Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Roush Fenway Zoom Media Availability | Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Earlier today, Roush Fenway Racing announced a multi-year extension with sponsor Fastenal. Following is a transcript of the Q&A portion of the press conference, which featured driver Chris Buescher, Roush Fenway president Steve Newmark and Fastenal president and CEO Dan Florness.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang — IS THE PJ1 LIKE WALKING ON ICE? “That’s pretty accurate at certain times. I know the Indy cars are running a lot faster. The downforce is obviously way through the roof, a different tire. The PJ1 takes a certain amount of activation and I think it’s something that we’ve come to understand better, the formula. NASCAR has done a more consistent job of applying it, so that we have a little bit better idea of what’s coming. I say all that and when we ran the race there last year in the mist it was extremely slick and I unfortunately found out the hard way that it was very much like ice when it’s wet, so when it’s dry that’s definitely preferable. I think it’s something that has been scienced out for a larger part on our side, but I would say for Indy Car it’s just gonna take more repetition for them to understand it and know how it has to come in for them going forward, so, yes, at the very beginning of runs it can be extremely slick and be the exact opposite of what they’re trying to achieve, but it typically comes in pretty quick nowadays.”
STEVE NEWMARK, President, Roush Fenway Racing — WHAT DOES THIS ANNOUNCEMENT MEAN FOR YOU IN TERMS OF STABILITY AND IS THERE A CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH CHRIS? “I think the word that you just used is kind of how I would describe our relationship with Fastenal as kind of stability has been the key. Our intent is to have Fastenal as a partner for as long as we’re fielding race cars and I think we’ve found that this relationship has worked on so many different levels and it’s obviously comforting to have an anchor partner of Fastenal’s nature and the 20,000-plus employees that they have supporting us, and I think it’s also rare to see in this day and age a partner that has the continuity and is active at more than 20-plus races as a primary, so we’re very appreciative. As far as Chris’ situation, I think we generally try to keep all of our contract discussions outside of the four walls of Roush, but Chris and our arrangement is one that we expect it to continue not only through the next three years of the Fastenal relationship, but well beyond that as well.”
DO YOU HAVE A CONTRACT WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI FOR NEXT YEAR AND CAN YOU COMMENT ON HIS POTENTIAL TEAM OWNERSHIP? “It’s a fair question, and I appreciate it’s kind of front of mind based on some of the rumors that have been floating around and it’s necessary for each of you to do your job to be probing on this, but for today we’re gonna keep the focus on Fastenal and our partnership, and I will attempt to deflect politely any questions around any of those rumors at this time.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS ADDS TO YOUR SPONSORSHIP PORTFOLIO? “I think quite frankly we hold the Fastenal relationship up as the gold standard and we use it in all of our discussions when we’re talking with new prospects about what can be done and how you can fully integrate, and I do have to thank Brooke and her team because they’ve served as resources, they’ve talked to prospects for us and talked to existing partners and I think that’s been really helpful because you can see how we’ve activated with Fastenal across all sorts of different platforms over the years, and, quite frankly, on the sponsorship front we’re pretty excited and positive about not only where we are, but where the sport is, I think the narrative about NASCAR coming out of 2020 with all the successes that we had amidst a very trying time for everyone, I think, really has played well as we’ve been telling our story and even where we’re going with Next Gen, with new tracks like we’re going to COTA. I think the excitement has been really palpable and we’ve seen a ton of interest among new brands that have never been in the sport before and even our existing brands have continued to expand how they activate and use the asset, so I think we’ve added several new partners in the last couple months and our hope is that we can continue building that group.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED — DOES THIS ANNOUNCEMENT RAISE YOUR CONFIDENCE GOING INTO THE MIDDLE PART OF THE SEASON? “We’ve had a really solid start to our season and this definitely helps us have that security knowing that we will continue to be with Fastenal moving forward, but ultimately we’ve had our goals set before the season started and so we have been working towards making the playoffs and winning races from the beginning, so we will keep after that in the exact same way. We are in the playoffs currently. I know it’s pretty early to talk about it. Now, I will say that if it had been any other year right now, we would be feeling pretty good about it at this point, but with as many different new winners we’ve had this season it is definitely gonna be a challenge on the points side. We’ll definitely look to get that win and get that Cup win for Fastenal as well, so we’re still working hard on that. We’ve had some really strong showings this year at a lot of different types of racetracks, and I felt like we’ve improved at every racetrack — some less than others, but every racetrack we have gotten better than where we were the previous year, so we feel very confident that we’re heading in the right direction, that a lot of work went the right way through the off-season, that a lot of goals were correct in heading us down a path that we feel like is making us more competitive every week, so, yeah, it’s definitely exciting news. Everyone got together and surprised me on this last week doing a preview, so it was something I didn’t even know about until we got together and did our previews for last weekend. It was definitely exciting news for me, knowing Fastenal is back on board. It’s been awesome working with Fastenal, not just as a sponsor on the car side, but as Steve has mentioned, as a partner throughout the entire business and throughout the entire organization and how they really help us operate more efficiently in so many different ways. It’s all good news. It’s all exciting and it’s all helpful as we continue to fight our way into the playoffs for this season and head towards victory lane.”
WHAT POSITIVES HAVE YOU TAKEN AWAY FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON? “It’s definitely our most competitive season to date, which is really exciting because I’ve talked about it a lot this year, especially at the beginning. I felt like last season was more difficult than my rookie season in Cup without practice, with coming back to Roush and really starting fresh in so many different ways. It was a very difficult season and my hopes and expectation at the beginning were not met — not to make excuses, but largely due to the fact that we weren’t able to practice and build our notebook up and find our starting point week in and week out. It was our reality as well as a handful of others. We weren’t the only one in that situation. I should go back to the off-season. It was nice to see a very specific game plan put into motion, a lot of strong goals set to accomplish that we felt like as a company would make our race cars faster, and to see those goals accomplished and stretched further. I think all of that has come into play and has led us to a stronger start to the season. We felt like our mile-and-a-half stuff made good progress, our short tracks have made some progress, our road courses have gotten much better, our superspeedway cars are always strong. Of course, Daytona we ended up in that first melee and don’t have anything to show for that one, so at the end of the day we have improved every race that we’ve gone to this season over the previous, so we know we’re heading in the right direction. We know we’ve had a strong season. We’re racking up ample top 10s now and ultimately it takes top 10s to run in the top five to win races, so it’s just about stepping it up consistently over the next handful of weeks and stepping it up even more than we did through the off-season, so definitely an exciting year and from that front we’re greedy. We’ve grown up racing and winning anywhere that you’ve run and trying to elevate yourself so you want more every week, but there’s measurable progress we’ve seen since the beginning of the season that it’s easy for me to overlook as I’m trying to, again, be greedy and grab as much as we can, but it’s definitely been a very solid progression.”
WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOUR LOOKING FOR THIS WEEKEND AT COTA IN PRACTICE? “A 50-minute practice, you’re looking at two runs, maybe three, and at that that’s going to be three or four-lap runs. There’s very limited track time. It sounds good, but the track is so massive, over two minutes to make a lap, it’s gonna go quick — the time is, not the laps. We’re gonna be looking at the braking zones as a big part of it, trying to get that depth into our memory banks, so that we can make consistent laps. It’ll be nice to have practice in general so we can make adjustments and fine-tune on our car, something we haven’t been able to do in a very long time. We’re gonna have a game plan in motion before we ever get there being that it’s gonna be two changes max. We’ll work hard with Ryan and the 6 bunch to try and offset some changes so we can double up our time there as well as working with Front Row for some of our meetings. We’ve already talked about trying to gather as much information as possible in that very limited amount of time, and then we’ve got a little bit of weather in the forecast that will balance out. My parents are within 45 minutes of the racetrack down there, so I’ve been getting news updates and weather updates from them and they said it’s storming every day, so don’t know what we’re gonna get on that front, but it’s gonna be really exciting. I’ve got some laps around COTA in a Mustang, so it’s not that I don’t know the track. We’ll be iRacing this evening at COTA as well. I’m not saying I’m gonna learn much from that one. Those are usually a little rougher than the actual races, but it’ll still be good to get some track time and try and start learning some of our braking points, some of the bumps in the racetrack and where our big heavy cars are gonna be the most efficient, so I’m definitely looking forward to a new racetrack. I’m really excited. COTA is an incredible facility, so I’m looking forward to putting on a really good show this weekend.”
DAN FLORNESS, President and CEO, Fastenal — AS A SPONSOR, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE POSITIONING OF THE NUMBER ON THE DOOR. DID THE LOCATION MEAN ANYTHING? “I don’t know if I have strong opinion on the placement of the number on the side of the car. I know the folks at Roush have done a really nice job of having great paint schemes, just having great looks to the car, changing it up every so often, and making it a fun car for us to participate in. We’re aligned with some great people, but NASCAR resonates really well within the Fastenal organization and our customer base and I think that’s what holds the strongest card in that game.”
STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED — IS THE NUMBER ON THE DOOR A FACTOR FOR SOME OF YOUR OTHER SPONSORS? “I think that when we look at the number location it’s not necessarily through just the lens of sponsorship. I think we look at it through the lens of what’s the best thing for the sport? And if you look at the fact that we are transitioning to a completely new car, a new platform and so we want this to be fresh, different and provide as much energy and excitement as possible, and so when we look at it at Roush, we’ve actually had fun here internally moving the number around, playing around with it and how can you come up with the most compelling look and feel of the car. We’ve actually gone back and looked at how the numbers have been in the past and, to me, I always think it’s fun to have a link to our lineage and our history because we’re so proud of everything that’s gone on in this sport, so really that’s what we’re looking at. We obviously will of course consult with our partners because we want them to be happy with however we lay it out, but, for us, it really is about trying to tie into the tradition of the sport and we’ll ultimately provide our input to NASCAR along those lines.”
HOW MANY NUMBERS WILL FASTENAL BE ON THE CAR? “I think the way that we’ve operated with Fastenal is somewhat probably different than the traditional, where it’s locked in. It’s been very fluid and we work with them. They are obviously the anchor partner on the 17 team and generally have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 races, but as their needs change, as our needs change, it really is a collaborative effort. We’ve gone to them at times and said, ‘Hey, we have a new prospect, a new partner coming in and this market is their home market. They would really like to have it,’ so Fastenal has relinquished that, so we could continue to grow. On the flip side, when we’ve gone to some new markets that maybe Fastenal didn’t necessarily have, they’d come to us and say, ‘Hey, we’d like to add these because this is a big foundational base for not only Fastenal but some of our partners.’ I mean, they’ve got 3200 locations around the U.S., so they’re pretty much everywhere, so it’s a long-winded way of saying it’s a little bit fluid, but I think as just a soundbite on it they’re generally gonna be in the 20-22 range each year and have been in the past.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET ADDITIONAL SPONSORSHIPS TO HELP WITH THE INFLUX OF MONEY IT WILL TAKE TO BUILD NEXT GEN CARS? “I think everyone on this call recognizes that we are unique in the big U.S. professional sports in that our business model is different. As a rule of thumb, 75 percent of team revenues come from our partners and that’s why they are completely and truly integrated into everything that we do. I don’t think Next Gen changes that, although he cost of Next Gen gets a lot of publicity that wasn’t the driving force, at least from our perspective about why we’re doing this. It makes the cars more relevant. It updates the technology with the transaxle and allowing potential hybridization, plus the look and feel is just closer to what we see on the streets. That said, racing is expensive. It always has been and probably always will be because we’re all highly competitive looking for every advantage that we can, and there’s no doubt that we are unable to do what we love and Chris is unable to be on the track unless you have partners like Fastenal who stand behind you. That is what drives our sport and allows us to put race cars on the track every weekend.”
HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE SPONSORSHIP CLIMATE COMING OUT OF THE PANDEMIC? “What we’re finding, and I think we’re not alone in this, is that there are brands out there that are embracing the opportunity to become a part of this sport. I can’t speak to whether that’s across all sports, I just know that the storyline for NASCAR is so positive, whether you’re looking at the engagement, the viewership and even look at how resilient the sport was last year across a lot of different fronts. Quite frankly, some other sports had struggled. We’ve really seen brands being much more receptive and even actually searching out opportunities. I think that’s led to us adding a number of new partners and expanding. You’ve seen it across the sport with other teams jumping in, so I view it very much as a positive momentum right now, probably more so than we’ve had in a decade of my experience.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED — WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO BE DIFFERENT AT COTA COMPARED TO OTHER ROAD COURSES? “It’s very different from a lot of aspects. It’s a very long course, which, to me, is gonna be a little bit similar to Road America, which we are looking forward to going to in the Cup Series for the first time in a handful of weeks as well, but on the COTA front I think what’s going to be unique there is you’re looking at four hairpin corners that are first gear in our race cars, in our current car. You start thinking about Watkins Glen or Sonoma, we really don’t have that many slow corners and then on top of that you think about the straightaway between turns 11 and 12 is an incredibly long straightaway. At the same time you’re looking at a massive speed difference from top speed to that hairpin getting into 12, so it’s gonna be hard on equipment again. I think our equipment has really caught up to the road courses that we currently run and surviving them has not been an issue. I think you may run into abusing equipment at COTA. I think that is one possibility. The next thing is the track was pretty specifically designed for a different style of racing on the open wheel side and really high downforce F1 cars. With that being said, it doesn’t change everything, but the way that they paved those hairpin corners you basically have asphalt all the way down to the apex of the corner and it’s just a point of a curve sticking out, so it does increase the chances of dive bombs, for lack of a more official term, but we definitely are gonna be aware of the possibility of somebody overdrive the corner, or make a mistake with brake lock up or wheel hop and get to the inside and could very easily t-bone you as you try and set up for some of those corners, so that is gonna be very unique and something we do not have at any of these other courses, just due to the build and construction of that racetrack, so it’s something to keep in mind. Turn one will be very interesting on restarts. I’m thinking like Pocono or Michigan interesting, so it should be wild on that front. There’s a lot of unknowns into it as well, so we’ll really have to wait and see how this one plays out to see, but the good news is we’ll have three different series on track, so we’ll have plenty of time to watch before we get to the Cup race to maybe have a little bit better idea of how that first lap is gonna go.”
STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED — HAS THE INCREASED OWNERSHIP OF LEBRON JAMES WITH THE FENWAY SPORTS GROUP FILTERED DOWN TO YOU AT ALL ON THE RACING SIDE? “I wouldn’t say there’s been a direct impact on LeBron’s enhanced engagement at Fenway. He’s always been part of the Fenway Sports Group, or at least in recent years, and even has been a part owner of Liverpool before. He just expanded his presence. I think probably the bigger aim behind that transaction, which LeBron was part of, is that the Fenway Sports Group is expanding their sports empire. We’re very fortunate to be a piece of that with the Red Sox, with Liverpool and Roush Fenway, and I’m really excited about where the future is going. I think Fenway is extremely positive about the direction of this sport. They really see the Next Gen platform as being something that’s gonna be good for both Roush Fenway and the overall sport, so we expect more continued engagement from the Fenway side. As some of you know, the Fenway Sports Management team has got their sales team that works hand-in-hand with our group and they’ve been responsible, quite frankly, for bringing a lot of our partners in, so I can tell you that I hope at some point that we can get LeBron to a race and we’ll see if we can make that come to fruition. Having seen Chris shoot a basketball, I’m sure that we will pair them together on the court, but we’d obviously love to host him at some point.”
DO YOU SEE ROUSH FENWAY HAVING TO RESTRUCTURE IN ANY WAY IN ORDER TO GET READY TO ACCOMMODATE THE NEXT GEN CAR? “It’s a great question and, quite frankly, it’s one that every team is wrestling with. I’m on calls every once in a while with other team presidents and we’re all grappling with all of the issues. A lot of it is truly exciting, but there are all sorts of granular things that are behind the scenes such as how do you get show cars to be ready so we can make sure we have a Next Gen show car for Fastenal as well as all the stuff that goes out on the track, but the reality and what we’ve been doing is we’ve been doing an analysis of our facilities and how the build flow will go with the new car because I think we all recognize that the way we’ve been building cars in the current generation will not necessarily be the most efficient and apply to the Next Gen. So, we’re all trying to get our arms around how you put the parts and pieces together and then of course when you do that you’re trying to maximize and figure out where can I get an advantage and where can I find more speed than the next guy, but it is definitely something that we’re dealing with on a daily basis, where you’re kind of on parallel paths. You are trying to make sure you can get both cars in the playoffs in ‘21, which is our goal and objective while also making sure that when 2022 starts that we are in a really good spot on the Next Gen. That encompasses re-evaluating every part of how you operate on the competition side.”
HOW DOES THE FAN INTERACTION LOOK LIKE GOING FORWARD AT THE TRACK? “I think our goal, and even NASCAR’s goal, is to get back to normal, meaning have the garage look like it used to look. It doesn’t mean we’re not gonna have to take some learnings and do some adjustments based on what the experience all of us have had over the last 18 months, but at the end of the day the cornerstone of how we operate is providing these memories and these experiences for fans and our partners, and a lot of that happens at the track. I think our hope is that we’re gonna slowly open up the infields, allow our partners to have these experiences, allow the fans to have the interaction with the drivers, so I don’t see there being any intent to do anything less than what we’ve done in the past. I will say that this past 18 months has opened our eyes to ways that we can connect with fans who might not be able to travel to the track. We do a production now on every race day that is broadcast over Zoom or Teams or whatever medium we choose that if Fastenal is the primary sponsor, they might have their eight guests at the track, they might have some folks in the suite, but we can broadcast Jack or Chris or crew chiefs or any type of special videos where we can do that with a group of Fastenal suppliers or customers that might not even be in the state. So, it really opens up who we can reach on a race weekend and give them a glimpse into our world, but I do know a lot of us are excited to be getting back. I’m extremely fired up to go to COTA. I’m in the non-essential category, so I have not been in the infield for the last year and ready to go back and ready to welcome fans and partners back in as well.”
DO YOU SEE A NETFLIX STYLE BEHIND THE SCENES PRODUCTION AS SOMETHING NASCAR NEEDS? “I think I would say, and it’s probably a little bit repetitive with some of my other comments, is that I think the sport’s trajectory is in a really good place right now, and I think you take a lot of the pieces of the puzzle and there’s a really positive narrative that’s going on. That said, we should always be looking at new innovation, new ways to get our story and our message out because we think it’s such a compelling one. I think the F1 series was great. We’ve had lots of discussions among the teams, with NASCAR about the right way to do something like that. There have been some smaller efforts last year that were along those lines, but if I was a betting man I would say, yes, definitely in the future you’ll see something along those lines that is produced with NASCAR and the teams. How that manifests itself and how it does it I’m not privy to it, but I do think it’s something that we would embrace and welcome.”
DO YOU THINK THE 2022 SEASON WOULD BE GOOD TIMING WITH THE NEW CAR AND EVERYTHING GOING ON? “I know that from the Roush Fenway perspective we are looking at what’s coming as a great opportunity to capture content about this year. I mean, it’s a fantastic storyline. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that the average fan can’t see because they’re not in our shop on a daily basis, so I do believe it’s a very prime opportunity for either Roush, the industry or whomever to tell a story and show it to the world.”
