Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Kyle Larson, Jeff Gordon & Cliff Daniels Discuss Sonoma Win!

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Kyle Larson, Jeff Gordon & Cliff Daniels Discuss Sonoma Win! · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Jeff Gordon's race winning. Press conference started out
• 0:02
  with a good, but also hilarious question.
• 0:05
  We've always known that Kyle doesn't know a lot about cars.
• 0:11
  Can't wait to see where this question is going.
• 0:13
  You know, he obviously doesn't need to.
• 0:15
  He doesn't need to and and it came out a.
• 0:17
  Lot in Indianapolis, where he'd be asked questions he had no
• 0:20
  idea what. People were talking about well.
• 0:21
  Today, he says I don't. Even know what we were doing on
• 0:24
  strategy, he said. I guess it's like looking at
• 0:27
  homework. I don't.
• 0:28
  Even have any idea what I'm looking at and and so how is it
• 0:31
  that a guy who knows so little about the car?
• 0:35
  And and has so little. Understanding of how it's works
• 0:39
  is able to be so successful. Because he drives the wheels off
• 0:44
  of it, you know, I mean, I, I think if you're making up you
• 0:46
  making lap time, making good decisions, you know, I mean, he
• 0:49
  was really good through making making up positions on the
• 0:53
  restarts when he needed to, when those other guys came in to pit.
• 0:58
  And and he's out there on a little bit older tires
• 1:01
  maintaining lap times the way he was.
• 1:03
  I mean that those are those are just the things that that great
• 1:07
  drivers do and do well. And he's one of the greats,
• 1:10
  right? Yeah.
• 1:12
  It's, I mean, I think it's obviously extracting the most
• 1:14
  speed out of a car. I mean that you don't have to
• 1:16
  know anything about a car to extract speed out of it.
• 1:19
  You know, I think we're where it comes down to where he probably
• 1:24
  is a little too humble and some of the things he he says is
• 1:27
  that, you know, he's a key element of what the car is
• 1:31
  doing. You know, to be able to give
• 1:33
  that communication information back to Cliff and the team to to
• 1:37
  get more out of it. I mean, there's a lot of data,
• 1:39
  you know, these days that that they can go off of.
• 1:41
  But still, if if the cars loose or tight or whatever the balance
• 1:46
  is, he's got to give him that feedback in in the race and and
• 1:50
  he and he gives great feedback. But I think, you know, mostly
• 1:53
  it's when Cliff says, Hey, we got to make up some spots here
• 1:56
  or hey, we need to run this kind of a pace.
• 1:59
  He's he's able to to do those things.
• 2:02
  So I guess he just does the the the things he needs to do right.
• 2:05
  You don't have to worry about the others.
• 2:10
  I, I mean, I just don't know why he'd want to, but we're.
• 2:15
  Going to come back up here to Jeff and then I know we have a
• 2:17
  question in the back too. Jeff, you know, all all the
• 2:22
  stuff that was surrounding Larson this week, obviously he
• 2:25
  said, you know, he, he wasn't too stressed about it.
• 2:28
  He said he was less stressed than people probably thought he
• 2:30
  was. But some drivers would probably
• 2:33
  get pretty bent out of shape that they'd be in limbo about
• 2:35
  waivers and stuff like that and let it maybe derail them.
• 2:39
  You know, is there any surprise how he handled this entire, you
• 2:42
  know, process and and is able to just bounce back and just win
• 2:45
  right away? Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I
• 2:47
  would say, I mean, he's very calm and cool through a lot of
• 2:51
  things, maybe even too much sometimes, right.
• 2:54
  But it, it, it is just sort of his personality and his
• 2:57
  upbringing and, and the way that he handles things and, and, and
• 3:01
  that that really works well for you when you've had a bad
• 3:05
  weekend or, or something that hasn't gone well.
• 3:09
  It works against you when you want to savor the victory and
• 3:13
  and enjoy, you know, because you're, you're able to move past
• 3:15
  things, you know, fair fairly quickly.
• 3:18
  So good and bad. But I mean, I, I definitely saw
• 3:23
  a little bit more in him than maybe he's letting on to of, of
• 3:27
  some of the concerns. When Monday came around, I kept
• 3:31
  telling him not to worry, but I was worried.
• 3:33
  Too. So.
• 3:35
  Good question. In the middle back and then
• 3:36
  we'll go to Bob and then we'll come up front, Jonathan.
• 3:38
  Howard with on three sports. Jeff Given.
• 3:40
  How chaotic that first. Part of the race was.
• 3:44
  Watching that last stage unfold. That way, were you nervous that
• 3:48
  you know? Somebody was going to.
• 3:49
  Slide out on the track and and rack him up again for a restart.
• 3:52
  Or did. It kind of feel like things were
• 3:55
  playing out and. And he was going to be.
• 3:57
  Able to do at least. Attempt what he needed to do
• 3:59
  today to to win. I mean, you're always worried
• 4:02
  about that when when you're playing out a strategy and
• 4:05
  things have to go your way, you're concerned about that.
• 4:08
  I mean, the beginning of the race, right?
• 4:09
  It was, it was pretty crazy being on the radio listening to
• 4:13
  the, the the crew chiefs and you know, who they kind of converse
• 4:17
  with on the radio about strategy.
• 4:21
  And, you know, at first it's like, oh, these cautions are
• 4:25
  good. We'll stay out and get our track
• 4:27
  position. And then it was like, oh, now
• 4:29
  we're going to a place where this is going to get a little
• 4:31
  bit, you know, difficult because now others have come in.
• 4:35
  So you knew there was going to be a lot of of sort of flip
• 4:39
  flopping on on strategy, but you just weren't sure how it was
• 4:42
  going to play out. And so I thought they were not,
• 4:44
  you know, all of our cars really were in a pretty good position.
• 4:48
  But on when they, when they came in, not the very last time, but
• 4:53
  the time before that, I got concerned because I saw where
• 4:56
  there was only like a 12 to 15 lap gap between fuel and tires.
• 5:00
  And even though you know, that, that if it went green, that
• 5:06
  could play out well, but but if it didn't, that gap just gets
• 5:10
  narrower, narrower where the advantage is not there, you
• 5:13
  know, and, and so, and it even got to a place at one point
• 5:16
  where like the 48 you saw, they came in as soon as they knew
• 5:20
  they could make it to the end and just said, Hey, let's just
• 5:22
  get fuel, you know, as soon as we can and no tires.
• 5:27
  And had the, had the five and the nine done that strategy,
• 5:30
  they would, they wouldn't have gotten, you know, the win or
• 5:32
  the, the position that the nine got.
• 5:34
  So you know, it, I tell you what, these races are never easy
• 5:39
  to win on the racetrack. You know, as you're as you're
• 5:42
  navigating the track and, and, and the competitors.
• 5:45
  But boy, on the pit box, listen to these guys and the stress
• 5:48
  that's going on of, of when you have a car you think is capable
• 5:52
  of winning, but not sure how it's if you're making the right
• 5:55
  decisions that that's where the real stress is.
• 5:59
  Going to go in the far back to Bob, then we'll go up here to
• 6:01
  Kevin and then Adam. Bob Parker's Fox Sports.
• 6:05
  I know we talked a lot about Larson, but how?
• 6:07
  How was the team and you in the organization as a whole over the
• 6:12
  last eight days before finding out about the waiver?
• 6:15
  And then do you, was there a sense of relief afterwards?
• 6:18
  Like do would you have expected a different approach or a
• 6:22
  different maybe mindset from the group if the decision had gone
• 6:25
  the other way? Yeah, I didn't see it affecting
• 6:29
  the majority of the team. I think it was on the minds of
• 6:33
  of, you know, Cliff and and Kyle and Rick and Jeff Andrews and
• 6:38
  myself and Chad and, and at that level, you know, maybe on the PR
• 6:43
  media side of things. But but as far as how that
• 6:47
  trickled down the team, I, I didn't see where they were
• 6:49
  really unwavered by it. I mean, they, they seem to,
• 6:52
  that's a funny word for but but now they, they seem to be
• 6:57
  business as usual and prepping for for the next race to the
• 7:00
  next two races the the way that they normally do.
• 7:02
  So yeah, I, I think the best medicine in any of those
• 7:06
  situations is getting back to the racetrack.
• 7:08
  And so they especially when they got here and, you know, home
• 7:12
  track for Kyle and, and I think a track that they enjoy racing
• 7:17
  at and, and a lot of the competitors do.
• 7:19
  So I think that put put a lot of that to rest.
• 7:23
  Jeff Kevin Cole Black the Sacramento and it seemed like
• 7:26
  Kyle with on the radio, they just kind of let him let him
• 7:28
  drive. But when it came down to turn 11
• 7:31
  near the the walls in here, it was barely too wide and very
• 7:35
  slow of points. But Kyle would get at least a
• 7:37
  second on the end down there every time.
• 7:39
  Is that something you guys talked about at all, his
• 7:41
  organization or it just played out as it did?
• 7:45
  Yeah, I think you extract the speed where where the car you
• 7:47
  know gives you feedback, right. If you're if you're able to get
• 7:50
  a little bit more out of the brake zones, you get a little
• 7:52
  more out of the brake zones. If this is one of those tracks
• 7:54
  where you have the low speed stuff and and you have a setup
• 7:58
  that might be good for the low speed stuff, but how do you hit
• 8:00
  make the car good on the high speed as well?
• 8:02
  And so this has always been a compromise type of racetrack as
• 8:06
  a driver and as as a team setting the car up.
• 8:09
  So, yeah, I, I, I mean, even, I was mainly focused there at the
• 8:13
  end on the 19 car because even though Kyle got by him after he
• 8:18
  got by him, the 19 held with him a lot more than I thought with,
• 8:22
  with the tire differential. So, you know, I, I thought that
• 8:26
  that the 19 was good enough coming down the hill and the
• 8:29
  high speed stuff that he might be able to get back to his
• 8:31
  bumper and, and you know, but Kyle I thought was just really
• 8:36
  good at, at, at the areas where his car was launching off the
• 8:39
  corners and, and into eleven. He was making making time up
• 8:42
  there. So was able to build a little
• 8:44
  bit of a gap. Going to go in the back right to
• 8:47
  Adam. Adam carolineracingrefresh.com A
• 8:51
  lot was made coming into this weekend about the repave and how
• 8:55
  tire degradation was not going to be as big of a factor.
• 8:58
  It looks like Kyle Larson ended up winning because he had
• 9:00
  fresher tires. Is that something like, is that
• 9:05
  a a strategy call? It's made on the fly And maybe
• 9:07
  you could just speak to the maybe one of the the strengths
• 9:10
  of the five team is their strategy calls.
• 9:13
  I think everybody had a lot of concerns going into the race
• 9:16
  because we we saw that that there was some blistering from
• 9:20
  just a lot of heat being built up with the extra, you know,
• 9:23
  with the faster lap times and the new pavement and you know
• 9:26
  what, what Goodyear has to do to a tire to be more durable.
• 9:29
  So I think that they saw some heat that that caused a little
• 9:32
  bit of blistering coming into the race, but the tires held up
• 9:37
  really, really well today. So maybe it's just rubber being
• 9:40
  laid down from having all the cars on the track at one time.
• 9:43
  Maybe the pace was just a little bit different, but I think we
• 9:47
  knew that if the tires didn't have these blisters that the
• 9:51
  pace would would hold on pretty good.
• 9:54
  And and so so it did. So it really just turned into a
• 9:57
  track position race. You know, it was, it was all the
• 10:01
  cars are running such close in, in pace and in speed that if you
• 10:06
  could get off strategy, then then you might have either a
• 10:10
  fuel or a tire advantage. And that's the way it worked
• 10:12
  out. It sure did.
• 10:13
  Work out for Kyle Larson, a win in wine country at Sonoma
• 10:17
  Raceway, his home. Track now you have to trust them
• 10:20
  strategy wise, but he came out 22nd, so I'm sure you're like,
• 10:23
  oh great, now I got to like it's going to be hard to get through
• 10:27
  here. I mean, what was your mentality
• 10:29
  at that point? You know, knowing that you have
• 10:31
  to so far to go. Yeah, You know, they have a way
• 10:36
  better understanding of strategy than I do.
• 10:39
  So yeah, when when I guess we got we flipped the second stage
• 10:44
  and then yeah, I was like, I'm like, man, we're like 22nd here.
• 10:48
  There wasn't as many people that pitted as I thought might.
• 10:51
  I was like, gosh, I just don't know if I'm going to have time
• 10:55
  to, you know, the distance that I'm going to have to leaders.
• 10:59
  I just wouldn't know if I would ever have time to get there.
• 11:03
  And then, yeah, I'm just out there clicking laps away.
• 11:05
  I felt like those guys pitted really early into that run.
• 11:09
  And so then I ran out in the lead.
• 11:11
  It felt like for a long time. And then, you know, I wasn't
• 11:15
  sure if people were on like a three stop strategy.
• 11:17
  So like when I made my final pit stop and came out behind the
• 11:21
  guys that had pitted, it seemed like a lot earlier than me.
• 11:24
  I was like, OK, I mean, it's it's going to be pretty easy.
• 11:26
  I beat Ross, you know, Ross didn't, I didn't let him pass
• 11:29
  me. Like all these people are
• 11:30
  probably going to have to pit off in front of me again.
• 11:32
  And then I was asking like, hey, do I, am I racing these guys or
• 11:35
  what? And they're like, yeah, you're
• 11:37
  racing all that. My Oh my God, I'm still like
• 11:39
  10th. So I just, I knew I was going to
• 11:42
  be faster for, you know, 810 laps, but I just didn't know
• 11:46
  like once the tires came up to temp, if, you know, they would
• 11:50
  equal out at some point because there's still 20 something laps
• 11:53
  left. So, you know, it did it, it
• 11:56
  definitely got closer to equaling out, but I still just
• 11:59
  had enough. You know, once I got to 3rd and
• 12:02
  slowly was gaining on them and and timed it out, you know,
• 12:06
  right to win Martin, you know, got racing with him that I was
• 12:09
  kind of right there to capitalize.
• 12:10
  I'm going to go to here in the front and the left and the
• 12:13
  right, and then we'll go back to Adam and Cameron right behind
• 12:16
  you. Hey Kyle Keenan, Notori Press
• 12:20
  Democrat. Congratulations second time.
• 12:23
  You've won here, kind of like a home track.
• 12:25
  For you, Northern Northern California.
• 12:26
  Native. Does it feel better the 2nd?
• 12:29
  Time I know you've only. Had a couple minutes.
• 12:31
  To really. Digest it, but does it feel any
• 12:33
  different than the first time? Feel a little bit better?
• 12:37
  No, I mean it, it feels similar, I guess I remember being kind of
• 12:41
  a fairly similar, you know, final stage.
• 12:45
  The way that that played out. You know, I remember that year
• 12:48
  we didn't flip the stages, so we, you know, won both stages
• 12:51
  and then had to restart. Yeah, like 20 something and
• 12:54
  yeah, just drove our way to to the lead there.
• 12:58
  And there was other cautions and stuff, but we had a great car
• 13:02
  again that day. It was the other layout so we
• 13:05
  had to use the carousel and stuff.
• 13:08
  But yeah, it just feels good to to get a win in the Cup Series.
• 13:11
  But, you know, with it being at home, you know, feels even more
• 13:15
  special, you know, So yeah, I get to see friends and, and all
• 13:20
  that, you know, this week and, and really, I think all of us
• 13:23
  just enjoy coming out here because it's beautiful and and,
• 13:26
  you know, it's kind of a vacation.
• 13:27
  So it's always a cherry on top when you can finish the weekend
• 13:30
  off with win all. Right Kyle, Kevin Cole Blacks of
• 13:33
  Sacramento. Hey, you had a great.
• 13:35
  Race going down to the the turns in 11 down there seemed like you
• 13:38
  were catching them guys at least a second every time trying to
• 13:41
  catch that pack. And then when you got to Kyle
• 13:43
  Busch, was there any concern there at all when you're finally
• 13:46
  passing? Yeah, I mean, I had sure.
• 13:50
  I had like thoughts of well, I guess we'll see where we stand
• 13:53
  with each other as I was getting closer to him.
• 13:56
  But you know, he he always races with a lot of respect.
• 13:59
  So I was very, you know, I was surprised, you know, he kind of
• 14:06
  just let me go and you didn't, didn't get race with me.
• 14:10
  But he's he's very respectful out there and he's very smart
• 14:14
  about the way he manages his races.
• 14:17
  You know, I think probably going through his mind is like, you
• 14:19
  know, I'm obviously on pressure tires.
• 14:22
  If I race him for, you know, lap, I piss my tire.
• 14:25
  This is, you know, me thinking what he's thinking.
• 14:27
  Like he's probably thinking, you know, I pissed my tires off for
• 14:30
  a lap and then now I'm going to wasn't really worth it, you
• 14:32
  know, racing him. So yeah, he let me go as soon as
• 14:35
  I got to him. And, you know, it sounded like
• 14:37
  he got spun the last stop, which is unfortunate.
• 14:39
  But yeah, was very thankful for that because, you know, I was, I
• 14:44
  just didn't need to waste any time.
• 14:47
  And he he allowed me to just get by and, and not really slow
• 14:50
  down. So I was, I was very happy and
• 14:52
  thankful for that. Going to go to Adam and then
• 14:55
  Cameron and then Jenna. Adamcarabineracingrefresh.com
• 15:00
  From an enjoyment standpoint for you in a race like this, do you
• 15:03
  prefer something like this where you kind of have to pass your
• 15:05
  way up to the front and win, or would you prefer something where
• 15:08
  you start on the pole and stay there the entire race?
• 15:13
  I just prefer winning. So however you have to do that,
• 15:18
  you know, whatever. But you know, I, I like being on
• 15:22
  offense and our strategy was very offense driven today.
• 15:26
  So yeah, that that made it fun, you know, because you were the
• 15:30
  one passing people rather than just trying to fight and, and
• 15:33
  hold off and, you know, push your brake zones so you can just
• 15:37
  hold people off and, and all that.
• 15:38
  And, you know, so I felt like being on offense, I was just
• 15:42
  able to make less mistakes throughout the day.
• 15:44
  And, you know, I think people recognize that we were on
• 15:47
  offense too. So they didn't really race me
• 15:50
  too, too hard. My car was just really good in
• 15:52
  the brake zones because I was on fresher tires.
• 15:55
  So yeah, that that part of it's fun.
• 15:57
  But you know, when you can win, no matter how you win, it's
• 16:01
  pretty fun. Go to Cameron, Jenna and Bob.
• 16:05
  Cameronrichardsonnascar.com Kyle, what about your racecraft
• 16:08
  just helps you get through the field better than some of the.
• 16:11
  Guys that. Were on the same.
• 16:12
  Strategy, strategy because. If you look at the results, guys
• 16:14
  who were on the same strategy like Blaney, Reddick, Bowman,
• 16:17
  Suarez, they weren't really. Able to make their.
• 16:20
  Way through the field. Just you know what?
• 16:22
  Separates your race. Car from there it's like why was
• 16:24
  it? Easier for you than them.
• 16:26
  Well, ultimately we weren't we, I think we didn't end up being
• 16:31
  on the exact same strategies. And we were to a point.
• 16:34
  And then, you know, at least judging off of Ross, who I was,
• 16:37
  in my mind, I was racing for the win at the time.
• 16:40
  Or at least, you know, the first person, you know, we both kind
• 16:43
  of got through traffic really well.
• 16:45
  And then it finally got to where it was thinned out and, and
• 16:48
  people started ducking off the pit.
• 16:51
  And then I lost him in my mirror, you know, so I'm like,
• 16:53
  OK, he pitted. So I didn't know how the
• 16:57
  strategy was going to work out. So I think they just made a
• 16:59
  hiccup on strategy. I think Ross did and it sounded
• 17:01
  like talking to Cliff, your Reddick's team pitted and maybe
• 17:05
  did fuel only. So, you know, I think Chase and
• 17:09
  myself, we I'm guessing we're the only two that really were on
• 17:14
  the winning strategy and, you know, just allowed us to be on
• 17:18
  offense there, you know, that last, you know, second-half of
• 17:22
  the final stage. So, yeah, we not we weren't
• 17:27
  really on the same strategy as everybody else.
• 17:29
  At least at one point we were and then they got off of it.
• 17:34
  Go ahead, Jenna. Jenna Fryer AP Kyle, you said
• 17:37
  how you had two days off this week, the first two days off and
• 17:40
  forever back-to-back NASCAR weeks.
• 17:43
  You're kind. Of getting back into the rhythm
• 17:45
  of what your life really is. Like and now a win.
• 17:48
  Are you feeling like you're back in the in your norm or do you
• 17:53
  have like 87,000? I'm racing on Tuesday so that is
• 17:58
  normal. No, but do you.
• 18:00
  But do you. Feel like you're getting back
• 18:01
  into a much more normal. Kyle Larson Pace Yeah, I mean, I
• 18:07
  guess so, but I don't. My life stays so hectic that I
• 18:11
  never really felt like I got off of a normal week for myself.
• 18:13
  You know, Indy, Indy, Indy was actually not normal because it
• 18:18
  was more relaxing than than anything.
• 18:20
  You know, you're sitting there and you're at the same location
• 18:23
  every day. People thought that I'm flying
• 18:26
  back and forth to Charlotte and like wearing myself out, but it
• 18:28
  was like I got more sleep there than I would at home.
• 18:32
  So no. But I guess if anything, it gets
• 18:35
  a little bit more hectic now that I'm just NASCAR racing and
• 18:37
  just Sprint car racing. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I'll
• 18:41
  do more back and forth throughout the weeks and, and
• 18:43
  all that, but but that does feel normal for me.
• 18:46
  So yeah, it was really, really nice for me to get to come here
• 18:50
  this week and and get to just do nothing for one day and then
• 18:54
  just go be a normal, you know, tourist on Thursday.
• 18:59
  It's just a very relaxing week. And and a lot of the drivers, I
• 19:02
  think, you know, kind of do that.
• 19:05
  You know, we all stay at the Carnaros in there and, you know,
• 19:08
  after qualifying, like right after qualifying, we all hurried
• 19:11
  back to the hotel and you know, I thought I was fast, but Bubba
• 19:16
  and Ryan Blaney, they were all already in the hot tub by the
• 19:19
  time, you know, I got there. So, you know, Denny, you know,
• 19:22
  was up there. So it's no, I I didn't I I've
• 19:25
  soaked up the last little bit of sun.
• 19:27
  But no, it's just we all, I think, just enjoy coming out
• 19:30
  here and decompressing a little bit.
• 19:34
  Eagle, Nebraska. It's like 55,000 win.
• 19:39
  Go in the back to Bob and then up front to Steven and then
• 19:41
  Jonathan. Bob Parker's Fox Sports You
• 19:45
  gained a lot of points on Denny today since he engine blew put
• 19:51
  more distance between you and Truex and a little bit over
• 19:54
  Elliot for the regular season championship.
• 19:57
  I just what could you have thought that after skipping
• 20:00
  Charlotte that you would be back in this position atop of the
• 20:05
  atop the standings both regular season and having the most
• 20:09
  playoff points? Maybe not so quickly, but yeah,
• 20:13
  I mean, for sure I thought, yeah, we would still have a
• 20:15
  great shot to win the regular season title, which there's
• 20:21
  still a lot of racing left to be had.
• 20:23
  You know, I could easily have a couple DN FS here coming up.
• 20:27
  But no, I I knew after Charlotte and after seeing how the points
• 20:33
  shook out, I wasn't I wasn't out of it.
• 20:37
  So yeah, you know, their their misfortune today really helps,
• 20:41
  but we still just have to stay executing and and trying to get
• 20:45
  great stage points, get race wins, obviously stage wins, all
• 20:49
  that. But yeah, just we've done a
• 20:53
  great job executing. So you just got to keep that up
• 20:55
  can. I follow up on that.
• 20:58
  Is it, is it weird at all to go from star week, you don't know
• 21:02
  if you're in the playoffs to now being, you know, kind of in
• 21:06
  position to are? We still talking waivers?
• 21:09
  A little bit just because it's the dynamic seems interesting to
• 21:12
  me that you you don't know if you're going to be.
• 21:15
  Able to play out my point literally my mind never wavered
• 21:19
  it it it was always kind of focused on on executing and
• 21:25
  winning the regular season points, you know, whether that
• 21:29
  be on the owner side or whatever.
• 21:31
  You know, it didn't really my mindset has not changed at all.
• 21:35
  So you know, just every I race to win every single race.
• 21:40
  So yeah, I haven't. I haven't really thought any
• 21:44
  differently since Miss and Charlotte go up front to
• 21:48
  Stephen. Stephensumfronters.com Kyle with
• 21:51
  eight cautions in the first half of the race, Was it driving in
• 21:54
  the final stage? Was it kind of surprising that
• 21:55
  the entire thing went went green to the end after how chaotic
• 21:58
  chaotic it was to start? Yeah, a a bit for sure.
• 22:02
  I mean, but it was more surprising to me that we were
• 22:04
  having so many cautions early. I was just like, what the heck,
• 22:07
  Like I just wanted to race just yeah, we'd go like one lap and
• 22:12
  be like, oh, there's a big wreck behind you and I'm like God
• 22:15
  Dang, it just gets annoying having a coast around and save
• 22:18
  fuel under cautions and clutch it and re fire and all that.
• 22:21
  So I was just wanting to go racing.
• 22:23
  So but then yeah, I mean, then once the race is playing out
• 22:26
  and, you know, I felt like we were in a good position for
• 22:28
  strategy, I'm like praying there would be no cautions.
• 22:31
  So yeah, it just, it worked out. But yeah, I'm sure all of us
• 22:36
  were getting a little bit annoyed and frustrated with all
• 22:38
  those cautions. And I just kind of had to remind
• 22:40
  myself like, just don't just stay focused, stay calm, you
• 22:43
  know, don't get over anxious on one of these restarts and, and
• 22:48
  give it away. With the new, with the new
• 22:51
  surface did was there kind of like a sense of like everyone
• 22:55
  was still trying to figure out what to do and that's why it
• 22:57
  went clean to the end? And also, what did you think
• 22:59
  about driving on the surface as well?
• 23:00
  Yeah, I as far as the cautions went, I'm not sure what was
• 23:05
  causing him. I didn't haven't seen any
• 23:06
  replays yet, but so I don't know if the surface had anything to
• 23:09
  do with that as far as like being extra aggressive because
• 23:12
  there's more grip. And then yeah, I mean for me and
• 23:16
  the surface I'm very bad at, you know, wore out surfaces on road
• 23:21
  courses. So I was happy when I heard
• 23:24
  they're repaving cinema because I knew it would kind of lend
• 23:27
  itself to me, you know, somebody who's not easy on tires.
• 23:31
  So yeah, it did you know, and I think same thing like Watkins
• 23:35
  Glen. I once they repave that place, I
• 23:37
  was got much better. So keep repaving Rd. courses go
• 23:43
  in the back to Jonathan. We have a question over on the
• 23:44
  left too. Hey, Kyle.
• 23:45
  Jonathan Howard with on three.com.
• 23:48
  You know, I know that you say you don't pay attention.
• 23:50
  To strategy. A whole lot and you you get in
• 23:52
  the car. And drive it.
• 23:53
  But how nice is it to have a, you know, your driver that?
• 23:56
  Is that way? How nice is it to have Cliff
• 23:58
  Daniels on the box? Where you know you can.
• 24:00
  Trust what he's telling you. What?
• 24:02
  He's telling you to do. And and when he tells you to do.
• 24:04
  Things that it's the right. Thing for you to do well, I
• 24:07
  mean, that's all you really can do when you're behind the wheel
• 24:10
  is just trust that they've got it figured out.
• 24:14
  And then, you know, as long as you keep the car on the
• 24:19
  racetrack, don't get passed by people, usually whatever
• 24:23
  strategy I feel like you're on is going to typically work out
• 24:26
  OK. You may not win, but you're
• 24:28
  still going to finish good. So yeah, I mean it's yeah, I'm
• 24:32
  out there trying to figure it all out and and whatnot.
• 24:35
  You know what we all had? I had an idea of the strategy
• 24:38
  before the race started and then we had those whatever it was 8
• 24:41
  cautions. And then I'm like, OK, in my
• 24:44
  mind I'm like, well, is this a one stop race now or is this two
• 24:48
  stop or or what? And then are people still on
• 24:51
  three stop? Because it was going to be
• 24:52
  between A2 and a three stop race.
• 24:54
  Then I'm out there making laps. I'm just trying to figure it
• 24:57
  out. And you know, they spent about a
• 24:59
  lap on the radio explaining the situation to me and it just, you
• 25:04
  know, help. I like to have like a picture of
• 25:06
  what's going on. You know, what are people doing
• 25:09
  around me? And, you know, it helps.
• 25:11
  That helps me kind of execute my race.
• 25:16
  Hi, Kyle, Bill, Sessa. From the Napa Valley Register.
• 25:19
  Your foundation has a fundraiser going on this weekend. 1st of.
• 25:24
  All, do you have any update and do you think winning today will
• 25:27
  draw more attention to it? I just got out of the car like
• 25:31
  an hour ago, so I think visors are probably just going off
• 25:34
  people's helmets. So I have no no update for you,
• 25:37
  but no, I, I am. Either way, I'm you're happy to
• 25:41
  have support from the competitors and, you know,
• 25:43
  hopefully we can raise a lot of money.
• 25:44
  And yeah, I mean, who doesn't want to own a race?
• 25:47
  You a race one visor from Kyle Larson.
• 25:51
  So hopefully it goes for a lot. Jenna, you should bid.
• 25:56
  I don't know. I've heard you make a lot of
• 25:58
  money. So, you know, big IndyCar girl.
• 26:02
  I'm glad to see you here. I know you like hearing that.
• 26:06
  Any final questions for Kyle? Couple follows.
• 26:15
  And Kyle, this is also your 20th win since joining Hendrick at
• 26:18
  the start of 2021. Three and a half years, twenty
• 26:20
  wins, championship points leader.
• 26:22
  Now, just I guess what can you say just about how you, Cliff
• 26:26
  and everyone on Hendrick have just, you know, just really gone
• 26:29
  out and just, you know, taken over a lot of the.
• 26:31
  Competition, yeah, it's just yeah, that's a that's a great
• 26:35
  milestone. You know, to get twenty wins in
• 26:37
  a really a short period of time is is special to me.
• 26:40
  So wish I could have been here a long time ago, but no, it's
• 26:46
  there's just a phenomenal organization.
• 26:49
  I mean, it's it's the best in in the business and you know, the
• 26:53
  timing also couldn't be any better.
• 26:56
  You know, I feel like I've gotten to Hendrick, you know,
• 26:58
  when they're really at peak or, or back to what peak used to be.
• 27:03
  So yeah. And then being with Cliff
• 27:05
  Daniels and the whole five team, you know, they they are also,
• 27:09
  you know, great at what they do. So just a lucky, lucky person.
• 27:13
  And you hopefully you'll have get 20 more wins in a short
• 27:18
  amount of time. All right, we have time for a
• 27:20
  couple more. We'll go to Jeff and then wrap
• 27:21
  up with Adam. I noticed that Friday and
• 27:24
  Saturday Knoxville's in action. Do you think you might do a
• 27:27
  double duty with Iowa being so close?
• 27:31
  I'd like to, I'd like to, for sure.
• 27:35
  Friday is tight on schedule. I don't think we're done
• 27:39
  practicing at Iowa Speedway till like 5:30.
• 27:42
  So yeah, I mean, I'm guessing hot laps are at 6:30, so tight
• 27:47
  window. But yeah, so I plan on it.
• 27:52
  We'll see how Tuesday goes. I've tore up a lot of equipment
• 27:54
  so far, so I continue that. Maybe we won't have enough stuff
• 27:58
  left, but yeah, that's my hope. I would love to get more laps
• 28:02
  there at Knoxville. I don't typically ever get to
• 28:03
  race there before the nationals and it would be good to to get
• 28:07
  more laps there. Wrap up with Adam.
• 28:11
  Yeah. Just a follow up about driving
• 28:13
  on the new surface. What was the physical toll like
• 28:16
  on you today? Some other drivers were
• 28:17
  mentioning it was pretty rough out there just driving like
• 28:21
  qualifying laps basically the entire race.
• 28:25
  I don't know, it didn't feel much different as far as
• 28:28
  physicality to me. Every Rd. course you go is
• 28:32
  pretty physical. You know, at the end I'm pushing
• 28:35
  and I'm getting, you know, tight and tensed up.
• 28:37
  You know, I noticed like my lower back, but that would be
• 28:39
  typical for Sonoma. I feel like in the past.
• 28:41
  So yeah, it didn't feel much different to me.
• 28:46
  Due to so many cautions, this race came down to strategy and
• 28:49
  Larson's crew chief Cliff Daniels executed to perfection.
• 28:53
  For a while there it it kind of looked like Bush or not flipping
• 28:56
  the stages might actually work. I I mean, we hadn't really seen
• 28:59
  an on track pass all day for the lead, but you obviously were
• 29:03
  confident enough that it was going to still work.
• 29:05
  So how did you have that confidence?
• 29:07
  I don't know that I was beyond confident that it was going to
• 29:10
  work. I just knew that when they had
• 29:14
  flipped what we were doing early in the race, it was going to put
• 29:17
  them in a position to have to pit early in the final fuel
• 29:20
  window. And from that point forward, no
• 29:22
  matter what, they're going to be on defense.
• 29:24
  So the only way to solve to beat that is we had to figure out how
• 29:27
  to be on offense. And our our bed was made when
• 29:29
  they had all pitted off behind us.
• 29:31
  You know, all the cautions that we had in stage one, we had to
• 29:35
  really commit to. At that point.
• 29:37
  We were a long car, so we just had to commit to the long side
• 29:40
  of things to to have the offensive tires for the end of
• 29:43
  the race, if that makes sense. If we if we would have pivoted
• 29:46
  and given up that second run when, yeah, I guess it would
• 29:50
  have been the beginning of Stage 3 when they all, you know, were
• 29:52
  early in the field window. If we would have pivoted and
• 29:54
  pitted early, then we would have come out right behind them on
• 29:57
  the same tires, you know, just not going anywhere.
• 30:00
  So we had to go along. Hey, Cliff.
• 30:02
  Hey. It seemed like.
• 30:02
  The the definitely all the. Cost is the whole race, it
• 30:05
  seemed like everybody was kind of thrown off on that end.
• 30:07
  But once Kyle got pitted and started coming down to chase,
• 30:11
  everybody seemed like he really, on Turn 11, gained at least a
• 30:14
  second every time he went down there.
• 30:16
  Was that planned or anything or that?
• 30:17
  Just let Kyle drive the. Car yeah, like I just mentioned,
• 30:20
  we, we knew that the only way we're going to get back ahead of
• 30:22
  some of those guys that had kind of flipped the strategy on us is
• 30:26
  to have, you know, fresher tires by some amount.
• 30:29
  You know, it was hard to know the, the right #10 laps, 15
• 30:32
  laps, 20 laps, whatever the right amount of, you know,
• 30:35
  freshness on our tires as compared to them.
• 30:38
  But once it kind of cycled through that way and we had to
• 30:40
  clean track, you know, the, the way the, the field had spread
• 30:43
  out by that point and and we kind of cycled through I I knew
• 30:47
  that with, you know, new tires and a lot of gripping them, Kyle
• 30:49
  was going to be really fast. I thought our car was, you know,
• 30:52
  in the mix of a top five car. Didn't know that it was a
• 30:54
  winning car at the time but luckily the the disparity of the
• 30:58
  laps on tires is what helped us get up to them.
• 31:02
  Yeah. Any additional questions for
• 31:03
  Cliff, go back to Jeff and we'll go to Bob in the back after
• 31:09
  that. How would you don't really know?
• 31:13
  I mean the way this race played out is very unpredictable
• 31:16
  because of the amount of cautions especially in the next
• 31:18
  Gen. era of Rd. courses. I mean this amount of cautions
• 31:21
  like unheard of. Yeah, it's unprecedented,
• 31:23
  really. Yeah.
• 31:24
  So like do you, are you going into it saying, all right, if
• 31:27
  there's not very many cautions, we do this if there's a, if
• 31:30
  there's one in the, I mean to have eight in the first two
• 31:33
  stages, is there any contingency for that?
• 31:35
  Are you to sign that on the fly and and seeing how it changes?
• 31:38
  Really good question. And, and part of the reason that
• 31:43
  I, I, I like that you're asking that is because it was so
• 31:46
  unexpected for us. None of our conversations hinged
• 31:50
  on how many cautions were we going to get.
• 31:53
  It was all, you know, with a repaved, do you get tire
• 31:55
  blisters? You know, do your tires go 15
• 31:57
  laps? Do they go 30 laps and and the
• 31:59
  unknowns were more on the tire side of things and knowing how
• 32:02
  to strategize around that two stop or three stop really for
• 32:04
  the whole day. You know, do you short both
• 32:06
  stages and you know, pin on the field number in stage 3 or do
• 32:09
  you try to hit the true field numbers to two stop the whole
• 32:11
  race with tires being the factor of uncertainty?
• 32:16
  We never thought that cautions, you know, even a yellow here
• 32:19
  there the next Gen. Rd. course race.
• 32:20
  OK, but not so many cautions. So that that was actually fun
• 32:25
  because it changed everything everybody had in their mindset
• 32:28
  for how to understand pace, fall off, all those things that that
• 32:33
  it just changed the factors that you had to solve for and, and
• 32:35
  and people could do things differently.
• 32:37
  You know, we were completely off script with the way that we
• 32:39
  called the race, but that was fun.
• 32:43
  Go to Bob. Bob Parker's Fox Sports.
• 32:45
  Did you consider the the strategy that some others were
• 32:50
  on? And if so, like it does, do you
• 32:53
  like the idea of Kyle Moore on the Attack versus fuel mileage?
• 32:59
  Both, honestly, both. We considered when those guys
• 33:03
  were were pitting, you know, whether it was leading up to
• 33:06
  stage 1, during stage one, right after stage one, at the start of
• 33:10
  stage two. Of course we had considered
• 33:12
  pitting that whole time, but you're still looking at your
• 33:14
  green flag laps run to yellow flag laps run ratio.
• 33:18
  We just didn't have that many laps on our tires, and every
• 33:20
  time you would take off, you still had really good pace.
• 33:23
  And so at that point you were pushing your fuel windows far
• 33:25
  enough so that under green in Stage 3, you weren't going to
• 33:29
  have to take two cans of fuel, which we still didn't have to
• 33:32
  do. So we knew we could have the
• 33:34
  advantage of a faster stop time running deeper into Stage 3 and
• 33:38
  having fresher tires. To your point about giving Kyle
• 33:40
  fresher tires, it was going to put us more in an offensive
• 33:43
  situation than a defensive situation.
• 33:45
  At the time, you didn't quite know who was going to pit when
• 33:48
  and how all that would play out. But obviously once we kind of
• 33:51
  made our bed, you really had to stay down that path.
• 33:53
  If if we would have come off of that path, we would have
• 33:56
  sacrificed any offensive advantage that we would have had
• 33:58
  later in the race, if that makes sense.
• 34:00
  Can. You go over here to the right to
• 34:03
  Adam. Adam carolineracingrefresh.com
• 34:11
  In practice you did have an extended practice just to get a
• 34:14
  better sense of the repave. It didn't seem like many teams
• 34:18
  went longer than 15 laps on a a set of tires.
• 34:21
  Were were you concerned just keeping them out there longer on
• 34:24
  a set of tires? We did see some blistering and
• 34:26
  stuff like that where we concerned that that was going to
• 34:30
  be an issue. Yeah, of course.
• 34:31
  And and a couple points that I'll, I'll touch on there.
• 34:34
  I, I think part of the reason that people didn't go as long as
• 34:37
  you would have expected in practice is because we just
• 34:40
  don't get that many opportunities with a full open
• 34:42
  practice to change springs and geometry and other things.
• 34:45
  So you, you take this opportunity to go learn.
• 34:48
  So a lot of us had planned changes that were outside of our
• 34:51
  weekly impound style changes. So you know, back to your
• 34:56
  question without cars running that many laps in practice,
• 34:59
  because we were all kind of in R&D mode to to a point, you just
• 35:03
  didn't see the number of laps on tires to know is blistering a
• 35:07
  thing is where a thing you just didn't quite have the the data
• 35:10
  to go off of to, to understand that.
• 35:12
  So that's where back to one of Jeff's questions earlier we we
• 35:15
  all had the question mark going into the race more on the side
• 35:18
  of tire life, tire blisters, you know some of the repay factors,
• 35:22
  not necessarily the caution flag factor, you know that ultimately
• 35:25
  we saw today. Go to Jonathan and wrap up with
• 35:29
  Cliff Jonathan on three.com. Right here, Cliff.
• 35:33
  It seems that neither you. Or.
• 35:35
  Kyle get too high. During races and stuff like.
• 35:40
  Nice calm collected. Does it feel like you 2 mesh
• 35:44
  well that way where you kind of keep each other calm or?
• 35:47
  Is it just the nature? Of both of you.
• 35:50
  I, I think we've had enough seat time together to know that, you
• 35:54
  know, as, as long as we can stay together, stay connected, to
• 35:57
  overcome whatever may or may not be going our way, you know, that
• 36:01
  that we can typically fight through to, to have a good
• 36:03
  result, have a solid finish. And, you know, there was some
• 36:07
  intensity and some concerns just with the way the strategy played
• 36:10
  out today. And, and rightfully so from him
• 36:13
  trying to understand what was going on around him, who was
• 36:16
  ahead of him on, on what tires, who's behind him and what tires.
• 36:19
  So, so trying to paint that picture for him just so that he
• 36:22
  knew, you know, the objectives that he still had ahead of him,
• 36:25
  that that's kind of what I was focused on doing.
• 36:28
  Once we understood the way we thought the strategy was going
• 36:30
  to play out and, and ultimately did.
• 36:32
  So, you know, I, I think our, our reps of doing that together.
• 36:35
  And, and certainly there's been times that we've, we've failed
• 36:38
  to accomplish our mission together.
• 36:40
  And I, I think you learn, you know, the, the healthy things
• 36:42
  that you need to learn from, from both sides of the coin,
• 36:44
  from, you know, the wins and, and from when it doesn't go your
• 36:47
  way. For the Kenny Wallace YouTube
• 36:48
  channel, I'm Charlie Marlowe.