| Michigan has been a place where you’ve been very consistent but haven’t quite been able to break through with a win. What are your thoughts heading into the weekend? “Michigan is the fastest track we go to. It’s really hard to hold your foot down going into turn one. Your brain is telling you that you need to start lifting, but usually the car can take a bit more. It’s super, super fast and the commitment level is very high. And the groove is not really wide, which is different than, say, Fontana, where you can go really fast but the groove is very wide. You miss it by a few inches there you will be OK. At Michigan, not so much, especially when the traction compound is live, it’s very sketchy and on edge. We’ve been very consistent there in my time with JGR, but James (Small, crew chief) and the guys have been bringing fast cars. Hoping Michigan is another place we add to the win list this weekend with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry. Really would love to get Auto-Owners a win at their home track. They’ll have a lot of people at the track cheering us on Sunday and hope we can make them proud.” Last year, you had a runner-up finish at Michigan and almost pulled off the win. What worked so well for you there last year? “I think we just needed a little longer run at the end of the race and we might have been able to catch the 17 (Chris Buescher). I felt like we were a little better, but it was just really hard to pass the leader on equal tires. Our Auto-Owners Camry was a rocket last year – just the leader in clean air was really, really hard to pass, which is usually the case. We just didn’t quite have enough, but I’m hoping things work out a little bit better for us and we can turn that strong finish from last year into a win this time around.” With Auto-Owners right up the road in Lansing, Michigan, what has Auto-Owners meant to you as a longtime partner over the years, and how big is the Michigan weekend for them? “They’ve meant a ton. I was able to visit the office there recently and get to see all the employees, and I have so many supporters there over the years. This is the eighth year they’ve been a partner of the teams I’ve driven for. Can’t thank them all enough for all of their support over the years, they are a special group. Going to be fun to see everyone with Auto-Owners Insurance at the track one more time at Michigan this weekend. We have a lot of visits to make and it will be great to get to thank them in person, as well.” How much confidence do you have coming into the weekend? “For sure, it’s been a tough couple of months, finish-wise. Speed-wise, aside from maybe just a few races like Iowa, we’ve been solid. Just need to capitalize on that and execute. It takes a lot of things to win races, lead laps, stay up front and have fast cars, so hope we can put it all together this weekend. But I feel good about it. Yeah, just kind of been in a slump for a little while now and we’ve had fast cars like we had at Richmond, and then bad things have happened that have kept us from good finishes.” |
