NASCAR CUP SERIES: VIVA MEXICO 250

June 15, 2025

Stephen Doran

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with our post-race media availabilities. We're joined by the winning crew chief of the No. 88 Stephen Doran.

Q. A couple minutes ago I was able to see all your emotions from the team and from you right at the pit box. What does it mean to be able to win after Chicago 2023 and having the first ever victory in Mexico City?

STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, it's such a big deal for the team, especially with the weekend we've had. Travel issues, had a short crew here, had half of our guys for practice. So it was just a huge relief to finish the weekend like we did.

Locked in the playoffs, it's a big deal.

Q. As Shane termed it, he was leaking from both ends, so were you concerned about his focus, and was there anything that you were doing to tell him, to coach him or the medical people telling him to coach him?

STEPHEN DORAN: I wasn't super concerned about him once he got going. I just kept reminding him to keep drinking some fluids. He had some little squeeze packs of energy pouches in the car with him. I could tell by his tone that he wasn't struggling too bad once he got racing.

Q. How much of that was car today and how much of that was Shane?

STEPHEN DORAN: I mean, it's hard to say. The car was obviously okay, but he's unbelievable. It's amazing to watch him race at tracks like this.

Q. How much of a struggle has it been to get to here just with what's gone on and the races that have preceded this?

STEPHEN DORAN: We knew it would be tough. He's going to a lot of these places for the first time in a Cup car just figuring out how to race ovals with this type of car. So we knew it would be a struggle. It's still going through it, but it's a huge relief to get this. I think it's just a momentum builder. We've been better on the ovals for the past month, and I think we'll keep building on that and get ready for the playoffs now.

Q. I know you never count on banking a win, but did you at least have a hunch that you had a pretty good shot at a victory with SVG coming here and with the series of road courses that are coming up on the schedule?

STEPHEN DORAN: For sure. That was our hope. We had them all circled going into the year. I don't think we approach road courses any different than we do ovals. It's max effort on every car, but we know with his skill set, if we just put him in position, he's going to take care of business at these type places.

Q. Did you feel confident having a veteran Mexican engineer with experience in the México series as part of your data analysis team?

STEPHEN DORAN: Are you speaking about José? Yeah, it was awesome to have him for a lot of reasons, but he's an amazing engineer. He's been an amazing person to have in the city, guide us around, show us some cool stuff. But having him sitting back in the truck feeding us info was awesome.

Q. With all the travel, even though you won, would you want to come back? Do you want to do this race again?

STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, for sure I'd come back. I think like with anything, the more times we do international stuff, it's just going to get better. There was some rough stuff that nobody -- it was out of everybody's control with the airplane. We did the best we could out of it, brought down the bare minimum to get through practice, and luckily had everybody here yesterday and kind of regrouped, refocused.

Yeah, I would definitely come back, though.