Author: Barry Albert

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Brickyard 400 Media Availability | Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Friday, July 19, 2024

Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric met with media members at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of on-track activities Friday afternoon. Below is a sampling of driver quotes from their media scrum sessions.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

QUESTION INAUDIBLE:

“I feel like they do a great job at finding things that need to get better. And, you know, even though we won last week, we’re not complacent about where we’re at. We’re always trying to be better. So, it doesn’t doesn’t worry me one bit. It just makes me feel even better about when the playoffs come in a couple months.”

DO YOU ALMOST HATE TAKING OFF THIS TWO WEEKS BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE SO STRONG RIGHT NOW.”

“No, I need a break. I’m excited for a break.”

EVEN WITH HOW STRONG YOU GUYS HAVE RUN OVER THE LAST MONTH OR SO, YOU GAINED 40-SOMETHING POINTS ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN EXTEND THAT INTO THE 70S?

“I don’t know if we can get there. I feel like I’d like to have a couple races back like New Hampshire running second got dumped and run 25th. Gateway we had a good shot to run top three and finish like 29th. You look at it, there’s like 50 points right there, but 70 plus is kind of far. You never know what’s gonna happen, but all we can do is just try to keep inching in on it. Like I said, it’s nice to kind of gain some of those, but that’s hard to gain. Those guys in front of you are super competitive, really, really good. I just don’t see all of them having bad days consecutively, so we’ll just try to keep inching in. We’ve done a good job so far.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TIRES FOR RICHMOND?

“I think it’s good they’ve tried something. They tried it at Wilkesboro. I don’t think we really got the full option tire experience at Wilkesboro, just because of the new pavement, but I think Richmond will be a little bit more. It has to be two sides of the scale. It has to be half a second faster like the option tire has to be half second faster for like 10 laps and then fall off a second after that. So it has to be two ways and hopefully Richmond helps that out. I’m happy they’re doing something. We’ve done everything else with the race car to try to help the short track stuff, almost everything. The tire is kind of the last piece that we can touch, so hopefully that helps it out a little bit.”

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THEM GO FURTHER?

“Yeah, you just kind of see where it’s at, you know, just see what that tire does, how much it wears. You never want to kind of jump the ship, you know, and go way too far going into a weekend where you don’t know what’s going to happen and then you’re stuck with it. I think just little steps here to try to learn for the future I think is the right way. I mean, everyone beats the dead horse about the horsepower, but I just don’t know if that’s ever going to happen again, unfortunately, but those two things, keep working on tires and we’ll keep yelling for horsepower, even though we might not get it, but those are the two things we can try to do.”

YOU DROVE THE OLD CAR HERE. MICHAEL MCDOWELL JUST DESCRIBED THIS PACKAGE BECAUSE THE TECHNOLOGY AND STUFF THAT IT HAS IN IT, IT’S A LITTLE MORE NIMBLE BECAUSE THE TURNS HERE ARE SO PRECISE. HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THAT WILL CHANGE THE NATURE OF THE RACE HERE ON THE OLD?

“It’s hard to tell. I wasn’t part of the test here, so I don’t have a lot of knowledge I could confidently speak on about that. I hope it’s a good race. Gosh, I mean, this place definitely deserves a good showing and it’s nice to be back on the big track and that’s the Brickyard to me. The road course was fun for a few years but this is the Brickyard and so hopefully, this car is raceable. We all talk about it. You need more clean airspace to get anything with this car and here there’s just no other options, right? With the old car, you could kind of peek a headlight out and you’re good. This car, you need like half a car. Someone’s really going to have to miss the corner for you to get half a car. So we’ll see. But yeah, hopefully the runs are big enough to where you can kind of lay back, get a run on somebody down the straights and make moves but we’ll find out in a few hours.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

THE 2014 PLAYOFFS WERE THE FIRST PLAYOFFS WITH THE ELIMINATION STRUCTURE AND YOU MADE THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND THAT YEAR. WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON THAT, NOT JUST THOSE 10 RACES, BUT KIND OF HOW IT’S IMPACTED EVERYTHING IN NASCAR SINCE, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON IT?

“It was probably the biggest change in our sport from a sporting side of things. From how you win a championship, I think that we’ve ever seen, right? The introduction of the Chase, that was one piece that was pretty big, but I think when they started the playoff rounds, that’s equally as big, maybe bigger in the way it’s done. More do-or-die moments, right? More back up against the wall, gotta make it happen moments. Equally as big as the playoffs is how they did the playoff points and making every race more important. I think it works. I think it’s done really well. It has created a lot of drama in our sport. A lot more storylines for you guys to talk about. So to me, if it’s lasted this long, I don’t see anything about it that I would change at this point. I think it’s just like any other sport now. You can have an incredible regular season and still lose the first game of the playoffs and be out. Well, the same thing happens here. You still get seeded off of how you do, right? You get those playoff points throughout the regular season that help you get through the playoffs, but it’s no guarantee you’re going to win the championship. I think that’s what makes it critical.”

DO YOU HAVE MORE PRESSURE WITH ROGER OWNING THIS PLACE FOR THIS WEEKEND?

“We want to win. We want to win more, sure, absolutely. It’s been like that every time you come here, you want to win, but when Roger owns it, obviously he wants to see the success of his cars on this racetrack. He doesn’t specifically call us and say, hey, you’re coming to our track, you need to make sure you win and run well. But it doesn’t have to be said to know that all of our partners are here. This is a big race for Team Penske. All of our race car partners are partners with the racetrack most likely one way or another. It is one of the crown jewel events of the year. So yeah, it’s a little extra there.”

SO WHEN JOSEPH NEWGARDEN BRINGS THE BORG WARNER TROPHY FROM BACK-TO-BACK INDY 500 WINS, TALK A LITTLE ABOUT THAT:

“It’s great. That’s what you want to see, right? He was able to come up here the last couple of years and collect the ultimate trophy. This is our opportunity to do the same, and we’ll try to do the same.”

GIVEN YOUR SUCCESS WITH THE OLD CAR AND THE NEW CAR AT RICHMOND, HOW ARE THE TWO TIRE COMPOUNDS GONNA AFFECT THE RACE THAT WE SEE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS?

“It depends on the speed difference from compound to compound. I’m not 100% sure what that’s gonna be, right? And what does the fall-off look like? I don’t know, maybe you know, but I don’t know. So I think when we get out there and we practice, everyone’s gonna make a couple long runs most likely and say, okay, here’s the differences and that’s gonna affect the strategy a lot. I don’t think it will be like it was at Wilkesborough, where there wasn’t any tire fall-off, so just putting the softs on made sense. Or the option tire, whatever you want to call it. There’s a lot of fall off at Richmond. So if you can have a tire that lasts longer on a long haul, most likely there’s long runs there. You’re going to want that at some point. But we’ve seen Richmond also come down to where you have a green-white-checker or a 15-lap to go caution and you’re going to want the softs for that. So I don’t really know how it’s going to play out. It just depends on what the tire difference ends up being.”

WITH THE OLYMPICS IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS, IF WE DID AN INTERNATIONAL RACE OF CHAMPIONS WHERE EVERYBODY BROUGHT THEIR BEST SEDAN, YOU KNOW, LIKE A NASCAR SITUATION, HOW INTERESTED WOULD YOU BE IN HAVING A NASCAR OLYMPICS?

“100%, all the way in. I would love it. That’d be the coolest thing. It’s just hard to figure out a fair way of doing that, because you can’t bring a Cup car. Uou can’t bring an F1 car. You can’t bring a rally car. It’s gotta be something that nobody drives. I think having an American team to go up against other countries would be like really, really neat. It’s just gotta be fair. There’s so many different elements that go into it versus playing hockey. You kind of know what’s going to be — there’s no big advantage from skating on a different sheet of ice somewhere. Is it really gonna be that different? No. But for us, there are so many different variables with a race car and being used to driving on a certain type of surface or car or speed, it’s just really hard to make that fair. I’m good with it. Bring your best street legal car. Let’s go.”

WHAT’S CLICKING SO WELL WITH THIS TEAM RIGHT NOW?

“It seems like things are going pretty well right now. Whether it’s the IndyCar side, sports car side, Cup side, it has been good. You know, hopefully we can keep that flow going for the rest of the year. It’s funny, you look, at least on the NASCAR side, you look back at 10 weeks ago, it didn’t look like that. It looked pretty ugly, actually. So, yeah, we’ve just kind of been able to work hard and it seems like some of the gains that we’ve made are starting to show their face a little bit. that we’ve made are starting to show their face a little bit. There’s probably some other variables in there too, but it seems to be working out here recently.

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

A LOT OF PEOPLE MIGHT NOT REALIZE HOW YOU OBVIOUSLY DRIVE FOR THE OWNER OF THIE TRACK, BUT YOUR DAD, TIM, RUNS THE TEAM, EVEN YOUR GRANDFATHER, JIM TRUMAN, WON THIS RACE IN 1986 AS AN OWNER. WAS THIS TRACK THE ONLY TRACK YOU WERE THINKING OF AT THE DINNER TABLE GROWING UP?

“I think my earliest memories in racing only involved the Speedway and watching races here. The first time I didn’t go to an Indy 500 was the first year I raced the Coca-Cola 600. So if that tells you anything, this is racing to me. Other people might think of the short track they grew up going to or whatever else, this is it for me. So it’s very special to get to race here. It’s a special place for both sides of my family and obviously a special place for my race team.”

DESCRIBE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR THE SPORT FOR THIS RACE TO BE BACK ON THE OVAL.

“I’m probably not the best person to ask to be honest because I haven’t done too many Cup races on the oval. I haven’t done any. I think just listening to some of my peers, everyone’s really excited to have this as a race, as a Crown Jewel race back on the schedule. I know it’ll be very cool for me to head the correct direction across the yard of bricks.”

WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER DOING THE DOUBLE HERE?

“Absolutely. I don’t see a reason why not. I’m not in any rush to do it. But I have a love for that event. Yeah, I would love to find the right timing to do it.”

SO WHAT GOT THINGS GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION FOR THIS TRIO HERE IN THE LAST 10 WEEKS OR SO?

“I think a number of things, but as a team, obviously we have all the resources we need to succeed, it’s just putting it together sometimes. It’s a super competitive series right now, probably more competitive than it’s ever been. I think it’s just a really good month, month and a half for our organization on a couple different types of tracks. It’s a long season and things can change quickly. You look at the beginning of the season and say, oh they’re off and now you look at us and oh they’re on. We have another month or two left of the season so we’ve got to keep it going.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Brickyard 400 Media Availability | Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Friday, July 19, 2024

Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Front Row Motorsports, met with media members at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Friday afternoon. The most recent Cup Series winner at Indianapolis spoke about the weekend ahead, returning to the oval at IMS and more.

Michael McDowell, No. 34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse — TELL US ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO COME BACK HERE AND SWITCHING OVER TO THE OVAL.

“It’s been fun this morning just driving in and seeing your big face on the side of the racetrack. I think we came up with a name for it, Chick-fil-A Cheeks, is that right? We’re munching down some Chick-fil-A on the way in here, but it’s cool to be able to come back and take it in a little bit, because the last time I was sitting in this media center there was so much adrenaline, so much going on through your mind, right? It’s hard to really take in the moment because so much is happening. So even just walking back up here, it was just great memories of that day and what it meant. As you guys know, you go through an entire season and you sometimes forget how special of an event that this is until you get here and you see it and you look around and you walk through the garages. So yeah, it’s been fun.”

COMING HERE AS THE REIGNING INDIANAPOLIS WINNER AND BEING ONE OF THREE DRIVERS TO WIN A CUP RACE ON THE INDIANAPOLIS ROAD COURSE, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO ADD A BRICKYARD 400 VICTORY TO YOUR RESUME?

“It would be awesome. I think that winning here is special. When you’re talking about the road courses versus the oval, the oval is prestigious. The Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 are prestigious events. Not to say that the road course isn’t prestigious because absolutely, anytime that you win at Indy, it’s prestigious, but to do it on the traditional yard of bricks, going the right direction, I think would probably one up the road course victory. It’s one of the races that, people asked me this week and last week about how I feel about us coming back to the oval, right? It’s so hard to answer because if you asked me today, what would I rather do, I’d rather race the road course because I would say our probability of winning is probably higher. But as a fan and as somebody that appreciates the sport, I think we should be racing on the oval because of what it means and the history of it. That’s the best way that I could describe it. Coming here and having an opportunity to do both, Reddick won, who won the first year? Allmendinger? So nobody’s won both, right? So there you go, so that opens up a category that if you could do it first, you’d be the first to do it both. Eventually, somebody will, so you might as well be the first one.”

WITH FIVE REGULAR SEASON RACES REMAINING ON THE SCHEDULE, WHAT’S THE APPROACH THAT YOU AND THE 34 TEAM LOOK AHEAD AS YOU TRY TO MAKE THE CUT FOR THE PLAYOFFS?

“Yeah, we just have to win. That’s the only thing we’ve been thinking about. Haven’t thought about anything else. We’ve known here for the last 10 weeks that it’s going to take a win for us to get in and we just keep that same approach that we’ve had so we just keep digging try to get it.”

WINNING HERE IN ANY CAPACITY IS ASTOUNDING, BUT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD MEAN EVEN MORE TO WIN HERE NOW ON THE OVAL, HAVING WON ON THE ROAD COURSE HERE? DO YOU THINK WHOEVER WINS SUNDAY WILL EXPERIENCE EVEN ANOTHER LEVEL OF EUPHORIA OR SOMETHING?

“I think that every win matters in the Cup Series, they’re all special. For me, it would be very rewarding to win on the oval because of my road course background, not that it’s expected, because it’s not expected, it’s hard to win these races, but it’s not a big surprise to win on the road course, for me at least, personally. So to do it at a place like this, that’s very hard. It’s very hard, this oval in particular, in our cars, you have to be perfect all day long. You have to execute all day long. Track position is so important that to put together a race here at the Brickyard and to win would be something that would be a career moment, I think. Even though winning on the race course was as well, it would mean more for sure.”

THERE ARE 10 FULL-TIME CUP DRIVERS WHO HAVE NEVER RACED HERE IN THE OVAL. HOW IS THAT ALL GOING TO FACTOR IN? IS IT GOING TO KIND OF BE EVENED OUT? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR WITH THE NEXTGEN CAR, IN TERMS OF GETTING IT TO HANDLE AROUND HERE?

“Even though it was our first time here with the NextGen car, I do think that experience racing on the oval will still help. Not everything applies, but just the visual references that you have, the bumps, there are a few little things here that you do that you don’t do anywhere else. I think that they’ll still apply. I think there’s an advantage to running multiple races here. And then two, for most of those guys that have run races like myself, you’ve got to remember we’ve done it in every configuration. From old cars to COT, from high downforce to no downforce, from 1000 horsepower to 450 to 650, 550, and 750 in between tires, only lasting five laps to long green flag runs, the stages. So you have experience in a lot of different settings here over those 15 years. So even though the NextGen is different, I feel like that experience will still apply.”

THE NEXT GEN HAS A LOT OF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMSA CAR. DOES THAT MAKE CORNERING HERE A LITTLE BETTER IN TERMS OF IT’S MORE PRECISE, YOU’VE GOT A LITTLE BIT MORE, YOU CAN BE A LITTLE BETTER GOING INTO THE TURNS THAN WITH THE PREVIOUS CAR?

“That’s a great question and this car responds quicker. Everything about this car is quicker in response as far as the car doesn’t travel as much, the sidewalls not deflecting as much, and the steering, everything is more responsive and it’s more nimble as far as that goes. But we have less downforce now than we did in most of those years that we were here. So yes, it does respond quicker but you’re still taking a 4,000 pound heavy stock car that doesn’t have a lot of downforce. So this is one of the tougher tracks for that. When you are in the car you don’t feel much banking at all here. It feels very flat and very fast getting into the corner. But what you said is right, this is a precision racetrack. When you make adjustments in the car, you are just trying to move 3 or 4 inches. You are not trying to move 3 or 4 feet. So here, I think it is going to be fun with this car because this car responds so well. So you should be able to race and dice it up a little bit more.”

BUT IF YOU GO INTO TURN ONE OR TURN THREE ON THE OUTSIDE, WILL YOU BE ABLE TO MAKE IT STICK WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO MAKE A PASS?

“I’ll let you know around lap 15. We all are thinking the same thing. Anytime you come here, and I wasn’t at the test, but anytime you come here and test, or even in practice today, it’s going to be one lane. We know it’s going to be one particular line. But as we get restarts in and as we get racing side by side, the track takes rubber and you normally can move around a little bit. I do think it will be the same. I thought about it last night. I’m like, what would make this car any different that the track wouldn’t widen out? And with the tires and the rubber that we’re putting down, I don’t see there being any trend with this NextGen car that would tell me that it’s going to be one lane versus when we were here last time and we could run two lanes. The preferred lane is still going to be the bottom, but you should be able to go through the corner side by side. I do think it will take a little bit. It won’t happen today, right? I think by the time Xfinity races and lays rubber down and then we go out, it should be at a good spot, I hope.”

OBVIOUSLY YOU’RE FOCUSED ON THIS YEAR AND EVERYTHING LIKE THAT, WE KNOW, BUT YOU’RE MAKING A MOVE NEXT YEAR. ARE YOU HAVING CONVERSATIONS ALREADY AND KIND OF PLANNING THINGS OUT ON WHAT THAT’S GOING TO LOOK LIKE FOR YOU NEXT YEAR?

“There’s definitely conversations that are happening in regards to people. Finding people and as you guys know, Spire is expanding right now and they’ve added a lot of people and there’s more people to come. So those conversations I’m definitely involved in and having them. Besides that, no, I’m focusing on my race and my race team. Then also too, it’s a little bit tricky, right? When it comes to racing, they’re still the enemy right now. I mean, really, and I am to them, right? Until that transition actually happens. So when it comes to racing this year, we’re not talking about those things, we’re just talking about people for next year.”

LOOKING AT THE REMAINING EVENTS ON THE SCHEDULE BEFORE THE PLAYOFFS START, DO YOU HAVE ONE OR TWO DATE CIRCLES THAT YOU THINK MIGHT GIVE YOU THE BEST CHANCE TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS?

“Yes. The way that we look at it and the way that I approach it and the way that we’ve looked at it for the last couple of years is, and it’s evolved, is that it used to be super speedways and road courses, right? Those were our opportunities to win. Now I don’t feel like we’re in that tight of a box because we have had good speed at

other racetracks. Last week at Pocono wasn’t a great weekend for us, and that usually lends to this weekend as far as setup and overall performance. So I’m hoping that this week is the week that we can get back on track as far as that goes. But we have Daytona, that’s obviously a crapshoot, you never know, but that’s a place that I’ve won at before, and I was in a position to win Talladega on the last lap this year too. I don’t feel like it’s our last chance. I feel like even this weekend we’ll have a shot at putting ourselves in position. The outright speed that we’ve had this season I think has given me the confidence that we’re not locked to just two or three tracks to do it at. It’s no secret we’re running out of time, right? And we know that. Chicago was one of those races we had circled and we ran well, but we didn’t win. So we have a few more weeks to try to get it done.”

WITH THE OLYMPIC BREAK COMING UP, DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE OLYMPIC MEMORIES OR ANY OLYMPIC MOMENTS THAT HAVE REALLY STOOD OUT FOR YOU OVER THE YEARS?

”No, not any particulars, but just like everybody else, anytime the Olympics are on, everybody’s engaged and watching. I think that over my childhood and even as this year has actually been fun with my kids, because they’re sort of into it. I think probably because they know that we’re getting a break because it’s the Olympics. So it’s been a topic at our house. But it’s just the pride that comes in rooting for your country. And obviously, America’s done well when it comes to gold medals and things like that. There’s been a lot of those different seasons of the Olympics where we just dominate a category, and that’s always been fun. And it hasn’t always been the same category, right? So yeah, nothing in particular, but we always watched and it was always a fun time at our house.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Brickyard 400 Media Availability | Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Friday, July 19, 2024

Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Panini Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing met with media members Friday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

RACING ON THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME, KIND OF WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS PLACE, HEADING HERE?

“I’m obviously really excited to be here and be in the Cup Series, get to compete on Sunday in what is one of the most prestigious races that NASCAR’s always done, that we’ve missed the last couple years. So it definitely feels different coming here to run the oval than it did the road course. I think just getting to take in the oval and just the history behind it is something that’s going to be really fun. So yeah, this is my first time up here, so I was checking things out a little bit, but it’s definitely exciting to be back on the oval and hopefully we can put on a good race Sunday.”

YOU’RE ONE OF 10 FULL-TIME CUP DRIVERS WHO HAVE NEVER RACED THE OVAL IN THE CUP SERIES, BUT YOU IN PARTICULAR HAVE NEVER RACED IT, PERIOD. SO WHAT’S THAT GONNA BE LIKE?

“It’s definitely a unique scenario. It’s probably one of the only ovals that I haven’t been to yet that we go to. So, thankfully, I have an opportunity to race in the Xfinity race. I think that will be useful to get on track and practice in that and then obviously have that race under my belt by the time Sunday comes around so that hopefully I can get some needed experience in that race. Other than that, I feel like we’ve prepared the best we can, and having a 50 minute practice will help too. So, put all those things together, it should be alright. I think that this place will race similarly to maybe Pocono or Michigan where we’ve had some pretty good cars. So hopefully everything goes to plan.”

THE FACT THAT IT’S THE FIRST TIME THAT THE NEXTGEN RACES ON THE OVAL HERE TOO, DOES THAT EVEN IT OUT AT ALL DO YOU THINK?

“Yeah, I think even the guys that haven’t been here or raced the old style car here probably still have some of the same feelings that I have approaching this again with the NextGen. So it’ll be a learning experience for all of us. But like I said, with a little bit of extended practice, that should help. And we’ll go out there and do it and see what happens.”

YOU HAVE A PRETTY ICONIC PERSON ON YOUR CAR. HAVE YOU EVER HAD A CAR WHERE YOU’VE HAD SOMEBODY OF THE CALIBER OF CAITLIN CLARK, OR EVEN JUST A PHOTO OF A PERSON ON YOUR PAINT SCHEME?

“No, I don’t think so. It’s been a fun week for sure. Obviously starting our partnership with Panini has been really cool. They have a huge presence in NASCAR and in sports in general. For them to use the hood of our race car to draw attention to the Caitlin Clark collection that’s out now is really cool. I think it’s been a popular week on social media for our 4 car, which is the point of all this and it’s been pretty fun.”

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU INITIALLY SAW THE SCHEME, THE DESIGN?

“I think over the last couple of weeks we knew this was kind of coming together and was ironing out all the details. So it’s just, it’s cool, right? I think that’s the biggest thing about it. It’s a great way to bring everything together and start this partnership with Panini and having her on the car is a great way to start. She has had a tremendous trajectory the last couple of years. So to be able to be a part of that is pretty cool.”

HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO TALK TO HER ABOUT IT AT ALL?

“I have not, no.”

SHE’S OBVIOUSLY A WORLDWIDE FIGURE, BUT IS CENTERED HERE IN INDIANAPOLIS. HOW COOL IS IT TO HAVE SOMEONE LIKE THAT REPRESENTED WHEN WE GET BACK ON THE OVAL HERE AT SUCH AN ICONIC RACETRACK?

“It’s a great opportunity for us to have to have Panini and then Caitlin on the car as well. Just the amount of attention that the car has gotten this week through social media and everything’s been really cool and I’m sure it’ll continue to build through the weekend. Hopefully we can have a good race and make them all proud.”

THIS IS PROBABLY A STUPID QUESTION, BUT IS IT DISTRACTING AT ALL TO HAVE A FACE LIKE RIGHT THERE WHEN YOU’RE DRIVING?

“No, you really can’t see it too much.”

IS THERE A TURN OR CORNER THAT YOU’RE MOST FOCUSED ON WHEN YOU GO OUT THERE FOR THE CUP CAR?

“It seemed like in our normal prep that turn one is the hardest corner to get through. I don’t really know why that is. I talked to Rodney (Childers) a little bit about that and he felt that that was a similar experience when they raced here with the old car. So I don’t know if it’s just the angle or the visuals or whatever that that seems like turn one and two kind of expose you know your car a little bit more in the simulator just how it turns and everything so I don’t know, we’ll find out if that’s real or not I guess here soon.”

YOU JUST MENTIONED RODNEY, HAVE YOU LEANED ON HIM A LOT IN PREPPING FOR THIS OR ARE YOU EXPECTING TO LEAN ON HIM A LOT THIS WEEKEND?

“I think obviously he’s really excited to get back here, being that they won the last two Brickyard 400s. I feel like we’re leaning on each other and communicating like we always do. Even still, it’s a totally different car as well, so we’re all going to be learning this together. The team’s got a little extra confidence this week for sure.

YOU HAVE A YOUNG DAUGHTER. YOU HAVE ANOTHER GIRL ON THE WAY, SO I’M CURIOUS, HAVING CAITLIN CLARK ON THE CAR, IS THAT ANY MORE SPECIAL OR MEANINGFUL JUST AS FAR AS A ROLE MODEL AND, YOU KNOW, FEMALES CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING KIND OF THING TO PREACH TO YOUR DAUGHTERS?

“For sure. It really is a great opportunity to have her on the hood of our race car, and the amount of reach and popularity she’s gained over the last couple of years has been really amazing to watch and just how it’s transcended women’s basketball. Being a girl dad, I guess, you don’t necessarily put the two together right now but as she grows older, I’m sure that it’ll definitely be a pretty cool thing to look back on as she continues her career.”

YOU’VE GOT PANINI FOR THIS RACE HERE. WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE DOWN FOR THE FUTURE AND WHAT DOES 2025 LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

“The Panini partnership, they’re going to be an associate for us the rest of the year and hopefully on the car again. I think we’re working through all that. For 2025, I’m headed to the Wood Brothers to drive the 21 car, so I’m excited about that, but we still have a lot of racing to do with the 4 team.”