Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 47 Kroger / NOS Energy Drink Camaro ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ practice session at Iowa Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
Can the experience you had here, 12 or so years ago, still translate, especially given that the cars are different and the repave? Are the lessons you learned here a decade ago still relevant?
“Probably not (laughs), unfortunately. But any time you come to a place that you have good memories, I feel like it’s always beneficial. Luckily, I’ve got some good memories because I’ve got some really bad memories from here too, as well, from early on in my career.
I got to do a simulator session this week. A lot of the characteristics, at least on the scan that we ran – there were a few things that were similar. But yeah, the repave is definitely going to be tricky and different. I’m looking forward to getting on track.
I walked out here and I felt like it was a lot bigger than I remember. I felt like it was a pretty small short-track (laughs), but obviously you get going pretty quick here. Excited to get on track.”
The restart zone, coming right after the outside lane, how is that going to impact restarts? You’ve been in your share of stack ups and things getting bunched up there in the middle of the pack on a restart..
“Yeah, it’s tough. It’s odd that as easy as these cars are to shift, that we have so many stack ups now, it seems like. Everybody is just trying to time it perfectly. It’s not people missing shifts; it’s whether you get like a good launch or not and the people in front of you getting launches. Yeah, it seems like one lane might be a little bit better at times. We’ll have to see how that goes throughout the night and see if that changes where you end up restarting. But definitely interesting to kind of watch these races before us. We’ll have a pretty good idea before we race on Sunday.”
Based on the track walk, the way that one lane kind of ends and the other one continues – would people dive down and move up, just to try and get that extra little bit? How will you guys handle that?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t do the test here, and I really haven’t seen much video from it either. And like I said, the track scan that we ran in sim is not identical to the actual lanes being repaved. I can only go back to maybe like a Pocono (Raceway), when they had that strip there – we searched for it really quick, right? So that will be interesting to kind of see. I feel like once you’re committed to the bottom lane here, I don’t see you really kind of switching lanes. You might come across on exit a little bit, but hopefully it gets wide. All of us were hoping that they wouldn’t have to do any paving because the races I remember here, after I was done racing here – man, they looked really, really fun. So hopefully it gets back to that sooner rather than later. But I think we’re all kind of anxious to get out there and see how it is. I think there were three or four cars that tested here, so they got some laps. I think it picked up a lot of speed, really fast, during that test – I think over like two seconds, from the time they started to the time they ended. Obviously the track changed a lot and it’ll be interesting to kind of see if it changes throughout this weekend, as well.”
On the repave, obviously you guys probably don’t want that to happen. Have you done any investigating.. like did they tell you that it had to be done? Did you guys just find out it was being done, or did they consult with you beforehand?
“I mean they told us. I didn’t ask why.. I just take their answers and just roll with it (laughs).
No, I mean obviously, they barely got it done in time I think for the test. I mean it was pretty quick. I know the winters are harsh up here, and obviously other racetracks that we have up in the north are kind of the same way. I don’t know the for sure reasons why they had to do it, but hopefully it races good. I mean I think it will.. it always has in the past, whether it was a new racetrack or an old, worn out one. Hopefully that all comes back together.”
With this race being this weekend and the World of Outlaws being at Knoxville Raceway – are you going to head down there the next two nights? Can you talk about how good of a start to the season Sheldon has had?
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’m taking the whole team down tomorrow. We have NOS Energy Drink on the car this weekend, and then we have our World of Outlaw car running with Sheldon tonight and tomorrow. I’m going to go down both nights, but looking forward to taking the whole team to Knoxville (Raceway) tomorrow. None of them have been there before, expect Mike (Kelley) went down with me. I think in 2012, I ran down there and raced here that weekend. So looking forward to going down there and hanging out with them. And then they’re all going to come to the race on Sunday. We’ve had a really good start to the season, as far as speed and wins go. We’ve had some engine issues and a couple crashes that has kind of taken us out of the points standings, but yeah we have seven wins. I feel like we have a chance every night that we unload the car.”
You had a solid finish the first time we went to Nashville Superspeedway. What are your expectations for that race in a couple weeks?
“Yeah, Nashville (Superspeedway) is a fun racetrack. It’s concrete. It never really feels that good to you. It’s kind of like trying to get your car to just feel the least bad that you can. There’s never a time where I feel like I go through a corner there, when we ran well, and felt like – man, that was a really good corner, or my car felt really good. I’m looking forward to getting back there. It’s a wide racetrack. I feel like there’s a lot of good racing to be had there, so definitely looking forward to getting there.”
About Chevrolet
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