NASCAR CUP SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP

November 8, 2024

Rudy Fugle

Jonathan Hassler

Billy Scott

Paul Wolfe

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Billy Scott, Crew Chief of the No. 45 Toyota with driver Tyler Reddick. Thank you for joining us to quickly after practice, Billy. We will go ahead and open for questions for Billy.

Q. I'm wondering, you know, you guys get to spend a lot of time with Michael Jordan, and he comes and hangs out with you guys as one of the guys. What sort of motivation does he bring to the team to inspire you guys, to instill that desire to win, and how badly does he want to win this this weekend?

BILLY SCOTT: Well, first off, you're right, his presence in itself is very inspiring. Obviously one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet in anything he does. So just having him there certainly we all want to make him proud, but he is also an avid fan.

He is learning everything he can about the sport, and he's very in tune to what's going on. He understands everything from the strategy stuff to the setups and the motivating people. Every now and then he'll speak up at the right time, and it certainly goes a long way in adding a little bit of extra motivation.

Certainly he wants to win this, absolutely. I can't even imagine what it's like when he has been as successful as he has on the highest level of his sport for so long. I mean, the greatest arguably of all time. Just to be able to sort of get that -- see that enthusiasm back in him and when he's been there for the couple of wins that he's witnessed in person, it's very rewarding. It's really cool to see the genuine joy he gets for us.

Q. (Off microphone)

BILLY SCOTT: I think he trusts in the system and knows it will be just fine.

Q. So being 21st or so on the speed chart, is that part of the system, but was there something that you guys were looking at, and do you feel good about tomorrow?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, I don't think speed was probably quite as good as we would have liked. That's fair, but it's also hard to get a judge on your raw speed when you're in traffic. I think all of our runs we did have a lot of guys right in front of us.

So that determined that a little bit, but there are things that we want to work on. There were some good changes we got to see, and we certainly have some great teammates that are going to give us a lot of information overnight to reference too.

Q. Billy, yesterday Tyler spoke about how after you guys locked in at Homestead there was a lot of focus on -- or excuse me. After the spring race here you guys have been very focused on what that tire was so you could come back to it for this race and be prepared. Can you just explain what your prep work was like the last couple of weeks after being locked in at Homestead in that regard?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, a lot of what we do is simulation work. That certainly gives the drivers a lot of comfort and gives us an opportunity to make changes before we get to the racetrack.

When you leave a race, you always want to try to get as good of correlation as you can in the sim world, so we did spend a lot of time after the spring race.

Certainly the tires changed, and there's been a few events that we've already run that at, so that does play into the mix. It's unfortunate to not have that information to fall back on fully, but it was nice to get locked in a week early and to be able to spend even more time just preparing from the sim side, from the car build side, just from everybody's mental side of what to expect when it got here that it's been a calm week leading up to it.

Q. Kind of following up on that a little bit, your first experience actually at the track as a crew chief in the Championship 4, what is today like as you walk through the gate knowing what the stakes were?

BILLY SCOTT: We've tried to make it as normal as possible. Certainly like you said, there's a lot going on, a lot of media attention, a lot of pressure. So you're not going to get away from it completely. So it's just been humble, but it's been satisfying to just know that we've put ourselves in this spot and just to be able to enjoy it.

Certainly we're going to do everything we can. We're going to be as determined as everybody to make good changes and be in contention, but the reality is everybody deserves it. I think everybody has worked really hard, had great years to get to this point, have won in the last three races. Three of them have.

There's no guarantee. It's this is the result that you can do everything right and one caution fall at the wrong time or one small mistake or something breaks. Just try not to put too much emphasis on the pressure of the results and more on the pressure of our preparation coming into it, and I feel like everybody has done an awesome job on that side.

Q. How is your nerves today?

BILLY SCOTT: Not bad.

Q. I want to go back to Jordan real quick. Has he showed any interest in trying out a Jack or changing a tire or playing around with the pit crews or anything? Have you put him through the paces yet?

BILLY SCOTT: No, he has not. Not that I'm aware of anyway. I think he would be best suited on the strategy side on top of the box because is he pretty knowledgeable about that side.

Q. We had media day with the four yesterday, and of the four drivers, Tyler seemed the tensest with the shortest answers and maybe all business is the approach he took. Are you sensing that from him?

BILLY SCOTT: A little bit at times. I think it's probably situationally dependent. Certainly he is focused. He certainly wants it as bad as anybody and has put a lot of effort into that, but he also has been his light-hearted self around us a lot too.

I think he's doing a good job of balancing that. Hopefully his nerves are in a good place come Sunday.

Q. Billy, two of the last four races here have either gone to overtime or the last caution has come out just with a few laps to go. The other races in the last four have been, like, 30 laps to go. I know that if I tell you when the cautions are, you can make your strategy just as any of you guys could, but what does that do in the sense of preparation, looking at the history? How does that factor into some of the things you'll think about?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, I think we have to take it into all consideration, but you also don't want to get too focused on any one thing becaus by the time you think what you expect to happen, it's something else.

Much like we did at Homestead, you're going to have to see where we are and be realistic about what our expectations are of winning when you get in that final stint or final stage and play strategy accordingly.

Q. Obviously when you had the time to have a full 50-minute practice session, I'm sure that it's been a lot of work that night going into the next day just regardless whether it's a championship race or any race. Since it is a championship weekend, I guess the question is, how do you prevent yourself from working too much tonight and over-thinking things or going down the rabbit hole too much, or is there such a thing because you need to leave no stone left unturned going into Sunday?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, it's a little of both I think. You certainly want to be diligent about it and just make sure you double-check everything, but also you don't want to go so long that, like you said, you overthink it or spend all night doing that instead of sleeping.

So, you know, I think we're going to approach it like we have these other extended practice weekends. The changes oftentimes with these cars, it's often hard to do a whole lot time-wise. We are still limited in what we can do.

Even coming into tomorrow and getting ready in an hour and a half to go in tech line, there's only so much you can do. We take that into consideration and focus again that we have good teammates to lean on.

I certainly would have loved to have four Toyotas in the final round, but I think one benefit we've be been able to take from it is that they are now able to help from that side of are being diligent about the changes they've made, how closely their cars were to ours when we got here, just what takeaways we can make from their practice, and that will certainly help.

Q. You spent time at Stewart-Haas Racing. I was just curious, the pictures being taken today of crew guys and everything. Have you looked at those guys at all? Have you talked to any of them, or have you tried to avoid even seeing it knowing that your task at hand?

BILLY SCOTT: I haven't talked to anybody this weekend or today. Certainly trying to stay focused on what we've got, but yeah, there's a lot of friends there, a lot of people that I have worked many years with.

It's sad to see that happen to that level with any team. Certainly feel for all of them. Know what they're going through, having been through that at Waltrip's a long time ago.

It's tough on them. You hate to see that for anybody, and I know what this weekend means to them. It's special and bittersweet too.

THE MODERATOR: Billy, thank you so much. Best of luck this weekend.

We're going to continue with our Crew Chief availability. We've now been joined by Rudy Fugle, Crew Chief for the No. 24 Chevrolet driven by William Byron. Rudy, thank you for joining us. We'll open for questions now for Rudy.

Q. Earlier NASCAR was in here, Steve Phelps and Steve O'Donnell, and one of the first things Steve Phelps said was he sort of defended the four drivers who are in the championship finale as maybe fans don't think they're deserving. I'm wondering if you can make an argument for why William deserves his shot in this final four?

RUDY FUGLE: We have three wins this year, which is as many as a lot of drivers. Only a couple have more than that. Scored more points than anybody else in the playoffs. I feel like our team is peaking at the right time.

Yeah, I think we're competition and well-deserving to go race for a championship on Sunday.

Q. How nerve-wracking was that 28 minutes for you at Martinsville?

RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, you are just sitting and waiting for your fate to be determined, but it is what it is.

Q. Rudy, when you're the last guy in as you guys were on Sunday, I'm sure the prep for Phoenix -- I mean, you didn't wait to prep for Phoenix, but how did things shift once it was official in terms of the extra attention or what you wanted to finalize with the prep getting ready for the haulers left?

RUDY FUGLE: I think we've been getting ready for Phoenix as a company probably for three months, and then this car has been prepped like we're going to make the Championship 4 for six weeks.

The difference is we just had everybody's attention this week for a little bit more with the other three teams not making it. So just had a little bit more attention Monday and Tuesday, but yeah, I think you've got to prep early enough to think you're going to make it. I think we did a good job of that.

THE MODERATOR: We've also been joined by Paul Wolfe. We'll begin with questions for Rudy or Paul.

Q. Rudy, if this has been asked, since I was out, but William is kind of coming in here with a chip on his shoulder, like nobody has taken us seriously even though we're one of the top teams and have been one of the top teams. How do you see him peeling that to the title?

RUDY FUGLE: I don't know. I think he's maturing and becoming a better leader and looking how to deal and look inward more than outward. I can come across a lot of different ways, but I think it's just growing up.

Q. Another question for Rudy here. You've been working with William for several years now. This is your guys' second championship appearance, and you talked about that growth that he's had. I'm just curious where Byron was when he started with you to where he is now that you are in your second championship for?

RUDY FUGLE: I think it's just getting a lot of racing experience. When I first started in trucks with him, he had only been racing for about four years. A lot of these guys have way more laps than that.

He's finally getting laps in races, and he is maturing in different ways, like I was just talking about. Learning how to grow up in the right ways and mature.

Q. This question is for Paul. There are some apparent radio chatter, maybe some frustration with the Chevrolets. Can you kind of explain that a little bit? What was that about? Did you think there was some games being played?

PAUL WOLFE: I don't know. I guess Joey maybe thought there was. Just pulling out when we were trying to make runs and not giving us clean racetrack when we're coming out on tires. So other than what he said, that's all I saw of it.

Q. Paul, for you, you guys have been here before. It's like last week when Hassler was sitting in the media center, he said, they weren't ready, they were about 15% ready to come. How much help did you have to cross over with Ryan's team, with the 12 team, from you guys?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, I think obviously that's a better question for Hassler, but obviously we work very closely together, the 12 and the 22.

Hopefully some of the work we were able to put in while he was still focusing on trying to get here, you know, helped those guys, and we continued that through practice today as we were trying to get reads on some things. We'll go over everything this evening and hopefully tune up both of our cars for tomorrow's qualifying.

Q. For both of you. I'm just curious, there are so many things that have been to be done, and it's all about no stone left unturned in everything. I'm curious in one aspect for both of you guys, how much do you have to think about the other crew chiefs and the other coaches in essence? I think about football. The coaches are coaching against teams, but they're also the tendencies of the coaches. How much do you have to -- how much does that play into what we'll see on Sunday is knowing your competitor?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough question. I think we try to learn like the other team's tendencies and maybe some pit calls and some strategies and what not. Other than that there's not a ton.

It's really knowing what kind of cars they're going to have too, so what kind of teams really are really good on short run or really good at getting ahead on that. Those are probably the little bit of things you are prepping on and knowing what to expect.

As we see today and every weekend you get surprised, so too much prep is not helpful. Tendencies that aren't as -- football is not as much.

RUDY FUGLE: I think I agree for the most part, and the other part to that is this race is different than any other race throughout the season, the way you have to approach it, and obviously we're not racing stages, stage points and those types of things.

You're obviously always paying attention to what's going on around you. You have to. Ultimately you have to focus on your car and what your strengths are as a team and really just execute your weekend based off of that.

Q. (Off microphone)

RUDY FUGLE: I am. Yeah, like I said, it's getting the most we can out of our team knowing what our strengths and weaknesses are throughout the weekend and making sure we're maximizing those. With that being said, sure, we look at everything. You have to. You have to understand what you're going up against, but ultimately, like I said, this race is pretty unique.

Unless you have raced these guys in this situation before, I don't know that you can necessarily look at tendencies.

Q. Paul, Blaney spent a long time yesterday talking about how his whole career he's just noted to make Roger Penske proud. I'm wondering if you have had those same sort of moments where that was something that was important to you? And, number two, with the two sports car championships that he has just won this season, the opportunity to give him three cup titles in a row, does that put any extra pressure on Team Penske as a whole?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, I don't know if it's any more pressure. It's always pressure, and he seems to always do amazing things in motorsports. It's like how do you get to the next level, right?

We continue to try to do all we can. He gives us the resources and the things we need, and then the expectation is to go out and win races and contend for championships. I don't know that I ever feel like he puts any extra pressure on us aside from just what really the expectations are on any weekend.

He supports us, and fortunately, we've been able to have a lot of success over the years, and obviously bringing home another championship this weekend would be really pretty special.

Q. Paul, yesterday Joey was talking about how the night before every championship race he gets away from the prep, the practice, the notes, and just takes his family down to pit road and just walks there, just kind of soaks up the moment. Obviously it's paid off well for him with the two wins. I was curious as someone who has won multiple championships yourself, is there any traditions or anything you do to kind of just get away that night before?

PAUL WOLFE: No, I'm a pretty boring guy, as most of you know. I don't say a whole lot, don't do a whole lot. Just kind of do my deal.

No, I can't say that I have any traditions. Just make sure I've gone over everything and make sure we do our best not to screw it up on Sunday.

Q. Paul, Rudy, thank you both for coming in. We appreciate it, and best of luck this weekend. We're going to bring Jonathan Hassler up, Crew Chief for Ryan Blaney. We're going to go ahead and take questions for Jonathan.

Q. Jonathan, you may have heard me. I asked Paul a while ago, you told me last week you were only about 15% ready for this week, so how did the transition from Martinsville to here pay off?

JONATHAN HASSLER: A lot of late nights. Several in a row before we had to get the car loaded up, but yeah, we were able to kind of study what that group had done and what the rest of the shop had sort of put together as a baseline and some information and put our own spin on it and unload with some good speed here today.

Q. I know that there's definitely a lot of pressure going into this weekend, but is there any way you just manage that, like meditation or mindfulness that you do?

JONATHAN HASSLER: I think as the leader of the team, my advice I would say to our whole crew to manage the pressure of an event like this is to -- it's different than a lot of weeks, but do everything you can to do what you've done to get to this point. I think if you do that, the results kind of take care of itself.

Q. When you unload with that kind of speed and see your name and number pop up on the speed charts, is that sense more of relief or expectation that you figured that was going to happen?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Probably a little bit of both. I mean, I felt pretty strongly coming into this week that we would be able to have some speed, but you certainly never know for sure in this sport, or the times that you do are pretty few and far between.

So, yeah, a little bit of relief. It's where we expected to be, but like I said, you never really know until that number goes on the board.

Q. That kind of was along the lines of my question, but how important is it to come out and be fastest at practice and do what you did kind of setting the tone for the weekend?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think you really have to approach -- we don't get the opportunity to practice like this very often. We don't get three sets of tires very often to go and try to learn some things about our cars. So you have to -- it's nice to have the speed. It's even nicer to be able to go and try a couple of things to maybe find a little bit more speed.

Then you just really have to be smart about how you take the information you learned tonight and apply to tomorrow or -- or to Sunday and tomorrow because the conditions with going to be quite a bit different.

Q. (Off microphone)

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think it certainly kind of invigorates the whole team to see our number there at the top of the board. I think everybody on this team is confident that we can go and contend for another championship, but it certainly gives an extra pep, a little bit of extra pep, in everybody's step.

Q. Blaney I think went from 23rd to 1st. Was that a mock qualifying run, or was that simply a change that you made between the two runs?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, that was just a race run. We were the first car out on track today, and a lot of weeks in probably the other format that's good. With only 20 cars on the track at a given week, the first guy on track can get some clean air.

Today as we came out, we ran right into the back of a lot of traffic. So our fire-off on the first run was definitely hurt. We spent a lot of that first run in traffic, and then kind of got thrown off with that caution there. So, yeah, it was nice to be able to put another set of tires and get some clean air and put up a good lap.

Q. Regarding strategy, every other week you're out there racing to win the race. This week you're racing to beat three other guys. With all this other traffic in your way, how does that affect your strategy?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think, you know, in this race, like you said, it's different for the Championship 4. You really need to focus on how you're running relative to those guys. We're not concerned about stage points, so we can take -- make some choices along the way that maybe lose track position for a stage in, but set us up in a better position to be ahead of those guys at the end of the race.

You certainly just need to focus on that group. Like you saw last year, you don't have to win the race. You just have to be the first of the Championship 4.

Q. When talking with both Blaney and Logano, there's been a lot of talk about how both Penske cars have good information flow back and forth and both drivers, both teams want to win this third championship for Roger. I'm just curious, from your perspective at what point during the weekend does that information flow stop and you have to focus on the 12 team?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Honestly I think the information will be wide open until the checkered flag flies. We're going to do what we can do to help each other along the way, and we're going to do what we can for a Penske car to have the best chance of winning this championship.

Q. Pretty basic question. Does it feel different being here as the defending champion as opposed to being there in that first time trying to win the championship?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I would say it's a little bit different. I know for me personally I'm probably a little bit more acclimated with all the nuances and all the extra things that you have to do this week.

So, yeah, a little bit different, but honestly I think once you get in the Championship 4 in general you're able to kind of just let loose and focus on what you need to do. Honestly it's probably a little bit less pressure than some of the elimination races. You put your best foot forward and hope for the best.

Q. So from a momentum standpoint you guys have that. Odds-wise you guys are the favorite. Fastest says in one, five, ten, 15-lap average. All signs point to you guys being the favorites for Sunday. Do you feel that way?

JONATHAN HASSLER: It doesn't really matter to me. I mean, I think we're going to go back and we're going to study what we did in practice, how our car was, some of the other changes that our teammates made. Try to make ourselves a little bit better.

I think we try to focus certainly on our team and much of Team Penske of just continuing to try to be better. I don't think this is a different scenario. So, yeah, just try to be better and put our best foot forward and let everything else work itself out.

Q. We often hear about control of a race. Especially when you have a speed that you guys have shown today. I think back to last year's race, and I know you started further back. You didn't get out in front of all the other title contenders for the most part until 200 laps in. For this race can you give me a sense of how -- where you need to be in terms of control and how this -- I guess how this race compares to other races in the sense of having control or if you lose it, the challenge of getting it back because of the length and other parameters?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think controlling the race is certainly probably -- you know, it's not a focus of ours at all. I think you look at Martinsville last week, the championship race last year, I think those races looked very similar to us.

We just need to focus on being ahead at the end, and I think sometimes if you are in control or you feel like you're in control, you can probably be baited into being a little bit conservative and maybe falling behind.

Yeah, we would like to lead every lap, but we just have to focus on being as strong as we can at the end of the race.

Q. How did the energy change in the shop this week after Blaney's comeback win because his energy -- I mean, his confidence level yesterday compared to where he was going into Martinsville was like night and day.

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think the energy honestly in the shop has been pretty strong throughout all the playoffs.

Certainly when we came back from Homestead and had a shot and the guys know and everybody in the shop knowing how good Ryan runs at Martinsville, there wasn't a single person in that shop that had given up on us, despite the push to start working ahead on the 22 car.

They continued to focus on us. They focused on -- alongside of the 22, they focused on giving us the best car they could for Martinsville and continued to focus on bringing us the car that was going to come to Phoenix and race for a championship.

Q. With Ryan sweeping basically the short run, the long run speeds, was there anything you felt could be better still, and how do you feel kind of exiting this practice session -- how do you feel kind of compared to this practice session a year ago in terms of where you are?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think pretty similar. Honestly I would say we might have been a little bit better in practice last year if you looked at the stats. Certainly close.

But, again, like I said, we try to use that practice as an organization to just learn about our cars and try to get a direction from each of each other on certain changes that will make us better for the race.

So the speed is nice, but learning how to be better on Sunday is kind of our focus.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much for your time. Best of luck this weekend.