Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Zoom Media Availability | Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Front Row Motorsports is in the midst of its best season, having already won races in the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The two drivers who went to victory lane — Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland — were guests today on the weekly Ford Zoom media call.
McDowell, the Daytona 500 winner, is coming off his career-best fifth top 10 finish of the season after a seventh-place run Sunday at Circuit of the Americas. Gilliland posted his first win with Ford and the first for FRM in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series by taking Saturday’s event at COTA.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang — WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO CHARLOTTE THIS WEEKEND? “You definitely shift gears, going from a road course to a mile-and-a-half, so you just kind of hit the reset button. Obviously, Charlotte is a long race, but it’s also a fun weekend and a fun week, so it’s nice to be racing at home. There is definitely more that goes on around the 600 than most races, so it’s usually a pretty busy week, but 600 miles at Charlotte is one of those races you look forward to, but you also dread at the same time knowing it could be a very long day.”
YOU HAVE FOUR TOP-20 FINISHES AT THE FOUR 1.5-MILE TRACKS THIS YEAR. IS THAT SURPRISING TO YOU? “Yeah, I feel like that’s really building off of last year. Last year, I felt like we were kind of honing in on that 550 package and feeling like we could contend in the top 15 to top 20 pretty consistently, so that portion of our program has gotten better and it’s continued this year. Some of those tracks that we’ve ran have been really good with that 550 package and there’s been a few others that we’ve struggled, but even with the struggles we’re still in that top 20, so I feel pretty confident about where we’re at with that. You always want to be better, but I think probably our weak link right now is the 750 package, not so much at the road courses, but at the short tracks. Darlington and Dover weren’t great for us, so we have some work to do in those areas, but, overall, our program has made some big gains and that’s showing week in and week out. We’ve executed well, too, on the weekends we know we have a competitive shot of running in the top 10 and we’ve been able to execute on all of those so far, so it’s been a good season.”
LATER THIS YEAR THERE’S A WEEKEND WITH INDY CAR RUNNING THE SAME DAY BEFORE XFINITY AND A DAY BEFORE THE CUP SERIES RACES. DO YOU FEEL THAT’S IMPORTANT AT ALL FOR THE SPORT IN GENERAL? “Yeah, I think it’s great to bring our fans and Indy car fans together. They’re a very different show and they’re a very different race, so to be able to bring fans to both of them and be able to do it together, I think, is great. I remember when I first got into this sport we would go to Watkins Glen with sports cars and I think there was a time where maybe Indy cars were there as well, so just being able to put on a great show for the fans and give them a variety of things is entertaining and fun. It’s exciting for us just to be there on the same weekend and to be able to run another road course and, for me, that’s always exciting too.”
WHAT WAS THE DEFOGGER LIKE IN YOUR CAR AND HOW HAS THAT TECHNOLOGY CHANGED? “I think with our limited time that we’ve run in the rain, even though we haven’t had a lot of time, it’s gotten a little bit better as far as all those things go. But I think, for me personally, Sunday highlighted areas that we need to be better as a team in regards to that. In regards to wipers and blades and wiper motors and defrosters, defoggers, so we still have areas that we definitely need to be better, but it’s hard to know that until you get in those heavier rain conditions. The Roval last year was very different because the track was drying so fast and was almost dry when we started the race and even though they had some spray and mist, the speeds are fairly low and it wasn’t a constant rain, so that was not a great test for the window and defogger, so this was the first time we’ve actually put it to test, so I think there were some teams that did it better than others, and I think that everybody probably struggled with visibility. Even if everything was functioning 100 percent and working well, the mist and the fog and kind of the overall dampness was hard at times, but there’s definitely areas as a team that we talked about yesterday that we need to be better and look towards Road America and look towards the other road courses, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis. You have to anticipate that at some point you’ll have rain again, but it’s a process. Everybody is kind of learning from it as we go.”
TEMPERATURES COULD BE 15 DEGREES DIFFERENT FROM FRIDAY TO SUNDAY. HOW WILL THAT AFFECT A DRIVER? IS THAT SIGNIFICANT? “Definitely, it’s very significant. I think that Charlotte, in particular, is a very temperature sensitive track and the balance and the grip level changes a tremendous amount. I think about the old days when we’d qualify on Thursday night. You’d run that practice Thursday afternoon and it was just so hot and so slick, and then you’d go out Thursday night and you would pick up a second or a second-and-a-half in qualifying. It would be just so much faster, but I think that more so than anything is with this package, with this 550 package, we are so close to being wide-open — in turn one and two especially and three and four — that when you have a big temperature swing like that, you’ll go from slipping and sliding around in practice and being out of the gas to potentially being wide-open early on in the race before rubber goes down and things like that. It is a big swing, for sure. It’s not something that you overlook because even going from late afternoon to evening is a big swing, so mix in there cloud cover and a 15-degree temperature difference is a big deal.
HOW IS IT HAVING TO SWITCH THE MINDSET OF HAVING PRACTICE ONE WEEK AND THE NEXT YOU DON’T? “It’s a bit confusing. This week, I was waiting for the starting lineup to come out based on COTA. I was feeling really good about where we were gonna start the 600 and then I saw that we had practice and qualifying, so you just kind of change your mindset a little bit. This year, in particular, is so different with that. We have some tracks that we’re practicing at and some tracks that we’re not, so you just have to be prepared for both and be ready to go. I actually enjoy this showing up and racing. I think I would have enjoyed that at COTA as well. I know everybody needs a little bit of seat time and figure things out, but, for me, and our race team, personally it’s been good to just show up and go. That seems to be something that’s helped us in results and performance. It seems like the best teams and the top teams and top drivers are able to use that practice and get their cars dialed in and faster, so we feel like we’re more competitive when there’s not practice and qualifying. There are areas we have to work on to make that better and to make that more efficient for us that we get more out of those practices.”
HOW GRATIFYING IS IT TO REALIZE YOU’RE A PLAYOFF TEAM RIGHT NOW WHETHER YOU WON THE DAYTONA 500 OR NOT? “It’s been a fun year in that regard. Overall competitiveness for Front Row is obviously up from year’s past and there’s a lot of elements to that. I think that this year with the new schedule that’s helped, having more road courses, but also just executing on those weekends where we know we have a shot to run in the top five and top 10. We’ve been able to, so far, execute at all of those, which is great because those are the ones that kind of make or break our season. If you run the superspeedway and you get caught up in an early accident, you don’t get a lot of points, but we leave Talladega with a tremendous amount of points, we leave Daytona with a tremendous amount of points. Those weekends for us, to maximize on them, is really important. Just like two days ago at COTA, gettings stage points and getting a good result, that’s what’s keeping us alive in that top 16 because we’re not able to do it every weekend like some of the teams are, but I do feel like we’re getting closer to being able to do that every weekend and more so on the 550 package than the 750, so it’s very gratifying. It’s been a fun journey at Front Row and the last two years we’ve really turned a page and found a lot of speed and execution, so I’m really proud of everybody on the 34 team. We have a great group and everybody is clicking and building off of that momentum and chemistry and it’s just fun when you win a race and then you follow that up with good results. It starts to build and we definitely have the confidence in the group to keep it going and we just have to keep executing.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST FACTOR IN YOUR CONSISTENCY ON ROAD COURSES? “We’re still not where we want to be, even with our road course program. We need to make some gains to be in that top five and being able to really compete with the Hendrick cars and the Gibbs cars. We feel like we’re able to be in the game and have a shot at running in the top 10, but we’re not quite where we need to be to really challenge for the wins and for top threes and top fives, but the schedule this year we knew was gonna be favorable for us with more road courses and obviously superspeedways have been a strength of ours for several years, so we knew that this was an opportunity year with as many road courses as there is, and we feel like we’ve done a good job of scoring points and sort of managing the season, knowing that we have some really good tracks coming up in the schedule. Road America, Indy and Watkins Glen and really, for us, Pocono and there’s other good racetracks that we’ve ran well at, so I feel like we’ll be able to continue to contend at those races and if we can continue our streak of executing and getting the most out of them, we’re gonna be in a good spot when the playoffs start.”
IS YOUR DEAL WITH FRONT ROW STILL YEAR-TO-YEAR OR ARE YOU LOCKED IN FOR 2022 ALREADY? “No, it’s always year-to-year. If said this before, and I’m not trying to be cagey when it comes to this stuff, but I plan to be at Front Row as long as they’ll have me. I like what we’re doing. I enjoy what we’re doing. It’s fun to be a part of something and build something. I have a tremendous amount of freedom at Front Row to be a part of those things and to help build it and to be able to be a part of a lot more of the inner workings, so I enjoy what we’re going at Front Row. The journey has been awesome, just to see our performance and I’m really looking forward to the future with the Next Gen car. I think that we have the people and we have the team and we have the partners that if the new car does what we think it could potentially do that we will be a contender at a lot of these racetracks and for the championship and be a front runner. So, I’m comfortable with the spot that I’m in. I feel really good with the partners that we have with this race team and Bob Jenkins, so I’ll be here as long as Bob will have me.”
HAS THERE BEEN ONE CATALYST FOR CHANGE AT FRONT ROW THAT YOU CAN POINT TO, OR HAS IT BEEN A COLLECTION OF SINGULAR THINGS? “It’s always a group and a collection of things. There’s probably 10 key things that have really helped us over the last three years grow and be better It’s hard to weigh one versus the other, so it’s all about people. A lot of the people that were there two or three years ago are still there, it’s just moving them into different spots and changing the culture and just maximizing those areas and, like I said, more than anything it’s just moving a lot of those key people around into spots where they can flourish and really be in their sweet spot, so to speak. I do feel that Drew Blickensderfer is a huge part of our success and a huge part of just building our 34 group in particular, just that right leadership and attitude and just overall leadership. That’s helped a lot with our group, our core group, but moving Derrick Finley into the competition director role has been a huge part of our success as well, and our technical alliance with Ford and with Roush and the pandemic, honestly, brought the competition closer to us and having some freezes on parts and development and not standardizing everything, but just not having to develop brand new bits and pieces every week. There’s a lot of factors that have brought us to where we’re at now, but it all goes back to people and maximizing people. Bob and Jerry Freeze and Derrick have done a great job of putting the right people in place so that we can be where we’re at today.”
WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT ASPECT OF 600 MILES AROUND CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY? “Probably just the change in the track as you go from late afternoon to evening and you go from heat to sun going down. The race is extremely long, so it is long. I mean, it’s grueling on the cars and teams and obviously the drivers. It’s a long race. We’re getting a little bit of a break with temperature drop on Sunday, so that ought to be nice, but typically it’s very hot and it’s just staying focused for that duration and staying on top of the racetrack because the track changes so much throughout the entire 600 miles that you’ve got to be one step ahead of it. Otherwise, you’ll be two steps behind and it’s hard to overcome that.”
HOW DOES THAT EXTRA 100 MILES AFFECT THE DRIVER AND TEAM? “You definitely feel it as far as just how you approach it. Early on in my career I just remember my first 600 miles. Oh man, it felt so long. Now, it doesn’t quite feel the same as what it did. I mean, my first year when I got to halfway I could not believe that we were only halfway. I mean, it’s just such a long race, but now we have 400-mile races, we have 500-mile races, but 600 miles is definitely a different league when it comes to just the wear and tear on the team and the pit crew guys and how many pit stops you have to make. We’re obviously pushing our equipment and our engines to the max for that long. It’s sort of a nail-biting race for sure.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Crosley Brands Ford F-150 — HOW HAVE THESE LAST COUPLE OF DAY BEEN AFTER WINNING ON SATURDAY? “They’ve been awesome. Really, just soaking it all in. Last year I made the playoffs and that was a huge high, but just being locked in this early is really cool and from here on out we can just go race. That’s what I’m most excited about. I’m gonna scratch and claw for each and every single point, but just very relieving and also very exciting.”
WHAT’S THE ATMOSPHERE LIKE AROUND FRONT ROW WITH A WIN IN THE TRUCK AND CUP SERIES ALREADY THIS YEAR? “It’s really good. I wasn’t here much past last year, but the attitude is way better in here. Just when you have success it’s that much easier to get up every day and come back in here and do it all over, especially the Cup guys. They do it 36 weeks a year and it just gets repetitive, but once you have just a little glimmer of hope here and there, even though we’re not them, hopefully we can keep them wanting to come back here and put in their best every single day.”
DOES HAVING THE WIN ALLOW YOU TO EXPERIMENT AT ALL AND YOU’RE NOT RACING AS MUCH AFTER THESE NEXT FEW WEEKS, SO HOW MUCH MORE TIME DOES THAT GIVE YOU TO WORK ON THINGS? “I think it’s huge, especially with no practice. We’re actually getting spoiler because two or three of our next few races have practice, so that might not be as big of an advantage, but hopefully once we get past this and we’re just back to racing every single week, we can experiment on some stuff — maybe looking forward to a track that might be similar in the playoffs. I think you hear a lot of people say that, but it really is a big advantage I’m feeling right now, being able to try stuff and really not having that exaggerated amount of pressure come the cutoff line of the regular season.”
HOW WILL YOU TRY TO STAY SHARP DURING THE SUMMER LULL IN RACES FOR YOU? “I definitely think we’ll do a lot of iRacing and sim work, but we haven’t really talked about too much other racing outside of the truck series. I know just at DGR, David Gilliland Racing, there’s always racing going on, so I’m sure I’ll probably go hang out with them some weekends, but as of right now we haven’t talked about me driving anything else. Obviously, two of the Cup cars here, I’m sure I’ll just continue to watch and try and learn from those guys as much as I can.”
CAN YOU GIVE A SENSE OF WHAT IT’S LIKE TO DEAL WITH BEING A YOUNG DRIVER AND DEALING WITH THE UPS AND DOWNS OF BEING IN THIS SPORT? “That’s a huge thing and obviously I think every up-and-coming driver goes through it. I’ve definitely been through it. It seems like you win a few races and you’re on top of the world and then two or three so-so months go by and you’re just not being talked about and it’s the next guy up. I think just looking back, and even nowadays, there are so many super young guys that are being put out there as the next big thing, but even when I was younger you’re still so unproven. There’s still so much racing to go in your career. I feel like I’ve matured leaps and bounds since I came into the truck series. People were saying great things about me when I came in, but I feel like I’m 10 times better than I was back then, so I think it’s all situational. I think you’ve just got to really take the best of every opportunity, but it definitely is hard going through it. Like I said, one day you’re on top of the world and the next you’re kind of just pushed to the side, but it’s definitely all good attention and I think you just can’t let yourself get too high and too low.”
HOW DID YOU LEARN THROUGH THAT PROCESS? “I think you just have to have good people around you. For me, it’s always been my dad. He’s always been keeping me steady through most of it because I’m sure he’s been there and done that already, so I think that’s the biggest thing — just staying focused through it all. There are so many little things that people don’t pay attention to throughout a race weekend. Sometimes where it goes good and sometimes where it takes a turn for the worse, so you just have to take the best things out of it and as a driver there’s only so many things you can control throughout the whole race weekend, so you just have to look at those things more importantly and kind of eliminate the things that you can’t control. If they go bad, you obviously try and fix them, but just work on yourself the most you can. It’s definitely a team sport, so you’ve all got to work together.”
DO YOU FEEL THIS COULD OPEN THE FLOODGATES FOR MORE TRIPS TO VICTORY LANE? “Yeah, I definitely could see that happening. I think even over the last month or so, the last month-and-a-half, two months we have made our trucks a lot faster. We’ve been more in contention every week. Kansas, we were second going into turn one on a restart, got blocked, but we had a pretty good shot there at at top three. Darlington, we ran up front and won a stage at a mile-and-a-half that was not good to us last year, and then obviously going to the road course and having a really good weekend. I don’t think this was a fluke by any means, and I think that’s the biggest thing I’m trying to talk to my team about is just stay focused. We need to keep making the little steps. There’s still a ways to go on the mile-and-a-halves and the short tracks, but I think we can get there and just any momentum is always a good thing. We just have to keep them motivated and for a lot of my guys this was the first win for them, so given that little taste of victory I hope it makes them that much more motivated to do more.”
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO BE EVEN STRONGER IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I think that’s also something I’ve learned, just being in the top three series is that the seasons are long. You’ve got to be your best come the playoffs and you just can’t get impatient with any of that, just trust the process to be your best when you get there. There’s still a lot more steps we can take and I’m really hoping we can just take one step every weekend. We don’t need to make anymore big jumps — just to be our best come the playoffs.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE LITTLE VICTORIES YOU MENTIONED EARLIER? “For me, I think our first small victory came at Richmond. It was our first race where we were really competitive and ran in the top five or top 10 at least all day, and we ended up finishing fourth or sixth, I believe. But just running up there all day, that was our first race of actually being in the game. The race before that at Atlanta and Vegas we were 15th-20th and we were just out to lunch, so just being able to be in the game, being one or two changes away when you start the race, instead of maybe the whole package being wrong. From there, we’ve been more consistent every week. Like I say, Kansas was a way better mile-and-a-half for us and Darlington was another step better. A stage win is hard to get, so that was probably bigger than a small victory for us. That was a pretty big one for our team and all of those things definitely add up.”
