Category: NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 19, 2010

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Homestead Miami Speedway and discussed working with Jimmie Johnson, preparing for 2011 and other topics.  Full transcript:

HOW IS YOUR DAY AT HOMESTEAD GOING? “Going pretty good.  Surprisingly actually we’re up toward the top of the time sheet, which I was pretty happy about.  I hope we can keep it that way.  We drew an early number, but we just focus on qualifying so far.  We’ve got a new car here with a few new ideas that we’re trying out and so far, so good.”

WHAT KIND OF THINGS CAN YOU DO TO HELP JIMMIE JOHNSON? “I think the best thing we can do to contribute is have a fast race car so we can tell them the things that we’re doing that are working well and help them have a better race car for the race.  They seem to be running pretty good as well.  There’s very little we can do other than that.  Obviously if we’re running in 10th or 12th position and they need a position or two, then you do what you can there to help them.  Not a whole lot other than that.  We’ve done quite a bit already and we’ll do what we can.  I don’t know if there’s a whole lot more we can do.”

DO YOU THINK IT WILL PLAY INTO THE RACE THAT JIMMIE JOHNSON HAS ALWAYS HAD A COMFORTABLE LEAD COMING TO THIS RACE?  “It could.  I think the fact that they’re trailing and they’re going to have to push hard, they’re going to have to be smart and it starts here on qualifying day.  Those guys are incredible at getting results when they need them most.  I would never count them out.”

IS THERE A LEVEL OF DIPLOMACY AMONG DRIVERS IN A RACE LIKE THIS?  “I don’t think anybody wants to go to victory lane or win a championship or finish further up in the points by doing something stupid and something that you’re going to wish you hadn’t done.  If that’s what you’re talking about.  Other than that, I think it’s about racing hard, working hard to get the positions on and off pit road  and having a fast race car and earning those spots and those points.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THREE CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS SAYING THEY WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO WIN? “I think that those guys are hoping that they don’t get put to the full challenge of finding out what whatever is because the definition of whatever in my book might be different than theirs.  I think that you’ve got a lot of people out here still trying to win races, still have their own agenda to try to get as high up in the points as they can.  A championship is a lot on the line and I don’t think too many guys out there want to get in the way of that, but if you’re talking about winning a race, guys are going to work hard to win a race.  We’re one of those guys.  We’re going to do everything we can to stay out of the middle of the championship and do our job and be the best we can to try to win the race.  We will evaluate each situation as we go throughout the race.”

 

WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU WANT TO THE SPORT? “You tell me what the fans want changed and I’ll tell you if I agree with it or not.”

DO YOU THINK EXPERIENCE IN THE CHASE IS HELPFUL?  “We haven’t won it so I can’t say that we’ve really got a strategy that works for us.  I look at the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and the guys that have won it and they’ve just been fast and are a great race team.  The strategy that works in my opinion is have a great race team and go out there and win races.”

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER ADVENTURE? “Trying to travel across the country with a three year old is an adventure, I can tell you that.  I guess I look at racing as my job, it’s adventurous so when I’m being adventurous, probably scuba diving or looking at doing something I’ve never done before whether it be skydiving or rock climbing or trying to run a marathon or a bike race.  A lot of things out there that I would love to do that I never get the chance or opportunity to do and maybe one day that will happen.”

DO YOU THINK DRIVERS SHOULD LEARN TO NOT PANIC? “I think none of us should ever panic.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a race car driver or not – panic is the first thing that gets you in trouble.  Staying calm and cool under pressure, that’s how you handle adversity in situations and get through them.  You don’t have to be a race car driver to do that.”

DO YOU REACH A POINT AS A DRIVER TO SCALE BACK THINGS IN YOUR LIFE? “Especially when you start to have a family, I think it really kicks in because you look at how valuable your time is and how important it is to spend time with your family.  You can go out there and work, work, work, work and work to try to capitalize on the opportunities while they’re there, but there becomes a point where peace of mind and enjoying and relaxing and enjoying your time becomes important.  I think when you’re young like most of us, we feel like, let’s take advantage of it.  As you get a little bit older, you start thinking about which ones are important and just being a little more efficient with your time and enjoying your time to yourself or with your family more.”

CAN REDUCING THE CLUTTER IMPROVE YOUR RACING? “It can.  I think sometimes it’s important to have distractions to keep you from over thinking things.  Shoot, I’ve built houses, I’ve had projects and gotten myself into business situations.  I think those kinds of distractions can be good and positive, but being well-rested, I think that’s probably the best thing you can have and those are things that I cherish these days is really getting my rest.  I feel like I’m healthier, I feel like I make better decisions.”

HOW HARD IS IT TO GET BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL AFTER SOME TIME OFF? “I’m interested to see what happens because the off season gets shorter and shorter all the time.  We’ve got a new sponsor, we’re going to be working hard with them to get prepared for next year.  You want your team to get some rest, they’re going to be working hard to get ready for next year.  We already had some other sort of straight line testing plans so I’m not sure what’s going on with Daytona, they moved their dates a couple times.  I thought we were going to be tire testing or something there for sure and now I think we’re just planning for January.  We’re going to try to get that rest in there as well as all the busy things that are going to be coming along outside of any testing that right now is kind of not conclusive.  We don’t really know what is going on so we have to make our plans and plan ourselves out.  Championships are won the day we leave Homestead.  It’s rest, it’s preparation, it’s personnel changes, things to do with our race cars, all those things happen the day we leave Homestead.  We’ve got to focus on winning a championship and while we want to help Daytona get ready for the Daytona 500, we’ve got to weigh out our options as well as to how that plays into our schedule.”

HOW WILL A SMOOTH DAYTONA GOING TO CHANGE HOW THAT RACE IS RUN? “It’s all about the transitions in my opinion.  I still think that the size and shape and transitions from the straightaway to the corners at Daytona are just different enough from Talladega that I just have to believe that the bump drafting, while we’ll be trying to do it like we do it at Talladega, I just still believe that it’s going to be harder for it to be possible.  I know we’re going to be bump drafting, but pushing two cars around there like we see at Talladega, that’s what we’ll be interested to find out when we get to Daytona testing in January is whether or not we can do that.  If so, then it’s going to drastically change that race.”

DO YOU THINK BUMP DRAFTING WITH THE NEW NOSE ON THE CAR WILL BE DIFFERENT? “Every time we’re on the track, like you watch us at Talladega, every time we go and practice, we get better at it.  You get more cars that are going two-by-two out there because you know that’s how you can win the race.  If we can pull that off at Daytona, we want to find out in January and we’re going to start trying in January.  We’ll try to perfect it by February.”

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., 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 Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  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, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Friday, Nov. 19, 2010

Dodge Motorsports PR

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Ford 400

Kurt Busch Open Interview

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Tweets by TeamDodge

www.media.chrysler.com

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON DRIVING THE NO. 2 MILLER LITE DODGE FOR THE LAST TIME THIS WEEKEND AT HOMESTEAD? “Yeah, it’s been a great run. It’s tough to see it come to an end, driving the Blue Deuce. It’s been a privilege to drive the car and carry on the legacy that Rusty Wallace started. Just when I started to feel comfortable in his shoes that he left me, we had to make a change. When a sponsor requests to have you drive their car, it’s really a unique opportunity with Shell/Pennzoil coming aboard and requesting me to drive their car. It’s really neat to have a sponsor want you in this day and age and go out there to compete for wins and championships, the whole deal. That’s what we’ll have to do and I hope we start off strong next year down in Daytona. It’s been a great ride with the Blue Deuce. A bunch of wins; I think the biggest of my five-year stint driving the car is probably winning the All-Star race this year and backing it up with the Coke 600. As they say, all good things must come to an end. It’s been a great group to work with in Milwaukee. Great friendships. Good people. I’ve got enough contacts to still have some beer delivered to the house, so that will work out pretty good as well.”

AS A FORMER CHASE CHAMPION, WHAT ARE THE THREE GUYS ELIGIBLE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GOING THROUGH THIS WEEKEND? “The atmosphere that the Chase was supposed to be all about is right here, unfolding in front of us. In 2004, it was a storybook of how you write the Chase. And so these guys are definitely feeling the pressure. Every lap that you make out on the track and in practice, the intense focus is there. Those three guys are worrying themselves to death. It’s just part of the nature of how you go into the Chase…basically where it’s heads-up. If Hamlin finishes in front of the 48, he’s the champion. If the 48 finishes in front of the 11, he’s the champion. The way that I raced it back in ’04, I didn’t care that I had an 18-point lead. I just said I had to finish ahead of those guys and beat them heads-up. As luck turned out, we needed those 18 points because (Jimmie Johnson) finished second and we were fifth. Those guys are racing each other heads-up and Harvick has nothing to lose; he’s going for broke because he can’t finish worse than third in points. It’s interesting to see the three of them going at it. If I had to pick a favorite, I would go with Hamlin. His car, his team has just had more speed than the rest of the group.”

YOU’LL BE AT ROCKINGHAM FOR THE POLAR BEAR 150. WHY DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE EVENT AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GOING BACK TO ROCKINGHAM?

”We race car drivers are crazy. With how long the season is and how we look forward to the end of the year, the first thing we do is go and jump back in a race car. I’m excited and just want to go have fun. It’s that grassroots feel of when I first started racing in Street Stock back in 1996. It’s what I’m looking forward to, go out there and just kind of rough it – change some springs around, some sway bars, just get dirty and get in the mix with all the great street racers that have come to compete at this Polar Bear 150 and to do it at Rockingham. We’re taking street stock cars that are supposed to be on half-mile tracks and we’re going to a mile race track with it. I hear that it’s really close to wide open all the way around. It’s going to be excited. It’s going to be fun. I only have one full-time employee who works on race cars for me and a bunch of volunteers. It reminds me of the old school days when you just go out there and have some fun with it.”

IS IT POSSIBLE FOR PENSKE RACING TO HAVE A BREAKOUT SEASON NEXT YEAR?

“We hope that we find the right tools necessary to find the speed that we need. Yeah, we’re competitive, but we need to be better. Right now, it’s just a process of working around the clock to find different chassis designs, chassis setups, and aerodynamic changes. You name it; we’re searching high and low. With us being as competitive as we were this year and winning a couple of races, I still just felt like we weren’t where we needed to be in the Chase. It’s been a tough Chase. Overall, just the improvements made these last few weeks give us that indication that next year could be a break-out year.”

WHAT DID YOU DO TO HELP BRAD THIS YEAR? HOW MUCH WAS HE ABLE TO HELP YOU?

“It was great to work with Brad. He’s got that youthful exuberance about him where he’s on the gas all the time. He was very focused on his Nationwide program and it’s great to see him put that all together and a championship effort. I congratulate him and our group on what they’ve done and accomplished. Now we need to get him in the Cup car with that same mindset where he’s just completely focused on it and he’s getting faster and faster with the more experience that he gains. It was nice to work with him and see what he thinks about certain race tracks and how he approaches things. Anytime that you have a stronger teammate, it makes your program better. I’m really looking forward to him feeling more comfortable in his second season. That way we can definitely lean on each other harder and competing where we’re racing each other hard every week. Right now, it’s been I’ve had a solid run and they’ve been struggling a bit.”

YOUR ONE OF ONLY TWO DRIVERS TO HAVE BEATEN JIMMIE JOHNSON IN THE CHASE. WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU GIVE JIMMIE, KEVIN AND DENNY?

“Yeah, 2004 was a perfect Hollywood ending and they way that our season went and came down here to the final race. I think those guys need to race each other heads-up. You can’t expect to finish a couple of spots behind and hang on to the championship. You’re going to have to race them heads-up, that’s the way that I approached it. We even got the opportunity when things unfolded for us in our championship run that afternoon when we pitted with (Jimmie) Johnson. They were the target. No matter what they did, we did. That’s the approach and advice I’d give.”

HOW OFTEN DO YOU PONDER THE INCIDENT ON PIT ROAD IN 2004 WHEN YOU HAD THE TIRE ISSUE?

“It’s amazing how that whole day unfolded for us. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. The way that it all worked out, I can’t remember if we had the lucky dog back then, I don’t think that we did. So, we would have had to race our way back on the lead lap and that would have made it that much more difficult. But we had one key factory in that race that helped us win that championship and that’s Greg Biffle. He led and dominated all the laps that day. He was a teammate of mine who actually kept (Jimmie) Johnson from leading a lap. He kept those five points away from him and Jeff Gordon as well. If we were trying to get a lap back in the race, Biffle might have slowed up a bit more than he would have if it was someone else. He helped us tremendously. He was a great teammate and good friend.”

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, is the highest
Ford in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings heading into this
weekend – sitting in fourth place.  Edwards, who swept last week’s
Nationwide and Cup events at Phoenix, spoke to the media after
Friday’s practice session.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “Last week was a blast.
This has been the best week of the year for me.  I take that back.  My
daughter being born was the best week, but this is a close second.
We’ve been having a lot of fun.  It’s been a good week so far.  I
believe, I’m not certain, but I think we ended up fastest in the first
practice there.  We’ve got a fast race car and it’s Ford Championship
Weekend.  There are a lot of exciting things going on and it’s
exciting to have a fast race car.  It’s been fun.  Starting at Texas
in the Nationwide car, winning that race was a big deal for us, and
then to do what we did last weekend was huge.  We just need to
continue it this weekend and hopefully lock down fourth place in
points.  That would be a big accomplishment for us and we’ll just keep
truckin’.”

WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT ON STAGE WITH THE ZAC BROWN
BAND?  “It was a lot of fun.  Those guys are really nice guys.  I met
them at Talladega and I didn’t know who they were.  I heard their song
‘Chicken Fried’ but I didn’t know that was them until it was either
after we met or halfway through our conversation.  They’re just the
most down-to-earth, humble guys, so they were playing last night and
they threw it out there that I could play with them if I wanted to.  I
figured that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I had a blast.
The bass player, about halfway through the song came over and as cool
as he could be said, ‘Did they tune that guitar for you?’  I mean,
right in the middle of the song, and I said, ‘Yeah.’  And he said, ‘It
sounds out of tune.’  And he walked away.  I was like, ‘Oh, boy.’  And
then he turned around and laughed.  I thought that was pretty sly of
him.  We had a really good time, though.  It’s just a great group of
guys.  Zac Brown is starting a camp for kids and we talked a little
bit about it before we went up there, but he’s buying the property
himself, putting up all the money and following in the footsteps of
folks like Kyle and Pattie Petty, trying to do something good in the
world, so just really good guys.  It was a blast for me and I really
enjoyed it.  I don’t know if I did well or not, but I had fun and that
was my number one goal.  I’m not a good musician by any stretch of the
imagination, but I practiced that song a little bit and it was just
cool to be able to go up there and do it.  That was really, really
fun.  Those guys are massively talented and they did a good job of
making me feel comfortable.  It’s something I’ll never forget.  It was
just really, really cool.” 

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RACE THOSE THREE GUYS
ON SUNDAY?  “They’re all gonna be aggressive.  That’s the way it’s
gonna be, no matter what they say.  That’s how they got into the
position they’re in, and now it’s gonna be a great race for everyone
to watch.  I hope I’m watching the whole thing in my rearview mirror,
though.  I hope we’re fast enough that we can do what we did last
week.  We’ll see in race trim how fast our Aflac Fusion is, but Greg
looked extremely fast in race trim.  I couldn’t believe the lap he
laid down his first lap on the race track, so, to me, I don’t go into
this race even thinking about them and their situation, I go into this
race thinking what can I do to win it.  If it gets to the point where
I’m racing one of those guys really hard and I don’t feel right about
it or something, then I might consider their situation, but, for now,
those guys are just guys that we have to beat.  Last week was a good
example of that.  I raced pretty hard with Denny, right up to the
point where I thought we might be getting a little bit too racy, and I
thought it went really well.  He raced me the same way.  The points
are what they are afterwards.  I think most of us just think of going
out there and winning the race.”            

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED — DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM NOW IS WHERE WE
THOUGHT YOU WERE AFTER ’08 OR IS IT TOO SOON TO TELL?  “It’s probably
too soon to tell, but it’s interesting you phrase it that way.
Someone asked my car chief, PK, ‘Hey, has he ever won the double
before?’  They thought that was pretty neat, and he said, ‘You know
what, I think the last Cup race he won was the double.’  So that’s
back-to-back doubles for us, they just are almost 24 months apart.
What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to keep doing the things we’re doing
right now to run as well as we are.  The upside to all of this and the
thing I’m excited about is I don’t feel like we have implemented all
the things we’ve figured out yet.  I think we have a lot of really
positive things that they’re working on at the shop, so I think we
could even be better yet come Daytona, Phoenix, Vegas.  I think we’re
poised to be extremely good at the beginning of next season, maybe in
a better situation than we were at the end of 2008, where I felt like
we had been ahead and people were catching us.  I feel like now we’ve
been behind and our progress curve is steeper than theirs, possibly.”

DO YOU SENSE MATT AND JIMMY ARE STARTING TO FIND SOMETHING TO ADD TO
THE RESURGENCE AT ROUSH?  “If you look at what Matt did at Texas, I
think if that restart were to happen a couple more times, he would win
the race about half the time.  It looked like him and Denny were
similar speeds and Matt just didn’t get through turns one and two the
best way that he could have.  Matt’s an amazing race car driver.  He’s
always, I think, just kind of flown a little bit under the radar, but
his speed has been spectacular.  I think we can just get our cars a
tick better, I think all three of us are gonna be really, really good.
But, yeah, Greg’s fast almost every week.  Our team is starting to
get that way.  Matt’s that way.  We’re right on the cusp.” 

WHERE DO
YOU THINK MOST OF THE GAINS HAVE BEEN MADE?  “I really don’t know.
That’s something we talked a lot about a little bit this past week in
looking back on the win and how we were better than we were the first
Phoenix race.  It’s really hard to say where the gains are at.  Right
now, if you have everything else being equal and all the cars are
equal, the guy who qualifies the best right away has an advantage.
That helped us out at Phoenix.  We may have finished third or fourth
if we had a different pit stall at Phoenix, so right off the top, if
you say, ‘Alright, qualifying.  That’s a gain,’ because that helped
our race.  That pit stall kept us up front each time.  The engine is
something that you can’t ever discount because you use it every lap,
qualifying, leaving the pits, restarts, all of that.  I think the
engine is really important and that’s something I believe we’re a lot
better than we were a year ago and we’re still making progress on
that.  And then just little things making the race cars better race
cars, but there truly isn’t one thing like the skewed rear-end housing
or a giant leap in horsepower or something like that, it’s just a
combination of very small things.”  

IS THERE A SILVER BULLET OF HOW
YOU WOULD IMPROVE THE CHASE IF YOU COULD?  “I think the idea of the
chase and the way it is right now was a huge leap from the way
motorsports and auto racing and NASCAR have crowned a champion over
the last 60 years, so I think that in itself is a very big leap.  I
think from my perspective, which may not be the best perspective, but
as a competitor I think we should just keep it the way it is.  I think
if we let it play out, already you’ve taken a season that’s 36 races
long, you’ve compressed it down to 10 races and I think that in itself
is a big change and it’s made things tighter and closer this year, for
sure.  I think it’s not gonna be a race like this every year.  It’s
not gonna be a championship hunt like this every year, but that’s just
auto racing.  I think if you keep changing it and making knee-jerk
reactions, that diminishes the value of that championship, so,
hopefully, they’ll just stick with what we’ve got or make minimal
changes.”             

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED — HAS IT TAKEN TEAMS A FEW YEARS TO FIGURE OUT
A STRATEGY TO THE CHASE?  “I don’t know.  I think everyone looks at
that 48 team and at first when people said, ‘Oh, they saved their best
stuff for the chase.  They built up things for the chase.’  I thought,
‘That’s just the way to describe their success.  I didn’t think that
was reality, but now I think we’re all realizing that those guys
really have a strategy.  They have a real strategy to win the
championship in the last 10 races, and I think it has taken other
teams a little while to catch on to that, but this sport is so tough
that if you’re behind a little bit, you don’t have the luxury to
create some sort of strategy or implement some sort of grand plan.
You can have all the plans you want, but if you’re running 15th,
you’re still running 15th.  I think that teams are figuring out how to
focus their resources for the chase, but, still, there’s a lot of luck
involved, making sure you’re peaking at the right time – at least for
everybody but the 48 team.  I know we scramble as hard as we can all
year and I guess what I’m saying is I don’t know that there is always
a strategy with every team.” 

DO YOU REMEMBER THE ’04 RACE HERE WHEN
KURT WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP?  WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE?  “I didn’t have any
role in that race and I’m glad I didn’t because it worked out very
well for Kurt and the Roush team.  But I do remember spending a little
bit of time with Kurt before that race.  We were at the Roush sponsor
summit down at the Ocean Reef and I thought he was doing a really good
job.  At the time, there was a lot of media coverage about the battle
and I thought he had a lot of pressure on him and I thought he did a
really good job of handling it.  I sat next to him and we signed some
autographs and I felt like it helped me kind of see what he was
dealing with and see how much pressure there was on him.  I kind of
tried to put myself in his position and think how I would handle it,
and, for me, I think that was a good experience so I’m glad I was
close to it.  I didn’t get to see the race.  As it unfolded, I didn’t
realize the thing happened with the wheel falling off and all that
stuff.  That’s just spectacular and I think that was good for the
sport, and I think that Sunday these fans are in for something really
spectacular.  There’s a feeling to me in the air that this thing is
gonna come down to the last lap and it’s gonna be a spectacular race,
and I think that’s the best thing we could have, not just for us as
competitors, but for you guys and for our sponsors and for everybody.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 19, 2010

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed practice, how the track has changed over the years and other topics.  Full transcript:

 

HOW WAS PRACTICE TODAY? “It was good. I was pretty happy with it. I think we are decent in race trim. I think in qualifying trim we were alright. We need to gain a little bit. All in all I thought it was a good session.”

HOW DIFFERENT IS THIS TRACK SINCE YOU WON HERE? “It is a whole new race track. It’s not even in the same place because of that. The way you drive it; the pace you run; where you lift; that is all different now that they have banking in it.”

IS YOUR STRATEGY TO JUST RUN YOUR OWN RACE HERE? “You have to. We’re not running their race. We have to run our own race.”

IS THERE MUTUAL RESPECT OUT THERE KNOWING WHAT IS AT STAKE? “There always has been. I don’t know how long you have been covering racing, but there always has been, there always will be. This isn’t the first time somebody has raced for a championship. There has always been that respect amongst the other guys. There are 40 of us going to start the race Sunday that know what’s at stake for those three guys.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY HOLIDAY TRADITIONS YOU ARE PLANNING? “It changes every year because everybody’s schedules get tighter and tighter. It Is harder and harder to get everybody together but we always find a way.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY CONFUSION ABOUT WHAT GATE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GO OUT FOR PRACTICE, SEVERAL DRIVERS WERE DIRECTED TO THE WRONG GATE, I HEARD RYAN BROKE HIS TRANSMISSION TRYING TO GET BACK TO THE RIGHT GATE? “No, same one we have always used. Ok,”

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT SAID ABOUT SUNDAY’S RACE AMONGST THE THREE DRIVERS, DO YOU THINK ONE OF THE THREE CONTENDERS WILL DO WHATEVER THEY NEED TO DO TO WIN THE RACE AND CHAMPIONSHIP? WOULD THAT SURPRISE YOU? “I think they are all playing mind games with each other. You don’t get this far in the season and be in this position by racing guys dirty. I don’t see it coming down to the last race guys racing each other dirty.”

DO YOU ANALYZE THE SEASON AS A WHOLE OR ARE YOU CONSTANTLY MOVING FORWARD? “You have to analyze everything. It is part of the process. That is how you make your program better.”

About Chevrolet:  Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., 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 Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  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, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

FORD FAST FACTS:
•        Ford leads all manufacturers in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at
Homestead-Miami Speedway with six in 11 all-time races.  Ironically,
all of those race wins have come since Ford became the primary sponsor
of all three races in 2002.
•        Roush Fenway Racing has all six of those Ford wins, including five
in a row from 2004-2008.
•        Greg Biffle posted three straight Ford 400 victories from 2004-2006.
•        Matt Kenseth followed by winning in 2007 while Carl Edwards won in 2008.
•        All 13 Ford teams are at Homestead-Miami Speedway attempting to make
the field for Sunday’s Ford 400.

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, comes into
this weekend fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings.
He spoke about this weekend’s championship finale and the improvement
his team has made the last couple of months.

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – WHOSE POSITION DO YOU
LIKE BEST OF THE TOP THREE TITLE CONTENDERS?  “The leader.  I think
you always would rather have the most points going into a race, no
matter what, than being behind.  It’s not a big lead, so anything can
happen.” 

HOW WOULD YOU HANDICAP IT?  YOU’VE ALWAYS SPOKE HIGHLY ABOUT
JIMMIE JOHNSON AND HIS TEAM.  “They haven’t been quite on the roll
they’ve been lately, for sure, and that’s hard to say since he’s only
15 points out of the lead, but the 11’s performance seems to be quite
a bit better all year.  The 11 has been real strong, and his
performance has been real good lately, so I guess you would probably
have to give him the advantage for performance so far, but this is a
different track and a different weekend.   The 48 has the experience
of doing it the last four years, so I think it’s an interesting mix.”

DO YOU BALANCE RESPECT FOR THOSE GUYS WITH RACING YOUR OWN RACE?
“You’re not gonna give them anything.  You’re still gonna go race your
own race and try to win and get the best finish you can get, but,
certainly, you’re gonna be as respectful to them as you always are and
make sure you give them room and don’t hurt their chances to win.  I
don’t think they want anybody to give them anything and nobody will.
Everybody still has their own agenda to finish as high as they can in
the points and try to get a win or a good finish.” 

DO YOU EXPECT ALL THREE OF THEM TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO WIN THE TITLE?  “Yeah.  When
it comes to being on the track I’ve never showed up and not wanted to
win, so everybody shows up and gives it their all to get the best
result they can.” 

HAVE YOU AND JIMMY FENNIG FOUND SOMETHING THE LAST
THIRD OF THE YEAR TO BUILD ON FOR NEXT YEAR?  “Yeah, I don’t know
about just us but all of our cars seem to be faster here the last few
months.  Lately, it seems like things have been going better.  Our
cars have been faster.  Last week, I thought we probably even had a
shot at it without having that pit road penalty on our last pit stop,
so it feels like we’re gaining some momentum and the cars are quicker
and we’re understanding each other probably a little better.” 

DO YOU
THINK YOU’VE FOUND SOMETHING THAT WILL HELP LONG-TERM?  “You hate
changing stuff around all the time because it’s hard to get any kind
of consistency going.  It’s hard to build on anything when you’re
changing stuff all the time, obviously.  We’ve always got along good,
but it seems like the whole group right now is moving along.  As an
organization, our cars have been getting faster and all of them have
been more competitive, so it seems like we’re headed in the right
direction.” 

HAVE YOU AND JIMMY STARTED TO CLICK MORE?  “We’ve always
got along really good.  I actually started hanging out with Jimmy when
he was Mark’s crew chief in ’98.  Mark hooked me up with Roush Racing
and I kind of followed him around and went to testing with him to try
and learn things, so I’ve known Jimmy for a long time and we’ve always
gotten along well.”         

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED — DOES JIMMY BRING ANYTHING SPECIFIC TO YOUR
TEAM?  “Everybody has their own style and the things they like to work
on more than others, and he has his certain things that he likes to do
with the cars.  He’s brought some experience to the group and he’s
been there before.  He’s won championships and a lot of races, so he’s
got tons of experience and has seemed to help the group that way.”

HAS WHAT THE GROUP DONE LATELY GIVEN YOU HOPE FOR NEXT YEAR?  “Yeah,
I’m more thinking about Sunday right now, but if we could have a
consistent, good run and finish on Sunday, I think as a group it will
help us.  We seem to be headed in the right direction now, so,
hopefully, we can continue that.” 

YOU’VE HAD SUCH BAD LUCK IN THE
CHASE PREVIOUSLY.  DOES THIS CHASE FEEL LIKE A BREAKTHROUGH?  “It’s
been a disappointing few years for me and probably for the team as
well.  I feel like if we can get through Sunday without problems and
run as good as I feel we’re capable of, and finish fourth or fifth in
the points, I think that would be kind of a highlight for the year or
something to hang our hat on and something to look at and say, ‘It
seems like we were off, but we did finish in the top five.’  That
would great to do that, but 11th is still possible too, if things go
wrong, but that would be good for us.  If we could get a top-10 or a
top-five on Sunday and run competitively like we have here the last
few weeks and finish up well in the points, I think that would be good
for all of us.” 

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR 400TH CUP START ON SUNDAY?
“It’s just a number.  It means you’re old and you’ve been around for
a long time, but I am proud of that.  I walked in here last night and
I thought about it a little bit.  I thought of Robbie and his dad and
his family giving me a chance to run his Nationwide car to start with.
Without that, I probably wouldn’t have any starts, and without Mark
Martin’s help, so you kind of look back and think of that stuff for a
few minutes.  But when you get ready at the start of the race, it’s
just another race.” 

DO YOU SAY TO YOURSELF, ‘WHERE HAS THE TIME
GONE?’  “Yeah, but I do that all the time.  My kid is 6’3” and 17
years old.  You wonder where all that goes.  It goes by really fast,
that’s for sure.” 

IS THIS CHASE CLOSE BECAUSE TEAMS HAVE LEARNED WHAT
STRATEGY WORKS BEST?  “I don’t think it matters.  I don’t think
anybody has adjusted their strategy, it’s just that some years are
closer than others.  There are a lot of points to be gained or lost,
especially lost every week.  If you have problems or something goes
wrong and somebody gets on a roll with no problems, plus it’s
competitive, so it’s just the way it has worked out this year.”

           Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion and
three-time winner at Homestead Miami Speedway, took time to speak with
media after hitting the wall near the end of the first practice
session of the day for Sunday’s Ford 400. Biffle talked about having
to go to a back-up car, why Roush Fenway Racing has had such success
at this track and if NASCAR needs a new champion.

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END
OF PRACTICE?  “We let a bunch of air out of the tires and tried to run
the top for a qualifying run and it just didn’t work.” 

HOW IS THAT
GOING TO CHANGE THE WEEKEND FOR YOU? HOW IMPORTANT WAS THAT PRIMARY
CAR?  “It is the best car we have.”  WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR PROGRAM IS
LOOKING TOWARD NEXT YEAR AND WHERE YOU GUYS NEED TO GO?  “That wreck
there was my fault. I got talked into something that I didn’t really
think was going to be the right thing to do and ended up wrecking the
car. You know, that is experience on my part. I let it get the best of
me. I think we are positioned really good for next year though. We
have really good cars. The stuff is really fast. I just have to use my
head better than I did right there.”

WHY IS IT THAT ROUSH FENWAY SEEMS TO EXCEL AT
THIS TRACK?  “We excel at every mile-and-a-half. You can ask yourself
why that is, but I don’t have any idea. It has been a phenomenon of
ours forever. We run really good at mile-and-a-half’s. There isn’t one
that we don’t run good at if you look back at it. They don’t exist.”

THIS TRACK IS VERY UNIQUE THOUGH COMPARED TO THE OTHERS.  “It is, you
are right. This track is completely different than a lot of them. A
lot of mile-and-half’s have similarities. Kansas, Chicago, Texas and
Charlotte, those kinds of places are similar. This place is unique.”

WITH THE HOLIDAYS AROUND THE CORNER, WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO MOST AT
THAT TIME?  “I like to spend time off and think about what you are
going to be getting to do for the next month or two. Right after
Thanksgiving we get to go to Vegas for a week for the banquet. I enjoy
spending time with the family and eating too much turkey on
Thanksgiving and sitting around and kind of doing nothing.” 

IS THERE
A BIG PUSH FOR YOU TO SELL THE PET CALENDARS HERE OVER THE LAST FEW
WEEKS?  “Yeah, there has been. We are doing really well with it. Each
year it is really great. Right now we have a great business plan. If
we were traded publically on Wall Street we would be doing great.
Every year we have grown and sold more calendars. This year we are
doing exceptionally well and have sold more than we have the years
previous. We are really thankful for the people that get behind the
foundation and find a use for the calendar with all the drivers and
their pets.” 

TOMORROW THEY ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT DAYTONA AND THE
TRACK REPAVE PROJECT BEING PRETTY MUCH FINISHED. HOW HARD IS IT FOR
YOU WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN OFF FOR SO MANY WEEKS TO CLIMB BACK BEHIND THE
WHEEL OF THE CAR?  “It is going to be different this year, more so
than ever. One, it is going to be a new surface – a new Daytona that
nobody has seen, so that is new. We haven’t tested in like three years
or something, so that is going to be new. It is going to be different.
There are a lot of things that are going to be new.” 

DO YOU THINK IT
IS GOING TO CHANGE THE RACE MUCH?  “I definitely think it is going to
change the race. It will change it similar to how Talladega changed. I
honestly feel like it will change for the better. It will probably be
more exciting. We will probably be able to do a little more
bump-drafting. We should have more grip and be a little smoother. I
think it will be good.” 

YOU HAVE BEEN WITH GREG ERWIN FOR THREE AND A
HALF SEASONS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM?  “I think
it is good. They’ve got the cars going really good. We are still
learning each other I think. He has been in this sport awhile but he
continues to learn and make his notebook better for year after year,
which is what we need to do.” 

HOW DOES THIS YEAR COMPARE TO LAST YEAR
FOR YOU?  “Way better. Our cars are really fast right now and have
been ever since Chicago, ever since we kind of copied the RPM cars. As
long as we don’t screw that up I feel good about 2011 and getting four
or five wins instead of two. We had Texas won hands down and had drive
train issues that we have now fixed. It seems to be fixed here today
and the car is smooth as glass. If we would have had that fixed two
weeks ago we would have won at Texas and that would have been three
wins. We were on our way to maybe winning Chicago when our engine blew
up. A lot of exciting things for 2011 I think with maybe four or five
wins and maybe a run for the title I hope.” 

CHICAGO WAS THE BIG
TURNING POINT?  “Absolutely because if you look at before and after
those dates, before Chicago the whole company was horrible and after
the whole company was good. Carl finished second at that race and it
was his best finish of the season.” 

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK NASCAR
NEEDS TO SEE A NEW CHAMPION AFTER FOUR YEARS?  “I don’t think anybody
can disagree that it would be good for us. We want the best guy to
win. Right now there are three good guys in the hunt and I think we
could be there if we wouldn’t have had some stupid stuff happen to our
cars. I am okay with any one of the three winning it.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 19, 2010

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL/PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, is in third place in the standings, 46 points off the pace, heading into Sunday’s season finale’ at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Harvick met with media prior to Friday’s practice session, and discussed, among other things, the points race and Sunday’s race.

 

WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET NOW THAT THE RACE WEEKEND HAS BEGUN? “Most exciting thing is that I get to see you guys twice in less than 24 hours. I’m pretty pumped about that. No, really, it’s been a great week. The fan support has been just a little bit overwhelming. Obviously, the whole week has been a lot of fun, and our whole team is having a lot of fun. Everybody is loose and relaxed, and just really looking forward to getting to Sunday, and getting into the race and seeing how it all unfolds. For us, last year at this time, it was a total disaster. This year is just a 180 from everything that we’ve done, so I’ve tried to make sure that everybody is enjoying it and having fun, because win or lose it’s been a great year for us, and that’s pretty much the whole point of the whole weekend is to have fun and try to win a race and see where it all falls after that.

ARE WE GOING TO SEE A RACE ON SUNDAY WHERE THREE CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS ARE GOING TO GO ALL OUT TO WIN THE RACE?

“From listening, that seems to be everybody’s plan. I think that’s the only way you can control your destiny is to go out and win the race. Those guys have a lot of scenarios; our scenario is very simple – you go out and win the race and they have to have a fourth and a seventh, and that’s the best-case scenario. So, for us, it’s simple. And I think those guys are talking that way – whether they do that or not awaits to be seen.”

AS GOOD AS YOU AND THE ENTIRE 29 TEAM FEELS THIS WEEKEND, DO YOU HAVE SOME SYMPATHY FOR YOUR TEAMMATES – ESPECIALLY FOR CLINT BOWYER, GETTING THROWN FOR A LOOP AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CHASE, AND TO SOME EXTENT JEFF BURTON. THEY ARE AT THE OTHER END OF THE STANDINGS.

“Obviously, the way that the 33’s Chase got started where it had to deal with some controversy. As far as the pit-crew thing with that particular team, that was actually the pit crew that I had started with and had been with for a number of years. When Clint was trying to make the Chase, they moved those guys around. So that’s not the first time that that’s happened within our organization to try to make something happen. Obviously, the 31 has run great and just had a lot of crashes and things go wrong. Those guys have run just as good, but they hadn’t had the results at the end of the days to make it happen. It’s been kind of a different year for everybody from different ends of the spectrum.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON WAS ASKED HOW WELL HE SLEPT LAST NIGHT AND HE SAID FINE, BUT WASN’T SURE THAT DENNY HAMLIN DID. HOW DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT? ALSO, LOOKING AHEAD, HOW IMPORTANT IS TODAY – PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING?

“I slept fine, by the way. I don’t usually have a problem doing that. The first part of the practice session for me is the most important – to see where we are as far as our race trim stuff. And that always tends to lead us into a good direction for the second day, to get started with the first practice and then on to Happy Hour. It seems like we all kind of drew around each other in qualifying, so I don’t think the qualifying draw is going to be a huge difference. I’d love to sit up here and tell you that we were going to qualify better, but, I don’t know, I think our average is 27th, 26th, whatever it is, for the Chase, so qualifying hasn’t been our strong point. Our race cars have been really good to get to where we need to be relatively quickly. Hopefully, we can buck that trend today and have our one good qualifying session of the Chase and go on with it.”

THIS SCENARIO IS SIMILAR TO THE 1992 SEASON FINALE. DO YOU REMEMBER THAT RACE? YOU WERE PROBABLY STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.

“I was in high school. The ’92 season obviously had a very interesting end to the season, with Alan [Kulwicki] winning the championship – and I think he finished second in the race that today, led the most laps and finished second. But a lot happened. They had the accident with Davey [Allison]. Those things happen. We came down here in 2007 for me, the best scenario that I can put it up against is [Ron] Hornaday coming down 56 points behind, so I’ve lived that one. I was a part of that race. I was part of all of the emotions that we went through for two or three weeks as Ron led up to the championship, and we came down and the wheels literally fell of the 5  truck and Ron went on to make up 56 points and win the championship. It’s not a lot of points, and we’ve made well over 46 points on several occasions throughout the season on both cars.”

(QUESTION NOT RECORDED).

“I think everybody’s prone to mechanical problems. The 11, obviously, has had more mechanical problems than either of us, several times during the season. So, I think that’s a realistic scenario. Anything can happen at any given moment in this sport, and that’s the great part about it. You can have mechanical issues, you can have wrecks, penalties, you can lose your mind, you can do all kinds of things. It’s just going to be fun to see it unfold, and I think ’92 is a good example of how it could unfold. There’s no telling what’s going to happen. We may all run good enough to run in the top five and win the race, but there’s a lot going on.”

WITH ALL OF YOUR ACTIVITIES – DRIVER, TEAM OWNER – DID YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO KEEP COOL?

“There’s a lot of different scenarios that I guess we’ve been through. How we handled them the first time, probably, some of them were right and some of them were wrong, but I think as you go through all of these different scenarios, whether it’s team owner, driver, in trouble, out of trouble, whatever the case may be – usually we don’t make that mistake twice. And I think we’ve been through enough things to – obviously, there’s new situations that creep up all of the time, but we’ve been through enough to understand how things work and understand what we should do.

“I’m as aggressive on the team ownership side. I want results. I want to see the results on the race track. If you’re not doing your job, I’m going to get in your face and tell you you’re not doing your job. I’m going to do it politely now, I’m not going to tell you that you’re just dumb. I’m going to ask you to do it our way, and if you don’t want to do it our way then you’re going to have to go somewhere else and do it. We have a very specific routine that we want to see things run through, and I think a lot of that has come from the driver’s side of it and bled over into the owner’s side of it. In my mind, I have a way that I see things running.”

HOW DID THE DEEP-SEA FISHING EXPEDITION GO FOR THE TEAM, AND IS THAT AN EXAMPLE OF HOW LOOSE AND RELAXED YOUR TEAM IS? DO YOU THINK THAT CAN PLAY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE THIS WEEKEND?

“I have a very experienced team. Those guys are not going to get wound up about much. It’s not the first time they’ve gone on the fishing trip; obviously it’s a much more public fishing trip than it has been in the past. I haven’t been to the trailer yet, but I assume they all had fun, based on the pictures I’ve seen. So it looks like everybody’s having fun. And, it’s just good for them to get out of the shop. They’re as intense about this as anybody and want to go out and do the best job that they can. It’s good that they had a day and a half there, just to get their minds off of everything and just relax.”

YOU MADE A COMMENT A WHILE BACK THAT SOMEBODY ELSE NEEDS TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. IT WAS FUNNY AND KIND OF WHAT EVERYBODY ELSE WAS THINKING, BUT YOU’VE MADE A PERSONAL INVESTMENT IN THIS SPORT. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MERITS OF A DYNASTY VERSUS THE NEED FOR A FRESH STORY?

“Sometimes my filter is not strained very well. But, yeah, I think it would be great for the sport to see somebody else win – let me back up. I think this whole scenario is great for the sport, and that’s what makes me more excited than racing for the championship. I think to see the championship come down to three guys and the hype and the talk and the activity, and I see it on my Twitter page, I see it on the phone calls that come through the shop from the fans, you see it on the website and you just see the activity the last three weeks has been something we haven’t seen in several years.

“So, to me, as a team owner, as a driver, as a fan of the sport, it’s been something that’s fun to see and exciting to see. You see a lot of fans talk about not being interested in racing over the past couple of years and all of a sudden they’re popping up on Twitter, they’re popping up on your website, they’re calling the shop, and those are the people that we need back interested in the sport. I vote for somebody else to win. Jimmie’s a friend and I think that they’ve had a great run and done a great job, but there’s nothing more than anybody else wants to do, and that’s beat them right now, and it might as well be us.”

YOU SPOKE EARLIER ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF SOMEONE EVEN LOSING THEIR MIND. WHEN YOU CONSIDER THIS SEASON – “BOYS, HAVE AT IT,” EVERYTHING WE’VE ALREADY SEEN THAT’S TAKEN PLACE ON THE TRACK AT DIFFERENT TIMES, HOW DENNY HAMLIN REACTED LAST WEEK AND YESTERDAY – IS THERE POTENTIAL HERE FOR SOME REALLY BIG MOMENT, SOMETHING WHERE SOMEBODY’S GOING TO LEAVE WITH THEIR FEELINGS HURT OR SOMETHING?

“I know from our standpoint, as a driver and as a team and as an organization, I know what they expect out of me, and that’s – like I told you guys yesterday, we’ll do whatever we have to do to win the championship. And if it winds up hurting somebody’s feelings, so be it.”

About Chevrolet

Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., 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 Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  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, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 19, 2010

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET met with media and discussed his mindset going into the finale, qualifying, earlier Sunday race start time, and more. Full Transcript:

 

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AS YOUR PREPARE TO HIT THE TRACK FOR PRACTICE, AND SET YOUR SITES ON A FIFTH TITLE

“I’m just excited to get on the track and understand what our car is going to be like and what the challenges will be for the weekend. Really, you’re just thinking about what you’ve done here in the past and how your car drove and what your notes show. But today is a really big day for all three guys (championship contenders, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin) to get out there and feel out their cars and understand what the challenges will be. It’s easy for your mind to then focus on the right things because your car is either tight or loose or whatever it may be and you can really focus in on what’s important. Last night was easy; a piece of cake. I saw a couple of guys at Juan’s (Montoya) event and had a good night sleep and I’m ready to go.”

DID YOU SLEEP WELL LAST NIGHT? ARE YOU NOW A DIFFERENT GUY AT THE TRACK?

“I slept great. I don’t know if Denny (Hamlin) did, but I know I did (laughter). Last night was awesome. I got a lot of sleep and feel good for today. I’m looking forward to it and today, It’s easy to come in the gates and have a little fun with you guys (media) in here. But when I walk through the gates to the garage, it’s all about business. And it’s time to get to work and we know what we need to do and it starts today with a great qualifying effort and hopefully we can get that done.”

AT TALLADEGA, KEVIN HARVICK SAID WE NEED A NEW CHAMPION. DO YOU GET SICK OF PEOPLE BLAMING YOU FOR THE LOW ATTENDANCE AND RATINGS?

“Not really because if they’re saying that it means we’re doing well. I don’t care what people have to say. I just care about how our team performs and what we do. So be it. I guess you can’t have one without the other. I don’t believe I’m the reason. When you look at television, regardless if its sports or other popular shows or reality TV, most things have dropped, if not all. Attendance has been tough for sports in general. We certainly have our issues and it is what it is and there are so many ideas of what it might be that I can’t sit here and say it’s because of me.

“And I guess when this started; everyone said it was because of Matt Kenseth running away with the year in 2003. So if we’re trying to blame someone, we can pick someone. I can be that guy if everybody wants me to be that guy. But I think the problem was there before I came.”

ON SUNDAY, ARE WE GOING TO SEE THREE CARS CONTENDING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP, ALL OF WHOM START THIS RACING GOING ALL OUT TO WIN THIS RACE?

“Yeah, without a doubt. I think the way everybody is approaching the start of the race, qualifying will tell a tale and some guys may be in the back and may need to be aggressive to get to the front. Some guys may be up front and their job is a little bit easier. So the things needed to win the championship will kind of evolve as each lap is made this weekend. Even then, we look at last weekend’s race, the No. 11 (Hamlin) was the dominant car and fuel strategy came into play and we didn’t know until the checkered fell, who was going to finish where. So it has that potential to go all the way to the end. I hope it doesn’t. I hope it’s very easy for the No. 48 early and off we go. I don’t’ know if we’re going to have that luxury this year.”

YOU WON THE POLE FOR THIS RACE LAST YEAR WHILE ATTEMPTING TO CLINCH YOUR FOURTH TITLE. BUT IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS, NONE OF THE TOP THREE GUYS HAVE QUALIFIED BETTER THAN 17^TH AND YOU’VE ALL ENDED UP RUNNING BASICALLY IN THE TOP FIVE. SHOULD WE EXPECT TO SEE ANYTHING DIFFERENT TODAY?

“I would hope so out of us. I made a joke about it last weekend and said that we’ve been in a world class pillow fight in qualifying here lately. Nobody is qualifying well. It’s frustrating for us and we spend Fridays in qualifying trim to qualify well. And I’ll go out and run a lap, a lap I think I should be proud of and find out its 21^st. Are you kidding me? So I don’t know where that speed has gone. Some of the other guys work on race trim and then switch to qualifying trim and that’s a little more understandable, but the Chasers, well the top three, have been lacking a little bit in qualifying performance. I guess since all three have had trouble, there hasn’t been a huge discussion about it. I remember years past when one of the guys fighting for the title qualified bad, that was the headline. But when all three of us are qualifying so close together, I guess it’s a non factor. Ideally you want to start up front and we all know that. But it doesn’t mean you can’t win from behind.”

THE RACE STARTS EARLIER THIS YEAR. (CREW CHIEF) CHAD KNAUS SAID YOU COME INTO THIS RACE NOT IN THE POINTS LEAD AND YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT STARTING TIME FOR THE RACE. HOW WILL THIS RACE BE DIFFERENT THAN THE LAST FOUR YEARS?

“I think the track is going to be slick for us. We do have practice kind of in that window of time when we’ll race, so the practice session will crossover. One thing we always fight is practice in the heat of the day and then a race that starts in the afternoon or the night, is how do you set the car up?  Where are you with the balance? And we’ll have a lot of good information from tomorrow’s practice session to carry over. But I think it will be more slick. The groove has already been pretty wide, but I think that will ensure three and four-wide racing because you’re going to be looking for clean air and the track’s going to be slick so you’ll search all around the race track for a line.”

 

IS SUNDAY THE BIGGEST RACE OF YOUR CAREER? DOES THAT MATTER? IS THIS LIKE THE CROWNING MOMENT OF YOUR NASCAR CAREER AT THIS POINT? DOES IT MATTER TO YOU NOW OR IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE GOING TO REFLECT ON LATER?

“It’s something I think I’d reflect on later in life more. But you bring up a good point. To win five in a row would be the biggest moment of my career. And I think it’s the same for all three of us. It is really the biggest day of our careers. It would be the first championship for Kevin (Harvick) and for Denny (Hamlin) and then our fifth. So it’s a big day. I don’t think any of us really want to let it in and think about it too much. But the potential is there for sure.”

TO WHAT EXTENT WERE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE PIT CREW SWAP AT TEXAS AS BEING SOMETHING THAT COULD POTENTIALLY DERAIL YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP HOPES AS WE GOT TO CRUNCH TIME? WHAT INPUT DID YOU HAVE ON THAT CALL?

“Through the course of the summer, we didn’t necessarily have the performance on track. And then we’d come down pit road and we’d see a couple things here and there and it was really hard to pinpoint issues on pit road when we didn’t have the speed on the track. We had a lot of areas to work in. We felt like we’d been through so much with these guys and when we got into the Chase things would come back and we’d be fine. We had some good races but we also had some bad ones. The way things unfolded in Texas, we had an opportunity to take not a B-team, but Jeff’s (Gordon) guys that were doing a really good job, and put them in. So there, we had nothing to lose. And we had such a good afternoon with them in Texas, that going into Phoenix; I know there was a lot of discussion about it, but to us, it was real easy. We know these guys. It’s not like we brought in seven strangers to work with. We’re one big team. Even though there was a lot of criticism possibly or discussion about it in general, as much criticism as I saw, I also saw positive things. So it’s kind of a mixed bag of responses, but we felt good as a team (1) because we worked with them in Texas, and (2) they’d been there all year and they’re teammates so it didn’t really play on our minds that much.

“I don’t know what things look like following this race. I really don’t. Actually, the front tire changer, Clay (Robinson), I met when I first moved back here and was staying at (Ron) Hornaday’s house. He was there a lot as well. So, he actually put brake lines on the first Late Model that I drove. It was in my garage and it was Ron Hornaday’s son’s car and I put it together and went to the track and so it’s just wild to see that kind of come full circle. And I do know the other guys on the pit crew and have worked with them in the shop and see them around and stuff. Again, they’re not seven strangers but I have no clue what next year will look like.”

About Chevrolet

Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., 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 Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  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, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 19, 2010

 

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Homestead Miami Speedway and discussed the championship battle, the future and past at Richard Childress Racing and other topics.  Full transcript:

HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING INTO HOMESTEAD THIS WEEK? “This is my last chance to win a race this year.  It’s been a year with a lot of promise, but a lot of those haven’t been fulfilled.  This is our last chance and that’s kind of what we go into it with the mindset of – we need to win this race.  It’s been a real frustrating Chase.  Obviously for us, at the same I hate to see the year end.  I feel like the more we race, the better we would be.  This is it and we need to go out on a big note.”

DO YOU FEEL BAD FOR CLINT BOWYER BASED ON HOW HIS CHASE STARTED? “Certainly feel bad for Clint (Bowyer).  That whole thing was obviously a difficult chapter in his career.  He’ll be stronger for it.  I think all of them learned something from it and it’s unfortunate.  I do really feel bad for Clint and his entire team; really, everybody at RCR (Richard Childress Racing) for us being 11th and 12th.  We got one that’s contending for the championship and we got the other two that are 11th and 12th.  That’s not the kind of balance that we need.  When I say that – we don’t need to pull the No. 29 (Kevin Harvick) down, we need to raise the other two.  I don’t feel like, stupid to say because numbers are numbers, but I don’t feel like we’re a 12th place team, I feel like we’re better than that which is really what’s frustrating is that we’re sitting there in 12th and I feel like we’re a lot better than that.  We’ve just messed up in a lot of areas.  When I say we, I mean me too.  We’ve messed up in a lot of areas to put us in this.  Again, I like to think that we’re going to learn from it and we can use in going into the next year.  It’s exceptionally frustrating to be 12th.”

DO YOU THINK NASCAR WILL STILL MAKE CHANGES TO THE CHASE? “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.  I don’t know what NASCAR does.  I think this is exactly what they’ve been looking for and exactly what they’ve been hoping for. All of us have; all the fans and everybody has been hoping for a tight race coming into Homestead. We certainly have it this year. It will be interesting to see if NASCAR makes changes after this year. I don’t know. I don’t know what they will do. They seemed pretty set on making some changes based on what Brian (France, NASCAR chairman) said a couple months ago.  I don’t know if that’s going to change or not.  I feel like it’s probably not going to change. I feel like they will proceed because if it’s the right thing to do, it’s the right thing to do no matter what happened this year.  Still if changes are better for the sport then changes are better for the sport.”

IS SOMEBODY GOING TO GET THEIR FEELINGS HURT AT THE END OF SUNDAY’S RACE? “There’s going to be two that have their feelings hurt a lot – there’s no way around it.  There’s only one guy going to win it.  That means everybody else has to face the music, including the people that have already been eliminated.  We had to face the music four or five weeks ago and we had our feeling hurt then. The two guys that don’t win it are going to be exceptionally disappointed.  They are definitely going to have their feelings hurt.  That is what makes this sport fun to watch.  It’s what makes it fun to participate in.  You don’t have the high emotion moments and emotions are good – there’s good emotions and bad emotions and if you don’t have that, why watch it and why participate in it.  It’s why we’re all here, it’s why you all cover it, it’s why we do it, it’s why the fans watch it, it’s what sports are about.  I’m a Duke fan and the people that watched the NCAA final game last year, it was a great game, but not everybody left there with a team they wanted to win, win.  They still watched it because it was compelling and it’s what makes sports work.”

DO YOU THINK THE THREE CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS ARE GOING TO GET TOGETHER ON SUNDAY?:  “Listen, it’s been an interesting two or three weeks.  I never remember a time in our sport where there’s been this much talking.  It’s been pretty interesting.  I almost feel like we’re going to a boxing match, you know what I mean?  There’s been a lot of talking, there’s been a lot of attempted mind games, it’s been interesting.  I think that they’re all three charged up and I think they’re all three running on tilt and there’s a lot on the line.  When there’s this much on the line, things can happen.  I think they’re all going to go out and race the best way they know how.  They have to be aggressive.  There’s not one of them that cannot afford to be aggressive.  That means that if they’re running fourth and they need to be running second, they’re going to do whatever they have to do to get where they need to go.”

HOW DO YOU FULFILL THE PROMISE OF YOUR TEAM FOR NEXT YEAR? “We have to be better in several areas.  We have to have better pit stops.  We have to.  I have to do a better job at making decisions on the race track.  Todd’s (Berrier, crew chief) got to do a better job at making decisions on the pit box.  We collectively have got to find a way to bring the speed to all the weekends that we have on some of the weekends.  These are big factors, but those are the things that jump out to me that we need to be better at.  I really think that we can go fast enough to win the championship next year, but we’ve got to find the little speed that we lost through the summer.  We showed it at Phoenix, we showed it at Martinsville, but we haven’t shown it on the big tracks as of late and we’ve got to get that back.”

DO YOU THINK OTHER DRIVERS WILL HAVE TO DRIVE NEAR THE WALL ON SUNDAY AND ULTIMATELY SOMEONE WILL HIT THE WALL? “I think some people are going to run out by the wall and some people are going to be running on the bottom.  If you go back and watch the race from last year, ultimately the two fastest cars were the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and the 31 and we ran a majority of the race right on the bottom.  The 11 ran a lot of the race on the bottom as well.  There’s a case to be made that running the very bottom was a good thing, there’s also a case to be made that it’s going to be more time in the daylight because I think last year’s race obviously started later, we ended in the night.  This year it’s starts at one o’clock.  The track is going to be slicker, which tends to move you up a little bit.  It’s a distinct possibility that the line could be a fair amount up.  This track offers a lot. It offers the bottom.  It offers the middle, it offers the top, I think everybody will be using all of those, but you’re certainly going to see some cars right against the wall.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE LAST 10 YEARS AT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING? “Obviously it starts with Dale’s (Earnhardt) death – that was a huge impact on that company.  Personally and professionally.  There’s so many people there that had so much respect for Dale, not just as a race car driver, but as a person.  Dale was a lot softer than people realize – he was a good person.  He didn’t show that, but you knew that when you needed something, he was there.  I think that when Dale was killed, that left a huge gaping hole that can never be filled.  And then there seemed like there was this transition, like how do we do our program from here.  We have to expand, we have to expand and the 29 (Kevin Harvick) was always the car that ran the best.  The other cars really never could run with him.  Then as the company got better and there was more talent in there – crew chief talent, driver talent, talent throughout the shop, engineering talent – that performance started spreading through the shop in the other cars.  That was the first thing that happened to get RCR to where it could be a contender is that it was more than one team could be successful.  Then it went downhill a little bit again last year obviously.  Currently we are very technically based, I think a lot of people think we’re in Welcome, North Carolina and we’re not in the center of NASCAR world.  I will put our technical capabilities up against anybody and that’s our future.  Our future is to become a highly technical, highly skilled workforce that can do a lot of work prior to cutting a piece of steel.  That’s the way forward.  We’ve made a major investment in that over the last 18 months and those investments are the investments that we believe we have to continue to make in order to put us where we need to be three years from now.  Obviously the expansion with Paul (Menard) coming in we believe is a good thing.  We had four teams last year and it didn’t work very well.  It didn’t not work well because we had four teams, it didn’t work well because we weren’t prepared.  We wouldn’t have been good with two teams last year.  We think that Paul’s deal coming in is going to help us, it’s going to be a benefit to us in a lot of areas.  We feel like we have the resources to make investments we need to make to move us to the next area where we need to be.  We feel really strongly about the future.  As a matter of fact, I think when we made all the investments we made going into this year, I didn’t think the benefit would be seen until 18 or 24 months and we saw immediate benefits.  I feel really strong about the future.”

WHY DO YOU THINK THE TV RATINGS ARE STILL DOWN? “I’ve told you before, I honestly don’t know, but I will say this and this popped in my head, somebody asked me the same question last week and it popped in my head as I was answering the question.  If we alienated some fans over the last three years, let’s just say two or three years, for whatever reason and we can debate that forever.  Let’s say we alienated them for whatever reason.  They’re not going to come back overnight.  We have to earn them back and if we ever have a chance to earn them back – it’s now because the racing has been good.  We have a good championship battle.  There have been compelling stories on the race track.  I do think that when you lose people, they don’t pick up the paper one day and say, ‘It is a good point race, let’s start watching again.’  I think you earn them back a little bit at a time.  So that’s what I want to believe.  I want to believe that. You can’t deny that viewership is down, you can’t deny that.  I think we need to understand that and at the same token, I think we need to understand that it’s going to take some time to get it back.  I don’t think they’re going to come back overnight. I don’t fully understand why we alienated them, but I do believe that people still want to see competitive racing and people still want to see this type of racing and I think you will see the viewership start to grow again as we build trust back with the fans and they know they are going to see good racing.  Ultimately that’s what they’re going to see.  I don’t think they don’t want to watch racing, they just must not like what they were seeing.  Surely they have to like what they’re seeing now.”

HOW TRICKY IS GETTING ON AND OFF PIT ROAD AT HOMESTEAD? “I think we enter pit road off of turn four now.  I don’t think we enter it off of turn three off the access road.  I think we changed that last year or a couple years ago.  That’s not as big of an issue as it used to be when we entered off the access road, every time there was somebody going through the grass.  It is a difficult transition because the degree of banking from the pit road and the race track is pretty severe and then pit wall is quite a way around turn four so you have to check yourself getting on pit road.  The access road leaving is interesting because on the green flag, you have to be going, that becomes a race track and you have to be going full tilt.  There’s no banking, it’s slick, we’ve seen a lot of people make mistakes down there because you have to go at full speed.  When you miss it, there’s nothing to miss, you’re in the grass.  It is a difficult, but I believe we enter off of turn four now.”

ARE YOU ABLE TO KEEP MORE SECRETS WITH THE SHOP IN WELCOME, NORTH CAROLINA? “It’s very difficult to keep the things that you learn, there’s always an effort to buy knowledge from other teams.  When I say that, it’s hiring employees, there’s a lot of that that goes on.  There’s a lot of feelings that are hurt, there are more feelings that are hurt on that on a weekly basis then there are on the race track.  We have some distinct advantages being in Welcome and we have some disadvantages being in Welcome.  We have a lot of talented, highly-skilled people that live in our area that don’t want to move to Mooresville, don’t want to move to Concord, love where they work and we don’t have to battle to keep them as hard.  However when we want to get somebody from Concord or Mooresville, it’s harder for us to get them because there’s a drive involved.  We get some advantages and we get some disadvantages.  Being isolated, with the way technology is today and the way word spreads today, I think you could be in Arizona and it wouldn’t matter.  That part of it is not as big of an issue as you would think because people talk, people get hired away, people come in.  It’s always going to be a problem.  Again, we have distinct advantages and disadvantages from being there.”

DO SOME OF THE YOUNGER DRIVERS KNOW WHAT DALE EARNHARDT MEANT TO THE SPORT EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN’T RACE AGAINST HIM?:  “I think that you’d have to be in a hole to not understand the impact that Dale (Earnhardt) had on the sport.  I will say that it is a different perspective from being at RCR (Richard Childress Racing) because you never do anything that you don’t hear about Dale.  The fans, obviously they’re Dale’s fans and always will be, but they are Richard’s (Childress, team owner) fans too and they’re pulling for Richard Childress as well.  It’s a different perspective.  was lucky enough to race with him and see that side of it, but at the same time, being at RCR, it’s hard to understand the passion the fans had, even still today.  We have fans in there all the time that are there to see Dale’s stuff.  It’s a different perspective.  For me, I like it, it’s cool.  It was a great part of our sports history and legacy and to be, when you drive for Richard, you drive for Dale’s car owner and Dale’s partner and Dale’s buddy and being there you still feel that and the fans really hold onto that.”

About Chevrolet Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., 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 Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  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, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

November 19, 2010

 

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEERIOS/HAMBURGER HELPER CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed his season, success of RCR, teammates in the Chase at the final race and other topics.  Full transcript:

 

TALK ABOUT YOUR MINDSET COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND HERE AT HOMESTEAD: “I guess the mindset for me is, one more. Finally. (LAUGHS). It has definitely been an up and down season. It has been a successful season. The resurgence at RCR, just so proud of everybody at RCR for digging deep and getting the ship turned around and pointed back in the right direction. A lot of things that were changed in the off-season last year ended up being some of the best things that we have ever had happen at RCR as far as the depth of the organization. The reasons that we found ourselves back in a hole I don’t think will happen again because of some of the changes in the off-season…the engineering staff, reorganizing the competition director support to crew chiefs, just so many things have changed that I think ultimately will keep us from digging ourselves a hole.”

DO YOU FLASHBACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON AND THINK ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN? “Well, you never know where you can be, but I can promise you we would be a lot farther ahead than we are. We’d have been somewhere in the top-five. Not only was it the 150-point hit, it was devastating to the momentum, your mojo. Everything that happens when something like that happens, it takes the wind out of your sales big time. You lost your crew chief for four weeks that ultimately led to us losing our over-the-wall pit crew. That was our ace-in-the-hole all season long. We lost them for the rest of the season. There are so many things that just 150 points that we lost. The two weeks after that, we ran terrible. Our focus wasn’t there; we didn’t have our eye on the ball. Our focus was distracted and we ran poorly because of that. It is just a frustrating end to a pretty good season. Making the Chase with all three cars. A lot of the things we were able to accomplish; winning two races were all good things but, when you are sitting here at Homestead, you want to be competing and have a shot at a championship.”

WITH THE BOYS, HAVE AT IT, ALL THE THINGS THAT HAVE GONE ON, IS THERE A POTENTIAL FOR SOMEONE TO END UP WITH SOME HURT FEELINGS AFTER SUNDAY? “In light of everything that has happened all season long, you can expect something dramatic to happen. Everything else has happened that way this season. It would be only fitting that we get a pretty dramatic finish. Hats off to everybody involved in this sport, this has been a great year. You can’t take that away. It has been great racing on and sometimes off the race track. There have just been so many great things this year that are positive things; it makes me feel good about being a part of this sport. Great racing on the race track. Altercations. Emotions. Everything that a fan likes to see in this sport, we’ve seen this year. The rules changes with the double-file restarts, multiple attempts at a green-white-checkereds, the spoiler change; there are just a lot of things that have happened this year, when you look back at it, that are great things that have led to great racing for our fans. For it to come down to this, to be honest with you, I figured there would be at least five cars racing for that championship. They are talking about rule changes and things like that; I think they’ve made the appropriate changes. I don’t think they need to change the Chase. I think the competition is closer than it has ever been. That is what we were lacking. I think a lot of these rule changes with the double-file restarts shake things up in a big way with these races. You don’t see that one guy stretching the points lead out and getting away.”

IF YOU HAD A LOT MONEY AND WENT TO LAS VEGAS, WHO YOU BETTING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “Oh, you have to bet on your teammate. His odds are a little less, but usually they pay better. It is just a great race. That is probably the neatest thing about it, you really can’t handicap anybody. They all three have a legitimate shot at winning this championship and that’s a great thing.”

WHAT ROLL IF ANY WILL TEAMMATES PLAY? “On Sunday, it’s too late I think. Through practice sessions and things like that, we’ve got to be able to think outside the box a little bit, work on some things and if we can find a package that is superior to maybe what Kevin (Harvick) has, maybe we could help him out there. I gave him my pit crew and we’re trying. We have to everything we can do and I feel like we’ve done that.”

WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS LEARNED THAT WILL CARRY OVER TO NEXT SEASON? “It is kind of funny. You think about this season and how things started. Last season, despite how bad of a season it was, the last 10 races, we were back to running well. Competing, running up front and actually one of the three of us I thought was going to get a win inside that Chase even last year so I was pretty optimistic looking forward to this year. So this year with the success we’ve had, I feel like now we need to continue down the path we are on, improve on a few minor things. If we do that, we are going to be winning more races than we did this year and be even better. Right now we have a great baseline package; we have to fine-tune it and just get a little more out of it.”

ARE THERE TEAM ORDERS FOR YOU GUYS REGARDING THE MANUFACTURER, WOULD YOU RATHER SEE A CHEVROLET WIN? “Yes, absolutely. Who doesn’t want to see a Chevy win? They are used to winning championship, manufacturers’ championships…everything they have been able to accomplish. I hope a Chevy wins; it better win.”

 

ARE YOU GOING TO DO ANYTHING TO HELP THAT? “You have to put it in perspective. You can’t go out there; there is nothing you can do. If I’m running third and he wants to negotiate a deal (LAUGHS) and he is running fourth and I need to let him around to win a championship, maybe we could talk. (LAUGHS) The spotters might be busy.”

IS YOUR TEAM AS A TEAMMATE DOING THINGS TO HELP THE NO. 29 IN THE CHASE? “You have to realize all the technology that is in all three of those cars all come from the same office, the engineering side of things. You take what they learn, what they give you and you try to make the best of it. Certainly, that is what we do. You have to remember that the baseline, key components of your setup package come from the same place. It is what you do, how you put the pieces of the puzzle together that make up the difference. I’m not trying anything different, I’m just, like I said; put the pieces of the puzzle of the package a little bit different; maybe better. If you can come up with a better package, you owe it to your teammates to try and help them out. That is how you help a teammate.”

HAVE YOU HELPED THE NO. 29 OUT WITH ANY SETUPS THE LAST SIX OR EIGHT RACES? “We’ve worked on some things for sure. Texas, we were a little bit better. You always do that, not just in the Chase format; that is what got us all three cars in the Chase is working together. In a multi-car team, the ones that are successful work together and they stick together. If they don’t, they’re not going to be as successful as the ones that do.”

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., 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 Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly” solutions, such as the upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco model that is expected to deliver up to an estimated 40 mpg highway, and 2011 Chevrolet Volt that will offer 25-50 miles of electric driving and an additional 310 miles of extended range with the onboard generator (based on GM testing).  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, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Team Chevy drivers Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet and Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, were guests at the NASCAR Championship Contenders press conference today. Full transcript:

November 18, 2010

An interview with:

JIMMIE JOHNSON

KEVIN HARVICK

RAMSEY POSTON:  Good afternoon, everyone.  I’m Ramsey Poston, NASCAR’s managing director of communications.  Thanks on behalf of the France family and the NASCAR community for attending today’s championship contenders press conference here at the Hyatt Regency, Coral Gables, which is hosting us for the third consecutive year.  I also want to welcome everyone who is tuning in live on SPEED TV, Sirius XM 128 and NASCAR.com.

            The stage is set for an exciting season finale for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunday at Homestead Miami Speedway.  Is this the best Chase ever?  I think most people would agree.  Our three drivers still in contention for the series title are separated by just 46 points.  So close you can cover them with a blanket.  It’s going to be exciting, fun on Sunday.

            First a couple quick words about today’s format.  After introductions and some short opening conversations with our contenders, we’ll have a general Q&A session with the media here.  That will be followed by a separate breakout interview session with each of the contenders.

            Before we get started, I’d like to introduce a special guest with us on hand today:  NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Bobby Allison.  Bobby, welcome.  Bobby will also be available in the breakout session immediately following this.

            Again, I want to thank the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables and its staff for its hospitality and acknowledge the City of Coral Gables for once again in the way they’ve welcomed us.

            It’s now my pleasure to introduce our guest MC for today’s program.  He’s one of the most recognizable voices in all of motorsports.  His broadcasting style reflects our sport.  He’s all about enthusiasm and energy.  Yes, I’m proud to report that he continues to live his life shootout style.  He’s also one of the true gentlemen in our sport.  Please welcome today’s host from Motor Racing Network and Sirius radio, the Postman, Steve Post.

            STEVE POST:  Thanks.  It is great to be here.  I can’t believe Ford Championship Weekend, Homestead Miami Speedway as we wrap up what arguably is the best Chase in the history of the format.

            When you think about it, 26 races to determine the Chase field, nine exciting, thrilling, topsy turvy playoff races.  It all boils down to this, one day, one race, 400 miles, and three drivers:  Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, and Denny Hamlin.  They’re the last three still standing.

            Face it, folks, this season has been tumultuous, it’s been adventurous, it’s been wild.  You pick the adjective, and that can describe the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.  Wild, zany, take a pick.  This will be remembered as the season where the drivers took the racing into their own hands, and then they proceeded to take their best shot at each other.

            It all kind of started before the season with the tone NASCAR set with one simple phrase that defined the boundaries of the interaction between the drivers.  That phrase:  Boys, have at it.  And did they ever.  Take a look at this.

STEVE POST:  With that as the backdrop, I’d like to take this time to formally introduce our special guests here tonight.  Starting on my immediate right, this driver is looking to give team owner Richard Childress his seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship and first since 1999.

            Amazing tenacity when we think about this team, not only across the season, but each individual race as they scrap for every point and every week made their racecar better as the race went on from beginning to end.

            Here he is, with three wins this season, third in points coming into this weekend’s race here in Homestead Miami, 46 points out, welcome Kevin Harvick.

            Talk about needing no introduction, to the far right of the stage from my perspective, here is our four time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.  He’s made history in recent series and looking to duplicate and increase upon that history, would shock nobody if he did.  In fact, in seven years of this Chase format, every season he has come to Ford Championship Weekend in contention to win.  That’s amazing.  Second in points, 15 points out of first.  He has six race wins this season, which is second on the series.  Here he is, welcome our reigning four time champ Jimmie Johnson.

            And finally the man in the middle, kind of in the first class seat as we go into this weekend, leading in the points, also leading the series with eight victories.  Pre season he was considered by many of us to be most likely to take the championship from Jimmie Johnson.  As the season went on, not only did he have success, but he persevered.  Thinking back to March when the knee injury took his beloved game of basketball and maybe bit him a little bit, put him on the sidelines from basketball, but he persevered through that, won races, put himself in the Chase, and over the last nine races has gone toe to toe not only with Jimmie Johnson but with Kevin Harvick.  Welcome, please, current points leader Denny Hamlin.

            We’re going to start with just a couple of questions before we get into the informal question and answer session.  I’ll start with Kevin.

            Kevin, you dominated the regular season.  Now you find yourself playing catch up here with one race to go.  What’s it going to take to get back to the top?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  For us it wouldn’t be right if we weren’t coming from behind.  Seems like that’s kind of the way our whole year has gone.  We’ve always had to overcome something.

            I’m proud of everybody at RCR for everything they’ve done.  For us, it’s all positive from here.  We’re going to finish either where we are or better when we get done.  So we’re just going to go out.  The guys have done a great job.  They brought probably the best car we’ve taken to the racetrack all year as far as everything we have to measure it as far as dynos and wind tunnels.  We’ll just go out and see what happens.

            So we’ll race hard and go from there.

            STEVE POST:  Kevin, when we talked about tenacity, Talladega, damaged racecar, last week the miscue on pit road, yet to be able to come back and turn a negative into a positive, talk about Gil Martin and you as a driver and the success you’ve had in the second half of these races and rocketed through the field, most weeks you find yourself in good shape at the end.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  We’ve had a lot of practice from passing cars from qualifying bad.  I guess you just call it a bad qualifier from my whole career from go karts up.

            But, yeah, they’ve done a great job.  Nobody gets too wound up about having something go wrong.  Obviously, this isn’t the first time we’ve all been a part of something like this.  Everybody on our team has either raced for Nationwide championships or been a part of this before.

            It’s fun.  This is what we’re supposed to do.  For us, there’s not a lot for us to lose.  Obviously these guys are a few points ahead of us.  We just race as hard as we can.  Winning a race makes things a lot better for us.  So this has been statistically, which I know you guys all love statistics, this is definitely our best racetrack as far as statistics go.  So that’s a good thing.

            STEVE POST:  Kevin, congratulations on an amazing season.  Best of luck Sunday.

            Jimmie, turn it over to you.  A rare situation for you, coming in not the points leader.  What is it like trailing coming into this race?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It’s different from what we’ve seen the last four years.  Through my career, my Cup career as well, there’s been five other years where I wasn’t in this position, wasn’t in the position of leading the points at the end.  It’s different of recent time, but it is what it is.  In professional sports, things aren’t always going to work out as you hope.  I wish we were leading the points and had the pressure of defending a championship down here.

            But I’m making the most of where we are.  It’s not far from where we are to where Denny is.  We’re going to have to go out and have a great day on Sunday afternoon, take it from there, see what happens.

            STEVE POST:  I know your preference would have been to wrap it up at Texas or Phoenix.  A lot of times you’ve come in 26th, having to do this, having to do that.  Is there something maybe not easier but simple knowing that it’s pretty much toe to toe, you just need to score more points than Denny Hamlin?  Is it something simpler coming into this weekend with this scenario?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s based on experience of being here in the last four years or the situation of chasing.  But I’m in a very, very good place racing for this championship, and really enjoying it.  I see how it’s good for our sport.  It’s good for the champion, whoever that guy is going to be.  I’m excited for it.  Man, I am a race fan at heart.  I’m enjoying being a part of something as cool as this.

            We’ll buckle down and do everything we can.  For my sake, I certainly hope to come out on top.

            STEVE POST: At this point in the agenda, I’d like to turn it back to NASCAR’s Ramsay Poston who will conduct a question and answer session.

            RAMSEY POSTON:  We’ll now move into our Q&A session.

            Q.  All season the three of you have been the three best drivers.  How important is it from each of your perspectives that the three of you are going to decide the championship?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  Even with the Chase, you let I guess nine other guys back into the championship hunt, and the three cars that have run the best all year have risen back to the top.

            For me, I think it’s fun to be able to challenge yourself and race against the best guys that have been the best all year to see where you stack up in the end.  I think it’s the best way that it could have shaken out.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  A lot of things, they’ve taken it all.  They’re right.

            Q.  Two of you have beards, one does not.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m a Gillette young gun.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Don’t they kick you out when you’re 30?  I thought that was the way it was supposed to work.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Newman hit 30 (smiling).

            Q.  Jimmie and Kevin, you came through Camp Hornaday, slept on his couch.  Denny, we found out earlier this year you consider Kevin your closest friend in the garage.  Is it ironic the three of you sit up there together with one race to go, winner take all, the ties that you three share for one reason or another?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Just to add to that, I think it’s cool.  I see Ron, Lindy walking around.  Not only from Kevin and I’s perspective of being there, growing up at Camp Hornaday, there’s a lot of guys walking through the garage area that Ron and Lindy helped out, gave a start to.

            I think it was an All Star Race a couple years back, Kevin won, I ran second, I saw Hornaday.  I said, How cool is that?  Two guys that came through your house racing for one of the biggest paychecks in the sport?

            I think it’s great.  A lot of fun.  Kevin and I go back from Ron’s house way back.  I got to know Denny here in the recent times, all that.  I think it’s cool that we’re representing California like we are.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Obviously, there is a mutual respect between the three of us.  But in the end, I mean, it’s what’s best for your race team.  I think we all understand that the friendships off the racetrack don’t follow onto the racetrack.  We have to do what’s best for our teams.

            Obviously, the Hornaday factor with Jimmie and I is something that’s fun because Ron is still a part of my everyday life as far as our race teams.  But I think probably the biggest thing we learned to do at Ron’s was drink beer.  That will carry over well to next year (laughter).

            Q.  Do you find it awkward, as Denny said?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Like I say, he definitely seems like the most nervous, though (smiling).  I told my guys on Tuesday, I said, This is something that we all like to do.  But this is what you race for.  We can all be friends and acquaintances, but it is a little bit awkward when you’re in situations like this.  You still have to do what’s right for your team, and that’s whatever it takes to win on the racetrack, so…

            Q.  This isn’t likely to happen, but it could come down to two or three of you guys racing for this over the last four or five laps.  In that kind of situation, do you feel comfortable with almost any kind of aggressive move, fenders in the doors, this sort of thing, considering the ‘boys have at it’ approach?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I know what my approach will be, so…  You do whatever’s best for your team to win a championship.  That’s whatever it takes.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I have to agree.  After 38 races or 36 points races at this point, the dreams of winning a championship that we all have, you’ll do anything you can to win.

            Q.  At one point Jimmie talked about being talked off the ledge, asking his spotter to sing to him and stuff like that.  When it’s so close, not the mental game of mentally gaming each other, but what part of it and what do you deal with what you’re going to have to do in the racecar during all of this with all of this going on, how you plan to deal with that?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, you know, there’s different pressures that we all have on us going into this final race.  From past experience, the last four championships, distractions have been good for me to take my mind off of the obvious.  Some people need to really focus hard, spend more time in that space trying to be more engaged, involved in what it is.

            I’m the other way around.  I need to break it up.  It’s natural for me to be in there and overthink things.  Joking around with my spotter, finding different things to occupy my time during the week or weekend to take my mind off racing has worked great for me.

            At the end of the day, you can’t escape that pressure.  When you go to bed at night, your mind starts to slow down, it’s inevitable.  The thoughts of pressure and championship come to mind.  I’ve experienced it every year I’ve ever been in the hunt for a championship.

            After a while, you kind of get used to those feelings, nerves, all that stuff, try to corral and deal with it to the best of your ability.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think for me, I was more nervous about starting the Chase and more uptight as we went through the first five, six, seven weeks about not being able to be in contention when we got to this point.  Sure, we’re 46 points behind, but I was more nervous about failing to get to this point than I had been last week or this week.

            I’ve been more relaxed this week than I have been the whole Chase to be honest with you, because this is the moment you live for.  This is the easy part, in my opinion, to go out and race the car for a championship.  This week you get all the things that you asked for.  The only thing that’s not guaranteed is the championship.

            But for our team in particular, you look at last year, it was just a total disaster.  It was the worst year that we’ve ever had at RCR.  So it’s a win win situation for us.  There’s no losing in a situation for everybody at RCR and myself.  We’ve learned a lot of things that can help us go forward.  Dealing with the pressure is easy at this point.  I was more worried about failing to get to this point.

            Q.  This particular race, going into the last race at Homestead, I think about the way this race starts, the way the practice sessions go and everything.  When practice starts, everybody kind of runs on the bottom and middle of the track.  Qualifying you run on the bottom and middle.  Every single time when this race starts, I think Darlington.  When the race is over in Darlington, we see three quarters of the field with the right side of the cars tore off, pretty well destroyed.  This particular race, going into it, looks like those corners have the possibility to be a little bit treacherous.  Is that on your mind going into this race?  You got good pit stops, good drivers, that’s in your hands.  Is that something that bugs you?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You know, the track has a lot of racing room on it.  I’ve had success running the bottom here before.  The top seems to be kind of working of late.  I think with the race being in the sun, we’re going to be searching all over for clean asphalt.

            I think you’re going to have to have a car and the mindset that you need to search and move around and be comfortable with that, within your own means of driving the car, work on a racecar that can do that in practice.

            Anymore, it seems like that last six inches near the wall there’s a lot of grip at a lot of tracks we go to.  You run up there for a while, the whole field is there, then pretty soon that area is slick and you have to move on somewhere else.  It could be exciting.  Guys will be up there chasing that last little bit of grip.

            I’m not too concerned about it, to be honest with you.  There’s a lot of room on the track.  Doesn’t look like it, but it’s kind of that Michigan mentality where if it’s not working here, I’ll move somewhere else and try it.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think the biggest key is the daytime start.  When you look back at these races, you see cars you’ve had to set up for the night, otherwise you’ll be wait too tight.  You do everything you can to tighten your car up at the beginning.

            I think the daytime start is a much bigger factor than what we’ve had in the past.  The cars, you look back at the beginning of a lot of these races, are sliding around in the beginning of the race is when a lot of that happens.

            For me, I’m excited about the daytime start because we always seem to run a lot better during the day.  These cars are tough.  You can bounce them off the wall.  At Texas I hit the wall so hard, I thought we were done.  Knocked the bolts out of the thing, knocked the spoiler over.  The car got a little bit tight.

            Especially in our scenario, we can take that risk of running high.  That seems to be our kind of preferred groove this season, to run really high.  We’ve gotten a lot better at it.  You can scrape it off the wall a few times.  The daytime start, in my opinion, is the biggest factor in everything.

            Q.  As we saw in the video, guys aren’t afraid to say what you think about each other.  Knowing that, each one of you, can you tell me what irks you about the other two drivers.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  For me, Denny is the fact that he’s in the lead.  I guess Kevin, he’s lurking back there in third.

            What else did you expect out of me (smiling)?  Come on. ).

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I’ll give you something. I think the thing that irks me the most probably about Denny’s team is his crew chief.  Jimmie is the fact that he’s probably won the last four championships.  Not that that’s mean or anything.  It’s just when a guy’s won four in a row, you beat your head against the wall and wonder, Why can’t we be competitive enough, why can’t the whole sport be good enough to keep somebody from winning four in a row?

            Q.  How important are pit stops and pit strategies going to be for this race?  We saw from last weekend Kevin had a lug nut issue which wound up turning good in his favor.  Denny, you came in and took some tires and fuel, took away from your chance to win.  Jimmie stayed out and kept his position and points.  How important is it going to be to keep those pit stops perfect and have the right strategy to be at the top when we come to the end of the race?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think as we’ve gone down the last two years, the race has come down to fuel mileage.  Last year Denny stayed out, if I remember right.  The year before, it came down to the same thing.

            It’s all important.  Last week we got lucky with our pit stop.  Those guys seem to make one error in about every 50 races.  So I feel I put my pit crew that I have right now up against anybody.  The fuel mileage is going to be a big factor as we come to Sunday.  I hope they put that same carburetor on your car Sunday.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Hopefully it’s one that’s worse (laughter).

            Q.  Watching the three of you when we were seeing the video, the golden horseshoe remark, you were smiling about it, enjoying it.  Jimmie, does this feel a little bit different, this championship?  In the past couple of years, love fest might be a little bit too much, but it’s been your teammate or friend.  You guys have taken a couple pokes at each other.  It’s gotten different this year.  I think the fans are probably enjoying that, too.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, you know, with it not being a Mark Martin or Jeff Gordon, the teammate situation, we’re excited for what happens for the company.  It changes the dynamics.  We all drive for three different teams.  All have dreams of being champions for various different reasons.

            It is a different year, a different Chase.  I kind of think every year is different for that matter.  I know the last four we’ve had the same result.  But every year, every championship battle has had its own little quirks to it.

            This year has been very exciting for our sport.  There’s been plenty of comments and stuff flying around from all angles, doesn’t matter if it’s drivers, crew chiefs, it’s come from everywhere.

            It’s good for our sport.  I think it’s something we all recognize as well.  You got to have thick skin if you’re going to be a pro athlete, especially in NASCAR.  All the opportunities we have to get at one another.  A level of the sportsmanship amongst the comments.  It’s good to have this banter, it’s good to have this stuff.  We’re all having fun with it, making the most of it.  Not just us three, but through the whole field.

            One of the things we were laughing at on the video is how consistent some drivers were in every highlight.  Might think about that one a little bit (laughter).

            Q.  Jimmie, obviously different dynamics this year in terms of you going in with the points scenario.  Kind of the thoughts in your head.  You touched upon the pressure a little bit.  What are you processing as the weeks go on?  You’re a little bit of the underdog right now as opposed to being the favorite.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, for us, I mean, we have nothing to lose.  This guy does (referring to Hamlin).  It’s a much different perspective for us.  I’ve been here in the past with even a big points lead and have been concerned about dropping the ball.

            When you’re defending, your mind starts to change and you start to think about the ‘what ifs’.  When you’re chasing, it’s more about, What do I need to do?  It’s been a much more relaxed week for me, even though I’m down 15 points, that I’ve experienced before.

            All the jokes aside, it’s just about performing.  We need to go out and have a great day.  Even then, I have to assume he’s going to have a great day, and so will Kevin.  Why not just get it done.  I don’t know.  Glad to be a part of it and look forward to doing all I can on Sunday.

            Q.  You talked a little bit earlier about the approach you will have racing each other.  The odds are that you probably will be.  Is there a line?  What is the line that you’ll go up to but maybe not cross or would cross if it came down to the final laps for the championship?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m not sure any of us can give you an answer.  We’ll go out and race and see what happens.  I mean, it’s tough for us to sit up here   I know you want to hear it   but for sure, if the 11 is in front of me, we’re coming to the line, I’m going to dump his ass.  You can’t say.  We’re not thinking about those scenarios.  It’s about going out and racing as hard as you can.

            Maybe I’m wrong, but from my standpoint, I haven’t thought about last lap scenario, what do I do.  I’m more concerned about, How can I run as fast as I can

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Yeah, you know, obviously you want to outrun the other team, and you want to do it as fair as you can.  I think if it comes down to the end, I’ll sleep fine.  I’ll do whatever I have to do (smiling).

            Q.  About this awkwardness, Jimmie, you told us last week at Phoenix that you didn’t want to hear what Denny had to say, you didn’t want to be in the same room with him.  Now that you’re up there, it seems like you’re enjoying it a little bit, needling him.  Would you rather still be in a soundproof booth like on a game show or do you like being up there and having this little banter and interaction?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, at Phoenix I had an option to not go in the media room and hear what he had to say.  My deal, as you guys know, I don’t tune into what’s going on, just choose to live in my little bubble, my little world, and do my thing.  It’s worked for me.

            For us all to have some fun with it, I’m just trying to remind Denny that he has everything to lose and we’re only 15 points back.  Really not anything to fret over, Denny.  But that’s it, you know, just having fun (smiling).

            Q.  Kevin, you talked about playing loose.  At the same time it’s been a long time since Richard Childress Racing has won a championship at this level.  Do you ever allow yourself to think about what it would be like to be the guy to bring that back to Richard after so long a drought?  Since it’s been since ’94, is that ever a weight on the organization or you?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think those are a lot of things that Richard and I realized last year when we went through our spat, I guess you could say as we went through the end of last year.  We want the same goals.  He wants to go back to Victory Lane.  He wants to win a championship.  We’ve achieved all those things this year except for a championship.

            Obviously, as we sat and talked, those are the things that everyone wants to achieve that gets to this level.  We’ve all won at every level that we’ve ever come from.  That’s the ultimate goal that you want to achieve.

            But it’s different, to be honest with you.  We talked about the pressure of the situation.  It just seems like, you know, we’ve been through so much together.  It all has worked backwards for me with coming in, with taking over Dale’s car.  You started with the biggest press conference you’ll ever be a part of in your whole life.  You start with the weight of the world on your shoulders.  As it’s gone through the years, it’s gotten easier.  It’s almost like you’ve gotten prepared for these situations before you even got started.

            I guess the point of the story, Richard and I have been through a lot together.  We’ve talked about what we have to do to get to this point.  Whether we win or lose this year, we’ve taken a huge step towards achieving those goals and put ourselves as a company back in contention to what looks to be hopefully consistency as we go forward to racing for championships.

            It’s taken a while.  We’ve been there sporadically from ’03 to ’06, but we didn’t step it up when it was time like we feel we’ve gotten better in the last 10 weeks this year.

            It’s what we want to achieve as an organization.  And Richard has been there at this level.  I think all the pieces are there to do that.  It’s just about making it all happen.

            Q.  Why are you going to win the championship?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think for us, it’s one of those scenarios where we don’t have any pressure on us.  We go and we race as hard as we can.  Hopefully they put that same carburetor on Denny’s car that they had last week.

            For us, it’s going to come down to those guys.  I think the 11 needs to make a mistake.  We’ve got to outrun both of them.  So for us it’s very simple:  you let it all hang out, see where it all falls in the end, see where the mistakes crop up this week.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  For us, the small points gap, the way we’ll win the championship is by doing our jobs.  If we go out and lead the most laps, win the race, we’ll be potentially in a tie situation.  But that’s what our motive is.  That’s what we need to do, is go out and do our jobs.  We’re capable of doing it.  We’ve done it in the past.  Now it’s time to step up as a team and go out and do it.

            Q.  A lot of people don’t realize how physically demanding your sport is.  Could you each maybe give an example of how demanding it is and what perhaps you’ve added or changed in your fitness regimen to deal with those demands.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It definitely is.  I think each time the media center mentions I’m the 2009 male athlete of the year, I take pride in that.  I know it was important to the France family to have NASCAR drivers and racecar drivers recognized as athletes.  Training is part of my week and part of my year and something that’s necessary.  You know, I think the more athletes that come to our events and are around, there’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes, maybe not in the headlines, but our sport is getting the credit it deserves.  Not only the drivers, but the guys going over the wall, the work that’s done during the pit stops.  I’m so happy to see it come in our direction.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Yeah, I think as you look at the sport, how much it’s changed from the physical part of it, I think as you look at the guys that are successful, you know, you have to be physically fit.  For me, I treat it much like I did when I wrestled in high school.  You try to eat and prepare.

            Still in the end the biggest thing for us is hydration.  It’s pretty easy to stay in shape and keep your weight where it needs to be with the six, seven, eight pounds that you can lose on any given race weekend during the summer.

            Just maintaining the hydration part is the most important.

            Q.  It’s great that NASCAR listens to its fans.  What changes do you think the NASCAR world needs, if anything?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  In my opinion, I think the Chase has been good for our sport.  I’d like to see a little bit more diversity in the racetracks.  I don’t think the last 10 weeks should be the same racetracks over and over and over again.  I think it should rotate around.  I think that would help particular race markets get better.

            You have it end at different places, have it start at different places.  Maybe you go to some of the same racetracks, but I think a different 10 weeks, even a road course at the end of the year would put that full diversity I guess you could say on your champion to getting to all the different styles of racetracks.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I think a shorter schedule would be awesome.  Shorter races, too.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You’ll have one hell of a race.  10 lap race at Talladega.  You won’t have to worry about people riding then.

            Q.  Jimmie, how do you feel about the sentiment that somebody else, anybody else, needs to win it?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It’s a compliment.  I want to choose to look at it as a compliment.  We’ve done our job over the last four years.  I guess I do understand if the shoe was on the other foot, I was watching someone take the trophy away four times in a row, I’d get tired of it, too.  Even from a fan base side.

            Believe me, from a guy that spent most of his career as a B to C driver, I’m relishing in the spotlight that we’ve been in, enjoying it.  I never thought I’d be in this position.

            I know it won’t last forever.  That also needs to be said.  Going to ride the wave as long as we can, see what we can do.  I think when people are on a run, doesn’t matter the sport, at that time it’s hard for everyone to embrace it.  But when they reflect back on it, it’s:  Look at the run that so and so is on, the Lakers, the Yankees.  You reflect back on it with a much different perspective.  I guess in time people will reflect back on what we’ve done with the four and a potential fifth.

            Q.  I want to bring up something that seems to always be sensitive with a lot of fans, and that’s team tactics, not talking about somebody leading for five points early in the race.  I want to give you a specific scenario, because we’ve seen it in Formula One, and in drag racing.  We get to the final laps.  One of your teammates is up front.  You hear over the radio someone, team owner, crew chief, telling that teammate to move over because it means the difference with you winning the championship or not.  What is your personal position?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I think for me being a team owner, being a part of these championships before with Hornaday, there’s a lot that your teammates can do to help you.  I think you look back at 2008.  We had Ryan Newman in one truck and Hornaday in the other.  I think if it comes down to a win, you’re looking at one scenario.

            I think in ’07 and ’09 in the Truck Series deal, without our second truck, we probably wouldn’t have won a championship to help push Ron and push the vehicles.  We went out and led the most laps in two out of the last three races to take the points away from Kyle.

            There are a lot of things that your teammates can do as far as those things go.  I think if it’s winning a race, it’s one thing.  But for the company, a car winning a championship is the best thing that you could have for your organization.  Half the fans will tell you that it’s not right, the other half will call you stupid.  You do what’s right for your organization.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m aware of examples, the points they’re making.  I certainly understand that, the points that are being made.

            I could say in the nine years I’ve driven for Rick, it’s never been asked of me, and I’ve never been asked or been in a position to ask a fellow teammate to do that for me.  My teammates have been racing against me for the championship, so they’re never going to pull over and give me the points.

            I can’t say that I’ve experienced it.  I’ve seen it and it takes place.  As a fan watching it in other sports, there’s one side where you despise it, and another side where, Well, I guess I get it.

            So far I can say I’ve never been talked to about it, it’s not on our radar going into this race.  We plan on going fast and taking care of it ourselves.

            RAMSEY POSTON:  Thank you, gentlemen.  I want to thank everyone for attending today’s press conference.

     FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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