Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Chris Buescher Wins at Watkins Glen!

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Chris Buescher Wins at Watkins Glen! · Kenny Wallace Media

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Chris Buscher, who narrowly missed the NASCAR playoffs, gets
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his first win of the year 2 weeks into the postseason thanks
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to an awesome final lap move on Shane van Gisbergen to win at
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Watkins Glen. Missing the playoffs, it, it
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hurt, it definitely stung there. And to have the season we had
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and have that many close calls, near misses, certainly certainly
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doesn't feel good. But I had no point until you
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until you just asked the question.
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Have we thought about what it would have meant until now?
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That's just it's just good old fashioned win right there.
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So in that sense, it's it's very special for me for this team to
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to get this build submarines.com Mustang in the victory wane on a
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road course. That's a big accomplishment for
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myself. It's we've been so good on these
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things. We've averaged out so good.
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Much like our season, we've had a fantastic average throughout
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the year. We just haven't been able to win
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a road course yet and finally got that done today.
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This race car was so good. Practice was really good and I
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think lap averages, we were P1 on averages after the the two
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practices. So we knew we were good after a
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couple of laps and in qualifying certainly was not very good.
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So had to pass a lot of cars, had to have some fantastic
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strategy. And, and if we're going to be
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blunt about it, not having to think about points at all on the
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on the playoff side of it or any cut offs opened up more
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opportunities for us today to be able to to go out there and get
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that win. Does something on nascar.com
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Chris take me through the overtime restart and then the
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final lap? Yeah, the man, I sure did like
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it being 4 seconds out front and cruising the victory.
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That search seemed a lot easier, but a little bit Wilder at the
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end. To have caution after caution
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was certainly frustrating. Of course, the two that we got
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away clean, we had cautions immediately up through the s s,
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right. So the third one there, everyone
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just drove into one a little bit deeper yet knowing it was OT
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and, you know, ended up, you know, just up the hill and, and
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lost the lead and knew that that was going to be a very tough
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pass to get SVG back. And yeah, we, we tailed him
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there for that last lap, took the white and realized that we'd
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gained a little bit and went up through the s s.
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And I seen him just hanging on to it really loose.
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And I went to a point where I wasn't really comfortable on at
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my entry marker into the bus stop and, and I think he was
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still going. So I, I kind of had a feeling
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something big was getting ready to happen.
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And sure enough, he had that big slide there and went to try and
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go left and he was still correct and coming back.
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So I went to try and crossover and just good hard race there.
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He tried to cover it and had already gotten the Fender in and
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just was able to get get clear of him off the carousel and and
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run. You know what?
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Just run. Were you surprised you're able
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to get back to him? I knew he was very, the team had
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been telling me that he was very good in the queue, the bus stop
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on entry and through the center, but that we were very good turn
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1 up to that point and that we kind of just fell even
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otherwise. So I knew we were very good.
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I knew it was going to be a hard pass.
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The the bus stop wasn't very much of A passing zone at all
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today other than just some big restart moments, which is kind
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of what was predicted ahead of time.
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My head doesn't hurt near as much right now, though, so I'd
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certainly appreciate that side of it.
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But what it did is it it made it really charge that entry and and
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ultimately led to the point where you could bottom out, you
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know, if you had big moments, then I would really take off on
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you. So without that and without
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putting that pressure on him up through the s s, it would have
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been a very difficult pass to to make.
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But with that bobble there and having that opportunity to to
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crossover through the bus stop, that was that was our our one
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shot and we took it. I read Spencer with the NASCAR
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wire. Congratulations.
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So much was major of the tires going into today and looking at
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scoring. It didn't look like the fall off
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was as much as anticipated. Did you think they were a
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factor? Yeah, I do.
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I would say that they were more of a factor earlier.
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The track did take a ton of rubber.
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These things marbled up a lot like old school days and you
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know at times are we on the race, both the first stages had
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cautions at at points where they really only ended up being about
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15 lap runs. And we really needed to see it
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play out to 25 laps to really be a factor I believe.
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But man, we, we hit a point where we started mowing them
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down. We didn't fire off great, but
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after 5 laps we we came alive. And then on the tail end of
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those runs from 10 to 15, we made-up some fantastic time and
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could see people struggling where our car was just really
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planted still. So that was from tire, tire
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degradation and what it did for us as we went through the race.
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And I guess it had to be the amount of rubber going in.
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The racetrack team told me it was cooling off as we got in the
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evening as well. So I'm sure that made it less of
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a factor. And you know, if it would have
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been a more typical 6570° day here at the Glen, maybe it would
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have been less of a factor yet. But we came in here expecting
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big fall off. We've seen a medium amount of
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fall off throughout the race that that did trail off.
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But I think it did make a factor.
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All the cautions let them come back when you let them cool off,
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even if they're worn, they seem to come back better with
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temperature versus purely wear. So I think all those cautions
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kind of tightened it back up and made new tires less advantageous
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there at the end. Hi Chris, congratulations Holly
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Kane with the NASCAR wire service.
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I wanted to ask you, maybe instead of cruise into a four
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second win, is there any extra satisfaction in getting this
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win, your first Rd. course win this way going against SVG, one
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of the best and such a tight duel on the final lap.
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Yeah, I said it would be easier, not not more satisfied,
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satisfying. I guess to your point, yes, it
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in a way I could have done without some of that stress
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there at the end. And and knowing how good that we
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played it and how that was going to work out for us.
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I'd love to win one that way too.
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But yeah, that one was ultimately it was a lot of fun
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because it worked out. If we'd have finished second on
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the day, I wouldn't have enjoyed that very much.
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So, you know, to be able to to be in the hunt there at the end,
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you know, SG is is been such a phenomenal Rd. course racer or
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is a phenomenal Rd. course racer, right?
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And knew when he got that spot on us on that last restart that
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it was going to be very tricky to get back by him.
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And, you know, just wanted to make sure that we stayed in the
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hunt, that we drove the thing hard and kept pressure on him
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and it made him at least realize we were still there that that it
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wasn't going to be a cruise away.
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So I think ultimately that was the ticket, right, was just to
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make sure that that you get other drivers in their mirror
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and and looking up instead of looking forward.
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And you know, it was a lot of fun.
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Just a good old fashioned hard bat all the way the end.
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There's been so many fantastic last one or two laps here at the
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Glen and I certainly feel like going to go back and watch that
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one and and going to feel like it's going to add up right there
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with some of the the old school Ambrose Keselowski battles or,
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you know, a handful of others through the year.
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It's going to be a, it's going to be a good one.
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Let's go to Jeff Daniel, and then we'll come over here in the
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middle. SVG said that part of the reason
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he was running so hard there and kind of like forced himself into
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a mistake, I guess, is because he had had contact with you on
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that restart. So he felt like, all right, it's
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going to be fair game if you get back to him.
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But on the other hand, I feel like our perception of you is
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like you're you're not really going to rough somebody up for
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the win. You drive pretty cleanly.
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So can you settle it if you had gotten a chance because the the
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contact you had was you were already there and he kind of
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came down, didn't look like you like intentionally like, you
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know, bumped him up. So if he hadn't hit you there or
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either way, like, were you going to initiate that contact?
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Is that what you were planning to do?
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You know, if we could have gotten close enough, yeah, it
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was certainly in my mind that, you know, we'd had a couple of
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good restarts and been able to cover everything.
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And that last one was everybody got a little more aggressive,
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right? And we see it time and time
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again. And, you know, I certainly
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didn't like losing the lead there, but I I didn't think that
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it was dirty. It was very aggressive racing,
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right. And, and when it came down to it
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and we're able to single foul out and seen that, you know, he
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pulled away for for half a lap there.
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And, and I kind of thought my chance was, was slim.
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And then white flag came out. We're able to really pull up on
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him. And so, yeah, it was, I was
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going to keep the pressure on him.
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And if the opportunity arose, was definitely going to, we're
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going to, we're going to push and shove a little bit.
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I'm, I'm not out here to flat out wreck somebody.
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You know, he didn't do anything to me to deserve something like
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that, but we were going to we're going to race hard for it and
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and have a battle all the way to the finish.
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You know, I guess the ultimate way that's, you know, if he's
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running that hard, that then he knows where his mindset was AT
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and, and knows that, you know, if the the roles were reversed,
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he probably wouldn't like being shoved up the hill like that.
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And you know, if if he's thinking I was going to return
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the favor, I think if the roles were reversed, that that kind of
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means that he would be in the same mindset as well.
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So he was right that he needed to run that hard to make sure he
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stayed far enough ahead of you. I if the right corner would it
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would happened that wasn't going to be the place you know, that
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was the bus stop was not a great passing zone and not a good
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place for is actually where they were better than us pretty
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consistently there in those those last 20-30 laps.
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So you know, I really had been really good through the
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carousel. So I wanted to get through the
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bus stop clean and and like I said, I drove in hard, but
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wasn't going to going to go crazy.
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And he was still digging when it when I lifted and and he was two
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car links ahead. So just kind of clicked at that
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moment that that was probably not going to stick through there
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and it was going to going to open up a an opportunity for us.
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The only fad in friendships.com. So.
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So, Chris, what was the thought that popped into your head when
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I guess they came over the radio and said caution when you're out
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there for 4 1/2 seconds? Yeah, we had an in car camera
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today, so you'll see it. That was disgust.
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That was pure disgust at that point.
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I'm not surprised by because we passed the 21 as he had the left
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Freer coming apart and I seen the carcass hanging on for dear
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wife through turn 6 when we went by him there.
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I don't call 1010, it's 6 to me. So I had a bad feeling at that
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point. So it's not something that
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caught me way off guard, but it was frustrating because we had
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our team had done a good job with strategy, had put ourselves
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in a good spot to to have that massive cushion to the point
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where and that the long run speed in our race car that we
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were really going to weren't going to have a contender there
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all the way at the end. We were going to be able to
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cruise across the line to to a pretty easy victory.
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Ultimately, if had it, had that caution not come out.
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So yeah, yeah, disgusted by it, but but ultimately probably not
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very surprised. And the, the, the top five
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finishers today aren't playoff drivers.
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What does it mean for you when all, pretty much everyone's
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focus is on the 16 guys in the playoffs?
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What does it mean for you to be able to say, hey, I'm still here
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and be able to, you know, have a say in what happens today?
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Yeah, it's our sports, not like others, right?
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We have this playoff format that that starts, but nobody goes
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home. We bring the same 3638 cars to
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the racetrack every week. We race the same drivers and
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teams every week, no matter if there's a, a playoff going on or
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not. So our sport's not not like
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others in that sense. So we're here to race to to race
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to win and, and we're going to play spoiler as much as we can
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in the next 7 or 8 weeks coming up as well.
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So it's big for us to, to, to get a win on the year.
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Been over a year without a win and we we've been so close so
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many times to start off the season at Phoenix and and be
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runner up there. You know, we knew we had the
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speed. We carried it over through the
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offseason and and just haven't been able to seal the deal.
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And we talked about it a lot with the team the last two
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weeks. Obviously it's been a challenge
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to to kind of take that reset. Nobody's head was hanging, but
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but certainly, you know, difficult mindset to be in
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knowing that, you know, we didn't put ourselves in a in a
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playoff spot and and in a year that we certainly felt like we
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can make a deep run into the playoffs had we been able to to
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secure one of those victories earlier.
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So with that, yeah, we're we're going to we're going to keep
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after it. Next week's my favorite
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racetrack. So excited to go to Bristol,
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played spoiler there two years ago, so we can go do that one
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again. And we got some some other
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really good race tracks coming up as well.
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So excited about that. I'd say that today the, the fact
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that, you know, we weren't in a playoff spot.
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We didn't, you know, have we had a terrible week last week
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ultimately, but that didn't put us in some kind of desperate
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position on a on a playoff bubble that that made us play a
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safe today either that that let us go out there and raise 100%
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to win. And that's what our team did.
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And that's what we're able to to accomplish.
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And I think the fact that that made playoffs drivers weren't in
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the top five and, and I know a handful, y'all said a handful of
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them had issues. So that that makes a a dent in
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it too. But I think that just shows
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where with the strategy of the race, we're able to take bigger
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chances and and kind of ignore the stage finishes out of it.
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Go next to Dave. Dave Sully Area Auto Racing News
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With all of the big beating and banging that was done to the
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whole race, how close did you come to being taken out during
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the race? It was a pretty easy day for me,
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so I don't know how bad it was in in other areas.
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The closest call I had was lap 1 coming out of the bus stop.
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There was kind of racing with handball cars.
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We qualified poorly, so we were in the thick of it and the seas
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kind of parted and there was a parked car sitting in the middle
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of the tracks. So that was by far my closest
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moment. Outside of that, we we had some
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good hard racing, but at no point in the day did I feel like
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it was a a day of full of close calls or, or near misses for us.
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It was, it was a strong day for us to have good execution and
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you know, pretty clean racing ultimately, at least where we
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were at. I know obviously all those
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cautions came out at the end for a reason, but I haven't seen
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why. So for for us, quite a nice day.
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We'll go to Nathan next and then Chris.
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Nathan Solomon, Speed Sport Chris, five of your six career
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victories have come the last two years, and obviously this
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organization's grown so much in that time frame.
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But what about Chris Buscher? The the race car drivers changed
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in the last couple years. You know what?
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I've been underneath the RFK banner for half my life now.
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I've seen this organization through a lot of changes.
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I've seen it at its its best. I've seen it at its worst, you
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know, and, and been a part of it, you know, had a couple years
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there wound out and, and you kind of watched it from the
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outside and, and seen the struggles.
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But it is in a better place now than than I've ever seen it.
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And, and that goes back to what what you would consider the the
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heyday of it when able to win 8 or 9 races across the
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organization, albeit that was with four teams and not 2,
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right. But you know what for for us to
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be in this spot to consistently be in the hunt to win races at
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this many different styles of racetrack.
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We finally got a road course win, which means a lot to me.
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The Darlington win for Brad was, was huge last season for us.
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A a very unique array of race tracks.
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We're able to get it done at that.
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That matters that that shows how we are adapting to different
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styles of race tracks and, and how our organization is stepped
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up. So, you know, for me, I have
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spent a lot of time in, in situations that would be
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underdog situations or, or just in, in an era where our team was
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not in its best place either. But none of that time was
17:08
wasted. It was a a warning experience.
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It's focusing on how do you get better?
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It's breaking the mindset of, of having a, a 18th place day and
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saying, man, that was great progress.
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It was not, you know what? That was 18th place.
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That was a terrible day. But it got to the point where it
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had been there for so long that, you know, you almost tried to to
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find tiny victories in it. And you look back at it now and
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say that was a a lot of learning experiences through the years, a
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lot of realizing that complacency may have struck you
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different times, but you're not happy with that.
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And what we've turned a massive corner at RFK.
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There's a host of reasons for that, you know, for for us to be
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in this spot now and you know, obviously we're we're not in the
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playoffs on the 17th side, but the six for Brad to get that
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went at Darlington and to be in the playoffs now that's big for
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us to to have both our cars in the playoffs last season.
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We we've found a massive, massive increase in speed and
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and that's helping me as a driver really enjoy coming to
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the racetrack a lot more. Brings me back to the good old
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days of short track race and where you love to be that that
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hauler that rolled into a Speedway and and the rest of the
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teams or drivers looked up and said, crap, we got to race them
18:41
today. We're in that spot now to where
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we are a factor at a lot of these different styles of race
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tracks. It's more fun for me.
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It makes it more enjoyable. It makes me think back on the
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harder days and, and what was what was good about them and
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certainly what was bad about them.
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And how do you, you fix some of that and get your mindset right
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to, to make sure we're battling to, to be happy with wins and,
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and disappointed with second, not, you know, not happy with
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the top ten. And you mentioned the lows and
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was there one particular low turning point that stood out to
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you? No, there's a, there's a handful
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of really hard years, very well documented hard years.
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So, you know, for that it's definitely tricky and you know,
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you do your best to keep your head up and hey, and through all
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that, we we've come out in a much better place now.
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And you know, whether that's, you know, everybody back at at
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at the route shop from that side, whether it's the Fenway
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group and, and their big investment into commitment,
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their big commitment to making us better, or if that's Brad
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Keselowski's fingerprints all over everything that we're doing
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now. There's there's a ton of factors
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that that come into play, but ultimately the results are
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speaking for themselves. We are.
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We're in a. Probably the best place that
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that I I've seen in 15-16 years. Christechnicians.com
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congratulations on the win speaking.
20:11
I'm going back to one of your favorite tracks, Bristol, next
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weekend. It was a chaotic race back there
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in March. What do you expect next weekend?
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I did the tire test with our team and so coming out of there
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I would say that I would expect some similar characteristics.
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I don't feel like there's a lot that's going to massively change
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how that that day plays out. We're starting to hit a little
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bit cooler weather. It's kind of a stretch.
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Humidity is still there everywhere in the South.
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But I would say that there's a very high possibility that is
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going to be a high tire wear race and you are going to have
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to to play it differently. Don't doubt for one second that
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every team is aware of that, that everyone knows that they're
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going to be on high alert. We're going to be thinking about
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how to make tires last without giving up overall speed.
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How do you push that? You know, the, the bigger thing
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from the test that seemed to help was the PJ one certainly
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seemed to put us in a little better spot.
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And you know, I, I guess I thought that was was staying,
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but it sounds like it is not. We're going back to resin.
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So I think from that side of it, to me, that means it's going to
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be very similar to what we had last time, maybe a little bit
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better just because teams are going to learn what they need or
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or have learned from that last experience.
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But I would expect, I would expect some, some chaos there.
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You're welcome. Go to Bob next.
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Parker's Fox Sports. I don't know how much.
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Well, you know SVG, so I'm curious, when he came into
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Victory Lane to congratulate you, did you know he was coming
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in to congratulate you? I figured so I didn't feel like
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anything was dirty at the end. You know, like I talked about,
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there was a little push and shoving on both sides and, you
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know, ultimate way there was a, you know, he he had a big error
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there into the bus stop and we just took advantage of it and
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really had to be aggressive to to get to the hole.
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But yeah, I didn't feel like there was anything that was
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dirty about it. I didn't expect him coming over
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to be mad about anything on that note, I think that's the one guy
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out here that's bigger than me. So if there's that moment where
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I feel like he is mad coming over, I, I better take note,
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right? It just on the flip side, I'm
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sure, I'm sure some others don't like seeing me.
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So yeah, it, it was, I appreciate it coming over.
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It's a good race because I, I did feel like it was a really
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good race. You know, we, we, we got after
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each other hard, but, but ultimately there was nothing,
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nothing crazy in those last couple of laps, just good, good,
22:59
hard racing. No, no, you said it, not me.
23:07
What I've ducked. You know what he was, he was
23:10
like 3 steps down. So I had the, the high ground.
23:14
I'll say that.