Category: NASCAR Cup Series

Kobalt Tools 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Kurt Busch Open Interview NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

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KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ultra Dodge Charger R/T) TALK ABOUT RACING AGAINST YOUR BROTHER IN THE BULL RING GROWING UP HERE IN LAS VEGAS? “It was just unique because we’re seven years apart. When I was out running Late Models or Southwest Tour cars, Kyle was just starting out in Legend cars. So I had somewhat mastered Legend cars; we won almost every time that we jumped in them. We traveled around quite a bit. To come back to Vegas on the weekend when I wasn’t racing because I was away at college, Kyle and I would race. Kyle was racing for a point’s championship and Dad would say sometimes say, ‘Hey, let Kyle win tonight.’ I was like, ‘No, he’s my little brother. I’m supposed to beat him every time.’ It was just a fun atmosphere to race each other, race competitive…to be out there as brothers…because I did it with my Dad for years. For him to come up through the Legends and into some of my old Late Models, it feels like it opened some doors from him through the years. We never raced each other all that much. There might have been two dozen total times. We use to race quite often. We use to race 60 times a year and for us only to race around 24 times (against each other), that’s just because of our age difference.”

DID YOU EVER HAVE ANY ON-TRACK INCIDENTS WITH KYLE? “We may have run into each other. We’d race each other hard door-to-door and put door dings in each other. When I got the call to go Truck racing, Kyle was jumping into his Late Model racing. So it was tough to race against each other that much unless it was in Dad’s cars. When we raced Dad’s cars, we didn’t wreck Dad’s cars.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR NHRA PRO STOCK CAR? “It’s always been about cars, no matter what style of car. I remember as a kid before Kyle was born, we’d go on street car runs down on Lake Havasu, out to LA to the beaches. It’s just what we did as a family. It was always cars, whether it was street rods, street stocks, late models, dwarf cars; anything with four tires on it, we’ve always been involved. It was cool when I was a kid, we went to George Marnell. He was a masonry guy here in town and a Pro Stock racer. We were selling tools to a professional team out of my dad’s tool truck business. That’s where I got my taste for it and I felt like maybe one day I could get to that point, try it out. This is just something to challenge myself to another discipline of motorsports. It’s four rubber tires and a race track, but it’s night and day difference on how you have to be prepared for a drag race versus a NASCAR event.”

TALK ABOUT THE CHANGES THAT YOU’VE SEEN WITH PENSKE ONLY HAVING TWO CUP TEAMS? “We’ve worked a lot on our budget program in the off-season. We’ve actually been able to find more key personal to bring to the race track each week as well as cutting out some of the budget. It’s been an interesting balance to watch the upper management work things through. I feel like at the race track we’re a stronger team because there’s more guys to bounce ideas off of that are directly related in our hauler after practice. There’s just more guys to filter through information and that’s helped us. With (Brad) Keselowski conquering the Nationwide program, I really think that his Cup focus is amped up and I’m excited to see what it brings to the season; the 2 car and 22 really working together and that much more in-synch.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK A BUSCH BROTHER POINT’S BATTLE WOULD MEAN FOR NASCAR? DOES IT BUG YOU THAT KYLE HAS A WIN AT LAS VEGAS AND YOU DON’T? “I think it would be great to battle each other. Every time there’s a Chase that we’re involved with together it’s seems to draw more attention around our programs. If we could do this, a season-long battle, it would bring more attention to NASCAR. What two brothers are doing out there on the track, the same background, but two different programs. Gibbs and Penske, to me it’s exciting. It’s special because the two of us respect each other a lot. We want to race each other as clean as we can. We know that we want to beat each other at the end of the day. You see the Williams’ sisters in tennis. You see every now and then the Peyton’s play each other. There’s all that extra attention and hype that’s around it. As far as I’m concerned, the bigger brother always wins because he always knows more. It’s fun to have that relationship. We’re always going to be in that situation. The more that we can be out on the track together, it will be better for our sport.

“The fact that he’s won here before stings a bit. I’ve been on the pole, he’s been on pole here. It’s Vegas. It’s one of the top-five marquee events of the year; the Daytona’s, Indy, Charlotte’s, I think Vegas ranks right up there with a lot of guys. Him winning here was great for our family and all the friends that have supported us over the years. I just want to be able to do it as well.”

IF YOU WERE TO LEAVE HERE AS THE RACE WINNER OR ANOTHER GOOD PERFORMACE, WOULD YOU FEEL PRETTY GOOD WITH THE SEASON MOVING FORWARD? “Yeah, this track here will give you a better gauge on how your program is for the full season. You’ve got to get through the bumps that we’ve been struggling with in Turn 1 and 2. You also have to have a car that doesn’t burn off the front tires which we might struggle with on Sunday. We’ve definitely got our work cut out for us on what we can do to improve our car. Hopefully, we leave here with a solid finish knowing that we’ve accomplished something special. It’s only three races in. There’s still a long way to go. I always look at the season as the first seven to nine races on where you rank; after that point in the season is how you’re going to settle in for the long summer runs.”

HAVE YOU GIVEN YOUR BROTHER A LOT OF ADVICE OVER THE YEARS? “We’ve talked about all sorts of racing and things on and off the track. I can’t say it’s been one more than the other. When I see something or he sees something, we’ll point it out to each other. We never really share common numbers in our race cars. That’s something that we’ve always stayed away from as far as sway bar size or springs. We’ve always tried to keep the integrity of our teams and what we’re doing a secret, but point out advice to one another with track lines on the race tracks or how to handle this type of question from media or how to handle sponsors. We’ve always bounced ideas off each other for our respective programs.”

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Notes & Quotes Las Vegas Motor Speedway — March 4, 2011

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing How does it feel to lead the point standings after two races this season? “I certainly wish it was two to go rather than two in. It’s a long season so being in the points lead now is a good opportunity for us at the whole Joe Gibbs Racing team. Showing that we’ve had a good start, but it’s only two weeks in so we’re not putting too much in that yet. Looking forward to coming out here to Las Vegas — my hometown and having a good, solid run out here. We had a good car out here last year. I think we were running about fourth and down towards the end of the race I think I got caught speeding on pit road or something like that so it ended up being not a great day, but still a good day for us and we’re looking forward to doing that again this year — being able to run well and run strong and run competitively where we can come out of here with a decent finish. Nationwide car seems really, really good. The guys have done a really nice job over there — the cars fast — the Z-Line Designs Camry. Feels good. Today, unfortunately we were a little bit farther down on the speed charts than we wanted to be with our Snickers Peanut Butter Squared Camry, but Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and the guys, we’ve been talking a lot already and we’re working on some things for qualifying here and see if we can’t get a little better starting spot than 17th. If we do, if we don’t then we’ll go after them on Sunday.”

How important was your family in the development of your racing career? “I was a little young, but I had a little bit of a consensus. It was definitely a lot that they worked on in order to get us to where we are today, obviously. With Mom working in a school district — that’s never very big paycheck and my Dad being a tool man and being self-sufficient and running his own business there. It took a lot of help from both Kurt (Busch) and myself as well as Mom that we all help Dad in doing what he needed to do. Whether we kept the tool truck stocked with tools or whether we kept it clean and kept it washed, kept it vacuumed and all that kind of stuff. It was always — there was always stuff to do. It was pretty much a schedule. He would come home — if it rained, you were going to wash it. If it was still raining outside — doesn’t matter, you’re going to be washing the tool truck. If it’s Tuesday or if it’s Thursday you’re vacuuming. You’re cleaning the tool box drawers, you’re cleaning all the shelves and everything. With all of that — my Dad always called it the Golden Goose. That’s where everything kind of came from. That was where you would like to say we made our bread and butter and got to put food on the table. It was never easy, but we made it work and there wasn’t times where we were out buying new motors every week. We could only race on what we had and if we blew up it wasn’t hard to go get another engine done, but we didn’t have very many sitting for spares. More times than not — when we raced Legends cars or whatever, we would go find spare engines in the junk yard. Motorcycles that would get turned over on their side and people would crash and stuff like that. We would cut them up and just use the motor or just use the pieces that we needed instead of going out and buying a fresh one from 600 Racing. I think they’re like $15,000 or something like that. We would always scrap it together.”

What would a strong finish at Las Vegas mean to you after the finishes you had in the first two races of the season? “That’s a good point and it would set us a little bit better and make you feel a little bit better because it is a mile and a half. This is a lot of the race tracks that we do run on. What’s most important is to have a good run here and try to do everything right and try to make sure that we fulfill our opportunities of coming out of here with a good, strong finish. Then head to Bristol where we feel like we know how to run well there so that will be good. Then go back to California and try to do it again at California. You want to do it everywhere. If you had a perfect world you would like to finish top-five every single week. That would be perfect — you could win a championship on doing that. We’ll see how it plays out — how it lies come Sunday. Coming out of Vegas with a good, strong run would mean a lot.”

What was it like to race against your brother Kurt on the Las Vegas Bullring when you were younger? “Fortunately, it wasn’t every week — we didn’t race against each other for a championship ever. When we first did start racing against each other was ’99 and I remember my first win was March 27 of 1999. I think I qualified first and I won the race that night. Kurt (Busch) was actually in Denver, Colorado — he was racing at Colorado National Speedway and I think he sat on the pole up there and ran well. It was pretty cool and then he came back a couple weeks later and we ran our first race against each other in which I could actually keep up with him. Then I think that was Friday night and he was supposed to let me win — I lost by like that much and then the next night I said, ‘Forget it, I’m going out.’ I went straight to the front and there were no cautions throughout the race and I walked the dog on that one. He recalls it a little differently.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)

How stable is your Kyle Busch Motorsports team and is there anything you’d do differently to get it off the ground? “Stability. We do have great partners right now with the people that we’ve been fortunate enough to round up and work with like Traxxas RC cars, Dollar General, Flexico, M&M’s has been a great family to work with for me on my side too. For any others that I’m forgetting at the moment — I’m stuck in Nationwide and Cup mode. It’s been good. The stability comes a little bit more from having guys around the shop that work hard — that work day in and day out that do their job. We’re a little short-staffed because we’re a single truck operation. We have our own chassis shop and we have our own body shop and all that stuff. There’s a lot of overhead, but we still don’t get as much done as we would like to be able to get done. There’s definitely room for growth and next year whether we can add a second Truck Series team later on down the road this year or even into next year carry two Truck teams or maybe even a Nationwide operation. The door is open and we’ve got the room, we’ve got the capabilities and we’ve got the people and the resources to do all that. That’s where we’d like to head to and would I do anything different? I think for where we are now from where we were last year, things are good. Rick (Ren, general manager) and Eric (Phillips, crew chief) do a really, really nice job at making the vehicles go fast and the guys at the shop make them look good every week. There’s not much you can really improve on that I see competition wise. The only thing we can work on is what we’ve done more of this year is get a little more office help with a couple guys trying to sell and see if we can’t find some more partners to work with and get some better opportunities for business-to-business relations with some of our partners that we already do carry.”

What do you think about Kevin Harvick’s NCWTS and NNS team? “It’s good. For those guys to be around this long and be as successful as they are. It started small, they only ran a few Truck races here and there when they had funding to do it. Then, they grew into what they are now, which is two Nationwide teams, sometimes three Nationwide team, three Truck teams or something like that. It’s a full house over there. I know those guys are pretty slammed. I know Josh Jones is probably (Kevin) Harvick’s golden child over there that is doing all the selling and doing a good job at what he knows how to do. He talks an awful lot and I don’t know if he talks an awful lot and talks so quick that people don’t understand him and don’t know what they’re getting into, he does a good enough job that he makes it happen. You couldn’t be prouder of those guys and what they’ve been able to accomplish and how they’ve been able to put names on the side of the race cars and make it to the race track.”

What do you think of sharing the points lead this week with your brother Kurt Busch? “Coming to Vegas and leading the points, it’s only two weeks in rather than two to go. It’s cool, it’s a great opportunity for both of us to be leading coming to the hometown. I don’t know that there’s any added pressure, but there’s definitely some resilience there where we’re feeling blessed to be in the position we’re in and of course try to come out of here with a good finish and try to keep that going beyond just here in Vegas.”

Did you do anything fun this week with your family before heading to Las Vegas? “We went to the sand dunes this week. Kurt (Busch, brother) and his group, they kind of were up on the hill where everyone could see them so they had a lot more people bothering them than we did. We hid off in the back. I was more the family group I guess you’d say. These guys took care of the party zone. It was fun. My dad was out there, he was hanging out and playing around a little bit with us. He kind of liked the camping aspect but he didn’t get anything about the sand dunes and running our four wheelers and our cars through the desert because he goes, ‘All you guys do is tear up your stuff.’ That’s not how we were raised and how we were born to race. He said, ‘All you guys do is tear up your stuff and run it until the tongue is hanging out.’ I don’t understand that part, but the camping is fun.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)

What is it about Bristol that you’ve figured out? “It’s just kind of really worked well together. It’s a fun place that you go to that you like going to. You enjoy the race around there. We grew up at the Bullring and stuff like that. Maybe not as banked as Bristol was, but I love going and racing at Winchester and at Slinger, Salem I’ve raced before — those are all really high banked race tracks that are half-mile in distance, or a quarter. They’re really fun to race around and you kind of get a great feel for racing in a bowl. You go down the straightaway and you slam it into the corners and you mash the gas and you kind of sling right back out of the corners. It’s a lot of fun to do that. It’s kind of an art. Some guys are really good at it, and some find a knack that make them really good at it and make it seem easy. I remember last spring we were horrible there. You can definitely snap that string pretty quick.”

Was there ever a time you weren’t fascinated by race cars? “I’ve always grown up working on the race cars, that was dad’s deal, that we had to work on them in order to race them. I remember working on them when my dad had his limited Late Model a little bit. When he sold that and bought a dwarf car and we got another dwarf car for Kurt (Busch, brother) and built it from the ground up and kind of copied a lot of things from his car. We made his car a lot better. Anytime we ever drove his car, one of us would either win or finish up front and any time we drove dad’s car we would suck — we were horrible. Yet, dad would win in it. I don’t know how that really worked out. I’ve always loved the car aspect of it and working on the cars and understanding the dynamics of them, kind of feeling what now it’s a lot more engineering involved and a lot more complicated than racing around your local short track in the dirt and taking a pound out of the right rear to get some more grip. It’s pretty wild as to where times have changed. Knowing the knowledge you know now, if you could start over back at the short track, you’d wear everybody out and look really good and come up through the ranks pretty quick. Doesn’t quite work that way, it’s all relative.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

KOBALT TOOLS 400

LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at discussed driving Lewis Hamilton’s F1 car, racing at Las Vegas, Bristol and other topics. Full transcript:

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CAR SWAP YOU ARE DOING WITH LEWIS HAMILTON TO GET IN HIS F1 CAR AT WATKINS GLEN? “Right now I am too busy worrying about what we’re doing, but, I am excited about it. It is an awesome opportunity. It is really a chance of a lifetime to drive something that is probably the most sophisticated race car on the planet. It is going to be really cool to get a chance to do it. We did a commercial shoot day with Lewis (Hamilton) and he is an awesome guy. We are really looking forward to talking to him about it and learning from him about what to do to drive his car fast.”

JUAN (PABLO MONTOYA) SAID HE TALKED ABOUT IT WITH YOU AT PHOENIX AND SAID YOU MIGHT HAVE TO WORK ON YOUR NECK MUSCLES ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE DOING IT AT WATKINS GLEN: “With the G-loads those cars pull, it won’t surprise me at all that that is the area I am going to need to work on. You don’t really think of things like that, but that’s aspects that you have to think about when you go to drive somebody else’s cars. It is kind of the same as running the winged sprint car, they pull on your neck muscles a lot harder too. Hopefully I will just keep running enough winged sprint car races and I’ll get it in shape that way.”

WHO DO YOU THINK MIGHT HAVE THE HARDER TIME WITH THE CAR SWAP? “It is hard to say. We are both going to be driving cars we are very unfamiliar with and I’ve never run that part of Watkins Glen so it will be interesting. The whole thing of it is to have fun and just see what the other guy goes through and what his car drives like. It is going to be fun to have that opportunity to both drive his car and at the same time be able to help him learn how to drive ours too.”

IS THIS THE FIRST WEEK THAT YOU WILL REALLY FIND OUT THINGS ABOUT THE NEW NOSE? “I think you are right. I think this weekend will really be the first key weekend on knowing what we have got with the new nose. In the little bit of practice that we have been out there, it has actually been pretty nice. It hasn’t been terrible behind traffic. I’m optimistic about it, I think it is going to be better.”

WAS THE OLD NOSE TERRIBLE IN THE PAST? “Well, in the past you just got really tight. While we aren’t running around a lot of cars today, but the little bit that I have been in traffic, it just didn’t seem like it was a big balance change, which is good.”

ARE SOME OF THE BUMPS BEGINNING TO SHOW AGAIN HERE AT LAS VEGAS? “I think it is getting a little rougher, but that is what happens as time goes on. That is what gives these race tracks the character that it says. It makes the crews and the drivers figure out how to get through them better and how to make their cars go through them better.”

DOES THE OFF WEEKEND COME AT A GOOD TIME FOR YOU GUYS? DOES IT BREAK MOMENTUM? “It never does. We don’t need a break after three races. We need a break instead of 16 straight races or 18 straight weeks at the end of the year, we need it before then. Somewhere in the middle of that. Three weeks into the season, nobody needs a break yet.”

DOES BRISTOL GET ANY EASIER OR IS IT JUST A TOUGH TRACK? “It has always been a tough track and I don’t care how many years go by, it is always going to be a tough track. Anytime you get on that small of a race track, it is a challenge to not get yourself in trouble.to be fast, but not get yourself in trouble. You can have one mishap that really messes up the rest of your day.”

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 4, 2011) – Roush Fenway Racing topped the charts during the first Sprint Cup practice on Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with four Fords Fusions occupying the top five positions on the board.

Matt Kenseth led the field, covering the 1.5-mile oval in 28.939 seconds (186.599 mph). David Ragan was second in the No. 6 UPS Ford. Carl Edwards was fourth fastest and Greg Biffle was fifth.

“Our Ford is really fast,” said Ragan. “Everybody has been working really hard and I think that is evident with Carl and Matt and Greg and some of the other Fords that unloaded fast. It makes life a lot easier when you all unload fast like that. I am really happy with our Ford.

“Even in the Nationwide practice I was watching and you hear everyone talking about the bumps in turn one and I have been trying to find a sweet spot where I could drive around them and I kind of got so pumped up that I got such a good run coming off of four that I didn’t really hit my marks getting into turn one.

“Our car has so much grip that I can get back to the throttle really early. We will make a couple of minor adjustments and try to go get a good qualifying lap for our UPS team.”

The teams are preparing for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 Sprint Cup race. Roush Fenway is looking for its 15th NASCAR win at Las Vegas and its seventh in the Sprint Cup Series.

Edward’s No. 60 Ford Mustang was fastest in the morning’s Nationwide practice session for Roush Fenway as well, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the No. 6 Easy Feet Ford. Trevor Bayne was in the top 10 in both Nationwide practice sessions on Friday.

The teams return to action tomorrow with Sprint Cup practice slated for 1:10 p.m. The session will be televised live on SPEED.

Las Vegas, NV (March 4, 2011) – After a tough day of racing at Phoenix International Raceway last weekend, Robby Gordon and the No. 7 SPEED Energy team have focused their attention towards Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Gordon returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway looking to improve upon the 32nd place finish that was recorded just one year ago at the 1.5-mile oval.

The No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T will be sporting a new color and partner this weekend. The No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T will be yellow to represent the Octane flavor of SPEED Energy and will be sporting two new partners, Terrible Herbst and Wirtz Beverage Nevada. SPEED Energy drinks can be purchased in the Terrible Herbst convenience stores in Nevada. For a location near you, please visit www.speedenergy.com/page/nevada-clark-county.

“Losing a car at Phoenix hurt us a little as the race team was scheduled to make changes to the Phoenix car to be our backup at Las Vegas. We’re going to have to be a little conservative here on Friday and Saturday. Obviously once Saturday is over, it is game on,” says Gordon. “I’m looking forward to driving the yellow SPEED Energy Octane Dodge Charger with Terrible Herbst and Wirtz Beverage on it. It’s going to be a lot of fun promoting the SPEED Energy brand in Las Vegas this weekend.”

Appearance Schedule – Robby Gordon will break from his busy schedule at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to meet his fans. On Saturday night, March 5, Gordon will sign autographs at the Carnival Court at Harrah’s from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The No. 7 SPEED Energy show car will be onsite for the appearance as well. Gordon will be at the Robby Gordon Motorsports / SPEED Energy merchandise trailer on Sunday morning from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

In addition to the above, SPEED Energy will be at the following Terrible Herbst locations in the Las Vegas area with the No. 7 SPEED Energy show car and samples of our energy drink. Be sure to stop by and give it a try!

Friday, March 4, 2011

3475 W. Russell Road

Noon – 1pm

6175 Las Vegas Blvd. North

2pm – 3pm

7310 Las Vegas Blvd. South

4pm – 5pm

3340 W. Russell Road

6pm – 7pm

Saturday, March 5, 2011

1220 E. Lake Mead Blvd.

8.30am – 9.30am

2886 S. Nellis Blvd.

10.30am – 11.30am

1003 E. Lake Mead Blvd.

12.30pm – 1.30pm

11 N. Nellis Blvd.

2.30pm – 3.30pm

About SPEED Energy – SPEED Energy is available in three flavors: Unleaded, Fuel, and Octane, which provide the human machine with the fuel it needs to keep up with the SPEED of life. Each drink contains a potent energy blend of B-vitamins, caffeine, taurine and ginseng. SPEED is packaged in 12 ounce sleek cans with a stylish black top and sexy body and is available in singles, 4 packs, and cases. For a retailer near you, please visit www.speedenergy.com http://www.speedenergy.com/ .

Carl Edwards comes to Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a win in 2008 under his belt and currently stands 12th in the points standings. Edwards has historically done well at mile-and-a-half tracks and talked to media members about his strategy to rebound from a disappointing day last weekend in Phoenix.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scott’s/Kellogg’s Ford Fusion – HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO GET OVER THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF LAST WEEKEND? “That is a really good question. I don’t know if I have completely gotten over it yet. It was hugely disappointing but this first practice session is helping. The Roush Fenway cars are fast. I feel like we have the cars, at least at this point right now, that can compete for the win. There was a big unknown coming to a mile-and-a-half. Every time you come to that first mile-and-a-half race of the season it means a lot. I would have loved to come in here the points leader with a win already, but this helps, being fast.”

DID YOU TALK WITH KYLE BUSCH YET? “Kyle and I did talk, yes. I kind of beat him up all week in the media saying he hadn’t called me yet, but he was calling my old phone number. He had the wrong number. I give him a lot of credit for coming over and talking to me and I think we will be fine.”

WHEN YOU WENT THROUGH YOUR LONG WINLESS STREAK, HOW DID IT AFFECT YOUR CONFIDENCE? “I am trying to think if there is anything more difficult than that, but I don’t think there is. It is the most difficult part of the sport, to go for a long period without the success that you want or in Jeff’s (Gordon) case the success you are used to. I can’t speak for him but I can say that when we won that race at Phoenix last season it was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I still carry that to this day and I will until we either win another one or we get to 40 or 50 races down the road if we haven’t. It is a great feeling to get rid of that pressure and win a race after a streak like that.”

WERE YOU ANGRY AT CARL LAST WEEK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED? “I wasn’t sure what had happened and the longer I thought about it the more mad I got. It is so hard sometimes as a driver, especially in that situation, the farther the day when on I got to think more about how fast the race car was and I was just mad in general. Then once I saw how well he was running it made me a little madder. What I tried to do was keep my emotions in check and focus on the job at hand. The hard part on top of that is to be patient and see what his explanation was. Looking at it I wasn’t sure what happened. I was trying my hardest to give him the benefit of the doubt. Until you speak with someone. I don’t ever want to be that guy that just gets mad and angry and points fingers. I don’t want to be the guy who gets out of the car angry as hell at the wrong guy. I try to do my best to figure out what happened first. I was upset and I hadn’t decided whether or not to be upset at him. I didn’t know what to do.”

YOU ARE A PILOT. CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW THINGS WENT YESTERDAY MORNING AND WHAT YOU WERE DOING? “Yesterday morning was insane. Flying with the Thunderbirds was a spectacular opportunity, especially to fly out here in the desert. We went to Death Valley and flew over mountain tops upside down and gave some folks in their campers the air show of a lifetime out there. That was pretty cool. They let me fly the plane which was a lot of fun. The most impressive thing about the whole morning was seeing how these guys operate the Thunderbirds program. It is unreal. They are the best of the best in the Air Force and it shows. Their professionalism and excitement was something I hadn’t seen. It was really inspiring to walk out of the door onto the tarmac and the guys are all lined up and dressed sharp with their shoes polished and they were pumped up for the flight. These are the guys that are working on the planes and helping out, it was unreal. It was a really inspiring morning to see people who care about their jobs that much. The whole experience was great. I didn’t get sick which was huge and we pulled 9.1 G’s which was a lot of fun. It was really net.”

GIVEN WHAT WE SAY LAST WEEK, ARE WE GOING TO SEE MORE OF THE INTENSE RACING LIKE LAST WEEK WITH INTENSITY? “I hope we don’t see more of Kyle and me. I just want to get through this race and finish where I think we can. We talked a little bit about this on your show the other night. The racing is as intense as ever. The double file restarts people are realizing you have to go as hard as you can because you might not get another opportunity to pass these guys. The higher speeds here are going to make it more treacherous to run side by side. The bumps are a little big bigger which I think is good. Character in the race track is great. I think you will see guys hopefully being patient with one another enough. I think you will see guys right on the edge and racing really hard. The wind is a factor too and if that stays up it will throw a little more chaos into the mix.”

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THINGS LIKE WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND? DO YOU JUST SHOW UP AT THE NEXT PLACE AND APPROACH IT LIKE A NEW DAY? “Yeah, that is all you can do. It was extremely disappointing last week. Daytona was okay, but last week was hugely disappointing. The more I thought about it this week and spent time talking to Bob Osborne this week and the guys. It is just nice to be fast this week. The big disappointment of last week was that I felt we had a car that could win. We were on the pole and had a dominant car the first 50 laps, so it is good to be mad for that reason. The real test is how we run here and at Bristol. If our cars are that good then this is going to be a great year. What happened last week, looking back on it, that is just hard racing and I really believe that is behind us. Hopefully we can stay out of those messes throughout the year and have fast enough cars that that one doesn’t really matter.”

AWHILE BACK YOU SAID YOU MIGHT TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE DOING ON THE NATIONWIDE SERIES. HAVE YOU THOUGHT MORE ABOUT THAT AND WHERE ARE YOU AT WITH THAT? “I think we are 29 points out of the lead in owners points and our car is fast. Last week it was close and this week in practice it has looked good. If our cars stay this fast and we can start gaining on the guys in the lead for the owners title then we will continue to run the full series. I am committed to it. In my mind I am going to run the full series, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.”

Roush Fenway hit the jackpot early and often in Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 4, 2011) – From the moment Roush Fenway hit the pavement at the 1.5-mile venue of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, great things have followed for Jack Roush’s multi-car racing operation.

Roush Fenway not only won the inaugural Sprint Cup event at Las Vegas in 1998 (leading 119 laps in the process), but it fielded the race’s runner up, while placing three cars in the top 5 (Mark Martin 1, Jeff Burton 2, Johnny Benson 4) and five cars in the top 10 (Ted Musgrave 6, Chad Little 10). To this day the performance is one of the strongest in the team’s 24-year history in NASCAR. The win was the second for Roush Fenway at Vegas, as the team won the truck race there in 1997 with Joe Ruttman.

The win would go on to be just one of the more eventful 14 NASCAR victories for Roush Fenway at Vegas, and it would prove to be a springboard for a track that is considered one of the team’s strongest.

“Over the years we’ve had more success at Las Vegas than most places, and it will be fun to go back and see if we can keep it going this weekend,” said Jack Roush. “We won the first race there and that was a great honor to be able to do that. We look forward to going there, because we’ve had so much success there, winning with Mark (Martin), (Jeff) Burton, Matt (Kenseth) and Carl (Edwards).

“We still think that one of our team strengths -after two decades- is our performance at the mile and a half race tracks. It’s the second non-restricted race and we like to think we are more in control of what happens on the race track and being able to orchestrate a good outcome based on strategy, the quality of work in the shop and the quality of people behind the program.”

Roush Fenway will look for its 14th and 15th wins at Las Vegas this weekend. Four drivers have won a total of six races for Roush Fenway at LVMS: Martin, Burton, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. The organization also boasts five Nationwide wins at Vegas: Martin twice, Burton twice and Greg Biffle. Biffle also has one of Roush Fenway’s three wins in the Truck Series at Vegas (Joe Ruttman and Travis Kvapil).

Biffle could become the first Roush Fenway driver to win in all three series at Las Vegas, with a win there this weekend in the Sprint Cup race. The organization will field seven entries in the two events this weekend, with three entries in Saturday’s Nationwide race and four in Sunday’s Sprint Cup event.

Saturday’s Nationwide race is set for 3:00 p.m. and will be televised live on ABC. Sunday’s Sprint Cup event is slated for 3:00 p.m. on FOX.

Roush Fenway Las Vegas Wins

1998 Martin Cup

1999 Burton Cup

2000 Burton Cup

2003 Kenseth Cup

2004 Kenseth Cup

2008 Edwards Cup

1999 Martin NNS

2000 Burtin NNS

2002 Burton NNS

2005 Martin NNS

2009 Biffle NNS

1997 Ruttman CWTS

1999 Biffle CWTS

2007 Kvapil CWTS

About Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating seven motorsports teams. Four in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with drivers Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; and three in the Nationwide Series with Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing teams, log onto http://www.roushfenway.com/ www.RoushFenway.com. Become a fan of Roush Fenway Racing on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/roushfenway http://www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow us on Twitter @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries please contact Robin Johnson at 704.720.4645.

David Ragan put together the second fastest lap in opening practice as Ford finished with four of the top-5 times in the opening session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ragan talked about his run.

“Our Ford is really fast. Everybody has been working really hard and I think that is evident with Carl and Matt and Greg and some of the other Fords that unloaded fast. It makes life a lot easier when you all unload fast like that. I am really happy with our Ford. Even in the Nationwide practice I was watching and you hear everyone talking about the bumps in turn one and I have been trying to find a sweet spot where I could drive around them and I kind of got so pumped up that I got such a good run coming off of four that I didn’t really hit my marks getting into turn one. Our car has so much grip that I can get back to the throttle really early. We will make a couple of minor adjustments and try to go get a good qualifying lap for our UPS team.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES KOBALT TOOLS 400

LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM

CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 4, 2011  

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Las Vegas, Jeff Gordon’s win and other topics.  Full transcript:  

ARE YOU EXCITED TO BE AT A RACE TRACK WHERE YOU HAVE WON SEVERAL RACES?:  “Yeah, I definitely am, but this race is so early on the schedule that each time we come here — coming in, looking at my notes and preparing for the race, there’s always been a lot of concern and a lot of new stuff that we’re trying.  We’ve been able to sort things out and win here more than not.  Something works well and we’re able to find our groove here.  There was one year where just this little bend on the front stretch had my car loose and we ran terrible.  Outside of that, it’s been a great track for us.  I feel like we came a long way as a company last weekend at Phoenix.  Granted it’s a much smaller track, but I feel like we’re testing at the race track, which we kind of have to, the way the rules are and the fact that we can’t go to other tracks and test.  Last week we got a lot of direction and made up a lot of ground.  Optimistic, but at the same time just don’t know because we haven’t had our new style stuff on a mile-and-a-half track yet.”  

DO YOU EXPECT JEFF GORDON TO BE A MAJOR CONTENDER THIS YEAR AND HAVE YOU SPOKE WITH HIM SINCE HIS WIN AT PHOENIX?:  “I do, I expect all of my teammates to be up there and fighting for it.  Again, the work that has taken place from midway through the Chase last year until this year.  We were in a fortunate or unfortunate situation where we didn’t have two cars in the Chase and we did a lot of experimenting with those cars.  Worked very hard during the offseason and obviously the change in drivers moving to different spots in the shop — I think that there’s very good pairings there and kind of a fresh start for those three drivers.  Jeff (Gordon) made the most of last week and did an amazing job.  Even with a car that was a little beat up from a wreck earlier in the day.  I expect him to be there and I only saw him in victory lane and the smile that I saw on his face in victory lane said enough for me.  He was very, very happy with that win and did it in great style.  Had to overcome a lot and went up there and raced hard with the 18 (Kyle Busch) for the win and got it done.”  

DID YOU GET TO SEE THE CARTOON OF YOU IN THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL?:  “No, not up close.  I just had a photo emailed to me or texted to me last night that I checked out.  I look forward to seeing it — it sounds pretty good.”  

DO YOU THINK THE AGGRESSIVENESS FROM PHOENIX WILL CONTINUE THIS WEEK?:  “I think the aggressive nature, it really comes out on some tracks and Phoenix with its single groove through three and four — one and two you have some options, but really you want to be on the bottom because when you get back to three and four, you need the inside lane to kind of work your way by someone.  Just after years of being in that environment and then as the race wears on, we just know how important every inch is and we start fighting for it early in the race and often.  By the midway point of the race everybody was pretty agitated and nobody is cutting anybody any slack.  I think Kyle (Busch) openly admitted the mistake he made and thought that he was clear on the back.  We had two incidents back there, which I don’t know what started the other one, but that was pretty rare to see that through the dog leg.  Huge, huge wrecks that took out a lot of cars.  I think tracks breed it.  I wouldn’t expect to see it here.  There’s multiple lanes around and there will be a lot of hard racing, but I don’t think there will be a ton of bumping and banging.”  

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MICHAEL WALTRIP DOING COMEDY AND HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT DOING THAT?:  “Not me — that’s not my gig.  Michael (Waltrip) is a funny guy.  I will be curious to hear how it goes and I’m sure he’ll have fun with it.  He has a big personality as we all know.  I’m curious to hear the reviews.”  

DO YOU HAVE SPECIAL MEMORIES WHEN YOU RETURN TO AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY IN CALIFORNIA?:  “From an emotional standpoint I do fall back on those thoughts and the wins, everything that has gone on there — I show up with a big smile on my face and excited to go racing.  That track has changed so much since I won my first race there and even from a spring race to a fall race where we run on the track, the lane that’s important, the setups that are needed — the track has changed a lot in 10 years and especially the last two or three years.  What worked, the line you ran, the setup you had may not work when you go back.  The first race is so early in the year, again we’re always searching for the right setup and what we want for that season.  Emotionally, yes, way excited, but the part that matters going to work still show up a little curious and just not sure of where we’re going to be.”  

HAS JIMMY VASSAR EVER TALKED TO YOU ABOUT DRIVING ONE OF HIS OPEN WHEEL CARS?:  “There has definitely been some conversation on it.  Four or five years ago I would have been in a position to do it.  I’ve joked around about the agreement that Channi (wife) and I had — open wheel cars were cool until we had a baby and until I can get that sold through my wife, I just don’t see it happening.  Regardless of what type of money they put up.  I love those cars and now I’m working on a road course with her.  If I can maybe get it off an oval and onto a road course, I just want to drive one of those cars.  They are so awesome and the down force and what they can do.  I would love to drive one of them, I just don’t know if it’s every really going to work out on an oval or at the 500.  That’s the first hurdle, then there’s Rick (Hendrick) and Lowe’s.  There’s a lot of steps in this to get it done.  I wish that I had the opportunity and I wish Chevy was in open wheel four or five years ago.  I would have pushed real hard and hopefully would have made something happen then.”  

HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY SENSE OF HOW THE NEW NOSE WILL REACT?:  “I think we’ve learned a little bit.  The new nose is very rigid, which is good for trips through the grass and some of the casual contact that we have.  What it does do though is in the race car, it is so rigid that the minimum ride height in the car needs to be picked up some so the cars aren’t as low in the front as what we could run last year.  Especially with our bump stop gaps.  That old splitter moved and flexed around a lot and now what’s up there is rigid and stiff.  We’re running a little higher in the front and it seems to take the abuse a little bit more.  I think the appearance of the car is a lot stronger and in the right direction.  I think it’s a good thing.”  

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE RIGHT SIDE TIRES FOR LAS VEGAS?:  “I don’t even have a clue what we’re running on the cars.  I don’t know.  Is that a topic that’s been brought up or just a thought process from how the cars drove at Daytona?  There are just some things that I don’t even bother knowing about because it changes so much and it doesn’t do me any damn good.  I’m shocked to hear that because over the years the loads that are needed and the loads we see at a mile-and-a-half track are so much higher than anywhere else that it’s taken different builds.  It’s an interesting point, I’ll have to go ask some questions about it.”  

WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THE SPORT IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF THE SEASON?:  “I think that our product is still very similar.  We have some good initiatives that helped in the first two races.  There’s a lot of hype about the new surface at Daytona — granted, the two car push things was something that no one really saw coming in that fashion.  When you look at the ethanol blend and the steps in taking the sport green and being more current there are good.  I look around at the attendance that we had at Daytona then again at Phoenix.  I haven’t heard how we’re looking for this weekend’s race, but things seem to be trending the right way.  I feel like our product on track and the type of racing that we’ve seen the last few years, it’s still there and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.  I think the garage area has done a very, very good job putting on a good show.  Hopefully the economy and some marketing are bringing people back to the stands.”  

DO YOU FEEL FOR YOUR TEAMMATES WHO HAVE NOT WON FOR A COUPLE YEARS?:  “I do and I try to learn from that and in Jeff’s (Gordon) situation even.  This magic we’ve had isn’t going to last forever and at some point it will dry up.  I certainly hope it doesn’t — I’m going to do everything I can to avoid it, but I do sympathize for those guys.  I see how hard they work.  I know what those wins mean to them.  I do sympathize for them, absolutely.”  

IS LAS VEGAS A TRACK YOU LOOK FORWARD TO EVERY YEAR?:  “This track is a lot of fun for us.  Since they’ve resurfaced the track and built in the progressive banking I feel like the banking has opened up at least two lanes of racing.  I’m eager to see what the warmer temperatures and the Cup cars come Sunday.  The rubber that the Nationwide cars are putting down and the fact that they had an open test, it will help that top line come in and I would expect us running at the wall in three and four and probably at the wall in one and two.  When that happens, we have more opportunities to pass and the drivers really enjoy that.”  

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.