Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series (NGROTS)
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Grant Enfinger, driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150, has three victories this season for and goes into Saturday’s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Round of 10 finale at Talladega Superspeedway 31 points above the cutline. Todd Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150, is currently on the bubble in 10th place, 19 points out of the final transfer spot.
Both drivers participated in a Ford Zoom call with media today to discuss this weekend’s race.
GRANT ENFINGER, No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford F-150 – WHAT IS IT LIKE RACING AT TALLADEGA? “For me, I think it’s a little different than for some guys because that’s kind of the racetrack that started it all for me. That’s what started the fire burning to want to be a race car driver is going to Talladega as a kid and we’d go in a Greyhound bus and there would be a bunch of us and be some guys making some mistakes and drinking too much and having a good time and that’s what I remember as a kid going there was the entertainment value on and off the racetrack. I’ve always loved Talladega. I’ve always really pumped myself up for there. I’ve been fortunate enough because that’s where I got my first truck win, but racing at Talladega is awesome. I’m glad we only go to these speedways twice because it is so crazy. You know bad stuff is gonna happen, you just want to be positioned away from it when it does. I feel like, obviously, this year being a cutoff race for the Truck Series adds a different element. We’re going in there with a little bit of a points cushion, but I don’t know how much good that does you going into Talladega because there are gonna be some upset winners. We’ve seen that. There could be some losers too that’s not even an upset. You just kind of go in there expecting some guys in this playoff picture are gonna get caught up the wreck and just hopefully we do a good enough job positioning ourselves that that’s not us. I’m letting (Jeff) Hensley work on the truck right now, but we haven’t really discussed it, but right now my mentality is to race like heck those first couple stages and not do anything stupid, but we need some stage points. Hopefully, we can do that and we can lock in by that second stage and that way I can really go for broke at the end.”
KANSAS MOVING FROM NIGHT TO LATE AFTERNOON MAKES DAY RACES AT TEXAS AND KANSAS COMING UP. ANY DIFFERENT ON THOSE TRACKS THAT YOU’RE USED TO? “It would be different if it was a rainout and we had already prepared and you’re talking about the next day we’re going to the day race, but they’ve given us enough time that it doesn’t really affect us too much. In all honesty, it’s probably gonna be a little closer to the conditions that we had when we raced there back a month and a half ago, but since we have this much heads-up, I don’t think it’s gonna be a factor. I think it would be more of a factor if we had been trimmed out and tuned up for a night time race in 55-60 degrees and then to have a rainout and then we just all of a sudden, ‘Hey, we’re racing in another 15-20 degrees in the heat of the day.’ So I’m not too concerned with that.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE TO RUN FOR STAGE POINTS AT TALLADEGA OR WILL YOU PLAY IT CAUTIOUS? “I feel like we definitely need stage points. My goal right now would be to accumulate enough stage points in those first two stages that we could go for broke at the end, and I could really put ourselves in the position I feel like we need to be to win. If we don’t accomplish that, I feel like that changes some things. Right now, my mindset is to be smart, but be aggressive and get some stage points early on.”
DO YOU PLAN TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE IN THE FIRST TWO STAGES TO TRY AND CLINCH AND THEN HOLD BACK IN THE THIRD UNTIL THE END IF THAT’S THE WAY THE POINTS FALL? “At this point, I want to push hard in those first two stages to get us locked in, and if we do accomplish that, then I race like heck the rest of the race. If we don’t accomplish it at that point, I think at that point then we have to analyze where we’re at and I kind of race to that approach. You can get wrecked in the front just as easy as you can in the back. I’ve had more success just trying to be smart, but trying to be up front the whole time, so that’s our approach now until we get to the end of that second stage. I’m not even gonna ask for any information before that second stage is over and then after that we’ll kind of re-evaluate where we’re at.”
A PAIR OF SIXTH-PLACE FINISHES TO START THE PLAYOFFS. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH HOW YOUR TEAM HAS STARTED? “I think, overall, we have momentum on our side. We definitely have that going for us. I feel like we honestly had better than a sixth-place truck at Bristol and kind of had to do everything we can, and I feel like our team did an absolutely phenomenal job of not digging a hole. We had an opportunity to dig a hole there at Bristol from some circumstances going on, but we were able to fix the truck and get it back going and recover to finish sixth, but I thought we were a little better than that. Las Vegas was kind of the opposite. We didn’t have the speed all day. We knew exactly what went wrong. I just couldn’t get through the bumps, but normally myself and Jeff Hensley, we can talk about it and figure it out and by the end of the race we’re better. If we start out mediocre, we’re ending the race at least decent. We weren’t able to do that at Las Vegas, but we do know why, so I feel good about things. I feel like we have momentum in the right way, but I don’t think we raced to our potential at Vegas, but I’m extremely proud of what we did at Bristol.”
HAS TALLADEGA BEING IN THE PLAYOFFS CHANGED THE DYNAMIC OF THE PLAYOFFS AS A WHOLE? “Yeah, I think so. I think it made Bristol and Vegas that much more important. Having this speedway as a cutoff race, I look at everything from a fan’s perspective first. I think it’s just the nature of things and I wasn’t a big fan of it until I sat there and watched the Cup race there with the cutoff race at Daytona and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time seeing if Jimmie Johnson was gonna make it in and what was gonna happen. From an entertainment standpoint, from a fan’s standpoint, it is awesome. From a competitor’s standpoint, it’s terrible. This is gonna be a stressful race. Even though we’re going in with a bit of a cushion, anything can happen. It can happen at the start. More times than not it seems to happen at the end of these truck races and seems to happen in multiple instances, so it changes our dynamic, it changes how we approach this race. Had this been the first race of this series, I feel like we’d kind of go for broke the whole time and just hope for the best, but now that we have a little bit of a cushion not a great cushion going into this race, it definitely affects how we approach it.”
IS IT CRAZY HOW ONE TRACK CAN HAVE SUCH A BIG IMPACT LIKE THAT? “Yeah, and you can see it with the other tracks and you can see it just with mechanical issues and issues like we fought there at Bristol and were able to overcome. But when you see that it’s normally like one or two trucks that that can affect. At Talladega, it might affect all of us. You don’t really know. It seems like at these speedways, especially in the Truck Series, there is a lot more cars with damage or that have been through wrecks than those that don’t have damage or haven’t been through wrecks. It’s a matter of just kind of trying to manage the risk as much as you can from the driver’s seat and also from our crew chief’s perspective – for Jeff Hensley making calls and pit road, is this gonna get us in the back of the pack where we’ve got to drive through a wreck, or is this gonna get us out front? It definitely changes things.”
DOES LAST YEAR’S PLAYOFF BAD LUCK MOTIVATE YOU MORE THIS TIME AROUND? “Last year definitely motivates me more and it definitely motivates everybody on this 98 ThorSport team a lot. We missed the playoffs altogether in 2017 as a group and the same core group of guys that missed it in 2017 and had the heartbreak last year with the Las Vegas engine failure are the same guys working on it, the same guy driving it, the same guy calling the race, so, yeah, to say we’re motivated would be an understatement. Also, what we didn’t accomplish last year is winning a race, so we’ve been more aggressive on our plate calls. I’ve been more aggressive from the driver’s seat. We’ve been more aggressive to get wins and at the end of the day we can sneak through to this next round without winning. We’re not in a must-win situation at Talladega, but we get into that next round and I kind of feel like we are. I guess technically maybe one or two guys could make it to Phoenix without winning there in that second round, but business picks up in this next round.”
WHEN YOU ROLL OFF AT TALLADEGA HOW MUCH GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND ABOUT THE CRAPSHOOT IT IS? “You definitely don’t want to overthink anything. I feel like Talladega is always a big weekend for me and this year being a lot different, but normally we have a lot of friends and families and sponsors that go to that race and anything can happen. You can do everything perfectly right and win the race and you can do everything perfectly right and wreck on lap one, so it’s a matter of controlling what we can control and manage what we can. That’s kind of been Jeff Hensley’s motto all year long and that’s how we’re gonna approach this race. We’re gonna do what we can to be aggressive and to score stage points in these first two stages, and then once we get through that second stage, then I’m gonna ask the guys, ‘Where do we stand and can I go for broke?’ I’m hoping they say, ‘Yeah, you can go for broke,’ after that and we can do whatever we want. But if we can’t, if we haven’t scored enough stage points and we have to be a little conservative at the end, it is what it is but that’s not how I want to race.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED OVER THE YEARS ABOUT TALLADEGA? “I’ve learned a ton. I feel like there have been certain instances and, for the most part, when I go to these speedway races I try to race. There’s never a time that I go to the race and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to hang out at the back and just make it through this,’ even in a situation like this with the playoffs going on. But I do rely on my senses as well as my spotter Chris Lambert’s senses, and if we feel like there’s gonna be a wreck happening, or if I don’t like the guys we’re racing around, I try to get to the bottom and try to leave just about a car length in front of me – enough to where somebody can’t squeeze in, but enough to where I can see, I can jump off the apron and go down pit road – I can make some sort of evasive action and give ourselves a fighting chance. But if you’re pushing right on somebody’s back bumper and everybody is already moving around, which, don’t get me wrong, I’ll do that at the end when it counts, but if I have a bad sense of things through the middle part of the race or whenever it is, then I’ll try to find my way to the bottom and give myself a little bit of space.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford F-150 – WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK GOING INTO THE WEEKEND 19 POINTS BELOW THE CUT? “I think it’s our opportunity to be really aggressive. Nineteen points is obviously a lot. We kind of need some misfortune from other guys which is very, very possible, but the chances are high for us to get in a wreck also. I just think you have to be aggressive all day. I think if you do that, I think we’ve been in good positions at the speedway races before. At Daytona we were leading the bottom lane with two or three to go and a bunch of us wrecked, but it’s just about putting yourself in position to win.”
IS THERE ANY RELIEF IN THE SENSE IT’S PRETTY MUCH RACE TO WIN INSTEAD OF COUNT POINTS? “Absolutely, I think there is. We’re gonna go in there and be aggressive. If we wreck trying to go for the win, I think we can live with ourselves on that, whereas other guys that might be able to let someone in and still make it on points, those guys are gonna be looking behind them and worrying about points this whole week. For us, it’s pretty simple. There’s no one behind us. We can only move forward from here if we do our job right.”
HAVE YOU TALKED TO TANNER GRAY OR ANY OF THE THORSPORT GUYS ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER? “No. At Daytona we had a meeting about it, but, honestly, it’s so hard to work with people in the draft. Things go so fast that I think you have to be selfish in a way. A lot of times there’s barely a gap for you to get up at the times that you need to, let alone two to three cars you’re trying to work with. I think there’s more subtle things you can do. If you see there are two lines that are equal and you have a chance to push either one and one is a Ford, you’ll probably choose that one, but I think it tends to be a selfish kind of race.”
HOW DO YOU SENSE WHEN A WRECK IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN? “I think that’s all stuff you’re gathering from the time the green flag drops. The guys that are fighting their cars, they’re kind of squirrely, pushing each other, you can see that stuff coming. You can kind of see wrecks beginning to start maybe a lap before they even do just by someone getting a little impatient trying to force things that aren’t gonna happen. I think that’s when you see people get themselves in trouble, but I think just being aware of who you are around is the biggest thing.”
DEFINE REALLY AGGRESSIVE AT TALLADEGA. “I think there’s a fine balance. You can go out there and be aggressive and kind of just be a disaster on the racetrack. People aren’t gonna want to work with you. You’re not gonna look smooth. You’re not gonna look real good out there, so I think there’s a way to be aggressive and also really smooth at the same time. In the first five laps if you’re trying to block someone and they’re there, you let them go. I think that’s one thing that I’ve been good and bad about is just making my way to the front and then once you get there kind of getting split in the middle, but I think once you make a mistake you kind of just have to accept it and go to the back and restart, where some people if they’re aggressive, they’ll try to force their way in the line and chance wrecking it. Our plan is still to make it to the end of the race. Points can swing really fast. There’s a lot of trucks this weekend, so 19 points isn’t out of the realm of happening, so we’ve just got to run our own race and be aggressive, take chances when we can and be smart when we can.”
WILL PEOPLE BE CAUTIOUS IN THE RACE? “I think just from the outside in last year seemed to be a tamer Talladega race. Considering it was the playoffs I didn’t think too much of it, but now being in it I definitely appreciate it more, but I think people are definitely more cautious. If you take out four of the guys in the playoffs, that’s almost half of the playoff grid, so I think you’ve just got to be careful who you’re racing around. You don’t want to be that guy that ruins someone else’s year if you take them out of the playoffs, so people probably keep that in the back of their mind, but, it’s also Talladega and things happen fast. I’m sure someone will make a mistake at some point.”
WHEN YOU FIRST FOUND OUT TALLADEGA WAS GOING TO BE A CUTOFF RACE WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION? “For the fan in me I think it’s super cool. I think it’s gonna be great to watch, but as a driver if we were farther up the playoff grid I would hate it right now. Also, it’s still a great chance for us being where we are in the playoffs, so I think you can look at it from tons of different ways. I think as a fan it’s great. For the trucks it’s Talladega and Martinsville that are the two cutoff races. I don’t think you can ask for anything more than that. I love it. We’re in the entertainment business and it’s definitely gonna be entertaining.”
HOW MUCH OF A RESOURCE IS YOUR DAD ON A WEEKEND LIKE THIS? “He’s definitely always a huge resource. He’s done this a lot more than me. He’s run two truck races with me at some of the superspeedway races, so just being around and watching a guy like him, even I think the best guy in the Truck Series is Grant Enfinger. I was just listening to some of the stuff he was saying on this Zoom call trying to learn, but he seems to make his way to the front – go back to front a couple times and make the correct moves, so I think it’s all about watching the lanes, watching it from the time the green flag drops, but my dad, I’ve been watching him for years doing it, so it’s always fun to come to these races and feel like you can make good decisions as a driver and elevate the team.”
WILL YOU HAVE VIDEO SESSIONS TOGETHER TO GO OVER THINGS? “I think we can do that more on a subtle level, just things we come across. I don’t think we’ll actually sit down and watch a race, but I’ll more do that with my spotter, Coleman Pressley. He’s Brad Keselowski’s spotter on Sundays, so he’s one of the best at it. I think Brad is one of the best drivers, so they’ve got a ton of information that’s really relevant to us and just a lot of great resources. You’ve got to use them all.”
