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NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 16, 2016Jason BurdettTHE MODERATOR: Joining us from JR Motorsports is Jason Burdett, crew chief for Justin Allgaier in the No.7 Branch Chevrolet. Jason, thanks for joining us. JASON BURDETT: No problem. Thanks for having me. THE MODERATOR: You returned as the crew chief for the No.7 team for a second year this season, but with a new driver, Justin Allgaier. Talk about working with Justin as you vie once again for the XFINITY Series Championship. JASON BURDETT: Working with Justin has been great, really. You know, I think it took us a month or two at the beginning of the year to kind of get the ball rolling and get going, but throughout the summer and the latter part of the season, we've had a really solid, solid year. Obviously we wish we would have had a couple wins, and we had opportunities to do that, but it just didn't work out for us. We've got one more chance here to get a win in the race, and if we can win the race, we can win a championship and do it all in one shot. THE MODERATOR: You've been in the middle of championship runs in the past. With this being the first year of the Chase in the XFINITY Series, what have been the main differences you've seen with this new format? JASON BURDETT: The biggest difference is for us like going into Homestead last year, we mathematically had an opportunity to potentially still win a championship, but it would have taken a lot to get there, where this year I think‑‑ I don't know exactly, but I think we'd be third or fourth in points right now with probably not a real shot at winning the championship, where with this format, you know, it gives us an opportunity. Anything can happen in one race, and when it comes down to one race and four guys, it's the potential to be exciting, and hopefully we can just stay calm all weekend and all afternoon Saturday afternoon and give ourselves an opportunity at the end of the race to come out on top. Q. Two questions: One, what nerves, or how nervous are you going into this this weekend? What have you done to prepare mentally? And with Justin last year, losing his ride at HScott in the Cup Series, coming over here, do you feel like he feels like he has something to prove? Obviously he's got a great ride and he's competing for a championship, but to be at the top level and then to have to drop down like he did, do you feel like he wants‑‑ there's added motivation for him in that respect? JASON BURDETT: Yeah, as far as the last question, I think he's motivated every day. I don't know that the circumstances of the career path that he's on has added any more motivation. You know, from working with him all year long this year and getting to know him, he's got a lot of motivation already built in. I'm not sure exactly where he's at with moving back to the XFINITY Series. I think‑‑ my personal opinion of it is it was probably a good move for him. I know when you drive in the Cup Series and you're not at one of them top‑tier teams, it makes it very hard to compete, where for him to move back to XFINITY, and I'd like to think JRM is one of the top‑tier teams. Obviously we have two cars in the championship this year. It was a good move for him. This was an opportunity for him to go win a championship and something for him to be very proud of in his career. As far as the nerves, I don't know that the nerves are going to get any worse than they were last week or the week before, you know. Preparation‑wise, we've been preparing for this Saturday. The last couple weeks with a wreck at Kansas, that put us way behind, and kind of a mediocre run in Texas with a 10th. It made Phoenix a pretty nerve‑racking night. I think we're just ready to go. We're ready to go win. We've got nothing to lose. We'll go out, there's four of us, and the worst we're going to be is fourth and the best we're going to be is first, so we're going to go give it all we've got. Q. With you guys having two crew chiefs in the same garage, same shop competing for a championship, has there been any smack talk back and forth, any behind‑the‑scenes bets or anything going on that you'd want to share? JASON BURDETT: No, no bets. There's definitely been some back‑and‑forth between the teams, all in fun. You know, I don't know if you've ever been to our shop, but our cars sit on a setup play right next to each other, so there's no hiding anything. We're all in this together at the end. When they drop the green flag Saturday night, they'll separate and it'll be us and them, but up until then it's going to be JRM trying to win a championship. Q. This may sound crazy to you, but is it almost easier with such a specific thing that you have to do, that you have to concentrate on this one race, beat those three drivers? JASON BURDETT: You know, I don't know that it's easier. It's going to be a tough night. You know, I think at the end of it all, what it's going to do is it's going to make every decision you make Friday during practice, Friday night when you're sitting in your hotel room trying to decide what you're going to do, it's going to make all those decisions a lot harder because you know if you make one wrong one, it could affect your day, where if you have it over the course of a whole season and you're running for a championship, there's a lot of things that can affect the outcome. So I think the way that it's set up with the one race and our series for sure, we get two practices, a couple hours to work on the car, and then we go race. You know, so it's going to be a stressful day Friday and a stressful morning Saturday morning, and then we're just going to go see what happens. Q. It's easier for someone else to use the word easier. JASON BURDETT: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I don't know that there's anything going to be easy about this. We keep telling ourselves, like I said earlier, that we're going to be third or fourth in points at the end of the year on the old points system, so this is our opportunity, but it's still going to be pretty nerve‑racking. We're all competitive. None of us want to lose this, and nothing is going to be acceptable other than first at the end of the day. It's going to be hard on all four teams, I believe. Q. A lot of the drivers that aren't even racing for the championship were just talking about how excited they are to go to Homestead and how they call it a, quote, racy track. What makes Homestead so much fun and different than the other 1.5 milers? JASON BURDETT: Well, the layout of Homestead is a lot different. It doesn't physically look different than a lot of the places we go, but just the way the banking is, it allows for three, four grooves. You can run up against the wall. You'll see guys on the bottom, the middle. It's going to be all over the racetrack. It's really right‑‑ as a driver they're going to have to find the spot on the track that makes their car go fast. You know, it's got some age on it now, so it's going to be hard on tires, so there's going to be some falloff in speed throughout a run more than there is at some of the mile‑and‑a‑halfs. It's an exciting track, but you're going to have a little bit of everything. You're going to have guys jump out early that are fast on newer tires, and then you'll have guys running them down from behind late in the run that are better on old tires. That's what I think guys‑‑ most of the drivers are talking about when they say it's a racy track. THE MODERATOR: Jason, thanks for joining us today, and good luck this weekend in Homestead. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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