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NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 17, 2019

THE MODERATOR: Thank you everybody for joining us this afternoon.
As it was announced just a little bit ago here at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, North Carolina, Hailie Deegan was introduced as the newest Ford Performance developmental driver. Hailie will run a full ARCA season with DGRâ€‘Crosley in a Ford.
I'm joined today by Hailie, as well as Mark Rushbrook, global director Ford Performance Motorsports, and Rob Johnston, the global marketing manager for Ford Performance.
I want to kick it off with a question for each of you, then open it up for questions from all of you.
Mark, driver development has been a passion point of yours in your time at Ford Performance. How has the addition of Hailie today to the driver development program at Ford impact what you're doing to groom the next generation of Ford racers?
MARK RUSHBROOK: We were very happy we were able to start the driver development program again three years ago. It's important for us to feed the pipeline with drivers ultimately to get to Cup.
Having Chase Briscoe has been fantastic. Now being able to announce Hailie coming in with a strong desire to win on track and very competitive spirit, but also the passion and commitment off the track, as well, to continue development to be successful, and also be able to tell the story about herself and our company and other sponsors, hitting on all cylinders, really excited to start the relationship.
THE MODERATOR: Rob, today racing not just about success on the track, it's about the marketing machine off the track. In your role as global marketing manager, you'll be working with Hailie. Can you talk about what the addition of a personality like Hailie brings to you and everybody at Ford Performance?
ROB JOHNSTON: Working with somebody like Hailie, who is really a rising star in motorsports, gives the opportunity to have a wonderful new platform, to engage a new audience. She already has a large fan base which we're excited to get to know. It will give us the opportunity to through her, her personality and talent, we'll be able to tell the Ford story.
It will be a story over the course of her driver development as she progresses. I think a lot of people are going to be joining her as fans because they're going to want to follow the story and we'll be able to link that to showcasing Ford products, whether it be Mustang, maybe the new Bronco, and certainly our trucks. All of those things kind of fit into her personality and lifestyle on and off the track, through racing or her active lifestyle outdoors.
THE MODERATOR: Hailie, it's officially official. You are in a Ford, kind of following in your dad's footsteps. He used to race a Ford. It's been an interesting day for you already. You showed a video of you riding around in a GT500, rolled out in the GT350. You're going to race in a few different series. What has this day been like? How excited are you?
HAILIE DEEGAN: I'm super excited to kind of rekindle the relationship my dad had with Ford, bring that back to our lifestyle, what we have going on. Now racing a full season in ARCA next year, starting off at Daytona.
We're going to start at Daytona, we are going to actually start at the Daytona road coursewith the IMSA racing I'll be doing also this year, fitting that around my ARCA schedule.
It's going to be a crazy one. I am super excited for the journey. Hopefully it's going to be a long journey and we'll have a lot of success.
THE MODERATOR: At this point we'll open it up for questions.

Q. Some specifics maybe from Hailie on the participation on the IMSA side of the equation. Talk about what the program looks like a little bit, what you're looking forward to, doing some road racing?
HAILIE DEEGAN: Yeah, I think it's going to be definitely something that is going to help my career and better me as a driver. I think the reason why I took so much interest in doing the road courses is because they're adding more road courses every season every single year.
I think I can gain some experience in the IMSA Series, hopefully better my driving skills, develop me better as an allâ€‘around driver. We have seen what it's done to Chase Briscoe, how good he is on the road courses, what a better driver it made him. I am looking forward to being part of the IMSA Series, hopefully having a little bit of success there, too.

Q. Hailie, can you talk to me about when you first started talking to Ford about joining their developmental driver program, then what went into the decision to leave Toyota and become a Ford driver?
HAILIE DEEGAN: I mean, my dad, it kind of started over years and years ago, my dad came to Ford. Like, My daughter is trying to get into the NASCAR scene.
It's a matter of timing deal. Over the years I got aligned with Toyota, but now I thought the right path for me was coming back to Ford, how my dad's relationship started there.
I think it definitely was a smart move on all of our parts. I mean, it's been a while, it's definitely been a little while. I think things started really moving these last couple weeks, deal started really getting figured out.

Q. Mark, can you say how long the deal is? Is there any sort of guarantee that Hailie would be in the Truck Series by a certain time or the Xfinity Series or Cup Series by a certain year?
MARK RUSHBROOK: Are you asking me, Mark?

Q. Yes.
MARK RUSHBROOK: No comment on the length of the contract or even the progression. I think the great thing has been since the very first conversation that we want to see Hailie succeed and take the steps when the timing is right. I've got a lot of confidence that that will go through in these coming years all the way to the Cup level.
No strong dates as to how much time at each level. We want to make sure, and Hailie wants to make sure, her team wants to make sure, she progresses to those levels when she's ready to ensure success at each step.

Q. Hailie, what are you looking for on the bigger tracks? What was it like for you? What kinds of things do you need to focus on as far as improving on those?
HAILIE DEEGAN: Yeah, Pocono and Kansas were definitely mindâ€‘blowing races for me, just to see how different they are, how much the air is involved, how much your setup, car setup, is involved, how the cars change throughout the race. They change a lot differently than they do at short tracks.
I think it's just a matter of experience. It's going to be definitely a process. But Ford is behind me to develop, to get better. I think that's something we're both on the same page with.
We're doing the ARCA series because they get (indiscernible), gain experience there, gaining as much knowledge as we can at the next level before we move up.

Q. Mark, you mentioned about having Hailie now with the Ford development program, also Chase. How special is it to have both Chase and Hailie drive in the IMSA races, including Daytona?
MARK RUSHBROOK: There's a lot of reasons that we put our development drivers into the IMSA Mustang GT Fords. Obviously part of it is about getting that driving experience in a different car, getting road course experience. Other big reason for us doing this is for building the feeling of teamwork or family across our development drivers.
We are a family company. We approach racing in the same way. So to be able to have our development drivers bond together, even by sharing a car, hopefully winning a race together, doing well in a race together, is great at building their feeling of being a part of the Ford family that will hopefully stay with them up to the Cup Series.

Q. Hailie, you talked about going from Toyota to Ford. DGR also made the jump from Toyota to Ford. How important is it to be a part of a team that has similar goals, jumping from one make to another?
HAILIE DEEGAN: I think DGR, first of all, is a really good team. I really like the program David has put together. He knows how it is trying to have a kid come up through the ranks with Todd coming through. He knows how it is to be a racer. I think that's definitely important to building a strong team.
He has a lot of hardâ€‘working, strong people over there that keep his program going. I think his alliance with Ford, plus all the resources they're giving him, should heighten his program even more.
I'm excited to be part of it. Definitely going to be on top of its game. I'm excited to see what we can do together.

Q. Hailie, on your approach, how important was it to take a real measured, patient approach as you move up the ranks here as opposed to jumping right in one of the national series?
HAILIE DEEGAN: I think it's really important because at the end of the day as a driver you pretty much have one reputation chance. When you blow it, when you don't do good, that kind of sits with you. It's hard to get rid of that.
I think it's definitely important for me and the people who support me and are coming with me along the journey that we want to have success where we go. When we move up to the next level, we want to make sure we do it at the right time and I'm ready for it and they're ready to take the step.
I think we're definitely taking the right route and process. If we can stick to what we're doing, stick to the game plan, it should be good.

Q. So far we've only heard the Daytona premier, Daytona debut. We've heard the ARCA part of the program. What else is there? Short track races, late model also in the schedule?
HAILIE DEEGAN: I mean, late models really haven't been my thing. I've been trying to stick to the K&N ARCA side. I think that as of now we kind of put all our resources together to run the full ARCA Series because we felt that was going to be best for or career and development, getting on the bigger tracks.
We're not focusing on a lot of the smaller tracks. It would be nice to run what was the K&N, ARCA East and West Series now. It would be cool to race a few of those races as the opportunity arises later in the year, or even a few truck races.
As of now we've taken all of our resources and put it into the ARCA Series because that's what we feel is best.

Q. Hailie, you've talked about it's not easy to get sponsorship. This support from Ford, does that alleviate some of the pressure on you to get all the sponsorship that you need? What does it do for you as far as confidence in knowing that you'll be in a car for at least the next few years?
HAILIE DEEGAN: Yeah, I think with my alliance with Ford, we're focusing on being in really good equipment and having really good outside resources, not just a writeâ€‘theâ€‘checkâ€‘toâ€‘goâ€‘race deal, it's developing, making me a better driver going to the IMSA racing with sim time, stuff like that.
I think true development is not just writing a check to go race. I think it's all around making you a better driver as a whole.
It's definitely taken a little pressure off, but I think we couldâ€‘â€‘ obviously, you can always use more funding for more racing because I'd like to be racing every weekend if I could.

Q. Hailie, how different does this opportunity feel for you in terms of how significant it is in your career?
HAILIE DEEGAN: I think it gives me the confidence to know that we made the right decision, confident in my future and my development just because we're all on the same page. Especially with them starting this kind of lower level development, where they had Chase Briscoe, Cindric, all the guys coming through, the higher ranks, now they're kind of stepping into the ARCA Series, the lower level out of the top three series.
It shows not necessarily that there's a lotâ€‘â€‘ more going without a bunch more drivers, but it focuses on me and my career. It gives me a lot more confidence to know we're doing the right thing when you have a lot more focus on you.

Q. Hailie, when you made your decision to join Ford, was part of the factor looking at it and thinking you had a more clear path to getting to the NASCAR national series than with Toyota?
HAILIE DEEGAN: Yeah, I think that was definitely part of the decision. It definitely played a big part. At the Toyota side, there's a lot of drivers over there. There's not many rides open in the higher levels.
Over here, there's a lot more focus and a lot more clear path on what they're trying to do with their development drivers, their drivers coming through the ranks, having enough seats for them.

Q. Hailie, which IMSA races, other than Daytona, do you foresee running this year? Will Daytona be the only one?
MARK RUSHBROOK: I think it's going to be heavily loaded towards the front part of the season. We haven't made a final commitment. Obviously there are conflicts between the ARCA Series and the full IMSA schedule. There's no possible way to do the full schedule. We'll get her as much race time in the IMSA Mustang as possible.
THE MODERATOR: We'll wrap it up. I want to thank everybody for joining us today.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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