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Who's Better: Rusty Wallace or Denny Hamlin? · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Hello everyone and welcome back to the Kenny Wallace Show
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  brought to you by Jags, the leader in high performance
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  aftermarket car parts. Remember to go to jags.com and
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  they are telling me that they have Jeep parts and truck parts
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  in and that is the big deal right now at Jags.
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  And of course they have everything to fix your hot rod
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  up. All right, a little surprise
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  today. There's the leader of our pack,
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  Charlie Marlo. Charlie, how you doing?
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  I'm doing great, Herm. How about yourself?
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  I'm still excited that you have that Dover background.
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  Look at look at that crowd. There's so many people in the
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  grandstands. Why?
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  Yeah, they look good. Well, Charlie, listen, we have
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  something brewing that we thought was interesting, and I
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  am going to set the parameters, and I want your opinion on this.
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  This is going to go where nobody thinks we're going to go.
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  And it was you. It was you that came up with
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  this. And you shocked me because you
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  know more about racing now than I know.
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  So my brother Rusty. Hey, Herman, you always got to
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  say my brother Rusty, well, it's Charlie's fault because he's the
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  one that OK. Rusty Wallace.
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  The great Rusty Wallace. All right, 55 NASCAR Cup wins,
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  706 races, NASCAR Cup champion, 349 top tens, 36 poles.
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  So it's fair to say that Rusty Wallace is great, and he is
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  great, 'cause he's in the Hall of Fame.
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  He's a champion. 55 wins. Now here's where the fun comes
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  in, and this is where we need all the people.
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  We need you to respond right here.
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  Denny Hamlin, OK Rusty retired from NASCAR 50.
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  Denny Hamlin is 43 right now. And in the past, this is where
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  we've seen Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Bobby
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  Labonte, All these NASCAR drivers start retiring around
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  this age. Listen to these stats, how
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  eerily identical they are. So Denny Hamlin, 658 races.
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  How many less races is that Charlie than Rusty Wallace?
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  I believe it is 48. OK, so Denny Hamlin is 48 less
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  races than Rusty Wallace. Denny's got 54 wins.
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  Rusty Wallace got 55. Rusty got 36 polls.
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  Denny Hamlin got 41. Danny Hamlin got 343 top threes,
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  Rusty 349. I'm going to tell you what, Top
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  10s. OK, so Rusty's got 349, top 10s.
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  Danny Hamlin has 343. I mean, these numbers are eerily
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  single digit off. Except the starts.
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  That's pretty crazy. So the question is who will end
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  up being the best statistically capital statistically?
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  Who will end up being the best statistically?
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  And Charlie, my question you is this, will Denny Hamlin win that
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  championship? First of all, I want Denny
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  Hamlin to win the championship. Isn't it starting to feel like
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  this could be his year? I don't know.
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  Maybe it's because he's always in the news and he's got the
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  podcast and all that. Yeah, when I was just, I was on
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  Wikipedia and I always go and look at some of these drivers
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  and I could not this was this was a month or so ago.
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  I could not believe how close Denny Hamlin and your brother
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  Rusty Wallace are in terms of those stats.
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  It's it's pretty Dang crazy how close they are.
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  I guess it also comes down to how much do you look at the
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  championship now? In his, in his press conference
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  the other day, Denny said. I mean, what was the quote?
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  I think I'm. A better driver.
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  Than guys, than some guys that have won a championship.
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  And he said, look, I'd rather take sixty wins and no
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  championships. Easy over 1 championship and
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  twenty wins. Now this is different because he
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  and Rusty have the same amount of wins.
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  I think it's fair to say that he needs the championship until he
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  wins the championship. I don't think it's fair to say
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  he's better than Rusty now. If he finishes with 65 wins,
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  maybe Can you can you open that conversation back up?
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  But I think Denny needs a championship to say that he had
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  a better career than Rusty Walls.
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  What do you think? Well, I want to say this, Denny
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  Hamlin is a lot like Rusty because they both ran their
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  mouth. It's in the Wallace genes as
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  Wallace's. We can't stop talking Rusty.
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  Now I think it's funny, Rusty's like, I want to be like Rodger
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  Penske. I want to stay under the radar.
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  And I'm like, when the hell did what?
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  You know, 'cause Rusty was the greatest sound bite in NASCAR,
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  it was Daryl Walter. Rusty Rusty would talk and talk,
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  and hell, he got suspended for saying the SHIT word.
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  And so it's funny that Rusty Wallace and Denny Hamlin are
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  eerily identical right now. I agree with you.
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  Denny has to win a championship to be better than Rusty.
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  However, Denny's 43. He has the ability and he has
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  the time to be better than Rusty.
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  I love my brother more than life, but I do want, I do want
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  Denny to win the championship because I feel he deserves it.
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  And I got to tell you, I feel like Denny Hamlin was accurate
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  as all get out. We went over this with the great
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  Michael Andretti. Michael LED as many laps as
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  anybody during the Indy 500, and for one reason, the Indy 500 let
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  Michael Andretti down. So when you look at Denny
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  Hamlin, you know, I, I mean, I feel like Denny Hamlin's right
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  in line there with the great Mark Martin.
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  Mark Martin was going to win the championship and his motor blew
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  up. It it flames.
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  It was one of the most memorable championship losses in NASCAR
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  history. The motor was built by Robert
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  Yates. It was this big effort.
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  So I do agree with Denny that sometimes championships are
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  meant to be. I don't think it makes or breaks
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  his career, but who is better, Rusty Wallace or Denny Hamlin?
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  I'm going to go with you. Denny's got to win that
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  championship to be better than Rusty.
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  That's just my opinion. I don't think if Denny wins 60
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  wins, I still don't think that makes him better than Rusty.
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  But Denny, right now, if he keeps it up, they got all this
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  athleticism, all these creams and all these things.
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  Michael Jordan, he could go to 50 and it wouldn't be nothing.
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  Yeah. And you probably saw this the
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  other day where Harvick interviewed Denny and the Joe
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  Gibbs guys and had the question everybody on social media was
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  talking about who had the better career or whatever it was Dale
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  Junior or Chase Elliott. And I think it it's fair to say
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  Dale Junior is an iconic person in the sport now.
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  If you wanna make the argument Chase had a better career.
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  He's obviously younger, but I think also the Earnhardt name
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  Dale Junior, what he does for the sport as an owner in the
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  media. And I'll spin this to Rusty
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  Wallace. I just think that your era,
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  Rusty's era, the Dale Senior era, it's so beloved that I
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  mean, Rusty Wallace is an iconic name and I don't know if the
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  drivers nowadays will ever match, whether it's Rusty, Mark
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  Martin, Dale Senior, you know what I'm saying?
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  I just feel like the sport was different, it was bigger, it was
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  less corporate and even though I think Denny Hamlin is the best
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  thing going, I think he's the most interesting person in
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  NASCAR right now. I still don't feel like in terms
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  of cachet, in terms of the world knowing these people, I don't
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  think it's the same as Rusty and Dale senior and Mark Martin in
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  the 80s and 90s. Jeff Gord, I got to say that we
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  will never see those iconic times ever again.
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  Rusty Wallace could not walk down the street.
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  Rusty Wallace and Dale Senior had to have sheriff's.
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  They had to have guards. They had to have security when
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  they would do autograph sessions.
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  Now you get an autograph session, it's over in one hour.
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  We had to shut our autograph sessions off at 2 hours.
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  You had, you had people lined up around these blocks, I mean, a
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  mile long. So I I like that take from you
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  because if you're going to say Chase Elliott or Dale Earnhardt
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  Junior man, I'm going to tell you what, Dale Junior is just
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  iconic to the maximum peak. And here's why.
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  Because even though he didn't do what his dad did, he did what
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  his dad did successfully. You know, Dale Junior's got 20
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  something wins. He didn't win the championship.
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  But once again, you know, do you.
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  I mean, it's like it's like Dan Marino, you know, is Dan Marino,
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  is he not a good quarterback because he didn't win the Super
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  Bowl. He's legendary.
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  But here we are again talking about it.
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  I mean I know quarterbacks that have won the Super Bowl and you
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  never heard from them again. Don't even know their names.
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  I think I look at the Washington Redskins.
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  What was it Doug Williams, he he he he won the Super Bowl but he
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  was in and out. But only I remember his name
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  because it's it's a stat but if you're going to if you're going
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  to say Dan Marino Doug Williams, come on.
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  And and I think that's where Dale Junior definitely was
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  during that iconic era. And I think with with Dale,
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  maybe this isn't just about driving and I'm opening up the
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  conversation into something different, but I was thinking of
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  also iconic status. That's why I brought up Rusty.
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  But Dale Junior, to me, what I'm 42 about Dale's, I think 49 to
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  me it was also Dale Junior was MTV Cribs.
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  Dale Junior was was had on backwards.
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  Dale Junior was the Redbud. Car.
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  Dale Junior was cool. Dale Junior brought people my
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  age to know about NASCAR that didn't care about NASCAR.
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  And that's where I think it differs from a Chase Elliott and
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  even a Denny Hamlin, who, again, I love.
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  I think Denny Hamlin is the best thing in NASCAR right now.
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  He keeps it freaking interesting, but it's still on a
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  different level than those guys from the 80s and 90s.
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  And Charlie Model, That's why you're really good at what you
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  do. Well, race fans, let's end it
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  there. I forgot about that era.
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  You hit a home run, Grand Slam. You're exactly right.
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  Dale Junior was not afraid to go out and do it.
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  I don't know what Jeff Gordon's got on going on there.
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  I texted Jeff Gordon. He goes, Kenny Wallace, I love
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  you like a brother, but it's just not time to come on the
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  Kenny conversation. So whatever's going on over
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  there at Hendrick Motorsport, they don't want their drivers to
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  do anything. Hey, I won the race.
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  Goodbye. All right, listen, everybody,
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  please, like and subscribe. Give us your opinion.
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  We both say right now that Rusty Wallace is a better person.
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  Champion. What am I trying to say,
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  Charlie? What is he just just what do we
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  think? Figure.
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  How about figure? OK, figure we we think we think
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  Russell Wallace is is a better figure right now with his
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  championship, but Denny Hamlin has the opportunity to kick
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  Rusty's butt. I don't want to see that because
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  I love my brother a lot. So respond right here.
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  Tell us what you think. And we know that Denny's only
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  43, but that's OK right now their stats are identical,
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  except Rusty's got a championship.
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  All right, everybody. Remember, we are in podcast
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  form. We're on iTunes and Spotify
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  until the next time Charlie and I debate something like this.
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  We'll see you next time.