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Denny Hamlin Wrecks Teammate Ty Gibbs at Loudon! | Matt Weaver Reports · Kenny Wallace Media

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  We made contact in one IT. Was like.
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  A fourth or fifth time. We made contact but eventually
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  in a good spot. Would you have felt that?
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  Would you have done the same thing if it wasn't a teammate?
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  Or how would? You.
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  Feel like they would have been different, weren't teammates.
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  Well, I made a mistake in a turn 1, so yeah, I would have made a
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  mistake of with anybody in that position.
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  I was trying to get get by him. That was a task in itself.
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  What's? What's the discussion that needs
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  to happen if any tie between you or somebody else?
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  I'll let I'll let leadership kind of, you know, quarterback
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  that power that they'd like to, but obviously us the 2019 are
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  all trying to win a championship for their family.
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  So it's crazy unfortunate why while we're racing the way we
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  are. With you and Christopher being
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  there, what is the expectation? The three of you, you and.
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  Christopher. Well, I, I, I witnessed the
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  Christopher stuff, but you know, I just we the, the 54, we got
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  back clear of me and the 20 and we ran them right back down and
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  then just couldn't get any space to race once we were trying to
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  pass. So yeah, I don't, I don't know
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  what the the whole formula is, but I'm sure Joe and those guys
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  will figure it out. So your perspective is you were
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  trying to nudge them out of the way that got spinned.
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  Is that what I'm? Well, I certainly did not want
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  to help, you know, certainly a teammate of anyone.
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  But yeah, I was trying to get space to race and trying to get
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  by the 54 and just got into it. You.
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  Mentioned on the broadcast and you talking about how you good
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  New Hampshire to have a good round at 12.
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  How do you guys feel like you did today?
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  Not, not very good. I just couldn't couldn't get
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  going on restarts. I didn't do a good job there,
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  especially on the bottom restarts and just no, it just
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  was an average day. I've just never been it's been a
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  while since I've really kind of been this average at this track
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  as to it as a whole. So just got to got to get a
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  little better I. Know in the past you've said
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  that like you and Ty talk about things and have a pretty good
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  relationship. You know, as far as like you
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  mentoring him, have you continued to be doing that
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  recently or has has anything changed in that sense?
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  Yeah, of course. I, I, I'll probably have this.
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  I definitely have more dialogue with him than any of the other
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  teammates that I that I have. But yeah, he's just.
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  Got. So much to learn and certainly
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  got a a very high ceiling of talent.
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  Just understanding down in distances seems.
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  To be the struggle. He said game on afterwards.
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  Are you ready to do something crazy in the next couple races?
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  No, I'm not. You know, probably was was
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  looking for more of a break than he got.
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  That's what I would guess. That's what I saw.
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  And the hard part is, you know, the 54 is trying to trying to
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  win races and make a name for himself as well.
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  And you know, so everybody needs more space than they have.
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  That sounds like racing to me. So what is the right thing to do
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  when it's a playoff car versus a non playoff car at the same
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  team? How much?
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  How hard are you supposed to race here?
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  Yeah. I mean, this is the type of
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  conversation that you know, when you run.
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  Well, you're fortunate enough to have to.
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  Have every. So often, and we'll have to have
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  that conversation again, but you know, I think there's a
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  reasonable edit etiquette to to to follow to where everybody can
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  get what they need out of it. But you know, at the same time,
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  you can't create an atmosphere where everybody just has to roll
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  over and play nice all the time either, or you won't hang as
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  many banners as Joe Gibbs Racing has hung over the years.
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  So and that goes through every position.
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  You you guys see and talk about the drivers the most, but it's
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  the crew chiefs, the engineers and, you know, the pick crew
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  members and you know, it's a certain degree on Sundays, you
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  have to be selfish. So it's it's a hard thing to
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  balance and we just got to do a little better job of getting
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  that balanced here given given today you've.
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  Been known as the the one to sort of rally the troops
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  sometimes in the shop on a day where there's still a lot of
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  positive takes away take away and being in contention for the
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  championship one of the positive.
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  Yeah, I think the biggest thing you got to take away from today
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  is with this aero package with the same tires, Phoenix at a one
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  mile racetrack. The Penske cars are completely
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  untouchable again, so I know what it's like to be
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  untouchable. We've been fortunate enough to
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  be on the right side of that. But the reality is we got a lot
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  of work to do with this package and that's the focus.
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  The rest of it's just noise. We got to get better.
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  There's another part of the conversation, not just Denny and
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  Ty, but Christopher too, and that it nearly got really bad
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  for all of you guys. 20 nearly ran into the 54 too.
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  Yeah, I mean, it just, you know, we just got to have a better
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  understanding of of, you know, proper racing etiquette in
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  certain situations and, you know, the playoffs are or a
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  certain situation and we'll just have to talk through it and get
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  everybody's point of view and figure out how to move forward
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  as one after that. Does the team feel like anybody
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  was, you know, like the Denny overstep in the situation or was
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  his was incidental contact? How do you?
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  My guess is getting into one, Denny thought he was going to
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  have more space than he had. So he he made an entry with that
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  expectation. And then when he had less space
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  than he had, you can't just stop these big things on a dime when
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  you're loaded up like that. So you've heard Denny and other
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  drivers mention many times getting into corners, you guess
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  where the other guy is going to be.
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  And if you guess wrong, sometimes, you know, an error
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  can be made. And I, you know, I can't speak
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  for Denny, but that's what it looked like to me.
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  And I would think that's what he said.
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  Up up until this point has the vibes in the garage or the the
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  shop been OK? Like was this simmering before
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  this point? Yeah, I mean, sure.
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  But again, like I like I said, you know, every, every team
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  member on Joe Gibbs Racing wants to win.
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  I mean we, we really do like anybody but want to win 38 races
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  a year. And that type of mentality
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  forces really competitive and and truthfully really selfish
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  mentality at times. So yeah, you got to balance that
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  and understand and respect it out of all of your competitors
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  and that and that includes the competitors inside your walls.
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  Chris, the tire test here in in July, obviously the the 22
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  fourth you heard was so much faster than even the 20.
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  And if that's incorrect, you can correct me.
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  On that, Nope, that's right. How do how does that carry over
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  or how does when you still got a couple months, maybe you don't
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  close the gather or did you feel like you closed the gap from the
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  July? Because when you say, hey, look
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  for as good hey, for as good as Penske is here, they're going to
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  be, you know, potentially this is what leads to Phoenix par my
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  Harmias is like, OK, if you saw what happened in July, how do
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  you how how do you how does a team not stop it?
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  And and I know there's. Yeah, I mean, there's a couple
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  things there. While while this is the arrow
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  package and the tower will run at Phoenix, this is not Phoenix.
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  It's loud. And then they have different
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  race tracks tendencies. And when we were at Phoenix the
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  last time, they were on the other side of the racetrack when
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  we finished the race and we finished first.
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  So I'm not you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater
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  here. But the reality is it's playoff
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  season and here come the yellow cars subpar with metrics, you
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  know, along the way. But and those guys know how to
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  get it done when it counts. And you know, we'll, we'll just
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  have to race them the rest of the year and see how it goes.
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  I guess was this what you expected or do you feel like you
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  guys even performed better and. What's going to be tough?
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  They're they're they're they're too good.
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  They have a they have a championship race winning
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  pedigree that goes back decades for the same reason Go gives
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  racing and Hendrick are going to be tough.
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  It it really is a pedigree. And so when it comes late, late
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  race playoff season, they're going to be tough.