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Tyler Reddick's Winning Post Race Press Conference · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  What did we? Just watch Tyler Reddick passing
• 0:03
  Denny. Hamlin and Ryan Blaney on the.
• 0:05
  Final lap at Homestead to win the race and punch.
• 0:09
  His ticket to Phoenix? Jeff Gluck.
• 0:11
  Of the Athletic. Calling it the.
• 0:13
  Best playoff race ever. I can't walk you through the
• 0:16
  last few laps, but my emotions were all over the place.
• 0:21
  Yeah, when we, we went long. I, you know, I, I didn't know
• 0:26
  how that was going to play out. I, I really thought that I, I
• 0:32
  was worried that that caution wasn't going to come.
• 0:34
  And then we pit, we lose the lap.
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  I'm like that damn, we get back to the lead lap and I'm just not
• 0:41
  expecting it, right? And Nick, Nick pay, my father
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  says caution. It's like, oh boy, great.
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  Now we're at the back, whatever else.
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  And Billy was like, yeah, we're going to stay out.
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  And I'm like, oh shit, we're going to stay out.
• 0:54
  All right, we're going to figure this out.
• 0:55
  And so, yeah, turn 1 went about as good as I thought it could
• 1:02
  have went. I saw the, I saw Danny get to my
• 1:05
  outside and that wasn't great. But we settled in there and I
• 1:10
  didn't know how bad we were going to bleed.
• 1:11
  And we, I drove into turn three kind of, I don't know, out of
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  desperation or something. And I, I kind of helped serve.
• 1:21
  I was very shocked by that. And then as laps just kept as as
• 1:26
  laps just kept winding down it, it didn't truly feel like we
• 1:31
  were at a a big tire deficit. You know, you come to this place
• 1:34
  and you know that tires are a premium.
• 1:37
  Early in the race we saw the 8A number of other cars on like 3-4
• 1:42
  lap tires, you know, stay out and get their doors blown off.
• 1:45
  So I was just completely shocked that we were able to stay in the
• 1:50
  mix like we were. And yeah, going into one, I
• 1:54
  just, I made the right guess. I got the bottom, I got clean
• 1:57
  air. I got up up in front of the
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  11:00 and had a good run on the 12.
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  I was just blown away that I had that kind of momentum going into
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  Turn 3. And, you know, I just, I thought
• 2:14
  there was no way the 12 was going to leave.
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  There's no way the Blaney was going to leave me the route
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  outside. But he must have thought that I
• 2:20
  was just going to absolutely dive bomb it off in there to try
• 2:24
  and get around him. And once I saw him kind of
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  shaved down, I just, I hit the gas and forgot about everything
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  else and it came out on the other side and in the lead.
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  It was just crazy. We're going to go ahead and open
• 2:36
  it up to questions. If you have a question, please
• 2:38
  raise your hand and we will work on getting a wireless mic too.
• 2:40
  We'll go to Bob first. Bob.
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  Parkers. Fox Sports, how do you, I mean,
• 2:50
  we talked a little bit about yesterday, but how do you put
• 2:52
  out of your head what happened last week when you're trying to
• 2:55
  make a move to then go and make daring moves that you had to do
• 2:59
  at the end of the race Today, you can't think about it at all.
• 3:04
  You know, I'm thankful that cars are as safe as they are when it,
• 3:08
  when it comes to rolling them over.
• 3:10
  You know, they made a big, big improvements with that from Gen.
• 3:13
  6 to Gen. 7. You know, certainly I didn't
• 3:18
  think the crash was as big as it was, but it was an interesting
• 3:21
  process understanding that. But again, I was just glad the
• 3:25
  car for the most part, you know, I stayed in the seat.
• 3:27
  Nothing collapsed, nothing crazy happened.
• 3:31
  But I don't know, to your point, Bob, just we're kind of crazy to
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  some degree. My my first lap in the car after
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  flipping it, I drive off into turn three and four in practice
• 3:42
  right on the wall like nothing had ever happened.
• 3:44
  That's just just just, that's just how you have to be if you
• 3:48
  want to compete on this level. You've got to be able to
• 3:51
  remember the important things, remember the lessons, but you
• 3:54
  know, there's certain things you just got to completely block out
• 3:56
  and forget and, and go into the next day, the next week
• 4:00
  completely ready to go like nothing ever happened.
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  We'll go to Davy. Davy Siegel with SiriusXM NASCAR
• 4:12
  Radio What is it about this place that just suits you?
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  It doesn't matter if it's Cup, Xfinity, Next Gen.
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  Gen. 6. I mean, what is it about this
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  place? I have no idea.
• 4:23
  I like Florida. Maybe that's some of it.
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  The weather is always nice. Yeah, this just this place is
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  the only mile and we have mile and 1/2 that we have that is
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  shaped the way that it is. And with the nature of the
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  surface, the the banking that there's how well the wall is
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  shaped it. It really allows you to just get
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  up there and RIP it and make a lot of speed.
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  And today was a day where you could really run the wall in
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  three and four, but other in one and two, you had to move around
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  quite a bit. And so that that took some
• 4:59
  adjusting, but but our car was really, really tuned for it.
• 5:01
  I mean her beast Camry could just kind of run it wherever we
• 5:05
  wanted it to and wanted to. That was that was nice.
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  And it really was a big part of why we were able to to win this
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  race today. We could older tires, we hooked
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  the white line and got up in line and just versatility is
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  important here. But I don't know this place has
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  just been really, really fun from the first time I ever ran
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  it as a as a rookie in the Truck Series.
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  I don't know what it is just me as a deracer.
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  I love stepping over the edge in this place seems to reward that
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  to some degree. You have to take care of your
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  tires, but being able to RIP the fence when all else fails, man,
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  it's just there's there's nowhere else like this place
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  where you can do that and make that kind of speed and justice a
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  lot of fun to to run lab after lab.
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  Did your mindset change at all watching Truck and Xfinity
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  yesterday and seeing how important and how advantageous
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  it was? To wrap the.
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  Bottom on the white line for Austin and Xfinity specifically,
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  I mean, to your point, having a versatile car is important, but
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  we hear so much about ripping the fence and running the top
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  and the momentum you get up there.
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  Did your mindset going into today change at all based on
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  what you experienced in practice yesterday and what you saw on
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  the other two? Yeah.
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  I mean, you always have to be ready to to adapt.
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  And so for us, we, we, you know, we, we had a, an approach, we
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  kind of stuck to it on practice day.
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  Watching the Xfinity race play out like it did was a bit
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  interesting. But certainly it's funny, you
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  would think as a track ages, you know, you'll want to run the
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  higher lanes more and more, but some about this place where
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  maybe just the amount of lapse that have been ran around the
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  top, the the bottom can be more beneficial at times.
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  So just when you think you have a track like this figured out,
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  it just always seems to present something new that kind of takes
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  you out, takes you catch you off guard and you have to adapt.
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  And so that was just the name of the game for us all day long.
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  We kind of just keep time, kept having to adjust to what what
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  our car would give us and ultimately the end, you know, we
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  kind of went on a limb with our strategy but cannot believe it.
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  But it paid off. It was his incredible thing.
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  I cannot believe we won the race on older tires that a place like
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  Homestead. It's just shouldn't happen, but
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  we did it. But but that's the kind of team
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  that we have. We've been putting some very
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  tough situations. We found ways to overcome it and
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  we did that again today. We're going to go to Jordan,
• 7:31
  Jared, and then in the middle here, read and then read after.
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  Or Bianchi the Athletic. You've kind of answered my
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  question a little bit, but how does it on this track where
• 7:41
  tires are everything? How does a driver with two laps
• 7:44
  older tires not just past the two cars in front of them, but
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  you ripped off this incredible lap?
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  Yeah, I heard about that after the fact that it was a really
• 7:53
  fast lap. I truly don't know.
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  When you think about it. I had clean air for the whole
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  lap. You know, I went down to the
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  bottom. The 12 was kind of more worried
• 8:02
  about the 11, as he should have been in the three and four.
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  I got the top, I'm contested. So yeah, I guess I had clean
• 8:09
  air. Should have been a pretty quick
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  lap. But I don't know you, you
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  sometimes you have to take guesses going into the corner
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  where where you think the lane for you is going to be.
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  And I just, I just got it right. It's crazy to do it the way we
• 8:24
  did, but we did it. Your dad say anything in Victory
• 8:27
  Lane. Your dad say anything you in.
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  Victory Lane, gosh, I mean, he's just really proud of me.
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  We were both just in disbelief by what just happened, honestly.
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  Yeah, a place like this that shouldn't work, but we made it
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  work. It's just incredible.
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  He was proud. Everyone's really, really
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  excited and ecstatic about what just took place.
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  I just again still in disbelief honestly.
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  We're going to go to Jared. Jared Haas was
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  frenchstretch.com. Roddick, you had issues with
• 8:59
  traction and pit stops were not up to speed.
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  Do you feel confident that going into Phoenix that the pit crew
• 9:06
  stuff will be cleaned up because of how tight the competition is
• 9:09
  with pit crews? Yeah, we, we got, we got, we got
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  extra time to just think about Phoenix now that that's going to
• 9:15
  be good for us. So I, I have faith in my team.
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  You know, they've, they know how to execute a fast stop and for
• 9:23
  them, they, they can just solely focus on Phoenix for the next,
• 9:27
  next week and a half, if you will, before we get there.
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  Undefeated so far in this playoff structure, you went 2
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  for two. Do you feel the reign of Reddit
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  coming back for 28 when you won your championships back in 2018
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  and 2019? Or is this a completely
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  different Tyler Reddick? Yeah, that Tyler wasn't very
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  good at Phoenix, but I feel like since since I came over 2311
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  and, and working with, you know, becoming a driver and, and a
• 9:53
  Toyota Camry, I've I've certainly gotten a bit better at
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  Phoenix. So look back to the spring and
• 9:59
  we were really, really solid. Obviously Christopher found
• 10:02
  something in that race that set him apart from the rest of the
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  field. But it's something that we've
• 10:07
  been thinking about since since that first race.
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  How can we go back there and compete with with Christopher?
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  And so it's been on our mind. We've been thinking about it.
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  We've obviously we've had a lot of season between now and then,
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  but the work that we put in after Phoenix should certainly
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  help us as we prepare for this race coming up.
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  We're going to come up to the front to read, and then we're
• 10:29
  going to come on the middle and then to Daniel.
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  Reid Spencer with the NASCAR wire plan, He said afterwards
• 10:35
  that his he thought he drove it pretty hard into three and his
• 10:41
  plan was to slide up, but by that time you were already
• 10:44
  outside him. Were you confident at that point
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  from what you felt after the restart, that the car was going
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  to stick? I had no idea, but I was going
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  to take the rest and find out. So that's just that's just the
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  corner I was in. I knew that for us to make it to
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  Phoenix, that win here today was going to really help our odds.
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  So yeah, I just, I don't know. I drove it in till I got next to
• 11:08
  him and then hope that it stuck in it and it did.
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  It was pretty incredible. We're going to go to Tim in the
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  middle. Hi, Kyle.
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  Tim Reynolds with The Associated Press.
• 11:22
  Those of us that have followed Michael forever and ever never
• 11:24
  know. There's only one thing that
• 11:25
  makes him that happy and that's winning.
• 11:28
  Can you just take us through what that moment is like and
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  what, what it's I I know there's a lot means here.
• 11:33
  The wind and Phoenix and all that, of course, are very good
• 11:35
  things. But when When you can make the
• 11:36
  boss that happy, that's pretty rare.
• 11:38
  Yeah, what? Was that moment like?
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  It it's special man. You know, he he's dedicated a
• 11:45
  lot of of his time, his his efforts, his money and to bring
• 11:49
  and to elevating 2311 where it is right now.
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  And you know, he's fully committed to to this team, to
• 11:56
  this to this to our organization and to be able to reward him
• 12:01
  with the days like we had today's this is a true honor.
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  So it was really cool to see how happy he was.
• 12:07
  We're all very happy about it. And you know, he he believed in
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  me. He believes in this team, the
• 12:14
  people that that him, Danny and everybody else is, is put
• 12:19
  together to, to create what 2311 is.
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  You know, he he's put a lot towards it and it's, it's really
• 12:26
  cool in these, in these critical moments to be able to deliver
• 12:30
  for him and for everybody else. That's a part of the team.
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  Welcome to Daniel. The only fat in friendships.com
• 12:37
  So after MJ was finished giving you a bear hug and lifting you
• 12:41
  up completely off the ground, what what, what did he say to
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  you? Oh, man, he's just really proud
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  the fight that we had, you know, never given up, just fighting
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  through the adversity, you know, just really, really proud of of
• 12:53
  the effort we put forth. He he, like I said, he believes
• 12:59
  in and in me. He believes in this team.
• 13:01
  I know the circumstances weren't weren't ideal, but this is the
• 13:05
  kind of things that we have to overcome when it went, when we
• 13:11
  get put in these positions, we've had to do it a few times.
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  And he was really proud of of the whole team for for the
• 13:17
  effort that we we put forth. And this is probably the silly
• 13:21
  question, but do you consider this the biggest, most important
• 13:24
  win of your racing career so far?
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  This was pretty big, yeah. To do it that way in a place
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  like this when everything was on the line like it was, is pretty
• 13:36
  incredible. But we got to enjoy it.
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  We're going to certainly enjoy it and celebrate it.
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  A Monday morning on, we're going to be thinking about Phoenix and
• 13:45
  and getting ready for what lies ahead.
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  Any additional questions for Tyler, We'll come back up to Bob
• 13:52
  and then Lee. Bob.
• 13:54
  Hackers, Fox Sports, from what you're saying, you haven't seen
• 13:57
  the finish, is that right? You haven't seen a replay, like
• 14:02
  bits and pieces, but not the full thing.
• 14:03
  No. So like, so I know you say
• 14:05
  you're kind of disbelief. So do you have any like kind of
• 14:07
  sense of like it's some people calling this one of the best
• 14:10
  finishes to one of the best races of the playoff era?
• 14:13
  Like do you have any sense of, of that?
• 14:17
  No, not exactly that. Or like, no, I'm, I'm sure when
• 14:23
  when the time is right, I'll have the opportunity to go back
• 14:26
  and look at it. But living it, it just seemed
• 14:28
  like, yeah, just, it wasn't a great restart, but I just could
• 14:34
  not believe that we were holding on as good as we were.
• 14:38
  And you know, my, my opportunity was the 12 and 11 being worried
• 14:41
  about each other and try to get in the middle of it and then
• 14:44
  make something out of it. So yeah, I was very fortunate
• 14:48
  that I was left to top that my my favorite track in my favorite
• 14:51
  corner, which is 3 and 4 here. So just took a risk and it and
• 14:57
  it paid off. I I don't know what else really
• 14:59
  to say We're. Going to come up to the front
• 15:02
  with Lee. Lee Spencer, Series 6 and
• 15:06
  NIOSCO, Are you in catchments.com?
• 15:08
  I'm kind of curious what was going on getting out of the pit
• 15:13
  box because were you not getting a good launch?
• 15:15
  There were a couple of times that it seemed like you were
• 15:19
  telling the guys you were struggling getting out.
• 15:20
  It didn't. I don't know, I guess Bell had
• 15:25
  that issue with Las Vegas in the number one pit box, but you
• 15:28
  didn't have trouble with that. And I wanted to know from a
• 15:30
  characteristic standpoint what was going on.
• 15:33
  Yeah, you know, we, we definitely struggled with it in
• 15:35
  Vegas a week ago too. But we're just trying to bare
• 15:39
  minimum, just take the take the game that that that stall one
• 15:42
  gives us and live with it, make the most of it.
• 15:45
  But yeah, it seemed like more time than not to just like, man,
• 15:48
  if we could just get a little more traction out of this first
• 15:51
  stall, we would we'd be passing cars on Pit Rd. instead of
• 15:55
  maintaining or losing one or two.
• 15:56
  But yeah, it's just the struggle that that you have at some of
• 16:00
  these tracks, you know, that that first sit stall does have
• 16:03
  an advantage, but but when you leave that pit stall, you're on
• 16:06
  asphalt or a different surface that's slick and certainly had
• 16:09
  my struggles with it today and last week.
• 16:13
  Any additional questions, go ahead.
• 16:17
  So what? Why is turn 3 and 4 your
• 16:19
  favorite corner? I don't.
• 16:24
  Know, it just feels like you can drive a lot deeper in there than
• 16:28
  you should. And it worked.
• 16:30
  I don't know, I've always felt that way about that corner.
• 16:32
  Just feels like you can, when the moment's right, you can do
• 16:38
  some pretty crazy stuff over there.
• 16:39
  And thankfully I did and it paid off.
• 16:42
  Finally, Tyler, I have one more for you.
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  How does it feel to make the biggest and most important pass
• 16:48
  to win the race? And that ended up setting the
• 16:50
  record for the lead changes at Homestead, and then you ended up
• 16:55
  punching your ticket to the Champ 4.
• 16:57
  I mean, I, I knew we need to come in here and win, but I, I
• 17:01
  didn't ever foresee it being as crazy it was today as it ended
• 17:06
  up playing out. But yeah, we put in a tough spot
• 17:09
  and we had to rise the occasion and we did as a team and just,
• 17:14
  it takes everybody. And we did a really good job of
• 17:17
  overcoming the things that went our way that didn't work out and
• 17:22
  just being gutsy and and willing to put it all on the line like
• 17:25
  we did.