NASCAR CUP SERIES
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
GOODYEAR 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 5, 2021
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR., NO. 47 KROGER/TIDE CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Teleconference Transcript:
WITH THE NEXT GEN UNVEIL TODAY, DO YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF HOW THIS CAR WILL DRIVE DIFFERENTLY THAN THE CURRENT CAR?
“I’ve actually got no clue. I haven’t driven it. I haven’t even gotten to see it. So, I know they keep making changes to it. I feel like every time they drive it, and I’ve heard a little bit of feedback from some of the other guys on some steering issues and things they were running through, especially at the road course. I’ve heard a few things. For us, and everyone at JTG, we’re really focused on this car that we have right now and finishing out the season. But also, we’ve got to be looking ahead of what’s to come with the new car. I’m excited as anyone else to see it because I haven’t seen it. So as far as all the character lines and what each manufacturer and what they’re going to look like so it’s a big day for our sport, for sure.”
PART OF THE IDEA OF THIS CAR IS THAT EVERYBODY IS BUYING THEIR CHASSIS FROM THE SAME PEOPLE AND BODIES FROM THE SAME PEOPLE. DO HAVE ANY SENSE OF WHETHER THIS WILL INCREASE PARITY OR DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE TEAMS WITH THE MOST MONEY WILL STILL PREVAIL?
“Yeah, I think it can close it up at times, but I think in the end and the long run, the teams that still spend the most and use the most resources are going to find ways to make their car perform better than everybody else’s. So, I think you’ll still get to that point; but down the road, I don’t know, I feel like what we’re seeing right now with no changes from year to year, I think you’re seeing a lot of parity in our sport. This year versus last year, not a ton of changes going on. So, who knows, with this new car if they keep everything pretty consistent year after year, then maybe everybody gets really, really close.”
HOW HAS DARLINGTON BEEN FOR YOU, ESPECIALLY NOW GOING INTO THAT EVENT AND TRYING TO GET YOUR SEASON TURNED AROUND AFTER TWO ROUGH RESULTS?
“Darlington is kind of a frustrating race track. It’s really fun. I think every driver enjoys it. On the Xfinity side, I felt like we were pretty good for a couple of races and then on the Cup side, we’ve been decent in a couple of races, but overall, it hasn’t been a great track for us. Obviously last year, the first race was a disaster. The second race was kind of a disaster with some mechanical issues going on that we really couldn’t overcome. And switching to the low downforce package for this race, looking back at some of the race notes we have, I think in 2018 we had this package and finished 12th and had a good run. So, looking back on those notes and making sure we’re looking at the right things going into this weekend; but it’s definitely been a tough two weeks for us. We got off to a strong start. I’m looking forward to having an opportunity back going in the right direction for us this weekend.”
HOW MUCH DOES THE 750 HP AND LOW DOWNFORCE THIS WEEKEND INCREASE THE RACING SKILLS FOR THE DRIVERS?
“Yeah, the car is going to slide around a lot. You’re going to have a lot of power. I think you’re going to see cars slide a lot, especially off of Turn 2. Turn 2 is always tricky. But with more horsepower and less downforce, it’s definitely going to be on edge. But I think that’s what the drivers want. That’s what we like to see. And I think it’s going to create good racing. I think you’re going to have cars that will be really good on the short run and then some that will be really good on the long run. And it will be fun to see how that plays out along with different lines, especially in Turns 3 and 4. Some can run the bottom the whole time and others have got to get up on the fence. It’ll be interesting to see. And then obviously, it being a day race is another factor that I think really creates a good show. I’m excited to get there. Last year I didn’t get to race the day show. I had the opportunity, but just didn’t execute to go run a lot of laps. For me, it’s something that I’m looking forward to.”
IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE HOT AT DARLINGTON THIS WEEKEND WITH A LOT OF SLIPPING AND SLIDING. DO YOU SEE THAT OLD SCHOOL DARLINGTON COMING THIS SUNDAY?
“Yeah, for sure. I never ran the old Darlington, I guess you could say, when it was really, really rough. It’s getting that character back, especially off of Turn 2 with the bumps. And I didn’t get to run it the whole race during the day last year. So, I definitely think that old school Darlington feel; high horsepower, low downforce, will definitely be in play. It will definitely be exciting.”
HOW DOES THE USE OF THE PJ1 AT TEXAS FOR THE INDYCAR RACE AND SLIPPERY CONDITIONS COMPARE TO YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH IT? HOW DOES IT DIFFER?
“It’s interesting. I don’t know exactly. Obviously, we run different tires than they do. We creep up into it. We don’t go right into it. But it takes a minute for us to run that lane in throughout the race and throughout the weekend. For us, at the beginning of the race you don’t really want to get in it, but by the end of the race if you’re not in it, you’re not going to be fast enough. So, it’s kind of a weird circumstance on how we end up in it. We creep into it, right-sides only, a little bit here and there, and then by the end of the race, you’re four tires in it. I don’t know if their tires and everything that they have just doesn’t correlate with it, but it is slick to start, for sure. With them running wide-open around the bottom, it would be kind of treacherous and tricky to get up in it running that fast.”
WE ARE RACING ON MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND. WHAT INFLUENCES DID YOU MOTHER HAVE ON YOUR CAREER?
“My mom has always been that steady base and foundation for our family. She kept us fed. Me and Dad would work in the shop for hours and hours and Mom would bring us food. And when we’d head out to the race track, she would pack us food and make sure we were taken care of. My Mom is a nurse, so with everything that I did, riding dirt bikes and playing all kinds of sports, she always took care of me. And she still does. It’s always really nice to still have my family come out to the races. This year we’ve been doing a lot more dirt racing, which, my family is allowed to come to, which is nice. So, she’s been coming to those races with us. But she is the one that always held us together. We’d race Saturday nights, and she would be the one to make sure we got up for church the next morning on Sundays. Hopefully we can have a good run on Mother’s Day weekend and make her proud.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE QUALIFYING FORMAT AND WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT CHANGED IN ANY WAY?
“I like qualifying. But I think you have to come up with something that makes sense for everybody. Having two rough weeks in a row, you start further back than what you feel like you normally would qualify or would have those situations come up. But it’s the same for everybody. When you run consistent and run good and you’re decent in points, then you have a better starting position. So, we’ve got to get back on that this weekend, have a good weekend, get a good starting spot at Dover and just build that back up. I think NASCAR has done a great job in coming up with a format that utilizes everything throughout the race to come up with the line-up.”
THERE WILL BE MORE SPECTATORS AT DARLINGTON THIS WEEKEND. IS THAT A GOOD SIGN THAT NASCAR HAS TAKEN ANOTHER STEP BACK FROM THE PANDEMIC?
“Yeah, for sure. If it was up to me, I would open it all up. It’s not up to me. And NASCAR is doing what they feel like they should do and taking small steps instead of big ones. We shut down when everybody else did, but we still got our full season in and then we’ve been on schedule all this year. I think that’s a testament to the work that NASCAR has put in. Each week, I feel like they’re doing something different and getting a step further ahead. I’m hopeful, with some of the other race tracks announcing that they will be 100 percent when we get there, that’s encouraging. I think a lot of our fans are pumped up about that. You never want to say something like last year was a good thing, but I think it could have a good turnout for us when we do finally get fully back open. I think a lot of fans took for granted being able to go to the race track. And I’m sure all of us took a lot of things for granted in what we got to do each and every day in our lives. When you get that taken away from you, I feel like now, people are going to appreciate things more and take full advantage of being able to go to sporting events and concerts and hopefully they enjoy coming to our sport and can pack the grandstands.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE SPORT GOING TO DARLINGTON TWICE A YEAR NOW?
“Well, it’s an iconic race track. It’s one that us drivers, it’s like going to Atlanta twice. We love Atlanta. We feel like it’s a great race track. And then, obviously, the history that Darlington has, and everybody wants to win the Southern 500 but we would take this one as well. It’s a drivers’ race track. It’s fun. It’s tough. It’s challenging. And it puts on good racing. I think you’ll see, with going with the 750 package I think was a great move. It’s going to make the racing really good. We’re going to slide around. We’re going to have our hands full and it should be good.”
HOW WILL THE 750 PACKAGE WILL RACE DIFFERENTLY AT DARLINGTON THAN THE 550 PACKAGE?
“I believe that having more horsepower and being able to come up out of the corner even utilized the bottom of Turns 3 and 4 even more than what it was already utilized. I feel like there are maybe some more options there. But at the same time, we’re going to be wearing our tires out more because of the lower downforce and more horsepower. So, you’re going to have to use brakes. You’re going to have to slow down through the corner, like Turn 1; you could almost go through there wide open with our downforce package that we had last year. There were people that were probably able to do that. And then now, you won’t be able to. So now, you’ll be lifting. You’ll be slowing the car down. And when you do that, it creates more passing opportunities throughout the race. I don’t see it being bad anywhere.”
HAVE YOU STUDIED LAST YEAR’S RACE OR 2018 BECAUSE OF THE CHANGE?
“Yeah, I’m looking at the downforce packages of 2017, ’18, maybe ’19; and looking at those races. Last year I definitely don’t want to take anything that I did last year from Darlington. But all in all, I’m looking more at the races that we ran good like in 2018.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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