NASCAR XFINITY SERIES
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
FORD PERFORMANCE DRIVER – POST RACE QUOTES
SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2020
FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
1st – Chase Briscoe
10th – Austin Cindric
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 — Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang — FINISHED 1st
VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW: “That was a team win for sure. Yesterday we were so good and then today, I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but we weren’t very good. We were decent on a long run but the 9 was better. It is a testament to all the guys at Stewart-Haas Racing. We had a pretty good alternate there with Zippy. Boswell and the guys put the tune-up on us. Happy to get Ford Performance Racing School back in victory lane. HighPoint.com all of our partners. Henry Rifle, Production Alliance Group, Fields, Huffy Bicycles and everyone that makes this deal possible. We have a good run going so far and we are looking to win a bunch more.”
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE:
WHAT WAS THIS WEEKEND LIKE WITH TWO RACES IN TWO DAYS WITH THE HEAT? “Yeah, yesterday I didn’t think it was bad at all. I felt like I could have gone another 250 miles. Today I felt fine until the very end. All those cautions got it so hot in the race car. I was trying to run down Noah and that was everything I had. It is definitely a challenge. The Pocono deal for the Cup guys will be tough. There isn’t as much airflow in those cars. This was probably one of the hardest races because going back-to-back, your body usually takes a couple days to recover from the day before and we didn’t have that opportunity after yesterday. I am sure that was a lot of it. It is definitely tough. Today felt way hotter than yesterday I felt like.”
YOU HAVE MENTIONED THAT THIS YEAR YOU WANT TO PROVE YOURSELF TO BE ABLE TO WIN RACES CONSISTENTLY. YOU HAVE THREE WINS NOW. DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE MADE A STATEMENT? “Yeah, to a certain extent. The sad thing is that I feel like we could have six wins right now. Yesterday I felt we were the best car. I didn’t feel like we were today. Atlanta is another one that we threw away. Bristol and Daytona could have gone either way. I feel like we could have six wins out of 10. To have three is good. We just have to execute. I feel like lately we have been beating ourselves a lot, me included. It is nice to make a statement, not make a statement but back up what I said. I feel like truthfully I can win that amount of races and we are off to a really good start and not even halfway yet. It is a good start. We just have to keep doing what we are doing. We knew at the beginning that these were some of the better race tracks for me and later we will go to some that aren’t so great for me. We will try to figure it out and maybe steal some wins.”
HAVE YOU HAD ANY MORE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT YOUR FUTURE? “I haven’t had any conversations. I am ready to talk about it. I want to have a gameplan of what is going on. The last couple of years my stuff has always been done after the end of the season. It is a tough situation to be in. Ford has continually stuck behind me and believed in me and I am confident that they will continue to do that as long as I keep winning races. That is all I can do. They haven’t told me anything that is going to happen next year. If I can keep winning races hopefully I can prove my worth. That is all you can do. Do the best you can and keep trying to win races.”
SINCE YOU AND AUSTIN CINDRIC ARE THE ONLY TWO FORDS IN THE FIELD, DO YOU CONFER WITH EACH OTHER SINCE IT IS JUST THE TWO OF YOU UNDER THE BLUE OVAL AGAINST THE WORLD? “Yes and no. We are definitely good friends but we drive for two different organizations that are really tough competitors. I feel like we try to help each other when we can. Earlier in the year when we were doing practice we would go after practice our crew chiefs would meet and we would meet and talk about what we thought the track was doing or whatever. There is definitely that Ford camaraderie but as far as on the race track I feel like me and him race each other harder than anybody else on the race track. I am sure next week at Talladega it will be a little different because we have to help each other. We try to help each other but it is hard when you drive for two different organizations.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE GETTING ZIPPY HIS FIRST XFINITY SERIES WIN? “I didn’t know it was his first one. It is cool for me growing up a diehard Tony Stewart fan. I was a big Zippy fan too. I hate the circumstances it is under but it was truthfully really cool for me to be able to work with Zippy and to win was really special too. I don’t know what the plan is for the next three weeks but we are off to a good start. We need to just continue to do that.”
WAS TODAY ANY DIFFERENT WITH ZIPPY CALLING THE SHOTS? “The voice is obviously different. How Boswell communicates is different. Every crew chief has their own style. I thought Zippy did a really good job asking Boswell questions and Boswell did a good job of relaying the most information he could to Zippy about what I typically like and the changes that normally hit for me. We kept making big big swings at the car today and we still weren’t the greatest by any means on that long run. I was able to run the 9 down on that straightaway and that was everything I had in the tank. The 9 was the better race car today. I felt like yesterday we had one kind of taken away and it was nice to kind of steal one today even though we weren’t the best car. The caution came perfect and I need to give my pit crew a shout out. They have been unbelievable all year long and today was another testament to that.”
WAS THE TEAM EMBARRASSED OR ANGRY ABOUT YESTERDAY? WHAT IS THE FEELING WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS? “I think it is all of the above. Mistakes happen. Perfect example was in Atlanta last week. I made a huge mistake that cost us a race that was no different than the mistake made yesterday. We are all a team and believe in each other. The good thing is I feel like we have continually been the fastest race car week in and week out. It is one mistake. It is obviously a huge mistake and there was definitely frustration and embarrassment. We are better than that as a company but we all have to keep our heads up. Today shows we can still get it done even if we are three guys down.”
GREG ZIPADELLI, crew chief, No. 98 Ford Mustang: POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
WILL YOU BE ON THE BOX THE NEXT THREE RACES? “To be honest we haven’t looked that far ahead. I will do whatever it takes. We will have to go home and kind of regroup and see who we have resource wise and what works best for the Cup side and the Xfinity side. I will be there to help but I am not sure if I will do it all. We just have to wait and see.”
YOU GOT THROWN IN THE DEEP END TODAY, WHAT WAS THAT ADJUSTMENT LIKE? WHAT DID YOU BRING TO THE TEAM? “To me, honestly, I haven’t done it in so long. It was fun. Especially because of the circumstances. I felt good that I could help this young group of guys out and be here to help them today. I love this team and Chase. It is such a good group of talented younger guys that work their guts out. It is just fun to be a small part of it today. I will be honest with you, we had to adjust on it a lot more than I thought we would have to based on as good as it was yesterday. We were really loose compared to what we were yesterday. We had to throw a few things at it.”
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING WITH THE WEIGHTS GETTING LOOSE AND FALLING OUT? IT IS A TRANSPORT ISSUE? IS IT SOMEONE THAT ISN’T CHECKING? “I actually think it is simply that we are out of our routine. People are working double shifts or half shifts I mean and some people starting projects and some people finishing. There is no practice and honestly I think it is that we are out of our routine. We talked about it and they guys remember now that they didn’t go back and secure the bolt. We added the traction and one guy doing a little more than what he would normally do because we are trying to work split shifts at the shop with not as many people and stuff going on. I am sure the same thing probably happened at Gibbs. We have great people and they know the drill. It should never happen. Quite honestly it was embarrassing for myself and SHR. The guys should be better than that. We are proud of everybody for being able to put that behind us and rebounding and having a solid finish yesterday after making up six laps and then coming back with the win today. I think that speaks volumes to the character of Chase and the guys around him”
WHAT KIND OF POTENTIAL DO YOU SEE IN CHASE THAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT HE IS WORTH INVESTING IN FOR THE FUTURE? “He is a good guy and I believe he has really good car control just watching him. He is able to tell you about his car and then he goes out and for the most part he really takes care of his stuff. When you look at the races and how many he has started compared to the guys around him, I think he performs on a very high level at a lot of different race tracks which is exciting.”
FROM A MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE, CAN YOU BALANCE THE PRACTICE VERSUS NO PRACTICE AS FAR AS THE ECONOMICS OF IT AND WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT IN THE RACE? “Absolutely. It is a tough balance. You can’t sit here and talk out of both sides of our mouths because of the circumstances we are in. Everybody and every team had the same amount of time to prepare for it. Some did a better job than others with the new tire with the way things went at Martinsville. I am sure you will see more of that in the future if we don’t get practice. I think everybody at NASCAR has done a great job at getting us to the racetrack. Getting us in and out. Getting our events done and putting great races on. Right now, if that is all we can do then it is surely better than what we were doing a month and a half ago sitting home hoping we were going to get back. I applaud them for where we are at. If it takes another month or two to get back to a little more normal where we have practice and qualifying then so be it.”
THE CUP SERIES WILL HAVE TWO RACES IN TWO DAYS AT POCONO, WHAT WERE THE THINGS YOU LEARNED FROM THIS WEEKEND’S EXPERIENCE AND LEADING UP TO IT THAT CAN PREPARE THINGS BETTER FOR YOUR CUP ORGANIZATION IN A COUPLE WEEKS AT POCONO? “The biggest thing is running the first race and keeping your car clean. It gives you a shot at learning and adjusting for the second race. I think just the preparation and having all the stuff you are going to change after the first race ready and prepared and having the right people here, extra people, moving people around on our roster that will be able to help and get things executed that we may need. In the Xfinity it is a little easier because you can just unbolt panels and bolt them up. Ours are a lot more work. Just having panels, parts and pieces like that done and prepared. Crush panels for all the teams in case we need them. We have to spend a little extra time preparing that stuff in that fashion.”
