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.”
