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WHAT’S YOUR SENSE OF WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN ON SUNDAY NOW THAT YOU’VE BEEN ON THE TRACK?
“I’m pretty excited this weekend so far. I think we ended up fifth in practice there and we were on top of the board for a minute. We got a good start to the weekend. I think our car felt good in race trim and we’re pretty decent in qualifying trim right now. We’re going to try to make it a little bit better for our qualifying run. We drew the first spot so we’ve got to go out first which isn’t probably the most advantageous spot to take off for qualifying but we’ll see what we get.”
THE WIND IS FIERCE TODAY, WHAT DO YOU FEEL OUT THERE IN THE CARS MAKING SOME LAPS?
“It was a little gustier at the beginning of the session then it was at the end. It seemed like it was a little more consistent at the end. It just changes. It depends on which direction the wind is blowing dictates how the entries and exit of the corner are and whether you’ve got to run with the head wind or tail wind down the straightaways or anything but it seems to be blowing from the front stretch to the back stretch so it only affects really the corners right now. It was a pretty big difference.”
YOUR FIRST SEASON AS AN OWNER SO FAR HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE HAVE YOU HIT THAT POINT WITH YOUR TEAM WHERE ITS MORE OF AN EXPECTATION THAN A PLEASANT SURPRISE THAT YOU GUYS ARE RUNNING SO WELL?
“I think we’re through that stage now. Everybody is still happy about the fact that we’re doing this in our first year but I think since the Chase has started we all not have expected more but we put more pressure on ourselves to perform better and consistent each week so we still feel like we have a shot at this championship. That’s what we’re all pushing for right now.”
HOW DO YOU KIND OF RATE HOW YOU’VE RUN THE FIRST TWO RACES OF THE CHASE AND HOW MUCH ARE YOU WATCHING THE OTHER 11 GUYS?
“We’re really not right now. Obviously at the end of the race we look at the points sheet to see where we’re at and see whether we’ve gained or lost but we don’t worry about it in practice. You still have to go out and beat 42 guys each week. I think we would have like to obviously had a better Loudon and we would have likes to have finished better last weekend but we were a quick car. We just weren’t as quick as the No. 48 was last week and we thought that taking four tires was going to be better for track position at the end there and we lost too much track position. So we thought there would be more guys take four tires. We made the guess that we thought was going to be right for us and lost out last week.”
CAN YOU TALK TO US ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO SEE THE YOUNG KIDS HERE ENJOYING WHAT YOU DO AND THE COMMUNITY OUTREACH GOING TO CLASSROOMS AND THINGS YOU GUYS DO TO REACH OUT TO THE COMMUNITY OUTSIDE THE SPEEDWAY?
“We don’t get to do much outside the speedway obviously. We fly in on Thursdays and we race Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then we leave. That’s the great thing about our sport its very fan friendly from everybody that’s kids all the way up to people in their 70’s and 80’s. This is a sport that people have enjoyed for years and seeing the young kids that come to the track they’re going to enjoy it for a lot of years to come. It’s a good sign that our sport is healthy and we’ve got a good future.”
