Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes:
2015 Charlotte Media Tour
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Leavine Family Racing and Wood Brothers Racing began the afternoon session at the Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR Media Tour Ford Wednesday and discussed their teams’ respective plans for the upcoming season. Below is a transcript of the formal portion of their program.
BOB LEAVINE, owner, Leavine Family Racing – YOU HAD A NICE YEAR LAST YEAR, TELL US ABOUT WHERE YOU EXPECT TO GO THIS YEAR WITH THE TEAM? “It was an exciting year. First I would like to thank the Wood Brothers for sharing the stage with us this year. This is very cool. 2014 was an exciting year for us. We made some gains and advances and as always sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back but we are excited about what we did. We had some personal bests including Daytona where Michael (McDowell) finished seventh and obviously it was our best finish also. We had solid finishes in Bristol with an 18th and 21st at Homestead. We are excited about that and the steps that we made. In 2015 the momentum is really built off of what we didn’t get done last year. That is motivation. The successes are okay but if you don’t learn from what you did wrong you aren’t going to get any better. Our team is motivated by getting better. We are obviously a small team but a team with a lot of heart. I really appreciate the family, my wife and I, this group has become family to us and that is important to us. They really, really give it their all. Wally Rodgers has assembled a great group of guys and the desire and determination they show is awesome. We are going to run a minimum of 20 races this year and we are excited about our partners which you will hear about. We are excited about several things, our equipment we get, we run great equipment and I feel really good about it. Secondly, our resource are people and our partners and with that we are looking forward to an improved 2015. Our goals this year, we all set goals, I was asked about that a while ago and our goal is to qualify for every race we go to, qualify well, run strong and run in the top-25. With our people, I believe we can do that. Those are realistic goals for our team.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 95 Thrivent Financial Ford Fusion – WHAT IS THE PROGRESS THAT WILL TRANSFER FROM LAST YEAR TO MAKE IT BETTER FOR YOU IN 2015? “A lot of what will transfer over is just my relationship with Wally Rodgers. It was my first year with Leavine Family Racing last year and we started building momentum halfway through the season. By the end of the year we were starting to figure out the cars and what I needed. I am looking forward to working with Wally again. He has assembled a great team. We had a few changes in the off season and feel like we have been fortunate to add a lot of great people to our organization and with our partnerships and alliances with Ford and Team Penske we feel like we have the tools to go out there and be competitive and like Bob said, we are a small team but still have great equipment and great people. I am thankful to be back here racing the Sprint Cup Series and excited to tell you guys a little about what we have going on with our partnerships as well. For us, we can’t do this without our partners and I am excited to have Thrivent Financial back on board again this year. They did a handful of races last year including a debut at Bristol. We are excited to bring new sponsors into the sport and Thrivent is back with us again and we extended their schedule and they are coming on to do a minimum of 10 races and we are really thankful for that and excited about that. For those of you that don’t know what Thrivent is, it is a financial institute that helps Christians be wise with money so that they can live generously. For those of you that know me, it is really cool for me to be partnered with faith-based organizations that understand the value that I have for myself and my family and it gives me a platform to share that. It is more than just a partnership, it is personal and something that is special and that is what makes it authentic and we believe that is where the success will come from.”
EDDIE WOOD, Wood Brothers Racing – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TO HAVE DONE THIS FOR SO MANY DECADES, CELEBRATING YOUR 65TH YEAR IN 2015? “It is just an honor I guess. I wasn’t around when it began obviously but my dad and his brothers, the first race they ever went to on the way home they burned their car to the ground. There was a group of people there that I think we’re kind of second guessing our dad, kind of saying that would show old Glen that he doesn’t want to do that. I think that made him mad and gave him incentive to go do it again and they won the second or third time out. To still be in the sport is really humbling and we owe all our partners, Ford Motor Company especially, we have had Ford products throughout our entire existence and that is really the basis of what has kept us going.”
LEN WOOD, Wood Brothers Racing – YOU ARE ALIGNED THIS YEAR WITH TEAM PENSKE, CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT THAT ALLIANCE? “I think our role with Ford Motor Company is to help develop younger drivers and over the past four years I think we have tried to do that with Trevor Bayne, which we had success at the 2011 Daytona 500, so when he moved on to the full time deal for 2015 we were looking for who would be the next guy. Ryan Blaney’s name kept popping up as the guy we need. I think with choosing Ryan, he was a Team Penske affiliated driver so it made perfect sense to switch the alliance to Penske. Ford helped us through that whole process.”
DO YOU LOOK AT A DRIVER LIKE RYAN, WITH ALL THE SUCCESS HE HAS ENJOYED AT ALL LEVELS, IS THAT WHAT MAKES HIM A GOOD FIT FOR THAT SEAT? “I think he has been a winner pretty much everywhere he has been. We lack a couple wins to get to 100. Maybe he can fill the trophy case out.”
JEREMY BULLINS, crew chief, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE A WOOD BROTHERS CREW CHIEF? “I think for me it is special in a lot of ways. One, to be able to continue our relationship with Team Penske and having good teammates with the 2 and 22 but for me personally the Wood Brothers is where I started. They gave me my first opportunity so to come back here and lead the team is a great opportunity. I am really looking forward to 2015. Ryan and I have worked together since 2012 so there is a relationship there and we feel like we can build on that history and get in a position to be successful.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion – YOU HAVE A LOT OF FIRSTS COMING AT YOU. FIRST SEASON AS A CUP DRIVER, FIRST DAYTONA 500. TELL US ABOUT THAT. “It has been a great experience getting to know everyone at the Wood Brothers. Getting to meet Glen and Leonard and getting to know Eddie and Len has been great. I have been to their museum a couple times in the past two weeks and I learned something new both times I went there. It is a great history lesson. This family legacy is pretty unique. I come from a long family of racing and the same with the Wood Brothers. It is neat. It is really special and something we can share of a long family of racers. I think that is going to create a really good bond. That is all we want to do, myself and the Wood Brothers and Jeremy, we just want to win and do well. All we care about is racing. I think that is going to benefit us and now we have this alliance with Team Penske and I think that will put us to the next step of where we need to be to get to the next level and we are happy to bring the Wood Brothers along with us. I am happy to be a part of this great organization and I can’t wait to get going. I think it is going to be a great year for us.”
EDDIE WOOD CONTINUED – WE UNDERSTAND YOU HAVE AN EXPANDED SEASON TO ANNOUNCE? “Yeah, our normal commitment is with Ford Motor Company and with Motorcraft Quick Lane brands and we are going to run our 12 races like we have been doing for the last few years. We will run the speedways and the fast 1.5 mile tracks but we are excited to say that we have been working really hard with our new alliance with Team Penske and we have tentatively added six races to our schedule. We can talk about those in more depth later but we are really excited about that. We have been working really hard to expand our schedule because you just want to race every week. It kills you when you are not there but we are really thankful we have been able to do that.”
