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.”
 

Will Power Starts the Season with a Win on the Streets of St. Petersburg
Third Consecutive Year the in Season-Opening Victory Lane for Chevrolet IndyCar V6
 
 
ST. PETERSBURG (March 30, 2014) – Will Power, No.12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, won today’s Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – the series’ season-opening race. It is the third consecutive year that a driver powered by the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 engine has started the season on the Streets of St. Petersburg with a win.
 
“Congratulations to Will Power and the entire No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet team on their win in today’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet’s U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Helio Castroneves’ podium finish in the No. 3 Hitachi Chevy and Scott Dixon’s fourth place finish in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car resulted in three Chevrolet powered Indy cars in the top four finishing positions. It is a great start to the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season”.
 
Today’s victory marked the 22nd career for Power who led three times for 74 of the 110-lap race. It is his third consecutive Series’ victory (Race Two at Houston and season-ending race at Auto Club Speedway preceded today’s win), and the second time he has won the St. Petersburg race.
 
Joining Power on the podium was Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Chevrolet.  Last year’s runner-up in the title chase finished third.
 
Defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion, Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet finished fourth.  His teammates Tony Kanaan, No. 10 Target Chevrolet and Ryan Briscoe, No. 8 NTT Data Chevrolet gave Team Chevy five of the top-10 finishers with sixth and 10th place finishing positions respectively.
 
Ryan Hunter-Reay (Honda) was second to complete the podium.
 
Today’s victory was the third win for Chevrolet in a the three major U.S. motorsports series in which it competes.   Action Express Motorsports with drivers Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais put the No. 5 Corvette Daytona Prototype in Victory Lane for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the
Daytona 500 behind the wheel of the No. 88 National Guard Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet SS.
The next race for Chevrolet in the Verizon IndyCar Series will be the Grand Beach of Long Beach (Calif) on April 13, 2014.
 
An interview with Will Power and Helio Castroneves
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll begin our post-race press conference and welcome our third-place finisher Helio Castroneves.
 
Helio, it was a good day for Penske Racing and for you to continue your quest to capture the championship.
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  Correct.  I’m extremely happy about it.  Yesterday qualifying I heard Ryan saying great conditions for qualifying.  I didn’t think so.  Well, it was a great opportunity to show how fast our car was, and I knew that since we started here.
I was very confident that 10th place wasn’t our fair spot.  But I knew I had to make the move right away in the beginning, and that’s what I did.  It put us in a great position here to battle for the win
 
Q. How does having Verizon as title sponsor feel?
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  Just adding to that, certainly Verizon being with us for four years, they saw the potential.  They actually perfect for the IndyCar Series.  We’re about technology and speed, and they’re about technology and speed.  Like I said, I’ve been part of the Verizon team for four years.  Now the entire IndyCar Series is part of their team.
We’re talking about exciting people.  We’re not talking about people, Let’s just put our name there.  I’m very, very happy that they’re onboard.
 
Q. Talk a little bit about a home-field advantage coming from South Florida.
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  It’s funny you say that because I had to ask for a lot of credentials to have my friends come over here.  I know you did, too.  For us is very difficult.  The first race of the season, in Florida, it’s great to be honest.  I wish we actually had a doubleheader here.
.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll open it up for questions for Helio.
 
Q. The two Penske cars went first and third.  Is it an advantage New York Yankees?
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  I hope so.  Certainly we don’t want to give any inch this year.  We don’t want to give any opportunity, whether it’s going to be myself, Will or Juan Pablo.  I’ve been saying that in the pre-season interviews.  We want to give the championship to Roger no matter what it takes.
 
Q. Have you had a chance to see the restart or talk to Will about it yet?
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  I don’t have to see the restart.  I know what happened.  When I say wanker, he calls everybody a wanker.
 
Q. No microphone.
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  He did play.  You got to understand, Will and I know each other for a long time.  He know my tricks.  I didn’t quite know that trick from him, and he got me, which is good.  I’m not saying that in a bad way.  When you’re battling for the win…  He knew where I was going, so he did something that I was not expecting and it caught me a surprise.  That does not take away anything from the win he did today.  Cindric and himself did a very good strategy with the tires, better tires in the end.  They were able to pull away. For me, I use everything I got in the beginning because I started from behind and pushed as much as I could.  Obviously it will be a very good problem to have if this is going to be the entire season like this, myself and Will battling.  That’s what we want.  Hopefully Long Beach will be the same, except a different end.
 
Q. So is that a move he should have made?  You talk about it being a trick.
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  Should have made?  Now I know when I’m restart behind him, I know what I need to do.  If he should have made or not, I was not expecting.
One thing for sure, brake check, I did that in the past when I was young.  But he did what he had to do, but I was not expect.  I always expect a little constant speed, and we did not have that.  But the problem is — well, it’s not a problem, it’s competition.  You just have to keep learning from your competitors.  Today I learned my lesson.
 
Q. Maybe the back of the field did.
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  Well, that’s the problem for me when you have that kind of scenarios.  I’m glad I was in the front because that probably could have caught me as well if I would be in the back.  I didn’t see the back, to be honest.  I saw what happened in front of me.  I just had to be careful to not knock him out of the race.  But he was very fast in the end.  Like I said, this little trick move didn’t take anything away.  In fact, good job.
 
Q. You didn’t see Juan in the race.  How would you sum up his first race weekend in years?
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  I did speak with him on my way here.  He had a blast.  He learned about the red tires.  He made some changes during the warm-up to the race quite dramatic.  But it was good because he learned what to handle.  When he was in front of us, I saw that he was running pretty good lap times.  That shows he got the hang of it.  Trust me, Long Beach, he knows the place, not sure if he won there, but I believe he did.  It’s going to be a different picture of himself.  Another bullet for Team Penske.
 
Q. The New York Yankees versus the Florida Marlins, Dario (Franchitti) earlier in the weekend said that Tim (Cindric’s) comments were classless.&nb
sp; Would you like to speak to Cindric’s character in rebuttal?
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  I know Tim for a long time.  Obviously he has his own opinion.  To be honest, so many things is said before from competitors.  It’s just blowing out of proportion when somebody speaks a little bit louder.  I don’t see all the fuss about it.  Again, everybody is entitled for your own opinion.  It’s too much power for me to comment, so I prefer to stay out of it.  Certainly I think everybody is entitled for your own opinion.
 
Q. Can you talk a little bit about your tire strategy.  You said Tim and Will had the tire strategy exactly right at the end.  You made some spots up early.  Did it work out in your favor?
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES:  Yeah, starting fourth place and starting tenth place, I had to make up some spots.  I put the new tires in the beginning so I could pass a lot of people.  It worked pretty good.  Roger (Penske) decided to put the black tires on the second stint.  I asked for no but he said yes.  I got to say, ‘Yes, no problem.’  I got to obey the order.
In the end of the day towards the end they saved him and I think Hunter-Reay, they saved the best for last.  I pushed as hard as I could the entire race and my tires just gave up in the end about 15 laps.  I had a huge moment in turn 10, and I said, Guys, that’s it, I’m not making any progress here.  I thought it was a very good strategy.  We saved fuel when we had to, we pushed when we had to.  Coming from 10th, passing a lot of cars, I’m very proud of the boys.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Helio, we’ll see you in Long Beach. We’ll continue with our race winner, Will Power.  This is Will Power’s 22nd career Indy car win.  He started the race fourth.  He won this race in 2010.  Will, you’ve won three consecutive races, finishing out last year with wins in Houston and Fontana.  How great is it to start out the year with a win?
 
WILL POWER:  Obviously the perfect way to start.  Kind of struggled a little bit during the weekend with the setup.  Definitely made a good race car.  Obviously qualifying was very mixed up.  I don’t think anyone had anything for Sato, he was so fast.  For sure we worked hard over the winter.  I did personally, as well, on my fitness.  As a team I think we worked very well together to get the most out of our cars.  It’s been a real team effort.  Real happy to get the Verizon car in Victory Lane again.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll open it up for questions for Will.
 
Q. Seems to be one place where you really are the Yankees versus the Marlins.  Why do you suppose the Penske cars are so dialed in at this track?
 
WILL POWER:  Honestly, I think a lot of people have good, dialed-in cars.  I wasn’t expecting to be that competitive in the race actually as the weekend was unfolding. Just good team strategy, good pit stops, mistake-free driving, and obviously a good car.  It’s just hard work basically.
 
Q. Did you even know who the Marlins were before Thursday?
 
WILL POWER:  I’ve only heard a little bit of that story, so I haven’t paid much attention to it, to be honest.  Are the Marlins good?  Do they win?
 
Q. Take me through the first segment when you eventually tracked down Sato to get the lead the first time.
 
WILL POWER:  Cindric pitted me early.  It was actually a very good call.  I was able to pump out some good lap times.  Sato came out on blacks, I think, just like I was.  I felt our car was definitely stronger on blacks and was able to hunt him down and pull the move on him that I’ve had pulled on me two years in a row.  I learned my lesson and finally pulled it off myself.
 
Q. I heard what you said on TV about the restart, where people got stacked up.  Helio is convinced you were playing with the field there.  Can you take us through that.
 
WILL POWER:  Basically the pace car pulls off and you can set the pace you want.  I wasn’t even in the zone.  We weren’t even in the zone that you have, the 200 yards or whatever it is, to decide for the leader to go when he wants.  They actually threw the green before I was even in the zone, so it was confusing to me.  So the next restart I just went because I figured, They’re going to throw the green anyway. To me, the only problem people would have had would have been if they gassed back to get a big run.  That’s the only problem they should have had.  I didn’t touch the brakes, did not touch the brakes.
 
Q. You talked at the end of last season about how good it was for yourself personally to just stop thinking about points and to just race and have fun.  Now that you’re starting a new season, are you still able to do that?
 
WILL POWER:  Yeah, in a way.  I just got to keep reminding myself, It doesn’t matter if you lose.  You just got to keep reminding yourself that it’s a race, and you race hard to win a race.  Sometime years I’ve started here and been so conservative.  I just race now, race hard.  I just want to race, race hard, and I want to win.  That’s the only way to think of it, not think of points. I want to win a championship, but I like winning races.  Hopefully the two come together and it happens.
 
Q. (No microphone.)
 
WILL POWER:  Can you have fun not winning?  Do I have fun?  No.  You know what, you come here to win.  Good, hard racing is fun.  You start at the back of the grid, you finish up third, that’s fun.  There’s nothing worse than just struggling, though, not having the car or equipment to do well.  That gives you a good hit, your self-confidence, you start to question yourself.  I just remind myself that everyone is human, you’re capable of doing everything everyone else is if you work hard.
 
Q. What gear were you in?
 
WILL POWER:  First gear.
 
Q. Helio said letting off the throttle there would be a brake effect.
 
WILL POWER:  The thing to me was Helio was getting out of line.  That’s when I lifted off the throttle.  Why are you getting out of line?  Are you going to go like you did last year and jump-start completely and get the lead that way?  I wasn’t going to let that happen.  I wasn’t even in the zone, so it did not matter.  He got out here, he’s going to do his thing, jump the start, he was getting out of line, I was going to make it obvious by lifting a little.  Then I just went.
 
Q. With an offseason as long as the INDYCAR offseason was this past year, it would probably be pretty easy to lose the momentum you finished the 2013 season with.  Apparently you have the same momentum you ended the year with.  How important is it to continue that momentum into 2014?
 
WILL POWER:  Yeah, it’s amazing all the development and hard work you do in the off-season.  I’m sure everyone else does too.  It’s interesting to turn up to the first race and see where you stack up.  During practice, it became obvious that the filed had once again even closed up more.  You had 21 cars in less than in a second in practice.  To me it’s like, ‘OK, no one is going to stick out here, it’s going to be competitive and tough racing.’
At the end of the day the hard work we did to get a good race car, good strategy, good pit stops, all the boxes were ticked that you need to win a race, and that’s just a good team effort basically.
 
Q. The TV commentators alluded to the fact that the whole off-season the talk has been about Juan coming to INDYCAR, can (Scott) Dixon repeat, everything except Will Power.  Have you felt overlooked at all?
 
WILL POWER:  I love it.  I hate attention.  I just loved last year, too.  No one paid attention.  I could just do my thing.  Yup, I hope it continues.  I don’t want people to talk about me.  I like to be low-key.  I don’t like to be in the limelight.  I just like to do my job, enjoy it, race hard, and that’s it.
 
Q. You should try not winning.
 
WILL POWER:  It happened last year.  I didn’t have to do appearances.  It was great.  No one cared.  It was awesome.  If I could get wins and not be hassled both, I’d be stoked.
 
Q. How important was it for Verizon and yourself to win the first Verizon Series race in that car?
WILL POWER:  It wasn’t something that I was thinking of, that I was going to think because it’s the Verizon Series.  It’s pretty fitting.  It’s great to win the first race of a Verizon-backed series.  I think everyone is excited to have them onboard.  I think the next five years, the series, we got to make good decisions and go in the right direction.
I think with Mark Miles, he’s employed some very good people.  Mark Miles, I think he’s doing a very good job.  He’s a very good leader.  I think Derrick Walker on the technical side is the same.  You have good people in the right positions.  I can see it going in the right direction.
 
Q. There was a period of time where it could almost be taken for granted by others and you that Will Power was going to win frequently.  After the drought from last year, did you have a rethink about the frequency with which you were winning and consider thinking differently about wins going forward?
 
WILL POWER:  You definitely start to look pretty hard when you have a long period of not winning.  You just can’t get complacent.  You’ve got to keep working hard, especially in this series.  There’s so many good teams, good drivers.  It’s just a good thing.  It’s a good kick in the ass to have some bad runs.  Not actually lack of pace, but just to have some bad runs, be in the back of the field.  You just reset, just realize that you can’t leave anything on the table.  You just can’t.  It’s funny.  I was speaking to Mark Webber at some point, Did you lose a little bit of motivation in your 30s?  He said, Yeah.
He said to me, You can’t kid yourself.  You’ve got to work hard.  It’s just the way it is.  If you’re not, someone else is.  That’s true.  You got to get everything right in this business or you won’t win.
 
Q. You’ve long championed having more horsepower.  Are we getting close to the numbers where the cars have that difficulty of driving?
 
WILL POWER:  Yeah, it actually is getting to the Champ Car level now where you’re starting to shift a gear and it still spins.  Definitely getting harder to drive.  Got good horsepower.  They’re definitely getting up there where they used to be.
 
Q. So how did Dale Jr. get your Vegas car?
 
WILL POWER:  I think Tim Cindric gave it to him.  I think he was looking for something to put in his whatever it is down there.  I’ve seen a few people tweet that, my Vegas-crashed car sitting up in a tree.  Sort of fitting for the way it came down.  That’s about where it landed.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Give us a little preview of what we can expect in Long Beach.
 
WILL POWER:  Once again, it’s going to be very tight, great racing.  It’s a great track for racing.  Hopefully we can repeat.  It’s another awesome place to go race.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll see you there.  Thank you.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 30, 2014
 
GENE HAAS, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNING CO-OWNER
 
FIRST THOUGHTS, SIXTH RACE OF THE SEASON AND KURT BUSCH AND THE NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION TEAM WON.  YOU ARE OUT IN CALIFORNIA WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS AS THAT BATTLE WORE ON AND THE RACE DREW TO A CLOSE?
“Well last week Kurt told me this was his worst race track, he never wins here.  So obviously he didn’t get that right.  It’s great.  I think it’s great.  I think he goes to a track he can’t win at, he doesn’t practice on Saturday and he wins.  We have a new formula here.”
 
WERE YOU WATCHING ON TV AND WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR REACTIONS DURING THE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS?
“I know that Jimmie Johnson won there a lot and it’s kind of his track.  I was thinking that we would probably pull out in front of Jimmie Johnson and be there for a few laps, but he was better on the long run.  I was kind of like going ‘well hey at least we made a good show’.  It was a little bit iffy in the beginning of the race and that was overcome.  Kurt kept his cool he did what he had to do and no matter how he finished I thought that was going to be great.  Then when he went back and forth with Jimmie and he stayed out in front I was impressed with that.  I think Jimmie was a real gentleman about racing him cleanly and not trying to push him out of the way.  I think Kurt and Jimmie both did that.  I think that was really good too.  Ultimately they didn’t do what they typically do at the end of those races where they have multiple passes and all that stuff so those two guys did really well.  I think we just came out on top of that.  Any other day I think Jimmie would have come out on top.  I was just really impressed with that and the great season to finally win a race with Haas Automation on the hood. It couldn’t have been better, well it could I could have been there.”
 
JUST THE REWARD YOU FEEL IN CREATING THIS FOURTH TEAM AS INVESTED AS YOU WERE IN IT TO SEE IT FINALLY PAY OFF WITH A VICTORY FAIRLY EARLY IN THE SEASON:
“Obviously it feels good.  Basically there were a lot of naysayers and doubters out there about Stewart-Haas Racing.  Tony (Stewart) having his injury last year and it looked like we were all washed up and out of business.  But it just goes to show you that there is a team behind everybody that was always the back-up plan we are still going forward.  Racing is tough.  Every time you win you typically lose three times.  It’s a very difficult sport and it’s always great to win.  The challenges are great and that is what makes me feel good that we could overcome our adversaries.  You feel really good when are racing hard against people that don’t give you an inch and then you can actually beat them.  I feel really good about that. I feel great about Tony Stewart he certainly has taken the team to a certain level.  Now it’s kind of like we are both working together and I think we make a good team to put a winning race team together.  We have two drivers that have won early in the season so the choices that we made worked.  When we have great people behind the teams and the cars, we’ve got Chevy as our partner and lots of sponsors to go with it.”
 
YOU GUYS CAME OUT OF THE BOX WITH A FOURTH TEAM KURT WAS 31ST IN POINTS AFTER FOUR WEEKS DOES THIS COME AS A RELIEF? WERE YOU WORRIED AT ALL?  IS THIS KIND OF WHAT YOU EXPECTED ALL ALONG?  ARE YOU WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE?
“Well we are not point’s racing anymore.  This is all about winning.  Being ahead in points and not being able to win is really not going to get you very far.  I think it’s really a whole new venue it’s a very exciting one.  I’m looking for wins.  How we do in the points isn’t nearly as important.  You can look at the points but if you are not winning you are not going be there for the championship.  I’m more concerned about running up front.  It’s like practices, it’s always good to be top of your practice, but it really comes down to race day when you are racing your compatriots out there of who can beat who.  Going out there by yourself on the track and having great lap times is one thing, but I think when it comes to the race that is a whole different animal.  That is when I think Kurt Busch and the rest of the drivers do really well at Stewart-Haas Racing.  That is where I think the concentration is going to be at is winning races.  I don’t even care about the points that much.”
 
KNOWING KURT BUSCH’S MAVERICK REPUTATION DID YOU LIKE THE FACT THAT THIS RACE HAD A LITTLE BIT OF CONTROVERSY AT IT PERTAINED TO KURT, SPECIFICALLY IN HIS DUEL WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI?
“I think Brad Keselowski just was speaking a little bit prematurely.  I think if you went back and looked at it he ran into the back of Kasey Kahne and then swerved a little bit to his right and right into the path of Kurt Busch.  That is the way I kind of saw it.  I’m sure he sees it differently, but I will be honest with you, I have been racing with stuff for a long time.  Drivers run into us all the time and I think that is just part of racing.  As far as Kurt Busch handling it I think he did a great job and we have obviously found a solution for Kurt Busch.  When he is in Winners Circle he doesn’t bitch about anything so that is where we need to keep him.”
 
THE F1 RACE IN MALAYSIA STARTED JUST A TICK AFTER MIDNIGHT.  WAS IT A LITTLE BIT EMOTIONALLY DRAINING TO WATCH AN F1 RACE THINKING OF WHAT THAT MIGHT BE FOR YOU IN THE FUTURE AND THEN TO WATCH THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT MARTINSVILLE AND SEE KURT DUEL IT OUT FOR A WIN AND THEN ACTUALLY YOU ALSO HAVE A TRUCK WITH COLE CUSTER COMPETING IN THE TRUCK SERIES RACE.  WAS IT DRAINING?
“That is what is wonderful about TV.  I was watching the F1 race at 1:00 AM this morning. I was able to watch the Cup the race at 10 AM and now I’m watching a Truck race. I get to see it all on TV.  The funny thing about racing to me is we put the pieces together they can work.  Sometimes being at the races is the tough part.  Watching it all work that is actually where I get a lot of enjoyment out of.  The Formula 1 race those people are just racers.  They are just as tough of racers as NASCAR just in a different part of the world.  They are really all the same.  I think we could do really well if we ever do have that opportunity.”

CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POST RACE QUOTES
FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
 
DRIVER QUOTES POST RACES:
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:, RACE WINNER:  ON HIS WIN: “Man, I’m mentally tired. That was physical and hard, but pretty stoked to get the first win for Verizon as the series sponsor with the Verizon car. It’s a great day, a great stop there when we all pitted at the same time, the boys got me out there. Really happy with that and we executed well.”
ON 2ND TO LAST RESTART: “They threw the green early, I thought we were meant to go in that zone. So that was – I was surprised. I don’t really know what happened behind me, what happened? I left it a little, I didn’t touch the brake at all. They can look at my data, I did not touch the brake. I worked so hard in the offseason. We came into the season wanting to win a championship for Roger, and the way it went down last year was really disappointing for Helio not to win. Between the three of us – Juan, Helio and myself- we’ve been working really hard to get the car right. The field is so tight that I’m just happy we had a good race car today. Didn’t quite have the pace in qualifying. That’s how you want to start the season. Last year was horrible, and this year it’s good to get a points lead.”
ROGER PENSKE, OWNER TEAM PENSKE:  “It was just a great run by Team Penske. Obviously, Will (Power) had the car under control all day and Helio. Great to see Chevrolet come in 1-3. Also for Verizon, who just took over as series sponsor. It couldn’t be a better day.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD: “What a race! I was having such a great time. We knew exactly what we needed (during the warmup). That’s why the warmup is great to try new things that maybe will work. At the end of the day, I knew what I needed to do. I was just pushing all the way along. Toward the end, my used red tires were a little difficult.”
THOUGHTS ON THE RESTART: “It was a little strange on the restart. I’ll have to review that. He was being very tricky, for sure. I understand that it was too slow on the first one and on the second one he was playing a little bit. I got hung out to dry and (Ryan) Hunter-Reay took advantage of it. They had a little better tires as well. As I kept pushing, the tires were going away. But all the way, it’s a great, great start to the season. I love it.”
 
START TO THE SEASON: “As soon as we had a moment back there in one of the corners, I said, ‘RP, I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere.’ He told me to just bring it home. It was at the limit. But at the end of the team, great job Team Penske.”
 
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “Overall we had a good race.  Historically we haven’t had the best start to the season here at St. Pete.  But the crowd was great and I’m really impressed with the turnout today here.  It’s such a great event here.  We had a lot of fun and the Target team bringing two cars home without any damage to start off our year is a small win.  We’re looking forward to improving and heading to Long Beach in a few weeks.”
 
TONY KANAAN, NO.10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH:  “I need to thank the Target team really.  Everyone was so close out there it was all about track position.  Then we caught on our out lap and lost a position on track as well.  The No. 28 almost put us in the wall after that and overall I think we lost maybe half a second and that equates to two positions out there. I think we had a car to finish in the top five and we finished sixth.  Not the start we wanted, but we’ll take it.”
 
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET,
FINISHED 10TH: “It was a pretty tough race just with the tires and our balance wasn’t quite where we needed it to be. Then I didn’t help the situation either running into the back of Montoya exiting the pits and damaging our front wing.  We ran about three fourths of the race with a broken front wing, which really didn’t help us at all.  Despite the issues we faced today though, we were able to hang in there and get a top 10 result to start the season off.  We’re looking forward to even better results with the No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet moving forward.”
 
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA: NO. 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH:
“I am happy with how the first race of the season went. Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace at the end but after where we started at the weekend, I am pleased with the 11th position points in the bank. At the end it was a survival race. We had a strong stint on the reds, the blacks were not very quick and that really caused us to drop places and that last stint was a big battle to the end. I’m very proud of my KV AFS boys, everybody did an amazing job in the pits. We just need to keep focusing and prepare for Long Beach in a couple of weeks time.”
 
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT – KVSH RACING CHEVROLT, FINISHED 13TH:  “It was a tough race. Guys from back of the grid ruined the start of the race and I lost four positions on the first lap. I also bumped into Juan Pablo Montoya when the field checked up in turn eight. I ended up having to pit to replace my front wing on lap 12, which was very early and forced me to save a lot of fuel for the entire race. Despite all that, we were going to have a really good result because we had a rocket ship for a car. Then just as I was going to make my third stop the track went yellow, so I had to stay out. When I finally pitted I was out of fuel and the car stalled, but we were still in a good position and I knew I had a fast car. Then I was penalized for not packing up fast enough, which was pretty rough because I was packed up before the pits opened and no one was harmed. That really set us back, but we kept digging.  It was such a valiant effort by the whole team and to finish where we started is very frustrating. I really feel bad for the guys because they worked so hard and for all our sponsors who came to the race and supported us. The only positive note is that we have a fast car so our time will come.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH:  “I think it went pretty good.  We were just burning up the rear tires with the setup that we decided to run.  It was just a little too aggressive.  You know, we will learn and pass some people and some people passed us.  There are a few things we have to do better but I didn’t feel my pace was too bad there at the end.  I was keeping up with everybody and it was good.
How does it feel to be back in open wheel:
Fun!  It’s going to be a lot of work but I am very excited.
 
MIKE CONWAY, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH:  “As the day went on, we steadily moved up and we got to third.  I think we had a different strategy from other people.  We made some big gains on the red Firestone tires drove by many people today.  So that was very positive.  I wasn’t really hoping for a safety car there around lap 80.  I was hoping to hold the gap when we went to the black tires.  I didn’t hear a radio communication to come into the pits then.   I thought the safety car waved me by but they were waving (James) Hinchcliffe by instead.  I don’t know if there was a communication problem there too.  I didn’t know if they waving at me or both of us.  Then they said it was only for Hinch.  And that was it.  It screwed up our whole day.   Then on the restart, there was a big pile up.  With the single file restarts, you can’t see around the big rear wings because you can’t pull out to pass before the green flag.  And we can’t see
the green flag with these rear wings and we bunched up single file.  So we have to rethink that area I believe.  We have to be able to see around the other cars.  It definitely needs to be looked at in the future.”  
 
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH : “It was encouraging that we had that much pace in car but it was obviously disappointing that we had some mechanical issues early in the race.  We lost quite a bit of ground dealing with those issues.  Overall though the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen crew really fought hard today and had some really clean pit stops.  I have complete faith in the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew and the Chevrolet team that they’ll figure out the issue we faced today and get us ready to have a great race in Long Beach.”

CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
QUALIFYING REPORT
FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
 
ST. PETERSBURG (March 29, 2014) Tony Kanaan, No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, led the way for Team Chevy as he qualified his Chevrolet IndyCar V6-powered car in second for the first race of the  2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season  – the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It was a challenging round of qualifying as the track went from wet to dry conditions during the three rounds but Kanaan delivered a solid qualifying effort on the Streets of St. Petersburg for his first race with a new team.
 
“The Verizon IndyCar Series 2014 season has kicked off here on the Streets of St. Petersburg,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager for Verizon IndyCar Series. “And it is apparent the fans will be presented with some outstanding racing on Sunday.  The challenge of a qualifying session that was delayed for rain and started out on wets became a rapidly changing set of conditions for each team and driver to adapt to and likely exposed any remaining driveability issues.  Tomorrow’s weather looks spectacular and Team Chevy will be ready to race for the win and as many of the top 5 manufacturer point scoring positions as possible.”
 
Two additional Team Chevy drivers making it through knock-out qualifying to the Firestone Fast Six were: Will Power, No.12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, who will start fourth and Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, who turned in the fifth fastest time in the final session.
 
A total of 10 Chevrolet IndyCar V6 powered drivers will start the 110-lap race on the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida
 
Takuma Sato (Honda) won the pole.  Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andetti completed the Fast Six.
ABC will have a live telecast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 30, with pre-race at 3 PM ET. The green flag will fly at 3:27 PM. The IMS Radio Network brings the action live to fans. Both the radio broadcast and live timing and scoring can be found on www.indycar.com.  Radio broadcast can also be heard on XM Radio 209/Sirius Radio 209.
 DRIVER QUOTES:
TONY KANAAN, NO.10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “I  think it has been like 3 years since I have been in the Top 6. It feels really good , I can’t thank the Target Chip Ganassi Racing guys enough. A lot of people made a lot of comments over the years because we struggled so much in qualifying in street and road courses and nobody was counting on that.  I like to be the element of surprise.  Nobody was talking about us at Indy last year and nobody was talking about this weekend.  Although this is not even half of the battle because this is qualifying. Front Row, man it feels pretty good!  I used to see 16 or 17 cars in front of me in a circuit like that so it feels pretty good. I am happy.  It is a new team and those guys had a heck of a year last year and a huge disappointment on Dario’s accident and I still feel like this is Dario’s car.  Those guys went through a lot and they gave me a lot of credibility when I replaced Dario.  They made me feel extremely comfortable and although we have only been working together for the three or four months, I feel part of it.  Every one of them is part of this front row for me.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:, QUALIFIED 4TH: “The car is OK. Balance-wise, it feels good. We got a bit of the insight there on the red tires and bit of a dry track in the Fast Six. Just have to make we have a good look at the data overnight and work to make the Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet better for the race.”
 
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET. QUALIFIED 5TH: “It was a pretty good track out there. It was kinda fun to be in the mixed conditions. This place has been kind of a thorn in my side. I think that might be the best I’ve ever qualified here, but, we typically race well here. I did have loads of understeer, which was a bit of a pain on the backside.  Maybe we didn’t manage the tires well. I think the best lap was when TK (Tony Kanaan) was off in (turn) one. By the new rules, we have to slow down, so it was okay. I have to start there, and that is 15 spots better than last year. I am looking forward to the race.”
 
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH:  “We started on the slick tires then went to the red tires and the track just kept getting better and better.  My tires kind of dropped off there at the end and we didn’t have the speed when the track was at its best. We went the safe way expecting there to be a yellow or a red at some point throughout the session and it just never happened. We’ve got the speed but today just didn’t go to plan. We’re still in the top 10 and I’m just excited to get out there tomorrow and be back with the Verizon IndyCar Series.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: “It was a little bit tough out there but the Hitachi Team Penske Chevy was really fast. I had no reference point in some areas so it made it challenging and it was a little wet for me in Turn 5 especially. We came up a little short to advance into the Firestone Fast Six and we have a little bit of work to do tomorrow. But I can’t wait. I have Roger (Penske) on my side with the strategy and the Hitachi guys will be strong. It should be a really etxciting race to start the season here in St. Pete.”
 
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA: NO. 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH:
“I think it was meant to be that 11th position, whether we had qualifying or not. We’re meant to put on a show and I think that’s exactly what we did. The first session was wet, so it’s important to read the track as quickly as possible and try not to make any mistakes. I think the KV AFS team did a great job in predicting what was going to happen. Q2 was positive in the beginning when it was still wet, but as it got drier I misread the track thinking it was wetter than it was. Once I had realized, it was too late so I didn’t get the best out of my tires and wasn’t then in a position to fight for the Firestone Fast Six. I am looking forward to the first race tomorrow and hope to bring home some good points.”
 
MIKE CONWAY, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH:  “We generated a lot of tire temperature early in the second session of qualifying when the track was a bit damp.  We are still missing something in the car. We need to look at it overnight. The 12th spot might have been a little better than what we thought coming into qualifying.  The start of the race here is always pretty wild here.  You can’t take too easy and you can’t be too aggressive either. You need to be aware of what and who is around you.  We will need to make up some positions early and I hope we can do that in the first lap.  Even though it bottlenecks into turn one, you usually can go two or three wide through there.  You need to find the space to get through the turn.”
 
ED CARPENTER, TEAM OWNER, ED CARPENTER RACING, HIS FIRST RACE OUT OF THE CAR AND ON THE PIT STAND: “We felt like the track was ready for slicks at the start of the second session.  And we were right in that regard.  Mike was P1 in his first four or five laps.  If we could have caught yellow in there, we would have been in good shape.  It ended up hurting us in the end because us and Briscoe started on slick reds and we probably used the best part of the tires before the track got better.  So the guys who waited a little bit longer to go to slicks had an advantage at the end.  But we also have some work to do to get the car better
too.  We need get Mike more confident with the car.  We’ll keep chipping at it.  The rain probably helped us the first group with the wet track. I think the transfer was more on Mike than the car then.  I was happy with job he did in qualifying.  We’ll look for a solid run on Sunday.”
 
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT – KVSH RACING CHEVROLE, QUALIFIED 13TH: “It wasn’t much of a qualifying session for the Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing team. Because of the track conditions we waited to go out to make sure that we had room in case something happened, so everyone else got in a lap before the first red flag. When we went back out I got one lap at speed before the second red flag. We were too conservative and I feel bad for the crew. They did a good job preparing the car. We will just have to go to work and do the best we can in tomorrow’s race.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALFIED 18TH: “The biggest problem for the No. 2  Verizon Chevy was the last corner, for some reason. I just couldn’t come off that corner and get the car to turn. (Takuma) Sato was in front of me and I would lose everything to him right there. It is what it is. I haven’t driven in wet conditions in a long time and we never had an opportunity to do it in testing. I don’t think we’re that far off. I’m still getting acclimated back to the Verizon IndyCar Series. My team is still getting acclimated to me. If that process was complete we would be a lot better. We are definitely making progress.”
 
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 20TH: “We started on the slick tires then went to the red tires and the track just kept getting better and better.  My tires kind of dropped off there at the end and we didn’t have the speed when the track was at its best. We went the safe way expecting there to be a yellow or a red at some point throughout the session and it just never happened. We’ve got the speed but today just didn’t go to plan. We’re still in the top 10 and I’m just excited to get out there tomorrow and be back with the Verizon IndyCar Series.”
 
 
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
An interview with:
WILL POWER
TONY KANAAN
SCOTT DIXON
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’re joined by Scott Dixon.  Scott, talk about how it was for you out there today.
SCOTT DIXON:  It’s been a tough place for me here.  I think the qualifying today, it was a lot of fun actually with changing conditions and trying to time things right.  Q2, we had to really string it together on that last lap.  That got us in.  Q3 we went out on old, put in a lap, then came in and switched over.
I think kind of best timing for us might have been when T.K. was off in one, so we had to slow down on that lap.  Whether that made any difference or not…
It was a good comeback for the Target team, T.K. starting on the front row, we’re on the inside of the third row.  Considering how the weekend has been going, I think we’ve made some good improvements.  Hopefully we race a little bit better.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’re also joined by Team Penske’s drive Will Power.  Will will be starting fourth.  Will has won pole here the last four years here at St. Petersburg and won the race in 2010. 
Will, what was qualifying like for you?
WILL POWER:  Just trying to get through every round without making a mistake.  The Fast Six, that was as quick as I could go.  The car wasn’t that bad.  We got a little bit of work to do, but definitely happy to be qualifying in the front two rows.
It’s a pretty long race.  Make sure we get everything right and see where we come.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll continue with questions.
Q.        What parts of the track changed the most from your first session to the end?
WILL POWER:  Just got a dry line basically everywhere.  Just got dryer, dryer, dryer.  At the end it was completely basically a dry track.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’re also joined by Tony Kanaan.
Tony, another strong start for Chip Ganassi Racing.  You’ll be on the front row.  What are you expecting from tomorrow’s race?
TONY KANAAN:  It feels good not to see 17 cars in front of me on the start.  We were doing the math.  Probably three years I haven’t made it to the Fast Six.
It’s good.  It’s just qualifying.  You still got to make it to turn one tomorrow.  We’ll see.
I’m happy.  The whole team, I think we did a great job.  We were pretty competitive all weekend with one of our cars.  Probably for the fans qualifying was fun, but for us it was quite hard.
 
THE MODERATOR:  What has the experience at Target Chip Ganassi racing been like you so far?
TONY KANAAN:  It’s been awesome.  It’s quite a bit different than what I was used to.  I have very tough teammates that keep me on my toes.
I have to say they made me feel pretty comfortable in the past three months.  For me to adapt, it wasn’t that difficult.  Obviously there are quite a few things that I need to relearn.  We have a lot more information.
Like I said, with four teammates, it reminds me back of the Andretti Green days.  It’s been good for so far.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll continue with questions.
Q.        The race being 110 laps, would you rather have two sets of red tires and one black, or distance-wise is it better to have blacks?  I heard Firestone brought the same tire you had last year.  .
TONY KANAAN:  It’s tough to say.  I mean, I would say I would prefer to have more tires, period, for the we
ekend.  Right now it’s hard to say black or red.
We’ll find out tomorrow, that’s for sure.
 
Q.        Scott, as the reigning series champion, what is it like being back now that you have several practices and a qualifying under your belt?
SCOTT DIXON:  It’s fun.  It’s good to be back at St. Pete.  It’s probably not my favorite track as far as speed-wise.  It’s probably the best place we could kick off the season.
I think with the momentum we’ve had from the past few years, obviously with Verizon coming onboard as a series sponsor, I think it’s huge for us.
I think we’re all excited.  The weather has been a bit funky for the past two days, but tomorrow I think is going to be perfect weather conditions.  Hopefully we have lots of fans out here and put on a good show for everybody.
But, yeah, it’s good to be back in the car.
 
Q.        Tony, is there any part of the track that feels different this year from last year?  How has that track been maturing?  Any pieces that you have to attack a little differently?
TONY KANAAN:  I was talking to Scott about that.  They did repaint going into turn one where the runway is, the white stripes on the inside.  I felt that they were new.  I think that’s the only part.
Felt it was a little bit bumpier everywhere else, as well.  To me the biggest one was turn one.
 
Q.        T.K., not only do you look good in red, you seem very happy.  Talk about the rejuvenation you feel to get off to such a good start.
TONY KANAAN:  I think it’s quite normal.  I was in a very good position back in the days when I was with Andretti.  For whatever reason or the circumstances were, I took a big hit on that when I had to leave.
The struggle for the past three years with finding money, not just doing what I want to do, which is drive the car, I didn’t realize then, but for sure now I can see.
Yeah, I’m happy, because I think anybody that would be
driving that 10 car, you could ask anybody on the grid, they would be smiling the entire time.
I’m in a very good organization, probably one of the best positions I’ve been in my career in IndyCar.  There’s no reason to be unhappy.  I’d have to say I’m happier because I was always happy.  I’ve been mad a couple times.
We came out of a great year last year winning the 500 and things just happened after that.  That’s probably it.
Q.        Being a street course, you don’t get to practice here, you just come and race.  Is the track slippery?  I’ve heard them say that on the PA that it’s very slick.
TONY KANAAN:  Always.  When we come here every year I think the track starts a little slippery.  For some reason this year, in my opinion, has been worse than years before.  You can look at the lap times, as well.  We were a little slower in both sessions.
It’s hard to tell.  We don’t know if we came in with the same tires as last year, same conditions.  It’s hard to tell.  But definitely felt that it was slipperier than years past.

CHEVROLET ADDS TO HISTORIC WIN TOTAL AT MARTINSVILLE
Kurt Busch Earns First Race Victory of the Season and Leads a Podium Sweep for the Chevrolet SS
 
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (March 30, 2014) – Chevrolet added another notch in the win column at Martinsville Speedway, bringing the all-time victory total to 53 wins in 104 races at the 0.526-mile track. Kurt Busch brought home the victory for the bowtie brand in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS.  The win in the sixth race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) schedule, breaks an 83 race winless streak for Busch and is his second career victory at Martinsville.  Stewart-Haas Racing now has two drivers with victories this season. Busch joins his teammate Kevin Harvick as the sixth race winner in the NSCS this season.
 
“I didn’t know if we’d be able to do it,” said Kurt Busch following the race. “The No. 48 car is king here – him or the 24. The old theory is if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. We have a Hendrick chassis prepared by Stewart-Haas Racing. Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet… thanks to those guys. I’ve been on this journey for a while. Every time you come to Martinsville you draw a line through it; like ‘there’s no way I’ll be able to challenge those Hendrick guys or challenge for a top-10’. This Stewart-Haas team gave me a team to do it. Now I know what I need to do on Saturdays: don’t even practice. Just show up and race on Sunday that way I won’t dial out the car! It’s a dream come true to have Gene Haas call you and tell you that he wants you to drive and he wants to go for trophies and wins. It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”
 
Busch led a Team Chevy sweep of the top-three positions.  Jimmie Johnson, an eight-time winner at Martinsville Speedway led a race-high 296 laps in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, but was overtaken by Busch for the win with only a 10 laps remaining, relegating the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion to a second-place finish.  Johnson was followed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS, in the third position.  Earnhardt, Jr. battled his way from the 26th starting spot to earn a top-three finish.  With the run; Earnhardt, Jr. resumes the point’s lead by nine markers over Matt Kenseth (Toyota).
 
Other Chevrolet SS drivers earning top-10 finishes at Martinsville were Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS who earned a seventh-place finish and Paul Menard, No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet SS as he ended 500 laps at the paperclip shaped track in the 10th position.
 
Joey Logano (Ford) was fourth and Marcos Ambrose (Ford) was fifth to round out the top-five.
 
Next week the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for round seven of the 2014 season. 
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS, RACE WINNER
KERRY THARP:  Let’s hear from our winning race team of today’s 65th annual STP 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here at Martinsville Speedway.  Our race winner is Kurt Busch.  He drives the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet for Stewart‑Haas Racing, and he’s joined by his crew chief Daniel Knost.  Congratulations to the No. 41 team.  Very well deserved, and glad to have you guys up here today.  This is Kurt’s 25th win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  This is the silver anniversary for your victories here today.  You were part of 33 lead changes, which is a new track record, and certainly can’t wait to hear you talk about how the race unfolded at the end.  Daniel’s first win as a crew chief, just your sixth start as a crew chief, and you’re a Virginia Tech grad.  Being able to win your first race in your home ‑‑ I know it’s not a state, it’s a commonwealth.
Let’s hear from Kurt.  Talk about this win here today and what it means to you as a racer and to be able to get into the Chase and just the significance of winning this here today.
KURT BUSCH:  Well, it’s an unbelievable feeling, you know, to have a shot at winning, and when it comes across you, you want to deliver for your team.  There’s things you have to do in the car to manage your emotions and then tires, most importantly, and to be in position to win this early with the Haas Automation team, it’s been for ‑‑ to the credit of a lot of hard work and a lot of mistakes have been made, but enough that we could learn from.  To deliver for Gene Haas this early, it shows the potential of this team.  I know Kevin Harvick won earlier this year at Phoenix, and I think our strength this year with the Haas Automation Chevy and most of Stewart‑Haas Racing has been at the short tracks.
A win like today is a great step forward.  I don’t want it to camouflage any of the work, though, that we still have to do to make our car stronger and to be more competitive week in and week out, but don’t think that I’m not going to enjoy this for one moment.
I’m going to soak this in.  This is an unbelievable feeling, to get back to victory lane after this tour that I’ve been on, to find this opportunity with Stewart‑Haas, and to win, it means the world to me.  That’s what I’ve always driven for was just going for the wins and you let the rough edges drag on the other side.  You get compared to guys that are sponsor dreams and they’ve won one or two races, and now to hear that I have 25 wins and to have a championship and to hoist a trophy at a track that I would draw a line through this track every time I’d show up not ever having a shot to win because it was one of my worst tracks.  So it shows what teamwork is all about.  That’s what I want everybody to take away from today is teamwork.  What better way to win than using that old cliché, can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  I’ve got a Hendrick chassis and a Hendrick motor prepared by Stewart‑Haas Racing, and we brought our No. 41 car home to victory lane.
Awesome feeling.  Thanks to Daniel.  His pit calls were wonderful.  The pit crew did an excellent job holding serve on pit road, and every time that I had a little handling issue, Daniel had a fix for it today, so great teamwork.  Thank you, Daniel.
KERRY THARP:  Certainly it’s a big deal, too, the first time the Haas Automation Chevy has visited victory lane.  Daniel, talk about how it feels to have your first victory as a Sprint Cup Series crew chief.
DANIEL KNOST:  You know, it’s very exciting.  In some respects it hasn’t hit me.  You have that kind of moment on the box where you yell and scream and stomp your feet and hit something and you get that out, and now, maybe just in a little bit of a daze.  I can’t believe that I’ve had success come to me this fast.  But we’ve got a great driver, we’ve got a great organization.  We have guys that really work hard on our stuff, and that is manifesting itself.  We took a chance and almost got it last week and this week we cashed in, so I think our group is pulling together at a good pace.
Q.  Kurt, Kevin Harvick said one of the main reasons he wanted to join Stewart‑Haas was to get the Hendrick equipment.  Is it that much different and that much better?

KURT BUSCH:  You know, it still is about the people.  You can have the best things given to you or you can purchase them, such as Gene Haas and Tony Stewart have, and they’ve provided us with a foundation to work off of.  Every team has their own custom pieces that they add to the car.

I do have to thank Rick Hendrick, though, for allowing the information that they create to be shared and for the technical alliance to exist and for us to run those motors.  It’s a Chevrolet brand, and coming from a Chevrolet brand last year, there’s small little things that are different, but let’s face it here, Jimmie Johnson has got six championships, and the Hendrick group, every week it seems like are the cars to beat.  So that’s what Harvick’s mentality was, is let’s ju
mp in with that equipment and shift gears.  He’s been with Childress for a dozen years, so a big change for him, and I was happy to see him win at Phoenix right away.
Q.  Getting the box checked and getting essentially a seat in the Chase, you’ve got this upcoming huge opportunity and challenge coming up with the double.  Does that take pressure off doing that and make that easier for you?

KURT BUSCH:  Wow, that kind of hit me hard.  I hadn’t thought of that.  My focus is here in the stock car world and with my NASCAR team.  It is nice, though, to have a genuine position now to make the Chase.  At this pace, though, six winners in six weeks, right, or is it five?
Q.  Six.

KURT BUSCH:  It’s going to fill up quick, and we have to do our job on this 41 team to develop as a team and to be a bona fide chase contender when the Chase starts.  So we’re not going to rest on this win.  We have a long way to go, though, to get up into that top 16 in points, and once we get there, let’s keep digging.  Consistency now is what we’ll focus on.  A win is a win.  If we get a second win, that’s when I would call ourselves locked in.  But we have this consistency battle that we have in front of us, and I’m up for this challenge, especially when you have all this weight lifted on your shoulders with a win so early.
Q.  Kurt, I asked Jimmie about this earlier, a couple years back you had famously said that you would rather lose to 41 other cars before the 48, but you’ve come a long way in the last couple years and he even mentioned that you guys had sat down and talked it out and everything was good on that front.  I’m curious, two years ago versus today, if you were in that same scenario, because you guys had a fantastic clean race there at the end, would your temperament have been different when you were attacking the 48 over those last laps?

KURT BUSCH:  You would think it would be worse today with not winning for two years.  It flashed through my mind when he passed me that I’m hungrier than he is.  I’m ready to tackle 10 prime rib steaks right now.  I was hungry, and I wasn’t going to let this slip away with it being so close.
You know, a few years back when we were battling, I was speaking for the fans.  Anybody but the 48, when you have the same winner time and time again, it can get stale, and I wasn’t doing my job well enough on that team to challenge Jimmie for the win and to knock him off the top.  When you win as much as he has, he has that target, and you want to go there and knock him off his podium.
It was great to have raced him, and there was that respect today because we don’t come from the same garage, but we do have some ties.  We do have Mr. H, we do have Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, and there is a little bit of that camaraderie of teammates back and forth, and you don’t want to start it off on a bad foot like that.  But that’s an epic‑type battle at a short track, with a six‑time champion to go back and forth and exchange the lead, a couple taps, a couple moves, a little bit of a chess game.  I was hoping I had enough rear tires to drive away from him at the end, and I got an arm pump at the end.  That was the hardest 30 laps I ever drove not to slip a tire in my life because I didn’t want to let last week where I let the win slip away, let it slip away this week.  So I gave it all I had, and it felt good.  It felt really good to give it my all and deliver and to win knowing that after this two‑year run it can still be done.
Q.  I understand Gene Haas wasn’t here, which I would think is pretty disappointing with the lengths that he went to to get you aboard.  Have you had any interaction with him after or anything at all?

KURT BUSCH:  He texted me on Friday, how’s it going.  I said, it’s Martinsville… he goes, what does that mean?  I said, we’re loose, we’re sliding all over.  He goes, well, just slow down.  His sarcasm is unbelievable.  I love him.  He’s great.  He gives us every tool we need to win, and when he hired me he said go for wins.  If you go out sliding sideways and you wreck, I’m okay with that.  Just bring home those trophies.  I said, deal, you’re just going to have to carry them out of victory lane.  Unfortunately Gene wasn’t here today to carry the trophy out of victory lane.  Daniel carried it out.  Last week at California we had a shot to win in his backyard and I didn’t deliver, and to see him go with the car to tech inspection and hang out with the guys and he wasn’t in a rush to jump on a plane to get out of there because he lives in Southern Cal, it was a moment missed, and I’m glad I could deliver the week after, and we need him back at the track again as soon as possible to help us win again.
Q.  You talked about the first win in two years.  Has not winning over the last two years been as frustrating or less frustrating considering you’ve been working with teams that are kind of growing?

KURT BUSCH:  You know, it was a process.  It was a challenge to work with those Furniture Row guys.  I thought we were knocking on the door about the 10th race in last year, and we couldn’t win.  It’s amazing how many things have to fall into place, and so I never doubted myself.  I never gave up.  I kept trying to find little stones to uncover and rocks to overturn to try to make teams better for the way that I knew how to make them, and I was just trying to find the right combo, trying to find the combo that Daniel found today, and Stewart‑Haas Racing is that combination for me.  It’s great to win six races in with a brand‑new team like this and have that feeling of a competitive organization around you.
Q.  And as far as what happened on pit road with Keselowski, can you talk about what happened and were you surprised that he was upset?

KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, I can’t believe he overreacted and he’s as upset as he is.  The 5 car was trying to pull into his box, Brad ran into the back of him, I steered right to go around Brad and then he clobbers our left‑side door, and it’s like, okay, accidents happen on pit road.  It’s congested.  It’s not a place to race, because of all the pit crew guys down there and I didn’t think much of it, and then once we were back out running, he targeted us, he was aiming for us.  He tried to flatten all four of my tires.  That’s a no‑fly zone.  That’s a punk‑ass move and he will get what he gets back when I decide to give it back.
Q.  You said that you were really going to let this victory soak in.  When you took that checkered flag, was it a sigh of relief of just like, I told you I’d be back, I’m back, and how have you changed?  How have these last two years changed you?

KURT BUSCH:  You know, I had such focus for the last 30 laps not to slip a tire and the emotion of performing at my best and then to deliver, I had this sharp chill go through my body of I’ve done it, I did it, I’m back on that stage, we’re with a competitive organization, we’re a winner, and it takes a team to do it.  I ran a lot of my early part of my career as an individual, and I didn’t respect my team, my team owners, and to have a team owner like Tony Stewart who’s a driver and an owner, I can communicate things to the mid‑level personnel, those are all the things that I knew I struggled with and that I needed to communicate better to the channels of people that are all part of this team.  It’s not just me and the crew chief or the pit crew that jumps over the wall.  There’s a full channel of everybody, and when you have racers like Greg Zipadelli that are there to help you, Matt Borland was there to assist Daniel in our growth, and a whole group of guys back at that shop that are hopefully not going to tear the lobby down when we party, it’s that camaraderie and it’s that feeling. 
Those Furniture Row guys gave it to me.  The Phoenix Racing guys gave it to me, but we just never were able to deliver a win, but we’ve been knocking on the door for the last two years, and it feels great to get back there.
Q.  You won this race after I think earlier you had even said you’re done and there was a lot of adversity early, the Keselowski thing probably would have rattled you or anybody.  How did you refocus at that point?  How did you pull yourself together, brush that off and say I’m just going to move past this?

KURT BUSCH:  Because it wasn’t that big of a deal.  When somebody has a problem on pit road, it’s like, ooh, I’m glad everybody is cool, pit crew guys are fine, and then he brought it out on the track and he really tried to ruin our day.  If we would’ve got a flat tire at that moment, we would have gone a couple laps down because it was a green‑flag condition, and there would have been hell to pay.
Q.  You touched on a question that I was going to ask about, and that’s the dynamic of driving for a driver and what that means not just for the Kurt Busch team but for the entire organization.  If you want to just expand on that, and then secondly, at what point did that car come in?  Did Jimmie start to lose?  Did you start to dial in because it seemed like maybe the weather conditions started to change, and at what point did that start working for you?

KURT BUSCH:  You know, it’s a blessing to have a team owner who’s a racer because then there isn’t the cloudiness or the lack of clarity when the drivers are asking for something specific.  I remember sitting in big meetings with Jack or with Roger and there was some question on what’s the driver really talking about.  Tony Stewart can really clarify that and move the things quicker.
It’s great to have him out there.  At Fontana we raced for the win, which was an interesting situation.  I really enjoyed racing him for the win, but the problem was the 14 and the 41, neither one of us won that day, so it’s kind of a bummer we didn’t deliver for our team last week.  It’s all about the team guys.  Tony can communicate very easily.
You know, the car never really told me it was a winning car, but we kept passing guys, and I got to 10th and I had to celebrate.  I was like, I’ve never been running 10th after 200 laps here before, and we kept looking out our windshield going to chase down more guys.  I didn’t know what that feeling was like to have a winning car here at Martinsville because I haven’t won here since 2002.
 Q.  You’ve taken a journey that none of us can relate to, can quite understand.  When you get to this point, what does winning feel like?  What is special again?  What has stood out in the last 25, 30 minutes and is part of this two‑year journey that you’ve gone on, and did you ever think you’d get back to this point?

KURT BUSCH:  You know, it’s a moment of self‑satisfaction and enjoyment of all the hard work that I’ve put in and all of the people that have been around me to help me, and to have a guy like Gene Haas believe in you and give you a shot with a brand‑new team and a brand‑new car.  You’ve got to put life in perspective, and you have to learn from your mistakes, and you can’t just sit there and try to muscle your way individually through certain situations, and so you rely on your experience level, you rely on your team, and this is a great day for me to be able to lift the trophy in victory lane for Stewart‑Haas Racing.
 Q.  You had said last year you really wanted to win and get little Houston in victory lane, so I’m curious what that moment was like today to finally be able to do that.

KURT BUSCH:  It’s pretty emotional.  To see him starry eyed and not knowing what he needed to do and I was directing him where he needed to stand and where he could see it all better and put him up on stage.  And to have him break down in tears, it got me crossed up because I’ve been trying to deliver for him, and when you deliver for your team and everybody that’s on this Stewart‑Haas, Haas Automation team, we’re all adults, but when the kids get involved and he gets to soak it in, it just kind of took it to a new level.  He busted out crying, and tears of joy from a nine year old are probably the heaviest tears of all.
 Q.  You kind of touched on this a little bit.  You said how special it was for a team that’s only basically six races old to be winning already, but for you personally, and you mentioned this, this has never been one of your best tracks.  When you add the two of those together for you guys going forward, doesn’t that even kind of provide you, sort of set it up for what could be a very special season when you’ve accomplished a goal like that so early at a place that’s been difficult for you?

KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, I don’t know how to exactly define it.  I’ve always looked at Martinsville as a struggle.  To get a 15th and just kind of move on.  To beat Jimmie Johnson and to pass for the win and have him pass me and then I got back by him, it was a great short‑track duel.  It was as if I hadn’t missed a beat.  But it’s been a long two years, and it’s been a lot of hard work, and I just kept staying the course.
You’ve just got to believe in the people that are around you, and I’m very thankful to have a chance to win today and to be in a good position for 2014 already with a race win and moving our way up through points.  Now our next objective is just to build more consistency in our Haas Automation Chevy.  Daniel deserves a lot of credit.  He’s brand new in his position, Wes, the lead engineer underneath him is brand new, the guy underneath him is brand new in his position, so a lot of guys we promoted internally.  I think the key to today’s victory was no practice on Saturday, so I’m taking Saturday off when we come back here in October, or just give me a blindfold.  I might do better.  I think I’ve been really good at dialing the car out on practice days here at Martinsville.  A lot of times we could just kind of roll the dice on Sunday morning with the setup.  We took advantage of today’s conditions with the track being rained out and the new ride height rule through a lot of teams’ guaranteed setups out the window, and it put everybody more on an even playing field today.
Q.  Can you talk about what a relief it is to get this win behind you because it makes the whole Indy challenge probably a little bit less daunting?

KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, it didn’t hit me until the question was brought up about Indianapolis.  I’ve had my mindset around the beginning of the season, get these first 10 races under our belt, and then once we get to Talladega and to Kansas, that’s when the Indy stuff will really start picking up.  There’s going to be a lot of flights back and forth.
This is just a great feather in the cap.  It’s a load off our shoulders.  There won’t be the questions or the distraction thought process anyway.  It’ll be, hey, the 41 car is doing well.  We still have a long way to go to be competitive to give ourselves a shot once the Chase starts, but my Indianapolis adventure, now we can breathe easier as we go through these next two months.
KERRY THARP:  Kurt and Daniel, congratulations.  Big win here today, and I suspect we’ll see more of that this season.  Enjoy this victory.
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 2ND
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 3RD  
KERRY THARP:  Let’s roll right into our post‑race for this afternoon’s 65th‑annual STP 500, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here at Martinsville Speedway, and our second‑ and third‑place finishers have joined us here in the media center.  Our race runner‑up is Jimmie Johnson.  He drove the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet for He
ndrick Motorsports.  Our third‑place finisher is his teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  He drove the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.  Jimmie, certainly contended for the win throughout the day, back and forth with the 41 car over the last 50 or 60 laps.  Tell us what happened out there.
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Just a very strong race car.  We unloaded off the truck fast and qualified well and had an awesome car here in the race today.  Of course disappointed not to get to victory lane, but there wasn’t anything else I could do.  Man, I got back by him and I thought that we had control of the race then.  I felt like since I hadn’t seen him through really any part of the day that he might have me on short‑run speed but he would fall off.  He stayed in my mirror and found a way back by me and then got a car length or so on me and did an awesome job.  I wish I could have gotten the win here for the 30th anniversary, but I came up a little short, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.
KERRY THARP:  Dale, certainly you battled throughout the day, got in a couple of bumps and bruises out there it looked like, but just talk about the race out there today.  Certainly was no easy task out there getting around this short track today.
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, well, it was pretty easy until the end.  You had to just discipline yourself to not use the throttle, and I think we’ll have a lot of fun looking at the throttle trace on some of them runs because I was quarter throttle at the max, under the lap I was probably quarter throttle toward the end of them runs, even on the straightaways.  There just wasn’t no point in mashing the gas any further than that.  When guys were faster, I just let them go and just sit there.  I was real patient all day in saving the left rear, saving the left rear and just waiting until the end, see where we’d be.  We had good track position.  Inside of 38 laps to go I thought everybody was going to go like hell, and we all did and ended up running third.  I think the two guys in front of me were ‑‑ I was losing my car pretty fast there the last five laps so I didn’t have anything else to get there.  I got a couple lapped guys gave me the outside instead of the inside.  That’s their right, but that cost me a little time and maybe some wear and tire on my tires.  I thought when we passed the 22 we might be able to roll up there and get in the middle of the race for that win, but no, those guys’ cars, they were pretty good.
Q.  Jimmie, I think you set a record for lead changes today with 32.  Seemed like with you and Kurt the last 20, 30 laps, seemed like exceedingly clean racing.  Is that how it felt?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Man, we were so on edge slipping and sliding.  I gave him a little nudge to get inside him, and he came and put some pressure back on me, but it was so slight, honestly the cars were so on top of the track and slipping and sliding you would go out there and push one around with your hand.  I think the lack of security in our own car kept us from feeling more racy and putting a bumper to someone or really getting inside someone aggressively.  From the minute I would hit the brakes and go into the turn I was turning right and just drifting in there the whole time.
The lack of comfort probably prevented us from racing a little harder.
Q.  Dale, I was listening on Fan Vision, and Steve was apologizing during the race that he was reminding you so much about taking it easy and making your stuff last.  You mentioned that discipline.  Does it help having him in your ear to remind you when you’re running 30 or 40 laps that you’ve got to keep maintaining your speed?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, I mean, that’s exactly what ran through my mind when he said that, when he was saying I’m probably getting on your nerves, I’m thinking, man, I’m just going to bring it on because I’ll be missing this next year.  There’s nobody like him.  I don’t expect the next guy to come in there and mimic him or be like him.  We’ll work that out and communicate like we need to communicate going forward.  But yeah, he does a great job of keeping my mind focused on the tasks, and there’s several different things you’re doing in the car during a run, and you can forget to ‑‑ you can easily get yourself carried away and race a guy and forget taking care of your car and taking care of your left‑rear tire.  It’s easy to get swept up in the competition of things, and he’s good at sort of cheerleading you along the way and running the show.  He does a good job on top of the box.
Q.  With Stewart‑Haas winning two of the first six races, do you ever look at Rick and go, what were you thinking about bringing them on board as partners?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  I don’t.  You know, I look at it as an opportunity to learn more.  I look at it as an opportunity to understand new ideas.  It’s a good partnership that works both ways.
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, totally agree.  They’re an important part of Hendrick Motorsports in general.  We wouldn’t be as strong as we are as a company if we didn’t have the relationship, either.
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  I’ll say I don’t know the crew chief on the 41 that well yet, but it’s been a real pleasure being able to communicate with Rodney from the 4 car.  You sort of build those relationships throughout the year with those guys, and it all works back and forth.
Q.  Did you feel any added pressure going into this week knowing that it was the anniversary of Rick’s first win and knowing that it happened at this track?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  You know, Rick has had so much success here starting with the first win, and it’s been great to watch Rick have so much success here.  It’s been awesome seeing the company go to victory lane.  It’s been great to be a part of understanding how that works and benefiting from it.  We run third today because we got great teammates that understand how to get around here and put good cars on the track, and we lean on that.  It’s been a great experience seeing it happen, and I’m sure that one of us would have loved to have won that race for Rick.  We’ll get more opportunities to win more races, and I’m just frustrated I’ve been chasing the clock here for so long.  Hopefully one of these days it’ll work out.
Q.  Dale, you mentioned racing with discipline today.  Can you afford to race with less discipline at other tracks like next week, for example?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Well, when I mean by racing with discipline today, you couldn’t run any harder with the wear we had on the tires.  You just couldn’t afford to.  You saw how the 20 car and the 18 car, those guys would run real hard at the lead early in the race, and they set an example for the rest of us to watch out and be easy on that left‑rear tire, and it just goes away like a snap.
I couldn’t afford to run any harder if I wanted to be competitive on the end of these runs, and particularly we seen longer runs here than we saw today.  None of the runs went past 80 laps, but typically we see a good long run in the middle of the race, and we were just ready for that.
Q.  Jimmie, I don’t want to be the downer, but over the last couple years for as much as you’ve won, you’ve lost a lot of races dominating like today.  Are they starting to add up in your mind?  Any frustration?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, but thanks for the reminder.
Q.  I said I didn’t want to be a downer.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’ve got to figure something out.  Hopefully I’ll win a race soon or a championship.
To be truthful, last year I felt like some got away that I definitely had control of and was disappointed in myself on some of that.  Some of the stuff circumstances got me, but we left a lot of wins on the table la
st year for sure.
Today I couldn’t have done any more.  I just got beat.  You’re going to have those, too, and you’ve got to recognize when you get beat and you’ve got to recognize when you make mistakes, and today we just got beat.
Q.  What is the feeling today besides the fact you know you got beat at Martinsville, which you’ve won here eight times?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It’s nice to know our cars are good.  This track is in the Chase, so we’ll come back a lot smarter and try to prevent running second again.  You just learn from the situation.  I’m not saying there was a mistake today, but you learn from this weekend and carry it forward.  This is a brand new car and a lot of stuff to figure out, so I know in the coming months the car’s setups will be a lot different, and we’ll just keep evolving and try to prevent running second.
Thanks for the hard questions.
Q.  Jimmie, a couple years back Kurt was quoted on camera as saying there were 41 cars on the track he would rather lose to than losing to the 48, but you guys obviously had a great race today and it was predominantly clean.  Is that indicative of the fact that you two have gotten beyond that point and you’re now able to race without any kind of animosity?

JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, for sure.  I think things came to a head at Pocono and then Richmond was shortly thereafter.  After the Richmond race we sat down and talked long about things and got through it.  Through some of the struggles he’s had the last couple years before he landed at Stewart‑Haas, I’ve been there and kind of advised ‑‑ not necessarily advised, but had conversations with him, gave him my opinion.  I was happy to see him go to Stewart‑Haas.  He’s a fantastic driver, and with the way we share information, we can learn from him and learn from that.
We’re definitely in a good place, that’s for sure.  I think today was very representative of that.
KERRY THARP:  Dale and Jimmie, congratulations on a strong run here today and good luck at Texas next week.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 30, 2014
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A CRASH ON LAP 199
IN REGARDS TO THE ON-TRACK INCIDENT:
“He (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) barely got into me and you hope that wouldn’t happen and he would get off of you, but he didn’t.  I went around and got into the wall pretty hard.  I don’t know if they will be able to fix it, but we had a really good run again and had a great McDonald’s Chevy and it’s just unfortunate.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“There was a lap car holding up our pack.  I thought the No. 88 would be a little more patient with me.  I had gotten by him in lap traffic.  Then he got on my inside.  When he got into me it was like it couldn’t get off and spun me around and just got into the wall there.  Really unfortunate had a good car, every race we’ve had good cars.  You just wish you weren’t racing for points because that is the hardest part to swallow is the point’s loss.  It’s fun to run well but that is what you will think about for the next five days.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
ON HIS RACE:
“I didn’t know if we’d be able to do it. The No. 48 car is king here – him or the 24. The old theory is if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. We have a Hendrick chassis prepared by Stewart-Haas Racing. Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet… thanks to those guys. I’ve been on this journey for awhile. Every time you come to Martinsville you draw a line through it; like ‘there’s no way I’ll be able to challenge those Hendrick guys or challenge for a top-10’. These Stewart-Haas team gave me a team to do it. Now I know what I need to do on Saturdays: don’t even practice. Just show up and race on Sunday that way I won’t dial out the car! It’s a dream come true to have Gene Haas call you and tell you that he wants you to drive and he wants to go for trophies and wins. It’s an unbelievable feeling to deliver.”
 
THE PIT LANE INCIDENT WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI
“We won. We’re not worried about any of that nonsense right now. We are a winner. We’re not guaranteed in the Chase but we have a win and we’re moving forward. Thanks a lot to everyone on this team. I can’t thank them enough.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ON HIS RACE:
“I’d been loose in the final third of the race and was hanging on there. When (Kurt Busch) got back by me, I was hopefully that he’d wear his stuff out and I could get back by him. He did but I couldn’t hold him off. I started to get looser and looser. That’s all I had. I ran the rear tires off the car. I flipped every switch and knob I could get front brake and turn fans off to bring my balance back but it was a little too loose to get the win. I hate it. We had a very fast race car. I wish we could have gotten this for Rick (Hendrick’s) 30th anniversary.”

CHEVROLET RECOGNIZES HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS FOR 30 YEARS OF SUCCESS AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
 
DETROIT (March 29, 2014) – Chevrolet congratulates long-time partner Hendrick Motorsports on 30 years of winning. Hendrick Motorsports has fielded only Chevrolets in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The combination of two of motorsports’ most prominent names tasted victory for the first time April 29, 1984 when Geoff Bodine in a Chevy Monte Carlo earned the first checkered flag for Rick Hendrick’s organization. In the 30 years that followed, Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports have driven to a total of 219 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins and 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships.
 
During the past three decades, Hendrick Motorsports drivers have piloted the Chevrolet brand to Victory Lane at Martinsville Speedway 21 times. Geoff Bodine, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson all have earned the prestigious Grandfather Clock trophy from NASCAR’s oldest track.  Gordon and Johnson, both Chevrolet NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers for the entirety of their careers, currently hold the record for most victories by active drivers at Martinsville Speedway with eight wins.
 
“We are extremely proud of our partnership with Rick and the Hendrick Motorsports organization,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Rick’s success over the past three decades is the result of his passion, persistence and emphasis on teamwork to get the job done. As a result, Hendrick Motorsports has 272 wins and 14 NASCAR Owner Championships – all with Chevrolet. As a key partner and respected friend, we congratulate Rick and Hendrick Motorsports on 30 great years of racing and winning.”
 
Both Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports hold significant records at the 0.526-mile track.  Chevrolet is the winningest manufacturer there with 52 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins, and Hendrick Motorsports is the most decorated organization with 21 victories.
 
With the 2014 season in full swing, both Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports are off to a good start. Chevrolet leads the manufacturer standings while Hendrick Motorsports has already recorded a victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 placing Dale Earnhardt, Jr., driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet SS, into contention for the Chase. All four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet drivers hold positions in the top 20 in the point standings.  
 
Together Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports look forward to continued success in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series not only at Martinsville Speedway where all the trips to victory lane began, but at all the others along the way.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 28, 2014
 
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON AND JEFF GORDON LEAD TEAM CHEVY
IN QUALIFYING AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
FIVE TEAM CHEVY DRIVER’S WILL START IN THE TOP-TEN
 
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (March 28, 2014) – Chevy SS drivers and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon led the way for Chevrolet in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) qualifying at Martinsville Speedway.   Johnson posted the fourth fastest time in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS and will be in search of his ninth victory at the .526 mile short track.  Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS, also an eight-time winner at Martinsville, will start fifth in Sunday’s STP 500.   In all, Chevrolet has captured the victory in over 50 percent of all NSCS races at Martinsville (52 of 103).  
 
44 entrants took to the track for the first session 30-minute session before the field was cut to the 12 fastest cars.  Those 12 cars moved to the final round two and were given 10 minutes to post another fast lap.  Five Team Chevy drivers ended the day in the final top-12 group – with all of them in the top-ten.

Tony Stewart, No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, recorded his best qualifying effort of the season and will roll off from the seventh starting spot on Sunday.  Stewart has three career victories at Martinsville with his last coming in 2011.   Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS will start ninth and Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS, earned her best start of the season posting the 10th quickest time.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the pole winner, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was second and Joey Logano (Ford) qualified third to round out the top-five.

The STP 500 takes the green flag on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET and will be aired live on FOX.
 
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“It was good.  Man it’s really really close on speeds.  I was surprised to see the tires kind of hang on as well as they did.  They didn’t seem to repeat that well in practice.  I guess it seemed if you went out early enough and could let everything cool down the tires would come back and be kind of similar to the run before.  I don’t know all that said it went well.  We have had a good car all day long and fourth is decent.”
 
YOU WERE WAITING TO THE END TO MAYBE MAKE A PASS AND CUT IT CLOSER TO THE END OF THE SECOND SESSION:
“Really managing your tire temps.  I thought there was going to be more chaos in that first outing and it was very well organized to everyone’s surprise I believe.  Where that put us behind is I lost 10 minutes there and then I’m sitting there on hotter tires wishing I had 10 more minutes to cool down like the guys who went early.  That is something we have got to stay on top of, but again I really thought it would be impossible to get a clean lap in that opening five minutes, but everybody stayed pretty well organized and friendly out there.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SEVENTH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I’m pretty happy. Code 3 Associates is on our car this week and the last time I drove their car, we won at Dover last year. Excited for them and excited for us.
 
“We’re battling weather here this weekend. It was supposed to rain out today and we got that in. Now they’re saying it might rain out tomorrow. If that does happen, I’m kind of comfortable with what we’ve got if we have to go straight to the race. We’ve got some things we can do to make it a little better, but all in all, our Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet is a pretty balanced racecar.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY/GET FOUND CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 10TH
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING SESSION?
“Significantly better than it’s been so far this year.  I wasn’t very good in practice and I was laughing telling everyone it was one of my crew guys Jay that said put the fear of God in me to wreck this car.  He’s like ‘it’s a new car don’t wreck this car.’  So I was a little cautious but at the end of the day I don’t think we started off very well, but we made good improvements and when the car went into qualifying trim it was much better than it felt in race trim.  Hopefully, we can learn something from that.  Then Tony (Gibson, crew chief) made good changes from practice to qualifying because I was able to do what I wanted to do and what I asked to be able to do better.  That is why we went faster.”
 
YOU OBVIOUSLY WEREN’T EXPECTING THIS AFTER PRACTICING 29TH:
“Just got to expect the unexpected I guess.  I think that our practice started off a little bit rough because you go out with all those cars out on the track I was following another car and he was not coming up to speed and ended up getting passed by 15 cars it felt like in the first five laps.  You are just not really getting up to speed and in a rhythm so we didn’t really put a lap in at the beginning and then in our qualifying runs I feel like we improved a lot, but we still needed something.  That something Tony (Gibson, crew chief) gave me for qualifying.  That is the difference.  Then just nailing that lap, I mean that is qualifying.  I just have to get better at it.  I’ve got to get better at getting all of it out of the car every time and I have such kind of a negative attitude about qualifying that I said I need to be positive and at least be neutral on it and let these be positive reinforcements.  It’s so important and especially at a place like this.”
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 15TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“We’ll be close enough to the front to at least be able to see when it goes green. It’s our best qualifying effort of the year. When you miss (getting in) by one-hundreth, it’s kind of tough to swallow. But ultimately we’re making our Bush’s Beans Chevy strong each weekend. To have our first top-10 finish last weekend. We’re steadily improving. We started out practice not so good but we got better as it went on. To be in the top-15 isn’t too bad.”
 

CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
FRIDAY PRACTICE RECAP
FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
 
ST. PETERSBURG (March 28, 2014) The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season is officially underway as the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers worked on qualifying and race setup for Sunday’s season-opening race – Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
 
Will Power, No.12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, led the way for Team Chevy with a fast lap of 1:02.6443 seconds, 103,441 m.p.h. A total of 10 Chevrolet IndyCar V6 dirvers were on-track in today’s two sessions on 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course along the St. Petersburg shoreline.
 
Although the weather threatened during the day, the top-10 on the end-of-day final order were a mere.5 seconds apart.
 
Practice for Team Chevy  in the Verizon IndyCar Series will resume at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday. Firestone Fast Six qualifying is scheduled to begin 2:00 p.m. ET.
.On Saturday, fans can see: Mike Conway at 12:15 PM; Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya at 12:30 PM; Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra at 12:45 PM and Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan at 5:30 PM.
ABC will have a live telecast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 30, with pre-race at 3 PM ET. The green flag will fly at 3:27 PM. The IMS Radio Network brings the action live to fans. Both the radio broadcast and live timing and scoring can be found on www.indycar.com.  Radio broadcast can also be heard on XM Radio 211/Sirius Radio 211.
 DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “It was a good day for the Verizon Team. We tried to find the right set up, going back and forth with different things, but, overall, I feel real positive about us going back at it again tomorrow.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  “Not a bad day today with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy. Obviously we wanted to be a little further up the speed charts, but we knew it was going to be a learning process. This is my first time on this circuit so we had to guess a little bit on the setups. Unfortunately we unloaded pretty far off. In the second sessions we picked up a big understeer. At that point we really quit focusing on speed and just tried to get the car driving better. I learned quickly that there are places on the track where the penalty of missing it is much greater than the gain, so from a track-learning perspective I’m much better off than I was when I got here.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “Overall, it was a good job by the Hitachi guys today and it was good to get back out there after a long offseason. We avoided any issues and Mother Nature was messing with us a little bit. We improved a lot over the course of the day and put things together for a good session in the afternoon. That was a much smoother practice and we will continue learning and improving in the Hitachi Chevy as we go along.”
MIKE CONWAY, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA CHEVROLET:  “We didn’t find as much as we wanted between sessions 1 and 2.  We are struggling a bit to get the Fuzzy’s Chevy where we would like it in terms of time.  We tried a lot of things today and we’ll study our data and see where we can improve for Saturday.  The track wasn’t as bad with the grip level.  I think we can get better for the qualifying runs.  We continue to learn with Ed’s team and find the proper settings that I like too.  It’s the season opener so you would like to come out of the gate well.  I know we are working hard to find the best setup.”
ED CARPENTER, OWNER OF ED CARPENTER RACING, FIRST TIME ON THE TIMING STAND AS A TEAM OWNER: “It was okay on the stand today.  It’s a little hard on days like today because we didn’t do the best on track.  It was a disappointing day for Mike and the Fuzzy’s team.  We thought we had some easy things to fix to make the car faster from the first outing this morning.  But, in the second session today, the car just didn’t improve enough as we wanted.  Now we have to work overnight and work on things to get the car better for Mike.  We need to do a better job to give Mike what he needs.  The red flags can hurt a driver’s rhythm during a session but it is the same for everyone.  We will have to work on it now.”
TONY KANAAN, NO.10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET: “We had a very productive day with the Target team although the times might not necessarily show it.  Today is the day to make changes and try a lot of different things, and that’s what we took advantage of doing. We ran into some traffic and lost some time like everyone else, but that’s pretty typical for a street course race. I’m optimistic about tomorrow and gaining more time.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET:  “I think we are in a better position this afternoon than we were this morning with the Target cars.  The times are all pretty tight throughout the field and I think a lot of the other teams took tires at the very end of that session, when we opted not to.  We’re making progress but we just need to keep working hard and be ready for qualifying tomorrow.”
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHEVROLET: “It’s great to be back here in St. Pete.  It was a pretty good first day back at the track.  We made some good setup changes but we still have some work to do for tomorrow.  I think we’re on the right track.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHEVROLET: “We had a really good first day. The No. 83 Novolog FlexPen car made a lot of progress and we got some great data from our teammates. I have full confidence that we’ll come back tomorrow strong.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET: “It was good to be back on track with all the other drivers for the first time in six months.  The Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing team had a productive morning practice. The afternoon session wasn’t as good because of the weather conditions. We weren’t as fast as we hoped, but I don’t think we are that far off. We will review the data and make some changes for tomorrow morning’s practice, then see what we can do in qualifying.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA: NO. 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET: “It was kind of a rough start for the KV AFS team today. Wasn’t quite how we wanted to start the weekend, but I think we have now found the right direction to go. We just need to focus on a few small things, which will make a big difference to the car. There is a lot of work to do tonight, but tomorrow is an important day and we need to keep that momentum.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 28, 2014
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Martinsville Speedway and discussed his winning record at Martinsville Speedway, tire testing at Sonoma this past weekend and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN YOUR AND JIMMIE JOHNSON’S SUCCESS HERE AT MARTINSVILLE?
“Great race cars, great race teams.  I think just the approach that we have had and that is built from having some success over the years.  Hendrick has always given us great cars even from when I started coming here.  I found something that worked for me and I have been able to go back to when I come here and not a lot has changed.  I have mentioned that a lot of times, but this weekend there is the most drastic change I have seen in a long time because of the new ride height rules.  But for the most part, I think not a lot has changed as far as how you approach the way the cars are set up and how you drive the track since I first started coming here.  It’s nice to have something that you have learned that has worked and can be a constant that you can come back with and make it work over and over again.   It’s probably similar for Jimmie since he has started having success here as well.”
 
DO THINGS CHANGE COMING BACK HERE NOW THAT YOU HAVE WON HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN EIGHT YEARS?  WHAT DOES THAT MEAN COMING BACK HERE AFTER A WIN?
“It gives us more confidence.  I have always had confidence here because we always run good and have been in position many times to win but we didn’t.  Whether the caution came out or other things that maybe happened.  So I have always had confidence coming here because of laps led and having cars capable of winning.  But when you actually finish first and you complete what you set out to do it gives you added confidence and momentum going back to that track.”
 
REGARDING YOUR FIRST CUP WIN 20 YEARS AGO AT CHARLOTTE, WHAT DO YOU RECALL?
“That was such a huge moment for me.  I look back at that and I was still just a young kid and it was amazing that I was just in the Cup garage, at Hendrick Motorsports and had the opportunity that I had. You really never know what you are capable of doing until you accomplish it.  So every step of the way that I would go up to the next level and when you win for the first time you are elated and overwhelmed sort of at the same time.  That is how I felt that day and it also gave me a lot of confidence that we could win more races, and then we went on to win the Brickyard. 

“To do it at Charlotte not because it was the longest race, but it’s a prestigious race and people look at it as one of the toughest races to win – especially being longer.  But also just that track in general because it’s not an easy track to drive and win at.  So I think maybe not in the same category as Darlington but close to it.  When you look at tough places to get a win I think a lot of people would think of the old Darlington as one of the toughest and I would say Charlotte is right up there with it as well.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MENTAL TOUGHNESS THAT IS REQUIRED TO WIN THE 600?
“All the sudden we have got to talk about the 600 and I thought we were at Martinsville (Laughs).  I think it takes mental toughness to win anywhere but when you do have a very long race like that its mental toughness throughout the whole team.  There are a lot of pit stops and a lot of calls coming from the pit box by the crew chief and engineers. Then as a driver you go through some ups and downs and it’s such a long race that you just have to stick with it and it’s tough.”
 
ARE ANY OF THE NEW CHANGES AFFECTING HOW YOU DRIVE?
“I think any time the teams find more speed in the car it changes slightly on finding that limit of the car.  Whether it’s rolling out of the brakes sooner or getting on the gas sooner or harder, or not slowing the car down as much getting in the corner.  Those type of things.  But usually the grip of the car tells you that and you are constantly seeking the limit of the car and finding that edge.  So yeah, there is more grip in the car because of the spoiler and of the ride heights.  Nothing has changed, the teams have made the cars faster and you are always having to push yourself and push the car.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NASCAR DECREASING HORSEPOWER NEXT YEAR?
“No, I am not in favor of it.  I think the reason they want to do that is to keep the cars bunched up more and it will do that.  I would like to see things that create more passing that go along with that.  I think more horsepower creates more passing, but it also can create more of a gap between teams, cars and drivers.  So whatever is going to help the sport grow and continue to be competitive and entertaining – I am going to support it.
 
“I am old school so when they start talking about things like that I am one of the last to adapt to it or accept it.  But what I do like is that they are planning for it with the teams, with the manufacturers, with the engine builders to do it the right way instead of just throwing a plate on it. That is not the way to go about it.  It’s going to take some real planning because we saw some tire issues last week and if you put less horsepower on us then the tire issues are only going to become greater.  We are actually going to be carrying more speed through the corner and not less.”
 
FOR DRIVERS WHO HAVE ALREADY WON THIS YEAR, DO YOU THINK THEY ARE BETTER CANDIDATES TO BE ROUGHED UP FOR A WIN AT THE END OF A RACE?
“Yeah, absolutely.  I think that there is such a huge advantage to them to be relaxed and go about business a different way than the rest of us who haven’t won yet.  I think you always have to look at both sides of it.  They are looking at it as ‘okay, we can be more aggressive with set ups and what we can do to prep for the next race or winning the championship’, but you also have to remember there are a lot of other guys are out there that haven’t won yet and are really hungry to get that win because we see how important it is.
 
To me it’s not just important to lock yourself in the Chase, we are all here to try and win the championship. And it is a huge step forward to winning the championship because of the mindset that you go into and how you approach each race after you have gotten a win.
 
JIMMIE SAID YOU HAVE TO BE ULTRA AGGRESSIVE HERE AT MARTINSVILLE TO GET TO VICTORY LANE, WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH?
“That must be why he has been winning a lot lately and I haven’t because that is not the way I win at Martinsville.  You have to be aggressive on restarts and that is just in general to where we go these days.  There are some tracks that I feel I have done a good job with that and others that I haven’t.  For me, this track is about finesse.  This track is about patience.  If it comes down to a late caution then I think yes, it comes down to aggressiveness but also what line you are in.  You want to be in that inside line and if you are in that outside lane then you can be as aggressive as you want but it’s not going to do a whole lot for you to get down and into that inside lane.  So yes, I have a different approach to that.”
 
HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR ARE BRAKES STILL HERE AT MARTINSVILLE?
“That is probably one of the things that has changed a lot.  I think if anything the brakes have gotten so good you have to be more careful of melting the bead on the right-front tire than you have to worry about brakes.  The brakes, the cooling has gotten so much better, the efficiency of the brakes has gotten so much better that I haven’t had to worry about brakes in a long time here.&nb
sp; I’ve had to worry about over heating other things, but not the brakes.”
 
FROM WHAT WE HAVE SEEN SO FAR WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE AT TEXAS?  DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE ANY ISSUES WITH THE TIRES THERE?
“I think we will see issues there.  We saw issues there last year.  I think as a team we are already looking at things that we were doing last year that we can look at trying to improve as far as abusiveness on the tires for Texas.  My question is did Goodyear test there?  Because from what I understand they didn’t test in California and I think that that was obviously a mistake.  Because I think so of those things may have shown up in that test.  Did they test in Texas and if they didn’t then I hope they have a back-up plan because I do think that we are going to have some issues there.”
 
YOU TESTED TIRES AT SONOMA THIS PAST WEEK DID YOU HAVE ANY DISCUSSIONS WITH GOODYEAR ABOUT FONTANA?
“I did not.  No, I’m too mad at them to have a discussion with them about that right now.  I went and did everything I could to put the best test together that I could there to learn what we could to go to Sonoma and win.  Tires aren’t an issue there when it comes to that type of situation we had at Fontana.  I did not discuss it with them.”
 
SO THEY NEED TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING THAT ISN’T NECESSARILY HARDER BUT SOMETHING WHERE THERE ARE NO BLOW OUTS?
“Don’t get me wrong we all play a role in it.  You can easily sit here and say ‘oh well the teams were not conservative enough, there were teams that weren’t having issues.’  Well I mean we saw issues on Saturday and we detuned our car from a tire abusive standpoint.  We still had a great race car but we were having problems throughout the whole day.  We were one of the fortunate ones that never had one that came apart.  Every pit stop there were plenty of signs that it could happen to us just like it happened to anybody else.  I think when you have that many cars that are that close to being on the edge or going over the edge then the tire is too aggressive or something else needs to be looked at.  The teams have all gotten, with the ride heights and everything they are doing, they have got more aggressive no doubt about it.  But that is what it’s going to take to win races and if no tire test happens at that track then I think that I would question why not.”
 
WHY NOT JUST MANAGE YOUR TIRES BETTER?  BUT IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY ARE BLOWING OUT RIGHT?  IT’S NOT A MATTER OF TIRE WEAR?
“Yeah, tire wear I have no problem with tire wear.  I know how to manage tire wear.  But when it’s the sidewall and you don’t know is it the bumps on the back straightaway, is it the apron in turn three and four, is it speed, is it air pressure, camber?  I mean I heard where people were low on pressure came up on pressure and that didn’t seem to fix it.  When those things are happening it definitely makes you nervous because you don’t want to be that close to the edge.  I think we all were very close to the edge.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE AT TEXAS?
“I hope you like the racing in California.  I thought the racing was really amazing.  I didn’t like that we had to have a caution every 21-25 laps.  To me Texas is always harder on tires than California.  So that is what makes me a little bit concerned.  I have loved going to Texas the last few times because I’ve had good race cars and I love how the groove widens out and you can run all over the race track.  But I want to make sure we can go through a full fuel run too.”
 
SO WAS THE FACT THAT YOU WERE SET-UP FOR A LONG RUN IN CALIFORNIA WAS THAT BY DESIGN OR WAS THAT JUST THE HAND YOU WERE DEALT?  HOW WOULD THAT IMPACT TEXAS STRATEGY?
“It is sort of my M.O. it’s part of the way I like to drive the cars and something that is sort of worked for me throughout my career.  I like a car that runs good on the long runs.  I feel like taking care of tires and managing that has been one of my specialties over the years. Part of it is because that is my approach.  Sometimes that hurts me on the short run sometimes that hurts me on the restarts with two to go or five to go.  I mean last week that is just to me the way the car was.  It took a couple of laps for it to come in, but boy when it came in it was unreal.  There at the end I knew that Jimmie (Johnson) had more issues than I had and I tried to push him hard.  Because one I wanted to keep pressure on him and not make it easy for him and I wanted to pass him.  As it turned out as soon as I got to him and pushed real hard I started having the vibration which I thought was a tire issue.  As it turned out the tire was going to make it.  I’m not sure where the vibration came from we never found it.  At that point I backed off and then Jimmie had the problem.”
 
WITH THE PROSPECT OF EVEN MORE TIRE WEAR AT TEXAS COULD YOU BE PERSUADED TO CHANGE TO A SHORTER RUN STRATEGY?
“You never want to be the first one to have tire issues.  So if anything I would probably go with the opposite.  I would go with making sure that you never bring out the caution because of a tire failure.  The other thing is being out front, actually being in cleaner air helps.  To me I wouldn’t do anything any different.  I felt like we were in perfect position to win that race.  Had we been in the outside lane on that last restart it would have been a whole different deal.  We wouldn’t be talking about how terrible of a restarter I am and finishing 13th at California.”
 
THAT LONG RUN STRATEGY DOES THAT IMPACT YOUR RESTARTS AT ALL?
“It does.  I don’t know how everybody else approaches it.  I only know how we approach it.  Sometimes your car just has short run speed not by design it just does.  I would say more times than any our car has long run speed and it’s because of what I’m looking for in the car.  Rarely do I go into a race practice going ‘I want to see my name at the top of the board to put that one fast lap up and be great for five laps and then it fall off.’  I’m always like ‘I don’t care about the board I care about a 10 laps average, a 20 lap average, a 30 lap average and being good in the middle to the end of a run.’  That is just how we approach it.  You could say ‘oh well, but more races come down to short runs now.’  They do, but sometimes they don’t and so I mean that is just the way we race and the way we build it in there.  Then you try to change air pressure and do some things to maybe make it better on the short run so you can have the best of both worlds.
 
“Honestly, last week was not because our car wasn’t good enough on the short run at the end, my car was plenty on the short runs.  It’s because we started on the inside lane and Kyle Busch about knocked me into the grass as I got underneath him going into (Turn) one.  Then they go three wide on the outside of me and we were done.  That is all it takes is that quick of a thing to happen and all of a sudden your race is kind of gone.”
 
WHEN NASCAR CHANGED THE QUALIFYING PROCEDURE THIS YEAR IN YOUR OPINION SHOULD THEY HAVE DONE THE SAME THING FOR THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE?  OR SHOULD THEY HAVE LEFT THAT THE WAY IT WAS BECAUSE IT WAS ALREADY KIND OF DIFFERENT?
“It’s unique and cool and different and fun.  I’m not saying they can’t maybe blend what we are doing now and enhance the all-star qualifying and mix it together, but I love making the pit stop.  Incorporating the whole team into it is pretty cool.”
 
 

DARIO FRANCHITTI, TEAM AND DRIVER ADVISOR FOR  CHIP GANASSI RACING INDYCAR PROGRAM and four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, met with members of the media and discussed his role at Chip Ganassi Racing, driving the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 to pace the 2014 Indianapolis 500, the Chip Ganassi Racing 2014 driver lineup and other topics.  Full transcript:
 
An Interview With:
 
DARIO FRANCHITTI
 
 
THE MODERATOR:  A little different role with Chip Ganassi Racing than last year, kind of stepping in as a driver coach for this year.  Dario, first of all, how are you?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Yeah, feeling fine, thank you.  It’s not really a driver coach.  It’s more of sort of an advisory thing.  When you have drivers like Tony and Scott and Ryan and Charlie, you’re not really coaching as much as occasionally having a discussion about something.  I think we can come up with some ideas.  So it’s more in that kind of role, working with them, working with the engineers a bit.
            Right now we are just getting ‑‑ it’s a new role so we are just getting used to it and we are just all coming up with ideas to maximize it, too.
            So apart from that, no, doing well.  Good to be back at the track.  Get the season started.  A little different not to be out there practicing this morning.  Felt a little strange when everyone was peeling out there for their installation laps, but physically quite good and mentally not too bad, either.  Getting used to the after effects of the concussion and they are getting less all the time, so good.
 
            Q.  And you just mentioned that role specifically, but day‑to‑day, here today at St. Pete, what are your day‑to‑day responsibilities with the team in this new role?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Responsibilities, that’s a big word.  They vary.  Really depends on what the team, what the drivers need.  It can be going to a particular corner and watching or it could be going over data and it could be just discussing tricks in different corners or might bring some direction like we had before.  Just really depends if the Target guys are here, if the Target guests are here, then working with those guys, as well.
 
            Q.  And you are joining us after a pretty exciting announcement last week in New York that you will be driving the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 pace car at the Indy 500 this year.  What is that experience like for you?  It’s quite an honor.
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m delighted to do it and I have said thank you to the guys at Chevrolet and Mark Reuss, Jim Campbell and everybody that made that happen, because I’ve been a Honda driver for most of my IndyCar career.
            So for them to kind of give me the honor of letting me drive the pace car is really cool.  I got to do some practice the other day at the Speedway, a couple laps, and it was good fun.  It’s a very quick car and a lot of fun to drive.  It’s going to be different to be on the grid at the Indianapolis 500, and just savoring all the atmosphere and the crowd and all that stuff because my job before has been to block all that out and just focus.  So that’s going to be an interesting experience.
            And one I’m looking forward to, heading back home in Indiana, bittersweet; obviously it’s the last time Jim ‑‑ that he’s going to sing that.  Hopefully they can record it or something and just play it because I don’t think anybody does it like Jim does.
            So, no, it’s going to be interesting watching all the other drivers getting nervous before the start and stuff and I’ll be nice and chilled out.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m not sure what the Marino sports car program is going to look like after Sebring.  I think they are still ‑‑ Chip and the team and Lou and his people are all trying to work that out right now.
            So, I hope so.  I hope so.  I didn’t actually get to Sebring.  I wasn’t at the race, but it was wonderful to watch at those last laps, I was so proud of the job he did there and he just took off and did exactly what he had to to win that race.  It was a stunning display.  Even Chip was impressed, so I was very proud of him.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Toronto.  I’m commuting there from Scotland.  Moving back home to Scotland, so I’m going to be in Toronto for the races there, the IndyCar races.  Other than that, I don’t know.  I’d like to.  I’d like to see more.
 
            Q.  Following up on that, you moved back to Scotland?  That’s going to be more permanent?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Yeah, uh‑huh.  That’s the plan.
 
            Q.  Following up on what you said, I don’t mean to get personal about it, but it did interest me, you said getting used to the after effects of having a condition cushion, can you give a sense of what that is like?  What does that look like, because we all have taken some lumps.  What does it feel like?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  It’s not the first time it’s happened.  In 2000 I had a very sizable concussion, too, and other ones in between.
            But memory is not that good, that kind of stuff.  Just not quite as sharp.  Some of the guys on the team will tell you I was never that sharp to start with but less sharp or more blunt.  Just a couple little things like that.
            Those are the main sort of things, and just trying to have that balance of ‑‑ because if I push myself to the level I did before and flying around and all that kind of stuff, it’s a little much right now.  So just kind of look for that balance.
 
            Q.  As far as ‑‑ of course you’re going to be a star at Indy now out there in the Camaro, but as far as stars go, there are a lot of champions and all different ‑‑ you get to meet a lot of these people and you have a little star power yourself, for sure.  What does it take to get to the top?  Why are there so many unemployed people that never make it to the very top?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Of racing?
 
            Q.  Of racing, at anything.
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I think there’s about a million different things have to go right in order to be successful, and one of those is luck, being in the right places at
the right time and surrounding yourself with the right people.  It’s not something that’s about one person.
            No driver out there today in the IndyCar Series has got there because they did it all on their own.  It’s about a team of people, and even a success or failure this weekend in the race here at St. Pete, will be because of a team effort, including the driver.
            There’s always ‑‑ yeah, there is that team aspect, we talk about all the time, and it is huge.  And you’ve got to surround yourself with different people along the way, and some of that luck is meeting the right people at the right time.  I was lucky enough to meet Jackie Stewart who wanted to help me.  It’s stuff like that.  When you think about it, and you think of all the things that have to go right to get into the position of even competing in an IndyCar race, never mind winning one; it could have gone wrong very easily at any step along the way.
 
            Q.  How is your relationship with Scott Dixon going to be different with your new role, or is it going to be different at all?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Not really different at all, I would say.  Wow, like if I was sitting here as a driver, I would be thinking of every way how to beat him.
            You know, we had ‑‑ as drivers, we had a very open relationship of sharing information and helping each other to the point we would talk about different corners; and hey, what are you doing there, what are you doing there, and actually offer each other information.
            But now, one of my jobs is to absolutely make sure that ‑‑ do everything in my power to make sure him and Tony, Charlie and Ryan have got everything they need to be successful.  So there’s no ‑‑ I’ve gone from kind of being in some ways, as well as a teammate, obviously a competitor, to being part of that team to make sure that they are successful.
 
            Q.  You’ve obviously worked with him a long time.  What makes him as successful as he’s been?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Skill, determination are the two big things that come to mind when I think of him.  He’s tremendously talented, but the determination that he has is something special, and particularly, as he’s been successful, he hasn’t slowed ‑‑ that determination has not gone away, basically.  He’s kept that and that’s I think one of his strongest assets.  He knows how hungry he was when he was a young kid coming over from New Zealand, trying to make it all happen.  Now he’s got all the trappings of success but it doesn’t change his outlook.  Kind of unusual like that.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m not looking too far ahead.  The job ‑‑ trying to explain the job, but the relationship with the Ganassi organization, with the Target guys, took care of that sort of first thing, because that was the first thing that I really wanted to do.
            So the fact that we quickly, Chip and I were like, hey you want to do this, and I’m like, absolutely and so that gave me that sort of focus but not the same level of intensity as when I was a driver.  So I’ve got the chance to do other things, go to other races.  You know, go and do road trips, take a bit of time off, all that sort of stuff.  I haven’t thought more than, I’d say I haven’t really thought too far ahead right now.  But my goals are, as I said, to help these guys in any way I can to win races and win championships.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Double‑edged sword really.  Sometimes I miss it and some days I don’t miss it at all.  Most ‑‑ I used to put a lot of pressure on myself, and my sort of intensity level was fairly high.
            I thought about this all the time; this is all I did, and so I enjoyed the fact I can just chill out a little bit, but I do miss that little hit of adrenaline sometimes that you get from the pressure and being up against it, being up against that pressure.  But it has its good sides, too.
 
            Q.  Either here or at Daytona, did you, when you got to the track, did you have any sense of sadness that you weren’t driving?  Did that hit you at all?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Yeah, Daytona did, actually.  The night before the race, we went out to dinner, and actually the night before practice, we all went out to dinner with Chip and all the boys and we were driving back with Scott, and I think it was with Scott, Tony and Marino, and I started thinking about the next day, and I’ve got to get ready and it suddenly hit me, no, I don’t.  I don’t have to worry about that.
            And I was ‑‑ that was a little sad.  And then the start of the race was a bit difficult.  The good thing about that, Allan McNish was in Daytona too, and obviously he’s just retired, too, so him and I compared notes on what we were going through.
            And sometimes I find myself sort of slipping into the driver mind‑set of getting ready, and quickly it comes back that, no, I’m not doing that anymore.
 
            Q.  What sort of pressures does TK have in replacing you, the champion, and in many respect, the face of the series?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Well, TK is the current Indianapolis 500 winner.  So, you know, he’s a big star.  He’s a big guy.  The pressure, if he wanted to mess himself up, he could sort of think about the pressure of the success of the Target team, the success of the 10 car.
            But I think that’s not a good way to think about things.  TK will write his own story.  Anyway, as I was saying to Kanaan ‑‑ yeah.  No, he’ll write his own story.  Just as well ‑‑ my peripheral vision isn’t what it once was.  Mind you, there’s a few out there with the same problem (Laughter).
 
            Q.  I understand that it’s been decided that they are not going to do double‑file on the restarts, and I wonder, since you’ve done single‑file and double‑file, how do you feel about that?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m for the single‑file restarts.  The double‑file, I think it looks kind of spectacular as it came up to the start, but then what then happened was if you got a run on somebody, the track was blocked, anyway, because it was ‑‑ naturally two‑wide became sort of three‑ and four‑wide; where, if you start on single file, you make a run on somebody and you have a chance of making a pass.
            I just didn’t think it suited IndyCar Racing, open‑wheel rac
ing, when cars are bouncing off each other so much, and that did happen a lot.  So I’m all for the single‑file restarts on road and street courses and Indianapolis, too.  It was a good decision.
 
            Q.  Hope this didn’t get asked, but now that you don’t have to train every day, is that something that you miss or don’t miss?  I’m sure you still work out but it’s a little different?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m glad Kanaan left because he’d start laughing at that point.  Do I miss it?  I’m training, not to the same intensity level, but every day I’m doing something.
            I used to run because I had to, and I miss running because I can’t, but I can cycle.  I can do a lot of cycling.  The guys at Trek are fitting me for a new bike this week which will be a challenge with all my various ailments, so going to do that.  I miss it, and I never thought I would, the training part of it, the intensity of it.  But every day I’m doing something to stop me getting fat.
          
 
            Q.  You mentioned Allan retiring about the same time as you; are there any open-wheel, young Scottish racers in the pipeline?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  A few coming up.  In sports cars you had Allen leading the charge, and Marino has been very successful; and you mentioned Sebring, that was a great thing, Ryan Dalziel finishing second, that was a cool day for Scottish racing.
            But there’s a bunch of young Scottish drivers coming up and hopefully they can get the support that will bring them to this kind of level but that’s the tough part.
 
            Q.  Curious if you talked to Rick Mears, if you think your role at Ganassi is going to be similar at all to what Rick does at Penske, or if you had any words with him?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Rick and I, I saw him at Barber, and saw him at Sebring test.  We frequented some of the same corners.
            We haven’t really talked about that because obviously there was a big rivalry there, or according to some people not, but I guess there is, and so I don’t quite know what Rick’s role is there.
            I tell you this, though, every time I talk to Rick, I learn something.  And I wish that I had him in my corner for like my recent career, because there’s a few races that I may be threw away that I wouldn’t have had Rick been there.
             So if I can help the Ganassi guys and the Target guys half as much as Rick’s helped the guys at Penske, I’ll be pretty happy.
 
            Q.  What is your role?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  You weren’t here for the start?
 
            Q.  I wasn’t, sorry.
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  We’re still figuring that out.  It’s working with the drivers, working with the engineers, the team in general, to get the most out of what we’ve got to try and help in any way I can to be successful to win races.
            It’s not a team that you need to go in there and reinvent the wheel, because they have won, what have they won, five out of the last six championships between Scott and I.  It’s a really good team, a well‑oiled machine that just occasionally, might be something to say that I can offer some advice on, maybe something that I learned about a track or something.
            We are still learning what it’s going to be, and as I say, myself and the team, and Chip, obviously he’s got some ideas about that, too.
 
            Q.  And since you brought it up, what are your thoughts on Rick’s assessment Ganassi and Penske rivalry?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I think it’s been a great rivalry.  I think it’s been going on for 25 years now.  I think Roger Penske is a class, class operator.  He’s first class.  I thought Tim’s comments weren’t in any way.  I thought they were ‑‑ yeah, I think they kind of summed him up a little bit.  If I had the resources that he’s had in his hands, I would be a little upset with the success ratio they have had recently.  I’m very proud of the record that the Ganassi organization and the Target organization has had.
 
            Q.  I remember, recall, that you used to walk the track before the race.  Are you going to miss that or are you going to do that anyway?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I walked it on Thursday ‑‑ Wednesday ‑‑ no, Wednesday I walked it with Scott, Justin Wilson and Simon Pagenaud doing some safety stuff with Colin and Brian Barnhart.  Walked the track with him and had a look at some of the new bumps and all of the rest of the stuff, and Scott was with me so he could kind of sneak off.  And then Tony and I and Ryan and Charlie did the track walk yesterday afternoon.
            So I don’t think ‑‑ I don’t think I’ll be out there tonight doing what I used to do, you know, do my nightly track walk.  I don’t feel I need to do that.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 28, 2014
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Martinsville Speedway and discussed his opportunity to get a win this weekend, his past Martinsville memories and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY WHERE YOU HAVE HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS OVER THE YEARS:
“Always exciting to come back to Martinsville and with this being the site of Rick Hendrick’s first win, 30 years of Hendrick Motorsports and obviously 2004 with the plane crash there is a lot of motivation when we come to this race track.  It’s great to be back and it’s nice to know that this track is strong for the Hendrick cars and very strong for myself.  We would love to check the win column box.  We are certainly close and we were knocking on the door last weekend and I think we have had a couple other looks at wins.  I think we are really understanding this 2014 package and getting some speed out of our cars and we should be contending and racing for wins I believe.”
 
FIVE DIFFERENT WINNERS IN FIVE RACES.  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SPREAD THIS YEAR AND ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU HAVEN’T WON THIS YEAR CONSIDERING THE SUCCESS YOU HAVE HAD EARLY ON?
“Last week was a real bummer to not pull into victory lane with how strong of a car we had.  We have had some other good top-three runs with a chance to win and didn’t capitalize on that.  But it’s not uncommon for us to get a little deeper in the season before we start winning.  Statistically I think the end of the year is where we heat up the most.  So you know what?  We have a good track here and Dover is coming up soon and there are a lot of big opportunities coming along and with the new rules package that we have – I think that has allowed for the five different winners at five different tracks.  It’s just a challenge right now to figure out what you need and what you want and it’s nice to see so much parity with different teams and drivers winning.  I guess it would be nice if the Hendrick guys were walking away with it and we had won all the races, but there is a lot of parity out there.”
 
AS A FRIEND OF BRIAN VICKERS, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HIS RESILIENCY IN BOUNCING BACK TO WHERE HE IS NOW?
“Yeah, he has definitely dealt with a lot of issues and certainly at a young age.  The emotional and personal side with Ricky (Hendrick), and professionally with the challenges of his health, and even the loss of sponsorship and looking for a ride when Red Bull pulled out….those are tough things to handle.  He is a young guy and he handled it all well. I am glad that he is healthy and is in a great car and he has been running great.”
 
I KNOW YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN WIN AT ANY TIME AT ANY TRACK YOU GO TO, BUT IS THAT FEELING ANY DIFFERENT FOR YOU WHEN YOU COME SOMEWHERE LIKE MARTINSVILLE WHERE YOU HAVE HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS?  AND IS IT ANY MORE DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN YOU DON’T WIN WHEN YOU COME SOMEWHERE LIKE THIS?
“It kind of depends on the circumstances.  With this being our first trip to Martinsville with the new 2014 package, I am very confident because I know the track and Chad knows the track and we will figure it out.  But I don’t know how we are going to unload.
 
“Last year we had a refined package, we knew where we would be and we could play the game the way we needed to, and we had a good feel for things.  So there is a bit of uncertainty and some questions that we need to answer today on the track. But no doubt as far as a mental aspect of walking into a track from a team standpoint and a driver standpoint, when you walk into a track where you have had success, it does put a spring in your step.”
 
WITH ALL THE EMOTIONS FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS WHAT IS IT LIKE WINNING HERE FOR A HENDRICK DRIVER AS COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS?
“It’s a very deep emotion and something you take deep pride in representing the company.   To see Rick and his face and the expression that he has and you can sense in his voice and in his eyes – you can see how much it means to him to win here.  It is a cool, amazing experience to go through.  Rick is a very competitive guy and he likes to win races.  But with all the emotion that you have here I think we are in a good place here.  Absolutely we are sad that the aircraft went down and we lost everybody that was on the airplane, but I am finding today that there are a lot more happy stories as we are reflecting back.  Especially of thinking about little Ricky and the crazy stuff he would do and the stunts he would pull on his dad. There’s a lot of laughter, and I would assume if one of the Hendrick drivers get to victory lane, it would be a very joyful celebration and emotion. Rick and Linda would probably shed some tears later in private, but from a team standpoint, and everybody at HMS, it would be a very uplifting experience.”
 
WHAT IS THE VIBE OF THIS PLACE FOR YOU? AS YOU’VE SAID BEFORE, THIS HAS BEEN THE SCENE FOR SOME INCREDIBLY GREAT THINGS FOR YOU PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY, BUT ALSO SOME VERY SAD THINGS. WHAT IS THE FEELING WHEN YOU COME HERE? WHAT ARE THE THOUGHTS THAT POP IN YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU SEE CERTAIN THINGS OR HAVE CERTAIN MEMORIES?
“It just depends on what activates my mind. Like today, I flew up. It’s overcast. It’s cloudy. The whole week leading into Martinsville, I’ve been excited about coming here to race and feel like we have a great chance to win. I wake up this morning and it’s overcast, and I can’t help but think of the airplane incident. It just kind of depends on what triggers the thought process. Generally speaking, race time here, there’s a lot of very good positive vibes flowing around. I’ve had great fortune to honor and remember our friends in victory lane. Certainly, the day that it happened, I look back on that day a lot and think about how things went down. NASCAR called all four cars to pit lane. We get to pit lane, and there are police officers standing around our cars, and I’m like ‘What in the world has happened?’ Normally there are NASCAR Officials not police officers.  I walk through that from time to time. I hope to never ever go through anything like that again.”
 
IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S A LONG WAY AWAY, BUT TALLADEGA ISN’T THAT FAR FROM NOW. IT WILL BE THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU GUYS QUALIFY WITH THE NEW SYSTEM. HAVE YOU EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT THAT WILL BE LIKE, WHO YOU ARE GOING TO DRAFT WITH OR IS IT YOU GET TO THAT WEEK WHEN YOU GET TO IT?
“A lot of guys paid attention in Daytona to what the Nationwide cars did, and there is a way to run a fast lap, but it’s out of your hands. It just depends on who’s trying to team up, who’s trying to work together, how far somebody is laying back. You know you are getting up to speed and the group behind you, you are pulling them along at a faster rate, do you abort on your lap and trying to catch somebody else and tag on to the back of their draft? So, it is going to be extremely – you can’t predict it. It’s just going to be out of control, in a good way. There could be some wrecks event because there’s going to be a lot of cars coming and going and blending and things like that. It will be a very interesting, I don’t know, 40 minutes of television, whatever it ends up being.”
 
YOU’RE AS GOOD AT TALKING ABOUT TRACKS BEFORE YOU GOT THEM AND LEARNING TO GET THEM. IT’S INTERESTING, YOU TAKE A DALE EARNHARDT JR. WHO’S GOT ONE OF THE BEST DRIVER RATINGS HERE BUT HASN’T ONE OR KASEY KAHNE TALKING ABOUT IT. SEEMS TO THE AVERAGE PERSON IT SEEMS TO BE A MENTAL THING AS WELL AS GETTING THE TRACK BUT NOT SURE. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THIS TRACK? ONE OTHER THING, EARNHARDT JR. SAID THERE’S MORE FREEDOM NOW WITH THE NEW POINTS STRUCTURE TO NOT BE SO WORRIED THAT SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN HERE. MAYBE THAT W
ILL HELP HIM WIN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME. I DON’T KNOW. BUT WILL YOU TALK ABOUT WINNING HERE AND LEARNING IT? WHAT COMES TO MIND?
“I don’t know exactly. First off that came to mind, when you go to a racetrack and your concerned about how you’re going to run there and you start protecting a nice top-five run or a top-two, top-three, whatever it might be. Maybe you don’t race as open as you should and take the chances that you should to win and be as aggressive as you need to. I was fortunate to get a win fairly early in my Cup career here and I’ve been able to race here with an open mind and not worry about protecting. As I’m on the track, I see a lot of different drivers, they get to the top-five, it’s a tough track to get around and they’re very defensive and worried about every little inch on the track and protecting and blocking and I’ve been able to get so much experience here and understand how to pass and how to set our car up that I’m just thinking offense the whole time. Maybe there is a small mindset there that is the difference.”
 
SPEAKING OF LEARNING THE TRACK, I KNOW YOU HAVE CREDITED JEFF GORDON WITH HELPING YOUR PROGRESSION IN LEARNING THIS TRACK. WHEN YOU COME TO MARTINSVILLE, IT’S HARD NOT TO MENTION YOU AND JEFF. WHAT SPECIFICALLY DID HE DO TO HELP YOUR PROGRESSION AND YOUR SUCCESS HERE?
“With Jeff, we were very fortunate at that point in time to test. We had a lot of test sessions we could use up. I think I had 12 as a rookie my rookie season. With data traces and even just general testing rules and procedures, it was very easy to get Jeff here and work with him and understand what to do. We took every step we could to get me prepared and get me right, and I still was kind of in the way. And truthfully, I think our second trip here, so the fall of my rookie year; I got lapped by Tony (Stewart). So then all of the verbal stuff that Jeff said and all of the mechanical stuff, we basically just put his set up under my car and go figure it out type of thing, it all came together when I followed Tony and could pick up the rhythm. This is a track where a half-tenth per end of the race track is huge. And it’s so hard to even quantify that or see that. It took me following Tony and getting into that rhythm where I picked it up. I was fortunate enough to get my lap back and then I think we ran a top-15 or top-10, and from that point on I’m like ‘OK. I see it. I get it.’ Or maybe more so I feel it and understand that rhythm.”
 
HERE AT MARTINSVILLE WE ALWAYS SEE A LOT OF FRONT SHOCK TRAVEL ON THE CARS. WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW FRONT END RULES, THE HEIGHT RULES, THAT NASCAR HAS BROUGHT OUT FOR 2014, ARE WE GOING TO SEE A LOT LESS TRAVEL AND IS IT GOING TO BE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN FEEL FOR THE DRIVER.
“Definitely. The straightway height versus the corner height will change. That gap will close up quite a bit. Some guys still may elect to let the nose pop up some and transfer weight to the rear tires for forward drive. In general, you will see the cars on the deck and sealed up straightaway and corner. It’s ultimately the goal. Every now and then, especially on a small track like this, you’ll allow the front to transfer a little weight to the back for grip but we’re just going to have to see how the day goes on. This is one of the tracks where you’ll notice a big difference in the car’s ride height.”
 
YOU MENTIONED IT WASN’T UNCOMMON FOR YOU TO START WINNING LATER IN THE YEAR. DO YOU KNOW WHY THAT IS? CONSIDERING MARTINSVILLE AND TEXAS ARE BACK-TO-BACK, ISN’T THAT A GOOD SPRINGBOARD TIME FOR YOU TO START THAT WINNING?
“It’s a great lineup of tracks. Truthfully, every team has good tracks and bad tracks. I think on the calendar our good tracks are placed kind of spring and fall – the Dover’s, Martinsville, Texas, those types of tracks, and we’re getting into them. Hopefully, we can get something here early to check that box and progress through the regular season and make sure our car’s right because there’s a lot of change going on and a lot of speed to still find in our race cars and then buckle down in the Chase. We’ve always operated well in the Chase, and again, a lot of it is because those tracks are really our strong tracks.”
 
YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF CHALLENGES WITH JEFF GORDON THROUGH THE YEARS HERE AT THIS TRACK. HOW DOES THAT CHALLENGE OF RACING HIM FOR A WIN – HOW DOES THAT CHALLENGE YOU? AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM RACING SOMEBODY ELSE OR ANOTHER TEAMMATE?
“When I first got started here, the short run really hurt me especially late in the race, and that was a strength that Jeff had. So, from a car setup standpoint and even driver technique, I kind of focused on that area so that I could kind of cover that base. And now, Jeff certainly still has his short run speed, but he’s figured something out on the long run and runs a much different line. The last couple of times we’ve been here on the long haul, his car has been better than just about anybody. I’ve been the leader and watch him come and run me down so it’s kind of ever-changing. I don’t know if Jeff has consciously worked on changing from short run to long run or if it’s just circumstantial with car and tire and track. Whatever it is. Fortunately, I can identify with it and try to make a change and try to protect myself. I think from a trend standpoint, we usually end up with a lot of short runs at the end of a race here and that’s probably been better suited for us to be focused there.”
 
OF THE LAST 19 RACES, ONLY SIX GUYS HAVE ONE – MAIN TEAMS BEING THE 48, 24, 11. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT IT IS ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT IT SEEMS TO BE SUCH AN EXCLUSIVE GROUP? DO YOU SEE ANYBODY CREEPING INTO THAT ECHELON? COULD WE SEE SOMEBODY NEW BESIDES YOU OR DENNY (HAMLIN) OR JEFF (GORDON) OR MAYBE TONY (STEWART) OR KEVIN HARVICK? IT SEEMS LIKE THOSE ARE THE NAMES THAT EVERYONE EXPECTS WHEN THEY COME HERE.
“It seems like, I don’t know why, when somebody sorts this place out, they’ve got it and you can hang on to it for a while. The 20 (Matt Kenseth) I think surprised us all last fall so I would definitely put him in that expect to win category. The 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) has always been strong here. I’m surprised he hasn’t had a shot at victory lane. The 5 (Kasey Kahne) has shown a lot of speed here.  So, I think there might be those – the 11, the 48, the 24, at first thought but not far behind there is a whole lineup of cars including the 4 (Kevin Harvick). He’s always been strong here, too. I can’t answer why only six guys in 19 races have been able to win here. It’s kind of interesting.”
 
CAN A DRIVER’S SKILLS – YOUR SKILLS IN PARTICULAR – AT A TRACK LIKE THIS NEGATE ANY OF THE CHANGES THAT HAVE COME WITH THE NEW SETUP. DOES THE NEW SETUP MATTER AS MUCH HERE AS IT DOES AT AN INTERMEDIATE TRACK WITH THE AERO AND EVERYTHING?
“I think so. The biggest factor you have here working for you is your center of gravity height. To be able to start the car inches lower will just help put grip and speed in the car. And of course, some small aero implications will come. I think braking will improve because you don’t have the cars that rely on the straights slamming down on the nose and then you’re able to get the whole car lower not only from the front ride height changes but also the open book we have with our rear heights now, you can get the car awfully low, and pick up a lot of speed.”
 
INAUDIBLE FOLLOW UP:
“At the end of the day, it’s still a race car and the teams and drivers – NASCAR works hard to make sure that the people make the difference and the teams and the drivers really instigate that and drive that. A good driver won’t be able to take a 20th-place car and win with it, but he’ll finish better than 20th. The most important thing you can expect out of a good driver is to lead the team in the right way and make the right changes to the car and get it in the ballpark.”