NASCAR CUP SERIES
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
DIXIE VODKA 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 11, 2020
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING CAMARO ZL1 1LE, spoke with media via teleconference to discuss his first race in the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway, looking towards the preparation for Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and more. Full Transcript:
A SIXTEENTH-PLACE FINISH LAST NIGHT, A RACE LAST WEEKEND IN ATLANTA, LOOKING IN HOMESTEAD – IT’S A REALLY BUSY WEEK FOR THE NASCAR CUP SERIES. TALK TO US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW YOUR TEAM HAS BEEN APPROACHING IT AND YOU’LL SHIFT YOUR FOCUS NOW TO HOMESTEAD THIS WEEKEND.
“We had a really good starting-point for Martinsville. Randall Burnett and the guys had a lot of faith in what they were going to bring to the race track, so we were feeling pretty good on Martinsville. We put a lot of time in before everything got crazy because we wanted to run good at Martinsville. So, we kind of did a lot of our work before we had the pause and all that stuff. But Homestead is another one we’ve been thinking a lot about. We’ve been working hard on the car that we are going to take there since, I think, the first Darlington race where we ran really good. There, we ran seventh. We took that car back, got the right side off, put a new one on it and been working on it ever since. Just trying to get all the little details and make that car as good as it can be. So, we’re excited for it. But obviously with how Atlanta went, it’s very important to manage the expectations. We’re racing Cup cars, not Xfinity cars, against Cup drivers. So, it’s very important to remember that and understand that we may feel really good about our chances, but we just have to make the most of our day. With the X factor, if you will, the fence, finding speed along the race and steel bodies that don’t bounce back out like the Xfinity composite body, you just have to be really smart and just make sure that we have a solid car there at the end for the final run.”
HOW HAVE YOU BEEN DOING PHYSICALLY THROUGHOUT THIS AGGRESSIVE STRETCH OF RACES? YOU GUYS ARE USED TO AT LEAST TWO TIMES A WEEKEND BEING ON TRACK. HOW DIFFERENT IS IT DOING JUST A RACE, FEW DAYS OFF AND ANOTHER RACE?
“One thing about the practices – yes, it’s time on track, but it gives your body a little hint and a look into what you’re going to be experiencing for 500 miles or 500 laps, whatever it may be at the track that we go to. So, if you’re having any issues with the car, issues with your back, arms hurting after a 40 or 50 lap run or something in particular that’s bothering you from the week before, you have no insight to that going into to the race and you’re going to have to fight it all race long. Preparing going into these races have been more important than ever before, whether it’s the hydration factor. I think a lot of guys, including myself a little bit, thought a night race at Martinsville wasn’t going to be hot. It was one of the hottest races that I’ve done in a very long time. Just understanding that we’re racing more than we’ve ever raced before. Atlanta was a fairly warm race, 500 miles there, and then we went 500 laps at Martinsville within a matter of 3 or 4 days. Your body’s not used to that and it’s hard. It’s hard for mine because I haven’t been Cup racing long and it’s hard for anyone that’s just used to running just one race or one event a weekend. So, that’s been tough, but we’re catching up to it and we’re really focusing on the hydration and preparation for the heat going into Homestead.”
HOW MUCH ARE YOU FEELING IT, LET’S SAY WITHIN THE LAST 10 OR 15 PERCENT OF A RACE RIGHT NOW?
“What happened to me at Martinsville is I’m just mentally like it’s night out, I shouldn’t be hot. So, about lap 260, it clicked that I’m way warmer than I should be in the car and I finally started to focus on getting some bags of ice to cool my chest and the air that’s coming in down. It’s just one of those things, it just snuck up on everybody. But, for the most part, you never want to be feeling like you’re off for that last 10 or 15 percent of a race. That’s when you want to be your sharpest. Normally, for the most part at a lot of the races we’ve had this year, I’ve felt that way. The ones that we’ve been able to get to the end of – obviously, Phoenix, Daytona and Bristol – I never got to that point. But I normally feel sharper as it goes. This was one of those that I definitely wasn’t feeling one hundred percent halfway when I started to get warm, but it started to come back to me over the second half of the race once I cooled down some.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT HOMESTEAD THAT IS DIFFICULT – TO FIND YOUR LINE, MAKE YOUR LINE – FOR A ROOKIE THAT IS REALLY HARD?
“One of the biggest things that will be difficult is the way you get around the fence will be a lot different in a Cup car. With more downforce, less horsepower, you have a moment in the middle of the corner in the Xfinity car that you can drive it out of it with power and still run within a tenth or two of what you want to. In a Cup car, if you have a moment in the middle of one and two up by the fence that you check up, you’re losing a half of a second maybe even a second. So, you have zero room for error. On top of that, you hit the fence and you’re really going to hinder your day if you have to pit and you go down a lap or two trying to fix the damage and get tires. That’s a track that’s very sensitive – kind of like Martinsville in a way, kind of like Atlanta – so you just have to really pay attention to what the better cars are doing around you. And if you can’t run that line that seems to be the best on-track, then what can we do to help our car get there. With the hot conditions, slicker track, I think it’s going to have everybody kind of wondering what the cars are going to do over the course of a run. And obviously everyone is curious how well the fence is going to work in the heat of the day. It’s normally tough in the Xfinity car, just because you’re uncomfortable and the back of the car is dancing around. With that, on top of the steel body, you just tap the wall a little bit, it’s just going to take away the performance of the car.”
WE SEE THIS WEEKEND AND I’M KIND OF FOCUSED ON SPECTATORS RETURNING TO THE SPORT. THIS WEEKEND, WE HAVE 1,000 COMING IN FOR THE DIXIE VODKA 400. WE’VE GOT UP TO 5,000 COMING TO TALLADEGA. WE’RE STARTING TO SEE SPECTATORS FILTER BACK INTO THE SPORT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO HAVE THE AUDIENCE BACK AT THE TRACK FOR YOU AS A RACER?
“It’s huge. I never would have pictured my first Cup race at Martinsville as just silent as it could be. The crowd is literally right there. A lot of race tracks, the crowds are pretty close to the race track, but that’s one of the closets you’ll ever get – that and Bristol. My two first Cup races there, it almost didn’t feel like we were racing. It just felt like we were getting ready to go out there and just run some practice laps or a test. So, I’m really glad we’re going to have some fans back. It will be nice to have some people cheering at some of the drivers going across and booing at some of the others as they are on pit road, razzing them up. I’m glad that we’re starting that process now and getting to feel it out. I’m excited for all the personnel that will be at Homestead. I’m excited how that will look at Talladega because the fans are such a huge part of our sport and I know it’s tough for a lot of them not to be able to go to some of these tracks that they’ve been going to for their whole lives. So, I’m glad we’re starting to open that back up and allow some access for individuals at the race track.”
YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST DRIVERS TO PUBICALLY SUPPORT THE BLACK LIFES MATTER MOVEMENT ON YOUR TWITTER. I’M WONDERING, DID YOU RECEIVE IN BACKLASH FROM THAT INITIALLY? HOW HAVE THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS BEEN FOR YOU WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRIVERS STARTING TO SUPPORT THIS MORE?
“I was really happy to have more drivers speak out. For me, I didn’t care about backlash. To me, it’s very simple – we’re all human beings, so why should you be treated differently because of the color of your skin. That’s not right. For me, it was a no-brainer. I didn’t care about the backlash. Those that had negative things to say, they clearly don’t fully understand what’s going on. It was the right thing to say and I felt compelled to say something. I wanted to say something sooner, but it just felt right after having a rough day at Bristol. Coming home, I didn’t have much good to talk about our race, so I figured that was a great opportunity to get that out there and let everyone know how I felt about it.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NASCAR’S MOST-RECENT BAND ON THE CONFEDERATE FLAG?
“I’m glad. For some people, it has different meanings. But for those that were affected by it and generations of families that have been through hardships – slavery, all sorts of things, racism – I just don’t feel like there’s a place for it. So, I’m glad to see NASCAR put their foot down and like ‘alright, we didn’t really like it at the track, but we’re not allowing it anymore’. It’s well beyond time and it’s kind of crazy to even think, whether its statues or whatever it is around our country, that we’ve kept these things up as long as we have, considering how much negative meaning that a lot of those statues and things we have around our country meant to people that have been affected by it the most.”
ALONG THE SAME LINES, THERE’S BEEN A BIG SHIFT IN THE SPORT THE LAST WEEK OR SO, PARTICULARY SINCE ATLANTA. FROM SOMEBODY THAT’S BEEN INVOLOVED, A DRIVER THAT WAS IN THE VIDEO THAT WAS PUT OUT, CAN YOU PUT INTO WORDS FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF HOW MUCH HAS CHANGED OR WHAT THIS WEEK HAS BEEN LIKE?
“It’s progress. For a lot of people out there, this is something that they’ve been having to deal with their whole lives and I think it’s very important that we speak up and we let them know that we’re with them. We stand with them, we feel their pain. Most importantly, we don’t just have a blind eye and we’re living in our little bubble of racing and just aren’t paying attention to it. We’re all human – it affects us, it affects all of our communities and it affects the communities of the individuals that live in the area of race tracks or some of the families that have been in racing. It meant a lot to me. I’ve only gotten butterflies a few times in the way that I did when we were sitting on the front stretch at Atlanta. It meant a lot to me, I can only imagine what it meant to Bubba (Wallace) and others that have felt that pain and have gone through those things. For me, it was a huge deal and I was really honored to be a part of that that we had on the front stretch – Steve (O’Donnell) addressing over the radio and the intercoms at the race track, the drivers, the teams and everybody watching the broadcast. It’s just good. I really feel like a lot of people in NASCAR – the ones that have spoken up – it’s nothing new. Their core values are that, it’s just unfortunately for some, it was a matter of taking a very unfortunate set of circumstances like we’ve seen for them to finally speak up. But it was very important for a lot of us to let everyone know and we used our platform to let those that are hurting out there know that we’re with them.”
THERE’S STILL A LOT OF LISTENING TO TAKE PLACE. THE NEXT QUESTION A LOT OF PEOPLE WANT TO HAVE IS, WHAT’S THE NEXT ACTION? AS A DRIVER – GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL – HOW DO YOU GO THROUGH THIS NEXT STAGE?
“There’s a lot of different ways you can go about this. Just trying to make NASCAR a more friendly environment for all fans. The step that we made this week with the confederate flag is one of those steps. I’m sure there are many others that they’re working on. Just making it more friendly environment for all fans. Some of the drivers have talked about ideas and other things, and I don’t want to spoil their ideas, but just continuing to not lose sight of it. As they say, when the headlines finally clear and it goes back to a sense of normalcy if you will, it’s just important to remain adamant that we need to go out there in our communities or we need to go vote and get the right people that we feel that are going to make those changes that we’ve been crying out for the last couple of weeks. Not lose sight of that – stay diligent, and not lose sight of what’s important here.”
YOU’VE HAD A RELATIVE MASTERY AT HOMESTEAD ON THE XFINITY AND TRUCK SERIES’ LEVELS. YOU’RE GOING INTO SOME DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS THIS WEEK, RACING IN THE SPRING RATHER THAN THE FALL. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FROM THOSE RACES THAT YOU CAN BRING ON TRACK TO YOUR FIRST CUP RACE AT HOMESTEAD?
“I had a lot of things that I took from my Xfinity races at Atlanta, Truck races at Atlanta, that I brought to the Cup side and they didn’t work out for me very good. So, I just have to stay on my toes. We’re working really hard to just bring the best car that we can and, from there, it’s going to be important to keep on top of the balance. The track is going to lay rubber, it’s going to change – just staying on top of those things are important. I think keeping on top of the balance, staying ahead of the curve of the race track as it changes will be very important. The veterans of our sport understand that very well, so we’re just going to have to dig down deep and really make sure that we don’t go too far or go to little on the adjustments we need to make when the track does change.”
HOW MUCH OF A HELPING HAND HAS IT BEEN TO HAVE AUSTIN DILLON BY YOUR SIDE DURING THIS PROCESS?
“It’s been great. Austin (Dillon) breaks down the cars and the performance of them in different ways than I even think about. I’m much more of a loose-tight balance guy and he’s very aware of all the little details that are also very important that go into the race car. He was very happy with the speed of his car at Martinsville. Unfortunately, with the crush panel falling out, flat tire and the heat getting to him, it was just hard for him to run the whole race. But he was telling me, and we’ll be debriefing about it shortly, how much he really liked that car and what he liked about it. The things he brings to the table are different than I could ever offer and our differences, hopefully and have at times this year, been very beneficial in bringing together a great product when we were able to practice and debrief after those sessions.”
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