NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed the first practice session, racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW WAS THE CAR DURING THAT FIRST PRACTICE?
“We were in qualifying trim the whole time and it was generally loose I would say for most of the practice. We made a final run and we’re moving steadily on fast but by no means are we fast enough. I hit water in three and four. That weeper was a bit of an issue. Hopefully it doesn’t come into play during qualifying. I imagine they’re going to stay on top of that. We just have work to do with getting a car for qualifying for me that I feel really comfortable with.
 
JUST A REACTION TO THE NEWS TODAY WITHIN THE TEAM THAT KEVIN HARVICK WILL BE COMING ABOARD NEXT SEASON WITH BUDWEISER?
“There have been rumors I think. More than anything it’s just nice to be able to get planning and get moving and have everybody moving in that direction. He’s a really good guy. He’s helped me from the beginning when I was running Nationwide. I’m really excited about him coming over and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun.
 
DOES IT CHANGE THE DYNAMIC OF THE TEAM?
“No, there’s not really anything different from yesterday to today or the beginning of the year to now. We’re professional and everybody’s moving in the same direction. That’s to go as fast as we can and to get every car that’s running at SHR as fast as possible. So, I don’t anticipate that much will change through the end of the year either.”
 
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME A WOMAN WILL RUN A SPRINT CUP RACE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE, DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU AT THIS POINT?
“No, again these are not things that I’m aware of. There was somewhere else this year that I don’t think a girl had run a race or something like that. It seems like an odd stat. But being the first to do things is something that’s happened quite a few times but nothing that I keep track of. And on my quest as a driver to be the best driver as possible and as fast as possible and run really well I guess these are just things that happen. I’m running full-time Sprint Cup and we come to Loudon twice.”
 
IN GENERAL HOW DO YOU LIKE THE TRACK?
“I think it’s a good track. I think it’s a lot of fun. That second lane is where everybody runs but the first lane’s possible to run there if the car is hooked up well enough and not too loose. It’s a little bit challenging to pass but I think it’s a good race track.”
 
WHAT DID YOU GAIN FROM LAST WEEK’S RACE AS FAR AS WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAST LAP?
“I only needed to watch it once to see what happened. Actually I lie, I watched it twice to make sure I knew what happened because I watched it right after I pulled up to my hauler. I saw that and I was like, “Wow, that was me. I came down on the 38.” And then I was like, “Man, I just didn’t feel like I moved.” And then I said to myself, “All I was trying to do was follow the 88.” And so I went back to my bus and watched it and I was like, “I did follow the 88 and that is why I came down”. So, I was just not aware enough of my surroundings, not aware enough that we were turning down the track in the tri-oval that much and it really just felt like we were wrapping around the top coming to the finish line but it gets a little bit harder to judge exactly where you are when you’re going through the tri-oval as opposed to just down the straightaway. So I went and told David I was sorry and I’m really sorry. I not only feel bad that it started the accident but I lost five spots doing it. By no means was it me trying to be tough or move. I had enough momentum to finish ninth.”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OR WOULD THE CHOICE HAVE BEEN TO STAY A LITTLE BIT CLOSER TO THE WALL?
“Yeah, looking back I would have kept my eyes on the wall and stayed closer to it knowing that it kept you further away from other cars. I can honestly say that I got done and was like, “Man, I don’t know what happened underneath me but it obviously collected me.” But it was my fault. I’m just trying to explain to you how little I thought I did but when you’re running two hundred miles an hour it doesn’t take much. Even David said, “I didn’t even barely feel anything”. But it was just enough to turn the car around. Like I said going two hundred miles an hour it doesn’t much.
 
WHEN YOU WERE EXPLORING THE OPTIONS TO COME TO CUP WHAT WAS IT ABOUT TONY’S (STEWART) TEAM AND PARTICULARLY TONY AS AN OWNER THAT APPEALED TO YOU?
“I think there were two things but there was one main thing. And that’s that we’ve got similar backgrounds. We get along great. He’s not only an owner but a driver, so he’s invested. He wants to run well so that means as an owner he’s going to do what it takes to make it run well. The other part of it that made it a really easy decision as far as being able to move forward was just that they’re a two car team so it was possible to ask be able to ask him if they would be prepared to run a three car team. I didn’t have to wait for someone to leave to find a spot. So it made the planning better. And by all means it took a lot of planning. “
 
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO BE IN ESPN’S BODIES WE WANT?
“Yeah, every year.”
 
AND WHY NOT?
“I just never felt like that was something I needed or wanted to do. A lot of the stuff that I’ve done that has been scantily clad has all been swimsuit stuff. I was also asked to do the painted section of the swimsuit issue. I was asked to do that the second year after I’d was in it the first time. I asked one of my most liberal friends if I should do it and she was like, “Um, that’s naked right? Last I checked that’s naked.” Would I feel comfortable? I’m sure it’d be a little bit borderline. There’s a difference to me between going to the beach and wearing a swimming suit and going to the beach and wearing nothing or paint. That’s just pushing the limit a little bit. I mean as far as artistically I think it’d be really fun but it’s not things that I need to do to push the issue with my brand. There’s already enough stuff that I do that pushes that. So, I’d rather stay in my full comfort zone than go that far. I’m not saying there will never be a day. When I speak to them and they ask me each time I say, “Don’t stop asking. I don’t know. I might change my mind one year. And it might be something that parallels something else I’m doing, or where I’m at, or how I’m feeling.” But just not right now.
 
SO IF THEY ASK RICKY TO DO IT, COULD YOU BECOME THE FIRST COUPLE?
“I think the swimsuit issue tried the couple’s thing and that didn’t work. So, I’d be surprised.”
 
WHAT ARE THE KEYS FOR YOU GUYS TO RUN WELL HERE THIS WEEKEND?
“I think qualifying is going to be important that’s why we worked on it the whole time in practice. Not sure it went great but passing is always tough here so qualifying is going to be important. I think that getting through the center of the corner here is going to be really important too. It’s a fairly long corner so you need to get the car rotated. On the other hand I’m not really sure because I haven’t raced here in a Cup car. All I can do is base it off of Nationwide and when we came and tested a few weeks ago.
 
WITH THE OFF WEEKEND COMING NEXT WEEK IS THAT A GOOD TIME FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM?
“Well, I would say that if we had a couple of off weekends it’d be good for all the teams. It’s a lot of work and it’s a grind no doubt. Especially with opening up the testing for those four official tests that can be up to three days long. It wears on a team no doubt. I think it’s going to be nice. Everybody’s been a
sking what I’m going to do. I’m in a wedding. So, that’s what I’ll be doing. The ESPY’s are this week. So, fly out to LA on Tuesday. The ESPY’s are on Wednesday. And then get back for all of the wedding festivities. And then I’m heading down to Indy early. Not really much off-time for me. These last five days have actually been pretty good. I was home Saturday night through last night (Thursday night). That was about the longest stretch I’ve had in one place. Not completely off. I still had a couple things to do but at least I didn’t have to get on a plane to do them.”
 
SOMEBODY ELSE’S WEDDING?
“Somebody else’s wedding. Yeah. No, I didn’t just drop a big bomb right there. It’s somebody else’s wedding. I love weddings. I love love. So, it’ll be fun.”
 
HAVE YOU EVER HAD SPONSORS THAT WANTED YOU TO DO THAT ESPN BODY ISSUE OR THAT THEY DIDN’T WANT YOU TO DO IT?
“I don’t think there’s really been anybody that necessarily says what I can or can’t do. But all I do know is that GoDaddy’s always said from the very beginning and all along is that, “whatever you do we’re behind you”. So, I always felt comfortable that my primary source of concern being GoDaddy would always be OK with whatever it was that I wanted to do. That’s cool for an athlete to know that they’re biggest backer is behind them no matter what. I still have to do things that I feel completely comfortable with and I feel wouldn’t take away from the other things I do. The good things that I do. Because those things can turn negative quick and be louder than the good and that’s not what I want to happen.
 
YOU MENTIONED THE ESPY’S QUITE A FEW TIMES, IS THERE ANYONE YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING THAT YOU HAVEN’T YET?
“You sound like a reporter on the red carpet right now. That’s basically what everyone asks. Since 2005, I’ve been there every year since 2005. And this is what I always say on the red carpet. I don’t know exactly who I’m excited to meet. I mean every now and again I have a year where I’m like, “Oh, this person I heard they know who I am so I’m excited to meet them.” But I’m more one of those people that has an experience there at the ESPY’s and meets someone they didn’t expect to or know much about even sometimes and all of a sudden come away going, “Oh my gosh, he’s a great guy”. Ask me again at the Brickyard and I’ll probably have a story.
 
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY                                                    
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed competing for the championship, other contenders and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING INTO NEW HAMPSHIRE THIS WEEKEND AND COMING OFF OF LAST WEEK’S WIN AT DAYTONA:  “Excited to be here.  This track is challenging for everybody.  Chad (Knaus, crew chief) really likes this race track and the engineering required to get the car to work.  There is very little vertical loading and a lot of lateral loading with the race car and the way you use the springs and shocks and the roll center of the car to make the car work.  Chad really enjoys that exercise.  I feel like last year we were the second best car in both races.  The 11 (Denny Hamlin) had a bunch of speed, but won a few times here and have been competitive and it’s always been a good track for me.  Excited to be back and a lot like the other drivers hopeful to be in the Chase and we look at this track and know that we come back here in the Chase and we need to treat this with a little more care and attention.  If you leave here with a good result, it just kind of checks one of the boxes going into the Chase that you feel like you can be competitive.”
 
DID LAST SEASON’S CHASE MAKE YOUR TEAM MORE CONSISTENT THIS YEAR?:  “I look at 2011 and think there was more growing that went on over that off season leading into ’12 than what’s gone on from the end of ’12 to now.  We had the speed, we had the tools to win the championship last year.  The year before, we didn’t and there was more going on there.  Last year we had that bad race at Phoenix, but still went to Homestead and were in great position to take care of business and a series of mistakes by our own team so we took ourselves out of it.  That’s almost easier to swallow and deal with than it is being slow.  In a weird way we spent less time focusing on changes that we needed to make and what was going on with our speed in the end result than we did in ’11.  We spent a lot of time thinking about things and knew that we needed to dig in deep and rethink our engineering process, the way we were taking cars to the race track and a lot of stuff there.  I think that this off season was really just a continuation of where we were at the end of last year.  Even though we didn’t get the championship, we had a lot to be proud of over those last 10 races and a lot of speed in our car and it’s just too bad that events at the end on top of the 2 (Brad Keselowski) car really doing an awesome job kept us from winning the championship.”
 
ARE THERE OTHER TEAMS YOU CONSIDER SERIOUS THREATS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP?:  “Oh yeah.  Without a doubt.  I think there are a few out there that have showed their strength.  The 20 (Matt Kenseth) car is the first car that comes to mind.  Right now we have a big points lead, but that all goes away when the Chase gets here and that changes the game.  Not only that aspect, but we still have a few months before the Chase starts and we know how fast things can change in the garage area and the speed that an organization may have might not be there two months from now.  We’re looking ahead and we’ve been testing and we have a lot of test sessions left on the books that NASCAR will allow us to test at tracks we race at.  All of that has been saved in hopes that we can find more speed and develop our cars for the end.  I am very proud that we started this season a little bit off on the mile-and-a-half and two-mile race tracks and were able to find that speed and get it in our cars.  Test sessions really kind of take you to that next level and I’m happy that we have that room to grow still.”
 
DOES THE EXPECTATION TO WIN THE TITLE ADD PRESSURE?:  “I don’t know.  I don’t let that outside pressure affect me much.  I rarely recognize it or see it.  There’s more pressure on myself to perform and more pressure that Chad (Knaus, crew chief) has on himself and our team dynamic than anything outside like that.  I really don’t focus on those things.”
 
WILL YOU EXPERIMENT MORE IN THE NEXT EIGHT RACES OR JUST FOCUS ON WINS?:  “Ideally we need to do a little of both, but we’d be foolish to get too far away from what we’re doing now.  It’s completely working.  Bonus points are going to be everything and we missed out on some bonus points through the year so far.  A little of both and I would say that the closer we get to the Chase, the less experimenting we would do.  You need to hone in and know what you’re going to take to the track and get familiar with it.  I think it’s also important to run well leading into the Chase so that the driver is used to the pressure and running up front, pit crew is when they jump off the wall to the car.  There is just something about that is good for a team.”
 
ARE YOU AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME OR ARE YOU STILL IMPROVING?:  “I feel I’m a far better driver today than I am from my rookie year, my first championship or my fifth.  Experience is so helpful and useful and important in our sport.  I remember saying in different media situations that I would trade my age for experience any day.  It really does make a big difference.  When you look at the generations before mine in racing, I saw a stat somewhere that the average Cup driver starting point was in the early 30s.  You look at when (Dale) Earnhardt won his last championship and the bulk of his championships he was older and I think the same thing went for (Richard) Petty.  That’s all because of experience.  I feel that I’m much smarter, focused, my talents are refined, I know the race tracks, I know my industry, everything is so much better today than it was in previous years.”
 
HOW MUCH MORE INTERESTING WOULD A CHASE BE WITH KURT BUSCH IN IT?:  “I think it would be a huge statement.  I’m not sure if it’s going to change much on the track, he is racing for wins now and in the mix each and every week.  To see a smaller team if they were able to make the Chase and fight for the championship, it really highlights NASCAR’s vision or focuses in on the vision that NASCAR has had all along where anybody can come and show up with a race car and race and have a shot.  I think it would be great for the team to make it and I think for Kurt (Busch) to kind of bring everything full circle and to get that done would be really cool for him.”
 
DO YOU THINK BRAD KESELOWSKI IS LEARNING HOW TOUGH IT IS TO BE ON TOP?:  “Yeah, every champion goes through it to come back and try to repeat is really difficult to do.  When the spotlight is on you when you’re chasing that first championship and you get it, that light intensifies quite a bit more coming back the next year and I know it from my own experience and it’s five times that what he’s been going through.  The little things that we’ve dealt with over the years that he’s living through and experiencing now.  Everything from you have to be careful what you say because many more people pay attention and a passing comment is now a headline somewhere.  A previous year it was at the tail end of an article and didn’t mean much.  Now it’s a headline.  That’s just one example of how things really changed.  I think he’s handled it well.&nb
sp; We all hit bumps in the road and learn as we go down the road.  I by no means am perfect so I understand what kind of things he’s been through.”
 
HOW DOES JEFF GORDON FIT IN WITH THE TEAM RIGHT NOW FROM A COMPETITIVE STANDPOINT?:  “I honestly haven’t seen a change in Jeff (Gordon) from when I first started and he was off his last championship year to now.  The feel he has for the car, his focus, his involvement with the team, if anything I would say he’s probably more available to his team and around the race shop today than he was when I started.  He used to tease me because I was the new excited kid who showed up and was there three or four times a week.  He wasn’t there that much.  It’s kind of reversed now a little bit in a lot of ways with the amount of time spent at the shop.  That’s all there and I know he’s working hard and I know Alan (Gustafson, 24 crew chief) is working hard on that team.  They’ve been awfully close. He jokes about how many years of good luck that he had and I guess in some ways he jokes that it’s all coming back on him now because he’s had very fast race cars.  Very capable of winning races and fighting for championships, but he’s had some really wacky things happen to him.”
 
HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT YOUR TEAM IS HOW OTHERS ARE MEASURED IN HOW TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?:  “That’s a big compliment for sure and we’re proud of that.  At the same time, there isn’t a team that is studied more than us so anything we do the others follow quickly and try to take our system or our formula and try to make it better.  We do a nice job though of keeping our blinders on and worried about our car situation and I think in the long run that has been really good for us and allows us to keep evolving.  It’s a smart garage area and people pay close attention to what we do.”
 
WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR IMPROVEMENTS WHEN YOU ARE ON TOP AND HOW DO YOU STAY MOTIVATED AT THAT LEVEL?:  “I think for myself I know that it’s not going to last forever and when you’re racing the best in the world you always elevate your game and your abilities to stay there.  That’s just kind of a natural thing for myself that I believe all drivers share that same ambition to win a championship.  From the team side, Chad’s desire and his passion for the sport and for fast race cars really does it.  There aren’t big areas to work anymore.  It’s really about, as he likes to say, stacking pennies.  You just continue to find a little bit in each area and keep stacking and eventually it will turn into something.  That’s where I think he’s different than others.  There are times when he’s putting in all the hours, but maybe we’re working in the wrong area and we missed it.  That happens.  Majority of the time though they’ll figure out the right area to work in and where the speed is in the car and we’ll get it dialed in.  I like him wearing a 48 headset and on top of my pit box and it works really well.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed, racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, being a free agent in 2014 and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
A THREE TIME WINNER HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY TALK A LITTLE ABOUT COMING INTO NEW HAMPSHIRE THIS WEEKEND:
“Well I have different circumstances there is no doubt about that.  For me it’s a track position race.  I’ve always talked about that and the fact that it’s important to qualify well.  You get a limited number of chances to adjust on your race car and tune your race and work in those windows that either the cautions or the green flag runs give you.  Excited it’s big for this weekend for Wix Filters I believe it’s our first race this year on the Cup side and they are also sponsoring the modified which is a lot of fun for me to come up here and race.  I’ve said before this is the birthplace of track position and a lot of weight is put on the teams and the performance of the entire weekend in qualifying.  We didn’t have the best of practices, but I think we have a car that is better than we did practice speed wise.  We will see what we can prove with the Wix Filters Chevrolet in qualifying.  We spent the entire time in qualifying trim so we will switch over and get some race trim in tomorrow.  We did come up here and test and feel we have a little leg up because we had a good test up here.
 
“Let me just go ahead and say before you guys ask any questions.  This is an opportunity for me to come up here and answer probably five or six questions, but all at once. The ability to save my time and your time every time somebody else asks the same question my answer doesn’t usually get as good so let me do it here all at once.  I’m aware of what happened this morning and the announcement with Tony (Stewart) and Kevin (Harvick) and what SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing) plans are.  I’ve had a good run.  I look forward to finishing out this year.  We have great sponsors in Quicken Loans, Wix Filters, Aspen Dental, Code 3 Associates, Outback they have all done us well.  Look forward to the opportunity to make the Chase, winning races and putting ourselves to have a chance to win a championship that’s my ultimate goal and it always has been. I do not know what my future holds.  I have no idea right now.  I didn’t have any idea at this time last year.  That is something that weighs on my shoulders.  I have a little homework to do.  That is part of racing and part of the situation that I’m in.  I can’t say that I’m happy with how everything unfolded.  I know that there are business decisions and business decisions sometimes trump friendships.  I don’t feel like that was the case, but in the end I’m happy with the three wins that I’ve had so far with Stewart-Haas and the performance and the cars and everything else.  There will be a change for me in 2014 and I don’t know what that change is.”
 
AT WHAT POINT DID THIS BECOME FINALIZED FOR YOU?
“I got a phone call from Tony (Stewart) on Wednesday about 20 minutes to seven and we talked for basically 20 minutes.  That was it.  His phone call was about making the announcement and that I would not be a part of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. That was it.
 
“His stress was the importance of our friendship and that to me will never change.  We’ve only ever argued over how hard we race.  That is the kind of friends Tony and I are.  There is a chance that we might do that again in the future, but we have a great friendship and I look forward to keeping that.  That was the main point of our conversation outside of the obvious of 2014.  That was my first knowledge of what I won’t be doing.  I’ve been a free agent ever since I signed my contract last year in September for 2014 and had the ability to look around.  I will continue to do that.  At this point I do not know what or where I will be.”
 
IN YOUR MIND WHAT WOULD BE AN IDEAL SITUATION FOR YOU IN 2014?
“I don’t know. There are organizations out there that are capable of winning championships and capable of racing I guess into the Chase to give themselves and opportunity at a championship.  It’s obvious that there are some seats that are moving around and becoming available and potentially coming available.  To me I first and foremost want to be wanted for my ability.  Ability behind the wheel as well as what I can do for the sponsors.  That is the most important part.  It’s not easy out there with the economy and what it takes to run one of these race teams financially.  It’s not easy; sponsorship is not at its peak in NASCAR.  There are a lot of things to be considered, but I was sincere when I said it I want to be someplace where I’m wanted.  I want to be wanted for my abilities and the desires that we have as common goals to win a championship.  Every driver out there wants to win a championship.  Every driver out there wants to win races.  It’s the desire that you have to fight through all the things I think that make and separate the men from the boys I guess you could say.”   
 
WE ARE GOING TO YOUR HOME TRACK IN TWO WEEKS.  WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO GET A WIN AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?
“I think for Tony (Stewart) to him it’s more like home court.  To me it’s more like home state and the essence of the history of the speedway and the history of speed at the speedway.  Indianapolis is to auto racing what Daytona is to auto racing in a different way.  The history of speed, the history of land speed, the history of a lot of racing, the great drivers that have crossed that yard of bricks and I say it every year I want to be on that list of winners at that race track.  That is what means a lot to me.  It’s not a brand new facility it is a facility with an awesome history and being a part of that history is one of my personal goals. Yes, it’s big, it’s huge and Tony (Stewart) has been fortunate enough to win it and I’ve been close.  I still want it.”
 
DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMITMENTS FROM ANY OF YOUR CURRENT SPONSORS TO GO WITH YOU TO WHATEVER RACE TEAM YOU MAY END UP AT?  DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE YOU WILL BE IN CUP NEXT YEAR?
“I have no idea on any part of it.  There are no answers that I have.  Obviously, I have my own homework to do.  I have no answers with respect to any of that at this point.”
 
DID OTHER TEAMS LOOK AT YOU THAT WAY?  DID YOU HAVE ANY CONVERSATIONS AT LEAST PRELIMINARY TALKS RIGHT OFF THE BAT LAST YEAR OR EARLY IN THIS SEASON?
“I haven’t had much for conversations.  I’ve really been focused on this year and performing the way I think we are capable of.  We had a brand new team when we started this season.  Matt Borland was an experienced crew chief, but our entire organization within the No. 39 side was brand new.  A lot of guys had never even come to a Cup garage before let alone worked on a race car in the Cup garage.  That’s been a learning process for us.  I think it slowed us down a little bit.  I think we have gained a lot of experience in the first 18 races or whatever that we can provide more experience for the next few to be able to have a better chance at the championship.  We are not out of this chance for the Chase.  We are not out of anything right now.  I think we are 17 points out of 10th.  There is a lot of racing left to go, a lot of points to be had.  I’ve been really focused on this year more so than next year.  As we go through this timing of the season,
the silly gets even sillier.  You never know what becomes available.”
 
LOOKING AT THE SPONSORSHIP LANDSCAPE DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO BRING SPONSORSHIP?  ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE TO MAYBE COBBLE TOGETHER SOME SORT OF DEAL TO BRING TO A TEAM GIVEN THAT THERE AREN’T ANY TEAMS THAT SORT OF HAVE OPEN RIDES WITH CARS WAITING?
“As an engineer we don’t like to use the word cobble (laughs).  It takes everything.  It takes a good team with the right resources, it takes the financial side of it and it takes the driver that can guide the rocket.  Yeah, that is part of the homework is putting all those things together.  Then you have to throw in the personalities of everything and putting people together because even if I am a top 10 driver in my opinion if I don’t have the right crew or the right cars or the right downforce or whatever it is it’s not going to work out.  All those things have to work right.  I want to be competitive.  I’m not going to go out there and just find a ride.  I want to find a ride with somebody that has the same goals and perspectives as I do.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed racing at New Hampshire, the championship contenders and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT BEING BACK AT NEW HAMPSHIRE AND HOW WAS PRACTICE THIS MORNING?:  “Obviously from those numbers, I like it here.  We tested here and it’s always beneficial to test.  I thought we had a pretty challenging practice.  Conditions I think changed from the test quite a bit on us and even just how quickly things are advancing with the sport.  You come here whatever it was two months ago and just going week to week and how the setups evolved, speed in the cars, learning more and so here we are trying new things and completely different things than what we even tested here.  Some of the things worked and some of the things didn’t work, but we ended the practice on a positive note with some good qualifying runs.  Looking forward to qualifying and hopefully we can make a few more gains and get us a solid starting position and then learn what we learn from today and apply it to tomorrow to get ready for the race on Sunday.  It’s always a track I look forward to.”
 
DO YOU FEEL THE BANKING AT NEW HAMPSHIRE OR DO YOU CONSIDER IT MORE A FLAT TRACK?:  “Yeah, from where I’m sitting it feels like it has negative banking.  It’s very, very flat.”
 
DO YOU PLAN TO RACE UNTIL YOU’RE 71 YEARS OLD LIKE MORGAN SHEPHERD AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HIM RACING AT THAT AGE?:  “I think everyone is made different and how they apply themselves and stay healthy.  I think a doctor and Morgan (Shepherd) are the ones that decide that and I think that should be the case with every individual.  I think if you are taking good care of your body and you pass all the physicals then should there be a little bit more strenuous type of workout to pass that physical examination to make sure that you are prepared at that age?  Maybe, but I think if you’re out there capable of doing it and you are willing to do it and you pass the physical then I think you should be allowed to do it.  I think that’s quite an accomplishment I will say.  We talk about how amazing it is to see Mark Martin out there being competitive over 50 years old, but to just go out there and do what he does as far as Morgan is concerned at 71, that’s amazing.  And no you will not see me out there doing that at 71.”
 
HOW DO YOU JUDGE YOUR COMPETITIVENESS AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON AND ARE YOU EXCITED FOR INDIANAPOLIS?:  “Competitiveness versus results are two different things for me right now.  We’ve really struggled this year.  Earlier in the year with the competitiveness and then we started to get into competitiveness in the cars just driving better and more to my liking and the speed being there.  I think we’ve maybe have had it during the race most of the year, but qualifying we’ve struggled so that’s something that we’ve been working on and I was very pleased with what happened at Kentucky and I hope we can see some more progress there on the mile-and-a-halves.  On these types of tracks we’ve been pretty competitive qualifying and in the race so I hope that continues.  I’m very much looking forward to Indianapolis.  Same thing kind of applies to Indy as it does here, we tested there which is always great and beneficial, but things have evolved since that test and I think our cars have improved since that test and we’ll be trying to apply that when we get there.  All signs of that test and things that we have planned, I’m very excited.  We had a shot of winning that race a couple years ago and I always go to that track with confidence and feeling good.  When the car and the team feeling the same way then that’s a great combination to have.”
 
DO YOU SEE JIMMIE JOHNSON AND MATT KENSETH SEPARATING THEMSELVES FROM THE FIELD IN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE AS FAR AS BEING IN CONTENTION FOR WINS?:  “I would say that certainly up to this point they have and I agree with you.  I think both of those guys could have won more races than that.  The difference is that the way it used to be is you separated yourself through your consistency, especially if you won a bunch of races and top-fives and nobody had a chance of ever catching you.  It was over.  Even if your momentum didn’t quite continue the last 10 races of the year, you had such a stretch that you could just kind of give and take a little bit or maybe maintain the momentum and killed it like we did in 1998 where we just continued that all the way to the final race.  With the Chase, that’s what changes.  All of the sudden everything gets reset and all of the sudden you might have a small advantage based on your wins, but basically it’s something that you’re all on a clean slate now and you have to put the best 10 races that you’ve put together all season long right then and there to win the championship.  That really just in itself breaks up the momentum that you had.  I always feel like the best teams always win the championship.  It seems like they throughout the season build that team up and when the Chase starts, the guys that executed the best are the ones that win it.  I think the 2 (Brad Keselowski) had that last year and the 14 (Tony Stewart) the year before, even though he didn’t have any momentum, they did everything they needed to do to put themselves in position to go and execute well and put a championship run together.  We’ve seen the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) do that as well.  Right now I think it’s the 48’s to lose.  They’ve been so strong and because they’ve won five championships, you don’t expect them to go away anytime soon and you don’t expect them to lose that momentum when the Chase starts.  Because it is the Chase, anything is possible and can happen.”
 
WHY AREN’T OTHER TEAMS DOING WELL BEING RECOGNIZED AS CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS?:  “I think it’s just history.  The dominance that Jimmie (Johnson) and the 48 team have had over the years and the records that they continue to set or break draw a lot of attention and I think that what they need is a good rival.  That’s I think what creates a great story.  I think people and even the media and the competitors, you want to have somebody that you love to hate.  Unless you’re that team winning all the time, you’re not going to be real happy about them when they go to victory lane.  You’re going to want to figure out how to beat them.  I think that’s kind of where people are, but he’s also building just a heck of a resume and stats sheet and just doing unbelievable things that I don’t think truly and I’ve said this for years, I don’t think will truly be respected until years down the road.  It’s unfortunate for those guys because it seems like every time they do something amazing and good, they get a little bit of recognition, but then it’s more of they are stinking up the show, this is not good for the sport and I find that to be pretty unfair.  I think they probably don’t care a whole lot about it either after they’re celebrating the victory.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO PEOPLE THINKING A CREW CHIEF CHANGE WILL AUTOMATICALLY MAKE A TEAM START WINNING RACES?:  “First of all, I don’t think anybody should speak to, everybody can have their own opinions and with Twitter and Facebook and the internet these days, the opinions flow freely and everybody has a voice.  That’s great and it’s cool that people are interacting that way.  I don’t think anybody can really give true criticism unless they’re inside the organization and they see the re
lationship and they are in the meetings or they see how we work together at the track and away from the track.  To me, I’ve put as much blame on myself this year as I have when we’re not qualifying well, I feel like that I haven’t given the effort to the team.  I know our cars are better than that and then there’s been times where we’ve made mistakes and we’ve had freaky crazy things happen to us and I’m always a big believer on it’s not about luck, it’s about making your own luck and through preparation and hard work and putting yourself in position for good things to happen.  It seems like every time we get ourselves in that position something changes and those are things that are not a crew chief’s fault or driver’s fault or a team or crew member’s fault.  I don’t know if you’re speculating to Alan (Gustafson, crew chief), but he is one of the best crew chiefs in this garage area and anytime that I see or hear that, it frustrates me because I know how good he is.  Trust me, nobody is more frustrated with our performance this year than I am and our team is because it’s not because of lack of effort.  We know what our teammates are capable of doing and are doing and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be right there along with them.  We’ve changed crew chiefs, teams, pit crews, we’ve done everything over the years to try to keep up with the 48 and it hasn’t been successful yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to keep trying and that just shows you how good those guys are and I love my loyal fans that will go with me all the way to the bottom of the ocean even if it was my fault.  That’s just loyalty and you have to love that.”
 
DO YOU FOLLOW DRIVERS ARE TWITTER?:  “Yeah I do.”
 
DO YOU FOLLOW JIMMIE JOHNSON OR READ WHAT HE TWEETS?:  “And I have a lot of fans that are usually talking to both of us so I see his Twitter handle and a lot of tweets that are tweets to me or tweets to him.”
 
DOES JIMMIE JOHNSON COME ACROSS MORE INTERESTING ON TWITTER?:  “Maybe I don’t follow him quite as much as you do.  The thing is I don’t have to follow him to know how interesting he is because I’ve partied with the guy.  I’ve hung out with Jimmie enough to know that he’s a very interesting, great person and works very hard at being as good as he is and there is no surprise there.  Twitter, I think a good bit of his personality comes out in his tweets and again I’m not following it quite as much as maybe you are or others.  He’s mixing it up and having fun and being loose and I think that’s the great thing about Twitter is everybody gets to see a different side of you as well as they get to interact with you.  It’s a great tool or great fun to have.”
 
ARE YOU MORE FUN OFF TWITTER?:  “I am.  I had a pretty good night last week.  Everybody thought my Twitter account had been hacked because I actually said some comments and kind of got outside my norm and all of the sudden everybody thought this was not Jeff (Gordon) and somebody had hacked my Twitter account.  I didn’t know how to take that exactly.  Sort of hurt my feelings.  I guess I’m definitely more fun when I’m not on Twitter.”
 
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN INDIANAPOLIS IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT IN AN INDYCAR?:  “That’s a good question.  Honestly, the whole time I was there I didn’t think about that at all.  I know that might be odd, but I really just was thinking of it from a purely entertainment standpoint seeing my son see a different kind of car and just whether he’s entertained by it or not.  Most of it was for him and my nephew who was also with me.  For me it was being amazed at how fast those cars go through those corners, corners that I’m used to going through at much slower speeds and just the technology of the cars.  Would I like to drive one of those cars somewhere?  Yeah, I would.  My biggest thing that holds me back from doing a lot of things is I want to be competitive in whatever it is I’m in and I know if I go run five or 10 laps whether it be a rally car or an IndyCar or whatever car, that’s not enough for me to go be competitive and if I can’t go be competitive in it then I usually don’t have fun.  That’s just my personality.  It’s not about just sliding the car sideways or feeling it stick at 220 mph, it’s about can I be as fast as somebody else and so no, honestly that didn’t persuade me to want to go do it.  As a matter of fact, when I was speaking to (James) Hinchcliffe and then moments later he’s spinning back into the wall, the guy barely flinched and he couldn’t catch it and I felt bad for him and also thought I had no desire to go get in that car.”
 
IS THERE ANYTHING NASCAR NEEDS TO CONSIDER CHANGING ON THE CARS BEFORE NEXT YEAR’S DAYTONA 500?:  “I will say that the way we approached the July race was a lot different than February where we saw guys really get in line and run that high line a lot more in July where guys were a lot more racy and pushing the limits and trying to get that track position and working with other guys to do that — and girls.  I thought the racing was really good.  The only thing that being out front is a little bit too much of an advantage right now.  It’s very hard to organize a group to pass the leader.  Even that run that Tony (Stewart) got coming into three and through three and four, he got a pretty good push from the 29 (Kevin Harvick) and it didn’t materialize as much as I thought it would.  Seemed like it just stopped pretty quick.  I think that looking at some of the aero package, I like the way the cars drive and I like how we are able to mix it up and be three-wide and that has a little to do with the draginess and downforce of the car, but if there was something to allow a car to get a little more of a sling shot on the leader, that would be the only thing I would recommend.  Don’t know if I know enough how to make that happen, but that’s what I would shoot for.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed racing this weekend at New Hampshire, the addition of Kevin Harvick and Budweiser to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014 and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT BEING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE THIS WEEKEND:
“I’m excited to be here this is a track that’s definitely been good to us for sure.  We used the third of our four tests that we are allotted to come up here a couple of weeks ago and see if we could get our cars a little better for here.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it pans out this weekend.”
 
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF KEVIN HARVICK AND BUDWEISER JOINING STEWART-HAAS RACING? CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR VERSION OF HOW IT ALL CAME DOWN:
“Oh I’m excited it’s something that obviously has been in the works for a while. I think Gene (Haas) is really excited about having him and I know I’m excited about having him as well.  The entire organization is excited about having him come on board.  It was a lot of work to get to that. It started two years ago, I guess, was the thought process of hiring another driver.  Just went through those steps obviously to get where we are today.  It’s not something that a decision was made overnight there were a lot of processes in between that made it a long journey, but we are here.”
 
WITH THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WITH NOW HAVING THREE DRIVERS FOR NEXT YEAR HOW DOES THIS IMPACT RYAN NEWMAN, HIS PROGRAM, ARE YOU GUYS READY TO EXPAND TO A FOURTH TEAM?
“No, we are not ready to expand to a fourth team.  Unfortunately, this will be the last year that we have Ryan (Newman) with us.  That’s probably what has made this a bittersweet day. I’m bringing in another one of my friends to the organization, but also knowing that I’m losing a friend at the end of the year to the organization.  The number one thing when Ryan and I spoke is that our friendship will not change.  This was a business decision that was Gene’s (Haas) as well as mine and it was a hard decision.  There is a personal side and there is a business side. For Ryan and I we had to put the personal bit of it aside to work through the business part.  I’ll do everything I can to help Ryan in any way I can moving forward to try to help him in his effort to find another team next year.  I’m behind him 100 percent.  I believe in him 100 percent.  I truly wish we were able to facilitate four teams at this time.  We are just not able to do that.  Down the road I’m sure if that becomes a possibility that he will most definitely will be on the list to fill the fourth seat again.”
 
DO YOU HAVE THE REST OF THE CAR FOR KEVIN HARVICK SOLD OR ARE YOU STILL LOOKING FOR SPONSORSHIP FOR HALF THE SEASON?
“We are still looking right now.  We have been in discussions with many companies right now and got a long way with multiple companies at this point.  We have a lot of confidence that will be taking care of very shortly.”
 
WHEN TEAM OWNERS ARE LOOKING FOR DRIVERS TO FILL SEATS A LOT OF TIMES THEY LOOK AT COMPETITORS THAT WILL PUSH OTHER COMPETITORS IS THAT ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS OTHER THAN YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH HIM THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR HIM BECAUSE HE’S OF THE CALIBER OF DRIVER THAT HE WOULD PUSH YOU TO UP YOUR GAME AS WELL?
“Well and Ryan (Newman) did that too and that was exactly why we hired Ryan, but it is exactly that way with Kevin (Harvick) as well.  It’s somebody that because of our working relationship when I drove the Nationwide car I know how competitive he is.  I know how much he pushes the guys.  I know how he pushes myself as a driver and I know how we communicated and that’s a big factor is communication.  It is what you said as well as the communication factor and the fact that we know each other so well.”
 
KEVIN (HARVICK) TALKED ABOUT WHEN HE SIGNED THIS DEAL THERE WAS NO ASSURANCES THAT BUDWEISER WAS GOING TO GO ALONG WITH HIM CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR TEAM SORT OF MADE THAT HAPPEN AND ALSO DOES THIS MEAN THE END OF SCHLITZ IN TONY STEWART’S LIFE?
“Yeah, I’m finally upgrading to the good stuff.  Feel like the Jefferson’s now I’ve moved up.  Yeah, it’s the end of my Schlitz era.  I can’t say that it’s terribly disappointing.  Now I get to drink the good stuff everyday guilt free.
 
“Brett Frood is obviously as you guys know a big crucial part we run our business at Stewart-Haas and Brett is the one that pretty much knows all the answers to that question about how we worked with Budweiser to get to this point.  Brett was very much a driving force in working with them to see if they wanted to come over here.”
 
KEVIN (HARVICK) TALKED ABOUT ONE OF THE REASONS HE MADE THE MOVE IS TO REJUVENATE HIS CAREER TO KIND OF GET THINGS SPICED UP AGAIN.  YOU KIND OF DID THE SAME THING WHEN YOU WENT OVER TO STEWART-HAAS RACING AND MATT (KENSETH) SEEMED TO HAVE DONE THE SAME THING. DOES IT JUST COME A POINT IN A DRIVERS LIFE WHERE YOU KIND OF FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO SHAKE THINGS UP?
“Yeah, I think with different drivers at different times.  That is why you see in this series you will see driver/crew chief combinations like Ray Evernham and Jeff (Gordon) when Ray went and made his move and did something different.  It does work that way there are times when you feel like that things get stagnant.  It doesn’t mean you don’t respect and don’t care about the people that you are working with, but sometimes you just need something new and something that brings that intensity back to 100 percent.  I think this will do that for Kevin.”
 
IS THE BUDWEISER DEAL JUST WITH KEVIN HARVICK’S CAR OR IS THERE ADDITIONAL BUSINESS TO BUSINESS WITH THAT?
“As far as I know it’s just with Kevin’s car so far as far as I’m aware.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHERE THE NO. 48 TEAM IS NOW?  PEOPLE ARE SAYING THIS IS JIMMIE’S (JOHNSON) CHAMPIONSHIP TO LOSE, BUT AS WE SAW A FEW YEARS AGO EVERYBODY WAS SAYING THE SAME THING AND YOU CAME AND WON IT.  ARE THEY THAT FAR AHEAD WHERE NOBODY CAN CATCH THEM NOW? 
“I think history shows that you guys are smart enough to know this is a race to race scenario.  Everything can change in a week and can change in the matter of a month.  This is always been a technology based sport and they definitely have things going right, right now.  I don’t see it changing and taking a turn for the worst by any means.  They never have, the history shows that as well.  I don’t know that you can predict it at this point.  Jimmie’s championship the year that I won was one wreck at Charlotte in turn two changed his whole championship season.  I wouldn’t be putting anybody’s name on the trophy yet.  It’s way too early for that.  There are a lot of organizations that can get things going before the Chase and there are the same amount of organizations on top of that that can get something going during the Chase as we saw in 2011.   I think that is how you bench it.” 
  

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO – 2 IN T.O.
STREETS OF TORONTO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT                                    
JULY 12, 2013
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at the Streets of Toronto, and discussed racing at his hometown street course, the season to date and other topics. Full transcript:
 
DO YOU HAVE A ‘LOVE-HATE’ RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR HOME TRACK IN TORONTO?:  “Yeah, no I love coming home to Toronto and this race is something that I’ve been coming to since I was a toddler and a lot of my earliest memories of anything, never mind racing memories come from right here.  It’s a special place.  To get to come back here and now be on the other side of the fence and the guy on track putting on a show for the Canadian fans is something very special.  As you said, it’s a little bit of a love-hate relationship because I’ve never got particularly well here, which is unfortunate.  There’s always another year and here we are again so hopefully we can turn that around.”
 
HOW HAS YOUR SEASON BEEN TO DATE CLAIMING THE MOST WINS?:  “It certainly hasn’t gone the way that anyone would have predicted, to have three wins at this point, but then also five races or something outside the top-10.  We certainly haven’t been the model of consistency.  We’ve been fast and obviously the wins have been great and I wouldn’t trade those for anything because they are all so special and to get to win at this level is very difficult.  To have a team capable of doing what we’ve done this year is phenomenal so we just need to keep doing what we have been doing because some of the bad results haven’t necessarily been caused by things on our end.  Some of it is luck and some of it is getting caught up in other people’s things, it’s just part of the sport.  We just need to keep our head down and hopefully we can get the GoDaddy car back up front this weekend.”
 
HOW DO YOU COMPARE TORONTO TO TRACKS YOU HAVE HAD SUCCESS ON THIS SEASON?:  “It compares favorably because two of the wins have come on street circuits so that is certainly a strong starting point and with Ryan (Hunter-Reay) having won the race last year, we’re coming here with a good base and that’s going to be so important because with this doubleheader format we only get one practice session before we head into qualifying.  Qualifying here is monumentally important.  It’s a very tricky street circuit and I think it requires more setup compromise than anywhere else because of the fast corner, slow corners, the concrete patches and create all sorts of issues for us and then obviously the bumps.  That’s part of the challenge, that’s part of the charm of this place and hopefully we can take what we’ve learned at places like St. Pete and Brazil and Detroit and Long Beach and try to apply it here and hopefully it works.”
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THE DUAL RACES AT DETROIT THAT COULD APPLY TO TORONTO?:  “Stay away from the tires and don’t hit spinning cars.  Those would probably be the first two lessons that I learned there.  The big problem with Detroit for us was that we had rain in qualifying for the first race and why that’s a problem is one of the big challenges about this format is the tire allocation that we’ve been given and how to use it.  Probably by design they’ve given us too few tires to use and it’s going to force us to be a little bit creative with our tire strategy throughout qualifying and the two races and because one of the sessions in Detroit was rained out for qualifying, we weren’t as pressured with tire allotment.  There’s going to be a lot of guys trying to figure out what to do.  We don’t have decade’s worth of experience on how this works and engineers hate that so I think you’re going to see a bunch of different tire strategies, which is going to be exciting and it’s going to be interesting to see at the end of Saturday and end of Sunday who nailed it and who came up with snake eyes.”
 
HAVE YOU EVER DONE A STANDING START AND WHAT ARE YOUR CONCERNS WITH THE START TOMORROW?:  “I’ve done lots.  I’ve probably done four seasons of open-wheel racing that were standing starts so I’m used to them, it’s been awhile.  I haven’t done them for a couple years now, but everybody is in that boat.  Some guys I don’t think have ever done them in Formula cars, which is a little scary to think.  The big concern is just that we haven’t had a ton of time to practice them.  We were going to do them at the start of the year and then we weren’t and then we were going to do them in Long Beach and then we weren’t and then we were going to do them in Detroit and then we weren’t.  The teams haven’t been quite as active or pro-active I should say on testing and practicing this.  We’ve never gone through the procedure or lining up and going through the lights as a series so there is a serious risk of somebody getting it wrong, which will look pretty silly.  Then of course the other issue doing a standing start on a street circuit is that if somebody does stall, there is nowhere to go.  That’s got big potential for issues.  That all adds to the excitement and that is why everybody should be here on Saturday to see what happens.  It’s either going to be really impressive seeing 25 IndyCars from a standing start rocket into turn one or it’s going to be pretty spectacular what goes wrong.”
 
ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS WITH MECHANICAL ISSUES FROM THE START?:  “No, the cars are certainly up to it.  The engines are up to it and all the components are there to do it.  It was always on the plans to do it, it’s just something that’s been delayed for various reasons.  Now we’re going to test it out for the first time at the start of a race.”
 
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF DUAL RACES ON YOU AND THE CREW?  HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THEM?:  “It’s going to have a tremendous impact on everybody involved.  The drivers have all really amped up their physical training in the weeks leading up to these events because normally and especially in Toronto, this is a particularly physical street circuit and you’re pretty beat-up on Monday and you’re dehydrated.  A lot of us have blisters on our hands because of the bumps and you normally have at least a week for that to recover and in this case we have a couple hours.  Rehydrating is going to be a big part of it because it’s going to be pretty warm this weekend I think.  There is a very careful balance between being rehydrated and actually over-hydrated, which is almost just as big of a concern.  Some serious medical issues can come from that.  The drivers are being very proactive on this side of things.  A lot of us have physical trainers and ‘physios’ with us for any medical problems that might crop up.  Nutrition is obviously very important.  Making sure you’re staying on top of what you’re eating and how much you’re eating and for the crews, normally these guys have a week to tear a race car apart and re-prepare it and rebuild it for another race and now they have to do it overnight.  Its long nights and early mornings and long days.  It’s very draining on everybody involved, but at the end of the day it puts on a good show for the fans and the fans appreciate having two races then that’s what we’re going to do because they are the reason we’re here.”
 
IS THIS THE BEST YOU HAVE FELT OF YOUR CHANCE TO WIN TORONTO THIS YEAR?:  “It’s probably the worst I’ve felt because now the expectation is higher and I still
am expecting some sort of bad luck to come into play.  It is a bit of a double edge sword because certainly with the year that we’ve had statistically on paper it’s the best chance that we’ve had and it’s one of those things where you want to come here and do so well, but at the same time history just hasn’t been kind to us.  Every track you have good races and bad races.  It just seems like here I have way, way more of the latter and way too few of the former.  We’ll see.  You have to stay positive and we have to keep our heads up.  Ultimately, you have to treat it like any other race and we’ll go up there and do the same job we would if we were in St. Pete or if we were in Long Beach or if we were in Brazil or if we were at Barber or any other track and we’ll see how it all plays out.”
 
YOU’VE TALKED A LOT ABOUT IDOLIZING GREG MOORE AS YOU WERE GROWING UP.  WHAT WAS IT ABOUT HIM AS A DRIVER AND/OR AS A PERSON THAT REALLY DREW YOU TO HIM?
“I think it is both things.  It wasn’t one or the other it was the combination of the two I think that made Greg such a unique person.  His fight on track was obvious.  His passion for the sport was obvious.  I remember watching him win his first race and he came off turn four at Milwaukee and he was fist pumping the air four hundred feet before the finish.  I mean Michael Andretti was not that far behind, but he knew he was getting it.  I will never forget that.  I loved that about him, but outside of the car he was such a genuine human being.  There’s a lot of people that can drive a race car well.  There’s a lot of people that are in the spotlight for one reason or another.  More often than not they don’t come across as genuine humble people and Greg did.  As a young kid even I could see the difference between him and the other drivers off track more than anything else.  I think that is what really drew me to him.”
 
CRAIG HAMPSON REJOINED YOUR TEAM THIS YEAR WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CRAIG AND WHAT HAVE HIS CONTRIBUTIONS BEEN?
“Yeah, we have been going steady for about two years now.  It’s getting pretty serious.  No, Craig (Hampson, engineer) and I obviously worked together at Newman/Haas in 2011. As a rookie coming into the IndyCar series to get to work with somebody as accomplished as Craig and as experienced as Craig it was beyond anything I would have imagined.  Because there are very successful drivers that have never gotten the chance to work with somebody the caliber of Craig Hampson.  I learned so much from him and there is no doubt a lot of the success that we had in 2011 and winning Rookie-of-the-Year and my growth and maturation as a driver was largely influenced by him.  I sort of modeled how I went about my race weekends after the way Craig does his.  I tried to bring some of that influence to Andretti Autosport when I arrived last year.  When the opportunity came up to bring him back it just made too much sense to not do it and obviously it’s been a good match up to this point.  He brings a work ethic to the team on top of his wealth of experience that really just motivates everybody and certainly motivates me.  We have an understanding we speak the same language.  We are both realists.  He’s maybe a little bit more of a pessimist than I am, but that is okay we balance each other out.  At the end of the day we have a very common goal.  We both are willing to work very hard to achieve it.”
 
WE KNOW THAT YOU HAVE RETIRED YOUR KIMI RAIKKONEN IMPRESSION:
“Although (Dave) Despain always tries to get me to do it when I go on Wind Tunnel.”
 
HAVE YOU REPLACED IT YET HAVE YOU GOT A NEW SHTICK?
“No I haven’t had time to think of someone else yet, but I will come up with something at some point.”
 
WHAT ABOUT HAVING PAUL TRACY IN THE BOOTH FOR SPORTSNET THIS WEEKEND DOES THAT TERRIFY YOU?
“Not at all.  I think it’s going to be great.  I mean everybody loves Paul for his candidness.  That is what we need in the booth.  Nobody knows what is going on in a race more than that guy he’s done enough of them and won enough of them. He’s won here a couple of times.  I think more than anything the fans are going to get a kick out of it.  Hopefully he has got some nice things to say.”
 
YOU SAID THAT WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER MEETING MARIO ANDRETTI HERE AND GETTING HIS AUTOGRAPH WAS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE MOMENTS.  CAN YOU COMMENT ON WHAT THE ANDRETTI NAME IN TORONTO MEANS?
“I mean it’s legendary.  It’s probably more recognized even in Toronto than Tracy or Villeneuve or Moore because of the success that Michael (Andretti) had here especially winning seven times.  When I used to come to this race my family and our friends we would do a pool.  We would rip up the spotters guide and put all the names into a hat.  Every year whoever pulled Michael Andretti we just gave them the money at the start of the race and seven times out of 10 they were right.  It was pretty simple.  The name has a tremendous amount of power and influence in this town and to be associated with that just makes our position that much stronger.  It’s really an honor to be associated with them.”
 
RECENTLY I’VE NOTICED IN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS COMMENTING ON CANADIAN KARTS AND GRASSROOTS EVENTS.  CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE YOU MORE INVOLVED IN ANY FORMAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN THE FUTURE?
“That is absolutely the plan.  I have pretty big goals on ways of trying to give back to the Canadian racing community especially the karting level.  We are so fortunate to do what we do and I know that I wouldn’t be here without the phenomenal karting community that Ontario had and Canada had when I was coming up.  I have seen it go through the years, everything is cyclical, and I’ve seen it go through really strong periods and some weaker periods as well.  I want to get to the point where I’ve got enough influence to try and bring back a strong championship.  That is my ultimate goal is to get a karting series started and give young karters a chance to get all the good drivers in Canada together in one place race against the best, make it worth their while and kind of give them a little bit of a taste of what it’s like as you move up through the ranks and pursue the career of a racing driver.”
 
WHAT IS THE KEY TO WINNING OR NOT LOSING HERE WITH THE LAYOUT OF THIS TRACK?
“As I said before this track is very much a set-up compromise.  I think the team and driver that nail that compromise the best are going to be successful.  We’ve got to make both kinds of tires last the black and red Firestones are going to be used during each race.  Maximizing both of those takes a set-up compromise and just the track in general the mix of high speed, low speed, concrete patches, asphalt patches, all these things require a compromise in the set-up as well.  You really have to be the guy that is averagely good around the entire place.  If you are really strong in one place and weak in another people are going to take advantage of that and it’s going to be tough to stay in front. It really is about averaging out the best.  The kind of trick in Toronto is you are never going to have a car that feels really good because in one corner or another you are going to be struggling.  It’s just trying to find one that is equally as average and mediocre around the whole lap.  It’s such a hard thing to accept as a driver and the engineers.  We are all such perfectionist we want to be great everywhere, but this track just doesn’t let you do it.  That is one of its quirks and one of the reasons why we like the challenge so much.”

CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6 DRIVERS READY FOR NEW CHALLENGES ON STREETS OF TORONTO
SERIES PREPARES FOR SECOND DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND OF 2013
 
DETROIT (July 11, 2013) – After a stretch of IZOD IndyCar Series oval track races, the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 contingent is preparing to take to the 1.75-mile temporary street circuit in Toronto for rounds 12 and 13 of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule. The races in the largest city in Canada will play host to the second of three doubleheader weekends this season.  The long-running Toronto event will showcase a pair of 85-lap points paying races on Saturday and Sunday.
 
As the drivers and teams readjust their set-up’s and strategy from oval tracks to street circuits, they will face a new challenge – a standing start.  For the first time since 2008 at Long Beach, the IZOD IndyCar Series will implement a standing start for Saturday’s race one of the doubleheader weekend using a series of lights to signal the drivers the race is officially started.  The second race on Sunday of the Two in T.O. twin-bill will see the field take the green flag using the traditional rolling start.
 
“Team Chevy is looking forward to Toronto this weekend and the second of three IZOD IndyCar Series doubleheader weekends,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series.  “It is hard to believe the 2013 season is more than half over, but we are very pleased with the race results so far, including the not often mentioned strong reliability of the Chevrolet IndyCar Twin Turbo V6 engine.  In fact, Marco Andretti was able to lead 88 laps last weekend at Pocono while his engine passed the minimum change-out mileage threshold, as did Will Power’s engine on his way to a fourth place finish.  Our teams and technical partners continue to demonstrate the “Never Give Up” philosophy that is so integral to success and to Chevrolet’s principles.”
 
Defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay looks to back up his performance from last year and once again hoist the trophy in his Andretti Autosport teammate James Hinchcliffe’s home country of Canada. Hinchcliffe has already claimed two victories on street courses this season taking home wins at St. Petersburg and Sao Paulo and would like nothing more than to earn his fourth victory of the season in front of the hometown crowd.  Two other former Streets of Toronto Chevrolet IndyCar V6 powered driver’s Sebastien Bourdais and Will Power would also like to find their way back to victory lane in Toronto and record their first victories of the 2013 season. 
 
Race number one of the Honda Indy Toronto 2 in T.O. is set to start on Saturday, July 13, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network. Race number two is slated to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network.  Each race will be 85 laps for a total of 299.5 miles.
 

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
INDY POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES                                                       
JULY 7, 2013
 
Will Power Leads Team Chevy at Pocono with Fourth Place Finish; Helio Castroneves Continues on Top of Point Standings
 
LONG POND, Penn. (July 7, 2013) – Will Power led the charge for Team Chevy with a fourth place finish today in the Pocono INDYCAR 400 for the IZOD IndyCar Series at Pocono Raceway.  Behind the wheel of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Power led four Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers with top-10 finishes, on the way to another strong oval track finish this season.
 
Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, maintained his lead in the point standings with an eighth place finish in the 160-lap/400-mile race on the track referred to the ‘Tricky Triangle’. Ed Carpenter brought his own No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet to the checkered flag in ninth position.
 
Pole sitter Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, finished 10th, and remains third in the standings.
 
Defending Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, was credited with a 20th place finish after contact on pit road sent Hunter-Reay to the garage for repairs that put him 39 laps down to the winner at the finish.
 
Three-time race winner James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, was the victim of a single-car accident on lap one of the 11th race of the 19-race season.  He lost one spot in the standings, and now sits fifth in points.
 
Chevrolet maintains the lead in the Series Manufacturers’ standings with eight races remaining in the season.
 
Scott Dixon (Honda) was the race winner.  Charlie Kimball – 2nd, Dario Franchitti – 3rd and Josef Newgarden – 4th complete the top-five finishers.
The Honda Indy Toronto, the second of the double-header weekends the season, and the first with standing starts, is next on the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule set for July 13-14, 2013.  NBC Sports Network will provide live TV coverage of both points-paying races beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, and again on Sunday. Both races will also be broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, including on Sirius and XM Channels 211, www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 13 App for most smartphones and tablets.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED FOURTH:  “It was a good day and a good finish for the Verizon team. The boys gave me some great pit stops today and it was really important for us to score some good points and continue to make up ground in the championship. I really like this track here at Pocono. It seemed like it was a good crowd and we gave it all we had out there. A very physical race, but a good result for us in the end.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED EIGHTH: “Well, it’s definitely good to come out of this race building our lead in the championship. The Hitachi team did a fantastic job this weekend. The race was very challenging. For us, as a team, we had to make a lot of decisions during the race. Ultimately, the key was saving fuel for a good result and we’ll take a top-10 finish and move on to Toronto with the good points we earned here. Thanks again to the fans here. They were awesome and it’s good to be back racing at Pocono.”
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED NINTH: “It was a tough race for us.  We started 14th and finished ninth.  I felt we had a better car than that result.  We didn’t have a fast car in the beginning of the stints, but we came on strong at the end of them.  We made the car a lot better for the race.  We were just missing a little something.  We were a little inconsistent with the tires. They felt a little different with each run.  I guess we shouldn’t be down about a top-ten finish, but I felt we had a shot for a top-five.  I thought we were charging in some portions of the race.  But then the car didn’t react as quickly after a pit stop.  We might have run a little too much downforce, but we need to look at it back at the shop.  It was fun to race at Pocono.  It is hard to pass but you do it.  I hope the crowd liked the Indy cars here.  I loved coming to this track.  The track does a goes job promoting the race too.  It is great to have Pocono as part of the Fuzzy’s Triple Crown.  We’ll have to defend our title at Fontana and stop Tony (Kanaan) and Scott (Dixon) from taking the $250,000 from Fuzzy’s Vodka.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 10TH: “Oh man, I mean we knew early (about our fuel mileage), but not early enough. I think we should have responded quicker, but it’s so hard to be reserved right now. I’m so frustrated for RC Cola and everybody; we were just so dominant and I’m just absolutely gutted.”

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET – FINISHED 11TH: “The car was awesome! It was a really good race. This is a tricky place; you had to time your passes just right. I had a lot of fun out there and the team was great. They gave me a fantastic car and we were able to move forward and make a lot of moves toward the end of the race. I’m really happy that we were able to get a good result for the Nuclear Clean Air Energy car.”
 
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY SH-RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 13TH: “I apologized to the crew several times. I made a mistake and it cost us big. I had a run on Dixon, but didn’t really think that I was closing that fast on him. We had a car that was capable of winning this race and putting us in a position to contend for ‘Fuzzy’s Triple Crown’ and the $1 million prize.  We still have a chance to win in Fontana and collect $250,000, but I just feel bad for the crew because they worked so hard to give me a very competitive car.”
 
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 14TH: “We were working a lot on our fuel mileage there late in the race and had to jump in the pits for a splash of fuel, which cost us some positions right at the end. That was a bit unfortunate because the National Guard Chevy was quite racy, especially once the fuel burnt off and we got to the end of each stint. We were working on our downforce levels during some of the early pit stops, and the Panther crew was really quick in the pits all day. I’m really thankful Panther gave me the opportunity to run today knowing we’d have to miss practice and qualifications. We continue to gel each time we go out and I’m looking forward to the next one.”
 
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 16TH: “It was a tough day, we were running up front well in the Top-10. The second run was really strong for us, just running flat out. We caught Viso and I made the call to come in a lap early, so we came in. Then the track went yellow and that killed our race. We went completely out of sequence with that yellow and never caught a break. After that we tried to save fuel and not make another stop, but we couldn’t make it all the way without a yellow. At this place you cannot save fuel being flat out and wide open the whole race. The #7 McAfee car deserved better today and the crew did an amazing job today.”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 20TH: “We had a great car today, just a lit
tle too much understeer to start with, so we were just going to add front wing as we went. I really think we had a great car to challenge for the win, was really looking forward to the rest of the race – I love this race track. Then we were just coming in to pit lane, minding our own business, and we get creamed from behind. It’s unfortunate but we’ve come from further back to win the championship and we’re determined to do it again. The DHL Chevy boys got me back out on the track; we tried to salvage some points, and I think we got one position. It’s so frustrating when you’re running top three, top two, really happy with your car and then somebody comes from out of nowhere to take you out.”
 
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO CHEVROLET – FINISHED 21ST: “It was a pretty disappointing weekend from qualifying on; things never went the right way for me. In the race, since Lap 1, it was extremely difficult to drive – we still don’t know what the problem is. During the race, the car was wandering on me in the straights, in the corners, going from side-to-side. I just needed to stop to have a look at the car, to see if there was anything wrong. But obviously, at that point, it was very late in the race and we lost plenty of ground. From here on there are many street and road courses coming. I believe we have everything it takes to be in the front in those upcoming races.”
 
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 23RD: “A very rough day. We ran into the exactly the same issue as in qualifying with our throttle getting stuck as soon as we turned on the car. With that we couldn’t race, so we came in to change the throttle and that was the end of our day. It’s been a very season for us and we cannot seem to catch a break. All we can do is stay focused with a positive attitude and see what happens next.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 24TH: INVOLVED IN A SINGLE-CAR INCIDENT ON LAP ONE OF THE RACE: ON WHAT HAPPENED: “I mean it just snapped, we got loose. We’ve been battling understeer with a hot day. We were planning on the car being a bit more pushy than…I guess it ultimately ended up being. We went a little aggressive on setup. I don’t know, maybe we went too much or what. It’s just so weird.  I  had a moment almost like that in qualifying, and I guess I used up all my luck/talent saving it the; we didn’t have enough this time. With the downforce level we were running, and the setup that we had, there is just no way I thought that was the kind of accident that would have taken us out especially on lap one especially when the tires are fresh and everything was good. It is devastating, man, to have the GoDaddy car out; Andretti Autosport one-two-three didn’t last too long. I feel bad for the team; the guys worked so hard. Hopefully Marco and Ryan can fly the flag, and try to bring it home for us. I’m not entirely sure what happened.  We’ll have to take a look at it.  The car just snapped loose on me.  We went a bit aggressive on setup because we had an understeering car all week, and we didn’t want that in the race.  Maybe we overstepped it a bit; I’m not quite sure.  We’ll have to go back and take a look.  It’s really unfortunate.  It’s a 400-mile race so to go out on Lap 1 is just devastating.  We had high hopes for the Go Daddy car.  We’ve been on a good sort of momentum streak.  It’s turned into a repeat of last year – an accident while running up front right before Toronto.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 6, 2013
 
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON CAPTURES FIRST SWEEP AT DAYTONA IN 31 YEARS
Team Chevy Drivers Take Top-Three Finishing Spots and Seven of Top-10
 
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (July 6, 2013) – Jimmie Johnson is widely known for smashing records and earning milestones, and his performance at the 55th Annual Coke Zero 400 was no different.  Behind the wheel of the No. 48 Lowe’s Dover White Chevrolet SS, Johnson became the first driver to win both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) races at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) in the same season, in 31 years.  The last driver to accomplish this feat was Hall of Fame driver Bobby Allison, in 1982.
 
Johnson, the current series point leader, led 94 laps of the161-lap race and extended his lead to a 49-point advantage after 18 races.  This was his fourth victory of 2013 and 64th career NSCS win.
 
“Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus and the #48 Lowes Dover White Chevrolet SS team on winning the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway tonight,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “The team’s focus on race set-up, strategy, terrific driving and execution in the pits made all the difference.
 
“It is extra special that Jimmie and the entire Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 team delivered not only the first points win for the new Chevrolet SS at the Daytona 500 in February, but also produced the victory tonight. It’s also very special because it’s the first sweep for a driver at Daytona in 31 years.”
 
Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet SS, who came close to scoring his fifth July win at DIS, posted a solid second place finish.  Stewart moved up six positions in the point standings to 10th with his run.   Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet SS, retained his fourth place spot in the standings after finishing third overall. It was Harvick’s 11th top-10 finish in 25 races at Daytona International Speedway.
 
“It was great that Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick finished 1-2-3 in tonight’s race,” added Campbell.  “We are proud of the Team Chevy drivers and crews on their strong runs tonight at Daytona.
 
Other Team Chevy drivers in the top-10 included: Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet SS – sixth, Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet SS – seventh, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS – eighth, and Ryan Newman, No. 39 Outback Chevrolet SS was 10th.
 
Clint Bowyer (Toyota) was fourth, and Michael Waltrip (Toyota) was fifth to round out the top-five finishing order.
 
Next stop on the circuit will be Round 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 14th.  Green flag is set for 1:00 pm ET and will air live on TNT, Sirius/XM Channel 90, PRN Radio and

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 6, 2013
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RHEEM/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined on lap 22 with engine failure
WHAT HAPPENED?
DID THE WATER TEMPERATURE GET TOO HIGH OR WHAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED THAT? 
“Absolutely no warning, the water was 225 and we were just kind of riding there.  The car was really good, handled great.  Kind of biding our time for the first pit stop came off turn four and something just let go.  It wasn’t smoking, it broke and I could hear it.  I felt the heat come up.  I didn’t know if I was on fire or not.  I couldn’t feel it right away.  Just unfortunate we needed a good run and had a really good car today a good Rheem/Menards Chevy.”
 
ALL WE SAW WAS A HUGE BALL OF FIRE COME OUT OF YOUR CAR WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED OUT THERE? 
“The motor broke.  ECR (Earnhardt Childress Racing) guys build really great horse power.  I haven’t had a motor failure in forever.  Something just broke I’m not sure what it is.  It’s leaking oil right now.  I’m not sure if it was a part failure or what something big happened.  We needed a good run we had a really good car.  Just kind of biding our time there and nothing, it gave no indication, temperatures were fine.  We were running good until off turn four.”
 

 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in crash on Lap 97.
IT APPEARED YOU HAD NO WHERE TO GO WHAT WAS YOUR VIEW OF IT? 
“We all went to the bottom to create a second groove because they were really checking up on the top. For some reason they decided to try to blend when there was no room.  For a change, somebody made the mistake and we ended up paying for the mistake.  Kind of sucks because everybody on this Target team has been working really hard we’ve got a great car.  We had really good speed in practice, qualified well and we were just taking our time.  It just sucks.”  

 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S DOVER WHITE CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD A CAR THAT DOMINATE AT A PLATE RACE?
“That is tough to do at a plate track.  Especially with how tight the rules are.  I think I showed strength early and a lot of the guys knew that and were willing to work with me, and kind of help me through situations, which is great.  I don’t know if I really made a bad move tonight.  I’m pretty proud of that.  Had a great horse to ride got ‘white lightening’ to Victory Lane, which I’m very proud of.  I want to thank Lowe’s and all the employees at Lowe’s for their dedication and support of our race team.  Chevrolet, KOBALT Tools, Gatorade, Sprint for their support of our series as well and I want to give my daughter an early birthday wish.  Her birthday is tomorrow, three already.  Time is flying, but just an awesome night tonight.”
 
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH ALL YOUR TEAM AND THE FLIPPED UP BILLS OF THEIR HATS?
“I don’t know if it’s West Coast or I can’t really get…I’m looking at East Coasters thinking it’s West Coast.  We will take it we will run bills up.  It’s not as aero as you would think, but just very proud of the night.  I want to thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for a great race car, engine shop, chassis shop and aero.  Very fast race car.”
 
FIRST GUY IN 31 YEARS TO WIN THE 500 AND THE 400 SINCE BOBBY ALLISON WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?
“That is amazing.  Gosh, I remember being in Southern California watching Bobby Allison.  I remember where I was the day Davey (Allison) passed away.  That is how much the Allison family meant to me.  I always thought it was so great to watch Bobby and Davey race.  To tie anything that Bobby has done is pretty special.  Very happy tonight.”
 
AFTER THE LAST FEW WEEKS, HOW NICE IS IT TO PAY ONE OFF FINALLY IN VICTORY LANE?
“Yeah, we have been knocking on the door for sure.  It’s great to get ‘white lightening’ to Victory Lane.  Also want to wish everybody a happy Fourth of July and thank all the men and women that have fought for our country for our independence.  That was fun tonight.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/DUCKS UNLIMITED CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
OPPORTUNITY AND CIRCUMSTANCES KEPT CHANGING. WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED:
“I mean I can’t remember everything that happened.  I didn’t get as good a restart as I wanted.  I think it kind of worked to our favor there.  It got Clint (Bowyer) a little bit ahead of me and it got Kevin (Harvick) a little bit ahead of Jimmie (Johnson).
 
“That let Jimmie and I both tuck down to those two guys and get going.  Kurt Busch gave us a really good push from behind there and that got us back to getting Jimmie the shove he needed.  It got us out there far enough ahead to where we could worry about racing him.  That is some strong Hendrick horse power up front there.  You get three or four of these Hendrick cars together and they are fast.  Everybody at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), Ducks Unlimited, Bass Pro Shops, just everybody did an awesome job this weekend.  Just glad we were ahead of the carnage.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER FOLDS OF HONOR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL LAP OR SO.  IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE IN THE EXACT RIGHT POSITION:
“I thought we were in a good spot.  The whole thing on the restarts is just getting your line to form.  Everybody on our Budweiser Chevrolet did a great job.  We were able to hold Jimmie (Johnson) door to door until the exit of turn two, but both of those restarts the No. 14 and No. 15 and whoever was behind them just couldn’t get our line formed up.  All night it seemed like the top line would form up pretty quick and those guys were able to get going a lot quicker.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in a crash on lap 156 and finished 32nd
THAT WAS A BIG HIT COMING OFF TURN TWO GETTING INTO THAT INSIDE WALL:
“Yeah we were… Jimmie (Johnson) moved up to block the outside row coming so I kind of at that point had the lead. I had followed Jimmie a lot throughout the race.  I felt really good with our Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet.  Next thing I know I got slammed and shot left.  It was the end of our night.  It’s kind of how these races go.  You don’t have a lot of control over some of the things that happen here.  I’m happy our car was fast and we put a good showing out.  We ran up front the whole race.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA COATING SYSTEMS CHEVROLET SS – Caught up in accident on lap 149 finished 34th
YOU GOT KIND OF CAUGHT UP IN THE ACCIDENT WITH THE NO.11 AND THE NO. 20 TALK ABOUT IT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE:
“Yeah, we lost some track position there.  Had a really strong car, really good handling Axalta Chevrolet tonight so I was happy about that.  Great to have Finish Master and the 50 years that Axalta has been with them on board tonight too.  Just sitting there kind of riding along hoping that outside lane, I can’t say we were riding it was pretty aggressive.  Just nowhere to go and just riding that outside lane hoping they were starting to make progress.  I don’t know I just saw somebody spin in front of me.  We all tried to avoid it.  I guess it was the No. 11 and we all tried to avoid them and Matt (Kenseth) got sideways and then I didn’t have anywhere to go either.  Got the right-front and that just sent the car into the wall.
 
“It’s unfortunate.  I still think we had a great shot at getting the car to the front.  We had a very strong race car and you have to survive before
you can ever get there.  You have to finish too.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 18TH:
WAS IT AN EXCITING FINISH?
“Well, a green-white-checkered finish is always exciting.  (Dale Earnhardt) Junior and I had a good run through the middle and then up high around (Turn) 4. And I just watched the replay. It felt like I ran just along the wall but it could have been me that came down in front of the No. 38 (Dave Gilliland). It definitely wasn’t what I was trying to do at all. I was just following the No. 88 (Earnhardt, Jr.). So, if that’s what happened, then I definitely apologize. I lost spots doing it.
 
“So, all in all, it was a solid day. I felt like we were a little slow to get going, but I felt like we made the car better and I felt like I figured out some things in the car that helped. Got the Godaddy car in a decent position. Every time I look at the board I’m further down, but we ran strong and that’s what we want to do. I thought the Chevys looked really good in the race.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE MAYBE YOU COULD HAVE MADE A RUN THERE ON THAT LAST LAP?
“I think that I did make a run on that last lap.  The No. 88 (Earnhardt Jr.) and I went up through the middle and then around the outside. So, I think it was a run. It didn’t end up like I wanted, like I said. I, by all means, was just meaning to follow the No. 88 around the top to the line, but I think it was all right. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do on those last laps. Nobody really had a plan because it’s really hard to plan for what 42 other guys are going to do out there.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/ SEALY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
YOU ARE NOW TOP 10 IN POINTS. YOU’VE GOT TO BE HAPPY ABOUT THAT
“That’s awesome to have a good run like that and stay out of trouble and post a nice Top-10. These Furniture Row guys have been working hard. We’ve made little mistakes here, there, and everywhere. When we start putting it together, it’s now starting to bear the fruit and we’ve moved our way into the Top 10 in points. So that’s pretty cool. We have a long way to go, and yet we still are getting better. I’m just real proud of these guys and the effort that we’ve put forth and just a big thanks to Barney Visser and Furniture Row and Chevy and everybody that’s on board. It’s great. We’re there, but we’ve still got a bit of work to do.”
 

CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: Second Place for Garcia, Magnussen
Hard-charging effort pays off with another podium finish
 
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 6, 2013) – Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen stood on the podium at Lime Rock Park for the second straight season with a runner-up finish Saturday in the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix. The No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R ran a nearly flawless race to lead Corvette Racing’s effort in the fourth round of the American Le Mans Series.
 
The result, which played out for a live television audience on ESPN2, moved Garcia and Magnussen from fifth in the ALMS’ GT driver’s championship into a provisional three-way tie for second.
 
Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin finished sixth in a trying race. The defending ALMS GT champions stand third in the provisional standings. Corvette Racing is tied for first in the team standings, and Chevrolet continues to lead the manufacturer’s championship.
 
Magnussen drove his entire stint in the car under green flag conditions on the crowded and steamy Lime Rock circuit. Starting from third, he pitted just over an hour into the race to hand over to Garcia. The hard-charging Spaniard chased down the first-place BMW and clicked off faster laps than the race leader before a late-race caution period halted his charge.
 
Misfortune struck Milner early as the driver’s side mirror broke after contact with a Ferrari early. He fell to 11th in class but worked his way up to seventh by the first pit stop. Gavin entered the race in fifth but the team was assessed a stop-and-go penalty when the Corvette left the pitlane with a cable still attached. Gavin also sustained minor damage when a prototype attempting to overtake him instead made contact.
 
“Today we saw both sides of racing at Lime Rock Park,” said Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan. “”It provided great entertainment for the fans with Jan and Antonio giving it their all and earning a well-deserved, runner-up finish. On the other end of the spectrum, I know Tommy, Oliver and the No. 4 crew would have liked to be part of the fight at the end. We head next to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – a track that should favor our Corvettes and keep us in the GT championship hunt.”
 
Next up for Corvette Racing is the Grand Prix of Mosport on Sunday, July 21 from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. It is the fifth round of this year’s ALMS championship.
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“Corvette Racing again did an awesome job. It was the second race in row, plus Le Mans, where we gave 110 percent. We made very good calls and very good pit stops. I think we forced the BMW to take two tires at the end. I don’t think they believed they could stay ahead of us. They took that gamble. I don’t know how much it helped them to take that last yellow; maybe it cooled down everything. At that point, you don’t really know their strategy. I was saving tires and don’t know if they were. Looking at the last four laps how much they were suffering, I don’t know in a full green race what would have happened. I knew the race would come down to tires. We managed things as best we could. We had a very strong car, very good strategy and very good points for the championship.”
 
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“It surprised me that I did my whole stint under green. It’s not like anyone was falling off but they managed to get back on so as to not cause a safety car. I don’t know if people were getting too hot but the driving standards were quite bad. The gap (from Garcia to the leader) was closed up at the end and we wanted Antonio to have as much time as he needed to see if he could do anything about the BMW. Whether it was six or eight minutes, it probably wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. It looked like Antonio had the car at the end. Had we been right with the BMW, maybe we could have done something. Second is probably the best result we were going to have, so I’m very happy.”
 
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“To say that this was a frustrating day would be an understatement. The race didn’t start well for us and never got better. The contact Tommy suffered put us behind early, and we found out again that it is near impossible to recover. The penalty was unfortunate and clearly didn’t help matters. Traffic was more of an issue than ever before but it’s a by-product of the circuit layout. Great result for Jan and Antonio; Tommy and I are eager for similar results again.”
 
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“We got completely hosed at the start by a competitor who decided to drive into me for the entire length of the braking zone in Turn 1, which knocked the mirror off. I checked out after that and had a nice little race going on before we had to pit to replace the mirror. The guys did an awesome job changing it out. Then on our pit stop, we just didn’t execute and got a penalty for that to put us back again. Traffic was just awful. It made everyone frustrated. You had to drive around in many cases at half your ability. It’s been a frustrating few days and months but we will learn from this and go to Canada with even more determination and desire. We’ll have to make up for these bad couple of races with a win. That’s how it has to be.”

Marco Andretti Wins the Pole for the Pocono INDYCAR 400 at Pocono Raceway to Lead Team Chevy in Capturing Top-Six Qualifying Positions
 
LONG POND, Penn. (July 6, 2013) – Marco Andretti continued his family’s legacy at Pocono Raceway by winning the pole for tomorrow’s 160-lap Pocono INDYCAR 400. His father and team owner, Michael Andretti, was the pole winner in 1986.  In 1987, his grandfather, Mario Andretti, won the pole. It is the second pole of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season for the driver of the No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet.
 
Andretti led a contingent of six Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers to the top-six qualifying positions today including an all-Andretti Autosport front row, in the second race of the season that will see the field roll to the green flag in rows of three cars.  Defending Series Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was the second fastest qualifier in the No. 1 DHL Chevrolet, and James Hinchcliffe turned the third quickest time in the No. 27 GoDaddy Chevrolet.
 
Team Chevy drivers claiming the fourth through sixth qualifying positions were: Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet; Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, No. 11 Sunoco “Turbo” KV Racing Technology Chevrolet and Series points leader Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.
 
“Congratulations to Marco Andretti for winning the pole position at Pocono Raceway today for tomorrow’s 400 mile race,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “This is Marco’s second pole of the season and is a continuation of the consistency he is demonstrating this year which shows in his current 3rd place position in the driver’s points battle.  Andretti Autosport secured the entire 3-wide front row for the start of the race tomorrow with Ryan Hunter-Reay alongside Marco and James Hinchcliffe beside Ryan.  The Chevrolet IndyCar V6 will also power the second row for Will Power, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves.  We are very proud of the effort and preparation that our teams and technical partners have put forth for the return of IndyCar racing to ‘The Tricky Triangle’ here at Pocono and look forward to a strong Team Chevy race result tomorrow.”
 
A total of 12 Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers are qualified to start the second leg of the Fuzzy’s Triple Crown.  If a driver wins all three races, he or she will take home a $1 million bonus.  Kanaan is the only driver in a position to win the big prize by virtue of winning the Indy 500.  If a driver wins two of the three (the final leg of the Triple Crown is the season finale at Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, California), they will earn $250,000
The 160 lap/400 mile challenge is scheduled for Sunday, July 7th at the three-turn Pocono Raceway. The race will be televised live at 12:00 p.m. (ET) ABC and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, including on Sirius and XM Channels 211, www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 13 App for most smartphones and tablets.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER
 
TALK ABOUT TODAY’S QUALIFYING RUN AND ESPECIALLY GOING OUT SO EARLY AND HAVING TO PLAY THE WAITING GAME:
“Yeah, I mean obviously I always know my teammates are going to be strong.  I got everything out of it so I knew that I was going to be pleased with the result regardless if we were on pole or not.  In IndyCar racing now a days there is five guys that get it right so that is what I was waiting for.  We lucked out today.”
 
YOU SAID YESTERDAY THAT YOU DIDN’T THINK ANYBODY WAS GOING TO GET UP TO 221 AND YOU WENT OUT THERE AND LAID IT DOWN:
“I meant anybody else.  Yeah, no it all came together.  It was going to be all about balance and we really were focusing on every little detail in practice because we got a decent handle on the race car so we hope and we knew we had tonight’s session if we didn’t.  So we focused on really studying everything to get everything to the last detail and we did.”
 
TALK ABOUT BEING ON THE POLE AT YOUR HOMETOWN RACE:
“Yeah, it’s tremendous.  I’ve taken a huge liking to this place as soon as I rolled off here in the initial test.  I really think the Indy cars are built for this track and vice versa.  I really do. This became my favorite track.  I love Indianapolis, but the way this place races it’s so challenging.  It’s so different end to end and even lap to lap that you really have to chase the tools in the car and that was on my own.  There is going to be some traffic tomorrow and it’s going to be the one who gets it right.”
 
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET IT RIGHT?
“Honestly, I think there is going to be a little bit like Indianapolis right place at the right time.  Timing your passes because it’s really easy to get suckered in to try to make something out of nothing because of the way the cars are towing.  You really have to be smart.  You really have to be more than alongside.  I wouldn’t be comfortable just turning in right next to somebody in case you know.  You can’t go two-wide through turn two so you really have to time your passes and right place at the right time.  Hopefully we are on the better end of the luck.”
 
DID YOU GET A CHANCE TO DO ANY LONG RUNS YESTERDAY?
“I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot by saying this, but I mean the race car yesterday was on rails.  I could pass anybody as soon as I got up to them.  Today we were struggling a bit in turn three, but I think that is the characteristic of the wind.  I think relative to my competitors we are still strong.  That is all we can really go for.  It’s going to take more than that.  We know that.”
 
YOU BECOME THE THIRD ANDRETTI TO SCORE A POLE HERE AT THIS TRACK WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE TO YOU?
“Yeah, it means a lot to me.  This is the first place where I was able to, besides Milwaukee get a pole where they did.  We have always run strong here as a family similar to Indianapolis.  Tomorrow is the one we want.  I think that would be just icing on the cake.”
 
THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF FOCUS ON TONY KANAAN WINNING THE TRIPLE CROWN BUT IF A DRIVER WINS TWO OUT OF THREE THEY CAN WIN A $250,000 BONUS WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“My first goal is obviously to work on tomorrow.  I really want to get this monkey off my back because I really feel the wins are going to start clicking off.  I felt we gave a couple away in the last couple of races which is frustrating, but we still managed to except Milwaukee with the electronic issue we still managed to keep it somewhat up there.  We definitely need to close the gap first and foremost on the points lead and hopefully we can take the $250,000 and the championship that would just be awesome.”
 
YOU HAVE SAID OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS HOW MUCH IT WOULD MEAN TO YOU TO GET A WIN HERE.  IT’S ALMOST BEEN A PERFECT WEEKEND HERE.  IS THERE EXTRA PRESSURE NOW BECAUSE YOU HAVE GOT THE POLE AND YOU HAVE BEEN THE FASTEST IN PRACTICES ALL WEEKEND?
“Definitely because if you look at my worst finish I swept that weekend up until the race too.  Tomorrow is the one that counts as they say.  A lot is going to play out.  It’s 400 miles and I think we are up to the task.  It’s just that we need to execute.”
 
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SECOND
 
HOW MUCH DOES IT HELP YOU HAVING YOUR TEAMMATES ON THE FRONT ROW WITH YOU?
 
“It does help.  You know there is cooperation there for sure.  It’s like ‘go ahead after you, no after you.’ So it will be a little bit of that, but that’s only for the first lap after that we get going and we get to racing.  It’s definitely go
od this is Andretti’s backyard having Marco (Andretti) on pole.  Andretti Autosport locking out the front row it’s pretty cool.  Three-wide start here at Pocono will look pretty cool.”
 
THERE ARE A LOT OF POINTS AVAILABLE OVER THE NEXT EIGHT DAYS.  JUST TALK ABOUT HOW PIVOTAL THESE NEXT EIGHT DAYS ARE GOING TO BE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RUN:

“Yeah, you are right absolutely.  There are so many points.  I mean you look at Toronto there is double points there.  When you look at all the points on the table with pole, leading the most laps, laps led and then the three races we have coming up within a weeks’ time it’s a critical part of the racing season right now. We all know that.  It’s tough you can only do what you can do.  At Detroit for instance we finished second on race one.  Then race two I was just cruising along having a good time and made a mistake by a couple of inches, clipped the right-front on a curbing that was sticking out and ended the day.  We still salvaged some points, but it can happen that quickly especially on a street circuit.  400-miles here going into a double header at Toronto is probably I think the toughest week of the whole season.”
 
YOU GUYS SHARE A WHOLE LOT OF INFORMATION WHEN YOU ARE GOING THROUGH THE PRACTICE THING.  NOW THAT YOU HAVE QUALIFIED DO YOU GUYS MEET AS A TEAM TO TALK ABOUT THE RACE AT ALL OR DO YOU NOW GO YOUR OWN WAY FROM HERE ON OUT?
 
“No, we meet as a team.  Andretti Autosport is really open that way.  We get together as a whole group of four cars.  Each driver and engineer and we go over everything from every session and what we are going to do for the next session and what our big picture thinking is.  What we need to do to win the race, what we need to do to challenge to win, what we need to do better in traffic, so we are constantly talking about as a group what we need to do better.  Each driver likes different things in our race car.  It’s like each person has a different character to them.  You like things in a race car and that is where we go our own separate way a little bit.  Usually it’s not by a whole lot.”
 
TWO DRIVERS CRASHED IN TURN ONE TODAY WHAT IS HAPPENING DOWN THERE?  IS THE CAR JUST GETTING LOOSE?
“Yeah, it can be.  (Alex) Tagliani crashed because he understeered up into the gray, hit the right-front and then hooked back in.  (E.J.) Viso was for a different reason, he got loose early in the corner.  So it was for two different reasons.  This place is tricky in general.  This place is tough it really is.  It’s more thinking and you have to be so on top of the tools in the car, the weight jacker and the bars.  We are running different settings in every different corner; it’s all over the place.  As the wind shifts and changes and then you get into one car or two cars of traffic the place is just always changing.  You really have to be on top of it.  Turn one has a lot of banking and (turn) three has not much at all.  You get two different feelings there.”
 
ARE YOU SHIFTING GEARS ON THE LAP?
“Yeah, most of the time some guys qualify changing gears, some guys don’t.  Yeah, when you are race running you are changing gears just because of the draft and everything and then back down in the corners to get the RMP’s coming out.  It’s a busy lap around here.  It’s definitely I think the busiest lap short of Milwaukee it’s the busiest lap that you have just because you are constantly moving everything around.  Just trying to keep up with the changing balance of the car.  Last week here we were really loose, we got the car figured out a little bit better now, but it’s still pretty loose.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE UPCOMING SCHEDULE?
“I really like it when we are going and we have a weekend off here and there.  I like it that way.  I wouldn’t mind two weekends off. I’m doing the whole going from here to New York for the Turbo premiere, then Toronto, then to Los Angeles, so I won’t be back until the weekend anyway.  I’m going to have one weekend off.  It will be the same kind of as we just had last week.”
 
INAUDIBLE:
“Yeah, well carrying momentum is another art within itself.  You might have the momentum, but I don’t think it just goes away if you have a couple of weekends off or a weekend off.  We had that last year and we were able to carry it.  It is tough you are right.  If you are going week in and week out hitting everything on the mark and you have two weeks off it can be tough to carry it on, but you have to do it.  You just have to reach in and get it done.  I think our team definitely has the capability of doing that.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED THIRD
 
YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF YOUR LAP:
“Well, we have been battling understeer in turn one all week long and all through testing and everything.  I told my engineer if we have to lift for understeer we are going to be slow.  I went into turn one on the first lap and got really loose.  So, I had a big moment and had to crack the throttle a little bit and it took everything I am made of to keep my foot in it for the rest of the run.  Just frantically working on the tools either under the track and trying to keep it all together all things considered thrilled to be on the front row.  Andretti Autosport 1-2-3 it is just incredible.  Obviously feel back for E.J. (Viso) he was right up there as well.  That is exactly the same kind of thing that happened to me just got a little bit loose and I was luckier I guess.  Pocono, Andretti on the pole, Andretti Autosport locking out the front row it’s tough to write a better story than that.  It’s going to be a colorful picture I think it’s going to look Skittles front row or something.  It was a good run a huge credit to the boys.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT IS MECHANICAL GRIP AT THIS OVAL COMPARED TO MOST OF THE OTHER BIG OVALS WE GO TO?
“Paramount.  It’s just so different.  This place is tricky.  It’s earned that name.  That is not a marketing ploy the ‘Tricky Triangle’ that is not to sell t-shirts that’s an earned reputation.   I think when you look at how flat turn three is mechanical grip is at an absolute premium.  Trying to balance that set-up between the high banks of turn one and the flat nature of turn three is incredibly challenging.  Add into that being in dirty air and losing a bunch of the downforce that you have any way it really is what is going to make or break I think a race car tomorrow.”
 
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY SH-RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FIFTH
 
HOW WAS IT OUT THERE?
“It was okay.  I mean obviously our first time here.  I’m excited I’m extremely impressed with the amount of people that came to watch us today. I’ve always heard good things about this place.  I’m excited.  They don’t call it the ‘Tricky Triangle’ for nothing.  We are going to have a lot of work to do tomorrow.  I’m excited.”
 
HOW WAS IT GOING INTO TURN ONE?  YOU ARE WIDE OPEN YOU ARE GOING FOR THE POLE:
“Yeah, I was and then it didn’t stick.  It’s amazing when I came here last week and I did my first 20 laps around this place I said ‘there is no way we are going to go flat into turn one.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.  All of a sudden we did.  It’s exciting.  Obviously three different corners around this track, it’s definitely tricky.  You are not going to have a good car in all of them.  We will see what is going to happen.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI HAS OBVIOUSLY HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS HERE THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS WHAT KIND OF
EFFORT WILL IT TAKE TO BEAT HIM?
“It’s a 400 mile race.  I think the Andretti guys were strong through the entire season.  If you look at their Indy 500 effort I wasn’t expecting anything less than that.  Today I don’t think I had it for him for the pole.  Maybe it was going to be outside the front row, but what’s it going to take this race is a 400 mile race.  I don’t think you can pick a favorite yet.  It’s a very difficult race track, we haven’t been here so obviously they did a great job putting three cars in the top three, but it’s a long race.  I don’t know what it’s going to take.  It’s a long race.”
 
YOU ARE STARTING IN THE SECOND ROW WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE START TOMORROW GOING BACK TO A THREE-WIDE FORMAT?
“I think it’s part of this ‘Triple Crown’ thing.  We only do it once a year, so I think being in a 400 mile race hopefully we will respect each other like we do in Indy because it’s a long race.  I don’t see a problem.  This straightaway it’s longer than Indy.  So, I don’t see why not doing it.  It’s definitely going to be different.”
 
SOME DRIVERS SAY THAT THE TRACK GOING THROUGH TURN ONE THAT IS NARROWS EXITING TURN ONE.  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE AND AS THE RACE CONTINUES ON?
“We can’t get greedy.  I think in the beginning of the race in the first lap we all know that only one car is going to go through that corner at a time.  We just got to respect each other that is definitely the situation there.  I think we can squeeze two cars into that especially on the first lap with the speeds that we are going to be doing.  We are not going to be as fast as when we are going flat out around here.  It’s going to be difficult, but that is what my boss tells me all the time that is why I get paid the big bucks.  We are going to have to make it through.”
 

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
INDY POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES                                                      
JULY 6, 2013
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER: THERE ARE A LOT OF FANS HERE AT POCONO PULLING FOR YOU.  THAT WAS A HECK OF A QUALIFYING RUN DID IT FEEL AS GOOD AS IT LOOKED?  “It felt quick.  I’m pleased with it no matter where we end up.  I think it should be a very strong run.  Honestly, all I know is this team got the best out of it and that is all we can ask for. Hopefully, it holds up.  That is the only thing that is a bummer about an early draw is now we have to wait.”
 
YOU ARE THE POLE SITTER.  YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW TOUGH IT IS TO GO OUT EARLY AND SIT THERE AND WATCH EVERYBODY TAKE SHOTS AT YOU WHAT HAS THE LAST HOUR AND A HALF BEEN LIKE?  “Yeah, it’s been long.  First and foremost I hopefully (Alex) Tagliani is okay; other than that just an unbelievable team performance across the board.  E.J. (Viso) would have been right there so I feel for him as well.  I’m definitely happy for the RC Cola guys and really Andretti Autosport as a whole.  We have been making statement after statement so it’s a good feeling.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SECOND: LOOKING AT THE FRONT OF THE GRID IT’S GOING TO BE ALL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT ACROSS THAT FRONT ROW.  TELL US ABOUT THE RUN OUT THERE:  “Absolutely the entire Andretti Autosport team has done such a great job here.  We had a good test last week and Firestone came back with a great tire.  We are really happy with that.  We are just looking to make the race car better tonight, hopefully have a great race.  We are really happy with the way the car is balanced in race trim so; I think it’s going to be a great race and a great show tomorrow.”
 
YOU GUYS HAVE CLEARLY PUT A LOT OF EFFORT INTO QUALIFYING IS IT THAT IMPORTANT HERE AT THIS TRACK?  “I think it’s important for sure just to start up in the thick of it and really start off on the right foot.  It’s a long race.  400-miles around this place is going to be tough, it’s going to be grueling.  Hopefully, the No. 1 DHL Chevy will be up front at the end putting ourselves in a position to win this thing.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED THIRD: HAPPY WITH THAT RUN? “Yeah, I mean the GoDaddy car ran pretty well.  We haven’t been the strongest I don’t think in practice.  Marco (Andretti) has been the class of the field.  We knew it was going to be tough to beat that.  We just wanted to try to stay in contention and he gave me some useful tips after his run, just teammates working together.  I had a little bit of a moment entering turn one the thing got a little loose on me.  I was battling it around the race track. The wind conditions when you are running this light on downforce don’t help.  Solid performance and hopefully that leaves us in the sharp end and hopefully a couple more Andretti Autosport cars can get up there too and we can start this show from the clean part of the track.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FOURTH: ON HIS QUALIFYING:  “It was a good job by the Verizon team in qualifying. I think our set up was spot on and we were looking good on the first lap and I thought we had a chance at pole but then we had overboost going into Turn 1 on the second lap and the penalty for that was big and it cost us our chance. Still, qualifying in row two is a good place to be. I like this track here at Pocono – it’s pretty challenging. I think it’s going to be a good race tomorrow. It’s a very long race and you can definitely pass at this place so it should be really fun to watch.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY – SH RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FIFTH: ON HIS QUALIFYING:  “I think I came up to speed too quickly. My fault. The Sunoco car is pretty good this weekend, so we’re going for the Triple Crown. I’m excited to be here at Pocono; it’s my first time.  It’s nice to see how many race car fans we have in this part of the world.  I’m glad you guys are here and we’ll go for it tomorrow for sure.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SIXTH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “First of all, I have to say thanks to the fans for coming out and supporting us. It was great to see so many enthusiastic people here today and they’re really excited about IndyCar. Good job by the promoters and everyone here at Pocono Raceway. Now, qualifying sixth is pretty good for the Hitachi Team Penske car. Maybe we were a little too conservative in our qualifying set up, but that’s OK. I know the car has been very fast and very smooth all weekend and I think we will be strong for the race. This track is very interesting and it’s going to be pretty exciting starting three-wide on Sunday. We’re looking forward to a good race and hopefully a strong finish in the Hitachi Chevrolet.”

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 10TH: ON QUALIFYING: “It was a really good qualifying effort for us. I think we might have had a little bit more, but we can be pretty happy, especially when I look at where we started this weekend. We’ve been struggling on the ovals, especially the last two races, but so far the car’s been awesome. I’m pretty happy; the Nuclear Clean Air Energy car has been pretty quick. It’s been a lot of hard work, but we took it step-by-step. Huge thanks to the team for that. We’ve really leaned on Tony and tried to learn as much as possible, because he’s really fast around here. I think we have a really strong race car, so hopefully we should be ok in the race. We’re toward the front, which is where we were hoping for; we should be able to go forward from there.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 12TH:
ON QUALIFYING: “We are pretty happy on our qualifying after a bad morning practice session. We didn’t feel comfortable trimming the car out so we just stayed where we knew we would stay flat for the two qualifying laps. We knew it was not going to put us in the Top-5 but at least its a decent qualifying. Now we can try to make the car a little better for the race and we will see what we can get.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 15TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It wasn’t a good day for us.  We have a lot better car than where we just qualified. We have a lot of work to do now.  And it will be hard.  That’s because it is hard to pass here.  I am disappointed to say the least.  It will be challenging for the race.  Just like Indianapolis, track position will be very important. We just didn’t have enough grip to get through the corners the way I wanted.  I will have to work on getting a good start to make up some spots early.  This place is tricky , just like the nickname says.  With three different turns, it takes a balancing act to get the car as good as possible.  We will analyze our data from today and get a good game plan for the race.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 21ST: “Very disappointing qualifying session on my side. I’m pretty sure we could have done a lot better but we had a mechanical failure. The throttle sensor destroyed our run as soon as we left the pits. Now we need to focus putting together a fast race car and go from there. Tomorrow will be
a long race so we will see what we can do.”

E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 23RD: THAT WAS A HARD HIT. WALK US THROUGH WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED:
“I was heading into my second qualifying lap, and I just lost it in the middle of Turn 1 to the point I caught it for a second. I stepped out again and couldn’t do much. It (Pocono Raceway) is much trickier than we anticipated. The testing we had here a few weeks ago, and again two days ago, it really helped us. This accident is really unfortunate as I believed we could have been 1-2-3-4.”
 

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
INDY POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 6, 2013
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed qualifying at Pocono, how the track compares to Indianapolis and other topics. Full Transcript:
 
YOU WON THE POLE AT THE ONLY OTHER 2.5-MILE OVAL THIS YEAR THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR QUALIFYING HERE AT POCONO TODAY?
“It seemed like we had pretty good speed at the test a couple of days ago.  You never know.  The field is so competitive the Penske cars seem quick.  The Andretti cars were quick, Tony (Kanaan) is quick, so I mean I think it’s going to be a lot like Indianapolis, just who picks the right level of downforce and who gets the gearing right.  The way the wind is blowing today, tailwind coming out of (turn) three makes it tricky.  It’s a little bit different than it was the other day.  I think that will ultimately affect the trim level a little bit.  I think we will have a shot, kind of like I felt like at Indy going into it, I felt like we could have been anywhere in the top 10.  Just the way the series is right now.”
 
DERRICK WALKER IS NO LONGER PART OF YOUR TEAM DID YOU CONSULT HIM BEFORE THIS RACE? HE WAS PART OF THE PORSCHE TEAM AND PORSCHE WAS QUITE SUCCESSFUL HERE IN THE ‘80’S:
“No, to be honest we didn’t really talk much about then to now.  He hasn’t been with us either of the times that we have tested here.  He’s in Lime Rock (Connecticut) right now.  We didn’t really talk about it.  The track is similar, but it there have been improvements and changes in a different surface and the cars are different.  We are kind of just starting from what we know about this car and what the engineering group thinks would be a good package here and just kind of working our program the way we always would.”
 
HAVE YOU GOTTEN OVER THE SHOCK? (IN REGARDS TO BRAD STEVENS, NEW COACH OF THE BOSTON CELTICS PREVIOUSLY HEAD COACH AT BUTLER UNIVERSITY):
“I mean I still think about it a lot.  I watched his press conference yesterday which he did a great job as he always does.  I’m excited to see who the next Butler coach is going to be.  Really happy for Brad, it’s a great opportunity for him in Boston.  Like I told him they are my second favorite NBA team now.”
 
HOW MUCH OF THIS FRONT STRETCH IS SIMILAR TO INDIANAPOLIS AND HOW MUCH CAN IT HELP WITH THE GEARING AND THE DOWNFORCE LEVELS?
“I mean it’s longer than Indy.  Where it’s different is at Indy everything is pretty symmetrical, the straightaways are the same way, the short shoots are the same length.  Here each straightaway is a little different.  The corners are each different.  The duration of the corners are different.  I think gearing for Indy is a little easier. You can have the options in the gearbox to kind of cover a couple of wind scenarios at once and be okay.  Here with the different length straightaways, different shaped corners, it’s hard to have as many options available to cover different conditions.  Like we were talking about earlier in qualifying I think that gearing and getting it right for the conditions for two laps is going to be a big part of who comes out on the pole.”
 
HOW MUCH ARE YOU GUYS SHIFTING AROUND THIS TRACK OR ARE YOU?
“Yeah, I’ve done some laps single speed on new tires, but with the way the wind has been blowing with tailwind on the front stretch we will be at least using two top gears, maybe three.  Usually there is a down shift out of (turn) one and that gear will work back around to the front straightaway again.  Then you will up shift for the long front straightaways.  With this wind kind of how it’s been, but other guys maybe doing it differently.”
 
DO YOU DO ANYTHING TO PREPARE COMING INTO POCONO LIKE MAYBE SOME IRACING? 
“I didn’t.  We have tested here twice now.  iRacing is really good, but it doesn’t have the new car on there yet so it makes it a little different.  I just use the experience we had here with the two tests.  I was here for the announcement of the race coming back last fall and got out on track.  Mario (Andretti) was here that day so picked his brain a little bit.  Yeah, you really just take the experience from the first test day.  It’s always awkward going to a new track the first handful of laps.  The team did a great job getting the car pretty good to start with and that made the transition pretty easy.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU HAVE SEEN THE EXCITEMENT BUILD FROM THE INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT THAT INDYCAR WAS RETURNING TO POCONO TO NOW THAT WE ARE GETTING READY TO TURN OUR FIRST COMPETITIVE LAPS HERE:
“Yeah, from that time it’s been great working with the family here.  Kind of connecting some of the dots between our two families there is quite a history there going back several generations.  It’s been fun getting to know the Mattioli family and Brandon and Nick.  They have been great to work with.  I think that they are going to be one of our better promoters the excitement they have and it appears there is a really good fan base up here.  When I walked in the garages this morning at just after 8:00 AM there was quite a few hardcore fans out here waiting already.  Which for an early Saturday morning I thought was a good sign.  I’m excited about the weekend and excited about the job they’ve done.  Hopefully, a bright future between Pocono and IndyCar.”
 
HAVE YOU KIND OF PICKED TONY’S (GEORGE) BRAIN A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE HE KIND OF RAN THIS PLACE BACK IN THE EARLY ‘80’S FOR A YEAR OR TWO I THINK.  WHEN HE WAS HERE IN THE ‘80’S IT WAS STILL A MAINSTAY OF THE SCHEDULE:
“Yeah, we have talked about it a little bit, but mostly just telling non-racing stories and talking about facilities and different things that had happened.  We actually came in together this morning and it was the first time he had been here since IndyCar was here.  He was excited to see some of the changes that they have done.”
 
MARIO (ANDRETTI) SAID YOU HAD SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS ABOUT TURN ONE.  CAN YOU SHARE THOSE WITH US?  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT GOING INTO TURN ONE?
“It’s an awesome corner.  I mean it’s more daunting than turn one at Indy in my opinion.  It’s such a, with the banking and the speed and being a much tighter radius than Indianapolis it’s hard to get right.  It’s hard to be fast through there.  It’s hard to be consistent.  I think across the board all the drivers are really enjoying running around this track and turn one is a big reason why.”
 
YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE SET-UP FOR THERE RATHER THAN (TURN) THREE?
“Both, it’s going to be a compromise.  I think for an ultimate fast lap and for race running it may be different. I think the speed of the lap, your overall speed, I think is going to be dictated by how you get through turn one. When it comes to racing I think turn three is going to be a little more important getting a good run out of there and being able to run close in traffic.  They are both important and you have to be able to get them both right.”
 
YEAR’S AGO THERE USED TO BE A PRETTY BAD BUMP OVER THE TUNNEL TURN IS IT STILL THERE OR HAVE THEY SMOOTHED THAT OUT?
“I wouldn’t call it; I don’t think there is a bad bump on this place.  It’s a little choppy through there compared to the rest of the track. The rest of the track is smooth like Indianapolis.  I wouldn’t call anything here bumpy.  Certainly not like what it used to be from what I’ve heard.”

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
INDY POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 6, 2013
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, MARCO ANDRETTI AND E.J. VISO, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed racing at the historic venue, their seasons thus far and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
THIS TRACK IS SO FULL OF INDYCAR HISTORY AND THE ANDRETTI’S ARE SUCH A LARGER PART OF IT WHAT IS IT LIKE FOR YOU TO KIND OF BE RACING IN YOUR TEAMS BACKYARD?

E.J. VISO: “It’s fun.  The first time I drove into the track my GPS said Andretti drive or something like that it was.  It was really cool.  I know what history means and even if this is also the first time for Michael (Andretti) being in this track same as for me.  This track has a lot of history for all the Andretti’s.  It’s fun.  I’m pretty new in all the American racing history, but little by little I’m catching up.  Definitely at some point start being part of the history.  It’s something that is really amazing just being with this team and being next year to the actual champion.  It’s fun.  I think Pocono is an amazing track.  Really fast track every corner is very different.  Whatever happens in one corner probably happens the opposite in the other corner.  I’m talking about corner one, corner three, so there is a big contrast when you are driving a lot of thoughts while you are driving.  It’s tough to the engineers to give us a fast car, a complete balanced car because corners are extremely different.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT HAS BEEN A REALLY STRONG SEASON FOR YOU SO FAR:

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: “I think the season is wide open.  The championship is going to come down to the last race again.  It will probably come down to three or four drivers.  Hopefully of course all the guys you see sitting up here today are probably going to be a part of it.  You really don’t know who is going to win any race.  It’s kind of a mystery every weekend.  You really have to be on top of your game to make sure you score maximum points.  It’s a lot of fun and typical IndyCar.  It’s been a good season, a very long way to go still.  Everything can change pretty quickly.  We realize that and we are just trying to stick to what matters and that’s practice this morning and we go onto the next one.
 
“The ESPY’s it’s a huge honor going up against Tony Kanaan and the Brazilian contingent (laughs).  It’s very cool just to be nominated is like I said it’s an honor.  It goes to show how much work went into last year and our championship.”
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR STRONG START TO THE SEASON:
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “Yeah, a lot better than last year for me I really worked on my consistency in the off-season.  Where I used to struggle was actually the strong part of this year on the street circuits are my best results.  Where I thought we would be able to string a couple wins together that has been my worst results.  That is the way it goes.  I think as long as we can keep showing up every weekend no matter what type of track it is hopefully like Ryan (Hunter-Reay) said we could all be in it at the end.  That’s what we are trying to do.  Yeah, good start here this weekend.  We will have to see what is going to happen.”
 
THERE HAVE BEEN SOME UP’S AND DOWN’S TO THE SEASON, BUT ALL IN ALL YOU HAVE THREE WINS THE MOST OF ANY DRIVER AND COMING OFF SUCH A DOMINATING PERFORMANCE IN IOWA HAS TO BE GREAT FOR YOU COMING INTO POCONO:
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: “Yeah, obviously it has been a very up and down year.  The highs very high the lows very low, it’s nice to have the wins certainly.  You look and we are still fourth in points.  It’s actually if you look at how many results we have outside the top 10 it’s a miracle we are fourth in points.  It’s good we have had those wins to stay in the fight keeping up with the rest of the guys up here.  In Iowa you don’t get days in racing like that very often especially when the series is as competitive as it is.  You have to take them when you get them because that’s a day of great execution by the whole team.  The car obviously was great and pit stops were great.  Strategy was great and we just tried to be smart out on track and it worked out.  In a sport where it’s sort of ‘what have you done for me lately’ it’s nice coming into a weekend off a performance like that.  In two days it won’t mean anything.  The focus now is Pocono and it’s great to be back here.  Hopefully, we can have another strong performance for the team like we did at Indianapolis and just try and get all four of the Andretti Autosport cars up there.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT FOR YOU TO WIN ON AN OVAL?
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: “Well, I mean it’s a huge part.  To be successful and to be a champion in IndyCar you have got to be able to perform on all different types of race tracks.  Personally as a driver, yeah, that was a big goal.  If you look at my two previous season in IndyCar I’ve matched my best road course and street course performance with an oval race. So right after St. Pete I had the goal of trying to win an oval race this year to kind of keep that streak alive and prove that we can be competitive on all types of tracks.  It was definitely a big day in that respect.”
 
IS YOUR SET-UP VERY SIMILAR?  CAN YOU HELP EACH OTHER OR DO YOU APPROACH THE RACE TRACK IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT WAY?

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: “Ryan (Hunter-Reay) likes putting the front tires on the back and the back tires on the front which none of us have been able to master, but he is that good (laughs).”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: “Yeah, somehow we make that work I’m not quite sure how.  I am just that good I guess, no, it’s non-stop with these clowns up here.  We all for the most part we like maybe a few things differently. Especially on the ovals we can take something very similar, but on race day sometimes some of us will branch out and try something different just to see what comes up.  So, yeah I think it’s in the same neighborhood.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “I couldn’t have answered that better if I tried.”
 
WITH THE TWO LONG STRAIGHTAWAYS HERE IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE AS A FOUR CAR TEAM TO SLINGSHOT EACH OTHER BACK AND FORTH AND BACK AND FORTH AROUND THE LAP TO GAIN TIME?  WOULD THAT BE A STRATEGY THAT A TEAM LIKE YOURS MIGHT USE?

MARCO ANDRETTI: “I don’t know it would be so tough to coordinate really because normally when you overtake somebody you can gap them for that lap.  It takes a lap to catch back up so it’s really hard to switch once a lap let alone twice.  No, it’s probably a tough strategy.”
 
E.J. VISO: “Saying that it’s important to mention that I think we were all expecting that this track was going to have the same nature as Indianapolis that we were able to draft pretty easily, but for some reason it is not happening that way.  It does happen, but not in that magnitude.  I believe that the amount of overtaking is going to be good, but I think not as much as we expect.”
 
THIS IS THE FIRST YEAR BACK AFTER 20 PLUS YEARS AWAY.  HOW IMPORTANT TO THE INDYCAR SERIES IS IT THAT POCONO BE SUCCESSFUL?
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: “I think we will see this is our first year here and it all depends on the promotion and the fan turn out and if it works that’s great because we would certainly love to be here.  But if it’s not well received I guess we will look at other options.  I’m not sure, it’s a new event so you have to unfortunately you have to get it going for a little bit and get some momentum rolling to get the attendance numbers up.  We will see.  I
think hopefully we have a pretty good first year attendance.  We shouldn’t expect everything this weekend.”
 
THE TRACK PRESIDENT SAID THE DRIVER’S WOULDN’T LIKE THE THREE ABREAST STARTS.  DO ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH THEM?
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “No, this straightaway is pretty long and honestly I’m all about tradition myself.  Honestly, that one is probably up to the fans because I think we can get hopefully get it sorted out by turn one.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT EVEN THOUGH THIS IS CLOSE TO HOME THIS ISN’T A PLACE YOU’VE BEEN A LOT CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH OR HOW LITTLE YOU’VE BEEN HERE AND HOW CLOSE THE LAKE PROPERTY IS TO HERE:
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “It’s actually closer to my house than the lake.  It’s about 40 minutes from our lake house and James (Hinchcliffe) said we did it in 25 the other day to my house.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: “That doesn’t mean it’s 25 minutes away though (laughs).”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “That is obviously the speed limit.  Obviously, we are going to have a nice hometown support, but all that matters is the on track stuff and there are a lot of elements that could help us or take us out of it.  We just need to do everything in our power to be in contention when it counts.  Yeah, I don’t know I think this is going to be a fun race.  We will have to see.”
 
HAVE YOU SEEN MANY RACES HERE?
 
MARCO ANDRETTI: “I didn’t really look back and study it religiously because it’s so long ago.  Even though race cars are still race cars it’s quite different.  It was different from when we tested here because of the tire.  It’s changing all the time.  I think you just need to adapt.  Yeah, I mean I think it’s going to produce an awesome race I really do.”
 
TWITTER ACCIDENT WITH THE THUMB?
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE: “Yes, yes, I was trying to gain as many followers as my teammates have and I just over did it.  That is the price you pay for not being quite as popular as these guys.”

 
Corvette Racing Stands Up to the Heat
Compuware Corvettes to start third, fifth in GT at Lime Rock
 
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 5, 2013) – Corvette Racing’s two Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars will roll off the GT grid from the second and third rows for Round 4 of the 2013 American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock Park, airing live at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN2. Oliver Gavin qualified the No. 4 Compuware Corvette third in class for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix with Antonio Garcia fifth in the No. 3 entry.
 
Gavin’s best lap Friday was 51.490 seconds in the car he shares with Tommy Milner. Garcia, teaming with Jan Magnussen, turned a 51.357-second lap around the 1.5-mile circuit in northwestern Connecticut. Both cars are in prime position to repeat last year’s performance that saw the velocity yellow Corvettes second and third in the GT class.
 
The heat Friday bordered on oppressive. Air temperatures hovered near 95 degrees with track readings above 120 degrees. Both crews worked up a sweat throughout the day – especially the No. 3 group, which had to change the car’s gearbox following the day’s first practice.
 
The efforts of both teams paid off with each of the Corvettes within a half-second of the pole-winning car.
 
“Today was a mixed bag,” Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan said. “We had to change the gearbox on the No. 3 Corvette, but both Oliver and Antonio put in solid qualifying efforts. We know the race will be the typical GT slugfest, which is made that much more difficult with the close quarters and short lap around Lime Rock. It will come down to who can execute on the track and in pitlane. If we can do that and run as clean a race as possible, we will be in the hunt at the end of the day.”

Corvette Racing Stands Up to the Heat
Compuware Corvettes to start third, fifth in GT at Lime Rock
 
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 5, 2013) – Corvette Racing’s two Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars will roll off the GT grid from the second and third rows for Round 4 of the 2013 American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock Park, airing live at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN2. Oliver Gavin qualified the No. 4 Compuware Corvette third in class for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix with Antonio Garcia fifth in the No. 3 entry.
 
Gavin’s best lap Friday was 51.490 seconds in the car he shares with Tommy Milner. Garcia, teaming with Jan Magnussen, turned a 51.357-second lap around the 1.5-mile circuit in northwestern Connecticut. Both cars are in prime position to repeat last year’s performance that saw the velocity yellow Corvettes second and third in the GT class.
 
The heat Friday bordered on oppressive. Air temperatures hovered near 95 degrees with track readings above 120 degrees. Both crews worked up a sweat throughout the day – especially the No. 3 group, which had to change the car’s gearbox following the day’s first practice.
 
The efforts of both teams paid off with each of the Corvettes within a half-second of the pole-winning car.
 
“Today was a mixed bag,” Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan said. “We had to change the gearbox on the No. 3 Corvette, but both Oliver and Antonio put in solid qualifying efforts. We know the race will be the typical GT slugfest, which is made that much more difficult with the close quarters and short lap around Lime Rock. It will come down to who can execute on the track and in pitlane. If we can do that and run as clean a race as possible, we will be in the hunt at the end of the day.”
 
EDITORS: High-resolution images of Corvette Racing are available on the Team Chevy media site for editorial use only.
 
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
Qualified third, 51.490 seconds (103.057 mph)
“We found a bit more speed from the practices, and you always push harder in qualifying. I managed to stick a reasonable lap together, and we made a few adjustments with the car that helped us find a little bit more. It’s always a delicate balance here. There is not a huge amount of grip and you’re all the time seesawing from the rear of the car being too loose to the front of the car being too pushy. You try to massage that balance between the two because one end is always breaking free. Very rarely will you get a car that’s really good and stuck and lets you attack every corner with no fear.”
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
Qualified fifth, 51.537 seconds (102.963 mph)
“We all lost a lot of time from the first session due to the red flags and then we had to change the gearbox. We never got to try anything to improve the car from the first practice. In qualifying, I had no read from the car on new tires and we needed to judge what the car would do on new tires. I think I was pretty close to everyone other than the two leading cars. But after the problems we had this morning, we put in a very good qualifying effort. We are all very close and know how races here work out. We will all be single-file for two hours and 45 minutes, very close to how Laguna Seca was. We need to be spot on pit stops, tire changes and everything. If everything goes smooth, we have the car to be out front at the end.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 5, 2013
 
 
KASEY KAHNE LEADS TEAM CHEVY IN QUALIFYING AT DAYTONA
FOUR CHEVROLET DRIVERS WILL START IN TOP-10 FOR THE 55TH ANNUAL COKE ZERO 400
 
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – July 5, 2013 – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet SS, led the way for all Team Chevy drivers during qualifying on Friday at Daytona International Speedway for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.  Kahne turned a lap of 46.595 seconds at a speed of 193.154 mph to earn a fourth-place starting position for the event.
 
Paul Menard qualified the No. 27 Rheem/Menards Chevrolet SS in sixth position and was followed by Kahne’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Lowe’s Dover White Chevrolet SS – who qualified eighth.  Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS, who won the pole here in February, will start in 10th position for the summer race.
 
Other Team Chevy drivers qualifying in the top-20 were:  Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevy SS – 13th, Juan Pablo Montoya No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS – 14th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevy SS – 16th, and Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy SS – 17th.
 
Kyle Busch (Toyota) won the pole position, Matt Kenseth (Toyota) qualified second, Clint Bowyer (Toyota) will start third and Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) rounded out the top-five in fifth.
 
The 55th-annual Coke Zero 400 will take the green flag on Saturday, July 6th at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be aired live on TNT.
 
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
A LOT OF DRIVERS HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE WIND OUT THERE WHAT DID YOU FEEL?
“I just thought it looked really windy.  I saw the flags moving.  It looks like it’s blowing from the backstretch to the frontstretch.  I just kind of went around there.  I felt where it pushed me a little bit.  I never felt it bog the car down.  That was good, our engines run really well.  I think we have a fast car, obviously to go that quick today.  We have a good Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet and looking forward to tomorrow night.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S DOVER WHITE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED EIGHTH
WHEN YOU CAME INTO THE GARAGE YOU SAT IN THE CAR FOR AWHILE FIRED THE ENGINE, TURNED IT OFF, FIRED THE ENGINE TURNED IT OFF.  IS EVERYTHING OKAY WITH THE LOWE’S CHEVROLET?
“Yeah everything is in good shape.  Just taking my time to get out of the car make sure I cycled it a few times.  We are trying to get every bit of speed we can out of these cars and tape over the radiator inlet is really the best way to do that in qualifying.  We were being aggressive there, but just want to get the car cooled down before we push it in.
 
YOU HAVE THREE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS TEAMMATES OUT THERE THAT ARE REALLY FAST.  HOW COGNIZANT ARE YOU OF WHERE THEY ARE AT DURING THE RACE TOMORROW NIGHT?
“You know it’s tough in this format to do a lot with a teammate.  With the tandem drafting that we had in years past you had to have a partner and you may as well in the best situation was race with a teammate. You can plan things in advance and really work around that.  In today’s world it’s tough.  You try to help when you can, but you really have to look around and be aware of who you are racing with because every driver has their own tendencies and style.  I will get behind someone because I know they are going to get to the front it doesn’t matter who it is, what make it is, whoever is behind the wheel you know they are going to the front that is who you want to get behind.”
   
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 11TH
THE GUYS THAT WE FIRST TALKED TO WERE TALKING A LOT ABOUT THE WIND OUT THERE.  WHAT DID YOU EXPERIENCE?
“I didn’t feel like the car was buffeting today as much as it was yesterday.  Wind definitely plays a factor even from qualifying here at the beginning of the year for the (Daytona) 500 when we were on the pole there was certain spots that I gained and lost on that lap.  We kind of figured it was probably a wind thing.  Obviously, it’s not going to be the pole, but I think it will still give us a decent starting spot.  We found some ways to get better in practice yesterday and that should help us in the race.”
 
GIVE US AN IDEA OF HOW A LAP HERE FEELS IN QUALIFYING IN JULY VERSUS FEBRUARY:
“You know it’s hotter obviously. Just everything gets going a little bit slower.  You can feel the heat.  Shoot I feel a little bit slower, it’s hot.  It doesn’t mean we are going to start in a bad place.  We are not going to get the pole obviously, but it still should be a decent spot to start for the Coke Zero 400 tomorrow night.”
 
WHEN YOU GET OUT THERE TOMORROW AND GET THIS RACE GOING ON IT’S GOING TO BE A LITTLE BIT SHORTER TIME, A LITTLE BIT DARKER, A LITTLE BIT COOLER, MAYBE A LITTLE BIT MORE GRIP.  ANYTHING GOING TO CHANGE OTHER THAN TRY SOMETHING’S YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE BEFORE?
“Well, it will be darker; it’s going to be dark.  It will have more grip and it will be cooler.  All those things will happen tomorrow night and we obviously didn’t practice in those conditions but we have the extreme of them which is at the beginning of the year.  If there is one track we get a lot of laps on it’s here at Daytona.  I think as teams go we all feel pretty comfortable and that is why you don’t see a ton of practice out there from everybody because we have brought the best things that we can.  We will just have to see how it shakes out tomorrow night and hopefully the GoDaddy car can end up on top.”
 
ON THE CAR
“This is the same car that I used to test at the beginning of the year and it was a great car then. We weren’t even sure if we were going to use the other car as our primary. But we did. And it was fast and we got the pole and unfortunately we lost that car at Talladega. But that’s the way it goes on speedway racing. So, we’ve got a good car here, no doubt. And I’m sure that the red-white-blue added GoDaddy car will still start in a decent position for the race. Things change quickly here. I don’t think it’s going to be quite as much like follow-the-leader maybe as you saw at the beginning of the year in the 500. I feel like it’ll be fine.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/DUCKS UNLIMITED CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH
YOU KNOW A THING OR TWO ABOUT WINNING THIS PARTICULAR RACE HOW WAS THAT LAP OUT THERE WITH ALL THE VARIABLES WE ARE FACING TODAY?
“I wish I could make it sound really exciting but from a driver’s side today’s is really just a showcase of what the teams how good a job they do coming here.  Our job is to watch the tach (tachometer) when we leave the pit road and shift three times and then just try to hold a really steady smooth wheel and let the car run what it’s going to run.  My job gets a little more interesting tomorrow night when I have to put my shoes on.”
 
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Uneventful, you just try to do everything you can to hold the wheel real nice and straight and not clip the apron and just have a smooth lap.  It’s going to run whatever it’s going to run.  Proud of our team everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing has done an awesome job.  Like always we have great Hendrick horsepower.  Uneventful day.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 27TH:
“You are running wide-open the whole time so you transfer a lot of heat through the gas pedal to your feet.  But we haven’t had any problems with our Cessna Chevy this weekend.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 5, 2013
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/DUCKS UNLIMITED CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed what it would take to win this weekend’s 400-mile race, his Mobil 1 ‘soda cookies’ commercial and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING BACK TO DAYTONA; CERTAINLY A PLACE THAT HAS TO BE FOND IN YOUR MEMORY:
“Yeah, definitely any place you win 19 times at you kind of look forward to going back to.  It’s cool, I didn’t realize until I think three weeks ago or something when we were here for our winner’s circle appearance that we have the opportunity to tie David Pearson this weekend.  That’s a pretty cool stat to be brought into.  Obviously if we get lucky enough to get another one that would be something to be really proud of.  Definitely excited about having that opportunity.  Excited our buddy Johnny Morris is going to be here this weekend with a bunch of people from Ducks Unlimited and that is a really big deal for us this weekend.  Excited to have them on the car and excited to have a good weekend.  Last night was pretty neat being here in town and actually having an evening to go enjoy the fourth (of July).  It was fun to remember why we all get the chance to be here.”
 
DO YOU EAT SODA COOKIES?  DID YOU DO THAT SPLIT YOURSELF OR WAS THAT A STUNT DOUBLE?
“Let’s make no mistakes about it if I got down there I would still be down there (laughs).  No they did not ask me to do that, they had me get down on the ground for the camera shot, but they had green screens.  They had some male gymnast do it.  I don’t know who it was.  I didn’t want to be there when he did it. It was actually a lot of fun shooting the spots because I’m sitting there and I never look at what the spots are supposed to be before we get there.  So I get there and I’m starting to read the scripts and it’s saying Tony is getting on an exercise bike, he’s doing the splits and I’m like which Tony is doing this by the way?  Is there another Tony?  But it was fun.  Mobil 1 is pretty creative with their spots and I can’t say that I have ever just sat down and grabbed a Coke and grabbed Oreos.  I’ve ate Oreos and then chased them with a Coke, but I can’t say that I have done a lot of dunking.  It’s actually pretty good.  It might start a new trend now.”
 
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT COMING TO DAYTONA THREE WEEKS AGO AND WHAT YOU DID FOR THE MEDIA TAKING THEM ON RIDES AROUND THE TRACK:
“Yeah, the memory that keeps haunting my dreams is Holly Cain (writer for NASCAR.com) screaming at the top of her lungs in the car when we took her the ride around in the pace car.  It was fun.  It’s fun for us to be able to do that.  The media that were here it’s actually cool to be able to do that because it’s not every day they get the opportunity to go ride around the track like that.  It would be a lot more fun if we got to do it in a Cup car, but a pace car was a lot of fun.  We had a good time.
 
“To be able to talk through what we are looking for while we are on the track and having media members be able to actually physically see what we are talking about and the challenges.  It just adds that much more depth to what you guys are able to talk about when you are here for the race weekend.  It was a lot of fun.”
 
OBVIOUSLY FOR YOU TEAM IT WOULD BE VERY GOOD IF DANICA (PATRICK) WON A RACE. IF PUSH COMES TO SHOVE IF YOU GOT IN POSITION AND YOU WERE IN POSITION TO HELP DANICA WIN THE RACE OR WIN THE RACE YOURSELF WOULD YOU PUSH HER OR TAKE HER TO THE WIN OR IS SHE ALL ON HER OWN AND YOU ARE GOING TO GO FOR THE WIN?
“I don’t know if you know, but I actually have another teammate that drives for Stewart-Haas Racing named Ryan Newman.  It would be good for him to win a race too. Yeah, a win for any three of us is a splash for the team.  I will be honest I’m going for the win.  So, I’m still a race car driver first.  You can call me selfish if you want, but that is how I got in this position.  To be an owner and a driver is because I’m competitive and I want to win.  I’m not going to let somebody else win unless I feel like I can’t.”
 
TALK ABOUT STARTING THE CHASE AT CHICAGO AND ALL THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN AROUND THAT RACE:
“It’s actually fun.  The thing that probably I remembered most about last year is a bunch of the guys went out after it was over and for a lot of them because we have so many obligations up there the married drivers that have children didn’t have their kids up there and they were all excited because they all got to go out and do stuff.  I remember when I started and a bunch of these guys didn’t have kids and its stuff we used to do anyway.  It is it’s a lot of fun.  It’s the calm before the storm and doing the media stuff before we actually get started.  Chicago is a huge race from the stand point that it really can set the tone for the next nine weeks after that.   It’s not critical to get a great start there.  I mean if you don’t have a good start it doesn’t mean you can’t recover from it and win, but if you have a solid finish that first race of the Chase there it really gets that 10 week stretch kicked off in the right way.  You can carry that momentum.  It’s fun for me.  I grew up four hours south of Chicago and didn’t realize how much fun downtown was until I actually got to go up there through NASCAR.  It’s a beautiful place and NASCAR is gracious enough with all the obligations that they do have for us up there to give us some time to do some stuff on our own.  It was neat to walk around and just see things up there.”
 
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT A MOVE YOU MADE TO WIN HERE LAST SUMMER PASS GREG (BIFFLE) AND MATT (KENSETH) HOW MUCH OF THAT IS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF AN OPPORTUNITY THAT IS THERE ON GUT INSTINCT AND HOW MUCH OF THAT IS BASED ON WHAT WORKED AND DIDN’T WORK IN PAST RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES?
“It’s very much exactly what you are saying.  It’s a lot of trial and error.  I lost the Daytona 500 here that I wish over and over I could have done different and maybe would have tried something.  I may have gotten wrecked doing it, but I wish I would have at least tried.  There are times that I have tried things that didn’t work and there are times when I wish I would have tried things that may have worked.  A lot of it is instinct and trial and error.  Anybody that sits there and says they know exactly what to do at what time is pretty much lying to you.  Its guess work.  A lot of it is just the right circumstances at the right time.  You can do the right thing as a driver, but there is still 10 guys or 20 guys behind you that their scenario maybe different and may alter what your decision was.  It’s very much I call it the Peyton Manning deal.  You are constantly calling an audible in those last two or three laps.  It may work it may not work.  You can’t sit there and say okay this is the playbook this is what we do, this is where we want to be on that last lap.  There are no guarantees.  It’s just literally adjusting what you think you need to do by what you are seeing in the mirror and what you are seeing in front of you.”
 
DO YOU THINK EXPANSION HAS THAT HURT STEWART-HAAS RACING, OR IS THAT A REASON WHY MAYBE YOU GUYS THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON HAVEN’T GOTTEN THE RESULTS THAT YOU WANTED?
“I don’t think so.  I mean I think we have got enough depth there to cover the three teams.  It’s just I think the combination of…we planned for all the expansion over the winter, but with the new car there were a lo
t of parts and a lot of things that we had to really wait late in the off season to get completed.  I think for us we got ourselves behind with that.  I think we have caught up since then, but I think just learning a new car and learning what it wants and what it likes and how to transfer that to the feel we are looking for.  It’s something that Ryan’s (Newman) struggled with Danica’s (Patrick) struggled with and I’ve definitely struggled with.  I think it’s been a combination of trying to figure out exactly what it’s wanting.  I think we did get a slow start to the year because we were behind on getting things prepared.  But I don’t think it was due to the expansion as much as it was just the cycle of going through to the new car.  But it was the same for everybody just some teams did a better job of getting off on the right foot than we did.”
 
YOU SAID YOU NEVER LOOK AT SCRIPTS AHEAD OF TIME. MIGHT YOU DO THAT AFTER SODA COOKIES? 
“You’ve got to remember, and you guys love this stuff.  I’m not smart enough to remember the scripts if I look at it before so there is no point in me looking at it until we get there.  We have done some pretty fun stuff in the last 15 years with partners.  I think a long time ago sponsors figured out that drivers aren’t good actors.  So the funnier they can make it the better off it is.  This has been a set of spots that Mobil 1 has done that has been very successful because of the comedy in it.  You get Jenson (Button) and I to both do all this and have it turn out the way it did I think they are pretty happy with it.”
 
THERE WAS A LOT OF CHATTER IN HERE YESTERDAY THAT TALLADEGA WAS A LOT DIFFERENT THAN DAYTONA.  SOME DRIVERS EXPECT TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE TO LOOK MORE LIKE TALLADEGA THAN THE DAYTONA 500.  DO YOU HAVE ANY SENSE AFTER PRACTICE YESTERDAY WHAT TOMORROW NIGHT MIGHT LOOK LIKE?  MIGHT THERE BE A MOVE LIKE YOU MADE TO WIN THIS RACE A YEAR AGO?
“Sure, it might.  The hard thing is literally I don’t know that you can predict what is going to happen, especially at the end of the race.  As far as what the race is going to look like for the first 300 miles or 350 miles I don’t know what that is going to be like either.  Everybody in practice is not trying to figure out what to do late in the race, they are trying to figure out how their car will suck up to the car in front of them and what they can do to pass guys. What the sense of urgency for these guys during the course of the race is going to be different than what it was in practice.  It’s hard to get a feel for it.  At least from my mind like I say I’m fairly simple so I’m not sure I’ve realized it as much as some of these other guys may have.  I don’t know that we can predict what the race is going to be like. At the end of the race I think guys were trying yesterday to figure out what they could do to get a run on guys.  It’s always hard to predict especially if you get a caution late in the race.  It can definitely jumble it up quite a bit.”
 
19 DAYS UNTIL THE TRUCK RACE AT ELDORA.  DO YOU GET MORE INVOLVED IN THE PREPARATIONS FOR THAT NOW THAT WE ARE JUST A FEW WEEKS OUT? AND YOU ARE NOT DRIVING THAT RACE, CORRECT?
“I am not driving in that race.  Honestly, Roger Slack has done a great job and all of our staff at Eldora has done a great job getting things ready.  I will be there after; I’ve got sprint car races that weekend.  I’m going straight I think Sunday night is my last race that weekend and I will be there Monday on.  It’s more out of curiosity for me.  I will be available for whatever they need me to do that I can do.  If I had to be a part of it and had to actually be there hands on to do it I wouldn’t have the confidence to do it.  I’m more than confident in Roger and our staff up there that they’ve got everything squared away and ready to go and prepared.  It’s not something that somebody like me coming in a week before is going to get it ready.  It’s been months and months and months of work to get ready for this event.  I’m very confident in everything that they have done up to this point.”
 
LEVI JONES RETIRED LAST WEEK.  DID THAT SURPRISE YOU?
“A little bit.  Levi has won five championships for us in the sprint car series there and he’s won a Silver Crown championship.  He talked last year about cutting back on his schedule a little bit.  His family has expanded obviously.  His family has got a very successful business in St. Louis and he told me last year that is why he didn’t run our Sprint Car full time this year because he wanted to cut his schedule back and spend more time with his family.  It wasn’t a total shock by any means.  I thought there were other things that he wanted to do in Sprint Car racing.
 
“I know he wanted to run a wing car some and he had started to do that a little bit.  I was a little bit surprised.  I think it’s good that if that is the decision he wants to make.  He’s in a financial situation now where he can go work with his family’s business and retire from racing on his own terms.  I stand behind him 100 percent on it.  I’m sad that he’s not going to be running, but at the same time I understand why too.”
 
DID HE HAVE MORE RACES PLANNED FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
“Yeah, he was driving our Silver Crown car.  We definitely had races on our plate that he was going to run for the rest of the year.  I think when a driver makes that decision as an owner and as a fellow driver you understand.  Race drivers don’t make those decisions very easily.  They don’t make them overnight.  For him I know it was something that he had thought about a long time and like I said he had started talking about it a year ago.  It wasn’t a surprise, but at the same time when they finally make that decision you stand behind them 100 percent.  You don’t make them question why they are doing it.  You don’t ask them why.  They have thought it through already.”
 
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON MATT KENSETH’S SUCCESS DRIVING FOR GIBBS THIS YEAR?
IS KENSETH GOING TO BE YOUR TOUGHEST CHALLENGE IN SATURDAY NIGHT’S RACE?
“Yeah, definitely. Matt is one we will definitely see in the front at some point tomorrow. They ran really good at Daytona and they ran really good at Talladega. There is no reason to think that they won’t do the same thing. Matt is somebody who, in the last couple of years, has taken his restrictor plate program as a driver to another level, and gotten even better than he already was.
 
“And now he’s in cars and an organization that seem to be a good fit for him. He’s done an awesome job this year in that car. I don’t think anybody doubted whether he was going to have success over there. It was just a matter of how much and how quick. And it was right out of the box. When they came down here they ran well. And he’s been on a winning streak ever-since. He’s definitely done a great job. He’s pushing his teammates over there and that’s a good scenario to be in.”
 
IF THE NO. 3 CAR RETURNS TO CUP RACING NEXT YEAR, HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO WHEN YOU BROUGHT THE NO.14 BACK INTO COMPETITION FROM A.J. FOYT?  WHAT SORT OF RESPONSIBILITY DOES THAT CARRY? DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS NO. 14 OR WILL NO. 14 ALWAYS GOING TO FOREVER BE A.J.?
“In my scenario, I look at is as it’s always going to be A.J. In my career, I’ve run a lot of different numbers, whether it was No. 20 in the IRL and Cup, and I had No. 20 in the Sprint Cars, but I’ve always had different numbers in my career. And A.J. had different numbers, too. But A.J. made the No. 14 famous just like Dale (Earnhardt) Sr. made the No. 3 famous.
 
“I’m not sure there’s really a sense of responsibility. Since Austin (Dillon) has been
racing, he’s been running the No. 3, whether it’s been in the truck or in Nationwide. So it’s a part of his legacy now, too. So, even thought he’ll start next year in the Cup series in the car that was Dale Senior’s number, it’s been his number as well and been in his family forever. That’s how it became Dale’s number. Yeah, I think it’s generations. I think newer fans that have been following the sport the last three or four years will associate that No. 3 with Austin more so than Dale. Fans that have been around this sport a long time, if you’ve been around here more than 15 or 20 years, when you think of the No. 3 in the Cup Series you think of Dale Senior. And if you’ve followed IndyCar racing, you’re thinking the same thing about A.J. Foyt, no matter who runs the number afterwards. For me it’s definitely going to be a huge part of my career the rest of my time. My Sprint Car is No. 14, and when we run a Modified or a Late Model, we run the No. 14. So, that’s my number now, too.”
 
WHAT THINGS DO YOU THINK YOU WILL TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION ONE DAY WHEN YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO KEEP DRIVING OR NOT?
“I don’t know because I’m not even close to that. I really don’t know. It’s not even on my radar. I don’t see myself retiring from racing for a long, long time. So, I think a lot of it, for drivers that have families, that’s a huge part of it. Since I don’t have a wife and children and I don’t have that extra burden or responsibility, so to speak that I need to consider. I have the ability to lead a more selfish lifestyle from a driver’s standpoint and I don’t have to worry about somebody at the end of the day. But I’m sure that plays a huge part I would assume, and is probably a bigger factor than most people would like to admit.”
 
WHEN YOU LOOK AT BRAD KESELOWSKI, CAN YOU DRAW SOME PARALLELS BETWEEN YOUR SITUATION A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO AS OBVIOUSLY A VERY TALENTED DRIVER, STRUGGLING A BIT WHO CAN GET ON A ROLL AND MAKE THINGS HAPPEN AT THE END OF THE SEASON?
“Yeah. It’s a new year. It’s different I think from most years. It’s a totally different package this year. They were really strong last year with figuring out how to get the cars skewed and get the side force in the cars and this year’s package takes all that away; not some of it, but all of it away. So, it’s tryng to figure out a whole new package. It just shows how tough this sport is form the technology side. You can have the same people in place, but technology plays such a huge role in year to year. But when you take a season when you throw a whole new body style in it and a whole new rules package, it really can take a lot longer for some teams to adapt to it than others to find that sweet spot. We know they are definitely capable. When they hit on something and find what they did last year and find something that’s working for them, they definitely can put together the consistency do what they did just like last year. It’s just a matter of getting themselves to that point.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed memories of Daytona, strategies of how to win, the NO. 3 car, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING TO DAYTONA
“It’s a really special racetrack and one we enjoy coming to. The track is a lot of fun. It’s a good town. There are a lot of great restaurants and there is a lot of history. Being around here for so long and coming here for so long you find a lot of things about it that you like and look forward to all those things when you come back every time. It’s been a bit of a challenge for us to win here in the last several years. We’ve come awfully close trying to win the 500 in the last few years. We’ve been finishing well, but haven’t really been able to figure out what I need to do to get into first place on the last lap. We’ve had no problem finding our way to the front, but not been able to overtake the leaders. So, I think we might need to try to be at a better position sooner, where we’re not having to have to do so much right at the end of the race and not have an opportunity to challenge for the win.
 
“So maybe throughout the race trying to be a little more proactive toward improving track position, being a little more aggressive just trying to improve track position might be in our best interest if we want to try to have a shot at winning. The way the 500 was going, it was a big risk to pull out and try to make a pass or try to do anything to move forward because you were out there by yourself and you basically would go to the back of the pack in just about every case. So it was difficult to find out how there was any other way to pass or move forward. And then we had that late restart where we were able to take advantage of some people.
 
“But I look forward to the race and I hope that the asphalt has aged a little bit. I know that the weather should improve the style of racing; we’ll see, where the handling is a lot more of a factor. Handling was a big factor in the Daytona 500 race and that’s important to providing a good race at this race track is when the handling on the cars is more of a challenge. We might have a good opportunity to see a real exciting race and I think when things get more exciting at the plate tracks, I’ve got a better shot at finding my way toward the front for an easier shot at it.”
 
THIS RACE USED TO BE ON JULY 4TH. DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL MEMORIES WHEN IT REALLY WAS ON THE ACTUAL HOLIDAY? SHOULD NASCAR TRY TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN?
“I don’t know about that, but it does haven’t to fall exactly on the 4th, to me. I still kind of connect it to whether it’s on the same day or not. And I think one of the memories that sticks out to me was I think it was 1995 or maybe 1994, but I was watching from the pits and Greg Sacks was three-wide down through the front straight-away in the tri-oval and was bouncing off two cars.
 
“I think one of them was a Petty car and I can’t remember who was on the outside, maybe Derrick Cope. And it’s just like a 22-car pile-up right there in front of the pits. And I’d never seen an accident, that large of an accident, that close. We were literally 30 yards away from that happening, so it was just really crazy to see that. And, I think Dad ended up winning that race. I had been here several times before in ’87; I think it was the year that Kenny Schrader flipped on the front straightaway. Dad had some kind of a tire problem or something and got a lap down, but he was still running rather well. But we were in the scoring stand down in Turn 1 where all the wives and the kids went, and we’d watch the race there. And we were leaving like 10 laps before the end because Dad’s real fast about getting out of the race track.
 
“And so Teresa had me and Kelley and we were hustling out of there to get in the car or something, and come over to the garage to be ready when Dad was, because he was obviously not in the running for the win. He was a lap down. And just as we walked out the door, I turned to watch the cars go through the corner and Dad blew a motor going into Turn 1 and hit the wall and he was just sliding across the wall. I don’t know why that memory sticks out to me. But I was trying to get Teresa’s attention to tell her that Dad was in the fence and she was like c’mon, c’mon, c’mon (laughs); I couldn’t get her attention to tell her what was going on. But I was the only one that saw it and for some reason that memory stands out to me.
 
“I never came here for the 500. I’ve talked about that 100 times in here (media center) it seems like. But I never came here for the 500 until I drove in it. But we came to the July race every year and just had a lot of fun. We’ve got pictures of us burying each other in the sand and things like that when we was little kids. I certainly enjoyed some good times here and driving as well. Obviously winning in 2001; that was an incredible experience. But, I have always enjoyed coming down here.”
 
ARE YOU A LITTLE SURPRISED ABOUT HOW WELL MATT KENSETH IS DOING THIS YEAR WITH A NEW TEAM?
“No, I’m not.  I’ve raced against him for a really long time and I’ve known Matt to be one of the most talented guys in the seat, in the car holding the wheel.  He is as good as anybody in the garage.  I don’t know that he is surprising a lot of people that have been in that garage for the last several years because I think we all kind of knew how good he was.
 
“He is in some really good equipment and he is with some really good people in Joe (Gibbs) and J.D. (Gibbs) they are going to give him an amazing opportunity.  When I heard about his deal last year I was excited for him because we have been pretty good friends for a really long time.  I knew that this was going to be a great experience. He’d had some really good experiences with Jack (Roush) and the Roush deal.  He worries a little bit too much.
 
“He was really worried about making that type of decision you know because he’s having kids and he’s just really hoping he’s making the right choice.  I just felt like this was going to be exciting and he was really going to have a lot of fun.  It looks like it’s working out.”
 
AUSTIN DILLON IS RACING FOR RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING NOW, BUT LOOKS TO BE MOVING TO SPRINT CUP NEXT YEAR.  COULD YOU JUST TALK ABOUT HIM AND HIS CAREER AND HOW HE IS PROGRESSING AS A DRIVER?
“Yeah, I think he has really surprised everybody.  He has got great speed.  He has shown he can be aggressive and he will work real hard at every position.  Just watching him run laps and watching him in races you see he is just a tough competitor and he works really hard.  I’ve known his dad for a really long time.
 
“I think it’s exciting to see Richard (Childress) have something new to kind of keep the fire going in him and keep RCR (Richard Childress Racing) excited about their future.  That rests squarely on those two kids shoulders.  They were raised really well.  They’ve got great manners and every time I’ve been around them I’ve been impressed.  Obviously, they do a lot of good things on the race track too.  I’m excited for both of them.  Austin, I think he’s ready.  I think he’s ready to go.”
 
DOES DANICA PATRICK HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE YET WITH PLATE RACING THAT YOU COULD HELP HER WIN AND EVEN MORE DOES SHE HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE THAT SHE COULD HELP YOU WIN IF YOU GET IN A SIMILAR HELP EACH OTHER SITUATION LIKE YOU HAD IN FEBRUARY?
“Yeah, I think the answer to that is yes for both.  With plate racing you just don’t know.  Mark Martin was pushing me in the Daytona race and he has as much experience as anybody and we didn’t get the job done as good a
s I think we are at it.  There are so many other variables in play that the best plans never really seem to work out.  You just sort of go by your gut in those last moments of those races.  It really comes down to anyone, her or I or anybody making the gut decision at that moment when you are faced with a choice to do one thing or another making the right one.  You don’t always do.  You don’t fall back on years of experience or race after race of doing it.  It comes down to really like dodging a bullet you move left or right and hope you make the right decision.”
 
IS SHE CAPABLE OF WINNING THIS RACE?
“Yes, of course, absolutely.  Every car in the field with the exception of a few one or two; I think every car in the field, what we saw at Talladega proved that about anybody with this style of package can get up there and make it happen.”
 
YOU TALKED EARLIER ABOUT BEING AGGRESSIVE CAN YOU JUST KIND OF CLARIFY WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT BE MORE AGGRESSIVE EARLIER IN THE RACE PUT YOURSELF IN POSITION AND ALL THINGS SEEM TO INDICATE THAT THE NO. 3 CAR WILL RETURN IN CUP NEXT YEAR.  OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE SEEN IT RUN IN OTHER SERIES.  WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO SEE IT IN CUP NEXT YEAR AT THIS TRACK?
“Being aggressive and trying to get track position or make track position happen or move forward just mentally aggressive not out there driving in the side of everybody, more so, just trying to force myself to take a few more chances.  It was hard to do in the (Daytona) 500 because everybody ran around the top and if you pulled out you went to the back.  That is what you did.  What I did see was that if there was enough room in between the guy in front of me and the next car if I could make a run and side draft and actually create even more room by side drafting and fill that gap you can leap frog one car at a time.  You keep doing that and I was able to pass a few guys doing that and you can pass maybe one car every two or three laps. You just continue to leap frog one at a time, but that one guy you aren’t successful with you go all the way to the back.  It’s a gamble, but maybe if you want to win the race, I’ve got to be further ahead than fourth on the last lap.  We had enough race car to win the (Daytona) 500 and just ran out of laps.  I need to be a little further forward to be able to have that shot.
 
“I think it will be great.  It was an iconic number for my father and it means a lot to a lot of his fans.  This sport doesn’t really retire numbers and all the numbers have history tied to them for several different reasons.  The No. 3 is no different.  I think that for Austin (Dillon) a kid like Austin in this regard any kid that wants to come up through the ranks and he drove the No. 3 in dirt racing and he drove the No. 3 in his Truck series and Nationwide series.  He has earned the right to run that number as long as he wants.  It could have been anybody, but it’s Austin.  It could have been any kid coming up through the ranks that had ran that number and that’s his number.  Maybe he’s not even an Earnhardt fan maybe that is just his number.  He wants to run it I think it’s not really fair to deny somebody that opportunity.  I’m okay with it.  I know that might not be the way a lot of people feel or some people feel, but I’m sure it’s the minority that feels that way. I think that a lot of people will be telling Austin positive things about it.”