Information By: SAM MAHONEY / TOYOTA RACING – FORT WORTH, TX – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Sheldon Creed was made available to the media prior to practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday.
SHELDON CREED, No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is it going to take for you to win the Dash 4 Cash bonus?
“Beat the other three (laughter). The car is very capable of winning, now it’s just up to Sam (McAulay, crew chief) and I to put a whole weekend together.”
What does the bonus mean for the team and crew?
“it’s great for the crew guys and stuff. For the way my deal works this year, I don’t get – I guess – winnings, so for me, it’s not like I get 100 grand if I won the thing – which would be cool, but for the guys that work on it – they are all going to get a bigger bonus this week. We are still trying to find a sponsor, so it will help get us to the next track or help us pay bills.”
What has it been like with the new team and manufacturer?
“I felt like we fired off really good the first two – Daytona and Atlanta, and then we had two or three tough weeks there. Was really fast at COTA, had issues. Richmond – just had issues off the truck, and then through the races, but last week was the most comfortable I’ve felt yet. I was really happy with that, and just how the car drove all day. Sam (McAulay, crew chief) and I learning each other – we weren’t as good as we could have been at the end of the race as we were at the beginning. We just really needed that – last week – to have a solid day, now we can build – because it’s hard to build off your bad weeks, right? Your Vegases and your Richmonds – it’s hard to take anything from that, so I felt like last week was a great place to start with that.”
Based on Las Vegas, how do you look to this weekend?
“Great question. I felt like we weren’t very good at Vegas all day, but our teammates – pretty much dominated all day and won the race. Really, we just looked at their notes. We took a little bit of what we had, and learned from Vegas, but obviously what our teammates ran was pretty fast, so we built our setup around that and that is what we are going to work with this week.”