Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Pure Michigan 400 – Michigan International Speedway
Friday, August 26, 2016
Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Career for Veterans Ford F-150 met with media members prior to opening Truck Series practice Friday at Michigan to discuss his season to date, a huge sponsor weekend and more.
TYLER REDDICK, No. 29 Cooper Standard Career for Veterans F-150 – BIG WEEKEND FOR YOU AND YOUR SPONSOR AS YOU LOOK FOR A WIN TO GET INTO THE CHASE. “Yeah, obviously as I am sure a lot of you know it is the Careers for Veterans 200 so it is a really big deal for Cooper Standard and the Careers for Veterans program. We have a lot on our shoulders and we will have over 3,000 people here on behalf of Cooper Standard and over 40 Veterans that will do the invocation for us. Yeah, we need to go out there and win this race. That would be great for our guys. We just have to go get it done.”
BRAD SEEMED PRETTY EXCITED ABOUT THIS WHOLE WEEKEND, WHAT IS IT LIKE TO DRIVE FOR BRAD? “He had taught me a lot at a lot of these tracks, especially the first time around picking up on little things and little areas that you can use. Obviously here, the bottom is a little flatter than the top half of the race track and a lot of times you can use that to your advantage. The more technical tracks he helps me with little things everywhere. He really cares about this team and this race obviously. It means a lot to him and he wants to make sure we do everything we can to win this race Saturday. We just have to get it done. I think we have had pretty good vehicles in the past here and we had a pretty good truck here last year. We have to do our part and make sure everything is good. Obviously qualifying is important but I would rather have a truck that races good instead of qualifying good. Sometimes here you can have a truck that qualifies good but isn’t good in traffic. Hopefully we find the happy medium and find something we are really comfortable in.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE COMPETING WITH YOUR TEAMMATE FOR AN XFINITY SPOT NEXT YEAR? “It is hard to say. I haven’t put that much thought into it at all. I have really just been trying to focus on what is ahead of us right now, directly ahead of us. Obviously the year hasn’t gone great for us points wise with a few DNF’s and things not going our way. It seems like last year everything went our way and we were good in points. Right now we really have to win a race. That stuff for next year and beyond I don’t worry about. Right now it is most important to take care of what is right ahead of us and what is important right now.”
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A SPOTTER AND YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR SPOTTER? “He has done a really good job with helping me pick up on the race tracks almost everywhere we go. He has a lot of races under his belt and he does a really good job with Dale Jr. as well but he has helped me a lot just about anywhere when it comes to working the air to my advantage around other people at the bigger tracks to where I need to get better on my line in the race or practice. He is spot on about that. He is good at giving out information like if I run the bottom and someone is coming on the top if someone is coming or going and if I need to be better or what I need to do to pick up some speed. He is helpful in helping us find all the speed out there on the track that we can find in the truck. In the race he does a great job of helping me learn and grow and understand all the air out there and working it to my advantage. He has helped me in a lot of aspects. It has been great to have him on board since I have become a part of the team. He has helped my learning process immensely as well.”
HOW MUCH TALKING DO YOU LIKE TO HAVE FROM HIM? “When I first started racing, coming from dirt racing I didn’t have anyone in my ear. At first I think it kind of bothered me a little and I was used to clearing myself a lot of times but now I am not worried about it. I do look in the mirror quite a bit but have gotten more comfortable with the whole deal. The more he talks the better. It keeps me better informed of what is going on on the race track and around me. At first I was probably more toward the side of not as much but now as much information as he can give me is all good information and something I can absorb and take in while I am doing the race.”
WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR BEST CHANCE IS TO GET A WIN BEFORE THE CHASE? “I think we have a really good opportunity at each of the next three for sure. If I could pick the three I want to win, this is the one I want to win the most. It is the next race and a really big deal for Cooper Standard and the Careers for Veterans program and our whole team. This is the race of the three that I want to win the most. It would be great to win the last three. We could find something. The road course is different for all these guys. I felt like we were pretty good off the truck there last year. Chicagoland was a track we were good in practice; we just didn’t have things go our way in the race. We ended up running second. I think we have really good speed at these next three tracks. We have to take advantage of what we have and put ourselves in the right position. This could be a fuel mileage race, all three could be. Dough Randolph and all the guys on the pit box do a great job calling the race and picking out what is going to happen and sticking with a strategy to the end of the race and a lot of times it works out.”
WITH THAT WIN OUR BUST MENTALITY, DOES THAT PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOU OR DOES IT FREE YOU UP TO GO FOR IT? “I have really tried to have the win or bust mentality all year long, understanding that if we win it is easier than worrying about points all year long. We have had opportunities to win but not had things fall our way. It seems like we have had things go against us every way they can. Getting wrecked or having a caution come out or whatever it may be. I feel like there is not a lot of pressure on us. This is something our team knows how to do. We have done it before. We did it last year twice. There is really no pressure, we just have to go out and do what we normally do and have a good weekend and make no mistakes. We have done that before. It is no pressure. We are doing something we know how to do, we just go out and do our normal deal.”
IS THIS HARDER FOR YOU HAVING ALL THIS ACTIVITY IN ONE DAY? “No, we usually qualify and race on the same day. Obviously it is a little bit of a curve ball to me when the first time on the track for the day is qualifying when you have to be your fastest. But like I said, Doug and the guys do a really good job with the truck and having it close when we fire off for qualifying. Here we have the single lap qualifying, not the rounds, so the one lap we do will be very important and getting up to speed will be very important. It is not a lot of pressure really. We have been getting better and better with qualifying. It is kind of up to what we have package wise and how good we are today after practice to feel out what we have with the truck for the other guys.”
HOW DO YOU COMPARE THE DRAFT HERE TO SOMEWHERE LIKE DAYTONA OR TALLADEGA? “As I kind of said earlier I think you are going to have people with trucks that qualify really good and some that will race better than they qualify. Obviously qualifying is great but it only puts you up there for the start. It seems like here at Michigan, the draft really comes into play and being able to have a vehicle that drives well in dirty air will be very important for us so that is what we are shooting for. Practice will be important today. We will put ourselves in the best position we can to figure out our vehicle and how it drives in traffic. I am sure there will be a lot of people out there as well doing the same thing, trying to figure out how the truck will handle in traffic and how to make it better.”
HAS BRAD SAID ANYTHING TO YOU GUYS ABOUT HOW BIG A WEEKEND IT IS FOR HIM AND THE ORGANIZATION OVERALL? “I don’t think he really has to. We all know how important it is. Every one of us do at the shop. Cooper Standard has been a part of the team for a long time and the Careers for Veterans has been as well. This is my first year driving their truck but I have been a part of this team long enough to know how important it is to everybody. It goes unsaid. Everyone understands and knows what this race means to Brad and Cooper Standard and all the veterans that will be here and all the ones watching at home that couldn’t make it. We all understand what we have to go do and hopefully we can go do just that.”
