Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Ross Chastain on Ryan Blaney Being Mad at Him: "I Do Not Care"

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Ross Chastain on Ryan Blaney Being Mad at Him: "I Do Not Care" · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  You raised Blaney totally hard. I get it.
• 0:02
  You're racing for the win. Like what's your mindset there
• 0:06
  and and does any of it play into beyond?
• 0:09
  I want to win this race. I'm a Chevy guy.
• 0:12
  He's a Ford Racing Chevys. Absolutely, yeah.
• 0:16
  It was in every thought, every corner, every throttle
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  application, every brake input, every downshift, upshift, all
• 0:22
  parts of the lap. I was not going to crash him.
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  I was not going to use my front bumper.
• 0:29
  Side fenders, anything. Dirty air.
• 0:33
  Different story. Yeah, I'm going to and I'm going
• 0:37
  to keep the lead because that's everything.
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  So before the 2nd to last run, I thought we had them covered.
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  And then, you know, coming into stage two, the 17 drove by me.
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  I couldn't hold them off, made some adjustments, got too loose.
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  We were too tight. They were too loose.
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  They were too tight again when Blaney and the 19 were right
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  there and that last caution came out.
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  And I just asked Phil and and our group to please let me turn
• 1:02
  better, make the car turn better without giving up any rear grip.
• 1:04
  And then we were able to drive away.
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  So I just knew that if I could hold him off, you know, and he
• 1:09
  got by me one time, was able to get back by him, was not going
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  to run him up, was not going to pinch him up.
• 1:14
  Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care.
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  I do not care. I did not care then.
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  I do not Care now I'm here to race him.
• 1:23
  I'm not going to wreck him and. I gave him the bottom most
• 1:27
  times. One time I was inside of him was
• 1:28
  that after he got by me, I crossed back over into three and
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  I made sure to wrap the bottom like I'm not going to slide up
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  and pinch him at all. It's in my mind the entire time
• 1:38
  for sure. Anger.
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  He gets angry. It's OK.
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  I've known him for a decade and I could see him moving around in
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  the car and the car is going straight and I can see his
• 1:48
  colorful suit and gloves. I didn't see.
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  Apparently there was I was #1. I don't know.
• 1:55
  But I did see. I could see my movement when I
• 1:58
  checked the camera and I was like, he is, he is angry.
• 2:03
  And then yeah, the caution came out and we made the right
• 2:06
  adjustment and we were able to drive away.
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  So yeah, it's nothing other than wanting to win and wanting to
• 2:12
  hold track position and he could run second and win the
• 2:14
  championship. He did it last year.
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  He could do it again, and he ultimately did it.
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  Nate Ryan, NBC Sports Following up on a lot of that, Ross, were
• 2:21
  you surprised given everything that was at stake for him, that
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  he's running in the back of you and really forcing the issue or?
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  I mean, you said you've raced him so long.
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  Is he just, is he always that aggressive?
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  Were you expecting that or? Yeah, no, I didn't expect him to
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  throttle up down in one and two and and drive square into me.
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  But these cars allow that. They they do in the 19.
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  He didn't care about the 19. He probably just seen the 19 win
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  over me. I don't know, but yes.
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  Unexpected and that last caution couldn't have came out like at a
• 2:50
  better time. I was so thankful, but didn't
• 2:53
  account for guys on 2 tires. Didn't expect to be second row.
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  Thought I'd be front row again kind of no matter what.
• 2:59
  So yeah, didn't. Not surprised by it, but because
• 3:04
  it's him and he does that and these cars allow that.
• 3:08
  They allow, like, just inconsequential hits.
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  But they also don't affect the front car as much either.
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  Like it, I slid, but I was able to hold the lead and.
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  Then and your answer to Jenna struck by the fact that like hey
• 3:22
  I'm I'm here to race. I mean I'm not going to give an
• 3:24
  inch like that's how you always race.
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  But the ethos of this race for the non championship four guys
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  has been, as Steven Dart would say, racing with mittens that
• 3:33
  like it almost seems like that's why we've had nine consecutive
• 3:38
  winners who were champions until you.
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  You told Dave Burns out there that, like, you were proud of
• 3:43
  winning this race because you've done something it's never been
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  done before. Do you feel like you also kind
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  of set a new standard for maybe how to race the championship
• 3:49
  four guys today? Or you're proud of that as well?
• 3:52
  Well, I'm proud that we won. And I watched practice back
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  yesterday morning, Saturday morning, and I heard Dale and
• 4:00
  her junior say, like Ross will be won, they'll get up and race
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  these guys. And I I paused it and I was
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  sitting there and I'm like, what would I do that?
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  I don't know. That seems kind of aggressive.
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  And then I clicked in and I just like, I didn't really have an
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  answer for myself. Like I asked myself, would I
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  race them? And I was like, well, I'll race
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  them, but would I like he was like he's going to race them
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  aggressive. He'd be one that'll do it.
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  If there's anybody that'll do it, he will.
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  Or however he said it. And I was like, I don't know,
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  kind of undetermined. And then I got out there and I
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  was like, I'm doing it. I am racing them but but the
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  difference was is I'm not going to use my front.
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  Or front front bumper front fenders like side I'm not going
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  to pinch him up into the wall. I'm not going to fence like I
• 4:43
  didn't mean to fence Larson at Darlington but I did it like I
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  was not going to do that. I was not going to drive into
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  the corner and when he cleared me down into one like I was like
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  I'm not going to try to like make it anything other than
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  cross him over and do it clean and then have leverage in the
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  three and wrap the bottom and and it it worked and I was like
• 5:00
  holy cow like he passed me. He's faster but I got right back
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  by him. He did not, I don't think led
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  the only thing. He led the lap, so.
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  Yeah, in my mind the whole time and proud of the precision
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  driving we all did. You know, the only contact was
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  him, just in a moment of anger, just throttling up in one and
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  two to drive square into my back bumper.
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  Other than that, no contact. And you know, that's that's what
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  I'm here to do. Come up here to Lee.
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  Ross, I'm just kind of curious, ending this year on a high note.
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  I mean, you, do you kind of think of what could have been if
• 5:45
  the years were reversed and you were in the championship four
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  last year? I mean, does it, does it make
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  that any easier coming out of here with a win, knowing that
• 5:55
  it's possible that it's capable, that you can do that if you get
• 5:57
  to the Championship 4 again? For me, it's an evolution of of
• 6:02
  track house and GM with this car, right.
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  It's it's year two. We finished up year 2 with this
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  car. We came out so fast last year.
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  We found it in that the last Charlotte Oval test and then we
• 6:14
  came out to Rd. courses everywhere and we won on road
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  courses, super Speedway. We didn't win on the Oval last
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  year. We won there this year.
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  We sustained that level of competition we've had our fair
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  share of. 8th place days and 18th place days and sometimes
• 6:29
  22nd place days like straight up.
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  So yeah, I it it's just a continuation in a in a we're
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  staying here. We're not going away like we're
• 6:40
  disruptive on track usually by my driving like but it goes with
• 6:46
  the disruptiveness of Justin and Pitbull and our leadership team
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  doing things different and and having a a real presence in
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  Nashville and us. Keep like holding events there
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  and keeping a presence area on Broadway for something outside
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  of Charlotte and Concord and the Lake Norman area, our shops in
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  Concord, all of our employees are there except for Justin and
• 7:09
  the brain trust of the marketing side.
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  So yeah, I I just love that it's we're staying here and we're
• 7:17
  continuing to be fast. Our processes are working and we
• 7:21
  trust them and we continue to see it through.
• 7:24
  Got it off again. Wolfgang Monza from Germany
• 7:27
  Ranch Book Press Agency. First of all, congratulations.
• 7:31
  I hope my question is not too personal.
• 7:33
  Who? I was confused at the podium
• 7:35
  ceremony after your race and you're winning?
• 7:38
  You smashed the watermelon. Can you explain why?
• 7:41
  Yes, Wolfgang, good to see you. I think the last time we talked,
• 7:45
  it might have been at this podium in 2019.
• 7:48
  I was also very excited about the future and then obviously.
• 7:51
  It didn't come to fruition, but I'm having.
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  I don't. I guess I was up here last year
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  for championship stuff and I'm having flashbacks to that day
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  and it's good to have you back. Yeah, I'm an eighth generation
• 8:01
  watermelon farmer and anytime I can put agriculture on a bright
• 8:07
  light stage like this with these incredibly bright lights, as you
• 8:11
  guys go in and out of focus, for me it is.
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  It's what I want to do there. We're a small part of the 1%
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  that's in charge of feeding the other 99% of us that rely on
• 8:23
  farmers to to eat every day. And you know if it's smashing a
• 8:27
  watermelon on the front stretch and then in Victory Lane, it's
• 8:31
  just to shine a bright light and and promote agriculture.
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  And hopefully when on Sunday, sell on Monday, we sell some
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  watermelons tomorrow and then my platform is incredible.
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  So I get to. Kind of.
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  Obviously, we have our corporate partners at track house is able
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  to, you know, put on my car and then I also get to do what I
• 8:52
  want. It's my life, it's my career,
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  it's my platform. And so, you know, something like
• 8:58
  bringing farmers to the racetrack next year starting at
• 9:00
  the Daytona 500 with our AGDA Asphalt program is just a simple
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  way for me that I can just tell farmers, thank you.
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  Let them enter on agdaasphalt.com.
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  And they can come enjoy the races.
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  We had some. We had a a bear.
• 9:14
  Seminus, now at Seedway Guy with his kid this weekend.
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  Kid had never been to a race. That kid is hooked.
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  And that's the same way with other farmers that will be here
• 9:23
  next year. So yeah, I just want to promote
• 9:26
  what my family's done for a really long time.
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  Most of our most of the families in the room, if you go back far
• 9:31
  enough, all of y'all your family's farmed at some point.
• 9:36
  They were smart enough to get out of it OK.
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  There was some not so good days and my granddad remembers them.
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  But for my dad's generation and my generation, it's been better
• 9:45
  days. And these, I believe, are the
• 9:47
  good old days. So promoting agriculture is top
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  of mind for me. So yeah, smashing is just what I
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  do and I'm going to keep doing it, hopefully for a really long
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  time. That's right.
• 10:01
  That's right. The the crowd.
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  I was a little worried that they might be focused on Blaney.
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  I went down to three and four where NASCAR wanted me to go.
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  And I did a burnout by them. Me and Blaney did burnouts by
• 10:11
  each other. That was pretty cool.
• 10:12
  I was worried we were going to run into each other.
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  And then yeah, the reaction was just as strong as the other
• 10:17
  wins. And and I'm really proud of
• 10:20
  that. I'm really proud that people,
• 10:22
  people see that how much I I care.
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  Whenever we win every race, there's one right inside the
• 10:29
  hauler look. Yeah, we've got a bit of a rough
• 10:34
  patch, so it's been in there a little bit, but it.
• 10:37
  Watermelon has never tasted as sweet as it does in Victory
• 10:40
  Lane, and I'm gonna gnaw this thing all the way down.
• 10:44
  Yeah, that's right. It's a great koozie.
• 10:49
  Go over here. Ross Trey Matthews, Cronkite
• 10:52
  News, PBS. You described a little while ago
• 10:56
  how you were personally racing Blaney, how you were going for
• 10:59
  the win and you didn't care that he was racing for a
• 11:02
  championship. But I want to ask you like how
• 11:05
  would you describe Blaney's race style, whether it was this race
• 11:09
  or previous competitions that you may have had now that he is
• 11:13
  the the champion? Why do you want to?
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  Maybe I said it wrong earlier, but I I do care.
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  I I care, arguably out there more than more than anybody.
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  Because I was not going to put him in a position to to damage
• 11:28
  his car into any way or put his car in a bad spot other than
• 11:31
  keep him behind me. And as long as he's behind me,
• 11:33
  that's all I cared about. You know, we're all, we're all
• 11:39
  different. He, he reacts physically in the
• 11:42
  car. He might I mean he says stuff on
• 11:44
  the radio for sure. But he, I just have known him
• 11:46
  that he, he, you can see him, he can.
• 11:49
  They wear bright neon yellow so you can see it easily.
• 11:54
  You know I I just, yeah, I think that I I believe that I cared
• 11:58
  arguably more than him. He didn't have to pass me to win
• 12:00
  the championship. He could stay right there.
• 12:02
  There was no other competitor for points within any sight of
• 12:08
  me. It was the 19 the 12 and the one
• 12:10
  third, second, first. So yeah I I I'd say I I cared
• 12:14
  more than anybody. As long as he was running
• 12:18
  second. He didn't need to run first.
• 12:20
  He didn't run first last year, and he.
• 12:23
  You know his teammate won and and now he didn't.
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  He could run second again and win championship.
• 12:29
  Cooper runs. Blazeradioonline.com over here
• 12:31
  Ross how difficult was it to just run pretty much from yellow
• 12:35
  line to the wall today? It don't seem like everywhere
• 12:38
  was working. You were on the bottom, you were
• 12:39
  on the top. How difficult was that?
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  And also just, you know, not only racing but fending off all
• 12:43
  those guys and all those different lanes.
• 12:46
  Yeah, the track changed a lot and we had speed all weekend.
• 12:50
  We knew that. And and as we moved around in
• 12:53
  the race, I was when I started the the first run, I could see
• 12:56
  the people in front of me moving up.
• 12:58
  So I moved up with Harvick and with a few of the guys by the
• 13:01
  way. That was incredible to race with
• 13:02
  him like that like restart side by side with him.
• 13:07
  And his last race was just I was I actually got a little
• 13:10
  emotional in the car. I was like looking over and then
• 13:12
  and then we were coming to the restart and I'm warming my
• 13:14
  tires. I'm like.
• 13:16
  I don't feel sorry for him. Go pass him like it's a race and
• 13:20
  drove off into turn one and was able to get the lead.
• 13:22
  But yeah, we would start on the bottom and then I was, I asked
• 13:28
  once I had the lead and had the front couple spots when they
• 13:30
  were moving up, when guys were moving up off the bottom and
• 13:35
  Brandon and Phil were giving me updates of when it was a little
• 13:37
  early when was they were already half the field was up there so.
• 13:42
  Yeah it was. It was our car was versatile.
• 13:44
  I could go places. I could place it a little half
• 13:47
  turn of brake bias to tighten me up as I went throughout the run.
• 13:50
  And yeah, it was I could place it and still make speed.
• 13:56
  There's been times here at Phoenix with this group that our
• 13:59
  first race here in the 42 car in 2021 was my first race with Phil
• 14:03
  Surgeon and my engineers and we were the slowest car into Turn 1
• 14:08
  by far. Like I couldn't get in the
• 14:09
  corner. I had to slow down and.
• 14:12
  I I'd argue that there weren't many people faster than us today
• 14:15
  and I could place it where I wanted to.
• 14:18
  Good to Jonathan. Over here on the left.
• 14:23
  Jonathan Field, the Raisin Experts.
• 14:26
  What a season. First of all, I I know you've
• 14:29
  faced some challenges. What is it like to just put AI
• 14:33
  guess an exclamation on the exclamation point on the season
• 14:36
  with what you did today? Indescribable.
• 14:41
  It's it's honestly hard to put into words what this means, what
• 14:45
  winning in Cup feels like. I cannot describe it.
• 14:50
  I cannot describe the the ripple effects this will have going
• 14:55
  into the offseason preparing for next year.
• 14:59
  You know Justin Marks hired me, track house hired me, and Justin
• 15:03
  knew who I was. I've wrecked Justin Marks in the
• 15:06
  Xfinity. Races before Daniel Suarez has
• 15:09
  wrecked Justin Marks in Xfinity. Races before he knew who he was
• 15:13
  hiring, when he put us two behind the wheel of his two cars
• 15:17
  and you know, through all the stuff he stayed with us.
• 15:21
  There was definitely public stuff that I wouldn't have said.
• 15:26
  But he's my boss and he gets to say it.
• 15:28
  He owns the team and I got. To be the employee at that
• 15:32
  point, as an independent contractor, I have to listen to
• 15:35
  what he says if I want to drive the car.
• 15:37
  And so Y'all got to watch that. Y'all got to watch me learn
• 15:40
  through that process. Our sport is incredibly invasive
• 15:43
  for professional and personal things that people say if they
• 15:48
  say them publicly, which y'all will put a microphone in front
• 15:51
  of us 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if we'll allow it.
• 15:54
  So it is. It is so, so good to end this
• 15:59
  season with all the stuff, right?
• 16:02
  And I the best I can describe it, just a lot of stuff.
• 16:05
  And that's Cup racing. I'm going to make mistakes and
• 16:08
  they knew that. Hiring me and through the good
• 16:11
  days of winning and the bad days of crashing outgoing for wins or
• 16:15
  spinning people out. Ultimately they're there for me
• 16:18
  and this is a great way to to go enjoy the offseason.
• 16:25
  OK. We'll take one more.
• 16:26
  We'll go to John. John Newby, NBC Sports So I
• 16:33
  asked, Christopher asked William Byron, Kyle Larson earlier, You
• 16:36
  know, just about the future of the sport.
• 16:38
  You know the the guys that'll keep contending for
• 16:41
  championships year after year after year.
• 16:44
  Is it exciting for you knowing that you know will potentially
• 16:47
  be in this group and that you want it?
• 16:48
  You know some of the most important tracks you need to?
• 16:53
  Yes to say. My name next to guys like Kyle
• 16:59
  Larson. It's hard for me to believe it.
• 17:04
  It's hard for me to understand it, comprehend it.
• 17:07
  Early last year we won at Coda. We walked back in the shop, the
• 17:11
  shop that was CGR, the shop that I've been at for so many good
• 17:14
  things of getting the jobs, winning the Xfinity race and
• 17:17
  it's all gone down. The third Cup driver in the 77
• 17:20
  with Spire. Now we're coming in as a 42
• 17:23
  drive. Like for those when.
• 17:25
  Win parties. I was, I had a bit of like
• 17:27
  imposter syndrome or something. I didn't really believe it and
• 17:30
  I'm having a bit of it now whenever you'd like.
• 17:31
  Look long term and you're like, you're saying like maybe I'm
• 17:34
  going to be competing. That's pretty wild.
• 17:38
  But I feel like, yes, we're going to celebrate this.
• 17:40
  And obviously we have no racing. I think my next race now is
• 17:43
  maybe Speed Fest at at Watermelon Capital Speedway in
• 17:46
  January. I got some time to celebrate,
• 17:50
  but a lot of work to do. I mean, there was a lot of
• 17:52
  tracks this year. I did not show up.
• 17:54
  Me personally, giving my best effort just from a a gas and
• 17:59
  brake and steering perspective of things, worked a lot on
• 18:03
  Phoenix over the last few months and I put that into action today
• 18:07
  and then together with the car being incredibly good, you saw
• 18:11
  that. So yeah, I don't really know how
• 18:15
  to comprehend that. Maybe in in a couple years we're
• 18:17
  still doing this. I I'm human.
• 18:21
  I go back to my past and I've had things taken away that were
• 18:25
  a sure bet. I thought it was, you know, a
• 18:28
  One Direction all the way up the mountain and had to go find
• 18:33
  another mountain to climb and and we found it.
• 18:34
  We're climbing it. So I feel like as long as I get
• 18:37
  up and I do my best, I put my work in, I go to work and I
• 18:42
  surround myself with good people.
• 18:43
  I trust our processes that yeah, we'll we'll see.