NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 30, 2020
RANDALL BURNETT, CREW CHIEF OF THE RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING NO. 8 CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference to discuss his outlook going into the New Hampshire race weekend, the impact the change in stage lengths for the weekend might affect decision-making within the race, working with Tyler Reddick, and more. Transcript:
HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND AT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY, HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO GET THERE?
“I’m excited to getting back to doing some short track racing. We look forward to some of that. We’ve had some good runs this year. We ran really well at Phoenix – had an unfortunate tire failure late in the race. But competed up in the top-five all day long there. So, looking forward to getting to a track similar to that – Loudon, really flat one-mile track. We’ve been working hard on this one and we’ll see what happens.”
OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS, WE’VE GOTTEN SOME COOL INSIGHTS INTO THE RCR COMMAND CENTER, WHERE CALLS ARE MADE FOR THOSE STAPLE DECISIONS AT THE END OF THE KENTUCKY RACE. WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH THOSE GUYS THROUGHOUT THIS PROCESS? CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THIS PROCESS HAS BEEN THROUGH THE MOST UNUSUAL NASCAR SEASON, IN TERMS OF TEAM COMMUNICATION?
“I do think it’s helped a lot this year, for sure. Now that we have a limited roster and not near as many people at the track – we take less engineers, we take a lot less people to the race track in general – being able to have those guys at the shop, analyzing some of the data that we get from the SMT stuff, to our pit road calculations to help us with that. There’s so much information coming in. Having good guys and having people capable of being able to communicate with us what they’re seeing I feel like has certainly helped us, especially at the track when we’re limited on that and we don’t have as many people at the track looking at data as we’re used to.”
THE STAGE LENGTHS HAVE BEEN CHANGED FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE COMPARED TO LAST YEAR – IT’S ANOTHER 35 LAPS IN THAT SECOND STAGE. HOW DOES THAT CHANGE THINGS OR HOW MIGHT THAT IMPACT THE DECISION-MAKING?
“It will definitely make it a little more interesting I think with the longer stage. You have tire wear, you’re going to have fuel mileage stuff to look at. It’s definitely going to change the strategy a little bit, which we’re going to have to stay on top of. You’re going to have a lap-30 competition caution, which should give you a good read on tires, as far as what kind of wear you’re going to be looking at throughout the race and the lap time fall off. So, I think that’s going to kind of dictate what you do in that second stage, for sure.”
ALSO, IT’S A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT TIRE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE FROM LAST YEAR. LAST YEAR’S RACE, WE SAW THE WINNER AND TWO OF THE TOP-THREE FINISHERS RUN THE LAST 74 LAPS ON A SET OF TIRES. DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT BEING THE CASE?
“This is the same tire that we ran at Phoenix earlier this year. We kind of saw a little bit of that, as well. The tires don’t wear as much as they have in the past there, especially if you look back at 2018 with the low downforce package that they ran at Loudon. The tires wore out quite a bit. Last year, even with the high downforce stuff, they didn’t wear out as much and now there’s a different tire this year. Looking back at the wear and stuff at Phoenix, I don’t imagine you’re going to see as much wear here as we have in the past. But with that being said, Loudon has always been a huge track position race. It’s really hard to pass here. They put the VHT down, which has seemed to make it racier here the past year or two that they’ve been doing that. But it’s really hard to pass and keep your momentum up, just because you have to slow down so much to get underneath somebody in the corner that they are able to keep the momentum off the corner when they’re on the outside. It’s going to be about timing your passes right, making sure you can get a guy cleared and not give up another spot or two as well while you’re battling with somebody.”
THE RANDOM DRAW FOR STARTING POSITIONS – HOW MUCH HAS THAT IMPACTED HOW YOU AND THE TEAM APPROACH THE FIRST PORTION OF THE RACE, JUST TRYING TO GET SOME TRACK POSITION VERSUS HOW YOU’RE CALLING THE REST OF THE RACE IF AND WHEN YOU GET THAT TRACK POSITION? HOW MUCH HAS THAT RANDOM DRAW REALLY KIND OF HINDERED SOME OF YOUR PERFORMANCES AND FINISHES?
“I don’t know if you guys have noticed or not, but we’re really, really bad at qualifying in those random draws right now (laughs). We’ve been 23rd, 24th, 23rd, 24th. It certainly affects, I think more so the guys from 13th to 24th, when you’re in there and battling for the Playoff spots. We don’t have a win secured yet, so when it comes to getting stage points, that goes a long ways in that. The last couple of weeks, we’ve had to battle from 23rd and 24th place starting spots to even put ourselves in position to get some stage points. So, it certainly makes you call the race a little different. I’ve been a little more aggressive lately with some two-tire calls, staying out or whatever to try to put ourselves into position to get some stage points to help us. Yeah, I would definitely say it has a bigger affect, especially for the guys that are close to that cutoff line and the guys that are 13th to 24th in starting spots there in how they call the race.”
GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS, NASCAR HAS SAID THAT THEY ARE LOOKING AT CHANGING THE FORMAT ON HOW THE STARTING LINEUPS WILL BE DETERMINED. ANY IDEA WHAT THAT MIGHT BE OR HOW YOU WOULD PREFER IT TO BE DONE?
“There’s been a lot of talk about that. I feel like the guys that are going to be in the top-16 or the top-12 should be up front obviously. How they go about lining those guys up from that aspect, I think there’s a lot of ideas out there, a lot of options to choose from. I know the guys at NASCAR are trying to work all that stuff out. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.”
YOU’VE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH TWO OF THE TOP DRIVERS TO COME OFF OF THE DIRT – KYLE LARSON AND TYLER REDDICK. WHAT ARE THE COMPARISONS, AS FAR AS CAR CONTROL AND SUCH, AND WHO’S THE BETTER OF THE TWO DRIVERS?
“Well, it’s hard to tell. I think Tyler (Reddick) has an incredible amount of car control and talent. I think he knows how to push the car to the extreme limit of it and can manage to make speed with it when the car’s not balanced right. I’ve been really impressed with his demeanor on the radio, too, as far as how he approaches the race. We try to keep it light-hearted, we try to work well together. On the flip side, Kyle Larson, he’s obviously an incredible talent. To see what he’s been doing in the dirt races and stuff like that. Even when he first came into running NASCAR, I was his race engineer for a few years and he has an incredible talent too. I don’t know – I like my man Tyler. He’s got me a championship and several race wins. I’ve really enjoyed working with him, for sure.”
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS HIS POTENTIAL? I THINK HE SURPRISED PEOPLE IN THE XFINITY SERIES. HE WENT IN THERE AND WAS NOT THE FAVORITE, NECESSARILY, THE FIRST OR EVEN PERHAPS THE SECOND YEAR AND JUST STOLE THE CHAMPIONSHIP BOTH TIMES.
“I wouldn’t say he necessarily stole it the second time. I feel like him, Christopher (Bell) and Cole (Custer) put on a great race there. Those three battled hard at the end of that race. The first year, I think Tyler – his first full-time year in the Xfinity Series – he’s come a long ways. If you watched the last couple of years, he’s come a long ways from when he first started in the Xfinity cars. He was always really fast, but sometimes he’d overstep his limits, tear up a lot of equipment and things like that. I think in the last year or two, you have kind of seen him grow out of that phase of his racing career and really focused on studying the races, understanding when to push the car and when not to. I think that’s one of the things that’s really helped him in the past year or two and I think you’re kind of seeing that roll over into the Cup Series this season.”
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