Describe what it meant to you to accomplish your personal mission by getting the U.S. Army to victory lane at New Hampshire last July?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d tried so hard for two-and-a-half years to get the U.S. Army in victory lane. We\u2019d been close, but we hadn\u2019t been able to do it. It was disappointing because it\u2019s a very personal and honorable thing to represent a million Soldiers, and we wanted to make them proud by getting their racecar into victory lane. When the checkered flag waved and I realized we had finally accomplished the mission of getting the U.S. Army a win, I was so happy. If it weren\u2019t for the Soldiers who protect and serve our country, I wouldn\u2019t be able to do what I do. Carrying the American flag in my racecar after that win was very special and something I will never forget. I hope we can make them proud again this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
You have six poles and three wins at New Hampshire. What makes you so good at New Hampshire?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s actually kind of funny because I used to say New Hampshire was my least favorite racetrack. But it\u2019s far from that now. It\u2019s still not my favorite racetrack, but I really look forward to coming back there each year. New Hampshire has always been a good place for me. I\u2019m not 100 percent sure why. It\u2019s the place of my first win, and when I hadn\u2019t won in a long while, 70-some races, I won again there. Last July, we were able to qualify and finish 1-2 at Stewart-Haas. So, I really look forward to it, obviously. For whatever reason, and I still don\u2019t know the answer as to why, I enjoy Loudon. New Hampshire was huge for our team and even bigger for our organization. I don\u2019t know that I realized how big until the next day when I was doing interviews and someone told me the stat about the last time a team started 1-2 and finished in those exact positions. As much as I study the history of this sport, I was stunned by that stat and was really honored that I was part of something so big. We made that race ours. All the guys came together and made it happen. And I\u2019m just really proud of what we accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why did you say New Hampshire was your least favorite racetrack?<\/p>\n
\u201cLoudon has just always been a difficult track to pass. And from a racecar driver\u2019s standpoint, you want to go out there and say that, if I have a good car, I can go out there and start last and win this race. And you can\u2019t always do that there. That\u2019s just a rule of thumb and generic explanation for why it\u2019s not perfect. Other than that, it\u2019s short-track racing. It\u2019s fun but it\u2019s really difficult to pass, at times, there. It all depends on the tire they bring and how good your car is. To me, personally, I feel like I\u2019m competitive as a driver at all the tracks but, obviously, it takes a good crew that understands the car and the track and strategy and everything else. We\u2019ve just done well there. It\u2019s clicked.\u201d<\/p>\n
What are the keys to running so well at Loudon?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this track is the key place when it comes to being aggressive and patient all at the same time. There is a different style of driving that you have to have there. You can\u2019t really be overaggressive at this racetrack. It\u2019s kind of a combination of patience and aggressiveness. You want to take what the car will give you because the track is flat. With banking, the faster you go, the more it pushes the car down into the racetrack. We don\u2019t have that there, so it\u2019s just a matter of feeling that razor-blade-edge of grip and getting everything you can and I\u2019ve been successful at it there. It\u2019s kind of clicked with me since the beginning. I really like the racetrack and obviously know how to drive it, which is a big part of it. It\u2019s a good place to start up front because it\u2019s a short race, and it\u2019s not the easiest place to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assess where you are at this point in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinishing the race at Daytona was so big for us on a lot of levels. I would like to think it will give us some momentum heading into this final stretch before the Chase. Loudon is a place where we at Stewart-Haas have done an awesome job in the past. We look forward to going there. The stretch going into Indy and, obviously, the Chase, it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
This weekend, you have the Army ROTC on your hood. Talk about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say what an honor it is to represent a million Soldiers but, for me, it\u2019s especially cool to carry the Army ROTC logo. As a college graduate, I value the importance of that education and, in my role with the U.S. Army, I talk to a lot of high school students about how valuable that education is. It\u2019s special to have the Army ROTC on the car because the ROTC provides the youth of our nation multiple educational and leadership opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Describe what it meant to you to accomplish your personal mission by getting the U.S. Army to victory lane at New Hampshire last July? \u201cWe\u2019d tried so hard for two-and-a-half years to get the U.S. Army in victory lane. We\u2019d been close, but we hadn\u2019t been able to do it. It was disappointing because it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,126,112,16,21,14972],"tags":[4682],"class_list":["post-10216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-new-england","category-new-hampshire","category-nhms","category-sprint-cup","category-touring-series-news","tag-ryan-newman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}