Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Preseason Media Availability | Friday, January 14, 2022

Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton are both preparing for their first season in the NASCAR Cup Series. Cindric will be driving the No. 2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske while Burton takes the wheel of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Before jumping into their new rides for the start of the 2022 season, both will be teaming up to drive a Mustang GT4 for PF Racing in the four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge event at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 28. Both drivers took part in a media Q&A session this afternoon.

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – HOW HAVE YOU BALANCED THE PRESSURES AND DEMANDS OF RACING FOR ONE OF THE MOST WELL-KNOWN TEAMS IN NASCAR? “It’s definitely a cool opportunity and a big responsibility to carry on that legacy and do it the right way. That’s not lost on me, but I think the biggest thing for me is that I’ve kind of always put that same pressure on myself to perform and do well. External pressure doesn’t really change my mentality about things. I think all drivers want to be the winner. We all want to do the best we can and I think that personality is the same with Wood Brothers and we’re all aligned with our goals. We just have to work really hard to go accomplish them.”

HOW EXCITING IS IT GOING FROM XFINITY TO THE NEXT GEN CAR? “It’s definitely a different race car. That’s for sure, but at the end of the day it’s still the same techniques, the same mentality. I thought Daytona in particular was a lot more like the older generations racing. I think the pack runs that we did were really racy and really competitive and it was challenging. We did some runs where we were hitting each other and trying to bump draft. Me and Austin worked pretty extensively on that and it’s challenging. The way the cars line up and they’re a handful, which is good. It should be harder to drive these race cars and it was a fun weekend, for sure, trying to figure all that out. I got to work with my teammates and race team and I think we made some good progress there.”

HOW DO YOU THINK COMPETING IN THE IMSA RACE WILL HELP ADAPT TO THE NEXT GEN CAR? “Any seat time helps. After Daytona, I went right to the go-kart track and drove my shifter kart because I think it helps. This is no different. The cars are now coming kind of more closely aligned with that series and so there’s an opportunity there for me to get track time on one of the road courses and do it with people that I regard really highly in road racing, guys like Austin that are winning races and have chances to win. You watch Austin run a Cup race, at COTA in particular he had a chance to win. He was fast and if you can do that, I think that’s really impressive. Using those resources to get better. I think if I’m being honest and I’ve had these conversations with my friends at Ford and at the Wood Brothers and at Penske, the one thing I wanted to work on to be better was be a better road racer. To have an opportunity to do that right off the bat is awesome and credit to them for being committed to helping me get better. That’s really all a driver can ask for.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR YEARS IN SPORTS CAR RACING WILL HELP WITH THE NEXT GEN CAR? “With regards to the rearview mirror, I think the digital mirror provides some advantages compared to a conventional mechanical device mirror. It’s got pros and cons. Obviously, reliability is a question mark. Is it gonna vibrate itself to death after 500 miles at Daytona? You don’t know that. We have not done 500 miles at Daytona beating bumpers, so there still is a regular mirror in the car for those reasons, but as far as my experience with other rearview cameras, actually I just got back from South Carolina shaking down the car I’ll be running in the Rolex and it does have a different camera in it. There’s different information, like the Bosch camera gives you, for example. That’s something that I think has been developed by Corvette Racing for like the last 10 years or whatever. They’ve provided it for customer programs and stuff like that, but regardless, the information that those mirrors seem to give you is kind of the importance. In sport car racing, you don’t necessarily use the mirror to make the close maneuvers we’re gonna be making at big, fast tracks like mile-and-a-halves, two-mile and two-and-a-half mile racetracks. I would still say that it’s still all very new to everybody, but, otherwise, most new street cars all have rearview backup cameras. No one is turning around and looking out the back glass anymore. Some cars have it, but otherwise it’s what’s in the street cars now and I think it makes it more relevant for those watching as well as obviously myself being involved.”

DO YOU ALSO THINK WITH THE SEQUENTIAL SHIFTING AND RACK-AND-PINION STEERING YOU’LL BE ABLE TO ADAPT QUICKLY TO THAT IN THE NEXT GEN CAR? “I don’t know if there’s a production car or vehicle that is made with a steering box anymore, so I’d say the rack-and-pinion is definitely a long time coming. I see no reason why that should really even be a talking point if I’m blunt about it because it’s such a commonality. Yeah, there is obviously development. You’ve got to get it right and it’s new for our type of race cars, and I think that’s why it’s become an early talking point, but, for us, the last couple tests it hasn’t really even come up in conversation other than normal trying to figure out what ratio you want to run for certain racetracks, but otherwise it still provided a driver with plenty of feedback if done correctly.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – HOW LONG CAN YOU DO THE TANDEM DRAFTING IN THE RACE AND IS THAT GOING TO BECOME A THING LEADING UP TO THE 500? “I think it was kind of hard to watch and understand how challenging it was to do. Me and Austin were having to communicate and work together to try and figure out how to do it. I know Austin did it with Joey beforehand and did some work with Ryan afterwards as well. It was something we had to work at and it was challenging. I don’t think it will be like the old tandem racing. I think the pack is still gonna be the biggest way towards the front. I think it can be a tool that you use for a short amount of time, but that’s really it. We were working on it to evaluate that and evaluate its viability in the race and we felt like it was something we could use in a few situations, but nothing that was gonna kind of take over the race. It’s not something we can do all race long, that’s for sure.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – HOW DO YOU BALANCE WANTING TO SHOW WHAT YOU CAN DO QUICKLY IN THE 2 CAR WITH HAVING TO NOT WORRY ABOUT RUNNING OVER THE EDGE AND WRECKING CARS? “You just described being a race car driver. I think being able to balance the opportunity. I think Harrison and I both would agree that this season is a great opportunity for us to learn, but also establish ourselves at a top level in this sport. If I give myself the luxury to think about those things, then I’ll probably let them consume myself. Otherwise, I’m just excited to get to work. I’m excited to start the communication with my race team. There’s a lot of change happening within the industry. I think change is opportunity and also change is quite difficult, whether if that’s, for example, I’ve worked with the same race team for the last four years and developed some really close relationships. For me, now shifting to a different race team and a different race car and different competitors – those changes are all probably more at the forefront of my mind than the changes in this car. That’s what’s gonna make being a rookie in the Cup Series challenging, but, otherwise, I’m excited for it. You ask and you strive your whole career to try to make it to the top level, so there’s no reason to shy away from it once you’re there.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE GOING TO DAYTONA AS A CUP DRIVER FOR THE NEXT GEN TEST? “It’s been awesome. All throughout this offseason I’ve been kind of gearing up. I think Austin and I both are really trying to gear up for our first season and being as ready as we can. For me personally, it’s just such a cool feeling to roll into Daytona, to see your name on the leaderboard with the guys that you’ve always wanted to race against, the guys my dad raced against – some of them. I always thought that it was the coolest thing in the world that they were able to do that and what they did was awesome and now looking back on how bad I wanted to be in the opportunity that I have now, to have it is really neat. The biggest thing for me is to kind of understand that it’s a huge blessing to be here and an insane opportunity for me to be here and also understanding that I have to make the most of it. There’s a very limited amount of seats in this sport and you have to earn your keep. That’s what these first few years are really about. You see the guys that kind of sink or swim and you definitely want to work hard and be the guy that swims. For me, being here is awesome, being in this opportunity is awesome, but I don’t think anybody is really just satisfied with just being here. It’s cool and you have to keep in mind that it’s cool, but you also have to go to work and take advantage of the opportunity that you have at hand.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO HAVE GOTTEN TO THIS POINT WITH THE EXCEPTIONAL CAREER YOU’VE HAD ALONG THE WAY? “In a lot of ways it is gratifying as far as the conversation topic that I have no influence on. That’s a lot of external noise and, for me, I’ve been surrounded by really great people and I would say Roger Penske has built an incredible race team. I think everybody knows that, but the way he does things and the way he goes about things and the people that he sets up to carry out those jobs is what makes the difference. I’ve really learned that. It’s plastered in our shop and he says it quite often – human capital is the most important thing to our race team. I’ve learned that. I’ve been surrounded by some great people and I feel like there are a lot of people within the walls of Team Penske that are the reason I’m at where I’m at. I probably couldn’t have told you that when I was racing Bandolero and Legends cars that I was ever gonna drive the 2 car. I’m not sure that was even like a thought. I remember playing video games with Brad Keselowski in my basement. In my bedroom at home still has a signed picture from Brad after he won Bristol. It’s kind of one of those things where you almost have to tell yourself not to think about because I have a job to do and I’m excited for it. It’s what I’m passionate about. It’s what keeps me up at night. It’s what gets me out of bed, but now it’s kind of the time to start doing it. I’m glad that it’s that time. I’ve spent the last however many months thinking and organizing and trying to figure out how to do it and within the next couple of weeks we’ll be in L.A.”

YOU HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR TEAMMATES. DO YOU FEEL IT’S A GOOD COLLECTIVE GROUP THAT WILL WORK TOGETHER WELL? “Yeah, I really do. The first opportunity we kind of had to do that we actually went to Indianapolis to promote the race before the Brickyard weekend. It was myself and Ryan and Joey and that was after Brad’s announcement came out. That was after my announcement came out, so it was kind of the first time. It was kind of a preview of things to come and I think the three of us all left that experience like, ‘this is gonna be a lot of fun.’ I think in a lot of ways we’re all very competitive. I think we all bring different strengths to the table, but a lot of things that can help push ourselves forward, and obviously Harrison is involved with that as well. I think Harrison has been a great addition to our technical relationship with the Wood Brothers and I’m excited for that to continue. I think we’ve got three, four including myself, guys that are pretty level headed and pretty committed to making things work and not have any distractions. I’m excited for that. I think that’s a huge part because when it comes to having teammates, which I haven’t had teammates in like four years, so it’s kind of cool. It’s cool, but you have to kind of manage your time differently and utilize the information that you get from different people differently. It’s been a fun experience and looking forward to being put to the test. The Daytona 500 is the first real test of all that and I think the Fords in general have worked extremely well together in the past and really kind of cultivated some of this manufacturer movement in these plate races and I look forward to being as effective with that as possible.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SPORTS CAR RACING BEFORE? “The only thing that’s been close is I’ve done some Trans Am races before in the TA2 Series, so kind of, sort of, but not really. I’ve never been in a full-on sports car race like what we’re getting ready to do, so it’s definitely gonna be a new experience. Talking about learning your competitors and things like that. What’s the etiquette like? What’s all that stuff? I don’t know. I don’t want to show up and be the NASCAR guy that uses his bumper or whatever. I don’t know what the rules are, so I’ve got to talk to my buddy Austin about that in great detail, but it’s my first time doing it and I’m excited to try some new things. This is definitely going to be new for me.”

IS IT SO NEW YOU HAVEN’T BEEN IN THE CAR YET? “I’ve never sat in it before. I’m gonna show up and figure it out. The people at the Ford Performance Center are going to help me and get some simulator time, which is gonna be very helpful to kind of at least know the feeling of the car and get a sense for the capabilities of the car. That’s been an awesome tool for me throughout my career is simulators, so I feel like I can correlate that well to real life. That will be a huge tool, so, other than that, that’s gonna be my first time on the racetrack will be for practice.”

IS THE REASON FOR DOING THIS RACE JUST TO GET ROAD RACING EXPERIENCE? “Yeah. I mean, number one it’s gonna be fun. I’ll never turn down the opportunity to drive a race car, especially a fast Mustang like we’re gonna have. As far as my motive behind doing it is I think that’s the biggest thing is focusing on being a better road racer. Now, the Next Gen car is gonna kind of perform a little bit more similar to this car will, so that’s gonna be a good thing for me to kind of get in the mindset of. The only real road races I’ve ever done are old generation stock cars, so understanding the capabilities, understanding what’s different and what’s not is gonna be a huge advantage when we roll into our first road races and hopefully kind of bridge that gap between the guys that have done it before and the guys that haven’t.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR ROAD RACING BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU GOT TO STOCK CAR RACING? “My career path has been fairly unconventional when it comes to the NASCAR side of things or maybe just in general, but I would say the transition for me with doing primarily road racing and rally car racing was my relationship with Ford. Back in the same series that Harrison and I are going to be racing in at the end of the month on Friday before the Rolex, that’s where I got my start with my relationship with Ford. That started back in 2015 and ran a full season in IMSA and what was the Continental Tire Series, now the Michelin PIlot Challenge, and that relationship started and I had a few kind of one-off opportunities to drive some stock cars through that relationship and through my relationship with Penske and Cunningham and that started into a few one-off Truck races. In 2017, I had the opportunity to go full-time racing in IMSA at a high level with manufacturer support or go start a NASCAR career racing for Brad in the Truck Series. I feel like that opportunity wasn’t gonna come again and, sure enough, it wouldn’t because Brad’s truck team shut down a year later, but, either way, that’s what started it all – my relationship with Ford and I’ve been driving Fords and Mustangs ever since. I would say a really strong relationship and a lot of fun in some blue ovals.”

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO HANDLE DOUBLE DUTY ON ROLEX WEEKEND? “It’ll be my third time doing it, so I’ve kind of done it before. I’ll actually say this is probably gonna be one of the easier times that I’ve done it and, by that I mean a lot of the time when I’ve run the Rolex it’s like a last-minute thing. You get the phone call back on Monday saying you’re in the car and then you go to the Roar and you try and figure things out and maybe get six or seven laps in the car. With four co-drivers it’s a bit of a cluster and then you have to go back and forth between both paddocks and it can be a bit stressful. It all depends on where your pit box is because my walking time spent if my pit box is in two different places and walking between both garages and finding my helmet – all of that stuff are things you have to calculate out very carefully and then you’re working with engineers and people that don’t know, so you have to correlate everybody else’s drive time schedule. It can be a disaster. It hasn’t been, and it is a lot of fun. I’ve left those weekends feeling very grateful because there are only a few guys that’ll be down there. I haven’t looked at entry lists for the Michelin Pilot Challenge, but there are usually six or seven guys that end up doing it, kind of 28 hours of racing and it’s pretty special because, like Harrison said, anytime you get to drive a race car you’re not gonna turn it down. I think I’ve gotten two quality opportunities to go and contend and try to have some success before the NASCAR season.”

SO HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU DONE BOTH? “I’ve done it twice. This will be my third time doing double duty. It’ll be my fourth Rolex attempt and the first time I did it was between the GT4 Mustang and the LMP2 car, a prototype, so I would say that’s probably almost the biggest speed differential you can get throughout the entire weekend, which actually makes it easier. It’s harder when the braking points are within 50 feet, but the tough part is about doing with the GT Pro Class is you’re one of the slower classes with the prototypes, so you’re always having to look in the mirror the whole time, where in GS we’re gonna be the fastest class. One of the hardest things about endurance racing is traffic management and it’s like both ends of the spectrum. I’d say switching back and forth that will probably be the hardest thing between Friday and the 24 Hours in the weekend.”

WHAT IS SO DIFFICULT ABOUT JOINING A CREW THAT HAS BEEN TOGETHER FOR A WHILE? YOU ARE THE ONLY NEW FACE, RIGHT? “Exactly. I’m the new guy and the guy before me was a Cup champion, so there’s a lot different. I have absolute confidence in the team. I think from a difficulty standpoint change is hard. It would be just like anybody else changing jobs or going and working with a different group of people or starting class with a different teacher. It’s quite a bit different. You have to learn personalities and understand certain things and all while we’re trying to develop a new car in a new situation, but change can be difficult and change can be rewarding and change can be an opportunity, so I’m excited for it. I think Jeremy and I have really started to develop a pretty good relationship. We’ve been able to do a lot of these tests together so far and kind of jump start that process and try and get ourselves the communication down as well as possible before the season starts.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO PROVE YOURSELF A LITTLE BIT MORE TO YOUR TEAM COMPARED TO AUSTIN WHO WON AN XFINITY CHAMPIONSHIP? “Yeah, obviously that was tough, especially coming off the end of the season before that we had. Not having the results that we wanted was a tough pill to swallow, but at the end of the day the people at Ford and the people at the Wood Brothers and an alliance with Team Penske all kind of believed in me and I got hired, so I feel like they believe in me. I feel like that’s the biggest thing is having a team that believes in you, that surrounds you and wants to go to work with you. I’ve gotten nothing but confidence from the people around me. They believe that we can go and be successful and that’s from our crew chief level to the people at Ford, all the way down to just saying hi to the people in the shop. It’s nothing but excitement and that’s been cool to see. It’s definitely nice to be wanted to be a part of a race team and I definitely feel like they want me to be here and I definitely want to be here, so as far as that goes I don’t feel like there’s any pressure to prove myself, but for myself personally there is. I’ve always wanted to be the best I can be and I feel like last year didn’t really show that, but there’s always room to improve and I feel like those years always kind of make you better.”

WHAT SPECIFICALLY ARE YOU HOPING TO LEARN DRIVING THE GT4 MUSTANG THAT WILL HELP WITH THE NEXT GEN MUSTANG? “The biggest thing I’m looking for is learning the braking capability of a new car. I think being used to having to adapt to things is a good thing, where this is gonna be a completely new thing for me. I’ve never sat in this car before and I’m gonna have to show up and race against some really, really talented race car drivers and go try and beat them. That’s a good thing to do. That’s kind of what I’m gonna do all year is I’m gonna show up in a series I have never competed in with a bunch of guys that I don’t normally race against in a new car and go try and beat them. They’re obviously gonna be the best stock car racers in the world, so just being used to change, being comfortable being uncomfortable is kind of a term that best describes what you have to be as a race car driver and, for me, that’s one of the biggest things I look forward to kind of taking away from this and just learning basic road course techniques from guys and learning how different people approach things. In house we’ve got some amazing road racers with Austin and the Indy car side of guys that I’ve kind of worked with some and talked to, and I feel like I’ve already learned and I’m gonna be better from it and this is gonna be an opportunity for me to trial and error some of those things and see how they work for me.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – AS A SPORTS CAR VETERAN IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SPECIFICALLY YOU’D LIKE TO GET MORE ACCLIMATED WITH BEFORE GOING TO NEXT GEN FULL-TIME? “I might correct you and probably say I’m not a sports car veteran, but I certainly feel like I’m gonna racing against a lot of good guys. Being in GTB Pro, you look at the entry list and my jaw kind of dropped, so I’m excited for that challenge. I think to Harrison’s point, though, that’s why I’m so excited about this Rolex probably more than any other one I’ve competed in because if you’re doing something in that class that means you’re good because you’re gonna beat the best. It’s the same mentality that i’m probably gonna have to take away to bring to the Cup Series this year because you’re racing against the best and if you do anything, it’s because you’re good. There’s no excuses. There’s no external factors. Everybody is good, so if you’re doing something it’s because you’ve earned it as a team or as a driver or whatever it may be. As far as relationship between why it’s relevant and what’s important, obviously seat time is very crucial and important. Harrison and I are gonna have a very busy two weeks ahead of us right now with the Roar and the test and then the Phoenix Next Gen test and then back to the Rolex. That’s kind of busy, but I think, for me, I have a very strong desire to win the Rolex 24 and that’s my motivating factor to do this race. I’ve worked really hard every offseason to try and make something happen, not to get in a five-driver lineup just to go do the race and experience it. I’ve kind of done all that. I’d say the Rolex is probably the most realistic race I can look at and say I would like to win that race, and I think this is a great opportunity for me to do that or at least establish my capabilities to do so and, like I said, against a group of drivers that are incredibly talented, incredibly experienced all in their cars. You’ve got a lot of guys that are very specialized for the cars that they’re in. I’ll use Dirk Muller as an example, one of my co-drivers. I mean, he’s won the Rolex twice. He’s won so many races. Patrick Assenheimer knows the car. He’s raced in the Nurburgring 24, NLS races. It’s guys that know their car super well, so I’ve got some homework to do to do so, but I’m excited for the opportunity. It’s a fun way to start the year. It’s kind of gratifying because the last two years I haven’t done the race and I would say over the last two years I’ve found myself now in a position where I’ve got a great opportunity with a very well-organized well-oiled team, drivers, crew, mechanics, engineers that are ready to put our best foot forward.”

YOU ARE A ROLEX SPORTS CAR VETERAN. ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU ARE THE ONLY FULL-TIME NASCAR CUP DRIVER IN THIS RACE? “Yes and no. I would say no because I know how hard it is to get in the race no matter what your situation or status is. There are a lot of really really talented drivers that aren’t in the race that aren’t NASCAR drivers that probably have more on their resume that would make them valuable to a team, but it is challenging because there’s a lot more than just being a good driver that gets you a seat in a race car. That’s the reality of the sport and it’s frustrating, but at the same time I know there are plenty of Cup drivers that did try and make the race or understand what it would take to do so, but I think my relationships within that world certainly keep eyes on me as far as what I do in the NASCAR spectrum. There are a lot of people I’ve worked with – probably half of the race teams that are down there that know me, so it’s about relationships just like anything else, but at the same time probably not top of priority. I’ve got more than just getting seat time motivating me to go do that race. Like I said before, I’ve got a pretty strong desire to go be successful in that race. Then there are other guys. I’ll use Chase Briscoe as an example. He is doing this Michelin Pilot Challenge race with us in the sister car for PF Racing, but he’s got the Chili Bowl this weekend and there are a lot of NASCAR guys doing the Chili Bowl this weekend. That’s a lot to put together. I know he’s pretty stressed about his schedule right now because he’s got the next three weeks flat-out. There’s balancing that, but if I was to look at it subjectively I think we’ve got seven or eight road courses and one dirt race, so as far as prioritizing doing different things, I think the dirt race is more of an exhibition than the seven road course races.”

ANY SPORTS CAR RACES IN YOUR FUTURE BEYOND DAYTONA? “I think we have one off weekend, so it’s probably not gonna happen.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “That’s a really good point. I’d love to do it, but the schedule is so tight and it’s definitely gonna be a challenge to try.”

WHAT HAS THE TRANSITION BEEN LIKE GOING FROM TOYOTA TO FORD? “It’s been, like Austin has spoken to a few times, change is definitely difficult. It’s been not as difficult as I thought it would be, honestly. I was really nervous because I had been in the Toyota camp for a long time and I had this amazing opportunity here. I was nervous to kind of change everything that I had done and it’s been a really gratifying change just because of the open arms that everyone at Ford and the Wood Brothers and Penske has welcomed me with. It’s been a pretty easy change for me. I feel right at home and where it also helped was the people at TRD were excited for me. They were not upset I left. It was cool. Everyone seemed to be happy that I had a really cool opportunity and so I’m really appreciative of that and now as you see with us doing these IMSA races and Ford being committed to helping us get better, it’s been a quick start. We’re ready to go racing and it’s been good. It’s been harder to remember everyone’s names, but other than that, it’s been a gratifying experience.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THE CUP RACES YOU RAN LAST YEAR THAT WILL HELP THIS SEASON WITH THE NEW CAR? “Yeah, absolutely. Everything that we’ve learned at those tests are things we’re gonna apply for the season and it’s pretty much the only data points we have to apply for the season, so these tests have been crucially important. I think the one observation or maybe a question that I have or something I’m trying to understand or at least a part that I’m proud of is that at Team Penske we’ve had all of our available cars able to run laps and make miles and have changes and be able to understand, so I think our team has done an incredible job at being prepared with a lot of unknowns. The early part of the season there’s still gonna be a lot of unknowns. There’s not a lot of practice. I would also say that there’s not as much compared to kind of what this garage is used to as far as making changes, so I say that kind of plays hand-in-hand, but knowing where the tires are gonna go. There were certain things that we had a lot of control over as a race team that are now gone, so as far as like from a car side. I think there are a lot of differences, a lot of change, mentality shift, and these tests have been really good for those things that aren’t just mechanical pieces on the car.”

WALTER CZARNECKI, Vice Chairman, Team Penske – SOME THINK PENSKE COULD HAVE A LEG UP ON OTHER TEAMS BECAUSE OF ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RACING YOU HAVE DONE. ANY VALIDITY TO THAT? “I think that our experience in all these other series does help, but I’m not sure that it ‘gives us a leg up’ versus the competition because there are other teams that are in similar situations given their OEM affiliations. There will be a lot of sharing of information, but I will say we’ve had some experience with a similar car in the Australian Supercar Series. It did quite well there and I think we’ve been able to learn some things running there. Now whether that gives us some clear-cut advantage as we go down the road, that remains to be seen, but I would say our experience will help us.”

WHAT ABOUT THE INVENTORY GOING INTO THE SEASON? DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH CARS TO FEEL GOOD? “I do. In fact, I’m glad you asked that question because I just had a conversation with Mike Nelson, who is our vice president of operations, and we were talking about that very topic, about inventory going into the season and Mike feels like we’re in reasonably good shape right now as we get into the first phase of the season, as we get to the west coast swing, so I think we’re in pretty good shape. In fact, I was telling Mike I said, ‘We’ll see after the Coliseum how well these new bodies hold up.’ That might have an impact.”

HOW DID YOU DETERMINE YOUR CREW CHIEFS FOR THIS YEAR AND WHAT WAS YOUR PROCESS? “First of all, I want to congratulate Todd and thank him for the years he spent with us and the great success he had with Team Penske. And now I see he’s getting into the media business. I heard that this morning that he’s gonna be on SiriusXM, so he’ll be a great great asset there. In the case of Austin, Jeremy Bullins will remain on the No. 2 car. He’s gonna bring all that experience. Paul Wolfe, of course, will remain with Joey as we go into the season and then Jonathan Hassler, who had been a race engineer on the 22 car and then earlier this year moved over and became crew chief on the 21, will be coming back and be working with Ryan Blaney. I think it’s indicative, it’s an example again of our promoting from within, working within our organization. We try to identify people, regardless of the position, where if something were to happen to an individual that there be one or two others ready to step in and take that role. I think Jonathan is an example of that. A further example, of course, is Brian Wilson, who again started as a race engineer with us. He worked on the 2 car with Brad for many many years and then with Austin in the Xfinity Series the last three years, and now has the opportunity to work with Len and Eddie and Jon on the Wood Brothers team. Again, cultivating the experience, working with people, seeing how they operate in our own organization. We’ve got people identified who have performed and are ready to step into these roles.”

WHAT MADE YOU GO INTO WEC THIS YEAR AND WANT TO COMPETE IN THE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1971? “That’s right. Mark Donahue and David Hobbs drove that car. They used to call that, I think that was the world’s fastest Ferrari that never won a race someone once told me. But going back to our earliest days with Mark Donahue, the roots of our team is really in sports car racing. First of all, Roger’s experience as a driver and then the development of the team and then Mark coming on board and running in the Trans Am, Can Am, Le Mans – whatever. We’ve always wanted to be in sports car racing, but the opportunities never quite presented themselves. We exited in the mid-seventies. We came back again in the mid-2000s with Porsche. That passed, continued with Acura in the last couple of years and then this opportunity presented itself with Porsche. Porsche has been a great partner of ours in other motorsports over the years. They’re also a business partner of ours. We’re one of Porsche’s largest dealers in not only the U.S. but in Europe, so we’ve got that relationship and they wanted to go and they wanted to compete and asked us if we would consider forming this alliance – Penske Porsche Motorsports, which will begin running this year in the WEC. We’re gonna run in the LMP2 category and this is really gonna be a learning experience for us. I think there are four or five of the events that are off shore. The endurance events, as you said, we haven’t been to Le Mans in 50 years. We’ll be going back to Sebring here in a couple of weeks, of course, so it’s gonna be a learning opportunity for us for the team. We’ve got I say two new drivers, Dane Cameron will be driving. Dane drove for us in the last couple of years. Felip Nasr joins us and then Emmanuel Collard, who drove six races for us with the Porsche’s back here in the 2000s, so forming a new team, putting some new people in place both on the Porsche side and the Penske side, again, it’s something we wanted to do and I think Roger has made it very well known that he wanted to go back to Le Mans and do it one more time at least. So, that’s the short story. It was a long time in the assembly, but I’m glad we’re at this point.”

WHAT’S THE PHILOSOPHY AT TEAM PENSKE REGARDING DRIVERS COMPETING IN OTHER SERIES? “You’re right. We’re seeing that and I think it’s good for the sport. I love to see a Kyle Larson not only run the Cup Series, but I love to see him in a sprint car and midget car. Who knows, a sports car maybe at some point. Our philosophy has always been, and I say always been – it has been for many years – to keep the drivers restricted to their own discipline. We’ve expanded on that in the last couple of years and this year is a good example. Austin is gonna be driving in one of the support events for the Daytona 24 Hours in a Ford Mustang GT4 and then he’ll be driving in the Daytona 24 Hour race coming up next week. I think you’re gonna see a couple of our drivers perhaps participating in other series. It will help them, I believe, in developing those skills for some of the new venues that we’re going to, going back to dirt. I know it was interesting to watch Joey Logano last year run in a super modified race, I think it was in New Smyrna. It was quite a whole new experience for him, but it really benefited him when they went to Bristol, so we’ll pick and choose and work with the drivers. We want to be flexible. We want to give them opportunities to expand their skill set. Is Ryan Blaney gonna be running full-time in the World of Outlaws? I don’t think so, but there will be opportunities that will present themselves.”

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE TEAM’S XFINITY PROGRAM GOING INTO THE SEASON? “At this point we don’t have any races scheduled in the Xfinity program and any decision that we make to run will be sponsor driven. We’ll work with our sponsors and if there’s an appetite to do something, we’ll certainly sit down and talk with them about the number of races and the drivers that would participate.”

WHAT HAS AUSTIN BROUGHT TO THE CUP PROGRAM THAT MAYBE WE’RE MISSING? “I don’t know that you being the media in general are missing anything about Austin. I think his experience has been well-documented. I think everybody has seen the way he’s performed. I really don’t think you’re missing anything. We felt that he was ready to make the move last year. That’s pretty well known, and then when the opportunity presented itself with Brad moving on it just accelerated that to move Austin, but we never had any doubts that he would be a Cup driver for us.”

WHAT ARE THE EXPECTATIONS FOR HIM THIS YEAR? “Run competitively. I know there are people who have high expectations for him. I’ve heard it from some in the media. I’ve heard some pundits talk about his doing this or doing that. We want him to run competitively, continue to learn, to develop the relationship with his crew chief – with Jeremy – and just build a solid foundation. Anything else on top of that. Do I think he’ll win a race? I happen to think he’ll win a race, maybe more than one, but that’s not one of the goal posts that’s been set. It’s to go out there and learn, learn, learn because as successful as he’s been in the Xfinity Series, we all know that we’re stepping up to the big league fastball right now. It’s gonna be a little bit of a different universe. He’s acquitted himself well in the several races he ran last year, but I think it’s gonna be a challenge for him as he goes through 36 points events this year.”

ARE ALLIANCES AS IMPORTANT AS THEY USED TO BE WITH THE ADVENT OF THIS NEXT GEN CAR? “We believe that they’re just as important and just as critical as they have been in the past. We are not dismissing them at all. First of all, we really appreciate the opportunity to work with Len, Eddie and the Wood family. That’s number one. That goes without saying. It’s an honor to be associated with them. We continue to learn. We continue to share information. There are things Eddie said in his comments a minute ago about learning something and we’re not gonna tell everybody. Well, no, they tell us. So I think there’s gonna be a lot of benefit because there’s still so much for us to learn, using that cliche. I know we made great progress on this Next Gen car. I’ve seen it since the end of the season. I’ve been in touch with our people to talk about our test results and the learning curve just continues to escalate, continues to go on. We’re feeling a lot more comfortable, so if there are any things that Eddie, Len, Harrison Burton and Brian Wilson can share with us, we’re all ears.”

RCR ANNOUNCED A HEMP-BASED SPONSOR. HAVE YOU HAD ANY OF THOSE CONVERSATIONS AND DO YOU CONSIDER IT A DIFFICULT ISSUE TO NAVIGATE? “First, we’ve not had any of those conversations, so I guess I can’t really respond to your question, but you do bring up a good point about sponsors. Our team at the Cup level is fully sponsored, all three cars, for every race. I think that’s quite an accomplishment in this day and age. Our primary spot, of course our partnership with Ford drives everything else, but Pennzoil, Menards and Discount Tire will still be our three primary sponsors, along with the cadre of sponsors that we’ve worked with and partnered with in the past. We’re always open to talking to new potential partners, but at this point, since we’re in a sold-out position, it would just be conversation.”

THIS NEW CAR HAS PROMPTED SOME NEW OWNERSHIP. IS IT ENCOURAGING TO SEE THAT AND SOME OF THE NEW IDEAS THEY’RE BRINGING? “I think like most of us on this call we remember those days when 48 cars would show up at a Cup race and try to qualify. The more the merrier. It think it’s really illustrative of the strength of this sport. I saw this report yesterday that I’m sure you all shared in it, but Daytona being a sell out for this year. I think a lot of that is driven by the Next Gen car. More team owners, more participation is only gonna make it better for everybody. This is a golden opportunity given the economic advantages that teams have now to get into this sport. The cost of entry is somewhat reduced from what it’s been in the past as a result of the new car and we’ve got some bright, young, progressive, aggressive owners participating, so we welcome it, for sure. That makes it healthy for everybody.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR PAST SUPERSPEEDWAY SUCCESS COULD CARRY OVER TO THE NEXT GEN CAR? “Confidence is an important word. You’re right, we’ve had great experience over the last several years and we’ve built a wealth of information on the Gen 6 car. We’re just starting to build that on the Next Gen car with this new iteration. Having said that, I think the fact that someone said with this Next Gen car teams that were good will continue to be good, so I think we’ll continue to be good because we’ve been in these situations before. Whether this car is competitive, not competitive, a lot is gonna be learned in these next 10 months that we don’t know now. I think we bring this wealth of experience with the same people to Daytona and I think that’s gonna serve us in good stead when we race there in a couple weeks.”

EDDIE THINKS THE FIRST PERSON TO FIGURE OUT THE CAR COULD HAVE AN EDGE FOR THE SEASON. DO YOU AGREE? “Did he say for the season or Daytona?”

I WOULD ASSUME FOR THE SEASON, BUT COULD INCLUDE DAYTONA TOO. “I agree generally, but I think this is gonna be a moving target with the car because, again, at the risk of being redundant here, we haven’t run it in competition yet. Daytona is one thing. Fontana is one thing. Bristol is one thing, so we have a lot to learn. The new Atlanta track is gonna be a learning experience, so I think that’s what we’re gonna see throughout the entirety of 2022. Again, I see building this collection of data and then really putting it to work as we get into ‘23. Now, you might hit on something in a race that you have some success. I guess that’s what Eddie was probably talking about. I agree with that for sure. I’m not ready to make a blanket recommendation for 2022 quite yet.”

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE DAYTONA TEST AND BEING AT THE TOP OF THE SPEED CHART? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN AT THIS POINT? “I really want to be top three at about 6 p.m. on February 20th. I’m not dismissing the fact that we ran pretty well. We had some competitive times, but I really don’t put a lot of stock in it. The whole intent of this exercise the last 48-72 hours was to continue to generate more data, learning how cars run. I talked to Joey Logano at length after he ran. He shared some things with me, things that he feels still need to be worked out. He said we worked on the low-hanging fruit, but there are some issues that still need resolution once we get there. I watched some of the drafting practice yesterday – six, seven cars is fun to watch, it was interesting. Frankly, I was impressed with how well the cars drafted. That’s the information I got back, but I want to see what it’s gonna look like when there are 40 cars out there, so I’m still being open-minded.”

ARE THERE ANY LOGISTICAL CONCERNS AT THIS POINT WITH SO MANY RACES AT THE START OF THE YEAR BEING SO FAR AWAY FROM THE SHOP? “Not at the moment. Clearly, this early schedule creates some logistics issues. You go to Daytona. We come back to Mooresville. We leave Mooresville, we go to Phoenix. You come back from Phoenix, we go to Los Angeles. You come back from Los Angeles, we go to Daytona. You come back, you load up and go back out to the west coast. Those kind of logistics things are part of this sport. We’re dealing with it, but in terms of our inventory of cars and spare parts right now, as I said a few minutes ago, I’m reassured by our management with the race team that we’re in good shape.”

DO YOU SEE A DIFFERENT ROLE FOR JOEY NOW THAT HE IS THE SENIOR NASCAR DRIVER AT TEAM PENSKE? “First, I want to congratulate Brad and wish him well. He did so much for our team both on the track and off the track and we’re grateful for what he did for us. You’re right, he was the leader. Joey is stepping into that role. Joey is now in his 10th season with Team Penske beginning with this year. He’s 31-years-old gonna be 32. The average age of our team someone said is 27-years-old. I’ve got running shoes older than that, but Joey is prepared. We’ve had this conversation with him. He not only has to help mentor Austin and he’s of course worked with Ryan, but also work with Harrison Burton and he takes that very seriously. We’ve encouraged him to do that, so if you want to call him the elder statesman, I guess that’s a good way to describe it. I would say he’s the most experienced Cup driver on the team and we want him to share that experience with his colleagues.”

SHR HIRED A RESERVE DRIVER. DO YOU SEE THAT AS A GOOD WAY TO KEEP DRIVERS PART OF YOUR ORGANIZATION? “I understand why teams are doing this. Number one, we do not have a reserve driver per se. I’d like to think, and I want this to come out the right way, that if there were an opportunity with Team Penske I think there would be folks knocking on our door. Maybe that came out the wrong way, but at this point we don’t have a locker room full of guys ready to strap on their helmets and come.”

YOUR BOSS SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN. IS RACING THE DRIVING FORCE THAT KEEPS HIM STILL INVOLVED AT THIS AGE? “Our offices are adjacent to each other at our building here in suburban Detroit, so I see him every day. He’s motivated not only by motorsports, he’s motivated by our entire business. The passion and the dedication, commitment, leadership that he shows in motorsports he shows in all of our businesses as well. That is who he is and I see no diminution of that. Clearly, as we all get a little bit older you’re maybe a half-step slower in some things, but I certainly haven’t seen it in regard to motorsports or any of out other businesses with Roger.”

JERRY FREEZE, General Manager, Front Row Motorsports – HOW HAS THE DAYTONA 500 WIN LAST YEAR BENEFITTED YOUR TEAM THAT MAY NOT BE SO OBVIOUS? “I think you always think about from the marketing perspective with sponsorships and it certainly got us in the conversation more so on sponsorship opportunities. Last year it helped us close a couple of deals that we still hadn’t closed at that time, so from a marketing perspective I think it’s helped us somewhat. It was big early on and then it’s maybe diminished a bit, but still to always have a Daytona 500 champion in your propaganda that you’re sending out is always helpful and so I think it still does have some value for sure. I think just as important is the guys on the team, both teams, and their attitudes going back to that track or going to other races last year and knowing that we can pull this thing off. We do build a winning race car out of here and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again, so I think it’s kind of helped from that perspective as well.”

WHERE DO THINGS STAND IN TERMS OF PARTNERSHIPS FOR 2022? “Many of the same partners that we’ve had last year and past years with the 34, starting with the 34 we’ve got Love’s Travel Stops is our anchor partner there and they’ll do half the races this season. FR8 Auctions has been with us for a long time and it looks like they’re gonna be on the car for up to five or six races this year as well, and we’re still nailing down the last elements of their program. We’ve got a couple other new partners that we’re working on and hopeful to have some announcements on in particular around the 34 in the coming weeks for some of those other races, so we’re pretty close. I think we’ve got maybe about five races left on the 34 to have it sold out for the year, so we’re getting closer and closer and probably in better shape than we’ve probably ever been with the car. I think they Daytona 500 has certainly helped that cause a bit. With the 38 with Todd’s car it’s building the program out a little bit more and there’s a bit more opportunity around it. We’ve got a partnership with Speedy Cash that’s evolved and changing a bit. We’ll have some announcements about that in the coming days, but it looks like they’ll be involved with it, and some of the partnerships that have been with Todd for a long time with Frontline and Crosley brands I think will participate at some kind of level too. We’ve still got a lot of holes to fill on that one, but got a lot of good opportunities and some partnership one-race deals that we had last year that we’re talking to about multiple race deals for this coming season that I feel like are looking promising, so there’s a lot of good opportunity out there that we’re working on, but still more holes to fill for sure.”

ARE YOU RUNNING A THIRD CAR FOR THE DAYTONA 500? “We are not. It’s something that we’ve done the last few years and I know we would love to do it again and actually talked to David Ragan about it some early on, but just given the challenges with getting the new car and getting enough inventory established there was no way we could put a fair effort together for David and so I think he decided to look with another opportunity with Rick Ware. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re in a better position to do it next year we might try to do it again, but for this year we won’t.”

ARE ALLIANCES AS IMPORTANT AS THEY ALWAYS HAVE BEEN? “I think from some perspectives it is and some it’s not. To give you an example, we’ve been with Roush Fenway in a technical alliance for a number of years and we continue to be so in 2022. Now, that alliance also gave us access to buy chassis from them, buy suspension parts, buy various parts to basically try to build our own Roush race car and then share information at the racetrack. Obviously, with the new car we’re all out of the manufacturing business, they more so than us, so that part has definitely changed an awful lot, but as far as sharing information at the racetrack we are still taking the same style car to the track and we’re still racing Fords and they’re racing Fords, so we’ve been working hand in hand with them at the tests just trying to match our data points up with their data points and hopefully we all collectively come out in a better place. That part, from my perspective and not being somebody that’s been at any tests but just talking to a few guys here today with some post-Daytona discussion that that is certainly just as strong and just as vital to the end goal as ever.”

WHERE ARE YOU GUYS IN TERMS OF CARS BUILT AND IS THERE CONCERN ABOUT IF YOU WILL HAVE ENOUGH CARS TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE WEST COAST SWING IF SOMETHING HAPPENED AT DAYTONA AND YOU START LOSING CARS? “I will say that we are concerned, for sure. We’re in the same boat. We’ve got two cars that I would say you could take to the racetrack tomorrow and a third one that’s on its way to being assembled, but that’s about it for us right now. The chassis parts are becoming more readily available, but some other things are still I feel like behind a little bit. Hopefully, we will have more inventory, but I’ve got to believe that these cars that you take to the Clash they’re gonna end up being Daytona backup cars or California primary or something. It’s certainly much different than the days of you’ve got 30 race cars in the shop and just send one down to Daytona if you wreck one. We’re pretty concerned about it, for sure, on our end. I know everybody I talk to on other teams everybody seems to be in the same boat, so you can’t cry too much about it. We’ve all got to make it work and I’m sure everybody will be at these races and we’ll figure it out.”

ANY DISCUSSION ABOUT A CONTINGENCY PLAN IF THERE’S A SHORTAGE OF CARS IN A WORST-CASE SCENARIO? “Not on my end. I won’t say there hasn’t been discussion about it, but certainly nothing that I’m aware of our privy to, but we’ve all seen it happen. You can wreck a car in practice. You can wreck in the 150s and you’re on your third car by the time Sunday rolls around, so, yeah, it’s a cause for concern if the worst happened. I think you probably will see a little more laid back racing or practicing or a qualifying race than you’ve seen in the past, just to make sure you’ve still got that good bullet for Sunday in the 500, but I don’t know. Maybe we’ll be in better shape with cars and you can be a little more aggressive. Where it stands right now in the middle of January is certainly a bit concerning.”

WAS THERE ANYTHING SPECIFIC ABOUT NOT RUNNING A THIRD CAR THIS YEAR? WAS IT LACK OF PARTS AND PIECES OR SPONSORSHIP? WHAT WAS IT? “It was the parts and pieces, honestly. People played a factor. We’ve had a little bit of change in some personnel here in the offseason, so I won’t say that didn’t play a factor in it. Another example, Derrick Finley had been with us for 10 years or more and has moved on and he kind of always shepherded that deal whenever we would run that extra car, so not having Derrick here certainly played a factor, but the biggest factor is just not having enough inventory. Just like we talked about in the last question, it’s kind of foolish to believe that we’d have enough inventory to go do that and I’ll be honest we did it last year and it was also the first year that we kind of had the in-house truck team and a lot of our track equipment was over with the truck team and we had to beg, borrow and steal from everybody to get to Daytona last year. Derrick and David and everybody did a great job to make the race, so for a few different reasons it was just gonna be extra challenging to get it done this year.”

RCR ANNOUNCED A HEMP-BASED COMPANY AS A SPONSOR. HAVE YOU HAD ANY TALKS WITH COMPANIES IN THAT SPACE? “I will say we did have an opportunity, it might have been two years ago I think. Once the category kind of opened and we were learning as we went with what kind of testing needed to be done and it just got a little too overwhelming or wasn’t gonna work out. We didn’t get very far with it to be honest with you, but that’s really been the only experience that Front Row has had with it and I really didn’t from any involvement. Our sales guys did more so than me, so I really couldn’t even tell you. I knew there was a lot of hurdles to jump through at the time. I saw the video that Richard Childress did at Daytona and talked about the process a bit and it certainly seemed to be that’s the way it was gonna be when we had that one opportunity, but we haven’t had a lot of experience in that, so I don’t know that I’ve got any great comments around it.”

AS A SMALLER TEAM IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE OF HAVING LESS IN TERMS OF KNOWING HOW TO DEAL WITH THE PARTS AND PIECES ISSUE YOU TALKED ABOUT COMPARED TO BIGGER TEAMS THAT MAY NOT HAVE HAD TO WORRY ABOUT STUFF LIKE THAT? “I don’t know. Maybe we’ve been a little more nimble in the past than some might be, but I think the fact that you just can’t go out there and make whatever you need changes the dynamic quite a bit. If we have to run this widget and we have to buy it from this vendor rather than find the guy to go and make it, I think that just poses the big challenge there. It certainly is a different situation. I don’t really think that Front Row is in a better position as you state because we are maybe a little more nimble and can adapt a little bit easier maybe, but I don’t know if that really helps us in this regard. Just because we’ve had in the past a smaller fleet, we’ve got a really small fleet now, but we’re all having to purchase from the same vendor and it’s what we signed up for. I think ultimately it will be good for a team like Front Row to have a more competitive race car on the racetrack and we’re just having to go through a bit of these growing pains to get there.”

IS THIS THE LEVEL OF CONCERN YOU EXPECTED A YEAR AGO KNOWING THIS NEXT GEN CAR WAS GOING TO BE SUCH A BIG CHANGE? “I don’t know that anybody ever thought we’d be sitting here in the middle of January and have three cars in the shop, but I think you knew that there were gonna be some significant growing pains to get here. You still worry about what’s all the changes that might be coming along down the pike. I mean, hopefully we’ve got a very raceable car and everything that we’re purchasing right now we can get the full use of, but in the back of your mind you know that things can change. We are definitely spending a lot of money right now. For a guy that really worries about the money being spent it’s a tough time to get through right now, but I do think, to answer your question, we all thought there would be growing pains. I don’t know if any of us ever would have imagined that we’d have this few complete race cars at this point, but, again, it’s the same for everybody. I don’t feel like we’re at any disadvantage by any shape.”

WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE GUESSED YOU WOULD HAVE HAD BY NOW IN TERMS OF COMPLETED CARS? MAYBE 6 CARS AS OPPOSED TO 3? “Yeah. I would have thought if you are gonna have a seven-car inventory and a back-up car that you would be pretty close to at least whatever your number of chassis were gonna be and, who knows, we might get there sooner than later. That’s been very surprising, for sure.”

THERE WAS A LOT OF TALK AT THE END OF 2021 AND WHERE BOB JENKINS WAS IN TERMS OF NASCAR FUTURE. GIVE US THE PERSPECTIVE OF WHERE IS BOB THESE DAYS AS HE LOOKS AT THE CUP SERIES AS A TWO-CAR TEAM AGAIN IN 2022? “I think clearly there was an opportunity to do something different beginning with 2022 for Bob and at the end of the day it just didn’t work out and we continued down the lot with Front Row Motorsports as we’ve known it for a long time. We had talked about it for a few years that if you’re ever gonna do something different before the Next Gen car comes would probably be the best time to do it. It wasn’t anything that he ever was looking to get out of the sport. It was more, ‘is there a way that we can just position ourselves to be in a better position long-term and have a stronger relationship with an OEM or whatever?’ Again, just to be in a more competitive place long-term, so obviously there were some opportunities last year and one that we worked on pretty hard for a while and at the end of the day it just didn’t work out. I feel like we really haven’t talked about doing anything different ever since. Once he decided that he just wanted to keep Front Row going and let’s just grow this and take advantage of whatever opportunities we can to make it better and hope that the direction the sport is going with the Next Gen cars and we’re in a position to have Front Row be more competitive and I think putting Todd in the seat in the 38, we’ve been around with Todd for a while and we feel like he’s got a bright, bright future and, honestly, I didn’t anticipate keeping the truck team going with moving Todd up, but Bob certainly wanted to do it. He loves the truck team and the Truck Series and the opportunity to work with Zane Smith too. I think he’s looking at stuff down the road and we feel like Michael is gonna be in a more competitive position with this car and being more of a road racing style car fits his background. I think we’re making more commitments long-term into how does Front Row get better, so maybe it’s more organic of how Front Row gets better more so than just lining up with another organization.”

HOW MOTIVATED IS THE TRUCK PROGRAM THIS YEAR? “It’s super motivated. The only thing that has changed with the truck team is Zane. Zane in for Todd and the same crew chief in Chris Lawson, the same engineer, same car chief, same road crew. We were really happy with that team’s performance last year. We had moved that team in-house, assembled the trucks here at Front Row. We still have an alliance relationship with DGR. The bodies get hung at their place, but otherwise it’s an in-house Front Row truck, so, again, it was something we started more for Todd because we thought Todd was kind of getting a bum rap where he was at and we wanted to try to help get his career back on course a bit. I feel like we did and I think he’ll benefit us long-term now and he already has been benefitting Front Row for sure with his performance in the truck. I think we all enjoyed the truck being as competitive as it was. It was fun to watch on those Friday nights and to Bob’s credit he wanted to keep it going and bring Zane in. That was his thing. ‘Hey, if we can get a guy like Zane Smith, I want to keep doing it. Let’s just don’t go hire somebody just because they’ve got a little bit of sponsorship but they’re a mediocre driver, so let’s see if we can get him.’ So we got on the horn real quick and Zane was still available and we were able to put it together. We certainly have championship aspirations with that team and, first off, you’ve got to get off to a good start and win a race and get in that first round of the playoffs and Zane has certainly shown that once he gets in the playoffs he knows how to get it to the final four and maybe we can help him get one spot better this year. We’re excited about the Truck Series and think it’s gonna be a really good program this year.”

DOES IT HELP TO HAVE TODD ON A MULTI-YEAR DEAL COMPARED TO A ROOKIE EVERY YEAR? “I think so. I kind of think of Todd similar to John Hunter, where both of those guys were rookies but they had a lot of racing experience and a lot of experience winning races at various levels. With John Hunter, just the circumstances, the whole thing with COVID and sponsorship issues and everything kind of left us at the end of the year – both of us at a bit of a crossroads of where it goes from here – and I think he decided to do what he did to go back to the Truck Series with KBM and that looks like a really good move for him, for sure, but I think with Todd just because we’ve had a relationship with Todd since he was 10-years-old in some way, shape or form and he’s been driving our truck for the last couple of years and I think there’s a much better opportunity to grow something that does have some staying power. That’s the one thing that we just need to do with the 38. I think we’ve done a good job with the 34 of having some constant there and building relationships around Michael and having a pretty good sponsorship base, but we’ve just kind of had a little bit too much turnover through the 38 for the last three years and so having Todd under our roof moving into the Next Gen series where it’s maybe a good place for a rookie to start to move up to the Cup Series with the Next Gen platform, I think it does give us a good opportunity to now build a program around a constant in Todd and I’m confident he’ll get the job done this year. With performance you get some attention from those partners that want to be a part of it, but the first step is we have to perform on the track a bit.”

WHY SKIP THE XFINITY SERIES WITH TODD AND GO STRAIGHT TO CUP, AND ANY CONSIDERATION TO GET AN NXS PROGRAM FOR HIM? “I think once we decided to stay with our two-car effort with Ford and race the Cup Series this year, then it became what are we gonna do with the 38 car. There were a few options. There were guys out there that were looking for opportunities, but, for us, it just kept circling back to ‘man, we’ve got the guy under our own roof that we feel like has got as much potential as anybody,’ and he was killing it every week in the Truck Series no matter where we went. Whether it was a short track, big track, road course, dirt track, whatever, he’s very competitive, so I don’t know that any driver has to run the Xfinity Series to be ready to be a Cup driver. I think there are some examples in the past that have made that leap from Trucks to Cup cars, but without racing Xfinity. I think the biggest thing was the car is changing, so it’s gonna be new for everybody. Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch and those guys don’t have 15 or 18 years of experience over a rookie this year. They’re rookies with this car just the same way that Todd is and Harrison Burton are. I don’t know if there is ever a really good time to bring a rookie in, but if there ever was it would probably be this year before everybody does start to figure this car out a bit. I think you look at the downforce packages from truck to what a Next Gen car is versus what an Xfinity car is, the Xfinity car is the outlier. Trucks have a lot more downforce, but Todd is kind of used to this style of racing, this momentum style of racing and has done really well with it, so I don’t know if spending a year or two in Xfinity and trying to figure those cars out and then move on to the Cup Series, at the end of the day does he get more seat time in a slower progression through the competitiveness of the different series? Yeah, he does, but I don’t know that it makes him that much more better prepared to take it on, so, for us, we had a need and we had the guy under our roof and we just chose to go in that direction.”

ANY LOGISTICAL CONCERNS AT THE START OF THE YEAR WITH SO MANY RACES SO FAR AWAY FROM THE SHOP? “Yeah, it does for sure. It’s certainly the busiest January we’ve ever had, but a lot of stuff you normally do in January – wrapping the hauler and getting the pit boxes ready and all that stuff, you just had to get done so much quicker because these things are gonna be on the road in some cases for the bulk of January. There’s the additional wear and tear on the people. We all know the schedule this year is really tight with one off week the whole season and now you’re adding in a few trips in January, so it’s made it tough from that perspective, too. I’ll even say, because I get involved on the hiring side of it, sometimes it’s hard to sell a guy on this Cup schedule versus what the Truck Series runs and if he’s got an opportunity to go there, too. Logistically, I guess you can look at when we tested at Charlotte and the RCR car wrecked and they could take it back to the shop and fix it. That’s not what you’re gonna do if you wreck at Phoenix, so I don’t know. That was just kind of a different scenario there because we were testing at Charlotte, but you certainly wouldn’t be able to repair it unless we had some spare body parts at Daytona and I’m sure we will at Phoenix, then we could do a minor repair but nothing too major. The biggest thing is just the wear and tear on the people and then some of that operational stuff that you do in the offseason just had to be done pretty quick once you got back from Phoenix. Everything had to go to the power coater right away and get sandblasted and repainted and reassembled because we were gonna be on the road so much in January.”

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF MORE TESTS WERE ASSIGNED TO NEW TRACKS THIS YEAR? “I hadn’t heard about anything at like St. Louis being an obvious one, but I haven’t heard about a St. Louis test. I think there’s some talk about some other tests later on this year, nothing in the first part of the year, but I think at some of the more established tracks, more organizational type tracks, but we’ll have the extended practice days at those places, at Gateway, so I think it will be more than the warm-up that we’re gonna get week in and week out, so, again, as long as it’s the same for everybody it doesn’t bother me. We’ll just take advantage of that extra practice time and line them up and race.”

HAS THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT CHANGED IN THE SHOP WITH THIS NEW CAR? HAVE JOBS SORT OF FLIPPED OVER INTO SOME OTHER CATEGORY? “It has in some regard. Some guys that were with us for a long time just moved on to do something different. We had, for instance, it’s kind of a cool story I think is we had a guy that was one of our better body hangers, he was a real craftsman and the new car just wasn’t quite his cup of tea. He’s such a good guy and somebody we would want to keep around and figure something out for, but he found a job with a restoration company restoring Volkswagen Beetles, like 1960s generation Beetles, so I respect a guy who knows what he’s happy doing and knows that this just isn’t quite for him going forward. He’s doing something that he loves to do, so we had a case like that and we’ve had some attrition, especially from the fabrication side of things over the last year-and-a-half with this change being inevitable and I think other guys finding opportunities outside of racing because they knew teams would be downsizing, so we, honestly, haven’t downsized a bit. We did exactly what you said. There are a few guys whose roles have changed and they’re doing something different than what they used to do, but they’re good diversified guys. I think it’s something that we’re just gonna learn as we go. I was just talking to a crew chief a minute ago about one guy and we don’t really know what all the skill sets are we need week in and week out with getting this car completely ready to go every week, so it’s just something that we’ll adapt to through the course of the year. At Front Row Motorsports between two Cup teams and a truck team we’ve got right around 75 people, so we’re not one of the mega-sized teams anyway and so we’ve got a few less people than we had last year at this time, but it’s not anything extraordinarily different. I think a year from now we’ll all have a better feel for how many assembly mechanics do you need? How many guys do you need to assemble the body and things like that.”

NASCAR SAYS THIS NEW CAR WILL REDUCE COSTS. WILL YOU SEE ANY OF THAT IN THE FIRST YEAR OR HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO REALIZE THAT? “We definitely won’t see it the first year. I can assure you of that. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take. It feels like an avalanche right now, but we kind of knew it would be this way. Time will tell. I think that’s another one that a year from now we can probably answer that a little bit better. We’re not a team that had 30 assembled cars anyway. I’ve never really thought that the Next Gen program is gonna save us a whole lot of money because we’re not over-staffed. We don’t have 30 race cars and we’re not trying to build trick of the week, so I feel like teams are probably scaling down more towards the size of Front Row Motorsports a bit. I mean, we don’t have the engineering depth that some of those other teams have and that’s why we have the Roush alliance, but I think to get back to answering your question, I think time will tell on that. I think it’s gonna take at least three years if there is a significant cost savings. I think it’s just gonna be so incremental for Front Row Motorsports compared to how we’ve raced in the past to get there, but time will tell on that one.”