Toyota GAZOO Racing – John Hunter Nemechek
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 14, 2025) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver John Hunter Nemechek was made available to the media on Friday after practice for the Daytona 500.
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Did you feel like your car was as good as your teammates?
“I didn’t like the way, necessarily, that our car drove last night to be completely honest with you. We made a lot of changes. We were able to look at the 43’s (Erik Jones) set-up and kind of go more that direction of what he had. He was probably the best car out of our group last night in the Duels. Definitely fought some things handling wise on my end, but after practice today, you are only with six or seven cars there – what we were drafting with. It is a little different than a full pack setting, but I feel better today after the adjustments that we made, so hopefully that is a good thing for condition wise where we are going to racing with on Sunday.”
Can you talk about your thoughts on what the Joe Gibbs Racing teams did on pit road last night?
“The first time I saw it was on broadcast – they were showing it right before practice today. I was like dang, that is pretty neat. That is pretty cool. A moment of that situation – you are coming down for fuel, the crew chief and the fueler kind of know how much time that he needs to be plugged in and how much fuel is going to dump in the race car – and let’s say four seconds of fuel. As a driver, if you know that information, you are kind of anticipating it once you stop – and you are kind of counting in your head – one, two, three, four – and getting ready for the launch, and then waiting for the crew chief to say go, go, go, go or whatever it may be terminology wise. Sometimes it feels way longer than four seconds – sometimes it doesn’t. I think the process and the procedure is really neat. It is just a matter of I guess timing that out from when he actually plugs in and getting enough fuel in the car. It is a really neat idea in my opinion, but it is risk versus reward as well. I don’t know. I think it is going to see almost every team look into now that it is out there. Who does it on Sunday, or who tries again on Sunday? I’m not sure, but it’s not bulletproof yet, I would say.”
So, are you looking back at the fueler on a fuel only stop?
“Yeah. For sure. You are looking in the left side mirror or in your rear view camera – waiting for him to kind of shake his head and get back to the gas and go.”
Have you discussed the new DVP policy?
“I definitely think it’s something that teams discuss internally on if it’s going to be faster to try and make it back to pit road or if it’s going to be faster to go straight to the garage and try and fix it. You’re going to have to be very descriptive of what is damaged in my opinion and what you feel in the race car to be able to – you can’t see it, right? Especially sitting on the back stretch here. Like if you wreck back there and you’re down low the spotter can’t see it. The only thing you’re really going to see is what’s being broadcasted through the TV. There’s not going to be a lot there. So, a driver is definitely going to have to describe what he’s feeling and what he feels like is broken or damaged. Then it’s going to be up to the crew chief and the team to figure out where they want to go whether that’s pit road or the garage.”
Is their one manufacturer that you feel like you have to beat?
“I don’t necessarily think so. Both Chevy and Ford and in my case, relatively the Toyota’s haven’t qualified very well in the past superspeedway races, but the 19 (Chase Briscoe) is super fast and the 20 (Christopher Bell) and 11 (Denny Hamlin) seem like they have good speed as well. I feel like all of our Toyota teammates are pretty good in the draft as well with Bubba (Wallace) winning last night and Erik (Jones) coming really close. I feel like the Toyotas are strong, but come Sunday it’s going to be a mix I feel like among manufacturers for sure. Fords are good, Chevys are good. I feel like this year the playing field is relatively equal.”
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