Q: This race can be big in terms of setting your season up for a run at the Triple Crown and getting as many points as possible with a full field for a national title push. How important is it to start off your season with a performance like you had in last year’s Danville Toyota 300?
A: “It’s really interesting to come up here and it’s a big race. We were talking about, ‘What do you have to look forward to in the fall?’ We always treat this as a big race and there’s a lot of car count, a lot of good cars and it just didn’t pay as well [in years prior when it was a 150-lap race]. Now it pays really good and is part of the Triple Crown and all this stuff. It’s important, but it’s not going to make or break your year. It’s like winning the first football game and it’s not going to take you out of the Super Bowl or stuff like that. It’s important to win the money and it’d be a nice way to start off the year and validate a lot of the stuff we’ve done over the offseason — building a new car and hiring a new crew chief [Sammy Houston] and reforming our team. It’s good to get off on the right foot but we’ve got a good car so far and we’ll be contenders Saturday."
Q: Do you focus on the Triple Crown at all during this race or do you just go out there and treat it like a big-money race and let the points fall where they may?
A: “It makes you think about it. Maybe if you rip the nose off or something or you do fall back — I’m not one to give up — some of these other guys that might say, ‘We’re already bad, let’s park it,’ they’re probably going to go for it. The points, somebody’s going to win it, and it’s about getting all the points you can. It’s going to be a full field, so you can’t bank on people not showing up. It makes you think differently and makes you prepare even more."
Q: With the way you ran here last year, you almost had the chance to win. Does that give you any type of confidence with the offseason you’ve had getting a new car, bringing in an experienced crew chief that you’ve got something for Philip and those guys?
A: “I certainly do. I know what I felt with my car that I raced with last year and this new car that we’ve built here, I feel all those things that I needed to win that race as far as the entry and the drive, and the way and the attitude of the car. I felt like I’ve gained everything that I needed to win. All the pieces are in place and of course you have to have racer luck and all that stuff on your side. We’ve overly prepared and we’ve really concentrated on making sure we have a good race car, not just a qualifying car, and I think it will show up."
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