Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Highly Anticipated Coffee With Mark Martin! Part 1 | Coffee With Kenny

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The Highly Anticipated Coffee With Mark Martin! Part 1 | Coffee With Kenny · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:01
  Happy Wednesday morning, everybody.
• 0:05
  Can you believe it? Mark Martin, Matt Martin, They
• 0:10
  come all the way to my race shop.
• 0:12
  I'm so excited. We're excited.
• 0:15
  Oh yeah. I love this.
• 0:17
  Let's start off like this. You 2 have the best
• 0:21
  relationship. It makes me happy to see you
• 0:24
  too. And your mom, Arlene, travel
• 0:26
  around America. You you 2 really get along well
• 0:29
  for, you know, a dad and a son. We did get along well.
• 0:34
  We have a lot in common. And then he has a lot of his
• 0:38
  mother's traits as well, which are really good.
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  I'm glad that he's, you know, we're not completely 100% in
• 0:45
  common because all my bad stuff he doesn't have.
• 0:49
  I don't. Know the older I get the more I
• 0:50
  realize I'm like him. So.
• 0:53
  Yeah, OK. My wife Kim has started shop
• 0:58
  kennywallace.com because I guess she's bored.
• 1:02
  Kim told me to make sure. I know we got the coffee mugs
• 1:06
  and everybody was betting what coffee mug is Mark going to
• 1:10
  have? There we go.
• 1:13
  There we go. And then start waking up.
• 1:16
  Look here you got both sides of the new mug that is going to be
• 1:19
  on Shop kenny.com. So a shirt for you Mark and then
• 1:27
  a a shirt for you Matt. That that is my wife.
• 1:32
  She says you guys got to have the new coffee of Kenny Louie's
• 1:37
  on there. Oh.
• 1:38
  Yeah. OK, let's get right to it.
• 1:45
  Mark, I've known you my whole life since I've been about 10
• 1:48
  years old. Some of the fans cannot
• 1:51
  understand you're a Hall of Famer.
• 1:54
  You've done it all little on me. All I did was win 9 Xfinity
• 1:59
  races. I never won a cup race.
• 2:01
  So why have we been friends our whole life?
• 2:05
  And also the second thing is do you hate me?
• 2:10
  Because I mean does he hate me because we debated about this
• 2:14
  point system? So why are we friends and do you
• 2:18
  hate me? You have a heart of gold, and
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  I've known you since you were 10 or 11 years old.
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  You've been a part of my life, important part of my life.
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  You and your brothers and the racing that we did when you were
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  a little kid showing up at Springfield, MO, on Friday night
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  when Rusty would be parked outside the racetrack and we
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  would be practicing and after practice is over, Rusty would
• 2:44
  come in. He missed all of practice.
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  The third time he did that, I said, Rusty, why are you always
• 2:49
  late? He said.
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  I got to wait for Herman to get out of school.
• 2:53
  Kenny has been a part of my life since 1977, Yeah.
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  OK. And for the fans, this is for
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  all of you race fans. Do you hate me because I did not
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  see what you saw about the point system?
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  Do you want to bury me? No, see, there's where some of
• 3:14
  you people need to take notes here.
• 3:16
  You need to be able to learn how to disagree without being
• 3:21
  vicious and hateful. Oh, wow.
• 3:25
  I mean, I like that Shorten here.
• 3:27
  I got to get that. That was that was well done.
• 3:31
  OK, we do have cheater notes because we want to stay on
• 3:34
  course. We have paperwork over here and
• 3:37
  it is important and like old rednecks, we got it leaning up
• 3:40
  against my steering wheel holder and and we want to do a good job
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  for you. So right away, at what moment
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  were you driving the motorhome, the bus?
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  When you realize that this point system, this playoff system,
• 3:57
  when did you realize it was no good?
• 4:01
  Well, you know, I just listened to the fans, basically.
• 4:04
  It was not about me. It was never about me.
• 4:06
  If it was my feelings, I would have never voiced them so
• 4:10
  loudly. Interesting.
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  But I, the fans needed a voice. I heard them, I was with them, I
• 4:17
  was out in the field with them. I was at race tracks.
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  I read the social media in the comments and I just felt like
• 4:25
  that I could be their voice. And so that's really what it was
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  and it it was accumulation really catalyst, I think for it
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  was the 2024 championship, you know, and, and how that went
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  down. That's really what started the
• 4:44
  fire. And so, and then the way 2025
• 4:48
  turned out just added more fuel to the fire.
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  And it just, when I first voiced the opinion, I was a little bit
• 4:56
  embarrassed because everybody looked at me like I had two
• 4:59
  heads, like I was crazy nuts. You were brave.
• 5:03
  You were very brave it. It it did make me feel bad the
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  first time that I spoke out so loudly.
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  It made me feel bad, but I did that for the fans.
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  And for me, I just didn't think it was a big deal because we
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  have been doing this points for eight years or so.
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  Why this year? That would be my question.
• 5:27
  I I didn't see any problem. I kind of became immune to it.
• 5:32
  So my question to you is why this year did it it hit you like
• 5:37
  a ton of bricks? Well, it started with with with
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  last year and Joey Logano won the championship with about a
• 5:45
  17th place average finish. And so he's a deserving champion
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  because he all those talking points.
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  He won when it mattered, when the light shine brightest or
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  whatever, yes, but he wasn't the greatest team and organization
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  for the entire season. That's how we traditionally in
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  Motorsports judge who the champion is, and tradition
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  matters. It truly matters.
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  And it's starting to rear its head in NASCAR that people are
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  saying I take tradition and legitimacy over entertainment.
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  OK, Matt, let's involve you in this.
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  You're our statistician. Your dad gets his way.
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  Let's say NASCAR President Steve O'Donnell comes out soon.
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  Here we are today. It's Wednesday.
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  The The award ceremony was last night.
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  Let's say we go to 36 races. Who would have been, who was our
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  who was our champion this year? If it was 36 races, what do you
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  know? So according to the stats that
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  I've looked at, if they're accurate, Christopher Bell would
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  have been the champion this year and I think he would have been
• 7:00
  the champion last year as. Well.
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  Based off the Latford system, which we're not, we I believe we
• 7:08
  need to have a debate on how the points are awarded.
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  But if you went to the Ladford system, Christopher Bell would
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  be two time champion. Now I'm not advocating for that
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  system. I'm not advocating for any way
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  that you award points because that's the first.
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  You've got to be willing to say we'll do a full season
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  championship. And then after you say we're
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  willing to do that, then we need to have the debate about how you
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  award. So this coffee with Kenny is
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  going to be broke up into segments and we're going to ask
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  Mark some highlights now. And this one pains me to ask.
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  And there'll be more later on when we watch Carl Edwards wreck
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  out. OK, he's got a straight away
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  lead. Caution comes out because of
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  Jacques debris. It's a joke as where's the
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  debris? It's down in the grass.
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  Then Sunday, Denny Hamlin has a 2 1/2 second lead.
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  Both of them are clearly the Champions for NASCAR that year.
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  Carl Edwards is a champion. Denny Hamlin's a champion.
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  Has this points format. Has it ruined them mentally?
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  Physically. Well, that's yet to be seen with
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  Denny. Carl never overcome.
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  It he didn't he, I mean Carl left the sport in a way that
• 8:27
  just left me in awe. But we will see at Denny where
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  Denny is at now. I believe he can come back in 26
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  and contend for the championship again.
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  I also believe that 2025 was his year and I also believe Kyle
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  Larson is our champion and won the championship under the
• 8:51
  situation. Nobody discredits that.
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  One of the greatest race car drivers of our era, you know, so
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  kudos to those guys. But Denny and his team did the
• 9:02
  work, put the work in, whooped everybody's ass.
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  I mean, anytime he wanted he could pull out to a three second
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  lead, he did it all. And then because in the name of
• 9:14
  entertainment, you know, all these different things, you
• 9:19
  know, points resets, this, that and the other overtime finishes,
• 9:24
  whatever, something happens and it slips through their fingers
• 9:28
  and it tears everybody's heart up.
• 9:30
  It's not really a flaw in the system.
• 9:34
  It's just that doggone it, you really wanted the guy that
• 9:37
  earned it, the guy that dominated the race.
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  They did the work. You know how hard it is to go to
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  Phoenix and sit on the pole and lead 2/3 of the race and you
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  know, pull out to the three second that when it matters,
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  that's hard. And they did it all and it was
• 9:57
  just heart wrenching. So then he is going to be
• 9:59
  challenged on, you know, how he handles this mentally and can he
• 10:03
  come back and and give us another season at 45 years old.
• 10:08
  It gets harder every year. Matt, you, you look at these
• 10:11
  things in a in a neutral position, you were going to be a
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  great race car driver. You decided not to be 1, but
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  when you watched all this play out and you watched what
• 10:22
  happened to Denny Hamlin, did it crush you or were you like,
• 10:25
  well, that's the way it is? How How did you feel when you
• 10:28
  watched him lose that in the last it?
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  Was really heartbreaking. I mean, I I don't watch many
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  races, but I wanted to watch, of course, that one.
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  So I watched it with dad and I was really pulling for Danny.
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  And I mean, he dominated the whole race and for it to end
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  like. That were you numb for a while
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  or did you just go on with your life?
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  Well, yeah, I mean, even I felt so bad for him because it's like
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  I'm like, Dad, he totally earned that.
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  And I think it's just a flaw in the whole system.
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  I mean, when you put everything on that final race, it's winner
• 11:00
  take all. I mean, if you're not in the
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  right place at the right time, even if you've dominated the
• 11:06
  entire race, I mean, you can lose to somebody that they they
• 11:11
  didn't dominate at all. You said something right there
• 11:14
  that really stuck in my brain. Winner take all.
• 11:17
  Is that too much pressure? Well, it's a great concept.
• 11:21
  We talked about this last winner.
• 11:22
  Take all. Wow, winning you're in is a
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  great concept, but there's intended, intended consequences
• 11:32
  that have turned out to turn the fans off.
• 11:35
  They're against it now. It was a great idea.
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  I thought, well, that's a good idea, but you know it it it has
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  had consequences. And when you've put traditional
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  entire season, it comes down to a right here to a overtime green
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  light checkered the whole race meant nothing.
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  Yeah, 2 laps. So if we were 36 races and it
• 12:02
  came down to that, well then that's natural.
• 12:05
  That's natural. But because we said these four
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  are going to race the whole field and.
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  And it's just this race. It's just, yeah.
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  Really, you know when you have a green, white checkered, it's
• 12:15
  just those final. Laps OK, look, we're dead
• 12:18
  serious, but Land and Castle is a brilliant person.
• 12:21
  He made a joke. He said next year we're not even
• 12:24
  going to run the year. We're going straight to Miami.
• 12:26
  Home, so we're going to have a green light Checker.
• 12:29
  Is that what we did? Well, that's what happened.
• 12:31
  I mean that that's satire for you.
• 12:34
  I mean that is dark. Dark humor.
• 12:36
  It all came down to that. And so, you know, NASCAR has to
• 12:41
  look at this and I've, you know, I said it and well, Matt, I've
• 12:46
  repeated what Matt said. You know, WWE is very
• 12:50
  entertaining and it's fun to watch, but if you want to watch
• 12:54
  a fight, you watch UFC, Yeah. Because that's real.
• 12:58
  Yeah, it's real. You know, so both are great and
• 13:01
  both are really popular, but I don't think the very top of
• 13:06
  stock car racing, which is NASCAR, should be the
• 13:12
  entertainment side. Yeah, of of of racing.
• 13:16
  So the fans, this is for all of you.
• 13:19
  The whole show is for all of you.
• 13:20
  Coffee with Kenny. But it does shock me a little
• 13:24
  bit. But the fans, you know, Big Bill
• 13:27
  France, Bill France Junior, if we went into the tractor
• 13:30
  trailer, he's you know, he called it a show.
• 13:31
  Always remember that little sign when you and I would get in
• 13:35
  trouble, we'd go up there and there was a sign that said
• 13:38
  NASCAR can go as far as you want to go.
• 13:40
  This is a show and they always use the word show.
• 13:43
  Yes, he did right. Yes, Right.
• 13:46
  OK. Does it surprise you?
• 13:48
  It surprises me that the fans didn't bite into the show.
• 13:52
  That that now the fans, they want, they they want things to
• 13:58
  play out. Did it catch you off guard that
• 14:01
  they want realism? They don't want a show.
• 14:04
  That's it's a great point, Kenny they but but the realism can be
• 14:09
  a show. It's just not a show every
• 14:11
  minute, you know, it has to play out naturally if you have like
• 14:16
  we have what they call overtime, which is ridiculous.
• 14:20
  Playoffs, so catch your name. Everything is ridiculous, what
• 14:24
  it called. So if you have that every race,
• 14:27
  yeah, and you have a four wide finish every single race, pretty
• 14:32
  soon it's not all that exciting. It's just normal.
• 14:35
  But if you have a four wide finish twice a year, people go
• 14:39
  crazy. So it was too much, it was
• 14:44
  trying too hard. It was putting too much emphasis
• 14:48
  on, you know, making drama, too much drama and not enough
• 14:54
  natural drama. Right.
• 14:56
  Yeah, It's manufactured drama. It's not organic.
• 15:00
  My notes say why are why are fans so angry?
• 15:04
  They're vicious. They want me and you to go
• 15:06
  against each other. They cuss me out.
• 15:09
  I'm like, whoa, what? What is the anger?
• 15:12
  Passionate. Yeah, but I mean, it's like to
• 15:16
  me, I'm like, we're watching NASCAR and I get on and I go
• 15:19
  great race and they you suck, Wallace, you never won a race.
• 15:23
  You ain't your brother. Like I just said, it was a good
• 15:26
  race. Where?
• 15:28
  What is the, I mean vicious anger, Dad?
• 15:30
  Gets it too. Man, that's crazy.
• 15:32
  Yeah, I don't. Do they tear you up too?
• 15:35
  I just. Don't see it not as bad as you,
• 15:37
  because you. Only.
• 15:38
  Come after you, I mean. But you provoke.
• 15:40
  Yeah, I do. You do it on purpose.
• 15:42
  Yeah, but not when you said that was a great race today.
• 15:45
  It was a great. Race with you.
• 15:47
  You know when you said that, you know.
• 15:49
  Why are they angry? I don't know.
• 15:51
  I I just don't know. I don't believe they would act
• 15:55
  like that in your presence. I don't believe they would say
• 15:58
  those things in your presence. But they can hide behind you
• 16:01
  know that screen and do it. People need to learn to be able
• 16:08
  to disagree and still be, you know, not be vicious, you know,
• 16:13
  and civil about it. Be civil about it.
• 16:16
  Yeah. I mean, Kenny, we, we love each
• 16:20
  other, OK? But.
• 16:22
  You know, it's fine if we disagree.
• 16:24
  I'm not going to be vicious and I'm not going to disown you.
• 16:27
  I mean, you know me and. My wife.
• 16:29
  Opposites attract, you know, We're always.
• 16:31
  Going to We're always going to love each other.
• 16:34
  We've got a bond that goes way over 50 years.
• 16:37
  We're not going to let points destroy it.
• 16:41
  Yeah, yeah. I like that.
• 16:43
  God, Yeah. I mean, both of you are really.
• 16:47
  I just like what you said. You know, both of you guys have
• 16:50
  got great situations. OK, So this is segment one of
• 16:55
  coffee with Kenny. Be ready for Segment 2 tomorrow,
• 16:58
  everybody.