NASCAR CUP SERIES: CHALLENGE ROUND 3 - TOYOTA / SAVE MART 350

July 13, 2025

Stephen Doran

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started with our post-race media availabilities. We are joined by Stephen Doran, winning crew chief of today's race. Stephen, go ahead and tell us how your day went.

STEPHEN DORAN: Honestly, it was pretty uneventful until after that last caution with 15 to go. That was dicey, but I knew that there was going to be probably a third of the field stay out, and that was enough of a buffer for us to just stay out, let him do his thing.

Q. Why was the 88 just so dominant today?

STEPHEN DORAN: Most of it's Shane. We did get the car better. He was not happy with it in practice. We made a bunch of changes for today. Made the right changes, and he was pretty happy with it today and he was able to control the race, save his tires, kind of just manage his gap and use them at the end when he needed them.

Q. That's it? No other difference?

STEPHEN DORAN: There might be, but I'm not going to tell you that.

Q. Was there ever a point in this race that you guys actually felt that one or maybe a couple drivers were going to have anything for Shane?

STEPHEN DORAN: Honestly, no. A little bit nervous when the caution came out at the end, just hoping that at least 10 stayed out, and then once we had 13 or 14 stay out, I felt pretty good about it.

Q. When Shane tells you that he's unhappy with the car yesterday during practice, how does he articulate what changes he needs from the car for you to have an idea of where to adjust it and how to adjust it to get it more to his liking?

STEPHEN DORAN: We've done a lot of simulator work leading up to this race, so when he explains what he needs, we've already run through a lot of those changes on the simulator, so it's pretty easy to plug and play some of those changes.

Q. Third road course win in a month. Pretty unheard of. The last person to do it was Jeff Gordon back in '98-'99. What is that a testament to in terms of Shane's ability to drive on a road course?

STEPHEN DORAN: He's having NASCAR has never seen on road courses. It's just an honor to be a part of it. This team has done a great job building from the beginning of the year until now to get to the point where we can do this, dominate these races. The car is obviously in a good spot, too, but he's amazing. I don't know what else I can say about it. He shows it every time we come to one of these tracks.

Q. You have an outstanding road course driver. I know you're never fully relaxed over there on the pit stall, but how much more relaxed do you feel with a guy like Shane Van Gisbergen knowing you can make a call and he'll turn it into magic?

STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, I'm always pretty relaxed, honestly. But yeah, it's easier with him. You have a good gauge on how much tire he's saving, so calls like that at the end are easier with somebody like him. He gives you the confidence to know that he's got enough in the tank to fend off anybody that's coming behind him.

Q. With you guys having three wins on the season, playoffs is all but locked up. At what point do you start to prepare for the opening round and even the second round of the playoffs with the Roval sitting there in the Round of 12 knowing that Shane has a really good opportunity to make the Round of 8, but if he can secure enough points leading into it and in those owning rounds, Championship 4 berth is definitely within possibility?

STEPHEN DORAN: Sure. We started preparing after México. Just need to keep improving on the ovals, get to the point where we can maintain and advance in some of these early rounds, and like you said, the Round of 4 is not out of the question.

Q. Stephen, how much preparation is going into your oval program right now knowing that a majority of the courses you'll see between you and the playoffs are ovals, and then the collection you've got to have one or two wins in those ovals to advance?

STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, obviously a lot of the recent prep has been road courses because it's been stacked with them the last month. But we don't prep for any race any differently. We prep for the ovals just like we do the road courses. Our team approaches every race the same. So the prep for the ovals hasn't changed. It's max effort for every race.

Q. Just curious, growing up as a kid in Pennsylvania, could you have imagined this moment and the kind of success that you're enjoying right now?

STEPHEN DORAN: Yes and no. Like when I was 11 or 12, I kind of pictured myself here, and it is pretty cool to have gotten here. Yeah, pretty cool.