NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 22, 2013
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway and discussed the first practice session, competing in the dirt race tonight in Stockton, California and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
IT LOOKED LIKE YOUR CAR GOT FASTER AS PRACTICE WENT ON:
“We are gaining on it.  I’m a little more worried about our race set-up right now than I am qualifying.  Hopefully, we can gain on it a little more.  We are getting there.”
 
FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRACKS THIS IS THE FIFTH KIND, WHICH ONE SHORT-TRACK, 1.5-MILE, SUPERSPEEDWAY ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT GOING BACK TO AND WHICH ONES ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT GOING BACK TO WITH THIS NEW CAR?
“I’m not concerned about any of them.  It’s just too early.  Everybody wants an answer that nobody has an answer to right now.  Every track that we are going to is a learning deal right now.  You are going to go through a lot of races before we all figure out what the common denominator is that the car likes and dislikes.”
 
IS THAT ONE OF THE ISSUES IN TERMS OF THAT HAS ALL THREE TEAMS OUTSIDE THE TOP-20 RIGHT NOW TOO SOON TO BE CONCERNED OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
“It’s just early in the year.  If all of us had finished all the races and we are back there because we have been running bad that would be one thing.  We have all had races that we have crashed out of.  Four races into a season that is 25 percent of your points total.  Just having one of those is enough to mess up the point standings right now.”
 
YOU HAVE A BIG NIGHT TONIGHT GOING UP NORTH WITH KYLE LARSON CAN YOU TALK ABOUT EXCITEMENT FOR THAT RACE:
“Yeah, I’m excited to go to Stockton.  I like my night jobs too.  I get too. My car owner is a pretty cool guy he lets me go and play as much as I want.  I can’t complain about that.”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE BEACH? SOME PEOPLE WERE CRITICIZING HIM (KYLE LARSON) FOR BEING TOO ROUGH.  DOES HE COME TO YOU FOR ADVICE AT ALL?
“He hasn’t.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 22, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 JIMMIE JOHNSON FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway, and discussed racing at Auto Club Speedway, the characteristics of the new car and other topics. Full transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR FOUNDATION, THE HELMET OF HOPE AND RACING AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY:  “Excited to get things going for the Jimmie Johnson Foundation starting this weekend.  Yesterday we were in Iowa at the headquarters for Blue Bunny and had an amazing time there.  Really, I guess the phrase of the kid in the candy store was kind of true.  Huge fan of ice cream was able to tour their factory, one of their two factories that are there.  Saw a lot of cool things and tasted a lot of good things.  A lot of fun and just thankful that Blue Bunny is sponsoring the Helmet of Hope again this year.  We will start the nominations in Texas and it will go until Memorial Day weekend.  The last week will be for the media nominations.
 
“Everybody think of their nominations, JimmieJohnsonFoundation.org is where you can find all the information and get that going.  Then to expand on all that, this weekend we have the foundation on the side of the car and I’m just thankful that Lowe’s and Kobalt both, during a busy time of the year when they are trying to hit with customers and make them think of their store during springtime when it’s so important, they are willing to give us the race car to go out there and promote the Jimmie Johnson Foundation and the great things that are going on with it.  Big weekend for us.  This track and our foundation paint scheme have been a great combination over the years and we hope it’s that way again.”
 
HOW WILL WE KNOW IF THE DESIGNS OF THE NEW CAR ARE WORKING AND ARE THERE SOME THINGS THAT WE JUST CAN’T FIX IN DESIGNING A RACE CAR?:  “I think the more I’m in this sport and the more generations of cars that I drive, we alter what goes on from an aero-deficit to the cars that are deep in the pack.  It doesn’t appear to me that we can fix it.  I’m very happy with all the safety innovations that we’ve had over the years.  I think the cars look really, really good, which we’ve all talked about through the start of the year.
 
“To a certain degree, it’s a big car punching a big hole in the air and with air moving over the top of it and not having ground effects, it’s very difficult to make things much different.  I feel like now that I have been at a few fast tracks and coming here, I think we’re going to see good racing.  We’re going to see a similar type of racing that we’ve seen here in the past.
 
“I feel like this track has aged very well and will promote a lot of racing.  We’ll be under the yellow line in three and four and all the way to the wall in both ends of the race track.  There are some fine things to still learn about this car from a balance standpoint to find that last bit of speed for each team and making them competitive week after week, but that’s I think where we’re at right now with the car and the rules package.”
 
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO START A SEASON AS BRAD KESELOWSKI IS RIGHT NOW WITH FOUR TOP-FIVE FINISHES?  DOES THAT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE FOR THE WHOLE SEASON?:  “Yeah, it definitely does.  It’s nice when you’re in that sweet spot and everybody is working well together as a team and you can continue to get those top-five finishes and wins.  With that stat, I know they (Penske Racing and Brad Keselowski) don’t have a win yet, but I know they are knocking on the door quite a few times.  I would imagine that is right around the corner for them.  Then from there it’s just how do you harness that and keep your team working like this until the Chase starts and preserve that, whatever that is.  Magic in a bottle or lightning, whatever you want to call it.  It’s tough to preserve it and keep it for 10 months.  That’s the challenging part, but off to an amazing start.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE VICTORY BELL AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS?:  “I mean a 10 minute break at any work, everybody’s excited you know.  We go through every department and everybody gets a little break in the day and we both did it in the same day so they got 20 minutes off, that’s awesome.  All kidding aside, it’s something that Marshall Carlson came up with to help instill more team pride.  We create a win shirt or hat or some kind of swag that they pass out during the event.  We go through each department with this cool little cart that was built with go-kart tires on it and the bell and you ring the bell and they line up, shake the driver’s hand and pass out some swag and then we move on to the next department.  Outside of your hearing being destroyed for the rest of the day, it’s a lot of fun and very cool to see everybody inside HMS.”
 
DOES ONE MANUFACTURER HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER OTHERS WITH THE GENERATION SIX CAR AT THIS POINT?:  “I haven’t seen anything to lead me one way or the other.  I’ve honestly thought more about teams than I have makes of cars.  The Gibbs cars at Bristol, all three were very fast.  It’s been more about teams to me than really about make.  The MWR cars have been fast at different times.  It’s been like a grouping of teams than really manufacturers to me.”
 
KASEY KAHNE CAME OUT TO CALIFORNIA AND MADE HIS WAY TO A TATTOO PARLOR WHILE YOU WERE AT AN ICE CREAM PARLOR:  “Do we have confirmation that he (Kahne) got ink?  I saw the picture, but I couldn’t see any ink.  I saw his little sleeve rolled up with that little arm of his, but I didn’t see any ink on it.”
 
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A TATTOO BEFORE OR WOULD YOU CONSIDER DOING THAT AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON KASEY KAHNE DOING IT?:  “There was one moment when I entered Nationwide racing and we were testing at Indy.  We went out with the guys and we ended up at a tattoo parlor and thankfully the guy sent me home and said to come back when I was sober.  I had a brilliant idea of ‘WFO’ tattooed on my right foot.  I think we all know what ‘WFO’ stands for.  I’m thankful that didn’t go through and they sent me home.”
 
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO HAVE AN EARLY WIN IN THE SEASON AND HOW MUCH OF A BOOST WOULD IT BE FOR DALE EARNHARDT JR. SHOULD HE GET ONE IN THE NEXT FOUR OR FIVE RACES?:  “There’s a lot of pressure that we put on ourselves to win and for me, to win each year is very important and to get that out of the way and get that pressure off your shoulders is huge.  We all carry different pressures with us, Junior (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and Junior Nation as we all know is very vocal and large and anytime he wins, it’s a nice reprieve from the pressure that is associated with that.  It would mean a lot to him on many levels and for his team.  They’ve been getting so much stronger year after year and week after week.  I think they will be winning on a regular basis before long.”
 
WOULD THERE BE ANY TEMPTATION TO USE THIS RACE AS A TEST WITH SO MANY INTERMEDIATE TRACKS COMING UP ON THE SCHEDULE?:  “For sure.  We’re still on that fence right now and we have things going on with front suspension on the car where we’ve been racing one way, we’re considering another way and we’ll change it in and out during practice.  Even the rear spring rates and such, just trying to get that under control with what the attitude of the car wants to be.  We don’t have a deep notebook yet.  At Bristol I would say, even though it’s a small track would be probably the best example of all four teams kind of going in different directions.
 
“I felt like Kasey (Kahn
e) and I were pretty competitive throughout the race and he certainly won, but our frontends on our race cars couldn’t have been more different.  They were polar opposites, but we were both very fast and competitive all day long.  With this new car there are still quite a few things to sort out and so yeah, one of our four cars at least will race with a big unknown just because, why not?  It’s that time of the year to explore and experiment.”
 
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE WITH BRAKE DUCTING TO KEEP TIRES FROM BLOWING OUT IN EXTREME BRAKE HEAT?:  “I think there was probably seven, eight, nine, there was quite a few tire issues and I think there were varying problems that showed up.  I know the 24 (Jeff Gordon) looked more like a traditional bead melting.  You know Jeff and you look at his brake temps and what went on with the car, he wasn’t using the brakes.  Mine, the sidewall blew right out of it, inches above where the bead was so I did not have a bead problem.  The makeup of that tire from what I understand is more like an intermediate tire and the fibers that are used in the sidewall are nylon fibers versus I don’t know what the other stuff is, maybe it’s carbon or something else.  I think at least internally and what Chad (Knaus, crew chief) has been believing and thinking is that those nylon fibers created their own heat because of the loading and unloading that goes on at the track.  Over time, they made their own hot spot and created an issue.  I guess Bristol is the only short track that we run on that runs an intermediate tire, intermediate build.  There could be something there for Goodyear.
 
“Again, this is all speculation that is coming out of our shop. I haven’t talked to anybody at Goodyear about it.  That’s what we’re believing right now and that’s what we’re buying into.”
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT BRISTOL THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO MARTINSVILLE?:  “Gosh, they are so different.  The vertical loading properties and banking and all the stuff that happens at Bristol really won’t apply.  The one nice thing for us is we did the 2013 testing at Martinsville last October.  The cars acted very similar so there were some subtle changes, but I don’t think it’s going to be all that challenging for the teams going back.  Martinsville is still Martinsville.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway and discussed her season thus far, being the first woman to compete at Martinsville Speedway and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO RACING AT THIS TRACK?
“Over the years Fontana has continued to deteriorate and get a little bit challenging and be more slippery.  The bumps are bigger and the car moves around a lot more.  I think for me I am more comfortable at high grip tracks so I don’t know if this is necessarily something that suits my style as much.  One time here I had a really good car at the end of my first year.  I felt really comfortable here, really good.  Every other time I have been here I feel like it has been pretty challenging.  It can change very quickly. I can go out there and be comfortable right off the bat and have a good weekend or not.  It’s one of those tracks.  Definitely there is a lot of room to move around if you are not comfortable and try and find a place to get there.”
 
HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE YOUR FIRST FOUR WEEKS?
“We had a great start at Daytona.  Had a great car, had a good race and just steady the whole way through.  Since then I think I have actually been a little bit surprised how we unload.  We have been closer unloading than I would have expected.  Instead of progressing or staying there we have kind of fallen off throughout the weekend.  I think that we just need to strike a good balance when it comes to qualifying and the race.  Qualifying is the first step.  I have been loose every single time in qualifying.  That puts you in the back.  You are already starting off down in the race.  I have been loose every race except for the last one where we were really tight, but we kind of anticipated it.  Then we found out after we got done last weekend that the right-front tow was out pretty far from a hit really early in the race in the first five or ten laps.  That kind of explains some of our challenges last weekend at Bristol.  We just have to get the car balanced right when it counts which is qualifying and race.”
 
ALL THE STEWART-HAAS CARS HAVE SEEMED TO STRUGGLE A LITTLE BIT THE LAST FEW WEEKS HAVE YOU FIGURED OUT WHAT THAT MIGHT BE?
“I’m not really sure.  I don’t know if it’s a matter of…it seems to me and I’m not very smart at this stuff yet, I don’t have a great feel for it.  I feel like Tony (Stewart) or Ryan (Newman) would have a far better answer for you.  We were really good when it came to speed and the speedway.  I don’t know.  Then we went testing at Charlotte and all of a sudden it kind of switched so I don’t know.  Maybe we just need to find some grip.  We are good when it comes to going fast, but when it comes to getting the car locked down on the track maybe we need to find some downforce.  I don’t know I mean I think the last few weeks have been very important.  That is the bulk of the season to be honest.  Again, I’m not the best at this kind of stuff.  All I know is that as a team it’s not for a lack of trying and we will figure it out.  For me and the No. 10 car I know that we just need to get the car much closer when it counts.”
 
HOW DO YOU TACKLE THAT ISSUE OF NOT IMPROVING THE CAR FROM HOW YOU UNLOAD?
“If I had the answer of how to turn it around we would just do it.  Obviously, it’s not that easy.  I mean all I can say is we got to Phoenix unloaded well and then we went into qualifying trim and all of a sudden the car was bouncing around and we never really got it back.  (Las) Vegas we had a lot of testing and the car unloaded okay.  Then over, it was really tight the first day then it was really loose the second practice day.  Then we were loose in qualifying, extremely loose in the race.  We are just missing it.  Bristol it was decent to start and then we just started struggling more and more with entry and getting the car to turn in the center.  It just seemed very challenging to strike that balance between entry and mid-corner.  I just feel like in general I feel like we are working on a pretty small window of grip where it’s easy to push it over one way or the other.  We just need to have a bigger platform to work around so that we can be decent more of the time instead of only when we hit it perfectly.  To me grip is always the answer if we can just widen that platform we will be better off much more of the time.”
 
HAS IT BEEN FRUSTRATING THUS FAR?
“I mean every weekend you find there is good and there is bad to it.  You are going to remember the end of it the most.  Phoenix, blowing a right-front tire then the next couple of weeks just not getting the balance right for the race those are just things that happen.  You can’t let it get you down and you can’t be mad.  I of course wanted…I know that I have a lot to learn and I know that as a group we have a lot to learn together  to figure out where the car is best for me so we can be closer more of the weekend, but we will get it.  I’m not discouraged or afraid at this point for anything.  This is just the process that we go through.  We will be fine.”
 
WE HAVE BEEN TO FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRACKS SO FAR.  WHICH ONE DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE GOING BACK TO? WHICH ONES DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO HAVE A LITTLE MORE WORK ON?
“I feel like that is pretty obvious that Daytona would be my answer.  I think that in Phoenix we were starting to get a little bit closer in the race and we blew the tire.  I feel relatively comfortable at short tracks.  I think the mile-and-a-half’s are, oddly enough, I feel like one of the bigger challenges because if the car is not right there are so many more lanes to race on that the leaders come really fast.  You are working at a higher speed and that grip is a premium.  We are going to find our good races and bad races and I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be about what kind of track it is.  I think our speedway stuff is really good at this point.”
 
AS A TEAM DOES STEWART-HAAS RACING, ALL THREE GUYS OUTSIDE THE TOP-20 ARE YOU GUYS WORRIED AS A TEAM AT ALL?  HOW DO YOU GUYS BOUNCE BACK FROM THAT? 
“We have…I don’t even know how many races, 34, 35? 32 there we go.  I don’t even know how many races we have because there are so many.  You never like to have down weekends but they are definitely going to happen.  We will work through our weekend and figure out how to get better for the next one that is all you can do.”
 
DO YOU TAKE ANY PRIDE THAT YOU WILL BE THE FIRST FEMALE TO EVER DRIVE AT MARTINSVILLE?
“Oh, well between that and never having a Martinsville hot dog I guess there is probably going to be lots of firsts there that weekend.  I am actually really excited about Martinsville.  I like the little short tracks they are fun.  We are going to be close racing a lot of the time.  We went testing out at Little Rock and got a feel for a track like Martinsville.  I thought we actually made some really big gains that day.  It was fun.  Is there time to look down at your water and oil temperatures? No, there is not.  I think it will be fun and I had no idea that a woman had not competed at Martinsville, but I guess these are things I will find out along the way.”
 
ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO HAVE A HOT DOG?
“I will at least have half of a hot dog.  I’m a half person.  I have half of a cookie, half of a brownie, half of a hot dog.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 17, 2013
 
Team Chevy Kasey Kahne Scores First Career Win at Bristol Motor Speedway
Total of Six Chevrolet Drivers Score Top-Ten Finishes in Food City 500
 
BRISTOL, Tenn. – (March 17, 2013) – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS, won the 53rd annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway today in a hard fought battle at the series’ first short track event of 2013.   The win was Kasey’s first ever victory at Bristol and his 15th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win.  It was also his first victory of 2013 and second top-ten finish.  The finish helped Kasey move up seven positions to 7th in the point standings after four races.
 
Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet SS, captured his first top-five finish of 2013 by coming home in fourth place after starting today’s race in 19th position.   The finish helped Busch make a huge jump in the points, moving up 13 spots to 16th.   Kasey Kahne’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, continued his consistent pace as he came home with a respectable sixth-place finish in today’s event.   He moves to second in the overall point standings, just nine points behind first.
 
Stewart Haas Racing driver Ryan Newman, No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, started 31st but made a valiant run to the front as he came home with a seventh place finish in today’s race.  Richard Childress Racing driver Paul Menard scored his second straight top-ten finish of 2013 in the Menards/Sylvania Chevrolet SS today with an eighth place finish.   Menard moves up three point positions to 9th after Bristol.  
 
Kyle Busch (Toyota) finished second, Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished third, Clint Bowyer (Toyota) rounded out the top-five with a fifth-place finish.
 
The series heads west to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California next week for the Auto Club 400 on Sunday, March 24th.  
 
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KASEY KAHNE AND KENNY FRANCIS, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER:
KERRY THARP:  We have our race winner for today’s 53rd annual Food City 500 here at Bristol Motor Speedway.  What a great showing he put on here today.  That’s Kasey Kahne.  He’s joined by his crew chief, Kenny Francis.
            This is Kasey’s 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win, your first here at Bristol.  Congratulations on winning here at Bristol Motor Speedway.  You jumped seven spots in the points standings today.  You’re up to seventh.  Quite a day.  Certainly coming off last week’s performance, you could have won out there at Las Vegas, too.
            KASEY KAHNE:  Feels really good to win at this place.  Such a tough track over the years.  My first time here in 2002 was just something I couldn’t believe the way that you drove, as hard as you drove here, the way things happen so quickly.  To win a Sprint Cup race here feels really good.
            We had an awesome Great Clips Chevy SS throughout the race.  The pit calls were perfect.  The pit crew did a really good job with pit stops.  Was able to race hard the whole race.  It worked out for us.
            Feels really good to get in Victory Lane and get our first Sprint Cup win early in the season.
 
            KERRY THARP:  Kenny Francis, talk about how this team performed this weekend.  Certainly off to a good start in 2013.
            KENNY FRANCIS:  Yeah, seems like we’ve had good cars every week.  Almost pulled one off last week at Las Vegas.  To get the win here at Bristol is pretty cool.
            We had a pretty good car all weekend.  We started off Friday a little bit off the pace, missed it just a little bit, but we ended up rebounding for qualifying.  That set the tone for today.  Had good track position all day.  Key to that was qualifying, having good pit stops all day.
            I felt like from where we were sitting the pit calls were fairly obvious what to do.  We maintained our track position, so that was good.  The car handled pretty good all weekend, handled really good in the race.  So fortunately we came out on top when it counted.
 
            KERRY THARP:  Questions for Kenny or Kasey.
            Q.  Kasey, four races so far.  36th, 19th, 2nd and 1st.  After the first two, were you concerned you were having a similar start to last season?
            KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, it actually seemed really similar to the start of last year, those first two.  Had two great cars at Daytona and Phoenix.  Phoenix we kind of fell off a little bit.  Definitely had a good car at Daytona and we lost some points the first two.
            Since Las Vegas, the test day went really well.  I thought we learned some things there, were able to put a really good weekend together, and again this weekend.
            We’ve gained a lot of spots here in the last two weeks and feel really good about where we’re at, where our team’s at.  There was a lot that went on during the off‑season to get a little bit better.  I felt like each one of us needed to get a touch better.  So far it’s all paying off.  The guys are doing an awesome job.
 
            Q.  Do you think the last two weeks is more representative of the team?
            KASEY KAHNE:  I would say so.  Just from each practice session, the preparation of the car prior to getting to the track, then qualifying.  We’ve been qualifying up front each week.  I think it’s all definitely going in the right direction.
            The pit stops have been really good.  The guys are just nailing it on pit road.  It’s fun to come to pit road and break even or gain spots.
 
            Q.  Kasey, all this talk the last couple years of good Bristol, bad Bristol.  That sequence with you and Keselowski was crazy.  Walk me through that.  It seems like lap traffic was as much a part of that.
            KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, Brad got out to the lead there and it took my car a few laps to get going.  I reeled him in.  Just trying to make the pass.  He was driving into the corner so hard I couldn’t really do anything on the bottom or try any type of somewhat of a slide job or anything like that.  It was just trying to get momentum off the corner and make something happen on exit.
            It took a while to do it.  I bumped him a few times.  He was sideways trying to hold us back.  I got the lead, then gave it right back in lap traffic two laps later.
            Definitely I was mad at mysel
f at that point in time.  About spun out off of two a few laps after that.  Had to calm down, get things going again.  Felt like we got a good restart that final restart, got to the lead.  From there it was just momentum and try to drive away.
 
            Q.  Nerve‑wracking?
            KASEY KAHNE:  It wasn’t too nerve‑wracking then with Brad.  It was how can I figure out how to get by.  The two of us were out front a little bit.  I was just trying to run a lot of scenarios through my head and make it work.  Finally it worked, got by.  But it took a while.  It was tough.  I mean, we were running as hard as we could.
 
            Q.  How angry were you after last week and are you over it?  Listening to you on the radio after the race, you seemed really frustrated, the fact you had the best car and didn’t win.
            KASEY KAHNE:  I was frustrated for like five seconds, then I went right from the angry moment to telling the guys how good they did, you know, that day, how well our weekend went, all of that.
            I wasn’t too angry at all really.  I was mad that we gave a race away.  But there was really nothing we could do the way it all turned out and the damage that I had to the car from the restart.  It was nobody’s fault.  It was just racing.  We had a great car all day.
            I wasn’t mad at all.  I felt good Monday and all week.  I’m going to feel better tomorrow (smiling).
 
            Q.  On the restart, Keselowski got shoved there.  He said his wheels were actually off the ground.  Looked like the 11 and the 22 got into each other.  Were you aware of what was going on?  Were you aware of the skirmish they had in the garage afterwards?
            KASEY KAHNE:  I could hear the crowd.  I had no clue what happened on that restart other than Brad took off a little bit and I had a good start, then he dropped.  I knew he spun his tires.  I don’t know how it all happened.  That’s all I can really say.  From there it was just trying to stay in front of him, get up high, get my momentum going.
            Then I did hear the crowd, so I knew something was going on.  I saw Denny the last four laps going slow with some type of a problem so I thought he might be involved with what the crowd was yelling at after the race.  I haven’t seen anything else.  I’ll watch tonight for sure.  I’ll go back and check the highlights.
 
            Q.  The 48 team started this year pretty much as well as they ended last year.  The finishes weren’t there for you the first couple weeks.  Is this now where you felt like you left off last year?  The first two races weren’t indicative.
            KENNY FRANCIS:  I feel like we were fairly strong last year.  At Daytona we had a really good car, just got wiped out.  Nobody’s fault.  Just had a wreck.
            Phoenix, we started off really good.  Had a really fast car.  We just got too loose and we didn’t really adjust hard enough fast enough, got back in traffic, couldn’t go anywhere.  We were just too loose.
            I think if we had to do Phoenix over again, we would be a lot better off.  I think we know where we missed it, what we should do differently.  The tire was different.  Threw me for a loop.  It didn’t do what I thought it was supposed to do based on the last couple years.  Didn’t have enough built into the car to fix being loose.  I got a pretty good idea what we would do differently going back.
            That was the same car we brought here.  It was a good car, we just missed it a little bit.
            Vegas, we had a great run.  Probably the best run we’ve ever had at Vegas.  We’ve had a lot of good runs here.  We finally finished one off, so we’re proud of that.
            I feel like it’s a great start to the year.  Hopefully we can keep building on the momentum we’ve established.
 
            Q.  Do you feel like you could have won three of the first four races?
            KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I thought we were really good at Daytona.  Car had a ton of speed.  We could have been in that mix, but we didn’t get to that point in the race.
            The last two weeks, we could have won definitely last week and had a great car again today.
 
            Q.  Kasey, Charlie Daniels said earlier today his first race here at Bristol is going to let him scratch something off his bucket list.  Is this the kind of win for you that’s a bucket list win, means a lot to you?
            KASEY KAHNE:  This is a big race for me.  I just feel like when you’re racing in the Sprint Cup Series, Bristol’s one of those tracks that as a driver you really feel like you need to win at, you want to win at.  There’s so many things that are thrown at you when you come to this place.
            We’ve been trying a long time.  So to pull it off, I felt like it was a big accomplishment for our guys and myself.  Just feel really good about it.  Like Kenny said, we’ve been fast here other times and just not been able to finish the deal.  It’s a big confidence builder.  It feels really good to win at Bristol Motor Speedway.
 
            Q.  Kenny, we saw a couple of drivers having problems with tires.  Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon.  Were you concerned a similar thing could happen to Kasey’s car?
            KENNY FRANCIS:  Yeah, Tony, I think somebody got into him and cut his left rear.  He didn’t have much control over that.
            There were a few right front failures, which is not uncommon here.  We’ve had our share over the years.  I tend to call the tire changes pretty conservatively.  I was pretty worried about the guys that took left side tires.  Most of those cases they had a problem.
            I don’t mean to second guess anyone for the way they call their race, but I consciously didn’t do that because I have been through that before.
            My philosophy on this place is the tires will make a fuel run and anything beyond a fuel run you’re taking your chances.  When the 24 had his problems, it was beyond the normal laps of a normal fuel run.
            The other problem that compounds that, over the years
what I’ve learned, the more restarts you have on a right side tire on a track like this, high‑bank, here, Dover is another one it used to happen at, the more potential you have to have a problem because when you restart on it it’s at low pressure, it’s not as durable at low pressure as it is after the pressure builds up.  If you have multiple starts on a right side tire, you have to watch out.
            I hate it that guys have problems, but we consciously called the race to avoid that type of problem.
 
            Q.  Kasey, after a lot of pretty tight racing most of the day, once you got the lead on the restart, you sprinted away from everybody.  Was your car that good or…
            KASEY KAHNE:  I think our car was just that good.  There were points in the race when we were able to do that earlier on also.  I felt like we just had a really good car.  I just needed to get to the front, get some clean air, try to get away from the guys.
            Once I got to probably 10 laps to go, I could see where Kyle was and Brad, see the lap cars I was catching, just try to keep that gap for the final 10 laps, take care of my stuff just in case we had a green‑white‑checkered.  I wanted to have the best tires we had at that point.
            I think it was just the car.  It was fast.  I was able to get away and kind of control the race from there.
 
            Q.  Y’all have now been to four dramatically different types of racetracks with the new car.  Did you learn anything today that will carry forward or had you learned everything you were going to learn the first three weekends and today maybe not quite so much?
            KENNY FRANCIS:  I don’t know.  For me I’ll have to reflect on it some.  But really this track is very unique.  I don’t know that much you do here applies elsewhere.  It’s a short track that’s got high banks, so the aerodynamics don’t really play into it because the majority of your load on the tires is from the banking.
            It’s all about turn the middle, forward drive.  It’s a unique track just the way it’s set up.  So I don’t know if there’s a lot that applies.  The setup we run here is radically different than anything we run at any other track.
            I don’t know.  I’m not sure if there’s a whole lot.  There might be one or two small things that would apply.
            What do you think?
            KASEY KAHNE:  I think just driving‑wise, you know, Bristol is Bristol.  This place races similar, drives similar.  Like Kenny was saying, there’s a couple things you work on with your car to make it right.  Last week in Las Vegas, that was a good chance for us to see how the Gen‑6 car will race on a mile‑and‑a‑half with the same tire we ran last year.  I was real happy with it, being able to move around on the racetrack, as hard as you could drive.  Phoenix had a different tire and a different car.  That was tough to say exactly.  But you race that track different as well.  Daytona, too.
            Each track so far you definitely have to drive differently, set the cars up differently.  I’ve been pretty pleased.  I think the last two weeks our cars have really driven really well, the engines.  Everybody at HMS is preparing and giving us great racecars.
 
            Q.  Kenny, the same problem of melted beads as far as the tires, same problem as Phoenix.  What will teams do to correct that?  Do you have to change tires more often, less camber?
            KENNY FRANCIS:  I didn’t see any of the tires today.  I don’t think they were melted beads.  I’ve personally done it a number of times here, had right front sidewall failures.  They wouldn’t be necessarily what I would call a melted bead.
            But the problem here is it’s just so much load, it’s such an aggressive turn.  Like I said earlier, I feel like the tire will run a full fuel run.  When you try to push it beyond that, it’s questionable.  There’s only so much that Goodyear can do.  I think you’ve got to consider that.
            In working with Goodyear over the years, with Rick Campbell in particular, he’s very open about helping you, helping you understand what’s going on with the tire, how to manage it.  These cars weigh a lot, they go really fast, there’s a lot of load.  It’s all about managing the setup around the tire.
            At Phoenix, I think you’re right, I think they were melted beads.  I think that’s self‑induced.  I think there’s things you can do to prevent that.  I believe the teams that had that happen are actively fixing it right now because there’s a lot of teams that ran Phoenix that didn’t have a single problem.
            It’s definitely something that you’ve got to consider at particular tracks.  Martinsville is another one, completely different application that you have to be thinking about what you’re doing, make sure you don’t have a problem.
 
            KERRY THARP:  Kasey and Kenny, congratulations on a very big win today for the No. 5 team.  Continued best of luck this week as we head out to California.
            KASEY KAHNE:  Thank you.
            KENNY FRANCIS:  Thanks.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 17, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ON-TRACK INCIDENT ON LAP 391
YOU HAD 154 LAPS ON THOSE RIGHT SIDE TIRES, BUT YOU HAD A TIGHT RACE CAR. YOU MADE THE STRATEGY TO GET THE CLEAN AIR WAS THAT THE RIGHT CALL?
“Well we also wanted left sides (tires) because we heard left sides were helping the cars turn.  We saw some of the guys do that.  It definitely did that.  The car was really good out front there on the restarts and got clean air.  We were setting sail.  The right fronts (tires) never blow out when you are up against the wall.  I dove down to the bottom to pass the No. 32 car. As soon as I got into the banking I felt the right front (tire) go.  I really hate that we collected Matt Kenseth in that; he had a great car.  He was coming it was just a matter of time before it got us.  It was a great, great effort today up until then for this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, proud of that.  We needed points.  This is definitely not going to get us many.
 
“I was fine. Was just riding along there, in fifth, sixth spot. We had a good race car. We were a little bit too tight in traffic, so Alan Gustafson (crew chief) made a great call there to take left sides there, and it really helped. The car was turning really good.  But, maybe we were just a little bit too hard on that right front. Not really sure there. Right fronts never blow out when you are up against the wall. I was up against the wall the entire run, and as soon as I went to go under a lapped car – boom – it popped down at the bottom of the race track and went all the way to the top, and we got the wall. Really hate that we collected Matt Kenseth in that. He had a great race car, and a great day going. We were really trying to get by with a top-five, top-10 and get some points. This is a bad way to end it.”
 

PAGE 2
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
I KNOW HOW BADLY YOU WANTED TO WIN THAT RACE LAST WEEK DOES THIS MAKE UP FOR IT?
“Absolutely, this is a big win.  I love racing for Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick the opportunity he gives us, this whole team was flawless again today.  Last week, today, this whole season so far.  It has been a lot of fun.  Great Clips, I’ve been with them for a long time.  We have won a few races together it was great to win a (NASCAR Sprint) Cup race with Great Clips.  They were out cutting hair a couple of days ago.  It’s been a good weekend, Farmers Insurance, Chevrolet SS, Pepsi Max, but everybody has done a great job.  Just racing Brad (Keselowski), Denny (Hamlin) was tough and Jeff (Gordon) and Matt Kenseth was really good there.  I don’t know what happened to those guys.  It looked like Jeff (Gordon) might have had a tire problem.  It was a big win I’m really happy.”
 
ON THE COOL DOWN LAP YOU SAID IT WAS A BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT WHY IS THAT?
“I just feel like for myself it’s a really big accomplishment to win here.  This is a tough place.  It’s been a tough track for me at times, just for this whole team to step up and do it together we have prepared pretty hard this year and it feels good to win.  Trucker, our truck driver, he lost his dad last night so this is for him.  I have a great friend in Washington, JJ Arnett. He lost his dad about three weeks ago. So, this is in memory of him, Jerry Arnett. We had a lot of fun with him; he took care of us, got us out of a lot of trouble. I just want to thank all those guys and everybody that supports this team.  This engine was unbelievable again.”
 
ON HIS FIRST WIN AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “This is a tough track to win at, and we pulled it off today. This whole team stepped-up, and did an unbelievable job. The pit stops were flawless; the adjustments to the car; the preparation Friday-Saturday, and prior to that. The engine in the car is unbelievable. I had a great day. This is a lot of fun. I have always wanted to win a Cup race here. To finally do it feels really good.”
 
ON HIS BATTLE WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI: “Yes, Brad was battling hard. He definitely didn’t want to lose the lead. I got by him, and then I followed a lap car; one that was going really slow, and I gave it back to him. So I was pretty discouraged at that point in time. Got a good restart. I think Brad must have spun his tired a bit. I had Kyle (Busch) right on me. We were able to clear him there, and get going from there. I felt really good.  Thanks to Great Clips. Everybody that is part of this; this Chevrolet SS team, these guys have done a really nice job this week.”
 
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE AN EARLY WIN IN TERMS OF POINTS?
“We’ve already fought back a little bit. We were strong at Daytona. Strong at Phoenix. Had a shot last week in Vegas. We pulled it off this week. We got a little behind. Hopefully these points will get us up there again, and we can stay up there all season long. We just keep learning and getting better together because we have a great team here.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS– FINISHED 6TH:
ON TODAY’S RACE: “I have to give all the credit to Steve Letarte (crew chief). He made a couple, two, three great pit calls there at the end, and gave us the opportunity to get some guys on some old tires, and beat a few guys that we probably weren’t going to beat. Great call by him. We drove a pretty good race. He made a great couple of adjustments at the end. We were really getting behind on the race track; we were getting really, really tight and falling back. Made a couple of good calls on taking some wedge out and stuff like that to help the car. Give him and the team a lot of credit. They did a great job today.”
 
NICE TOP TEN RUN TODAY, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RACE?
“The track was really tightening up fast and caught us off guard and we weren’t really ready for it but we made some great changes at the end and Steve (crew chief, Letarte) had some great strategy on the tires and we were able to salvage a good finish.  We got the car running better and I have to give the car a lot of credit, but Steve deserves the most credit because the strategy that he ran there in the last 150 laps really got us our track position.”
 
COULD YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?
“Well, we knew that the track was green when the race started and we didn’t loosen the car up enough as the race went on and just…. I don’t know if I, or Steve (Letarte) could have done a better job there.   Steve saw what was happening there and the last couple of adjustments really helped me.  I was able to take a little better tires and made some ground, and got around some guys and salvaged a good finish.   Lot of credit to Steve because that was a great call on his part and all the last 150 laps he made a lot of good pit calls.  
 
“There were two or three that really allowed us to get in position to get a decent finish and we had a lot of attrition today too as a lot of guys wrecked out and that certainly makes your day easier when you aren’t racing the whole field out there.  So we have to do a little bit better and I am not real satisfied with the overall performance but what Steve does on pit road is magic every week.  He is pretty sharp.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 SYLVANIA/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
THIS IS YOUR SECOND CONSECUTIVE TOP-10 FINISH SO FAR. HOW WAS THE RACE FOR YOU?
“It was a wild one. It was all about track position again. We had it at the start and our biggest problem all day was that we couldn’t go on restarts. It took us 20 laps to get going on new tires. So, when we got to the point where we could stay out on fuel, we just stayed out. We stayed on old tires that were pumped-up and so we could actually
half-way get going.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH:
ON THE RACE:
“We had to battle back from a couple of loose wheels and luckily when we came back out, we were two laps down. And when you’re two laps down, it’s almost like your day is over. But luckily, the leader was right in front of us and we got one of our laps back and then did the wave-around and then just started over (as) the last car on the lead lap and battled back from the mid-20’s, and we made good changes. We had a very fast car today and to come home with a top five is exactly what we needed. The poor No. 78 car, she’s used up.
 
“We had damage with (Joey) Logano with 50 (laps) to go and that put us in the pits for four tires. And that was a call we never would have done unless we had the damage. So we fixed the damage and got the four tires on and raced our way to a top five finish.”
 
YOU WERE FLYING THERE AT THE END; NICE FINISH:
“Yes, we really poured it on at the end. We just had some damage from getting into Joey Logano. But, all-in-all, I’m just real proud of the effort today. We had some loose wheels. We fought through that; got back on the lead lap with some lucky breaks. You just have to keep fighting. So, thanks Furniture Row and Barney Visser (team owner). This whole team. This No. 78 Beauty Rest Chevy was fast at the end. Had a little bit of damage. I knew I was going to be racing Kyle (Busch) and racing (Brad) Keselowski; I was just hoping it was for the win.  (Kasey) Kahne was checked out. Congratulations to him. But a good run for us.”
 
WHAT A RUN FOR YOU.  A LOT OF PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT STRUGGLING WITH THE TEAM OR A NEW TEAM, THAT WASN’T THE CASE TODAY:
“No, we did have our struggles though.  We had some loose wheels and off on some of the sequences.  Luckily enough we had a fast enough car.  Thanks to all of our guys for just digging in.  I told everybody slap some high-five’s because we have areas that we can still polish up on, but a top-five at Bristol and to be the fastest car on the track with less than 10 to go.
 
“When I caught Kyle (Busch) and when I caught (Brad) Keselowski if it was for the lead it would have been a lot different, but (Kasey) Kahne was checked out.  Congratulations to him, but I’m really happy with our Furniture Row Chevrolet today.  Barney Visser and the guys we all can do a little bit better here and there and I can do better.  The poor No. 78 car is used up today and it’s just good that we got everything rolling this weekend like we needed it.”
 
MATT BORLAND, CREW CHIEF, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET CC – FINISHED 7th
“It was a good day for the Haas/Quicken Loans Chevrolet. Ryan (Newman) did an awesome job driving the car. The guys did a great job of making some changes to the car overnight. And we had great stops today in the pits. I can’t say enough about the team. They did an awesome job, and hopefully we can keep that rolling.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 28TH:
“We’ve been really loose the last couple of races so we wanted to make sure we were tight. So we decided that was our accomplishment today was to aim to be tight, and we were. So, we probably didn’t need to and in fact, we probably kind of knew we were over-compensating. But we just never really got it completely freed up like we needed to. It was better later in the race but by then the damage is done.”
 
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FIX GOING INTO THE NEXT RACE?
“A whole bunch of things. I mean, I’ve never been there in a Cup car at Fontana, so just get up to speed, be smart and there are a lot of things that I have to work on at this point in time. So for us, the most important thing is to find a decent balance to start off the race so that we don’t drop back.”

No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R Brings 8th 12-Hour Victory to Corvette Racing
SEBRING, Fla., (March 16, 2013) – Tommy Milner made a late pass for the lead and then held on for the final 15 minutes as the No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R won the American Le Mans Series GT class 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway on Saturday.
The No. 4 Corvette C6.R – driven by 2012 Drivers’ champions Milner and Oliver Gavin, and Richard Westbrook – overcame an early electrical issue and two key penalties to win the 2013 ALMS opener. It is Gavin’s fifth victory at Sebring; Milner and Westbrook each recorded his first.
“What an incredible effort by Corvette Racing; these guys never gave up,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice-President for Performance Vehicles & Motorsports. “They came from behind multiple times. It was a focused team effort, with great driving and great calls in the pits, and great pits stops, and they delivered a big win. I’m proud of them.”
The No. 3 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R – driven by Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor – retired with just over three hours remaining due to an overheated gearbox. The team, which also experienced an electrical issue early in the race, finished in 11th place in class, 120 laps off the pace in class.
Milner took over for Gavin with two hours to go and the No. 4 Corvette C6.R the No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia by about one minute; when he pitted with an hour remaining, he was about a half minute behind.
“Those guys had an unreal pit stop at the end,” Milner said. “We were about a minute back and then 35 seconds at the next pit stop, and then we were 14 seconds back. And once I got to see him, I thought, ‘Here we go. I’ve got a chance here.’ Once I got close to him, he went wide in one and I knew he was pushing hard and he kept making mistakes, and that was it, that was the moment.”
“Really, it came down to when Tommy got on the back bumper of the leader, and that’s when I thought this is when we can really make this happen,” Gavin said. “Tommy was relentless – chasing him down, chasing him down, putting the pressure on. It was a spectacular victory for everybody at Corvette Racing. I’m really delighted.”
Gavin qualified second in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R, and on the very first lap gained the lead. The team was still out front in its class when, nearing the race’s third hour, Westbrook reported that smoke was coming from the dashboard.
“It was clear that we had a good car from the beginning, and then when I had that problem with the dashboard, which put us two laps down – it took a few yellows and some great stints by these two to get us back into position on the lead lap,” Westbrook said. “The pit stops and Tommy’s stint was just amazing at the end, and on balance I thought we deserved it, and we did it the hard way.”
Corvette Racing, which last year won the ALMS Manufacturers’ and Team championships, earned its ALMS-leading 78th all-time victory.
“You can’t start a better way,” Gavin said. “We had a very good year last year in the championship. We didn’t have a great Sebring last year, but this win just puts us up there straightaway, leading the championship off the bat. Tommy and I just sort of picked up where we left off last year, which is exactly what we wanted to do. Proud of all the guys at Corvette Racing today. They nailed every single stop. It was spectacular to watch.”
The No. 3 Corvette C6.R started fifth but experienced a couple of problems early. Garcia accidently ran into the back of a slower car which was in the middle of the track, and incurred a 60-second penalty, then he reported problems with downshifting. Starting on lap 20, the car three times came in for repairs – which included changing the gearbox, steering wheel and electronics.
The car is very, very good, it’s just a shame that we’re so far back,” Taylor said after his first stint. “We have a very competitive car.” The team used its remaining time on track as a test session before its night ended early.
GT Class, 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring

Corvette Racing In Top 5 at Midway Point of Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring
 
SEBRING, Fla. (March 16, 2013) – Both the No. 3 and No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.Rs have experienced early problems in American Le Mans Series 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, but, at the midway point, the No. 4 Corvette C6.R remains in contention after overcoming a two-lap deficit at Sebring International Raceway.
 
At the six-hour mark, the No. 4 Corvette C6.R is in fourth place and on the lead lap in the GT class, after starting second and leading early in the ALMS season opener. The No 3 Corvette C6.R experienced an unfortunate electrical issue very early in the race, and is in 11th place in class, 26 laps off the pace.
 
“We’ve got a fast car and we’ve been stuck behind some of our class leaders,” said Tommy Milner after his second stint in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R ended just after the midway point. “When the tires are new, our car is really, really good right at the start, so I was able to get by the BMW and the Ferrari, and by the time I got by them, I used my tires up pretty good. So, it was the right pit call there to get us out of sequence and now we’re back on the lead lap.”
 
Oliver Gavin, who qualified second in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R, quickly gained the GT lead, which he held before handing over driving duties to Milner and Richard Westbrook. The team was still in the lead when, nearing the race’s third hour, Westbrook reported that smoke was coming from the dashboard.
 
“Unfortunately, toward the end of the stint, we had an electrical issue – one of the fuses burned out,” Westbrook said. “Small, I wouldn’t say fire, but smoke in the dash, so I came straight in. The guys turned it around very quick, as per usual, and we’re back in the fight.”
 
The team dropped two laps off the lead in-class, but managed to get back on the lead lap at about the 4½-hour mark.
 
Gavin’s first-lap dash to the lead contained a couple of near-misses.
 
“Those first couple of corners I managed to be in the right spot and pick my way through some of the PC cars that seemed to be struggling on colder tires,” Gavin said. “One car, I thought he was going to loop it around in front of me, but I just snuck by him before he spun – that was coming out of turn one. Then coming out of turn four another one did exactly the same.
 
“I knew that having qualifying tires on the car that it was going to be somewhat tough to do that first stint with the heat of today. So I was really mindful not to go all out on them straightaway. They lasted pretty well up until the last three or four laps, and then I was hanging on a little bit. The pit stop came just at the right time, and the guys did a fantastic job of that with that, getting Tommy into the car. It’s a very positive start for us.”
 
Milner took over about an hour into the race and kept the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R in front.
 
“We still have to work very, very hard,” Milner said. “The crew has done a great job so far. The entire week we’ve sort of been skeptical with the car because the track surface changes and things like that. But, you know, this crew is fantastic. We know from past experience that come race time the track grips up, the car feels good and we have a good car right now.”
 
The No. 3 Corvette C6.R started fifth but experienced a couple of problems early. Antonio Garcia accidently ran into the back of a slower car which was in the middle of the track, and incurred a stop-and-go penalty, plus a 60-second penalty to lose one lap, and then Garcia reported problems with downshifting. Starting on lap 20, the car three times came in for repairs  – which included changing the gearbox, steering wheel and electronics.
 
Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor also are driving the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R this weekend.
 
“The car is very, very good, it’s just a shame that we’re so far back,” Taylor said. “We have a very competitive car.” One restart, he said, he easily passed three or four cars. “We’ll use the rest of the race as a test session.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 15, 2013
 
 
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER KASEY KAHNE WILL START ON THE FRONT ROW AT BRISTOL
Total of Four Chevys to Start in the Top-Ten in Sunday’s Food City 500
 
BRISTOL, Tenn. (MARCH 15, 2013) ~ Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS, put down the second-fastest lap of the day and will start Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on the outside of the front row.   His lap time of 14.875 seconds and 128.995 mph was also above the previous track qualifying record set by Ryan Newman in 2003.   This is Kasey’s fourth top-10 start of 2013 and his 10th in 19 races at Bristol.
 
Richard Childress Racing driver Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/Sylvania Chevrolet SS, qualified fifth for his best start of 2013.   Menard is followed by Jaime McMurray, No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet SS, who reeled off the sixth-fastest lap of the day.   Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/MOBIL 1 Chevrolet SS, posted the eighth-fastest lap rounded out the Chevrolet drivers in the top-10.   Stewart won the fall race at Bristol in 2001 for his only NASCAR Sprint Cup series win at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile”.
 
Other Chevrolet drivers qualifying just outside the top-10 included:  Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS (11th); Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS (13th); Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cheerios Chevrolet SS was 16th; Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS was 17th; Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS was 18th and Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet SS was 19th.
 
Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the pole winner, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was third, and Brian Vickers was fourth to round out the top-10.  
 
Sunday’s Food City 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway will air live on FOX at 1:00 pm ET and can be heard on PRN radio and Sirius/XM satellite radio channel 90.
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND:
POST QUALIYFING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
 
THAT WAS QUITE A LAP YOU PUT DOWN THERE TODAY
“Yeah, the car felt really good. I knew Kyle (Busch, pole-winner) had put down a great lap and a track record. So I knew I had to go pretty hard. I just felt like I may have given up a little bit in (Turns) 1 and 2, which would have made it really close for the pole. But, we it was still really good between (Turns) 3 and 4. The car was balanced really nice. We had to work on it a lot in practice getting it where it needed to be and it should be a good race on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it. I really like how the car has driven so far today.”
 
WHAT ARE THE LIMITS ON SPEED HERE? IS IT JUST A MATTER OF WHAT THE TIRES ARE LIKE AND CAN YOU EVENTUALLY GET DOWN TO THE LOW  ‘14’s? I think those speeds today were pretty good, especially what Kyle (Busch) did. That’s fast. You put softer tires on it and you might be able to go faster; I don’t know. But they have to last for a full race run. I felt like the tire felt pretty good today, so I was really happy with the way the car drive in race trim and in qualifying trim. You’re going into the corner has hard as we ever have and the cars are loading and traveling as much as they have with this combination. So, I think eventually we’ll probably go faster than that. But for today, I thought that was a good lap.”
 
GOING BACK TO LAST YEAR AND THE FIRST RACE WITH THE HIGH GROOVE, DID YOU LIKE THAT BETTER? AND IS THAT AN EXAMPLE OF A TRACK THAT MADE SOME CHANGES THAT MAYBE DIDN’T MAKE THE DRIVERS SO HAPPY BUT BENEFITED THE FANS
“I feel like that’s the most grip the bottom of the race track has had in a long time. You can get your car good there, and then move around to the top. The top is a little bit smoother at times. Or, there are spots up there that might be a little smoother so you can get good runs and momentum down the back-stretch and front stretch. But I think it’s going to turn into a good race. You’re going to be able to pass on the bottom, hopefully, as long as the grip stays there where as before, it was so hard to clear a car. You could get just about by him in the center of the corner, but by the exit they were back to your right so I’s hard to clear them. Sunday you’ll be able to get your car good enough to clear them on the bottom.”
 
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES:
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND:
WERE YOU ON THE EDGE OUT THERE?
“A little bit.  I was trying to get all I could because I knew that Kyle put down a crazy-fast lap.  So I didn’t get through one and two as well as I wanted and really pushed in three and four and got some of it back and it was really close.  Our Great Clips Chevy SS was pretty awesome and the car felt really good and its fun to go that fast at this track.  You can press pretty hard here so that was excited and was a good time.  I wish we could have beat Kyle but he put down a great lap.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 8th
ANYTHING LESS THAN 15 SECONDS AROUND THIS PLACE IS HAULING THE MAIL. HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING LAP?
“You’ve never watched winged sprint cars run around Eldora have you? I can promise you the track record at Eldora is a 12.7 for the World of Outlaws.  Under 15 flat is not a big deal here.  It just shows how good these cars are.  To come out with a new car and have them drive this nice off the bat is a pretty nice deal.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBLAT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13th
WHEN YOU QUALIFY HERE MENTALLY DO YOU TRY TO REMIND YOURSELF OF A HABIT THAT MIGHT NOT BE GOOD OR DO YOU JUST THROW CAUTION TO THE WIND?
“You just go.  You’ve got to go hard.  With a 14 second lap time that has the pole right now there is no time to think.  It’s all about reacting.  I think through a few things on pit road, but usually you go through the gear box so fast and you are in turn three and it’s go time and you are coming to the green.  It’s really one of those things that you just throw everything you can at it, hope it sticks and hope you bring it back in one piece.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6th:
THAT WAS AN IMPRESSIVE LAP:
“Martin (Truex, Jr.) and I joked around I’m like ‘I just want to run in the 14’s at Bristol to say you have done that.’ In practice, I mean I don’t know how you go much quicker.  A really good day, we have Cessna on board, first race for them in NASCAR.  Our whole team did a really good job today.  We unloaded the car had really good speed.  You could run on the bottom.  I’m really hoping that the top groove doesn’t come in because our car was good on the bottom.  All around our team did a great job.  It’s just been a good day.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 31ST
VERY PROUD OF A LOT OF HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS THROUGH THE YEARS HERE AT BRISTOL BUT THAT TRACK RECORD HERE IN THE 14’S HAS TO BE ONE OF THEM:
“It was in the 14.90 back in ’03 I think it was.  That was two cars ago, probably about eight different tires.  A lot of things have changed the track has changed and everything else.  We didn’t have the good lap that we needed today.  We made some changes before qualifying and just didn’t hit on it.  Actually feel a lot better in race trim than we did in qualifying trim.  Happy we are done with qualifying trim.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 15, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed filming the Pepsi Max video, racing at Bristol and other topics.  Full transcript:
 
SCARE ANYONE IN A CAR LATELY? (REFERRING TO PEPSI MAX VIDEO RELEASED THIS WEEK) (LAUGHS) “When you are at Bristol, you are just scaring yourself every other corner. That is what makes this place so much fun.”
 
TALK ABOUT MAKING THAT VIDEO: “What a fun experience this has been. I’ve never been a part of anything like this; a viral video that’s gone to this level.  Of course we did the Harlem Shake. We actually did that around the same time.  I never dreamed that this would surpass that in views, and get this much attention. I give Pepsi Max a lot of credit for thinking outside the box, and being bold in how they go about their creative advertising and marketing. Had a lot of fun doing it. And I’ve had a lot of fun seeing all the things on Twitter and everywhere else, as well as, every time I watch it, I still laugh.”
 
HOW MANY TAKES DID YOU HAVE TO DO, GETTING IN THE CAR, AND OUT OF THE CAR? THINGS LIKE THAT: “That’s the thing we might not ever see. I’ve been pushing Pepsi Max saying ‘Hey, let’s show more of the out-takes, and more of what goes on’.  Because people don’t realize it takes two hours to get into that makeup. It takes not just takes, but there is so much more that we did that gets edited out. It is very time consuming, that’s why we had to use a stunt driver. You only have so much time over a two day period as to what you can do.  That was something I would have like to have done, and I think I could have pulled off 90% of it, but, it’s pretty standard practice to have a stunt driver fill in for you.”
 
WAS THE PASSENGER ACTING, OR WERE THOSE REACTIONS REAL? “Those reactions were real. I mean, this guy was terrified. It was so much fun with me interacting with him. But then to get to see his reactions in that car when it is sliding sideways…  If you aren’t somebody…even if you are a race car driver, being in the passenger seat is uncomfortable when somebody is doing things like that. That is what makes it so great. It is like everyone is debating “is it real”, “is it fake”.  I can tell you, those reactions; there was nothing fake about that.”
 
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU FIRST SAW THE EDITED PIECE? “I just laughed. When I did that, I knew I was putting myself out there quite a bit, and that’s sort of unfamiliar territory. You look at yourself and you go ‘okay, I’m either going to look really dumb here, or this is going to be a hit, and people are going to laugh’. I know how much fun I had doing it, but after watching, I thought they did an awesome job editing it I, making the whole thing really come together and be a lot of fun. I laughed my butt off to be honest. I’ve watched it probably six or eight times, and every time I’ve just cracked up.”
 
IT SEEMS THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO WATCH IT TWO OR THREE TIMES, INCLUDING ME, TO TAKE IT ALL IN. IS THAT THE GREAT THING ABOUT THIS? “Absolutely. Certainly, I’m finding out through this experience, that what makes something go viral is when people are debating what’s real, what’s not. When people are watching it going I don’t care what it is, this is funny. The guy just did such an awesome job with those reactions. Then the way they edited everything. Doing the stunts, my part of getting into the car with the test drive, with the guy, that is all ad-libbed. You are just sitting there going with the way it feels. It’s not scripted to that level. I have no idea what I might just say at that time. Just trying different things the whole time. I knew what my goal was. Just getting in the car, then having that experience getting out of the car, you are putting yourself out there in such a way that you really don’t know if people are going to react positively or negatively.  It feels good when people are reacting they way that they are.”
 
TALK ABOUT PRACTICE TODAY: “The car is good. I’m really happy with how well it’s driving, and the grip level in the car. We have to work on the balance a little bit. I feel like we’re just a little bit away from really making the car a winning car. In practice, this early in the weekend, you’re not really going to take for the race. New car, rubber being laid down and everything. The left side tire is slightly different in stagger. We saw this race change the last time we were here with moving up to the talk. I expect a lot of those things to be the same. I thought we had a good day. We are not as fast I would like us to be. I think we can definitely qualify a faster speed than we ran in practice. “
 
CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENT SORT OF MECHANICAL GRIP IN THIS CAR? “I’m feeling a lot of mechanical grip, so they’ve done a great job. I’m impressed with how good the front is gripping and cutting through the corners. And, how the back is stuck right there with it.  It looks like everybody, when you look at the times, and consistency, and how hard guys are having to push the car, the car definitely has more grip than we’ve had in the past.”
 
HOW DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENT GROOVES PLAYING OUT IN THE RACE THIS YEAR? “When you look at the rubber already ¾ of the way up the track, I think we are definitely going to see that type of groove coming in eventually.  Once you get on a long run, most guys are running 10, maybe 15 laps; you have got to go 60 to 80 laps on a set of tires on a run, or more. That’s when you are going to have to start really searching around the race track. We saw in the Nationwide race last time we were here, that groove moved up slightly in the Nationwide race. If it moves up in the Nationwide race, there’s no doubt it will in the Cup race.”
 
DO YOU SEE MORE BUMP AND RUN, SLIDE JOBS LIKE WE DID LAST FALL? “The bump and run happens when it’s single file and you have a faster race car than the guy in front of you. So, the thing about that groove moving up, is it opens up that inside for you to at least have room to pass. But, because of the speed and momentum that outside groove carries, you’ve got to be creative in how you make that pass. So, you have to find the weakness in the car in front of you, or push them to try and make a mistake. Sometimes that might be with your bumper, or that might just be riding an inch off of them. Other times, it is just kind of when they least expect it – do that slide job. But, you better complete that slide job. Because if you don’t, you are going to go back a lot of positions.”
 
DOES IT TAKE YOU BACK TO YOUR DIRT TRACK DAYS WHEN YOU DO THAT? “It does. I have a lot of fun here last fall doing those slide jobs and making them stick. It does take you back to the dirt track days, even though you aren’t completely sliding it sideways, you are still very committed to that move. You are carrying so much momentum to make it work to get ahead of that car; you have no choice but to take it all the way to the wall.”
 

 
CORVETTE RACING QUALIFIES BOTH TEAMS IN TOP 5 AT SEBRING
 
(SEBRING, Fla., March 15, 2013) – Oliver Gavin, driver of the No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R, qualified second (1:58.934, 113.206 mph) in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT class for the 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway – just 0.119 seconds off the pole. Antonio Garcia qualified fifth (1:59:348, 112.813 mph) in the No. 3 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R.
 
“I’m happy with what we’ve got,” Gavin said following his qualifying effort around the 3.74-mile track. “Yes, I’d like to have the pole, but this is a 12-hour event, it’s not a sprint. I think we can almost start in the back and still win this race. But, I’m pleased with the position we’ve got. I’m happy with our car.”
 
Garcia, too, is optimistic about the 2013 season opener following Friday’s qualifying session.
 
“That wasn’t the perfect lap; I just couldn’t get the perfect lap together like I should have,” Garcia said. “But, that’s not a big deal. It’s a long race and we’ll see about it tomorrow.”
 
Gavin and Tommy Milner, who won the 2012 ALMS drivers’ championship, will team with Richard Westbrook in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R for this weekend’s event. Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor will drive the No. 3 Corvette C6.R.
 
“Going through the race tomorrow, I think our car’s going to come more and more to us,” said Gavin, who has four class wins and eight class podium finishes at Sebring. “The track’s going to come more and more to us. That’s from our years of experience from working here, driving here, racing here, competing here. You get a feel for it.
 
“I think that we’re in good shape. I feel confident. Our team has been doing seven-second pit stops. When you look at stuff like that, you go, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ As a driver, you know that when you come in for your stop, each time – boom – they’re going to be right there. It gives you a lot of confidence.”
 
Corvette Racing, the defending series Manufacturer and Team champions, has seven class victories at Sebring since 2002.
 
Gianmaria Bruni, driver of the No. 62 GT Ferrari F458 Italia, won his third consecutive pole at Sebring.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the new Chevy SS race car, his history and hopes for performing at Bristol, his start to this season, and more. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR START TO THE SEASON AND NOW COMING TO BRISTOL
“We’ve got a good start to the year. I wish we’d have run a little bit better last week. I feel like we had a little better car than 7th. But we just never got the opportunity to really prove it. But I feel pretty good. The car has been driving really good. The guys did a lot of great work during the off-season. Steve (Letarte) and Chad (Knaus) and everybody in the shop just really have a good hold on the car out of the gate. We’re still learning a lot and there’s still a lot of things to uncover as far as what makes this car really run well. We’re hoping we can stay ahead of the curve.
 
“I like Bristol. I’ve always enjoyed coming here as a kid and watching races here. This is one of the best tickets in the series. It’s an exciting race track and it’s a lot of fun for the drivers. You’re always in the middle of something every lap. It keeps you on your toes and it’s a pretty tough race track. I enjoy the challenge and look forward to hopefully having a good weekend.”
 
YOU STARTED THE SEASON WITH THREE TOP-10’S AND YET YOU STILL FIND YOURSELF THIRD IN POINTS. IN YOUR CAREER, HAVE YOU SEEN THE COMPETITION LEVEL CHANGE COMPARED TO WHAT IT WAS IN YOUR ROOKIE YEAR?
“Yeah, the competition level has changed. It gets tougher every year. A lot of that has to do with the way the technical inspection and rules are refined over the years. When you go back to the 1970’s, everything was under interpretation. As you move on through the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, things were a little more uniform and a little more structured. Today, you basically have perfect measurements that the car has to go by from one end to the other and all the components are scrutinized. So that definitely has leveled the playing field and put everybody in a smaller window as far as competition goes. So, it definitely makes it tough.”
 
TO IMPROVE THE RACING, DO YOU THINK MAYBE NASCAR SHOULD MAKE IT MORE INCUMBENT ON THE RACE TRACKS INSTEAD OF THE TEAMS TO MAKE LITTLE TWEAKS AND ENHANCE THE ACTION LIKE THEY DID HERE AT BRISTOL LAST AUGUST?
“I don’t know if you could do that at every race track. This place is easy because it’s so small. And really, what they did was just went up and ground the race track a little bit. I didn’t anticipate it having the result; which I liked it as well. I didn’t anticipate it. Really, nobody knew what was going to happen. They were trying to eliminate the top groove and ended-up making it even stronger. And so it didn’t really have the intended result, but it was a good result nonetheless. Everybody seemed to enjoy the race. I did.  So, I think everybody needs to put away the pick axes and hammers because we really don’t know what makes a good race track. We really don’t need everybody hammering away at the surface of the race track trying to fix it, because nobody really knows what the result is going to be. I think if you look at Atlanta and you look at Vegas and Texas and the age of that asphalt, it seems like the older the asphalt gets, the more we move around. I think us running different grooves is better for the racing. I think us running in one single groove is not better for racing. I think we all can agree there. It really comes down to the asphalt and the tire sort of cooperating together and working together and working well together. The components on the cars and the cars themselves will have an influence on the style of racing. But the main component is the tire and it connects the car to the track and what the surface condition is. So we just repaved a lot of tracks and you’re going to have to be patient. There’s no way to speed that process up as far as aging that asphalt. Once it does age, I think the durability of the asphalt that we have now it a whole lot better than what we did 20 years ago. So, some of these surfaces, once they do age, will tend to be more durable and won’t need repaving so quickly and we’ll be able to enjoy that style of racing on those tracks a lot longer than we did in the previous paving cycle.
 
“Everybody has an opinion on what track is a good race track. Every driver is going to have a little bit different opinion on what type of race track they enjoy racing on. The fans like different tracks for different reasons. Everybody’s got a difference of opinion.  I really did enjoy racing at Bristol last time and I know they were trying to push us all down the race track and get us to run on the bottom like we used to run here, but that didn’t work out.  It was still a good show.”
 
WHEN PEOPLE ARE GRUMBLING ABOUT THE RACING, IT’S A FIX-ALL WHEN THEY GET TO BRISTOL BECAUSE THEY LIKE THE BEATING & BANGING. DOES THAT MAKE THIS A BIG WEEKEND FOR NASCAR AND FOR THIS CAR?
“I think every weekend is important; especially with the new car and the season being really early. But we all just need to sort of be patient, I think. At each race, there’s a variable that controls whether it’s a good race or not. I think in Phoenix, the newness of the surface handicapped us a little bit. But that was to be expected in my opinion. And I knew that going it. But when we went to Vegas, I knew we’d be all over the place. I had a blast racing there. We were moving all over the race track. I think that the best race is still yet to come. This is probably going to be a solid weekend. I’m not really worried or concerned that we won’t have a good race or an exciting weekend. Bristol always provides some kind of spark; whether it’s the last lap and what happens there or the overall race itself. But I think the rule changes they made to sort of cleanup what we were doing to the back of the cars and the rear-end houses is really going to make the racing here a lot more interesting.  I’m expecting it to be a good weekend. I’m expecting it to be the same old Bristol.
 
“We haven’t ran into each other with these cars yet on a short track, so I don’t really know what to expect. The bump-and run, you were going to use that no matter what kind of bumper you had on there. If you want to win at Bristol, it doesn’t matter what kind of bumper is on there. You’re going to try to get the guy out of the way.”
 
BECAUSE OF THE WAY LAST YEAR ENDED WITH YOU MISSING THOSE RACES, HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO YOU TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START THIS YEAR ~ EVEN MORE THAN USUAL?
“Well, I felt pretty confident in the off-season because I was able to run a couple of races at the end of the year. So I really wasn’t worried. The stuff from last year, I had put that to bed because I was able to come back. That’s just me, personally. I was able to come back and get the car and drive and I felt good; so I felt like I could close that chapter and not have any concerns. I just really put a focus on the first 10 races because it’s important to the Chase. I think if you get behind, you’ll be in that battle at Richmond and then all that stuff is big distractions. So last year we were able to get a good 10-race start to the season and not have to worry about the points deal. We were comfortable in the summer and we could worry about our car and think about other things and not be stressed out about our points situation. No mater how good a race tea, you are, if you get behind, it’s a battle all the way to Richmond. And we don’t want to be in that situation. We’re just real fortunate that we’ve been able to put together a couple of good races. We’ve already got a good cushion on some guys that we feel like we’ll be racing to get a Chase spot with, and hopefully we can keep that going the next couple of weekends.”
 
YOU’VE HAD AN AVERAGE FINISH OF 11.8 HERE. DO YOU THINK THE BUMP AND RUN WILL BE BACK BECAUSE OF THE NEW CAR, OR NOT? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO L
EARN HERE TO BE EVEN BETTER AT THIS TRACK?
“I think the bump and run really never left. It’s just if you can reach the guy on the last lap and be able to get an opportunity to get to his bumper. And it depends on the mentality and personality of the two drivers involved in that situation.
 
“Fortunately we’re running good enough that really you can’t put your finger on we’ve got a bit problem here (or there). I think if we come out of the pits first on that one pit stop at Phoenix, we got a shot to win just because of the style of racing there. I think if we did what Matt (Kenseth) did at Vegas and didn’t take tires and come out of pit road first there; we might have had a win there. We had a good enough car. We’ve got cars that are competing well and running well and showing great speed. We’ve just got to do a few things right during the race as far as needing to be able to contest a spot or two better and put ourselves into that strategy to be able to do what some of those guys do to put themselves in position to win. I don’t want to put it on anyone’s shoulders or point the finger at any one thing, but it just comes down to us and me doing a better job and Steve (Letarte) doing a better job and all of us just kind of stepping it up a position or two and we’re right there.”
 
REGARDING THE UPCOMING FONTANA RACE, YOU FINISHED THIRD THERE LAST YEAR. HAVE YOU FIGURED SOMETHING OUT?           AND, DOES THE NEW RACE CAR ALTER THAT A LITTLE BIT?
“I seem to like this car and feel better and happier about driving this car than the CoT, so I’m looking forward to all the races every week. I like that race track. It’s really one of the tracks that has good old asphalt. And we use all the race track up. You can run the bottom, You can run on the apron. You can run on the top. It’s a very run race track to drive. And so I’ve got a good attitude about it. I think Steve (LeTarte) is going to give me a good car. We ran good last year because Steve gave me a good car. So, I think if we go in there in the ballpark, and are somewhat competitive off the trailer, we’ll have a good weekend. I do enjoy racing there and look forward to it.”
 
YOUR LAST FIVE RACES HERE, NO TOP TENS. LAST NINE RACES, NO TOP FIVES. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE STRUGGLING HERE OR HAS THIS JUST BEEN CIRCUMSTANCE? WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
“Yeah, I feel l was accustomed to coming here and running in the top 10 on a regular basis and we fell off about five positions. We were sort of sitting right outside the top 10; running 11th or 15th and things like that. We had a little trouble speeding on pit road last time, which cost us a top 10. I think last year; maybe that’s happened a couple of times here, I can’t really remember. But we run all right here. But, we’re still sort of have yet really found that magic that you look for trying to get around the corner here. So, we had a pretty good car the last trip; better than most, so I feel like we’re at bit on the upswing and as a team, I think we’ve gotten better. So, I’d agree with that. I think we’ve struggled a little bit over the last 10 races as far as what I’m accustomed to running here. But not badly; just five or six spots difference as far as how competitive we are on average.”
 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his strong start to the season, if the bump and run will return to Bristol and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT BEING OFF TO A STRONG START, WE ARE NOW AT A DIFFERENT RACE TRACK THAN WE HAVE BEEN BEFORE TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN THIS WEEKEND AT BRISTOL:
“I think we have gotten off to a great start with all of Hendrick Motorsports and especially our Lowe’s Chevrolet, excited for that.  A lot of work went into it.  As we are working our way through the different styles of tracks we have been competitive.  Bristol has been tough on me years ago.  It has been pretty good to me here in the last two or three years that we have come to the race track.  I’m excited coming back.  I love competing here.  It’s nice to walk through the tunnel and emerge inside the race track with a smile on my face because for years I would walk in here with a frown.  Although I love the race track I just wouldn’t run very good and it makes for a long weekend.  Excited to get on track, the grinding last year I don’t think went as planned for the track.  That is now the place to be it seems.  I assume we will be back up there once the race starts.  The good news is that is where everybody wants to be so maybe we will rough each other up around the top instead of around the bottom as the fans want to see.  We are just plugging along, we feel pretty good about at least the first quarter.  I know a lot of teams are working hard to sort out the Gen-6 car.  As the year develops we will see different teams and manufacturers emerge with strength.  Right now I feel like our No. 48 car is right there at the top.”
 
YOU ARE OFF TO ANOTHER FAST START WITH A WIN, BRAD (KESELOWSKI) IS RIGHT THERE ON YOUR HEELS WITH THREE TOP-FIVE’S.  IN YOUR CAREER HAS THE COMPETITION LEVEL CHANGED SINCE YOU STARTED?
“The competition has always been there.  I think the faces have changed.  I think Brad (Keselowski) has shown that he and that team are going to be a familiar face up there week in and week out and year after year.  We have been able to stay in and around the top spot for the 10 years, 11 years we have been around which is staggering to me that we have had that type of staying power.  So, I’m very proud of that.  It’s awfully competitive and gets a little congested at the top.  Again, the faces might change, but it’s the sought after place to be.”
 
THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF DEBATE ABOUT THE TYPE OF RACING WE HAVE HAD WITH THIS CAR OVER THE FIRST THREE RACES THIS SEASON.  IS BRISTOL A TRACK WHERE YOU THINK THAT WON’T COME INTO PLAY?  IF WE HAVE A RACE LIKE WE HAD LAST AUGUST THAT COULD KIND OF SOLVE A LOT OF THE PROBLEMS PEOPLE HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS?
“It’s so difficult to get the recipe right.  This race track is a perfect example.  For the longest time we didn’t think the racing was all that good from a competitors stand point.  But, we had a sold out event here with a long waiting list.  They change it, drivers are happy, the track is very racy, but you can’t sell out the spring race.  Last year’s race we were all fighting for one lane which was at the top instead of the bottom.  Somebody throws a helmet and it’s considered a good race.  So, I’m not sure racing and entertainment kind of go in the same piece.  I do think that racing is top priority for NASCAR and it has been.  They have created a very safe race car and a very equal race car.  I think the next step is to look at the tracks and figure out how to improve the tracks.  The garage area and the competition side of NASCAR has worked so hard to treat equality to make sure that the big teams don’t get away from the little teams.  You just have to think about it a little bit.  If the cars are that close you are probably not going to be able to pass that easily.  That is just one aspect of an equal field.  If we have race tracks with multiple grooves, multiple lanes, high tire fall off I think you will see a lot better racing.  But then there is still a portion of people that want to see fist fights so that is the balancing act.”
 
IN REGARDS TO TRACK SURFACES:
“NASCAR is aware and I’ve had great conversations with them and I know other drivers have too.  The folks on the competition side of NASCAR that I speak to it’s not ISC (International Speedway Corporation) or SMI (Speedway Motorsports, Inc.).  The suggestions I may have probably are hundreds of millions of dollars to change.  I don’t see anybody jumping at that opportunity.  When a track is resurfaced through the NASCAR competition side coming to some drivers and asking for advice, some tracks will listen others feel that they know what they need to do through their engineers and modeling that they like to use and come back with something that none of us ever talked about. I wish there was a better connection point between the guys on the track and the people that pay for the tracks to be resurfaced and redesigned.  That channel could work a little better and help make the racing better.”   
 
WHAT HAVE YOU WORKED ON HERE AT BRISTOL? WHAT HAS BEEN CHALLENGING FOR YOU PERSONALLY AND DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE THE BUMP AND RUN COME BACK AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
“On a short-track if you are within bumpers reach you have to expect it’s coming.  I would definitely anticipate that here, especially if there is a green/white/checkered at the end I think it would get exciting as it would anywhere.  Me learning this track for the longest time back when we could test I came here with the No. 24 and he literally got in my car and went three, four tenths faster than I did.  I would look at his data, get back in and couldn’t find the speed.  It didn’t fit my natural tendencies inside of a race car.  I think the new surface has helped.  It has come my direction some, just constant focus on getting better here.  From my perspective and that kind of sends the arch of the team and I would say three years back or so I finally started driving the track right, which allowed us to start working on the set up and it wasn’t uncommon for me to be driving the track all wrong through practice and qualifying and I would get in the race, get into the correct rhythm and now the car isn’t even close to being set up how it needed to be. Over time we have found a good baseline place to start and we will be around that this weekend and hopefully have the same speed.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE WAY THE DENNY HAMLIN/NASCAR SITUATION HAS NOW BEEN RESOLVED:
“The way I see it Denny is still paying right? So he is still paying his fine.  It’s crystal clear to me that if you have an issue about this car you go inside the truck and talk about it.  You don’t use one of these (points to microphone) or this room to communicate that. You go up into the truck and talk about it.”
 
SHOULD THIS TRACK BE THE GOLD STANDARD EVEN THOUGH WHEN THEY CHANGED IT THEY DIDN’T REALLY DO WHAT YOU GUYS WANTED BUT THEY GAVE THE FANS WHAT THEY WANTED?  SHOULD THIS BE LIKE MAYBE A SHINING EXAMPLE OF WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THAT WHEN THE TRACKS INVEST THERE CAN BE A GOOD RESPONSE FROM EVERYBODY?
“There can be and I do empathize or sympathize with the track owners in trying to create the right surface.  Burton (Smith) did everything in his power to create a racey track here.  We had it.  Driver’s loved it as you know.  Fans didn’t like it.  So, there is that balancing point and I think we have to keep the fans in mind and what is going to keep people buying tickets and sitting in the seats.  I don’t have the magic sauce.  I do know
that looking at the competition side of NASCAR and the team owners to make another change or to build newer cars or do something different we have exhausted all avenues.  High downforce, low downforce, bump stops, no bump stops, all these different combinations and the cars are equal.  You are going to have negative affect from equal running race cars on the track.  It’s just how it is.  If we could start focusing there are a lot of smart people in the garage and abroad.  If we start focusing on tracks I think an easy route is to use some of the older aggregate on these tracks.  This new stuff that they have used at a variety of different race tracks it lasts a long time. It doesn’t wear the tire out.  I’m sure it’s a smart decision when you are looking at your book keeping at the end of the year.  You don’t have to resurface the track as often, but I don’t think it’s helpful for good racing.  We need tire fall off and tire wear in order to do that.”
 
IS THERE ANY OTHER ONE TRACK WHERE IT WOULD BE EASY TO FIX LIKE WHAT THEY DID HERE?  IT WASN’T A COMPLETE OVERHAUL.  IS THERE ONE TRACK WHERE THEY COULD DO SOMETHING EASY TO IMPROVE THINGS?
“I think our biggest concern is the mile-and-a-half, the bigger tracks for side-by-side racing.  I would go to the newest mile-and-a-half or the one with the newest asphalt and start there.  Just put down abrasive asphalt.  The old mix whatever that was.”
 
A LOT OF TEAMS OR SOME TEAMS HAVE LOADED UP THEIR TESTING IN THE FIRST PART OF THE SEASON TO GET USED TO THE NEW CAR.  WITH THE STAR THAT YOU HAVE HAD DOES THAT IMPACT HOW YOU GUYS SCHEDULE TESTING?  WILL YOU PUT MORE TESTING TOWARD THE CHASE?  DOES IT CHANGE THINGS AT ALL?
“So far there has been so much testing through NASCAR that we haven’t needed to use our allotment that we have this year those four test sessions that we have for HMS. Our cars are quick so I think our goal is to wait until later in the year and ideally test at tracks that are within the Chase.  That is the best way to play it.  I think every team looks at it that way and tries to save the test dates.  How the team is performing now will affect that and teams will make adjustments.  For Hendrick right now we have been very happy with our stuff and I would expect later in the year is when we will start.”
 
EVEN WITH ALL YOUR WINS AND FIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS HOW MUCH APPREHENSION DO YOU ENTER A NEW SEASON AS FAR AS WONDERING WHAT YOUR PERFORMANCE OR WHAT YOUR TEAM’S PERFORMANCE WILL BE?  WHAT IS YOUR OWN PERSONAL KIND OF MARK AS TO WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK FOR A YEAR?
“From the apprehension stand point I usually, every year I’ve started I’ve been concerned.  You don’t know until four or five races in really where you stand.  It’s hard to even leave Daytona feeling too good about things even with a victory because it’s just such a different kind of race.  I think the more time goes on the less concerned I am.  Just years of working with Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and being in the Hendrick system and knowing that we are going to be close and if we are not we will figure it out.  We have been there.  I think ’07, ’08 somewhere in there we struggled pretty bad and tested I think 22 times in one year.  Granted we can’t do that now, but we will find a way to get back and have a lot of confidence in that.  The most apprehension I had was after a championship.  You finish on such a high and for myself I wanted to start that next year right where I left off.  I felt more pressure to have a quick start then than any other situation.  I kind of answered the feel for the new car.  I have always looked at five races in.  We have had a couple of short tracks and a couple of big down force fast race tracks and kind of judge it from there.  I’m feeling like I know what my car is doing, but once we get through California and have one more race on a big track we will have our package pretty much sorted out for now.”
 
INAUDIBLE
“We will start testing for that here in the spring time and get going there.  The downforce is so… the speeds are so low especially at Sonoma that you don’t play the aero game so much.  It’s more about mechanical grip.  The set ups have been kind of the same out there for a long time to be honest.”
 
IN YOUR ROOKIE YEAR HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO GET COMFORTABLE IN THE CAR AND WITH YOUR TEAM?
“It took a while.  We were fortunate to win our 10th start of my rookie season.  That helped speed up the confidence process.  I still today have concern especially starting a new year, will I remember what to do, and how to do it, it’s one thing to be within a couple tenths, but to find those last few tenths and you get to Victory Lane is always a concern.  In a rookie year there was a lot going on.  Not only was on the race track, but understanding the schedule, sponsor obligations.  It takes probably a good three years to fall into the rhythm of being a Sprint Cup driver to manage all that goes on through request from NASCAR, sponsors, team, testing, racing, media obligations, it’s a big thing to sort out it really is.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET OFF TO THE QUICK START YOU ARE HAVING?
“I think it’s important.  I have been so fortunate to not need to worry about Richmond and making the Chase and hopefully that stays that way.  Leaving Daytona in a hole is something we have grown accustom to.  It takes seven, eight weeks to get back up in the top five in points.  A quick start is important.  It frees up the first half of the year for you.  You can preserve the test sessions that we are allowed to have at real race tracks on the tire we are going to race on.  You can focus on inventory of your race cars which we are all behind with the Gen-6 car.  Just get your car allotment built up which is very important to do at this stage.  Instead of cutting up existing cars and rebuilding stuff and on and on it is important to get off to a quick start.  It helps lighten the work load for everybody.”
 
SINCE MARTINSVILLE IS NOT A DOWNFORCE TRACK IS THAT SOME PLACE YOU CAN TAKE LAST YEAR’S NOTES WITH THIS NEW CAR AND IT WORK TOGETHER?
“Yeah, definitely Martinsville, gosh, it has been the same stuff and also here for a long time.  It’s nice to go back to those tracks it doesn’t matter what shape or design is on the exterior the mechanical grip aspect is still the same.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 15, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed returning to Bristol for her second run in the Cup Series, style of racing at Bristol and other topics. Full Transcript:
 
WHICH LINE TO YOU PREFER HERE AT BRISTOL? “I prefer the fastest line, and I would imagine to start the weekend, it’s going to be a little lower. In the second Cup race last year, it moved to the top, and it was really good on the top. I think if you can get the bottom to work and get the car turned, you have some options in your pocket for lapped traffic, and if you get stuck behind somebody. In general, as a driver, I would say I’m more of what I could call a bottom feeder. But, you have to run where the grip is.”
 
YOU WERE RUNNING WELL HERE LAST TIME AND YOU GOT WRECKED. HOW CAUTIOUS ARE YOU GOING TO BE THIS TIME? “You know, when we are racing nose-to-tail really close, it’s always more of a risk, of course. But, there is nothing I can do to prepare myself better for the race that would fix the problem from last time of getting taken out. If you get taken out, you get taken out. Hopefully that doesn’t happen. The best thing I can do for that is try and get further up the field so that it is around some smarter drivers. Hopefully that happens.”
 
HOW IS IT HELPING YOU RUNNING EVERY WEEK NOW, AND GETTING INTO THAT RHYTHM? “Last year I did 10 Cup races, and it was a great way to, I feel like, more than get my feet wet with the series, and with the different car. It’s nice to come to a place like Bristol that you know is going to be challenging, and know you have done some laps here. 440-odd in a race here, from what I remember from the second race last year.  All that stuff helps out. It’s not going to be the be-all-end-all of running up front, or should be running up front. But all of it helps.”
 
DO YOU LIKE RACING HERE? “I do. I like Bristol. Obviously can be a little bit…the cars definitely got in a train last time we were here. It was tough. It was a little bit hard to pass. But like I said, that is why the bottom becomes important because if you get stuck, or even if you start on the bottom on a restart.  If your car is turning, you can make that work I think for a little while. I think qualifying is going to be really important, so definitely going to find myself doing a lot more qualifying runs…as many as possible before qualifying in the afternoon. But, I’ve liked Bristol since the first time I came here.”
 
HOW AGGRESSIVE DO YOU HAVE TO BE? DO YOU KIND OF HAVE TO LET IT RIP AND JUST DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO? OR, DO YOU HAVE ANY SORT OF GAME PLAN ON HOW AGGRESSIVE YOU WOULD BE.  “I think that is a silly question. As a driver, every single one of us is going to go absolutely hard as possible. There’s never a plan to back off, or go easy, or anything like that; other than if you are saving fuel out there on a strategy at the end of the race, you always go as fast as you can all the time.”
 
HOW MUCH RISK-REWARD DO YOU TRY TO BALANCE HERE? “We run that every weekend. We run it every single weekend, no matter where we go. There’s risk in what we do, that’s what hopefully makes it exciting for the fans, and why people like to watch it because we’re running on the ragged edge of losing grip and finding ourselves up in the wall; or at least running up the track a little bit. That’s our job.”
 
DID YOU SEE BERNIE ECCLESTONE’S COMMENTS YESTERDAY? “Yes I did see something about Bernie’s comments and they sounded complimentary. It looked like he was kind of acknowledging my ability to drive a car. So that was kind.”
 
ANY THOUGHTS? WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO TRY IT (FORMULA ONE RACING)? “I’ve always said that unless that it would be something I would want to do for real, as in race a Formula One car, I don’t see any point in testing it. It is a lot or work to get fitted in the car comfortable enough to go drive it. Then as a driver, for me at least, I run the risk of what if it doesn’t go well, and then people judge me for that.  So, unless it was something that I was really serious, I wouldn’t do it. I will say that Bernie over the years has actually sent a lot of messages. Any kind of big high point that happens in my career, whether it be at Indy, or Daytona now, or winning in Japan – things like that, he has sent messages.  He even sent me like a big picture one time that was signed by him. He’s actually been really nice. I don’t necessarily think that his comments a long while back are representative of his opinion of me.”
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT VEGAS FOR THE OTHER MILE-AND-A-HALF’S COMING UP ON THE SCHEDULE? “It was definitely a struggle last week in Vegas. It was very, very loose. To be honest, it was loose at Phoenix as well. There were a few things that we did; a few common denominators in the weekends. I feel like we came away, given the fact that it was so challenging, that we really need to figure it out. I went into the shop on Tuesday and there was definitely some thoughts and concepts that they were like look, we did this wrong; we need to fix that; your comments made sense from practice it didn’t even make sense to me that we needed to do them necessarily for the race. I think that this car works a little differently in traffic as well. Aerodynamically we have lost a lot of side-force, and I think that plays a roll. I think that we have to get all four tires on the ground the way they need to be. We have to get the rear tied down. There’s nothing you can do if you can’t put the power down.”
 
WHAT ABOUT THE GRUELING ASPECT AT BRISTOL? “It’s fine. I think it is a little daunting to say 500 laps, but there’s a lot of times that we do 500 laps, or 500 miles, this is just one of them – one of many. It makes me appreciate all the races I did last year, and how almost all of them were 500 miles. It is a different mindset. I feel like no matter what happens – whether it’s a 200-lap race, or a 500-lap race, you find your rhythm. Time goes by fast sometimes, and sometimes it’s slow.  All I can hope is the car has a decent balance because when it doesn’t, that’s when the laps seem wrong. If we can just get a decent car, and get into a rhythm, and find ourselves in a good spot, have a consistent car throughout the race, time does go pretty quickly usually.”
 
FANS COME HERE AND EXPECT A LOT OF BEATING AND BANGING. DO YOU LIKE THAT KIND OF RACING? “Yes. I mean, I don’t mind some beating and banging out there, I don’t mind pushing your way around a little bit. It just happens. I did it a little bit at Phoenix even. It is just the nature of short tracks when you are running really close to one another.   You put 43 cars out on a track this size; you are filling up a lot of the track. You are able to run closer as opposed to the mile-an-a-half or more. The short tracks are conducive for close racing. The aerodynamics don’t come into play quite as much. I enjoy it. I’ve always said from the beginning that NASCAR is a lot of fun for me because if somebody lays on you, you can lay right back. You aren’t risking your life, like the old days in IndyCar when somebody would do something that was not intelligent to you, I understood that it was a physical risk to try and get them back, because when the wheels are exposed, bad things happen. Not here, though. Not in NASCAR. You can bump and bang all you like.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 15, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed returning to Bristol for her second run in the Cup Series, style of racing at Bristol and other topics. Full Transcript:
 
WHICH LINE TO YOU PREFER HERE AT BRISTOL? “I prefer the fastest line, and I would imagine to start the weekend, it’s going to be a little lower. In the second Cup race last year, it moved to the top, and it was really good on the top. I think if you can get the bottom to work and get the car turned, you have some options in your pocket for lapped traffic, and if you get stuck behind somebody. In general, as a driver, I would say I’m more of what I could call a bottom feeder. But, you have to run where the grip is.”
 
YOU WERE RUNNING WELL HERE LAST TIME AND YOU GOT WRECKED. HOW CAUTIOUS ARE YOU GOING TO BE THIS TIME? “You know, when we are racing nose-to-tail really close, it’s always more of a risk, of course. But, there is nothing I can do to prepare myself better for the race that would fix the problem from last time of getting taken out. If you get taken out, you get taken out. Hopefully that doesn’t happen. The best thing I can do for that is try and get further up the field so that it is around some smarter drivers. Hopefully that happens.”
 
HOW IS IT HELPING YOU RUNNING EVERY WEEK NOW, AND GETTING INTO THAT RHYTHM? “Last year I did 10 Cup races, and it was a great way to, I feel like, more than get my feet wet with the series, and with the different car. It’s nice to come to a place like Bristol that you know is going to be challenging, and know you have done some laps here. 440-odd in a race here, from what I remember from the second race last year.  All that stuff helps out. It’s not going to be the be-all-end-all of running up front, or should be running up front. But all of it helps.”
 
DO YOU LIKE RACING HERE? “I do. I like Bristol. Obviously can be a little bit…the cars definitely got in a train last time we were here. It was tough. It was a little bit hard to pass. But like I said, that is why the bottom becomes important because if you get stuck, or even if you start on the bottom on a restart.  If your car is turning, you can make that work I think for a little while. I think qualifying is going to be really important, so definitely going to find myself doing a lot more qualifying runs…as many as possible before qualifying in the afternoon. But, I’ve liked Bristol since the first time I came here.”
 
HOW AGGRESSIVE DO YOU HAVE TO BE? DO YOU KIND OF HAVE TO LET IT RIP AND JUST DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO? OR, DO YOU HAVE ANY SORT OF GAME PLAN ON HOW AGGRESSIVE YOU WOULD BE.  “I think that is a silly question. As a driver, every single one of us is going to go absolutely hard as possible. There’s never a plan to back off, or go easy, or anything like that; other than if you are saving fuel out there on a strategy at the end of the race, you always go as fast as you can all the time.”
 
HOW MUCH RISK-REWARD DO YOU TRY TO BALANCE HERE? “We run that every weekend. We run it every single weekend, no matter where we go. There’s risk in what we do, that’s what hopefully makes it exciting for the fans, and why people like to watch it because we’re running on the ragged edge of losing grip and finding ourselves up in the wall; or at least running up the track a little bit. That’s our job.”
 
DID YOU SEE BERNIE ECCLESTONE’S COMMENTS YESTERDAY? “Yes I did see something about Bernie’s comments and they sounded complimentary. It looked like he was kind of acknowledging my ability to drive a car. So that was kind.”
 
ANY THOUGHTS? WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO TRY IT (FORMULA ONE RACING)? “I’ve always said that unless that it would be something I would want to do for real, as in race a Formula One car, I don’t see any point in testing it. It is a lot or work to get fitted in the car comfortable enough to go drive it. Then as a driver, for me at least, I run the risk of what if it doesn’t go well, and then people judge me for that.  So, unless it was something that I was really serious, I wouldn’t do it. I will say that Bernie over the years has actually sent a lot of messages. Any kind of big high point that happens in my career, whether it be at Indy, or Daytona now, or winning in Japan – things like that, he has sent messages.  He even sent me like a big picture one time that was signed by him. He’s actually been really nice. I don’t necessarily think that his comments a long while back are representative of his opinion of me.”
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT VEGAS FOR THE OTHER MILE-AND-A-HALF’S COMING UP ON THE SCHEDULE? “It was definitely a struggle last week in Vegas. It was very, very loose. To be honest, it was loose at Phoenix as well. There were a few things that we did; a few common denominators in the weekends. I feel like we came away, given the fact that it was so challenging, that we really need to figure it out. I went into the shop on Tuesday and there was definitely some thoughts and concepts that they were like look, we did this wrong; we need to fix that; your comments made sense from practice it didn’t even make sense to me that we needed to do them necessarily for the race. I think that this car works a little differently in traffic as well. Aerodynamically we have lost a lot of side-force, and I think that plays a roll. I think that we have to get all four tires on the ground the way they need to be. We have to get the rear tied down. There’s nothing you can do if you can’t put the power down.”
 
WHAT ABOUT THE GRUELING ASPECT AT BRISTOL? “It’s fine. I think it is a little daunting to say 500 laps, but there’s a lot of times that we do 500 laps, or 500 miles, this is just one of them – one of many. It makes me appreciate all the races I did last year, and how almost all of them were 500 miles. It is a different mindset. I feel like no matter what happens – whether it’s a 200-lap race, or a 500-lap race, you find your rhythm. Time goes by fast sometimes, and sometimes it’s slow.  All I can hope is the car has a decent balance because when it doesn’t, that’s when the laps seem wrong. If we can just get a decent car, and get into a rhythm, and find ourselves in a good spot, have a consistent car throughout the race, time does go pretty quickly usually.”
 
FANS COME HERE AND EXPECT A LOT OF BEATING AND BANGING. DO YOU LIKE THAT KIND OF RACING? “Yes. I mean, I don’t mind some beating and banging out there, I don’t mind pushing your way around a little bit. It just happens. I did it a little bit at Phoenix even. It is just the nature of short tracks when you are running really close to one another.   You put 43 cars out on a track this size; you are filling up a lot of the track. You are able to run closer as opposed to the mile-an-a-half or more. The short tracks are conducive for close racing. The aerodynamics don’t come into play quite as much. I enjoy it. I’ve always said from the beginning that NASCAR is a lot of fun for me because if somebody lays on you, you can lay right back. You aren’t risking your life, like the old days in IndyCar when somebody would do something that was not intelligent to you, I understood that it was a physical risk to try and get them back, because when the wheels are exposed, bad things happen. Not here, though. Not in NASCAR. You can bump and bang all you like.”
 

JEREMY CLEMENTS, NO. 51 ST. JUDE.COM/REPAIRABLEVEHICLES.COM CHEVROLET CAMARO, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his recent suspension, the support he has received from other drivers and much more.  FULL TRANSCRIPT
 
ADDRESSING THE MEDIA IN REGARDS TO THE REASON FOR HIS SUSPENSION:
“I want to start out by saying I made a remark that has no place in our society, kidding or not.  I want to apologize to NASCAR, the reporter, my team, my family, my sponsors and of course all the fans out there.  I didn’t mean to offend anybody at all.  I’m sorry I let you all down.  It doesn’t represent who I am or how I was raised.  My Grandpa Crawford Clements who I looked up to and respected and got me started racing when I was seven was a crew chief for Wendell Scott in 1965.  I was raised to respect everybody.  It has been a challenging time for me.  I want to grow from it and help other people from it.  Anytime a race car driver gets sat out any amount of time it is the worst thing that can happen to anybody.  I don’t want to watch anybody drive your car when you are supposed to be in it driving.  I had a lot of time to think about my action.  I want to thank Dr. (Richard) Lapchick and his team for their time and helping me learn.  I’m excited to be back here at Bristol and get a chance to race again.   Hopefully, put all this behind me and move on.”
 
HOW DIFFICULT HAS THIS BEEN FOR YOU? 
“It’s been extremely difficult time.  At first it really hit me hard.  When I got the call from NASCAR I was definitely shocked.  They had called me and asked me if I did say that remark.  I was honest with them and owned up for it which I think anybody should have done.  I took my punishment and I have done everything I can to make it right and try to move on and make all this better.  But, it’s been very tough on me.  I’m just so happy to be back and just be able to race again.”
 
HAS THIS AFFECTED YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH SPONSORS?
“Yes and no, most of them have been behind me.  I’ve had one pull out on us, but we have a lot of support.  We have our car filled up this weekend and just very grateful for guys like Jim Sealy of US Petroleum for helping us and sticking through it with us.”
 
HAVE YOU HEARD FROM OTHER DRIVERS? HAVE YOU GOT SOME SUPPORT FROM OTHER DRIVERS?
“Yeah, Michael McDowell, Josh Wise, Justin Allgaier, I can just sit here and name a bunch of them.  They have all had my back.  Like I said it doesn’t represent who I am or what I’m about.  I have done a lot of stuff as you can see we have St. Jude on our hood, wearing a St. Jude suit.  It has no representation of who I am.  Hopefully, I just want to get that out of the way and make it right and show who I really am.”
 
WHY DID YOU USE THE WORD IN THE FIRST PLACE?
“I wasn’t thinking honestly. I was just walking along trying to help the guy find somebody else.  I just blurted it out.  As soon as I did I knew I didn’t do good.  I knew I messed up, but it was too late and I just kept talking.  It was stupid.”
 
WHAT DID DR. LAPCHICK HAVE YOU DO?
“We went through a day’s worth of studying different things, a lot of different meanings of different words where they came from, who they offend and why you shouldn’t say them.  You know you sit out here and talk to people all the time and make jokes.  Somebody could say something offensive and you might not say anything, but from now on I’m going to stand up and be like ‘man that isn’t something you should say’ and try to pass along what I learned.”
 
HAS DARRELL WALLACE OR ANY OF THE SCOTT’S OR ANY AFRICAN AMERICAN’S INVOLVED IN THE SPORT REACHED OUT TO YOU IN THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS?
“I hadn’t talked to any of them.  I don’t even have Darrell’s number or anything.  This is first time I have been back to the track.  If I definitely do pass Darrell I would love to talk to him.  I’ve had a lot of my friends call me that are African American and tell me ‘dude that is no way that is you’.  I had my support and it’s been great honestly.  I’ve had a ton of support.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN TREATED FAIRLY WITH THE SUSPENSION?
“NASCAR did what they had to do.  I respect their decision and like I said I did everything they wanted me to do.  Anything to right the wrong, took the suspension, took the class, and apologized to the reporter and of course all the fans out there.  I didn’t mean to offend anybody.  I just want to try to move on now.”
 
YOU HAD TO PAY FOR THE CLASS YOURSELF IS THAT CORRECT?
“Yeah, it was the right thing to do.  I had a sponsor offer to pay for it, but I declined that.  I just felt like I needed to do that.”
 
HOW MUCH WAS IT?
“$2500 and then obviously missing racing you don’t get paid and the drivers points it hurts a lot of things.  We depend on that money at the end of the year for driver’s points to keep our team going.  It hurts us in all aspects.  It definitely doesn’t help us, but just want to make the best out of it and move on.  Try to get us a top-10 here at Bristol.”
 
YOU CHOSE RIGHT AWAY WHEN THE COMMENTS CAME OUT THAT YOU SAID YOU CAME OUT AND SAID ‘YES I SAID THIS’ IT WASN’T ON CAMERA.  YOU DIDN’T DENY.  DO YOU THINK IF YOU WOULD HAVE DENIED IT THAT THE SUSPENSION COULD HAVE BEEN LONGER?
“I don’t know.  I don’t know how it would have been handled.  I’m not sure I don’t even want to go back and look at it really.  I just want to move on.  It is what it is.  I said it, I owned up for it so that was it.  I didn’t have any thoughts of lying about it.”
 
IN REGARDS TO THE AFFECT ON HIS CAREER:
“Obviously, the way our sport is unfortunately it’s not all about, but it’s a lot of who can bring the money to what team.  We are here racing on a lot smaller budget than the guys up there that we race against.  I would love to bring a ton of money to (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) or (Richard) Childress (Racing) or something, but the way it is just can’t.  Obviously, hope that it doesn’t hurt my relationship with any of those teams and I think everybody deserves a second chance.  I think you’ve got to look at the person’s history.  I have never been in trouble with NASCAR.  I always just try to do the right thing and just stay here and be able to race.  I always try to get new fans coming and do anything NASCAR wants.  I hope it doesn’t hurt.  I don’t know.”
 
DID YOU GO TO THE HOSPITAL IN DAYTONA AFTER THE NATIONWIDE ACCIDENT?
“No, I went before.  I went Wednesday when I got there.  I had been the past two years and I go to the kids ward up there and visit the sick kids.  I like doing that.  I don’t do it because of anything else, but I just like to.  I was asked to come back Sunday.  I was already home and we were working on our cars to go to (Las) Vegas and Phoenix so I didn’t have a chance to come back.  That is originally what I thought because they kept calling me wanting me to come.  I just said there is no way and then he called me again Sunday night and left me two messages.  That is when I was in Church.  I got out of Church and I was like ‘this isn’t good this is something else’.  Then I was like ‘oh no’, it’s funny how all that works.”
 

Will Power Puts Chevrolet V6 Power on Top of the Leaderboard for First Day of Testing at Barber Motorsports Park
 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 12, 2012) – Team Penske’s Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, landed on the top of the leaderboard with the fastest lap time in both the morning and afternoon sessions of Day One of the IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park.  Power’s lap time today of 01:07.8625, bested the track record he set at the track in 2012 of 1:09:8524.
 
Giving Chevrolet the top-three quickest times of the day were Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet with a lap time of 01:07.9388 followed by James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy.com Andretti Autosport Chevrolet who turned his fastest lap at 01:07.9869.
 
“We were very pleased with the results of today’s testing at Barber Motorsports Park,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Motorsports Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “It is good to have all of our Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers on track to test the results of a great deal of hard work during the off-season.  We continue to learn more during each test in our quest for consistently top performance and reliability.  The 2013 IndyCar racing season will be more competitive than ever, and we know we have to bring our “A” game to every race.  Our teams, along with our technical partners, have put forth a dedicated effort to be well prepared for the first race at St. Petersburg (Florida) and beyond.”
 
E.J. Viso, No. 5 Team Venezuela/PDVSA Citgo Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, Simona de Silvestro, No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva KV Racing Technology Chevrolet and Oriol Servia, No. 22 Panther Dryer and Reinbold Racing Chevrolet also turned in quick laps that landed them in the top-10 of the order at the end of the day.
 
The second and final day of the Barber Open Test will begin Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. CT.
 
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FASTEST IN DAY-ONE TESTING: TALK ABOUT THE SESSIONS TODAY AND GETTING THE SEASON STARTED: “These cars are unbelievably hooked up around here. It must be three seconds a lap quicker than the lap I did in qualifying. I have never felt so much grip in this car. Good to have Team Penske one and two. It’s only testing. It’s only the first day of testing. But, it shows we have worked hard over the winter. I think as a team we are very determined to tick a couple of boxes this year. Obviously the Indy 500 and the championship are absolutely at the top of the list. We’ve let it go too many times now. So, a good start.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT IS TESTING HERE FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO FIND MORE SUCCESS LATER IN THE SEASON TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “It’s important testing here for actually racing here. It’s not very relevant anywhere else. It’s a pretty unique track. It’s very nice, fast, flowing circuit. We’ll get as much as we can out of testing here. Obviously when we go to St. Pete, it is a very different track. Very bumpy, low grip and different tires. I think we’re prepared for that too. We expect to be fighting for the win in the first four races for sure.”
 
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR AJ (ALLMENDINGER) TO KEEP HIM FROM GETTING FRUSTRATED?  “I think he’s doing a bloody good job for someone who hasn’t been in these cars for seven years or something. He’s been driving a stock car which is so different to an Indy car, especially around this place where downforce plays a big part. The car’s just stuck, and it’s really hard to understand the limit. But he keeps creeping up. He keeps getting closer. I think where he is right now, he’s in a good place. He doesn’t need to get frustrated. He just needs to chip away at it, and he’ll get there because he’s been really fast in open wheel cars.  He just gets better every time he goes out, so he shouldn’t feel discouraged at all.”
 
YOU SAID YOU WENT TWO SECONDS FASTER THAN QUALIFYING LAST YEAR. DO YOU THINK THAT IS JUST FROM WORK THAT HAS BEEN DONE OVER THE WINTER ON THE CAR? “Yes, work that was done over the year last year. Also engine work. And, it is little cooler which helps grip. It is just a very fast situation?
 
IS THERE SOMETHING ABOUT THE BRAKING ZONES HERE? “You don’t really brake here in IndyCar. There is only one place you brake really. It is the cars. It’s the temperatures. Remember, we are on black tires, so you can imagine when you put the reds on. It’s going to be fast.”
 
ARE YOU RUNNING THE TEST ON THE TIRES YOU WILL RACE ON? “No, you don’t get to run on the red tires – the soft compounds. We are just running on the black compound. We don’t get to use the reds until we qualify. The reds should degrade quicker than the blacks. Hopefully they keep it as it was last year because that made for really good racing.”   
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “Wow it was fun to get back out there today in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. The car was really fast and P2 today shows all the hard work the Team Penske and Chevrolet guys have put in over the offseason. The grip was incredible and the close times today show how competitive the racing will be this year. Hopefully tomorrow is another good day so we can keep getting ready for St. Pete.”
 
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING:  “I think it was a good day. We lost a little bit of time so we didn’t get to run that much. But, I feel like every time we were on the track we made improvements and that’s what counts. I think we can be pretty happy with the day and hopefully we can even make a step more forward tomorrow.”
 
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “It’s good to finally be back on track. We had a lot of down time today sorting out a couple of things in the #11 KV Racing car and did not put in the amount of laps that we were anticipating, but we still had a productive day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to get more laps in the car. St. Pete can’t come soon enough.”
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S PREMIUM ULTRA VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “I was pleased with how we started out today. We made some good gains at the test at Sonoma last week. So we are ahead of our setup from last year here. We made good adjustments through the lunch hour. But we hit a bit of a wall in the afternoon. What is good about our team now is that we know the direction we are headed. That wasn’t the case last year. We were still learning some much about the team and the car in the first year. Overall, I think we have now found a good start for Wednesday’s testing. Being a one-car team, we are really trying to find things on our own. So the learning process is a little slower for us than the multi-car teams. But I am pleased where we are headed right now.”
 
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “Today wasn’t the best day as we had some issues with the car causing us to not have much time on track. We’ve got work to do, some new things to try, and some ground to make. Tomorrow we are going to restrict our running time as we do not want to put too many miles on this engine, but we still look to accomplish a lot more than we did today.”
 
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “It was a very interesting day for us as we continued to try different things from the last couple of tests. Our main goal was to get me connected with the team, my new engineer and for my team to get to know my driving style and I think from that aspect it was a very successful day. We were not satisfied with the times, but we were also on a different plan than others and I am looking forward to tomorrow as we have a lot of space for improvement. I am very satisfied with my crew and how we are
getting to know each other like a family.”
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 2 IZOD TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING:
“Today was another positive step in the learning process and I thought the No. 2 IZOD Team Penske Chevrolet showed some good speed. We need as many laps as we can get but my teammates are being great about sharing information to accelerate the learning curve and I am excited to see what we can get done tomorrow.”
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA/PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “I’m extremely happy to be with Andretti Autosport. The setup that we used was very refreshing and it’s nice to start the season with all good things. I’m looking forward to having a great season, and thanks to all my sponsors for the support.”
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY.COM ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S TESTING: “It’s really not a bad start. We had a strong GoDaddy.com car here last year and we knew what to show up with for the most part. Today was a lot of working through a lot of the things the engineers dreamed up during the offseason. Some were good and some were bad, but ultimately, it was good to end up in the top three. There’s still some time to find in all the Andretti Autosport cars, and hopefully, we can go challenge those Penske cars tomorrow.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES
MARCH 10, 2013
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
TALK ABOUT THE BATTLE AT THE END OF THE RACE WITH MATT KENSETH: 
“I had an unbelievable Farmers Insurance Chevrolet.  Throughout the whole race the pit stops were great.  We just came out sixth there which I think Matt (Kenseth) would have beat us out anyways because he didn’t take tires.  Tough to say if we would have gotten by him, but I think just two cycles on left sides I wasn’t quite as good.  I couldn’t turn down the track quite as well as I could the runs before.  It just got greasy out there and that was it.  He beat us, but I had a great day.  I drove so hard every single lap today and I think that is just the new Gen-6 car and the Chevy SS.  It was a lot of fun.  I love it.  I had the car to beat today, we lost, but it was still a great run for all of our guys.” 


 
YOU LED THE MOST LAPS IT JUST SEEMED LIKE YOU WERE DOMINATING THE RACE, BUT AT THE END IT JUST DIDN’T SEEM LIKE YOU COULD CATCH MATT (KENSETH, RACE WINNER) WHAT WERE YOU FEELING?
“I caught him, I just couldn’t pass him.  We definitely had the best car today our Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. Everybody did a perfect job, when I got to him at the end my tires got a little greasy.  I think it was two runs on left-side tires made it a little more difficult to pass that final run there.  Prior to that I could pull down and pass anyone on the track, including Matt (Kenseth) who was out there.  Just that last run just wasn’t quite as good on two runs on left sides.  We still had a great day.  My engine ran unbelievable, the car was perfect and the guys did an awesome job.  We just didn’t get the win.”
 
HOW GOOD DID IT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT THREE OF THE FOUR HENDRICK CARS WERE IN THE TOP-FIVE, TOP-10 ALL DAY?
“Well I could see them all day.  I battled with Jimmie (Johnson) at one point.  He was quick during the middle part of the race.  Our testing went really well over the off-season with the Gen-6 car and I really felt confident coming into a 1.5-mile track that we would have a great shot and we did.  Our cars were quick all day.” 
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY ORANGE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SEVENTH


TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY NOT TOO BAD: 
“We ran a little bit better than where we finished, but just needed a little track position at the end.  Couldn’t really get going, just didn’t, I don’t know, the car was pretty good, not exceptional, but we got a pretty good little start to the season.  We are working on it trying to improve and we are running up front.  So, real happy with that, real happy with our performance.”
 
HOW SLICK WAS IT OUT THERE TODAY?
“I loved it.  It was so much fun.  We were moving all over the race track.  Just aside from the bumps, I’m not a big fan of all them bumps down in turn one.  The surface and race ability here is just what all tracks ought to strive for.  There are a few just like it on the circuit like Atlanta, but all the tracks ought to shoot for something like this.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS –FINISHED 6th:
“It was a strong performance for the Kobalt Tools Chevrolet. I wish we could have been in Victory Lane with our sponsor as the race sponsor.”
 
ON BATTLING WITH TEAMMATE KASEY KAHNE
“We were racing really hard. It’s fun to race that fast. We were flying (laughs). But at the end, I just wish we had a little bit more to go up there and race with those guys.  But it was a solid performance, all in all.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/SERTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 20TH
“We just never got up to speed,” said Busch. “The car was loose then it was snug and no matter what adjustments were made we never could find the right balance for this track. We needed one more caution at the end to get back on the lead lap, which would have given us a good opportunity to pick up additional positions. It wasn’t our day.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – SIDELINED WITH ENGINE PROBLEMS ON LAP 235
“I missed a shift. And I missed a shift because of the restart. But that’s my responsibility; not those guys in front of me. It was a disappointing day for the Quicken Loans Chevrolet team. It’s entirely on me. But yeah, the restart, if I wanted to point fingers it was the restart. But it was still my fault.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 RHEEM CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED NINTH
ON HIS RACE:
“The Rheem guys battled hard today, and we were able to pick up our first top-10 finish of the season. Our car was fast, but we had a few issues with the handling during the race. The No. 29 team kept at it all day making changes that allowed us to leave here (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) with a good finish.”
 
Team Chevy Drivers Take Five of the Top-Ten Spots at Las Vegas
Kasey Kahne Dominates Much of the Kobalt Tools 400 to Finish Second
 
LAS VEGAS – (March 10, 2013) – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, led 114 of the 267 laps that made up the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway today, but was not able to make it back to the point after restarting seventh on the final restart.   Kahne came home second and posted his fifth top-ten finish in ten races at Las Vegas.   It was his first top-ten finish of 2013 and he moved from 31st to 14th in the overall point standings.
 
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS, had another solid performance as he came home sixth after running in the top-five for most of the day and leading 66 laps.   Johnson has finished first, second and sixth to start the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and leads the point standings after three events so far this year.
 
Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, finished seventh in today’s event and sits third in the overall point standings.
 
Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet SS, started eighth and finished ninth while his Richard Childress Racing teammate Paul Menard scored his first top-ten finish of 2013 in the Menards/Schrock Chevrolet SS.   
 
Finishing just outside the Top 10 were Tony Stewart, No. 14 MOBIL 1 Racing/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS in 11th and Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet SS was 13th.
 
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was the race winner, Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished third, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fourth, and Carl Edwards (Ford) was fifth, to round out the top five.
 
The series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway next week for the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 17th.  
 
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND:
 
KERRY THARP:  Joining us now also is our race runner‑up, and that’s Kasey Kahne.  He drove the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.  Kasey, you certainly had a car that looked like could win the race, led a lot of laps, passed people, you were fast.  Just talk about how things went out there today for you, and I know you’re trying to track down that 20 there the last few laps.
 
KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, started of the race pretty good, was a little bit too loose, and Kenny Francis and Keith (Rodden, engineer) , they made great calls to tighten the car up and get it driving perfect, and from there on it was about making the right pit calls and the pit stops were good.  I just had an awesome car.  It felt about perfect, I think, throughout three quarters of that race.
 
There at the end we had two cycles on left sides, and I just got kind of ‑‑ M
att did everything right.  That’s when I caught him, I was like, man, this is not the guy you want to have to race with 10 to go because he’s going to do everything right.  You’re going to have to figure out how to squeeze by him.  And you know he had a fast car, too, so it was difficult.  He did a perfect job and we came back second.  But still a good run.  I think we were seventh maybe after that one restart and fought back to second, so we had a great car, did everything right.  We just didn’t quite get there.
 
Q.  I don’t know if you saw Kyle take a line under the white line.  Did you ever consider making that move to try to overtake Matt?

KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I saw that, the problem was Matt was doing that.  That’s what he was doing.  So I could follow him and kind of stay in his draft a little bit and stick with him about the same amount, and when I didn’t do that, he would pull away.  So it was definitely faster down there if you got a good run off turn four to do that down the front straightaway.  So yeah, he did that so I would have had to go through the grass, and I didn’t want to do that.
 
Q.  Kasey, Matt didn’t take any tires in the last pit stop, and he actually told his team with about 10 laps to go that he thought he’d blown the race.  Did you think at some point you were going to overtake him because of that?

KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I really thought I was, but I just felt like I could have got there, you know, the way the car handled throughout the race and how I could turn down in the center of the corner and carry a ton of speed doing it.  I felt really confident, that when I got to him I’d be able to do that again like I had raced with Kyle (Busch) and Jimmie (Johnson) earlier in the race.  And when I got to Matt I couldn’t do it, so I was trying to brake in and mess with anything that I could, lift early, lift late, try it all, and just couldn’t find a way past him.
 
So he just did a really good job of keeping his momentum up, keeping his speed.  He was cutting across me off the corner.  We were kind of tight, loose and he just put up a great battle and pulled it off on told tires, did a good job.
 

Q.   Kasey, there was a lot of criticism coming into this week about the new car, seemed like they were pretty racy out there, a lot of guys moving up through the field.  Could I get your impressions on the new car?

KASEY KAHNE:  My car drove good.  I felt like I could pass, I could race underneath the car, do things that maybe I wouldn’t have been able to do in the past.  First time on a mile and a half with this new Gen‑6 car, and I would say to have the same tires ‑‑ this is the same tire, also, which we didn’t have last week, which was a big part of the Phoenix deal.
 
I think the car itself today was ‑‑ I had a lot of fun driving it, and I thought it was a heck of a race.  I got to race through cars, traffic and battle for the lead four, five, six times.  I felt really confident with our Chevy SS.
 
Q.  We had the restrictor plate at Daytona, we had the kind of unconventional layout at Phoenix.  Some races just look visibly fast watching it. Today looked like a bunch of guys that had kind of been cut loose.  Did it feel like that out there today because it just looked fast?

KASEY KAHNE:  I wasn’t surprised by the pace because of the practice speeds, and the pace that we could run there for 10 or 15 laps, depending on how long we stayed out in practice.  Today with it being hotter and a little bit slicker, like Brad said, I thought it was a lot of fun.  I mean, you could get a little bit loose and not have to like call it quits and get on the brakes and onto the gas and all that, you could just kind of drive through it and ease back on the throttle.  It was exciting.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed driving the car today and thought the pace was up.  I’ve never had great cars here, I’ve had some pretty good ones, but today I’ve never driven that hard for 267 laps before, either.

Q.  Kasey, oddly on the final laps you and Kenseth are chasing each other and you’ve got a deal with the lap traffic in front of you.  Who’s got the spotter communication?  Are you listening to it in the car and urging them?  What’s going on with both parties in terms of the communication on that stretch run?

KASEY KAHNE:  Yeah, I mean, for myself I’m just kind of paying attention to what’s Matt’s doing and what I need to do and where I need to place my car in order to try to get a run on him and at least get beside him and see what can happen from there.  As far as the spotters, Matt’s spotter is probably trying to talk to a few of the guys that we were lapping saying, hey, give us some space, whatever.  I was hoping maybe they’d run Matt’s line and he’d have to go to the bottom and I thought maybe I could get a run that way.  I think we eased through six or seven lap cars there and most of them went to the bottom and you could pass them fairly easy.  It wasn’t too bad.  It didn’t slow Matt up at all, which I was hoping someone at some point would slow him up a touch, but it never happened.
 
 Q.  How important are the restarts at this point because the last two restarts looked very, very hairy, and to hear everybody say that they want to be in clean air, obviously there’s an advantage up there.  Can we expect some of the best action now to be coming out of the restarts?

KASEY KAHNE:  I felt like the ‑‑ I thought restarts last year meant a lot, and if you didn’t get a good restart you’d lose those spots and it would take 40 laps before you could get back by that guy.  I thought similar today everybody was trying to push a little bit, slow up, get a bump on the straightaway.  Matt about crashed doing that, he spun his tires or tried to wait for Carl a little bit.  But he had him completely sideways and in front of us.  I think it’s big, to try to get through (turns) one and two as quick as you can and get position on another car is key.  If you can do that and get one or two spots, you’re making it a lot easier on yourself for the next 40, 50 laps of that race run.
 
Q.  We’ve had three very different tracks so far.  Next week we go to another one, Bristol.  Have you guys had much practice on the half-mile and do you have a feel for how this car is going to race on a short track?

KASEY KAHNE:  I haven’t.