NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 2, 2021

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 JTG DAUGHERTY RACING CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Daytona 500 Media Availability Highlights:

LOOKING OVER THE LAST YEAR, YOU AND BRIAN PATTIE (CREW CHIEF) PRODUCED THE FASTEST CAR ON DRAFTING TRACKS. I’M CURIOUS WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU. EVEN IN JOEY LOGANO’S COMMENTS LAST YEAR AFTER THE DUEL, HE SAID YOUR CAR WAS THE ONLY ONE CAPABLE OF MAKING A MOVE, MAKING A PASS WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF THE PACK. LOOKING AT WHAT YOU HAVE WITH JTG, WHAT IS LEFT, WHAT IS NEED THAT’S WITHIN YOUR CONTROL TO FINALLY WIN THIS THING?
“Yeah, I think for us, it’s paying attention to all the details on the driver side – going back and looking at how the Daytona 500 played out for us. Getting a penalty for passing below the yellow line put us in a bad spot. And then, we got wrecked coming to pit road being further back in the pack. So, little mistakes like that is what takes you out of contention for the biggest race of the year. I feel really good about our Kroger Camaro going down to Daytona again. The boys have been working really hard; massaging on it in the shop. And I’m excited for Pole night. I think, for us, it’s just doing all those little things right and making sure we do our job because being at JTG Daugherty Racing, you have me and (Ryan) Preece and that’s the only people we can count on. You can’t count on anybody else, so it’s nice to have a car capable of doing maybe things other people feel like they can’t do with their car. And that’s what you get when you pay attention to all those details that Brian (Pattie, crew chief) and our team does. So, I’m excited to get back down there and limit those mistakes. You don’t feel like it’s a big mistake, but one little thing can take you out of contention.”

SPECIFICALLY, WITH SPEED, OBVIOUSLY AT THE DRAFTING TRACKS, IT’S NOT EVERYTHING. SO, IS THERE ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU SPECIFICALLY WANT YOUR CAR TO DO?
“Obviously, being fast is key, but specifically at Daytona, I feel like you have to have a car that turns off of Turn Four better than others. I feel like that’s a position in the race track, when I look back at my first few years in Cup, when I actually felt like I was kind of holding on and just trying to put myself in position to get a top-15, top-10 run instead of battling for the win – it’s about having a car that handles good off of Turn Four because there’s a lot of people that I feel like get tight off of Turn Four and have to lift the throttle and it’s tough to beat people back to the start-finish line when you don’t have a car capable of doing that. And then, having a car that, again, drives good so you can be a little bit more aggressive on strategy – take fuel only on that last stop to keep your track position, things like that.”

EARLIER, ONE OF THE DRIVERS SAID THAT THERE WAS NO PLACE TO HIDE ANYMORE AT DAYTONA – IT USED TO BE THAT YOU COULD HANG IN THE BACK OR GO SOMEWHERE ON THE TRACK DURING THE 500 AND IT WOULD KIND OF SIMPLIFY OR SAVE YOU FOR THE END OF THE RACE. IS THAT KIND OF THE FEELING YOU HAVE, AS WELL?
“Yeah, I think you can get far enough off the back of the pack, I guess, to give yourself some ability to slow down and miss a wreck early on in the race. I think points are valuable enough that everybody is trying to get stage points, as well. But obviously the main goal in sight is the Daytona 500 and being in Victory Lane. So, to me, definitely it used to be – if you’re in the top-10, you felt safe. Nowadays, that’s kind of where the wrecks start happening – that fifth to tenth range, versus I felt like back in the day, it was a 15 to 20th place where the chaos started. But all of us are trying so hard to try to keep our track position throughout the race that those mistakes and the aggressive driving is in the top-10 and mainly in the top-five, where you’re blocking lanes and trying to keep that track position. Definitely nothing up front feels comfortable or safe, but I do think it’s necessary to be up front so that you’re learning throughout the race. It’s so hard now, I feel like, to come from the back to the front on our superspeedway races, just how the package is and the aggressiveness of every single driver out there.”

YOUR THOUGHTS ON BRISTOL GOING TO DIRT.
“I don’t know what my expectations are. I went there and watched the sprint car races back in 2000-2001; I can’t remember which year I went. It was just cool to see Bristol have dirt on it. It was a sight to see. I’m excited to watch the other races there. My sprint car team will be there with Sheldon, Talladega week I believe that is. I think, for us in the stock cars, it’ll just be about for NASCAR managing the track – making sure we have a track that’s going to produce good racing. With dirt, it’s nice that you can go out and change it a lot quicker than an asphalt track. It should be fun.”

YOU’RE ENTERING YOUR SECOND YEAR WITH JTG DAUGHERTY RACING. HAVING GOING THROUGH LAST YEAR, HOW HAS THAT STRENGTHENED YOUR PERSONAL BOND WITH THE TEAM AND HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK THAT WILL BE AS YOU TRY TO GET THIS TEAM BETTER RESULTS IN 2021?
“Yeah, I think we’re all on the same page. The good news is, I feel like we kept everybody the same on the No. 47 team. We all believe in each other. I feel like this is a really good group of guys that are working on our race cars. We all believe that we under-performed, as far as the finishes go and the year-end points results. But there were a lot of highs, I feel like, with the speed of our cars when we showed up at the race track. On my side, I need to clean up my pit road mistakes because I feel like I can count on a full hand that I felt like I gave up some really good opportunities to run well inside the top-10 at some of these race tracks from having a pit road penalty. So, for us, I like that we have the same group. We have a little bit bigger notebook than we had last year with the Camaro and these chassis, so Brian knows what to look for and we need to change going into some of these tracks that we struggled with.

“But I think all-in-all, we have a lot of confidence that we can really improve; not just by a spot or two, we feel like we can improve by 10 spots and that final result. We’ve got some great opportunities ahead of us. Our speedway cars are really good and we take a lot of pride in those, and we’re doing that same prep and everybody is getting ready the same way for every race track that we go to. I feel like we’re pretty far ahead, as far as looking at races down the road, and I think that’s one thing COVID taught us. And with this schedule we have now, the guys are getting a little bit further ahead and making sure we look at everything as close as we can at the race track, knowing that we don’t have practice and making sure we have everything right – we let a couple things slip through the crack last year that they aren’t going to let happen again.”

GOING INTO DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING, YOU’RE THE DEFENDING POLESITTER. THERE HASN’T BEEN SINGLE-CAR QUALIFYING ON THESE SUPERSPEEDWAYS SINCE THE DAYTONA 500 LAST YEAR. GIVEN THAT, PLUS THE FACT IT’S GOING TO BE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT THIS YEAR AND FOUR YEARS BEFORE THE DAYTONA 500, DO YOU EXPECT THE RESULTS OF QUALIFYING TO BE DIFFERENT OR DO YOU THINK THE SAME GUYS THAT WERE FAST LAST YEAR WILL BE THE SAME GUYS THAT ARE FAST THIS YEAR?
“I think you can look at the consistency of the Hendrick Motorsports’ teams, specifically the No. 48 and the No. 9 – they’re consistently in that top-five or six spots every year. I think Alex Bowman has been on the front row a lot in the past. So, I feel like that’s pretty consistent and will probably be consistent again. I think last year, not a lot of people expected us to jump up the board as much as we did. But I think we can be a player again when it comes down to qualifying. I think, for me, it’s going to be interesting to kind of see what qualifying is going to be like at night. Obviously, temperature is going to be a little cooler. I think the wind could die down some, so you might not have that big effect throughout qualifying – wind shifting and things like that. Looking back at our runs on S&T, there was definitely different winds for each car that went out, especially when I looked at the cars that went out later in qualifying. But I don’t think there will be any big shakeup. It’ll be kind of crazy having just one little quick practice and going right into it. I’m excited for pole night.”

IT’S BEEN NO SECRET THAT YOU’RE STRONG ON SUPERSPEEDWAYS. WHAT IS THE SECRET TO SUCCESS?
“I don’t know if it’s a secret. Obviously, you’ve got to have a little luck and stay out of the wrecks, have a good chemistry going on with your spotter and crew chief throughout the race. You’ve got to have a car that handles. Speed is important and my team is building me some fast race cars for those superspeedways, but it’s got to handle good. When you have both of those combinations, you feel like you’re able to make some moves that maybe other people can’t throughout the race and put yourself in better positions. I’m always trying to learn what side drafts work best with the configurations and rules packages. I think everybody is petty advanced on what those drafting scenarios are compared to when I came in the sport back in 2009, 2010. I feel like everybody has learned so much more that it makes us all really tough and aggressive out on the race track. It makes it fun.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500?
“it would be awesome for me and everybody on our race team, it would be our biggest accomplishment. That’s our goal going down there. We’re preparing to leave our car in the Daytona Hall of Fame down there and that’s what we want to do. It would be huge for us and would really be a game-changer for everybody in our race team and organization. From starting small to growing big, it would be huge.”

ARE THE PLAYOFFS A GOOD MEASURE FOR DETERMINING A CHAMPIONSHIP IN NASCAR COMPARED TO OTHER MOTORSPORT THAT USE A SEASON-LONG FORMAT?
“I think you can argue it all different ways. Back in the day it was every single race throughout the season added up for points. But if you look at the Chiefs very well could have lost to the Browns and had the best regular season and they’re done in one game. So, I think our sport has evolved and I think it’s made it really interesting every round of the Playoffs. And you’ve got to perform. Obviously, the No. 4 and the No. 11 were by far the best last year over the course of the whole season. And yet neither one of them won the championship. But I think it’s those game 7 moments that NASCAR wanted to create to win the championship. And I think it’s brought a lot of excitement. But those three races per round are intense. I think it’s a good way to make sure that everybody keeps performing all the way until the last race is over. So, I think it’s good. I think NASCAR has done a good job with it. I think the teams and drivers have kind of accepted this format and know that you have to be good all the way to the last race.”

WHAT FACTOR IS GOING TO BE DECISIVE FOR YOU IN TERMS OF FIGHTING FOR THE DAYTONA 500 TITLE THIS YEAR?
“I think it’s just putting myself in better situations throughout the race is what is going to help factor us in to battle for that checkered flag. For me, it’s watching some film. Looking at the last couple of years of how the race was played out. For me, I know one big area where it went wrong last year with us having one of the fastest cars. You’ve got to do everything right. And we plan on having one of the fastest cars when we show up there next week. For me, it’s going to be limiting those mistakes and putting ourselves in a good position.”

GOING BACK TO QUALIFYING. DO ADJUSTMENTS CHANGE AS YOU HEAD INTO THE FIRST DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING AT NIGHT? COULD IT BE LIKE AN EARLY PREP SESSION ON FIGURING OUT HOW THE CAR WILL ROTATE FOR THE LATER STAGES OF THE DAYTONA 500?
‘Yeah, it’s hard to take anything from your qualifying set-up over to the 500. Last year we had our car on kill and ready to go for qualifying. You only have so many adjustments that you can do before you go into the Duel race. So you’re kind of stuck with what you’ve got from qualifying and you’ve got to race it in the Duel. So normally in the Duel, it doesn’t handle as well. And then you start taking some of those adjustments out to get it ready for the Daytona 500. So, I think for us, you use the Duel more as far as drive-ability what your car does, good or bad. And then you try to adjust on that before Sunday comes around. So, I don’t think it really changes anything for us qualifying at night; other than I think the track could be a little bit faster so the cars might have to be a little bit higher off the ground and make sure you don’t over-travel your car and scrape the race track too much.”
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NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 2, 2020

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Daytona 500 Media Availability Transcript:

YOUR FIRST YEAR WITH THE NO. 43, AN INTERESTING STAT: THE NO. 43 HAS NOT MADE A TRIP TO VICTORY LANE IN A COMPLETED RACE SINCE 1999. YOU’VE WON IN THE CUP SERIES BEFORE – DO YOU THINK THIS IS THE BIG OPPORTUNITY TO GET THE KING BACK IN VICTORY LANE?
“I hope so. That’s the ultimate goal at the end of it all – to hopefully win a race this year and get us in the Playoffs. RPM has been doing a lot over the last few years to really strengthen their organization and I think it’s showing in performance, too. The trend is going in the right direction and, obviously, we want to keep it going that way this year, keep going to a better points finish and continue to get more and more competitive on track. Overall, I think there’s great opportunity. I look at some of the tracks that we go to this year and I think there’s opportunities to win. It’s tough to win in the Cup Series – we all know that; I know that from experience. But I think we have a lot of opportunities this year where we can do it.”

THE DAYTONA 500 THESE PAST FEW YEARS, IT’S NOT A MATTER OF ‘IF’, BUT A MATTER OF ‘WHEN’ THE BIG ONE HAPPENS. I’VE TALKED TO A LOT OF DRIVERS AND THEY SAY THEY WANT TO BE UP IN THE FIRST TWO OR THREE ROWS. AS A DRIVER, FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, DO YOU WANT TO BE IN THE FRONT OR THE BACK TO HELP YOU GET A SHOT AT THE WIN?
“It’s kind of a tough balance. Over the last few superspeedway races, I think we’ve done a good job of putting ourselves in position to be in contention to win. I feel like we had a couple of shots to win at superspeedway races here in the last few at Daytona and Talladega. The Daytona 500 has been kind of tough for me, it seems, since a few years ago when we ran third there. Since then, it’s been a struggle a little bit to try to get to the finish and try to be in contention there. There’s some stuff I feel like, though, that I’ve done that has put me in a good spot towards the end of the race. Some of that’s laying back, some of that’s being up front. But there is a point where you have to be in a certain position to have a shot to win. You can’t be five laps to go and running 25th – I don’t see you being able to drive through the field if there’s that many cars left and have a shot to win. So, you have to kind of pay attention to that and put yourself in somewhat of a position towards the end. There’s a point where you have to start taking a risk, right. You may get caught in a big one, you may not, but you have to take those risks to be in a position to try and win.”

COMING FROM JGR, HOW MUCH DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS THIS YEAR?
“Yeah, it’s a different team and a different group. I think our expectations change, for sure. I think for us, finishing in the top-20 in points is the goal. That’s what they’ve been working towards the last few years, trying to get there and they came close last year to doing that. Obviously, the ultimate goal is to get a win and get in the Playoffs – that would be a great season for us. The expectations change, but I think we all have high hopes. I know a lot of the guys I’ve talked to at RPM, now getting to know them, they’re really excited for the season, including myself. So, it’s different, for sure. It’s a different organization – a lot smaller and, obviously, a single car. But it’s been fun for me. I’ve really enjoyed being over there, getting to talk to those guys and already start to grow with them and try to help them out any way that I can. I’ve spent a ton of time up there already at the shop, on the simulator, just trying to work through stuff to get us acclimated before the season starts and do all that we can to have a good year.”

NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO GET INSIDE RPM, COMING FROM A BIG, MULTI-CAR ORGANIZATION, WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENTS NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD SOME TIME IN THERE?
“Just the preparation is totally different. For me, making sure that we’re all on the same page. The communication is a lot more direct and there’s not as many people in between certain parts of the company like I was used to before. And, for me, it’s really, like I said before, direct in the sense of getting the car prepared and what you need as a driver, myself, to be comfortable is honestly a lot simpler with it being a single car team. There’s a lot of different preparation stuff.”
“The biggest thing for me is just working through getting comfortable with a new team, more than anything. I’ve never really switched teams in my career, if you think about it even back to Xfinity going to Cup. It wasn’t a big move – it was the same team, just a different level in the series. So, that’s been the biggest thing. Getting over there, trying to get comfortable, express what I’m looking for out of a race team, what I need to go out and be successful. That’s been the biggest thing for me is the things that I’m used to, the things I want before the race weekends to try and go out and be prepared. It’s been really busy the last couple of months, but it’s all been really good.”

CAN YOU TAKE MORE OF A LEADERSHIP ROLE NOW THAT ALL THE FOCUS IS SOLEY ON YOU?
“Yeah, I definitely feel that. It’s rewarding a lot, for me, to be able to go in and feel like there’s quite a bit I can bring to the table myself. I’ve learned a lot over the last three or four years in trying to better myself and I feel like I know what I need to be comfortable in a race car; what I need to go out and be successful. So, there’s a lot more leadership there and a lot more in the sense of what direction we’re going for myself, just because it is a single-car team. We’re working through those things really directly. I’ve enjoyed that. I’ve always kind of wanted that opportunity to go in and try to lead the ship a little bit more and be more involved with the direction and the way that the team is going. That’s been fun for me, kind of seeing how we’re working through the year and what we’re going to do through the year to try and continue to improve our stuff.”

OBVIOUSLY, THINGS DIDN’T END THE WAY YOU WANTED TO OVER AT JGR. IT’S SAFE TO SAY YOU DID HAVE SOME STRONG DAYS OVER THERE. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU’LL TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR DAYS AT JOE GIBBS RACING AS YOU APPLY IT TO YOUR NEW RIDE AT RICHARD PETTY MOTORSPORTS?
“I think you learn every step of the way. For me, I had a great opportunity at JGR and learned a lot of things. We had success, we won some races and made the Playoffs a few times. Overall, you just have to take in the opportunity that it was, what that team did to be successful and try to move on from that and learn from that.”
“INAUDIBLE… and try to learn what I can do better from my own standpoint going forward in how I can continue to try and improve as a driver in a new organization and what I can take from what I learned and try to help my current team. So, it’s kind of all those things for me. A lot of it has just been trying to figure out, on my end, what I can bring to the table over at RPM to try to continue to make them better. A lot of that is just me being really in the trenches with those guys. I feel like I’ve spent quite a bit of time at the shop and we’ve already been on the simulator quite a bit, just trying to get through stuff and learn what I want in a race car. Obviously, there’s nothing like just getting to the race track, which I’m more than ready to do now. I feel like we go through all this stuff and it is helpful, but there’s nothing better than just getting on the track and working with the guys hand-in-hand and learning what we need from each other.”
“It’s been good, but I’d say the learning process for me is just being introspective and figure out what you can do better on your own end. Obviously, I’ve worked with some great drivers over there and saw what they did to be successful. So, it’s just trying to learn from them, too.”

YOU’LL BE RUNNING THE CLASH, SO HOW BIG OF AN ADVANTAGE WILL THAT BE TO YOU?
“Well, it’s more important than ever for me. Obviously, with a new team and no practice, it’s really challenging. The Clash will be challenging – I’ve never driven a car for RPM and the first laps are going to be in a race-setting. So, it’s really about being meticulous on my end and trying to get as comfortable as I can in the car before we go there and just try to feel it out. Some of that race is going to be a learning process for me because it’s going to be totally different. Everything is new – the brake package, the motor package, the car, the manufacturer. Everything is totally different, so having that Clash I think is really big. And even more so that it’s on the road course when we’re going back there 12 days after for the points race. So, it’s going to be a big race for us – a really important one that I think we’re going to learn a lot going forward with what we need to do as a group.”

THERE’S A LOT OF VARIETY IN THIS YEAR’S SCHEDULE – ROAD COURSES TO NEW TRACKS, LIKE NASHVILLE AND THE BRISTOL DIRT RACE. DO YOU THINK YOUR MOVE TO RPM WITH ALL THESE DIFFERENT VARIABLES IN TRACKS GIVES YOU MORE OPPORTUNITY TO GET A VICTORY?
“I think so. I look at the road courses and I feel like the road courses have been good for me the last few years. We ran really strong at a lot of these places. Obviously, the new road courses are kind of a wild card – you don’t know exactly how things will go there and a lot of us have never ran laps on these tracks. But it does bring more opportunities, especially like the Bristol dirt race. You don’t really know who’s going to run good there. It’s going to be a really unique race. Even looking at the Eldora Truck race, you saw some unique winners – guys you wouldn’t think would be strong on the dirt went up there and won that race. So, I think it’s going to be a similar thing for the Bristol dirt race for the Cup Series.”
“I think it’s good. I like the variety in tracks and moving stuff around. The schedule has been pretty much the same since my rookie year coming into the series. Now, we’ve seen a lot of change this year, which has been really neat for me and I think for the fans, as well. To answer your question, it does provide more opportunities.”

YOU WILL BE SHARING A CAMPUS WITH RCR, SO YOU WILL BE INTERACTING WITH A LOT OF OTHER CUP DRIVERS ON A REGULAR BASIS. WHAT’S THAT GOING TO BE LIKE FOR YOU?
“I think it will be good. Obviously, the more information you can share and learn from is beneficial to a team. Obviously, RCR has been on an upswing for the last few years and hopefully getting integrated with them, we can kind of continue that and just keep going in the right direction. I think those guys have a lot to offer with a lot of information and data to continue to try to make our stuff better and better.”

ON THE 2021 SCHEDULE, WITH SIX ROAD COURSES AND MANY CHANGES; ALONG WITH THE BRISTOL DIRT TRACK. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE TRACK ON THE SCHEDULE THIS YEAR?
“I’m really excited to go to COTA. I think it’s a world class facility for one. It seems like a really cool road course. I’ve watched a lot of the Formula 1 races there and kind of what they’ve done. I’ve thought it would be cool to run there for a lot of years. I think the facility is unmatched. So, I’m excited to go there. Even Nashville and getting back into that market is going to be pretty exciting for us, too. So, those two races for me, I would say stick out.”

WHAT TRACKS COME TO MIND AS PLACES WHERE YOU CAN WIN?
“Well, I would say Bristol coming up, the dirt changes that a bit for me. I think Darlington is a great opportunity. It’s been a really strong track for me over the last few years and what we’ve been able to do there, so I think that’s an opportunity for us to go win. Superspeedways, obviously. RPM has had some really fast superspeedway cars the last few years and I’ve been in contention to win. So, those places right there stand out to me as places we could go and try to snag a win.”

GOING FROM RACING FOR COACH GIBBS, IS THERE MORE PRESSURE OR PRIDE COMPETING FOR RICHARD PETTY IN THAT FAMED NO. 43, OR DOES IT FEEL MORE OR LESS THE SAME COMPETING FOR TWO SPORTS LEGENDS?
“Well, I think for me, the pressure never has come from the team; really in any of my career. I think most of it has been more for myself. I want to go out and compete and run well and win races. So, a lot of the pressure has just been on myself to just try to go out and do well. I would say it’s a similar feeling, right? Really important figures in sports in general, racing for both of them. But the pressure for me has been internal. I just want to go out and do well and try to succeed. That’s always been my goal to be in the Cup Series and win races and that’s never changed for me. So that definitely stays the same internally, from organization to organization.”

WORKING WITH (CREW CHIEF) JERRY BAXTER WHEN YOU WERE WITH KBM, WHAT’S THE RELATIONSHIP BEEN LIKE NOW THAT YOU TWO ARE BACK TOGETHER IN THE CUP SERIES?
“A lot of it has just been getting reacquainted. We never actually worked together over at KBM. Jerry and I have gotten to know each other a lot more over the last month and kind of share goals and what we want to do this year and what we expect from each other. It’s been good. I really enjoy getting to know him and start to work with him. It’s great to do all that stuff in the off-season, but there’s nothing like just getting to the race track. That, for me, has always built chemistry in a relationship faster than anything else. But Jerry has been great. I think he’s really improved the RPM team over the last year. I think it’s going to be the same this year. I really feel confident about the group that we have on that car this year to go out and run well.”

WHAT IS THE SECRET TO BEING STRONG AT THE SUPERSPEEDWAY TRACKS?
“It’s two things, I guess. For me, I just take the race as it comes. I think some guys maybe overthink the superspeedway racing a little bit. I just try to be smart with when it’s time to race and it’s time not. When things start getting dicey I feel like we’ve always done a good job of just getting out of the situation and make it to the end of the race. That’s been, honestly, some of the success that we’ve had is just being there on the last few laps and waiting for the right time. With a green-white-checkered, which a lot of times is what it comes down to; you kind of throw caution to the wind and go after it and do what you’ve got to do to get to the front. If you wreck, you wreck. I guess that’s kind of the way I’ve looked at it. And it’s been fairly successful over the last few times we’ve been in contention to win a few of these superspeedway races in the last year or so. If you keep putting yourself up there and close to getting wins, one of them is going to go your way eventually. I’d love for it to be the 500 obviously. That’s our biggest race and then the history of the No. 43 car at Daytona and especially the 500, that would be a dream come true to get that car in Victory Lane there.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RICHARD PETTY-ORIENTED MEMORY HEADING INTO THE YEAR?
“It’s funny, for me, I never got the chance to actually see him race. I believe he retired in 1992. But looking back on the history, I think one of the more iconic moments is him winning his 200th race and the President being there. I always think of the picture on the backstretch at Daytona and the 43 car and Air Force 1 landing, actually. And the history of himself. It’s been cool to hear that history. And even talking to Dale a little bit about some of the stories they had on the road back in the day. I love hearing any of it. It’s pretty interesting to me.”

IS THE PLAYOFFS A GOOD METHOD OF DECIDING THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT NASCAR WHEN OTHER MOTORSPORTS OPT FOR A SEASON-LONG FORMAT?
“Well, I think we decided on this is how we wanted to do it over the last few years. To be honest, I think you still see the best guys in the final four the majority of the time. There’s been a couple of times when guys have gotten into the final four that maybe didn’t have the season that deserved to put them there. Coming down to one race makes it a little bit more of a wildcard than what it was in the past; even more so than what the traditional Playoffs system was with points over ten races. But I think the fans have really enjoyed it. You can’t deny that. And I think it’s exciting. You’ve got four guys going out and any of them can win the championship in that final race, I think that’s pretty cool. It may not be traditional. It may not be the way we’ve always done it but I think there’s constant evolution in the sport, whether it be in competition or race cars or point systems, you’re always trying to keep up with what’s going on in the times. Attention spans are short, right? People don’t want to sit down and watch things for a long time or even necessarily a season-long championship anymore if you’re not really a diehard race fan. So, I think it’s definitely a different format, but looking at it from the outside, I think it’s an exciting one.”

ON RETURNING TO SONOMA RACEWAY IN 2021?
“I like Sonoma. The first year I went there I wasn’t the biggest fan. That’s a tricky place and you have to drive it a lot different than what you do anywhere else. But the last few years I’ve really enjoyed going there. We’ve had some solid runs. I missed not going out there last year. It’s a track that I’ve come to enjoy quite a bit. It’s a unique challenge and something that tests a little bit of all of your race team, strategy and driver. So, it’s fun. I love that part of the country in Northern California. So, it’s going to be cool. I think it’s an opportunity for us to run really well. It really tests the driver a lot. You really have to pay attention to how you’re managing your run. There is definitely an opportunity to try to run the race backwards, right? There’s going to be guys that are going for the win and kind of short every stage and take tires and stay out and get track position, but that does leave the door open for us to go up there and try to get some stage points, which I think are going to be pretty important for us. You never know how things are going to work out. I hope we’re running strong enough we can short the stage and take track position and be up front. But if we want to take stage points, it’s definitely going to be there.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 75 countries with nearly 4 million cars and trucks sold in 2019. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 2, 2020

RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 JTG DAUGHERTY RACING CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Daytona 500 Media Availability Transcript:

HOW STRESSED ARE YOU ENTERING SPEEDWEEKS NOT BEING LOCKED INTO THE RACE?
“I’m not stressed at all. We’re going to go down, and if everything works out the way I think it’s laid out, we should qualify on speed. So, I feel pretty confident with it.”

DOES YOUR TEAM NOT HAVING A CHARTER CHANGE YOUR APPROACH TO EACH WEEKEND?
“I think… you show up every single week trying to get the most out of your equipment. So that doesn’t change anything about what I’m doing. Our approach for Daytona is the same as it has been every year, except I think we’ll be a little more aggressive than we have been in years past when it comes to stages. We’ve typically tried to lay back and make sure we are there at the end. But I think stage points are so important now that you have to race every single lap.”

WHAT YOU HAVE YOU BEEN TOLD IN TERMS OF SPONSORSHIP AND A FULL SEASON?
“I think you guys know as much as we all know. We’re going to continue week after week and hopefully everything is there, we’re having a solid season and everything comes together.”

WHICH NEW TRACK ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST IN 2021?
“I’m looking more forward to our typical short tracks, which are the most exciting to me. I’m looking forward to Bristol dirt. That’s something new. The road courses are exciting also. I’m a racer… if there’s a trophy involved then I’m excited about it.”

WITH QUALIFYING AT NIGHT, DO YOU HAVE A BASELINE OR WHERE YOU EXPECT TO BE?
“I expect to be wide-open and holding the bottom. Everything from there on out… it’s still Daytona. There’s going to be no draft so it’s really going to come down to preparation and not having a strong headwind or anything like that. I guess we’ll have to find out.”

WHAT’S ON YOUR MOTORSPORTS BUCKET LIST?
“It would probably be an asphalt sprint car or Silver Crown. Those are things that I’ve always enjoyed watching through the years. I wasn’t from that part of the country so it was a lot more difficult for me to do that type of racing. So, if there’s something that I would love to do, it would probably be in one of those cars or even the night before the 500 in a midget. Those are some pretty sweet race cars.”

YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH A LOT IN YOUR CAREER, SO IS THE DRAMA OF NOT KNOWING IF YOU ARE OR AREN’T GOING TO HAVE A CHARTER OR NEED TO QUALIFY OR NOT QUALIFYING EASY TO HANDLE?
“I think you nailed it. It’s just another hurdle. I think we’re going to be just fine. To be honest with you, it’s not like I haven’t had obstacles in my career. It’s not easy and it’s not like you’re guaranteed (getting) in. Working with Trent (Owens, crew chief) and through some of the things that have been going on throughout the offseason, I feel confident that we should have plenty of speed and we can get in on time, which will make the Duals that much less difficult. No matter what plan you come up with when it comes to Daytona, you can be as prepared as possible but you never know what’s going to happen. We’ll see… hopefully we qualify in on time and everything becomes easier throughout the weekend. If we don’t then it will come down to executing, making sure everything goes right and get ourselves in.”

WOULD THIS MAKE THE TEAM TAKE A CHANCE AT A WIN ON STRATEGY?
“I think it’s going to push us to race more for stage points when it comes to the first two stages at Daytona. Usually if you look at years past, we’ve kind of just hung around purposefully to make sure we got to the end. But it seems like all these wrecks have been happening in the last 10 laps. So, you’re just giving away stage points. If you look at last year, we were negative-three points after three races due to not going after stage points, wrecking in the final laps at Daytona, a blown motor, not a good weekend at California and some penalties. We’re going try to get as many points as we can, and if we’re in position to be aggressive then we will be aggressive. That’s what it comes down to.”

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE AT DAYTONA TO AVOID THE BIG ONE?
“I 100 percent agree with Chris (Buescher). There is no right answer. I think we saw wrecks at the tail of the pack last year, we saw them at the front of the pack and the middle of the pack. It just comes down to the opportunity to get stage points, you have to run up front. If you’re going to elect to run at the back then you need to be about a straightaway back. There’s really no safe place at Daytona.”

CHEVROLET IS STARTING A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH HENDRICK AND ECR ON THE ENGINE SIDE. HOW MUCH OF A HELP WILL THAT BE THIS YEAR?
“It’s important to have really good motors, especially with the 550 package because that makes all the difference. I feel confident we won’t have any engine failures and that we’ll have good horsepower.”

YOU SPOKE LAST YEAR ABOUT THE BAD LUCK THAT HAD HAPPENED. HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO RESET THIS OFFSEASON?
“If you look back at a lot of things that happened, for the most part they were beyond our control… We had a few motor failures and a transmission break. The superspeedways killed us a couple of times. There’s not much you can do when it comes to that, but we can focus forward and try to start the year off on a strong note. That’s what it’s going to come down to. The first thing we have to do is show our speed and see where we stack up there.”

THERE’S BEEN SOME BAD LUCK AND MISFORTUNE. WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU’VE DONE WELL AND WHAT ARE SOME THINGS TO DO BETTER WITH ALL THE UNCERTAINTY TO HAVE A LONG CUP CAREER?
“I think consistency is the first part of that. This is the second year I get to work with Trent, so I have the same crew chief again and I’m excited about that. That helps. I know Trent had a lot of success with Chris in 2019, and moving over to 2020 there were so many different variables and changes. Not having practices really affected how quickly we could speed the process up. I felt like toward the end of the year we showed that. We were able to lead laps at the ROVAL. We were able to get a couple of top-10s late in the season and have some solid runs. I look forward to the rest of 2021 and hopefully starting off hopefully where we left in 2020 and moving forward. That’s all you can do. The 2019 and 2020 seasons were essentially really long building years. I look forward to this year, focusing on what we need to do to make sure we get a good start to the season. Hopefully all the things we learned last year – what I do and don’t like – will help us start races a lot better and continue to try and keep gaining track position throughout the races.”

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 75 countries with nearly 4 million cars and trucks sold in 2019. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found www.chevrolet.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Media Day | Tuesday, February 2, 2021

RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang – WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR SPECIFIC SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS TO NASCAR? “I haven’t really considered myself a consultant. I don’t really feel I’m any different than any other driver out there when it comes to talking about safety or the benefits of the safety that we’ve created over the last 30-40 years. Yes, I have had conversations with them and talking about barriers, talking about the cars, talking about foams and things like that. But the reality is it’s no different now than it was in the last 20 years of my career, in my opinion. When I say that no different I mean no different as far as the communication, the level of communication that I have in my consulting.”

IT’S THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF EARNHARDT’S ACCIDENT. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT EVENT AND HAS IT INFLUENCED HOW MUCH YOU HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH NASCAR OR HOW SERIOUSLY YOU’VE TAKEN SAFETY SINCE THAT CRASH? “I had one competitive Cup start against Dale Sr. and wished I would have had a whole lot more just because he was an idol of mine. I really looked forward to the opportunity to get to race with him more and that obviously was cut short, but that anniversary is special, more now than ever, because of my anniversary being one year this coming February of the 500 of my big crash that I was able to walk away from. And the reality is the start of my crash was really no different than the start of his crash, which was basically the end of his crash. I can see the progression that we’ve had from a safety standpoint and that’s gonna be a topic of many and hopefully not the end topic when the checkered flag falls on February 14 of the 500. The real story will be the racing and not the last big crashes that we’ve had.”

HOW DO YOU MARRY ENGINEERING AND SEAT OF THE PANTS RACING KNOWLEDGE? “I think they’ve always been married as long as there has been engineering involved, and I think engineering is a new term for something that’s been around for a long time. When I say new term I mean engineering it’s kind of more based off of people with computers than it was in Einstein’s day, but the reality is engineers have been around for a long time we’ve just termed them differently. I think there is truly a balance of seat of the pants feelings and knowledge of what you’re experiencing as a driver versus somebody that simulates or uses a computer program or tries to assess data and gets access to data to try to understand something. It’s like a crash test dummy. You would always want to be the dummy if you wanted to learn more, you just can’t prove that the dummy is gonna live through every accident. I think NASCAR has done a really good job of taking everything involved in the safety of our sport, not just the drivers, not just the fans, not just the race cars, but everything involved that is respectful to safety, but we’ve got to keep doing more. They know that and will continue to do that.”

IS THERE A SENSE OF COMING BACK TO DAYTONA WITH IT BEING THE 500 AND FINISHING WHAT YOU CAME SO CLOSE TO LAST YEAR? “That was the hope even back in September of whatever it was when we raced there was to be able to have that dramatic chapter come to an end with a victory and a playoff berth. It would be even more special to come back a year later and really in all reality just to have an opportunity to come as close as we did last year would be amazing as well. I’ve been around this sport long enough to know that there are drivers that have never got a top 10 let alone a top five, or in my case a top 10 on the roof, let alone have a shot at the Daytona 500 the way I did last year. So just being in the hunt again will be an amazing feeling hopefully, and all the things that go along with it – Kohler Generators will be there. It’s their first race on a Cup car and an amazing story if we can put all those things together.”

WHEN YOU WATCH THE ACCIDENT DID YOU DO SO TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED IN TERMS OF HOPING TO IMPROVE THE SAFETY? “One hundred percent. I’ve watched every angle that I could possibly watch. The biggest problem is I don’t have any memory of my own angle, which is the ultimate angle, and that’s gone and that will always be gone no matter how many times I watch a replay or different variation of that replay. It doesn’t change my personal memory because it just doesn’t exist. I will continue to study and watch, whether it’s my crash or somebody else’s crashes. I’ve lost some good friends. Go back to Kenny Irwin and his crash at New Hampshire years and years ago. There has been improvements made to that wall and good reason for it. Unfortunately, Kenny is no longer here and we will always continue to learn from those that we lose and those that we don’t lose as long as we keep focused on the things that we need to to increase our level of safety.”

DID YOU EVER HAVE ANY HESITATION OR DOUBTS ABOUT GETTING BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL AT THOSE RACETRACKS? IF NOT, HOW DO YOU GET TO THAT POINT MENTALLY? “I’ve had zero. I’ve had people question me of if I’ve questioned it myself, no different than you, but the reality is, and I had this conversation just a little while ago doing an interview was God works in mysterious ways and one of those mysterious ways that I can’t answer is the deletion of that chapter or that part of my hard drive that was that day, so that I can’t remember the potential tragedy that wasn’t. So, I don’t have any fear because I don’t have any memory, and that was the same analogy I used with him was if you’ve ever been in a car accident or you know somebody who has been in a car accident and they were conscious the whole time, they will always carry that fear with them. I have no memory, therefore I have no fear, but it’s also my passion and my love and what I enjoy doing. It’s a paid hobby. It’s the most amazing job you could ever have, and that’s where my focus is. I just am doing my best to continue and try to become a Cup champion. That’s the way I feel is I still have another opportunity and God has given me that opportunity and I’ll enjoy it with my two beautiful girls and our team together.”

SO MUCH HAS CHANGED SINCE YOU BEAT JIMMIE JOHNSON FOR ROOKIE OF THE YEAR. WE’RE GOING TO SEE A NEW CAR NEXT YEAR. HOW PROUD ARE YOU OF THE CHANGES NASCAR HAS MADE IN THE TWO DECADES SINCE YOU STARTED FULLTIME RACING AND HOW HOPEFUL ARE YOU FOR THE FUTURE OF THIS SPORT? “I’m hopeful, no doubt. I think a lot of people are. We live our everyday lives, at least a huge percentage of us do, in transportation. We go to or from work. We go to the grocery store. We go visit our friends. We go see some kind of form of entertainment. We’re connected to vehicles and a lot of us are connected to performance vehicles and that’s why a lot of us love racing more so than stick and ball sports, so, yeah, I feel like I’m blessed. I’m one of those guys. I’m a motorhead. I’ve got grease under my fingernails and enjoy it. Going back to your original statement I’ll say this, and I’ve told Jimmie to his face, ‘You can win a championship every year, but you can only win a Rookie of the Year once,’ and I’ve got that over him.”

HOW WAS RESCUE RANCH ABLE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN 2020? “We’ve had to be a little bit more creative and open up some other opportunities for some revenue. We just opened up a foster program, which is really using our community as a foster resource to hold and maintain the lives of animals before they can become adopted. They use us and we use them, as it should be, in our community to keep those animals alive. Our main goal is to educate kids about animals, but that means we need to keep these animals alive. It means we need to eliminate the overpopulation of pets and we do everything we can through spaying and neutering and pet adoption and things like that. It’s become a challenge because of the social distancing and the way everything works with group gathering and programs and camps that we have for kids, so go to Rescue Ranch.com and check it out. I literally just filmed a little video for them this morning talking about it and it’s still near and dear to my heart and it’s become a bigger challenge because of the way our society is reacting to this situation, but that won’t be the only hurdle we have in the next decade.”

AS DAYTONA APPROACHES HAVE YOUR DAUGHTERS TALKED TO YOU ABOUT RETURNING TO THE 500? HAVE YOU HAD ANY CONVERSATIONS TO SET THEM AT EASE AND MAKE THEM MORE COMFORTABLE WITH YOU GOING BACK TO THE 500? “I’m glad you asked because it was fun for me to get to the Chili Bowl because it was the first racing event that they got to go to to watch me race again, albeit a short night and not the success that I wanted to have, but it was humbling and heartwarming for me to have them there and get back in the race car. I look forward to that again, to get them back into a Cup race and have them be a part of it, so it’s had its challenges, no doubt, because of everything going on, but it will be special to have that one-year anniversary and hopefully another great chance to get them to victory lane as we were so close last year.”

THEY HAVE NOT BEEN NERVOUS ABOUT IT? “No, they’re looking forward to it. There’s no, well this is what put daddy in the hospital feelings. It’s, ‘no, we want to go see you race.’ And that means a lot to me, and I guess in the grand scheme of things that makes it easier for maybe you guys to understand the perspective of why would he not retire or why does he want to keep doing this. Again, I have no reason to not do what I love.”

HAVE YOU BECOME MORE PHILOSOPHICAL OR BIG PICTURE-ORIENTED WITH HOW YOU LOOK AT THINGS? “It’s a little bit of a jaded answer because the reality is, yes. People have asked me, ‘Have you changed?’ And I continually say, ‘No, I haven’t changed,’ but what happens and you said it, but you added some more words in there is it’s a magnifier. Things that you love, you love more because part of you was taken away for a little bit of time, so, yeah, it’s opened my eyes and made me more appreciative of a lot of things in life, and probably a little bit more positive and I guess jolly, you could say, in respect to some of the other things that don’t go so well. I feel like it has magnified my personality for all the positive things, and therefore decreased some of the negative things. I don’t think that’s considered a change to me, that’s really just an adjustment.”

A FINE-TUNING, SO TO SPEAK. “Which everybody needs at times, and we all say it. Like, ‘he deserved that or he had that coming for him.’ Those are the things that we use to educate ourselves and, again, God works in mysterious ways and I’m happy to be here sitting and talking to you. It makes me appreciate things as well.”

IS DALE EARNHARDT’S BIGGER LEGACY THE ADVANCEMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN SAFETY SINCE HIS PASSING? “I don’t think it’s a bigger legacy, but it’s a big part of his legacy. There was nobody in my opinion that’s gonna remember Dale Earnhardt for the way that he died. People remember Dale Earnhardt for the way that he raced and the way that he lived, which go hand-in-hand. I didn’t know Dale Earnhardt as a farmer. There are YouTube videos out there and there are stories about it. I didn’t know Dale Earnhardt as a hunter. Again, there are stories out there, but I knew him as a racer. I knew him as the guy that drove the black 3 car and if he didn’t win it outright, he’d knock somebody out of the way to get it done and stood in victory lane and smiled about it. A lot of people loved that and a lot of people hated that. That’s the legacy that I will always remember him by. Unfortunately, because of the way the book ended for him, there’s a different version of that legacy and it has a different opinion. I guess you can create a different opinion of it. Again, I feel fortunate that my book or at least that chapter didn’t end that way for me and we did learn a lot from what happened to him, what happened in that situation – a bad racing accident, no doubt. We learned a lot and we collectively have kept so many drivers alive since then because of the adjustments that have been made in the safety of our sport.”

IT SEEMED THE SAFETY PUSH WENT INTO OVERDRIVE AFTER EARNHARDT’S ACCIDENT. “No doubt, and I think that was – let me say it this way – it was necessary to take something that should have been proactive and that was being reacted to, it took something that should have been proactively worked on and we learned and was like, ‘Okay, that’s it. That’s the last straw. We need to do something here.’ There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of it is because of who it was, but that’s the way life works.”

BLANEY TALKED ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING HAPPENED SO FAST IN THE ACCIDENT LAST YEAR AND HE SAID HE TALKED TO YOU A COUPLE DAYS AFTERWARDS. WERE YOU ABLE TO REASSURE HIM? “I’ll be honest with you, I think I had a personal conversation with him on the phone, I don’t remember it. But I do remember putting my arm around him and talking to him in Phoenix after I got a chance to see him face-to-face and I could see his character and what he was feeling internally because of what happened after him seeing me. So, I can only imagine what it was like not knowing or that night of or the days after, so that’s one of the toughest things that we do as drivers is have to check our feelings because of what we do and the things that are required of us to be competitive and to push everybody’s envelope and it’s just the way it is. The guys that get it, and I believe he does, have a lot of respect for that and therefore I have more respect for him.”

HOW SOON AFTER THE ACCIDENT DID YOU WATCH REPLAYS OF IT? “I’m gonna give you a long answer here because I was more worried about all the other things I had going on with my life. Obviously, my kids weren’t around me. I needed to get some answers from the doctors. I needed to understand what my short-term and long-term situation was going to be with any kind of injury because at that point you don’t know. Doctors are waiting and looking at you. They walk in with a magnascope in front of both eyes trying to figure out, ‘Well, is he okay? Is he better? Is he the same?’ Or what to expect. As I learned more about what had happened I don’t remember, and I couldn’t tell you if it was in the hospital or at my parent’s house because of the medicine I was on, which is still the answer that I give and the knowledge that I have. I can’t answer the level of my injuries because I don’t know what the causes and effects were of the medicine I was on. I just remember my dad telling me and showing me what happened, and it took me asking him to believe him why I was laying in a hospital bed. I studied it a little bit, but that point I was more worried about – as I said – the other things that are more important to me in life than myself. I’ve never been one to kind of look in the mirror. I’ll put a hat on to cover my hair or lack of, but that’s about it. The last part of your answer is not until, and this is what made me chuckle, is because YouTube is an amazing tool. It makes you learn about yourself that I didn’t realize somebody had created a YouTube video of every angle of my crash until probably a month or two, maybe three months ago. Time flied when you’re having fun during the offseason, but I remember seeing it months after my crash that somebody put together that video. I literally laid in bed one morning as it popped up as a – We know you like these things, so check this out.’ Well, hell, that’s me. So I looked at it and I watched it and it was just a different perspective. It brought tears to my eyes. Like, ‘Damn.’ But those are tears of respect and appreciation, not tears of sadness because I was here and I was able to watch it and know that just down the hallway my kids were gonna wake up shortly.”

WHAT WORK HAS BEEN GOING INTO THE CURRENT ROUSH FENWAY CAR GOING INTO 2021? “A lot of work and we needed it, there’s no doubt about that. Our on-track performance last year was sub-standard and we all know that. From my expectations personally, the team’s expectations, Jack Roush’s expectations. We needed a lot of work to be done, so it takes a lot of work to get a lot of work done, which seems very generic, but reality is we had to figure out a lot of the things that we needed to get the bulk of our homework done and we had a lot to play catch-up with, and I feel like we’ve done a good job of doing that, but the real answer doesn’t come until they drop the checkered flag on let’s just say the first three or four or five weekends of the season to know that we’ve made those improvements or the necessary improvements to be more competitive. I don’t look for us to go out there and lead the most laps at Daytona or Homestead or the road course for that matter, but I want to be competitive and I want to show that we’ve made some huge improvements in the offseason because I know you can’t just right the ship and carry speed if that makes any sense. You’ve got to slow down the ship to turn it if you want to turn it as sharp as we needed to turn it, and then we’ve got to build some speed. I feel like we’ve done that, but I have no proof yet.”

DOES THE FIRE BURN DEEPER FOR YOU EACH YEAR YOU COME TO DAYTONA SINCE YOUR WIN IN 2008? “I never look at it that way, and I say that because – and I’m gonna give you just a little piece of private information, but I’m pretty sure it’s unanimous across the board – there’s not a driver out there that doesn’t have that burn or doesn’t have that desire. And I say that because as much of a team sport as this is even when your teammate wins you’re still more disappointed and/or jealous that you didn’t win. You can be happy that your teammate won, but it still makes it that much more of a burn I guess you could say internally and externally because you haven’t, and that makes you want to fight that much harder. If you have the passion for this sport and the desire that it takes to be a winner, that will always be inside of you. My point is that no matter the situation or who wins or how close you were, that’s always going to exist. I don’t know that it exists more, and I can’t say that I feel like it more since 2008. I feel, to me, it’s the same no matter what.”

WAS THERE ANYTHING FROM LOOKING TO THE CAR NOW AND THE DATA THAT WOULD TRANSLATE TO THE GRASSROOTS RACER TO PUT INTO HIS CAR TO MAKE THEM SAFER? “I guess the one thing that you make me think of when you ask a great question like that is the simple things go a long way. I say as a simple thing because one of the things I felt like was compromised the most was my helmet, and if I had a picture of my helmet you wouldn’t believe that my head is still round, or the shape that it’s in, whatever you want to call that shape. The reality is make sure that the most expensive part in your race car is what contains the driver and makes the driver safe. So, it’s not about spending the most money, it’s about getting the best equipment and safest equipment when I say that. Don’t cut corners is the real answer when it comes to a head-and-neck restraint, when it comes to gloves, when it comes to fire retardant materials, the quality of helmet. That’s a loaded answer in itself because of the quality of the helmet isn’t just how much it weighs, it isn’t just about how many tear offs you can put on it, it isn’t about so many things – how well it breathes, those types of things. The quality of helmet is all of those things and that changes depending on the situation that you’re in – the tracks that you race at. Roll bar padding and things like that are huge, but I guess the reality is just to be cognizant of all the things as a short track racer. Let me say it this way, I go back and I think about when you asked that I go back and I think about an issue they were having last year or that came to light with an exit of a race track at a dirt track. And I remember sending pictures to Tony Stewart, who was working on it, and just collectively putting our thoughts together. I never wanted any recognition for it, but the reality was we were all working on it together to figure out how to make that short track safer for the competitors and for the fans and everybody for that matter. So, it’s not just a helmet. It’s not just a SAFER barrier. It’s everything you can do as a person to collectively put it all together. It could simply be changing the angle of the lights or making sure that there’s lights in the pit area, so that when the cars come off the racetrack they’re not hitting fans. It’s so many things.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang – YOU WERE IN POSITION LATE LAST YEAR IN THE 500. WHERE DO YOU SIT GOING INTO THIS YEAR’S RACE? HAVE YOU THOUGHT BACK TO LAST SEASON? “I really haven’t gone back and replayed that one much. I think ultimately you go into every speedway race with the same mentality and that’s to be there at the end when it matters and put yourself in position. We were both able to do that last year in the 500 and a couple of the other speedway races, so we’ll keep that same mindset. You go back and you don’t worry too much about the past, try and learn from it and see if we can improve it just a little bit. I wouldn’t say there’s anything that is changing this year based off of last year. We’re working hard to get our speedway cars a little bit better yet. Jimmy Fennig and Roush Fenway Racing has had terrific speed on the speedways for a number of years now, so we know we’re gonna have a good opportunity with our Fastenal Mustang to be there. It’s just a matter of staying clean through most of it, trying to avoid the melees that are sure to happen, that always do, and, again, just be in position at the end. That’s all you can ask and hope that it plays out just a little bit better for us this time around.”

WHAT DOES THE PROGRAM HAVE TO DO BESIDES THE SPEEDWAYS TO GET BETTER? “I wish I had the answer for you and it was clearer or cut-and-dried that this is what we need to win races all year long, but I don’t have that one answer. With that being said, I think we’ve taken some steps through the offseason to better ourselves. Taking the principle that Jimmy Fennig applied to the speedway program and putting him in a position where he is helping oversee our entire program on a larger level. It’s not like he was ever disconnected, but I think that will be something that will be helpful for us. We have a lot of really sharp people working really hard to try and dissect what it is that’s holding us back at this point. It’s just a matter of trying to clean up some of these things and fine-tune it. Unfortunately, without practice last year we has a hard time getting ahold on what we needed to change to be better moving forward every week. You basically had the previous similar race, so if you were trying to work on Texas you were going back to Kansas as your practice session. Unfortunately, we’re in the same boat here, so, for us, trying to better ourselves and play catch-up of sorts it’s a difficult process to do in the current environment. It’s not that we’re not working hard at it and the sim programs have come a long way and are definitely being leaned on very heavily, we’ve just got to keep plugging away. We don’t really have a way to measure our success or any way to tell where we’re at until we’re on track this year and we get a couple races under our belt.”

WHICH RACE ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT AND WILL THESE CHANGES BE GOOD FOR NASCAR? “I’m excited about all of the schedule changes. I say that with a little bit of caution on the Bristol Dirt Race. Bristol concrete is my favorite racetrack and I do hate to lose one of those races. On the flip side of that, I’ve wished since my first year in Cup racing that we had a dirt race, so be careful what you wish for, I guess. It is exciting. I think it’s gonna be really neat going to Bristol and trying something new out there, having the World of Outlaws there ahead of time to run the track in basically and get some good racing in to try and set the track to where we’ll be in good shape, I think that hopefully should help. I have no experience with dirt, so I’m completely out of my league talking about it. Then talking about the road courses, Nashville, going to COTA, so that one is another home track for me, which is pretty neat. You just had the Texas race, but this is actually even closer to where my family is at now, so that will be a nice trip to be able to see some family and then also run a new road course, something that’s really just a remarkable facility. You talk about the Indy road course had some really good success with the XFINITY Series just recently, so I think that will be exciting. I think it’s good. I think I’m good with six road course races. I don’t want to do a whole lot more of it. I think that’s a good number and I want to stick to ovals. That’s what we were all raised in and came into this sport to do, but, that being said, a little bit of road racing along the way is a lot of fun and a good way to break up our season.”

DO YOU PLAN TO RUN ANY DIRT RACES BEFORE BRISTOL? “I am hoping to be able to do a little bit of dirt late model racing, so, again, the environment has made it hard to do that. With that being said, we are gonna work on trying to get a little bit of seat time in there before we get to that race being my previous dirt experience is one sport mod race, a handful of Legends car races and four ARCA races on dirt, so pretty limited. That one is kind of looked at as an interesting opportunity.”

KURT BUSCH THINKS THE STEERING AND EXHAUST AREAS NEED MORE WORK ON THE NEXT GEN CAR. DO YOU SHARE THAT VIEW AND ARE THERE OTHER AREAS THAT NEED WORK? “I’ve been in the car a lot less than Kurt and I was in the car at Daytona by myself. There was no drafting, you’re not pushing. With the restrictor plate on it you’re not pushing the limits of the car, so I can’t give you a whole lot of good info on really what I feel like it’s needing, but I will back up the steering comments that I’m sure he’s made. It seemed to be very consistent across everybody who has driven that car is it just needs some fine-tuning to get a better feel to it, to try and find something to make it more like what we have now, and not that you’re trying to duplicate what we have. We realize what we’re running is old technology, but it still needs to have a similar feel or something along the same lines, and I think everybody has felt like it needs work, not just based off of the cars we’re driving currently, but everybody has driven different stuff growing up. We know when something needs attention it’s not just to try and get back to what we’re used to specifically in the Cup Series right now, but it’s also to get it right along the lines of different cars that we’ve driven in all of our career growing up.”

WHAT IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NEXT GEN CAR AND THE CURRENT CUP CAR? “That would be a tough one to really pinpoint. There are massive differences across the board. The independent rear suspension was basically a non-issue on Daytona. That being said, I’m sure it will be a game-changer road racing. The sequential shifting was a lot of fun for me. It’ll take some getting used to, but it’s not going to be something that’s just wildly different than what we do. It’s not like it’s paddle shifting or an automatic, which either of those wouldn’t make much difference either, but let’s not go to automatics. The big wheels allowing a bigger brake package is probably going to be what I think will be more significant than anything else. We will allow ourselves to have a much better brake package and much bigger cooling, so that we can run hard for longer periods of time. Our races are long in terms of road racing for the most part, so we have to pace ourselves in a lot of these races. I feel like, and, again, I haven’t run enough laps to talk intelligently on this, but I feel like we will be able to push harder from the drop of the green flag all the way to the checkered on a lot of these road races along the way.”

HOW DOES A DRIVER MEASURE THEIR LUCK FACTOR FROM YEAR TO YEAR ON RACES AT DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA? “There’s an element of luck to every speedway race and anybody who tries to downplay that is lying to themselves. There’s that factor. We go speedway racing you’re that close, you are at the mercy of your own mistakes, but you are much more so at the mercy of 39 other drivers mistakes, so the probability of being involved in somebody else’s doing it skyrockets. For years we’ve argued what’s safe. Is the leader safe? Is it 1-5? Is it 25th back is safer? And the numbers used to have a pretty clear trend and I don’t feel like they do anymore. I think a lot of our wrecks have started at the front row, whether it’s first or second and it’s come from aggressive blocking the runs that these cars have had. I don’t know that there’s a safe place anymore, so for it to be luck there is an aspect of it and I think what helps is there was really good speed in our Roush Fenway cars for speedway racing and that enables you to be able to lead a line or kind of make more of your own destiny. I think that helped us last season and it helped put us in a lot of places. I’m gonna argue that all four of our speedway races were very good and we got robbed on one there at the end, but it’s something that we did a good job calculating what risk we were willing to take. Jack’s pretty adamant that we’re racing. Those aren’t races where you ride around and try to play the numbers game at the back, so we raced through them. We felt like the end of the stage got really aggressive, maybe you back out or try and give up a couple spots versus trying to get that one stage point or ending up in that 12th-13th range and ultimately hitting a fender or causing yourself more pain. A lot of it was a thought process and there was a good amount of look in being inches away from disaster several times along the way as well.”

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE FOR A DRIVER IN PROTECTING YOUR CAR IN THE DUEL RACE? WILL THE LINE OF TESTING THE CARS CAPABILITY CHANGE THIS YEAR BECAUSE OF THE SCHEDULE? “They might. From what I can tell in the past the Clash everybody has considered that car a throwaway and they don’t care anyway. I’ve never really seen anybody care to try and save equipment and that’s ended up in bonsai moves that have just wiped out gobs of cars every year. So, to run it on the road course I’m excited to do that and do something a little bit different there. When you look at the Duels, I think that I don’t know if they’ll change a whole lot. People always try and learn a little bit, but at the same time it’ll be pretty well understood that that is the car you want to race. Now, with that being said, we will have backups. All of us are going to bring very nice backups, so there will be that thought process that you can go out there and learn something and if it does end up taking a turn for the worse, you’ll be okay. You’ll be able to prep and be ready for the 500, so I don’t know that I have a good answer for you, but I wouldn’t suspect that the Duels would change a whole lot.”

HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT THAT YOUR PATH TO REDEMPTION OF SORTS WILL FEATURE PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING AT A PREMIUM, AND HOW COMFORTING IS IT TO HAVE RYAN NEWMAN AS A TEAMMATE WORKING WITH YOU? “The frustration is pretty well pegged. I say that with caution. I am thankful that our season was able to finish last year. I’m impressed by the leadership of NASCAR and all the teams to be able to do that. That’s me getting that on the table. I’m not complaining about that. Now, that being said, we needed practice. My first year coming back to Roush, working with Luke for the first time, it was difficult to find a rhythm. We needed that practice to really just get us in the ballpark first. Usually, you get through those big swings early on and then once you get to fine-tuning it’s not such a big deal, but we had to use the first half of the season to make large changes to try and find a baseline and that put us way behind the eight-ball. That being said, it will be a little bit better this season, but we still need that time to run through changes and try to figure out what we are looking for as a team. On the second half of your question about having Ryan Newman as a teammate to go through a lot of that with is a huge help – a guy that’s been doing this for a really long time and that’s my little stab at making him feel old. But also a veteran that’s got a lot of information, a lot of notes and has worked with Luke in the past, so there’s already a lot of good dialogue there. And then we me working with Scott Graves in the past it just helps it all flow pretty decent. With everything being very virtual, we don’t have a lot of that face to face meetups that we really need to keep tuning in, so that’s made it a little bit tough. Ryan has been a huge help for me as someone that really needed help this past season and will this year as well working on this very unique schedule we have here.”

DO YOU WANT TO BE IN FRONT OF THE BIG ONE OR BEHIND IT IN ORDER TO BE THERE AT THE END OF THE 500? “I would say typically in front and I say that because I feel like the big one has steadily progressed closer and closer to the checkered flag to the point now where if you’re behind it, you really don’t have time to make up that track position to get yourself in position. On the flip side of that, the wrecks are also happening farther and farther towards the front, so there’s really no safe place up there, but I think if you’re going to win the 500, you have no choice but to gamble and to be up towards the front and take that risk. That’s where you’ve got to be. It’s the best chance. It may not work 100 percent of the time and I’ll sit here and say with 100 percent confidence you’re gonna need to be in front of it and someone running 25th and clears everything will end up in a great spot this year, but I think that in front of it is going to be the best call, it’s just a matter of if you’re far enough ahead that you don’t get collected and then also if it’s far enough into the race where the cars that have been saving all day don’t have time to find all that track position late in the going.”

WHAT ARE SOME POSITIVES YOU CAN TAKEAWAY FROM LAST YEAR? “I haven’t been real shy about the frustrations of the way we did it, but I guess to reiterate I am thankful that our season did go back to on schedule and we got to run our playoffs on schedule, so that’s definitely a positive. Our sport is unique in the way that we are able to compete and stay distanced apart and keep going. When you look at the positives from our team, specifically I guess, I think that communication got steadily better through the year as we learned how to get through some of these different changes I think at the end of the day it’s actually gonna help us moving forward. I think we will have better communication back and forth, quicker communication and keep everybody in the loop better so we can be more productive as a company and as a race team. I do think that there’s some positive and some light at the end of the tunnel as far as that goes. As far as the race season and the way we want to show up to the racetrack and practice a couple times and qualify for our starting spot, I can’t say that I’ve figured out much positive about all that, other than the fact that we are racing. I’m definitely looking forward to the day we can get back to normal, but for the meantime we are figuring out how to make the best of what we have to work with here.”

WHAT TYPE OF TRACK IS MOST LIKELY TO BE WHERE YOU GUYS CAN GET BACK TO THE FRONT? “The superspeedways we have a great shot and we know that. I think you look at a lot of these new races as good opportunities as well. I’m not a road racer necessarily, but it’s something I enjoy doing and we’ve been able to have good results at, so I am excited for a lot of these new road races. I’m excited for Road America is a track that I’ve actually got a couple races at and I know a large majority of the field does not, so that’s something that’s exciting. I know we will get practice, but that’s a four-mile track and 50 minutes of practice or an hour of practice – whatever it ends up being – it takes a long time to figure that one out, so I am looking forward to some of these newer places. Also, Bristol. Roush Fenway as an organization has been very competitive there for as far back as I can remember. A lot of Cup wins there, XFINITY wins. We were so close to getting an XFINITY win there five or six years ago and then even with my rookie season in the Front Row cars we ran extremely well there, so that’s a place we definitely look at as my favorite racetrack and also a good opportunity for us to capitalize and get back to victory lane. Unfortunately, the first one is dirt, so we don’t get to take what we know to be a good track and rely on our notes to make it that way, but also it’s something that will be neat for our sport and be interesting to see how it plays out and I do know that we’re working pretty hard to try and get it figured out ahead of time.”

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR DAYTONA ARCA RACE 10 YEARS AGO WHEN YOU FINISHED SECOND BEHIND BOBBY GERHART? “It’s funny. I actually was talking about this last night, how time does fly and going back to the ARCA days with the Roulo Brothers and all that I learned back then. Obviously, I’d do a lot different now because you have so much more knowledge, but that being my first speedway race it didn’t click with me that you could drag a line back and try to get a run together. I do remember getting a lot of slack for that and I didn’t understand it because, trust me, at the time I knew that if I went to pull out I wasn’t gonna go anywhere. Those cars did not have those big runs. You couldn’t just pull out and make it work. There was a lot of talk from people that didn’t know. That being said, I didn’t know a whole lot better either. There were things I could have done to try to be more aggressive in the closing laps, but we also could have pulled out coming off of turn four, gotten hung out and finished 15th in my first start at Daytona in an ARCA car. Then nobody would be talking, so you go back now and speedway racing has been something that I have mixed emotions about. It’s not my favorite style of racing. It’s not the races that I enjoy the most, but at the same time we find a way to run well at them and to be calculated in our decisions and put ourselves in position to win them and to be close. So, I’m still trying to figure out those closing laps and how to do that, but it’s just time I suppose and trying to figure out how to do it a little bit better the next time than I did the previous. We’re still learning every time we go to those places.”

HOW MUCH DOES IT STAY WITH YOU THAT THE TIMING OF LAST YEAR’S MOVE WHEN YOU WENT TO THE OUTSIDE OF DENNY HAMLIN AND WAS SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH TWO TO GO WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT BEHIND YOU. “It hurts, but that’s just part of it. We got to a point where I couldn’t ask to be in a better position and unfortunately it wasn’t quite meant to be that time. We were still up there in the first handful of spots at the end and was in line with a couple of Fords coming down to the checkered and with Ryan’s accident at the end and the way everything played out nothing quite went exactly how we wanted to that race. That being said, we made the best decision we could at the time and thought that was it. If everything would have stayed green, could that have been a way to win a 500? Possibly. There’s no guarantee though, so it could have been the way that we got turned and finished 35th at the end of that race. I have no clue. So, I try not to get too caught up in speculating what could have been. Ultimately, we know what it was and now we try and figure out how to do it better this time and how to make it a win.”

BJ MCLEOD, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Ford Mustang – WHAT LED TO YOU AND MATT FORMING THIS RACE TEAM? “It’s quite a long story. I’ll shorten it up as much as possible. We’ve been friends and I’ve driver coached him and been around his racing career for the last 10 years and we just have a really good relationship on and off the track. My wife and I have owned the XFINITY teams by ourselves and took on everything on our own and doing this Cup adventure I wanted to have a partner to work with that I knew I could trust and they could bring some valuable assets to the table that maybe I’ve struggled with or I can’t really pull off myself and Matt’s definitely been in some different areas of the sport that I’ve been in as far as different things he’s been able to reach and I know he makes me a better person to get this team to the best level possible. So, that’s what had me, the relationship is what got me to want to be in business with Matt and then what he’s been able to accomplish on his side of the sport is the other side that I was really looking forward to.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING DAVID VS. GOLIATH? “It’s fun being on this side because everybody knows how hard this sport is and I say everybody, most people, and they know we’re at the highest level of stock car racing in the world, so some of it takes a little bit of pressure off of you because you are an underdog and anything you do good, I’ve found, that people are really supportive and if you struggle you may get some negative comments here and there, but that’s just part of trying to be in a sport that’s difficult and you’re trying to make something from nothing. It’s like we didn’t have this team six months ago and we’re going against teams in probably 12-13 days that have been here for thirty-some years, forty years. It’s very difficult from that side and I definitely am looking forward to the challenge and it makes it exciting for Matt and I because we know where we’re headed with the team. We know what we’re trying to pull off and we’re willing to work hard and make it happen. I’ve been in these situations in my life for almost the last 20 years, so it’s definitely something that I’m looking forward to and I think we can really do well on improving the team each year and if you ask me a specific position, in my head I’ve got 60 Cup starts now as a driver and most of them underfunded and really struggling to get everything done and work that weekend. Underfunded in this sport is still a very well-prepared team and great people and it’s just you put all of this together and you’re running 36th and looking at the cars in front of you, ‘I’m doing everything I can and I can’t beat them.’ It’s just very, very competitive, so I feel like we’ve had some really good finishes in the past, the teams I’ve been with, and done some cool stuff. I’ve learned from that and the things that Matt has brought to the team I’m gonna be disappointed with anything less than a 30th-place average. I want to be close to that next group and you’ll see if you look at finishes and times in different parts of the races in the past couple years there are groups and you have to cross from one group to the next and it’s very difficult to make those jumps and very expensive and hard for a first-year team, but I really feel like the group of people I’ve got with our team, having Matt with me and my experience in Cup for what I’ve done so far, I want to be 30th or better off of speed and if we’re not there, gonna be working to get better. And then each year I want to make improvements. The NEXT Gen car, maybe it’s a difficult switch over as far as we might gain three spots or we might stay the same or maybe we lose one because we don’t advance as quickly as others. We’ll have to see, but once we get that switch over done, I think we should look for a sport or two a year is my goal, what I would like to try to do. If we can speed that up and make the right things happen, great. But we’re here for the long-term and understand that it’s a very big hill to climb and we’re ready for the challenge.”

WHAT MADE THIS THE PERFECT YEAR TO GET INTO CUP SERIES OWNERSHIP? “I’ve been looking at wanting to be a Cup owner, honestly, you could say there were glimpses or thinking about it or dreams about it for twenty-some years, but realistically didn’t look at it until we did the XFINITY program and we were doing it at a professional level and showing up on time and our cars were prepared correctly and we have a good product on track. Once I knew that we could pull that off, I definitely was already thinking about that three or four years ago. To do this correctly we made things happen with the XFINITY Series and worked hard and took chances and really pushed the envelope to get from one place to another. I wanted to make sure if I made the jump to Cup, we did last year, we jumped in a little bit early just because timing with the coronavirus, the break and stuff, we had our XFINITY stuff very well prepared, and I wanted to feel the ins-and-outs going into the track, getting everything set up, running in 500-mile races and things like that. I wanted to do that as a team and make sure we were ready to invest this money and go forward, and I definitely saw what I needed to see to want to do that. It’s basically timing is trying to get a charter. It’s a difficult thing to obtain. You don’t know when you’re gonna be able to buy one. It could be now. It could be six months. It could be six years. You don’t know when they’re gonna pop up. I went out right when we got shut down at Atlanta and on the ride home I decided to build a business plan and put the charter deal together. When I did it, I contacted Matt and I said, ‘Hey, we might do this tomorrow. We might do it five years from now.’ This was a serious conversation, I said, ‘But when I call you, you have to be ready to commit to me and us go do this.’ He just said, ‘Yes, I’m in. Let’s do it.’ Obviously, there was time to go over things, but he didn’t hesitate much and we realistically got out of those conversations over probably a 30-45 day period and we thought it could be on hold for years. You don’t know. We just knew that was the direction we were headed and very, very fortunate to get a call less than probably a month-and-a-half after we finished that conversation that they got on the phone and said, ‘Hey, would you like to purchase a charter?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ We didn’t negotiate very long, so we made it happen and that’s why this year, that’s why now. It’s most important to have the charter. It’s a great thing for the business, a great thing for NASCAR and unless you build a portfolio around the team and put partners together that are hard to get without that, and start building the progress of the team and over the next few years you’ll see the competition level rise because people have this. They can commit. They have this to work off of and bring new partners in and that’s what’s gonna help a small team like ours elevate to the next level.”

WHAT DO YOU DO NOW TO MAKE YOURSELVES STAND OUT BY THE OTHER BIG NAMES WHO HAVE GOTTEN IN THE SPORT THIS YEAR? “I think number one is what I’ve done all my life is focus on us. My people, my team, me, Matt, we focus on us and reach to every level that we can reach and build as many partners as possible and just work on our side. I mean, everybody comes in at a different level because of other things they’ve accomplished in their sport. Michael Jordan, he’s unbelievably big now and you go back let’s say 35 years and he would be building the same kind of situation. Everybody starts somewhere and, yes, some of these other teams are definitely a bigger platform than we are and are gonna start better off than we are, but they earned it. They have in other things they’ve done and I wish them the best. I say that we focus on us and we make the improvements we know how to do because this is my life. I’ve been in racing since I was two-and-a-half years old. I’ve worked on race cars and built them since I was 12. I’ve been in this to try and be successful literally my entire life, so I’m gonna work hard and focus on what we can do and try to put the right people together to hopefully one day be equal and race for those top 10s.”

WHAT IS THE GRIND LIKE BEING A NEW TEAM? “I talk about people a lot and one more thing of starting this when we did, I wouldn’t have done it without the right people and Frankie Kerr, now that we can talk about him because we had our announcement, he’s an unbelievable crew chief. He’s a great person and he’s a racer and he’s hardcore. He’s got a good group around him here at our team now and we put those people together and I don’t believe I would have done this without somebody of his caliber and his work ethic because, truthfully, you always want to be further ahead. That’s just a racer. It’s part of being in NASCAR, but I feel really good about where our team is at, knowing that we didn’t pick up cars until basically December 1st and we’re going to the Daytona 500 here in less than 15 days. It’s really good to walk out in the shop and see the level that they’re at and what they’ve been able to put together, and really the rhythm they’re in. I mean, some of these guys came over from Go FAS and then there are a couple of new ones that we put with that I thought would mix well, and so did Matt, and its proven well for this offseason. You have to go to races and see how people mesh and how things flow, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the way they’ve worked in the shop here and getting us ready. I feel very good about the preparedness of our cars and preparation and different things. We’re definitely in good shape. It’s the Cup Series and it is difficult, but I am very pleased and honestly not too stressed over where we’re at as a team because I’m ready to get there and work together. The stress will come because we’ve got a lot of work to do to move to the level I want to be at, but to get there and get the ball rolling we’re in good shape.”

IS THERE TWICE THE AMOUNT OF PRESSURE BEING A DRIVER AND TEAM OWNER? “Fortunately, enough for me I’ve been a racer my whole life, so the pressure I really feel like most of the pressure left me a long time ago as far as anxiety or anything that might make you anxious for the weekend as far as getting in the cars. It’s really the owner’s side, yes, there’s a lot of pressure. It’s a big thing to overcome to be at this highest level and that definitely I always feel pressure. It’s funny because I enjoy jumping in the seat, the times I get to and obviously a lot this year, I love getting in the seat because it’s the three or four or five hours a week that I get to not be an owner and I’ve learned how to separate the two and I can say honestly, which I said honestly my first and second and third year in XFINITY that I couldn’t separate the two correctly. I was always up front and honest about it and I can tell you now I can separate it completely. It doesn’t affect me at all. If anything, I’d say it makes me a little more risky because I know what everything costs and I’m willing to pay for it, so I don’t have to feel bad. It’s definitely been a process to learn that and get to where I can handle both sides of it and I actually enjoy it more now. I’d rather be that than just the driver. It’s definitely a positive thing for us.”

ARE YOU RUNNING ONE OR TWO CUP TEAMS? AND IS IT A DISADVANTAGE NOT TO HAVE TEAMMATE? “One. We have a strategical alliance with Stewart-Haas. That’s definitely gonna prove to help us, definitely not the same as having a three-car team to bounce information off of or four-car or even two-car. But, we definitely have large networks and, like I said, the strategical alliance is the biggest asset to us right now as far as speeding up our curve to be more successful at a quicker time.”

HOW WILL FRANKIE HELP WITH HIS DIRT BACKGROUND AT A PLACE LIKE BRISTOL? “I think it’ll be big. This is like running road courses or ovals, it’s completely different. You’ve got him in here with I think probably 600 sprint car starts and I can’t remember some ridiculous amount of top 10s. It’s crazy the amount of wins he’s got too. We talk about it a little bit here in the shop, but he’s got a ton of success on dirt and I think, to your point, Matt and I don’t really know how well it’s going to help us, but we’re definitely looking forward to it because we know that it’s going to help us to some extent.”

HOW DID YOUR SPONSOR DEAL GET DONE? “It’s a three-race deal and it basically came together over the last couple weeks. Matt had reached out and spoke to them and they put a program together that made sense for both parties and I couldn’t be more excited. I love playing Xbox, playing video games and it’s a lot of fun and NASCAR Heat, just to have that on my car for the Daytona 500 is just something that’s really exciting for me. I was playing video games 20-25 years ago and playing your favorite driver. Now it’s kind of weird you go home and turn on the video game and your name and your car is on there, so it’s just unreal to get to have them on my car and to get to see that wrap that was announced this morning. It’s gonna be put on the car here shortly and to see all of that come together. I’m just thankful for Matt, working hard on that side and everybody at Motorsport Games, NASCAR Heat 5 and then taking a chance on our small team and giving us a shot to go showcase them at the 500. It means more than I can explain, honestly.”

HAVE YOU SET ANY GOALS FOR THE CUP TEAM THIS YEAR? “I think getting everybody meshing well together to be ready for the NEXT Gen car is the biggest goal that we’ve set. We want our personnel in place. We don’t want people being switched out. We really want to be ready and prepared with all infrastructure and personnel for when the NEXT Gen car starts getting ordered here sometime this year, and debuts in ’22. I really want that. That’s a must for me. It’s not really an option, so that said, that’s when I’ll say we had the year that we had to have, I’ll put it that way, and then I’d like to have some unrealistic runs at some superspeedways. I’d like to get lucky and maybe get some top 10s. Who knows, maybe something a little better. We’re definitely gonna dream and as far as week in and week out speed, we want to be, like I said before, probably 30th is gonna be we’ll analyze and see what we can be better. If we ran 28th, 25th on speed before race scenarios play out, I would be extremely excited with that for our first year because I know a lot of people are like, ‘Hey, everybody wants to win.’ I want to win. I mean, I’ve won at everything I ever did before I came to NASCAR, but the level of competition wins do come in 30th place. Wins do come in 33rd. Wins do come in 25th. Trust me, I’ve done it myself driving, owning, all of it and it’s unreal what you have to put yourself through to get a 33rd-place finish in the Cup Series. It’s extremely difficult and I feel like that part of it is not the biggest concern as being prepared for the NEXT Gen car and having a shot to have everything in place and ready to just learn the new car. That’s the most important part to our team right now.”

HOW IS THE PLAYOFF FORMAT A GOOD METRIC FOR DETERMINING A CHAMPION? “I guess from a personal opinion, I think that what NASCAR has done over the last 15, 17, 18 years has been big for all of us. They have proven that they’re willing to change and willing to adapt and willing to learn and say, ‘Hey, maybe this format wasn’t perfect. We’re gonna work on this a little bit.’ You’ve seen a lot of open-mindedness from their side and the things that they’ve worked on. They really want to make the fans happy and you have to accept if you’re a fan that you can’t argue that point right now. You have to say that they’ve worked really hard and give us a dirt race, gave us more road courses, changed the championship format and different things over different years. I think that’s what we should all be positive about and look forward to is maybe everything is not perfect one year, but we’re at least investing our lives and our time and what we love into a sanctioning body that’s willing to keep working to be as good as it can be because it definitely is a hard job on their side. They go through a lot and I really like what they’ve done and the way they’ve worked over the last decade and a half to try to advance to the next era or whenever that might be. It’s definitely been very positive in my opinion. I’m a traditional guy, where I think we should celebrate like they do the 26-race champion. That’s the guy that was the best average for 26 races. He wins it. That should be a big deal and then you go into your 10 or 12 or 14 or whatever it is right now, it’s 10, that proves we have a playoff system that can be extremely exciting. The playoffs are really fun to watch in the NFL and there are two teams. Well, there’s anywhere from 16 to down to 4 depending on which race you watch, but there’s also 40 cars on the track, so there’s a lot of wildcards and things going on. I know it doesn’t always work out perfectly for everyone and can’t really. There’s only gonna be one person that’s extremely happy at the end of the year, but I think they’ve done the best they can do to have a year long champion, which ends at the 26-race mark, and then have your playoff races to pick up to make it extremely exciting for fans to look forward to and watch the knockout system.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE TECHNICAL ALLIANCE WITH SHR? “First of all, I love the challenge and I’m glad they’re that way. I may never have a chance to race equal to Kurt Busch and others that are superstars like him, but I am on the same track as them and I am trying to get there. It’s not something where I never at any level I was always elevated quicker in every series I ever ran. If it was go-karts, I was in a class higher than I was allowed to be in. I started super late models at 13 years old. I’ve always been way above where I should be and I’m used to feeling that and used to being under the gun and trying to figure out how to make more happen. I don’t want anything given to us from anyone. I want to race and earn it and work, and if I work the rest of my life and never get there I’m fine with that. I just want to work hard and try and I think that says what we need to say about where we’re at as a team and trying to be determined and work to get there. When we get there we did it and that would be the last thing I would ask for is for somebody to help us as far as making something easier because those guys race hard and I respect that. I’ve been around all the guys that run up front. They lap me. I think in my Cup race I’ll probably get lapped three to five times a race on average and I’ve watched what they do and I’ve tried to learn from them and it’s something I’m excited about. I’m glad they’re at the level they’re at and racing as hard as they do. I think the strategical alliance with SHR is a chance to develop this relationship between our team and theirs and try to over the next couple of years turn it into their biggest program and hopefully be, as far as what we can get with an alliance, make it their highest level and try to make it to where we can be – I honestly think once you get in the top 20 in Cup every week, you’re an extremely successful team. There are people in 25th that are successful teams, that may not reach a higher level because it’s extremely difficult. I say we get in the top 20, that’s a dream come true from us and then from there we’re gonna set goals to get in the top 15 and the top 10. That’s the quickest way for us to do it and really the only viable plan would be to have an attachment to someone that’s already got decades of experience to be able to elevate our program.”

WHAT NEW TRACK ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOST? “I’m saying the dirt race is gonna be something you’ve got to be attached to the TV. You can’t turn the channel, can’t walk away. You’ve got to have your drinks set up. That, to me, is the most entertaining. I can’t wait to see that go down because of the reason you just said. Like Kurt said he’s not gonna make it easy on any new team, I’ve hung out with Kurt a little bit and I can’t wait to see these guys take on the dirt race. It’s gonna be fun because they’re just gonna go out there and make it happen and I’m hoping we get a couple of dirt superstars over there, maybe that will happen and you can see them go head-to-head, but I think the NASCAR side of it is gonna be pretty incredible and the dirt race is gonna be a lot of fun to watch.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 2, 2020

JUSTIN MARKS AND PITBULL, CO-OWNERS OF TRACKHOUSE RACING, AND DANIEL SUAREZ, DRIVER OF THE NO. 99 CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 1LE FOR TRACKHOUSE RACING, met with media via teleconference in advance to the start of the 2021 season and the team’s debut in NASCAR Cup Series competition. Full Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: I would like to welcome you to today’s media availability with Trackhouse Racing. Pitbull, the Grammy-award winning superstar and co-owner of Trackhouse Racing is running a few minutes late. We’re also joined today by Justin Marks, the co-owner of Trackhouse Racing, and driver Daniel Suarez.

Justin, a lot of great news surrounding your race team as we head here into the 2021 season. Can you just talk a little bit about what you have going on and all the great developments that have taken place over the last few weeks?

JUSTIN MARKS: Thanks, everybody, for taking the time today. This is just a vision kind of coming together. I mean, this has been in the works for probably really two years now. So, for us to be able to put all the pieces together, to stay steadfastly committed to that vision and the goal of what we’re trying to build, to see it all come together here as we prepare to get ready for the Daytona 500 is pretty awesome, pretty special.

I mean, I made no secret from day one that what we were trying to accomplish here has to be a team that’s unique in its branding, that’s unique in its mission and the narrative around our activities, to try to communicate with fans and try to create content, try to create visual elements around this team that are unique and captivating and compelling for lots of fans.

I think we’ve done that so far. We’ve got some great partners and sponsors of the race team. Everybody’s excited to be a part of it. Yeah, it’s really nice. Seven days till unloading the cars down there so it’s getting pretty real.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions for both Justin and Danny. Pitbull will join us soon.

Q. Daniel, I wanted to ask you how this deal all came about involving Pitbull. He was quoted as saying NASCAR is not only a sport but a culture. How much of an influence do you think he will have as an owner with you and the Hispanic community as far as attracting new fans?
DANIEL SUAREZ: Yeah, well, it was extremely cool to hear how this was actually getting into shape. I have known Pitbull for a few years. We have some friends, good friends, in common, but I didn’t have a personal relationship with him at all.
When Justin mentioned to me the possibilities that there were out there, I tell you it was just amazing. I’m just extremely excited to have somebody like Pitbull part of this race organization, Trackhouse Racing, to help us take out of what Justin’s ambition is for this race team. That’s actually the reason why I am here as well.

Justin’s vision in the racetrack and outside the racetrack is extremely important. If Justin was only focusing in everything that is going on outside the racetrack with the STEM programs, helping the Latino community, et cetera, and not really caring much about the competition, I wouldn’t be here. Probably if he was only focusing on the competition without everything else that is outside the racetrack, probably I wouldn’t be here either.

It’s just a combination of things. I know Pitbull share the same ambition than Justin to try to help others and to change the way that people actually view the sport. Pitbull say something that I totally agree with, I didn’t even think about that in the past, is that NASCAR, other than an amazing sport, it’s also a culture thing. It’s extremely culture on how different generations, different families are so involved into the sport, not just as a sport.

I really think that he hit it right on the point. I’m really looking forward to doing amazing things with Trackhouse Racing, Justin, Ty Norris, and of course now Pitbull is onboard.

Q. Specifically, opening the door to the audience of the Hispanic community, which is more in line with F1 racing, to bring those fans to NASCAR.
DANIEL SUAREZ: Yeah, of course. NASCAR has no limits. Already we want to make this sport as wide as possible. We are not just talking about Mexico. We’re not just talking about Latin America. We’re talking about worldwide. Actually, that’s Pitbull’s nickname, Mr. Worldwide. So why not?
Pitbull is a Latino, like myself. I was amazed to know that his biggest fan base is actually not in the United States or not in Latin America. That tells you how big his impact that he’s going to be able to get for this racing, for this organization. Hopefully we can do an amazing things together.

Q. Could you discuss what it’s been like to be around Pitbull, how involved has he been so far, how involved does he expect to be going forward, your interactions with him.
JUSTIN MARKS: He’s one of these guys that really commands a room. He’s got such a big personality. He’s so passionate about his mission, the things he’s dedicated to, the places he’s trying to carve in the world.

He’s been fantastic from day one. Really from the first moment we sat down, started talking about it, it became apparent that our missions were aligned. There were so many elements of what both of us were trying to achieve that were consistent with each other, that it just felt so natural, serendipitous almost.
He’s been asking questions; he has been engaged and excited. I’ve been sending him pictures of the equipment coming together, the pit crew practicing, all that. He’s very, very excited. He’s looking forward to really helping out a lot, being an asset, being someone that can kind of take our platform to as many people globally as possible.

Obviously, he’ll be at Daytona, at Miami, a few more races this year. I think he’s kind of in a mode where he wants to learn. I think he’s humble enough to know that he’s got a lot to learn about this sport. But he’s been very engaged. He’s going to be a great partner.

Having somebody like that come in, sometimes it’s transactional in its nature. This has truly been a partnership among people that are passionate about the sport, passionate about the Trackhouse brand, and really want to contribute to seeing it all the way through, trying to make it as big as possible.

Q. Justin, along the lines of what you were saying, we have seen a lot of celebrity owners come in. They’re here to kind of generate sponsorship. Some of those work out, some of those don’t. Is this one aligned with trying to get sponsorship? Why should this one be different than some of the others we’ve seen?
JUSTIN MARKS: Well, like I said, I think a big part of it is the fact that we both have aligned passions and missions. I mean, one of the core components of Trackhouse is trying to find a way to make an impact in America’s minority youth communities. That’s through a STEM program that we’re putting together.

We want to cultivate great stories that inspire people. I mean, we’re storytellers, right? I think that’s evidenced by the fact that we’re turning impossible into possible. It’s that message that resonates with a lot of people. That’s something that’s important to Armando through his music and partnerships as well.
It’s so consistent with what we’re doing that it’s really about something bigger than sponsorships. It’s bigger than the race team, bigger than just the sport. It’s about storytelling, it’s about inspiring people.
Look, we have a driver who moved to America, whose dream it was to be a NASCAR driver in a sport where there had never been a Latino champion ever. He did it. You have Armando who grew up from very humbling beginnings in Miami, wanted to be a global icon, transcend his community, take his message to the world. Against great odds, he did that. That’s just kind of who we are, the story we’re trying to tell.

I think because it resonates so deeply with all of us, it’s going to be different than I think what you’ve seen in the past and I’m excited about it.

THE MODERATOR: Mr. Worldwide has joined us now. We will continue on with questions.

Q. Pitbull, in an interview with NPR a couple years ago you noted that you never looked at your life like it was rough because it was just your normality. As you’ve done various things to improve what some might think of their normality, how do you feel your role as a team owner in NASCAR can contribute to that and help drive that?
PITBULL: For one, I apologize for being a little late. Got caught up in a jam on the way here to the school. Good to see all the kids back in school, a lot of traffic out here. Number two, I want to say thank you to Justin and Daniel for the opportunity to be able to be a part of this.
When I was speaking about what my normal was, I thought that everybody was around violence, drug abuse, killings, murders, things of that nature. Growing up, I thought that was everybody’s normal in everybody’s city.

It’s when I started to venture out in different parts of my city to see that clearly wasn’t the normal. If I hear me in certain interviews, I’ve always spoken about I’ve grown up in good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, worse neighborhoods. The worst things I saw actually was in the good neighborhoods. What I mean by that is that’s where I saw most of the FBI when they would show up, ATF when they would show up, DEA when they would show up. Growing up like that is why I always speak about taking my life from a negative to a positive.

Getting involved in the team, I was hearing Justin speak before, this is deeper than sponsorships, this is a movement. This is a revolution/taking a sport and creating a culture because when we first opened SLAM, we had brought a NASCAR car to SLAM the first day eight years ago. If you would have seen the look on those kids’ faces when they saw that car, they just had no clue that it was actually something that was tangible.

Since that day is when I say, Wow. I’m a big believer in the law of attraction, I want to be involved. There’s no better time to be involved in NASCAR with Trackhouse, Daniel, Justin and Ty than now. It is all about creating awareness. In the same way that music is a universal language, I also see NASCAR as a universal language. Everybody loves a fast car and a great story, you know.

Q. Pitbull, you’ve done so many different things with your school and with SLAM. Why get involved in NASCAR now? Was there something about Daniel or Trackhouse that attracted you, or had you always wanted to be a sports team owner or specifically a NASCAR team owner?
PITBULL: Always wanted to be a team owner one way or other no matter the sport. NASCAR, I’ve been a fan of NASCAR since the movie Days of Thunder when I got a chance to see what it was about. I would say from that perspective.

As far as with Daniel, by default or design, I heard about Daniel 10 years ago through a friend of mine in Mexico named Carlos Slim Jr. He was talking to me about Daniel when he was about 17, 18 years old. He is a big, big fan. The Slim family are big racing fans.

I go back to law of attraction. Here I am 10 years later when I’ve also met Daniel at different concerts through a family that we also know, which is the (indiscernible) family. Now to be here next to him making history with Justin, Ty and Daniel.

For him I would say coming against all odds into the United States of America, coming from humble beginnings over in Mexico, to coming here and winning a race, which actually happened to be in Homestead, the stories run parallel. They coincide. It just makes sense because we’re all here for one reason and one reason only: to create awareness clearly for NASCAR, clearly for Trackhouse, but more than anything to show this brings people together.

If there’s anything we need in these times right now is something that unites people, not divides people. That’s what we’re here to do with this platform/opportunity.

Q. Daniel, how focused, how locked in have you been in this off-season to prepare? Justin told me a couple weeks ago that he’s very pleased with your focus, you doing everything you need to do to get ready for this opportunity.
DANIEL SUAREZ: Let me start with that question saying that this off-season has been probably the most productive I have had in a very, very long time. If we think back for the last few years, through the off-season, I’ve been trying to put my racing together, to work with a new people I’m going to have.
For the first time in actually a few years, I already knew since before the season was over exactly what I was going to be doing. When you are with that much time ahead, you can actually organize yourself, you can work hard, and you can put everything on perspective.

For me was extremely important obviously to get together with Justin, with Ty Norris, that made this happen, and put everything, our goals, perspective, how we’re going to be able to achieve these things.
As I mentioned before, everything that Justin, Ty, Pitbull now, want to do outside the racetrack is amazing. I love all those things. At the same time competition is extremely important for me. I know I can win races. I’ve done it before. Championships as well. I want to do that in the Cup level. That’s actually what I’m having for breakfast, lunch and dinner right now because that’s what I want to do. I want to prove out there what I’m capable of. That’s all I’m thinking right now.

I really want to go out there, compete, have fun, enjoy this time, and just enjoy the ride. You don’t have this opportunity to have an amazing team owner like Justin, with Pitbull now, Ty Norris, and Chevrolet, to go there and have fun and be competitive. So, I really feel like I’m in a very, very fortunate position. I’m really looking forward to make the most of it.

Q. Pitbull, you have such an incredibly powerful presence. Anyone who follows your music knows that. As I read the quotes about what you plan to do with the global demographic that’s ready to be inspired into action for themselves, I was motivated. When I hear you speak of it, it’s just unbelievable. What do you feel about being the grand marshal for the Daytona 500 and can you use that with your presence for the global initiative that you talk about?
PITBULL: I have a quote that I always say: why dream when you can live it? It just goes to show you. Justin was saying when he was speaking, he said we’re taking the impossible and making it possible. It’s something that my daughter taught me. She said if you take the word ‘impossible’, you put an apostrophe in it, it’s unpossible. You space it out.

It goes to show you through inspiring, no matter what, we’re always going to find a way to bring people together. That’s what I’m all about. Especially in these times we’re living in right now, as you can see in these times we’re living in right now, the most important is to let everybody know out there there’s only one most important race, it’s the human race. It was these races are about at this point, bringing the sport, creating the culture, letting everybody out there know through the races, through the cars, through our stories, we just want everybody out there to enjoy and we’re going to utilize it as a form of uniting everybody out there.

When Daniel, Ty and Justin and I sat down, clearly there’s no hidden agenda here, it’s all about winning, it’s all about creating a successful team, it’s all about creating sponsorship around Daniel, it’s about believing in Daniel. We all sat at the table wanting more than that. That to me is priceless. That to me is what this is all about.

That’s why I wanted to get involved, because I see it’s a higher calling. It’s about utilizing the culture, creating the culture through NASCAR to bring people together. I know it because I live it, I’ve seen it. Music is a universal language. When I’m out there performing for everybody, it doesn’t matter whether you speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, if you are black, white, pink, purple or orange, it doesn’t matter. We all speak music when we’re there.

When it comes to NASCAR, we watch the cars race, it’s about letting everyone know no matter what in life, if you focus, you work hard for it, you can achieve it. That’s my story and Daniel’s story. That’s why we appreciate Justin and Ty investing in us as far as believing in us. And we’re here to win and show everybody in the world how to bring everybody together through NASCAR and Trackhouse.

Q. Pitbull, back to the STEM aspirations. Was that really the selling point for you in this partnership? How do you hope the STEM program aligns with your STEM schools?
PITBULL: It was absolutely the selling point. If you’ve seen what I put in the last eight years in education, I never put my face next to anything for propaganda. There has to be the grassroots of it, something that’s real. Because if it’s not real, clearly we’re going to see that in the near future, which is not going to be the case. We’re all here, we’re all on the same page, all about an initiative of bringing everybody together, utilizing, like I said before, our stories of basically from nothing to something, from negative to positive, and how we can utilize the platform of NASCAR to do so.

Now, one of the neighborhoods I come from in Miami is Wynwood. There’s a big slogan in Wynwood that says: Don’t talk about it, be about it. There’s one thing, I’m always here to be about it. That’s why I’m having this conversation/interview from one of our schools in Miami, in one of my old neighborhoods. On this block we have close to three thousand kids right now just in this one school.

It’s to take the same thing we’ve done in education, music, business, apply it to what we’re about to do in NASCAR and Trackhouse and watch Daniel win some races and bring it home (laughter).

Q. Pitbull, you’ve talked about you like the movie Days of Thunder. That drew you to NASCAR. Other movies about NASCAR, they tend to be stereotypical, southern, white. What did you like about the movie? What do you like about NASCAR and why it appealed to you?
PITBULL: What I love about NASCAR is the ultimate underdog story. I’m your ultimate underdog, you know. When you’re an underdog, you got a chip on your shoulder. You’re a fighter, you’re a champion, and you welcome failure. What I mean by that, failure becomes the mother of your success.
I tell people all the time there’s no losing, only learning; no failure, only opportunities; no problems, just solutions.

When I saw the movie, I love documentaries, when I saw a documentary that was actually called Blink of an Eye, I relate to that fight. I relate to being in those positions where people think there’s no way you’re going to make it out of this. Not only do I relate, I respect for what those drivers go through, how they have to be so mentally fit, that no matter what, look at it and go, we’re going to get through this one way or another. That is the sign of a true champ. That’s why I relate to it the most. And the negative-to-positive story.

Q. How involved do you think you’ll be with the team? How will you maybe be more successful than other celebrity owners? You and Daniel, can you team together and further broaden NASCAR’s audience?
PITBULL: Oh, we definitely will, as we already have to a certain extent.
Number two, we are fully involved with the team and committed to the team since the minute that we ended up doing this deal and it was signed, sealed and delivered. All we’ve done basically is each team speaking to each other on how we’re going to continue to move this forward, coming up with innovative, untraditional and unconventional ideas and ways to go back to take it from a sport and create a culture around it.

I’m going to circle back because I want to make sure by the time we finish this interview, it’s programmed in you guys. The reason that I got involved in this is because there was a greater initiative. The greater initiative is what we need more than ever, especially in these times. I’ll say it again: One race, one race only, the human race. If we can do it through music, through NASCAR, by entertaining, motivating and inspiring them, then that’s what I signed up for.

Just to make it clear, I’m far from a celebrity. That I’m not. I’m a hard, hard worker. Big difference. Celebrities will sell anything. I’m not here to sell anything. I’m here to help the culture, help unify, more than anything help motivate and inspire those through my story, through Daniel’s story, Justin’s story, Ty’s story and NASCAR’s story.

Q. Justin and Daniel, can you talk about that. You want the team to be bigger than racing. Daniel, how does Pitbull help you with your platforms?
DANIEL SUAREZ: For me, like I said before, I just feel extremely fortunate. Actually, I mentioned this in Spanish. I’ll repeat my answer in English.

The people that know me closely, they know that I’ve been working extremely hard throughout my career, not just to be successful in the racetrack, but also to be successful outside the racetrack. What that means?

Seven, eight years ago I was thinking to myself, okay, I’m the only Mexican, the only Latino in NASCAR, the only guy that can speak Spanish. If I don’t try to do something to bring Latinos to the racetrack, who is going to do it?

In that day I start working with NASCAR to try to do different things, to try to bring Latinos in the racetrack. That’s when Daniel’s Amigos was born. That’s what we started to try to do different things, programs to bring Latinos to the racetrack.

At the same time competition is number one. Competition for me is the first step that everything has to come after that. If you’re successful on the racetrack, you can do everything else. It makes your life easier everything else.

All this work I’ve been doing with NASCAR, with some of my sponsors that have helped me through all this, especially Coca-Cola, now having Pitbull onboard in a race team with Justin Marks and Ty Norris is something huge. He’s not called Mr. Worldwide just because of nothing, you know. He’s extremely well-known worldwide. The Latino community love him.

I think he’s a huge plus, a huge help to have someone like Pitbull super close to a race team to help us in many, many things. But obviously just to bring the community together and to bring more Latinos to this racetrack, to this team, make this team something different, something young, something cool, something modern, that’s something we are trying to do.

JUSTIN MARKS: You asked about aligned visions. In the early stages of sort of envisioning what Trackhouse is going to be, how we were going to be different than traditional racing teams, how we were going to build a platform that was viable for the future long-term, it became very clear early on that we wanted a cause marketing, a philanthropic community involvement element of our team that wasn’t an afterthought, that was really deeply intertwined in the DNA of the company.

I think as sort of Armando alluded to, people talk about here, we’re entering an era where it’s becoming more and more important for companies in this country to make sure they’re giving to the community, they’re empowering the next generation of people, an element of what they do makes America a better place. That goes from the sandwich shop on the corner to Amazon and everything in between. Everybody shares a responsibility.

We’re like the luckiest people on earth because we get to go to a racetrack and put racecars on the racetrack. I think if we’re going to have such a tremendous opportunity to do that, we need to make it a core fundamental element of our team that we’re doing some good in the world, we’re giving back to the world.

I think that aligns so well, you’ve heard how passionately Armando talks about this with what he’s doing with his SLAM schools, wonderful schools in their own, but part of a bigger nationwide network of schools that allows us to build a STEM education experience for underrepresented minority youth or youth in general in this country that wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to be exposed to that. We can really scale that over time.

Using NASCAR as the platform, Trackhouse as the platform, I think we’re in the early stages of discussing it. I think the definition of success at least early on will be a STEM discipline experience set up at each and every one of Armando’s schools, having thousands and thousands of kids be able to be exposed to this and use NASCAR to say there is so much opportunity in this world, you can be engineers, mathematicians, scientists, build thing. Not just STEM by design, finance, entrepreneurism, all that.

Without being too long winded here, it goes back to the fact that we have a responsibility as people, we have a responsibility as companies in America to make sure not only are we building a successful enterprise, but we’re building something to empower the next generation of people and we’re leaving a legacy. I think that’s so consistent with what’s important to Armando, the partnership makes sense. I think there’s so much opportunity for us in the future.

PITBULL: Well said.

Q. Justin, what are the biggest challenges you face as a new team to be competitive and win races beyond the message? How is your Spanish shaping up?
JUSTIN MARKS: I told Daniel, I said, you come drive for me, I’ll learn Spanish. I’m in the early stages. Not only do I have a driver, but I have a partner. They can’t start talking in Spanish at the meetings and me not know what they’re talking about.

Yeah, no, look, NASCAR, obviously it’s a very competitive form of motorsport, most competitive form of motorsport in the world, I believe. I have experience owning race teams before, never at this level. I’m leaning on that experience in communicating with the guys, with the pit crew, the mechanics, engineers, everybody at the race team, making sure that they’re appreciated, empowered, that they have an opportunity to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

Having this NextGen car getting delayed to 2022 sort of is a blessing in disguise for us because it gives us an opportunity to really build our team, to build our culture, and to just develop our relationships, Daniel’s relationships with Travis, the pit crew finding continuity and working together, so when that new car comes this fall leading into next year, we’re a cohesive group, we can focus on trying to make sure that race car is as fast as possible. That’s the work right now.

I think we’re going to learn a lot. I have to learn a lot. I’m learning every day. I’m very fortunate to have a guy like Ty Norris working at Trackhouse because he’s got many years of experience in this sport and can make sure that I’m thinking the right way about certain things, putting stuff on my plate that I didn’t necessarily think was an element of NASCAR racing, and helping guide me through that.
Look, we’re here for a long time. I’m trying to build one of the next great NASCAR teams. I think that means at this stage making sure that we get a group of people that work well together and we focus on making sure that that group is cohesive and is building relationships with each other. I think that’s the most important thing right now.

We start getting to the racetrack, start racing, we’ll work on all the racing stuff, but it’s about that next car, building the Trackhouse framework so we’re successful for a long time.

PITBULL: As far as Justin, he’s already halfway there because he looks like he’s Canelo’s cousin, for real (laughter).

JUSTIN MARKS: That’s the first thing he said to me when he walked in at lunch.

PITBULL: Number two, it goes to show you that exactly what we’re doing with the team, the diversity through the team, whether it’s Daniel being from Mexico, coming over to the United States, me being first-generation Cuban-American, what my family did as far as fleeing Communism from Cuba, for me to enjoy the beautiful thing called freedom here in the USA.

To be with Justin and Ty, it already shows you we’re leading by example. All of us are coming from different places, but all of us are aligned on one goal. Obviously, there’s no hidden agenda, we want to win, we want to make sure we create a very successful team, but creating legacy at the same time that we’re all about giving back, motivating and inspiring and creating that culture, letting people know, and also educating folks on what NASCAR is, the history of NASCAR. Also, I’m learning every day more and more about NASCAR as well, as I will about the car, as I will about the driver, as we will as far as from the investments and all that.

The reason when we sat down that really motivated me about this opportunity was just that there was that greater initiative. For one, that’s priceless. That’s how you become living legends and leave behind an amazing legacy. For me bottom line, living is giving.

Q. Armando, I understand the missions with the school and STEM, the desire to unify people, the cultural aspects of NASCAR. There’s a lot of race teams out there that you probably could have been a part of. How did you even hear about these guys? How did they get in the same room as you to pitch you on this?
PITBULL: As we started this interview, I told you I’m a big believer in the law of attraction. I happened to be up in North Carolina having a conversation with someone named Pam Miller. I was talking to her about what NASCAR meant to the kids when they first saw it here in SLAM in Miami eight years ago. She was talking to me about a documentary she was working on.

As we kept talking about different ways to be able to educate the public on NASCAR and hearing about how they wanted to diversify as far as when it came to culture, utilizing the sport on bringing everybody together, that’s how it all came about. Really Pam is the one that connected us, seeing that our visions aligned.

I would say about a week later we were all together in Miami, sat down. Daniel, I knew through a family years ago and was spoken to me about him and his career from Carlos Slim Jr. which is a friend of mine down in Mexico. When all of this came together, we sat down, it was just bigger — it wasn’t just we have to have a winning team, we got to do the sponsorship, got to create this. I was like, Look, we’re going to do that, okay? Really what this is about is this: How do we make this something more powerful? How do we make this so it’s historical and how do we make this so we break barriers, boundaries, limits, bringing everybody together through this?

That’s what made me think, this is what I want to be involved in. I tell people all the time, I wouldn’t want a billion-dollar business and have a trillion-dollar headache. It’s all about the people that you are with, it’s about the journey.

Daniel was saying this in Spanish. It’s about the team, the environment that you’re around. If you’re around a great environment, a positive environment, a winning environment, but an environment that wants to give back and understand that’s what life is really all about. They say: Why say that the sky is the limit when you know there’s footprints on the moon? We’re on the way to the moon with Trackhouse (laughter).

DANIEL SUAREZ: Vamos.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time for joining us this. Pitbull, you’re going to be saying the command to start the 63rd running of the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. That’s got to be cool.

PITBULL: It’s an amazing honor. I look forward to it. Like I said, not that I hope, I know what we’re going to do is, man, it’s history in the making, bottom line. You’re going to hear me at Daytona.
Thank you, guys. Stay blessed, God bless. See you all soon.

DANIEL SUAREZ: Stay safe everyone.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 75 countries with nearly 4 million cars and trucks sold in 2019. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found www.chevrolet.com.

CINCINNATI AND FREIGHTLINER EXPAND PROGRAMS

CONCORD, N.C. (Feb. 2, 2021) – Two existing Hendrick Motorsports partners have joined the organization’s No. 5 NASCAR Cup Series team with driver Kyle Larson beginning in 2021.

This season, machine tool maker Cincinnati Inc. and heavy-duty truck manufacturer Freightliner will expand their NASCAR programs to become primary sponsors of the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for two races each and be featured as full-time associate sponsors of the team.

“We’re pleased to have Cincinnati and Freightliner grow their respective partnerships with us,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “The best way we can show our appreciation is with high performance on and off the racetrack. NASCAR has tremendous momentum going into 2021, and Kyle and the No. 5 crew will certainly be one of the most exciting teams to watch this year. We look forward to seeing Cincinnati and Freightliner at the front of the field with them.”

Cincinnati joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2019 following a landmark 10-year agreement. With the addition of primary sponsorship of the No. 5 team, the leading machine tool manufacturer has grown its racing program for the 2021 season. Cincinnati is Hendrick Motorsports’ Official Metal Fabrication and Additive Equipment Provider.

“We are very happy to announce the expansion of our NASCAR program in 2021,” said Tim Warning, president and CEO of Cincinnati Inc. “Our entire team takes great pride in knowing that Cincinnati machines contribute to the success of Hendrick Motorsports on the racetrack, including last year’s Cup Series championship. It was also extremely powerful to see the Cincinnati car in victory lane at Auto Club Speedway in 2020, which ignited incredible enthusiasm inside our company and with our customers. We’re looking forward to building a strong relationship with Kyle and sharing in the excitement of winning more races with the No. 5 team.”

With a three-year contract renewal through 2023, Freightliner will become a Hendrick Motorsports primary sponsor for the first time. Since 2004, the team has trusted Freightliner’s efficient and reliable trucks to transport race cars and equipment to NASCAR events across the country, logging more than 4 million miles on the road. It is the leading brand of heavy-duty trucks in North America.

“We take great pride in growing our relationship with Hendrick Motorsports and expanding our support of Kyle Larson and his team,” said Pete Hobbs, Freightliner’s vice president of on-highway market development. “Freightliner is dedicated to delivering efficiency and performance to our customers, and it’s how we set the pace for the rest of our industry. We look forward to cheering on the No. 5 this season.”

Larson, 28, has won more than 250 events across a variety of sanctioning bodies and vehicle styles. The Elk Grove, California, native began driving at age 7 and has raced stock cars, winged and non-winged sprint cars, karts, trucks, and sports cars. Larson made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2013 and was named its 2014 rookie of the year in his first full-time season.

“I’m excited Cincinnati and Freightliner have increased their partnership with Hendrick Motorsports and are now part of the No. 5 team,” said Larson, who signed with Hendrick Motorsports in October and will be paired with crew chief Cliff Daniels. “Cliff has built a team that I know can battle for wins on a weekly basis. With the support of great partners like Cincinnati and Freightliner, I can’t wait to get back to the track and go to work. It’s great to have them along for the ride.”

Dates for the Cincinnati and Freightliner events have not been determined. NationsGuard will be primary sponsor of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team in the Feb. 14 season-opening DAYTONA 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX), along with Feb. 21 at the DAYTONA Road Course and Feb. 28 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

ABOUT CINCINNATI INC.:
Cincinnati Incorporated (CI) is a U.S.-based manufacturer of metal fabrication machinery and has shipped close to 60,000 machines in its 120 years of operation. On its 80-acre campus in Harrison, Ohio, sits a 500,000-square-foot plant, which manufactures CNC laser cutters, press brakes, shears, automation, powder metal presses, and additive manufacturing equipment. Learn more at www.e-ci.com or engage on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

ABOUT FREIGHTLINER TRUCKS:
Freightliner Trucks is a division of Daimler Trucks North America LLC, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and is the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America. Daimler Trucks North America produces and markets Class 5-8 trucks and is a Daimler company, the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer. More information is available at www.Freightliner.com.

ABOUT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
Founded by Rick Hendrick in 1984, Hendrick Motorsports has earned 263 points-paying race victories and a record 13 car owner championships in the premier NASCAR Cup Series. The organization fields four full-time Chevrolet teams on the Cup circuit with drivers Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Alex Bowman. Headquartered in Concord, North Carolina, Hendrick Motorsports employs more than 600 people. For more information, please visit HendrickMotorsports.com or interact on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.