Catchfence

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 37 Long John’s Silver Ford Fusion –

WHAT IS YOUR MAIN GOAL THIS SEASON WITH A NEW TEAM? “More than anything we just want to run competitively – take our bad days and just finish, and the days where we have a good car, shoot for a top 10 or a top 15. Realistically, I think our goals are to run in the top 20 and if we can finish 20th-25th in points, I think it would be a good season for us and then try to elevate that and do a better job in 2011.”

HOW WILL THE SPOILER CHANGE THE CAR ON THE TRACK? “I guess we’re not really sure until we get out there and compete against each other, but the preliminary reports say it makes the car a little looser and puts front downforce on the car. I think that’s definitely something these cars need. These cars, typically in the past, have always been kind of tight in the middle of the corner. You turn down in and then right at the apex they kind of quit turning, so if we can do something to help those front ends turn a little bit, I think that’s a good thing. I’m sure NASCAR has worked very hard in the windtunnel to make the spoiler feel as close to the wing as they can when we implement it and get going. Hopefully, there’s nothing major that’s different. I hope it’s all relatively close to the wing. I think it looks a lot better and I think a lot of the fans think it looks a lot better, and if it helps the race cars turn a little bit, I think that’s great.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW YOUR TEAM IS ALIGNED FOR SPEEDWEEKS VERSUS THE REST OF THE SEASON? “We shuffled them around a little bit. I’m gonna be driving the 34 car with Long John Silver’s on it all season long with the exception of Daytona. I’m gonna drive the 37 ExtenZe car. That’s his car and he’s gonna drive that all season, but he wasn’t approved by NASCAR to run the 2.5-mile speedway. He didn’t have enough experience to do that, so they moved me over to his car. They had an open seat, and John Andretti had some sponsorship with him and he has a great relationship with this team, so he slid into the 34. Robert Richardson is gonna drive the 38 here with the sponsorship he brought, and then David Gilliland is gonna drive it in California and most of the races from there on out.”

WILL YOU TAKE YOUR TEAM OVER TO THE 37 OR JUST YOU? “We actually switched drivers. That’s the best way to explain it. John Andretti was gonna do the Shootout with the 34 car, and it was just gonna be hard for John to work with Steven Lane for the Shootout and then have Steven Lane work with me for the 500 week and be shuffling back and forth. We just decided to keep John with the 34 bunch and me with the 37 bunch. The only negative that can come out of that is if I finish really poorly, Kevin Conway is gonna have my points, and if John Andretti finishes really poorly, I’m gonna have his points. It’s kind of nice to be in control. If I go out and run 43rd, well I know that’s the hand I dealt myself, but if John Andretti does that, it stinks and I have to go pick up the pieces. But John is gonna do a good job and I’ll do a good job for Kevin. We all know we’re gonna do the best we can, so, really, this is probably the easiest way to do it.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release