsports icon Brian Deegan drops in for a special podcast episode with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney. In the exclusive live interview recorded during the Monster Energy SuperMotocross Championship Finals, Deegan shares his inside perspective with the podcast hosts.

Deegan’s success across multiple disciplines remains unparalleled in the world of motorsports. As a motocross racer, the Nebraskan claimed wins in A-list events, including the 1997 Supercross finals at the LA Memorial Coliseum. After successfully transitioning to freestyle motocross, the FMX legend pushed the boundaries of trick innovation and raked in ten X Games medals. Maintaining his passion for racing, he then became one of the world’s most competitive Off-Road Truck racers, earning accolades such as the Lucas Oil Pro 2 Unlimited and Pro Lite Unlimited Championship titles. No rider has done what Deegan did in motorsports, and here’s your chance to hear the full story – only on UNLEASHED!

Press the play button (and hit Like) on the new episode of UNLEASHED with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney.

Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more UNLEASHED episodes. Regular editions of the show are recorded live inside Studio M at Monster Energy headquarters in Corona, California, and published bi-weekly. Also, follow @monsterenergy for updates

Transcript

0:00

It's not easy, you know, being open on social media and our YouTube. I've thought about many times to it's like just calling it and going, you know what? I'm just going to focus on racing, but we're going to close the doors on that. And then then I've talked to so many people that are like, Man, we watch your videos, middle age, man, what you say and do is help me so much with my family or help me as a as a husband, as a as a dad. And then I'm like, Oh, man. So I think about that stuff. I'm like with a lot of the content that's out there today, the majority of it being not so great for for people. I'm like, We have a small voice in this small world of, you know, of our sport. And I feel like it's important that we keep that going and how well we are back. So that like messed everything up for me in my head. Guys, we are back and we are back with none other than one of mine and Danny's longtime friends, Brian Deegan. It's always crazy. Always forget that you're from Nebraska. Yeah. And every time you tell people that, it's not like they're like, Yeah, It's like, Oh, my God. It's kind of different, I guess. Whatever You got out of that pretty young, though. Yes. I escaped that early age. You did escape at an early age, right? And I realize dirt bikes took me like all over the United States. I got to see, you know, California and Florida realize there is more to life than the Midwest, for sure. We're at an iconic location here. They call us cinnamon, I would think. We'll start with your cell first before we move on to your kids. Yeah, but it's and congrats. You're a super dad. Oh, thanks. You're you're publicly a super dad. People follow you. People worship the way that you have built your kids. And not only that, that you've taken this like, marketing mentality that you built on your own. You did this from ground up. Since you're a kid, you built minimalist, you're into this gigantic brand. You were the most famous freestyle motocross rider in the world and invented tricks and with the bad boy and showed up and did all these things. And you've taken that into fatherhood and and and probably switched it up a little bit. You know, it's it's, it's I think you're probably a bit of a different person now than you were, say, 15, 20 years ago. But one thing I acknowledge and admire with you was what you've done in with social media and YouTube and you've opened essentially your family and you've opened the window to let people in. And people have really followed that journey along. Yeah, for sure. Now. Well, thank you. That's quite the intro there. So yeah, lots going on in my life. And like I was talking to Danny over here, I'm like, Man, I think 40 was like my mark of like when I was younger, I didn't think I was going to live to 40 just because the lifestyle, everything we did was, you know, so on the edge. And it's cool to kind of look back at it now. And like you're saying, being here at Iconic place here, that it had so many memories and it's it's been an awesome journey did coming from a small town in Nebraska and you know taking a chance and moving to California with no money and still sleeping on my buddy's floor and like going, all right, I ain't I ain't turning back. We're going to make it happen. And went out there and was able to race supercross, you know, as when I was able to go out and and come here that night as a privateer with the team ownership in and win this race and I didn't know what to do going to the finish so I just goes rode the bike over the finish and wow what a what a cool night and let's let's let's we're going to pull that up on screen right here actually. So we're going to pull them that up right now. And um, I mean, I think it's pretty amazing that, like, there's so much going on tonight. There it is. Here it is on screen right now. The famous Ghost Ride, the whip here in the colors. See him? I feel like this is what everyone has been talking about going into it. Yeah. As if Hayden doesn't have enough pressure. Oh, I know that he's been asked quite a few times. It it's like the 90% of the questions Are you going to go through? He's like, I got to win first. Yeah, like, that's the first thing we got to. And so there it is. Not supposed to do that right now. Yeah, but you knew you cleared the line before you did it because that would suck if you go through it and then you were like two feet from the line. They tried that. They actually won the dude, I won't mention his name, but he is one of the guys I beat. He tried to get me killed and said I wasn't on the bike when I crossed the finish and they looked in the rule book. They're all like, Well, there's no rule that says that the variety or they both crossed the finish line. Yeah. And so they made a new rules. From what I heard from that day. So that's cool. So you made you basically started that rule, so knew it had to be the new there's been a lot of rule change rule, a lot of rule changes that are real changes in my life version. So let's like that. Let's sink that in for a second and you can take back and look over the track there. What does that what does that mean to you now for that to happen and then for your son now to be here today? Um, and I think at the beginning of this year, we if his name probably wouldn't have been in this top three field. But your son literally is racing here today for half a million dollars. Yeah, he is. And he earned that right. Then the day you could think it's, you know, a name. And there's history in this legacy of racing and really he's the one that's up 6 a.m. every day with his running shoes on, running miles, cycling hundreds of miles a week and, you know, doing motos every day. And he's, you know, at the gym, he's super focused, goes to bed early, eats, Right. I mean, that's pretty heavy for a 17 year old kid. Well, that's it, right? And it's like we had Philip Moto on here before for four time champion and it's that and help us out here but there's probably a reason why these guys get to 2627 and retire because they've devoted their whole life has been to eating right. If you want to win, you got to do what Hayden is doing right now. You're not. I would say I agree with that. I think I'd love to see it change a little bit. So the riders still love dirt bikes when they retire? You know, I feel like it's such a grind right now that guys are getting to that burnout point later in their life. And I and I think Roxanne's done a good job of changing that up a little bit. I think the Lawrences have done a really good job of changing that and making it more fun. I think. I think there's a new feature that I'd like to see. Were riders actually like having fun through their career at times? And it's not such a just head down grind and this is my job. I don't want them to love dirt bikes. Yeah, I love dirt bikes. Yeah. I want them to enjoy that. Yeah. I don't want them to retire one day and not ride a dirt bike. That's the whole reason we started doing this. Yeah, because, you know, it's a lot different than there are NASCAR drivers that are in their forties. Yeah, and that's a professional sport. And, and. But it's. It's. It's crazy. This is a lot more grueling on your body physical. It's very, very physical. Very dangerous. It may be the most physical sport in the world. I think it probably is one of them. You know you got UFC that is is it is maybe a but it's a different physical thing. It's it's different injuries but they don't last long in UFC, right? No, they're pretty young. Yeah. So and if you break a bone in the UFC, it's like a major ordeal, right? Like, Oh, whoa. And here it's like, Oh, I broke bone. We'll be like, Yeah, that competition. Like if, you know, someone has an injury, a prior injury, that's where they attack. Like, that's like, just like a way to win. Like if, you know, they have a bad shoulder, go after it. Yeah, but it's got to be really similar to like in motocross and just riding right where you're not always healthy even though you are at like the peak of your career. Yeah, you're kind of nursing an injury or something here or there. That's the goal too, is to which I've been trying to figure this out now because it's my kids, it's important to me is how do you get through your career, you know, the least amount of injuries. And if that means that night you give up that, you know, maybe it's a position or a certain thing that you're not comfortable with to go to the next race. And that's probably what you need to do. Like it's a long career. The goal is to make it through with the least amount of injuries in your body. You want to have, you know, a body at the end of this career that you can live with. And so, yeah, it's a gnarly sport. And the one thing I hate about it is the danger of it. It's just dangerous, you know? And it's because you're riding on the edge the whole time. Well, you don't see that during the week. They're riding on the edge when they practice. So it's literally every time they're on a dirt bike, it's they're on an on the clock, lap time, lap time, life time. It's it's high level D, It's a lot more high level. When I did it, like, I had fun doing it when I raced. But I you know, I push myself. I didn't have a trainer, I didn't have all that. But it was different levels, you know, what about I'm going to pop another video up here. This is you doing the I believe the famous 360 should come up here. Look at that. Look at those crowds that was back here. Yes, that was here in the Colosseum. Yes. X Games, man. So you're ten times X games. Gold, ten X games, Medals of your career. Here it is. Yeah. It was a big moment there that night. I had never done that trick ever until that ever. Yeah, well, I did it in a phone. Did. Sorry, I did It never did it on dirt. So the big difference is the consequences are much higher, right? So that night I was like I needed something and Travis was going to win. And I was like, I got to do something. And I was like, The crowd's here. The energy, the ambulances are there, the TVs, the TV is rolling. So if I crash, it's like it's going to be a cool reel. I'm going for it. And somehow I pulled it off and it turned out to be a really big moment, you know, in this moments coming up right here again, in case you missed it. And then I'm going to ask the question, wow, I can't believe that's right here. Yeah, I could literally like right down the steps. We've a pull on that from Bloodline, the documentary about yourself. We're going to play that trailer later on and put a link to that. So Paul was telling us earlier that that on the lead up to that and you mentioned Travis was trying to Travis was trying to was going to win and then he was lost to go. He didn't know you had that trick in the bag. Did he know? And yeah, yeah, we heard there was like you definitely kept it under wraps where he'd kind of been promoting it is like coming. Yeah, he, he was doing it in the phone pit also. Yeah. You know, and that's where a lot of controversy came out of that of everyone saying, Oh, it was Travis's track. He did it first. I said, Yeah, I get it. But if you're an athlete, you know, it's whoever lands it first, like really claims it, right? Anyone can try it in a foam pit and it really comes down to who landed and he had a chance to do it in the rain. I don't think he was going to do it. I think he was just it was one of his tricks he had. He just didn't need to is going to win. And then I was like, nah, I got to do something to step this game up. Yeah, and I did. And then he was like, Oh, then he had to do it. So which is good. That's the game. You got to push in. That's the game. Oh, I was there, unfortunately when you did the 360 on snow. Mm. That did not work out so I didn't know that was, I had to now dirt bikes and snow. I said it was a sketchy mix. It never worked. Right. And it had those big studs. It looked cool but you guys, it was very unsafe. Very. Yeah. It was already, Yeah. It was very unsafe. So that night I went to do a 360. It was right after the hype of, you know, just doing it, you know, everyone expected it and it just wasn't the right lip. It was an ice lip. It wasn't shaved correctly. And I kind of know why. I just felt like I got to do I got at least try and I went off the lip and wasn't even close. And I went like 100 foot gap to ice to flats. I missed the landing and went way past it landed on. I shattered my hip, my arms, both arms, my hip. And that was a that was a tough moment for sure. You know, though, how is your body holding up now? We know you're in near forties now and get broken and we go back to that and more so the racing freestyle motocross. I feel like you guys it's your job is to break bones. Yeah, unfortunately and fortunately the highlight reels is that unfortunately. But I feel good. You know, I've gotten more into training and trying to stay healthy because it's because the kids, you know, my kids are, you know, athletes and I'm trying to like I like going jogging with them. Yeah. You know, spend that time at the gym with them. And as long as I'm active, I'm good. Yeah. No, if I take weeks off and don't do anything, yeah, my body hurts. Right? So the motto is there guys, is stay active. But me and Danny with you over the years with metal militia and grenade and we had very similar companies and it was a really it was a really different it was a different time back then in the early to mid 2000. Yeah. You don't really see too many brands like that anymore. And we lived kind of that moment and it was even cool that we were able to have your logo and our logo together for so long. And it's, I have my, my question is to kind of bug you guys here. Is there a reason why we don't see that as much now, you know, in our world, was that a moment in time to where, you know, guys creating the image and our own brand or is it is it got to commercial in our kids to focus because we kind of came as a bit of a looser background. Yeah has but yeah I mean I think for sure like you know the early 2000s was when you know obviously like I think our sports were kind of exploding and snowboarding, skateboarding was kind of skyrocketing, you know, alongside Moto. And it really gave this really cool time for riders and people involved to just kind of like own their part of the industry, you know? And for us, it was a big thing with grenade to be like, you know, like we're going to make stuff we want to make and we're not just going to like listen and take paychecks from some of these giant brands or do whatever. And owning that freedom was just so cool because we got to build so much through it for us. Like, you know, all these teen videos where we got to elevate ten, 15 other riders that were like all our friends and homies who may have not got this kind of factory ride. And yeah, and I mean, same kind of similar for you, right, with the whole compound and everything you guys put together. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, you guys are snow and that's, you know, we were dirt so and it was kind of cool they X-Games that bring that together. Yeah. And, and we all kind of had the same mentality and it was going back to that was a point where you we had it was X-Games so everyone, every company was trying to put their logo on you and pay you some money to promote their company. And then I started thinking, I'm like, Why are we making their brands cool? Like, why are they putting their why don't you know, why are they being asked to do this? Why are we not making our own brands cool? And I think that's where, you know, I saw what Daniel's doing, The Grenade and us with Malaysia. And we like we started swapping logos and in sharing and collab and that's probably why some of the most OG collab stuff you guys remember when we all first met, it was at a competitor's house back in the day and it was in Aspen, X-Games, and we all stayed in the same house together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So an after party or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you had the motorbike up in the living room. Yeah. Yeah. That day at Aspen. Yeah. But it was, it was X-Games kind of bring in summer and winter together and, and we all, you know, became, you know, like we're here today with like lifelong, lifelong memories and I think that what you're saying is those, those companies coming together, athletes, you know, athletes supporting each other was a big thing at X Games that wasn't in moto. Athletes don't support each other in Moto as much like in Moto. Everyone's after each other. It's a real competitive thing. It's really something I don't like about the sport is these riders end up becoming enemies as a race because they're so competitive. They become friends afterwards when they retire in this. But I like the X Games, how everyone was cheering each other on. That was cool. And you're always and you want to beat the guy overall, but still you don't want to see him crash and get hurt like you're everyone's cheering each other on when you're up on the ramp. And to me, that is something I wish X-Games could bring more into supercross. Yeah, but of course, you know, we're going to stick on the X Games kind of topic there, but more of a modern. You kind of brought Jacko Jackson Strong kind of into this world per se. It was here, I think, at X Games. I think he may have still been a teenager. Yeah, I don't know. He was a mechanic of some sort. He really looked up to you and it's really cool to see now, you know, he's kind of the forefront. He's kind of one of the leaders, one of the guys like trailblazing, and he really does kind of a test or attribute kind of a lot of his success to you, which is really which is really cool to see. And and I just kind of wanted to how did that relationship with you guys kind of start? Yeah, Jackson was young. We met on the Crusty tour when we were going to Australia and go on these tours where we do freestyle shows in front of you sold out stadiums all around Australia. It was like, like rock star tour deal in Jackson came on the tour as a local boy, local farm kid like he and he was right 12 or 13 And imagine like being like the farm kid at 13 getting thrown into to the crew with us on the legitimate farm. Kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Imagine. Did you guys change his life? Changes like. I don't know. There's always for the better, but at the end of the day, you even help mold that kid. Oh, yeah. And he is one of the most like, like, honorable, honest kids, like, hard working. Yup. You know, he never did it for the money. It was always just he love riding and he loved that aspect of trying to one up each other, which was part of the game. Yep. And, and he's still in the game today. Yeah, he's is. Oh he's still, you know he's, he's still leading the way. You know, I, I, we can have this conversation about I was a little upset to the X games. Yeah. You know X games this year was a gold medal by a trick that had been done like 15 years ago. Really. So I don't. I don't understand that he went around the bike. Yeah, it was cool. I'm not saying it wasn't cool. It was just hard to. Jacko did like a no hand, a front flip, which was just gnarly. Yeah. Which is, it's all those are hard to judge, man. They're such two different tricks. It really is. Right, Right. And I. David. David won. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, what he did was pretty good. Maybe I missed it the first time, because when I saw it, I was like, Dude, that was gnarly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was intense. But yeah. How do you judge two tricks that are completely different, but yet both the same level of sketch? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they both almost should have got gold medals, even though I know that doesn't really happen, but. Right. Yeah. No, it doesn't happen like that. You have a documentary about yourself, so the bloodline documentary right here is out. Um, it's on YouTube. It's on Monster Energy dot com. It's. It's also about your life and some of the stuff we've been talking here. There is your classic kind of militia days as the crash where you snapped your femur. This documentary has got a lot of views and a lot of play like how was it to how was it to do a documentary about yourself and your career? Yeah, I think it was important to me to tell the story. I feel like a lot of people don't totally understand the whole story of coming from Nebraska. Small town kid, not, not, you know, having come in from much in going to a supercross. And it was almost like a movie story, right? This kid from a small town and I was able to make it through relationships and, you know, working hard and and I wanted to tell that story in it. And I went through a rough time in my life. You know, my parents divorced at a young age, and I think I carried that for a long time. Yeah, I was angry, dude, for many years. And I live that through the militia days. And and I we were rebels and I lived that for for a while. But it was, it was tough, dude. Like that mentality keeping on to that for that long, you know. And then once I you know, I had Haley or we had Haley and that kind of was a life changer there, you know? And it took me a while to change, you know? Yeah, it took a while for me to go, okay, I'm a father as my daughter. Like, I have to try to be an example where it was a complete change. Yeah. No. And it was cool, though, because that allowed me to do that. So the documentary kind of went through that, through, you know, helping Haley become a racer in NASCAR to Hayden's career in motocross. And then Hudson, you know, my youngest coming along, too. So. So what's going on with Hudson? Is he he's. He's on the bike. Yeah. Hudson likes to ride. He rides for fun more. He's more the kid that just likes to do everything. Yeah, he is Scooters, skateboards. He's got a scooter, and I've seen him house before, and he rips. He rips? Yeah, he just does that. He's is that kid that can kind of jump on anything and do it. But he loves fishing. I know. It's just. And he loves to cook, which is very weird. Like I. He's an old soul. Yeah. He's a total good, super good. Like this morning he made us all breakfast. Really? Yeah. He just loves it. And, I mean, he's really good at fishing. Takes it super serious. Yeah, it's hard. It's really. He read good science to fishing. He catches big every time I go big bass and I'm here, I won't catch anything. I'm like, from using the same bait. And every day, the same boat. Same bait. Yeah. Yeah. I saw recently you guys were fishing off the back of your seat or something. Yeah. Yeah, that's his idea, right? Yeah. Um, Haley, can we talk? How did the cast off come about? Like, you've got this girl. That's Brian Higgins, Her father live, having grown up in Temecula, surrounded by dirt, literally grew up on a dirt ranch where there's every kind of dirt thing you do. How did she end up in the car? That was, you know, from a career of dirt bikes for so long that I had a lot of injuries, you know, a few near-death experiences on dirt bikes toward the end of my career. And I got into car racing. So I got into rally car because of X Games. And then I got into offroad truck racing, which pretty much had another separate career in another career, took it super serious and winning, you know, X-Games gold here in Rallycross. Yep. And then I ended up winning a bunch of truck championships and I loved it because it was like Moto, But you're in a roll cage, you know, at some age you got to kind of graduate. I feel safer in a cage. Yeah. And then they had a kids race kids class at the pro races on the weekend. And so I put Hailie wanted to do it. I said, no, Mom was like in a car. And I'm like, No, she doesn't. She's not a racer. She's arts archer Crafts. She's really like kind of passive quiet. And I was against it. And then mom kept pushing it and she's like, Do you get you got to get in her car? So I finally did got her car and she just started cruise. And all of a sudden she started going out and started to start winning. So winning every race, I'm like, Yeah, she's got something for this. And then we kept going into NASCAR was the next step for I felt for female racing. NASCAR was the pinnacle to have the best career. Yeah, so we went that way. Even though I don't know much about NASCAR, we went there and was able to have her get a ride with Toyota then now with Ford. So yeah. And she's in the game now. Yeah. No it's, it's been cool to, to, to see that. And I remember I remember you guys showing up. I remember you kind of showing up to those races and be like, yeah, we're here we go, Yeah. Oh, you know what I liked about Hailie, though? But before we get off of her when she was on the show, she's not only great at what she does, but she's also being so inventive on how to make NASCAR and not bigger and better. Like she just had ideas and there's like a creativity aspect to her, which I thought that was really interesting, that she wasn't just settling in on being a good athlete. She was like, This is how we can make this better. Like, this is how we can elevate my sport, this whole thing. So I thought she was incredible. That's cool. I think NASCAR is old school, right? If you think of NASCAR, you think of like Earnhardt, you think of like just old school, that vibe. But things have to change over time to progress, you know? And I feel like her coming in as a young female pretty had good social media presence, bright in her YouTube aspect. And I think she's helped the sport quite a bit. Yeah, and I think the other drivers are kind of seen that and that that sport is changing now. It's just changing quite a bit. But the drivers now, it's becoming important to have social media presence obviously for all athletes. So I think she's in a good position, but she's still young, you know, for that sport. The guys racing in their forties and fifties, it's crazy. No, she's got plenty of time. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Time to figure it out. And, and, and literally you go through those highs and lows of figuring it out. Yeah, but it's one of those, it's one of those sports or industries that you get in it, you're in it for a long time hearing it. Yeah. Kurt for example. Yeah. Yeah. He just retired and he's 42. Yeah. Yeah. I think she's still, at the end of the day, the fastest girl in NASCAR. Yeah, right. So and I know you want to win as a racer, you want to be a racer and win, but she's still the fastest growing NASCAR. She has a lot to learn. I think. I think under the right guidance, it's in the right team and coaches. I think she I've seen her race. I know she's fast. Yeah, I know. She could do it. It's just it's hard for me because I'm always here with Hayden at the motocross races. Yeah. He's just young and needs, you know, I need that playing time, right? Yeah. And I saw you for many, many years. You have literally had to go backwards and forwards, but in the beginning, there you were with Haley every step of the way. And I think you got her to the point to where she is, her own human, and doing your own thing and under control. And then along comes Hayden. And I don't think correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you guys expected the success to happen with Hayden like it did in the last two years, especially this year. No, he started pro his pro career a little early, you know, And I think we were worried of throwing him to the to the wolves. You know, we're like, oh, man, this is the young you see, you only get one shot at this. We kind of worry to put them in their early and then he gets chewed up, spit out. So that was a really tough decision. But he got to the point where he was winning all the amateur races and it was nothing really left for him competition wise. And we're like, we're kind of holding them back now. So we ended up throwing them in to the last few outdoors, which didn't go great at all. He like crashed and it was like, Oh no, yeah. And then he was like, No, I got this, I can do it. And so he trained all, you know, trained all winter and then came back for supercross and they lined him up in I mean, his first race wasn't great amateur wise. It was the futures. He went out and was supposed to win. He had a lot of pressure and he just crashed, crash, crash. And we're like, Oh, no. And then he's like, No, I got it. And they're like, You're not racing pro. Next weekend, they literally called it. They said, You're not racing, dude, because he was too squirrely because he's sick. Early the first race and they called it. I'm like, Oh man, he did all this work. He's like, No, I got it. Let me race. And he's like, I can do it because the pressure is on me. More to win amateur than it is to win pro because I'm not expected to win pro. Yup. And so he lined up for Houston is for a supercross pro supercross end up getting fourth which was awesome. And then he just kept snowballing up second in the points like literally battling for the champion battling badly so so I think that level was there, it was so high and he just kept going towards it. Yep. And I think that's still there as we see today. Right. And we didn't expect that like and now I look back at it, you know how we prep done since he was a little kid. So we, we had a supercross track in our front yard. Since he was little, he would ride laps on a supercross track before he went to school. He'd go to school like 7 a.m.. So at like six, 630 he was doing laps on the supercross track. This is how like Anthony was about it. And then so anyway, anyway, my preparation, our preparation to get him here, I think I underestimated it. You know, I thought I was going to be around a 10th place guy right off the bat, and I underestimated our prep, you know, from the mental physical to everything we did for him to be ready. Yeah. And he came in and once he started feeding him those challenges, he just kept rising. And I think we'd not even seen anything close to his limits, you know? And then the mix between the indoors and the outdoors, like, he seems to just kind of figure it out. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then today, like, obviously there's no whoops, but people are going to be moving today and obviously it's Hunter and Joe and him that are all kind of in the running. What, what for you or for him. Like what the advice on this one is? Just get out in front, right? Yeah. You got to get a good start here because you know what? So there's not a lot of separation. And I think they they build the track like that on purpose. So that racing is going to be really tight. But it's good because the woods for him, he's still learning. So that was a point where he's not that isn't his forte yet, which is So it's good for us and I mean works here. That's like a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. So I think if he can get a start, he'll, I think he can get it done. If he gets a start. Trust me, he, he's a gamer. Like he'll do what it takes and it, but if you told me that again this season he's going to be battling beating Shimamoto in in you know Lawrence and or at least you know in the fight I'd be I'd be like shaking my head, you know. But now I'm like yeah he it's the real deal. He's 17, 17, 17 and he's racing for half a million dollars today. Yeah, that's been a wild ride. Yeah. Yeah. And he's yeah. To him he's like I said, I'm probably more nervous than he is, you know, like I, I bet. I mean, that's like, what is it like, actually, like, cause I'm sure you, you know, with your wife and when you were doing freestyle, like, you made people stressed out or made them worry, and now you're in that position watching, you know, your kids like literally right at the top level of whatever they're doing. Yeah. What's that feel like for you now? It's it's tough And I try not to let it get to me. Too bad because I'm like, Man, this is a cool moment and I got to take it all in, take it, look at it. But I bet you could tell that they're like, Dad, you're stressing me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're stressing me out. I start pacing and I'm, like, bouncing all around and I'm like, the the dad that wants to, like, you know, critique everything and. And. But, yeah, it's hard, you know? I think my mom gets excited, but like, and I know for me, I love these moments, you know, and there's been so many good moments and we, we we love the excitement of it. We love the energy. Yeah. I feel like for me, when I'm screaming and yelling and we're cheering and it's that's real, dude. Yeah, You know, And if that offends people. Oh, well, like, I, if I'm over, if I'm too animated. Oh, well, like, you know, in the day I love it and, and I freaking it's a moment that I'm enjoying and I just, I don't care, dude. I think it's cool. I think, I think you guys, I think the diggings are pretty black and white. Either love them or you hate them. Yeah, pretty much. And there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Yeah. That's life. I think that's everyone on social media nowadays. You know, if. Hey, if you got haters, it means you went. You're right. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how you'd ever please anyone nowadays. Everyone. Now, how did you know Or for you I remember we had conversations kind of back in the day and it was like, do we do TV show or do we just kind of put it all on YouTube and you decide to go to the YouTube route? Yeah, which was the smartest decision. Yeah, I think we were early in the game. Yeah. No, now I see YouTube. A lot of people are trying to do it, which is good. It helps the sport, but I feel like we we started when Hayden was ten years old and we started telling our story and our stories just are just racing like we're just a family that's races. Haley was getting into NASCAR, you know, Now Hayden In the motocross, I still competed in car racing and that was part of the story. And I just that's cool story. We'll tell it and I want to tell it our way, you know, And that that was the main thing for me to do a reality show, which we've had some offers to do them. And I thought, man, and they just would never give me a final cut like, you know, Yeah. And I'm like, if I can't have the voice on the final cut of what we look like to the public, then it's not worth it. And myself, we're already happy where we're at. We're, we're content, right? Like, I don't need the show to be on this next level, like, if we're good where we're at. So I don't want to ever have something make us look bad out of context. And I don't want control of you know, I want control of what we what we put out there on social. And that's kind of why we do our own YouTube. And it's grown. We have multiple filmmakers and editors now, and it's, you know, people that travel with us and it's it's a full time job and people don't understand, but it's I mean, you know, you've done it is it's like gnarly to have cameras all the time. And it's definitely weird. Like, we'd always I remember going into, like filming a series where, like a week or two before you'd start filming, you'd be like, Oh, man, like, this is the last of my freedom. Yeah. And then it's like 18 hours a day of whatever happens happens. Yeah, But I think it's so cool that, like, you know, you kind of learned a lot from big making, you know, militia videos and all these videos to then like doing it your own on YouTube where like, you do have total control and you're not listening to some lame. Exactly. It's like TV being like, you need more commercials or something. Yeah, this isn't commercial land, so we need drama. But like, how did you like getting comfortable being yourselves in front of the camera with your kids? Like disciplining your children? Like how? Watching yourself do it like, did it do you think it's helped your parenting? Do you think it's helped your coaching? Like what? Just letting your life be exposed but have it organically, I think is such a struggle, especially with reality TV. If you don't have a director like how is that transition of just like life versus watching yourself? It's hard to because you raise kids and the hardest thing you'll ever do is to to have build a discipline and have not, say, control, but respect with your kids. And, you know, you start build them up with his name and fame. And a lot of times it works against you, you know, because they start thinking, all right, Because the problem is they get other people start coming into their world going, oh, you know, you know what you could do? You know, you could do like, you know, and they start influencing and and I'm like, you guys realize the most you got a helicopter. It's a police helicopter. There you go. I've been looking for you. Hide out. So, yeah, they. But but anyway, it's about keeping your circle tight, right? And the kids understand that. Yeah. And we set goals. We're like, okay, here's where we're headed. Like, you know, Haley has her goals and we all have our goals and we're shooting towards that. And so it's keeping the kids busy. Yeah, you know, and I think as long as they're active and busy, we're good. Yeah. You know, and then you let other people raise your kids, you're going to have the best the best results, you know, And but it's it's not easy, you know, us being open on social media and our YouTube I've thought about many times to it's like just calling it and going, you know what, I'm just going to focus on racing, but we're going to close the doors on that. And then then I've talked to so many people that are like, Man, we watch your videos, middle age, man, what you say and do is help me so much with my family or help me as a as a husband, as a as a dad. And then I'm like, Oh, man, I think about that stuff. I'm like with a lot of the content that's out there today, the majority of it being not so great for for people. I'm like, We have a small voice in this small world of, you know, of our sport in I feel like it's important that we keep that going and that's kind of my feel on it. Who knows, though? You never know. Important to even acknowledge like, Hey, there are times where I don't want to do this. I do want to quit. And so it's like, you don't look like this ideal family setting. It's like sometimes it's hard for everyone. And I think even just saying that for anyone watching knows that it's not everything that, you know, the camera's portraying. It's a lot more. And I tell people that they're like, Oh, you have such a great relationship with your kids or you're your, you know, your wife. I said, we only show guess things like I got the bell on. The gnarled added, I'm moody, I'm a guy, right? Like I have my moments around like moments ago, right? I mean, so obviously we know, like, you know, with the show and everything where your kids are like, you're been a great mentor and pushing them, but like maybe a little bit more about like how you got here to where you won this race, like who kind of played a part, like kind of like leading you. And we want to go from on a race. So you won the championship? No, no, no. The ghost boy, he did win the race. Yeah. Yeah. So great. So you've won two gold medals here in two different disciplines. Oh, I won three. Now I won supercross here, and then I did one best trick here and a gold medal and best chance. So you've won two different disciplines in here. Yeah. Wow. And today could be a third. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. I guess being that not well family. Yeah. And we do have the game at our house and whoever wins that we get to put their trophy on on like the dinner table, you know, and Yeah. And it's, and it started when we were like years ago and it was young. Sometimes it'd be my trophy, sometimes it was Hayley, sometimes it was like. And we just do that game, right? So I think yeah, Hayden's got some big, you know, big moments coming up, but I try to keep it fun, you know, and I get it. It's, it's a big deal to come and win this race, but we try to keep it him. He's young, you know. So hopefully he just enjoys the moment. Enjoy the moment. I mean, this is a super special day and it's for you. You enjoy the moment. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying. And it's race day, so I'm getting nervous. But yeah. Brian Deegan, we appreciate you here. Good luck today. Good luck for Hayden. And just, I think enjoy the moment. Fingers crossed we get to see the ghost, the Ghost Ride and the 500 K come back to the Deegan. Thank you, guys. All right, guys, Thanks.