- Michael McDowell won his series-leading sixth pole of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season today.
- This is the 10th pole overall for Ford: McDowell (6), Joey Logano (3) and Ryan Blaney (1).
- McDowell won both poles this year at Talladega.
- Five of McDowell’s poles have come at Talladega (2), Atlanta (2) and Daytona (1).
- Ford has five of the top six starters in tomorrow’s race and six in the top 10.
Ford Performance Results:
1st – Michael McDowell
2nd – Austin Cindric
3rd – Todd Gilliland
5th – Ryan Blaney
6th – Joey Logano
9th – Harrison Burton
13th – Brad Keselowski
18th – Ryan Preece
19th – Josh Berry
20th – Chris Buescher
22nd – Noah Gragson
28th – Corey LaJoie
34th – Cody Ware
36th – Chase Briscoe
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – POLE-WINNING INTERVIEW: BILL ELLIOTT IN THE 1980s WAS THE LAST TEAM TO WIN SIX STRAIGHT POLES ON THESE STYLE OF TRACKS. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO HEAR YOU’RE MATCHING BILL ELLIOTT? “I don’t even think you can put me in the same conversation as Bill Elliott, but I’m really proud of the 34 team and the cars that we’re bringing to the racetrack. Our Ford Mustangs are super fast. I’m not thinking about it as I’ve matched a record or tied a record or did what Bill Elliott did. I’m looking at my team and saying these guys have done an amazing job to accomplish something really special. I’m proud to drive this Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang. I’m really thankful to Doug Yates and everybody at the Roush Yates Engine shop. We’ve had the speed all year long to do this and we just executed everything really well and once you get into that rhythm and you start doing it, it just breeds more hunger to do it more often, so I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN ONE MORE RACE WITH THIS TEAM? “It would mean the world. I think you guys have seen it in some of desperation this season of moves that I typically wouldn’t make just trying to get that win because it is my last season at Front Row Motorsports. I owe so much to Bob Jenkins for taking my career from barely hanging on for dear life to winning races and winning poles and contending. Everything inside of me and this 34 team, we want to get a win before the end of the year and we have great opportunities to do that. Today was the first win that we needed to get the pole and tomorrow we’ll go out there and try to get that checkered flag.”
MCDOWELL POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN THE POLE HERE THIS WEEKEND? “Talladega qualifying there’s not a tremendous amount to it, but we knew coming here that we would have a shot at the pole. It was a priority for us. A lot of effort went into it, so you feel that pressure of not making any mistakes and not screwing it up. Just really proud of our team. I mean, it’s very difficult to come down to these superspeedways and have cars that we have and continue to bring cars that we’ve brought every weekend, so really proud of the effort. It’s amazing. We sort of had this in mind, that today would be a day that we’d come down here and try to get the rest of the superspeedways locked down and really proud that we were able to accomplish it.”
IS THERE A PART OF THIS THAT FEELS LIKE DEJA VU AND HOW MUCH HAVE YOU REPLAYED THE SPRING RACE IN YOUR HEAD? “After the spring race, I played it in my head a lot, just because you’re always trying to learn and study and figure out, ‘OK, what went right and what went wrong? How would you process it different? How would you make the moves different?’ It’s more analytical than just, ‘Oh, don’t make the last block.’ It’s how do you do all the things you need to do and still win the race. And then you kind of just lock in and get focused and you move on. You move on pretty quickly in our sport. You have to learn to do that because if not, next week is here and you can get in your head and anytime that happens you can lose momentum, good or bad, so you try to move on quickly. As this race came up and is coming up, you see it all on social media – the last lap. Every time I just won’t even let it get to the wreck. I stop it. I just scroll up or scroll left or right. I don’t know what you call it, but it’s because I don’t want to see it. The reason I don’t want to see it is it’s hard. That was my shot to make the playoffs. That was our shot to get a win and it slipped out of our hands, but the reason I don’t want to watch it and the reason why I don’t reflect on it is because I’m staying in this moment. Tomorrow is a new day, a new opportunity and we’ll have a shot of winning the race. I’m gonna think about the things I need to do to win the race tomorrow and try not to fixate too much on what happened last time. You learn from it and you definitely, like I said right after, I studied it hard for hours and figured out a game plan of what I would do different, and so we sort of have that locked in and try to move on.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED WORKING WITH BOB AND JERRY, WHETHER IT’S THEIR CHARACTER OR WHATEVER AS THEY GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS WITH THE LAWSUIT? “That’s a great question. What I would say is that Bob Jenkins is so dedicated to this sport. What I mean by that is, he probably wouldn’t me saying this, but he has spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of his own dollars to be in this sport and to be competitive. Nobody does that unless they’re insane or super passionate. Bob is very passionate. He’s passionate about this sport. He’s passionate about our race team and getting competitive. It’s been a steady progression and I feel like we’re at a point now where we’re a contender. We’re a contender week in and week out. They fought really hard to be in the spot that we’re in now, to be as competitive on the racetrack as we are, and then Jerry has been around the sport for a long time. He’s a guy that everybody on our race team leans on when they’re going through good times and bad times and it’s a big family at Front Row. It’s not this corporate feel when you walk in. Everybody knows each other’s names. We all know each other’s families. We celebrate the good moments together and we fight through the tough ones. That atmosphere isn’t like that everywhere at every race shop. I think a lot of it has to do with just how Bob and Jerry have gone about their business. We’ve kind of stayed that small, nimble, family feel and they love the sport. As far as all the things going on, I mean, I think it just shows like today, how dedicated we are to performing on the track and doing our jobs. The rest will take care of itself.”
FIVE SUPERSPEEDWAY POLES IN A ROW IS MORE THAN JUST A COINCIDENCE. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS HAVE FOUND SOMETHING THAT NOBODY ELSE HAS FOUND AT THIS POINT? “That’s a great question. I couldn’t answer it. I don’t know what everybody else is doing. I can tell you that we’ve found a lot of little, little details go a long way and it’s not just one thing. I think I shared this story earlier this year of how we got here, and how we got here was we didn’t qualify last, but it was close to it the previous year and we were like, ‘Man, we’ve got to fix this. We have to fix this,’ so we all just put our heads together and said, ‘OK, we are gonna build this Daytona car and we’re gonna put as much time, energy and resources into this Daytona car. Every little detail from every decal to every clear coat to every nut, every bolt, every body panel. We are gonna make sure that everything on this car to the last thousandth is perfect.’ And it was a tremendous undertaking through the offseason and we went down to Daytona and, as you guys know, there is no practice, so cold turkey you go out there and we qualified on the front row. So we went from qualifying 20-plus, 30s sometimes, to sitting on the front row of the Daytona 500 and all of a sudden we were like, ‘OK, we can do this. It’s gonna take a lot of time. It’s gonna take a lot energy. It’s gonna take a lot of effort.’ But you’ve got to throw in the mix there too is that the Ford Mustang Dark Horse body update lent itself to being very quick at the superspeedways. We’ve seen a lot of Ford Mustangs up front at superspeedways. Roush Yates Engine power, we know that we come down here with a little bit of an advantage, so as you guys know in NASCAR there are very few windows of opportunity that you get because next year there could be a different spec, a different rule update, a manufacturer finds something. Things like this happen all the time to where all of a sudden you go from being the top dog from a manufacturer’s standpoint to behind at certain tracks, so we knew that there was an opportunity to capitalize. We knew that there were eight Fords in the top 10 at the Daytona 500 and we’re like, ‘Hey, this is our time. This is our year. This is our opportunity to make the most out of every superspeedway track that we have.’ And so it’s just taken that kind of laser focus and applying it. Unfortunately, we’ve come up short when it comes to winning the races, but at the same time I’m proud of what we’ve done. Like, we’ve been three or four hundred yards away from a couple checkered flags and not just here, but at Daytona. We were leading the race with five or six to go and we got spun out and we’ve been in the lead or first or second when these things have happened, so we’re not just fast on Saturday, we’re fast on Sunday, too. So I’m proud of that. There’s been times over my career where you might go qualify really well and then they drop the green flag and the car drives terrible and you’re hanging on for dear life and you can’t stay up there. That’s not the case. The speed that we’ve found in our race car applies to the race, too. It’s tough to do what we’ve done and I’m really proud of Travis Peterson and Griff and all the guys on the 34 because they’re there later than everybody else. Eight p.m. Wednesday and Thursday night they’re still there. They work their guts out with a plan to come down here and sit on the pole. I get to sit in front of you guys and kind of take the glory, but it is 100 percent all of the work they put in at the shop and my job is to try and not screw it up. I’m just super proud. I’m proud of the effort. I’m proud of the fact that once I made my announcement that I was making a change for next year, it would have been very easy for those guys to just give 80 percent and some people call it a lame duck year or whatever it is, but those guys have fought super hard and they continue to fight hard even with six to go or seven to go. I’m just really proud of those guys. They’ve fought really hard and it’s a testament to what hard work looks like.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO STUDY THE CHANGES AT THE ROVAL? “I have had an opportunity to study it and I’m looking forward to it. The Roval hasn’t been super strong for me and us and so I’m glad that there is some change because sometimes change is exactly what you need to turn the ship and get to where you want to be. But the Roval is super challenging. It’s not your typical road course. It’s a challenge technical, tight, twisty, big curbs, the turtles they call them. There are a lot of challenges at those places, so I’m looking forward to it. Anytime I get to race on a road course I’m happy about it and it’s an opportunity again to try to go there and win the race.”
WAS THERE ANY TEAM MEETING ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON OFF THE TRACK? DID YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS NOW THAT FRONT ROW IS SUING NASCAR THAT IT MIGHT IMPACT PERFORMANCE? “No concerns on it impacting performance. All of that stuff is happening above my pay grade and my road crew guy’s pay grade. We just stay focused on the task in front of us, so it wasn’t much of a distraction from that standpoint. It’s the same thing, when you have a goal in front of you, it’s easy to stay focused and the goal was to come down here and sit on the pole. I mean, it’s not just because of trying to have five consecutive superspeedway poles, I mean that’s one of it, but the other part of it is that we want to beat Kyle Larson for the most amount of poles in the year. That’s a big goal for us and I think right now we’re ahead. He’s got great racetracks coming up. I think he’s probably got more opportunities to get poles from here on out than I do, but he’s gonna have to execute perfect and that’s the kind of pressure we wanted to put on him. Now, we know he’s fighting for a championship and he is not worried about who gets the most amount of poles. Actually, I think he is. I gave him a little wink before qualifying and he didn’t flip me the bird, but it was close to it (laughing). Look, we know we’re not gonna go and win every weekend, so this is something that we can win and we’re focused on doing it. I’m just happy that we’ve executed it. There’s more opportunities, so tomorrow is a big one right in front of us.”
YOU’VE SEEN ALL FORMS OF THE NASCAR BUSINESS MODEL WITH DIFFERENT TEAMS IN YOUR CAREER. HOW MUCH OF WHAT YOU’VE SEEN INFLUENCES THE PRISM THROUGH WHICH YOU VIEW THE ONGOING CHARTER NEGOTIATIONS AND THE LAWSUIT THAT’S COME OUT OF IT? “I don’t know how to answer that. I mean, I did get a memo before I came here of what to not say and talk about, so I don’t know if this fits into it. I need to pull out my phone and email, but this is what I can tell you. When we were start and parking with Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey, everyone was like, ‘What are these guys doing? They’re just stealing from NASCAR, taking the check and going.’ I know that there was years that Phil lost hundreds of thousands of dollars doing what we were doing. Everybody got paid. There were 10 guys working on that race team and that race car and if we made the race, we made it. And if we didn’t, we didn’t. There was a tremendous amount of pressure on us every single weekend to perform and execute and everyone just thought, ‘Oh, what are these guys doing just wasting space and wasting time.’ And the goal was to never be a start and park team. That wasn’t the goal, it’s just what we had to do to keep things going. We worked on sponsorship and when we got sponsorship we raced and that might have only been five or six times a year. If you made the Daytona 500, you had a little bit of a cushion. If you made Texas, it was great. If you made Indianapolis, that was a bonus. If you missed those races, you lost money. There’s no doubt about it and there were years that we didn’t make those races, so I’ve seen it from that side and I’ve seen it from the Front Row side. Like I said, I’m not gonna go into the details, but I can tell you this for sure is that Bob Jenkins has and continues to spend a tremendous amount of his own money. Every time we ask for more and more resources and more cars and more parts and a hawkeye. You guys have heard me talk about it over the years and it’s coming out of Bob’s pocket. So, I feel like I can’t answer your question all the way, but I can answer it enough to know that there’s not a team in the garage, and you can quote this, that’s more efficient than Front Row Motorsports – not one team. There is nobody spending what we spend and performing how we perform. Nobody. And if he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem.”
NASCAR MADE THREE CHANGES TO THE CAR FOR THIS WEEKEND. DID YOU NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCE TODAY AND DO YOU THINK THEY’VE DONE ENOUGH? “Those are loaded questions. I felt nothing today, which we expect. The changes that we make you won’t really feel until you get into a big draft and you have a lot of air flow going over the car and around the car. Whether it’s effective or not, the same thing, we won’t know until one of us is sideways at 180 miles an hour and see if we blow over or not. It’s not a super easy solution to any of this. As you guys know, a lot of what we do is computer simulations, CFD, and you can go to the wind tunnel and you can get those numbers, but you can’t put five or 10 cars in the wind tunnel. Anytime you affect one area of the race car, you’re gonna affect other areas of the race car and there’s a ripple effect. I think they’re working hard. I think that they’ve done a good job of finding a few things that from a data standpoint are moving it closer to where they think it needs to be, but it’s a moving target because situationally you can get into a different spot that the car has not been in yet and we see something tomorrow, but we’re moving everything in the right direction. They’ve been proactive. I don’t think there’s any driver that’s sitting there like, ‘Oh, what are these guys doing?’ We know that they’re proactive. They’ve been proactive. They’ve always been proactive on safety. They’re making the changes that they can make. Sure, there are probably more things that we could do, but we don’t know what that’s gonna affect and we don’t know how it’s gonna affect it. The last thing you want to do is create another problem and so it’s not an easy, quick decision. It’s not an easy, quick fix, but I feel safe going into the race tomorrow. It’s not a concern of mine. It’s not something that I’m thinking about. I think that you’re not gonna always have a safety net for every situation. Race cars that go 200 miles an hour are dangerous. They’ve been dangerous and they’ll continue to be dangerous. I feel way safer today sitting in a race car than I did 10 years ago and way safer than I did 20 years ago. I think they’ve moved everything in the right direction, so I’m confident strapping in on Sundays and letting it all hang out.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s definitely important. It certainly gives us options from a strategy standpoint and obviously shows that we have a really fast Discount Tire Ford Mustang, but, once again, the Fords are really fast on these types of racetracks, so I’m proud of everybody at Ford Performance and Team Penske. You see the consistency there with all of our cars really, really close. Everybody in the shop should be proud of that one and we’ve got something to race with tomorrow.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Commission Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Daytona hurt the most because we were really close, but with this one there were three or four guys that seemed to have everyone covered today. Congrats to them. It’s still a really fast car. We definitely have enough speed to go win tomorrow, so that’s the important thing. Execution now goes to the top of our list going into tomorrow.”
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Talladega infield media center before today’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session and answered questions from the media. Blaney goes into tomorrow’s race in second place, 28 points above the cut line.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET COMING TO TALLADEGA? “I think we’ve had some success here as a group for a long time and there are a number of factors that go into it. I don’t know, I think we see these races as big opportunities for us. We’ve come to look forward to these events. I know some people come out and say, ‘We don’t look forward to these events.’ That’s not a good mindset to have, so I think how do we maximize the weekend, whether it’s here or Daytona or Atlanta. How do we work together as a team between Joey, Austin and myself and Harrison? How do we try to support each other and try to do the best we can for our groups? I feel like we do a better job at teamwork here than anybody else. I feel like we constantly look for each other. We constantly have each other’s backs, and that’s what you need here. That’s what we’ve done to be successful at these racetracks. We don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, Talladega.’ You know that things aren’t fully in your control and that’s just a given, and you just put that out of the way and say, ‘Hey, how do we execute this race as good as we can,’ and understand that if things do happen to us that isn’t in our control, well, that’s just the way it is. It stinks, but it’s just not anything you can really stew over, so I think our group has a really good mindset when it comes to these places – good or bad – and you never know what the outcome is gonna be.”
ONLY ONE NON-PLAYOFF DRIVER HAS WON THIS RACE SINCE 2014. DO YOU VIEW THIS RACE AS A CRAPSHOOT OR AS ONLY A SELECT FEW WHO CAN WIN? “I think the opportunity for a potential surprise winner is higher here than other places. That’s just how it is. I don’t see it as a complete crapshoot. You have your guys who run really well at these racetracks, and you have your guys that maybe struggle a little bit as far as decision-making and all that stuff. I don’t think it’s a secret that some folks excel at this type of racing. I think Denny is great. Brad is great. Joey is awesome. For years and years those guys have found themselves at the front of these things at the end of them and that’s just not all by chance. I feel like if they stay clean and don’t get tore up, they’re always at the front of these things at the end. It’s just how they strategize their race. A small percentage of it is a crapshoot, just because you could be riding around – like, I look at Daytona has been a crapshoot for me for the last three years. I don’t think I’ve finished a race at Daytona in two years, just getting tore up in someone else’s mess, but when we do stay out of the trouble, we run pretty good. I think you have your folks that are comfortable with it and they do well, and then you have others that might struggle a little bit more.”
WHAT’S THE MENTALITY THIS YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I go into every weekend, our whole group goes into every weekend wanting to win, obviously, and expecting to win. I think our group is capable of that and I think we’ve done a great job up to this point. I think we as a company and as the 12 team are way stronger than what we were at this point last year. Our cars are faster. We’re gelling as a team better. We don’t come to these places expecting to win, we just come and try to do our job the best we can do our job. Do you execute well on pit road? Do you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions out there? You’re obviously going to have some moves that don’t work for you and that’s just the way it is, but you just have confidence going to these places and it’s the same every week. I don’t go to a certain place looking forward to it more than others. I look forward to every weekend and just trying to see what we can bring to the track and how we can utilize our efforts and skills the best that we can and that’s really all I ask for. Kind of a big thing on our team is do your job to the best of your ability and if you do the best to your ability, you can at least hold your head high and whatever happens happens. If you win, great. If not, you did the best job you could and I think that’s just something we’ve thought about through the last year and a half, two years and I think everyone is just kind of taking that in a good way – like I want to give all of myself on this weekend and this day and see what happens to it.”
HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE ROVAL AND THE CHANGES THEY’VE MADE THERE? “I haven’t walked the track. I have done sim work. It’s a little different. The frontstretch chicane is a little bit tighter. I don’t think that’s the biggest change. Obviously, five, six, seven are the biggest changes. I think you opened up a passing zone in seven. It’s gonna be kind of a dive bomb central corner, for sure, just the way it’s shaped, so that will be interesting to see how it races. You’re gonna have to drive that corner very differently if you have pressure or not behind you, and, honestly, I think the frontstretch chicane is gonna be a slower corner, so I feel like you might have some more out-braking potential there, so I think it’s good. I think it’s good they changed it up. Whenever you add passing zones, that’s good for a race. It’s the same for everybody. It’s gonna be different for everyone and just who can adapt to it the quickest. I’ve done some sim work. I’ve got another session this week and we’ll see where it goes.”
YOU ARE SOLID IN THE POINTS. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE DURING THAT RACE NEXT WEEK? “Yeah, I look at the points before the weekend. ‘OK, this is where I’m at.’ I don’t really look at the points again and then through the race they kind of give me updates. Where is it looking after stage one, after stage two, and then after stage two you have an idea of, ‘OK, I’m racing these guys. These folks have gotten this amount of points.’ I’m here to the cut line. This is kind of what I need to do.’ We did the same thing at Bristol. After the first two stages they said, ‘Hey, OK, you have to finish ahead of this guy or X amount of positions.’ And then we’re done talking about it. I don’t want constant updates, but I like a little bit of feedback after every break in the race with points and stuff, and the Roval always kind of gets funky with people flipping stages and stuff. Hopefully, we’re in a good spot leaving tomorrow to where we can just go have a solid race at the Roval and not have to hit a home run, but if we have to hit a home run, I’m sure we’ll do everything we can to do that.”
WHERE DID THIS EVOLUTION OF FUEL MILEAGE IN THESE RACES START? HOW HAVE WE GOTTEN TO THIS POINT? “That’s a great question. I’d love to tell you how or why it’s gotten this way, it just has. Do I like it? No. I don’t know if anyone really likes it. It’s kind of just turned into a gas game the first run of the stages to where, ‘hey, I can take a second less gas or a second and a half, two seconds less gas than this guy and I’m gonna jump him on a caution or a green flag stop.’ And I think it’s just gotten this way mainly because it’s hard to make up spots anymore. This car is so draggy that the third lane, especially here, Daytona is better because it’s more handling, but here handling is not a big thing so the third lane just kind of hurts. The bottom lane isn’t lifting like you have at turn four of Daytona to where the top can kind of get rolling late in a run. I feel like you’ve got to take drag off of these cars at these places to just where handling becomes a little bit more of an issue. The top can go a little bit better, so now if you’re mired back in 20th, I’m not going to the front, so I might as well just try to be more efficient with fuel save than the next guy and I’m gonna jump him on the stop, so that’s the strategy and that’s the easiest way to make positions and that’s just the constant thing is I’d say the last year everyone has gotten smartened up and now everyone is doing it. I feel like we were one of the first groups to kind of like, ‘OK, this is a good strategy. Let’s do this,’ and now everyone has a good idea about it, so, ‘OK, how do you still do it better than the rest of the folks?’ That’s hard to do. The cars are draggy. It’s hard to make up positions on the track and they almost drive too good here to do that, so it’s just the game we’re playing now. It’s just can you do it a little bit better than the next guy.”
YOU SAID THIS TEAM IS STRONGER AND IN A BETTER POSITION THAN LAST YEAR. AFTER FOUR RACES HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW? “I feel great about our group. It was hard to see how good we were because we got wrecked in the last 40 percent of races, like the Glen we didn’t even get a run. Darlington, we were great and got wrecked on lap two. Daytona, I got wrecked at the end of that race Our speed has been great. I look at the other races from Atlanta and Bristol and Kansas and we’ve been running top five every week, so I think our speed is great. We had a little bit of execution issues on pit road last week, but you hope to clean all of that stuff up and they work hard to try to get that better, but I feel great about where our group is at. It’s just a matter of staying out of trouble and just controlling the things we can control, but I love where we’re at right now pace-wise. I think for us to run as good as we did at Kansas last week really showed, that’s a place where we’ve struggled as a company ever since this new car and for us to run as good as we did, myself was fast. Joey and Austin were great before they had their issues as well and luckily we were able to have a good finish out of it. I feel good about it and we’ll just try to keep going. We’ll see.”
HOW DOES YOUR OFFSEASON LOOK COMPARED TO WHAT YOU DO DURING THE SEASON? “I don’t know. I’m lazier in the winter, for sure. I drink a little bit more (laughing), but I enjoy the offseason. It’s a long year. I just like to relax and just kind of unwind. Your mindset is just so different in the competing months during the year of you’re constantly on kill mode and as a competitor you’re trying to figure out ways to better yourself or outsmart the competition. The fire in you is lit all the time and in the offseason I try to turn that off. I have no reason to be competitive in the winter. I’m not competing with anybody, so I just try to mellow out a little bit in the winter and enjoy things that maybe you can’t enjoy through the year. I don’t know if I’ll be able to relax too much. I’m getting married, so it’ll be full blow. I’ll be focused on that when Phoenix is over, but I just turn the competitive nature off and just let your mind kind of rest a little bit. Your mind is pretty tense through the year, so I think it’s nice to get that breath and relaxation even if it’s a month, it’s still nice. It’s better than nothing.”
WHY DO YOU THINK IT HAS BEEN SO HARD FOR SOMEONE TO REPEAT AS CHAMPION OF LATE? “I don’t know why you haven’t seen a repeat champion back-to-back since Jimmie when he won five in a row. I don’t know why. That was just one of those rare instances, Jimmie winning five. Who was the person before Jimmie to win back-to-back? Was it Jeff? I don’t know. It’s tough to do. Teams are always getting smarter. It takes everything kind of perfect to go your way. The team has to execute the best they can and you have to have a little bit of fortune on your side to not be in any unfortunate circumstances through the playoffs, so I don’t know why. I look back and there have been plenty of teams good enough to win back-to-back and it just hasn’t happened. I think that just shows you how hard it is to do. It’s a lot easier, I feel like, to win back-to-back in other sports because you’re one v one pretty much when these games and racing there are so many other competitors it’s like trying to win the Master’s back-to-back. You’re competing against so many other people that it’s just hard to do it perfectly two years in a row. I’m confident with our group and that’s not from a cocky or arrogant standpoint. I have faith in our group that we can do it and we’re good enough to where we can do it again, and I just have so much faith in our team and our guys. I’d like to, obviously. I think we’re in a good position. We just have to keep doing what we can and keep staying hungry. It’s funny, I think we’re all even hungrier for a second one than we were the first. I said it in an interview somewhere, but it’s like you taste the forbidden fruit and you want another bite of it. You want that feeling again. You want to share that moment with all your folks that work hard with you week in and week out and through the year. Hopefully, we can break that trend. We’ll see.”
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