Tell us a little bit about this week, what it’s been like getting ready for the Indianapolis Road Course?
“It’s been a real experienced for myself. I landed here on Friday, and been working closely with everyone from Richard Childress Racing and also with everyone at Chevy as well. I’ve been at the GM Tech Center quite a bit. I’ve done around 13 to 14 hours in their simulator there, and just trying to be a sponge and get up to speed as quickly as possible in the short amount of time I have.”
What are your early impressions of the Next Gen car so far?
“I didn’t get the pleasure of doing an on-track test. I’ve only done time in the simulator at the GM Tech Center. Honestly, there are a lot of similarities between the Camaro I’m racing today and what I race back home in Australia. First time on track will be on track in practice, so I’ll let you know after that.”
What did you think of the simulator? What did you gain from it?
“It’s something that we don’t do back home at all, so obviously, GM built the Tech Center 11, 12 months ago. I was pretty amazed by the amount of technology that’s in there. It really helped my learning curve trying to understand the car, the track as well. I’ve also been working closely with the team on setups as well. I’m looking forward to jumping in the car and seeing the correlation.”
There’s a lot of talk about the physicality of these races and how it’s full-contact racing. Coming in, are you ready for that?
“Yeah, I think what we do back home I quite similar in a way. There’s probably a little bit more rules around our racing back home, but it is pretty similar in a way. I’ll do what I do best and drive the car and see what happens.”
Have you watched tapes of the races from here from the first two years, and what did you think of the carnage?
“I was actually pretty scared after I found out I was doing this race. I went back through the last two years to study pretty quickly on how the race played out and what it was like in Turn 1. Obviously, this weekend, there have been changes to the restart zone. It was a bit interesting going back through and watching how the races played out. I honestly think it will be quite a bit different this weekend with the restart zone.”
Talk about when you wanted to be a racecar driver, was NASCAR something you considered when you were younger?
“I spent around four to five years in America. I came over in 2012, I believe, and raced NASCAR late models, raced in the K&N East series, so it’s funny how the world works, and it’s come around full circle. I went back home and competed in Austrailian Supercars Championship, and leading up to this moment. To get this opportunity with everyone at RCR, and Richard (Childress), to get my Cup debut. I guess it’s sort of done full circle which is pretty cool.”
Talk about your preparation for practice. It’s very short. What are your thoughts on qualifying?
“The procedure and format here is a lot different than back home. We’re still similar to how NASCAR was prior to COVID. Not much time to get accustomed to everything. Being able to spend 30 to 40 hours at the GM Tech Center in the simulator has been pretty crucial in how practice is going play out. We’ve only got 20 minutes in practice then it’s straight into qualifying. So, we’ll just have to make sure I hit my marks early. I’ve been given all the tools and everything around me to be able to perform well. I’m pretty confident going into practice that as long as what happens with the weather, we’ll see what happens.”
With (Shane Van Gisbergen) winning, did it bring more attention to your doing this?
“No. We’ve been working on this for about two years now with everyone at RCR. We sort of looked at the calendar, and my options for doing a race were quite limited on the fact that back home we race as well. So, there were only a few races that weren’t conflicting. One was Chicago and the other one was Indy. With how RCR performed here last year, we circled that on the calendar quite a while ago. Obviously, what Shane (Van Gisbergen) did at Chicago was quite amazing, but I think it’s very different circumstances here this weekend.”
When SVG won in Chicago, there was a lot of focus on his heel-toe right-foot braking. Are you a heel-toe guy?
“Yeah. Pretty much 90 percent of everyone back home in Australia right-foot brakes. It’s something we have to do back home with our cars. It’s sort of been the fastest way we get our Supercars around, so if you don’t do it back home, you don’t really make it.”
Do you think it’ll be an advantage tomorrow? Was it something of focus back home?
“It’s quite amazing. Each sport is different in their own way. Tomorrow, I don’t know if it’s going to help me or may hinder me. I won’t know until I drive it in practice. We’ll just sort of have to see. It seems it’s pretty cool that it’s different over here to right-foot brake and heel-toe. It was pretty cool to see the onboard (camera) of Shane.”
Shane set the bar pretty high. For road course ringers coming in and winning races, it had been a long time since anyone had been competitive. Do you anticipate that going into Sunday’s race, not just to run laps but to also be competitive?
“I think there’s no secret there have been ringers in before. I’ve been fast at times but I haven’t won races. Then Shane came over, first time on a street circuit and the weather and whatnot. That’s sort of our bread and butter back home, racing on a street circuit. It’s something that you can’t actually go and practice on. It was pretty cool to see. Honestly, with how many road courses that are on the NASCAR schedule now, a lot of drivers have put in the effort into their road course program. It’s definitely not going to be easy and these guys are really good at what they do.”
It’s one step at a time, but you talk about taking this two years in the making to get this done, is this something you want to do more of?
“I just want to see how this weekend sort of plays out. Just see what opportunities come up, if they do after this weekend. I sort of live one day at a time, so yeah, we’ll see what happens.”
Scott McLaughlin has had a lot of good things to say about you. How much have you spoken to him and, when did you first become aware of Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
“I’ve known about Indianapolis since I was quite young. I’ve always watched the Indy 500, and I was able to come over last year and watch Scotty (McLaughlin) do his thing in IndyCar which was really cool. He’s someone I’ve leaned on quite a bit when I made my debut back home for the Supercars Championship. I haven’t asked him too much about the NASCAR side of things, coming over and doing this. It seems like two different worlds in a way.”
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