NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CHEEZ-IT 355 AT THE GLEN
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 9, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Watkins Glen International, and discussed racing at Watkins Glen, Tony Stewart’s injuries, Regan Smith and other topics. Full transcript:
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING INTO THE RACE AT WATKINS GLEN AS YOU PREPARE FOR THE CHASE?
“I don’t know, I’ve run pretty good here a couple times, but my expectations coming to these road courses is always pretty low.  That way I go away feeling pretty good about whatever result we get.  It’s a fun track and probably of the two road courses, the one I enjoy the most and I do appreciate the history of the race track itself.  Pretty aware of how this place came about and all the Formula 1 races and other events that have been held here way before we started coming here.  It’s a great area and a pretty fun race track.  It’s really one that we seem to kind of hit and miss on.  Sometimes we actually come here and we’re relatively quick and sometimes we come here and nothing seems to be working.  We’ll just have to see what kind of car we’ve got and work real hard and try not to ruin it.  Last year we were looking like we were going to get a top-10 and I spun out over there on the back side of the track so we’ll just try to do a better job of not making as many mistakes.”
 
WOULD YOU BE OPEN TO REGAN SMITH DRIVING THE NO. 14 CUP CAR FOR TONY STEWART IF THE OPPORTUNITY WAS PRESENTED?
“I’d be the first to put Regan’s (Smith) name in the hat for that kind of opportunity.  I understand that we are racing for a championship and I think that could actually help Regan understand.  It would be a challenge, but I think it could help him in some ways and be an advantage to him maybe to have that extra track time and just be able to have some other ideas in his head about what can improve his car.  I would be for that and it would also give him an opportunity to showcase himself and give himself possibly a chance to get some interest on the Cup side as far as ownership goes and get some guys maybe wanting to put him back in the car full time on this side of the deal.  That would be good for him.”
 
WOULD YOU NOT WANT A ROAD COURSE IN THE CHASE?
“Yeah, no I’m not a big fan of them.  They’re fun to watch.  If you could put aside your feelings about wanting to finish well, win or points then they are kind of fun to be in.  If you can get over the potential pitfalls and things that could happen to you, especially at the end, the restarts and everything when we have late restarts people just kind of go nuts and you have to run over people or be run over.  There’s two things that can happen to you, you are either going to run somebody over or get run over.  There’s no middle ground really.  It’s whatever the popular opinion is, if fans want to see road courses and if they want 10 road courses in the Chase then that’s what needs to happen.  I, myself, I’m just one guy, but I like ovals a lot better than road courses.”
 
DID THE INCIDENT IN SONOMA IMPACT HOW YOU VIEWED YOUR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN RACE CARS?
“Well it had an effect on me, everybody’s different.  It’s everybody’s opinion is going to be different as far as being a driver and certainly the injury and style of injury that you have could make a difference as well.  I remember we went to — the burns that I had really didn’t talk about that much and tell a lot of people what kind of injuries we had or what the injuries were.  I know that when we went to Bristol and I still had some open wounds in my legs that I probably should have had skin-graphed, but those really stung when we got all that champagne in them from winning the Nationwide race and the Cup race.  It just sort of put things in perspective for me.  If I enjoyed road racing as much as Tony (Stewart) enjoys dirt cars then you wouldn’t give it up and I wouldn’t have.  I would have gone back and done it more.  Those were just really, I wouldn’t compare what I was doing to what Tony was doing because his passion and love for that far exceeded what I felt about racing sports cars.  I just really liked the relationship that I had with Corvette and Chevrolet, but I was really never a sports car fan per se.  That was not very hard for me to shut that out of my life and do without it.  Just going through the process of healing and knowing burns take so long to heal and knowing how much of a pain in the butt that was, it was easy for me to not want to do that anymore.  I think if I could, you know how some drivers run late model races like Brad Keselowski went up and ran a race in Canada a couple weeks ago, that’s something that I dream about or daydream about doing is on an off-weekend taking my late model and running Motor Mile or something like that.  The only reason I don’t is just because I’m not sure about what the balance would be between standing there signing autographs all day and being able to run a 50-lap feature.  I miss the comradery and all the volunteer help going and just being with your buddies and racing.  I’d love to do that and get back to that style of racing one day.  I think that for me shutting out the sports cars was kind of easy because it wasn’t something that I had that much passion for and it was just a one-off deal.  Every once in a while we would do it with Boris (Said) or anybody that we happen to team up with to go have fun.  The two are really not the same with what happened to me and what happened to Tony.”
 
CAN YOU COMMENT ON WHAT ITS LIKE FOR REGAN SMITH TO COME TO WATKINS GLEN AND RACE IN FRONT OF HIS HOMETOWN?
“I don’t really know how he feels about coming here and running.  He doesn’t have a ton of confidence about his road course ability, but he’s kind of like me.  I think he’s having a great year and he’s enjoying himself and he’d like to get back to finishing well like they were at the beginning of the season and get himself back in the points.  A couple of them races, Road America and a couple other places were pretty regrettable for him, but he’s trying to rebound and get back in the groove and hopefully finish this year out really strong.  I’m sure he’s looking forward to trying to do well this weekend.  We get along really great.  We hang out quite a bit away from the race track, most of the time drivers don’t really spend a lot of time around each other off the circuit, but we get along great.  He’s a lot of fun.  Good guy and it’s fun to sort of have him part of the team and everybody on the team and in the office enjoys him and it’s easy to want to get behind people that have the kind of energy and attitude that he has.  It’s been a real boost for our company and he’s worked really, really hard.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR GENERAL REACTION TO TONY STEWART GETTING HURT RACING SOMETHING ELSE?
“I was just real sick to my stomach about it.  I woke up for some reason at five o’clock in the morning, which is rare and I just couldn’t sleep so I grabbed my iPad and that was the first thing that I saw and I just couldn’t believe it.  I felt like I must have been dreaming.  Tony (Stewart) is one of my competitors and you really aren’t supposed to have, you really aren’t supposed to have the kind of admiration I guess that I have for Tony as he is my competitor.  You want to go out there and beat him on the race track and he’s fun to race with, he’s a hard racer and he takes it as good as he can get it.  A lot of guys can’t take it very well.  You all know what kind of guy he is so I won’t go on and on about it, but I hated it for him just knowing what being out of t
he car is like and knowing how much he loves what he does and loves how much he enjoys driving no matter what it is.  I know he feels bad you know.  He hates to put his company and team in this situation and he personally is a bit upset and saddened.  Just knowing the kind of guy he is, I hate that he has to go through that and I know they’ll be a lot of pain and rehab and things like that he will have to face and that’s unfortunate and you hate to see people have to deal with that.  He’s tough though, he’s really, really tough and everybody knows that he’s just going to beat the hell out of this and get back in the car before you know it.  He’ll probably be back in the car before the doctors want to let him in.  I don’t anticipate this really slowing him down at all.”
 
WILL THIS CHANGE TONY STEWART AND WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT?
“I don’t think it will.  I think it makes you appreciate what you do anytime something like this where you are put on standby or taken away from you, I think you appreciate it more, if that’s possible.  I think when you come back you are even more tenacious and fired up than you were before.  You just take it for granted that you just get to do it every weekend and once that’s gone just for a little bit even, you really sort of reset your priorities and I think you come back stronger and more determined.”
 
WHAT DOES IT DO NOT TO HAVE TONY STEWART IN THE CHASE RACING AGAINST YOU?  “He’s a lot of fun to race with so you’ll miss that competition as much as everybody wants their job to be easier, you’ll miss the competition that Tony (Stewart) brings to the table every week and I think the fans will miss that as well.  There’s a lot of guys in the series that are just real fun to race against.  Especially when the cars are so equal and you can get out there and really get after it, he’s a lot of fun. He’ll be back before any of us are ready and he’ll be tougher and more determined.  I expect a lot of good racing lays ahead for him.”
 
DOES BEING OUT OF A RACE CAR DO ANYTHING TO YOUR CONFIDENCE?
“No, not really.  Not really.  I think as far as, drivers have pretty big egos so I don’t think that none of us, I don’t think our confidence is something that’s easily swayed.  I feel like you do everything you can while you’re not in the car to make you feel as close to the action as possible so you get the entire experience except for the driving obviously.  When you go back into the car it’s almost like you haven’t been gone or the process is seamless as far as the transition to getting back into the car.  You’ll go test and run somewhere I’m sure, most drivers when they have an injury that gets them out of the car, they get a couple laps somewhere to see speed and know that I’m not going to miss a beat.  This all makes sense and feels normal so by the time you go race you are ready to go.”
 
WHERE DO YOU FALL BETWEEN TONY STEWART FEELING BAD AS A TEAM OWNER VERSUS BEING GOOD FOR NASCAR TO HAVE HIM RUN OTHER SERIES?
“I think Tony (Stewart) just ought to do what he wants to do.  I think if he wants to race everywhere every night of the week that’ what he wants to do, that’s what makes him happy.  He understands the risks and the situations that can happen and it was worth it to put in that kind of effort and go do it.  I really don’t feel, I know he’s upset that he feels like he’s let his team down and that’s nothing you can really do to make him change his mind about that because he understands that his priority and top priority is his Cup program, especially being an owner.  He wears a lot of hats and he wears them really well and he’s such an asset to the sport as a driver and to come in as an owner and do the things that he’s done and have the success that he’s had.  He’s become even more important to the sport.  When we talk about personalities and how that drives the sport, he’s definitely the top of the list as one of the more important ones and the more influential ones that sort of drive the needle.  I think that he’s got to do what makes him happy and that’s why you like him.  That’s where the appeal is with Tony I think is he’s a blue collar racers racer.  He can get down on the ground level and he might be the owner of the Cup team and owner of a race track, championship driver, but he can get down in the dirt and get his hands dirty and get behind the wheel of a sprint car and win anywhere in the country on any night.  I think that’s part of the appeal with him is that he’s that kind of guy that can do that.  We all compare him to AJ Foyt and guys like that who used to race all the time and just compile an amazing resume and I think that’s definitely a positive for him.  He enjoys it.  It’s whatever makes him happy, I think he ought to be able to get out there.  He’s leveraged his life to where he can make those kinds of decisions and be able to enjoy that part of it.  I think more power to him.”
 

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.

BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW: 

JENNIE LONG:  Good morning, everyone.  Welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference.  We are joined by Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet for Earnhardt‑Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
 
In 13 career road course starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Montoya has two wins and eight top‑10 finishes.  His most recent premier series win came in 2010 at Watkins Glen International, site of Sunday’s Cheez‑It 355.  Juan, going into Watkins Glen, a place where you’ve won before, how important is this weekend for your chances to make the Chase?
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I think this weekend for us is really, really important.  First of all, thanks for having me.
 
I’ll tell you, I think we’ve got a lot of really good tracks coming for us, and I mean, we know that we made a lot of ‑‑ we made as a team a lot of mistakes.  This weekend was mine, but overall as a team we made too many mistakes, and we do want to try to change the season around, and to be honest with you that’s the perfect opportunity to do it.
Q.  I was just wondering your general reaction to Tony Stewart’s injury and the fact that he’s going to be not racing at the Glen where he was obviously going to be one of the favorites along with yourself and some of the others.  I was also wondering if you could touch on your experience missing races when you injured your shoulder in 2005 and what that was like to be sitting on the sidelines.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, to be honest with you, I think what Tony is going to go through is pretty bad.  After what happened to Leffler earlier in the year, everybody was like, ooh, do we want to keep racing sprint cars and stuff.  I’ll tell you, NASCAR really does a very good job for safety.  The truck standards, the car standards are so much better today.  I’ve been here for seven years, and seven years ago it was good, and nowadays with the new cars, the cars are really, really safe.
 
I feel really comfortable.  Not having Tony there this weekend, it’s a shame, because as you said, he’s always a contender.  He always runs well there.  He’s going to be missed.
Q.  I heard you on a show last week talking about Sonoma versus Watkins Glen, and I know it’s real easy, a lot of people want to compare the two, but I thought you had a pretty interesting take where you were describing Watkins Glen favoring road racing skills a little bit more than Sonoma does.  Could you elaborate on that?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, my honest opinion, it’s fine because the first place ever I drove in the U.S., I did my driving school in Sonoma.  I did the Skip Barber Driving School back in ’92, and that for me I thought was a really awesome racetrack.  In a Cup car it’s actually a really easy track.  It’s a lot of ‑‑ you can’t hustle the car.  It’s a place where it’s all about timing it and being smooth on the throttle.
 
As a road racer, you don’t have a big advantage because there’s nowhere where you’re, okay, you need big cojones to go through the corner.  You don’t have that in Sonoma, where in the Glen all the esses, going over the curves and the backstop, it’s always a challenge, and for guys that run in ovals every week, that is very difficult.  And for me my background is road racing going over curves and hustling the car, that’s what it’s all about.
 
And something that has been really cool this year is with the new Gen‑6 car, it’s so much more agile on road cases, and that makes it so much more fun.
Q.  Is there any other tracks that maybe are not on the NASCAR schedule maybe that you’ve driven before that you’d like to see as far as road racing goes?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, sometimes I kind of envy the Nationwide guys when they go to like Road Atlanta.  There’s a lot of cool places where they go that we don’t, the way our schedule is, to get new races and new places, but Road America would be a great place.  Road Atlanta, oh, my God, that’s a place (inaudible).
 
Honestly, there’s a few places like mid‑Ohio, like mid‑Ohio, I think mid‑Ohio would be a fun place.  It’s a slow track kind of like Sonoma, but it’s got a lot more corners.  So what happens for me for Sonoma is, like the best part of the track was the loop and we don’t use it.  Same thing at the Glen.  It’s interesting because you talk to drivers and sometimes we gossip, and we all say, man, why we don’t run the boot, and they think the lap is too long with the boot and it would take too much time to go around all the track, but I think it would be an awesome track using the whole track.
Q.  I’m curious, you don’t run a whole lot of races beyond Cup.  I’m curious, do people ask you often to run either Nationwide or other events, and do you not do them because you just simply don’t want to, or do you want to avoid any sort of risk of injury?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, to be honest with you, I’m surprised that I don’t really get asked that much to be honest with you, especially like road racing.  I think people ‑‑ I’ll be honest with you, I was pretty outspoken especially earlier when I was doing the Nationwide races that I felt like it was too much.  I felt like we were doing too much racing, and it was too much, so I think people think that I don’t want to do them.
 
But I think if a good opportunity would come to drive a road course ‑‑ a Nationwide on a road course, I think I would probably do it.  I would have to ask Chip’s permission first, but I think he would be okay with it.
Q.  And looking at the Glen and the fact that you’re about 21 points or so out of 20th, do you look at this as any sort of opportunity that if you can win that you’re still Chase eligible?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Oh, absolutely.  There is a lot of really good races coming that we’ve been very close to winning this year that going there we know we have a chance, and you know, we know we’re throwing a lot of points away.  We ran out of gas with one lap to go at Sonoma, for example, running second, and we converted a second‑place finish into a 36th‑place finish.  We can’t do that.
 
Like same thing this week, I made a mistake, we had loose tires in the pits, we had a gearbox failed.  Everything freak that could happen has been happening, so it makes it a little hard.
 
But we know that if we go to the Glen ‑‑ and we’ve been testing.  We did VR test before Sonoma, and we did a Road Atlanta test, and we feel our car is really, really strong, and if you normally look at my performance in Sonoma compared with the Glen, in Sonoma I can run okay but I’m never really good, and this year I probably had one of the best cars there.
 
So going to Sonoma with the car the way it was and heading to the Glen this weekend, I’m really excited.
Q.  You and Marcos Ambrose both have two wins in Cup and all four on road courses.  Do you ever think about that?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Oh, that we won on road courses?  Of course we do.  And on ovals, as well, it’s what we’re here for.  90 percent of the season runs in ovals.  It’s not that we’re not trying.  I’ve been very close, a lot of opportunities, we’ve thrown them away. We’ve found ways to screw them up.  But to tell you the truth, as a team we keep our head up and we keep fighting, and believe me, we believe we have a chance.  We really, really believe that we have a good chance.
 
We’ve just got to make sure ‑‑ the way we do it, like probably Marcos and myself, the only thing we need to do at the Glen to have a chance of winning is not screw up.  Yeah, honestly.  If we have 10
pit stops, we’re in the top three.  I’ll guarantee you we’re in the top three.  Worst case scenario we’re fourth.  If we run out of brakes we’ll finish fifth.
Q.  Just to follow up on the earlier question about Tony Stewart, Tony is the boss there at Stewart‑Haas, but are you surprised that his sponsors let him do this, let him go out and ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, that’s just Tony.  I talk to Tony sometimes, and this year he was so excited he was going to go over 100 races in a year.  It’s like for him, making 100 races in a year was a big deal.  And you don’t see the dangers.  You don’t think it’s dangerous, but there’s always a risk factor; you know what I mean?  It’s racing.  There’s nothing you can do.  And when you’re the boss, as well, it’s a little more flexible, I think.
Q.  You’ve driven on some of the world’s best road circuits and have won at Monaco, Watkins Glen and elsewhere.  How does the Glen rank with some of the other courses you’ve raced on around the world?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I think the Glen is a great place.  It’s one of those ‑‑ I don’t know how to explain it to you, but it’s got a lot of character, and it’s got the classic character of a really good track.  If you notice through the years with Formula 1, with safety and everything with the safety, the tracks, especially in Europe have lost a lot of character, especially with the Formula 1 races because the runoff areas are so far away.  You know what I mean? I think it takes a lot of the challenge.
 
And the Glen has that.  You go through those esses, the top of the esses, the exit is the guardrail.  I mean, oh, my God, if you get it wrong there it’s going to hurt.
Q.  You’ve come very close to winning on ovals this year.  Would winning on an oval in NASCAR be especially meaningful to you?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Oh, yeah.  I mean, I’ll tell you the truth, in a way it has really sucked that we haven’t won yet because we’ve been so close so many times, but at the same time we see it as that’s racing, and we can’t do anything about it but just keep working on it, and I think if we keep our head down it’s going to happen.
 
This year I felt like we’ve been closer than ever, and I think as a team we’ve just been doing a really, really good job, and we’ve been really proud of all the guys, how hard they’ve been working this year.
 
You know, you see our team where they came from last year, how far off we were last year to where we are right now, I think it’s been really, really exciting to see.
Q.  Have you had an opportunity to watch Kyle Larson race?  The fact that he’s been added to the roster as a development driver for Earnhardt‑Ganassi Racing, have you had time to spend with him?  What do you think?  What do you think his prospects are moving forward?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I think he seems to have a lot of talent.  He’s been doing really good things.  With every young driver there’s weeks where they’re better than others, but I always believe that’s kind of normal.  You can’t expect a young kid to nail it every week, but I think he’s been doing a really good job.  Chip, he saw an opportunity to have a young guy for the future, and I think it’s great.  I think it’s great for the team and it’s great for everybody.
Q.  Can you just talk about what Shine has brought to your team over the last year and a half?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I’ll tell you, when Shine came aboard it was hard at the beginning.  I think his point of view and my point of view were very different, what I wanted out of the car, what he wanted to bring to the table, and I think that made it hard in the beginning of the relationship, and I think as time went by he got more experience.  We got better at working together.
 
Right now we do a really good job.  We work really well together.
 
I’ll give an example.  The last couple weeks we felt we’ve been unloading a lot better, but through the weekend we haven’t gained enough.  We go testing, and when we go testing we feel we work the same way but we gain on the car a lot, and if you can see everywhere we test, we’re very, very competitive.  And we felt like, you know, we’re maybe trying to do too much, and we sit down and we talk about it.
 
It’s something that is really good with Shine.  It’s something that we don’t have to ‑‑ you know what I mean?  I tell him, if you don’t like it, tell me.  If I don’t like it, I’m going to tell you.  We have a very open relationship.  We know what we want to do, what we need to do, and I always say, if you feel I need to do something different, tell me.  If I want or need to do something different, I’ll tell you.
 
It’s very open.  He’s a really hard‑working guy, so it’s fun.  Right now it’s fun because we go every week, we run good, we qualify better.  I think my qualifying average is like 13th this year, that I think is pretty good compared to like ‑‑ I think it’s 10 or 12 places better than last year.  So it just makes it ‑‑ it makes it fun to go to the racetracks and know that you’re going to be good and you’re going to be competitive.
Q.  Have you used all your tests this year?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  No, not yet.  We’ve still got some.
Q.  What are your plans going forward for your remaining tests?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you or if I can tell you.  We’ve got a plan; put it that way.
Q.  With all your experience in racing at different levels, different sanctions and stuff, do you think it takes a special level of skill to excel at road course racing?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  No, it’s the same thing as oval racing.  I think the way I always seen it, if you’re a good driver, you can drive anywhere. You’ll drive dirt, you’ll drive ‑‑ you just need a little bit of time and good people around you to succeed.
 
The problem ‑‑ you know what I mean?  I have a lot of road course experience.  I did that all my life, so that’s like second nature to me.  You know, we go testing anywhere, tracks that I haven’t been in years, and within five laps I’m on pace, and it’s easy.
Q.  Tony Stewart won’t be back for a while ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Who’s going to replace him this weekend?  That’s what I want to know.  That’s good gossip right there.
Q.  Yeah, it’s wild on Twitter right now; everybody is wondering about it.  I talked to Dr. Jerry Punch some time ago about drivers racing when they’re injured, and he said often times they do better when they’re injured.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, look at Brad last year.
Q.  Do you feel that way, too?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I think Brad did a really good job last year.  You look at every other year from Brad, and last year was exceptional. It’s pretty amazing.
Q.  You say you’re more of a road racer.  Do you feel like that’s your advantage going into this race?  There’s a lot of guys in the circuit, more of an oval race, that’s what they’re more used to in a way.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Yeah, there’s some guys that grew up in karting, but if you pay attention to guys that run good now on road courses, a lot of them have karting.  They have their own go‑karts, and with the track in Morrisville, they all go there during the week.  They all practice, so they’re getting better at it.  The problem is now they can drive a go‑kart, and that’s where I grew up.  I did 14 years of karting.  I grew up on that.  Now the hard thing is learning the transition from karting to that.
Q.  Do you find Watkins Glen to be a bit easier than Sonoma, or are both technical?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I think both are technical.  I think the Glen i
s way challenging because it’s got way faster corners like the esses.  The risk factor of getting it wrong is a lot bigger at the Glen than at Sonoma.  I think at Sonoma you get it wrong you go to the dirt and you come back.
Q.  If you would have had the opportunity to use KERS and DRS in F1, how would it have affected your driving style?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I never really drove with DRS or any of that.  I think overtaking, it’s an art, and you’ve got to be good at it, and you’ve got to ‑‑ you know, you’ve got to make mistakes and you’ve got to screw it up a million times to learn to get it right.  And that’s how you grow up in racing, and you keep getting better at it, and it becomes like an art.
 
The same thing overtaking on an oval; it has its own way that you’ve got to learn to do it, and when you figure it out, it works really well.  And when you put all those electronic aids, you don’t have to learn to pass anymore.  You catch the guy and then your wing drops and you drive past the guy down the straight.
 
JENNIE LONG:  Thank you for joining us, Juan.  Good luck this weekend.
 

GREG ZIPADELLI, COMPETITION DIRECTOR OF STEWART-HAAS RACING AND MAX PAPIS, INTERIM DRIVER FOR THE NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS, WERE GUESTS ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR TELECONFERENCE.
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT:
 
JAYME AVRIT:  Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference.  Our guests today are Greg Zipadelli, Competition Director for Stewart‑Haas Racing, and Max Papis, interim driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet at Watkins Glen International for Stewart‑Haas Racing.
 
In 35 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Papis scored his career best finish of eighth at Watkins Glen in 2009.  He is a seven‑time winner in the GRAND‑AM Rolex Sports Car Series, which includes a Daytona prototype victory at Watkins Glen and the 2004 Sahlen’s Sports Car Grand Prix. Papis won the 2004 GRAND‑AM Rolex Sports Car Series championship with co‑driver Scott Pruett and is a two‑time winner of the prestigious Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in 2000 and 2002.  His most recent NASCAR start was in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at Tours Speedway in France where he finished second on July 6th.
 
Greg and Max, despite a good bit of adversity this week you come into Watkins Glen looking as strong as ever.  Greg, walk us through how you selected Max to drive the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet this weekend.
 
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Max and I have worked together in the past when I was at JGR with Joey.  He helped us and went to Road Atlanta test with us and helped, and then Steve Addington and the 14 car wanted to do a Road Atlanta test about two weeks ago, and we reached out to Max, and he was able to do it.  Tony had some commitments and was going to come down the second day.
 
They had the car that we’re racing, the primary car at Road Atlanta.  We tested it with Max.  He did a really good job.  Steve felt like he had a good relationship with Max.  They communicated well.  So in all honesty it was a perfect shoe‑in for us, because as I said, we had been working together recently.  There was also a little dialogue between Steve and Max.  I’ve had a relationship with Max for a while now, so we just felt like it was our best bet to be able to communicate well over the weekend and get the most out of the car that we could.
 
JAYME AVRIT:  Max, what were your first impressions of Stewart‑Haas Racing as you tested with the team back on July 30th at Road Atlanta?
 
MAX PAPIS:  Yeah, first of all, I want to wish Tony a quick recovery.  I mean, he had odd circumstances, and it’s never good that something like this is happening.  But obviously I was here in Haas Racing like a long time ago when I actually raced for Haas Racing in Sonoma, and I was just a part of the test schedule, to go there and help them out, and obviously when the situation with Tony arose, I felt that if they needed my help, I was here and I was available.
 
I know I have the confidence and the ability to go out there and do the best for them.  I called Zippy and I told him if you need my help I am going to be here and available, and I let go and let the Lord take care of everything else.
Q.  Zippy, I’m just wondering, you guys have just basically talked about this weekend.  Is there any way to talk about what you’re expecting beyond this weekend?  Are you thinking that Tony could come back any time soon?  Is this going to be something that takes weeks or months, or what’s a general timeline?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Well, I don’t think we have a timeline right now.  I think Tony has one more surgery that needs to be addressed.  I think at that time in the next 24 to 48 hours we will have a much better idea of exactly what the healing process will be and will be able to do a better job of ‑‑ is it six weeks or is it longer?  Honestly we really do not have an answer for that right now.  As soon as we do, we will try and do a good job of keeping everybody updated of what it looks like.
 
As far as next week and on, we’ve got a few candidates and we’re talking to a few people.  We’ve got a lot of people that have obviously reached out.  We’re not sure if we can put one person in until Tony gets back or we’re going to have to do multiple people.
 
Our main priority was this was such short notice, and it was to get Max in here yesterday, get the seat and all the things that we needed to change in this car and get this car headed to Watkins Glen this afternoon, take care of all the stuff that we’re doing now, and then we’ll get behind some closed doors and kind of really decide who will be the best candidate for the 14 car and SHR to try and maintain what we can in owner’s points.  That’s all I have for you right now.
Q.  But it is something that you’re looking at that’s going to take at least a few weeks?  I mean, he’s not coming back ‑‑
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Absolutely, absolutely.  It’s a few weeks, so we need the next two or three weeks lined up, and that’s what we’re going to start working on this afternoon or tomorrow, and as soon as we have something, I promise we’ll do our best to get it out to you.  But there’s nothing there now.  It’s taken us all day yesterday ‑‑ we were in Atlanta for the tire test, had to wake up pilots, get on a plane yesterday morning, fly home.  We didn’t get to the shop until 8:30 by the time we landed.  Honestly we were just a little bit behind all day, and Watkins Glen and dealing with our sponsors and making sure that they were all on board and doing everything we can to make the best of a bad situation.  So like I said, as soon as we get done with this, we’ll start working on the next few weeks.
Q.  I’ve got two questions for you. The first one I just want you to address and clear up, because there’s been so much speculation:  What is your position on Tony racing in all these extracurricular things?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Hey, it’s a tough one.  We all know that.  We all know Tony loves to do those races.  We know that that’s his golf game, that’s his hunting, his fishing, all the things that the rest of us do.  You know, there is a difference in the amount of responsibility we have and obligations to other people, and that’s where I think that’s kind of where it gets sticky.
 
I think it makes him better at what he does here, but it obviously leaves the door open for a situation that we’re in now.  I think that as many races as he’s run in the past, we’re probably lucky that this is the first time we’re dealing with this to be perfectly honest with you.  You know, we’ll do our best at Stewart‑Haas to put pieces together and sit down and evaluate it, and I think it’s ‑‑ it would be a lot easier to look at and talk about things right now because we’re in the situation that we’re in moving forward.
 
That doesn’t mean anything other than we will talk about it, we’ll discuss it and we’ll try and do what’s best for Stewart‑Haas and our partners in the future.
Q.  My second question is as far as I can recall, a shoulder injury in 2006 in the Cup car is the only injury I can recall.  How are you guys dealing with this?  What’s the morale?  And what was your reaction, because I can’t recall any other injury?  Were you surprised?  What’s everybody feeling? What are you thinking?  And is this a discussion that you guys will have with him going forward?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Well, yes.  I mean, obviously I was in a hotel room in Atlanta when I got the call.  We always get updates.  He texts me every night after a heat race, qualifying; doesn’t matter what time it is or what’s going on.  And when my phone went off, it wasn’t a text or the call that I had expected.  Honestly, like I said, he’s run so many of these races and flipped in tho
se things.  I think me and him and everybody around us didn’t think Superman could get hurt.  This is his day.
 
As far as morale, everybody at Stewart‑Haas, all of our partners have been extremely, extremely positive, supporting in all the things that we need to do to keep racing, and hopefully, like I said, we’re certainly wishing him a speedy recovery.  We’ll know a lot more in the next 24 to 48 hours exactly what that recovery is.
Q.  I have one question for Zippy and one for Max.  For Zippy, obviously as someone who has worked with Tony for a long time, this possibility probably always existed even when you were a crew chief, and I just wondered how the team handled it.  I’m sure even people at SHR are familiar with what Tony does in his spare time, but how has it affected the people on the 14 team?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Well, I mean, let’s face it, first and foremost everybody is worried about Smoke and how soon is he going to be back.  He’s a crucial part of Stewart‑Haas Racing.  I mean, he’s the man.  Everybody, I think, right now has pulled together and doing whatever it takes to get this car to Watkins Glen and have the best day that we can there, and we’ll kind of take it week by week.
 
I think it’s real early to say to you anything other than that because that’s truly the atmosphere and the situation that we’re dealing with here.  I think will people be frustrated, will people be disappointed down the road and things of that nature?  I don’t know, hopefully we’ll do a good job of encouraging them and going to the racetrack and having good runs, and we’ll make the best of the situation.
 
Everybody here is disappointed because Tony is not in the car this weekend, and we’re all, like I said, wishing him a speedy recovery.  I hate to be so generic, but in all honesty that’s just really where we’re at right now, you know?
Q.  And for Max, I know this was short notice, but you did test the car.  Would you consider this one of the best opportunities you will have to collect a win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series?
MAX PAPIS:  Obviously it was a very short notice, but as I always say, if things are written, they are written, and in one way the things I’m the most proud of is that through the years, when I sat in the NASCAR car for the first time in Daytona in 1996, I’m sure none of you guys and even me would have ever imagined an Italian guy could have been sitting in a car.  Now I have this opportunity, I’m going to do the best I can.
 
Obviously I’m not going to go out there to run 20th or 25th.  I’m going to go out there to make everyone proud and do the best job I can, and I know that my best job is pretty good.  I have confidence in what I can do, and I have confidence, as well, that my personality and my spirit, it’s something good for this team.
 
Like in circumstances like this, I believe that the joy that I bring in my heart and I joy that I have for the sport hopefully is going to bring up the morale of everyone in the organization, and obviously if we add this to a good result it would be even better.
 
Kind of answering a little bit ‑‑ not answering, but talking to you guys a second about what you guys were talking before, we are athletes.  Race car drivers are athletes, so you can’t cut the wing of us in a way.  You can get hurt walking on the street or doing something like that, and we are good in what we do, and Stewart is good at what he does because he is Stewart. He’s a guy that is one of the unique guys that can go and drive anything.
 
I think at the end of the day, you can make out of this like big things or you can make out of this like something that happened and could have happened in your garage or driving out of the street or hurting yourself walking out here.  It’s just a matter of a situation.
 
The things that I enjoy to watch here in this organization is how fast everyone reacted and how decisions were made and intelligent decisions were made, and I think this proves the spirit of doing things right is all around here.
Q.  I have a question for Max.  You sort of touched on this, but I was wondering going into this weekend’s race, what are your expectations from a competitive standpoint as far as what you hope to accomplish, and what’s the team’s expectations of you to do, and are they different in any way?  In other words, are you going to go out there and obviously you hope to win, and is the team saying, look, we just want a good finish out of here?
MAX PAPIS:  I mean, I can answer that my expectations are always do the best I can.  I know that I have a gift from God to drive cars properly and do a good job, and that’s the thing I do.
 
How I look at this, and I told Zippy this yesterday, as well:  I’m 42 years old.  I’m proud of what I’ve done so far in my career.  Obviously this, I don’t look at this like a career‑changing something that is going to ‑‑ I look at this like an amazing opportunity in a terrible circumstances, and that’s it.  I’m just going to go out there and enjoy every lap I have, enjoy every second I have with the guys, and keep that seat warm for Smoke until he’s going to come back.  And who knows, maybe in the future we’re going to have some laughs to share about what I did in this car or anything.  You never know.
 
I think that things are written, and I believe that sometimes if you push for opportunities, they don’t come, and sometimes things come because of reasons.  And again, the things that I’m the most proud of, as I told you guys before, is the fact that I’m even considered about this opportunity.  There are hundreds of guys out there that can drive this car, but I guess that ‑‑ I always say it’s not about the money you make, it’s not about anything that you do, but it’s about the story you write.  And I guess that so far I’ve been writing a pretty decent story to get a call from Stewart‑Haas Racing.
Q.  Did you just talk with Stewart‑Haas Racing officials, or have you spoken to Tony at all?
MAX PAPIS:  What do you mean?  No, I didn’t talk to Tony.  I didn’t talk to him.  I sent him an email when I was testing his car telling him that his lap belt fit me, so it was actually funny stuff.  I don’t tell you the answer.
 
But besides everything, it’s okay.  No, I haven’t talked to him.  I only talked to the crew chief and Zippy.  Obviously it was very short notice.  I was going to go and do an appearance yesterday.  I turned my truck around with my kids in, and I came over here to work on the seat.
 
Again, it’s doing the best out of difficult circumstances.
Q.  Do you know the exact location of Tony’s fracture, how high it was above the ankle?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  No.  No, we’re ‑‑ I don’t know exactly where it is.  It is above the ankle, below the knee.  I hate to be so generic about where it was.  A lot of the particulars and things, like I said, Tony is still in Iowa, and I talk to him.  We get reports.  He’s doing okay.  It’ll be another, like I said, 24 to 48 hours before we have all the details.
 
MAX PAPIS:  The thing he told me is he’s going to be able to have kids in the future, so that’s no problem.
Q.  Greg, you just said that you had talked to Tony.  How are his spirits, and has he told you that he’s ready to get in a sprint car again so don’t ask him not to do it?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  I didn’t give him the opportunity to tell me he’s ready to get in.  I told him to hurry up and get his butt down here because I was going to break his other leg, like some of my ancestors used to do, old school, and maybe beat him with it, jokingly.  But he’s in good spirits, a lot of pain, trying to get comfortable, but overall he’s obviously ‑‑ he was worried about what everybody th
ought and apologetic and feels like he’s letting everybody down here.  At the end of the day the reason we’re all here is because of him, so I know he’ll get back in it and make it up to us.
Q.  I assume you were joking when you said that you’d break his other leg, but will you actually sit down and talk to him and discuss whether he should be racing outside events, and will you suggest that he not?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Yeah, I think a lot of that stuff will take care of itself in time here.  Most importantly is that he gets healed and gets the proper attention that he needs so that it’s not something that bothers him down the rest of his life and we get him back in this 14 car.  What he races down the road, like I said, I think it opens up a lot of discussions, and I think it’s way too early to really get in the middle of any of these details.
Q.  Tony Stewart is a tough guy and Stewart‑Haas Racing is a tough team, and I know you can’t answer a lot of questions looking forward, but as he talks about being in a race car, it’s almost like it keeps him mentally straight to be in a car.  Can you imagine a Tony Stewart out of a car for a number of weeks, and how will his being out of the car affect what information the team can get or what he provides the other teams at Stewart‑Haas?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  I think it’s you guys that are afraid of him out of a car and what he’ll be like in a couple of weeks, back hobbling around.
 
No, I never imagined this.  He is old school, tough, we’ll just deal with it and get the job done to the best of his ability, which is usually pretty darned good.
 
As a company, like I said, we’ll do our best.  We’ll hopefully get him healed up and to the racetrack and being part of this group and team as soon as we can and get him back in the car as soon as he can and keep his thoughts.
 
As far as what the team is doing and the race car and all those things, we’ll do our best to keep him in the loop and take the information that he has.  Yesterday in between doctors’ visits and this and that, we texted and we talked, and we talked about Max and some other people, and he’s been as big a part of the decisions that have been made here right now as anybody else.
Q.  Can you also talk about how the sponsors have reacted and how much support, not just ‑‑ you mentioned people wanting the ride or getting in touch with you, but what about like feedback from people wanting to pitch in, just other drivers, just to help?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Well, like I said, it’s all happened so quick.  Obviously we reached out to all our sponsors immediately.  They were all disappointed, which we understand that.  But they’ve all been really good to work with.
 
I think yesterday was more of a shock and you go through it.  Today it’s been more discussions about what we’re going to do in the next couple weeks and trying to give them all some suggestions of these are the people we’re thinking about and making sure that they’re all happy and feel that that person will represent their brand.  This is a big deal.  It’s going to take everybody as a team working together, and we’ll get through it and hopefully do a good job and hopefully they’ll all be proud of how Stewart‑Haas deals with everything.  Most importantly obviously it’s about performance and giving their brand the recognition it deserves.
Q.  Max, I apologize if you touched on this earlier, but you were slated for the GRAND‑AM Rolex race at Road America this weekend, and fresh off your first win at Indianapolis a couple weeks ago, what was the process of being able to get out of that and take this opportunity and have you talked with your team about their plans this weekend?
MAX PAPIS:  Actually that’s a good question.  I was ready, and here at Stewart‑Haas Racing we had actually everything organized for me to go and run the GRAND‑AM race there in Elkhart Lake.  We had a plane organized and everything.  But first of all, I need to say thanks for Remo Ferri Racing.  I talked to Remo yesterday.  He’s a good friend of mine for many years.  And I told him I was going to actually be at the track tomorrow testing, go back to Watkins Glen on Friday and Saturday, and fly back with Boris or someone back for the race.
 
But he told me that he felt that it would have been a better thing for me to stay focused and help Stewart‑Haas Racing in this great opportunity for me and in this difficult circumstances.
 
In one way I was a little sad because I feel that I’m an old style guy.  I’m one of these guys that ‑‑ I feel like there are only a few left, like Stewart, like me, like maybe Mario Andretti, where you go and drive a Sprint Cup car, you go and drive a sports car, you go and drive a midget the day after, and that’s a little different.  So I’m sad I’m not going to be there, but I want to thank them for the opportunity and that they are going to let me stay focused on this and helping Stewart‑Haas Racing.
 
I guess that I need to find myself something to do in the afternoon of Saturday because when the qualifying is finished, maybe there’s not going to be much to do.  I might just maybe go and watch the GRAND‑AM race on TV or something like that.
Q.  This question is for Greg.  Just on the competition side of everything, is the focus now on Ryan Newman and getting him in the Chase, and as far as maybe even converting some of the No. 14’s over to 39’s, and what’s the outlook there?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Well, our focus has always been getting the 14, the 39 ‑‑ they’re both obviously had opportunities to make the Chase.  Our focus was to give them equal attention.
 
I think obviously now that the 39 is our only chance, we will do whatever we can to help.  I don’t know that it’s any more than what we have been doing, but we’ll certainly do our best to work together as a team, and if there’s anything they need, we will certainly do our best to give them what they need to have that opportunity.
Q.  After the Brickyard I guess you guys were on a high, you had two shots at getting cars into the Chase.  Does this knock some of the wind out of your sails in regard to that?
GREG ZIPADELLI:  Well, I mean, obviously it’s a huge letdown to everybody at Stewart‑Haas, knowing that we were making some great strides.  I think we’ve had some drastic improvements in the performance on the racetrack.  I felt like we were peaking at the right time with two race cars having an opportunity.  It’s a huge disappointment.  But we’ll try to do our best to take that disappointment and turn it into a positive push for the 39.
 
JAYME AVRIT:  Thank you, everyone, for joining us today.  Thank you to Greg and Max, and best of luck this weekend in Watkins Glen.
 

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.

BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW: 

JENNIE LONG:  Good morning, everyone.  Welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference.  We are joined by Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet for Earnhardt‑Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
 
In 13 career road course starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Montoya has two wins and eight top‑10 finishes.  His most recent premier series win came in 2010 at Watkins Glen International, site of Sunday’s Cheez‑It 355.  Juan, going into Watkins Glen, a place where you’ve won before, how important is this weekend for your chances to make the Chase?
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I think this weekend for us is really, really important.  First of all, thanks for having me.
 
I’ll tell you, I think we’ve got a lot of really good tracks coming for us, and I mean, we know that we made a lot of ‑‑ we made as a team a lot of mistakes.  This weekend was mine, but overall as a team we made too many mistakes, and we do want to try to change the season around, and to be honest with you that’s the perfect opportunity to do it.
Q.  I was just wondering your general reaction to Tony Stewart’s injury and the fact that he’s going to be not racing at the Glen where he was obviously going to be one of the favorites along with yourself and some of the others.  I was also wondering if you could touch on your experience missing races when you injured your shoulder in 2005 and what that was like to be sitting on the sidelines.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, to be honest with you, I think what Tony is going to go through is pretty bad.  After what happened to Leffler earlier in the year, everybody was like, ooh, do we want to keep racing sprint cars and stuff.  I’ll tell you, NASCAR really does a very good job for safety.  The truck standards, the car standards are so much better today.  I’ve been here for seven years, and seven years ago it was good, and nowadays with the new cars, the cars are really, really safe.
 
I feel really comfortable.  Not having Tony there this weekend, it’s a shame, because as you said, he’s always a contender.  He always runs well there.  He’s going to be missed.
Q.  I heard you on a show last week talking about Sonoma versus Watkins Glen, and I know it’s real easy, a lot of people want to compare the two, but I thought you had a pretty interesting take where you were describing Watkins Glen favoring road racing skills a little bit more than Sonoma does.  Could you elaborate on that?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, my honest opinion, it’s fine because the first place ever I drove in the U.S., I did my driving school in Sonoma.  I did the Skip Barber Driving School back in ’92, and that for me I thought was a really awesome racetrack.  In a Cup car it’s actually a really easy track.  It’s a lot of ‑‑ you can’t hustle the car.  It’s a place where it’s all about timing it and being smooth on the throttle.
 
As a road racer, you don’t have a big advantage because there’s nowhere where you’re, okay, you need big cojones to go through the corner.  You don’t have that in Sonoma, where in the Glen all the esses, going over the curves and the backstop, it’s always a challenge, and for guys that run in ovals every week, that is very difficult.  And for me my background is road racing going over curves and hustling the car, that’s what it’s all about.
 
And something that has been really cool this year is with the new Gen‑6 car, it’s so much more agile on road cases, and that makes it so much more fun.
Q.  Is there any other tracks that maybe are not on the NASCAR schedule maybe that you’ve driven before that you’d like to see as far as road racing goes?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, sometimes I kind of envy the Nationwide guys when they go to like Road Atlanta.  There’s a lot of cool places where they go that we don’t, the way our schedule is, to get new races and new places, but Road America would be a great place.  Road Atlanta, oh, my God, that’s a place (inaudible).
 
Honestly, there’s a few places like mid‑Ohio, like mid‑Ohio, I think mid‑Ohio would be a fun place.  It’s a slow track kind of like Sonoma, but it’s got a lot more corners.  So what happens for me for Sonoma is, like the best part of the track was the loop and we don’t use it.  Same thing at the Glen.  It’s interesting because you talk to drivers and sometimes we gossip, and we all say, man, why we don’t run the boot, and they think the lap is too long with the boot and it would take too much time to go around all the track, but I think it would be an awesome track using the whole track.
Q.  I’m curious, you don’t run a whole lot of races beyond Cup.  I’m curious, do people ask you often to run either Nationwide or other events, and do you not do them because you just simply don’t want to, or do you want to avoid any sort of risk of injury?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, to be honest with you, I’m surprised that I don’t really get asked that much to be honest with you, especially like road racing.  I think people ‑‑ I’ll be honest with you, I was pretty outspoken especially earlier when I was doing the Nationwide races that I felt like it was too much.  I felt like we were doing too much racing, and it was too much, so I think people think that I don’t want to do them.
 
But I think if a good opportunity would come to drive a road course ‑‑ a Nationwide on a road course, I think I would probably do it.  I would have to ask Chip’s permission first, but I think he would be okay with it.
Q.  And looking at the Glen and the fact that you’re about 21 points or so out of 20th, do you look at this as any sort of opportunity that if you can win that you’re still Chase eligible?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Oh, absolutely.  There is a lot of really good races coming that we’ve been very close to winning this year that going there we know we have a chance, and you know, we know we’re throwing a lot of points away.  We ran out of gas with one lap to go at Sonoma, for example, running second, and we converted a second‑place finish into a 36th‑place finish.  We can’t do that.
 
Like same thing this week, I made a mistake, we had loose tires in the pits, we had a gearbox failed.  Everything freak that could happen has been happening, so it makes it a little hard.
 
But we know that if we go to the Glen ‑‑ and we’ve been testing.  We did VR test before Sonoma, and we did a Road Atlanta test, and we feel our car is really, really strong, and if you normally look at my performance in Sonoma compared with the Glen, in Sonoma I can run okay but I’m never really good, and this year I probably had one of the best cars there.
 
So going to Sonoma with the car the way it was and heading to the Glen this weekend, I’m really excited.
Q.  You and Marcos Ambrose both have two wins in Cup and all four on road courses.  Do you ever think about that?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Oh, that we won on road courses?  Of course we do.  And on ovals, as well, it’s what we’re here for.  90 percent of the season runs in ovals.  It’s not that we’re not trying.  I’ve been very close, a lot of opportunities, we’ve thrown them away. We’ve found ways to screw them up.  But to tell you the truth, as a team we keep our head up and we keep fighting, and believe me, we believe we have a chance.  We really, really believe that we have a good chance.
 
We’ve just got to make sure ‑‑ the way we do it, like probably Marcos and myself, the only thing we need to do at the Glen to have a chance of winning is not screw up.  Yeah, honestly.  If we have 10
pit stops, we’re in the top three.  I’ll guarantee you we’re in the top three.  Worst case scenario we’re fourth.  If we run out of brakes we’ll finish fifth.
Q.  Just to follow up on the earlier question about Tony Stewart, Tony is the boss there at Stewart‑Haas, but are you surprised that his sponsors let him do this, let him go out and ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, that’s just Tony.  I talk to Tony sometimes, and this year he was so excited he was going to go over 100 races in a year.  It’s like for him, making 100 races in a year was a big deal.  And you don’t see the dangers.  You don’t think it’s dangerous, but there’s always a risk factor; you know what I mean?  It’s racing.  There’s nothing you can do.  And when you’re the boss, as well, it’s a little more flexible, I think.
Q.  You’ve driven on some of the world’s best road circuits and have won at Monaco, Watkins Glen and elsewhere.  How does the Glen rank with some of the other courses you’ve raced on around the world?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I think the Glen is a great place.  It’s one of those ‑‑ I don’t know how to explain it to you, but it’s got a lot of character, and it’s got the classic character of a really good track.  If you notice through the years with Formula 1, with safety and everything with the safety, the tracks, especially in Europe have lost a lot of character, especially with the Formula 1 races because the runoff areas are so far away.  You know what I mean? I think it takes a lot of the challenge.
 
And the Glen has that.  You go through those esses, the top of the esses, the exit is the guardrail.  I mean, oh, my God, if you get it wrong there it’s going to hurt.
Q.  You’ve come very close to winning on ovals this year.  Would winning on an oval in NASCAR be especially meaningful to you?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Oh, yeah.  I mean, I’ll tell you the truth, in a way it has really sucked that we haven’t won yet because we’ve been so close so many times, but at the same time we see it as that’s racing, and we can’t do anything about it but just keep working on it, and I think if we keep our head down it’s going to happen.
 
This year I felt like we’ve been closer than ever, and I think as a team we’ve just been doing a really, really good job, and we’ve been really proud of all the guys, how hard they’ve been working this year.
 
You know, you see our team where they came from last year, how far off we were last year to where we are right now, I think it’s been really, really exciting to see.
Q.  Have you had an opportunity to watch Kyle Larson race?  The fact that he’s been added to the roster as a development driver for Earnhardt‑Ganassi Racing, have you had time to spend with him?  What do you think?  What do you think his prospects are moving forward?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I think he seems to have a lot of talent.  He’s been doing really good things.  With every young driver there’s weeks where they’re better than others, but I always believe that’s kind of normal.  You can’t expect a young kid to nail it every week, but I think he’s been doing a really good job.  Chip, he saw an opportunity to have a young guy for the future, and I think it’s great.  I think it’s great for the team and it’s great for everybody.
Q.  Can you just talk about what Shine has brought to your team over the last year and a half?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I’ll tell you, when Shine came aboard it was hard at the beginning.  I think his point of view and my point of view were very different, what I wanted out of the car, what he wanted to bring to the table, and I think that made it hard in the beginning of the relationship, and I think as time went by he got more experience.  We got better at working together.
 
Right now we do a really good job.  We work really well together.
 
I’ll give an example.  The last couple weeks we felt we’ve been unloading a lot better, but through the weekend we haven’t gained enough.  We go testing, and when we go testing we feel we work the same way but we gain on the car a lot, and if you can see everywhere we test, we’re very, very competitive.  And we felt like, you know, we’re maybe trying to do too much, and we sit down and we talk about it.
 
It’s something that is really good with Shine.  It’s something that we don’t have to ‑‑ you know what I mean?  I tell him, if you don’t like it, tell me.  If I don’t like it, I’m going to tell you.  We have a very open relationship.  We know what we want to do, what we need to do, and I always say, if you feel I need to do something different, tell me.  If I want or need to do something different, I’ll tell you.
 
It’s very open.  He’s a really hard‑working guy, so it’s fun.  Right now it’s fun because we go every week, we run good, we qualify better.  I think my qualifying average is like 13th this year, that I think is pretty good compared to like ‑‑ I think it’s 10 or 12 places better than last year.  So it just makes it ‑‑ it makes it fun to go to the racetracks and know that you’re going to be good and you’re going to be competitive.
Q.  Have you used all your tests this year?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  No, not yet.  We’ve still got some.
Q.  What are your plans going forward for your remaining tests?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you or if I can tell you.  We’ve got a plan; put it that way.
Q.  With all your experience in racing at different levels, different sanctions and stuff, do you think it takes a special level of skill to excel at road course racing?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  No, it’s the same thing as oval racing.  I think the way I always seen it, if you’re a good driver, you can drive anywhere. You’ll drive dirt, you’ll drive ‑‑ you just need a little bit of time and good people around you to succeed.
 
The problem ‑‑ you know what I mean?  I have a lot of road course experience.  I did that all my life, so that’s like second nature to me.  You know, we go testing anywhere, tracks that I haven’t been in years, and within five laps I’m on pace, and it’s easy.
Q.  Tony Stewart won’t be back for a while ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Who’s going to replace him this weekend?  That’s what I want to know.  That’s good gossip right there.
Q.  Yeah, it’s wild on Twitter right now; everybody is wondering about it.  I talked to Dr. Jerry Punch some time ago about drivers racing when they’re injured, and he said often times they do better when they’re injured.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, look at Brad last year.
Q.  Do you feel that way, too?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Well, I think Brad did a really good job last year.  You look at every other year from Brad, and last year was exceptional. It’s pretty amazing.
Q.  You say you’re more of a road racer.  Do you feel like that’s your advantage going into this race?  There’s a lot of guys in the circuit, more of an oval race, that’s what they’re more used to in a way.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  Yeah, there’s some guys that grew up in karting, but if you pay attention to guys that run good now on road courses, a lot of them have karting.  They have their own go‑karts, and with the track in Morrisville, they all go there during the week.  They all practice, so they’re getting better at it.  The problem is now they can drive a go‑kart, and that’s where I grew up.  I did 14 years of karting.  I grew up on that.  Now the hard thing is learning the transition from karting to that.
Q.  Do you find Watkins Glen to be a bit easier than Sonoma, or are both technical?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I think both are technical.  I think the Glen i
s way challenging because it’s got way faster corners like the esses.  The risk factor of getting it wrong is a lot bigger at the Glen than at Sonoma.  I think at Sonoma you get it wrong you go to the dirt and you come back.
Q.  If you would have had the opportunity to use KERS and DRS in F1, how would it have affected your driving style?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  I never really drove with DRS or any of that.  I think overtaking, it’s an art, and you’ve got to be good at it, and you’ve got to ‑‑ you know, you’ve got to make mistakes and you’ve got to screw it up a million times to learn to get it right.  And that’s how you grow up in racing, and you keep getting better at it, and it becomes like an art.
 
The same thing overtaking on an oval; it has its own way that you’ve got to learn to do it, and when you figure it out, it works really well.  And when you put all those electronic aids, you don’t have to learn to pass anymore.  You catch the guy and then your wing drops and you drive past the guy down the straight.
 
JENNIE LONG:  Thank you for joining us, Juan.  Good luck this weekend.
 

Helio Castroneves Continues to Lead IZOD IndyCar Series Points; Team Chevy Drivers Claim Five of Top-10 Finishing Positions at Mid-Ohio
 
LEXINGTON, Ohio (August 4, 2013) – Helio Castroneves, No. 3 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet, extended his points lead to 31 points in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship battle with a sixth-place finish in today’s 90-lap/203.222-mile race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
 
It was the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s 10th consecutive top-10 finish and 13th of the 14 races run to-date this season including a win at Texas Motor Speedway.
 
A total of five Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers captured top-10 finishes in today’s race.  Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, finished fourth; defending Series’ champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, finished fifth to remain third in the standings and gain a few points on the leader; Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet finished ninth and James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet finished 10th in the final order.
 
Andretti sits fourth in the standings and Hinchcliffe is seventh in points.
 
The race was won by Charlie Kimball.  Simon Pagenaud and Dario Franchitti completed the podium finishers.
 
Next on the schedule is the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma August 22-25, 2013. The race is scheduled to start Sunday, August 25,2013 at 4:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network. Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 4, 2013
 
KASEY KAHNE SCORES SECOND WIN OF SEASON IN AGGRESSIVE FASHION AT POCONO
CHEVROLET SWEEPS TOP-FIVE FINISHING POSITIONS
 
 
LONG POND, Pa. – August 4, 2013 – Kasey Kahne saw a seven-second lead in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS erased by a late caution, but rallied back on the final restart of the GoBowling.com NASCAR Sprint Cup race to make an impressive pass on the outside in turn two for the win, with two laps remaining.  It was a bittersweet win for Kahne in that he had to take it from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS, on his birthday.  With their 1-2 finish today, both drivers moved up one position in the point standings, to eighth and ninth respectively.
 
Kurt Busch was also hunting for a win in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevy SS on a birthday that he shares with Gordon, but brought home a third-place finish.  Busch stays very much alive in the hunt for the Chase with his 13th position in the point standings with five races until the cut-off.
 
Last week’s winner Ryan Newman, No. 39 Haas Automation 30th Anniversary Chevrolet SS, was in the thick of things for much of the race and brought home his second straight top five with a fourth place finish at Pocono Raceway. With the finish, he moves to within nine markers of the final Chase “Wild Card” position.
 
Another Hendrick Motorsports driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., rounded out the top-five in his No. 88 National Guard Youth Foundation Chevrolet SS to give Team Chevy their first top five sweep of the 2013 season.
 
After starting on the pole, and leading 43 laps, Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Plane Chevy SS cut a right-front tire at the mid-way point, but consistent repairs by the pit crew enabled him to rally back for an impressive 13th place finish.  Johnson remains the series point leader with a 77 point advantage over second.
 
The next stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour will be Sunday, August 11 on the in road course in Watkins Glen, NY.
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
 
KENNY FRANCIS, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNING CREW CHIEF
 
THE MODERATOR:  Let’s hear from our race winner for today’s 40th Annual GoBowling.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here at Pocono Raceway, and our race winner is Kasey Kahne.  He drove the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.  It’s Kasey’s 16th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win, his second victory in 2013, and his second win at Pocono.  Kasey now is 8th in points in the current championship point standings; however, he’s got two all‑important victories now heading into as we go five races to go before we set the Chase field.
 
Congratulations, Kasey, certainly an outstanding race down the stretch with you and your teammate Jeff Gordon.  Maybe just talk about that final part of that race there, that last restart.  Let’s go back to the restart before that.  You had the lead, caution came out, Gordon took the lead. Maybe just kind of go back over that for us, because that was some really good racing.
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I just felt like we had our Farmers Insurance Chevy was the best car.  Kenny called a great race with strategy and kept me in the front the whole time once we got there.  We started 18th, so we had a little ways to go, but we were gaining on the leaders from the time the race went green off of everything I could see with markers and things.
 
But, yeah, when the caution came out, we had a pretty big lead.  I knew Jeff was going to be tough.  I felt like he was beating me on restarts a little bit.  I always struggle on them.  I need to work on that and just keep getting better with my starts, but he got a great start.
 
He was on my left rear off of turn one, and was able to kind of side draft me down the backstretch and just stayed under me.  He finally got by off turn three.  So at that point, I just tried to stay with him.  We had five laps, so I thought I may get another opportunity to get by, but it was tough.  It seemed like with him in clean air; it was going to take more than five laps.  It was going to take more like ten laps.
 
Then the caution came out, and on that caution, I just knew it was two laps to go, it’s whoever gets the lead, whoever gets clear is going to win the race.
 
I had some help from Kurt Busch, pushed me down the front stretch, and I just drove into one as far as I felt I could, and I got some speed and momentum down the back and beat Jeff to turn two.  That was kind of the race at that point.  Once I cleared him getting into two, from there it was just don’t make a mistake and try to run the quick lap on that last one.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Kenny Francis, congratulations on the win here today.  You and Kasey Kahne certainly have teamed up over the years to turn in a lot of wins.  But this has to be one of the more, I would think, gratifying wins that you all have put together.
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  Yeah, they’re definitely all important, but this one was pretty special looking at all the crazy stuff that’s happened to us over the summer and the past eight to ten weeks.  We’ve had a lot of good race cars and didn’t have much to show for it.  So to come here and dominate the race and get the win in the end, that was pretty cool.
 
So that was a really cool pass he made on that last restart.  We were all about to jump off the box when he did that.  So, you know, it was kind of nerve‑racking.  You’re sitting there racing your teammate, and you want them to have a good finish too.  But at the end of the day, we’re out for ourselves.  I’m just thankful that we were able to get the win.
 
Q.  When you saw the extra caution come out, what was going through your mind?  First of all, you got three guys behind you who are desperate for wins.  You know, Junior just, he’s good in the point standings, but he still would like to win desperately.  Then Jeff and Kurt that really need a victory to solidify their chase aspirations.  I mean, what was going through your mind?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  I just knew that it would probably be three‑wide going into turn one and down that front stretch everybody gets such a good run.  The draft comes into play as you come up through the gears.  So it was just crucial getting into one and getting to the backstretch.  I was able to drive in.  My braking and the way the car was set up, I could drive into one and into two really hard all day long.  So I felt like if I got there and I was close to anyone, I could drive in as far or further than them, and that’s what we were able to do.
 
I knew I had my hands full because those guys want to win just as bad as we do.  I needed one bad.  I felt like our team did.  We’ve been, like Kenny said, we’ve been really fast this whole season, especially through the summer months.  Just things have happened and we don’t have much to show for, but today we finished it off and put a full race together.
 
Q.  Kasey and Kenny, talking about some of those issues this race in June, you didn’t even get to finish the first lap before you had to pull into the garage, and now this one you were in victory lane.  If I remember correctly in that race, you felt once you got the situation fixed, you were running really strong.  So what does it feel like to capitalize on what you may have had in June?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, this was the same car.  So Friday we started practice similar to that and felt really close to how
I felt in June.  The track didn’t change much and the tire didn’t change.  So it was not having practice yesterday didn’t bother me at all because I knew that we had put 40, 45 minutes in on Friday and we’re in a good spot.
 
Just preparation, the guys did a great job,  Kenny and the whole team, bringing back the same car.  It was fast the first time we were here, and we were able to show how fast it was today.
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  Yeah, that first race, we had that U‑joint problem and went behind the wall, and it took us about 50 laps to figure it out and get it sorted back out.  But we went out and ran that whole rest of that race and started off kind of easing around there and realized how fast the car was.  It was after the race, it was amazing how many other crew chiefs and crew members and stuff came up to us over the next few weeks.  We were like, wow, I can’t believe how fast your car was.  So it was cool to bring that same car back and actually win the race.  It doesn’t always happen that you come back the next time to Pocono and the set‑up works.  Usually you’re scrambling again.
 
Just fortunate that we hit on such a good set‑up on the first event that transferred over.
 
Q.  Little bit more about the emotions of coming back to Pocono, as I heard in your post-race television interview, you mentioned Jason Leffler and another friend who had been in the hospital, and Eldora had happened a couple of weeks ago, and you only had one break.  Was it a little emotional coming back?  You recalled leaving and hanging out with Jason?  Just you’re a family it seems in the NASCAR community.  Your job goes on and on, so was there some kind of poignant memory coming back here since June?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  I think there definitely is.  I think this summer has been tough on some racers.  A lot of things have happened with people I know and different guys involved in racing.  Jason, I thought about it on my way up here on Friday, I was like, man, the last time I was here he flew with me here and flew back with me.  Just me and him.  We spent a bunch of time together and then that happened that Wednesday.  So it was tough.
 
There are so many people that are good friends with Jason and knew him really well, so I just wanted to mention something about him. Then Gary Zeronian is a guy that when I moved to Indianapolis in ’99, I met Gary, and we became really good friends and I drove his Silver Crown car on and off for a few different years, probably like three or four years.  We won some races together.
 
He’s just a great guy.  He was at Indy with us.  We had lunch and spent Sunday together.  He was at the car before we took off for the race, and then after the race he had a heart attack walking to his car.  So he’s been in Methodist all week, but he’s recovering.
 
I think it’s just been a tough summer, and I wanted to mention some of that because a lot of my friends feel the same way about those two guys.  So I just said something when I was in that interview.
 
Q.  Kasey, on the second to last restart, you chose the outside and Jeff Gordon passes you.  On the last restart he chooses the inside.  Did you have any regrets that you should have chosen the inside on the second to last restart and when he chose the inside did you think this is my second chance and it’s going to come to me?
KASEY KAHNE:  I thought Jeff would probably choose the inside because I knew he was good down there throughout the whole race.  I had the restart on the inside early in the race and stuck with Keselowski until I cleared him.
 
So I felt good about being down there, but to me it was more about getting momentum off turn one.  When Jeff gave me the outside, I was pretty happy about that because I thought that that may have given me a chance and an opportunity to get back by him.  It’s tough though.
 
You go down the front stretch, everybody’s pushing and the air is working differently, the transmissions and gear ratios are a little different, so everybody has a different run.  Then once you get to turn one, if you miss your mark a little bit, you don’t pick up the throttle, he hits it right. That’s what he did to me on the start before.  He just got off turn one a little bit better than I did and was able to get the lead.
 
So it’s all so close.  The competition and I think my car and Jeff’s on those restarts were really similar.  I don’t know.  It could have gone either way, and I’m just glad I didn’t give that one away, because I knew we had the best car.  If I didn’t win the race today, I would have felt pretty bad about giving it away.
 
Q.  Is it getting tougher on restarts to know which lane to choose?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, because I ‑‑ I mean, I don’t know.  I think everybody’s car you kind of have the spot that you want to be and you’re looking for.  Jeff was tight so he wanted to be on the white line and try to hook his tire on it, he was telling me after the race.  But you’re thinking about going down the straightaway, some tracks you have more grip on the inside or outside on the initial start, and other tracks once you get to the corner, you have more grip on the inside or outside.  So just how do you play that?
 
A lot of times the leader is just in control and can make that work.  But with these long straightaways, it seems that this place is a little more difficult as a leader.  I think everybody’s just a little bit closer together on these starts, so it could go either way.
 
Q.  It doesn’t matter and we’ll never know, would you have caught Jeff without the last caution or ‑‑ you were making up ground, but was it enough time that you even worry about that now?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  I don’t know.  I felt like that first lap I was right with him, and the second lap I was on him and got loose in the middle of three, and he pulled me down the front stretch and I was reeling him back in.  I think we had two to go or three to go.  So we would have definitely had a shot.
 
We had speed.  I could move around.  But to actually clear him and make the pass, I think it would have been really difficult.  So I’m glad that second caution came out there and gave us another shot.
 
Q.  Those restarts, obviously there are always a lot of hair‑raising moments in the cars.  Can you get a sense of what kind of hold‑your‑breath moments those restarts were or any more so than what you guys go through a lot of race weekends at the end of the race?  Can you also talk about just how Kurt Busch pushing you, how that helped and how that was such a factor for you on that last restart?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I think the hair‑raising spots are when somebody’s pushing you and they can hook you a little bit.  I think it happened with Newman and with Dale.  Both times it got me kind of whipping right before I got to turn one, so that will get your attention.  Then just trying to drive into turn one as far as you can and downshift to third and still make the corner and not enter too hard and push your tires, but go as hard as you possibly can.
 
So those are the spots that, to me, are interesting.  I think the further you get back in the pack where the air is ‑‑ more guys have runs and things like that, they’ll get three and four wide, that is a tougher spot.  When you’re coming off the front row it seems you can enter the corner about two wide, which isn’t too bad.
 
But, yeah, Kurt pushing me was key.  I don’t know if he had a lot of places to go when he first got to me, because we weren’t to the line, so he had to push me.  At that point we got through the gears fine and we just kind of h
ooked together like we were at Daytona and started making ground, and we were catching those guys all the way to turn one and then drove up beside Jeff once I got there.
 
Q.  Kenny, I heard you tell Kasey near the end that he had a different second gear than what Jeff had.  Can you talk about the decision to choose the certain gear?  Also, is that something that is common in all organizations?  Is that something that each team gets to choose or would other organizations say everybody’s running the same gear?
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  I think it’s pretty common that different drivers and different driving styles use different ratios.  Everywhere I’ve been, it’s been multi‑car teams.  But here in particular, NASCAR changed the rule for second gear for this particular race, so I think there were a number of different people trying philosophies.  So that is the advantage of having your teammate and you know what he’s got.
 He knew that already.  I just wanted to make sure he remembered.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Jeff knew we had it too because he slowed down on that restart, so that would benefit him with the ratios.  I noticed that.  I knew he was going to.  But, yeah, Jeff knew what was going on.
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  Yeah.
 
Q.  He said that he did, yeah.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Did he?  Yeah.
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  No one really knew what to do.  With the lack of practice, we didn’t really get a chance to do any restart simulations, which we were planning on doing.  Here, it’s not like another ‑‑ here you’re allowed to change ratios through the weekend, so we had some opportunity to play with it if we’d had practice.
 
So I think there was just some uncertainty with the rule change and wondering what the right answer was.  I think we picked the wrong answer, but luckily we got away with it.
 
Q.  You got that all‑important second win today as far as towards the Chase.  You talked about you haven’t had anything to show for it the last couple of weeks.  You probably thought you were a championship contender all along, but does this win kind of signal to maybe some of the other people that, hey, don’t forget about us, we can make some noise if we make the Chase?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I feel like it does.  It gives myself confidence and gives the whole team confidence, Kenny, and the pit crew guys and everybody that’s part of it.  It closes the gap.  If we finish in the top 10 and get into the Chase, it will be closer to Matt and Jimmie who already have four wins.  So I think wins are key for sure.
 
Then just for our points, I mean, the Chase is what it’s all about in NASCAR.  I mean, you need to make it for the sponsors, for the teams. We’ve been right there on the edge with kind of the way our summer went.  So it was nice to get two wins.  It gives us much more hope going in. We’ll just start a lot closer.
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  I think also it gives you a little more flexibility to be able to take more risks in the upcoming races.  You’ve already got your two wins.  There is a good chance you’re going to make the Chase either way, so now you can maybe take a little more risk.  Where if this doesn’t work out, it could hurt bad.  Now you’ve got something to fall back on now.
 
There was a call today we had to make that was a little risky that I thought, well, we’ll just have to do it and see.  It was one of those two‑tire stops and we couldn’t quite get as much gas in it as we wanted, or if we did, it was going to take more time.  So definitely having another win gives you some more opportunity to play a little different strategy or take a chance or maybe take a chance on your set‑up before the race or something like that in the upcoming races.
 
Q. (Indiscernible)?
 
KENNY FRANCIS:  It was one of the yellow flag stops where we took two tires.  It was, I don’t remember, two‑thirds of the way through the race or something.
 
Q.  I think we covered this when you won in 2008 here, but I think you spent some time on some of the smaller tracks around here a few years ago when you were just coming up.  Can you talk about coming back here and what it means to you to win here?  Can you also talk about the unpredictability of the races here?  We had a very different race here in June; can you explain why these races are so crazy in varying differences?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I felt like the track was really similar today to what it was in June.  Not a lot of change in the racetrack and the tire and the combination of the cars and things.  So the race may have played out a little different today, but I felt pretty similar to how I did in June.
 
Yeah, I raced a lot in Pennsylvania.  Raced Sprint Cars and midgets and things around here.  I lived in Tower City for like a month and a half one year, which was hard on me.  That was a long time in Tower City.  But I had a good roommate, Rick Hawk.  I lived with him and his family, so we had a lot going on.
 
But it was cool.  Pennsylvania racing is tough.  All the Sprint car racing is really hard, really difficult.  The guys are on top of their game all the time, so it’s a good spot for myself when I was in Sprint cars to race and learn.  I felt like I made a lot of gains when I was racing around here.
 
Q.  The Hendrick cars the last two weeks in particular have been really, really strong or cars with Hendrick engines too.  Is it more difficult or easier to close a gap or gain an advantage when you’re trying to do it against your teammate versus another organization?
KENNY FRANCIS:  I think it’s more difficult.  Those guys are hard to race.  It’s hard to beat Jimmie and Jeff and Dale and the Stewart‑Haas cars are strong.  They’ve been getting stronger every week for the past couple months.  I don’t know.  What do you think?
 
KASEY KAHNE:  I think it’s more difficult.  You know you have very similar cars and engines and all of that, so you know you can run those lap times and things if one of the other guys is beating you.  But at the same time, when someone hits on something and it’s working for them, it’s tough.  Jimmie and Chad do the best job of that each year.
 
I have a great team with Kenny and Keith and all the guys behind us.  I feel like we can run with them if we do everything right.  So we’re just doing the best job we can and trying to get to that point and have some confidence here when we enter the Chase.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Kasey and Kenny, congratulations on certainly a big win here today at Pocono, and we’ll see you at Watkins Glen.
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’re going to roll into our post-race for today’s 40th Annual GoBowling.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race here at Pocono Raceway.  Our race runner‑up is Jeff Gordon.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Could you have fixed that last caution for me?
 
THE MODERATOR:  I tell you, Jeff, yeah.  The race runner‑up is Jeff Gordon.  He drove the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, and certainly, Jeff, as you alluded to here right now, you had that race in your grasp there.  That last caution came out, and certainly it was tough to overcome the 5 car.  He had a great run on you there.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, he was superfast all day.  I mean, those guys they deserved and earned that win today.  We had them though. We certainly had the position.  We got a good restart.  I’m pretty
disappointed that I allowed them to get to the outside of me down in one.  That is the advantage you have of being second.  Just like the restart before that, I had a little bit of an advantage by being in second to get position on him.  And I thought that last one that I did everything I needed to do, and I looked in my mirror and I really thought that the inside lane got a good run on Kasey, so I thought all I needed to do was get in here and get the bottom and I’d be good.  But, man, he got a killer run and blasted on the outside of me.  Caught me by surprise, I’ll be honest.  In that case, and in that scenario, it just kills your momentum.
 
So I feel fortunate to finish second.  I feel like we had a great day all in all, and I’m very proud of that.  It’s something we can build a lot of momentum on.  Yeah, I’m frustrated right now because we had a shot at it.  We know how important wins are, but second is a great points day for us as well.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Ninth in points right now, Jeff.  We’ll take questions for Jeff Gordon.
 
Q.  You alluded to this, but as we saw in the truck race yesterday and to a large extent today, being the leader on the restart didn’t seem to be an advantage.  Could you just comment on that a little bit?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, the bigger the rear spoilers get on the vehicles, cars, trucks, the bigger hole you’re punching in the air and easier it is for guys to get runs either behind you or stall you on that side.  But that wasn’t necessarily the case today for me in that last restart.
 
I got a good restart.  I think I caught them off guard.  I took off a little early, maybe.  It was questionable.  Yet, I got up in front of him and did what I felt like I needed to do, but, obviously, that wasn’t the case.
 
Yeah, once he got to the outside of me, then that same scenario and aerodynamics really stalled the car out and put me in a bad position going into the tunnel turn.  I really just kind of had to give it up at that point.
 
The caution before that, I was able to get the run and be the car that was in a better position.  You know, he did a great job.  I mean, that’s all you can say.
 
Kurt Busch, come on up here and have some fun with me.  Come on.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Kurt Busch, the birthday boy.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, absolutely, let’s celebrate.
 
Q.  Kind of following up on what he was asking, Kasey chose the outside on the restart prior to that, and I think most guys were choosing the outside all day long.  Was that not a consideration for you because you had taken the lead by being on the inside and choosing the outside wasn’t even a given?
 
JEFF GORDON:  I was terrible on the outside all day.  The outside is good if you have the run on the exit, but I was having so much trouble getting in the corner on the outside that I was more afraid of losing it that way.  My goal was to get a good restart and have the lane to myself, which I did.
 
Now, looking back on it, I probably would have rather put him on the inside.  If I had known I was going to get that good of a restart, I think I would have rather put him on the inside and then I don’t think he could have gotten to the outside of me.
 
It doesn’t matter.  You’ll go through that a million ‑‑ I’ll go through that a million times.  Listen, I’ve given away a lot more races than I’ve won.  So whether it’s restarts ‑‑ I mean, I’ve missed shifts here before.  So I’m happy that we were in position.  I’m bummed that it worked out the way it did.  I’ll try to do it better the next time, and hopefully it works out.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Let’s now hear from our third place finisher in today’s race and that’s Kurt Busch.  He drove the No. 78 Furniture Row Denver Mattress Chevrolet to a fine showing here today.
 
Kurt, congratulations on a good performance.  Kurt’s 13th place, but he’s only 11 points out of that top 10 position, so it gets very interesting now with five to go before we set the Chase field.  Kurt, congratulations.
 
KURT BUSCH:  Thanks, Kerry.  It was definitely a run that we were able to close the chapter, so to speak, on having a little problems here or little problems there.  What I mean by that is we executed really well today with pit strategy, the pit stops, two tires, four tires, and to be in position at the end.
 
We even, when the 48 had their trouble and hit the fence and threw debris out on the track, we were even able to get into the pits before they closed them and get some tires on the car.  So that’s just Todd Berrier, a head’s up call.
 
The way we made changes to the car, it just seems like the team is flowing really well, and I’m excited for this portion of the season, because we now getting to back to all these tracks a second time, and we have fresh notes of working together on this Furniture Row Chevy team.
 
What I’m happy about is this group of guys, we’re small, but we can shoot from the hip a lot and make up a lot of ground by being aggressive with going back to a track a second time knowing exactly what we did wrong the first time around.
 
So even though we didn’t win, I feel good about this third place finish.  Even though we didn’t gain points, this was a championship‑effort‑type day.
 
Q.  Kasey was told something on his radio before that next to last restart, that him and you had different second gears.  Is there or what is the reason for that?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Because I wanted the one that I had and he wanted the one that he had.  I mean, NASCAR has given us the flexibility to play around with second and third gear.  We shift here and that’s probably why.  So we felt like we were getting beat on the restarts the last time we were here, so, as a company, we adjusted that and they went a little further than we did.  I think it helped me.
 
But when you get that good start, you’ve got to make the most of it, and that’s where I feel like I let the ball drop there.  But, yeah, we did have a little bit different, and we knew that going in.  He was having pretty decent restarts all day long.  They were very minor.  I mean, we’re talking little tiny bits of difference.
 
Q.  How critical was that last pit stop, and you did fight back from that, but did that play out in the end result or whatever?
 
KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, I felt like our last pit stop wasn’t ‑‑ it wasn’t great, and maybe it was a little less than average, so it put us behind the 24 and the 39.  I was trying to hustle as much as I could on those fresh tires to get in front of those guys, and it didn’t materialize.  So when you’re pushing hard early and then you get stuck behind guys, it just adds to some of the ill‑handling of the car.
 
So, yeah, I mean, this is a game where you have to be perfect, and getting on and off pit road is my duty and the time that we spend in the box is the pit crew’s, and we win as a team and we finish third as a team.
 
Q.  Jeff and Kurt, for you guys, we talked on Friday about the inconsistency of all the guys that are in this fight to get into the Chase.  At this point, it’s not a win, but just putting together a couple of good finishes in a row and doing that for a few weeks, do you think that’s going to be enough to make up the difference, because everybody can’t seem to get it together for more than a couple weeks in a row?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Well, for us, I feel like we’ve pulled together some decent finishes but it hasn’t been pretty.  Today was an impressive run for us internally.  Just well‑executed, like Kurt was saying, good stops.  Everything just kind of went ou
r way.
 
It’s too competitive.  The cars are too tight in how they’re built, how they perform, and everybody’s too good on pit road, and the drivers and the crew chiefs.  So you’ve got to execute well.
 
I feel like we’ve been fortunate to get some of the top 10s that we’ve gotten here recently, and today I felt like we finally actually went out and earned that one.
 
KURT BUSCH:  To follow up, I feel like we’ve been fast every week when we unload and practice, and we qualify well and we start the race decent.  We’re just not closing the door.  Today was one of those finishes where we closed the door, and it just gets me so excited to know that an area that we’re weak in, we need to polish up on it and fix it.  The only way we’re going to make the Chase is to fix that weak area.
 
The way that you run consistent, even though Jeff finished second today and Biffle finished top 10, Truex, I think, was struggling today and came back and finished 15th.  This is a competitive group.  The top seven guys, I would say, are locked in.  Kahne probably moved himself into a pretty good spot with two wins now, but there is still a lot of see‑saw going on with guys.  Like Biffle with one win, Stewart with a win, Truex with one win, and me and Jeff are winless, but here we are finishing second and third, so it’s tight.
 
Q.  First of all, you’re top 5 this race is all Chevrolet.  So want to talk about your confidence in that manufacturer, and also with Watkins Glen coming up, you talk about a lot of these tracks you’ve come back to for a second race.  But Watkins Glen is a one‑off. It’s the second road course, but just this one race coming up, you’re both excellent road course racers.  Obviously, Jeff you have several wins, Kurt, not at the Glen, but you have a win and you’re a strong road course racer.  How much effort are you putting into that race?  I know they’re all important, but the notebook is looking for those second visits to the other tracks, but talk to me about Watkins Glen?
 
JEFF GORDON:  You approach Watkins Glen like every track.  It’s a track that you have to go perform well at.  I think the competition has gotten so much stronger at the road courses than it used to be.  Where I used to go to the road courses feeling confident that we were going to gain points and have a shot at winning, these days, I’ve got to fight hard to get a top 10.
 
But I feel good about our road course program this year.  We finished good at Sonoma.  Felt like we learned a lot at the end of the second half of the race at Watkins Glen last year.  We kind of more did a test more for Watkins Glen than we did for Sonoma prior to Sonoma, so I’m hoping that pays off.
 
But I’m looking forward to the Glen.  This stretch of races that are coming up, I think it’s one of the reasons we made the Chase last year. They’re just good tracks for us, and if we can start to put the execution together with the performance, I feel like we have a shot at staying in the top 10.  You always want those wins, as Kurt was alluding to because you don’t want to see yourself just squeak outside the top 10 and then not have the win.
 
We’re going to be on ‑‑ the closer we get to Richmond, the more aggressive we get.  But I also think consistent top 5s would do it.  I think that would get us in.  But that’s a lot to ask for.  But I think the Glen is a race we can perform well at.
 
KURT BUSCH:  For us, we actually went and used one of our NASCAR tests at Watkins Glen, and I’m glad we did.  I feel like there are track that’s I’m good on, and I feel like there are tracks that I struggle on.  When we went there, we opened up Pandora’s Box with some braking issues, brakes, so we were able to master that by the end, and I feel very confident now heading back there not to just have speed in qualifying but to have speed throughout the race.  It’s an important race.  Sonoma is on the calendar in June, and the middle of August is much more important.
 
Q.  Kurt, I saw you guys looking at the replay.  Can you talk about the last restart, because it seemed maybe Kasey got a little bit of a slower start and Jeff got a really good one, and maybe you kind of gave Kasey a little bit of a push there?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, man, what’s up?
 
KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, I was waiting to get out of here before Jeff saw that.
 
The way it all turned out is Jeff just caught Kahne sleeping.  I’ve seen Kahne struggle a little bit on some restarts, and when he did, he slipped the tires at least twice.  Then when he shifted to third gear, it was all wrong again, and I hesitated.  My front bumper hit his rear bumper, and the only option I had at that point was to push.
 
I could have went four wide or five wide.  I mean, the 88 got to my inside, and at that moment I was just hoping for the best.  Who knew Kahne was going to squeak out and get alongside the 24 and beat him down into turn two.  So the only option I had was to push him at that point, and it’s just the way that things fall.
 
It wasn’t premeditated.  It wasn’t planned.  Gordon went from winning to finishing second, and Kahne went from finishing second up to winning.  My car might have had something to do with the draft on the outside lane.
 
Q.  Kurt, you’re up to 13th, 11 points out of 10th.  If you top 5 the rest of the way or top 10 the rest of the way do you feel like you’ll make the Chase?
 
KURT BUSCH:  We just need to have nice, smooth races and execute just like today.  What’s amazing is we finished 14th last week and gained one point.  We finish third this week and gained two points, so it’s so tight.
 
When you’re running against Jeff Gordon, a four‑time champion, Keselowski, a champion from last year is in this mix, Biffle is strong, Truex won earlier at Sonoma, this group of guys are all Chase material.  For us, we’re just putting the blinders on and worried about the 78, and I’m just excited to go back to these tracks a second time and execute with the mistakes we made the first time around.
 
Q.  Chevrolets sweep the top 5 today; I think Chevy has had six of the top seven at Indy.  These are tracks that are usually indicative of how you guys run it at the big speedways.  Is the difference that pronounced?  Does Chevrolet have that much of an edge at this point in terms of horsepower and everything?
 
JEFF GORDON:  I’ve never driven a Ford or Toyota, so I don’t know.
 
KURT BUSCH:  Let me answer that.  I’ve driven them all.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, go for it.
 
KURT BUSCH:  No, go ahead.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Not driving those, I don’t know.  I know we’re making great power at Hendrick.  I’m very happy with my horsepower.  I think that our cars are really good right now as well.  Chevy certainly contributes to that in their research and development in how they work with the teams.  I know three of those top 5 were Hendrick cars.
 
I think Jimmie had an issue, I think he would have finished in the top 5 too.  So Hendrick cars last week and this week were pretty strong.
But, honestly, I give Kurt a lot of credit, because those guys ran so well earlier in the year at some of these bigger tracks doing some things that our Spies out there capture, and we had to go to work because we were getting beat by some things that we weren’t trying and doing.  We went to work, and I think we’ve made some gains.
 
Q.  Do you have any thoughts?
 
KURT BUSCH:  When I saw the group of Hendrick cars up front, it’s that sheer torque that they have on corner exit.  I had the chance to drive the Phoenix Raci
ng Chevy, and it might not have had 100% effort, and what I mean by that is they didn’t go to the chassis dine owe a lot, so some of the power might have been lost in the drive train.
 
But to experience the low‑end torque, it shows up here every time you have a corner exit.  In turns 1, 2, and 3, and the Hendrick power just has great power on the low end.
 
I think where I am with the ECR Engine and Childress’ group, they have great top end, and that shows when we unload, and the track is fast, and we keep the RPMs up.  That is just a little difference, and that is just a little difference in Chevys versus the Fords.
 
The Toyotas the first time here were detuned a little bit, so we were able to take advantage of that the first time.  But overall the Hendrick guys last week, there were four of the top 5.  It’s a combination that when they start rolling, it’s a tough steamroller to slow down.
 
Q.  Jeff, when you took the lead from Kasey coming off the restart, that was great racing.  How hard is it, how fun is it to go two‑wide all the way around this track?
 
JEFF GORDON:  It’s not something I recommend, but it was necessary at the time.  To be honest, I got a good restart on him on the inside, and I was able to pull in there and get even with him into one.  I tried to roll around the bottom to get a good shot off and he slipped.  I was pretty surprised I was able to actually get to his left rear and by catching him where I did, sort of like he did with me, it just stalled him out, and I had a good run going into the tunnel.
 
I was pretty aggressive through there to hold the position.  Because I thought if I could get underneath him or stay underneath him going into three, it seemed like the inside was the preferred line.  The outside was pretty slick and that was the case.  He kind of had to give it up to me when we got to three.
 
I was driving as hard as I knew how to drive once I got in front of him and when I was up beside him.  But at the same time, he’s your teammate.  He’s a good friend of mine, and the last thing I wanted to do was wreck either one of us as well.  But he was fighting hard, I was fighting hard, and it was fun.
 
When it all ends up like that and you’re the leader, it’s a lot of fun.  I didn’t want to see that last caution that’s for sure.  He was better than me.  He was going to catch me, whether he could have passed me, I’m not sure.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Okay, Jeff, Kurt, congratulations on a strong performance today, and we’ll see you at Watkins Glen.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 4, 2013

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
TALK ABOUT THOSE LAST RESTARTS:
“I ‘bout gave it away when Jeff (Gordon) got by me. And then I spun the tires a little bit and he got a great jump and Kurt (Busch) pushed me all the to Turn 1, which really helped; and then I had one opportunity. It was either to go for it and make it work, or not. And as good as our car was, our Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, all day long, I thought we could make that work on the outside. I just needed to clear him. And when we got to Turn 2, I was able to do that. It was a great race. We had a really fast car. Kenny (Francis, crew chief) called an awesome race and the whole pit crew did a perfect job. We needed this one to get in the Chase. We really did. It feels really good. We have a strong team and they’re doing a great job.”
 
TALK ABOUT THE LAST RESTART AND GETTING AROUND JEFF GORDON:
“Well Jeff (Gordon) was getting great restarts and he was fast once we got going.  I was in a tough spot once I got behind and I felt like I needed at least five laps to get back by him.  We had a better car.  The Farmers Insurance Chevrolet was better once we were out there.  Passing was…you had to work for it a little bit and work hard at it.  That final one he beat me to turn one.  Kurt Busch gave me a great push all the way down the front stretch which helped a ton.  Once we got there I just had one shot.  It was either make it stick on the outside or go home in second.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
NOT THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT YOU WANTED. WHAT A RUN FROM 22ND TO 2ND. TAKE US THROUGH THE FINAL RESTART AND THE BATTLE WITH KASEY KAHNE:
“It’s funny how our emotions to go up and down in this sport. Before the race, if you told me that I’d finish second, I’d say that was a great birthday gift. But when you’re leading, and take the lead from Kasey (Kahne) the way we did you know, on that restart, I thought we had him. He was better than us but I thought getting out in front I could hold him off. I got a perfect restart that last one and probably jumped him a little bit and I moved up front of him and it looked like I needed to block the inside. I tried to protect the inside and he got out the outside and flat outdrove me through (Turn) 1. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get this win. This team has worked so hard to put ourselves in position. I’m really proud of all the efforts by Drive to End Hunger and what they do for the millions of older Americans who are hungry out there. And this is certainly going to contribute toward that. But I’m a little disappointed, but also excited. It was a good point’s day for us and we needed that.”
 
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END?
“Well first congratulations to Kasey (Kahne) he did an awesome job down there in (turn) one getting to my outside.  We had a great restart the time before that.  I don’t know maybe it was an advantage being second not first because we got inside and we were able to get by him the restart before that.  Just an incredible effort by this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet team.  These guys were awesome in the pits, great calls by Alan (Gustafson, crew chief), and fast race car.  I’m just having fun up there duking it out for the win.  Kasey was the guy to beat.  We got a good restart, got in front of him and then that last one I got the perfect restart.  I thought I needed to protect the inside and man he drove right by me on the outside.  Hats off to him and a little bummed for the team, but also got to look at the bright side a pretty good birthday and pretty good points day.”
 
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE FROM PRACTICE ON FRIDAY?
“I don’t know.  We made so many changes from Friday to today that I know our car was certainly a lot better today than it was on Friday.  It changed, but it mainly changed throughout the race.  It was a little slick there at the beginning, but I was also in 22nd position.  When you get out front there, boy, it is amazing how much grip it has.  The further we got to the front the better the car drove and hung in there all day.  We’ve had good cars here for a while we just haven’t started good and got that track position today things went our way.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
A SOLID DAY, BUT AT THE END YOU SAID YOU FELT LIKE A FISH OUT OF WATER. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR?
“I was just right there in the mix, you know; on restarts I felt like we gained spots each time. The lap times that we were running before that final pit stop, we weren’t able to maintain those at the end. And so temperatures on the track increased. I don’t think we changed anything on the car, but I’ve just got to thank the guys. This was a phenomenal run today to execute and learn from what we did here in June, to post a Top 3, and to run with the guys that we have to run with to make it in the Chase. I’m just real happy with these guys and Furniture Row and our mattress brands that are with us and Monster Energy. It’s just good to run strong when it’s time. And right now, we’re getting that job done, even though we haven’t crossed the threshold to win. On that last restart, the only option I had was to push (Kasey) Kahne and I felt like we got hooked-up in one of those two-car drafts and got him clear of the NO. 24 (Jeff Gordon). I wanted to go to his high side, but I would have definitely been a fish out of water in the grey area in Turn 1. It would have been pretty big. So, I’m happy for this finish and this team and just the job we’re doing.”
 
DESCRIBE JUST HOW DIFFICULT THIS RACE WAS WITH ALL THE CAUTION FLAGS AND RESTARTS:
“Lots of restarts today, but we had a really strong Furniture Row car.  We ran up front and had great pit stops and put ourselves in position to win.  The final restart (Kasey) Kahne actually got a poor restart and I had no option except just to push him.  It was like we hooked up in one of those two car drafts driving down into turn one.  He cleared the No. 24 and we couldn’t quite maintain and ended up coming home third.  It’s exciting for us because we are in this mix of trying to race our way into the Chase.  You have to do it with top five finishes like this.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION 30TH ANNIVERSARY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FOURTH
ON HIS RACE:
“It’s a good run not as good as it could have been.  We struggled in the pits today but overall a good effort.  Racing a lot of the guys around us it’s where it’s important to get the victory.  Jeff (Gordon) was really close there and he’s fighting for his Wild Card spot.  We have a win and we are fighting for a top 10 Wild Card spot, but none-the-less it was a good effort.  Just a horrible day in the pits for us.  We have to get that figured out.”
 
A COUPLE OF SLOW PIT STOPS TODAY, BUT YOU RECOVERED WITH A TOP 5 FINISH TODAY. TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“We had a really fast car. The Haas Automation Chevrolet was really good. We just struggled in the pits like you said and there is no doubt that hurt us. But it was good comeback.”
 
ANOTHER GREAT RUN FOR YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR AFTERNOON:
“Well it was a good run no doubt.  We struggled a lot on pit lane.  The guys did an awesome job too I had a good car. Just those restarts man they are so crazy.  I was telling (Dale Earnhardt) Junior it seems like Martinsville restarts, short track restarts every time.  A good run for us today.  Big for Quicken Loans and their ‘Bring it Home’ sweepstakes.  Go to qlracing.com about that.  Obviously a ‘Bloomin’ Monday’ so Outback on Monday.”&nbsp
; 
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FIFTH
TOP FIVE FINISH, THE VIBRATION ALL WEEKEND LONG HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THAT AND WAS IT STILL A FACTOR HERE TODAY?
“Well we changed every part on the car but the engine.  I think we helped it a little bit today.  We got it to where we could drive it.  I want to thank Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the crew they did a good job putting a good car on the starting line today that was competitive and had a good strategy to get us up front because we qualified so poorly.  Just didn’t have the edge we needed.  I felt good coming in here thought we might win the race, but come up a little short.  I want to thank National Guard Youth Foundation for everything they do and helping us out this weekend, being a part of this weekend.  I thought it was a good race.  I really love coming here.  The Mattioli’s do a good job; the fans love us coming up here.  I would just like to win here one time.”
 
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE RESTARTS HOW INTENSE THEY ARE?
“Yeah, they are pretty frustrating.  Those debris cautions can be quite unique and really change the complexion of the race.  I think that it definitely makes it more exciting at the end. Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they go against you and you just try to be on the good end.  You’ve got to get pretty aggressive in turn one down there and I’m sure it’s a lot of fun to watch.”
 
A GREAT DAY AND YOUR PIT STOPS WERE SOLID. BUT ON FRIDAY, YOU HAD A SERIOUS VIBRATION. YOU CALLED IT A ‘SHAKE’ ACTUALLY. THEY CHANGED EVERYTHING THAT COULD ROTATE. HOW GOOD WAS THE CAR TODAY AND HOW DID YOU GET IT BETTER DURING THE RACE?
“It was better as far as the vibration goes. The guys worked really hard. We changed everything in the car but the motor. I’ve got to thank the National Guard Youth Foundation for everything that they do and for being a part of this weekend for us. We didn’t have a good car. It was not as good as we needed to be. We changed it a little bit from the last time we were here to try and get it better. I don’t think we did. It was a little bit loose-in all day and a little tighter in the center and just didn’t have the edge that we needed. But I felt pretty good coming in here this weekend; real confident. But the weather set us back and then all that vibration stuff; we never got to work on the car real good on Friday. So we just had to shoot in the dark today. I’ve got to thank my guys. They gave me a good car and did a good job on strategy and great pit stops.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED NINTH
ON HIS DAY:
“Good strategy by the crew chief because the driver screwed up today.  I got us the pit road speeding penalty and put us back there.  Steve’s (Addington, crew chief) pretty keen on the pit strategy and what to do to get us back up there.  Got us back the track position I just was a little too tight to stay there.  Definitely didn’t need the last two cautions there.  We were going to run sixth or seventh there.  If it went green we would have stayed there instead we end up with a ninth.  A long day, but glad to have a good day for GoDaddy, Mobil 1, Chevrolet and Bass Pro.  I don’t know how it was with the point’s day, but we had a solid day we’ve just got to keep clicking them off like this.”
 
YOU HAD AN IMPRESSIVE DAY AFTER THAT PIT ROAD SPEEDING PENALTY. YOU LIKE TO TALK TO YOUR CREW CHIEF AFTER THE RACE WHEN THINGS ARE FRESH ON YOUR MIND. WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND NOW?
“Oh, we were just a little bit tight on entry versus where we were in the spring. I’ve got a very short memory, so I’m better off staying an extra couple of minutes and talking to these guys on this GoDaddy Chevy after this race. We just talk about it while it’s fresh on our minds and it gives them something to think about while they’re on the plane ride back and have our debrief tomorrow morning. But I was pretty happy. Steve Addington (crew chief) did a good job and the pit crew did a good job getting us some track position after I made a mistake. So, they definitely carried me today.”
 
YOU ARE KNOCKING OFF THOSE TOP 10’S. THIS IS THE THIRD ONE IN THE LAST FOUR RACES. HOW MUCH ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE AND THE CHASE? OR, DO YOU FEEL SOLID WHERE YOU’RE GOING?
“We’ve been running good. It’s just we still need to be a little bit better. There are cars that are still a little bit better than us right now that we’re trying to get caught-up to. So, I think our focus is more on that than making the Chase. It’s one thing to make the Chase, but it’s another thing that once you get there, you’ve got to have something you can contend with. So, we’re staying focused on just taking it one week at a time and working on our program and Bass Pro and Mobil 1 and we’ve got GoDaddy this weekend on our car. Everybody is working hard; all of our partners are excited, especially after Ryan’s (Newman) win at the Brickyard last weekend. We’re proud of him for that and we’ve just got to keep plugging away. Everybody at SHR is doing an awesome job and Hendrick engines and chassis have done a great job too. So everybody is working hard and doing a good job and we’ve just got to keep clicking them off and just keep getting a little bit better each week.”
 
IS THE TEAM NOW THAT WE ARE HITTING AUGUST WHERE YOU WANT IT TO BE HEADING TOWARDS THIS CHASE PUSH?
“Well it’s hard to say.  We tested here.  This is one of the places we used to test and we ran good in the first race here this year.  I think we are still reaping the benefits of that test.  Definitely Indy last week we both ran well and this week.  It gives you some confidence for sure going into the next couple of races.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PLANES CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
NOT THE DAY YOU WANTED BUT NOT BAD CONSIDERING WHERE YOU WERE 20 LAPS AGO:
“Yeah, my day kept needing to be calibrated as the day went on at first.  I really felt like we had a shot to win, unfortunately blew a tire off of turn one and ended those hopes there.  We worked on the car and got it better.  Then I hit the wall so hard that it knocked a spark plug wire off the spark plug.  They were able to find the right plug and get everything hooked back up and the engine took off.  Off we went and salvaged a very nice finish.”
 
TALK ABOUT THE TEAM IN GENERAL BECAUSE WHEN YOU WERE OUT THE OTHER GUYS WERE ALL UP FRONT:
“From a Hendrick (Motorsports) stand point I was kind of focused on our issues trying to get stuff worked out, but I knew on the last restart my three teammates were sitting there one-two-three and I’m not sure how they finished, but I know it was a one-two.  Really proud of Hendrick Motorsports and what they continue to give us week in and week out.”
 
GOOD YEAR SAYS YOU LOST AIR THROUGH A BEAD.  HAVE YOU EVER HAD THAT HAPPEN BEFORE?
“I know I lost air.  There is no doubt about that (laughs).  I don’t know why.  I wouldn’t think brakes, brake temps sometimes the bead issue is relative to brake temp when you melt a bead.  I don’t know I haven’t really heard much.”
 
AS GOOD AS YOU WERE EARLY IN THIS RACE YOU TALKED FRIDAY ABOUT NOT WANTING TO LEAVE ONES ON THE TABLE.  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS COMING OUT OF IT?
“It wasn’t late enough in the race to have that same feeling as other events we’ve not capitalized on.  Today was just racing.  You have that happen from time to time and it got us today.”
 
AFTER HAVING YOUR HEART BROKEN LAST WEEK AT THE BRICKYARD, YOU HAD ANOTHER TOUGH DAY. BUT YOU MADE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING AFTER THAT FLAT TIRE TO FINISH 13TH. YOU’VE GOT TO BE PROUD OF THIS TEAM:
“I’m really proud of the efforts of the whole crew. Th
e damaged race car; and I guess I hit so hard it knocked one of the spark plug wires off and I was running on seven cylinders. We finally figured that out and put the spark plug wire and then the car ran good again. And I don’t know how with all the trouble we had today that we salvaged a 13th. It was just a team effort. I’m very proud of everyone involved. Unfortunately we had that flat after leading the race, but stuff happens. It’s racing.”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANY INDICATION AT ALL THAT YOU WERE HAVING RIGHT-FRONT TIRE PROBLEMS BEFORE IT LET GO?
“No, the way it went, it just exploded. So, I’m not really sure what caused it. But late off of Turn 1 it just exploded and that was it.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in an on-track accident on lap 110 – FINISHED 35TH
ON THE INCIDENT:
“These cars rely on side force, so when someone’s on the outside of you, it always makes you a little bit looser. But, I didn’t feel like I went in any more hero-like that time. We were tight in the race and so we had freed it up a little bit and it was better. But then, when they’re outside of you, you just get loose. So, just chased it up and it spun around and unfortunately it ends the day for the GoDaddy car. And it was a good day, you know? For me, I have to sit in my car and say, ‘Today’s going good if it’s a Top 20; it’s a good day for me.’ So, that’s what was happening. Unfortunately we won’t come away with that. But we were better off today than what we’ve been a lot of other days. So, that’s about all there is to say.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED?
“There was a car outside of me and when there is a car outside of you going through fast corners it takes the side force off of it and the car gets looser when someone is there.  It hadn’t been a problem all day.  I didn’t do anything different that time.  I even kind of told myself going into the corner ‘it’s fine just run through the corner’.  I don’t know if he was closer than other cars had been to my outside or not.  We had freed the car up just a little bit, but not drastically just a little bit because we were tight.  I don’t know if that was enough to just tip it over the edge from where it was.  It’s never as much rear grip when someone is outside of you.  I feel bad for the team because we were having a good day and I know it’s nice to finish those days off and it would have been nice to finish in the top 20. That is just my goal.  It’s simple, it’s nothing crazy, but it’s been a challenge this year.  It would have been nice to do that and we were just having a steady race and a good race and it’s over.  We were way better than we were last time.  We were competitive and we were making good calls in the pits.  Everything was going just it’s just it happens.”
 
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 FXI GUTTERCLEAR 365 CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in multi-car accident on lap 110 – FINISHED 36TH
 
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“They just got together and by the time I got there, they were wrecked. It’s just kind of how the year’s going. We had a good car today but we just kept getting in trouble. We kept getting ourselves out of track position. When you’re in the back of the pack like that, you’re more likely to have things happen. I thought we had about a top seven or eight car, and then we had one run where we weren’t so good and we lost track position and then we went three-wide into the tunnel and got the quarter panel tore up and we had to fix that. And that just kept putting us further and further back. So, it’s just kind of the way the year is going.”

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 3, 2013
 
Ryan Hunter-Reay Wins Pole at Mid-Ohio with Chevrolet Power
 
LEXINGTON, Ohio (August 3, 2013) –  For the third time this season, defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay has set the fastest time in the Firestone Fast Six to win the Verizon P1 Award. The driver of the No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet missed breaking the track record by just two-hundredths of a second with his lap of 01:05.3519 minute/124.385 m.p.h. around the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Lexington, Ohio.
                                                             
Turning in the second quickest time of the session was Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.  It is his fifth time this season Power has posted a front row qualifying effort.

“Kudos to Ryan Hunter-Reay and the Andretti Autosport team for winning the pole today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series.  “Ryan and his DHL crew have been strong all week here and are again showing that championship form.  Will Power and his Verizon / Team Penske squad have been quick all week as well, and will start alongside Ryan on an all-Chevrolet front row for the 200 mile race.  Our focus now shifts to providing the Team Chevy contingent with the most reliable, powerful and tractable engine so they may execute flawless race performances on Sunday.  We will not rest until the Chevy bow tie is on the top step of the podium.”
 
Giving Team Chevy three of the Fast Six was Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet. Andretti was posted fourth in the final order of 24 cars that qualified for the 14th race of the 19-race season.
 
Making up the remainder of the Fast Six were: Scott Dixon – third fastest, Charlie Kimball – fifth quickest and Dario Franchitti turned in the sixth fastest time of the day.
 

JOHNSON WINS POLE AT POCONO
 
LONG POND, PA – August 2, 2013 – Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion and current series point leader, Jimmie Johnson, put his No. 48 Lowe’s Planes Chevrolet SS on the pole today for Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. Johnson posted a top speed of 180.654 mph in 49.819 seconds to claim his 31st Sprint Cup career pole, his fourth pole start on the 2.5-mile triangular track and a new track record.  He has three victories at Pocono, including most recently in June ’13.
 
Johnson had to make a second pass through pre-qualifying inspection after NASCAR determined the tow on his Chevy SS was off by one-thousandth of an inch. The No. 48 crew made adjustments and Johnson was able to start his qualifying run from the 29th slot in the order.
 
Fourth quick was last week’s Brickyard 400 winner, Ryan Newman in his No. 39 Haas Automation 30th Anniversary Chevrolet SS. Kurt Busch, behind the wheel of his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevy SS qualified fifth, giving Team Chevy three of the top-five starting spots in the 43-car field.
 
Kyle Busch (Toyota) qualified second and Carl Edwards (Ford) qualified third to round out the five fastest entries.
 
The GoBowling.com 400 takes the green flag on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET and will be televised by ESPN.
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PLANES CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR TRACK RECORD SETTING QUALIFYING RUN AND STARTING UP FRONT ON SUNDAY:
“Track records are cool it makes all drivers and teams smile.  We got one at Martinsville this year and then to get one here is really cool.  The wild thing though is I practiced at like a 51.15 and then to go out there and run a 49.80 the speed difference and the senses you have inside the car.  I knew it was fast I just didn’t know how fast.  Each corner I made I tried a little bit harder and was more aggressive with my entry speed, my throttle application and just kind of challenging the car and it stuck.  In some ways I think I could have gone a little quicker if I knew what that felt like and I’m sure a lot of guys are saying that in the garage area right now to be honest.  It was an interesting lap because I threw everything I thought I could at it in turn one and it stuck.  So then turn two try again, turn three try again and it made it all the way around that was pretty awesome.”
 
WHAT WERE THE ISSUES THAT YOU GUYS WERE HAVING IN INSPECTION AND DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE THAT ACTUALLY GOING OUT FOUR SPOTS LATER THAN YOU WERE SCHEDULED MIGHT OF MADE A DIFFERENCE?
“Only four spots?  No, it didn’t make a difference.  We had the left-rear tow was off by a thousandth of an inch.  The system is a pass/fail, a thousandth of an inch.  Glad we got it sorted out and we got on the clock, which is always a scary thing to be on the clock, but we beat the clock.”
 
KYLE BUSCH KIND OF INSINUATING THAT SEVERAL TIMES YOU GUYS HAVE GONE THROUGH TECH MORE THAN ONCE THIS YEAR AND YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO GET FASTER.  WANT TO COMMENT AND REPLY TO THAT?
“I wish that there was some master plan behind it all.  They are welcome to try it.  They are welcome to experience the stress that goes with it.  My heart was pounding out of my chest trying to get in the car and beat the clock.  I don’t wish that kind of stress on anybody.  I think it’s pretty awesome how we have been able to perform in those moments, but it’s not what I want to go through.”
 
IS IT SAFE TO SAY THAT POCONO IS BECOMING ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE TRACKS?
“Yeah, I mean shifting here makes this track so much fun. When we weren’t allowed to shift for a while the fun factor kind of went down some.  The gear change allows you to help turn the car it makes it interesting.  You’ve got to manage the tranny there is an RPM match you have to get right getting into third gear.  So, it brings back a lot of fun for me.  Trips to Victory Lane definitely increase the fun factor as well.  Sunday there is good potential for it to be pretty high on my list.”
 
THE FLAT TRACKS GIVE YOU A LITTLE MORE ADJUSTABILITY MAYBE. WHAT DO YOU HAVE ON THE FLATTER TRACKS VERSUS MOST OF THE 1.5-MILE COOKIE CUTTERS WHERE YOU CAN ADJUST THE CAR AND MAKE IT WORK BETTER FOR YOUR DRIVING STYLE?  WHAT FITS FOR YOU?
“I think that our team, Chad’s (Knaus, crew chief) and my driving style it takes all those pieces to make it work.  I think we have excelled on different kind of quirky race tracks.  It’s just been us all along.  I know Chad really enjoys setting the car up here because in turn one you have some banking which puts a lot of vertical loading in the car.  Turn two and turn three there is a lot less banking so it’s more lateral load.  There are different adjustments on the race car to affect those areas.  He enjoys the engineering side of it.  I certainly enjoy driving it, but we’ve just had that knack for odd-shaped race tracks.  If it’s Dover, if it’s Martinsville, here has been good to us.  It just works for some reason.”
 
I ASKED JEFF GORDON EARLIER WHEN HE’S GOING TO PUT THAT DAD OWNER HAT ON FOR ONE OR BOTH OF HIS CHILDREN WHEN IT COMES TO RACING.  IS THAT SOMETHING YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT FOR YOUR FAMILY? 
“We have another girl on the way and if they want to I mean absolutely.  I would love to teach my daughters how to race.  They probably won’t want to listen to me.  I didn’t want to listen to my dad.  I was talking with Ward Burton earlier today and tried to help Jeb (Burton) out as much as I can.  He was thankful because Jeb doesn’t want to listen to his dad.  I said ‘hey man I was there I know.’ So it might be more of a fantasy in my mind where it would be great to teach my children how to race and all that.  I can say that Genevieve is definitely on the girly route.  I’m not sure race cars are in her future. She is into anything pink and princess-ish. Maybe not her, but maybe the second one on the way will be.” 

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 2, 2013
 
Will Power Fastest in Opening Day of Practice
 
LEXINGTON, Ohio (August 2, 2013) –  Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, posted the fastest lap of the week just as time expired on today’s second practice session for Sunday’s IZOD IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With a lap of 01:05.4332 minute/124.231 m.p.h., Power set the stage for a strong run in tomorrow’s qualifying for the 90-lap/203.22-mile race around the 13-turn/2.258-mile track.
 
After setting the fastest time on Wednesday during the open test prior to the start of the weekend’s activities, defending Series’ champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, turned in the third fastest time of the day at 01:05.5018-minute/124.100 m.p.h.
 
After a 45-minute practice session on Saturday morning, the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers will prepare for Firestone Fast Six qualifying set to begin at 2:00 p.m. Qualifying will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network on Saturday, August 3, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
 
Sunday’s race is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network.
 
Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 2, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed racing at Pocono, upcoming test sessions and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THE RACE WEEKEND?
“It’s a good track for us, a good place for us to come and fight and do battle like what we’ve been used to doing this year and last year to claw our way into the Chase.  There’s not enough points that are safe enough and you want to get those wins to try to secure things up for you.  We’ve got a lot of tough competitors that we’re racing and battling with for 10th in points as well as this wild card spot.  To me, our focus is just getting out there and living up to our full potential and get some consistency out of it.  It’s been one of those years where we’ve seen guys, they hit on something and they go out and win the race and it’s not necessarily, there is no way to predict when and who that is going to happen with.  That’s why we just have to continue to stay focused and work hard because that could be us and if it’s not then we have to make sure that we’re knocking down those top-10s.”
 
WILL YOU START USING YOUR TEST SESSIONS NOW TO MAKE SURE YOU MAKE THE CHASE?
“We also had some tire tests that we had scheduled.  We tire tested at Indy, we tire tested at New Hampshire.  I feel like the one at Indy paid off for us, the one at New Hampshire did not.   The conditions were different when we went back I felt like and now we’re having to go back there again.  We have a test planned there this coming week.  I think that we’ve got some good tests planned.  That’s the tricky part about it is that it has to balance out for all of your teammates.  It incorporates the whole organization on these tests.  We’ve got to compromise a little bit for us where we’re at in points versus where they are and they have to compromise with us a little bit.  I think we found the best balance right now and we’ve got a good plan.”
 
WHAT CHALLENGES WILL THE ADDED SPEEDS PRESENT AT WATKINS GLEN?
“This car definitely has a really good amount of downforce in it and drag, which helps you get in the braking zones and is definitely going to make lap times come down at a place like Watkins Glen that is such a fast road course.  I don’t know if the tire changed there compared to the past and if that contributed to that as well.  The faster you go and especially if you’re getting into braking zones harder than the harder it is to have an advantage in those braking zones versus your competitors.  The more challenges come along with that and of course the faster you go, the more on edge that you’re putting the grip of the tires and the car.  I look for it to be a pretty exciting race.  If it’s tough to pass then that means that the restarts and those double file restarts are going to get wild and crazy like we’ve seen so much of in the past on the road courses.”
 
IS THIS SPORT MISSING YOUNG DRIVERS TO COME BATTLE WITH THE VETERANS?
“I think that’s always great and it’s always exciting to have and Jimmie Johnson’s been the dominant force.  I don’t think a lot of people thought of him as the young gun because he wasn’t super young when he came in the sport, but he certainly has taken all the challengers and thrown them off to the side.  I feel like nobody has really rivaled him and he doesn’t really have a rivalry there.  If he can keep that up, which all signs point that he will then an exciting young driver comes along and is with a good team that can challenge him, that would be the best thing this sport could ever ask for in my opinion.  There’s a couple of them out there, but they’re a few years away unfortunately.  Then there’s always those surprises, guys you don’t anticipate, guys you didn’t know about that come out of nowhere and just blow you away.  Jimmie Johnson is sort of one of those guys.  I don’t think many people anticipated him to do what he did in the Cup Series and look what he’s done.  There’s guys that aren’t on the radar that could do that and then there’s a couple that we all know about that are on the radar.”
 
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE MENTALITY TO WANT TO RACE EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK? “You’re trying to compare my mentality to Tony Stewart’s mentality?  I think he could sit right here and argue that as well.  No, I remember 1991 when I was racing Nationwide and Silver Crown and midget sprint cars and it was cool and exciting and fun and everything, but when I got full-time in the Nationwide Series, I just wanted to focus on that.  I tried to do Nationwide and Cup a couple times and I didn’t really enjoy going back and forth, but my hats off to the guys that do that and enjoy it and do well with it.  I did not see his video and I spoke to him and he seems to be okay.  I’m glad to hear that, but sprint cars are to me some of the most exciting and fun race cars there are to drive.  Anything that you do, you could put yourself at risk so I think that he knows the risks versus the rewards and chooses to do that and I think that’s awesome and he certainly is very impressive when he gets in them how competitive he is and winning World of Outlaw sprint races or being competitive in those races is unbelievable.  I certainly look up to him in that way because I raced those guys in sprint cars and know how difficult that is.  Especially when you’re not doing it all the time.  But you know, if he was a young driver that was coming to work for Hendrick Motorsports, I would try to discourage him from doing that because that’s an investment to us as a team.  We ask a lot out of our sponsors and our team and everything, but he’s the team owner so there’s no asking that out of him.  You don’t want to take away that joy that those individuals have, you want them to make those decisions and choices on their own and just understand what they’re getting themselves into.  Some of the younger guys maybe don’t always appreciate that, but somebody like Tony does and handles himself well with it.”
 
DO YOU THINK ABOUT BEING A TEAM OWNER FOR YOUR CHILDREN IN RACING?
“Oh yeah, when my son was born I thought about that.  My daughter, I kind of want to wait and see what kind of interest level she has.  Just knowing the things that she’s interested in, I don’t see her being that one, but she is very competitive.  My son just loves race cars already at a very young age.  He reminds me of myself.  I never wanted to get behind the wheel of a car, I was always like, ‘No, no, no, no.’  But when you got me in it, I loved it and I was good at it.  That’s kind of how he is.  Not really the first one to just go jump in at it, but once you do, he’s pretty excited about it and he does very well.  I think both kids will drive a race car at some time and then to me, it’s introducing them to it and seeing what kind of interest level they have and whether they’re enjoying it and whether they’re good at it and go from there.  It’s nerve-wracking for me to consider and think about that option because every parent that I talk to says that it’s like the worst torture you could ever have because you’re just not in control, that’s your child so you have this fear of just them not winning or getting hurt, all these things that you didn’t think about when you were doing it.”
 
CAN YOU UNDERSTAND HOW A DRIVER’S PERSPECTIVE OF A RACE IS DIFFERENT THAN THAT OF A FAN AND THEY WATCHED THE SAME RACE?
“Absolutely, but the driver is not watching the race, he is driving the race. There is a tremendous amount of excitement, pressure, and adrena
line rush that is going on inside that car. You could be racing for 26th and the camera never shows you and you may have had the best and most exciting racing you have ever seen but that doesn’t mean people watched it or enjoyed it from home.  So it’s a huge difference and with the world we are in today, it’s the people up there in the grandstands on watching on TV that matter the most.  Sometimes we wish we could change that from inside the car but we can’t so there is no comparison at all, and they are completely different views.
 
“I think what a driver means when he says that is that you wish the people watching, that are not inside the car….and even sometimes the pit crew guys….you wish they could get in there and understand what you are going through so that they would have a much better perspective.  Not only in talking, discussing, and criticizing the details of the race, but also to know what we are going through.
 
“When I watch a race for instance, I watch it with a different type of view because I am a driver and I go, ‘wow, that was an intense moment’, where that might not have even fazed someone who has never driven a race car.”
 
DO YOU HAVE A TESTING GAME PLAN THAT YOU CAN SHARE WITH US?
“We are going to New Hampshire next week.  We are going to Richmond and a couple weeks after that I think we are going to Texas and then we are going to Homestead in the next month.”
 
HOW MUCH INPUT DO YOU HAVE ON THE TESTING?
“You know, again, we discuss it in our Tuesday meetings and I think all the crew chiefs get together Monday meetings and they come up with the race tracks they would like to go to. 

“They talk to their drivers and get that kind of information and then on Tuesday we look it up on a board and we come up with the best scenario that works for all of us.
 
“For me I think we have a good game plan that works for all of us.   Again, I said earlier that it’s a compromise with the organization.  When you have four teams, not everybody is going to be perfectly suited.  But in this case, I think it suits our needs to get ourselves in the Chase and if we get in the Chase, then it suits our teammates to be very competitive in the Chase.”
 
YOU WERE HERE THE WEEKEND OF THE INDYCAR RACE, WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? 
“Yeah, it was so cool to see those cars doing those types of speeds around this track.  You know, that was probably the thing that stood out the most and was most impressive to me.  The cars are very cool so I enjoy seeing them up close and seeing the technology that they have.  I think my son kind of liked that too – seeing the difference between our cars and the IndyCars.  I can tell you what.  I am very, very appreciative of this sport and this series that we are in because when you drive in that tunnel for an IndyCar race, and you drive in here for a NASCAR race – you get a perspective of how big our sport is.”
 
DID YOU TALK TO A FEW OF THE DRIVERS? 
“Yeah, I talked to a few of the drivers.  What I thought was interesting was that I thought at Indy it was some of the most amazing racing that I had seen in the IndyCar series in a long time and I was hoping that Pocono might offer some of that same type of racing.  But they were saying that turn three was too long and flat of a corner for them to maintain that momentum behind somebody to get that big draft and make those passes down the straightaway versus Indy.  I thought that was very interesting and it was true once the race started because that was pretty much what they had.  I was really blown away with the speeds they ran in qualifying.  I mean gosh, 222 (mph) and to go flat out around here….I was thinking about it today coming down pit road and how much I was braking going into turn three and I just can’t imagine those guys running wide open.
 
“The biggest thing that stood out when I got here last night was all the motorhomes and all the tents and camping and the number of fans that are here for the NASCAR races.  Sometimes we see the decline or something going flat and we are not seeing these grandstands filled up, but let me tell you, go to an IndyCar race and then a month or two weeks later and come back here.  We better be very thankful for all the people we have here.  It’s pretty amazing.”
 
REGARDING IF KYLE LARSON IS MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS, AND WOULD YOU CONSIDER RUNNING A TRUCK AT ELDORA NEXT YEAR?
“I go back and reference 1991 for me and that was my first full year in the Nationwide Series and at that time you are building your career, aligning yourself with the best teams that you can, trying to win races, and trying to establish yourself to get to the next level.  So I think that Kyle (Larson) is quickly doing that and getting a lot of attention.  I think he should race everything that he can possibly get behind the wheel of.   The tricky part is going to be when he is either running for a Nationwide championship or does make that move to Cup, is where he starts to draw the line on that.  Because
 
“Sprint Car racing is in your blood and you want to do it, but again, the Cup team and sponsors invest so much into it that you want full attention.  It can either be a distraction or it can either help you, you just never know.  So, everybody might handle it a little bit differently but I certainly think there might be some cutting back and might not be so much of that.”
 
“He is doing beyond what he should be doing.  Let me tell you what, that kid is unreal.  I wish we had five or six more of him.”
 
WOULD YOU GET IN A TRUCK AT ELDORA?
“They need to shorten the rear bumper on those things (laughs).  They look pretty loose to me before the rubber got down on the track.  They look like fun but my whole thing about what I am driving whether it’s a dirt late model or a Sprint Car, a truck, or a Nationwide car, Cup….I just want to be competitive and want to get enough laps in the car or truck to be competitive at it.
 
“For Tony’s (Stewart) charity event, it’s for charity and we go there to have fun but I can tell you the fun quickly went away in that event as soon as guys started ramping up the seriousness and competitiveness of their cars and teams.   To me, I didn’t have the time to commit to it so I was like, ‘hmm I’m not interested’, and if that is the way it’s going to be.  If you just show up and run whatever you have and go have fun and everybody is laughing about it, then that is one thing.  As soon as it gets very competitive then all the sudden the fun starts to come away and the whole meaning of it starts to get blurred.  But I never say never.
 
“I watched it.  I watched practice, I watched qualifying, watched the heat races.  So I certainly was glued to it from a spectator standpoint.  I was very impressed with the job that the drivers and the teams did.  I was expecting to see a lot more chaos.  So that part was fun and yeah, it made me think that I would like to get out there and try it.  But I have no plans to.”
 
REGARDING HOW BATTLING FOR A CHASE SPOT NOW IS AS INTENSE AS IT WAS THE FIRST TIME THE CHASE WAS AROUND:
“This year has been a strange year for us.  I feel like last year we showed a little bit more speed up to this point and I felt like all we needed were some breaks to go our way, and a few slight changes to get ourselves in.   This year we just can’t seem to really get ahold of it. I am approaching it the same way where I give the best information that I can to the team.  You know, continue to just work as hard as I can as a driver to bring us together to make those opportunities happen.  The last couple weeks have gone decent, but know we are capable of just doing so much
more.  So it’s frustrating. It is.  There has been frustration throughout the team that we haven’t been able to perform better than we have.
 
“So every year we have gone through this, it’s a different kind of stress level.  There are stress levels of meeting your full potential, there are stress levels of trying to not let some silly thing happen, or there is the stress level of one little incident.  For me this year it’s been a combination of needing more performance – especially in qualifying – and then I drew number one for qualifying.  So that is going to be interesting.
 
“And also this year I feel it’s been very difficult, because we haven’t qualified good and being further back in the pack and not being able to pass, and not being able to get up through there.   Or it seems like we are not able to get the strategy timed out at the right time.  Seems like there have been many times this year where we try to short pit the caution comes out, and when we try and stay out a caution comes at the wrong time.  So those kinds of things have been frustrating this year.  None of it stops us from working hard together.  We have been through enough that this team sticks together and they fight and we will continue to do that all the way to the end of the season.”  
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 2, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the challenges at Pocono and of her year to date, her relationship with GoDaddy, the upcoming road race at Watkins Glen, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT THE JUNE POCONO RACE THAT YOU CAN BRING TO THIS RACE?
“Well, all I can think about is that we never did any qualifying runs last time when we were here, with the weather. And all we’ve done so far is qualifying runs. So it’s a very different Pocono, this time around. We’re just trying to work with it.
 
“We fired off okay and it just seemed like as we tried to increase speed, we were finding some issues that were preventing us from being able to go faster. So, we’re trying to keep up with what the car does in qualifying trim. So, it didn’t end up great, but hopefully it will be good in qualifying. It’s challenging to pass here. But I think that our race set-up is good. I felt like it was one of the more balanced cars that we’ve had so far this year, here. So, I think that we have a good direction to go for race runs, but we all know how important qualifying is.”
 
IS THERE A PARTICULAR AREA ON THE TRACK WHERE YOU CAN SEE POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENT?
“Umm, when you’re turning the wheel (laughter). All three corners are pretty different, but definitely in the race, (Turn) 3 is very important because it’s the longest straightaway. And in qualifying (Turn) 2 is very important because it’s so fast. I’m looking at like what Tony (Stewart) is doing and I’m like I can’t do that, yet! But I’ll keep working on it.”
 
WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN YOU SAW FOOTAGE OF TONY STEWART’S FLIPPING FIVE TIMES IN A SPRINT CAR?
“Yeah, I did see that footage. I think he really much love his Sprint Car racing.”
 
HE SAID THAT US MORTALS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT WASN’T A BAD SPRINT CAR FLIP
“Was it because it was slower?”
 
BECAUSE IT WAS KIND OF A LAZY FLIP AND IT WASN’T VERY VIOLENT
“He didn’t do a double flip? Just a single is no big deal? Well, I do understand obviously with how much Ricky loves Sprint Car racing and racing on dirt, that flipping and crashing is very much a part of that sport. And you catch the berm or you clip tires; I mean, it’s an open-wheel car. So, as Tony would say, ‘It’s the open-wheel car; it’s the original open-wheel car’. So, it happens. And with how much they race, some of them race 130 times a year; some race 80 or 90 times a year. There are a lot of chances for accidents when that happens. So, it’s not for me, but those who love it, very much love it.”
 
DID YOU GET A NATIONWIDE RIDE FOR NEXT WEEK? ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT RACE?
“Not at this point. But I can’t say that for sure won’t happen because my Talladega ride was fairly last minute, too. At this point in time, I’m just doing Cup and the good news is I have been there in an IndyCar so unfortunately we wrecked on the first corner last year at Watkins Glen in the Nationwide car, but we’ll get some practice in this time and be ready.”
 
YOU TESTED THERE IN A CUP CAR, DIDN’T YOU?
“No. We tested at Road Atlanta this week. The car felt really good when we went and tested. It is about as good as it’s unloaded off the truck at any point this year; anywhere we’ve gone. So, I hope that translates to good things. It’s not a bad thing, anyway.”
 
DO YOU FEEL GOOD IN GENERAL ABOUT A ROAD COURSE?
“If you had asked me when I was at Sonoma or anywhere around then, I would have said I don’t feel very good. But our test at Road Atlanta was very good, and in general I feel very comfortable on road courses. So, it will be nice because the road courses are a real opportunity for me to get the GoDaddy car further up where some of these tracks are a little bit more challenging for me. So, it’s definitely not Nationwide, when you’re racing Cup on the road courses, but I still feel like there’s an opportunity to have a decent weekend if we can nail the balance of the car and qualify well.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP AND CONVERSATION WITH THE NEW CEO OF GODADDY?
‘Yeah, Blake (Irving) is a great guy. I’ve met him quite a few times now and spent a lot of time with him. Well, the first time I met him I went in to just say hello and I spend 45 minutes in his office. He’s got a lot of great ideas. He’s got a lot of big plans for GoDaddy. He’s very good at what he does and he has the power to make what he wants to happen, happen because he has a lot of good people that he’s worked with over the years with the other companies that he has worked with. GoDaddy is an incredible company. They’ve grown so much over the last decade and that’s not going to end by any means.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE HE WILL BE A FORCE TO HELP YOU CONTINUE ON?
“Well, Blake (Irving) loves racing with is good. He’s son is really into cars and that’s always a good thing when someone like that likes racing. But you know, it’s still about making that relationship work and making sure that there’s a return on investment for what they’re doing. It’s my job to get out there and represent the company well, to finish well for them so it’s in the papers and on TV. And it’s their job now as Blake really wants to do, is educate the consumer as to what GoDaddy actually does other than domain names. So there’s a big mission. But it’s all in the process right now.”
 
DID HE GIVE YOU ANY ASSURANCES THAT YOU’D BE WITH GODADDY?
“I mean, GoDaddy has been an incredible partner for a really long time and like I said, the most important thing is that there is return on investment for them and that their company keeps growing. And if they keep growing and I’m a part of that, I feel like we’re linked together and we help each other with the success. But it takes two. So my job is to do the best I can for them, and hope that it always continues. It’s been great so far for a long time and we’ve done a couple of contracts, so yeah. I like to think in my mind it starts today, every day it starts, you know? And you just go out and do the best job you can.”
 
YOU’RE NOT ONE OF THOSE DRIVERS WHO LIKES TO GO OUT AND RACE EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK
“No, I’m not.”
 
IS RICKY (STENHOUSE) LIKE THAT?
“Yes, he is.”
 
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MINDSET AND WHERE IT COMES FROM?
“Yeah, you know, we were at a Kenny Chesney concert last night and this very topic came up and it was talking about how he could race every night. I just don’t have an interest in racing every single night. But coming from Sprint Car racing where you race 80 or 90 times a year, like he used to, 38 (races) is just nothing. So, Kenny was talking about how when he was younger, because well, Ricky is young, you know? And how he felt like he could perform every single night and do the same thing every day. And you get older and you know, maybe you don’t have that. Maybe you do. I feel like those Sprint Car drivers, man, they just love their racing. They are just are used to racing every night. I didn’t come from that background. I watched it. My dad was in it. He raced it and then he worked on the cars. And my mom and dad and sister would go watch on Sunday nights, but I just didn’t come from 90 races a year.”
 
YOU JOKED ABOUT TURNING THE STEERING WHEEL HERE, BUT IS IT A HANDLING ISSUE?  DID YOU SEE SOMETHING SIMILAR TO THAT AT INDY?
“I’m definitely working on getting into the corner better. I think that was an issue at Indy and it was an issue in qualifying out there, which is why when I started getting into the corner deeper that it was hitting the splitter and then it wasn’t able to turn and then it just sort of uncovers other issues. So yeah, I am. It started the year off really good from that perspective a
nd it was no issue getting into the corner, but for some reason a little bit lately, it is. I don’t know if it’s these bigger, faster tracks, or not; I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s Tony (Stewart) stepping-up his game (or) Ryan (Newman) getting more comfortable. But you know, it’s not a problem for me. I don’t mind when there are things that I have to work on because it’s something that I can control. When you’re doing everything you can and there’s no way to or you can’t seem to find speed or find a place to get it, then that’s frustrating. So, I understand that I’m a rookie. And I understand that I’m not Tony Stewart and I’m not Ryan Newman right now. And, they’re both extremely accomplished drivers. So, it’s not shocking me that I have things to work on. So I’ll just keep doing that.”
 
DO YOU FEEL ANY LESS PRESSURE OR IS IT CALMER HERE THIS WEEKEND AT POCONO THAN LAST WEEKEND AT INDY?
“No, I felt good last weekend, too. I have a good team around me that makes sure that I don’t feel overwhelmed or feel pressure from certain areas. We did a lot of work to promote the Brickyard 400, for sure, going back to Indianapolis to race a big event there. But I feel pressure every weekend. I don’t care where I go. I feel pressure going to a test. I want to do well everywhere I go and every time I get in the car. And it’s not a no-brainer for me yet. So, it doesn’t change from weekend to weekend for me.”
 
HOW DO YOU MEASURE THINGS? IS IT IN LEAPS AND BOUNDS, OR AT THIS POINT IS IT MORE ABOUT FINE-TUNING? HOW DO YOU ASSESS THINGS FOR YOURSELF?
“I think that it feels small right now, but I think when I look back in years from now, I’m going to see that it was big. But of course, being in the middle of it, the growth always feels small. So, it’s just a process I have to go through. And I hope I can look back and see the big growth because that will be a good thing for me.”
 
HOW DO YOU MEET THE CHALLENGE OF ACCEPTING THE GROWTH PROCESS? OBVIOUSLY, YOU’RE AT THIS LEVEL BECAUSE YOU ARE AN EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE PERSON. HOW DO YOU CONTROL THAT?
“It’s very hard to not get down when you’re not finishing where you want to, ultimately. But there are 42 other people that want to do the exact same thing that you’re doing or that you want to do. You just have to set small goals. That’s the only thing you can do to combat against getting frustrated in the process of where you’re at; set realistic goals. Realistic goals are the most important thing. For me, it’s just been Top 20 all year. And as soon as I finally start doing that all the time, I’ll adjust some. But for right now and for all year, it’s been that.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 2, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION 30TH ANNIVERSARY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed his week following winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the similarities between Indy and Pocono, his outlook for this weekend and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE TEAM HAVE GOT TO BE FEELING GOOD COMING INTO POCONO THIS WEEKEND?
“Well, we do especially because this was the place of our second top-five of the year here in the first race. Felt like we had a car then that was capable of winning and ironically it was the same chassis as what we ran at Indianapolis last week. Coming off of the win and the momentum of that on top of the fact that we have a little bit of history here with this car at this track, I really look forward to it.”
 
IN ALL THE CONGRATULATORY TEXTS AND EMAILS AND CALLS YOU GOT, DID YOU GET ANY FROM POTENTIAL SPONSORS OR TEAMS BECAUSE OF THE WIN?
“Nothing with respect to that. It was more a matter of friends and family and people that I hadn’t talked to that have helped me in my racing career at some point in my life. Those people I think reached out more than anything else. Obviously it didn’t hurt with respect to that but it’s not like a light switch where you can just flip it and everything turns on. I think it’s up to us as well to do the same thing we did last weekend and at least show that it’s not just a one off deal. We can duplicate and replicate the things that happened. We’ll see how things go.”
 
WITH WINNING AND BEING HIGHER NOW IN THE CHASE CONTENTION FOR THE WILD CARD, HOW DOES THAT CHANGE THINGS FOR THE TEAM? ARE YOU MORE COGNIZANT OF IT NOW?
“It gives us more hope. I mean we had hope in the first place and I’ve said it every time I’ve talked to you guys. We still have a chance of making the Chase whether it’s mathematically or winning. And a win answered the mathematically and winning. Another win would be amazing just based on the history of what I’ve seen with the wild cards. Two is pretty much going to lock you into a wild card spot. And we still have a shot. I think we’re 25 (points) out of 10th and there’s still a lot of racing to go. It hasn’t changed my mentality other than the fact that it changed I guess your hope. It doesn’t change my drive. My drive is to go out and do the exact same thing regardless.”
 
HOW DOES IT IMPACT THE TEAM?
“Same way. They have the same mentality that I do. We’re all on the same ship right now floating in the same direction.”
 
THIS IS A CAR YOU TALKED ABOUT RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS LAST WEEK AND YOU’VE RUN A NUMBER OF TIMES. GUYS HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE CARS ALL SEEM THE SAME, CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE WITH THIS CAR OR ARE THEY ALL THE SAME TO YOU?
“There’s nothing that stands out feel-wise that’s different. I think in the end maybe it’s just a matter of coincidence. Sometimes you do hit everything just right with a car where it bends the right way, the body is put on the right way, and things like that. But there’s nothing that I can say that says, ‘Man this car feels amazing compared to another car’. It’s not like we go to a test anymore and take two cars and run this car and then run that car. There’s no real answer that I can give you. Matt and the guys do a good job of taking each car to the wind tunnel and they seven-post the cars and things like that. But it’s hard to get that answer as far as if this car really is that much better. I just don’t feel it per se when it comes to just holding the wheel and pushing the pedals”
 
DID MONDAY FEEL ANY DIFFERENT? DID YOU DO ANYTHING TO CELEBRATE THIS WEEK? OR WAS IT JUST MONDAY AND THIS IS WHAT WE DO ON MONDAYS AND THE REST OF THE WEEK AND JUST FORGOTTEN ABOUT FOR THE MOST PART?
“I think more than anything else I was tired. I really was just tired and I’m still kind of catching back up. Between Tuesday and Wednesday at Eldora, and then we went over to my sister’s house on the west side of Indy on Thursday, and then the entire weekend and all the things. We stay really busy at Indy. It’s kind of like our second Daytona as far as media, events, and things like that. I was really just tired more than anything. I stayed up until 12:21 Sunday night responding to texts. I had 350 texts when I landed. So, that took me a little bit of time. And then everybody that you text responds with something else. It just made for a lot of work but I mean I was thankful for it. It was nice. I’d say of the 350, the coolest part was that there were eight people maybe where I had to text them back and ask who it was. It was just nice to see the people that reached out to congratulate me. There’s nothing that really felt different. I mean I’ve won races before. I’ve won Daytona. I’ve won Martinsville. I’ve won the big ones, I’ve won the “lesser” ones I guess you can say, but it’s still amazing. It’s just an amazing feeling to do what we did as a team. And a new team as I said with Matt and the guys. Matt and I have a lot of history but with these guys we had zero history at the start of the season. To win a big race like that felt amazing.”
 
YOU MADE CRAZY SPEED ALL WEEKEND AT INDIANAPOLIS, WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGE IS THAT? IT SEEMS LIKE THE 48 TEAM IS ABLE TO DO THAT A LOT CONSISTENTLY AT A LOT OF DIFFERENT TRACKS. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THEIR PERFORMANCE AND ABILITY TO DO THAT?
“I think there’s a part of it that is just pure preparation. There’s obviously an understanding. Whether it’s on Chad’s behalf or the engineer’s behalf or the engineering staff’s behalf back at the shop. I think that all that plays into a part of it. And Jimmie obviously, he has no Achilles’ heel. He’s good everywhere. That helps as well. I get to see the feedback of the drivers with our alliance with HMS and Jimmie has amazing feedback. Which I think definitely keeps things sharp. It keeps the pencil sharp at least for Chad to be able to keep doing the things that they do. They are not just good, they are great and that’s why it was additionally gratifying last week to beat somebody who is obviously one of the best and had proven to be the best last year at that race track.”
 
DO YOU GUYS FEEL LIKE YOU WERE AHEAD OF THE GAME AT INDY BECAUSE OF YOUR TOP-FIVE HERE AND DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE AHEAD HERE THIS WEEKEND BECAUSE OF THE WIN AT INDY?
“I think it helps, no doubt.  I think the tracks are closer than they have ever been basically on the premise of grip and ride quality.  But it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen.  We can mess it up way easier than we can make it right when it comes to the car and the chassis, and everything else.  But yes, based on our experience in the first race and carrying that same car and information over to Indianapolis, it has great potential for this weekend and that is why I am looking forward to it.”
 
HOW HAS THE INDY WIN HAD AN EFFECT ON YOUR FUTURE AND DO YOU HAVE ANY SPONSORS TO TAKE TO A TEAM NEXT YEAR?
“I don’t know.  You can sit there and talk to somebody but until the writing is on the paper and the ink is dried, you really don’t know.  But I am in a situation where the phone has not rung off the hook with sponsors, or car owners, or manufacturers or any of that.  I didn’t expect it to and I think some people kind of expect it to.  I am working on what I need to work on I feel to be in a good, competitive position next year.
 
“The win helps, but it’s not a light switch.  It doesn’t turn everything on bright.  It helps and gives you a vision, but there is more to it than that.  The $20 million sponsor just doesn’t jump right after you. I wish it did, but it doesn’t.”
 
REGARDING SINGLE WIN SEASONS, AND IF THIS TEAM IS REACTING DIFFERENT TO WIN ADDITIONAL RACES:
“I h
ave got some one-win seasons that I guess on one hand, to go along with your question – that I am proud of.  But at the same time I am not proud of – because when you win once, you should be able to keep winning if you have the tools to do it.  Some teams are fighting for that first victory for maybe not one, but three or four years.  So yes, I think for me it’s a challenge this weekend because I have never won at Indy, and Indy and Pocono are so close.  I think the last person to do it that I remember was Bill Elliott….to go back-to-back and get that done.  I see it as a challenge and I don’t necessarily see anything that our team needs to avoid other than the things we have learned in the first few races before Indianapolis.  We had a bad pit stop at Indianapolis too, but it just wasn’t the last pit stop.   And everything that is negative, you have to avoid.   You are still going to have the negative in there, and it’s how you overcome those things that make you a winner.”
 
GIVEN HOW WELL YOU DID HERE IN JUNE AND THE WIN LAST WEEKEND, HOW DO YOU CARRY THAT MOMENTUM IN HERE ON SUNDAY?
“There are no guarantees, but it’s the same race car and I feel like we have been able to sharpen up some of the things that we did in the June race here.  We have done a lot of testing since then and obviously a lot of racing, and the Indianapolis race was huge.  So hopefully we can make it happen but like I said, there are no guarantees.   It is probably the closest back-to-back races that we have in the season that are somewhat similar on the set-up side.”
 
YOU RAN LAST WEDNESDAY AT ELDORA, AND WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE DOWN THE ROAD NASCAR SCHEDULE A MONDAY NIGHT OR MID-WEEK RACE?
“I think it would be awesome and I have said that for a long time.  I said after Eldora that I can’t believe they are spending $400 million at Daytona when they just need to move dirt in. (laughs) Dirt is cheap…well, it’s not exactly cheap, but it’s cheaper than $400 million.   I think it would be amazing for our sport and I think Eldora was successful from a racer’s standpoint.  I did not see it necessarily from a fan standpoint, but I did actually watch the race afterwards.  I have a biased opinion sitting from my perspective, but I think it would be good and there is a market out there for it.  I think it makes sense to do it during the week, and I have said that for a while.  I wish that we could actually race on a week night and make it simple, and make it good for the fans so that they could come out and be a part of it and free up some of our weekends so that we can have somewhat of a normal life.”
 
REGARDING INDY AND POCONO, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE EITHER ONE OF THESE TRACKS IN THE CHASE?
“I don’t really see the need to have either one of these tracks in the Chase.   To me the only wild card in the Chase is Talladega.  I think it would be…..and I think I have said it before….whether it’s even achievable or not, but I would like to replace Talladega with a road course race in the Chase.  What we do at Talladega is so random and your success can be – or your lack of success can depend on, somebody else’s inability so easily there that it’s not the ideal place to have a Chase race.  That is my personal preference.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 2, 2013
 
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 FXI GUTTERCLEAR 365 CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed running at Pocono, similarities between Indianapolis and Pocono, what it means to be in the Chase verses not being in the Chase and much more. Full transcript.
 
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RUNNING HERE AT POCONO:
“I think coming off of last week in Indy and everything that was learned there it will be interesting to see who ran well at Indy and also who can run well here. The tracks aren’t the same by any means, but they are a lot closer since Pocono was paved. We came here and tested in the spring and thought that really helped our program. We came here and ran okay. We had a good car, but didn’t finish as well as we needed to or wanted to. It’s going to be interesting. I think the biggest thing about this weekend is the people that ran well at Indy can they take the same stuff and run well here. I think everybody’s going to try. It will be interesting to see. We had a better car on Saturday than we had on Sunday. It seemed like everybody was affected by traffic for sure. I think our set up was affected a little more than most people’s. We didn’t run quite as well on Sunday as we did Saturday last week, so we made some adjustments and hopefully we learned something from Indy that we can apply here.”
 
WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF TRAFFIC SORT OF IN AND OUT OF THE TOP 10 IN POINTS OVER THE LAST FOUR TO SIX WEEKS; DO YOU SEE THAT CONTINUING OVER THESE NEXT SIX WEEKS?
“I see it continuing. I think there is a lot of inconsistency this year. You look at the teams that are from 10th to 20th, there’s just a great deal of inconsistency in there. None of those teams have shown the ability to maintain momentum. None of those teams have shown the ability from a speed standpoint or a reliability standpoint to get on a roll. Someone will, but I don’t know who that is. Honestly going into Indy I felt like there had been so many things that had gone wrong for us and we had been running so much better that I really felt like we were on the verge to getting on a roll then we had that issue last week. I think all those teams can make that comment. It just seems nobody can get in a rhythm. Someone will, but I expect to see a lot of inconsistencies. Now we’ve got Ryan (Newman) winning last week. That puts more pressure on more teams. That more pressure forces people to do things that otherwise they wouldn’t do and mistakes pop up. So, I think the next six weeks is going to be really interesting. I think it’s going to be a dog fight.”
 
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE NO. 48 TEAM’S PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR, AND HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE COMPARISON BETWEEN THEIR PERFORMANCE AND THE REST OF THE FIELD?
“I think Matt (Kenseth) and his team have in some ways matched it, and in some ways maybe even out performed them. If you look at the mechanical issues the No. 20 team has had and you take those out and you match the reliability of the No. 48, maybe they look the best. Those two teams to me have stood out as being the two best, the two teams that have been able to make the most speed, the two teams that have been able to execute when the opportunity was there. It’s hard to talk about the No. 48 and Jimmie (Johnson) and what they do because what they’ve been doing is what is expected of them. They’ve set the bar so high that when they do phenomenal things it’s oh well its Jimmie. It’s not that big of a deal. It is a big deal, but it’s not perceived as a big deal. So, it’s really hard to put your finger on them because they have such a lofty expectation level. It’s like a football team that wins 14 regular season games. Nobody talks about it because it’s expected and that’s kind of how they are. What they have been doing is phenomenal but it’s almost expected of them.”
 
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE IMPACT OF MAKING THE CHASE VERSES NOT MAKING THE CHASE FOR TEAMS LIKE YOURS?
“It’s big. When you go into that 10-race shootout and you have a chance to win the championship, there’s a completely different feeling and a completely different environment that revolves around a team. Now you may be going into it without really looking at it by any means being the favorite, you might be going into it being the favorite, but you all go into it knowing you have a shot. Those weeks leading up to the Chase, whether you’re fighting to get into it or you already know you’re in it, that’s what it’s all about. When you don’t have it, it’s extremely disappointing and extremely discouraging to everybody involved. These team members, not only the ones on the road but the ones at home; they put their heart and soul into this thing. When you have a goal of making the Chase, and all your efforts are about making the Chase and you’re not going to, what’s your goal? If you have to diminish and lessen your goals, that’s not what any sporting team or business or anything else wants to do. So, it’s a demoralizing event. When that time comes where you are like we can’t make it, it’s just demoralizing. It is. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve still got to keep digging. But it’s a whole lot harder to bring the same effort that a team that’s in the Chase is bringing. It’s harder to bring that effort. You try and you put your effort into it. You get up in the morning thinking about it and you’re wanting to go and prove yourself, your team is wanting to prove themselves and you want to do it together, but it’s not the same as being in the Chase.”
 
WE’VE HEARD FOR YEARS WHERE DRIVERS WILL SAY, FROM WHERE I WAS SITTING THAT WAS AN EXCITING RACE BUT THE FANS WATCHING ON T.V. ARE SAYING ONE LEAD CHANGE UNDER GREEN ALL DAY, IS THERE ANY WAY YOU AS A DRIVER CAN APPRECIATE WHAT THE FANS ARE THINKING? AND IS THERE ANY WAY THE FANS CAN APPRECIATE WHAT YOU’RE THINKING WHEN THE RACE SEEMS TO BE SO DIFFERENT FROM THOSE TWO PERSPECTIVES?
“Not completely. Some drivers aren’t race fans. They race because it’s about them which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. We have other drivers that are big race fans. If a driver is a race fan, I think he can understand what the race fans are thinking and what they are saying but not in the extent that you pay however much money as you pay to sit in your seat and you watch a raced that wasn’t satisfying to you. The driver, no matter what the quality of the race is for the fan, his effort and his dedication it might be racing for 15th but he’s doing is best all day to find a way to go to 14th. I go up in the tower a few times a year, go up on the spotters stand or whatever and watch a race, man it’s a different perspective. It looks like everybody is just riding around. I’ll be honest, I’ve driven these things for a long time, there’s times I’m up there thinking man just drive it in the corner, but it’s just not that easy. It’s hard for both sides to see the other side, but I think drivers understand the fans want to see exciting racing. I think the fans know that the drivers want to be involved in exciting racing. It’s way more fun to run side by side and be in the middle of a real tight battle than it is to be nose to tail trying to find your way around one guy. It just is, so we want to be part of that too.”
 
THIS IS KIND OF A UNIQUE TRACK STARTING WITH THE CONFIGURATION, BUT OVER THE YEARS WE’VE SEEN SOME ODD THING HAPPEN LIKE A FAN WALKING ACROSS THE TRACK, KASEY KAHNE’S CAR GETTING INTO THE TREES OVER AT THE TUNNEL TURN, WHAT’S THE STRANGEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU AT THIS TRACK?
“The fact that they paint a lot of rocks here I think is pretty strange. That must be a Mattioli thing. I thought you were describing Saturday night racing at South Boston there for a little while, people throwing coolers and wildlife running across the track. I can’t say that I’ve had anything all that strange happen h
ere, but when you’re at a 2.5-mile race track and you have three distinct corners, this is a recipe for strange things to happen. It’s in a really interesting part of the country and there is so much wildlife here. It’s a very rural area. All that opens a door for opportunity for things you won’t see necessarily at Indianapolis for example. It’s a unique facility. There’s a lot of history here. When you come in here you can’t think but of Doc (Joe Mattioli) and everything they did to make this race track. I think the boys deserve a lot of credit, the newer generation for really trying to make this track a premier race track. Not only the big track, but the road course too. This new road course that they’ve put in is just a phenomenal facility. I think they deserve a lot of credit trying to step up the quality of the track, the quality of the experience for the fans and the competitors. They have taken a big gamble. Doc was very, very conservative in spending the money as related to continuing to update it. They have taken a different approach. It’s a bit of a gamble for them. They deserve a lot of credit. They’ve made some major expenditures in an effort to try to improve racing for people in this area. Not just stock car racing, but other kinds of racing as well. They need to be commended for that.”
 
DO YOU THINK THAT THIS SPORT NEEDS SOME YOUNG DRIVERS TO CHALLENGE SOME OF THE VETERANS TO BRING IN THE YOUNGER FAN BASE?
“I think we’ve seen a shortage of young drivers coming in over the years because of the lack of sponsorship. I think that part of the cycle of this sport is young drivers. Part of the cycle of this sport is veterans verses new guys. I think that’s exciting. As a 46-year-old driver I understand there’s a lot of young guys that want my seat. By the way, when I was 26 I wanted their seat. That’s how it works and that’s part of it. I think it’s good for the sport to see a mixture of veterans, a mixture of young guys, and a mixture of guys that are kind of on the brink of being one or the other. So, yeah I do. I think we’ve had a shortage, we haven’t seen a lot of rollover. Because of what has gone on in Nationwide, Trucks and other series no driver has ever really stood out because not a lot of drivers are getting the chance that I got or some other guys got. Sponsorship is dried up; a lot of things have happened that’s made it harder for younger guys to break into the Cup level. Yes, I do think it’s good for the sport. It’s natural, it’s what happens. You know, Richard Petty doesn’t drive anymore. Harry Gant doesn’t drive anymore. Those things cycle and it’s good for our sport.”
 
IS THE NEW CAR WHAT YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE LACK OF CONSISTENCY YOU MENTIONED EARLIER?
“I don’t think so. Really the new car is an aerodynamic change. Parts and pieces aren’t breaking on the new car, because of the new car rather. I think it’s just competitive. This sport from first to 24th is pretty darn competitive. The 30th place car isn’t as competitive as in the sports heyday, there’s no denying that. Those top 23 or top 24 are just really good teams. When you have a bad day it stands out. It really stands out. Good teams can run 18th. That’s what I think has created the inconsistency. It’s just so hard to be good everywhere. Our teams are getting smarter and smarter. It used to be that we would come to Charlotte, Atlanta, Chicago or whatever race tracks and we would run the same set up. Maybe the sway bar is a little different, maybe a little less right rear spring, maybe the track bar a little lower, but it was pretty much a basic set up. Today, every race track has its own unique deal because of engineers and all the science and technology that has gotten into our sport allows that to happen. Somebody gets good somewhere at a particular race track; they could be good there but not be good the next week. We really see that in those teams that are from eighth to 20th. Those other teams, they seem to run well everywhere. That eighth to 20th deal, none of those teams, that includes us, have found a way to be good at almost any kind of race track.”
 
REGARDING THE INDIANAPOLIS/POCONO CONNECTION, WHAT EXACTLY TRANSLATES AND IS IT STILL AS TRANSLATABLE WITH THIS CAR?
“It’s more translatable since they’ve paved this track. I never understood how Indy had anything to do with Pocono when this track was a rough as it was and this track had zero grip compared to Indy. Now that this track was paved, there are some similarities in the sense that you have long straightaways. It’s all about aerodynamics, that’s what it boils down to. How you can get your car to sit down the straightaways verses the way it sits in the corners. Because you have long straightaways at both race tracks and both race tracks are smooth, both race tracks have limited banking, that opens the door to similar philosophies from one race track to the next. That’s really what it boils down to, banking, smoothness, grip level; those kinds of things are what make the track. So you can use a basic philosophy from one race track to the next.”
 
SO THE NEW CAR DOESN’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
“I don’t think so. That’s my opinion. I don’t really see why this car would make any more difference than the old car. It’s really about the track.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING.COM 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 2, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PLANES CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed his workout routine on the weekend, his outlook for this weekend at Pocono and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR PAINT SCHEME THIS WEEKEND AND YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEKEND:
“Excited for it for sure, the Dover race earlier this year, I can’t remember what we had on.  Was it Madagascar 3?  Yeah, that is right I just didn’t have a wig to wear this time.  No, I won with 3 what was on the car earlier this year?”
 
THAT WAS DOVER LAST YEAR:
“But Dover this year I had something on there too.  You can tell it’s really embedded in my mind.  Anyway I think they are cool.  It’s great to have them on the race car.  It gets my daughter excited.  The way I became a fan was going to the race track as a kid and if we can capture young eyes and have them watch a race for whatever reason, if it’s a cartoon that they enjoy or a movie from Disney that they enjoy it’s helpful.  I think it’s good for all of us.  It’s fun to have the car look different and everything that kind of spins off from it.  We have had very fast race cars when we have had the Disney movies on our race car.  Excited for the opportunity I think Dane Cook is going to be here this weekend which will be fun.  I’m sure he will make some people smile and laugh.  From what I understand the fly over is going to be exciting too with the plane from the movie. All in all, just a fun way to tie it all in.  I think it’s good for the track, good for Lowe’s, good for myself, good for NASCAR and hopefully we get some new young fans out of it.”
 
MONSTER’S UNIVERSITY:
“That’s what it was Monster’s U.”
 
DOES IT MOTIVATE YOU GUYS WHEN YOU LOSE A RACE LIKE THAT TO COME BACK?
“No, I mean there is more frustration in it than anything.  I mean you hate to give away race wins for whatever reason, especially when you have a dominate car.  Whatever the mistake may be and where it comes from driver or team you just hate having that on your shoulders for the week following.  You are just eager to get on the track and get that behind you.  For me it hasn’t brought anymore focus or drive or meaning to the next event.  It’s some ways some relief, it’s something new to talk about, something new to put your mind on and to move forward from there.”
 
YOU HAVE BEEN DOMINATING THIS WHOLE YEAR IN POINTS.  DOES THAT INFLUENCE THE WAY YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ACTUALLY GO INTO THE CHASE? DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE?  DOES THAT INFLUENCE ANYTHING THAT YOUR TEAM DOES?
“It’s nice to have the point’s lead.  I think it sends a message to the garage area that we are good on all types of tracks, all types of situations.  But through it all even though I have a huge points lead right now I still have my eyes on three or four cars that I think will be the guys to deal with in the Chase.  I watch them and their performance and how they run, especially on Chase tracks that we have a chance to race at in the regular season and form opinions through all of that.  There is nothing negative to come from the point’s lead and having a big one.   I think race wins sends a really strong message too especially late in the regular season.  If we could win some races that would be another very helpful thing for the No. 48 team.  When things change in September and you are seeded based on wins, 75 points we have now, right now we would be tied with Matt (Kenseth).  I don’t know I guess it would be 40 points, no 20 points, to the lowest person.  We are 75 up now.  It just shrinks so quick and getting into the Chase no matter how dominant you are your point’s lead is never going to be a 75 point spread.  I’m enjoying life now, but I know things are going to get really intense here in 6, 8 weeks, whatever it is.”
 
WHAT DO YOU AND YOUR FELLOW COMPETITORS DO TO STAY IN SHAPE ON THE LONG WEEKEND OTHER THAN GET BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THE RACE CAR?
“I think a lot of us focus during the week in Monday to Thursday, our travel day is when a more structured workout routine and most of us have a trainer that we work with or nutritionist.  If it’s your own individual group of people you work with or someone that the team uses for the pit crew guys.  For myself when I get to the track on the weekends I still stay active.  I got up this morning and ran 6 (miles).  Tomorrow I’m going to ride, it’s just for fun just to stay active and tomorrow’s ride is a lot of fun.  There is a group of probably; it depends, but 8-15 guys that ride and the majority of them are all crew members.  We have our bikes here and we will load up and ride.  This is pretty hilly terrain around here so we will ride; I think this ride is about 50 miles and 5,000 feet of climbing.  We will ride on a Saturday.  That again it’s not a killer pace, we are not trying to race we are just riding along.  If we see a little country store we will stop and grab a Gatorade and a snack, talk a little bit and head off to the next spot.  It’s really a fun way to burn some calories, stay fit and get through the afternoon and not sit in the motorhome on a weekend and eat way too many calories watching television.”
 
HOW DO YOU USE THE NEXT SIX WEEKS?  DO YOU GO AFTER WINS AND THOSE POINTS OR CAN YOU GUYS USE THOSE SIX RACES TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE CAR AND EXPERIMENT?
“Honestly, we need to do both.  We have great speed now, but in two months’ time a lot can change.  If the Chase started now we would probably be more conservative and just refine the package that we have now.  You can’t give the garage two months things are going to change too much.  We will try to manage both.  I think the closer we get to the Chase the importance definitely is on winning, but top three’s, top five’s is really the motivation there and to get into that rhythm. To feel the pressure from a driver’s stand point to perform each week and also for the pit crew on pit road there is just a mental advantage, I believe, if you are able to live in that top three world week in and week out.  That is the world you have to be in to win the championship.  If you are running, 15th, 18th and then expect to handle all forms of pressure when the Chase starts, I just don’t think that is all that possible.”
 
WITH WATKINS GLEN COMING UP I JUST WANT TO TAKE YOU BACK TO LAST YEAR.  YOU FINISHED THIRD THERE, BUT THE END OF THE RACE WAS SO CRAZY.  WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE END OF THAT RACE?  JUST GENERALLY SPEAKING WHY HAVE ROAD COURSES GOTTEN SO CRAZY?
“They were too far ahead for me to really see.  My spotters around the race track kept encouraging me to stay on the road and hurry up because the leaders were going to crash and wreck.  When I saw the video now I understand why.  It was a really exciting final lap or so.  I think that we have all become very comfortable behind the wheels of these cars on the road courses.  When a so called ringer comes in I’m not sure if they really run in the top-10 any longer.  All the oval specialists have worked very hard to understand road course racing and the teams have as well.  It’s a chance for a win and I think guys are very hunger to win on road courses because there are only two a year and we all want to be well balanced racers.  We all want that nod of the hat, that ‘W’ in the win column that you have won on a road course.  I know that I did and I still want more.  I would love to have more than just one and hopefully we can get one at ‘the Gle
n’.”
 
YOU ARE ONE OF SIX GUYS THAT HAVE SWEPT THE SEASON RACES HERE AT POCONO.  YOU HAD A SWEEP AT DAYTONA THIS YEAR.  WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SWEEP RACES?  WHAT IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS RACE AS OPPOSED TO EIGHT WEEKS AGO HERE?
“Pocono to me has always been a track that I felt a sweep is possible and easier to have a sweep here than other tracks just due to the calendar.  There is not a lot of time between the first race and the second race.  Things don’t change a ton.  The track doesn’t change a ton although it does lose some grip later in the season.  With the cool temperatures this weekend I’m not sure it’s going to be much different than what we had in the spring.  The Daytona sweep I would say is probably the hardest one to get.  When you look at restrictor plate racing and the draft and how many cars really have a shot to win, I think the odds shift the other way pretty far.  For a while there I think the first handful of years of my career we were able to sweep each year.  We had a nice consecutive streak going then that came to an end.  I’ve personally enjoyed sweeps. They have meant a lot to me and happy that I have one this year.  It would be awesome to have two sweeps in a year if that is possible this weekend.”
 
YOU ARE NOT USING THE SAME CHASSIS THIS WEEKEND AT POCONO THAT YOU USED LAST WEEKEND AT INDY.  HOW MUCH DO YOU LEAN ON ONE FOR THE OTHER GIVEN THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE TWO RACE TRACKS?
“We took the race winning car from here to Indy and finishing where we did we just didn’t get the car back in time to turn around and bring it here.  We would have loved to have brought that race car here.  We feel like in today’s world in the rules and the templates and everything it takes to bring a race car to the track today it’s much easier to repeat and bring a car as good if not better than five, six years ago especially the gen-4 race car.  It was very tough to repeat with those cars.  We definitely did have a favorite there.  Anymore I can’t tell the difference.  I know that we have our latest package on this car and it shouldn’t be a lot different than what we had before.”
 
PEOPLE ARE USING THE WORLD DOMINATE OFTEN TO DESCRIBE YOUR SEASON.  HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE YOUR COMPETITIVENESS AND SPEED EVERY WEEKEND TO THE BEST SEASONS YOU HAVE HAD TO DATE?
“I feel like the team, the cars, our racing ability and the things needed to be dominate it’s right there if not a touch ahead of my best year where I think I won 10 races.  The difference is execution.  We have left races sitting on the table.  We have the foundation of our most dominate year, but finishing it off and executing we have given up some races this year.  That would be the only difference in it, the only thing that would kind of pull it back down.”
 
SOME TALK LAST WEEK ABOUT PASSING VERSUS RACING AND WHAT MAKES A GOOD RACE.  FROM A DRIVER’S STAND POINT HOW MUCH MORE FRANTIC IF IT IS MORE FRANTIC FOR A DRIVER ONCE YOU LOSE ALL THE TRACK POSITION YOU HAVE HAD ALL DAY?
“It gets really frantic to be honest with you.  Especially if you haven’t been in traffic throughout the day and you have set your car up to run in clean air typically you can have the car a lot freer when you have the whole race track to yourself and solid clean consistent air on the car.  For me when I got in traffic last week my car would get a lot looser.  I was already on the free side and was already struggling up off the corner, but having the lead like we did, clean air, stable air, I could really use that to my advantage.  Lap traffic was a struggle then trying to run Ryan (Newman) down at the end was tough.  Obviously, didn’t get there and I only feel to second and I’m not saying that is why I didn’t catch Ryan. If you go from first to 15th it’s a game changer.  Your car drives so different.  Especially if you have run up front for an adjustment or two and you fall back it is a totally different world deep in traffic.”
 
YOU HAVE SAVED YOUR NASCAR TESTS TO THE LATTER PART OF THE SEASON WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE OR IS THERE A FEAR OF TOO MUCH WORK FOR THESE GUYS AT THE LATTER PART OF THE SEASON AND WHERE DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT IS GOING TO HELP YOU THE MOST AS YOU GUYS DO THESE TESTS UPCOMING?
“That is a great point we are definitely going to work our guys hard.  You have to build great depth in your team so that you can let your road crew guys sit home while the team goes and tests.  That is one thing we have been working hard on to make sure that we don’t have our race day road crew guys just getting worked to the bone. Although some cross over and go regardless we can’t get around that, but what really changes it this year and makes it less specific per team is the rules. You have to test as an organization.  So to get all four drivers and crew chiefs to agree on what are the most important tracks we all have to compromise a little bit.  Strategically we wanted to save some tests around the end of the regular season in case we had someone on the fence there and needed to get them into the Chase.  We have been preserving our tests waiting for the right strategy and trying to think what is best for the company, what gives the company the best opportunity to win a championship. Clearly testing at Chase tracks is the best thing for that.  It will put a strain on our crew and we have been trying to build depth.  Especially Chad’s (Knaus) side of things he has believed in depth for a long time and we can go look at our over-the-wall crew and see what he has done there.  We have the same thing going on in the shop.  I feel as far as the No. 48 team goes it’s going to be tough, but the guys are excited for it.  We do have some depth to get some rest.”
 
WAS THERE ANY EXTRA WORK DONE ON PIT STOPS THIS WEEK OR ANYTHING AFTER THE LAST ONE DIDN’T GO SO WELL ON SUNDAY?
“Not that I’m aware of.  I talked to the guys Sunday night and just asked them to enjoy the pain, let it sit there, let it hurt, let it bother you, but Monday morning when they started hitting lugnuts and jacking the car and going through their routine that it was out of their mind.  I asked them also to be fearless when they hopped off the wall this weekend and just do their jobs.  The worst thing any of us can do that have to go out and perform is to carry something in the back of your mind mentally.  That will do more damage than you can ever imagine.  We had some great conversations Sunday evening.  The guys had solid stops all week and I didn’t hear of anything additional.  Just kind of a normal week for the guys.”
 
WHEN YOU WIN SO MUCH AND WHEN YOU RUN UP FRONT SO MUCH DOES IT MAKE THE TOUGH LOSSES EASIER TO FORGET ABOUT THAN MOVE ON FROM THAN SAY A BACK OF THE PACK DRIVER WHO THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN HIS ONLY CHANCE TO WIN?
“It’s hard to say.  I mean Indy means so much to everybody.  I think that one stings universally it doesn’t matter if you are a regular up front or wherever you run.  For me my eye has always been on the big prize and that is the championship.  The comments I made following the race were sincere in how I felt because of where my viewpoint is.  I’m not going to make a comment that is going to tear down my race team and prevent us from winning the big prize, winning the championship.  That is the way we all think on the No. 48.  Eye on the big prize, it absolutely stung.  It wasn’t fun for any of us, but the best thing we could do is get back to our jobs and fortunately or unfortunately forget about Indy and move on. The faster we move on from that the better we are going to do here.”  
 

Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Teams Ready for Challenge of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
 
LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 31, 2013) – After a short break in the schedule, the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers head to the rolling hills of central Ohio to take on the challenges of the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Lexington, Ohio.
 
“Team Chevy is anxious to get back to racing after a couple of weekends off to recharge,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “The Mid-Ohio circuit is always a favorite that poses a highly technical challenge for the drivers and teams to get the most out of their cars.  The Open Test hosted by IndyCar on Wednesday will provide a good opportunity to get dialed in before the race weekend starts.  With a baseline from last year when Team Chevy secured 7 of the top 10 finishers, we have a strong foundation to build upon, coupled with significant improvements since then and the best engine reliability in the Series.  It should be another great IZOD IndyCar race weekend for the fans.”
 
With just six races remaining in the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season, the 90-lap/203.22-mile race is pivotal in the overall championship battle.  Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves holds a 29-point lead after 13 races as he prepares for the Honda Indy 200 at the track where in 10 previous career starts, he has earned two wins (2000 and 2001), two poles and five podium finishes.  He’s led 141 laps at Mid-Ohio over the years and has completed all but three laps of competition in his starts.  Castroneves has one win this season, in June at Texas Motor Speedway.
 
Defending Series’ champion, Ryan Hunter-Reay, sits third in the standings on the strength of two wins (Barber Motorsports Park and Milwaukee Mile) with his Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti sitting fourth in points.
 
Chevrolet continues to lead the Manufacturers’ Championship standings with seven wins to-date.
 
Qualifying for Sunday’s race will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network on Saturday, August 3, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
 
Sunday’s race is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network.
 
Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at

Brickyard 400
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
 
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Indianapolis Motor Speedway       
July 28, 2013  
 
Race Highlights:  
Richard Childress Racing teammates finished 12th (Paul Menard), 19th (Kevin Harvick), 26th (Austin Dillon) and 43rd (Jeff Burton) in the Brickyard 400.
Following the event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Harvick remains fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, trailing leader Jimmie Johnson by 92 markers, while Paul Menard sits 19th, 39 points outside of the top 10, and Burton ranks 20th, 241 points back from the leader.
The No. 29 Chevrolet SS team ranks fourth in the Sprint Cup Series owner championship point standings, with the No. 27 team 20th in the standings and the No. 31 team 21st.
According to NASCAR’s Post-Race Loop Data Statistics, Menard ranked third in Green Flag Passes making 119 throughout the course of the 160-lap event, and was credited with one of the Fastest Laps Run.
Harvick made 99 Green-Flag Passes, ranking him fifth in the loop-data category, 29 of those passes came while running in the top 15 (Quality Passes).
Burton completed 53 Green-Flag Passes during 160-lap event and was credited with two of the Fastest Laps Run.
Dillon made 74 Green-Flap Passes during the Brickyard 400.
Ryan Newman earned his first victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is the GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, August 4. The 21st race of the 2013 season is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN beginning at Noon Eastern Time and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Satellite Radio channel 90.
 
 
Menard Finishes 12th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400
 
Paul Menard started the No. 27 Duracell/Menards Chevrolet from the 23rd position and persevered through handling issues to finish 12th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. In the early stages of the Brickyard 400, Menard relayed to the crew that he was fighting a loose-handling condition. Crew chief “Slugger” Labbe elected to make a variety of chassis adjustments during the ensuing pit stops to help remedy the handling issues. Restarting 19th after a lap 83 pit stop, Menard quickly picked up three positions and was running in 14th when he communicated to the crew his car was the best it had been all day. On a different pit strategy than the majority of the 43-car field, Menard was able to stay out and lead lap 146 before bringing his No. 27 machine down pit road one final time on lap 147. Pitting for right-side tires and fuel only, the Richard Childress Racing driver restarted 17th with just 12 laps remaining. Determined to make his way back toward the front of the field, Menard gained five spots in the final laps to finish 12th at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Menard sits in the 19th spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into Pocono Raceway next weekend.
 
Start – 23         Finish – 12         Laps Led – 1         Points – 19th
 
PAUL MENARD QUOTE:
“We battled handling issues throughout the majority of the race, but the guys never gave up. The No. 27 Duracell/Menards crew worked hard all day and we made a bunch of different adjustments. ‘Slugger’ (Labbe, crew chief) did a great job on the box with pit strategy; it wasn’t an easy race to call. The whole team fought hard all day and we were able to come home with a 12th-place finish.”
 
 
 
     
Harvick and the No. 29 Jimmy John’s Team
Settle for a 19th-Place Finish in the Brickyard 400
 
Following a string of nine-consecutive top-10 finishes, Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Jimmy John’s team settled for a 19th-place result in the Brickyard 400 Sunday afternoon. The California native started the 160-lap race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the 24th spot and maintained a position within the top 20 for the majority of the event, while battling handling issues. Crew chief Gil Martin utilized pit strategy by coming down pit road on lap 115 under caution for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment while other teams opted to stay out. The decision allowed Harvick to take over the lead on lap 144, while those who opted not to visit pit road under caution did so during green-flag conditions. Despite moving to the front and leading laps, the Jimmy John’s team wasn’t able to make it to the end without stopping again for fuel. Harvick relinquished the lead on lap 146 for the team’s final two-tire and fuel pit stop. The Richard Childress Racing driver returned to the track in the 19th position, where he ultimately finished the race. Following the event, Harvick remains fourth in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings.
 
Start – 24         Finish – 19         Laps Led – 2         Points – 4th
                       
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
“This definitely wasn’t the finish the Jimmy John’s team was going for today. We just couldn’t get the handling of the car where it needed to be. We’ll continue to take this season one race at a time, put this one behind us and start focusing on Pocono (Raceway).”
 
   
 
 
Mechanical Issue Ruins Burton’s Afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
 
After running in the top 20 for most of the afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jeff Burton’s No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet suffered severe mechanical issues that relegated the Richard Childress Racing driver to a 43rd-place finish in the 2013 Brickyard 400. Starting from the 16th position, the South Boston, Va., native maintained a top-20 running position for the majority of the 20th annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at the historic 2.5-mile track. Working with interim crew chief Matt McCall, who was subbing for the ill Luke Lambert, the No. 31 Chevrolet pit crew improved the handling of the car during multiple four-tire pit stops early in the race. On lap 82, the 21-time Sprint Cup Series race winner radioed to the team there was a problem with the transmission of the RCR machine. Burton tried to bring the car to pit road for service, but wasn’t able to make it back and the caution flag was displayed. Burton went to the garage where the Caterpillar crew replaced multiple parts underneath the car and returned to the track on lap 128 in the 43rd position, 49 laps down to the leader. Burton spent the final 40 laps running consistent top-15 lap times, but the 46-year-old driver was unable to gain any positions in the process and scored a 43rd-place result. Burton now sits 20th in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings.
 
Start – 16          Finish – 43          Laps Led – 0          Points – 20th
 
JEFF BURTON QUOTE:
“It was a tough day for the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team. We were hanging around the top 20 when something in the transmission broke and sent us to the garage area for repairs. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m proud of the team for getting the car back out there. This team never gives up. We just need to stay positive and know our Chase (for the NASCAR Sprint Cup) hopes are still very much alive.”
 
 
 
 
 
Dillon Earns a 26th-Place Finish in First-Career Brickyard 400 Start
 
Driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Mycogen Seeds, an Indianapolis-based D
ow AgroSciences brand, Austin Dillon earned a 26th-place finish in his first-career Brickyard 400 race. The Welcome, N.C., driver started the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the 20th position and cited a tight-handling condition at the start of the 160-lap event. A green-flag pit stop on lap 27 for four Goodyear tires, Sunoco Green E15 fuel and a right-side track bar adjustment designed to improve Dillon’s handling challenges provided no relief to the driver in subsequent laps, and he fell one lap down to the race leader during the next green flag run. Dillon spent the remainder of the race battling for the “Lucky Dog” position so he could rejoin the lead lap cars, but caution flags did not fall in his favor. When the caution was displayed on lap 59, the leader opted not to pit preventing the No. 33 team from taking the “wave around” to rejoin the lead lap. Instead, Dillon pitted for fuel and right-side tires, restarting in the 26th position on lap 64. The tight-handling condition remained problematic for the current NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader, even after making his final pit stop for four tires and adjustments under green-flag conditions on lap 145. He ultimately posted a 26th-place finish, one lap down.
 
Start – 20          Finish – 26          Laps Led – 0          Points – N/A
                                  
AUSTIN DILLON QUOTE:
“It was a long day in the Mycogen Seeds Chevrolet, but I learned a ton that I can use next year in this race. I was really tight all day and we never really got the track position we needed here, which is what it’s all about at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

RYAN NEWMAN WINS THE BRICKYARD 400
CHEVROLET SWEEPS TOP FOUR SPOTS
 
 
INDIANAPOLIS – July 28, 2013- It was a dream come true today for Ryan Newman when he powered his No. 39 Quicken Loans/The Smurfs Chevrolet SS across the storied finish line at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and captured his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Brickyard 400.  For Newman, who grew up in Indiana, this marked his 17th NASCAR Sprint Cup career victory and first of the 2013 season.  He became the third driver to win from the pole position at IMS, joining Kevin Harvick (’03) and Jimmie Johnson (’08).
 
”Congratulations to Ryan Newman, Matt Borland and the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet SS team on winning the 20th running of the Brickyard 400,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “It was great to see Ryan clinch the pole with a track record run, and then go on to win the race.  Great driving, race strategy, pit-stop execution and overall teamwork made the winning difference. As a native of Indiana, today’s victory has a special meaning to Ryan and his family. He joins his team owner Tony Stewart as a winner at their home track, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”
Johnson had a very strong run in his No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet SS by leading 73 of the 160-laps. However, a slow, late-race pit stop by Johnson’s crew enabled Newman to subsequently move back into the lead and maintain it until the end. The two were the class of the field, leading a combined 118 laps.
 
Johnson finished second in the crash-free 20th Annual Crown Royal Presents The Samuel Deeds 400 at the Brickyard. He continues to lead the point standings and now holds a 75-point lead over second-place. Kasey Kahne, Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate was third in his No. 5 Great Clips Chevy SS, and two-time Brickyard 400 winner, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil/Bass Pro Shops (’05 & ’08) was fourth giving Team Chevy a top four sweep.  
 
“It was great to have seven Chevrolet SS drivers finish within the top-10 in Brickyard 400,” added Campbell.
 
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was fifth to found out the top five finishers.
 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sixth in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS and teammate Jeff Gordon was seventh in his No. 24 Pepsi Max Chevy SS.  Juan Pablo Montoya finished ninth in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS.
 
With Newman’s victory, Chevrolet has now won 11 consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
“Winning the 2013 Brickyard 400 with Ryan Newman, and the 2013 Indianapolis 500 with Tony Kanaan is very special,” noted Campbell. “It is the first time that Chevrolet has won both races at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the same year.”
 
The next stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour will be Sunday, August 4 in Pocono, PA.
 
RYAN NEWMAN, DRIVER, AND MATT BORLAND, CREW CHIEF, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS/THE SMURFS CHEVROLET SS:
 
KERRY THARP:  Let’s hear from our 2013 Brickyard 400 winner, that is Ryan Newman.  He claims his first Brickyard 400.  It’s his 17th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win.  It gets him into the 2014 NASCAR Sprint All Star Race with this victory here today.  It also now positions him as a contender for a position in the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.  With his win, he’s 16th in points, and has that all important win.
Congratulations, Ryan.  You’re the third Brickyard winner to win from the pole, to join Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.  You’re joined by crew chief Matt Borland.  What does it feel like to win the Brickyard 400?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I’m not sure at this point.  I know it’s an amazing feeling.  I was more emotional yesterday after winning the pole than I was two laps after doing my donuts and everything else today.  I’m not sure why.
I took an emotional hit yesterday.  Just an awesome day.  Matt and all these guys did a great job.  Probably the best racecar I have ever driven in my entire life.
I watched Jimmie, kept quiet.  I wanted to see who I was placing.  Played the old Pearson role.  I knew I had a good car.  I didn’t want to have a good car and not win the race.  Matt’s call gave me the track position I needed, taking the two tires.  I was just counting down the laps from that point on.
I knew a lot of guys needed to pit.  I didn’t know how far back Jimmie was.  He said four seconds at that point.  I knew I had to manage my racecar and my tires.  I knew it was so difficult to pass.  His car was looking looser and looser as I ran behind him.  Just an exciting day.
Thank Quicken Loans, Chevrolet, Sprint, all the sponsors we have.  Tony Stewart, Stewart Haas Racing, they gave us all the tools we needed all weekend and all year.
 
KERRY THARP:  Matt Borland, talk about winning the race here today.
 
MATT BORLAND:  It’s a great feeling, for sure.  I think I’m the happiest for Ryan and his family, also for Lawrence, our car chief.  Indianapolis is such a big deal.  To win a big race in your hometown is huge.
It’s great.  It’s been a long time since we’ve been in Victory Lane, so it’s a good feeling for myself just from the standpoint of winning a race again.
But just a tremendous job by all the guys in the shop getting that car ready.  Perfect execution by all the guys this weekend getting the car ready.  Great pit stop there at the end.
 
KERRY THARP:  Questions now for Ryan or Matt.
Q.  Ryan, I was going to ask you about your lack of emotion.  You addressed that.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  (Indiscernible) don’t have emotions, you know that.
Q.  The Daytona 500 was also a big win.  As an Indiana guy, is this one bigger?  Are they the same?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I mean, I don’t show a lot of emotion.  I think everybody knows me as that.  I had the same emotion, the same thankfulness I did when I won the Daytona 500 because I feel everybody that has been a part of my racing career, from people that bought my racing uniform, bought me a right rear tire, given us a credit card to get to some racetrack at some point in my career, those are the people that helped me get to where I am today.
Matt Borland, Don Miller who put Matt and I together for the first time back in 2000, people that have been instrumental in my career, it could be the littlest thing I’m thankful for.  That’s what I’m thinking about.
 
To me, it’s awesome to be here at Indy.  It’s awesome because it’s my home state.  I grew up racing around here, Winchester, Salem, IRP, little tracks like Anderson.  That makes it special.  Most people don’t know, I lived out in a shop in Jeff Gordon’s old shop before I ever made it in NASCAR.  I slept with the racecars.  That was my summer job, working racecars, sleeping in the shop with them.  I’ve raced go karts at pretty much every go kart track around here, been kicked out of half of them.  Those are the things that make it special.  I think about those things more than I carry the emotion on my cheeks.
 
Q.  Ryan, can you talk about the last two weeks, the range of emotions, finding out you’re losing your ride.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I did (laughter)?
 
Q.  Breaking news.  And then getting the win here today.  I guess the range of emotions, and does this help you for 2014?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I think obviously it helps.  The emotions have been an absolute rollercoaster.  Loudon was a disaster.  We got crashed out, everything that was said.  We got through all that stuff.  Talked about it.
 
That weekend off I think was good timing, to be able to hit control, alt, delete.  Matt did an amazin
g job to come here with a fast racecar, give me what I needed.  We all did it together.  Not the guys just here, but the guys at the shop, the pit crew.  You all know it’s a huge team sport.  It makes it better looking for something for 2014, also for Matt.  There’s a lot of questions to be answered.  We’ll get through all that.  But today we’re celebrating a victory.
 
Q.  Ryan, despite everything you’ve been through, not just this year, but last year, you were kind of in a similar predicament, having Matt Borland, one of your dearest friends in the world, to guide you through this, has it made the bad times easier?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  No, it’s hard to be mad when you’re friends with somebody.
 
Q.  Having him there, reunited as your crew chief.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  We are here for a reason.  It’s because of our relationship, our mentality, our analytical way of looking at things, our engineering background.  All those things help.
 
No different than Tony Stewart and I talked about at Loudon.  It’s difficult at times.  He’s the one that’s responsible for my racecar.  We’re friends.  There’s times when he wants to slap me around, there’s times I want to slap him around.  But we can’t do that.  It doesn’t make the racecar go faster.
 
We dealt with different emotions in Loudon.  We zeroed.  We came here, proved that we can come back and fight back.  We’re not out of this Chase, we’re not out of this chance for a championship.  This wild card helps us, but it doesn’t guarantee anything.  We’re still outside the points margin.
 
We just got to keep our nose to the grindstone.  There’s still a ton of racing left.  Another three wins before the Chase starts would be great (laughter).
 
Q.  I spoke with your father out there.  He said he came to his first Indy 500 when he was eight years old, used to bring you a couple of times.  How much of a feeling of pride do you have being only the second Indiana born driver, your team owner being the other, to have won this race?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  That’s cool.  I think it’s coincidence that I’m born in Indiana.  I would have an appreciation for this racetrack if I was born in Hawaii.  I mean, to me I think it helps being born here, it helps growing up close to it, growing up around it and in it, no doubt.
 
But I just am a big fan of cars.  I’m a big fan of tires.  I’m a big fan of making ’em go fast.  That’s happened here since 1909.  I appreciate that.
My dad, I was counting down from 10 to go, so I started at 12.  I was trying to trick myself into getting there quicker (laughter).
 
I remember my dad always telling me, he was here when Parnelli broke with four to go.  With three to go, We made the past where Parnelli made it.  Those are the things that are going through my mind at the same time, trying not to hit the splitter on the rumble strips, hitting the right side of the wall.  It’s challenging here.
 
Q.  Ryan, do you feel your team has rallied at all behind you after the news came out that you wouldn’t be back?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  No, we’re just a bunch of quitters.  Yeah, they rallied behind me.  Look what happened yesterday and day after Loudon.
 
Q.  You were trying all the other weeks, too.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I told you yesterday, we were making for a special time to make all this stuff happen.  Like the perfect storm.  I got fired a couple weeks ago, come back here, win the pole, win the race.  It’s all because of hard effort.  It’s all because they haven’t given up.  They want to win just as bad as I do.
I did a good job of not hitting the fence, hitting the pit stall box, and they did their job.  We always rally behind each other.  That’s why it’s a team sport and it makes it so tough.  I’m only a percentage of what gets us to Victory Lane.  It’s not a free throw.  It’s not a slow pitch.  There’s tough stuff going on out there.  These guys are behind me and I’m behind them.
 
Q.  For Matt, Stewart Haas Racing has a history.  Did these guys having seen in the shop about Ryan, does that help keep people together?
 
MATT BORLAND:  No, not really.  Like Ryan said, the guys bust their butts every day.  They’re working hard.  They want to win every race.  They want to win the championship.  They’re digging.
 
We brought our best car here that we’ve ever built.  We’re hoping by next week or two weeks from now to have an even better car.  Every week we didn’t win, we went back to the shop knowing we needed to get better.  It wasn’t bad luck.  We weren’t giving Ryan a good enough car.
 
There’s not one person on that team that doesn’t try to win every week and make that car better every week.  You know, it’s a good group of people.  Just like Ryan said, it’s a team sport.  No one expects him to quit, no one expects me to quit, no one expects anyone on the team to quit.  They all do a fantastic job.
 
Q.  Matt, was it just a no brainer you would get the two tires on that stop?  Did you see that Jimmie had actually had a slow stop even with the four tires?  What went through your mind?
 
MATT BORLAND:  We talked about it a little bit before the race started.  We made our decision the second to the last stop, what we were going to do, got ourselves set up for that position.
 
What happened with Jimmie didn’t really play into our hands much.  We knew we had to do something to win the race, put ourselves in the best tire position.  We looked at what the guys did earlier on in the race, taking two tires, taking no tires, and we looked at how many laps we needed to run before we pitted to put ourselves in that good spot.
 
It really didn’t have a lot to do with what was going on with the 48 at that time.  It had more to do with what happened 140 laps before that.
 
Q.  (No microphone.)
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  No, no idea (laughter).  I was thinking, including the Daytona 500 in 2008, every win I’ve had since then has been on the two tire strategy on the last pit stop.  Phoenix, Martinsville, and here, Loudon.  Track position is so huge.
 
Q.  Ryan, you won on two tires at California Speedway once with Matt.  Now that you’re with Matt, you’re talking more geek to us.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  Are you a Mac guy or what (laughter)?
 
Q.  Ryan, from Thursday Night Thunder to winning the Brickyard, you came up through the open wheel ranks.  Is that still a viable route to get to the professional upper echelon, before it be IndyCar or stockcar racing?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  It is, but it’s not the same as it used to be.  The USAC series doesn’t have the national exposure that it had through television before.  They raced Silver Crown and midgets last night at IRP.  I think they had 17 Silver Crown cars and 14 midgets.  We used to have 60 Silver Crown cars and 35 or 40 midgets.  TV used to be there and it used to be a big deal.  Now it’s a little line on the bottom of the TV as to who won.
 
My dad told me, You were lucky you did that when you did.  We caught it at the tail end when it was as good as it was.
 
You don’t see a lot of racing on a short track level any more on TV.  You would catch an ASA race every once in a while.  It’s not there like it used to be.  It makes a difference for the younger drivers coming up.  It’s job security for me.  But you have guys like Kyle Larson that are coming up and doing it.  There are kids winning Sprint car races that are really, really good
.  They may never get seen or get that opportunity.
 
Q.  20 years ago I used to get press releases from your mother about your beginning racing career.  Talk about how much your family helped you and your decision to go to Purdue where other drivers were already getting into the 500 and stuff at 20.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  My family is huge.  That support, I would not be here today without their support, without their drive, dedication, without my dad’s guidance.  My dad never pushed me, he just guided me.  I think that’s important for any parent out there, provide the tools they need, but don’t grab their hand and make them swing the hammer.
 
I’m very thankful for my mom, dad, sister, all the members of my family, because they’ve been a part of making it happen, whether it’s flipping burgers, polishing, cleaning the car.  Bo Kerrihard, who is no longer with us, a good old midget racing fan, he used to do those press releases you’re talking about.  He did it for free.  I’d go over to his place.  We’d race trucks on the NASCAR simulator, he’d do up a press release.
 
I said I don’t show my emotions on my cheeks, it’s because I’m so thankful, I’m thinking about the people that have given me the opportunity.  You see Matt sitting next to me, but there’s a thousand other people that have given me things to get me where I am today.  It’s the same thing for Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, but it’s between my ears right now.
 
Purdue, for me it was an opportunity.  My parents literally pushed me out of the door and said, Go to college.  I didn’t want to.  I will say it in front of everybody, I was tired of school, I wanted to go racing.  I was winning races, having fun.  They said, No, go get your engineering degree.  Fortunately the pattern was there from people like Alan Kulwicki and Mark Donohoe and Matt.  He loved racing, but also loved working on cars, making them go faster, tricking them out.  No bending the rules.  That makes a difference.
 
We’ve got a common language now because of my engineering degree.  He happened to go to GMI.  I went to Purdue.  They still talk about physics and equations and things like that.  Math is a big part of what we do, a big part of what makes the racecar go faster.
 
Q.  Ryan, Tony Stewart used to talk about how he used to rush home from school to watch the Indy 500.  Do you have any childhood memories or stories like that about Indy?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I came here once for the Indy 500.  I believe it was ’86.  I was talking to somebody a couple weeks ago.  They got rained out till Tuesday.  Was that Sullivan or Rahal’s win.  I sat in the middle of one and two.  I watched the 32 yellow car, watching it out in the rain, thinking that was the neatest thing, watching something that was making more smoke than noise.  That was one of my first history moments with the speedway here.  I never got a chance to come back and actually watch the race.  I had something called school the next Tuesday.
 
It was special for me then.  I came down here whenever they first tested, ’92 or ’93, I was actually with my mom.  We were going over to pick up tires for my midget racecar.  We heard some noise at the speedway.  We drove in, walked to the garage.  That was the day I talked to Jeff Gordon, asked him if he had the opportunity to go to college and get an engineering degree, would he do it if he had the chance to do it all over again.  He said absolutely.
 
I also talked to Kenny Schrader, that gave me partially the goal of doing that.  My parents pushed me, but I wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.  Why not go to the horse’s mouth and make sure it was the right thing to do.  Those are the two memories.
 
Q.  You won on a two tire strategy.  It felt reminiscent of 2003.  At that time you were the Johnson and Knaus of Sprint Cup.  Do you ever reflect back on that?  Do you feel you’ve recaptured the magic you had 10 years ago?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  We’ve worked on it.  It’s not easy.  There’s a lot of things that have changed.  That’s our goal.  Those guys are and have been the benchmark for a long time.
 
They’ve been beat before by other teams, but we were the last duo to give them a good run for their money on a regular basis.
I’m not saying just because we won today we’re going to do it again next week.  But that’s our goal.  We’re there to beat everybody, but it just so happens that they’re usually the team you have to beat to do that.
 
MATT BORLAND:  It’s hard to recapture that magic.  But for me it’s probably been 2005, eight years, since I’ve been to Victory Lane.  You question all the things that you’re doing.  You think you’re doing things the way you used to do them, it doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work, doesn’t work.  This weekend it worked.
It was all those same things that we’ve been doing all year and that we did eight, ten years ago.  You have to keep believing you’re doing the right things for the right reason and eventually it’s going to work.
 
Like Ryan said, Chad and Jimmie, I mean, they’ve dominated this sport for the last 10 years.  If you’re going to win races and win championships, you have to go toe to toe with them.
 
Today was a great day, but we got a lot of work to do in the next six races and a lot of work to do in the next 16.
 
Q.  There were a lot of people who probably thought at the beginning of the year that since you had spent so much time working together, perhaps it would be easier to just kind of put the pieces back together and pick up where you left off.  Could each of you talk about how your relationship is maybe different than it was before.
Was it more difficult trying to work together when you had been apart for so long?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  We worked on building or rekindling our relationship as a driver/crew chief in the off season.  Matt took the responsibility on his shoulders once we decided what we were going to do and put together a group of guys.  Some had tremendous experience, some had no experience at all.  That’s been something that’s kind of been tough for me to work through because of where I am in my career.  I want the best guys.
 
Matt took the weight on his shoulders to take those guys and make them the best guys.  Today they were.  It hasn’t been like that the entire season.  We’ve gone through some growing pains.  Captain Obvious would have raised the flag instantly.  That’s learning.  I know it’s been tough for me and him.  Those are the people he believes in.  Those are the people we believe in.
 
I have kind of sat back and let him do that part.  As a crew chief, that’s his job.  My job is to go out there, give him the feedback, be responsible with what we do so we can have something at the end of the race.
 
All that is a big challenge.  It’s a big challenge for every team.  I think a lot of people didn’t see that or know that as to how our team came together for 2013.
 
MATT BORLAND:  Along those same lines, we got four races at the end of the season to try to get things rolling again.  Things went really well.  I think we finished like 11th, 12th, third and fifth.  This is easy, right back to where we were.
But, you know, starting this season, I realized all the things that I hadn’t realized over the past several years of not being a crew chief.  Like he said, we had to build a whole team of people, get people in place, figure out where people do their best work, where they don’t do their best work, how to make all those people fit together the b
est we can.
 
That’s definitely been a challenge all year.  But I know for me, I wish I was more prepared starting the season than what I was to help Ryan with this season.  Like he said, there’s been a lot of mistakes along the way this year.  I know I’ve learned from each and every one of them.  You get better and better each week in realizing the things you’re doing right and the things you’re doing wrong.
 
When you have a weekend like this, it’s great.  Everything went perfect.  This is the kind of weekend you shoot for every weekend.  Reality is that doesn’t happen very often.
 
You enjoy it this weekend.  You learn what things you did right, what you did wrong.  When you sit back and think about it, you really didn’t do anything different, things just worked out.  Hopefully we can keep this cycle going.
 
But the cycle always changes.  You always have those down weeks.  You always have those down months.  You always have those times where you’re not sure if it’s going to cycle back up.  But it always does and goes back the other way.
 
We’re enjoying today and we’ll hopefully keep doing this for a while.
 
Q.  Matt, with Ryan’s engineering degree and his understanding of engineering, throughout your time together, how valuable has that been for you as a crew chief?
 
MATT BORLAND:  I think it’s huge for half the reasons.  You know, like I said, we have a common language.  We can talk about problems that are going on with the car.  I can tell him what we’re thinking about doing.  He understands.  He can pitch to me some different ideas looking at things differently.  Gets me thinking about things in a different manner.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  We have some hellacious arguments, too.
 
MATT BORLAND:  That’s what I was going to say earlier.  You typically get in the biggest fights with the people you like the best.  I know I do.  You get in huge fights with your wife, with your friends.  Like he said, between Daniel, one of our racing engineers, Ryan and myself, we all have very strong opinions, we think we’re right in what we’re thinking, and that’s the reason we’re thinking that.  We tend to get in arguments because we think we’re right.  What that ends up doing is getting you to look at things a little bit differently.  That’s huge.
 
To your point, the other part that makes Ryan as good as he is, has nothing to do with the engineering side, but he can feel everything that’s going on with that racecar.  As much as you hate it, 99 times out of the 100, he’s right about what he’s feeling.  He’s pointing you down a road, if you look there, you’re going to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
 
I think between feeling those things and being able to describe those things in a common language really helps.
 
Q.  Matt, since he is a friend of years, you guys have a relationship off the track as well as on, is it tough watching what he’s had to go through this year, the fact he is losing his job?  My husband who is upstairs said to ask you if you intend on staying at Stewart Haas Racing after your friend leaves.
 
MATT BORLAND:  Yeah, it’s very tough for a couple reasons.  One, obviously Ryan is a great friend.  We’ve had tons of history together.  I don’t want to see him go.  It’s a shame.  Like I said earlier, I feel like if I was better prepared to start this season, maybe things would have changed, been different.
So from that end, it is hard.  Every weekend you go home and things don’t go right, you beat yourself up about what things you could have done better or more.  That part is very frustrating.
 
At this point I’m not sure what next year is going to bring.  Right now, 100% of my focus and our whole team’s focus is on doing as best we can in these next six races and the next 16.
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  Going to open up a fruit stand in Statesville if anybody is interested.
 
MATT BORLAND:  Do I get to drive the tractor?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  You get to drive the tractor.  You also get to change the oil in the tractor (laughter).
 
Q.  Matt, the new Gen 6 car, there’s some things that are different that you didn’t have before.  How much fun have you and the other slide rule guys that are on your team had working within the new boundaries to make the car faster?
 
MATT BORLAND:  It’s always fun.  Any new car is fun because it’s a challenge, it’s something different.  It’s why you do testing, why you go to the tunnel, why you do simulation work.  Any time they change the rules and go to something different, it’s fantastic.
As far as if I think this car is better than the old car, that’s a different question.  But anytime there’s rule changes, gets your blood pumping as far as things you can do to make the best piece possible.
 
Q.  Ryan, how long did it take you to complete your degree at Purdue?  How did you strike a balance in your schedule with traveling to race and trying to complete a degree?
 
RYAN NEWMAN:  I graduated high school in ’96 from LaSalle in South Bend, went to Purdue the fall of ’96, went there for four years straight.  After the fourth year, I basically took I think it was two semesters off and graduated the summer of 2001 via two online courses.  I had two electives I needed to finish.  It wasn’t easy for me to finish because I was working at the time with Penske.  I got my diploma in 2001 in vehicle structural engineering.
Striking a balance with school?  It was really tough.  It was tough because, like anything in life, you find the people that care, you find the people that really don’t care.  There were professors that cared about who I was and what I did because they liked racing, and there were people that didn’t have a clue what racing was and didn’t care.
 
It helped in the later years when I got to some of the 400 level courses, in my vehicle structural engineering group, that those people were more likely the ones because they were in classes of 20 instead of 400 that really cared.  They were understanding and helped me to be able to turn my homework in at certain times, get the things done that I needed to.
 
I graduated with a 2.01.  I needed a 2.0 to graduate.  Fortunately on that diploma, it doesn’t have a GPA (laughter).  I got that.  At the same time I listened really good in school, most kids that got 4.0s had a hard time getting jobs because they were too good.  I wanted to be the average guy (laughter).
 
KERRY THARP:  Congratulations, guys.  Thank you for your time today.
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
KERRY THARP:  Let’s roll into our post‑race press conference here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Our third‑place finisher is Kasey Kahne. Kasey comes out of this race now ninth in points.
 
Certainly as you look back at this race, your car, obviously was a contender.  But just talk about how this race unfolded and how you thought things played out today for the No. 5 team.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I felt really good about the speed we had, especially the last 50 laps.  I struggled early some in traffic, got tight behind cars real easily.  Made it tough.  Got passed from behind a few times trying to pass the guy in front of me.  We lost some track position there.
 
Kenny Francis did a really nice job making the car better throughout the race.  The last two runs, I thought we were as good as anyone, maybe the best car.  It was a good day.  Our Great Clips Chevys with goo
d.  Hendrick horsepower was key.  Felt really good to have that.  We came close.  We caught the guys at the end.  We just never got to the lead, never got to the front.
 
We were kind of close throughout the race, but then we’d lose it, have to come back.  I was glad to be able to see Jimmie at the end and Ryan, but we never got up there.
 
KERRY THARP:  We’re now joined by our race runner‑up, Jimmie Johnson.  Jimmie continues to be our point’s leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
 
Jimmie, talk about this race out there today.  Certainly one your car was extremely strong, led throughout most of the day until that final pit stop. Talk about the race out there today and how you thought things played out.
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Obviously we had a great racecar and great performance.  Track position was really important, especially the way my car was driving.  Although it had plenty of speed, it wasn’t the easiest thing to drive.
 
My times that I caught lap traffic or had to pass someone for position; it took a lot of risk to get that done.  Was able to manage all that well.  We maintained great track position through really the bulk of the race.  Then there at the end we had a little mistake on pit road, the 39 took two where we took four.  Once I got back to the track, I had a lot of distance to make up.
 
I got within probably three seconds, beat myself up pretty bad.  I think Ryan was being smart, too.  Once I got to a certain distance, I believe he decided to go 100%.  He had plenty of speed today.
 
Throughout the race I saw him at the beginning and the middle part, didn’t see a lot of him.  When I saw him again at the end I knew I was going to have my hands full with him.  His car had a lot of pace.  He did an amazing job.
 
Came up short, definitely not what we wanted, but a solid performance.
 
KERRY THARP:  Questions for Jimmie or Kasey.
Q.  Jimmie, tough circumstances for you.  I’ve heard you say on several occasions that no matter what happens, you and Chad have an agreement that by noon Monday you’re onto the next week.  Are you going to be able to let go of it that easily?
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  We’ll try.  What’s on my mind, we win as a team, lose as a team.  There have been some late‑race mistakes on my behalf that have taken race wins away from us.  Granted not a major event like this.  But we win as a team, lose as a team.  We still ended up second.  We have a lot to be proud of over the course of the weekend.  We’ll do the best to let it roll off our shoulders by tomorrow afternoon.
Q.  Jimmie, a lot of buildup about you possibly becoming a five‑time winner of the Brickyard.  A bit of a letdown?
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I can go home with a smile on my face.  These things are hard to win, having a race winning car like we did.
 
Today we were awfully close.  These things are so hard to win.  Having a race‑winning car like we did, I hate to let this opportunity slip by, but it’s gone, not a lot we can do about it, but we’ll come back next year and try to do it again.
Q.  When you say the late‑race pit mistake, do you mean the stop was slow or you preferred two tires?  If stop hadn’t been as slow…
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I think we had like a 17‑second stop.  I don’t know what the distance was at the end.  I would have been a lot closer to him. Catching them and them passing them is different.  I’m not sure what the delta was when I entered the track, how big of a gap I had from the 39 to us.
 
But we definitely had a mistake on our stop.  Could have been four seconds closer leaving pit road.  Not sure where that would be, like I said.
 
Stuff happens.  Everybody scans us.  When you’re the dominant car, they’re going to do the opposite of what you do.  I think I pitted before them, so it was an easy call for them to do the opposite.  The 2 gave them the track position they needed.  With the mistake, they had good track position.
Q.  You and Ryan go back to when you were rookies in ’02.  Does he get enough credit as a driver?  Are you surprised he doesn’t have a secure future for 2014 yet?
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  When I look at things, we talk about it a lot; there are certain examples that pop up.  Maybe those examples are overlooked. The relationships that exist between driver and crew chief are key.  You look at Ryan’s success with Matt, Matt’s departure, not a lot of good was going on, then they’re back together, have a lot of speed, now arguably winning the biggest race of the year.  I put a lot of stock in that.
 
Amongst the seven Hendrick cars that are out there, we all have the same stuff.  It’s a relationship between the driver and the crew chief and the engineers and what happens in that little hub inside that transporter, that puts speed in these racecars.
 
There’s a great pairing there with Matt and Ryan, for sure.
Q.  Is there anything that NASCAR or the IMS can do to create more passing, especially up front, maybe make for a better show for fans here at Indy?
KASEY KAHNE:  I know in ’04, my first year here, it was pretty easy to pass, ’04 and ’05.  Since then, it’s been difficult.  It was after they did some work to the track.
 
I know the tires have changed, the cars have changed.  ’04 and ’05, however the track was then, you could run the outside, kind of diamond and get runs down the straightaway.  Right now a lot of the race you’re equal.  It’s hard to be behind a car and carry that speed off the corner running in their tracks.
 
Right now we can’t move around enough.  So how do you move around?  If they can make the surface or the tire so we can move around, probably going to be the only way you’re going to make that happen.
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I definitely agree. This year’s 500 I think was kind of unusual with so many passes for the lead.  But in general, on a flat racetrack, it’s just tough to pass.  You need a second lane with some kind of banking.  These corners, they aren’t really that long.  You have four 90‑degree turns.  That puts a lot against this racetrack for side‑by‑side racing, but we still love this place.
Q.  Kasey, you didn’t win, but getting up to third, is that still satisfying that you were able to reach that late in the race and be able to hang on to it?
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, it is.  I came up here and wanted to win.  That was something that our team, we really shot for this weekend.  We were really fast throughout the whole weekend, did a nice job. The first 80 or 100 laps, we gave away too many spots, whether it was on the track or in the pits.
 
The last two runs we did a lot of passing, made up a lot‑of‑ground, but we never got to the front.  We were too far back the whole race.
 
After running a race like that, having everything that went on with our deal throughout the race, I feel really good about running third.
Q.  Kasey, there were a few weeks there where everything that could go wrong for you guys did.  Do you feel this and maybe the last couple weeks, Daytona aside, you guys are turning it around, heading the right direction?
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I feel good about where we’re at.  You know, New Hampshire we were 11th.  Now today.  There have been races we’ve been fast and things happen the last month, month and a half, like you’re saying.  Racing, those things happen.
 
But, yeah, I feel good about the last two races, where we’re at, where we’re headed.  We have a good team, strong group.  Looking forward to it. We’re still in that top 10 and have a lot to shoot for
to make that Chase.
Q.  It was noticeable when guys had to pit off sequence for whatever reason, when they got back on the track, they were significantly faster with newer tires. Did the tires really fall off that much or was it a matter of they were back in with slower cars?
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I think it was a little of both.  Traffic was tough to deal with.  Tires made a big difference.  The biggest example to me, I was on two next to the last stop, and Ryan was on four.  He was mired in traffic.  He worked his way through, started to track me down.
 
I think that led Chad to his decision for four on our last stop.  With us pitting before the 39, it was easy for them to go two at that point. 39 was coming hard on us.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  I never heard a lap time throughout the race for our guys, for myself.  To me it seemed like you would lose a lot of speed, spin your tires easier the longer the run went.  When you put on tires, you could be way more aggressive with the throttle, which had to be a second at least or maybe more.
Q.  Much is made about how this race is a title barometer, the teams that do well here are Chase contenders.  Hendrick had seven of the top eight.  Did it seem like on track you were that much better?
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I know myself was running good.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  I felt good all day.
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I didn’t know that stat until you just mentioned it. It takes the whole package.  The engines, a lot of those engines also had Hendrick chassis under them, too.  We have a great company and a lot of tools to go win races with them.
 
KERRY THARP:  Guys, thank you.  Congratulations on an outstanding performance.  Good luck next week at Pocono.
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – WINNING TEAM OWNER AND FOURTH-PLACE FINISHER
KERRY THARP:  Tony Stewart has joined us.  Tony drove to a fourth‑place finish. It’s been quite a week for you.  I know this has to be a good feeling to have one of your race teams win the Brickyard, an event that you have won several times and you know the importance of it, and for a guy like Ryan Newman, a native Hoosiers, has to be a big deal.
 
TONY STEWART:  I don’t know how you could ask for a better week on our side.  The first half of the week was great.  Yesterday, Ryan going out, last car out, getting the pole, then being in the race today, watching the battle him and Jimmie had all day, just was impressive to watch.
 
We were fortunate enough we were pretty much a top‑five car all day, just weren’t good enough to be up there with Jimmie and Ryan.
 
Man, I think midway through the race there, we were in a scenario where Jimmie was leading, and we were second.  When Ryan got to third, like two laps, he caught us.  At that point I knew it was down to him and Jimmie.
 
Just was fun to watch, nerve‑wracking as a co‑owner.  The other car owner is out kissing the bricks, I’m proud for Gene Haas, everybody with Stewart‑Haas Racing, Mobil 1, Quicken Loans, Bass Pro Shops, everybody involved.  For Ryan, a huge day.
 
When we were little, this was the place.  This is where we wanted to be.  We knew what Daytona was, but this was the place for us as Hoosiers here.  To see him get one, I’m glad our last trip to the Brickyard together as teammates, you know, we’re sitting here watching him kiss the bricks today.
 
KERRY THARP:  We’ll take questions now for Tony Stewart.
Q.  You said earlier this week winning as an owner would be as good as winning as a driver.  Is it?
TONY STEWART:  Yes.
Q.  And where do you go this week?
TONY STEWART:  I have a test Wednesday, I race Thursday.  Where do we go next week?
 
KERRY THARP:  Pocono.
 
TONY STEWART:  Pocono Friday, a race Friday night.  Pocono Saturday, racing Saturday night, and then racing Sunday.  I think I race every day next week except for Wednesday, and that’s a test. So a lot of those days are doubled‑up days.  We have a busy week.  Can’t think of a better week to celebrate.
Q.  Can you talk about how it feels different as an owner?
TONY STEWART:  It doesn’t feel different.  I’m ecstatic.  Right there is a big reason why, too.  Ryan is such a good friend.  I didn’t think it would feel this good as an owner.  Because it’s Ryan and a good friend of mine, that’s the gratifying part.  Seeing Greg, Ryan’s mom, Krissie and the kids out there, just knowing we’re a part of it with him, that’s something that’s pretty special to us.
Q.  When did you first meet Ryan?  Did you meet him out here when he was viewing the track or anything like that?
TONY STEWART:  We met at a midget race.  I don’t even remember where it was.  He was a lot smaller then, but he was still bigger than me.  A midget race somewhere many, many moons ago.
 Q.  Anything NASCAR or IMS can do to increase passing in these races?
TONY STEWART:  Look up ‘racing’ in the dictionary and tell me what it says in the dictionary, then look up ‘passing’. We’re racing here.  That’s all I’m going to say.  This is racing.
 
If you want to see passing, we can go out on 465 and pass all you want.  If you can tell me that’s more exciting than what you see at IMS, the great racecar drivers that have competed here.  This is about racing.  This is about cars being fast.  It doesn’t have to be two‑ and three‑wide racing all day long to be good racing.
 
Racing is about figuring out how to take the package you’re allowed and make it better than what everybody else has and do a better job with it.
 
I’ve seen races that were won over a lap; I’ve seen 20‑second leads here.  For some reason in the last 10 years, everybody is on this kick that you have to be passing all the time.  It’s racing, not passing.  We’re racing.
 
It’s taking machines that are pretty even package‑wise and let the drivers and teams figure out how to make the difference.  I don’t understand where this big kick has come from.  We need your guys’ help as much as anybody to remind people this is racing.  When somebody does a good job, does a great job, everybody hates that.  I don’t understand that.  It baffles me as a racecar driver.
 
For the record, it wasn’t the worst question (laughter).  That was a hell of a lot worse.  It’s going to be hard to top that.
Q.  We’ll keep trying.
TONY STEWART:  I have no doubt.
Q.  At New Hampshire when you made the announcement about Ryan’s future, that obviously wore on you.  Talk about the emotions.  Does today’s win help him get a ride?
TONY STEWART:  Absolutely.  I’m part of the equation.  There’s a whole group at Stewart‑Haas Racing.  It was hard.  Like we mentioned at Loudon, it was hard because when you run a business, you got to make decisions that you think are best for the company.  The hard thing is you have to take emotion out of the equation.  Any good business person will tell you that.  That’s also the hard part about every business that I’m a part of, I’m emotionally invested in it, as well.
 
Even before Ryan came and drove for us, we were friends.  So that made that decision and that made that phone call of telling him that much harder.  It’s not just winning with a driver that drives for us; it’s my friend out there that won the race today, too.  That’s what makes this more gratifying at the same time.
 
I guess it’s extreme to extreme.  I mean, it’s on the good end of the extreme this week.
Q.  You’ve won this race twice.  I wonder if you ever had any conversations with Ryan
where he shared with you that dream, Man, I want this because…
TONY STEWART:  We’ve kind of swapped stories.  I mean, I want to know what it was like to win a Daytona 500.  The one that I lost, he went motoring by about five miles an hour faster than me with a push.  He’s wanted the same thing.
 
Now I got questions for him about the differences between the two.  I want to know what he feels like.  I can’t wait until tonight for that conversation.
Q.  We’ve talked some about the impact for Ryan.  What do you think the impact of this win is for the guys that work on that team?  This is a new group that was put together.  He said it’s taken them a while to gel and figure out all their places.
TONY STEWART:  If you look in the shop where each of these guys came from, a lot came from different areas.  A lot of them are engineers that got put on the road.
 
It’s awesome ’cause those guys struggled a lot at the beginning.  It’s just good for our whole organization.  It’s not just good for the 39 guys, it’s good for everybody.
 
The great thing is seeing everybody from the 10 team excited, from the 14 team excited.  When we win, we all win.  That’s the great thing, is no matter where those guys came from in the organization, we still win this as a team.  That’s what I’m proud of.
 
It’s days like this that make up for the rough start we got to the year.  For those guys to be able to go from sitting behind laptops a lot in the shop, being in aero rooms, seven‑post rigs, now being on the road and to be kissing the brick today, that’s a pretty strong statement.
Q.  Could you elaborate a little bit more about that?  It seems like a distant memory, the start to the season you had.  You’ve done a lot in the last couple of months.
TONY STEWART:  Yeah.  I mean, we’ve talked about the slow start a million times.  It seems like everywhere we tested at we made really big gains.  We tested at Dover.  We tested at Pocono.  Ryan and I both ran great there.  Just seems like everywhere we’ve had a test so far, we’ve been able to make gains. It shows how much having those tests, how important that is.  I don’t want NASCAR to add any more of them because I don’t have any more time.
 
It has been a slow start.  It’s been frustrating.  It’s frustrating knowing there’s teams we outperform week in and week out that we were getting beat by.
But, you know, to come here, when you come here, the guys that run up front here; there isn’t anybody that has backed into a win here at Indy.  It’s the guys that have the fastest car.  For Ryan to get the pole yesterday, for us to win today, for us to qualify fifth and run fourth today, that’s a big deal. That’s a big deal for our organization.
 
Our other teammate just keeps knocking on the door.  She’s gaining confidence and experience each week.  That’s a fun part to watch, too.
 
For all three of us, I think we’re gaining on that and we’re proud of that.
Q.  Tony, obviously this is Ryan’s day.  We talked mostly about that.  You’re running so much better now.  Do you feel like you’re in position to make another championship run?
TONY STEWART:  Definitely today was a big step, obviously.  Our teammates are running really good, too, obviously.  I think we still have some work to do.  It’s proof that we can do it.  Ryan is proof that our organization can do it.  We just got to hit on it.  Even though we ran fourth today, it’s a confidence boost for us on the 14 team, as well, to know we have the tools in place of accomplishing the goal; it’s just a matter of getting there.
Q.  Six of the top seven finishers were Hendrick engines.  Was it that evident that the horsepower of the Hendrick Chevrolets were better than everybody else?  Did it seem that way?
TONY STEWART:  We had pretty good power all day long.  I mean, there were a lot of scenarios where I noticed how good it was.  And that’s what you expect out of the Hendrick engine department.  That’s the standard that they set.
 
It was good to know at a place like this where it’s so key, you’ve got to get down the straightaways.  You’re not going to pass somebody on the outside in the corners here.  You have to get off the corner and get down the straightaway.  That’s a big asset having that Hendrick power under the hood.
Q.  We’ve mentioned you and Ryan are here from Indiana.  How does that week this weekend so special for you and Ryan?
TONY STEWART:  He can tell you that when he comes in, too.  When we were kid, every day school got over about the 25th of May for us every year.  Used to be the whole month of May.  You’d get done with school at 3:30.  You got on your bike and rode as fast as you could to get home and turn on your TV to watch.
 
It’s a dream.  It’s a dream to be where he’s standing right now at the end of the race.  We know the history of this place.  Ryan can tell you more stats about here than I can, but we know, we understand, we appreciate the history of this sport, the great drivers and teams that have raced and won here.
 
That’s a big deal to us being from here.
Q.  You ran down your schedule for the week.  Where all are you going?
TONY STEWART:  I’d love to tell you that, but then I’d have to kill you.  The day after I run each event, I’ll tell you.
Q.  Do you use a phony name?
TONY STEWART:  I’m going to Ohsweken, Canada, the next two days to race.  My night of rest just got shorter.
Q.  Do you have any more Mobil 1 commercials in the works?
TONY STEWART:  We did a whole series.  I don’t know how many they’ve actually ran so far.  We got more coming, so patience, Grasshopper.
 
KERRY THARP:  Tony, congratulations.
 
TONY STEWART:  Thank you.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 28, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS/THE SMURFS CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
WHAT WERE THOSE CLOSING LAPS LIKE?
“Just stay green that was the biggest thing was I knew we had a good car.  Quicken Loans Chevrolet was good all day.  First of all I have to thank Quicken, Outback, Wix Filters, Aspen Dental, Code 3, State Water Heaters, Haas Automation, Sprint for giving us this opportunity, an ice cold Coca-Cola and Chevrolet.  Starting on the pole and winning the race just an awesome day for us.  I’ve got to thank all the fans for coming out.  Matt Borland (crew chief) made an awesome call. I’ve won more races with him on old tires and out of gas than I have with four tires and the best car.  Hendrick horsepower was the main thing today.  Thank Tony Stewart and everybody at Stewart-Haas this is a dream come true for me I can’t wait to get over and push my lips against those bricks.”
 
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LOOK AROUND AND STAND RIGHT HERE IN VICTORY LANE?
“I don’t realize it yet, it’s a dream come true.  I don’t think that if it hits you all at once it’s not good enough.  It will take a week or so for this to set in.  Just thank everybody for this opportunity, everybody in my racing career.  This is just like when I won the Daytona 500.  Everybody that helped me get to that day same thing again, thank you.  Just so appreciative for all these guys.  They work so hard.  We struggled on and off this year, but just a great run today.  I’m happy it stayed green we needed that, but that’s racing, Jimmie (Johnson) did a good job he had a good car.  I stayed in the back there and kind of watched him a little bit then he would check out there on the restarts and I had to come back.  A great long run car with our Quicken Loans Chevrolet and man what an ending to a day.”
 
THE UP’S AND DOWN’S OF RACING TWO WEEKS AGO IT WAS ANNOUNCED YOU WON’T BE BACK WITH THIS TEAM WHAT DOES A WIN LIKE THIS DO FOR YOU?
“The biggest thing is confidence.  Confidence for me, confidence in the team, confidence with me in the team.  We still have a championship to go after.  We still have the Chase to chase and there is still plenty of racing left.  This is a great day for us in points.  That doesn’t mean anything.  Tomorrow is a new day. Come Pocono this will be the past.”
 
BACK HOME IN INDIANA BUT THIS IS A PIECE OF REAL ESTATE YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN IN BEFORE HOW DOES IT FEEL?
“This is awesome.  I’ve only had so many opportunities.  It’s not like we come here twice a year.  Quicken Loans Chevrolet was amazing today the best car I have probably ever driven in my career.  It takes that here at Indy you have to have a good car.  Matt (Borland, crew chief) did an awesome job calling the shots and taking the two tires and getting us the track position.  We needed that. Just thankful, my family everybody is here and all the people that have helped me get to this day it’s just as special as it was in Daytona.  You get guys like Rick Hendrick coming up and congratulating you after winning this one.  It’s a dream come true.  I won’t hit you in five minutes, it won’t hit you in five hours, but maybe in five days come back to me.”
 
WHERE DOES THIS RANK?  THE DAYTONA 500 YOU’VE BEEN A WINNER NOW THE BRICKYARD 400:
“You have seen the Victory Lane in both of them this is pretty cool here.  No need to compare it this is pretty damn cool.”
 
HOW MUCH STUFF WERE YOU HEARING GOING WRONG WITH THE CAR ONCE YOU HAD THAT TRACK POSITION?
“I was tricking myself.  I’ve got a messed up mind and I knew it was 10 to go and I said 12 to go to myself.  I started at 12 and I was hoping it would go faster.  My daughter is two and a half years old and I’m thinking this to myself while I’m out there.  My daughter is two and a half years old and I’m teaching her how to count.  That is the longest it takes to countdown from 10 in my entire life because the laps are so long here.  Just an awesome ending for our day, Quicken Loans, the Smurfs 2, Sprint, all the things that they do just so many people that make a big difference.   I’ve got so many primary sponsors, Wix Filters, Aspen, Code 3, Outback, everybody makes a part in what we do today.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND:
HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THE DISAPPOINTMENT RIGHT NOW?
“There is definitely disappointment there, but this is racing that stuff happens.  I have given away a couple late in the race myself this year.  We win as a team we lose as a team, it’s just how it is.  I wouldn’t take another race team out there.  I’m very proud of this KOBALT Tools Chevrolet team and everything that goes into it.  Great day, Ryan (Newman) was fast all day long.  I can’t take anything away from him.  At the beginning of the race he paced everything for a long time.  I think he got mired back in traffic for a while there. Towards the end of the race he worked his way back to the front and he was plenty fast.  A big hats off to Ryan and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing.”
 
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CAR YOU HAD HERE TODAY?
“It wasn’t the easiest one to drive.  I was real tight in and then loose off.  If I had clean air and the track to myself I could get my line right and run the laps I needed to, but in traffic it was a little tougher than what I wanted.  It still was an awesome race car.  Just came up a little short today, but we will load up and go to the next one and try to win next week.”
 
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND RYAN NEWMAN TODAY?
“Second is never fun especially at the Brickyard.  Bummed out with that, but stuff happens.  We had a problem on the last pit stop and I believe the No. 39 took two (tires) as well where we took four (tires).  He was coming really strong on four the run before.  I don’t fault the call by any means.  To be honest I have squandered away a few wins late in the race myself here in the last month or two.  All in all a very strong weekend, of course we want to be in Victory Lane, but hats off to Stewart-Haas Racing our teammates over there and to Ryan it’s going to be a special day for him to win here.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD:
YOU HAD A ROCKET IN THOSE FINAL 25 LAPS:
“Yeah I think we did the whole race at times.  We just really got going at the end of the race.  We had a really fast Great Clips Chevrolet.  We kept falling back too far.  Just things happen and we got back and then you have to pass.  You get so far behind with track position here.  It takes a while to get back to the front.  The guys did a nice job, had a really fast car.  Great Hendrick horsepower was key and congrats to Ryan (Newman) he had a big weekend.  He deserved it and needed it.”
 
IF YOU HAD TO DO OVER WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE TODAY ABOUT WHAT YOU GUYS DID IN TERMS OF PIT ROAD?
“Well I think we would start with the car just a little bit different.  I really struggled behind cars early in the race and got really tight off the corners.  Once we fixed that we were really competitive with everybody and at times were the best car.”
 
ON HIS RACE:
“I have just always liked this place.  It’s a pretty neat track to race on and enjoyed the race today.  We got back there a few times and we were able to work our way back through.  It’s awesome Great Clips Chevrolet and tons of Hendrick horsepower
so it was enjoyable to drive this car.  We just never got to the lead, but at times I think we were the fastest car we just never got up there.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH:
TODAY YOU FINISHED FOURTH BUT YOU ARE A WINNER.  DESCRIBE YOUR FEELINGS:
“I can’t wait to give him a hug and congratulate him.  He has just done an awesome job all weekend getting on the pole and he was in the hunt all day.  He led early obviously and it was down to him and the No. 48 car that was easy to see.  I didn’t know what the strategy was going to be at the end.  I just kept looking up at the board and watching.
 
“I was scared to ask where he was at and how big of a lead he had.  Finally with three (laps) to go I couldn’t wait any longer, I finally asked and wanted to know what was going on.  I just didn’t want to jink him.  Just kept watching the jumbo trons every time we would come off of (turn) four and was watching to see where he was at.  Just really proud of him.  He’s a great teammate he’s an even better friend.  Just couldn’t be happy for him, this is awesome, this is our home race.  Couldn’t be any better than this.”
 
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY HERE AT THE BRICKYARD:
“Oh my God, what a dream.  I have been waiting for the day we could get Ryan (Newman) in Victory Lane like this at a big one.  Man, it is just awesome.  What an awesome week, he did an awesome job getting on the pole and an awesome job today all day.  Him and Matt Borland (crew chief) and everyone on the Quicken Loans team they just did an awesome job.  I’m proud of our guys we had a solid day too.  Proud for Mobil 1 and Bass Pro and everybody.  What a great job by Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) and great Hendrick horsepower.  You’ve got to look at the board there and see six cars in the top seven that are Hendrick engines.  That pretty much tells you where the power is at.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS RUN: “I thought it was good. We had good speed. I thought the strategy was good. We had a loose wheel on the start of the race; that was weird to have a loose wheel then. We changed our strategy and made it work. The car had good speed.  Right at the end, we were either running out of gas, or had a little bit of an engine problem the last two or three laps. I almost lost another spot. But the car just quit running at the end. I don’t know if it was out of fuel or what. But the fuel pressure was good.”
 
WAS IT A TOUGH DECISION TO COME IN THAT EARLY, OR WAS IT THAT BAD? “Yes, yes. I’ll tell you, you can’t have a wheel come off here. You’re running that thing at 200 m.p.h. at the end of the straightaway, you don’t want to take any chances. We came in. Steve said it was loose and it was a good job and a good save.”
 
IS THAT A RARE THING TO HAVE A LOOSE FIELD AT THE START OF A RACE. “Yes. As you can imagine, it’s rare.”
 
HOW MUCH SECOND GUESSING WERE YOU DOING THERE?
“I knew it was loose. The car was shaking real bad, and wandering in the back-end on the straightaway. You have a wheel falling off; you have something serious happening. Come in, it’s dangerous staying out there. You can hit the wall, or wreck something, or wreck some other people. I don’t want to do that. It is a long race. We had an early chance to fix that, and that is fine. It gave us an opportunity to try some different strategies, and it worked out for us.”
 
WERE YOU WORRIED THAT THE STRATEGY MIGHT LEAVE YOU GUYS HIGH AND DRY?
“Yes, a little bit. But it is still a long race, and Steve is a good strategist, and we ended up all right. The car had good speed; we finished about where we should.
 
HOW DIFFICULT WAS YOUR DAY WITH RANDY (EARNHARDT) PASSING?
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
 
HOW DIFFICULT WAS YOUR DAY WITH RANDY (EARNHARDT) PASSING?
“It was really tough. He helped me through a lot of challenges when I was trying to become a race car driver. He was there when I started driving late models. I went through the whole process of racing with Tony (Eury, Sr.) and all of them through the Bud car. Randy was always there. I hurt for Mamaw and Randy’s brother and sister, Danny, Kaye and Cathy.
 
“It is just very, very sad, but I am glad his suffering is over with. He is going to be missed. He was awesome, such an awesome guy. He kept things together (at DEI). He was in charge of a lot of different things. Mainly in charge of where every nut and bolt was. He was accountable for everything. After the racing after I left and everything kind of went away, he stuck around. He was loyal to Dad, and really looked after everything that was there and that was my Father’s and what would have been important to him as far as material things. Randy really looked after that. It is tough. It is part of life, and it is hard to get used to. I am just glad his suffering is over with; he was having a real hard time. I loved him dearly, and will miss him a lot.”
 
“It is just very, very sad, but I am glad his suffering is over with. He is going to be missed. He was awesome, such an awesome guy. He kept things together (at DEI). He was in charge of a lot of different things. Mainly in charge of where every nut and bolt was. He was accountable for everything. After the racing after I left and everything kind of went away, he stuck around. He was loyal to Dad, and really looked after everything that was there and that was my Father’s and what would have been important to him as far as material things. Randy really looked after that. It is tough. It is part of life, and it is hard to get used to. I am just glad his suffering is over with; he was having a real hard time. I loved him dearly, and will miss him a lot.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
ON HIS RACE:
“You had to fight extremely hard today.  It was just pit strategy and speed in the car and traffic it was not easy I can tell you that.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
A SOLID TOP-10 FINISH, BUT THE STRATEGIES WERE KIND OF WEIRD, TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY: “Yes, the strategies were kind of weird. It kind of hurt us in track position. Our car wasn’t that good that good on the straight today; I don’t know why. We will have to look at it. Even when I got a good run, it kind of bogged down. Just really struggled with the balance. We had a pretty competitive car at the beginning of the race, but it just couldn’t seem to be able to keep up with the race track. Everything I did, it still wouldn’t turn at all, we all the entry stability.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/ BEAUTYREST CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
ON HIS RACE:
“The 14th-place finish is unacceptable,” said Busch. “We were strong in practice but had trouble in the race running in traffic. The car was loose and didn’t have the traction that was needed on this track. We’ve accomplished a lot thus far this season, but one area we need to improve upon is finishing strong. No question we have to run better than we did today if we want to get into the top-10. We are definitely capable of making it happen, but we need to have strong finishes in the next six races.”   
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 30TH
ON HER RACE:
“You know it just wasn’t anything special. I just kind of kept with it and hoped to catch a break somewhere or that the car would get a lot better and it just kind of stayed real steady. We took two tires on one of the stops and we got track position out of it, but unfortunately it just didn’t run very well. So, we tried something; it just didn’t work and that’s that. It just was what it was. When we came into this weekend, I said okay, I’m not going to try to take anything from the car that it doe
sn’t really have and unfortunately that’s what we had today; or that’s what I had today.”
 
WHAT IMPROVEMENTS DO YOU THINK YOUR TEAM COULD HAVE MADE FOR YOU THIS WEEKEND TO GIVE YOU A BETTER RESULT?
“I think just more laps in practice would have been good. I know this track very well, but I didn’t feel like I knew it in this car. So, I didn’t feel like I was extremely comfortable as in I knew where to take the car to the limit. More time would have probably helped. That’s where experience comes in and it’s not like Indy. We don’t have a whole week. So, we’ve got to get it done in a couple of hours.”
 
YOU’VE GONE THE WHOLE NINE YARDS WITH INDYCAR AND NOW NASCAR. WHAT DOES THIS TRACK MEAN TO YOU?
“I said it all week that this is a special place and always will be. It would have been nice to have a better day than this and be able to march forward. We just didn’t. And that’s just all there is to it. Sometimes these are just the days you have. So, that’s all right; we’ll roll on to Pocono and hope for better.”
 
WAS IT NICE TO SEE YOUR TEAMMATE, RYAN NEWMAN, IN VICTORY LANE TODAY?
“Yeah, yeah. Ryan, he is an Indiana boy. He got the pole so I’m really happy for him. I’m happy for Stewart-Haas. We’ve had a trying year for sure and so, the high point of Tony winning at Dover and Ryan winning here is pretty cool. This is a special place and I’m sure he’s very happy in Victory Lane.”
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT RACING IN STOCK CARS AT INDIANAPOLIS?
“I think I just got more familiar with the track and realize how important restarts were here, a lot. They are very, very important. You know just being able to keep the car free enough to get around the track. You use a lot of throttle here and if you’re tight on throttle or if you’re tight in general, it’s kind of a killer with these long corners. So, we’ll be better next year.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 27, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS/THE SMURFS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER:
THAT WAS QUITE A LAP, AND YOU WENT OUT LAST!
“That is the benefit of going out last. You can see, and watch. You have the tracker up there, and you can see where guys are making the most time. I guess I did part of my  home work, and the guys definitely did their homework. The Quicken Loans Chevrolet was really good. I don’t know that we caught a cloud or anything. Just a great effort today for Chevrolet, and all the other things we’ve got going on here. Good day for Stewart-Haas Racing.”
 
ON BEING A HOOSIER AND WINNING POLE AT INDY:
“I’ll admit I was emotional. For me it special because it is the Brickyard, and I hadn’t won a pole her before even though I have won so many poles. It’s been so long since I won a pole, people ask me if I ran out of fuel for the rockets. That type of thing.  So this is special to me for a lot of reasons; being home here in Indiana; being at the Brickyard; being so long since I won a pole. Hopefully we can turn it into a good day tomorrow.”
 
YOU GET THAT FIRST PIT BOX:
“It is really big here. This pit road can lose you a race pretty quick. It is long, the boxes are long, but it is narrow. So that is to our advantage.”
 
WAS THIS SURPRISING TO YOU? “I knew we had a shot at it. I didn’t know what we were going to end up with. I felt like I had a shot at it after practice; we had a good run after practice. Had a little bit of practice. You just never know here if you are going to catch a cloud here or anything. But I don’t think we did.  Great run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet. We have two Chevrolet’s on the front row. See if we can’t turn it into a good day tomorrow.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2nd
ON HIS LAP: 
“That was a good lap.  You always look back on things and wish you could have another shot at it, but very strong lap.  I backed up what I ran in practice and that seems to be the trend out there right now.  I would certainly like to hold on for the pole, but there is a group of really fast cars coming later in the session.”
 
HOW MUCH WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO GET A FIFTH WIN AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY? 
“It is just indescribable.  In the company I am right now with Jeff Gordon and Rick Mears as a four-time winner is beyond my wildest dreams.  I have grown up watching many races here like all motorsports fans do.  Always dreamed about racing here and had a chance to come out here and be a part of it all.  I would be on cloud nine.  It’s hard to find words for it.  I haven’t really thought about it too much.  If I am in that moment I will probably have a better answer for you.  This is a very special race track and I’m very proud of the four wins I have here.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING “This was a pretty good lap for us. We didn’t know how much the track was going lose grip with the sun in the middle of day. We made adjustments between the Happy Hour session and qualifying, and I am really happy with it. I feel like we have a car we can race with tomorrow. So far, so good. I am really, really happy with the changes that Steve Addington (crew chief) and our guys made between Happy Hour and qualifying. It gives us a good idea what we need to do for the race because that is exactly what we working on during practice. I think we have a pretty good shot at this thing tomorrow. There’s about 10 really good cars right now in the field. I feel like we are right there in the hunt. We just have to put the whole day together tomorrow.”
 
DO YOU SLEEP BETTER TONIGHT AFTER SUCH A SOLID EFFORT?
“This is one of those tracks where track position is important, but it’s not absolutely everything. You have got to have a car you can race with. If you can get it to qualify well normally it will race well too. Just having a car that is balanced is the biggest thing.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/BEAUTYREST CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6th:
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP: 
“Real slimy in (turns) one and two I didn’t hit it right.  Just disappointed I didn’t deliver for my guys.  Really I hate dropping speed from my run in practice to the actual run, which we knew we would drop a little bit we dropped way too much. I feel bad I left a lot on the table and didn’t deliver for my guys.”
 
HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT BE TO TAKE THESE GUYS TO VICTORY LANE HERE TOMORROW?
“Well that is what we have to do right now is just close the qualifying book and move into the race and run a smart 400 miles.  Our pit selection should be okay, we won’t have the greatest and we will just work on it from there.  I just feel bad I didn’t deliver for these guys right now at this moment.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 1 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 8th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN: 
“It was okay.  Our car didn’t drive as good as practice.  We kind of missed it there a little bit.  I think more the track changed.  When we finished practice we were pretty happy with the car.  We didn’t touch it for qualifying.  Our Target Chevy for some reason just changed a lot.  I think I have a good race pace, it’s just hoping a little better.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15th:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Well, we would have liked to run a little bit better than that. The guys did a good job They made a lot of changes during practice. It was a decent lap. It will probably be in the Top 20. We just struggled all day in qualifying trim and the guys made some good changes.”
 
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU RACE PRETTY WELL HERE:
“Yeah, we like the speed in race trim. We’ll have to go back to the hauler and talk a lot about the things we can do. It’s always good to be here in Indianapolis.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7th:
ON HIS LAP
“It was pretty good. Our Great Clips Chevrolet is fast. We should be in the hunt tomorrow. I would have liked to qualify a little better than that, but that’s all we had.”
 
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS ALWAYS RUNS WELL HERE. IS THAT ENCOURAGING AS YOU HEAD INTO THIS RACE TOMORROW?
“It’s definitely encouraging to be driving the No. 5 car and know you have a great engine and a great car. There is so much that goes into all that. The guys do an awesome job of that. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think we’ll hopefully stay in the hunt throughout the race and make the right decisions and be there in the end.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 33rd:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING FOR YOUR FIRST SPRINT CUP RACE
“Well, it was consistent the whole lap. In our practice and qualifying runs it was pretty decent and then we’d get really tight off of Turn 4, which is a tough problem to fix because you’re looking for some odd issue that’s making it really tight on the last corner. So the positive side is that it was consistent the whole way around the track. It was just consistently tight. So, I just couldn’t really carry the speed I needed through the center, especially getting flat off.”
 
TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THE TRACK HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS MORNING
“I’m not as experienced and good as the other guys around here to know what that very small difference is, but it definitely feels a little bit warmer. It just felt tighter.  Unfortunately it’s not the 500. You don’t come here and have days and days and days of practice. You have a few hours. So, we’ll work on it and we’ll come back stronger next year.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24
PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 9th:
ON HIS RUN:
“We didn’t get the best of luck there on the clouds. We needed that to compete with Jimmie but it’s all about a good lap. We would have liked to back up what we ran in practice. We would be up there a little bit further, but the car felt great. So I’m real happy with the speed and balance of the car. I got a little greedy in Turn 4 and the car pushed and I lost some time. If any corner you don’t want to mess up, it’s one leading to these long straightaways. So, that was a little unfortunate, but still all-in-all, hopefully we end up in the Top 10.”
 
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RACE?
“Well, we worked on our race set-up a lot; all day yesterday and most of today. And I thought we’d made some really great gains there. I love racing here because it’s such a challenge. You have four corners to set people up to run different lines and to do different things to try to make passes. And track position is key. We know that.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 33 MYCOGEN SEEDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 20th
WAS IT KIND OF LIKE DRIVING A TRUCK ON DIRT?
“No, a long way from there.  It’s all the grip in the world here and just fighting a little tight right there, but we just had to get in this race.  We didn’t have points and I think that (lap) should be good enough.   Little nervous that first lap because it’s always tough to come out and qualify for the first Brickyard.  I am happy with that so we will go and see what we can do in the race.”
 
YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF THIS PLACE AND IT IS SPECIAL
“It is special so it’s going to be an honor to start the first one with Mycogen Seeds on the side of the car.”