Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 Media Day | Wednesday, February 12, 2025
COREY LAJOIE, No. 01 Take 5 Oil Change/DuraMax Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS YEAR? “In the right situation with the right people, I can be a competitive guy in the Cup Series each and every week, but that wasn’t in the cards this year, so I’m kind of taking a step back to look at the game board and figure out how to move my chess pieces around a little bit to get myself in the best position. Certainly, this is an incredible situation this weekend with Take 5 Oil Change, DuraMax and Rick and he’s allowing me to put the 01 Stacking Pennies performance brand on there that’s gonna allow me to do some cool things in the future. Short term, we’ll just have some fun today and tomorrow. You don’t realize how special an event this is until you continue to get down here, but also when you have to work for it on the qualifying days on Wednesday and Thursday. That gives you another whole appreciation for it, that you’re not guaranteed into the show and that makes you want to race for something on Thursday night.”
HOW HAS THE PROCESS BEEN SO FAR? “You just have to have your checklist of what you want to get accomplished. You want to make sure the car is at a good platform. You want to make sure that all the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted to be the fastest you possibly can, but there are some really strong, big affiliated team cars that obviously need to qualify in as well, so I anticipate a couple other teams laying some better single car speed down, so my focus is on Thursday night.”
DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT YOUR SCHEDULE LOOKS LIKE FOR THIS YEAR? “Yeah, I’ve got a decent idea. We’re trying to add a couple more races if we can get them sold. The RWR group really worked hard to get Tim Brown’s car to the Clash a couple weeks ago and my car to the racetrack for the first two weeks of the year. That’s a heavy load for those guys and I don’t want to bog those guys down. I want to be an asset behind the scenes for those guys all year because they’re gonna allow me to do some cool things. I should be able to be in a Cup race a month. We’ll see and certainly excited about the Amazon opportunity as well.”
A GOOD PERFORMANCE WOULD HELP WITH SPONSORSHIP. “It always does and the biggest thing here is the purse. That’s why you see nine cars coming for five spots. They throw their name in the hat and be one of the participants in the 67th Daytona 500. Everybody comes down. You don’t have a media day for any other event of the year besides Phoenix at the end of the year and the Daytona 500.”
HOW MUCH DOES EXPERIENCE HELP FOR SOME OF THESE OPEN TEAMS? “Experience certainly helps. This is my ninth Daytona 500. I’ve ran all of the Next Gen speedway races, so I think that will probably help me in the Thursday night race more so than qualifying. I feel like you can get in my car and drive it as fast as I can here tonight, but it’s the details of tomorrow night. It’s how much fuel you can save and retain a bit of the track position, have a good pit road entry, have clean pit road in and out and then blend and try to get up to speed and you get your group to blend as close to the front as possible and that’s where the money is made. The devil is in the details and hopefully we can stack enough pennies on Thursday night to put ourselves in a position to make it.”
HOW STRESSFUL IS TODAY AND TOMORROW? “It’s weird. I have the least amount of stress coming down here than I ever have. The first one coming down here you are scared because you don’t know what you don’t know, and you want to make it. I think there were only two people I had to beat in my Duel at that point in time. I was able to make it in there, which changed the trajectory of my career, but this time I know what it takes. I know that I can control what I can control and there’s as much outside of my control as within my control. If I do everything I possibly can. If I hit the marks and check all the boxes that we need to check on Thursday night, then I can drive my bus home whatever day that is, whether it’s Friday morning or Monday morning with my head held high and know that I gave it a good shot.”
DOES HAVING A FEW RACES WITH RWR LAST YEAR BUILD SOME CONFIDENCE? “That’s a good question. It certainly helps having a couple of races under our belts. We had seven last year with that group and I think it’s a motivated group. I like a lot of those guys from the top down and they work hard and do a lot of the little things. I think it means a lot more knowing those guys working hard in the offseason getting my car built and allowing me to get this additional car added to their stable, so, yeah, it means a lot to myself but also to everyone in that building as well.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE TRANSITIONING TO THE WOOD BROTHERS? “It’s been a lot of fun getting to know those guys. There’s obviously a lot of great history, a lot of tradition there, so it’s been fun. They’re kicking off their 75th year and we’re excited to get going and want to have a solid season.”
YOU TALKED WITH JOEY AFTER PRACTICE. HOW IS IT TO HAVE SOMEONE LIKE HIM AS A RESOURCE? “I think, for us, today I had a question about how the rear camber was set up inside the car. What he used last year. He had changed to a different one and just kind of getting some information on that and just making sure that I had everything like I needed to for the Duels tomorrow night. It’s always a challenge going to a new team, a new organization. You get used to things being done a certain way like I did last year with the inside of the car and trying to adapt to them, figuring out what worked and what I’m used to. It always takes a little bit of time to get that stuff figured out.”
WHAT CAN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE HERE LAST YEAR WHEN YOU RAN WELL? “I think that was, when I look over the course of last year, that was definitely probably one of our strongest races. Obviously, superspeedway racing is its own animal, but I think looking back on that we watched, even on the 21 car we watched a lot of that race from my perspective to see how that unfolded and I was just able to take away a lot of confidence from it. I think learning this car and how to race and the things we did well on that and obviously we raced up front all night, had a shot at it at the end, but it’s something we still looked back on that really strongly.”
HAVE YOU BEEN TO STUART? “Yeah, it’s probably been a month ago that I spent about half a day. It was really awesome with just a ton of stuff there. There’s so much history. It was really cool.”
DID LEONARD SHOW YOU SOME OF HIS PROJECTS? “We saw all that stuff and he gave us the same demonstration with opening up the doors and firing up the engine. It’s so cool. It just keeps him busy and he has a ball working on all that stuff, and for me just seeing all the historic cars with the uniforms, the trophies, the photos. I mean, how meticulously it was organized. It’s a must-see for any NASCAR fan.”
HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO GET YOUR PICTURE UP ON THAT WINNER’S WALL? “Yeah, they pointed it out. They got a spot there for me, so that’s most definitely the goal.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE SEEING JR. MOTORSPORTS HAVE A CUP HAULER PULL IN HERE? “I think it’s really cool seeing the appreciation and the humility Dale and Kelly has for this opportunity. You can see how much it truly means to him to be here and I think that really shows how important and how amazing it is to be an owner or a driver and to be competing in the Cup Series. I still have several friends at Jr. Motorsports and they said, ‘Yeah, Dale is gonna be there at 6 a.m. when the hauler unloaded,’ and we kind of laughed, but he did it. I saw it. That’s really cool. I know they’re excited and hopefully they have a good weekend.”
YOU WEREN’T TEMPTED TO JOIN HIM AT 6 AM? “No. Having a five-year-old and a little baby, we take the sleep when we can get it.”
WHAT DID LAST YEAR’S DAYTONA 500 EXPERIENCE MEAN TO YOU? “It’s such an iconic race and to be here you really truly don’t understand and appreciate it until you get to the race day and all of the pre-race festivities and everything that goes along with it really shows how big of an event this is. It’s one we all look forward to. We all want to win. We all want to kick off our season on a strong note. We want to have a solid finish, but it’s still always cool to come here and race.”
THE 500 HAS MEANT A LOT TO THE WOOD BROTHERS. HAVE YOU TALKED TO THEM ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO THEM? “I think that goes without being said. They’ve obviously had a lot of success here and going back over the course of decades. It’s one of their favorites to be here and have another crack at it in year 75. I know they’re excited. I feel like we had a lot of fun at Bowman Gray getting things started. I know they’re excited and we’re ready to get here racing.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET OFF TO A SOLID START THIS YEAR? “Yeah, I think it’s really important, especially with the start to the year having Daytona, Atlanta and then even COTA, which has been a challenge for me. If we can have some solid runs here these first few weeks, I think it’ll definitely help build a lot of momentum for us going forward. We feel like we’re gonna have great opportunities at the short tracks, some of the intermediates that I ran really well at last year, I think, we’re gonna have circled as really good opportunities for us, but these races can go one way or the other and we want to score as many points and have as good a finish as we can.”
WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTATIONS? “It’s always hard to set expectations, especially when you’re going into a new situation. You really have to judge how the beginning part of the season is and adjust your goals accordingly. If we come out running really well, I think making the playoffs and winning a race is most definitely possible and we’re just gonna have to see how that unfolds. Once we get to some of the intermediates later in the season and see how we stack up, then we’ll have a better idea.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PENSKE ALLIANCE? “We most definitely have an alliance with them, so we obviously work close with those guys and how they run. Even for me now, having teammates that are champions is gonna help accelerate my learning curve and limit some distractions around the shop. I’m gonna be able to lean on those guys as much as I need to to learn, and I think that’s all putting me in a really good situation.”
WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE FOR YOU LAST YEAR? “I don’t know. That’s hard to say. Last year was so emotional from the start. I think before we even made it here we heard all the background noise about what was going on and whether a charter was getting sold, multiple charters. I don’t know. It’s hard to really take in. On the racetrack, I knew it was gonna be hard. I raced for HMS the year before. I knew how tough those races were, but I did have good results in most of them, so that made me optimistic, but last year was just a lot harder off the racetrack than I expected and all of us expected. You have 200-300 people spent time looking for work, so I think I’m looking at this as a fresh start in a really established group with a lot of great people around me and I think it’s important for me to personally use that as a fresh start and go into this with an open mind, no different than I did when I was subbing for Chase and Alex.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Speedy Cash Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT TO RETURN TO FRONT ROW? “I’ve told this story a couple times, so I may sound like a broken record. I don’t care if you believe me or not, but I still have the text saved in my phone, but the day I was actually let go and headed back home I was on the highway and got a text message from Bob Jenkins saying, ‘Are you all set for next year?’ And I answered, ‘Believe it or not, I’ve got something for you.’ So, yeah, just crazy how the world works. Bob and I would joke that we hoped we would get to work together again and I’m just excited to have another shot, especially with how the back half of last year went. I’m excited to apply what I know now. Like I said, I got to go to the Ford Launch a couple weeks ago and it was really cool seeing a lot of familiar faces there. There’s a lot of excitement going on right now and I’m just ready to get going.”
YOU HAVE WORKED WITH BERGENTY BEFORE. HOW MUCH DOES THAT HELP? “Yeah, I mean I had talked a little bit with Jerry Freeze about personnel and what the teams were gonna look like and it sounded like right away that they were gonna build a new group around Todd, but I think a lot of that group was with Chris Lawson, so they kind of just pushed that group onto that car and plugged Todd in there. Todd has obviously been at FRM for a few years now, so it was great to have the 38 team stay the same and you just plug me right in. I believe that’s the best way to do it in this situation, so thinking back on those starts I had with Ryan that was his rookie year and that will definitely pay off. I’m thankful for those starts I had, so I’m excited to get back to work with Ryan. He’s an incredibly hard working dude. He’s very fiery, but he’s on it. He’s very hands-on and I feel that’s the crew chief that I want, so I’m excited to get to work.”
YOU HAD A TOP 10 IN THE COKE 600. “Yeah, that was my first Coke 600 and I think my second race with Ryan or something like that, and I was able to get a top 10 out of that long day. That was super cool, but hopefully there are more of those to come in the future.”
HOW DOES THAT HELP WITH EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS YEAR? “Something I love about Ryan is he’s aggressive on strategy calls and that’s what you need to have at the Cup level. In my one year of experience you realize how close everyone is. If you’re a little bit off that day, use it to your advantage and do something crazy and you never know what it could turn into. Nashville, for me, simply turned my year around is the prime example of that, so hopefully we’re gonna run into those races this year where you may be a little off, but I’m confident that Ryan and the whole 38 team will fight hard and get us through it.”
ARE EXPECTATIONS HIGHER THIS YEAR? “Expectations are expectations. I have my own. I’m just gonna try to execute everything to the best of my ability and go put together a solid weekend. It takes everything from how well your practice went to how well you qualify, and then if you have a good qualifying session typically your stage one can go well and then if you can survive stage one at a higher level, then the majority of your other race will go well. That’s just a product of learning these longer races. The Truck Series is sometimes like the length of the first stage of a Cup race. It took a little time to learn that and I felt like I did and I knew then how to really approach the weekend and that’s what makes a difference between someone who has been doing this 20 years versus one year.”
YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN THIS OPPORTUNITY IF YOU DIDN’T FEEL YOU COULD BE COMPETITIVE, RIGHT? “Absolutely. I have a lot of confidence in them and what they’re building, what they’re growing into, and I know Bob’s mindset. He is a winner at this level. He’s been able to win the Daytona 500. We’ve been able to give him a NASCAR championship and I like to believe that lit a fire in him and he wants to go show who he really is. He’s a winner and hopefully we can go deliver him some trophies.”
WHY DOES FRONT ROW FEEL LIKE HOME? “You judge your home by the people that it’s surrounded with and when I walk into the shop they’re my family. We got to have so many great memories and from a Ford standpoint I got to see firsthand about the Ford family. Once I won my championship I got to go have lunch with Edsel and hear the stories as you can imagine are as cool as you think, and just spend some time with Jim Farley and it was pretty amazing. I’m just really thankful that I get to be back in that Ford family and hopefully go put some Blue Ovals up front and contend for some wins.”
HOW SPECIAL IS IT TO HAVE TWO FRIENDS AS TEAMMATES? “It’s super cool. I feel like there are some times where you become friends with certain teammates, but it’s pretty rare where the guys you hang out with all week end up literally being the whole team. That’s super cool. It’s exciting and a lot of fun. Hopefully, we bring a fun vibe, but it’s been cool to do some content creation just because it’s easy. We’re good buddies, so it’ll be a fun year.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Kroger/Cottonelle Ford Mustang Dark Horse – CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR STEERING? “Yeah, something broke on our power steering pump right away. I was going into turn three and I was like, ‘That’s a lot of smoke,’ and then I was like, ‘He said we might drag the skirts,’ my crew chief Jeremy Bullins, but that seemed like a lot of smoke and I had about 10 seconds to process it. I was going down the frontstretch and I radioed my spotter, TJ Majors, and said, ‘Do you see smoke?’ He said, ‘I see smoke. I smell smoke.’ And I shut it down, so we came in and just replaced it all and we were fine.”
YOU HAVE DONE ALL THERE IS TO DO EXCEPT WIN THIS RACE. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF IT NEVER HAPPENED? “It would be a gap, for sure, but I’m probably not looking at it from not having it, I’m looking at it from the more optimistic, positive side of having it. It’s a big race, certainly the biggest purse, the biggest media and fan attention and that makes it a race you just want to win, whether it’s once, twice, three times, it doesn’t get old.”
WHAT DOES THE DAYTONA 500 MEAN TO YOU? “I just see it as a prestige race. It’s not a season performance indicator. It’s a prestige race. It’s probably the opposite of a season. The prestige is real. It’s one of those things that once you win, people remember it and it carries throughout your career.”
IF YOU WIN THE 500 AS AN OWNER WITH RYAN OR CHRIS, HOW WOULD THAT FEEL? “I haven’t been there. I guess I’d have to walk in those shoes before I could really answer that question. I could tell you I’d be really proud of them if they were to win it, too. It’s certainly a goal for me in my career to win races as a driver and an owner. Winning one and not the other is still an accomplishment for me the way I see it.”
HOW DO YOU TAKE THE EXPERIENCE AND SUCCESS YOU HAVE AN IMPART THAT TO YOUR TEAMMATES TO HELP THEM? “I just try to help them with things I see. I’d rather not go into any specifics, but you just watch and point and kind of ask. Chris and Ryan are great racers. They’re winners, but, like anybody, any great talent or athlete still needs coaching and I try to coach them the same way I’d want to be coached. I guess it’s that simple.”
WHAT IS A PRIORITY WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 OR WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “Well, this time of year the first. The former rather than the latter, which is normal. I compare it to having kids. When you get married the first thing everybody asks is when you’re gonna have a kid and then when you have the first kid you’re like, ‘People are gonna stop asking me that,’ and then people ask me, ‘When are you having another kid?’ So it’s always onto the next thing and I understand that.”
DO YOU EVER WONDER OR NOT AT ALL ABOUT YOU MIGHT NOT WIN THIS RACE? “Yes and no. I mean, when you’re here and in the moment and you want it really bad, those questions tend to come to light, but once the race is over you move on to the next task or challenge ahead, which when they load those haulers up Sunday night it’s gonna be all Atlanta. It’s over. Daytona doesn’t exist anymore and that’s some of the beauty to a NASCAR season. We talk about the hard part, which is the grind of thirty-some weeks, but one of the beauties of it is when you have a bad week there’s always another one right in front of you to recover from and there’s a chance to put it behind you and move on.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU APPRECIATE YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP COMING EARLY IN YOUR CAREER AND HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU WANT TO WIN YOUR SECOND ONE AND WILL IT FEEL DIFFERENT? “It would definitely feel different to win another championship. I’m in a different place in my life in so many ways, personally, professionally and beyond, that that feels like another life. I’m sure anyone else would attest. I won that when I was 28 and now I’m 40, so it’s different – your twenties to your forties and the things that stand out as things you recognize and appreciate versus what you don’t. I’d love to be in a position to have that problem.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST GRATIFYING PART FOR YOU SINCE STEPPING INTO OWNERSHIP? “It’s always seeing people grow, being a part of other people’s success. It’s kind of the ultimate forum of altruism. I’m fortunate enough to have my own foundation and I’ve got to do charitable work, which is great, and I don’t want to slam it any regard, but the ultimate altruism to me is seeing people grow and seeing them be successful. Being a business owner itself is not just altruism, but there are altruistic aspects to it that I’m just proud to be a part of. I love seeing young people that have their first success in their professional career or older people that everyone had given up on re-find success or rekindle or prove themselves. It’s just really rewarding and when I came to RFK in 2022, a lot of people were not so high on Chris Buescher and to see a guy like him – since then he’s won five races in three years. That’s pretty good. That’s hard to do, and so I’m really proud of seeing that for him and there are all kinds of stories throughout our company. I’m not trying to just pick one, but that’s certainly the most rewarding.”
IS PREECE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THAT? “Yeah, I think he’s a perfect example. I hope to do for Ryan Preece what we’ve been able to do for Chris, which is establish him as the great driver and potential champion he is.
WHAT DOES PREECE BRING TO THE TEAM THAT MAY HAVE BEEN MISSING? “I don’t know if I can give you a short answer on that. I’ll shoot at it, but there are multiple pieces that Ryan brings. He gets us to a spot where we can get a third team off the ground with somebody that understands what it takes to be successful in motorsports, who candidly fits our budget to do it, who has the work ethic, hunger, desire to achieve it. I don’t know if we could have done any better than Ryan. If you said, ‘Pick anybody you want.’ I feel like we were very fortunate to get him and his hunger, his dedication, his work ethic has proven itself. We’ve had a terrific offseason with him. I’ve seen him grow a lot and we haven’t even gotten to the racetrack. I’m really optimistic and hopeful for him that he can finally have the opportunity to prove why he’s worthy of his spot in this sport.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DO YOU THINK THIS TEAM IS 100 PERCENT IN RYAN PREECE’S CORNER? “Yeah, I do feel that way. I’m not saying that we weren’t before, it’s just sometimes timing is everything. I feel like where RFK is and where they were in 2020, 2021 to where they are now, they’re a team that you look at last year I think there was a stretch of eight or 10 races where one of their cars were top two or whatever it may have been. So, I guess, to say the least as a race car driver you want to drive fast race cars and this is a great opportunity for that. Last year, they showed a lot of great speed. Chris and I have gotten along really well as soon as we were teammates at JTG and he’s always somebody when it comes to when you’re racing with that you can work with each other and help each other whenever you absolutely can, so between that and the experience that Brad has, not only as a team owner, but as well as a teammate, from what I’ve seen bringing a lot to soak up. Obviously, he brought from what I feel a lot for Chris when the two of them became teammates, especially from the superspeedway side, so I’m looking forward to all the different things and going into the 500.”
DOES IT HELP YOUR CONFIDENCE KNOWING THAT EVERYBODY IS 100 PERCENT CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITY? “For sure. I feel really good about it and that’s another thing is having a teammate that’s a co-owner. Something needs to keep on being tweaked, we can really help speed that along. There’s no delay, so there’s a lot to look forward to in that.”
AT WHAT POINT LAST YEAR WERE YOU TOLD SHR WAS GOING TO SHUT DOWN? “I don’t remember exactly. We had a bit of a heads-up, or a little bit of a heads-up before it came publicly. I enjoyed working with Zippy and Chad and the 41 group. It was a good time, but obviously what I think I took away from that entire thing was our group at the end of the year, I felt, did a good job for the circumstances and starting to really find our stride, so I’m happy all of those guys pretty much found a home and I’m looking forward to my new one.”
HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL TO BE ON A TEAM THAT IS ON THE UPSWING? “To me, it feels like a huge opportunity. As I’ve said, having fast race cars is a huge part of this and looking at the past few years, RFK’s processes and cars have certainly just looked really good. They’ve looked fast and having that raw speed is really important nowadays.”
WHAT HAS BEEN SURPRISING SO FAR? “I don’t think anything kind of surprises me because I knew going into it, I guess I knew the expectations going into it, so it’s a very well organized company right now. The support and all the different things that we have at our disposal is nice and I’m looking forward to it.”
HOW HAS IT BEEN FOR YOU TO SEE HOW MUCH BRAD IS INVESTED IN THIS ORGANIZATION? “I think everybody is invested at this point. For me, I’m invested in winning. I hate losing more than I love winning and when I go race outside of the Cup Series, I’ll go through whatever it takes. I’ll stay up until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning like most people or people that want to win, but on RFK’s side, they want to succeed because Kroger and all of the great partners that they have, Build Subs and Fastenal and Fifth Third Bank and Mohawk Northeast, a whole bunch of them, they’re invested in it too. They don’t want to go out and have one car not run well, so I’m excited about it because you can see the push and it’s really neat to be a part of and I feel really good and confident about going into the 500 this year.”
WHAT IS THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN YOURSELF AND YOUR TEAMMATES? “I think we’re very similar people, but different. We have very common interests. The only difference is he likes trucks that are lifted and I like trucks that are lowered, but Chris, we just got along really well. Our personalities got along really well and when we were on the racetrack it was easy to work with him. Obviously, Brad, going into it, he’s got a lot of experience and he’s definitely willing to help us speed up the process of whatever or however he wants us to attack the races because, at the end of the day, it’s gonna make the company better.”
HOW STRONG DO YOU THINK RFK WILL BE AT THE SUPERSPEEDWAYS AND WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND THAT THEY HAVE? “I think the details. I think you guys have talked to Brad and the fan that watch him, the one thing that I’ve learned is he might not be the guy always talking, but he’s the one listening and he’s very detail-oriented. That’s something that I’ve learned about him. I didn’t know how detailed he really was, so I guess to go back an answer your question about superspeedways, why has RFK been successful? They have fast cars, but as well as details. They understand the details. They have a plan of execution and there’s a road map, so it’s something to look forward to.”
IS BRAD OBSESSED WITH THIS ORGANIZATION? ARE YOU OBSESSED? “I’m obsessed and I think at this point to be at this level you have to be obsessed, and to be honest with you, yeah, I agree. Brad is 100 percent obsessed and that’s what you need to be. You need to be consumed by this every second of the day and he is, as well as Chris and myself, so that’s the difference. That’s what I’m liking a lot so far.”
WHAT DOES IT DO FOR YOU AS A DRIVER THAT BRAD HAS SO MUCH FAITH IN YOU? “To be honest with you, that’s just gonna be in the times of need within that group. You’re gonna need that guy that’s gonna be there pushing with you and that just goes to show you, not only myself but RFK, we’re all pushing this team because it’s a group of people that want to win and that’s a difference maker. As a race car driver you always want the support from your team, from your company and we have that, whether that’s Brad, Jack, the Fenway Group or even our sponsors.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW HAS THE ALLIANCE WITH RFK STARTED OUT? “I’ve talked with Brad and they’ve been extremely helpful this whole time through the offseason, all the data, all the sim, and everything that we’ve shared between the two teams has been great. We’re just gonna keep trying to build on it.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY? “It’s definitely exciting getting back in the Cup Series. I’m very thankful because not a lot of people get a second opportunity at this deal, so trying to give everything we’ve got to our team and I think we’ve put a great group together. Everybody has worked extremely hard over the offseason. The alliance with RFK has been great, so we’re just looking to get the year started and see what we can do.”
DO YOU FEEL THE FANS WHO HAVE SUPPORTED YOU THROUGH THIS? “Yeah. It’s cool to see the people that have supported you along the way. Hopefully, you can just keep digging and keep getting things better and better through the year and make them proud.”
WHAT KIND OF ANALYSIS DO YOU HAVE AS TO WHAT THIS RACE WILL LOOK LIKE? “At the end of the day it looks like, for the most part, comes down to pit stops. How do you make the quickest pit stop when you come to pit road, whether that’s saving fuel or doing your job as a driver or whatever it is, but getting off pit road first is the name of the game now. That’s what it all comes down to, and then at the end of the race it’ll come down to the last couple laps who pushes and shoves the best, but you just don’t see the guys who make those big moves and come from the back of the pack to the front of the pack. That doesn’t really happen much anymore, unless everybody is saving fuel, but it’s gonna come down to the pit stops.”
PROTECTING YOUR POSITION IS KEY AS WELL. “It’s all about the pit stops and then the last two or three laps of the race. That’s what it all comes down to.”
WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE? “Leading. It seems like it’s very hard to make a move to the lead, so at the end of the day if you can be leading or on that front row coming to three to go, I think you’re in a good spot.”
HOW DO YOU COMPARE THIS ENTRY TO CUP FROM YOUR FIRST TIME? “Definitely a lot different from the standpoint of just knowing more of what to expect. When you’re a rookie everything is so crazy and everything is all new. The second time around, you just know more of what to expect, what to focus on and how to work with your team to make things better week in and week out.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEXT GEN CAR? “I ran the first year of the Next Gen car, so I had a full year of it, but for the most part just how much you can get away with getting the thing sideways. If you get that thing sideways at all, it’s gone and you’re backed in the fence. Compared to an Xfinity car, where you can slip and slide the car and not wreck, so that’s probably the biggest difference.”
DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR DRIVING STYLE? “You just have to adapt to it, but, yes, you have to think about setting your car up different from an Xfinity car to a Cup car. It just is what it is. They’re completely different race cars, so you have to worry about different things.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SHELDON CREED AND SAM MAYER JOINING THE TEAM? “It’s exciting. I think both of those guys have had great speed, compete for wins, and I think they should be able to do the same thing this year with the Haas Factory Team. It’s just a matter of getting everybody up to speed as fast as we can. It’s a new team with new people and new drivers working with people, so just getting everybody hopefully hit the ground running.”
WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO YOU HAVE THIS YEAR? “I think at the end of the day our goal is to make the playoffs. I think we have the resources for that and we have the team to do that. I think we have to walk before we run a little bit and try and get consistently in the top 20 because that’s what it takes, I think. Even when you look at those teams who were in the top 20 in points last year, they competed for wins, so the series is extremely competitive, so you really just have to try to find those little things that gets you up with those guys.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Parts Plus/Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU HAVE AN AVERAGE FINISH OF 10.5 HERE. WHAT GOES INTO THAT FOR YOU? “I think for us it’s just making a plan and sticking to it. The consistency has come from our plan of being there at the end and a lot of times it’s really easy to get greedy and get aggressive going into the start of the race especially. Kicking off the 500 everyone has been sitting on their butts anxious to get back into the race car, but I think the results speak that when we can stay out of trouble and be there at the end, as our team has grown we’ve got the race cars to run up front and now we just need to capitalize when it matters the most.”
WHAT DOES THIS FULL-TIME OPPORTUNITY MEAN TO YOU? “It was something I wasn’t sure was gonna happen. After my part-time schedule last year I knew that only running nine races, that every race I was in the car needed to be something that was at least a positive, so to be able to walk away with one of the best average finishes for the team and to be able to show that even though I had been out of the car for awhile that we’re here and as the team is improving I’m improving as a driver and so to be able to be back in the 51 car for the first time since 2023 is a major opportunity and I’m really excited too because the team has gotten better and better every year and the alliance with RFK has grown, and I just kind of want to pick up where the 51 team left off last year and keep digging.”
DO YOU FEEL SOME OF THOSE NOTES THAT THE TEAM HAD FROM LAST YEAR WILL BE BENEFICIAL? “Yeah, absolutely, and I think the biggest part of that too is a lot of people would maybe look at going down to one full-time car as a negative, but I think for us as a smaller team to be able to pool all of our resources, all of our personnel and funding into one car and focus on that effort, I think that’s gonna really elevate our program to the next level. That obviously puts a lot of responsibility on me as the driver of that car to make that happen, but I think as we continue to do this every day, we’re gonna keep building the morale at the shop and keep bringing fast race cars to the track.”
HAS THE REALITY OF BEING HERE AT DAYTONA STARTED TO SINK IN? “Yeah. I think getting to wake up this morning and look at the grandstands and see Daytona for the first time this year was definitely a really awesome experience. To be able to really, after a stressful couple of years, be able to come back and be a part of it again and not really knowing what’s gonna happen, I think it was just a really awesome experience. There was definitely a lot of emotion behind that and to be able to put the past in the past and go forward is gonna be really awesome this year.”
THERE WAS LOT OF EMOTION THE LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE. “Yeah. The August race definitely plays out a lot differently than the 500. It’s a little bit shorter, so it’s a little bit faster pace racing, but coming away with a fourth-place finish in the August race gives us a lot of confidence to where we feel like we’re in arms reach of actually being a legitimate contender for the 500 this year. Obviously, a lot goes into that, a lot of strategy, a lot of working with your Ford partners and things like that, but definitely looking forward to seeing how it goes on Sunday.”
HOW BIG IS THE DAYTONA 500? “It’s our Super Bowl Sunday. It’s definitely a little bit backwards being our biggest race of the year is our first of the year, but the energy is always just so electric. I think going on stage for driver intros of the Daytona 500 is one of the coolest experiences on the planet. I’ve raced Indy Car. I’ve raced prototypes. I’ve traveled the world racing cars, but to be able to show up on Sunday morning and be a part of this spectacle is just such an amazing experience.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE HAVING COREY LAJOIE AROUND? “Corey, to me, is an amazing, talented race car driver, so to be able to lean on him and to work with him is gonna be really crucial. There’s still a lot of things where I’ve had a lot of experience being full-time in the Cup Series, but at this level with the in-depth approach with the team, the alliance, how we’re growing things, there’s gonna be another level of expectation both with me as a driver and the team as it grows. So, to be able to lean on someone and get that help that I really haven’t had in the past, I’ve really just kind of had to wing it and figure it out on my own. I’ve not had a coach like some of the other guys have had, or just having that plethora of experience racing hundreds of super late model races, modified races, K&N, ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity, etc., so, really, I’ve done most of my growing as a driver at the Cup level and trying to figure it out. I’ve only run a couple dozen Xfinity races, I think six or seven Truck starts, but I’ve run over 100 Cup races now, so as we grow and we learn, I need to be able to look back and have someone that has that level of experience that I don’t have and Corey LaJoie is gonna be a major asset to me as a driver this year.”
HAVE THERE BEEN ANY CONVERSATIONS ALREADY? “Yeah, for me and him the biggest thing has been able to look at each individual day between practice and qualifying day and race day, what the plan of attack is – to be focused and have a clear, concise plan of how we’re gonna attack the day, attack the practice session, attack qualifying and make sure that whatever the plan is that we stick to it and we execute, and I think just to be able to have another level of focus, but also when there might be questions or concerns that I have and I’m trying to decipher and chew on information to be able to pop him a text or a phone call to work with him on that, I think that’s gonna pay dividends.”
