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NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: FORD ECOBOOST 300November 18, 2017William ByronKelley Earnhardt MillerDale Earnhardt, Jr.David ElenzHomestead, Florida THE MODERATOR: We are joined by a couple of members of our championship‑winning team here in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. We have car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. from JR Motorsports, and we also have crew chief Dave Elenz, and we have Kelley Earnhardt Miller, another one of our car owners at JR Motorsports. Take us through what it means to win this championship, and David, especially for you, this is your first championship. DAVID ELENZ: Yeah, it's very special to win the championship with JR Motorsports. We put a ton of effort into this season the last three years I've been there. We've worked extremely hard, which they had a great foundation when we got there. It was really fun for me to be able to race my friends. Jason and Kevin are two of my good friends, and to be running for a championship with someone you like that much, it's a lot of fun. Their success throughout the year definitely helped us out, and it's just a big thank you to everybody at JR Motorsports, and it just feels amazing to win. THE MODERATOR: Kelley and Dale, this is also your second championship and you did both of them with rookie drivers. KELLEY EARNHARDT MILLER: I was going to go there. I like 2014 when we knew at Phoenix that we were going to be the champions. This was pretty nerve‑racking today, but really proud of our organization to have three cars contending. It was super hard to watch all three and pull for all three, so just hats off to Dave and his group and all of JR Motorsports. They do work hard, and this is what you want. I said to someone earlier, this is real hard, and it's real hard to do, and it's very challenging through the year, so I'm going to remember this when I'm ready to throw in the towel sometimes, because this is really sweet. DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, this is‑‑ it's so great to see so many people affected by something like this. This really goes a lot deeper than what you see tonight. We have so many people home in Mooresville that that company is just like a family, and we all ride this roller coaster together, the ups and downs. You know, I go in there and see everybody just grinding away and working so hard, and it's a small enough company that everybody kind of knows each other so well. So it affects a lot of people. It really is a great thing for Dave. I watched him work his way into this opportunity, and I'm thrilled for William with the chance to win this championship knowing he's going to be moving on and out of the series. But I know there's so many people back home that are over the moon. Our company, we work so hard to just make this work. I know a lot of people that are thrilled about this, so it's good to see, and I love being a part of it. Kelley is sort of the leader of the group. She's the boss. Me and Rick just sit back and smile when good things happen. But we have a lot of people that are responsible for our cars being so competitive. It starts with all our crew chiefs. We get great drivers, a great opportunity to work with a lot of different drivers, but when you get the cars right, those drivers can get everything out of them, and so we've really outdone ourselves over the last couple years getting an opportunity to work with Dave and Jason and all those guys that's come in there to help us sort of get our cars going. THE MODERATOR: We are actually being joined by our championship driver, William Byron, who in addition to winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship in his rookie year is also the Sunoco Rookie of the Year. William, why don't you tell us what it's like to be the champion. WILLIAM BYRON: It's awesome. This is an incredible feeling, and just thankful for all the people that have made it happen. You know, Dale, Kelley, really LW, the first meeting we had was when I was 15 years old, and talking about running late models actually this weekend. You know, it's come a long way, and just very thankful for everyone that's made it happen. Q. Dale, we've seen Kevin Harvick and now Brad Keselowski pull away from the ownership realm; what made you stick with it all these years, and how do you see it changing moving forward? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, honestly, like I said, Kelley runs the company every day and has her fingers on everything going on. When I sit down with her and she goes over the ups and downs of our company‑‑ I mean, it's really just about staying on our budget, everybody in the company sort of understanding the objective for us, that's dollars and cents, and our guys have to make everything they can out of what we have to work with. You know, Kelley is very good at keeping that culture alive. LW and Pemberton and those people understand the challenges that we face financially every year. I mean, any owner in the series is going to face those challenges. We just have‑‑ we've had opportunities to pair with some really, really incredible partners. We have opportunities to work with really awesome race car drivers like William, and those are the things that get you excited to keep going and go back to the racetrack the next year. You know, there's a lot of turnover, which is probably not the exact word for it, but there's a lot of change in the XFINITY Series year to year, but man, when you get the chance to work with Chase Elliotts and Brad Keselowskis and you get to work with some of your peers when they come drive the cars, Harvick and everybody else, I mean, it's just really‑‑ those things get you excited, get the company excited, and that keeps you going back to the track. We have an alliance with HMS that gives us an opportunity to have a performance game from that alliance, and we try to be an asset to them. We've kind of turned ourselves into a little farm team, not only for drivers like William but for crew chiefs, for over the wall guys. We try to make that system very beneficial toward HMS to where they want that alliance, and it works for them and works for us. So it's been great to shape it into that over the last probably four or five years. Q. Dale, how is this for a retirement gift, and William, how nice is it to give Dale a gift on his retirement weekend? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I'm happy for William. What this kid has‑‑ he's the total package. Obviously we see he's got talent, but I think what is going to be exciting for me, Kelley, LW, Dave, everybody that already knows him so well, is to watch everybody else get to know what kind of person he is. As he goes on to the Cup Series and he gets introduced to the fans and the industry more, it's going to be fun to hear everybody else see what we already see. You know, I appreciate William's efforts. Came in as a rookie. We never had to worry about any rookie mistakes. He's drove like a veteran all year, and thrilled for him to be able to take this trophy and put it into his resumé as he moves on up into the Cup Series next year. WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I would say it's been an awesome few years to come back to this company and really grow with it, and to see the commitment they had to me to get me back to this point in the XFINITY Series and run for a championship and put the people around me that it would take to do that is really awesome. We learned a lot this year. Dave and I got so much better together, and we really were at our best the last few races. Just thankful for everything that Dale, Kelley, LW, Mr.Hendrick have given me. It's a total team effort, and it's really cool. Q. Kelley, you kind of alluded to this, so whoever would like to talk about it, but it was certainly dramatic in the last few laps there. Would you like to talk about the final lap and what went down in the last 10 laps? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, I'd actually like to know from William something I'm curious about. When Elliott got position on you, you had been in front of Elliott for most of the night. You had a little more speed on the early part of the run and could get that position on him and it was hard for him to get back by you but eventually he did. You came over the radio screaming about how loose your car was. How did you gain composure or just chill out to where you just waited patiently and next thing you know you had the speed to get back up there and challenge him? I was just really amazed by how that happened, and that's just something I thought as soon as you came over the radio and said your car was extremely loose, really, really loose. I didn't think that you would make that comeback. I was just really impressed by that and would like you to explain to me how you pulled together like that. It was so impressive. WILLIAM BYRON: I don't know. It was just kind of like‑‑ really when Elliott would get in front of me, I'd get tighter, so it would help me a little bit to have him in front of him. When I started to get to running against the wall, the closer I got, the more grip I had on exit, and kind of used it like a cushion. You know, it was working that way for me before, but I was a little bit tight and it was easier to do it. I had to be kind of right against it and kind of feel it out and just kind of control my throttle input so I didn't hit the right front with it. But I don't know, it just kind of worked out. I don't really know, but it was‑‑ I was just thinking the same thing when it got really loose on me, I was thinking, I don't know how I'm going to figure this one out. It just worked out. Q. Kelley, were you ever afraid they were going to get together and you were just going to watch‑‑ at that point you knew somebody was going to win from JRM because Hemric was out of it, but were you just wondering what the hell is going to happen? KELLEY EARNHARDT MILLER: Yeah, I was thinking actually as they were talking, I look at things from a business point of view most of the time. These guys are the competitors and looking at the competition side of things. For me, you know, I was going through my mind, please don't wreck each other. I sat on the 7 box for most of the race with Rick Brandt. I know how bad he wanted a championship. I walked down to the 9, one main is there; I know how bad they would like a championship, sticking with us again this year and next year. And then to think about William, who is moving on, and this is the only opportunity that he would have to win an XFINITY championship. It was very difficult to just‑‑ my emotions were everywhere, and I just didn't want them to wreck each other. Knowing that you were going to have one as the champion, I don't want to have to stand in front of them on December 6th when we have our Christmas luncheon and we're celebrating, knowing that I'm looking at a group that got wrecked by one another or anything like that. I'm glad that it all worked out the way it did and like Dave said, we're all racing as friends and the family atmosphere that we have, and I didn't want anything like that to happen. Q. Dale, Kyle Busch came in here last night and he's had some really gifted talent come through his doors, whether it's William, Erik Jones, last night we saw with C‑Bell. He said that William has the best race craft of any of the drivers that have come through there. What makes him so special and distinguishes him among his peers? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I mean, some guys just have it. Some people just have it in them. He shouldn't be able to do what he did tonight at his age with the limited experience he has, but he has it. He just has whatever it is about his mental toughness and his ability to remain calm in a very high‑pressure situation is going to serve him well in this job for sure. I think that you have to give Kyle some credit for grooming drivers like William. William has to understand what a great car feels like to know how to find it again, and he has to understand what he's looking for and when he wants a fast car, and sensations and so forth, and being able to get in Kyle's trucks, he certainly learned a lot. We were really, really glad he came back. Yeah, some people just have that, you know, and it's something mentally. You know, he's just getting started. It's going to be impressive to watch him as he really starts to get more and more confidence in himself and people around him. Q. Kelley, I can't imagine a more emotional weekend. You come down as a team owner who has a chance to win a championship three different ways and your brother is getting ready to probably start what will be his last Cup Series race. Dale has talked a lot about looking forward what he's looked forward to this weekend. I just wondered what your thoughts were; what have you been looking forward to this week, not looking forward to it, or what you thought about tomorrow? KELLEY EARNHARDT MILLER: Yeah, I haven't really‑‑ as far as looking forward to it, I haven't really thought about getting here. I said earlier, you never think about what the end looks like, and as you're‑‑ it's been so fun to relive memories and watch all these videos and watch all these tributes, and today is about winning this championship and then watching Dale tomorrow, I don't want to cry. Dale says I'm a crier. I am the crier of the family. But I know tomorrow is going to be emotional. You just think of everything that‑‑ all the memories we've made and all the different things that you've done and look back on all that, and while you're doing that, you don't ever think about when it's going to end. I'm super excited for him, though, because he got to make this choice, and he's got so much fun on the horizon with kids. I can't wait until he has a kid, for lots of reasons, because being a parent is awesome, and he likes to tell me how to raise mine sometimes, so I can't wait until he gets to make those decisions for himself. He doesn't tell me how to do it, but sometimes he questions how I do it, right, so I can't wait for him to have that experience, he and Amy, and just get to‑‑ who gets to finish one career and start something else? With the broadcasting and freeing up some other time to do things that maybe we've said no to along the way and TV or anything else that he wants to do, you know, I'm just excited for him to have that opportunity to sort of live a whole 'nother life and be normal and I'm excited we get to plan things on the weekend and camping trips and family time and fun time and things like that. It'll be fun for all of us to have him back on some of those weekends. Q. What do you think this does for your confidence going into the Cup Series next year? WILLIAM BYRON: You know, I think it just kind of confirms what Dave and I have been working on all year, and that's finding the feel we want, finding the speed we want, and really for us, I mean, we've grinded out the last couple weeks, whether it's in the simulator or just some conversations and just figuring out what it is that we really needed. I think that's what it did most for me is like what Dale said. I had a chance to go to Kyle's and figure out what it's like to drive some‑‑ the competition in that series, the trucks they have, it's incredible. To come here and there's a lot more competition and you have to know what you want to feel in the race car and the races are longer, it helped me understand how to get from point A to point B and in the race how I want to be. Dave has helped with that, everyone has, and I think that's going to be the biggest thing for me. Q. Dale, has this been kind of a good distraction for you on this weekend, and if Hemric had won it, would you have been‑‑ would it have impacted your mood at all tomorrow? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Oh, I don't know. I mean, I would be disappointed for the company for sure, but it's hard not to‑‑ after watching this battle come down to here, we got to know Daniel through the media and so forth and through his peers that have raced against him coming up through the ranks. What an incredible young man with so much potential and talent. He would have been an incredible champion, a worthy champion had he won, and so it would have‑‑ it would have been a good‑‑ we'd have got a great champion tonight no matter who was going to win it. Yeah, I mean, to have three guys out of the four in it and not win would have been very disappointing for the company. You know, you just think‑‑ hell with me, you think about all the employees back home and how that's going to affect them, their mood. You've got an off‑season to get people fired up and get them back on the horse and going again, try to get back here next year. Winning that championship really helps, so we're excited about taking a little break and then getting back to the grind. Q. Is it good that you have like three hours today where you're not thinking about tomorrow necessarily? DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I mean, I don't know if I enjoyed the last 20 laps. I was so sick on my stomach. I don't know what I was feeling because you're watching‑‑ you know one guy is not going to win it and one guy is, and it's hard to feel that happiness and that sadness at the same time. So yeah, as they were changing positions, it was just gut wrenching. It was really gut wrenching. The racing was freaking great, but as they kept changing positions, it was just really turning my stomach. Glad it worked out for us. Q. Dale, it appears you're already beginning that transition into your new career. Do you have any other interview questions for William? WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, hopefully he talks good about me next year on TV. DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I think you're going to give me a lot of reasons. Q. Dave, this is the first year you've been a full‑time crew chief in the XFINITY Series. You've kind of been the guy to oversee the All‑Star car. How does it feel to win a championship in your first year overseeing a full‑time operation? DAVID ELENZ: Yeah, it's definitely‑‑ last year coming down here and watching the 7 and the 1 run and not having the opportunity to race them, it kind of makes you feel sad a little bit. You know, when we got the opportunity to work full‑time with William this year, our group was really excited because all the guys that are on our team have always been with the All‑Star group. They've been together for a little while now. And the goal from everybody was to get to this point with William. It just feels really good to finally be able to be a part of it and then to be able to accomplish that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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