How would you sum up the regular season for for you and the three team?

Well, like I said, it was a little up and down throughout the year and, um, just didn't have the pace that we needed to score stage points.

I think that's a key factor in, in making the playoffs.

You got to get, gather a lot of stage points, um, and try and get a win.

Uh, without those, it's going to be tough to be in the top 16.

Um, In the years that we've won, we made the playoffs.

Next year, we've got to focus on a win and getting more stage points.

What has it been like working with Toys for Tots, and what has that partnership meant

I had Ace

talking.

His favorite bull rider is Jerome, and he'll tell everybody, who's your favorite bull rider? Jerome.

So we were on the way back to T-Ball, and Jerome FaceTimed us, and we were watching Glaramie get on one last night.

And actually, that's a bull that I bought from you guys, a half-interest bull, a Hazard Creek freak, me and a guy in South Carolina, Charles Taylor.

And they had him at Robson's all last year for a practice bull during the week, and he's a little out of line sometimes, and Glaramie's been riding his tail off, and Jerome's like, Glaramie's getting on another one.

Which one is that? He's like, oh, 1705.

all this started, it was like

Um- What has this been like for you to have the responsibilities of taking over Kyle's Cup card this year?

It's been a lot.

Been extremely busy.

Um, working seven days a week right now, ever since it, it all happened.

And just trying to juggle between the O'Reilly car and the Cup car isn't easy, because the two cars drive totally different.

Um, there's nothing really that I can say that's similar about the two other than, uh, both of them have a steering wheel, and both of them have a throttle and a brake pedal.

Uh, other than that, the way that you make speed in a Cup car is just completely opposite of how you do a, a O'Reilly car.

What are those mo- uh, what are those emotions now, some three months later?

How do you do that?

Yeah, no, I think, um, when it first all happened, um, I think the only way for me to, like, compartmentalize everything and move forward was to, like, write how I truly felt about him, and I wrote that letter.

That definitely helped me the, at the beginning.

You know, I just kinda got it all out there, how I felt about Kyle and who he was and to me.

And then, um, as time's gone on, you, the next thing you wanna do is, is to try and heal the people here at RCR by going out and running well.

And that hasn't gone great, but I mean, you, when you have a run just the top 10, you can see, like, it's like hitting a golf shot.

Um, you can hit the whole round struggle and hit one at the end, it makes you come back for more.

I mean, how, how do you think that, how do you evaluate him considering all that he's, he's been, uh, having on his back?

But how important was the off week going into Iowa as far as the prep and everything that you guys wanted to do to make sure that these final three or four races were, were, you know, where you guys need to be at?

Yeah, no, just the reju- the rejuvenation of the off weekend for the guys.

I mean, getting a break.

I mean, it's been a grind for us.

We haven't been where we want to be performance-wise all year, and, um, trying to refocus and, and circle the, the opportunities we have coming up.

We know we can run good at Richmond.

We know we can run good at Iowa.

So what have you been able to kind of figure out over the course of the last few years about this place that you've kind of hit the nail on the head?

[rock music] [car revving] Hey, I, I feel like that went good.

Sack or he tried to run out?

No, he was trying to run.

So it was the end of the game.

They were trying to drive and just wear the clock out and win the game.

We were down by a point.

We were down in their red zone.

It was a quarterback keep, little power.

Did, did you surprise even yourself with that outcome?

[laughs] Um, yeah, no, I mean, it, it was very, um, rewarding to come out of there with a great day.

Um, you know, historically it hasn't been a good track for, for RCR, for me, and I've had a couple decent runs there, uh, back in the day, but it's been a, it's been a while.

So, um, going there, uh, we really didn't get to do a lot of prep because we were at the Iowa test and we, we kind of leaned on the eight team, and that really paid off for us.

And, um, we missed our balance in stage two, but we were able to make a really good adjustment going into stage three, and I felt like we were probably the fastest long run car there.

Um, just needed to, to figure out the takeoff speed, and we can, we can go to work on that for the next time we go to Dover or apply it to these other tracks that we run that same aero package.

What does one say, what can one do when one speaks to a member of a Gold Star family, and how can one fulfill that mission to honor the dead by helping the living?

Well, I think i- if we can go out there and be good representatives of what they have fought for.

Why

is that? Well, I want to do him proud.

You know what I mean? I want to make him proud at every turn.

But he's also like – he's hard.

He's hard to impress, hard to – he's challenging.

But it's a good challenge.

But – I think our whole family is that because he started with nothing, right? And he created this empire that he has.

I hate that.

... halfway through, make a call."

You kind of need to feel out the pack, really.

And, and, and if you're in situations that you know you're not supposed to be in, which we all have those intuitions at times in life [chuckles] it's just like that in a race car, man.

When, when you see a guy out there and he looks squirrely, he's moving around too much, car ain't handling good, I probably don't need to be in this position very long.

I need to move, change my spot, get behind someone else, or get to the front.

And, uh, you have to make those moves pretty early.

And I can tell you, the regrettable things are me just staying in that position a little too long or not taking the, the, the hole that I had that would've got me clear of a wreck.

And I don't know if for you that's just something that's-... you, you know, dealt with the pros and cons of that then and now moved past it? Or every time you come out here, does that rattle around in your brain a bit?

Did you have that thought early on as a kid? Man, I was so focused

as a kid on, like, other sports and, you know, enjoyed other sports.

And then when I got the opportunity to race, it was like, that is, like, a larger-than-life opportunity or object that's out there.

And you grew up around it, and then all of a sudden you get to cut your first lap on it, which my first laps weren't very memorable.

I mean, in the truck race, I sat on the pole.

That was memorable.

But the first lap was a wreck.

you make it to cup all the pressure is already on and then you go out there and you get the pole in the number three for your first 500 as a rookie full-time rookie what was that like that spotlight that's already bright now it's just brighter i