Category: NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET, met with media and discussed key differences in today’s track at Bristol and previous one, the point structure, upcoming races, and more. Full Transcript:

Q. Describe the key differences between the way it used to be and the way it is here.

JEFF GORDON: Well, obviously more grooves to work with. I mean, I could go way back to the way it used to be, the way it used to be, watching guys run up against the wall. I ran a couple of the Nationwide races with the track like that. The track’s changed this. I really like what they’ve done here. It’s taken a little bit of a groove away that I kind of felt like I had figured out. Seemed like we could come here, and it didn’t matter where the car was at, I could get into that groove and just find my way around here and go fast, have a shot at winning the race. You used to have to almost run over the apron on the exits of the corners, and you can’t do that anymore. In fact, me running around the bottom isn’t the fastest way around here anymore. Seems like a little bit of a groove up seems to be the preferred place. Once you get into traffic and stuff, you can run anywhere. That’s what I like about it, is that you’ve got a lot of different grooves to work, to pass. I think it makes for some great racing. I don’t know if we see guys pushing and shoving one another out of the way quite as much. If anybody doesn’t like the new track or the new configuration, what they’ve done here with the changes as much as the old one, it would be for that reason. But from a driver’s standpoint, you like the ability to be able to get side-by-side, race hard, make the passing even harder than just shoving a guy out of the way. But that still may happen, too, so…

Q. Do you think if Dale Jr. were to win a race, that would make a difference with the headlines, take them from the NCAA tournament?

JEFF GORDON: I think Dale Jr. winning a race would steal a lot of headlines from anything. I mean, that would be huge. That would be a big deal. I think it would be great for the sport. It would be great for sports in general.

I think it’s something that has been a long time coming. I know how much it would mean to him and our organization. But, you know, I think it would make a huge impact, not just here in our series.

Q. How do you see that relationship right now with Stevie?

JEFF GORDON: I think they’re working well together. I think they’re really good together. I think Stevie pulls things out of Dale that are valuable to making them go faster. I think Dale adds something to Stevie to keep him kind of in check and calmed down as well, allow him to focus on his job.

I think they’re good together. I really like hearing them work together in our debriefs. I thought they ran really well in Vegas. I thought that was great.

Q. You were talking about the new track configuration. Do you think track position in qualifying matters as much as it used to be?

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, it’s always mattered here. Even though there’s multiple grooves now, it doesn’t make it any easier to pass. It’s still very difficult to pass. You can get side-by-side with guys, but to complete the pass, it’s very challenging. I think we’ve seen if you’re fast, you’re fast. You can move your way up through there. But it’s definitely more difficult. Here at Bristol, if you put yourself further back in the field at the start of the race, you’re putting yourself in jeopardy to be caught up in a wreck, even though you have a good enough racecar to go to the front.

Q. New points structure. What have you started to learn about what you have to do to maximize points?

JEFF GORDON: You know, I mean, to me all it’s done is simplify how you look at the number. It hasn’t changed anything as far as your finishes, where your finishes are going to put you in the standings. I mean, you know, we’ve had one great race and two bad ones, and we’re where I think we ought to be based on how we fought for the position in the points when we had those bad finishes like at Daytona when we got the car back out there and made up a few positions.

You know, other than it being simple to look at, at the number, the order in which we are, I don’t think that it’s any different than it would have been.

Q. This place is so unique the way it’s configured. Do you remember your first laps here? If so, what was your reaction?

JEFF GORDON: Well, you got to understand, I raced at Winchester, Salem, places that are as banked as this place. Running a sprint car or midget around this place, that’s a handful. So in some ways, you know, I felt like this was sort of in slow motion compared to those, but at the same time you’re trying to take a much heavier racecar around these corners. It was fun. I was excited to be here, thought it was very cool. Now, of course, Winchester and Salem don’t have 160,000 (indiscernible). The thing I remember the most about coming here the first time is that we parked the trucks out on the backside and you had to hire a U-Haul to bring your stuff inside. You worked out of the U-Haul truck. I remember that. But the first couple laps, I don’t remember. I don’t know if it was the first year race that I ran here, I just remember that I was about to lap Harry Gant, which was a pretty dang big deal. They had a red flag for some reason. After the red flag, I went backwards and Harry won the race (laughter). I remember that vividly.

Q. Even though they changed the track, it’s been a streaky track as far as drivers with success. You’ve had success here. Is there a reason this track, more so than others, if you find the right combination, you can continue to be successful?

JEFF GORDON: It’s kind of like what I mentioned earlier. With the old configuration, there were certain spots on the track that I felt if I just got my car there, that the car was going to turn, the car was going to get up off the corner well, then we would just complement that with the setup, which we’ve always had great racecars here. I felt like I could come here and not a lot changed. Cars didn’t change a lot; tires didn’t change a lot. We were always, you know, a threat for the pole and for the wins I felt like. I think that’s what happens over the years, is certain drivers, the car works well for them in the areas that they need it to work well, and they go fast. I think that, you know, that’s what I’ve been searching for a little bit here since they did reconfigure it, is for me to find that groove, that rhythm that I can get into, and then make sure that the car’s there to complement that. That’s what I’ve seen is more difficult now with this configuration. The car’s got to be right. There’s not a lot you can do as a driver compared to some of the things that you used to be able to do. The car’s really got to be right. I spent a lot more time in the shop the last couple weeks preparing for this race with the engineers about what we’re going to need to do to be fast here.

Q. Is one way better than another?

JEFF GORDON: No. I mean, obviously I ran better with the old one as far as being more competitive to win, so I’m going to lean more towards that one as far as how we run. But, I mean, if I can run good this weekend, there’s no doubt I’m going to like this one better.

Q. Talk about California, what it takes to get around there.

JEFF GORDON: It’s big and fast. You got to have the power down the straightaways, you got to have the grip in the corners, same as all the other big tracks. Certainly a track I love, look forward to going to, one we’ve had success at. Especially when I think of this team, I think of Alan and his group, they’ve run well there. They’ve run well here, too. To me, I look forward to going to every racetrack every weekend because it’s kind of like starting over and doing some new things that I look at their past performance and I look at their current performance. It’s got me really excited to go to the racetrack and see what we have for the weekend.

It’s a challenge. But I feel like we’re working well together and we’ve got fast racecars.

Q. Following the basketball tournament, filling out brackets?

JEFF GORDON: I haven’t, no. I normally do. But I’ve been spending more time with my family, and I just haven’t had time to pay attention. It’s not that they won’t let me do it; they don’t know anything about it. I’m in their world right now.

Q. (Question regarding Trevor Bayne.)

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like he’s got still momentum behind him and a great support, a great amount of support from the fans in general, not just local fans. So I think that he’ll definitely get a nice round of applause here. If he runs well, they will get behind him in a big way. That’s an advantage.

Q. (Question regarding California.)

JEFF GORDON: How fast our racecar is. That’s the thing I look forward to finding out when I get to every racetrack, it’s just where we stand from a competitive standpoint. When you get to a track like California, it can get tricky. There’s a lot of different combinations of setups that you can put underneath the car to make it go faster. You plan ahead. You spend so much time in the off-season trying to create new bump-stops, shock packages, springs, sway bars, you hope the direction you were working in is the right one. We learned a lot about that at Vegas, but we’ll learn even more when we go to California. That’s what I’m most anxious to see, where we stand as well as where our competitors are at.

Q. (Question regarding California.)

JEFF GORDON: I mean, think we’re seeing some minor differences, but just minor. I don’t think it’s a major big thing. Your grip level, you’re trying to keep the car down, try to balance your car out from front to rear. Might be making a little more front downforce. You have to kind of compensate for that.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET met with media and discussed racing at Bristol, other upcoming tracks, the point system, and more. Full Transcript:

ON QUALIFYING

“I don’t know if we’re going to be a contender for the pole, but if we could stay in the top 10, that’s a good starting spot and we can normally get a halfway decent pit selection that way. That’s two big keys to being good here for Sunday.”

ON THE POINT SYSTEM

“I don’t know if I even really know what to expect, still. So, I’m not sure we’re really focused on it as much as the media is. But we’re just trying to go out and we still know that if we win the race, we get the most points. Right now, we’re just trying to have good finishes and have good top five runs and try to win some races right now. When we get a little closer to Richmond, for 26 weeks, I’m sure weeks before that we’ll start paying attention to it and have a lot better idea of how the system is actually working for us.”

NORMALLY YOU HAVE A LATE SURGE IN THE SEASON. THIS YEAR YOU ARE STARTING OUT PRETTY HIGH. ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THIS?

“What are we? We’re only three races into the season, man. C’mon. Let’s be realistic. And one of them was Daytona of all places. So it’s a little early to be trying to figure it out and access where we’re at.”

NEXT WEEK AT FONTANA, THEY’VE SHORTENED THE RACE TO 400 MILES. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THAT?

“I’m happy with it. There are a lot of 500-mile races that in this age and era of sports where you’re fighting to keep the fans’ attention, a 400-mile race is going to be every bit as exciting, if not more, than a 500-mile race is. So, it will give everybody a chance to get home a little bit earlier and I think it’s just better for everybody I think in this era. You don’t have to have 500-mile races to put on good shows. We’ve run 300-laps at Loudon; we’ve run 300-laps and Phoenix and they are always good races. None of these races are endurance races anymore, anyway. So the theory of 500-mile races I think some of them going to 400 is a good thing.”

WHAT MAKES FONTANA UNIQUE?

“Not a lot, really; other than it’s a lot fresher pavement. But with the heat that we have out there you move around a lot on that race track. You can run the bottom and the middle and the top, and that’s what we do at Michigan too. So they’re starting to really pair up a lot and be very similar.”

FOR THE NEXT FIVE RACES, HOW HARD IS IT TO PREPARE, AND THEN GO OUT AND DO WELL?

“It’s not hard to prepare for because that’s what these guys do week in and week out and they’ve done it every year. These teams have always had this kind of schedule and while it’s not hard from the preparation standpoint, sometimes it can be hard to be good at all five of these next five tracks. But That’s why they call it racing.”

WHAT ARE THE BIG DIFFERENCES IN HOW YOU RACE HERE AT BRISTOL?

“Well, you don’t have to wreck somebody to race here. So you actually race at Bristol now instead of wrecking people at Bristol. Normally this place, where you just ran around the bottom all day, now guys can run the top of the race track, the middle of the race track, and actually there’s a race track now versus just a track where guys used to go in there and run into the back of each other or wreck them or move them out of the way and then go on. But to me, what we’ve got now is a race track, race track.”

WHAT’S THE KEY TO SUCCESS AT FONTANA?

“It seems like you have to have a car that can turn in the center but it seems like every time you get your car turning really good in the center, it’s hard to keep the forward drive on the exit. So it’s a balancing act of trying to get our middle third of your corner and your last third of your corner tied in together.”

WILL THE TRACK GET RUBBERED IN HERE?

“I don’t know. Go ask the Goodyear guys. They know more than we do.”

(QUESTION INAUDIBLE)

“I’ve run a lot of high-banked half-mile tracks but when you come to Bristol the first time, it’s just different; everything about it. You walk in here and the first thing you notice is the grandstands. You don’t even notice the race track (laughs). You just can’t believe that there is a race track sitting in this big mass of 160,000-seat capacity venue. Just the setting of it; you’ve got to go uphill to go down into the infield of this place and it’s just like you feel like you’ve climbed into a volcano.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Bristol, his season so far and other topics. Full transcript:

JUAN, YOU HAVE DONE PRETTY WELL HERE AT BRISTOL, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT COMING BACK TO THE SHORT TRACK AND THE SEASON IN GENERAL SO FAR? “It’s been cool. I think our season has been….you know, we had a good Daytona, in Phoenix we sucked really bad but last week was really good. You know we have been trying a lot of things to understand where we need to go with the cars and what to do and I think we are making a lot of progress and everybody is pumped and everybody is working hard to make sure we run good. This is normally a good track for us so I am excited to come out of here with good points.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NEW POINTS SYSTEM AND HOW FAR YOU CAN FALL BEHIND WHEN YOU HAVE A BAD DAY AND HOW DO YOU COMPARE IT TO FORMULA ONE POINTS? “I don’t even think about it. The way we look at it is that if you are a 20th place or above in the finishes then you are in the good side of the points and if you finish below 20th, you are on the bad side of the points. So we know that, and our goal is to make sure we stay on the good side. You know, we are going to have good weeks and if we continue to run like we ran last week, then we won’t have to worry much.”

GIVEN THE WAY YOUR TEAM RAN LAST YEAR, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HAVE STAYING POWER AND STAY THERE THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER?

“I would think so. That’s our goal. Our goal is to.we had a good start and last year we didn’t, and we know what it takes and there is a lot of good races coming that are good races for us so I am pretty pumped up and right now for me it’s all about….like last week. We thought we had a good car, we didn’t know how good it was. And I told my guys, ‘look, if we get out of here with a top-fifteen, we are good’. But of course we want to do better, but you just got to make sure you bring the car home. I think DNFs are pretty bad right now.”

REGARDING NASCAR, WHAT DO YOU KNOW NOW THAT YOU DIDN’T BEFORE? “I think the hardest thing that I didn’t know was how the top-35 worked at that time. Right now you don’t have as many cars, so it’s not as bad but when I came in you had a lot of good cars going home. So if that was the case, I would have been like, ‘oh, I am not sure I want to do this’. But we had good cars and we did what we had to. You just have to finish the races. It’s all about consistency. It’s incredible. You get on a roll and it just doesn’t stop, it is nice.”

GIVEN YOUR ROADCOURSE BACKGROUND, HOW WAS IT COMING TO BRISTOL AND HOW WOULD YOU RATE IT IN DIFFICULTY? “I will tell you the truth, the first time you come here it’s really hard. Especially when I came here with the old track and it was tough. But once you get in the rhythm it is okay. It’s all about rhythm. I think when they redid the track they improved the track a ton. As a driver it was great for driving and racing and you didn’t have to be on the line and I think the guys that were here from the beginning understood the old track and what it needed and I think they had a huge advantage against the new people like me. Younger guys and newer guys. I think when they redid it, it reset the ballgame.”

CAN YOU GIVE US MORE DETAILS ON BRISTOL AND HOW CRAZY IT GETS DURING THE RACE? “The thing is that it’s so different than anything that you have seen before. The place, the size and from the driving side you don’t have any time on the straights. You come out of the corner and you are going into the next one, and so on. Especially at the beginning. In the beginning you don’t even have time to look at the gauges. Everything simplifies the more you do it.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE A NEW ATTITUDE ABOUT FINISHING RACES THIS YEAR? “Last year was a big wake-up call for us. 2009 we ran where we could run and we made the Chase and then last year by race five we had three DNFs. And when you look at it, and you have put yourself in such a big hole, you never come out of it. So this year, we knew what we had to do and we are doing it. We are running a little bit smarter and trying to make better choices. You know, in Phoenix we thought we made the right changes with the car, but we didn’t and we learned from it. As long as we keep learning from it and making ourselves better, that is all we can do.”

REGARDING THE ROLE THAT CONFIDENCE PLAYS IN EVERYTHING FOR YOU? “I think every person takes it a different way and everybody wonders if they are doing a good enough job sometimes but you do what you can. The way I look at it is that everybody here has two arms, two legs; one head, two eyes, and they go out there and drive. If they can do it, you can do it. That is the way I look at it. Some people have cars that are better than other and cars that are a lot better to you than someone else and what you have to do is make sure your car is comfortable to you.

I think being in a small organization sometimes helps so you can really focus on what you need. You know when you are in a big organization, they are like ‘oh, this guy is winning and is running this, and you have to run this’, and if you can’t drive that setup you are never going to drive good.”

BECAUSE OF THE DNF’S LAST YEAR, AND HOW FAR YOU WERE BEHIND, HOW DID THAT IMPACT HOW YOU GUYS DID THINGS OR HOW YOU DROVE? “I always put myself under the gun to make sure I perform 100%. But last year the thing that put us behind last year was that we were involved in a lot of wrecks that weren’t our fault and we had a lot of problems and things. And when we were running fifth we tried things to get more points and we went from finishing fifth to 15th or 20th or even worse and created another DNF. You have to take what it gives you and that is all you can do. We learned that from last year and this year I think we are doing a good job with what we have to do. With this sport you get to the point where the car will give you what it gives you and you can get a little more for three laps but it would cost you the next 15. There is always a fine balance and you have to see how far you can and when you go too far, it will bite you and it did last year to us.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing How do you feel entering this weekend’s race seventh in the NSCS standings? “It feels good to come in here in a decent position.  There’s a lot of racing left to go.  You never know what can happen here at Bristol.  Excited about it — looking forward to it.  The team’s done an awesome job this year and we felt good coming into the season.  Things have really went well for us — as well as we expected.  So far it’s been a fairly smooth start to the season and hopefully we can continue that here.”

Did you think winning in the Sprint Cup Series would be so difficult? “No, I didn’t think it would be as difficult.  Again, I’ve been in position to win a lot more races than one and we just haven’t closed the deal.  Obviously, the last few years have been pretty difficult.  The first couple went pretty well and we fought for wins a lot.  Then we went through two really crazy transition years.  Then last year was a new deal for me.  We had the speed last year.  We had a chance at winning a few races, especially at the end of the season when we got our program going the right direction.  It’s just been kind of difficult.  It’s been hard for me because I’ve won championships and I’ve won races in everything I’ve ever run.  To go three seasons or so without seeing victory lane again has been difficult.  You have to keep working hard, focus on the things you know you can do better and try to be a team player — all those things.  It’s been hard, but I know the next win isn’t far — it’s just around the corner.  I felt like we had a shot at the Daytona 500 for sure — of course a lot of guys did.  At the end of the season last year we really turned a corner with our team.  I think we showed that at Homestead when we led all the laps.  I felt like we were going to go to victory lane there and we got a flat tire.  It’s been just one of those deals where when we have our good days we have to capitalize.  In the past, it seems like when all the bad stuff happens, it’s always on our good days and not on our bad days.  Hopefully that stuff is behind us and we’ll be able to get there soon.  I feel like we will.  I feel like we’ve got the team to do it and we’re heading in that direction.”

Are you concerned  a bad day could really hurt you in the point standings? “You’re always concerned and that was no different than in the past.  Obviously, when it happens early in the season is when it really shows up.  When we get 26 races in, everybody is going to have a bad race or two.  It’s going to even out.   I’ve had seasons where it started out that way.  It happened to us last year — the year I made the Chase it started out the same way and almost scared of falling out of the top-35 deal.  It’s hard, but you have to just not look at the points.  Look at how you’re running, look at how things are going for your team and think about where you want to be in 26 races.  The picture is really going to change in the next two or three weeks.  Two or three races into the season, if you have one or two bad ones, it’s going to look really bad.  In the end, the good guys are going to be there and it’s just going to be like it always was I think.”

Is it important to be in the top-10 in points this early in the season? “I think it’s important, especially if you can stay here for five or six weeks.  Build up some points, build up a cushion there.   It seems like after about 10 races, the guys that are in the top-10 usually stay there.  I feel like this year is going to be different to be honest.  Like I said, I’ve talked about it all winter long about my team and the changes we made last year towards the end and the momentum we gained and the confidence that I have as a driver in my team each weekend when we come to the race track.  The way the communication has been flowing has just been excellent for me.  I feel good about it.   Our cars have been fast, we ran well at Vegas, which is arguably my worst race track.  It’s been a place where I’ve struggled in the past and we ran in the top-five all day two weekends ago.  Had a shot at running second or third there, but we put four tires on thinking there would be a caution and we ran sixth.  Phoenix we were running third and we had a problem on pit road and pretty much hurt our car pretty bad and we ran 14th.  Our cars are good, everybody at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) is doing a good job with them.  The main thing is the confidence that I have in my race team and what we’re doing and what they’re able to give me.   I feel like we can go anywhere and win.”

Have you experienced any engine problems similar to what Joe Gibbs Racing is experiencing? “They’re constantly working on  more power and we’re constantly asking.  The good thing for us is that last year early in the season we had problems like (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) is having now.  Pushing the envelope too much and having problems.   I think they’re a little more conservative.  The driver always wants more power.  We always want the fastest engine in the garage, but when it blows up you’re cussing somebody.  There’s a fine line there between having problems and being a little bit conservative.  I think for us, we’re a little on the conservative side, but obviously it’s paid off for us.  Our cars have been fast and I think we’re in the ballpark there.  I’ve been happy with the reliability and I think for us right now, that’s our main concern.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing (continued) Was there a point last season when you and your race team ‘clicked’? “I think towards the end of last year there was a lot of ‘ah-ha’ moments.  There was a lot of instances where we really figured out what we had been doing wrong and understood it.  There’s a difference between starting to run good and not knowing why and starting to run good and understanding why.  I think we really kind of hit a crossroads there where we figured out exactly what we were doing wrong and we were able to change those things, but understand them.  It’s easier to move forward and understand what you’re doing moving forward.  Again, we just kind of swapped up — inside the team, we just kind of moved around some responsibilities really is all we did and things really started to gel with me and the engineers and Pat (Tryson, crew chief).  Right now I feel very confident in both of them and what they’re doing.   Confidence is — it comes when you run well, but you don’t have to finish well to have it.  You can have good spots and the guys on your team being able to give you what you’re asking for — that’s the main thing.  Me having confidence in when I say, ‘I need something,’ and they say ‘Alright buddy.’  You’re out there just hanging on in a long run and saying, ‘I need this, I need this, I need this.’  They’re saying, ‘We’ll fix you up.’  We all hear that every week, how many times does it actually happen?  It helps a lot when they’re delivering what you’re asking for.  That goes a long way.  We went to Phoenix and we unloaded and we were terrible — absolutely terrible.  In 30 minutes between practices they flipped a 180 with the car and we went out and it was great.  We ran good all weekend.  Things are going the way they need to go.  Obviously, again it’s early in the season, but I have a lot of confidence in the team and what we were able to do at the end of last year to really figure out a lot of things that we were doing and should be able to help us this season.”

What will the next five races say about your team with the different style race tracks? “I think it’s a good stretch to see what you have.  Obviously, we’ve been to a plate track — we’ve been to Daytona, we’ve been to Phoenix, which is kind of a flat short track.  With Vegas being a mile-and-a-half track, three completely different animals so we kind of got a good measure those first three weeks of where we’re at as a team.  We need to work on those certain type race tracks.  Bristol is a completely different animal, Martinsville completely different.  I think for my team in our position, this weekend and Martinsville will be a big test for us.  We had pretty good success here last year.  We ran pretty decent, but didn’t get the finishes we wanted and hopefully that will change.  Martinsville has been a tough place for me in the past.  Again, had a few good runs there, but consistently have been off a little bit.  Last year, we struggled there a bit.  That will be a good test for us.  I feel good about our mile-and-a-half program and our restrictor plate program.  Again, we’ll learn more, but I feel good about where we’re at right now and I think we’ll have a good few weeks.”

Does having an off weekend allow you to look at where you need to improve in upcoming races? “Obviously, it gives you a little more time to plan things.  A little more time to figure out  — finding problems is easy, but figuring out what you’ve done wrong and what you need to work on is easy, but figuring out how to fix them is the part that takes time.  Surely, a week off  helps.  In our situation, we kind of had that momentum and we felt good about things.  It almost feels like it’s been three weeks since we’ve raced.  We were ready to go to the track the day after Vegas.  For us, it wasn’t quite needed yet, but off weekends are always nice.”

What are the differences between the old Bristol surface and the new surface? “The biggest difference is there’s options now.  There wasn’t before.  Before it was you fought for the bottom, if you didn’t get there then you were getting passed.  If the guy in front of you was there then you had to move him to pass him.  Now, there’s options.  You can run all the way against the wall here.  I love it the way it is now.  I didn’t like the old — you had to run into the guy to pass him kind of racing.  It’s just not me, it’s not my style.  I don’t mind getting up top against the fence to drive by guys.  This kind of fits my style a little more than it used to.  It’s a greater race to watch because there’s two or three wide and sometimes four.  For the drivers, it’s just a lot more fun.  You have options, you can move around to where your car wants to work and where you can work on your car.  It’s a lot more fun to race on.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What did you learn during the first practice session? “Just worked on mostly race trim until right there at the end.  It’s hard to say.  We’re going to be dealing with a different race track here when we go to qualify.  Obviously, the sun is breaking through now.  What everyone is practicing is going to be a little bit different from what we have later on today.  We chose not to work too much on qualifying because of that reason.  Hopefully,  it pays off on Sunday.”

Does the new points system magnify a bad day? “I think in the long run consistency is what’s going to pay more than ever for this points system, I believe.  If you finish in the high teens then that’s as good as a win or a 40th-place finish.  It’s a little different for sure.  It pays to be consistent, which we feel like we’re a pretty consistent race team throughout the year.  Then at the end of the season when we feel like we need to turn it up then we feel like we can.  It does make you a little scared of those bottom finishes because it’s tough to look at your points day and say you go into a weekend with 400 points and you’ve just spent three days at a race track and you come out three points better than what you started.  You might as well have just stayed home.  It’s a hard hit when you don’t get but a few points, especially single digits.”

Did you have any tire issues in practice? “We did.  We ran about 30 laps.  I think we ran longer than anyone — laps wise or close to it.  We had the right-rear cording up.  Very similar to what looks like some Nationwide cars had.  We’ve had some good tires here.  I did some tire testing here last year and we had some pretty good options.  It definitely feels like it’s a little bit different than that.  Not sure why.   I think we’ve had these issues at Dover before and they’ve changed the tire a few times.  I think they’re just trying a new tire for whatever reason and it definitely doesn’t look like it’s rubbering up the race track.  Hopefully,  it will and we don’t have any rain.  Rain would definitely put a damper on the weekend.”

How are drivers that need to make up points viewing this weekend’s race? “I don’t look at it really any different.  I look at it as another place that we can possibly win.  There’s definitely some anxiety for some guys.  I can’t speak for like Jeff Burton and those guys that have had a tough couple races, but it’s tough to come here and know that we need to make up some points.  Yet this is a race track where you can find trouble very easily.   I’m pretty confident in the position that we’re in right now, especially this early in the year.  I’m sure I can rest a little bit easier.”

What has been your missing ingredient to win at Bristol? “I know a fuel pump issue twice kept me from winning.  I think I’ve led on the last lap here twice and not won the race.  It’s just been one of those race tracks that has been really, really tough for me to break through.  We’ve run extremely well at this track and just never had it all put together to win a race here.  This track and Atlanta — other than the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, the big races.  This one and Atlanta are two race tracks where I’ve come extremely close and I really want to win at extremely bad this year.  This is one of two opportunities I’ve got to get it done.”

Do you feel like you have the engine issues behind you and do you know what went wrong? “I don’t feel like we’ve been aggressive at all with our packages.  We don’t know whether we got it all sorted out until we all run a full race and we have no issues and do that for an extended period of time.  I’m not sure that it’s just JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing).  The Toyota camp in general or TRD (Toyota Racing Development) — we’ve got obviously some work to do, but we’ve got some of the smartest guys in the world working on those engines.  I have no doubt that by Chase time and everything, everything is going to be ironed out and we’ll be good to go.  This is your experimental time of the year.  This is where you try new parts and pieces and I don’t know whether that’s the case for ours necessarily.  I do know that a lot of teams use this time to try different things.” – more –

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) Do you have any thoughts on why the Joe Gibbs Racing cars have struggled this year? “I think I’m in championship form.  Look at where I was last year.  I’ll be honest with you, I hadn’t finished better than 22nd after five races.  I’m definitely on track, I feel like, for what we do early in the year.  We talk about this every year.   Just our car, but we never really perform at the beginning of the year — we never do for whatever reason and we just seem to hit our stride later.  As far as the other cars, I think that Joey (Logano) has run better than he’s finished.  I’ve looked at his stats and I definitely know that he’s run better than that.  He’ll make his way back — I think he’ll be one of those guys that’s going to be fighting for a Chase spot in the end.  I think he’s going to be there.  Kyle (Busch) is obviously going to go out there and he’s going to win races here and there and be strong week in and week out.  Kyle’s had engine trouble — when you have one week like say Kyle had with the blown engine last week.  It just looks terrible on the overall spread of things because we’ve only run three weeks and that’s a third of the season.  We know the law of averages is going to average all that out.  I’m not really too concerned.  Last year I think Joey was probably our flagship car for the first six or seven races.   He finished better than me and Kyle pretty much every week.  By the end of the season we started to figure it out.  I think it’s just part of the make-up of this race team.  We’ve seen it with Tony Stewart for years and years.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET met with media and discussed the change in crew chiefs, Danica Patrick, upcoming races, racing this weekend at Bristol, and more. Full Transcript:

Q. (Question about upcoming races.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: A couple tracks I need to run better at. It just gives us a chance to sort of get some better footing and try to improve on what we’re doing.

Q. (Question regarding Lance.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Lance had some times where we did have good chemistry and we did run some good races. I’m real excited about what’s happening right now, real positive about it. I think it’s realistic to be patient about your expectations. I mean, my expectations are really the same. It’s just early in the season and we got a long, long way to go, a lot of tracks to go race at, a lot of different setups to be working on, ideas that will come and go. It’s just a long season.

Q. You said during the off-season you liked when you were under the radar. Now there’s a buzz around you. Are you comfortable with that buzz?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I think we just got to temper our excitement over what we’ve seen so far. You know, there have been some positive results. We should have run good, and did at Daytona. Phoenix, I don’t know how well we would have finished had a lot of guys hadn’t had trouble like they did. We weren’t strong. It’s hard to pass.

The car was getting better and faster. Would we have been able to make up track position the way the car was? I don’t know. Some places it’s really hard to pass.

I don’t know. You got to temper your mood a little bit and just keep working hard, keep staying focused, realizing how much further in the season we got to go.

I’m comfortable with whatever buzz that creates.

Q. (Question regarding the off week.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: They’re all good. I love off weeks (laughter).

Q. Do you get the feeling that Stevie wants to be there?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR: I don’t really think that Lance had any times where he didn’t want to be there. It’s a real tough job where Lance was put in a very challenging and tough position. He did a really good job being put in that position, how he handled it. We got along good. I think me and him did as good as we could under the circumstances. I wish we’d have done better. I know he wishes we would have done better. But, you know, it’s the clean slate, the different personalities. It’s just such a great slate starting for this season. It’s allowed me to sort of reboot a little bit. Me and Steve are getting along really good, and the environment around the garage and trailer and stuff is good. Hopefully we can maintain that. That’s going to be the challenge really, is me and him maintaining, you know, the positive attitude, maintaining the communication and the consistency of how it’s working right now. That’s going to be the part that is the hardest and that will determine whether we will succeed or not, is whether we can keep that going over the entire season. The season is long. You get pissed off. Things don’t go right. You get pissed off. You just got to get through those points when they happen, whether it be in a practice or whatever. The littlest thing, you got to be able to manage it and not let it ruin things. I have a hard time not letting things ruin my day, get pissed off at everything around me. I’ve always had that problem.

But, you know, that’s going to be the tough part, I think the hardest part, just trying to keep the relationship as it seems and it is right now, keeping that throughout the season.

Q. (Question regarding Stevie helping that situation.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I think that’s what he’s great at and that’s what he’s doing right now. I mean, he gives you the impression that when you get yourself in a hole or the car isn’t quite going like you want it to go or the car isn’t responding like you think it should, you get the impression that you’ll get it fixed and (indiscernible). As long as he doesn’t fool me too many times, yeah.

He does a great job at, you know, just keeping you in the game. You’re part of the puzzle, and everybody needs to be pulling in the same direction. He’s good at what he does. Ain’t no doubt about it.

Q. (Question regarding Danica.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I think she’ll do fine. She was up to speed rather well in the first run. She’ll do fine. You know, it’s not a real challenging place to look at and say, Well, there’s a line, I need to go out there and run there. With the new banking and stuff, you can be off a couple feet in the cars and relatively still be in the line.

Once she hones it in, we got 24 hours of practice, so by the end of all that, she should have it nailed.

Q. (Question regarding Danica’s progress.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: She’s done a pretty good job. I expected her to do well. Watched the races last year pretty well. Saw some flashes. Watched all the laps she ran. Were physically out there watching it on the racetrack. We saw there was some great potential.

She started to realize some of that potential like she did in Vegas. I thought that was a great race she ran. She was real competitive, raced guys hard, getting comfortable being around the cars, being around the other guys, making moves.

Q. I’m doing a piece on Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton. I was with Kevin Harvick the other day. He said he got a laugh out of it. If somebody else gets in it, everybody is picking at them. What did you think of that?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don’t think Burton had much of a choice. We’ve seen Jeff, he’s upset with you, he’ll let you know. We saw him do that with Burton and Matt. I wasn’t at all surprised at what I was watching.

But it was exciting I think, a race story for the week. You know, sometimes, man, you just get so mad, you got to go handle it. You got to go handle your business.

Q. (Question about the four races coming up.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Basically here at Bristol, I just want to try to maintain my consistency, get a good car under me, take care of it, manage a good race. We’ve been able to do that a lot at this place.

At California, I’m excited to get there and work with Stevie and see what his package drives like. Hopefully we’ll sort of, you know, have the same success we had at Vegas.

Martinsville, same thing about Bristol. Take a good car there, qualify rather well, use good pit strategy, manage a good race, put yourself in position for a competitive finish. That’s how you short-track race. If the car hauls ass, get to the front. If you need to work on your car, manage your track position, manage yourself so you don’t lose track position. If you lose track position in them races, it’s really hard to get back.

Talladega just is what it is.

Q. Texas.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Texas is the other one?

I feel pretty good about Texas. We run good there the last couple times. We could improve, but I feel pretty confident going there.

Q. Is the next big thing for you is to have a good car the entire weekend?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I guess. I mean, you know, I don’t know that you can expect to show up exactly tuned in. It’s nice when you do show up and you’re in the top five in times. But, I mean, these damn cars are so finicky, and you dial it in and out throughout the series of a practice, you know, it might look like you’re good all weekend, but the driver’s never satisfied. There’s always a run or two that doesn’t feel just right, something the crew chief changed that you just didn’t like. The weekend goes up and down even though it looks steady on the chart.

But, you know, it would be nice once we get to that point. We’ll get that opportunity I’m sure throughout the season to get to that point.

Q. The new Bristol or the old Bristol, which do you like better?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I really like ’em both. I don’t prefer one over the other. This one has so many different characteristics versus the old one. The old one, you ran the bottom. There wasn’t a second groove. You moved guys out of the way. You know, it was a fun racetrack. A little tougher on cars, a little rougher.

But this place is really smooth. There’s more grooves. It makes it harder to pass because the guy on the outside can hold you off if he wants to be hard-headed about it.

I think, you know, there’s good things about both of them.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Not really. The plate is really one of a kind.

Q. What are your expectations for this weekend?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Just get a good car under us in practice and start the race, manage a good race, work ourselves into the top 10, try to work ourselves into the top 5, try to work ourselves into the top 3. One step after another, see how competitive we can be.

Q. (Question regarding the NCAA basketball tournament.) What would a win by you do? Would you make a dent in the headlines?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: There’s some pretty passionate basketball fans out there. Yeah, I mean, I think they deserve some of the headlines. Pretty good stuff.

Q. Do you think you’re inching closer to a win?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah. I feel we’ve made some steps that have helped us. We got a long ways to go, though. We have to temper our expectations and just try to maintain our focus on what that job is that day, that moment, just do what we need to do, do it as good as we can, try to get competitive, stay competitive, try to do a good job in the races. We’ll see.

Q. Fontana is down to a 400-mile race.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: That’s awesome. Hell, yeah. That’s great. They should look at Pocono. The only race that lasts 4 hours. All the others are ones are in the 3 hour to 3:15 mark. We go to Pocono, it’s 3:58. They should cut about a hundred miles out of that one, too.

Q. (Question regarding the NFL lockout situation.)

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I’m upset as a fan. I hope we get to see some football. I don’t know what I’ll do, how I’ll replace my Fantasy Football league. Really, I mean, I look forward to it. I don’t know what I’ll do with my time. It will be disappointing not to have football, especially when our season’s over. We got a couple more weeks still in the regular season.

As a racecar driver, that’s one thing I look forward to about the end of the season, watching football, watch my team on Sunday. It will be disappointing that we might not have a season.

That happens to be an opportunity for us. I just hope we get some football.

Q. You blame one side or the other?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I don’t know enough about it. I don’t know enough about their problems.

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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Bristol, Auto Club Speedway, different kinds of tracks, the points system and other topics. Full transcript.

IS THERE BEGINNING TO BE CONCERN THAT A REALLY BAD DAY CAN REALLY HURT YOU IN THE POINTS? “Yes, but I really haven’t worried more than I normally would. We’ve had one good finish, one bad one and one fair finish so I still as of now have the same opinion. I do know the lower you go in the finishing order, the bigger the deficit. But, we just need to start running well, consistently I should say. We have had fast moments during races, but we just have to finish a little bit better and make sure we don’t fall too far. So, yes there is a concern that if you get too far behind early and we don’t want that to happen.”

DO YOU THINK THIS CAN REALLY HAVE AN EFFECT WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO THE LAST FIVE OR SIX RACES IN THE REGULAR SEASON? “In my heart I believe the guys that you expect to be in the Chase will be. There’s just a lot of racing, a lot of race tracks. I know it feels a little out of sorts right now, but I feel like in time it will come back to what you would expect.”

WOULD A DALE, JR. WIN STEAL AWAY THE THUNDER FROM THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT AND SECOND DO YOU NOTICE HIM WEARING HIS HAT BACKWARDS MORE? “I didn’t know there was a basketball tournament going on (LAUGHS) so I would have to think it would be a big deal if Junior did win. As far as the hat, I wasn’t even aware of it to be honest with you (LAUGHS). I don’t know, I don’t even know what to say. I just don’t pay attention enough I guess. I haven’t even noticed (LAUGHS).”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DALE JUNIOR’S AND STEVE LETARTE’S RELATIONSHIP, WATCHING THEM WORK TOGETHER SO FAR? “I think they are great for one another. Steve does a very good job of building confidence in him. That’s something that Junior needs. He has the ability and just getting the confidence up. Junior is not going to let somebody just cheerlead him to get his confidence up, Steve has done that but at the same time they’ve been running good. Both teams going together worked well for them.”

THE NEXT FIVE TRACKS ARE ALL DIFFERENT, HOW TOUGH IS IT TO PREPARE FOR THAT?

“One thing as a Cup driver you really have to develop the ability to switch tracks. Different size, different speeds, braking points, there’s a lot of things going on that makes it so hard on a driver or team coming in and it’s a discipline that builds up over time. It is a challenge for sure.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS OF FONTANA GOING DOWN TO 400 MILES AND TO ONE DATE: “In a lot of ways I think one race at each track would be really good. It would make each even a must see. There are some venues that can really host two races. I think it would be great to spread out and have one race in a variety of different new areas. If you bring it down to one race it opens up some other race dates that you can spread around. That’s probably very easy for me to say because I don’t have the financial commitment like these owners do. The more we can spread out and the more we can get into these new areas the better it is for our sport.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL THERE? “The track has changed so much. The grove now is from the white line to the wall, even below the line down in three and four. Even though it’s a very fast race track, you have to be smart and not take away too much mechanical grip in the race car because the asphalt is very old now and low on grip.”

ARE YOU AND CHAD HOPING TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW THERE THAT YOU HAVEN’T LEARNED SO FAR THIS YEAR? “On big track stuff, we’re working through some new ideas right now. We are getting smarter each week. The race we had in Las Vegas was our first big track so I think we will go much closer and start much closer in our first couple of practice sessions at Fontana and looking forward to a great weekend out there in my home state.”

ON TREVOR BAYNE: “I’m very proud of what Trevor has done. Obviously the 500 is the ultimate for him. I’ve known him for a lot of years and I’ve seen him grow as a man and mature as a driver. He’s done a really good job at carrying himself. I’m proud of him and he’s getting to be a household name. As time goes on he’s going to develop more.”

ON THE EFFECTS OF THE NEW POINTS SYSTEM: “I’ve had one good race, one fair race and one bad race and I’m 12th in points. So it kind of feels the same for now. I do recognize the lower you finish the bigger the gap. I think we are all learning as we go here. I want to believe when we get to Richmond where the Chase starts that after the 26th race we will kind of average out the guys that you expect to be in the top-10 or top-12 however you look at it will still be there. We’ve got a lot of racing left.”

WHAT ARE THE KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE WAY IT USED TO BE AND THE WAY IT IS NOW? “This track now, you can move around some and maybe drive in a little too hard and wash up the track. Getting around the corners at a good speed its more forgiving I guess you can say. The old Bristol there was a very small area of grip that you had to hit and had to do it right. It was very line-specific. You can take an average running car and get on the track and make the car turn and give it the grip needed to produce a lap. It’s less line-sensitive now.”

DOES THE DRIVER MATTER MORE NOW OR DID IT MATTER MORE BACK MORE BACK THEN? GORDON SAID A LITTLE WHILE AGO, AND IT WAS INTERESTING, THAT HE THOUGHT THE DRIVER MATTERED MORE BACK THEN BECAUSE YOU COULD FIND THOSE LITTLE SPOTS TO GAIN AN ADVANTAGE: “I don’t disagree with that. It is a lot more forgiving now and a lot easier. I know I couldn’t get it right with the old track (LAUGHS). I tried and tried and finally got it right with this new track. I do believe that Jeff’s comments are right, it was more of a driver’s track then than it is now.”

ANY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE WEEKEND? “We’ve qualified really well the last two races here and have run great in the race. We’re hoping for more of the same. Qualifying results are so important for the pit road pick and I am really really focused on qualifying well today so that we can start up front and have a good spot on pit road and try to maintain that track position.”

WAS THERE A “CAN-DO” MOMENT FOR YOU AT BRISTOL WHERE YOU REALIZED YOU FINALLY KNEW WHAT IT TOOK TO GET AROUND HERE FAST? “I would say 2009, I had some good runs and I think we finished, I don’t know where we finished, but I want to say we had a couple of top-fives and raced with the leaders some. It felt like things were going the right way. So we knew we were getting better, then we came here last year and finally won. It was a slow, steady climb, but I would say ’09. Maybe end of ’08-’09, we started to see the progression and the results.”

DID YOU FEEL LIKE IT WAS SOMETHING YOU NEEDED TO DO BETTER OR WAS IT A PERFORMANCE OF THE CAR? “Truthfully, it kind of starts with me. There are so many different ways to drive this track and as a driver if you are searching to find the rhythm that is best suited for you, a crew chief can’t set the car up. So, I finally figured out what was the right way, how to drive the track the right way. Ran that line consistently enough to where Chad (Knaus, crew chief) could adjust the car to it. At the end of the day, I think it really falls in the driver’s hands to find the right rhythm around this track. I raced on a lot of tracks like this in ASA, I don’t know why it took me so long to figure it out. Maybe it was the radial tire, heavier car, whatever it is, it took awhile for me to figure it out.”

CAN YOU COPY WHAT ANOTHER GUY IS DOING OR WILL THAT ONLY WORK WHEN YOU FIND YOUR RHYTHM? “I tried. Back when we could test, we came here with the No. 24 car (Jeff Gordon). Switched cars, had data to overlay. I did everything I could to drive like Jeff did here and I still was like a tenth-and-a-half, two-tenths off of him after two days of trying to mimic what he did. I’ve always been a slow learner but once I get it, I’ve got it. So, I’m glad I finally have it now.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 TORNADOS CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his season so far, the technical challenges of Bristol since the resurface, his thoughts on Danica’s first race at Bristol and more. Full transcript.

TALK ABOUT YOUR SEASON SO FAR AND YOUR OUTLOOK HERE AT BRISTOL. “I wish we could have started off Daytona better than we did but it was still twice as good as it was that last couple of years. So going into Phoenix and Vegas getting two top-fives I’m really proud of the team and organization to be able to achieve what we have. We’ve done a good job to carry the momentum from 2010 into this season at the same time we got lucky a little there in Phoenix by not getting caught up in the wreck that happened all around me and took a lot of good cars out. The one thing I will say for us as a team with the U.S. Army Chevrolet is I’m proud of the way we ran at Vegas, that was one of our struggles last year and the last couple of years for that matter. Our racing performance at the 1.5-mile race tracks, I think we did a good job of improving our performance and capabilities at those types of tracks.”

IN REGARDS TO THE NEW POINTS SYSTEM, IS THERE CONCERN IN GARAGE ABOUT THAT AND ARE YOU CONCERNED THAT A REALLY BAD DAY COULD DROP YOU WAY DOWN? “I haven’t done the math all the way down to 43rd in seeing where people are at. I think only one spot or two spots would have changed in the top-10 or top-12 from what I’ve seen going back to last year’s point system. To me it’s kind of like just dropping a zero where it’s not that big of difference in the essence in what the outcome is as far as who would be a champion and who would be in the top-12. Ultimately, we’ve said this several times, it is the way it is and yes it’s no different than the essence of not wanting a bad finish because you can lose a lot in one bad weekend or one bad day or one bad mistake on a Sunday. None of that really to me has changed with this point system.”

DO YOU AND TONY TALK ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS RIGHT NOW AND THAT YOU WILL HAVE STAYING POWER AS THE SEASON GOES ON IN THOSE POSITONS? “I feel much more confident this year than I have in the last two years at least of our teams performance and our capabilities. Again going back to Vegas I think that is a big part of that. That was one of our weaknesses, our balance and grip at those intermediate race tracks. After Vegas and the last part of last year, I feel like we’ve made big improvements and we are a much better and stronger team and our pit crew stepped up as well. So I think that there are a lot of things pointing to the good for us, we just have to keep that good rolling.”

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN THE NEXT FIVE WEEKENDS FOR YOUR TEAM AND HOW MIGHT THOSE RACES START TO SHAKE THINGS OUT? “Every lap is different so I don’t know that I can sit here and tell you the strategy on each lap, each restart, each race track or for instance the weather that we get at them. To me it’s just going and attacking them as we need to attack them and putting ourself in a position. We did that at Daytona and I think we’ll have to do the same type of racing and the same type of strategy at Talladega. Texas to me is going to be similar to Vegas and I think California will be our first new experience with that race track, with the shorter distance and what not.”

DO YOU SEE CALIFORNIA AS A WAY TO MAYBE VALIDATE SOME THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS? “Yeah, for sure but at the same time I think Vegas was validation for us as to how well we ran in California last year. That’s part of what I was alluding to. I think we’ve made some big improvement as a team and an organization at least on the No. 39 car to feel that we’re not just in the top-five but we’re capable of staying in the top-five.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES OF THIS TRACK FOR A DRIVER AND SINCE IT’S BEEN RESURFACED DOES THE DRIVER PLAY LESS OF A FACTOR IN THE FINISH MAYBE THAN HE DID BEFORE? “It’s different every race here. Last fall of the 500 laps I bet I was in the sixth place for 490 of them it felt like. And I’ve been here before where I’ve gone from first to 35th to 12th to 36th to third, that’s not exact obviously. It changes every time the way the race plays out here. Because of where the yellows fall is basically what it amount to. The way our fuel windows work here at the race track, it changes a lot of things the way guys cannot maneuver their fuel verses tire situation. That’s the biggest question mark in everybody’s mind, is that and getting a good qualifying effort and you get those pit selections because this is one of the toughest pit roads.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK DANICA IS GOING TO EXPERIENCE AT THIS RACE TRACK THAT SHE HASN’T DEALT WITH YET? “Bristol. Just kind of like what I said it’s different every time first of all. It can go a lot of green-flag runs and a lot of single-file racing or it can be crazy and it can get randomly crazier. She proved a lot of things in Vegas. If I think back to my first time at Bristol, I don’t necessarily remember it but I know there have been a lot of different things that have happened every time I’ve been here.”

WHAT ARE THE KEY DIFFERENCES IN THE WAY IT USED TO BE AND THE WAY IT IS NOW HERE AND WHICH DID YOU LIKE BETTER? “I like the racing better now than it was before. The track to me before was more demanding now its smoother and there’s more maneuverability. If you miss your line just a little bit you wash up the race track and you come down the hill and you come back off the corner where before if you missed your line a little bit you were going to get freight-trained maybe 10 or 15 spots back. I think the racing from a driver’s perspective is much better than it used to be with the old configuration. I think one of the best races we ever had here was when it was brand new, that combination of track and tire, we ran three-wide in the Nationwide race the last 20 or 30 laps and it was awesome. It was like holy cow what is going to happen next. Each lap was different. I like it the way it is.”

ON WHY HE LIKES THE SHORT TRACKS SO WELL: “I like using the middle pedal. In all seriousness I think it adds another parameter of a driver’s input when you have to modulate that third pedal. We have to go to places like Vegas and you’re using very little brake. When you are using a little bit it’s hard to screw it up. I think our team has done a really good job with the brake package that we have. I like the short tracks. I like having the character added to the program of modulating the brake. Places like here, Martinsville, Phoenix and Richmond, we’ve been really strong as a team.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Bristol, difficult tracks on the circuit, working with new crew chief Lance McGrew and other topics. Full transcript:

TALK ABOUT BEING HERE AT BRISTOL THIS WEEKEND HAVING NINE POLES HERE ALREADY TIED WITH CALE YARBOROUGH FOR MOST AT THIS TRACK: “This is an exciting race for the fans as well as the competitors. Always has been. Bristol is so unique. It is the superspeedway of short tracks. There is a lot of thrills and excitement. Great races have gone down here. The fans have always supported the race incredibly. I’m excited to be here. Looking forward to going to work with my race team. I really am enjoying working with Lance (McGrew, crew chief) and all my new guys on the GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. Every day is a new challenge and we are looking forward to today.”

IN TERMS OF DIFFICULTY, TALK ABOUT WHERE BRISTOL RANKS AND SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FOR THE DRIVER: “I think Bristol today in my ranking is average on the difficulty scale as far as getting the car to work; making it work, all of those kinds of things. The racing confines are tighter than average of the places we go and 500 laps at 16 seconds a lap are demanding in a sense over some of the other places. But, it’s physically demanding race track, a little bit less now than when it was so rough. A mentally demanding race track, up there starting to compete with the restrictor plate races as far as the mental aspect of it because you are just always.there is always stuff going on around you and you never get away from it. So, it’s a great challenge. It is the superspeedway of short track racing and I think we all really enjoy that variety. It is something that is unique to short track racing.”

COMPARING THE NEW BRISTOL TO WHAT IT WAS LIKE SIX OR SEVEN YEARS AGO, WHICH DO YOU LIKE BETTER AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT? “I like the new Bristol better because you can race on this race track with other cars much easier. There is the possibility of multiple grooves here which you really never had except maybe way back when it was asphalt. At times there might have been multiple grooves, at times through the years. But, it is as good as it has ever been from that standpoint and you are slightly more in control of your destiny now than you were before the reconfiguration. So, from a racing standpoint, it is better. It is probably as good or better than it has ever been. At least as good as it was in the 80s and early 90s and maybe better. You need a race track that is more suitable like this when you are trying to put 43 cars on it. In the 80s, we were starting 36 here so don’t forget that. And many of those didn’t last very long. Now pretty much most all of the cars last the whole race, especially under this configuration. We have less tore up race cars than we had before.”

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGING TRACKS AND THE MORE DIFFICULT TRACKS OUT THERE ON THE CUP CIRCUIT FOR YOU OR HOW DO YOU JUDGE IT? “Now you are starting to rate it and I see where you are going with that. Once I start doing that, then Bristol rises up toward the top of the list. Darlington is more difficult. That is the one that comes to mind. Then the mental demands that go along with restrictor plate racing. Physically, this is up there with Dover. It used to be more physical than Dover but smoothing it out actually, for me, made it a lot easier. You don’t man-handle the car and manipulate it as much over the bumps. You are more driving the car than jumping it. When you are jumping it, for me, it was more physical. So, it’s right up there. Like I said, in different ways, it is physically demanding because there is no rest here and can really work you with no break. You get 100 laps green here if your car is loose, it will take your breath away for that amount of time. It is difficult. It is mentally challenging. It can be a higher carbon monoxide race track although that hasn’t seemed to be an issue. It hasn’t been brutally hot anytime that I can remember since I have been coming back. I skipped, both of these races in ’07 and ’08. Since I have been coming back, it hasn’t been one of those that was a real challenge to physically make it to the end. But, I remember days before that back in the day when you had to pace yourself physically as well as pace your equipment. Now days we aren’t having to pace either one.”

DANICA (PATRICK) HAS RUN DOVER SO SHE HAS DONE THE CONCRETE, HOW DIFFICULT IS THE CHALLENGE FOR HERE TO TRY AND GET A CAR COMFORTABLE UNDER HER HERE AT BRISTOL? “With the progress that I have seen, I think that this is going to be not a major shocker. Just the fact that the mile-per-hour speeds are down are going to.it makes controlling and sliding the car a little.it delays that a little bit. It gives you more time. When you are doing 190 miles-an-hour and the car steps out, it snaps around pretty quick and a lot of time it will snap and try to get away from you here but being 120 miles-an-hour is a much more controllable slide. I think she’ll get along with it better than you expect. She is showing a lot of progress. Looks pretty good in practice. Things seem to be going well. They are headed in the right direction.”

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS HAVE YOU SEEN IN LANCE (MCGREW) THAT ARE GOING TO BE BENEFICIAL TO YOUR TEAM GOING FORWARD AND ALSO, HAVING HAD TIME TO WORK WITH HIM AND BEING A BIG SUPPORTER OF DALE, JR., HAVE YOUR NOTICED ANYTHING DIFFERENT WITH JUNIOR, HE SEEMS TO HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF HIS CONFIDENCE BACK? “Junior is well on his way to what I would call a recovery. It’s been a tough stretch for him. I think that he is incredibly committed this year and is feeling comfortable and confident, more confident. As far as Lance, Lane is fun. I enjoy working with him. I feel very comfortable working with him. We have some fun while we are doing it. He has a great bunch of guys working for him and they all seem to be comfortable and know what their role is and how to do it. How to get the job done and done well. It’s a very very strong race team and we are having fun at it. You know, that is one of the things. We want to get good results, but at the same time, we want to have fun while we are doing it.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE FIRST THREE RACES OF THE SEASON, IS IT ALMOST LIKE BRISTOL IS A FRESH START OR NEW START TO THE SEASON OR WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM THE FIRST THREE RACES THIS YEAR AND USE THROUGHOUT THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON? “It is just how it is. The last race is in November and the first race is in February and you race and you go to whatever race tracks are on the schedule and you just move forward. It doesn’t feel like a new start to the season to me, it feels like a continuation of the beginning of the season. Every race brings different circumstances and Bristol brings its own. We have three behind us and we have Bristol in front of us and we go from there to California, Martinsville and we start building our season. It all starts in February at Daytona. Bristol is Bristol. My view is even though we maybe went to a little bit different race track or race tracks here.or the order of the race tracks we go is not really.it is an accumulation of the season. This is the fourth race. We are here at Bristol. NASCAR, the sport itself, is on an upward swing. The fans are charged up and the competitors are ready to go. We are ready to go racing.”

THE CREW CHIEF SWAP, THERE HAVE BEEN OTHER TEAMS THAT TRIED THAT AND IT HASN’T WORKED FOR WHATEVER REASON, WHY HAS IT WORKED SO WELL FOR HENDRICK WHERE THREE GUYS CAN SWAP CREW CHIEFS AND EVERYBODY SEEMS HAPPY. DID YOU GUYS DO ANY WORK ON THAT OR WAS THAT JUST A NATURAL THING? “First of all, the first thought that come to mind, is the quality of people you are dealing with here. Lance McGrew, Alan Gustafson and Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon, Dale, Jr. and myself, we all feel very committed to Hendrick Motorsports and all the people there are committed to doing the right thing. I don’t know, I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but if I was running that place, that is what I would have done. How could I not support it? If I was running that place, I would have made that call. I think it was a good move and everyone is very motivated right now. We are all working on a little bit different stuff. We’re going to be working on different stuff and the season progresses until we all settle on one group of hardware and logic and then we will all migrate toward that. But right now, all four teams are working, trying to find the newest combination of things to really set us on fire. It is my hope that we will gain momentum and strength as the season goes forward as we build on that and sort through some things and sort of migrate toward the best of all of that. But I don’t have a plan. I think as soon as possible but it takes time to evaluate hardware and setup logic and all these things. You can’t make that judgment on one race because I believe you can run good with anything one time. It has got to be consistent. For us, anytime we make a change, if it is better, we go with it. If it is not better, we don’t go with it and we keep an eye on it. It takes awhile to evaluate things and determine that things are better or that conditions just didn’t get better when you made those changes and the competition environment on that particular day and all of those things. It takes awhile to evaluate all of that and hopefully we will all run good now and all run better this summer.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 18, 2011

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 CERTAINTEED/MENARDS CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his strong start to the season, the importance of finishing well with the new points system and more. Full transcript.

TALK ABOUT YOUR FAST START OUT OF THE GATE: “Well we’re off to a good start. We’ve have three solid races and in each race I feel like we could have finished better so something Slugger and I have been talking about is how do we close these races. We ran better in all three races than where we finished. Knock on wood we haven’t had any trouble. With the new points system that is such a big deal. If you stay out of trouble you can gain some points. The guys that have trouble, finish 30th on back, they don’t pay a lot of points back there. So that’s our goal, to be smart. Obviously we have fast race cars we’ve just got to capitalize a little better at the end and keep our nose clean.”

DO YOU DETECT CONCERN IN THE GARAGE THAT HAVING A BAD DAY COULD MAKE EVERYTHING GO AWAY IN REGARDS TO THE POINTS? “We’re concerned about it in that you want to get 20 or 30 points not two or four. It’s across the board. It’s the same for everybody. We could have just as easily blown an engine and not be sixth in points. Do we need to be a little more conservative going forward with engine packages and stuff, I don’t know. ECR engines have been really strong. They have been really reliable. It’s kind of a fluke deal what happened at Daytona, but in the future if we have more than that it’s going to be a big issue and something that maybe just be a little more conservative to make sure you finish these races instead of running strong and not gaining points at the end.”

A MANAGER AT RCR SAID THEY ARE COMMITTED AT GIVING YOU FAIR TREATMENT AND EQUAL EQUIPMENT, HAVE YOU ALWAYS FELT THAT YOU’VE GOTTEN THAT SAME KIND OF RESPONSE AT OTHER ORGANIZATIONS? “I’ve got all confidence that Richard (Childress) is going to give me what I need. I’ve never seen anything different from Richard. In the past without getting into details yes we’ve had issues with that. We’ve brought it to the attention to the people that mattered and it kind of seemed like it fell on deaf ears sometimes, other times it seemed like they cared. Richard cares. Richard wants the No. 27 team to succeed. He’s very personally invested in it and it’s cool to be a part of.

CAN YOU COMMENT ON YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH SLUGGER THAT HAS GROWN OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS? “Slugger and I are great friends. We talk almost every day. If I don’t call him he calls me and vice versa pretty much once a day. It’s just one of those things where it kind of clicks. Before coming over here we sat in the hauler with him and our two engineers and just kind of brainstorming stuff. We’re already talking about California and what we’re going to do there. They said there might be some tire issues in Nationwide practice today, so talking about that. Just open conversations and feeding off each other.”

WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE IS THE REASON FOR YOUR FAST START? “For one we haven’t had problems. That’s just a huge part of it, even with the points and everything. We’ve had fast cars. Daytona we had a legitimate shot at winning, Phoenix we had a shot at the top-10. In Vegas we ran in the top-10 a lot of the day. Had a bad pit stop at the end and that cost us. But we’ve had fast race cars and our equipment is as good as anybody’s in the garage. I don’t feel in the least that I’ve been short changed as far as that goes. Our motors are strong. It’s just trying to be consistent some. We started pretty strong last year and we fell off around April, May. May, June, July we struggled. I think we are a lot better prepared right now, we are way more prepared today than we were a year ago to go into kind of the long stretch, this 16-race stretch that we’re having coming up. Just a lot more prepared. A year ago everything came together so late in the off season, we started off pretty strong and that surprised a lot of people. It surprised us and it kind of probably hurt us in the long run when we got into the stretch run.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT YOUR HISTORY HERE AT BRISTOL AND YOUR STRUGGLES, WITH YOUR POSITION NOW IN THE STANDINGS IS IT MORE IMPORTANT TO COME OUT OF HERE WITH A SOLID FINISH? “Bristol is always a tough place to have a clean race and finish where you are capable of. It’s a lot like a restrictor-plate race where a lot of things happen out of your control that effect your day. We’ve run good here in the past, we’ve struggled here in the past. We have a few top-20 finishes, nothing to write home about. We’ve run in the top 10 here quite a bit and then got caught up in stuff. This race a year ago we had a really strong run and something happened at the end and we wound up 16th or 18th. It’s just one of those places where it’s just a tough, tough track. They have 43 cars that all go the same speed and one hiccup ruins your day. Coming in here we will have a fast car, I’m confident of that. It’s hard to finish with all the fenders on and finish where you kind of deserve to finish I guess. We’ll just work hard and try to be up there.”

DID YOU EVER HAVE A TIME WHERE YOU LOST ANY CONFIDENCE THROUGH ALL OF THIS AS YOU ARE NOW WITH THIS TEAM AND HOW DID YOU FACE YOUR STRUGGLES WITH HAVING TO STAY CONFIDENT THROUGH GETTING HERE? “2009 for me was a miserable year. It was not a fun year for me. We started running pretty good last year at times. Inconsistent, yes but we had flashes of pretty good speed. This year I feel even more confident. We’ve taken that step further. Slugger has been really good. He’s a good motivator and he pushes people hard, but he pushes people hard in a way they will listen to him. They will respect him and won’t get that mad at him or angry. He’s been good for me. Sometimes he’s gets up on a chip and I might calm him down a little bit but that relationship is really good for me as a competitor and with his confidence it kind of runs off on you. There’s been down times and right now we’ve got good cars, we’ve been running pretty strong, confidence is up.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .