Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Ryan Preece Is Ready To Win | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Ryan Preece Is Ready To Win | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:09
  And welcome everybody to the Paint X Studio.
• 0:12
  Want to welcome in driver Ryan Priest from RFK Racing.
• 0:16
  You know, Ryan, you started out this year with a bang.
• 0:19
  I, I know people might say it wasn't a points paying event,
• 0:22
  but when, when you beat the best of the best on any given night,
• 0:26
  that that's a huge victory for a Cup series driver, isn't it?
• 0:30
  Yeah, I, I, you know, don't get me wrong, I want to win for a
• 0:35
  quote UN quote points paying event, but winning's winning.
• 0:38
  And certainly I'm proud of the fact that we were able to start
• 0:41
  off the season on a really high note.
• 0:43
  And, and to be honest with you, we've had, we've had some pretty
• 0:46
  good speed. So outside of just a couple
• 0:49
  things that we're working to clean up, we're we're looking
• 0:53
  forward to a promising year. That's one of the things we hear
• 0:57
  so much from competitors at this level, Ryan, that, you know,
• 1:00
  they say, hey, is it time to worry?
• 1:01
  But you guys have great finishes so far this season, picking up
• 1:05
  from the start of the year. The numbers look really good.
• 1:08
  But when you have a fast race car, you know, eventually the
• 1:12
  results are going to follow, don't you?
• 1:14
  Yeah, I mean, having the speed is usually half the problem, you
• 1:18
  know, and that's been half the problem that I felt like I
• 1:20
  battled the majority of my career.
• 1:22
  So to me, I feel like we've gone to so many different race tracks
• 1:27
  so far. We've gone to superspeedways,
• 1:30
  Rd. courses, we've gone to quote UN quote, short track, and then
• 1:33
  we've gone to an intermediate and all those places that we've
• 1:36
  we have a solid baseline. So I'm excited to go to
• 1:39
  Darlington this weekend. You know, last year we we were
• 1:44
  really solid in the fall race. And as much as it is a different
• 1:49
  package, more horsepower, it's still the same.
• 1:52
  It's still the same Darlington and a place that I love going to
• 1:55
  entire management and all the things that I look forward to.
• 1:58
  So hopefully that's going to translate.
• 2:00
  We can qualify really well. We can have a solid practice
• 2:03
  and, and go into the race and, and be upfront and, and contend
• 2:06
  for a win. But yeah, I mean, when I look at
• 2:09
  this year and and all the things that we've been working towards
• 2:12
  and really looked into the offseason of, hey, what do we
• 2:14
  want to do? We want to win, we want to run
• 2:16
  up front. We want to, you know, put
• 2:18
  together solid days and, and we've been doing that so far and
• 2:23
  you know, a lot of races to go. So I'm excited about it.
• 2:27
  So Ryan, you were with good teams, but you bounced around a
• 2:30
  little bit. Now that it seems like you've
• 2:32
  just really found a home there and some consistency, I would
• 2:36
  imagine that that would be really huge for a driver to just
• 2:39
  just feel at home, have the people around you consistent and
• 2:43
  the car consistent week in and week out.
• 2:45
  That that's a really big boost to a driver.
• 2:48
  Yeah, going going into a year with the same group of guys that
• 2:52
  we had the previous year where we had we had a lot of great
• 2:56
  chemistry. That's, that's half the battle
• 2:58
  in racing is finding the right chemistry for, for you as a
• 3:01
  driver and, and a group of people that, that are, are
• 3:04
  really pulling the rope in the same direction.
• 3:07
  Because, you know, in many interviews, I'm sure you hear
• 3:09
  all the drivers saying a lot of the same things.
• 3:11
  Is, is, you know, hey, we're working hard, we're doing this.
• 3:14
  But, you know, if working hard and doing those things doesn't
• 3:17
  translate to results or speed, it's, it's not right.
• 3:20
  And for us, I felt like a lot of the, the pieces of the puzzle
• 3:23
  were the right fit right from the get go.
• 3:25
  And it's allowed us to just work on communication, work on what I
• 3:29
  like, what work on what I, whatever I might need to do
• 3:32
  better. And that's the, that's the fun
• 3:35
  part about, you know, me having knowledge of, of working on race
• 3:39
  cars and, and working on, you know, setups.
• 3:42
  I don't have to worry about any of that stuff with, with a group
• 3:46
  of guys that we have. I just let them do their job to
• 3:48
  the best of their ability. And I do my job.
• 3:51
  And, you know, that that's made it a lot easier on me.
• 3:55
  So Ron, you're a Connecticut guy.
• 3:56
  And I think one of the more underrated things in the world
• 4:01
  of auto racing is the Northeastern race culture, that
• 4:04
  there's a lot going on in the world of racing.
• 4:07
  And that when we go up to New England and we race at places
• 4:10
  like New Hampshire, the fans are ravenous up there that this is
• 4:13
  really that's part of the country's real hotbed for
• 4:15
  racing. Oh, absolutely.
• 4:18
  You know, when people think of stock car racing, they think of,
• 4:23
  you know, the Southeast or they think of the Midwest and the
• 4:27
  Northeast for whatever reason, doesn't, doesn't typically get
• 4:30
  brought up or come into those conversations.
• 4:33
  And what I can tell you is we have a, a very diverse, it's
• 4:39
  very diverse up there. You have big block modifieds,
• 4:42
  you have asphalt late models, you have asphalt modifieds, wing
• 4:46
  Sprint cars and, and the list goes on and on.
• 4:49
  We just kind of dabble a little of everything.
• 4:51
  And, you know, between guys like myself that grew up racing
• 4:55
  asphalt modifieds, you have David Gravel who's, you know,
• 4:58
  World of Outlaw champion. Then you have Bobby Santos
• 5:01
  who's, you know, gone out and won in everything in USAC and
• 5:06
  you know, it, it's all coming from the Connecticut,
• 5:08
  Massachusetts Northeast area. So, yeah, I, I would say that
• 5:13
  race fans in general, we can't get enough of it up there.
• 5:17
  We, we visit, you know, New Hampshire Motor Speedway once a
• 5:20
  year in the Cup Series. But there's a lot of great, you
• 5:22
  know, local short tracks that you can go check out racing
• 5:26
  between all the states. You know, Ryan, your story is
• 5:30
  fantastic. I think from, you know, it
• 5:32
  reminds me a little bit of what Dale Jarrett said many years
• 5:35
  ago. He said it took him 12 years to
• 5:37
  become an overnight sensation. I think there was some bumps
• 5:40
  along the way for you. But your perseverance to
• 5:42
  continue on and to land in the place you are right now, I think
• 5:46
  it's really inspiring. And it's got to make you feel
• 5:49
  good that you were able to, you know, overcome some obstacles
• 5:52
  along the way and, and really land in one of the top tier
• 5:56
  teams and one of the top tiers of, of.
• 6:00
  Yeah, it's I was actually, you know, I found some time today to
• 6:05
  work on my modified, getting it, getting it together and cleaning
• 6:09
  it and putting a new body on it from New Smyrna.
• 6:12
  And I was just thinking about like, I've been down here since
• 6:16
  2019 and it's taken me till 2025 to find, find a team.
• 6:21
  So six years where I'm starting to see speed success and, and
• 6:26
  some of, you know, things that we all want as race car drivers
• 6:29
  or, or team owners. Earlier this week, you know, I
• 6:32
  had the honor of, of being at RFK for a quarterly luncheon
• 6:36
  that you know, Brad and, and everybody at RFK does.
• 6:39
  And we were honoring Jack Roush. So Carl Edwards was there, Jamie
• 6:45
  McMurray, Mark Martin. I was sitting next to Mark
• 6:50
  Martin, a guy that, you know, I grew up idolizing.
• 6:52
  I remember one of my birthday presents when I was 8 years old
• 6:55
  was a mug of, of, you know, Mark Martin with, with that car.
• 7:00
  So it was, it was really eye opening to be in the same room
• 7:04
  as those guys because they've been extremely successful in
• 7:08
  this sport and it's all of something that I want to be.
• 7:11
  So for me it's it's been a long road, it's been a road of never
• 7:15
  giving up and a lot of no's along the way.
• 7:17
  But the one thing about me is I'm relentless and I don't
• 7:22
  accept no for an answer. So it's been nice, it's been
• 7:25
  rewarding and and hopefully a lot more success along the way.
• 7:29
  But it's really interesting hearing you say that Dale
• 7:32
  Jarrett many years ago said it took him 12 years to be an
• 7:35
  overnight success because, yeah, I feel like I've been doing a
• 7:39
  lot of the same things, just trying to find the the right
• 7:42
  puzzle for me to be in and finally feel like I found it.
• 7:46
  Ron, what was growing up like for you?
• 7:48
  When did you catch the racing bug?
• 7:50
  Is it is it in your family? Yeah, it's, it's definitely in
• 7:54
  my family. You know, my, my mother's side.
• 7:58
  Her father, he, he owned and modified that race at Riverside
• 8:02
  Park, you know, and, and some of the other tracks up in the
• 8:06
  northeast where guys like Reggie Ruggiero, Jerry Marquis drove
• 8:10
  for my grandfather. But my father, you know, he, he,
• 8:13
  he didn't grow up in a racing family.
• 8:15
  He just wanted to race. And, you know, he had a street
• 8:19
  stock. He, he ended up having a late
• 8:20
  model with a couple of local, his local friends of his that
• 8:24
  built them. And you know, when I was seven
• 8:27
  years old, I, there was a quarter Midget track right down
• 8:30
  the road from our house, 7 minutes.
• 8:32
  And my father and I remember my father, I actually have two
• 8:36
  older brothers. We all went watched it.
• 8:38
  And that was the day I'm pretty confident my father quit racing
• 8:42
  and just started going with us. And, you know, I'm 35 now and
• 8:46
  I'm glad, I'm glad I went down that path.
• 8:49
  And, and it's something that I fell in love with because, you
• 8:52
  know, all my memories as a kid, we're going to watch him as well
• 8:56
  as, you know, me growing up racing locally.
• 8:58
  So yeah, I, I, I'm really lucky to have had a, you know, a
• 9:03
  racing family that, you know, dropped everything they did to
• 9:06
  go race. And certainly I'm appreciative
• 9:08
  of it. And I'm so glad these days,
• 9:11
  Ryan, that 35 is not. Considered old anymore because
• 9:14
  it was. For a while where?
• 9:16
  People would just say, you know that the oh man, you know that's
• 9:18
  if anybody over 18 is but but anyway, that's in the.
• 9:21
  Past you guys, Ryan, are doing something real cool at
• 9:25
  Darlington, honoring the late, great Greg Biffle with the
• 9:28
  numbers on the side of the race car.
• 9:31
  How many times were you able to talk to the Biff?
• 9:34
  Did did you get to know him well as as being part of this
• 9:37
  organization but also just as being in the racing fraternity?
• 9:41
  So I got to meet him twice or or speak with him twice.
• 9:45
  One time. The first time was actually I
• 9:48
  rented a shop when I first moved down here in Concord.
• 9:52
  David Reagan and he and Greg Biffle and his wife actually had
• 9:57
  come into the shop because David, David actually was my
• 10:00
  landlord. So they were just talking.
• 10:02
  I'm like, wow, this is really cool, you know, and, and I got
• 10:05
  to meet him there and speak with him there.
• 10:07
  And then the next time was actually last year at Stafford
• 10:12
  Speedway for Cletus Mcfarland's New England 900.
• 10:16
  So to be a part of that and then bang, you know, doors in the
• 10:20
  Crown Victoria with him as well as be around those guys, it was
• 10:23
  a lot of fun and it was actually an eye opening experience for me
• 10:27
  to really remember why I loved racing.
• 10:29
  So Greg, you know, Greg and, and a lot of those other guys had an
• 10:34
  impact on me to to remember why I do this, why I love racing and
• 10:38
  why I got into this. And it really reminded me of
• 10:40
  that. So that was pretty impactful for
• 10:43
  me. And, you know, walking into the
• 10:46
  shop this week or even last week when we were seeing it get
• 10:49
  wrapped, it reminded me of when I was a kid, you know, seeing
• 10:53
  the three M #16. And and that paint scheme was,
• 10:58
  was one of the, you know, paint streams that I grew up watching.
• 11:02
  So, so yeah, now to, to represent that and, and have
• 11:07
  that stylized number on the race car as well as that paint
• 11:10
  scheme. It it's, it's going to hit home.
• 11:12
  So it would be, it would be really special to me to go out
• 11:16
  and and have a strong run, not only for myself, but also for
• 11:20
  Roush and everybody that, you know, Greg represented and had a
• 11:23
  hand in that race car. Is it hard, Ryan, for you guys
• 11:28
  that didn't make it to a level where you're racing against your
• 11:32
  heroes? Is there a point and is it a
• 11:34
  difficult point to get over to where you're saying, OK, I'm
• 11:37
  racing next to my heroes, but I earned my way here, I am good
• 11:41
  too and I can beat these guys. Is that a hard transition for a
• 11:45
  driver or does it just come naturally?
• 11:48
  I think it depends on where you were, where you grew up, how you
• 11:52
  were raised. For me, I, I feel like I have to
• 11:56
  earn respect of those around me that I race.
• 12:00
  So I race a certain way. I try not to bulldoze my way
• 12:04
  through and, and make a splash in that regard because I was
• 12:08
  always taught, you know, you won't last long if you're going
• 12:10
  to race a certain way. And I race with guys like Mike
• 12:13
  Stefanik, Ted Christopher, Reggie, Jerry Marquis and older
• 12:17
  guys and they didn't put up with it.
• 12:19
  So I guess that's kind of why I have that kind of demeanor when
• 12:23
  I'm on the racetrack. You know, if I do end up
• 12:26
  wrecking somebody or doing something unintentionally, I do
• 12:29
  honestly feel bad and I try to make it whole one way or
• 12:33
  another. But but yeah, no, I, I think
• 12:37
  that, you know, being from the Northeast, it was, it was
• 12:41
  honestly a blessing for, for me and how I did it in my career
• 12:45
  because the way I'd want to be raced and the way I want to
• 12:48
  race, it was taught to me at a relatively early age.
• 12:52
  And you know, the guys that I've had rivalries with as well as
• 12:56
  race against and probably didn't have rivalries with, they all
• 12:59
  have a level of respect for me as I do for them.
• 13:01
  So I feel like that's important when it comes to racing and, and
• 13:05
  1, you know, as far as how I choose to go about doing it,
• 13:09
  that's, that's how I, that's how I like to be.
• 13:13
  Ryan, when people talk for people from from inside the
• 13:16
  industry, I think we all understand that this is not the
• 13:19
  witness protection program. The idea is to have eyes on the
• 13:22
  series. But I think when you guys at you
• 13:24
  guys have a level of skill, what whether it's trucks, O'Reilly or
• 13:28
  Cup, there's a level of skill of a driver that makes it there.
• 13:32
  When when people get approved from NASCAR that don't have the
• 13:37
  experience or didn't take the the route that some of you guys
• 13:40
  did. How do you guys feel about that?
• 13:42
  And of course, I'm referring now to Cletus McFarlane as not
• 13:46
  having as as raising some concerns from some other
• 13:49
  drivers, but there were also a lot of other drivers along the
• 13:52
  way. How do you feel about the driver
• 13:54
  approval process or is that something that you just kind of
• 13:57
  leave to the sanctioning body? You know, it's tough.
• 14:01
  That really is because there's guys like, you know, myself or a
• 14:05
  lot of other of us that we had, I don't want to say fight and
• 14:10
  claw our way into certain situations and, you know, win a
• 14:14
  lot of races, win a lot of championships.
• 14:18
  But everybody has their own path.
• 14:20
  And if, you know, if whoever it may be that doesn't like that,
• 14:24
  if they were in his shoes and had the opportunity to go run
• 14:27
  for Richard Childress or, or whatever it ends up being, would
• 14:32
  they say no? I don't think so.
• 14:34
  And and what I do admire about Cletus or Garrett, I honestly
• 14:39
  don't even know what to to reference to him now.
• 14:43
  But to be honest with you, it's like the guy is going to go out
• 14:48
  and and build a late model program and he wants to be
• 14:50
  better. So how can I be upset about
• 14:52
  that? And, you know, he does draw a
• 14:54
  lot of eyes and, and there's probably a lot of opportunities
• 14:57
  for, for sponsorship. So do I do I want to say no to
• 15:03
  it? No.
• 15:04
  But I think he honestly, I think there's going to be some
• 15:07
  learning curves. And I think by him going out and
• 15:10
  doing some of the, some of the other activities that he's going
• 15:13
  to be doing, you know, he's going to try and speed up that
• 15:16
  learning curve. And, you know, he has a respect
• 15:19
  for all these guys. He knows that we're all really,
• 15:21
  really good at what we do. And, you know, I hope he goes
• 15:25
  out there. He enjoys it, has a lot of fun
• 15:27
  and he appreciates, you know, the, the style of racing that
• 15:30
  we've all worked on our craft and, and really try to be really
• 15:35
  good at. So I'm going to enjoy it.
• 15:37
  And, you know, I've reached out to a good friend of mine that
• 15:41
  works with him and said, hey, if he has any questions or if he
• 15:44
  ever wants to come, you know, drive or go test around here
• 15:47
  and, and he needs help. I'm, I'm here to help.
• 15:49
  So I'm not I'm not somebody who's going to knock it by any
• 15:52
  means. Yeah.
• 15:54
  And I think that's one of the greatest thing about the about
• 15:56
  the NASCAR family is I don't think there's other sports
• 15:59
  where. People help the competitors like
• 16:01
  they do in terms. Of NASCAR does, but it's it's a
• 16:03
  big family and a big community and Ryan one of the most well,
• 16:06
  it was just it was just heartwarming for me to see an
• 16:09
  article earlier this year where someone had written about you
• 16:12
  now as a race car driver selling a lot of souvenirs and having a
• 16:18
  lot of people reach out and having a a legion of fans that
• 16:21
  wasn't there for you before, certainly in the northeast.
• 16:24
  But to get that kind of name recognition recognition right
• 16:27
  now and the popularity that you're receiving for for us on
• 16:31
  the outside looking in it's heartwarming.
• 16:33
  It's got to be great for you. Wow.
• 16:36
  Yeah, I've always had a massive northeast following and, and
• 16:40
  last year when we went to New Hampshire, some of the RFK folks
• 16:43
  got to witness that they they were like almost, almost at a
• 16:47
  loss of words when we went to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
• 16:49
  Now that, you know, the Northeast New England area, now
• 16:53
  that I'm running respectable in the cup series, you know, they,
• 16:58
  they always rooted for me and they always loved me when I
• 17:00
  raised modifieds and come up there.
• 17:02
  But now they're rooting for somebody.
• 17:04
  They watched locally, you know, in, in their area that's running
• 17:08
  well and they got behind it. And so, yeah, there was a point
• 17:12
  where I would, I would go into the, the merch, the, the store
• 17:17
  that we have at RFK and I'd ask them like, hey, how are sales
• 17:20
  looking this week? And they're like, oh, we got
• 17:21
  another state. And you know, I'm really, yeah,
• 17:24
  I'm proud of that. I'm proud of it because I got
• 17:28
  here the way that I wanted to get here.
• 17:31
  It may not have been the easiest road.
• 17:34
  And don't get me wrong, if I would have had an easier Rd.
• 17:37
  I probably would have said I would never say no to it.
• 17:40
  But I'm proud of it. I'm proud of, you know, being
• 17:43
  who I am, never changing and and really representing a part of
• 17:49
  the country that that loves racing.
• 17:51
  So it's definitely, yeah, it's awesome, yeah.
• 17:55
  And I'm always glad to get that out because I've loved the times
• 17:57
  that we've had an opportunity to go up to the Northeast.
• 18:00
  The fans are fantastic up there and the racing is fantastic, not
• 18:03
  just at the NASCAR level, but the local short tracks are are
• 18:07
  great as well. Shifting gears a little bit on
• 18:09
  you here, Ryan. What what was your take when you
• 18:11
  heard that the series was going back to a Chase format, that the
• 18:15
  win and you're in was gone? How do you feel your team and
• 18:19
  yourself could could fit into this championship run because
• 18:22
  you guys are certainly starting out with an opportunity
• 18:24
  opportunity to do just that. Absolutely.
• 18:28
  For me, I feel like consistency is is kind of our thing and you
• 18:33
  know, we want to we want to work on growth and and trying to
• 18:37
  create more opportunities for us to win by being more aggressive.
• 18:40
  But at the same time, you know, every point matters.
• 18:43
  That's the reason why I backed across the line at Daytona
• 18:46
  because you never know if the difference between two or three
• 18:49
  points and in you making the playoffs, which I don't want it
• 18:52
  to be that close, but it could. And I'm a fan of it because you
• 18:58
  go around the country racing super late models, midgets,
• 19:00
  Sprint cars, modifieds, whatever discipline you're from, the
• 19:06
  points are based on pretty much the entire year.
• 19:09
  And you know, I will say we need some, we need something a little
• 19:14
  different to keep other fans excited, you know, which is the
• 19:17
  last 10, you know, the reset. But there's still some sort of
• 19:21
  old schoolness to it that if you you are going out and you are
• 19:25
  running really well throughout the year and you finished really
• 19:28
  high or win the regular season points, you're seeded higher.
• 19:32
  So yeah, I'm a big fan of it because I don't feel like, you
• 19:37
  know, if you have 5 good weekends that you can win a
• 19:40
  championship because of that. And I'm not that never happened,
• 19:43
  but it created opportunities for for for that to happen.
• 19:47
  So I want to see consistency rewarded.
• 19:52
  Yep. And now we're going to see that
• 19:54
  again. And I think it's going to be
• 19:55
  really interesting too. And as long as everybody knows
• 19:57
  the rules at the beginning of the season, let's trout the Rag
• 19:59
  and go racing. You know, Ryan, everybody that
• 20:02
  that's an owner in NASCAR, these these are really really cool,
• 20:06
  really interesting people. And anybody would I'm sure would
• 20:09
  love the opportunity to race for a Rick Hendrick, Richard
• 20:12
  Childress or Rodger Penske, etcetera.
• 20:14
  But man, your boss there is again, one of the coolest guys
• 20:18
  I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
• 20:20
  And I think Brad is a thinker. He's still a competitor.
• 20:24
  He's still a racer. Just what has the experience
• 20:27
  been like for you to have Brad as an owner and a boss and a
• 20:30
  teammate and a friend? Yeah.
• 20:34
  You know, I feel like we all push each other in in our own
• 20:36
  different ways. And, and what I'll say about
• 20:39
  Brad is I'm always thinking. I'm always thinking about what I
• 20:44
  can do to make my race cars faster.
• 20:46
  You know, what's the next thing that's going to separate us from
• 20:49
  others or what's going to give me that much faster Race cars.
• 20:53
  Brad thinks about the same things.
• 20:56
  You know, his brain never stops. We live, you know, we live for
• 21:01
  this sport. This is this is what we grew up
• 21:03
  doing. You know, he, he grew up in a
• 21:05
  racing family. So, you know, having him as a
• 21:09
  boss, as a teammate and as a friend, I've really, I've really
• 21:14
  grown to have, you know, I always had a respect for him as
• 21:17
  a race car driver. I think I've grown even more to
• 21:21
  have so much more respect for him as a, as an owner, you know,
• 21:26
  as a teammate and you know, as a driver just 'cause he's like a
• 21:31
  lot of the things I just said, he's always thinking.
• 21:33
  So between that, you know, Jack Roush is, is a legend.
• 21:39
  You know, I grew up in a Ford family.
• 21:41
  We, we had Ford vehicles and you know, being, being a part of the
• 21:45
  blue Oval and Jack Roush and you know, whenever he's on a, a pre
• 21:49
  race or a post race meeting, he, he always ends that call is,
• 21:53
  well, you guys let me know if there's anything I can do for
• 21:55
  you. And to me that's important
• 21:58
  because he wants success, just like Brad wants success, just
• 22:02
  like Chris wants success, just like I do.
• 22:05
  And you know, our teams, we want to win and you can't, you can't
• 22:10
  buy that. And that's what I've I've
• 22:12
  enjoyed. You know, that's why I have
• 22:14
  enjoyed being at where I am. Well, Ryan, you showed us one
• 22:18
  thing for certain at the beginning of the year.
• 22:20
  You showed us nice guys can finish first.
• 22:22
  Congratulations on that win. But we got to make a deal now.
• 22:25
  We, we got to talk again when you guys are in Victory Lane.
• 22:28
  Because I, I feel like Ryan, when, when you're there week in
• 22:32
  and week out, you racers are realist, but I really feel like
• 22:36
  you guys are knocking on the door of the win.
• 22:38
  Well, I hope it's this weekend, man.
• 22:40
  It would be great to, to get the date or the, the Greg Biffle
• 22:44
  tribute car along with Oscar Mayer in Victory Lane this
• 22:49
  weekend with Kroger, You know, a lot of great partners and, and
• 22:52
  without Kroger and, and a lot of the, the partners that they
• 22:55
  have, as well as Al Hankey, who's from the Northeast with
• 22:59
  Mohawk Northeast. You know, I, I don't know, I'd
• 23:03
  probably be racing somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure where.
• 23:05
  So grateful to have the opportunity and hopefully we win
• 23:08
  this weekend. So Ryan, I want to share
• 23:11
  something with you quickly before we before we go.
• 23:14
  We were talking with some people from the Speedway children's
• 23:16
  charity just the other day and one of the drivers names that
• 23:20
  kept coming up. What was yours that you are
• 23:22
  really a huge help to that charity.
• 23:25
  And I, I think I don't want to take anything away from the
• 23:27
  stick and ball sports, but NASCAR guys give back.
• 23:30
  What do you think about Speedway children's charity?
• 23:33
  What, what drives you towards that?
• 23:34
  And I know they're really appreciative of what you do for
• 23:37
  them. I mean, to be honest with you, I
• 23:41
  always had a soft spot for kids. But now that I have kids, Oh my
• 23:46
  God. It's like, you know, anything
• 23:48
  that I can do whenever there's an opportunity when I'm at one
• 23:51
  of their, you know, events or auctions, Yeah.
• 23:54
  I, you know, there's been times where I want to match, you know,
• 23:56
  something that's going out or find a way to give because it's,
• 24:02
  it's very eye opening when you go into one of those, one of
• 24:04
  those hospitals or, you know, if you go to a Children's Hospital.
• 24:08
  And yeah, I just, I'm grateful that there's people out there
• 24:13
  that that put together charities like that because those are the
• 24:16
  ones that I want to support. Well, Ryan, thank you so much
• 24:20
  for your time, man. Thanks for everything you do off
• 24:22
  the track. And I'm really excited to see
• 24:24
  what you can do the rest of this year on the racetrack.
• 24:26
  I think that win is coming soon. We appreciate your time, man.
• 24:29
  Keep up the good work, and we'll talk to you soon.
• 24:32
  Absolutely. Thank you.