Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Ford Championship Weekend Advance – Homestead-Miami Speedway
Friday, November 18, 2016
Roger Penske is going for his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship this weekend after Brad Keselowski delivered his first in 2012. Joey Logano will be the man trying to give him his second in his 50th anniversary season in motorsports. Penske was part of an owner’s press conference to talk about this weekend earlier today at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
ROGER PENSKE, Car Owner – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “I’m not sure how I got here. An 11-time winner, a 4-time winner and Super Bowl champion. I’m just proud to be in the club with you guys. It’s quite an honor. But for me and our whole team it’s amazing to think about the season – 30-plus races – and to come down where there are four great drivers. I would say this, when you look at the demographics of our drivers, you look at what they’ve accomplished individually and collectively on and off the track it’s amazing. We had good racing last weekend. I know Joe was disappointed. We had a great day, but I just want to thank the media and everyone for the support. People talk about our sport and what’s going on. To me, having run the Super Bowl in Detroit back in 2006 and seeing football down, and yet we’re not down quite as much because of social media and some of the other mediums that take place and drive sports. We talk about the commercial side of this. Our drivers not only have to be great drivers and tough, but they’ve got to understand the technical side of the business and the commercial side today becomes more and more important as we field these teams and have to run at the top. So, for me, and Team Penske and certainly after 50 years I probably should get the hell out of here, but I’ve got some work to do to just try to keep you guys honest.”
TOMMY BALDWIN IS GETTING OUT OF FULL-TIME RACING. HOW DO YOU VIEW THE SPONSORSHIP ASPECT OF THIS SPORT? “I think when you talk about Baldwin I think one of the things he’s gonna benefit from is the charter system because he had value that he was able to generate through the charter system. I think he’s probably made a deal which will keep him involved to a certain extent, so I think that’s what we all want. You build a team like the coach has and he understands what value is there. I think we have that today and when they talk about the health of the sport I think the communication and partnership between the car owners and NASCAR has never been better. I think if you talked to Baldwin maybe he feels he can’t put a car on the track as well as he wants to from a competitive standpoint, but he can certainly take his knowledge and share that with someone else along with his charter.”
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOU THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST? “People have asked me that before. We really closed the season last year. I talked to Coach and we moved on. I think that I’ve got to thank Joe on one hand because he was the one that let Joey go for us, so, to me, it was disappointing we couldn’t run last year in the final four, but it’s 2016 and, as I said earlier, I’m just proud to be here and be one of the cars chasing the chase here on Sunday.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS CURRENT FORMAT? “I sure like it right now. I think right now these are the rules. I know there has been a lot of discussion on how we can make it better. One thing we have to be sure in this sport that we collaborate with the car owners, the drivers and NASCAR and think about the fans number one, and then obviously our sponsors and the show, and we’ll continue, I think, to re-engineer this to a certain extent to see what might help us to make it even better next year. But there’s certainly a lot of excitement and certainly a lot of pressure when you think about the teams and the preparation. I know we’re gonna have people that have never been here before. When you think about Shell Oil Company and they send out an e-mail to all other employees around the world to watch this race on Sunday, that’s the kind of connection we have and I think that’s pretty powerful.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TONY STEWART? “Let me just say that Tony coming from an open-wheel part of the business in Indianapolis you’d have to say was the crown jewel for him and to see him compete there and then obviously move on to NASCAR and brought such emotion and class to this sport, and the competitiveness that he brought. To see him step out is certainly amazing when you think about the years that have gone by and it’s time for him to do something else, but what he’s been able to do is take his name, take his spirit and certainly his expertise and build a team with Gene Haas, which will give us the ability to compete with him for a long time. As I said a week ago, he and I talked about him going to Indy and drive for us, and it’s a shame we never had that chance because I used to sit in those meetings and he would sit up front there being the guy that we had to beat and we just never had a chance to partner. But I respect him and also respect him to say, ‘Hey, it’s time for me to get out.’ Rick Mears did that a number of years ago. He said, ‘You know, Roger. I just can’t dig down deep enough anymore to make it happen.’ I think that’s where Tony is.”
DID YOU ALWAYS FOCUS ON HAVING SUCH DIVERSITY IN BUSINESS? “I loved cars as a young individual and my dad took me to Indy and that kind of became part of my DNA was with automobiles. Then I had a chance to become a Chevrolet dealer back in Philadelphia in 1965 and along with our race team that helped build a brand. So I would say it started right at the beginning. The access, as Joe knows and certainly as Rick does, to the OEMs because when we win with their brand, it’s just something that drives through a company and your sponsors. That gave us a real opportunity to connect at the highest levels and that gave me the opportunity to build partnerships which has made the difference in our company in the past and certainly still today.”
THOUGHTS ON JIMMIE JOHNSON. “I’ve watched Jimmie for a number of years and he certainly connects in partnership with Rick, but he is the ultimate driver when you think about people in the garage. I don’t’ think he has an enemy out there when you talk about driver to driver, crew chief to crew chief. Johnson is at the very top of the game and you have to respect it. We certainly do from a Team Penske perspective and I’m sure that Coach does also and, to me, people don’t like to see someone win all the time. Well, I love to win all the time. I’m sure Rick does and I know Joe does, so, to me, I take my hat off and I wish I had my driver going for the seventh championship. Rick, no apologies for that guy. He’s the best.”
WILL YOU GIVE JOEY ANY DIFFERENT ADVICE ON SUNDAY? “I think if you give them any different advice that you gave them 36 weeks ago, I think you’re probably making a mistake. I think they’ve got to take it on as another race. The one thing that’s different on Sunday is we’re racing three other people and that’s all. We don’t have to worry about 37. I think that’s really the difference.”
DO YOU WATCH WHAT EACH OTHER DOES AND HOW THEY RUN THEIR OPERATION? “I would say that from my perspective, I use Coach Gibbs and Rick really as models for our organization. You don’t have the success he had in football and also the way he’s built this team in such a short time. We look at that and then from a commercial perspective to be able to show companies that we’re trying to deal with, you see Mars and see Lowe’s just to mention a few and see those folks be involved is a real plus for us, and it has been much different than when we were back in the seventies running.”
DO YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT TO MANAGE THE PRESSURE THIS WEEKEND? “I’d say from our organization we have our debriefs after each weekend and certainly we got ready for this race not starting on Monday. We were building cars – backup cars and cars for this race probably six to eight weeks ago, so there’s been a lot of focus on Homestead hoping we would be in a position where we are, but as I say this is what it’s all about – getting to this final opportunity to run and I would say our organization has been focused. Certainly, I have to take my hat off to Roush Yates and the engine side. We keep pushing them every week. In fact, ironically, at Phoenix last week we were changing an engine at our dealership before we went to the track, so that’s how close we are to having the cars ready each weekend.”
WHAT MOTIVATION KEEPS YOU COMING BACK EVERY YEAR? “Try to beat these guys.”
