NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 14, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed racing at Bristol, payback, celebrating his Daytona 500 victory and much more.  Full Transcript:
 
COMING TO BRISTOL, FIRST SHORT TRACK ON THE SEASON THIS SEASON, TALK ABOUT YOUR MINDSET COMING HERE. YOU’VE HAD A HOT START. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THIS WEEKEND:
“Just to have some fun, you know. This is a fun race track. I love racing on the short tracks. We don’t get to do a whole lot of it throughout the year so really hoping to just be able to make all the laps and if you are out there making all the laps you’re going to be enjoying yourself because you can’t run around here without having fun. It’s really cold and hopefully the weather is going to steer clear, but it will be awesome. It’s going to be an awesome Nationwide race to watch. I’ve got a couple of cars in there. We feel like we’ve got a shot to compete for the win there and hopefully we’ll have a good weekend with that. Kevin’s (Harvick) won some races here so we’re excited to see him drive for us here at this track. The cup car, we’ll just get in there and see how it is today. Like I said, just have some fun. I love coming here, been coming here since I was real little. I mean, even over Charlotte, this was the one race that I didn’t want to miss all year long – or the two races that I didn’t want to miss, especially the night race that was just so much fun when you’re a kid. Hopefully we’ll have a good time and hopefully the car’s going to be fun to drive. Hopefully, Steve’s (Letarte) got her handling good and we’ll work on it if he doesn’t. We’ll keep plugging away until we get what we want.”
 
BRIAN FRANCE HAS SAID IN THE PAST HOW YOU GO, THE SPORT GOES.  WITH YOU RUNNING WELL, ARE YOU STARTING TO NOTICE THE ATTENTION GROWING AND PICKING UP ON NASCAR:
“It’s hard for me to kind of have my finger on the pulse and know exactly how much the needle is moving. They say we can’t really look at the Daytona because of the rain out. The network broadcasts are about the same if not a little bit, a percentage point one way or the other. I guess my fans have been tuning in all along. We just enjoy what we do. I try not to really worry about – I can’t concern myself with how much I move the needle. I think that goes outside of my comfort zone and what I feel is and what I think you need to concern yourself with if you’re as an individual. I just don’t think it’s something –it’s relevant to me of course but not important to me. I want the sport to be healthy. And I want to do things that help the sport and make an impact on the sport. I try to do those things always taking opinions and advice on what I can do better and what I’m not doing that I could be doing to help the sport. You want to leave a mark of some kind. We all do. Everybody here wants to have some sort of mark left in their field and in the sport because we all care about it. There are so many personalities and other drivers and new guys coming in. It’s an ebb and flow of personalities. So, I try not to get too caught up in it. It ain’t always gonna be that way. You know, something could happen this weekend between two different drivers that reach far beyond what I could do, and that will be great. That’s how the sport survives. It definitely doesn’t live and breathe on everything that I’ve got going on. It would be perfectly fine without me, but I’m glad to be a part of it.”
 
DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE CONCEPT OF DRIVER OR ATHLETE BEING IN THE ZONE. IF SO ARE YOU CURRENTLY IN IT WITH THE START YOU HAVE HAD:
“Well, we’ve really got to take last weekend in perspective. We were going to probably run fourth to eighth in that race if we stayed on the strategy with everyone else. So, we can’t get too carried away by ‘yeah we were in the position to win’ but we did that on a strategy that a lot of people weren’t willing to take. We’re not going to be able to do that every week. We’re not going to be able to turn an eighth or a fifth-place run into a second or third or first-place run every week. We’ve got to keep in perspective what happened last week. We weren’t by any means running with Brad (Keselowski) and those guys up front and battling for the lead at any point in the day. So we definitely can look at that and be excited that we had a chance to win. But also we need to focus more on how we get better so we’re running up front regardless of the strategy we’re running and the fuel strategy we use. It feels – we started off last year I thought with a lot of top fives and stuff to jump into the points lead early in the first five or six weeks of the season. We did some things just like we did at (Las) Vegas. We went to California last year and we were like 22nd on that last restart. We come in and got tires and we passed about 10 to 15 cars on the outside in one and two and somehow nobody got in the way and we got lucky and ended up running second after they wrecked in the corner down there for the win. Just things happen sometimes for you and sometimes against you and we just been getting the luck here lately. Hopefully we can keep it going. This place here isn’t going to hand you any favors or give you an inch.   So you’re going to have to work hard to get – whatever you take out of here, you’re going to have to earn it.”
 
DO YOU LIKE THE OLD BRISTOL BETTER THAN NEW BRISTOL? WHAT DO YOU THINK – THE NEW FORMAT AND THE NEW SURFACE AT BRISTOL? DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE ANY DIFFERENT AT BRISTOL HERE, MORE AGGRESSIVE OR ANYTHING?
“I think so. I’ve talked about this year before with several of you. If you look back at the Bristol race, and the one that comes to mind is, because it’s the perfect scenario, where Matt (Kenseth) was leading and Kasey (Kahne) was running second. I think Kasey would have been much more aggressive in that situation to try to get the win had we been using the current format for the points system. So, yeah, when it comes down to it, if you’ve got a guy running second within reach of the leader and he needs a win he’s going to do a little bit more than he probably would have done last year, probably be a little more aggressive and rightfully so. I think that things definitely changed, things have changed in the drivers’ mentalities over the years. You used to see people using the bumper all the time.
 
“A lot of that does have to do with how we run the race track now versus years ago they ran right along the bottom and that was the only way you could get around people was to move them. But the mentality’s changed over the years. You don’t want to go throw your trash in your neighbor’s yard just for the hell of it, but if you give me a good reason, I might do it. So, that’s kind of, I mean you want to dump somebody at a race track like this; you’re going to need really good reason to do it. The mentality has changed over the years and the new system changes that mindset slightly too where if you move a guy out of the way for lack of a better way to explain it, you can blame the system and move on. Years ago, I don’t know how that’s changed or whatever, they would run over each other and argue about it and throw water bottles. But then the next week they could be professional and go and race at the next race track. That was the way it was. This new system, definitely, you need to win. Winning is important. So, if you need to move somebody to win the guy that gets moved has to see it coming and understand that in the same situation he may have done the same thing. I think that’s a good thing. And hopefully – not that we all want to go out there and see each other running each other into the fence – but hopefully that definitely is what we see at places like Bristol when we’re presented with them opport
unities Fans get more excitement and get more  bang for their buck. I think it’s definitely going to change the way people do strategy. We saw that last week. And at the short tracks, it’s definitely going to change the way guys race each other. At the short tracks where you can get within reach of each other, you’re definitely going to maybe be more aggressive in them situations for sure.”
 
IF YOU DID WANT TO GO THROW TRASH IN YOUR NEIGHBOR’S YARD, WITH THE NEW CONFIGURATION, THE ACCEPTED WAY OF DOING FOR YEARS WAS THE BUMP AND RUN WHEN YOU GUYS WERE RUNNING THE BOTTOM. NOW YOU GUYS RUN THE TOP, SO HOW DO YOU ROUGH SOMEBODY UP? IS THERE STILL A BUMP-AND-RUN TYPE STRATEGY? HOW DO YOU DO IT WHEN SOMEONE IS UP AGAINST THE WALL? 
“Yeah. You know, he’s going to get the quarter-panel in the fence a little bit but he will be able to race on. The think about it is, fans will even tell you this – they don’t like you to park a guy. Nobody likes. It’s just wrong to fence a guy and end his race. I don’t think the drivers ever intentionally do that. I’ve tried to move guys and accidentally spun them out before. I mean, it happens. You know, at the short tracks, you’re not running as fast, you can just get a guy loose and if they’re running the high line, they might get their quarter-panel in the fence. (Joey) Logano and Denny (Hamlin) were an example of that. (Joey) Logano was able to race on and finish the day and be relatively competitive. So, you know, you can move a guy out of the way, get the position and make the pass without just ruining his day and throwing away everything him and his team worked for. You take the spot. That’s how you try to do it. That’s how you try to accomplish it.”
 
SINCE YOU FINALLY GOT HOME WERE YOU ABLE TO DO ANY DAYTONA 500 CELEBRATION WITH YOUR FAMILY? OR WAS THAT JUST AT THE RACE TRACK WITH KARSYN:
“I got home. Sonny was there. My mom was there. It was like 2:30 in the morning so mom, and Sonny and I and another buddy of mine we drank a beer, talked a little bit about the race. You know. I had – just stuff was piled up everywhere that I had to go through and do. I needed to go over to HMS. We have our team meeting. So, it was a pretty typical week. I did a photo shoot with the Unilever folks. I had a little work and got back to normal. And I went to see Karsyn (Elledge). She runs with the box stocks. Over the last several years she runs with the box stocks, which is basically kids her age and this year she’s moved up to the big karts with the grown men. She ran fourth against 12 karts so I was blown away. That was a lot of fun to watch her do that. I’m sitting there watching these guys, these grown men, like all of us our age walking around at this little dirt track and she beat several of them. She’s just a little girl. It was pretty crazy. I’m real proud of her. We had a good week. It was nice to be home. My family was real excited to see me.
 
WITH THE START YOU ARE OFF TO, YOU’VE ALREADY REACHED A HISTORIC LANDMARK – BEING ONE OF ONLY FIVE GUYS TO START THE SEASON WITH THREE CONSECUTIVE TOP TWO FINISHES. THERE’S ONLY BEEN ONE GUY WHO HAS DONE IT FOUR STRAIGHT – RICHARD PETTY. AS A HISTORIAN OF THE SPORT, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO JOIN PETTY AS THE ONLY TWO DRIVERS TO HAVE FOUR STRAIGHT TOP-TWO FINISHES:
“Anytime – you know, I’m going to sound cliché – but anytime you’ve do anything that Richard has done and you put yourself in the conversation with him to do with any statistic, it’s you know, a pretty awesome accomplishment because of everything that he has ever done winning as many races as he has and running as many races as he has. He’s been such a fixture in the sport still today. Yeah, that would be awesome. Just something else we can hang our hat on and we’ve got a shot at it, man. We really run good here. I like coming here. We felt real good about our car last time we were here when the 5 (Kasey Kahne) or the 21 (Trevor Bayne) we were running with those guys and we ended up sort of chickening out on the fuel strategy and pitting and ended up giving up all of our track position. With the way things are now, we don’t have to do that. We can go for it and be aggressive, so that will be interesting to see if we can be in a situation to do that and try to capitalize and get another win or another top three or top two or whatever we need to join Richard in that statistic. We’ll be going for it.”
 
DO YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE AT ALL BEING THE PERSON THAT CAN ELEVATE NASCAR TO ANOTHER LEVEL?:  “That’s a very uncomfortable question and to get asked about it really makes me uncomfortable because there are so many other drivers – there’s guys like Jimmie (Johnson) who have done so much and accomplished much more than I have. And they do a lot to elevate the sport. They do a lot of things that, you know, carry the sport as well or better than I do.  It’s just very uncomfortable because I don’t have the accolades and the hardware that a lot of these guys have, like a championship and things like that. I’m comfortable with the popularity and things like that because I feel like that we do a lot and we have a great fan base and we do a lot to engage with them. But carrying the sport is a whole other conversation or being the face of the sport is a whole other conversation. It’s a very uncomfortable position to be put in. I don’t think it’s realistic. All the drivers have a role in that and they are actively doing that.”
 
I UNDERSTAND YOU TOOK THE GAMBLE YOU WANTED TO TAKE LAST WEEKEND WHEN YOU FINISHED SECOND. BUT COMING THAT CLOSE TO WINNING AND NOT WINNING, DOES IT STICK WITH YOU FOR A WHILE?
“Nah, it bothers you and it will anytime you talk about it. We still talk about Charlotte years ago running out of gas off of four and it bothers you when you talk about it. There’s part of you that’s like ‘Man, we almost won that race.’ Then you think about those words – ‘we almost won that race’ – and you get disappointed all over again. Yeah, I mean, it will bother you because it’s Vegas, too. It’s a big race that’s in a unique market. They definitely have a whole different way of presenting our sport from the way we do the driver’s meeting. Everything about that whole town is unique and different. So to win there, I think would be a lot of fun and a good celebration and an enjoyable time and something that  you could be real proud of. So I was very disappointed to come up short. At the same time, we took a gamble that wasn’t supposed to make it and I can justify why we didn’t win. But to come that close really does disappoint you.”
 
WITH THIS NEW FORMAT THERE IS ALMOST THE EXPECTATION THAT YOU COULD GET HIT FROM BEHIND IN THE CLOSING LAPS IF YOU ARE THE LEADER.  WITH THAT SAID IF SOMEBODY DOES THAT AND YOU UNDERSTAND WHY IT HAPPENS THEY STILL HAVE ONE COMING FROM YOU DON’T THEY?
“I mean you definitely are going to be upset if you get run over or get moved out of the way.  That is not going to be fun.  Yeah, especially in front of the fans of the sport in attendance and on television nobody likes to get showed up, put in the fence or moved out of the way.  You feel had.  You are obviously going to have a tinge of revenge in the back of your mind and you will carry that with you.  You might do it you might not.
 
“I got ran over accidently.  I ran my first Nationwide race at Myrtle Beach and Jeff Green was in front of me.  I was running seventh, Jeff was sixth and Jason Keller was fifth.  Jeff pushed Jason into the corner way up into the marbles in (turns) three and four.  Jason just turned left and was trying to get back down the track and hit Jeff Green in the quarter panel.  He hit me in the door as I was following through and spun me out.  I always wanted to get Jason Keller back, but I never did.  I just never was in the perfect… and I know Jason is a great guy and I probably would have never bee
n able to bring myself to do it, but some people you get a chance to get back.  Sometimes it’s teed up perfectly right in front of you and you take it.  Then sometimes you just never see them again or you are never in that position racing for a win.  Or you are just never presented the opportunity for whatever reason. Yeah, if somebody runs you over you definitely can put it in the back of your mind and you don’t ever forget it.”
 
LAST WEEK BRAD KESELOWSKI SEEMED EXTREMELY ENTHUSED TO BE JOINING THIS GROUP OF YOU AND KEVIN HARVICK OF ALREADY HAVING A WIN IN THE BANK.  AS THE WEEKS GO ON HERE HOW DO YOU THINK THIS DYNAMIC WILL EFFECT THE RACING?
“Yeah hopefully that is the case.  When it was just me and Kevin (Harvick) and you guys began to talk about that and we began to think about being able to be more ‘man the pressure is off’.  You were like man I don’t want anybody else in this club.  Brad is in it who is probably the last guy you want in the club because they gamble regardless of the system.  Some of the things they did in the Chase to win the championship that year were big gambles and they were gutsy to do it.  Yeah, they will take risks and stay out on old tires and Brad will drive his guts out.  We know that.  The more people that join it as an early member of the group you don’t want anybody else in.  You like that advantage if you will.  But I think as more people are lumped into that winners box you are definitely going to see it will be good I think to see guys out there on so many different strategies and it will provide more passing because you will have guys on old tires, guys come in and get two tires, new tires or whatever.  You are going to be at tracks where you will see there will be a difference in performance between vehicles because of the strategies and therefore there will probably be closer racing and more action.  The cars won’t just be spread out because everybody will have the same tires, same fuel it will be a little bit different at each track and it presents some good races more often than not.”
 
                                                                                                           

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 14, 2014
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his outlook for this weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the changes in the qualifying procedure, not having a win through the first three races in 2014 and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT YOUR OUTLOOK COMING TO BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
“I just want to survive this place.  We did get our win in 2010 and we have been able to run consistently in the top five.  That is truthfully our goal.  This track really is difficult on me and Chad (Knaus) and the team through practice and qualifying.  Then in the race we seem to find our way.  A lot of that falls on my shoulders.  I feel like this track for me it just takes the repetition of laps to find a rhythm and to find the half a tenth or so that I need to really be in the game.  We will try to keep aggravation and frustration to a minimum today, tomorrow and then whenever we race.  I know that we will be able to get out there and run well.”
 
DALE, JR. WAS IN HERE EARLIER AND HE WAS ASKED ABOUT CARRYING THE WEIGHT AND PRESSURE OF ELEVATING THE POPULARITY OF THE SPORT.  HE SAID THAT HE FELT UNCOMFORTABLE BEING ASKED THAT QUESTION BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT AND WHAT IMPACT YOU DO FEEL HE HAS HAD ON THE SPORT GETTING OFF TO SUCH A GREAT START?
“I think in our sport it takes everyone involved, all the personalities involved, all the drivers on the track, TV personalities and the support of the television network partners, print media, everything across the board to make our sport what it is.  There is no doubt that Junior can move the needle.  I’m happy to see his success right now.  I think one of the effects of it and a positive effect of him running well is the interest it brings in the sport.  We can kind of speculate the type of fan base that he has and maybe fans of his father that some say have left our sport because of the change. When he does well their interest comes back in, is it the younger kids?  I don’t know where the interest comes from, but it’s a great byproduct of him running well.  But it’s too much pressure to put on one person.  Just as unfair as it is for people to say that I have hurt the sport with my success, I think it’s a little unfair to put that all on him that this sport depends on his success.  The sport is bigger than him, it’s bigger than me and it’s bigger than any one person.  It takes all of us to make it what it is.  I’m very proud of where he is and I have seen the hard work that he has put in and Steve (Letarte) has put in.  I pay more attention to my teammate running well than the other effects that take place out there.”
 
DOES IT ADD ANY ANXIETY AT ALL WHEN YOU ARE NOT IN THE 2014 WINNER’S GROUP YET?
“No, I haven’t put much thought into it.  The main reason is 16 transfer and it’s pretty rare that we have 16 different winners in the course of a season.  So points still have a pretty big impact on where you are at.  I’m happy that we are third in points.  I feel like Vegas we had a shot to win.  Midway through the race the balance of the car changed and we found something wrong with the car that was pretty rare and unique for us.  So we know where our speed went and I feel like the (Daytona) 500 we had a shot to win so we have had two chances to win and have had a bunch of top six finishes.  There is nothing to be concerned about yet, one because the year is early and two I feel like at least one or two positions will go in via points.”
 
WERE YOU HAPPY TO SEE THE QUALIFYING CHANGES ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS WEEK AND DO YOU EXPECT TODAY’S SESSION TO LOOK MARKEDLY DIFFERENT THAN IT HAS THE LAST FEW WEEKS?
“Yeah for sure.  We have had two very forgiving race tracks with generous aprons to cool down on and we still had some close calls.  Here you can’t get on the apron to get out of the way.  I guess you can, but it’s a lot more difficult.  So I’m very happy with the changes and I think we will see a much cleaner, fair opportunity to get your fast laps in.”
 
WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE HAD THE CHANGES NOT BEEN MADE?
“Yeah, it would have been total chaos.  There is some level of excitement in it for sure and there are certainly story lines following qualifying that isn’t a bad thing for the sport.  Sometimes bad press is good press, any press is good press that whole mentality.  But there needs to be a bit of order and this should bring a lot of order.”
 
WITH THE PREFERRED LINE NOW BEING THE HIGH LINE NEXT TO THE WALL IT’S DIFFERENT FROM WHEN IT USED TO JUST BE AROUND THE BOTTOM THE BUMP AND RUN WAS EASIER.  IF YOU ARE COMING DOWN TO A WIN HERE AND YOU ARE LOOKING TO MOVE A SLOWER CAR HOW DO YOU DO IT? DOES THE BUMP AND RUN NOT WORK ANYMORE?
“It definitely is a different bump and run factor.  If it’s a lap down car or somebody that you are not racing for position a little tap on the straightaway usually wakes up whoever is in front of you and they will cut you some slack.  If it’s for position I wouldn’t anticipate anybody to pull down and get out of the way.  You are just going to have to go to work the hard way and try to get by.  You know some drivers have grown up in stock cars and in environments where you use the bumper to move someone and it’s second nature.  It’s not the environment that I came out of and I think the same for Kasey (Kahne) if you go through his background and the types of cars he raced.  You don’t bump, you don’t touch and I have found personally that it takes me longer to set up a bump and run.  It’s a delicate touch to get in there and to move somebody in the right way.  I waste more time doing that than it does to get inside of them to try to pass them.  That might also lead to kind of the conversation with Kasey’s closing laps last year and if that happens again, there are some guys that are comfortable and used to it.  If I have to I will, but I am probably going to be saying I’m sorry after.  It will be in that category of (Dale) Earnhardt trying to rattle Terry’s (Labonte) cage and Terry’s car was all torn up.”
 
IS THERE MORE RISK FOR THE GUY TRYING TO DO IT THAN THE GUY THAT IS RUNNING UP NEXT TO THE WALL?
“Yeah definitely getting your path and the wall will catch them.  I’m pretty sure they will be able to get back to you in (turn) 1.  Bump and run works nice when you can get somebody if they slip and slide and they are four or five car lengths behind you in the next turn because you know it’s coming back.  Being so close to one another and then the proximity of the wall a bump and run you might complete the pass to start with, but you are probably going to get it back sooner than you would want.”
 
AS YOU LOOK BACK OVER THE TIME THAT YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE SERIES ARE DRIVERS MORE WILLING TO HIT EACH OTHER NOW A DAYS THAN BEFORE?
“It’s tough to say.  I mean you race people how you are raced and vice versa.  There is usually not a lot of contact between myself and other cars and it’s been that way since I’ve entered the sport.  I feel like there might be less casual contact, but we see more heated moments when something does happen.  I think there are far less bump and runs and there is more aggravation and frustration and something big happens and then we have a wrestling match on pit road after.”
 
DALE, JR. MENTIONED A DRIVER, JASON KELLER, AS ONE THAT ONE TIME GOT HIM.  HE ALWAYS WANTED TO GET HIM BACK AND NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY.  IS THERE SOMEBODY WHO IS NO LONGER IN THE S
PORT THAT GOT YOU THAT YOU NEVER GOT THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET THEM?
“The first one that comes to mind and I actually tried was with Matt Kenseth.  I guess it was one of my full years in Nationwide and he had crashed me two or three times and he had a bad pit stop in Dover and came out deep in the field.  I was running eighth to 10th or something and he wrecked me in (turns) one and two.  I was sitting on the apron waiting for him to come back around and I had the car in gear ready to dump the clutch to harpoon him.  When I dumped the clutch to take off the fuel cell was on the ground and my rear tires were up off the ground and I couldn’t go anywhere.  I was all over the rev chip going nowhere.  I have teased him about it since and I think even mentioned it in the media once.  Matt (Kenseth) does not remember that thing, but I do.  But we are well past that now.  There is no revenge there, but it’s fun to harass him about it.”
 

TEAM CHEVY AT SEBRING: FRONT-ROW START FOR NEW CAMARO Z/28.R
Curran P2 in Continental Tire GS qualifying for CKS Autosport; Stevenson entries P4 and P5
 
SEBRING, Fla. (March 13, 2014) – Just two races into its debut season – and on its first time out Sebring International Raceway – the new Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R has notched its first front-row starting spot in the Continental Sports Car Championship. Eric Curran qualified P2 in the No. 01 CKS Autosport Camaro for Friday’s second round of the Continental Tire series as three of the Z/28.R race cars finished the session in the top-five.
 
Curran, driving with Lawson Aschenbach, posted a best lap of 2:16.165 (98.880 mph) in Thursday’s qualifying session for Grand Sport (GS) cars.
 
Matt Bell was fourth at 2:16.616 (98.554 mph) in Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 9 Camaro that he drives with Andy Lally. Andrew Davis, in the No. 6 Stevenson Camaro he shares with Robin Liddell, was fifth with a best lap of 2:16.628 (98.545 mph).
 
Trent Hindman was the fastest GS qualifier at 2:15.947 (99.039 mph) in a BMW M3.
 
Friday’s two-and-a-half-hour race is set for 1 p.m. ET with live streaming and timing at IMSA.com.
 
ERIC CURRAN, NO. 01 CKS AUTOSPORT CAMARO Z/28.R
(Camaro Z/28.R development) “Our Team Chevy and CKS Autosport guys – Kirk Spencer and all his boys – have been working really hard on this car. We came to Daytona with a car that was a week old and fought a lot with it there – like anyone else does with a new race car. But there has been quite a bit more work done on the car in the last month-and-a-half. We’re getting it into a better race car – more consistent and all the hard work is paying off.”
(His qualifying run) “I put down a flyer of a lap and dropped two wheels in the dirt but kept it all together. I’m really happy for that and everyone at Team Chevy. This Camaro Z/28.R is awesome.
“We’re a little concerned how this car will be on a long run. We just have Daytona on it. Continental cars haven’t run here at Sebring for years. Hopefully it’s not too hard on the rear tires. That’s our main concern.”
 
MATT BELL, NO. 9 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z/28.R
(His qualifying run) “The strategy was to do a pretty short run in qualifying. We have to use the same tires for the start of the race that we use in qualifying. For these tires on this track, they are probably already well degraded with this heat cycle on them. We’re going to start off the race well slower than we finished that session. Some of our competitors are in much lighter cars so they won’t be as hard on their tires in general but the strategy is that they will run out of tire halfway through their stint.”
(Continuing development) “The Camaro is great; we haven’t had too much time … just tuning. We’re still developing for the most part; we still have a lot of stuff that we’re just checking off the list as far as getting it all to work as we expect it to work. The last couple sessions are the only time we’ve spent hunting down performance. But every time we make a change the car is better so that’s the direction you want to go. We’re in a great place for the race. As long as we keep it clean, we’re in a great place with both cars.”
 
ANDREW DAVIS, NO. 6 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z/28.R
(His qualifying effort) “The Stevenson Motorsports crew works non-stop. Along with the guys at Chevrolet and Pratt & Miller, we’ve all have been putting our heads together to try and improve this program. That’s how well we work together. For me personally, I try to get faster every time I get in the car. The car is a pleasure to drive. The Camaro Z/28.R is just really fun. It’s good all around. It’s all the things I remember about Pratt & Miller race cars. We found good time in qualifying. There was probably a little bit left out there; I made a mistake on the first lap that cost me a little bit of time. The second lap was pretty good and I’m happy with that.”
(Challenges of the track): “Sebring is such a difficult circuit. Not only is it long with a lot of different corners, the surface makes it very quickly. There is cement, asphalt, sealer… you have to deal with that. We’re all fighting for grip, and rear grip will be at a premium at the end of a stint. We’ve been trying to make the car quick on a given lap but at the same time we have to look at the big picture. We have to race this car for two-and-a-half hours tomorrow.”

CHEVROLET BECOMES NEWEST IMSA AUTOMOTIVE PARTNER
Chevrolet Also Official Car and Official Pace Car at Sebring International Raceway

SEBRING, Fla. (March 13, 2014) – With the 62nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida providing the backdrop, officials from Chevrolet and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) announced today a multi-year agreement making Chevrolet an Official Automotive Partner of IMSA, the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.
 
“Chevrolet is proud to partner with IMSA,” said Jeff Chew, manager of business strategy and operations for Chevy Racing. “Our involvement in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship gives us a relevant platform to showcase our premier performance vehicles on the race track to our loyal customers and fans. Chevrolet’s participation in the TUDOR Championship’s Prototype and GT Le Mans classes – plus the GS category in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge – illustrates our commitment to IMSA.”
 
The No. 5 Action Express Racing team and drivers Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais gave the Corvette DP its first Rolex 24 At Daytona victory to open the 2014 TUDOR Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.
 
“Chevrolet’s reputation for excellence in sports car racing is well documented, and the brand is clearly a fan favorite,” said David Pettit, IMSA vice president, marketing. “The former GRAND-AM Rolex Series and the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón both benefited from Chevrolet’s fantastic support, which we are proud to continue in the ‘new’ IMSA.”
 
The agreement also names Chevrolet as the Official Car and Official Pace Car for Sebring International Raceway, as well as upcoming events at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park on Saturday, May 31; at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 25; and at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., on Saturday, Aug. 10. The manufacturer has a strong presence in IMSA, through the Corvette DP and Corvette Racing teams in the TUDOR Championship and Camaro Z/28.R race cars in the Continental Tire Challenge.
 
“Chevrolet is pleased to continue our partnership with Sebring International Raceway as Official Car and Official Pace Car for 2014 and beyond,” Chew said. “Both Chevrolet and Sebring have established rich traditions in North American sports car racing, which makes this a natural alliance. Track President and General Manager Tres Stephenson has assembled a world-class team of professionals that supports our marketing efforts each year around this historic event – one in which Chevrolet has achieved considerable on-track success.”

Chevrolet has an impressive history at America’s oldest endurance race. Corvette is the defending Sebring GT champion and has recorded 25 class victories here since its first appearance at the 12-hour classic in 1956. Chevrolet ranks third all-time at Sebring among manufacturers with 36 top-10 finishes.

“Sebring is proud to extend its marketing partnership with Chevrolet,” Stephenson said. “Chevrolet and Corvette have played a key role in Sebring’s history and we are excited to have the new Corvette C7 Stingray pace the field for Saturday’s 12-hour classic.”
 
Since 2001, Chevrolet and Corvette Racing scored 10 manufacturer and team championships in the ALMS and earned seven class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the Rolex Series, Chevrolet earned six manufacturers championships and overall victories in the 2001 and 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Drive for Ninth Win in 12 Hours
New Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs to take on racing’s most demanding venue
 
DETROIT (March 11, 2014) – Corvette Racing and its new Corvette C7.R race cars are about to undergo the ultimate challenge in road racing. The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is America’s oldest sports car race, and the 62nd running of the Florida classic is set for this weekend. It’s also an event that is rich with Chevrolet and Corvette history.
 
You could say that Sebring is the spiritual birthplace of the modern-day Corvette Racing program. A Corvette raced for the first time in its history at the 1956 Sebring 12 Hours and placed ninth overall. Almost 60 years later, Corvette Racing will go for its ninth class win at Sebring since 2002 – this time with the brand new Corvette C7.R. The production-based racer is Chevrolet’s entry in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
 
“Sebring is one of the toughest race tracks in the world,” said Mark Kent, Chevrolet’s Director of Racing. “Corvette Racing’s success in the 12 Hours is a testament to the preparation and work ethic of the team at Chevrolet Racing, Pratt & Miller and GM Powertrain. Winning Sebring once is an incredible accomplishment, and doing so eight times is nothing short of remarkable. We are confident the new Corvette C7.R – with its improved handling, stability and efficiency – can help add to that record at Sebring.”
 
Sebring is the second round of the inaugural TUDOR Championship. As at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, each of the Corvettes will have three drivers each. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen – last year’s American Le Mans Series GT champions – will team with IndyCar star Ryan Briscoe in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R. Defending Sebring class winners Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner will share the No. 4 entry with Robin Liddell.
 
Gavin, Milner and Richard Westbrook overcame early electrical issues and came from two laps down to win last year’s race in their Corvette C6.R. Ahead of this year’s race, Corvette Racing has tested the C7.R at Sebring on multiple occasions, and for good reason.
 
Sebring International Raceway pounds race cars like no other race track in the world. The facility sits on the site of Fort Hendricks – a World War II airbase that was used as a training ground for American B-17 bombers. Part of the circuit – most notably Turn 16 through the exit of Turn 1 – uses the old concrete runway and taxiway, which makes up some of the roughest sections of racing surface anywhere in the world. It’s part of what makes Sebring physically the toughest venue in endurance racing.
 
The new aluminum frame – 40 percent stiffer than the C6.R – should be a huge benefit over the bumps at Sebring. The direct-injected engine offers better fuel economy, a critical element in long-distance endurance racing. The advanced aerodynamics on the C7.R compliments both the stability and efficiency factors.
 
Television coverage of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring will be available live on FOX Sports 1 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET with the remainder of the race airing live on IMSA.com. FOX Sports 1 also will air a three-hour recap at 8:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 16.
 
Corvette Racing will compete in 11 TUDOR Championship races around North America plus the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
 

 
CORVETTE DPs AT SEBRING: First Time at the 12 Hours
Historic Florida circuit follows dominant showing at Rolex 24
 
DETROIT (March 11, 2014) – There’s a first time for everything, the old saying goes. It’s with that in mind that Corvette Daytona Prototype teams head this week to Sebring International Raceway for the second round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is America’s oldest sports car race but this year marks the first time DP cars race at the historic circuit.
 
The inaugural season of the TUDOR Championship couldn’t have started much better for the contingent of Corvette DP teams. Action Express Racing’s No. 5 entry led a sweep of the top four positions at the Rolex 24 At Daytona to start the year. Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais look to earn a double in Florida with a victory at Sebring. The competition is tough though with 18 cars in the TUDOR Championship’s Prototype class – including four other Corvette Daytona Prototypes.
 
Wayne Taylor Racing finished second at the Rolex 24 and stands to contend again at Sebring. Action Express’ No. 9 entry followed with Spirit of Daytona’s Corvette DP in fourth. Throw in Marsh Racing’s No. 31 entry – only the team’s second race with its Corvette DP – and you have a group capable of challenging throughout 12 hours on the rough-and-tumble Florida circuit… and giving Chevrolet its first overall Sebring victory since 1965.
 
“There aren’t many racing venues in the world that are as demanding on the cars, drivers and teams as Sebring,” said Mark Kent, Chevrolet’s Director of Racing.  “It is a circuit full of history and Chevrolet looks forward to returning to this amazing track. Taking the top four finishing positions at the season opening Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona race was a monumental moment for Chevrolet and our Corvette Daytona Prototype program.  We hope to build upon that success as the season continues with the 12 hour race at Sebring.”
 
The No. 5 Action Express entry set the quickest time of a two-day open test at Sebring in late February with a 1:52.480 (119.701 mph). Spirit of Daytona’s No. 90 Corvette DP was third.
 
There may not be two race circuits in North America that are as different as Daytona and Sebring. The former is a combination of high-banked oval and infield road course with smooth surfacing all the way around. That is in short supply around Sebring, which sits on the site of a World War II airbase – Hendricks Field. American B-17s trained there, and now the sound of thousands of horsepower fill the air around Sebring each March. Part of the circuit uses the old concrete runway, which makes up some of the roughest sections of racing surface anywhere in the world. It’s part of what makes Sebring physically the toughest venue in endurance racing.
 
“There are many unknowns ahead of this race for our Corvette Daytona Prototypes in their 2014 configurations,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet’s Program Manager for Corvette Daytona Prototypes. “Even that will change with the recent IMSA adjustment of performance – revisions to our downforce package and air restrictor. Our knowledge base for Sebring is limited to the two IMSA test days in February, so there is little to no prior experience of running these cars around the toughest circuit on our schedule. Our competitors running P2 machinery have an advantage in that those cars have run in the 12 Hours numerous times before.
 
“This race is half as long as Daytona but in many ways it’s twice as difficult on both the teams and equipment,” he added. “Reliability will be key, as will getting through and around traffic with nearly 70 cars over an erratic and bumpy surface.”
 
Camaro Z/28.R Set to Make Sebring Debut
Chevrolet’s newest version of the Camaro also makes its Sebring debut this week. The Z/28.R made its first race start in January at Daytona International Speedway and has undergone additional testing and development since.
 
Both Stevenson Motorsports and CKS Autosport are fielding the new Camaro Z/28.R in the car’s debut season. For Stevenson, Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis drive the No. 6 Camaro with Andy Lally and Matt Bell in the No. 9. In the CKS camp, Eric Curran and Lawson Aschenbach partner in the No. 01 with Ashley McCalmont and Bob Michaelian sharing in the No. 00.
 
A GS-class victory at Sebring would be historic on a number of levels. In addition to the first win for the Z/28.R, it would be the first at Sebring for the Camaro brand since 1990 in the IMSA Firehawk Series. In fact, the Firehawk championship was the first street-stock series to race at Sebring in 1985 – a six-hour race won by a Camaro.
 
“The Daytona weekend was a beneficial one,” said Lisa Talarico, Chevrolet’s Program Manager for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. “The time between then and now has been equally important with continuing development. Sebring is a difficult challenge on its own. We are confident, along with our partner teams, that the Camaro Z/28.R program will continue showing progress and competitive results.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 9, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR. IS HALF LAP SHORT OF WIN AT VEGAS
Team Chevy grabs six of the top ten finishing positions
 
LAS VEGAS (March 9, 2014) – Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Mountain Dew Kick Start Chevrolet SS came ever so close to scoring his second win of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) season.  Earnhardt lead a total of 51 laps in the race, including 44 of the final 45 before running out of fuel down the backstretch on the final lap at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) in the Kobalt Tools 400.  He was able to carry his momentum across the finish line to come home second. It was his is third straight top-two finish to open the season after winning the Daytona 500, and posting a runner-up finish last week at Phoenix.
Earnhardt still retains the point lead by one point over second place.
 
Paul Menard earned his best finish at LVMS with a third place run in the No. 27 Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet SS for Richard Childress Racing.  It was his third top-10 finish at the 1.5-mile Vegas track in eight races, and first top five and top ten finish of 2014.  With the finish, Menard moves up to 18th place in the point standings after three races.
 
Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson placed sixth in the No. 48 Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS, Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS posted his second straight top-10 finish in seventh.  Johnson moves up from fifth to third, and Newman moves up from 15th to ninth in the standings.
 
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, and Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS, finished eighth and ninth, respectively, to place all Hendrick teams in the top 10.  Kahne sits 15th in points while Gordon moves up three spots to fifth.
 
Brad Keselowski (Ford) was the race winner, Joey Logano (Ford) was fourth and Carl Edwards (Ford) was fifth to round out the top-five.
 
The series moves to Bristol Motor Speedway, also known as the “World’s Fastest Half Mile”, on Sunday March 16th.
 
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW KICKSTART CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND

KERRY THARP:  Dale Earnhardt Jr. has joined us.  Dale was the race runner up.  He drove the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Kickstart Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.  Dale, you’re right on the verge of getting your second win of the season, and you were talking out on pit road how the new championship format system allows you to go for broke pretty much like you guys did today.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Sure does.  And that’s a great point.  I think everybody has seen that over the last couple of weeks that this format has definitely allowed teams to gamble like we have.
 
You know, it did pay off.  Not the ultimate prize, but we did run second.  We weren’t going to ‑‑ as much as you want to win, and believe me, we were out there trying to win, you do take pride in a good performance, a good finish, and we weren’t going to run in the top 5 if we hadn’t have used that particular strategy, if we’d have run the same strategy as our competitors we would have probably run just inside the top 10 where we were all day.
 
At least it felt like I was around eighth all day.  I just couldn’t get any ground, and we fought the car all day.  Just the air is so dirty behind everybody, the further back you get you’ve got less and less grip.  Once we got the lead, it was like driving a Cadillac.
 
I was lifting real early trying to save even more.  We figured we were a lap short, and I was lifting early and let Brad get there, and I felt like if we were good enough to hold him off, then we’d win the race.  If we weren’t, we would have saved enough fuel to have finished the race, at least get to the end.  I can run out of gas on the back stretch and be okay, but if I run out off of 4 coming to the white it would’ve been big trouble, so I had to save a little bit.  So I let him catch us and once he got there, I ran as hard as I could and could pull back away from him.
 
So I felt good about the car and proud of Steve and the strategy that he used to give us a chance to win.  We’re going to dearly miss that next year, and hopefully we are learning what we need to learn in these last couple of years to continue calling races as well as he does.
 
It’s disappointing, but at the same time the good Lord has blessed me with a good team and good fortune and great opportunity, so I don’t want to get too down and think about the positives and be productive so we can go to Bristol and try to win there.
Q.  Just to be clear, do you think your team would have attempted that strategy at all three races into the season if not for the current Chase format?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Absolutely not.  I can say that without a doubt.
Q.  And as a driver, even though you didn’t win, did you find it ‑‑ did you find it entertaining?  Did you find it interesting?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Interesting, oh, yeah.  Damn right, leading the race the last 50 laps is a hell of a lot better than running eighth the last 50 laps.  I was interested.  (Laughter.)
 
KERRY THARP:  So were about 100,000 people.
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, it was very exciting.  I think the way the new format is, nothing is perfect, right, but it definitely is showing it has tons of positives, and it’s better as far as entertainment for our sport.  Yeah, it gives us freedom, and it’s nice to have that freedom to do the things that we did today, even though we knew our odds weren’t good.  We really shouldn’t have made it, and we didn’t, but we got to try because of the new system.  So yeah, I think it’s pretty cool.
Q.  Aside from the Chase, this has been your hottest start since I can remember, but what does that do for your confidence and the team’s confidence?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, we ran pretty good out of the gate last year.  Yeah, this is a good start for sure.  Yeah, the confidence is up there. When we first got together we’d run our guts out to run in the top 15.  Then the next year we’d run our guts out to run in the top 10, and you wondered when you’d get up to fifth and start running in the top 5 regularly.  We started doing that finally last year, and so our team just keeps stepping up this ladder.  It just makes total sense to me how that process has went, having lived it and having seen the progression.  So the sky’s the limit for us, and if we are smart and keep our composure and don’t get foolish and don’t get too proud of ourselves, just keep it in perspective, we’ve got a great opportunity this year to be this competitive every week.
 
We were really strong at the end of the year last year.  It just thrilled me to death.  So this is great.  Yeah, you definitely don’t want to take it for granted, get used to it, but this is what we envisioned, and starting to bear some fruit.
Q.  Dale, you’re obviously pretty good friends with Brad.  How much do you think it bothered him last year to miss the Chase, especially the year after he won the championship and people would say that maybe it was kind of a fluke thing for him?  Do you think that ate at him?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, I mean, he’s competitive, loves to win, driven, very driven to ‑‑ he studies his team, studies the sport, studies the cars and him and his crew chief work really hard.  He overthinks everything, and he comes up with 20 ideas and 18 of them are crazy but two of them are great.  You know, that’s the way he always was with us.  Pops has had to run him out of the shop because he’s just nitpi
cking everything on the car, why is that like that, why don’t we turn this this way and do it like this.  A lot of the stuff, Pops would have to explain it to him, but hell, a couple ideas would be pretty good.  Brad does that with everything, and that’s why he’s successful.
 
He’s obviously a very talented driver, just raw talent.  You don’t learn that, you’re kind of born with some of those things, some of those traits.  But his work ethic, I think his dedication to his craft, and he thinks about it every day, I think that’s the kind of ‑‑ that’s why he’s so successful.  He’s plugged in, real plugged into what he’s doing.
Q.  Dale, at what point late in the race did you have to give up saving fuel with Brad coming and go full for it?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  When they told me ‑‑ well, really I ran two real hard laps right after that restart, and we got about a 20‑car length lead and I started lifting real early into both corners and seeing whether they were going to catch me, and I was probably better off lifting anyways because I was badly over driving the car, so we probably weren’t even losing any lap times, maybe running even better lap times.  So I was being pretty cautious and lifting pretty early, and when I saw Brad pass the 99, I knew Brad in clean air would be quicker than us, potentially, he had been all day, and I just continued to save and hope that once he got behind me and got into dirty air I could keep him there, and he drove ‑‑ I continued to save until he got within about eight car lengths, and then I started running hard, and we were fast enough to keep him behind us.  As soon as I got to the top of 1 and 2 the last several laps, I was real comfortable that he wasn’t going to get to me, felt fine about if we had enough gas we weren’t going to have a problem.  But we didn’t have enough gas.
Q.  Forgive me if this was already asked, but I can remember when you ran out at Pocono, and it took a while for you to get that confidence back, but with Stevie, with this being his last year, is this a go for broke kind of year, and I mean, if it wasn’t already with the win in the pocket, is it kind of what do we have to lose?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, sure.  I ran out of gas at Pocono with Tony Jr. crew chiefing in ’08 when we was driving for Rick, and we were supposed to be fine until the end of the race and then we ran out with like two laps to go and I came in, took my helmet off and bashed a fender on the car and just made a real ass of myself and learned a lot from that experience.  It took a lot ‑‑ my team was disappointed in my actions, and my cousin was disappointed in my actions and the way I was, so when we ran out ‑‑ when we run out of gas now, you know, you’ve got to try to be positive, because those kind of things, when you crash, wreck, blow up, those kind of things, there’s an opportunity there for it to be worse, and you make it worse than it is, or for you to try to clean up the mess and carry on.  Throwing a tantrum and getting upset and mad about it don’t do any good for your team.  They don’t feed off of that.  If anything it brings your team down.
 
But we were able to ‑‑ the gamble didn’t pay off ultimately, but we were able to run in the top 5.  We weren’t going to do that, and with the strategy we were on and everybody else was on, it was a good strategy and gave us a chance to win.  We definitely wouldn’t have taken that gamble had we not had the new points system, so we were able to really take advantage of that.  Steve is already going for broke, and he’s having a fun time.  It hurts to lose like that.  We’d definitely love to be in victory lane right now, but our time will come.  We’ll keep going.
Q.  You mentioned Steve Letarte and his kind of moving on to the broadcast next year.  Are there any thoughts as to who might be up for that position yet, or is it just way too early?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  It’s way too early.  I promise you, and I’m telling y’all the truth, there’s been no discussion as far as I know, and I wouldn’t think if there is any discussion ‑‑ I would be involved in it even if it was light discussion in the shop.  There’s been none at all yet about it.
And we’ve got a lot of time, and I think that it’s best not to jump to a conclusion early.  Steve is a great part of that process; let him sort of watch the year unfold and see how the team is and understand what his opinion is on who would be best for that role, allow Chad to do the same thing.  Everybody is busy getting the season going, and I don’t want that to be a distraction.  We can be patient, and I promise you that there have been no even initial discussions at all really.
 
Unless you’re really ready to make the decision, it’s almost best not to even discuss it because you don’t want rumors to start floating around in the shop and people start getting the wrong messages and stuff like that.  When we’re ready to make the decision, we’ll sit down and we’ll make it, and it’ll be clear.
 
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 QUAKER STATE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD           

KERRY THARP:  Our third‑place finisher is Paul Menard.  Today Paul drove the No. 27 Quaker State Menard’s Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.  Certainly a valiant effort out there today.  Just talk about your afternoon.

PAUL MENARD:  Yeah, just had a really solid car all day and all weekend, really.  Started on Thursday, felt like in race practice Thursday we were really strong, switched over to qualifying trim Friday and still the car drove good, we just didn’t have any speed, so wound up qualifying 21st.

Did a few adjustments from yesterday, felt like we ended happy hour good, did a few adjustments overnight, anticipating the track was going to be a little bit hotter, slicker, kind of played into our favor, and really had a solid car from the green flag.  We tightened it up a little bit the first couple runs, and then we freed it back up and kind of bounced back and forth.  Felt like we had definitely a top 3 car and at times the best car.  It was cool going up and passing Jimmie for the lead and passing him for a few laps, but just proud of my guys.  We’re clicking really well, we got a couple new engineers and of course Slugger is back for our fourth or fifth year working together, so a good group of guys.  Our pit crew’s pit stops were awesome.
Q.  Paul, there were all kinds of fuel strategies and stuff going on today.  How did you guys fall into that, and did things work out sort of as you planned?
PAUL MENARD:  Yeah, had it gone green two runs ago, we were like four laps short, so it’s hard to save four laps.  When that caution came out, we knew that we were going to pit.  The question was whether or not to take right sides or gas only.  Took gas only, spun the tires really bad on the restart. Everybody on the outside lane seemed to really spin their tires.  Whoever had clean air seemed like they checked out.  You saw the 2 do that earlier; the 88 did it at the end.  So clean air obviously is still very important, but I felt like our car, I could move lanes and we could race people and pass people, which was obviously really important.
Q.  You were driving like a guy trying to get to the hospital for the birth of your kid.  Can you talk about the situation with your wife, any update on that?  When is her due date?
PAUL MENARD:  The due date is Tuesday.  My phone is back at the hauler so she might have called, but I told her to call.  Matt Crafton is my backup and he really wants to get in the car, so I told Jennifer if it’s important, call Matt because he’s sure as hell going to tell me.  I didn’t get the call, though, so I guess everything is good.
Q.  Paul, as a
company overall, can you evaluate how you guys are running right now?  Do you feel like you have the strength that you need with all your cars to contend each week?
PAUL MENARD:  Well, it’s too early to tell, really.  Obviously Speedweeks were really good for RCR with Austin on the pole; every single car was fast down there.  Phoenix was kind of a scratching our heads.  None of us felt like we were very good there.  The 31 had the best finish of us all, but they kind of played some strategy to get up there.
Obviously our short track program I feel like is where we need to focus on.  Intermediate track, I think Ryan finished 7th and Austin had a good car all day.  We just need to ‑‑ we’ve got a good baseline for intermediate stuff; we’ve just got to work on our short track stuff more.  But overall, proud of everybody.  Richard has put a big investment in the off‑season hiring some new people, and I feel like our engineering and support staff is awesome.

KERRY THARP:  Paul, outstanding effort this afternoon.  Best of luck next week at Bristol.

PAUL MENARD:  Thanks.  Got a plane to catch.  (Laughter.)
 
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
 
 
 
 
ADDITIONAL POST-RACE COMMENT:
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 21ST:
“For us on the 10 car, we were really good all weekend. The guys on the Aspen Dental Chevy gave me a great car. The weakest session we had all weekend was the last practice. I’m really happy with the cars this year. I was running with the leaders the last half of the race, but I was a lap down. Unfortunately, one car always stayed out (rather than pitting), so we couldn’t get our lap back (via the wave around). And we just missed the lucky dog spot. Obviously you always want more, but I’m happy with it, especially after what we’ve gone through the last two weeks. It’s a good day and gives us something to build on going to Bristol.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 9, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW KICKSTART CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ON HIS SECOND-PLACE RUN AT LAS VEGAS:
“We weren’t going to run first or second had we not stayed out on that strategy.  We knew we were a lap short.  We tried to save as much as we could.  We got it to about half a lap and it ran out off of (turn) two there.  We took a gamble and didn’t win the race, but it still worked in our favor to run second.  It gave us a chance to win.  It sucks to lose like that, but we can’t let that be a negative.  We have got to go to Bristol and try to win there.  The only way to be productive is to be positive.  We have got to look at the positives in today and keep working toward our goal of winning some more races.  It’s tough, tough losing like that.  That thing started sputtering off of (turn) two that was really disappointing.”
 
HOW DO YOU PUT THIS INTO WORDS?
“Well first I have to congratulate Brad (Keselowski) he had a good car all day.  I have to thank Mountain Dew Kickstart it’s a great looking race car.  Steve (Letarte) did a good job all day working on the car.  We really were struggling with the balance and once we got clean air there we had good speed.  We weren’t supposed to make it.  We were a lap short.  We tried to save as much as we can and make it work, but it didn’t work. We knew we were short.  It’s not shock to us to run out.  Steve said we were a half a lap short and that is about where it ran out.  We wouldn’t have run second if we hadn’t of done that strategy.  Got to thank Steve and the guys for using good strategy to get us a top three finish there.  I would love to win here this is a great race track, a great town and I’ve had some fun here.”
 
THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT ANY EASIER DOES IT?
“Well I mean running out of gas that is tough, but the one thing you can’t do is let it get under your skin and get under your teams skin.  We have got a good thing going, we’ve got to be positive.  We’ve got to keep trying to win races.  I know my fans are disappointed, but we got to stay positive.  Look forward to Bristol and try to win there.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 QUAKER STATE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
STRONG ALL DAY LONG HOW BIG IS THIS PERFORMANCE FOR THIS TEAM THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON?
“It’s big for sure.  We have had a really good car the first three races just missed it about halfway through the race in Phoenix.  This is good redemption the guys never give up.  Had a great car in Daytona obviously led a bunch of laps, but this Quaker State/Menards Chevy was hauling ass on long runs. Had a lot of those today and it kind of played in our favor.”
 
HOW QUICKLY DO YOU GET HOME NOW?
“As soon as possible.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH:
ON THE RACE
“It was a good comeback for our Caterpillar Chevrolet. I think that’s about the race car that we had. There were times when we could be a little bit quicker toward the end of a run. It was a good effort for the team and it was a good points day. If we keep running like that, we’ll put it in the top 5 and if we do that, we’ll win. I’m just proud of the guys and everybody from Caterpillar and Chevrolet and RCR.  Everybody did a good job.”
 
ON THE NEW RULES PACKAGE FOR THE 1.5-MILE TRACKS
“I can’t wait for the summer because they’re stuck too good right now.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON THE RACE CONDITIONS
“We missed it, set-up-wise so it’s hard for me to say. I don’t feel a lot different than any other time; if I would have been able to move around more and make more passes. Vegas is a great track. There is the outside, the inside, the middle; you can go all over. So if you have a good car you can race.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RACE
“Well, you’ve got to put things in perspective and looking at this race last year and the way that we were in practice yesterday, I would have given anything to finish ninth today. But we also got our expectations up a little higher than that because we were in the top 5 most of the day. So, the way that the pit sequences went there, they definitely didn’t work in our favor. But it was a really solid effort by this Axalta Chevy SS team. I’m proud of them. To come out of here with a top 10 is something to be proud of. It just took so long for my car to come in. About the time it came in, it was time to pit. So, it was just like that same way there at the end of the race. As soon as my car came in, the race was over.”
 
HOW WAS THIS NEW RULES PACKAGE ON THE 1.5-MILE TRACK UNDER RACE CONDITIONS?
“I thought it was all good. There’s a high groove and a middle groove and a bottom groove; and that’s all we can ever ask for. I knew today was going to be one of the most challenging races that we were going to have, possibly all year long. And so, I feel like this team did an incredible job. I think we were much better than ninth, but at the same time, this I think is one of my worst tracks right now. We’re off to a fantastic start. We’re very motivated by that. We’re excited.”
 
MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
“We were better than 14th, no question about that. We ran in the top-10 for most of the race but lost track position at the end.  We decided to take two (right-side) tires and fuel on the final pit stop. We felt that was the right call at the time but it didn’t turn out to be the right strategic decision. Some teams took a gamble and took fuel only and some didn’t even take fuel. It was a gamble for them but it paid off.  Those are very tough calls to make. On the bright side this was our best performance as a team, much better than last week at Phoenix. We had good pit stops all day and I really like the gains we made this weekend.” 
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – EXPERIENCED A PARTS FAILURE ON LAP 193 – FINISHED 41ST
WHAT HAPPENED THAT PUT YOU IN THE GARAGE AREA?
“It’s hard to tell right now it looks like the left-front hub is locked shut and the car just kind of lost the handling the last 15 or 20 laps.  It started to get really loose which makes sense with that left-front brake dragging like that.  Just have to thank everybody on this team they have done a great job and our Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was ‘Freaky Fast’ again.  Just got to keep doing what we are doing and everything will be fine with cars like that.”
 
I KNOW YOU LOST THE LEFT-FRONT HUB HOW DISAPPOINTING IS IT WHEN YOU HAD A CAR AS FAST AS THAT?
“It’s hard to complain.  These guys on this Jimmy John’s Chevrolet have given me cars that are good every week.  Just a little parts failure there and just we will figure out the cause of it and try to just keep that from happening.  Every week is a new notebook for us.  I really think as we get established and get some foundation for our set-ups and just the little things this team is going to be dangerous.”
 
THIS IS ONE OF THOSE TIMES I IMAGINE THAT THIS NEW POINTS SYSTEM WORKS OUT GREAT FOR A GUY WHO ALREADY HAS A WIN IN THE BOOKS?
“Absolutely, I think it’s going to be good.”

 
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 7, 2014
 
ROOKIE AUSTIN DILLON LEADS THE WAY FOR TEAM CHEVY IN NEW QUALIFYING PROCEDURE AT LAS VEGAS
Eight Chevrolet SS Race Cars Qualify in Top 15 Starting Spots
 
LAS VEGAS (March 7, 2014) – Rookie Austin Dillon led the way Friday for Team Chevy in qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a fourth-place time of 28.026 (192.678 mph) in his No. 3 Cheerios Chevrolet SS.
 
The session marked the debut of a new knockout-style qualifying format for a 1.5 mile track where all 48 entrants had a 25-minute session to make a lap before the field was cut to the fastest 24 cars.  Those 24 cars moved to round two and were given 10 minutes to post another fast lap.  The fastest 12 drivers then moved on to the third and final session which consisted of five minutes where the fastest single laps determined the pole winner and starting lineup.

Six-time Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson in his No. 48 KOBALT Tools Chevrolet SS, was fifth-fastest in the final session.   Jamie McMurray qualified seventh in his No. 1 Cessna/Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet and Ryan Newman posted the tenth-fastest time in his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS.
 
Also among the top fifteen in the new qualifying procedure were four other Team Chevy drivers.  Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet SS was 12th and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Mountain Dew Kickstart Chevrolet SS, and Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS were 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.  In all, Team Chevy occupies eight of the first 15 starting positions.
 
Joey Logano (Ford) won the pole position, Brad Keselowski (Ford) qualified second, and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) qualified third to round out the top five starters.
 
The Kobalt Tools 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race takes the green flag at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air live on FOX.
 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 CHEERIOS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
HOW DID IT GO OUT THERE FOR YOU TODAY:
“I was very pleased with our lap.  The Cheerios Chevrolet was fast.  I just want to thank all my guys. We have been working hard and I knew that in the off season we had a great team put together.  It’s a great start to Vegas and a mile and a half program. We have to thank all of our teammates.  We worked hard together and we got two of our cars in the top 12 which is pretty cool.  It’s pretty impressive for RCR.  I’m excited for Sunday’s race and hopefully we can continue this early success in the weekend over to happy hour and then also into the race.”
 
HOW IS YOUR CAR FOR SUNDAY?
“I mean I predict it’s pretty good.  I was able to lay down three solid laps right there.  I feel like it’s pretty solid.  It was good in race trim.  So hopefully we can continue what we have got going on right now.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FIFTH
WHAT IS YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THE RULE ON PIT ROAD SPEEDS WHEN YOU ARE LEAVING AND ENTERING?
‘They told us that a round pit road speed would be appreciated on pit road. So that leaves a wide variety of interpretation. And I get it. They don’t want to set some hard rules in place, but unfortunately we probably need to. And that initial roll-out is very sketchy and I think we’re going to start crashing cars just backing out because you’ve got guys at various angles trying to back out and guys backing out before the clock strikes zero and the track is green. There are a variety of things like that going on. We need to clean it up a little. I think the format is awesome. It’s great for the fans, it’s great for the teams; but some of the logistics and flow on pit road could be addressed.”
 
IS IT ANY MORE INTENSE FROM THE FRIST ROUND OR DO YOU GUYS JUST NEED TO BE ON IT?
“Today was a little more stressful. We were kind of around the bubble on each transfer. So that makes things more exciting. But if you can blast off a quick lap, and you’re up there in that top 5 for those first two segments it’s real easy. Get your car nice and cool and talk thoroughly about your adjustments and what you want to do to the car and make things happen from there. But today we were kind of on pins and needles and had to roll down to the end of pit road both times as we were near the bump zone and kinda had to play that game. So that was more stressful.”
 
WHAT DOES RACE DAY LOOK LIKE?
“I think our test session went decent yesterday. Today we made some big improvements after sleeping on some things last night so I feel good about race day.”
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SEVENTH
HOW WAS THE SESSION FOR YOU?
“I think it’s nerve wracking because at the last two tracks we’ve been to people can go faster on their second run out. So, I was third after my first run and you feel like you’re safe and then guys like I think (Brian) Vickers went out and was actually at the top of the board and a couple other guys started beating you. So, unless you’re locked into that top 5 you just don’t feel very safe. So it’s a fairly nerve-wracking sitting in the car asking the crew chief a thousand questions a minute of, ‘Do we need to go back out or are we okay?’”
 
WHAT WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN THAT CAN HELP YOU GOING FORWARD?
“Well, this track is similar to Phoenix in that we actually ran quicker each time we were out. I think it will be a lot different when we get to Fontana because when you advance to the next round, the car is going to slow down a lot so guys are going to have to adjust on the balance of the car to get it where you can complete a lap and complete a fast lap. So, each track again if going to be different. The three rounds I thought was way more stressful than the two.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 10TH
WAS IT STRESSFUL OUT THERE DURING QUALIFYING?
“Yeah, a little bit, but the stress doesn’t make the race car go any faster. We just had to do what we had to do and we really didn’t make any adjustments at all to the race car. We just cycled through our tires and I learned a little bit and got the car going a little faster and I think we got all we could out of it there at the end.”
 
SO HOW CLOSE ARE YOU FOR WANT YOU WANT IN THE CAR ON SUNDAY?
“We’ve got some work to do on Sunday.”
 
WERE THE SLOWER CARS A PROBLEM ON TRACK TRYING TO COOL DOWN?
“It’s not safe. That’s an easy answer; it’s not safe.”

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“No need to sugarcoat it, I messed up in the final session – I didn’t get everything out of turn one,” said a candid Truex. “But considering how the day started (broken oil pump fitting), qualifying 12th isn’t all that bad. The Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet had speed and it was sure a lift for all the guys to make it to the final round after what they went through today.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH
YOU WERE OUT THERE TRYING TO COOL YOUR ENGINE BECAUSE YOU WERE IN, IN THE 12TH SPOT AND THEN WHEN YOU GOT BUMPED YOU HAD TO QUICKLY COME IN GET IT TAPED UP AND IT WAS JUST A MATTER OF SECONDS TO GET YOU BACK OUT THERE:
“Yeah it was really close we just missed it by two thousandths.  Just didn’t have enough time to get it cooled.  There is so much going on down here especially with the first round with all the cars.  When I was cooling I got a flat right rear (tire) so I had to come in.  Well NASCAR doesn’t have enough people to make a call that we can change it.  So we sat there and waited and we didn’t get to cool our car d
own.  That was what hurt us.  If it’s going to be that hectic and this much stuff going on NASCAR needs to be aware and get after it and make sure everybody can make the adjustments and the changes because we just had a flat.  That is kind of disappointing.  I thought we had a better car than that.  Putting a spare tire on just made us way too tight so I wasn’t able to run as fast as I needed to our final shot there.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW KICKSTART CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 14TH
MADE IT THROUGH THE FIRST ROUND HOW IS THE CAR FOR SUNDAY?
“We’ve got to work on it tomorrow in race trim.  We did all qualifying runs today.  We ended up 14th and was real tight.  I felt like I’ve got a little bit better car than that.  I messed up getting into (turn) one on that last run.  We will have to work on the car tomorrow.  I feel like it’s a fun race track and we really enjoy running here.  Hopefully we can get it tuned in.”

HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO HAVING THE CAR THAT YOU REALLY THINK CAN WIN THE RACE?
“Just right around the corner, man; just a couple of changes away. The car has got good speed and it’s had good speed all week, so we’ll just make a couple of adjustments tomorrow and hopefully we’ll hit on some things and keep up with the track.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“Definitely working hard we made some great gains from yesterday through today and right there on that qualifying session for a second I didn’t think we were going to make it out of round one.  The car was too loose.  We tightened it up and actually I made a couple of really good laps there.  Just wasn’t quite enough  to get to round three.  We missed it by hundredths of a second I think.  But the car feels much better so that gives us something very promising to work with for Sunday’s race and through practice tomorrow.”
 
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 17TH
OVERALL AS A ROOKIE IS THIS TYPE OF SESSION REALLY HELPING YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE GETTING MORE SEAT TIME?
“Yeah I think it helps a little bit.  Our Target Chevy was actually pretty good there.  That last session was as fast as we’ve gone all day.  They made some good adjustments just everybody got faster so I think we ended up 17th so not terrible, but hoping for a little bit better.  We will be okay for Sunday’s race we made the car really good for race trim during the test the other day.  Looking forward to it and hopefully we can get a good (pit) stall and stay out of trouble on Sunday.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 22ND
TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY TODAY, HOW WAS THE CAR? 
“I think if you would have asked me yesterday if I thought we would have been 22nd I would have said no, but everybody got their race stuff ready and the competition tightens up as people can see the times are so close.  I’m proud of the team for bringing better cars this year.  Last year at this point in time I would have killed for a 22nd so we have got something we can work with.  My goal last year was to be ahead of the pace car and we are going to be ahead of the pace car.  The little things, I’m just happy that it’s going better and mostly I’m excited about my race car.  I thought my race run yesterday made me really happy.  We hopefully will get this Aspen Dental car further up than where we are starting but it’s still a step in the right direction for us.  We will get going on Sunday.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 7, 2014
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed his thoughts on the No. 1 Chevrolet SS teams season thus far, the new qualifying procedure and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
OFF TO A GREAT START OF THE SEASON TALK ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS COMING INTO LAS VEGAS:
“Yeah it’s been a really good start to the season.  I’m happy with our car today.  I think coming to the first mile and a half that is such a critical size track to be able to run well at that I thought our testing went well yesterday and then we were really good in qualifying trim today in practice.  I’m a little bit nervous about qualifying.  We haven’t done the three segments yet.  I thought Phoenix was fairly straight forward on the strategy you would use.  Today is going to be different.  It’s been a good start to the season and happy with the performance of the car.”
 
FROM A SPECTATOR POINT OF VIEW WATCHING THE CARS COOL OFF THEIR ENGINES WAS A LITTLE UNEXCITING.  DO YOU SEE THAT HAPPENING TODAY OR IS THERE ANY CHANGES?  HAS THE TEAM SPOKEN WITH NASCAR TO ALLOW ENGINE COOLING?
“Well I sent Robin Pemberton a text on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.  We were trying to get a plan put together of what we were going to do here.  Phoenix is a tough track to take the tape off and be able to stay out of the way.  Especially Turn 1 there is not really an apron to get out of the way, but we knew here the track is fairly wide and you would be able to cool the cars down.  From my perspective I kind of thought it was a no brainer to just let us cool the engines down.  I know that there is a reason they are not letting us do that, but he said let’s give it a couple of weeks and just see what plays out.  I don’t know that they have had people come to them and say that they didn’t want to use cool down units because everyone I talked to felt fairly adamant that would be a good change.
 
“But I think they are just wanting to let it play out especially we haven’t done a mile and a half yet to see kind of how it works.  This is another really good track for this qualifying procedure because you can go quicker on your second run if you make the car better.  There are going to be some tracks come up that you can’t, but like Phoenix last week and here scuff tires actually are as good if not better than sticker tires are.  I think you will see that today where if guys don’t make it in the first time, if they can get their car cooled off enough that you could go quicker the second time out.  It’s just that tape is so critical here.  If you have to take tape off to keep the car cool enough you are not going to go faster.  I think it would be more exciting if we could have full tape every time so you guarantee the chance of trying to knock somebody out.”
 
COULD YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU EXPECT IN TERMS OF THIS PACKAGE ON THIS TRACK AND HOW MUCH YOU ARE GOING TO PUT INTO HOW THE RACING GOES DOWN TODAY ARE YOU STILL IN A WAIT AND SEE MODE?
“I don’t expect the racing to be dramatically different.  It’s really hard to evaluate it right now because in the testing that we did yesterday and the little bit of practice we had this morning everyone is on good tires.  If your car doesn’t handle good you just pull in and work on it.  You never really get a chance to catch anyone.  I was a little shocked that in testing yesterday that really the bottom of the race track was the preferred line.  Normally it’s that way here until it rubbers up a little bit and then you see guys starting to move up.  Especially in (turns) one and two to get around the bumps, but yesterday we didn’t see that.  It seemed like all the guys that were quick could stay right on the bottom and you could do that for 15 or 20 laps in a row, which was somewhat unique.  I think until we get into tomorrow where it warms up and you have guys that stay out and a group of guys that stay out and run 15 or 20 laps at a time it would be hard to really give any type of an evaluation of what we are going to have.”
 
CONSIDERING THE YEAR THAT YOU WON THE DAYTONA 500 AND THE BRICKYARD WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ON THE CHASE RULES NOW AND HOW THAT WOULD HAVE HELPED YOU:
“That would have been great in 2010 for sure.  My take is that it will be more exciting to watch.  I think it’s great that if you win a race that you kind of punch your ticket and you are guaranteed into the Chase.  From a general fans perspective I think that if you win you should be in the Chase.  I like it.  It’s going to be interesting when they start knocking people out after three races.  Especially if you have somebody that dominated the first part of the season and then they don’t make it through.  It’s going to be interesting to go to the last race and have somebody that is going to win the championship based on just that race.  It’s different and when we went from running every single week to having a 10 race playoff format no one liked that and I think it turned out to be really good.  I think it’s tough to give an opinion until you see how it plays out.”
 
FOR YOU AS A DRIVER UNDER THIS NEW FORMAT WHEN DOES A SENSE OF URGENCY REALLY START TO SET IN IF YOU DON’T HAVE A WIN?
“I think that all depends on where you are in points.  Because there are going to be people that make the Chase that haven’t won a race.  Clint Bowyer kind of comes to mind last year.  I think he was second or third in points when we got to Richmond and he hadn’t won a race yet.  So there are going to be some people that make it in.  I don’t know when we get down to the two or three races leading into Richmond guys that know they have no chance of making it in on points.  Yeah, it might even be 10 guys that don’t have a chance of making it in on points.  If they win a race to be guaranteed in I think you will see it fire up at that point.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ABOUT THE NEW QUALIFYING PROCEDURE HERE AT LAS VEGAS?
“I won’t lie I’m a little bit nervous about qualifying today.  It’s so much different than just trying to get the best set-up in the car and go out and run that one lap all by yourself and you know you are going to get clean air.  There are so many more factors now where someone could pull out in front of you or if the people are cooling down their engines could get in your way and mess your lap up.  I think most of the teams approach qualifying the same way.  We were fourth in practice so we feel really confident that unless something goes wrong you are going to make the first segment.  We are not panicked to get out initially, but if someone gets in your way and messes that lap up then it creates panic. There are a lot of unknowns and I think until we do this a few times and you understand it better it’s a little nerve racking.  Which I think is good because the excitement of qualifying before was when you would come somewhere like this was how much throttle could use and it was exciting to run that fast just one lap.  But now there is so much strategy in it and if you make it through the adjustments you make to your car because it’s going to drive different on hot old tires versus what it does on new tires.  It definitely has all the teams trying to figure out what the next trick will be.”