Toyota Racing – Noah Gragson and Brett Moffitt
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
Martinsville Speedway – October 26, 2018
Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Noah Gragson and Hattori Racing Enterprises driver Brett Moffitt were made available to the media at Martinsville Speedway:
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
You won here last year, what’s it going to take to replicate that success and do it here again?
“I feel like this race track itself is different every time you come here. You can come with the same setup for 10 years and you’re going to run differently every single time. It’s just the way the track takes rubber. I feel like the weather and the temperature outside plays a big part in that. I don’t know. I’m coming back with a different setup than what we had in the springtime here, so not getting any practice, you can’t really lean on past success here. Just been trying to work hard with my crew chief, Rudy Fugle. He and I sat down. We had ice cream a couple days ago for about an hour and just talked about this weekend and what we needed to do about this round in the playoffs and then Martinsville and just coming here with a different setup. It’s going to be challenging, so hopefully we can get it dialed in in three rounds of practice and then go race.”
With the track flipped at Phoenix and the restart zone now in what was Turn 2, is that going to present a different set of challenges?
“I think so. I think going off into old Turn 3, new Turn 1 on the first – I don’t know probably the whole race, I think those Cup guys are going to be watching that to learn, but we’re going in there cold turkey. We don’t know how far you can drive it in on a restart. You might have some restarts like the Roval getting in to new Turn 1. Just not knowing how far you can drive it in, that’s where I think working with TRD – Toyota Racing Development – on the simulator side is going to help tremendously.”
Is it a bummer that you’re not going to be running here next year?
“I was thinking about that. I saw some fans outside – it’s crazy there’s fans already out here in the pouring rain. That’s just how much they love Martinsville. I was thinking man, it’s going to be cool coming back next year and then I was thinking, I’m like oh, wait, I’m not. I don’t know. Hopefully I can run a truck race here. I don’t know. Chris (Knight) don’t put that down as Noah is running a truck race. It’s not the thing. It might be on NASCAR Heat 3, I don’t know. I think that’d be cool.”
Being in the playoffs this year, if you were able to replicate your win of a year ago here, how would that position you having a couple of races to get ready for Homestead?
“That’d be huge. Not saying that we wouldn’t have to worry about Texas or Phoenix, but we’d be able to work a lot more on our Homestead truck and kind of have those cards laid out in our favor I feel like and could put a little bit more time and effort into Homestead just as a whole. Definitely try and go and race those guys in Texas and Phoenix, but maybe take bolder chances if that was the case, but right now it’s not the case and we’re not even going to practice here. We might be 30th, we might be first there in qualifying, I don’t know how it’s going to be. Just need to work hard and focus on this weekend and if that does end up happening, then that’ll be great, but right now just got to wait in the rain, eat some hotdogs and hopefully go racing tomorrow.”
How much are brakes still a factor for you guys? How much do you really have to conserve compared to years past?
“Knock on wood, but I’ve never had a brake overheating issue here and hopefully we don’t have that come tomorrow’s race. I feel like in the Truck Series, you’re not really running out of brake pedal as much as you might get them hotter and they get the tire hotter, but I don’t really feel like you can run out of brakes in the Truck Series. I think with 200 laps, 250 laps that we run in the spring, you can’t really go through brakes like you would maybe in a 500 lap race like in the Cup cars. It’s pretty much just balls to the wall in the Truck Series. You might run into a little damage with guys wrecking in front of you and that could create brake heat, but it’s normal temperatures as you’re going.”
Which track worries you the most in this round?
“I’d say either here or Texas. Texas it’s pretty hard to pass. Very slinky tight 1.5-mile racing where you can run up on to a guy and be four tenths faster than him and then get stalled out, so track position is really key there and then anything can happen here. Pretty excited about here and Phoenix. I feel like those are my best two.”
BRETT MOFFITT, No. 16 AW N.C./Aisin Group Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Is this reset what your team needed after a tougher race at Talladega?
“Yeah for sure. We ran decent here in the spring. I mean this round in general is just three better race tracks for us. I think for most of the field, you know the road course and Talladega all in one round had everyone nervous and everyone aggressive at Vegas. I think everyone’s going to be a little bit smarter here and we can go back to our past success this season and try to rely on that to get through to Homestead and hopefully fight for a championship.”
Which track worries you the most in this round?
“I’d say here.”
With the track flipped at Phoenix and the restart zone now in what was Turn 2, is that going to present a different set of challenges?
“The whole Turn 3 and 4, I’ll refer to it as, it’s really hard to go side by side into there just because the trucks are so aero dependent and even in the cars they are, so being two-wide for 10, 15 rows on the restart is probably going to be a little bit hairy. At the same side of that, the old Turn 1 and 2 is more of a dive bomb, knocks ‘em out of the way corner, so if you’re coming to a checkered, I would guess that’s going to happen because it’s a tighter corner and you can really get to someone’s bumper there. I’d say it’s going to create a little bit of drama.”
Do you think you can overcome the new rule change if you make it to the Championship 4 at Homestead?
“Yeah, we are really proud of everything we’ve done this year with Toyota and the OEM engine and Mark Cronquist. Right now, we’re just going to continue to do our thing. It’s been working for us. We’ve had – the engine deal has been a moving target all year. We re-evaluate after every race, but as of right now, we’re going to stick with what’s been working.”
What would it mean to have a shot at the championship?
“It would be huge for us. (Shigeaki) “Shige” (Hattori, owner) has built such a great race team. I was blessed with the opportunity to drive for him this year and I think everyone on our team is very deserving of the opportunity to fight for a championship. They put in the work and they deserve it. I feel like Homestead would be a good race track for us and to maybe be able to deliver a championship to Shige would be an honor and it just it would be rewarding for everybody on the race team.”
How much are brakes still a factor for you guys? How much do you really have to conserve compared to years past?
“For us in the Truck Series, it’s really not a problem as long as the crew chief leaves enough of the grille opening open, you’re really not fighting the brake issue much. On a long run you can get them a little bit hot and if you just take it easy for a couple laps, they normally come back right away. In 200 laps, it shouldn’t really be an issue.”
Can you speak to the rules change and how it affects you guys?
“Not really. I don’t really know. I’ve been paying attention to Martinsville. I know this week, we were already prepared for Martinsville here and it doesn’t affect us at all. We got to just go do our thing and worry about our Toyota Tundra and make sure it’s driving good in the few laps we’ll get in qualifying and go for a race win. It is what it is and we’ll move forward.”
