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NASCAR GANDER OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES: NEXTERA ENERGY 250February 15, 2019Angela RuchDaytona Beach, Florida THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by tonight's eighth‑place finisher, Angela Ruch, who became the second female in NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series history to finish in the top 10, first since 2011. Wow, what a wild race tonight. Can you walk us through? ANGELA RUCH: Yeah, I will say it was a crazy race. You know, yesterday in practice we got some good runs in the draft. I was kind of learning a lot with Joe Nemechek obviously as my big help for the weekend, and obviously I struggled a little bit in qualifying, missed a shift, but all in all, wow, a top 10? It's a dream of mine to be here. Obviously my uncle won the Daytona 500, so for me to carry in his footsteps and to walk away with a top 10, I'm ecstatic. I'm so proud of myself. Q. Now that you have taken the time to realize, one of the things I noticed when I was listening over the radio, they informed you to stay on the bottom all throughout no matter what anyone else was doing, and you pretty much said as long as they help you you'll get through it and have this performance that you had tonight. REPLACENAME: Yeah, I owe a lot of it to my team, obviously. Joe Nemechek and all of his guys have worked their butts off to give me a great car and, you know, Nemechek kept telling me, Angela, you have a top 10 car, you've just got to be smart during the race, and stay on the bottom. That was the only advice he said. Don't get up in the high line. So that's what I did, and here I am. Q. What was your game plan after you were in the top 5 there and there was kind of that whole fuel‑saving thing and then you dropped to the back? Seemed like you were laying back from the draft there. ANGELA RUCH: You know, we actually dropped a piston there in the end, so we were just trying to hang on as much as we could and hoped that we had a finish that we deserved today. Q. Angela, I was just curious how many races you plan to do this year, and how did the opportunity to work with Nemco come together? ANGELA RUCH: You know, my next race will be Martinsville and then hopefully Vegas. We're looking to do five to ten races with Nemechek, if he will still have me. You said the other question was how did it come about? You know, to be honest with you, it was kind of not really thrown together last minute, but we had searched out quite a few teams that would run us, and Nemechek was pretty much the only guy that really gave me the opportunity, to be honest with you guys. Again, to run for Joe Nemechek and his son, I've learned so much, so I can't complain. Q. And can you talk about the excitement and expectation being a mom here pretty soon? ANGELA RUCH: Oh, my gosh, right, the adoption. My husband and I have been trying to adopt for like the last six months, and it's been a struggle, but we do have a little boy due any day, any second, any minute. My husband and I couldn't be more excited. We're having a little boy, so baby mama and her mom and dad, I know they're watching, and I hope they're proud. Q. I actually talked to Joe Nemechek on Wednesday morning during media day and asked about how y'all's program came together, and one thing that he brought up was that he felt like in your previous NASCAR appearances that there was just certain things that he was surprised you never picked up on, certain‑‑ he talked about the seat, just getting in the seat, little things like that. How valuable is it to have a guy like Joe be able to walk you through and not necessarily show you the ropes but just give you the basics and things you need to do just to be able to make it here at Daytona? ANGELA RUCH: You know, I'll say, I've been living at Joe's, at the shop with him, and his number one thing was being comfortable in that seat. So we literally spent I'd say even more than 12, 15 hours getting the seat right and comfortable and like putting it at certain angles. It's crazy that I've never learned that. I obviously haven't put myself in the best situations in the past. I'm a race car driver. I feel like I deserve to be here. I haven't had the best opportunities given to me until now. So for Joe to take the time out of his busy schedule and for his son to come by and help me like they've done, wow. You know, they gave me a rocketship this weekend. Q. At one point during the race you're in the top 5, caution came out, you're struggling to figure out how to save fuel, and I was just kind of wondering‑‑ ANGELA RUCH: It's horrible, right? Q. Talk a little more about that and being in that different position. Did you actually start to think, I have a shot to win this race about halfway through when you were running in the top 5? ANGELA RUCH: Yeah, I know. It's probably funny to hear over the radio, Angela doesn't know how to save fuel, but again, I just look back to my past history and I've always kind of been doing what I loved to do but not in the right equipment, so I've never really been told how to save fuel, so I kind of‑‑ I'm sure they got a chuckle out of it, I'll hear about it when I get back to the pits, but again, it's all so new to me, to get this finish today is huge. I couldn't be more happier. Q. When they started the race, they were talking about you selling some real estate in order to finance this effort. Could you please talk about that story? ANGELA RUCH: You know, I had sold a couple of my businesses and I have a ton of real estate that I own, and I kind of looked at my husband, I'm like, wow‑‑ I'm not going to lie, my husband is pretty loaded. I have my own finances, my own money, and I was like, let's just sell it and get rid of it and let's go have some fun. That's what life is all about, so for me to just get rid of everything and have this shot and this opportunity, this is what I'm here for. THE MODERATOR: Angela, congratulations on the finish. Good luck on the adoption, and we'll see you in Martinsville. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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