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NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: ALERT TODAY FLORIDA 300February 21, 2015Chris BuescherTy DillonDAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Ty Dillon. Ty, a solid third‑place finish today, but talk a little bit about your race. TY DILLON: Our Chevy was a rocket ship. I think we went from close to last to leading it within eight laps. The guys did an awesome job this off‑season of taking the next step. Our cars are awesome. This is just a taste of what I feel like we're going to bring to the racetrack all year. I'm excited to get to Atlanta, to places where the driver can make a difference. The hard work that goes into these racecars, you can make more of a difference. I'm proud of our third‑place finish, but I'm frustrated we didn't win. We're fully focused on winning races and winning championships. While third place is great, I'm going to keep that 'want to win' attitude. THE MODERATOR: Ty, running for the championship, even though it is very early in the season, you have to feel in a good spot. TY DILLON: Finishing third is great here. It's a good start to the season. But we're going to get more points when we start winning some races here. That's what I'm mainly focused on. We had an awesome, awesome racecar. All day yesterday I knew we had an awesome racecar. All day we did. It's part of being at Daytona, you go from the front to the back, front to the back. Thought we had some help at the end to try to win the thing. Everybody dumped me. Coming to the white when they all crashed, I was able to stay in it. Proud of our effort today. If we keep this attitude, we're going to open some eyes and win some races. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Ty. Q. There's always the craziness that is restrictor plate racing. As we heard from your comments already, you're focused on the big picture for the year. How much does that temper the aggressiveness you have in the final laps? TY DILLON: I'm aggressive all the time, no matter what. That's what's got me to where I am. It's what's won me the races that I have. That's what got me to third tonight I feel like. I'm going to keep my attitude the same way. I'm a guy that tries to win every lap. I want to do that. I'm going to keep my attitude. If you win races, the points will come. Here and there we might make mistakes by being aggressive, but we'll win more races than make mistakes. Q. We've seen two first‑time winners in the last two nights. Then again we also saw a lot of things going on out there that just were kind of mind blowing. What did you see through your window and your rearview mirror? TY DILLON: With these XFINITY cars, it's really hard to separate from each other. They've done a great job of making everybody competitive, which also makes it hairier throughout the race. We wanted to get out front. Best place to miss wrecks. Got shuffled to the back. Me, Kyle and Elliott were stuck at the bottom right before the big one. You could see it coming. Guys being too aggressive in the wrong spots, bumping each other through the tri‑oval with 30 to go. We all kind of drug the brakes back. Got out of the pack. You could see it was coming. I think that's when all the carnage started happening. Then we worked our way back through the field. It's just a product of this race. I think to see all the first‑time winners, I think a lot of it's to do with luck and being in the right spot at the right time. Don't get me wrong, Ryan Reed had a fast car. If you can position yourself and stay up front, you're going to have a chance to win these things. You're going to miss the wrecks and be there when the melee cuts loose. Q. Did you feel like it was any more aggressive out there or any less aggressive or what you expected? TY DILLON: About what I expected. Last year coming to the checkered, I think we were all just tight on each other. The bottom line couldn't move. This year, half of our field, the good cars in our field, were all rookies last year. We've all, as a rookie class from last year, taken to the next level and matured and learned from last year. Everybody did a good job. We've got a heck of a group of drivers coming up through the ranks. It only makes it tougher. I think that's why everybody knew they had to get aggressive, to get up front. Then you get everybody being aggressive and things happen, I guess. THE MODERATOR: We've been joined by our second‑place finisher, which is Chris Buescher. Chris, an excellent run by you and your team. Talk about your race. CHRIS BUESCHER: We're just happy to be running this race this year. After last year going the way it did, we're proud that we were in it. Our Ford Mustang was fast all weekend. Just trying to stay out of trouble, there was a lot of it. We barely got out of it. I think we ended up, me and Ty, at one point getting through one of those last ones. It was a melee, a lot of torn‑up equipment. Just happy we could get out of it. Happy for Ryan to get his first win. Knowing the feeling after last year of finally getting one off your back. I was proud of the guys. They worked really hard. We're not trying to dig ourselves out of a hole this year. I think we should be in good shape going forward. THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions. Q. Ty, what do you feel is the biggest thing you learned today that will benefit you tomorrow? TY DILLON: Trying to make more of my own decisions, I think. In the past, being a rookie in every series every time I've raced here, being the first time in that kind of car, Billy is the greatest spotter there is on the tower, but I relied on him a lot to put me in situations and get me in the right spot. The best thing to do is follow your own instincts, using your spotter in the right way. That's what I started doing tonight, it helped me getting back into the pack. The more I trusted myself, relied on my own instincts, the better I was as a driver, didn't make as many mistakes. Tomorrow when it gets down to the nitty‑gritty, I'll probably be doing the same thing. Tomorrow I'm going to try to survive as long as possible. A little bit different attitude going into tomorrow being that I'm a rookie, it's my first one, I have no clue what to expect. I'm just going to have fun, soak it all in. If we're there at the end, try to go for the win. But try to get as much knowledge for next year when hopefully we come back. Q. There's already been a lot of comment on Twitter about the fact that Kyle got hurt where there was no SAFER barrier. A, should there be a spot on the track where there isn't one? What needs to be done further in that field? TY DILLON: Kyle Busch got hurt? I didn't know that. Yeah, I don't want to say anything wrong. But I think we're to the point now in NASCAR we should have SAFER barriers at a place like this, we're going so fast. I think we could probably afford it. I hate to hear anybody in our sport getting hurt. We've advanced so far in safety, we shouldn't be having any crazy bad injuries. So hope he's all right. But, yeah, I know if it was me, I would want a SAFER barrier there if I got hurt in a spot. CHRIS BUESCHER: That's something we've seen through the years develop and turn into, you know, kind of a reactive cause. We keep running into situations where people find spots that aren't thought of before. I think the sport has progressed so far in the safety aspect. We started to take it for granted. But just there's really no room to do that. My opinion, I mean, it needs to be as safe as possible. If that means lining the inside walls as well, it's probably a good idea. Q. Chris, can you talk about what this does for Roush Fenway as an organization? Also, can you tell us a little bit about Ryan Reed. You probably know him on a personal level better than anybody else. CHRIS BUESCHER: First of all, for our organization, this is huge. I'm so proud to get Ryan his first win first off. That's a huge accomplishment. To do it here, I'm extremely happy for him. I think obviously this is one of those places where things get crazy at the end and we were able to weed through it. It was close. It wasn't due to anyone else's lack of trying. It was a wild finish. For our organization, we have good things coming. We worked really hard through the off‑season. We have a lot of new personnel behind the scenes. We had new teammates in the form of Bubba Wallace and Elliott Sadler that I believe are going to help us going forward. Elliott has taken on a role of more like a mentor. Someone that has the extreme amount of experience that he does, he's able to bring a lot to the table. Helping us already. Maybe you can say this race, it was completely due to that, you could say it didn't help at all. We appreciate all the help we can get from him. I know Ryan and Wallace and myself have all been listening very closely to him. Expect the changes we made to translate more to some of the bigger tracks we're going to go to, mile‑and‑a‑half's, especially. If we get that program turned around, I feel like we'll be very competitive this year. Q. Chris, can you compare last year's first race or attempt with this year? How much difference does it make? CHRIS BUESCHER: Honestly, it was painful to sit on a pit box and watch this race unfold last year and not be in it. As a racer, I'm not a very good race fan when I know I want to be in that race or I should have been able to get in that race. That hurt. We took that last year. We tried to build off of it, put ourselves in a situation where we didn't worry too much about points, just try to go out there and run competitively, win races. It put us in some situations where we were able to take some chances. We were able to get the Mid‑Ohio win. This year, now that we got that first one out of the way, I'm confident we can get more. To be able to come to Daytona and make the race, not only make it, but make it comfortably. Then to be able to push our teammate to the win, bring home a second‑place finish, it's great for our team, great for our organization as a whole. From what I've heard, I didn't see him much, we stayed in our own little group, but all of our cars were very good today, up in the front group. It's big, you know. I'm so, so happy we got to run this thing and get the seat time that I missed out on last year. It's a night‑and‑day difference. It's not comparable, honestly. There's no way to describe the joy we had in qualifying. I was so nervous I thought I was going to be sick coming up through qualifying, especially after the second group going out and actually tearing up some equipment. Man, I was hurting. To be able to pull it off, it was special for us. Looking forward to the rest of the season a lot more now. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to you both on great finishes today. We wish you the best of luck next weekend in Atlanta. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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