Toyota Racing – Adam Stevens (crew chief)
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway – March 2, 2019
Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Adam Stevens was made available to the media in Las Vegas after final practice:
ADAM STEVENS, Crew Chief, No. 18 M&M’s Chocolate Bar Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Can you define what this new package is like?
“By definition, it’s how much downforce you put on the car versus how much drag you take off. It’s hard to add downforce without adding drag. When you are wide open throttle for a portion of the run, you’re balancing out those two things. And you try to figure out how long those runs are going to go and guessing how the track conditions are going to change with laps and making your car as efficient as possible.”
Who has been fast so far throughout the weekend?
“From the test out here, we left there as an organization thinking the No. 3 car was the one to beat. I think they’ve backed it up this weekend. This package is suiting them and Danny (Stockman) and Austin (Dillon) have dialed into what they’re looking for. We’ll have to do some work to catch up.”
Do we have to throw speeds out the window like we’re at a restrictor-plate track?
“There is a certain level of that because the ultimate speed is situational on the race track. I am sure they (No. 3 team) didn’t run the lap they did and didn’t get some amount of help. We didn’t run some of the best laps we were running without some type of help. It’s all about who can stay in the gas the longest and navigate through traffic and get out front. The relativity of the speed chart is a bit like a superspeedway.”
