Ford Daytona Truck Test -- Day 1
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES NASCAR Preseason Thunder
(Truck), Page 1
January 12, 2007 Daytona International Speedway
Today marked the first day of a three-day test session for
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams at Daytona International Speedway in
preparation for next month's Daytona 250 season-opener. Travis Kvapil,
the 2003 truck series champion, is set to compete in the No. 6 Roush
Racing Ford that was driven to victory lane a series-high six times in
2006. Kvapil, driving the defending race-winning Ford F-150, posted the
fastest time in the morning session in the truck, while his Roush Racing
teammates rounded out the top three. Rookie Peter Shepherd was the
second quickest driver, while Erik Darnell, the 2006 Raybestos Rookie of
the Year, was the third fastest driver. Kvapil and Darnell took part in
an afternoon press conference discussing upcoming season.
ERIK DARNELL-99-Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 - TALK ABOUT WHAT
YOU LEARNED IN YOUR ROOKIE SEASON AND YOUR GOALS ENTERING THE 2007
SEASON. "Well, I learned a lot coming into the truck series as a rookie
and not having any previous starts. It was kind of a new deal for me
going to new tracks that I had never been to before working with a
rookie crew chief (John Quinn) and with a new bunch of guys. We came
together very well over the year and I think it showed there at the end
of the year. We were able to put together quite a few good runs there
at the end of the season, and I think that if that's any indication of
how we're going to run in 2007, I think we're going to be in pretty good
shape."
TRAVIS KVAPIL-6-Roush Racing Ford F-150 - YOU SPENT THE PREVIOUS TWO
YEARS IN THE NEXTEL CUP SERIES AND NOW RETURN TO THE TRUCK SERIES AS A
FULL-TIME COMPETITOR. HOW HAS THE SERIES CHANGED FROM WHERE IT WAS IN
TERMS OF COMPETITION? "Well, I'm a big race fan, so I never left
watching the truck series. Definitely in the couple of years that I've
been away, the competition level is ever increasing, like in any series
does. I know it's going to be tougher this year than any season. We
have a bunch of great teams coming back, and guys like Erik are going to
be strong right out of the box, and some of the rookies from last year
are going to be better. I'm excited about it. In my opinion, Roush
Racing is the best team out there in the truck series, for sure. We've
got strong trucks and good, veteran crew chiefs now. Me and Erik, we
come from similar backgrounds, so we're going to become really good
teammates and help each other out. We're both from the Midwest and Late
Models, so I think we're going to click and it's going make this team
even stronger. It's going to take what it always takes - a lot of
consistency. You need to win races, but you need to finish every race
in the top 10."
HOW MUCH OF AN ADJUSTMENT IS IT COMING BACK TO THE TRUCKS FROM THE CARS
AND JOINING A NEW ORGANIZATION? "I've been with a new team for the last
couple of years. I like to be at the shop a lot and spend a lot of time
getting to know the guys and the personnel and the inner workings of the
race team - the structure and the management - and figure out the chain
of command. That's what I've been doing in my off-season - spending a
lot of time at the shop hanging out with Mike (Beam, crew chief) and
figuring out names and figuring out who's who and what their roles play.
We went to Rockingham in December just to kind of get to know each other
and feel each other out a little bit. That was a very successful test.
Right out of the box here, everything is looking good. We've got a
couple of new trucks and everything is looking great. It's going to
take a little bit of time for the crew chief-driver relationship to
really get to full speed, but I've just got to do my best job in trying
to communicate as well as I can, and hopefully my crew chief Mike will
understand what I'm saying right away and we can go out and have success
right out of the box."
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES NASCAR Preseason Thunder
(Truck), Page 2
January 12, 2007 Daytona International Speedway
(KVAPIL CONTINUED)
DO YOU VIEW THIS OPPORTUNITY AS A CHANCE TO REGROUP WITH THE HOPE OF
RETURNING TO NEXTEL CUP COMPETITION IN THE FUTURE? "I think every race
car driver's goal is to be in Nextel Cup one day, and the way I looked
at it, the way for me to get an opportunity to get back to the top, I
needed to get with a team that was capable of putting out race-winning
cars. Especially the way the Cup Series is evolving with new teams
coming in and multi-car teams keep building and getting stronger, and
the top 35 point system, you need to align yourself with a good
organization. When Geoff Smith (president, Roush Racing) came to me
with this opportunity to drive the 6 truck, it was kind of a no-brainer
for me. I knew I'd be back to contending for wins and contending for a
championship over here in the truck series. There will be
opportunities, I believe, down the road if I go out and have success.
If you go out and win races, that's where sponsors are attracted and
that's where your manufacturer supports your team even more. I just
need to do my job and the team needs to do their job, and if we do, I
think there will be opportunity down the road. There's nothing set in
stone. There's no long-term plan or anything like that, but that's what
we need to do and our main focus is to win that championship, and I
think everything else will kind of fall into place."
WERE THERE CUP OPPORTUNITIES OUT THERE FOR YOU? "I talked to several
teams during the last half of the year and met with some Toyota teams,
but at the end of the day, this is where it ended up. I was
disappointed at times when some rides didn't turn out like I thought
they were going to, or they went a different direction, but when this
opportunity presented itself, I knew it was something I needed to do for
my career. Not just for this year or next year, but also for the next
10 years is kind of what I'm looking at. I need to be with a team
that's going to give me a strong backbone for the long haul, and I know
Roush Racing can do that. There were opportunities to get in a car that
was outside the top 35 in Cup points, but I feel like I'm young enough
now that I can still come over to the truck series and have success, and
hopefully another opportunity will come on the Cup side. I didn't feel
like running 30th to 40th every week in a Cup car was going to do my
career justice. You never know, you kind of get put by the wayside when
you're not up front winning races. Come ever here and have some success
and have fun, and hopefully some opportunities will come down the road."
YOU SUCCEEDED MIKE BLISS IN THE NO. 16 TRUCK AFTER HIS CHAMPIONSHIP
SEASON AND FOLLOWED IT UP WITH YOUR OWN CHAMPIONSHIP. DO YOU FEEL THE
SAME TYPE OF PRESSURE GETTING IN THE NO. 6 AFTER MARK MARTIN DROVE IT
LAST YEAR TO A SERIES-HIGH SIX VICTORIES? "That's Roush Racing's goal,
and we want to do that for Ford. We want to win a championship for the
Blue Oval. There's good and bad. I felt the same way in 2003 when I
got in the 16 truck. There's pressure to perform. That truck won a
bunch of races last year and ran in the top 10 a bunch, but at the same
time, you know it's a truck that is capable of doing it. All of the
team is still intact and they just plugged me in there. I know the team
is capable of winning races, and I've had success in this series before,
so hopefully we can just all click together and find that success again
and live up to the reputation that Mark Martin and Mike Beam and the
team built last year with that 6 truck."
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES NASCAR Preseason Thunder
(Truck), Page 3
January 12, 2007 Daytona International Speedway
(KVAPIL CONTINUED)
THERE HAVE BEEN SOME AERODYNAMIC CHANGES TO THE TRUCKS SINCE YOU LAST
COMPETED IN THE SERIES. HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO FEEL A SIGNIFICANT
DIFFERENCE? "Well, I guess the first time that I got back in a truck
was a month ago at Rockingham. With the tires and the rules and the
things as they are these days, I was surprised at how similar the truck
was to a Cup car. The biggest thing that I noticed was a little less
horsepower, but the handling and even a lot of the setups that we had
under the truck were very similar. Here at Daytona - I don't want to
say that anybody can drive them - but it's not real hard to get a truck
around here by itself. The trucks move around on Daytona more than the
cars do, for sure, but at the same time, they're so much fun to race
that I can't wait to come back here next month and look forward to good
show."
IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR REASON WHY ROUSH TRUCKS ARE ONE-TWO-THREE AFTER
THE FIRST PRACTICE THIS MORNING? "That just shows a lot of credit to
the guys back at the shop. You come to these speedway races and it's
all about your time back at the shop and your preparation. Our truck
that is on top of the board, I believe is the truck that Mark won both
speedway races with last year, so that's obviously a proven truck. I
think the 99 is a new truck, and the 50 is a newly re-bodied truck, and
6B is a brand new truck that made its first laps right there and has
never been to the wind tunnel. We've got great guys back at the fab
shop that obviously put some great bodies on the truck and are well
prepared. They spend their time on the chassis dyno and squat rig and
the tools that we have to optimize all of the rules, and obviously the
Roush-Yates engines are performing well. It's definitely a whole
package here. Really, when you come to these speedways, it's the teams
and how well prepared you are when you come in."
AFTER YOUR LAST TWO SEASONS OF CUP RACING, WAS IT MORE IMPORTANT FOR YOU
TO RE-ESTABLISH YOUR CAREER AT THIS TIME THAN COLLECT A CUP PAYCHECK?
"Everybody knows that Cup pays a lot of money, and in all honesty, it's
pretty ridiculous. That's not what racing, to me, is all about. You
can go collect paycheck, and I don't want to say that I was miserable,
but I was not having a lot of fun just going to the race every week last
year hoping that we would qualify. That was our main goal, and if we'd
finish 25th or better in the race, we thought we had a good day.
Bringing home trophies and winning races and having fun, that's what
it's all about. I had fun last year and I learned a lot - I loved Cup
racing - but in the long haul of my career, 10 years, this is what I
needed to do to strengthen it and kind of have a comeback and hope for
opportunities down the road."
(DARNELL CONTINUED)
DO YOU CONSIDER TRAVIS YOUR TOUGHEST COMPETITION FROM WITHIN THE BLUE
OVAL CAMP THIS YEAR? "You've got guys like Rick Crawford out there,
too. You've got David Starr this year switching over to the Ford side.
You've got some great drivers in Ford trucks, and any of the guys in the
Ford trucks are going to be tough competition. Travis is definitely
going to be tough. Roush didn't hire him for no reason. He's a proven
winner in the truck series and a champion, and bringing him over here is
going to help me out as well. Last year I had the benefit of being able
to bounce ideas off of Mark Martin and have a little bit of help from
him, but on the other side of that, he had never really been in a truck
before last season either, whereas Travis has got quite a few seasons of
truck racing under his belt and he's just going to be able to help me
out quite a bit, too. I'm not a rookie anymore, but this is only going
to be my second year in the truck series, so I still am learning things,
and it's going to great to have Travis as a teammate to be able to help
me with that."
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES NASCAR Preseason Thunder
(Truck), Page 4
January 12, 2007 Daytona International Speedway
(KVAPIL CONTINUED)
"I'm looking forward to having Erik as a teammate. I started really
paying attention to the last half of the year when I saw these
opportunities coming. I've seen what he has done on the track, and he's
a great driver in his young experience. I'm hoping the 6 can help the
99, but I'm looking forward to the days when I know the 99 is going to
help us. There are going to be days where they're performing well, and
we're going to be looking for that little something to get us going.
It's definitely going to be mutual, and I look forward to it. We have
similar backgrounds as far as racing Late Models in the Midwest, and I
can't wait for our relationship to grow to help the whole team."
(DARNELL CONTINUED)
"It's definitely tough and you talk to some people, and not necessarily
young guys, people that don't follow the sport and say: 'They're just
driving around in circles,' and, 'It's easy,' and 'Anybody can do that.'
But, I think given the situation, you throw somebody into that deal and
they wouldn't be able to do it. I don't really know how to explain it
to a young person. It is tough and I think for any of the good drivers,
it's something that they're born with and they're able to, through
practice and through races and trials and tribulations, and just to be
able to get the experience to go out there and better yourself. I've
been fortunate to be around racing my entire life. It's something
that's always been in my family, and I was able to start at a young age
and build on that, and that's kind of what got me to where I am today."
(KVAPIL CONTINUED)
WITH SIX PREVIOUS TRUCK SERIES CHAMPIONS COMPETING FULL TIME IN THE
SERIES THIS SEASON, HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT BE TO CAPTURE YOUR SECOND
CHAMPIONSHIP? "This is going to be an ultra-competitive year with all
of the champions returning. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to
be fun racing with Todd (Bodine) and Ted (Musgrave) again, and Hornaday
and Sprague. It's great racing, and when I was in Cup I couldn't wait
for the truck races to come on; it has a special place in my heart. I
can't wait to get going and get out there and race with these guys and
have fun."
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