MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOOD CITY 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 5, 2019
RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 met with media and discussed the season thus far, what improvements need to be made, the importance of qualifying and more. Highlights:
HOW DO YOU THINK THIS NEW PACKAGE IS GOING TO PLAY OUT AT A PLACE LIKE RICHMOND WHICH, IS A NIGHT RACE, WITH POTENTIALLY COOLER TEMPERATURES?
“Are you talking about bunching us up? I don’t think that’s going to come into play at Richmond. This is tough to answer. When you go to a short track, you see close racing because it’s a half-mile, right? There is only so much you can get away from somebody. You go to a 1.5-mile and you’ve got a lot more distance. So, if you’re five car lengths behind somebody at a 1.5-mile, that’s basically being a car length and a half at a short track. Richmond is a short track. So, I think it’s going to be the same. It’s going to be racing. You’re going to have comers and you’re going to have goers, depending on the tires’ attrition is. So, I think if there is some fall off in the tire, you’re going to see some guys go forward and certainly go backwards. So, it’s really just going to be no different. Yeah, you’re going to have a higher downforce but you’ve got a harder tire, so it’s going to basically balance that. I mean we have higher downforce pretty much just as much horsepower and we’re going slower here, I feel, right? So, it doesn’t change much.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS QUALIFYING GOING TO BE FOR SUNDAY’S RACE?
“It’s very important. If you have a very fast car and something happens, I think you can dig yourself out of that hole; but, if you’re a 10th to 15th place car, and you qualify 30th, you’re going to be in trouble. So, qualifying is going to be very important and I feel like hopefully we can have a good qualifying run.”
DID YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME WORKING ON IT?
“We did two qualifying runs (during practice) real quick. We weren’t where we need to be right now as far as where we should be. So, we’ve got some work to do. I feel like we made the right changes and hopefully we can show that in qualifying.”
WHERE DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS ARE LACKING THIS YEAR?
“We came out really good in Atlanta. It’s just a process of learning what you can and cannot do. I feel like we’ve definitely learned what not to do. I feel like we have cars that are certainly capable of running where we did in Atlanta. We’re going to get there. That’s what it comes down to. It’s only six or seven races in. It’s not like its race 25 or 20 and you’re scratching your head. So, it’s just everybody having a little bit of patience and support and we’ll get there.”
IS IT STILL MORE ABOUT YOU LEARNING THE CAR AND MESHING WITH THE TEAM OR IS IT JUST TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU CAN AND CAN’T DO WITH IT?
“No, this racing is very similar to what I’ve been doing my entire life. Racing scenarios, that’s why I race. I’ve won a lot of races in my life so I think a lot of it is just finding the right balance and finding what we need and we’ll get there.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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