NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 4, 2014
 
CHEVROLET’S AJ ALLMENDINGER FINISHES FIFTH AT TALLADEGA
Jeff Gordon Maintains Point Lead
 
TALLADEGA, Ala. – (May 4, 2014) – Chevrolet’s AJ Allmendinger received a final push from Paul Menard during the three-lap dash to the finish at Talladega Superspeedway, to finish fifth.  The 188-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race began with nine Chevrolet SS race cars leading the field to the green flag.  At the end of the 499-mile race at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, five Chevrolet SS drivers recorded top-10 finishes.  Allmendinger’s run was the first top-five finish for the No. 47 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet SS team this season.   
 
Menard backed up a second-place qualifying effort with a sixth-place finish at Talladega.  Having led 10 laps early in the race, the driver of the No. 27 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet SS was forced to the back of the pack after sustaining damage in a late-race crash. Menard made a charge to the finish to try and regain the top-spot and finished sixth overall.
 
Two-time winner in 2014, Kevin Harvick nearly recorded his third win of the season and second at Talladega.  On the final restart Harvick’s No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS was lined-up second in the outside lane, but the bottom line was the place to be.  With little drafting help, Harvick dropped back, but was able to surge ahead as the checkered flag flew to finish seventh.
 
Kasey Kahne was able to avoid most of the race mayhem in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance/ Thankamillionteachers.com Chevrolet SS and earned a ninth-place finish. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS, brought home top rookie-of-the-race honors with a 10th place run.
 
Despite being caught up in a multi-car accident on lap 138, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS, remains the series point’s leader after the first 10 races.  Gordon maintains a three-point lead over second place.  
 
Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. also had disappointing runs and finished, 23rd and 26th, respectively.  Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s/Valspar Reserve Chevrolet SS was involved in a crash on lap 176, which thwarted his quest for a third victory at Talladega.  Earnhardt, Jr. in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS became mired back in traffic with too few laps in the race to make a charge back to the front after leading 26 of the 188 laps.
 
Denny Hamlin (Toyota) won the race, Greg Biffle (Ford) was second, Clint Bowyer (Toyota) was third and Brian Vickers (Toyota) was fourth, to round out the top-five finishers.
 
The series resumes May 10th for the first Saturday night race at Kansas Speedway.
 
 
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH (TOP FINISHING ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CONTENDER)
 
KERRY THARP:  Let’s roll right into our post‑race for today’s 45th annual Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here at Talladega Superspeedway, and our top Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate finishing in 10th place is Kyle Larson.  He’s the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, and Kyle, just talk about your run out there this afternoon at Talladega.
 
KYLE LARSON:  Yeah, it was good.  I think we were actually a little bit better than 10th.  I think the finish was when we crossed the stripe.  But I was really hoping for a top 20 just to stay out of trouble, and to get a top 10 is really nice.
 
I spent most of the day just ‑‑ well, pretty much all day just trying not to make any spectacular moves to put myself in a bad spot to get in a wreck, because like I said, the 42 hasn’t had much luck on superspeedways with Juan and myself at Daytona.  Just wanted to stay out of trouble.  We’ve been making up a lot of points throughout the year after Daytona, and to come back to another superspeedway, I was really nervous.  Glad to get a good finish and stay up there in points.
Q.  If you could just kind of talk about that last restart, I think you were third at the time the flag fell.  Talk about what happened there and how it all shook out.
KYLE LARSON:  I was fourth.  Yeah, I was able to get a decent restart behind Denny and push him to the lead before we got that last yellow, and just couldn’t do the same with Kevin.  He got a little bit far out in front of me, and then the 40 pulled out of line down the back stretch and I got stuck in the middle and killed our run for the middle lane and the top lane, and then just kind of had to hold on to what we had there.
 
I hated that I couldn’t help Kevin get a Chevy into victory lane, but it was still an okay restart for us.  We didn’t lose too many spots.  All in all, it was a pretty decent day.
Q.  What do you think you learned here today that you can only use two more times a year when we go back to Daytona and Talladega?
KYLE LARSON:  I learned that I was really slow on the bottom line, or I needed somebody right behind me to make any ground and help the inside lane.  I felt like when I was in the middle lane to top lane I could keep up without anybody behind me, but once I got down on the bottom, I had to have somebody within a half car length behind me to help the guy in front of me.  When I wouldn’t have people behind me I’d lose ground and people would keep shuffling down in front of me and hurt me there.
 
It worked out at the end, and I was far enough forward at the end to where I could be on the bottom and maintain.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 4, 2014
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
TELL US ABOUT THE LAST FEW LAPS OF THAT RACE AND HOW WILD IT WAS:
“Yeah first off I have to thank everybody at RCR and ECR motors.  Just so much speed in the race car.  I’ve got to thank everybody at the No. 47 shop for doing such hard work and preparing this car so well.  The previous restart the outside lane had such a run.  I kept inching, inching and then I just waited too late and I got shuffled.  I really thought I had messed us up there and that last restart I’ve got to thank Paul Menard.  He just kept shoving me all the way up through the inside of guys.  Just proud of everybody on this team.  I’ve got to thank Bush’s Bean and Clorox and Kingsford, Charter, House Autry, Shore lunch, Scott products everybody that helps us get to this race track and all the great sponsors we have on this team.  We are slowly getting there each step day by day.  I’m just proud to be on this team right now.”
 
WAS THE RACING TODAY TYPICAL TALLADEGA OR WERE THERE THINGS A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT THAN WHAT WE HAVE SEEN IN THE PAST?
“These cars the package we have now drafts so well. I kept waiting for everybody to kind of calm down and single file out.  I went to the back at one point, like everybody is going to calm down and it never happened.  About 50 to go I was like ‘alright I guess it’s time to get crazy with everybody’.  I hope the fans enjoyed it.  It was awesome to see all the fans come out and how packed the grandstands were here at Talladega.  It’s like the old Talladega again so thanks for everybody coming out.  I hope it was a great show.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RICHMOND/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We had a really fast Richmond/Menards/Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Chevrolet all weekend.  All the RCR/ECR motors qualified up front and we tried to stay up there as long as we could.  Kind of got shuffled back and I just played the game when to go/when not to go.  I got some damage, maybe 50 laps to go and we were trying to get back up there.  We had a good run.  Got a little bit of damage, but my boys worked really hard, fixed it.  I think we pitted like five or six times to get all the fenders knocked out on it.  It was really good at the end.  On the last restart just pushed the hell out of AJ (Allmendinger) and wound up being okay.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
TOP TEN-FINISH HERE AT TALLADEGA. ASSESS WHAT HAPPENED HERE TODAY:
 “We were in a good spot there at the end and what you would want to put yourself in a position to win.  I felt like I got a good restart with our Jimmy Johns Chevrolet SS, but our line just never formed up.   The 40 was way out of line and obviously there was some crashing going on behind us.  The bottom was able to get formed up better but a good, solid day for our Jimmy Johns team.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE/THANKAMILLIONTEACHERS.COM CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We had a really good car.  The Farmers Insurance Chevy was fast, just didn’t get to the front when I needed to there with like 30 (laps) to go probably.  From that point on we were in the back.  We just had to wait for wrecks to happen.  It was kind of you either charge through and move people a little bit and aggressively do it or else you just wait.  I chose to wait and we ended up wherever we ended up.  I wish it would have went to the line though because I think we had good momentum me and Ricky (Stenhouse, Jr.) and Paul Menard.”
 
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We were solidly running in the top-10 but got into the wrong spot on the (final) restart. We managed to get a good start but the guy behind me didn’t and it just pulled me back. When there’s no one behind you it’s difficult to get going. I tried to stay on the No. 18’s bumper (Kyle Busch) and got going with him but as I got up through the gears I started to fall off. That screwed us up and put us on the outside lane three wide. For some reason our car wouldn’t work on the outside all day — we had to run the middle and the bottom. It just came down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time on the green-white-checker. Except for those last two laps it was a good day.  We raced hard and ran a lot of laps in the top-10.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 22ND
YOU LED A LOT OF LAPS HERE EARLY ON IN THE RACE TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“It was good out front.  I wish I could have stayed there.  I was just talking about heating issues I was getting hot a lot.  I think you saw that from a lot of cars.  It was a hot day here in Talladega.  When you get back a little bit in the field it gets even worse.  I think I was the second lane like second car back real early on and it just felt like it kind of died a little bit.  Then I started getting passed.  So I dropped back to get some clean air.  Got some track position, a couple of times and got up there a little bit, but heating was definitely an issue.  It really limited me to the bottom lane.  Because as soon as I jumped up it went there.  It was a good car to lead which is something that as a team we struggled with as a car that could lead.  I felt good about that.  It was good to get the GoDaddy car to lead some laps because it had been awhile and we missed a lot of accidents.  The good news is this car is going to get to go to Daytona.  That is a positive.  The result was not necessarily too much of a positive, but it’s going to get rolled up on the truck so that is more than a lot of people can say coming from a speedway.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/VALSPAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 23RD
“We all did a nice job of being patient out there and managing the race itself until it was time to go. I got caught-up in the first wreck and that did some damage; and I don’t know what happened when I spun out. I just went out in front of everybody. The car just got real loose going into Turn 3 and turned around and collected a bunch of guys, unfortunately. And then after that, I think I got in two more wrecks and somehow still came home in the twenties. So, we definitely have a beat-up race car which was unfortunate because we had a very fast Lowe’s/Valspar Chevrolet today.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU SPUN?
“We just got turned around. I’m not really sure why. I know I had some damage to the right rear quarter panel and I had a great-driving race car with no issues and then as I was coming through Turn 3, the back end just slid out from under me. So, I don’t know where cars were around me and what could have created it, but it just took a big lazy slide and the back came around.
 
“I don’t know if the damage to the car played into it because I didn’t have any handling issues all day long. The car drove great.”
 
CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW THE AGGRESSIVENESS INCREASES THROUGHOUT THE DAY?
“As the day progresses throughout the day, you just try to wedge yourself into holes. You don’t lift when you might normally lift. When you have a big run on somebody, instead of dragging the brake a little and avoiding making contact, you just let it roll up in there and hit their bumper; and that energy there creates a lot of that action.”
 
WERE YOU AROUND BRAD KESELOWSKI TODAY?
“Yeah, at times.”
 
THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT WEREN’T VERY THRILLED WITH HIM. HOW ABOUT YOU?
“I wasn’t so thrilled that a car six laps down crashed the field, that aspect of it. But I get it. You

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 4, 2014
 
BRIAN SCOTT, NO. 33 SHORE LODGE CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car crash on lap 138
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“I don’t know what happened.  That is the part about Talladega, they start wrecking in front of you and if you are behind it you really can’t do anything.  You don’t have any time to react.  I just noticed that the No. 78 in front of me he slowed down real bad.  So I got on it then I saw smoke and we were still kind of straight.  Then it was kind of just a pinball effect.  I ended up going into the inside wall me and (Tony) Stewart took a pretty good shot there, but everybody is alright.”
 
HOW WAS THE RACING?  WERE GUYS BEING PATIENT?
“It was only a matter of time.  It seemed like for the most part we were able to run three-wide, but I could tell that it was starting to turn up.  Everybody started making tighter moves and was side drafting tighter.  It just felt like we were getting ready for something to happen.  Unfortunately it did and we were in the middle of it.”
 
BRAD KESELOWSKI SAID HIS CAR TURNED AROUND AND YOU ENDED UP BEING ONE OF THE VICTIMS, WHAT HAPPENED?
“I think that is exactly what happened.  When they wreck in front of you and you are right in the middle, there is no where you can go which is unfortunate.  I felt like our Chevy SS was good and we were just trying to ride it out, get in position, make one last pit stop, and then go here and race like they are doing now.   But unfortunately this Shore Lodge team is not going to be able to finish.  And that is Talladega I guess.”
 
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car crash on lap 138
 
TOUGH DAY AFTER HAVING WHAT LOOKED LIKE A PRETTY GOOD LOOKING RACE CAR:
 “Oh man, we had a great car.   The car always looks really good.  This Drive to End Hunger Chevy SS looked good and it was super-fast.  (watching replay) Yeah, that is not the best angle and that’s what I saw.  I could see where the 2 came from the outside lane and came back down to the inside lane, or middle lane, then wiggled and got turned.   I would like to see a different angle to see what turned him.  Not exactly sure why he was driving the way he was driving to begin with but obviously he was trying to get his lap back and felt that was the way to do it.  It was unfortunate what happened to him early, but more unfortunate what happened to many of us in that incident.”
 
CAN THEY FIX THIS CAR AND GET YOU BACK OUT THERE?
“Oh yeah, we will it fixed.  That is what these guys do and they fix these cars when they are in this situation, but we are going to get a terrible Talladega finish out of it and there is no fixing that.”
 
DID YOU FEEL IT WAS AGGRESSIVE EARLY BY ANYBODY?
“Danica (Patrick) made a mistake early.  I don’t think that was an aggressive move I think it was just a mistake that got the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) turned (earlier in the race).  She just misjudged him.  Other than that I saw a fairly respectable race going on out there.  We were battling up toward the front and everything was great.  Our Drive to End Hunger Chevy SS was really good.  Once we got shuffled to the outside lane and feel back it wasn’t worth it to me, we went to the back.  We just felt like we were getting closer and closer to needing to get our way further to the front to get ready for that next pit stop.  From that pit stop on it is on.  You have to go for it.  We got caught up in the wreck at that time.”
 
WHAT DID YOU SEE IN THAT ACCIDENT?
“Not much I just saw the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) get turned.  I had seen him for several laps driving over his head being pretty aggressive I guess trying to get his lap back.  I knew he was laps down, but he wasn’t doing anybody any favors, nor himself.  Then ultimately that was a wreck.  I would like to see the video to know exactly what happened.  Somebody might not have given him an inch there, but he was certainly taking probably more than he should have been in the situation he was in.  I’m disappointed myself that we have all talked that we needed to get further to the front for that next pit stop.  I don’t know if I had of waited a couple of more laps we might not have been in that one.  We were making our way up there so I was pretty happy the progress we were making.  Of course all it takes is one little incident like that and then you are in it.”
 

CORVETTE RACING AT LAGUNA SECA: Pole Position for Garcia, Corvette C7.R
Corvettes on front two rows in GT Le Mans class for Sunday’s two-hour race
 
·         Second straight pole position for No. 3 Corvette C7.R

·         Gavin, Milner to start fourth in GTLM

·         Front-row qualifying effort for Westbrook in Prototype class

 
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 3, 2014) – Antonio Garcia continued Corvette Racing’s stellar record at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca today with pole position in the GT Le Mans class. The Spanish star captured his first fastest qualifier honor with Corvette Racing with a lap of 1:22.373 (97.809 mph) in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
 
“It was a great lap by Antonio and a great day for Corvette Racing,” said Mark Kent, Chevrolet’s Director of Racing. “A second straight pole position in this class is no easy achievement. It speaks volumes to the team’s preparation, strategy and execution with the new Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.”
 
Corvette Racing will be on the front two rows in the class. Oliver Gavin qualified the No. 4 Corvette C7.R fourth on the grid at 1:22.768 (97.342 mph). Sunday’s two-hour race for the TUDOR United Championship’s GTLM and Prototype classes begins at 2:45 p.m. PT.
 
“The lap was pretty good… right on the limit everywhere,” said Garcia, who teams with Jan Magnussen. “The Corvette C7.R worked pretty good. I just have to carry on the momentum we have.”
 
A victory Sunday would be the third straight in Monterey for Corvette Racing. Garcia and Magnussen won last year while Gavin and Tommy Milner were victorious in 2012. In both instances, the race winners went on to win the driver’s championships in the American Le Mans Series. All totaled, Corvette Racing will go for its seventh victory at the circuit since 2004, and Garcia’s pole was the fourth time a Corvette Racing driver was the fastest qualifier in class.
 
Garcia and Magnussen also are coming off a victory in the most recent TUDOR Championship race at Long Beach in April. It was a double podium for the team with Gavin and Milner third.
 
CORVETTE DP: Westbrook second in qualifying for Spirit of Daytona
Richard Westbrook led the contingent of Corvette DP drivers in the TUDOR Championship’s Prototype category. The Englishman set a lap of 1:18.788 (102.259 mph) in Spirit of Daytona’s No. 90 Corvette DP. Westbrook, going for his third straight pole at Laguna Seca, was just 0.227 seconds off Johannes van Overbeek’s pole-winning time.
 
Three Corvette DPs will make up the first three rows in Sunday’s race. Christian Fittipaldi was fifth for the championship-leading No. 5 Action Express Racing entry at 1:19.175 (101.759 mph). Ricky Taylor qualified sixth in Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Corvette DP at 1:19.504 (101.338 mph).
 
Live television coverage of the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix starts at 5:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
 
The TUDOR Championship is the result of a merger between the ALMS and GRAND-AM’s Rolex Sports Car Series. Corvette Racing will compete in 11 races around North America plus the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
 
CAMARO Z/28: Second-Place Finish for CKS duo of Curran, Aschenbach
Eric Curran and Lawson Aschenbach scored the second straight podium for the new Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R on Saturday with a runner-up finish in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Grand Sport (GS) race. Curran qualified second and led the majority of his stint, and Aschenbach finished 0.473 seconds behind John Edwards’ BMW.
 
This was the first race for the Camaro Z/28.R following a GS victory at Sebring. Stevenson Motorsports’ Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis won there. Stevenson’s duo of Matt Bell and Andy Lally were 11th in the No. 6 Stevenson Camaro on Saturday.
 
The next round of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge is May 24 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.
 
TUDOR CHAMPIONSHIP QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“This a good sign. The car really worked good. It was really difficult with this practice situation where you actually never got any clear lap or any clear feel of the car. So we were just kind of guessing or taking parts of every single lap we did on different parts just to make the car faster. It was a gamble but I think I’m on the right team to do it. The car was really good right out of the box, and Jan did most of the practice. That paid off quite a lot because he kept working on the car making it faster. And even if I did just 10 laps of practice too, the car he gave me was already really good.”
(Success in Monterey) “This race track has a nice history with Corvette Racing. Last year we were up front and ended up winning. And now with the C7.R it looks like even better. I think the guys did tremendous work back home, and even if we have a very limited time of practice, maybe that is a good thing. Maybe if you give more time to the other people, they will get closer. The car worked really good, and I did a pretty good lap also.”
 
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It was nice to get out there on track with nobody else. I didn’t have any trouble with traffic, or anything like that. I just didn’t get the most out of tire when I compare my lap to Antonio’s. I lost time in particular corners where I needed to commit a little bit more and just get the rear of the car loaded up. I just didn’t hit the tire at the point where it had maximum grip. That is exactly where Antonio executed, and I didn’t manage to do that unfortunately. But I think there are a couple of setup changes in the mix as well that we need to go and look at. But that’s the way it can be when you only have two hours of track time. You take a stab at it, and sometimes you hit it right and sometimes you don’t. Today we didn’t quite get it right, but the No. 3 car did, and they’re the pole position winners which is great for them.”
 
RICHARD WESTBROOK, NO. 90 SPIRIT OF DAYTONA CORVETTE DP
“Last year we had a one-lap wonder car, and this year it feels like we have a better car. It wasn’t very smooth going into qualifying. We had a clutch issue in Practice 2, and I thought we were going to have the same issue in qualifying. The guys did a good job to band-aid it up, so I can’t say it hindered me in qualifying but it was always in the back of my mind that it could come back. We will get that changed for the race. The car is behaving for the race. Of course I wanted pole – I’d be lying if I said I didn’t – but starting from the front row is great for our recovery.”
 
CONTINENTAL SPORTSCAR CHALLENGE QUOTE
LAWSON ASCHENBACH, NO. 01 CKS AUTOSPORT CAMARO Z/28.R
“We had a really good Team Chevy CKS Autosport Camaro Z/28.R. The guys have been working really hard since Sebring to counter this weight the series added to us. Unfortunately at the end we didn’t have any tires or brakes left. I was kind of hanging on there for dear life, and luckily the guys behind me starting fight among themselves. So we’re happy with second place. It’s a great momentum for our team. Sebring felt like we were kicked in the stomach after doing so well. We’ll take P2 and hopefully we can do one spot better in the next race.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPTS
MAY 3, 2014
 
 
BRIAN SCOTT PUTS CHEVROLET SS ON POLE AT TALLADEGA
Eleven of Top 12 Starters Feature Chevy Power
 
TALLADEGA, AL – May 3, 2014 – Brian Scott won the pole for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, where he posted a fast lap of 48.293 seconds, 198.290 mph in his No. 33 Shore Lodge Chevrolet SS.  In a wild knockout-style qualifying format consisting of three sessions, the new method for restrictor plate race tracks netted Scott his first career pole in Sprint Cup competition. His previous best start was 12th in this year’s season-opening Daytona 500.  Primarily a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver, Scott will lead the 43-car NASCAR Sprint Cup field to the green flag in just his fifth Cup start. It also marked the 31st pole for Chevrolet at the 2.66-mile track, the longest on the circuit.
 
“To be able to get a pole position for the little guys Joe Falk, team owner and Circle Sport racing we are just really in a fortunate position to be part of the RCR/ECR alliance,” said Scott. It’s the same horsepower, and same group that got the pole at Daytona in single-car qualifying.  I think it speaks volumes for the shop and the effort that those guys are putting forward both under the hood and across the body of these Chevy SSs.  I guess they have what it takes when it counts at these superspeedways.”
 
Scott’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, was second quick in his No. 27 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet SS. AJ Allmendinger qualified third in the No. 47 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet SS, and Casey Mears was fourth in the No. 13 GEICO Chevy SS. Austin Dillon, who sat on the pole at this year’s Daytona 500, was the fastest qualifying rookie by posting the fifth quickest time in his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS; and teammate Ryan Newman qualified sixth in the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy SS. The top six Chevrolet SS race cars are powered by Earnhardt Childress Racing engines.
 
Also demonstrating strong Chevy power in today’s qualifying results with a seventh place effort was the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS driven by Danica Patrick, along with Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick, who qualified his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS in eighth, and Kurt Busch who was ninth fast in the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS.
 
With six wins at Talladega Superspeedway to his credit, Jeff Gordon put his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS in the 11th place starting spot, and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart will start will start his No. 14 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS from 12th place on the grid.
 
Carl Edwards (Ford) qualified 10th and rounds-out the top dozen starters for the 188-lap, 500-mile race.
There will be 21 Chevrolet SS race cars in the 43-car starting field.
 
The Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway will take the green flag on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (ET) and bill be aired live on FOX.
 
 
BRIAN SCOTT, NO. 33 WHITETAIL CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN OUT THERE TODAY AND WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS QUALIFYING FORMAT HERE AT TALLADEGA:
“Who would have thought that? (Laughs) This is pretty special.  It’s special for a number of reasons.  To be able to get a pole position for the little guys Joe Falk, team owner and Circle Sport racing we are just really in a fortunate position to be part of the RCR/ECR alliance. It’s the same horsepower, same group that got the pole at Daytona in single car qualifying.  I think it speaks volumes for the shop and the effort that those guys are putting forward both under the hood and across the body of these Chevy SSs.  I guess they have what it takes when it counts at these superspeedways.  Everything just played out.  It was a lot of luck, the situation really presented itself for us.  I felt like it was a little bit of payback yesterday in the Nationwide qualifying.  We were the first car to go out and kind of lead the field and everybody was able to snooker us and get runs on us.  The shoe was on the other foot today.  We were the fortunate ones in the right position to make it work and I guess go faster than everybody else.”
 
;STARTING ON THE POLE WITH ALL THAT BUNCH BEHIND YOU IS THAT A GOOD THING?  IS IT BETTER OR WORSE IF YOU WERE STARTING ON THE POLE AT SOME PLACE ELSE LIKE AN INTERMEDIATE TRACK?
“That is a good question.  I’m not sure.  I know that I’ve got that dreaded yellow stripe on my back bumper and that is going to make people kind of try to run away from me like the plaque.  But hopefully they see that we have a fast car.  We are going to have a good pit stall, good pit selection.  Hopefully we can stay up front all day and work and learn from the Cup guys.  Maybe they can gain a little faith in us and what we are capable of doing so we can be around and have some friends come the end of this race.”
 
IN THIS ALLIANCE IN THIS VAST GAME PLAN ARE YOU SORT OF THE SURPRISE?
“Probably.  I don’t think that the way the alliance dreamt it up was going to be for the No. 33 team to be on the pole, but when you have a team effort and everybody is working together really anybody that is a part of that group has an opportunity and it worked out just right for us.  Like you said, I wasn’t sure we were going to make another lap, but it came to the line and I didn’t see the red and black flags and we had a good gap of good cars in front of us and we were able to just draw closer to them the whole lap.  I knew when we crossed the line that it was probably going to be the pole.  It felt like a good lap.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR EMOTIONS AFTER WINNING YOUR FIRST POLE?
“It’s pretty surreal.  Normally as a rookie you don’t come into this Sprint Cup Series and expect to get on the pole.  But it just happened.  Like I said it’s really just situational luck when it comes to this group qualifying at the superspeedways.  It’s really rare that I can come in here and say I actually feel like I have more experience than at Cup guy at something and this group qualifying on the superspeedways I feel like I have more experience than the Cup guys.  We did it in the Nationwide Series for one session at Daytona and then we did it in the Nationwide Series for all three sessions yesterday.  I felt like I knew how it was going to work and I knew that when we started that last session it was going to be a waiting game.  Who was going to get impatient first or panic first was going to head out there and then it was going to be game on and you were going to get one or maybe two laps.  Like I said really it just worked out.  Some guys got impatient even coming to what ended up being our good lap and passed us.  The more cars you have in front of you they just punch a bigger hole there.  They were two-by-two and we just had a good run that whole lap.”
 
PAUL MENARD KIND OF TALKED US THROUGH THAT HE VOLUNTEERED TO BE LAST.  RYAN NEWMAN WAS GOING TO BE FIRST, YOU WERE IN THE MIDDLE WITH THE GOAL TO GET YOU IN THE RACE.  WHAT WAS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR ROLE AND INSTRUCTIONS?  ALSO, DALE, JR. TWEETED TO YOU CONGRATULATING YOU, BUT YOU WILL BE MORE OF A TARGET ON THE PAINTBALL COURSE.  DO YOU TAKE THAT AS AN OMINOUS WARNING?
“No.  Our plan was to just work with the team and to do what the team was doing.  We knew kind of what order and where we were supposed to fall in.  As we started coming around we were dragging brake and we were really trying to get spacing and get drug back to where (Ryan) Newman had the run and the situation that he liked.  So I was dragging back and we were even coming to the line still waiting.  (Paul) M
enard was supposed to be behind me and he ended up he kind of went around me and got a run.  I guess he didn’t feel like we were going to get another lap.  Really that just played out to our benefit where he was up there and we were able to get a better sniff of air on everybody.
 
“We have been playing paint ball at Dale, Jr’s house and last time we played I think I shot him three times after he was already out.  He just didn’t get off the court.  I guess I continued to shoot him.  Maybe that was target enough for me when we go back to the field.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RICHMOND/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BAKED BEANS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH (TOP ROOKIE QUALIFIER)
 
YOU TALKED ABOUT RYAN NEWMAN BEING THE GUINEA PIG. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
 
PAUL:  “I think Richard just elected him.  Made a call there. It worked out. Ryan has won at the plate tracks. He has the most experience of all of us, so it just made sense. We knew that him being the first guy, he’s not going to win the pole. I kind of volunteered to be the last guys because I felt like I probably have the fastest car and was able to push guys. I figured I wasn’t going to be on the pole either. So I left it up to the guys in the middle. Brian Scott had to race his way in and that was our number one priority was to kind to put him in the middle to help him get in the race. Then from there, stick to our plan.”
 
WHO DECIDED TO INCLUDE ALL THE AFFILIATES IN THE RCR GROUP?
 
AUSTIN: “For RCR, I feel like to compete with Hendrick, Roush and all those guys, and to have an edge; we have to use all of our affiliates. Just like AJ said, we have to use them at every track, and we are working toward that and trying to get better to broaden what we have as a team. Moving forward, that is what we have to do, and it obviously paid off for us today.”
 
HOW HAS THE RCR TECHNICAL ALLIANCE WITH RCR BENEFITTED YOUR TEAM ALL SEASON LONG SO FAR?
 
AJ: “It’s just been amazing for our whole No. 47 race team.  With the new rules package, the ride height rules – everything going into this season. There are so many variables for us to try to figure out. To have that alliance not only to have fast race cars and fast motors in general, but to have all the engineering help, and the notes and everything that RCR brings, and really opens their doors for us to have. It is just a huge help to our race team. Without that I feel like we could easily be lost trying to figure out where we are at. I think slowly we are getting there with our results showing that. Last week we had a sixth. Even though qualifying doesn’t matter here, to get all of our sponsors – Bush’s Baked Beans – and all of the sponsors that we have on this race car, just to get the exposure, and show we can slowly start working to race with the bigger teams is a big deal for us.  At this point in the season, I couldn’t be any happier with where we are at, and with the help that RCR has given us, and where I think our race team is getting to.”
 
AJ AS ONE OF THE RELATIVELY SEASONED DRIVERS UP HERE IN THE TOP FOUR OR FIVE AND STARTING THIRD, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A GOOD AS GOOD A SHOT AS ANY TO LEAD FIRST LAP AND MANY LAPS?
 
AJ: “Does that mean I am old? Has it been that long already?  I am seasoned?  Like fine wine, I get better with age.” (LAUGHS)
 
AUSTIN: “Old is not bad, it is when you are the rich kid that is bad, you know.” (LAUGHS)
 
AJ: “Dang…I’d rather take being the rich kid. Back to the question.” LAUGHS
 
PAUL: “You should try being old and rich.”  MORE LAUGHTER
 
AJ: “I think for me, I haven’t had the best results here. If we can fall in line, and, as these guys said, having six or seven alliance cars – RCR cars – starting up front. I would be just happy to fall in line and run there for a while.  The easiest way to try to miss the wreck is to be up front. It’s great if we go out there and lead – fantastic. If not, if we can fall in line and start pacing the race and stay there, I’m happy with that.”
 
HOW MUCH OF THE CAMARADERIE CARRIES INTO THE RACE, AND WHEN DOES IT BECOME I WANT TO WIN, AND NO MORE TEAMMATES?
 
PAUL: “It’s always about teammates. You just don’t want to screw one of them up. Our plan going into today was to work together, and if it worked out and you got put in a position where you couldn’t where Martin (Truex, Jr.) were in the first session. We had some slower cars jump in front of us, and we had to abort and do our own thing.  I made it and Martin didn’t. Our plan worked for the second session and the third session.  In the race, it is going to be the same thing. You are going to work with your guys when you can. There are going to be times when you get separated, and you are going to have to go and do your own thing.”
 
AUSTIN:  “You work with them as long as you can. I think we will have another meeting like we had before qualifying probably and figure out how we can keep our sponsors and cars up front as long as we can. These races are so crazy things happen, and you just have to do whatever man.  Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) is probably one of the best here, and told me you have no friends when you get out there. But I feel like our guys are working well together, so we just need to work well, and at the end you just have to go and do what you can. It gets crazy.”
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 3, 2014

BRIAN SCOTT, NO. 33 WHITETAIL CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
“It was a team effort. Big thanks to Joe Falk, Circle Sport Racing; everybody at RCR/ECR Engines. It is always a team effort to get these superspeedway poles. We had a plan from the beginning to work as a team. About seven of us in a line. (Ryan) Newman was leading it; he was the point man, and I know how that feels because I was the point man in the Nationwide car yesterday. You feel like you don’t really  have a shot, but you do it to be a team player. It is awesome for everybody at Richard Childress Racing, Shore Lodge, Chevrolet. This Chevy SS was really fast, and we were able to get the draft and the right suck (up) right there at the last second to get the pole, and I couldn’t be more happy for everybody.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RICHMOND/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
DESCRIBE THAT LAST MINUTE AND A HALF OF ON-TRACK TIME AND THE THOUGHT PROCESS OF WAITING SO LONG:
“I had the easy job; we gave (Ryan) Newman the hard job to decide when to go. I was just kind of hanging out there. I actually passed Brian (Scott). I was the last guy in line. And I passed Brian because I didn’t think we were going to have enough time to make an additional lap. So, it worked out good for him. It worked out good for us. The top six were ECR Motors and all the affiliates of RCR, so I couldn’t be happier.”
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD
“They told me I was going to run with all the RCR cars, and I said ‘perfect, it just makes sense. I think it just shows the more cars around here, you get more cars in a line is going to be faster. The great thing about RCR and the ECR package is we are all even. So it’s not like we think their cars are faster. It just made sense to get us all lined up and get us all in a pack in a pack. Like the others said, Ryan (Newman) being the most experiences, it was up to him about when to go and when not to go. I think especially those last two runs there, those last two groups there, he did a great job. He timed it out to get behind that first big pack in the second group, and then it was just a waiting game in the third group, and when he decided to go, it was the right time. For us, we feel very fortunate, and Richard (Childress) has been so helping in this alliance. He has opened the doors to his shop and given us a great opportunity to have good race cars to go out there every weekend and keep trying to build this one-car team and make us better as a whole. I feel if we can be better, we can bring something back to the RCR team. It’s been working out. So when they said we are working together, I had no questions about it.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
“I’m just very proud of RCR and our affiliates. We’ve all been working really hard to work together, and that shows. Just really happy for RCR and ECR and everybody just because we were able to stick together. Like Paul (Menard) said, we put it on Ryan (Newman) and he deserves a lot of that credit for telling us when to go and when not to. It was hard in that first session to stay with the plan because there was so much going on. In the second session, he did a great job of taking charge and getting us in that second pack. I’m really happy to have a good starting position for the Bass Pro Shops Chevy. I think we all have good cars for Sunday’s race.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7TH
WHAT WAS THIS EXPERIENCE LIKE?
“It was an experience.  Just talking to Kevin (Harvick) after it was over with we weren’t in a bad spot right there at the end, but we needed one more lap, the two of us probably could have maybe gotten a good run that last lap.  There was just enough coming from the first group to help the second group not be a little bit slower and help us catch him.  You have just got to be at the back.  So it’s quite the standoff.  Kevin (Harvick) suggested ‘man it’s almost like you need to split the group in half’ because there is just not enough people with 12.  Maybe they will see the format and think of something different.  I don’t know, but it requires a lot of people for sure to be entertaining.  Luckily it wasn’t the ultimate entertainment being wrecked cars.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 8TH
ON THE QUALIFYING SESSION:
“It was way more fun than our normal qualifying session for sure.  For us it just didn’t time out exactly right there at the end. I thought we were in the right spot, just a little bigger group ahead of us.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 11TH
ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE DURING KNOCK-OUT QUALIFYING AT TALLADEGA:
“I knew it was going to be intense and pretty wild.  It certainly lived up to that.  You just have no idea how close you are at every moment of having a crash.  I feel very fortunate that we were able to get into the final round.  I thought that where we drew really kind of did it all because we were near the Stewart-Haas guys the No. 14 and the No. 4.  That sort of was our hand.  It worked out.  There at the end unfortunately it was a cat and mouse game.  We flinched first and we needed to wait even longer.”
 
THERE ARE 11 CHEVROLET’S IN THE TOP 12 DID YOU SEE A LOT OF PEOPLE WORKING WITH THEIR MANUFACTURER?
“The Childress ones obviously did the best job because all those Childress engines are what is at the top.  It really became a numbers game.  They just had more in their group than we had in our group.  We needed a couple of more Hendrick Chevrolet’s to make it to that final round and we would have been as good as them and then it would have been really interesting.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/VALSPAR RESERVE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 20TH
“My strategy and agenda had things very calm. But we just didn’t want to be in a big wad of cars and I was fortunate to get enough help to transfer and be third on that first one. We just didn’t want to be 43rd. We didn’t have any intentions of trying to go out and sit on the pole today. We want to save this race car. We didn’t want to be caught up in any chaos. So we wanted to post a decent time so that we didn’t have the last pit stall pick and we certainly accomplished that. But when I got it right on the first run, I thought okay, maybe we do have a shot for the pole. So we tried it again on the second one and I just left too big of a gap and I couldn’t close up to the cars in front of me. I was kind of a single car draft out there (laughs) the way it turned out.”
 
WERE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW LONG GUYS ACTUALLY STAYED OUT THERE?
“You don’t have a choice, really. But if you’re in a transfer position, the best thing you can do is get off the road. So that first 24, if you pull out, there’s half as many cars out there to get a pole from. So as soon as those first 24 were comfortable, they’d peel off the road and now you have half the energy out there to benefit from. And the numbers are just working against you. It’s the same thing in that second session. I didn’t get it on my first our second lap and I knew we were in trouble. And then we all sat out there riding around at half-throttle waiting for someone to go to suck-up behind them; and why are you going to be the rabbit for somebody and benefit them? So everybody just kind of pulls in.”
 
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 29TH
“For us, we got out there in a group, and I guess the officials made us come down pit road for something, and we lost our group and lost our plan there. We had to form up on whatever was out there and just couldn’t get the tagged on to the right group to go fast enough. It sucks to qualify back there, but it doesn
‘t really matter a whole lot I don’t think. Our Target Chevy was fast in practice yesterday, and it should be a good race tomorrow.”

ON THE QUALIFYING SESSION:
“We went out with a group and then we had to come back down and kind of lost out group that we were forming. So then whenever I did go back out I had to form-up on whatever was out there. And people had already made their quick laps so they came down pit road and the amount of cars out there just got smaller and smaller, so the speeds for us got slower and slower. So, it was frustrating.”
 
“I don’t know if I really like it (qualifying) here on superspeedways. It’s a little dangerous and it’s not very fun I don’t think.”
 
DID YOU THINK YOU HAD AN ADVANTAGE BECAUSE YOU DID THIS YESTERDAY IN NNS?
“I don’t know if it’s any more advantage. Everybody watches it. So, they kind of understand how it goes. It seemed like it was a little bit better today because nobody was waiting for somebody to go out. They just kind of backed out of the stall and went. So, that was better.
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 30TH
 “I don’t think anybody had a plan there. You just go out there and run, and however you can finish is how you can finish really.  I don’t know what we could have done differently. You just go out there and run in the draft so it’s hard to put up; the fastest lap. We’re not too worried about it. We’ll get to pick a pretty decent (pit) stall and that’s about all. There isn’t much else to it; pretty boring really. I don’t know if that is the answer at these places.  We probably could run some heat races, or something like that. It would be more fun than that.”
 
JUST HOW CRAZY IS IT OUT THERE? WAS IT WHAT YOU EXPECTED?
“It just wasn’t much fun. We were out there in the draft riding along. I don’t know. We just didn’t run a fast enough lap with the people we were around. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun to be honest with you. But, I’d like to do some heat races or something maybe. That would be a little bit more fun than this.”
 
WHAT MAKES IT NOT FUN? WHAT MAKES IT DIFFICULT?
“It’s just for the plate tracks. It’s pretty obvious what it is. When qualifying at a typical track, you go out there and you just run a fast lap.”
 
JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 BRANDT PROFESSIONAL AGRICULTURE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 38TH
“It was definitely not what I expected. We watched what was going on in the Nationwide Series. I would say we took what the Nationwide Series did to another level right there. The only really good lap we had, the cars were starting to come back through the pack and had to get out of it. So, we definitely didn’t get the qualifying we wanted to for our Brandt Chevy. But we have a really strong race car and I’m hoping that today is nothing like what we’re going to see tomorrow.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE/THANKAMILLONTEACHERS.COM CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 42nd AFTER TIME WAS DISALLOWED FOR FAILING POST QUALIFYING INSPECTION
“Well, the second round was much different than the first round. The first round, you wanted to get the big draft with a big group of cars and find that spot and suck-up to it was the speed. The second one was how big the pack was because everybody ran single file. So it was just a lot different. There were three or four different ideas between teams and they left that way and nobody used each other.  So, that was just kind of how it worked.”
 
WAS IT SIMILAR TO THE NATIONWIDE QUALIFYING YESTERDAY?
“It was similar. I just was in the first round yesterday and that part of it was pretty similar, yeah.”
 
WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF HAVING HEAT RACES?
“Yeah; this is as far away from qualifying as you can get. So, you might as well throw a heat race.”
 
 

TEAM CHEVY AT LAGUNA SECA: Front-Row Start for Camaro Z/28.R
Curran P2 in No. 01 CKS Camaro; Davis fourth in No. 6 Stevenson Camaro
 
·         Three Camaro Z/28.Rs fill first seven spots on GS grid
·         Second straight front-row starting spot for Curran’s Camaro
·         First race since historic Sebring victory
 
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 2, 2014) – Three Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R race cars will start in the first seven positions for Saturday’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Eric Curran qualified second in CKS Autosport’s No. 01 Camaro Z/28.R on Friday with a lap of 1:35.979 (83.943 mph).
 
It’s the second consecutive race that Curran put his Camaro on the outside of the front row, following a similar effort at Sebring International Raceway. Curran, who was just 0.031 seconds off the pole time, will team with Lawson Aschenbach in Saturday’s two-and-a-half-hour Grand Sport (GS) race that begins at 3:45 p.m. ET.
 
Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 6 Camaro Z/28.R will start behind Curran in the fourth position after Andrew Davis’ qualifying run of 1:36.154 (83.791 mph). He and Robin Liddell scored the Z/28.R’s first victory at Sebring in just the car’s second race.
 
Andy Lally qualified seventh in the No. 9 Stevenson Camaro that he drives with Matt Bell. Ashley McCalmont was 19th in the No. 00 CKS Camaro; she shares it with Bob Michaelian.
 
The Camaro brand has a rich history at Laguna Seca. The Camaro GS.R won in the Continental Tire series at the track in 2011 and 2012 and was second in 2013. Compared to the previous car, the Z/28.R is an improvement in many key areas.
 
The Chevrolet engine, suspension components and aerodynamic elements all have seen major upgrades for the Camaro Z/28.R. It also is the closest link between production Camaro and racing version Chevrolet has produced.
 
ERIC CURRAN, NO. 01 CKS AUTOSPORT CAMARO Z/28.R
“What a difference. Yesterday we had a day that felt like it was 90 degrees, and the car was sliding all over the place. This was a nice change for us. I think it’s a bigger benefit to us than it is the other cars just because of the additional weight the series added to us prior to this race. But the CKS guys did a fantastic job. The car is awesome. Right away we were P1 and we held it most of the way but just got nipped there at the end. We’re really happy and just need a solid run to the end tomorrow.
“This is a place where you need some horsepower with some uphill climbs – especially going up to the Corkscrew. But ultimately this is a handling track. You better have your brakes working, as well as your chassis and suspension really working. (Team owner) Kirk (Spencer) and all the guys were spot-on. Lawson did a good job tweaking the car earlier in the day and we got a setup that was just about perfect for what we’re working with. We’re 200 pounds heavier than the car that’s on the pole. But this Camaro Z/28.R is pretty awesome.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 2, 2014
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/VALSPAR RESERVE CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the new drafting format at Talladega, making the Chase on points, his intermediate program, how is mother influenced his racing career, and more. Full Transcript:
 
ON THE JIMMIE JOHNSON FOUNDATION AND HELMET OF HOPE
“First of all, I just want to thank everybody for supporting the Jimmie Johnson Foundation and writing the articles and talking about the Helmet of Hope program. We had over 400,000 votes tallied over the ten semi-finalists to decide the five winners and that’s just massive. We were so impressed by that stat and so thankful that people are participating and the reach that our media center has and the what you guys (media) do for us, I just wanted to thank you all for that to help raise awareness and drive so much focus to it. So, next weekend we (Mike Wells, President & CEO, Wells Enterprises, Inc., maker of Blue Bunny ice cream and Johnson) are going to do a Google+ hangout talk to the five winners and everybody is excited about and it will be a lot of fun. And then I will wear the helmet at Indy on July 27th. So, thank you once again.”
 
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT DURING QUALIFYING TOMORROW WITH THE NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT FOR THE FIRST TIME HERE IN TALLADEGA?
“I don’t know what is going to exactly happen. But to win the pole, you’re going to have to go out there and race. And the run that you can get on a group that it a football-field-or-two ahead of you, is so dramatic that I even think that a 10 or 12-car line won’t be as fast as somebody who falls way back in the pack and has a chance over a lap or two to pull up into the pack. So that’s what every driver is going to try to do. And setting that up is going to be tough because one, everybody is going to be trying it; and two, if you see someone behind you coming, why are you going to stay on the gas to help them? So, bailing out of the gas, breaking up the pack, and things like that are all possible. So, I don’t know. It’s going to be exciting for sure. We’ll all clearly be working on it during practice. And then qualifying itself will be very exciting.
 
“The thing I’m trying to come to grips with is where do I take a large risk? Trying to qualify well or trying to work my way through the pack to get to the front? And we’re just not sure right now what to expect. We wanted to come here with a plan in place of how we were going to qualify, but our opinion seems to change every 15 minutes. And we’re going to wait until after P2 and decide what we’re going to do.”
 
BOTH PENSKE CARS HAVE WINS THIS FAR AND THEY ARE PLANNING THEIR TESTS AROUND CHASE TRACKS. ARE YOU THINKING OF THAT ADDED BENEFIT WHEN THAT WIN DOES COME AND WHEN ALL THE HENDRICK CARS MAYBE GET THOSE WINS?
“It definitely does change the way you race. I think with that pretty-much guaranteed lock with won win lets you take two tires when maybe you should take four, or try for fuel; look at what Junior did in Las Vegas. Steve (Letarte) played that perfectly and why not try? They won at Daytona and they’re locked-in so let’s go for a W. I definitely agree that it gives those teams and advantage.
 
“But I knew I was going to get asked questions about this today before I came down here. Honestly, the way I see it is we’re locked in the Chase right now. If it were to end where we are in points, we’re in the Chase. And I’ve been trying to explain that to many people through interviews and other things and sure, we want to win. We feel like we could have won a few times. But as of right now, we’re locked into the Chase. So I don’t know what the big concern and worry is.”
 
COMING OFF A SHORT TRACK AND NOW A SUPERSPEEDWAY, THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS ARE THE BREAD & BUTTER OF THE SCHEDULE. TALK ABOUT KANSAS NEXT WEEK AND YOUR INTERMEDIATE PROGRAM?
“I feel pretty good. We’ve had strong runs and I think Texas, we didn’t get to go very far, but through practice and qualifying we had a lot of people concerned. We led a lot at California. Vegas went well. I feel very good about our 1.5-mile stuff. We still want to be better and I think the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) has been the most consistent car with the most speed. But we’ve been in there fighting for wins. So we feel very good about that. Our Richmond-specific program, it’s needed work for a long time (laughs); and we just proved it again last week that we still need to keep working on it.”
 
JOEY LOGANO SAID THE PACKAGE FOR PLATE RACING HAS CHANGED A LOT.  DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT? HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY DIFFERENCE IN THE MENTALITY OF THE DRIVERS IN RISK VERSUS REWARD OR PLAYING IT SAFER, OR HAS THE AGGRESSION LEVEL CHANGED?
“Yeah, I definitely agree that the rules package really promotes the type of racing. When we had the push-drafting that we could do, you’d really ride and wait and catch-up at will and track position, as a result of the rules package, didn’t really mean a lot until three or four (laps) to go. It’s far different than that now. You really need to take off and go from the beginning and fight to maintain track position. The one other component is the track. At Daytona, it’s so much more narrow that there’s even a higher premium on track position. Where here (Talladega) you can get a third or fourth lane going. There’s much more of a revolving door from the front positions on back that there are more opportunities to go forward and also to come back. So, Talladega does have it’s own style compared to Daytona as well.”
 
LOOKING BACK ON THE 2013 FALL RACE, WHEN NOBODY PULLED OUT WITH YOU AND MATT KENSETH WHEN YOU TRIED TO MAKE THAT MOVE, DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME? DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPLANATION A FEW MONTHS LATER? HOW MUCH OF THAT WAS JUST DUE TO THE LOW LINE NOT SEEMING TO WORK LAST TIME?
“I really feel that whichever line it is works via numbers. The lane that has the most cars is the fastest lane; that’s just really how it is. If I remember right, I think the No 1 car (Jamie McMurray) was leading and I should have known before I pulled out, I should have looked to see who was leading, because I would have made a different decision I believe and stayed in line. With certain guys, they just have certain strategies of defending. And Jamie and a few others, there’s nothing wrong with it at all, but that’s going to be his move and it worked very well for him. So, I’m just curious why second, third, fourth, and on back didn’t try to make a move at any given point in time. And I still don’t have an answer or reason for it. I get it up until the white flag falls, but once the white is out, I still for the life of me don’t know why nobody tried to pass. We just kind of all rode around single-file.”
 
INAUDIBLE
“If I had a lane with a run, and was progressing forward, I think drivers would then drop down to try to get to the head of that line. But that’s not progressing. I think people are like well, why am I going to pull out of this eighth position right now and risk being 15th? So I think it’s really jus decisions and every driver is thinking independently about what’s best for me right now. And all of those decisions together led to the single file finish.”
 
WHEN YOU LOOK AT WHAT KURT BUSCH IS DOING THE MONTH OF MAY AND RUNNING IN THE ‘DOUBLE’ AND THE NEW CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO MAYBE MISS A RACE. IF HE HAS SUCCESS IN THE INDY 500, DO YOU THINK THAT WOULD CREATE MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR CUP GUYS TO GO RUN THAT RACE? WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED?
“I think the opportunity has been there and I’m not sure that a lot of stock car drivers have the desire to run Open Wheel; and that’s probably been the limiting factor. I know at one point in time, manufacturers had supplier issues that prevented me from going. You can certainly have sponsors and people to get ev
erything approved. In my situation, I have a wife that would have to approve me going to Indy. We had a deal that prior to having children, I could. And I didn’t get my opportunity before having kids. The start time was the big problem there. You couldn’t physically do both the way the start times worked out. I hope that encourages others. I think as a race fan, I look forward to that weekend to see who does the double and watch that much racing from Monaco all the way through to the NASCAR event.
 
“Again, I think opportunities are there. A lot of it is just sponsor-driven. But if any top driver from NASCAR showed interest in Andretti Green or Penske or Ganassi and had the sponsors to go through with it, I think they could get a seat. I just don’t know how ambitious many closed-body drivers are to try Indy.”
 
ON MOTHER’S DAY, WHAT DID YOU MOM MEAN TO YOU DURING YOUR CAREER? WHAT IS HER ROLE?
“My parents, together, were largely responsible for my career and my love for racing. My mom fortunately was on board; it wasn’t just my dad’s idea to take me to the race track. My mom was really into it and enjoyed it. She even did a few little races in the ladies division and stuff in different vehicles. So, her willingness to let me ride and compete was much appreciated. But I think my personality and the way I treat others, even the way I compete, really reflects my mom. She’s a respectful person and treats others how they treat you; a lot of those things from my mother’s personality show through. And my dad, certainly, too. But my dad can be a little bit more stern; and even out of my brothers, I’m the one that’s the most relaxed back and I guess more like my mom than my brothers are to a certain degree. So, I’m very thankful for all the sacrifices my parents made. Mother’s Day is a special day; especially now being a parent and understanding that a little bit better. It makes me reflect back and think about all the times I was traveling the country in a 1979 Ford Econoline van with a little 12-foot trailer behind it towing motorcycles. I can’t imagine parents taking off weeks at a time to take me to Oklahoma to race dirt bikes or to Tennessee or to Las Vegas. All the sacrifices they made were pretty awesome.”
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AARON’S 499
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 2, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Talladega Superspeedway and discussed his thoughts on knock-out qualifying at Talladega, the influence his mom has had on his life and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
BIG NEWS COMING OUT OF YOUR CAMP TODAY REGARDING NATIONWIDE BEING THE SPONSOR ON THAT RACE CAR STARTING NEXT YEAR THAT HAS GOT TO BE A BIG DEAL FOR YOU GUYS.  TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT AND SEGWAY INTO JUST RACING HERE AT TALLADEGA:
“We are really excited to be able to announce the sponsorship with Nationwide as it continues to grow.  We have had a relationship with them for a very long time.  It’s been successful on both sides.  I’m really thrilled to be able to go to the next level with them and allow Hendrick Motorsports to be part of that.  It’s a great fit.  We’ve had a lot of fun together and I’m excited to be able to continue that relationship.  It’s a good thing for me.  We were obviously looking for a good fit and looking for something that would work out well.  I can’t imagine a better scenario and I think Nationwide is very excited to get going and start working together in the Cup series.  Our current partners National Guard and Diet Mountain Dew are very excited about it as well to have them in the fold.  Just a lot of good things.
 
“Excited to come here to Talladega, really enjoy racing here, it’s a very laid-back atmosphere and a fun race track.  Looking forward to seeing how well we can run with JR Motorsports on Saturday and obviously working on our car throughout the weekend and see what we can do on Sunday.  It should be a lot of fun.  I enjoy these types of races and have been looking forward to it all week.”
 
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT OUT OF QUALIFYING TOMORROW?
“Nobody knows.  I just don’t know.  We will just have to see. The guy that gets the pole is going to have to hit it just right.  We built a brand new race car so our willingness to take risks is going to be pretty limited throughout that process.  We just you know need to get into the field with the car it doesn’t matter where you start other than just picking on pit road.  Not sure exactly what our approach is yet.  We’ve still got some conversations to have between Steve (Letarte) and our teammates and just sort of feel out everybody’s opinion about what they want to do and how they want to try to accomplish the best result they can.  I don’t think right now anybody has any answers.”
 
WHERE IS YOUR PLATE RACING CONFIDENCE COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND?
“It’s pretty confident.  We as a team I think improved our emphasis on our plate cars to be able to improve their performance.  I think that started to show in the last 12-16 months.  When Steve (Letarte) and I first started working together our confidence and really our focus was more on improving ourselves as a whole.  We really didn’t focus on the plate stuff as much as we needed to improve everywhere.  We had to kind of put our emphasis on the plate track on hold for a while to try to get our team in the right direction.  I think that started to happen to where we were running well enough everywhere where we could start to put a little more care and preparation into our plate track cars.  That is definitely showing in the results.  You show up here sometimes and you have great race cars that do a lot of good things and are very effective when you are moving around in the draft.  There are times when you show up and for whatever reason the same car that I ran second with at Daytona a year or two ago wouldn’t hardly run down here for some reason.  We just couldn’t get anything accomplished and we would get stuck in the pack and boxed in where we couldn’t go anywhere and the car just wouldn’t react the way we needed it to in order to be able to move forward and be aggressive with the passes that we wanted to make.  It just depends on whether you hit everything just right and it all starts with preparation at the shop and I think we have been doing a real good job at that here lately.”
 
HOW MUCH DOES ALL OF THIS TRANSLATE NOW TO YOUR CONFIDENCE THAT WHEN YOU GET IN THIS RACE AND IF YOU GET DOWN TOWARD THE END, CONFIDENCE, THAT THE MOVE YOU CHOOSE WILL BE THE RIGHT MOVE?
“The car gives you the confidence.  When you are driving the car and you get a sense of the cars ability the car gives you the confidence.  Then when you are thinking more positively you tend to see positive results no matter what you are doing, whether you are driving a car or whatever.  If you are thinking ‘hey man I need to make this move right now, but I don’t believe in the car’ then the result is typically not what you are wanting and more of what you expect.  When the car is very good and you appreciate what the car is doing throughout the day you tend to expect it to make the moves you want to make and accomplish what you want to accomplish in the draft late in the race.  Realistically those results pretty much come true when you have that kind of confidence in the car and yourself.  It’s a process throughout the whole weekend really leading up to the race and throughout the first part of the race that builds that confidence.”
 
WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE NATIONWIDE SERIES THAT NATIONWIDE HAS CHOSEN TO LEAVE AS SPONSOR OF THE SERIES TO SPONSOR YOUR NO. 88 CHEVROLET SS IN THE CUP SERIES NEXT SEASON?
“I think it says a lot about the direction that Nationwide wanted to go after their involvement in the sport for some time.  That they wanted to move forward and do something new with their objectives.  I also believe from what I’ve been hearing behind the scenes that the opportunities and search for a title sponsor in the Nationwide Series won’t be a challenging one that there is some good interest there.  Those type of sponsorships although both of them are involved in the sport they kind of accomplish different things.  I think this is a direction that Nationwide wanted to go after what they were doing was affective.  There will be some opportunity and there is some good interest to fill that void.  I think that the Nationwide Series currently is very healthy due to what Nationwide has been able to accomplish in the series.
 
“Also as the sport has sort of reset and rebounded from the economical struggles that we had several years ago the teams are getting healthier and we are seeing a lot more interest on teams wanting to get on the quarter panels and the hoods of these race cars. Whereas for a long time there was a lot more interest to be an official sponsor of the sport and more tied to the sport as a whole.  Now we are seeing a lot more interest in guys wanting to get back on the quarter panels and hoods of these cars.  I think that is really important to the health of the sport overall.”
 
IS THE BUSINESS OF SPONSORSHIP EVOLVING ENOUGH TO WHERE IT IS GOING TO BE TRULY A RARITY FOR ANY ONE ENTITY TO SPONSOR ONE CAR FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON?
“Yeah, I think that is true. I don’t know that is a sign of anything positive or negative.  I just think it’s an evolution of how sponsorships have changed.  Much like we used to think it was a wild thing when a guy would have two race cars out there.  Instead of now a days there are owners that have four race cars and three race cars and that is the norm.  It’s just the way things kind of evolve over time.  I think that it’s really a lot busier when you have multiple partners and it’s a lot more entertaining and interesting as a driver for sure to have so many partners to work with.  And have so many people across so many different – that can rea
ch such an audience.  I’m really enjoying having multiple people to work with each year.  We all sort of learn from each other and how to market and how to reach as many people as we can.  It’s been very effective and we have had a lot of success with it.”
 
INAUDIBLE:
“No, not necessarily, not for us particularly.  I know that in certain instances with certain teams there is definitely that stress.  We feel that somewhat at times in the Nationwide Series.  At this particular point we are very healthy and we have a lot of interest, but there are times if you go back three or four years ago where every team was having a difficult time finding the proper funding to run the full schedule.  I know there are teams in the series that struggle with that every year, but at this particular point the sport has gotten so healthy over the last three years there has been a lot of growth and a ton of interest.  I think that has not reached its peak yet.  That is good for everybody.”
 
FROM EVERYTHING I UNDERSTAND YOU ARE A PRETTY FRUGAL GUY SO COULD YOU EVER IMAGINE IF YOU WERE EVER TO GET MARRIED THAT YOU WOULD SPEND TWO MILLION DOLLARS LIKE THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER SAYS THAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE DOING LATER THIS YEAR?
“I definitely would have a hard time writing that check (laughter).”
 
WOULD YOU DO IT AT DAYTONA?
“No of course not.  I would not force everybody to go down to Daytona for my wedding.  I probably would just have it right there in the back yard, but whatever is easiest.  That was funny.  I read that and it was a roller coaster of an article. Pretty good.”
 
DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE GETTING MARRIED?
“I didn’t.  So we just skipped the engagement I guess, went right to the wedding.”
 
NEXT WEEKEND IS MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND.  WHAT DOES YOUR MOM MEAN TO YOU?  HOW DID SHE HELP YOU ALONG DURING YOUR CHILDHOOD AND RISE ALL THE WAY TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
“I don’t have enough time to answer that to give it justice.  She was from a racing family.  Obviously I loved the sport when I was a little kid so I was so lucky to have it on both sides of my family.  My parents split up when I was really young, but no matter where I was I was around a race car.  Which I really appreciated because the Gee’s, my mother was a Gee, Robert Gee and Robert Gee, Jr. and all them, they raced and did things differently and approached racing differently so it was fun to sort of learn from both sides.  She had a huge influence on me becoming a Washington Redskins fan which I really appreciate to this day.  She just worked really hard and she had a hard time giving up custody of me and Kelly to my father in 1981.  She just knew we would have better opportunities and a better life in that situation.  That was very difficult and she fought with that internally for many, many years.  It was a real joy to be able to have her husband Willie (Jackson) retire from his job as a fireman and them be able to move to North Carolina and be close and be able to really become more a part of her life again.  She has a great sense of humor and very sarcastic and I really appreciate that.  Just a ton of fun to be around, if you want an honest opinion and you want the truth even if you don’t want to hear it your mom is the best person to go to, to get it.  She doesn’t have a filter and she will steer you down the right path every time.  It’s great to have a relationship with her that I have today.  She is a huge influence on my life and has been for some time.”
 
YOU GOT FIRST QUARTER DRIVER OF THE YEAR THIS YEAR.  YOU HAD NEVER WON THAT BEFORE?
“I have no idea.”
 
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT WINNING THAT?
“I just think obviously we would really be happy to win the award out right.  To get it quarterly is sort of a nod to how we have performed.  It’s good that the media sees the performance because as much as we love to do a lot of things for ourselves we really get a kick out of when the media and our fans see the performance and acknowledge it. That kind of nod was a great feeling.  We have worked so hard to be able to be this competitive and we show up every week and we are quick and the car is there.  It’s been so long or I’ve never really had that to be honest.  I can’t even imagine ’04 was even that good.  This is awesome that things are going as good.  I couldn’t be happier with what is going on in my professional life.  It’s good to get that nod.  It’s just a good feeling.  I consider the media peers of mine.  We all work in this together and it’s just like another driver coming up and saying ‘man you drove a hell of a race last week’.  It’s a good feeling.”
 

JAMIE McMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT:
 
 
JENNIE LONG:  Good morning.  Joining us today is Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  Jamie heads to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend where he made his first career start and has two wins and seven top‑10 finishes.  Jamie, your win at Talladega last October was the first time your son and daughter were with you in victory lane.  Can you talk about what that moment was like, having them there for the celebration?
 
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Yeah, I’m going to start with apologizing for any background noise because I am home alone right now with both of them, so this could be really interesting in the next 15 minutes if they get too wild on me.
 
It was obviously really special for me to have both of them there.  I think I said in the media center, I’ve seen pictures for years of Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth and all the guys that I’ve been friends with, had pictures with their families in victory lane, and it was just a really special day.  That was a great picture, one that I’ll always cherish.
Q.  First of all, what are the ages of your children?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  One and three.
Q.  Speaking of family, what’s Mother’s Day weekend going to be like for you in Kansas next week?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, it’s different because normally we’ve had mother’s day at Darlington, and all of my family lives here now.  I think that my mom is going to try to go back with me this year.  It’s been easier in the past because you would just ‑‑ we kind of planned it out where she and I would just drive down together, so that was always really nice.  And then after having kids, it’s special because you’re spending that with your mom and then also your wife who is a mother.  That day becomes much more important.
 
But this year I think my mom is going to actually fly back with me and I think she’s going to hang out with her friends a little bit in Joplin and then come back up to the race in Kansas.
 
Yeah, it’ll be really special.  It’s become more and more important to me the older that I get, and after having kids you just realize everything that your mom has given up and how much work they put into raising you.  It becomes more special every year.
Q.  What impact did your mom have on your career coming up as a driver?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, I think when I look at my parents, my parents were quite a bit different.  My dad was fairly loud and outspoken, and my mom was very reserved.  But I learned a lot from both of them, and when I look back to my mom, I think some of the values she taught me was, first off, how important getting an education was.  She was a schoolteacher.  And then also my mom was just always really conservative and really good at saving money and not wasting things, and that has rubbed off on me, and I’ve kind of been that way my whole life.  That’s from her and listening to her and just kind of doing what she did when she was raising us. I learned really good stuff from her.
Q.  What do you credit your success at Talladega over the other tracks on the circuit?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  That’s a really tough question.  I don’t really view Talladega or Daytona any different than any other track.  I think to be successful at a plate track, you have to be ‑‑ I don’t know that you go there with the mindset of winning.  I always go to plate tracks with the mindset of running second and pushing somebody to the win, and if the circumstances work out that you find yourself in the lead, it’s great.  But I don’t think you can be ‑‑ I think you just have to be very open‑minded and willing to help more than trying to get help.  I think a lot of guys go to those tracks and want everyone to help them, but they don’t really want to return the favor, and I think it’s important to kind of have a different mentality with that, and you always want to try to help whoever is in front of you and work with them.
 
I don’t know.  It’s definitely a different style of racing than what we normally have.  I have to tell you that I’m so thankful that we’ve gotten rid of the tandem.  I hated that.  I know some fans liked it and some didn’t, but for me I dreaded going to the plate tracks when we had the tandem.  I like the package that we have now.
Q.  What’s your favorite track?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  My favorite track is the one that we go to next every week.  I honestly, like if you have a good car at any of the tracks, they’re fun, and if your car is not good, none of them are fun.  I really enjoy getting to go do some road course racing, I like Martinsville, I like Charlotte.  I enjoy going to Daytona and Talladega.  That’s fun to do four times a year, but it’s nice to go somewhere different each week.
Q.  We’re close to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  What do you think of that track?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, Indy is fun because of the history.  I wouldn’t say that Indy is in the top 5 of the funnest tracks to race on because it’s so hard to pass there.  But it’s a really special place just because of the history of it, and after winning that race and getting to kiss the bricks, it makes it even more special to me.
Q.  Jamie, the new elimination system stresses winning probably by plan and seems to be working pretty well, too.  But it may benefit drivers like you who are no strangers to victory lane from time to time.  How does that change the mindset of you and your team and other drivers, too, looking into how you approach this year?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Yeah, I don’t think anyone is doing anything any differently.  I mean, if it comes down at Richmond last week or Talladega this week and you take a gamble on fuel mileage, everyone is going to do the same thing.  I think the mentality has changed that everyone races to win every week, and I don’t think that what they’ve done this year has made anyone try harder or do anything different because you only can race based on the circumstances that are given for that event, and it’s really ‑‑ you’d have to ask a crew chief, but in my opinion it’s not any different than it’s ever been.
Q.  I’m curious, can you talk a little bit about what your first impression was of Talladega when you first went to the track and when that was?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, Talladega was the first Superspeedway race that I even ‑‑ well, I guess I ran Daytona, but I think I tested at Talladega first, and I just remember going there and knowing that you could run wide open around the track, and I had never been to a track that you could do that at.  It’s so hard to get used to, whether it was in the late models or doing the trucks, that you can run around the track and not ever let off.  It’s hard to conceive that.
 
The first laps were ‑‑ it’s so much fun to be able to run around a place like that flat out and not have to let off.  It’s different now because it’s got so much more grip than what it had before the repave.  When we did the plate races before, you could run like 15 laps and handling started becoming an issue, and now there’s so much grip that it’s a little bit different.  That’s a thrilling place to go to for the first time, and to run around there by yourself is exciting initially, but then when you run around and you’re in the middle of a 30‑ or a 40‑car pack and you’re right in the middle lane, middle of the pack, that gets your attention, and it certainly requires a lot of focus.  It’s a really cool place, really fun venue.
Q.  What went through your mind the first time you took a lap around there, and do you remember when that was?
JAMIE McMURRAY:
  Well, no and no.  I don’t remember that.  And I don’t remember exactly when it was.  I could be wrong, it might have been in the truck at Daytona the first time I ran a plate track or somewhere that you could run wide open.  But it’s just hard to conceive that you could do that and that it would stick good enough.  It takes a while to realize that, that it’s real.
Q.  I’m just going to ask you about what happened with Ambrose and Mears after Richmond.  Are you surprised that they got fined and the punishment was what it was or do you think NASCAR should have just let it go?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, I hoped that NASCAR would just let that go.  They have preached to all of us that they want us to be who we are, and I think it’s good that you have some characters in the sport that ‑‑ I’m not calling Casey or Marcus out, but not everyone is willing to ‑‑ or is the type of guy that would punch someone, right?  Everyone has a moment that they’re extremely upset, but I don’t think that ‑‑ I think you can count on one hand the guys that would actually throw a punch.  Everyone is talking about it.  I’m building a house, and when I got up to the home site, that’s all the guys wanted to talk about was oh, my gosh, did you see that, and they wanted to know if I have any inside scoop.  I think it’s great.  I don’t want to see anyone get punched, but it’s been ‑‑ how many years ago has it been since someone actually punched someone?  It’s got everyone talking about the sport and I think it’s good you see those guys’ passion.  Casey was so mad when you look in that video there and kind of pushing Marcos.  I don’t know, I was really hoping that NASCAR was going to let it go or that the fines would be less because that’s a huge ‑‑ $25,000 is massive.  My opinion of that is that you won’t see it happen again because I think people will think about that and be like, it’s not worth it.  It’s not worth $25,000 for me to express exactly how I feel at this time.
Q.  There must have been situations where you’ve been in that same situation and have held back.  Have you been in those type of situations, as well?  Have there been any times you’ve thrown a punch or have wanted to but have held back?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, there’s probably been times, yeah, when I wanted to do that.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had that kind of anger inside of me.  But you know, I don’t know.  My take on that is I kind of ‑‑ if it was happening every week, I think it would be different, but if they hadn’t fined those guys, I don’t think it would have happened again for a long time.  Like I say, I think there’s only a few guys ‑‑ I think there’s maybe five guys that are willing to do that, and it takes both those guys getting together on the same night and being extremely upset before it would happen.  I don’t think it was ‑‑ I think if they would have let it go, I don’t think it would have happened again for a while.  I think it’s very circumstantial with the two right guys, you know.
 
And look, I think if you watch the video of that, my take on it, I don’t think Casey had any intentions of throwing a punch.  Casey went over there and was wanting to get his point across.  I don’t think he had any ‑‑ when he got hit, you could tell he was like, I can’t believe I just got punched, right?  I don’t think anyone had that mindset going into it.
Q.  Racing is a tough sport that is built up with a lot of emotion.  Now that you have children, has your thought process changed?  In other words, how do you keep the children out of your mind when you get into that race car compared to when you were not a daddy?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Yeah, honestly that never crosses my mind.  I don’t know that ‑‑ I think if you polled most guys, they would say that that doesn’t ‑‑ once you get out, whether it’s in practice or qualifying or when the National Anthem is going on for the race, once you get in the car, it’s all about racing, and you just do what feels natural.  I mean, I don’t know that anybody necessarily when they’re racing thinks about, well, I have kids now or I’m married.  You do what happens naturally, and you make decisions really fast, and it’s just based on what you feel at that time. For me it’s not any different.  I think if you were to ask most guys, they would say that.
Q.  Coming up on the midway point of the season, so to speak, what’s your assessment for the first half, and then what’s the outlook for the remainder of the season?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Well, I mean, our cars have been tremendously better.  It’s been somewhat unfortunate that some of the races that we had really got cars ‑‑ when I looked at Bristol with 50 laps to go and the 4 car losing an oil line in front of us, Martinsville with the 88 cutting a tire down and crashing in front of us.  We’ve had really good cars at every race.  Keith Rodden has done a great job coming over and being the crew chief this year, his first year of crew chiefing.  Team and organization‑wise has been really good, and I think both Kyle and I are looking forward really to about everywhere we’re going.  I love road course racing.  We’re getting ready to go do some testing for that on Monday, and we’ve just been good at each type of racetrack, whether it’s flat track, high banked, short track, mile‑and‑a‑half.  Our cars have been good about everywhere, so that’s a great feeling to have in this sport because sometimes you have cars that are good at short tracks but not good at mile‑and‑a‑halfs, so you dread those mile‑and‑a‑half tracks because you know you’ve struggled with those.  We’ve been good about everywhere, so yeah, really optimistic about everything for the rest of the year.
Q.  It’s coming down pretty well up here in upstate New York.  What’s the weather been like down there this week and how has it effected you at all?
JAMIE McMURRAY:  Yeah, the weather ‑‑ I’m actually going to Talladega a little early for a fishing trip, so I’ve been watching the weather closer this weekend than I have in the past.  But it looks like all the weather is going to be out of there today, and we’re going to have a great weekend.
 
JENNIE LONG:  Jamie, thanks so much for joining us today, and good luck this weekend at Talladega.