THE MODERATOR: We are currently joined by Dan Towriss, CEO of TWG Motorsports, parent company of Andretti Global, a guy who has put up a lot of frequent flyer miles in the last three or four days. Nice way to wrap up the coast-to-coast tour?
DAN TOWRISS: Quite a crescendo to the coast-to-coast tour. Happy to be here.
THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on a win here?
DAN TOWRISS: This is my first time to be here, so can I take your picture for a minute? Thanks, everybody (smiling).
Yeah, no, it's a great win. I think this Long Beach race is so special. The crowds were amazing this weekend. It seemed like it was at least 50% increase over prior years. To get the win with Kyle was absolutely amazing. To cap off this weekend, the trip, we just couldn't be more excited about that.
It's very bullish on this team and where it's headed.
THE MODERATOR: Caps up a nice weekend beginning with the fact you locked out the front row this weekend.
DAN TOWRISS: Yeah, locking out the front row shows that Andretti Global brought speed to this race. Obviously Kyle, Colton, and Marcus all executed well, being one, two and five from a qualifying standpoint, being in the Fast Six, which was awesome. Being able to bring Kyle home from pole to the W was outstanding.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Dan.
Q. Dan, how did coast-to-coast go?
DAN TOWRISS: It was fantastic. I think being able to see the different series... Maybe you all have been here three or four days, you're locked into INDYCAR. To spend a day at Bristol, Homestead with Formula E, now INDYCAR, to see the differences between those series, motorsports is really special.
For those of you that cover motorsports, it's being able to appreciate those differences and then to bring it home with INDYCAR. INDYCAR is the crescendo for me from that standpoint. It's a special series. It's so competitive. You see the guys are so talented from Christian, from Alex, then to get the win with Kyle.
I couldn't be more happy with how the trip went together. For us to be able to build the team and show the world what TWG Motorsports is all about.
Q. It was two years ago when Kyle won here. They said Andretti Global co-owner Dan Towriss will be going to the stage. A bunch of us in the room said, What? We ran out there to ask you about the acquisition. That was the first win as a 'owner'. This is your first win as the full majority owner. Can you talk about the progression and the importance to you to get Andretti Global back to the top?
DAN TOWRISS: First off, hats off to Kyle. He certainly has a flair for the dramatic from that standpoint capping off both.
Really just the journey. From that standpoint, when we first got involved from an investment standpoint with Andretti Global, we got the win, we just continued to invest in the team. The team has just been so resilient, just continuing to try to get better in such a competitive series.
Yeah, today is just an extra special win for me personally from that standpoint. Like I said, I think to be able to do it in this location, this race, with Kyle again, is something that I'll think about for a long time.
Q. Can you take is further back from fan/sponsor to partner to co-owner. Did you ever think you were going to be here in this realm?
DAN TOWRISS: Absolutely not. Interesting circumstances, got introduced to INDYCAR. I was sponsoring a golf tournament at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at Brickyard, got up close and personal to INDYCAR, became a sponsor, a fan. Then our involvement just continued.
Now here I'm running a global motorsports platform from Formula 1, to INDYCAR, NASCAR, sports cars, Australian V8 Supercars. I'm a big fan of motorsports now. What can I say?
Q. How would you evaluate the first three races of the year? What more or less do you want to see?
DAN TOWRISS: I'd go back to following the 500 last year with some of the investments we made in the team. Andretti Global has been an upward trajectory on INDYCAR. I'm pleased with how we brought speed to the track.
It's a process to improve. There's a lot of areas of improvement. There's the speed in the car. There's execution on pit road from that standpoint, and we really have just continued to build.
I think there obviously were a few things in St. Pete that were disappointing from a team standpoint, but the speed in the car has been there.
I think as we continue to execute, we're very excited about the season. Obviously Alex Palou is having one hell of a season, he's going to be tough to catch, but we think we can do it and we're going to make it tough for him.
THE MODERATOR: Kyle second in points, 34 points behind Alex. You never know. We've got time. Season is young.
DAN TOWRISS: The season is young. We have more chances.
Q. I think this is Kyle's third year with Andretti Global. Started off his first season with you guys with a couple wins. Improved on consistency, but no wins last year. Since you've come closer to this team, what have you seen from Kyle and his development to become one of those premier weekend-to-weekend threats to win races in INDYCAR?
DAN TOWRISS: I think we have raised the bar for each of the drivers. Kyle has just responded so positively to that.
I think expecting more from everybody, Kyle is a tremendous talent from that standpoint. When you get to a series like INDYCAR, it's so competitive, every little difference matters so much from a results standpoint.
For the 27 team to continue to come together, for Kyle to continue to mature as a driver, I think you can expect a lot of great things from him going forward. I know we certainly are as a team. Very proud of Kyle.
Q. Before the St. Pete weekend kicked off, a big topic of conversation was the business side of things and how you can continue to find more partners and build your relationships. This weekend, showing INDYCAR fans, giving them an eye into Formula E or the Truck Series, social media, what can capping off this big weekend, what can a win like this potentially do for a team like you guys that continues to want to push the limits in the business sphere of racing?
DAN TOWRISS: Confidence is a big thing in motorsports. From a team standpoint, we can continue to build off this confidence and get results.
Our goal is to be a premier and dominant team in every motorsport that we are participating in, including INDYCAR from that standpoint. I think that's a key component of the business side success. People want to partner with the top teams. Certainly winning races does a lot for a team from a commercial standpoint.
We just want to continue to create fans. We want to continue to create interest, interest in our team, interest in our driver, interest in INDYCAR. We're going to continue to push the envelope and bring creativity to that. We're pleased with what FOX has done this year. We're going to continue to push as a team to see if we can create that interest. Certainly being on the podium helps quite a bit.
Q. You mentioned the strides this team has taken, post-500 to win a handful of races, lock a front row this weekend, get the win for Kyle. This is a big month or couple months for you guys, between everything that goes into the 500, this team moving shops in the summer. What will these next couple months be like for this group to continue this momentum that you have built so far and potentially take it into a title fight coming Nashville?
DAN TOWRISS: I think it all starts with the month of May, Indianapolis, right, what that means in motorsport, what that means in INDYCAR. I think a lot of teams judge their season by what kind of May they have.
We go into May very confident, very bullish about what we want to accomplish as a team. I think it's busy from a lot of standpoints. It's going to be a busy month with Formula E with the number of races. There's a kickoff from a Formula 1 standpoint for the Cadillac F1 team.
I think we're really focusing on INDYCAR for the month of May and what it means in terms of the Grand Prix, qualifying for the Indy 500, then the Indy 500 itself.
Q. Before you joined the Andretti team, obviously successful in the business financial word. What did you bring to the team from your experience that's really helped this Andretti Global team forward?
DAN TOWRISS: Yeah, I think from a background standpoint, clearly I'm not an engineer, I'm not a former driver. I think what I'm trying to bring to motorsport is to build high-performing teams. From that standpoint, we want our drivers to operate as a team. We want our team principals to operate as a team at the engineering level.
We want talent. We want collaboration from that standpoint, and we want everybody working towards a singular goal, and that's winning races.
I think what I can bring to the series is to bring high-performing, high-functioning teams in the world of motorsports. We think that will translate to wins on the track and from a commercial standpoint.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. We'll see you in a couple weeks.
DAN TOWRISS: Thanks, everybody.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports