No. 01 CKS Camaro GS.R Leads Team Chevy in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Season Opening Race at Daytona
 
Daytona Beach, FL (January 25, 2013) – Eric Curran and Lawson Aschenbach rallied the No. 01 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R from the 23rd starting position to capture a fifth-place finish in today’s BMW Performance 200 for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Daytona International Speedway.
 
Curran started the race, and with steady precision worked his way through the field to run solidly in the top-10 before turning the car over to Aschenbach. As he exited the pit box and headed down pit lane, Aschenbach was issued a speeding penalty that dropped the Camaro GS.R down in the running order. As the minutes clicked down on the 2.5-hour race, Aschenbach charged back.
 
In the final laps of the race, an exciting battle for position developed between Aschenbach and John Edwards in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R that saw the pair of Chevy drivers swapping positions back and forth.  On the last lap, Aschenbach made his final move to get by Edwards to claim fifth and sixth respectively in the final running order.
 
Edwards took over the No. 9 Camaro GS.R from co-driver Matt Bell who started the race from the seventh position on the grid. Bell maintained a consistent presence in the top-five until turning the car over to Edwards.
 
Ashley McCalmont and Bob Michaelian finished 17th in the No. 00 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R, and Lawrence Davey and Mike Skeen were 23rd in the final running order.
 
Today’s race was the prelude to the 51st running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona for the GRAND-AM Rolex Series.  The race will start at 3:30 p.m. E.T. on Saturday, January 26, 2013.
 
Next on the schedule for Team Chevy in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will be the March 2, 2013 inaugural event at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Richard Westbrook led the Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) entries in qualifying for the 51st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Englishman, who won the first-ever race for the Corvette DP, put the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP in the fifth starting position for the legendary race that begins Saturday at 3:30 p.m. E.T.
Additionally, Alex Gurney qualified the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing “Red Dragon” Corvette DP in the eighth starting position, and Stephane Sarrazin was ninth in the final order behind the wheel of the No. 3 8 Star Motorsports Corvette DP.
 
The remaining Corvette DPs qualified as follows:  Christian Fittipaldi, No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP – 11th; Max Angelelli, No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP – 12th and Joao Barbosa, No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP – 13th.
 
In the Grand Touring (GT) class for the GRAND-AM Rolex 24, Robin Liddell qualified the No. 57 Stevenson Camaro GT.R in eighth position in-class.  The No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette, qualified by Eric Curran, will start 23rd in-class.
 
Matt Bell, No. 9 Stevenson Camaro GS.R, led the Team Chevy contingent in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge with an eighth-place qualifying effort.
 
Other Camaro GS.R qualifying results for the BMW Performance 200 2.5-hour race on Friday afternoon beginning at 1:45 p.m. E.T. were: Bob Michaelian, No. 00 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R – 22nd; Lawrence Davey, No. 6 Mitchum Motorsports Camaro GS.R – 23rd and Eric Curran, No. 01 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R – 24th.
 
Scott Pruett (BMW) won the pole for the Rolex 24. Nick Tandy (Porsche) was the fastest GT qualifier, and Jade Buford (Aston Martin) won the pole for the BMW Performance 200.
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TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
RICHARD WESTBROOK, NO. 90 SPIRIT OF DAYTONA CORVETTE DP – QUALIFIED FIFTH
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING RUN?
“It’s a 24 hour race so qualifying is not as important as it normally is. The car felt really good. We are no match for the BMW’s at the moment, but I think we will be a lot closer in the race. It’s nice to be the first Corvette and it’s just good to start a 24 hour race at the right end. We didn’t really know where we were going to be after practice, but really happy. Really happy for our new sponsor Visitflorida.com and to be the first Chevy is good.”
HOW HARD IS IT TO GET YOUR CAR SET-UP FOR A 12-TURN ROAD COURSE LIKE THIS?
“The main problem is getting it set up for a 24 hour race because you need a car that is good over a distance not just for one lap. That is why qualifying you shouldn’t really take too much notice of the positions because it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the race is going to pan out. We are pretty confident.”
ROBIN LIDDELL, NO. 57 STEVENSON AUTO GROUP GT.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH
TALK ABOUT QUALIFYING OUT THERE TODAY:
“Well it’s never easy qualifying here at Daytona in this car. At the end of the day we kind of set the car up very heavily towards the race. When we put new tires on we typically struggle with a lot of understeer in the infield. We are quite a long wheel based car, so we struggle with getting the car rotated and powered down. But then the car is very good in the fast section through the bus stop and through the kink on the infield, so we made some time up there and braking into (turn) one. Overall the car felt pretty good. It was pretty much what we expected. Not the fastest car for a qualifying situation, but over the race distance it’s pretty much what we are looking for. I was quite fortunate to get a good tow, a good draft, so I was able to pick up a few spots. I think without the tow we probably wouldn’t have been where we are. I think we are happy because at the end of the day there are a few cars behind us that probably on our right pace should be ahead of us. Right now we are happy, but obviously going into the race the car I think we are in good shape for the 24 Hours we have a good reliable car, a good crew, good teammates, nobody is slow to put in the car. I think in the end that will all play to us over the course of the race.”
MATT BELL, NO. 9 STEVENSON AUTO GROUP GS.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH
HOW WAS QUALIFYING OUT THERE?
“Well…short (laughs). I think considering our car is pretty much new from the driver’s seat forward, the car was really close to what we need. Maybe not for qualifying, but for the race, we are probably not going to do a lot of changes to it. It was a little bit pushy in certain places. I never really got loose so it’s stable and that is kind of what you want in a race car for an endurance race. I think we are in a pretty good position. We would have liked to have used this session a little bit more for some tuning and tweaking because we haven’t had too many laps in the car. Again, considering what the car has been through and what the team has been through, they really nailed it on set up. Kind of a shot in the dark, but they got it right.”
IS THIS A REALLY TOUGH TRACK TO GET THE CAR WHERE YOU WANT IT ALL THE WAY AROUND IT?
“It is a pretty difficult track. It’s a complex place. There is an oval, not a lot of people tune for the oval here, but there are still a lot of high speed sections. The high speed bus stops, high speed braking, high speed into turn one that goes down to a very slow corner. There are the two horseshoes that are very low minimum speed so it can be tricky. Our Camaro is usually very good in the infield. We are a little bit off there we are going to nail it tomorrow I’m sure. That is our cars kind of high point is braking for the infield and pretty much the whole infield. The problem is these newer cars; especially the European imports are just so fast in a straight line that we really have a hard time. It’s a lot easier to make passes with your foot pinned to the floor than it is to try to dive bomb into the bus stop or into turn one. It’s complicated to set up the car, but I think we are pretty close.”
 

Chevrolet Roars into Daytona for Kickoff to 2013 GRAND-AM Road Racing Season; New Team Chevy Racing Display to Highlight Fan Activities for the Weekend
 
For release:
January 23, 2013
 
DETROIT – Chevrolet is ready to get back to racing and kick off the 2013 GRAND-AM Road Racing season. The year will begin with the 51st running of the Rolex 24-Hour at Daytona, a legendary endurance race that tests both man and machine.
 
Following a successful campaign in 2012 which saw the Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype make its competition debut, Team Chevy looks to build on the strength of last season’s eight Daytona Prototype victories that netted the 2012 GRAND-AM Rolex Series Engine Manufacturers’ Championship.
 
This season Team Chevy’s Rolex Sports Car Series roster is comprised of six Corvette DP teams, including the newly established 8Star Motorsports, which will field the No. 3 Corvette DP.  8Star will join Action Express Racing, which fields two entries:  the No. 5 and No. 9 Corvette DPs.  Long-time Team Chevy partner Wayne Taylor Racing will field the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP. Filling out the Team Chevy Rolex DP roster are the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP and the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP.
 
Also competing in the Rolex 24-Hour under the Team Chevy banner will be No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R and the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette GT.R.
 
“The Chevrolet teams in GRAND-AM are well-prepared and excited to kick-off the 2013 race season at Daytona International Speedway,” said Jim Lutz, GRAND-AM Road Racing Program Manager, Chevrolet Racing.  “We will have a strong team and driver line-up in both the Rolex 24 Hour Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring, as well as in the Grand Sport class in Friday’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
 
“We were very pleased with the results of testing in the ‘Roar Before the 24’ early in January. Our teams have been working ’round the clock to be prepared for the season-opener and biggest race of the year.
 
“Success in the Rolex 24 Hour takes a dedicated engineering effort from all of our teams, technical partners and the Chevrolet Racing engineering group to produce cars that are reliable and fast, and to achieve the goal of a trip to Victory Lane.”
 
Race fans at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24 will also have the opportunity to experience the Team Chevy Racing Display, which was filled with show cars, production vehicles, Chevrolet Performance Parts crate engines, and parts and accessories. They are invited to participate in question-and-answer sessions with Team Chevy drivers.
“We’re excited to offer fans of the Rolex 24 a Chevy destination in the DIS infield,” said Maria Stenbom, Chevy Racing Motorsports Marketing Digital & Social/Manager, GRAND-AM. “The Team Chevy Racing Display will have something for everyone. Fans will have the opportunity to ask questions of drivers Lawson Ashenbach, Eric Curran, Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor and Richard Westbrook, Darren Law and Jon Fogarty, and spend time with one of our friendly product specialists and learn more about Chevy’s great vehicle lineup.
 
“I’m especially proud to be able to show the new 2014 Silverado and ZL1 Convertible to our fans!  Also on display are Chevrolet Performance Parts crate engines and an assortment of accessories and performance parts for fans to purchase from their local Chevy dealer. We hope to see you there.”
Ashenbach and Curran will be at the display at 11:45 a.m. on Friday, and Ricky and Jordan Taylor and Westbrook, Law and Fogarty will visit the display at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Fans who sign up with Team Chevy will receive a special commemorative t-shirt.
 
The display opens at 9 a.m. on Friday, January 25.
 
The 51st running of the Rolex 24-Hour will start at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 26 and conclude 24 hours later Sunday afternoon.
 
The opening race of the weekend, the GRAND-AM 200 for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, will also feature Team Chevy entries.  Mitchum Motorsports will field the No. 6 Camaro GS.R joined by the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports GS.R as well as the No. 00 and No. 01 of CKS Autosport.  The two and one-half hour race will start Friday, January 25 at 1:45 p.m. ET.
 
CHEVY RACING CAR AND DRIVER LINEUP FOR THE 51st RUNNING OF THE ROLEX 24 HOUR AT DAYTONA
 
ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES DAYTONA PROTOTYPE (DP):
 
No. 3 8 Star Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette DP
·         Drivers
o   Stephane Sarrazin
o   Nicolas Minassian
o   Pedro Lamy
o   Enzo Potolicchio
o   Anthony Davidson
 
No. 5 Action Express Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP
·       Drivers
o   Christian Fittipaldi
o   Felipe Nasr
o   Nelson Piquet Jr.
 
No. 9 Action Express Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP
·       Drivers
O   Joao Barbosa
o   Brian Frisselle
o   Burt Frisselle
 
No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Chevrolet Corvette DP
·       Drivers
O   Max Angelelli
o   Jordan Taylor
o   Ryan Hunter-Reay
 
No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Chevrolet Corvette DP
·       Drivers
O   Richard Westbrook
o   Ricky Taylor
o   Antonio Garcia
o   Oliver Gavin
 
No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP
·       Drivers
O    Alex Gurney
o   Jon Fogarty
o   Memo Gidley
·         Darren Law
 
TEAM CHEVY IN ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES GRAND TOURING (GT):
 
No. 31 Whelen Chevrolet Corvette GT.R
·         Drivers
o   Eric Curran
o   Boris Said
o   Lawson Aschenbach
o   Brandon Davis
 
No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GT.R
·       Drivers
O   Robin Liddell
o   John Edwards
o   Jan Magnussen
o   Tom Milner
 
CHEVY RACING CAR AND DRIVER LINEUP FOR GRAND-AM 200 FOR THE CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE
 
TEAM CHEVY IN CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE GRAND SPORT (GS):
 
No. 00 CKS Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GS.R
·       Drivers
O   Ashley McCalmont
o   Bob Michaelian
 
No. 01 CKS Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GS.R
·       Drivers
O   Lawson Aschenbach
o   Eric Curran
 
No. 6 Mitchum Motorsports Track Pro Advisor Chevrolet Camaro GS.R
·       Drivers
O   Lawrence Davey
o   Mike Skeen
 
No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GS.R
·       Drivers
O   Matt Bell
o   John Edwards
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PRESEASON TESTING
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 18, 2013
 
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed the new Gen-6 race car, testing today at Charlotte Motor Speedway and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT THE NEW CAR AND HEADING INTO THE 2013 SEASON HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR TEAM:
“Obviously we had some work to do based on our performance last year and the year before for that matter.  We certainly made a lot of changes from the very top of the company to a lot of positions within individual teams.  I feel good about what we have done. I think our preparation, what we have done to be ready before we start building cars is at a different level today than it was last year and even the year before.  I’m excited about what we have going on.  I feel like we have something to prove and looking forward for the opportunity to be able to do that.  As it relates to the new car I think everybody is kind of in the same boat.  It’s an exciting time.  The car is a really good looking car.  It has a lot of potential, as I’ve said before; I think that there has been more work that has gone into this car in the sense of just not the aesthetics but the opportunity to have better races.  As we have evolved the sport into much more of a mile and a half oriented sport it has become harder to have the good close racing that people want to see.  I think the racing is really similar to what it has always been, but I think the fans want more than that today.  A lot of effort has gone into making these cars so that we will have better races.  I’m really excited about that because I think at the end of the day that is the corner stone of this sport.  Is an exciting day at the race track whether you are watching it on TV or watching it at the track, without that the sport is in trouble.”
 
SOME TEAM IS PROBABLY GOING TO CONNECT WITH THIS CAR EARLY.  WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO BE THE MAGIC BULLET?  IS IT GOING TO BE SOMEBODY WITH A REAR SUSPENSION DEAL, IS IT GOING TO BE AERO?  WHAT IS GOING TO STAND OUT EARLY ON?
“I wish I knew that because then we would be that guy.  Honestly, we talk a lot about trick, but I will tell you that I’m not a trick guy.  I believe that you have to have an entire package.  When you have that entire package you may kind find a trick that makes that package better, but that doesn’t necessarily transfer to the team next to you in the garage.  The teams that will do the best have done a good job of understanding the aerodynamics of this car.  Understanding the chassis stuff, we don’t have rear bars now.  It’s a combination of all those things.  I don’t think it’s going to be just that a team just said ‘wow we found this trick little piece and put on the car.’  It’s more about understanding the entire package and maximizing the package, then having a grasp on what maximizing the package means from one track to the next.  What you do here isn’t going to work when you go to Phoenix.  It is understanding the car, understanding your driver, understanding the things you are dealing with, understanding the tires, understanding all that stuff and putting a package together that works with all that.  I don’t think it’s one thing.”
 
YOU HAVE TALKED ABOUT YOUR STRUGGLES THE PAST YEAR OR TWO AND TRYING TO GET THINGS STRAIGHTENED OUT AND BACK ON TRACK.  IS IT A GOOD THING THAT YOU GUYS HAVE A NEW CAR OR IF THAT GOING TO BE ANOTHER ISSUE THAT YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH?
“I think the timing of the car is good for us as a company.  I think that by anybody’s measurements we didn’t have a good year through the company last year.  We went almost the whole year without winning a race.  Kevin (Harvick) won really late in the year.  So for us, I think it’s easier when there is a whole new car with a lot of new rules, a new rear rule package.  I think it is easier to start over than it is taking an existing vehicle and starting over.  It gives us a chance to stop and say ‘okay what is the best way to develop a car’ and through that build a program that works for that.  I think the timing of that is good for RCR (Richard Childress Racing) in general.  Whether that will yield results or not we will see.  I think the timing of it is good for us.”
 
HOW MUCH TIME HAVE YOU HAD IN THE GEN-6 CAR ON AN INTERMEDIATE TRACK LIKE THIS AND IS IT WORRISOME WITH EVERY MINUTE THAT PASSES OF THE TESTING TIME YOU ARE NOT GETTING?
“This will be my fifth time in the Gen-6 car.  Testing is valuable, there is no question about it, but if we got two hours today, everybody got two hours.  So, we have had a fair amount of test time with the cars.  This test is a bonus.  The last time I remember doing testing like this was when the Taurus was first introduced.  We came over and we were working on the Taurus.  I view this as a bonus test.  We wouldn’t normally get this.  Again, if we get two hours then the whole field gets two hours.  Again, it’s about the teams that are most prepared.”
 
A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE SKEPTICAL, BASED ON THE PERFORMANCE THE LAST TWO YEARS, IF RCR CAN REBOUND.  WHAT HAS YOU EXCITED THAT THERE CAN BE A TURN AROUND?
“The direction of the company, the mindset of the company in regard to ‘what do we have to do to be better’, the commitment to that, the commitment to, I’m going to call it, a new philosophy.  Those things are there and those things are real.  I won’t sit here today and guarantee you that is going to give results.  I believe it will.  You are right we have to show it.  For me to sit here today and tell all you guys we are going to do this and we are going to do that, I think is ridiculous.  I can tell you that the commitment to improve is there.  The philosophy to improve is there.  It is a different philosophy; it’s a different way of doing business than we have done it before.  It’s what I have believed in and that is why I’m optimistic.  We will see.  I believe in my heart things will be a lot better.  Every team in that garage works hard too.  It will be a challenge.  I truly believe it’s going to be a lot better.”
 
ARE YOU TREATING THE FIRST FEW RACES AS A TEST SESSION TO UNDERSTAND THE CAR BETTER?  AS A REFERENCE POINT CAN YOU GET THE PACKAGE FROM THE OLD CAR MODIFIED TO THE NEW CAR JUST TO HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT YOU CAN DO?
“I think that racing is a set of building blocks.  Every testing event, every race, every year you keep putting blocks on top of the next block.  You are building more and more information.  We are certainly going to use the information that we have from last year.  We use information that we have from 10 years ago.  You learn and you apply what you learned.  I think that it is a continuing evolution of your thought process.  As far as using the first few races for a test I mean honestly, no different than any other year.  We are going to go to the Daytona 500 with the best stuff we know how to win with.  We are going to go do everything we can to be successful.  When we got to the Fourth of July race in Daytona those things will be different because we will be smarter, we will have learned more.  It’s no more test session than every other week is a test session.  You are always hoping to be good.  You are always hoping to be able to learn something from one week to apply to the next week.  I don’t view this car being any different in that regard.  I think the learning curve could be quicker.  When you have the same basic car for three years you are going to learn a whole
lot less in that last year than you did in the first year.  I think that the learning curve could be steep.”
 
DO YOU SEE ANYTHING IN THESE CHANGES THAT FOR YOU PERSONALLY SEEM LIKE A PRESENT, A CHRISTMAS PRESENT IN A SENSE?
“It’s an interesting question because I had a conversation with another member of the media at Daytona and there was conversation about this car is going to have more downforce and you won’t have to drive the car as loose.  I said on the outside that makes sense, but on the inside typically I like cars set-up looser than my teammates.  So, you never know.  There is nothing that I look at that I just look at this car and say ‘wow that is really going to benefit me’.  Honestly, what I pay attention to is what we need to do with the No. 31 to benefit me.  The thing that has been hard the last two years and it’s something I haven’t dealt with much in my career is that the things that Kevin (Harvick) has liked haven’t worked for me.  That hasn’t been a good thing.  That hasn’t always been like that at RCR.  It just kind of popped up for some reason.  We really felt a lot of the same things before.  Although we wouldn’t run the same set up’s we would have a lot of the same comments and over the last couple of years we haven’t.  That has been a difficult thing.  It hasn’t been just me either.  It’s kind of been throughout the company.  One driver likes this, the other driver likes that we are not in the same area.  That has been very confusing.  I’m answering you question in a really long way because I don’t really know how to answer it other than to say that I’ll tell you in a few weeks.  I will tell you in a few months.  At the end of the day, us doing a good job with whatever the rule package is that is what it’s about.  We’ve got to give me what I need to be successful.  If we do that then we will be doing the right things we need to do.”
 
YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH THESE SITUATIONS BEFORE WHERE YOU’VE STRUGGLED, AND PEOPLE WONDER HOW MUCH LONGER ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO IT AND HOW MUCH LONGER WILL YOU KEEP YOUR RIDE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT GOING INTO THIS YEAR? DO TESTS LIKE THIS CREATE MORE URGENCY BECAUSE OF ALL THE TALK?
“Well, you know, I want to be respected by my peers. And that does matter to me. I think anybody who says it doesn’t is a pretty shallow individual and I think you always want to be respected by the things around you. I don’t want to be in the conversation about is he going to have a ride or whatever; I don’t want to be in there because honestly, the reason I don’t want to be there is because that means things aren’t going well. I understood 20 years ago, more than that; I understood 25 years ago, when somebody started paying me to drive a race car, that it was different than driving for your dad. And I don’t drive for my dad. I drive for my boss. And he has bosses. He has sponsors that require and demand, as they should, success. And so, I’m tough enough to handle the pressure. If I wasn’t, I would have never accepted a position 25 years ago to get paid by somebody. I don’t want to be involved in those conversations because I enjoy coming in and talking to you guys (media). I enjoy it. And to talk about those things isn’t fun. We’re not moving the ball. We’re not making the sport better. It’s just a conversation about bad things. So, I don’t like to be involved in that because of that. And it really has nothing to do with the perception or any of that. It’s just that I want to talk about the good things and the fun things. I understand not everything is fun about racing. You are going to have some tough days. But generally, it needs to work well. And I have no interest in just being here. I have no interest in getting a paycheck just to show up and drive. I want to bring energy. I want to bring excitement. I want to have enthusiasm. I want to be part of a fight. I want to leave the track disappointed when we do badly. And that’s what you have when you’re doing well. So, that’s the reason I don’t want to be involved in those conversations. I can tell you this as the God’s honest truth: I’ve been paid to drive race cars for a long time. But I’ve never driven race cars to get paid. Does that make sense? I drove race cars because it was my passion. And I do it today because it’s my passion. I’ve been fortunate enough to get paid; I’m one of the few people, I live a blessed life. I get paid to do my hobby. But that doesn’t mean it’s still not; just because I get paid, I still don’t have a passion for it. So I want to be successful. I want to race Jimmie Johnson for the championship. I want to have the pressure going to Homestead (that) if you don’t get it done, Burton, you’re going to finish second. I want that pressure. That’s why I do it. The other pressure sucks. It’s not fun. So that’s the reason why. I just really don’t want to be in those conversations because it’s just no damn fun.”
 
WHO DO YOU FEEL WILL ADAPT THE QUICKEST?
“That is a tough question. It is not a mistake that you have a group of drivers that consistently run well, Matt (Kenseth) being one of them. The people that have benefited by this the most are the people that have found a way to know more about it than their competitors. That is who is going to benefit by it. As good as Matt Kenseth is, if his team has looked things wrong over the last three months and they go to Phoenix with the wrong philosophy, he isn’t going to be successful. I don’t have a way to answer that question other than to say that the teams that are the most prepared and understand it the most, individual teams and companies are going to have the most success.”
 
WHAT IS UP WITH HARRISON (BURTON-JEFF’S SON) THIS COMING YEAR? ARE YOU FEELING HEAT FROM HIM KIND OF COMING UP BEHIND YOU AND ARE YOU SPENDING A LOT OF MONEY ON HIM? “I hope so, and yes. (Laughs) He does drive for his Father, I need to get him a boss! We are moving into the late model thing full time, so we actually go Sunday and Monday to test. It that goes well, we’re going to race him in Georgia next weekend. Then the plan is to run him down in New Smyrna for eight races in nine nights. Then from there, we don’t really have a hard schedule because we’re waiting to see how he evolves and where he is. We want to put him in a position where it is hard for him, but not too hard. Until we really get a chance to evaluate him, it’s hard to know. So, we are remaining flexible.  We haven’t put a hard schedule around him. We’ll see where his talent is at this point, and then we’ll make the decision about what we need to do with him.”
 
ISN’T IT TRUE THAT WE REALLY DON’T KNOW WHO MIGHT BE GOOD DESPITE WHO HAS BEEN IN NATIONWIDE CARS, OR WHO HAS BEEN IN THE OLD CAR, OR WHO HAS BEEN OR WHO HASN’T BEEN?
“Y’all don’t take this the wrong way, but we don’t know in the garage, and that means y’all don’t know either. (LAUGHS WITH MEDIA AUDIENCE). No disrespect intended, but it’s fun, I’m a sports fan too, and it’s fun to sit down before the year and say ‘This is the team that’s going to win the Super Bowl.’, but how many of us are wrong? By far the majority of us are wrong. It’s fun to try and analyze it and say ‘Well this guy did this in 1932, and this guy did that. And this team did this.’  All that is fun. Every year is a new year. Again, it’s not a coincidence that certain drivers have success no matter what their situation is. That’s not a coincidence. I think none of us know. We’ve all been surprised before how teams we expected were going to be really good weren’t, and how teams we didn’t think were going to be very good, were much better than we thought. Then we also fall into the trap of there is always the team early in the year, like eight or nine races in ‘WOW, where did they come from.’ Then the year is over and they aren’t there anymore. We always fall into that trap too. You just never know, and I d
on’t think any of us know right now.”
 
YOU SAID EARLIER YOU THINK THIS CAR CAN LEAD TO BETTER RACING, FROM THE SEAT, WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT YOU FEEL THAT MAKE YOU BELIEVE THAT?
“My theory is based on years of experience, and watching what is going on with this sport; how it’s evolved.  We’ve gone through this thing-a lot of downforce; little downforce; a lot of grip; low grip; all these different tire combinations. At the end of the day, the better the cars are stuck in the race track, the closer the cars run to each other. A lot of us remember years ago that we went to the five in five rule when we took downforce off, and the racing suffered from that.  When the COT first came out, Goodyear was still using the tires it had used the year before.  The cars didn’t drive very well at all, and the quality of racing suffered. Especially on big tracks, the better the grip is, the closer the action can be. NASCAR, Goodyear, everybody…has gone into this process saying ‘Okay, can we take downforce off and put a lot of mechanical grip in it?’ ‘Will that make better racing?’ They’ve looked at a lot of different things, and what’s come out of it is it appears that more downforce; more grip; those things are going to make the racing better. I believe we are going to make more grip this year than we have ever made.
 
“Now that’s not to say every race is going to be the greatest race in NASCAR’s history. We have to have realistic expectations.  Some races are going to be boring. Some football games are boring. Some basketball games are boring. But, the average race has got to be a fun race to watch. I believe that more grip gives the drivers more opportunity to put their car in a position that they wouldn’t be able to put it if they didn’t have that grip. That’s why I think the racing is going to be better. I may be wrong, we’ll see. I think we have to change our mind set too because you track where the sport has gone-we don’t at North Wilksboro anymore, so we lost two short track races. We used to run two races at Darlington, we now run one. We used to run two races at Rockingham-we don’t run any. We replaced them with either flat one-mile race tracks, or with mile-and-a-half tracks. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that if you put 43 cars on a half-mile race track, you’re going to have more action than if you put 43 cars on a mile-and-a-half race track.  So we have got to find a way to get the cars closer together on a mile-and-a-half tracks. How do we do that? The only way to do that is to make them drive better. Slow them down a little bit; make them drive better, and try to get them closer together so you have more action.
 
“I’m of the belief, and I may be wrong about this as I am of everything, but I’m of the belief that our fans expect more today than they did 10 years ago. I watch a lot of racing as you guys do, I just don’t think the racing is different last year as it was 10 years ago, but a lot of fans do. I think the expectation level is raised with the advent of the X-Games. With the advent of people jumping motorcycles on top of the thing in Las Vegas three years ago on New Year’s. I think the expectation level has got raised. We have to match that. We have got to find a way to get there. The only way to do that is create more action. People don’t want to go to the race track and watch a car get eight seconds out in front of the second place car. They don’t want to watch that. They want to see a race. The only way to do that is put the cars in closer proximity to each other I think.”
 
YOU SEND MORE DOWNFORCE, MORE MECHANICAL GRIP. IS IT NOT LESS DOWNFORCE ON THESE CARS?
“It is a ton more downforce on these cars. So, to be clear, the speedway cars have a lot less downforce. So there is a lot less downforce on the Daytona/Talladega cars assuming they don’t change the spoiler between now and then, and there is quite a bit more downforce on every other car. So the Daytona/Talladega packages are completely different. That spoiler is (makes hand gesture). These spoilers are tall enough that you almost can’t see over the top of them. Matters of fact, some drivers have complained they can’t see over them. It is just two completely different packages.”
 
THERE IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT INSPECTION PROCESS FOR THE NEW CARS WITH THE USE OF LASER. IS THAT GOING TO MAKE THE COMPETITION EVEN MORE EVEN?
“I think one of the things we suffer from too is that our sport is a lot different than every other sport. In every other sport, they play on a field; they’re 100 yards. Baseball fields I know are a little different. The bases are the same distance apart. Major League Baseball provides a baseball. NFL provides a football. So we have a sport in which we all race each other every week. It’s not Duke vs. Carolina, it’s all of us every week. We race at completely different facilities every week, and we bring the ball with us. So, there are a lot of moving targets. And so one of the things that our sport has always suffered from, whether it’s true or not, is that when Jimmie Johnson wins five championships, oh, it’s because his car is different than everybody else’s. They’re cheating, they’re doing this, and they’re doing that. I think anything we can do to expose the fans to all of the rules, so that when NASCAR makes a call during the race, they understand that they weren’t trying to favor Earnhardt Jr. because they made a call on pit road, or that the rule was enforced, they didn’t make it up as they go, the better we are. And that goes for the inspection process as well. The better we have an opportunity to show the fans, look, every car rolls across this thing, here’s all the numbers, it prints out for everybody, unless there’s somebody up there with, you know, the man behind the curtain well here comes this car so let’s push this button, you know, I think it takes away some of that crap where people think oh well, they made this rule for this, you know? So I think it’s a good thing. It’s an extremely expensive proposition for NASCAR, but I think keeping us in a box is a good idea and I think letting the fans know that everybody gets to bring their own ball, okay? That’s part of the sport. That’s one of the coolest parts of the sport, but there are limitations to what they can do to that. And the more we can show them how we police those limitations, the better off we are, I think.”
 
IF THESE CARS HAVE MORE DOWNFORCE, DOES THAT MEAN THEY’RE GOING TO BE SOMEWHAT EASIER TO DRIVE FOR YOUNG DRIVERS COMING UP OR FOR SOMEBODY LIKE DANICA PATRICK, WHERE THE TRANSITION INTO SPRINT CUP IS GOING TO BE EASIER?
“Well, they’re going to make more grip. Whether that’s easier or not, I don’t know because the more grip they make, the harder you drive them. And you still have to find that edge. You still have to find that limit. So if no one else was here, and you went out in a car that made more grip, then yes, it’s easier. But, when you bring 45 or 48 other cars, and everybody’s trying to go faster than the next guy, then all of a sudden it’s hard again. So yeah, just driving it all by yourself and not watching a stopwatch, without a doubt it’s going to be a little easier in some sense, but whenever we start running today, everybody in that garage is going to start looking at how are we? Are we fast enough? How much do we need to pick-up? And that’s when it’s going to get hard. And even if it makes high grip, you’re still going to have to drive it really, really hard. The higher grip they make, the harder you have to drive it. And it requires less finesse. It requires more right foot and less brain. And so I wouldn’t say it’s going to be easier in the sense that everybody’s got the same thing. But just getting in the car, fundamentally they should drive a little better.”
 

 
 
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PRESEASON TESTING
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 11, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS:
 
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t know what started it.  I know we were in a pack drafting, just trying to learn the cars and what this aero package is doing.  Some guys started forming a line on the inside and things started getting a little more aggressive at that point.  Somebody must have turned or got turned or something and then they just all started stacking up.”
 
WE HEARD JIMMIE (JOHNSON) TALKING ABOUT THE LACK OF CARS YOU GUYS HAVE.  HOW DETRIMENTAL IS THIS WHEN TWO HENDRICK CARS GET TIED UP LIKE THIS?
“Obviously, they look like the really smart guys in the garage by not drafting.  Everybody has different theories on it.  We feel like we have to go get in those conditions and find out now what we have to deal with to be prepared when we come back here in February, even putting yourself in jeopardy. We will get this car fixed up no problem.  It is definitely going to cause some extra work.”
 
HOW SURPRISED ARE YOU THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN?
“I’m not surprised at all.  We see it every year, maybe not quite this big, but you get down here in packs.  It’s important to be in those packs and learn what you can learn, especially with a new car.  I think you can kind of weigh into both sides of it.  You know when the cars are starting to push and move around a lot more that the chances are getting higher that something is going to happen.  There are some rookies out there as well.  I saw some things happen a couple of laps before that.  You just ride it out and hope you can make it through it.  Unfortunately, we didn’t in this case.”
 
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
“The cars drive pretty well.  You can’t push.  Which I think is a good thing.  The bad thing is, you can still get to the guys bumper, but the cars just don’t line up very well.  You really just shouldn’t even be doing it.  Unfortunately, that is kind of that last little bit of momentum that you need to sometimes make the pass or make your lane move.  So, it’s something that is going to have to be dealt with very carefully.  You are going to have to be cautious when you do it and do it with the right guys, but most of the time you’re going to need to stay away from it. That is certainly something we learned.  The cars really get good momentum and shifts by themselves but they run side-by-side for a long time so it’s not easy to complete the pass.”
 
CAN YOU NOT PUSH BECAUSE YOU ARE LIFTING THE GUY IN FRONT OF YOU UP?
“There is a lack of downforce and then the bumpers just don’t line up like they used to.  Certainly, the Chevy’s they have a little bit more of a point so they really don’t line up very good.  I was pushed by a Ford and it almost spun me.  I don’t know if any of them are really lining up that good.  Especially, with this kind of downforce that is in the cars.  I think it is a great package.  I love it.  We have to kind of start over again, we have gotten so comfortable with running on one another’s bumpers, pushing and being able to do that.  You have to kind of reset a little bit and go back to the way we used to do it where you get close and you still gain momentum and push guys but with the air not necessarily the bumpers.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS:
 
WHAT HAPPENED?
“We were just out there running around.  I felt like Marcus (Ambrose) was backing up to me in (turns) one and two to get a run down the back.  I was just going to give him a push down the back straightaway and see if he could get the lead.  I was trying to eventually get the lead myself.  We got off the back straightaway and were just kind of pushing him along there and our cars sort of just didn’t match up very well.  I got him hooked into the fence.  I pushed Martin (Truex) a little bit in his Toyota and they matched up good.  The bumpers were good, didn’t have any problem with any of the cars.  That is the first time I pushed a Ford.  The roll bar of the front of my car is just at the right place where his car sets right up on top of that.  I sort of had him going down the back straightaway like a forklift.  It was a big mess and tore up a lot of cars down here trying to work on their stuff.  Definitely the drafting is not like it used to be.  You can’t really tandem certain cars; certain cars don’t match up well.  Our bumpers on the Chevy’s have a little bit of a point. It makes it a little bit of a challenge to get into guys and kind of help them.  We definitely weren’t doing that in the corner at all because it was pretty hairy trying to do it on the straightaways.”
 
DOES THIS REALLY CHANGE THE MENTALITY HERE NOW?
“Pretty much, yeah.  It’s going to take a lot more care and concentration and just knowing kind of what is at stake.  Certain cars you line up okay with and can push fine and for whatever reason mine and Marcus’ (Ambrose) car didn’t line up good.  We got our bumpers together and it hooked him.  For whatever reason you’ve got to be careful who you are working with.”
 
DO YOU THINK THE RACING IS GOING TO BE BETTER?
“Yeah, I think the racing will be better because it doesn’t look like we will be able to tandem.  The cars are down 50 percent on downforce in the back.  They are real tail happy.  A lot of guys are really having a lot of snaps and moments out there on the race track where they are getting loose.  With that in mind you are definitely not going to be pushing anybody through the corner.”
 
BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS WHEN YOU WERE DOMINATING PLATE RACES?
“Well I’m not setting it up to say I’m going to run better because of this package, but the racing will be different.  It’s definitely a movement back toward the way the cars used to be.”
 
DID IT SURPRISE YOU THAT ALL OF THIS UNFOLDED AN HOUR INTO IT AND THAT THE CARS DIDN’T MATCH UP?
“Yeah, I was real surprised.  Marcus’ (Ambrose) car was a bit of a handful.  He was really loose into the corner and off of the corner, but I thought we were just going to get on going down the back straightaway.  He was going to drive to the inside of the leader and take the lead.  For whatever reason it just didn’t work.”
 
IS THIS A FORD REAR TO A CHEVY NOSE THING? OR IS THIS A MARCOS AMBROSE AND DALE (EARNHARDT) JR. THING?
“No, it’s not really between me and him.  He didn’t do anything wrong.  I think it was my responsibility not to wreck him.  He doesn’t have much control at that point. That was the first Ford I had pushed.  I don’t know.  You don’t want to push too many Ford’s if you can help it.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS:
 
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“I really don’t know.  I was two or three rows back.  I just saw the No. 9 get turned and then obviously it was just a wreck.  I was along for the ride after that.”
 
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED OUT THERE TODAY?
“The first drafting session we were really loose.  The cars drove okay not really around people.  When I got someone in front of me, beside me and behind me, the car was really unstable.  We worked on tightening the car up for the second draft.  I never really got to put myself in the same situation again.  I felt like we learned some stuff.”
 
 
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than
4.5 million cars and trucks a year.  Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design, and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PRESEASON TESTING
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 11, 2013
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed the test session, his health, off season testing and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW WAS THE CAR OUT THERE?
“It is pretty similar to what we have had here in the past.  This place is pretty smooth as far as bumps and handling there are not a lot of characteristics.  The car doesn’t get loose or tight or anything like that going around the track. You just kind of hold onto the mat and drive around the bottom.  It’s not going to really be a whole lot different as far as the way the car feels than anything I’ve driven here in the last 12 years.  Just looking for speed you just go out there and run laps. Put something on the car, put a new piece on the car or change a piece, go out and run laps and hope that you knock a few thousandths off the run before.  That is just the routine throughout the whole test really.  We will do a little drafting in the afternoon, mainly just out of curiosity.  I don’t know what specifically if anything we will learn during that. We will just do it to see how the cars perform and get a good idea what our strengths and weaknesses are.  Then move back to our single car runs and do all that tomorrow.”
 
IS IT DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO MAINTAIN YOUR FOCUS AND ATTENTION ON WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE THROUGH THIS EARLY MORNING SESSION?
“Yeah, it can be.  As a driver and this is specific to the Daytona tests only, you don’t really have to pay attention to what they are putting on the car, what they change.  If you don’t ask and if you don’t really get into it, rarely will a crew chief include you in that conversation.  They will put whatever they are doing to the car and tell you to go try again.  If I do it that way, yeah, I get really bored and have a hard time staying awake.  I just have a hard time getting through the day.  What I like to do, and it takes pretty little effort, is I just plug into what they are doing. I get out of the car, asked what they changed, why they changed it, why they think that is going to be better, what’s next, why they think that is going to work.  I try to really plug into the kind of technical things they are doing to the car.  It helps me because we have been doing this a long time and something they are doing might dig up a memory of a test or something we tried on some cars back in the DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) days that worked.  So it’s good for me to be involved as much as I can.  So that helps me get to clicking, the day goes by fast when you are plugged in like that.”
 
YOU SPOKE AT THE END OF LAST SEASON ABOUT WANTING TO STAY VIGILANT WITH STEVE (LETARTE, CREW CHIEF) ABOUT DOING A LOT OF OFF SEASON TESTING.  CAN YOU JUST UPDATE US ON THAT?  HAVE YOU HAD SUCCESS WITH THAT?  IS THE NEW CAR MAYBE PREVENTED SOME OF THE TESTING YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO?
“Yeah, being able to build the cars has made our opportunities to test limited at this point.  We will obviously be at Charlotte next week with everybody else and then we will have some opportunities probably after that to go to Nashville and Pikes Peak is an option that we like too, just depends on the weather down there you sort of have to get lucky with the weather, but that is a really good place to test.  They have a pretty nasty bump in (turns) one and two, but (turns) three and four is a really good corner that you can learn a lot from.  We probably won’t go to Walt Disney World just due to the rising costs and being able to acquire the race track. It’s not profitable for them, they are doing a lot of stuff with their sports car stuff down there so, and they make more money doing that than having us come test.  We probably won’t go there.  We will go to Nashville, I would hope two or three times before we end up going to Las Vegas or Phoenix.  We need to learn as much as we can learn.  We have got a lot of rule changes in the cars.  A lot of things are different so we need to try to find where our package needs to be and get a good comfortable idea of where to start when we go to the different tracks.”
 
ARE YOU NERVOUS AT ALL ABOUT FALLING BACK?
“Well I think it is the same for everybody so I’m not really worried.  I think I’m with a great company that excels at times like this when the whole sport is sort of reset.  I think that we have a lot of resources, no reason why we shouldn’t come out as one of the better performing teams, especially right off the bat.  Obviously, when you give somebody a new puzzle some guys might figure out something quicker than others just by chance and ingenuity.  Over the entire scope of the whole change and the whole new car I think that being with Hendrick (Motorsports) is going to be a real advantage.  I’m not really that worried about it.  I just like to work.  I just like to be at the race track working.  I think to believe in momentum means you keep plugging away and you keep working.  For us to sit around and just hope that when we show up to Vegas we are going to have plenty of time to figure things out or hope we are better when we get to Phoenix, I think that is just a pipe dream.  You have got to go to work.  You have to test and put in the time to be better, you’ve got to go to the race track.”
 
LAST NIGHT AT THE FAN FEST THERE SEEMED TO BE A LOT OF ENERGY OUT THERE.  DRIVERS HAVE BEEN TALKING HIGHLY ABOUT THE NEW CAR.  DO YOU JUST KIND OF GET A GOOD FEELING ABOUT THE DIRECTION THE SPORT IS GOING?  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR NEW POTATO CHIP DEAL?
“Somebody asked me on stage last night, what I would change about the sport. We get asked that question pretty much every year at a time like this.  We used to have a lot of answers for that question.  It’s hard to come up with something I would change, something I would do differently now a days.  I’m pretty happy with how things have been.  I feel like that the sport is in a good healthy place.  We have a good opportunity to grow.  With this car we have a chance to do something great and really make a big impact.  It’s on everybody in the sport really as to how that all works out, but, you know, I think all the pieces are there. We have made a lot of changes that were hurdles and speed bumps, but as far as bringing in the double file restarts, and all the things that have happened in the last several years a lot of those changes have really improved the sport.  I think the racing is as exciting as it has been in a long time.  You look at some of these old races and look back at some of the events that we had in the ‘80’s and the ‘90’s, the racing is different.  It always is changing and it always will, but I think we have improved it.  The sport is in a really good place.  This new car has got everybody really excited about the potential.  You have to sort of be careful and reign that in a little bit, but it could be a lot of fun.  The cars look great and that is really important.”
 
TALK ABOUT THE CHIPS DEAL:
“We have been working on this deal for a while.  I didn’t expect it to get that much attention yesterday, but everybody kept texting me, all my friends, wanting bags of chips now.  My girlfriend read me Jeff (Gluck’s) article.  I will bring some in here for you guys as soon as we can get a truck load of them.  I only got one bag each so far.”
 
WHICH FLAVOR DO YOU LIKE BEST?
“The jalapeno I like the best.  I was surprised.  I thought I would like the barbeque the best, but the jalapeno is pretty good.”
 
ARE YOU DOING WELL HEALTH WISE AS FAR
AS THE CONCUSSIONS AND EVERYTHING?  AS AN ATHLETE, BUT ALSO AS A FAN OF THE REDSKINS WHAT DID YOU THINK OF RGIII (ROBERT GRIFFIN III) AND EVERYTHING THAT WENT DOWN LAST WEEKEND?
“As far as everything we went through at the end of the season last year with injuries and all that I feel really good. It was good to get in the car at the end of the year and be able to run a couple of races and get that out of the way.  Get any kind of doubts or questions that you personally had about yourself or your recovery out of the way.  I felt like all that went really good the last several weeks.  As far as how I felt in the car was great.  I feel really good down here.  The off time has been great, but I feel good, ready to go.  Glad I did it the way I did.  I think it gave me a good opportunity to get better faster and come back right and come back sharp.
 
“Yeah, that was very disappointing what happened in the game against the Seahawks with RGIII.  He seems like a really amazing, solid individual and just a good person.  He is great for the community and the team.  So that was really unfortunate to see him go down with an injury.  Hopefully, now that he has his surgery behind him all the recovery and everything will go as planned and he can come back better and stronger.  It was an awesome season.  I think as a ‘skins (Redskins) fan you kind of want to look back on everything as a whole and it was a pretty awesome season.  We haven’t had a lot of wins like that in a long time.  It was fun to watch throughout the year.”
 
INAUDIBLE
“He is in a much different situation as young as he is.  You make different choices as a 22 year-old versus a 38 year-old a much different situation.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR IS IT KIND OF ANCIENT HISTORY FOR YOU MOVING FORWARD OR DID YOU REALLY REFLECT ON WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN?
“I really don’t look back that much.  I only look back on the positives when I think about last year.  With the new car and everything all the question marks about who is going to perform well, who is going to come out of the gate strong.  To find motivation and excitement I look back on how well we performed throughout the year.  How we were leading the points and how things were going mid-point in the season.  How strong we were in the summer, which had been, traditionally for me was a terrible time for me historically.  For some reason last year we were really strong in the summer time.  Just as a team we have improved ever since Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and I started working together.  I’m excited about the car.  I’m excited about the opportunities to discover what makes it work and what makes it go fast.  I think that if we apply ourselves and stay focused we can have a real solid year.  It was a disappointment not to finish as well as we had hoped in the Chase and really go for the championship.  We felt like we were a strong enough team at certain parts of the year to definitely do that.  We definitely have some unfinished business and feel like we can put forth the same effort and the same results this year.”
 
DO YOU HAVE AN INDICATION ON HOW YOU THINK THESE CARS WILL LINEUP IN THE DRAFT AND HOW MUCH WILL YOU MAKE OF WHAT WE SEE IN THE DRAFT TODAY AT A TEST VERSUS WHAT WE MIGHT SEE IN THE DAYTONA 500?
“It’s hard to say.  I don’t really know what the cars will do in the draft.  I expect them to be really similar to the old cars at Daytona.  They have a splitter; they have relatively the same package in the back.  There is a lot less downforce, so I don’t know what that is going to do, how the cars may handle.  We might be able to get cars moving around and guys getting loose having to work on getting the cars tied into the race track which would be good.  That is what made Daytona a lot of fun was when the surface was really slick and you actually had to work on the handle of the car.  I’m excited to be able to do that again whenever we are able to have that happen.  For the most part the cars are still pretty locked into the race track.  The track surface is aging, but it’s still relatively in good shape as far as grip level goes.  The tires are really bullet proof.   They don’t really fall off or wear out that much.  I expect the cars to look similar to what we saw in drafting here in the past.  Then in the races last year, I think it will be pretty similar.  Even today though after we test and draft and all that it’s not going to be a 43 car pack.  The more cars you get out there it really changes the dynamic of the way things work.  It can change the whole look of what the draft pack looks like when you get that many cars out there.  You only see about five or nine or 10 or 12 cars today drafting.  Or however many get out there.  I don’t think it’s a good example of what we will see in the race.”
 
IS YOUR UNFINISHED BUSINESS PRIMARILY WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP?  IS THAT YOUR NUMBER ONE GOAL?
“Absolutely.  With the way we ran last year, getting a real sense that we were starting to compete at that level as a team that had the opportunity to win the championship that felt really good.  It got really exciting.  I think we have an opportunity.  Our time is now.  We have a chance if we can just find some more pieces and keep improving we have steadily gotten better over the last couple of years.  If we can continue to do that and keep applying ourselves and keep working and not get complacent about certain things, then we can be one of those teams that are sitting there in Homestead with a shot at it.  I really believe that.”
 
 
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4.5 million cars and trucks a year.  Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design, and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PRESEASON TESTING
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JANUARY 10, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed the first test session, her expectations for the 2013 season and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
FIRST TIME OUT ON THE TRACK IN THE GEN-6 CAR AND HERE BACK AT DAYTONA TALK ABOUT HOW THINGS WENT FOR YOU AND WHAT YOUR EXPECTATIONS THIS YEAR?
“It’s good to be back.  It was a quick off season, but I’m pleased to be back in the car.  I was happy driving to the track this morning.  It started off a little bit slow.  I had a vibration and they saw that the shift mount was sort of dragging on the drive train or the drive shaft casing or the drive shaft itself.  I don’t know; that is how technical I am.  So, they thought that is where the speed was in the first run and then came in from the second run and it was still the same slow speed.  I shut it off and luckily I shut it off a little bit early coming into the garage.  Just so it doesn’t run and get hot.  They noticed that the car wasn’t rolling.  They kept trying to tell me to do something when I was sitting there. ‘I’m like I don’t know what else to do other than sit here’.  They found that the brakes were dragging so, pushed the brakes back for the last run.  They pushed me out, it probably looked like I was doing a full qualifying run, but we really just pushed the brakes back to see if that is exactly what it was.  Sure enough we popped up the speed chart pretty well.  It’s nice to know that the speed is there so now we will just start with our test plan.  They feel like they have it figured out what is going on with the brakes so we will get going this afternoon.  It’s definitely good to be back in the GoDaddy car.”
 
MANY OF THE SPRINT CUP DRIVERS IN THE CIRCUIT TODAY HAD TOUGH YEARS IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES, BUT SOMEHOW THE STEP FORWARD WAS MUCH BETTER FOR THEM.  DO YOU FEEL BETTER IN THIS CAR THAN YOU DID IN THE NATIONWIDE CAR?
“Well, it’s not like I didn’t do any Sprint Cup running, I did ten races last year.  It was a good warm up for this year.  As far as this new car in particular, I couldn’t even tell the difference between a Nationwide and a Cup car here.  It’s pretty straight forward here at Daytona.  I know that what the most important thing is. I feel as with any team whether it is racing or another sport is that the team itself is critical.  It’s important to have good energy together, understand each other well and work well together.  I feel like the switch over to Tony Gibson and his team at the end of last season for the last two races was a really good change.  I feel like I really saw some potential in having a good year this year. There will undoubtedly be really tough days.  I know the areas that we need to work on.  I think that having that good run at the end of Phoenix there to go for a top-12 finish was a pretty good day.  I think we are all really confident going into this year.  We just have to be optimistic, keep our heads down and stay positive when it gets tough.”
 
BEING NEW TO THE CAR OVER THE NEXT THREE DAYS WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO LEARN?  WHAT CAN YOU LEARN OVER THESE NEXT THREE DAYS?  WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH?
“It’s really going to come from the team side.  I think just playing around with the different things on the car based on the different shape of it. A little bit of aero stuff, a little bit of air box stuff, for me as a driver there is really not all that much to do.  We will see in bump drafting when that finally shows up, probably tomorrow, what that feels like and the differences on pushing with these cars versus the old cars.  But everything I’ve heard so far says that it’s pretty good.  A Chevy to a Chevy has been good.  The fronts of our cars are a little bit sharp in the middle, but they seem to be pushing okay.  As far as just riding around by myself I don’t really think you are going to notice anything.  I’m not anyway.  Some better drivers might have some better feedback for you, but I don’t.”
 
THERE ARE A LOT OF CHANGES HAPPENING THIS YEAR.  YOU’RE MOVING UP IS A CHANGE FOR YOU, BUT IT’S A BIG CHANGE FOR THE TEAMS ALSO, YOU HAVE A BRAND NEW CAR.  CAN YOU SHARE WITH FANS WHAT IT IS LIKE FOR YOU TO MOVE UP, WHILE EVERYBODY ELSE IS REALLY BUSY TRYING TO GET THE CAR READY?
“I don’t think that matters, it’s just the circumstance.  I mean there are a lot of rule changes in NASCAR happening from year to year and definitely this year with the new car.  I know that it was really late getting like decklids and things like that for the team.  They only just got them this past week.  I know that there is a lot of stuff going on that has made the guys kind of work longer, later, especially in these first few weeks of the year.  But that is just what happens when a new car comes out.  I think that for me as a first year full-time in Sprint Cup, I think that a new car is probably a positive for me.  Everybody is starting off on sort of a little bit more of a level playing field.  Who knows maybe this new car will play into my driving style better than the old one.  I’m not really sure.  I have heard it drives a little bit more like a Nationwide car, so maybe it will be something that will be more familiar to me. I think that especially with a new car, being a new driver, I’m not going to be looking for a feeling that the old car gave me; because I don’t really know it that well.  Especially, going with Tony Gibson and the guys for the last couple of races with some different set-ups I think that we will be starting with a clean sheet of paper for this year.  I think that could be a real positive.”
 
DO YOU KNOW EXTRACURRICULAR BEYOND CUP WHAT YOUR NATIONWIDE SCHEDULE IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE AND ARE YOU DEFINITELY NOT DOING THE INDY 500 THIS YEAR?
“I can confirm to you today that I will not be doing the Indy 500.  I am just going to do the Coke 600.  The team and I decided to focus on Cup.  It’s going to be plenty of work as it is.  It’s going to be important for me running for the championship full-time for the first time to really keep myself focused with the Cup car.  But if I do the Indy 500 moving forward it will be with GoDaddy.
 
NATIONWIDE?
“Nationwide I am not sure if that is completely set.  I know there have been some reports that have come out about running for Turner (Scott Motorsports).  We are definitely talking to them trying to figure it out and we are definitely working on that, but there has been nothing signed yet.  The exact dates, the races and the sponsor have yet to be confirmed for all that.  We are working on it, but I would like to.  I think that would be a good weekend to do it.”
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR MINDSET YOU WERE ALWAYS SAYING LAST YEAR YOU WERE NOT GOING TO BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF.  HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING INTO THE FIRST SEASON?  HOW IS THE VISION IN THE CAR?
“The vision is the first thing that popped out with what you were saying.  I feel like I almost sit higher in the car.  I feel like I can see more out the front window.  I don’t know if the dash is lower or not, but these are things probably Tony (Stewart) would know.  I don’t know.  It seems just fine to me.  I feel like I can see better out the front.  I think again just like last year obviously things have been changing for me year to year over the last good few years now.  Again, to just stay relaxed and stay positive, as I said earlier you can’t let the tough days get you down.  I’m sure they are going to happen, so I thi
nk that is going to help us have more better days if we can stay positive and stay up beat.  Tony Gibson (crew chief) has said to all of you guys and said to me that we need to create certain expectation levels as we go along and make them realistic, be smart about them and move them slowly.  That is a really good perspective for him to have.  It’s great to go into the season and think ‘gosh we left off so well’ and we should run top-10 or 15 now every weekend, we are going to do that.  But I think that it is going to be tough to do that every weekend given my first year.  I think everybody has got the right attitude.  Everybody is excited.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS, joined teammate Danica Patrick to talk with the media about his experience at the test session.
 
TALK ABOUT HOW THINGS WENT OUT THERE FOR YOU FIRST PRACTICE AND OUTLOOK FOR THE SEASON HERE AT DAYTONA:
 
TONY STEWART: “We are excited obviously.  We have a lot of work to do to get all three teams ready for the year with the new body changes, so far so good.  The big thing is just getting here and seeing the new look of the cars; I think it really looks good.  It’s nice to see.  I’m glad we finally got away from the Car of Tomorrow that wasn’t, I don’t think, the best of ideas by Gary Nelson (laughs).  It is nice to get back to cars that look like production cars again.”
 
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TESTING YOU ARE GOING TO GET IN, BESIDES THIS WEEK AND NEXT WEEK AT CHARLOTTE, OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS?
 
DANICA PATRICK: “We are going to do a little short track testing next week before Charlotte.  Beyond that we will figure it out.  It probably depends on how these tests go really.  How fast is the car, how well does it handle, how well am I getting up to speed and how well are clicking.  I feel like the team is pretty good at making decisions quick on their feet if we need to go somewhere and do something.  We will address that probably at the end of next week.  Right now I think the testing is pretty well set for these two weeks and then we will regroup at Daytona.”
 
YOU GET A LOT OF ATTENTION IN CYBER SPACE FROM FANS DEBATING WHETHER YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL AT THIS LEVEL.  DO YOU PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THAT STUFF?  DOES IT BOTHER YOU?

DANICA PATRICK: “Well what they say doesn’t create my finishes.  I think it is great that people are talking about me.  It’s great there is a conversation, but I really try not to read those things.  Because at the end of the day they really don’t matter.”
 
THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST YEAR GOING IN AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF TRANSITION IS THERE A DIFFERENT FEELING THAT YOU HAVE GOING INTO THIS SEASON? IS THIS TEST ALSO A TIME FOR YOU GUYS TO HANG OUT, TEAMMATES AND TEAM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING BEYOND THE RACE TRACK TO BOND?
 
DANICA PATRICK: “I feel really excited I have to say going into this season versus a lot of other seasons in my career I just feel excited.  I’m looking forward to it.  Sometimes I get a little more nervous going into the year, but I think that we have just got such a good atmosphere on the team all around that makes me excited.”
 
HAVE YOU DEFINED ANY STATISTICAL GOALS FOR 2013 AND JUST GIVE ME YOUR OUTLOOK ON THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR BATTLE:

DANICA PATRICK: “I think it’s very difficult at this point in time to put sort of numbers to exactly where I should be finishing.  I think you can look at a little bit of what happened last year as a bit of a baseline as to expectation levels and definitely areas that need work.  But it’s a new year; it’s a new car and a lot of stuff changes so obviously I will be working full-time with Tony (Gibson, crew chief) and the guys now.  I think everything changes a little bit and you can never really know what to expect.  I think we just need to get started on the season, get these first few races out of the way and then start to create some baseline for what we are expecting and what we are shooting for.”
 
WHAT YOU YOUR OUTLOOK ON WINNING THE ROOKIE-OF-THE-YEAR TITLE?

DANICA PATRICK: “You know you just race hard.  I think those are the things that just happen.  If it does it does, if it doesn’t it doesn’t, but I think that if I shoot for great results each time and keep bettering myself all the time that is the best goal that I can have as opposed to just shooting for Rookie-of-the-Year.  It’s going to be something I’m sure that will come into thought at the end of the year.  What decides that is it just championship or what does? I don’t even know.  Is it points?  I don’t even know what I have to do necessarily.  Just do the best I can and hope that is enough.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed his thoughts on testing thus far, the off season and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW HAS YOUR DAY OF TESTING BEEN?
“We had a good day.  We just did single car runs, which was pretty much our plan and then we’ll do some drafting tomorrow.  Thought it went well.  Cars are driving really good by themselves.  Good speed.  It was a fun day to see this new body style out there, it looks great and drives good.  It’s an exciting way to get the season started.”
 
DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE SOME CRAZY MOVES COMING BACK INTO PLAY TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 WITH THIS NEW CAR?
“If they take away that yellow line, absolutely.  Some of those ridiculous moves were just because you had to go wherever the car in front of you wasn’t if you had the momentum.  Back then they didn’t have that yellow line so you could go down to the apron, which made things pretty exciting and interesting.  Now that we’re not able to do that limits you a little bit, but I haven’t drafted yet.  I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be able to do things like that, but looking at the size of the spoiler and the speeds that we’re running I’m anticipating that handling is going to be a little bit more of a premium than what we’ve had in the past.  Just because there’s a little less down force in the rear of the car.  I really won’t know until tomorrow.  I saw those guys drafting out there a little bit and it looked like the cars were moving around a little on them when they got into some turbulent air, but other than that I really can’t say until I get out there in those conditions.”
 
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THERE ARE A LOT OF CHANGES TAKING PLACE THIS YEAR AND WHAT IS THAT LIKE?
“It’s always great when you can carry that momentum and excitement that the team experienced in Homestead into the off-season.  No matter what changes are coming, whether they’re very little or big changes like we’ve had with the new car, the team can rally around that and it’s a great boost.  You need a lot of energy over the off-season.  Those guys work really, really hard while the drivers might get some rest, the crew chiefs and the team guys are getting very little rest because they’re preparing for the new season.  You add on top of that a new car, there is a lot of work to be done.  We don’t have a lot of these cars sitting in our shops right now.  Certainly, not many speedway cars.  Even while we’re down here, there’s a lot of work happening back at the shop.  To be able to have a great finish like we had at Homestead and take that into the off-season is a big plus and big positive for us and it’s helped us stay energized through the off-season to get ready for this new season.  I don’t think anybody is better than Hendrick Motorsports when changes come in adapting to them and new cars and being prepared.  I feel very confident in the team and our organization
to come out strong and be strong throughout the year.  That is also energizing.”
 
WHAT DO YOU STILL NEED TO LEARN IN THE COMING DAYS ABOUT THIS NEW CAR?
“You want to have a fast race car, that’s always the case.  I feel like we’ve got pretty good speed.  There’s a couple cars that we have our eyes on that look like they have a little more speed.  Things will change by the time we get back down here in February.  Not too concerned with that right now.  The car has good speed so that is number one.  The next thing is just getting the car to drive well in traffic.  Cooling and overheating and things like that have always been an issue down here the last couple years.  We anticipate looking at the opening in the grill for that to be something we’re going to have to deal with again.  Then whether the tandem drafting is going to happen at all or not.  It doesn’t appear that it is, but I still think that you have to explore it to see if with three to go, if there’s a green-white-checkered or something like that, you can be prepared to do what you have to do to win the race.  You have to come down here and kind of patiently be aggressive by exploring those things now.  It’s better to explore them now so we know what to anticipate when we get back down here in February for Speedweeks.  That’s the nice thing about being in the Sprint Unlimited, in that race it gives us a great opportunity to understand what we’re going to be dealing with for the upcoming races, the Duels as well as the 500.”
 
HOW DID YOU END UP ON A YACHT FOR NEW YEAR’S EVE AND DID YOU AND CLINT BOWYER HAVE A CHANCE TO TALK?
“The question is how he got on the yacht.  That needs to be the real question.  My family and I have been going down to St. Barts for the last four of five years and we love going down there for New Year’s.  I knew that Clint (Bowyer) and Kevin (Harvick) were down there because Rick Hendrick’s boat was down there and I think they were on that boat through a charter with some friends of theirs.  I stopped by there to say hi one time and they were gone, they were out having fun or doing something.  Then I went about my business and on New Year’s Ingrid and I went to a couple different parties and ended up at one, which was really the party of the year if you ask me.  It was an amazing event that P. Diddy had.  We were just hanging out having a good time and on walks Bowyer and Harvick and a couple other folks.  I don’t know, it was a great New Year’s.  I enjoyed myself very much.”
 
HOW ENTHUSIASTIC ARE YOU ABOUT GETTING RID OF THE COT?
“I think that’s just part of when you’ve been in the sport long enough, you get accustomed to a certain, especially when you come into the sport to drive a car a certain way and that’s what got you there and you come to adapt to it quickly and had success.  When things change in a big way, it’s how you change along with them and the longer you’re in the sport, the harder it is for you to make those transitions.  I think the COT definitely played that kind of a role with me.  If you come into it when the COT came along, you can adapt to it fairly quickly.  When you’ve gone through all the changes and I felt like I kind of dealt with the same thing with the big rear springs and the big front sway bars and just took longer to adapt to them and did very well.  I feel like this year it’s kind of the same thing.  It’s all new with a different car, different down force levels and we just have to adapt to them.  Some are going to do better than others and I hope that our team and myself make for a good combination to be able to keep up with those changes.  The test at Charlotte next week, when I tested Charlotte last year the rules were a little bit different.  They didn’t have all the down force that the car has.  It’s gone through this kind of wave where it was down force, no down force, lots of down force.  I look forward to getting back in the car in Charlotte next week to see what that package is like and how it drives and the kind of feedback I’m able to give the team to go faster.  Tire-wise, I don’t remember those changes in the tires back then.  I certainly know the changes in the tires in recent years that I haven’t done a very good job at.  Maybe it was similar to that back in the days.”
 
DID YOU AND CLINT BOWYER LEAVE THE BOAT AS FRIENDS?
“I don’t remember seeing him leave the boat.”
 
DID YOU TALK WITH CLINT BOWYER?
“We talked.  We talked.  I had a great New Year’s.”
 
DO YOU THINK TOYOTA OR ANY MANUFACTURER HAS AN ADVANTAGE WITH THE NEW CAR?
“Can’t tell yet until we get out there drafting.  I know when we were down here or when our cars were at Talladega testing I spoke to Kasey Kahne and the shape of the nose of the Chevrolet for pushing if it’s a pushing and tandem drafting type of race that our noses don’t seem to line-up as good as some others.  But then it just comes down to cooling and getting air into the grill.  That little piece that NASCAR has added to the bottom of the rear bumpers seems to have addressed that.  I don’t see where anybody has an advantage at this point.”
 
DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO THERE BEING MORE MANUFACTURERS LOBBYING IN NASCAR AGAIN?
“I think NASCAR has gotten very smart over the years through trial and error and just experience.  You’re talking about a totally different situation.  I’ve been telling this story a lot lately about 1995 when the Monte Carlo came along and it was a dominant race car.  It was basically taking the street version and turning it into a race car.  It was superior to the competition.  It really became a race among Chevrolets that year.  That was a different greenhouse, a different rear deck lid, a different nose.  This car that we have here where I think they’ve gotten very smart is they each have their own identity and they’re great looking cars, but the important aspects that keep the cars as equal as possible are the same.  The greenhouse, how that air meets that rear spoiler.  Even the noses have different characteristics to them and in the wind tunnel they are all very, very close.  I may be wrong, but until we get through some races I don’t think we’ll really, really know.  Usually by this point, if we felt like we were at a big disadvantage you would already be hearing about it.
 
“I feel like right now we’re as good as anybody out there.  I don’t see where anybody has any distinct advantage manufacturer-wise.  There are some pluses and minuses to that.  At one point I think NASCAR wanted to get away from some of that and say, ‘We don’t want to go through that process throughout a year where one has a distinct advantage and one is lobbying and trying to get a little more spoiler.’  I remember when there was one getting a little more spoiler, one getting more kick in the nose and all these things.  Yet, that also had a lot of buzz and people talking about and really getting behind their manufacturer to try to either get them help or support the good things that are happening.  It’s always interesting trying to figure out what things are going to bring the most entertainment and excitement and draw the most attention from the media, the fans and the viewers that are going to keep this sport great.
 
“To me, I think we’ve got a great car, great looking car and it’s driving very well.  There’s a lot of buzz and I think the racing is going to be great.  I think our racing has been great.  I haven’t had issues with the racing.  I think it’s been fantastic.  The double-file restarts helped a lot to keep the intensity and the racing exciting.  Of course we’re always trying to think about ev
olution of how aerodynamics are playing a role.  That’s across the board in motorsports.  The lead car having an advantage over the second-place car and how do we create more passing and all those things.  I still think we are so far better than the rest of the racing out there that I still think even if we have a little of that aero turbulent air, the dirty air and all that stuff, I still think our racing is the best out there.  Something that we can all continue to progress with.”
 

 
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PRESEASON TESTING
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
DECEMBER 11, 2012
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media today at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a test session to learn more about the 2013 car.  He discussed how the test has gone so far, how the car feels, what his expectations are for 2013 and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT HOW THE TEST HAS GONE SO FAR AND THE NEW CHEVROLET SS:
“Our test is going pretty well so far.  The cars drive really well.  I know everybody is probably real curious about how we think the racing is going to go.  It’s real early in the game, this is the first time I’ve driven the cars at all.  I’m really impressed.  I really like the balance of the car, the downforce seems to be relatively good.  The car has driven well for us today.  We will just move through the next couple of days here and keep tuning.  Trying things and see what the car likes and doesn’t like.  Hopefully, get some more testing in before the season starts so we can continue to understand.  A lot of the rules and decisions that NASCAR is going to make on this car, some are finalized, some are not.  It’s still a little bit of a moving target for the teams.  I’m real encouraged so far.”
 
DID YOU GET ANY SENSE OF WEATHER PASSING IS GOING TO BE ANY EASIER WITH THE NEW CARS?
DID YOU DO ANY DICING OUT THERE?
“No, we didn’t.  We didn’t get a chance to run any cars together or around each other too much.  That is kind of what I meant by it being early in the game.  It’s just we only run for four hours, just by ourselves.  From what I could see nobody else was really in a competitive kind of atmosphere out there with other race cars.  I think that the car has really awesome potential.  I like it already leaps and bounds beyond the COT or the old car we ran.  This car really gives me a lot of sensations that are similar to the old car that we ran four years ago or however long ago it was.  It’s still early.  I’m trying not to get too excited or form too big of an opinion or too solid of an opinion of the car.  We have got a lot of things to learn about it.  There are still some rules and things to be finalized and still a lot to learn.  I think it’s important for us as the drivers and the teams to try and help NASCAR as much as we can.  We are all sort of working toward the same goal this week, trying to put a good show on.”
 
HOW DOES THE CAR FEEL DIFFERENT?  DO YOU NOTICE THE WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION DIFFERENCES?  THE CAMBER DIFFERENCES? THE REAR SUSPENSION DIFFERENCES?
“The rear camber is a big deal.  I haven’t driven a car today with the old stuff and the new stuff, but I do know that it’s going to provide a ton of grip being able to camber the right-rear tire any more than we had in the past.  I know that is a big advantage to adding grip to the car.  The body on the car itself I think behaves better aerodynamically.  For the most part you still have a splitter and you still have similar geometry and what not.  We have a gigantic rear spoiler on the car.  You can’t see out of the car very well, but that spoiler is doing a lot.  NASCAR seems to think that spoiler is the one that is going to provide the better package for better racing.  It definitely gives the car a lot more comfort and it does resemble what we ran many years ago.  Those were some pretty good race cars back then.  The car really drives down in the corner, turns in the corner and turns off in the corner good.  I really don’t miss all the stuff we were moving around in the back of these cars last year, I don’t miss any of that stuff.  It did make the cars go faster, but they were a little bit more of a challenge to drive.  The sensations that you got going off in the corner crooked weren’t a lot of fun.  This is awesome for me personally I kind of like going in the corner with the car going straight, like it’s supposed to.  I’m enjoying this.”
 
CAN YOU COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE CAR THAT YOU ARE DRIVING TODAY WITH THE ONE THAT YOU DROVE IN 1999? WHAT KIND OF ADVANCEMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THEN?
“Well, we were talking about the horsepower.  There is about 100 to 115 more horsepower under the hood that is a huge difference.  That is 10 mph maybe at the end of the straightaway.  That changes everything about how a car is going to run a lap when you change the end of the straightaway speed that much.  We are running bump stops as opposed to; we weren’t coil binding back then, but as opposed to running a conventional set-up in the front-end.  That really changes a lot of things in how the cars drive.  Back in 1999 we were just straightening the rockers out.  In 1998 and 1999 on the Nationwide cars we had those old rolled under rocker.  We didn’t have anywhere near as much side force.  We really didn’t have moving the rear bumpers down to a science like we do now and getting the side force and the quarter panels straight on the cars.  Just a lot of different stuff, a lot of changes, the tires are tremendously different.  Now there is a lot less tread on the tires, we have a lot harder tire, a tougher tire, more durable tire.”
 
YOU TALK ABOUT THE FEEL OF THE CAR BEING MORE LIKE THE OLD CAR ARE YOU SAYING YOU NEVER REALLY ADJUSTED TO THE NEW (COT) CAR BECAUSE YOU SEEM TO BE MUCH BETTER DRIVING THE OLD CAR?  ALSO, CAN YOU GIVE US AN UPDATE ON WHERE YOU STAND WITH SPONSORS?
“I don’t have any update as far as our sponsorship situation goes.  I thought the COT was just frustrating for me.  I had good runs and good races in it.  I had races where the car drove well and was comfortable, but I never really connected with that car from the very beginning.  Just personally I didn’t like the car.  I didn’t really appreciate it for what it was.  The cars that you see in the garage, you will stand there and see Fords and Toyotas and Chevrolets driving b.  It’s great because everything looks different.  Everything is recognizable, instantly recognizable.  You don’t have to think about the driver and the team itself to associate with a manufacturer.  You look at the car and you can see it instantly.  That is a great feeling for me.  I can appreciate the cars for that fact.  I know all you guys probably understand it, but I’m not sure a lot of people realize how important that is having that instant recognition on a manufacturer for our sport.  How much healthier our sport can be with that happening.  I can of like that when you see a car and you can recognize it instantly.  The cars for me the cars feel like they have a ton more downforce, but these are perfect conditions.  It’s real cool, the track has a great surface; this is a tough tire that is going to get ahold of it real good. So we are just flying out there and the car feels great.  If we got to Texas or Homestead which is worn out and you wear the tires out and start sliding around it may feel a lot more similar to the COT.  Today’s feeling good and driving well.  I think there is good potential for this.  The car looks great; it looks like a race car to me.  I can get excited about that.  I can get behind that.”
 
YOU HAD A REALLY CONSISTENT SEASON IN 2012 ARE THERE AFTER AFFECTS OF ALL THIS GOING INTO 2013 OR DO YOU JUST START OVER?
“Well, you would like to believe in momentum and things like that.  In this sport you can be a hero one week and a zero the next.  There is so much competition out there.  There are a lot of variables too with the new car, completely new; the sport is going to be revolutio
nized again with this car.  There are a lot of things that are unknowns, but I’m with a great company that sort of does really well under those kinds of circumstances.  When there are a lot of unknown variables they are really good at figuring those variables out and figuring out how to be competitive given a certain working space they can kind of figure it out faster than most people.  I’m fortunate in that regard.  I feel like I can be confident. I can go into next year confident that we are going to put good cars on the track and I’m going to like the way they drive and I’m going to enjoy the races that we have.  Again, I think the first 10 races of the season are the most important races as far as making the Chase, putting down a good foundation of points.  If you end up after those first 10 races around eighth or ninth or 10th that kind of seems to be where you end up fighting all year long.  Just try to stay in the Chase.  It’s a real tough mental battle and it wears on the team, it wears on the drivers that are in those positions.  It’s nice to get out there and get up front early and stay there.  That is our outlook and I think that we are in a good position.”
 
IS IT POSSIBLE WITH SO FEW CARS TO REALLY GET THE FEEL OF THE CAR AND KNOW WHAT IT WILL DO RACING AROUND OTHERS?  WILL SOME DRIVERS JUST TAKE TO THIS NEW CAR MORE THAN OTHERS?
“Yeah I mean if you get excited about it you will kind of dive into it a little more aggressively and speed up the learning curve a little bit.  If you don’t have a good attitude about something then you typically don’t have a good outcome.   I don’t know if there are enough cars here to really… I don’t think that we are all out there seeking to be in racing conditions to get out there and run around each other.  Everybody is bolting on parts, going out and running, seeing what that does, repeat, rinse and do all that good stuff.  You just keep on doing that over and over and nobody is really out there seeking each other out trying to race.  That has to be kind of manufactured by NASCAR for us to say ‘hey man six of you get out there and race each other’.  That probably won’t happen until May here in Charlotte anyways.  I like the car and I think it has good potential, but again it’s just real early I don’t want to put words out there.  I don’t know enough to really make a good enough guess on weather this thing is going to do everything everybody wants it to do.  I’m excited.  I think it has good potential.”
 
YOU SAID THAT THE VISIBILITY WAS DIFFICULT OUT THERE BECAUSE OF THE SPOILER IS THAT CORRECT?
“Well we have had that kind of deal before when they had the wing on the back it was just different.  You would like to look out the back of your car and not see anything, but other cars.  The first race I ran in Japan I think we had gigantic seven inch spoilers on the back of these cars.  I mean it’s nothing new.  You think though what drivers and fans and NASCAR want is for the guy that is running second, third, fourth to have good downforce to be able to drive up to the guy in the front without having an aero push.  You know big giant spoilers you would think that would negate that idea.  We have had them before, ran them before so we will just have to see.”
 
IT WAS OKAY THOUGH?
“Yeah, I mean it’s not dangerous or nothing.  I can see.”
 
IF YOU HAD TO GUESS WOULD THOSE WHATEVER DRIVERS END UP BEING THE MOST SUCCESSFUL IN 2013 BE THOSE WITH TEAMS THAT ARE MOST ABLE TO GET A GRIP ON THIS NEW CAR THIS SEASON?  ALSO, DO YOU THINK SOME TEAMS ARE AHEAD OF OTHERS IN THAT REGARD?
“Yeah, it’s too early to say whether anybody is ahead of anybody yet.  The guys that have tested the most are the guys that are going to have the most information, the most data.  The people willing to do the most work.  The teams with the most resources obviously have to feel like they have a comfortable advantage knowing their resources outnumber the next guy.  I am with the best team I think in the garage when it comes to resources and work ethic.  I feel good about that, but I know there are some other guys out there that are willing to work just as hard and aren’t short on resources either.  A situation like this where everybody is kind of scrambling to learn as much as they can there are some teams that will stand out I’m sure.”

2013 CHEVROLET SS UNVEILING CEREMONY
 
JIM CAMPBELL:  It’s been a great decade for Chevrolet and NASCAR and our NASCAR teams.  57 years ago at the old Columbia Speedway in South Carolina, a racer named Fonty Flock earned Chevrolet’s first Cup win driving a ’55 Biscayne powered by the legendary Chevrolet small block V 8.  That was win No. 1 for team Chevy.  Just a few weeks ago, Jimmie Johnson and the 48 Chevy powered by today’s version of the Chevrolet small block V 8 won at Texas Motor Speedway to give Chevrolet its 700th Cup victory.  Thanks to Jimmie, Chad Knaus, Rick Hendrick and the entire Hendrick Motorsports team for delivering this milestone victory.
 
We’d also like to thank every team owner, driver, crew member who contributed to Chevrolet’s 700 wins.  We wouldn’t be here today without the determination of these teams:  Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart Haas Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Furniture Row Racing, and Phoenix Racing with James Finch.  All told, these teams have earned almost half the Cup wins for Chevrolet.
 
Chevy has been fortunate to have some of the best drivers in the sport, including Jeff Gordon, who has delivered 87 Cup wins plus four championships; Jimmie Johnson, with 60 wins and five championships, as well as Tony Stewart with 31 Chevrolet wins and three Cup championships.
 
Chevy’s 702 wins over seven decades include legendary champions, drivers like Buck Baker from the ‘50s; Rex White and Ned Jarrett from the 1960s; Benny Parsons and Yale Yarborough from the ’70s; and even Richard Petty won a championship with the bowtie in 1979; and Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte won championships in the ’80s; and of course the legendary Dale Earnhardt won seven championships with Chevrolet.
 
It’s an amazing group of drivers and owners, and that’s just in the Sprint Cup Series.  Chevrolet also had an exciting run in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, thanks to our Silverado teams for delivering in the 2012 manufacturer’s championship, Chevrolet’s eighth championship in the series.
In addition, congratulations to James Buescher and the 31 Silverado team for winning the driver’s championship.  It’s also been an exciting finish in the Nationwide Series.  Our Nationwide teams clinched the manufacturer’s championship for Chevrolet in 2012, our 15th overall.
 
Now, I know the Nationwide teams have been busy building and testing their new Camaro race cars.  We introduced that car in July at the Brickyard, and we’re excited about racing it in 2013.  We like the linkage between the Camaro racing the track and the Camaro we’re going to sell in the showrooms.  It’s a performance legend that continues to lead its segment in sales.
And today, we’re going to show you where Chevrolet is heading in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  To do that, I’m pleased to introduce someone who’s passionate about performance, he’s a strong advocate for the role and contribution of motorsports to what we do every day.  He’s a true car guy; please welcome the president of General Motors North America, Mr. Mark Reuss.  Mark?
 
MARK REUSS:  Well, thank you, Jim.  It’s been an exciting year for Chevrolet and NASCAR as you saw.  We’re even more excited about 2013.  While our teams were racing and winning over the past decade, Chevrolet and NASCAR were looking forward to the future of the sport.
 
We’ve both been focusing on a number of important initiatives to build a stronger connection with our fans by incorporating relevant technologies that we’re using on today’s high performance Chevrolets, while also creating designs that help our fans make the link between what they see on the track, on the streets and in Chevy showrooms.
 
It’s been an ongoing process.  Ethanol based fuels came online here in 2011; fuel injection was implemented this last year; and we’re all focused on putting the stock back in stock car racing during 2013.
We approached the development of the 2013 Chevrolet SS race car with the same processes and technologies that we use on all of our production vehicles.  We developed the race car’s body surfaces and math, using the latest computer modeling tools.  We then used CFD, or computational fluid dynamics, to model the aerodynamic performance without having to build an initial prototype, saving a lot of time and money.
 
Then we built a 40 percent scale model for the next stage of aerodynamic development and ran it in a state of the art rolling road wind tunnel to prove that we were on the right track with our computational analysis.
John Cafaro, the designer of Chevrolet passenger cars, worked with the race car development team to ensure the design characteristics of the Chevrolet SS production car were seamlessly integrated into the race car.  After making refinements on the scale model, we then built a full sized version of the Chevrolet SS race car for additional wind tunnel testing.
 
This was the first of hundreds of tunnel hours dedicated to refining the exterior of the car.  This is the kind of work that got us where we are today.
 
Of course, we tested on the track.  Just like with our production cars, we camouflaged the exterior of the SS to hide its design characteristics from the cameras.  There’s a few little pieces if you really zoomed in on the camouflage that said SS on it, so for those who were paying attention, they saw it.  This is how the car looked during our NASCAR test sessions.  Our NASCAR teams began dialing in their own Chevrolet SS race cars this past spring.  We tested on a variety of tracks like Martinsville, Homestead and Talladega Superspeedway.  Of course the SS has been on many other racetracks for NASCAR, as well, and the results are very, very promising.
 
And now the time has come for the camouflage to come off.  Let’s bring out the car.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the all-new 2013 Chevrolet SS race car.  Let’s welcome our special guest, Mr. Jeff Gordon.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Thank you, Mark.  Appreciate it.
 
MARK REUSS:  What do you think of the new SS?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Oh, my goodness.  This thing looks amazing.  It looks fantastic.
 
MARK REUSS:  Excited to race it?
 
JEFF GORDON:  I’m so excited to race this car.  I had a chance to test it at Charlotte a couple weeks ago.  Drove great.
 
MARK REUSS:  Well, would you like to see the car with your own number 24 livery?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Oh, my goodness, I can’t wait.
 
MARK REUSS:  Let’s take a look.
 
JEFF GORDON:  I love it.
 
MARK REUSS:  What do you think of it, man?  Isn’t is awesome?  It’s awesome.  I am so excited to see your car.
 
JEFF GORDON:  I am, too.  I always say a fast race car goes a little bit faster on the track, a fast looking race car.  But I’ve got to ask, what was that there at the end?
 
MARK REUSS:  That’s a little bit of taste of what’s to come here on the production car.  That is the production Chevrolet SS there at the end.  Just like the race car, the production version of the SS will be powered by a V 8, and it will be rear wheel drive once again.  The design of the engineering was done by our global railroad drive team that’s responsible for performance vehicles like the Chevrolet Camaro and the Holden Commodore that is yet to be introduced.  If you’ve driven any of our current rear wheel drive cars like the Camaro, you know that this is a good thing.  You also own a ZL 1 Camaro, don’t you?
 
JEFF GORDON:  I do.  I actually got a chance to test the ZL 1 at the proving grounds.
 
MARK REUSS:  Oh, on the MRC.
 
JEFF GORDON:  It w
as so much fun, and that sold me on the car, driving it on that track, I said I’ve got to have one of these cars.  Fantastic car.
 
MARK REUSS:  I think you got a convertible, as well, didn’t you?
 
JEFF GORDON:  I got the convertible.  I don’t know, somehow Rick Hendrick got in line before me on the coupe, so I had to wait for the convertible.
 
MARK REUSS:  That’s a good thing.  I’ve got one on order and I’m picking it up when I return to Detroit.
 
JEFF GORDON:  I love what they’ve done not just with the performance of the car but with the interior, as well, and of course a great looking car.
 
MARK REUSS:  Well, I’m happy you’re an owner, and I’m soon to be one here in about a week.
The same team that developed the ZL 1 engineered the Chevrolet SS, and I am you’re a Chevrolet dealer, too, aren’t you?
 
JEFF GORDON:  I sure am.
 
MARK REUSS:  Right.  Well, do you think you can sell some of these?
 
JEFF GORDON:  Are you kidding me?  I can’t wait.  We’re definitely going to sell plenty of these.
 
MARK REUSS:  Great, great.
 
JEFF GORDON:  And when can the fans  
 
MARK REUSS:  The fans have to wait a little bit, but Daytona will be here before we know it, and of course you’ll always be there, but we’re going to introduce the car here in Daytona here during Speedweeks, which I think will be a first for us, as well.

JEFF GORDON:  So what you’re saying is we all have to wait.
 
MARK REUSS:  Yeah, just a little bit, just a little bit.  Everybody give Jeff Gordon a round of applause.  Thank you so much for being here for this special day for Chevrolet, and thanks for all you do for us.
 
JEFF GORDON:  Appreciate it.
 
MARK REUSS:  Now let’s take a closer look at what the Chevrolet SS is really is.  This car puts, again, the stock back in stock cars.  The new SS won’t be mistaken for any other car on the track.  It bears a striking resemblance to our production car, the 2014 SS, and that will be in showrooms here next fall.  Like the production car, the design of the front end is bold, purposeful and highly styled.  The hood has distinctive contours that replicate the production model, as well, and similarly, the rear of the race car is very representative of the stock SS as you see in the picture there.
The profile clearly shows the large wheel arches and the dramatic cove behind the front wheel here just like the production car.  The exterior similarities between the SS race car and the production car are very, very car.  There’s a little bit of math representation of that.  The blue line here on the slide is the race car; the green line is the production car.  The cars match up extremely well.  This is good for our fans, it’s great for NASCAR, and Chevrolet and our dealers, and most importantly, the relationship for our customers.
Everybody wins here.  The development of the SS has been a collaborative effort with NASCAR.  To speak to this, please welcome one of our most important partners here, the president of NASCAR, Mr. Mike Helton.  Mike?
 
MIKE HELTON:  Thank you, Mark, and this is exciting.  All year long as we were working on the 2012 season, we were completing the evolution of our 2013 car, and this concludes the rollout of them, so we’re all very excited about getting to Daytona during Speedweeks and the Daytona 500 in 2013 and seeing these cars in action on the racetrack there and for the full season next year.
Robin Pemberton, our vice president of competition, led our group to work with the manufacturers for the past several years.  Actually, as Mark alluded to the process at Chevrolet, that process applied to the other manufacturers, as well, and without their support and their collaborative effort, we would not have gotten to this point.  So Mark, Jim Campbell, Mark Kent, Alba Colon, Pat Suhy, everybody from the Chevrolet side and everybody from the other manufacturers, thank you very much, because we’re excited about this and we’ve talked about it all year long.  The anticipation going into 2013 is building, it will build over the off season, and it’ll be, we feel, one of the milestones that we’ll look back as we celebrate our history in the future, we’ll look back and see 2013 and the NASCAR Sprint Cup car as a very significant milestone for us.
 
As I mentioned, it was a collaborative effort, and along the way we have learned that there are people engaged in our sport that know how to do things like this, and working with their design teams and their engineers, Robin and his group were able to, we think and feel very strongly, deliver something that the fans had asked for.  As Mark alluded, we’ll put stock back in NASCAR stock cars, and so now we’ve completed the circle as we introduced the Nationwide cars earlier, it’s already been announced back in Indianapolis that the Chevrolet Camaro would be part of the Nationwide Series, and these cars will be representing the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2013, and we’re very excited about that.
 
Enjoy your weekend in Vegas.  Thank you, everybody, for being here.  Mark, particularly thank you.  It is your energy that led a lot of this and a lots of your suggestions and thoughts guided us through this whole process for everybody.  So thank you.
 
MARK REUSS:  Mike, thank you for your partnership over the last couple years to do this and our team and the other manufacturers, as well.  I think this is a landmark time for NASCAR, and thank you for listening.  It’s really important you listen to the fans, you listen to us, and I think we’ve got something here that will really change the sport here for the future really.
 
MIKE HELTON:  I agree with you.
 
MARK REUSS:  Thank you so much.  Thank you for being here.
Thanks to you, Robin Pemberton, John Darby and the rest of the NASCAR team for working with us.  That partnership is so crucial, and I know I speak for all the manufacturers in saying this is really a landmark time for the sport.
 
We can’t wait to get back onto the track.  I also want to thank Brian France and Lesa France Kennedy for being here, and Jim, in helping make this day possible for us at Chevrolet, and again, we can’t wait for 2013.  As I told Jeff, the world will see the new production car for the SS when it is unveiled in February during Speedweeks in Daytona.
I can’t think of a better time or place to launch the SS.  I think this is the first time this has ever been done, as well.  The new SS looks great in Chevy racing livery, and will be raced by drivers and some teams like Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress with the Budweiser No. 29 Chevrolet SS; in the Lowe’s No. 48 Chevrolet SS, Jimmie Johnson and team owner Rick Hendrick; Tony Stewart and Gene Haas with the Bass Pro Shops No. 14 Chevrolet SS; and Jamie McMurray, driver of the McDonald’s No. 1 Chevrolet SS with team owner Chip Ganassi.
 
As a surprise for today, would you really like to see what the rest of these cars look like?  I know I do.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome four more members of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series teams.  These teams along with all of our other members of team Chevy really provide the skilled driving talent, commitment, determination that it takes to win both on and off the track.  Thank you all for being here, and now I’d like to invite Jim Campbell back on to close the program.
 
JIM CAMPBELL:  Thanks, Mark.  What do you guys think?  Well, Mark, for you and Mike and all the drivers and team owners that are here, thanks for being here.  The cars look great.  To the NASCAR fans, thanks for being here.  We’re going to see all of you at Victory Lap on Las Vegas Boulevard
this afternoon.  For all of you online, thanks for joining us for the worldwide debut of the 2013 Chevrolet SS race car.  See you in Daytona in February.
              
2013 NASCAR Chevrolet SS Unveiled
Will Debut at the 2013 Daytona SpeedWeeks in February
 
LAS VEGAS – Chevrolet today opened a new chapter in its storied racing history, unveiling its eagerly anticipated 2013 NASCAR Chevrolet SS race car. Powered by the legendary small block V-8 engine, the rear-wheel drive performance sedan will be Chevrolet’s newest entry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, beginning with the 2013 SpeedWeeks in Daytona, Fla.
 
The new NASCAR race car closely resembles the all-new rear wheel drive V-8 Chevrolet SS performance sedan that will debut early next year.
 
“As a passionate race fan, the debut of the SS NASCAR race car is a genuinely exciting moment for me,” said GM North America President Mark Reuss. “With the SS, Chevrolet is delivering a true rear-wheel-drive NASCAR race car that is very closely linked to the performance sedan that will be available for sale, ensuring that our most loyal enthusiasts will have the opportunity to experience the same thrill every day on the open road that our race car drivers enjoy on the track on race day.
 
“The Chevrolet SS also demonstrates how we are able to leverage our global product portfolio to deliver a unique performance experience,” Reuss said. “The specialized development and testing work done for the race car will certainly benefit the entire Chevrolet product lineup.”
 
The Chevrolet SS is the next in a long line of famed nameplates that Chevrolet has campaigned in NASCAR. It replaces Impala, which scored 152 wins from 1959-64 and 2007-12.
 
“We are looking forward to another exciting year of NASCAR competition and expect that the new SS race car, with some of the most skilled drivers on the circuit behind the wheel, will distinguish itself on the track,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports.
 
The Chevrolet SS will be a derivative of the award-winning global rear-wheel-drive architecture that spawns performance vehicles like Chevrolet Camaro and Holden’s upcoming VF Commodore. The limited production version of the Chevrolet SS will be a 2014 model and will arrive in dealer showrooms in late 2013. It is the first time in 17 years that Chevrolet will offer a rear-wheel-drive sedan for sale in the United States.
 
Chevrolet has long used the SS (Super Sport) designation on high-performance models of some of its most enduring nameplates. The SS designation first appeared in 1957 on a Corvette prototype race car built under the guidance of Zora Arkus-Duntov with the plan to enter it in the Le Mans 24-hour race.
 
The first production vehicle to be offered with an SS optional package was the 1961 Impala – 453 were built with the performance upgrades, which included a modified chassis and suspension, power brakes, a steering column mounted tachometer and unique wheels and tires.  The SS designation returned to the Chevrolet lineup in 2010 with the debut of the fifth-generation Camaro.
 
Chevrolet has 702 victories in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, more than any other manufacturer.  Fonty Flock earned the manufacturer’s first win on March 26, 1955, at Columbia, S.C. Five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson achieved Chevrolet’s 700th victory earlier this month at Texas Motor Speedway.
 
Chevrolet was America’s best-selling performance car brand in 2011 with Camaro and Corvette accounting for one out of every three sports cars sold in the United States.  The addition of the SS to the lineup is expected to further strengthen Chevrolet’s position as a leading performance brand.
 
What they’re saying about the Chevrolet SS:
 
JIM CAMPBELL, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT PERFORMANCE VEHICLES AND MOTORSPORTS:
“It’s exciting to finally lift the camouflage off the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet SS. It’ll be great to be racing a Chevy small block V-8, rear-wheel drive car on the race track and selling a Chevy small block V-8, rear-wheel drive Chevrolet SS in the showroom. The SS has a great history – it stands for Super Sport – and I can’t wait to see the Chevrolet SS on the opening lap of the Daytona 500 and for the rest of the 2013 season.”
MARK KENT, DIRECTOR CHEVROLET RACING:
“It’s going to be exciting to see the new Chevrolet SS on track, continuing our quest for more product relevance. We have bio fuels, fuel injection and now we have a car that is closely tied to its production counterpart. So, it’s going to be exciting to see these cars on track. We think the fans are really going to enjoy seeing the new car, and we think it is going to be great for the racing. The new car is an example of how the manufacturers working hand-in-hand with NASCAR resulted in a product that we are very proud of. It’s going to be not only product relevant, but also very exciting on the track.”
PAT SUHY, NASCAR GROUP MANAGER CHEVROLET RACING:
“It was a great opportunity to have my group work on a race car design, and use the same tools and methodologies that we use on production cars. We used math to develop it, built the prototype, tested it in the wind tunnel, got feedback from our leadership on the styling, and got feedback from our teams on the aero performance. We had a really good time working with all of the people from our teams and NASCAR really pushing the envelope much further than we ever thought we could.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON – NO. 48 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“It’s been a huge effort, and the times that I have driven the 2013 Chevrolet SS race car, I’ve been very impressed. I’m excited for Chevrolet, and really for all the manufacturers to have such a cool looking race car. The cars look sharp; they look good; I think the fans are going to be excited to go to the showrooms and buy these vehicles. We have been able to work on them from an aero balance. I know that my friends at GM are awfully smart, and are going to give me a great car to go race with.”
 
KASEY KAHNE – NO. 5 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“I think the car is going to be great.  They just have to figure out the final touches are that they put on it for everybody.  When I tested it at Homestead at the start of the year, and then the Talladega test, both times I was really happy with what we had. When I was in the car I felt like it was really nice and it drove really good.”   

KEVIN HARVICK – NO. 29 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:
“I think it’s one of the most important moves that NASCAR and the manufacturers have made in a very long time.  Just for the fact that the cars on the race track will be very significant in looking like the cars on the showroom floor.  I think from a manufacturer’s standpoint it’s probably the most important move that has happened in I don’t even know how long, but a really long time.  For the fans to have that relevance from the race track to the showroom is important.”
 
TONY STEWART – NO. 14 STEWART-HAAS RACING:
“The new SS looks awesome. That’s the great thing – it’s back to looking like a production car again. It’s a design that I really like. It’s got the perfect blend of having a race car look, but a street car look at the same time; and that’s hard to do. No matter what you’re a fan of, you’re going to be able to pick out your favorite brand of car and see it from the stands.”

JEFF GORDON – NO. 24 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“I’m really excited about the new Chevy SS. It looks great and drives great. There is still some development work to do to fine-tune everything, but I can’t wait to get in that car for next year.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. – NO. 88 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“I’ve had the opportunity to see the Che
vy SS and it’s really an incredibly good-looking race car. It looks like it’s ready to go fast; it looks like it’s going to be competitive, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun to drive.  It looks like something Chevrolet should be proud of.”
 
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:
“First of all the car is beautiful.  I think the new design of really making a race car look like a street car is a huge step in the right direction, especially when the street car looks good.  It really is a good-looking race car.  It gets us more to where we need to be from an aesthetics standpoint.  From a competition stand point NASCAR is really working hard to not just make this about aesthetics, but to make 2013 about better racing, closer racing, more fun to watch, more fun to do by the way.  I’m real excited about that.  In the testing that I have done with them we have done things that didn’t work and we’ve done things that did work. They have a lot of information to go on now and really that is what I’m most excited about.  I think our fans want us racing closer.  They want better action.  We have to work really hard at it because we run a lot of 1.5-mile race tracks and it’s hard to have good close racing on 1.5-mile tracks.  The concept of making the car so that we can race better together I’m a big proponent of, and I think that is going to be hugely positive.”  
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO 1 EARNHARDT GANASSI RACING:  
“We’ve done a lot of testing with the 2013 Chevy and it seems to have a lot of speed. It handles really well and I’m looking forward to getting to all the rest of our testing and then getting to Daytona and actually getting to see all the cars painted up for the first time.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 EARNHARDT GANASSI RACING:
“I think it looks amazing.  From what I’ve seen, I did the photo shoot already with the car, the race car looks amazing.  It looks great.  I think it has a lot of personality.  It looks like a proper Chevy that I think is great.  Knowing that the street car is going to be close to that, I can’t even wait for it.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING:
“I am excited about the new look of the Chevrolet SS — the SS name symbolizes sportiness and speed, and to wrap that into a 4-door rear-wheel drive sedan will be exciting to see the final product. Overall, the way the identity of the brand, the Chevrolet and SS, will now be promoted in NASCAR is the look that we’ve been needing.”    
 
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 CHEVROLET SS:
“We are very excited about the new ‘13 Chevy SS race car, and can’t wait to get it on-track full-time next year. At Hendrick Motorsports, we have been involved in the development process and have worked closely with the Chevy engineers. There will be some challenges, but I enjoy a good challenge.  I do think it will create good racing on the track.  In typical Chevrolet fashion, it has high-qualify parts and is definitely a great looking car!”

KENNY FRANCIS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“I think the new race car will be an interesting new challenge.  The rules are quite a bit different than what we have been working with lately.  The aerodynamics are going to be a lot different.  It’s a lot cooler looking car compared to what we have now.  Everybody is excited about that.  It’s going to present a unique opportunity and some challenges for everyone.  We are just looking forward to it.”

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, NO. 29 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:
“I’m just excited about it because it’s a completely different look than what we have had in the past.  I think it’s going to offer us a lot more opportunities for aerodynamic changes on the car.  I think the fans are going to be able to relate to it because it looks like something they can get in the showroom. The car seems like it’s going to be a lot more stable in race traffic.  The handling characteristics of the car is that it has a lot more grip, so the cars are going to handle a lot better.   I think that is going to promote a lot better racing than what we have had in the past.  I’m looking forward to it and it’s going to be fun.”

SLUGGAR LABBE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 27 CHEVROLET SS:
“I’ve been part of four of the ‘13 tests.  My first one was at Texas.  To see where they started to where they are today is a huge improvement.  You’ve got to give NASCAR credit for working with the manufacturers and the teams to make it better.  Obviously, if we didn’t do all that testing we might have started the season off not as good as what we had hoped.  It took a lot of effort from a lot of people to get to that point.  They are still tweaking on the rules a little bit, but I think for the most part they feel confident that we have a really good package.  The rules that they are going to make are really small.  I’m really excited about it.  They seem to race better now, more so than what we have today.  With what we have done at the tracks, but we went to Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks ago and we ran 740 miles.  Jeff Burton was worn out.  He did a lot for us.  We definitely learned a lot.  Again, you just have to compliment NASCAR for really reaching out and saying ‘hey look guys let’s make this the best we can be.’  They really haven’t done that in the past.”

TODD BERRIER, CREW CHIEF, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING:
“Obviously the ’13 race car has a lot of style and a lot of things the current race car doesn’t have.  It’s nice to have a car that has some character built in it instead of something that looks the way the current car we have does.  That part of it is really encouraging.  I think the car is appealing to look at compared to what we had before.  That part makes it a lot of fun.  There are a lot of shapes and things that maybe will allow us to work in areas that we have not worked in the past. There are now at least some differences in the brands and difference in things like that, which will maybe cause some disparity across the field that will enable us to pass and have good racing.”

JIM POHLMAN, EARNHARDT GANASSI TEST TEAM COORDINATOR:
“I think having a new style car is what we have needed for a while here in NASCAR.  I think it gives a little brand identity back, which is going to be huge for our fans.  So that we can get them back in touch with the race cars; it’s going to be a big deal for us.  I like a lot of things about the car.  I really love the clear shark fin. I think that really helps with the brand identity.  I like the shape of the car, the slope of the front windshield, and the rear glass.  I love how they have put all the character back into the car with the wheel flares, and the body character in the nose and tail.  I really think that those details are the kind of thing that fans are looking for to reconnect with the car.”
 

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT 20 YEARS CELEBRATORY CHEVROLET – WINNER
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO END THE SEASON IN VICTORY LANE?
“Oh my gosh, it means so much. This is for DUPONT right here. 20 years. That is a long time to be together with a sponsor. For them to commemorate that with this awesome paint scheme, this silver car means so much. I knew we had a great race car going into the race. At times I didn’t think we had a winning car, but you know what, we played the strategy perfectly, and we had a really good car. It is just unbelievable to experience this. After last week, then to come here and battle like this and end up in Victory Lane, just unreal. Have to thank Drive To End Hunger, DUPONT, Pepsi, Quaker State, Chevrolet. This team is just awesome. I love Alan Gustafson (crew chief). This is a great way for us to end this season. I know it’s about the championship, so turn it over to the champion.”
 
YOU AND CLINT BOWYER BATTLED AT THE END. IS THIS REDEMPTION AFTER WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?
“Can you believe that? There was one restart where I had Joey (Logano) and maybe Aric (Almirola) and Clint right there surrounding me. That thing is going to work itself out some way through racing. I felt terrible how I went about it, and I still regret the way I went about it. But, I can’t take it back. But what we can do is look forward and race guys as hard and clean as we possibly can. This is a great way to get some positive things going because this year has been really up and down. It’s awesome to be able to have my family here in Victory Lane. Have to thank Sprint, all the fans. What an amazing turnout this has been for this final race, and the championship battle. I’ve got to take my hat off to Jimmie Johnson and that team. They did an excellent job battling for the championship. I know they didn’t win it, but you know what, they were up against somebody really incredible in Brad (Keselowski). They did an excellent job. Paul Wolfe and the guys. I have got to say congratulations to Roger Penske on his first championship. I know how much that means to Roger being in the sport as long as he has.”
 
WHAT A SEASON IT’S BEEN. TO GIVE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS IT’S FIRST WIN AND YOUR FIRST WIN AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY IS GREAT. DESCRIBE HOW YOU FEEL
“This is just huge. Man, it’s been an emotional week and a hard one; one of the hardest ones I’ve ever gone through just looking back on my decision. So, to come here and focus on trying to win this race on 20 years of DuPont, that’s awesome to have them on the car here in Homestead with this silver commemorative paint scheme and for all that they’ve done. And this is half of my live that I’ve been at Hendrick Motorsports with DuPont. And I’ve got to thank Drive to End Hunger and Pepsi and Quaker State as well. But what an unbelievable week. There were so many ups and downs this week; and to be able to end in Victory Lane with just an awesome team effort was just awesome.”
 
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE RACE GIVEN THAT WE STARTED UNDER HOT SUNNY CONDITIONS AND THEN FINISHED AT NIGHT?
“When we took off there, I was a little concerned. My car was really good in practice; especially in slick conditions on the long runs and we struggled a little bit there in traffic and then eventually the car really started coming to me and we started getting in some cleaner air and made some good adjustments and man, we were up there I think as good as the leaders. And then we had a little bobble on a pit stop and some other things that didn’t go our way, but the fuel mileage did. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) made a great call by coming in.  I don’t know what happened to the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and it was just us and the No. 15 (Clint Bowyer) and I got him in traffic and it was just adjustments there. The car was great and saved a little fuel and it felt amazing.”
 
WHERE DOES THIS WIN STACK UP IN YOUR CAREER WINS?
“Well, this is huge. We won in Pocono and it was not the kind of way you want to win a race. This is the way you want to win a race, by just going to battle with them and having a good race car and playing it all out really smart. Having my family in Victory Lane means more to me than anything. It’s something that (during) those 13 win seasons and all those things, I didn’t have. So, this is just an amazing feeling to get my first win at Homestead as well as Rick Hendrick’s first win at Homestead. And to do it with this 20th Anniversary DuPont car, especially after what happened last weekend, is incredible. I didn’t think we’d be able to get to Victory Lane this weekend.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET – FINISHED THIRD
THIS IS A VERY SOLID END TO YOUR 2012 SEASON. TELL US ABOUT YOUR RACE HERE TODAY AT HOMESTEAD
“I’m just proud of the guys. We had a horrible short-run car but we had an awesome long-run car. The U.S. Army Chevrolet, four years strong, and we’re proud to represent them and proud of their support and we wanted to finish on a great note. We’re just happy we can end the season on a good note and go into the off-season and build momentum for 2013.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – FINISHED EIGHTH
ON HIS RACE:
“That was a battle. We just kept working on our car all day, and we were able to get it better. Just pitted at the right time, and were able to save enough gas to get in our pit window. We’ve worked hard on fuel mileage, and it paid off for us today.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET – FINISHED NINTH:
ON HIS RACE:
“I just can’t thank the guys enough for putting me in position for a top-five but the balance wasn’t there at the end.  We had radio issues and did not have two-way communication and that made it difficult to dial in the car. I could hear them, but they couldn’t hear me. I was not aware of a fuel issue  — had I known I could have saved two positions. We ran out of fuel coming into Turn 4 on the final lap. It appears we had a short in the wire.  All-in-all we finished the season strong with three straight top-10s and four straight 10 15s. You can’t ask for much more in a short period of time together. We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress in six weeks. Some of the handling issues we’ve had have been narrowed down in these six weeks and that’s a big plus heading into the offseason. Congratulations to Brad and Penske Racing.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 20TH
ON HIS RACE:
“We had a pretty good car today, we just battled with the car being really loose on entry and tight through the middle most of the race.  Our last fuel run, we saved some fuel and managed to pick up a few positions in the closing laps.  I am proud of the effort from all of the guys on the Bass Pro Shops team today and all year.  I also want to say thanks to all of our partners on the No. 1 team for everything this year.  We look forward to enjoying a few days off and then we will be right back to work focusing on having a strong 2013.”  
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 21ST
SUM UP YOUR FIRST SEASON WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“It was a pretty good season really.  I mean it could have been better.  I could have finished better tonight.  I’m more thinking about tonight’s race than the season.  I sped on pit road and that lost us a little bit of time there at the end.  We just got off, we had to pit more than the other guys. So it is kind of what it is.  With Farmers Insurance, Chevrolet, Quaker State, Hendrickcars.com, everybody did a great job.  Fourth is okay.”
 
HOW AWARE WERE YOU OF WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NO. 48?
“I have no clue.  I was just trying to learn more about what went on.  That last run was forever.  So I just had no clue what was going on.”
 
HE HAD SOME PROBLEMS ON PIT ROAD, A LOOSE LUG NUT.  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
THAT POTENTIALLY COSTING HIM A CHAMPIONSHIP?
“Where did Brad finish?”
 
15th…
“So it would have been close, but Brad (Keselowski) was probably saving and stuff there at the end.  So it’s hard to say, hard to just blame it on that.  I didn’t realize it was that close.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – FINISHED 28TH
ON HIS RACE:
“It wasn’t the weekend we had hoped for or the way we wanted to close out the 2012 season. What a tough year for the Target team. We still have a lot of testing coming up and with the new car and new motors next year I’m looking forward to a fresh start. I’d like to thank Target and all the partners for their support this year and we’ll go chase that championship next year.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 36TH
NOT THE WAY YOU WANTED TO END.  PUT A BOW AROUND YOUR SEASON AND YOUR DAY HERE AT HOMESTEAD:
“Definitely a disappointing finish to it all.  We were putting the pressure on like we need to.  We had strategy on our side.  Really in position to make it interesting there at the end.  A couple of little problems, well, one problem then a fatal issue got us at the end.  We are not sure why we lost the rear-end gear.  There is oil everywhere something happened back there.  Disappointing for sure, but I’ve got to reflect back on an amazing year and a year where we won a lot of races, led a lot of laps, so I need to thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for their efforts.  Lowe’s and their support, my family, Chevrolet and my wife and daughter for their great support too.”
 
WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE THE LAST 20 MINUTES?
“Pretty heartbreaking, you know. We were doing what we needed to, and certainly in position to put a lot of pressure on the No. 2 car. It’s racing. Stuff happens. It’s out of my control certainly. I just have to reflect back on an amazing year. A ton of effort from everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, especially this No. 48 team. Great support from Lowes, Chevrolet, my fan base, my wife and daughter. Definitely not the result we wanted. But, I’m very proud of how we raced in all year long; the success we had on track; the pace we had on track. We didn’t get the result, but that’s life. We’ll come back next year again.”

Jeff Gordon Wins at Homestead; Second Victory of Season
Jimmie Johnson Finishes Third in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Standings

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Jeff Gordon won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2012 season finale’ at Homestead-Miami Speedway to lead five Team Chevy drivers in the top 10. It was Gordon’s second victory of the season, and 87th since making his series debut on Nov. 15, 1992.
 
“I knew we had a great race car going into the race,” said Gordon, driver of the DuPont 20 Years Celebratory Chevrolet. “At times I didn’t think we had a winning car, but you know what, we played the strategy perfectly, and we had a really good car. … This is a great way for us to end this season.”
 
Gordon’s previous best finish at Homestead was third in 2004.
 
“Congratulations to Jeff Gordon on his first victory at Homestead and the 87th of his career,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “It was a strong finish to the season for Jeff and Hendrick Motorsports, who are such great partners with Chevrolet.”
 
Jimmie Johnson, who went into the race 20 points behind Brad Keselowski in pursuit of his sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver’s championship in seven years, encountered problems on pit road and on the track and finished in 36th-place at Homestead, ending up 43 laps off the pace. Johnson, a five-time series champion, dropped from second to third in the standings, 40 points behind Keselowski and one point behind Clint Bowyer.
 
“Congratulations to Brad Keselowski and team owner Roger Penske on winning the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship,” said Campbell. “Roger is a long-time racer and champion, and the performance of the No. 2 team this season is certainly worthy of a championship.
 
“We are proud of Jimmie and the No. 48 Chevrolet team that never gave up this year, and all of our Chevrolet teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. We are looking forward to starting the 2013 season strong at Daytona.”
 
Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, had been running near the front of the field when he had to return to pit road on lap 212 because of a loose lugnut, losing a lap, and then 13 laps later, a mechanical issue sent the No. 48 to the garage.
 
“Definitely a disappointing finish to it all,” said Johnson, who led three times for 25 laps. “We were putting the pressure on like we needed to. We had strategy on our side. Really in position to make it interesting there at the end. A couple of little problems; well, one problem then a fatal issue got us at the end.”
 
Kasey Kahne, in his first season in the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, ended up in fourth place in the standings, following a 21st-place showing at Homestead.
 
Ryan Newman (No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, third), Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, eighth), Kurt Busch (No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, ninth) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, 10th) also finished in the top-10 for Team Chevy.
 
Chevrolet earlier clinched the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturers’ Championship for the 10th consecutive season, and 36th time overall.
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 36TH IN RACE; 3RD IN FINAL NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES STANDINGS:
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
 
            KERRY THARP:  Five‑time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion joins us, finished third in the points.
            Jimmie, certainly disappointing finish to the event here this evening.  Maybe take us through what happened.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, we were in position and putting the pressure on the No. 2 car (Brad Keselowski) like we needed to.  I said at the beginning of the week, 15th isn’t a lay‑up, and I certainly had him in position.  He made it really interesting here at the end of this thing.  It we could have not had the mistake on pitted road and then the gear failure at the end.  Didn’t really catch exactly what happened but I know there was oil under the back of the car.
            So there was oil under the back of the car.  I’m not sure if a fitting busted or was hit by debris or line but something back there allowed the car to puke out gear oil.  So as I was saying, there was oil all over under the back of the car, so something happened from either a line failure or a fitting was hit by debris or something and it puked all the gear oil out and burned up the gear.  So again, disappointing, and we were right there in position and putting pressure on like we needed to.
            But I have a lot to be proud of this year and so does this race team, and I can’t thank everybody ‑‑ I need to thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports.  Every man and woman there put in countless hours giving me great equipment, the support from Lowe’s, my fan base, Chevrolet and my family.  We did all we could and came up a little short.
 
            Q.  Do you have any idea whether the oil line, or whatever damage occurred, occurred after you had to come back in?  Was it something that could have been related to the missing lug nut?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: 
I don’t think so.  When I returned to the track, I could smell gear oil, and my experience is you never smell your own, you smell someone else’s.  But clearly, I was smelling mine.  And maybe something coming down pit road like a loose lug nut or some debris on the apron as I was getting on the track could have.  But again, that’s just speculation.  I don’t know if a line failed or exactly what went on.  But putting a lug nut back on like we had to come down for would not create the problem.
 
            Q.  So maybe the mistake on the pit road was irrelevant, maybe your situation was doomed anyway?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I guess if we find out if a line broke, that could be the case.
 
            Q.  You came into this thing with people not giving you much of a chance.  Would it have been easier to take if you had just never had a chance all day long?  Does it hurt worse when you surge and you can almost taste it again?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  In a lot of ways, yes, but ‑‑ I would have hated to come out here and do the trash talking I did to start the week and run 25th all night long.  You know, I’m proud of the fact that we went out there and backed up what we said we could do and we put the pressure on.  It doesn’t take the sting away from losing the championship.  It helps in some ways and stings in others, so it balances out, I guess.
 
            Q.  If you could just talk, all of this happened within what felt like a five‑minute period.  You were leading, Brad had his trouble, you were ahead in the points, and then boom, the lug nut, and then boom, this.  If you could just speak to your emotions, because this all went down in a very tight time frame.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yes, it all unraveled pretty quick.  You know, the pit road thing, I was just kind of dealing with it, the first two or three laps I got on the track and trying to think through what was going on.  Chad had some optimism left in his voice.  I wasn’t sure why or what.  Maybe he was just doing a good job of being a cheerleader.
            But I ran a handful of laps and then I could smell some oil.  And when the gear failed, I mean, there was a lot of shaking in the car.  I knew it was big and going to be fatal.
            First I thought it was the engine, but it was the gear.  It was still running.  We came in the pits and I fired up the engine and the engine was running.
            Definitely disappointing, but again, I feel that we had the speed; we had 80 percent of the Chase that we needed to have.  So it’s hard to be real down on myself or real down on where we finished.  These championships are special, and it takes an entire 10‑race ‑‑ clean 10 races to win one of these things.  We hurt ourselves in Phoenix, and then today didn’t help.
 
            Q.  (No microphone.)
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You know, I felt so calm and relaxed all day long because I didn’t have anything to protect.  But it was as much like a normal race for me as ever.  And that’s something that I enjoyed, it allowed me to stay loose in the car and communicate what I needed and we made the car better.
            I didn’t see Brad, but I wasn’t ‑‑ I didn’t have the tingles of a championship feeling.  I didn’t even know where Brad finished and had to ask Jamie before we went on the air, and at first she said 21st, and about lost my lunch when I heard that.  She said, Well, he got to 15th.  I said, well, it would have been interesting.
 
            Q.  You guys, the crew even after you went to the garage worked until the very end and you wouldn’t get out of the car.  Kind of go through what’s going through your mind at that point and what’s that say about the team that they just wanted to get the car back out on the track?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, it’s just one of those things that teams do, and certainly the 48 team does, to get back out there and try not to have a DNF.  In the event that somebody has a problem or if the 2 did, we could capitalize on it.  But our troubles were pretty big, and there weren’t many laps left.
            It was more about going through the motions and trying from a pride standpoint to get out on the track and run the final lap of the season.
 
            Q.  In Brad’s earliest introduction to this sport, did you have any run‑ins with him at all, and can you talk about the progress he’s made over his three years and just your impression of what he’s done this year?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, I haven’t had any run‑ins with him.  We were teammates for a handful of years.  He was in Jr.’s car, and when you’re teammates with someone you get to know someone on a different level and your guard is down and it’s much more friendly than meeting somebody out on the racetrack door to door for the first time.  We had a good relationship then, and I can’t go without saying congratulations to Brad and the entire team.  I’ve known Paul for a lot of years, and through my disappointment, I’m happy for him.  I’m happy for Brad, and very good friends with Roger and happy that he was able to come out with the championship.
 
            Q.  Assuming career‑wise seven or eight championships is something you want to achieve, how tough is it to finish so close this year and come short?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You know, to be close is just ‑‑ it sucks to be close and not get it.  That’s just the way it is.  The statement I made about the eight championships is on that big wish list that ‑‑ we all have a wish list.  The reality of that isn’t something that motivates me, and I’m not focused on it or think about that number.  It was really to give everybody an answer because everybody would ask me, What next?
            So I thought it would bide me some time to have to come up with some type of answer.
            But I’m just disappointed that we came so close.  We had 80 percent of the Chase that we wanted to have, a ton of momentum late in the season, and then those final two races bit us.
 
            Q.  You said you almost lost your lunch when Jamie (Little) told you Brad had finished what she thought was 21st.  How did you feel when you had the lug nut issue, and is there any sort of consolation that even if you didn’t have that issue that that gear would have broken anyway?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  That’s hard to say on the gear.  We lost the oil, so until I understand why we lost the oil or the gear grease, I don’t k
now.  But we were in position to win the race.  We were ahead of the 24, and the 24 won the race.  We had a great strategy, called me to pit road to top off, and it seemed like we were definitely in the catbird seat.
 
            Q.  (No microphone.)
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I was eerily calm for whatever reason.  Flat lined.  Had the lug nut on, came back out and then we had our other problem.
 
            Q.  The same strategy that you were on ended up winning Jeff the race, and just wondered if you were surprised or Chad was surprised that Brad didn’t cover your move when you came to pit road to top off.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I was surprised, and they I think were trying for track position and probably a little frustrated with being stuck in the middle of the pack.  You know, it’s tough to really race hard when you come down here and you have something to protect.  I’ve been through it enough, and I definitely think those guys were feeling it today.
            Maybe outside of their game a little bit and going for the fuel mileage perspective, and it gave us an opportunity.  It was definitely going to make things interesting.  Unfortunately we couldn’t execute at the end.
            KERRY THARP:  Jimmie, thank you so much.  You’ve had a good season, five‑time champion.  Thank you for coming in.
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 20 YEARS CELEBRATORY CHEVROLET, RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AND ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF NO. 24 CHEVROLET – RACE WINNERS
 
 
KERRY THARP:  Our race winner is here with us.  That’s Jeff Gordon.  He drove the No. 24 DUPONT 20‑year celebratory Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.  He’s joined by his crew chief Alan Gustafson.
            What a way to win here, your 20th anniversary with DUPONT and Hendrick Motorsports, your 87th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, your first win here at Homestead Miami Speedway. You have now won at least one race at every active Sprint Cup Series track except Kentucky Speedway, and the only reason you haven’t won there is because you’ve only raced there twice.
            JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, somebody tell them to stop adding tracks.
            KERRY THARP:  Listen, congratulations, Jeff.  Maybe just talk about the win, talk about how that has got to be special, 20 years with DUPONT, 20 years with Hendrick Motorsports.
            JEFF GORDON:  There’s a lot of reasons why it’s special.  This is a big win.  I mean, we’ve been really close here in the past years with some good race cars, but just coming up a little bit short.  And today we just did all the right things.  With the way this team has handled things and fought through things and some great moments and some pretty low moments, to be able to end the season like this, pretty amazing.
            But I think what I’m most excited about is DUPONT.  To be able to have a special paint scheme commemorating 20 years together, it’s such an incredible accomplishment, and then to be able to kind of pay them back or give them thanks by pulling that car into victory lane, I know how pumped they were.  They were very, very excited, as well as I can’t believe ‑‑ it’s not very often you get Hendrick Motorsports a first for Rick Hendrick.  We got to do it together, Buddy.  I appreciate that.
            KERRY THARP:  Crew chief Alan Gustafson, talk about the win here today.
            ALAN GUSTAFSON:  Yeah, it was a really good race.  To echo Jeff’s sentiments, to be able to win DUPONT’s 20th anniversary and Jeff’s 20th anniversary with that silver car, which I think is gorgeous, it looks really good on the racetrack and even better in victory lane.
            It was a good race, had a solid car.  I think we made the right decision there pitting.  That was obviously a pivotal moment there for us to be able to contend for the win and had a really good car and a solid day.
            Big deal for the team.  We’ve been through a lot and are in a position that we wish we were in a lot better position in points right now, and we’re closer to contending, but we know to contend you have to win races in the Chase, and we were able to do that today, so that’s a big deal.
            KERRY THARP:  And Rick, you finished the season, now you have 209 ‑‑ your racing organization has 209 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.  You had the big 200th win earlier this season at Darlington.  You finished the year with a big win.  Just talk about how special that has to be.
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, you know, our goal is to win every race when we can, and the cars all ran well today.  Jeff was fast.  I think he had the fastest 10‑lap average yesterday.
            You know, it was a great day for us, a great day for DUPONT.  You don’t have sponsors that come on board and stay with you that long. To look at the number of wins Jeff has, 87 now?  87 out of 209, that’s pretty good.
            JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, that is good.
            RICK HENDRICK:  But it was a great race.  I went over and congratulated Roger and Brad ‑‑ Roger is actually wearing my hat and I’m wearing his.  And he’s a great friend.  And Brad did a good job, so we’re happy for them.
            We talked about it before the race started.  We wanted momentum out of this race carrying into next year.  And I think I’m real proud of Jeff; he had the bit in his mouth today, and Alan made all the right calls.  Good to get one here at Homestead because this is one of the other tracks we never won at.
            Q.  Jeff, can you take us through the emotions of the week, obviously starting in Phoenix and having to deal with the aftermath, and here you are, victory and having finished second to Bowyer without any incident.  Just take us through that if you can.
            JEFF GORDON:  It’s like our whole season wrapped up in one week.  Yeah, you know, I mean, definitely the emotions, and you can try all you want to try to move past the moment, but man, it just ate me up inside all week.  I just kept going back and forth about the decisions that I made and wishing I had made different decisions to backing up reasons why I made the decisions I made, and I just kept going back and forth from being disappointed, being angry, feeling that I had a right.  I didn’t have a right.  So that just ate me up all week.  It meant the world to me to have Rick stand here by my side not just in the media center but all week as well as Alan and the team, and I think that
was what was so special today was to go into victory lane.  And I think it started in our team meeting before the race; I apologized to those guys for some of the things that transpired that they had to get involved with that wasn’t their doing last week, and I put them in that position, and I apologized to them and I thanked them at the same time for having my back.
            That’s the kind of team that we’ve been this year.  We’ve had to have one another’s backs because we’ve all made mistakes this year.
            And so to be able to celebrate with them in victory lane was very special, very meaningful, and gives a tremendous amount of momentum to go into 2013 with the new race car.
            Q.  For Rick and Jeff, obviously Jimmie would have had a chance to win if he didn’t have his problems.  What’s it like to see him have those problems?  You’ve never seen those problems in the past Chases that he’s been in.  Is that just the odds catching up to them?
            RICK HENDRICK:  I think so.  A pinhole in that line, that could have ‑‑ something hit it or I don’t know how it happened, but I think about that.  I mean, we had to run a bunch of perfect races to win five in a row, and Jeff to win his four, I mean, we’ve ‑‑ I saw Terry break his hand and come back and win a race.  And today, this Chase setting we have with the points as tight as they are, you just can’t have a problem, and I know it wasn’t from the lack of effort.  We had a lug nut that started and then we had the hole in the line.  But that’s just racing.
            If you let that destroy you, you’ll never be able to win again, and I think we go back and figure out what happened and try to prevent it from happening on any of other cars again.  That’s the way we usually work together.
            It’s disappointing, but at the same time it’s racing.  The tire blew in Phoenix; you can’t help that.  And those kind of things happen.  You just have to accept it if you’ve been racing as long as I have.  I’ve had a lot of them on white flag and something happens, and you just have to go on and race again the next day.
            Q.  Kind of following up on that, you came into the day kind of hoping to be in both victory lanes or at least one celebrating a championship. What were the mixed emotions you had celebrating the win with Jeff knowing that the 48 team had kind of blown the championship?
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, I think, again, I feel awful blessed to be able to have won as many as I’ve won, and after a while you just do the best you can and prepare the best you can.  And if somebody just beats you, then you know you’ve got to go to work.  If things happen outside of your control, then that’s just the breaks of the game.
            I thought it was a long shot anyway coming in here tonight.  Brad as good as he’s been, he’s run a flawless Chase, and unless he had the same kind of problem we had tonight, and that could have happened with a lug nut or run over something or an oil line or whatever, could have happened to him.  So you know what can happen, but the likelihood, the way their year has been going, for that to happen was pretty remote.
            It wasn’t a total shock.  I thought that the 48 and the 24 were strong and could make it on fuel and we were going to be ‑‑ probably about 10, 12 points, 10, 11 points, something like that.  Unless they had the same kind of problem the 48 had we weren’t going to do it.
            We talked about this again on the radio before the race with Jeff and Alan, we need to go out and get the job done today, and that’s what they did.  So I’m celebrating that one and letting the other deal go.
            Q.  For Rick, I notice you have the Shell hat on.  I understand you and Roger switched hats out there.  Did you say anything or can you share what you said with him out there?
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, you know, he and I watched a race together not long ago when we were out of town.  He’s one of my best friends, and I wanted to congratulate him, and he reached for my hat when I got to him and said, “I want to wear that hat.”  And so I was happy to swap with him.
            You know, I respect him so much, and he is such a good friend.  So I’m real happy for him.  I’m very, very ‑‑ he’s paid his dues, he’s won a bunch of championships, and he’s done a lot of hard work in this sport.
            And Brad, he was with our organization for a while, and he’s got a lot of talent.  So you want to see friends do well.  That doesn’t mean I don’t want to ‑‑ this is it, that one is enough.  Next year is not going to be that way.  We talked about it, we laughed ‑‑ we were actually texting before the race.  Keep it in the family; that’s what we said.
            If we both get the win tonight, that was pretty good.
            Q.  Jeff, were you close on fuel at the end, and if you were, how close were you?
            JEFF GORDON:  You need to ask Alan.  He’s the one that gambled on it.  I was saving a lot, I know that.  I just kept looking at the gap ‑‑ what made me concerned was that the run before that I had gotten really, really tight in the center and loose off, and so I lost some speed at the end of the run, and the 15 was able to run me down, and I didn’t want to see that same thing happen.
            And so when he started saying save fuel, save fuel, I said, well, how many laps are we short?  He said, no, we’re good, but we want to pad it a little bit.  I kept thinking, I don’t want to pad anything because the last run we gave up a lot at the end.  But they made an adjustment to the car, the car stayed good throughout the whole run.  It was hard to break up the momentum or the rhythm that I was in on my entry and getting to the gas in the middle, but we started working with it and keeping that gap.  But I don’t know, how close were we?
            ALAN GUSTAFSON:  We had probably a lap to be good.  We had a two‑second lead, and there was no reason ‑‑ you don’t have to win it by just a foot.  So we knew we had two seconds to spare, and shame on us if we’re out there trying to stretch a lead and run out of gas.  That’s not very smart.  We kept the two seconds as close as we could, and within that two‑second window I had a thought in my mind if he got to one second we’d turn him back loose, but he never did.
            Q.  This is more of a career question or for Mr. Hendrick:  In light of what Mr. Smith said a couple of years ago about Miami and now that you’ve finally won here, could you shed some light or Mr. Hendrick shed light on how over the last two decades NASCAR has changed from a southern
‑rooted sport to one that’s trying to extend its outreach to across borders, across the United States and across different foreign borders?
            JEFF GORDON:  I mean, I think we feel the same way as NASCAR does, that we want everybody to be a NASCAR fan.  The more fans, the better reach that we have to bring crowds and entertain them as well as sponsorship opportunities.  I think that’s just the way the world is working, certainly in the marketing world, as well, of who the customer is out there.
            But definitely this race, I’d say probably the Phoenix race, as well, just really reaching out and broadening the fan base.  And it’s great to see.  It’s really grown over the years.  You see the Latino fans and Hispanic market growing here each race that we come here, and it’s very cool because typically they probably wouldn’t follow NASCAR.  But if this track wasn’t here, or the fact that it is here, I think it really displays our racing at its best.  It’s a great racetrack.  It’s very entertaining.  It’s a great weekend of racing with the trucks, the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup Series battling for the championship.
            So it doesn’t get much better than this.  And the fans that I come across, they just love the fact that they’re able to come here to this racetrack and see NASCAR racing at its best, that they don’t always get a chance to in other parts of the country.  So yeah, that’s definitely an area that’s really grown.
            RICK HENDRICK:  You know, we had two fans from Israel that came, were in victory lane tonight, and we didn’t know them until they spoke to my wife.  But they were wearing Gordon stuff, and they were telling us that ‑‑ we were telling them that we visited there a couple years ago.
            JEFF GORDON:  Was it the couple with the little boy?  Yeah, so at the airport this morning, we were at the airport, my wife and my kids and myself, getting ready to helicopter out, and they were sitting right next to us.  But they didn’t say anything, and I didn’t really see anything.  And then all of a sudden they were walking out to go get on this bus, and the little boy had a 24 backpack on.  And so I said hi to him, and I was kind of struck that they didn’t say anything to me or get a picture or an autograph or anything.
            And so my wife saw them at victory lane, or outside of victory lane, and she recognized them from this morning and said come up into victory lane.  So I’m glad you got a chance to say hi to them and see them and learn more about who they are.  I know the little boy was a big fan, so to get to go to victory lane was pretty cool.
            Q.  Clint was in here a little while ago, and he said it had obviously gone through his mind that you were the one ahead of him and I’m sure it was going through your mind that he was coming from behind.  Was there any thought about that, or were you just more worried about keeping your distance to win the race, or were you thinking at all about Bowyer?
            JEFF GORDON:  I thought a little bit more about him when I was passing him for what could possibly have been for the lead because Alan told me that if this thing goes green, you’re racing the 15.  So we came into some lap traffic, and I could tell he was pretty anxious and running hard.  He knew the same thing that I knew.  I was able to get to the outside of him and get by him.  But I had to race with him a couple of times, and there were no issues.
            It didn’t matter who was behind me.  I’ll be honest, I wanted to win the race, and Alan put us in the position to win the race.  We had a great race car, and I didn’t want to give it up to anybody.
            But I thought it was pretty ironic.  I mean, there was one time where it was a restart, it was me, Joey and Clint, and I’m like, isn’t that just the way it goes.  And so we just really tried to focus on our car, our team, our position and get the most out of it.
            After it was over, I thought, you know, wow, I can’t believe that we just finished first and second after what happened last week.
            Q.  Jeff, you’ve been a four‑time champion obviously, and you congratulated Brad after the win tonight.  What kind of champion do you think he’ll be for the sport?  That’s a pretty big ambassador role, and he’s obviously the first guy born I think in the 1980s to be a champion in the sport and kind of looks at the world a little bit differently.  How do you think he’ll do as the lead face?
            JEFF GORDON:  And I think because of that, he’ll do great.  His ability to reach out to the social media and the younger crowd, you know, I think that he’s ‑‑ he’s somebody that takes it ‑‑ wants to take it and wants to be that, and he’ll ‑‑ because of that, he’ll put a lot of effort into it.
            He’s entertaining.  You know, that’s for ‑‑ you never know what you’re going to get with Brad.  I enjoy or look forward to watching him, and I think this experience, he will just mature to a whole ‘nother level because of being in this position and carrying this responsibility.  When he sees all that’s involved ‑‑ every champion that I’ve ever seen win their first one, they always come out of it with a whole new perspective on past champions.  And I remember when Jimmie won his, he was overwhelmed with everything that comes along with it.  It makes you grow up.
            If you’re ready for it or not ready for it, it doesn’t matter; it’s there, and there’s a lot to take in, and it makes you really look at things a lot differently and recognize that responsibility that you have.
            So I think he’ll do a very good job.
            Q.  Rick, your season has been unusually erratic.  You went 10 races at the beginning without winning, then you won seven of the next 11, then the next 11 without a win and won three of the last four.  Was that all just happenstance and the way things happen, or is consistency something that your team needs to shore up?
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, you know, I don’t really know how to answer that.  We’ve run good every week.  We had all four cars in the Chase.  Everybody won a race.  I think we had 11 poles and 10 wins, and we finished ‑‑ I don’t know where we finished in the points.  We could have ‑‑ we had a shot to finish one, three and five two weeks ago, and I don’t really think we’re erratic.  I think the competition is pretty stiff.
            You look at Greg Biffle, who led the points going into the Chase, and so I just think it’s the level of competition, if you are short on fuel, you go from 1st to 12th.  If you have a tire go down or you have to come back in on a speeding penalty, like Kasey, you lead the race and then you end up 20th, it’s just so many good car
s out there.
            I don’t think anybody can just be perfect for the whole year.  I’d say if I can go every year and get them all in the Chase and win 10, 11 races and 10, 11 poles, I want to win a lot of championships, but if you run like that, you’ll win your share.
            Q.  For Rick, at one point Brad was in the Hendrick stable with JR Motorsports, and I guess the thought was eventually he may get a ride with Hendrick and he left.  But did you see this potential in him back then and any thoughts you wish you could have retained him at that time?
            RICK HENDRICK:  You know, I knew Brad had a lot of talent, and we looked at ways to try to keep him.  I told Roger he was on loan. Now he won’t want to come back.
            But no, you know, sometimes guys really blossom, and they are really way ahead of the curve and the timing isn’t right, but I wish him all the luck in the world.
            And you know, he’s a great talent, and if ‑‑ we worked to get him in the Nationwide car and then his first win in the Cup car with James was one of our cars.  You know, if we kind of helped him get there, that’s great.  But I ‑‑ you just never know what turns life takes, and I’m happy for him, but I’m happy with our lineup.
            Q.  That was part of my question.  He won his championship in his 125th start, and the guy who did it in the fewest starts is Jeff in 93 starts.  I guess that’s an impressive start, and I think it’s impressive because I don’t think anybody thought three years ago that Brad could do that, he was sort of raw and aggressive.  Would you agree with that?  Did you think that he could turn it around that quickly?  And my second question since you know Roger so well, does that guy ever show emotion?
            RICK HENDRICK:  He was pretty emotional tonight when I was with him.  He was ‑‑ he genuinely was happy, Roger was.  Brad, and Jeff worked with Brad, Brad, he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but he was very aggressive. But he learned how to control that and how to race, and he did it in a hurry.  And he did it almost in a year.
            And you know, and I think Paul Wolfe has been a great influence, and that’s a great combination.
            You see guys ‑‑ I remember Kyle Busch, and Alan was the guy that had him, first race he ever ran in the Nationwide car, he should have won.  When you’ve got a lot of talent ‑‑ a lot of guys you see guys with talent and they get too aggressive or they just don’t know when to race, and he figured it out in a hurry.  He’s been very, very ‑‑ he’s been a very smart while he was aggressive racer this year.
            JEFF GORDON:  Well, I mean, when he was with us, I don’t know if I saw this much potential out of him, but he certainly had talent.  I think he races smart, like Rick said, and a lot of times when you look at champions in any series, you have to have talent and know how to get the most out of the car, but you have to be smart.
            To me, and Alan might even be able to talk to this point a little bit, what impressed me so much this year is that there were times when there was some back and forth between whether they were missing something or didn’t have what we had, and those guys went to work, and they made their stuff really strong, and it takes engineering, good crew chief, fabricators as well as a solid driver to pull together like that and make improvements.
            You’ve got to give them credit.
            Q.  You’ve been the champion four times; Rick, you’ve had numerous championships.  Could you talk about the mental toughness in Brad to ‑‑ when you guys go full court press, you guys go full court press.
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, I’ll tell you, I remember just like yesterday Brad sitting in my office, and he eats, sleeps and drinks wanting to be a race car driver, and he ‑‑ when he was with the Nationwide team, he was all under the car, all around the car with the guys, and he brings a level of intensity that I see in very few people, just that determined.
            And I think he’s matured in a hurry, and he learned how to race, and race 500 miles and race against guys and know when to race and the gas mileage thing.  They figured it out.  I guess they were first, weren’t they?  They kind of had the gas mileage thing down first.  They won a couple races that way where everybody was saying, hey, can they go that far.  So that was planning with he and the crew chief, and I think he spends a lot of time over there, and he’s made that whole organization better.
            Again, I think like Jeff said, he’s ‑‑ I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anybody mature as quickly ‑‑ not so much mature but learn how to race and accept racing with guys that were champions and looked at as being the best but wanting to beat the best.
            He deserves it.  They deserve it this year.  They had a great year.
            KERRY THARP:  Jeff, Alan and Rick, congratulations on this win, congratulations on a good season.  Happy Thanksgiving, and we’ll see you in Las Vegas.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FORD ECOBOOST 400
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 17, 2012
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed his mindset going into the final race tomorrow, what type of race we should expect to see on Sunday and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
WHERE IS YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW AFTER ALL THE PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING IT’S TIME TO RACE?
“Yeah ready to race for sure.  Very pleased with how our car finished up.  It’s really nothing for me to lose sleep about tonight.  It’s an easy night for me.  I got my training in this morning.  I know I’m going to be tired and ready for bed.  We finished on a high note in practice and just got to bed, get up and get to work tomorrow.  Easy from my stand point, because I’ve got nothing to lose.  We will see what they do on the other side.”
 
WE SAW SOME GUYS CRASH IN PRACTICE RACING SIDE-BY-SIDE. WHAT TYPE OF RACE DO YOU THINK WE ARE GOING TO SEE ON SUNDAY?
“The crash that we had I think there was just some confusion and it kind of looked to me like people thought they were two-wide, but they were three-wide.  There was just some confusion there that led to the crash on the front stretch.  That happens anywhere.  It’s kind of odd to happen in racing, but I think spotters might have a tough view in turn four.  Turn four is a tricky corner.  The car turns so strong through the center of the turn and then as you come up onto the straightaway you can lose the front end a lot.  So, I think that is why we see issues over there.  The race should be good.  We are going to be on the line to the wall.  This progressive banking makes for a really good race.”
 
WILL WHAT HAPPENED CHANGE THINGS? BRAD (KESELOWSKI) WILL NOW MOVE UP AND BE ON THE INSIDE TO START THE RACE ON THE FRONT ROW.  CHANCES ARE HE WILL LEAD THE FIRST LAP…
“I hope he tries really, really, really hard to lead that first lap.  I know (Marcos) Ambrose next to him is going to try hard too.  That could be good for me.”
 
DOES THIS TRACK LEND ITSELF TO A LOT OF CHANGE DURING THE RACE AS FAR AS IF YOU ARE BAD EARLY CAN YOU GET YOUR CAR BETTER THROUGHOUT THE RACE OR IS IT MORE WHAT YOU’VE GOT IS WHAT YOU’VE GOT?
“If we have cautions you will have a chance to work on your car.  That is biggest problem is when we got to these tracks, especially 1.5-mile tracks, and we don’t have many cautions you don’t get chances to work on your car.  It’s tough to tune yourself in.  I hope that we are close and we don’t need the cautions to work on our car, but that is really what sets the pace for the race and allows people to get back into it. The more cautions the more opportunities to improve your race car.”
 
I KNOW THE CONDITIONS CHANGE HEADING INTO TOMORROW BUT GIVEN WHAT YOU SAW FROM THE OTHER GUYS AND WHAT YOU FELT IN YOUR OWN CAR HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IT IS A WINNING CAR?
“I think we are a top-five car right now, winning we will work on that tonight and put some final touches on it.  I knew coming into this weekend I was going to have a big hill to climb with the No. 2 car and the points lead that they have.  They have done their part and have been very competitive all weekend long.  We will just have to see how that race goes tomorrow.  I feel we have made our car a lot better through the course of the weekend.  The last two race runs we had were pretty strong and in the mix.”

James Buescher Crowned 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – James Buescher, driver of the No. 31 Great Clips Chevrolet Silverado, claimed the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) championship with a 13th-place finish in the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His title, the first for Buescher and team owner Steve Turner, clinched Chevrolet’s 12th driver’s title since the Series’ 1995 inception.

“On behalf of Chevrolet, congratulations to James Buescher and the No. 31 Chevrolet Silverado crew on winning the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “James and his team demonstrated determination, perseverance and that never-give-up attitude to win their first championship. Congratulations to Steve Turner and his entire Turner Motorsports organization on this accomplishment.”

The 22 year-old driver led the series with four wins, 10 top-five’s and 14 top-10’s in 22 races this season.

Buescher, who carried an 11-point lead into the season finale, is the seventh Chevrolet Silverado driver to win the NCWTS championship, joining Austin Dillon (2011), Ron Hornaday Jr. (2009, 2007, 1998 and 1996), Jack Sprague (2001, 1999, and 1997), Travis Kvapil (2003), Mike Bliss (2002) and Mike Skinner (1995).

In addition to winning the championship, Turner Motorsports has amassed seven NCWTS wins with drivers Buescher, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Kasey Kahne. 

“This caps a very successful season for Chevrolet in the Camping World Truck Series,” Campbell said. “We’d also like to congratulate Ty Dillon for winning the Series’ Sunoco Rookie-of-the-Year title.”

Chevrolet earlier clinched the NCWTS Manufacturers’ Championship for the eighth time.

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed what last week’s win at Phoenix does for him and his team, how he feels the evolution of safety has come with the Car of Tomorrow, what it is like to run multiple races in a weekend and much more. Full transcript.
 
GETTING THAT WIN, WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THE TEAM MORAL WISE?
“Well I think everybody knows we are going to go out and try to be competitive and win races. For us as a whole it shows that we can still go out and make it happen. It’s great to have that momentum at the end of the year. It will do a lot for the off season.”
 
THIS IS THE LAST RACE FOR THE CAR OF TOMORROW, IT’S NEVER REALLY BEEN BELOVED, WHEN YOU LOOK AT WHAT IT DID IN TERMS OF SAFETY DID IT KIND OF DO ITS JOB?
“I think so. I think the safety evolution has been pretty remarkably fast as far as how fast it has taken place over the years. The evolution of whether it be cars, or seats, or rules, or whatever the case may be it’s not something that NASCAR has let their guard down on. I think that part of it has been great. It’s definitely started the path and accomplished a lot of things that they wanted to accomplish from that standpoint.”
 
WHEN YOU ARE IN THE COCKPIT OF THE CAR, IS IT DIFFERENT THAN WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN THE PREVIOUS CAR?
“Oh yeah, absolutely. The roll bars are not sitting next to your head. In speedway races the roll bar would actually be touching the left side of your head because you couldn’t get the seat down low enough with where the truck arms were. So, just from a driver’s standpoint as far as room in the car is a remarkable difference.”
 
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO RUN MULTIPLE SERIES IN A WEEKEND?
“It just depends on a lot of things. It depends on how they are running. A lot of it depends on where you are at in a season as far as how you feel and things like that. When you know you are going to run every race and you know you’re going to have to go through the dead of summer, that’s really the hardest part is going through the dead of summer and run both of those races and keep yourself hydrated. You have to be in tune with how you are physically with your body. It’s a challenge for sure. When we first did that back in 2001 everybody thought we were crazy and now it’s just kind of normal to run a lot of races.”
 
IN REGARDS TO THE 2001 SEASON AND FILLING IN, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT COMING IN AND RUNNING THE CUP SERIES WHEN YOU WEREN’T EXPECTING TO RUN IT?
“I always tell people that my career started backwards. You start out with a lot of attention and fans, just in a very unique situation. Then you go through the years trying to figure out and learn how to whether its manage your time, or manage your money, or manage your team, whatever the case may be, there’s just a lot of challenges that come with this level of races. It becomes a lot harder than you think it should be after the first year and you learn as you go. I think as we did that, it was definitely different starting the way that we do.”
 
THIS IS SAM HORNISH’S SECOND GO AROUND IN CUP, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN IF ANYTHING A DIFFERENCE IN HIM AS HE’S RACING ON THE TRACK?
“He just crashes a lot less. I think that’s the biggest difference. I think the first time that he came around he didn’t have a great feel for the cars and had a lot of pressure put on him to go out and perform. The cars weren’t running near as good as they run now. As he’s had the opportunity this time to come around, he’s got a much better feel for the cars. You’ve got to have experience to be successful at Nationwide or Cup. To have that feel for the cars and know where it’s going to spin out and know when to let people go, and he takes care of his equipment really well now. You can race door to door with him and not have to worry about who you are racing. So, he’s made a pretty tremendous turn around since he started.”
 
WHEN THE CHASE DEVELOPED, DID YOU EVER THINK THAT SOMEBODY WOULD EVER BE ABLE TO GO OUT AND WIN FIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS IN A ROW?
“No, I think the Chase was developed so it would be more competitive. But, I think that goes to show you just how competitive that those No. 48 guys have been. Jimmie (Johnson) is obviously a great driver and got a great team. It’s been pretty remarkable to watch.”
 
BACK IN 2010 YOU FINISHED THIRD BUT YOU HAD A BETTER AVERAGE FINISH THAN THE TWO GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU. KNOWING WHAT YOU KNOW NOW BACK THEN, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENT?
“Win more races. That’s what it boils down to is wins.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed making his 500th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start, the high and low points of the season and other topics.  Full Transcript:  
 
500TH START THIS WEEKEND CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT MILESTONE?
“It means I’m getting old (laughs).  I’m pretty proud of that.  It’s a cool accomplishment.  I remember when I came in the series watching guys get recognized for their 500th start.  That is pretty neat.”
 
LAST RACE WITH OFFICE DEPOT TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY HAVE MEANT TO YOU AND YOUR ORGANIZATION:
“They have been awesome.  They were the first company that came and wanted to be a part of this program when it started.  Even before I actually signed my deal with Gene (Haas) was when they came and say ‘hey we don’t know if what we are hearing you are doing you are going to do, but if you are we want to be a part of it.’  That was nice to have that kind of vote of confidence from somebody like Office Depot.”
 
IN YOUR MIND WHAT ARE THE HIGH POINTS AND LOW POINTS OF THIS SEASON?
“I think the high point is probably winning at Las Vegas, winning at a track we hadn’t won at before was definitely a high point.  A lot of places that we were so good at last year in the Chase, not being good this time and this year around was a little disappointing.”
 
DO YOU FEEL DISCOURAGED GOING INTO NEXT YEAR GIVING THAT YOU RECENTLY HAVEN’T BEEN RUNNING WELL AT THE SAME PLACES YOU RAN WELL AT LAST YEAR?
“We’ve got such a different car and different package next year, everybody just kind of starts over.  I am discouraged that we are finishing this way, but not because of what it’s going to lead to next year.  Everybody is going to start with stuff that is totally different package wise than what we have.  A totally new body that is obvious to everybody, but things underneath the car that the guys are doing to the cars this year that we are not going to be allowed to do next year. There are a lot of changes and it’s going to be a whole new learning process starting over in Daytona.”
 
WHAT TYPE OF RACE DO YOU THINK WE ARE GOING TO SEE ON SUNDAY?
“You always ask that after practice when nobody has ran around each other.  I honestly have no idea.  When we went on the race track there was rubber all the way across from the bottom to the top so they are obviously using the whole race track before we even started.  That is a good sign that the race track still moves around.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT JEFF (GORDON) DID LAST WEEK?
“I’m not going to get involved in that.”
 
THE ELDORA RUMOR HEATED UP AGAIN CAN YOU SAY ANYTHING ON THAT?
“When we have something to say we will tell you guys. It’s starting to get annoying every week it’s like we don’t even know answers and you guys want answers that we don’t even have answers to.  When we have answers we will come to you guys I promise we will not let you be left out of this.”
 
LAST YEAR GOING INTO THE FINAL WEEKEND YOU AND CARL (EDWARDS) KIND OF TOOK SOME JABS AT EACH OTHER IN YOUR ESTIMATION WHAT IMPACT CAN THAT HAVE SAY BETWEEN BRAD (KESELOWSKI) AND JIMMIE (JOHNSON)?
“I don’t know I haven’t been p
aying attention to what they are doing.  It affects different guys different ways.”
 
DOES THE CHASE GET MORE DIFFICULT OR EASIER WHEN YOU HAVE SOME WHAT OF A CUSHION OR IS IT BETTER IF YOU DON’T HAVE A CUSHION AND JUST RACE KNOWING YOU NEED TO PUSH IT EVERYTHING AS HARD AS POSSIBLE THE WHOLE WAY?
“I don’t know.  We’ve been in both situations.  The whole day is evenly as tough no matter where you are at it’s a tough day.  There is nothing easy about it.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT 20-YEAR CELEBRATORY CHEVROLET, AND RICK HENDRICK, OWNER OF HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, met with members of the media at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed the 20-year relationship with DUPONT, the incident at Phoenix International Raceway and other topics.  Full transcript:
An Interview With:
JEFF GORDON
RICK HENDRICK
            KERRY THARP:  We have a special availability in here this afternoon at Homestead Miami Speedway.  We have Jeff Gordon.  He’s driving the No. 24 DUPONT 20‑year Celebratory Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, and we’re pleased to be joined by Jeff and his team owner Rick Hendrick.  This is 20 years for Jeff Gordon in the DUPONT Chevrolet with Hendrick Motorsports, a terrific accomplishment in any walk of life to be together for 20 years.
            Jeff, congratulations.  Four‑time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, also getting ready to start your 689th straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday.  That’s third all‑time, and Rick Hendrick will be going for his 11th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship as an owner on Sunday afternoon with the 48 car of Jimmie Johnson.
            Jeff, let me ask you first, 20 years with DUPONT, a terrific organization.  We have many of those folks today in the back row.  Thank you for being here today.  Just talk about the relationship you’ve had with DUPONT and the relationship you’ve had with Hendrick Motorsports.
            JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, it’s obviously been a phenomenal relationship and really a partnership.  We saw them in the Nationwide Series getting involved with NASCAR racing.  Rick can tell you more about the meetings that they had from the beginning that were interesting and what eventually led to the sponsorship.  And once they came on board and took a chance on a rookie driver and a new team, kind of the rest is history.  But those early days and our excitement of getting out there into the Cup Series and their excitement about what they could do for their customers and their business, and seeing those two come together, I think they’ve entertained more than 250,000 people at races over the years and really kind of set the benchmark for how sponsors go about entertaining their clients, their customers at track and how valuable that is from a business standpoint.
            It’s been really amazing all the great success.  A lot of great memories and championships and wins, but this weekend that car really means a lot to me.  It’s a very cool‑looking car.  To have 20 years with one company and to be with Rick for 20 years is something that I’m very proud of, and we look forward to a great weekend.
            KERRY THARP:  Rick, certainly you’ve won a lot of championships, four of them with the gentleman sitting to your right, but talk about the relationship not only with Jeff Gordon but also with DUPONT.
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, I think everyone has heard the story of me seeing Jeff in Atlanta, and I have to thank Andy Graves, his roommate, for ‑‑ I just happened to say in front of Jimmy Johnson, who was the Jimmy Johnson that ran Hendrick Motorsports that it was a shame that this kid that I saw driving that Nationwide or Busch Car back then had a contract with Ford, and Andy Graves said he doesn’t have a contract.  So we went to work and we designed a deal without a sponsor.
            I was talking to the folks at DUPONT because I was using their products in the dealerships, and I was asking them about an associate sponsorship and had no idea they’d go for ‑‑ they said, well, how about us sponsoring a whole car.  And you look back at them taking a chance on Jeff and what they ‑‑ like Jeff said, the way they have entertained at the track and the paints that they’ve brought to the track, from the day glows to all the wild colors, then we’ve rolled that into SEMA shows.  So it’s been an unbelievable journey.
            And I think 20 years has gone by in a hurry.  But we really appreciate them because they have been there from the very beginning and they took a chance, and they deserve to have the success that they’ve had over the years.  We’re just proud to carry them on board, and you’re right, to have a sponsor that sticks with you for 20 years, that’s an awful long time.
            Q.  Is there something that Rick doesn’t know about you after 20 years?
            JEFF GORDON:  There might be a couple things but not many (laughing).  We’ve gotten pretty close.  If you guys had a chance to see “Beyond 200,” which I’ve got to say thank you to SPEED Channel for bringing all that together, Rick did a great job hosting it.  But I was so impressed with that show.  A lot of laughs, a lot of tears, but I think even those quick little bytes there in that show, I think it showed how Rick and I have bonded over the years through a lot of ups and downs.
            I don’t know, can you ‑‑ I can’t think of anything that I’m willing to admit right here that he doesn’t know.  There’s quite a bit.
            Rick usually knows more than most of us think that he knows.  I think he’s got a pretty good idea about it.
            Q.  After Sunday and before the penalties were announced Monday, were you ever concerned that you wouldn’t be here this week or this event?
            JEFF GORDON:  You know, I tried not to think about that.  I know the folks at DUPONT were worried about it.  They put a lot into this paint scheme and planning.  This has been out ‑‑ really we’ve been talking about this for about 10 weeks, commemorating this moment with this car.  Until I heard that they were worried about it, I wasn’t too concerned about it.  I knew there would be fines and penalties, but I felt like I’d be in the seat of that DUPONT Chevrolet this weekend.
            Q.  How do you feel after last week?  And what lessons have you learned from Rick about ‑‑ he hasn’t really had to work with you on anger or something over the 20 years you’ve been together.
            JEFF GORDON:  Not that you know of.
            Q.  Yeah, really.  Behind closed doors maybe, huh?  How do you feel after last weekend, and what have you learned from Rick about dealing with that sort of thing?
            JEFF GORDON:  Well, you know, I mean, the one thing that I’ll say ‑ it probably wo
n’t be the one thing because I have a feeling that we are going there now ‑ is that last week, the thing that I regret and the thing that I messed up on is that I allowed my anger and my emotions to put me in a position to make a bad choice.  I felt like that Clint needed to be dealt with, but that wasn’t the right way to go about it, certainly not the right time.  And what I hate most about it is that other guys were involved with it and it affected their day.
            I certainly look back on it and wish I had done things different, and all I can do now is look ahead and look forward and try to come in here and do the best that I can to close out the season on a positive note and put this 20th anniversary DUPONT Chevrolet into victory lane.
            Q.  What did you tell him?  How did you deal with it with him as the owner?
            RICK HENDRICK:  Let me try to frame this up for you the best I can:  Here sits a guy that’s done more for the sport than anybody I know.  He’s opened the doors for all the young guys, the open‑wheel guys.  He’s done things like Saturday Night Live, he’s done the cover of Fortune.  Never seen him have a problem ‑‑ not a major problem in 20 years, and mentored a lot of young guys along the way.  You know, I think he just said it:  His emotions got control on Sunday.
            But I think you’ve got to go back, and I don’t expect anybody in here to really understand this as much as maybe Jeff and I do, but at Martinsville this year, we was going for our 200th win.  It was the first time I had my brother’s wife there and the first time Jan Jackson, the representative of DUPONT, was there since the crash.  We had a photo session before the race, and we were all wanting to win more than anything, more than any championship.  The 200th win at Martinsville meant so much to all of us because we lost so much there.
            And that was taken away from us.  Both of our cars were wrecked on the last lap and next‑to‑last lap and it was by the 15 car.  You didn’t see our guys go down there and fight in the pits; we didn’t do any of that.  I have never hurt as bad in my life leaving the racetrack as I did that day.  It took me a week or so to get over it just because we had it in our grasp.  And that’s just emotions that we carry and nobody else.
            So I think that situation along with some other things that happened along the way, you know, you don’t forget it.  What happened happened, and I agree with Jeff, I like Michael Waltrip, I like Rob Kauffman, I like Richard Petty, I like Clint Bowyer, I like all those guys.  If we had to do it all over again, could it have been handled a different way?  I don’t think Jeff intended to wreck him that bad or wreck him at all; move him, let him know he didn’t like it, sure didn’t want to get the other cars involved.  But you’ve got to go with the emotions that happened at that time, and there’s a lot of things that happened along the way, and this guy has as much right to race for fifth or sixth in the points as somebody has to race for second.
            So I stand behind him no different than my son got in trouble at school for a bully beating on him and he stuck up for himself.  So that’s the way I feel about it.
            Q.  Jeff, seems like one thing that might make this situation kind of unique is that Bowyer was racing for a championship, and you kind of ended his championship hopes.  Was there any consideration in the car, were you aware that that was going to do him in for the championship, and do you have any regrets over ‑‑ it wasn’t just another driver but it was a guy that was contending?
            JEFF GORDON:  You know, I’ve always said this as it relates to the Chase, the championship, that if you’re contending for the championship, you’ve got to be as smart about the things you do on the racetrack as the guys that you’re racing that might be outside the championship.  And there was absolutely no reason to run into me.  That’s the thing is you’ve got to understand each guy you’re racing along the way, and you’ve got to understand if they’re a guy that needs a ride next year, you’ve got to understand if they’re a guy that is trying to finish 10th or 12th in the points or whether they’re a guy that’s racing for the championship.  And it goes both ways.  It’s not just a one‑way street.  We were racing for fourth in points in that race, and so there was a lot on the line for us as well as for them, and so I think that it just wasn’t very smart of Clint to run into me coming off of Turn 2 on the straightaway, almost cut my left rear tire down, and know that we had past history this year.
            And so afterwards, did it sit well with me knowing that that took his hopes out?  No.  He’s also a guy I would consider a friend.  There’s a lot of things that didn’t sit well with me after the fact.  But at the moment, it’s hard to kind of bring all that into your mind when you’re upset about a situation.  And that’s why I said, what I regret the most is that the situation got escalated because I lost control of my emotions and let that put me into a decision that obviously wasn’t a good one.
            I think everybody thinks I just intentionally went down there and wrecked him, and that’s not the case.  I wanted to make his life really miserable, and I wanted to make my car really, really wide, but I wasn’t expecting him to go diving down the inside on the apron, and when he did, it caused us to hook and caused what ended up being a terrible accident.
            Q.  Rick just addressed that the niche in the history of NASCAR is preserved well, four championships, five championships or more, and nobody questions the competitiveness, but could you have imagined going this many years without a championship after you got your fourth?  And what kind of an impact on you is that?
            JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, it’s definitely been tough.  Gosh, I look at the ‑‑ and a lot of people go through some incredible runs in the sport, and we went through one of the most amazing ones from ’95 through 2001.  I look back at the wins and the championships and the way things were going, and there was no stopping us.
            We’ve been close a couple of times.  The Chase has changed things a little bit for us, and there’s been a few changes here and there that we’ve had ‑‑ I’ve had to personally adapt to as a race car driver that have made it a little more challenging, but I think that’s what happens when you’re in the sport for a long period of time.
            I thought that we had a shot at winning one or two more over the years that would have been nice to have.  But hey, four is still pretty good.  I love how competitive this team is every year, going out there and battling for race wins and being in the Chase and battling for championships, no different than like what we did to make it into this year’s Chase.
            Q.  Jeff, after the race and the incident, Joey had some comme
nts I guess on Twitter and other places and Clint, and some of the themes were that it wasn’t very champion‑like and they’d lost a lot of respect for you.  Sort of a two‑part question.  Do you think your reputation has taken a hit either in the general public or amongst your peers, and now as the father of two young children I assume maybe Ella is old enough to have seen it or maybe have an understanding.  Have you had to have any conversation with her?  I know she saw the incident with Burton at Texas last year and you had to have a conversation with her.  Is this something as a father you’ve had to talk about?
            JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, they didn’t get a chance to see this one, so I haven’t had to have that conversation with her.  She knew that I was in a wreck, and like I have any conversations with her after I’ve had a wreck, explain to her how I’m fine and others were fine, but we didn’t have to get into all the details.
            Yeah, you know, I’ve been through a lot of moments throughout my career, some that I was more proud of than others.  This is definitely not one of my proudest moments, but I also understand what kind of led up to it and I stand by that.
            Will it take away from ‑‑ yeah, guys are going to ‑‑ if they get into incidents with you you’re going to tarnish your respect among guys.  I don’t think they’re going to be messing with me for a little while.  I think they realize that that message was sent pretty clear.  And I think that’s something, too.  It’s been a real up‑and‑down year for us, and I go on Twitter, too, and I interact with my fans.
            Throughout the last couple years I feel like one thing that maybe I haven’t done enough of is show the fire inside me that I have to want to win and want to win championships.  And I think that while I would have liked to have gone about it differently on Sunday, I think it did show that that fire and passion is inside of me in a big way.
            I would have liked the caution to be thrown, gotten our tires and gone back out and raced for a top‑15 spot in the race and tried to come in here and get as high up in the points as we possibly could and dealt with it with Clint at another time.  I feel like I race guys the way they race me, and nobody likes to get wrecked.  And so I think that for me there were some things that I had been taking advantage of, and so obviously enough was enough.  I usually like to make a mental note of them and hold onto those things and be patient with it and try to just outrace guys and move them out of the way and do things and wear them down that way and remind them of those things over a long period of time instead of taking them out right there at the moment.
            Q.  Rick, I apologize for going back to something that you said a few minutes ago, but I just had to ask about it.  Realizing, understanding the sad legacy of Martinsville, but when you said that winning the 200th race at Martinsville was more important than any championship, did you mean that across the big picture or just that day?
            RICK HENDRICK:  Well, I meant ‑‑ maybe I didn’t say it exactly right.  The disappointment of being that close to having ‑‑ let me rephrase it.  The low that I felt leaving that day was worse, it deeper down hurt more than the joy in some of the championships.  That’s what I meant.  I can’t explain how ‑‑ the disappointment that day, in all of the times that I have gone away from the track feeling bad and taken a long time to get over it.  That’s a personal thing, and all I’m saying to you folks is that that was a day that he and I had time together, he’s an emotional guy, he’s like a son, and we don’t carry it on our sleeves, but those people were there for the first time.  And so that’s what made it kind of double tough.
            Q.  Jeff, I’m just curious, have you had a chance or have you spoken to Clint or Joey?  Has there been any communication between the three of y’all?
            JEFF GORDON:  I have not spoken to Clint other than at the track on Sunday after the event in the NASCAR hauler.  And with Joey, you know, I’m not one that calls right away.  I like things to kind of settle down.  I’d really rather do face to face, but he called me and so I called him back, and I can’t say it went exactly very well.  I reached out to him again to try to get together with him here at the track, and I have not been able to speak with him.
            Q.  Are you happy the season is coming to an end?  Would you like to see it go on?  Do you need a recharge for the next couple of months?
            JEFF GORDON:  Well, I feel like this has been one of those seasons where I think we’re going to get momentum and things are going to start happening positively and we start to put some races together to find our way up further in the points, something just kind of reaches out and gets a hold of us and kind of knocks us back a little bit again.
            You know, our team has worked so hard this year, and I’m so proud of them.  We’ve had great race cars this year.  But yeah, we kind of do need a reset, and I’m looking forward to the 2013 car.  I tested it a couple weeks ago.  I thought it went really well.  I think we’ve got some great things in store for that.
            I think Hendrick Motorsports in general has shown how well they prepare when a new challenge is thrown at us like this new car.  So I think we’ve got some great things in store for us for next year.  This is a good track for us.  I look forward to this weekend.
            But I always ‑ it doesn’t matter how the season has gone ‑ look forward to taking a little time off.  Our season is long, but when you’ve had a season like I’ve had, then yeah, you’re definitely looking forward to taking a little break, spending some time with family.  But it’s also a very busy time.  It’s just not a busy time at the racetrack preparing for a race.
            Q.  How disappointing would it be if you weren’t in the top 10?
            JEFF GORDON:  Well, at this point, being 10th or 11th is ‑‑ to me that’s not what it’s all about.  I’m more disappointed that we don’t have a shot at being fifth because I felt like we had a legitimate shot at being in the top 5, and I think that would have been one incredible accomplishment for us the way our season has gone, even the way our Chase has gone, to be able to say that we finished in the top 5 this year.  At this point the difference between 10th and 11th or 12th is kind of insignificant.
            Q.  My question is about your being a champion.  As far as championships in general, that’s what this week is all about.  What would you think a contender must do to rise above or a few things a contender must do to rise above and become a champion?
            JEFF GORDON:  In t
his particular weekend or just in general?
            Q.  Yeah, in general, any champion.
            JEFF GORDON:  It’s the same ingredients I feel like that the champion has that comes out on top every year, and that’s teamwork, commitment, great leadership, and just a lot of hard work and effort that goes into building that team up to be ready to go do what you have to do for those 10 weeks in the Chase.  And I always believe that the best overall team wins the championship.  We’ll see what happens on Sunday, who that is, but I think that the best two are definitely up there.
            It’s not surprising to me that Brad is where he’s at.  Last year I thought that he showed a lot of maturity, I think that team showed a lot of strength, and they’re up against, what more can you say about the 48 team and what they’ve gone out and shown and do every year.
            Q.  When you said that you don’t think anybody would be messing with you, do you feel like this is over as far as between you and Clint, and then also, when you said it wasn’t kind of the right place or right time, do you feel like these things need to be handled on the track or off the track?
            JEFF GORDON:  Oh, there’s the million‑dollar question.  Well, obviously with the way the penalties are put out there, you can’t handle them on the racetrack.  But I think that you’ve got to handle it through how you race.  I mean, that’s ‑‑ I guess I’m a little old school when it comes to this.  Talking about 20 years, I’ve been wrecked, I’ve been caught up in other people’s wrecks, I’ve been on both sides of it, all sides of it throughout all these years, and I didn’t expect a phone call, I didn’t expect somebody to come and spend an hour with me explaining things, and usually the ones that did were the ones that did it just because they didn’t want you to wreck them back.
            So to me, you’ve got to understand the situation, and to me, like Joey getting caught up in it, I’m definitely sorry about that, and I take responsibility for that.  I want to try to make it up to him best I can.
            Another example I can give you is I wrecked Martin Truex a couple years ago at Sonoma, and I was racing Juan Pablo behind me, got in the corner two deep and ran into him, completely my fault, and I reached out to him because I did, I felt bad about it.  It had nothing to do with him, it wasn’t a racing ‑‑ like us racing hard or me having any animosity towards him at all.
            You know what, he and I never spoke.  I left him a voicemail, but we never spoke, never spoke at a racetrack, nothing, and we raced hard for, shoot, a year and a half of me racing him for position, sliding inside, doing everything I could not to wreck him to show him that this is how I’m going to treat you, and he raced me as hard as you can possibly race me knowing that he had that against me.
            And so, you know, that’s kind of the way that I like to go about things.  Somebody does something to me, I’m either going to ‑‑ if it’s a racing incident, I’m going to try to race them back in the same way they raced me.  If something happened by accident, then I’m going to understand that ‑‑ I’m going to make them kind of pay the price for making a dumb move, but at the same time, I’m going to be as respectful as I can over the situation.
            You know, every situation is unique, and I can’t control what’s going to happen out there or what other guys are going to do against me this weekend.  I’m going to focus on what I can do, and if ‑‑ I’m pretty sure if they’re having a good day, they’re not going to mess with me.  If they’re having a really bad day and feel like they have nothing to lose, then maybe they will.  We’ll see.  I prefer it to be handled on the racetrack, though.  I’m not the biggest guy in the world, and kind of one of the reasons I got into racing.  We’re all the same out there.
            Q.  It’s a little hypothetical here, but take yourself out, and if you were an outsider looking at what happened last week and somebody else was in your role, how do you think you would react to the whole situation and everything?
            JEFF GORDON:  I would tune in the following Sunday and see what happens.
            Q.  Given that, you think it is good for the ‑‑ has some validity to being good for the sport?
            JEFF GORDON:  They wouldn’t be advertising for the race using all those clips if it weren’t, I guess.  Nobody intends to go out and do that for that reason, but I mean, I’ve gained a lot of Twitter followers this week, and there’s certainly been a lot of talk, a lot of buzz, and I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of buzz around this race on Sunday for a lot of different reasons, not just that.
          
 
 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – BREAKOUT PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
 
Q. I know there’s so many people trying to downplay the mind games, but are you just trying to plant a seed in Brad’s (Keselowski)  mind?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, you definitely want to plant a seed, but the thing that I know is regardless of the prodding or poking I can do, that moment is coming.  The aha moment comes for everybody that’s in that championship battle.  It’s easy right now to focus on just the drivers because we’re here with the mics and doing this whole press conference.  But every guy that goes over the wall to perform the pit stops can have that moment and will have that moment.  Every guy turning a screw, a nut, putting fuel in the car, crew chiefing the race, engineering the race, everybody has the same thing on their mind.  You’re protecting something.  It is something we have all worked for our whole lives to get to this point.  It is a huge, huge moment.
            So regardless of what I say or needling I can do, those moments are going to show up, and if I can plant that seed and help spur that moment along, then cool.  But I’m not ‑‑ I didn’t come in here with a huge agenda today thinking that I was going to make a difference in that because I know those moments are going to come.  I’ve been there.
 
            Q.  So what is your mindset coming into this weekend?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  For whatever reason, I’m at peace with my situation.  I mean, I don’t want to be in this situation, but I am strangely optimistic, and I can’t explain why.  There’s just feelings that people have, and I’ll see if this feeling comes true Sunday evening.
 
            Q.  Does it work in your favor to be a five‑time champion?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I don’t feel forgotten by any means, but the truth of it is there’s 20 points, 20 positions on the track.  If it was tighter there would probably be more concern, but the best part, and it came to me during the press conference, to help spur along any thoughts and to help distract the 2 team and especially Brad and his mindset, the questions that come and the focus, that helps the magnitude of this situation come along and brings that to the forefront of his mind quicker and quicker.
            I was smiling to hear family questions asked, and what this might mean and all that, because it’s very easy in your controlled environment to ignore all of those thoughts.  But when you’re in these situations you want to know, the fans want to know, those questions come out, and it makes you think about things that you don’t want to think about or talk about and maybe haven’t yet because why would you.  As a racer you don’t want to assume things.
            I was enjoying the questions and I enjoy the fact the spotlight is over there.  In fact, what the hell are you all doing over here?  Get over there and ask some questions.
 
            Q.  Everybody talks about Brad Keselowski being discovered in 2007.  A lot of young drivers don’t get a break.  Is it just a question of being in the right place at the right time for guys that gets them to where they are now?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, it is so tough to get noticed.  I mean, I have two younger brothers that would love to be in this sport and are talented, and you’d think I could pull strings, and I’ve tried.  It’s just weird what spurs it along, and in today’s world if you don’t have a sponsor, you’re not going to race.  And the era I came through, it was like that for sure, but team owners still had some flexibility for whatever reason and sponsors were kind of around, and if a team owner believed in you, they could sell you, and I had that with Stan and Randy Herzog.
            In today’s world, even Childress, you see the Nationwide sponsors change and drivers change and on and on, even on the Cup side.  Just because an owner believes in a driver, it doesn’t impact the sponsors like it did years ago, and you have to stand out so well or bring money.
            In this era, I don’t know how I would have stood out.  I mean, I barely made it through the system as I did, and very fortunate to have made it.  But I had the manufacturers carrying me.  I had Chevy carrying me along.
            I’m not sure people ‑‑ I’m not sure the manufacturers have the impact that they did at that point in time to even help me get here.
 
            Q.  Can you think of any examples during the years you won the championships of questions that got asked that may have affected you?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Out of my Cup experience, today starts it.  Today really does, because when you leave the race in Phoenix typically, you answer some questions, you go through some media stuff, and then you go to your bubble.  You go to your place where you can control the elements.  Family typically lays back, friends, you have all this encouragement.  You go to the shop, there’s a vibe you pick up on and all of that, but you come to the press conference and it changes that dynamic.
            And this is just the start of it because we’re available to everybody multiple times through the weekend.  Every camera in Florida will be on us in every practice session.  Every time I walk to and from the transporter, what are their moves, what are they thinking, how’s it going, I heard this on the radio.  All of that just ramps up.  Sunday of Phoenix until today it’s easy to create the environment you want, but from here moving forward it’s tough, and you have to do some things that make you uncomfortable, and that’s when that moment can kick in.
 
            Q.  (No microphone.)
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I remember in qualifying for the year with Mark, so was that 2009, we didn’t have a very good practice session.  I was setting my car up to run the bottom of the racetrack, wasn’t all that fast.  Mark ran a blistering lap to be on the pole at the time, and I ran the top of the racetrack, which was kind of new down here for qualifying, and leading up to that, the pressure was on me to qualify well because qualifying is so important.  And then we go out there, never ran a lap around the top in qualifying trim, had no clue how the balance of the race car would be and sat it on the pole.  That was really from one extreme to the other, from being concerned and worried about how we were going to qualify and feeling the pressure to complete and utter relief that we pulled off a heck of a lap.
 
            Q.  Last week Brad was pretty outspoken.  I’m sure even if you tried to stay in your bubble I’m sure you heard it, about the competition on the track.  Do you expect some more of that this week?  It was kind of a crazy week last week even if you took w
hat happened to you out.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, the last 10 laps or five laps, whatever that was, pretty wild.  You know, I still haven’t seen the clip.  I understand if you watch it on television there’s going to be a lot of beeps because you can’t hear it all.  But he has a point, and he wanted to make a point, and he did.  So the thing that ‑‑ that’s all relative to Phoenix.  The thing I didn’t understand was maybe some of the criticism he took for racing me at Texas.  I guess I was in my bubble and didn’t really see any of that.
            But I mean, it was just hard racing there.  I was shocked to hear that he was hazed for some of that.
 
            Q.  Do you think that this week they’ll worry about the other people around?  You guys are in your control when you’re that good at racing, it’s really pretty much what happens around you guys unless you two are racing each other.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, if we’re racing each other I’m in trouble.  We need a big gap between where I am and where he is.  That’s really the bottom line.  You know, this is a different championship battle for me, and I have no problem doing things that I typically wouldn’t do.  I mean, if I was coming down here as the points leader I would want to limit these moments, and since I’m not, I’ll do anything you guys want and need.  It’s different.  I’ve got to play the hand that’s dealt to me, and anything I can do to be effective, I’m going to take that opportunity to do it.
 
            Q.  Just to follow up on earlier, you said you’re coming into this weekend optimistic.  Do you believe you can still win this thing?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I do believe.  I do believe we can win our sixth title.  The IndyCar championship is the best example of that this isn’t over until the checkered flag falls.  A lot can happen.  So we just need to make sure we’re buttoned up and do the best job we can and see where the chips fall.
 
            Q.  You noted earlier how the unexpected (inaudible) what was the unexpected or variable that stood out to you?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  For me it was answering questions that I wasn’t ready for.  When you’re asked questions specific about the race and your setup and your mindset, you’ve been geared up for that knowing this press conference is coming, and you’re ready for that.  But the left field questions about your family and what that means to you and what it might mean to your community, your neighborhood where you’re born and raised, those are things you just never think of.  And it didn’t dawn on me until we were in there and the questions were asked that I’m like, these are those moments, this is when it becomes real and the magnitude of this race starts to set in.
 
            Q.  Do people treat you differently this time of year than they do at the beginning of the Chase?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I think my personal life, family, home situation has evolved, and some of it is due to the fact that I personally have been able to relax a lot more in the space.  In 2006 we still laugh, my wife and I do, my friends, my attorney Allen Miller, Kristine (Curley), how tense it was in ’06 trying to get the first one.  Really ’04 and ’05 leading up to it, and then it had all the pressure on us in ’06.  We know what to expect on most levels, and this year going into the Chase we talked about things, and I just ‑‑ it’s unlike me to be selfish, so I shared with my wife, I said, look, there are going to be aspects of this where I’m going to need some me time and do this, this and this and spend time training, spend time at the shop, spend time here and there, and of course she’s 100 percent supportive and understanding of it all.
            But as we all know, communication is everything.  Just to kind of lay that out there and say I might be a little different for 10 weeks, you know why, and she certainly knows why and is extremely supportive.  It’s been great, and I had that moment and talk, and we communicated about how I thought these next 10 weeks would be very intense and blinders on.  But we’ve been performing so well that I’ve been far more relaxed than any other championship.
            And then with a two year old in the house, I mean, it lightens any mood, and it’s been ‑‑ sure, there’s work and it’s very important, but home is so much fun.  I mean, we are having a total blast, and it’s been a great kind of tension breaker through the course of the week.
 
            Q.  The first time I ever heard your name you had gone (inaudible) and climbed out.  Would you mind giving me chapter and verse your memory of that moment?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, I was convinced it was the end of me when I was flying through the air and saw the white wall.  I thought it was concrete.  Fortunately it was two layers of styrofoam and some other soft stuff behind it.  The car caught on fire.  My neck muscles were not working.  I couldn’t hold my neck up to kind of look out the windshield and see where I was.  My chin was on my sternum.  I could feel the heat, I could see kind of a fire and I knew I needed to get out, and as I got out of the car my neck started to work again, and when I got up and out of the car, the fans were jumping up and down and happy to see me climb out of the race car, and that led to my excitement to climb on the roof and jump up and down like I did.
 
            Q.  Did that have an impact on the way people recognize you or the way you were moving through the ranks at the time?  Was there a recognition factor?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You might ask (Jeff) Gordon more in depth, but I think that was a moment where Jeff like put a face with a name for me.  Then later on there were other things that helped put together the relationship with Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet being a part of that and then Rick’s son Ricky.  But Jeff told me a story a long time ago that that really helped me, oh, that’s Jimmie Johnson.  He knew there was a name, knew there was a car out there but didn’t know much about me, and that kind of framed that in.
 
            Q.  First time you saw it on film what did you think?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Same thing I think about now when I see it on film, I can’t believe I made it through that.
 
            Q.  (No microphone.)
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m just not that smart, so I can only focus on a couple things at a time, so it helps.  I’m curious.
 
            Q.  (No microphone.)
            JIMMIE JOHNSON
:  I’m still lost on the conspiracy theory.  To take out third place?  I haven’t seen the video.  I don’t know.  NASCAR has it fixed; I’m supposed to win anyways, which always confuses me.  If they have it fixed and want me to win so badly, why the hell do they bust Chad like they do?  Their conspiracy idea just makes no sense.
 
            Q.  Is there any discussion that you’ll have with Jeff or Kasey?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, no.  There is ‑‑ I mean, sure, they probably won’t make it easy.  I wouldn’t expect Sam to make it easy on me.  The thing about racing is, sure, there isn’t a race next weekend, so I might feel like you can get away with something more, but there’s just some unwritten rules, and the integrity and the type of place that Hendrick Motorsports is, that game is not going to be played.  I don’t think it really ever has, even with some pretty rough‑and‑tumble organizations.  You don’t commission someone to go out and torpedo your competition.  It just doesn’t happen.
            You know, I hope my teammates race him hard.  I hope everybody on the racetrack races him hard.  But typically when you get to Homestead and if the championship contenders put pressure on someone, nine times out of ten they point them by, and that’s something I had in years past when we had something to protect.  I knew if I put pressure on someone they’d let me go.  There were a couple that wouldn’t but most would let you go.  That’s one thing that isn’t working in my favor for this weekend.
 
            Q.  It’s interesting when you look at a lot of the champions, they were raised by fathers whose attention that they seek really bad.  I was interested to hear Brad talking about he doesn’t hear compliments about himself unless behind the scenes.  Earnhardt was like that to Dale Jr.  A lot of the driven drivers in our sport have fathers like that.  But your dad is such a wonderful, hugging, genteel kind of guy as you see him walk down pit road.  I’m wondering if you sense any kind of a feeling that you had that, kind of striving to prove yourself to your own dad that you see from a lot of the competitors at the elite level.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, I had all the support, and even if I wasn’t feeling up for a race that weekend ‑‑ there’s a point when I was in grade school, middle school where we had raced so many times, and I watched all my friends develop and be good at baseball, basketball, football, have a social life, and I got to a point where I said, look, I want to be a kid, and the last thing my parents ever wanted to do was pressure me, so we stopped.  We stopped.  And that was really the end of my motocross racing at that point.
            The thing that got me was it took ‑‑ usually takes me a while to figure something out, and once I have it, I have it.  I would watch my other friends that I would grow up with out‑race me on a dirt bike, and it would just motivate me to try harder.  Then I got into the off‑road ranks and I was really young racing against 30‑somethings all the time, and here I am at 15, 16, 18, all that kind of stuff, and I just really internalized it all and found my own drive inside to do it.  It wasn’t to prove a point to anyone but myself that I could do it.  That’s really what it’s all been about.
 
            Q.  (No microphone.)
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Not specifically.  I mean, at one point he was the leader of the race, and we had never talked about the 2 all day long on the radio.  You know, when I got to seventh eighth and couldn’t go any further and sold out in my mind, all I wanted was a shot down here, and if we came in tied one up, one down, whatever we did, that’s fine by me.  I just didn’t want to be in this position and be 20 down.
            They didn’t force our hand.  The run before that on the racetrack we made up three seconds on the leader.  That run the car was a lot tighter with that set of tires we put on, and I was just driving hard.  Goodyear claimed that it was the bead, which it could be, but the damage to the tire was so severe it’s hard for us to really pinpoint what it was.  We had some high wear on sets that came off earlier, so it could have been a combination of things.  We saw the 31 Cup car, 31 truck, the 88 had a tire issue and came to pit road just before my crash.  So I’m not saying it was a bad tire, but I think that if you were abusing a tire you could have hurt it, and that’s certainly what we did, and we hurt the tire and hit the fence.
            It wasn’t Brad related, it was just trying to run hard and get a good finish because I wanted to come in here close.
 
            Q.  While you were up on stage with Brad, you both displayed a lot of class.  What do you think a contender needs to be able to have to become a champion?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, I don’t think ‑‑ there’s no prerequisite.  There’s no requirements for anybody.  You know, I think people ‑‑ as you progress as a driver and become a champion, you start to assume the role, you start to better understand the role.  But somebody could be very disliked and not be the ‑‑ people might look at them and say there’s no way that champion’s material and they’ll still be the champion.  That’s what I’m getting at.
            I’m sure people looked at me in ’06 and said he’s not going to be a good champion for our sport.  But you learn that role when you’re in the middle of it, and some people get aggressive with it and are strong‑minded with it, and others kind of take their time with it.  Which over five championships I finally felt like I had a voice.  I feel like from my standpoint I’ve always had to earn that right.  Others are much quicker to it.
 
            Q.  Do you see any of that in Brad?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Just a little.  (Laughter.)
 
            Q.  Does this championship feel like such a different scenario for you?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I mean, there was ‑‑ in ’05 we came down here behind Tony, and I think Tony had to finish 25th or better and we were running near the front, had a tire blow going into Turn 3 and crashed, and I think Tony finished like 23rd or 24th in the race and did not have a good race.  I think he got lapped at some point.  So when I look back on ’05, I hate that we had that problem.  I felt like I had a tire going down and an issue and didn’t come to pit road.  So there is a lesson in that, that again, it isn’t over until the checkered falls.  If we would have stayed in the race, even if we went down a lap from pitting ‑‑ I don’t think there were lucky dogs then, but maybe we could have got a lap back, or whatever it was, but keep the pressure on is the bottom line.  That’s my goal all weekend long, keep the pressure on and see what happens.
  I mean, it isn’t over until the checkered falls.
 
ADDITIONAL JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES FROM EARLIER BREAKOUT SESSION MONITORED BY KRISTA VODA AND KERRY THARP:
 
Q.  Jimmie, a somewhat strange position for you this weekend because in four out of five years you’ve won the championship you’ve come into Homestead leading the points.  Now similar to 2010, you come in as the chaser.  I know the answer to this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway:  Can you pull off another late‑race comeback?
 
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I definitely think it’s possible.  You look at our bad luck last weekend, there’s still a race here, and there’s still tires on these race cars, and something can happen there.  There’s still a lot of very tough competition on the track.  This just isn’t any other race; this is the championship race, and there’s a lot that comes with that.
            I’m very optimistic.  I think that we’ll have a very fast race car, and we’ll go out onto the racetrack and do all that we can each and every lap of every practice session qualifying and race, and see how things play out.
            I find another point of motivation and optimism; we look at the IndyCar championship and how it unfolded at Fontana.  It seemed like it was a lay‑up race, and things can happen.  This is racing.  I think either way we’ll be in good shape.  We’ll have a fast race car and go out and race hard, and then if some luck comes our way, we’ll hopefully be ready to capitalize on that, as well.
 
Q.  Jimmie, given the deficit, do you feel like you have to root for something bad to happen to Brad Keselowski, or would you consider roughing him up in order to put him back somewhere in the back of the field?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, I think that to think that a top‑15 finish is a lay‑up is tough.  This garage area is tough, the weight of this race, I don’t care who you are, it’ll show up at some point in time and thoughts will run through your head, and with all that being said, a 15th place finish is not a lay‑up for these guys.  So I have a little bit of stock in that, and we’ll see how they respond.  Their trends this year have been strong, but this is a different race.
            Then as far as the luck category, we were unlucky as anybody can be.  There’s that element that exists out there, and we’ll just see where it all unfolds.  There’s a line of racing hard, to answer your final part of your question, and we both have proven we’re willing to race hard, and I certainly am willing to race hard down here.  It’s not my style to go drive through somebody and create the opportunity; that’s not me.  So I’m going to race as hard as I possibly can and see where things fall.
 
Q.  Will you have your teams let you know how you stand, or is that too much to think about during the race?  Do you want to know where the other guy is, how many positions you’ve got to get, or do you kind of wait until you get down to the last 50 laps to start thinking about stuff like that?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, if we get to the end of the race and they’re not having the day that they would hope to have, that information could ‑‑ it’s really probably not going to change anything that I do.  I still need every spot I can get on the track.  But I’m sure information will come in, and even if it isn’t specific, I can tell ‑‑ I will be able to tell by the tone in Chad’s voice if we’re in the good or the bad.  (Laughter.)
 
Q.  As the psych major or the pretend psych major of the group, Jimmie, I can’t help but notice you brought up the IndyCar championship and what happened there.  You said a top 15 finish is no lay‑up.  It seems you’re kind of tweaking it a little bit, maybe intentional, maybe not, and we know from the past, I guess, two championships you guys messed with Denny Hamlin a little bit up there, Carl Edwards got a little rattled from Tony Stewart.  Maybe you’re doing it on purpose, maybe you’re not.  Is that the intent, to put the weight on Brad Keselowski?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  You know, of course I’m going to find points that give myself motivation and my team, and if there’s anything I can do, and Brad, if you’d like me to call later and remind you of any other examples, I certainly can, of guys that didn’t pull off the season finale as they would hope.
            But one thing I’ve learned is that regardless of how experienced anyone is in this championship battle, at some point the magnitude of it hits you.  At some point, he may be very comfortable and calm now, it may not happen until he’s in the car, but at some point that magnitude hits, and I’ve lived through it five times.  That’s a turning moment, and we’ll see how he responds.  It also carries over to guys changing tires.  There’s some point where every member on that race team goes, this is it, this is what I’ve worked so hard far.  I’ll be glad to point out those moments as needed.
 
Q.  Jimmie, you said that at some point the magnitude hits you for everybody, and it affects the contenders in some way.  A few weeks ago Dale Earnhardt Jr. said about Brad Keselowski that he’s so mentally tough he didn’t think he was going to crack.  Is there something you see from Brad that makes you think otherwise, and what happens in that moment when the magnitude does hit you?  How do you respond to it?  What makes that championship mettle that you need to win a championship?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, me trying to explain what it’s like and how I’ve handled it would probably be kind of stupid of me right now, so I’m going to not answer the second part of your question.
            The first part is the magnitude sets in at some point.  I mean, he just answered a question about family, and I’ve been there, and I’ve been the guy leading the points, and people are so curious to know all these what‑ifs, what if it happens, and you’re forced to answer questions that you’re not used to answering, that you don’t want to answer, and it builds through the course of the week.
            Again, it hits everybody differently, and there’s no guarantees how it’ll hit him.  But I know from my own experience that there have been those moments.  Fortunately I responded well to them.  We’ll see how the weekend goes.
 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – WINNER: THAT FINAL RESTART YOU HAD A SLICK RACE TRACK LOTS OF OIL DRY YOU ARE ALMOST OUT OF GAS AND A FIRED UP KYLE BUSCH BESIDE YOU.  WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?
“Well, I thought as crazy as this year has been for our Budweiser Chevy, I’m just thinking about not over driving the first corner, whether we were going to run out of gas or not, how far the No. 18 was going to drive it in.  Then they were really quick to throw the caution and then just let us race through oil.  I don’t know I guess it’s hard for them to be right.  I’ve got to thank all the fans and Sprint, Budweiser, Rheem, Jimmy Johns, Chevrolet, Okuma, Realtree, Bad Boy Buggies, Hunt Brothers, everybody who helps us and thank you to all who have served this country we wouldn’t be able to do what we do today without that.”
 
THE WEEKEND BEGAN WITH EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN 2014, BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT THIS MEANS TO END THE RCR DROUGHT AND A DROUGHT FOR YOU IN VICTORY LANE THAT HAS BEEN OVER A YEAR: “Well, it has been a struggle for the year.  It has been an interesting weekend to say the least, but I know that these guys all want to win.  I know Richard (Childress) wants to win and regardless of what happens in 2014 we have the end of this year and we’ve got all of next year.  We want to win races and we want to be competitive and that is what we are here to do.”
 
ON HIS RACE: “What a great day.  The car was really tight to start with and these guys did a great job on pit road.  Gil (Martin, crew chief) did a great job with strategy and just gave us a chance.  From there we raced and were able to put ourselves in position to race for the win.  On the restarts we were able to get going pretty good and that last one was a little tense regardless and then we had to dirt track it through the oil there off of turn four.  Regardless, it’s a great day for our Budweiser Chevy and just glad to be in Victory Lane.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 5TH:  HE BRINGS HOME A BEATEN UP RACE CAR WITH A TOP-FIVE TODAY WHAT ABOUT THOSE LAST LAPS? “Well my race car is junk.  That was a good run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet, Veterans Day a special paint scheme really proud of everything there, but really disappointed in the way NASCAR handled that last lap there.  That was not fair to the drivers at all.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET – FINISHED 8TH: ON HIS RACE: “That was a wild ending, not sure at the time what was happening. I just stayed on the gas to get to the finish line. Everything was going smoothly and it was looking like a sixth-place finish for the Furniture Row car. But then all of a sudden all heck broke loose. I saw the door of the No. 16 car (Greg Biffle) come across my left front, and from there I went on to smack the wall. I kept on going and was able to nudge (Paul) Menard for eighth.  We had a great run going today until a loose lug nut put us a lap down. We definitely had a car that was capable of winning, but you can’t afford those kinds of mistakes. However, we did battle back to notch our second straight top-10 finish. We keep on making progress. I like everything I see about this Furniture Row team.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – FINISHED 12TH: ON HIS RACE: “The Target Chevy was good all weekend. We struggled a little bit on the long runs. The car would start to get really tight but otherwise it wasn’t a bad day for us. We managed to stay out of trouble and stay on the lead lap all day. We’re making gains every weekend.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET – FINISHED 17th: WHAT HAPPENED IN TURNS THREE AND FOUR? “We had a green-white-checkered it was a nice exciting finish for the fans.  Got around (turns) one and two and came off had decent distance on the No. 31 and he went down and took the apron got down into (turn) three and I did not think he was near close enough to be on me going into (turn) three.  I left a little bit of room, not a ton of room for sure, but I think, Tony Gibson (crew chief) said he went down and talked to him and he said he just went in too deep.  Clipped my left-rear, spun me around and I just tried to limp back to the line.  I didn’t know exactly how much damage I had or what it was, but just trying to limp to the line and get the finish on the lead lap, whatever that was.  Still our best finish, but you always want more. I was 13th I think or something right around there and that would have been a really good finish.  Shoot, some days I would take that in a Nationwide car.”
 
HARD HIT ON THE FRONT STRETCH ARE YOU OKAY? “Yes, everything is fine.  Obviously, there was the glance in (turn) three and four, but I definitely got airborne down the front straight.  What is unfortunate is I’m pretty sure that the No. 39 was one of them.  I hope I didn’t cause a problem, but I think we have different cars for Homestead hopefully.  We don’t run our short-track cars on the big track right?  And we get new ones next year.  This will make for good charity crash damage body work.”
 
ON INCIDENT: “Green-white-checkered at the end. It was an exciting race at the end. Man, we save it all at the end in these Cup races. Came out of two on the back-straight, and with the No. 31 (Jeff Burton), and he took the apron. I already had a good distance coming out of two. The apron was not quicker all day long to make a pass, unless you had a big run going. So, got into three, and I think Tony Gibson (Crew Chief) went down and talked to him, and he (Burton) said ‘I’m sorry, I just bonzaied. I just went in too deep.” The No. 31 clipped me, I spun around, got it going again. Was on fire I think, and I was trying to get across the line. I was literally trying to drive into the wall then drive along it because I couldn’t see. I don’t know exactly what happened. I heard there might have been oil from me, or something. If so, I definitely wasn’t intending to make a mess. But 17th…we were 13th, that’s pretty good. Short tracks are not my strong suit.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CAUTION NOT BEING CALLED? “Hmmmm. I’d have to see it. I think NASCAR does a good job of doing what’s safe and what’s right. We are all human though, and you also can’t control the intangibles; anything can happen how there. That’s why we watch right.”
 
TONY GIBSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 10 GODADDY RACING CHEVROLET: ON DANICA’S RACE: “Another great day. Everybody did a really good job today. She raced hard. She had some great runs today. She raced herself to the Lucky Dog there, and got a lap back. Then she was solid, man. She had a top-10, 12 car all day long. She deserved to finish 12th at least. But, she got wrecked by (Jeff) Burton. But, it’s our best finish. 17th. We’ll take that. But we know we were better than that. She’s getting better, and better, and better. It just makes up pumped for next year.  She said herself, I wish we were going to Homestead. It is just pumping everybody up. It’s exciting. I’m glad we got these two races in, because it just shows her she can drive and run with these guys. It puts confidence in our guys, that yes, she can do it. Around the whole table it is awesome.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/ALLSTATE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 23RD
ON HIS RACE: “We fought with the balance of the Bass Pro Shops/Allstate Chevy all day. The guys did a great job in pits, but the long, green flag runs didn’t play into our strategy. We’ll continue working hard as we head to final race of the season in Miami next weekend.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 30TH – INVOLVED IN ON-TRACK INCIDENT WITH CLINT BOWYER: ON THE INCIDENT: “Things have gotten escalated over the year and I have just had it.  Clint (Bowyer) has run into me numerous times, wrecked me and h
e got into me on the back straightaway, pretty much ruined our day.  I have had it, was fed up with it and got him back.”
 
IN THE MELEE IN THE GARAGE DID YOU GET HIT? “No.”
 
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT ANY PENALTIES? “They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do.  Just like I had to do what I had to do.”
 
ON INCIDENT: “Clint (Bowyer) has run into me numerous times, wrecked me. He got into me on the back straightaway, and pretty much ruined our day. I had it. That was it, and got him back.”
 
WHAT DID YOU TELL THEM IN THE NASCAR HAULER? “I told them what I just told you.”
 
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT WHAT COMES NEXT? “They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do, and I guess I had to do what I had to do.”
 
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 30TH:– COMMENTS FOLLOWING THE ON-TRACK INCIDENT INVOLVING JEFF GORDON AND CLINT BOWYER:
WHY DID JEFF GORDON GET SO UPSET BY THAT MOVE (MADE BY CLINT BOWYER) THEY WERE NOT RACING FOR THE LEAD: “Well I mean it’s about the fifth time that he (Clint Bowyer) has run us over.  After a while you get really frustrated.  We all work really hard on these cars and Jeff (Gordon) races everybody with a lot of respect.  Evidently he had enough.  If you are going to play that way, if you are going to race that way then you shouldn’t be upset when you get it back.”
 
YOU ARE THE ONE THAT HAS TO FIX THIS RACE CAR NOW.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND IMPRESSIONS ON JEFF (GORDON) WRECKING THIS CAR?
“I love Jeff Gordon.  I stand by him 100 percent and that is what we had to do.  We will fix them all day long.  He is a great race car driver and he knows, everybody out here will tell you he is as good a race car driver and a competitor as there is.  If he is tired of it, it means it’s time.”
 
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN HIM THAT FIRED UP? “That was pretty fired up.”
 
ON THE CRASH BETWEEN JEFF GORDON AND CLINT BOWYER “We had a pretty good car. It was a good race. And we were having a good top five run and just got used up by the No. 15 (Clint Bowyer) and obviously we take offense to that and it’s not the first time it’s happened. After a while, that adds up and adds up and it’s time to put a stop to it.”
 
CREWS GOT INVOLVED; JEFF GORDON GOT INVOLVED, EVERYBODY GOT INVOLVED “The crew thing is it’s between Jeff and Clint and not those team members. My instructions to the guys was just don’t let anybody get to Jeff. And that’s what that’s about.  We’re going to protect him and stand behind him at all costs. Those guys obviously have tempers running high as are ours, and that’s what happens.”
 
WHY WOULD JEFF GORDON GET SO UPSET BY THAT MOVE? THEY WEREN’T RACING FOR THE WIN?
“Well, it’s about the fifth time that he’s run us over and after a while you get really frustrated with that. We all work really hard on these cars and Jeff races everybody with a lot of respect and evidentially he had enough. If you’re going to play that way, if you’re going to race that way, then you shouldn’t be upset when you get it back.”
 
YOU’RE THE ONE THAT HAS TO FIX THIS RACE CAR NOW. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND IMPRESSIONS ON JEFF WRECKING THIS CAR? “I love Jeff Gordon and I stand by him 100 percent, and that’s what we have to do. We’ll fix them all day long and he’s a great race car driver and everybody out here will tell you he’s as good a race car driver and a competitor as there is and if he’s tired of it, that means he’s tired of it. He was pretty fired up.”
 
MICHAEL WALTRIP SAID THIS WAS CHICKEN-BLANK. HE’S VERY UPSET. “I don’t care.”
 
WHERE DID YOU FEEL LIKE CLINT BOWYER HAS DONE THINGS AGAINST YOU THIS YEAR?
“I can’t sit here and name them all. There are a couple of instances where we got into some difficult situations and both Martinsvilles come to mind right away.  He cost us a win there.”
 
YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY SHAKING MAD NOW. WE CAN TELL BECAUSE YOU ARE USUALLY COOL, CALM, AND COLLECTED. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF ALL THIS?
“It’s racing man; that’s what happens.”
 
RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
COMMENTS ON THE INCIDENT INVOLVING JEFF GORDON AND CLINT BOWYER:
“I think the best thing for me to do is not say anything right now because you know everybody’s emotions are pretty raw.  I like Clint (Bowyer) a lot he is a good guy.  I like all those guys.”
 
WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN YOU SAW JIMMIE’S (JOHNSON) CAR HIT THE WALL? HOW DEVASTATING IS THAT?
“It’s a tough deal.  You hate that because you hate to have a problem like that.  But that is just… you cut a tire and that happens and you just part of it.  I hate it, but we will go on to Homestead.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 32nd DUE TO ACCIDENT DUE TO A BLOWN RIGHT FRONT TIRE WITH 77 LAPS TO GO; MADE REPAIRS IN GARAGE, AND RETURNED TO RACE 33 LAPS DOWN
“We still have to go to Homestead and race and anything can happen down there. But this is not the position we want to be in late in Phoenix. I feel terrible for my team and how hard these guys work; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Lowe’s and Kobalt Tools and Chevrolet. Across the board there has been a huge effort put in to try to get us a championship and I just hate for our day to turn out as it did today. But, that’s racing and we’ll go to Homestead and do all we can down there and see how things pan out.”
 
WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE RACE CAR AND WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO WITH IT WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED?
“We were cruising along and I think we would have had a top five day or a top 10 day if things worked out at the end. And I had a slight vibration starting in the right front. I didn’t really know where it was coming from but clearly now it was the right front. And as I was coming off of Turn 4, it went down and I went straight in the wall. If I were another 30 or 40 feet around the corner, I probably would just have had a flat and not hit the wall. But, where it let go, I had a direct line to the wall and knocked it down.”
 
FATE USUALLY SMILES ON YOU, BUT IT DIDN’T SEEM TO THAT TIME
“No, that’s the way it goes. Anything can happen in racing. I’m very proud of the year. I’m very proud of the effort my entire Lowe’s team has put in. I hate to see it potentially end this way, but again, that’s racing. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve won a few championships and I’ve lost a lot. Losing isn’t any fun; but we’ll be back next weekend and next year and do the best job we can.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE ON THE RACE TRACK?
“We blew a tire coming off Turn 4 and I hit the wall real hard and damaged the race car. I think we would have been in the top five maybe at best; maybe 7th or 8th the way the race was unfolding. It’s unfortunate to have the day end like this and potentially end our season and hopes for a championship this way.”
 
DESCRIBE NOW THE EMOTIONS AND WHAT YOU GUYS HAVE TO DO TO REGROUP TO RALLY BACK WHEN YOU GET TO MIAMI? “Well, that’s what this team is made of. We’ll always rally and regroup and do all we can. Unfortunately we lost a lot of control or all control in the championship. We can go down there and win the race and do everything on our behalf and it still won’t net us a championship. So, we’ll go down and do our part and just see how things unfold. Today was proof that anything can happen in this sport and we’ll see how things shake out in Miami.”
 
YOU DISCUSSED LOSING CONTROL. HOW DOES THIS IMPACT THE WAY YOU APPROACH IT NEXT WEEKEND? “Well, it takes a lot of pressure off. I would much rather have the pressure of trying to win the championship and hang on to the points lead, but the position we’re in now, it really is a go for broke mentality from driving the car and al
l those types of things to try and catch the No. 2 car in this situation. If they have some bad luck it changes our game plan. But right now they have a ton of control going to Homestead.”
 
WITH HOW GOOD BRAD KESELOWSKI WAS, DO YOU THINK HE WAS PUSHING YOU A LITTLE BIT HARDER THAN YOU WOULD HAVE LIKED AT THAT POINT IN TIME? “It wasn’t necessarily on Brad’s behalf. It was just the No. 2.  He was one of six or seven cars in front that had his feet on speed. The run prior to our tire going down, we were really, really fast. And I didn’t see this coming. I knew my car was tight that run the tire exploded, but I didn’t think we were going to have an issue with the tire going down. So, just running hard. It wasn’t driven by the No. 2. We’ve always raced out own race to see where the chips may fall and that was really all we were doing today.”
 
ON HIS CAR “We were just decent all weekend long. Qualifying didn’t go all that well but from there on, we made some improvements on the car and we were a top 10 maybe a top five car in a lot of different situations, but I think Brad started off as like a top 10 car and worked himself into a top five and was racing for the win; and I was content coming out of here within a few points up or down. I thought that was how our day was going to turn out and we would go to Homestead and race like crazy. But that tire going down changed that a lot.”
 
ON CHAMPIONSHIP: “It’s way, way out of our control obviously with the problem we had today.  We still have to go to Homestead and race.  Anything can happen down there, but not the position we want to be in leaving Phoenix.  I feel terrible for my team and how hard these guys work.  Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Lowe’s, KOBALT Tools, Chevrolet, across the board this has been a huge effort put into this to try to get us a championship.  I just hate for our day to turn out as it did today, but that’s racing.  We will go to Homestead and do all we can down there and see how things pan out.”
 
WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE RACE CAR?  WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO WITH IT WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED? “We were cruising along and I think going to have a top-10 day maybe a top-five day if things worked out at the end.  I had a slight vibration starting in the right-front, I didn’t know where it was really coming from, but clearly now it was the right front.  Then as I was coming off of turn four it went down and straight in the wall I went.  Another 30, 40 feet around the corner I probably would have just had a flat and not hit the wall.  Where it let go I had a direct line into the wall and knocked it down.”
 
FATE USUALLY SMILES ON YOU IT DIDN’T SEEM TO THAT TIME: “No, it’s the way it goes.  Anything can happen in racing.  I’m very proud of the year and very proud of the effort my entire Lowe’s team has put in.  I hate to see it potentially end this way, but again that’s racing.  I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve won a few championships and I’ve lost a lot.  Loosing isn’t any fun, but we will be back next weekend and next year hungrier than ever and do the best job we can.”
 
DESCRIBE NOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO GOING TO HOMESTEAD:
“Well that is what this team is made of we will always rally, regroup and do all we can.  Unfortunately, we lost a lot of control or all control in the championship.  We go down there and win the race and do everything on our behalf and it still won’t net us a championship. We will go down and do our part and just see how things unfold. Today was proof that anything can happen in this sport and we will see how things shake out in Miami.”
 

Harvick wins Phoenix, Johnson Takes Hit in Championship Battle
 
AVONDALE, ARIZ. (NOV. 11, 2012) – When the dust settled from the wild race at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR), Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, emerged as the winner of the AdvoCare 500.  It is Harvick’s first win of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) season, and the 19th of his career.
 
Harvick, who won at PIR on two previous occasions, led once for 15 laps in the 319-lap race, seven laps longer than the originally advertised distance.
 
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet, came into the 35th race of the season leading the points by seven when the green flag dropped.  Working his way through the field from his 24th place starting position, the five-time NSCS champion had skillfully maneuvered to the top-10.  But, with 77 laps to go Johnson’s right front tire blew, sending him into the wall, and then to the garage for repairs. He returned to the race 38 laps down to the leaders.  He was scored in the 32nd finishing position, and heads to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 20-point deficit to leader Brad Keselowski (Dodge).
 
The race ended in a green-white-checkered finish when the race was extended following an on-track altercation involving Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) in the closing laps.  Gordon was unable to finish the final laps, and was scored with a disappointing 30th place finish.
 
The melee continued with a multi-car accident as the field thundered toward the checkered flag. Harvick held off Denny Hamlin (Toyota) and Kyle Busch (Toyota), who finished second and third respectively, as well as Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet in fourth.  Despite being one of the severely damaged cars in the final wreck, Ryan Newman brought his No. 39 Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevrolet home in fifth place.
 
Other Team Chevy drivers in the top-10 were: Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet – 8th and Paul Menard, No. 27 Rheem/Menards Chevrolet – 9th. Both Busch and Menard sustained damage to their race cars in the front straightaway wreck.
 
Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy Racing Chevrolet, was running 13th when the final wreck ensued, and limped to the checkered flag in 17th place in front of her hometown crowd.
 
The remainder of the Team Chevy contenders in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup finished as follows: Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet – 19th, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet -21st.
 
The season will conclude on Sunday, November 18th at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, AND RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER OF RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING – RACE WINNERS
POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
 
THE MODERATOR:  We are now joined by our race winner, Kevin Harvick driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet.  Obviously a big win for you guys, one that you’ve been searching for this season for a long time, so talk a little bit about finally getting to victory lane.
            KEVIN HARVICK:  Yeah, you know, it was an interesting day to say the least, but Gil did a great job of keeping us in the track position game and made our car better all day, and the further we got towards the front, the better the car handled.  They made good adjustments, and there at the end we had a couple restarts and Kyle chose the bottom and we were able to drive around the topside of him and then get control of the race really.
            Obviously we didn’t want to see the red flag.  We were about ‑‑ best I’ve heard is about five feet.  Someone can tell me where the caution came out.  But when I came by, I saw the caution light come on, and I saw the flag before we had gotten to the start‑finish line.  At that point you think about, man, it’s 2012, what’s going to go wrong, where are we going to run out of gas.
       &nbs
p;    Once I got those thoughts out of my head, I just wanted to get a good restart and be able to get into Turn 1 and not have any mistakes and knew if we could get through there without any mistakes that we could at least have a fighting chance of taking control of the bottom of the racetrack in Turn 3 and 4.
 
            Q.  Brad came in here and said he was basically ashamed of the sport, said it was effing bullshit what happened out there at the end on a lot of front between the wrecks and the retaliation.  What are your thoughts on that?
            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, you can’t throw the caution flag as fast as you can throw it one time and then just let everybody run through a whole straightaway full of oil.  Those are the guys that are going to have to look themselves in the mirror, the guy who’s calling the races, and decide if they’re doing a good job.
 
            Q.  What about the fights?
            KEVIN HARVICK:  The sport was made on fights.  We should have more fights.  I like fights.  (Laughter.)  They’re not always fun to be in.  Sometimes you’re on the wrong end.  But fights are what made NASCAR what it is.
            I can tell you guys because I know the question is going to come, you guys are all going to ask the question, so we’re going to say it in front of each other.
            We can all talk about what’s going to happen in 2014.  We have 2012, we have 2013, and regardless of what happens on a business side of things, Richard Childress and myself will always be friends, good or bad, and may disagree to disagree, but we still have a lot of racing left to do and we owe it to our sponsors and our company to go out and do exactly what we did today and be men and do the best we can for everybody.
            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Well said.
            THE MODERATOR:  We are now joined by race‑winning crew chief Gil Martin and team owner Richard Childress, so we’ll continue with questioning for any of the three of these gentlemen.
 
            Q.  Can we have Richard also speak to that?
            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Yeah, Kevin said it all, we’re going to go to Homestead, try to win.  We look to everybody in ’13 to go win a championship, and whatever happens, happens.  It’s a business decision.  This is a business sport.
 
            Q.  Can you guys just all three of you talk about today and kind of ‑‑ I guess a lot of people thought that might have been a distraction and today you just went about your business and did it.
            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, I think it’s ‑‑ there can be distractions, there can be whatever happening around the race track, off the race track, but when you get in that garage and everybody is doing their jobs, I get in the car, he’s up on the trailers, I mean, we’re all just racers in the end.  We want to race cars and it comes with a lot of media, it comes with a lot of things outside of the racetrack.
            But when we actually get to get into our element we all do our jobs regardless, and we all don’t want to go out and embarrass ourselves and not run good.  We want to be exactly where we are, right here, talking to you guys after the race and in Victory Lane and doing the things that make us all happy.  It’s been a frustrating year, but two races to go, here we are.
            GIL MARTIN:  Only thing I can tell you is I’m really glad to be sitting here looking at you guys.
            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Gil Martin, made a great call today, Kevin did a great job conserve fuel when we had to.  Gil told him to go and he could pick up a couple of tenths, and it was really a good race strategy call.  We lost the race we felt here the first one.  We finished second but we ran out of gas catching Denny there.
 
            Q.  I know that you were highly upset about the fact that the race was put into overtime because you felt the caution should have come out before the green‑white checkered was allowed.  Now, are you pleased that what was done was just, or are you only pleased because you won the race anyway?
            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  No, I’m really disappointed in the way the race was called, and I asked them ‑‑ Kevin almost wrecked coming off of 4.  We take the white flag, she’s coming across down here, everybody seen what was happening.  I just knew the caution was going to come out, and he races back around and almost wrecks and we lose a car and could have hurt a driver, so I’m just still a little upset about that last not being a caution.
            KEVIN HARVICK:  There was more oil than there was asphalt, I can guarantee you that, and it was very visible.
 
            Q.  Richard, after the weekend that you had here, is this some kind of redemption?  How do you kind of wrap your arms and put a bow on this weekend?
            KEVIN HARVICK:  I feel like it’s a Kentucky weekend.  Remember we went to Kentucky and used to test all the time and we won the first Kentucky race and wrecked 11 cars?  This one, what was it, eight?
            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  We wrecked eight cars.  My week got off in a bad start Tuesday night, and from that point on it hasn’t been really great.  But that’s life.
            KEVIN HARVICK:  This week has started off better.
 
            Q.  Just wondering, after the 44‑race drought, Richard, what do you think is the turnaround from where you have been because you guys really struggled and you can’t expect Eric Warren to come in and change things overnight, but what would you point to having three cars that possibly could have finished in the top 10 today before the 31 got taken out?
            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  You know, everybody has worked hard all year long and did a whole lot, and there’s no question about it, we got a little behind on some of this skew and all this stuff that people were doing.  It put us behind, and you know, we didn’t get the year we wanted, but to come out with a win, it was big, and I couldn’t be prouder of this whole team, Budweiser and Kevin and all of these guys.  It was really a good week.
 
            Q.  You’ve been around a while.  This is in reference to Brad came in here and he was very hurt and he said some people in the garage criticized him after a clean race, he raced Jimmie cleanly.  Did you hear anybody, you don’t have to mention names, but did you hear anybody in the garage criticizing Keselowski’s driving?< br>            KEVIN HARVICK:  No, no.  I mean, he races hard.  Why would you criticize a guy that races hard and is in contention to win a championship?  I think there’s maybe a lot of agendas to try to get in his head, but at this point he’s got a 20‑point lead and he’s the only one that controls his head at this point.  If the wheels don’t fall off, he’s going to win the championship.
 
            THE MODERATOR:  Let’s end on a positive note.  Keelan’s first trip to Victory Lane; how did he do?
            KEVIN HARVICK:  He was fine until everybody started screaming.  It made him cry.
            It was great to have everybody here.  We’ve had a great week or had a lot of great foundation events, and changed the lives of a lot of kids in Bakersfield hopefully to better their education and their direction of their lives.  It’s been a great week, and to cap it off like this is a great way.
 
            THE MODERATOR:  We thank you guys.  Congratulations.
 
            GIL MARTIN:  I just want to say one thing to touch on what Richard was saying where we’ve come a long way, but this victory is a big team deal from Paul Menard and Slugger.  We have started working together so hard here in the last month, and I want to put out a big thanks to those guys because they’ve done a great job as far as working teammates.  And try to win Homestead.
            KEVIN HARVICK:  Yeah, halfway through practice we decided to stop and put in everything out of the 27 car, and that’s really the way it’s supposed to work.  We put it in and adjusted it to my driving style, and that’s great to see.
 
            THE MODERATOR:  Congratulations.  We’ll see you guys at Homestead.

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY RACING CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed her relationship with COPD, finishing out her scheduled races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for 2012, racing at Phoenix International Raceway and much more. Full Transcript:
 
WE KNOW THAT NOVEMBER IS COPD (CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE) AWARENESS MONTH AND YOU HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM.  TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHY IT’S SO SIGNIFICANT TO YOU:
“November is the month and orange is the color.  I have been working with COPD on raising awareness for that disease which is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, for a few years now.  My grandma had it and she passed away and it was an opportunity for me to do something really good and try and help other people.”
 
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO LET THE PUBLIC KNOW ABOUT COPD AND ITS AFFECTS?          
“It’s one of those diseases that is slow going, but once it takes hold the damage is done.  Early detection is really the most important thing with that disease.  Trying to bring people to be honest with themselves about how they are feeling and if they might have it is the most important thing so that they can have as normal of lives as possible because the disease is just progressive.”
 
ARE YOU HAPPY THE SEASON IS ENDING?  WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO GO PAST HOMESTEAD?  DO YOU NEED A BREAK?
“I definitely showed concern years ago about the length of the season.  That was kind of one of the things that really in my mind held me back from wanting to commit to NASCAR.  Now that I’m in it and I feel like I’ve had a nice transition into it, I don’t mind at all.  I like racing every weekend.  The season could keep going or not.  I never turn down off time and there is definitely a lot of stress for sure and it’s a lot of work, but it’s fun at the same time.  The season could keep going, which is surprising to me.  I thought I would be very tired by this point in time, but I feel like I’m just kind of figuring it out.”
 
WHEN YOU LOOK AT JR MOTORSPORTS AND THE OPPORTUNITY THAT TEAM GIVES DRIVERS WHO ARE MAKING THEIR START IN NASCAR, WHEN THE SPORTS MOST POPULAR DRIVER, DALE EARNHARDT JR., GIVES YOU HIS ENDORSEMENT HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOU?
“Very positive, between Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. wanting me, giving me the chance to run for his team.  Then of course more recently Tony Stewart with Stewart-Haas, those endorsements are really big for me in the garage area.  I think it helps with drivers too, although I feel like you still need to go out there and you still have to earn their respect when you race against them.  But perhaps there is a little bit more established from the beginning.  It’s very important and I think it’s played a big role in being accepted in the sport like I have.”
 
AFTER A FULL SEASON OF NATIONWIDE AND NEXT YEAR A FULL SEASON IN SPRINT CUP, WHAT IS YOUR EXPECTATION FOR 2013?  IS THERE ANY EXPECTATION FROM YOURSELF OR MAYBE YOUR SPONSORS?
“I think it’s difficult to establish what my expectation will be right now for Sprint Cup next year.  I think that it is going to be a build from where we are right now.  I think Tony Gibson (crew chief) and I still… we should probably have a very specific conversation, I think it will happen over the winter about exactly what our expectation level should be at the beginning of the season.  It probably varies track to track a little bit, but overall where do we hope to qualify then where do we hope to race and what do we hope that happens with lap time in the race and competitiveness with that.  I think that will be something that we will sort of establish over the winter when we have time to reflect and think about it and look forward to next year.  Right now I feel like it is just about getting familiar with each other and getting these two races under our belt.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING THE CUP CAR FOR THE FIRST TIME AT PHOENIX:
“I think it’s really good that I am doing this short-track race.  I think short-tracks are something that I need to get more comfortable with.  Although I think it’s really come a long this year, I think some of my better Nationwide races have actually come at places like Iowa and Loudon.  It will be a good experience for me.  It will be a good learning experience to end on for this year.  I feel like we have made a lot of progress on the 1.5-mile tracks and we obviously got a lot of really difficult ones out of the way like Bristol and Dover and Darlington.  I’ll look forward to next year and I think we’ve created a really good base of various different tracks to think about for next season.”
 
WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT YESTERDAY ON THE SUPERBOWL ADS WERE YOU EVER REALLY CONCERNED YOU WOULDN’T BE IN THEM?  IS THAT A BIG DEAL TO YOU?
“First and foremost it is a big deal.  I’m always really honored to be in those commercials.  I think it’s great for, and this is what I said yesterday, about feeling like I’m the lucky one in the partnership.  Even though Bob (Parson) said he feels like he benefits more.  I feel like I do and it’s because that is some amazing exposure for me as a brand.  Then to link that up with GoDaddy and really only continue to solidify our partnership and our value in each other is very important to me.  Was I surprised?  I heard from Bob a couple of weeks ago after some news came out about maybe not being in them.  He called and said ‘look I just want you to know that it’s my intention, it’s my plan that you will be in a Superbowl ad.’  So yesterday when we had our press conference to announce the Semper Fi Fund promotion to raise a million dollars that Bob will match and that I’m going to run the Semper Fi Fund logo on the front of both my No. 7 and No. 10 GoDaddy cars he announced that I was going to be in both of them.  That was definitely news to me yesterday.  Great news.”
 
THERE ARE TWO GENTLEMEN VYING FOR THE CUP CHAMPIONSHIP WITH DISTINCTIVELY DIFFERENT RESUME’S AS IT PERTAINS TO CHAMPIONSHIPS, WHAT IMPACT DO YOU THINK EACH OF THEM WOULD HAVE IF THEY DO GO ON TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THIS SPORT?
“Well you obviously have Jimmie (Johnson) who has done it a handful of times. It’s an incredible feat and he’s on his way to continue to break more records there probably. I think it’s definitely an interesting story with Brad (Keselowski) and how he’s only been in the series for a short amount of time and accomplishing great things early. We saw the success in Nationwide as well with him. Yeah, probably a little bit different approaches maybe. I mean Jimmie has the experience and Brad is young and it’s new and it’s not been obtained yet so I don’t know what that kind of brings up inside of him verses someone who’s done it so many times. Experience does tend to pay off, so I’m sure it’s going to be exciting. I look forward to watching it. I’m not going to be racing Cup next weekend so I’ll be sitting on pit lane watching it all go down, and watching the excitement like everyone else will. I think they are both good stories, I think everybody loves to see a legacy and a dynasty like Jimmie has. That’s just something really special in sports. Brad’s story is just new and exciting.”
 
WHO WOULD YOU RATHER SEE WIN AND WHY?
“I don’t really know. I don’t think I could answer that. I like Jimmie and I like Chad (Knaus, crew chief). I know them pretty well. I know Chad pretty well. So, I tend to cheer for the people that I know best, but I also love a new champion and I love a little bit of an underdog, and that’s probably impossible to describe Brad as that but with a guy like Jimmie that’s done it five times I guess you would almost have to put him as the underdog.
I don’t know. I cheer for both stories.”
 
LOOKING AHEAD TO DAYTONA NEXT YEAR, HOW DOES BEING IN THE CAR FOR 3 ½ HOURS AND 500 MILES AFFECT YOU? WHAT DO YOU LIKE, DON’T LIKE?
“Most of my races have been 500 miles this year and the 600. Gosh when those 400’s come up I’m like this is a walk in the park. I remember getting back into a Cup car for the first time for a couple of months at Darlington and I think the Nationwide race was 130 or 160 laps and it was way more than double that in the Cup car. That was an intimidating number. I think this year, I remember talking about it just this last week or two, that the Cup races are really just so long and they do kind of feel like that at times. It feels like the first 100 takes a while and then you think wow, we’ve got 200 left and all of the sudden it’s the last stint and it go time. Things definitely go by a lot quicker once you get in the groove. It’s just something to adjust to and something to get used to. No different than a schedule and getting use to traveling every week or something like that. I’m already kind of getting used to it a little bit.”
 
YOU’RE GOING FROM A NATIONWIDE POINTS SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN PRETTY EXCITING THIS YEAR TO THE CHASE FORMAT NEXT YEAR, DO YOU HAVE ANY PREFERENCE WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE WAY THESE THINGS PLAY OUT?
“It’s supposed to be realistic, the Chase is a pretty long shot for me coming next year so I don’t know if I’ve really put a lot of thought to it. You never know though. Anything can happen. I think that for me that will be something that will come up in the years to come as that becomes more realistic and something to shoot for. I am all for anything that makes this sport more entertaining, makes more news, and brings more sponsors in. I’m sure that being someone that leads the championship going into the Chase and then being basically even with 12th is definitely disappointing on some level. At the same time, if that’s what keeps the sponsors and the fans engaged, then that’s what we need to do.”
 
HANNAH NEWHOUSE IS A 15-YEAR-OLD DRIVER THAT IS ENTERING THE K&N SERIES, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT HER?
“They can race at 15 now? Well how old am I? (laughter).”
 
SHE SAID YOU PAINTED THE IDEAL PICTURE FOR WOMEN DRIVERS. ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT AND WHERE SHE IS GOING?
“I painted the ideal picture. Wow, that’s very flattering. I always encourage young drivers coming up to not want to be like me, but be better than me. That’s what I thought when I was growing up. I just wanted to be better than everyone. I never really had an idol or somebody like that I wanted to be like. I didn’t know why then, but I think internally I always knew that I was maybe different. I didn’t let other people guide me on what I should be looking to achieve necessarily or a path to take. That’s very flattering and thank you but I think you just have to have the big goal in mind and then let it take its course. There’s not one certain way to get to the top of racing, that’s for sure. It’s a matter of taking the opportunities and being confident and knowing they will all teach you something.”
 
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK BEING IN THE SUPERBOWL ADS INCREASES YOUR ABILITY TO GET THEM TO SPONSOR YOU TO RACE? GODADDY AND POSSIBLY OTHER COMPANIES IN THE FUTURE IF GODADDY EVER NOT WANTED TO SPONSOR YOU?
“I think what it does it establishes not necessarily just my brand and GoDaddy’s brand, but our brand together. That we each on some level need each other. That’s a great scenario for someone like me. I can only hope that works for the other person, this being GoDaddy. We’ve had tons of success together. They’ve become an incredibly big company and had a lot of success. I want to keep that going and be a part of it. I just think it solidifies our branding together as the important part.”
 
WHEN THE SEASON IS OVER AND YOU CAN SUMMARIZE IT, IS THERE ANY TRACK THAT YOU REALLY LIKED AND ONE TRACK YOU DIDN’T?
“This question kind of gets asked in various forms. To be honest, all that really matters is how you do at the track. So if it’s a track that you do well at, you’re going to like it. Sometimes that changes. Gosh, I remember being in Indy Car and going to Sonoma for the first time and just hating it. I remember I drove by one time and gave it the finger. I was not in favor of Sonoma. Then I go back in 2007 and I qualify on the front row and I’m like I love Sonoma. I think that it just depends on how you do and that changes from time to time, and year to year.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway along with special guest Paul Knowles, a Vietnam Veteran and discussed his special Veterans Day paint scheme, the Chase format, getting on the same page with crew chief Matt Borland and much more.  Full Transcript:   
 
YOU HAVE A UNIQUE VETERANS DAY PROMOTION WITH YOUR SPONSOR TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT:
RYAN NEWMAN: “We’ve got an awesome paint scheme with our Quicken Loans Chevrolet.  The digital camo (camouflage), it’s not just digital camo it’s kind of desert camo and on the bottom part of the race car there are over 250 black and white photographs of service men and women who have closed a mortgage at Quicken Loans.  A great tribute to the Veterans on Veterans Day weekend, very much appreciative of what Quicken Loans does for the Veterans with their mortgages and obviously just tributes like this on special occasions.  The TV panel on the bumper cover of the car says it best.  Home of the free because of the brave, that is why we are proud to represent Quicken Loans this weekend.”
 
IF YOU CAN TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR SERVICE AND THEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE ON RYAN’S CAR THIS WEEKEND:
PAUL KNOWLES: “Well first off the opportunity to be on Ryan’s car is really nice to have.  The car with Quicken Loans and backing up all the Veterans that is really a plus. Making a loan with Quicken Loans for that new house I just bought was just painless it was wonderful.  They have done a really great job on working with the Veterans.  I spent a year in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.  I was lucky when I made it back.  So now I am just a Vietnam Veteran got out of the service and enjoyed the tour.”
 
YOU HAVE A SPECIAL PAINT SCHEME THIS WEEK ARE YOU INVOLVED IN PUTTING SOME IDEAS INTO THE PAINT SCHEME OF THE CAR?
RYAN NEWMAN: “No, that is one of the things at Stewart-Haas I’ve always been extremely proud of is they put together great paint schemes for great reasons.  Quicken Loans has been a big part of this like I said.  With the people at Stewart-Haas obviously have to do the final layout of the car and make sure everybody is happy sponsor wise and everybody is happy as far as their logo placement.  Just really happy with the way the car looks it’s an amazing looking car.  Hopefully, it adds maybe a half second a lap to it something like that so we can have it in Victory Lane and we can show everybody really what Veterans Day is all about.”
 
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN DO IN THESE LAST TWO RACES TO HELP PREPARE FOR NEXT YEAR SINCE YOU ARE NOT IN THE CHASE?
RYAN NEWMAN: “Win.  Just win.  Just win everything, win the poles and win the races.  That is one of our goals these last two races is to get a pole just like every other race before that, but we are not in the Shootout as of right now.  It’s an important part of my career to keep that streak alive. Obviously, it’s a goal no matter what to be the fastest and be the best.  That starts today.  We will see how we can do.  We had a good car in the spring; I got crashed out about the middle of the race.  Look forward to this race track; it’s always been a good track for me both on Friday’s and on Sunday’s.”
 
LAST WEEK TONY (STEWART) MADE THE REFERENCE TO (BRAD) KESELOWSKI HAVING A D
EATH WISH I WONDER IF YOU COULD EXPAND ON WHAT YOU THINK THAT MEANS AND ALSO IT COMES UP EVERY YEAR WHAT IF THERE WASN’T A CHASE HOW WOULD THINGS BE.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS DO YOU LIKE THE CHASE OR NOT?
RYAN NEWMAN: “I’m not sure about the death wish.  I really can’t comment about that.  I don’t know what he was talking about.  If it was something he said or did or whatever.  That is not my place to say.  The Chase part of it I think a percentage of it adds hype.  As I said from the very beginning in the beginning it was 10 drivers that got the extra hype and the rest of them didn’t.  Now it’s 12 that get the extra hype and having missed it two of the last four, made it two of the last four, I can kind of speak on both sides of it.  It does change your outlook and your outcome for the next 10 races after Richmond as far as what you have to look forward to.  If you have an opportunity, if you don’t have an opportunity at a championship, but ultimately we are there to win each and every race so that part of it doesn’t change.  Sometimes it’s bitter sweet because of the situation you are in, but it is what it is.  There is still an opportunity for a champion each and every year.  In the end if you look at it from a point’s stand point it really doesn’t change who has that opportunity whether we have a Chase or not.  It’s still a group of four or five drivers at the end of 26 that are still in that group of four or five going into the last few.”
 
WERE YOU A LONG TIME NASCAR FAN ALL THESE YEARS OR WAS THIS A SURPRISE WEEKEND COMING TO YOU?
PAUL KNOWLES: “Truthfully hate to say it I haven’t been a NASCAR fan, but this adds some credibility for me to see what it’s all about first hand.  It’s a very good thing for me.”
 
YOU GET A LOT OF GUESTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR THAT YOU MEET AND GREET AND SPEND THE WEEKEND WITH.  WHAT IS IT LIKE WHEN YOU GET A GENTLEMAN LIKE MR. KNOWLES WHO WASN’T REALLY A NASCAR FAN?  IS THAT EQUALLY AS CHALLENGING, BUT YET AS FULFILLING AS ANY OTHER TYPE OF FAN?
RYAN NEWMAN: “Well just as I always said having the U.S. Army as a sponsor it’s a different kind of sponsorship when you meet people like that who represent your brand I guess you could say.  Meeting Paul (Knowles) it’s extra special this weekend because it’s Veterans Day and everybody needs to recognize that.  That is the point of it is to give thanks to all those who have served and given us the opportunity to do the things that we do and not have to worry about what kind of plane if flying over our head.  Just really proud like I said of Quicken Loans, this is their program, this is their race and obviously it ties in with the U.S. Army which is another sponsor.  I’m thankful and it’s an honor for me to drive a race car that pays so much tribute to so many special people.”
 
IS THIS ONE OF THOSE SEASONS THAT YOU WISH WOULD END OR ARE GLAD IT’S CLOSE TO AN END? RYAN NEWMAN: “People have asked me, friends, family, whoever if I’m looking forward to the off season and I answer yes and no.  Yes I am because my ultimate goal of winning the championship is not within grasp by any means.  I still have the opportunity to win two races so there are things to look forward to, but my ultimate goal I cannot achieve this year.  At that point, you want it to end and get started on next year.  I really enjoy the off season; I enjoy the 90-plus days or whatever it is of being able to spend time with family and the outdoors and hunting and a little bit of fishing.  Just getting a chance to vacation at home.  That’s what it’s all about.  It’s a ‘catch 22.”
 
DO YOU THINK JIMMIE JOHNSON WILL PULL AWAY FROM BRAD KESELOWSKI OR DO YOU THINK THIS WILL GO DOWN TO THE LAST LAP AT HOMESTEAD?
RYAN NEWMAN: “There’s a good chance of anything.  There was as good of a chance of Brad (Keselowski) winning that race last week as there was Jimmie (Johnson) in my opinion.  I believe, if I remember right, Brad was on two tires and Jimmie was on four.  There was strength there to that 2 car that was pretty dominant all race long.  Anything can happen here.  I especially say with the dog-leg in the backstretch that things can get exciting here that we don’t anticipate.  I think that’s kind of escalated over the last two races here so we’ll see how that goes.  This is a fun race track for me.  It’s fun for a lot of guys.  It’s challenging because it’s different on both ends.  Homestead itself is relatively simple when it comes to the racing part of it because it’s so wide and you can use the top to the bottom of the race track, both ends and we saw how well Tony Stewart was last year with being able to pass cars.  To me, this is more of a challenge from a racing standpoint in these next two races than Homestead is.”
 
WILL IT TAKE A LONG TIME FOR YOU TO GET BACK ON THE SAME PAGE WITH MATT BORLAND SINCE IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU BOTH WORKED TOGETHER?
RYAN NEWMAN: “I don’t think we ever had to worry about getting back on the same page, it was more a matter about catching the right paragraph.  We think so much alike, we understand the principles of the race car, but for him I think it’s more about just adapting the physics of the race car to my feels and the comments that I make, having not had my experience with that over the past five or seven years or whatever it’s been.  We’ve always been on the same page when it comes to understanding the race cars.  It’s just a matter of us creating that fine tuning of what we need to do to make them perfect.”
 
HOW DOES THE RESPECT FOR THE TITLE CONTENDERS CHANGE WITH TWO RACES REMAINING?  IS THERE MORE RESPECT THAT HAS TO BE GIVEN OR IS IT A MISCONCEPTION?
RYAN NEWMAN: “I guess the best way to describe it is to race them equally.  Like you said, there are two guys that are in the contention right now for the championships so if you’re in a position where you race the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) a certain way, race the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) the same way.  They know me and they know my passion for not letting them go by.  That’s just the way I am.  Sometimes it helps me and sometimes it hurts me.  For the most part, race each other the way you would want to be raced.  If it was you racing for a championship, give and take the way you would want to be given and taken to.  That’s maybe the best way to describe it.  To me, there’s not more of an allowance.  There’s a level of respect in a situation.  If I’m racing for a lucky dog then it’s different than if I’m racing for the win.  That really doesn’t change much, maybe a little bit.  To answer your question, maybe a little bit, but not really.  I’m still here to win the race and my sponsors and my fans and everybody around me and my team especially expects me to not lay over and give them extra respect because of their situation.  My situation is that I’m still here to win a race.”
 
DID YOU SEE THE RESTARTS AT THE END OF THE TEXAS RACE AND IF YOU DID, WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS?
RYAN NEWMAN: “I quickly saw I think it was the last restart when Jimmie (Johnson) kind of pulled the air off the 2 (Brad Keselowksi) a little bit, which is fine, that’s racing.  If I remember right, Brad had the opportunity to pick the lane and he chose the inside.  He very easily could have picked the outside.  I don’t think there was anything wrong with any of it from what I saw.  I didn’t see all of it.”   

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed racing at Phoenix International Raceway, what it would mean to tie Dale Earnhardt Sr. on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win list and other
topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT COMING TO PHOENIX:
“I’m excited to get on the track.  It looks like it is still pretty slick.  I watched the Trucks practice last night and there have been a couple of quick cautions this morning.  I’m hopeful the Nationwide cars really rubber the race track in and we can get the track to evolve short order and have a great practice session here in an hour or so.”
 
YOU HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE MANY TIMES IN THIS SITUATION HOW DOES RIGHT NOW COMPARE TO YEARS PAST AND HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CHANCES?
“At this point regardless of our points situation I still came here ready to race and we’ve won some races here and have been able to run in the top-five which is very important to lead into a comfortable Homestead.  I’ve been on the ropes here racing Denny (Hamlin) and things worked out from a fuel mileage stand point that closed the gap, went to Homestead and had to race for it.  I’ve been here before with (Jeff) Gordon dueling it out.  We won and he might have been second or third in the race and that is the year that reminds me the most of what I’m dealing with right now.  I expect for Brad (Keselowski) to be strong here.  He and I raced real hard for third or four positions in the closing laps of the spring race.  I would assume that we would be right there running nose to tail once again when the checkered flag falls on Sunday.”
 
WHAT DO OTHER DRIVERS SAY TO YOU IN PASSING OR WHAT NOT WHEN YOU SEE THEM IN THE MOTORHOME LOT OR WHAT NOT ABOUT BEATING BRAD?  WHAT ARE THEIR COMMENTS TO YOU ABOUT YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO WIN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP BECAUSE YOU ARE RACING HIM?
“I haven’t had anybody specifically point out the competition with Brad.  I’ve had guys talk about here you are in position again, give me some encouragement.  I just saw Clint Bowyer in the motorhome lot and he said a lot of things that I can’t say on TV (laughs).  Something about the rear end of anybody and I’m that part for winning last weekend.  Not the cheeks the other part in his words (laughs), highly entertaining whenever it comes to (Clint) Bowyer as we all know.  I feel like I have a lot of friends in the garage area and people are maybe they are not happy to see me in position to win a championship, but I think a lot of people respect the position we are in and what the team has done, what I have done.  I think that respect shows on the race track too.  There has been a lot of respectful driving around Brad and I on the race track and guys will let us race for this thing.  It’s been good.”
 
WITH 60 WINS YOU ARE EIGHTH IN ALL-TIME WINS (DALE) EARNHARDT (SR.) SEVENTH WITH 76 HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO YOU TO GET TO THAT LEVEL THROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS ASIDE BUT WINS?  ALSO, I SAW YOU RUNNING YESTERDAY ARE YOU ABLE TO DO THAT AND GET THE STRESS OUT WITHOUT GETTING RECOGNIZED BY A LOT OF PEOPLE?
“Kind of, I left the track and ran out through the motorhome lot and on my way out no one saw me.  On the way back people knew I was coming and signed a few autographs, took a few pictures.  Training, I have my event coming up in December, so I have to keep the miles in and keep going. It’s been a great way to make sure that I’m tired every night and go to sleep with a clear mind.  Just continuing to follow my routine and what I do.  As far as chasing (Dale) Earnhardt (Sr.) I didn’t know that he was the next one in line.  There is a good gap between 60 and 76 so I hope to get there.  It would be a huge honor for me to be able to tie ‘The Man’.  I hope to do that certainly.”  
 
IS THIS A WHOLE NEW LEARNING PROCESS OR IS THIS STILL THE PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE WON FOUR TIMES?
“I really think it’s a new place.  The old track was really abrasive and tire wear was important.  We did see a few things come down to fuel mileage at the end, but the mindset really was working on your race car, tire fall off and you would come in and pit and put four on.  That game has changed here now.  I would assume the track has evolved a little, but what we have seen with these new repaves whatever the mix is that they put down it takes a long time for it to evolve.  I look at the Charlotte track as the best example.  It maybe a little easier to drive on now, but it’s still the same tire wear as when they repaved it four or five years ago.  It hasn’t changed back to the old Charlotte yet.  This track is going to be very similar to the way it was in the spring.  I feel like we are on a new sheet of paper with the track as it is.  I feel like our fourth is representative of where we are now with the new track.  We had a great performance, a little room to improve, but not the track that it was before.”
 
YOU HAVE HAD TIMES IN YOUR CAREER WHERE YOU HAVE PULLED OFF CONSECUTIVE WINS, WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE IN THAT ZONE?
“Man, it’s crazy to experience it.  In years past when we have been on those runs there is plenty of challenging moments through the course of a race weekend.  To have things work out and to watch a team come together and work so hard to work through adversity and to not let adversity affect the execution, the temperament of the team, the moral of the team it’s something special to be a part of. We had some amazing years where we could string those together and I hope that, we have two going, we can keep that string going right now and rattle off two more.”
 
WHY DIDN’T BRAD (KESELOWSKI) GET MORE AGGRESSIVE WITH YOU LAST WEEK?  BACK IN THE DAY WHEN HE WAS REALLY AGGRESSIVE THAT IS SOMETHING HE MIGHT HAVE DONE.  WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON THAT AND THE PROGRESSION HE HAS MADE DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT?  WHAT HAS CHANGED ABOUT HIM AND WHY DO YOU THINK MAYBE HE DIDN’T GET REAL AGGRESSIVE THERE AND MAKE A MOVE LIKE THAT AND JUST GO FOR BROKE THERE?
“I really feel like he was extremely aggressive and had that mindset of going for broke.  But we all evolve as drivers and I think he was more in control of his vehicle Sunday night than he was when he was new to the sport.  Then the other thing is certain drivers and I’ve been a part of it too, you have a magnet for a certain car.  It was Carl (Edwards) and Brad that had that issue that was going and where a lot of that came from I don’t really recall him having big issue with other drivers. “
 
WITH DENNY HAMLIN…
“With Denny (Hamlin) he did?  I don’t even remember that one. I know our history between Brad and myself we haven’t had that.  I’ve always raced him with a clear mind and not worry.  Sure racing stuff happens and you make mistakes, everybody does.  I make plenty myself, but it never crossed my mind that he would make an intentional move to dump me.  There are only a few people out there wired like that.  I think in today’s world there is probably less like it or not it is just the way it is.  People race really, really hard and I think Brad did, but to just go in the corner and dump someone man that is tough to do.  Then you play into the Karma thing and then there is always next week.  There is a variety of things that come with that.  I just don’t think there are many guys out there that would haul off into the turn and just dump their competition for the championship.”   
 
CHAD (KNAUS) SAID EARLIER THIS WEEK THAT AT THIS TIME OF YEAR PEOPLE WHO ARE CHASING YOU HAVE TO RAISE THEIR GAME, BUT THE NO. 48 TEAM DOESN’T HAVE TO.  YOU SORT OF REMAIN ON AN EVEN PLANE.  IS THAT THE WAY YOU OPERATE AS A DRIVER?
“I think it’s really led by Chad’s direction.  He treats every race as if we are in the Chase and leans on us all.  There are parts of the year where myself, my team members look at him and are like ‘man its June why are you cracking the whip so hard?’ But that is the
way Chad operates.  I’m thankful that he does because he never sits back and relaxes on past performance and it’s all about the present and working as hard as you can each and every week.  He made the comment and a lot of that is due to his personality and the way he runs a race team.  Myself I’m usually a little more laid back.  It’s not that I’m trying any harder now, but I can let stuff fall off my shoulders a little easier middle of the year than he can.  Right now if you are going to be the champion you can’t shrug something off.  You have to focus on every single point and make sure you can get every point you can on the track.  I guess maybe I’m more like his mindset when the Chase starts and prior to that I’m a bit more relaxed.”
 
DO YOU HAVE A SENSE THAT THE NO. 2 IS NOT GOING TO CHOKE NOT GOING TO DISAPPEAR AND YOU ARE GOING TO NEED TWO TERRIFIC RACES TO WIN THIS THING?
“Yeah, that is the way I have to enter each race.  I have to expect the best out of them and I’ve said that through the whole Chase.  When there were 12 of us that had a shot I was focused on all 12 and then it’s worked its way down to really just one car.  We are here to race.  We need to get every point that we can and expect the most out of the No. 2.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK TONY STEWART MEANT BY BRAD KESELOWSKI HAVING A ‘DEATH WISH’?  DO YOU THINK WITH THE NATIONWIDE POINTS BEING SO CLOSE THAT IS AN ARGUMENT TO NOT HAVE A CHASE FORMAT ANYMORE?
“I didn’t see the comments after last weekend with what Tony (Stewart) said so I really don’t know what he’s referencing.  The Nationwide stuff, we saw it time and time again in the Cup Series that you would get a couple close years here and there, but really there was a runaway year.  I feel like from an odds standpoint, your chances of having a close championship battle are best with the Chase.  The Cup Series is proof of that.  We wouldn’t have changed if it wasn’t the situation.  I’m happy to see the Nationwide Series tied right now.  It’s great TV and it’s great to watch.  It’s very hungry guys out there trying to make their mark.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE GOALS AND WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOUR CAREER COMES TO A CONCLUSION?
“It’s hard to say and I still live my life and live each day just looking at what’s right in front of me.  I’ve been asked the question a lot about long term and where I want to be, the mark I want to leave on the sport and it’s something that I haven’t put a lot of thought into, but I feel like I’ve had lame answers for everybody over the years and I need to think about it for once and have a good answer.  I made this reference a few times, but a friend of mine said to me that limits begin where the vision ends.  I want to be considered the best driver to ever sit in a stock car.  The undisputed way to pull that off is to win eight championships.  That’s what I said a few months back and I know that I put that mark way, way out there in front of me and it’s a lofty goal.  I’ve accomplished every goal that I’ve set in front of myself, I’ve knocked down and I’m going to put one way out there and hope I get there.  If I don’t, I know that I’ve tried and given 100 percent and very proud of whatever the stats are at that point when I retire.  Putting one way out there and we’ll see if I get to it.”
 
DO YOU HAVE AN UPDATE ON THE ‘SUPERSTORM SANDY’ FUND?
“I’m not sure how it’s going.  I know we made our contribution and I’m hopeful that others have donated as well.  I had some news that where our apartments held, it could be three more months before we have power or be back on our own power system.  They have some auxiliary power that they are hopeful to get in within two weeks, but before the building is functioning like it was, it’s at least another three months.  Believe me, the apartment wasn’t cheap.  This is a nice place.  I can only imagine the devastation and destruction on many levels throughout Manhattan, Staten Island.  Our motor home is on the New York satellite and we were watching the local news from Staten Island, I can’t believe the devastation there.  Hopefully, others are inspired to donate as well and we can try to help out.”
 
ARE THERE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT YOU AND DOES THAT BOTHER YOU?
“I learned a long time ago that it’s hard to make everybody happy.  I have seen in the last three or four years and there are plenty of markers to show it in the fan base that has shifted heavily that there are a lot of very avid 48 fans that are out there.  With that said, I’m sure there are some that just don’t like us.  That’s fine, that’s cool.  It’s this sport.  It’s how it is.  Nothing has bothered me, I’ve heard it all and I guess also in my lesson a while back I learned that if I know someone and they have a problem with me then I should take heart.  From a fan’s perspective, in the way things happen within sports, if somebody says something ugly, they don’t know me so why am I going to take it to heart.  It’s just fandom.  People supporting their teams and who they want to support.”
 
HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL WHEN FANS ARE NOT SUPPORTIVE OF YOU BEING POISED TO WIN ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP?
“It makes me smile.  I really don’t care.  I’m doing my job.  I’ve worked my entire life to get to this point in my career.  I wasn’t around to see the (Richard) Petty era, but I know or I can only assume that a lot of people were tired of seeing the King win.  I know that a lot of people were tired of seeing (Dale) Earnhardt win.  I lived it firsthand in watching Jeff Gordon go through that very same thing after his fourth championship.  It’s not that I’m in this unique situation.  We go back through and pull the clips from previous champions and guys that have been on runs before and it’s the same stuff.  It’s absolutely the same stuff.  I’m not doing anything different than Gordon, Petty, Earnhardt — in fact I’m awfully damn proud to be in that lump of guys that had to go from cheers to boos and when they get back to cheering you again is when you stop winning.  I don’t want the cheers, I’ll keep the boo’s.  That’s fine.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOURSELF AND BRAD KESELOWSKI AT ROAD ATLANTA AND DID THAT CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTION OF HIM?
“When I saw his reply, it took me a second or two to take it in.  I thought, ‘Wait a second, Road Atlanta?  He crashed.’  Then the few minutes following his crash ran through my mind and I think Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and I were in a Tahoe and ran down there.  We were some of the first people on the scene to help him get out of the car.  Helping him find his bearings.  Checked up with him when he was in the hospital.  It was a heck of a crash.  I don’t think, I was just concerned for him.  Maybe that was something different than what he had experienced with other racers.  That’s me.  I’m concerned for people and especially seeing a big impact like that firsthand.  It got my attention.  The next day and a half of testing, every time I went into turn one I could see his marks where he went off the road and hit down there.  I was like, ‘Man that was ugly.’  I’m glad that meant something to him.  It wasn’t my intentions.  He knows where I am with my morals and that I do care about others.  I don’t think the situations are identical by any means, but the fact that he is the only driver that came to victory lane to shake my hand after the race in Texas, I just thought that took a lot of class.  It’s tough in this moment, we’re both racing and trying to achieve our dreams of being a champion in this sport and for him to put
a smile on his face and come to victory lane to shake my hand I thought was a big move on his behalf.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW/AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET met with media and discussed who he thinks will win this year’s Chase, the tight Nationwide Series battle, the outlook for JR Motorsports in 2013 and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU AND BRAD (KESELOWSKI) CAME TOGETHER AT THE PERFECT TIME YOU AS AN OWNER AND HIM AS A DRIVER.  IN YOUR OPINION WHO DO YOU THINK BENEFITED MORE IN THAT RELATIONSHIP BRAD AS THE DRIVER OR YOUR COMPANY JR MOTORSPORTS?
“Probably definitely Brad, which is fine, it seemed to give him the platform he needed to really showcase his potential and get people, owners like Roger Penske to consider him for Cup level.  That is what our company is all about.  That is what we enjoy to see happen so it was a success for us, but definitely think it was best for Brad.”
 
HOW DID IT HELP YOUR COMPANY?
“We pleased a lot of sponsors with the way Brad ran and the success we had with Brad.  It gave our company credibility amongst the competitors and just really raised the moral and got everybody in the shop really fired up with Brad’s ability.  When they went to the race track they were excited about their opportunities and changed the culture in the shop quite a bit.”
 
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HIM?
“I liked his family’s history, good hard working racing people.  He had worked on all his stuff growing up so he knew how valuable the equipment was, knew how to take care of the equipment and he was quick.  He could do things; he was in some of the start and park race cars and qualifying well and racing well.  He was great at looking around on the race track for different grooves, different speed and finding speed in the car.  Just did a lot of good things.”
 
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS ABOUT THE 2013 CAR? JEFF BURTON SAID HE THINKS IT’S GOING TO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN PASSING AND MAKE THE 1.5-MILE RACES MORE LIKE SHORT TRACKS
“Yeah, I haven’t tested the car. So I’m not sure what Burton has in mind or what he thinks will help. But hopefully that reveals itself when we start working on the car and I start getting to drive the car.”
 
WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP?
“Well, it’s between Brad (Keselowski) and Jimmie (Johnson) and I think Jimmie is going to win it. Jimmie is going to be hard to beat. Jimmie is in great equipment. Jimmie has a great race team around him; smart people, and one of the best crew chiefs in the business, and Jimmie is one of the best drivers in the business. It’s going to be hard to beat those guys.”
 
ON JIMMIE JOHNSON GOING FOR A SIXTH TITLE AND BEING ONE OF THE BEST IN THE SPORT:
“I think he’s been in the conversations. Winning five in a row puts him in the conversation as being one of the guys that’s the best the sport has ever seen. And any success he has beyond that just further strengthens this argument and I think it’s fair to put him in that group and compare him to Richard (Petty) and Cale Yarborough and guys like that; my father, even.”
 
WHAT IS THE SENSE OF PRIDE WITH BRAD (KESELOWSKI), YOU’VE TALKED MANY TIMES ABOUT JR MOTORSPORTS BEING AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG DRIVERS?
“I’m competing against him so I’ve got to look at him really as a competitor, but we have a good friendship and a good amount of respect for each other. That really carries over on to the race track. I enjoy racing with him. He’s a real tough competitor; he races really, really hard. He’s so far removed from his years in the Nationwide Series already in this just short period of time. He’s already carved such a ditch in the Cup Series. Those seem just like memories racing as an owner and him as my driver. It just seems like so long ago already.”
 
YOU’RE A TWO-TIME NATIONWIDE CHAMPION, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A CHAMPION?
“In the Nationwide Series?”
 
IN ANY SERIES.
“I can only say what it takes to be a champion in the Nationwide Series because I haven’t won a championship in the Cup Series yet. You’ve got to have a great team around you. You’ve got to have fast race cars and you’ve got to be smart with them. That’s really the basics of it.”
 
WITH THAT SERIES BEING TIED RIGHT NOW, LAST YEAR COMING HERE THERE WAS ONLY EIGHT POINTS DIFFERENCE, IS THAT A GOOD ARGUMENT THAT YOU REALLY DON’T NEED A CHASE IN CUP?
“I’m not sure. I think the Chase for the championship really wasn’t to change how the points looked or change how the points are tallied up. I think it was just to drive attention to the fan base and get the fans excited that there was some sort of playoff system in effect. I think the fans get excited about everybody reverting back to the no points and leveling the playing field with 10 (races) to go. I think that it excites them to have a group of guys competing throughout the last 10 races and having it simplified in that aspect. With the old system we’ve seen good championships and with the new system we’ve seen good championships. I don’t believe it really matters how you stack it up. It just comes down to the performance of the drivers. It’s a coincidental situation with the Nationwide Series that those two guys are tied. I wouldn’t read much into it.”
 
LAST WEEK TONY STEWART SAID THAT BRAD (KESELOWSKI) HAD A DEATH WISH AT THE END OF THE RACE WITH THE WAY HE WAS PUSHING IT TO THE LIMIT. IS THAT JUST BRAD’S NATURE?
“I was really impressed from what I saw from both drivers at the end of that race. I think you saw both of them dig down and produce results that you don’t see on an everyday basis. Some of the most incredible racing that I’ve seen in a long time between two guys in a situation like that. I was fortunate enough to be close enough to see it and it was quite something to see.”
 
WHAT MAKES JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SO GOOD?
“You could come up with a bunch of different reasons and not really be correct. You think about his history on dirt and in the truck, how that must have helped him understand incredible car control. He spent years and years on dirt and that’s the best way to go to school on car control. He has incredible car control. He understands exactly where the grip level is, where the slip angles are, and how to get right up against them and carry it through the whole corner. He’ll tell you also that he has a great team around him. He’s been with this team from the start. They’ve built a great group and been able to maintain that. They complement Jimmie just as well as he complements them.”
 
WHERE DO YOU THINK BRAD (KESELOWSKI) WOULD BE TODAY IF TED MUSGRAVE HADN’T GOTTEN SUSPENDED FOR THAT ONE RACE WHERE BRAD GOT IN THE TRUCK AND SHOWED WHAT HE COULD DO?
“I think he would probably have made it still but it might have just taken a little bit longer. It might have taken a while to get that opportunity. That was definitely the key moment. He was driving that No. 23 car in the Nationwide Series, and he qualified 10th at Bristol. Then I saw him race at Atlanta and move around on the race track to find speed in the car, was racing against guys that had better equipment than him. You just see people have glimpses of potential and then he got that opportunity there and made the most of it.  He would have won that race had he not been spun out. I felt like when I was calling him that I was probably not the only one at that moment. Whether I was or not I don’t know, but I felt like he brought a lot of awareness to himself and his opportunities and potential to a lot of people, not just myself.”
 
WHERE ARE YOU AT WITH NEXT YEAR AT JR MOTORSPORTS? WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR BEYOND REGAN SMITH RUNNING A FULL SEASON?
“I’d like to have two full-time cars with Regan and Cole (Whitt) driving. We’re working really hard to fill sponsorship on the second car. We’ve got a lo
t of great potential partners that we’ve been speaking to. Cole has done a great job especially since we’ve made the changes we’ve made over there. Cole has really been able to improve. The speed in the car has improved each week. He’s been able to realize what kind of opportunities and things we can do together if we can get everything right. I think we’re really close. Regan is going to come in and give us a veteran in leadership from a driver standpoint. I’d really love to have both those guys. We’ve got Regan ready to go in a full deal. We’re just trying to piece together enough partnerships and people that are excited about our opportunities in the future with Cole for next year and we’ll move forward. I’m going to run a handful of races.”
 
HOW MUCH DOES IT HELP TO HAVE REGAN AROUND THE TRACK HANGING OUT WITH THE TEAM NOW AND GOING OVER TO JR MOTORSPORTS?
“He brings a better presence. He understands what the job is, what he needs to do. He’s really confident. So, I think that’s good for the team to see. It gets the team excited.”
 
IS THIS THE KIND OF SEASON WHERE YOU’RE GOING TO BE KIND OF HAPPY THAT IT’S OVER?
“No. I wish we were going to race on. I’d just race on through to February and start back over again if it were up to me. I really enjoy being at the track and driving cars. It’s been a good year, but this should be par for the course. It’s been a good year, but we want to be a lot better than this. I’m not ready to stop trying to be better.”
 
CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE IN THE ZONE? YOU AND STEVE (LETARTE, CREW CHIEF) STARTED OUT SO STRONG AND WON MICHIGAN.
“There’s confidence between me and him that we’re going to show up and do well, and confidence is real important. We work really well together. When he’s on top of his game and I’m on top of my game we’re a really competitive team.”
 
HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT PHOENIX HERE THIS WEEKEND?
“I really don’t know. I haven’t run well since they repaved it. We’ve got a completely different setup than we ran here earlier this year. So right now I’m just anxious to get in the car and see what we can do.”
 
DO YOU THINK JIMMIE (JOHNSON) IS GOING TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? IS THERE MAYBE ONE STRENGTH THAT THE NO. 2 TEAM HAS THAT MAYBE THE NO. 48 DOESN’T?
“Not knowing any better. Maybe that’s one. Not really knowing any better and being open-minded to anything. They’re pretty risky too. He’ll stay out on two tires, no tires; try to run himself out of gas, and all kinds of crazy stuff. They are willing to really gamble. That makes them kind of dangerous in that aspect.”
 
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE HERE UNDER THIS CONFIGURATION?
“I really haven’t been able to find good grip in the front of the car that creates speed. The front of the car is real harsh in the corners and just takes the grip out of the front tires. You blow through the front tires real easy.”
 
BRAD (KESELOWSKI) SAID THE OTHER DAY THAT YOU HAD HIM SIGN A CLAUSE IN HIS CONTRACT WHEN HE WORKED FOR YOU THAT SAID HE COULDN’T WRITE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES I GUESS, ANY EXPERIENCES YOU DON’T WANT HIM WRITING ABOUT?
“I don’t have anything that I would rather him not write about. I think he was telling a lie to be honest with you. We’ve had some fun times together, and he grew up a lot when he was around us. I’ll tell you that.”
 
HOW SO?
“I don’t know. He hadn’t been exposed to a whole lot when we got a hold of him. All he had ever done was race cars and we took him to town and got him some clothes, dressed him up and showed him what was going on. I don’t know. It wasn’t too much. It wasn’t too crazy. He’s pretty outgoing now. I don’t know if you guys really remember just how shy and introverted he was when he first started racing for us, and he’s quite the comedian these days. He’s really outspoken, so he’s changed quite a bit.”
 
SO YOU’RE TAKING CREDIT FOR HIS DRESS STYLE AT THE MYERS BROTHER’S LUNCHEON LAST YEAR?
“No. He wasn’t working for me then.”
 
YOU TALK ABOUT YOU WANT TO KEEP RACING, HOW MANY YEARS DID YOU END THE YEAR THAT WAY? WHERE YOU WANTED TO KEEP GOING?
“Only a few. Not many. Probably about 30 percent of the years I’ve ran. I’m excited about next year. I’m excited about opportunities with the new car and working on the new car. I’m ready to go testing. I’m just not ready to sit down.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed future plans for SHR, racing at Phoenix, Chase contenders and other topics.  Full transcript:
 
DO YOU HAVE A RESPONSE TO THE STORY THAT KEVIN HARVICK WILL JOIN STEWART-HAAS RACING IN 2014? “Well, it’s actually Dale, Jr. (SMILES BROADLY). And Marty Smith (ESPN Television personality and website reporter) is actually going to be in the fourth car. Yes, that’s where we are at. (SMILES BROADLY) I will tell you this, when we have something to tell you guys, we’ll tell you. I’ve always said that. You guys can throw darts, but when we have something to tell you that’s different than what we’ve got going on, we’ll obviously tell you.”
 
HOW IS YOUR CAR? “Getting there. Working on it. It’s getting closer, but we still have a little ways to go in race trim. I think in qualifying trim, we are making gains on it. We probably need to make a couple more runs to get it really nice.”
 
WHAT IS IT LIKE AS A DRIVER WHEN YOU HAVE A STRETCH OF TIME WHERE YOU ALMOST CAN DO NO WRONG; WHEN YOU ARE IN THE ZONE? HOW DOES THAT FEEL? “It’s awesome. It is what every driver wants no matter what form of racing you’re in. When you’re on top of your game, and you have got things going right, it’s just the confidence you’ve got when you come in the pit gate at the beginning of the weekend. It’s nice because it literally is a really balance. That’s normally when you are probably in-tune with your car the best of any time throughout the year is when you are in those modes. You would trade unborn children for that feeling a lot of times.”
 
WHO WOULD YOU PICK OF THE TOP-TWO GUYS (JIMMIE JOHNSON AND BRAD KESELOWSKI) FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “I’m still worried about getting myself as far up in the championship as I can. I’m not worried about those two guys. They’ve got their own deal going on, just like we had our deal going on last year. I think we proved last year, it is hard to pick. It’s way too close to try to pick anybody. I mean, you still have a 300 lap race here; a 500-mile race next weekend (at Homestead-Miami Speedway), and there are 41 other guys on the race track that can make or break their weekend. And they can do it to themselves; or their pit crews. There are so many things that can happen. It’s not like trying to pick a winning team in a football, basketball or baseball game. It’s not that easy.”
 
DO YOU LOOK BACK AT LAST SEASON AND COMPARE IT TO THIS SEASON AND MARVEL AT WHAT THESE TWO ARE DOING? “I haven’t even looked back at it.  I don’t know how much I can talk about last year. I think I talked about it…I’m not sitting here watching those two guys. I’m trying to drive my race car, and worry about what our race weekend is doing. I’m not focused on what they are doing, and I’m not watching what they are doing. I know where they are at in the point standings. We haven’t quit. We are still trying to get every point we can, and still trying to figure out where we can finish. We can finish fifth through 10th right now, so that’s what our focus is. It’s not focusing on what those two guys are doing.”
 
DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK IS GOING TO BE MORE RACEY THAN IT HAS BEEN? “I think so. I think it is getting a little bit wider. Again, the track and facility here did a good job of dragging the tires around like they did last year and I think that helped a bunch.
We did the (Goodyear) tire test a couple of weeks, and it was an ice skating rink for that. It definitely helps get the weekend started off and right. Having more cars on it helps too. Definitely dragging that tire machine around it helped it a bunch.”
 
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE ON THE TRACK HERE? “The biggest thing, at least from what I’ve seen, guys are fighting loose on entry, then they fight being tight in the center of the corner. You want to tighten your car up to get it into the corner, but then you are too tight in the center. It seems like everybody’s exit is ok after it’s got some rubber down. It’s just a matter of trying to balance the entry and the center of the corner.”
 
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A NASCAR CHAMPION? “Getting more points than everybody else.”
 
WHAT DID YOU MEAN LAST WEEK THAT KESELOWSKI HAD A DEATH WISH? “I talked about it last week. I’m not going to talk about it again this week. I’ve got other stuff to worry about, I’m not going to talk about something I said about somebody last week. That’s done and over with.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed the groove at Phoenix International Raceway, the possibility of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing on dirt, what it takes to be a champion and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW HAS THE TRACK AGED IN THE ONE YEAR?  IS IT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN IT WAS A YEAR AGO?
“It’s a little bit different.  It’s nice to see a nice wide groove.  There is a lot of rubber laid down which compared to the first race we had here that was pretty rare we didn’t see that until maybe half way through the race. So to show up and practice and see a nice wide groove they have had a lot of cars on the track to really get it cleaned off.  I think it is a big improvement.  Really anxious to see how qualifying goes today.  Sometimes we get some false sense of security in practice, tires are heated up through the brakes and everything else and you go out there and the car has got good grip.  When everything is cool and you take off to go make that qualifying run and it sticks then I will be happy.  I have a feeling we are probably going to be sliding around a little bit for the first half, three-quarters of the lap.  So getting ahold of the track qualifying is going to be tough, but I’m optimistic about multiple grooves in the race right now.”
 
THE RACE TRACK IN FORT ERIE, CANADA HAS RECEIVED FINAL APPROVAL FROM THE MUNICIPAL BOARD IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S A GO AHEAD IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN SAY ABOUT THAT DEAL?
“Well there is still a lot of things, it’s a long process.  I’ve been saying this for a while it’s been a great experience for me to be a part of it from the beginning design stages with Paxton Waters who worked with Rusty (Wallace) on Iowa.  I think we have a great track design and it takes a long time to get all the approvals.  That is a great step for us.  Now the next step is to put all the funding in place, which has been in the works for a long time and start to make it a reality and see race cars out there one day.  Of course you hope that you can get the NASCAR series there, but you can’t guarantee that nobody can and so I think it’s a great market.  I think there is tremendous support of fans and companies there.  I think it can be a win for everybody if we can get it done.”
 
WHAT IS ONE PERSONALITY TRAIT OF MR. HENDRICK THAT CREATES THE LEVEL OF SUCCESS FOR HIS ORGANIZATION?
“He is just such a quality person.  You spend enough time with him and you realize everything he does he does it right, he does it first class, he treats people with tremendous respect.  He is very competitive so he doesn’t like to lose which is great in business as well as in racing.  He is just so well balanced, his family, friends, working.  He works hard, yet he enjoys life as well.  Just that balance of everything he puts together is impressive to see and makes people look up to him and want to make him proud and want to be like him.”
 
WHY WILL JIMMIE JOHNSON WIN THE CHASE? ALSO, CAN YOU GIVE US ONE REASON WHY BRAD KESELOWSKI WILL WIN THE CHASE?
“Oh my goodness, well when somebody has won five straight championships like the No. 48 has that is no fluke. Even though they didn’t win it last year, they are just a really strong team.  They have been through so much and they just know how to grind and battle and win at the right time and put the pressure on you at the right time with two straight poles and two straight wins.  So certainly the pressure is on the No. 2.  I think the No. 2 has done an excellent job, Brad has been a great driver and that team has really stepped up and hung in there and kept it interesting.  But, you’ve got to think they are a little bit beat down from what that No. 48 team has been able to do to them throughout the Chase, especially the last couple of weeks.  But, hey every race changes things up so you really can’t predict, you don’t know what is going to happen.  I love that the other day I was watching all the elections and things.  I was tweeting about this and I just got such a kick out of it and the fans response to the things I was saying made me really think about things.  I was saying ‘hey wait a minute CNN just came on with breaking news about 30 percent of the votes are in, but yet (Mitt) Romney wins this state or (Barack) Obama wins this state.’  It’s a projection poll.  I don’t get this how can they say they won it and then everybody kept saying to me now you know what it’s like when you are watching a race and they are saying ‘oh’ this guys is leading the points right now and we are only 50 laps into the race.  So, these races have got to be run, they have got to be run out to the checkered flag and then we will be talking about it all again after this weekend and see what happens when the checkered flag flies in Homestead.  It’s great to see those two guys battling for the championship and for a race win like they were last weekend.”
 
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A CHAMPION?
“It’s been so long I’ve forgotten (laughs).  It’s a lot different than what it takes today versus what it used to take because of the Chase format.  I’m probably not the best guy to talk to, but usually the same thing holds true.  You have to work hard, you have to be a great team and you’ve got to be willing to risk just about anything to put yourself out there to make the difference up whether it be a win, one position or just to keep yourself in the game.”
 
YOU’VE BEEN IN A SITUATION WHERE YOU STRUNG TOGETHER A BUNCH OF WINS AND NOTHING IS GOING WRONG ON THE TEAM YOU ARE IN THE ZONE.  WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE IN THAT ZONE?
“It’s awesome.  You feel like you just can’t do any wrong.  It makes you just have so much confidence in yourself, in your team, them and you.  You just go to the race track thinking ‘okay what little things do we have to do to win this race.’ You’re not thinking about wow we are a half a second off we are missing something.  You do not doubt anything.  You are just on this incredible boost of confidence and going into it thinking ‘yeah we can win this race’.  Why can’t we?  That is a great thing to have.”
 
DO YOU FIND THAT TO BE MORE STRESSFUL OR MORE RELAXING?  
“No, it’s never less stressful.  It doesn’t matter how good things are going for you.  There is still the competition is still fierce.  Anything can go wrong at any time.  You don’t want to be the one to make the mistake to cost you what ultimately could and should be your year.  To me the stress level is equally as high even when things are going great for you.”
 
WHAT WAS YOUR CON
VERSATION LIKE WITH KASEY (KAHNE) AFTER LAST WEEK’S RACE?
“I went to him immediately.  I got out of my car and his car pulled up right next to me.  I went over to him and I just apologized to him for getting into him.  I think he recognized the situation we were racing hard.  At the time I wasn’t sure if the No. 16 got into me or not so he asked me if he did.  I said ‘I think he did, but I’m not really sure.’ After looking at the video he did.  I did everything I could to make the pass as well as not get into Kasey (Kahne).  When you are racing hard in the closing laps sometimes it happens.  I hate it for him; I hate it for us as well.  We were having a great run and a great day.  It’s just one of those things that sometimes you have to go through as teammates and I felt like we had a good conversation about it.”
 
WHAT HAS KASEY (KAHNE) BROUGHT TO HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS?
“Well I feel like it’s kind of a team package with he and Kenny (Francis, crew chief).  When you take two guys that have confidence in one another and work well together they can come in and just build the team, build the cars around them that they need to go out and be competitive.  That is the whole thing is when cars are out there, when we have four cars out there that are all competitive that are fine tuning on their cars for qualifying, for the race we are giving much better information to our group.  You are able to take more valuable information which turns into results from that group.  So I feel like we have four teams obviously by making all four into the Chase, we have four teams that really have a lot to add and are very competitive week in and week out.”
 
DO YOU THINK WITH THE UNKNOWNS OF THIS TRACK AND THE DIFFICULTIES IT PROVIDES DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK COULD DECIDE THE TITLE?
“I mean I feel like every track we go to can decide the title.  If something big happens, one big swing happens this is a tricky track.  I mean it’s hard to get ahold of because of the new surface.  There are multiple grooves so we are going to see some side-by-side racing, I think we are going to see some cautions and it’s going to be intense.  Track position is very important here.  That increases the intensity and anytime you increase the intensity and the aggressiveness you increase the chances of some game changer for the championship and for the race.”
 
YOU WERE AT THE TEST IN AT CHARLOTTE THIS WEEK?
“I was.”
 
DID YOU TAKE PART IN ANY OF THE STUFF THEY DID WHERE THEY REDUCED HORSEPOWER?
“I did not.”
 
DO YOU HAVE ANY IMPRESSIONS ON HOW THAT WENT?  IS THAT A GOOD DIRECTION DO YOU THINK?
“I think that they have a long check list of things that they want to go through and test and try.  That was one of them.  We were doing tire testing primarily with our car.  I haven’t talked to any of the guys that drove the cars.  I will be surprised if it was good.  I personally don’t think that is the direction that we need to be going in to make our racing better.  It never slows the cars down through the corners.  I would like to see us get the cars slowed down through the corner that is going to make better racing.  I applaud them they are trying a lot of unique things and different things some inside the box, some way outside the box.  I think that the testing that they are doing is very valuable.”
 
HAVE YOU TRIED LIKE THE HIGH DOWNFORCE STUFF THAT THEY ARE STARTING TO GO TO?
“Well when they pulled power away I know one of the times they added downforce at the same time probably a little bit more like a Nationwide package.  But our stuff I would say that the stuff that we had was probably similar to the downforce we currently have with the cars.”
 
ARE YOU ENCOURAGED OVERALL?
“I thought the car drove really good.  I thought the test went well.  The cars are really… you look around the garage area I’m excited about we are going to be driving some very cool cars next year.  I think that my car drove really well.  I think there are still a lot of things left to do before February of next year, but I was very encouraged.”
 
EARLIER THIS MORNING ROBIN PEMBERTON WAS SAYING THAT ONE OF THE ISSUES IS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE FANS WANT AND IT’S KIND OF A MOVING TARGET.  WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY NEEDS TO DO WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FANS WANT TO SEE IS IT JUST PASSING ON 1.5-MILE TRACKS?
“Yeah, I think that we need to have four quarters and half-time and mandatory cautions for TV timeouts.  I mean Texas to me; everybody is like ‘wow that Texas race was awesome.’  Well it was awesome because we had cautions and some weeks we have cautions and other weeks we don’t have cautions.  The weeks we don’t have cautions everybody is like ‘wow that was a boring race’.  We don’t necessarily need to go back to the mid ‘90’s to make great racing because even back then we had races I remember a race where there was not one caution in the race.  I guarantee you that type of racing we had back then the fans really wouldn’t like today.  It’s just far more demanding of what makes an entertaining race, but we all know cautions fix all of that.  To me let’s get the cars driving well.  There is a different package for every track because you have some repaves and you have some hard tires that Goodyear has to build for the repaves like this one.  It’s going to take time to build that multi groove race track.  So cautions are what is going to make it exciting, but yet you go to Texas, Atlanta and Chicago and you have this track that is worn out, you have multiple grooves, the cars are sliding all over the place is what I think is great racing.  Even Bristol, I like the racing at Bristol, but unless we have cautions to stack us all up and bump and bang a little bit more I don’t think that anybody is really going to be satisfied with the racing.”
 
YOU ARE NOT IN FAVOR OF BRUTON SMITH’S LET’S HAVE SIX MANDATORY CAUTIONS EVERY RACE?
“I’m leaning more towards it I will be honest with you.  If that’s what, just don’t do it when I’m on pit road with a tire issue (laughs).  Let me get un-lapped, trust me one thing is going to lead to another.  Right now we have lucky dogs and wave around’s and all that stuff.  If we start throwing more mandatory cautions we might have to change some of those rules.”
 
THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT THE TRUCKS RACING ON DIRT AT ELDORA.  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NASCAR ON DIRT?
“Wow!  Really?  Well you know I have always found it amazing to see the ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) cars at DuQuoin.  I think that is very cool that series does that.  I don’t think it’s an easy task for them to do.  You have to change the cars around a lot the set-up’s and heating and cooling systems and all that, brakes.  So, but I’m all for it.  I think it would be cool to see.  I would love to see that.”
 
HOW MUCH OF AN ADJUSTMENT WOULD IT BE FOR EVERYBODY?
“Oh my gosh, huge adjustment.  There are a lot of guys out there that aren’t used to driving on dirt.  The trucks aren’t really built to run on dirt, so I don’t know how much they would have to change the trucks.  It would be entertaining that is for sure.  I would like to see it.  I think there will be some guys that will really excel at

KAHNE IS TOP TEAM CHEVY QUALIFIER
FIVE CHEVROLETS IN TOP 10 STARTING SPOTS
 
AVONDALE, AZ – (November 9, 2012) – Kasey Kahne led the way for Team Chevy in qualifying his No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet in the fourth place starting spot for Sunday’s Advocare 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, Round 35 of 36 on the 2012 season tour.
 
Five Chevy drivers
will start the 312-mile race in the top 10:  Kurt Busch will start sixth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, Paul Menard, No. 27 Rheem/Menard’s Chevy will roll-off seventh, Regan Smith, No. 51 Phoenix Construction Chevy will start eighth, while Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet starts ninth.
 
Other Chevrolets in Sunday’s 43-car line-up include Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet who qualified 11th, Ryan Newman, No. 39 Quicken Loans/U.S. Army Chevy will start 12th, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevy qualified 19th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet qualified 23rd, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevy qualified 24th, and Danica Patrick earned a 37th place starting position in her No. 10 GoDaddy Racing Chevrolet.
 
Kyle Busch (Toyota) won the pole position, Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) qualified second, and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) qualified third to round out the top five starting spots.
 
Sunday’s Advocare 500 takes the green flag on Sunday, Nov. 11th at 1:00 p.m. MST (3:00 p.m. EST) and will be aired live on ESPN.
 
DRIVER QUOTES:
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMER’S INSURANCE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 4TH: ON HIS LAP: “The car felt good; I just missed my braking points a little bit and had an issue with my brakes. But other than that, the car felt really good. So, I thought we should have been better; first right now, for sure. I don’t know about beating the No. 18 (Kyle Busch).
 
HOW IS THE CAR FOR SUNDAY? “Well, we’ll practice tomorrow, but the car seemed pretty good during practice today. I liked what I had in the car. But yeah, I like this track and tomorrow we’ll figure it out.”
 
WILL THE COOLER TEMPERATURES HAVE ANY BEARING ON ANYTHING FOR RACE DAY? “I don’t think so. I think it will be pretty similar.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It was an interesting couple of laps. I missed it really big on the first lap. Loose; on that edgy side of things. The second lap didn’t feel much better, so that means to me there is still a lot of speed in the track. But overall the five laps we’ve done this year in qualifying with the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevy, they’ve all been on that ragged edge of loose, so we are developing some common denominators, and that is what this year has been all about.”
 
HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE TEAM IS PROGRESSING AS A UNIT? “There is A-Z here, we’ve just got to put one letter behind the next one and make sure we get out vowels in there. We have had the right tools, it’s just in this game of Sprint Cup, you have to be on it every moment.”
 
IS THE TRACK RACIER THAN A YEAR AGO? “It is a little bit more forgiving. It’s not as razor blade edge-ish. It was real tough. If you slipped a little bit, you slipped a lot. Now you can kind of maneuver it a little.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RHEEM/MENARD’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 7th: ON HIS QUALIFYING
“The track is totally different obviously now, with the repave; but it’s come in a lot. Obviously it’s been a hot summer here and the track’s got different characteristics than when we were here in the spring. I feel good about our Rheem/Menard’s Chevy. We unloaded very slippery and the track kind of came to us a little bit. If we can start in the top 10, that will go a long ways on Sunday. But not a whole lot translates from last spring’s race until now. Like I said, it’s been a hot summer and the track has changed quite a bit.”
 
REGAN SMITH, NO. 51 PHOENIX CONSTRUCTION CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH:ON HIS LAP: “I thought it was a good lap. Obviously there’s always things you want to do different after the fact, but I feel like we made good changes from practice with the Phoenix Construction Chevrolet. These guys have been working their tails off, not only this week, but all year. We’ll go race from there. It was a good run for the No. 51 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet.  These guys have been working hard.  I think they finally got their first day in like six months off this week.  I wanted to come out and try to have a good qualifying lap and a good race on Sunday.  This team is looking for some sponsorship for next year and we would love to have a good run and help them get that.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 9TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It was alright. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it is holding on. I don’t know if the track is going the other way, or something, but we were a little free. Freer than we were in practice, but we picked up two tenths, so I’m proud of the pickup. But, I thought our second lap would actually be better, but it kind of gave up some grip that lap.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “We’ve had some issues here the last couple of times getting real loose going to qualify, and we didn’t want that to happen, so we probably over-tightened it.  The track had good grip, and we were just a little bit too tight. But a decent lap. When we first ran here last year, the track was treacherous on cold tires. Right now, some guys struggled early in qualifying, but when I went out, it had good grip. It’s definitely improving. The groove is wider, the grip level is better. Hopefully this time next year, we’ll have a tire that is maybe not so hard, and we’ll be able to have something that drives a little bit better on cold tires. Even maybe wears out a little bit more on the long runs.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS/U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “That was the first time I’ve ever done that actually. (stop and turn around to re-run his lap). I felt like I needed to. It was a decent rebound lap. Our car was really loose there, as much heat as I could get in the tires, I was going to be better at that point. Did a little extracurricular activity and got a decent lap for the Quicken Loans Chevrolet, but obviously not as quick as we were in practice. The track got a little bit quicker, but I think a part of the tire likes the heat to get the rubber on the race track. So, it was a matter of getting the race track cleaned off more than anything.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 24TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “Wasn’t so good, but we’ve been fighting a little bit in qualifying trim. But, we’ve got a great baseline race setup to go off of. For me it was really turn one (the sun glare).  The glare was pretty bad getting into the turn then getting the power down was tough for me up off of (turn) two.  (Turns) three and four were pretty good I felt like on both of my laps, but I struggled oddly enough down there this time.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 33RD: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “Going out early here is a huge disadvantage with a new race track. Having a driver wreck in the first practice is a huge disadvantage too. We didn’t get any practice.  The car was exceptionally tight, but again, I think going out this early is a huge disadvantage. You aren’t going to have the grip the guys are going to have later on. I screwed up in practice and dug us in a hole, and we will have to dig out of it on Sunday.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 1O GODADDY RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 37TH: ON HER QUALIFYING: “It was pretty edgy especially coming to the green it stuck way out and I couldn’t turn the wheel so I ended up pretty wide and I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough grip to stay out of the wall or not coming to the green.  We definitely had a really tight car in practice and our qualifying runs were actually tighter than our race runs.  I know Tony (Gibson, crew chief) was trying to free it up so we could have a good lap.  We are just feeling each other out and how far we need to go with these changes.  I think the temperature change I feel
like has affected me.  It’s much cooler out a lot of the track is more shaded.  Maybe it was a little bit freer than at least I even anticipated it was going to be.  I think that we are working really well together and hopefully we can make good changes tomorrow so we get the GoDaddy car further up.”  

Chevrolet Wins Manufacturers’ Championships in Three NASCAR National Touring Series
 
DETROIT (November 6, 2012) – For the fourth time in history, Chevrolet has captured the Manufacturers’ Championship Award in all three NASCAR National Touring Series.  Chevrolet has accomplished the feat of winning the three titles in 1996, 1998, 2005 and now in 2012.
 
“Chevrolet is proud to win all three NASCAR national series Manufacturers’ Championships,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “These three titles are a tribute to the passion and commitment of all of our team owners, crew chiefs, crews, drivers and technical partners.”
 
Jimmie Johnson’s victory in the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway clinched the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturers’ Championship for Chevrolet. It is the 10th consecutive year, and the 36th time overall that the Bowtie Brand has captured the prestigious title in NASCAR’s top series.  To date, Team Chevy drivers have won 13 races in the 34 races completed on the 36-race schedule, including Johnson’s win in the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway to claim Chevrolet’s 700th victory in Sprint Cup Series competition.
 
With Austin Dillon’s second place finish in the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, Chevrolet clinched the Manufacturers’ Championship in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The 2012 achievement marks the 15th time the Bowtie Brand has captured the prestigious Bill France Performance Cup. With two races remaining in 33-race season, Chevrolet drivers have gone to Victory Lane 12 times.
 
Chevrolet clinched the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Manufacturers’ Championship with Nelson Piquet, Jr.’s third place finish in the WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway. Chevrolet captured the prestigious title for the eighth time since the 1995 inception of the Series. Chevrolet Silverado drivers have won 11 of the 20 races run to-date in the 22-race schedule,.
 
“Congratulations and thank you to all of our teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series who worked tirelessly to capture these prestigious championships for Chevrolet,” said Mark Kent, Director Chevrolet Racing. “These championships were made possible by an extraordinary level of cooperation among all of our teams, technical partners and Chevrolet engineers.  We are now focused on a strong finish to the 2012 NASCAR season in NASCAR.”
 
In addition to the three NASCAR titles, Chevrolet’s on-track success in 2012 extended to winning the American Le Mans Series GT Manufacturers’ Championship; Corvette Racing winning the Team Championship, and Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner won the GT drivers’ championship in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R.
 
In the IZOD IndyCar Series, Chevrolet captured the Manufacturers’ Championship.  Team Chevy driver Ryan Hunter-Reay won the Overall Championship and the Oval Championship, and Will Power won the Road Course Championship in his Chevrolet V6 powered IndyCar.
 
Chevrolet also captured the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype Engine Manufacturers’ Championship.
 
With two races remaining on the NASCAR schedules, Chevrolet drivers are in strong contention for each of the three driver’s championships as the 2012 season builds to an exciting, and dramatic finish.

 
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA TEXAS 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: YOU GUYS WENT BARE KNUCKLES THOSE FINAL TWO RESTARTS.  YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO LET YOUR DRIVING DO THE TALKING WHAT KIND OF STATEMENT WERE YOU MAKING WITH THAT FINAL RESTART?
“It was an awesome race. Great way to put it and the gloves are off and it’s bare knuckle fighting.  I have a lot of respect for that No. 2 team.  Those guys are doing a great job.  Today I think our cars were pretty equal throughout the course of the race and at the end of the race we were on four (tires) had to take advantage of it.  That second to last restart was pretty sketchy a couple of times how close we were and how hard we were racing.  Luckily we brought the cars back, another caution came out and got a great restart and got by him.  We knew that we had the speed if I could just get by him and got this Lowe’s Chevy to Victory Lane.”
 
BRAD SAID ON THE RADIO ON THE FINAL RESTART ‘I’M NOT GOING TO LOSE THIS CHAMPIONSHIP THIS WAY.’ WHAT DOES THAT MEAN COMING UP AT PHOENIX AND HOMESTEAD? “Well I expect a lot of hard racing.  That is what we’ve seen all year long.  All Chase long, you can’t count those guys out.  There were times today late in the race where they were pretty far back and still worked their way up to the front.  They are keeping us honest and pressuring us hard.  I’m very proud of this Lowe’s team and everything they have done. Before we go off the air I just want to let everybody know that the Racing for Relief fund that Hendrick Motorsports and myself are matching what Lowe’s is doing.  Thinking of everybody up in the Northeast and all the troubles they have had with Sandy.  And 700 wins for Chevrolet so good day all in all.”
 
THIS IS THE WAY YOU WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP YOU LEAD THE MOST LAPS AND WIN THE RACE:
“Did we do that did we lead the most laps?”
 
YOU DID YOU GOT MAXIMUM POINTS FOR THE SECOND STRAIGHT WEEK CONGRAULATIONS:
“Awesome, it’s a great number too it’s 48.  48 points today, just real proud of the effort.  We didn’t have it right off the truck.  Got it right and won the pole.  Today we had a really strong car all night long.  There at the end being on four tires was a little bit of help. Some crazy racing at the end and we were able to rally around the top finally and get the win.”
 
TALK ABOUT THE LAST COUPLE OF RESTARTS: “Yeah there was a lot of hard racing and just a lot of stuff going on.  Glad that we made it through with straight race cars and nothing was torn up.  It’s just a solid day all in all.  I just have to thank my guys on pit road all day long for getting that stuff done, just a great effort all in all.”
 
YOU HAVE A SEVEN POINT LEAD TWO RACES TO GO I’M ASSUMING STILL NOT ENOUGH TO BREATHE EASY? “No, there is not going to be any breathing easy until the end.  Breathing a little bit better.  I was two points and now we’ve got seven, but there is a lot of racing left.  We are running up front, running one-two all the time it doesn’t mean it will be that way for the final two races.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: TALK ABOUT SOME OF THAT ACTION ON THE RACE TRACK QUITE EXCITING: “Yeah, I think (Brad) Keselowski has a death wish (laughs), but man I’m proud of our guys.  What an awesome, awesome come back.  The set-up that we ended up running in the race we had six laps on at the end of happy hour yesterday. God I’m just so proud of everybody on the pit crew on the pit stops.  The last two stops got us a lot of track position and really proud of Steve Addington (crew chief) he just kept digging away at it and kept tweaking on it making it better and better all day.  Just really happy with the effort today.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: ON WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE RACE? SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH YOU COULD HAVE HAD A TOP-FIVE THERE WHAT HAPPENED DOWN THE STRETCH?
“Well we just restarted on the outside and it’s a little tough out there to make any ground. We had been on the inside all day making up time.  We had a pretty good car at the start of the race.  We dialed it way out and got real slow and made some great changes near the end.  The pit crew really did a good job, they gained us about eight spots on pit road there those last two stops.  Just real happy with the way we were able to rebound.  I would have liked to have run in the top-five maybe been a little closer to the front, but we definitely run a little bit better like we should.”
 
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WATCHING THE NO. 2 AND THE NO. 48?
“That was pretty crazy.  I was thinking I might have a shot to win if they kept on going like that.  Somebody else might win the race, but I was glad to see Jimmie (Johnson) take it at the end.  What a battle this championship is.  Brad (Keselowski) is putting up an awesome fight.  He hadn’t really run good here.  His stats were terrible for this place and they came in and they did their work.  They have been real impressive.  But I’m a company man so I’m glad HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) is on top tonight.”
 
ON CHEVROLET’S 700TH WIN: “I’m proud of my Chevy heritage, and happy for the success that Chevy has had in the sport. I’m glad that Hendrick Motorsports was able to bring the 700th win. That is a big deal for Rick (Hendrick). He’s got a great relationship with Chevrolet, and he is proud to do that for them. We want Chevrolet to be on top. Milestones like that certainly put it there.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: ON HIS RACE: “All-in-all a good day for Furniture Row Racing. We battled back to get a top-10. Considering that we had a top-five or top-10 car at the last two races but got nailed in accidents, it was important to come away with a solid finish today.  We’ve made a lot of progress as a team in a short period of time which gives us plenty of optimism for 2013. However, we still have some handling issues to work out, but we’re getting there. This was only our fourth race together and I am really proud of how we came back after struggling for a good
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 RHEEM/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: ON HIS RACE “The team did a great job keeping us in the game today. We had a tough time making the right adjustments to get the Rheem Chevrolet handling the way I needed it to be, but the pit crew was solid today and I have to thank them for all their hard work this weekend.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 18TH: ON HIS RACE: “We really worked hard for that 18th place finish today.  The guys on our McDonald’s Chevy made a lot of adjustment during our pit stops today.  We were lucky to get a few cautions to help us out with maintaining position on the lead lap, and keep us in a position for a top-20.  Our car was back and forth on the handling all day both tight and loose at times, but the guys did a great job of adjusting along the way.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET, FINISHED 24TH: ON HER RACE: “We had a really nice first weekend.  It was really steady from the beginning.  The car unloaded and it had speed right off the get go.  We just kept on improving with it.  I felt like it was a nice progression of the weekend where I actually felt like I knew I why I went faster and I knew why I went slower.  In the race we were creeping along.  We spent most of the race tight, but there late in the race we finally got it freed up enough to start really running some good speed. Those yellows at the end I just didn’t do a good enough job on those restarts and lost a whole
bunch of spots.  I always feel so defeated at the end of the race when that happens.  It was a really nice first weekend with the new GoDaddy crew.  Tony Gibson (crew chief) did such a good job.  I’m really looking forward to next year.”

TONY GIBSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET: ON HIS FIRST RACE AS DANICA’S CREW CHIEF: “It was a great day and a great weekend for the first weekend working together. Qualifying went really well and practice went really well. She had an awesome race and she did a great job. We did the wave around twice and got back on the lead lap early and she stayed on the lead lap. She ran with guys that she’s never run with before, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin. To come here and run on the lead lap and a shot at a top-20 was pretty impressive.” 

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 HUGGIES CHEVROLET, SIDELINED ON LAP 119 DUE TO AN ON-TRACK INCIDENT. CREW MADE REPAIRS AND HE RETURNED TO THE RACE, FINISHED 34TH: WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR WINDSHIELD? “It’s kind of a tough break.  We had a decent car and I don’t know. They all checked up on the restart and I saw that I was either going to pile into them or… you see the leader going you go and we normally go and they all checked up and you got on the brakes.  These things don’t slowdown that well so I went left to go through the grass to avoid the wreck.  I don’t know there is like a manhole cover there or something.  The car took off like two or three feet in the air; same thing as the No. 51.  The crazy thing is we are not even up to speed yet.  I mean I went from second, shifted into third, got on the brakes, went left and the car just flew up in the air.  I hit something; you look at the No. 51 and the same thing.  There is something there like a big step there in the middle of the grass and it kind of breaks race cars in half.
ON HIS RACE: Not a good day for the HUGGIES team. I was trying to avoid the No. 47 in front of me so I turned left and ended up in the grass. We must of hit something in the grass the car jumped up and the front end received a ton of damage. The guys worked really hard to get us back together and we were able to return to the track. We just haven’t had any luck this season.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON SCORES 700th Win for Chevrolet in
NASCAR Sprint Cup Competition
 
FORT WORTH – November 4th, 2012 – Jimmie Johnson’s win of the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet scored the 700th all-time victory for Chevrolet in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. This unprecedented win secured an important milestone for Chevrolet as the most successful manufacturer in NASCAR history. In addition to reaching this 700th win for the brand, Johnson brought the Chevy Impala to Victory Lane for the 151st time in the nameplate’s history.
 
“We are so very proud of Jimmie and his win today at Texas Motor Speedway, said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “On behalf of everyone at Chevrolet, we congratulate the entire No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team in this momentous victory. The unparalleled dedication and tireless effort of all our Team Chevy members have made this important achievement possible.  We salute all the drivers, team owners, and crews for their performance and contribution in securing each and every one of the 700 wins for Chevrolet from 1955 – 2012 in NASCAR’s elite division.”
 
Chevrolet’s rich heritage in NASCAR competition began when Fonty Flock took the checkered on March 26, 1955 at Columbia Raceway in Columbia, South Carolina in his ‘55 Chevy.  Fifty-seven years later the ‘Bowtie Brand’ has continued to set the mark.
 
“Chevrolet has a storied history in NASCAR competition,” said Mark Kent, Director of Chevrolet Racing. “Behind every single one of the 700 victories has been dedicated and talented Team Chevy drivers, car owners and crews who have worked together to create a tradition of excellence. They are supported by our formidable group of Chevy engineers and specialists that enhance the depth and legacy of the Chevrolet brand in NASCAR. We are truly proud of this accomplishment.”
 
This win was Johnson’s 60th NASCAR Sprint Cup career victory and fifth of 2012.
 
“This is a great performance by the entire No. 48 Lowe’s Team all weekend long”, said Johnson.  To win the pole, lead the most laps, and then win the race is a big deal. The significance of 700 wins for Chevrolet is really huge for Hendrick Motorsports. It’s also big for me. The only thing I’ve ever raced throughout my career has been a Chevy. They gave me my first opportunity back when I was 15 years old and put me in an off-road stadium truck to help develop a new truck that was coming along. And I’ve been with them ever since. So, it’s very cool to hit this landmark number for Chevy and I’m very proud of the efforts.”
 
“I think this is a pretty big deal”, added winning crew chief, Chad Knaus.  “We have a long relationship with Chevrolet and we’ve won a lot of races with them. We were able to clinch the Manufacturer’s Cup Championship for Chevy last week in Martinsville, VA; and to be able to come back this weekend and get win the 700th victory I think is really cool. Hendrick Motorsports is extremely dedicated to the product of Chevrolet and to be able to do that is an honor.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS SECOND STRAIGHT RACE AND EXTENDS POINT LEAD WITH TWO RACES TO GO
 JOHNSON’S TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY WIN IS 700TH FOR CHEVROLET
FORT WORTH  – (Nov. 4, 2012) – Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, displayed a remarkable will to win on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) as he scored his second NASCAR Sprint Cup series (NSCS) win in a row, and his fifth win of 2012.  Johnson led seven times for a race-high 168 laps; and was able to pass and hold off his closest championship rival, Brad Keselowski, for the win in a furious battle in the final laps after a green/white/checkered finish.
The win marked Johnson’s 60th career win; and 700th for Chevrolet in the NSCS, and allowed him to extend his point lead to seven points with just two races remaining in his hunt for a sixth career title.  Johnson also extends his “Chase” win record to 22 with his second career win at TMS.
Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, rallied from a 21st place start to finish in fifth place.  Stewart won this race last year en route to his third NSCS championship.
Team Chevy driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., had a solid day in his No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet and finished today’s race in seventh position.  Kurt Busch had his best finish to date behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet and come home eighth while Kevin Harvick overcame a freakish start that saw his team make repairs to his No. 29 Rheem/Budweiser Chevrolet after being hit by a sky diver’s weight bag in the pre-race ceremonies to finish ninth.   
Rounding out the top five were: Brad Keselowski (Dodge) in second place, Kyle Busch (Toyota) in third, and Matt Kenseth (Ford) in fourth.
The tour now moves to Phoenix International Raceway on November 11th, 2012 for Round 37 of 38 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

POST RACE WINNER’S PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET
JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, the way things have been going, you have to win the race to get points.  Reminds me of last year’s Chase in some respects.  Just a great performance by the entire 48 team all weekend long.  To win the pole and lead the most laps, win the race is a big deal.  Just excited and really wish we were in Phoenix right now getting ready to start the next race.
            Things are rolling.  We’re
enjoying it.  The significance of 700 wins for Chevrolet is huge for Hendrick Motorsports.  It’s also big for myself.  The only thing I’ve ever raced throughout my career has been a Chevy.  They gave me my first opportunity back when I was 15 years old and put me in an off‑road stadium truck to help develop the new truck that’s coming along, and I’ve been there ever since.  Very cool to hit those landmark numbers for Chevy and just very proud of the effort tonight.
            THE MODERATOR:  Also joined by winning crew chief Chad Knaus.  If you could talk about that 700 victory for Chevy and what it means to you and the organization?
            CHAD KNAUS:  I think it’s a pretty big deal.  Obviously, we have a long affiliation with Chevrolet, and we’ve won a lot of races with those guys.  Being able to clinch the manufacturer’s championship last week in Martinsville, and then to be able to come back this weekend and get their 700th victory I think is cool.  Hendrick Motorsports is extremely dedicated to the product of Chevrolet and to be able to do that is an honor.
            Q.  Those last few restarts were very physical.  Brad and you both leaned on each other a lot.  How would you describe what was going on there over the last two or three restarts?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, definitely was.  You’re going to have that to a certain degree.  On these big tracks I was a little shocked by the commitment into turn one.  I’ve joked before about driving in far enough to where I see Elvis, and we went past Elvis.  I don’t know who was coming next, but that 2 car was coming up the track and took us both to the fourth and fifth lanes.
            So, fortunately, we both stayed one‑two and didn’t crash, didn’t lose a spot on the racetrack.  But I knew he was serious about the race lead prior to that and that took it to a new level.  That last restart I was able to rally around on the outside and finish so fast.  I came so close to finishing the pass the restart prior, but I didn’t get it done.  I made sure I got everything right on that last one and got by them.
            Q.  You’re a guy that’s known for being calm, cool, collected, that kind of thing.  What was your emotional state after that next to last restart?  You pulled up beside him at the end of the backstretch there.  Just where were you at that point?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I just pointed at them.  Just wanted him to use his head.  There is no sense in taking us both out in the process.  If I was ‑‑ if he was taking me out, you can count on the fact that I would have been on the gas and trying to take him with me.  You know, it just doesn’t need to come down to that.  Brad, also, after the race, came into victory lane and shook my hand.
            The cool thing about it is we walked right up to that line, got right to the edge, and then it stopped.  He showed a very classy move coming to victory lane and shaking my hand afterwards too.
            Q.  Jimmie, Brad feels like he still controls his destiny.  He says, even though he’s 7 points back.  But you’ve been adamant that the points leader is in control.  How in control do you feel right now with two races to go and going into Phoenix a track where you’ve done so well?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It’s a small amount of control, but we’re definitely in control.  We don’t have to catch any or make up any points.  7 points is nothing to feel comfortable about and to relax on.  We’re still going to go into Phoenix and act as if we’re behind and go in there to try to sit on the pole and win the race again.
            Q.  What were you angry about on the next to last restart with Brad?  Did you think he went too early or is that just the way restarts are these days?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, seemed really early to me.  Caught the 18 off guard and myself.  I need to look at the video before I put my foot in my mouth or something here.  But it seemed early.  We have this gray area exiting on to the racetrack off turn two when you leave the pits.  Last week, two weeks ago we had a hard reference point.  This week we don’t.  It’s just in the area of.  We all know at Chicago the situation that was there.
            On the front stretch for the restart, there were two lines there for a reason.  I felt like he went really early and caught us both off guard.
            Q.  Right after the race, you said the gloves are off.  It’s a bare‑knuckle fight.  I know those are figures of speech, but is this the hardest you’ve been pressed coming down the stretch in a title run in your career.  The most competition you faced maybe the better way to put it?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I’m trying to remember with Jeff in ’06, no it was ’07, ’08, I think we finished with a 4.8 average to win the Chase.  Had to win four races to win the Chase, and Jeff was at a 5.0 and finished second to us.  So it’s in line with that year.  I can’t remember vividly what went on that year, but it reminds me a lot of that year.
            Q.  On the last restart, did you think Brad spun his tires?  It looked like you beat him to the line right there on the last restart.  Did he spin his tires or what happened there?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, he spun them pretty bad.  I was pedaling trying to let him catch up as we got to the start/finish, and he kind of surged past right at it or just past it.  NASCAR has been aware of that in the past and allows you, if you give that nose back, you’re in good shape.
            Q.  Are you a little surprised that the two‑tire strategy of Paul Wolfe seemed to work twice?
            CHAD KNAUS:  Nothing surprises me anymore, to be quite honest with you.  I felt as though it was a gutsy call for sure.  It worked midway through the race because everybody was kind of just fighting their way and getting to the end.  I don’t feel like if the caution hadn’t come out, it wouldn’t have really panned out for them as well as what they had hoped.  I felt like we were catching them pretty quickly before that second to last caution came out.  We just scooted by him pretty quickly.
            But I do think they would have ended up solidly second or third even with that call.  So that was a solid call on their part.  But we’ve been racing pretty conservatively the last couple of weeks.  Been able to get the laps led and fortunately enough been able to get the victory.  So we’ll they’ll have to continue to be aggressive to swing by us, I think.
            Q.  At the end of the race you had the
tire advantage.  Is there any way Keselowski could have stuck with you being any less stubborn and ornery than he was?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, I think as Chad pointed out, I kind of forgot about it.  The restart where we put tires on, they took their two and we took our four, and I was coming fast.  Got by the 18, and made up a couple of seconds on them and we were there.  So I feel like our car, and certainly the advantage of being on four was the thing.  We improved our car because previously I couldn’t get by the 18, and I rolled right on by them and was heading after that 2 car.
            So I think we were in the offensive situation there at the end.  They had to protect because of the two tires those last three restarts.
            Q.  Is the process of getting through each week and preparing the cars now as it has been throughout the other title runs or are things in some way different or improved upon so to speak?
            CHAD KNAUS:  I think that’s the goal ‑‑ I shouldn’t say that’s the goal.  I think it’s the good thing for the 48.  Everybody thinks once you get to the Chase, you’ve got to ramp everything up.  Being part of the 48 car, you’re expected to win every single week, so we really can’t prepare any differently.  I think going to the racetrack each week, whether it be Martinsville or Richmond or Atlanta, wherever it may be, we put as much effort into the race cars as we can week‑in and week‑out.  Once we get into the Chase, we really can’t do anymore.
            We’re really operating in our comfort zone.  Where I think what happens to a lot of the other teams, it takes them out of the comfort zone.  They try to do more.  They try to push that further.  They do things that are outside the norm.  I think that’s where usually people get in trouble.
            Q.  Are you impressed with how Paul Wolfe and Brad for their first run at the championship have stayed this competitive at every level physically and emotionally and in the actual preparation of the cars?
            CHAD KNAUS:  Oh, yeah they’ve done a good job.  You have to realize that’s Penske Racing.  It’s not like it’s a slouch team.  Those guys have been building good cars for a long time.  You look at Kurt Busch has gone very fast in that race car.  There have been a lot of great drivers in that race car, and they’ve always run competitively.
            I think that team is more than prepared to do it.  I think Paul’s a great crew chief, and Brad is a really good driver.  So I think they’ll be there through the end.  They’ll be here for years to come and that’s good.  That’s a good thing.  We need that.
            Q.  It’s not the first time that Brad has kind of irked you a little bit during the Chase.  Chicagoland and going back to Michigan, it seems like the 2 kind of likes to play games with you guys.  Do you expect that gamesmanship to continue over the next couple races and how do you deal with it?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m not familiar with Michigan.  Chicago was just a thing of pulling up on the track early.  I said then and there that it didn’t change the outcome of the race.  So it’s not those ‑‑ those are more ‑‑ I don’t know what the word is ‑‑ just the flow of the race and different things that go on.  But the way we race this afternoon or this evening was that’s a different thing.  That’s the first time that we’ve really engaged at that level and raced each other that hard.
            To his credit, he did a nice job of getting right to the edge, and we brought home race cars.  We weren’t wadded up to look like a bunch of fools over there and handing the 5 and 15 a big gift.  So that’s a good thing.
            Q.  Do you expect that you have the car to do it?  (Indiscernible)?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I don’t expect it to be easy to pass any chaser.  It’s been that way all Chase long.  Drop the flag at Chicago and then even in Loudon, the guys that aren’t in the championship battle seem to be a little bit more respectable.  They’ll race to a certain point.  But when you’re around a guy that you’re trying to beat in the points, it’s gloves off in a whole different deal.
            Q.  You were in here the other day talking about not being superstitious even after you had been sitting in the car after qualifying.  I heard a story about a lucky charm that was from shooting the gun.  Could you expand on that a little bit, and are you going to take that to Phoenix with you?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, when I shot the gun in qualifying, after qualifying and put the shells in my little glove box thing that I have.  I’m not superstitious, but I’m just covering that base in case it does weigh into things (laughing).  I’m not, but I cover every base.
            I’ve set my alarm to 6:48.  I get up every morning at 6:48, if not earlier.  Microwave I put at 48 seconds instead of a minute, but, no, I’m not superstitious at all.
            Q.  (Indiscernible)?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I don’t know.  Again, Phoenix is Phoenix, I don’t think they’ll stay in the car.  We’re probably not taking the same car, so they won’t go to Phoenix.  Now you have me thinking about it, I might have to cover that base and take them to Phoenix.
            Q.  But you’re not superstitious?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, what would make you think that?  I have no clue.

Chevrolet Clinches 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Manufacturers’ Championship
 
 
DETROIT (November 2, 2012) – Chevrolet has clinched the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Manufacturers’ Championship.  With Nelson Piquet, Jr.’s third place finish in the WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway, Chevrolet captured the prestigious title for the eighth time since the 1995 inception of the Series.
 
“It is exciting to clinch the Manufacturers’ Championship in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series here at Texas Motor Speedway,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Each Chevrolet Silverado team contributed valuable points all season long to help us secure the championship. We appreciate the hard work of each Chevy team and driver who helped deliver this prestigious title for Chevrolet.”
 
With 20 of 22 races in the 2012 record books, Chevy Silverado drivers have gone to Victory Lane 11 times with James Buescher scoring a series-high four wins to this point in the season.
 
“The Chevrolet teams in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series have worked diligently this season with the Chevrolet engineers as well as our technical partners,” said Pat Suhy, Chevrolet Racing NASCAR Group Manager. “It is their dedication, passion and focus that resulted in winning the Manufacturers’ Championship for Chevy.  Thank you to everyone whose efforts played such a significant role in our on-track success.”
 
Nelson Piquet, Jr. (two wins), Ty Dillon (one win), Joey Coulter (one win), James Lofton (one win), Kevin Harvick (one win), Kasey Kahne (one win) and Ron Hornaday, in addition to Buescher, contributed valuable Manufacturers’ points to Chevrolet’s title-winning effort.
“I am very proud of the efforts put forth each and every race weekend by our teams,” said Dayne Pierantoni, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. “Though always focused on winning each race, they are also united in their dedication to delivering the best performance possible for Chevrolet. Congratulations to all of the Silverado teams as well as our technical partners on winning the 2012 Manufacturers’ Championship in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  We are looking forward to a strong finish to the season.”
With just two races remaining in the season, Team Chevy has three drivers in the top-five in point standings.  Buescher leads Dillon by 15 points in the battle for the championship following the Texas race.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA TEXAS 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
NOVEMBER 2, 2012
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER:
WERE YOU MEDITATING, USING THE FORCE OR SOMETHING STAYING IN YOUR CAR? “I was just watching everybody go by and catch a glimpse of the Jumbotron over there and see where they pop up on the board. I’ve watched more interviews where a guy climbs out of a race car to a microphone, and just at that point in time, they fall to second. I didn’t want it to happen. I knew I put down a good lap. Very proud of the effort my Lowe’s team put into this race car today. We didn’t unload like we wanted to. We made a lot of progress through the practice session, and then got it right there for qualifying.”
 
THAT WAS AN 8/10TH OF A SECOND PICKUP. WHAT SORT OF A SITUATION DOES THAT PUT YOU IN FOR SUNDAY’S RACE? “We have race practice tomorrow, and we’ll just work on our car and try to get it right from there. Today we focused just on qualifying, so it was a bit frustrating the first run or two in practice when we didn’t have the speed that we wanted to. But, we kept our heads down, focused on the right things, and got the car where it needed to be.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16TH:
ON HIS QUALIFYING:
“I thought it was a decent lap; good pickup from practice. Obviously with what Jimmie (Johnson) ran it shows you just how much speed is out there, and I’m real concerned with the gap from him to me. He either laid down the lap of a lifetime, or we’re going to have a lot of cars in between him and me. Jimmie puts it out there on the edge. It is good to know he’s not superstitious at all. (LAUGHS) Sitting in his car last week until qualifying was over. He’s got a lot longer wait this week, so it might get a little warm in there, but he’s not superstitious. (LAUGHS). They are just good. You don’t win five championships, and be in the running for a sixth this year without being a great driver, and a great team. They have all the same resources that we do. The same opportunity. It us always motivates us to work harder and get better.”
 
ON SUNDAY’S RACE:
“Last time we were here, we qualified like 34th, and we drove all the way up to the top-five. This track was really good for us the last time we were here. I’m excited about our chances this weekend.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 19TH:
ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It was not too bad. I think the car had a little more speed than that. I just didn’t drive the line right, or something. We’ll start mid-pack and have to work from there.”
 
IS WHERE YOU START REALLY IMPORTANT HERE?
“The track is pretty wide, so I’m not concerned about where we start. We just don’t have much racing left, so I would really like to do some good things before the season’s over with. I would just like to do better than that. I think we should have been able to do better than we ran just now.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 32ND
ON HER QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I feel like we had a really good first practice and as I just joked with the guys, I feel like our first 12 or 14 laps or whatever we’ve done so far has been a really solid start for us for the first ones. And our first qualifying run in practice was really good. Tony (Gibson, crew chief) did a good job of making an assessment of where we needed to start. So we weren’t far off for that qualifying run and it’s nice to know logically, why it’s going to be better or why you can believe in it. We talked a lot about that. We looked at the throttle traces. It gave me that confidence and that knowledge of how to drive just a little bit better in qualifying. We want to make more progress, but I think Tony’s done a good job of being realistic of what we need to be shooting for”
 
DOES LOOKING AT THE DATA HELP?
“It does. I think there is overload at some point in time with analyzing and thinking about it. But it’s about being smart about what you’re looking at and that’s what we’ve done. And I love when he tells me and says in the Media Center that I want to give her a car that she likes to drive. And that’s nice to hear. He listened to me the whole way through practice and it shows.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 24TH
ON HIS RUN
“We’ve had a very long day. We unloaded with something, set-up wise, that was kinda of out there. But we have nothing really to lose, so we’re just trying all kinds of out of the box ideas; and it didn’t work very well today so we kind of put something normal back in. I don’t think It’s a very good lap, but it’s a lot better than what we were.”
 
THIS IS SUCH A REALLY LONG RACE. IS YOUR STARTING POSITION AS IMPORTANT OR IS THERE ENOUGH ABILITY TO MOVE AROUND DURING THE RACE TO GAIN THE TRACK POSITION YOU NEED?
“I think it’s one of the hardest tracks to pass on that we come to. We talked about that in the spring, and it just doesn’t seem like there’s many cautions here and four or five laps after the restart it’s like you just can’t even get to the guy in front of you. The race track falls off really bad, the banking on the exit of the corner, it’s just one of the most aero-sensitive tracks we have even though you can run two-wide around it, it’s really hard to pass. It’s really hard to pass anywhere, but this seems like a bit more of a challenge.”
 
IS THIS RACE GOING TO BE ANOTHER FUEL MILEAGE, TRICKY SITUATION?
“I think this is normally a fuel-mileage race. The one cool thing that will happen here is that the tires fall off but they don’t fall off that much and it’s hard to pass. I think you’ll see guys in the back stay out and maybe that’ll cause some really good racing.”

Jimmie Johnson Wins the Pole at Texas
Five-Time Champion Earns His First Career Pole at 1.5-Mile Track
 
FT. Worth, TX (November 2, 2012) – For the 29th time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, and the first time at Texas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson will lead the 43 car field to the green flag in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500.
 
The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet won his fourth pole of the season with a lap of 28.261 seconds/191.076 m.p.h. around the 1.5-mile track.  The effort gleaned the 37-year-old driver his 23rd top-10 start of the season.   With this lap, Johnson joins Ricky Rudd for 23rd on the all-time series pole list.
 
A total of five Team Chevy drivers posted top-20 qualifying efforts for Sunday’s running of the AAA Texas 500.  Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Hendrickcars.com/Great Clips Chevrolet – 13th; Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet- 16th; Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet- 18th and Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet – 19th.
 
The seventh race in the 2012 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. ET. The 334-lap, 501-mile race will be broadcast live on ESPN TV, PRN Radio and Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
 
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – P0LE WINNER:
 
MOST GUYS WHO MAKE QUALIFYING RUN MOSTLY BACKUP WHAT THEY DID IN PRACTICE, YOU PICKED UP 3/4 OF A SECOND, WAS THAT MOSTLY DUE TO HOW WELL YOU UNLOADED OR IMPROVEMENT IN THE CAR?
“For that big of a chunk, it had to be both. We ran a flat in our first lap on the track. A lot of guys ran, I think like a .20 or .30 was the fastest. So at the end of the practice session and we put stickers (tires) back on, we ran a flat again. And guys went from running their .20s and gave up four, five, sixth tenths, and we maintained. So, we knew we closed the gap. We did make some smart changes to the car that picked up the rest. We ended the session balance wise in the ballpark. Just didn’t have that first lap under cooler conditions to show wh
ere we were.”
 
DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A TOP-10 CAR, OR DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A SHOT AT THE POLE? DOES WINNING THE POLE HERE MEAN ANY MORE THAN WINNING THE POLE LAST WEEK OR WINNING THE POLE AT CHICAGO? “I really felt like top-10 was the goal. When I heard the lap time, I was way impressed. I think the pole here in the spring was a .30 and it was probably cooler, and to be down in the .20s, I was really pleased with that. We exceeded expectations in qualifying. A top-10 was really the goal going into it, especially with our seeding process, we felt like going out as early as we did, the guys later would have a bigger advantage, and pick up some speed on us. We definitely exceeded expectations. As you get closer to the end of the year, they feel like they mean a little bit more. But, it’s just another pole. Not saying that in a negative way, but the benefits that come with it are the same that you would have at any other track. We have 500 long, grueling miles on Sunday, so we won a battle today. But the larger battle is definitely on Sunday here at the track. Hopefully all of these battles that we are winning right now will total up to winning the war at the end of the year.”
 
CAN YOU CONFIRM IF YOU ARE SUPERSTITIOUS?
“No, not at all man. What would make you think that? (LAUGHS).”
 
WHEN YOU TURNED THAT LAP, DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE SITTING IN YOUR CAR FOR 35-40 MINUTES, AND HOW WAS IT? “I was ready to get out, and my engine tuner stuck his head in the car and said ‘Hey man, you are going to be sitting here a long time this week’. And I went ‘Oh yea, that is right. I’m not superstitious, but I’ll sit here’. And, I sat there. It doesn’t mean anything, but may as well. At this point in the season, you have to pull out the stops. It gives us a nice talking point I guess through it all. (LAUGHS).
 
IF YOU WERE CHASING A GUY FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP AND THAT GUY THREW UP A LAP LIKE YOU DID TODAY, WHAT WOULD YOU THINK? “It’s funny, because when you run really well, you build confidence in your own head, and around your team about how things went. And we’ll certainly do that in the No. 48 (team) if we qualified 10th, we would have went ‘Hey, that met expectations of what we thought we’d get. Good job’. 25th would be ‘Hey, it’s just qualifying’. So, long story short, every team will put a spin on it to help themselves, and to help get over it. I mean, I don’t think the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) qualified all that bad. I think he’s in the top-10. Truthfully, if you’re in the top-10 each week, you eliminate so many more issues on the race track. You have a good pit stall pick, decent air, and that’s really the goal we are all shooting for. Getting poles are pretty special, and we got a good one today, and in a timely point in the season. Us racers will find a way to put the spin on it we need for any given situation.”
 
YOU SAID LAST WEEK AFTER MARTINSVILLE TALKING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO DENNY HAMLIN THAT KIND OF STUFF CAN BEFALL EVERY TEAM.  YET THEY NEVER SEEM TO BEFALL YOU OR REALLY HENDRICK (MOTORSPORTS) VERY MUCH EITHER.  I KNOW YOU HAVE NEVER DRIVEN FOR ANOTHER TEAM, BUT DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF WHY YOU GUYS CAN AVOID THE QUALITY CONTROL STUFF THAT SEEMS TO AFFLICT OTHER POWERHOUSES IN NASCAR?
“You know electrical stuff is really sketchy.  That is what I was saying last week too.  I mean it really can happen to anyone.  We look at the issues the No. 14 car had earlier in the year some electrical stuff with the mapping and the EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) with the car.  It happened to him which is Hendrick (Motorsports) stuff, but it didn’t happen to the other teams and I don’t know why the perfect storm happened for his car it was a Hendrick (Motorsports) component and all that stuff that had the issue.  So, mechanical we feel much more in control all the race teams do of the mechanical parts and pieces.  Ron (Malec, car chief) is so meticulous, our shop is, and all the way through that is one thing that starting with Chad (Knaus, crew chief) on through the guys that nut and bolt the car. They are raised in a culture where we can’t have mechanical failures.  Parts break and that is a risk we all run, electrical stuff is always scary to me and I think the highest risk because a lot of those components we don’t assemble ourselves.  We take them out of a box and put them in a car.  You lose a lot of control doing that.  The mechanical pieces we have worked hard over the years to try to build everything that NASCAR will allow us to because then we can perform our own quality control procedures on things.  Make sure and understand why stuff works and doesn’t work.  So I think there is a lot of detail and knock on wood we get through the end of the year clean.”  
 
FOLLOWING UP ON THAT I CAN RECALL BLOWN ENGINES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, BUT IN THE CHASE YOU DON’T SEEM TO HAVE THESE MECHANICAL ISSUES.  CAN YOU RECALL A MECHANICAL ISSUE IN YOUR CHASES WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN THE CHAMPION?
“In 2006 we had a spark plug fail at Loudon.  We were running around on seven cylinders, maybe it wasn’t the plug; it was the boot or the plug, something with it I was on seven cylinders.  Then tangled up with Sterling Marlin and crashed in turns one and two and have that DNF (did not finish) or poor finish.  I don’t remember if we finished or not.  That’s the first one that comes to mind, but again knock on wood we and I’m not superstitious.  We have very focused group of guys that from a mechanical stand point do a great job of making sure stuff isn’t falling off the race cars.  It’s what we pride ourselves on.”