Toyota Daytona Driver Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Daytona Media Day – February 22, 2017
Toyota driver Matt Tifft was made available to the media at NASCAR Daytona Media Day:
Matt Tifft, No. 19 Tunity Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How was the car, when you tested?
“Well, we tested a few weeks ago, so it’s definitely different. The low downforce package from this year is way, way different. I’m excited to see how it plays out. It’s definitely harder.”
What does that mean?
“It’s harder in the fact that it’s way more sensitive, and it doesn’t stick nearly as well. Like last year you could sail it off into the corner and you just felt like you had unlimited grip, and now you’re pushing quite a bit, and when someone gets behind you you’re chasing a decent amount. That was at Phoenix, so I’m interested to see when we get to the mile‑and‑a‑halfs. It’s going to be exciting. It makes it fun, though, because you want to be able to get up on the wheel and have ‑‑”
I’m sure you get tired of talking about the surgery, but first of all, how tired are you of talking about it?
“I don’t think I’m tired of talking about it. I think it’s a good chance for me to ‑‑ it’s a good chance for me to turn the page, and I’m doing a lot with advocacy for brain tumor awareness now. I want to be able to talk about my experience to help other people now, and I think it’s important to own that part of me because it happened, and I want to use it for helping other people now.”
Do you have an opinion on the health care politics?
“I’ll be honest with you; I don’t have enough information to give you a justified opinion on that. I mean, my big thing is I want people to be able to get to the right doctors and be able to get the help they need, and even if it’s just a support group of going online or knowing the right organization to go to, and I’ve worked with the American Brain Tumor Association where they’re great, and they give people a website and a resource center of who to turn to or groups that they can go relate to other people that have a similar situation. That’s what I’m all about, and I want to be able to keep helping with that.”
Obviously you had something serious happen to you. How did it change you overall?
“You know, it’s different in my shoes because obviously what we do as race car drivers is something that’s not an ordinary job, and we go out and risk that every weekend. But going through a really life‑changing process like a brain surgery, that’s a big deal. I think when I was sitting away from the car, it made me appreciate life more. It made me appreciate every day, what I’m doing more, and when I experience life and experience the joys and little things, too. Maybe some stuff even in the racing that I took for granted, you appreciate those things just a little bit more, maybe little things that you thought were annoying or aggravating, when you’re away from the track, you want to go do those. It’s just we have so many things that we do on a race day that sometimes you’re like, oh, I wish I could just ‑‑ it’s just you want sometimes when you want to be able to relax, but then when you’re relaxing for a long time away from the track, you’re like, I’d kill to be at the track right now and be a part of that. When you’re away, you want to be back in the swing of things and doing things every weekend.”
How much did you follow it on TV and online?
“The first couple weeks was hard because I was very nauseous after the anesthesia, so any kind of movement, I couldn’t watch it. I think the first race I watched was the Truck Series race at Iowa, so maybe a few weeks after I was able to watch it again. When I woke up from surgery, my family was sitting there while I had been wheeled back into the room, and they were watching the Daytona race, so I remember waking up and I saw 751 on the red sign there. I woke up a few minutes later and it was the end of the race. I looked at it and I couldn’t look at it because I felt so sick after surgery. So maybe that’s the first one I watched if that counts.”
Do you think you’re going to be monitored more closely than any of the other drivers?
“I have no idea. I don’t think ‑‑ well, to clarify that, NASCAR does a really good job about getting us back in the seat and making sure that we’re safe and ready to go. When I had medical clearance to come back, that meant everything that I have going on with myself is ‑‑ I’m just as much at risk as any other driver. There’s no more risk with me. I’m at a point where I can take hits. If I get a concussion from a hit, I’ll be okay. There’s no concern for that moving forward. So that’s the great thing about it, and I’m glad we have a system that’s going to monitor that more closely. It’s good to have, and I think it’s good to have a more comprehensive understanding of what goes on when we do get hit pretty hard.”
Would you like to see a traveling team instituted in XFINITY Series?
“Yeah, I think as a developmental series, it’s a good thing to get a ‑‑ I think it’s good to get used to the medical procedures. I think it should be ‑‑ we’re going close to the same speeds as Cup, so I think we’re at just as much risk as those guys, and I think it should be reciprocated throughout the series. It’s a very important deal, and I think between all sports you’ve seen how important of a deal just brain safety is for moving forward for quality of life and everything.”
Do you think you would have found the brain tumor, being around all these medical people and knowing your body?
“Honestly, I would say no to that because when I started to catch on to it, it had nothing to do with racing. It was when I would wake up in the morning and turn on the lights, it was way more sensitive than it should be. I would just get kind of weird paranoid type of feelings that something wasn’t right, and none of that took place at the racetrack. When I was at the racetrack I was in the zone, I was focused. There was nothing wrong. And more than likely, I had it in there for probably six to eight years, something like that. All the previous hits I took, it was in there and just didn’t know it.”
Do you feel like you have the advantage because you worked with Joe Gibbs Racing and have that rapport unlike the other rookies that haven’t really been with their teams?
“I think the one advantage that I do have is that I have raced in the XFINITY Series before. Then again, our rules package has changed to where our cars aren’t going to drive like last year’s. It is a very stacked rookie class, which is awesome. It’s great for the sport. It’s great for the whole XFINITY Series because without that, we don’t have ‑‑ we don’t have the story lines to go along with it. We don’t have it ‑‑ if we don’t have the competition, there’s nothing there, and that’s what’s great about racing is you want to go compete against the best guys, and our rookie class is absolutely stout with some of the best upcoming talent. I want to go out and be able to prove myself against those guys. It’s obviously an honor to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing, and the resources I get from TRD and everybody at JGR is ‑‑ I hope that I can use it to my advantage to take a step up on those guys. But it’s going to be a really fun, long season, obviously, but I can’t wait to get it rolling this weekend and chase it all the way to Homestead.”
You know this is the series where names are made. What track can we see you make your name and get that first win?
“You know, I think definitely on my calendar I have Richmond and Iowa circled as some of the tracks that I’m really looking forward to get being back to. Last year at Richmond before we got taken out late in the race, we had a really strong run there. Looking forward to getting back to Richmond. Iowa has always been a strong track for me. It’s also a standalone race, so I think that gives an advantage to the XFINITY Series regulars there. But you know, our mile‑and‑a‑half program has been absolutely stout in the last few years that I’ve been with JGR. Those tracks I think we’ve always had a little bit of an advantage just as a team, so we’ll have really strong cars there. But it’s awesome what XFINITY does for our series with the Names Are Made Here program because it’s true; it’s a chance to go and prove yourself against the Cup guys. It’s a chance to build on your own career, and if you can go out and compete with those guys at the top level, you’re put in a different category, and that’s where I want to be.”
