NASCAR CUP SERIES
GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 3, 2021
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Teleconference Transcript Highlights:
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE GLEN? YOU’VE GOTTEN BETTER ON ROAD COURSES, BUT WHAT’S YOUR MENTAL DISPOSITION?
“It’s very positive. At the beginning of this two-week break, I really would have thought it was bad timing to just have two weeks away and have this break to prepare for these road courses. We’ve consistently been climbing up. Our momentum has been building. We’ve been really running well. But to see how New Hampshire went and having the No. 10 (Aric Almirola) winning and really shaking up the Playoff leaderboard, it was good to have a two-week off-period from racing. It may have been a break for a lot of teams and people, but for myself and a good number of us here at RCR, we took advantage of the time we had to really cover every single detail that we could on our race cars and take every last minute of preparation that we can to make our car better for Watkins Glen and be as prepared as we can be going into Indy as well. So, it ended up being a really good time to just focus on these two races coming up ahead and I’m glad it ended-up shaking out the way it did there.”
WHAT TERRIFIED YOU ABOUT ROAD COURSES AND HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE SITUATION WITH PLAYOFFS AHEAD AND TRYING TO MAKE IT IN?
“Well, I came from dirt racing and honestly when you need to slow down, you keep the car sideways and set-it up in the corner, but you’re not having to slow the car down as near the rate of speed that you do on a road course. Yeah, it’s pretty wild having to learn that for the first time. As I was going through those steps in the Truck Series at Mosport and at other road courses in the Xfinity Series, as well. It’s nice knowing how far I’ve been able to come in the off-season and over the course of these last two or three years, getting more and more road course races under my belt. And now, looking ahead to it, it’s nice to be able to not be scared of the braking zones and not missing a shift and the little things that really show up big at a place like Watkins Glen, which is a very fast track and very unforgiving. You make a mistake in the wrong area and you find yourself in the arms of a barrier. So, it’s been really nice to get to this point where we’re at, where we’re looking ahead and circling these road courses coming up.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE PLAYOFFS?
“We’ve been on a really good and strong climb-up through the ranks over the course of the last races. We had a really bad race at Atlanta and that’s when we were sitting there 30th or worse in points just looking like it was not realistic to even point our way in and that it was going to be a stretch over the course of the summer. But if you look at the point standings, not the Playoff standings; we think we’re in 13th or 12th or somewhere in there, we’ve done a really good job of getting points back and really turning it around. But with the Playoff format, for sure, 12th in points doesn’t really mean anything here and now where we’re at in sitting 15th at the moment. We’ve got two road courses, where there will be a lot of strategy. One mistake can take out really top teams and drivers. Circumstances you can’t repeat like what we saw at New Hampshire with Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. being taken out early. You wouldn’t have thought that, but two guys that were going to be really dominant and prominent that day got taken out and opened the door up for opportunities for the other guys to get in there, like Aric, and win. I’m going to look ahead to Michigan and Daytona and these road courses, you can make the same case, you know? At some point, at each of these races, there is going to be a driver or drivers that are going to be in position to win this race and a mistake will take them out of it. It’s just going to be on guys like me to not make those mistakes and put ourselves in position all day to go out there and win a race. Yeah, pointing our way in would be great and that’s only really going to work, I think, if no one new wins. I can put all my cards in that going into Daytona sitting 16th in the cutline and having to race scared all day and just hope that someone doesn’t win that’s not supposed to, if you will. That’s not how we’re going to go about it. We’re going to go in there and be aggressive and race like we have all year long. If you want to advance in the rounds in the Playoffs, you’ve got to be up front and contending for wins. We’ll just start early, and we’ve got a four-race stretch to get us going and hopefully we can win a race by then.”
WHILE YOU HAVE BEEN HAVING PRETTY GOOD RUNS, WHAT HAS THE FEELING BEEN LIKE WHEN KURT BUSCH WINS AND/OR ARIC ALMIROLA WINS? HAS IT BEEN DEFLATING TO SEE THOSE GUYS WIN AND NOW PUT YOU ON THE BUBBLE?
“Not at all because those are guys for most of the year, we’ve been able to run right with or outperform. Hey, if guys like Kurt and Aric can find Victory Lane, why not us? That’s our mindset going into these two road courses and Michigan and Daytona. We’ve been right there with them. All the little details add up, and on some days, we were better than the No. 1 have been, on some days outperforming the No. 10. We’re going to focus on, race by race, putting all the little details together. It’s very obvious one mistake here or there can totally change the outcome of your day. And for us, unfortunately it was part of our story at New Hampshire, sliding through the box midway through Stage 1 or right at the end of Stage 2. That kind of changed the whole outlook for our whole race. The pressure is on. But our whole team and organization welcomes it. We’ve been working really hard on our cars. I’ve been working hard to be the most consistent and give the best feedback as the driver and all the things that I need to do toward that goal, and we’re all really working hard together, which is making the Playoffs. It looks like more and more, especially the last two race weekends with two new drivers winning, it’s time to really turn it up. We’ve got to go out there and have a great day. We’ve got to take advantage of the speed we have and capitalize.”
HAS THE ORGANIZATION ADDRESSED ANYTHING AS FAR AS YOU AND AUSTIN DILLON POTENTIALLY BATTLING EACH OTHER FOR THAT LAST SPOT IN POINTS AS FAR AS WHAT YOU DO AND SHARE, OR NOT. IS IT AWKWARD?
“No, it’s not awkward at all. It really seemed like before we even kind of got together and talked about it, everyone had a game plan together and how they are going to approach these next four races. I knew what I was wanting to do. And I thought I knew what the No. 3 and what they were going to approach it and do, and it really seems like our strategies are going to align well. Nothing changes. We’re still going to share everything as RCR would. This a team sport, right? But you race against your teammates. That angle is always interesting when you look at other key sports because that doesn’t exist in that way quite the same. But the faster and the better that we can be over here on the No. 8 is going to help the No. 3 and vice versa. We share everything because if I can’t win, we need Austin to win or the opposite. Nothing really changes. There’s going to be no secret. No silly games. Once we hit the race track, it’s going to be the same as it’s been all year long. We go out there and race as hard as we can and have the best four-week stretch we can and hopefully lock both of our cars into the Playoffs.”
AS AN ATHLETE, HOW DO YOU HANDLE & MANAGE THE PRESSURES AND MENTAL STRESS?
“It’s not an easy thing to manage. The more experience you have and the more faith and confidence you have in people around you really helps manage the load that comes with all this pressure, especially with the stress coming up here. One bad race here or there can screw-up the entire year, right? It’s important that you don’t let the negatives become overwhelming. You focus on the positive and for me, it’s really easy for me to stay positive because all the hard work that myself and this entire organization has put into this year and into road courses and into our program. Seeing the improvement that we’ve had from season-start until now, there are a lot of real positive things here. It’s important that when you have the rough stretches, rough patches like a rollercoaster in a rookie season, it’s easy to let that become overwhelming. But like I said, good people around you remembering the time and effort that you put into what you love and do really helps to keep you positively motivated. In these long races you’re going to have a lot of moments, or the whole day, could just totally be a disaster, right? The more time that you prepare for it just helps build confidence so when those bad loads come across our day or our year, we remember what we’re doing this for and not allow the negatives to dictate the rest of our day or the rest of our season.”
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