NASCAR CUP SERIES: BUSCH CLASH AT DAYTONA

February 9, 2021

Ben Beshore

Press Conference

Daytona International Speedway

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Ben Beshore. We'll go right into questions.

Q. In years past for the Clash, this car has either been used as a backup car for Daytona or some other superspeedway car. Do you plan on using this car as either a backup or the primary car for the road course next weekend?

BEN BESHORE: No, we have another one ready to go. This one actually took quite a bit of damage. It would be extensive work to get this thing back turned around in a week and a half, to get it back down here.

We have another fresh car sitting there ready to go. Obviously we'll take a lot of our notes from tonight and apply them to that car and try to put together something even better.

Q. In your first race with Kyle he got the win. How important is it to start the relationship this way?

BEN BESHORE: I don't think it hurts at all. To be able to start the year with some momentum, some positive momentum, get a win right off the bat here, it's awesome. Especially with a lot of new team members on the car, just getting everybody tied together, pulling the same direction. I think it's huge.

Q. What was in-race chemistry like with Kyle? It's been a while since you have worked together, '17. How has that relationship changed in your years over at JGR?

BEN BESHORE: I think it was good. I crew-chiefed him in the Xfinity Series in 2019. It hasn't been that long since we've worked together. I spend four years as his race engineer, Xfinity crew chief, for seven races. We've had a lot of success together. We kind of know the language we're both speaking.

I don't think it was that big of a deal. I think obviously getting some success early will build some confidence in each other and we'll be able to move forward from here and keep getting better and better.

Q. Looking at the way last year's race ended for the 18, where do you think you improved the most?

BEN BESHORE: As far as road course tonight, I think tonight it was just being at the right place at the right time. Sort of a destruction derby. The tire that Goodyear brought was pretty good. Had some falloff, there were people passing, people going backwards. I thought it was a pretty exciting night overall.

Q. (No microphone.)

BEN BESHORE: I think it depends on the situation. If you have a good long-run car, which maybe Chase had that, then you can afford to stay out in a situation like that.

We were in a spot where we had already stayed out previous to that run. We had one more set of tires left. I felt like the guys behind us on newer tires were just going to eat us up.

It sort of forced our hand to come pit. It was more track position than I wanted to give up with six to go. Luckily we were in the right lane. Seemed like the lanes are dependent, didn't matter bottom or top, sometimes a lane would go, sometime as guy would lock a tire up. It's just where the opportunities were, sort of hit-or-miss.

We just happened to be in the right spot at the right time on that last restart with fresh tires, really carved through the field pretty quick.

Q. (No microphone.)

BEN BESHORE: Not too different. We're still going at it the same way we would, I don't know, any other year. Here is the races in front of us. Here where we struggled last time we were there. What can we do to improve? What can we do to make the teammates better? That's what we're going to try to do every week, pound and pound and pound until we keep knocking some wins out. That's what it's all about.

Q. Taking over a team with Kyle Busch, two-time champion, I know the expectations are high, but what about for you internally? What does a successful season look like for you?

BEN BESHORE: For me it's us getting to Phoenix in the Final 4. That's what it comes down to. Obviously you're not going to get there without winning races. We're going to have to win enough races, we're going to have to run up front, build stage points, have a very successful year to carry us through the Playoffs, then really start ramping it up once Playoff time starts and be a factor there for the championship.

Q. Is there any specific imprint that you've come in and made? Kyle has had a number of different crew chiefs. Arguably one of the worst seasons of his career. What can you do initially to put a positive spin on things outside of winning the first race?

BEN BESHORE: Yeah, I mean, I worked for Adam for four years. We had a lot of great success on that team. I'm not going to say anything bad about him, by any means. Just from my standpoint, I'm just going to do it my way, I guess, try to get the most out of my guys, try to push my engineers to keep striving to make faster setups, keep on my guys about just detail, detail, detail on our cars, just put good stuff under Kyle every week. I think good things will happen.

Q. (No microphone.)

BEN BESHORE: We have a different car. This thing, it's pretty beat up. The rear front fender is destroyed. The left front is pretty bad. The left rear is pretty bad. It would take a lot of work to flip this thing around, get it back here. We got one that's a sister car to it that's already back at the shop, nice and shiny. We'll bring that one back then.

Q. (No microphone.)

BEN BESHORE: Just getting more time with him, with the team. Obviously that's tough in a pandemic. We can't go out and go to a bar and drink a couple beers together, get to know each other. Just have to do it in short doses at the shop with masks on, staying six feet apart, all that stuff.

Just building the team chemistry, getting him some confidence in the guys. I know he said he feels like he'd get fired, but we have a lot of -- we have the pit crew the same, car chief is the same. A lot of figures outside of that are different, myself included.

It was definitely a fairly big shake-up on the team, for sure. We just got to get more time working together, weekends like this where we have practice, where we have more guys at the track, having face-to-face time with Kyle, that's huge for building team chemistry, getting started on the right foot here.

Q. (No microphone.)

BEN BESHORE: Like I said previous, just put fast cars underneath Kyle Busch and things will happen. That's our number one goal every week, is just put really good equipment underneath him, do our homework, study our notes, pick the right stuff, and try to make the right decisions to put good stuff underneath him and have fast cars. I think that will solve a lot of the problems.

Q. (No microphone.)

BEN BESHORE: I mean, it's crew chief, yeah, there's pressure for sure. That's the fun of it, is going out there and performing and trying to steal some wins.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Ben.