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Denny Hamlin Loves Racing at His Home Track · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hey, Danny, help here. Some auto Week.
• 0:03
  The fact that Long Beach has even been rumored to maybe being
• 0:07
  a venue in the future, do you like the idea of another street
• 0:11
  race or a more Rd. races or do you like the balance now on the
• 0:17
  schedule? Yeah, I personally like the
• 0:19
  balance now. You know, I think, you know, I
• 0:23
  don't know what it costs for the infrastructure of us building
• 0:26
  like a Chicago right. And surely it was a lot.
• 0:30
  It almost seems like you could build a shore track just about
• 0:32
  anywhere as well like you know, just temporary asphalt and
• 0:35
  walls, things like that like we have at the clash.
• 0:38
  So would like to see us, you know, stick to what we are
• 0:42
  versus you know going to, you know too many Rd. courses.
• 0:46
  About Parkers Fox Sports So with this race going back tonight,
• 0:49
  does how different or what are the differences between night
• 0:52
  racing here and day racing? Does the track change more or
• 0:56
  you know, is there any big difference?
• 0:58
  There hasn't been from what I you know understand and and as
• 1:02
  long as I've been doing it, it's it's still Richmond.
• 1:04
  It still wears out tires quite a bit.
• 1:07
  You know maybe the tire wears slightly less.
• 1:09
  But I would say that if anything this new tire has got more tire
• 1:15
  wear than what that our previous Richmond tires have will have or
• 1:19
  what did used to have. So I do think it will be.
• 1:24
  It's still going to be a best hailing car driver.
• 1:27
  Things like that will matter. John, New BBC Sports.
• 1:31
  So Tyler and Bubba, they've always kind of had, you know,
• 1:34
  fun putting their personalities on display, but it seems like
• 1:36
  it's kind of going to a different level under the 2311
• 1:39
  banner. Am I correct in that assessment?
• 1:41
  And if so, is that, I guess, kind of like an intentional
• 1:44
  fostering of those personalities?
• 1:47
  It's not intentional, No, I would say that you know, we
• 1:51
  pretty much let those guys kind of be themselves and the
• 1:53
  sponsors are comfortable with them, that's why they signed up
• 1:57
  with them. So no, nothing intentional, it's
• 2:01
  just kind of who they are thing. And I guess does it help from
• 2:04
  the sense of continuing to grow the sport and following long
• 2:07
  lines of you putting, you know, the entire organization on the
• 2:10
  Netflix series? Yeah, I mean certainly you know
• 2:13
  had those discussions early and when Netflix asked you know how
• 2:18
  much access would be able to be given to 2311, certainly you
• 2:24
  know I considered it very much the same as what I gave them and
• 2:28
  in the sense of that, you know to bring all the personnel
• 2:31
  around say hey it here's here's what I expect you guys to do and
• 2:36
  as as far as giving access and they they did that.
• 2:38
  So certainly it was a, you know, good for the kind of the
• 2:44
  narrative of the show. Yeah.
• 2:46
  Let's go to Lee and then to Chris.
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  You started on the pole at Martinsville four different
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  times. How important is it, since it's
• 2:54
  a short track, since the big box is all involved, to win the pole
• 2:58
  for that race? For Martinsville, yeah, it's big
• 3:03
  at Martinsville, for sure. It's it's not as big as Phoenix,
• 3:07
  but it's, you know, it's close in that vicinity.
• 3:10
  I don't know how many pole winners have started you know
• 3:16
  have have finished and 1st it's, I don't know the numbers exactly
• 3:20
  but certainly it's a it's a it's an advantage especially if you
• 3:25
  have a good pit crew that you know it's just very solid not
• 3:27
  going to make mistakes. You know you most likely going
• 3:30
  to gain a spot or two each time you you go in the pit area.
• 3:34
  So it's it's certainly an advantage.
• 3:36
  Chris Powell, Couch Coach Live. Danny, obviously you have four
• 3:40
  wins here at the Raceway. Now obviously this is your
• 3:44
  quote, UN quote, home track. What's your thoughts of coming
• 3:48
  this week and potentially getting your fifth win this
• 3:51
  week? Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm excited
• 3:53
  for this race all week. I've been really excited to get
• 3:56
  here and you know, kind of see where we stack up and certainly
• 4:00
  with the history we've had over the last three to four races
• 4:03
  here at Richmond being in contention, I feel pretty
• 4:07
  strongly about it. So I would say that this is one
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  that you know certainly historically we've always been
• 4:13
  good at or I've always been good at GG Rs been really good at.
• 4:17
  And then you know with the momentum that it seems like our
• 4:19
  cars have and our manufacturer, hopefully we can just tack on
• 4:24
  that extra speed that we've we we've shown here lately.
• 4:29
  Good Matt Weaver. Matt Weaver, Sports 9 With the
• 4:32
  sports betting floodgates kind of opening here this year, have
• 4:36
  you put any thoughts towards like the potential positives
• 4:39
  with the the fact that it has more people paying attention,
• 4:41
  they're invested in it, but also the potential pitfalls like
• 4:44
  we've kind of been reminded of with like Shohei Watani this
• 4:47
  week. Yeah, I mean they're they're
• 4:50
  certainly positives for the sport on it.
• 4:53
  It it's certainly if you look at most of sports fans that watch
• 4:57
  any given game, usually it's because they have some sort of
• 5:00
  action on it. It it's it's you only have one
• 5:04
  home team or or favorite team that you root for where there's
• 5:08
  dozens of other games going on and this is talking about other
• 5:11
  other leagues. So when you're sitting at home
• 5:14
  and you're checking to see what game is on, most likely it's not
• 5:18
  your favorite team. So how are you going to have an
• 5:20
  invested interest in those other teams that you're watching?
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  It's through sports betting. So I think that it certainly has
• 5:28
  contributed to the rise of other sports and and you know could do
• 5:33
  the same thing for NASCAR as well.
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  And then as far as the potential second season of the Netflix
• 5:38
  show, you gave so much of your, you know, home and team and and
• 5:42
  yourself to that production. So I'm curious, when it comes
• 5:45
  short of maybe like a championship run, what would you
• 5:47
  like to see that show focus on, regardless of whether you're a
• 5:51
  featured part of it or not? I think just really kind of
• 5:56
  getting into the technical aspect of it of, you know, what
• 6:00
  you saw is kind of the drivers, their personalities and whatnot.
• 6:05
  What you didn't see is like what, what makes those cars go
• 6:10
  around in circles and what makes this driver better than the
• 6:12
  other or what makes this car better than the other?
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  I think those are important stories to tell because, you
• 6:20
  know, at a basic level I think they hit all the marks really
• 6:23
  well. But it's maybe getting a little
• 6:25
  bit more technical in into, you know, why this team or why this
• 6:31
  driver might be better than others.
• 6:33
  I'd like to see that. Try to get three more questions
• 6:37
  in here. We're going to go to Jordan
• 6:39
  Madison and finish with Hank. Jordan Bianchi, The athletic as
• 6:43
  NASCAR looks to put the schedule together for next year and
• 6:45
  they're having these conversations.
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  What have you given any input on where you'd like to see NASCAR
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  go? That they don't ask us any of
• 6:53
  that stuff, they just come out with the schedule.
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  So no. More you really like to see next
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  year? Or.
• 7:00
  Any changes you'd like to see? Not offhand, I haven't really
• 7:04
  thought of it first hand, but certainly you know more ovals.
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  And winning at Martinsville is always special for you,
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  obviously for numerous reasons. But it's also a track where
• 7:14
  Hendrick Motorsports puts a lot of emphasis for numerous reasons
• 7:16
  as where at Martinsville, Yeah. And so is beating them at
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  Martinsville carry any extra, you know, meaning or anything to
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  you? It doesn't.
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  It? You know it obviously means a
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  lot to them for you know, really important reasons.
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  But you know if you're able to beat them, which doesn't happen
• 7:35
  too often at that track, certainly you know you've got
• 7:39
  kind of everything going, you're right, you you got to have that
• 7:41
  pit crew because you got to qualify.
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  Well all those things really matter And so you know the short
• 7:48
  track at at Martinsville is just a beast in its own.
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  You really can't correlate it to any other short track.
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  We don't you know heavily break like that.
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  At any other short track that I can think of, you know, tight
• 8:02
  corners, it's it's just very different than even the the
• 8:05
  flowy like Richmond type short tracks.
• 8:08
  And so yeah, they've just been good there for forever, right?
• 8:13
  I mean, even before I was in the Cup Series, they they were good.
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  Jeff Gordon and those guys were dominating it.
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  And then Jimmie Johnson came along and he's took over and
• 8:22
  started dominating it. So it's just a track that they
• 8:25
  got figured out and maybe it was a track that they tested at way,
• 8:29
  way back in the day because you used to be able to test just
• 8:31
  anytime you wanted to. And maybe it was a track that
• 8:33
  they spent a lot of emphasis on. But certainly, you know,
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  emotions are probably always high for those guys going into a
• 8:41
  Martinsville weekend and that just adds a little pressure to
• 8:43
  the drivers to know they got to step up.
• 8:47
  Madison Moore, ABC 8 News Over here, back here, Sorry, didn't
• 8:53
  you know you're racing in your hometown this weekend?
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  How does it? How are you feeling about that?
• 8:57
  Yeah, I I love it. You know, this is a track always
• 9:00
  where we're starting to get into the swing of the tracks, where
• 9:06
  you know, we're going to be contenders every week.
• 9:08
  So this is this kind of kicks off that part of the schedule.
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  So I think we all kind of know where we're at now, right?
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  We're six races in. We know what our strengths are,
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  what our weaknesses are, and now we just have to capitalize.
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  When we come to tracks like this that we're always contenders.
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  It's going to be an execution game.
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  It's not going to be a speed game.
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  We'll have that. It's, you know, making sure we
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  execute. And with the pit crew I've got
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  this year, they've been on it. I feel like our speed is as good
• 9:37
  as it's ever been. We run the top five more than we
• 9:40
  ever have. Even though might not finish
• 9:43
  there quite yet, I I feel pretty good about it, so I'm anxiously
• 9:49
  awaiting the next hour. We'll finish in the middle here
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  with Hank. Debbie How if at all, does
• 9:58
  having a win, his voice carries? Well, yeah.
• 10:01
  How, if at all, does having a win already change or approach
• 10:05
  me to eat? It doesn't really change my
• 10:07
  approach. I mean, I think if I were kind
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  of a a notorious bubble guy who is always kind of on the bubble,
• 10:13
  then it would certainly give you some relief.
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  But certainly IA team like this should never even be discussed
• 10:19
  on the bubble any year. So I I don't treat any different
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  other than we just we have certain bonus point goals
• 10:28
  throughout the season And so you know for us we would like to
• 10:32
  have be 14 points in the next three races, have 14 you know
• 10:37
  we've got six now so we we need to get on it.