Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Can Chase Briscoe Make NASCAR's Final 4? | Noah Reed Reports

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Can Chase Briscoe Make NASCAR's Final 4? | Noah Reed Reports · Kenny Wallace Media

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  I mean, yeah, the championship fourth thing, like, you know,
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  I've been able to experience that obviously, like I said in
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  the Xfinity side, but it's it's different.
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  You know, I'm glad that because I was 22, I made the round of
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  eight and I cut the car. So I at least kind of know the
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  intensity of the round of eight. It was it was a way different
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  situation just because we were like complete underdog and you
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  know, so it just felt different than what it feels like right
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  now. But I think just having that
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  experience and at least just kind of knowing how that round
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  of 8 feels is, is good to, you know, I'm not doing it for my
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  first time this time around. So yeah, I think it'll help.
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  I mean, anytime you can have experience, I feel like in this
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  playoff format, it just it helps.
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  You know, there's a reason the same guy is going to get there
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  year after year. And, you know, they just have a
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  lot of experience doing. It being in that position now,
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  how has team morale been? Because of course, your
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  teammates have had a lot of chaotic moments that you seems
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  to be mild matter. How is things going on in the
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  19th team to kind of keep that mindset still knowing that we've
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  got Vegas talent. I got Mark but all completely
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  different wild back. Yeah, I feel like the 19, you
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  know, team has been, you know, really in a good spot.
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  You know, truthfully, just whether it's him morale or
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  confidence wise. You know, we we definitely our
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  teammates have been in some controversy here and there, but,
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  you know, we've kind of been out of that.
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  So yeah, I feel really good about where we're at as a team.
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  You know, we definitely put a lot of emphasis on this weekend,
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  just knowing that, you know, there's a lot of unknowns in the
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  next two weeks. And yeah, I don't know, I feel
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  like we're as good as anybody we're going to truthfully in the
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  sport right now from a speed standpoint and even, you know,
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  we've been doing a decent job of executing.
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  So yeah, it's got to put together for four more weeks.
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  How do you feel the dynamic at Talladega change for you in a
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  Toyota compared to how all the Fords really worked together in
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  the past On the restrictor plate tracks it's.
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  Definitely different. It's been a little bit of an
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  adjustment. You know, just First off, really
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  just the number side of things. You know, there's just so many
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  Fords out there and Toyotas just don't have that many.
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  You know, there's more now than there's ever been.
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  But you know, just the, you know, the Ford stuff, I was kind
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  of there, I mean, they always had worked well together.
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  But really over the course of the last four or five years, we
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  just put a tenant emphasis in really, really working together,
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  whether it was even, you know, just not your team, but just as
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  a manufacturer as a whole. And that's something that I feel
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  like I've tried to bring over to this side.
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  Just kind of explain to them how they, you know, do things and
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  how they approach stuff and just hard, you know, it just takes
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  time. I mean, the 4th stuff, arguably
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  it's taken 10 years to get to where they're at right now.
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  So I feel like we did a really good job the last couple
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  superspeedway races, but we're just still learning so much
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  about it. And it's a little bit different
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  too, when it's the random 8, right, Versus, you know, random
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  Talladega race in April when there's not as much on the line.
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  So I don't know, I think we'll be fine.
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  It's just a matter of going there and hoping to survive.
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  That being said, were there discussions about the disconnect
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  at Kansas? I mean, you know, just not that
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  you, you do have to help your teammates, but you have to help
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  yourself, you know? But there seem to be a
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  disconnect among the Toyotas at Kansas.
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  Didn't you guys kind of iron things out?
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  Well, we never talked about anything.
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  You know, truthfully, I think it's so hard, especially this
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  time of the year because like, yeah, it would have been an
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  amazing, you know, Toyota could have got a 125 finish or
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  whatever. But we're all up there racing
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  for our championship life. And because we were all racing
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  and just allowed, you know, the dying to get in there and kind
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  of sneak through. And, you know, if those roles
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  reversed, like, I don't, I don't think Chevy or Ford would have
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  done anything different either. Like it's just nature of the
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  beast of how these research go and the circumstances and just
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  everything lined up kind of perfectly for the 9 there to, to
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  kind of, you know, steal one from all of us.
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  So yeah, I, I don't know, we didn't really talk about it
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  truthfully. You know, it was a a bummer for
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  sure. But I don't.
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  I don't really know what else we could have done different.
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  Is part of that just you learning your Toyota teammates
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  too so you can be a better teammate overall?
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  I mean, you have to look out for yourself again, but.
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  Yeah, I mean, you're, you're man, at the end of the day,
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  you're always looking out for yourself, right?
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  But you try to do things to, to help your teammates and, and,
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  you know, help your, you know, manufacturer.
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  It's just hard. If it's a green, white checkered
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  like there, there's nothing you can really do.
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  You're you're out there for yourself.
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  And you know, I, we talked about it even after the New Hampshire
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  do a little bit of, you know, what's OK and what's not OK.
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  And you know, I kind of was the one that raised my hand said,
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  look on restarts like you just have to do what's best for
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  yourself. Because if if we're trying to,
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  you know, not put each other in bad spots, well then it ends up
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  putting you in a bad spot and like you just got to go and race
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  at the end of the day. So yeah, I think once we get
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  single fouled out, then you can be a good teammate.
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  But on research you just got to go and and hope that it works
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  out. Chase, you talked about earlier
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  that experience level. You've been in this round of
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  eight once, but your crew chief, James Small has also been here
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  before. What's the conversations
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  throughout the week been with him?
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  Honestly, not a lot. Me and James, if you get to
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  still talk about the playoffs, we just, I don't know, I think
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  some of us just, you know, we're still so new and, you know, this
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  is one of the few tracks we went to for the second time.
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  But a lot of the time we're just trying to figure out, you know,
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  what setup we're going to take and, you know, how I should
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  drive the car that weekend because it's my first time going
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  there in the JGR car. So yeah, we've we've got to talk
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  about playoffs, you know, and really the way I think we both
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  have kind of looked at it is if we just go perform like the
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  points are going to be OK. And obviously if you win, it
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  doesn't matter anyways. So, you know, we've just been
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  trying to go to the racetrack and trying to, you know, win the
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  poll and lead every lap and win the race and the points we want
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  to be. Where do you think your guys's
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  relationship has grown since you said that That moment clicked
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  that Charlotte with this team. I think just I don't know, I
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  think as I started running better, right, like the the team
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  and James started getting more, you know, just confidence in me
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  then and, you know, understanding kind of what I
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  look for in the car. And, you know, at the beginning
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  of the year, truthfully, like I probably was steering them in
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  the wrong direction a lot of the time, just not not really
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  understanding how the cars drive quite yet.
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  And you know, now I feel like we're both like I have 100%
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  confidence in James and engineers that if I go out and
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  practice this first run, it's a little bit off or even if it's
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  way off, like I have no panic, no worry.
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  I know that they're going to get a good.
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  So I think it's the same on on there and with me, you know, if
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  I'm out there and you know, we're a little bit off now, it's
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  to the point where James, like, hey, look like we got to get the
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  car better for you too. So yeah, I think just as we've
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  started to run better and, and obviously as we've gotten to
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  know each other too, you know, that confidence is just
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  building. You know, we're a really good
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  spot right now.