NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAYS
FEBRUARY 14, 2024
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 RICHARD CHILDRESS CAMARO ZL1 – 2024 Daytona 500 Media Day Quotes
Being a defending winner of the Daytona 500, how does it feel coming back for another Daytona 500?
“The events I think about are 2021 and last year, so the ones you didn’t win. Probably the most dominant race car I had here would have been in 2021 when (Michael) McDowell won. Won the Duel, ran inside the top-five all day and just were very close to winning that race and we finished third. That one was one that was everything, man. That was a magical weekend – to run the Duel, running top-three and close to winning another one. And then you come back last year and Kyle (Busch) and I find ourselves first and second coming to the white flag when the caution falls, and then you know, mayhem ensues after that restart and trying to push him around the backstretch. And then I get hit, and those are the ones you think of that got away. There’s potential of having three Daytona 500 wins by now in my career, so that gives you even that much more confidence. You know how to find that way, to be in that position in this thing, so it gets you excited.”
“Losing definitely hurts, but it also gives you the confidence that there is a pattern here. There’s a reason why I’m able to get to the end of these things and be in a position to win. You lean back on that confidence.. that pattern you’ve been able to create as a driver here. You use that to your advantage.”
What do you feel has been your strength, particularly in the NextGen car, on these superspeedways?
“I’d say even before the Next Gen car, I thought RCR and ECR has a bigger advantage. The Next Gen has really tightened up the field, so you have to be strategic about not making a mistake and putting yourself in a good position. I think transitioning on pit stops strategy, that’s become such a big part of these things now. Getting on pit road cleanly; getting in line and getting up to speed fast. ECR horsepower, I think, is a big part of that. We’ve always had strong engines at the speedways, and then Kyle (Busch) is a good speedway racer. He hasn’t won here at the 500, but he’s a dang good speedway racer. He puts himself in good position, and I’ve worked with him in past in Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup even when we weren’t aligned. Now, I think last year, the Talladega win for Kyle – that was a lot on him saying ‘Hey, I’m not coming down pit road for fuel’, and then he drove his butt off. Last year, it was just kind of a weird 500 with how it worked out. We found ourselves in a really good position there at the end. We’re linked up, and Kyle gave me a hand signal with five or six to go – went outside of the two most dominant cars and were in that great position we were in.”
What did you glean from Kyle (Busch) last year during his first full year at RCR?
“I think just his competitive nature. He truly eats, sleeps, and breathes racing. When he’s not at a NASCAR track, he’s at a dirt track with Brexton (his son) and racing when Brexton isn’t racing. He is just a competitor, and he’s very good at explaining what he wants in the racecar. What we need to do to get better. He’s one of those people that at all costs, he’s trying to make things better.”
With the hybrid that is Atlanta now, what did you have to learn to be successful at that track given the change in the track and change in the car?
“I haven’t been successful at Atlanta, so I’ve got to go to work on that one. Truthfully, since we’ve gone to Atlanta… in the first race, we were pretty good. I got turned at the end of the stage, and if we didn’t, we would’ve finished second or third. That was probably one of the best cars I’ve had there. Past that, Atlanta has been… I’ve had some massive hits there.
I think this time around, it’s coming up with a game plan. When you don’t have a game plan going into one of these races that you can’t truly commit to, you kind of get stuck in the middle and you don’t know what you’re doing, and it usually doesn’t turn out good. You’ve got to be committed to strategy and stick to that strategy. That’s a part of speedway racing. I’m not going to go all day and try and lead every lap or am I going to ride around and make a charge. But you can’t just be in the middle like I’m just going to figure it out. Sometimes that works, but I feel like being decisive on one of the two places you want to be.”
“Atlanta has been really weird, and it’s still changing. I think the track with another winter on it, it could be slicker. But we’re going to be there when it’s probably cold and we’ll have grip. You’ll be in between trying to take as much downforce as you can and drag out, and we’ll try to choose a path. We just haven’t been great there yet, but we’ve just got to figure it out.”
On Atlanta, you talked about it being a hybrid and taking massive hits at Atlanta, but is the crashing the same? Meaning, there’s usually not a single-car crash at Daytona. Is it the same way at Atlanta?
“If you’re involved in a wreck, it’s going to suck either way. Atlanta is similar crashing to Daytona. It did spread out on the long green flag run in the summertime, or whenever the second race was when pit stops started happening. But it seems to kind of yoyo back together.”
The Chevy bodies have remained, but in figuring out how Ford and Toyota draft, is that something that will change how we see racing in the Duels tomorrow?
“I tried to talk to some of the guys in the Ford camp when I was on RaceHub, and just say ‘Hey, what do you think of the new car? Is it going to change the way you guys have drafted?’. The only thing I got was that they felt the nose might be a little more pointed, not as rounded as it has been. That’s kind of been our Achilles’ Heel from the Chevrolet standpoint, is being to successfully push at all times, whereas the Fords can kind of push us and push themselves very well. We’ve always had to be a little more strategic in how we push and communicate to each other the best way to push with our car. If that brings that in to play for them, I think there will be a learning curve, first of all. They will probably wreck a couple of cars, if it’s a little more pointed. And then once they figure that out, it will be normal. It’s a little harder when the nose doesn’t line up great.”
If one (a Ford) is behind you in the Duels, is it something you don’t feel comfortable with?
“It’s hard. I think you’re going to just have to take it at the start if they’ve got a run and that guy is being aggressive. You can probably feel it right off. If you catch it quick, and it’s in the backstretch or in the tri-oval, the backstretch can sometimes be as bad as the tri-oval depending upon your setup. Hopefully you’ve built the car that it will receive a push as good as possible. The Duel is the time to test it. The racing in the Duels have been kind of odd the last year or so. It’s hard to be aggressive in the Duel because you have the one pit stop that really matters, and I feel like everyone plans around that one pit stop. So if you get yourself out of position before that pit stop, you’re kind of screwed. It’s hard to make a big gain, where it used to be where you could make moves and get yourself back to position. Now, it starts from the drop of the green flag that you’re positioning yourself for the pit stop and how you leave pit road. Definitely got to figure that out because you want to know how good your car is handling. Whenever everyone is running around the bottom in one line or everyone is splitting up, you’re not really getting that handling sensation. I remember leaving the Duel last year thinking my car is good. I mentioned handling was going to be an issue, but it didn’t… But in Sunday it was a big issue compared to the Duel. You’re running at night, you’re not running two- or three-wide as much, so when you go to say ‘Hey, my car is this or that,’ it’s got to be double the effect, usually, for the (Daytona) 500 because of the heat and more cars on track.
Is the dynamic going to change with three additional Toyotas in that camp?
“You’ll see them out there, and you’ll see it… It’ll probably take the first time when a guy that was a Chevy and is now a Toyota, would have probably stuck with you, but now… They’ll just be stronger. It definitely helps when you have numbers, but we all find each other out there and having to work with each other at certain times – Toyota, Ford and Chevy. But, Chevy is who I’m going to commit to when it comes down to it, and they know that.”
Where do you see yourself now in the sport, and where do you see yourself in five years?
“I feel like I’m at a place where I need to step up and take that next step, to try and get to a multi-win season. Go further than I’ve ever gone in the Playoffs. My ultimate goal since I’ve got to the Cup level is to be the first guy to win a championship at all three levels. That is still where my head is at. I’ve been able to see a lot of changes throughout my career, starting when Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Dale Jr. were in the Cup level and I got to race against those guys. Now, we’re at a whole new change of the car, a new racecar, new style of racing, so I’m going to try and do my best to put myself and my name back in that top tier of guys. Last year was one of those years where you just got kicked and kicked, and I was wondering when it was going to end. This year is a fresh start. Everybody is excited to go, my family, everybody being at the track to support us, so it’s going to be a good year. Just want to put myself where I feel I can be, and that’s in that top tier. I’ve been there before, and I want to be a multi-win guy at the Cup level.”
How much is having Kyle Busch in the building, helped you push to elevate yourself that much more?
“Kyle always shows the capability of the racecars, and that’s big. He pushes it, and if it’s not there, he’s going to push it past that. It’s good to see that. It gives you confidence knowing where we stand as an organization, and what you can accomplish.”
Does coming back here as a previous winner (in 2018) take any pressure off coming into this week?
“Once you’ve won it, you put the pressure on yourself because you want to do it again. You know what that experience is like. I don’t feel pressure from the outside, because I’ve already become a Daytona 500 champion. But, it’s more for me, because I enjoy this place, everything that it is, the victory lane here and what comes with it. Once you win here, it’s a game-changer. Not very often do you get to live in your dream, because everybody dreams about winning something, and dreaming about winning the Daytona 500 was one of those dreams for a long time for me. Then, you go and accomplish it, and you get to live in it. You taste it. It’s something you crave after that.”
What’s the sense you get from Kyle (Busch), who has won just about everything but this? Is there extra incentive over this one?
“I think everybody at our shop knows it for Kyle this is huge, and we’d like to give him that opportunity. Kyle puts extra on this race. He wants it. He’s so good at driving a racecar that this race will never define his career, but I know the competitor he his. He wants it bad, and he will be one to reckon with this weekend.”
Have you talked through strategies if it comes down to the last final laps with you two what to do?
“Yeah, we’ll probably try and figure out what we did wrong last year. (Laughs.) Last year came down to the perfect situation, and the caution comes out. The perfect situation ended up changing quick. Our cars just didn’t take off well because we couldn’t push great. Our cars were fast once you got them going, but we had to get through that first lap to really have the shot we needed. It was green, and we needed it to go green. This year, if that situation comes, we’ve made adjustments to our cars that hopefully they will handle better in that position where we really have to push super hard. On top of the fact that, maybe, we decide to change up our strategy, not be in a line, and split ourselves up, and try and get back together once we get going. We’ll have strategy, for sure, for that same situation because we’ve experienced it now.”
Does Richard (Childress) poke his head in there to give advice, being experienced?
“He gives us advice on the radio during the moment, usually. His opinion is always wanted, and when he talks, he usually has very good points, because he tries to cover them all.”
What conversations did you have in the offseason when trying to figure out how or what was more necessary to make improvements?
“I think just having a set schedule for to meet each and every weekend to talk about… We’ve already talked about the races, but to sit down and go over video together, eating lunch together, there’s not a whole lot we can do, just be better as a group. We’ve added a couple of guys, but most of the guys have stayed. The biggest thing, I think, I’ve said in our competition lunch, we went through the hardest thing you can as a team. Last year was a struggle. We hit the wall a lot, a lot of crashes. And then by the end of the year, we started having some pretty good runs. We started ticking off some pretty good runs that were acknowledgeable. For those guys to fight through that, and for them to not leave us… First of all, it’s hard to keep a group of guys together in this sport, because there are always other opportunities in this sport. We were able to retain everybody, and they wanted to be there, and that shows me they believe in what we’ve got as a group. Now, we just got to be smart about how we pick and choose our battles this year, and attack when we’re hot.”
Are there ways that the 3 and the 8 can work closer together and are there things like that, that can be done?
“Yeah, for sure. You know, I think you saw some improvement from us when we started following on the 8 more last year. We just want to bring more to the 8 more often. Last year we used them a lot and we need to do our part and give something back to them from time to time. But yeah, we are definitely going to work on trying to work together the best we can.”
Are there things you have changed over the years to be a better race car driver?
“Yeah, you know, for me I think it is doing as much road racing as I can in the offseason and working with Josh Wise and his program has been big. I have improved a lot on the road racing thing a lot and that was big for me, but even looking for ways for me to be better on the ovals. I have always thought that ovals come more natural to me, so I haven’t put a lot of extra effort into becoming a better oval racer, but now I look at it a lot more differently when I am working with Josh and those guys. Just trying to take everything I can and use it.”
The 1.5-mile tracks with the Next Gen car…how has that racing changed and how do you think it’s improved?
“I think the racing on the 1.5-mile tracks is probably the best racing we have now with this new car. It really seems to put on a good show, and you find certain times and tracks that race really (inaudible). The restarts are really pretty wild.”
In the year since Kyle (Busch) joined, what has changed and what has improved with RCR going into year two?
“Yeah, I think everybody is just putting in a little extra effort. Kyle really demands that and does a good job of pushing everybody in the shop to give us the best we can. Our communication is good and we are learning more about the simulator together and what tools we have and can properly use.”
Talk about Ty (Dillon) racing in the Trucks and if it is disappointing not to race against him?
“I think he is excited about the opportunity to go out there and be competitive each and every weekend. Obviously, it’s a bummer not seeing him on Sunday’s as much, but I think he’s got some opportunities there as well. I am seeing him in the simulator because he has been taking on some simulator time for our team. So, communicating with him like that is a little different because we haven’t been teammates at that level and that type of capacity, so having him at the shop and simulator like that is cool.”
With there being five different champions in this series the past five years, how have you seen the parity change?
“For sure. I was in the years where Jimmie Johnson was dominating, and you couldn’t touch him. So, definitely the Next Gen brought something to our sport and that was very competitive calibration. What would you call it? Brought everybody together.”
You won this race in 2021 and your teams were close last year. Does it matter to have to have a bad or good run in the Daytona 500 to make a difference and how long does that last?
“Yeah, I mean a great run here can carry you for weeks. Just because there are extra points to get in the Dual and then, yes, it’s just a huge momentum boost because every one of your partners and fans are going to be watching it.”
Are there ways that the 3 and the 8 can work closer together, and are there things like that, that can be done?
“Yeah, for sure. You know, I think you saw some improvement from us when we started following on the 8 (Kyle Busch) more last year. We just want to bring more to the 8, more often. Last year, we used them a lot and we need to do our part and give something back to them from time to time. But yeah, we are definitely going to work on trying to work together the best we can.”
Are there things you have changed over the years to be a better race car driver?
“Yeah, you know, for me – I think it is doing as much road racing as I can in the offseason, and working with Josh Wise and his program has been big. I have improved a lot on the road racing thing a lot and that was big for me. But even looking for ways for me to be better on the ovals. I have always thought that ovals come more natural to me, so I haven’t put a lot of extra effort into becoming a better oval racer, but now I look at it a lot more differently when I am working with Josh and those guys. Just trying to take everything I can and use it.”
The 1.5-mile tracks with the Next Gen car…how has that racing changed and how do you think it’s improved?
“I think the racing on the 1.5-mile tracks is probably the best racing we have now with this new car. It really seems to put on a good show, and you find certain times and tracks that race really (inaudible). The restarts are really pretty wild.”
In the year since Kyle Busch joined, what has changed and what has improved with RCR going into year two?
“Yeah, I think everybody is just putting in a little extra effort. Kyle really demands that and does a good job of pushing everybody in the shop to give us the best we can. Our communication is good and we are learning more about the simulator together and what tools we have and can properly use.”
Talk about Ty (Dillon) racing in the Trucks and if it is disappointing not to race against him?
“I think he is excited about the opportunity to go out there and be competitive each and every weekend. Obviously, it’s a bummer not seeing him on Sunday’s as much, but I think he’s got some opportunities there, as well. I am seeing him in the simulator because he has been taking on some simulator time for our team. So, communicating with him like that is a little different because we haven’t been teammates at that level and that type of capacity, so having him at the shop and simulator like that is cool.”
With there being five different champions in this series the past five years, how have you seen the parity change?
“For sure. I was in the years where Jimmie Johnson was dominating, and you couldn’t touch him. So, definitely the Next Gen car brought something to our sport and that was very competitive calibration. What would you call it? Brought everybody together.”
You won this race in 2021 and your teams were close last year. Does it matter to have to have a bad or good run in the Daytona 500 to make a difference and how long does that last?
“Yeah, I mean a great run here can carry you for weeks, just because there are extra points to get in the Dual. And then, yes – it’s just a huge momentum boost because every one of your partners and fans are going to be watching it.”
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