CORVETTE DPs AT LONG BEACH: Taking It To Southern California’s Streets
Chevrolet comes to famed street venue with TUDOR Championship engine manufacturer lead
 
DETROIT (April 8, 2014) – Armed with a victory at its longest race of the season, Chevrolet’s Corvette Daytona Prototype teams head to America’s premier street circuit event for the shortest race on the calendar. The streets of Long Beach will play host to the annual Grand Prix of Long Beach – a southern California tradition celebrating its 40th year. The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is part of the festivities with Corvette Daytona Prototypes playing a leading role.
 
To be fair, it’s also a position Chevrolet and the Corvette DPs have held since the TUDOR Championship’s opening race at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Thanks to a victory there and a third-place finish at Sebring – both via Action Express Racing’s No. 5 Corvette DP – Chevrolet leads the TUDOR Championship’s engine manufacturer standings in the Prototype category.
 
Saturday’s Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase – set for 3:10 p.m. PT and airing live on FOX Sports 1 – is a 100-minute race made up of the TUDOR Championship’s Prototypes and the GT Le Mans class. With heavy involvement in both those classes plus being an engine supplier for the Verizon IndyCar Series, Chevrolet will be the prominent marque on the Long Beach weekend.
 
The opening two rounds of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship featured two distinct types of race tracks. That trend continues with the series’ third event on its inaugural calendar. But Long Beach is unfamiliar territory for the Daytona Prototypes. The last time DPs raced around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit was 2006 as part of the GRAND-Am Rolex Sports Car Series; the American Le Mans Series’ prototypes ran there from 2007-13. Entries from both series now populate the TUDOR Championship’s Prototype class.
 
There won’t be much time for teams to acclimate themselves to the circuit with a two-hour, early-morning practice followed by a 30-minute session late in the afternoon before qualifying. That plus the race’s abbreviated length means there is no margin for error. Since they debuted for the 2012 Rolex Series season,  Corvette DPs won two of the three street races on the GRAND-AM schedule: both on Belle Isle in Detroit.
 
Long Beach continues a run of unique circuits that Team Chevy faces in the opening rounds of the TUDOR Championship. The season began on Daytona International Speedway’s infield road course before moving to the rough-and-tumble permanent road course at Sebring International Raceway. Action Express Racing’s No. 5 entry of Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais led a Chevrolet sweep of the top four positions at the Rolex 24. They followed with a third-place finish at Sebring to lead the Corvette DP contingent.
 
Wayne Taylor Racing, runner-up at Daytona, is entered for Long Beach along with Spirit of Daytona and Marsh Racing to make up the group of Corvette DPs set for Round 3.
 
“There are many unique challenges to racing around Long Beach,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet’s Program Manager for Corvette Daytona Prototypes. “As DPs have not raced there in some time, there are many unknowns – things like suspension and aero setup, and gearing ratios will be best estimates based on our simulations at Chevrolet. The length of the race and minimum drive times bring a new element of strategy into play as well. More than ever, the teams that are best prepared ahead of Friday’s first practice will have distinct advantages. We’re confident our Corvette DP teams will be chief among those.”
 

 
Corvette Racing Earns High Honor From RACER Magazine
Named Team of the Year for 2013 in Spring edition
 
DETROIT (April 7, 2014) – While preparing to hit its stride for the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, Corvette Racing has picked up a significant honor from RACER. The renowned publication named Corvette Racing its 2013 Team of the Year in worldwide motorsport as part of its Spring edition. An editorial panel selected America’s leading production-based sports car team for the honor after it won the 2013 American Le Mans Series’ GT championship.
 
In capturing its 10th ALMS title, Corvette Racing won five times – half the races on the ALMS calendar. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R took three victories and the GT drivers’ championship, while Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner won twice in the No. 4 Corvette.
 
The 2013 season was the final for the C6.R, which gave way to the new Corvette C7.R at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. In it’s run of four-plus years, the C6.R won 11 ALMS races including nine during the last two seasons despite being at the end of its development life.
 
“This recognition is appreciated by everyone on the Corvette Racing, Pratt & Miller and Powertrain team,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “It underscores the strong teamwork, preparation and strategy Corvette Racing displayed during its 2013 championship run. The team is looking forward to the rest of this season competing with the Corvette C7.R.”
 
Corvette Racing’s next event is the Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase from the streets of Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday, April 12. Live television coverage will be available on FOX Sports 1 starting at 6 p.m. ET.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
APRIL 7, 2014
 
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – sidelined on lap 12
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“Just didn’t see the grass. Didn’t know the grass was down there. With the way the A-post is on these cars you can’t really see that good to that angle. I just didn’t have a good visual of where the apron and the grass was and got down in there pretty good. You can’t run through there they way they have these cars on the ground like that.  Just a mistake on my part. I just didn’t know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I drove the car down there. I didn’t know we were that close the grass and was following the No. 43 (Aric Almirola). I thought I was taking a decent line through the dogleg. We were going low around the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) so I was lower than normal and just misjudged it. It tears the car up pretty good when you run through the grass.”
 
SOME DRIVERS WERE COMPLAINING OF A WET TRACK AT THE OUTSET. WAS THAT A FACTOR?
“It was no factor. I just made a mistake.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined on lap 28 with apparent engine issue.
“Something happened with the engine right after that restart. The Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS was really fast. It’s frustrating. I don’t know what else I can say. I didn’t get any indication that anything was going wrong. Hendrick engines are among the fastest and most reliable engines in the garage. We’ll take it back to the shop and figure out what happened. But that’s a disappointing end to the day.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA/TEXAS A&M SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
A TWO TIRE CALL PUT YOU UP THERE FOR THE WIN ON THAT LAST LAP: 
“That was a great call.  We lost the handling a little bit when the sun came out.  We were looking at about a sixth place finish there.  We were really happy to see that caution and I think we learned a lesson in California when we took four (tires) there that maybe we would have been better off taking two (tires).  Alan (Gustafson) and the guys they were great in the pits all day long.  Man I so badly wanted to get this Texas A&M maroon in Victory Lane today.
 
“I have to thank Axalta Coating Systems for being such a great coating company, one of the largest in the world for supporting us and for making this Texas A&M thing happen.  Of course I want to thank AARP and Drive to End Hunger as well as Pepsi Max and all of our great sponsors, Chevy, everybody and for the fans for coming out on a Monday.  That was a heck of a race.”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR JOEY LOGANO AT THE END?
“No, we didn’t. We were really strong the first half of the race; then when the sun came out and some guys kind of lost the handle and got real tight.  Great call by Alan Gustafson (crew chief). Everybody on this No. 24 crew did an awesome job today. I so badly wanted to get this Texas A & M Engineering maroon…get those Aggies a win here today. Got to thank Axalta Coatings Systems for making this possible. They are a great company, the biggest coatings company in the world. And then all of our sponsors – AARP Drive To End Hunger, Pepsi Max and Chevrolet. That was an awesome race all day. Have to thank the fans for coming out and watching, and the ones at home. That was a great battle. At one point I thought we had a shot at it. We got a pretty good restart. Joey was right on me and I was pretty loose in one and two, and I wish I had gone a little bit higher in three and four. But, he got that run off of four and he got in the back of me, and I thought I was going to wreck, so at that point I was like second would be good.”
 
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
TAKE US THROUGH YOUR AFTERNOON: 
“We had a really good Target Chevy today.  We were average on short runs but I thought we were the best car on a long run.  Shine (Chris Heroy, crew chief) and everybody did a great job working on it after practice on Friday.  We were terrible, so they worked their butts off all weekend and gave us a good finish.  I can’t thank those guys enough and all the fans for sticking it out.  I’m sorry you guys had to wait a whole extra day, but I’m glad we put on a good finish for you guys.”  
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S SPRING IS CALLING CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 25TH
ON THE DAY:
“The Lowe’s team gave me a great car today. It’s kind of surreal what happened. Junior hit the grass there and something off his car like a splitter or something just destroyed my windshield and then something hit the nose of the car too. We were in a good position and were running decent lap times when the right rear blew. I’m glad Junior is alright and hats off to my guys today. We
played around with some strategy at the end. They never gave up.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED EARLY IN THE RACE WHEN DEBRIS HIT YOUR CAR?
“When (Dale Earnhardt) Junior when through the grass, it kicked up all this debris and mud. It ripped the windshield and ripped the left front.
 
“DID YOU FEEL LIKE IT DID A LOT OF DAMAGE AT THE TIME?
“There was a lot of noise. And I saw his car and then I instantly lost vision. I felt a couple of hard hits on my car and I knew that we had some damage. But I still think we were overcoming that. We recovered and had a fast car and we were okay, and then I don’t know if I ran something over on the track or what, but something really big hit the bottom-side of my car and that, I think, punctured our right rear tire. We had to come to pit road after that. And then we lost a couple of laps due to that.
 
“It was a day of bad luck. We had a fast race car, so there was a little silk lining in it, but it was a terrible finish.”
 
HOW WAS THE TRACK?
“Tire wear was high, but we expected that. This is a great race track.”
 

CHEVROLET SS TOPS THE BOARD AT TEXAS
Tony Stewart Claims Pole for NASCAR Sprint Cup Race
 
FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Tony Stewart put Chevrolet SS on the pole for Sunday’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS).  He circled the 1.5-mile track with a fast lap of 27.628 seconds, 195.454 mph. It marked Stewart’s first pole since Atlanta 2012, his second at Texas Motor Speedway, and 15th career pole in the sport.
 
The afternoon session at TMS followed the new 2014 knockout qualifying format for intermediate sized tracks, which consisted of one 25-minute session, one 10-minute session, and a final five-minute session for the fastest 12 cars.  Five Chevrolet SS drivers earned spots in the top 12 starting positions for the 501-mile race.
 
Kevin Harvick qualified third in his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, putting two Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet SSs in the top three. In the first round of qualifying, Harvick set a new track record of 198.282 mph.
 
Ryan Newman will start eighth his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy SS.
 
Kurt Busch, last week’s race winner at Martinsville, qualified his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS in the 11th spot and adding a third member of the Stewart-Haas Racing team in the top 11 qualifying positions. Jeff Gordon was 12th fastest in his No. 24 Axalta/Texas A&M Engineering School Chevrolet SS.
 
Brad Keselowski (Ford) qualified 2nd, Greg Biffle (Ford) qualified 4th, and Carl Edwards (Ford) qualified 5th to round out the top five starting spots.
 
Sunday’s race will air on FOX beginning at 3:00 pm ET. The green flag will wave at 3:16 pm ET. The Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race will be 334 laps making up 501 miles.
 
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN:
“Yeah, it was cool.  I’m not normally a qualifier, but our first round we were 16th and I didn’t think I ran a very strong lap.  So I felt like I could do better the second round and we were second quick after that.  The third round it was just a matter of waiting until the end trying to let the tires cool off as much as we could.  Got out and had a really good lap.  Chad Johnston (crew chief) did an awesome job making an adjustment there at the end and got us freed up a little bit.  It was a little too much, but it was good enough to get us where we needed to be.  It was a really strong lap.”
 
STEWART-HAAS RACING STARTING FIRST AND THIRD FOR TOMORROW’S RACE TALK ABOUT THE MOMENTUM YOU GUYS HAVE RIGHT NOW:
“Yeah the whole organization has been doing an awesome job. Obviously we are coming in a week after Kurt’s (Busch) win which is a great feeling for us.  This is the first time I have been able to do something impressive for the team so I’m excited about that.  We have got a good year started.  To get two of our cars wins already.  For us to get a pole that is something that we are pretty proud of right now.”
 
KEVIN (HARVICK) CAME IN AND HE SAID YOU CAPTURING THE POLE IS ‘AS GOOD AS IT GETS FOR OUR ORGANIZATION THAT IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT FOR WHERE WE HAVE BEEN AS A COMPANY THE LAST FEW WEEKS’.  YOU JUST TALKED ABOUT KURT’S (BUSCH) WIN HAS SOMETHING CLICKED OR TURNED AROUND?
“I don’t think it’s any one thing.  Our cars have had speed.  Kurt (Busch) and Kevin (Harvick) have been qualifying well all year for the most part.  This week we had a good run.  The good thing is it’s not just one team.  The whole organization is having really good starts as far as qualifying is concerned.  I don’t know that we can really point to one thing to be truthful.  I think it is early in the year.  I think the atmosphere at our shop is really good right now.  It has been ever since the end of the season last year.  Just a lot of new faces and with that has come a new excitement around our shop and it seems to be transferring to what we are seeing on the race track as well.”
 
WAS THERE ANY STRATEGY INVOLVED TODAY IN QUALIFYING BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER CONDITIONS?
“Once we got in the cars I never really heard the crew chief mention anything about the weather so I don’t know if there was any more that was coming or is coming or anything like that.  Once we actually got in the cars to get ready for the first round I never heard anybody really talk about the weather again.”
 
KEVIN (HARVICK) ALSO SAID PART OF THE REASON FOR YOUR STRUGGLE AT LAS VEGAS WAS A BIG MISTAKE.  HE SAID SOME OF IT WAS JUST GETTING THE CARS BUILT AND EVERYTHING ORGANIZED AND EVERYTHING FLOWING AT THE SHOP THE WAY IT NEEDED TO BE.  CAN YOU KIND OF EXPAND ON THAT?  IS THAT PART OF IT IS EXPANSION TO A FOURTH CAR? 
“That is a part of it, but the bigger part of that is all the cars are running a totally different package this year with set-ups with no ride height rule and all that.  Everything that we did last year is kind of out the window and now you are doing things that are totally different.  You are not doing it for one car you are doing it for all four cars.  There have just been a lot of changes.  Obviously adding the fourth team, but changing things and changing set-ups from last year to this year. What happened to us at Las Vegas was something that nobody would have predicted would have happened.  The good thing is they found it when they got the car back to Charlotte.  Found what the problem was so we learned those things early and hopefully that won’t bite us later in the year.”
 
ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THE TEAMS HAVE COME TOGETHER AS QUICKLY AS THEY HAVE GIVEN THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE NEW CREW CHIEFS THAT YOU HAVE NEW DRIVERS?  KURT BUSCH MENTIONED EARLIER THAT EVERYONE UNDER THE STEWART-HAAS RACING ROOF THEY ARE PRETTY MUCH RACERS HAS HELPED SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS:
“I don’t know that it’s a surprise necessarily, especially when we are talking about all the rule changes for this year.  You never know who is going to hit on things first and who is going to get out of the gate strong.  I guess that is one thing that is probably and equalizer more than anything is the ability to come out with a new package and have the same opportunity that everybody else, even though we have new people in place this year. If you are going to have a big change like that it is probably at the same time a good opportunity when you have such a new package that we came out with this year set-up wise for the rules.  If you are going to learn a new set-up package you might as well learn new people at the same time so it probably worked hand-in-hand.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd:
 
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“The car was just tight in all three runs. As it progressed there, we just got tighter and just didn’t make a big enough swing to get it exactly where it needed to be. But, for us, that’s a big improvement on where we’ve been on qualifying day, so that’s a good thing. And Tony (Stewart) capturing a pole is as good as it gets for the organization. So that’s a huge improvement from where we’ve been as a company for the last several weeks.”
 
THE TEAM HAS TWO WINS AND THREE PEOPLE IN THE FINAL TOP 12 TODAY. INTERNALLY, IS THE TEAM ON AN EXTREME UPSWING RIGHT NOW IN ALL ASPECTS?
“Honestly, I don’t even think we’ve scratched the surface as a team. We’re still trying to get all the cars built and everything organized and flowing exactly how it needs to flow in the shop and the fab shop with all the stuff that we’ve changed over the winter with adding a whole new team and bringing in new crew chiefs. And I think everybody, and as you can see with the No. 14, just getting their feet on the ground and getting to where we’re competing for poles and competing for wins and having the speed i
n the car hasn’t been the issue for the No. 4 team as we’ve gone through the weeks. And I think we’ve just got a few things to clean up and things are going to be coming together even better.”
 
TONY STEWART STRUGGLED SO MUCH AT LAS VEGAS AND THEN IMPROVED AT FONTANA, AND NOW AGAIN HERE AT TEXAS. IS IT JUST SUCH A FINE LINE FROM BEING OFF TO BEING ON? OR, IS THERE SOMETHING YOU SEE THAT THEY’VE DONE THAT REALLY HAS CHANGED THE GAME FOR THEM?
“They had some pretty big mistakes at Las Vegas. Tony is on his game as you can see. It’s qualifying day and Tony is on the pole. So, when we can qualify good, everything is going good. It’s just kind of the same thing as us. You’ve just got to clean up some of these mistakes and they had a big mistake at Las Vegas and from the outside looking in, you just say well he ran bad. That’s not the case. I think at California they ran a lot better and had good finishes. Chad (Johnston, crew chief) called a good race and everybody is doing good. When we get that consistency to go along with the speed, everything will be in place and headed in the right direction.”
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 5, 2014
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
“The first run I knew I didn’t run a very good lap, and then the second run really wasn’t much different than that but we knew we had a heat cycle on the tires.  This thing is fast. It was good in the first run, and in the second run it was pretty good and we were second and we ran a little bit quicker. We didn’t know what we could run this third time, but I knew what (Greg) Biffle had run. The good thing is Chad Johnson (crew chief) made a really big change there to try and make it better.  Like he said, ‘I was either going to make you quick, or I was going to make you 12th.’ I’m glad he made the change. He’s got a lot of confidence and I really like that.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S ‘SPRING IS CALLING’ CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 16th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“First of all thank you. My family is certainly dealing with a lot. Each day there is a little less tears, and a little more smiles. So that is all going in the right direction and as well as you could expect.  Today, we’re really surprised not to have pace here in qualifying.  We have a very fast race car, in race trim especially. Our car is blazing fast. Qualifying hasn’t always been my strong suit, and today it showed up here for whatever reason. We’ll get her cleaned up and get her ready for the race on Sunday. We felt like we had a very good understanding of things, and we spent a lot of time this afternoon working on old tire runs because we were so good in race trim and we just missed it. Everybody else picked up a lot more speed than we did so we will have to dig in deep and try and understand why.”

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 18th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“After the first session we felt we could make another move, but our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet lacked forward bite and I just couldn’t lay down the lap that was needed to get into the final round. We wanted better than 18th, but this is a long race (500 miles) so we have plenty of time to get to where we want to get to.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 19th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“Our car is real, real fast on the first lap on a set of stickers. It’s been that way in all the practices.  I was happy with the way the car ran in the initial first segment of qualifying. But our car is getting real, real tight real, real fast every lap after that, and we weren’t able to put the lap down in the second and third runs.  It’s doing that in race trim too. We’ll take off the first lap in race trim we’ll run some pretty poor laps in the first few, then it comes back around. So there is something there in that little spell. We have to figure out if it is on the ground with the splitter or what it is. So we are going back to the hauler right now. We’ll spend a couple hours tuning on it.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 21st
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN AND HOW HE IS FEELING:
“I just felt terrible yesterday.  Today we turned around the car was much better.  I felt much better.  Disappointed with that right there because I had a good first round.  I think I just tried to get a little too much and over drove a little bit.  Proud of the first round effort.  I wish it was like old school because the first one we would be starting fourth tomorrow.  We will take it and go on.  Like I said I felt like we had a decent car in practice.  Luckily I’m starting to feel much better.  I think it was just a 24 hour bug, virus thing.”
 
YOUR BROTHER STEPPED IN BUT ONLY IN CASE HE WOULD BE NEEDED TOMORROW, BUT YOU DON’T REALLY ANTICIPATE THAT HAPPENING?
“No, not anymore.  There was definitely a part from yesterday that I was starting to worry about it.  I couldn’t believe my brother as big as he is could get in my car. That kind of got me a little nervous now.  No, yesterday was definitely bad.  Last night was horrible and then this morning all of a sudden I started to feel better.”
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 5, 2014
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA/TEXAS A & M SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway and discussed the first two practice sessions, his visit to the Texas A & M campus and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR SPECIAL PAINT SCHEME THIS WEEKEND:
“Yes, it is very exciting. I had an opportunity to go to Texas A & M on Thursday and with the engineering students as well as the football team. Impressive campus, and a lot of excitement and buzz over there as well as here at the race track being here in Texas and having Texas A & M on board our Axalta Chevy SS is really cool. I just think it is a great partnership. Charlie Shaver the CEO from Axalta is here and he is an alumni from Texas A & M, so connecting the engineering that goes on within one of the largest coatings companies in the world, as well as the engineering that happens within the teachings of engineering that happens over at Texas A & M as well as how that connects to motorsports, it just makes sense. We are going to have a lot of those students out here this weekend who won the opportunity to be our 12th man. Just the incredible support we’ve gotten just representing them. I feel like I’ve gotten some extra pressure on me to go out there and perform as well.”
 
TALK ABOUT COMING INTO TO TEXAS THIS YEAR:
“I love Texas Motor Speedway especially every year as the track continues to sort of deteriorate which makes for better racing and more abrasive surface. You see more fall-off. It is amazing how fast we are for one or two laps, and then you start feeling the pace and the grip level start to fall very quickly.  That, I think, really suits my style, and the way we set up the cars. We’ve been really fast here the past several times we’ve been here. It is really just about putting a complete race together and getting to the finish without any issues which is something we did have last year. We feel confident. Our cars have been amazing this year especially on the bigger faster tracks.  I feel confident that we will also be able to bring that here tomorrow.  We’ve gotten some good practice sessions in, certainly a few challenges that we are working on balance-wise.  But the car has good grip and good speed so I feel really good about it.”
 
LOOKING AHEAD – YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ROAD COURSE AT SONOMA:
“We just tested there for Goodyear last week I think it was – I don’t know, all the weeks are running into one another now.  We had a lot of rain so we didn’t get as many laps in as we would have like to have had. I feel like Goodyear has a good tire there.  We always enjoy going to Sonoma. It is basically home for me so I get to see a lot of family and friends that I don’t typically get to which was really nice to go do the test and actually spend even more quality time with a lot of people, especially with all the rain. But, that track has a lot of challenges, not only being a road course.  There is a lot of fall off there. A lot of wheel-spin; a lot of tire wear, especially in the rears.  Goodyear did a really nice job taking a tire that has a little bit more grip at the beginning of a run, but seems to keep a little bit better drive off (the corner). I think it was certainly good to get laps there, and get prepared to go back there. Hopefully we will put some success together there like we’ve seen in the past.”
 
YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T GO TO COLLEGE, BUT YOU WANT YOUR KIDS TO GO. HOW ARE YOU USING THIS AS AN EXAMPLE FOR THEM WITH THE STUDENTS THAT WILL BE PART OF YOUR CREW? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?  
“For me getting to experience what life is like there on the campus, and how enthusiastic the students are to go to Texas A & M. It is a great school, and there is a lot of pride. There are some similarities between NASCAR and our fans and the passion we have for our sport; and the same thing for Texas A & M – their students and alumni fans that support them. As far as relating that to my children, I don’t know if they are going to go on to be engineers. But, if they are, obviously there is a great school there for them, and I see motorsports drawing more engineers all the time. There are so many great ways to get involved in this sport more so than just being a driver.
 
“My kid’s education is something that is very important to my wife and I. We’re trying to take our lessons in life, as well as do our best to give them the best education that they can get, and try to blend those things. What has helped us being successful and not going to college, and how they can blend that between having the education and have the same work ethics and approach in life about finding their passion early as on in life as is possible.  If that takes them to furthering their education at a particular college, then we are going to support that 100%.  But, we’re also open enough to know that because of our lives and the paths that it has taken us, we just want them to be happy and successful in whatever they chose to do. Every day I wish I had more of an education, and just that experience in life I think is huge in going to college and the responsibilities that come along with attending classes, having fun at parties. That balance between just being more responsible as an adult and stepping into that next stage of your life.”
 
HAVE YOU MET THE 28 STUDENTS HERE YET AND IF YOU HAVE TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT PASSION YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.  HOW THEY ARE FEELING THIS WEEKEND AND WHAT ROLE THEY WILL PLAY IN YOUR RACE TOMORROW:
“I did meet them.  They are really excited.  They actually built a race car over there.  It’s not a NASCAR stock car, but a lot of really cool thing that they have done.  They get racing and as well as I can tell they are big fans of NASCAR.  They are just extremely excited to come here and talk to some of our engineers.  I think people that aren’t in the Carolina’s or at the race track every weekend underestimate how much technology and engineering goes into what we do every weekend.  If you just go to Hendrick Motorsports and see the growth in engineering and people that are engineers you start to get a sense of why this tie is so crucial and important.
 
“We have tapped into engineering schools and students probably a little bit more around the Carolina’s and in the Midwest, but I’m not so sure that we have tapped into schools like Texas A & M.  I think a lot of it is because maybe they just don’t realize that could be a potential path for them. As well as the tie to Axalta and the coating systems and all the engineering that goes into what makes their brand and their product so successful and why engineers are so important to them as well.”
 
WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT STOOD OUT TO YOU ABOUT YOUR TRIP TO COLLEGE STATION?
“Other than just how pumped up and excited they are to blend what they do and racing as well as going to visit with the football team they were pumping some loud music out there on that practice field.  I thought that was really cool that they were working hard, but having a good time.  It’s all about how hard you work, but how you motivate people to do their jobs and do them well.  When you are working that hard you’ve got to find a way to kind of break up the intensity and I thought that was pretty cool to see that done.  What an impressive facility that they have, the whole campus is just amazing.  A lot of construction going on too so it’s only growing.”
 
YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TWEET A CONGRATULATORY NOTE TO CHASE (ELLIOTT) LAST NIGHT…
“I was trying not to do it before he crossed the finish line (laughs).”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE POTENTIAL THERE?  YOU HAVE TW
O KIDS (KYLE LARSON AND CHASE ELLIOTT) WITH TREMENDOUS RAW TALENT A LOT LIKE YOU WHEN YOU FIRST CAME IN.  HOW DO YOU SEE CHASE MATURING AND EVOLVING AS A RACER?
“I only wish I had the talent those two have.  I think that the future obviously looks very bright for our sport.  I’m really excited because they are the ones that are being highlighted, but there are more out there as well.  I have had a chance to watch Kyle (Larson) race sprint cars.  I haven’t had a chance to watch Chase race a lot of other things in person.  I’ve certainly seen him run some of the K&N races on TV and things like that.  What I see and I give so much credit to Bill and Cindy (Elliott) in Chase is that not only is he fast, he is smart.  I love smart race car drivers.  I think it’s so cool to watch him learn in split second moments on how to constantly improve.  I think he proved that last night because he had a fast race car.  They did a great job tuning on his car to get it better throughout the race to be in that position.  But he was racing one of the best out there, several of the best out there in Kyle (Busch) and (Kevin) Harvick and (Dale Earnhardt) Junior.  I loved how he approached it.  He came up on him and Harvick knew that Chase was faster than him.  He started searching around trying to find a line and Chase every time he moved up Chase would go to the bottom.  Every time Kevin moved down Chase would go to the top.  Then he ended up passing him on the top side.  That was really smart driving.
 
“Kyle (Larson) is just super talented.  Kyle Larson is extremely talented, has great car control, really knows how to be aggressive and search the race track.  I think that Chase has this great balance of those things.  They are two amazing talents.  We are certainly excited because I feel like we missed an opportunity with Kyle (Larson), but I think things are going to work out really good if we can keep Chase there at Hendrick.  I’m excited about his future and ours.”
 
IS DARLINGTON STARTING TO GET A LITTLE BIT OF ITS OLD CHARACTER BACK? HOW DO YOU THINK THIS NEW PACKAGE ON THE CARS IS GOING TO REACT THERE?
“I think it’s going to be like what it’s been everywhere we’ve gone. Superfast. Darlington is never going to be the old Darlington. That’s just because the pavement is different. It’s not big rocks and real super abrasive. It’s certainly gotten more abrasive and so the pace may drop slightly and the grip may fall off a little bit more than what we’ve seen the last couple of years. But we’ve also gained a lot of grip and downforce in the cars with the ride heights and extra spoiler and so I just look for us to be superfast there. And I can’t wait to get there. I always love racing at Darlington. I was there not too long ago doing winners circle for them and I loved seeing it nice and gray and worn out a little bit, as much as it can be, because again like here, like Atlanta, like California, that just suits my driving style.”
 
YOU’VE HAD TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS. HAVE YOU NOTICED ANYTHING WITH THE TIRES? HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT THE TIRE PRESSURE? ARE THE TIRES HOLDING UP WELL?
“Yeah, so far, there are issues. They’re there. But they haven’t been as severe as what I anticipated; especially when we rolled out there yesterday and as fast as we were going, I definitely was anticipating on some of the long runs seeing more issues. I don’t know what the No. 41 (Kurt Busch) issue was. I mean I know it was a left rear, but I don’t know where they are in camber and air pressure. I know that the team has looked into it. I just don’t have all those details. But one thing I don’t understand is Goodyear put out this release this week with the pressures; why they don’t regulate it. Why not just put a minimum left-side tire pressure. That doesn’t make any sense to me because basically all they’re doing is asking for us to exploit it and push it. If somebody goes out there and goes faster than us and we find out that they’re a pound lower on the lefts, then we’re going to go a pound lower because that’s just speed. But they expect us to kind of regulate where we’re at on those pressures and what kind of tire wear or durability we’re going to have when they could very easily fix it by minimally putting it across the board for everybody.
 
“But we haven’t seen any issues. I think we’re being more conservative than some others right now. And I know how it works. You start off conservative and then you don’t see any problems and then you go a little lower and a little lower and a little lower and by the end of this race, the last run, if you make it to that point, is going to be the toughest run that we have because you’re going to push the limits hoping there is more rubber on the track and hoping that the results you’ve seen so far that you’ve got a little more to give. But you’ve got to go faster at that point. So, it’s a balancing act especially if rain is coming, too. A green race track is going to create some real challenges for us. Bu we’re going to try to do everything we can to have speed in the car and be a little bit more conservative than some of our competitors.”

YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW GOODYEAR SHOULD JUST REGULATE IS. WE ASKED GOODYEAR AND NASCAR YESTERDAY WHY DON’T THEY REGULATE IT, AND THEIR ANSWER WAS THAT THEY WANT TEAMS TO HAVE IT IN THEIR OWN HANDS TO EITHER BE AGGRESSIVE OR BE CAUTIOUS. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU WOULD PREFER FOR THEM NOT TO DO?
“Yeah, I don’t see why we just don’t minimize and give us more tools to work with for the set-up for the car and to try to find ways to have more speed there. I’m all for that. But, I would be fine with just putting that number out there and saying don’t go any lower than that. We do that with the right sides, so why wouldn’t they do that with the left sides? That’s up to them. And we’ll try to manage it the same way that we did in California. But yeah, I would be more supportive of them having the regulation on those left sides if they’re concerned about it. I think the one thing that I’d like to see them do, they need to understand that there’s way more load on the left sides this year than we’ve seen, and it’s just lower ride-heights and more downforce. We’re putting more loads into them and they’re trying to catch-up now to those loads. And so are we. We’re learning from it all the time as well. But from what I’ve seen, the speeds that we’re running here; I think the dual tread is helping because the grip is not quite there that we’re really like to have in that right front tire. So that’s the one thing that’s kind of helping us with the left sides right now.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 4, 2014
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S SPRING IS CALLING CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the new race format and number of winners so far this season, tire wear, upcoming tracks, and more. Full Transcripts:
 
WE’LL JUST LET YOU START:
“I appreciate the opportunity to say thank you to everybody for your thoughts and prayers. This week has been a very difficult week for the Janway family (Johnson’s wife Chandra Janway-Johnson, lost her brother Jordan Janway in a skydiving accident March 31st). It’s been so tough for me to sit back and watch the people I love so much deal with so much pain. But, things are progressing and everybody is as good as you could hope. Last night, the family spent a lot of time telling stories about Jordan and smiling a little bit; smiling more than tears, and the healing process has definitely started.
 
“So, I just wanted to come in (to the Media Center) and make a brief comment before we got busy with racing. And then, try to switch my mind into this racing reality and focus the next couple of days and go racing and try to win a race. So, just once again, thank you to sponsors, fans, friends, and everybody involved. The few times I did check into Social Media, there’s just been a huge outpouring of support and I’m very thankful.”
 
IT’S VERY EARLY IN THE SEASON. WE’RE JUST SIX RACES IN. BUT, WITH THE NEW FORMAT AND THE WINS BEING SO VALUABLE, WHAT IS THE PRESSURE LIKE TO GET THAT FIRST WIN AND PUT IT BEHIND YOU?
“I haven’t felt any pressure with the new format yet. Maybe I’m naive or stupid of something else, but the season takes on so many different changes and I feel like we’ve had a few looks here recently at a victory and I feel like it’s coming and hope that it’s coming soon so that I don’t have to answer the question (laughs). But, I’ve won at different points in the year. Some years, a little later than I would have liked. But I haven’t felt like until California, we had a legitimate opportunity to win. So, to go back to back weeks with an honest look at a victory is very cool. And we’re at another great race track for the No. 48 team. Dover is out there before long. And we’ve had success at upcoming Darlington we’ve had success at. So I feel like we have some good opportunities ahead. It might become much more of a topic, especially if the win column keeps growing like it has without repeat winners. And if that’s the case, it will shoot my mindset completely apart. I firmly believe it’s pretty rare to have 16 winners in a season; especially 16 winners in 26 races. And I feel like points will still get somebody a berth into the first stage of the championship.”
 
EVERYBODY IS COUNTING THE NUMBER OF WINNERS THIS YEAR. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A LARGE NUMBER OF WINNERS OVER THE COURSE OF THE SEASON? OR, DO YOU THINK IT’S BETTER FOR FANS TO SEE A HANDFUL OF DRIVERS WIN EVERY WEEK?
‘It depends on what hat I’m wearing (laughter). If I’m wearing my hat, I just want the No. 48 to win every week. But for this sport and our fans, I think it’s great to have multiple winners. It shows the parody and lets each drivers’ fan base get their time in the spotlight. And also the personalities that exist in the garage area have a great way of coming out in Victory Lane and the couple of days that follow.”
 
IN BASEBALL, GUYS MIGHT GO ZERO FOR 10; BUT IF THEY’RE HITTING LINE DRIVES, THEY ARE HAPPY BECAUSE THEY KNOW THOSE WILL START FINDING HOLES. IS THAT SIMILAR TO YOUR SITUATION AND THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO CHANGE?
“Yeah, without a doubt. That’s been our belief all along. And the thing that I’m building a lot of stock in is since I’ve started competing in the Cup Series, our goal has been to run in the top 5. And we’ve felt like if you run in the top 5, you’ll have opportunities to win races. And I’ve been able to win 66 races that way and six championships. So, I don’t feel like I need to change my viewpoint on winning races and trying to transfer into the Chase. If there’s a race or two to go and I don’t have a victory, it’s definitely going to change my opinion then, but I’ve built so much over the last 13 years with a certain mindset that myself and the team, we’re just not in the position to change that mindset yet.”
 
ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE ANYTHING ON YOUR CAR THIS WEEKEND FOR JORDAN JANWAY?
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT TYPE OF GUY HE WAS?
“I haven’t thought that far ahead for the car or helmet or anything; it’s been such a wild and crazy week. So now that my mind is going to switch into race mode I’d certainly consider something there and take a look at it. He was just a free spirit, a very adventurous guy. Base-jumping and parachuting and wearing the squirrel suits like you see the guys flying along the cliff sides, that’s what he did. He’s in a lot of those videos shooting that footage. So, it was a tragic death for sure. But he was doing something he loved. He was very passionate about it. And he never met a stranger. He was a very warm and caring young man and he’s definitely going to be missed.”
 
WITH THE NEW FORMAT, IF YOU WIN AT THIS TRACK IN THE FALL IT’S AN AUTOMATIC TICKET TO HOMESTEAD. ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT THAT AT ALL BY GETTING NOTES FOR THE FALL THAT FAR AHEAD?
“Yep, without a doubt. When I saw how the breakdown plays out going to Homestead, its here and Martinsville and Phoenix, three great race tracks for the No. 48. So that didn’t hurt my feelings one bit. We’ve just got to use the spring as an opportunity to develop our cars and learn. Granted, from the Martinsville standpoint, things will stay pretty similar. But (from) the Texas Spring to Texas Fall (races) there’s a lot of time in there, especially with the new car, to develop set-ups. But if we take good notes and understand the track and how it changes, we’ll be able to apply those things.”
 
COULD YOU TELL US HOW IT FELT LAST YEAR BEFORE THE PHOENIX CHASE RACE TO HELP THAT SOLDIER SURPRISE HIS FAMILY?
“Yeah, that was a crazy experience to be a party of to know that the family was going to meet; dad was coming home essentially. And the family had no idea. And to not mess it up, and not blow the surprise, was a challenge. I was so happy for them and knew what was going to happen. I met them before driver intros, maybe two hours before that start of the race. And to know that their dad was there and the kids were going to see their father in a short time and his was going to be able to see her husband again, was an amazing experience. And it was something I will always cherish. It was cool to be a part of that.”
 
YOU WERE AT SONOMA RACEWAY RECENTLY DOING TESTING WITH GOODYEAR TIRE. WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ON THE TEST AND HOW ARE YOU PREPARING FOR THE RACE?
“I wasn’t there testing but Hendrick was out there. I know the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) was there. I think the No. 14 (Tony Stewart) went. And this week I haven’t been able to be a part of our team meetings to understand how the test went with the tragedy that happened. But ironically, (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) was just chatting with me a little bit in the transporter before I walked over and they had a very productive test out there. I know we’re encouraged from a chassis standpoint, but I didn’t hear particulars about tires and even lap times, but I know we had a good test out there.”
 
GIVEN THE WAY YOUR RACE ENDED AT FONTANA, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GOODYEAR BRINGING THIS MULTI-TREAD DUAL-ZONE TIRE HERE THIS WEEK?
“We’ve seen a lot of good things with that dual-zone tire. I think it has shown from a wear-standpoint, very good durability. This track is very porous and it takes all the Nationwide and Cup practice to get the rubber in the track so the tire wear goes down. California, I think, was a different issue than tire wear. So, we’ve been on edge, in my opinion, a
t a few tracks; especially the faster tracks. And this car and how fast it goes, exploits that now in my opinion. So, I feel like we will have other issues. This track is known for high wear and I’m sure we’ll see some high wear issues. I don’t think we’ll see a construction issue. I don’t think we had any issues like that last time. But wear is going to be something to be concerned about. And it will only get better as the race goes on.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 4, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and shared his thoughts on the reduction of power in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, if he is attending the Final Four this weekend while in Texas and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT COMING TO TEXAS THIS WEEKEND AND WHAT YOUR EXPECTATIONS ARE?
“We have had a lot of good runs at this track.  The surface is really good it’s real wide and gives you a lot of options as a driver to find speed and find a good balance if your car doesn’t work on the bottom you can move around, try different entrances and see if you can help your car and maintain some track position before you get a chance to work on it again.  It’s just a fun track, great market for us.  The promotion and energy that Eddie (Gossage) and his group show year in and year out is a good standard for other tracks to really follow.  They do some unique things to get people excited about races here.  A lot of times it’s a lot of fun.  It’s a great market and people in this area have latched on to this track and really supported it over the years.  It’s a good success story for the sport.  You would like to come out here and run well, being that it is not one of the traditional south eastern facilities that have been on the circuit for so long.  So you like to come out here and do well and we have been able to do that.  I’ve had some really fast cars the last couple of races here that I can remember.  One thing or another led to us not winning, but we have had some top three cars here so we are excited about practice today and excited about getting the opportunity to get to work on the car again tomorrow and hopefully put a good car on the grid for Sunday’s race.”
 
WITH THE FINAL FOUR TAKING PLACE RIGHT DOWN THE STREET AND NASCAR GOING TO AN ELIMINATION PROCESS ONCE THE CHASE BEGINS THIS SEASON.  HOW DO YOU THINK THAT IS GOING TO AFFECT MAYBE THE AGGRESSIVENESS AND MAYBE EVEN THE DESPERATION THE DRIVERS FEEL IN THOSE LAST 10 RACES?
“I don’t really know.  I don’t think anybody really knows for sure exactly what kind of mentality you will have when you wake up in the morning before them races.  It just kind of matters what side of the bed you get out of.  We might be extra cautious trying to navigate those races up to each elimination. We might be extra aggressive.  I just really don’t know for sure.   You just want to finish as good as you can, obviously try to win.  We were able to do that last year.  The way we ran last year I thought in the Chase would be real profitable to a system like this.  Maybe we won’t change a thing.  I just think you go out there and you try to be smart.  You try to make good judgment as a person, as a driver.  You just do the things you have been doing, whatever you think is working and hopefully that will get it done.”
 
NASCAR IS TALKING ABOUT REDUCING HORSEPOWER NEXT YEAR TO MAKE IT A LITTLE MORE COMPETITIVE.  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT LESS HORSEPOWER?  HOW WILL THAT CHANGE YOUR DRIVING?
“I don’t think they are trying to make it more competitive.  No matter how the horsepower is I think we will have competitive racing. I think the racing is competitive any way you slice it.  I can enjoy a race where a guy laps the field just as much as I can enjoy one where they are side-by-side across the finish line. There is something to be appreciated about both ways of winning and how a race plays out.  I like the idea of going to a smaller motor and allowing us to engineer through that package instead of choking down what we currently have with a plate.  I think choking the motor down with a plate is the easiest way to go and the laziest way to go.
 
“When you can go to a smaller engine you preserve some throttle response.  You preserve some reaction in the gas pedal and give the driver a few more tools to be able to use out on the race track when he is driving his race car.  When you take and put a plate on those cars you take tons of throttle response out of the car and setting up a pass, particularly on a track that is worn out like this is a little more challenging with a plate rather than an open engine that is smaller.
 
“I hope they will go the way I want to go.  Whatever way they end up going whatever decision they end up making, there is not a wrong decision, there is an okay one and a better one in my opinion.  They are going to do it.  It’s kind of like the (number) 3 coming back.  A lot of people didn’t want it to come back.  A lot of people were upset that it came back, but it’s coming back.  I think the reduction in power is coming whether you like it or not.  I chose as an individual to get on the side of being productive in that discussion instead of saying we don’t need to do it and trying to fight it, let’s try to make sure when it does happen we do it the right way and give ourselves something to grow into and something to engineers and something that is productive for many years to come.  It’s coming either way whether we like it or not.  You can have both sides arguing against and for, for however long you want, but it’s going to happen so we might as well start thinking about how we want it to happen and trying to have those discussions on making sure we make the best choice we can make for the sport.”
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A GREAT NUMBER OF WINNERS OR DO YOU THINK THE SPORT BENEFITS FROM HAVING A HANDFUL OF DRIVERS AT THE TOP EVERY WEEK?
“I think the sport benefits from having a lot of different guys being successful, a lot of guys winning.  I don’t want to see a lot of winners.  I want to see 10 winners, 12 winners.  I don’t want to go back into points racing mode because there is so many winners and we get down to race 26 and we’ve got 20 winners.  I’m not worried about if I win I’m in I am starting to worry about where I am in points and going back to the old method of trying to maximize points every race.  I don’t think it really affects where I finish.  I try to maximize points anyways and try to run as well as I can run and that produces the most points for me.  I don’t particularly as a driver want to see a lot of winners.  I want to win them all.  For the success of the sport I think parity and having a lot of people in the grandstands cheering for a lot of different guys for a lot of different reasons is a good thing.”
 
ON THE SCALE OF CONSERVATIVE TO AGGRESSIVE WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR TEAM BE WITH TIRES ON SUNDAY?
“I want to be as aggressive as we can be because there is speed in that and we are going to pay close attention to it.  I don’t think we are going to have any problem this weekend.  I think that the bumps on the back straightaway at California were a big product of what we saw in California.  I had some issues at Bristol that I understand and have no problem with.  I don’t think that we will have any issues, we may, I may be wrong.  I hope I’m right so we will go out there in practice and really pay close attention to what we are seeing and we will be as aggressive as we can be to produce as much speed out of the car as we can produce.  I think just get the car driving good and get the car comfortable.  I’m thinking that the pace is going to slow down as the tires fall off here and we won’t really have a tire issue.  I don’t think that there is anything to be concerned about myself personally.  We are aggressive.  Every week we have been aggressive since I started driving cars and we will be aggressive long after this.”
 
ANY THOUGHTS ON THE SPECIAL CHALLENG
ES THAT SONOMA RACEWAY PRESENTS?
“We kind of just go there and see what happens every time.  I don’t have a good track record at that place.  I’m not probably the guy to be asking, but I think my best finish there is 11th.  That was many years ago.  We end up having fun.  It’s a fun place to race and if you just forget about investing your emotions in it and how well you want to finish and just go out there and drive you end up having a good time.  You can’t be upset at what happens at the end.  Because a lot of stuff happens at the end and you might be part of it.  I enjoy it.  My teammate Jeff Gordon went out there and tested and hopefully we can go there and be productive this year.  I don’t think we are going to test actually.  We usually test once or twice for road courses.  But this year I think we are just going to wing it.”
 
HOW DID YOU FEEL AFTER QUALIFYING TODAY AND ARE THERE ANY BIG CHANGES YOU WANT TO MAKE BEFORE SUNDAY?
“Today I was real happy with the way the car drove in qualifying for the Nationwide race.  It was a handful yesterday, but I didn’t know how much the track was to blame for that or just being green and slick.  We really got the car comfortable for qualifying today.  I was looking forward to tonight anyways, but I’m actually a lot calmer about how my car was driving, I was pretty worried.  We will get out there today hopefully the Cup car is going to be good.  It’s been good the last several trips so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.  We have an odd schedule and should be interesting to see how that plays out if that has any affect whatsoever on the race, which I doubt it will.  We’ve got a lot of practice today and a lot tomorrow so we should be able to get something comfortable underneath the car.”
 
BASED ON YOUR ‘THROWBACK THURSDAY’ PHOTO YESTERDAY I GUESS YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF BASKETBALL ABILITY OR INTEREST IN IT MAYBE?
“I have interest, but that is where it stops.”
 
ARE YOU ENTHUSED THIS WEEKEND THEM ABOUT BEING IN THE SAME MARKET AS THE FINAL FOUR?  ARE YOU GOING TO GO TO THE GAMES TOMORROW NIGHT? IS IT KIND OF COOL TO BE APART OF THAT?
“I had plans to go to the game, but those plans changed a little bit so I’m not going to go.  I have Florida winning my bracket so I’m kind of pulling for them I suppose.  But they are not my favorite team.  I scored two points that year in military school (in reference to the photo he posted on twitter of him playing basketball.)  I sat on the bench a lot being the smallest guy.  I didn’t have any skill.  I only played because you got to leave campus for the road games.  Being able to leave even for a day in military school was an amazing vacation just to be able to leave for a few hours because you would go after the game you would get pizza or whatever.  You just didn’t have those kinds of luxuries being on campus so that was pretty neat.  I had fun.  My sister found that picture so I thought it would be fun to share.  We played basketball at home and we have a small little group of guys that get together and play, but I’m not skillful at all.  It’s fun.  It’s a good way to get some energy and exercise.”
 
WERE YOUR TWO POINTS A BASKET?
“I threw it up with my eyes closed. The only way I knew it went in is because Kelley and everybody that was there, the 10 or 12 people that were there were screaming when it went in.  So I knew it went in, but I never saw it.  Some guy was jumping at me and I just closed my eyes and threw it up.  It was rough back then, but a lot of good memories and a lot of fun practicing and being on a team.  I hadn’t played much organized sports at that point in my life so that was pretty fun.  Plus like I said being able to get out of military school for a day was great, being able to see the outside world.”
 
WHAT IS THE TEAM YOU PULL FOR?
“The Tarheels.  In college basketball I pull for the (Carolina) Tarheels.  I pull for somebody different in every sport.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 4, 2014
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSCH’S BEANS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Texas Motor Speedway and discussed his season thus far, the parity in the field in 2014, why the finishes have been so close this season and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR SEASON SO FAR:
“I think so far up to this day it’s been a good season.  The switch over from Toyota last year to the RCR (Richard Childress Racing) alliance this year with Chevy for us has been tough.  There is a lot of work that has gone into it.  We started it relatively late in December.  The guys have been working really hard to kind of catch up and obviously with the West Coast races for a one car team like ours it makes it tough initially, but I’ve been really proud.  I think we have raced really well on Sunday’s.  Our cars have been fast.  The first few weeks we had good runs but we just had some bad luck or just some things that happened that took us out of a really good finish.  I feel like the last two weeks we have put Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sunday’s together and that is where our good runs have come out of.  I look at that it is relatively new.  It’s six races in.  I don’t want to get too over excited about where we are at, but the direction where the team is headed and I feel like as we are gelling together I like what is in the future for us.  It’s just kind of taking it one day at a time.”
 
FOR TEAMS LIKE YOURS THERE HAVE BEEN SEVERAL WHO HAVE NOT WON YET THIS SEASON BUT IT SEEMS LIKE THERE HAS BEEN A LOT MORE PARITY.  DO YOU SEE MORE PARITY AMONGST TEAMS IN GENERAL?  
“I think the depth of the field this year is really strong, at least it’s been a lot stronger than it’s been the last couple of years I think.  At the top you are still going to have your same normal guys, but I think just 20th, 25th on back all the way into the 30’s every team has gotten a little bit stronger.  Stewart-Haas adding a fourth car with Kurt (Busch), Ryan Newman switching to the No. 31 things like that.  Teams like ours having an alliance with RCR.  Even like a team like Tommy Baldwin Racing getting some RCR equipment.  So I feel like everybody as a whole has gotten stronger.  With the new rules package, whether it’s that or not, or just everybody kind of working out the kinks of just these cars; I feel like as you said, the depth of the field and just six winners in six different races it’s been fun to watch and be a part of.  A team like ours you know the ultimate goal is to win.  That is why we show up every weekend, but we have got to set realistic goals as well.  That is to continually keep getting better.  This is a team that was 30th, 31st (in points) last year and we are 16th in points right now.  We have got to be a consistent top-20, top-15 team to get inside the top-10 and give ourselves shots to win races, to learn how to do that.  That is something that hopefully we can continue each weekend and get better and kind of keep being in the mix at least and being competitive.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES THESE RACES THIS YEAR UNPREDICTABLE OR LESS PREDICTABLE AT THE FINISH THAN THEY HAVE BEEN?
“I think it’s just everybody is pushing the limit.  If you look at Fontana with some of the tires issues I think relatively that was the teams trying to push air pressures right to the max and even over the max and things like that.  Everybody is so close when it comes to speed wise.  You are looking for hundredths of a second instead of tenths of a second to try to get up there.  If you find a couple hundredths of a second that is like 10 spots.  I think just track position plays a real key.  You can’t just go out there and run 90 percent for half the race and then get after it.  You have to be kind of full tilt from the start and because of that it allows guys to over abuse their tires, over abuse their race car.  Whether you go on pit road and you lose a couple of spots on pit road right at the end you know track position being key.  Everybody is just so close.  I think the way the race plays out you just kind of never know at that point what is going to happen.”
 
THERE IS TALK OF THE POSSIBILITY OF HORSEPOWER REDUCTION. DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION ABOUT THAT? HOW MIGHT IT PLAY OUT RACING-WISE? WOULD IT BE BETTER OR WORSE?
“As a driver and you look at less horsepower, you don’t like that. You want the most horsepower you can get. If it’s something that really controls the cost of the sport, to me it’s a benefit if you do it the right way. If It’s really going to help save the teams and the engine builders money in the long haul, to me that’s a benefit. So, ultimately, if it’s done for the right reasons and it works out for all the right reasons, then that’s a good thing. But if it’s just to take horsepower away, as a driver, that’s not a lot of fun. So, I don’t know how it will play out.
 
“You know, we did that test at Charlotte when they did the restrictor plate thing; kind of like they do at the Nationwide Series with the tapered spacer and to me, I didn’t think it changed a lot. And it made momentum a lot bigger of a deal if you got kind of bogged down, guys behind you would have bigger runs. But just they way the cars drove and raced around each other, it wasn’t that big of a difference. So, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen with that. It’s a matter of if it’s done the right way. If it really genuinely saves money, then that’s a good thing.”
 
THIS QUESTION IS RELATED TO YOU GOING BACK TO INDYCAR LAST YEAR IN RELATION TO JUAN PABLO MONTOYA AND KURT BUSCH. JUAN IS NOT EASING BACK INTO IT AS EASILY AS YOU DID. WHY DO YOU THINK YOU WERE ABLE TO GET BACK INTO AS QUICKLY? AND, HOW DO YOU THINK KURT WILL DO, HAVING NEVER RUN IT BEFORE? YOU SET THE BAR VERY HIGH. SHOULD PEOPLE THINK KURT SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THE SAME THING?
“It’s very tough. And I think with IndyCar racing, just because it doesn’t get as much exposure and maybe the big names or the quantity of the field, you look at the names. Everybody knows Helio and if you look at Will Power. Or your look at Ryan Hunter-Reay. He won the championship two years ago. You don’t really recognize those names. And I went back there and the series is so difficult from top to bottom.
 
“And for me, it was just hard to go and try to run top 10 and figure out how that is. So, it’s not easy just to jump back in and do it. Juan has had a lot of testing. He’ll be fine. He’s never been to St. Pete. When you go to those street course races, you don’t get a lot of track time. It makes those weekends tough. But, I think he’s a world-class racer. We’ve seen it. He’s won in everything. So, he’ll be fine. Kurt going to Indy being at Andretti, he was fast at his rookie orientation. He’s a hell of a race car driver. So I think he’ll be fine as well. The only thing is, just the way those cars race at Indy compared to driving by yourself, it’s a lot different. And I spent a lot of time during the month of May last year trying to learn how to be in traffic. And heck, I even went into the race still wishing I had more practice. So, that’s a big challenge. But I think he’ll be fine. He can wheel a race car, for sure.”
 
DO YOU HAVE A PREDICTION IN MIND FOR THE NUMBER OF RACE WINNERS IT WILL BE THIS YEAR? DO YOU NEED A BIGGER NUMBER TO HAVE YOURSELF INCLUDED IN THAT?
“The way I look at it is that we just need to win this weekend. I don’t care what the number is. Heck, the way it’s going right now, you could have upwards of 15 or 16 or 17 or 18 (winners). It could make the whole ‘win in you’re in the Chase for sure’; it would throw a whole chink in the armor
there. There are so many different guys that have an opportunity to win the race, but it doesn’t change my outlook. As I said, the ultimate goal is to win, but we’ve got to take it step-by-step and take baby steps at it and be more competitive each weekend. I don’t really worry about per say, the points, until we get to just past the All-Star race and get through the 600 and then you start kind of looking and teams kind of start hitting on all cylinders and figuring out where they’re at. But for myself and this race team, I’m having a lot of fun with it. I get to work with a lot of great people. Just the team chemistry is coming together. I enjoy being around it. We get to work with a lot of great partners. We have a lot of big name brands that have been with this team for a while and I like the direction we’re headed about just the race team and the sponsors and all that together. It’s just week-by-week and day by day for us. But it’s fun to be a part of it. My goal is to at least go out there every weekend and people say we can’t sleep on this race team; we’ve got to watch out for him. I think we’re slowly getting there.”