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Hey everybody, it's Dale Earnhardt Jr. I'm here with Sonny Styles. We're going to go for a few laps around Atlanta Motor Speedway. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to talk a little football, maybe a little racing. Let's get to it. Worried about hitting the wall? No. As long as you hold the wheel straight. Yo, how do you even open this door? Yeah, how do you open a door, man? It's a brand new Corvette. You figured it out. Just to let you know, uh I grew up a massive Commanders fan. I heard. So, um my first game that I remember watching was probably the '82 Super Bowl. You know, there's a ton of excitement and hype around you, and you
almost I guess you kind of got up the morning of the draft and predicted that you were going to go to the Commanders. Commanders, my own prediction. Washington Commanders select Sonny Styles. Yeah. What gave you that feeling? I don't know, man. When I visited in person and I was in the facility around Coach Quinn, our GM uh AP, and just like the whole team, like a whole staff, like it just it felt right. So, like going in the draft, I don't know, I just had a feeling. Felt like that's where home was going to be. Ended up working out the way it was supposed to. Who was the first Commander to text you when you were drafted?
I think I feel like Tunsil might have texted me. What did Jamin tell you about joining the team? Man, Jamin's so cool. It was really there's no like big speech he gave me. Like he's just excited to get to work. It's kind of like the whole locker room, like everyone in there. Like we have a bunch of good dudes. It kind of reminds me of Ohio State, honestly, like a bunch of good people in the building. So, this one's got some of the steepest banking in this in the series. I like running this lap right here. I get my car up against the wall, and it gives me a little bit extra downforce. Squeezing air in between the wall and the car
makes that air pack real tight, and it gives my car a lot of grip, extra grip. You don't need to worry about hitting the wall? No, no. As long as you hold the wheel straight, you should be all right. You're in the process of really kind of going through your first off-season training, all your mini camps and everything. How has the experience been different than I guess what you went through in college when you were trying to get up to speed there years ago. Yeah, honestly it doesn't feel like much different right now.
Really? Like playbook-wise, like football is football. Like defense, you can only run so many different types of defenses. They're just going to be called a little different things. Yep. So that's really the only difference right now is the terminology. Language. Yeah, the language is a little different. But it's like it's not like I haven't seen cover four before. I haven't seen cover three. It's just Why do they have such different languages across different teams?
No, I think it's just like there's like these different systems. Like my coordinator, Matt Patricia, was under like he was with Belichick. So like Belichick probably came from somebody. Then you got like people who were like coach Saban. Coach Saban calls certain type of stuff. And like all these coaches stem from different like coaching trees. It's the same with offense. So the language it starts to travel. Then as like you keep like upgrading and changing, like the language changes a little bit. But like a lot of the basics stay the same. But you can run cover three, cover four. There's only so many coverages you can run. There's just different ways you call them and like small little different intricate details.
What is your favorite assignment to have during any play? Listen, I like to be mugged up and you know the running back's blocking you. Oh, really? Yeah. And you kind of have an idea that's happening or you're you're lining up in the A gap. You'll see where they're sliding. You see the running back staring at you and you're like, all right, you know you got it's it's time. I don't A lot of running backs don't really like to block. Yeah. So it's it's a fun time for a linebacker to get to tee off on the running back.
Is there a quarterback that you're looking forward to going up against? Are there Is there even that Is it even like that for you in your position? Or is it a Is it blocking that running back? Is there a running back you can't wait to go up against in a blocking situation? Or is it a lineman that you admire? What is the position and maybe even the player that you're excited about sort of seeing on the other side of the line of scrimmage this year? I mean I'm I'm just excited to play like a bunch of greats. Yeah. Get to test myself. Like you get to see guys like Lamar Jackson. You can see Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley.
I remember when I went out on pit road to go practice in one of the first races I ran and I saw some of the guys my dad raced against. My dad raced for years and I watched all these guys growing up racing and I'm sitting on pit road with them getting ready to go out and practice and share the racetrack with them and it made me feel I couldn't believe it. It was surreal like I this moment had finally come, you know, game one. Yeah, game one we got Philly so you get to see Saquon, Jalen Hurts. Like especially for me like I just seeing Saquon at Penn State when I was younger, seeing him when he got to the league with the Giants. Like that's that's pretty cool but I think once you
hit the grass it's like now it's just ball. Really? Like you don't really care who he is once you hit the grass. You played basketball in high school and obviously really talented. Do you get yourself in some pick up games every now and then I'm sure? Not anymore. You get in trouble. Yeah, I was wondering man cuz in NASCAR contracts they have like stipulations we can't do any crazy stuff like jumping out of airplanes or doing dumb stuff like that. Yeah, I played like pick up one time my freshman year. I've seen dudes like roll their ankles and I was like oh yeah I'm I'm out of here.
Yeah, you can't take that risk. Well, that's pretty smart. I know you're wearing number 52 this year. I haven't heard the story so is there any reasoning behind the number? I like zero. I like I wanted to wear zero kind of represent Ohio State and carry that with me but Mike you sent your wear zero. I was kind of thinking about like all the great linebackers I liked when I was growing up and like two of my favorite were Ray Lewis and Patrick Willis. They both wore 52. I can appreciate that and in racing in NASCAR for example numbers have legacies. Multiple drivers have ran the same number, right? And they build their own chapter or add
their own add their own chapter to this legacy. I ran the number 88 and Darrell Waltrip and Dale Jarrett and all these other greats had a of success with it and it so it's kind of fun to take on that responsibility, if you will. Yeah. A little bit of pressure, a little bit of accountability. Yeah, exactly. And you're wanting to like just continue to raise the bar for that number and the legacy for that number. Do you remember a play, let's say in your college career, like, man, that's my favorite play. I got to That play right there, I felt like I just did everything perfectly or it was a big moment that stopped, you know, stopped the offense in a critical time.
Probably Ship Shack versus Texas. I had It was a good play. I just felt like It was something like I had been working on for a few weeks and then came to the game and I just hit that hit the move naturally. Yep. Um but like my favorite play is when uh Jack Sawyer he recovered the fumble and I was like about like 20 yards behind him. I had like chase and like get in front of this dude and keep him tackling him. It was just such an iconic play. Even though I didn't make the play, I just being a part of it was like going to be one of the best plays in Ohio State history.
Talk about Dan Quinn a little bit the first of the interview and there was a lot of excitement about him coming to the team and you hear Micah and those guys talk about what kind of, you know, relationship they have with him and what kind of coach he is and um he just seems to be a type of coach that players gravitate toward. You've been around him a little bit. Um he gave you his phone number before the draft, the only coach I think to do that. What kind of relationship have you guys developed and what kind of coach is he? Yeah, Coach Quinn's awesome. It's like you said, the kind of guy that players gravitate towards. Um and I feel like just the way he's able to just have like conversations all the time, like just
he makes you feel comfortable. You know what I mean? Sometimes like when you're a head coach, like guys get nervous when you come around and stuff like that. Um but with him, like he's just I don't know, he's just so cool. He's so cool. I remember having a conversation with him and like in OTAs and we were just talking about like dropping any type of like expectations or like any type of like stress or anything and just play. We're not going to hit you with a bunch of expectations or tell you this and that. Like we just want you to play and keep doing what you've been doing your whole college career.
Um so I mean he just he makes it easy to play for him. He's a guy you want to go out there and give it your all for. What's your favorite memory like racing? I won here in '04. It was a long time ago. I had won here many years ago, but this is a really fun track. My dad won nine races here. He was a badass. He won a bunch of races. I mean my favorite memory in racing is probably the 2001 Daytona July race. My dad was killed in the 500 Daytona 500 in February of 2001 and we went back to Daytona for the second race there that year in July and I won it and so it was kind of like big time closure.
Yeah, that's awesome. And it was a big deal. But man, I appreciate you. Yeah, appreciate you, man. I am I'm excited about your career, man. Every year's going to be different, but as a fan I'm thankful for you being part of our team. I'm thankful for the character you are and what you're going to bring to the team and I'm going to be having a lot of fun watching you go out there and play and build your career, man. Just have fun like coach said. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate you, man. You bet. Let's see if we can figure out how to get out.
