Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
Hisense 300 Advance – Charlotte Motor Speedway
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Two members of the Roush Fenway XFINITY driver team – series points leader Chris Buescher and Elliott Sadler – visited the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield media center to answer questions from the assembled press about this weekend’s Hisense 300 and other topics.
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Roush Performance Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU PLAN ON KEEPING THE MOMENTUM FROM LAST WEEK’S WIN AT IOWA GOING HERE? “It’s been a good start to the season for us, for sure. We had a lot of momentum at the end of last year and the goal was just to be able to build off of that. It was kind of unfortunate that Homestead did end it for us because we were looking forward to getting going, but they’ve done a really nice job. We’ve had new people on board this year, new teammates in Elliott and Bubba. I feel like it’s coming together quite nicely this year. We have race cars that are coming to the race track a lot quicker than they were at the beginning of last year at this point in time, and we’re in a much better points position not missing Daytona for sure and being able to get a win early in the season. It’s been really good. We’re having a lot of fun with it. We just have to keep the momentum up. The idea is to sit there and run in the top five as much as possible and know that if you put yourself in the right position we’ll be able to get a couple more of these wins.”
ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford Mustang – WHAT IS YOU MINDSET AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON COMING TO CHARLOTTE? “It’s always fun coming to Charlotte. This is everybody’s backyard. There’s no secret. Everybody brings their best stuff here and it’s a fun place to race. This track does change a lot throughout a weekend as far as how the groove changes, how your car changes, so that always makes it fun but interesting. Anytime you get to come to Charlotte and run good, be successful, whether it’s sitting on the pole, leading laps, but especially winning the race does a lot for the race team. We’re right here so close to the shops. A lot of the guys it’s really their only time to see the finished product on the race track, so you always want to run good here. You want to protect home court is pretty much how you say it in sports, so you want to come to Charlotte and do well.”
WHAT DOES THE DASH 4 CASH PROGRAM MEAN TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM? “We love the Dash 4 Cash and I can’t thank XFINITY enough for bringing that back to our series. They’ve incorporated three new tracks, along with Indy to go along with it. I think it’s one race per month. Also, not only for a driver racing for $100,000, but a fan can also have the experience at Indy to win $100,000. I’ve been very fortunate in my XFINITY career to win a couple of these races. I actually won here in Charlotte a couple years ago that the fan won $100,000 from Florida, so that was a lot of fun. Dash 4 Cash is really big for our series, and I want people to understand that – not only for the drivers, not only for the teams, but my sponsor loves it. The extra kind of bump that you get from TV and the extra bump you get from press locally those particular weekends is good exposure for these sponsors that have been so dedicated to our sport throughout the year. It’s definitely a great program and really appreciate XFINITY adopting it from how we’ve had the last couple of years, and I think everybody is looking forward to racing this weekend at Charlotte to get ready to get qualified for the first race, which is Dover next week. It’s always a fun time.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – “The Dash 4 Cash, like Elliott said, it’s a really neat program. I was fortunate enough to be a part of it for a handful of them last year. Unfortunately, the qualifier wasn’t last week or I’d feel a lot better about it, but Charlotte has been an up-and-down track for me, but I feel like we’ve turned a corner in our program. Our mile-and-a-half stuff has gotten a lot better, so I’m excited to get into this qualifier here for it and I’m loving the new lineup. I love short track racing and to have Dover and Darlington and Bristol in there, that’s awesome. Those are three of my top five race tracks, so that’s exciting to be able to do that and XFINITY carrying on the program is very special and, like Elliott said, there’s a lot of hype around it and a lot of buzz and it’s cool for fan engagement and for the drivers to try and put a little extra pressure on themselves and our teams, so we’re looking forward to getting into it. It’s gonna be a little bit more spread out this season, which I think is a good thing. It’s gives you a little bit more time to prepare and kind of sit back and plan for it, but we’re excited for it and really thankful that XFINITY is carrying it on. If we’re fortunate enough to qualify in for it I think the red banner on the windshield and spoiler will match our paint scheme quite nicely, so we’ll see what happens here.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN THE LATE CAUTION CAME OUT LAST WEEK AT IOWA AND HAS THE STRONG EFFORT ON THE MILE-AND-A-HALVES GIVEN YOU CONFIDENCE HERE AT CHARLOTTE? “Going to Iowa the two tires there at the end was huge for us. That’s pretty much the exact scenario we needed. I would have been a little bit more comfortable with it a couple laps earlier, but we pretty much planned for a late, late race caution to be able to bolt on our last set of stickers. It worked out really well and that’s really what we needed to happen. Going into the mile-and-a-halves, our stuff has been so much better since probably about the last 10-12 races last year. That’s really where we started seeing a change and with the new personnel at Roush Fenway Racing through the off-season and with Elliott coming on board and talking about some of the other things that he’s been able to feel at different race teams, I think we’ve really made huge steps forward with our aero platform and with our race cars to be able to perform better and race better at these mile-and-a-halves. I think we had speed last year, but it was hard to race. It was hard to be around other cars and that’s gotten way better to this point. It’s hard to even compare them, so the momentum we got leaving Iowa, it’s a short track but there is a lot of aero that goes into it and it does drive somewhat similar to some of these intermediate race tracks. I think that’s really good and I’m excited to get going here. Bubba had his rookie test here a couple weeks ago and they were excited about what they left with from there, so we’ll see what we get into this evening. It’s gonna be a lot different conditions than when we race, so it will be a tough one for sure, especially as much as this race track will change throughout a weekend.”
DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WOULD HAVE THE POINTS LEAD COMING INTO CHARLOTTE? “It’s nice to have (laughing). You never really plan on anything the way this sport is and I’m not a points racer. I don’t like it, but it is a weight off your back at this point. It’s nice to know that we’ve got that tiny bit of cushion to be able to take some chances here early on.”
ELLIOTT SADLER CONTINUED – HOW HAS YOUR TRANSTION GONE WITH ROUSH FENWAY AND HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS YOUR SEASON SO FAR? “The transition has been good – feeling out and learning the cars and the pieces of the puzzle to put together. I felt like some of the races we’ve given away and maybe some points that we shouldn’t have. We really feel like Talladega was one that we’d like to have back, but we have a long racing season ahead of us. We feel like we’re better than where we were a month ago and we feel like a month from now we’ll be better than what we are now with some stuff that we have coming down the pike. We’re looking forward to improving each and every week and getting on track and making a run at this thing, and I can’t think of a better place to start that than right here at Charlotte.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT DOVER? “I love Dover. That’s a place I went to the first time and I think I ran about three-quarters of the race right behind Elliott and learned a lot about the line there. I was really stuck to the bottom early on and was able to watch as the line moved around quite a bit throughout the race and guys were able to pick up speed. It’s a fun one. The drop down in the corners will get you. The save we had in the early race last year probably took a couple years off my life, but I’m looking forward to getting back to it. To me, it’s awesome that it’s part of our XFINITY Dash 4 Cash program.”
ELLIOTT SADLER CONTINUED – HOW IMPORTANT HAS IT BEEN FOR ALL OF YOU DRIVERS TO MESH TOGETHER LIKE YOU HAVE BECAUSE ALL FOUR ARE SUCCESSFUL? “I feel like a very important part of our early success as a team has been all the drivers on the same page and we had a trip down to Daytona in February where we all sat down together and I kind of gave my two cents worth of teammates that I’ve had in the past and the benefits of working together, and if we keep that concept going forward it’s gonna be good for all of us. We try to look at it as one team with four drivers. Chris and I, and all of us – Ryan and Bubba both – are an open notebook with each other. We’re sharing all the information because it goes full circle on how these races work, so so far, so good on that. I think that’s a reason why we’ve had some early success at our race team and I also think it’s a reason why we have better stuff coming down the pipe is because of all the communication we’ve been able to share together.”
DRIVERS HAVE TO SHUT OUT THE WORLD WHEN THEY GET BEHIND THE WHEEL. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU HAD TO LEARN OR DOES IT JUST COME NATURAL? “I think it’s something that came natural, but I think when a driver gets in a race car and he puts that window net up, he’s got so many things to focus on that the outside world, I hate to say this and I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, really doesn’t matter. When you have to do so many things as a driver and that’s protecting your race car, getting as much speed as you can out of your car, make sure you’re giving the right information to your crew chief, getting on pit road the correct way, getting in the pit box. There are so many switches and stuff that you’ve got to take care of as far as things that you can control inside the car, and you’re running at the edge every single lap. So you’re focused on what you’re doing and I think that’s what race car drivers do best – when you’re in that race car you’re focusing on what you’re doing and things can happen at a split-second that can catch you off guard if you’re not focused. I think it’s very easy to shut other things out, that nothing else really matters other than what you’re doing inside that race car.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – “I’d agree with him. It’s hard to keep them separate sometimes, just trying to be respectful out there is the right word, and just trying to make sure you race everybody the way that you want to be raced in returned. The same thing off the track, trying to behave the same way. Like he said, there’s a lot of stuff that goes on once we get going there and it is a way for us to go into our own little world and go out here and try to put on a show. So I guess it’s just something that we knew we were always gonna have to do and you don’t really have a choice. You don’t have time to learn it and you better be able to figure it out.”
ELLIOTT SADLER CONTINUED – WHAT KIND OF PARENTING ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE KYLE BUSCH AND BRAD KESELOWSKI? “That’s a great question. I don’t know if I should be giving advice or not. I do know that my wife texts Samantha all the time, so I know they’ve been going back and forth the last six months on things, but my advice is just enjoy the moment. There’s nothing in the world like having a kid and enjoy the moment and spend as much time as you can with them because in a blink of an eye my two kids have grown up. Holy cow, really, really fast, so just enjoy the moment and make the most of it. There’s not a better gift in the world than a kid and have fun with it. But other than that, they’re on their own. And learn how to change diapers. You’ve got to help.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – WHAT HAS YOUR IMPRESSION BEEN OF XFINITY SINCE THEY TOOK OVER THE SERIES SPONSORSHIP? “I think it’s been great. They picked up and really exceeded everybody’s expectations for a new sponsor coming into a role like they did. There is a lot of responsibility that goes into it and a lot of work and they’ve really put in 110 percent effort to make it work, and it’s been really impressive to see. The Dash 4 Cash program and continuing that on for example, that took a lot to realize how big that was for our sport early on and say, ‘All right, that’s something we definitely need to make sure that we’re able to carry on,’ change and make it their own, and I think they’ve done a great job with the changes and be able to step up and do what they’ve done, and this is just a couple months into their first year, and they’ve come on board for many, many more, so we’re excited. It’s been a great sponsor.”
ELLIOTT SADLER CONTINUED – “They have the coolest app in the world. The XFINITY TV Go app is like the best thing in the world. They’re not telling me to tell you this, but we have it on all of our devices at home, so now when my wife wants to go out to eat, like she wanted to go out to eat during March Madness, so I took her out to eat at her favorite restaurant and I got to watch basketball games on my iPad while we ate, so it works out great. My kids can watch it, but the XFINITY TV Go app, if you guys don’t have that, you need to try that out. It is bad to the bone, so I think they’ve done a really good job interacting with us the drivers.”
ELLIOTT SADLER CONTINUED — ARE YOU GOING TO LET WYATT DRIVE A RACE CAR OR WILL GOLF BE A BETTER OPTION? “We’ll see. My brother does a ton of go-kart racing and Wyatt and I have been to a couple go-kart races here lately to just kind of get his feet wet. We’re actually building a go-kart track at home, a dirt track, and gonna get him one of those buggies and just let him ride some and practice some and see if he would like to do that or not, but I’m definitely not gonna push him because he’s gonna have one drawback against him. The doctors are telling us he’s gonna be 6’5″, 6’6″ easy, so I think being that tall and being in a race car would be tough, so I’m gonna teach him how to throw a baseball left-handed and he should be in good shape if he’s that tall.”
