Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes Goody’s 500 Advance – Martinsville Speedway Brian Scott

(Ford)
(Ford)

 

Brian Scott, driver of the No. 44 American Red Cross Ford Fusion, is coming off his best finish of the season after finishing second to race-winner Joey Logano last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. 

BRIAN SCOTT – No. 44 American Red Cross Ford Fusion – “It’s a tremendous honor to be able to represent the American Red Cross this weekend.  I think a lot of people feel like the devastation and destruction Hurricane Matthew did is done and over with, but the American Red Cross is here to remind us that even though the storm has passed, all the work really starts now and American Red Cross is on the front line providing shelter, food, clean-up relief.  There’s so much damage and devastation that happened in the Eastern Carolinas and Virginia.  The whole east coast in our neck of the woods for NASCAR and racing is still dealing with a lot, and the American Red Cross is there to help and we encourage everybody to help out.  You can go online and follow the links on Richard Petty Motorsports’ website.  You can go to the American Red Cross and you can donate or you can simply text ‘Matthew’ to 90999 and do a $10 donation from your phone.  Talladega was a great finish, but we’re looking forward to Martinsville this weekend and representing the Red Cross.”

DID YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WATCH CUP RACES ON TV LAST YEAR WHEN YOU WEREN’T IN THE SERIES AND WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?  “As a driver, we’re always trying to refine our craft, our craft of driving race cars and executing races to the best of our ability, and I think watching the races, whether we’re in Sprint Cup and watching the XFINITY races or we’re in the XFINITY Series and we’re watching the Sprint Cup race there are always things to be learned by watching and paying attention, listening to the announcers, seeing what other drivers are fighting, seeing what other drivers are doing and how they move around the race track.  We’re constantly learning and trying to improve our craft of driving race cars and executing races.”

WHAT WAS THIS PAST WEEK LIKE AT THE SHOP AFTER SUCH A GOOD FINISH LAST WEEKEND?  “It’s been a great week at Richard Petty Motorsports.  I’ll tell you the best part about our second-place finish at Talladega on Sunday was showing up to the shop on Monday and seeing all the guys that don’t travel to the race track and seeing all the people that go into Richard Petty Motorsports from guys in the fab shop and the chassis shop and the body shop and throughout all of Richard Petty Motorsports and seeing how uplifted they were from two cars that finished in the Top 10 and just excited about kind of attacking these final races this year and trying to end this season on a good note.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MARTINSVILLE AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON CUP DRIVERS BEING LIMITED TO HOW MANY RACES THEY CAN RUN IN XFINITY AND TRUCKS NEXT YEAR?  “I love Martinsville Speedway.  I was lucky and fortunate to race here in the Camping World Truck Series a number of times and it was one of my favorite short tracks that we came to.  I’ve only raced here once in the Sprint Cup Series and that was this spring.  That was a challenging race, but a lot of races were challenging at the beginning of this year.  We were a new team.  I was working on a new relationship with my crew chief, Chris Heroy.  We’re still trying to figure everything out, figure these cars out, figure out a lot of things, and we’ve become a lot better team since then, so I’m looking forward to coming to Martinsville with a previous notebook, with a lot better understanding of these cars, and a lot better chemistry as a team.  Your last question about the Sprint Cup guys being limited in XFINITY and Camping World Trucks, I think that’s great.  I think that’s what this series needs to build names and give drivers opportunities and experience at winning races and getting into Victory Lane.  I guess on a selfish level I wish they would have done that five years ago when I was competing in those series because I’d probably have a lot more wins.  I think it’s great.  I’m excited to watch the young up-and-coming drivers get more experience at winning and get into Victory Lane and making names for themselves to ultimately pursue their dreams of probably racing in the Sprint Cup just like I did.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.