NASCAR CUP SERIES: FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400

August 22, 2021

Ryan Blaney

Todd Gordon

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: An exciting win for the 12 team. Tell us a little bit about the final laps there, Todd.

TODD GORDON: Yeah, it was great to be a spectator. Really good. I thought the stay-out strategy worked out to get us some track position. Kind of goes back to stage two. Once we got ourselves up there and could fight around, the second-to-last restart I think we started fifth, just got by the 1 car before the caution came out for the final restart. The top three took the top. Ryan did a great job of committing to the bottom. He's done a couple times. We actually got the lead in I think the second race last year here from the bottom with a good push. I actually think we pushed the 11 down there and then got clear of him.

A great push and timing working with the 18, got a push down there, and got William cleared off of two I think it was, into three, I'm not sure which it was. Once he got out there, he and Josh Williams, our spotter, did a phenomenal job of just controlling the race, trying to break the draft from the guys behind us. We had teammates that were backing up, trying to make runs, the 5 and 24 were trying to work together. They did a great job of controlling the race for the last eight laps.

I think that was kind of a tune-up for next week's Daytona race. The spotter/driver communication and controlling the race, what happened there, it showed up. The guys did a great job and brought us to victory.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go straight to questions.

Q. On the broadcast you mentioned talking about Blaney managing things. Was that a point of emphasis going into this weekend or something you've been stressing to him for a few weeks now?

TODD GORDON: No, I think that's actually part of the growth of Ryan. We talked a little bit about it, but I think when Ryan made the transition to our team, when we did all the swaps here in the off-season between '19 and '20, it was just one of the things of handling the emotions, just focusing forward, continuing to work on our race cars. He's done a great job of it. He continues to get better at it.

You saw today early in the race we were really tight in the corner, just couldn't get the front to turn, then kind of felt better once we got into the corners. Really struggled with it. He popped off with it won't turn, but then got back to the details of what he was feeling so we could work on it. He gave us the information we needed to make the car better. We continued to dig our way through the day.

I think he's doing a great job of staying engaged. It's tough to do when you're in competition, to not let your emotions drive you. They work for a little bit, but then to get focused back on what happens. I think he did a great job with it.

Q. Ryan has never won multiple Cup races in a season. Has that been a point of emphasis within the organization, get through the glass ceiling so we can win consistently?

TODD GORDON: That's your goal all the time, is win every race, right? I think in the swaps, yeah, he won one a year. Last year almost stacked against him in some ways. We had a situation on pit road at Indy, lost our rear tire changer, got hit. Fortunately just banged up. Lost him for the year. I felt like we lost the ability to be as competitive as we needed to be on pit road.

We had a great group that kind of came together to do what we could. But we weren't capable I think of giving him the opportunity to win races after that change. We've gotten that back. The pit crew is starting to get that rhythm going again. We've shown speed at times, put a whole race together. They're doing a good job of it.

I think, yeah, he's growing up. That's just part of maturation, growing in to being a champion. I watched this happen with Joey from '13 till we won a championship in '18. Ryan has got tons of potential. He's growing into the things that he needs to win multiple races to be a champion. I think he's got that ability in him.

It's fun to watch this growth happen. Sitting down in the shop, going through Playoff races with the engineers this week, we're definitely growing into it.

Q. You announced you're stepping away at the end of the season.

TODD GORDON: Thank you for not using the 'retired' word.

Q. Is that in some way related to the NextGen car, what crew chiefs feel they can do or not? Is that why you're stepping away?

TODD GORDON: I wouldn't say that. I'd say there's more to this. To be candidly honest, it's as much about the COVID break that actually opened my eyes more beyond my work. You stay so focused in racing, just your mind's always in it, you're always in it. Then we had the break when we didn't know what was going to go on.

Really as a society, as a country, we had a break that we were trying to figure out direction. I got to spend more time. Both of my daughters were home. My daughter, Kaylee, she came home from Clemson and finished out. They sent everybody home, she finished out back at home. I got to spend more time around my family.

My parents, they used to drive a motorhome here to the racetrack, I got to see them then. I've been 23 years in NASCAR. 10 years in Cup Series. I've been blessed with great opportunities like the one I'm in right now. Roger Penske and Team Penske, all the great people here.

I want to spend some time with my family. I wanted to have more time to do that. I know my own competitive nature, I need to actually make the commitment to step away to slow things down and make time to do the other things that I want to do.

That's pretty much most of where this is coming from. Roger asked me, he said, You're going to go work in racing?

I told him, If I'm going to work in racing, I'm going to work with Team Penske. I got the greatest boss in the world, greatest opportunity in the world. I'm walking away from this because I want to make time for other things.

It's been a great run. I'd like to see what the next chapter of my life brings.

THE MODERATOR: We also have been joined by Ryan Blaney, today's race winner.

We'll continue with questions for Todd and Ryan.

Q. Todd, you've had this streak of success pretty much every year you've been a Cup Series crew chief, multiple wins this year. Does this create a twinge for you of maybe you could keep doing this?

TODD GORDON: I lost you. Are you there?

Q. Does the success, continued success, give you a twinge of maybe wanting to still keep doing this? More appropriately, is this a golden opportunity to go out on top?

TODD GORDON: Yeah, ideally Ryan has talked about this a little bit, but I want to go out a champion. We got a lot of races left. We've got a lot of competition.

I'm really comfortable with my decision. I don't know where it will take me. There's things that I can do. Heck, I can spend a year at my house just working on home projects.

I'm comfortable with where I'm going to go. I've had a great career. I do want to go out while I'm still relevant and still competitive. I want to pick my time, and this is it. I think it's time for family, but it's still great to win races. It's a blessing and an opportunity that I'll cherish for the next 11 and hopefully we can get a couple more of these and a championship.

Q. Ryan, how big of a momentum boost do you think it is to get a win before the Playoffs, another one?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, it's huge. Atlanta was a long time ago. It's really good to just start building momentum, being on the up-slope here going into the Playoffs, rising to the occasion. Everyone did that today. I'm very proud of the work everyone did today on getting our car better and better, giving us a shot there at the end to make something happen.

Yeah, huge momentum builder for everybody. Get some more Playoff points, try to jump up in the points even more. But then we still got the speedway race next week to finish out the regular season. Hopefully we can have a good run there, then start the 10-week stretch.

Q. Ryan, how are you feeling right now knowing that you've finally got two wins in a season in the bank?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, yeah, finally. That's good (smiling).

It's cool. I mean, it's really special to win in the Cup Series in general, no matter if it's once a year or not. That's just something that has been kind of bugging me. I don't want to be a one-win guy a year. It's cool to kind of get a couple. Hopefully we can get some more, that's for sure. If we do the work that we did today, everyone executing the best they could, have a shot at the end there, they're going to come. Just proud of the effort.

But, yeah, it's nice to not have one line in that column every year, it's nice to have a couple. Like I said, hopefully we can get a few more.

Q. Ryan, with each one of your six career wins, you seem to close late in the race. What can you say about the manner in which you've won races?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, it's a good thing to think about. Definitely make them exciting whenever we win a race.

Boy, I can't wait for the day I go out and win by 10 seconds, that would be great. Wouldn't be as stressful as the wins we've gotten so far in my Cup career.

Yeah, definitely make them exciting, try to close out the races as best we can. Just today we were put in a situation where we could capitalize on it. Things worked out to our favor to where we got in the position we needed to be in. Josh did a great job, my spotter, of giving me great information. We were able to pull it out.

Yeah, that was a pretty hard 10 laps, that's for sure. Just lots of information. You're just trying to stay hyper-focused on what you're doing, not make a mistake, try to play the guessing game. It's a weird way to race, that's for sure, the air game. But that's what it is.

We played it really well today.

Q. With now going into Daytona, you saw what happened in Michigan, it's kind of like a semi sneak preview of what to expect on Saturday, how good do you feel going into it with this much confidence?

RYAN BLANEY: I mean, I think any speedway race, it's up in the air, right? You can do your job to the best of your ability all day, just get caught up in someone else's mess. Those things just happen.

The biggest thing we can do is try to control what we can control, try to get as many stage points as we can, try to get a win, just try to finish that thing and get a good starting spot for Darlington.

Yeah, good momentum, just try to survive all day at Daytona. Like I said, just try to rise to the occasion at the end because it benefits you next week, too, to start the Playoffs.

Q. Todd?

TODD GORDON: No, same thing. Probably the biggest thing, this was a warmup for those two, Ryan and Josh, to work through controlling the race piece. Hopefully we can do that at Daytona. Want to continue to build momentum.

To Ryan's point, coming out of Daytona with a good finish is going to have a lot of impact on Darlington. Pretty important race for us. We'll do everything we can. We've been strong at speedways. Look forward to the opportunity there, trying to get ourselves to continue this momentum in the Playoffs.

Q. Todd, you mentioned the COVID break influenced your decision to step away. Reading between the lines there, how much does the weekly grind and slog of this league contribute to that as well?

TODD GORDON: Yeah, I mean, if you want to compete here, you've got to be 100% in. It is, it's a grind. It's a passion. If you're very selfish, and you have to be in this sport, and have great support, I've had that, my wife Amy, she's been a rock-solid supporter, she's basically raised our kids on her own because I was gone three to four days a week, I'm in the shop the other three to four.

I think it just opens my eyes to more. I'm 51 now. 23 years down here. You realize there's more to life than just your job. I've had a very successful run at it. I've had great people like Ryan to be blessed to work with.

Yeah, it's a grind. But any professional sport is a grind if you talk to those guys. It is, but it's a passion that we all love to do. I've had a great run at it and I'm sure I'll miss some of it but I'm looking forward to some time to do the things I want to with the family as well.

Q. Ryan, with the high downforce package, many times deep in a run it was a Herculean task to overtake the race leader. Given your win came on a restart, what would you say to people who say this package puts less emphasis on driver skill and more on random luck?

RYAN BLANEY: Fans wanted this package. The fans wanted this package. The fans wanted a high downforce package, low horsepower, high downforce. If you listen to other people, a lot of other people in the garage want a low downforce, high horsepower stuff. That's what personally I enjoy driving more.

It's not no skill, like you said, this package. It's a different kind of racing. You have to understand just kind of a different way to approach the race, a different way to drive the car.

We're not all running out there and sipping lemonade while we're running these 550 packages. It's a different kind of racing maybe than what it used to be here three years ago with the low spoiler and high horsepower.

It's just changed. Everyone has had to adapt to it.

THE MODERATOR: Todd, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you spending some time with us.

We'll continue with questions for Ryan.

Q. Given the intense ups and downs of the Playoffs, how have you balanced your mental health with the high stakes of this year's competition and with NASCAR in general?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, the mental health side, everyone kind of deals with it differently. I deal with it differently than anybody else. That's just kind of how it is. It's not my right to tell somebody how to maybe work on theirs. The best thing I can do is just work on mine.

I think the biggest thing that's helped me is don't bottle it in. I feel like that's the best thing. Our jobs, any job really, can be stressful in certain situations. Everyone goes through a stressful time in their job, their career. No matter if it's sports or working in an office or whatever, you go through stressful times.

I don't think a lot of people see that, especially on the athlete side. I think a lot of people are like, You make really good money, just shut up and do your sport, shut up and drive.

I mean, we make a great living, but there's tough things about our sport, too. It can weigh on you. The best thing I do is just be open about it with friends and family, trying to get things off your chest, not bottle things in. I think that can escalate stuff. That's always helped me.

I've been lucky to have a great family around me that I've been able to express some of these hard times with. Honestly, in our sport you're going to lose a lot more than you're going to win. That's just the nature of it. You have to really be able to let off some of that steam, be open with people, talk it out. Credit my family and friends for doing that. It's really helped me out.

Q. As you may remember 10 years ago you were in a podcast with your sister Emma. You were sword fighting in the car. You were excited to even try to be in the journey. I can't help but think how your journey has served you well. Does it sometimes feel like a blur being that little kid, now being a title contender and superstar racer?

RYAN BLANEY: I appreciate it. Nice words.

Gosh, I got talking I think the other day, especially when I see Mr. Penske or everyone over there, I signed with the Penske group in the summer of 2012. I mean, that's nine years ago. That does not feel like nine years ago. It's definitely a blur, like you said.

Time flies, that's for sure. I've been really fortunate in my life to drive for some great people and get to know great people. Grow up watching dad run. He supported me all along the way, still does. So, yeah, it's definitely been a blur.

Nine years ago, I remember sitting down with Brad Keselowski, him wanting me to drive his trucks, meeting Mr. Penske. I was 19 years old, 18, 19 years old. Take a blink, nine years down the road. It goes by fast, but really fortunate. That's for certain.

Q. We've had the choose rule now for a year. Your choice today obviously helped you with the win. What are your thoughts on the choose rule? Do you think we should do it everywhere including superspeedways and road courses?

RYAN BLANEY: I like the choose rule a lot. The only thing I'm thinking about is if it's for road courses or speedways, if we should have it.

I don't know. I think it does a great job at certain places where there's, like, not a preferred lane. Like the bottom lane here is not the preferred lane. That gives drivers a chance to kind of gamble. Maybe I'm not going to be in the best lane, but I'm going to jump a few rows, see if I can get back up in line. Same with Martinsville at the top.

I like it a lot. I wouldn't mind it being applied to everywhere. Kind of the road courses and the superspeedways, I don't think it really needs it. Places like this where it's really wide, you can kind of make moves, I think they're good to have.

I wouldn't mind seeing them at road courses or speedways, but I don't really think we need them there. I like it everywhere else.

Q. With this race running like a superspeedway, is that good warmup for next week in Daytona?

RYAN BLANEY: Josh and I had all we could handle the last 10 laps, that's for sure. It's going to be the same thing. Yeah, like you said, a good warmup for Daytona, calling runs, things like that. It's definitely a nice warmup. Hopefully we can repeat the process here.

Q. Ryan, curious about your thoughts on using resin on the racing surface today. NASCAR used it at Nashville. Today was the first time on asphalt. How do you like it compared to PJ1? Do you think this is something NASCAR should use on all tracks?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I thought you could feel it today. You could go up there and feel it. I didn't think it was, like, overkill amounts of grip, like the PJ1 had here. I thought the PJ1 had crazy amounts of grip. I thought the resin kind of wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. You could kind of play around with it while also running the bottom or the middle. I thought it was thumbs up for me.

As far as messing with the PJ1, I think that's track to track. Certain tracks you could widen out a groove or something like that, I think you can do it. That's kind of a weird -- what the difference is, how much PJ1 was left over from last year mixed with the resin, it's kind of hard to tell.

I thought it was good. I thought it was good middle ground between not having anything and the PJ1. I thought it was pretty good.

Q. After the race, Todd came over the radio and thanked you for doing what he asked, which is getting him a trophy. In the two years, what has he meant to you? Has he helped you in any way as a driver?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, Edsel Ford came up to us after the race. I haven't seen Edsel for over a year. It's important to have him here. He said, We need to get Todd one more win here in Michigan before he leaves. Last chance to do it.

That was cool. I've had a lot of fun working with Todd. It's a shame, we only have 11 more races together. I wish him the best obviously. He's been in the sport for a long time, but it's been a blast.

It's also kind of been bittersweet because we got a month of normal season together last year, then COVID, the pandemic, just showing up and racing. It was hard to really work together and really get to know your crew chief, as opposed to having practice days, qualifying, getting to work hours and hours with them at the racetrack.

It's been a ton of fun. He has showed me a lot of different things about race cars, kind of has widened my knowledge of everything.

Wish him the best that's for sure next year, but we got a job to do this year. Sending him out with a bang. Nice win today. Hopefully we can get a few more wins and be able to bring the home the big one at the end of the year. Be a pretty big sendoff for Todd. Hopefully we can do that for him.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan, congrats again on the victory. We appreciate you spending some time with us this evening.

RYAN BLANEY: Thank you guys. Appreciate the questions.