NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COCA-COLA 600
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 23, 2013
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET met with media and discussed rescue animals due to Oklahoma tornados, the challenges for the 600 race, what Memorial Day means to him, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Q. With all the tornado stuff going on in Oklahoma, are you doing any rescue things there?
RYAN NEWMAN: Actually we have been in really close contact, Krissie has been really in close contact with the Code 3 Associates people because that’s their line of work. We do some things and I think Krissie can probably speak more so on what we will do because some of that stuff is so delayed, people are getting their lives together before they get their animals’ lives back together. But Code 3 Associates basically has to get the clearance to be able to come in and help in a situation like that, but myself and Krissie have kept in contact with the people at Code 3 and I know that they’re working on that. There’s nothing directly that I know of. I know there are some things that will go through the pipeline, but like I said, it’s a delayed reaction because it kind of has to be because of their situation.
Q. Talk about how challenging this race is, the 600, and how much strategies plays into it.
RYAN NEWMAN: Strategy is a part of every race. The majority of crew chiefs work the race backwards, because you have to work from the last run to where you’re at. It’s a challenging race because of the longevity of it, because of the timing of it, starting in the sun, in the heat, on a track that’s typically biased to more heat in 3 and 4 than 1 and 2. The shade happens in 1 and 2 way earlier in the afternoon than it does in 3 and 4. That’s a part of it that we just don’t see at other racetracks. Managing your car, managing your engine, managing your pit stops, keeping yourself in the hunt, all those things come into play at each and every race, it’s just that it takes more effort because it’s a longer race and you have to keep yourself in the hunt for maybe two more fuel runs here than some other racetracks.
Q. What does Memorial Day mean to you?
RYAN NEWMAN: Memorial Day says it all. It’s remembering family members, friends, everybody that has made a difference for us to be able to have the freedoms that we have, and I say freedoms, not just the freedom, the freedoms that we have to be able to do so many things in our lives, just to have that clear conscience of being able to walk across the street, being able to walk across the parking lot, to be able to drive a race car, go do things with your family. Memorial Day is about remembering all the people that have made so many sacrifices to be in the position that we are with our country, and that’s why we’re proud of people like Oral‑B who make such a big deal out of something that’s built in the USA. We’re proud of who we are, we’re proud how we got to where we are, and Memorial Day is a time to celebrate that freedom.
Q. The troops that you met in your time with the military, working for the Army as their driver, did you meet a lot of people?
RYAN NEWMAN: I’ve met a ton of people and heard a ton of stories and not all of them you can remember. You remember certain situations and certain people, but in the end I think it makes you a different person, and I’ve always told you that I took it for granted, things that the soldiers do for us and the sacrifices that they make, and those are the soldiers that I’ve talked to. I’m sure there are millions of other soldiers who have done so many different things. To get to visit hospitals like Walter Reed and to see some of the soldiers who are wounded and talk to their families, and at the end of the day they put a smile on your face, because they make you feel wanted, and I actually ‑‑ a soldier who is now a good friend of mine, his name is Greg Stube, I think a lot of us kind of know him in the NASCAR world. He’s the one that touched me the most. He came up to me and totally out of the blue, just happened to be a fan of mine, but totally out of the blue he told me you’re who we are fight for, and I’m like, what are you talking about? I’m like, I just drive a race car. He said, no you’re who we are fighting for, you’re the people who represent the American freedom that enjoy what we have given you, and that to me says so much. It says so much about him personally but I think mainly the motives behind the members of the military that give so many sacrifices.
Q. (Inaudible.)
RYAN NEWMAN: We’re just lagging back. It’s kind of like the Tiger Woods approach, you know? Wait until Sunday.
Q. Do you guys think that it took you guys a while to ‑‑ not you guys necessarily, but the organization as a whole to realize, hey, we are behind ‑‑
RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t know that you can necessarily say behind. I think behind is a loaded word. I think our guys have been doing a good job. I think a lot of our development has been on time with respect to the new car and I think we just haven’t got the entire package when it comes to the setup quite right yet. But there’s a behind way of looking at it. We’re not behind body‑wise I don’t feel. I don’t feel like we’re behind power‑wise. I think the Hendrick guys do a great job with that. But balancing all four tires of the race car, I’d say we’re lacking in that. That’s not necessarily behind, maybe behind in development, but it’s something that we can click on right away. It’s not something that takes three, four, five months to get things pushed through the system. I think that we’re always continually working on it as are the guys on top of the board. But rest assured, nobody is sleeping more than they should.
Q. In terms of the strategies of this race, were you able to learn something last week for this race being a long race?
RYAN NEWMAN: Not necessarily from the day to the night because really last week in the All‑Star Race it was all night. We started with a clear visor and it was dark out. It’s going to be different Sunday night, with all respect to the weather, but it’s just such a different race. The 20‑lap segments, they’re basically sprints. Everybody was in a position where you probably have to put tires on, you have to put tires on at the end, so the strategy is entirely different for that race than it is the Coca‑Cola 600.
We’ll see. I think we have the potential to be good and our Quicken Loans Chevrolet is better today in practice than we showed. I didn’t get the last good lap I should have in qualifying, and I think that qualifying tonight is something I always enjoy, something we can hopefully make a good rebound in.
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bsp; Q. Are you expecting anything different out of the race with the new car here?
RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t think so. I think we saw how hard it was to pass here in the All‑Star Race. Some of my restarts were something that I was proud of. I passed six cars at one end of the racetrack one time. It’s difficult to pass when we’re going as fast as we are, I’ve always said, and the faster you go the harder it is to pass. The air makes a bigger difference in the race car.
Q. The penalties a few weeks ago, did that send any kind of shock wave through the garage and does that change your approach thinking okay maybe we can now try things and it might not be so punishing?
RYAN NEWMAN: I think that approach from a penalty standpoint is more on a crew chief’s shoulders than it is mine. But as a team he makes those decisions. He’s the one that’s missing six weeks. The driver doesn’t miss six weeks. As a team, yes, there is a compound effect there, but the crew chief is the one that is responsible for 90 percent of those things I’ll say.
I think the appeal process was a little bit I’ll say questioning. Just kind of to me seems confusing as to how it would get as far as it did and uphold the penalties and all of a sudden one guy just says let’s reduce it. That’s happened three times if I remember right; the last three times in a row it’s gone to that point and it’s been reduced.
I don’t know, I don’t know that it’s necessarily good for our sport, but it is what it is, and they still upheld the majority of the penalties. I think a lot of the guys in the garage know that there are some things that make sense and there are some things that don’t make sense with respect to those penalties, and we all go on.
Q. (Inaudible.)
RYAN NEWMAN: What do they say? I don’t remember.
Q. Is Dover really like a giant Bristol?
RYAN NEWMAN: It is a big brother to Bristol, and we tested up there, all of Stewart‑Haas tested up there, and feel like we made some improvements on our cars for sure, and we actually tried to do some of those things here at Charlotte for the All‑Star Race and just couldn’t get it to click in practice. Dover in is its own animal because of the speeds there and it is a very important track, as well, from a track position standpoint because of how fast it is. But I enjoy it because it’s concrete, doesn’t seem to change a whole lot. If you usually get a car right at Dover you can keep it right the entire day.
Q. Do you have to have a championship to be a leader in the garage?
RYAN NEWMAN: Do you have to have a championship to be a leader in the garage? Depends on who you’re looking for your leadership from.
Q. How do you feel?
RYAN NEWMAN: I don’t know, if you’re looking for it amongst your peers I don’t think you need to. I think there’s guys in this garage that have never won a championship that are considered leaders. Mark Martin comes to mind first.
But I don’t necessarily think that I would think any more of Mark if he was a champion. I think he’s a great experienced driver. But at the same time if you look at the perspective of it, are you talking from NASCAR’s perspective or the drivers’ perspective because they’re two entirely different things.
Q. How do you see Mark Martin as a leader?
RYAN NEWMAN: I think he’s a driver that’s been instrumental in somebody like Joey Logano’s career, to stand behind him, give everybody his word on the kind of driver he thought he was. He’s been ‑‑ not that it’s bad, he’s been so many places and he’s done so much and he’s still a part of this sport, it just kind of tells you the kind of guy that he is. There’s drivers that move around and slide right on out, but he’s moved around and stayed on top.
Q. Brad Keselowski said at the awards ceremony I’m your champion and now I want to be your leader. Is he a leader? Do you guys view him as a leader?
RYAN NEWMAN: A leader is somebody you look up to. It all depends on your position. If you look up to somebody like that, then yeah, he is your leader, but if you don’t, then somebody else is.
Q. Do you look up to him?
RYAN NEWMAN: Do I look up to Brad? Only when I’m standing next to him.
Q. A lot of people will look at some of the struggles of this organizations and its ties with Hendrick Motorsports and look at some of the things Hendrick is doing and say Hendrick is doing it, why can’t Stewart‑Haas have that similar type of success, understanding there’s two different organizations but there should be a pipeline, so can you explain to a fan out there that looks at the ties with Hendrick, why there would seem to be such a disparity?
RYAN NEWMAN: Simply said, it’s just ties with Hendrick, that doesn’t mean that we have their spring inventory, it doesn’t mean that we’re building the same shocks, it doesn’t mean that we’re setting the same air pressures. Just because we have the inventory of knowledge doesn’t mean we have the inventory of performance.
And then I think conversely if you look at 2011 when Tony won five out of the 10 Chase races, I think if you’re a Hendrick fan, you’re wondering why isn’t Rick Hendrick and these guys checking out ‑‑ Jimmie Johnson and Jeff and all these guys copying what the 14 is doing. I mean, it’s part of the cycles of racing. We all click at certain times.
Q. With this season the new car, obviously Goodyear brought out a new tire and a lot of tracks continue to do that. How does that change things for you as a driver? The tire changing throughout the season, it seems like it’s at a bigger rate than ‑‑
RYAN NEWMAN: I think the tire is the only part of the race car that touches the racetrack, so it’s very pivotal in how we balance our race cars, and with the addition of downforce and the addition of speed, the tires has got that much more of a focus on what we have to do to make the race cars turn and go fast. Yeah, it’s super important, and Goodyear knows that, and I think NASCAR knows that they put some pressure on Goodyear because of the added downforce and speed.
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p; I don’t think it’s anything any different than what we’ve ever had, it’s just maybe on a different scale than what we’ve ever had because Goodyear has always changed the tires and always changed the compound and the construction and the durability side of it. I don’t think any of that is new, maybe just the magnitude of it.
Q. Can you talk about qualifying today?
RYAN NEWMAN: Sure. We’re going to go out and do one lap probably, as fast as we can.
Q. Talk about qualifying in Charlotte.
RYAN NEWMAN: It’s a track that you really have to step up your game because of the speeds increase because of the temperature change typically is a good bit with the sun going down and the shade in the middle of 1 and 2 with the condos and stuff. You really have to be on your game, and fortunately we got a good draw for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet with 33rd. So probably the best draw we’ve had all season at a place that really means a lot, and we’ll see if we can make the best of it.
