Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Ryan Preece Previews Martinsville & Talks Early Season Success | NASCAR Press Conference

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Ryan Preece Previews Martinsville & Talks Early Season Success | NASCAR Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  So Ryan with them bringing back the same tire from November last
• 0:03
  year. I was curious.
• 0:05
  What are your thoughts on that tire heading into this weekend
• 0:07
  and guess only just having one option as.
• 0:10
  Opposed to two different. Sets, well, I think
• 0:14
  traditionally I, I agree with only having 11, you know, one
• 0:20
  tire. I think until recently, most,
• 0:24
  most forms of Motorsports has always just been one compound,
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  right? I think for me, I'm, I'm OK with
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  it. And I also think, you know, that
• 0:32
  the improvements that Goodyear has has done and continues to do
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  on on the short track tire. I mean, you look at
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  Martinsville, how many years has it been since we've had an
• 0:42
  outside that prevails on a restart, right?
• 0:46
  We we don't need a second option to do that.
• 0:49
  Now from the strategy standpoint, if you have a tire
• 0:51
  that's a little bit better and it can can get you off cycle
• 0:55
  that sometimes can be, can be interesting, you know, and nice.
• 0:59
  But, you know, you could also do the same thing if you change
• 1:03
  lengths or, or other things that create different strategies,
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  rather than having a straight up race of, hey, we need to pit
• 1:09
  now. So yeah, I'm I'm OK with and,
• 1:14
  and I like the fact that we're going to bring a tire that, you
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  know, in 90 or so laps, if you or 100 laps if you beat on it,
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  it's it's you're going to pay the price.
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  And, and I think if we continue to go down that Ave. and, and
• 1:28
  trying to keep getting even more and more aggressive, it's only
• 1:31
  going to be better and better. Martinville is a track that
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  demands patience. And precision.
• 1:36
  How do you feel about your chances this weekend and what is
• 1:39
  your? Mindset heading into the race.
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  I feel like our chances are good.
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  I feel like over the past few years we've qualified really
• 1:48
  well at, at Martinsville and you know, especially with this tire,
• 1:53
  I, I think it's something that, that I'm looking forward to
• 1:57
  things that I could definitely do better and, and hopefully go
• 2:01
  in and do those things on Sunday.
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  So, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm looking forward to it just being
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  my background of, of short track racing.
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  And, and I've had success at Martinsville, not in the Cup
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  series, but in in modifieds. And, you know, obviously that
• 2:19
  this form of racing suits my style.
• 2:22
  Ryan, you have are now six weeks into the season under the RFK
• 2:26
  banner with Brad Koslowski and Chris Buscher.
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  Tell me how recently with the great finishes you've been
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  throwing in, how have you felt under that RFK banner and how
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  have you felt like becoming their, you know, the main third
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  driver for the for the team now? Yeah, I mean, I've I've enjoyed
• 2:45
  my time for sure. And you know, something that I,
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  I really reflect on is the fact that, you know, Chris, Chris and
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  Brad are have a lot of experience and, and you know,
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  mile and a half's has kind of been the, the kryptonite side of
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  things, you know, for me at least how I feel when I show up.
• 3:03
  So being able to lean on Brad and being able to lean on Chris
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  for that. And, and obviously we've shown
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  improvements there. So, yeah, other than that, I
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  mean, it's been, it's been great.
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  It's just been great. I've, I've really enjoyed it and
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  continuing to grow and, and perform better.
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  You know, at the end of the day, racing's a performance sport,
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  right? We, we want to win races, We
• 3:28
  want to be consistent. I think right now, you know,
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  what makes me feel really good is outside of the first 3 races,
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  we've, we've made a lot of gains and we, we are building a strong
• 3:42
  foundation overall within, within the group.
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  So yeah, hopefully we can keep pushing and pulling all together
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  and, and really, you know, make us powerhouse.
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  You see, I said the first 3 races, but Daytona, you were
• 3:54
  fast too. I mean, Daytona is Daytona, but
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  you were fast. I remember you talking about the
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  speed you had in your car. You were happy there too.
• 4:00
  Yeah. I mean, you take away, you know,
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  the finish of Daytona and even CODA to be honest with you, I
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  thought we were going to end up top ten there.
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  We've been we've shown some really good signs.
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  So very promising. All right, let's go to Zack's
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  Sterniello. How's the Hello, Zack.
• 4:17
  Hey guys, Ryan, I'm curious as you head into to attract that
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  you've enjoyed so much success at personally coming off the
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  heels of these top ten runs, I imagine you've got to feel like
• 4:28
  momentum is on your guys side. How does that change the
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  attitude that you come into Martinsville with?
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  So for me, what I've liked about it is we've been aggressive,
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  aggressive on pit calls, aggressive on the track,
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  aggressive everything. And that's, that's what I want
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  to keep going for our group. You know, as far as the momentum
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  side, momentum is great to have. It's great to have because you
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  know, when you look at the the metric for qualifying and I
• 4:58
  think of Martinsville, I think of a track that the later you
• 5:01
  go, the better off it's going to be historically.
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  So the fact that we're within one of the the last 10 cars
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  gives us a great opportunity to have a great start to the race.
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  So that that makes me feel pretty good.
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  But I also understand every week this is a grind.
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  This is a grind of continuing that momentum.
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  So we're still a new team. You know, we're still a group
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  that it's a brand new group and we are still finding our way.
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  So as far as short tracks go, you know, obviously we we ran
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  Bowman Gray and, and we, we made the race and, and finished 11th.
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  But we're, you know, I feel really comfortable with it and,
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  and, you know, we're going to hopefully unload with, with some
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  really good speed and, and be able to keep building the short
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  track notebook that that we all want to have.
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  So I think that's where, you know, for myself, I want to keep
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  it all in perspective. You know, I do feel like if we
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  unload with, with a bunch of speed, yeah, we can go win that
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  race. But at the very least you got to
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  manage expectations. My, my goal for the 1st, 3rd of
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  this season is if you have the opportunity to win the race,
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  you, you need to go win that race.
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  If you don't, we need to consistently be doing what we're
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  doing, which is being there in the top 12 and executing our
• 6:23
  days to have better days. You know, I felt like at
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  Homestead, we're, we're, you know, we qualified not very well
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  and drove our way up into the top 12 and then we managed
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  ourselves to get a 9th, you know, and those are, those are
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  the things we need to do as a, as a group right now.
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  And then just keep building that notebook.
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  Thank you. Adam Trapper Motorsports today.
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  Hi, Ryan. I want to go back to Vegas 2
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  weeks ago when Josh Berry won. You guys obviously have a lot of
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  parallels in your careers, both starting now, short track guys
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  and then obviously being teammates at SHR last season.
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  So and I'm wondering, have you talked to Josh since then?
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  And regardless of whether that's the case, how much more does it
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  add pressure on you potentially to get into Victory Lane
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  yourself? Yeah, I don't think it adds
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  pressure. I did, you know, I did talk to
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  Josh and I congratulated him and I was really happy for him.
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  You know, I think the situation was right, right there.
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  Just like I said to you a second ago or I said here a second ago,
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  is when you have those opportunities and you have that
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  speed, you need to to capitalize on it.
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  And I think, you know, Josh did a great job of it when when he
• 7:31
  when he had an opportunity on the front row and he didn't let
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  that opportunity slip away. So when that opportunity, you
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  know, is is there, you need to grab it.
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  And and that's really, you know, hopefully the the more
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  consistent we run where we are, we'll have those opportunities
• 7:49
  to go do that. So yeah, no, I mean, I'm feeling
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  pretty. I don't want to say I'm I'm 100%
• 7:58
  of where where I am, but I couldn't, couldn't have asked
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  more. As far as you know, how how the
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  first 3 races resulted versus how we turned it around at
• 8:10
  Phoenix and had an opportunity to to go.
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  I felt like win that race by saving those, saving the option
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  set and having that lead. You know, I felt like that just
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  kind of put put the little bit of life that we needed at the
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  point we needed it and, and, you know, we've carried it since.
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  So yeah, all eyes are on on Martinsville now.
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  I heard you on your pit crew stop after they pulled off an
• 8:34
  incredible pit stop. I I watched it more than once It
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  was so good and watch your video of it.
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  You call them gangsters and it was so cool because they were
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  high fiving and they really are very fast.
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  Talk about your pit crew and how good they are.
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  How did you know that they were going to be good when you came
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  into RFK? What are you discovering and
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  then how much does it mean for Martinsville?
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  So, yeah, I mean, when I say gang, that's just something I
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  say. But you know, they're, they're
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  badass. Yeah, I was proud.
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  It was good. Yeah.
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  You know, I was proud of them because I'm, I'm here every
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  Wednesday and I, I enjoy doing PIP practice with those guys.
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  And for me, I, I just do, it is like a camaraderie, team
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  building, you know, and, and I know the level of effort and,
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  and you know, what I put into my racing and what I enjoy is
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  seeing the grind that those guys have the, the want to win,
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  right, and, and the will to win. So I, I just, you know, we're
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  going to have our moments. Don't get me wrong, like
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  nobody's perfect. So they're going to have,
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  they're going to have a day or a time that it's just not, it's a
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  it might be a struggle, but I'm going to support them whether
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  they're having good times or bad times.
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  And, you know, I want to praise them when they're when they're
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  doing, you know, doing days like they did at Homestead.
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  So just, you know, as far as the team, the the pit crew side,
• 10:01
  knowing they were going to be good.
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  That's not me. You know, I feel like Brad and
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  and Jack and and RFK, the Fenway group, everybody here has done a
• 10:11
  phenomenal job in giving me, you know, every great opportunity I
• 10:17
  can have. So really, really appreciative
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  for the group we have right now and, and the things that that
• 10:23
  we're building on. Hi, there.
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  Hey, Ryan. Thanks for joining us today.
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  I want to Fast forward to next week as we go into Darlington.
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  And what is your mindset? I mean, that is a driver's
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  racetrack where it's just a long hot day, a lot of slipping and
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  sliding. So what is your perspective as
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  you go into Darlington? What is the the outcome you
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  think you at the 60 team may have there?
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  Well, I'm definitely I, I say this to my father, I say this to
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  a lot of people that know me as I live.
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  I live day-to-day and and a week at a time.
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  So as far as Darlington goes, I haven't even started really
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  analyzing or, or looking at it, other than the fact that I know
• 11:02
  that Chris was super fast and Brad was super fast and, and
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  they won, right. So, you know, I feel good about
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  all the things that they've done as an organization.
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  And, you know, I feel like our group is going to be able to
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  really heavily lean on both of those.
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  And yeah, I mean, when Monday comes, I'll be, I'll be all eyes
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  on it. But Darlington is a place that
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  I've always enjoyed racing and you know, I felt like, I felt
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  like we, I can't even remember where we ended up.
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  I think we ended up 9th in the fall race maybe or 10th or
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  somewhere around there. I don't know, I might be
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  completely off, but I, I felt like we ran pretty well.
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  And you know, that makes me excited going into this weekend
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  or next weekend. A couple weeks ago you spoke to
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  us about the team and what you see from the team and you said
• 11:53
  that you see a will to win from this team.
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  And then on Sunday over the radio there was talk of, you
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  know, hey guys, expect to win. So has the has the confidence
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  and attitude been shifting the last couple weeks with how well
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  you guys have been running? I think Derek's done a great job
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  of, of managing the group and really, 'cause it's a new group,
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  you know, there's, there's, there's a few guys that have
• 12:18
  been around for a long time within the, the road crew, But
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  you know, as far as experience and, and completely new guys,
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  there is a wide variety. So I think for, for Derek,
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  which, you know, I'll give him a lot of credit for, is, is
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  teaching and instilling this mindset in guys that haven't
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  ever had the opportunity to race for wins and, and telling them,
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  you know, expect to try and win every given Sunday.
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  You know, I, I have that mindset.
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  I've had that mindset my entire life because that's all I've,
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  you know, done other than in, in the Cup series.
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  There's been some, some struggles there.
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  But you know, anything outside of that, it's you show up to the
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  racetrack expecting to win. So, yeah, I think the the
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  mindset of of expect to win and and run well is, is a mindset
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  that Derek's trying to instill in the in this group.
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  And you know, I'll, I'll give him a lot of credit because, you
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  know, the attitude of of them all the you know, really I think
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  it's just RFK in general is the push for you don't want to say
• 13:37
  anyway, yeah, you do the the push for perfection.
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  So that's what we're doing. I mean, there's just a lot, a
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  lot of want to win and, or will to win.
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  And that's the thing. Like it's kind of like my cup or
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  my racing career, right? I, I could have gave up chasing
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  after this dream back in like 2014 or, or whatever.
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  But it's like there's a piece inside of you that's just going
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  to keep pushing and pushing and pushing and, and be relentless.
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  And that's, that's, that's this group.
• 14:07
  Hey, Ryan. Thanks for joining us today.
• 14:09
  Yesterday I was listening to an interview with Chase Briscoe and
• 14:12
  he was asked about the move to JGR and what he's noticed about
• 14:15
  how things are done differently than SHR.
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  And he said that JGR they made him aware of things that he
• 14:20
  honestly didn't even know he was struggling at.
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  And he gave the example of the entry gap on pit Rd. and how far
• 14:26
  you are away from the car in front of you as a get to the pit
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  Rd. speed line. He talked about in the past he
• 14:31
  was 29th to 30th on average and didn't even know about it
• 14:34
  because he had never seen those kind of analytics.
• 14:36
  Now he says he's around 4th or 5th, so I'm curious for you if
• 14:39
  you've had a similar experience at RFK of learning things about
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  your performance that you didn't necessarily focus on before.
• 14:47
  Yeah, I would say there's, there's been some, some moments
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  and some sit downs of talking about, you know, I think that's
• 14:54
  really what I reference to about, you know, area of the
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  focus. And that's been something that
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  I've been diving deep in into. And and certainly, you know, I
• 15:06
  think it's paying dividends. So yeah, I, I'm, I'm really
• 15:09
  thankful for my time here and, and the things that, that I'm
• 15:13
  learning and continuing to, to push to be better.
• 15:16
  As a guy that spent a lot of time racing half miles over your
• 15:19
  life and career, I'm curious, you know, and maybe I'm wrong on
• 15:23
  this, but I feel like Short Trek racing has always kind of been
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  Short Trek racing, whether it's, you know, late model modified,
• 15:29
  you know, Xfinity car, the old Cup car.
• 15:31
  Has the Next Gen. in any way in your experience kind of
• 15:35
  fundamentally changed the race craft of half mile short track
• 15:40
  racing at all? I think it's gotten closer in my
• 15:46
  opinion. I know there's some louder
• 15:49
  voices that talked about the next Gen. car and the arrow
• 15:53
  efficient inefficiencies or, or some of those things.
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  But what I truly believe is the fact that Goodyear has really
• 16:01
  been working hard on on softening this tire and wearing
• 16:05
  this tire. And you know, when I watched
• 16:07
  October, the Martinsville race in October, I mean, it was when
• 16:12
  I rewatched it this week, how many, you know, I said it before
• 16:15
  of how many times did on the old car, the outside prevail over
• 16:20
  the bottom car? Not very often because the
• 16:22
  inside was such an advantage with some of the things that you
• 16:25
  were dealing with, with the other deal.
• 16:30
  And it was, it could be frustrating where, you know, if
• 16:32
  you're in a different series, I mean, you, you always felt like
• 16:36
  there was opportunity. So I feel like our short track
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  product is only going to continue to get better,
• 16:45
  especially after what I felt like we saw, you know, with,
• 16:51
  with Martinsville in the fall. And, and really the, the
• 16:54
  trajectory that I feel like we're trying to go into for
• 16:57
  Richmond and, and all those things will pay off if we can
• 17:01
  continue that for, for a place like New Hampshire, you know,
• 17:04
  so, or, or Wilkesboro and yeah, and, and continue on.
• 17:09
  But, you know, those type of things don't happen overnight.
• 17:12
  And I feel like the fact that we're trying to make changes
• 17:16
  and, and they're positive changes and, you know, it's all,
• 17:20
  it's all really good stuff. And it's only going to, you
• 17:22
  know, pay dividends to the race fans because, and this is my
• 17:27
  opinion, I don't think going to a smaller tire is going to make
• 17:31
  a difference. I, I think that you're, you're
• 17:35
  always going to have your challenges, right?
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  So I'm always a, I'm always a a fan of, of more horsepower,
• 17:43
  like, yeah, no matter what, because it just gives me more
• 17:48
  opportunity or, or you know, more opportunity for whether
• 17:52
  making making good decisions or doing something right or even
• 17:55
  making mistakes, right. You just, you want to be able to
• 17:58
  capitalize on when people make mistakes.
• 18:00
  And so, yeah, I, I, I hope that kind of answers your question.
• 18:04
  I, I kind of got long winded there, but you know, I'm a fan
• 18:07
  of, of the direction we're going.
• 18:09
  And oh, and one thing else I wanted to bring up is, I mean,
• 18:13
  we, we talk about arrow stuff all the time, right?
• 18:14
  And how short track stuff. But you go to Pensacola and a
• 18:17
  super late model arrow is a thing.
• 18:19
  Like it's a, it's a thing no matter what, whether I race a
• 18:22
  modified a super late model, it doesn't matter.
• 18:24
  You're going freaking fast. And, and it's just, it is what
• 18:28
  it is. So it's not only us, you know,
• 18:31
  in the Cup Series series or Xfinity Series or trucks or
• 18:34
  whatever that we see it. We just have really, really
• 18:36
  smart people in in our garage that know how to maximize.
• 18:42
  Yeah, that's actually a perfect segue for where I was trying to
• 18:45
  go with that with my follow up. Goodyear says though that we're
• 18:49
  kind of approaching a point to where this is as far as we can
• 18:52
  go. They've been saying that for a
• 18:54
  while though, and they seem to get further and further anyway.
• 18:57
  But I'm curious, like, can we get fully to where I think we
• 19:01
  all want to be in a place like Xfinity is, right?
• 19:03
  When you watch a race at Martinsville and the Xfinity
• 19:05
  Series, that's where we want Cup to be.
• 19:07
  Can we get there purely through the tire, you think?
• 19:10
  I don't even think the Xfinity series racing, you know, at
• 19:13
  Martinsville is that great. I just see guys knocking each
• 19:15
  other out of the way. That's it.
• 19:17
  You know, I don't I don't think that's racing.
• 19:19
  I can go, I can go to a local go Kart track and knock a guy out
• 19:22
  of the way and do the same damn thing.
• 19:24
  You know, I, I find that the the next Gen. car it takes, you
• 19:29
  know, if you just smash a guy, you're not going to Jack.
• 19:32
  You can't stick your nose under the guy like you can in those
• 19:35
  cars. But as far as what you were
• 19:39
  talking about with Goodyear saying that we're getting to a
• 19:42
  point and maybe we are, but at the same time in the early 2000s
• 19:46
  when we had right rules and guys started to figure out coil
• 19:49
  binding on how to put the car on the ground and have an arrow
• 19:52
  advantage once you've got on the racetrack.
• 19:54
  Like those are all things that we we thought weren't possible
• 19:57
  until we figure out that they are.
• 19:59
  So that's the thing about racing, It's constant innovation
• 20:03
  and, and progression and, and figuring out things that you
• 20:07
  didn't think were possible. So that's, that's the exciting
• 20:10
  thing that we have to look forward to, you know, in our
• 20:12
  sport. I appreciate the time.
• 20:14
  In this day and age, drivers have more primary sponsors than
• 20:17
  probably ever before, and so there's probably more demands
• 20:20
  placed on your time in terms of getting pulled in different
• 20:23
  directions. What is it like now when you
• 20:25
  have so many different primary sponsors to kind of serve in
• 20:28
  terms of time constraints and what it means for you?
• 20:32
  Well, that's part of my job. You know, I think of what I tell
• 20:35
  people all the time is for those that don't know, I, you know, my
• 20:40
  father has a small family business in, in Connecticut.
• 20:44
  I think there's 10 employees there and they, they're plumbers
• 20:48
  and HVAC. And as I was growing up, I used
• 20:52
  to either in the summer, you know, I worked the summer job,
• 20:54
  either being a Tim Knocker making duck work or in the
• 20:57
  winter, you know, we'd go on rooftops.
• 21:00
  And I'll tell you what, going and, and doing sponsorship
• 21:04
  events and, and things of that nature are a hell of a lot
• 21:07
  better than sweating in an attic or freezing on a roof.
• 21:11
  So I, I guess to put it in perspective is, I mean, it's
• 21:15
  part of my job. And you know, the racing part on
• 21:18
  Sunday and the prep work and all that.
• 21:20
  That's, that's just all part of the job description.
• 21:23
  It's like there is, it's not a 40 hour week.
• 21:27
  You know, my family and my wife support me and they understand
• 21:31
  that there's a lot of commitments to this and, and
• 21:34
  obviously a lot of benefits. So I'm, I deal with it fine
• 21:38
  because, you know, I'm, I'm the type of person that even when I
• 21:41
  was racing in Connecticut, my life revolved around racing in
• 21:45
  it. And there was no such thing as
• 21:47
  well, I only want to spend 2 hours here because I want to, I
• 21:50
  want to go home. It was no, I'm going to do
• 21:52
  whatever it takes to win. And part of winning is, is
• 21:55
  having great partners and, and you know, that that's just,
• 21:59
  that's part of it. So it, you know, to me, it's,
• 22:03
  it's no different than the normal.
• 22:05
  It's just doing something a little different.
• 22:07
  And have you seen it shifts over your kind of time in NASCAR
• 22:10
  where there's even more because there's, you know, teams have
• 22:12
  now so many primary sponsors in their car, there's even more
• 22:16
  demands placed in your time. You know, I, I feel like I maybe
• 22:23
  maybe for guys that were 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, but for me
• 22:28
  now I, I've always felt like I'm always doing something.
• 22:33
  So it's no different for me.