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My Take on Ryan Blaney vs Ross Chastain! · Kenny Wallace Media

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Hello everyone. Welcome to the Kenny Wallace
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Show, brought to you by Jags, the leader in high performance
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aftermarket car parts. Remember to go to jags.com.
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That's all folks. That was the last NASCAR week of
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the year weekend and what a weekend it was.
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There is so much to talk about. Look at The Herminator notes
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Galore. But let's get right to it.
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How about Ryan Blaney, 29 years old, wins the 2023 NASCAR Cup
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championship? Ryan Blaney is your 2023 NASCAR
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Cup champion. All right, Be honest, be honest.
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How many people besides Dale Earnhardt Junior?
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And boy, you got to give it a round of applause to Dale
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Junior. Dale Earnhardt, junior, way
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back, said Blaney's going to win it all.
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How in the hell did he know that?
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What did he know that we didn't know?
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Now listen, if we talk to Ryan Blaney right now, he's going to
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tell you that I yes, I'm. I'm breaking my on my patent, my
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back. Ryan Blaney's going to tell you
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when he ran like third or fourth in his very first Xfinity race
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at Richmond. Sweet Daddy was one of the first
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people do the car and to this day he says I I will never
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forget that Herman. So yes, I don't jump on the Ryan
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Blaney bandwagon. I was already on it.
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But I did not see Ryan Blaney making this type of comeback.
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And I got to tell you, the racer in me, the race car driver and
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the chassis man and the mechanic in me when they showed up at
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Martinsville, what I noticed in Ryan Blaney's car was forward
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grip man. They had some camera angles.
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Ryan Blaney's car going to one at Martinsville and all sudden
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just squirt up off turn 2, good forward drive.
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And I went, I think they found something and boy, it carried on
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to Phoenix. And Phoenix, you know, even
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though it's it's it's a momentum track.
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You got a row, you want to get in the gas.
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You want to stay in it? Yes you do.
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Because that corner down in one and two, it's wide, it's
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sweeping. You know, you want to lay down
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that gas quicker than anybody. So in my opinion and respond
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right here, if you're the crew chief for Ryan Blaney, I believe
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you know, besides great balance, getting in, not loose, getting
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in good corner speed, obviously not as good as Ross Chastain and
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that's another story in a minute.
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But Ryan Blaney and Penske, they found some really good forward
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drive. So congratulations to Ryan
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Blaney on the championship. I did not see him coming.
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I already gave Dale Earnhardt junior all the praise.
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Junior saw him coming. Junior wins that award.
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And look, I said that it was going to be Kyle Larson or it
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was going to be William Byron to win the championship.
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I'm not going to be hard on myself because really, none of
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us were right. We got to remember Ross Chastain
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won the race and we're going to talk about it in a minute.
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But let me kick my ass for a little bit.
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What are you doing, Herman? Can't you see I'm roughing
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myself up? What is that?
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Liar. Liar.
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When? What are you doing?
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Can't you see I'm kicking my. He's beating himself up.
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So I'll rough myself up for a little bit.
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I was wrong. But Buddy, I wasn't that wrong.
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Kyle Larson was there. William Byron dominated.
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So you know, it came down to who adjusted their car.
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And at the end, you know, it was Ryan Blaney.
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Finished second, won the championship.
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Congratulations to Kyle Larson. He ran really good.
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And of course William Byron runs really good.
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He finished his third in the points.
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And then C Bell, Christopher Bell.
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Christopher Bell breaks a right front breaker rotor.
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That is part failure. Although I know he's a little
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bummed out. Seat belt can be a piece that it
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was a part failure. The team is going to examine it.
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Why? Why did Christopher Bell's right
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front breaker rotor blow apart? It happens.
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It's called part failure when they settle.
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When they study metal, it's called metal eulogy or something
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like that. OK, guys at Penske don't laugh
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at me, but sometimes when you put metal together, there can be
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the little air pockets inside the metal.
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That's kind of like when you're looking at a diamond and and you
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can see in the diamond you can see the flaws.
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The little black metal will do that.
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So who knows? Christopher Bell said it was the
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first brake rotor he's ever blown apart in his life.
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And and I believe him and I don't think he's hard on brakes.
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I think it was a part failure. I think there was some bad metal
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there and it metal allergy and I think there was a little some
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air pockets in that that metal and blew that brake rotor apart.
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So Christopher Bell finished his fourth, but he was there, he did
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really good and yeah, I think that's it.
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All right, we will get to the controversy at hand.
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But first of all this was a really young group.
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Was this the youngest group in NASCAR history?
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The herminator's got it. Wrote down here.
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Let's start with oldest. We had Kyle Larson, 31 years
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old. Second Christopher Bell or no
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William Byron, 25. Hold on, Herman Jesus, Calm
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down. Let's start with the oldest to
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the youngest oldest. Kyle Larson, 31.
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Blaney. Second.
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Oldest, 29. Christopher Bell.
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Third oldest 28. William Byron.
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What a a little bitty baby, 25 years old that that's crazy. 25
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years old and almost won the Cup championship.
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So anyway, this was a really young group and if NASCAR does
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it right and believe me, I saw Steve O'Donnell like my post
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where I said you got to get these kids promoted.
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Steve O'Donnell, one of the most important men in NASCAR.
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He liked my post last week where I talk about, look, nobody knows
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these drivers. And if you heard Kevin Harvick
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after the after the race, he says we got rock stars.
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He kept going rock stars. Rock stars, tells me, tells me
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that NASCAR and all the TV executives heard the Herminator.
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Now it ain't about me, OK? I'm not saying, I'm not saying
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that hurt me. But I think it's quite a
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coincidence that I create a stink and say, all right guys,
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nobody knows your drivers, nobody knows them.
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And then all of a sudden Steve O'Donnell likes my post on
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Instagram. Don't take it down, Steve.
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And all of a sudden after the races all over Harvick, her a
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little birdie must have said something to Harvick because
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he's like we got rock stars, we got rock stars now and I say now
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promote them. And NASCAR came back in their
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State of the Union address and they said we are going to create
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a new center next to the NASCAR offices there in Concord, NC,
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and we're going to start doing videos and get these faces out
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there. So they hear me, they listen to
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me. I'm just saying that's the topic
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at hand. It's not important for me to
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keep patting myself on the back. But the herminator's been
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through it all. NASCAR hurt us.
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Promote these damn drivers. Get them out there.
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You got the youngest and Kevin Harvard says they're rock stars.
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I don't really think they're rock stars.
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I don't think they got to be controversial, but you got to
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get their face out there, OK? They are good people.
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I love Blaney. We nickname he needs to get a
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sponsor. Mountain man.
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He's he's a hairy dude ain't he? Ryan Blaney.
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He's Harry's all get out. He always get a sponsor.
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He probably got tired of shaving.
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He just let that old beard grow. But so, yeah, he needs to get a
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sponsor. Get him out there.
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Ryan Blaney, good guy. Everybody loves him.
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And I think we do got 4 great champions.
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So let's let's get them out there and let's make them the
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rock stars. All right, The controversy.
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What is the controversy? Oh my God.
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Ryan Blaney hit Ross Chastain in the rear, bumped him.
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That's all that happened. But it was pretty exciting
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because they run in about 120 mile an hour getting down into
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130 maybe a little faster getting down into, you know turn
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one there, I got it. Turn my brain around because the
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whole time I race now, you know turn one was always.
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It's kind of like Darlington. They changed these race tracks
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on US. Turn 1 used to be turn 3, but
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you know Blaney goes down into turn one now.
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Ryan Blaney, Now this is, you know, Charlie has been dropping
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these great press conferences right here.
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Ross Chastain says yeah, I heard him and I don't care.
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I love it. That's a great sound bite.
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That's what I'm talking about. A little bit of shit talking.
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Did you beat that out, Charlie? Anyway, that's what I'm talking
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about. Give some good quotes.
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Ross Chastain. The gift that keeps giving.
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I love it. He's no longer wrecking anybody
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because that didn't work out. But Ross, that's where it's at,
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let you know, Ross said. I took some air away from him in
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his press conference that you hear right here on the Kenny
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Wallace show in the press conference.
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Just scroll right through YouTube here you will see him,
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Ross, Ted said. Yeah, I made it hard on him
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because that's what I want to do.
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I want to lead laps. Leading laps is important.
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So Ross Chastain is like, I'm leading laps and yeah, I'm
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making it hard on him, but it was also a chance by Blamey.
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He hit him, you know, and not really, you know, Blamey did a
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good job because he could have ruined his car and taken away
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his championship race. But that was the controversy and
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I liked the barbing back and forth.
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That's good material for us to, you know, we call that water
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cooler talk. You know, back in the day you
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had a water cooler and you'd meet at the water cooler getting
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a little water for yourself at work.
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All all the jobs had a water cooler.
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Now, now, now we got our own little cup.
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But back in the day, you didn't have your own little cup.
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You went to the water cooler at your job, little plastic cup.
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You'd have three or four people gather around, then they'd say,
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what do you, what do you think about Blaney hitting Ross in the
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butt? And and so that's where the
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phrase water cooler talk came about.
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So that was awesome. Listen, my opinion, that was
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awesome. Because Blaney, Blaney had
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enough of him and Ross knew it. Ross knew he was dealing Blaney
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a fit. And so it was a hell of a show.
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Nobody's fault. No, nothing.
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Just just a hell of a show the show was after with the great
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quotes. And I love Ross going, yeah, I
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made it hard on them, and I don't care what he thinks.
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That's badass. All right, so that was pretty
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cool. Let's see where we're at.
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Let's wrap it up for Penske. OK, let's let's give you some
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stats that are pretty cool. Rodger Penske.
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Wow. Follow along with me here.
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This is the third NASCAR NASCAR Cup.
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I got to go all the way to the NTH degree.
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This is the third NASCAR Cup driver for Rodger Penske to win
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the Cup championship. Now you say, but there's four
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Cup championships. Well, Joey Logano won two of
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them, Brad Keselowski one the other and now Ryan Blaney.
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Now we all know that the captain has 44 championships, you know,
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with the Indy cars and throughout all the racing that
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he's been involved in. Rogers got race teams galore,
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whether they're over in Australia or, you know, Daytona
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Prototype. Whatever it is, Rodger Penske is
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the captain and that is drumroll.
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That is Rodger Penske's back-to-back Cup championship.
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So Penske got a lot of stats right here and and I really
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think Ryan Blaney going to be one of Rogers favorites because
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by Ryan winning the championship that makes it back-to-back cup
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championships for Penske. He's full of pride.
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I saw him on Victor Lane. Really, really do wish my
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brother could have, you know, got him a championship.
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Brother Rusty won Roger a lot of damn races.
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You know, I would venture to say that you know Rusty's 10 year
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win. Rusty won 10 races in one year.
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But just so just a little short on winning Rodger a
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championship. But anyway, Rodger Penske.
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What a man, what a, what a legend.
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Let me say this too. Blaming, you know, remember he
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was almost out. Remember he runs six at Vegas
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and they were going to take it away from him because of some
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little technicality and and they gave him his points back.
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That's how close this was. Blaney was almost out of the
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deal. And this leads me to this point
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right here, right? The car means so much nowadays.
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If the car does not go, then you will not go.
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I'm sorry. And the only reason I'm saying
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sorry is because we're still stuck in the old days a little
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bit. We want to thank the drivers,
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everything. But look at me, I always use
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myself as an example. Even Dale Junior said Damn Herm.
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I got in that Pennzoil car and I hauled ass QuickTime at
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Rockingham. Run second, top five all the
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time. You know, back in the day, these
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teams were built, they would, they would craft this car and
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this car would be faster than everybody else's car.
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Nowadays you're seeing these drivers, you know.
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Hey, listen, I'm going to admit it.
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Dale Earnhardt Junior is the best at looking at talent of
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anybody I'm given. I'm given Junior a trophy here,
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here, here. Trophy junior.
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Woo. He deserves that.
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By the way. Hold on.
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This is my first trophy ever. It's just a joke.
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We're having fun. We're having fun.
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OK, this was at TNT up there in Quincy, IL.
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OK, so Dale Junior gets a trophy Now, That was fun right there.
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We just having fun. Calm down, Herman showing us our
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trophies like he got her? No, we're having fun.
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I give Junior the the Ric Flair trophy because he saw talent
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better than anybody. But here's my point, Herman.
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Get to the damn point. All right, here's the point.
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Blaney and those boys made some adjustments couple races ago
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because I thought about halfway through the year Blaney was was
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not the man. So something happens, right?
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They and Blaney's the same driver, but now Rodger Penske
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says. I think he's matured a lot over
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the last two months. Two months.
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Damn. You going to narrow it down
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right there, Rodger? You're probably saying that
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because he's been winning. People are funny when you start
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winning. People want to say the driver is
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different, the drivers matured. You're wrong.
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Let me tell you what gives the driver confidence is when that
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damn race car goes and that car handles breaking news in the
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garage air. That's what it is.
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So, Roger, I love you and you're way better than me.
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Roger Penske is the man. But what makes the driver mature
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and what gives the driver confidence is when that car
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handles. So I'm saying that Team Penske.
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OK, Joey didn't find it, but I'm going to tell you one thing.
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That crew chief on Blame's car, he found it and it was forward
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drive and whatever you want to say.
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But that's what I see with my eyes.
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Respond right here if I'm wrong. But you know, I didn't have
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Blaney winning the championship. Oh yeah, I saw the momentum
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coming after Martinsville. Absolutely.
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I hell yeah, I saw the momentum coming.
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We all did. So the bottom line there is that
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Penske finds something. Blaney's faster.
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Hey, let me let me ask you this. Did you hear Rodger?
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Did did you hear Rodger Penske calming?
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Blame me down. Calm down, Ryan.
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He was mother. Everybody.
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He was chewing Ross's ass out. Ryan Blaney was mother.
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Everybody on the radio. Rodger Penske comes on early in
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the race there at Phoenix goes calm down.
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Ryan did respond right here. Did y'all hear that?
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I didn't hear it. I read it on Twitter.
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Old Larry Mack say I was kind of under the first.
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I was kind of one of the first guys on Twitter and in our TV
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meetings. I would say I saw it on Twitter
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and and I think, I think, oh, I think old Larry McReynolds got
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tired and he said, let me guess, you saw it on Twitter.
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I said Yep. So anyway they said on Twitter
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that old Ryan Blaney was mother in Ross Chastain.
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It was funny as all get out and and the you know, the boss, the
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captain, Penske says. I think he listened to me.
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I told him calm down, boy. So he had to run second to win
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the race because you know Ross wins it all.
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All right, this was a Ford sweep.
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Ford wins it all. Does that make you mad?
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Respond right here. Does that make you mad?
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Ford winning everything. Ford won it all.
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Won the Truck championship. Won the won the Xfinity
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championship. Cole Custer.
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By the way I do admit the truck race was a show.
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I agree with Tony Stewart. Scroll right here on YouTube.
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Look at Tony's comments on that truck race.
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Don't race like that. I listen.
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I I know Carson Hosevar is a lover and he's a good guy but
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goes into one. Bam.
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Goes around the corner, goes down the back straighter and
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goes, you know, going to take care off and whatever he done
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got passed clean. Carson, man, I I'm going to tell
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you, good thing it's the end of the year.
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Maybe everybody will forget during the winter but that truck
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race was God awful. But it was really good that
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Ford. I don't mean it was really good.
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I'm just saying what a what an accomplishment for Ford.
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They swept it all. They they dominated NASCAR.
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Now you're going to hear the automaker of the year was
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Chevrolet. Well, they always win the
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automaker of the year because I don't know why.
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Maybe they got the best teams, But Ford?
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Ford won it all. How's it go?
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Might have won the battle, but they lost the war.
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Chevrolet might have won the battle, but they lost the war.
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And that's what happened here. Ford won it all, won the Truck
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Championship, won the Xfinity championship, won the Cup
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championship. A lot of records broken here.
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Hang on with me now. Ross Chastain makes history.
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Ross Chastain makes history and and I'm sure if Charlie rolled
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through here right now, he would find it.
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I said that this would be the year and I don't know if
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Charlie's going to look too hard.
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I said that this would be the year that somebody finally wins
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the race that does not win the championship is not in the final
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four. It happens.
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Ross Chastain makes history and look at this.
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This was this was kind of showing up a little bit
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everywhere for a while. There are all these races.
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Zane Smith looks like he was going to win the Truck race and
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he was not in the championship. There were drivers in the
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Xfinity that, you know, we're close, but I think we're getting
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to where, you know, those four drivers are not always going to
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be the best. And I think we're closer.
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Listen, that's the way it plays out, OK, Blaney rolled on.
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They got hot at the right time. They got that chassis working.
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I still think Ryan Blaney drove the same, but I think that car
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handled better. All right.
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Last but not least, the great Kevin Harvick.
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We've already gone 21 minutes. I know you're on the way to
21:36
work. Here's what I got Harvick.
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Listen to this stat. Kevin Harvick won his first Cup
21:46
race and 21 years later he won another Cup race.
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Say that again, Herman. Say it again.
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Harvick won his first Cup race, right?
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21 years later, he wins his last Cup race.
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Now I'm going to find it right here.
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That is a big, big stat. Well, I guess I erased it.
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I'm bad at cleaning my phone up. I got too many, too many
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pictures in my phone. Here's the deal, Harvick,
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Harvick. Stats are mind blowing.
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They really are. He's done it all.
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Kevin Harvick going to the Fox TV booth.
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I think the reason you heard so much about Harvick on and on,
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it's on. It was it was almost like we get
22:45
it. But I think the reason Harvick
22:49
created such sadness is that kind of last of the Mohicans,
22:56
right? Kind of last of the Indians.
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Harvick has done it all. I'm just looking for some more
23:03
stats here on Harvick. I got all these damn pictures in
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here, but I think it's just simple to say Kevin Harvick,
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Kevin Harvick, stats are just off.
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Here it is right here. Listen to this, OK We're going
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to end the show like this. Kevin Harvick, what a man.
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Charlie, let's when we get through December let's let's put
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let's throw a little tribute up for Harvard.
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Let's repost Kenny conversation with Harvick.
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Let's end Kevin Harvick. Like this. 826 starts.
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Sixty wins, 444 top 10s. Wow, 309,630 miles. 2014 Cup
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championship. Now that was 828 starts.
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That's across the board. OK, you know, that's what they
24:03
do. NASCAR starts.
24:05
But this guy's truly done it all.
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He's one day Tony's won the Brickyard.
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He's won the Coke 600. You name it, Harvick has won it
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all. So I think that's the reason
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there was just Harvick. Harvick.
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Harvick. All right, everybody.
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Well, listen, I think I broke it all down.
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I don't know what I missed. Respond right here.
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The big, the big Kenny conversations coming up.
24:29
Dale Earnhardt Junior. Wow, he's coming up this week.
24:33
I'm so excited. But we got Ricky Carmichael.
24:36
We got Ricky Carmichael right now, heart.
24:40
Ricky Carmichael is going to be airing on Tuesday.
24:43
The GOAT, the greatest of all time.
24:46
Ricky says Chad Reed was his biggest nemesis.
24:48
He said Chad Reed would just never roughed him up, just raced
24:52
him hard. So tune into Kenny conversation,
24:57
but we're going to have Dale Earnhardt Junior coming up.
25:01
I believe we're going to have him on Sunday because you know
25:04
why? There's no racing.
25:07
So we got them all in the pipeline.
25:08
We're going to have Rico Abreu, Elliott Sadler super grateful
25:12
for all these great drivers. We've had all the great drivers.
25:15
I'm humbled. I'm a little shy, a little
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embarrassed. Thank you, everybody.
25:19
Thank you so much. I love you all very much,
25:22
Herminator. We have a lot of fun.
25:24
Don't have me on. We're just having fun.
25:27
You'll pat me on the back. And I'm sorry.
25:30
I got to say, we all just having fun.
25:32
Putting on a little show, a little smack talk.
25:35
Don't hurt nobody. All right, everybody, That was
25:38
the last NASCAR weekend. But the Kenny conversations, the
25:44
Kenny Wallace show, the coffee with Kenny keeps on rolling.
25:49
Love you all. And until the next show.