Q: What is your goal for this season?

A: Our goals haven’t changed from one year to the next. We need to win at least six to seven races. That’s where we feel like we’ll be this year. And, we need to fill up the stat column with the proper amount of top-fives and 10s that you need to win a championship. The champion is not going to go out there and win one or two races for the year. They’re going to be the guys that win consistently. We’ve done that over the last few years, but we haven’t had reliability to win a championship.

Q: What has kept you from winning a championship?

A: We’ve won a lot of races year after year and we are always a team that wins a lot of races, but we’re always in the hunt and then something mechanical happens to our cars and it takes us out of the championship. Hopefully, those bugs have been fixed. We’re working on a new process to make our cars more tough and rigid, making sure that they don’t fall apart.

Q: Will it be easier going into your second season with Darian Grubb?

A: I’d like to say that we’ve got a notebook now, but you’re not going to be able to use everything that you had from last year because of the new car. Some things will relate, like the short track setups will be similar. But, this car weighs a lot different. It’s heavier and lighter in different places, so I think everyone is going to be starting all over again honestly. Especially with this cambered rear-end set-up that they’re having, I think that you’re going to see a lot of axel failures early in the year. The cars that are the most reliable for the first 26 races will probably be the ones that make the Chase.

The Charlotte Observer