Category: NASCAR Cup Series

AVONDALE, Arizona (February 26, 2011) – Two-time USAC Midget winner at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway (PIR) J.J. Yeley successfully qualified for tomorrow’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the one-mile oval.

After practicing the No. 46 AAMCO Transmissions / Ohsweken Speedway Chevrolet Impala 34th and 38th respectively in the two practice sessions, Yeley in qualifying mounted his fastest lap on his second attempt after wheeling his Whitney Motorsports automobile around the race track in 26.850 seconds at 134.04 miles per hour, good enough for 38th on the starting grid.

“I have to thank all the guys on the Whitney Motorsports team for their efforts and the folks at AAMCO Transmissions and Ohsweken Speedway for sticking with us,” said the 34-year old Yeley. “The car is pretty solid. Tomorrow is a relatively short race, so we’ll look to move this No. 46 Chevrolet Impala through the field and deliver a finish that will propel us to Las Vegas next weekend.”

Yeley, a native of Phoenix, Arizona continued, “the fan support has been awesome this weekend. I’m really blessed to have such a great following here in my backyard and everywhere we go. Their cheers make me realize just how lucky I am to be able to do this.”

The former USAC Silver Crown champion will make his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career start at PIR. In his previous six outings, Yeley qualified a series track best of fourth in 2007 (fall) and also finished a respectable 14th in the same event.

Yeley, who also participated in an IZOD IndyCar Series event at PIR in 1998, will join the other 42 drivers in the field when the Subway Fresh Fit 500 receives the green flag shortly after 3:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon. The event will be televised live on FOX with additional coverage through the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius / XM Satellite Radio channel 128.

Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway Additional Pre-Race Quotes: J.J. Yeley, driver of the No. 46 AAMCO Transmissions / Ohsweken Speedway Chevrolet Impala:

On Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway: “Phoenix is obviously a special place for me because it’s my hometown track. We’re going there this weekend looking for a little redemption after the disappointing finish at Daytona. We’re glad to have AAMCO Transmissions back on-board and hope to give them what they deserved in Daytona on Sunday at Phoenix.”

On His Fondest Phoenix International Raceway Moment: “I remember going to the Copper World races at PIR when I was seven or eight years old with buddies who I raced go-carts with. Playing in the infield, which was still desert-like with cactuses, sand, etc. We did a lot of bike riding and made race tracks out of the sand. It just makes Phoenix feel more like home.”

On His Fondest Personal Phoenix Moment: “I ran the IZOD IndyCar Series race at PIR in 1998 and I had to do a media event at a local restaurant. It was there, I met my future wife, Kristen. It’s a place I’ll never, ever forget.”

Fast Links:

Driver / Team: J.J. Yeley on the web: JJYeley.com

Twitter: @JJYeley1

Facebook: Official http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/JJ-Yeley-Official/188904204467053> J.J. Yeley Facebook page “JJ Yeley Official”

3rd, KASEY KAHNE 4th, KYLE BUSCH 6th, JOEY LOGANO 7th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 12th, DENNY HAMLIN 19th, BRIAN VICKERS 21st, BOBBY LABONTE 26th, DAVID REUTIMANN 27th, CASEY MEARS 32nd, JOE NEMECHEK 34th, MICHAEL MCDOWELL 37th, LANDON CASSILL

KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 3rd Could you be someone to beat in Sunday’s race? “We had a really good lap there. I was real happy with it. I got into turn one and two, through the center I was kind of waiting for it to get a little loose and it never did. I felt like I got back in the throttle a little bit late. I felt like I should have gone a little bit quicker, but still we ran a .25 and are starting top-three. That’ll be a great spot for tomorrow. We felt like our Red Bull Toyota was fast yesterday in practice in race practice so I feel like in tomorrow’s race we’ll have a good shot at staying, holding our position and racing with those guys. It’s going to be tough because everybody is pretty good. It’ll be tough, but Carl (Edwards) had a really good lap there and just barely pulled it off.”

How much did starting with Red Bull at the end of 2010 help you get ready for this year? “I think it was good. I felt like Homestead we qualified first and ran sixth in the race. Kind of closed off the season pretty well. The guys have worked really hard during the offseason to prepare better cars than we had at that point. Kenny Francis (crew chief) always does a great job. This is probably one of my worst tracks as far as my finishes go and the way I feel at this track when I race. We put a lot into it and we did some short track testing. The first lap I made yesterday, I knew we had a car and had a good chance to run strong this weekend. It goes to the Red Bull guys for working hard and prepared.”

Is this your time to shine with this team? “I feel like it can be a really good team. I knew it going in. As soon as we started putting the whole deal together with Red Bull and Kenny Francis (crew chief) coming and being a part of it and a lot of the guys I’ve worked with in the past. A lot of the Red Bull guys and what they have, and the experience they have, it’s been really good. We’ve been putting it all together as a big team and it should be strong. Having Brian Vickers as a teammate will definitely be beneficial for everyone as well. I just look forward to the whole season. Phoenix is a good spot to get started. It’s one of my worst tracks if you look at finishes, so if we can run well here and go to Vegas, be strong we’ll get off to a good start — that’d be great.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Combos Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 4th How was your qualifying run? “We’ve been good here and just came up a little bit short there. I think it was more driver than it was car. The car was pretty good. It felt really good like yesterday. I just didn’t quite have enough there. It’s real, real tight up front. The least little slip means a lot.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 6th Are you happy with your qualifying lap? “I feel like my Home Depot Toyota is pretty good. We sat down this morning and tried to come up with a game plan for our lap there and I changed up my driving style a little bit. It seemed to work alright. We’re close, it stinks when you are that close — if you could find a little bit more if you needed it. I probably wouldn’t and would’ve ended up overdriving it and going slower. It’s a good starting spot for us and hopefully get a good pit box. Pit boxes here are probably a bigger deal than qualifying spots.” -more-

LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) Why do you think speeds were higher here in qualifying compared to last fall? “It got a little overcast so you get to see the speeds up and higher this year. Quite a bit better than last fall. You’re going to see the speeds up, but I feel like our Home Depot Camry is pretty good. It was a pretty good lap and definitely a good pickup from what we had in practice. The guys did a good job getting this thing ready for me. We’re close, we just have to find a little bit more.”

What do you like about this race track? “I love this place. I think it’s neat. I struggled the first couple of times we came here, but once you kind of figure out what it takes to go fast around here it’s a blast. It’s a lot of fun to go down turn one and use a lot of brake, try to roll speed and then in (turn) three and four it’s completely opposite. You’re using hardly any brake and just about three different ways you can go through over there. It all depends on how your car is. It’s a fun track. It’s a driver’s track because you can really change your handling by what you do out there.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Starting Position: 7th Are you happy with your qualifying results? “The guys on the NAPA Toyota worked really, really hard yesterday. We unloaded first practice and we were really far off. Pretty much changed everything on the car between practices. I’m real proud of them for the work, the efforts they did to turn around the car. We talked all winter and we feel really good about this year. We’re very excited. I’m excited about my team and what we were able to do at the end of last season. This shows what we can do. From where we unloaded yesterday, that’s a huge accomplishment for these guys. We’ll keep working hard and hopefully we’ll have a good day tomorrow.”

Will weather tonight affect tomorrow’s race? “It’ll be different if it does rain but 50, 60 laps in will go right back to where it was yesterday. This is big league racing, if you can’t adapt then you have to find something else to do.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 12th Has your team gotten the fuel situation figured out after last fall at Phoenix? “Yeah, I think so. I think we’ve got a better grip on it surely than what we had here in the fall. I’m proud of this whole FedEx Freight team. We’ve worked hard these last couple days to get this car tuned in, and really was never was way off in any point. We didn’t make a qualifying run in the final practice session yesterday so kind of unexpected to see what we were going to have until today.”

What do you think your team learned from the race at Phoenix last fall? “Obviously, my passion for one thing. You look at the video of me after the race and you wouldn’t think we’d still be leading the points, but it was just the passion because I knew that I let a big opportunity slip away from us in the sense of we could’ve gone to Homestead and just kind of rode around and collected a championship. For me, it was just my passion. It’s always been in me — the competitiveness has always been in me and it will never change.”

How were you able to put Phoenix last fall behind you? “I think just getting in the offseason — getting away from racing for a little while definitely helps a lot. And then when you look back at it and I look back at it, it was a heck of a career year for myself. That’s something that can’t be overlooked because it’s the best I’ve ever performed throughout my career — my young career. I’ve only been around this team, me and this team, for five year. We’ve accomplished a lot of things that a lot of guys never will. So, for me, I just look forward and try and figure out how we can progress and get to number one.” -more-

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 19th How did your car handle? “The guys did a really good job. We came here with the two cars setup differently trying two different things. In practice we worked on it and it wound up that it seemed like the 4 (Kasey Kahne) was a little bit better than us. We weren’t bad, but it seemed like they were a little bit better so we went in that direction and it was great. The guys did a great job getting that car swapped over. The best it’s been so I think we’re going to stick with that for the race.”

How did it feel to get back in a race car at Daytona? “It sucked being in a crash, but it felt fantastic getting back in a race car. It felt so good. I can’t tell you how happy I was to be back.”

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Clorox Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 21st How was your car in qualifying? “We were a little bit free in qualifying, but we made some changes from yesterday. Obviously with the weather different, making a lap today is a little different. We picked up some speed over yesterday. Obviously going out early like we did because we didn’t have a fast lap yesterday. All in all, I think we made headway on it. This was my first time qualifying with these guys on a track other than Daytona. I know we are going to learn a lot of things quickly, like things I might like and stuff like that. We still are learning stuff as we go. I’m excited that we got a little bit better.”

Will weather tonight affect tomorrow’s race? “I do believe the track surface will change, but it will come back. It’ll take a while to come back maybe about 50 laps into the race it will be kind of like it is right now.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Best Western Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 26th How was your qualifying lap? “It was a little bit tight the second lap where we should’ve been faster so it cost us a lot of time there. That wasn’t a very good lap. I think it’s okay in race trim, I hope it’s okay.”

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 27th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 32nd

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing LLC Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Starting Position: 34th

LANDON CASSILL, No. 60 Big Red Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 37th

Ford Qualifying Order:

1st – Carl Edwards

10th – Greg Biffle

11th – David Ragan

15th – AJ Allmendinger

24th – Matt Kenseth

29th – Marcos Ambrose

30th – David Gilliland

33rd – Trevor Bayne

36th – Mike Skinner

40th – Travis Kvapil

43rd – Tony Raines

TONY RAINES – No. 37 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion (Qualified 43rd) – “The weekend has gone about how we thought it would. This is a speedway car and the key for us was to just get it driving OK, where we could run the whole race and kind of get going. It’s not driving bad. We’re gonna definitely keep working at it. We’ve got a little ways to go, but it’s a good start. So far everything is in one piece.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) – “We struggled yesterday. We had some brake trouble we fought for the most part and we hit the wall as a result of that. It seemed like we were kind of in a hole all day, but the car is driving OK and we’re locked in the show. I think our teammate, David Gilliland, has a pretty good car, so we’ll see what we’ve got here and what he’s got so then we can compare notes and make some changes yet for tomorrow.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 33rd) – “I know I needed more. When we ran that .70 I said it’s gonna take a .20 or .30 to be on the pole, so that wasn’t what we needed exactly. I just didn’t have enough grip. I couldn’t get much more out of the tire out there. I think it’s gonna be good on a long run, but for qualifying it just wasn’t there. We’ll get it, plus I’m learning, too. This is my first time jumping back and forth between Nationwide and Cup since Texas, and they’re totally different cars and I’ve got a lot to learn with both.”

BASED ON YESTERDAY WERE YOU MORE CONSERVATIVE WITH THIS LAP? “Yeah, you have to be until you get in the race. Once it comes race time you’ve got that car anyway, so you’re good. I had to be a little bit conservative, but I was still pushing it. I was still shaking when I got out of the car because I thought I pushed it, but I think I got into turn one a little too low and couldn’t carry any speed.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 30th) – “I think it’s good. We’re right there behind Jimmie Johnson and that is a step up from where we were last year. I feel like our car is excellent in race trim. We didn’t do a lot of qualifying stuff because we didn’t have the tires to really do that, but I’m excited. The car in race trim was phenomenal. If you look at the company we’re around, that’s good. We’ll go from there and work on it for Sunday.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 29th) – “I’m a little disappointed. That’s my first time really qualifying for this team and we’re all new and learning each other. I just left a little bit out there.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Valvoline Ford Fusion (Qualified 15th) – “I’m not sure where that’s gonna end up. That’s probably gonna 17th or 18th from the looks of it, so that’s not very good. It’s disappointing from yesterday. We had a decent car and brushed the wall, so you go out there and you’re not really sure. The guys did a good job. The driver wasn’t that good.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) – “We’ve got a fast race car and these Goodyear tires come in the second lap. They’re fastest on the second lap, so it would mean so much to be on the pole for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 in the Subway Ford. That would be huge. They’ve already given me a lot of free sandwiches this weekend and we’d love to give them a trophy. That would be cool.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 10th) – “I feel pretty good. I should have pushed the gas down sooner in three and four. The car had so much grip. I don’t know why, but I was just a little bit nervous and didn’t want to make a mistake. I probably just waited too long over there – a tenth of a second. That was my fault, but what’s exciting about it is we have a really good car and a really fast car.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 11th) – “It’s a small pick-up. Anytime you’re up there in the top three or four during practice you think you’ve got a legitimate shot at the pole and another tenth we would have been right there. I’m real happy with our UPS Ford for the race. I think we’ve got a real solid car and anytime you can qualify in the top 15, you’ve got a real good shot to get a good pit stall and get a good start. That’s good, but you’re always hungry for more.”

CARL EDWARDS POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE – “That’s a big deal. We’ve had a lot of support from Subway. It’s been a lot of fun representing them and to be on the pole is huge. This new qualifying format is a little stressful. I had to watch Kyle go, and I know how fast he was, and then Kurt was screaming fast yesterday, so he had me stressed out a little bit. It’s fortunate we were able to sit on the pole. I love this race track. I know all the drivers love this race track. It’s really fun to drive on and starting up front is, hopefully, gonna make the race a lot simpler.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE BENEFIT OF HAVING THE FIRST PIT SELECTION? “Track position is huge here, especially on the short run. I think we’ll have that first pit stall. I’m assuming that’s what Bob will pick and that really helped us a lot in the fall to have a good pit stall because I would lose a couple spots, and Kurt and I actually raced a ton, and he would take off and leave us, but we had the advantage of the pit stall and sometimes we’d come back out front and he’d pass me again. But having that pit stall means a lot and it will hopefully help us throughout the whole race.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO PROVE AFTER THE LAST COUPLE? “You always have something to prove here every week. It doesn’t really matter what you did before, it only matters what you’re able to do now. I think having those ups-and-downs that I’ve had as a driver and we’ve had as a team have helped me to kind of stay a little more even keel about our results. The difference between those previous down years and this year is I feel like the reason we ran well at the end of last season, it’s not like we have one trick – it’s not like we have one axle housing or the engine, we all of a sudden found a bunch of horsepower. We have a number of things, I think, that are gonna make our team stronger. It’s like Kurt said, we’re faster because we have done a lot of hard work and the guys have worked smarter, so I’m more confident this year, but I understand it’s not gonna get any easier. We just have to keep working.”

THIS TRACK IS SUPPOSEDLY WORN OUT, BUT IT STILL MUST HAVE SOMETHING LEFT IN IT. “Yeah, this track is great. I talked to Sperber earlier and I think the question I asked him it seems a lot of people have asked was, ‘Why would you even mess with this?’ And he said that the last thing he wants to do is mess with this race track, but he has to. He said they put patches on this week, patches on patches, and it’s literally coming apart. What it’s got in it is a lot of character and it’s a lot of fun and a lot of history, so it’s sad to see it change and see the surface replaced, but it is what it is. What they say they’re gonna do down here in the dogleg sounds pretty interesting. I think it could be a pretty wild event in the fall.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500

PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 26, 2011

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET met with media and discussed Trevor Bayne and his win of the Daytona 500, extreme sports, points, and more. Full Transcript:

ON TREVOR BAYNE, HAVE YOU FOLLOWED THE ‘TREVOR-MANIA’ THIS WEEK?

“To me, it’s been exciting. It’s exciting for the sport; the little bit that I know Trevor. I know Danielle Randall who works with him, so I’ve about Trevor for a while. He’s got that kind of personality that shines. And so when a young talent like that does when he did in Daytona, it’s good for the sport. When you look at ratings for the Daytona 500, that was a great thing.

“When you look at Trevor winning, that was a great thing. It’s just kind of happened where the week fell together the way that it did that he and I were working together in the 150 and it sort of shined a light on what he is capable of doing and then he goes and wins the Daytona 500; which had nothing to do with me, by the way (laughs). He did that on his own and I sent him a text and told him that. I haven’t followed a lot of it. I’ve been busy doing my own things this week, but what little bit I have followed, I’m just happy for him because it’s so genuine and so raw to have somebody that’s thrust into this and he did such a great job and had such a great attitude about it.”

YOU WERE LOOKING FOR SOME SPEED YESTERDAY. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT QUALIFYING TODAY?

“I’m pretty optimistic. We looked at our Dartfish and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good plan on where we needed speed for qualifying. I felt like we made some big gains for the race so I wasn’t so concerned about the speed there when we swapped over into qualifying. But I definitely thought we were going to be better when we made our qualifying runs than we were. So, I’m not sure if going out early is going to be beneficial or not. It could very well be with these clouds and hopefully we made the right adjustments to capitalize on it.”

WHAT’S YOUR PREFERENCE? THE KIND OF RACING WE HAD IN DAYTONA LAST WEEK OR THE ONE COMING TO A SHORT TRACK WHERE IT’S MUCH MORE DRIVER-DRIVEN?

“Obviously, I’m a driver so I’m doing to go for the one that’s more driver-driven. Daytona was interesting and exciting in its own way. I feel like there were a little bit too many crashes. We already see the big one with the restrictor-plate, but we just saw a lot of cars get taken out. I feel like that part of it wasn’t a lot of fun. Other than that, I thought the racing was great and this weekend I’m really excited because we’ve done some testing over the off-season. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and these guys worked so hard to get here and I’m just so excited coming in here because I feel like we’ve got a fast race car and got some things to really show the competition. So far the weekend hasn’t gone quite the way we’d hoped so hopefully it gets turned around here today with a good qualifying effort. But no, I prefer the ones where I have a little bit more of a role in.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS THE START OF THE SEASON FOR YOU OR ARE YOU IN A HOLE?

“I don’t feel like we’re in a hole, but I feel like this is where the season truly starts. Daytona, you kind of separate it into its own event; it’s such a big race and so much effort gets put into it. But at the same time, that’s not really where the championship is won. These types of race tracks are where you really see what kind of speed you have and what kind of team you are; and coming out of here is what we will definitely look at; not only for ourselves as a measuring tool, but looking at the competition as to who we have to look at to be the competitors this year.”

TREVOR BAYNE SAID HE MIGHT NOT HAVE WON THE DAYTONA 500 IF YOU HADN’T BEEN WILLING TO DRAFT WITH HIM EARLIER IN THE WEEK. THAT GAVE OTHER GUYS THE CONFIDENCE TO DRAFT WITH HIM.

“Well, I appreciate Trevor saying that but he’s got to remember he was the pusher, so everybody was looking for somebody to push; especially someone that could push as good and for as long as he could. What I think he deserves a lot of credit for is finding himself a way to get out front. You could kind of thank David Ragan for that at the same time but I think that him getting in front of Bobby Labonte and gaining himself in that position and then blocking Carl (Edwards) to the line was great. It was a great move and he did a great job putting himself in that position.”

WHAT ABOUT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AS A WHOLE? WAS DAYTONA DEFLATING AT ALL?

“It wasn’t our highest moment. We certainly didn’t come out of there the way we had hoped. But when you look at that race, the majority of the teams didn’t come out of there the way they’d hoped. Between blown engines and wrecks, it took out a lot of good cars. But it also gave some momentum to some strong teams like Carl (Edwards). So for us, we just focused the same way we always do. We go and put our best effort out and then when that race is over, regardless of whether we won or not, it’s time to start focusing on the next race and that’s where we’re at.”

DO YOU THINK THE NEW POINTS SYSTEM WILL MAKE IT HARDER OR EASIER TO RECOVER FROM A BAD FINISH LIKE LAST WEEK?

“We’ll let you know. To me, a bad finish is a bad finish. To me, I think that so far the way I’ve looked at it I think your average finish is still going to play out. The way you perform and where you finish is still going to lend itself to allowing you to recover just as you would have under the old points system. If you go out there and perform, then you’ll recover. And it you don’t you’ll be back for the rest of the season or for a long time. So I think we’ll have to see how it all plays out here. But we led a lap and we were 28th or 29th or something like that and it could have been a lot worse.”

MARK MARTIN AND JIMMIE JOHNSON HAVE TALKED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT EVERYBODY AT HMS GOING IN A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT DIRECTION IN SET-UP. ARE YOU ALL TRYING TO DO SOMETHING SEPARATE ON PURPOSE OR IS THIS A NATURAL EVOLUTION THAT EVERYBODY HAS A DIFFERENT DRIVING STYLE?

“All I can really speak about is what we’re doing and we’re doing everything we can to build the best race cars we can and to put the right set-up underneath the car. We’re here to perform at the highest level we can. I think that what happens is that every year you see how the championship unfolds and when you look at the NO. 48 (Johnson) last year at this time, they showed some strengths but there were also some weaknesses and I think that you can address those things earlier in the season in there to allow you to do that. So for us, it’s business as usual. We’re just absolutely trying to build a program that’s strong with the strongest set-ups that we can possibly have and then we learn from our teammates based on what they’re doing. And it doesn’t matter to us if we’re all doing the same thing or we’re all doing different things.”

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN DOING EXTREME SPORTS OR SOMETHING THAT GETS YOUR ADRENALIN GOING OUTSIDE OF CAR RACING?

“On a day to day basis with two young kids, man that’s about as much as I can handle (laughs). I think it would be really cool to jump out of a plane someday but I don’t have any desire or plans to do it before I retire. I feel like I take enough risks on the weekends as it is and I’m kind of the opposite. I like doing things that are relaxing when I’m not in the race car.”

EARLY IN YOUR CAREER, YOU WERE VOCAL ABOUT YOUR FAITH. TREVOR BAYNE IS OPEN ABOUT IT NOW. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF DOING THAT? WHAT THINGS MIGHT TREVOR FACE AS HE OPENLY TALKS ABOUT HIS FAITH?

“Everybody has their views and opinions on it. So you open yourself up to being judged. But it’s all about your upbringing and how strong you are in your faith and your opinions and sticking with who you are and what you believe in and not worrying about what other people think and say. He’ll get a lot of positive feedback from it from some, and negative feedback from others. I think that’s just part of life.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THE TEAMS TO GET THEIR GAME PLAN TOGETHER WITH THE NEW PROCEDURES?

“Right now, I don’t see [the new fueling system] slowing the pit stops down. I think it is more whether you get it all in there. I think that is the most important thing; getting every drop in there. It could slow it down if you don’t get a good connection. I’ll be honest; we didn’t make enough pit stops in Daytona to really find out with all the other problems that we had. This weekend will be a truer indication and sign of what is to come. But I didn’t hear a whole lot. I mean we had pit stops at Daytona, the difference was we weren’t really changing tires along with it. This weekend will be a good test for that. But, I’m not hearing a whole lot of buzz about that when I talk to Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the team. I don’t see any foresee anything out of the usual. It just looks different and it is taking the guys a little while to get used to the process. I guess we will just wait and see.”

DO YOU THINK THIS SPORT NEEDS PERSONALITIES TO BRING PEOPLE IN OR ARE THINGS THAT NASCAR AS THE SANCTIONING BODY COULD DO TO BE MORE ATTRACTIVE TO YOUNG FANS?

“It is a little bit of both. I think we have to be a little more tech-savvy and bring some of those that are more interesting to the younger crowd. But we have to have some young talent here too and I think that is what Trevor (Bayne) brings and that is certainly exciting. Now he’s got to follow that up. It is great that he won the Daytona 500, the biggest race that we have, but you’ve got to follow that up with being able to put some good performances in at other tracks as well. If he can do that, then I think that will be a great boost for this sport. I think NASCAR has taken some steps towards the other areas that I spoke about to try to make that connection and I think it is important. One of the things I have a lot of faith in is NASCAR. They do their research.

“We might question them and say ‘I don’t know the right things’; but they do their research and they think about it and it is not an easy place to be in-in their position. They are definitely thinking about all of those things all of the time. It’s not always as clean cut or black or white when it comes to those types of decisions as we think of it sometimes as it is. They have a lot of things on their plate to consider. I think right now, we’re going to try to gain the momentum that came out of Daytona. It was a unique and exciting race. A great champion; young champion. Some great ratings and let’s keep that going.”

DID YOU APPROACH THIS WEEKEND LIKE YOU HAVE THE TWO-DAY WEEKENDS HERE IN THE PAST?

“I approached this weekend as I showed up Thursday night. Got off the plane, came here and looked at the schedule and said ‘Ok, I have two practices tomorrow’. Then I went to bed last night. I woke up today and said ‘I have qualifying today’. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be sarcastic. I approach every weekend as I look at the schedule. It just depends on what the schedule is.”

CAN YOU DO MORE THINGS TO THE CAR BECAUSE YOU HAVE OVERNIGHT TO THINK ABOUT THINGS BEFORE QUALIFYING AND THEN CHANGE MORE THINGS BEFORE THE RACE AS OPPOSED TO A TWO-DAY WEEKEND?

“I will say this. The one advantage for us is that we were not very fast yesterday. Yesterday if we had to qualify after practice, I think we would have been in a little bit of trouble. I think today we have an opportunity because we spent all night with the engineers looking at all of data and came up with a pretty good plan for today on how to make ourselves better. That is something we would have had to have done in a real hurry on a typical schedule. So that is the only difference. That I see.”

WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO MAKE ANY MORE ADJUSTMENTS OFF YOUR TWO LAPS TODAY THAT YOU LEARN OR DO YOU NOT LEARN ANYTHING OFF YOUR TWO LAPS?

“What we’ll do is now we know what changes we’ve made. On the computer we have a graph of that setup in comparison with every other setup that we’ve run in so far in practice. If the car goes out there and does what I want it to do today, then we can say ‘Ok, great, those adjustments here. Fixed this.’ Whatever the car does do, I will give that feedback to the team and we will be able to compare and we can use a little bit of that. It is two of laps with tires that have a lot of grip in them versus the tires that will be worn out as the race goes on and the pace is going to drop. You have got to take it for what it is but it is still information that we will use.”

ANY THOUGHTS ON THE UPCOMING CHANGES TO PHOENIX AFTER THIS RACE?

“I think it is exciting in some ways. It is going to be a new race track. It is not going to be the same Phoenix. It is really important to have a one-mile race track that is competitive. That is showcasing what we can do with these race cars. I think that is exciting. The thing that I love so much about the older race tracks, I think most drivers will tell you this, is the worn out surfaces. They have a lot of grip for a couple of laps and then the tires go off. Then it is about setups. It about driving and it brings the total team into it. It just seems that as they are re-paving race tracks these days, they are not able to maintain that. That is the challenge for Goodyear. That is the challenge for the teams, drivers and for this sport I feel like because what we don’t want to have happen is we come back here and the track has a ton of grip and we are just single-file racing. There are some new things they are doing to race tracks with progressive banking that are offering up three-wide racing right from the beginning so maybe some of that will help. I will say I am going to miss the worn out surface. I am going to miss the dogleg in the back because I hear they might be taking that out. But other than that I will admit this is not my best track so I am thinking I welcome a change. I think it could potentially make us even stronger here. I tell you what is really going to make things unique is when we come back here for the championship to have a whole new race track in the Chase with basically no testing. That is really going to throw us some big challenges for the teams that are going for the championship.”

Note: Team Chevy press releases, high-resolution images, and media kit can be downloaded from the Team Chevy media website:

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> .

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Notes & Quotes Phoenix International Raceway — February 26, 2011

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Combos Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What is your outlook for this weekend at Phoenix after winning the Truck Series race last night? “Everything went real well for us last night with our Dollar General Tundra. Had a great truck race, had a lot of fun and really cool to bring home a win this early in the season for our guys over there with our new chassis that was the first time out with yesterday. So that was good. I’m looking forward to the Nationwide race today with Interstate Batteries and the guys — Norm Miller and the group that wanted to be on the race car this weekend. So, we appreciate those guys. And, then I’m looking forward to the Cup race as well too. The Combos folks are here this weekend so it will be a good ordeal to get some good exposure for those guys and hopefully have a strong run. We feel that we’ve always run really well in a Combos car. I think it’s actually undefeated in the Cup Series, so I don’t know. For me, it’s undefeated — I think Elliott Sadler drove it before. It’s been fun to race that car so hopefully we can have a good run with it this weekend. Being as though it’s the last race on the old surface here this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway I’m kind of sad to see it go, but excited to see what new changes are in store for us when we come back in November.”

How do you like your chances of sweeping the races this weekend? “I like my chances. I feel they’re pretty good. We ran pretty good times yesterday in the Nationwide car and then in the Cup Series car — granted it’s never over until it’s over so we’ll see how that goes today. The Nationwide car seems to be really good. It seems like there’s a couple guys that run the same times as us so it will be a good show there. And, then the Cup race is always the hardest one, the best one, the last one so we’ll see how that goes. Obviously, the competition is so high there and everybody that’s so good. We actually feel that we had some good times yesterday, but the 4 of Kasey Kahne was really good too. He seems to be probably one of the best cars as well so we’ll see how it all plays out. Overall, chances if I had to say I’d say we’re definitely top-five in all of them so we’ll see if we can’t knock a win out.”

Did you observe other drivers trying to drive slowly in the final practice because of their qualifying spot? “If they would read the rules correctly then they would understand that’s the wrong thing to do. As Kerry (Tharp, NASCAR) mentioned, Kurt (Busch) and I — Kurt was a little bit faster than my time in the first practice to my time in the second practice. So, we go out last of the cars that are in the show — the guaranteed starters. Then, after us the final 10 or 12 cars that go out are the go or go-homers. We’re the last of the guys that are locked into the show to go so it’s more beneficial to us. Places like Indy, when Indy is at 10 o’clock in the morning, you want to go out first. You would run your whole lap, you would actually have somebody stand at the beginning of pit road — the pit wall there with a stopwatch and clock you from there and then you’ll shut the motor off before you get to the start-finish line so then you back up your time. We’re all smart, we all know how this show runs down. As Kerry mentioned, they’ll change that hopefully so it will make it more interesting that qualifying will be later in the afternoon.”

Why do you think other drivers were driving slower in the final practice? “I don’t know why you would. Qualifying is at 1:40 — it’s going to be hot. The track temp will not change five, at most 10 degrees between the start and the end of qualifying. So, it means nothing. We just ran 40 trucks and there’s probably 45 Nationwide cars and there’s probably 45 Cup cars so you’re talking 130 vehicles ran for nine hours yesterday. If it ain’t rubbered in by now, I don’t know when it’s going to be rubbered in in qualifying. Track temp is not going to change a whole lot, the track is rubbered in and it’s good to go. Everybody who thought they were sandbagging for some big ol’ shindig reason, they’ll be far unimpressed.”

Is it early enough in the season where bad finishes hurt you more than in the past with the new points system? “It’s definitely early enough in the year and through the models that NASCAR said that they did and everything it’s still relative. It’s definitely different, but it’s still relative. I think it’s a little bit easier to kind of figure out where you need to be if you’re 20 points behind a guy — that’s 20 spots. Besides leading a lap and or leading the most laps or winning and stuff like that. So, you can close the gap up faster by being able to do those things. To me, right now in the season the points doesn’t mean anything. You’ll start worrying about points probably Charlotte time. That’s when you need to start structuring where you’re at and where you want to be when it comes down to Richmond.”

Will getting married during the offseason be a factor in how you run races? “No, no change at all. I’m pretty well wired that it’s strictly go as fast as you can everytime you’re out there on the race track. That doesn’t bother me one bit. She (Samantha Busch, wife) knows that and Samantha is all about it. She enjoys the time that we have going everywhere and doing all of the things that we do and of course the races that I run. Sometimes there’s some off-weekends there so that’s always good. Everything else is all about trying to win races and bring home the trophies.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Combos Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) Will it be shocking to get only one point if you go out of the race early and finish last? “Yeah, that’s definitely going to hurt your feelings a little bit. It’s kind of weird when you’re — now with the truck points and Nationwide points you see zero and it’s like, ‘Well, what the hell? I just ran a race.’ You do get the owner’s points out of it. It’s all relative somehow. For the points the way it is, it’s definitely going to take a little bit of time for everybody to get used to. It’s going to be weird to see how we’re only separated by four points or we’re tied or we’re separated by two points

Keys for Success: SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500

AVONDALE, Ariz., (Feb. 26, 2011) – Each race weekend, select Dodge Motorsports engineers, team crew chiefs, drivers or engine specialists give their insight on the ‘Keys for Success’ for the upcoming race. This week, the green flag drops in the ‘Valley of the Sun”.

Track: Phoenix International Raceway (race 2 of 36 NSCS point events)

Race: SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500

Track Length: 1-mile (312 laps)

Race Record: Trivia Question: How many lead changes were there at last year’s spring event at PIR? (Answer Below)

HOWARD COMSTOCK (Dodge Motorsports Engineering) “There are several keys heading into Phoenix this weekend. An important key is that the race is moving from 600k to 500k and that changes the race strategy completely. The direct impact can be looked at in three important areas:

Fuel Stops: “The 500 kilometer distance means one less fuel stop than last year, but it’s not one full segment shorter than a 600 kilometer race. This creates a “partial” fuel stop and the teams have to calculate that into their strategy. The effect is that a shorter race changes the window of opportunity and at a race where track position is critical like Phoenix, fueling strategy will be a key.”

Two Tires vs. Four Tires: “Two tire stops work at Phoenix, but add to the equation that fueling a racecar takes longer because of the new gas cans. Consequently that changes the dynamic of the two-tire, four-tire strategy when you’re trying to preserve track position.”

Night and Day: “Last year, this race started at 4:30 p.m. and ran into the night. This year it’s an early afternoon green flag, the race will be run entirely in the daytime. The net effect of the time change will alter the strategy on tires.”

In a Nutshell: “You have a circular strategy going on this weekend. Tires are more important because it’s a day race; two tires versus four tires is a strategy that works here. The fueling is slower and the race is shorter. That’s a lot of things going on in one race.”

Answer to Trivia Question: 20

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Subway Fresh Fit Advance 400, Page 13 February 25, 2011 Phoenix International Raceway

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, won the last two races of 2010, including the event here at Phoenix International Raceway. Edwards, who leads the point standings going into Sunday’s race, held a press conference Friday between practice sessions at PIR.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – DID YOU SEE CARL JUMP OFF THE STRATOSPHERE IN VEGAS? “If anybody has a little spare time in Vegas, go for it. That’s pretty wild, big-time. It’s fun.”

WHAT ABOUT PHOENIX THIS WEEKEND? “It’s good. The tire seems to work really well. The cars are fast and I’m just glad to be here. I love racing here. This is fun. It’s Subway weekend. We’ve got the Subway Ford Fusion and a Ford Mustang that’s pretty fast on the Nationwide side. I’m excited to race here.”

DOES SUNDAY’S RESULT STILL BOTHER YOU? “Of course I’m still bothered by that (laughing). I’ve thought about it a lot and I’ve watched the replay a couple times. There are a lot of things I could have done differently. I’m certain that one of those things would have meant that I would have had a better chance at winning the race, but, looking back on it, I think I made the best decision I could have made there at the time and, in the end, it kind of ensured a Ford would win the race. But, yeah, I just hope to be in that position a number of times. I think if I can do that a number of times, then one of them we’ll win. The trick is to be around at the end like that. But I’ve got to say that this week I did think about it a lot, and I thought about it from different points of view the best I could, and I was inspired by Trevor this week – not as a competitor but as a person. It’s neat to see a guy so happy about winning a race and to see a guy who seemed to handle it so well. That was really an inspiring thing. It made me excited to come here and race. It made me feel good about racing and feel good about this thing that we do every week. That was pretty cool.”

AFTER WHAT YOU DID YESTERDAY CAN YOU SEE DOING LIKE ANDY LALLY WITH STREET LUGE RACING AND SHOULD NASCAR CONSIDER CHANGES FOR TALLADEGA? “At least with that (street luge) there are wheels involved and there’s pavement and all that. I feel like I might be less nervous. That think yesterday, when they first said, ‘Hey you can jump off the Statosphere.’ They should me a video of it and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s no big deal. You’re all strapped in.’ It’s not like you’re freefalling or something, but when I was standing I was literally 50/50. If there weren’t all those cameras and stuff, I might have just said, ‘I think I’ll go back down the slow way.’ I did not want to jump off that thing. It was one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever done, so it was really fun. As far as what NASCAR can do, I don’t know. I don’t know if what we did on Sunday is safer than what it used to be. I don’t know what the answer is. I think the only thing we really can do and we need to do is we need to explain to our fans better what is going on. We need them to understand that it is a different style of racing. I think it’s very confusing, and I’ve had to kind of explain it all week and it kind of puts us all in a little bit of a tough position because I think the drivers, the teams and maybe you guys understand that’s not a Cup race in a classic sense, but the average person watching doesn’t realize that, so they have all these questions and it’s just hard to explain. So I think we need to do a better job of explaining that style of racing to our fans, if we’re gonna continue to do it. As far as making it different, better, safer, I don’t have an answer for that.”

IS THIS THE REAL START TO THE RACE SEASON? “I think that’s one way to look at it. Auto racing is about driving down into the corner and managing the throttle and the brakes and the grip of the tires. I feel like that’s what racing is about. Now, you can’t argue that cars running two-by-two at 202 miles an hour at Daytona, that’s racing too. It is a different style of racing. That style of racing we only have four times a year. The other 32 times they are races like this, so this really is the style of track that you need to be good at and this is the start of the season that you can control more. That race on Sunday, that’s a tough one. That’s a tough one to be in control of your own destiny and your own fate.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE A FAVORITE COMING IN HERE AFTER WINNING IN NOVEMBER AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT ONLY 40 CARS BEING HERE IN THE NATIONWIDE RACE? “I didn’t know there were only 40 cars here. That’s too bad. I’m pretty excited to be here. I feel like we ran so well in the Nationwide car and so well in the Cup car at the last event. I don’t know if I’m a favorite. I’m planning on winning the race. I don’t know if it’s gonna work out like that, but the biggest thing is we’d love to get the win in the Subway car. That would be huge. I don’t feel like there’s a track in the first half of the season at least that we have a better shot at winning. I have a lot of confidence here is the way to put it. As far as 40 cars, I don’t know the reasons exactly for what’s behind that, but I hope that we can have a full field at Las Vegas.”

WHAT WILL YOU TELL YOU KIDS WHEN THEY WANT TO DO SOMETHING RISKY? “I’ve thought about that a little bit, actually. My daughter already seems to be kind of a risk taker. I don’t know what I’m gonna say. Maybe by then I’ll move far, far away and there will be no newspaper clippings or no internet available to them, but I’m pretty much screwed, I think.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS NEW SCHEDULE AND HOW MUCH DOES PERFORMANCE PLAY IN TO YOUR DECISION ABOUT STAYING WITH ROUSH FENWAY? “The qualifying and schedule this weekend is a little different. It will make it a little tougher to finish practice in the Cup car today, sleep the whole night, and then run your qualifying lap tomorrow. That’s a little different than normal. It feels a little different. I think it will be neat. I think that the new qualifying draw situation is gonna be pretty cool. I’ve thought a little bit about how much that win might have been worth contract negotiation-wise, but, really, all you can do is put yourself in those positions to try to have a chance to win. You’re gonna win some and you’re not gonna win some. The best thing is that we didn’t wreck. Trevor and I weren’t wrecking each other and let somebody else win. We respected one another and, really, we’ve got a win, a win and a second. That’s a pretty good three-race stretch. If we can continue that, that’s all you can do in this sport is perform the best you can and hope that you get those results. Those are some good results for me. I don’t think in my career I’ve had a three-race stretch that’s better than that.”

DID YOU FEEL A DIFFERENT BUZZ THIS WEEK DURING YOUR APPEARANCES ABOUT NASCAR? “I think it was very good. I went to the Cartoon Network’s Hall of Game Awards Ceremony, which is full-on Justin Biebermania. Kids were everywhere. It was pretty neat and there were a lot of people there talking about this 20-year-old that won the Daytona 500. There was a real buzz at this Cartoon Network Awards thing. Kobe Bryant was there and T.O. and Venus Williams, and people knew what was going on. Yesterday, I went to Vegas and it was the same thing there. People were pumped about it. I have one fan, this young girl, I guess I used to be her favorite driver, the text I got from her after the race was, ‘So, I need to know a little bit more about this Bayne kid. He’s cute.’ She’s about his age, so I think that’s the general feeling. He’s a new guy on the scene and he’s positive for the sport. I think that’s pretty cool.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE NEW POINT SYSTEMS IS AND FOR GUYS WHO HAVE A HOLE TO DIG OUT OF? “The thing is at the end of the year we’ll probably all have about the same number of bad days. If you have a real bad day, if you have an engine blow up early, that does make it tougher the way the points are spread. One point, two points, three points, that’s a pretty bad day, so you can’t have too many of those. I’m very, very glad that we at least made it through the bottleneck that is Daytona. We made it through one of the riskiest races in the first part of the season with almost the maximum number of points we could get. That’s huge for us. We could have trouble on the first lap here and be in the same position as those guys and wash away that whole advantage that we have right now, so there’s a lot of racing left. I think, in the end, it will work out about the same.”

DID YOU TALK TO OTHER DRIVERS DURING THE RACE LAST WEEK AND HOW DID THAT WORK? “It was necessary on Sunday, I thought, for safety. I thought it was necessary for the guys in front to be able to say, ‘Wrecking, wrecking. Stop.’ That’s a lot quicker than telling a spotter or a spotter seeing it and telling the guy behind. I don’t think we need that in the cars at every track, I don’t, but it did help. It was good that everyone worked together and we were able to kind of do that because you just can’t see anything. If there’s one thing that could make that whole thing safer it would be a way to see through that spoiler. I don’t know if there’s a way to make it out of something stiff enough that’s transparent, but that would help a lot. You just can’t see being the guy behind.”

WHAT IS THE RESPECT FACTOR LIKE FOR TREVOR IN THE GARAGE? “I can only give you my opinion, but, yes, he won the Daytona 500, but he had my respect before that. He’s like a number of the young guys coming in. Him, I know David Ragan pretty well, Ricky Stenhouse, that’s a group of three guys – Joey Logano – it seems like he’s one of a group of these young guys that come in and they treat people right and they earn that respect off of the race track, so that when they do something good, people are happy for them. That’s really hard to do. I think that says a lot more about them as people than it does about them as race car drivers.”

YOU AND TREVOR WRECKED AT MICHIGAN A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, BUT YOU CUT HIM SOME SLACK. DID YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT HIM AT THAT TIME? “I don’t remember that incident, but we’ve had a couple times where we’ve talked after races where we didn’t really agree with one another, but we were able to talk about it and I came away feeling like, ‘Hey, he wants to understand my position,’ and that made me want to understand his. So, yeah, that’s what I’m talking about in a way about the earlier question, the way he interacts with people and the way he handles himself, he just seems like a straight-up guy, a normal guy. That’s pretty cool, but I don’t remember that instance in particular.”

HAVE YOU NEVER JUMPED OUT OF AN AIRPLANE BEFORE AND ARE YOU FLYING NEXT WEEK? “I’m flying with the Thunderbirds on Sunday out there and I’m looking forward to it. I’m gonna go back to the Stratosphere and jump off of it again, I think. It’s so neat you guys. You guys have to go do it. I’ve never jumped out of anything. I always thought, ‘Oh, that ought to be easy.’ I really did think that this was gonna be no big deal and I’m telling you when I landed my heart was pounding. I was really nervous about it. I’m really excited about next week. The F-16s are cool and I can’t wait to fly. Hopefully, we do some really neat stuff. It’s right before practice, though, so I’m nervous they’re gonna get me all screwed up and then I’m gonna have to jump in the car, so I’m a little nervous about that, but I’m having a good couple of weeks here. I get to do some fun stuff and that’s pretty neat.”

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011 Denny Darnell Scott Sebastian Dodge Motorsports PR Phoenix Int’l Raceway SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500 Kurt Busch Open Interview NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) WHY WERE YOU ALMOST A HALF-SECOND FASTER THAN EVERYONE IN THE FIRST PRACTICE? “What’s interesting right now is that we have the ability to do what we want in qualifying practice. You’re seeing guys in race trim and guys in qualifying trim. We went out in qualifying trim and I think that I got a draft or at least the air was broken up when I chased Bowyer down right in front of me and that might have added to our car running a little bit faster. The only other car that we saw in qualifying trim was my teammate Brad Keselowski and Jeff Burton and those guys didn’t get the perfect lap in. Our car was just perfect right off the bat. It qualified third here last fall and it’s the setup that we started with today. The second run that I made was much slower. The track seems to be real fast in the beginning and then it slows up. Our goal was to go out right away, post a fast lap in case qualifying is rained out.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW THE TRACK WILL BE AFTER THE REPAVE? “It’s amazing how we set a track record last fall and with the surface the way it is, it’s time for them to resurface it with all the cracks and harshness that you see in the asphalt. I think with the repaving it’s going to be a great atmosphere for them to do something different and to add to the racing excitement with the variable banking. They’re also going to tweak the dogleg and create a sharper dogleg on the back straightaway. It’s going to change the whole outlook when we come back here for a Chase race with two to go in the fall. It’s going to be a roll of the dice and I think it’s smart on NASCAR’s part to shake up the Chase a little bit with a new race track.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR APPROACH TO THE WEEKEND? “We felt that going out early (in the first practice) and laying down a good lap was important. We’ll see how the second practice session goes. We still have one more set of stickers that we can put on our car for a qualifying run at the end. At the end of practice, it’s going to be around 5:30 p.m. and we’ll have optimum track conditions. We’ll see if guys are picking up a lot of speed at the end. You’re going to see the gap really close up here in the second practice.”

HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY GOODYEAR TO BE A PART OF THE TIRE TEST HERE AFTER THE REPAVE? “It’s going to be interesting to see who they pick and how they decide who’s going to participate in the tire test. We’re looking at a possibility of a tire test at Darlington. We’ve heard the possibility of a Kansas tire test. Phoenix is important because it’s part of the Chase. You have to do whatever you can to be on that list. If it’s up to me, you wouldn’t have anybody that’s in the Chase to come out here and test. But let’s just say that my teammate (Brad) Keselowski doesn’t make the top 12, does that mean that he can’t come out here and test because his teammate is in? That’s going to be a tough question for Goodyear to decide.”

IS IT STANDARD TO NOT TALK TO A DRIVER AFTER AN ON-TRACK INCIDENT? IS IT JUST UNDERSTOOD THAT IT’S A RACING INCIDENT? ”There’s that thought that each driver has when something happens on track, nobody steps over the line. It’s kind of just pushed away. I was going to reach out to Regan Smith today and tell him what a great Speedweeks it was for both of us. It’s was the best Speedweeks that I ever had and I couldn’t have done it without his help. Did it end up wrong in the end with him? For him, it was almost like hitting a pillow because he was able to get his car back out there and finish eighth. That was amazing for that to happen. The run that Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. had behind me, they were pushing hard. Could Tony have lifted? Yes. I was on the brakes as hard as I could not to run into Regan Smith. It’s just one of those chain reactions that you know happens. I don’t think Regan has any hard feelings on how they ended and finished seventh. He seemed to kind of push it off to the side. I’ve got to thank Regan again for such a great Speedweeks. Who knew that we were going to team up like we did and it turned out to be a positive effort for the 78 and 22 cars.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500

PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 25, 2011

 

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS CHEVROLET met with media and discussed using multiple radio channels during the Daytona 500, concentrating full time on Cup this season, and more. Full Transcript:

 

ON LEAVING THE DAYTONA 500 AND COMING TO PHOENIX

“This is a totally different track. I’m really looking forward to coming to Phoenix with another fast car and just seeing how this new nose is and really getting a good feel for the race team and the RCR race cars and the ECR horsepower. Everything has been really good so far. We’re struggling a little bit in getting the car turned. You always struggle with drive off here and we’re probably too hard on that. The car’s a little big tight right now. But we’ll keep working on it here in practice. But overall, I’m just really excited to be in Phoenix. It’s one of my favorite race tracks. And just getting to know these cars; that’s the biggest thing. Like I said, we were in Daytona for two weeks and Daytona is its own animal. Now we get to come to Phoenix. It’s kind of a bread & butter type of race track. We’ll see where we stack up for real now.”

 

DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE ADVANTAGEOUS FOR YOU NOT TO SPEND YOUR TIME BETWEEN THE NATIONWIDE GARAGE AND THE CUP GARAGE THIS SEASON?

“Yeah. That’s really why we’re not running full time this year. We decided that way before they (NASCAR) announced that you have to pick a points schedule to work on. But it was a lot last year just bouncing back & forth. The track time is good; the more laps you run around a race track in any kind of car is good. But you lose so much contact with your crew. Slugger and I can’t debrief with the Cup car because I have to go jump in the Nationwide car and run practice or qualifying or something. Same deal there. You have to jump out and run to your Sprint Cup car. But we picked seven races this year to run; ones that I feel like I need to improve on and a couple of races where we think we really have a good shot at winning. So, we’ll just that more as just having some fun with this year.”

 

DID YOU RUN ABOUT AS WELL AS YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD AT DAYTONA? BETTER OR WORSE? AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON?

“I would definitely have liked to get more at the end of the race. We led four different times. The car was fast. Once the No. 29 (Kevin Harvick) and the No. 31 (Jeff Burton) had engine problems, (Clint) Bowyer and I kind of cooled it a little bit; literally, tried not to get the engine as hot, and trying to make a run at the end, the last 20 laps of the race, you’ll heat it up as high as you can get it if it’s going to get you the win. But Bowyer had his problems so I was kind of left without a drafting partner. A.J. Allmendinger and I hooked up on the last re-start and my car was faster than his but he was pushing me. That’s just the way it worked out. So I had to drag my brakes a lot more with him pushing me and lost a lot of momentum. But I definitely would have liked to get more in the end, for sure. But we finished ninth. And that’s not all bad. Everybody besides (Trevor) Bayne (Daytona 500 winner) wanted to get more, you know?”

 

YOU LEAD ME TO THE NEXT QUESTION. HAVE YOU GUYS GOTTEN TOGETHER THIS WEEK AND TRIED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WENT WRONG ENGINE-WISE, WITH YOUR TEAMMATES?  IS THERE ANY CONCERN MOVING FORWARD OR WAS IT JUST DAYTONA-SPECIFIC?

“I talked to Richie Gilmore for a while this morning and he told me what was wrong with it and what they found on the Dyno and that’s a restrictor-plate-specific problem that we don’t foresee having any issues here; knock on wood.”

 

LOOKING FORWARD TO TALLADEGA BASED ON WHAT YOU GUYS DID AT DAYTONA, HOW MANY GUYS ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE ON THE RADIO? WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE STRANGE VOICES IN THE MIDDLE OF 200-MILE-AN-HOUR RACE SPEEDS?           

“Saturday night we were trying to figure out the second radio in the car and we added the second radio with I think 12 different channels of different car numbers that I could switch and talk to. I only used a couple of them. I talked to (Tony) Stewart a little bit. I talked to Regan (Smith). I tried to talk to Allmendinger, but his radio thing was dead so I couldn’t get through to him. But yeah, it’s very different, for sure. When you first flip over and say hey, Tony, it’s Paul; can you hear me? And Tony being Tony, you wonder if he’s going to lash out at you or something. But it was all good. It worked really well for everybody.

 

WILL IT BE THE SAME FOR TALLADEGA?

“Well, if there are no rule changes or anything stating that we do otherwise, we’ll do it again, yeah.”

 

DO YOU THINK THERE SHOULD BE A RULE CHANGE ON THAT? IT SEEMED TO ME THAT YOU GUYS WERE HELPING EACH OTHER OUT TO MAKE FOR A SAFER RACE

‘Yeah, I think its fine. You’re on one channel with two drivers and basically one spotter spotting for you. You just have to be quick. If you guys get split up or something you just have to flip back to your channel and then try to figure out where you need to go next. But I don’t think there needs to be a rule change, but we’ll see.”

 

WOULD YOU DRIVE AN INDYCAR?

“I don’t think I’d fit in one of those things. Those guys are really small. But it’s worth thinking about, for sure. I drove one a few years ago and they’re totally different than what we do, but it’s worth doing.”

Note: Team Chevy press releases, high-resolution images, and media kit can be downloaded from the Team Chevy media website: 

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.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500

PHOENIX INTERNATIOINAL RACEWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 25, 2011

 

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed the end of the Daytona 500, repaving at Phoenix and other topics.  Full transcript:

 

HOW HAS PRACTICE GONE AND HAVE YOU NOTICED A BIG DIFFERENCE WITH THE NEW NOSE?:  “I don’t think we’ve noticed anything with the new nose so far.  I think the tire is a little different — it has more grip so it’s really hard to compare apples to apples anymore at this point.”

 

WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND MARK MARTIN AT THE END OF THE DAYTONA 500?:  “We just never got the bumpers locked together.  We kept bouncing off each other.  Then when a couple guys got a run through the center there, it kind of pulled him off of us even more and got us separated so bad that we never were able to get hooked back up together.”

 

WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED AT THE END OF THE RACE THAT YOU COULD NOT GET HOOKED BACK UP WITH MARK MARTIN?:  “You think?  It’s over and we’re on to Phoenix now.  We wish the outcome could have been different obviously, but the only thing we can do now is worry about what we’re doing this weekend.  If you were paying attention to what we did last week then we’re not doing a good job this week right now.”

 

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THE INDYCAR CHALLENGE THAT WAS ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK?:  “I would love to say that I would love to go do it obviously, but it’s the same thing as running the Indy 500.  If you don’t run three or four races, you’re probably not going to have a shot to win it anyway.  Just going to do a one-off deal doesn’t make sense for us to do right now.”

 

DO YOU HAVE TO TREAT THIS WEEKEND AS A TWO-DAY SHOW?:  “Yeah you do.  You just focus on these two sessions and then tomorrow just qualifying.  I like this format.  I like doing what we’re doing this weekend.  I like running the practice on Friday and having qualifying tomorrow and the race Sunday.  This is a format I like.  I just like running all of our practice Friday.  No particular reason other than I just like the easier day on Saturday to get ready for Sunday.”

 

HOW DO FEWER CAUTIONS CHANGE HOW YOU VIEW A RACE AS A DRIVER?:  “You’ve got too much time to think.  We race the race as it goes.  You don’t really worry about it.  You run the race as it’s running and if you get a caution then you work on it.  It’s no different than anybody else.  You look back 10 years ago and it was that way too probably.  It is what it is.  You never know what’s going to happen so you race the race when you start the green flag run, you run like you’re going to run a full fuel run.  You just play it as it happens.  You don’t think about it, you don’t strategize different saying, ‘Well, we’re probably going to have two less cautions than what we had.’  We don’t think about that stuff.  My job is the same.  I still drive it and steer it the same, work the pedals the same — I still do the same thing in the car.  The crew chief still does the same thing.  You can’t count on cautions or count on not having cautions.  You don’t know when that’s going to happen.  It could happen after a half a lap, it could happen after 80 and a half laps.  You just don’t know.”

 

WHEN DO YOU THINK YOU WILL HAVE A GOOD GAME PLAN ON HOW THE NEW PIT STOPS ARE GOING TO WORK?:  “We don’t talk about it.  It’s still just when it’s full you go.  Honestly, I don’t know.  It’s not really my department.  You have to ask the pit stop coaches and you would have to talk to the fuel guys and the crew chiefs — they’re the ones that are going to know how long they think it’s going to be until they get it all sorted out.”

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PHOENIX GETTING REPAVED?:  “I said it a long time ago when they took the Goodyear bridge away and they took the exit of turn two away and changed it that they screwed it up at that point.  Anything they do in the future is not really going to matter to me anymore.  They already kind of messed it up.”

 

DO YOU LIKE THE PROGRESSIVE BANKING?:  “Only if it works.  There’s no guarantee that putting progressive banking in is going to make it better.  If the drawing I saw of the potential layout of what they’re working on — I’m not sure — it will be interesting to see how that plays out too.  This has been an historic, famed race track out in the west for a long time and like I said, they already took away that mystique of it once and it looks like they are going to do it again.”

 

HOW MUCH DO THE REPAVES OF RACE TRACKS LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD?:  “Everybody’s good when tracks have grip.  It’s been that way in every form of racing that I’ve ever seen.  It’s when the crews have to work on the handling of the car and the drivers have to find ways of finding more grip or managing the grip they have — that’s when it separates the men from the boys so to speak.  The hard thing is that it’s part of the cycle.  You can’t just keep running race tracks.  At some point they have to be repaved and we’re just in a mode the last four or five years where a lot of these race tracks have come to a time where they have to be repaved and they have to resurface them.”

 

DID THE SIDE DRAFT BREAK YOU AND MARK MARTIN APART ON THE FINAL RESTART AT DAYTONA?:  “We never did get going to begin with and then a couple cars got through the center there and it pulled Mark (Martin) back a little further yet.  We just couldn’t get going.  The intention was there, we just couldn’t get in line to get going at the end.”

 

WHAT DOES IT SAY THAT TREVOR BAYNE WON THE DAYTONA 500?:  “They were fast the whole time they were there during Speedweeks.  The kid did everything right.  He did everything exactly how he should do it and we were the ones that didn’t do it the way we were supposed to do it.  That’s why he won the race is because he did a good job.”

 

DO YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT IN PRACTICE WITH THE NEW WAY TO DETERMINE QUALIFYING ORDER?:  “No, honestly we’re not.  We kind of talked about it two-thirds of the way through this practice in trying to get a game plan on what we’re doing for the day as weather could be iffy tomorrow.  I think with the way the time is today, we’ll do our mock qualifying run at the end of the day and try to put our big number up at the end when the conditions should be at its best — when we go out at the end of the session.  Hopefully we’ll be able to put up a good enough number so if we do have weather tomorrow we’ll be alright.”

 

WHAT IS IT ABOUT KEVIN HARVICK THAT HAS ALLOWED THE COMPANY TO STICK AROUND SO LONG?:  “I don’t think Kevin (Harvick) gets the credit he deserves for what they’ve built.  To build it from the ground up — there’s a lot of organizations that have partnered up together and grown and got stronger, but him and Delana have done this strictly from ground zero and built up to what it is.  In not just one division, but multiple divisions and the business side of it where they are probably building half the trucks now in the truck series.  They’re doing things right obviously, they’re not doing it and just surviving.  They’re really spear-heading a lot of the things that are going on in the Nationwide and the Truck Series right now.  I’m proud of them.  They’ve been great friends of mine for a long time and I couldn’t be more proud of what they’ve done off the track as car owners with their organization.”

Note: Team Chevy press releases, high-resolution images, and media kit can be downloaded from the Team Chevy media website: 

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.