Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 Media Day | Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Ford Performance drivers visited the Daytona International Speedway media center as part of 2022 media day festivities. Below are transcripts from their Q&A sessions with the media.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang –WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO COME HERE AS A DAYTONA 500 WINNER? “It is awesome. It really is. The last few weeks with getting ready for the 500 and all the media and all the preseason stuff, it is fun. It is fun being the Daytona 500 champion coming to Daytona. It has been a cool experience. I feel like there are times in the season last year where, not like you forget, but you just get back into the grind and things aren’t going all that great and you are kind of riding that season wave. Then in the off-season, and getting ready for this, it was a lot of fun because everyone wants to talk about winning the Daytona 500 and it brings back a lot of great memories. At the same time, we are focused on this year and trying to kick our season off right and go back-to-back if we can. It is a lot of fun. It has been a cool couple of weeks getting ready for this.”

YOUR NAME IS ON THAT TROPHY AND ALWAYS WILL BE. THAT HAS TO BE A COOL FEELING: “It is, definitely. The significance of this race and the history of it. Like you said, it just has more meaning than just your average NASCAR race. They are all important and they all have significance, but if there is one you are going to win, this is the one. It is special. It is cool to know that regardless of what happens this weekend or what happens this year you always have that Daytona 500 victory and being a Daytona 500 champion is pretty special.”

TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 First Phase Credit Card Ford Mustang – WHAT IS IT LIKE FOR YOU TO COME TO DAYTONA AND BE READY TO START YOUR ROOKIE CUP SERIES SEASON? “Every time I have driven through the Daytona tunnel, my first time here was for an ARCA test. My first laps on the race track. Every time you go through the tunnel it just gives you chills. The World Center of Racing is right there huge across the front stretch. It is definitely different coming here for the Daytona 500. Being here for five days. I feel like everything just adds to the significance of it and I am really excited to see the intensity pick up throughout the week.”

MCDOWELL CONTINUED — HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE AMOUNT OF RAIN AT COTA LAST YEAR TO JOE OR MARY RACE FAN? “It was a lot of rain. Let me take that back. It wasn’t the amount of rain, it was just our cars in particular the amount of spray and the way that spray came off our cars was different than other race cars that I have driven. I have driven in wet conditions in sports cars and open-wheel cars a lot in my past but the way that the water actually shoots out the back of those cars is quite different than ours. So the visibility was as hard as I have ever had it. It is probably as bad as it has ever been for me. It was really tough. There have been conditions I have had like that in the past but normally the races get stopped pretty quickly when it is like that. Visibility, in a sports car here at Daytona, usually goes hand in hand with the driveability of the track. I think COTA was drivable. It wasn’t too wet. The track does a good job of draining and there wasn’t massive amounts of standing water and puddles but the visibility made it a real challenge.”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THAT TO A FAN THOUGH? “There were times where you just had a blindfold on, literally. It was like you had no idea what was in front of you. Like, completely no idea. You are coming in and out of seeing lights and seeing different objects but there are moments where you aren’t seeing anything. It was pretty daunting for sure. It was wild, it really was. The Bristol Dirt race had a little bit of that feel to it but shorter spurts of not being able to see. It was definitely a challenge. It is unfortunate too because it is such a cool race track and could have been a really awesome inaugural event – and I think it still was – but I think our cars this year will do much better in all those areas from a visibility standpoint and from a spray and mist standpoint. A lot of that is because of the diffuser. In sports cars and Indycar you have ground effects and diffusers that kick the moisture up and over the cars and so you always are affected by the mist. Our cars last year were just coming straight out of the back and right into the window. Like someone was holding a hose on you. It wasn’t shooting up in the air and creating a mist, it was shooting straight at you like someone had a pressure washer. I think this year if we do get those tough conditions, our cars will be a bit better for it.”

HOW VALUABLE WAS THE DAYTONA 500 WIN FOR FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS AND HOW HAS IT CONTINUED TO PAY DIVIDENDS FOR THE ORGANIZATION WITH SPONSORSHIP? “That is a long question and I will try to answer it the best I can. The value last year for our partners was significant just because of the amount of eyeballs watching the Daytona 500 and also too, beyond that, all the highlights and all the social engagement and all the commercials that NASCAR is running previewing. Like when Fox switched to NBC it had our win on that commercial. All those tidbits really add up to a lot at the end of the year in terms of exposure value and TV viewership for our partners. That was a huge thing. Not that it was unexpected but I didn’t realize how much value that added. Then from the short term, we have more races sold on the 34 car this year than we ever have. I don’t know officially but I think we may only have one race available at this point. From a sponsorship standpoint, it has helped significantly. That was growing each and every year and we were trending that direction but the 500 definitely sped that up for us and allowed us to just make new relationships and expand our current ones. From a sponsorship standpoint, it has helped a lot. Then overall, I don’t want to call it morale but the legitimacy of the race team and getting really quality people to come to Front Row as employees to help us grow the program helped a tremendous amount by running well and winning the Daytona 500. I think that five or six years ago we had a harder time getting people to buy in to sort of the mission and the vision at Front Row, especially if they are already at a big four or big five race team. Now it is a little easier to see that we can do it and we have the ability to do it and that is a great place for people to achieve some of their goals that they wouldn’t get to achieve otherwise.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRONT ROW AS AN ORGANIZATION AND HOW FAR THE TEAM HAS COME? WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE TEAM OWNERSHIP AND STRUCTURE OF THE TEAM THAT HAS CREATED THIS LEVEL OF OPERATION RIGHT NOW? “A lot of it started with this guys dad, David Gilliland and David Ragan. They are a big part of what Front Row is today. Since I have been here it has just been that slow progression. I think that when Bob Jenkins the owner and Jerry Freeze, when we look at it you want that instant success and it hasn’t been an instant success. It has been getting three or four spots better on average every year with how we perform. That is hard to do in our sport. That is tough to go from running low 20’s to running in the teens. When you are running teens in the Cup Series, you are beating the big teams consistently. At least one or two of their cars, not all of their cars. It has been a journey and a process. I think that Bob’s vision for the team and what he has allowed us to do. He is a very savvy businessman. He didn’t go broke the first year trying to get to where he wasn’t going to be able to get to. I think that has been the case for a lot of people that have come and gone in this sport. They come in and spend everything they have and take a run at it and two or three years later they are not in business anymore. So his process of growing slowly has built sustainability for the race team so that now we have the partnership and sustainability to keep going at the rate we are going. Even though it didn’t go as fast as we all hoped it is working out now to where we are very solid, secure and stable. Five, six or seven years ago it probably wasn’t that. He has also spent a significant amount of his own money to do it and it takes a big commitment to do that. It has definitely been a process.”

TODD GILLILAND CONTINUED — HAS THE NEW CAR CREATED A SITUATION WHERE THE NON-TOP-TIER TEAMS HAVE A CHANCE TO MAYBE START OFF THE SEASON-WINNING RACES AND WE SEE SOME SURPRISES THE FIRST PART OF THE YEAR? “Yeah, me and Michael have talked about it a little bit throughout th tests and I think our common sense is that it won’t make the gap bigger at least from the top teams throughout the whole field. You would like to think it will bring us closer but I think it definitely won’t bring us further away.”

MCDOWELL CONTINUED — “Yeah, I think you will have surprise winners this year. The best teams are always going to be the best. As you guys know with any industry it is all about people. The biggest and best teams typically have the best people. So, it is always going to be that case. You look at all different forms of motorsports and the top teams are always the top teams, even with rule changes. I always feel like and have felt like this model will work because even at Front Row we have really good people. So on a given day when we hit everything right. When I hit everything right and we hit the setup right and the strategy right, you should at least have an opportunity or be in a position to win. I grew up an open-wheel guy and I love watching Indycar and get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a guy like Dale Coyne win races because he hired a good engineer and a really good driver. When they hit it right and they get the strategy right they can win an Indycar race and beat Penske and Ganassi and Andretti and those big teams. I think the Next Gen car gives us and other teams the opportunity to do that in the Cup Series. When you get it right and hit everything right you will see guys win races that you don’t typically see because a lot of the parts and pieces are pretty close. The best teams are always going to be the best teams, there is no doubt about that.”

GILLILAND CONTINUED — WHERE ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS SEASON AS A ROOKIE AND ALSO HITTING THE TRACK YESTERDAY FOR PRACTICE, WHAT WAS THAT MOMENT LIKE FOR YOU BEHIND THE WHEEL? “I was definitely happy to just get my first day here under my belt. It is kind of nerve-racking with not much inventory and you are in the draft trying to go as fast as you can but also be really smart about it. As far as expectations this year, it is really hard to set any hard expectations. I would say for me personally it is just to not take myself out of learning opportunities. I would like to be on the track making as many laps as possible this year. I would say I definitely have a ton to learn the first half of the season but the second half of the season I would like to be competitive compared to Michael. I would say the main goal is to just finish as many laps as possible this year.”

WHAT WAS THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE LIKE FOR YOU A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO AT THE CLASH? WAS IT GOOD FOR YOU TO HAVE EXPOSURE TO SUCH A BIG SPECTACLE LIKE THAT TO HELP PREPARE YOU FOR WHAT YOU WILL EXPERIENCE THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, I definitely think the Clash was really good for me to get a whole run-through of a whole weekend. Even at the Clash, it is a lot tougher there to manage practice times and when you have to be in the car. As far as all that stuff it is a lot more stressful just because of the huge unknowns of having never been there before. It was a good run-through with my team and a good practice. After practice, you normally have to sit down and make some hard decisions of what you are going to do during the race and to be able to go through all that was really good. As a rookie, I have been on the track with some of the stars of the Cup Series but it is different when you walk in the garage and the cars are all wrapped in the sponsors you see on TV every weekend. I think just running through every single one of those things was definitely a good thing.”

YOU ARE COMING FROM A SERIES THAT RUNS 23 RACES SPREAD OUT THROUGH THE YEAR AND NOW YOU ARE GOING TO EMBARK ON 37 RACES IN 38 WEEKS. IS THAT INTIMIDATING AT ALL? “I feel like it is intimidating just because I don’t know what it is really like. I am sure I can do it. Growing up, that is what I would rather do. I would rather race every single weekend. I am more excited about it than anything. It is weird. Normally the trucks come to Daytona and then you have two or three weeks off. I am excited to be able to keep racing.”

HOW COMFORTABLE TO YOU FEEL IN THIS NEXT GEN CAR? “I am really excited about coming in during the Next Gen era. I feel like it kind of puts me at the same level as some of these guys. I am learning at the same time as my crew chief and everyone on my crew. To be able to spend an extra hour in the shot and try to learn these cars a little better is a good opportunity for me. Especially the preseason testing. I feel like that is something that has been overlooked but is a huge advantage for a rookie this year than the three or four years in the past. I have more laps coming up to the Daytona 500 than I have ever had coming to Daytona before. I feel more comfortable in that than anything else.”

MCDOWELL CONTINUED — WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TODD WITH THE PERSPECTIVE OF BEING IN THIS SERIES FOR A LONG TIME? “I think that the timing for Todd is perfect because when we were at the Charlotte test together he was looking at me like, ‘What should I expect?’ and I had no ideas what to expect. I was as nervous as he was. Even though you have years of experience, this Next Gen car is completely different than anything we have driven before in the Cup Series. It is great for him because he isn’t starting at such a deficit. Is it still going to be hard? Is it still going to be overwhelming? Is he still going to be a rookie? Absolutely. That Cup Series is very challenging the first year but it would definitely be worse if he waited until next year when you take the best drivers and best teams and give them a year experience with this car, it will be harder for a rookie to make up that deficit. Now, even though he is at somewhat of a deficit he isn’t completely behind. For me, it is kind of that same rookie jitters in preseason testing because you don’t know what to expect. It is so different than what we have had in the past. Testing was definitely nice, like Todd said. We had some personnel changes at Front Row and some people move from one team to another and it is good to get into that rhythm and figure out what you need.”

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (February 16, 2022): Live Fast Motorsports (LFM) and CELSIUS announced today that CELSIUS is now titled the “Official Energy Drink of Live Fast Motorsports.” The two companies entered this strategic partnership to Live Fit & Live Fast.

Celsius is a better-for-you alternative to traditional energy drinks with clinically proven function which provides essential energy. Celsius is a global top-selling lifestyle fitness drink featuring zero sugar, no preservatives, no aspartame, no high fructose corn syrup, and is non-GMO, with no artificial flavors or colors. Consumed by athletes all over the world, CELSIUS contains seven essential vitamins providing a sustained energy source for everyone’s fitness goal.

“Celsius is honored to enter their second year of partnership with Live Fast Motorsports,” said John Fieldly, President and Chairman of Celsius. “CELSIUS is a fitness drink that drives performance for the new generation of athletes and is a perfect partner for Live Fast Motorsports. Celsius was created to help people LIVE FIT, exceed their goals, and elevate their everyday lives. We are proud that LFM co-owner, Matt Tifft, co-owner and NASCAR Cup series driver, B.J. McLeod, and their team trust our products to bring out their best energy to perform all-season long.”

Live Fast Motorsport fans will be amongst the first to know about new Celsius flavors and more as the LFM team stays closely acquainted with Celsius and showcases the energy drink’s power throughout the season.

“I have had the honor of working with Celsius for two years now.” said co-founder of Live Fast Motorsports, Matt Tifft. “Celsius is a natural fit for our brand. The beverage provides a refreshing taste on hot race weekends and brings the sustainable high-energy that the sport of NASCAR demands. That’s why you can always catch me, BJ, or another member of our team enjoying a Celsius in the shop or on the track. We bring it everywhere and I can enjoy it on my low-carb lifestyle too.”

Live Fast Motorsports and Celsius are excited to see where this second-year partnership leads and eager to better serve their fans and customers through it.

For more information about Celsius, please visit http://www.celsiusholdingsinc.com

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 Advance | Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang, began defense of his Daytona 500 championship by having the fastest practice speed in tonight’s two practice sessions at 192.735 mph. He spoke with the media afterwards about his Next Gen Mustang and what he’s expecting this week.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang – “I’ll start with your second question first. I think coming to Daytona is special. It always is and, like you said, driving through the tunnel you kind of get that feeling. I’m sure a lot of you do as well when you come in, it’s kind of the kickoff to a new season and a fresh start and a lot of opportunities, but it’s exciting and it’s fun to come back as the Daytona 500 champion. Right now, we currently still are until the race happens on Sunday and hopefully we’ll be the defending, but in this moment leading up to it, it’s a lot of fun. It was cool to get to the racetrack today and a lot of the buildup to the 500 as well has been a lot of fun. It’s enjoyable to come back as the champion. And then practice is like you were talking about, situational. We sort of had a gameplan going into practice of trying to work with our Ford teammates and in particular with the Roush Fenway Keselowski cars. Did I say that right? Did I get that right? That’s a lot of syllables in that race team’s name, and so we wanted to get out in that group and just kind of play around with the draft and not put ourselves in a bad situation where you’re two or three wide, but just kind of line up so it worked out well. We were lined up four or five of the Fords and then we were catching the Toyota pack, so lap time here is very situational on where you get the draft and where you get the runs, but I feel really good about our Ford Mustang. We had good speed and it drove pretty well. It did all the things you’re looking to do with minimal practice and not being in that three, four-wide crazy situation, so I feel good.”

WHAT WAS THE CONVERSATION LIKE WITH YOUR CREW CHIEF ABOUT HOW TO HANDLE PRACTICE? “It’s definitely a conversation that everybody is having. I think it always is a conversation down here at Daytona just because the speedway cars in year’s past are so particular the way the cars were built, and then moving into the Next Gen car we just don’t have a lot of spares. We don’t have a lot of inventory for California and Vegas, so the last thing you want to do is put yourself in a bind in practice, and so we had those conversations, but at the same time this is the Daytona 500 and you want to be as prepared as you can to win the race on Sunday, so just going out there by ourselves and not getting in that draft and seeing what your car is like and what you need to do wasn’t really an option, but we tried to come up with the best option that minimized the risk and allowed us to achieve the speeds that we needed to to see if we got our travels and our balance and all those things right.”

WHAT IS THE MINDSET FOR THE DUELS? “It’s a tough balance, it really is. I can’t tell you right now where exactly the mindset is at. It’ll probably change once we see where we qualify. I think if you’re near the shiny end of your Duel, you would try to stay there and race as hard as you can, and just not put yourself in a bad situation. At the same time, track position is important here. Yes, you can start in the back and work your way to the front, it’s a long race and a lot of opportunities, so it’s gonna be a balance. You’re gonna have to think about it and as racers once they drop the green flag it’s always a little bit more challenging to think about it because you want to go get that checkered flag, but we’ll see how qualifying goes tomorrow and we’ll make a decision from there and just try to put ourselves in the best situation for Sunday. We’re all thinking about it though, for sure.”

WE SAW THE CARS BOUNCING PRETTY WELL OUT THERE. WAS THAT EXPECTED AND IS THAT MORE QUALIFYING SETUP THAN RACE SETUP? “Yes and yes. I think that these cars are definitely bouncing a little bit more. I don’t think they drive any harsher like they did last year, the cars were low to the ground as well and they were pretty stiff. It’s just a different feel altogether. I think that a lot of the cars are trimmed out for qualifying and you can be real aggressive with the shocks and the heights and trying to get everything for qualifying and then you’ll probably take some of that out for the race, but I also think that there’s a lot of people that were trying things in those first two practices to see what they can get away with – how aggressive you can be. There were a lot of cars with a lot of reverse skew and bouncing and moving around quite a bit. Some of them looked very un-fun driving, but come race day you’re gonna need something that you can be aggressive with and that you can tug on the wheel and you can make moves and not be worried about losing the back end or putting yourself in a situation you can’t get out of because your car is too trimmed out or too stiff.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK QUALIFYING WILL BE LIKE? “I think that the importance of it, like you said, isn’t super high on how it’s gonna affect your result on Sunday, but everybody here wants to have a fast car and wants to sit on the pole. It’s a big deal, and then also too with the Next Gen car and everything being so fresh and new it’s a little bit of let’s see where everybody is at, and I think tomorrow in qualifying is important from a team morale standpoint, from seeing where you stack up against the other teams and how much raw speed you have. It’s not super important for Sunday, but we’re thinking about it. We want to qualify well. We want to qualify on the pole. It’s not gonna wreck our day if we don’t, but it sure would be nice if we can.”

WILL IT BE MORE DIFFICULT WITH THE NEW CAR? “I think that this car, the Next Gen car at Daytona in particular, is the closest to our old car that there’s been a track. So Charlotte it felt like, ‘Wow, this is really different.’ Phoenix felt like, ‘Wow, these brakes are really good. The car is very nimble.’ At Daytona, you hear it and it feels a little bit different, but the draft and overall how you approach it didn’t change a whole lot, so I feel like it’ll be very similar to what you had in year’s past.”

HOW DO THESE CARS PULL UP AND PASS? “It’s a little bit hard to tell with small packs, like when you’re only out there with five or six cars. It’s hard to know what that’s gonna be like because once you get three-wide and you get in that big pack, the energy in the air changes and so you have more help behind you a lot of those times. I think the suck up is different and the bubble is a little bit different and it seems like you’re able to hook up onto the car in front of you’s bumper a little bit easier, so there’s gonna be things we’re learning as we go, but really hard to give it a fair shake because like that practice there, we only have five or six cars in line, so it’s hard to know how it’ll suck up in a big pack.”

HOW DIFFERENT IS IT WITH THIS REARVIEW CAMERA? “Yeah, for sure. That’s probably the biggest change for me today. When we were down here for the test I didn’t have the rearview camera, and so today was just learning that of how far back somebody is and just honestly trying to break the habit of looking in your mirror. You come off the corner and you look in your mirror and you’re like, ‘Oh, well, that’s not the one I need to look out of anymore.’ It was good to experience that. I had my teammate behind me and moving around just to see your depth perception and where that car is actually at. I think it’s gonna be easy to get it wrong. I think your spotters are gonna be just as critical as they’ve always been. You can’t rely on that rearview mirror or that camera in every situation, but it’s definitely a cool tool that we haven’t had in the past. It’s fun to kind of learn something new.”

IS IT LIKE OBJECTS ARE NEARER THAN YOU THINK? “It felt a little bit like that, yeah. When my teammate, Todd Gilliland, got behind me in the mirror it looked like, ‘Wow, he’s really close. I think he’s touching me,’ but he wasn’t, so it’s like you said, it’s learning that of how far they actually are and when to make your move and, more importantly, is when you’re gonna make that block. Are they there or are they not there and it’s gonna end up really bad if they are there.”

DID YOU DO ANY TANDEM OUT THERE AND DO YOU HAVE AN IMPRESSION OF HOW MUCH SOMEONE CAN DO THAT? “I did not. I didn’t tandem. I pushed Brad a little bit, but I wouldn’t call it tandem. I wasn’t hooked up or locked on, and the main reason for that is what we talked about before is you don’t want to get it wrong in practice and not have a car for Sunday, so I didn’t, but at the test there was a lot of cars that did, so watching that and seeing it I don’t know how long you can stay hooked up. It does seem about a half or three-quarters a lap, but the thing I did notice is that the two cars that were tandeming couldn’t pull away from the pack and that’s the biggest difference between how we used to tandem versus what’s available now is the first two cars might hook up and they might pull out two or three car lengths, but the pack is still gonna catch them, it’s still gonna run them down. I’m putting myself out there, I could be terribly wrong, but it’s not gonna be tandem racing like we saw in the past where you have two cars hooked up and they’re racing their individual races and there are three of four two-cars hooked up. I don’t think you’re gonna see that. You might see some moves made with that hook up and maybe move your line forward a lane or two or pull out a car length or two, but it’s not gonna be a breakaway like we’ve seen before, I think. If I’m wrong, you’ll be the first to know.”

CAN YOU GIVE ME A SENSE OF WHAT YOU LEARN OUT OF THE DUELS? “The last year we did learn some in the Duels. There were things I didn’t like about the car that we worked on in those next couple of practices after the Duels, so it was helpful for us last year. Just getting the car driving a little bit better and sucking up a little bit better. This year, I’m just gonna say it, you’re gonna minimize your risk. You’re not gonna put yourself in a really bad situation on purpose. For me, I won’t just because of where we’re at from an inventory standpoint and how important all the races are, and, yes, it does pay points so you’re gonna want to – if you can put yourself in position to score some stage points, you’re gonna want to do that – but it’s really a risk. It’s probably not worth it on Thursday. It’s definitely worth it on Sunday. That’s the point is getting to Sunday and being in a good position.”

DO YOU THINK LAST YEAR’S WIN WITH ALL THE CRASHING AT THE END THAT YOU DIDN’T GET AS MUCH CREDIT FOR PUTTING YOURSELF IN THAT POSITION TO WIN THE RACE? “I’m not really sure how to answer that, and I don’t want to sound like a jerk but I think it’s probably because I didn’t really pay attention to what people said about it. Not because I’m too cool for school, but just because I never heard it. Maybe there’s something you know that I don’t, but when I watch the race back and see it, I think, ‘Man, I put myself in a great situation’ and exactly where I wanted to be with the guys that I knew there was gonna be fireworks, and so coming to that white flag I didn’t feel like I had it. You never feel like you had it, but that was the spot I wanted to be in. I didn’t want to be in Joey’s spot and I didn’t want to be in Brad’s spot. I wanted to be exactly where I was, so as far as credit I don’t know. I still have the trophy and I don’t think I have to give it back after this weekend, so I haven’t thought too much about what people have said about it. I haven’t really heard, but I think that Daytona at the end of the race is how these races typically go.”

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO GET USED TO THESE NEW THINGS LIKE THE REARVIEW CAMERA? WILL SOME OF THESE OLD HABITS COME BACK TO BITE YOU IN SOME FORM? “It’s possible, for sure because there’s a lot of muscle memory with that. It’s not just consciously thinking about it. It’s what happens in the subconscious, so you have a lot of muscle memory, so I think there will be times, but and how long it will take I bet you by the time you get halfway through the 500 on Sunday you’ll have that habit broke, I really do, because you’re gonna consciously be thinking about it and you’re gonna have to be using the tools that you have to make those decisions. There’s always been subtle changes throughout the years, going from carburetors to ECU. There’s a change on what you did and how you start the engine and how you did the pit stops and all those things, and then going to the new dash. How you do pit road and those muscle memories and habits that you have. It takes a little while to get used to it, but I don’t think it’ll be something that’s gonna take four or five races. I think by the end or the beginning of this race on Sunday it’ll probably be pretty natural to use that rearview camera.”

Roush Fenway Keselowski Weekly Advance | Daytona 500

RFK Racing kicks off its much-anticipated 2022 season this week at Daytona International Speedway, the site of the Daytona 500. On-track action gets underway Tuesday afternoon with practice, followed by pole qualifying Wednesday night. The Duels are set for Thursday, which will set the field for Sunday’s Great American Race. Jack Roush has two Daytona 500 wins all-time, both of which Matt Kenseth claimed (2009, 2012).

Duels

Thursday, Feb. 17 | 7 p.m. ET
FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

· Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang
· Chris Buescher, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang

Daytona 500

Sunday, Feb. 20 | 2:30 p.m. ET
FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

· Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang
· Chris Buescher, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang

New Name, New Team, New Season

New is the theme for RFK Racing entering the 2022 campaign as this much-anticipated season brings a whole new meaning to the word. Brad Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series Champion, joins rare company in the sport as a part owner and driver in the team he invested in over the offseason, forming now Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. The change obviously creates a new team name, new logo, and a fresh perspective for an organization that ranks near the top of the sport in terms of success.

Keselowski brings over veteran crew chief Matt McCall, who brought with him a large portion of his team from Chip Ganassi Racing. The new Next Gen car made its debut at the Clash, but makes its official, points race debut this week in Daytona, a long-awaited process that saw NASCAR hold more test sessions this offseason than any other in recent past.

There are some familiar names and faces amongst the organization, though, with Chris Buescher back in the saddle of the No. 17, reunited with crew chief Scott Graves, who slides over to the No. 17 team following a three-year stint on the No. 6. The duo won the 2015 Xfinity Series Championship together, and are poised for a breakthrough year with endless opportunities on the horizon.

RFK’s competition leadership structure also saw a shift over the offseason with the addition of Jeremy Thompson – Team Director – who has been alongside Keselowski through much of his career having ran Brad Keselowski Racing in the NASCAR Truck Series years ago. Matt Puccia, a former crew chief at the Cup level and on the No. 6 team most recently, shifted into an Operations Director role, primarily overseeing all efforts associated with the Next Gen car and the transition to it. Kevin Kidd, who most recently held the Competition Director role, shifts into a Technical Director position with a focus on leading all engineering efforts.

Daytona 500 Qualifying Up First on Wednesday

The most anticipated qualifying session of the season takes place Wednesday night as 42 Cup Series entries will attempt to qualify for the 500. Chris Buescher enters Wednesday with a career-best starting position of 15th in the 500 (2019). Keselowski has a career-best starting spot of seventh (2017).

This year’s pole qualifying format will feature a new twist with two rounds. The top-10 fastest cars from the opening round will advance to a second round, which will determine the two fastest qualifiers.

Jack Roush Looking for Three

Jack Roush has won two poles in the Daytona 500, one coming from Greg Biffle in 2004 and the other in 2012 with Carl Edwards. Biffle earned the 2004 pole after a speed of 188.387 and went on to finish 12th. Edwards had a pole speed of 194.738 and finished eighth in the 2012 Daytona 500.

2012 the Year for Duel, Daytona 500 Success for Jack Roush

Matt Kenseth won Jack Roush’s lone Duel race in 2012, making a last-lap pass after starting seventh to earn a fourth-place starting spot in the Daytona 500. He went on to win the 2012 Great American Race, leading a combined 50 laps for his and Jack Roush’s second Daytona 500 victory.

Duel History

Keselowski has four top-10 Duel finishes, highlighted by a best finish of fourth in 2020. Last season he ran 11th in Duel 2. Thursday will mark his 14th start in the Duels.

Buescher will make his seventh start in the annual qualifying races where he has four-straight top-10 finishes with P10 finishes the last two seasons. Overall he has five top-10s in six Duel races.

Kenseth Claims Jack Roush’s First Daytona 500 Win in 2009

Kenseth was the first to drive a Jack Roush owned Ford into victory lane for the Daytona 500, earning the victory in 2009. He led just seven laps – the final seven – after starting from the 39th position en route to his first of two Daytona 500 victories over a span of four seasons.