Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Christopher Bell Wins Atlanta | Full Press Conference

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Christopher Bell Wins Atlanta | Full Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

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  This is the most fun style of Speedway racing that I've done
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  in my career. It's, it's just, it's different.
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  It's different than Daytona, Talladega and, and I, I think a
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  lot of it just has to do with the way that the lanes open up
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  and there it seems like for the most part, there's always
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  somewhere to go. And you can, you can take your
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  runs, take your momentum and, and the top opens up, the bottom
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  opens up and you're able to, you know, for the most part, if you
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  do a good job driving and your car is handling well, you can,
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  you can move forward. So yeah, I, I will echo that and
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  say that this is the most fun Speedway that we that we have.
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  Go to Cameron and then to Bob. Cameronrichardsonnascar.com
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  Christopher, I want to know from you.
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  Obviously, you know, dirt racing doesn't compare to this style,
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  but get just getting back behind the wheel and dirt and having
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  that early start to the season, the reaction time and just being
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  able to make quick decisions. Obviously that that translates
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  to NASCAR. But just how important is it to
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  get actually get behind the wheel instead of just it being
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  three months of, you know, SIM work before then?
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  Yeah, I mean, I definitely feel, you know, the best I have is a
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  race car driver. And I'm sure that some of it or
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  part of it is due to the fact that I've been racing through
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  the offseason. So it's it's a dream come true
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  to be able to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in these Cup Series
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  cars. And I'm honored and and
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  privileged to be able to have some fun outside of the Cup
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  Series cars now. And I hope that, you know, I can
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  make this the best year ever and, and prove to, you know, the
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  company that it's, it's the right thing for me to do to be
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  out there racing. Go to Bob, then the Jacob, then
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  the Peter. Bob Hochrist, Fox Sports at
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  Carson Hosavar Didn't thrill love other drivers day.
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  And here there you are battling him for you know, you don't know
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  when the cautions come out, do you?
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  Are you treading lightly around him?
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  Do you have? What do you, how do you race
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  somebody who maybe, I don't know if you're not sure what he's
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  going to do? Well, I mean, yeah, he's been
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  around enough now that, you know, he's going to, you know,
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  be the aggressor. If there's a hole, he's going to
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  take it. If there's not a hole, he's
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  going to make one. And, and he, you know,
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  ultimately gave me the shove to get, you know, pass or
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  breakthrough, you know, to lead the, the side draft tandem with
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  myself and Kyle down the back straightaway.
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  And, and then I why I didn't realize Kyle had opened up the
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  bottom like he did getting into three and allowed Carson to
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  sneak middle of middle of turn or middle of three wide.
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  But I was looking in my mirror and I saw them crashing and, and
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  I figured that it was a matter of, of winning the side draft
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  battle to the, to the yellow flag.
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  And I felt like I had it whenever the yellow came out,
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  but that you never know until they made it, make it official.
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  And then the last thing I wanted to do was go out there and, and,
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  and, you know, let my emotions get to me and, and feel like I
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  won the race and then them come back and say I didn't.
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  So yeah, it's a he, it, it's it was, it was bonkers, that's for
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  sure. Jacob.
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  Jacob Steelman Race face Digital Christopher 2 for you first.
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  Kind of. There I am kind of expanding on
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  the the caution at the end of the race situation.
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  A lot's been made of that over these first two weeks of the
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  season, and I know there was a lot of driver conversation after
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  Daytona and even after the Xfinity race yesterday.
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  Where have you sat in this discussion and were you one of
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  the drivers that had something to say after last week and the
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  fact that you guys were allowed to race back to the flag at the
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  500? Well, I wasn't part of that
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  fair. I got, I wrecked out a couple
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  laps earlier, but so, so no, I wasn't really I, I, you know,
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  whenever you're out of the race, I was in the infield care
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  center. I was shocked that they allowed
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  them to race back to the checkered whenever the leaders
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  wrecked. You know, we, we have been down
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  this road before and, and I myself got crucified at
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  Talladega a couple years ago because the yellow that they
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  wrecked and, and I was able to, you know, avoid the wreck and I
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  advanced positions and you know that they, they're like, OK,
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  well, not from now on, whenever they, the cars wreck on the last
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  lap, the yellow's coming out so that we don't endanger people.
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  And I think it's the right call. So, you know, the, I think it
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  just stems from the Thursday night duel where Eric Jones and
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  Austin Syndrich had that finish. They they threw the yellow, you
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  know, a couple feet before the before the line.
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  And then Fast forward to the Daytona 500.
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  They've been going on a couple years of not finishing under
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  green. So they were determined to try
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  and finish under green. But I think that's, you know,
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  they're the you don't want to endanger the drivers and
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  throwing the yellow flag to not make the, you know, the back
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  half of the field race for position.
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  That means so much. And you know, on the white flag
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  lap, I think it's the right call.
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  And you sit here tonight back in Victory Lane, exactly 8 months
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  after your win at New Hampshire last year, Which?
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  I am glad that we don't have to hear about that.
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  Joe Gives Racing hasn't won since June.
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  That's all I've heard, so I'm very happy to end that
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  narrative. So in that narrative, though,
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  obviously a lot of changes have, you know, have been made and,
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  you know, seemingly have helped so far.
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  But from your seat, you were the one JGR car that really
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  performed well down the stretch last year.
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  Was there ever any real over, I don't want to say overwhelming
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  urgency, but sense of of worry that you weren't where you
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  needed to be, I guess. Absolutely not.
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  Absolutely not. And that's why I got so
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  frustrated with all of you guys, all of you guys saying JGR
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  hasn't won since June. They haven't won since June.
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  Well, you look at Gateway, Gateway was could have, should
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  have win. You look at what else, what
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  else? We had Las Vegas that was
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  definitely a could have should have win.
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  You know, there's there's a a ton of races littered throughout
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  that second-half of the year that, you know, at least my team
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  had. I know from first hand and I'm
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  sure Denny and and Martin and and I'm I don't know about Ty,
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  but I know that the other guys probably had those those same
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  races. So it was it is relieving to
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  finally end that narrative and and we have now won on February
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  20 something 2025 S not not one list anymore.
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  It's officially the 23rd. Let's go to Peter and then we'll
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  go to Doug. Peter's trot at TSA Sports.
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  Christopher, you're no stranger to taking.
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  The win in the second week of the season, but how does that
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  change your mental approach for the rest of this regular season?
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  Yeah, it's, it really doesn't change our approach at all.
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  And leaving last year we, you know, we set out on winning more
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  races. We we know that we need to win
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  more races and frankly, Atlanta Motor Speedway was not one that
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  we had circled. So I'm glad that we were able to
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  get one here. But if we don't win another race
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  before the the playoffs start or, you know, the end of the
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  year and it's it's not going to be a good season for us.
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  So we're here to stay and we need to, you know, prove that we
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  need to to, you know, walk the walk and quit talking the talk.
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  But you know, the Atlanta Motor Speedway, that comes down to
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  Eric Almarola, really, he's been a huge addition to our team at
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  Joe Gibbs Racing. And I'm just beyond thankful to
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  have him as a mentor. And, you know, he's really
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  helped myself in my mental state whenever it comes to these races
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  because I, I, I normally don't enjoy coming to the, the
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  superspeedway stuff. And and Eric has done a great
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  job of of making sure that I am the best Speedway racer that I
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  can be. Go to Doug and then the Jerry.
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  Thank you, Matt, Doug Turnbull for PRN of the Five to Go
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  podcast at Daytona. I feel like Toyota's changed the
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  narrative about their qualifying because there was a lot of fast
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  Toyota's there. And then we came to Atlanta.
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  And then, but then you didn't run as well as Daytona, then you
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  come to Atlanta, qualify the back and run up front.
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  So what's what's the difference for the driver's seat behind the
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  wheel? I know you're not going to give
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  us a setup sheet here, OK. But what's the difference behind
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  the wheel that your car's doing and it does it have to be
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  significantly different at Atlanta because handling some
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  much more important. Here, honestly, I, I am just
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  struggling to put the correlation together between
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  qualifying and racing. And you know, the whole motto is
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  if you don't qualify well, you're going to race well.
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  And if you qualify well, Oh my gosh, is the car going to drive
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  good? Well, you know, we, the, the,
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  the JGR cars qualified really well at, at Daytona and we raced
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  how we did. However, that was and then here
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  we qualified as bad as it gets and it raced pretty similar, I
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  would say so. And then the Penskeys, they've
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  been the best of the Penske cars, have been the best of both
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  worlds. They've qualified well, they
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  raced well. So I don't know.
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  I don't know what to say about qualifying or what to think
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  about it. But at this point I don't.
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  I genuinely just don't think it matters because I've had good
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  races qualifying bad and I've had bad races qualifying good.
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  Jerry. Jerry Jordan kicking
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  thetires.net So you said you have a list circled.
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  Tell us what that list is and why is Vegas at the top?
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  A list circled of of the races you.
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  Want to? Win of the races.
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  Yeah, so well, Coda. Coda is a good place to start.
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  Honestly, we're just getting into the the the bread and
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  butter of what you know that the 20 car likes.
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  You know, Coda should be a strong track.
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  Phoenix, Vegas, Darlington Homestead, all of these tracks
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  coming up in the early part of the season is where we think we
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  can that, you know, compete for wins and and do good score a lot
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  of points. And Atlanta was not one of those
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  race tracks that we had circled. So it's it's very refreshing to
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  to be able to get one early in the season, especially one where
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  we didn't expect to win at. So hopefully we can, you know,
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  keep keep the ball rolling. What?
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  Vegas coming up in a couple weeks, is that you feel like
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  that what kind of owed you guys when we talked?
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  Last year, well, I felt like Vegas has owed me one for a very
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  long time. I go back to the Truck Series, I
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  never won a Vegas, the Xfinity Series I've never won a Vegas.
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  In the Cup Series I've never won a Vegas.
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  But I would be curious to see the stats.
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  I feel like I've LED more laps at Vegas than I have any other
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  track without any wins at. So yeah, we'll we'll try again
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  in a couple weeks and hopefully it plays out a little bit
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  different. We'll go to your right, the
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  Cameron. Cameronrichardsonnascar.com You
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  never know when your next one comes at the Cub level.
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  And you know, when the schedule came out for this year, New
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  Hampshire and Gateway were in the playoffs, so.
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  Yeah, I'm excited about that. Now, now that you do have that
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  win out of the way, just just how much more does that get you
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  excited about the postseason knowing that you have that win
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  now in the bag and are in the playoffs?
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  Well, I mean, I don't know, I yes, it is refreshing to be
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  locked in, but I know I go back to what I said earlier, if we
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  don't win another race before the playoffs, you know, we're
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  not performing up to the standards that we hold ourselves
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  to. So, you know, the Gateway and
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  Loudon being in the playoffs are two great race tracks for me and
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  I'm super excited about the round of 16 and the round of 12.
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  I'm kind of dreading the round of eight.
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  But you know, hopefully we score points and, and we need to bank
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  a lot of playoff points before we get to those races and and
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  help our cause whenever we get to the round of eight.
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  Go next to Matt and then the Chris, Matt Weaver Sports.
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  Not. I'm actually fascinated by the
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  Eric Almarola element there. I'm curious, how often is he
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  like in y'all's meetings? Is it just superspeedways or
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  places where he's good or is it every week?
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  I mean, what is his? Addition, yeah, so it's every
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  week and I would say the majority of his input and
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  expertise has come on the Speedway side because he came
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  from a very successful superspeedway organization and
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  manufacturer and he's provided a lot of valuable input into my
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  driving style, Adams setup choice and you know our
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  strategy. So he has tremendously helped
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  myself in the 20 car as, as a, you know, Speedway racer and
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  Speedway team. But he, he's there every week.
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  Every week he's going through the, the debrief and talking
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  about what he sees and what, you know, we need to be better.
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  And he's just a super smart and experienced guy.
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  So he's, he's very valuable to have and, and I'm, you know,
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  very grateful to have him on our team.
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  He's been a a huge resource to us the last couple years.
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  Good to middle with Chris. First night catchments.com
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  Christopher, can you start 32nd? Here in June and still.
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  Win the race or is the mentality?
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  Change. No, I, I think you can, I mean,
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  Blaney, he spun out with what tend to go was that tend to go?
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  He spun out, is that right? Somewhere around there And he
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  drove all the way up through there.
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  So I, you know, I think if, if your car is driving good and you
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  do a good job driving, you can, you can make your way through
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  the field. And, you know, the, the
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  beginning part of the race, I started in the 30s and, and I
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  could get up to the teens, but then I would stall out and just
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  just couldn't figure out the moves that I needed to make to
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  get up front. And, and so, yeah, I mean, I, I
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  think that here at Atlanta, this package, for whatever reason at
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  this racetrack has allowed the, the cream to rise to the top a
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  little bit better. So, yeah, I, I, I'm careful
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  saying that because I don't feel the same way about Daytona
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  Talladega, but here it certainly works.
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  Do the temperatures make that much of a difference between
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  here in June or is that just? Something that everybody.
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  Just likes to talk about and use it as an excuse.
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  It doesn't feel like it makes that much of a difference
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  honestly. Well, Christopher, Oh, we've got
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  one word to Bob here in the middle.
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  You were kind of a Parker Sox Sports.
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  You were a little bit far behind the Cindric Larson deal, but I'm
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  curious if you saw saw it and could.
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  Kind of see your view. What was that?
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  The wreck off of turn 2? Yeah, yeah.
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  Right. I, I'll be honest that I, I
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  wasn't focused on that. I just, I saw them.
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  Cindric got into the wall off of two and then he spun across the
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  racetrack. So I I didn't.
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  I saw it out of my peripheral, but I didn't see exactly what
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  happened. OK.
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  Well, Christopher, congratulations on the wing.
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  Good luck next week in CODA. Thank you guys.