MIGUEL PALUDO, No. 7 Stemco Duroline Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing What has this week been like for you? “I can tell you that I am living the dream. A third-place finish last week — we had such a great run. We had a shot to win. I didn’t need the last caution, but at the same time I learned a lot from (Kevin) Harvick and moving forward to Monday — we had our first baby. It was unbelievable. I know that everybody who is a Dad here knows what I’m talking about. I spent Monday and Tuesday with him (Oliver) and came here yesterday. We unloaded today really close. Bristol is the race track that was my first race last year. We had a good run, finished ninth. I feel really comfortable driving here and we unloaded pretty close — made small changes and we were on the top of the board in the second practice for a long time. I think we are going to have a real good truck today. I was just free and I think we know what to do. As I said, I’m living the dream and I’m having the best time of my life. Running in the top-five — I finished top-five in two of the last four races and then I have my son — he’s perfect and I just want to keep this momentum going.”
How much confidence do you have coming into this race? “Last year my main goal was to finish the race. I need to finish the race to keep moving in the NASCAR system. Go from half-mile to one mile and then be able to run Daytona. I was really cautious last year. I started 24th I think and worked on the truck and finished ninth. This year, I’m a lot more comfortable in the truck. My communication with my crew is getting better and better every time. I feel like we are two or three steps forward if I compare last year with this year. Both practices — we were 13th in first practice and seventh in the second one. I think we had a shot to have a really good run here and we just need the right adjustments to do it.”
How do you approach the Bristol race with the experience of other drivers? “It’s pretty tough –I can tell you. Talking before about Michigan, we had a top-five truck, top-six and then we made the right adjustments. That’s what I’m talking about — it’s really tough to make the right adjustments on the last pit stop and have a really good truck the last 20 laps. We did that in Michigan. That’s why we had a really good shot. Coming here, you still have (Kevin) Harvick, Kyle Busch, (Ron) Hornaday, Todd Bodine — the guys that have a lot of laps here. We are fast, but we work a lot on race trim. You can’t be three or four tenths off here — maximum one, two tenths off. Now talking about winning — we will figure out during the race if we are a contender or not. I feel like we are pretty close and I need runs like that — top-five, top-five, top-five and then I know that we need to change small things and not big things. I know that something is going to happen and we are going to have a shot to win. We just need to keep working on it.”
How do you describe Bristol to fans in your home country? “It’s really banked — really banked. You go in the corner and you know that the corner helps you to turn. It’s a really different feeling. I feel like Daytona or tracks that have a lot of banking really helps the truck to turn. At the same time, you keep a lot of speed in the corner and you are only on a half-mile track so you are turning a lot and you are back to the throttle. You lift and then are back to the throttle so I can describe it like a really fast track and the 36 degrees of banking is incredible. How it helps to turn and I love it.”
