Category: NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING

DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS

February 13, 2011

Team Chevy Drivers Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Gordon Capture the Front Row for the 53rd Running of the Daytona 500

For the Third Time in History, Hendrick Motorsports Scored the Top-Two Starting Positions for the Great American Race

Daytona, Fla. (February 13, 2011) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, won the pole for the 53rd running of the Daytona 500 with a lap of 48.364 seconds/186.089 m.p.h. It is his first pole in 23 races at Daytona International Speedway and his first-ever for a restrictor plate race.

He has started on the front row of the Daytona 500 twice previously, 2003 and 2010; and this is the 10th pole of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) career.

His Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) teammate Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet will start on the outside of the front row. It is his third front row start in the Great American Race. The four-time NSCS champion started on the pole in 1999 and on the outside pole in 2006.

The qualifying efforts by Earnhardt, Jr. and Gordon lock-in their starting positions for next Sunday’s Daytona 500. They will each start of the pole of one of Thursday’s Gatorade Duel at Daytona Qualifying races.

Although their qualifying efforts didn’t set their starting positions for the 500 and they will have to race to get the best possible position in their respective Duel race, six additional Team Chevy drivers scored top-10 qualifying efforts today. Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/Peak Chevrolet, put up the fourth (4th) fastest time. His Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet (RCR), was fifth (5th) in the final order followed by RCR’s Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, in sixth (6th).

Stewart-Haas Racing’s (SHR) Ryan Newman, No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, qualified seventh (7th) with Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet out of the HMS stable was eighth (8th) fastest.

SHR’s Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, was 10th in the final qualifying order.

Other Team Chevy drivers posted qualifying times as follows: Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet from Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing (EGR) – 12th; RCR’s Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet – 14th; Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT HMS Chevrolet – 15th; Bill Elliott, No. 09 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet – 17th; Dave Blaney, No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet – 26th; Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats EGR Chevrolet – 27th; Regan Smith, No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet — 28th.; J.J. Yeley, No. 46 Redline Oil Chevrolet – 45th and No. 71 Adobe Road Winery Chevrolet – 46th.

Next on the Daytona SpeedWeeks schedule is the Gatorade Duel at Daytona Qualifying Races on Thursday, February 17 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. and CREW CHIEF, STEVE LETARTE, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

KERRY THARP: We have our Coors Light pole winner for the 53rd running of the Daytona 500, and it’s Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He has with him his crew chief Steve Letarte.

This is his 10th pole in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, this is his first pole in 23 tries at Daytona. Obviously his first pole for the Daytona 500. It will be the third time you’ve been on the front row.

Dale, got to feel good about starting on the pole for Daytona next Sunday.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I feel great. I mean, it’s hard for me to sit up here and do all the talking because I didn’t do anything today other than hold the wheel. The engine does a large majority of the work, and the body on the car has to be perfectly situated to get the most speed out of the car. Steve here has to plan the car out, get the attitude of the car just right for the maximum speed.

Those three things right there are the biggest players. I’m only maybe, you know, 5/10ths of a percent of what happened today. So all the credit really goes to all those guys that built the car and built the engine, put the car together in the 8/48 shop.

Steve brought the car down here. In practice, we struggled. We weren’t first. That’s what I would call struggling. We were about a 9th, 12th place car, something like that. Steve found a little more speed out of it in the last several hours, and that was good. Real happy.

I think we got a pretty good draw as far as when we went out. I wouldn’t know for sure, but I’m assuming the wind was a little bit in our favor for a couple thousandths here and there. Overall, it was just a perfect situation for us when we went out there to go. The car felt good. The lap was really, really clean. Felt good about my line. Looking at everything, looked pretty good, so pretty happy.

KERRY THARP: Steve Letarte, congratulations being on the pole for Daytona. Your thoughts about that?

STEVE LETARTE: Well, I think Dale said it best. It’s a lot of work that started way back in December. This is the car we had at the tire test in December. It’s not the car we had in January. This car has been in the wind tunnel a bunch, proving grounds a lot. A tremendous amount of effort gone into this car. With the new pavement, new surface, I think qualifying is much more relevant to the race. I don’t think you’re going to change near as much in your car to the race as you would have in years past.

So we’re happy. We’re happy the car had speed. It’s a test of speed. Racing is a test speed. Today we had the most speed.

KERRY THARP: We’ll take questions for Steve and Dale.

Q. Dale, you’re obviously locked into this spot for next week. You have a really good car. How does that make you approach Thursday? Do you want to watch your step or not?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: No, I won’t be more cautious. One thing worries me a little bit. We tore up a really good car in the Shootout that was going to be a good backup. I’m wearing Stevie out about it because that’s all I’ve been talking about since it happened. I’m not sure about really how good the backup car we have now is. Steve is going to go home today and start trying to repair the car we tore up last night and see if we can’t have it ready in case it’s needed.

I will be a little bit worried. I don’t want to do anything foolish and hurt the car that I have right now because it’s obviously an awesome racecar.

I think personally when you do lock in a front row starting spot for the 500, it takes a lot of pressure off. You get to go out there and try to win that race with just as much urgency to win it, but kind of in your own way. You don’t feel really handcuffed into getting a good starting spot for the 500. You try to win that race, but you’re also thinking at the same time, I don’t want to do anything stupid on the last two laps that’s going to cost me five rows for the Daytona 500.

I don’t have to worry about that. I can go out there and make that move at the last lap that I think might win the race even if it don’t. I can do the things I want to do and won’t feel handcuffed at all.

Q. Steve, have you had any kind of conversations with NASCAR about any changes they’re considering making this week? Does it concern you at all that it could be Wednesday before you really get to implement anything they might tell you about between now and then?

STEVE LETARTE: I guess to the first part of your question, I’ve had a lot of casual conversations. I applaud NASCAR that the trailer is an open door policy. I talked to John and Robin Pemberton, nothing very formal, just opinions. I think they polled the garage. We’re the guys that are going to have to race it. They don’t rule with an iron fist. I think they have their arms pretty open to ideas. They know we are all in the sport together. It’s our job to put on a good show for the fans, a good, competitive race.

I do believe changes are coming. As a series, we’re going to have to make some changes. What they are, I don’t know exactly yet. I’m sure there will be a bulletin out at some point.

I think Wednesday is the best time. It’s the perfect opportunity. We all get to go home. I get to go to the shop Monday and Tuesday. We get to run stuff on the dyno, if it’s an engine change. If it’s a car change, we can work parts and pieces in the shop.

The way Speedweeks is broken up, the most important day of the week, make sure everyone knows this, is the Daytona 500. It’s the 150s have to be a way to verify some of the changes, that’s what well do. We want to make sure next Sunday way put on a on a great show for a lot of fans that have traveled a long way to come see us.

Q. Dale, although this type of racing will be the most unique of the season, doesn’t really translate for the rest of the year. How important is it to get a good start to the season in the Daytona 500, even though it’s going to be a completely different style you’ll have from here on out?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Right. It’s a really good thing when you can come out of here, like last year we came out of here with a second place finish. It does run you right into Phoenix with a good, confident feeling that you got a good start, you want to maintain, improve. So that’s kind of your attitude. Whereas if you do have a bad finish in this race, you’re behind the eight ball, feeling more pressure, got to make big gains. A little bit different feeling when you come out of here with a bad finish, for sure.

We want to work hard the rest of the week and learn what we can learn about what the car needs to be doing, what I need to be doing, try to get ourselves the best opportunity to win the race on Sunday.

It’s a long, long race. There’s a lot of variables and a ton of work to be done. But we feel real confident about our opportunity.

Q. How do you look at testing now since they made changes to the front grill by making the hole 20 by 2 and a half inches, changing the pressure release valve, how does that affect testing when you come back?

STEVE LETARTE: I think the first thing we’ll do is we’ll take all that information and feed it into our dynos. We have engines at home. We’ll test our water systems and find out exactly what kind of criteria that will affect the car. We’ll come down and decide.

We’re going to tiptoe into it. I think we have a lot of practice left. I think the opportunity to run, you can learn a lot with just a teammate, especially when it comes to cooling, the two car push. So I think we have very experienced driver in the 48/8 building. We worked together a lot in January. We knew our references there. We worked together very good the other night pre Bud Shootout. We knew what that reference was there. So when we get the rules, we’ll apply them the best we can and come up with a very diligent plan for Wednesday, definitely not go into it blindfolded. We will go into it with a specific plan.

Handling I don’t think is an issue at all. That alleviates a lot of pressure of what you have to do in that hour of practice. In our mind, I have all the confidence in this car, any of the cars we have, that we’ll be to the level that I think can win the Daytona 500.

So we need to work on those details, how the rules will affect them. I don’t know. But we’ll definitely have a plan come Wednesday.

Q. Junior, Jeff was joking, Are we building towards a Hollywood ending on Sunday. You draw the Bud pole, the lights go out, you win the pole for the 500 now. Is that something you would embrace as people start to talk about, or don’t you want to think about that?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I wouldn’t embrace that. I’m here to race. I understand the situation. I’m looking forward to seeing how my father’s remembered and honored throughout the week. I’ll enjoy that. I don’t really get into the hypothetical, fairytale sort of stuff.

I just want to focus on my job, what I need to do every single corner, every single lap, what’s best for me at this moment, what gets me closer to Victory Lane on Sunday. That’s all I’m going to concern myself with.

Q. It seems clear that NASCAR does not like the two car draft, either here or Talladega. I assume they’re looking at big picture. Jeff Gordon says it’s out of the barn, you guys have figured out how to do it. Is the two car draft here to stay or can NASCAR do something?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Everybody has opinions about it. I have an opinion about it. It’s not here to stay. If we get an opportunity sometime in the future to come down here with some teams and test, they’ve done in the past. I recall when I was in the Nationwide Series, they had an open test down here with Bill Elliott, my father, a couple other people. They were testing all sorts of weird things on these cars. That’s kind of maybe something we need to look at doing in the future to see, to get the package a little better, or get it the way they want it.

But everybody has an opinion and I can sit up here and tell you everything that needs to be done, but it doesn’t really matter. NASCAR is going to make the changes they feel are necessary. The racing will be good regardless.

I particularly like 40 cars trying to race each other and me being in control of my destiny. I don’t really want to have to make this commitment with another driver to run together for 25 laps and push him in the lead, swap back and forth. I don’t want to do that. I want to race my car, pass everybody, take the lead myself, worry about my own self. It’s difficult enough doing it for yourself without working with another guy, having to look out for him, too. It’s a different style of racing, but as you saw it was still a good race. I thought the finish was really good.

The race was really interesting. It’s something new. We’ll have a good race regardless of what the package is. And the changes that NASCAR decides to make may change the racing just a little bit. But they’re smart enough to know we’re so far into the game right now for this particular event, there won’t be a big swing at it. But it’s probably something we need to look at doing down the road. I’m sure they will. They’ll probably get us all together here or Talladega, try all kinds of crazy ideas and see what works. And something will. There’s definitely a package out there that will give us exactly what we’re looking for.

Q. Dale, I just wanted to ask you about your partnership with Steve. How much were you energized by it when they initially announced that this was going to be the case? Steve, could you speak to that, too? Also, where did the Shootout car rank in your roster of cars? Was it the bullet or the car you were going to use as the backup in the 500?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I’ve known Steve for a while. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him better working at HMS over the last couple years, have a lot of respect for him as a crew chief. I’ve seen him make some awesome calls and do a lot of great things.

I really didn’t know him well as I do now today. But everything I’ve learned I’ve enjoyed. I really enjoy the way the team approaches their jobs and what their goals are. I sort of like the way they go about business, how they conduct themselves. I’m enjoying everything I’m seeing. It’s going really well.

STEVE LETARTE: I guess, the first, Dale and I, I think our relationship’s great. I think, like he said, personally, I don’t think we had a huge relationship before, so it’s definitely expanding as we get to spend some time together.

Professionally I think it’s great because we come into it with a huge amount of mutual respect. I think that’s where it all starts. He has a lot of confidence in my ability to crew chief. While I’m short on success compared to other crew chiefs in the garage, I have been able to win a few races with Jeff, I feel confident in my ability on top of the pit box. I have all the confidence in the world in his driving ability. I feel there are tracks that I lack confidence we need to go to that he can pick me up, and there are tracks that he thinks he maybe needs to run better and maybe I can help him out.

Change can be for the better if it’s done the right way. I feel Mr. Hendrick has gone about it the right way and I think it’s going to be marked for an improved season.

As far as the Shootout, it is up there. I don’t think it was as good as the car in qualifying today. I have another car that I feel is just as good as the Shootout car. I have a lot of confidence in the Shootout car we raced before.

I can assure you one thing: we will not come down to Daytona without enough bullets in the chamber. We’ll have enough to run all the way through Sunday.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Just in case (laughter).

STEVE LETARTE: Just in case. We are not going to ride either. If you’re not going to ride, it means you’re going to have to have cars to race.

Q. Dale, you said last night that it was crazy, but it was fun. Now today I think you’re saying you don’t like the two car drafts.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: In the same conversation last night, I did say I prefer the other style better. But, I mean, it was fun last night. I prefer having more choices in my own destiny, I guess. Nothing against what happened last night. I thought it was an exciting race to be in, exciting ending to watch. Completely different than what we’re used to.

This is what we’re going to have these next several days. I don’t think we’re going to see much change, not a whole lot. You’ll see little things. You guys will pick right up on it. For the most part, that style of racing is going to be what determines who wins this race.

We’ll try to learn as much about it as we can. Even though it might not be what I prefer entirely, we’ll work all week trying to figure out what we need to know to make the right moves.

Q. Dale, Denny Hamlin was saying earlier today that he thinks that the guys like yourself and Tony Stewart that have become really good at the drafting before the track was repaved, this leveled the playing field. Do you agree with that? Also, what do you think your dad would say about that two tandem racing?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I think Denny is right. You’re really making this commitment with another driver. You and him are working together. You and him determine what happens, how good you run. So, you know, that’s definitely changed the dynamics of who you might see up front, who might end up battling for the win. Might be some surprises.

But at the same time, you know, if you watched that race last night, Kurt is one of the better restrictor plate racers. Obviously he did win the race. We’re not going to debate that. But what he did, when I was watching near the end of that race, he was patient, wanted to stay behind, didn’t really try to make a move till the end. Making those style of decisions, knowing that that’s the right thing to do, that’s what sets guys like Kurt apart from the rest of the field.

So, yeah, it might be a little more level, but still you’re going to have to make the right decisions like Kurt chose to do. He probably said, It’s probably best to be behind these guys, when they split up to go around each other, we’ll have the best run and the best opportunity to win the race. It looks like that was a good choice.

So not everybody is going to know exactly what’s right to do. The guys that are smart, like Kurt and Denny, if you want to throw me in there, Tony, those guys are going to make the right choices at the right times. Those are the guys more than likely will rise to the top more times than not.

Q. What would your dad think about that?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don’t want to speculate. I’ll let you guess and you’ll probably be right (smiling).

Q. Steve, I know you said you really didn’t know much about Dale before your new partnership. What maybe had you heard about or thought about that isn’t how it actually is? What have you asked him to change and do differently?

STEVE LETARTE: First of all, I’ve made a lot of bad decisions in my life to learn that I judge everybody off firsthand information. I don’t judge anybody off second or thirdhand information. Anybody I meet, it’s pretty much a blank sheet until I have dealings with them and I see how they treat me, how they respond to what I ask them to do. I don’t know what I was expecting of Dale. I think it’s worked out fine.

As far as what have I asked him to change, kind of goes the same way. I don’t know what his other routine was. I didn’t really care what his other routine was. I know how I like to see things done on the team side and the car side, what I’m responsible for. He has requests on the driver’s side that he’s responsible for. I think we’ve kind of laid those out. I know what is of value and what is important to him so I can make his job as not easy but as bearable at times as it needs to be, and he does the same for me.

I’m sure that’s changed for him. It’s changed for me. What he requests out of a racecar is going to be different than Jeff Gordon. He’s not Jeff Gordon. I’m sure I’m different than Lance or Tony Jr. I’m not then. I don’t try to be Ray. I don’t try to be Robbie Loomis. I’ve worked for some very talented crew chiefs. I’ve tried to pull a little bit from each one. I try to run the ship my own way.

While there are times you question that and you want to copy someone who looks to be successful, you have to remember and remind yourself that if you’re copying someone else’s actions, you’ll never be as good as them. You have to continue to do it the way you would do it. That’s how we run our race team. I’ve asked Dale to take part in how we do our business. Man, he’s jumped in with both feet. I think it’s been a great relationship.

I’m just excited to get it out there and test it. It’s one thing to run the racetrack in January, it’s another thing to run a fun Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night. I am ready to race at Daytona and go to Phoenix, go to the intermediate tracks, go to the road courses. It’s a long season and I’m ready for the week in, week out grind.

Q. Dale, with this package being what it is, do you think drivers are going to find some more room to run out there on the racetrack when you get to the 500 as opposed to the old package when you’d see three wide, six and seven rows deep, not a lot of room to be able to work your way to the front?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don’t really know, man. I mean, it’s tough to say. The racetrack is only as wide as it is. We’ll try to fill it full of racecars, no matter what the situation is.

We’ll be three wide as often as we possible can. If there’s a good run, there’s a hole big enough for the car to go in, we’ll put it in there.

Q. Dale, describe how bad the visibility is when you’re the trailing car in the two car hook up. How much more faith are you having to put in your spotter at Daytona?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: When I’m behind somebody, I can’t see anything. I rely entirely on my spotter at that point. When I’m pushing another car and we’re catching another group of cars, he has to tell me when we’ve caught them or how far ahead of the guy I’m pushing they are. I don’t want to drive the guy I’m pushing into the back of them. I need to know when he catches them he might move over so I don’t spin him out so I can move as well. ‘Cause you can’t see at all.

I can see the wall on my right and the infield on my left and then a spoiler, that’s about it, spoiler out the front. I mean, if he’s up against the wall, I can’t see down the left side of his car or around his car on the inside, none of that. It’s just a big old spoiler, then what’s out the right and left side. You can’t see over it or anything. Spoiler, the sky, everything over here (laughter).

KERRY THARP: Thank you, Dale and Steve. Congratulations and good luck next Sunday.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE FOR HUNGER CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 2ND

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

KERRY THARP: Let’s roll into post qualifying for the 53rd running of the Daytona 500. The driver who is going to be on the outside pole for next Sunday’s event is Jeff Gordon.

Jeff, congratulations. This is your third front row start in the Daytona 500. You won the pole in ’99, second in 2006. Your thoughts about being up front when we start a week from today?

JEFF GORDON: It’s always a great feeling to lock yourself in. This is the biggest race that we have. It’s I think more of a sign of the effort that was put out by the team, so I’m really proud of Alan and his group. Obviously they have a special knack for Daytona and Daytona qualifying. They just built a great racecar.

I got the pleasure of driving that racecar today, being on the front row. Thought we had a shot at the pole, but it’s great to get Hendrick Motorsports 1 2. Happy for Steve and Junior, too.

This is a great way to kick things off for our new sponsor, Drive to End Hunger. That will bring a lot more awareness to that cause. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way things have gone this week so far.

KERRY THARP: We’ll take questions for Jeff.

Q. Jeff, from what we saw last night with the two car drafts, starting up front is always important in any race, but will it be even more important to start up front next Sunday?

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, you know, maybe I’m in a little bit of denial, but I keep thinking there’s no way we could do that for the whole race. I didn’t think we could do it for the whole race last night. We proved we could. I’m like, How can we do it for 500 miles?

These teams, how they have figured out the airflow through the radiators, they’ve proven a lot of people wrong. I think anything’s possible. I think now that we’ve learned what we’ve learned about the two car draft, there’s no way you’re going to take that away. You’re going to always have that impression that you’re capable of doing that. So I think you’re going to continue to see it happening.

Now, you know, that’s unless NASCAR does something before Thursday or before next Sunday. I’m anxious to see where we stand, because the speeds were pretty high last night. We saw some guys get spun out. You’re kind of anxious to see if they’re going to step in and do anything.

I thought the race was exciting. It was very interesting from a driver’s standpoint. I mean, it was intense, more intense than I wanted it to be at times. But it was like a chess match at the same time. There was a lot of strategy, trying to find out who to hook up with, when to ride the brakes, when not to ride the brakes. It was very interesting.

I liked it in a way. The 29 was having trouble, hitting the rev limiter, he kept separating. We couldn’t catch them guys, because every time we’d catch them, he would hit the rev limiter, he’d back up. Other than that, I think we had a car capable of going up there and competing for the win.

We certainly learned a lot, definitely learned a lot. Once you learn something like that, can’t ever take it away, so we’ll see what happens.

Q. Obviously you’re starting over with Alan right now. What does winning the pole do for the morale of the team? Does it do anything?

JEFF GORDON: Sure. It certainly builds my confidence in their racecar building ability. I guess it would have been a disappointment compared to what they’ve done the last couple years if we weren’t competing for that front row again this year, especially the way testing went.

I did get a little nervous yesterday. We got knocked down to sixth or seventh on the board yesterday. Mark really put up a big number. If everybody picks up, are we going to be able to pick up enough?

So today only regain that confidence because they were able to really pick up for qualifying. All those details that they put in there for qualifying paid off.

The chemistry among the team and just seeing their attitude and everything, it’s been awesome. It’s been that way since Rick made that announcement, through the tests, whether it be the Daytona test or the short track test that we did. It’s all been very positive. This is just another thing that’s added to that, that chemistry and momentum, which is great.

Q. 9500 rpm, that’s an awful lot.

JEFF GORDON: I wish I could run 9500 rpm. I’d like to find out who is running that.

Q. What do your engine guys say about NASCAR lowering the pressure on the radiators, heating the car up, running this much rpm in the draft?

JEFF GORDON: I mean, you know, when you’re thinking about it from a team standpoint, I always try to be subjective on what NASCAR is thinking about, what is safe, what is a good show, keeping the competitors involved. I don’t know what that answer is or if it’s anything.

But, yeah, I’ve heard some rumbles about some of those things. We used to run like maybe two laps at Talladega, lap and a half at Talladega, was about as long as you could run. These teams went to work over the off season. Look now, we’re running 30, 40 laps in a row. We figured out how to do it without even having to swap over.

So I think cutting that restriction down would certainly stop us from being able to push as long, but it’s not going to stop us from pushing. It doesn’t matter if you can push a guy for a half a lap, if it makes you go faster, it makes you go faster, you’re going to do it.

That just means you’re going to have to figure out how to get some air to cool the car down, poke our nose out, back off a little bit. So as long as those bumpers line up and the airflow over the cars is the way it is, I don’t think you’re going to stop it.

One of the things you got to realize is when we went to this new car, we have the same amount of downforce here when we go to Phoenix. The old car we had very little downforce here because we’d slick the cars up, then put all the downforce back in them at the next track. The cars were driving so good, that’s why we were able to push it at 206 miles an hour around the track.

I’m not saying they need to take that away, I’m just saying that’s why we’re doing it the way we’re doing it. It’s kind of how things have evolved.

Now it makes you think, Man, what if I could have done something like this in 1995, just think of what we could have done.

But we’ll see. Whatever the rules are, whatever the conditions, I know we got a fast racecar, a great race team, I look forward to the Daytona 500 no matter what.

I think, you know, to me last night was an exciting race. Was it different? Was it unique? Yeah, it was. But I still thought it was very exciting.

Q. A lot has been made about this being the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s death. With Dale Jr. starting on the pole, you trying to turn him around, any significance at all to all that?

JEFF GORDON: I mean, you know, things are certainly lining up in an interesting way. I mean, pulled the pole for the Bud Shootout, wins the pole for the Daytona 500, the lights went out the other night. Some strange activity happening around Daytona right now (laughter).

You know, I think that just kind of is going to build to the hype and excitement for next Sunday’s race. I love to bring back a lot of these memories about Dale, what he brought to the sport, his legacy. It reminds me of a lot of things I learned from him, the good times that we had. So I think it’s very cool to bring attention to that and to celebrate it more than anything else.

Q. Jeff, to go back about the performance of the car with all these new variables. What in your mind does the track play in terms of the performance of the car, the repaved surface? Is that a huge variable or are we making too much of that?

JEFF GORDON: That’s a huge variable. The old surface we would have never done this because the old surface was abrasive. The cars had to handle. There was a lot bigger bumps, the cars moved around a lot more. Basically this is just a little bit smaller Talladega now.

We came here and tested in December. Junior and I talked about this a number of times, other guys as well, is we tried to push then and couldn’t seem to do it. Seemed like the cars were getting sideways, getting in the corner. We had a little bit bigger restrictor plate then. We can’t figure out, was it that we had more power and weren’t able to do it or was the track just not rubbered in and had the grip that it has now.

But something changed by that January test because everybody was doing it in January. Now here we are doing it every single time we’re on the track. It’s funny, because you keep thinking, All right, we’re going to get a big group of cars out there, that two car thing isn’t going to work. Every time we get out on the track, two cars take off and all the others have to team up too and try to track them down. Kenseth went down a lap in like 17, 18 last night. That’s unbelievable.

The game has changed, that’s all I can say. You can’t take knowledge and throw it away. Once you have it, you have it, you maintain it, you apply it. No matter what changes from now, if anything, to Sunday we’re still going to have that knowledge. We’ll try to use it to our advantage.

Q. When you’re talking about when you were out in the race last night, studying what went on, there’s always unexpected developments at plate tracks when something changes. We all knew people were going to get in pairs of two. But the difficulty in racing in anything other than a pair of two, the fact that a car would lose the draft, Kyle Busch several times, and seem unable to latch on. If there were two people who would move over and lose ground, still continue to lose ground. If you could find one car, he would pick up speed again. Was that surprising or something you already noticed?

JEFF GORDON: Not so sure I’m with you. All I can do is tell you what I dealt with last night.

I mean, you know, it’s all about getting locked on. You’ve got to get on their bumper and you’ve got to be locked in there. When you’re the lead car, you’re just feeling constantly pushing or a little tap. If you don’t feel that push or that tap, you look up in your mirror, they’re fading back. You drop five miles an hour instantly.

Q. If you moved over, you’d get clobbered, right?

JEFF GORDON: If they’re coming at you? If somebody is coming at a high rate of speed, you’re going to cause a heck of a wreck. The closing rate is so much greater now. That’s the big thing. When you’re with two, you have to remember, we’ve always thought of drafting as four cars are better than two cars, eight cars are better than four. That’s because they weren’t in this bumper to bumper thing.

Three cars, if you could get all three of them locked in together, they would go faster than two. But can’t seem to do it. It makes that center car a sandwich and he starts getting out of control.

Q. When you’re in free fall, you can’t move up in front or in back.

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I mean, trust me, you got to have a partner. Whether it’s a teammate or whether it’s just somebody, you don’t want to be odd man out. That’s what happened to Kenseth. It happened to me early in the race. I faded all the way to the back. Luckily I got picked up by Regan Smith and, boom, we worked our way right back up through there.

You know, like I said, the thing I like that’s exciting is it’s unique, it makes you think, it makes you work. I mean, there’s a tremendous amount of challenge that comes along. Also from the team.

You talk about the cooling. You talk about the rev limiters, all those things. Now I got to figure out who has 9500. Shoot, we can’t run 9500. We got some work to do (smiling).

But, you know, the thing is, there are going to be some guys that are going to try to do it for 500 miles. I think there’s going to be some guys that fail from an engine standpoint. We’ve known since January coming down here that we can’t do that for 500 miles. That’s if we run high temperatures.

What we’re doing in testing is we push till we got to like 260, 270 on the water temp, then we would swap and let it cool down, then we’d swap. We did that. We didn’t think we could do it for 500 miles based on what we saw on the engine.

There are going to be guys that take the risk and try it. We’re here to do whatever it takes to win the race. So we’ll see kind of what happens over the next few days. We are going to take it day to day and make our plan from there.

Q. This is the first time you’re running on E 15. Does that mean anything to you as drivers or as individuals?

JEFF GORDON: Go ahead, Junior.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Wow (laughter). He’s the politician.

Well, you know, I think the switch was seamless, I can say that. I didn’t even notice a switch myself. But, yeah, I think it helps a lot of people. Personally, I don’t really know a whole lot about it.

What was the announcement the other day, the National Corn Growers Association or something that became a sponsor of NASCAR? What was that? You guys not up on your media (laughter)?

JEFF GORDON: Why are they asking us the questions (laughter).

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I’m thinking there’s the trickle-down effect. Figured you guys would be up on the latest news (smiling).

Anyways, I think it’s opened a lot of doors for different partners to be involved in NASCAR. I think, you know, over the long haul, as far as the United States goes, the more of that stuff we’re making, the better it is for the people out west growing the corn.

JEFF GORDON: The only thing I’m going to add to what Junior said, I mean, I think it’s important for our sport to be relevant and current.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: That’s not why we did it, man. It’s for the guys, the farmers out there.

JEFF GORDON: DuPont, one of my sponsors, Pioneer Seeds is a big part of their business. So the corn growers mean a lot to them. I totally agree with what Junior said about what it does for their economy, for all those folks in the Midwest.

I think what it does for our environment, you know, I think it’s important for NASCAR to be setting trends instead of following them and I think it’s a great step they took. I certainly didn’t feel any difference in the racecar either, so that’s very cool.

KERRY THARP: Jeff, thank you so much. We’ll let you go.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 13, 2011) – Greg Biffle led the way for Roush Fenway in Sunday’s Pole Day at Daytona International Speedway, turning a lap of 48.67 (184.911 mph) to qualify ninth in the session.

The session will determine the team’s starting points in Thursday’s Gatorade Duels.

“It was pretty good,” said Biffle. “I thought it would be a little faster to be honest, but it didn’t seem like it accelerated down the back and I could feel the wind. Still it was pretty fast and the fastest overall for the Roush Fenway group, so a pretty solid top 10 run here today. We’re right among the Childress and Hendrick cars, so I think that’s pretty respectable.”

David Ragan was 16th (184.612 mph), Carl Edwards was 18th (184.475 mph) and Matt Kenseth rounded out the group in 22nd (184.102).

The Sprint Cup Series returns to action on Wednesday morning for the first to two Gatorade Duel practice sessions.

21st, JOE NEMECHEK 23rd, DAVID REUTIMANN 25th, MICHAEL WALTRIP 29th, KASEY KAHNE 30th, KYLE BUSCH 31st, BOBBY LABONTE 32nd, BRIAN VICKERS 33rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 34th, JOEY LOGANO 35th,TODD BODINE 36th, KEVIN CONWAY 37th,CASEY MEARS 39th, STEVE WALLACE 40th, MICHAEL MCDOWELL 44th, DENNY HAMLIN 47th, DERRIKE COPE

NOTE – Above time trial results will determine the starting positions for the two qualifying races that will set the starting positions for the Daytona 500 that will take place on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011.

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM FM Energy Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Qualified: 21st How do you feel about your qualifying lap? “I’ve got to thank all of my guys on this team. Philippe Lopez, my crew chief, did an awesome job. We got a new sponsor onboard with AM FM Energy.com. You should check it out. We’ve got all kinds of great products on there. It’s just great to be back here at Daytona. We struggled yesterday and didn’t really know what was wrong with our car, and we made a lot of adjustments last night and this morning. I never thought it would run that fast. You’ve got to get what you can get during qualifying. The guys tuned the motor up — Triad, thank you very much. It was a good lap.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Qualified: 23rd How do you feel about your qualifying lap? “It was a really good pick up from where we were in practice to where we are. Obviously not a contender for the pole, but proud of my guys. They did a good job and they gained us a lot of speed there with some of the stuff they did. It is what it is and we’ll have to see where we end up.”

Do you have to race any differently now after watching that race? “Nobody has told me this for sure, but I’m quite sure NASCAR will do something before we come back. Who knows what it will be, but I’m sure it will be something that will probably change the complexion of what we’ve got. That race is probably a once in a lifetime shot the way things went down. We’ll have to see what NASCAR changes, if anything, but I would speculate that there are going to be some changes so we’ll have to see how it plays out.”

Will changes from NASCAR be a big adjustment for you and your team next week? “I think in the end we just have to wait and see what those adjustments are and when the changes are. There’s some talk of making grill openings different. Then again, these are just things that are floating around the garage area that may or may not happen. Realistically, grill openings and making the grill openings smaller as far as the air intake so you can’t push cars as long without getting hot — everybody’s motors operate at different temperatures. Some guys can get away with more temperature than others. I don’t know if that is really a fair way to do it. It’s just all stuff you hear about doing. In the end, it’s up to NASCAR and if they change something, if anything and we’ll just try and have to adjust to it. Depending on how severe the change is going to be, you just don’t know what it is. It’s like most things in racing, you just react to what happens and try to make the best of it.”

MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Qualified: 25th How was your qualifying lap? “I wrote on Twitter this morning that @MW55 would run a 48.919 and I would be happy and I ran a .92. A .922 is a major accomplishment for these boys. We raced our [butts] off last night because I wanted to give my boys something to be proud of and we got crashed. Today they gave our whole company something to be proud of — bringing this car that we’re only going to run a handful of times and making it the second fastest Toyota so far. That’s a major accomplishment.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Qualified: 29th How was your qualifying lap? “It was good. We picked up from yesterday close to three-tenths so that was good for our team and the guys did a nice job. The car drives great and I’m really looking forward to it. I think this feels like a little bit better car than my Shootout car. I feel like the 150s will be good for us and I’m really excited about the (Daytona) 500.”

What did you learn from the race last night? “I learned a little bit for those first eight laps and then I watched the rest and paid attention to what guys were doing. I had been out there a little so I knew basically what it was like and what they were doing too. It was good. It wasn’t a bad thing to watch and get a few laps as well. I wish we could’ve stayed out there longer because we actually had a really fast car. I think we had a good shot at running upfront and being part of that finish.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Qualified: 30th How can you communicate with the driver behind you in the draft at Daytona? “I don’t know — we’ll have to get brake lights or flashers or throw up a road flair or something. It was just a product of what we had last night. It will be the same thing probably in the Duels and of course for the (Daytona) 500. All in all, today’s qualifying day. We knew we didn’t have a shot at the pole with our M&M’s Camry. But we are looking to be top of the class today for the Toyota guys. Unfortunately, we all just don’t seem to have the speed we’re looking for down here, but our stuff races really good. It’s really fast in the pack and obviously we saw that last night with Michael Waltrip and I teaming up and hitting 206 (mph). We feel good about the race and what happens here later on this week. With what happened last night, we just have to all talk about it and figure out how to make a better way of communicating with each other somehow.”

Is it really that simple to drive around Daytona by yourself in qualifying? “Of course it is. Anybody can do it — come on down and give it a shot. It’s a little bit more challenging. There’s still some stuff out there that we’re doing. We have to hit our shifts right, we have to make sure we do our fan switches and everything if you have that to do. It’s all just a timing thing. Overall, our M&M’s Camry we knew wouldn’t be a shot for the pole, but we felt pretty good about how it would be in race trim. We noticed how fast it’s been in the pack and with Joey (Logano) and I getting teamed up together hitting 203 (mph) and then yesterday Michael (Waltrip) and I getting teamed up together and hitting 206 (mph). It’s been pretty good. Our cars have been really, really fast we just need to find out how to get a dancing partner that we can live the whole day with.”

What did you learn for Thursday’s Duels? “The biggest thing we learned is we better stay in line and we better stay lined up at least. You can’t get off center of each other or you might spin somebody out. That is basically the product of what happened to us. It’s just unfortunate the way that the racing is right now with what we’ve got. I would like to see it a little bit differently. You try to learn and you try to pick up on the deals that will help you and will help you get to the front.”

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kroger / USO Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Qualified: 31st What was the biggest lesson you learned in the Shootout last night? “We didn’t participate in the January test because we did the tire test in December. I felt like we learned as much as we could there, but last night was a little bit different for us because we weren’t ready for that. Obviously, you’ve just got to be hooked up to somebody and we got hooked up with Tony (Stewart) at the end but his radios were out so he didn’t want to really be up there in a mess without a radio. I think we had a decent run after the first segment and learned a lot for Sunday. If everything stays the same we’ll have our plan a little bit better than going into last night at the race. I’m looking forward to it. Qualifying today was a little better than we practiced yesterday so we’ll take that and see where we end up.”

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kroger / USO Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing (continued) What are some of the things that you learned from last night’s race? “As far the two-car draft goes you want somebody behind you that’s fast and obviously you’ve got to be careful about getting somebody turned around sideways. We saw that a couple times last night. I think pushing the right way and finding that guy to push with, but at the same time what I saw the biggest worry is going to be with a 500-mile race or even last night you can get lapped. On a two-and-a-half mile track you wouldn’t have thought that you would get lapped in 18 or 20 laps. You’re really going to be like, oh my gosh it’s going to be so important that you got a partner somewhere throughout. Is there going to be two-two-two-two because even three or four cars that aren’t touching aren’t going to be fast enough. If the rules stay the same a lot of strategy is going to go into it which is fine. That’s what racing is all about. It will be interesting to see and hopefully we will figure out what we did last night and didn’t do that will help us come next Sunday.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Qualified: 32nd What is it like to be starting the Daytona 500 after battling the medical condition last year? “Honestly, I don’t have the words to describe it. Everybody ke eps asking me, ‘What’s it like?’ I don’t know. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe it. I speak half a language already and it’s barely English. I can tell you that it’s everything you can imagine and more — to go through what I went through last year and then to be back in the Daytona 500 again.”

What did you see in the Shootout last night that you will take into the Duels on Thursday? “It’s a different race. A completely different race than it used to be. It’s definitely a chess game. I think it’s more of a chess game than it used to be. I think it used to be a little bit of a chess game, but a lot of a crap shoot. Now it’s mostly a chess game. When to be, where to be, how to be there, who you’re going to be there with. I have a big question for NASCAR at the end of the race. My understanding is — the rule doesn’t say that you can’t go below the line. The rule says you can’t advance your position below the line. I watched the race and I watched the replay many times and I didn’t think Denny (Hamlin) advanced his position. He (Denny Hamlin) was ahead of the 39 (Ryan Newman). In the replay his (Hamlin) left side tires were above the yellow line after he passed Newman. He had already taken the position and was ahead of Ryan Newman and his tires were still above the line. Then he went below the line to try to get some extra speed, not to advance his position. The way I interpret the rules, that’s legal. You can go below the yellow line — people go below the yellow line all the time to avoid wrecks or to do whatever, to save a car that’s loose they drive below the yellow line and come back on the track. As long as they don’t advance their position. That’s how I saw the race. Now the caveat that I would add to all of that is that if you really want to resolve the issue — A, you need to clarify the question I just asked. I would like to see NASCAR clarify that. Is it that you can’t go below the yellow line no matter what? Or you can’t advance your position below the yellow line? The 11 (Hamlin) had the position already. The caveat I was going to add was if you really want to solve the problem just say anything goes after turn four. Then it’s irrelevant. I really don’t mind NASCAR making judgment calls like that the first 499 miles. That’s fine and that’s part of it. I just don’t know if I was them, I wouldn’t want to be in a position to make that call for the checkered flag of the Daytona 500. If we want to go through the apron, if we want to go through the grass — so be it, let them go. A lot of people have said, ‘Boys have at it’ last lap. I disagree with that and here’s why. Because of the original intent for the rule — you don’t want us going five- wide into turn one on the apron and stack the whole field up because that’s not going to be an exciting finish either.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Qualified: 33rd How was your qualifying lap? “It’s better than what we expected. It was a good pick up from yesterday. The guys did a good job with the car. We’ve just been off the pace in single car runs. Even in testing. We kind of knew what we had coming down. I expect the car will race fine and we look forward to getting into the Duels on Thursday.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip (continued) What was your impression of the racing in last night’s Shootout? “As a fan, I wasn’t as excited as normal. I obviously got to watch it last night and the thing that I noticed that I didn’t like was you really knew who was going to win or you knew how it was going to work out with eight or 10 laps to go. Those four guys had gotten out front and you knew kind of what the deal was going to be. Normally here its 20 or 30 cars and you never know who’s going to win until the last lap. It was a little bit of a pre-determined outcome as a fan watching. At least that’s what my opinion is. I think they are going to try to do some things to change it around a little bit. It is what it is and whatever it is we will go out and race and try to get the NAPA Toyota up front and in victory lane.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Qualified: 34th How was your qualifying lap? “I just kind of went out there and I felt like I ran the right line — our first lap was pretty quick and our second lap wasn’t so I think the wind had a little bit to do with that. I think we had a pretty good head wind on the backstretch, but I don’t know if that was like that for everybody or not. We’ll just see. Qualifying is whatever here because we still have the Duels to run. I’m sure it’s good — it’s the same car we tested with when we came down here last month and the car was really fast. I’m sure we’ll be fine when we get to a little bit of Duel practice and then into the Duel.”

What did you learn from last night’s race that can help you next week? “I learned a lot. I learned I want to be around for the end of the race — that’s the big thing. My car was fast. I learned a lot about how we’re pushing and what’s the best way and kind of getting that chemistry worked out with drivers and stuff like that. That and obviously the new pit road stuff and the new fuel cans and all of that. I think it helped our team a little bit, but we just didn’t get the finish we wanted there.”

TODD BODINE, No. 60 Tire Kingdom / Valvoline Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Qualified: 35th How was your car during your qualifying run? “It was bad loose. Got sideways in turn four coming for the checkered and that cost us a lot of speed. Other than that it was uneventful. We lost some speed from the test and we don’t really know where that went. We didn’t figure on qualifying in on time so we know we have to race and hopefully we can get it driving good. Bad part about it is that you have to find a partner and hook up the draft. To me, that ain’t racing. You have to do what you have to do and we’ll be there racing.”

KEVIN CONWAY, No. 97 Extenze Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Qualified: 36th CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Qualified: 37th How was your qualifying lap today? “It was terrible really. We expected it to be much better. Everybody on the GEICO Toyota worked very, very hard to come here and we had a little bit of a plan and for some reason, when you leave pit road you go through all four gears and usually how soon you get to fourth gear is a good indication of how good it’s running. I got to fourth way later around the corner in one and two than I even did in practice. For whatever reason it just didn’t accelerate well, it didn’t run up through the gears real good. Right away I knew and I was looking at the RPM and we didn’t have anything better than we had in practice. You could tell it wasn’t going to be a very good lap. Now we just have to focus on racing in when it comes to those Duels. It’s a totally different game now with guys teaming up the way they are and hopefully we can be a part of one of those guys that hook up and stay up towards the front in that race. Looking at the Shootout and how many wrecks there were, I’m sure there will be a few more cars than that in the Duels so hopefully we don’t get caught up in one of those.”

STEVE WALLACE, No. 77 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Qualified: 39th At what age did you first think about running the Daytona 500 in your career? “I really started thinking about it when I was six and then at eight I was determined that I would. We ran a 49.30 and we ran a 49.50 in practice so it was a two-tenths pick up for us. That’s really exciting. I was not quite as fast as I wanted to be, but we’re locked in the race so time really doesn’t matter to us. I think the car will draft really well. I just want to thank 5-Hour Energy and Aspen Dental for coming on board to make this whole thing possible. We are going to get back in the garage here and work on this car to get it ready for racing.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing LLC Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Qualified: 40th

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Qualified: 44th What happened at the beginning of your qualifying lap? “It’s a different steering column and not what I’m accustomed to. That was about it. It was a very eventful two laps. We pulled the brakes back and everything so when the steering wheel comes off and goes left it’s not very fun. For me, we just had to put it all back together and of course it knocked the grill out. We were kind of stuck right there.”

Are you disappointed with your qualifying effort? “We knew we were going to qualify pretty bad, but obviously that didn’t help too much. We knew we were going to have to come from the back because we changed the engine and transmission and everything. This is just kind of a trial run to see where we stood with our teammates.”

Are you frustrated with the opening weekend of Speed Weeks? “It’s tough. We had that transmission issue yesterday and whatnot so for us so we’re going to have to start in the back. It’s frustrating, but for us it’s kind of one of those things where we use this just as a testing barrier to see where we are from our teammates because we were off from them quite a bit all day yesterday.”

Are you looking forward to next week after the finish last night and what happened in qualifying today? “Yeah, at least for a couple days off anyway. It’s not the best start to Speed Weeks, but we know we’ve got a great car for the 500 and I’m sure it will race just like our car did last night. This FedEx teams works pretty hard. We’ll bounce back.”

DERRIKE COPE, No. 64 Sta-Bil Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Qualified: 47th

THE NUMBERS for the DAYTONA 500

2 – number of times Richard Petty drove a Dodge to victory in the Daytona 500 among his seven wins (1973 and 1974)

3 – number of Daytona 500s run without a caution (1959, 1961, and 1962)

3 – number of consecutive Daytona 500s extended beyond the scheduled distance (2005 2007)

4 – number of Daytona 500s shortened due to rain (1965, 1966, 2003 and 2009)

7 – fewest lead changes for a Daytona 500 (1964 and 1965)

11 – number of jet dryers available for the Daytona 500 and Speedweeks 2011

11 – most cautions for a Daytona 500 (three times – 1968, 2005 and 2006)

21 – most different leaders for a Daytona 500 (2010)

32 – most consecutive Daytona 500 starts (Dave Marcis, 1968-1999)

52 – number of lead changes among 21 drivers at last year’s Daytona 500

60 – most lead changes in the previous 52 Daytona 500s (1974)

68 – most starters for the Daytona 500 (1960)

120 – minutes, the minimum amount of time it takes to dry the 2.5-mile track after a significant rainfall

184 – most laps led by race winner of the “The Great American Race” (Richard Petty, 1964, 200-lap event)

265 – total number of cautions in the 36 Sprint Cup races in 2010; 305 in 2009

BONUS

39 – consecutive Sprint Cup races led by Bobby Allison (9/6/71 – 10/22/72)

Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011 Denny Darnell Scott Sebastian

Daytona Int’l Speedway Dodge Motorsports PR

Two-Car Tandem Racing 101 Howard Comstock, Dodge Engineering Travis Geisler, Penske Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

http://twitter.com/teamdodge www.media.chrysler.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• New Smoother Track Allows for Bumper-to-Bumper Racing In The Corners

• Two-car Tandem Lessons Began at Talladega Last Season

• New Off-Season NASCAR Rule Inspires Teams

• New Dodge Charger Front Nose Passes Superspeedway Test

HOWARD COMSTOCK (Dodge Motorsports Engineering – NASCAR) WHY HAS THE TWO-CAR DRAFT BEEN SO DOMINANT DURING SPEEDWEEKS AT DAYTONA THIS YEAR? “The two-car draft has been possible because A) the track has a lot of grip; B) the track is really smooth in the corners. When the track was bumpy in the corners (before the repave), there was no way the cars could maintain contact through the corners because of the undulations (waves and bumps) in the track. Now that the track is smooth with a lot of grip, the cars can go wide open through the corners. Remember, everyone said that you could go wide open at Talladega, but you can’t go wide open at Daytona because of the lack of grip and bumpy corners. Previously, if two cars stayed together in the corner, you’d run the risk of crashing. There wasn’t enough grip. One of the cars would slip. It was too bumpy and when the bumpers wouldn’t align, the cars would make contact. Now the track is smooth and has a lot of grip, especially last night – 50 degrees and no wind. You couldn’t get any more perfect conditions for a race. (Two-car drafting) was magnified in the race because there was good grip in the track, no bumps, cool temperatures, no wind; the cars were going to go fast.”

WHEN DID TEAMS NOTICE THIS TWO-CAR TANDEM OPPORTUNITY? “It was pretty obvious (during the Daytona test) that the two-car draft was going to work.”

WHY DIDN’T A THREE-CAR DRAFT WORK LAST NIGHT? “It’s really hard for three cars to stay in line and go through the corners and not lose contact. There’s so much orchestration there that it’s all but impossible. The second car that is doing the pushing (in a three-car draft) doesn’t get the air taken off his spoiler so he’s got enough air on his spoiler that he can maintain grip in the corner and continue to push. You couldn’t go as fast as we go now because you couldn’t maintain the speed in the corners. You would have to get off the other car. Now you don’t have to get off the car in front of you. You just push it all the way around. If you push all the way around, that momentum is going to build and now you’re racing really fast.”

DO YOU ANTICIPATE SEEING 20, TWO-CAR PACKS DURING THE DAYTONA 500? “If you noticed last night, there were two or three two-car breakaways and the rest of the pack was having trouble getting organized into two-car teams. If you’re not organized, you’re so much slower and end up falling back with a bunch of cars in a huge pack. When that happens, it looks like guys get frantic and that’s when the big wreck happens.”

DODGE INTRODUCED A BRAND NEW FRONT-NOSE FOR 2011. WHAT ARE THE EARLY RETURNS ON ITS PERFORMANCE? “There’s enough grip. Downforce and drag doesn’t seem to be a problem. We led better than we pushed and that’s a function of a lot of things, but when you can lead better than you push, it tells me that our Dodges have the right aero.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Director of Competition – Penske Racing) HOW DID PENSKE RACING PREPARE ITS CARS FOR THE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “There’s been a ton of work that’s gone into the two-car draft. I think that you saw it starting at Talladega last year for us with the 77 (Sam Hornish Jr.). We went from the back to the front a couple of times by hooking up with somebody and we could drive away. That got everybody working on it and NASCAR made a small rule tweak with the way the engine oil cooler was going to be located in the car and how it was going to be plumed. That got everybody stirred up with new possibilities. The rule change (NASCAR allowed teams to have two three-inch hoses running to an auxiliary oil cooler behind the radiator) this winter made it much more interesting. The reason never wanting to run it before was the location. It had to be up in the upper-right corner, outside the frame rails. So it was really fragile to bump drafting or any kind of contact. So teams never ran it. So NASCAR moved it to the frame rails, basically between the radiator and the engine, where there is a nice little cocoon that it would be protected. That decision got everybody working on that part of the car. That motivated different areas of our shop focusing on, ‘How does that affect my area’. Then everybody puts their head together to see how this can work? The shock guys get involved. The seven post guys start to work on it. We came down for the test last month and the entire three-day test teams did two-car runs. There were no big pack runs. The message was clear to the teams that a two-car pack was what everybody was planning. That test was really valuable for our Dodges because we were able to take the information that we got from that test running two-car drafts with Brad (Keselowski) and Kurt (Busch) and look at attitudes on the seven-post, wind tunnel, etc. Everything that we could do to refine the cars to make them better came into play. The two-car tandem is going to be here all SpeedWeeks. I don’t care if they (NASCAR) change the restrictor-plate. I don’t care if they (NASCAR) changes oil cooler rules. I think the biggest thing that may change two-car tandems will be ambient temperature. We just need to adjust for the warmer temps.”

ANY EARLY INDICATIONS ON HOW WARMER WEATHER WILL AFFECT TWO-CAR TANDEMS? “The biggest issue will be how long guys can stay tucked up and push. If NASCAR is concerned about anything, it’s that two guys can hook up and run away from the pack. If it gets too warm and we can’t keep the engine cool enough, they’re going to have to swap positions to avoid overheating. As soon as you do that, the pack reels you in because you slow down so much. If it gets warm enough that you can’t go an extended period of time tucked in nose-to-tail, the whole two-pack deal may fizzle a little.”

DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT YOU HAVE TO BE BOTH A GOOD “PUSHER” AND “PUSHEE” FOR THE 500 NEXT SUNDAY? “I think the key will be to make friends all day and figure out how to have someone on your bumper at the end. I think that if you’re a good pusher you’ll probably be someone’s best friend lat in the race, but getting pushed is where you want to be. You’re going to have to make friends. Maybe it’s running with a lot less radiator grille tape for the first part of the race so that you can be a pusher all day and build your credit up with some people. Maybe you put a bunch of tape on the grille at the end of the race. It’s just going to be a gambling act at the end.”

YOUR AERODYNAMIC PACKAGE (FRONT NOSE) CHANGED THIS YEAR. WHAT ARE THE EARLY RETURNS ON ITS PERFORMACE? “We worked really close with Dodge and NASCAR to design a front end that met NASCAR’s criteria and looked like a Dodge Charger. It’s been great here at Daytona so far. There have been no negatives with it so far. I think the appearance, if nothing else, is far and away better. Once we get to Las Vegas and those kinds of track, we’ll really start to see how it performs. Here we need it to be slick and smooth and it’s been fantastic.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Race Winner “What an amazing win. To get to victory lane for Shell/Pennzoil is incredible. This Dodge Charger was fast and I have to thank my “teammate” Jamie McMurray so much. What an unbelievable experience – this two-car draft. I had no idea what to expect going in. I was just going to take it one lap at a time and see how it plays out. I wanted to learn as the race went on how this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge raced. (McMurray) was the man tonight. He stayed with us. He stayed true. I can’t thank him enough for doing that tonight. I hope it was the show the fans wanted to see.”

TALK ABOUT WHEN YOU DECIDED TO MAKE YOUR FINAL MOVE? “I wanted to give those guys a push hard getting into Turn 1 and I never got to them. Then my game plan changed to take whatever I could get. I knew the 11 was going to split away from the 39. I was hoping he would do it soon enough. It worked out in our favor at the end because McMurray stayed with us. For Shell/Pennzoil to believe in Penske and me, this is unbelievable to deliver them a victory in this 22 car.”

ARE WE GOING TO SEE THIS ACTION NEXT SUNDAY FOR THE 500? “Absolutely. It’s going to be those two-car tandems. No matter who you’re hooked up with, you’ve got to be able to go. It’s going to be interesting to see what NASCAR does and if they shake out the rules. I believe in what we’ve got. NASCAR’s done a tremendous job to give us this package and we’re happy to race it. Shell/Pennzoil on-board, putting Dodge back in victory lane, we’ve got AAA, Coca-Cola, a bunch of great sponsors. And I’ve got the greatest crew in the garage.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO WIN AT DAYTONA? “This is a special day. I’ve tried very hard over the last 11 years to break through on a restrictor-plate race. To pull into victory lane at Daytona, I knew that this was a special moment and I sucked it all in. You never know when that chance will be again. I’ve always respected this race track. I’ve always thought of the times that I’ve finished second here, not just in Cup cars, but in the Truck series and IROC. I can’t get mad. I can’t get discouraged. I know that one day it will come back for me. And with the fresh pavement and a new outlook on what this draft was going to be about, basically this is the old-school-style racing with slingshot with two cars tied up together. That’s what it reminded me of. I had flashbacks of slingshots, but you have to have the guy behind you. It’s an unbelievable experience to win here at Daytona. To win a restrictor-plate race at Daytona after years of trying – it’s not a point’s race – but it’s a very special race and heck, we knocked out the All-Star race last year in Charlotte and we got the Shootout tonight. Steve and I are doing pretty good at knocking out big events together.”

STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) “We felt like we couldn’t push like the other guys. We got hooked up with Mark Martin there in the beginning and Kurt said that he was going to go talk to him (during the break). We decided to add some tape to our car because we couldn’t push and felt like if we were going to be pushed all night long, we needed to add some tape to the front of it. We did that. We got separated from Mark and then he got in trouble – he and the 18 car got together – and we lost him. I thought that we were in trouble. When Juan (Pablo Montoya) got knocked out and Jamie (McMurray) was out there by himself, he committed himself to us and that helped us. They can say what they want about the pusher, but the guy driving that car leading that tandem has to know what’s going on and pay attention. Kurt did an awesome job tonight.”

TALK ABOUT WHY THE TWO-CAR DRAFT WORKED BETTER THAN THE THREE-CAR DRAFT? KURT: “Well, I think we all have been to a Saturday-night short track and seen chain races where they put a big I-beam through the cars and they don’t put anybody in the middle. There’s a guy up front with a motor and then there’s a guy in the back with the brake. This is opposite; this is where the guy in the back has the motor, the guy in the front has the brake. Two cars just hook up and it seems like the air comes off the front car and clears that second car perfectly. If you have a third car, the air comes off that front car, lands onto the third car and that third car can’t break through. That’s my philosophy on it. Having open mind tonight is similar to the approach that I had when I ran for the Chase back in 2004. Nobody knew what to expect, nobody knew how to win it, and I felt like just having an open mind and not getting frustrated with anything kept me in this. I have Jamie McMurray to thank for everything tonight. Having a guy that’s won here at Daytona is also a key ingredient because he knows how to get it done.”

YOU HELPED YOUR FORMER TEAMMATE TO A WIN HERE A FEW YEARS AGO. DID THIS TRACK OWE YOU SOMETHING? KURT: “I always think that Ryan will know that I helped him, and he’ll jump in behind me if things are getting busy out there. You have to have as many alliances as you can. And to not win at this track ever before until tonight, I still kept feeling like maybe I’ll find my day here, and tonight is my night. I’m going to absorb it, take it all in. It’s fun doing it with a new group like Shell Pennzoil. It would have been cooler to win with the Miller Lite car in the Bud Shootout, but hey, we’re with a great group with Shell, with Pennzoil, with Dodge, and maybe it was just a little bit of Lady Luck on our side tonight that gave us this win. But true credit goes to my team and to McMurray. I was just trying to hold a pretty steady wheel.”

YOU BOTH HAVE A LOT OF EXPERIENCE HERE AT DAYTONA. HOW MUCH DID THAT EXPERIENCE HELP? ADDINGTON: “I think we saw it coming. I mean, it was inevitable that this was going to be the way the racing was going to be. I think when NASCAR stepped in this morning and took a step with the oil cooling and tried to get the temperatures up so guys couldn’t do that, they thought they could break it up with that, but it didn’t happen. The guys are still going to do it whether it’s two laps or eight laps; everybody is going to work towards that direction to be able to do this.”

BUSCH: “We saw it coming. That’s why Brad Keselowski and myself teamed up during January testing. I have Brad to thank, as well, for the education, so to speak. We taught each other how to do this two car draft and I felt very comfortable going in tonight knowing that it could be a key factor to win. And it was. One thing I’m thinking of sitting here tonight is it was 50 degrees out tonight. It’s going to be much warmer on Sunday, and that will shake up how guys are able to push with their temperatures, their radiator and their oil coolers.”

WITH TWO-CAR TANDEMS SO IMPORTANT, WILL YOU SPEND THE NEXT WEEK TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHO YOU CAN PARTNER WITH? BUSCH: “Yeah, I would say that that’s going to be a key player in it. There’s going to be so many elements that fall into place that you really can’t just focus on just one thing. You have to go back and review a lot. I’m going to go back and review the tape and see who are the pushers, who are the pushees. It looks like the RCR cars have some good steam under the hood to push really well, and those engines, those ECR engines, those guys are great pushers. For us, we need to have as many alliances as we can. We’re the only Dodge team out there. I can’t wait to get Keselowski out there, see how we team up. Whether we’re in the same 150 or not together, and then it comes down to these restarts at the end. You can have 450 miles of racing with somebody and it gets shuffled around. The thing that’s most important in my mind is you can’t try to hook up with your buddies too soon and then guys are trying to check up and stay together and you’re still in a big pack. Then, boom, cars are wrecking. It’s almost every restart you’re looking around, thinking who can I team up with.”

HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT WHO TO DRAFT WITH? BUSCH: “You have to have a guy willing to stick with you and stay behind you. With the way the two cars hook up, it’s just the length from the front bumper to the rear bumper of the two cars. So it’s just taking an overall measurement, and the air comes off that first car and must land right behind the spoiler of the second car because if you hit there and try to draft a foot apart, you can never hook up. You never get that extra speed. So it’s just a distance thing. I think if we all stood in the wind tunnel, and made some measurements, we would see exactly what we’re seeing out here on the race track, but it’s very difficult to simulate wind tunnels versus what happens here on the asphalt track. A lot of it is just being able to read the car and feel the RPM and know when you’re getting bogged down versus when you actually have extra speed with the draft.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY WAS SAYING THAT THE REASON THAT HE STAYED WITH YOU IS BECAUSE YOU GUYS WERE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS? BUSCH: “It’s really just the camaraderie and the way that we’ve shared off-track experiences. Whether it’s hanging out together, whether it’s going to events together. We did flip-flop sponsors or rides in a sense. He took over at Crown Royal on that 97 car, turned into the 26, and there was a little bit of spite in the beginning with me switching over to Penske, him being part of the deal at Ganassi. But it’s just funny how things come together. There are just people that you see in life and you gravitate towards them. He and I have done that. We live fairly close to each other in the Charlotte area, and there’s times when we find each other hanging out and we don’t even know.”

WHEN DID YOU DISCOVER THIS TWO-CAR PHONOMENON OF THE TWO-CAR DRAFT? BUSCH: “Just to finish up, I consider Jamie McMurray a true friend, and it takes somebody like that to push you to a victory. It reminded me of the time when I shoved Newman to win the 500. The product of tonight’s event and how everything unfolded, it’s everything, the way the bumpers line up, the fresh asphalt, the tires, and the grip in the tires. We saw a little bit of this at Talladega and now here at Daytona with the cars hooked up; there’s virtually no tire wear and you’re just worried about staying in that two car draft because it’s four seconds faster a lap than it is if you’re out there by yourself. So just the discovery one bit at a time, here, there and everywhere. And Keselowski and I saw this coming; we teamed up and spent a great deal of time in January testing and trying to polish up on it.”

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT NASCAR CAN DO TO BREAK UP THE TWO-CAR TANDEMS? ADDINGTON: “I don’t want to see that happen. I think it’s cool that we’re running over 200 miles an hour. Kurt might not like that, but I think he likes it.” BUSCH: “It’s fun as hell.” ADDINGTON: “I don’t know. I don’t want to give my opinion, give them any ideas, so I just think that they tried to do it with a little bit this morning with the oil coolers, but we went back to the package that we tested with Kurt and Brad down here in January and felt pretty confident in it and just played it safe with opening up the tape. I don’t know what they’re planning on doing, if anything, but I don’t think that if we go to a smaller plate it’s just going to be a slower two car deal. It’s not going to separate the guys doing what they’re doing tonight. They may shorten that length of time, but I don’t think they’ll end it.”

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAD WON THE RACE? BUSCH: “I’ve been in one of these .002, .003 things before. I was full throttle and I let go of the wheel to try to free up the car. I’m looking down at the 11, I’ve got him beat, no problem, and Addington said that scoring had the 11 car (winning), and I’m saying no, no, I’m the winner. I won. You can’t take this away. I’ve around been through one of these 002, 003s and came out the loser. When I got on the back straightaway, Steve said that they have the 11 scored as the leader by three thousandths of a second, and he also said that he went below the double yellow. I said, well, of course he did, of course he did. So he advanced his position below the double yellow, which was a rule that we didn’t think would come into play tonight, but it did. And it didn’t look like Newman forced him down there; it looked like the 11 took that option. It obviously was the shortest distance around. But my game plan was to stay hooked up with McMurray the whole way through, and I have him to thank. For us to come out on top with the way that the ruling went, it’s a correct ruling. I think that we can take this win on home for Dodge and for Shell Pennzoil.”

WILL YOU BE OK IS NASCAR MAKE A CHANGE THIS WEEK? ADDINGTON: “Do you think they’re going to come ask me? If they make a change, we’ve just got to deal with it. I wanted to get out to talk to Scott Currier, the engine builder over at Penske Racing Engines, just to see what he thinks on RPMs, where we’re at, where we’re running, and I’ll be on the phone with him and gathering all the information I can from him. We’ll just wait and see what the decision is on what they do. I can’t say one way or the other what they’re going to do. But if they were going to do something, I’d like for them to let us know before Wednesday morning to start practice so we can be prepared for it. They may let us know tomorrow. We’ve got all day tomorrow. We’ll be hanging around.”

DO YOU THINK THE FANS ENJOY THIS TYPE OF RACING? KURT: “I’m glad I waited for your question because after Bob’s question, I’m sitting here going what is the perspective from the outside? What did the fans view tonight? How exciting was it? NASCAR is going to eventually do that, ask the fans. From what I was told from some of the interviews I did previously, the fans were on their feet, they were jumping up and down. They just saw this whole new style of the draft. We all knew this coming in on the fresh repave, what is this going to bring. The way the cars are set up, the way the restrictor plates work, the way that the bumpers align themselves, this is fresh asphalt, this is a whole new look. And so I don’t want this win not to feel like it’s a win because we’re all writing that this is too many unknowns tonight. We do need to get the fans’ opinion to find out, and if the fans agree and there’s a general consensus that this was positive, then I hope that our win is glorified even more. Right now, I’m getting the feeling that this didn’t count because there were too many unknowns going in, and who knew that this was going to be a two car draft. But to pull into victory lane with new sponsors and a car number that nobody knew anything about, I was just hoping to fly under the radar tonight and everybody think that we were Ward Burton or Bobby Allison or Fireball Roberts running the 22 car and we’ll sneak up on them and win, and we sure as heck did.”

DO YOU THINK THAT 206 MPH IS TOO FAST? KURT: “I’m with you. I was beginning to get these shots up here, like what’s going on. I feel with the way the cars would wreck back in the day and the reason for restrictor plates came out was because the cars didn’t have enough downforce on them to keep them planted to the track. They would spin out sideways or get backwards and have the air lift them up. We saw that happen with the Truck Series the first time here with Jeffrey Bodine’s horrific accident, and I think that’s because the trucks lacked downforce the first time which was back in 2000. I think these cars have enough downforce. They’ve got the roof flaps and the safety equipment to protect the drivers, but obviously once we start getting over 200, we have to make sure that we keep these cars in the ballpark. That’s the main concern. If I had to throw something out there, I would throw on bigger spoilers and a bigger plate that we can’t go faster if we’re getting to 206. It’s an unbelievable experience to race out there in this two car tandem and to be able to feel the air around you and to have that guy behind you pushing. It is so much fun inside the car when you have things going your way. I bet the guys that lost the draft are out there just sitting there filing their nails going down the back straightaway because they’ve got nothing else to do.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT

DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 12, 2011

Team Chevy Starts 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season with Strong Showing in Budweiser Shootout

Daytona Beach, Fla (Feb.12, 2011) The 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) season is officially underway as the Budweiser Shootout is now in the record books.

Team Chevy had a field of 12 strong contenders for the 24-car field race that doesn’t pay points but carries a tremendous amount of prestige for the winner and a good test for the teams as they get prepared for Daytona 500.

Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet finished second followed by Ryan Newman, No. 39 Wix Filters Chevrolet in the third finishing position.

Five-time defending NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, was fourth at the checkered flag of the two-segment 75-lap race.

Rounding out the seven Team Chevy drivers that finished in the top-10 were Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, in sixth; Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, seventh; Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet was in eighth and Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet in ninth.

Other Team Chevy finishers were as follows: Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet – 11th; Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy Chevrolet – 17th (accident); Dale Earnhardt, Jr. No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet