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My Take On NASCAR's Wild New Rule Changes | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

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  Happy Saturday morning, everybody.
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  NASCAR, they made big news on Friday, yesterday, breaking news
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  in the garage area, all types of new rules and situations in
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  NASCAR for the 2025 race season. The one that got everybody's
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  attention is what we're going to talk about today.
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  The other ones are merely just follow-ups here and there.
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  You won't even notice them. So I'm not going to really talk
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  about them. It's hard.
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  It's very hard to know all the rules because they change.
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  They change so much. Even the NASCAR drivers, they'll
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  tell you to this day, hell, I don't know all the rules.
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  They'll say that. So you just, you just do your
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  best. You hope your crew chief, you
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  hope engineers, you hope everybody just kind of reminds
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  you of them. All right, The one that got
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  everybody's attention and, and, and Denny Hamlin kind of made it
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  famous on X on social media. Denny Hamlin simply made a post
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  that said it said laugh out loud.
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  OK, so the new rule that NASCAR's made is now I'm going
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  to explain the best I can. Simply, if you are a world class
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  driver and you have won worldly events, you automatically get to
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  start a NASCAR race. Oh yeah, I said it right and I
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  said it real slow. So, for example, Helio Castro
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  Nevers, he has won the the Indianapolis 500 multiple times.
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  He has also won the Daytona 24 Hours multiple times.
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  Helio Castroneves has done something that only what three
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  people, four people have ever done in their lives.
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  You know, Helio is very rare. He was on Dancing With the Stars
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  and he's dancing and he's in such good shape.
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  And you know, there's this theory that if you're going to
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  be good at anything, you have to be very serious, very mature.
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  Well, Helio is very serious, very mature, but he also, he's
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  also very talented. He can dance his ass off.
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  So as far as acting serious to win, it's not necessary because
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  the only thing that's necessary is when you go through that,
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  when you go through that pit gate, you you get serious or you
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  get serious when it's Showtime. One of our greatest pitchers of
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  all time here for the Saint Louis Cardinals, Adam
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  Wainwright, Wayno wayno, boy, he was fun in the dugout.
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  He's a good guy. But buddy, when he walked out on
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  that mound to pitch, he was a serious man.
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  So yeah, this is a time in life to remind everybody that he, Leo
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  Castro, Nevis, he's a badass and he's won the Indianapolis 500
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  like 4 times. He's won the Daytona 24 like
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  three times. So we going to talk about why
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  it's OK. I agree with NASCAR on this, and
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  here's why. Because NASCAR's done something
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  that discourages people from coming to race NASCAR.
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  So do you know that to save money, to save money, which is
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  good, this is good. If you want to come and run the
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  NASCAR Cup Series, do you know there's no testing?
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  Can you believe that? So if you wanted to be a NASCAR
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  Cup race car driver and you said, OK, I'm, I'm going to go,
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  I'm going to go practice this new Next Gen. car with this new
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  shifter and all this new digital dashboard and things are
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  different. NASCAR said, oh, by the way, to
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  save money, there's no practice. You cannot practice.
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  Now, we all know my brother Mike is doing something that is
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  against all odds, but you know, the procedure, the, the, the
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  doing it is a bigger deal than like getting there.
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  So I mean, like, like Helio, you know, right now they got him in
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  an ARCA car down there. You know, they're going all out
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  to get Helio Castroneves up to speed.
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  I'm sure Helio is going to be put in a SIM, a simulation
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  machine. They'll probably do everything
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  they can to get Helio Castroneves up to speed.
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  Just, you know, if Helio didn't have track house.
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  So Helio Castroneves is going to enter the Daytona 500 for track
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  house. So they said, OK, he, you know,
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  he's a great driver. You watch Helio, you know, run,
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  you know, the SRX series. And I raced against Helio.
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  I raced against him. He's a badass.
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  I mean, he he's a good driver. One thing I've learned is
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  drivers are drivers. Just because they're not redneck
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  like us doesn't mean that they can't do it.
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  Here's what I've learned. Never think you're better than
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  anybody because you're the only one to do it.
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  That's like this dirt racing. Yes, I'm a dirt racer, but when
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  Eldora held those dirt races, all those Cup drivers can drive
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  the There's a reason there's some they are some of the best
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  drivers in the world. Me and Schrader talked about
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  this. These guys are good.
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  Just because you're a dirt racer and you think you know all about
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  dirt racing. Those guys went to Eldora and
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  Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, those guys, they got up to speed
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  pretty quick. However, you know they still
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  would have liked a little bit of practice.
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  So I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to agree with NASCAR
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  on this, OK? And I told you why, because you
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  are discouraging any driver that is world class coming to NASCAR.
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  If you're a Formula One driver, if you're an IndyCar driver,
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  they all practice. Kyle Larson, he spent a month.
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  Stop and think about Kyle Larson.
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  He spent one month practicing for the Indy 500.
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  Then he spent days out there at Phoenix practicing.
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  Kyle Larson spent days practicing at Phoenix to get
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  ready for the Indy 500. Then Kyle Larson spent one month
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  at Indy practicing for the Indy 500.
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  And I'm going to leave you with this.
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  Here's another reason that what I think NASCAR's doing is the
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  right thing. And this is what the great Dick
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  Trickle told me, and I'll never forget it.
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  Let me take a drink of my high octane coffee fueled by Sunoco.
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  We having fun? Hey, Wallace, does Sunoco give
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  you free gasoline? Come on, dummy.
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  Yes. All right, the Great Dick
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  Trickle said to me. My boy, these race tracks pay me
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  thousands of dollars to show up because I'm Dick Trickle.
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  So I go to the racetrack and something happens to my car in
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  qualifying and I don't make the race and half the grandstands
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  emptied out because they came to watch the Great Dick Trickle
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  from Wisconsin Rapids, WI 1000 wins.
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  I said, Oh my, I never thought about that way, Dick, he said.
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  So when they pay you to show up and they advertise you and you
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  bring in a large amount of fans, they're expecting to watch you
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  race. This is called promotion.
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  This is called making the sport bigger and better.
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  You're at a disadvantage already getting there because you've
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  never been to the racetrack. When Dick taught me that, I
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  thought, Oh my, I never thought about that.
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  Dick. You're right.
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  So imagine those peoples. Nothing.
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  Dick told me this happened all the way out in Vegas, like a way
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  out there. Dick went all the way across the
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  United States. He left Wisconsin Rapids, WI,
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  drove all the way out there, broke a transmission or a motor.
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  After that, you know, he had it in his little agreement.
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  So Helio Castroneves, now there are a lot of arguments saying,
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  well, does Jimmie Johnson get a automatic?
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  You know, does he get to automatically start the Daytona
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  500? Well, Jimmie Johnson's A7 time
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  NASCAR champion, you know, he knows how to drive these cars
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  and as sad as it is to say, I think, you know, Jimmy Johnson
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  is a legend, but he's just not going to draw the crowd that
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  Helio Castroneves would. That's my opinion.
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  Now respond right here. I I think with Helio entering a
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  NASCAR Cup race for the first time, that's going to be bigger
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  news than Jimmy. Now that that's a cold hard
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  fact. And I know that's hard to hear,
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  hard for me to say. It's hard for me to say that
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  Helio Castroneves is going to draw more attention than Jimmie
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  Johnson. However, if Jimmie Johnson went
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  to try to qualify, you know, in Indy, remember when Jimmy did
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  that, that was breaking news. That was a big deal.
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  So I would say that it's OK And I agree with NASCAR doing this
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  because one thing, they outlawed testing it.
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  It is so hard to fathom that you cannot practice.
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  You're not allowed to test or practice.
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  Think about how hard it is for these these Xfinity drivers
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  nowadays, in my day at least, you do a little practice.
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  You know, I've run what, 545? No, I ran 547 Xfinity races and
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  I ran like 344 Cup races. At least I was able to practice
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  in the Cup Series. All right, everybody, I stated
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  my case. Now you respond right here.
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  Hey, Wallace, is that coffee real?
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  Is it warm? I'm a wimp.
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  I have coffee with hazelnut Creamer because I don't like
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  black coffee. Well then, Wallace, you don't
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  like coffee. Well then I don't like coffee.
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  I'm too old to get anymore. Remember, I always win.
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  I always win. You never get me.
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  I love you. Positive mental attitude.
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  Positive mental attitude. PMA.
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  Have a great Saturday, everybody.