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Bubba Wallace Discusses Kyle Larson's Waiver & More! · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hey, so Boba, anytime you come back to a race track where
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  you've had success 10 years ago, you went the truck race here and
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  that we've. Talked a little.
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  Bit one on this race. Track.
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  You know, you go to Talladega, that's a lot about the speed,
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  the arrow, things like that. This is a drivers race track and
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  you got to keep yourself just a little bit of a pat on the back
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  for wins in a place like this in any of NASCAR's top.
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  Series. Yeah, I agree with that.
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  Showing up here for the first time 10 years ago it's crazy to
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  think that's ten years ago. How old were you then?
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  You're a. Grown man now.
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  No doubt. Tell me about it.
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  But showing up here, being competitive, that was a really
• 0:35
  fun night and it's crazy to think that it was 10 years ago
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  and now here we are back on the top side of things trying to
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  figure it out. It's a lot harder when you get
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  to the cup level. Oh.
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  The wall's way. Taller way.
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  Ask me. I never won the cup.
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  And we're not even talking about the concrete wall over there.
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  No. So it's it's good to show back
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  up here. I think it's the perfect market
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  for the for the cup series. We're making the most of it's
• 0:57
  beautiful weather, not too hot today.
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  So appreciate all you guys coming out and hanging out with.
• 1:01
  Us. Yeah.
• 1:01
  Hey, my questions come from a different place because I'm a
• 1:06
  racer and I watched you win the dirt race at Eldora in the
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  truck. Yeah, I watched you win in Lake
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  Models at Bristol. Yeah, you're loaded with town.
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  Where did that town come from? When did you realize?
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  Hey, I want to be a race car driver and.
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  And I'm going to, I'm going to try as hard as I can.
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  What age well? I'm 30 and I still haven't
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  realized that yet. I just, I just had the
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  opportunity and. I'm born How?
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  Are you born 93? Where oh where in mobile AL LA?
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  So we got great race tracks down there.
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  I've never even raced down there.
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  Oh, once sunny South. Yeah, we would go down to the
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  we'd leave Saint Louis, we'd go to down to Jacksonville with
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  brother Rusty and we go on down to snowball Derby.
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  So was there a moment in your life that you watched it on TV?
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  What made you say I want I get asked that question all the.
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  Time No, I, I, we grew up. I moved from Alabama to Concord
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  when I was two, right? And we grew up 15 minutes from
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  the racetrack, heard the races going on all the time, had no
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  desires. I think we went over there one
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  time when I was a kid and had dinner or something in the
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  Speedway Club and then my dad got some drive on the track.
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  So we were in an old, I don't even know what year it.
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  Was old Chevy Lumina. And I was.
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  Like Ashley, 'cause I'm hard. Hanging on exactly.
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  See. They all bought one because I'm
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  hard handed for sure. So I was hanging on to the door
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  handle like falling over the banking.
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  And then you Fast forward running.
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  You you run the band Laros and legend cars and stuff like on
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  pole night, remember? Yeah.
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  And so Fast forward to 2011, we just qualified on the pole at
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  Dover in the Canon car, sitting there on the great major roll
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  off. Hold on, you said that like you
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  go on straight over, you're on the pole at Dover, one of the
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  hardest race tracks. There is, if we want to get into
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  that, 2010 Andy Sentair, you know.
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  He was my teammate. Yeah, he get there, he said.
• 3:01
  Hey, pal, to make this car work at Dover Drive over the hump.
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  I'm like. OK.
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  Sure. I did it one time and never did
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  it the rest of the weekend. I was standing on 20th.
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  All of us, all of us. So I go back to next year for
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  redemption, hold a line, open pole and won the weekend.
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  Yeah, exactly. So that was the moment where I'm
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  like, man, this is pretty fun. I didn't have anything lined up
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  for next year and I was like, I guess I can keep doing this and
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  here we are, so 13 residents. They say it's history 30 years
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  later and a multi time winner at the at the couple of you know,
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  we're just talking to Eric Jones.
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  He's got some coolness going on there with Jimmy Johnson and the
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  King as his bosses. You have.
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  Major coolness going. On in.
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  Terms of bosses and Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, you're
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  around just great. You're around greatness all the
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  time. You guys got that Beautiful.
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  New Rich. Yeah, what, what can you pull
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  off of those guys? Denny's a A winner and and
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  Michael Jordan goes without saying what he's done right,
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  Right. What can you pull off that as a
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  competitor? Yeah, nonsense for sure.
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  I think the cool thing about it is, you know, I look at Jimmy
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  and and the King, the racers, they get it right.
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  You look at the other big names, I, I believe, like Pickles,
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  super involved, right? He understands it a little bit
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  more from the entertainment side, but NJ has been a fan
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  since he was a kid, you know, big time, going to races, going
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  to Darlington and and Rockingham and Richmond and stuff like
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  that. And he understands.
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  He knew that, OK, yes, I may have all the money in the world,
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  but that's not what it takes to win right away.
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  It's going to take time. It's going to take a process.
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  So for him to understand the insurance and outs and truly get
• 4:45
  it is is really cool for us. I have a unique question because
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  who saw the movie Air with Michael Jordan?
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  OK, I know you love your mom, and you know Michael Jordan's
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  mom made the deal for him. She said no, no anything with
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  his swoosh on it. We're going to get money.
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  And the movie ended with, like, he's making $44 million a year.
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  Yeah, that's left pocket nowadays for him.
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  So knowing, knowing that, and we all know that, it's just, it's
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  knowledge when, when you when you hear something like that,
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  maybe he comes up and talks to you, Can you focus on talking to
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  him or, or when you're looking at him, or are you thinking
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  other things like, is it hard to focus on him?
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  So for me, it takes a lot. I get more excited talking to
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  you than I do to him because. I'm always, I'm always bragging.
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  On TV, yeah. But I honestly like, I think the
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  first time I met MJ was obviously 2021 Daytona and I was
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  like, oh holy cow, this is this is pretty cool every time.
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  Other than that, I bring, I'll bring Blaney up and he gets to
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  have that kind of same experience and, and Jay loves
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  Blaney by the way, so. Why is that I?
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  Don't know. I don't know.
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  I don't know. North Carolina.
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  Yeah, Yeah. So.
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  Yeah, I think it's it's just really.
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  Cool to be able to have a conversation and we talk about
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  race, we talk about anything. He's a big watch guy.
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  I'm into watches. I can't afford to watch as he
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  has. Bahamas was watching down the
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  Bahamas. Yeah, I.
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  Go down there, my brother. Once he got these big ass
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  watches, I'm. Like what?
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  Yeah, they, they got the hookup, so it's fun to talk about that,
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  but really, really, really cool. He's tuned in every week.
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  He texts me after qualifying yesterday he said good run, you
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  guys start building some Legos now.
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  From my interview, he's tuned in.
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  He's locked in all the time, all those.
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  Winners are all smart asses. They don't understand why.
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  You don't win. Exactly.
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  Yeah, but he's even worse than him.
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  Well, that that brings the next thing I wanted to talk to you
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  about. I said a moment ago that there's
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  three levels of competitors in any sport.
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  There's there's competitors, then there's winners and there's
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  champions, and the step in between those I think is
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  absolutely huge. When you became a Cup Series
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  winner, how much, if anything, did that change for you as a
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  driver? How big of that step was it to
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  join that elite group that is Cup Series?
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  Winners. I mean, when I look at it, that
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  was my fourth year in the cup, getting right there towards the
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  end of. Kansas City.
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  Nope, Talladega and then and then we went basically almost
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  another year before the next one in Kansas.
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  Like hell. Now I'm winless.
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  So it's damn hard to win at this level, right?
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  Everything's got to be in the line to make that happen.
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  And so I I took it upon my shoulders and the team as well.
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  And just to start this year off different, you know, I look at
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  this time a year ago, we were right around 100 points out.
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  I believe now we're sitting thirteen points right now, 20
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  points to the good, totally different spot.
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  I doesn't say that I'm a winner, but it's just the mentality.
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  Things are going to eventually fall in place for us 'cause
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  that's all it takes. You got to be there.
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  You're going to keep throwing your name in the hat and Booty
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  would like to say that. Keep putting your name in the
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  hat. It's going to be pulled at one
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  point. Qualifying was really exciting
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  yesterday. I like that knockout qualifying.
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  I watched it from Arnold, MO. I live about 17 miles from here
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  and you, you were happy. I I looked at your body
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  language, You you were having a good time.
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  You jumped your ass right in that race car and qualified
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  eighth. Yeah, I think that's.
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  Glenn Janie Little. She shows me a stat.
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  She's like, oh you qualified. 7th both times here and I was
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  like sweet, thanks Jamie, I'm a qualified hey.
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  She's an athlete, I. Thought.
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  You're going to say asshole tell.
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  Me. OK, your your 8th.
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  Now you're you know, it's funny because you qualify in the top
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  ten. It's some smart ass that come by
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  and go OK, go to the front. You're.
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  I don't want to. Go.
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  Danny's going to say that? I'm up what?
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  Danny's going to say that? So Denny's an asshole A.
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  Little I didn't say that. OK.
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  So you're 8, you're 8 volatile here.
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  Help me out to start with what you think or you're not
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  thinking. Yeah, it's, it's funny, if you
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  look at you're in the Cup level, I remember going back to go back
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  to Dover, my first, I think first.
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  Interesting. No, not my first sustaining
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  race, but I was full time. So let's call it 2016 and I
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  qualify. Let's call it 11th or 12th.
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  And Denny's right in front of me, right?
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  He gets the worst initial start of his life.
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  And So what do I do? I poke bottom three wide passing
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  and the next corner runs me over.
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  And so I'm like. What the?
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  Hell was that? So I talked to Blenny after and
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  he's like, oh buddy, you don't pass guys, you don't pass stuff
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  guys throughout on lap one. That is just a really but
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  bullshit. But then you get a better start.
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  Yeah, yeah, Eric and Cena who watch Eric and Cena movie.
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  Eric and Cena says if you don't take that gaffe, then you're not
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  a race car. Guy I got runneth over runneth.
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  Over so so. Then it's funny, you go, go to
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  North Wilkesboro. We all know what happened a
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  couple weeks ago, right? Yes.
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  We got taken 3 wide. Bob Bush, another one of those
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  guys, He was pissed. He was pissed.
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  Why are you going through on lap one?
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  Get a better start. Yeah, I'm like, hey, it's like
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  I'm not going to pass him. And then, if you Can, you
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  imagine if there were signs on your race car that read what you
• 10:21
  thought. McDonald's what you're.
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  Saying, and I agree with you, so there's a sign on your car and
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  all the fans are watching. Instead House goes into one and
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  stun. House says I'm not going to pass
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  him just because I'm going to take it easy.
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  All the fans go boom, he had to go.
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  Right, there's a hole there, so it's.
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  Danny don't like that. Yeah.
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  So get back to here, Yeah. Get back to here.
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  We're having a good time. I I just got to make sure I get
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  a good resource. Hey, tell me about those paddles
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  or No, you're down here. Yeah, we're down here.
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  So which way do you go? Let the fans know.
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  All the way. Back.
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  You're back, so you're you're. Back.
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  And the down shift is. Just like that, I think Danny
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  blew a motor on the bed some racetrack 'cause.
• 11:19
  He went forward. That was I heard where that was,
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  but yeah, but I did Legend car stuff.
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  Legend car is one down for. So you see your motorcycles.
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  I'm good. I'm good with it.
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  There's a lot of muscle. Memory when it comes to driving
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  a car and it takes like, you know, what was interesting was
• 11:34
  years ago, if you guys wonder how difficult it is to drive a
• 11:38
  race car, the great Jeff Gordon said he was in a little bit of a
• 11:42
  slump because they switched from a metal seat to a carbon.
• 11:45
  Fiber seat and it's. That delicate?
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  In a racetrack, yeah, I, I remember that that was like
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  trucking Xfinity days for me. And they, I think at one point I
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  did have a different seat for short tracks versus
• 11:55
  intermediates. You had an aluminum seat for the
• 11:57
  short tracks and intermediates. You have had the carbon viral.
• 12:01
  So we got one minute and I'm starting to Juke right now.
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  So I I got to rough you up just like we did there at Jones.
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  Here we go. You know, it's, I mean, they're
• 12:08
  going nuts in the Media Center all over America, all over the
• 12:11
  world, acid, basically. Oh, Larson, So you do my
• 12:17
  favorite. My favorite?
• 12:18
  Larson I myself straighter jacks with me all the time, so I
• 12:22
  always tease myself. Herman Get the shit out of your
• 12:25
  mouth. SoCal Arsen, Does he deserve a
• 12:30
  waiver or not? Yes.
• 12:32
  Yes. Yes.
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  Yes. Can I answer please?
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  Can I answer? We've given waivers out for
• 12:39
  everything, right, Right. But the thing that I, I do see,
• 12:43
  which I don't know the thought process of who's making the
• 12:46
  decision, right? But he made a choice.
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  He made the choice to run the Indy 500, knew that weather was
• 12:52
  bad, all that stuff. Made a great attempt to get
• 12:55
  there. But he made a choice.
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  That's all I'm going to say. He made the choice all right.
• 13:02
  We've got to give Bubble Wallace a huge Saint Louis send off.