CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 5 OF 10
HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 14, 2016
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed his win last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the recent speed of Hendrick Motorsports, Tony Stewart’s legacy in NASCAR and many other topics. Full Transcript:
DOES YOUR SEVENTH CHAMPIONSHIP SEEM MORE ATTAINABLE NOW THAT YOU ARE OFFICIALLY MOVING ON TO THE ROUND OF 8?
“Yeah it’s definitely more realistic because we are alive and transferring to the Round of 8. There is still so much racing between now and then. We have had some consistent runs, so definitely building confidence in that. The Victory is a huge boost there is no way around that for myself, my crew members, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. We are definitely building momentum at the right time, it’s probably later than we would’ve liked, but at least it’s going in the right direction. We will see where it goes from here. We clearly are in that Round of 8, but man, this Chase, I think some felt like it got off to a calm start. Then last weekend with half the Chasers having issues in the race, I think it just shows anything can happen. The guys that are living it day in and day out we don’t take it for granted. I’m certainly not taking it for granted and don’t think I’m in a layup situation for Homestead by any stretch. We need to make sure we are part of that final four and there is a lot of work between now and then.”
IT SEEMS LIKE IF YOU WIN THE FIRST RACE IN A ROUND YOU WOULD BE MORE APT TO WIN OTHER RACES IN THAT ROUND BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE IS THAT NOT THE APPROACH?
“Yeah, I mean it’s definitely the approach, but you just can’t take for granted how difficult it is to win in our sport. Secondly, I think there are certain tracks that fit certain companies and certain styles that drivers might have or a crew chief might have. I think that is a big player as well. In this elimination round you could look at a team that has fast 1.5-mile cars and think that they are a favorite for the first two, but Talladega you have no clue what is going to happen there. Then in the next round you have a short track and some big tracks, so, it’s just tough. I think it’s real hard to favor or pick a favorite for somebody that could win all three or win multiple times.”
DO YOU GO INTO THESE NEXT TWO RACES WITH A NOTHING TO LOSE ATTITUDE?
“I think we are going to take them as they come. If we have troubles early in either of them it will be easy to just brush it off and say ‘hey we are locked in, we will move on.’ But ideally I want to keep the pressure on our team. I want us to have more exposure to race winning pressure, championship pressure. I feel that makes everybody stronger on the race team and there are trophies to go get. I want more trophies this year without a doubt. We are showing up with the normal mindset. I think it would be smart for us to not change anything and take the pressure off of ourselves. You’ve got to be at 100 percent for these final races.”
HAS HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS SPEED IN THE CHASE BEEN SURPRISING TO YOU?
“I wouldn’t say surprising. It’s tough because we try to show our optimism through interviews and social posts that we might make. I think if you look back over the course of the last few months our comments have all been directionally optimistic and been building speed. To not close on a couple events that we led a lot of laps at at the start of the Chase I think that finally showed everybody that we weren’t just ‘bs’ing’ them and that we really did have the speed. To us it was frustrating that we didn’t close and we didn’t execute like we needed to. Then Charlotte we did so. So, for the No. 48 team that has kind of been the progression and the way things have gone. It was real nice to have a clean, solid race in Charlotte and get the win.”
WILL YOU BE CHASE’S (ELLIOTT) WINGMAN AT TALLADEGA OR ARE THERE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP HIM A LITTLE BIT HERE EVENT THAT MIGHT GET HIM TO THE NEXT ROUND?
“I think from an on-track standpoint Talladega is about the only place I could help him and could work with him. We want to win the race here and do all that we can and if we can’t of course we want the No. 24 to. They need to have a great day, but if there is a dual at the end of the race between us and the No. 24 I’m here to win the race. I know for a fact Chase and Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) would expect us to do that. So, there is not much we can do here other than the prep that we’ve had leading into this week and how awesome our teams have been working together and the ground we’ve covered in a short period of time. That element is still there, still going on. We have all been leaning on each other tremendously, so that will also be there, but come race time we still have to race. Talladega is probably the one place I can help him.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANGE TO LOOK AT THE PROPOSED 2017 RULES? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SPOILER REDUCTION AND BIOMETRICS FOR THE DRIVER’S?
“We are all wanting slower center of corner speeds. We all feel that will put on a better race. The slower the center of corner speed is the more off throttle time we create, the more opportunities there are to pass, the more opportunities there are to make mistakes, the more opportunities you have to work on the handling of your race car. Directionally, that is the way the sport is going. I think the smaller spoiler is going to help us. We saw a nice improvement across all matrixes with the 2016 package and 2017 is another step of that. I will be here Monday testing the 2017 package and get a real good feel for it.
“Then biometrics it’s cool to show and it’s another talking point. I think the broadcast booth and then how it’s integrated into the NASCAR app and things could be really cool and something else for the fans to see.”
DID YOU AT ANY POINT FEEL IRRELEVANT WHEN YOU WERE KNOCKED OUT OF THE CHASE SO EARLY LAST YEAR?
“No, I didn’t feel irrelevant. Disappointed, especially last year the way that it happened, but I didn’t feel like I was… if we ran well we got the attention we deserved. It was unfortunate we didn’t have a chance to win the championship or have a shot at the championship, but I didn’t feel like I… I think I’ve heard ‘second-class’ citizen used before. I didn’t feel any of that took place. If you still go out there and run well and run up front you are going to get all the exposure that you and your team need and deserve. I didn’t feel that way.”
DO YOU THINK HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS NEEDS TO ACTIVELY RECRUIT ANOTHER ORGANIZATION OF THE STEWART-HAAS RACING CALIBER TO GIVE YOU THE EXTRA DATA AND THINGS OR DO YOU THINK HENDRICK IS STRONG ENOUGH ON IT’S OWN TO PERSEVERE?
“You know that environment is tricky. Just to be selfishly speaking on Hendrick Motorsports the Stewart-Haas relationship we didn’t get their data. We didn’t share their data, they had ours. So, it was a fantastic situation for them. They had our best stuff and then they have a huge engineering staff and they can take Hendrick’s best equipment and refine it and make it better. I think the (Joe) Gibb’s (Racing) group is going to be experiencing and has been experiencing that with the Furniture Row side. You know before Rodney Childers and Kevin Harvick were at Stewart-Haas it worked pretty good for us. We had a bunch of income for the company, didn’t have to worry about racing for wins or championships against the Stewart-Haas equipment, but those guys changed the game and bringing Kurt Busch and Tony himself and all that is there you start questioning the relationship and if it really is the right thing, especially, with us not sharing the data. There were some things going on that were helpful and data was moving around a little bit, but they really had all the rights to our stuff; we didn’t have the rights to theirs. It’s tricky. If Mr. Hendrick can raise the money to not have that relationship, I think for us, selfishly it is better not to. We would always like to have some people running our engines and trying to do durability stuff on new motors that are coming out. I would imagine having a couple of cars out there we will always have that, but a team at that high of caliber again, I believe we would look really hard before we made that decision again.”
DID THIS VERSION OF THE CHASE REQUIRE SOME RETHINKING OF HOW YOU APPROACH WEEKENDS AND SEGMENTS?
“Yeah, it’s different. I mean every year, it’s only been three, but every situation has been different for me. I’ve invested a lot of time and thinking… which is hard for me to do for those of you who know me well; I’m not very good at thinking. It’s all been wasted energy because you have no clue what is going to happen. You worry about yourself, but then if others have trouble, when they have trouble it is chaos to be in… the first round start when there are 16, sure you worry about points. But as each round goes by one mistake and I’m so glad I’m not one of the teams that had trouble at Charlotte, it’s just tough. There is no clear cut path to be one of the final four at Homestead.”
WHAT HAS TONY STEWART MEANT TO THIS SPORT, THIS SERIES AS A COMPETITOR?
“He has kept it exciting it doesn’t matter who you are. The competitor on track is fierce, extremely talented. I look at him as a guy that is like the AJ Foyt or Parnelli Jones of our era that has raced anything and everything and has won races and championships in everything. It takes such a talent to do that. I can’t imagine between open wheel and NASCAR to be able to find that last tenth to be a race winner, what detail goes into that. I think it speaks to his skill sets. He is going to be missed. I’m thankful he is going to be around. I know that motorsports in general is going to benefit now that his focus just isn’t on driving with all the other interests he has in racing. He is a fierce competitor, an amazing friend, especially when you get the helmet off of him. You can go from wanting to kill each other on the race track to crashing each other on the race track to being best of friends. I’ve certainly experienced that. I’ve been in the NASCAR trailer with him after we have run each other over after the checkered flag came out at the Daytona 500 and two days later he is bringing me a pizza to my motorhome. He is definitely a fierce competitor and a lot of fun to be around.”