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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: CAN-AM DUEL #1

February 18, 2016

Daytona Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by one of the drivers who has raced his way into the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Michael McDowell.
Michael, tell us what it means to lock in a spot in the Daytona 500.
MICHAEL McDOWELL: You all know what it means to be in the 500. I've been on the other side, too, where I've been loading up, too, and going home on a Thursday night. I definitely appreciate it when we make the races.
It's definitely a big thing for our team, Circle Sport and Leavine Family Racing, we're going to have two cars in the Daytona 500, especially for a small team. To really start out the year well, it's very important. This is such a huge race.
It was nerve‑wracking. It wasn't an easy one by any means. Pretty much how it goes, you have a plan, you make a plan, then it all changes when you get out there. Tonight was no different than that.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Michael, what were you thinking towards the end of the race when you had Cole right behind you and he was juking around?
MICHAEL McDOWELL: When you're at Daytona, and you guys have seen in these Duels, a lot of times we'll get side‑by‑side and the pack will stay that way. But in that first run, as soon as you get single file, if you're not on that lead pack and you're not in line, it's very easy to lose the draft. After the pit stop everything gets spread out a little bit till it regroups.
We just got done making a green flag stop there. Cole and I were side by side and I was able to get past him on pit road, then they had a run coming. He had a run with two or three cars.
That was that moment where if he slingshots by me, I lose the draft, you're going to lose a lap or be out of the draft altogether.
I fought as hard as I could to keep him behind me. I didn't see what happened behind me, but I saw it got crazy real fast.

Q. Even though there's not a lot of you fighting for the positions, there's only one that comes out of each race. Does that create more anxiety to get into this race?
MICHAEL McDOWELL: Yeah, it's huge. In years past, I don't know the exact number. It just depends on your speed. There's usually three, sometimes four coming out of a Duel. You knew you had to finish 15th or 16th. If you did, you would get a spot in there somehow, some way.
Going in tonight we knew there's only one spot if Blaney races his way in. That's really tough. It's good that we had speed in qualifying to fall back on. But at the same time we saw the 21 had troubles there. At one point I think maybe even lost a lap. I'm thinking, Oh, man, this is going to come down exactly how TV wants to see it and exactly how I didn't want to see it.
For sure it's a challenging format the way it is this year for open cars at Daytona in particular.

Q. Afterwards, did you go and say anything to Ryan? Did you thank him?
MICHAEL McDOWELL: Well, no, I hadn't seen him. Definitely glad that he was able to get back on the lead lap. Obviously had a fast car, was able to get back to the front.
We knew what our job was tonight. Our job was to beat the 30 and the 98. If we did that, we would have a spot in the Daytona 500, regardless of where the 21 ran. That's really what our focus was on.

Q. You seemed real encouraged by your speed yesterday. How about for the 500 on Sunday?
MICHAEL McDOWELL: We got some work there to do, no doubt about it. Nothing that can't be adjusted.
It was a different race tonight. Everybody's getting so good at leading the pack, moving the lines around, it's really hard to make moves and get runs going. You stall out real bad.
I'm looking forward to more cars being on the racetrack. I think that's going to allow us more opportunity to move around and make runs and make passes. When you only have 10 or 13 cars in that lead pack, if you don't get it just right, you end up losing four or five spots, you have to regroup, gather it back up.
Obviously the 500 will be a different scenario. At the end of that race the guys that weren't in position to win, you can kind of see them rolling off the gas. I'm like, Go, we got to keep going. The 500 will be very different, obviously.
THE MODERATOR: We're also joined by the other driver who has raced his way into the Daytona 500, Ryan Blaney.
Ryan, do you want to comment on making the field for the Daytona 500 this year.
RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, we knew we were locked in before. Kind of nice to know we raced our way in. We had a really fast racecar. We had a couple problems early in the race which got us a lap down. Luckily we got a caution at the right point that got us on the lead lap so we could go racing for it.
We got in a couple good lines, a couple good guys behind us and in front of us. Joey ducked down in the bottom. I thought I would give it a shot, see what happened. I think that was seven to go or eight to go. No one went with us at first. I was kind of discouraged. I thought we would finish about 15th. Then luckily some guys went with us, we were able to make some ground at the end. It was a good recovery for our race team.
THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions.

Q. Michael, how difficult was it for you to get to this position, given everything that the team has gone through since the end of last year? You had the merger, you made the manufacturer switch. Just seems like there's stuff going on constantly.
MICHAEL McDOWELL: Yeah, there was a lot going on in the off‑season. Obviously there was a lot of unknowns with the charter, what was going to happen with that. There was a time where we felt like we were going to be in a tough spot, you know, that we weren't sure if we were going to be able to compete this year at all, whether an open car or charter car.
Luckily we were able to put together the partnership with RCR, that alliance. Switching over to Chevy helped strengthen our position there. With Thrivant Financial and KLOVE and all our partners coming onboard, all our sponsors coming onboard, really partnering with Joe Falk at Circle Sport, allowed us to say, Okay, now we have a spot in the sport, our partner stepped up, manufacturer stepped up, we were able to go full‑time.
That all happened in 30 days. I know that's kind of hard to believe. But it's the reality. Come around the 1st of December, Bob said, Hey, do you want me to start calling some other owners for you? I don't want you to be on the outside looking in.
We didn't know what we were going to do, what we could do. So to be here now is a big deal. To have two cars running in the Daytona 500. For me, selfishly, going to Atlanta next week, not having to qualify for the race, I don't know how many starts I've done, but I've had to make every single one but 10 of them in my career over 200 starts.
To not have to do that on Friday is going to be really nice. I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to our program growing over the years.

Q. Ryan, you mentioned when you first tried to pull out, people didn't want to go with you. You had that problem at Talladega. What do you have to do between now and Sunday to get guys to trust you and go with you?
RYAN BLANEY: Well, the first time I pulled out early in the race, we had our problem. I was kind of wanting to get away from the pack. I didn't want to have an issue, wreck cars. That was the first time, which I didn't blame anybody for that.
The second time I did behind Joey, yeah, it's a product of if someone can get like a blowtorch, burn the yellow stripes off the bumper, that's going to help.
I hope what we did tonight kind of helps that. I think every speedway you try and hope to earn the respect of other people, show you have a fast enough car, they're confident enough in you to make moves with you. That's all you can hope for.
You never know. You hope things work out for the best. Even if I didn't have yellow stripes, going with Joey first, he's won a 500 and tons of races, it's just a product of kind of how people feel at that time I guess.

Q. Ryan, you were falling back, talking about a vibration. Was it a bad set of tires? You made an amazing comeback.
RYAN BLANEY: We had a loose left rear wheel. It slowly worked its way loose. Luckily we resolved that. What happened was, it was loose at the beginning of the race, and it worked itself loose. When we had to pit the first time, the studs are stripped. So all the air guns in the pits, they don't tighten them up. They go to a certain pressure, then they stop, because that's what they're designed to do.
When I went back out, I went six, seven laps, they were still loose. Had to come in again and actually torque them and make sure they was going to stay on there because we had damaged studs on it. Like I said, luckily we had that caution.
It was just the product of a loose left rear wheel.

Q. You're going to practice in warmer weather than you raced. What do you take away from running in the pack in cold weather that is of any use on Sunday?
RYAN BLANEY: That's tough. The handle of your racecar isn't going to be as good as it was tonight. We were pretty loose tonight, but there's a lot of things we can do for Sunday. It's going to be slick and hot on Sunday.
Luckily we might have a small practice on Saturday to maybe get a small idea for what Sunday is going to hold. But it's usually a handful on Sunday, especially when you have twice as many cars and you're in the race. You're going to have a lot more energy. You're going to be three‑wide a lot more.
We can take a little bit away from it, but not too much. We can't put all of our hopes into this race.
THE MODERATOR: Michael and Ryan, thanks for joining us. Congratulations. Good luck on Sunday.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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