Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Irwin Tools Night Race Advance – Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, August 22, 2014
Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Ford Fusion, introduced Thrivent Financial as a sponsor before Friday’s qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway. McDowell also answered questions from the media about this weekend’s Irwin Tools Night Race.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL – No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Ford Fusion – THE LAST TIME HERE AT BRISTOL YOU HAD A GOOD START TO THE RACE AND THEN A NOT-SO-GOOD FINISH. “It was a great race for us the last time here. We were running inside the top 20 and got into a heated battle with David Ragan and we both lost our cool and kind of ended our night a little bit early, but Bristol is an opportunity race. These short tracks are a lot of fun, a lot can happen, but not every last inch of aerodynamics, motor, all those things really come into play here and that definitely helps, so you definitely have a little bit stronger shot here than you would at say a mile-and-a-half. Bristol is a great race track, great fans and under the lights it always goes up a notch or two here, so it’s a lot of fun.”
SO THE MCDRIVER COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK? “I hope so. Usually I can make a difference. I can make race cars go slow for sure, but making them go faster is definitely more of a challenge, but we’ve got a great team. Wally Rogers has done a great job. We’re a small team and we’re working hard to grow our program and we feel like we’re making big strides toward getting solid finishes. Up until Watkins Glen we had a good little streak going there, so I’m very proud of our team and excited about this Thrivent Financial partnership. One of the things that’s exciting for me with this, as you guys know, I’m very outspoken about my faith and my Christian walk and Thrivent fits that very well. Thrivent is a financial organization that really helps Christians be wise with money, so they can live more generously. I added a tagline so that they could live and give more generously. I don’t know if they’re gonna let me use that or not, but it really fits in to what I’m about and what the partnerships like K-LOVE and partnerships like Thrivent are things that align with my faith. It’s really important because it’s authentic and it’s what I’m excited about and what I’m passionate about, and it allows me to have these partnerships that really make sense.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR THIS SPONSOR? “One of the things that was mentioned earlier is that Thrivent has done this rebranding and really opened their doors to Christians, which covers all denominations. With my core fan base, I believe being Christian and having a lot of followers and hopefully I’ll be introducing more people to Thrivent that wouldn’t have heard of them otherwise. For me, I just became a member too, so that’s one extra right there. But I really just feel like, for me, it allows me to offer a partnership and also offer a great opportunity for my fans to make better decisions with their money. It’s really kind of a great fit for me and it’s authentic, too. I’m not looking for Christian sponsors because that’s my nitch and that’s my knack. Christian sponsors are a part of our program because it’s who I am. Other partnerships won’t necessarily work if you’re not authentic and you don’t love it and you’re not living what you’re supporting, so it’s a really cool partnership for us.”
