Category: NASCAR Cup Series

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Notes & Quotes — Kyle Busch, Casey Mears, Martin Truex Jr. & Michael Waltrip Daytona Media Day –February 10, 2011

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How do you perceive other athletes like Ben Roethlisberger or other athletes that not liked by all the fans? “It makes me relate to them and it makes me like them. Like a Barry Bonds for instance.  He’s a great baseball player, you can’t deny that from him, although there might be some speculation or whatever you want to call it there late in his career that kind of hurt his image a little bit. Overall, the guy did a lot for baseball and a lot for the sport and was very good at what he did. Tom Brady, a lot of people don’t like Tom Brady. Why? He’s good at what he does. He’s very good at what he does and he’s very young and very good at what he does. Same thing with (Ben) Roethlisberger, same thing with now Aaron Rodgers –he’s really good. There’s a lot of athletes that I can relate to that are kind of under the same scope that I am and I like all those guys. I like people that are good at what they do and it’s not that they know that they’re good at what they do, but they are accomplished and they know how to accomplish what they want to.”

Do you think Joe Gibbs Racing would ever swap pit crews during a race? “I don’t know. Actually I asked that question and never really got a straight answer. For me, I think the biggest thing is that we all have great race teams. We all have great pit crews and I think the pit crew coaches work really, really hard and really, really good with all three teams. Actually all three teams workout with each other. They don’t do it separately. They are all out there together — they’re all helping each other, they’re all teaching each other. It’s a way for the teams to become closer knit and become closer together. Maybe there was a problem one day where somebody wasn’t getting the job done or they were having an off day where they would switch somebody. I don’t think it would be a problem because they all work together already.”

Is there any difference with your team this year that makes you believe you can win the championship? “I think the biggest thing that’s different with us is just having a full year under my belt with Dave Rogers (crew chief) and now going into the season with that year’s worth of experience to work with Dave and to try to reach our potential and little bit more this year. Unfortunately we’ve kind of fallen shy of that the past few years. This is the year we’d like to change that around and make it to where we get through the regular season okay and get to the Chase and then once we get into the Chase we stay consistent with what we’re doing. Then if we can make it through without motors blowing up or getting involved in wrecks or something like that where we can have a shot come Homestead.”

Are you carrying any hard feelings toward Kevin Harvick following the Homestead race? “You would like to say that you can wipe the slate clean. When you go from a shot at finishing fourth in points to finishing eighth in points –that’s an awful lot of money and an awful lot of money for the race team to develop and to be able to carry on things a little further. Do I care whether or not I have a grudge against (Kevin) Harvick? No. Do I feel like I need to do something about it? No. If something happens to where it won’t hurt me, woops.”

What is an early memory for you in NASCAR before you became a Sprint Cup driver? “I think the one that pops in my head first is when I was 16 and I was in the Truck Series running one of those races for Roush and all of the sudden NASCAR decided they would make the rule change and you had to be 18. That’s the time when I was like, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to come back. Most of the time you see people that are in NASCAR that they get either kicked out or lose their ride or something like that, there’s really not that many opportunities for them to come back. Me being young and not having the experience or not being smart enough to recognize that you can come back and be just fine. It didn’t sit well with me at first, but it became a lot better and a lot more understanding. I think that’s got to be the most visible one to me. Anything else –it was always a dream anyway. As long as you keep clawing towards a dream then one of these days it becomes a reality.”

What did you do those two years before you came back to NASCAR? “I was 16 in May and I raced in August, September, October and November in the Trucks and I got kicked out in November. Everybody at NASCAR told me I would be fine to race Daytona the following year when I was still 16 so then I turned 17 in May –never got to race any NASCAR stuff. Turned 17 in May, I was running ASA. I ran the full tour of the ASA national tour then when it was still alive. Then in January until my birthday in May when I turned 18 I ran ARCA stuff of that year. I won Daytona, but I ran Pocono and Nashville and Kentucky and a couple of those places with ARCA. Then once I was 18 I ran seven Busch races.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) What do you think of the Budweiser Shootout compared to the Daytona 500? “I think it’s a learning experience. It’s just a race that we need to learn what the tracks going to do, what the racers are going to do, what the cars are going to do, how all this is going to play out with the new asphalt and everything. What people are going to try and see what they can get accomplished for that race. It’s basically going to be the outline when we get to the 150s and then when we get to the 500 it’s just going to be kind of what’s going to happen and what to expect.”

Do you feel more freedom to race in the Budweiser Shootout? “You feel like you can wreck and it won’t hurt you too bad. You have to have some sort of mentality and some sort of respect for the game still in that race and not let it go all out the window. It’s a race where it doesn’t mean everything.”

How was the No. 48 team able to win a fifth championship with their adversity last year? “They did what they had to do. They’re very good at what they do and that’s why they’re the five-time champions. It’s hard for any of us to not deny that they’re the best in the sport. We all might be a little bit jealous of them as well because they just seem to be able to put it together year after year and be able to accomplish the ultimate goal that we all want. They’re good at what they do, they have very good leadership. I think it starts at the top with Mr. H (Rick Hendrick, team owner) and then it goes to Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and what he does and the engineers and those guys. They never let something rattle them. When they’re behind, they work on it and figure out what the thing is that is the problem or maybe they’re just that good to where they monkey with all the rest of us for a little while and they come back and show us what’s up.” What did you think when you heard about the dynamometer problem at Joe Gibbs Racing? “I heard about it and thought, ‘Oh man, I hope that wasn’t my Daytona 500 motor.’ Apparently all is fine. Unfortunately some of those things happen where you’ll see an engine blow up in a race car. Instead of in a race car, it blew up in a room and a confined area. It was a bit of a mess and made a big boom, but all was fine, nobody got hurt and everything was good.”

Should people pick you to win the championship this year? “I don’t see why we don’t have the resources or the opportunity or the experience to win the deal. I don’t know. Like I said, maybe if everybody just picks the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) then somebody out there has to be a jinx and then it kind of sets him back. It will be good for somebody else to try to win one.”

Why don’t you have a Sprint Cup championship? “Because the potential isn’t reached. There’s a potential you have to reach and there’s a potential to every race, every week, every pit stop, every lap and somewhere within there, not everybody reaches their full potential all the time. Whoever’s potential is obviously reached the most, which the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) has reached the last couple years, they’ve been the ones that have been able to do it.”

What makes you want to race in all three series during the season? “For me its experience on the race track. You’re able to go out there and you’re able to spend the time on that Goodyear tire for that particular race track for that particular week whether it’s a day race, a night race. You get all that experience in — that’s what I like to do. I learn so many things during the race that I can correlate to my Nationwide car or my Cup car. I like to be able to give that information to Dave (Rogers, crew chief). Other things too is when I’m working with Eric Philips (18 Truck crew chief) and with Jason Ratcliff (18 Nationwide crew chief), they have way different mindsets and thoughts and processes of how to make a vehicle go better and faster that Dave Rogers might not have. I can take all that information that I learned all the way back and forth across all three and try to increase the level of competition in all of those. My encyclopedia fills up quick.”

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing What did you think of the new surface at Daytona when you tested? “It’s nice and they did a really good job resurfacing the track. It’s really smooth. There were a lot of big swells and big bumps in it that they took out. Those are completely gone. There’s some choppy bumps, but its way smoother. It’s easy, wide open and it’s going to be real tight, close racing. More like Talladega. It’s going to be fun and it’s going to be exciting for the fans. At the same time, it’s going to be easier to get caught up in something that’s not your doing so you have to be real careful and keep your eyes open.”

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing (continued) What are your expectations being with Germain Racing this year? “I’m excited about it. I haven’t had a real good opportunity to talk to a lot of the guys, everybody has been on their own separate ways over the offseason, but I’m sure as we get clicking along here I will see them a lot more. As far as everybody that works at the shop — the Germain brothers, everybody — they are great guys. I really enjoy working with them. Obviously we’re all working hard to get the full season of sponsorship in, which has been the only thing holding us back. We’ve got really good cars, a good team, a good pit crew — (Robert) Bootie Barker (crew chief) does a great job and Mike Hillman Sr. (general manager) has been putting a good program together. Fortunately, the Germain’s are pretty committed to making it work. We had some fun at the end of last year and looking forward to seeing what it brings us this year.”

How does it feel to know you are with one team this season versus the adversity of last year? “Last year was so patchy. It was a good year for me though, really. In a way that obviously, I wanted to be racing and I didn’t want to be a part of that whole scene just trying to figure out what was going on. It was helpful for me to see the other side of the coin a little bit and understand and really appreciate the opportunity that I have now with Germain. I’ve always had a motivation to do well just because I’ve always loved to do well, but I think there’s an added motivation there just seeing how close it could be if things do go the way they should. It makes you want to work that much harder to make sure that you can persevere and make things happen. All the guys are in the same mindset as I am. They are all people, all guys that have proven themselves, but never on a consistent basis. We all have something to prove right now and it’s a good position to be in.”

What was it like when Brian Vickers asked you to fill in for him last year? “What a mix of emotions that deal was with Brian (Vickers) being such a good friend. First concerns are his health and how he’s going to cope with things, is he coming back? All that kind of stuff. That all quickly rushed through because it was like, ‘Here’s what’s going on with me. Do you think you can get in my car?’ Now here I am with no ride and getting an opportunity and at the same time feeling horrible for what he’s having to go through. He’s done a good job handling everything. I think he was smart in kind of just getting away last year. It’s very, very hard to see something that you love so much — for him to be at the track all the time I think it would have been very difficult to watch everybody do the job that he wants to do. I think it was good for him to get away, relax, get better, heal up and ready to go for this year.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Are you looking forward to getting back on the race track at Daytona? “I am. It’s always exciting to come down here for the 500. This is our biggest race of the year. Coming off the offseason we all get kind of stir crazy and miss racing, so it’s always good to get back to the track, and to start off the year with the biggest race of the year is always really cool. I feel good about this year. I’ve got a lot of confidence going into this season. More so than I’ve had in the past few I would say. We really ended the season strong last year with our team. Found some things that worked for us and I think we’re really going to be able to surprise some people this year.”

Did you wish you could’ve kept the season going at the end of last year? “When Homestead was over, I wished we could’ve just lined them up and started again. The flat tire there was devastating after leading all of those laps and running the way we did. I felt like we had the car to beat. That was kind of the way that our whole second half of the year had gone. It was if we run really well we finish poorly and if we’d run mid-pack nothing bad would happen. We just couldn’t overcome the crappy finishes and the crappy luck, and it was frustrating. I felt really good at the end of the season about how our team was working — the chemistry and communication was very, very good. It was the best I had been a part of. That gave me a lot of confidence at the end of the season and going into the offseason, that we can come out of the box and put our NAPA Camry upfront each and every week at all of the different tracks that we go to.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing (continued) What do you think will make a difference for your team this year? “I think the biggest thing to be honest is the changes that we made at the end of last year. We understand what we did. We didn’t just change things in the offseason and we’re optimistic about them. We have proof that they worked. I felt very comfortable. I had a lot of confidence in my team and the way we were doing things in the last few races, and it showed on the track with our speed. This offseason we didn’t change the team around, we didn’t change that. We were working on our cars, trying to get our engines better, we’re trying to make sure we’re better prepared so when the season starts we can come out swinging and get rid of some of the part failures that we had last year. For us, the confidence of being fast and the confidence that we can be competitive is already there. Those questions have been answered. I guess what I’m saying is there’s a lot less questions than a normal offseason would be for me. A lot less changes, we’ve got a solid group behind me, our foundation is there and I have a lot of confidence in what we were doing when the season was over. I feel like working on those things throughout the winter to make them even better yet is going to be very good for me and for our team.”

How do you overcome the questions and disappointments you’ve had in your career? “I’m a fighter, and obviously the last few years haven’t gone the way I wanted them to go, but I continue to come out every day and give everything I have to the sport and to my team and to the cars I’m driving and put it all on the race track. I feel like I’m a better driver than the stats show. I feel like I should’ve won a lot more races than I have obviously. It just seems like I’ve always been followed around the past few years by this black cloud of bad luck and every time I have a shot to win I get a flat tire, something falls off my car, everybody else can make it on gas and I can’t. It’s always something. The biggest thing is I always fight. I always come to the track every weekend with a new attitude, I leave last week behind and I give my team all that I can give them and I think that’s one of the things that makes me a good driver.”

What do you think of the new track surface at Daytona? “It’s very different than what we’re used to at Daytona. I’ve never raced on Daytona when it wasn’t slick and bumpy as hell and you had to handle good. Now, it’s Talladega, but narrower. It’s wide open all day. Where can you fit your car because you’re not going to lift, nobody has to lift. It’s not about handling, it’s all about raw speed, how much horsepower do you have, is your car better than everybody else’s, does it suck up better, can you actually use it and go faster than everybody else? It’s a big advantage to have a fast car when you don’t have to handle. The past few years I haven’t had really fast cars down here, but I’ve handled them well especially last year. Our car wasn’t very fast. We were actually off quite a bit all weekend until we started racing and next thing you know we were leading the Daytona 500. Heck, we were leading not the last green-white-checkered but the one before that. We were there and we had a shot to win it, and it’s totally different now. The same things apply — you have to be around at the end, you have to take care of your car all day — it’s 500 miles. If you’re around at the end, you will have a shot at winning this race because you never know how it’s going to end up. There’s so much that can happen in two or three laps at a plate track like this when everybody can run like that. You’ve just got to be around at the end.”

MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing

What has it been like this month with the release of your book? “The book is cool. It’s really been fun to see how it’s been received, mainly because when we started writing it, I explained to Ellis (Henican), the guy that wrote it with me, that I didn’t care at that point if anyone bought it or not. Mainly my goal was if I handed it to my mom or my sister — and they read the whole thing — they’d say, ‘That’s like talking to Mike. That’s a conversation I could have with him.’ We worked really hard, probably for four months to write it. When I was done and it turned out like that, I said, ‘I hope somebody buys this thing.’ It was so much work. You know what’s interesting, I’ve never been an overly confident person — I always sort of struggle in that area. The thing that I liked most about the book was that I was confident in whoever bought it would like it. I didn’t worry what people would think or people would think it was my voice or people wouldn’t think it was worth their money that they spent for it. Maybe as much as I’ve ever been about anything in my life, I was confident about the story that it has. I wanted the motivation and inspiration and laughter and sadness, and there was enough content there to be worthy of a book.”

MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing (continued) What have you learned from putting your story on paper? “First, I’ve never claimed to be very bright. Fortunately for me, about a year ago I realized that when I came here this year there was going to be a lot of questions about that day. I needed to figure out how to answer those questions. To be quite honest, any answers I’d given up until I wrote this book were on the surface — nothing that I would let get into my heart or where I was that day. Writing the book really enabled me to cry and talk and try to piece it all together. The cool thing about me personally is that I’m a Christian, so I believe everything happens for a reason. If I didn’t, I think I’d be pretty mad about that day. Human beings aren’t designed to go through that range of emotions that I was faced with. I like to think of the positives of that day and that was the last thing Dale (Earnhardt) saw on this earth was me and Dale Jr. (Earnhardt) driving off to win the Daytona 500. As a car owner now, I have a couple cars and if my cars were driving off to win the Daytona 500, that’d be one of the coolest feelings ever. I know that’s where he was in the last seconds. Another thing that I’m eternally grateful for — and I didn’t really understand this until last spring when I plugged in the DVD that my sister had made of the race that day. It was pulled out of her DVD player and she inscribed on it all the words that she chose to express her joy from what had happened before she knew ultimately what had happened to Dale. I saw that DVD a bunch of times over the last 10 years and I just couldn’t put it in. So, for the first time ever, I put it in and started watching it. I think the thing I’m most grateful for is when I came around for my cool down lap, I don’t understand, there’s no reason I wouldn’t have stopped and got Dale. His approval of what I did was what I wanted more than the trophy or money

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

2011 NASCAR MEDIA DAY

DAYTONA INTERNATIOINAL SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 10, 2011

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at NASCAR Media Day and discussed his contract, Dale Earnhardt’s death, the new points system and other topics. Full transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. (Question regarding staying at RCR).

JEFF BURTON: Very few have asked that question.

You know, fully my intention and RCR’s intention is to be back after this year for sure. That’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that we’re going to get all that done. I feel good about my future at RCR, look at it as the place where I want to spend the rest of my career. I’m real comfortable there. I really like Richard. It’s difficult because our job is difficult. But you’ll see me at RCR next year.

Q. Do you see anything that could change that plan?

JEFF BURTON: Well, I’ve done this long enough to know that anything can change. But I don’t anticipate a change. It would take a special set of circumstances, a really odd set of circumstances, for me not to be at RCR next year.

Q. Clint is also a free agent. Anything about that being a distraction?

JEFF BURTON: I don’t think it will be a distraction. I’m not going to speak for Clint. For me it’s not going to be a distraction. I’m going to be at RCR next year. My future is at RCR. Clint is a free agent, the way I understand it. Clint will be a highly desired driver. A lot of people are going to want Clint to drive their racecars. There’s no question about that. That’s one of the negatives to having a lot of talent. We are going to have to do what we have to do to keep him.

I really want to see Clint stay at RCR. I like Clint. I think he’s got the talent, he’s got the ability, he’s got the personality. He makes me a better racecar driver. I really want to see him extend his contract.

Q. What is your take on the points system?

JEFF BURTON: Well, you know, an analytical view of it is I think you’re rewarded more for winning races than we have been in the past. If you look at the percentage of points paid, the three bonus points, then the opportunity to make more bonus points, then on top of that, if you win races, have an average year, you’re going to be in the Chase, that means that winning races is more valuable than it’s ever been.

The penalty for poor races is huge. If you finish last, depending on the bonus points, how all that works, you’re getting 46, 47, 48 times less the number of points than the guy that won. That’s huge.

So poor finishes really bites you. Good finishes, if you finish fifth, seventh, 14th, I don’t think it’s real different today than what we’ve had in the past. Certainly the wins mean more and the poor finishes mean more.

Q. (Question regarding the economy and size of teams.)

JEFF BURTON: I think that’s fair. I think if you ask the people at RCR, we have more sponsor involvement today than we did 12 months ago. We have more people wanting to be involved in the sport, wanting to be involved with us. I know from my standpoint when I talk to companies, they’re excited about NASCAR.

But right now we’re still going through a period of recovery. We’re not where we were four years ago. I’m not saying that. I do believe we’re experiencing a recovery. But when you are going through a recovery, there’s people that are going to be affected by that, there’s people that aren’t going to be affected by that. There are people that are going to cherry-pick exactly how they want to do that. We’re going to go through that. Just like the real estate market. Right now in the real estate market, there’s a hint that it’s getting better, but the people that are selling are still getting bit. It’s real painful. But there are people starting to buy.

It’s kind of the same thing with us. Sponsors are going to get involved with their terms. There’s not as much pressure on the sponsors as there was three or four years ago. It’s definitely changed the way that the teams are going to have to do business. You’re going to have to learn how to operate at a high level with less. I think that’s just how it’s going to be.

Q. Do you think the fans are going to buy into what NASCAR is trying to do now?

JEFF BURTON: You know what the fans want to see, is they want to see good racing. The points system, the only thing that does is it makes it easier to follow. That’s the only thing it does. It really doesn’t do anything else.

I don’t think that’s going to have a major impact. I think the biggest impact is what the races on Sunday look like. If we have races like we had last year, our sport’s gonna be fine. We didn’t have those races, we didn’t have horrible races, but we had better races last year than we did the year before.

We had a lot of change in a short period of time. I think we alienated some people because we had so many changes. At the same time a lot of people were watching for the first time and the races weren’t as exciting as they could have been for a lot of reasons, and you can debate those reasons all day long. You have to earn those people back. They don’t come back and turn the TV on or come back to the race and say it’s all fixed. They’re still skeptical. We’re going to have to earn that trust back.

I’m very confident that when people see the racing and they see what’s going on that we’re going to be fine, we’re going to be fine. Richard said, Rome is not burning, and he’s right. We are experiencing a high level of pressure, as every business, every sport, the economy is feeling. But the base of our sport is solid and strong and it’s going to be okay.

Q. Do you find yourself doing more for your sponsors than you would have five or ten years ago?

JEFF BURTON: I’ve been through that transition already in my career. Being perfectly honest, not many people would say this, but you start to take this for granted, you really do. You start to think that you’re always going to have a sponsor, people are always going to want you to drive their car, you’re always going to win races. You almost have to experience bad stuff to realize that’s not the case.

So, you know, I changed my way of doing business the last year I was at Roush and we struggled with sponsorship, we struggled with racing, how we were running. That really made me gain a perspective that I didn’t have before.

So I really don’t act differently today than I did three years ago. But I act differently today than I did seven or eight years ago.

Q. Can you describe Harvick’s speech last week and what the reaction was like.

JEFF BURTON: You know, Kevin showed some emotion, showed that he cared about the history and the heritage of RCR. I think a lot of people appreciated that. We have a lot of people there that were there during the Dale Earnhardt era. You cannot be part of RCR without understanding what Dale Earnhardt meant to RCR and to our sport.

I think his emotion showed a lot of people that he understood that. I think a lot of people appreciated it.

Q. Yet it took him a long time to embrace that connection.

JEFF BURTON: It’s hard to be in the shadow of somebody. There’s no way that Kevin Harvick steps into that car after the tragedy without being in his shadow. You know, that’s hard. I don’t want to speak for Kevin, but it takes a little while to separate yourself from that. Kevin understands the history of our sport, he respects our sport more so today than he ever has. He really by his actions can tell you how much he’s involved in the sport, how much he cares about it. I think he showed everybody that he respects the history of RCR, what went on well before he got there.

Q. Can you and Jeff Gordon laugh about what happened in Texas now?

JEFF BURTON: Yes.

Q. Do you talk about it?

JEFF BURTON: We’ve laughed about it several times. It was something in my career that I’m not proud of. At the same time after it all went down I thought I did all I could do to man up and be a man about it. That’s really all I can do.

I have the utmost respect for Jeff. Jeff and I, we raced against each other for over 20 years. I can count on my hand the number of times we had issues. The deal at Darlington years ago where he won the million, beat me on the last lap of Darlington, I was upset about it because I thought we should have won the race, you know what I mean? At the same time, I wasn’t mad at him. I was mad about it, but in retrospect, he didn’t do anything wrong. We’ve had a few run-ins, but no more than you have with anybody.

Jeff has been, in my opinion, when he came into our sport, he did a lot. He had a great deal to do with our sport growing. He was young. He was a different look. He was a different sound. He was the reverse of Earnhardt, but he could win. You know what I mean? That attracted a lot of people to our sport. It attracted a lot of young people to our sport, it really did. And Jeff has always conducted himself in a fashion that’s a championship fashion.

Like I told all y’all, it didn’t bother me that he wanted to fight about it. Hell, I didn’t blame him. If I was him, I’d want to fight about it, too. I never once felt bad about that. I don’t.

The fact that two 40-year-olds care about what they do, have a passion for it, that’s a great thing. Richard Petty told me, When you quit caring, you need to quit.

Part of that was cool because it showed everybody, even though we’ve been doing it for a long time, we both care a great deal, we both have a fire and a passion. But the part of actually how we got there wasn’t cool at all.

Q. Is that what NASCAR needs, a Jeff Gordon, a young guy to come in and revitalize the sport?

JEFF BURTON: Listen, our sport is a constant change of people. Rusty Wallace isn’t here anymore. He’s not driving anymore. Harry (indiscernible) isn’t driving anymore. Richard Petty isn’t driving anymore. Cale Yarborough isn’t driving anymore. There’s a constant evolution.

I hear people saying, The problem with NASCAR is there’s no personalities. What? That drives me nuts. I mean, are you not paying attention? There’s a tremendous amount of personalities.

What our sport needs is competition. Competition brings everything else. When it’s highly competitive, it’s highly passionate, it’s physical, it’s everything NASCAR is supposed to be. When the competition on the track isn’t like that, then all the other stuff goes away, too.

When you’re racing just yourself and the cars are all spread out, that’s a whole different ballgame than when everybody’s bunched up and you’re racing each other. It’s a different passion. Even though it’s passion both ways, it’s completely different. The more competition you have on the racetrack, the more close racing you have, the more all that other stuff goes on.

You can’t create it. I saw something Dale Jarrett said the other day. You can’t build that. It has to happen naturally. And he’s right. But what makes all that stuff happen naturally is good, close, competitive racing. You know, when you have that, you’re going to have all the other stuff that comes with it.

Q. Do you think everything is in place for that competitively?

JEFF BURTON: I think it’s definitely in place for that. I think if you look at what Goodyear has done with the tires, if you look at how we’ve learned more about these cars, if you look at all those things, I think, yes. We saw it last year. We saw it last year. I think you’ll see more of it this year.

Q. What about all the changes planned for the cars?

JEFF BURTON: The long-term forecast, you hear 2013, we’ve got to be back to these cars being cars people drive on the street. We’ve got to get back to a Chevrolet being a Chevrolet. You know, we took a step toward that this year, we really did. These cars look a tremendous amount better. They look more like cars.

In the future, I think that’s where our sport’s heading. Our sport’s heading back to what made it special. People take pride in owning a car. When you see your car out there racing on a racetrack, that’s cool, and we lost that a little bit.

Q. Speaking of your heritage and history, how would you explain what makes this place special to someone who might not know?

JEFF BURTON: Well, if you didn’t know a thing about NASCAR, if you didn’t know a thing about Daytona, what you’d have to do is say, Look, years ago they used to race on the beach. Race on the beach, come down and run the asphalt, turn and run up the beach. Bill France decided to build a two-and-a-half mile racetrack. Think about building a two-and-a-half mile racetrack at that time. That’s incredible. Today we’re used to it. Can you imagine what he said, You know what I’m going to do? That was insane thinking.

This is where NASCAR was born. This is where it all went down. The racetrack is here because of the people that formed NASCAR thought it was a great idea. That pretty much sums it up.

Q. This is the 10-year anniversary of Dale’s death. We’ll make a big deal about that.

JEFF BURTON: You’ve had 10 years to think about it.

Q. Is it different for you guys as a team? Is this going to be tougher?

JEFF BURTON: I think it’s a little more for our team than other teams because of Richard. You know what I mean? I wasn’t part of RCR. None of the drivers were part of RCR. Well, Kevin was. For Richard, I think it means a great deal. I think that it’s hard for Richard, it’s really hard for Richard. He really doesn’t want to talk about it. He feels obligated to talk about it for obvious reasons.

For Richard it means a great deal, so that means that it means a great deal for us. Dale and Richard were tight. You know, it wasn’t just boss. It was two friends. And they supported each other through good and bad. We tend to glamorize. They had a lot of bad times, too. Richard tells a story of him saying, Look, man, I can’t put you in the kind of cars you need in right now, you need to go drive somewhere else. Dale is saying, No, I drive for you. We’re going to work it out. I’m your driver. He has so many stories of Dale doing things to make the company better. They respected each other.

When Dale was killed, he lost more than a business (indiscernible). That means a great deal to him.

Q. What does it say about Richard and his organization saying you guys are here and stronger than ever?

JEFF BURTON: Well, there were definitely some times after that that RCR went the wrong way. I think they really missed Dale’s leadership. They really missed some direction. They really missed Dale standing on the table and saying, Damn it, boys, we need to do this.

It had to change. Richard Childress Racing had to become something it wasn’t in order to be successful. It’s the thing that as you get older becomes harder to do.

But Richard has adjusted. He’s determined for that company to be part of NASCAR in a big way forever. For him, it’s a legacy. It’s not about just being successful today, it’s about being successful 20 years from now. He’s adjusted. He’s adjusted.

A lot of car owners haven’t been able to do that. A lot of great car owners have not been able to make that adjustment. Richard has done that. I think that says a lot.

Q. When you look back 10 years, is it hard to believe how many safety advances have been made?

JEFF BURTON: If you were in my shoes 10 years ago, 11 years ago, and you asked me, said to me then, 10 years from now all these things are going to happen, I’d say, You’re nuts, there’s not the willingness, the mindset, the dedication, it will never happen. I would have been wrong. We take for granted a lot of stuff. Drivers coming in today have no concept of what this was like 10, 11 years ago. No concept.

NASCAR really had to change. I credit Brian and I credit Mike for saying, You know what, we got to do it different. When they said they were going to do it different, boy, they went and did it different. They didn’t half-ass do it different, they went full force at it. I never believed that was going to happen.

Q. You pointed out some of the younger drivers. Is it so safe right now that it’s almost cartoon or video game?

JEFF BURTON: I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that. It’s safer today than it’s ever been, but it’s still not safe. You spend enough time investigating it, you understand what actually happens internally when you hit something. This is not a safe endeavor. It is safer, but it’s still not safe.

Q. So you think those guys have somewhere…

JEFF BURTON: There’s no question. I’ve heard the concept floated by me that because it’s safer, drivers are willing to do more than they’ve ever done. I don’t buy that. I don’t drive differently today. Jeff Gordon doesn’t drive differently today. Tony Stewart doesn’t drive differently today. We drove hard then. Part of this sport is accepting that you’ve signed up. That doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to improve in safety. But you have to accept the risk.

Q. Looking forward to the rematch then of Carolina?

JEFF BURTON: We just won the game. Don’t talk about rematch left. I get at least two days (laughter). I guess every team is like this. Duke can’t create their own offense inside. This is my ignorant ass talking. Duke can’t create their own game on the inside. So when they don’t hit their shots, it really hurts them because the way their guys get points is the court gets spread. Also when you miss long shots, long rebounds, there’s breaks, the other team scores easily.

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

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

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011

Denny Darnell

Scott Sebastian

Daytona Int’l Speedway

Dodge Motorsports PR

NASCAR Media Day

Kurt Busch Open Interview

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

ddarnell@darnellcommunications.net

ssebastian@darnellcommunications.net

http://twitter.com/teamdodge http://twitter.com/teamdodge

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

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T)

HOW DOES THE 500 PLAY OUT IN YOUR HEAD? “There’s a ton of variables. I respect Daytona different than other race tracks. I feel my time is around the corner to break through for a win. You can’t expect a win to happen; you have to put yourself in position to win. Over the years, to finish second early on, that was a nice surprise. To do it the second time against Jeff Gordon – I had a move I could have made on the back straightaway; I saw the draft filing in to my inside and I had to block my position and finish second. And (Ryan) Newman, pushing him to victory in ’08, the thought was to go three wide and try to win it for myself on the back straightaway. And the way that things positioned, it was push him because we would have stalled out next to each other. What’s good is that I’ve been in position to make those thoughts, to be there on the final lap and that’s what we have to do again this year, put ourselves in position to win the race. There’s so many unknowns – the two car draft, fresh pavement, tires not wearing out, new fueling system; there’s a lot of new variable going into this year’s race and I like that. I like when there’s newness to a situation similar to when the Chase started back in ’04. It’s up to the guys that are able to adapt to the changing circumstances to win. I don’t feel like I’ve been cheated or been robbed or disappointed that I haven’t won here yet at Daytona. I was even leading in an IROC race with a quarter of a lap to go and lost it finishing second to Newman, which is funny. You just have to be there and be in position. This year, I think survival is going to be one of the key elements.”

DO YOU BREAKDOWN A PLATE RACE INTO SEGMENTS? “You break it down by whose run well in practice, and then you see who’s been practicing well. Over the years, you develop your buddy system. There are guys that haven’t won that hang out together. A guy like (Kasey) Kahne, myself, (Juan Pablo) Montoya, it’s almost like you have to battle against those guys that have won before with (Jimmie) Johnson, (Jeff) Gordon, (Dale Jr.) Earnhardt. As the race progresses at the old Daytona, you had your tire cycle – who is good on the longer runs. Now we don’t have that. Everybody is going to be fast every single lap. You’re going to have guys who flat spot their tires on pit road and come back out different in the cycle of either yellow-flag or green-flag stops. Then you break the race down into quarters- first quarter, second quarter, third quarter etc., and the different lap segments that you can make on fuel. In the end, you have to be positioned with two stops to go and be one of the cars that people have respected all day long up front.”

WHO DO YOU LIKE WORKING WITH IN THE DRAFT? “Those are the guys that have been running a few years on the circuit. I know that when I first started, there wasn’t one guy that chose to stay with me and I got ousted so to speak. It’s just an unwritten law that when you’re a veteran, you don’t really work with the rookies. You go through those hard times; you want to give those hard times back. Guys like me, Kahne, Vickers, Montoya, and Newman – of course, we’ve worked well. I’ll really be counting on (Brad) Keselowski this year. He’s a good plate racer. He’s smart and we’re expecting to team up when we can. You find those guys that you can work with. I’d like to say that I’d work with the Hendrick guys, but I more or less use those guys when I need them because I know they won’t work with me in the end when it counts.”

YOU HELPED NELSON PIQUET JR. OUT LAST YEAR. DID SOMEONE HELP YOU OUT WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? “There’s always that one key guy that you can look up to for experience and I feel like Mark Martin was my guy being teamed up with him at Roush Racing. I met Nelson Piquet Jr. through my firesuit company in Italy. They said that he’s a cool kid, just a little lost in the NASCAR world, go say hi. It was just an instant connection.”

WHAT’S IT GOING TO MEAN TO YOU NOW THAT PENSKE ONLY HAS TWO CUP CAR TEAMS? “In a sense, we have the best quality people that we can possibly bring to the race track. We have just two teams – Sam Hornish’s group, we’ve cherry picked them. We found the best key guys to help the 2 car and 22 car get stronger. We’re now bringing an extra engineer to the track each week, one that filters information solely off the seven post and wind tunnel and who helps our lead engineer communicate to the crew chief and myself better. There’s a stronger debrief session now that we’re going to have after the practice sessions.”

HOW WAS YOUR VISIT TO SHELL/PENNZOIL HEADQUARTERS LAST WEEK? WE’RE THEY PRETTY EXCITED? “It was neat to see the excitement level from that type of executive group. Here we are with some of the people that are in Europe, in Houston, they know what type of money that they are spending on the NASCAR program as well as what they’re receiving on the business-to-business side with Roger Penske, with all of the oil and fuel that he needs for his car dealerships. To get the “101” and get all the tag lines and see all the big promotions start to hit the street now is neat. When I win now, if you have a Shell Gas Saver card from Shell, you save twenty-two cents a gallon on Wednesday at the pump. This is a huge promotion that not just NASCAR fans will see, but any person that goes to a Shell station to fuel up. Who want to save twenty-two cents a gallon? Everybody.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

2011 NASCAR MEDIA DAY

DAYTONA INTERNATIOINAL SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

February 10, 2011

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARD’S CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at NASCAR Media Day and discussed . Full transcript:

TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR: “Running fast race cars. I have seen how fast all three RCR cars were last year. To start this year with four teams and everything has been going so well in the off season, we are very prepared. We got to do quite a few tests this off season. We have the learning curve of me learning a new car. Me back in a Chevrolet, that learning curve is very small. It has been really good. Looking forward to firing off in Daytona. We are as prepared as we can be for Phoenix and Las Vegas.”

CAN YOU OUTLINE WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT WILL MAKE FOR YOU BEING AT RCR? “We are so much further ahead right now than we were a year ago as far as just getting cars built and prepared for Daytona. Being prepared for Phoenix and Las Vegas and the first handful of races. It has been a very easy transition for me to come back to a Chevrolet and with Richard Childress Racing. There are a lot of familiar faces up there. Slugger (Richard Labbe, crew chief) coming with me also cuts down on the learning a new team, he has helped me with that. It has been a very seamless transition so far. It has me really excited that we will be prepared for Daytona and beyond.”

WHAT DOES THIS RACE MEAN TO YOU? “It is a hell of a way to start the season. If we run good here, it just starts the season much better. We’re here for two weeks so by the time you get to the race, it is a relief. Obviously you have to start the season strong. Daytona pays as much points as Phoenix does next week and Vegas so we will just keep chipping along.”

THE LAST TIME YOU RAN AN ECR MOTOR ON A PLATE TRACK, HOW DOES THAT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE COMING HERE? “It is huge confidence. ECR motors and Chevrolets won all four plate races last year. We were pretty happy with the speed we had in testing in our single car runs. Would like to have gotten a little bit more, but, we had a month to go back to the shop and work on the card so we will be better when we unload. That is one thing that we don’t have to worry about a whole lot, we will be pretty damn fast when it comes to restrictor plate racing.”

HOW IMPORTANT OF A FACTOR FOR YOU WAS IT THAT SLUGGER CAME WITH YOU TO RCR? “It is big. We have done some testing this off season and picked up right where we left off communication wise. The cars feel a little bit different, the engines feel a little bit different, but the learning curve is very small compared to what it could have been.”

WHAT WOULD BE A DREAM SEASON FOR YOU AND WHAT WOULD BE A NIGHTMARE SEASON FOR YOU? “I think if we could make the Chase that would be a huge deal obviously, that would be a dream season. I don’t know about a nightmare season. I don’t want to have nightmares.”

WHAT IS A SAYING THAT HELPS YOU BEHIND THE WHEEL? “I was a big fan of Al Unser, Sr., when he was racing Indy Cars. To see how he approached racing; he was always there at the end. I don’t know what the saying is, but if you are there at the end, you have a shot.”

ARE YOU OPTOMISTIC ABOUT THE SEASON? “Oh yea, we are definitely optimistic. This is as far ahead as we have ever been at the start of a season preparation wise and having cars prepared and things turned around. We had a great off season, it feels like the off season has been really long, normally it feels short but I have been ready to get back in a car in a race car at a race weekend since about three weeks after Miami. Ready to go. We are prepared and are looking forward to the year.”

HOW DID YOUR SNOWMOBILE RACING GO THIS WINTER? “This is the first winter since I can remember, probably ever, that I haven’t ridden a snowmobile. It has been great snow. At Thanksgiving when I was home, there was just a little bit of snow, but not much. Then Christmas, we had a ton of snow on the ground, but, I had a real short trip back home over Christmas. Came in there for three days and then went to Vail skiing, so skiing kind of took up some of my snowmobiling time this year. None, since I was five years old, probably, old enough to ride one. We had a lot to get ready for this season and we wanted to be ready.”

HOW HAS THE TRANSITION BEEN? “There is always a transition when you go to a new team obviously, but it feels like I have been there a lot longer than I have. A lot of people I worked with at DEI are there. Having Slugger come with, that obviously takes a huge learning curve out of it. We’ve done some testing this off season and we picked up where we left off communications wise. The cars and the motors feel great. I am ready to go.”

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

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