Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang, has posted three top-10 finishes in the last four races, including his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. He held a media availability session this afternoon with NASCAR to discuss Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO GO TO NEW HAMPSHIRE? “I’m ready to go. It’s another short track race, so I’m looking forward to that and also it’s a track that I haven’t been before in a Cup car, so it’s obviously gonna be some learning involved and trying to figure out the track and the feel of the car and things like that, but, overall, I’m looking forward to try and keep going with our consistency and try to keep going with another solid run and try and build some momentum going into the playoffs.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE HEAT AND HOW HAS THE TRACK BEEN IN OTHER SERIES YOU’VE RACED? “Like what you said with the heat it’s obviously gonna be brutal for the drivers, just like a lot of races this year. It’s been really hot this summer for whatever reason, so it’ll make it really slipping and sliding a lot and the VHT that they have down there will probably wear out a little bit quicker, I would think. It’s gonna be different than what we usually have. You’re gonna have to change the setup in your car a tick and probably how you drive the track also. There’s gonna be a little bit of learning for all of us there, I think. Overall, the track with the VHT you’re able to move around a lot. A lot of it is gonna be trying to work that top lane good, but you have to be able to work the bottom also to pass and be good on restarts, so having a versatile car is pretty important. Being able to turn the center and be good on the long run also.”
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH MIKE SHIPLETT? “This is our second year together. We started last year in the XFINITY Series and now we’ve moved up together in the Cup Series and it’s been great. Mike has a lot of experience and a lot of success. He’s really level-headed, honestly. He really keeps us guided in the right direction, I think, is one of his biggest strongsuits, and then also we brought out lead engineer, Davin. He was our lead engineer in the XFINITY Series and we brought him up to the Cup Series with us, also.”
DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR TEAM HAS STARTED TO SET ASIDE CARS FOR THE PLAYOFFS? “I’m not too involved in that in picking the cars yet. Honestly, for me, I don’t pay attention too much to the chassis numbers and stuff like that. We have so many different cars that I feel like a lot of them are the same. I don’t know if you have one specific car that’s better than the other now. I think they build them so close now that it’s hard to really pick one favorite car. It’s more about trying to hit the setup right or having everything maxed out as much as you can.”
WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS WHEN YOU GO TO A TRACK YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE? “I think I have a good rhythm for going to tracks I haven’t been before. It’s weird going to tracks that I have been before now, like when we went to Bristol for the second time it was strange kind of getting an idea of how I should attack that now. But going there for the first time, I think you just have to work into it that first run to the competition caution, make sure you keep yourself in a good spot, don’t put your car at risk, and then once you get to that first competition caution you pretty much go racing. You try and adapt to it as fast as you can and have as big as open eyes as you can to see what’s working and what’s not, and what you need to work on for after that competition caution because that’s, in my opinion, when the race starts is right after that caution.”
YOUR DAD DESCRIBES YOU AS BEING QUIET, BUT SOMEONE WHO HAS A RAGE INSIDE OF HIM TO BE SUCCESSFUL AND WIN AT THIS SPORT. DO YOU AGREE? “I guess so, a little bit. I am pretty quiet and I think there’s times where you’ve got to kind of be pushed into that situation where you have to have success and it’s a make-or-break kind of moment, so I think at some point you’ve got to make it happen. I think I’ve been lucky enough to have a team around me that has allowed me to do that and I think I’m in a very lucky place for sure, and I think we did show that we can do it at Kentucky and we just have to build that consistency.”
WITH A WIN CAN YOU ALREADY CALL YOUR ROOKIE SEASON A SUCCESS OR ARE THERE MORE GOALS YOU HAVE TO ACHIEVE THAT FEELING? “For a rookie season, if I look back on it I’d say, ‘Yeah, it was a successful rookie season,’ when you win a race and I feel like we’re starting to get to a point where we’re running competitively, but, at the same time, I’m not gonna be satisfied if we go into the playoffs and get knocked out in the first round and don’t run well. I want to be able to go into the playoffs and be competitive and make a run at it and not just be a part of it. I think these next eight or nine races we need to be on our game and be on the gas as hard as we can to try and figure everything out and get in a good rhythm and be able to do something once we get into the playoffs because after the season if you don’t have the end of the season work out, you’re not gonna be satisfied.”
AFTER KANSAS YOU SAID THAT WAS A RACE YOU GUYS NEEDED. DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM NOW HAS A SOLID BASELINE FOR YOUR CARS AND SETUPS THAT YOU’RE GETTING MORE CONSISTENT? “I think so, for sure, especially on the 550 racetracks. I feel like we’ve hit a point where we kind of know what we want to bring to the racetrack. Some of the short tracks I feel like are still a little bit different and still trying to figure out exactly what we need because every single one is a little bit different than the other, but I think we’re starting to get better and better with it and figuring out how we should compare to other cars and how we should attack different racetracks. It gets better and better as it goes and the more laps and the more races you get, the more it’s all gonna come together.”
WHAT KIND OF INFLUENCE DID JIMMIE JOHNSON HAVE ON YOU GROWING UP, BEING FROM THE SAME AREA IN CALIFORNIA? “He pretty much set the tone for excellence or whatever you want to call it in NASCAR through the 2000s. For me, we were both from California and he was obviously one of the top ones in NASCAR at a time when I was younger, so seeing him win just week in and week out it was like everybody was to the point where it was like, ‘When is this guy gonna stop winning? He’s stinking up the show almost.’ So it was definitely cool to see that kind of dominance in that era and it’s an honor to get to run with him in his final year and see what that’s like, and all these guys. I’ve been watching them on TV since I was a little kid, so it’s pretty surreal to be able to get to race with those guys and be a part of the group.”
HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY TIPS FROM HIM OR HELPED YOU OUT AT ALL? “I talked with him a little bit. I actually got to ride in the truck with him on intros in Vegas, and one of the things that was interesting is that I think he said how you fit into everything when you’re a rookie and how you kind of get into the series and feel part of it as a rookie driver, he said he didn’t feel like he was part of it or really one of the guys and felt comfortable in the series until his third championship. So it’s weird how it all kind of evolves and how you feel comfortable at some time in this series.”
YOU HAVE SOME EXPERIENCE ON THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE. HOW MIGHT THAT HELP AND HOW ARE YOU PREPARING? “I’ve already run it in the Ford simulator, so it’s been a lot of figuring out what we’re taking to the racetrack first, just for gearing and stuff like that – what NASCAR is gonna come out with and if there’s a chicane on the frontstretch and stuff like that. I think it’s been a huge help and I think my experience there in some sports car stuff with Ford, they actually let us the last couple years run some Mustangs down there to try to gain some experience with road racing and it’s probably gonna be a huge help going there this year because I have some laps around the place, but, at the same time, it’s a whole different ball game. Obviously, I know where all the corners are and I kind of know what I want to do attacking them, but, at the same time, the brakes are totally different and how the car reacts is totally different, so it’s gonna be a lot of learning. Even though the playing field might be leveled a little bit because nobody has been there, I’ve never run a Cup car on a road course, so those guys might be able to adapt to the track faster than I can just because they have a really good feel for the cars.”
WILL YOU BE AS COMFORTABLE GOING INTO THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE RACE AS THE FIRST TIME YOU RAN THE ROVAL? “I will say I’m not gonna be as worried about this race as much as the first Roval race just because the Roval there’s so much that can go wrong and there’s so little room for error. When you spin out or something at the Roval, I mean, you’re hitting the wall and your day is done. At the Daytona road course, there are walls and there is stuff to hit, but it’s definitely more spread out than what the Roval is, so you can make a little mistake and still not wreck. So, you’re gonna see guys make mistakes and see guys wreck, but it’s not gonna be as dramatic as what the Roval was, but it’s gonna be interesting. Everybody is gonna be trying to figure it out as fast as they can. There are gonna be guys making mistakes, so it’s gonna be an event filled race. As if road course racing already wasn’t event filled enough, there’s gonna be a lot of stuff going on, especially in the early portions with guys trying to figure it out.”
ARE YOU SPENDING ANY TIME WITH YOUR SHR TEAMMATES DURING THIS TIME? HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY HELP FROM THEM? “Yeah, for sure. I think my teammates have been a huge part of getting me better throughout the year. I try and talk with Kevin about every single weekend and he’s been a huge help. I talked with him a lot in the XFINITY cars also when I was a rookie just trying to get an idea of what to expect going into the weekends and what he looks for and stuff like that. Any questions I’ve had he’s been extremely helpful and really an open notebook with me. And also Aric and Clint have been awesome to try to ask questions to whenever I have something that I don’t know and something I was feeling in the car and just being able to bounce ideas off all those guys has been huge. It’s nice to see how we all work together.”
IS THERE LESS OPPORTUNITY FOR THAT NOW? DO YOU TALK VIA ZOOM OR AT THE TRACK? YOU DON’T REALLY SEE THEM AT THE TRACK MUCH DO YOU? “There is an there isn’t. I think, for the most part, I already was calling Kevin before the races before all the COVID stuff, so I still kind of have the same regiment talking with him. You don’t get to see each other in the garage area and kind of bounce things off each other, so, yeah, there is less time to kind of work through things and any questions you have, but, at the same time, I think we all still have the communication with each other on our Zoom calls or other phone calls. It’s not like we’re not talking to each other enough, I don’t feel like.”
