RCR driver looks to nab elusive win in XFINITY Series
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Team: Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet
Rank in final 2014 standings: Fourth
Wins: 0
Strides: His fifth full season in the series resulted in a number of high-water marks for the 26-year-old native of Boise, Idaho. In his second year with RCR, Scott scored career bests in top-fives (6), top-10s (23) and final points position (fourth).
His average starting position (6.5) and finishing position (9.3) were also career bests. With the help of crew chief Phil Gould and the No. 2 crew, Scott was never lower than 10th in points after the season’s first race, and was fifth or higher for much of the second half of the season, thanks to 10 consecutive top-10 runs to end the year.
“I feel like I grow every race,” Scott said. “Now that we sit here and look at a year and if we have to encapsulate all that into a timeframe, I’ve grown tremendously. But I grow tremendously every single race. I feel like I get better in traffic, I feel like I get better on restarts, I feel like I get to be a better leader, I communicate better to my team. Those are things that I feel like are always improving race by race by race.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Scott says he is looking forward to the 2015 season.
“I’m looking forward to Daytona, the first race, and then the next race,” he said. “I look forward to going race by race next year and continuing to improve and hopefully by the end of the year I’ve done a good enough job and I’ve improved enough through the course of the season to be sitting there at the championship table.”
Setbacks: In spite of his continued improvement, Scott has yet to land in the winner’s circle after 175 career starts in the series. At least one area he said he hopes to improve upon is restarts, which often provide the best chance for improving one’s position on the track.
“You’re never perfect on restarts … every driver will tell you that,” he said. “If a driver tells you ‘I’m perfect on every restart’ then I envy them because they’ve got it figured out and I don’t.
“There are so many things that can happen on a restart; it’s the best opportunity that you have throughout the course of a race to gain positions or to lose positions. I feel like more often than not, I either maintain or I lose a position or two. And I want to get to be the type of driver where every restart, no matter how my car is handling, I’m able to be aggressive and push the envelope and try to gain positions.”
Quoteworthy: “We have to work at this thing 33 weeks a year and communication … is a big part of that. Obviously you need to have speed and you need to have talent. I think we have those pieces. I always can be a better driver and I need to be a better driver for my team going forward.”
What’s next: Mike Hillman Jr. replaces Gould as crew chief for the No. 2 team as Gould departed to reunite with Elliott Sadler at Roush Fenway Racing. Hillman is no newcomer, having won two championships and 20 career wins in the Camping World Truck Series.
Scott hopes to once again compete in several Sprint Cup events in ’15 (he made six starts in ’14), a bit of extracurricular activity that he said he believes to be very beneficial.
“When you get in (an XFINITY Series) car after you’ve just got out of a Cup car where you’ve been going 200 (mph) at the end of the straightaways and … you’re going 180, it feels like everything slows down,” he said. “It really feels like you’re able to utilize your talents … more effectively.
“For me, that’s the greatest benefit I get.”