NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY MEDIA DAY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 12, 2020
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Daytona 500 Media Day Highlights:
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED IN YOUR PAST DAYTONA 500 STARTS?
“Just growing in confidence in my approach to this and trusting my instincts. And what I’ve learned over the years, and this will be my sixth Daytona 500, is just trust my instincts with my energy of the pack that I see in front of me and not worrying about the amount of laps in the race or how far into the race we are. But to be on the mindset of a little defensive driving, skill if our car is not the best car. If we have a really fast car that can lead lines, I change my approach sometimes. But if I have car that needs to be a pushing car or doesn’t have the steam to pull out of the pack, I just have to have a mindset of feeling the energy and back out when I need to back out and see what’s going on with the race. We just haven’t had that many races that finish with less than 10 cars. My goal is to be at the end of the race and have a restart in the top two or three rows, and we’ve done that the last couple races. So, I think doing that we give ourselves the best opportunity to win a race.”
AS A NASCAR DRIVER, THAT MUST BE TOUGH TO KNOW WHEN TO BACK OFF.
“We are taught to go, go, go and get everything out of the race car every single lap. But you come to the superspeedways and it’s just a different mindset. It’s a different attitude. You see guys who don’t change, and they just go, go, go. Sometimes they win a lot of races, but they crash a lot of times, too. I think being able to pull the reins on yourself here and Talladega I would say are the only places necessary to make sure you ensure a good finish. If you can cut that part off from your brain for a little bit and have a little different mindset toward it, and not be so selfish and try to perform, perform, perform, you end up putting yourself in a better position.”
WHAT HAS THAT EXPERIENCE AT DAYTONA REALLY TAUGHT YOU?
“I think it’s knowing the magnitude of race day. Even until last year and the year before, it just builds you up so much that you would be emotionally drained before you even got in the race car. So, just knowing what’s coming, preparing yourself for the day ahead, and rest is so key this week because so much is going on. Just make sure mentally, physically and spiritually you’re ready for what you endure on the Daytona 500 day is key. You want to soak it in because not many get to experience the day. But you also want to take care of your body throughout it.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT ANOTHER MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY HAS ACHIEVED SUCCESS HERE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL?
“Certainly, Austin has a trophy here and I want one as well. For both of us to have a trophy here at Daytona would be a big thing. I think we’re capable of it. But I have a lot of reasons to win this race, not just to outdo my brother.”
WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP LIKE WITH HIM?
“We’re brothers, we’ve competed our whole lives. We’re still pretty competitive, but I’d say as we’ve grown up and we have our own families, and he has his first child on the way, we both grow in different ways and even our careers have grown in different ways. I think we’re very respectful of each other’s careers and lives. We’re still brothers.”
DID YOU BOTH WANT TO BE RACE CAR DRIVERS?
“I wanted to be a football player, and I was kind of the first to make the call to go racing and he kind of jumped in with me. He was a good baseball player and I was a football player. I think initially we didn’t have our minds set on being race car drivers from the start.”
IS THERE A DEFINITIVE PART OF THIS TRACK THAT YOU WOULD NOT RATHER BE?
“For me, being in the middle of a pack with the big run or on the bottom line in a pack coming off Turn 2 if your car is not handling good, especially if you’re tight off Turn 2 because your car will take off as if it was on ice, is one of the trickiest parts of the track.”
HOW DO YOU RACE IN THE CONSTANT TRAFFIC?
“I always try to look one to two cars ahead throughout the race. You have to have a lot of trust in your spotter to catch something ahead of you, but I’m always checking. I’m probably looking in four directions within a second, checking all my surroundings. I’m very aware of what’s happening in front of me because I want to miss that crash. I guess the most mentally exhausting thing for me is I’m constantly checking. If I’m in row eight of a pack, I’m watching the guys up front to see if they’re getting squirrely. That’s how I get my read on the energy of the pack. Sometimes you can get focused on your bumper and try to push the guy in front of you when the most important thing to you is happening four rows in front of you.”
WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD HERE?
“I think it’s growing in confidence and trusting my instincts, and just feeling the energy of the pack. My first couple of attempts I would see things and feel things but not adjust to it. You’re bread as a NASCAR driver to just go, go, go and get, get, get. But trusting that, ‘Man, this just doesn’t feel right’ no matter how many laps are left, knowing that history shows there’s going to be a lot of crashes, has helped me. But just trusting my instincts and feeling the energy of the pack has helped me the last few races.”
IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN THE DRAFT?
“You can’t learn the Cup race until you get in the Cup race. I think I was a pretty good drafter in the Xfinity Series and even my rookie season in Cup. And I was; I did a good job and had some good races. But the Cup level is a different level. It’s hard to explain. Everything almost starts new when you get to Cup. You are a talented driver, you have the experience in certain ways, but when you get to Cup you have to readjust, you have to put yourself back down to what feels like a local track level of learning and build yourself back up. There’s nothing that beats experience at this level.”
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