MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 29, 2019
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 BULWARK FR/WAYNE WORKWEAR CAMARO ZL1 met with media in a casual session and discussed various topics. Selected Highlights:
IS THIS NEW PACKAGE HARDER TO DRIVE?
“It’s not physically harder from making a lap standpoint but because the speeds are up, the corner speeds, have taken a bigger toll on everybody’s bodies. The vertical and lateral g’s we’re feeling; the energy has got to go somewhere and the cars, the way they are, the drivers’ bodies are what’s taking it. It’s just the nature of the package and we’ve all got to adapt to it. People have adapted to all kinds of packages over time and this will be no different. It’s just different.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE HARDEST THING IN YOUR TRANSITION SO FAR? ASIDE FROM THE PHYSICAL DEMANDS WITH THIS NEW PACKAGE, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT HAS CAUGHT YOU OFF-GUARD?
“I made this step knowing that this is the premier racing series in the world. There are 39 other guys that are the hardest you ever race against. That’s something I try not to take lightly. That’s one thing to think of that and know that. But when you get in the middle of it and really see it in full term, that’s where I think that days where if you’re contending for wins. Leading. Running inside the top 5 in the Xfinity race and you get put in equal or not maybe as equal of stuff, that could easily be a 20th to 25th place day in a Cup car. And that’s really showed its head, I feel like, for me. So, it’s the little details. I think I’ve had to dive into a little bit more. Obviously there is a lot more data and stuff to take in to make you a better race car driver. So, just trying to process all of that and make sure you’re doing it in a way that’s productive is something. I try to look at that stuff but seeing what it can do for you and how it can benefit you I took for granted a little bit the first two or three weeks. Our speed was a little bit better so I felt like that transition wasn’t that big. But when you get in the race, you find out how big it is.”
ON RE-STARTS, TALK ABOUT HOW SMART AND HOW MUCH BETTER YOU’RE GETTING WEEK AFTER WEEK
“You can think you’re aggressive in this series leading into the Cup level. But when you get here, everybody is good at it. So, you’ve not only got to be anticipating and really seeing or thinking what the moves the guy in front of you or around you are going to make, but you’ve got to know that you’ve got to target what you need in practice and in those situations to make you have advantage. I think I took a little of that for granted the first two to three weeks. I feel like we had a little bit of maybe a head’s start on some of the package to allow us to not have to put as much effort on that side of it. And, as everybody has caught up, we’ve had to, myself in particular, have had to adjust how aggressive we’re being in trying to learn those techniques and whatnot in practice.
“So, you see cars so close to each other when we leave pit road and we’re all jostling; it doesn’t matter what it is. We’re all trying to see what our cars do well and what they don’t. All that you’ve got to use when it comes time for restarts because that is the best time to get the most spots. Once you get strung out, it’s tough and you’ve got to wait, it seems like double the amount of time, than what you’ve had to in the past to make runs and to make stuff happen.”
HOW DIFFERENT ARE THE DRIVERS IN THEIR TALENT ON THE RESTARTS WOULD YOU SAY, ON A SCALE FROM 1 TO 10?
“I think everybody could be crowded within a number or two. The guy who uses that talent and executed all the way through practice to ask for the right things out of his race car, that’s the guy who usually can excel. I stand behind that because I think that’s the difference.”
WHO HAVE YOU LEARNED THE MOST FROM AND CONTINUALLY WATCH WEEK TO WEEK TO LEARN MORE?
“There are a couple of guys. I’ve had a lot of really good leadership and mentorship throughout my ranks to get to this point. From as early as driving for Brad Keselowski, he’s the guy I could always bounce questions off of and ideas off of. Nobody’s going to give you their telltale secret of how and why they can do what they do. And Kyle Busch is another guy I’ve always been able to lean on. It makes me confident when I’m asking the right questions, I’m getting the right answers from the guys that are some of the most successful in our sport. And my teammate, Austin Dillon, is no slouch. He’s won a lot of big races and been in really good positions in every situation in his career. And, he’s got a lot of experience at the Cup level. So, I’m just trying to lean on the guys that I feel the most comfortable with in asking the right questions. So far, they’ve all been extremely helpful.”
WHAT DO YOU NEED THE MOST HELP WITH?
“Just execution. I think when I’ve done my part, we’ve had a mistake on the team side and when they’ve complete risen to the occasion and done their part all the way through the weekend, I’ve made a mistake. So, just getting the execution for all of us to be on the same page at the same time to put a solid finish together.”
TALK ABOUT THE STICKY STUFF THEY’RE PUTTING ON THE RACE TRACK HERE IN TEXAS. DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE AS TO HOW YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE?
“I can promise you I’ll be tuned-in watching the Truck Race (laughs) because we’ve only been in qualifying trim so far. The entire Cup field is in qualifying trim so you’re trying to run the shortest distance possible. Coming to the green in our qualifying runs in practice, I was actually able to run a little higher in (Turns) 3 and 4 than we’ve been able to since the repave, so that’s a little interesting to see how it holds up or where it transitions to. But, ideally, the stuff is heat activated. And it’s going to get cooler as the weekend goes but there are also a lot of other vehicles on the track between the Trucks and Xfinity; and we’ll have a pretty good idea. None of us are just hanging out and not watching what’s around us. And there’s prime races running before us will give us an idea of how that stuff is going to react and change.
“NASCAR and the race track, collectively, are trying to do something to improve the race and do something to give us more lanes to move around with. But, in the grand scheme of things, it’s also a variable; especially here on the asphalt race track where you get down in Turn 1 here at Texas and the race track is so wide you want to run the shortest distance you can. Where the tire dragging has been pulling rubber on the race track where the PJ1 mixture has been applied; it’s so far off the bottom it don’t make sense maybe until later in the run when the times have fallen off enough to go up there and run a longer distance. There’s a lot to be seen on that side of it throughout the weekend and we’ll see which way it goes.”
