NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PENNZOIL 400 PRESENTED BY JIFFY LUBE
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 21, 2020
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFFROADD CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media to discuss his thoughts coming off of the Daytona 500, going into the first 1.5-mile track of the season, working with a new teammate, and more. Full Transcript:
KICK IT OFF WITH YOUR GENERAL THOUGHTS COMING OFF OF THE DAYTONA 500. IT’S THE FIRST 1.5-MILE TRACK OF THE SEASON HERE AT LAS VEGAS.
“I’m really excited. This time of the year is always fun; leaving Daytona with a solid finish and get to the west coast to see where you really stack up. There are a lot of 1.5-mile tracks in our series, so this is pretty important. This is a good measurement or tool because this place is a little bit of everything: it’s a little rough, it has one corner that is a little smoother than the other, and the grip level fades as you run so it kind of wears tires. It’s a good mixture, right in the middle of all the 1.5-mile tracks that we go to. I’m excited to get on the track with our Camaro ZL1 1LE and see what we got.”
THERE WERE SEVERAL INSTANCES LAST SEASON IN THESE 1.5-MILE TRACKS WHERE YOU SHOWED A LOT OF SPEED, PARTICULARLY IN QUALIYFING. I KNOW YOU WORKED ON THAT THROUGHOUT THE SEASON TO TRY TO TRANSFER THAT TO RACE DAY. YOU DON’T GET TRACK TESTING DURING THE OFF SEASON, BUT WITH THE NEW CAMARO AND ANY SIMULATION STUFF THAT YOU’VE DONE, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE IN A BETTER POSITION TO START THIS SEASON?
“That was a direction that some of the people at RCR thought that was the way to go. Obviously, it showed speed in qualifying, but didn’t race well. We were trying our hardest to make it race well and it just never really worked out for us last year. I would say our best race of the year was our last race of the year at Homestead, where we consistently ran inside the top-10 the whole race, drove from 22nd to the top-10 by the first segment and was able to maintain there. We’ve based most of our stuff this off season off of that car and that design, and just trying to make it better. I, personally, feel like at these 1.5-mile tracks, there’s a very good happy-medium place that you have to find in qualifying to make yourself feel good going into the race. I don’t want to be the pole guy most of the time. It worked in Michigan, I think by Joey Logano. I don’t know how many pole-sitters actually won last year, maybe Kevin Harvick was one of them. But I think with the direction we go, we aren’t really focused on qualifying as much and I think that’s a good thing. If we qualify on the pole, we weren’t trying to. But that would be nice that if that happens.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AFTER YOU SAW RYAN NEWMAN’S CRASH LAST WEEK? YOU’VE HAD OBVIOUSLY A CRASH THAT WAS EVERY BIT AS BAD AS THAT AT DAYTONA.
“Obviously, it was definitely weird leaving the track, getting on the plane and everyone on the plane I was on, my grandfather and family, sat and we said a prayer before we took off for Ryan (Newman). Just the eeriness of the whole situation, with the tarps coming out and not knowing was definitely eye-opening as a driver. After I tore down the fence and walked out immediately with nothing, I definitely feel like these cars are the safest things out there. But it just goes to show you that you can be impacted in the wrong way and it can be compromised. We’re going 200 mph around each other and sometimes force just overtakes what we know is safe. I’m very happy that Ryan walked away and walked out of the hospital like he did with his two girls. Man, it definitely makes you stop and think about it a little bit. I’m definitely still proud of what NASCAR has been able to do for the safety of our sport because that’s probably the worst place you could possibly get hit, where he got hit. For him to be recovering already, it’s just a really good sign.”
HOW DO YOU GET BACK INTO A RACE CAR? HOW DID YOU GET OVER HAVING SUCH A WRECK LIKE THAT AND HAVING TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN?
“For me, I would go awhile without wrecking and every now and again, it was a good thing when you wrecked because you’re like ‘alright, it’s not that bad’. You get back in and you have more confidence the next time you’re back in the car. When you have one like that, I don’t know it might take easing into it a little bit. We’re race car drivers; he’s wrecked probably as hard or harder in a midget in his lifetime I’m sure. It’s just part of what we do. We put ourselves in that situation knowing what we’re getting ourselves into. I know that when I went to Kentucky the next week, I just got in there and ran. I wasn’t sore, I was ready. The only thing I had done during the week was talk more about it. It’s part of what we do as race car drivers and I think that’s why people come watch us. We do put our lives on the line for this stuff. It’s engaging for the fans to see. It’s dangerous and that’s a part of it; it’s a part of the sport.”
YOU HAD JUMPED OUT OF YOUR CAR AFTER YOUR WRECK AND CARL EDWARDS JUMPED OUT OF HIS CAR, KYLE LARSON JUMPED OUT OF HIS CAR. DO YOU THINK THE SPORT HAD GONE SO LONG WITH BAD ACCIDENTS AND GUYS GETTING OUT OF THEIR CARS THAT THERE WAS MAYBE A LITTLE BIT OF DE-SENSITIVITY TO IT?
“For sure, I think that’s a good way to put it. You get numb to it a little bit because people just jump out of the cars. A really bad one of (Kyle) Larson’s last year like we were talking about, we’ve watched it in the safety meetings before the 500. You just watch it and you still hear the ‘that looks like it hurt’. You just kind of say it’s safe enough, you’re just going to be a little sore the next day. Then, you watch how long it took Ryan (Newman) to get out, the amount of people it took to get him out and the safety workers doing their job, it definitely makes you think differently about it, for sure.”
“The ‘it can happen’, I guess is the next thing that’s part of it. You never think about that, but it’s like man, you can actually get hurt.”
HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO TEXT OR TALK TO RYAN (NEWMAN)?
“Yeah, I shot him a text. I said ‘I’ve never been so glad to see a picture of you’ (laughs). I’m going to call him probably this week. I’m sure he’s been super busy. Luke Lambert, his crew chief, I saw him getting on the plane and Luke told me that he had talked to him. He said he’s the same ole’ Ryan, he’s good to go (laughs). He’s being his normal self when he’s talking.”
DOES THERE NEED TO BE ANY KIND OF BAR ADDED TO POTENTIALLY PREVENT ANYTHING CATASTROPHIC IN A WRECK LIKE THAT?
“I think we could add a lot of bars and different structural things. Truthfully, I don’t know because I haven’t seen the chassis. I haven’t seen the chassis, I haven’t looked at the chassis and I’m not the engineers that NASCAR has hired to do that. But they’ve done a really good job, even after my wreck. In my wreck, my feet were exposed after that wreck and that’s why they put that whole steel box in the bottom. I was kind of bummed when they didn’t name it the ‘AD Box’, the ‘Dillon Box’; the AD Box because I made a heck of a wreck. NASCAR does a good job of seeing the crash, going over it and making sure that they add bars that don’t make the car any more rigid, but just help the structure of the chassis. If there is a way to make it better, they will. They’re quick enough that we could do it before the next speedway, if there is something that needs to be done.”
WHAT HAPPENED LEFT EVERYONE SHAKEN, BUT THE END RESULT NOW, DO YOU THINK IT WILL LEAVE DRIVERS ULTIMATELY EVEN MORE BOLD AND FEELING INVINCIBLE AFTER SEEING HE COULD WALK AWAY FROM THAT?
“I don’t think any bolder. I feel like speedway racing is as wild as it can get, you know what I mean, because you know what’s on the line when you get down to the end of the race. You literally just shut everything off. Denny Hamlin does a really good job of putting himself in great situations. That’s probably the best book to read to figure out how to win and not get crashed, but he’s crashed in them too before. Everybody does; you have streaks. Before the race, (Kyle) Larson came up to me and was like ‘well, I guess you used up all your luck in the Clash and the Duel’. I was like, ‘easy man, come on I hope I have a little more for the 500’. But it’s part of what speedway racing is and I think there’s a group of fans that love the speedway racing because of that. To answer your question, I don’t think it will change the way we drive to make us any bolder. I think we’re already as bold as we can get when we wreck half the field.”
YOU MENTIONED A MOMENT AGO ABOUT ADDING A BAR, BUT DIDN’T WANT TO MAKE IT ANY MORE RIGID. IS THAT A POTENTIAL PROBLEM THAT YOU DON’T WANT THESE CARS TO HAVE?
“Yeah, I think that’s what NASCAR is good at. They’ve recorded a lot of data over time and the box that we have in the car that records the amount of force that we hit and discussing that with the drivers. That’s why they hire the people they do to make these cars safe. You don’t just slap a bar in there because you see one side of it compromised. You have to figure out why it was compromised and go about it the right way to make it better. It takes time, but they’re good enough that by the time we get to another one of those places where we have to go 200 mph, if there’s an update to make better, we would.”
YOU GUYS HAVE DECIDED ON A NAME FOR YOUR UPCOMING CHILD?
“Yeah, we got a name. It’s Ace RC Dillon. I’m pumped about it. ‘RC’ obviously is for my grandfather. My logo has always been the Ace of Spades and my grandfather always said ‘ace in the hole’. So, I was like this is a good time to make my kid the ace in the hole and hopefully he’s better than me.”
YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE RACE UNDER YOUR BELT WITH A NEW TEAMMATE. WHAT HAS TYLER REDDICK BROUGHT TO THE CUP SERIES?
“I really like his mentality. I feel like Tyler (Reddick) doesn’t let things bother him at all. It’s nice to see someone that is very positive. If he hits the wall, he’s like ‘OK, come in to fix it and we’ll go fast again’. I’ve seen him do it multiple times in the Xfinity Series, where he isn’t flustered or bothered. He takes on the chin and keeps moving. As a rookie coming into the Cup Series, you’re going to have growing pains and you’ll be able to handle them well. I think you’ll see it over the season. He’s a strong competitor, we workout together. It’s nice; we worked out this week and watched the race while we were working out, so that was pretty cool. Hearing what he thinks of certain thoughts and he’s just really talented at getting up to the top of the track and finding grip. I think some of these places where you see the top come in, he’ll be one of those guys that does well with that.”
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