Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Chad Knaus: Is a Hendrick Car The Championship Favorite? | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Chad Knaus: Is a Hendrick Car The Championship Favorite? | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:04
  And it is time to go lights out with the one and only Chad
• 0:08
  Canals from Hendrick Motorsports.
• 0:10
  Chad, let's get the good stuff. Let's get to the good stuff
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  right away. You guys got two shots now to
• 0:15
  win the championship. And I know you guys at Hendrick
• 0:17
  Motorsports are used to running for a championship, but but it's
• 0:21
  so hard these days to have half that field.
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  You guys must have breathed a pretty big sigh of relief and
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  are pretty excited about this upcoming weekend.
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  Yeah, we really are. Obviously the performance that
• 0:33
  we had in Martinsville was fantastic.
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  William and Rudy being able to bring the 24 home and Victory
• 0:38
  Lane and then obviously the five was super strong all day.
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  So really proud of the group. You know, you go back to the way
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  we started the playoffs in Darlington and we kind of, you
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  know, didn't do a very good job there and perform at the level
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  that would be the expectation for us.
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  So everybody got to work, worked really hard.
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  And I think the last five or six races or so we've been in a
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  really good spot. So, you know, we weren't able to
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  pull it off in Las Vegas. We were really sitting very,
• 1:03
  very good there thinking that we were going to have a couple
• 1:05
  locked in or pretty close to being locked in at that point.
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  And then Talladega, we're in the same spot leading with just a
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  couple laps to go, and unfortunately that didn't pan
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  out for us either. So to see the performance from
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  our guys yesterday at Martinsville was was pretty.
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  Awesome. Chad, your attention to detail
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  at Hendrick Motorsports is is very well documented and you
• 1:25
  guys do a week in and week out. Does anything change now that
• 1:28
  this is the championship or do you guys have to continue doing
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  what got you here? In other words, what changes now
• 1:35
  that you're going for this championship in this particular
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  race? Yeah, that's funny that you say
• 1:40
  that because people have asked me so many times over my career.
• 1:44
  Yeah. How do you guys turn it up or
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  what? What's the, the motivational
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  speech that you give your guys or what, what is it you do
• 1:50
  leading into these, you know, high pressure situations?
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  And quite honestly, I think we just continue to fall back on
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  the processes that we've got in place.
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  Our teammates are super strong, Everybody's extremely motivated
• 2:02
  at HMS, and we don't really need to do a whole lot extra than
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  what we do every single week. And I feel like if we did do
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  that, we'd maybe be overstretching and put ourselves
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  in a compromise situation. So we just, we just kind of go
• 2:16
  about business pretty normal. We try to make sure that
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  everybody is operating a super high level all year long for all
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  of the events. And then that way when you get
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  into the playoffs, it doesn't feel that uncomfortable if you
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  follow me. So we try to keep the heat on
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  all year long, but you know, as you get yourself into a
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  situation where you're battling for the championship in Phoenix,
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  you know, everybody is going to try to pay just a little bit of
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  extra attention to the small details, especially on that that
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  5 and 24 car. So when you look at the five and
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  the 24 Chad, you guys got 2 drivers there that I just would
• 2:50
  put up against anybody. We know what Joe Gibbs Racing
• 2:53
  and and Denny and Chase Briscoe bring to the to the table there.
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  But I tell you what, when it comes to making favorites or
• 3:00
  handicapping or anything, you guys have to feel pretty good
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  about the likes of William what what he did last weekend to
• 3:07
  carry the momentum in there. But just the simple talent of
• 3:10
  Kyle Larson and Cliff and everybody on that team, I bet
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  you guys are feeling pretty optimistic right now.
• 3:16
  Well, I think we're ready for the battle.
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  How's that? I think to be optimistic right
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  now would be, would be a little, you know, silly, quite honestly.
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  I think we need to make sure that we've got our our game
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  faces on and we're we're pushing the whole way out to Phoenix all
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  the way through practice qualifying and then as the race
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  begins and all the way through the event.
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  You know, Rudy and Cliff and crew chiefs are working very
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  hard together right now to talk about what we've done for setups
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  and things throughout the course of the year and what can be
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  applicable to Phoenix from Martinsville and from New
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  Hampshire and all these places. And you know, quite honestly,
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  those guys at Goods are stout, right?
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  They're they're formidable opponents.
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  You know, Denny's hungry. As we know, Chase is extremely
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  fast, especially on the short runs.
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  So we're going to have to be on our toes to to make sure that we
• 4:03
  can cover them. You know, I think it's been
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  pretty obvious throughout the course of the season that the 11
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  typically is a long run car and shows up later in the races to
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  where the 19 he's kind of the opposite.
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  If he gets a short run and you know, maybe a short burst to the
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  end of the race, you know, he can be extremely dangerous.
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  So we're trying to cover all those bases and be prepared for
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  everything that shows up. Chad, I think the the most
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  underrated feat in all of professional sports and I'm
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  saying not not the greatest feat necessarily, but one of the most
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  underrated things that has ever happened in pro sports is you
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  and Jimmy winning five consecutive championships.
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  Not only is it so difficult to win five in a row, but but you
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  did it with different cars, with different rules packages, with
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  different tracks. Everything changes a little bit
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  from year to year. When you look back at the seven
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  championships, the five in a row, now here you are in
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  somewhat of a different role, but but how much does this
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  competition level change every year?
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  Are there a lot of similarities leftover from your other
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  championships? I feel like the sport is
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  definitely taking a fundamental shift as we've gone to the Gen.
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  7 car, the the level of which you can, you know, extract
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  things from the car is, is harder.
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  The teams have to work harder. The execution of the race is, is
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  really critical. Maintaining track position,
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  solid pit stops, qualifying, which all of those things were
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  important before. But if you had a really fast
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  race car in those years where we were able to win five in a row
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  or you know, take advantage of those rules back then, you know,
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  you could overcome that to where now you have to execute from
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  start to finish all throughout the weekend.
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  Otherwise you may not get the opportunity to get up there and
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  battle for it. So it's a little different now
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  from that perspective just because you can't create much of
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  A delta in overall speed from the cars.
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  And you know, you watch qualifying and if you see a a
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  three second delta from the guy that's fastest qualifier to the
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  guy that's 25th, 3/10 of a second from there, you think, oh
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  man, 3/10 of a second. That's a lot all reality.
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  That's not much time at all and not a big differential in pace.
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  And it's hard to pass. So you don't want to be that guy
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  that's just 3/10 of a second off the pace, right?
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  So because you may never get to the front, it's really been
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  tough from that perspective, I think to to understand that as a
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  whole. And we see a lot of guys that if
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  they don't qualify well, they can't get up there.
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  So I think that's probably some of the biggest differences to
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  back then as we could, we could then build cars that were faster
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  and give ourselves some margin to overcome an issue when it
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  happened. And now that's extremely
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  difficult. From your perspective, Chad, how
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  different is it going into a championship or just basically
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  going into a season as the crew chief of one car, just the crew
• 6:51
  chief of the 48, now all the sudden a bigger responsibility
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  for you overseeing all the other the entire team of of race cars
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  there. What's the biggest difference
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  for you there? Oh, that's way different.
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  It's, it's pretty interesting. I was actually talking with my
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  wife Brooke about this the other day.
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  When you're you are crew chief on a car, you can be extremely,
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  you know, selfish and focused on what it is that you've got right
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  in front of you and everything else around that car number
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  becomes kind of irrelevant. And you really just kind of
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  focus on your team, your car, what you've got going on.
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  Clearly in my role right now, I'm trying to help these guys
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  get, you know, what they need when they need it so they can go
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  out there and perform. So it's significantly different
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  from from being a crew chief has its challenges that are harder
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  and it's got its challenges that maybe aren't quite as difficult.
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  And I was talking to, I think it was Elton Sawyer last week or
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  two weeks ago, and I told him I didn't realize how difficult it
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  was to be a crew chief until I wasn't one.
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  And as you take a step back, you realize everything that these
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  guys do to be the head coach, to be the field general of their
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  respective card numbers and their teams.
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  And as you do that for 36 weeks out of the year, that's a real,
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  real tough, tough schedule. So Chad, you were kind enough on
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  several occasions to have me over there at Hendrick
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  Motorsports before the season started.
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  And I was trying to look smarter on TV by talking to you.
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  And it, it, it worked somewhat. That's a hard thing to make me
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  look smart. But when we were walking around
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  the building, Chad, I just noticed something that everybody
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  that was there that that we came across, you asked how are you
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  doing? Do you need anything?
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  Are you all right? You just took the time for every
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  individual. And I know that's kind of the
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  culture around Hendrick Motorsports, but how important
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  is that to you? It just just seemed like you had
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  such a concerning care for everybody on the team.
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  I do for sure. I think that if it wasn't for
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  our team mates and their families and the sacrifices that
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  they make, we wouldn't be in a position to be battling for the
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  championship this weekend. And you know, I wasn't always
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  maybe quite as good at doing those things that you speak of,
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  John. You know, and over many years
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  and a lot of mentorship from people that have helped me
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  throughout my career, Ray Everingham, Rick Hendrick and
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  others, you start to realize that the people are truly are
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  our most important asset. And you know, they're the ones
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  that make the differences. All the components are very,
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  very similar. Like I mentioned earlier, the
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  cars go, you know, kind of the same speed.
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  So what where do you get that differential?
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  And that's the people that are putting them together, the level
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  on which they care and the commitment on which they have.
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  And we want to make sure that we try to provide the best
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  workplace that cares for them and their families of anybody in
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  the industry. And obviously that's the way Mr.
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  Hendrick operates. And we want to try to do the
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  exact same thing through all of Hendrick Motorsports.
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  Chad, I think a lot of people might not remember that you went
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  from Hendrick to Mehling back in the day to get a job as a crew
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  chief and to hone your skills and then in order to go back to
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  Hendrick Motorsports. But that must have been a little
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  bit of a leap of faith to go over there.
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  And you certainly had a huge impact on that race team.
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  But how big was that for your career to make that move?
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  And again, maybe somebody from the outside looking in might
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  say, oh, what is he doing? But obviously you knew exactly
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  what you were doing. How big was that part of your
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  career? It wasn't.
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  That was a big shift. We had just quite honestly, we
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  had just won the championship in 1997 with Jeff Gordon and I went
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  to DEI actually right before the 1998 season, actually, the
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  Monday after we won the championship in Atlanta, I went
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  straight to work at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.
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  You know that deal. I was card chief there for
• 10:50
  Philippe Lopez and Steve Park and that that whole situation
• 10:54
  just didn't pan out too great for me and had to do some, had
• 10:59
  to make a shift from that. And right about that period of
• 11:01
  time, Ray Everingham was starting up the Dodge
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  development program and asked me to come and work for him and,
• 11:08
  and be the crew chief of the test team and what we had going
• 11:11
  on over there. And we did that and it was a
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  pretty, pretty big success of getting the Dodge up and
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  running. And that was was a lot of fun
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  and very educational for me. And they needed somebody to go
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  to Melling at that period of time.
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  And so I got asked to go over there and be a part of that deal
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  with the 92 Car, Mark Melling and Stacy Compton.
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  And you know, that was a big deal for me.
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  I didn't realize how much I needed to learn when I was at
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  the 24 Car about being a leader and being a crew chief when I
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  was there. I felt like I was ready once I
• 11:47
  got outside of HMS and realized the challenges that come along
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  with it, the hurdles that you have to do, the things that
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  really change once you've become a crew chief.
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  It was really eye opening for me.
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  But we're very fortunate to have a lot of great success.
• 12:02
  Erdie Elliott was building our engines and when we got towards
• 12:06
  the end of the 2001 season and they were looking for somebody
• 12:09
  to help Jimmie Johnson in the 48 car, that's when Mr. Hendrick
• 12:13
  and Randy Dordan and those folks started to call and asked me if
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  I would be a part of it. So it was really pretty special.
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  When I spoke to Mr. Hendrick right before I left Hendrick
• 12:22
  Motorsports in 1997, he said that he would grant me, with his
• 12:28
  permission, you know, the opportunity to leave as long as
• 12:32
  if I prove myself and he wanted me to come back, then I would
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  come back one day. So it all kind of worked out OK
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  for me. I think we all have those
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  people, Chad, that are are important to our lives.
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  But I think it's it's probably hard for US ever and we probably
• 12:46
  don't have enough time in an entire week to say how important
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  Rick Hendrick and Ray Everingham are with just with their
• 12:53
  stature, with the way they carry themselves and the way they help
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  and influence other people. I'd imagine those are the those
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  are the 2 pretty close to the top of your at the top of your
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  list in terms of influences. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Yeah. There's there's a lot of things
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  that would never replace Ray Everingham in my life, right?
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  He was a great mentor. He taught me and helped me
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  continue the work ethic that I was taught when I was young.
• 13:20
  He taught me to be aggressive with my my style and our car
• 13:25
  style and all of those things that I thought were and what are
• 13:28
  racing. And then Mr. Hendrick is
• 13:31
  definitely the one that has taught me how to grow up
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  immature and be a good father, a good teammate, a good friend.
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  And you know, those are things that just can't be replaced.
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  You always need to have mentors in your life.
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  If you don't have one, you need to try to find one because to
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  have somebody that you look up to, somebody that you respect,
• 13:49
  hopefully in an industry in which you work, that's, that's a
• 13:52
  very important role because it's hard to replace experience and
• 13:57
  it's hard to replace somebody that you respect.
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  So if you can find that person or those people in your life,
• 14:01
  you're going to you're likely to be more successful.
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  So one thing I didn't really realize, Chad, I, I talked to
• 14:07
  not the driver Jimmie Johnson, but the general manager Jimmie
• 14:10
  Johnson at Hendrick Motorsports many years ago when I was just
• 14:14
  getting started. And I remember something he said
• 14:16
  to me. And it's something that did
• 14:18
  I've, I've continued to watch and admire about you guys.
• 14:22
  Jimmy Johnson said to me said, man, you're coming from these
• 14:24
  stick and ball sports, right? Those guys practice their craft
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  a couple hours a day. Half a year in racing.
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  We work 7 to 7, seven days a week sometimes.
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  And you need to take it seriously.
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  If you're going to cover, you need to take it very seriously.
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  That was eye opening to me, Chad, and the times I've been
• 14:42
  able to spend with you and Ray over the years that that work
• 14:47
  ethic, not just anybody is cut out for that.
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  Oh, it's tough. It's a sacrifice for sure.
• 14:54
  Mike Hilton told me this a long time ago.
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  This is a young person's sport, and it truly is because the
• 15:00
  grind is hard and the grind is real.
• 15:03
  But in that same breath, I'll go back to the fact that at
• 15:06
  Hendrick Motorsports, we've got over 120 current teammates that
• 15:11
  have been here for more than 20 years.
• 15:13
  And that's really phenomenal if you think about that, right?
• 15:16
  So I'll be at, you need to be young to be able to do the grind
• 15:19
  when you're traveling every single week and everything that
• 15:22
  you do. And it's hard and it takes a
• 15:24
  true commitment. We wouldn't have the strength
• 15:26
  nor the foundation in which we have if it wasn't for the
• 15:28
  veterans that we've got here. If that doesn't, if that makes
• 15:31
  sense to you, you know, we've got to have the people that
• 15:34
  understand the processes, the culture of what it is that we
• 15:36
  have at HMS, the Y in which we do what we do.
• 15:40
  Those people are really important.
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  And albeit they may not be seven days a week and 12 hours a day
• 15:46
  every single day, very, very critical part of what it is that
• 15:49
  we do so that the folks that are on the battlefield and in the
• 15:52
  front lines can go do what they do.
• 15:55
  Chad, you got all the crown jewel victories again, the seven
• 15:58
  championships. There's almost really nothing
• 16:02
  when you look at it. There's not quite much more you
• 16:04
  can do in the world of Motorsports for the first time.
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  When you look at all the things you have accomplished, what
• 16:11
  keeps you going day in and day out?
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  You still have a very demanding job.
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  And I think a lot of people that might be a, well, a lot of
• 16:18
  lesser people might just say, OK, I've done everything, let's
• 16:21
  go off into the sunset. But but you keep grinding, man.
• 16:24
  You keep having the passion to continue winning.
• 16:29
  That's a great question. I don't, I know that I really
• 16:32
  like to compete still. I I enjoy that, although it's at
• 16:37
  a different type of competition at this point because I'm not
• 16:41
  the guy making the calls. I'm not the guy that's, you
• 16:44
  know, in the fight completely. But I really like to see our
• 16:49
  guys and gals be successful. I like helping people get the
• 16:53
  opportunity to be successful, whether that's a new young
• 16:56
  engineer, a new young driver, Corey Days, William Byron's guys
• 17:01
  like that, a new young crew chief.
• 17:03
  You know, we bring in Blake and you know, Cliff, you know, came
• 17:06
  up and Rudy and giving those guys opportunities to be
• 17:10
  successful. And and if I can help them, I
• 17:12
  want to be able to continue to do that.
• 17:13
  I enjoy that aspect of it probably even more now than I do
• 17:17
  the actual racing. You know, to see the joy that
• 17:21
  was in everybody on that 24 car when they took the checkered
• 17:24
  flag at Martinsville, Like that's something that's, it's a
• 17:29
  different feeling when you're standing 30,000 feet back and
• 17:33
  watching that happen and that celebration and the joy in their
• 17:36
  faces, that's a lot of fun for me.
• 17:38
  I, I really like that. I have a, as you know, a
• 17:42
  tremendous amount of respect for Mr. Hendrick.
• 17:44
  I want to continue to try to make this company successful
• 17:47
  from a competition standpoint, from a financial standpoint, and
• 17:51
  to continue to build our future leaders.
• 17:52
  So all of that I I still enjoy. So, yeah, I get up at, you know,
• 17:58
  6:00 in the morning and I, I hustle into HMS and I try to be
• 18:02
  here by 7:00 every morning. And we hop on airplanes on
• 18:06
  Thursdays or Fridays, whatever day it may be.
• 18:07
  And we go to the racetrack and we come back late Sunday night.
• 18:10
  We do it all over again. So it's, it's something that I
• 18:13
  do. Will I be doing it forever?
• 18:14
  Absolutely not. I was joking with the guys just
• 18:17
  a couple weeks ago. It won't be too long.
• 18:19
  And you're going to see me just roll in here about 10:00 with a
• 18:22
  cup of coffee and just wander and grunt and telling everybody
• 18:25
  little things that I don't think they're doing correctly.
• 18:27
  And then I'm just going to walk out the door by about two,
• 18:29
  right? And they're just going to have
• 18:30
  to deal with it. So but yeah, it's it's something
• 18:33
  I still enjoy. I enjoy the community.
• 18:35
  I enjoy working with NASCAR in the collaboration that we've got
• 18:37
  with them. And so there's a there's a lot
• 18:39
  of positives to what we do. You know, if you look at the
• 18:41
  athletes that we're bringing into our sport and kind of
• 18:45
  growing, those guys that were football players or baseball
• 18:48
  players and you know, basketball players and turning them into,
• 18:51
  you know, high performing athletes on the other side of
• 18:55
  pit wall, all of that is still a tremendous amount of fun for me.
• 19:00
  So Chad, there's kind of three people we told three types of
• 19:03
  people we talked to these days. There's people who hate the
• 19:05
  current point system, there's people who love it, and there's
• 19:08
  people that say, hey, we're racers, man.
• 19:09
  Tell us what the rules are at the beginning of the season and
• 19:12
  we're just going to go for it as as competitors.
• 19:15
  Where in that in that category do you fall right now?
• 19:19
  You've had a chance to see so many different well, well
• 19:22
  formats and cars and things of the like.
• 19:24
  Where are we right now in determining our championship?
• 19:28
  Yeah, I'll be honest with you, John.
• 19:30
  I don't know that I'm a super fan of the current structure,
• 19:34
  but I do go by your last. I'll go with C, You know, just
• 19:38
  just tell us the rules. Let us get to work.
• 19:41
  And that's the way that I've always operated.
• 19:43
  And I think that that's fine. If you, if you let the noise of
• 19:46
  all the other things and the what ifs, and if the
• 19:49
  championship was that way, this person would have won and all of
• 19:52
  that. If you let that noise get into
• 19:53
  your world, you won't perform at the level of which you need to.
• 19:57
  But if you were to ask me, I think that I really liked the
• 20:02
  the 10 guys for 10 races type thing.
• 20:06
  I felt like that that created a a bit of eliteness to the sport.
• 20:11
  If you were in the final ten in the points and there were 10
• 20:13
  races to go and then you had 10 races to go get it done, I felt
• 20:16
  like that created a good story within the story.
• 20:20
  It provided a unique reset, but it also gave you an opportunity
• 20:24
  to. Have a mistake, you know, right
• 20:28
  now with throwing in these wild card races, as we call them, a
• 20:32
  Talladega's and Rolls and places like that cut off races.
• 20:37
  I think that's me personally, I don't, I'm not a big fan of it.
• 20:40
  I think it's trying to manufacture something that maybe
• 20:42
  isn't appropriate. But if it was a 10 race deal and
• 20:45
  you're racing a Talladega, I think that that changes things a
• 20:48
  little bit of that makes sense. So again, is what it is.
• 20:53
  We want to do what's best for the fans.
• 20:54
  We want to make sure the fans enjoy what it is that we do.
• 20:57
  We want to be fair to the competitors and once we get the
• 21:00
  rules established we'll adjust and then we'll make our plans as
• 21:02
  best we possibly can. And I think you point you really
• 21:06
  hit on something that I think is so important, especially in
• 21:08
  racing these days and with with the AT love it or hate it,
• 21:12
  social media is around, but how difficult is it for some of
• 21:16
  these younger drivers, younger crew members?
• 21:19
  And I know you were great at it, Chad, with tuning out noise and
• 21:23
  sticking with it because if you don't it, it could, like you
• 21:26
  said, it can really affect a young person or really anybody
• 21:30
  that's trying to compete. If you again pay attention to a
• 21:34
  lot of the stuff that's out there, yeah.
• 21:39
  Ken Howes, who was a great crew chief and a mentor of mine here
• 21:44
  at Hendrick Motorsports, he had said this one time, he said if
• 21:48
  you're going to read your own press release, you have to read
• 21:51
  the bad stuff too. And at that point I realized I'm
• 21:55
  just not going to read any of it.
• 21:56
  And, and I still to this day don't really follow a lot of
• 22:00
  those things. Our guys will be a driver, you
• 22:04
  know, of a bone or Byron or somebody else will say, Oh my
• 22:07
  gosh, did you hear about XY and Z?
• 22:08
  And I'll be like Nope. Then everything about me like
• 22:10
  it's all over the media. Well, I don't I don't do it,
• 22:12
  man. You know, ultimately, if it's
• 22:15
  important to gets to me from otherwise it's just, it's just
• 22:20
  stuff to keep the things turning right and I don't feel like I've
• 22:24
  got enough to do. I don't need to be a busy bee.
• 22:26
  You know, I just, I just kind of focus on what it is that I do.
• 22:29
  I feel, I feel bad for the people that just sit there on
• 22:31
  their phones all the time and all they do is read the, the
• 22:34
  chatter and the click baits and all of that stuff.
• 22:36
  It's just, it's just a waste of time.
• 22:39
  I'm with you 100% on that, hey? And Chad, since this is my show,
• 22:43
  I get to do this kind of thing right now when we couldn't do it
• 22:45
  before. But I've had a pretty good run
• 22:48
  covering NASCAR over the years. And I really want to say a huge
• 22:53
  thank you to you. From the moment I met you, from
• 22:56
  the moment I did some of the TV shows with you, you have been a
• 23:00
  mentor to me. You have taught me so much about
• 23:04
  the sport. You've always been open about
• 23:06
  answering questions and at times they they might have been some
• 23:09
  dumb questions, but I just really appreciate everything
• 23:12
  Chad and I that just wanted to say you've had a great effect on
• 23:15
  me and that as we sort of sort of wind things down a little bit
• 23:19
  here, I just wanted the opportunity to say thank you.
• 23:22
  Absolutely, John. You know, I'm a huge fan of
• 23:25
  yours. I really, I've really
• 23:27
  appreciated working with you on our TV broadcasts that we've
• 23:30
  done and the TV shows and the things behind the scenes that,
• 23:33
  you know, other people maybe have not seen because they
• 23:36
  haven't been on regular TV. But you know, I like good people
• 23:41
  and you know, you are a good positive person and you've
• 23:44
  always been a good positive person to me and in my life.
• 23:48
  So, you know, you're a good guy. I've always enjoyed talking to
• 23:51
  you and with you and about you, whether you be doing your
• 23:55
  construction work or whatever it may be, man, we've always had
• 23:58
  something to to tell a good story about, right?
• 24:01
  And I think those relationships are important to to people in
• 24:04
  the world and especially in this industry that goes and moves so
• 24:07
  quickly. So, so Chad, you got an idea yet
• 24:10
  about how long you still want to do the grind or when you might
• 24:14
  be winding down or is that going to depend on outside factors?
• 24:19
  I don't know yet. I think I'm good for a while.
• 24:22
  I hope. If you got a line, if you got a
• 24:25
  line that I don't know about, make sure you let me know,
• 24:27
  right, If you get a tip, if you hear some fellow blood in the
• 24:30
  media. But I still enjoy what it is
• 24:34
  that I'm doing. I think that I've got a few
• 24:36
  years left in me for sure. I'm 54, I think right now.
• 24:40
  And, you know, I think that that's, that's good, man.
• 24:43
  I, I was very fortunate to have the success that I did with
• 24:45
  Jimmy and all of the partners that we had, you know, a few
• 24:49
  years ago and win those championships and, and all of
• 24:51
  that. So I was able to get some good
• 24:54
  stuff done, if that makes sense. And, and now I'm just wanting to
• 24:57
  give back and get back to the folks at Hendrick Motorsports
• 25:01
  and other people in the community and, and do some good
• 25:03
  things. You know, I'm a member of the
• 25:05
  the Speedway Children's Charity Foundation, which is great and I
• 25:08
  like that. And you know, there's just, I
• 25:11
  want to keep doing some good things.
• 25:12
  I hope for a while to come. And you guys have a wonderful
• 25:16
  platform. I try to do a lot of stuff which
• 25:19
  the children's charity as well. And when we go out to do things
• 25:23
  like that, Chad, I think again, that's why we're really
• 25:25
  fortunate about this, that from the position we're in, in terms
• 25:29
  of being involved in NASCAR, we get to go have fun and meet and
• 25:33
  hang out with a lot of great people.
• 25:34
  But at the end of all those things, it benefits kids and
• 25:38
  benefits everybody else. That's such a great win, win
• 25:40
  situation. It really is millions and
• 25:44
  millions of dollars. I can't remember the 20
• 25:47
  something million or 16,000,000 that's been given.
• 25:50
  You know, if you're just with from that group, I think we're
• 25:52
  going to give out 1.8 million in grants this year.
• 25:55
  Just phenomenal, right? Just Just phenomenal.
• 25:57
  So really proud of that. Proud to be a part of it.
• 26:00
  It's awesome working with the Smith family.
• 26:02
  I've known those guys for a long time.
• 26:04
  They're from Rockford, IL. It's same hometown as me.
• 26:06
  So we've had that that connection for many, many years.
• 26:10
  So those are the things that I want to keep keep trying to do
• 26:13
  and then being a part of because those, when it's all said and
• 26:16
  done, trying to leave the world in a better place than which we
• 26:19
  came. That's that's got to be the
• 26:21
  goal. And then I'm going to try to do
• 26:23
  that. I want to help people because I
• 26:24
  want people to want to help me when I need it.
• 26:27
  Chad, you're a champion in every sense of the word, man Thank
• 26:30
  you. Great to call you a friend and I
• 26:31
  appreciate your time today. Right back at you, John.
• 26:34
  Best you.