Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Atlanta Motor Speedway | Sunday, July 11, 2021
FROM THE BULLPEN…The following quotes were obtained during Sunday’s Atlanta pre-race media availability session.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 MoneyLion Ford Mustang — YOU ONCE TALKED ABOUT REPAVING ATLANTA AFTER YOU WON HERE. HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW? “That was in jest because there was a run where every time I won on a track they repaved them or reconfigured them. I think I had like six or seven in a row. Kentucky I won at, they repaved right away. Pocono, a couple of them they shut down, so I was like a bad luck Chuck if that’s a thing, so I had a lot of fun with that for a while, but I don’t really know enough about what they intend to do here. They had some fun with some iRacing simulations and all that kind of stuff, but I don’t know the details of exactly what’s going on.”
ARE YOU PATIENT WAITING FOR THE TALLADEGA CRASH TEST DATA TO BE ANALYZED OR IMPATIENT LIKE YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO KNOW? “I think the whole industry is probably a little bit impatient because they want to get started on building cars out for the Daytona test that’s coming up this fall. We want to have a great Daytona 500 with the Next Gen car and the more time we have with it, I think in some ways the better everybody would feel about it, but I don’t think I’m pushing the panic button yet. Maybe some are and some aren’t, but indications that I’ve heard is that it went OK and there’s gonna be some kind of independent review of the data and the facts and hopefully that comes out real soon.”
YOU HAVE ENGINEERS ON YOUR STAFF AT KAM. DO YOU GO OVER THE SPECS WITH THEM AND ASK WHAT THEY THINK? “I went and saw the car with Jay Fabian two weeks ago and just looked at some basic things on it. There was a lot of things I saw that I liked and some things I saw I didn’t care for, but that’s part of it. From a safety perspective, I thought the fundamentals looked sound. I think whether it’s racetracks or Next Gen cars, we’re in kind of a new world phase where we have all this computer generated engineering that allows us to do simulations and allows you to iterate faster and try different things to hopefully improve, but I also think there’s a tendency sometimes for us to still skip real world validation, so a good mixture of both, I think, is healthy.”
IT SEEMS THERE’S A LOT OF PEOPLE PATTING YOU GUYS ON THE BACK AND SAYING, “TRUST US.” ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THAT? “Some days yes. Some days no. Ultimately, that comes down to credibility and some people have more than others. I think the COT car was a big win for safety and there’s some credibility that comes with that and a lot of that has been carried over to the Next Gen car, so I think there’s some credibility there for sure.”
IS THERE A DISCONNECTED WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE ATLANTA TRACK OR OTHER THINGS BEING DISCUSSED? “Sometimes I would say yes and sometimes I would say no. Again, not having seen enough about what they’re gonna do here at Atlanta I don’t know what I don’t know, so I would say there’s some pretty big question marks there. But, ultimately, I think the disconnect is we have to decide as a sport if we’re working together or we’re not working together. I think there are some frustrations that come up time and time again where we’re working together until we’re not, and that can be frustrating. I sense a lot of those emotions through the garage area right now.”
FOR THE SPORT TO GROW DO YOU ALL NEED TO WORK TOGETHER? “I think it can be a lot easier. We can certainly cover a lot more ground when we find compromises. You know, you’re always trying to make one plus one equal three, so I’ll give up 10 percent here to gain 30 percent there and it’s a net win for everybody. I think there’s a lot of opportunity to do that when we collaborate, for sure.”
DO YOU RELY ON THE PENSKE SAFETY GURU? IS THAT WHO YOU GO TO IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION? “Yeah, absolutely. Penske is really strong when it comes to the safety of the cars. No one there has raised any red flags, which I guess is probably part of my confidence, but, then again, they don’t have a car, either, on site. I just don’t know if there’s enough information right now. We’re still in July. It’s not like we’re starting the season. It’s not like we’re in Daytona, but that said, we do have some key tests and moments coming up, but I think we should let those play out a little bit before getting too excited.”
DO YOU THINK THE CARS WILL GET BUILT FOR THOSE TEST? “Yeah. From what I understand, I saw all the cars. I mean, the chassis are there and the parts are there. It’s a matter, for the most part, of assembly — to get them to go for the Daytona test. Assuming they’re released in the next month or so, I think that will happen.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang — DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE CHANGES HERE AT ATLANTA FOR NEXT YEAR? “No, I got blindsided. I had no idea.”
WOULD IT HELP IF YOU GUYS WOULD HAVE HAD A HEADS-UP? “Yes, it would have helped.”
WHY DO YOU THINK THERE WASN’T ONE? “It beats me. I don’t know. I don’t have the answer. I don’t know why. I feel like the relationship with the drivers and SMI have always kind of been there and been able to talk back and forth, so I don’t know why you’d make it a surprise. I don’t get it. I think something I’ve learned over the last few years is everyone can bring something different to the table. When you bring 10 other people around, that might change your perspective. Well, if we’re all sitting around a table we can probably change each other’s perspective a little bit to come up with what’s the best, but we’ve got to have the meeting to do that. We didn’t have the opportunity to do that.”
DOES NOT HAVING A DRIVER’S COUNCIL HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT? “I don’t know if it’s really a way. There’s a way to communicate with all of us. It’s pretty simple. It’s not like we need something formally structured. I think we could all be big boys about it and talk about things. It’s a small group. We all see the same people every week, so it’s not too hard to call somebody no matter what it is. I’m not just saying this about the racetrack, no matter what it is. I’m a big fan of communicating, so that’s all it takes.”
YOU USED THE WORD BLINDSIDED, BUT IS IT A CASE OF JUST TALKING TO YOU ABOUT IT EVEN IF THEY DON’T TAKE YOUR IDEAS? “Yeah, that’s OK. That wouldn’t break my heart. It probably would have been a good thing to do or at least get an opinion. When I sit in these meeting now when you bring an owner, you bring a track promoter, you bring TV, you bring a driver, you bring a team president of some sort and they all have different opinions of what makes sense and what works, so you all kind of work together to figure out what that is. I don’t see why we would do that any differently on a repave. We don’t own the track, so I guess at the same point you could say it’s none of my business.”
IS THE NARROWNESS OF THE NEW TRACK WHAT GOT YOUR ATTENTION? “Just the direction of where we’re going, I guess we’re wondering why more banking? What are we trying to achieve. I think that’s probably the question we’re all asking and wondering right now.”
ARE THERE SAFETY CONCERNS? “It depends on what the car is like and what the Next Gen car is gonna be. What speeds are we gonna be carrying? What rules package are we gonna be bringing? I think all of those questions. As soon as you say repave and you add more banking, ok, we’re going more towards a Daytona type of racetrack. What does that mean for speed and what rules package are we gonna bring to the table.”
ANY WORRIES ABOUT THE CRASH TEST RESULTS FROM TALLADEGA AND WAITING ON THAT? “I haven’t heard it yet. I think we’re all curious. It’s our butts in the car and our heads in the car. The car looks strong. It looks strong, which is good in a lot of ways, but in other ways you’ve got to have some crush zones, so I think we’re all curious to see what the numbers come back at.”
iRACING SIMULATION PLAYED A ROLE IN THIS REPAVE. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT MINDSET? “I think it’s a tool and every tool has a limitation no matter what you’re doing. We use simulation all the time building our race cars and I can tell you we know there are limitations to it because if we went 100 percent off that sim, we would be off in left field without bringing some real life data into it and forming that out. So, there are limitations to everything we do.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Summer Road Trip Ford Mustang — WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ATLANTA RECONFIGURATION? “I don’t think it’s very good. I think the proper thing to do would probably be to build a short track. The cheapest thing to do is probably just leave the walls where they are and hope for the best. I don’t think that worked out well for Texas. I don’t think it worked out well for Bristol. I don’t think it worked out well for Kentucky. I don’t think any of those were very good, so I think if you just keep winging it and don’t get the driver’s input, you’re just gonna keep getting the same conclusion.”
YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH MARCUS SMITH, SO DO YOU GO TO HIM AND SAY SOMETHING OR IS IT UP TO THEM TO COME TO YOU? “You would think that you would want the driver’s input, and I think a lot of times the thought process is, ‘Well, we need to make the drivers uncomfortable.’ Instead, you wind up with a media press conference that winds up all about your track repave that you didn’t ask any of the drivers about, so it is what it is.”
ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY DRIVERS THAT HAD BEEN CONSULTED? “I hadn’t really asked. I’m just of the opinion that they don’t care. They just do what they want.”
WHAT KIND OF EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT DO YOU HAVE ABOUT THIS LAST RACE ON THIS SURFACE? “I love to come to this particular racetrack just because of the history that it has in my past, and I think obviously when you look back at the first win and everything that happened on that particular day and everything that went on is just forever there. It’s always got a special place and I think for the drivers in general this place is special just because of the way that you race on it and you go about racing in general here at this particular racetrack. It’s just a fun place to race because it’s just so challenging with the bumps and the asphalt and everything that comes with that. This isn’t the first time that we’ve had the repave talk and the uproar over the pavement. I think it’s the first time that everybody has had the planned pitched on them three days before the race and said, ‘Oh, iRacing designed this.’ I’ve been in some really, really horrific iRacing events where the tracks drive nothing like the race cars. It’s not anything personal against iRacing, but you wouldn’t design an airplane and go fly it with passengers in it before you tested it, and I think the input that comes with the knowledge of things, that come with the drivers and the way that the cars are and the things that happen are important, so you can’t have a bunch of suits designing a racetrack.”
HOW DO YOU FIX THE DIVIDE BETWEEN THE SPORT, THE ENTERTAINMENT AND TRYING TO ATTRACT YOUNG FANS? “I’ve got too much to do to worry about that.”
HAVE YOU HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT THAT TALLADEGA CRASH TEST LAST WEEK? “I have not.”
DO YOU START PRESSING NASCAR FOR DATA ON SAFETY AND THAT CAR? “As we sat in the driver’s meeting that NASCAR had with us to show us everything, I think the most frustrating part of the whole process is the fact that the safety piece to the drivers and the conversation with the drivers, which was asked for by the drivers, was had at the very end of everything. I think as you look at that, I think the guys driving the cars are owed at least the respect, enough to at least be a part of the process of what’s going on. I think it’s that and the racetrack and I think everybody is a little bit frustrated with just how all of that has been handled.”
THEY’RE USING DR. RADDIN, WHO DID THE EARNHARDT INVESTIGATION, AND USING PEOPLE WHO ARE RESPECTED. “Yeah, but you have to remember that most everybody who races in this deal now doesn’t know who Dr. Radon is and doesn’t know much about Dale Earnhardt’s wreck. That’s the part you’ve got to remember. You’ve got to remember that this is a whole new generation of guys that haven’t been privy to who the doctor was in Dale Earnhardt’s wreck. Seeing NASCAR’s presentation and the things that they’ve done with the car is very impressive and the data and all the things that go with that is very impressive and how they lay the crashes out in the simulation that they have. I think it’s just when the drivers were a part of the process is why everybody is a little frustrated with that, and, here we are, we’re supposed to go to Bristol in a month with our car to do a tire test and can’t get chassis. Chassis are held until the crash testing is done, so it’s the middle of July.”
WHEN WAS THAT MEETING WITH THE DRIVERS? “I can’t remember.”
WAS THERE ONLY ONE? “We’ve had a few meetings.”
DO YOU THINK YOU’LL MAKE THAT BRISTOL TEST? “No. There’s no way. It’s in a month.”
