John Hayes’ intereview after a 3RD place finish at Michigan!
Great job at Michigan last Wednesday John! You finished 3rd after being in the top 5 all race! You were strong in Practice, and qualified 4th. Your Feelings/thoughts on how you finished?
Yeah,
I had a good car and felt really good about the race going in. I was trying to
find a balance between being fast and having a stable car. And as you know,
sometimes, the two are hard to come by. My car handled real well through the
race.
Is it what you expected
or did you have higher goals set for yourself for Michigan? My goal going into
the race was to win it. Am I disappointed?
No. I'm happy
with my finish, can't complain really whenever you finish in the top 5.
With you having a strong car, and the Cautions started flying early. What was going through mind at the point?
Yeah,
there were alot of cautions there right from the get-go. But that seems to be
somewhat of a trend for us, having cautions early. Wasn't too bad this race
cause I had my buddy Bob Dionne on the radio keeping me entertained.
But then came the long
green flag run for the final 60 laps, Did you have any special strategy or race
plan set in place for the long green runs? Anything you would have done
differently after thinking about afterward the finish?
Well right now in my racing career I'm doing
pretty well as far as getting around the tracks fast and staying out of
trouble. But one thing I do lack is pit strategy, and it's races like tonight
that will help me get that experience.
Now with a 3rd place
finish in the record books for Michigan, the points race has really become
close with a few more drivers now.
You’re in fourth in the point standings , and definitely in contention
for the Championship. Your thoughts on what will it take to catch Don Young,
and will you do anything differently for the rest of the season?
Well, Don
Young is as great a racer as they come. I'm not sure if I can catch him. But
there are a lot of races left and we'll just have to see how it plays out. I
will say this though--Don deserves to be first in points, because he's had 0
penalties and I think he finishes every race in the top 10. For me to catch him I'm going to have to
keep my mometum going and be as consistant as Don has been.
You’ve been contender all
season and always in contention each race.
They should nickname you “Mr Pole Position” after having gotten 5 pole
positions! LOL Care to share any secrets on what you do to
mentally prepare and setup for each race?
LOL.. There is
really no secret. A setup for one guy may be blazing fast, but the next guy
might hate it. So what I do is, take a base setup and I just tinker with it all
week during practice until I get it to where I like it and then I just make my
qual setup out of my race setup.
Next race is at a tough
Road Course at Sears Point. What’s the first thing or thought that pops up in
your mind when you think of Sears Point?
Provisional. LOL.. No. I look forward to running Sears Point, even though I
have little experience on road courses. I look at it as a challenge.
Any advice you’d like to
share to all of the SORS East drivers for Sears Point?
I wished I had some advice to give but I'm sure most the guys in the East know more than I do on road courses. My goal for the race is just to finish lol and have a good time.
Thanks John for giving us
the opportunity to speak to you on your 3rd Place Finish at Michigan. Anyone you’d like to thank or anything you’d
like to comment on?
Yes, I'd like to thank my sponsor, Snap-On
for giving me such good equipment and all the guys at SORS East for making
racing fun!
Interview
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