Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / My Take On Connor Zilisch & Corey Day, NASCAR's Next Big Things

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My Take On Connor Zilisch & Corey Day, NASCAR's Next Big Things · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:02
  Happy Tuesday morning, everybody.
• 0:07
  That coffee tongue. OK, straight to the point.
• 0:11
  I see yesterday. On Monday, everybody is Gaga.
• 0:16
  Know what Gaga means? Corey Day.
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  Corey Day the phenom phenom means somebody that's
• 0:29
  unbelievable. Kyle Larson.
• 0:32
  Yes, Kyle Larson said that Corey Day is better than me.
• 0:37
  So Kyle Larson thinks Corey Day is better than himself. 18 years
• 0:42
  old. I was out in a Chico, CA at the
• 0:45
  High Limit race at Silver Dollar Speedway and I watched Corey Day
• 0:50
  at 18 years old win $100,000 in that dirt race.
• 0:57
  So we did a dirt side live out there and it's kind of like a
• 1:02
  trackside live. Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, they
• 1:06
  all called me up and said Herman, come on out here and do
• 1:10
  a dirt side live. I said I like, I like the sound
• 1:13
  of that. So we go out there and I
• 1:15
  interview Corey Day in front of all the drivers, all the fans.
• 1:20
  It was a great show, good turn out.
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  And yeah, those, those high limit wing Sprint car racers, we
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  all joked, I said, are you all ready to say goodbye to Corey
• 1:33
  Day? Get him out of here?
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  Of course they they said yes. So Corey Day is making his
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  NASCAR Truck Series debut at Bristol.
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  I'm excited to see this. Now.
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  I don't expect him to do good right away because there's
• 1:51
  there's got to be a start, right?
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  There's got to be a start. If you go way back, you know, we
• 1:57
  watched Jeff Gordon get his start.
• 2:00
  I was there from day one when Jeff Gordon drove that Pontiac
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  Outback Steakhouse, Pontiac Grampy at Rockingham set on the
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  pole. And actually, I think I might
• 2:14
  have qualified second. I don't know.
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  I can't remember. But anyway, and then Jeff went
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  on did some wrecking and then, you know, we knew Jeff Gordon
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  was always good from day one because we watched him on
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  Thursday night Thunder when he would show up on ESPN and did,
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  you know, respond right here. That is how Jeff Gordon got his
• 2:38
  break was Thursday night Thunder.
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  You turn on ESPN on Thursday nights and man, this this guy
• 2:46
  was out of control, but in control.
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  Jeff Gordon, we found him. They found him on Thursday night
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  Thunder. So that was his break.
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  A lot of people say, how do I make it to the big time?
• 3:00
  Well, man, get out there, put yourself out there and there's
• 3:03
  there's no handbook. But anyway, back to Corey Day.
• 3:08
  Corey Day is definitely a a Hendrick Motorsport driver.
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  You can you can thank Kyle Larson.
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  Kyle Larson tells Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon, hey, you better
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  get Corey Day before somebody else gets him.
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  So he's here. He's arrived way quicker than I
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  thought and he's going to make it years ago.
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  I'll never forget Dale Earnhardt senior telling me, do you all
• 3:39
  remember Moroso parts? Great, great parts.
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  Moroso. It was a line of brand of parts.
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  So anyway, Dale Earnhardt senior said, oh, Dick Moroso is going
• 3:52
  to make his kid a great race car driver.
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  And he did. Rob Moroso became a great race
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  car driver. And sadly, we lost my friend in
• 4:02
  a a passenger car accident right up there in Morrisville, NC.
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  But this is a point where Corey Days already good, he's already
• 4:14
  great. He's already won big races, but
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  Hendrick Motorsport is going to make Corey Day a great NASCAR
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  racer. They're going to they're going
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  to hurry up his process. They're going to take him all
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  the way through. Don't be surprised if you see
• 4:30
  him in some of Dale Junior's late model stocks.
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  But Corey Day has got to get all the asphalt experience he can
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  get. And here's the tough part.
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  And, and I talked to Kyle Larson about this, Kyle Larson and
• 4:48
  myself, We were playing blackjack up there at Dover at
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  the casino. And I looked at, I looked at
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  Kyle, Kyle and I were right next to each other.
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  And I said, Kyle, you got to go all in on this NASCAR deal.
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  I said, you're dirt racing fans will be proud of you and they'll
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  be waiting for you when you come back.
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  And that's what happened. Kyle Larson, when all asphalt
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  racing made it, then started doing dirt racing.
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  And I think that's what you're going to see Corey Day do.
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  Well, in my opinion, that's what he's got to do.
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  He's got to leave the dirt race in the community.
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  Now the only way he can do that is that Hendrick starts paying
• 5:29
  him some good money. The kids got to make a living.
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  He just got done winning $100,000 out in Chico at Silver
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  Dollar Speedway. So I mean, you give him 40%, the
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  kids got $40,000, what 18 year old makes you know, thirty
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  $40,000 and he did just that. So I'm sure Mr. H, Jeff Gordon,
• 5:53
  all of them, they're going to make sure that Corey makes makes
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  a living. Not at not very many times do
• 6:02
  you see a generational talent come along like that.
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  So now listen, same subject, same subject.
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  Connor Zillich, this kid, where the hell did he come from?
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  Listen, I, I think some of you are surprised too.
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  I really do, because I, I brought it up Sunday night after
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  that, that, that race on Saturday, you know, he, he won
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  the Xfinity race. Connor Zillich won the Saturday
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  race, the Xfinity race for Watkins Glenn.
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  It's like all of a sudden everybody was going nuts.
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  And I'm like, I think I heard about this guy in ARCA.
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  It's kind of weird, right? Connor won all those ARCA races.
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  It was like all this guy's winning the ARCA races, but
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  Connor didn't deserve. No, let me say it this way.
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  Connor didn't receive all the praise when in those ARCA races
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  because ARCA is thought of as a starter series.
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  But listen, you you get you get good experience in the ARCA
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  series, but you can see me smiling now, right?
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  Once Connor Zillis won that shootout of a finish at Watkins
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  Glen against AJ Almanager manner here come everybody he even Kyle
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  Larson said hey, hey, Connor. I think I'm going to tuck my
• 7:22
  fire suit inside my shoes like you do.
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  So Connor Zillis got a little something different he does with
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  his fire suit. He takes the, you know, he wears
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  basically Formula One type shoes, you know, because you're
• 7:36
  doing a lot of heel and toe work down there with the brakes and
• 7:40
  gas when you run Rd. course. So you kind of get the fire
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  suit, you know, the bell bottom, kind of get it out of your way,
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  tuck it inside your shoes. And I thought it was pretty cool
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  that Kyle Larson reached out and gave it a matter boy and said
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  that cogggles. I think I'll I'll tuck my my
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  fire suit in my shoes to showing him respect.
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  All right, everybody, listen, I think I just brought you up to
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  date the two greatest talents coming in the NASCAR.
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  I will be at Bristol this Saturday.
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  Remember trackside Live 4:00 And by the way, I slept 10 hours
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  last night. This was a good coffee with
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  Kenny. I didn't fuck anything up.
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  My voice sounds good too. I worked God till eight, 9:00
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  last night on that dirt car. We're going to race Granite City
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  over here for Modified Mania probably Thursday for sure.
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  Don't know about Friday yet. I'm going to fly down there with
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  my buddy John Scootoni in that SR22.
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  All right, respond right here. Tell me, who all knows Corey
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  Day? Do you know Corey Day?
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  Of course I do. Who knows Connor Zillich?
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  I don't. So all right, everybody.