NASCAR CUP SERIES: GEICO 500

April 25, 2021

Travis Geisler

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Team Penske's competition director, Travis Geisler. We'll take questions.

Q. On Joey's incident, for somebody who is much smarter than me at these types of things, with the car going backwards, the air being picked up by the rear spoiler, is that kind of what lifted the car? Is there anything that can be remedied with two more superspeedway races left this year?

TRAVIS GEISLER: Yeah, it's definitely always a concern. I think when cars kind of take flight because of impacts, I think we all just assume that's the way it's going to be. If you run over somebody, somebody hits you, gets things moving, that's one thing. When a car kind of takes off on its own, that's a different level of concern from an industry standpoint.

We need to spend some time looking at it. Haven't looked at it enough from that perspective. I guess I was probably more looking at it from Joey's perspective, the actual car from the survivability cell where he is. Was really encouraged with kind of the integrity of everything there. Talking with the guys, kind of his experience, not having anything really hitting him or creating I guess encroachment on his space, which is kind of the first priority. Kind of checked those boxes.

We'll go through the car tomorrow with NASCAR, a lot more of a mind for inspection on what happened to the car. Then you kind of move on to, okay, the event, what occurred, what can we do to try to make things better.

Certainly no question the size of the rear spoiler is challenging to overcome. When you get backwards with that much kind of in the air, it's a lot to deal with. That's something we'll try to learn. There's only two more left, but one more race left is too many if you're not 100% sure you're as safe as you can be. We'll do what we can there, try to learn with the NASCAR folks, try to address anything we can. Certainly car-wise we'll do the same.

Q. Still a little bit away till next year, but with the NextGen car, do you get a sense of any changes, what might be different with that car to potentially avoid a situation like today?

TRAVIS GEISLER: Yeah, there's a lot of emphasis being put on the takeoff speeds, trying to improve that situation. I know that (indiscernible) in the back is kind of a moving flap that's supposed to help keep the car pinned down, some things like that the underbody of that car allows for. There's also some other challenges with that car being a sealed underbody, probably a little more likely to do it.

I think they're making a great effort towards it. I can't say I've really seen the data enough to say that we're making an improvement or we're in a worse position. I know there's certainly been a lot of focus put on that.

It is probably one of our more dangerous incidents. Obviously Newman kind of highlighted that. We got really fortunate today that Bubba was able to kind of avoid a major contact. It was kind of a glancing blow, I'll call it.

I know there is a lot of focus there. I know there are some components that are different on that car that allow for it to create a little more downforce in the reverse direction, which is obviously the goal when you're in that situation.

Q. Could you talk about Matt DiBenedetto, how close he is. Seems like his comment after the race was, Our day will come. His attitude as he came close again, do you feel like he is close, the first victory is around the corner?

TRAVIS GEISLER: Definitely making great progress. Fun to watch them. We're all very focused on getting Matt some success in Victory Lane, but also getting the Wood Brothers number 100. That's something we're all taking a lot of pride in. We were part of it with the No. 99 with Blaney winning at Pocono. We'd love nothing more than to see those guys get a win. It's great to have all our cars getting a win. Certainly excited about Brad doing it.

Proud of their effort to be up front, run up front all day. That's what it takes. You can't pop up there and expect to know how the draft is working, how everybody is working around you, how you and your spotter are communicating. Those things take time to develop.

Now that he's spent a lot more time up front, able to work his way up there, maintain the lead, those are the things you have to be able to do to get a win.

Sometimes it just happens at one of these races where chaos ensues and you kind of come through the smoke, you're the guy that wins it. When you look at the averages of who is winning these races, it's the same guys really, same teams that are able to kind of repeat. You get some pop-ins, different winners here and there. It certainly shows it's not pure luck.

I know those guys are doing a great job of putting themselves in a position where it's not going to be just luck that gets them a win, it's just going to be good hard work and fast cars and good driver and spotter combinations.

Happy with the progress there. We still have some more progress to make at some of the other styles of tracks. We need to get those guys running a little bit more up front. But after a rough start, I think they're getting their feet underneath them now. This was another good race to show that.

Q. Since the Newman wreck, the changes that were made, are runs coming slower, they slowed the cars down? Have you done enough research that you're back to the speeds that you were before, closing rate speeds?

TRAVIS GEISLER: Yeah, I'm probably not the best person to answer the question on closing rate speeds then versus now based on the data. Honestly I haven't probably spent enough time looking at that. It's not something that from winning and losing the races we're probably not as focused on that as NASCAR and the safety folks are.

But I know that the runs are big. There's no question that guys have fast closing rates. It's a game of when do you throw the big block, when don't you, what's worth the risk, what's not. It stacks up.

I think probably the biggest thing I've seen that causes the crashes are kind of the stack-up of big runs. When you watch what happened to Joey, guys had a huge run behind him, he got a huge run on the 12, everybody stacks up, somebody squeezes out, then you kind of have a little bit of a moment where one guy is out, one guy is trying to get back in, you have the wrecks.

A little bit the same way with Brad and Denny on the front straight. I think it was a situation where he needed to block the lane, the run was coming, it stacks the field tight enough that something has to give somewhere.

The package is definitely a challenge. No question it's probably one of the more difficult ones for us to deal with from a managing the lanes, managing the runs and trying to decide what's a safe block and what's not. You see some thrown throughout the day. Man, it's a lot of skill that gets us through it.

The 37 at one point was about sideways on the front straightaway, the 18, the 21. You watch those events and hope everybody can get it straightened out.

Definitely the runs are pretty significant. I think that's something as I look at the NextGen car, a goal for speedway racing, let's try to improve and decrease the speed of those runs. It's what makes races exciting. That's part of what the fans want to see, is guys able to make runs, be able to make passes. There has to be a point where it's safe for everybody to still go around.

Fortunately the cars are extremely safe. We've been very fortunate to continue to make advancements that have kept everybody safe.

Q. You've dealt with this type of racing, different packages. Give us a sense of how much time and effort you all put into and have discussions with NASCAR about how to find that balance of exciting yet relatively safe? You know what I'm saying?

TRAVIS GEISLER: I think there's an acceptable level of risk that everybody takes in their positions. That's no different for speedway racing. There's an acceptable level of risk that we all try to manage. There's times when you see the racing going a certain way that you just feel like it's probably outside of where we need to be from a risk level.

I think we're right on the edge right now. I'm not going to say it's overly risky, but of the packages I've seen, it's on the edge of where we want to be. I personally would like to see the speeds continue to get a little slower. I would like to see that stuff come down.

At the end of the day we all work at it, there is a real balance to it. You can kind of tip the scales and create a mess on the other side that you weren't intending. It's a really delicate balance between the aero package, the power, the way the cars are with the new ride heights. All those things are tough. There's no book you just go look at and say, If we pull this lever, this is going to happen. It's a challenging one to figure out.

It's what makes it fun for us. As an engineer, I think part of the challenge of this sport is that there aren't all knowns. There's so many variables that you can't control, so many things that you can't just sit down and solve for.

We do spend a lot of time on it. I think the biggest thing is making the cars safer. That's priority number one. Any advancements or changes we can be making is the first thing we can jump on. Those are knowns. We know we can make this better, improve this.

When it comes to the package stuff, I think it's a little bit more challenging to pinpoint this is going to make an improvement to this, not hurt us somewhere else. That's probably a little bit of a tougher area to make wholesale changes as we go.

Q. You had the team meeting with the drivers earlier in the week. Besides the obvious of don't crash each other, what was the message conveyed to them?

TRAVIS GEISLER: Don't crash. I think you pretty much summed it up.

No, again, it's so hard to look through all the different scenarios that are going to happen at these races. You can try to play out so many different little bits and pieces throughout the race.

I think the biggest thing is just taking care of each other, figuring out a way to protect each other, don't put each other in bad positions, make sure you have each other's best interests.

The importance of all of us getting wins at these races, it's become a high percentage shot for us as a company. We put energy towards that. All the drivers benefit from the energy that Roush-Yates engines puts into it, that Ford puts into it, that our whole company puts into it. We all need to make sure we're doing our part for all the people who are involved in making fast cars to come here.

At the end of the day the drivers need to go out there and have to do what they have to do, what is they get paid to, is to go win. The main message is trying to take care of each other, don't put each other in a bad position, make sure at the end one of us is holding the flag.

Fortunately today it kind of ended up where I thought we worked really well together. I thought we were able to keep each other up there. I thought the Fords worked great together. When you watch Blaney with a huge piece of debris on there, executed kind of the slot there with the 10 really flawlessly, kept everybody going. I think those are the things, that's what you hope to achieve by working together.

You can't go and script the end of the race. You can't script how people are going to have runs, all that's going to work. That's why we race. If it was, it would be pretty boring. We'd write exactly what we wanted to have happen.

Biggest thing, you're holding the flag at the end and making sure your guys are safe as much as you can and you help as much as you can throughout the day.

Q. Overtime restart, your guys are up front, are you thinking, Here we go again? Nervous, flashbacks to Daytona?

TRAVIS GEISLER: I'm not thinking here I go again. When you restart, the last one with one, two, three, if one of you don't win, it's a pretty tough thing to explain. You had good control at that point, the way it was.

Yeah, I mean, there's a little bit of bad memories come up pretty quickly I guess in that situation. We've all been doing it a long time. We've been through goods and bads of those. We've all won because all have helped each over.

I remember watching Joey protect Brad here like he was his brother, got Brad a win that advanced us into the Playoffs. We were in a must-win situation. There's things like that that happen. You just know above all the average of them all has to come out as a positive. I think that we do. You hope that the situations like Daytona don't play out.

At the end of the day the other part of it is, these guys are supposed to go race. It's part of it. You try to learn from it the best you can. You try to make sure that your company gets in Victory Lane. The fans don't want to see guys go out and just ride in a line all day and follow team orders. That's something I respect Roger for a lot, that he lets his guys race. We also know at these we have to be a little more careful around each other.

Q. What is it that just makes Team Penske so good on superspeedways?

TRAVIS GEISLER: It's a good question. I think it's a combination of a lot of things. Certainly Roush-Yates engines. When you look at the Ford performance over the years now, the numbers are pretty staggering when you consider this to be kind of what everybody used to think was a luck thing of who got the wins. Their percentage of wins has been fantastic. Certainly a lot of credit goes to Doug.

Having worked for Robert Yates myself, on the race team side, we were definitely building glorified engine stands. It was very clear to us there. This group takes this very seriously. Have to give them a lot of credit.

I also think our spotter/driver combinations are awesome. When you look at the number of wins between our guys, there's no question that they work wonderful together. I think they all work well together as their individual team, but they also know each other very well. I think that's a huge part of the chemistry.

I think Blaney has come a long way, has become one of the plate racers now, which has helped us a ton to have another guy up there, to get a couple wins but also to do a lot of the little things in the pack that maybe you don't recognize, but he's doing them and he's working for the lane, making that lane move forward. Those are the cool things as somebody that maybe watches at another level of detail and seeing what those guys are doing, that he's been able to really step up his game.

Our car performance has been there. I think our cars handle well. They're drivable. They're able to take big pushes. We typically don't get ourselves into a position where we're just on the ragged edge, getting turned around with little pushes. We try to make sure our cars can accept what it takes out there. When you're getting bounced around, you have to have the stability to be able to handle that.

Any time you run well, it's a little bit of everything. It's certainly been a great run for us at these tracks. Hopefully we'll be able to continue that on next year with a huge change coming.

THE MODERATOR: Travis, that's all the time we have with you. Congratulations on the Penske victory. We wish you the best of luck at Kansas.

TRAVIS GEISLER: Thanks so much. Appreciate everybody.