Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Food City 500 Advance – Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, April 15, 2016
Ryan Reed, driver of the No. 16 Lilly/American Diabetes Association Ford Mustang, talked about dealing with Type 1 Diabetes this morning, along with this weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
RYAN REED – No. 16 Lilly/American Diabetes Association Ford Mustang — CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS WEEKEND WITH THE HEATS AND THE MAIN FORMAT? “First of all, just going to the heat race format this weekend and having the Dash 4 Cash – we’ve had Dash 4 Cash for a few years, but obviously throwing in the heat race and how you qualify for the Dash 4 Cash out of the heat races is really exciting. It’s definitely gonna be a huge change from what we’ve had here in the past, so I’m really excited for that. I grew up heat racing, racing late models out in California. I haven’t run a heat race in probably four or five years, so I’m really excited to kind of get back to that and get back to the roots a little bit, and I think all the fans are as well and I’m sure all the media is as well. It should add for a lot of excitement. Bristol is a tough track regardless and then you throw in heat races and give us one more opportunity to go out there and tear up the car before the end of the race is gonna be challenging. I know we talked a lot about it this week and it’s really interesting because obviously you want to be able to start the main event with a clean race car, but then also too if you’re in a position to qualify for the Dash 4 Cash you’re gonna want to get aggressive and do that, and then if you win two of these Dash 4 Cashes you’re locked into the Chase, so that puts another element in there that really adds a lot of pressure and adds some pressure to go out there and get it done. But I’m just really excited, and then I feel like Bristol is a place that I’ve struggled at in the past, so I definitely want to go in here and work really hard. I talked to Chris Buescher a lot this week and Ricky Stenhouse – all my teammates – trying to learn from them and kind of accelerate that process and come out here and unload in a few hours for practice and have some speed. I’m looking forward to getting this weekend going and looking forward to getting in the Dash 4 Cash tomorrow, hopefully, and hopefully win $100,000.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST HURDLE TO OVERCOME WITH THIS DISEASE? “Obviously, whether you’re driving a race car or not there’s a lot of things you have to manage with Diabetes, and I would say that all those things are very similar things, whether I’m strapping into a race car or having a Sunday off. It’s checking your blood sugar. It’s monitoring continuously. It’s taking insulin, taking multiple insulin shots a day. Those are all things that play into race day, but it’s all different on race day, obviously, when you’re talking about strapping into a race car for two hours you’re not gonna have the opportunity to prick your finger, put blood on a test strip and see what your blood sugar is. You’re not gonna have an opportunity to take an insulin shot. I do, but it’s through a pit stop, having a pit crew member trained to give me an insulin injection during a pit stop, which is a safety net. It’s not something we plan on having to do, but the major thing is I just work with my doctor a lot and still do. That’s no different than managing your Diabetes than any other day. My doctor is a lot smarter than I am and I recognize that, so I listen to what she has to say and try and practice that. Obviously, you’re the one taking the Diabetes home with you. You’re the one that has to manage it day in and day out, but your doctor can really make a difference. If you have a good relationship with your doctor like I do, then it makes it a lot easier. I know I talk to her all the time and always asking her questions, and it’s made a huge difference. Even over the last couple of years I’ve been racing for five years now with Diabetes, and still to this day I don’t feel like I communicate with her any less. It’s always changing. It’s always developing and my doctor is always coming up with something new to try and make my life a little easier, which I’m appreciative of.”
DO YOU LOOK AT THE POINT STANDINGS MORE OFTEN WITH THIS CHASE FORMAT? “Just when it shows up in my notifications on Twitter. It’s really early. Obviously, I think that definitely as you get closer you’re gonna pay a lot more attention to it, especially if you’re on the bubble getting close to the Chase. I think watching the Cup Series over the past couple of years the goal is to get locked into the Chase and once you’re locked in the Chase it’s gonna change your approach a lot and it’s kind of reset and then you’re gonna have the opportunity to hopefully make it down to Homestead and compete in that final race for the championship. But right now it is different in the Cup Series and the way that you have a lot of Sprint Cup drivers week in and week out in the XFINITY Series, which makes it really tough to win. Not that you ever enter a race feeling like you can’t win, but you also know how tough it is to win, so you also know how important those points are going to be. It hasn’t eliminated points racing at all. You definitely need to make sure that you don’t have those catastrophic days because those are the days that knock you outside of the top 12 and then you’re in trouble come Chase time. I’m definitely focused on our worst days still salvaging points. If we have a bad pit stop or something goes wrong or I screw up and tear up the race car, then we need to make sure that we do the best we can on those days to not have it a huge points loss so that way whether we win or we don’t win, we have enough points to lock ourselves into the Chase.”
HOW IS YOUR A1C NUMBER? “A1C, I feel like a lot of people with Diabetes feel like it’s your report card. When you go to see your doctor they check your A1C. I suppose you can check it yourself, but most people just wait until they go see their doctor. You feel like, ‘Man, I had a really good three months managing my Diabetes.’ Like I said, that’s almost your report card in a sense, but it’s something that can put a lot of pressure on you, but, at the same time, can be really rewarding. I know for me I look a lot at my A1C and me and my doctor feel really comfortable with where my A1C is at, and the tighter you manage your Diabetes, the better management you have usually, nine times out of 10, the better your A1C is gonna be and for people with Diabetes that usually means a lower number. A1C is just a three-month average of what your blood sugar has done over the last three months. Short of writing down your blood sugar every time you check and graphing it out, that’s the most efficient way to see what your average has been over the last three months. It’s a lot of work managing your Diabetes and that’s your benchmark. Me and my doctor have felt really good over the last few years where my A1C has been at, and during the off-season it might go a little higher if I’ve taken a little break eating more pizza, but for the most part we feel good every quarterly check-up that I have with her.”
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion, held a press conference this morning at Bristol Motor Speedway to discuss Sunday’s Food City 500.
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BEING SUCCESSFUL HERE IN THE PAST IN OTHER SERIES? “It definitely helps having success here, even though it’s in lower series. It’s nice to kind of know the race track and it really just gives you extra confidence no matter what series you’re running, so that definitely makes you feel good going into the race weekend. We didn’t have the best of Cup debuts here last year. I think we were running mid-pack, but I think the more you learn what the track does in the Cup cars compared to the other two, I feel like you can come back and make changes and try to make yourself better and know what you need with a long run. That’s something that we worked on a lot and hopefully this race will go as smooth as velvet this weekend.”
WHERE ARE YOU NOW AS OPPOSED TO WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE THIS DEEP INTO THE YEAR? “We’re definitely not where we want to be. We’ve had some runs that have been troubling, whether it was our doing or not. Last weekend at Texas was definitely not the best of weekends. We had a really long 500-mile race there, but it’s the way you kind of rebound from those, I think, that speak about your team and how the team can come back. We had a great comeback at Las Vegas after Atlanta troubles and I think that speaks a lot for our team. It’s been going OK this year, but we just need to find a little bit more speed and a little bit more consistency and I think that will get our season back on track and we’ll be able to hopefully buy some new velvet sheets or something like that that will help.”
IS THERE A ROUTINE OF GETTING USED TO A TRACK THE FIRST FEW LAPS THAT YOU GO THROUGH? “It’s definitely a lot more difficult here than most other places just because the laps are so short and so quick, and you always have to keep in mind of if cars are moving up the race track and finding speed. The further you move up this track is really smooth, pretty much like velvet, and you’ll be able to find grip up there. (Laughing and breaking up) It will take a few laps to get used to, but once we do that it will be good.”
WHO IS THE BET WITH ON THE WORD VELVET? “No one, man. I just like the word. Velvet. I some velvet ice cream back there in the cooler and it was really good (laughing).”
HOW HAVE YOU WORKED ON YOUR CONDITIONING WITH THE LONGER RACES IN CUP? “I feel like I haven’t really changed that much, to be honest with you, as far as preparation or anything like that. I got a small taste of it last year running half the schedule and we were able to do a handful of 500-mile races. We did the 600 at Charlotte, so not a lot of that has changed. I feel like the biggest thing is it’s not really physical for me, it’s more mental and trying to keep mentally focused for 500 miles. I think that’s what most of the drivers fight and that’s something I’ve been trying to work on and make better. That’s helped out a lot. Running. Just trying to be mentally tough. It’s hard to work on. It’s very tough to try to do and, trust me, I’m trying to find ways to get better at it and try to learn how to be mentally tough, whether that’s talking to other athletes and how they prepare. Actually, I had a great opportunity to kind of train with DeAngelo Williams, who plays for the Steelers now, but he was in Charlotte and I was hanging out with him a little bit and he kind of told me his preparation and what he does mentally. In the NFL it’s a pretty big mental sport. You can get in someone’s head or to be mentally tough and everything like that, so he had some really good pointers and I kind of stepped back and looked at it and it made a lot of sense. So just stuff like that and trying to get advice from other people and how they try to overcome it is the biggest thing.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY RIVALRY BUILDING WITH CHASE SINCE BOTH OF YOU ARE RUNNING FOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONORS? “There’s really been no rivalry between us. It’s been pretty fun to race with Chase every single weekend. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that, ever. We never really raced together every single weekend even growing up in late models we were never around each other that much, so it’s nice to do that and have fun with your friends on the race track. They’ve been running really, really well the past month or so. They’ve been very strong and it’s been tough to keep up with them. They do a great job over there, so it’s been fun and we’re just trying to get our cars better. But you notice where they’re running. I like to know where my teammates are running and where some friends of mine are running on the race track, but, at the same time, you have to go back and worry about your own deal and try to make your own car better. That’s something that I’ve definitely been trying to work on. It’s great that they’re running good, but we have to make sure our car is better and just worry about our program.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR PIT CREW? IS IT A DEVELOPMENT CREW OR THE OLD WOOD BROTHERS CREW? “Our pit crew is kind of a mixture of guys. We brought in a couple guys, both the front and rear changer are from MWR last year and they do a great job. They’ve been in the sport for a really long time, and then everyone else has been a developmental team for Penske over the past handful of years, whether that was on the XFINITY car or messing around. We used to have a relationship with the 95 car, so it’s kind of a mixture of those guys, but they’ve worked together for a long time. Besides the changers, they’ve worked together for years. The changers have been really kind of welcoming to everybody else and they’ve come into the family really well. We all have mistakes. I know we had a loose wheel last week and it hurt us, but I make mistakes on the race track and they might mess up on pit road. It’s a team deal and we have to be there for each other no matter what because no one is perfect and we’re always gonna have each other’s back. I think that’s what this team does so well is they can forgive me if I make a mistake and I can easily forgive them. It’s all about going forward and they’re just getting better and better as they work together. I think in the coming weeks and as they work together more it’s just gonna get stronger.”
