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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: TOYOTA OWNERS 400

April 30, 2017

Richmond, Virginia

THE MODERATOR: We've got two thirds of our winning team of the Toyota Owners 400 today at Richmond International Raceway. We've got winning crew chief Todd Gordon, and the Vice Chairman of Penske Racing and Executive Vice President of Penske Corporation, Walter Czarnecki. Let's start with you, Todd. Obviously the 22 had to start from the rear, came all the way back and was there at the end and took home another victory.
TODD GORDON: Yeah, it's a pretty awesome day. Obviously we had to start at the back, we had a transmission change that we had to make, found some debris in it, and it was pretty substantial, so it was a pretty easy call for myself. But great effort by everybody. Pit crew gained us spots on pit road early in the race and kept fighting us forward, and Joey did a great job of being disciplined on not abusing his car and just doing what he needed to to maximize what we had on the first two stages. I think we got to 10th in the first stage. I think we were 10th in the second stage. But just‑‑ it's a hot, slick racetrack, and nobody's car was good. Our car just got in the right spot at the right time. Pretty proud of everybody's effort.
THE MODERATOR: Walter, one‑two finish by Team Penske today. Talk about your team and Joey winning a milestone start.
WALTER CZARNECKI: Well, not only was it a one‑two finish today, but you may know that we finished one‑two last night at Phoenix, so this is a very, very special weekend for us. I was reminded just as I was walking over here of a race, I think it might have been in the mid 90s when we raced here on a Saturday night and Rusty Wallace won the race, and we went to Mid‑Ohio the next day and won the IndyCar race, so this is truly a special weekend.
But I thought Brad and the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford was just magnificent all day. As Todd said, the 22, and he made a fabulous call there with 60 to go to put Joey in a position to prevail there at the end, but that 2 car was really strong all day long. Great on long runs as everyone was able to see, and I think that's a testimony to the preparation of our team.
To finish one‑two, it's pretty gratifying.

Q. What was the call with 60 to go that was so crucial?
TODD GORDON: Well, we jumped the pit cycle. I looked at it, and if you looked at it when we went green, we had a‑‑ you looked at it, and when we had the last caution, I think we had 144 to go I think when we took it. We jumped ahead of the cycle. I think everybody felt the cycle would be at 320. It was actually I guess at 315. We came to pit road and started the short pit cycle. That bought us a little track position, and then obviously we‑‑ I was looking at it saying that we typically have cautions at the end, so our split there didn't need to be 72 to split 144, it would have needed to be splitting up about 110, because I thought we'd see a caution with 35 to go. Somewhere 25 to 35 to go seems to be where we see cautions here, and we had multiples.
WALTER CZARNECKI: That was my mathematical error, I'm sorry. 85 to go.

Q. Todd, Joey has talked before the season about just wanting to get a clean race to see what the potential was with this team. You had to start from the back for the transmission change, but how did you feel the race was run as a unit today?
TODD GORDON: I thought all facets performed decently today. I thought we‑‑ I think Walt alluded to it, I thought the 2 car had a little more speed than we did, but as the race went on, I thought we closed up to him. He was leading when we short pitted, and honestly, it was a little bit of a tougher call with 315 to come because I thought we were matching lap times with the 2 car and driving forward, passing cars. But I really felt that our best play was to get tires on and start passing more cars.
Forced a cycle there, but we got better as the day went on. That's encouraging. You know, we started out with a car, and Richmond has been a place if you look back to last spring, we started from the front row, and we almost went two laps down by that first green‑flag cycle, ended at 145 I think it was. We've had our struggles here and battled back from it. I think that's one thing that this team does a phenomenal job is continuing to focus forward and battling through situations. A racetrack that we don't always feel like we've got the greatest grasp on how to race well here, but we've won a couple times. Good execution, I think Joey gave good feedback, engineers did a great job of trying to put together a race, and I thought we made our car faster during the race, and I thought we put ourselves in a position where we could take advantage of the short‑run speed.

Q. Where was your mindset at heading into this race after knowing that you had to make the transmission change and knowing that you had to start from the rear?
TODD GORDON: I think it's just we looked at it‑‑ mindset. I was hoping for another caution to take advantage of getting off strategy with the rest of them, and it came at lap 7. That was perfect. Actually Winston Kelly asked me before the race, he said, so what are you looking for today. I said a caution at lap 8, because the field won't come and we will. It came, I think, at 6 or 7, maybe a lap or two early. But that got us an opportunity to put tires on and get ourselves where we were in a better position and something we could drive some track position forward.
You know, you look at it and you say it's a setback, but we've had setbacks, and the great part is that Joey doesn't ever get his head down. We as a team always look forward, and it's like, it's a situation where I texted him before he went on the broadcast yesterday and said we're going to have to go to the back for a transmission change, there's debris in it, and it's something we've never‑‑ I can't think of the last time we ever saw one of those as a team. We build great stuff at the shop. We'll figure it out when we get back.
But it wasn't, oh, boy, our day is done. It's like, okay, what do we got to do, what's our strategy going to be, so it's focus forward. When you focus forward you can focus on what you're going to make the best out of.
WALTER CZARNECKI: One other perspective in terms of Todd's mindset, when I got here this morning, I sat down with him and Joey, and he kept telling Joey, 80 percent, 80 percent, so don't go out there and force the issue. You're at the back, you've got a good car, don't force the issue.
TODD GORDON: I started at 9:00 a.m. with a text to him because he doesn't run 80 percent too often.
WALTER CZARNECKI: And Joey said to me, you pay me to run 100 percent. I said, well, today will be a little bit different, so...
THE MODERATOR: Todd, Walter, congratulations.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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