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NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 16, 2016

Jerry Baxter

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Jerry Baxter, crew chief for Sonoco Rookie of the Year contender Christopher Bell in the No.4 JBL Toyota at Kyle Busch Motorsports. Jerry, thanks for joining us today.
JERRY BAXTER: No problem. Appreciate you having me.
THE MODERATOR: Jerry, this is your first year with Christopher Bell during his rookie campaign. Talk about Christopher and the team's growth this year and representing a rookie in a Championship Four with three seasoned veterans.
JERRY BAXTER: Well, our season started off where Christopher had speed immediately and had a little bit of trouble learning that the races are quite a bit longer than what he was used to with the dirt cars, the sprint cars, the midgets, so we had a little bit of a learning curve there at the beginning, and eventually that all calmed down, and after that he started just stringing together top 10s and top 5s pretty regularly, and we grew a lot from there.
I think he had trust in his team at that point and in his trucks and wasn't trying to force the issue all the time and was able to just capitalize on having good stuff and him being a good driver and take his time to learn.

Q. You've been around the Truck Series for a while. What's your take on the new Chase format and how has it affected the championship battle this year?
JERRY BAXTER: Well, I mean, it's good for some and bad for some. I was just asked earlier today about why can somebody win six races like William did and not be in a fight for the championship at the end. Actually the guy that asked me was a former NFL player, and I told him, explained to him that him as much as anybody should understand if a football team goes 12‑4 and wins their division and then loses in the first round of the playoffs, then they're out, and it's a shame, but it's just the rules that we play by. So like I say, it's good for some and not good for others.

Q. Jerry, with Christopher being the young guy in this group and going against these veterans, what's his psyche right now, and are you doing anything to help him prepare mentally for the race?
JERRY BAXTER: Well, actually it's pretty cool. I think we've all been stressed out up until this point, and you've got those races like Talladega and Martinsville that we were all pretty worried about, and then you never know, you have a bad race and then it forces you to have to win the race to transfer to the next round, so we were all pretty edgy, and then after Phoenix was over, we were like, ooh, it's like the weight of the world is off our shoulders, and he's the same way right now. We were together this morning for quite some time going over stuff about the weekend, and the good thing about him being young is that he doesn't know what he's supposed to go through or what potential issues are. He just goes out and does his job, and that seems like it's kind of a luxury to me.

Q. Other crew chiefs were mentioning how good Kyle Larson is at Homestead and how he can find different lines to race on. Does Christopher's dirt background kind of give him an advantage on such a weathered track?
JERRY BAXTER: Absolutely it does. When I look at the races this year that we've ran on this type of track, we've really, really done a good job. We've really been fast at it. Atlanta is a good example, pretty much dominated the second half of that race, and Texas last week, or two weeks ago, was the same type deal. Fortunately we're on the same tire. But anytime the track is worn out where you can run top to bottom, I think that type of driver shines, and Christopher is definitely very similar to Kyle Larson.

Q. First off, you've mentioned that obviously Chris is young and doesn't know any better, but you're not; you know what he's supposed to go through, what he's supposed to experience. Does that make it more nerve‑racking for you, even though he might put the truck where he doesn't have a clue that he's not supposed to do it, he might get out there and do something that just shocks you, but when you're sitting up there on the box, what goes through your mind when he's doing the things on the track that get him to the front? And the second question is I know you guys are teammates, but you brought up the fact that six wins with William Byron; obviously if he would have advanced he would have been a factor. You guys have great trucks over there; deep down did you at least say, yes, we don't have to worry about this guy because you know what they've got?
JERRY BAXTER: First question is with him putting his truck in positions that he's not supposed to, it's not really bothering me that much in that he has a pretty good supporting cast, and his spotter is very good, Mike Herman. He does Ricky Stenhouse and he does Ryan Reed over on the XFINITY side, and he's got a ton of experience and he's on the kid all the time. Pretty much when you're down on pit road you can see most of the track at all times, and with our monitors now, I can pretty much see the truck at all times. I'm able to speak my peace at any moment, and he's got enough races under his belt now at this point that he's not going to go do something like if it was his first time out there, and fortunately at Homestead, he ran there last year, and he ran really well. He did a good job. So he's not just a raw rookie, so I'm not too concerned about that as far as that goes.
As far as the teammate situation, ultimately I was hoping that it would be both of us going to the final, and when you look at the whole 12 vehicles that are in the Chase with all three divisions, there's quite a few teammates there, and I think as far as like ours, and I'm sure that Joe Gibbs Racing is the same way, all year long the teammates really work together good, and whether the drivers are or not, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about here at the company, we all know what each other is doing. Everything is updated constantly, and that's up to us to use that information.
You can be a teammate all year long and then ultimately when it comes to the end of the day, even all the way until the race starts at Homestead, the 9 will know what we're doing and vice versa, and so will the 51. But at the end of the day, it's a different driver driving each vehicle, and then it's up to ‑‑ my part is to make sure that I tune it correctly for him and that I make the right calls during the event to keep the track position and things like that.
I do wish they were still in there, and I didn't feel that at the end. I thought, well, heck that'll be pretty cool that we'll end up with two of our trucks in the Chase, but one of them still is‑‑ the 9 still is in the owner's part of it, so that's good for them, and we'll just see what happens.
THE MODERATOR: Jerry, thanks for joining us today, and good luck on Friday down in Homestead.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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