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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CLASH AT DAYTONA

February 19, 2017

Daytona Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We are going to continue on with our Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series media availability here at Daytona for the 39th annual Advance Auto Parts Clash, and we are now joined by Todd Gordon, crew chief of the winning car, the No.22 Shell‑Pennzoil Ford for Penske Racing, and also Michael Nelson, vice president of operations for Penske Racing.
Let's start with you, Todd; walk us through your perspective of watching all of that unfold over those last few laps.
TODD GORDON: Yeah, it was pretty cool. I wondered what was going to happen. We kind of tried to make a charge and fell back, but it's obviously‑‑ you could see that the Toyotas were trying to work together, and good to get us and the 2 and the 4 kind of working together there and pushing back up through. I thought we just‑‑ it's a matter of when runs happen, and I thought we had a good run coming. The 2 made a pretty good move on the 11. He blocked him pretty hard and put us in a position to take advantage. A successful day. Good for the pit crews to get cycles on pit road. Good for everybody. A good way to kick off Speedweeks.
THE MODERATOR: Michael, the Fords yesterday in practice showed a lot of speed in Daytona 500 practice. You had seven of the top 10 speeds on the chart. Were you surprised to see the Toyotas dominant today but then coming up to the front?
MICHAEL NELSON: Well, we've had a good Speedweeks and good superspeedway group last year, as well, so really thankful for Roush Yates engines, the work those guys have put in in the off‑season to try to keep us hopefully where we left off with some superspeedway wins, and the guys at Team Penske really worked hard.
Yeah, I think you've seen a lot of Fords up front in practice yesterday, and hopefully that translates to this afternoon to qualifying.

Q. Todd, I guess you take all the credit for the win.
TODD GORDON: I watched it.

Q. That's what I wanted to ask you. Compared to a points race, how much game planning can you do for something like this?
TODD GORDON: Well, I think game planning for this place, the biggest part I think is preparation, the off‑season work of figuring out what our package needs to be handling‑wise. This place is getting rougher and it's getting older, the asphalt is. So handling comes back into play. We learned that at the 500 last year. When we started the 500 after the two night races being the Clash, or the Unlimited or whatever it was, and the 150s were both night races, I think the heat of the day and how much we needed to handle was lost on a few of us. We learned a lot in the 500 last year, and worked pretty hard in the off‑season to work on our mechanical balance.
So credit to the team guys of putting in the effort to get our package better. You know, it takes every facet to do this, but strategy‑wise for today, I think the first run when the caution came out, you saw seven‑time champion spin out twice today. That tells you the place needs to have some handling to it. But we saw that happen, so took tires there at whatever it was, 52 I think it was. I wanted to be on fresh tires at the end to be able to make aggressive moves, and you let Joey have those situations, he's going to capitalize.

Q. I want to know about the way the Toyotas run, they did it last year, they're back this year. I call it the flying wedge, and it seems like you guys may have a plan now to break that up.
TODD GORDON: I think everybody has seen it happen, and once you see it happen, you come up with a reaction, and it kind of organizes the field. I think you saw it happen here in the 500, and I think the biggest thing they had at that point was they handled. They were disciplined and handled. I think as everybody has made their cars better, there's more cars that will get organized and try to work against that strategy, but we've got to work with our teammates. You know, one Ford, and we've got some good cars that are in the group that throughout the different teams within Ford that can work together, and we'll work with anybody. It's about racing and how it works, finding cars that you can work with. I think we learned some of that tonight. We'll work through that in 150s and try to make that from becoming a one‑line situation.
I think we can do that.

Q. Todd, Penske has won the last three kind of plate events, or four, so why shouldn't we consider you all the favorite for next week?
TODD GORDON: That's for you to decide. I'm going to work on my race car and try to make it as fast as I can. We can't ever‑‑ we've worked pretty hard at it, and I think programs continue to get better. I think Roush Yates does a phenomenal job for the motor side, and the aero group continues to work on what we've got, and we've got really good race car drivers, and it takes the whole package. We'll continue to work forward, and I hope we can have the success that we've had going forward.

Q. Todd, you mentioned earlier the crashes last year and the conditions. I guess if anything it's going to be a little more like that this year, and today was some evidence that we may have more of that. Are guys going to have to try to show a little bit of restraint next week, or can you anticipate that happening at all?
TODD GORDON: I think it drives the teams to start to think about the balance between handling and speed as a whole. I was really excited when it rained out last night to be honest with you because it gave us an opportunity today to race in the sun and on a hotter racetrack and get more of a feel for what next week is.
You know, it's a data point. We'll work forward from there.
Yeah, maybe you'll show a little bit of restraint, but we've got segments to win, so I don't know how much restraint you're really going to see. I think it'll be exciting.

Q. Todd, to follow up, have you strategized with SHR possibly trying to put together a six‑car pack the way that the Toyotas did last year between JGR and Furniture Row?
TODD GORDON: I wouldn't say that we're as tightly knit as that group is. I think there's more support between the two of them. We're two independent teams. But I think we‑‑ obviously they've got good cars. They've got good people. And I can speak particularly for the 22, it seems like us and the 4 end up together a lot of these speedway races for a fair amount of it. I think Joey and Kevin drive very similarly. We've been around the 41 a fair amount.
We'll work with the guys that we can, and those of us that have a common thread I think understand it's a good tune for everybody.
We'll work together as we can, but I wouldn't say it's the structured situation that the Furniture Row and JGR guys have.

Q. Looking at the Duel races, sometimes you really want to put an importance on starting up front. Sometimes if you have an issue early you're going to fall back and the heck with it. Looking at the Duels, what is your strategy? Are you going to try to put an importance to finishing up there because there's points on the line or are you going to try to be a little bit more conservative?
TODD GORDON: Last I checked, Joey has got one speed. We like to race forward. I think the best thing we can do is race forward and race for wins and race to the front. Obviously if you get in a bad situation where you're three wide, five rows back and you see stuff happening, Joey is smart enough to back out and do what he's got to do, but I would say that our strategy to race is to race. There's 10 points out there, and regular‑season points are going to make a difference at the end of the 26 races. I think everybody is going to race as hard as they can in the right situations, and look for us to continue to do that.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations on the victory. Good luck today in Daytona 500 qualifying.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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