NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2020
GRANT ENFINGER CHAMPIONSHIP 4 MEDIA AVAILABILITY
GRANT ENFINGER, No. 98 Champion Power Equipment/Curb Records Ford F-150 — DO YOU FEEL UNDERAPPRECIATED OR LIKE AN UNDERDOG GOING INTO THIS RACE? “I don’t at all, and I haven’t necessarily noticed the lack of with the exposure or anything like that. I can say it’s been a crazy season for us. It’s been a little bit uncharacteristic. I feel like last year and the year before that we kind of prided ourselves on consistency and stage points and didn’t get many wins during the course of those years. I only had one win the last couple years and this year has been drastically different. We can’t get a dad gum stage point to save our life, but we’ve been able to put ourselves in position and to take advantage of the situations and win four races. I’m definitely proud of that. I’d much rather be in this position than the position we were the last couple years, but I’m just proud we’ve made it to this point. I don’t feel like we’re entering Phoenix as an underdog. Obviously, only one of our ThorSport trucks made it. We’re going against three GMS trucks. I understand all that and I feel like Phoenix is a good style track for us this year. I feel like we’ve excelled at the short tracks, so I don’t actually feel like we’re going into this as an underdog at all.”
DID BEING THE ONLY THORSPORT TRUCK CHANGE ANYTHING AS FAR AS BRINGING A DIFFERENT TRUCK OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT? “No, we already had this truck sent out. We were hoping for this instance to happen. It’s the same truck we ran at Richmond earlier this year. We were very happy with it there, so this is all kind of business as usual for us. We’ve nut and bolted it a couple more times or something like that, but pretty much everything is the same as we would have been approaching it otherwise.”
DO YOU THINK THE RACING SHOULD BE A BIT CLEANER THAN IT’S BEEN THE LAST TWO WEEKS? “I feel like in general truck racing is, unfortunately, pretty rough. I don’t like that, but that’s the world we live in in the Truck Series. You have to be so aggressive, especially on restarts to be able to make anything happen. Honestly, a lot of the reason is because it’s so hard to pass once we get going. I don’t anticipate anybody intentionally taking anybody out or anybody dumping anybody like that, but I definitely expect guys throwing sliders, guys throwing something in there and hoping it sticks, and I’m sure the guys up front will be doing that. You also have to realize there are other guys out here racing too, and I don’t think anybody is gonna intentionally make it harder for one of us that’s in the Championship 4 or anything like that, but you can bet that they’re gonna be going for the win and you just kind of have to expect that as a driver.”
DO YOU HAVE TO RACE ANY DIFFERENTLY SINCE IT’S ONE AGAINST THREE IN THE FINAL FOUR? “I don’t feel like we do. Obviously, we’d love for it to be four ThorSport Racing drivers there in the final four, but that’s not this situation we’re in. We’re going against those guys, but I don’t feel like we necessarily have to race any differently. Our strategy going in there is just to win the race flat out. I feel like with the competitors that we’re going against that any one of them are capable of pulling off the win. They’ve all won races this year. I feel like at the end of the day that may not be how it looks when the green flags comes out, but I feel like by the time the checkered flag comes out you’re gonna have to have won this race to be the champion.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE EARLY IN THE RACE BECAUSE YOU ARE BY YOURSELF AND DON’T HAVE ANY TEAMMATES TO RACE AGAINST FOR THE TITLE? “I don’t know if there’s an advantage or a disadvantage, but we’re gonna go for broke from the time the green flags drop to the time the checkered flag drops and hope that it works out in our favor. We’re gonna not do anything stupid, definitely not intentionally put anybody in a bad spot, but we’re gonna go for broke. That’s where our mindset is. I don’t think it’s necessarily an advantage or a disadvantage going into it like that, but that’s how we feel like we have to play the hand we’re dealt and that’s how we feel like we need to play it.”
WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE SO MANY FIREWORKS IN THE TRUCK SERIES? “I think there are a lot of younger drivers in here that are starting out, so you can throw some of that inexperience in there. But you also have to look at the package and it is so hard to pass once we get going that you have to make these wild and crazy moves on starts and restarts and at the end of the day, as much as I hate to say this, there’s not big repercussions for putting somebody in a bad spot. You can obviously get taken out yourself and that happens, but you almost have to put yourself in bad spots and just hope it works out to be able to get that advantage on a restart because you have to be dramatically faster than somebody to pass them on a normal given race weekend. So I feel like that’s a big part of it as well, and I feel like as we’ve seen the Cup Series kind of go more to this package at the mile-and-a-halves I fee like you’ve seen more of that stuff happening there as well.”
WHY HAVEN’T WE SEEN THE CHOOSE RULE RESULT IN MOST OF THE TRUCKS ENDING UP IN ONE LINE AT SOME POINT? I think it just depends on where you go. I’m definitely a big fan of that rule. I think there are certain places that we go, kind of like last week at Martinsville, but especially when we go back to Atlanta next year, I feel like there are games that are played on pit road. When you were leaving your pit stall, you may check up a little bit to try to get on that bottom line and I just don’t like that. I think that’s silly. I think it adds for more issues in the pits, so I’m a big fan of this choose rule. I think if you count the average out of all the races for us it’s kind of been a non-factor as far as results. I think there’s been a couple times that I’ve chosen right and there have been a couple times where I’ve made the wrong choice, but I am a fan of the rule. I can’t tell you why it hasn’t produced as big of a results swing as maybe you expected, but I will definitely tell you to watch the restarts this weekend, not necessarily the choose rule, but it could definitely come into play with people short-cutting the dogleg and the four and five-wide racing you’re gonna see on the frontstretch is gonna be wild.”
HOW MUCH WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN A TITLE FOR JEFF HENSLEY? “It would be huge for Jeff. It would be huge for me. I think he’d probably tell you the same thing I’d tell you. It would be even bigger for us to bring the owner’s championship to Duke and Rhonda Thorson and to Mike Curb for everything that they’ve done in this series for so long. Man, I’ll be honest with you, maybe if I look back on it and we’re fortunate enough to win this championship, maybe I’ll look back on it and think differently, but right now these are the guys that kind of took a chance on us, that paired us together and we want to make them proud and that’s one of the few things that Duke and Rhonda have not yet accomplished in this series. They’ve done everything you can imagine, so I feel like an owner’s championship would be even more important and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeff told you the same thing.”
