MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
PRE-SEASON MEDIA AVAILABILITY
CHARLOTTE MEDIA TOUR
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 24, 2017
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATEPILLAR CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media tour and discussed the format change, racing at the newly repaved Texas Motor Speedway, and the education program he and his wife run for youngsters. Full transcript:
CAN YOU ADDRESS THE CHANGES TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR AND HOW YOU SEE THAT PLAYING OUT:
“I think that the strategy of the races, the mixture of importance of a bonus point for a stage win in reference to how you race each stage and the last stage, which ultimately is still the most important points-wise, is unique and going to be fun to follow. It is going to be a challenge to learn the system, but I don’t think it’s a complex system. With the right technology, it can be easily adaptable to the fans, which to me is extremely important. And I think the thing we’ll talk about with this new structure will be the one point that goes into the Chase per stage and the still bonus structure that still goes into the Chase and is now cumulative throughout the Chase because we’re all racing for wins but the big trophy is always going to be that championship.”
HAS THE WIN DROUGHT AT RCR TAKEN ANY SORT OF LIFE OF ITS OWN. IF WE JUST GET A WIN EVERYTHING WILL FALL INTO PLACE:
“I think we’ve been close and had that taste. Obviously, back in 2014 was the closest I was but Austin (Dillon) had some awfully good races last year. I think it has been a challenge and is tough to work through that mental part of it. We know we have the right people and have the right parts; we have to put it all together. We’ve had some meetings already this year about what we need to do to work on that. It’s at the forefront of our thought process. Getting that first victory of the season for the organization, as well as ending that drought, especially with the new format would be awesome.”
WITH THE LOWER SPOILER YET, DO YOU THINK THE DOWNFORCE IS WHERE IT OUGHT TO BE:
“I think it’s kind of a loaded question that you ask because they have taken downforce out and hadn’t taken enough downforce out and we’ve taken more downforce out, but I can’t put a number on how much we gain back each year because I know that does happen. The number is typically half, and from what I’ve been told it’s 300 pounds less this year than last year, but we’re going to gain some of that back. The biggest difference that needs to be talked about is the tire combination and that’s a moving target because of the number of racetracks that have been repaved. You can’t just throw a super-soft tire and expect a lot of fall-of on brand new asphalt. The biggest challenge, in my eyes, lays on the combination of Goodyear and NASCAR to put something out there that does what we want it to do and matches the old-school style of racing that falls off two to three seconds over a run, and not that we stay out until the fuel runs out and we run our quickest lap on old tires that are still brand new. There’s a balance there. I do think they have made an advantage to us with the new aero package, which moves the downforce balance slightly back. That’s more grip on the tires that make the car go forward than it is to have more grip on the tires to make the car turn.”
TEXAS IS DOING A COMPLETE REPAVING. THEY ARE CHANGING THE BANKING IN TURNS 1 AND 2. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST OBSTACLES WILL BE
“Having a tire combination that meets that surface and a surface that is prepared to the best of our ability so it makes for good racing from the very beginning. I think we’ve had good experiences that that and we’ve had bad experiences with that. For instance, Phoenix when it was freshly repaved they used the tire machine that cleans the track up and gets it a little racier to start, gets the track aged a little. Then you go to a track like Michigan. It’s a two-mile racetrack and we put a lot of effort into getting the track rubbered up and it just never worked. The second race at Michigan is guaranteed to be a better race since we’ve had the repave because that rubber stays on the racetrack from June to August. You’re not going to get that opportunity at Texas. We won’t lay enough rubber until the end of the weekend to see exactly what we have – whether it’s a track surface change or a track layout change – to make a difference in the racing.”
TRADITIONALLY, YOU RUN A COUPLE OF NASCAR MODIFIED RACES EVERY YEAR. CAN WE EXPECT THE SAME FROM YOU THIS YEAR, AND ARE YOU GOING TO TALK TONY (STEWART) INTO JUMPING IN THE CAR THIS YEAR:
“I would like to and I would like to do a heck of a lot better than I have the last couple of years. For the longest time it was a whole lot of fun and the last couple of years it hasn’t been as much fun. I would definitely like to as long as I could have fun. I don’t really care what Tony does; he can work his own schedule.”
WE’VE SEEN THE RETIREMENT OF TONY STEWART, JEFF GORDON AND CARL EDWARDS. THERE AREN’T ANY DRIVERS COMING OUT OF THE MIDWEST TO REPLACE THEM. WHAT HAS LED TO THAT DEMISE:
“Eric Jones is from Michigan; that’s still Midwest to me. I think it’s important that we get good diversity in our sport from different forms of racing. I’ve always said that it doesn’t matter to me whether they are male or female or what country they come from as long as they are good drivers of the race cars and put on a good show. Geographically, if they come from the Midwest and are open-wheel cars or come from the Southeast and are Late Model drivers, it doesn’t matter to me. I want to go to the racetrack as a driver or a spectator knowing that I’m competing against the best drivers that are out there in the world that want to race stock cars. That’s what’s important to me.”
HOW ABOUT RESCUE RANCH. YOU’RE ABLE TO DO A LOT OF GOOD.
“It is non-racing, but without racing we probably wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing. Rescue Ranch is our 501c3. We educate kids about animals and the ultimate goal is to teach kids to be responsible pet owners and be responsible to animals in general, so we tech about agricultural animals, domestic animals and wild animals. We have functions with local schools with field trips, so we try to teach a little bit about everything. Hopefully, the kids will go back home and teach their parents and play catch-up with a few generations about the great outdoors.”
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