NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
MEDIA DAY
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 12, 2015
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Media Day at Daytona International Speedway
WHEN YOU ARE IN A SITUATION LIKE THAT AS AN ATHLETE (IN REFERENCE TO THE LAST CALL IN THE SUPERBOWL) BECAUSE THAT TYPE OF THING HAPPENS IN RACES SOMETIMES TOO. IS THAT PART OF THE PRO ATHLETE MENTALITY THAT YOU HAVE TO PUT THAT KIND OF STUFF BEHIND YOU?
“I think some people do a better job than others at that. I think it actually happens pretty often in racing. Things happen and you either get over it or you don’t. The good guys definitely find a way to get over it and they are fine the next day.”
KEITH (RODDEN) SAID HE IS NOT AFRAID TO CRACK THE WHIP:
“He never has been.”
IS THAT ONE OF THE REASONS HE IS THE KIND OF GUY YOU NEED RIGHT NOW?
“Well I think that is guy I need. I need someone who will push me harder and ask more out of me and also out of the team and out of everybody there. I feel like Keith will do that and he will also crack the whip like you say. He is aggressive, he pushes hard, he wants it and he will get what he needs.”
KEITH IS A HUGE SPORTS FAN AND HE SEEMS SO COMPETITIVE IN EVERYTHING HE DOES:
“He has always been that way. That is just Keith. That is how he has been as an engineer and as a crew chief. I’m looking forward to the season and getting started with him.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE KEITH IS THE KIND OF GUY YOU NEED RIGHT NOW TO PROPEL YOU TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
“Yeah, I definitely think we needed to make a change and needed to do something different. To be able to get Keith back, someone that I have actually worked with since 2004 as an engineer on a Nationwide team. It’s been a long time and I just like how he is aggressive, how he wants it. He pays so close attention to things. I can talk to him about anything from sports to anything. It has been a really good off season.”
WHY DIDN’T YOU RUN THE CHILI BOWL?
“I went and raced Yuma and did a little bit of sprint car racing, so I took Chili Bowl off, but I realized about the second day of not being at Chili Bowl that I was missing it. Since then I have ordered a midget and I will get it probably in April and start building it for next year’s Chili Bowl. Sometimes you have to take a year off to realize that you want to be there again.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK RICO ABREU’S POTENTIAL IS?
“I think Rico is a great person, really good kid. He wants to race. He puts a lot into it. He is really focused and has a lot of talent and he is really good and aggressive. If he can pick up the feel of a stock car, of our radial tires and things if he picks that feel up it will be a lot of fun to watch what he does.”
HOW HARD IS IT TO PICK THAT FEEL UP?
“I think it’s really hard because it is a really different feel from anything that I have done prior to racing in NASCAR. Sometimes you pick it up sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you get a long enough period of time to pick it up sometimes you don’t. Then other guys just adapt to it quickly. Kyle Larson for example it’s just like anything else to him. It’s just all about kind of who you are, what you’ve done, what you’ve raced and how quickly you adapt to completely different situations.”
WHAT DID YOU MISS ABOUT THE CHILI BOWL?
“Just racing. I didn’t miss the five straight days of walking around on a cement floor and smelling fumes and being sick the sixth day. When you head home you always have some type of a cold. I didn’t miss all that, but I missed the racing. I missed being there. I love watching the fans there and each night I watched video every single night and each night you see the place is just about full. And full the last three or four nights and I just love watching that and the excitement that Chili Bowl brings.”
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR FIRST DAYTONA 500?
“I remember the 125’s we were running pretty well and came down pit road and I thought I saw my pit so I slowed up and Jeff hit me from behind and spun me to the inside. Then I don’t really remember anything else about the 125’s and then the Daytona 500 I remember starting didn’t have a good starting spot and blew up early in the race. It wasn’t a good start to my NASCAR career.”
WAS THERE ANY ANXIOUSNESS?
“I would imagine I was very nervous. I still get nervous not near as what I used to, but I’ve always been the kind of guy that gets a little nervous right before the start of a race. Like before you get in the car, once you get in the car I feel really good, but prior to getting in that hour it seems like two hours to me. Now today it seems like an hour and 10 minutes, but back then it was a solid two hours and it seemed like forever and just get really anxious. I think that was probably it. I don’t remember the 500 that well just because we blew up and just kind of put it out of my mind.”
IS THAT SOMETHING THAT KEITH WILL BE ABLE TO HELP YOU WITH? CALMING YOU A LITTLE MORE?
“It’s tough to say because I haven’t really ever worked with Keith in that situation. I think we will learn a lot about ourselves, about the team, about where we stand by Atlanta, Vegas. Somewhere in there I think we will know a lot about where we are at and what we need to do to be better. But it is definitely going to be different and I actually look forward to that. I look forward to the challenge, look forward to a bit of a new front. Because it has been the same for so long and I’m the biggest supporter of Kenny Francis there is, but we just wanted to both do something different. It is really nice that where we both are today. I am really happy and he is really happy. I think Keith is going to do a great job for us.”
IS IT SO MUCH BETTER TO COME BACK THIS YEAR AND START ALL OVER AGAIN? HOW DID YOU WEATHER THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF LAST YEAR SO WELL?
“I mean it was just what was thrown at me and you just kind of go with it and try to prepare the best you can for the next race and do all that you can. Things just didn’t work out for us. They haven’t over the years at time, but last year seemed to be a little worse than others. I am looking forward to getting started this year and seeing where things are, seeing how much different they are. We had a great off season with the team guys, with all the guys and kind of building that team, the leadership part of it. I think all that stuff will help and we will learn that pretty quickly into the season.”
IF YOU CAN HANDLE THE TOUGH TIMES AND GET THROUGH IT, IT ALMOST MAKES YOU STRONGER AND YOU HAVE A STRONGER TEAM:
“Well racing is a lot of up’s and down’s. It is somewhat of a roller coaster because our up’s have been pretty high and our down’s have been pretty low. I would like that line to be a lot flatter personally.”
DID YOU LEAN ON JIMMIE JOHNSON AT ALL LAST YEAR? YES, HE HAD FOUR WINS, BUT IT WASN’T A JIMMIE LIKE SEASON:
“Jimmie was super-fast at times, but he was also not very fast at all at times and that had to be tough on him and their team as well. Me and Jimmie talked some about those things, but it was just a different year. I don’t know what the deal was, but it just didn’t work out for myself or our team as well as I would have hoped it would have.”
KEITH KUNZ WHAT IS IT ABOUT HIM THAT KNOWS HOW TO IDENTIFY TALENT?
“I never really raced a lot for Keith. I only raced one time for Keith. I know Tony (Stewart) raced a little more for Keith. (Kyle) Larson raced a lot for Keith and I think there have been Rico (Abreu), Brad Sweet, Christopher Bell, he has a lot of good drivers over the years. Jay Drake was driving when I was in midgets and I raced Jay a lot and that was Keith’s driver. So yeah Keith has always been really good. He stuck to one thing, he really only runs those midgets and does a great job with them. Really helps his drivers learn that type of racing and progress really fast.”