NASCAR Media Tour 2017 - Day Three - Dale Earnhardt Jr Has No Retirement Plans

Dale Earnhardt Jr has no retirement plans

(CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Jan. 25, 2017) – Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s highly anticipated return to Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing is less than one month away. No one is more enthusiastic about the most popular driver's comeback than Earnhardt, who spoke with media during Wednesday morning's segment of the 35th Annual NASCAR Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt hasn't competed since last July at Kentucky Speedway when the aftereffects of a concussion he sustained in a crash in June forced an early end to the 26-time race winner's season. During his time out of the car, Earnhardt had an eventful December which saw the Hendrick Motorsports driver get married and get cleared to return to action this year. He still had a decision to make, though.

"To get approved to race is one thing but to decide to race is another," Earnhardt said. "You have to make the decision if you want to keep racing and if you want to keep racing you've got to give 100 percent. … I had to answer a lot of personal questions from myself and just really buy in (to returning). All of that was a process and I'm really happy with what I decided to do.

"I'm just hoping to enjoy what's left of my career and hopefully I get to make the decisions myself as far as how much longer I want to race. I'm really excited about my future."

Earnhardt's recent past isn't bad, either. From 2014-'15, he won seven races – including a second Daytona 500 in 2014.

"Being out of the car, you hope you can come back in jump back in and not miss a beat, but this is the top series and any time away you're getting behind," Earnhardt said. "I'm really anxious and curious as to where we shake up early in the season, how competitive we can be and if there's any learning curve.

"People have asked me since I turned 40 when I will retire. All I've ever said is that I want to be able to make that decision myself. I don't know when I'm going to stop racing but I want to be able to make that choice and not have it made for me. All that stuff really showed me how much I've got going for me and how fun this really is. You can make it really difficult or you can enjoy it. This is an incredible position to be in. … I can see how you can get burned out a little bit but I'm certainly not feeling that way right now."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media tour and discussed his return to the Cup Series, his recent marriage, and his expectations for the upcoming season and the remainder of his career.
MODERATOR INTRODUCTION: WELCOME. GLAD TO HAVE YOU.

"I'm excited to be here for media day, which is new for me this year. Usually you kind of tell everybody Daytona will get here when it gets here, but I'm excited for the season. It can't get here fast enough. Really thankful to be back and be working, and can't wait for the opportunity to test at Phoenix in a couple of days and then get on to Daytona and get on to work."

WHO HAS A BETTER BEARD GAME GOING ON RIGHT NOW, YOU OR JIMMIE JOHNSON?

"Jimmie. He sent me a picture of him skiing and he said he was getting ready to knock this beard off and I said, 'You better have that in Daytona because you get more drafting help.' I said, 'That's a bad-ass beard and I would keep it if I were you.' He's hung onto it; I don't know if he's taken my advice or what. I'm certainly pro-beard, and if I'd known he was going to come so strong I would have worked on mine a little more. I certainly do envy what Jimmie's got going on."

YOUR TWO BIG EVENTS IN DECEMBER. CAN YOU COMPARE THE EMOTIONS OF GETTING APPROVED TO RACE AND GETTING MARRIED?

"The approved to race thing was a slow evolution and something that you could see coming and get physically and mentally prepared for it. To get approved to race is one thing but to decide to race is another. Mentally, you have to make the decision if you want to keep racing. And if you want to keep racing you have to go into it 100 percent. This is the top, elite series of motorsports in North America and if you're going to be out there you can't do it without 100 percent. I had to answer a lot of personal questions myself and just really buy in. All that was a big process and I'm really happy with what I've decided to do. But it wasn't that emotional. Getting married has been incredible. I wish I would have figured this all out sooner. I'm frustrated with myself that I took so long to grow up because I have an amazing wife and she's changed my life. She's really helped me as a person to become better on all fronts – personally, and all my friendships with people and how I react to people and treat people. And, obviously, in my professional life she's helped me as a driver. It's been great. Just hoping to enjoy what's left of my career, and hopefully I get to make the decisions on that myself as far as how much further I'll race. Going to start a family, too, so have a lot of good things to look forward to. Really excited about my future."

WHAT IS THE ONE THING NOT RACING THE LAST HALF OF LAST YEAR, HOW WAS THAT DETRIMENTAL TO WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO DO THIS YEAR?

"Being out of the car you hope you can jump back in the car and not miss a beat, but like I said this is the top series and any time you're away you're getting behind. I'm really anxious and curious where we shake up early in the season, how competitive we can be, what – if any – learning curve there is for me. We'll figure all that out. I missed the camaraderie; that's the one thing I'll probably miss the most when I'm not racing is just the friendships and the inside the track. I have an awesome road crew, we're all buddies, we all communicate every day. We use an app to be able to communicate and text each other as a group, so it's a close-knit sort of family and I'm going to miss all that. It's fun to be able to go as a team and succeed. Even when you don't succeed, those are the guys you lean on. You sort of lift each other up, and I'm going to miss all that. That was something that was difficult to watch someone else do in your place. Certainly jealous of Jeff and Alex working with my guys. At the same time, I was happy for Alex and glad Jeff was available. You definitely were wishing it was you in there getting the work."

COULD YOU TALK ABOUT THAT THIS (RACING) IS NOT SOMETHING TO TAKE FOR GRANTED.

"You do take your job for granted when you're doing it every week. As a society, we get better and better at complaining. The drivers aren't any different; we moan and complain about everything. But when you get a chance to step back and watch it … I got a chance to be at Dover and watch the drivers come in that morning for practice and it was an eye-opening experience. It was an out-of-body experience almost to watch all that happen. Looking at them and knowing that was me. I got to see the drivers from a different point of view and got to see the sport from a different point of view. Being out of the car made me anxious to get back in. To be honest, I'm happy to come back here and continue to compete. I got real close to not being able to compete and it being someone else's decision whether I competed or not. People have asked me since I turned 40 when I would retire and all I wanted to do was make that choice myself. I don't know when I'm going to stop racing, but I want to able to make that choice and not have it made for me. All that stuff really showed me how much I have going for me and how fun this really is. You can make it really difficult or you can enjoy it. This is an incredible position to be in and it's an awesome sport, and driving the cars is fun. Doing the photo shoots, doing the commercials and talking to the media, all those things are fun. But you can make it not any fun if you want to. As human beings we have a tendency to do that. The grind, man, is so long. You're doing it year after year after year, and it doesn't seem like we had much of an off-season. You actually work harder in the off-season. People think you don't do anything, you take off. But that's when everybody knows you have time off so they're like, 'Hey, come do this appearance here or this photo shoot.' We get a break, but just from the driving part. I can see how you get wound up and burned out a little bit. I'm certainly not feeling that way right now, and I'll be much more self-aware down the road trying to remember what this is and what position I'm in and not take it for granted. It's easy to do."

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at the annual Charlotte Media Tour and discussed his outlook for the season, what he experienced as a rookie in the Cup Series and many other topics.

"Good to be here. Media Tour, looking forward to today. There is a lot to be talked about, a lot going on in the sport and with our team, Hendrick Motorsports. It's been a nice couple of weeks with Mr. H and everybody that got inducted into the Hall of Fame. That was a really need couple of days. We had some great times listening to the stories and things at the Hall and then we had a nice party Saturday night for Mr. H. We had a blast. Hendrick Motorsports and a lot of the people from Hendrick Automotive Group (HAG) it was a big party and a really good time all thanking Mr. H and congratulating him on his success and everything that he has done for so many of us."

HOW IDENTICAL ARE ALL YOUR FOUR CARS? CAN YOU SET-UP IDENTICAL YOUR CAR LIKE THE DRIVER WHO IS LEADING THE TIME SHEETS IN QUALIFYING? "That is a pretty complicated question because there is a lot that goes into that. Especially last year, everybody was kind of in different areas and things. I feel like Hendrick Motorsports is in a great direction and we made a lot of those gains the last 12-14 races of the season. We have even gone further for this season. I would say, looking ahead, to answer some of that question, a lot of the things are going to be very similar on all the cars as the future goes. I think we are headed in a great direction with that."

DO YOU FEEL A HIGHER LEVEL OF OPTIMISM COMING IN TO THIS YEAR BECAUSE OF HOW YOU GUYS RAN TOWARD THE END OF THE YEAR? OR DO YOU FEEL PRESSURE BECAUSE YOU MISSED THE CHASE THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS? "I think it is more optimism and just feeling good about where we went last year. Where we started consistent 18th to 20th was not anything that we wanted and after the last 12 to 14 races we were eighth to 10th, so that jump, that consistency that we showed throughout the whole season for the speed of the car I thought was good. We are working hard to make another jump because eighth to 10th isn't where we want to be either. Definitely, a lot of progress from where we were the first half of the season to where we ended; we can only build on that. We know where we made those gains as a company and as a team because we made them in both areas and we will just get better from there."

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL CONTINUE TO BE INVOLVED WITH SPRINT CAR RACING WITH YOUR TEAMS? OR JUST FOCUS ON NASCAR? "Well I think my love for racing in general, I love racing, I love the sport, all different types of racing, but sprint cars is something that I have a long background in and have really enjoyed learning. It is kind of how I learned how to race was in dirt cars and sprint cars were a huge part of that. To have those teams, Brad Sweet and Daryn Pittman to me that is some of the most fun I have each year is when I can actually go to the race track, support those guys, stand in the corner, grandstands wherever it may be and watch kind of their every move. To me that is a lot of fun. I enjoy having those teams. We have the employees that we have, the drivers that we have and hopefully we can keep those going for a long time because it's something that means a lot to me."

DOES YOUR SUCCESS AS A SPRINT CAR DRIVER PUT PRESSURE ON YOUR CURRENT SPRINT CAR DRIVERS? "I don't think a whole lot. I think they know what I expect, but they have all the things that they expect of themselves. They put that time in. They put the work in. They are two of the best drivers you are going to find in sprint cars anywhere. I'm glad that they race for me. Each year they are trying to be the best that they can. I respect them a lot. That series, that traveling, it's a long season that those teams go through and they do a great job with it. My respect is high for them."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHY YOU FEEL MORE OPTIMISTIC GOING INTO THIS YEAR? "I think first off anytime any of us have a month or two off and we all know we are starting at zero here in a couple of weeks, everybody feels good about it and is excited to get the season started. For me though, a lot of it has to do with the way we finished last year, the progress of the company and the progress of our team. What Jimmie Johnson did; what Chase Elliott did; those things to me were key and they were highlights. Our No. 5 team did the same, we made a lot of gains and we were much stronger the last 12 races of the season. Since Monday after Homestead I have been with Keith (Rodden, crew chief), I've been with our engineers and all of us as a team, from the pit crew side to the road guys, the guys building the cars, we have been a team and we have been working to progress in those same areas that we made the gains in. We have had a couple of months to do that, so I feel like that is a lot of hard work. Everybody is working hard, but for us we are going in the right direction and it is going to show this year and I'm looking forward to that."

WHAT WERE THE STRONG EMOTIONS YOU WERE FEELING, WHAT WERE THE THOUGHTS THAT WERE ON YOUR MIND WHEN YOU ENTERED THE CUP SERIES AS A ROOKIE? WHO WERE YOU LEANING ON GOING INTO THIS VERY BIG PART OF YOUR LIFE? "It was all really new to me and really fresh and exciting. I had Bill Elliott and Ray Evernham to really lean on and work with. Tommy Baldwin was my crew chief he was super open and communicated a lot. That was really nice early on to have people like that, just lots of information, lots of things to pull from. I had ran one full year Busch Series and was hoping that I could figure out a Cup car, but really didn't know because I didn't get to run any races prior. So, we did some testing, felt great testing and were really looking forward to the season. We were good right from the start and I was really happy with that."

IS THERE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE GOAL YOU WANT TO MEET THIS YEAR? "Yeah, I think winning would be great and that is definitely where we want to be. I think that is where everybody wants to be. You have to win in this sport. You have to run up front. You have to lead laps if you want to be part of the playoffs you need to do all that and then you need to do it in the playoffs as well if you want to win a championship. To me, consistently running in the top 10, if we do that as a team week-in, week-out we are going to have our fair share of shots to win, whether it's a stage or the final stage; I'm looking forward to that. Just looking forward to performance and having much faster cars and doing a better job behind the wheel in basically every aspect."

HAS HAVING A BABY MADE YOU REFLECT ON THINGS OUTSIDE OF RACING? "Well, he just turned 15 months, so he is growing and changing so quickly. He is a complete blast. I definitely look at things a little bit differently. When it comes to racing, I don't look at it a whole lot differently, because I've always had such a passion for driving, learning about the cars, being part of the team side of things and working hard to be the best that I can be. That hasn't changed a whole lot. I really want to be in Victory Lane with him. That is one thing I do think about, but other than that I think it's away from the track how it's kind of changed my life and how I look at day-to-day and kind of tonight when I'm done with all of this how much fun I will have tonight. There are a lot of things he has changed, but racing not so much."

DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 Leidos Ford Mustang – WHAT IS YOUR SPONSOR OUTLOOK FOR THIS YEAR? "I'm thankful for Leidos, a military defense company, has stepped up and has been a great partner to Roush Fenway and the number six team the last half of last season and they're stepping up again for a handful of races. We're in kind of a little tight spot here. We're trying to figure out the rest of the game plan, but our goal is to be at Homestead for the season finale and win the XFINITY Series championship. We just have to overcome some obstacles, get over a couple hurdles to get to that point, but we will be at Daytona. We've still got the same mindset of going in to win every race, do the best we can each and every weekend and put ourselves in the right position, especially with this new format. I'm gonna really enjoy it."

WHAT HAS THE OFF-SEASON BEEN LIKE? STRESSFUL WAITING FOR A DEAL? "We have the first six races right now with a 99 percent chance we'll have more after that. The biggest thing is we haven't had the best year the last two years, so we just need better results to bring and a more positive outlook. I believe the changes we have made, along with the new format coming up for the whole sport of NASCAR, will definitely help that out. I couldn't be more excited about this season. Yeah, it's not set in stone that it's a full season, but that doesn't change my outlook or my attitude or anything. I've still got the same old guy that walks around trying to put a smile on everybody's face, and go out there and deliver out on the race track. We'll go to Daytona, give it our best effort. We had a really good showing last year on speedway races. We didn't have the best luck, but it's still fun to be able to go out there and race side-by-side with your competitors and just give it your all and just go on to Atlanta, do some work there, but Phoenix really showed in that fall race that we were one of the fastest cars. The race is probably the highlight one that I want to take back and do over again, but no different mindset. The off-season hasn't been any different. I've been making a couple more phone calls to see what we can do to be on the forefront of this, which we are at the forefront of it. We're really close to finishing the deal. I have a great team at Roush Fenway and a great team behind me to get that process done, but I'm the same old guy."

HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOUR NEW TEAM TO CALL YOU BUBBA YET? "They call me a lot worse, so, yes, they do."

IS THERE AN OPPORTUNITY THAT LEIDOS WILL UP THEIR COMMITMENT AFTER THE SEASON STARTS? "Absolutely. That's how it's gonna work. We just have to show out this first six races, show all of our cards, show what we have done in the off-season. Coming into this pre-season right now a lot of changes have been made, a lot of personnel changes, a lot of key people have been moved around. I still have Seth, my crew chief, behind me. We've reformatted our team a little bit, and I think we have a great team going into this season. Like I said earlier, I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity we have. Talking to the Sirius guys earlier, who doesn't like a little challenge in front of them to go out and to secure the rest of the season for them, so I'm all about it. Give me a good challenge."

YOU TALKED ABOUT STRUGGLING IN THE DAYTIME RACES. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IMPROVE THAT? "I've tried to call Wayne and Mike and O'Donnell about putting every race at night. We'll see. I don't know if it's a mindset thing that I psyche myself out during the day, but some races we would run good during the day and I was like, 'Did I run like that in the trucks? Did I ever win during the day?' Martinsville was two day races, so we won during that, so I don't know. I think with the changes that we've made it will be interesting to see. We weren't the best car at night either, so it's not like it was a total night-and-day difference, but we just needed a better overall package and I think we've worked on that a lot this off-season to put us close to the right spot we need to be."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL EFFORTS WITH RYAN BLANEY? "Music definitely helps in touch situations. When there are tough situations like the hard ones where you're trying to find a pick-me-up, I go to the heaviest music choice that I can. It's like reverse psychology. It's those good breakdowns that you look for, but then when Ryan comes in the scene that's when the times are good and we want to make ourselves look like fools, just so we have a little bit of fall back room, that's when we start making these crazy videos."

WILL YOU AND RYAN BE CUTTING A RECORD? "Oh. We've got a lot of work for that. He's got to figure out his vocal strengths and I've got to get better at drumming, so we'll see. It's a long shot."

IS IT NICE TO COME BACK AND LIVE IN CABARRUS COUNTY WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING ON AROUND YOU LIKE THIS? "Yeah. I love where I live. I bought a house, made a big boy move in 2015 and bought a house. I just love where I live. I'm currently looking at getting another house. I'm gonna sell my house now. I'm not like Denny Hamlin status right now, trying to be conservative and smart with my money, but I love coming home even after a tough race weekend. Coming back home to my roots, I'm two minutes from Northwest. My mom lives a mile away from the school, and my dad's business is right down the street, right next to Stewart-Haas. Every location I know, every landmark I know like the back of my hand. Now, my girlfriend, who moved here when she was 14, she's 23 now, so in nine years she doesn't even know how to get to the house from work and she's been doing it for a year now. It's a little bit different for her, but we enjoy it."

HOW DO YOU STAY SO UPBEAT WHEN THERE IS UNCERTAINTY IN YOUR LIFE? "Who likes a Debbie Downer person. I could be up here like this the whole time waiting to get out of here, but that's boring. I want to make you guys laugh and see the smiles on faces – get those chuckles whether they're laughing at me or with me, I don't care you're laughing, so job well done by me. It's just having fun. It's all about having fun no matter what you do. I enjoy coming up and talking to you guys. I love talking to everybody and giving everybody something to talk about and laugh about. It really goes back to my parents. My mom always said, 'No matter what, give the media everything positive to talk about. Don't give them anything negative. They're gonna take it and run with it.' Not that she's bashing on you guys, it's just the truth."

RYAN REED – No. 16 Lilly/American Diabetes Association Ford Mustang – BEING A DIABETES ADVOCATE. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO SHARE YOUR STORY? "As somebody living with Diabetes I understand how tough it is and all the challenges that come with it, so looking at where I'm at with racing and having a platform to spread awareness and definitely want to take full advantage of that, but, really, I wouldn't be able to do that if I didn't have the partners with Lilly Diabetes and Roush Fenway to do so. Everyone on board is extremely passionate about doing so, and even though it's extremely important to me and something I'm very passionate about, I have great partners that allow me to do that. It's aligned perfectly and when I get to go out there and talk about my partnership with Lilly Diabetes it's so easy because it's such a big part of my life."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO MAINTAIN THE POSITIVE MOMENTUM YOU FOUND AT THE END OF LAST SEASON? "As far as Daytona goes, I think anyone who has had success there knows that it doesn't mean you're gonna have success again. It seems like everytime I've been there we've had fast race cars and we found our way to the front at some point, but that doesn't guarantee you anything. I just go into that race every year with an open mind and do what I can and try and be smart and keep myself out of trouble – just don't make mistakes and if I'm there at the end we'll hopefully have a shot at it. You talked about the last half of last year where we seemed to find some consistency and seemed to have more speed week-in and week-out, and certainly the finishes were a lot better. I started last year with a new crew chief, Phil Gould, and he taught me so much throughout the year, not just about driving the race car, but how to have the right mentality and not give up. There are a lot of weekends where we ended up with good finishes after unloading and being terrible. He's really the one who taught me how to battle throughout a weekend and get better. The first half of the year I did feel like we had a lot of bad luck. It's easy to make a lot of excuses and point to errors here and there, but the point is we got it together, we eliminated the mistakes, we figured it out and by the playoffs we were in pretty good shape and made a solid run at it. Looking back at it, if we would have done one or two things different, we could have easily been in the final four. That's our goal – to go into the playoffs this year just like we did last year, make a run at it and find ourselves in Homestead and race for a championship. If we build faster race cars and I do my job and everyone checks the boxes every weekend, then there's no reason why we can't be standing in victory lane at Homestead."

HAS LILLY HAD ANY INPUT ON HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO DEVELOP IN THE SERIES OR WHEN YOU GO TO CUP? HAVE THERE BEEN ANY DISCUSSIONS ON PROGRESSING? "Yeah, there have been discussions. I discuss it all the time. I definitely want to go Cup racing. I got into this sport because I want to be a Cup driver, just like I think most people who have. With that being said, I'm extremely blessed and fortunate to be in the XFINITY Series. To be able to drive race cars full-time is unbelievable at any level, but, yeah, I think you saw obviously with Roush and Lilly I was able to run my first Cup race last year at Talladega, which was unbelievable for a lot of reasons. After being diagnosed with Diabetes, I never thought I'd even race again, let alone race at the highest level in motorsports. To see that commitment from Lilly and Roush is awesome and hopefully we can build on that and figure out a way to go Cup racing."

IS THERE SOMETHING YOU CAN TAKE FROM CUP THAT HELPS YOU IN XFINITY OR ARE THE CARS TOTALLY DIFFERENT? "I think there are a lot of differences and after driving one I realized how vastly different they are in a lot of facets. And also, too, the competition level – it was a great learning experience, but with that being said I think the engineers and the people that are a lot smarter than me can go in and look at it and find the similarities and look at notes and look at what we do on Saturday to help Sunday or vice versa. And I think with the way the rules are headed they're getting closer together. I definitely think there is a lot to learn from each other and I think that the Cup guys can benefit us and vice versa. I think at Roush Fenway we are definitely one team, one dream right now. We're trying to figure out how to get Roush Fenway back on top and we have all the confidence in the world that we're going to do so."

ARE THERE CHANGES WITH YOUR TEAM THIS YEAR? "Honestly, no, not really. I talked earlier about the end of the year and the success we were having and I fought really, really hard to keep a lot of my guys together. There are small changes here and there, but the core group of guys is the same. I'm gonna have Phil on top of the box and the same engineer that I had last year. I think those guys are the guys for me. I've got their back and they have my back. I'm really excited about keeping us together because I think that we can have a lot of success together. So a lot of changes at Roush Fenway, a lot of changes across the board in racing. They were talking about rules package or format changes, but especially with all those changes going on it's nice to have some consistency with the guys who go to the race track with me."

HOW MUCH DOES LILLY USE YOU TO REACH OUT TO PEOPLE THAT STRUGGLE WITH DIABETES? "We do a lot. We go to the race track and if somebody reaches out or if we hear about someone's story, whether it's a kid or an adult living with Diabetes, whether they're struggling with it or not struggling with it, there can be a lot of great things that happen just from getting together. I think anyone who lives with Diabetes knows what it means. When you meet someone else with Diabetes you automatically just have this connection because you understand the adversity and the challenges you go through and just the daily struggles, but I've heard so many different stories. I've met a lot of people and a lot of families that I still talk to today and have great relationships just because of what we have in common. When I was diagnosed, like I said earlier, I was told I would never race again, so when I hear someone tell their story and their dreams have been affected by it in a negative way, those are the stories that I really connect with. A kid two years ago told me that he got kicked off the basketball team after he was diagnosed. That's just devastating to me. He was in his early teens – 12 or 13 – such a pivotal time in life as it is, so that story stuck with me and, obviously, I offered any help I could. 'Is there anything I can do for you, man, just let me know.' But I think that when you hear stories like that it kind of puts in perspective how tough this disease can be and what it can do to your life."

HOW DO WE GET KIDS WATCHING RACING? "Hopefully, if they are on a screen they are watching racing. I think I'd get paid a lot of money if I knew the answer to that. I think what we're doing, looking at these format changes, I'm a huge fan of it. I tweeted my feelings on it, that I supported it. That wasn't just to make NASCAR happy. That's how I truly feel, and I think we're going in the right direction. I think Monster coming on board is gonna bring a lot of fresh ideas, and I think that in itself, when you have a brand like Monster come on, you're automatically gonna get the eyes of a lot of kids my age. I know that me and my friends, whether they're into racing or not into racing, a brand like Monster is someone that we associate with ourselves. We think of that brand as doing things that we're interested in, whether they're the sponsor at Supercross or whatever. That's what we want to watch, so Monster just bringing its brand and being a part of NASCAR is gonna create a lot of awareness for NASCAR with my generation, with people my age. The format changes should bring more excitement. If we have good racing, then we'll bring the attention."

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media tour and discussed his outlook for the season, his favorite NFL team being knocked from the playoffs, and racing on road courses.

CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE MORE CHANGES TO YOUR CAR TO THE ENGINE OR AERO PACKAGE FROM RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING? "Since 2014, when we debut this new car, we've taken downforce away every year. This is a big change for us for aero this year, and I think NASCAR is going to continue to tweak it. We want to put more downforce on next year if we see this isn't the way to go. NASCAR isn't afraid of making changes as we've all seen with the format and we've seen with the cars the past few years, and you have to stay up with current events and what makes for a good package on the racetrack. Personally, I'm a proponent for less downforce, maybe stickier tires that fall off. I think every driver is pretty much on board with that. The key is the tire combination with this low-downforce package is still have those big numbers on pole day and still see 190 mph qualifying speeds, but race at 160 to 170 mph. That would slow things down, make aero a little less important, and make for better racing."

YOU'VE SAID BEFORE THERE ARE A LOT OF LITTLE THINGS YOU HAVE TO BE AGGRESSIVE WITH. CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THOSE LITTLE THINGS AND HOW YOU PLAN ON ATTACKING IT? "Life gives you little things you have to be aggressive with. In a race car it's just capitalizing on what's in front of you. You have such little windows to maybe make a move, put you three-wide on a restart and things like that. Those windows are very quick and if you wait too long bad things happen. There are so many little things like that. Just having the opportunity to capitalize, pushing the limits to get the cars as good as you can. Through the garage area, you see all these cars trying to get through tech, they get pulled out … just being aggressive with everything you have to to compete at this stage."

THE PACKERS ARE GONE AND THE PANTHERS DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT. YOU HAVE ANY ROOTING INTEREST IN THE SUPER BOWL? "I'm going to watch it, but I have zero rooting interest. The Packer loss last week was ugly. I knew it was going to be tough to win, but they lost pretty badly. I'm not going to pull for anybody so I hope it's a close game and a good game. That's all I care about."

IN YOUR NEXT CHAPTER, WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO DO, DO YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN TEAM OWNERSHIP? WOULD YOU EVER YOU SEE YOURSELF MOVING INTO THAT ROLE? "I probably want to own an ice-racing team at some point. As far as NASCAR, I'm going to leave the door open. I have no idea, but whenever I do retire I'm definitely going to stay involved in motorsports. It's a passion; it's what I've always done. My whole family is involved with this; it's what we always do, so when that day comes I'm going to spend the season ice racing and go from there."

HOW MUCH TIME HAVE YOU SPENT WITH (NEW CREW CHIEF) MATT BORLAND IN THE OFF-SEASON AND WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE FROM THAT CHANGE? "Every time Matt and I spend time together, I get more impressed with him. We've spent quite a bit of time together in the off-season, more so than a normal driver-crew chief relationship, I think, just because we don't know each other. We made an effort from early November to current to just talk all the time, get lunch, get breakfast, do walk-throughs at the shop. Just things like that to try to understand each other. He has a particular way about asking questions. He knows the answer, but he's going to ask you the question to see how you perceive it and he's always pushing you to think outside the box a little bit. I'm really looking forward to working with him. We have a really good team built. He's brought some new guys and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better throughout the year. I'm looking forward to good things."

WOULD YOU BE OPEN TO HAVING A ROAD COURSE IN THE PLAYOFF AND COULD YOU SEE DAYTONA OR INDY BEING TESTED IN THE FUTURE? "Two road courses are not enough. Our cars are not built for road racing, which makes it exciting to both driver and put the product out for the fans. I've said all along that there are these tracks that we go to two times like Kansas and Charlotte that have road courses available. I've driven on the Daytona road course. It's a good mixture of high speed and really slow speed corners, so there's a lot of give and take setup-wise with what you develop for. I've actually won on road courses in the Grand Am Series at Fontana and Phoenix. The Phoenix one is particularly exciting because it's so small. It's like a short-track road course. Putting one in the Chase is what our sport needs, for sure, just to shake things up. We have speedways, we have intermediates and short tracks. Throw a road course in there."

The first Mexican-born driver to win a top-tier NASCAR national title, Daniel Suarez was certainly going to garner plenty of attention at the 35th Annual NASCAR Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway. But thanks to Carl Edwards's stunning announcement two weeks ago, Suarez took the stage on Wednesday not as the defending NASCAR XFINITY Series champion, but as the full-time pilot of the No. 19 Arris Toyota in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

"There's been a lot going on, but I've been racing just about every day and getting to know my whole 19 team," Suarez said about preparing for the upcoming season. "It's quite a bit different from the XFINITY Series with the way we do things. But we still have some time before Daytona and hopefully we'll get things started the right way."

Suarez has quickly ascended the NASCAR ladder, starting in the sanctioning body's Drive for Diversity and NASCAR Next programs. He ran regional series (2011-2014) before running full-time and part-time schedules in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series, respectively in 2015 and 2016. He will make his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

The Drive for Diversity program "was very important to me for sure. It helped me a lot in the K&N Series, but at the same time I've had a lot of people helping me in Mexico throughout my career," said Suarez, a native of Monterrey, Mexico. "They have helped me through the most important part of my racing career – all the transitions of racing here in the states.

"For me, it's amazing to be able to be a role model for so many future (Latin American) drivers. It's been a lot of fun going through this journey and it's just going to get better and better and a driver that can represent that community."

Suarez also represents a strong field of 2017 rookies that includes Erik Jones and Ty Dillon, who will be the top candidates to compete with Suarez for Rookie of Year.

"I think it's going to be very cool to race (those guys); we've raced together for more than one year, so we know each other well and we get along very well," said Suarez. "For me, something that's very cool is how slowly all these group of drivers have been making our way up and now at the Cup level. I think it's going to be a lot of fun … I'm looking forward to it."

RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – WHERE AND WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO CONCENTRATE ON NASCAR? "It was really where we grew up at pretty much. My dad and my whole family grew up in Ohio and that's dirt central pretty much right there. I grew up in North Carolina in High Point about an hour up the road and there is no dirt period around here. There are only a handful of tracks and it's really asphalt late model stuff. The pass tour and ASA stuff back then was still around, so it was just location and how we got started. Bobby Labonte built a fantastic facility in Salisbury, North Carolina – a quarter-midget track – and that sort of started my asphalt career and we just went from there with Legend cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway to late models and then up the ladder. I've dabbled in the sprint car world a little bit. My dad used to build them. He still builds his cars, and then when I got with the Penske group it kind of shut that whole operation down. It's just location. If I would have grown up in Ohio, I'm sure I would have done the dirt route and who knows where we would be, but growing up in North Carolina changed that."

CAN YOU SHARE THE STORY ABOUT GETTING A STANDING OVATION AFTER YOU WERE LATE TO A PENSKE FUNCTION? "The one thing you don't want to be is late to a Penske breakfast. You've got everybody there. Mr. Penske is there and all the brass and I walk in late. I don't know what happened. I don't think I overslept. I might have overslept, but I got there and there was a standing ovation. That was like in 2012 or 2013, right when I got there, and you talk about wanting to walk out of the room. I started sweating bullets and was just as nervous as can be, and then you've got to go up and give a speech right after that. That was a rough day for sure, so I make sure I'm one of the earliest to the Penske breakfast."

WHAT DID YOU LEARN MOST LAST YEAR AND WHAT DO YOU NEED TO IMPROVE ON? "I think you learn the most about trying to improve your car over the whole race, and the amount of preparation and setup time it takes to get these cars to where you need to be. Most of the time, if you're not fast on Friday or Saturday it really makes for a tough weekend. The preparation before you even get to the track is key, to try to be as close as you can be. As drivers, we can only do so much about that, but trying to give the best information that you can throughout the whole weekend – Friday, Saturday and during the race on Sunday is so key. That was probably one of the biggest things I tried to work on and get better at. I spent a lot of time in the off-season trying to do just that, and then the communication side between myself and my engineers and crew chief. That's been something I've been trying to improve a lot and trying to understand these cars more. I feel like some of those changes are the biggest ones that we've made in the off-season and hopefully for the better."

THERE ARE SOME RUMORS PENSKE WOULD LIKE TO RUN SPORTS CARS AGAIN. WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN THE ROLEX OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT? "I'd be very interested. With the Ford GT program starting up and it doing so well, I would love to do that. I would love to do the Rolex 24 or anything like that – one of the bigger races or even a smaller race. I'd just love to drive some of those cars. I love road courses and Ford has made a big commitment into the GT program and the Mustang program, so that's something I would highly enjoy doing if I ever got a call or opportunity from Mr. Penske or Ford I would definitely do that in a heartbeat."

WHERE DID THE DESIGN FOR YOUR DRIVER'S UNIFORM COME FROM? "The firesuit is really something we based on Darlington and the Talladega suit I wore last year. Darlington, when we had Pearson on the car, we just changed a couple things up with the colors and made Motorcraft and Quick Lane bigger and stuff like that. I really liked that suit. I know a lot of people enjoyed the throwback suit that we had and it was just like Mr. Pearson wore when he won the triple crown that year, so the Wood Brothers and I talked about trying to do a version of that and I think it turned out really well. Why not have an old-school suit for the oldest-running team in NASCAR? I'm happy we were able to do that. I'm really happy that Motorcraft and everybody let us do this, and I think it gives us a really good look and the right look for what the Wood Brothers represent, which is old-school racing."

YOUR TEAM MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION IN MOORESVILLE, NC. HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO THE PLACE YOU LEFT? "Really, the biggest reason for the move was to try to get closer to our alliance at Penske. Logistically, it was really hard to get to Harrisburg, running cars back and forth or people back and forth. That was really tough. That's a long haul, but now we're 10 minutes down the road, which is really nice to have a good shop there in the Mooresville Drag Park, and for the Wood Brothers to have their own shop. The other one they part-owned with the JTG group, so to have their own shop now is really nice and they really enjoy that. They have plenty of room in there to have our cars in there and then for them to rebuild a bunch of old cars. Leonard has all of his projects, so the building we have now logistically makes a lot more sense and then it's their own building, so I think that just improves our alliance with the Penske group, for sure."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RUNNING FULL-TIME LAST YEAR AND BEING A PART OF THAT? "It was great to get them back full-time. That was their first full-time season in about eight years, so that was nice to do, and it was also a lot of change. That's a big jump and big commitment to go from 15-18 races to 36. It's a lot more preparation. It's a lot more people required to do that, both at the race track and away from the race track. Ultimately, it was great to do, but it was a lot of work to try to get it there. I think now having a full year under our belt, not only myself but our team and the Wood Brothers in general, you kind of know what to expect week-in and week-out, and that's just gonna make us stronger having a full year behind us and it really makes you look forward to the upcoming season."

DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SEPARATE PENSKE STARCHED SHIRT COMPARED TO WOOD BROTHERS FUNCTIONS? "Yeah. I've never washed a starched shirt because I will mess it up, so they just get me a new one every single time. I'm pretty sure that goes for Brad and Joey, too. They just have a new one for us. I get them dirty and I can't wash anything without shrinking it or messing it up, so I just get a new one. It's nice, but, yes, I do have separate ones. The Wood Brothers ones are a little bit more laid back, but the Penske ones they're definitely making sure we look good. I shaved today, which was nice. I did my hair, which was good."

DAVID RAGAN – No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR? "It's good to be back at Front Row. That goes back to what your parents teach you in different things when you're growing up like, 'Don't ever burn a bridge. Don't ever make people mad when you might be calling them again one day.' So this was a good situation that I was able to align myself back with Ford Performance and Front Row Motorsports. They've obviously done a very nice job of growing that team on and off the race track the last couple of years with Chris Buescher's big win last season and their spot in the playoff. It shows they're continuing to make investments on and off the race track to make that team better. They've got a couple of wins under their belt in the last four years, and I think Landon Cassill is gonna be a fun teammate and we can challenge ourselves, push ourselves to work hard to try to beat one another, but I think we'll also be able to help our organization to get better. We've got some really good partners that have re-signed and coming back for another season and Bob Jenkins continues to invest in the sport of NASCAR, so it's a great situation for me and a lot of familiar faces and I'm really happy to be back with those guys."

WHAT DO TEAMS DO TO GET BACK THE DOWNFORCE THEY'RE LOSING? "They're working in the windtunnel every single day. These teams have shifts at the two windtunnels here in North Carolina 24 hours a day, probably six or seven days a week. A lot of times you hear of a team that their shift is midnight to 7 a.m. These windtunnels are just running all day long. You've got all the manufacturers, all the race teams that are in there going through different scenarios. They've even got good simulation from a computer standpoint where they can change measurements and body builds very little, so they can work through a lot of changes before they even get to the windtunnel and have a lot more efficient time at the windtunnel. So throughout the year they end up gaining back what is lost at a rule change, so I think that's why NASCAR continues to make some small minor adjustments because by October-November we're already back to the downforce and sideforce numbers that were taken away in January or December of the previous year. They're just working hard. They're so smart today and they're working within the rules and the tolerances and they're very, very smart to get back. NASCAR has got a tough job on their hand to keep trimming that downforce number and I think they've done a good job, but the teams it's there job to find it back and they'll find it back. Whoever finds it back the quickest will have a competitive edge for a while."

HOW MUCH ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DAYTONA 500? "The Daytona 500 is obviously a big race for our entire industry, but for a team like Front Row Motorsports it does level the playing field a little bit and it presents an opportunity for us to find victory lane. We obviously proved that a few years ago at Talladega, so I think that with Landon and I's experience and our willingness to work together that's a great thing. Obviously, you have to have some luck and you have to have a good car and have everything go your way, but we know going to Daytona that if we do everything right, we can have an opportunity to win, and that's all you can ask for. Anything can happen in those last 10-15 laps, but if you can just have an opportunity. I know Doug Yates is gonna have a great engine. I know that our race team has prepared a good Ford Fusion to go down there and have some speed, and we just have to make good decisions throughout the Speedweeks, and not only on Sunday in the Daytona 500, but it starts on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. We want to take care of our race car. With the new segments I think it will be important to try to keep some track position throughout the day. I don't think you can afford to ride around in the back and take it easy and just count on the last 40 or 50 laps working your way to the front. I'm optimistic going to Daytona and it's such a tone-setter for the rest of the season that if we can just come out of there with a top 10 or top 15 finish, man it just makes Atlanta and Las Vegas so much easier going into it knowing you've had a good start to the year."

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE GROWTH YOU'VE SEEN IN LANDON CASSILL? "I don't know a tremendous amount of the details about Landon's early career. My first year was '07, so we're only a year apart, but I was very fortunate to be with Roush Fenway Racing for my first four or five seasons and that helped me grow and mature a lot, but I had a lot of pressure being in a top tier ride, so I think a guy like Landon, he's had some good opportunities over the years, but he hasn't had that consistent team, consistent program behind him, so I think he's found a good home at Front Row and he's been able to learn a lot. I've learned as much driving for small teams as I have for the larger ones. You learn different things and you see different things, but Landon is a young guy, he's healthy, he's got a good racing IQ, I call it. He's a short-track racer. He's raced a lot. He's worked on his own race car, so it's fun to have a teammate that's a racer, enjoys it, gets it. He knows the business side of it, too. We've hit it off. We've known each other over the years, but we really haven't been good buddies, so I'm looking forward to spending some time with him, getting to know him, and, like I said earlier, I think we'll both challenge each other to be better, but also help each other to grow our team and to be more competitive."

HOW DO YOU VIEW THE NEW FORMAT AND HOW YOU MAY HAVE TO RACE OVER THE COURSE OF 500 MILES? "I think being caught in the crossfire as you just described it is what the fans what the TV partners want to see because that's gonna create some drama. When you have a car that's a little faster and a little slower all mixed in, that's when you have action, that's when you have guys getting pushed out of the way or fending a car off or moving around. That's when you have good, hard racing, so I think that a scenario could play out to where a caution comes out 15-20 laps prior to a stage being finished, but those top eight or 10 guys they want to keep their track position, but if we're running 15th we can come in and take four tires and try to be aggressive and get into the points at the end of that stage. So I think you're gonna see some scenarios like that and obviously it will be a learning curve because every race track, every tire wear is different at each race, and the segments are gonna be different lengths. We've talked a little bit about Daytona just being right around a fuel window, so you're gonna have some guys that if you're out front and you don't have the best fuel mileage, you might have to pit versus a guy who takes a chance and tries to run midpack and save some fuel, you might be able to run that complete stage without pitting, so there's gonna be a lot of opportunity for strategy and I think it plays into a smaller team's wheelhouse to be able to capitalize and score some of those points. I think that would be cool."

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU LEARNED SINCE LEAVING FRONT ROW A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO? "I think you learn a lot depending on who you're working with and how much you want to learn, how much you're involved. Obviously, the larger teams have more resources at their fingertips. They are a little bit more engineering driven, so they understand how things happen a little better and my time at Joe Gibbs Racing and then at MWR I definitely did learn a lot, and there was a lot of technology that I hadn't seen or been able to use over the last couple years at Front Row, back when I drove for them in 2013 and 2014. So I felt like I did learn a lot, even manufacturers. They do things a little different. They view things a little different, so you pick up on some of that and it's good. When you drive for the same team and the same manufacturer for six or eight years, you kind of fall into that line to where everything is the same, a lot of similarities year-in and year-out, so it was good to kind of open my eyes and see some of the different things and I look forward to working with the Front Row guys and trying to continue to help them grow their team."

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CORNING CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media tour and discussed his outlook for the season with Richard Childress Racing, his relationship with his brother, Ty Dillon, and how he relaxed in the off-season.  TY (DILLON) TALKED ABOUT WHAT AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT IT WAS WHEN THE DEAL WITH GERMAIN RACING WAS DONE. AS THE BIG BROTHER, HOW PROUD AND HAPPY ARE YOU FOR HIM? "I'm very proud. He was emotional. He cried and gave me a hug. It was cute. It's special; he's put a lot of effort into it and it's what he's wanted to do his entire life. I'm happy for him, and he should be happy and excited. Now it's time when the work really begins, and I'm looking forward to working with him. I think he's an asset to RCR."

YOUR (GRANDFATHER) HAS THREE DRIVERS. WHICH PIT BOX DOES HE STAND ON DURING THE RACES? "The funny thing is he doesn't stand or sit on the pit boxes any more. He stopped doing that. He has certain locations that he goes and stands. It used to be the old entitlement sponsor trailer because he could see the entire track, so he's going to have to find a new spot this year. Good luck finding him because he has some good ones. Daytona, though, he goes all the way to the top above Victory Lane because he can see the entire track. He has some good hiding spots. But he's unbiased when it comes to that. Maybe one day I can get him to sit on our box just for fun."

HAS THE WINLESS DROUGHT AT RCR TAKEN A LIFE OF ITS OWN? "It sucks. No one likes to go winless. We want to wipe that out as soon as possible. I think what was good for our entire company was going to the Hall of Fame induction with my grandfather. It lights a fire in all our employees and myself included. Any kind of effort we can do to not letting any stone go unturned, try to find any bit of speed we're going to do it. Last year, making the Chase and now we have a playoff format with bonus points that are going to mean a lot, so speed is something we're going to have to rely on more. We were kind of a points-chasing organization the last couple of years. Myself and (Ryan) Newman did a good job of getting into the Chase and making a name for ourselves by getting through each round. But now we're going to have to show speed early and often for these segments, and the strategy that goes into that will play a lot of it. We've got our organization headed in the right direction. I'm excited and there is a lot to be excited for. We had speed at the end of the year, winning those poles, that we won Texas and had speed and got wrecked. We can be aggressive this year and do what it takes to be ahead of the pack."

DO YOU FEEL YOU CAN TEST THE WATERS WHEN YOU RUN THE XFINITY RACES AS FAR AS THE FORMAT AND STAGES GO? "It's going to be big. I think that's the cool part about the new format. You have trucks and Xfinity leading up to Sunday. You'll be able to see some strategy play out, and we'll definitely be using that platform to get better at RCR. Any time you can use, when a format change happens, you can draw from all the series it's going to be good. I think it's going to be good for the fans, too. They need to tune in and watch the truck and Xfinity race at Daytona so they can learn more."

AT THE HALL OF FAME AWARDS, VERY EMOTIONAL FOR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY. YOU HAVE TO BE PROUD. ON A LESS SERIOUS NOTE, WILL THERE BE A RACE TO HAVE A BETTER BEARD THAN JIMMIE (JOHNSON)? "The Hall of Fame was great. My grandfather is very serious when it comes to everything he does. My beard is an issue with him and can be. He compared it to Jimmie's beard, and he said, 'You can keep it like Jimmie's. It's nice.' I sent him a picture a minute ago when NASCAR posted that photo of Jimmie and that big beard and said I guess I guess I was ahead of my time because I had a big beard at the end of last year. It's funny how that comes and goes. Proud of my grandfather. He's done a lot for NASCAR and his employees, myself included, and it makes you want to get this winless streak cleared away. Just want to get him back where he deserves to be. He gives us the equipment and organization to do it, and now we have to perform and make it happen."

YOU SAID YOU A RE PROUD OF TY, BUT HAS THE SIBLING RIVALRY STARTED YET? "It started when he was born. We do a lot to help each other because we care. Ty cares as much as I do about RCR. I'm proud that he's an affiliate with us, and it's cool to be able to look at his driver traces this year and compare. I think he'll be able to push myself and Ryan and Paul and all four of us hopefully, and our other affiliates can move the needle where we need to go forward with."

RC GOES UP TOP, BUT WHERE DOES YOUR DAD GO? "When the race starts on Sundays, he can't sit still. He does a good job of just going with the flow. He went and sat in my bus with my fiancée last year, and she had to kick him out because he was getting too jacked up. He gets jacked up and gets mad at me and gets mad at the crew. He calms down and wants to love on you. He's competitive and that's where a lot of my fire comes from. He's always pushing."

AFTER YOUR TERRIBLE WRECK IN 2015, ARE YOU FEELING ANY DIFFERENT GOING BACK TO DAYTONA? "I'm comfortable. After going through a wreck like that, you feel like Superman for a couple of weeks when you go back and look at it. NASCAR has done a lot of safety and they've added new enhancements for this year. It's going to be fun going to Daytona because I feel there's always a storyline, something always happens. Something about that track, something different. So it's very important how Daytona gets started from qualifying and now the points system, it's going to be aggressive from the start."

DURING THE OFF-SEASON, DID YOU DO ANYTHING TO GET RACING COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND? "My family is kind of racing, so it's hard when you want to be with your family and not talk about racing. I think the best thing I did was getting in the outdoors, hunting and fishing. I went to Texas with some of my race team, but we were talking the whole time about beer and dinner and lunch in the middle of nowhere. That was probably the best part of the off-season. But you want to think about racing because last year ended really well for our team, and our entire team was like I wish we could start over right now with what we know. And in 2015 we found some speed and in 2016 ended with speed. In 2017, we wanted to start the next day. It's momentum for us going into Daytona. I'm refreshed and ready to go."

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Media Tour and discussed visiting Australia and New Zealand during the off-season, the new race format, and more.  TALK ABOUT AUSTRALIA: "Australia was a lot of fun. I got to go to down there and race at Sydney Speedway, which is somewhere I've wanted to race for a long time now. It was a good time. We stayed in Parramatta. I got to go to the Sydney Zoo and Bondi Beach near Sydney, which was a lot of fun. I only got to run three races. One rained out and I ran third in two of them and had a really bad night in one of them. We went from Australia to New Zealand for a couple of days to try and race there, but that ultimately got rained out as well. But, I had a blast. At least for the Australia part our whole family was there. So, it was fun. We all got to hang out and had a good time. It was a fun off-season. I got to do the Chili Bowl, which is always fun. I didn't have a good year there, but did win the Race of Champions, which was nice. So, it was a solid off-season, for sure."

AS A GUY WHO LIKES TO GO FAST ALL THE TIME, DOES THIS NEW FORMAT BENEFIT YOU? "I don't know. We've got to wait and see, I guess. I think everybody already races hard, so it's not like everybody is going to step up any harder than we already are. I don't know. My qualifying is up and down. I think qualifying is going to be more important now, this year, for gaining points especially in that first segment. So, if you can qualify well, you should be able to gain more points. It will be interesting to see. I don't really know how the style of racing is going to change with this new format until we kind of get going throughout the first month or month and a half."

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO YOU CAME INTO THE LERNERVILLE SPEEDWAY AND YOU WERE LATE AND YOU HAD TO START DEAD LAST IN THE FEATURE "I wasn't late."

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO START LAST? "That format is the twin features and the first feature a spark plug wire came undone, so I thought we had blown up, so I pulled off. They invert the field, but you have to be on the lead lap to be inverted. So anyway, I didn't finish the first feature so I had to start last in the second one."

YOU PASSED 23 CARS IN 25 LAPS. THE CONSENSUS OF OPINION WAS THAT THIS KID'S GOT QUITE A FUTURE IN RACING. AND YOU'VE PROVED THAT. YOU'RE NOW WITH ONE OF THE PREMIER TEAMS IN NASCAR. "I love racing for Chip (Ganassi) and Felix (Sabates) and Rob (Kauffman). All three of them together are great owners and they make great race teams. So, I have enjoyed my career so far with them and hopefully I'm with them for a long time to come."

YOU JUST MENTIONED YOU RAN IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. YOU ARE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET WITH THE STEERING WHEEL ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CAR. DID YOU HAVE TROUBLES WITH THAT? 'No, honestly not. When I think back to the first year I went to New Zealand, I was nervous and whatever. But, honestly once you do it, it just feels natural. You're just on the opposite of the road. All the things work the same, it's just backward. The first year I went to New Zealand, I spent like 17 days there. And the last day I was there I made a mistake and was driving on the wrong side of the road. But, it's fine. It's pretty easy. My dad wouldn't drive at all in Australia because he was intimidated. But it's easy."

WHAT ABOUT SHIFTING? "Oh, no. I'm automatic, man; I couldn't do that. I struggle enough shifting the right way. But I can't imagine going in first and second and pulling to third and fourth."

WHEN YOU WERE IN SYDNEY, DID YOU TRY THE MORETON BAY BUGS? IT'S SEAFOOD. LIKE LOBSTER "Oh, no. I hate seafood. I didn't eat it. An Asian who doesn't like seafood, that's weird (laughter). I'm not a big seafood eater. But I know they put beets on everything, so I had to make sure I didn't ask for beets. The first night I was there I ordered spaghetti marinara expecting it to be spaghetti and tomato sauc

John Davison

Long-time RIS staffer, beginning in the mid-80s. Charlotte, NC area local contact.

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Volume 2016, Issue 8, Posted 12:53 PM, 01.26.2017