Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Media Day | Thursday, February 4, 2021
ANTHONY ALFREDO, No. 38 Speedy Cash Ford Mustang – WHAT’S IT LIKE FOR A YOUNG DRIVER LIKE YOURSELF TO MARKET YOURSELF AND YOUR BRAND? “It’s very important and that’s something I’ve put a lot of work into since I started racing, especially as I started progressing through the ranks and I was fortunate to be a part of the NASCAR Next program, where I think we first met Kasey, so that was huge for me to learn more of the business side of things, especially from NASCAR’s perspective and what they expect out of the drivers and what teams and sponsors look for, so I’ve always tried to do my best to stand out, maybe do some things that are a little bit unorthodox, in a good way, more unique. Some of the things I do like my YouTube channel, my Twitch channel I don’t do them because of that, I actually just really enjoy it and I like doing it and it just so happens to work out that I’m building my brand and being a little bit more well-rounded on other platforms. So, I think it’s worked out, but I’m gonna definitely continue to work hard on that, especially for all of our new partners this year that helped make all this come together.”
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE INTENSITY IN THE CUP SERIES? “Of course I’ve thought about it. It’s a huge step for myself and my career and to be competing against childhood heroes of mine, guys who have been racing not only in their career but in this series since before I was born or maybe one years old. I think guys like Newman have been in the series since I was one or two, so there are a lot of veterans out there and I know that they have a tremendous amount of experience in general in racing, let alone just this level, so I’m looking forward to learning from them. It’s gonna be a challenge to compete with them on a regular basis, but that’s what probably has me most psyched about this year. I’ve always been one willing to learn new things and I think competing against guys that have that much experience is just gonna make me that much better of a driver and I’m going into the year knowing there’s gonna be a learning curve. The competition aspect is obviously going to be the most competitive I’ve ever experienced because it’s the highest level of stock car racing and the premier series of our sport, but that’s what’s gonna make this whole year really cool.”
HAVE YOU SET ANY GOALS FOR 2021? “It’s gonna be exciting for the fans, probably the most exciting for them just because of the fact that there are all these new teams you mentioned and some people from outside the industry coming in as team owners or in new roles, drivers going to new teams and all this, and rookies like myself coming into the series, so it’s gonna be a really cool year to watch and from a driver perspective it’s gonna be really neat to be a part of. And I think the landscape is gonna continue to change a lot this year with all the new tracks we’re going to and, of course with the new Cup car, the NEXT Gen car coming out in 2022, so that’s probably gonna be even more exciting for everyone in the industry, including the fans because a lot just changed this year, but even more is gonna change next year and I think it’s really cool what NASCAR has been doing to innovate and help grow this sport. Hopefully, people like myself can bring some new fans to the sport, just being from a town where racing wasn’t very popular and to be racing at this level hopefully some childhood friends or kids I went to school with and stuff like that are now maybe NASCAR fans.”
HOW MUCH HAVE YOU GOTTEN TO KNOW MICHAEL MCDOWELL? “I’ve gotten to know Michael a lot recently. We’ve talked pretty much every day, at the very least texted, and he’s been a really great teammate to lean on, definitely one of the most outgoing drivers I’ve ever met and probably one of the most outgoing people in the industry, so he’s definitely lived up to what everyone else has told me about him and I’m thankful to have him as a teammate because I’m looking forward to leaning on him throughout the year and his racing experience as well as his road course experience because he has a lot of experience there and he’s very competitive and I think that’s gonna help me a lot since the road courses are arguably my weakest point going into the year just because of my lack of road course experience in general. I’ve been iRacing a little bit and just getting to know each other, working on the simulator together with Ford and our team here at Front Row Motorsports and building chemistry before the season starts.”
WILL DAVID RAGAN SERVE AS A DRIVER COACH FOR YOU? “I would say so. I met David the other day and he was super friendly. Him and Michael both are gonna be great teammates and hopefully David can race his way into the 500, so that we have three Front Row race cars competing in the race, along with many other Ford Mustangs. It’s gonna be really cool to hopefully have that group together and put ourselves in contention or in a good spot to have a successful run in the Daytona 500 as well as other races throughout the year. I think even when David is not in the car he’s gonna be a very valuable asset to Michael and I both and this whole organization, so we can lean on him for just information from his experience and much more.”
WILL THE 38 CHARTER STAY IN HOUSE? “Yes.”
WHAT SCHEDULE CHANGE EXCITES YOU THE MOST? “As far as all the new tracks go, to be completely honest I’m really excited about the Bristol Dirt Race. I know that sounds crazy because I’ve never raced on dirt, but that’s what has me so excited about it and I’m really pumped to be a part of that inaugural event, especially for the race fans because what better place to have a wild and just super cool event like a dirt race than Bristol, where the energy is just electric. I’m looking forward to being a part of that and I think one that stands out to me that I hope to perform well at as I get better on these road courses and working with Michael the Indianpolis Motor Speedway road course sticks out just because I was fortunate enough to race there in the XFINITY Series last year, so hopefully my little bit of familiarity with the track allows us to have a little bit of an advantage going into that race as well.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY DIRT RACING SCHEDULED BEFORE BRISTOL? “Not scheduled. Concrete as of now. I’m definitely gonna try to, but at the very least I’ve been wearing out my sim seats driving simulator on iRacing just to get something going.”
HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ANY FORD SIMULATOR TIME? “I’ve actually been with Ford on the simulator weekly so far and I’m going back this afternoon once I finish up with all of our Daytona 500 media stuff, so that’s been a huge help to be in the simulator regularly and learn these Cup cars. As you mentioned, there is a big difference from everything else I’ve driven. I would say the little bit of laps I’ve been able to make so far at some of the intermediate tracks is where I could really notice a difference in the Cup car. Of course, it’s a higher downforce package and a little bit less horsepower, whereas an XFINITY car is much lower downforce even on the intermediates. But on the road course, we’re testing that low downforce package getting ready for those races this season and that’s where you really tell the horsepower and downforce ratio kind of stands out and I’m sure the same will be the case for the road course. But I’m definitely putting in a lot of laps and getting experience to be prepared.”
HAVE YOU HAD ANY AHA MOMENTS YET ABOUT NOW BEING A CUP DRIVER? “Yeah, it hits me once in a while for sure. To be completely honest, I don’t think it has set in fully yet and it probably won’t until I strap into my Speedy Cash Ford Mustang down at Daytona, but just a couple calls we’ve had with NASCAR and there’s a driver group chat for reminders of stuff and just to be in the same group chat with guys I grew up watching on TV is pretty neat.”
WHAT ABOUT MAKING THIS LEAP FELT RIGHT EVEN IF IT IS A BIG JUMP? “I think the biggest thing was, obviously I’ve heard Corey LaJoie even mention on the radio and when I was on with him how you can’t pass up the opportunity to race on Sunday and that’s definitely true and that’s not because of the excitement as a driver and you just want to compete at the Cup Series level, it’s really because of our partners looking for the most exposure possible for them. Of course, this great team at Front Row Motorsports looking for someone young like myself that can hopefully start to build a future in this sport and find a home for myself at this point in my career. But what really stuck out to me is just being able to run fulltime and to do it with the largest schedule in NASCAR, if you will, is huge for me to develop, grow and just get overall experience. So, I’m looking forward to learning and being able to compete every week. Running part-time, sometimes you have a good run and you have to wait a couple weeks and you kind of lose that momentum, and if you have a bad run and you’re off for a couple weeks you can’t go out the next week and try to rebound. So, I’m looking forward to being able to do that a lot of times this year, probably all the races combined in the Cup schedule is probably as many XFINITY and truck races put together I’ve run, which sounds a little wild to say, but, like I said, it’s a great opportunity and I have amazing people who believe in me, so I’m very thankful for that and that boosts my confidence in itself. This wasn’t an easy decision that I made by myself by any means. It goes back to Team Dillon Management, Austin Craven, all of our partners, my family, previous team owners I’ve driven for and many more.”
DO YOU VIEW BEING WITH FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS IS A TEAM WHERE YOU CAN BUILD A PROGRAM AND MAKE IT A LONG-TERM HOME FOR YOU? “Yeah, absolutely and we’ve seen the progression of the team throughout recent years. Of course, our alliance with Roush Fenway Racing and support from Ford Performance, I think there’s a great future ahead, especially when the new Cup car comes out next year. I think the NEXT Gen car has everyone in the industry pretty optimistic, especially us here at Front Row Motorsports, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. We’re gonna take it one race at a time and focus on this year ahead.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOURSELF IF YOU COULD GO BACK FIVE YEARS? “The best piece of advice is probably just take advantage of every opportunity you’ve had. I think I’ve done that as I’ve gone, but I would go back and do that all over again and that’s something I always tell young drivers. There are a lot of younger drivers that I’ve tried to help out or people that reach out on social media and they might be racing late models or even Legends cars and I just tell them I think one thing I’ve learned the last couple years is running part-time has humbled me in a way that when races can become few and far between at times you learn to make the most out of every single one, so that’s what I always tell them. If you go out there and run every lap like it’s your last, you gave it your best effort and no matter where you finish you can sleep well at night knowing you did all you could.”
WHAT’S THE NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE YOU’VE SEEN RUNNING A CUP CAR IN iRACING VERSUS THE FORD SIMULATOR? “The biggest thing so far is just those simulators are a little bit more intricate and have more features that make it a little bit more realistic, but to be completely honest my sim seats driving simulator is pretty advanced. I have D-Box technology haptics on it, so it moves all the same ways. It’s a full haptic simulator and iRacing has just continued to evolve and become more and more accurate, so it’s actually way closer than I’d ever expected. Obviously, I’d raced a Cup car before in iRacing and that was one of the things I was most excited about in the Ford sim was to see how it compared and it compares pretty well.”
HOW HAS RACING ON THE A-CLASS AND PRO INVITATIONAL WITH iRACING HELPED YOU IN GETTING READY FOR YOUR ROOKIE SEASON? “I think the Pro Invitational Series itself was unique because we got to race against the same people we race against in real life, so it’s kind of funny to see how some people approach that, or maybe they race similarly to how they would in real life, so that was kind of cool to know who you were racing around. And it was super competitive. I put a lot of hours into each event and worked hard with some guys at Lockdown Racing, like Jimmy Mullis and Zack Novak, who race in the Coke Series on iRacing, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, so that was a huge help for me to get better in iRacing, but of course from a competitive standpoint know some of the guys that I was racing against in real life.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE THE PLAYOFF FORMAT IN NASCAR? “I think it makes it really exciting for the fans especially, as well as the race teams. It’s a whole different aspect and definitely makes it, I wouldn’t say necessarily more challenging, it’s just a different challenge. They’re just two completely different formats and I think it’s made it pretty neat to see guys get eliminated from their shot at a championship as the season goes on, and it’s a season long effort because guys can try to win a race to lock themselves in and if they win early they can work on just trying to get better for when the playoffs begin, but then once the playoffs start it’s like starting from scratch and every round you’re essentially starting from scratch, just trying to make it to the end. I think it’s a pretty neat aspect and so far I think the fans have liked it and it’s definitely something cool and with the stage racing even playing a factor it’s added a whole new aspect for the drivers too.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN RIDGEFIELD, CT? “Growing up in Ridgefield was awesome. I’d love to do it all over again. I met some great people and good friends of mine that I still stay in touch with to this day even though once I got into high school and started racing I ended up doing school online and was traveling a lot. It’s a great town and it’s where I grew up. My family is not far from there. All of my family is either in Connecticut or New York, but as far as how I became a race fan in a town where it wasn’t as popular was just from my parents. They were going to races long before I was born. I just posted for my mom’s birthday the other day a picture of her at the Richard Petty Experience before I was alive, so it’s pretty neat. We’ve got a different perspective of this sport and I have my own appreciation, so to speak, when I go to the racetrack because I was a fan before I was a driver and I think it’s a pretty relatable story for a lot of people.”
WHO GAVE YOU YOUR NICKNAME? “The big thing with Fast Pasta actually started at Hickory Motor Speedway in my first year of racing. I was racing limited late models at the time for Lee Faulk Racing and I think it was Trevor Townsend was the announcer at the time and he had called me over the loudspeaker there and it ended up just sticking all the way through my career and here we are now from the regional level to the highest level of NASCAR and Fast Pasta has grown more than I ever could have imagined.”
WOULD YOU HAVE BELIEVED BEING IN THE CUP SERIES FULL-TIME IN 2021 WAS A POSSIBILITY IF SOMEONE MENTIONED IT TO YOU A YEAR AGO AT THIS TIME? “Probably not. I had no idea. I’m just so thankful. I feel very blessed and definitely wasn’t sure what was gonna happen, but I felt like I had a great year last year and I was just hoping things would come full circle because of putting the effort forward and all the people who have been by my side throughout my career. Of course, like I mentioned earlier, Team Dillon Management and Austin Craven have worked really hard for me to help me find a home and all that hard work has been paying off and I feel like this is really just the beginning now of something much larger.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang – WHERE DO YOU FEEL FRONT ROW FITS THIS YEAR? “I feel Front Row, for us last year we feel like we made a pretty big gain just from overall competitiveness and speed in our race cars, and with the quote-unquote development freeze that NASCAR has put into place we feel like that has really helped us a lot because in year’s past you would kind of start the year off and feel like you’re somewhat close, but then by the middle to the end of the year you just felt like you’ve lost some to the competition, where last year we felt like we were able to keep up quite a bit throughout the year. And then going into the offseason knowing that there’s not big fundamental changes not only for us but also our competitors you know that allows us to work on the details and make our race cars a little bit lighter and a little bit faster and not having to develop new clips and new parts and pieces and doing all those things that we sort of fall behind as a medium-sized organization, so I feel like we have the potential to be more competitive this year than we even were last year, but you just never know until you get to the racetrack.”
WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE AS A DRIVER? ARE YOU AT THE RIGHT INTERSECTION OR A PRIME INTERSECTION IN YOUR CAREER? “I definitely think so. You feel that way. I’m sure if you asked everybody they’d probably feel that way, but I do believe that experience is such a big part of this sport and with my background in open-wheel cars and sports cars when I was young, it was just go as hard as you can and as fast as you can and use the downforce and utilize the brakes and you could push yourself and take chances to find speed, where in our Cup cars you really have to be smooth and you have to be methodical and you can’t overwork the tire and you really have to understand the car well and understand the tracks and the tires and as the lines change and as you get into long runs, so experience is such a big part of our sport that I feel like I’m in a good spot with that. More than anything is just as I’m getting more confident and comfortable and have that experience, our race cars are getting faster at the same time, so that combination has been good for me for sure.”
DO YOU THINK THE NEXT GEN CAR WILL EVEN THINGS UP FOR MID-SIZED TEAMS? “I definitely hope so. I feel like it has the potential to do that. I think if you look just in general the top teams, I feel like, will always be the top teams. There are several of them in our sport, but even if you just take the Indy Car model of a standardized chassis and standardized body parts and stuff like that you still have your elite teams in Team Penske and Ganassi. Those teams are still at the top, but the thing that gives me hope with this NEXT Gen car is that Dale Coyne with Sebastien Bourdais at the right track on the right day hit the setup right they can win a race, where right now I don’t feel like a mid-level team can win a race even at a road course or superspeedway. So I do feel like the NEXT Gen car will level that playing field. I think your top teams will always be your top teams, but on a given day if you hit it right and everything goes your way, you should have the opportunity and the potential to win, so hopefully the NEXT Gen car will provide that.”
WHAT IS LIFE LIKE AS A MID-LEVEL TEAM TRYING TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT? “For me, it’s a lot of fun because on those good days where you sneak out a top 10 or a top five you really feel like you’ve accomplished something, and then you obviously have those ups-and-downs, on those days where you run twenty-something you can kind of brush it off and get ready for the next week. But just seeing the steady progression for us is what I think is the motivator. Last year, you always have high expectations, but when you actually go out there and perform we started to feel like, ‘Hey, we can do this. We can run 15th every week and we can beat two or three of these big teams and do it on a weekly basis.’ So that was a lot of fun and very rewarding and hopefully we can keep that going into 2021 as well.”
HOW TOUGH IS IT ADJUSTING TO ALL THE NEW TEAMMATES YOU’VE HAD THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS? “I’ve had a rookie with me the last three years with Matt Tifft, John Hunter and now Anthony. I feel like it’s been different this time with Anthony. I’m not really sure why, I just think his personality, his eagerness to learn and really his greenness, just being a legit rookie with not a lot of experience it’s been fun to help him and work with him. Right before we did this I was just talking to him about some of the stuff we’ve got going on this week with simulation and just working through things he needs to think about and things that don’t pop up until you get in the race and it’s too late. So it’s nice to help guys be able to shorten that learning curve and really with him it’s been pretty easy just because he’s so eager to learn, easy to get along with and very respectful and humble, so it’s been fun.”
WHAT HAS THE LOVE’S RELATIONSHIP MEANT TO YOU? “For Front Row Love’s has been just a central partner, the backbone of the program. The 34 car and the 38 car when David Gilliland was in it has had Loves’s as a primary for over half the races since they’ve come onto the team. So just to have a core partner like that is super important for the growth of our race team and just the progression of our race team. For me personally, to come to Front Row and get to drive the Love’s car, I took that as a badge of honor. When I came to the team as a rookie and got to drive the Love’s car I really felt that pressure of carrying the Love’s brand and the banner for the race team and to grow that relationship with them and to continue to represent them, and then for them to be such a big brand. They’re an iconic American brand. They’re a family brand and we’re a mid-level team, so it’s an honor to have partner like that, that has just been the backbone of this organization. It’s great to continue that and hopefully we’ll get to continue that for another 10 years.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SCHEDULE CHANGES? “I love the changes. You mentioned the Bristol Dirt one and that’s probably my least favorite one out of all of them, but obviously with road courses I’m really looking forward to getting to Road America and to Austin to COTA and to Indianapolis and now we have the Daytona Road Course again as well. I’m excited about our schedule. It’s gonna be a lot of fun and some great opportunities for us. Bristol Dirt is definitely gonna be a tough one for me with not a lot of dirt racing background, but I’m doing my homework and putting in the time and it’s an opportunity race just like Bristol always is, but we did definitely lose a couple of good tracks that typically you wouldn’t look at and circle those as good tracks and Bristol was one of them and Indianapolis was one of them as well. The road course will be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to that, so the schedule and, for me, it’s just exciting to mix it up and to have new tracks and I feel like the road courses are great opportunities for us, so we’re definitely looking forward to this season.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOURSELF IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME A COUPLE OF YEARS? “I think the biggest thing that you can’t always hit the reset button, but if I could go back to my rookie season I would just enjoy it a lot more. I had so much pressure that I put on myself and outward pressure as well from the team and sponsor and manufacturer, but just in particular myself. I just felt like I needed to achieve and probably expected more out of myself than was really fair for a rookie coming into the Cup Series. So, I didn’t enjoy that first year as much as I should have. Going to Daytona for the first time or going to Indianapolis and the Brickyard for the first time and experiencing that. I didn’t take in the experience because I was so consumed with the result and performance, which is a part of our sport, but I didn’t take the time to really take in how cool it is to be one of 40 and to come to these iconic racetracks and run your first Bristol Night Race and all those things. So just enjoy the journey a lot more and take it all in.”
WHAT STOOD OUT TO YOU FROM YOUR ACCIDENT AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY A FEW YEARS AGO FROM A SAFETY PERSPECTIVE? “I think that anytime you have a big crash where the car obviously takes a lot of damage you learn from it. NASCAR has done a great job with their R&D Center and just their whole team that goes back and analyzes all the data and all the video and looks at the cars and measures everything and see what moves and see what didn’t move and see what could be stronger and what needs to be weaker so that it does move. Obviously, every year you learn a great amount and unfortunately those big crashes are sort of what helps you get to that next level, and with Ryan’s crash at the Daytona 500 last year they were able to learn a few things that went into our cars at the end of last year and then starting this year, so you’re always learning from those tough experiences and always getting safer and safer, but I feel incredibly safe driving our race cars. You know that there’s always a danger, but I just feel like our cars are incredibly safe right now.”
HOW HAVE YOU SEEN FRONT ROW CHANGE FROM YOUR FIRST DAY TO TODAY? “It’s definitely changed a tremendous amount. Probably the most important part of any race team or any organization or company or team is people. Over the last four or five years there has been some changes in personnel and we’ve been able to bring on a few key people and move people from one role to the next and that’s really helped with overall performance and just producing better race cars and faster race cars. I would say the mentality has changed quite a bit since the first day here. I think that first year it was about building a race car that’s gonna make it through the race and it’s gonna last and be competitive and the goals weren’t super high. I feel like as we’ve achieved a little bit more and more every year that the bar keeps getting raised and everybody has stepped up and last year was evidence of that. So, I feel like we’re finally in a spot where we’re able to really compete and compete at a high level, and I think everybody has bought in at the shop. It’s not just about making sure that this doesn’t fall off, but it’s about making this lighter and faster and more performance, so that whole mentality has changed throughout the entire company, which is great.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PLAYOFF FORMAT IS IN NASCAR TO DETERMINE A CHAMPION? “I can see both sides of the conversation on the playoffs and the points and the champion and all that. I do feel like there are opportunities inside the playoffs even if you have a bad race to kind of redeem yourself and get to the next round. So, I feel like it’s usually the top two or three teams that are in the final four, and you might have somebody that slides in that wouldn’t typically be there, but it’s usually only one. I feel like as far as seeing what are the best teams going head to head, I feel like we get there every year. I would say there are very few years where you look at it and you go, ‘That’s somebody that should have won the championship that didn’t make it.’ I feel like there’s opportunity. On the flip side of that, Formula One the driver points were over with four races to go and so that’s not very fun, knowing that Lewis Hamilton has already won before you even throw the green flag with three races to go isn’t very entertaining for the fans. So, I do feel like there is an element that is cool about the playoffs and getting to that final round, but I’m a little bit of a purist too to where whoever scores the most points in the year should win, so I can see both sides of the conversation. I would love to make the playoffs and be in that conversation, but from the outside, which I haven’t been in the playoffs, it is fun and entertaining to watch and see it all play out.”
DO YOU LOOK AT IT LIKE YOU COULD POINT YOUR WAY INTO THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR OR FEEL LIKE YOU STILL HAVE TO WIN A RACE? “To be completely honest with you I still feel like we would have to win. I think it would be tough to point in, but at times last year we felt the potential that we could, but it only takes one or two shifts, whether that be somebody win a race that was behind you in points or around you, or somebody score a lot of stage points to really build a big gap, so I do think it’s possible. I do feel like we left a lot of points on the table last year at some key events. Like you said, superspeedways typically are our bread and butter for points and we didn’t score that many at superspeedways, so those are strong races for us but last year we didn’t execute well, so I feel like if we execute well at those racetracks where we can run top 10, top five, there’s an outside chance that we could point our way in, but the goal and the focus is still to win a race and put ourselves in position to win a race, and throughout the year score as many points as we can. So, last year was a good step. I felt like we were close to that top 20, but to make it to the top 16 is gonna take a lot more points.”
HOW DOES THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW CAR HELP OR HURT YOU FROM THE TIMELINE OF WHEN THOSE CARS WILL BE BUILT DURING THE 2021 SEASON? WILL THE NEW CARS NOT DEVELOP THIS CAR MORE BECAUSE THEY’LL FOCUS MORE ON NEXT GEN? “I think the top teams are gonna spend everything they have to try to win races and win the championship just like they always do. I think there are elements that will help us be a little bit closer in regards to competition, probably more than anything is just what NASCAR has done with the development freeze. That helps us, I feel like, a tremendous amount, just because the teams are always making gains, but they’re not making huge gains and changing the structure of the race car and just fundamental parts and pieces. Every time you find a little bit of a gain over the last two or three years it’s been all the suspension has to be updated because it all goes together and all the shape and design and there’s a whole process to it, and with that being frozen I feel like that’s helped us a lot, but the top teams are still gonna spend a lot of money to try to win races and championships and I do feel like there might be long-term adjustments in the sport knowing the 2022 car is coming, but I don’t feel like that will give us a greater chance of pointing in or winning a race. I feel like it’s the same.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE AN UNDERDOG WHEN WE GET TO THE ROAD COURSE PORTION OF THE SEASON? “Yeah, I do. I feel like last year we had some strong road courses. I think the Daytona road course was probably our best speed-wise, probably had a top-five car and ended up finishing 10th with it, so we need to be in that top five in speed to really put ourselves in position to get a caution at the right time, strategy at the right time, get to the front and have something work out to where you can win a race. But I feel like consistently we can run in that top 10 at those road courses, pretty much all of them, and knocking on the door of a top five which puts us in the conversation, but we still need to find a little bit more to really surprise and to shock people. I think it’s gotten harder over the years I’ve just seen the Cup regulars are getting better, but also too the disparity in performance between the cars is even greater at the road courses than what it was early on. I felt like the driver early in my career made a bigger splash at those road courses than the equipment and it seems like the equipment now is getting to a point, just like at the other racetracks, where you can have an average driver and a great car and have a great finish, but not vice versa.”
HOW HAVE YOU AND DREW GOTTEN USED TO EACH OTHER WITH THIS BEING YEAR THREE? “Drew is a tremendous asset to the 34 car and to Front Row and he’s a big part of just the performance increase that we’ve seen and the gains that we’ve made, so relationship-wise Drew and I hit it off pretty good right out of the gate because we’re both driven by just performance and getting the most out of our race cars and our race weekends. That was pretty easy, but now that we’ve spent a few seasons together we definitely understand each other a lot better and he does a great job extracting what he needs out of me and vice versa. I would say the best part of Drew and I’s relationship is we can be very honest. We can have heated conversations and we can disagree and we can yell at each other and shortly get over that and figure out what we’ve got to do to be better, and I like the intensity that he has and he would probably say the same about me. With both of us being fairly intense, there are times we go at it a little bit, but I feel like we’ve done a great job together working really hard to get the right people in place on our race team and get the most out of our race cars and the weekend and he does a great job with strategy, so he’s definitely a big part of the success that we’ve had here and, for me, as a critical part moving forward.”
CHASE ELLIOTT IS IN ANOTHER LEAGUE ON ROAD COURSES. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “They definitely are a leg up on everybody. That’s pretty evident, but Chase has done a great job of executing and getting the most out of it. If you just look at the Daytona road course last year Denny Hamlin, I think had similar speed and was right there with him pressuring him and he just never made a mistake and never gave him an opportunity. It’s pretty amazing he’s as strong as he is and consistently making it happen, and probably the most impressive thing that I’ve seen is his ability to drive back through the field when they get behind. Typically, at a road course once you lose that track position and you get buried in the field it’s hard to march your way. It’s one thing to get back in the top 10. It’s really difficult to get back in the top five, but to get all the way back to the lead like he’s done two or three times from whether it be penalties or mistakes in Charlotte. He got into the tire barrier there in turn one and went all the way to the back and got to the front. Last year, strategy-wise they went back to 20th and was able to drive to the front, so I feel like his ability to get back through the field has probably been the most impressive thing. We’re all paying attention, that’s for sure, and looking at data and watching video to see if there’s anything just glaring that sticks out that he’s doing differently than everybody else. I think they’ve just had fast race cars and he’s done a good job of executing, but hopefully we can put a dent in there and close the gap and make some challenges.”
DO YOU SEE ANYTHING IN HIS DRIVING STYLE THAT WHEN YOU ADD THEM ALL UP ALLOW HIM TO DO WHAT HE’S DOING? “Yeah, absolutely. Without giving that away I’ve spent a lot of time this offseason looking at it and trying to understand it and really wrap your head around what’s making him as fast as he is and as good as he is right now at those places, so I think there are things he’s doing and I think that there’s things his team is doing that is giving them a little bit of an advantage and he’s making the most of those opportunities, and I think there are some things to learn for sure, and we’ll try to apply them that second week when we go to the Daytona road course and see if we can close the gap a little bit, but it’s been really impressive what he’s been able to do, for sure.”
SO, NO SMALL HINT OF WHAT YOU’VE SPOTTED? “Yeah, he makes up a lot of time in the brake zone and he’s very meticulous with his line, and he doesn’t deviate very much.”
