CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
102ND RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVYDRIVER TRANSCRIPT – MEDIA DAY
THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2018

KYLE KISER, NO. 32 NFP/JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET:

DID THE WORKLOAD OF WHAT IT TAKES TO GET READY FOR THIS RACE CATCH YOU BY SURPRISE? OR, WAS IT WHAT YOU EXPECTED THESE 10 DAYS?
“I think the mental strength it has taken has pushed me to my limit. I would say (for) me and the team. Physically, it hasn’t been too challenging. I feel very prepared, physically, I’ve kept training. But, there has been a lot of stress actually with the bump this year. That’s made it really challenging. And not trying to get distracted with the potential of not making the race; that was on my mind leading up to this. But now that’s in the past and we’re in the race, we’re in a good position. It’s been a lot easier, but I know this race is going to be very challenging. It might be a very hot race. It’s going to make it harder to drive and harder to focus. It’s going to be a tough one.”

HOPEFULLY YOU CAN CONTINUE WITH THE TEAM AND CONTINUE TO BUILD ON THAT RELATIONSHIP
“I’ve been with Juncos Racing for almost four years now, and I think that longevity that you are talking about is important. And they have everything that I would want as a driver. They’re looking out for me and they care about me. I feel like I’m at home when I’m with them. I would be very excited to stick with them for a long time.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE DRIVER DEVELOPMENT & THE PROGRAM THAT HAS HELPED YOU GROW?
“I think the honesty. That’s something I would use to describe Ricardo (Juncos) more than anything. He’s honest. He’s not going to tell you something that he doesn’t believe. He can be harsh sometimes. I’ve definitely had the harsh truth told me. We discuss it though, it’s not a one-sided discussion.”

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAST YEAR’S CARS AND 2018 CARS?
“This is just a very challenging month. It’s the hardest race of the year, I think, because you have so much time to practice. That sounds like a great thing, but if you give engineers enough time to work on something, you’re going to try stuff you never thought you’d be trying. I this speaks to all the teams and all the guys who are out there. The engineers have done an incredible job. You get led down paths that are not the right way. And you can get lost. I think the biggest hurdle for us is that we almost went down that path, or led down a way that we did not want to be. But we kept working hard. We were persistent with changing a lot of stuff and staying on top of it.”

ARE YOU OKAY WITH YOUR STARTING POSITION FOR THE RACE?
“Yeah, we’re 17th, which is right in the middle. It’s honestly further up than we expected to be. Obviously we’d love to be further up, but being a single-car team, a new team, first time doing the race, has made it challenging. But, I feel like we have a car that can move forward. And if we move forward and stay clean, then we have a chance to win the race.”

WHAT’S THE MOST SURPRISING THING YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF THIS MONTH?
“Stress affects me a lot (laughs). I honestly thought I was immune to stress, to a certain degree. I’ve never been this affected by stress. And I guess I wasn’t aware until after qualifying how much better I felt. I was in denial. It’s like no, I’m not stressed out. I feel pretty good. But this has been a very stressful time before qualifying for the race because it’s always on your mind. And people keep asking you. I don’t think it affected my driving, but it was always there. I think it’s good to learn from that experience and try to not be as stressed next time I have to deal with a bump, or anything like that.”

HOW’S IT BEEN TO WORK WITH CHEVROLET?
“Chevy has been fantastic. The power is clearly been the best this month. Their support, and everything, has just been fantastic. I don’t think it gets better.”