Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Denny Hamlin Says NASCAR's World Class Driver Exemption "Reeks of Desperation" | Full Press Conference

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Denny Hamlin Says NASCAR's World Class Driver Exemption "Reeks of Desperation" | Full Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Bob Parker's Fox Sports, your haulers, doesn't have a lot of
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  sponsorship on it and we kind of knew your sponsorship situation,
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  but it seems startling to see it.
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  I'm curious what you thought when you saw it and if it brings
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  any additional concern. I mean, it's tough out there.
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  I mean sponsorships hard to come by and, and certainly you're
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  while it's such an important time in our sport to to, to
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  recognize that, you know, that the sponsorship dollars are not
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  flowing like they used to. For sure, everyone's had to
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  adjust quite a bit. And obviously, you know, you've
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  got, you know, there's, there's certain aspects that JGR has to
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  price in to, you know, their pricing as well that it's
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  probably tough. So it's, I don't know, it's just
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  it's part of it. But certainly having one sponsor
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  for 20 years, you know, made things pretty easy and now it's
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  all kind of catching up. So it's certainly, you know, is
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  it concerning from my end maybe a little bit, but not you know,
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  it's, it's probably more concerning from JGR standpoint.
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  John Bianchi, The Athletic, I want to ask you this from the
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  team owner's perspective about pertaining to the clash.
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  Where would you like to see it go?
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  Do you want to see it kind of continue this model of, you
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  know, short track kind of thing? Or is there something more you
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  can do in in terms of cost and everything else and what the
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  future of this race should be? Well, I, I think the I, I, you
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  know, I'm personally in the boat of I, I liked it at Daytona.
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  It was just a really good warm up for the 500.
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  I thought it provided, you know, tons of storylines for, you
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  know, the 500. But it is a little bit different
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  nowadays, right? The racing itself on
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  superspeedways is different. You know, you used to back then
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  if you saw someone really dominate the Clash, it was like,
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  all right, they've got a great handling car.
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  They're going to be tough to beat.
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  Doesn't matter where they start. Now we know that is such a track
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  position race. I don't know that you'll get the
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  direct correlation, but it certainly could bring up some
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  hype back to the to the 500. So I'm probably in that boat or
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  you know, really anywhere that helps, you know, obviously grow
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  and get some excitement going for the season.
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  So I don't really have a bucket list place where I would want to
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  put it internationally. You know, I think it's I mean,
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  maybe just from the standpoint that there's probably a little
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  bit more time to prepare for the race teams, right?
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  It's not in the middle of the season, so you know, and then
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  you've got the gap after that for the Super Bowl for you to
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  get back it reset and and go for the 500.
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  So yeah, perhaps. Ask you about the state of the
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  sport. Obviously, what happened the
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  playoffs last year, There's a lot of controversy there.
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  There is a lawsuit hanging over the sport as it enters a new
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  season. Just your perspective on where
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  NASCAR is AT and what it needs to do going forward into 2025.
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  Yeah. I mean, I think it's a really
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  crucial year all around. You know, there's a lot of, you
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  know, big decisions that that definitely need to get made and
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  certainly feel like, you know, it's a crucial year with the new
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  TV partners, you know, getting our fans to transition over
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  there into the streaming platforms.
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  That's going to be big. So certainly, I think it's it's
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  just a huge year. You're you're going to have to
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  find a way to get everyone to transition into, you know, and,
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  and kind of rally around the new type of media partners that we
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  have and, you know, hopefully rely on them to help grow the
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  sport as well. So I think that it's just a
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  crucial year all around. Go to Jenna and then Kelly.
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  Danny, I heard a through the Grapevine that you've got some
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  strong opinions on this 41st Driver Elite.
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  I've said nothing about it. Another reporter told me he had
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  a phone interview with you and that you had many opinions.
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  Is that incorrect? OK, well anyway.
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  I recall having an opinion on it, but OK.
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  Do you have an opinion on it that you want to share with me?
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  I mean, I, I don't know. I mean, I just think, you know,
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  I, I just, it reaps of desperation.
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  I, I don't know how else to say it.
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  I don't know how nice you can really say it.
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  It just feels like you're really trying to get any kind of
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  headline you can to, to be relevant.
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  And I just, I don't love it. OK, well it exists.
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  I, I think it, I, I know it's just it to me, it's a short term
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  gain, long term loss. I just think that you you're the
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  premier stock car series in in the US, the premier racing sport
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  in the US be the big boys, you know, and then force people to
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  come in here and and get their credentials and and do it the
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  the natural way. I don't think it's going to be a
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  big factor really anywhere other than Daytona.
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  But just Simply put, saying that someone has a name that
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  interests you and that they're going to have an automatic bid
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  into the highest form of Motorsports in the USI don't.
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  I don't love it. It does exist though.
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  Is there any driver you'd like to see come try to get in?
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  No. Not really cool, sorry.
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  It's fine. Eraser.com, Denny, all these
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  questions about the Clash, talking about the Clash, whether
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  it's at La or here, it seems like a lot of it is around the
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  venues, the the markets, the the history, the feeling behind it.
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  So has this event now moved away from whether the racing even
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  matters anymore? Is is this event more about
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  something bigger than what we see on the racetrack?
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  Yeah. I mean, I always think that the
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  the racing itself, that is a is a important factor.
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  It's what, you know, while the race is going on, you're going
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  to get, there's either going to be a social media buzz around
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  positive around the racing or not.
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  So I still think that that's a important thing.
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  But you've got a great point in that it is, you know, it is
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  something else. And as far as like the spectacle
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  itself that, you know, it is an exhibition type race.
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  And so I think it's just kind of a a primer to to let people know
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  that we're racing again. Truthfully, I think that that's
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  kind of, you know, LA had its own place and I thought it was,
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  you know, really well done. And here it looks like, you
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  know, they did a really good job with it.
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  So I think each place has its certain relevance, right?
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  And I think this place has its relevance as well with the
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  history. So it just seems like moving it
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  around and changing things is what's stirring the interest,
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  not necessarily what's happening on tracks, which is what you're
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  saying. Go to read next.
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  Reed Spencer would NASCAR, why are you mentioned Daytona?
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  You've got three wins there. How significant would it be for
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  you to get #4 considering there are only two guys ahead of you,
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  2 guys who have more, And then for what?
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  A follow up? For the what now?
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  To get a fourth Daytona 500 win. Yeah, I mean, certainly would be
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  big all around. I mean, there's there's lots of
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  really good stuff that comes with it with the bonus points
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  and whatnot. Yeah, there's only a select
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  group that are really, really elite that have that have won
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  those. I wish I had a bigger role in it
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  now than what, you know, kind of what I used to have in our
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  results and finishes. But truthfully in the next Gen.
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  I just have struggled to just find the checkered flag, you
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  know, at some point of the day. So I just, yeah, I, I don't
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  know, it would mean a lot to me personally, obviously and, and
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  certainly put us in, in a, in a really historic group there.
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  But you know, it'll be. It'll be a tough task for sure.
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  You started to answer my next question, which was, is the next
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  Gen. radically different in terms of the way it drives on
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  superspeedways from the previous generation?
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  Yeah, mainly from the drag perspective.
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  You know, I, I, I mentioned it in another media setting, but
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  you know, we just, I learned so much from Dale Junior and Tony
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  Stewart and some of the best when I was coming into the
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  sport, Jeff Gordon on how they created runs and then would pull
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  out a line and keep that run going and he would just see them
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  bouncing off these cars. And you really saw it kind of
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  during the end of the 2016 Daytona 500, that last lap where
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  we came from 4th or 5th to win it.
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  And it was just, I was just constantly using cars around me
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  to keep this massive run going. And now it's just, you know, you
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  have to stay in line. You're, you're really just
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  hoping your line goes forward, you're almost in a traffic jam
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  and you're hoping that your lane is the one that has less
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  congestion. And, and so it's just a
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  different beast. Now, obviously we've seen, you
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  know, underdog type winners in it in the last few years.
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  And it's just a lot of that is just where you're at.
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  Can you cycle good in through pit Rd.
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  Can you save enough fuel during the green to, to make your cycle
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  shorter? So we still have an important
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  role, but it's just, it's our role is actually more off the
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  track than it is, you know, on the racing surface.
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  Hey Spencer, SiriusXM, NASCAR Radio and catchments.com.
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  Curious if adding the three additional Toyotas has helped it
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  all with Toyota's effort overall at Daytona.
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  Because in the past there haven't been enough people to
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  draft with. Yeah, it it should.
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  It certainly should. I mean, you know, we, we worked
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  really well together at Talladega till we ended up
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  crashing each other. And then from that point on, it
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  was like, can we can we really all get on the same page?
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  But certainly and the power numbers allows us to at least
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  create our own strategy. You know, we were always at at
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  the mercy of the other manufacturers and trying to
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  figure out which either was it Ford or Chevy was going to pit
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  when we wanted to them to pit. And we had to react to that
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  where I think we probably have enough numbers now that we can
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  actually just create our own strategy.
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  So that will certainly be beneficial.
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  But you know, when it comes down to the end of the race, it's a
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  matter of, you know, kind of who's left.
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  And you know, I, I used to love being super selfish in those
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  types of races because I would just use anyone.
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  I didn't care who, whether they were teammate or not to, to try
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  to get a win. But so much with the
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  manufacturer alliances, now that you know it, it's really, really
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  difficult to breakthrough that. I'll finish with you.
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  Are you? Clear on the and the
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  manufacturer alliances for Daytona, on what's allowed and
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  what's not allowed after Martinsville.
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  I, yeah, I mean, I think so. I don't, I, I think that speed
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  waves would be status quo. I, I don't think that I saw
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  anything in the rules that would make me think that things would
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  change from a manufacturer's standpoint there.
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  You know, they, they have their own meetings and they say, don't
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  push this, you know, group, push our group instead.
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  And you're not going to stop those words from being spoken.
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  But it's it, that's just a, something you're not going to
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  put back in the box now. It's just that's just kind of
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  what we got.