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NASCAR XFINITY Series

Terra Talks with Bayley Currey, Vol. 3

I’ve really been trying to work on my road course craft this year.” – Bayley Currey, seen here at Road America (Photo: Mike Moore | The Podium Finish)

Bayley Currey wraps up this stretch of the NASCAR Xfinity Season with a season-best, P10 finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Momentum is a big deal in motorsports, and no doubt, the No. 4 JD Motorsports team is hoping to see a change in the tides.

With qualifying and practice being rained out a handful of times, the team has been forced to start behind the eight ball on numerous occasions. However, this hasn’t stopped Currey and his crew from knocking out four finishes of P20 or better since mid-April. Once you calculate runs in the teens and single digits, fans and teams know Currey is here to compete. 

Ahead of the final races in the NXS regular season, I caught up with Currey to talk about recent races, his pre-race playlist, and gain more insight into his massive sponsor announcement earlier this week. 

All systems go for Terra Talk with Bayley Currey, Vol. 3! (Photo: Sean Folsom | The Podium Finish)

Terra Jones: To start, you had a huge announcement this week!

Bayley Currey: Yeah! We’re having Alka-Seltzer join us for five races starting this weekend at Pocono. They’ll be with us at Bristol, Talladega, Daytona, and Las Vegas as well. Just really excited to be the one that brings them back into NASCAR! They were in it for 14 years and have been out for 19, so for them to come back and be with us is pretty special!

Jones: That is really exciting! And it’s definitely a perfect sponsor for some of those races, like Bristol and the superspeedways! (laughs) Like you said, they’ve been out for a long time. So how did this deal come to be?

Currey: Oh, man. I really couldn’t tell you how that all played out! I know that A. E. Engine has been helping us a lot on the marketing side, along with Tony (Priscaro – VP of Marketing, JD Motorsports) and Cindi (Rivera – PR Manager, Bayley Currey Racing). And it’s been a lot of back and forth. It’s been going on for, heck, I’d say two months, maybe even more, getting the stuff all sorted out, fire suits, paint schemes, apparel, all that. So there’s been a lot going into it and to see it all come into fruition this weekend is pretty neat! 

Jones: Well, congratulations again on that news! I saw the rendering and the car looks awesome. I can’t wait to see it hit the track this weekend! 

(Image Courtesy of JD Motorsports)

Let’s look at a few recent races starting with Texas. You just barely missed back-to-back wrecks – we’re talking threading the needle! When you have a race like that, do you start to feel like your number is coming up and your luck is about to run out. And additionally, does it change the way you race at all?

Currey: Well, Texas kind of sucked. We actually did get involved in one of ’em. Off of two, the field stacked up. I couldn’t slow down in time and it jacked the whole nose up, which really hurt us, aero-wise.

But definitely! Heck, I was thinking about it at New Hampshire last week. We missed a bunch of ’em there! But yeah, you gotta stay on top of it. And don’t think you’re ever in the clear. It’s definitely nerve-wracking. I mean, the odds are the more times it happens, the more likely you are to be in it. So yeah, you just try to stay outta the trouble.

Jones: And just a heads up, with a mention of Texas, I’m going to have to throw in the picture of you in the Buc-ee’s rodent costume. I don’t even know what it is! But just know that’s coming! (laughs)

(Image Courtesy of Bayley Currey Facebook)

Currey: (laughs) Yeah! That’s cool! After the race, I was walking around and it got cold that night. I saw someone else with the Buc-ee’s thing and I’m like, “Damn! I have to buy one of those!” So next morning I went straight to Buc-ee’s and got one! It’s hanging up in my closet now! 

Jones: That’s hilarious! It looked warm! But yeah, I’ve never been to a Buc-ee’s. I need to go find out what the hype is all about.

Currey: It’s a spectacle! (laughs)

Jones: Good to know! Let’s talk about Portland! That was a track you mentioned wanting on the schedule. Unfortunately, you weren’t able to finish after getting in a wreck on a late restart.  But before that, you were running in the top 15 and working your way forward.

You mentioned not having many resources to prepare for that race, other than watching film. It looked like your work paid off! So, now that the race is in the rearview, what are your thoughts on racing in the PNW?

Currey: It was definitely cool. The only resources I had were really just watching other races. I feel like I learned a lot doing that, but once we really got going, I learned a whole lot more. I’ve really been trying to work on my road course craft this year and being better at it. 

But it’s definitely cool being up there. It’s cool going somewhere new. I went downtown to a bunch of Nike stores ‘cause they’re from up there. But, I feel that way anywhere. Whenever I have a chance to go explore the city when I’m racing somewhere, I usually take it. 

(Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)

But the track, it was fun. I really wish we could have ended up…if we wouldn’t have got caught up in that last wreck, I think we’d have another top 10. But that’s just the way it went. I knew it was gonna be crazy. Everybody got on slick tires and it kind of dried it up and we’re getting down to the end and everybody was going for it!

Just sucked the way it ended. Really the whole race I was just like, stay calm, keep it on the race track. It had been raining and I knew I just had to stay out of trouble and achieve that goal. I got to the end, but still got caught up in something. It stinks, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Jones: Another race we weren’t sure what we’d end up with was Atlanta. It’s now being dubbed a mini-superspeedway. Given the tendency to partner up with a teammate at superspeedways, how do you handle that when your teammate isn’t near you? For instance, qualifying was rained out and you lined up 17th, but Ryan Vargas was in 36th.

“Ideally, you’re with your teammates and people you know you can work with.” – Bayley Currey (Photo: Sean Folsom | The Podium Finish)

Currey: Ideally, you’re with your teammates and people you know you can work with. But when you start so far apart and there’s really no way to get to ’em, I feel like I just stay where I am and run my race. I don’t do anything erratic trying to get outta line or do anything like that. I feel that’s just a good way to get into a crash.

Atlanta kind of sucked too. We had a loose wheel, but we had a really, really good car. That loose wheel in the second stage, that killed us. We had to pit under green and lost two laps. We just never really got ’em back. 

And actually, Atlanta, this time, was a lot more calm. I think because we raced during the day the whole time. It really took nighttime in the spring for us to be able to get in two lines and really race each other. We just never got there this last time. So a little bit more tame in my opinion. You really had to have a good handling race car to race up front with those guys. But yeah, like you said, kind of a wild card! You never really know what you’re gonna get going there. I know we’ve only been there twice [since the repave], but they were two completely different races.

Jones: The next two questions come from teammates of mine at The Podium Finish. Our Editor-in-Chief, Rob Tiongson, was wondering how your relationship with Ryan (Vargas) has evolved as the two of you have built JD Motorsports into a more competitive team. 

Currey: I think it’s just a lot of bouncing things off each other. We get out after practice, ask what are you feeling? After the race, ask what their car was doing the whole time. We both fill out our post-race debrief sheet every Monday and we talk about it.

I think just having a teammate you can talk about things with. We don’t go to the track exactly the same every week, as far as set up and whatnot. So just kind of seeing what they’re feeling, what their car’s doing versus what my car’s doing. 

I think just using all your resources as a teammate and helping each other. If he’s stronger somewhere, I’ll ask what he’s doing. If I’m stronger somewhere, he’ll ask what I’m doing. We just go back and forth on that. I think it’s been good this year. I think we’ve been able to build off each other, bounce things off each other and make each other better.

(Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)

Jones: That’s great! It’s been awesome to see the growth. Now, columnist and photographer Luis Torres asked, “While it was a double DQ that propelled you to a top 10 at New Hampshire, what does it do for you as a competitor to have a strong points day. And more importantly, for the organization, as you’ve been no stranger in delivering stout results for independent teams?”

Currey: It’s definitely good. It’s a morale booster for sure. I mean, even if we finished 12th, we were very happy with that. I didn’t know we finished 10th until we were on the plane taking off, but I was happy with 12th. I kind of wanted those other two. I really wanted those two spots. The top 10, man. I raced really hard to try to keep ’em, but I feel like maybe their tires didn’t wear as much as mine did. I really had a good short-run car and they kind of came on in the long run.

But, yeah! I was happy with our finish. I feel like we outran some really good cars. We just stayed out of trouble, which is always our goal, you know? So it’s definitely huge. And it’s big because we’ve been in position to finish in the top 10 before, just something always happens. So for it to actually come through this time and we actually do it, it makes us all feel good. It lets us know we can do it, we’ve been there before, and we can continue to do the same.

Jones: It was great to watch you battle up front in the final stage and I was glad to see you and your team get that result, even before the double DQ!

Just a couple more. The Quarterly Question has been fun this go-round. Take us in the earbuds of Bayley Currey. What do you like to listen to that gets you hyped for race day?

Currey: Oh man, it changes! Sometimes it’s like SoundCloud Rap. Then recently, since Stranger Things, Season Four, I’ve been big into heavy metal. So lots of Metallica! I’ve always been an Alice in Chains guy. Actually, I take that back. Pretty much every time I feel like I’ve run good, I listened to Alice in Chains before the race! So I’ll probably be doing that again this weekend. (laughs)

Jones: Yes! Put it on repeat!

Currey: Yeah! Yeah! So I guess that’s it. Alice in Chains, heavy metal, grunge, things like that.

Jones: I’ve almost finished season four. I made it to where Eddie sees the guitar, but I heard some spoilers and didn’t know if they were true or not. I wasn’t emotionally ready for anything yet. I need to finish it out though!  Hopefully this week.

Currey: Oh man! Yeah!! 

Jones: Finally, the Xfinity Series has entered the second half of the season. What is one thing you have learned in the first half that you want to apply to the second half?

Currey: I feel like, starting off this season, I was a little too aggressive. I feel like I’ve backed that off a little bit and kind of just taken more of what the race has given me early. I feel like that’s been pretty big in helping us be more consistent. So I’d say, that’s the biggest thing. 

I’ve backed that off a little bit and kind of just taken more of what the race has given me early.” – Bayley Currey (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)

I came into this year after running really good over here last year, just really wanting to do as good as I could. I think I was overdoing it a little bit, overstepping it, and I somewhat toned that back, at least early on in the races. I feel like it’s helped out a whole lot, so I’m definitely gonna continue to apply that.

Jones: I’m sure that’s a difficult thing to balance. Well, thank you again for taking the time to talk! It’s been an exciting week for you and I hope it’s a momentum boost for you and the No. 4 team as you enter this next stretch of races! 

As always, thank you to Bayley for taking the time to talk for The Podium Finish. Be sure to follow him (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and JD Motorsports (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) for all the latest news, on and off the track.

As a life-long NASCAR fan and lover of words, I'm fortunate enough to put the two together here at The Podium Finish to bring our readers and motorsports fans news, features, and interviews from the world of wheels. Originally from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, I moved westward to graduate from Middle Tennessee State University. I now reside in central North Carolina with my husband, our three boys, and our dog, Charlotte. While my heart is at the race track, I also enjoy watching baseball, as well as college football and basketball. 

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