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NASCAR GANDER OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES: NEXTERA ENERGY 250

February 15, 2019

Grant Enfinger

Daytona Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We are now going to begin our post‑race media availability of the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series for the 20th Annual Nextera Energy Resources 250. We're joined by tonight's runner‑up finisher Grant Enfinger, driver of the No.98 Champion Power Equipment Ford for ThorSport Racing. Questions for grant, raise your hand.

Q. I caught the tail end of your radio interview where you said that, when you were on Austin, you felt, if you stayed on him too much longer, you would have crashed him. Did you feel like you would have crashed him, both of you, or what?
GRANT ENFINGER: No, I was on Crafton.

Q. Crafton, sorry.
GRANT ENFINGER: I gave Crafton a good shove right after the green flag through turns 1 and 2, and Austin had too big of a lead at that point. I thought, perfect, we're going to end up 1, 2 right here. Honestly, he just threw some major blocks that had to get Crafton checked up. If I would have got him again, it would have wrecked us.
Feel like that was probably our best opportunity to make something happen. Also had another good run coming to the white. Had a really good shove. My gut feeling was, once I tried to sneak out there, I thought he was just going to fill the gap. So then I tried to give him a good shove and just didn't have anybody lined up behind me there coming out of 4.
I mean, honestly, it's a crazy night, and I mean Daytona gets like that sometimes. It seems like the Xfinity race last year was like this. Man, it just‑‑ I don't guess it was a full moon, but, man, it sure acted like it. Carnage everywhere.
First, to do what we did, go two laps down, get everything fixed. I'm proud of our guys, proud of the truck we brought here, had good speed. We really did everything right all night, I think. Salvage a good finish, and now the real season starts next week Atlanta.

Q. I wanted to ask, it may be obvious in the garage, but to the casual race fan, why the trucks were able to stay two wide so much better than the other race we've seen this weekend. What's different about them and the characteristics, besides it being a points race?
GRANT ENFINGER: We punched such a big hole in the air, that everybody is grouped up. I shouldn't say Hamlin is not an issue because dictated by where trucks are beside you, you can't get loose or tighter or whatever. But there are a lot of downforce in them, and there's more horsepower. When we were just trying to stay out of trouble, I was half, three‑quarter throttle staying 20, 30 car lengths behind the draft with no issues. Whether it's a good truck or a bad truck, you can stay in that lead pack barring something bad going on with your truck.
It provides good racing, but it provides tight racing. And then it's up to us to make it good racing. So we just‑‑ everybody's aggressive. It's the biggest race of the year. Everybody's going for it, and we tore up a lot of crap tonight.

Q. Brett Moffitt was kind of talking about the locking bumper issue. He andSheldon Creed were criticized. He said he saw you and, I believe, Sauter locking bumpers.
GRANT ENFINGER: They were locking bumpers the whole beginning of the race. I don't know how it took that long to get it. That may be their opinion, but yeah.

Q. How do you perceive that rule going forward?
GRANT ENFINGER: At the end of the day, it's a judgment call, unfortunately. If you lock bumpers, that's not legal. If you can just bump it along, that is perfectly legal. The sad part is, as far as the driver's standpoint, it's easier to stay locked and push them around the whole track. When you're doing that bumping is when we wreck. That's just the way the rules are, and we play to that. I don't feel like they were at the beginning.
That just is what it is. You're seeing how hard they're going to enforce it. It's just like any kind of judgment call, I guess.

Q. Just to add on to that, do you feel like the‑‑ if NASCAR were not to enforce the locking bumpers rule, would that take away some of the crashing we saw today or what we saw a little bit at Talladega too?
GRANT ENFINGER: We'd be tandem all the way around here in every series, I would say. That's just not an answer either. It just is what it is. You've got to play that. That just is what it is. I think it's probably enforced the right amount where we are.
THE MODERATOR: Grant, congratulations on the second place finish tonight. Good luck next week in Atlanta.
GRANT ENFINGER: Thank you guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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