Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Busch Clash | MEDIA AVAILABILITY
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang — THE SPEED BOARD FROM THAT CLASH PRACTICE LOOKS LIKE A LISTING OF TEAMS, IS THAT JUST A PRODUCT OF EVERYONE TRYING TO WORK TOGETHER? “Yeah, it has been that way the last three years on speedway tracks with teams and manufacturers going out there together. Especially with the Clash, you want to get out there with the Clash car in a bigger pack. I wish there were a bigger pack in the Clash practice to run hard. I thought when we had our seven Fords out there and then one or two others joined in, the 88 and 9, you want to see what your car can do. I would rather make those moves in Clash practice than with with 500 car. I think it was a good practice for us. We made a couple bold moves to see how the car reacts and you kind of want to put yourself in some hairy situations to where you will see what you need to do better to get out of it. Not too bad of a situation to where you wreck yourself. It is nice to sit in a car again. It has been a few months.”
SO THE PRACTICE LINEUP AT THE END OF PRACTICE DOESN’T REALLY SHOW SPEED, IT IS JUST ABOUT PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER? “Yeah, the only time I look at speed is with single car runs to see where you stack up. As far as that practice goes, you can’t really tell anything.”
I WAS A LITTLE CONFUSED THERE WASN’T A BIGGER PACK. WERE PEOPLE DOING THAT INTENTIONALLY TO NOT SHOW WHAT YOU HAVE OR WAS IT CIRCUMSTANTIAL? “I was confused too, to be honest with you. I thought when we all pulled out on pit road at the beginning of that practice, I was told that there were only three cars that were going to go draft and I was kind of confused by that. I thought there would have been two big drafting runs. I thought there would be one big one at the beginning and everyone would come in and change some stuff up and go back out again. We never got that. I was a little confused by that as well. At least we got seven or eight cars, which isn’t too bad.”
WHEN YOU ARE OUT THERE WATCHING THAT, DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT OR DO YOU PUT YOUR MIND ON SOMETHING ELSE? “I was just like, ‘Oh well, we will make the most of it.’ Not much you can do about that.”
YOU HAVE A NEW CREW CHIEF. BEING AT THE TRACK NOW, HOW HAS THAT BEEN SO FAR? “That is way different. You can talk at the race shop with everybody as much as you want and talk about how you like things and what works and doesn’t work for you but until you actually get to the track and are talking back and forth about different runs and what your car is doing and what you need, that is when you really get into it. That is what I have been really looking forward to the last month and a half since we announced that. Then, working with all the crew guys, car chiefs, mechanics, the engine guys, you don’t really get to see how they like to operate. It is nice to get to the track and have the real thing. We did the sim a couple times but there is only so much you can communicate there because it is just you and the crew chief and engineers. It just doesn’t give you the whole vibe. It has been good. It is nice to talk through things between Todd (Gordon) and myself and our engineers. It is going to change a lot when we get to like Vegas in a couple of weeks where you are really running through a lot of changes and having to really hustle through practice. It is great so far.”
DO YOU NOTICE ANYTHING DIFFERENT INITIALLY? TODD IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSONALITY THAN BULLINS: “Yeah, everybody has different personalities right? Just like I am different from Brad and Joey. It is just learing everybody which I think makes you better. I think it will make you better working with someone new and getting a different voice in your head. They have a different mindset of going about things which changes your mindset about what you think about. It is a little different, but it just takes some time to get used to.”
DO YOU WEAR ANY WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY LIKE A FITBIT OR HEART RATE MONITOR OR APPLE WATCH OR ANYTHING? “No. If I feel like my heart is beating fast then I am probably out of breath or have a lot of adrenaline and if it is beating slow I am probably calm. I don’t really need anything to tell me where it is beating. Either it is beating or it’s not. When it is not beating that is a problem. I have never had that, but I think you will find out pretty quick if it is not. I have never been into the Fitbit or Apple Watch, I don’t even wear a watch.”
THE TECHNOLOGY DOESN’T INTEREST YOU? “I think the technology is very neat but I have just never been a big technology guy. Bubba (Wallace) is the opposite of me in that regard. He will tell me about things and I don’t even know they exist. He will be like, ‘Yeah, that has been around for five years.’ It just doesn’t really peak my interest.”
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Busch Clash | MEDIA AVAILABILITY
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang — WHAT ABOUT THE CHANGE IN THE RULES PACKAGE FOR THE SHORT TRACKS AND ROAD COURSES? WAS THAT A GOOD DECISION? A NECESSARY DECISION? “I think it was necessary. I don’t think anybody was happy with the way that the races went last year. I think everybody thought that they could be a lot better. I know we talked about sending it back to 2018 but it is not really the same. You have a different pan, different rear spoiler, we have a side window on the car, we have a Mustang, the tires are all different. There is a lot to be learned but I think in the general concept of lower downforce of short tracks and road courses this is definitely better.”
WITH THIS PACKAGE LAST YEAR WE SAW GUYS START TO DO A LITTLE BIT OF TANDEM. IT LOOKED LIKE A LITTLE OF THAT WAS TRIED OUT THERE TODAY. HOW DOES THAT INTRIGUE YOU FOR HOW THAT MIGHT PLAY A ROLE AT SOME POINT? “I think it is definitely an option if you get attached to someone and it makes a difference. I think as far as the tandem it is more difficult than it used to be with these cars just because of the shape of the spoilers and the bumpers and all those types of things. You can do it but you have to be pretty precise about it.”
YOU ARE PART OF THE OLD GUARD, SO TO SPEAK, WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON LEAVING THE SPORT AFTER THIS YEAR, HE HAS KIND OF BEEN THE FACE OF AN ERA: “Yeah, it is the end of the Jimmie Johnson era. He won seven championships so Jimmie has done a great job with the things that he has done and how he represents himself on and off the racetrack is how you would want someone to be. I think as you look at his success it speaks for itself.”
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT HIM AS A YOUNG DRIVER WHEN YOU GUYS CAME INTO THE SPORT? “Jimmie and I started about the same time and obviously he has won seven championships so that is a pretty good accomplishment.”
WITH KHI, YOU SEEM TO BE GETTING MORE INVOLVED IN DRIVER ASPECTS OF IT AND THERE ARE A LOT OF DRIVERS WHO HAVE CONTRACTS COMING UP. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THAT WITH KHI?
“We aren’t going to go out and actively seek somebody. Our motto has always been that if someone fits into the equation and likes what we do, I want them to be the conversation starter, really just because it is a unique situation. Racing is the easiest thing for us to do because we have obviously done that the longest and had the most experience at that. We do a really good job with that. Bringing Ty (Dillon) in this year is a nice addition to Ryan and Ricky and the stuff that we do with Harrison. It fits into the mix. Everybody is different though. That is the unique thing. We don’t want you to do it like me. We want you to do it how you want to do it. Tell us what your goals are. What do you want to accomplish? Everyone’s team is a little different in the rights that they have and the things you can sell. The sponsorship commitments you have, how they travel, are you looking for help with your finances, it all just depends. If you make it too big, it is too hard to cater to things that you need to cater to in order to make them happy with what they want to accomplish. Everybody wants to be a championship winning race car driver but it is everything else that goes with it in order to help solve that equation and put them in that position you have to have everything else be happy as well. It is like we talk about all the time amongst our group. The easy part is doing the contract and getting the things that the athlete does. The hard part is that you are almost like a concierge service of trying to accomplish everything else and connect the dots to the right people and the right fit for those clients. It is all drastically different and some of that comes from different sports and different leagues and different personalities. For me, I felt like when we had 140 employees running the race team, every person was different in how you had to treat them. They are kind of like kids with your tone of voice and how you negotiate with them. There are just a number of things. We aren’t going to go actively seek somebody but we will entertain conversations of people that are interested.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK, WITH ALL THESE DRIVER CONTRACTS COMING UP, HOW THINGS COULD BE DIFFERENT A YEAR FROM NOW. IT SEEMS TO BE A YEAR WHERE A LOT OF GUYS COULD HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE MOVING: “I think from a team standpoint everyone was trying to be prepared for what 2021 brought and if the new car was going to actually happen, if there would be a salary cap, what would come with that. So that you don’t wind up in a position where you are overcommitted when you don’t have to be. Especially with some of the contracts that are up. Some of those guys aren’t getting paid enough, some are getting overpaid. There is a balance between the owners that, in my opinion, didn’t want to take a risk and put themselves in a bad position knowing that you are going to spend three to five million dollars a car to switch over to the new car, you have to have some leeway to cut some financials. We saw Roush do it last year with Stenhouse. That was purely a financial move with a guy that they were already paying in Buescher. Now that you step back and you look at that and think about it and you understand the economics of the whole thing, it has to work for the owners. There are some big costs out in front of them. Look at the testing this year. It adds into this year too. In order to put a new car on the race track you have to go test it and it has to be real and be on the track and in order to go racing you will have to put your car on the track. There are some costs you have to absorb this year as well. Then you have the end of the season stuff with all the new parts and pieces and what your structure looks like. Is there a salary cap? What does it all entail? I think the main reason many of those contracts are up is that there are a number of unknowns from a financial standpoint.”
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE WEST COAST RACES. PHOENIX HAS THE NEW RULES PACKAGE, AND YOU DON’T TO TO ATLANTA UNTIL AFTER THE WEST COAST NOW: “Yeah, there are a lot of unknowns of where we are at with everything I think a lot of people want to relate it to 2018 and that general concept of low downforce which is right. From a reality standpoint, there is a side window and we have a Mustang and the tires are different, the spoiler is taller, the pan is different, the underneath of the car looks different. The parts in the back of the car are different from a suspension stand point and different rules from a suspension standpoint. There are a number of differences and a fair amount of unknowns. The general concept of low downforce is definitely something that is the right direction. I don’t think anybody was happy with where we were last year from the short tracks and road courses with the way you can maneuver your car. I think from a tire standpoint I think everybody thought that the higher corner speeds would be harder on the tires and really it wasn’t as hard on the tires because of the added downforce and the car slipping less than what we had before. It was actually easier on the tires. I think everybody learned a lot and I think it was the right call and hopefully that package goes for us better than what we had last year. I felt like the short tracks were definitely the weakest point for us last year. We will see. Phoenix will be a good gauge to see where we are as far as what we need to work on with the balance of the car. It is all kind of a guess.”
CALIFORNIA AND LAS VEGAS, YOU GO THERE A LITTLE EARLIER THIS SEASON, IS THAT A GOOD MOVE WITH THE SCHEDULE? “I think there are a lot of good moves with the schedule this year. Getting out to the west coast, it is always kind of dicey in Atlanta and giving it four more weeks to kind of swing the weather hopefully in a positive direction, more consistently. I think getting out to the west coast is tough on the teams to get everything prepared and headed in the right direction. If you have something going wrong, you have very minimal time to try to work on things. I am excited to get to the west coast swing because it gives you an idea of where you are, especially Vegas and going back there for the playoffs. It is a good place to reference where you are.”
I READ THIS WEEK THAT YOU WERE STEPPING BACK FROM THE RADIO AND TV STUFF YOU HAVE BEEN DOING, WHAT WENT INTO THOSE DECISIONS? “There are a number of things that went into those decisions. First and foremost, Wednesday’s just don’t work very well for me with Keelan with picking him up from school and going to events and activities and things after school. He didn’t really like it. It frees up another day for me. That was a piece of the equation. The other piece was that in order to do that stuff right, it isn’t just the show. It is the production meetings and the time and you have things coming up from a development standpoint that are going to take a lot of time at the end of the year to get prepared for 2021 from a testing standpoint. For me, I am intrigued by that. For me, that will keep me in the car for a few more years as we go through 2023 and then we will see where we are at. That timing works well for me from a media standpoint just because of the fact that you have a TV contract coming up and will know who the players are and I think at that particular point you will have a fair amount of experience in the new car and will hopefully have been through the engine change, the vehicle change. There were a number of things that go along with that. I just really like racing with a group of guys and my organization that I am at. I worked my whole career and feel like I got here with a group of guys and the people that I have had success with and for me, going through a few more years in the car just made sense.”
YOU SEEM LIKE A NATURAL FIT IN THE BOOTH. DO YOU THINK YOU WILL GO BACK TO IT OR WITH KHI GETTING BIG IS THAT THE FUTURE? “KHI is definitely bigger than I thought it would be at this point but the TV and radio stuff is something that I am extremely interested in. I talked with some of my friends over the off-season just about where I was at with things and everybody told me the same thing. Just that if you are not done with that competitive side of it, keep chasing that side. I have everything around me that I need to be competitive so I am going to continue doing that.”
SO DID YOU RESIGN THROUGH 2023? “Yes.”
AND PRIOR TO THAT, YOU WERE SIGNED THROUGH 2021? “Correct.”
