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Cleetus McFarland Talks Rockingham | NASCAR Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

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  First time out in the O'reilly's car thing I'm looking forward to
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  the most is probably, you know, getting past the 1st 10 laps and
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  getting comfortable and having the support of the RCR guys and
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  seeing what that's like. I've been given so much data
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  outside of the racetrack. I'm excited to apply that, see
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  where my improvements stand and see how competitive I am and,
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  you know, drive that car some more.
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  Had so much fun driving that car and hopefully make the Tommy's
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  Express team happy and, and just do a good job.
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  Stay out of the way and enjoy racing and.
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  And watching the video, there are a lot of people in your ear.
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  Danny Stockman, Ty Dillon, I assume Dale Junior is giving you
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  advice. How do you know who to listen
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  to? Yeah, that's a good question,
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  Bob. And by the way, Bob, you did a
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  great job covering this stuff. Watch a lot of your your posts.
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  Who to listen to. You know, I, I kind of have to
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  collectively listen to everybody.
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  You know, the really what I definitely listen to the most is
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  when we looked at Jesse's data, you know, that's kind of the
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  most definitive advice you could get is like, hey, this was way
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  faster than you. So you know, that's some rock
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  solid evidence for me to go off of.
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  And you know, I did kind of on the other hand though, listen to
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  everybody in the fact that, you know, Ty said, hey, let's
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  tighten the car up and try this. And I tried it.
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  And then Danny said, let's loosen the car up.
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  And then we did that and we tried it and I ended up liking
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  the car looser. So, you know, we're kind of
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  listening to a lot of opinions, but the proof was in the pudding
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  when the car felt the most comfortable and was turning the
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  best lap times. So I that's what I'm going off
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  of is what yields the best results.
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  And now I'm asking, do you listen to the outside noise of
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  whether you know whether he should be allowed to race?
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  Should he not be allowed to race just because you, you know that?
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  Do you want to know? Do you want to hear what people
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  are saying, or do you feel like that's better for you to ignore
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  that? I mean, Bob, I think, you know
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  at this point that I'm pretty in tune with what's going on in the
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  social media world. Like, you know, this is my job.
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  My job is probably more similar to yours than closer to the
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  drivers. Like, you know, I, I am a a
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  social media guy. That's what how I got in this
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  position. So I see it a lot and it's
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  pretty, you know, closer to Daytona when I had the big screw
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  up in the truck, you know, I was feeling a little down on myself
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  about that. At this point, the record is so
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  broken of people still talking about it.
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  I don't care as much. You know, at the end of the day,
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  all these guys can say whatever they want about me.
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  But if Richard Childress called them and said, hey, you want to
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  come drive our car, all of them would have taken that
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  opportunity, too. And if NASCAR is letting me do
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  it, I'm in. I'm here, you know, and no one
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  can save me but myself at this point.
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  Once I get on that track on Saturday, it's up to me.
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  So, you know, they can complain as much as they'd like, but it's
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  happening and it's for two years, so they better buckle up.
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  Thank you. And thanks, Cletus for the time.
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  You mentioned a minute ago that you've been given bunch of data
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  outside of the car, outside of the track.
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  And you said last year, I think after one of your ARCA races
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  that you wish you had done more pre race preparation in a
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  simulator. How does what you've been
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  through over these past couple of weeks or months compared to
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  what you've done or what you did last year?
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  And without giving away trade secrets, what kind of data were
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  you given? You know, the data that has been
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  the most helpful is just the overlays of the in car footage
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  and what I am doing, you know, wrong.
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  I can literally watch every lap from my test with the Motech
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  data laid on top and then also see the lap times and it just
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  becomes so obvious where the mistakes are.
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  It's it's night and day where you know, these issues are
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  happening for me and you know, by the end of that test, I was
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  feeling so comfortable in the car, more comfortable than I've
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  ever felt in a stock car. This is kind of a cool story to
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  like, you know how I said I I've been slacked, I slacked on the
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  simulator last year. I mentioned that I, I wanted to
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  make sure this year that didn't happen.
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  So I spent, you know, once this opportunity popped up and I knew
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  that we were likely going to race rocking him.
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  I just was, I committed myself to the simulator as much as
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  possible. So about a month before the
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  test, I got a little over a month, maybe closer to two
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  months. I, I got on the simulator
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  working really hard on Rockingham in the O'reilly's
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  car. And like over the course of that
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  time, I got to about a 24-O on the simulator and that was like
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  all out. That was the best I could do.
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  I go to the test. The car is actually very similar
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  to the simulator. I learned a ton that day.
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  I went back to my simulator the next day and and within 13 laps
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  I picked up 4/10. So the number that I said over
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  the course of whatever two months, I knocked 4/10 off of it
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  in 13 laps. So like the data that these guys
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  are giving me is making it easier for me and it's to see
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  those numbers just pop up on the simulator like that just blew my
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  mind. You know, the, the, the data
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  just makes it all make sense, just validates, you know, what I
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  need to do and what I don't need to do.
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  So that's great. Hi Kalidas, thanks again for
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  taking the time to do this man. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Yes. I'm happy to do media days with
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  you guys. You guys helped me tremendously
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  so. Well, we'd love to hear it.
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  I wanted to ask, what does it mean for you to get this
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  opportunity specifically at Rockingham?
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  Any nostalgia or anything connected to this track
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  specifically? Are you happy that NASCAR is
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  here? Just anything about Rockingham
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  specifically? The only thing that makes me
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  happy about the Rockingham, you know, that specific location,
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  the tracks really cool. But I'm, I'm happy that I got to
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  do my test there too, before I get to go to the race.
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  You know, that's that I find a lot of comfort in the fact that
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  I've already spun a lot of laps there and know the car and how
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  it feels there. So no, nothing else than that.
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  I didn't really know much about the Rock until my truck test so.
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  Cool. Got it.
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  Thanks. All right.
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  Our next question will go to. Pat Jaggers.
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  Go ahead, Pat. Hey Aquitus, when?
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  Just really curious, just thinking about your test, you
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  know how many laps you ran total at Rockingham preparing for this
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  opportunity. I don't know.
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  I think it was some, it was like maybe 250 laps in the test.
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  And the reason why I asked, just curious, where do you what at
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  what point do you felt, feel at one point do you feel like you
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  actually started to really get a hang of it and you were really
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  starting to to make speed? You know, if you watch the
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  video, like my fastest lap was one of my last laps.
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  So that's not a good sign in that in those last few laps, I
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  was feeling really comfortable, like, and I figured out the, the
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  corner speed, you know, in the middle of the turn is really
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  where I've been screwing up. And yeah, the last 20-30 laps,
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  that was when I felt the best. So, yeah, if, if what you're
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  asking is did I was there something left to be desired
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  from that test day? There absolutely was because I
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  would have, I would have loved to spend 200 more laps that day.
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  I was just getting started when we had to call it.
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  Gotcha. And the next question for you is
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  pit stops. Live pit stops are really hard
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  to simulate. Rockingham Speedway has a very
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  unique pit Rd. As you have seen, the exit is
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  out of four, excuse me, the entrance is out of four and the
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  exit is in the middle of turns 1 and two.
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  It How much of a challenge do you think that's going to be on
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  race day trying to navigate live pit stops at Rockford?
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  I love arcade Unique. I love arcade because we don't
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  have to rush to pit stops. You know, I did, I did a
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  significant amount of practice getting in off of four.
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  I was worried I was like, there's no way these guys can
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  stop, but actually you can. I feel pretty decent about it,
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  you know, as long as I don't miss the sign.
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  And here's the deal too. It's not like I'm going to be
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  racing for first or second place.
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  So I, I can take a little bit of time on pit Rd. and stay, you
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  know, make sure I stay out of other competitors ways, get into
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  my box without, you know, risking any crazy, you know,
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  situations. I, I can take my time a little
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  bit. So I'm not too worried about
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  that. And we've done, you know, the
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  necessary practice to make sure those are successful.
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  Thank. You appreciate you.
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  Thank you. Yeah, how much?
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  Did. If any you think that, wow, this
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  is a lot more, There's so much more data than I thought goes
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  into it. There's so much more that goes
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  into racing an O'Reilly car versus what I thought before I
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  even started getting in the Narca car.
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  Well, Biff told me a long time ago, you know, because when I
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  told him I wanted to race like, you know, Cup level Daytona 500,
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  he told me the skill gap is massive.
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  And I really, you know, the way he said it, he's like in ARCA
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  there's going to be 10 cars that are really competitive.
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  In truck, there's going to be 20 cars that are really
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  competitive. In O'reilly's there will be
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  about 25. And then, you know, in Cup
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  there's like, you know, 30 to 35 cars that are competitive.
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  So going into, you know, when I got this opportunity to go up to
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  O'reilly's, which in all reality I was not looking for, you know,
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  I love ARCA and I love the level I'm at there.
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  I'm really happy with it. When I got this opportunity from
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  RCR, I knew I was going in over my head, you know, just like all
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  these people who are scrutinizing me think.
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  But like I said earlier, I'm not going to shy away from a great
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  opportunity such as racing for Richard Childress Racing.
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  So yeah, I'm in over my head and driving that car I thought would
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  was going to be scarier and worse than it was.
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  You know, I was like thinking, OK, now I'm really going to have
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  to try my absolute hardest. But when I got in that RCR car,
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  I'm going to, I'm just going to be honest, it was the the most
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  comfortable. I've felt like I felt more in
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  control than ever. And you know, I wasn't running
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  like within the pace, that's for sure.
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  I was definitely, I have some time to go, but gosh, I'm
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  already feeling really good about the fact that that car
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  just drive so Dang good. So yeah, I, I realized that the
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  gap is big, but I, it hasn't changed a ton.
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  My opinion on that hasn't changed a ton since driving the
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  car. I still feel like I'm outgunned
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  significantly, but my outlook on on progressing enough to be
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  competitive one day is the same. I guess, I guess I wanted to ask
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  like is there more technology and more go into how these cars
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  and these races are than what you thought before you ever
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  started racing? OK.
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  Sorry, I kind of die straight away from your question a little
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  bit there. Yeah, the technology is crazy.
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  I did not expect four people to show up specifically for data.
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  I'm like, there's more laptops there than I've seen in a long
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  time. And that was all just to assess
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  what I'm doing wrong. I couldn't believe it.
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  There was a whole rolling toolbox that just had live data
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  from the car. It's incredible.
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  I mean, the the data ingest is insane.
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  And then they have to translate it to me.
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  So it's, it's a project. I didn't realize it was that
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  much. And I was really shocked this
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  week when I heard Brad Kozlowski.
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  He was talking about Driving Cup when we were at Talladega.
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  And he's like, yeah, we spend all week watching tape.
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  And I'm like, Brad Kozlowski watches tape.
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  I mean, if he's watching tape, it must be hard because that guy
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  has, you know, 20 some years of experience and he still watches
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  tape to be competitive. So like, that's just a small
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  example of how far all these teams and drivers go to be
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  competitive. That that's kind of mind blowing
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  to me still for sure, Bob. Well, I noticed how they went.
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  They scanned the laptop very quickly.
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  So we can except for when you were looking at Jesse Love's
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  data for a minute there, there wasn't much you they were going
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  to show on on the of what was on the laptops.
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  Yeah, they, they're actually pretty, pretty free about it.
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  I was surprised. You know, I think that data is
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  available to everybody, right, on what's that program called?
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  There's some program that all the teams can share data
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  through, right? Yeah.
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  I don't know what it's called. And maybe because of your rookie
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  testing, they do give out some of that data, I imagine.
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  I think from the races you can actually.
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  Oh, from the races, yeah. Yeah, so they said, hey, this
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  data is already public, you know, public to the other teams,
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  so you're good to show it on video.
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  And RCR has been really cool so far about me filming stuff.
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  You know, I think this is kind of like a new thing for
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  everybody, right, Is putting out stuff on the Internet.
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  And I got to admit, RCR has been awesome about letting me be
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  pretty, pretty open about this stuff, so that's great.
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  Which was what I really hoped would happen.
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  Thanks again. Thank you, Bob.
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  I just wanted to ask from like a respect standpoint, what would
• 15:23
  you prefer us to call you? I know on your hard card it was
• 15:27
  a mix up or mash up of your names.
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  What would you actually prefer us to like address you as?
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  Cletus is best. It's just easier for everybody.
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  I mean, they can. There's a lot of confusion when
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  Garrett comes into play. Cletus is just way easier for
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  everybody. Gotcha.
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  All right. Thank you.
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  Well, there it is everybody. Great press conference from
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  Cletus McFarland. Want to thank everybody at
• 15:52
  NASCAR Media for putting that out.
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  Lot of good insight. Cletus.
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  As you saw, he's an open book. Can't wait to see him coming up
• 16:00
  this weekend, Easter weekend at Rockingham.
• 16:03
  It's going to be fun. Charlie Marlowe for Kenny
• 16:06
  Wallace Media.