Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Playoff Media Day | Charlotte Convention Center
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
NASCAR held its Cup Series Playoff Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center on Wednesday, September 4. Ford has a manufacturer-high six drivers in the field of 16 and each answered questions from the media. Here are their respective availability sessions.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – ANOTHER PLAYOFF. WHAT’S DIFFERENT THIS YEAR? “Not much. It’s the same stuff (laughing).”
ARE DRIVERS MORE AGGRESSIVE THESE DAYS THAN IN THE PAST? “Yeah. There’s no doubt that ever since the Next Gen car was introduced the aggression level has gone to a whole new level mainly because the cars are pretty tough and the field is closer than ever, so there’s less give-and-take. Passes are harder to make for that reason, so it just ends up being a little bit more intense.”
ARE YOU AT ALL SUPERSTITIOUS WITH THE EVEN YEAR, ODD YEAR THING? “No, it’s just ironic. That’s how it’s worked out, but I don’t think there’s anything behind that.”
ALL OF YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 4 APPEARANCES ARE EVEN YEARS. “I know. I hope there is. This year I’ll say I’m superstitious, does that sound good? Next year, I won’t (laughing). I’m pretty basic and maybe more factual about things than that stuff. That stuff can get in your head more than anything, so I just go do my thing and if it works out like that, cool, we’ll have a cool story to talk about again.”
DOES THE FACT YOU’RE GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS AS THE NINTH SEED WITH SEVEN PLAYOFF POINTS VERSUS 2022 AS THE NUMBER TWO SEED WITH 25 POINTS, DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH? “It doesn’t right now. It can change because you’re just in a different spot, but the first race of each round I always look at as maybe the most important race of each round because it sets you up. How we get out of Atlanta will adjust how we go to Watkins Glen and the approach of how we get through the race. It’s one race at a time. Is it nice to have more Playoff points? Absolutely, it’s nice to have that. Can we win from where we’re at? Absolutely, we can win from where we’re at. We can do that for sure, but it’s just a little more challenging position.”
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT SPOILER DRIVERS IN THE PLAYOFFS? “If we can win, great. If we can’t win, a non-Playoff driver is what you want because that’s not taking a spot up in the next round, so that’s what you would want.”
CAN ANYONE WIN HALF OF THE PLAYOFFS LIKE WE’VE SEEN BEFORE WITH THE CURRENT CAR? “Yeah, you look at the Playoff schedule and you’ve got two superspeedways, you’ve got two road courses in there. There are some tracks that are pretty unique to say the least and it’s hard to say what can happen in those races. Is it possible, yeah, it’s possible – probably more so now for a few reasons. One, the field is closer than ever, too. The track schedule is one piece of it, but the field being so tight now with this Next Gen car, it’s gonna be really hard to do. Think about this. Think about those days where every year there were usually two cars that won seven races, give or take. Now, there’s not really that anymore. It’s just harder to rack up those seasons where you have the fastest car and that car wins nine in a year, like when Harvick did that. That’s not happening anymore.”
WILL WE EVER GET BACK TO THAT? “I don’t think so because of the parity of the cars at this point.”
WHAT ARE THE TROUBLE SPOTS ALONG THIS 10 RACE STRETCH? “It’s hard to look at what the trouble spots are and things like that. You’ve got to go one race at a time. You know where you’re at right now. You’re at Atlanta and you’ve got to go perform down there. If you don’t, then you put yourself in a little tougher spot for the next two races, but I don’t think there’s one thing we’re looking at like, ‘This is what we have to do.’ The schedule is so unique at this point. The field is so close. All it takes is a couple things to be on the very top. It takes a couple weekends. You win the right one, you gain a little momentum, you find a little speed in your cars and the next thing you know you win the championship. We’ve seen that story play out. I’ve been in that story and seen it play out. I think Blaney experienced that last year. You’ve just got to survive and get through the rounds and you don’t know what the next round can be. They all kind of take on their own unique personality.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ACCIDENT AT DARLINGTON WITH YOUR ARM? “My elbow got hurt in that deal and kind of made my hand not feel great, either. It’s funny how all the stuff is connected, but I was OK the next couple days and ready to go.”
AS THE DEFENDING CHAMPION HAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON HOW TO GET BACK THERE CHANGED AT ALL? “I definitely think you’re more confident in trying to get back to Phoenix. It’s not as simple as just do what you did last year, though, but I feel like once you have that experience and you persevere through the three rounds to get there, then I think it really motivates your team and just gives them a level of confidence of like, ‘Hey, we know we can do this. We’ve been there before and now let’s try to figure out a way to do it again’ and accept all the challenges that are gonna be thrown at you and use your experience to your advantage. So, hopefully, we can bring that same intensity that we did to the Playoffs last year again. The first couple of rounds were a little funky, obviously, but it’s the same for everybody so hopefully you kind of stay clean the first round. I think that’s the biggest thing. It’s like finish where you are supposed to finish. You never know what’s gonna happen, but I think our group is doing really well right now. The last two weeks obviously haven’t been very fun ending up on the hook, but it was none of our doing. I don’t think that’s really bothered us at all. We’re just ready to go and Atlanta is the first task in a task of 10 that we have to achieve.”
DO YOU FEEL BETTER PREPARED? IS THIS TEAM IN A BETTER POSITION THAN A YEAR AGO? “Yeah, definitely. I said it a couple months ago. I thought our group was in a great spot mentally, performance-wise, whether that’s on pit road or the racetrack. I feel like we’re really good. I thought at this time last year we were kind of scrounging to try and figure out how we were going to perform how we need to because we were off a little bit and this year I think we’re in a much better spot, so hopefully we can continue to bring that same pace and continue to learn on the pace that we’ve been bringing the last few months. This group is in a way better spot and our Team Penske group as a whole is in a much better spot as well. Hopefully, that means a lot for all three of our cars and the 21 to make a good run at it.”
YOU ARE THE LOWEST SEEDED DRIVER TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. DOES THAT CHANGE THE NARRATIVE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO COME FROM THAT FAR BACK TO WIN? “It’s definitely possible, for sure. You never know who is gonna turn it on. All of these teams are really good. All the drivers are really good that they can get rolling. We were seeded lower than where we should have been because we had such a rough summer, but that shows. We didn’t have a lot of Playoff points last year going into it and we just outperformed people. We just outran people, but you never know who is gonna catch fire. It could be the team that’s been fantastic all year. It could be a team that’s started to creep into the picture. It could be a team that gets hot in the Playoffs like we kind of did last year, so it just all depends what drivers and teams can step it up and that’s a huge thing in the Playoffs. You see a lot of people make mistakes and things like that and it’s who can make the least amount of mistakes, who can rise to the occasion, and who has the speed in their car to perform. If you have those three things, you have a good shot at it.”
WHAT DOES IT SAY THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO STEP IT UP? “I definitely think it speaks a lot to your mentality. I feel like when you go into it, even like the whole playoffs for us – even the first half we weren’t great. I wrecked in Texas in the Round of 12 opener and then we went and won Talladega. We just didn’t let it bother us. We just had the end goal in mind and I even think the end goal in mind is different this year than last year in just how you approach it because we hadn’t won a championship last year and we still believed 100 percent in ourselves that we could do it, and now you have that championship on top of it and now we like 1000 percent believe that we can do this again. So, we’ll take what we learned last year and what we did well from a mentality standpoint of just worrying about ourselves and believing and trusting each other. I’ve always told my guys, ‘Hey, you guys are the best of the best. You’re good enough if you bring 100 percent of your effort to the racetrack each weekend, we’re gonna be really tough and we’re gonna have a great shot to win.’ That’s all I ask is just bring 100 percent of yourself and do the best effort that you can and that’s all you can ask for. I think that showed a lot last year and I think that knowingness that we’ve done it before definitely motivates our guys a lot, and I think that’s a positive for sure.”
WHAT ARE YOUR BRISTOL EXPECTATIONS? “I don’t know what to expect. I know they did a tire test there two or three months ago. They said it was the same tire and they had no issues apparently, so I don’t know what to expect. We’ll see. I think all the teams would probably get nervous and you’re gonna come with way less cambers, way aggressive on toe, and just try to make a tire last. I think that’s what’s gonna make everyone nervous because you have no idea what the tire is gonna be. You never know if they’re telling you the truth on if the tire is the same or not. I don’t know, so we’ll see. And I don’t really know how they’re gonna do the track prep either. I’ve been hearing rumors that they’re gonna prep the track differently, whether that’s with resin or PJ1. PJ1-branded resin is what I’ve been told – like off brand PJ1, I don’t know – so that’s why that first round is such a toss up. You’ve got Atlanta and the Glen. This new tire we have at The Glen falls off like four seconds and then the Bristol tire it might fall off your race car, so I don’t know what to expect, but hopefully we don’t have any blown tires. But I think everyone is gonna know what to expect a little bit more going back. No one knew in the spring what the race was gonna be like and I think that’s what threw a curveball for everybody.”
HOW DOES FORD OR TOYOTA STOP HENDRICK AT WATKINS GLEN? “They’ve been really good there. Hopefully, the new tire kind of changes some of that. I feel like when it’s that big of a change, you really have to switch up your rear cambers, your front cambers, your toes, all that stuff that are really important on road courses, so we’ll see. I think maybe that tire change is the best thing for us trying to get Hendrick off the top there at The Glen, where they’ve been dominant. We’ll see. That will be an interesting race for sure. I’m happy The Glen is honestly in the Playoffs. I think that’s a cool area. The people there love it and it’s gonna be a good race, too, especially if you have the fall off that they’re advertising. That’s what that place needs and hopefully it turns the tables and we can run a little better than we have in the past.”
DOES THE TIRE AT WATKINS GLEN DE-INCENTIVE PITTING BEFORE THE STAGE ENDS WHERE YOU DON’T WANT TO RESTART ON TWO OR THREE LAP OLDER TIRES? “I don’t know. You’re gonna have everybody be in different positions. If you can grab some stage points, you’re probably gonna do that and it depends where you’re running. If you’re top five and you feel like you’ve got winning pace, maybe if the leader pits you have to make a big decision of do you go grab nine or 10 stage points and restart in the back? You have to see how big the fall off there is. Like, ‘Hey, is two laps gonna be three-quarters of a second of fall off if you have two lap older stuff?’ I don’t know. Is that gonna overcome the track position? That’s like all in-game decisions that crew chiefs and drivers have to kind of assess and make, so we’ll get a good idea of that in practice, like seeing the fall off after maybe a cycle on tires, and then where you’re running for sure will determine, and where you’re at in points. If you need points and praying for points, then you’ll probably just stay out and take the hit and probably restart 30th or 25th, but it’s all situational.”
IS THERE ANYTHING TO BEING THE CHAMPION AND HAVING A TARGET ON YOUR BACK? “I don’t think so. I’ve gotten wrecked a lot this year, more than other years, so I don’t know if that means I have a bullseye on my back. I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gotten wrecked way more this year than I have in the past. I don’t think it’s intentional, but it just seems that way. I don’t think there’s a bullseye on our back, but I feel like we kind of took it as like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to defend our championship.’ We’re still in title defense. Until the year is over and you don’t win it, you’re still in title defense, so I think that’s motivated us a lot of everyone is kind of gunning for you. That goes to the crew guys and the pit crew guys and engineers and Jonathan. Everybody is envious of where you’re at. Everyone wants to take it away from you and they want all the outside to stop talking about you being the champ. They want to be that because I was the same way before we won the championship, so I think that really motivates us that everyone is looking at you. They know how good of a team this team is and that’s what I’ve told my guys. I want to scare every other team. I want you guys to be so good that everyone is nervous about us when we unload and that’s kind of the mindset that we’ve tried to have because I think that’s a great mindset for everyone on the team to have is like, you want everyone worrying about you because you can be that dangerous, and I think we definitely are and hopefully that carries over.”
IS IT POSSIBLE WITH THE NEXT CAR THAT SOMEONE COULD WIN HALF THE PLAYOFF RACES? “Yeah, it could be. You never know. Someone could definitely do it. We’ve seen people go on streaks and stuff like that, and I think as this new car has gotten learned a little bit – it’s not even a new car anymore – you’re gonna be able to see that. I think teams go on streaks and as we can find new things that stack up and mean more, I feel like you might, but it’s hard to tell. You never know who is gonna get going on any given week. I can’t sit here and predict who is gonna be good at Atlanta because it’s a speedway, but at The Glen I have no idea who is gonna unload and be fast. You have a small idea who has been good at road courses through the years, but it could change week to week, so I try not to think about, ‘Oh, this team could run off six wins in a row here.’ You just never know.”
YOU DON’T SEE A FAVORITE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP DO YOU, OTHER THAN YOURSELF? “There’s definitely guys that are super strong right now. I say anyone can catch fire in the championship, but there are still teams that have performed really good and who have been running good lately. The 5 is obviously fantastic. The 11 is really good. The 20 car is super good. The 45 has showed a lot of speed, so those guys are really, really fast right now and we’re gonna have to compete with, for sure. I think everyone is kind of looking at those three or four guys who have been really good and consistently fast and haven’t really had any issues. I think those are guys you definitely look at and you know they’ll be strong.”
IS THERE ANYONE UNDER THE RADAR THAT COULD MAKE SOME NOISE? “You never know. I think honestly that Ty Gibbs has been under the radar a little bit just because he hasn’t won, but they’ve been really good. Their team is strong. The Toyotas are fast and he could definitely be one that can be dangerous this year.”
WHAT DO YOU PUT YOUR ODDS AT TO WIN THE TITLE AGAIN AND WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL TROUBLE SPOTS? “I think I’m obviously gonna have 1000 percent confidence that we can get to Phoenix. I think you have the oddballs. The first round is a really weird oddball and you’re gonna see some surprise people go home, I feel like. You’re just gonna have issues at Atlanta. You’re gonna have issues at Watkins Glen and you’re gonna have to throw a Hail Mary at Bristol. Hopefully, we’re not one of those people, but you just never know what can happen. I honestly feel like the rounds for our group get stronger each one, like just the way we perform at tracks and our past success there. The Round of 8 is great for us. Those are tracks we run really well at and hopefully we can get there and then perform there as well. I just try to take one race at a time, though. I just try not to have any blow ups, like you don’t want any issues or foolish things or mistakes that you make that really put you behind the eight-ball, but I think this group can definitely do it. It’s just a matter of staying clean and doing our job.”
DOES IT MATTER ABOUT BEING THE DEFENDING CHAMPION? “We’re going for a new one. We’re still defending it until someone takes it. I would like to not have that happen, so we’ll see.”
HOW DID YOU FEEL AFTER THE ATLANTA PHOTO FINISH? “That was definitely an exciting finish. I didn’t feel upset about it. It was pretty wild and I kind of put in my head like, ‘I’ve won them by that much, too.’ So, the fact that I lost one by half a foot I can’t really be mad about it. I’ve won more than my fair share of what I honestly should have won, just by odds, by a foot or two. It was just a neat finish. I didn’t know who won. That was interesting because the ones I’ve won, like Talladega, where it was super close and it was just me and another car side-by-side and I can kind of see I beat that guy. But, me, when I was the bottom of three, I couldn’t see Daniel but I knew I beat the 8 and I didn’t see the 99, so I really thought we won just because I couldn’t see Daniel’s car, and then Timmy told me that he got us, but that was a great finish, a spectacular finish. Like I said, that’s like the only time I wasn’t upset about running second at all. It was like, ‘Oh, we didn’t win. Well, that was still a good night.’”
NOW THAT IT’S THE PLAYOFFS SHOULD WE EXPECT ATLANTA TO BE THAT EXCITING AND COMPETITIVE? “I don’t know. I really don’t know what to expect going into this weekend – how aggressive people are going to be. You just never know how these things are going to go. It could be really, really calm, for the most part, until the end or it could just be chaos the whole time. I have no idea.”
WHICH WOULD YOU PREFER? “I would prefer to lead every lap and stay in front of all that stuff. I’ve been wrecked enough at speedways this year, just plowing into other people’s crap. I’m talking about other speedways. I’ve wrecked a lot this year and just been forced into these wrecks and it just gets old. I’ve always approached speedways as trying to control the race. That’s where I feel the most comfortable. That’s where I feel the most safe, like I am making my moves as the leader, and I like to think I try to be smart in where I pick to block or not. I feel like I don’t throw dumb blocks that will get me wrecked because I don’t want to wreck and I don’t want to wreck the field, so I try to control the race and the flow of it and that’s really the same mindset I’m gonna bring into Atlanta.”
IS THIS THE START OF YOUR PLAYOFF BEARD? “I shaved Sunday, so it’s coming in. Every year it grows quicker and quicker and it gets more gray quicker, too. It’s started.”
DO YOU FEAR ANY SPOILERS IN THE PLAYOFFS? “It might. You never know. Honestly, if I can’t win one of the Playoff races and a non-Playoff guys wins it, that’s great because a Playoff guy that I’m facing doesn’t move to the next round. So if Shane goes and wins The Glen and I can’t win it, it’s fine with me. It’s just another person who isn’t locked into Round 2, but, yeah, you could definitely see that, especially this weekend. Like you said, at The Glen with A.J. and Shane. I think A.J. is running, I don’t know, but you could definitely see that.”
WHO ARE THE THREE DRIVERS YOU TRUST MOST TO VY FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP WITH YOU? “I don’t trust any of them. I don’t care if I’m great friends with them or not, at that point, they’re just all competitors and that’s how I’ve always looked at it. I’ve been fortunate to have some really good friends that I grew up racing with that I race with on Sundays now, amazing friends off the track, but once you put the helmet on you respect the hell out of each other and you’re gonna give each other more room than maybe other guys, but you’re still competitors. You’re gonna race incredibly hard. Me, Bubba and Chase, we race each other the hardest out of anybody, but we respect each other while we’re doing it. We’re gonna give each other adequate space, but you’re still gonna race them hard. Any one of them you’re going to treat the same.”
WHAT IS BIGGER FOR YOUR LEGACY, WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 OR A CHAMPIONSHIP? “I don’t know. I was fortunate to win the championship and I haven’t won the 500 yet. I’d like to win a 500. Would I pick a 500 over another championship? I don’t know. That’s a tough question. The 500, to me, is super tantalizing because I’ve been so close to it two or three times. I’ve just missed out on it. That’s such a hard race to win, too. A championship is hard to win, so I really don’t know what I’d want to pick. Either one of the two is fine with me. If I can get another championship or a Daytona 500, I’m gonna be happy with whatever one I’m lucky enough to win.”
HAVE YOU TALKED TO HARRISON OR AUSTIN ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS? “I haven’t talked to Harrison about it yet, or really Austin about the Playoff outlook. I’m not the type of guy who is gonna go up to you and be like, ‘You should do this.’ I’m gonna help you out if you want help. I’m an open book when it comes to that stuff, but I’m not someone who is just gonna tell you how I think you should do it. Who am I to say that? Everyone has their own opinion, but I would say to Harrison, I remember my first Playoffs. It’s really intimidating because there’s a lot of pressure on you to perform well, but I think the main thing is to have fun with it. You’re racing for the Wood Brothers. You have a shot to do well. Try to move forward in the rounds and just have fun, and try not to have the pressure get to you. Just go do the best that you can and I know it’s hard to do when it’s your first one and he’s in the position that he’s in of trying to make an impression for next year, but I guess that would be my advice to him.”
DID YOU LEAN ON BRAD OR JOEY AT THE TIME? “Yeah, I talked to Brad and Joey a little bit before my first one, just kind of what I should look for, what’s a good mindset and stuff like that. They helped me out a lot with advice that they would tell me, so that was pretty nice of them to do.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang – DO YOU THINK ANYONE COULD WIN HALF OF THE PLAYOFF RACES AGAIN WITH THIS NEXT GEN CAR? “I think those days are probably behind us. With the old car you would get ahead as a driver and a team, particularly with the car and its overall potential. This car it’s significantly harder to do that, so the era of dominance is really over – at least with the current rule settings, which is intentional. There are parts that are to be lauded about it and parts to be celebrated and so forth, and parts to be hated, but the reality is of this era that you’re not winning five NASCAR Playoff races. For the first time in our sport’s history of the Playoffs at the Cup level, the season champion didn’t win the last race last year, and I don’t think that’s meant to be an indictment on Blaney or any winner. It’s just that’s the way the format is, particularly with the new car, so it’s different for sure.”
HOW WIDE OPEN DO YOU SEE THIS CHAMPIONSHIP GOING IN? “I remember when we went in the 2018 Playoffs and everybody thought it was the big three. The big three, they’re gonna win it. And then all three of them were on the press conference table after the race was over because none of them won it. That’s what we get for trying to predict this. We always start the Playoffs thinking we know what’s gonna happen and something happens that we go, ‘I didn’t see that coming.’ And, I don’t think this one will be any different.”
SO DOES THAT MAKE IT HARDER TO IDENTIFY WHO MIGHT RISE THROUGH THE RANKS? “I think it makes it more fun, especially if you’re one of those people that likes to fill out a bracket because there’s no way you’re getting it right. Wasn’t it last year where five percent of the brackets were left after race two or three? It was ridiculous, so I suspect it will be the same thing.”
HAVE YOU SEEN THE AGGRESSION LEVEL RISE UP MORE THIS YEAR THAN THE PAST? “Every year the racing changes a little bit. It’s hard to quantify it. You really only notice it when you zoom out and you look at five and 10 year trends, where in the year you really tend to not notice it. Richmond, I think, was an example of another escalation, but then NASCAR tried to draw some lines in the sand, so that will de-escalate it for a little bit, and then it will come back and it’ll escalate. It’s almost always a factor of how NASCAR steps in.”
DO YOU GET A SENSE THE TIRE WILL CHANGE STRATEGY AT WATKINS GLEN, ESPECIALLY AROUND THE STAGES? “Watkins Glen is a big wildcard. There are a lot of question marks about how that race is gonna play out. I can’t sit here today and say that I understand enough about it. We’re kind of living one race at a time and right now that race is Atlanta, but I would say there are a couple races that are circled and Watkins Glen is gonna be one of them.”
HOW DOES HAVING ATLANTA AND WATKINS GLEN IN THE PLAYOFFS CHANGE THE COMPLEXION? “Darlington was kind of like this known entity. Everybody knew going into that race what to expect. Atlanta, not so much. There are a lot more unknowns. I think that changes the perception of that first week of the Playoffs. The first week of the Playoffs is really important. It really sets the tone in my eyes for how it’s gonna go. If you have a bad week in week one, it’s hard to dig out of it. Atlanta, it’s easy to have a bad weekend.”
HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE EFFORT IN THE TEAM BETWEEN YOU IN THE PLAYOFFS AND CHRIS STILL TRYING TO GET A WIN? “I want to make our way in the Championship 4 and finish second at Phoenix and him win it. That would be the best way that we could ever go out. That would be the best way to finish the season, but there are probably thirty-some other guys that wouldn’t like to see that. That said, we want to see him get a race win. We want to see the 6 car make a deep run in the Playoffs and have a shot at the championship.”
HOW DO YOU MANAGE THAT? “Nothing different than what we’ve been doing. We bring the best cars we can every week for both teams. We don’t take any sacrifices.”
ARE YOU CONSUMED WITH THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “It’s a great opportunity. These are moments in your life you don’t get back. It’ll never be 2024 again. I’ll never be in this spot again of having this particular opportunity to win the championship. I just want to make the most of it.”
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE PRESSURE AFTER ALL OF YOUR EXPERIENCES? “Experience certainly makes you a little more chill, I think. You know what to value and what not to value and you just want to apply that wisdom wisely.”
ARE YOU ABLE TO SHUT OFF THE RACING WHEN YOU COME HOME TO THE FAMILY? “Yes and no. I could always be better than that. My family is certainly a blessing and I try to enjoy those moments when I can, but the work never stops.”
IS YOUR LITTLE BOY LIKE YOU? “It’s a little too early to tell. He’s very adorable, so maybe more like his mom.”
WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF CHRIS NOT MAKING THE PLAYOFFS? “We’re gonna definitely take a reboot and look at everything on his team and what we need to do better for next year and come back strong.”
DO YOU THINK HIM BEING OUT GIVES YOU GUYS A BETTER CHANCE TO WORK ON THINGS WITH HIS CAR? “Yeah. We might take some chances that we normally wouldn’t take.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PLAYOFF FORMAT? “I think it’s difficult to think of. I can’t really say that I’ve put a whole lot of thought into it. I’m more of a don’t try and change what the game is, but just maximize the game that you’re playing, so I can’t say I’ve really thought much about it.”
FOUR PENSKE CARS IN THE PLAYOFFS. HOW MUCH OF A BENEFIT IS THAT? “I think it’s great. I think it makes things pretty easy on what the goals are throughout the shop. I feel like, in a lot of ways, playoffs sometimes ramps up and it’s a lot easier just to do that across the board than to not, and I think morale is obviously really high having everybody a part of this and trying to keep it as long as we can.”
FORD HAS MORE CARS THAN ANYONE ELSE. IS THAT A BENEFIT AS WELL? “Yeah, in some ways I don’t think it’s much different than the information we’ll get from those teams for most of the year, and there’s obviously still a lot of Fords still competing in the rest of the races this season, so I think the information flow doesn’t change.”
WHAT TRACK SCARES YOU THE MOST IN THE FIRST ROUND? “Bristol is definitely the most unpredictable track in this round, let alone just because of the tires from the spring race, but that’s just how it’s been over the last couple of years. It’s a track that I really love going to. It’s a track that I feel confident at, but there are a lot of factors there, whether if that’s been mechanical failures with the car or obviously the tire issues in the spring. You want to be as secure as you can going into that one.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE GOTTEN BETTER AT TIRE MANAGEMENT OVER THE COURSE OF YOUR CUP CAREER? “Probably not over the course of my Cup career. I’m just not convinced that that’s gonna be 100 percent the game, so as far as Bristol is concerned. I’m kind of prepared for anything.”
HOW DO YOU CHARACTERIZE YOUR REGULAR SEASON? “It’s a difficult question because I think there are some pretty obvious highs and lows that the stat line does and doesn’t highlight, but from a team standpoint I’m proud of everyone sticking to the process and kind of the narrative that we’ve laid out to start the year. We’ve got a lot of young guys and a lot of roles that they haven’t been at this high level for that long, including myself, and I feel like it’s a lot of fun to have a team that young, but sometimes it takes a lot of patience, just like with having a younger driver and an inexperienced driver. Patience has probably been the name of the game for me because I kind of want it yesterday type thing, and that’s the expectation, but to have the opportunity in the Playoffs and have a lot of the correct pieces is just about putting the picture together on a more consistent basis.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE ALL FOUR PENSKE CARS IN THE PLAYOFFS? “It’s huge to be in the Playoffs. That was the only goal that I set out for this year. I’m not much of a numbers goal setter, but Playoffs was a must in my opinion. The only two goals I’ve set for myself personally or professionally this year was make the Playoffs and break 100 golf. That tells you how hard golf is. I’m still working on the other one.”
WHAT ADVANTAGE DOES IT GIVE YOU WHEN ALL OF YOUR TEAMMATES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I think it gives the team a more direct focus. I mean, everyone’s got the same things at stake. We all have a lot of the same points, so it’s pretty easy to understand or prioritize what it’s gonna take for all of us to continue to advance forward and understand each other’s shoes, I guess.”
HOW HAVE YOU CHANGED AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE PRESSURE DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU DID THE FIRST TIME IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I’ll be honest, I don’t really feel a ton of pressure. I feel like we’re playing with house money. The points reset. We’re right in the middle of everything. We’re seeded 10th, two points to the good. I couldn’t really ask for more based on the season we’ve had, so I’m excited for this great opportunity and anything from here, I feel like, is a bonus. I’m not saying that just to sound content. We have an opportunity to go all the way and that’s exciting.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WATKINS GLEN AND THE DECISIONS TO EITHER STAY OUT FOR STAGE POINTS OR PIT FOR TRACK POSITION LATER? “It’s definitely at least spooked some people for sure, and I don’t feel like everyone – at least myself, I’m not 100 percent sure what the level of fall off is that we’re going to experience. It’s not a high fall off racetrack, so is this fall off that’s just a tire disintegrating from being used, or is this driver influenced? Is it wear influenced? Is it heat influenced? All of those things are things that in an extra practice session I’m gonna be able to use and I’m trying to understand more, but you don’t ever really figure it out until the race.”
DO YOU FEEL IT’S POSSIBLE TO SEE A DRIVER WIN HALF OF THE PLAYOFF RACES LIKE WE’VE SEEN A COUPLE TIMES BEFORE WITH THIS NEXT GEN CAR? “It’s definitely possible. It’s challenging, for sure. I mean, to have a dominant season in this car in this day and age with NASCAR in the Cup Series is pretty difficult. You look at the last couple of years how many different winners we’ve had over the course of a season. Only two guys made it in on points this year. My rookie year, only one guy made it in on points. Last year, I’m sure it was one or two. That says all you have to know about how hard it is to win on a consistent basis in this series is how many winners there are.”
HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO BREAKING 100 IN GOLF? “101 two weeks ago. We’re right on the edge. We’re there. I got a snowman halfway through, so it’s in there.”
WHICH IS GOING TO BE HARDER? DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE ON THE EDGE OF BREAKING 100 OR DO YOU SEE A PATH OF GETTING THROUGH WITH THE WAY THE ROUNDS ARE LAID OUT WITH THE COMPETITION BEING WHAT IT IS? “I feel like both my golf game and my Playoff mentality to get to the next step is to limit mistakes. I feel like the first two rounds of the Playoffs are all about not putting yourself, taking yourself out of it. I feel like when you get to the Round of 8, that’s where you’ve got to find the next gear. That’s where you’ve got to try and win a race to expect to be in the Championship 4. It’s no different than with my golf game. I have the ability to make contact with the ball and make the damn thing go straight. Every once in a while I’ll take a chunk of earth out before I ever even touch the ball.”
HOW DO YOU VIEW OR BREAK DOWN THE ROUNDS? “My job doesn’t change in all of those, just the importance of certain things kind of shift around a bit when you start getting really narrow, but I don’t think anyone will describe how I race as conservative, so I don’t really anticipate being overly conservative for the next three weeks.”
HOW MUCH POTENTIAL IS THERE TO HAVE SOME OF THE GUYS WITH FEWER PLAYOFF POINTS TO MOVE UP OR HAVE OTHER GUYS MOVE BACK? “I’m in no different position with only having two points to the good, so that’s where stage points become such a premium to be able to find those, and that’s what really can set you apart more, more than the amount of stage wins I’ve had in a year or whatever else, even just finishing eighth in a stage is gonna double my points position from where I’m at now.”
WHAT DOES THE ROAD LOOK LIKE FOR YOU TO PROGRESS THROUGH THESE ROUNDS? “Obviously, the different tracks change your preparation and what happens and what not. There are two road courses, two superspeedways. The first two rounds, in my opinion, are about execution, not making mistakes. The second round, that’s where race teams have to come on, find a gear, win a race. So, I think that’s really as simple as it can be. For me, that’s the mentality. We get to the Round of 8, we have to go figure out how to win a race, but until then we have to really eliminate mistakes.”
PENSKE HAS A QUARTER OF THE PLAYOFF FIELD. WHAT WOULD BE A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR YOU IN THE POSTSEASON? “I think I’d definitely be disappointed to be out of the first round. I think the first two rounds are really about execution and if we’re not able to execute, that’s on us. If you get caught in a wreck and that’s what does it, then that’s what does it. The field is super close right now as far as, yeah, I’m a plus two, seeded 10th out of 16 cars. It’s just incredibly close, so, for us, in my opinion, it’s about being that consistent value, performing at a level that we can perform at, and then we make it to the Round of 8, and I think that’s where you’ve got to find the next gear – anyone really and not just us. Winning Cup Series races isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do and that’s really how you can guarantee yourself in the Championship 4, literally and figuratively, by being a race-winning capable car in that round.”
ANY ADDED EMPHASIS ON GETTING STAGE POINTS NOW? “They’re a luxury. Diamonds are a luxury, right. I don’t need diamonds to live my life and I don’t need stage points to advance to the next round, but if I finish eighth in the first stage at Atlanta, I double my gap to the cut line, figuratively, so imagine a whole season’s body of work and then your finish after 40 laps in a stage can separate you by everything that you’ve done all year, so, yeah, it’s not a guarantee that you’re gonna get them either in the Cup Series. I think it’s very important if you’re able to get those. It’s a luxury.”
WILL THERE BE ADDED EMPHASIS OF TRYING TO CAPITALIZE ON THESE FIRST TWO RACES? “I think between that and I feel like Bristol has to be the biggest wildcard in this round. The tires, that was a very unpredictable situation in the spring race and what that meant to how the race looked and how you were gonna have to set up your car, if that’s in fact how we have to set up our car again, to race like that, or just mechanical failures. That racetrack has taken guys out of the Playoffs, out of a shot at a championship because it stressed the cars in a different way than any other racetrack. Bristol is always kind of a wildcard in the Playoffs, but, to your point, I feel like Atlanta and Watkins Glen can both be very strong events for us. We’ve been able to prove that, so all the more reason to have two very good first races.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – DO YOU SEE A PATH FOR YOURSELF IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I see the first round, just taking it one round at a time. You look at the first round, Atlanta is a place we’ve run well in the past. Obviously, just coming off the Daytona win, that’s a place I feel like everyone that’s in the Playoff field could win or everyone could wreck in the first five laps. So, that’s a big roll of the dice, but there’s a huge part the driver plays in decision-making and execution to try and study the best I can for that one. I think that’s a really big thinking type of racetrack. We go to Watkins Glen and there are a lot of new changes that are coming, so whoever embraces those changes the best is gonna have a good day, and grapples those changes the best is gonna have a good day, so we’re really gonna have to focus on that. And then I see Bristol as a really good racetrack for me, a really good racetrack for us. Earlier this year, we qualified well. I was first in our group in practice and felt really confident, and then I was the first one to find out we were gonna be cording tires that day, so we dropped to the back and got stuck in that whole mess and just one of the casualties of not knowing. You just don’t know until the first people start having problems in that type of scenario, but we know how to build a fast race car for that racetrack and I know how to drive it well. That’s obviously another really important one being the last one in the round, so I think Atlanta and Bristol are really big opportunities for us. I think my road course racing has been getting better. I think it’s something I need to continue to work on and Watkins Glen is gonna be a really big test for that with the pressure on, so I’m excited for that challenge as well. I see the bookends of the round being huge opportunities for us that we have to take advantage of.”
DO YOU SEE THE NEW TIRE CHANGING STRATEGY FOR WATKINS GLEN AT THE STAGE BREAKS? “It’s interesting. The stage lengths are gonna be really hard to do that because you can pretty much just run them straight through. I don’t know. It’s gonna be hard. With the tire wear that we’re gonna have, I’ve seen some stuff of the different tire they’re bringing that’s gonna wear a lot more, so that makes it really hard. I think that’s gonna have to be a game time decision of whether or not that’s available. I think it could be an opportunity for guys who may be thinking, ‘OK, I’m gonna finish 20th today or 15th today, maybe we can maximize our day and grab some points,’ and then try and fight in the back of the pack to get more and more spots and then kind of accumulate the most points that you can. It’s just gonna be hard. I think the way the stages work out, it’s gonna be hard to flip them. It’s gonna be a big challenge.”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEK WITH IT BEING YOUR FIRST PLAYOFFS? WHAT ADVICE HAVE YOU RECEIVED AND HOW ARE YOU KEEPING YOUR EMOTIONS IN CHECK? “Not a whole lot. For me, the more you build it up in your head, I think the worse you’re gonna perform. I think you just need to understand that it’s the same race I ran last year. I was a part of all the same races, now it just means more. For us, I think using that in a positive way, using that heightened intensity as a positive kind of thing for our team is gonna be really, really good. I think our group is built for that. I think we’ve all been through different scenarios in our different careers, where we’ve had to kind of pull through and come through in big moments, and we showed we could do that in Daytona with everything on the line. Now we just have to continue that momentum and continue that confidence and we’ll see what happens.”
HOW MUCH DOES YOUR XFINITY PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE HELP? “I think it’s huge. I learned a lot of lessons in those of doing what I said, making it a really big deal. I remember my first year. We get in the Playoffs and we struggle and don’t do very well. I get knocked out of Playoffs and then win two races in a row right after we got knocked out of the Playoffs, which would have got us to Phoenix. It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It’s just crazy how that all worked out and what could have happened. You just don’t get chances, like I thought in those years in Xfinity I had real chances to win championships. You don’t get those very often, so I learned a lot from that and I think I can take that into this year in Cup, and now that you look at the points we’re right on the cut line. It’s a whole new season for us. Everything that happened beforehand doesn’t matter and we’re just going forward from here and hopefully a new look 21 car, so we’re excited for that.”
WOULD YOU CATEGORIZE YOURSELF AS AN UNDERDOG? “If I was not a part of this team, I would say the same thing. You can’t help but look at where we were in points, look at how our season had gone, look at the fact that I was on my way out of my job. They were making changes because the performance wasn’t there. I love them and they love me as a person, but we didn’t perform the way we needed to, but now we have this great opportunity to reset all of that. We have a great opportunity to kind of be born again. It’s like, ‘OK, a whole new season right here. Let’s go.’ That is a rare opportunity in sports and a rare opportunity in life to get to do that, so I’m gonna make the most of that. I know my race team is making the most of it. I was at the shop on the way here. I got to go there a little bit and those guys are fired up. That’s so fun. It’s so fun to be a part of a team that’s fighting for something like we are and we’re gonna use that energy in a positive way.”
DO YOU TALK ABOUT THINGS LIKE NOT MAKING MISTAKES IN THE FIRST ROUND BEHIND THE SCENES? “Yeah, definitely. You see the first round and a lot of guys you see over the years have eliminated themselves. They’ll have plenty of speed, plenty of talent and granted these mistakes happen throughout the year it’s just as big of a deal. When you’re pushing the limits like we are every weekend, you’re gonna screw up. It’s just in the heightened moments everyone is like, ‘Oh my gosh, that guy choked.’ It’s easy to get wrapped up in that, but those mistakes in this Playoff format are just crucial to avoid, so speeding on pit road. Think about how many points you lose if you go from 10th to the tail end of the lead lap. Restart violations. All of these little things that you can do and happen throughout the year frequently in the Playoffs mean that much more and it makes it hard because you don’t want to overstep your bounds, but you have to push the limits or you’re not gonna advance. You have to be on the edge, so riding that edge and not going over it is really hard, but that’s kind of what we do week in and week out. It’s normal, but now it means more.”
WITH YOUR WIN AT DAYTONA AND MAKING THE PLAYOFFS, DOES THAT GIVE YOU A BIGGER SEAT AT THE FORD TABLE? “Yeah, I think so. I think every time you get a win or you’re in the Playoffs, all of a sudden you become a bigger priority. My last two years that I wasn’t in the Playoffs – and this is how it should be – you’re not as big of a priority. Going to Phoenix, the Ford support is behind the 12 and 22 because they have a chance to win the championship. We have a Ford meeting and what can we do to help and what not, and now hopefully we can be on the other side of that because throughout my career I’ve done a good job and my race team has done a good job of helping people when the time is right, and now that we’re the ones that might need the help, I hope it comes the other way, too. It’s complicated because they’re all racing for their own race, too, and it makes it really hard to ask for help. I don’t want anyone to race you differently, but then you also hope that they give you the same respect you’ve given them in the past.”
IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE SOMEONE WIN HALF THE PLAYOFF RACES WITH THIS NEW CAR? “Is it possible? Yes, but less likely than it used to be. Everyone is so close and the tolerances are very small. For example, Darlington we ran last weekend our first run we were way off and then the second run and third run of the race we were one of the best cars on the racetrack. What did we do? It was a couple tenths of air-pressure here and there. I told them in the meeting, I was like, ‘Great job making these massive changes on the car, making the changes you did to make it way better.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, we just did a little it of this here and there. It wasn’t a big change at all.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ And I went from being on track I went from being one of the worst cars to a top 10, top 5 pace race car. It was just like that. That makes it hard. Even throughout a race, much less a season, to keep that consistency in this car is really hard and it creates a lot of parity because everyone is so close.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DO YOU SEE AS TROUBLE SPOTS ALONG THE WAY AND WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING TO PHOENIX? “I think the trouble spots, truthfully, are ourselves. Especially last week, if you can win the Southern 500, it’s arguably probably the hardest race on the schedule to win and now that we’ve proven that we can win that race, I think internally we believe that we can win any of them. Our biggest battle, especially in these Playoffs is you’re racing against yourself. You cannot put yourself in a bad spot. You can’t have a pit road mistake. On the racetrack, I can’t put myself in a bad spot or get myself in the wall and lose a ton of points, so you hear when you go to Darlington, ‘Just go race the racetrack.’ Well, to me, in the Playoffs you’re kind of just racing against yourself. You cannot dig yourself in a deep hole and if you do dig yourself in a deep hole, it’s just hard to get out of, and this year, especially with how the Playoffs are – from fifth to dead last I think is like nine points. It’s never been that tight that I can remember, so pointing your way in is going to be a realistic thing to be able to do. We can’t control what the other guys do. We can only control what we do and that’s where I feel like we’re kind of just racing against ourselves.”
ARE ANY OF THE ROUNDS HARDER THAN ANOTHER? “To be honest with you, I don’t know how it all lays out. I know what the first round looks like, but after that I couldn’t tell you. I just have been trying to take them one at a time. The first round is unique. You go to Atlanta, where anything can happen. And then you go to Watkins Glen, which sounds pretty typical, but we’ve got this new tire and nobody knows what it’s going to do, and then you go to Bristol, where we don’t know if tires are gonna last 180 laps or 40 laps. This first round, I would say, is the most diverse. I don’t think you get much more diverse than three totally different types of racetracks, but I don’t know. I know Martinsville is the second to last race, and I know Talladega is somewhere in there and Kansas and Vegas, but I don’t know what order they’re in.”
WHAT HAVE THESE LAST FEW DAYS BEEN LIKE? “It’s been really cool, just the dynamic at the shop. If a Stewart-Haas car didn’t win Sunday night, Tuesday morning when everybody came in after Labor Day, it would have probably been the gloomiest, darkest shop in the entire industry, and now we’re probably the most electric, fired-up shop, at least the most fired up I’ve ever seen Stewart-Haas. Everybody’s got a pep in their step. Everybody is excited and if a Stewart-Haas car didn’t win Sunday night, then it would have been hard realistically to probably get cars to the racetrack these final 10 weeks and things probably would have been getting shut off and things like that, so for us to be able to win that race was pretty dang cool, just from the standpoint of what it means for Stewart-Haas Racing, so I’m definitely excited. I feel like it’s one of those things that we all internally feel like we can honestly go win the championship and that’s crazy probably coming from a guy that wasn’t even in the Playoffs until two days ago, but I think internally everybody believes it. We’ve seen Tony do it in 2011 and we’re kind of going with that same mindset. If we can win the Southern 500, why can’t we win more?
IS THAT THE RALLYING CRY? “Yeah, I think so and I think when you look at the makeup of Stewart-Haas Racing a lot of it stems from Tony and the mental toughness and things that Tony has been able to do. I kind of mentioned it over there, momentum is a crazy thing in sports, and I kind of related it to NC State this past year in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. They go from not even having a prayer of making the NCAA Tournament, to winning the ACC Tournament and going all the way to the Final Four. I feel like we certainly could relate to that. When you have momentum and confidence, it just goes such a long way and I don’t see what team right now in this sport would have more momentum or confidence than we do. It’s just a different feel for the Playoffs than I’ve ever had. The last time I was here, we won the third race of the year and we had all year long to think about the Playoffs and now it’s just totally different. I’m excited and really feel like if we can get to Phoenix, we can get it done there. We’ve already proven it once.”
HOW MUCH TURNOVER HAS THERE BEEN ON YOUR TEAM SINCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT? “The 14 team, we have not lost any road crew guys, any pit crew guys. There have been a couple shop guys that have left, but literally the day we found out all of the 14 road crew guys went over and met at the setup plate and literally all looked at each other in the eye and went one-by-one in a circle and said, ‘I’m in. I’m in until the end of the year.’ Even if we ran 35th, we were sticking it out to the end. No worries on the 14 side. The other teams have had a couple people leave, but I think it’s gonna be way harder for guys to leave now knowing that there’s a chance we win a championship.”
IS IT JUST LIKE FLIPPING A SWITCH NOW INTO PLAYOFF MODE? “We’re going every week to win races, so our car preparation doesn’t necessarily change. Our attention to detail doesn’t necessarily change, but I think the mentality probably changes a little bit and then just even our race team. We’re in a little bit different situation. Penske has to worry about four race cars. Hendrick, Gibbs, they all have to worry about four cars. I’m in a really good spot. We have a four car team, but really all the focus is on me for the rest of the year. For us, I think that makes it a little bit easier to just put all the eggs in one basket and hopefully that will pay off for us.”
WOULD THIS BE THE ULTIMATE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “It would be pretty cool, I know that. I can’t think of a better way to end the story that Stewart-Haas Racing has written – to go from being one of the most dominant teams in the sport. It’s no lie that it’s been a struggle the last couple of years, the last race of the year going out on top. It would be pretty cool. I’ve been able to do it at BKR. We didn’t win the championship, but we won the last race and I definitely think we could do it again.”
YOU MENTIONED NC STATE AND THEIR RUN. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF AN UNDERDOG? “Oh yeah, I love being the underdog. I feel like I’ve been the underdog my whole career and I love feeling like my back is up against the wall, so I love when people doubt us, don’t think that we can do it. It definitely fires me up, motivates me. The last time we were in the Playoffs everybody said we’d be the first team out and we were four laps away from making the Championship 4. I know what our team is capable of and I know what I’m capable of when everything is executed perfectly, and there’s no reason why we can’t be the ones holding up the trophy at the end.”
WHAT KEPT YOU FROM SHOOTING YOURSELVES IN THE FOOT THE FIRST TIME AROUND IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I don’t know, honestly. I think just trying to understand that risk versus reward. That’s a big thing that you just see guys do time and time again. They just shoot themselves in the foot. I mean, we’ve talked about it my entire career. Whenever the pressure is on, I’ve just seemed to run better and even going back to 2022 I think we had like three top fives and four top 10s all year leading up to the Playoffs and then we had three top fives in a row, six top 10s. We were just able to switch it on. Even just naturally, every season of my career the summer stretch has always been rough and the final 10 are really, really good. I definitely think that these final 10 could be really good for us. They’re all really good racetracks for me and we just have to execute. The Southern 500, like I’ve already said, is arguably the hardest race to win. It takes a good car. It obviously takes driving well and takes good pit stops and we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot all night. We just stayed consistent. We didn’t hit grand slams, but we just hit doubles, singles all night long on pit road and that’s what you’re gonna have to do in the Playoffs. You can’t have uncontrolled tires. You can’t have pit road penalties. If we just do solid stuff, there’s no reason why we can’t make a deep run.”
HAVING DONE IT BEFORE HELPS THIS TIME AROUND, KNOWING YOU KNOW HOW TO DO IT? “Yeah, I literally texted the team on Monday. I said, ‘Look guys, we won what people in the industry will probably say is the hardest race to win. If we can win that race, there’s no reason why we can’t win any of these next 10 and we just have to do the same things we did on Sunday night – nothing more and nothing less.’ I think that’s the big thing that’s encouraging for me is that before Sunday night, even our pit crew for example, probably hadn’t ran a couple pit stops under 10 seconds and Sunday night we ran 9.2s and 9.3s and now there’s a difference in thinking you can do it and knowing you can do it, and now our guys know that we can do it and that’s exciting for all of us. Now that we know that we can win, the pit crew guys, I’d never seen them like that before – even our shop crew guys – we all know we can win now and it’s just gonna light a fire.”
YOUR JACK MAN WAS WORKING OUT MONDAY MORNING. “Yeah, and they didn’t leave the house until 6 a.m. Everybody is fired up. I can assure you there is nobody more motivated in the sport than the 14 guys right now, so it’s an exciting time for me to be able to drive this thing and looking forward to trying to make a run.”
YOU MIGHT BE THE ONLY GUY IN THE TOP 16 THAT TESTED AT BRISTOL. “Yeah. NASCAR invited us thinking we weren’t gonna be in the Playoffs and we obviously are in now, so we were the only car. Buescher was there. He obviously didn’t make the Playoffs now, but we tested there about a month and a half ago and thought we’d learn a lot of stuff and hopefully we can apply that when we go.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THE TIRE? WILL WE SEE THE SAME THING? “I don’t know. I honestly have no idea. I seem to think like it won’t be like that, but my crew chief and engineers do, so I don’t know. I definitely think that I could see it going either way. Everybody says temperature related. Who knows? I think if guys start running up top, the top will probably come in and rubber up, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t go back to the way it was before, but I also don’t know why it did what it did the first time. I don’t know what to expect. This first round is kind of full of question marks and Bristol is certainly one of them.”
WATKINS GLEN HAS A NEW TIRE. HAVE YOU LEARNED TO MANAGE TIRES BETTER? “Yeah. I definitely have gotten way better over time than I ever was. This is probably the best I’ve ever been at it, but I’m still not very good at it, so I don’t know. I feel like any time we’re slipping and sliding around are typically better racetracks for me, and I’m pretty excited about the fact that there could be a lot of fall off. This first round, I think, is a great opportunity for us. Bristol, we’ve always been good there. Watkins Glen, road courses we’re pretty good, and obviously the Fords are really, really good at the superspeedways. We know we’re gonna qualify good at Atlanta this week. We’re gonna have a good motor, a good car and we just have to capitalize on that. Hopefully, we can do that.”
WHAT SCARES YOU? “Honestly, just myself. I can’t eliminate myself. Atlanta does scare me a little bit just because there obviously is the element of stuff happening that’s out of your control. It’s like a Daytona or Talladega, but that can happen anywhere. You never know what can happen, but that would be my biggest fear – something happening that’s outside of our control.”
DOES THE TIRE AT WGI CHANGE THE STRATEGY FOR PITTING AT THE STAGE BREAKS? “I don’t’ know. I think until we get there it’s hard to say. Obviously, everything they’ve done with testing it’s like four seconds of fall off, but when we get there the track starts taking rubber it could be totally different. It’s hard to say until we actually get there. I don’t know what the stages even look like there, but you would think everybody is probably gonna take stage points that can get them. You just kind of have to do that in the Playoffs. You kind of throw away trying to win the race at the mercy of getting those points, so I would say everybody will probably go for stage points. Maybe the guys who are 30-40 points plus the cut line would fip it, but it’s definitely gonna be interesting because that race everybody else is gonna flip it. Nobody else is racing for points, so you’re gonna go from running in top 10 of the stage to restarting like 30th and then it’s gonna be a race through the field and that’s obviously where it can get hairy.”
IS IT STRANGE TO START THE PLAYOFFS WITH A TEAM THAT IS CLOSING ITS DOORS AT THE END OF THE SEASON? “If anything, I think that’s what makes us even more scary, truthfully. We all have a chip on our shoulder to prove to the world that we can do it and there’s a lot of guys that still don’t have a job going into next year. They are trying to prove to another team that they can bring race-winning race cars and championship-winning race cars, so it doesn’t scare me. I know that Stewart-Haas is gonna give me everything I need. I know Ford is gonna give me everything I need, so it doesn’t scare me at all that we’re shutting down at the end of the year. If anything, as crazy as it sounds, I feel like it gives us a little bit of an advantage because no other team can relate to what we’re going through and that kind of makes us different.”
IS IT AN ADVANTAGE FOR YOU TO BE THE ONLY CAR FROM SHR IN THE PLAYOFFS VERSUS TEAMS THAT HAVE FOUR CARS IN? “I definitely think that part of it is an advantage. The Hendrics of the world, the Gibbs, the Penskes, they’re trying to figure out how to make four cars the best they can go every week and then on the racetrack all four of those guys are gonna be fighting each other for points, where I have three teammates out there that can make it really hard to pass them for the other guys and when I get to them they can make it a little bit easier, so I definitely think that’s an advantage for me from on the racetrack and even off the racetrack. A perfect example is the 10 car these next three weeks is gonna go literally identical. Every single piece, part, setup, everything is gonna go identical to how we go, just so they can try stuff in practice and see if we can learn anything. Those other teams that have four cars, they’re not gonna be doing that. They’re gonna be doing everything they can to do for themselves, so that definitely makes it a little bit different for us.”
NOBODY IS FACTORING THAT INTO IT. THAT DOES GIVE YOU AN ADVANTAGE. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, it’s definitely a unique angle that a lot of the other guys can’t play, not only on the racetrack but even from a personnel standpoint. Hopefully, our pit crew everything goes great, but we can put the best people that are performing the best at any point just because we’re really the only team that matters. I know that sounds kind of selfish, but that really is the truth. That’s all that matters right now at Stewart-Haas is the 14 car, so that definitely plays into us and gives us a little bit of an advantage.”
DOES YOUR ROUND OF 8 EXPERIENCE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO HELP THIS TIME AROUND? “I think so. I feel like we weren’t near the race team then that we are now, and we were able to truthfully be like six laps away from making the Championship 4. I know for a fact that I’m a way better race car driver than I was then. From a team standpoint, momentum standpoint, everything, we’re totally different than we were then and we were able to make a deep run. If we just do what we are capable of doing as a team, we can do it. It’s just a matter of doing it consistently. That’s been our biggest hiccup really for the last two or three years is we have flashes of really good speed and running up front and we just haven’t been able to do it week in and week out, but all we have to do is do it for 10 weeks and we can be a NASCAR Cup Series champion. Hopefully, we can put 10 weeks together.”
