Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Talking With Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Wyatt Miller, & My First Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge | Kenny Conversation

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Talking With Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Wyatt Miller, & My First Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge | Kenny Conversation · Kenny Wallace Media

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  I've been waiting for this reunion I don't know how many
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  years, but they always say ladies first.
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  I love my wife. I love my three daughters and
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  Kelly Earnhardt, I love you. You love me next after all of
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  them. I love you too.
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  As I get song. It's been a long time.
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  Let's start with Kelly first. Jimmy Elledge, my original crew
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  chief. Wyatt, great little race car
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  driver. But you're growing up quick.
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  OK, Yes. I always share my experiences in
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  life with everybody, and boy, I've been taught a lot, whether
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  it was by your dad or my brother Rusty or Dick Trickle.
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  One thing you taught me that I share with people, 'cause we got
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  these cell phones and everybody's trying to call you,
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  they're trying to bother you. Pay attention to me.
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  That's what they're doing. But you said to me, Kenny
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  Wallace, she said, I love you, Kenny, you're no maintenance
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  friend. I knew what that meant.
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  Right away. In a bad way, Yeah.
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  I didn't mean it in a bad way. We might not talk, I know for a
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  year. We just catch right up like it's
• 1:00
  been one minute when we. Catch up.
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  There's so much to say about that, you know, because if if
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  I'm in Charlotte and you know, I'm in Charlotte and you're
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  like, hey, I'm out of gas by your mom's house.
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  I'm right there. You know I'm right there.
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  I love those kind of friends and it's great to have low
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  maintenance friends because there's a lot of high
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  maintenance going on in the world.
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  But but I just want to say I really wanted to give you a
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  shout out that is a lesson to everybody because we all seek
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  attention nowadays. And because of that, you've
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  changed my life. You made me calm down and tell
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  you because I've always seeked attention.
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  Y'all hear that Calm? Down OK Jimmy Elledge, you are
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  this is a thank you tour. I want to thank you for making
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  me be a better race car driver. He is the reason that number
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  right there exists. So I teamed up with Kenny
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  Schrader and Andy Petrie and you were my first crew chief for the
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  second team and we got to start off pretty good, I think.
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  And but there was one race car I had that I just didn't like and
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  you got you got mad at me. Yeah, it was a really good car,
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  made really good downforce numbers and you hated it.
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  So he finally says to me, he, he, he, he takes the class.
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  He goes, what's wrong with this car?
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  I said, it's a little embarrassing, but I'm going to
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  tell you, I sit too high in it. I'm looking under the I don't
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  like the way it sits. You're a beast.
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  Because he would always say, well, by God, we'll just cut.
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  He, you cut. Tell him what you did to it
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  actually. I got in it myself and sat in it
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  and I was like, yeah, it is kind of weird.
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  So I took the seat out, cut the floorboards out of it and
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  rebound. The seat.
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  But hold on, take the seat out is a big deal.
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  Yeah, I don't know if you've ever seen that.
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  I mean just taking the seat out and cut, cut.
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  All floorboards out of it bring. Out of it, but that's a big
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  deal. Yeah, it was a big deal a few
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  days. One thing that you I.
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  Leaned it too because you said it rolled on the right front so
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  I made the dash be up on the right front for you.
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  Wyatt, you always got to have a little gangster lean, especially
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  when you get to Bristol and and, and Dover get just a little
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  gangster lean into it so you're ready.
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  You know what I mean? And and cock it just a little
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  bit. That way your your daddy can
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  tell you that. OK, yes, have your you know,
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  like when you bowl, you bowl in there, you're like, go her bowl.
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  Like I said, this is I'm bragging on people that helped
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  me in my life. One thing that you've always
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  done is you, you're like, you know, you and Andy Petri, you
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  guys were like brothers back then, even though he could
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  aggravate us. Love you, love you Andy.
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  Well, Andy would say, well, by God, we'll just be bullshit this
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  right now. Your your claim to fame.
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  Andy, close your ears. We're at Daytona.
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  Oh yeah. You already, you already knows
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  what I'm going to say, where we're headed with this.
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  Yeah. You know, you're running wide
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  open. I'm holding a pretty wheel.
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  I'm doing everything I can and we're like slow 38.
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  And, and I there's no way I could have went back to that
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  room and not got ejected out of Florida.
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  I, I did all I could. I got all I could get.
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  So Andy comes down. These are stories in life for
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  everybody that you all don't hear, you know, say, oh, Wallace
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  is 38, he can't drive. I'm like, I got it wide open.
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  You know, everybody's blaming it on me, but you were behind me
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  and you loved me. And Andy comes down and Andy
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  goes, well, what's wrong? And you said, it's the motor.
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  And I went, oh, oh, I left. He did.
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  Don't mess with Andy's motor program.
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  That's a NASCAR thing. Body Shop versus motor.
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  I bet you missed those days. I do actually.
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  I kind of missed the conflict. He miss, he misses arguing.
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  You're learning everything, Wyatt.
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  It's a little politics involved. Don't ever talk bad about the
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  motor. Just tell your mom and dad so
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  you, you and Andy get to going at it and your dad.
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  Well, no. What happened was he, remember
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  he rented us a motor at Daytona for the 1:25 from RCR and we
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  didn't run any better. And then the guys from RCR
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  called me and said that there was something wrong with that
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  engine. So that's what carried over.
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  Andy kept saying how it was us. So he said well I'm going to go
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  rent a motor from Richard. And I said well the last 40
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  grand you gave him didn't do us any good so why don't we get
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  somebody else's motor? And he goes, well who are we
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  going to get? And I said I only know one
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  person I can trust in this situation.
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  So I rang dad up. I said dad, I need a motor.
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  And he says, hold on, I'll call you back.
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  Next thing I know, the old Caterpillar 22 car rolls out of
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  the garage, turns around, they start draining the water out of
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  it and backs in. Oh my gosh.
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  And they took the motor out of Ward Burton's car and they
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  remember they tried to steal it. Warden the 33.
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  Oh, they wanted that. Motor, yes.
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  So next thing I know, Pee Wee's got it on the cherry picker
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  going in the 33 car and I'm like, no, no, no, no.
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  Right here, buddy. I go grab the old cherry picker.
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  Because we still got to qualify, yeah.
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  Yeah, we, we're we're waiting to do second round practice and
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  qualify. So we go get it and put it in
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  the car and nothing fits. We got oil lines coiled up to
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  connect because plumbed all different and we get it done.
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  We got in qualified I think 7th, 2nd day in the middle of the
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  heat which is. Overall.
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  Really good. And then then Kenny goes out
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  there and in final drafting practice and he's out there with
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  that motor and he's just seesawing through people and
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  comes on her head and goes, look who learned how to drive today.
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  Look, there's Rusty Wallace. See ya.
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  Hey, look, there's so and so. See it?
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  He's look who learned how to. Drive it really it, it was a it
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  was a story that defined my career because it gave me why It
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  gave me a a lot of confidence in my ability.
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  But one thing I was lacking was I didn't know how to work with
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  the team because I'm from the Midwest and I'm used to being
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  very aggressive verbally and I would get smacked around a
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  little bit has that. Just happened in the Midwest.
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  I feel like that just goes on in the Midwest.
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  Maybe Statesville? Have you been in trouble yet?
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  This today. Which?
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  Today. Today.
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  Yesterday. Wednesday.
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  What have you been in trouble for?
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  Anything, I said. Being young is rough because we
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  don't. We think we know everything, but
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  we don't. Let's talk about you for a
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  minute. I've been watching you.
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  You got a lot of talent. You're a really good race car
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  driver. So what are we focused on right
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  now? Is it late model stocks, Super
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  late models? Where are we at?
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  A little bit of everything. Yeah.
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  Like. I guess my next race will be in
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  a Sprint car, so or a late model.
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  So I got to focus on that for the next two weeks and.
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  Then where's your next race? Tri-county.
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  Ohio, yeah, I've raced there. That you got to get the
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  tri-county. If you're going to run the
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  bottom, you better get that thing grip up off the corner.
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  Against the inside. Wall, you can get loose eggs in
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  you real quick, and if you run that middle lane, they're all
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  going to tell you all the heroes are going to say run that middle
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  lane, but all the passing goes on the bottom.
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  Get that? I just found out something he's
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  in trouble for. This is something he gets in
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  trouble for often. Well, your uncle is like.
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  That having his suit. Up.
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  Yeah. Your brother Dale Junior, he was
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  guilty. He would just unzip it and hey,
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  so Junior, if you Fast forward and you watch this, I'll never.
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  Forget Fast forward what he don't like listening to yet.
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  What? I don't know, maybe I always
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  say, if you've made it this far and we'll end like this, I'm in
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  an airplane and Dale Junior's, you know, he's young and he's
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  got the hat on backwards and he's reading an e-mail and it
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  was Anheuser Busch saying, please turn your hat around and
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  wear it normally. So I think he changed Anheuser
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  Busch, right? I mean, you, you're smart at
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  that. So what did you all do to fix
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  that? Put the Budweiser logo.
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  On the back. That's right, that's right.
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  Put it on the back. Hey, congratulations, because
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  you've been given so many awards of being a complete badass in
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  NASCAR. All right, all right, everybody,
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  Just a little follow up here at the Freedom Factory 500.
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  We're getting ready to go. 100 green flag laps, lots of love.
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  Say goodbye everybody.