| Media Availability Quotes: What are you looking to accomplish as we get set for practice and qualifying, and the race?“Thank you for having me, first. Second, I don’t think it’s been a very long lead up. It’s been a very intense lead up. I’ve literally known about doing this race for about 10 days, maybe. I sat with the NASCAR folks in Atlanta and asked them what I needed to do in order to be licensed in NASCAR. I have to start on a short track, and so here I am. Very happy to be here. Very happy that BJ (McLeod) and Live Fast gave me the opportunity. I’ve spent the majority of the week in North Carolina driving the simulator. RCR was kind enough to let me on their static sim, and Chevy was kind enough to put me in the DIL, the motion sim. Hendrick was really cool. They let me do pit stop practice and Kaulig has been super awesome, so I feel well-supported and as prepared as I possibly can having never driven on an oval like this, a NextGen car. I’ve done a handful of stock car races in my career, so I feel like I’m either going to sink or swim, but everybody has given me the best possible opportunity to go out there and do a good job.” Talk about your love of racing and where it comes from…“I don’t know where it comes from but it’s definitely inherent in me. I grew up racing go karts. I wanted to be a Formula 1 driver, but then I ended up in open wheel and found a love for Sportscar racing. I loved doing the Xfinity races I did and wanted to do more stock car racing. I got the opportunity to do the Chili Bowl, so I did it. It was really cool. It was a really cool experience. I figured the more things I do, the better I’ll become. Everything teaches you something, but I do feel I have one of the most diverse careers in racing. Literally, you name it, I’ve driven it. I’ve driven Formula E. I’ve driven prototypes. I’ve driven so many different forms of racing. I feel like this is the one I really wanted to do that’s eluded me. I just love it. It’s in my blood. I think, you know how they say your job should not be your identity? Well, this is 100 percent my identity. I’m just a racing driver. I don’t know where I’d be without it. I love it so much. I love everything about it. I love the driving. I love the comradery. I love the competition with everybody else. I love the competition with yourself. I love the technical elements of it and figuring out what to do to make your race car go fast. I love the strategy. Literally every aspect of it makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. I just love it.” Talk about not making your debut on a road course, or if that’s been discussed?“Yes. I think I would’ve felt a whole different level of comfort if I had been at COTA this past weekend. We spoke about it; it was just really tough to get it done in the timeframe. So, we were in Atlanta and NASCAR said you could do COTA or Phoenix. I was like COTA, COTA would be great, but there was just no way to get everything done and get the car ready for COTA. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but fortunately here I am at Phoenix.” What does the preparations you’ve made in the time you’ve had do to your expectations?“I think expectations aside, if I can tell you what my goals and hopes are. That’s basically finish all of the laps. I want to do a good job and minimizing mistakes because everybody makes mistakes, but I really want to minimize them. I want to stay out of trouble and show respect and prove that I belong. I think if I do those things, I think I will get the opportunity to do more.” Do you see yourself running more races this year? Is that the ultimate goal?“That would be awesome, yeah. I would love to do that. I don’t think that we have any expectation that we’re going to go out and be competitive. I think if we finish anything but last, that would be a win for us honestly because I don’t have the experience that any of these guys have. I don’t have the car at the moment that’s capable of going and running up in front, so hopefully we can develop me and the car and everything else at the same time and we can get there.” In talking more of doing these races, does that mean INDYCAR is off the table this year, or the Indy 500?“Nope. It doesn’t mean that. I would say that I’m hopeful to do more INDYCAR races.” Indy 500?“I would love to. Let’s see.” You’re the first female driver in Cup since Danica (Patrick). Is there any sense of pride?“It’s disappointing that there aren’t more women in INDYCAR, NASCAR, Cup. (In) Sportscars, there’s really been kind of a gap. There was Sarah Fisher and Danica (Patrick) and me and Simona (de Silvestro) and a bunch of good drivers in that era. Then there’s been this gap, this lull, and so when I stop racing, or maybe alongside it but definitely focused when I want to stop racing, I’d love to bring up the next generation. I think there’s only a handful of us that have those shared, lived experiences, and I think that my experience might be valuable in helping them navigate it. Everybody says, ‘What’s it like to be a girl in racing?’ and I don’t know, because I only have my own experience. I don’t know what it’s like to be a boy in racing. So, I know what my journey has been, and I know that it’s gone for me, and it’s gone against me, and I know where the struggles are. I know mentally what you have to do to overcome those struggles, and so, I think, to me it just is I would much rather people just saw me as another racecar driver on merit, but that’s not reality and I’m not immune or blind to the fact it has helped me in ways too. I’m just going to go out there and be Katherine and do the very best that I can.” It’s a tough balance in earning respect and getting experience for yourself. How do you balance those two things?“That is one of my main concerns, I would say. I want to be respectful of the leaders and stay out of the way, because it’s going to happen inevitably. But I also am worried once you get out of the rhythm and you have people constantly passing you, then you’re always going slower. You’re never going at your limit, so you don’t really get to feel what the actual race is like. I don’t know yet. We’ve gone over it, saying stay in the second lane, let them go underneath you. I’ve got a great spotter. I haven’t met him yet, but apparently, he’s awesome, (David) Pepper. I think that will be a challenge. I will say this, and it will go for every form of motorsport – the guys at the back are working way harder than the guys at the front. Because the cars that you get when you’re in a Penske or a Ganassi in INDYCAR, whatever it may be over here that’s uber-competitive, it’s so much easier to be at the front than it is to be at the back. I know that a lot of them have paid their dues by driving in that position, and so that I think that they will respect that if I respect what they’re trying to achieve too.” Talk more about the quick process from Atlanta to here, and when you talk about trying to get comfortable and get the experience, would it have made sense or why is it so important to be here as opposed to maybe later in the month like at Martinsville?“That’s a great question. There is absolutely no reason however, when I talk to other drivers and teams in NASCAR and people that were helping me, they said this is the best track for me to learn at and going to somewhere like Martinsville would be terrifying. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but I take their advice, right? I don’t know what I don’t know, so when someone says to me, then I do what I’m told.” Have you met BJ (McLeod) and Jessica or what do you think of them?“Such a good dude. They’re both awesome people. I mean, they hustle, and you have to respect their love for the sport, and they want it so badly. They do everything they can to be here, and I think that that kind of embodies how I feel about it sometimes too. You don’t always have the money or the equipment, but you love racing so you do what you can and try and build on that and improve. I think he’s the same.” Was there any inclination with this being Women’s History Month and we’ve got to get this going for March?“No. You know what? I’m going to admit this now and I probably shouldn’t use these words, but I’m going to anyway. I said, ‘Oh, I’m going to fly under the radar for my first Cup race,’ right? Nobody is going to notice. We’ll be in the back. We’ll chill. We’ll get NASCAR permission and then someone said ‘Oh, it’s International Women’s Day Saturday.” There’s no way I’m flying under the radar. No, we did not take that into consideration and here I am in front of you guys.” On your meeting at Cosworth and where you are now…“I think when you want something badly enough, you find a way to make it happen, and so I think I just kind of clawed and tried and did everything I could to get as many opportunities as I could. I’ve honestly driven some really bad cars that I probably shouldn’t have driven. I nicknamed one the car ‘almost certain death.’ You have to do what you have to do to get here. My father’s not well here but wishes he was, but we didn’t have a million dollars to spend on the best teams and the best equipment and working our way through the ranks to showcase my talent. I had to do a bit of everything, and sometimes it worked out and sometimes it didn’t. I never had a backup plan. I always had to go from opportunity to opportunity and make the most of it. My whole career, my whole life has been that kind of rollercoaster. You know what? I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. I think when it’s hard, you appreciate it so much more. If you really had to dig in and work through it, then it means so much to you. I’ve had a hell of a life and a hell of a career so far, and I sit here ready to go run a Cup race. I’m such a dork. I did a picture of the garage with my name on it because it’s so cool. I’m grateful for the journey I’ve had, and I wake up every morning realizing how lucky I am” You mentioned this track is so unique. What makes is so unique for someone who hasn’t run here before or run a Gen 7 car before?“I think you’ll need to ask me that after a run on the track because I don’t know but I can tell you from the sim, it’s very different from one end to the other. I’ve got a couple of friends in NASCAR, luckily. I’ve been friends with AJ Allmendinger for 20 years. We ran Champ Car back in the day, and I’ve got a good friend in Andy Lally who lives just down the road from me. So, I’ve made both of them try and teach me everything they know in the space of 20 minutes and sit and watch video and watch in-car and old races. They’ve both said how awesome this track is, and how the different grooves develop over the race. Andy was also talking about the black stuff they put down around the outside they’re not going to do this time, I’m not sure. There’s the dogleg that you can cut as well, and all the things. It’s just a really unique place and it’s a really cool setting. The racing is always so good here. It’s a place where I can move out of the way, right, if I need to. So, I think that’s important. It’s wide. Hopefully, sunny.” Have you, or do you, know many of the other competitors? Is there anyone you might seek out?“It may not seem like it, but I’m kind of shy. I’m not like the person who just goes off and says ‘Hey, whoever you are, I’m Katherine.’ It’s like my first day at school, you know? It’s like if you’re starting a new job, but it’s doing the job that you’ve been doing for a long time but it’s in a new environment. You have to figure out who your coworkers are, make friends, and you have to figure out where the bathrooms are. Where’s credentials? I have no idea where it is coming in here. It’s all the auxiliary stuff that I don’t know that I don’t know. Everybody has been so friendly, so nice. It’s been such a really cool, supportive paddock, honestly. So many have been helping me this week. It’s made my heart very happy. I’m sure I’ll meet the other drivers, and hopefully, they’re receptive to me. I’m not sure what to expect, so there’s a certain level of apprehension that goes with that.” |
