NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAYS
FEBRUARY 14, 2024

 COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 SPIRE MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1 – 2024 Daytona 500 Media Day Quotes

Going back to Atlanta last year, and the showings you’ve had in drafting style and superspeedways, to come here with a major sponsor and a big week. Do you feel this the best position you’ve walked in here this week?

“For sure. The bar has been very low, and we keep continuing to creep that bar up each year. I remember sitting here in such a difference in perspective my first Daytona 500 we made in the No. 83 car. Marty Smith asked me a question and I started crying. I said I’d wreck my grandmother to make the Daytona 500. If I didn’t make that one, I promise you I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you.

We continue to understand what we need to do to put ourselves in the right spots. Someone told me this week that I’m second in average finishes here at Daytona behind the guy that just walked out, and that guy is pretty good. We know what to do. We know how to put ourselves in position to be in the hunt to contend for these races. I think we’re going to continue to refine that and do an even better job this year.”

A lot of talk about Spire (Motorsports) this offseason – the moves you’ve made. Do you feel like there’s pressure to perform, and what do you have to do this year to show you can handle this responsibility?

“I’ve always had pressure. Pressure is different than expectations. I think that pressure, as a competitor, to continue to get better and you want to win. I’ve been successful and I’ve won at everything I’ve ever done in my life. Then you get here, you’re really aligned on opportunities and strength of teams, and that’s why that success in black and white on paper in terms of adding trophies to your trophy case, has really slowed down the last five years. The pressure I put on myself to get better is something I wake up with every day. That hasn’t change. Now, it’s just, having more potential to do that. Ryan Sparks has more tools at his disposal. The team has more resources coming in from super recognizable brands on my fire suit right now, like Chili’s. To be able to get our race team to a point where we can represent brands like this and start attracting talent from other race teams to our team, whether it’s on the floor or on a pit box, I take a lot of pride in having a part of that. The pressure is no different than what it was my first Cup race because you want to do good, and you want to be successful and win, but the expectations are what you really want to manage. That’s what really starts bogging a team down, when you try to start to reach and setting unrealistic expectations. The pressure is part of the job. You deal with it.”

Spire has made all these moves. Was there something that jumped out to you saying, ‘Wow. We’ve made this leap?’

“Everything. The purchase of (Kyle Busch Motorsports), that was unbeknownst to me. I was told by Dickerson about a week before it happened. I’m like, “holy cow, man. We’re going to have to have a hell of a bake sale to pay for this building.’ Then you get the Truck team, those guys. I think the biggest thing I talked about in our team kickoff lunch last week was all the empty trophy cases. The guy that was in that shop before, they had trophies in the rafters of that place that had dust on them because they had no other place to put them. With all of Kyle’s (Busch) success, all of the Truck series wins, that place was full of trophies. Now, there are a couple of pictures and my kickball trophy in the trophy case. So that’s part of the expectations. We need to continue to build to a place where we can start filling these trophy cases up with legitimate trophies. I’m super hopeful of getting Ryan Sparks more depth in engineering, whether it’s some help from GM, help from Hendrick with their engines and pit crews. I’m set up for success more than I’ve ever been in the last seven years of my Cup career. Also, on the flip side, you talk and hear how Ryan Blaney approaches the sport and his preparation. You’re also racing against 30 of those guys with very high IQ’s, high level of high caliber teams. To be able to gain five spots, that means you have to outwit five of those teams, or five of those pairings. It doesn’t make my job any easier. It does make everyone’s job a little more equipped, so that’s what we’re going to do heading into the season.”

With expectations lifted some more this year, with a last lap scenario sitting out there, do you take a little more of a chance than you did two or three years ago? Do you go to the edge more or not?

“I think that winning the Daytona 500 can change your life. You will do everything you possibly can to do that. Now, there are moves you can make that are ill-advised and dumb, and I’ve made several of those. On the flip side, I know what I did back to Atlanta, which is a similar drafting track, and it didn’t work out for me there. I figured out how to lose one of these speedway races, so I’m going to figure out how to be on the other side of this come Sunday.”

A Chili’s executive has said that 60% of NASCAR fans have dined at a casual restaurant which is part of the reason why they’ve decided to get into motorsports. Is there an opportunity for this to expand?

“I think there are always opportunities to grow a partner. I think this is that they are jumping into the deep end with the biggest race of the year, the (Daytona) 500. We did about a 14-hour production day with a couple of TV spots that are going to air. You saw the one on social media with me covering up the QR codes, but there is another one coming that’s going to play during the broadcast that’s pretty funny. For them to spend the money and budget and activate, as well as being on our car, I think really sets us up to really be able to start growing that partnership. They’re going to be an associate for four or five races, and I think their NASCAR-span is going to lead all the way up to COTA in March. They’re associate in Vegas, Atlanta, some other places, and then end of the program ends at COTA, but they’ve been pretty excited so far, and we haven’t even hit the racetrack yet. That’s when people really get excited. We’re going to get them on TV, get them in the mix, and try to get us a good starting spot in the Duels and kick off Sunday with a bang.”

You talked earlier about the challenge of gaining five more spots. As the perception of the team changes, how do you change the mindset?

“That’s a great question. I think I may have talked about that on the podcast. It is a big adjustment. When we first started here, the reins were pulled so tight that you don’t engage. Don’t look at the front, don’t even think about going up there. You just need to have this car cross the start, finish line at the end. That sentiment has really changed and adjusted. For me, as a driver, it certainly has changed in how you approach the race, how you prepare, and how you make moves in the race with the intention of a changing goal as we progress the team. As we get more partners, you can afford to stick it up in the mix to try and punch your ticket to the Playoffs, because you can justify it. I think, for (Ryan) Sparks and I, this is our fifth year working together, and our relationship is now like a marriage. The first day you say I do, it’s not going to look the same in five, 10, or 15 years. Our relationship has definitely changed on what we expect out of each other. I’ve had kids since we’ve started working together, and that whole navigating, making the most of what he had, and where we’re starting to build towards a team with some assets to work together with, we’re helping each other grow up in a way. Him coming from (Richard Childress Racing), not working anywhere else, me coming from a lot of bottom-feeding teams to where we build now. As people continue to look toward the No. 7 car to be a contender at a speedway, that’s a big change. But, for me, I’ve always had the go get it, do whatever it takes mindset, that’s never changed for me. So to have that brindle in your mouth, the reins pulled back, that was so counterintuitive in how I’ve been growing up. I’ve started to have the reins loosened up a bit to go and attack the race how I see fit, I think it’ll start to pay dividends.”

The trophy case you’ve mentioned, there’s no escaping it at the Spire shop. It’s built there. How do you keep that as a motivating factor and not something that becomes overwhelming?

“We’re not going to take that step in a day. We haven’t taken that step to where we are currently in a week. It’s taken four years, three-and-a-half years to get to where it is currently. It’s going to take a significant amount of time in the future to go to the racetrack with the expectation to go for a win. Our expectation is still, ‘Alright, let’s run for more top-15’s consistently.’ Last year, we brought cars with top-10 pace probably four or five times. My mindset going there when I realized we had some pace was ‘Okay, if I’m 10th, let me try to go win this thing.’ I probably made mistakes, or we’d call a bit different race then what we generally would have. We’d take a 10th place car and run 18th with it. We’ve got really good at taking a 25th place car and running 18th with it. We need to start making the 10th place cars run 10th first, then start taking advantage of mistakes. If we start taking cars with more pace more often, I think the rest will fall into place as we get settled in. The air is different on that side of the garage. The expectations are different. I think we have the right parts and pieces, especially with Doug Duchardt being the president of Spire Motorsports now. He has seen every aspect of this sport, helped build Hendrick (Motorsports) to what it is today. That guy brings a lot of knowledge, and I guess, culture. Positive culture, positive expectations for what we can build. Having him in addition to (Ryan) Sparks, and Luke (Lambert), and Steve and the drivers we have over there, it’s going to be really good in the future. I go in the back door so I don’t see the trophy cases anyway (laughs). When we start putting some in there… There’s a grandfather clock in there from the Truck win, and some other stuff, but I’m always a back door guy. I don’t walk in the front door. If you need me, I’m probably sliding in the back door.”

Your dad is a hero or yours, and he drove in the Cup series for 15 years including a stint at Hendrick Motorsports. Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, second generation drivers. Among some of those guys, were any of them your heroes growing up?

“I grew up coming to the track a lot. I was a Saturday kid, running around with Coleman Pressley, Austin and Ty Dillon, Ryan Blaney. Those guys would stick around for Sunday because their dads were racing on Sunday. My dad was content being a Saturday guy and got a couple of stints in and out, but never wanted to pursue that. He wanted to be home with us on Sunday. I think there could be a whole story written up as I have this theory on a drivers’ son, some sort of obstacle you have to overcome. Listening to Ryan (Blaney) talk about it, whether it’s Chase (Elliot) or any other second-generation guy, I don’t think you’ll ever be as good as your dad because your dad is your idol and he hung the moon. Driver-son complex was the word I was trying to think of. For me, I’ve raced more Cup races than my dad has. Certainly, my dad has a lot of success in the Xfinity series, but I’ve grown up wanting to be a Cup series driver. I grew up wanting to be a Cup series winner. I’ve continued to work towards that. I don’t think I’ll ever get to a point where I feel I can be measured against my dad. I think that Ryan (Blaney) and Chase (Elliott) would say the same thing no matter how successful they are. But it’s so cool, to answer your question about guys I’ve followed, I wasn’t really following those guys so much. Late 80’s, early 80’s, I was a Ricky Rudd, Dale Earnhardt, I had a couple of my favorites. Dale Jr. was when I really started to understand the sport, in the early 2000’s, when I’m 10-14 years old. Especially some North Carolina guys, for sure.”

 

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAYS
FEBRUARY 14, 2024

 DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TRACKHOUSE RACING CAMARO ZL1 – 2024 Daytona 500 Media Day Quotes

New season, what’s your mindset with the new year?

“This year, to me, feels similar to 2021. The reason is because 2020 was a very difficult year for me personally, and then 2021, we started with Trackhouse and it was like a fresh start. A lot of energy, a lot of hype and excitement heading into the year. This year feels that way and the reason is last year, we had a few spikes of good runs. We had a pole position, had a few top fives, but it wasn’t the year we were hoping for. We worked very hard in the offseason to make our team better. Maybe from the outside the team looks very similar, but from the inside, the team is different. I like what I’m seeing and I think we’re going to be able to move in the right direction with everything we have done.”

Is there any additional pressure on you with others in the pipeline at Trackhouse?

“No. There is always pressure, but I don’t have any extra pressure because of them. I know what I’m capable of and I know what we were lacking last year. I feel like as a group we made some adjustments to be better and we’re going to be fine. We have to be better. Good or average isn’t good enough. To be able to change that mindset to shoot to be great has to be an across-the-board mindset. In the offseason, we have worked very hard on that, and I can’t wait to see how it is reflected on track.”

How much influence did you have in choosing your crew chief?

“It was a little bit of influence, but really the team needed a change and they talked to me about different options. At the time, I didn’t know Matt Swiderski very well. He was one of the options. He wasn’t the only option. Last year, we were a good top-15 team. The last few races of the season, we finished 10th, 11th, eighth, but we were not good enough to win. I feel like the entire year, we only had winning cars probably twice, so to be able to win races you have to have winning cars more than twice to execute everything. We needed something different and the team way higher than myself decided that we needed to make a change in the leadership of the team.”

What will it take for Trackhouse to break through?

“There are a lot of young teams like Trackhouse that are getting stronger every year. I truly believe that this year Trackhouse is really going to be stronger than last year. I can’t wait to see that reflected on track and hopefully we can give them a run for the money.”

What did you do in the offseason to make Daniel Suarez stronger?

“Well, I did a lot of work with Matt Swiderski and the rest of the engineers in the simulator and analyzing myself what can I be better at. This is not just ‘we changed the crew chief’ that’s the solution. No, it has to be way more than that and I think we all need to change a few things here and there. Myself, crew chief, engineering department, pit crew department. With these changes, I believe we’ll be in a different place this year.”

Do you look at open-wheel and say maybe one day? Do you ever second-guess yourself?

“No, I never second guess and the reason is because I really wanted to be the first in NASCAR. Formula One is amazing but there is always politics in sports – some more than others. Here, in NASCAR, there is also politics. But Formula One is a different world. This is a little bit tricky. I’m extremely happy here in NASACAR. I feel like it was meant to be for me to be here in NASCAR and bring the Latino community more close to NASCAR and be successful here in NASCAR. Would I want to go to Formula One? I don’t think I would take it. My journey is to be here. I would love to try it because I’m a very curious guy, but I am right now where I want to be.”

Are there any venues you’d like to see added next year?

“I think Mexico City. I think that’s a no-brainer. You have to go to Mexico City, the heart of the country. The question to me is road course or oval. They have both options. I think that would be very special. There have been a lot of conversations about having a race in Mexico for a couple of years now, and I would tell you I would be the happiest person on this planet if that actually happens.”

You ran second in the second race at Atlanta last year. Drivers call that track a hybrid and why are you so good at it?

“I have good cars. I have good execution from my team, and it’s a lot about being patient. It’s a lot like here in Daytona. I think things have worked out a few times for us in Atlanta, and every time we go to a road course we are competitive. If you ask William Byron last year how many times he had a car capable of winning a race – 15, 18? – and he won six. I had a car capable of winning a race maybe three times last year. You have to have more shots than that because a winning car doesn’t mean you’re going to win the race. You still have to execute; it has to play out. If you want to win a couple of races, you have to have eight to 10 winning cars. So that is what we were lacking – consistency. One weekend we can show up to a racetrack and we were top five and the next weekend we were 20th. I feel like the 99 team is the most prepared it has been in years.”

Is the 1 and 99 working closely together?

“Last year, I would say we were working together a little, not a lot. I think that right now, we’re working together a little bit more. In reality, we’ll find out as we go. The 1 team has done a great job. They have a good driver, good engineering and they have a great crew chief. They have a great package. I feel like something the 99 team failed to do last year was learn from them. I was pushing them very hard. We have to learn from those guys. We failed a couple of times to do so. I think the relationships will bring the teams more together.”

Are you and Trackhouse in talks for an extension?

“I think it’s too early for that. My focus is on winning races and making my team competitive. That’s all I care about. If I take care of my thing and you take care of yours, things are going to work out. I have to focus on that. I cannot have my mind on an extension, what is going to happen in two years or whatever with my next contract. My mind has to be in performance. My mind has to be with the sponsors. How are we going to be able to make this team a winning team. That’s what I’m thinking right now.”

If NASCAR decides to go to Mexico next year, what would be your involvement?

“It would be a huge role – not just for me but for the whole NASCAR Mexico Series. I’m looking forward to it because it would be not only huge for myself but for the sport and the fans in Mexico. The sport is so good and so big to do more international stuff.”

Who was your favorite driver and what did you like about them?

“Jeff Gordon, I like a lot. When I started understanding the sport more, I became a huge fan of Tony Stewart. Then I started liking Jimmie Johnson a lot. I like his style; how smart he was and how calm he was. I thought if I like all these guys, why not make a combination of all these three, right? I always thought if I take this from him, that from him, I can build myself from that.”

Is now the right time to do the international race in Mexico City?

“In my opinion, we are making good steps in that direction. Maybe two years ago, I would have said we’re making baby steps. Right now, we are making good steps in that direction with the Chicago Street Race and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Right now, it doesn’t seem like a big move. We’re already doing a lot of big moves. I’m very excited with everything NASCAR is doing. I’m glad they are thinking outside the box to continue to grow the sport.”

 

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Toyota Racing – John Hunter Nemechek
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 14, 2024) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver John Hunter Nemechek was made available to the media on Wednesday prior to the Daytona 500.

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB

How does it feel to be back in the Cup Series and with this team?

“It feels good. I’m ready to get kicked off with 2024 with LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, Toyota, TRD – all of our great partners that are backing us this year. Before we can hit the ground running, a lot of great pieces, and key people – a lot of great hires, I feel like, in the offseason, and a lot of great resources. Now it is time to put everything to use and have the best possible result that we can get, each and every week that we show up at the race track.”

Did this work exactly how you wanted to?

“I definitely think it played out pretty good. A lot of wins under our belt in the last three years and being able to step back and win some races and try to get back to the Cup Series and now we are here. It definitely seems like the plan, or path, has worked so far. Now we just have to go execute here in the Cup Series and try to make a home here.”

What are your expectations?

“No expectations. Just go do the best we can each and every week. Hopefully we can get it figured out pretty quick. I feel confident in my 42 group – all the men and women at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, Toyota, TRD – confidence in myself. Just really looking forward to getting going here. Jimmie (Johnson), Cal (Wells), Maury (Gallagher) – everyone at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB has put a lot of good people in place, I feel like, in the offseason. I’m just excited.”

What are your thoughts on starting with Daytona and Atlanta?

“It’s crazy. It definitely can make or break you. I feel like you can go in, and you can come out of it on the wrong side of it or you can come out on the good side of it. Who knows how everything is going to play out but Daytona, Atlanta – two speedway races to kind of kick off the year. You can put yourself in a hole pretty fast, so you just have to go out there and execute – on and off the race track – and try to do the best we can. We have a lot of great men and women at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and a lot of great resources for us to be able to utilize, so hopefully we can put everything together and have full potential coming here to Daytona and the rest of the year.”

How close is your new simulation program?

“I hope it is close. Who knows at this point with the change over to a new manufacturer, parts, pieces, bodies, aerodynamics – there are so many changes that we’ve had at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, kind of rolling into it. Time will tell. We will have to learn the most that we can about our racecars – each and every week – and show up to the race track and hopefully some simulation time will put us in the ball park that we need to be in, in order to make the adjustments we need to go faster each and every weekend.”

What does Jimmie Johnson running nine races mean to the team?

“I think it is good. I think Jimmie (Johnson) being able to be in the mix and him being able to race in the NASCAR Cup Series – with bringing in some great partners and other personnel on the 84 team that I feel like can help in the shop and bring a different mindset and what the 42 team does or the 43 team does. I think it is great for the team. I think it is great for the organization. I think it is great for all of our partners and the sport of NASCAR.

How can you sum up what these last few years have been like to get back to the Cup Series?

“Yeah, a lot has changed for sure. The last three years being in the Truck Series, the Xfinity Series – winning a bunch of races. It has definitely felt really good. It was a revamp, I guess you could say. It was a gamble – some people called it; I think. Some people called me crazy for doing it. The goal was to be back here in a seat on Sundays with an organization that I feel like can contend for wins and championships in the future and being able to put yourself with a team like that is huge. Not only for myself, but Toyota, TRD and all of our partners, who stepped back with me from the Cup Series to kind of move back up. I’m excited about 2024. I’m excited to get rolling here and see what we can do as a team.”

If someone would have told you when you were driving for your dad, that you would one day be driving for a team co-owned by Jimmie Johnson and affiliated with Richard Petty, what would you have said?

“I don’t know. It’s kind of crazy to think about when you put it in that perspective but being able to have Jimmie (Johnson) as a team owner, Maury Gallagher – who I drove for in 2021 in the Xfinity Series as a team owner, and to have Richard (Petty) alongside us as a part of LEGACY MOTOR CLUB is big as well. To have two seven-time champions and Matt Kenseth in the fold, another Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne in the fold – there are a lot of great people and great resources that are in LEGACY MOTOR CLUB now. Now it’s all about execution and utilizing our resources to their fullest potential and doing the best I can as a driver on-and-off the race track. Hopefully, we can assemble some great Toyota Camrys and go out there and show what we can do.”

What is your interaction with Matt Kenseth so far?

“Man, I love Matt (Kenseth). He’s a funny guy. You never know what is going to happen with Matt. There is never a dull moment. I think Matt has been a great addition to LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and filling out his role. I don’t know exactly the title of his role, but he is great to be around and to be able to ask him a lot of questions and be around him. With him being a champion, winning the Daytona 500 twice – he’s won a ton of races. He was a great race car driver and is still a great race car driver. Matt is just fun to be around. There is never a dull moment. He always keeps the mood light and I think that is great for team comradery. Knowing how long the season is, it can get stressful at times. You can kind of get down on yourself and I think having Matt there and Jimmie (Johnson), and a lot of great others, it definitely will not get that way.”

What are you thinking going into the Duels tomorrow?

“I will let you know after we qualify tonight. As a race car driver, you want to go win everything, but at the same time, you don’t want to have to go to a backup car after the Duels. We are bringing the car that we are to the Daytona 500, so I think it’s trying to get the best starting position that we can get, while figuring out how these things draft, how you are able to side draft, pass, get runs – a lot of learning for me tomorrow night, trying to get prepped for the Daytona 500 on Sunday.”

What has it been like working with Toyota and the other teams in the Cup Series?

“So, LEGACY – we are out on our own, per se, but still being able to be to be a part of the Toyota, TRD family – I love it. I wouldn’t want it any other way. They’ve done a lot for me and my career, and I’ve enjoyed every minute that I’ve had with all the execs, and everyone with the Toyota and TRD camp. I’m excited to still be with them for 2024, making it back to the Cup Series after taking a gamble to take a step back with them in ’21. Super pumped, super excited – ready to get going.”

Are you looking over numbers?

“A lot. A lot of data, a lot of analytics, a lot of film. Drafting studies, drafting reports – pretty much anything and everything I can get my hands on. For me, being new to the Next Gen car, I haven’t run a superspeedway race, so to have as much information as possible to know how these things draft, how guys draft, how guys make passes. There is just a lot there that’s big for myself to learn to be successful.”

Are there one-or-two things that you hope will help you be successful?

“There are quite a few to be honest. There are certain guys within the Cup field that are always in contention at the end of the race. How they get there is different from every other one, but they are always there at the end of a race with a shot to win the Daytona 500 or a superspeedway race. Being able to learn what these guys do, and how they get there and things they are doing in the race car – lines that they are taking, runs that they are taking. It’s big.”

Have you always studied that much?

“Always studied.”

Were the social metrics that came out this week a surprise?

“No. I don’t think so. We’ve worked pretty hard on trying to build our social platforms and give some behind the scenes looks and being able to grow our socials on Instagram, YouTube, X, and TikTok as well. Just being able to show a lot of content that a lot of guys don’t do necessarily. I love it. I love being able to create content and creating value for our brand and sponsors. Being able to enjoy every single moment of that is huge.”

Is there a specific type of content that works best?

“Yeah, for sure. There is stuff there that we’ve learned and hope to put that for use.”

Where have you matured as a driver?

“You just grow up in general. You mature in different ways – inside the race car and outside of the race car. This coming in is really like my second full-time Cup year. You have learned a lot in the past. You get humbled very quickly normally when you come into the Cup Series the first time. You have the thought that you’re going to go in and set the world on fire right away and sometimes that’s not the case. It’s definitely humbling coming to the Cup Series after winning a bunch of truck races and Xfinity races and different things of that sort. It’s also very difficult. There’s reason why these guys are here and the 40 spots that they’re in competing at the highest level every single week. We thoroughly enjoy racing each other as hard as we possibly can every single week. It doesn’t matter if you’re racing for first or if you’re racing for 25th, you’re racing as hard as you possibly can. It’s not like that in lower series I don’t feel like. It’s hard – it’s not easy.”

Do you ever think that maybe you came to Cup too early the first time around?

“I don’t know if I would say too early. I feel like we had some really good runs in 2020. We finished top-10 multiple times, had some really good superspeedway runs. We did a lot with what we had at Front Row at the time. I’m super grateful for that opportunity. I don’t regret anything about that. I think that there’s certain things I would change looking back on just about path-wise and different things of that sort if I had the opportunity. But at the same time this opportunity that I was dealt I’ve enjoyed every single aspect of it, learning as much as I possibly can. I think the tough years, the good years, you learn something from every single one of them and you probably learn more from the tough years than you do the good years.”

How much better of a position to succeed do you think you’re in this time around?

“I feel like I’m in a way better spot. I feel like there’s a lot of things heading in the right direction in my opinion. I feel really good about where we’re at as a club – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. I feel really good about the team members that we have. Toyota, TRD relationship – there’s a lot of great resources that are there for us to be able to utilize.”

Does your mindset come from the success you’ve had over the last few years?

“Yeah. Winning never hurts, right? It sets higher expectations and different things of that sort. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last three years and I hope I continue enjoying the next quite a few. I’m excited to get 2024 kicked off. I’ve been asked, I feel like, so many questions about expectations and mindsets and different things going into 2024. With so much new, we don’t know what to expect, right? It’s kind of the outsider perspective. I feel like you guys know as much as we do right now on performance and things of that sort. Time will tell, but it’s definitely going to be building as a team and as a club here at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. I hope we hit the ground running, but we know that we have a lot of work to do in the meantime.”

Why was it important to you to get some Xfinity races in this year with JGR?

“I enjoy racing as much as I possibly can. I want to be in a seat three times every weekend if I could. I think there are some race tracks that I feel like I need to get better at and more experience at. I feel like some of those on that list definitely can’t help me for sure, but at the same time it’s the same group for me so I enjoy being able to work with the same group of guys and go win some races.”

Do you feel like you have a similar personality with your teammates?

“I don’t feel like our personalities are much different. We want to go win races. We want to be the best race car drivers that we can be, and I definitely feel like we’re here to put in the work and the time and hopefully we can both go and be successful for Jimmie (Johnson), Maury (Gallagher) and everyone at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 65 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 63,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 45 million cars and trucks at our 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 26 electrified options.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 Media Day | Wednesday, February 14, 2024

JOSH BERRY, No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW HAS THE TRANSITION BEEN WITH HAVING EDDIE D’HONDT AS YOUR SPOTTER? “Thankfully, for me, I have a little bit of experience with Eddie driving the 9 last year, so I think that’s gonna ease the transition there, but, really, more than anything I think it’s easy to maybe overanalyze the situation, but I think we can use the Duels as a great practice session and then you obviously work through those and then we’ll have Friday and Saturday to make any adjustments that we need.”

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF WATCHING VIDEO ONCE YOU GET INTO THIS WEEK? “I think, from my side of things, the biggest deal is just him pointing out what he sees and why he sees it, and that helps just build a little bit more confidence in me and what he’s seeing and watching how these moves materialize. I think that’s just the biggest thing is striking up that conversation and getting on the same page and just starting to build that confidence working with each other.”

WHAT HAVE YOUR EMOTIONS BEEN LIKE GOING INTO YOUR FIRST 500? “It’s super exciting to come here. Even when I think back to being a kid and watching NASCAR and watching racing. The first race I really remember watching was the Daytona 500, the ‘97 Daytona 500. That’s the race that sticks out to me, so I’ve said that a couple times over the off-season, so I think that’s cool and I just remember being a kid and watching all the build-up to this race every year after the off-season to come here and get excited to watch the race. It makes it mean a little bit more. Obviously, it’s the biggest race of our year, but emotionally to be here and participate in this is really cool.”

IS IT SURREAL? “I don’t know if it’s necessarily surreal. I guess based off the last couple of years and everything that’s happened, I guess that I always felt like anything was possible, but it’s really cool to be here without a doubt.”

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING ABOUT THIS WEEK THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST? “I think really just all of it. The family and I, I drove our bus down a couple days early. We’ve been here at the track for a couple days with really not much of a plan. We did go to Disney yesterday and we wore that out, but just kind of enjoying the experience and not rushing in and rushing out. I’m just trying to enjoy it and prepare for it and now we’re here going through this and then qualifying tonight, so it’s time to buckle in and get serious, I guess.”

TONY SAID NOAH HAS BROUGHT A NEW KIND OF ENERGY. YOU’VE WORKED WITH HIM BEFORE, BUT CAN YOU FEEL THERE’S A SPARK IN THE BUILDING? “I think across the board, I mean, I feel like the excitement level has been high really the whole time. My guys have been really excited and we’ve been just working through all the little things of getting ready for the season and obviously bringing Noah on board, I think, is a great addition. All of us have been in the shop nearly every day working out together, working with our teams, doing social and marketing stuff, so I mean it’s just a really good environment right now. I think that’s important to keep everyone jacked up and ready to go racing.”

WHO NEEDS TO DRIVE THE SHIP THERE? “I’m not sure that there has to be a single person. I look at Hendrick Motorsports and I don’t know that I feel like one specific driver drives the ship there. I mean, everybody works together and all the teams work together and are competitive together as well, so I feel like we can do that. I don’t think there has to be a clear-cut favorite or leader in the group. I think we can all pull our weight and work together, work with our teams and keep a good relationship amongst all the drivers and crew chiefs and engineers and I think that will lead to success.”

YOU AND RODNEY HAVE SIMILAR BACKGROUNDS. WAS THERE AN INSTANT BOND THERE IN TERMS OF COMMUNICATION? “Yeah, there’s a huge mutual respect between the two of us just because of our background and his credentials in the Cup Series speak for themselves, too. As I’ve been around him and worked with him more and more, I just have no doubt that I know exactly why he’s had the success that he’s had. He’s super dedicated and meticulous and very, very good at his job, so I’m just really thankful to have someone like that leading my rookie season.”

IS THERE ANY PRESSURE YOU FEEL IN FILLING KEVIN’S SEAT? “I think there’s pressure on all of us. I think everybody in the Cup Series. I don’t know in any situation I’ve ever been in my career that I didn’t have pressure that I had to perform well to keep my job. This is no different to me and I think that goes for a lot of us in the Cup garage. Everybody feels that pressure to perform and run well and filling Kevin’s role is a big one, but I’m not Kevin Harvick. Kevin doesn’t expect me to be Kevin. Rodney doesn’t expect me to be Kevin. Everyone at SHR knows that I’m my own guy and I think that’s the biggest message that’s been to me is to be myself, don’t change what I do and just come in here and work with these guys and get ready to go racing.”

WERE YOU GRATEFUL TO GET SOME LAPS IN THE NEXT GEN CAR BEFORE MAKING YOUR DEBUT THIS YEAR? “I think that’s a big addition. I think obviously having that experience last year and not only just getting the experience in the car, but having several good results and winning the All-Star Open and having some success in there I think was a big boost of confidence and then on the same thing I think working with an organization like Hendrick Motorsports from inside and learning that and even working with two different teams throughout that there was a ton of knowledge and understanding that I gained about Cup racing through that time, so I think that is gonna prove to be a big benefit. Ultimately, it’s still up to us to go out and execute and do what we need to do, but I definitely feel a lot more confidence having that experience for sure.”

IS THERE A TRACK COMING UP YOU FEEL YOU CAN ESTABLISH YOURSELF AND GET INTO THE SPOTLIGHT? “I think at the beginning of the season, obviously these first couple weeks will be unique and the superspeedway pack style of racing I guess that we see in Daytona and Atlanta, but after that I’m excited to go to Vegas. I’ve won there in an Xfinity car. I’m excited to go back to Vegas with having a little bit of Next Gen experience and excited to see SHR as a whole and how we come out of the gate right at our first intermediate. I think Rodney and all of the guys have been really excited for that. We’re really working hard for that one, too, so we’re excited to go to all of them, really. I think we’re just gonna have to work through it. Obviously, I want to say the short tracks, but I think that we can be competitive anywhere.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT VEGAS SPECIFICALLY? “It’s just been a good track for me, really. I think you feel good going into places that you’ve won at and been competitive at.”

DO YOU FEEL THIS YEAR IS ONE WHERE EVERYONE HAS TO BUCKLE DOWN AND GET THE SHIP TURNED AROUND? “For sure and it’s understandable. Tony has been a great leader and had a lot of success in this sport. I can completely understand why he would say that he wants us to perform better. That’s naturally as an owner what he’s expected to do and that’s what we expect of ourselves. I don’t think any of us, I didn’t walk into this deal expecting everybody to pat me on the back and tell me how easy it’s gonna be and how nice they’re gonna be to me. I knew it’s gonna be hard. I know I’m gonna have to work at this. I know we’re gonna have to perform. That’s what comes with Cup racing, the pressure of that and performing well and having success. I think the reality of it is I agree with Tony. We have the people there. We have the infrastructure. We have the engineers. We have the crew chiefs. We have everybody there that can go out and do great things and they’ve done it before. We just have to get back in the rhythm with the new group and I know we can do it.”

IS THIS WHEN IT REALLY STARTS TO SINK IN WITH WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO DO? “Yeah, I think so. Obviously, everything that’s happened in the last couple of years has been amazing and the opportunities that I’ve gotten. There have been so many people to help get me to this point and it really means a lot to be here in this moment. It really means a lot to be here and have a Cup car with my name on it that I’m getting ready to race. That’s really the best part about it to me.”

STERLING MARLIN IS A GUY A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE 500. HOW DID HE INFLUENCE YOU GROWING UP IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE AREA? “It was really cool watching him race growing up. Honestly, his wins in the 500 were a little bit before I really remember watching it, but obviously knowing that he’s won the races and as I grew up racing at the Fairgrounds he was about as synonymous name with everything at the Fairgrounds as there can be, so it’s really cool to have a guy like that in the 500 from Tennessee. It was a cool experience growing up for sure.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO GET TO THIS LEVEL AND BE THE NEXT GUY FROM THAT AREA TO COMPETE IN CUP? “It’s really cool and growing up racing in that area was times that I think back very fondly in my career. I’m excited to kind of be the next guy in line from there to race in the Cup Series, but we’re just getting started.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR YOU TO RACE AT THE FAIRGROUNDS? “I think that would be awesome. That’s a great facility and a great racetrack. I think it would be a great experience for all of us. I’m gonna go back there and race some way or other, whether it’s a late model car or a modified or anything. I think it’s a great opportunity there. Hopefully, they can work out what they need to work out and we can get back there in some form or fashion.”

HAVE YOU HAD THAT PINCH ME MOMENT AT ALL THROUGH THIS PROCESS? “Not necessarily. I’ve had a lot of time to prepare for this. We’re closing in on maybe a year since a lot of these conversations and things started, so I’ve spent a lot of time to prepare for it. I think the sky is the limit for us, really. If I’ve come this far, I don’t know why we can’t keep going and that’s what we’re gonna aim to do.”

DID SEEING YOUR NAME ON THE DOOR OF THE CAR KIND OF HELP IT SINK IN? “Yeah, that was pretty cool. I’ve had a lot of opportunities and the majority of them my name wasn’t even on the car, so to see my own car and have my own group and work with my team, when you’re in those opportunities like with injuries and what not you know you’re on borrowed time. You know that the more of a relationship you build with a team you know that it’s coming to the end, whether that’s in two weeks or a month or whatever. So, to sit there and have a car with your name on it and your group and time to work together and build that relationship and get started with something is really special.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT VEGAS THAT TURNS YOU ON? “I really don’t know. It’s just been a good track for me and I think just the first intermediate of the year is one we always have circled to try and see how we come out of the gate and perform. Going there and having a little Next Gen experience, having a couple wins in the Xfinity car I think should be a really good opportunity for us.”

HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING PHYSICALLY THAT’S BEEN IMPLEMENTED TO LIGHT THAT FIRE AT SHR? “Maybe not specifically. Obviously, Ford bringing in a whole new car adds some excitement in there, and I just know slight changes with the processes and thoughts of how they communicate with each other and how each team communicates with each other. I’m coming into the midst of this, so I don’t know how much it’s changed over the last year, but I know that everyone says that these guys are working closer together than ever. I know as drivers the drivers are working as closely together as ever and we’re all pulling in the same direction. We’re definitely not shying away from that, so it’s just gonna take a lot of work, but it’s like Tony said and I agree with Tony, we have the people there to do it, so we just have to go out and execute and get better throughout the year and get back to where they want to be.”

HE WANTS RESULTS. “Yeah. He’s Tony Stewart for a reason and I’m here for it.”

HOW HAS THIS TRANSITION TO FORD BEEN SO FAR? “It’s been a great transition. It’s been a change, obviously, I look back on that time at Jr. Motorsports really fondly. I wouldn’t be here without them without a doubt. I wouldn’t be in an Xfinity car. I wouldn’t be doing anything really if it wasn’t for those guys, but at the same time it’s been a fun change. It’s been nice working with a new group and a fresh start. I think the Xfinity season last year wasn’t what we wanted. It was a struggle, so I think having a fresh start with a new group has been exciting for me personally.”

Toyota Racing – Tyler Reddick
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 14, 2024) – 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Wednesday prior to the Daytona 500.

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing

With the addition of the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB cars to Toyota, how does that change the drafting and collaboration strategy here and at other superspeedways?

“Yeah, we have more to work with for sure, but it gets a little more complex from the pit road standpoint. Instead of six cars trying to head onto pit road at the same time, now you need to coordinate nine cars together. It will be more important than in the past to be on the same page with fuel strategy, be in close proximity coming to pit road. And above then all else, with nine cars, you have more chances of someone having an issue along the way too. We’re going to have to execute our strategy pretty well and will have some practice with that in the Duels.”

What was the message from Denny Hamlin heading into this year?

“When you look at it, we had our best year to date. We set the standard for ourselves like ‘Okay, this is what we did last year so now we need to go improve again. We had a lot of information at our disposal to go through to really narrow down what was hurting us the most. I think one thing for me – the obvious one – was just making sure that we capitalize and we close out those races we’re really fast in with a win or top five. But more so than that just trying to understand what it is about like some of these short track. What is it in the short track package that we’re missing, what is it in the speedway package that we’re missing. We think some of that was due to the body so we’ll see if that’s improved. So, just trying to focus on those things and over the course of this year really try and correct those issues along the way.”

Now having a year with 23XI Racing and the No. 45 team under your belt, are you expecting a “breakout year?”

“That’s what we’re aiming for, but do I expect things to come easily? No. I wouldn’t say it’s outright just walking into the year expectation. I know we have to work extremely hard, but I’m excited about the potential in this new car. A lot of the things we were able to do last year, we showed we had a lot of speed. So, I know we’ll be able to come back and should be able to do a lot of those same things, and then capitalize on those days where we’re that fast.”

With the performance of the team in the past at Daytona, what is your confidence level heading into the weekend?

“I don’t know. In the past, I’ve gotten to a few laps to go and I’m feeling pretty good about things and then get wiped out. It’s just the nature of this race. Last year was kind of new to Toyota and then getting into a bad spot with (Kevin) Harvick. In the past, this race has been tough for me, whether the car has not handling well or getting myself in the wrong spot at the wrong time and not properly reading the energy of the pack. So, for me, just trying to learn from Bubba (Wallace) over today, on practice days and the Duels. He does have a tendency to find his way to the front. Last year, he got wiped out in that crash on the last lap. Momentum was on his side, he was going to be right there in the mix at the end. He definitely does a really good job finding his way to the front at the end of these plate races and more times than not, Denny (Hamlin) does as well.”

What were your thoughts on the Netflix series and the impact it could have on NASCAR?

“It was fun honestly. More than anything, they were just following us around with what we were doing, so it wasn’t a lot of like heavy lifting work for me or anything. I just enjoyed the process. I keep telling myself I’m going to finally watch the whole thing. Alexa (DeLeon, fiancé) has. I feel like everyone in my family has, my friends have. I just need to sit down and watch it. Might as well do it while I’m here. I have some free time on Saturday or Sunday if the weather doesn’t get better. Yeah, it seems like it’s all been good feedback so far. Certainly, a number of drivers, including myself, have saw a pretty significant bump in their following on different social channels.”

How hard is it to dig your way out of a hole after having two tough races to start the season?

“It’s very difficult. Daytona was rough, put us in a bad spot going into Vegas. And then, we had our issues at Vegas, even though we had a fast car there. We couldn’t practice or qualify there, so it gave us a bad pit stall and that put us behind at that race. And then at the next race, qualifying got rained out, so we had to start on points. It really put us in a hole for the first three, four weeks there. I don’t know how far into the season it was – it was right around the 600 we were within 30 points out of first. We dug out of it pretty quick, but then had our lull in the summer stretch. You can get out of it, but I would expect as we run more and more in this NextGen car, more teams will be more consistent. It’s going to be harder to dig out of holes that you put yourself in.”

How long do you think it’ll take you to fully adapt to a relatively new car and to a new Toyota race car?

“The chassis itself, I feel like I’ve got a good understanding of it. Certainly, I think teams will just keep finding more and more ways to make them closer to perfect than what they are. I think the biggest thing with the new body this year, is maybe just seeing what it’s tendencies will be in traffic. Racing around other cars, it might be a little different. I expect the short track package to be different in traffic as well. I wouldn’t say it’s better, but dirty air is different, so that’s going to be a learning curve as well. Not necessarily tied to the Camry. Those will be the big things. Just seeing if there’s anything really that stands out when you’re racing other cars in traffic with the new body.”

Drivers are calling Atlanta a hybrid track. Is there anything you take from here to Atlanta?

“Maybe a little bit. Just little details – like the differences from last year’s car to this year’s car on the speedways and if anything hopefully to have more confidence. But Atlanta keeps changing too. Every time we go back, it has less and less grip, so it’s harder to have the pack racing we saw from the very beginning.”

How important will the Duels be in terms of learning how the car will race in traffic and its tendencies?

“Yeah, we’ll be able to learn quite a bit there. My team and probably a lot of teams are going to be screaming at the drivers to not tear this stuff up. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can. I think just running in a line of cars to be able to understand the differences pretty quickly. We’re all pretty optimistic that this car is going to be able to push a lot better so hopefully we can get a pretty good read on that in the Duels.”

Have you guys discussed a strategy for the end of the race if you’re running up front?

“I think all of the Toyota drivers have a pretty good understanding of what we need to do depending on what situation we’re in. We all collectively have a good idea of what we need to do depending on where we’re at and what the circumstances are. Ideally, we want to be up at the front. If we’re not we don’t have a shot.”

How important are those friendships and partnerships in a race like this?

“The goal for myself and the other Toyota drivers is we’re going to work together and have each other’s back. We can try to get to the front. We can trust another fellow Toyota behind us better than we can a Ford or a Chevy. We’ll try and use that to our advantage, but certainly, it’ll be interesting to see how this race plays out. As time has passed, it’s just gotten harder and harder to get to the front unless the whole field is saving fuel, and I feel like they’re getting smarter about how to finish that within those fuel windows as well.”

How many cars does 23XI have built with the new Camry XSE body?

“That’s a good question. Gosh, I’ve been so busy the last couple weeks, I’ve been in and out of there so I haven’t really kept up. I was also in Disney World so I’ve been checked out the last couple days.”

How’s the new 23XI Racing building?

“Yeah, Airspeed is certainly impressive. I got to spend quite a bit of time in that building in early January. Certainly impressed with the layout and size. The atmosphere is just very different from any other race team’s facility that I’ve been in. I think between the layout, the lighting, the windows, just the colors that Denny (Hamlin) and everyone went with, it really sets the tone that it’s a different atmosphere. Honestly, for me, it doesn’t feel as stuffy or as hospital-like if you will that some of the shops do that are all white and super plain. There’s a lot of character to the building and I certainly enjoy it.”

This is the 20th year of the NASCAR Playoffs. What are your thoughts on the Playoff system?

“Yeah, my first two Playoff attempts, they kind of crashed out if you will in the Round of 16 and we had more speed than that. Last year, was kind of the opposite. It wasn’t necessarily the opposite, but we finished where we probably should have. Going all the way back to the Xfinity Series, I won it both ways. I’ve stunk all year long and just showed up at Homestead and was able to win it, and then I’ve also done it the other way where you dominate all year long. Both ways are very fulfilling. I’d say you have more expectations for yourself if you’re a contender all year long. I feel like you kind of have an advantage to a degree if you’re that underdog, and no one is really paying attention to what you’re doing. But you still have to go out there and get the job done at the end of the day. I don’t think one takes away any more than the other with this format we have. You have to show up in those clutch moments and deliver.”

Do you think it’s exciting to have that last race to decide a champion rather than someone clinching it early?

“There’s a lot of pressure involved in this format. In the older one, yeah, you’d face similar pressure over a longer duration more so along the lines of ‘Oh gosh. I hope we don’t break today.’ Or hoping you don’t get caught up in anything. In the Playoff format, the pressure could be instantly on or off based on three or four positions on the race track. It definitely cranks that intensity up.”

Do you ever look at old Daytona 500s to help you prepare?

“Honestly, more for fun these days. It’s a lot different than we race now. I’d say the ones that always make me chuckle are going back and watching these guys race in the late 70s and early 80s on the mile and a halves. Dale (Earnhardt) knew what he was doing I think. He just seemed like he was ahead to a degree. Some of the guys knew how to do it a little bit, but Dale just really took advantage of it. He didn’t care if it made you upset or not. That was always entertaining to watch for sure. I did enjoy watching that. He would do things that we would all want to do, but they would never fly today.”

What does Daytona mean to you?

“A lot of legends of our sport have broken through and won here and we’ve seen a lot of them, it’s taken a lot of their career to win here. Just the history of this trophy — the history of this race is what propelled us to where we are today in and among other major sports in the country. The storylines from this event. A lot of big moments have happened here. I’ve never experienced it for myself, obviously. It just seems like a race, when you win it, it’s kind of game-changing for some. You could say for Ricky (Stenhouse), he’s kind of already established himself as who he is, but it was a big deal for them and their year. I think their performance was better from winning this race. To a lot of these guys, it’s a race that will haunt you for most of your career if you can’t win it. I’d like to get that out of the way early.”

How do you view that the public sees the Daytona 500 as the pinnacle of the sport?

“Certainly, I feel like the whole field, and I’ve been in these crashes — you get to six laps to go, and the whole field stops thinking. We all just wreck. We do some really crazy, dumb stuff. Five to go and everyone just freaks out. I feel like the real smart ones are the ones that can navigate through that and know, ‘Okay, I need to get out of this.’ Or they’re already ahead of it to begin with. I think the ones that win this race are the ones that remain calm. You know the race is approaching its end and they make calm, cool and collected decisions and that puts them in victory lane.”

Do you have to remind yourself to stay calm in the closing laps?

“It’s pretty hard not to get swept up in it. That’s probably why I’ve been in a lot of wrecks. Honestly, though, we saw with Ricky (Stenhouse), he didn’t have the perfect last lap. He made a couple mistakes in a few seconds, but it all still worked out. The moral of the story is if you can be that lead car, you’re kind of afforded that option. You never know if someone is going to wreck behind you or not. Certainly, his path to winning that race last year was pretty interesting. I think all the drivers collectively are doing a very good job complaining how hard it is to move through the field with this Next Gen car. I think it was 18 or 19 (laps) to go, he had his penalty and had to move to the rear, caution came out and he was going to lose a lap and he managed to go right to the front. There’s always a way to get to the front. He gambled probably 20 or 30 times in those final laps on decision making and he kept hitting it and kept saying, ‘Okay, I’ll go all in again.’ And he kept moving his way to the front and it worked out for him.”

What have you learned from Denny Hamlin on how to be successful at the Daytona 500?

“Every year is different, yes. But guys like Denny (Hamlin) and Bubba (Wallace) continue to find their way to the front or at the front of the field. Just understanding their thought process and how they look at it, trying to mold that into something of my own that makes sense for me. If you try to run the race as a completely different driver, I feel like that can be a challenging thing because instead of just doing what you think would be best, you’re like, ‘What would Denny do? What would Bubba do?’ Certainly, over time you can kind of shift your own mindset and certainly the way that Bubba and Denny do it makes the most sense. So, hopefully over time it’s something I can continue to shift more in their direction and think the way they do about certain things. The first year of this Next Gen car when I was with RCR (Richard Childress Racing), I think I ran like half of the speedway laps that were offered up to race on the speedways that first year. I wrecked early in the 500, Atlanta I blew a tire, Talladega I blew up on lap four. I was just very down on experience. When we came into the Daytona 500 last year with 23XI, I just wanted to get some laps and we wrecked early on just from an untimely push, right? We ran okay in Atlanta and then went to Talladega, and I wrecked being stupid on like lap 30. I was just so behind on experience the last two years with what this car drafts like and how much it moves around and getting comfortable with that. It took like Talladega 2 and some of Daytona 2 to kind of catch up on that. I feel like I’ve caught up a little bit, but I’ve still got some learning to do.”

What is the experience like getting better at superspeedway racing compared to getting better at road course racing?

“It’s night and day different. The experiences you have on a road course, you can recreate some of those situations on a simulator and go and run laps and improve. With speedway racing, I’ve done a little bit on iRacing, but it is just not quite the same. The only time you have opportunities to improve your speedway racing ability is by being on the race track and doing it. You can watch film, you can do all these things. Look at data, look at how people race, but again you’re just seeing how people use the draft to their advantage if that makes sense. You’ve got to go out there and gain the experience in real life. So, being a little behind on that made that difficult. I feel like the last two speedway races I’ve gained some good experience. Got a good understanding of what to do and what not to do. I think I’ll be in a better spot for this race.”

Are you ready to win at this type of track with the experience that you have?

“Looking at how these speedway races have been won with this car, I would say yes. Just with how people have found their way to the front, the decisions you’ve got to make. Certainly, it’s important to be able to push good or be a good lead car, but you look at (Ryan) Blaney and how he won Talladega working well with another car. When you look at Ricky’s (Stenhouse) win at Daytona, when you look at what Denny (Hamlin) did to get from last to fourth – some of the ways that you find your way to the front or put yourself in these positions. It’s not necessarily just about pushing good or being a good pusher. I think there’s multiple ways that you can win this race for sure.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 65 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 63,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 45 million cars and trucks at our 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 26 electrified options.

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NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAYS
FEBRUARY 14, 2024

 AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 RICHARD CHILDRESS CAMARO ZL1 – 2024 Daytona 500 Media Day Quotes

Being a defending winner of the Daytona 500, how does it feel coming back for another Daytona 500?

“The events I think about are 2021 and last year, so the ones you didn’t win. Probably the most dominant race car I had here would have been in 2021 when (Michael) McDowell won. Won the Duel, ran inside the top-five all day and just were very close to winning that race and we finished third. That one was one that was everything, man. That was a magical weekend – to run the Duel, running top-three and close to winning another one. And then you come back last year and Kyle (Busch) and I find ourselves first and second coming to the white flag when the caution falls, and then you know, mayhem ensues after that restart and trying to push him around the backstretch. And then I get hit, and those are the ones you think of that got away. There’s potential of having three Daytona 500 wins by now in my career, so that gives you even that much more confidence. You know how to find that way, to be in that position in this thing, so it gets you excited.”

“Losing definitely hurts, but it also gives you the confidence that there is a pattern here. There’s a reason why I’m able to get to the end of these things and be in a position to win. You lean back on that confidence.. that pattern you’ve been able to create as a driver here. You use that to your advantage.”

What do you feel has been your strength, particularly in the NextGen car, on these superspeedways?

“I’d say even before the Next Gen car, I thought RCR and ECR has a bigger advantage. The Next Gen has really tightened up the field, so you have to be strategic about not making a mistake and putting yourself in a good position. I think transitioning on pit stops strategy, that’s become such a big part of these things now. Getting on pit road cleanly; getting in line and getting up to speed fast. ECR horsepower, I think, is a big part of that. We’ve always had strong engines at the speedways, and then Kyle (Busch) is a good speedway racer. He hasn’t won here at the 500, but he’s a dang good speedway racer. He puts himself in good position, and I’ve worked with him in past in Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup even when we weren’t aligned. Now, I think last year, the Talladega win for Kyle – that was a lot on him saying ‘Hey, I’m not coming down pit road for fuel’, and then he drove his butt off. Last year, it was just kind of a weird 500 with how it worked out. We found ourselves in a really good position there at the end. We’re linked up, and Kyle gave me a hand signal with five or six to go – went outside of the two most dominant cars and were in that great position we were in.”

What did you glean from Kyle (Busch) last year during his first full year at RCR?

“I think just his competitive nature. He truly eats, sleeps, and breathes racing. When he’s not at a NASCAR track, he’s at a dirt track with Brexton (his son) and racing when Brexton isn’t racing. He is just a competitor, and he’s very good at explaining what he wants in the racecar. What we need to do to get better. He’s one of those people that at all costs, he’s trying to make things better.”

With the hybrid that is Atlanta now, what did you have to learn to be successful at that track given the change in the track and change in the car?

“I haven’t been successful at Atlanta, so I’ve got to go to work on that one. Truthfully, since we’ve gone to Atlanta… in the first race, we were pretty good. I got turned at the end of the stage, and if we didn’t, we would’ve finished second or third. That was probably one of the best cars I’ve had there. Past that, Atlanta has been… I’ve had some massive hits there.

I think this time around, it’s coming up with a game plan. When you don’t have a game plan going into one of these races that you can’t truly commit to, you kind of get stuck in the middle and you don’t know what you’re doing, and it usually doesn’t turn out good. You’ve got to be committed to strategy and stick to that strategy. That’s a part of speedway racing. I’m not going to go all day and try and lead every lap or am I going to ride around and make a charge. But you can’t just be in the middle like I’m just going to figure it out. Sometimes that works, but I feel like being decisive on one of the two places you want to be.”

“Atlanta has been really weird, and it’s still changing. I think the track with another winter on it, it could be slicker. But we’re going to be there when it’s probably cold and we’ll have grip. You’ll be in between trying to take as much downforce as you can and drag out, and we’ll try to choose a path. We just haven’t been great there yet, but we’ve just got to figure it out.”

On Atlanta, you talked about it being a hybrid and taking massive hits at Atlanta, but is the crashing the same? Meaning, there’s usually not a single-car crash at Daytona. Is it the same way at Atlanta?

“If you’re involved in a wreck, it’s going to suck either way. Atlanta is similar crashing to Daytona. It did spread out on the long green flag run in the summertime, or whenever the second race was when pit stops started happening. But it seems to kind of yoyo back together.”

The Chevy bodies have remained, but in figuring out how Ford and Toyota draft, is that something that will change how we see racing in the Duels tomorrow?

“I tried to talk to some of the guys in the Ford camp when I was on RaceHub, and just say ‘Hey, what do you think of the new car? Is it going to change the way you guys have drafted?’. The only thing I got was that they felt the nose might be a little more pointed, not as rounded as it has been. That’s kind of been our Achilles’ Heel from the Chevrolet standpoint, is being to successfully push at all times, whereas the Fords can kind of push us and push themselves very well. We’ve always had to be a little more strategic in how we push and communicate to each other the best way to push with our car. If that brings that in to play for them, I think there will be a learning curve, first of all. They will probably wreck a couple of cars, if it’s a little more pointed. And then once they figure that out, it will be normal. It’s a little harder when the nose doesn’t line up great.”

If one (a Ford) is behind you in the Duels, is it something you don’t feel comfortable with?

“It’s hard. I think you’re going to just have to take it at the start if they’ve got a run and that guy is being aggressive. You can probably feel it right off. If you catch it quick, and it’s in the backstretch or in the tri-oval, the backstretch can sometimes be as bad as the tri-oval depending upon your setup. Hopefully you’ve built the car that it will receive a push as good as possible. The Duel is the time to test it. The racing in the Duels have been kind of odd the last year or so. It’s hard to be aggressive in the Duel because you have the one pit stop that really matters, and I feel like everyone plans around that one pit stop. So if you get yourself out of position before that pit stop, you’re kind of screwed. It’s hard to make a big gain, where it used to be where you could make moves and get yourself back to position. Now, it starts from the drop of the green flag that you’re positioning yourself for the pit stop and how you leave pit road. Definitely got to figure that out because you want to know how good your car is handling. Whenever everyone is running around the bottom in one line or everyone is splitting up, you’re not really getting that handling sensation. I remember leaving the Duel last year thinking my car is good. I mentioned handling was going to be an issue, but it didn’t… But in Sunday it was a big issue compared to the Duel. You’re running at night, you’re not running two- or three-wide as much, so when you go to say ‘Hey, my car is this or that,’ it’s got to be double the effect, usually, for the (Daytona) 500 because of the heat and more cars on track.

Is the dynamic going to change with three additional Toyotas in that camp?

“You’ll see them out there, and you’ll see it… It’ll probably take the first time when a guy that was a Chevy and is now a Toyota, would have probably stuck with you, but now… They’ll just be stronger. It definitely helps when you have numbers, but we all find each other out there and having to work with each other at certain times – Toyota, Ford and Chevy. But, Chevy is who I’m going to commit to when it comes down to it, and they know that.”

Where do you see yourself now in the sport, and where do you see yourself in five years?

“I feel like I’m at a place where I need to step up and take that next step, to try and get to a multi-win season. Go further than I’ve ever gone in the Playoffs. My ultimate goal since I’ve got to the Cup level is to be the first guy to win a championship at all three levels. That is still where my head is at. I’ve been able to see a lot of changes throughout my career, starting when Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Dale Jr. were in the Cup level and I got to race against those guys. Now, we’re at a whole new change of the car, a new racecar, new style of racing, so I’m going to try and do my best to put myself and my name back in that top tier of guys. Last year was one of those years where you just got kicked and kicked, and I was wondering when it was going to end. This year is a fresh start. Everybody is excited to go, my family, everybody being at the track to support us, so it’s going to be a good year. Just want to put myself where I feel I can be, and that’s in that top tier. I’ve been there before, and I want to be a multi-win guy at the Cup level.”

How much is having Kyle Busch in the building, helped you push to elevate yourself that much more?

“Kyle always shows the capability of the racecars, and that’s big. He pushes it, and if it’s not there, he’s going to push it past that. It’s good to see that. It gives you confidence knowing where we stand as an organization, and what you can accomplish.”

Does coming back here as a previous winner (in 2018) take any pressure off coming into this week?

“Once you’ve won it, you put the pressure on yourself because you want to do it again. You know what that experience is like. I don’t feel pressure from the outside, because I’ve already become a Daytona 500 champion. But, it’s more for me, because I enjoy this place, everything that it is, the victory lane here and what comes with it. Once you win here, it’s a game-changer. Not very often do you get to live in your dream, because everybody dreams about winning something, and dreaming about winning the Daytona 500 was one of those dreams for a long time for me. Then, you go and accomplish it, and you get to live in it. You taste it. It’s something you crave after that.”

What’s the sense you get from Kyle (Busch), who has won just about everything but this? Is there extra incentive over this one?

“I think everybody at our shop knows it for Kyle this is huge, and we’d like to give him that opportunity. Kyle puts extra on this race. He wants it. He’s so good at driving a racecar that this race will never define his career, but I know the competitor he his. He wants it bad, and he will be one to reckon with this weekend.”

Have you talked through strategies if it comes down to the last final laps with you two what to do?

“Yeah, we’ll probably try and figure out what we did wrong last year. (Laughs.) Last year came down to the perfect situation, and the caution comes out. The perfect situation ended up changing quick. Our cars just didn’t take off well because we couldn’t push great. Our cars were fast once you got them going, but we had to get through that first lap to really have the shot we needed. It was green, and we needed it to go green. This year, if that situation comes, we’ve made adjustments to our cars that hopefully they will handle better in that position where we really have to push super hard. On top of the fact that, maybe, we decide to change up our strategy, not be in a line, and split ourselves up, and try and get back together once we get going. We’ll have strategy, for sure, for that same situation because we’ve experienced it now.”

Does Richard (Childress) poke his head in there to give advice, being experienced?

“He gives us advice on the radio during the moment, usually. His opinion is always wanted, and when he talks, he usually has very good points, because he tries to cover them all.”

What conversations did you have in the offseason when trying to figure out how or what was more necessary to make improvements?

“I think just having a set schedule for to meet each and every weekend to talk about… We’ve already talked about the races, but to sit down and go over video together, eating lunch together, there’s not a whole lot we can do, just be better as a group. We’ve added a couple of guys, but most of the guys have stayed. The biggest thing, I think, I’ve said in our competition lunch, we went through the hardest thing you can as a team. Last year was a struggle. We hit the wall a lot, a lot of crashes. And then by the end of the year, we started having some pretty good runs. We started ticking off some pretty good runs that were acknowledgeable. For those guys to fight through that, and for them to not leave us… First of all, it’s hard to keep a group of guys together in this sport, because there are always other opportunities in this sport. We were able to retain everybody, and they wanted to be there, and that shows me they believe in what we’ve got as a group. Now, we just got to be smart about how we pick and choose our battles this year, and attack when we’re hot.”

Are there ways that the 3 and the 8 can work closer together and are there things like that, that can be done?

“Yeah, for sure. You know, I think you saw some improvement from us when we started following on the 8 more last year. We just want to bring more to the 8 more often. Last year we used them a lot and we need to do our part and give something back to them from time to time. But yeah, we are definitely going to work on trying to work together the best we can.”

Are there things you have changed over the years to be a better race car driver?

“Yeah, you know, for me I think it is doing as much road racing as I can in the offseason and working with Josh Wise and his program has been big. I have improved a lot on the road racing thing a lot and that was big for me, but even looking for ways for me to be better on the ovals. I have always thought that ovals come more natural to me, so I haven’t put a lot of extra effort into becoming a better oval racer, but now I look at it a lot more differently when I am working with Josh and those guys. Just trying to take everything I can and use it.”

The 1.5-mile tracks with the Next Gen car…how has that racing changed and how do you think it’s improved?

“I think the racing on the 1.5-mile tracks is probably the best racing we have now with this new car. It really seems to put on a good show, and you find certain times and tracks that race really (inaudible). The restarts are really pretty wild.”

In the year since Kyle (Busch) joined, what has changed and what has improved with RCR going into year two?

“Yeah, I think everybody is just putting in a little extra effort. Kyle really demands that and does a good job of pushing everybody in the shop to give us the best we can. Our communication is good and we are learning more about the simulator together and what tools we have and can properly use.”

Talk about Ty (Dillon) racing in the Trucks and if it is disappointing not to race against him?

“I think he is excited about the opportunity to go out there and be competitive each and every weekend. Obviously, it’s a bummer not seeing him on Sunday’s as much, but I think he’s got some opportunities there as well. I am seeing him in the simulator because he has been taking on some simulator time for our team. So, communicating with him like that is a little different because we haven’t been teammates at that level and that type of capacity, so having him at the shop and simulator like that is cool.”

With there being five different champions in this series the past five years, how have you seen the parity change?

“For sure. I was in the years where Jimmie Johnson was dominating, and you couldn’t touch him. So, definitely the Next Gen brought something to our sport and that was very competitive calibration. What would you call it? Brought everybody together.”

You won this race in 2021 and your teams were close last year. Does it matter to have to have a bad or good run in the Daytona 500 to make a difference and how long does that last?

“Yeah, I mean a great run here can carry you for weeks. Just because there are extra points to get in the Dual and then, yes, it’s just a huge momentum boost because every one of your partners and fans are going to be watching it.”

Are there ways that the 3 and the 8 can work closer together, and are there things like that, that can be done?

“Yeah, for sure. You know, I think you saw some improvement from us when we started following on the 8 (Kyle Busch) more last year. We just want to bring more to the 8, more often. Last year, we used them a lot and we need to do our part and give something back to them from time to time. But yeah, we are definitely going to work on trying to work together the best we can.”

Are there things you have changed over the years to be a better race car driver?

“Yeah, you know, for me – I think it is doing as much road racing as I can in the offseason, and working with Josh Wise and his program has been big. I have improved a lot on the road racing thing a lot and that was big for me. But even looking for ways for me to be better on the ovals. I have always thought that ovals come more natural to me, so I haven’t put a lot of extra effort into becoming a better oval racer, but now I look at it a lot more differently when I am working with Josh and those guys. Just trying to take everything I can and use it.”

The 1.5-mile tracks with the Next Gen car…how has that racing changed and how do you think it’s improved?

“I think the racing on the 1.5-mile tracks is probably the best racing we have now with this new car. It really seems to put on a good show, and you find certain times and tracks that race really (inaudible). The restarts are really pretty wild.”

In the year since Kyle Busch joined, what has changed and what has improved with RCR going into year two?

“Yeah, I think everybody is just putting in a little extra effort. Kyle really demands that and does a good job of pushing everybody in the shop to give us the best we can. Our communication is good and we are learning more about the simulator together and what tools we have and can properly use.”

Talk about Ty (Dillon) racing in the Trucks and if it is disappointing not to race against him?

“I think he is excited about the opportunity to go out there and be competitive each and every weekend. Obviously, it’s a bummer not seeing him on Sunday’s as much, but I think he’s got some opportunities there, as well. I am seeing him in the simulator because he has been taking on some simulator time for our team. So, communicating with him like that is a little different because we haven’t been teammates at that level and that type of capacity, so having him at the shop and simulator like that is cool.”

With there being five different champions in this series the past five years, how have you seen the parity change?

“For sure. I was in the years where Jimmie Johnson was dominating, and you couldn’t touch him. So, definitely the Next Gen car brought something to our sport and that was very competitive calibration. What would you call it? Brought everybody together.”

You won this race in 2021 and your teams were close last year. Does it matter to have to have a bad or good run in the Daytona 500 to make a difference and how long does that last?

“Yeah, I mean a great run here can carry you for weeks, just because there are extra points to get in the Dual. And then, yes – it’s just a huge momentum boost because every one of your partners and fans are going to be watching it.”

 

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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 Media Day | Wednesday, February 14, 2024

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IS THIS THE BREAKOUT YEAR? “We hope so. That’s definitely what we’ve been working for. I think all off-season has been really good with our group to kind of build around. We had 10 races together at the end of last year to really go through those. We know each other well and kind of look at things through the mental side of the sport for the last little bit of the off-season and get ready to go for this year. We’re really excited. I think our whole group is fired up and we believe we have the right group to make really, really cool and great things happen and it’s gonna be fun to try and do it.”

HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE PRESSURE THAT COMES WITH BEING AT THIS LEVEL? “I think I just have been ready for it. I don’t know. I’ve been racing for so long. I’ve been in a lot of high-pressure situations in racing and a lot of times the pressure is almost freeing. It’s a freeing feeling to know what’s on the line. That’s what you sign up for. This is a performance-based business and from day one when you sign up for that, you know that there’s gonna be pressure and that’s almost kind of fun. I enjoy that. I don’t really look at it as too much of a burden, really.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN THE 500 AND GIVE THE WOOD BROTHERS WIN NO. 100? “It would mean everything. Just to think about not only for the Wood Brothers, obviously, they’re sitting on 99 and probably the coolest people in the whole sport. That family is just amazing. They’re amazing people that are down to earth for all the things they’ve done. It’s amazing that they’re still around and working as hard at it as they are and care about it as much as they do. When we’re doing pit practice, Eddie Wood is out there watching us and things like that. It’s crazy. They deserve it more than anyone in the garage and, on top of that, to do it on the other side of the adversity we’ve had would be really special, I think. With this group to go out and make something like that happen here or any other race it would be pretty amazing.”

WHAT DO YOU DO TO CHANGE THAT NARRATIVE? BLANEY WON THE TITLE AND FORD SEEMS TO BE ON AN UPSWING. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO AS A TEAM? “I think we just have to put ourselves in position more often. I feel like we’ve had fast race cars before. We’ve run fast laps for solid amounts of time in races and we’ve had good runs before, but not as consistently as we need to. That’s frustrating almost more so than never doing well at all because you know you can do it. We know that this group can do it and we have the ability to do it, but it’s just about putting it together more often. I think we’ve found some keys to try and do that better this off-season and I’m excited to go out and try to put our theories to the test and see if we can improve on what we think we will.”

WHAT DID YOU SEE AS WEAKNESSES LAST YEAR THAT YOU ARE WORKING ON FOR 2024? “Racing is really hard because there’s not ever 100 percent this is the smoking gun. There’s always so many variables. What I try to do is just look at myself and the things that I know I can control – decision-making is definitely at the top of that last, where you have to choose to be aggressive at times and choose to not be aggressive at times. I feel like for our team we just need to stay on the offense as much as possible. For us, this whole year is about never settling, never laying down, laying over and that starts with race one lap one and setting the tone for the whole year. Hopefully, in the Duels we go out and run well. Every lap matters and that makes it really easy for me as a driver to know we’re not gonna ride around in the back. There’s none of that. It’s just let’s go racing and that’s a fun kind of mindset that we’re trying to lean into for sure.”

IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED TO BE AGGRESSIVE. “I think so. If you’re gonna go down, you might as well go down swinging. That’s our feeling. The worst thing that happens is you end up hopefully running well and crashing. That’s something I can live with. One of my favorite races as a Cup driver is leading the Daytona 500 in my first Daytona 500 and flipping. I mean, I know it didn’t end well, but it was one of my favorites because for our first race as a group, to come out and try to be aggressive and win the stage was cool. That was a good feeling. The flip was obviously not my favorite part, but that mindset is what we need to carry throughout this whole season.”

FORDS HAVE BEEN REALLY GOOD ON SUPERSPEEDWAYS. DO YOU HAVE ANY FEEL FOR HOW THIS NEW CAR IS GOING TO DO HERE? “I think it’ll be good. I don’t see that it would be worse in any way. I’m excited to try and get out there. It’s all numbers for now. Even in the tests and things like that I’ve done, I haven’t driven it. Everyone else has had the tests, so other than the Clash, which is not really a good aero feeling race obviously, this is my first time putting it in the wind I guess you could say. I think it’ll be good. I’m excited to see how we qualify. I think that’ll be interesting. I know that some guys are gonna go for trying to get the pole and see where we are, so it’s gonna be fun to see where we stack up for sure.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TWO SUPERSPEEDWAY RACES TO OPEN THE YEAR WITH DAYTONA AND ATLANTA? “It’s gonna be interesting. You could find yourself in a pretty big hole if you get in two wrecks that you didn’t cause. That would be frustrating, but on the other side of that it’s very interesting to fire off for the first few races as a driver and know you’re superspeedway racing, but they’re very different places and the styles are very different and how you pass and how you maintain track position is very different. Honestly, it’s not like you can just prepare for Daytona and be prepared for Atlanta. It’s kind of still two very separate types of racing and it doesn’t seem too weird to me because of that. If we went to Daytona twice in a row or maybe Daytona and Talladega it would feel very odd, but, to me, going to Atlanta makes sense just because it’s a very different style of racing still and it’s kind of a strange hybrid and then we go to normal racing after that. I think it makes sense. I think it’ll be a good show and the fans will get a lot of action out of the gates and it should be a lot of fun.”

THE DAYTONA 500 CAN BE A BIG MENTAL DRAIN AND WITH ATLANTA AFTERWARDS IT WILL BE TOUGH. “Yeah, for sure. You’ll be ready to go and be tired for sure on the plane ride home. From the Daytona 500 I remember last year how taxing it is just kind of mentally when you’re thinking through the end of those races and it’s high stress scenarios. We were leading fairly late, I think with 14 laps to go or so, and you’re just thinking through every decision so much and it happens so fast. It’s really a fun place to be because literally nothing else in the world even matters at all to you. It’s just racing and it takes your whole concentration, so it’s really fun and definitely after the race you feel it. I’m gonna be asleep on the plane ride home for sure.”

YOU ARE GOOD AT SUPERSPEEDWAY RACING. DO YOU FEEL HAVING TWO RACES TO START THE YEAR PLAYS TO YOUR STRENGTHS? “Yes and no. I feel like yes we’ve put ourselves in position to win before, but also I’ve wrecked almost every time. I feel confident in the decisions I’ve made to be up front late. I feel like that’s honestly always my goal at these races is just do what you have to do to be up front late and have a chance late because at the end of the race you can make every right decision and win, make every wrong decision and win, and so the way some of these things play out, obviously, you have to get really, really lucky if you make the wrong decisions to win, and normally if you make the right decisions you win, so it’s interesting to watch some of these races. I’ve watched a lot of Daytona 500s play out and there’s never a textbook guide on how to manage the last lap or manage the last two laps because you have so many variables on what others are gonna do. So, yes, it plays to your strengths, but also everyone feels somewhat nervous about the end of these races knowing there’s not a whole lot you can predict and control. You have to just more so react.”

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CALLED INTO THE NASCAR HAULER? “Yeah, when me and Noah fought we both got called into the hauler. That was interesting. Wayne is like the sheriff of the Xfinity Series. I love Wayne Auton, but I was expecting we were gonna get yelled at and be in trouble and he was like, ‘Just don’t do it again, boys,’ and then walked away. I was like, ‘OK, cool.’ And now obviously me and Noah are buddies again, so it’s not really a big deal anymore, but back then it was the only time I’ve been called in the NASCAR hauler. That could be a good goal for this year, try to get called in. All the good guys get called in. You think about Harvick of those guys that are always on the edge. You’ve got to go over it sometimes, I guess, so that’s a good goal for me. I’ll put that on the white board.”

WAYNE HAS A REPUTATION OF BEING THE PRINCIPAL. “I felt like I was in high school and just got in a fight and the principal is gonna be mad at me. Me and Austin Cindric joke all the time that Wayne is the ‘not in my series guy.’ He’s awesome. The way that he’s managed that series is great and he’s just one of those guys that calls you every holiday still and checks in on you and he’s just a stand-up dude. We all love Wayne, but for those few moments I was really scared of Wayne, that’s for sure.”

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MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DO YOU STILL GET GOOSEBUMPS COMING BACK HERE AS A DAYTONA 500 RACE WINNER? “Yeah, it is a special place because when you have won it you know what it is like to experience it. Prior to that you dream of what it is like to experience it. Having a good program and having fast cars and knowing that we will have a shot at it is exciting and fun when you roll through the tunnel. It is still a special place.”

YOU NOT ONLY HAVE A SHOT TO WIN THIS RACE AGAIN BUT YOU SEEM TO HAVE A SHOT AT THE PLAYOFFS AND MAYBE EVEN A CHAMPIONSHIP. THAT MUST BE FUN TO LOOK FORWARD TO: “It is, especially going into this year. Last year was one of our better seasons, probably our best season and we carried a lot of momentum and confidence. The biggest and most important part of that is keeping a lot of the same personnel because the last few years there have been a lot of changes and so this year, going in with almost the same group as we had last year is really valuable.”

DO YOU STILL COME THROUGH THE OLD TURN 4 TUNNEL AND IS IT NOSTALGIC WHEN YOU DO? “Well, I came in through the Turn 1 tunnel yesterday but I went out through the Turn 4 tunnel and yeah, it is. It really is. I don’t know if I am weird but I still look at all the pictures driving through and all the different race cars. It is a special place, it really is. It is a lot of things. One of the things it is for me is it is a reminder of it being a fresh year and a fresh opportunity and another opportunity and not everybody gets those. It is kind of that reminder of not just the season starting but that this is where it kicks off and there is a long season ahead and a lot to look forward to.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TEAM IN GENERAL WITH THE PERSONNEL YOU HAVE COMING BACK AND KEEPING THAT GROUP TOGETHER WHICH ISN’T A LUXURY YOU HAD IN RECENT YEARS? “The last few years, even though we have had decent success have been really tough from that aspect of having a good year and then we would lose a lot of those people. Then you have another good year and lost a lot of those people. It is hard to build chemistry and hard to find good people and people that you click with and can build that confidence and momentum with. To finally have a group that we have kept together and to come back to the race track is a big part of what I think will be a success for us this year. We have a good notebook and understand how each other work and that is a big part of what we have seen over the years when you look at guys that go on a roll, it is usually that group. You think about Chad (Knaus) and Jimmie (Johnson) and what they were able to accomplish. You have to build that team aspect around that individual car and I feel like this year we have the opportunity to do that.”

THE NEW FORD BODY, WILL THAT MAKE THE DUEL RACES MORE INTERESTING WITH TRYING TO FEEL THAT OUT AND A BASELINE OF WHAT YOU HAVE AND HOW IT DRAFTS? “Yes, to all that. I am sure the car will have speed but there are going to be some new particulars with the nose and how it lines up and how you push and not just balance but getting a feel for where you need to position yourself. It is going to be learning on the fly but I am glad that we have Thursday to do that. We will definitely try to get the best starting position we can but at the same time I am going to be moving around and trying to find that sweet spot of where your car wants to be because you can simulate and CFD and all those things and have a decent idea of what you are going to have, but until you get on the race track you don’t truly know what it will be like. I would imagine we will utilize some of those practices too just because we probably have a few things to work through to understand it a little better. I am looking forward to it. The car looks great and I don’t think we lost anything in those areas that we talked about where we won’t be able to push or anything like that.”

WHAT MAKES THE DAYTONA 500 SO SPECIAL? “It is hard to describe. I think it is just the history and significance of the race and what it means. For me, it probably has a little more meaning because when I started coming down here it was for the 24 hours. The 24 hours of Daytona is a big deal too and to me, that was my first exposure to Daytona. Then to come here as a NASCAR driver for the Daytona it was like, ‘Whoa, the Rolex isn’t that big anymore’, once you see what this is and what this means. I think there are a handful of places in the world that are like that. Daytona and Indianapolis and Monaco and there are some other places that have that sort of prestige and feel to it but Daytona there is just so much history here and it is a really special place.”

TALK ABOUT DRAFTING, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE FRIENDS HERE? “Yeah, you gotta have friends and it kind of goes in an order, right? You start with your teammates, so for me, it is Todd Gilliland and Kaz Grala here. Those are your most important allies and then for us you have your Ford Performance partners, the other Fords that are in the race that will try to work together. Then when it gets down to the end, if you don’t have any of those with you, it is just whoever the guy is that is next to you that is willing to dance for a little bit. You know they are going to try to position themselves the best they can and so the goal is to make yourself valuable to them as well. So when you make moves, when you pull out of line not leaving a guy and hanging them out. Sort of building that trust throughout the race. We all know that on the last lap it all kind of goes out the window but you can’t get in position without help. You are not going to make the runs yourself. You are going to have to have help. It is finding those key people you can work with and hopefully, as the race unfolds they are there at the end when you need them because that is when it is really going to count.”

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NOAH GRAGSON, No. 10 Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Ford Mustang Dark Horse – TONY SAID YOU HAVE BROUGHT NEW ENERGY TO THE SHOP. HAVE YOU FELT COMFORTABLE OFF THE BAT? “Yeah. I think with the other drivers, but most importantly all the individuals on the shop floor, upstairs and engineering – just every department. It’s been a lot of fun to get to know everyone and every day is something new. There are over 300 employees over there, maybe 350. I haven’t gotten an exact number, but it’s a big organization and every day something new – you’re meeting somebody new and get to know them. I’ve been going to lunch with a lot of the guys and I’ve just been having a lot of quality time with them. It’s a great organization. It’s nice. I know we hit on it prior, but having everything under one roof, pit stop practice, a gym to go work out, our trainer there. Everything that we need other than the simulator at Ford. I think we have to make an 11-minute drive down to Ford, so it’s not far at all. It’s been really good so far. I’ve been spending pretty much from 7 a.m. until four or five at night every day and I’m enjoying my time a lot. I really fit in with the atmosphere. There’s a lot of energy in the air over there.”

HAVE YOU EVER WORKED ON RACE CARS BEFORE? “I mean, I’ve helped. I’ve never built race cars. I’ve always really envied guys who do work on their own stuff, but, no, I’m not one that could go build a race car. I can help them nut-and-bolt stuff a little bit. The basics, but I like being a part of it. The other day I just wiped down the whole chassis on the Vegas car. I like doing the stuff that nobody wants to do. Sweeping the floors and doing stuff like that. I know it’s kind of probably over used, but I do enjoy sweeping and wiping stuff down, probably the nonsense of the little things that you don’t want to do, the headaches. If I can help somebody else out, I like to do it.”

YOU’VE DRIVEN FOR KYLE BUSCH IN TRUCKS, DALE EARNHARDT JR. IN THE XFINITY SERIES AND NOW YOU GET TO DRIVE FOR TONY STEWART IN CUP. YOU ONCE SAID YOU PUT ALL THE PRESSURE ON YOURSELF AND THAT IT DOESN’T COME FROM WHO YOU DRIVE FOR. “I think it’s just the desire and the want to succeed. There’s a lot of people that are a part of this. No matter what the driver is there are hundreds of people behind those drivers that allow us to do this and everybody in those race shops, everybody that supports them from a close relationship standpoint, management, logistics, there’s a lot that goes into it. Yeah, the drivers get all the credit, but I put a lot of pressure on myself at the end of the day to be successful for those that work hard. I guess for us drivers it’s a privilege to be able to go out here and race, and I’ve regained my love for this sport, where I might have lost appreciation over the past handful of years than what I had as a kid. I’ve refound that love for it and I’m just grateful to be back and get to work.”

WHAT ARE YOUR EMOTIONS AROUND THIS WEEK? “Just for me personally, instead of getting on a plane, I get to get on a plane and fly down here and drive into the tunnel and look around and just really soak everything in because it truly is a privilege. Being able to wear a fire suit and talk to everyone and see faces that I haven’t seen in a while is really special. It’s somewhat emotional just because I’ve missed it and it’s great to be back.”

WHAT AT SHR MAKES IT FEEL LIKE HOME FOR YOU? “They’ve just allowed me to be myself. It’s a good group of people. It’s great to be wanted and appreciated and the atmosphere over there, there’s just a lot of good people who enjoy coming to work every day. It’s a great work environment. I know when I wake up in the morning I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t wait to go see everybody at the shop today and go work alongside them’ and continue to develop these relationships. It’s just a place that suits me.”

TONY SAID THAT LAST YEAR’S PERFORMANCE AT SHR HAS TO CHANGE IN 2024. DO YOU GET THE SENSE IT’S A DOUBLE DOWN TYPE OF YEAR TO TRY AND TURN THINGS AROUND? “Absolutely, 100 percent. You can’t hide the fact, which I haven’t been there and Josh hasn’t been there, but there’s no denying the fact that they struggled. They went from winning how many races in ‘21 or ‘22, whatever that year is that they all won races and had like 12 or 13 wins as an organization to having only one driver with one win. It’s challenging, but I think we use it as motivation. We all want to be leaders. We all want to be the best teammates possible, and we all want to work together to be a part of this deal. It takes everyone’s effort and and if we can be better than we were yesterday, that’s how we’re gonna be successful in the long run is if we can constantly keep improving and working together.”

WHAT ARE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS TEAM AND IS THIS A REBOOT? “Yeah, it’s definitely a reboot. It’s incredible to get an opportunity like this. At the same time, there’s gonna be challenges along the way. There’s gonna be adversity. There’s gonna be good runs and bad runs, but it’s how you react to it and how you keep on moving forward each and every race. It’s easy when you’re winning and I’ve kind of learned that over the past couple of years. When we were in the Xfinity Series and literally could do no wrong. It might have been the best thing for me, but the worst thing of winning all those races because I kind of lost my grounding in sense of ‘hey, I’ve got to keep on working at this.’ It’s not always gonna come as easy as it did in my final year in Xfinity. It was somewhat of a rude awakening in 2023. Obviously, we didn’t unload with race-winning speed, ever, so that was a big challenge. We’ve done a lot of self-reflecting and soul searching over the past handful of months and trying to become the best leader possible. I think that’s what in 20 years when I look back I feel like, man, if I was the best leader for my team and the best piece of the puzzle for my team and did the best job, I’l be satisfied with myself.”

HOW DO YOU BALANCE ALL OF WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED WHILE STILL BEING YOURSELF AND HAVING THAT PERSONALITY SO MANY FANS OF YOURS HAVE GROWN TO LOVE? “There’s a balance to that, obviously, and that’s one of the things that I’ve been working on is just balancing life, and how I balance work from time to relax. Everything is about balance no matter what it is. If they load us up with interviews from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, and then we go jump in the car for qualifying, you’re probably gonna be a little worn out and not do as good of a job as possible. There’s a good balance because today we’re doing it for a half day and then you get a little time to regroup and then get in the car. It’s an example of everything is about balance, so that’s one thing that I’m learning is balance and being a leader for a race team and how not only do my words influence others, but my body language and just everything being more self aware has been a big part of finding myself and my process. It’s not always gonna be perfect and I’m not perfect by any means, but I continue to try and learn and grow each and every day and become better than I was yesterday.”

HOW MUCH HAS TONY HELPED WITH THAT? “He’s been a big influence on me and being able to lean on him. He’s been through a lot of challenges and adversity in his life and his career, and to be able to lean on him for advice has been very important to me.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO GET CALLED INTO THE NASCAR HAULER? “It’s just say what they need to say and really just try and process it. Absolutely don’t argue at all because you’re just gonna make yourself worse. When you’re so frustrated in the moment you’re probably like, ‘man, this is my side of the story and you’re not listening to me.’ But NASCAR’s point is probably the more realistic and right way to go about things and once you settle down and calm down you can understand that.”

DID ANY VETERAN DRIVER GIVE YOU ANY WORDS OF WISDOM ON HOW TO HANDLE YOURSELF IN THOSE SITUATIONS? “No, it’s not really a topic between anyone I don’t think. Probably just like shut up and let them talk and listen kind of deal. I haven’t really talked to any of them too much. You always hear stories every once in a while like, ‘if I could be a fly on the wall for that one,’ but they all take emotions out of it. Emotions are a big part when you go in there and that’s probably why things are happening. Once you push those aside, the picture becomes pretty clear.”

DID YOU AND ROSS GET CALLED TO THE HAULER? “At Darlington we did. It was good. It was fine. I tested micros with him (Ross) the next night at Millbridge. We work out together and I called him after the race. I was like, ‘Nice shot, but if that security guard wasn’t there, I was coming and I wasn’t stopping. I hope you know that.’ That’s part of it and it’s just emotions. Those are the emotions of the sport and that’s what makes this sport so exciting is the emotions are high and the tension is tight and sparks are gonna fly, fists are gonna fly and smoke is gonna rise, but at the end of the day that’s what makes this sport so exciting.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE YOUR SPONSORS WITH YOU? “Yeah, we have a lot of great support. It’s just relationships and being able to bring value to a partner and say, ‘Hey, what’s our plan here? How do we achieve it and go above and beyond?’ I can confidently say that we do go above and beyond and try to and we’ve got a lot of great partners that allow us to do this. It’s great to be back with True Timber and Black Rifle Coffee and kick off this relationship with Ranger Boats and Winchester. It’s really special to be able to introduce them on a familiar scheme that we’ve had over the past handful of years in the Xfinity Series. It kind of brings me back to our roots and a little bit of my identity back.”

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TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 gener8tor Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE DUEL RACES TO LOOK LIKE? “For me, I think the Duels will be a huge learning experience. I think obviously qualifying will show what kind of speed everyone has, which I think the new Dark Horse Mustang is gonna be really fast, but then I think once we get into the Duels it’s about seeing how the bumpers line up. Like I said, I don’t have any worries about how our car is gonna draft, it’s more so about pushing each other and being consistent with all of that stuff. I think all of our speed is going to be fine, but there’s gonna be a few things to learn, for sure.”

HOW DO YOU FIND MORE CONSISTENT SPEED AND HOW HAS THE OFF-SEASON BEEN AT FRONT ROW? “If it was easy, everyone would be super consistent and I think it’s only getting harder in the Cup Series with everyone improving their program, so it’s just gonna be tougher every single year, but as a team I think having the consistency back with Ryan and Brit as my spotter, I think that never hurts. And then I think with Travis, the 34 crew chief, and Ryan, my crew chief, just getting closer and closer as time goes on, I think that will always help. We have some exciting stuff as far as new alliances and more aero data, all the stuff that should only help us, so I’m super excited about it. This is probably the most information that we’ve ever had and it’s just about putting it to good use and making the most of it.”

HOW SIGNIFICANT CAN THIS PENSKE ALLIANCE BE FOR YOU GUYS? “I’m not 100 percent sure on how all of it goes. That’s more of a crew chief’s side of things and just how all of that is gonna flow, but, for me, just what I’ve heard we’re gonna have the most information we’ve ever had. That just gives my crew chief and two engineers more puzzle pieces to make the ultimate thing they want to make, so it’s really cool and really exciting and I’m excited about it for sure.”

YOU HAD A SHOT TO WIN YOUR DUEL RACE LAST YEAR. WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THAT EXPERIENCE THAT MIGHT HELP YOU THIS YEAR? “It was definitely really cool to watch that back and see. Really, we were in a perfect spot I thought. There were maybe a few things I would have done different last year in the Duels, like a half-a-lap before that, that would have put us in a better spot. I think it’s a little bit learning from that, but those are tough situations. You can think about what you’re gonna do, but when your heart is just racing in that situation, my spotter it was his first race in the Cup Series too, but those are just really, really good spots to be in to learn. Obviously, it was nice that we didn’t wreck. We kind of got turned on the apron. If our car was driving better too, I would have been in a much better situation, so there are so many different layers of learning to that, but I’m really excited I had that experience and to be back here and try to do it again.”

HOW MUCH DO NERVES PLAY A ROLE IN THE FINAL LAPS OF SPEEDWAY RACING LIKE THIS? “I think the biggest thing to me at the end of these races is how much time is actually left. It’s like with 10 to go it feels like everything is on the line and we have to go right now, but, in reality, 10 laps at Daytona can be hours. It’s about surviving, not getting too anxious, not making a bad move too early. Even though 10 laps seems like the end of the world, it’s about having guys like Brit on the radio, my spotter, to keep me in the moment just chugging forward and not getting too nervous or anxious and making a bad move too early.”

TEN LAPS ALMOST MEANS 35 LAPS TO GO. “Exactly. That’s what I need them to tell me at least because I’ll still get anxious in the car.”

HOW DO YOU RACE IN THE MOMENT WHILE ALSO THINKING AHEAD TO THE END? “It’s about being patient. Last year, I think I was right behind Ricky with seven, eight to 10 laps to go. We kind of got separated and he obviously went on to win the race. I think that experience shows me that you’re never out of it. Obviously, the field has thinned out a little bit by then. I made a couple bad moves and I was in the big wreck at the end to where you really have to make the correct moves to be further forward, whether it’s going through that last pit cycle or getting in the right spot at the right time to be ahead of I think where the wrecks can happen, so it’s about surviving, being in the right position and having something to fight with at the end.”

WHAT WAS A BAD MOVE IN YOUR MIND? “I think it was honestly a move of just being too aggressive. I think I was in a line with him. I think I got out of line and then kind of got side-by-side and we actually ended up losing the front draft, which that really didn’t end up costing us because there was a caution, but it was really the point of losing track position. I think we’ve seen with the Next Gen car that track position is key. Once it gets to the end of the race and it’s two-by-two it’s like going down the freeway, there’s sometimes nowhere to go. If you get out of line, you’re gonna lose all of your spots. It’s about keeping track position all day and then on the flip side of that too the pit cycles are even that much more important. We’ve seen guys saving fuel to get on and off pit road faster. Under green leading the race, it’s just opened up a whole new page of strategy in superspeedway racing.”

IN ONE SENSE IT FEELS LIKE A FUEL MILEAGE RACE? “Yeah, I think it’s always been that way to some extent. Obviously, it’s always been the more fuel you can save on the racetrack, the less time you’re gonna have to spend in the pits, but I think before when you could just make a third line and drive back to the front, I think it’s really been more under the microscope in the Next Gen era. Really, the first year maybe not so much, but I think last year is when guys really started to realize how much of a difference it can actually make and just how important it really is. To me, it definitely began to be more relevant last year for sure.”

SO WHAT IS IT LIKE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK IF THEY’RE SAVING AT THE FRONT? “I definitely think it does present some opportunity to go forward. I think, to be honest, the third lane at Talladega last year, I think me and Michael and Riley was in the 36 car, and we made the third lane work and got to the front. But, truthfully, I really think that was just because guys were saving fuel and it slows down the bottom lane so much. At the back of the pack you’re barely in the gas just kind of sticking with everyone – kind of for the same reason, there’s nowhere to go and you know just as much too. You have to be saving fuel to keep up with these guys when everyone pits, so it’s really not a bad place to be. Obviously, you want to be the one saving fuel closer to the front.”

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RYAN PREECE, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THIS IS YOUR FIRST RACE COMING BACK HERE AFTER THE CRASH. WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND COMING BACK HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THAT CRASH IN AUGUST? “Nothing. I look at this race or this track no different than I did a year ago. And as I said, I think it did more, I don’t want to say harm, but gave people more mixed feelings about this racetrack for my wife and my father than it did me. But as a racer I feel like we’re, like I said this morning, at least I’ll speak for myself, I’m numb to these things and getting in the race car and having that happen. Crappy deal. I was pissed off more that we had such a fast race car and wasn’t able to finish the race. So it would be nice to go into the 500, and we’re going to see how our speed is with this new Mustang Dark Horse tonight. And we certainly had really fast Ford Mustangs last year. So I’m eager to get out there tonight.”

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REACTION WHEN YOU SAW A REPLAY OF THE WRECK? “Not much. I think it’s really like you understand the severity of it the more times that you watched it. So it probably took about 30, 40 times of watching it to understand how bad it really was and obviously things happen really fast. So, for your brain to really interpret everything that that happened throughout that wreck. You just remember more and more.

YOU SAID YOU KEPT PICKING UP STUFF THE MORE YOU WATCHED THE REPLAYS, WHAT WAS THE MOMENT WHEN IT SEEMED REALLY DANGEROUS TO YOU AFTER WATCHING IT 30 OR 40 TIMES? “I knew how dangerous it was but as a driver, you’re numb to it. So it really doesn’t impact me one way or another when I was watching it at first. And then as I watched it more and more, I was like, okay, yeah, that was pretty big.”

YOU SAID THE CARS HAD SPEED, LAST YEAR, BUT THE RESULTS ON PAPER FOR SHR AS A WHOLE THE RESULTS WERE NOT PLEASANT LAST YEAR. HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS WEEK, ATLANTA, YOU GUYS AS A TEAM AND AN ORGANIZATION GETTING OFF TO A FAST START TO HOPEFULLY PUT SOME OF THOSE DEMONS FROM LAST YEAR to bed? “When you look at Daytona, you can have the fastest race car in the world and still not win this race. You can get collected in the big one. And I think that was honestly the fact for many of us. I think when you look back at last year, the 10, the 4, the 14, and myself, we ran top four, lead laps, whatever it may have been, all of us. And it wasn’t just from a track position move. It was having speed and pushing people and doing all the things that it took. Atlanta’s tough. That’s a handling track as much as it is a speed track. But certainly, the beginning of our season, it’s very diverse. It has super speedways, it has short tracks, it has intermediates. And having two superspeedway style races at the beginning of the season can certainly put you in a hole really quick or it can give you a little bit of a cushion and make you feel good.”

HOW SOON DO YOU THINK YOU’LL KNOW THEN AS FAR AS WHERE SHR IS AT AS AN ORGANIZATION THIS YEAR? “I WOULD SAY IT’S GOING TO TAKE SIX RACES TO SEE THE INTERMEDIATE GAINS. WE DON’T GET TO VEGAS UNTIL THE THIRD RACE OF THE SEASON SO THAT’S THE ONE THAT WE HAVE CIRCLED. “I would say it’s going to take six races to see the intermediate gains. We don’t get to Vegas until the third race of the season so that’s the one that we have circled.”

HOW MUCH HAS CHANGED THIS OFF SEASON WHEN COMPARED TO THE LAST NOW THAT KEVIN HARVICK IS IN THE BOOTH AND NO LONGER BEHIND THE WHEEL? “Well, I think it you have four drivers with four completely different personalities. I’m different from Chase and Noah and Josh and as they are from me so I feel like there’s certain traits that I have that push them as well as certain traits that they have that push me so I feel like it compliments each other as well as us at Stewart Haas, we hear everybody, we hear you guys, we’re not just ignoring it. And as you heard Tony say, mediocrity isn’t acceptable. I’m a race car driver. I’m somebody that’s very passionate about what I do. And I do it outside the Cup series and I don’t accept mediocrity. I know within our 41 team we didn’t have the year we wanted, but we set some of the foundation that we needed going into this year and now we’re going to go do what we need to do. As a race car driver, to have a long-lasting career, you need to win races, and I’m sick of talking about not winning.”

TO HELP KEEP CARS ON THE GROUND, ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE CHANGES THAT NASCAR MADE AFTER YOUR CRASH AND THE CONTINUED IMPROVEMENTS AROUND THE RACE TRACK? “I feel right now with our rules packages, with the limiters and the diffuser and everything that we have, that was the best alternative that we needed to do. Certainly, I don’t want to see any driver have to fly in the air like that. Because at the end of the day, I was certainly lucky. I understand that. You’re inches away from possibly not walking out of here or seeing your family again. So for me, I’m happy they did it. And it was a step in what needed to be done to keep these cars on the ground.”

YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF SPEED ON THESE SUPERSPEEDWAYS. I KNOW IT’S GETTING OVERSHADOWED BY WHAT HAPPENED HERE LAST AUGUST BUT WHAT’S THE MINDSET COMING IN HERE WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN THE STATE? “A lot of the preparation. Track position is huge right now with what we have but certainly you prepare for those last couple laps understanding the pack energy. I don’t know if fans really understand what we’re dealing with and doing. Trying to block lanes or have air push us, propel us forward, or what car we have behind us pushing us, or even what OEM. I know I have a list of drivers that I’m going to try and hook up with and get ourselves to the front and stay there.”

WITH THE OEMS, I’M CURIOUS, HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE DUELS ARE GOING TO LOOK TOMORROW NIGHT? BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY, YOU’VE GOT THE NEW FORDS, THE NEW TOYOTAS, AND THE CHEVYS HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DRAFT WITH BOTH OF YOU GUYS TOO WHILE YOU’RE STILL FIGURING OUT HOW THE CAR REACTS IN TRAFFIC, SO WHAT WILL THE DUELS LOOK LIKE TOMORROW? “No different than any other race we’ve ever seen. Action-packed and we’re going to, someone’s going to end up in Victory Lane.”

QUESTION INDAUDIBLE: “I am biased. I am from the Northeast so I can complain a little bit. It is something that I wish, selfishly, that we had 1200 horsepower. I want to feel like I have an egg underneath that gas pedal. Right now we are in a time, an era of needing every little bit of downforce you can, which has always been the case. Whichever team has their tools in tune with what is going on is what separates each of us as a driver. Going into Vegas I feel really good about the Ford Mustang Dark Horse and some of the information we have seen coming into the year. All the gains that we made that we were all working towards last year. They were able to win the championship even with what we had but the Mustang Dark Horse will make It better.”

WE HAVE HEARD THAT ONE OF THE CHANGES ON THE MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS IS THAT YOU DON’T GET SUCKED AROUND QUITE SO EASY. HAS THAT HELPED THE RACING? “I think it has just changed some of the things. You are always going to have challenges. We are at 180 miles per hour and dirty air is a thing. We certainly do fight dirty air with these cars because they aren’t sucked and sealed off. When you get withing two or three car lengths of somebody, the amount of air on that car is different than if you are in clean air. Trying to control that balance is a real thing. To your point, we aren’t leaning on sideforce to get around race cars. The mechanical aspect is different from what it was before.”

HOW IS THE RACING SIMILAR DAYTONA TO ATLANTA AND ALSO DIFFERENT? “The runs that we get at Atlanta are far greater than any other superspeedway runs that we get but the handling in Atlanta means so much more. It is actually tricky. Some teams concentrate on trimming out and I think a lot of it is weather oriented but you need to have a really good handling car at Atlanta.”

WITH THE NEW MUSTANG, HOW DOES THAT AFFECT THE SHORT TRACK RACING BECAUSE YOU GUYS WERE STOUT LAST YEAR ON SHORT TRACKS? “I feel like it is a good baseline. With the changed rule package I don’t really know. If you show up exactly how you did last year you are going to be in trouble. From what I saw in some of the testing, honestly, I wish we would stop touching things. I don’t think that some of these changes are going to help us. If we are ultimately going to fix some of what we all want, we need horsepower. I want 1200 horsepower, not 800. We need a lot more and that will help.”

IS THAT THE ONLY THING THAT FIXES IT? “I think it is a combination. I think tires, horsepower would certainly fix things. I will say that Goodyear has done a phenomenal job taking big steps outside their comfort zone and I for one, as a race car driver really appreciate it. We will continue to work on those things so that way us race car drivers feel like we continue to keep making a big difference and hopefully keep trending in those directions.”

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN TO RACE FANS YOUR STANCE ON WANTING MORE HORSEPOWER? WHY? WHAT WOULD IT DO? “As a race car driver, the way a car handles means so much but it makes us feel like we can manipulate what the car is doing under braking. Right now if I go to a mile-and-a-half, if I touch that brake pedal I am running 36th. We need to make it so you don’t even go near that. Essentially I feel like we are go kart racing and I haven’t done that since I was 10 years old. I don’t wanna go back to that. I want to have high horsepower race cars where I as a driver over the years have fine tuned my skills to make grip or speed doing different things and not feel like I have to just hold the gas pedal wide open the whole time.”

GUYS MAKE A MISTAKE NOW, ESPECIALLY ON A SHORT TRACK, IF THEY DOWNSHIFT THEY DON’T LOSE ANYTHING, BUT DO YOU FEEL LIKE WITH MORE HORSEPOWER YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN MAKE GUYS PAY FOR THEIR MISTAKES MORE? “Absolutely. Honestly, that whole shifting conversation, I have my own opinion on it. I wish we didn’t take it away. It created an added tool for us drivers to be able to do things. The added horsepower would just give you so many different ways to manage your race and how you decide to take care of your tires versus not, especially if the tires you can blow them off in 20 laps. You have to be smart as a race car driver to manage them.”

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DAVID RAGAN, No. 60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DISAPPOINTING WAS IT TO NOT GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO RUN NASCAR’S NEW EV CONCEPT AT THE CLASH A FEW WEEKS AGO? “Yeah, it was disappointing because we put a lot of hard work, a lot of effort, some guys from Europe were over, really doing their thing, and it was going to be cool. They really had some neat stuff to play during the halftime break, and the car has a lot of cool features and a lot of neat things. The time will come where we can show everyone and I don’t know that that timing but I’m grateful they asked me to be a part of it and that was a fun project to get to make some laps and see all the hard work that’s gone into it.”

JUST FROM TESTING IT, EXACTLY HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO A CURRENT CUP CAR AND DID YOU NOTICE ANYTHING REALLY SIMILAR OR REALLY DIFFERENT WITH THAT PLATFORM? “I don’t know how much they want me to talk about or not talk about, but in general the car has some similarities. You know, from the balance and handling, it does have a lot of the same components that this next gen car has. From the braking and the regeneration of the electric motors and the torque that the all-wheel drive has, it’s pretty incredible the performance that it has. I was surprised that really the couple of tests that we did went so well. When you design a new car from the ground up and you outsource parts from all around the world, that’s a challenge and for everything to go off really smooth and not have any hiccups, we just scratched the surface on the capabilities of that car and everyone is still learning. So yes, that’s probably a couple big takeaways. There are some similarities, but there’s a lot of power, a lot of cool things that makes the car fun to drive, and I was really surprised at just how smooth the testing went.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE FOR YOU TO COME INTO DAYTONA BACK IN A CAR THAT JACK (ROUSH), IS A PART OF, KIND OF BRINGING THIS FULL CIRCLE TO WHERE YOU STARTED YOUR CAREER? “I feel like it has been a flash of the eyes from when I was here 16, 17 years ago, you know, as a 20-year-old. Jack Roush took a chance on me as a kid to put in his premier car. I remember that first Daytona 500. I had no idea what I was getting involved in. Somehow we crossed the start-finish line in fifth that race. I kind of walked away from that first one. I thought, man, this is easy. I finished fifth in my first one. I’ll probably win next year. Here I am 16 years down the road still trying to get that win, but it’s awesome to come back and drive a car that Jack Roush and Doug Yates have an engine in, and to see what Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher have done for RFK to bring that team back to the championship caliber team that it has been. That’s a testament to their character, to their skill as race car drivers, but also their leaders as a race team. So it’s fun to see a lot of familiar faces that were there during the glory days that put in all the hard work when they were kind of at their low point four or five years ago and to see them smiling, walking around the race shop knowing they’ve got some cars that can go win races.”

WHEN DID THIS PROCESS START AS FAR AS THE CONVERSATIONS FOR YOU BEING IN THIS CAR FOR THE FIRST TIME? “We had some early conversations toward the end of last year. I think they had buildsubmarines.com, one of their anchor partners that really wanted a full-season campaign. The Daytona 500 is a special race. It’s a big race. Millions of people from all over the world are tuning in. So the build submarines message to get out and drive some interest in the workforce behind the submarine industry here in the US. They wanted to be on a car in Daytona and they’ve got a lot of races with Brad and Chris. Toward the end of last year we had some conversations and everything came together really nice.”

WHAT KEEPS DRAWING YOU BACK TO THIS RACE? “This is just a special race, that’s a good question. I would love to go run some short tracks. I love short track racing. Atlanta Motor Speedway is my hometown track, but the Daytona 500 is a race that it’s special to be here in February. Even if I wasn’t racing, I think it’s just second nature to come to Daytona in February to be here for Speed Weeks. There’s so much good racing going on over at Volusia and New Smyrna and Citrus County, all the short tracks around, but for it to all come together at Daytona that second or third week of February is special. To have a good chance to run well, I don’t think that I would be here if it was just a mediocre effort, but to be here in a car with a team that I feel like we can compete for a win and leading laps, that gives me the confidence that I can come back and have some fun. Also don’t have that stress and responsibility that I know I’m getting ready to be gone for the next 38 weeks in a row and fighting all season long. That would be tough to sign up again for and I’ve already made a commitment to my wife and my kids that I’m gonna be home a little bit more so it’s fun to have one foot in the door and one foot out of the door.”

THE LAST COUPLE OF STARTS THAT YOU’VE MADE HAVE BEEN IN A FORD AND NOW YOU ARE BACK IN A FORD AGAIN AND THAT HAS TO BE A DRAW AS WELL BECAUSE THE FORDS HAVE BEEN REALLY DAMN GOOD AT THESE SUPERSPEEDWAY RACES: “Yes, since I’ve been in the Cup series they’ve been really good at superspeedways. I think it’s something that the Doug Yates and Jack Roush love speedway racing and I think the Fords have got just a really good mature group of drivers. When you look at the Ford driver lineup, even the young drivers are good at these speedway races. I think that makes a big difference too that they all work well together, they make good decisions, but having good race cars. The testing that I’m doing with Ford and the development kind of behind the scenes, that’s the only group I would like to be down here with.”

I KNOW THE CARS AND THE ENGINES HAVE TO BE GOOD, BUT YOU’VE PROVEN THAT YOU ARE A VERY CAPABLE COMPETITOR ON THE SUPERSPEEDWAY TOO, OBVIOUSLY, YOU GOT THE WINS BOTH HERE AND IN TALLADEGA. WHAT MAKES YOU A GOOD SUPER SPEEDWAY RACER? “What makes any driver a good super speedway racer? “It’s kind of like the question, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? I mean, you’ve got to have a good car. You gotta have a good engine. And I think a driver absolutely plays into it. I think some guys will say, oh, it just comes down to luck, being in the right place at the right time, and that certainly is an element, but I don’t believe that to be 100% true. I think drivers that put the effort and that really study the races and find the analytics that show the trends, I think they can make better decisions during the race. I think some drivers put in that hard work, and I think some drivers don’t put in that hard work, and they just take it for whatever might happen. I think they’re the ones that are getting caught up in the wrecks or not making the right decisions at the right time. Early in my career, I think it set the tone. I had Jimmy Fennig as a crew chief my first couple of years, Donnie Wingo as a crew chief, Jay Guy at Front Row Motorsports, who loved speedway racing. I think I fed off of them, I really enjoy speedway racing, and that kind of made me put the extra work into it.”

DO YOU EVER LOOK BACK AT OLD RACES HERE FOR THE 500 IN PARTICULAR, RATHER THAN JUST THE 400, AND LOOK AT OLD FILMS AND SAY, I WISH I HAD DONE IT THIS WAY? AND IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THE TIMES YOU ALMOST WON THE 500? “Oh, absolutely. I go back to races all the time and look. You always go back to the last couple of years. Obviously, with this Next-Gen car, the cars race a little different. The style is a little different with these cars. I think going back 10 years ago probably doesn’t make a lot of difference. But the last two Daytona 500s I’ve looked at, I’ve thought about. Two years ago, I was part of that group coming to the checkered flag. I think we finished fifth or sixth, and we all wrecked crossing the start-finish line. But it’s really a survival to the end. And I often think about working the race backwards like you do road courses. You want to have your shortest and your best pit stop the very last stop of the race. And you want to have the best track position at the end. You want to feel out your car and build some relationships the first 140, 150 laps and then from there on out you’ve got to be in position to make the right moves and you never know when the wreck is going to happen. It could happen running first and second or it could happen running eighth or ninth. You’ve got to be in that top five to top ten if you think you’re going to win the race those final ten laps.”

WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE THE DUELS LOOKING LIKE TOMORROW NIGHT BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE FORD’S HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW THIS CAR DRIVES IN THE DRAFT. TOYOTA’S IS THE SAME. CHEVROLET HAS TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DRAFT FOR YOU GUYS TOO. HOW WILL THAT IMPACT WHETHER WE SEE AN AGGRESSIVE, CONSERVATIVE, OR STANDARD SORT OF DUEL? “The trends make you believe that you generally have one duel that kind of goes green flag and everything’s smooth, and then you have another one that they generally start pushing a little bit more and have a couple of cautions. And the Duels are just the best opportunity for practice. You generally don’t have that many cars all together even in the two practice sessions on Friday and Saturday. So the Duel is your chance as a driver, as a spotter, and even as a crew chief to see how your car is going to handle, what kind of speed you have, how you can push, and to start building some relationships with other drivers and building some confidence that, hey, I can be pushed or I can push you and still be under control. Generally you see that first one roll off a little smoother. I don’t know if it’s the later in the night or if the drivers get a little more confident and some mistakes are made that second one. So I hope I’m in the first duel.”

IF YOU’RE IN THE MIX IN THE 500, WHICH IS SAY 10 TO GO, IS THERE TIME TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU MIGHT TRY TO DO OVER THE LAST 10 LAPS OR DOES IT JUST KIND OF COME NATURALLY AS THINGS DEVELOP? “I think that it’s going to come naturally and I think the planning is done last week and this week. I have looked over the scenarios, I’ve looked over past races on who chose where, what they did on restarts, where the winner came from, where the guy that was leading on the white finished and the mistakes that he made. I feel like having all that in your memory bank will allow you to make a better decision when the time comes. If you’re trying to process all of those scenarios under a yellow flag or a green flag scenario, you can’t effectively do it. You end up making a bad decision or no decision at all and that’s the worst that you can do. You’ve got to have your game plan kind of set and it’s got to be reaction. I know that if I’m running first, second, third, fourth I kind of know what I want to do on a restart. I know that if I have a teammate nearby, I know what I’m going to do if it’s any different. I think all the prep is done the last couple of days leading into the weekend and then it’s just all reaction once you get to Sunday.”