Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher came to the infield media center prior to today’s All-Star Race practice and qualifying sessions to answer questions about last week’s race at Darlington and expectations for Sunday night.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW HAS QUALIFYING EVOLVED? “At least now we get laps on racetracks. It’s certainly quick. Twenty minutes. Fortunately, we have a lot of SMT data to go through. It turns into a lot of your practice time that used to be on track is now spent studying, trying to prep and be ready for those handful of laps. I think the next part of it is our adjustments are just extremely limited. The same can really be said for our teams, where our setup development is not done at a racetrack near as much now as it is back at the shop and back on simulation and trying to be prepped to where we can get to where we need to be within the tight parameters that we have on practice day now.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Nexlizet Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW IMPORTANT IS SPEED IN QUALIFYING IN TERMS OF PIT ROAD SELECTION? “Week to week it varies. Last week, I thought it was critically important. The way that Darlington played out with the first pit stall and the proximity that it had to the timing lines and the pit out line is just such a significant advantage, and then I think we see other tracks where it’s not a big deal. It seems like Daytona and Talladega and those places the way it plays out there it’s not a factor in the race. So, week to week I think it varies significantly. Obviously, you always want to qualify well. There’s nothing bad about qualifying well usually, although we had that race at Atlanta this year where the 22 car started a lap down and it was the best thing that happened to him. Usually, qualifying well is a good thing and pit stalls are one of the reasons why.”
AS INTERMEDIATES BECOME THE BETTER RACING WE HAVE ARE SHORT TRACKS BECOMING A MORE ENDANGERED SPECIES? “It’s always interesting to see, at least from my perspective, how the racing evolves and there’s all these kind of lagging indicators. When you think about the schedule and the races, it’s like it takes the schedule three to five years to catch up with the racing, maybe even longer sometimes, where you’re like, ‘Oh, this type of racing is excellent. We should have more of these types of races.’ And inherently our racing seems to evolve, for whatever reason, in those time spans and what might be a good racetrack for us competitively changes. I think I would go back to the start of the Next Gen era when we were coming off the Gen 6 erar and the mile-and-a-half races were probably less compelling than short track races, and I feel like when we went to the Next Gen race car that completely flipped to where the mile-and-a-halves are more compelling than the short tracks. So it’s funny how that dynamic works. I’m almost positive with my experience in the sport that that will evolve again and it will evolve to where eventually short track racing seems to be really, really good and the mile-and-a-half racing not as good and by then we’ll have evolved to having more mile-and-a-half races. It always seems to be a struggle to get the schedule in step with the racing and how it works as far as the most compelling events for whatever reason. I think that puts more emphasis on the moves that NASCAR has made and even SMI to some extent of going private with the tracks, so that time cycle can be more in tune with the racing that you see and what’s more prevalent. I think you’re gonna see that in the years to come get utilized perhaps in a more equitable way, but it is interesting right now to see our circuit and schedule and the mile-and-a-halves being so great. I don’t know how you can argue that the mile-and-a-half racing isn’t the best racing in NASCAR right now and three years ago if I would have told you that, you would have probably laughed. It’s just funny how that shifts so quickly and it’s so important for our sport to be nimble to be able to adapt and really capture that.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – IS THE MILLION DOLLARS ENOUGH INCENTIVE FOR THE IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT OR SHOULD THERE BE A PLAYOFF POINTS INCENTIVE AS WELL TO MAKE THAT MORE IMPORTANT? “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that I don’t think it’s gonna change what we do week in and week out. It is gonna be another storyline and something we can talk about and lean into at times, but I don’t think it’s gonna change how we show up at the racetrack at any point during that timeline. I think we’re gonna show up to figure out how to win races. A million dollars is significant.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – “It goes to the team? I thought it went to a gambler. This might change my answer. OK. That’s good. You (looking at Chris) get like 100-grand and I get the rest (laughter). That’s gonna get negotiated in some driver contracts. I thought it went to a fan. I have no idea how this works.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – “We actually had this conversation this week, neither of us gamble so this is kind of uncharted territory for me and Brad both.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – “We can only race one year at a time and that’s next year, so I have no idea.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – “We’re going to the racetrack to win races every week, so from where I’m at I don’t know how it changes your initial look on the weekend or how you approach it. I guess it may change if you end up in a strange situation with damage and laps down you may work a little harder knowing the situation. You could certainly see Daytona, Atlanta, something like that if there’s some of that in the bracket. I have no clue.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – “So it’s kind of like a Winston Million for the whole field? Yes? OK. Clearly, we have a lot more studying to do. I don’t know if that answered your question, but I thought it was all like a gambling thing. We don’t gamble, so that shows us what we know. I still want to win it now that I know I can win it, but being that it’s a year from now it’s kind of like, ‘OK, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.’ A lot can happen in a year.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – WHERE IS THE LINE IN THAT SPORTS CROSSES A LITTLE TOO FAR AND BECOMES MORE ENTERTAINMENT? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? “I ran heat races while racing locally growing up, so that was actually a throwback to more of your grassroots type of racing for me. We’ve gone a little bit beyond that in some ways and I know we’re staring at (a set of Goodyear tires). They’re all black from this side, but I know one of those is red and yellow and we have different options to give it a go here. I guess with that it’s opening up opportunities for this race as a perfect example. It gives us an opportunity to go try something. I think we actually tried heat races on the Xfinity side close to 10 years ago, didn’t we? I actually enjoyed that, but I also remember Bristol there is a fear of getting something wadded up and not being able to continue on in your primary. It can really mess up your year long outlook on it just by doing that, so it’s a little tricky in that sense. Heat races growing up a lot were to make sure that we established a field and sent home 40 percent of the cars that were at a racetrack. For us, we’re all on track and most always we’re all making the race, so it has a little different purpose here, I guess, and it becomes a little bit more of an entertainment value, but I don’t see anything wrong with a lot of it to keep the entertainment up and keep us searching for different strategies and different ways to go about our weekends.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – DO YOU THINK DRIVER SALARIES AND CONTRACT DETAILS SHOULD BE MORE TRANSPARENT TO THE PUBLIC? “Generally, I’m a fan of transparency in all aspects of my life. Generally, I think I’m a fan of that stuff being more public. It’s not and the way this sport is structured the drivers work for teams as independent contractors in most cases and that creates contracts that for a number of reasons tend to be more private in nature. I wouldn’t have an issue at all with that stuff being more public personally as long as it was public for everyone. It doesn’t make sense to be public for one person and not for everyone, so I don’t know that I would say that’s the number one thing in our sport to be working on. I probably wouldn’t prioritize that, but transparency is generally a good thing in my eyes.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – “To add a little bit to that, I feel like when I was a kid watching on the couch, and I may be way off base on this, but it used to be advertised a little bit more of what the purse was for a weekend and where everything paid out. I know we really don’t know that. This is the one weekend where we actually talk about it. I think we talked about it at the 500 this year because it has exponentially grown as an event, but you really don’t talk about it on the race side of things either. Like Brad said, it’s not at the top of our minds I guess most times until you put it on the billboard that it’s a million to win this weekend.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – “Most of us are, we’re incentivized to win by money don’t get me wrong. I don’t ever want to leave the impression that we’re not, but for the most part, I think most of the drivers are incentivized by pride and probably a little ego, maybe a lot of ego in some cases, and the money is a complement to that, but I don’t think, I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t think it’s a primary factor in what race car drivers at this level compete for.”
CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE BACK AT THIS TRACK KNOWING IT HAS GONE FROM A LOST SPEEDWAY TO A PLACE WE GO TO REGULARLY AGAIN? “It’s kind of neat sitting here right now, actually me and Bayley Currey, who is out there in a truck right now, came up here and volunteered when Dale Jr. was asking for volunteers to come clean up this place when it was at its absolute worst. I remember that pretty clearly, walking into this room and it looking like a post apocalyptic war zone. Gurneys were flipped over across the floor. Medical equipment just thrown out and trashed. It was rough, so to see where it came from for last year, understanding and seeing what the surface did and how it changed into a repave for this season and getting the news we’re gonna be here beyond is really exciting from way back when I used to be watching on TV. I don’t know growing up if I ever got to watch a race live or on TV that was current year at North Wilkesboro. We haven’t been here in a really long time, so it’s been special to be a part of coming back and a miniscule part of helping that clean up to and just see it have the potential to come back online and be a part of our schedule. It is really neat to see where it’s come from and see it stick to its roots and Marcus and their group working so hard to make sure that it has a lot of that nostalgic feel to it so that we can keep true to what it was, too.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – YOU ARE WATCHING BRENDEN QUEEN INTENTLY. ANY THOUGHTS ON HIM? “Yeah, he ran the late model race here last year and kicked our butts. I’m just glad he’s getting the opportunity. I haven’t seen cars on the track here since they repaved it, so we’re all eager to get back to the hauler and watch some truck practice.”
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