Category: NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SUBWAY FRESH FIT 500 PHOENIX INTERNATIOINAL RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 25, 2011   JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed racing at Phoenix, being done with Daytona and moving on and more. Full transcript:  

BACK TO WORK NOW, PHOENIX OFF OF THE BIG TRACK AND HERE WE GO ON RACE NO. 2. “Yeah, it’s exciting to be here. It’s a really good start to the season. We had a lot of good breaks last week that led to a good finish. Here, it would be exciting and I think the new nose is intriguing to everybody. We’ve got a lot of new ideas how we are going to run the cars and things. We’ve been working on the car and I think if they work as it’s supposed to I think we’ll be looking pretty good.”  

ON THE 5 MILLION DOLLAR CHALLENGE TO RUN THE INDY CAR FINAL IN LAS VEGAS. “Let’s not even talk about if I would like to do it or not, it’s just impossible logistic wise. If you really were going to go to try to win the 5 million bucks, you would have to get all the practices down and do it right. And I think we are racing that weekend aren’t we. Initially I would say no. It’s intriguing and I think it’s intriguing for a lot of people. I think a lot of people are going ohhhh, but being realistic it’s impossible. Are you going to show up on Sunday and race without practice and hope for the best? Who the heck is going to win that?”  

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT YOUR PROGRAM HEADED INTO THIS RACE HERE AT PHOENIX THIS WEEKEND, AND NOW THAT WE’RE DONE WITH DAYTONA ARE YOU PRETTY CRANKED UP TO BE OUT OF THERE AND INTO THE SEASON NOW? “Yeah, I ran the 24 hours as well so I was in Daytona… yes see if you guys were there for a while I was there for a little bit longer. Yeah, it was about time to get out of there. It was fun. All the weeks were good. As I said before I think we were so well prepared for this. I think our new cars have been improved a lot over the off season. It should be a fun weekend. We normally run pretty good here. Last time here we struggled a little bit, but even with a pretty average car we run pretty decent.”  

YOU FORGET THE FACT THAT THE GUY WHO OWNS LAS VEGAS OWNS CHARLOTTE WHICH IS WHERE YOU ARE RUNNING THAT WEEKEND AND HE’S THE SAME GUY WHO PUT UP 20 MILLION DOLLARS IF YOU COULD RUN INDY… “What happened to that proposal?”  

IT’S PROBABLY STILL ON THE TABLE, I DON’T KNOW. “Has anybody taken it?”   I THINK BRUTON (SMITH) WOULD PROBABLY GET YOU A JET TO FLY BACK AND FORTH. I’M THINKING THAT THE GUY THAT RUNS BOTH TRACKS … “Okay, let’s try to even analyze it. I haven’t even gone that deep. It’s a three-hour difference and it’s about a four to five-hour flight. Is it feasible at all? So let’s say you practice Saturday morning in Vegas, you’ve got to be done practicing at what time because it’s going to be a five-hour flight to Charlotte plus a three-hour time difference, its eight hours. What time does the Charlotte race start?”  

HELICOPTER COMES IN…. “Yeah, but I’m trying to think. So it means I would have to start in the back of the field at Charlotte even if I made it to the race. Because if you think about eight hours, if the race is at 6:00 I need to be in the plane at 10:00 in the morning. Ain’t going to happen. It means I will have to leave the track at 9:00 or 9:15 if we go in a helicopter. It’s true. The proposal is pretty freaking cool. Who is going to say no to 5 million bucks that easy?”  

ARE THERE ANY OTHER NAMES THAT COME TO MIND THAT YOU THINK ARE WELL SUITED FOR THIS CHALLENGE? “Being realistic I think (Sam) Hornish would be a guy that could do it. He’s still involved with Penske and he runs Nationwide, so he would have Saturday and Sunday to be there. He would run Friday night. I don’t even know if he has a full schedule in Nationwide. Him or Robby Gordon would be the two names you would throw out there on the table that actually have time to do it and not the commitment here. I think Formula One are probably racing that weekend, I think they are in Korea or something, very close. Short flight as well (laughter).”

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J.J. Yeley, No. 46 AAMCO Transmissions / Ohsweken Speedway Chevrolet Impala Subway Fit Fresh 500 Fast Facts

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race No. 2Subway Fit Fresh 500, Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway, Avondale, Arizona   

Race Information: Event: Subway Fit Fresh 500,Sunday, February 27th at 1:00 p.m. Local.

Track: Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway

Qualifying: Friday, February 25th, at 1:40 p.m. Local Time

Track Length: 1.0-mile paved oval.

Last Time Out; Daytona International Speedway:J.J. Yeley overcame the odds and qualified for the “Great American Race” during last Thursday’s Gatorade Duels at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, guaranteeing Whitney Motorsports their first start in the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, the team’s hard-work was short lived as engine failure just 10 laps into the 208-lap event erased the North Carolina-based team from competition.

Welcome Home: Phoenix, Arizona is the home of former IROC competitor J.J. Yeley. Before moving out East to pursue a full-time career in Motorsports, Yeley grew up in the desert and is the initial location where his successful racing career was launched.

Phoenix Fast Facts: The 34-year old Yeley has six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at PIR. In those six starts, Yeley qualified a series track best of fourth in 2007 and also finished a respectable 14th in the same event. Seven starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Phoenix have included a best start of fourth in 2005 with a best finish of sixth in 2006. Yeley finished six of those seven starts inside the top-15 and has completed all but one of 1,417 laps available.   Not Just In A Stock Car: In addition to competing at Phoenix International Raceway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series, Yeley, the former USAC Silver Crown champion also made one start in the IZOD IndyCar Series in 1998 for Sinden Racing. PIR was the first of five races for Yeley in the open-wheel vehicles that year.

Phoenix (Ariz.) International RacewayPre-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.”

On His Thoughts About PIR Being Repaved and Reconfigured Following Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500: “It will change the way many of the competitors will think of PIR, it will be interesting to see how much different the track and the setups change when we go back in October.”   Fast Links:   Driver / Team:J.J. Yeley on the web: JJYeley.com   Twitter: @JJYeley1   Facebook: Official J.J. Yeley Facebook page “JJ Yeley Official”

After a week filled with media appearances, Trevor Bayne and the crew of the Wood Brothers No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion are headed to Phoenix International Raceway this week for the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

It’s the Woods first trip to a track less than a mile-and-a-half since the team went to a partial schedule in 2009. Bayne has just three appearances there overall, all coming in the Nationwide Series. His best Phoenix run to date was last year, when he qualified ninth and finished 14th in a Roush Fenway Racing Ford. The Woods best Phoenix finish came in 1995, when Morgan Shepherd finished seventh.

But for Bayne and the Woods, and for sports fans everywhere, the past week has been spent savoring the stunning victory in the Daytona 500.

“It’s the most important thing that has happened in my life as far as racing,” said team co-owner Eddie Wood. “We needed a win in any race, not just the Daytona 500. We’d been in the longest drought we’d ever had. This came at the perfect time.”

Wood said he was especially grateful that his parents Glen and Bernece Wood and his uncle Leonard Wood as well a Edsel Ford, who is like a family member to the Woods, were able to be with him and the rest of the team in Daytona to celebrate the victory.

“I got to go to Victory Lane with my family and my Ford family,” he said. “We were all together and happy, but we also had a good hug and cry together.”

For Bayne, who won the 500 on his first try and on the day after his 20th birthday, the hours and days after the checkered flag fell were filled with one interview after another.

He said he initially worried about saying the right thing, but he’s been just as cool behind the microphones as he was behind the wheel of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion in the Daytona draft.

“I was nervous in my interviews because I wanted to do it justice, just explain how big of a deal this was for the Wood Brothers and Donnie Wingo,” he said. “I was scared to take any credit, because I felt weird coming in winning our first one with all the other drivers that have been doing this for so long.

“Now after seeing their support, they helped me realize we did earn this thing. I’ve been working at it since I was five years old. This team, there’s nobody that deserves it more than Glen, Leonard, Eddie, Len Wood, and [crew chief] Donnie Wingo, his 31st Daytona 500. Now it’s starting to set in a little bit.

“We’re so excited about it. I don’t know how to thank them enough for the opportunity to drive that race car, be in that position to win. I mean, it’s taken its time to sink in.”

Bayne was asked on this week’s NASCAR teleconference if he’d gotten any pre-race advice that stuck in his head as he was competing in the Daytona 500.

Fittingly, the best tips came from David Pearson, the legendary driver who took the Woods to Victory Lane in the 1976 Daytona 500, a race many regard as having the best finish in the history of NASCAR.

“It was small, simple advice that a lot of people would tell me,” Bayne said. “Just with him it stuck. He was just saying, kind of jokingly, they asked him on ESPN if he had any advice. He said, ‘Be careful. Do the 21 car some justice.’ That stuck out.”

He said that as a young up-and-coming driver, the tendency is to not be patient and careful.

“You want to be the guy that leads every lap, you want to make a statement, you want to do everything right,” he said. “You put a lot of pressure on yourself.”

But after hearing Pearson’s advice, he adopted a strategy the old Silver Fox would have used himself.

“When he said that, I went into the race in kind of survival mode for the first 150 laps thinking, I have to get to the end of this, avoid any crashes, push, not be pushed, just be smart the whole time,” he said. “That was crucial because that kept me calm, that kept me patient when we would drop to the back on some of the restarts to push back up to the field. Then at the end, just to make smart moves.

“Hopefully we did the 21 car some justice like he asked us to do. I think seeing it back in Victory Lane might have done it for him.”

Qualifying for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 is set for Saturday at 3:40 p.m. Eastern Time and the green flag for the 500 is scheduled to fly just after 3 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on FOX.