Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes:
SpongeBob SquarePants 400
NSCS FRIDAY MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Friday, May 8, 2015
As part of Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400, several drivers are sporting Sponge Bob character paint schemes in the race, including Ford drivers Michael McDowell and Greg Biffle. The duo were part of a media session to talk about the race and what it is like to represent the iconic Nickelodeon cartoon brand.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 98 WRL/Larry the Lobster Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE SO FAR. DID YOU GROW UP A SPONGEBOB FAN? “I don’t know if you know but I am a large individual in this sport so when you put a character on my fire suit it is a fairly big character so I have a gigantic lobster on my back. It is probably the size of David Ragan. I didn’t grow up watching SpongeBob but I have kids and my six-year old son thinks I am the coolest dad ever because I got to drive the Ninja Turtle car and now I get to drive the Larry Lobster car. I am definitely winning cool points with my kids. This is really cool to engage the youth and bring in a new fan to NASCAR and that is an important aspect for all of us for all our partners moving forward in the sport. It is exciting.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 Cheez-It/Patrick Star Ford Fusion – YOU HAD A PRETTY FAST CAR IN FINAL PRACTICE AND A GREAT LOOKING CAR OUT THERE. ARE YOU HAVING FUN WITH THIS? “Yeah, I am having fun. I am more excited that it is pretty fast. Every time I have had characters or super heroes on my car I have been able to find victory lane. Hopefully it brings me some luck. I can echo what these guys are saying. My daughter is three and a half and she loves watching SpongeBob and she asked before I left if I could bring him back with me. I told her he would be at the race track and she wasn’t able to come this weekend. I don’t know if he is interested in coming back with me or not but hopefully I can take a trophy home anyway. I am glad to represent the brand and it is a fun promotion we are doing and hopefully we can reach the young kids.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL CONTINUED – CAN YOU GIVE US AN UPDATE ON WHAT YOU HAVE FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SHOP? “I don’t really have an update. The team might. Obviously we had a fire this morning and they are still figuring out what that all looks like. For me, when I got here this morning and heard about it, it is very easy to break your focus and start thinking about next week and all these things but we have to get into this race today so I tried to rally the guys around and told them we would worry about it when we get home Sunday and we can’t change it. We have to do our job here today. I don’t really know exactly where we are at with everything. There is still a lot of things happening there obviously. We will get back and assess the situation and do everything we can to be ready to go to Charlotte.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE TROPHY IF YOU WIN? “That is easy, it will go in my daughter’s bedroom.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE CONVERSATION AMONG THE DRIVERS ABOUT HAVING THE SPONGEBOB RACE? “It is kind of funny how the kids go in cycles. There are a lot of young kids and a lot of new dads in the garage right now so I think a lot of us were kind of excited to have an opportunity to represent SpongeBob and promote the brand and everything. There has been some discussion. We were talking about it on the plane ride up here. I rode with Ricky and Danica and we were talking a little about it. It has been a topic and we are really excited to be associated with it and I am glad to be able to race this Kansas race, like David (Ragan) said, it is one of our premier races under the lights on a Saturday night.”
