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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: DRYDENE 400


October 6, 2019


Chad Johnston

Robert Kauffman


Dover, Delaware

THE MODERATOR: We will begin our winner's press conference for the 50th annual Drydene 400. We are joined by Rob Kauffman with Chip Ganassi Racing and crew chief Chad Johnston.

Q. Chad, it seemed like clean air here was king as always, but did that go into your strategy in terms of when to pit Kyle, when to not and get him in clean air?
CHAD JOHNSTON: Yeah, for sure. I told the guys on the pit box, barring a late caution that I felt the race was going to be won on that last restart, so anything we could do to make sure we had control of the race and could come off Turn 2 with the lead was going to put us in our best opportunity to win. To me that race was win off of pit road by the guys on pit road.

Q. Rob, it's been a long time coming for the 42 car. Talk about the success that you experienced today and having Kyle back in Victory Lane, what that means for the organization.
ROB KAUFFMAN: Well, obviously winning is excellent. That's why we do this. Just the culmination of a lot of hard work. The 1 team has been a big contributor this year, as well, overall, and obviously puts the 42 team in a good position for the playoffs. We've said many times if we can get Kyle into the Final Four at Homestead we have a better‑than‑fighting chance. Hopefully this is a great step in the right direction, so really proud of everyone's hard work.

Q. Chad, how do you‑‑ since you're already into the third round, how do you start approaching the next two races, or are you just focusing more on the third round and trying to get through those and how you view those tracks for you guys?
CHAD JOHNSTON: Yeah, I think for us, obviously you can breathe a little bit easier going into Talladega, being we all know what Talladega is like. But I think we still have to try to put points on the board, whether it's bonus points or race win points. There's a lot of guys that have five, six wins and a lot of bonus points that are going to roll over to that next stage, so anything we can do to close the gap on that, obviously with Martinsville being in that last round, that's not the greatest place for us, but we feel like Texas and Phoenix are places we can win at.
I think our focus is going to be on what can we do better going to Martinsville to make sure we have a solid run there and leave there with the most points that we can.

Q. I understand what you're talking about getting points. But with where you guys are positioned point‑wise, I know anything can happen, but why focus on trying to score points? Why not focus on almost solely the third round for you guys just because that could elevate you and it may be difficult to get in on points?
CHAD JOHNSTON: Yeah, I would say that we've got pretty good momentum. We've been executing really well, and I think anything that you do different than what you've been doing is taking away from the end goal, and that's to execute and come out of here with the most points possible each and every week. I don't think you focus your attention‑‑ I don't think you can forget about the next two weeks. Obviously you go to Kansas and have a strong run, you can potentially learn a lot of stuff that you can take to Texas with you.
And then Phoenix, with the repave, races a lot like an intermediate, so I think there's still a lot you can learn by going to Kansas and being strong, but I think more than anything, just keep executing and we've been executing by trying to come out of each and every week with the most points possible. I don't think taking our eye off of that prize is probably the right thing to do at this point for us.

Q. Chad, it's hard to believe, but this is the first time you guys have been in Victory Lane since Richmond in 2017. How special and how necessary was it to get this team back to Victory Lane?
ROB KAUFFMAN: There was the All‑Star.
CHAD JOHNSTON: I mean, it's obviously really important. Like Rob said, we won at the All‑Star Race. People forget about that because it wasn't a points race, but it's still a race and a million bucks. But it's really special, and like I was talking to Claire earlier, I think it's even more special to win it because of our pit road performance. Those guys have taken a lot of criticism last year, the beginning of this year, made some swaps as far as where we had people at the beginning of this year and they've dug deep and they've worked hard and they're coming into their own at the right time, and like I said, that race today was won because of pit road performance, not because of car performance.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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