Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Kurt Busch | Kenny Conversation #23

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Kurt Busch | Kenny Conversation #23 · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought
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  to you by JEGS, the leader in high performance aftermarket car
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  parts. Remember to go to jegs.com to
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  fix your vehicles up. Man, I am so lucky right now
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  because I believe we have one of the greatest talents in NASCAR
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  history. Kurt Busch, Kurt, Welcome to
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  Kenny Conversation. What's up my friend?
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  Kenny? How are you buddy?
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  Thanks for the I'm doing really good.
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  You got one hell of a backdrop there of The Wood Brothers.
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  Where you at? So I'm at Charlotte Motor
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  Speedway. We just finished painting the
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  walls pink. I've been doing a program real
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  quick responsible, but it's for a foundation.
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  The pink window Nets window of hope.
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  And so I was like, man, I gotta get Kenny on the show real quick
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  while I have good Wi-Fi here at the track.
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  And I looked around and this was the best.
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  Backdrop. I mean, I got Dale, Senior and
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  Junior right here. Kyle and I are over there, but
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  it's above the door. So I was like The Wood Brothers,
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  man. You can't go wrong with The Wood
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  Brothers, man. You do.
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  You got it going on. And you know, the Kitty
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  conversation is just that we're going to be everywhere.
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  But yes, October Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I know Jags
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  is going to have me wearing pink.
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  So you've been doing that for quite a few years, haven't you,
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  at the Charlotte Motor Speedway? Yeah, this is the third year
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  that I've been involved with Window of Hope, the race track.
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  They've been painting the walls pink.
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  They said eleven years. And it's a it's a cool
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  collaborative initiative that all of our community, you know
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  that Kenny, like Martinsville, painted the curbs pink.
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  Different tracks do different recognition moments.
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  And for me, when I do different programs, like with the military
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  and you meet some of these men and women who have served, every
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  story is different. On how they got there or you
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  know their injury you know and every story is different with
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  the ladies with their breast cancer and the survivors and
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  some that don't and some of the families that that are still
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  here giving back to the community to help the ladies.
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  Well Kurt, let's get to it. My friend my brother Rusty
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  always says herm. It's sad to say you have to
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  remind people because they remember what they want to.
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  So I'm going to say this, just give me a minute.
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  I'm going to, I'm going to read all this off and then I want
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  your opinion. OK, Kurt Busch, 776 NASCAR races
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  over 23 years, 34 wins. Now listen to this.
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  Here we go. This is going to give you
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  goosebumps. 2003 IROC Champion. 2004 NASCAR Cup Champion 2010
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  Coke 600 where you're at right now, right in that media room.
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  2010 All Star winner right there at Charlotte. 2011 Bud Shootout
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  winner now this is one of my favorite ones right here. 2014
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  Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and then winner of the 2017
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  Daytona 500. Now, Kurt, in my opinion, you
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  you've truly done it all. When I when I read those stats
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  to you, where does your brain go?
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  Yeah, the The first thing that comes to mind is all the race
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  teams and the privilege that I've had to be at this top level
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  of NASCAR for so long. It it's the people and all the
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  different teams and sponsors. I've raced for that.
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  That's honestly the first thing. You know, you don't think about
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  stats when you first start out and you're just driving, driving
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  to have fun. You know, I've one stuff, I've
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  wrecked stuff, you know, It's the first thing that really just
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  comes to mind though is the team and the team camaraderie with
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  everyone because that's the family that I enjoy now in
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  NASCAR after I've been, you know, from full time racing now
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  just hanging with 2311. It's it's about the crew
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  members, the team and the family of NASCAR.
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  Yeah, well, you know, I think driver, a driver.
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  I think about incredible talent, how you're able to drive a car
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  so neutral. I jumped in one of your cars one
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  time and I couldn't go as fast as you.
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  I remember all that in Phoenix. That's that's another story.
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  But you know my point is, is you're so talented I I had to
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  tighten the car up. And I think one of the reason
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  you're you're so great and one of the greatest and you're
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  definitely going into the Hall of Fame, but is your ability to
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  drive the car neutral? Does anybody ever tell you that
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  you can drive a car loose? Yeah, those are the the
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  comparisons that I've seen over the years with different
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  teammates. You know, going back to when I
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  first started racing with my dad, it was his setup.
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  I just drove it and I go, Dad, it's it's too tight.
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  You were born that way. You were born loose.
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  I. Want to be up on the I want to
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  be up on the right where you retire.
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  But yet, but yet. I love the asphalt.
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  Like I I struggled on dirt. I mean I started on dirt in a
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  little dwarf car, which is basically like a Legends car.
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  And then when we got into the Legends, it was because we could
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  travel and go to different tracks with the same engine.
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  You know the spec series style tech inspection.
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  And so we went around to a bunch of asphalt tracks and my dad, he
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  had his legend car, but it was always like.
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  I was a percent or 2% looser on the cross weight.
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  I'll be Damn, isn't that something, Sir?
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  Everybody else is sitting there at 48 and you're down around
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  4546. I love it.
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  So you know everybody you know we we can't we can't go too far
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  back because we'd be here 5-6 hours.
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  But I want to I want to hit this button and I want you to I'm
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  going to I'm going to say this and you tell me if it's
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  accurate. So Paul Mecca, when he was with
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  Exide Batteries, one of your early sponsors, he said that you
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  got the ride in NASCAR, your very first ride because you
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  entered the gong show with Roush Racing and you were, you won,
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  you were the best driver. Is that true?
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  Is that how you got into NASCAR? Yeah, it was.
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  It was a tryout series. Oh my God.
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  I met Paul. I saw Paul Mecca at the Gator
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  Nationals this year and so that's 25 years later from when
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  I first got the opportunity to do this gong show.
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  So Ralph Racing, Jack Rauch, he's old school.
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  There was a show back in the 70s or 80s.
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  I remember it. Called the Gong Show and and so
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  five guys got invited and the long and the short story of this
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  is basically there was the Northwest Tour champion.
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  Southwest Tour, there was the goodies dash champion Robert
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  Huffman. There was somebody from the
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  Northeast, maybe it was a Solder from the Midwest, I think it was
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  Tim Solder and then it was Gary Lewis Northwest tour.
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  I was Southwest Tour and the five of us, we got a set of
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  tires and we got 20 laps of practice and they got another
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  set of tires and they made us do A50 lap run.
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  And so the the 2nd test session what track was?
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  This, the 2nd test session was Phoenix International Raceway.
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  The first one was Toledo OH and I got my my rear end handed to
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  me by Toledo OH. I about wrecked the truck on lap
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  zero and but at Phoenix I had raced some Southwest Tour races
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  there and so had all the others and my slowest lap.
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  Kenny, I honestly like. I'll tell you the truth.
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  Was everyone's fastest lap in the practice session, and so I
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  went out there and started ripping around in the XI truck.
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  Greg Biffle was there supervising with Max Jones, the
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  general manager, And I knew at the end of that day I called my
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  dad on my old flip phone. I go, dad, I did really good.
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  If I don't get the job, I know that I'm just as comparable to
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  whoever got the job. We can still do this.
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  You know, maybe we got to go to Winston West or find other cars
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  to drive. And it's about two months later
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  I got a phone call from the president of Roush Racing, Jeff
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  Smith, and he says, how do you like Detroit weather?
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  I'm like, did I get the? Job.
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  I got the job. I got the job.
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  I don't care what's freezing and.
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  So I got, I got the job and then my first race was Daytona in the
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  truck and I finished second and the rest is history.
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  I raced against your brother Mike.
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  Tim and I were rivals in the trucks.
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  Yeah. Well, you know, when I listen to
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  a story like that, I think about how you earned where you're at
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  in NASCAR 110% by talent alone. I can't brag on you enough just
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  because I've raced around you before and I I see what a great
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  driver you are. So something you know, there's
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  so much to talk about, but we got to condense it.
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  You're you're double that you did when you went into the Indy
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  500 and then you went to the Coke 600.
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  Now we know you broke a motor in the Coke 600, but Kurt, how in
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  the world did you jump into an IndyCar and finish sixth in the
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  Indy 500? That tells me your talent level,
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  but just give me some highlights of that whole journey in the
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  Indianapolis 500. Yeah, it was a journey.
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  I mean, January 1, I didn't have a contract, but mentally I went
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  to work and I would run to the gym, which was 3 miles.
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  I would go and work out with the instructor.
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  I did different martial arts movements, I did different
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  Pilates yoga. I just, I wanted to change my
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  game in Motorsports. I just signed with Stewart Haas
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  Racing in the Cup Series and with this adventure.
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  I wanted to challenge myself with something new where I
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  thought I could do well. I thought I could finish 15th
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  was my goal. I'm like, I can go to Indy and I
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  think I can beat half those guys and I got the ride with Andretti
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  Auto Sport. That contract came together in
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  April and so to have two quality teams, that's the number one
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  thing to do is I had an SHR team and I had an Andretti Auto Sport
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  team to help me do the double. You know what I'm saying?
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  It's that team. I'm writing that down and I
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  didn't know it was with Andretti.
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  That's really interesting. Yeah, so that's where you want
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  to go to do well. And you got to have the quality
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  teams behind you. And my indie rookie test, you
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  know, they they sent me out there in my first lap.
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  You know, a bug starts, bugs start hitting my visor on the
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  back straight away and I'm like, Oh my God, this is so cool late.
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  I haven't been on dirt in forever and I haven't been in an
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  open cockpit in forever and so bugs are hitting my my visor.
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  I'm like, yeah, I get to pull the tear off again.
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  I was just like a kid, the first rookie test, right At the end of
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  the day they once I got wide open all the way around and that
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  that sequence, Michael Andretti's there, getting it
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  wide open for the first time. He goes, what's the toughest
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  corner at Indianapolis? And I said turn one, he goes,
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  you're spot on, right, right. You see where he's going with
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  this Kenny. He goes, hey, what's the
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  toughest corner? Second toughest.
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  I go turn three, he goes, what's the easiest corner?
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  I said turn 4. So you time it to where you go
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  through turn 4 wide open, then you still lift on the
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  straightaway, and then you're wide open through the corners,
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  right? And then you got to lift a
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  little bit on straightaways before the next corner.
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  So he says go through turn 2, wide open, and then go into
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  three and you're going to lift a little bit on the straightaway.
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  But by the time you go through 4:00, you got to hold it wide
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  open through four, hit turn one, hit turn two, hit turn 3.
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  So it was, you know, just getting up to speed, right?
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  I really like this. I'm wide open through through
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  four and now I'm coming to 1:00 and it's time.
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  And I had this long conversation with myself down the front,
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  straight away, and I'm. Doing 217.
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  I'm like, you ready? You ready?
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  You guys ready? Oh wait, the corner's here.
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  I got to go. And I was like, just don't turn
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  in too early and wide open through one.
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  Made it. I'm like, Oh my God, oh, here's
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  turn 2. Hold it right up and go through
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  two. And then by the time I did three
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  and four and back through one. Things started to settle and now
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  I'm doing 219 mph average speed. That was the indie rookie test.
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  You know, when we're there for practice and qualifying, now
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  we're doing 231 My Lord 2. 131 And after I did my first
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  practice qualifying run, Tony Stewart comes over and he goes,
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  hey did turns one and two just turn into one corner now?
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  And literally, you're going so fast the brain can't digest that
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  there's even a short shoot anymore.
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  That's how fast the IndyCar gets around Indianapolis.
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  Let me ask you this. You you, you know, when you got
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  up to speed and you held it wide up, you're doing 219.
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  How do you end up getting to 2:30?
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  Do they trim it out more or yeah, they.
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  They do two things. So basically they just add boost
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  and then they're taking down force off the car.
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  Because now that you're going faster, you can take downforce
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  off because you get it from the speed.
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  Yeah, you're gaining. Yeah, I get it.
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  Gotta get it the speed to get all all the downforce.
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  And then there's little things they did, you know, I can't get
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  into too much of it, but it's a it's basically they just turn up
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  the boost and here you here you go.
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  Yeah. What's the difference between
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  running wide open in an IndyCar at Indy and let's say going to
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  your first super Speedway? I assume it would.
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  Would it be Daytona or Talladega?
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  And so what's the difference between holding a wide open at
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  Indy in an IndyCar or running wide open at Daytona or
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  Talladega for your first time? Remember back in the day, like
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  at Daytona and especially Daytona, Talladega, not so much.
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  But you had to have handling in your car and still be able to
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  hold it wide open. Now it's just super simple,
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  right? We're just wide open.
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  That was what the IndyCar was like.
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  It was the old school NASCAR car where the tires would drop off
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  and it took the big balls to hold it wide open and still keep
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  your speed. And with the IndyCar there's the
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  weight jacker. I can change cross weight.
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  Oh my. I didn't know that.
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  You can change cross weight in the car.
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  You can change your fuel settings.
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  There's a sway bar adjuster. I had a sway bar adjuster.
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  Did you use all those adjustments?
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  I I When I wrecked in practice, I stopped messing with stuff.
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  Reminds me of a dirt racer. Darryl Walter once said.
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  I get rid of that brake adjuster.
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  I'm messing myself up. Yeah, yeah, I was just like
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  after the wreck. I'm I'm going to keep it simple,
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  stupid. And in the race to finish up
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  this story, I just went out there to not make mistakes.
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  I didn't want to speed on Pit Rd.
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  I didn't want to hit any tires or any crew members on Pit Rd.
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  I I took. Everything at around a 90% level
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  until halfway. And when I got to halfway, why
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  did I change my mentality? I said you're done learning.
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  This is all you're going to learn.
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  You got to go now And so at halfway, you know, I was able to
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  to go to like full fuel and had the power.
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  Our pit sequence had been on the right pit sequence and we
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  started moving up. Next thing you know, I'm running
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  9th. A couple guys wreck, I'm running
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  7th, Townsend Bell repped off Turn 2 right where I did in
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  practice and the team says, hey, we got to take downforce off for
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  this final set of tires. That's how you win this thing.
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  And I'm like man, I already have the yips.
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  I already have the the wiggle in Turn 2 and I just watched the
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  guy wreck right where I did. And that's the guys.
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  We can't do it. We're like, no, we have to.
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  I'm like, no, we can't. We got to leave the downforce on
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  it. And so came off pit Rd. in 6th,
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  right behind Juan Pablo Montoya. He's behind Elio Castroneves.
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  You're better, Ryan Hunter. Ray won it.
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  He's right there. Marco Andretti's in the mix.
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  I'm like Will Powers behind me. Sebastian Borday is behind me.
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  I'm like you're with all the big boys.
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  I'm like and you want one? So when we took that last
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  restart. This is like 10 to go.
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  Maybe I went to go to pass Montoya on the outside of turn
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  one because I had a run on him and he wanted to just take me up
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  to the marbles. And I'm like, this is a
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  Colombian, I already had trouble passing the Russian earlier.
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  I had to pass the. Brazilian Yeah, yeah.
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  Now you get into the country and the nationalities and just how
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  mean. And so I was like, I checked up
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  on Montoya. Now I'm blocking willpower.
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  The Aussie, right. Yeah.
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  Yeah, that's like the nationalities.
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  That's awesome. It was really cool and I'm like,
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  man, I got to figure out how to keep my momentum but not lift to
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  abruptly and settle right here. And that's all I could do.
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  I saw I could get was sixth out of it because those guys are
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  about ready to hand me my lunch. So when you when you lift in
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  those, do you do you do like we do it they turn.
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  Do you drag break while you're because you don't want to come
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  all the way out? How do you lift but not give up?
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  You know, sucking air into the motor?
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  So you lift on the straight away with those cars, but you do it
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  very light, like everything is very light and and very nimble
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  with your with your movements and then you're wide open
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  through the corners. So it was just a matter of the
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  right timing and not losing momentum through the corners to
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  kind of block and and hold 6th place.
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  Absolutely unbelievable. So I had talked to Chip Ganassi
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  and I said, Chip, I said you got all this going on in IndyCar.
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  You're a champion, you've won everything.
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  Why do you run NASCAR? And Chip Ganassi said we're in
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  NASCAR because that's where the show's at.
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  So it is that right? I mean, why did I mean, I know
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  it costs a lot of money to stay in IndyCar, but do you believe
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  NASCAR is the show? Is it?
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  Is it just more than Indy racing?
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  You know, it's a it's a delicate balance.
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  But in in all Motorsports, you know the NASCAR in America is
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  the top notch show. Like that's where there's 25
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  teams that show up over here with a chance to win.
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  IndyCar doesn't have that many. Our budget is probably 6 times
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  the amount of money per car as an IndyCar.
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  Yeah, Indianapolis has. That that aura, that 250,000
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  people and that one race a year. Yeah, our Daytona is just as
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  big, but we go and travel 36 races and we've got minimum
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  70,000 people that are at our events every week.
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  That's that's what he's talking about with the show and the
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  production. Yeah.
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  Well, I think that's interesting.
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  Well, thanks for talking with me about India.
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  I don't feel like that's been talked about enough.
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  I feel like what you did there was absolutely unbelievable and
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  I truly believe that all race car drivers we know how good
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  each other is and none of us want to brag on each other and
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  but you know, hell, I'm 60 now and I just want to brag on you
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  because what you've done is has been incredible.
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  So had my brother Rusty on, and Rusty and I had a great
• 20:43
  conversation about the wrecks that he was in at Daytona.
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  And we were talking about recovering, you know, from his
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  Daytona wreck. And Rusty said, Rusty said, you
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  know, to this day when I get in the shower, he said, you know,
• 21:01
  and I, if I close my eyes and I'm, you know, washing my hair,
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  he says I, I get dizzy. And I feel like all race car
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  drivers, even me, I mean, I had a positional Vertigo.
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  You know, I lost a championship because of it.
• 21:15
  So you've been World News lately.
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  You decided to retire from NASCAR because as hard as you
• 21:21
  tried, you just couldn't be where you wanted to be.
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  So you're just looking back at your announcement a couple weeks
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  ago, just address that a little bit, you know about how you feel
• 21:36
  right now and what's up? Yeah, I mean, long story long.
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  There's never a long short story, right?
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  Yeah, well, you, you were World News and I and I appreciate you
• 21:46
  talking to me about this. No, it for me, you know, when I
• 21:50
  was with Ganassi and Monster Energy was looking at, you know,
• 21:54
  moving the sponsorship to Ty Gibbs and, you know, maybe
• 21:57
  another driver was going to take over.
• 21:59
  And then Ganassi sold the team. It was like, you know what this
• 22:03
  is? This is, I'm good.
• 22:05
  I'm satisfied with where everything ended up.
• 22:08
  You know by winning Daytona late in my career, Winning a
• 22:12
  championship early in my career, yeah, running Indy.
• 22:15
  Running a Pro Stock car down at the Gator Nationals way back.
• 22:19
  Wow. You know, I missed that one, but
• 22:21
  I did see that, yeah. I got you.
• 22:22
  I was gonna get that one in there and.
• 22:25
  HRA But a phone call came in. A phone call came in from three
• 22:29
  different people. One was Denny Hamlin.
• 22:32
  One was Toyota, the director of their Motorsports program.
• 22:36
  And one was this guy, the the GOAT named Michael Jordan.
• 22:41
  And those three wanted me to come and race for them and start
• 22:44
  a second car at 2311. And I said, guys, I I think I I
• 22:51
  fulfilled everything that I've wanted to do.
• 22:53
  But I'll tell you what I did, Kenny.
• 22:56
  I'll tell you what I said, the guys thank you.
• 22:57
  Let me think about this. And I went to an old friend, a
• 23:01
  mentor of mine, named Mark Martin.
• 23:04
  Mark the kid, Martin. And I asked Mark, I go, Mark,
• 23:08
  why did you stay in it so many years after you said you were
• 23:11
  going to retire? And, he says Kurt, because the
• 23:14
  phone kept ringing. Talent.
• 23:18
  I said done. You got it.
• 23:19
  I understand. Yes Sir.
• 23:21
  And so I called Danny back, I called MJ back, I called the
• 23:24
  director of Toyota Motorsport and I said I'm in and I said
• 23:28
  Monster. We got ourselves a team that
• 23:30
  we're going to go build and we're going to win together.
• 23:32
  I said we did that at SHR. We did that with Ganassi.
• 23:36
  Let's go do it again. And so that's how the 2311 ride
• 23:41
  came about in the number 45 car. And you know, I I had to get, I
• 23:46
  had to dig deep. You know, I'm 44 at the time,
• 23:49
  you know, 44 years old. And you know, the gym is tougher
• 23:52
  each day to get out of with. Your body's hurting more so and
• 23:56
  now there's more therapists that I'm working with and massages
• 24:00
  doing yoga and me too, right? Age is a bitch.
• 24:06
  Yeah, you're right. Right.
• 24:07
  It really is. And so the season was going
• 24:11
  well. Things started off great in 2022
• 24:14
  with the new team and you know, we wrecked a couple times
• 24:18
  Bristol dirt, that one, that one I knew I was thrown for a loop.
• 24:24
  I I was. I was seeing things.
• 24:27
  The lights were moving, like you said, with rusty Vertigo and
• 24:30
  things like that. I didn't feel right and I almost
• 24:34
  didn't get approved to race Talladega.
• 24:37
  I was under concussion protocol in the underground.
• 24:41
  I got approved on Saturday before Talladega.
• 24:45
  I worked my butt off that whole week, right?
• 24:47
  And I'm going for the lead on the last lap around Kyle Larson.
• 24:51
  And he comes up changes lanes and I hit the wall. 39 G's in
• 24:57
  the tribe. And back in the infield care
• 25:01
  center I couldn't walk like I fractured my right foot.
• 25:05
  I wrecked it. Dover.
• 25:06
  I wrecked it. Darlington.
• 25:08
  There was the coke 600. Here I it was like a ping pong
• 25:12
  ball bouncing off cars at the end of stage.
• 25:16
  It was bad, man. I went through a bunch of
• 25:17
  wrecks. That's what led up to.
• 25:19
  You know, Pocono and that wreck I was, I was gone.
• 25:22
  I was in outer space. I knew it.
• 25:25
  The doctors knew it and they said you can't race and it
• 25:29
  changes things. You know, the rehab and
• 25:33
  everything that I'm going through.
• 25:34
  Still, I'm much, much better from where I was a year ago at
• 25:38
  this time, and I have to thank all the doctors.
• 25:41
  The Toyota Performance Center has helped me a ton with the
• 25:45
  workouts and the stretching and just the continued effort.
• 25:49
  But my arthritis and and different things swelling up in
• 25:52
  my body now because I'm working out too much.
• 25:55
  Just that's why it became too much.
• 25:57
  And I said, you know what, I got to make this decision and I want
• 26:01
  Tyler Reddick, you know, to make it feel like it's his car, like
• 26:05
  it's his team and that'll help us advance quicker.
• 26:08
  And so it was a tough decision, but it wasn't like the one
• 26:12
  moment from Pocono. It was a lot of things then.
• 26:15
  That's why I wanted to tell you this long story long No, I no, I
• 26:17
  needed. I needed every bit of that
• 26:19
  because I believe it. You know, it's a decision.
• 26:22
  You know when Tyler got in the car and you were in, I mean I
• 26:25
  learned a lot from you because I grew up in the day where my
• 26:29
  brother Rusty didn't care for Ryan Newman just being his
• 26:31
  teammate and Dale Senior didn't like Mike Skinner being his
• 26:36
  teammate. And I I really thought that you
• 26:39
  you caring for Tyler Reddick was really pretty incredible.
• 26:43
  You showed a lot of love a lot of support there and without you
• 26:46
  telling that story right there you know that that that gets me
• 26:50
  to where you know what a ride and you you went all the way.
• 26:54
  And so now that here we are in Kenny conversation that leads me
• 26:58
  this I see you wearing that Monster Energy hat.
• 27:02
  I see that you went and watched Danger Boy Deegan, he wrap up a
• 27:07
  championship. Monster Energy has you
• 27:11
  everywhere with Without getting too deep, I guess you work for
• 27:16
  Monster Energy Drink. I guess you're still with
• 27:19
  Michael Jordan and them, and it seems like you're busier right
• 27:22
  now than you've ever been. Yeah, I mean, being a brand
• 27:27
  ambassador with Monster going on my 12th year with them, you
• 27:32
  know, they have some legacy programs for some of their older
• 27:35
  riders like Carmichael, Jeremy McGrath, you know, Solberg, one
• 27:39
  of the rally guys. You know, I'm, I'm one of their
• 27:42
  first NASCAR guys. I got the first checkered flag
• 27:45
  for Monster in Kyle Busch's Xfinity car back at Richmond in
• 27:50
  2012. And so yeah, it's been fun.
• 27:53
  I mean it. We're always up to different
• 27:55
  cross promotions, you know, I was looking to get to an F1 race
• 27:59
  this year and hang out with our monster group over there, Lewis
• 28:03
  Hamilton and. Different, You know, Moto GP
• 28:06
  guys like Valentino Rossi. Different rally guys like the
• 28:09
  Solberg family. What a name.
• 28:11
  Valentino Rossi. Sounds like a wine.
• 28:15
  He's. Italian you know, with Britney
• 28:20
  Force and HRA, you know, with all the different Monster
• 28:24
  Motorsports programs, I get to go around and talk with some of
• 28:28
  these legends and hang out. But there's also like, the
• 28:31
  monster army. It's the younger kids in the BMX
• 28:35
  world, snowboarding. There's the different
• 28:38
  development programs even like the bull riders and those guys
• 28:43
  hanging out, talking with them, teaching them the championship
• 28:46
  mentality, teaching them that this brand can be a lifestyle
• 28:51
  for you if you, if you want to be part of this, this is a
• 28:54
  family. And so the monster people have
• 28:57
  been like family to me. Toyota's been incredible and
• 29:01
  things at 2311. Basically just another set of
• 29:04
  eyes. You know, a consultant with the
• 29:07
  team, helping the Bubba, helping Tyler.
• 29:10
  You know, just verifying things with the crew cheese, You know,
• 29:14
  seeing things in the engineering department and just hanging out
• 29:17
  in the meetings going, yeah, that's bullshit.
• 29:20
  You know, I'm calling people out and I call that D bullshitting
• 29:25
  you so you can D bullshit you. You know when people are are
• 29:29
  saying the wrong stuff because you've been there, done that.
• 29:32
  Yeah. And it works in all areas, you
• 29:34
  know, whether it's, you know, I was at a Toyota event with their
• 29:38
  super program and seeing you know some of the drivers over
• 29:42
  there and you know a couple young kids, couple older guys
• 29:45
  and just talking through some of some of their issues and and
• 29:49
  struggles and it's like, all right, let's just let's look at
• 29:51
  it this way. And so it's been fun to give my
• 29:53
  perspective back. From so many years of racing
• 29:56
  cars. Yeah, boy, you and you've got
• 29:59
  great perspective. So you drove for for some great
• 30:02
  race teams just like all the great race car drivers have
• 30:06
  Roush Penske, Chip Ganassi as you mentioned Stewart Haas serve
• 30:11
  furniture, rowing and out. Listen those are great race
• 30:15
  teams. But I'm, I'm going to say this,
• 30:18
  you had a little stint with Phoenix Racing and you're going
• 30:22
  to, you know, you win basically Sears Point, you know, And right
• 30:28
  then everybody went okay. Look, we knew Kurt was great,
• 30:33
  but now this puts him on a godly level.
• 30:35
  You took that Phoenix race car, James Finch, you took that car
• 30:40
  which could hardly qualify for a race.
• 30:43
  Tell me about that moment when you took basically a car that
• 30:47
  wouldn't even make a race and you're and basically you win.
• 30:53
  I mean, tell me about that damn moment.
• 30:55
  That was a magical race. That was a magical like.
• 31:00
  It was almost like I was going to be like, I'm done guys, I'm
• 31:03
  out the crotch chop. Yeah, I had the had the fallout
• 31:11
  with Penske. You know, we we finished at
• 31:14
  Penske in 2010 and 2011, we finished 11th in points.
• 31:19
  Yeah, there's been 11th in points with multimillion dollar
• 31:23
  sponsorships, you know, running out of gas or having bad pit
• 31:27
  stops or I wasn't in the groove mentally.
• 31:31
  Like it was wasn't where I wanted to be.
• 31:34
  And you know, I took a step back.
• 31:38
  Actually, I interviewed with Richard Petty to race at Richard
• 31:41
  Petty Motorsports. I went to.
• 31:44
  Level Cross North Carolina and got to go to the legendary level
• 31:47
  Cross. Yeah, I got to see the museum,
• 31:49
  got to meet King in his office. And the offer wasn't right.
• 31:55
  It just wasn't the right offer. And I said no, thank you, Sir.
• 31:59
  And so, wow, you turned the king down because he he shot you low.
• 32:04
  He didn't respect you. Well, it was a weird, it was a
• 32:08
  weird sequence. I mean, he was even at Daytona
• 32:11
  the next year saying Kurt Bush is unsponsorable.
• 32:14
  Oh, wow. I couldn't get into a banter or
• 32:18
  an argument with King, right? That's when Monster Energy
• 32:21
  called. They're like, hey, we'll sponsor
• 32:22
  you. What a story REST is.
• 32:24
  History on the monster side, but with Finch.
• 32:27
  Finch was funny. He gave me an offer to race for
• 32:30
  him. He goes, we'll split the person
• 32:31
  half whatever we get. I'll give you half.
• 32:34
  I'm like, that's all right. I'll take that.
• 32:37
  And we almost want Sonoma. It was the setup.
• 32:40
  I tried to remember as much of the setup as actually broke.
• 32:44
  I I won the year prior in the Shell car with fence.
• 32:48
  I had the setup in my mind and yes, I drove the car.
• 32:53
  I drove the wheels off the car. The rear end was falling out.
• 32:56
  Yeah, I broke. And I couldn't pass Boyer for
• 32:59
  the lead because it was like swapping ends on me and it was
• 33:03
  like, man, I had to win. It was so close and I had to
• 33:06
  nurse at home. To finish third, Tony Stewart
• 33:09
  got me on the lap and Stewart comes up and he goes, How'd you
• 33:14
  even finish? The rear ends falling out of the
• 33:16
  car? Literally.
• 33:17
  We could see it on TV. It was big.
• 33:20
  But man, if I could have won that, and if I could have won
• 33:24
  with Furniture Row, which we should have Furniture Row and
• 33:27
  Barney Visser, it was so awesome.
• 33:29
  Like Visser is a is a very Christian man, a great Christian
• 33:34
  family. Yeah, and after racing with
• 33:37
  Finch, which is the opposite end of that spectrum, I'll just
• 33:40
  leave it there. Those two years helped me work
• 33:45
  my way up from a D level team, C level team, B level team and
• 33:49
  back up to an A level team because that's when Jean Haas
• 33:54
  called the summer of 2013 when I was with Furniture Row.
• 33:58
  Yeah, well, you know, we all go through those situations.
• 34:03
  We've all had the journey. God knows that I've been through
• 34:08
  some crazy stuff but I I, you know listen I I relate with you.
• 34:15
  You know I I drove for Furniture Row and and Barney you know he's
• 34:18
  a Christian and you know he and then you go with Finch and he
• 34:23
  he's got a drink in his hand always a bracelet on and and
• 34:26
  you're you're dealing with two complete different dynamics and
• 34:29
  you know I can relate that we have to be able to fit in
• 34:34
  everywhere and you're dealing with such different people in
• 34:37
  NASCAR and you and then you got like the owner then you got the
• 34:40
  motor man then you got the body man and you're right as you said
• 34:44
  earlier dealing with these young kids I can definitely see where
• 34:48
  you're a big help to Monster Energy drink because driving the
• 34:53
  car's the easy part it it's it's capable it's keeping it's you
• 34:57
  got to become like human resources you got to keep people
• 35:01
  from fighting each other so you can go fast.
• 35:05
  Yep. And that's that's part of what I
• 35:07
  didn't understand when I first came into the sport.
• 35:10
  So back to the Gong Show. Yeah, they didn't teach you
• 35:14
  that. No, I did that couple interviews
• 35:18
  maybe when I was a Southwest tour racer, right?
• 35:21
  Got into trucks. Here's a quick story, 1996.
• 35:29
  I had won all three divisions at the local short track in Vegas
• 35:35
  the year 2004. Years later I qualified a Cup
• 35:39
  car at Dover 10th. That's badass.
• 35:42
  I went so fast through all of the different racing ranks and
• 35:46
  now I got Dale Senior, you know, making fun of me that that
• 35:51
  you're with the middle finger over in Daytona.
• 35:54
  You know, it happened that fast, those four to five years.
• 35:59
  I didn't. I wasn't ready for the media.
• 36:01
  I wasn't ready for sponsors. I wasn't a professional.
• 36:06
  I just wanted to race. And so that's why that journey
• 36:10
  was so great for me after the Penske years to build back up.
• 36:14
  It was like I just started over like, hey, can I have your ride,
• 36:17
  Finch? I'll go win with you.
• 36:19
  And then with Barney working my way back up.
• 36:22
  And that's when I started to like, oh, it is more about the
• 36:26
  team. It's not just about.
• 36:28
  The driver or winning, you know, You think winning, you know,
• 36:31
  there's an old saying Harry Gant told me years ago.
• 36:34
  He says winning's not everything.
• 36:36
  It's the only thing. And I will never forget that.
• 36:39
  And so it is hard to hear that that you got to have it all and
• 36:46
  I understand what you went through.
• 36:48
  Yeah, you got to you got to wear all nine hats, right?
• 36:51
  910 hats of all the areas. Right stuff.
• 36:55
  It's been fun though. I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it
• 36:57
  in. I mean I'm a blue collar kid
• 36:59
  from Vegas making $18.00 an hour, which was big money back
• 37:04
  back as a teenager and look at where everything turned out.
• 37:07
  Now my little nephew is 8 years old.
• 37:10
  I'll be at Millbridge Raceway tonight helping him and his team
• 37:13
  and then the guys there it it's now a third generation with us.
• 37:18
  I'm going to ask you a question. We're we're, we're that we're 40
• 37:21
  minutes already. We're coming to the very end
• 37:23
  here. But I started asking this
• 37:26
  questions to some of the greats, and you're one of the greats.
• 37:31
  You did all this. I rattled off all those
• 37:33
  incredible stats. I mean, I I make, you know, I
• 37:35
  make notes. I mean you've done it all.
• 37:38
  You know, there it all is. You've done it all.
• 37:41
  But then when I talk to you, you hear it, but you right away go
• 37:46
  back to some of your childhood is it.
• 37:49
  So my question is this, is there that gap in the middle of your
• 37:54
  life where you almost kind of forget all the greatness you
• 37:59
  have? There's the ego that helps.
• 38:05
  I think a lot of drivers make it to a top elite level to be the
• 38:11
  best of the best. This top 1%, yeah, you're there.
• 38:15
  There's the humility that you learn along the way.
• 38:19
  Because like on your stats there, there's 776 starts, but
• 38:24
  there's only 34 wins. So how many times do you lose?
• 38:29
  You know, there there's the tough days, there's the great
• 38:32
  days. And I remember when I was a
• 38:35
  rookie and Cup and I got a top five, me and my buddies would
• 38:38
  would have a barn burner party and then and then like times
• 38:43
  when you get interviewed after a top five later in your career.
• 38:47
  The media goes, yeah, just another low level day for Kurt
• 38:53
  Bush and team. It's like, dude, I thought,
• 38:56
  things change once you start accumulating all of this.
• 38:58
  You hear that, don't you? Yeah, it's like, no, this is a
• 39:01
  damn good day. And it's like, and they're like,
• 39:03
  Nah, he didn't win while they're eating doughnuts and getting fat
• 39:07
  in the Media Center. So there's all the.
• 39:12
  There's all the emotions all the way through and then things you
• 39:15
  digest as a 22 year old when I first got into Cup are very
• 39:19
  different than when I was a 44 year old finishing up my racing
• 39:23
  career. And so again, I'm very blessed
• 39:25
  and you have to learn all of it. You have to learn.
• 39:28
  Nobody knows it right off the bat.
• 39:31
  You know, you look at drivers in Formula One, like a Max for
• 39:35
  stopping. Well, his dad raced in F1.
• 39:38
  That's how he might have gotten that opportunity.
• 39:41
  There's there's a good core group of us in NASCAR and and
• 39:45
  IndyCar that that we're just barely trying to scrape their
• 39:48
  cars together to get to the go Kart track and wanted to work
• 39:52
  their way up. And I'm a lucky enough kid
• 39:55
  because there's 10s of thousands of kids just like me that didn't
• 39:59
  get the opportunity. So that's why I'm so thankful
• 40:02
  that it's all turned out the way it has.
• 40:04
  Well, we've reminded everybody and if you're at the end of of
• 40:07
  this incredible Kenny conversation with Kurt Bush, he
• 40:10
  made it to NASCAR on what they call the Gong show.
• 40:15
  He got there because he had the most talent.
• 40:18
  So let's end like this, Kurt. We do this with all the drivers
• 40:22
  that are great like you. Three or four questions about
• 40:28
  about NASCAR and you can't get yourself in trouble any more
• 40:32
  than Tony Stewart let it all out.
• 40:35
  If you if you go back to Tony's interview, I said now don't get
• 40:38
  yourself in trouble and he didn't but let's let's end like
• 40:43
  this. So you're a champion.
• 40:45
  You've done it all. So what you say matters.
• 40:49
  What is your opinion on NASCAR today where NASCAR is right now?
• 40:56
  I like where NASCAR is. Yes, it has areas of weaknesses.
• 41:00
  It has areas of strength. The key thing that I remember
• 41:04
  the most coming up through was I got to meet Bill France junior.
• 41:09
  I got to meet him at the Waldorf Astoria when I was champion in
• 41:12
  04. I got to go to his presidential
• 41:15
  suite and when the door opened, I had to cut through the smoke.
• 41:18
  With a knife. Best banquet ever.
• 41:20
  Waldorf. That's the real, that's the real
• 41:22
  champion's place, damn it. I love that.
• 41:25
  Yeah, he's smoking that. He's smoking and drinking beer.
• 41:28
  Yeah, it was so much smoke I had to cut through the scissors.
• 41:33
  Where you at, Mr. France, President?
• 41:38
  And he said, son, sit down, I got something to tell you, he
• 41:41
  said. You're a champion now of my
• 41:43
  sport. Don't go fuck it up.
• 41:46
  Yeah, yeah. And I like what people really
• 41:50
  talk. Yeah, and I liked that Iron Fist
• 41:53
  mentality. Times when I was in trouble with
• 41:55
  Mike Hilton, it was you got to fix this.
• 42:00
  Now what I see with NASCAR there is the France family, but
• 42:04
  there's such a board of directors and others and all
• 42:07
  these categories and all these things going on that it's a
• 42:11
  committee and it hurts itself sometimes.
• 42:14
  There still needs to be that one go to.
• 42:17
  Like we're going this direction type of person.
• 42:19
  That's what I'd like to see with our sport.
• 42:22
  Yeah, I I really, really like what you said because I'm older
• 42:26
  than you. And you know, Mike Hilton called
• 42:30
  me up one day and find my ass $10,000.
• 42:33
  That's another story. And I and I had to write a
• 42:35
  check, you know, to NASCAR. I got my my butt in trouble.
• 42:40
  So I I like what you said, because after that mean Hilton
• 42:43
  became dear friends. Yep, you learn from that And and
• 42:47
  he wanted to try to give you a lesson, right?
• 42:50
  But one thing I also can add to that is I see a lot of sponsors
• 42:54
  block other sponsors. It's like I can't hold up.
• 42:58
  Like when I was with Penske, there was the Shell Gas Saver
• 43:02
  card or something when you win. And I got a call from the
• 43:06
  president after I won saying, hey, you can't do that, it's
• 43:09
  Sunoco's Victory Lane. By the way, I don't care.
• 43:13
  I just want to race with our race team.
• 43:15
  You guys go sort that out. I don't care.
• 43:18
  So there's the times where sponsors don't even jump into
• 43:21
  our sport because it's already blocked and we can't do that.
• 43:24
  We can't hurt each other with different turf and different
• 43:29
  contracts of who owns what, but that's that's the way it works.
• 43:33
  Yeah, I I don't like that either.
• 43:34
  I just dealt with that. My brother Rusty was supposed to
• 43:36
  be in Vegas with midnight here in a couple weeks.
• 43:40
  The great race car and I was excited for Rusty to go out to
• 43:45
  Vegas. The race coming up with Midnight
• 43:48
  and word on the street is that can't go out there because
• 43:52
  Toyota don't want him out there running that forward around the
• 43:55
  racetrack. And I'm like that don't even
• 43:57
  make sense. You know, pick another excuse,
• 44:00
  you know, because I mean all the auto mikes race with each other
• 44:03
  and as they always taught me competition's good.
• 44:06
  So, OK, so the next one is, yeah man, I don't know how you're
• 44:11
  going to feel about this one because I feel like it's one
• 44:14
  thing that added to your retirement, but that's my
• 44:18
  opinion. What is your opinion on this,
• 44:20
  this new Next Gen. car? Yeah, it's it.
• 44:25
  It's got its issues. And there's been changes made
• 44:28
  since my accident, since Bowman's.
• 44:32
  I think Noah Gregson was held out a race or two.
• 44:36
  You know, it's rigid. It is very stiff and it's built
• 44:41
  to protect a guy like Priest. That wrecked at Daytona, right?
• 44:47
  Wasn't that nasty? The car built to withstand the
• 44:51
  200 mile per hour Daytona, Talladega.
• 44:55
  Big, big wrecks and all the middle size wrecks.
• 44:59
  All the smaller bump. Drafting even is more rigid in
• 45:03
  this car. That's where we've got to
• 45:05
  continue to soften it up at certain tracks.
• 45:08
  And they did that with the rear clip.
• 45:10
  They've done that with different headrests and inserts.
• 45:13
  I mean, I exaggerated my wreck because I leaned forward knowing
• 45:18
  when I was going to back in. But it's like primal fear.
• 45:22
  If something's coming from behind, you're like, oh man,
• 45:24
  don't hit me. So my head was away from the
• 45:26
  headrest. And so when I hit, I exaggerated
• 45:30
  everything and I don't even remember the car hitting with
• 45:33
  the right front, so because I was in outer space.
• 45:37
  Yeah, but it needs its continued development.
• 45:40
  I think we've seen a lot of cars hit this year and the rear gets
• 45:44
  gets crumpled up in a better and in a better manner.
• 45:47
  Let's just keep working on it. Let's just keep committed to it.
• 45:50
  But the the sled test and the data still got to be right.
• 45:54
  You can't fabricate that stuff. It's got to be real, right?
• 45:57
  I agree. So that car is so rigid that
• 46:00
  everything is within a thousands now.
• 46:02
  You used to be where you know, hey, it's within a 16th and now
• 46:05
  we're down to oh, 20. Just craziness.
• 46:09
  So what is your opinion on tech inspection now?
• 46:14
  Now we're now we're lasers. Lasers what?
• 46:18
  What is your opinion on tech inspection?
• 46:21
  Well, I mean it's it's like it was an IndyCar when I raced
• 46:25
  there almost a decade ago now, you know, car goes across the
• 46:29
  grid there, you know, everything gets scanned and lasered.
• 46:33
  It shows you where you're in the red, shows you where you're in
• 46:35
  the green. I like it.
• 46:37
  I just wish it was transparent that all teams could see where
• 46:41
  everybody was. Right now, NASCAR still has all
• 46:45
  of that and maybe we need a third party, independent set of
• 46:48
  officials. You know, like the referees in
• 46:51
  the NFL. Are they employed by the teams?
• 46:53
  No. Are they employed by the NFL?
• 46:57
  Never thought about. That a third party set of
• 46:59
  officials and that's something to where?
• 47:02
  That might help with the integrity of things and and
• 47:04
  keeping things a bit more on a a transparent level.
• 47:08
  Last one, we are seeing record setting fines.
• 47:14
  You know Rick Hendrick who just won 300 races, Of course he has
• 47:18
  four cars but he, you know a total $400,000 in fines.
• 47:24
  Do you think these fines are okay they warranted?
• 47:28
  What is your opinion? And this is the last question,
• 47:31
  the big fines. I'm fine with it.
• 47:34
  I mean, hey, where does the money go?
• 47:36
  Should go under the point fund money, right?
• 47:38
  I think it goes to NASCAR Foundation, but I like what
• 47:43
  you're saying. No, you still got a the the
• 47:47
  fines and the money points. I mean, heck, they took Danny
• 47:50
  Hamlin's win away last summer at one of the Pocono races, right,
• 47:55
  because of of a manipulation to the front area where we're.
• 47:59
  Changing the way the rap was, I mean, everything is so close,
• 48:03
  but when you mess up and you're out of that box, yeah, you got
• 48:06
  to get get your hand slapped. And I still like points versus
• 48:10
  the money. I think people are more upset
• 48:12
  about points because if you are taking away a race full of
• 48:16
  points and you finish three spots worse at the end of the
• 48:22
  year and the point fund money, that's a bigger hit than
• 48:25
  $100,000. Yeah.
• 48:27
  And I agree with that because a lot of the contracts are Rd. in
• 48:30
  there where the teams will receive hundreds of thousands of
• 48:33
  dollars and maybe even $1,000,000 bonus from their
• 48:36
  sponsor. Well, Kurt Busch, look at you,
• 48:39
  buddy. You look great.
• 48:40
  I love your shirt. And.
• 48:43
  I got this from my dad. He went to the Race of Gentlemen
• 48:45
  and it's out on the beach in Wildwood, NJ like Ray
• 48:49
  Everingham. And him went drag racing up and
• 48:51
  down the beach. That is too awesome and and to
• 48:54
  watch your mom and dad be part of your and your brother Kyle
• 49:00
  watching you guys race your whole life I've really enjoyed
• 49:02
  how they've went about it they've been at these races but
• 49:06
  they stay in the in on the back and but your mom and dad are
• 49:10
  wonderful people and and Kurt listen from the bottom of my
• 49:13
  heart I mean this thank you so much for carving a little time
• 49:18
  out for Kenny conversation. Absolutely, Kenny.
• 49:21
  Always for a racer. We come from a racing family and
• 49:24
  we're always here to help each other in the NASCAR world.
• 49:26
  My friend, I appreciate you having me on, man.
• 49:28
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 49:30
  Well, listen, everybody, we're in podcast form.
• 49:32
  Remember on your way to work, you can listen to us.
• 49:35
  And then on the way home, we are at iTunes and Spotify until the
• 49:40
  next Kenny conversation. We'll see you next time.