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PRESS RELEASE
This Week In Ford Racing: NSCS Driver Travis Kvapil
PCGCampbell For Ford Racing, Press Release
Travis Kvapil, driver of the No. 28 Yates Racing Ford Fusion, considers Darlington one of his favorite tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit. He spoke about returning to the egg-shaped oval and what kind of effect the new pavement will have on the race.
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 28 Yates Racing Ford Fusion -- “Darlington is a tough place, but it’s one of my favorites. Darlington and Bristol are my favorites and I just love going to those tracks. Darlington, especially, is a really challenging race track. You really have to hit your marks and as a race-car driver there, you have to be focused. There’s no just riding there. You’ve got to be up on the wheel every corner of every lap because that place will bite you if you’re not. It’s gonna be interesting to see how it is with the new pavement. I actually tested a truck there a few weeks ago and, to me, it seemed like the same Darlington with just brand-new asphalt on it, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how these cars get around there. I think speeds are gonna be up and I think it’s gonna be better racing than what we’ve had in the past. That’s a cool track with a lot of history there, so, hopefully, we can perform well and get another good run.”
EVERY TIME A NEW TRACK PUTS DOWN NEW ASPHALT, IT SEEMS THE TRACK BECOMES ONE GROOVE UNTIL IT GETS SOME AGE ON IT. WILL DARLINGTON REMAIN THE SAME WAY? “The nature of Darlington was single-file to begin with and even when the asphalt was worn out, we could pretty much just run single-file. It was hard to pass because it’s just a narrow race track and that’s just how it is and that’s what makes Darlington unique and challenging. I think you’ll still be able to see passing and guys with fast race cars get to the front, but it’s not gonna be like when we go to Talladega or anywhere else where there are two or three lanes and you can just go. Darlington is really one-and-a-half grooves wide and you really have to pick your spots of when to pass and where to pass and you need to complete the pass when you do it because it’s hard to race side-by-side there.”
SO THE PHRASE, ‘RACE THE RACE TRACK’ STILL APPLIES? “For sure. Like I said, I was there a few weeks ago and it’s still really narrow and still really tricky getting into turn one and off of turn two, so you’ve got to race the race track for sure. You need to keep it out of the wall because it’s still easy to get a Darlington stripe there and you don’t want to tear your race car up because you’ve got to be there at the end of the day. So it’s still race the race track and make sure you’re there at the end and take care of your equipment.”
WHAT ABOUT THE SPEEDS? HOW MUCH FASTER WILL IT BE? “I think it’s gonna be faster. It’s gonna be interesting because the old track didn’t have a lot of grip and they gave us softer tires to kind of make up for it. Well now we’ve got a racing surface with a lot of grip, but we’re gonna be on a harder tire that has durability and will last. We’re definitely gonna be going faster, but before it was all about keeping the tires under the car and not sliding your tires, and now I think these tires are gonna last and you’re gonna be able to make long runs and maybe even put two tires on, which is unheard of at Darlington. So I think it’s gonna be crazy and I think we’re all gonna be learning as we go there, but I think the racing is still gonna be the same old Darlington racing -- you’ve still got to take care of your car and race the race track.”
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