THE MODERATOR: We\u2019re now joined by our race-winning crew chief, Stephen Doran. Congratulations. Thanks for joining us.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0Shane getting four wins as a rookie this year, it\u2019s been impressive to see what he\u2019s been able to do. How do you guys take whatever momentum and particularly the playoff points that you guys have collected and turn that into a successful first round to advance and give yourselves a shot at the Roval?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, the 21 points now helps us. We just have to keep getting better at the ovals.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a022.<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Perfect. Having 22 points obviously gives us a little buffer, but we\u2019ve got to keep building on what we\u2019ve been doing at the ovals. I think the last couple months has shown that we\u2019re in the game now, consistently running top 15.<\/p>\n
I thought our last oval at Iowa, although it wasn\u2019t a great finish, was probably one of our best as far as pace. His restarts were amazing. I think we\u2019re peaking at the right time all around.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0We talked after Sonoma about the difference that you\u2019ve seen in Shane before we got to Chicago and Sonoma to where you guys are now collectively as a team. What has that transition been like as you\u2019ve seen him get more comfortable, and what has that done for the group at the shop?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: I think honestly to me the turning point was the All-Star Race, the Coke 600. Good runs at both of those. Then shortly after to go to Mexico and get a win, and then from that point it started to roll.<\/p>\n
Then we get to Sonoma, Chicago, get two more, yeah, we\u2019re in a good spot. The team, we\u2019re having fun. Just keep building.<\/p>\n
We have a great, great team, pit crew and road crew, just an amazing group to work with.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0Going into the season, a lot of people were expecting Shane and you guys to win one or two of these things. What were your expectations going into the year, and how did they change maybe after COTA or the All-Star Race or after you guys got your first one relative to what they were going in?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, I don\u2019t know that I really set expectations on wins. I knew that if we executed like we have been, we had a chance at more than one for sure.<\/p>\n
I think the owner\u2019s expectations were higher. He said, let\u2019s go win all of them. We\u2019ve come close.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0When you are in a dominant position like you guys typically are on these type of courses, it\u2019s up to the competition to do some different things. How challenging is it from your perspective to stay ahead of the different darts that are being thrown that maybe are not as traditional? I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve seen \u2014 is the garage doing some different things, or are you guys just better than them at the same formula?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, I think you\u2019re alluding to strategy. Yeah, we know there\u2019s going to be people throwing Hail Marys a little bit to just catch a caution or do something different than us. We just try to stay on offense. I try to keep him to where he\u2019s always on offense.<\/p>\n
Maybe the biggest decision today was when to pit in the third stage, and everybody that was on our strategy had come. We were just kind of pacing off the 24, knowing that he was the first one on our strategy, and as soon as it looked like we\u2019d be close to not coming out in front of him is when we pit. Luckily there was no cautions in between.<\/p>\n
Then from then on, you\u2019re just praying for no cautions because there were some cars that just ran super long, pitted 10-ish laps after us. If a caution comes after that, it gets a little dicey, similar to Sonoma, but yeah, luckily it just ran straight through.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0How much did it play or help you guys that second, third and fourth just did a two-stop strategy? You guys had the fresher tires at the end where they were trying to stretch things out and it seemed like that was a huge advantage for you guys?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, I think the advantage came when we started Stage 3. I think we restarted 12th and had a group of us that were all on the same strategy, Ross, maybe the 20, and he gapped those guys. He put 10 cars in between us and them. That was probably the turning point in the race where we had a huge upper hand from that point. We had a big gap back to them, and it allowed us to run a little longer than we probably would have.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0With SVG getting better on the ovals and going back to a lot of the same ovals for the second time in the Playoffs, how much of a benefit do you think it\u2019ll be to the team?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, I think going back to some of these places for a second time is going to be huge. He\u2019s such a quick learner. You look at some of these places like Darlington, the second half of the race he was honestly a top-10 car, drove through the field kind of and got a top 20 out of it.<\/p>\n
But I look forward to going to that place especially. I think we have a shot to run top 10 at Darlington. Then some of these others I think will be a lot better than the first time as well.<\/p>\n
Superspeedways he\u2019s excellent at, so we\u2019re excited.<\/p>\n
Q.\u00a0Talking to Chris Gabehart, I think he referenced in your four wins, they\u2019ve finished second to you guys with four different drivers. What kind of competition and challenge has it been to stay ahead of those guys in these last four wins?<\/p>\n
STEPHEN DORAN: Yeah, it\u2019s always tough to beat Gibbs and Hendrick. Although these races may look easy at times, no Cup race is easy to win. It\u2019s a huge accomplishment when you can beat them. I didn\u2019t realize that they finished second in all of them, but pretty cool to beat them.<\/p>\n
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