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NASCAR CUP SERIES: GOBOWLING 235August 16, 2020Kaz GralaDaytona Beach, Florida THE MODERATOR: We now joined by Kaz Grala, driver of the No.3 American Ethanol Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing today. Kaz, talk about what the last couple days were like finding out you're driving today and preparation leading up to it. KAZ GRALA: Well, there wasn't as much preparation as I probably would have liked to make my Cup debut. I did just find out yesterday morning that I'd be behind the wheel of the 3 car. I knew the day before that they had said they wanted to bring me as a backup driver, which I thought was odd, but better to be prepared than not. Come to find out it seemed like they had a feeling things were going to go this way. Unfortunately Austin did test positive, but luckily his symptoms have been very mild, and Whitney and Ace have been symptom free, so really good to hear that. I hope to see him back in the car next week, but it certainly was an honor to get the call from Richard to fill in in the 3 car today, and obviously it was a joy to drive. It was a lot of fun. Those Cup cars are a blast. There's so much power, which I really enjoyed. I was really happy to be able to have a day, a good day and make everybody back at the shop, Richard, Austin, proud today. Q. Could you talk a little bit about what your approach was to this race? Number one, nobody had any experience, but you also as you mentioned got just notified like the day before. What was your kind of approach to try to run the race? KAZ GRALA: Well, we knew we had to start at the back due to the driver change, so I really took Stage 1 to get comfortable in the car. I didn't push the issue. I was conservative in the braking zones, wasn't real aggressive on the restarts, just kind of hung around, made sure my Cup debut didn't end prematurely and got comfortable out there, and by Stage 2, I was working up to it, making a little bit of headway forward, and by stage 3 after the lightning delay I kind of got a refresh. I got to look at some SMT data which was really helpful because of course with the late notice I wasn't able to run any laps in the simulator this week in the Cup car, so I didn't really know exactly what to expect. I got to overlay my laps with Chase's and Denny's and find a couple things that I could gain, and when we strapped back into the car we moved forward from there. Justin Alexander called a great race. We took tires right after that lightning delay, which I do think was the way to go, and that helped our track position and ultimately put us where we needed to be to capitalize on a great finish at the end. Q. Could you just describe the last restart a little bit and how you managed to finish where you did? KAZ GRALA: Yeah, I knew I was going to have to be aggressive and kind of make holes where I could because I knew that there were only a few rows separating me and the guys on tires. Tires have been so big here today. I knew I had to hold position as best I could, when I could. I tried to be aggressive. A couple guys I think got together up ahead. I was able to get under a couple guys and move forward just a bit. It was definitely intense. I probably wouldn't like to admit it, but on the last lap or two, my hands were cramping, my arms were cramping, my legs were cramping. These Cup races are no joke. They're really long, and these guys are some pretty incredible athletes. I've certainly been working on my fitness the last couple years, and I feel like I was in a decent spot for my Cup debut, but if I was going to start doing this every weekend, I think I could use to make a little more progress there. But it didn't seem like it affected our performance at the end, and I'm really glad for that. Q. You make your Cup debut in the No.3 car at Daytona; when did the significance of that start to settle in on you, and what were those opening pace laps like for you? What was that like? KAZ GRALA: Well, as far as sinking in, I'll have to get back with you on that maybe sometime midweek, but the last 24 hours a lot of things have moved very quickly. It's certainly been overwhelming. But I did, as you said, took my time on the grid and on the pace laps to really soak it in and understand the gravity of that moment. It's unbelievable to be racing in the Cup Series under any circumstances, but to do it in the No.3 car was just incredible. I personally drove the No.3 car in Bandoleros, Legend cars, late models. I took it even all the way up to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series because it was my dad's number. The number three has held a really special place in my heart for my whole career. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my Cup debut would come in it, but I'm so grateful to Richard and everybody at Richard Childress Racing for believing in me and trusting me behind the wheel of one of their Cup cars because that's their main business right there, so it was an honor to know that they trust me behind the wheel. Q. You got your first NASCAR win at Daytona here a few years ago; how does this experience compare to that? KAZ GRALA: That's a tough one. I mean, that was my first national series win, and is Daytona is Daytona, so that's always going to be really special. But I've got to say, from an actual career perspective, I think this was a bigger day for me. Obviously there was some circumstances that helped me win that Daytona truck race, but today we really were able to drive up there into the top 10 and finish seventh, which I never would have imagined. It's crazy to even be saying. To me I think that proved more of a point than anything has previously in my career, and like I said, I enjoyed the race so much and I hope to someday get a shot again in this series. Q. There was a point in the race with about 15 to go you had the lead. Of course you had to come to pit road, but can you just describe what you were feeling as you were leading the field at Daytona? KAZ GRALA: I heard that. I couldn't tell necessarily that I was leading, but I did hear that everybody else had pitted and we were on a slightly different strategy. That was pretty cool to get to lead some laps in my first Cup race. I wouldn't have thought that would be the case, but it definitely was a lot of fun. Like I said, Justin Alexander called an excellent strategy. I thought we made the right moves. There were a few other guys with us on that strategy. We weren't the only one, but I definitely think it was the way to go. It helped me out, and for me personally, I like to be on attack, and being a rookie in the series, there was no doubt guys were pushing me around on restarts a little. To put ourselves in position for most of the day to try to be on as good or better tires than the guys around us was a really good thing and helped me from getting shoved around too much. Q. You mentioned Justin. This is obviously a tough era for anyone with social distancing and for crew chiefs everywhere. But what was it like working with Justin on your first Cup race with less than 24 hours' notice with this crew chief? SCOTT MILLER: It was excellent. Justin is a professional. He knows all of this stuff. He's been around a while, and he's a really smart guy. I actually got the chance to work with him last year for a handful of Xfinity races with RCR. It was really good that he and I already had communication. The last race he and I had done was a top 5 on a road course in the Xfinity Series, so he kind of understood my lingo and mine his. For me, that was great. With so much discomfort coming into a weekend like this, so much happening around me and so much pressure, to at least be able to work with somebody that I was somewhat familiar with and felt at home with definitely helped make everything easier for me. Q. Was this beyond your expectations, the finish and the run, and if so, how much more above your expectations was it? KAZ GRALA: About 23 positions I think it is. I was hoping for a top 30, so this is certainly far beyond my wildest dreams for this race. I just wanted to complete the laps. Going into the race, I thought if I could just complete all the laps, I felt like I could get a top 30, and that was what I was looking to do. So really my mentality never changed throughout the race. I still wanted to complete the laps. I wanted to minimize mistakes, and I feel like we were able to do that. Our pit stops were excellent. Our time on and off pit road was really good. I felt like we were able to capitalize on new tires, clean air, make up some ground. Felt like we just kind of checked all the boxes that I was hoping to check and that led us to a really good finish. Really proud of everybody on the team that was part of it and helped make that happen. Proud to have American Ethanol on the car, their iconic colors. They're really good for our economy and our environment. To be in their car with the No.3 on the side was just crazy, and to put it in the top 10, I'm really happy about that, and hope that it gave Austin something to cheer for from home. Q. I've heard other younger drivers talk about their welcome‑to‑Cup‑racing moment when they were on the track and were like, holy smokes, there just went Jeff Gordon or I'm racing with Rusty Wallace or whatever the case may be. Did you have that kind of moment today where you went, holy mackerel, I'm racing with so‑and‑so or some of these top guys? KAZ GRALA: It was. For me growing up my favorite driver and idol had always been Jimmie Johnson. I really became a NASCAR fan in the midst of his five championships in a row. I've always looked up to him. I thought coming into this year I'd never get a chance to race against him before he retired. Already going into this race, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world just to know that he'd be on the track at the same time as me, and of course because of Austin's run last weekend in Michigan the car was scored as starting P10, even though we had to drop to the back, so we did the pace laps in 10th and I think Jimmie was 11th or 12th or something. My moment was in the pace laps looking in the mirror and seeing that 48, thinking that was the coolest thing ever. Of course it was bittersweet because I knew we had to drop to the back and I didn't think we'd be back up there at any point in the race. I thought it was a long shot. But come to find out we actually finished three spots even better than we ran on the pace lap, so that was pretty cool. Still didn't beat Jimmie. I wish. That would have been really cool, but I could see him. That's great enough. Q. The pit strategy, can you run me through exactly what led to where you ended up in the pit strategy, and that last stop, did you guys end up just getting fuel, or what led to that strategy there? KAZ GRALA: Yeah, so the first two stages we flipped the stages. We short‑pitted them. It got us a little bit of track position for the start of each of the following stages, but we did have a couple more laps on our tires, so we would kind of slip back. We seemed to level off about 20th, 22nd before I got a chance to look at the SMT data during the lightning break. But then when we did resume after the lightning, we decided to come down pit road right under that initial caution, get four tires, and it was a great move because we restarted, I think, close to if not as good as we were running before pitting, and now we had four stickers. I made a bold move three wide on the outside into 1. I don't really know what I was thinking, but it seemed to work, and I was real aggressive on that restart. I think I got from like 20th to 12th or something like that passing guys that were on older tires. Then of course they all had to come to pit road, we were able to run a little bit longer. We led those laps because we were leading of the cars on our strategy, and then we ended up pitting under green there and coming back out, I think, around 15th or so. But again, on newer tires than the guys around us because they had pitted before us, and we were able to drive back up to 12th I want to say, somewhere around there. Stayed out on that very last restart, restarted ninth, and got aggressive, got a couple more of them in front of us. Q. How much of an advantage was it for you to have run Road America last week, had that top 5 run there? Did you feel any fresher than had you not had that race last week? KAZ GRALA: Yes, probably. To tell you the truth, here's the biggest advantage for running Road America is I don't know if I would have gotten this opportunity without that. Last weekend we got a top 5 in the Xfinity Series, and that was driving for RCR. So I do think that that helped their perception of me on a road course going into this weekend and their faith in me. We also stayed out last weekend on slick tires while it was raining. The strategy came back to us. It leveled out by the end, but I think the team was really pleased that I was able to keep it on the track for them and not make any crazy moves. I think all that combined kind of led to their comfort with putting me in this car. They didn't think that I was going to tear it up or do anything wild with it, so that's how I came into the race was just with that mentality, and it panned out. Q. With your run today, you've only been running a handful of races this season, and I think you've said in the past that you'd like to work towards something more full‑time. How does having a seventh‑place finish today help toward that goal? KAZ GRALA: I don't know how it's going to help. I really hope that it does, though. I'd love to find myself in a ride full‑time. I do think that being able to race every weekend does make you better. You learn so much more. You're so much fresher when you get into the car, and so I'm glad I raced last weekend. I felt like I wasn't at any disadvantage to anyone coming in to this weekend other than, of course, it being my first time in a Cup car, but at least I had raced last weekend. It would be a huge advantage for me to be able to run full‑time. I would love to be able to run and chase an Xfinity Series championship with them, and certainly the ultimate goal some day in the future is to make it to racing on Sundays every weekend. Hopefully you'll see me back here on a Sunday someday in the future. Q. How important was the heat playing an important factor, and during the lightning delay were you able to cool down and possibly rehydrate? KAZ GRALA: I was. I hate to admit how much the lightning delay probably did help me kind of reset, refresh. These Cup cars are hot, they're physical. Road courses are physical in general, and these races are long. It's the real deal out there for sure, and you're racing guys that are really, really good. From a mental and physical standpoint, you are really extending yourself as much as possible. But on top of that, it wasn't my interior of the car. Austin is a couple inches shorter than I am so the pedals were too close to me. I couldn't breathe all the way in in the seat because the ribs are a little bit tight. Just a couple details here and there that made the car‑‑ it was drivable, it was okay, but certainly all the little details weren't where I would have them if it were a car fitted for me. That probably added to my fatigue, but certainly in that last stretch of the race after the lightning, I was running on pure adrenaline, so other than the cramping, like I talked about, I wasn't really feeling any effects until cautions or after the race that it hit me how much I had drained myself in this race. Q. Do you plan on being on backup again next week in case Austin can't race at the Dover double‑header? KAZ GRALA: I don't know about that. I know that AJ Allmendinger is typically the backup driver for the Richard Childress Racing Cup program, but of course this weekend due to the rules he wouldn't have been able to run today since he ran yesterday in the Xfinity Series. I don't really know, I haven't heard, but I certainly will pick up any call Richard has and do whatever he'd like. It was an amazing experience getting to run this weekend, but we certainly all hope that Austin is back in the car and competing again next weekend. Luckily he's got that win so he's locked into the playoffs. That's a really, really good thing for the 3 team, and hopefully he'll be out there at the double headers next weekend at Dover. THE MODERATOR: Kaz, thank you for your time, and congrats on the finish today. Really appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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