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TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 28, 2014
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed how he feels, gaining chemistry with his new crew chief and other topics. Full Transcript:
KEVIN HARVICK WAS IMPRESSED ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU LISTEN AS AN OWNER. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME FOR YOU WITH ALL YOUR DIFFERENT RACING INTERESTS?
“I don’t know, probably, you’ve got to listen to the guys that are driving for you the same as the driver. You have to relay that information to somebody. From an owners standpoint you’ve got to spend more time listening and then acting on it.”
YOU GOT THROUGH ALL OF SPEEDWEEKS HOW DID YOU FEEL THIS WEEK?
“I’ll be honest, I’ll be more happy when everybody quits asking me how I feel. I’m not 100 percent. I’m not going to be 100 percent for a while. It was fine. There wasn’t any drama, same as we said for the shootout, same as we said for the qualifying race and same as we said after the (Daytona) 500. I appreciate everybody checking on me, but it’s not going to change in a week. It wasn’t a big drama, everything is fine. Everything is fine in the car this week so far. Hopefully, we will be able to talk a year from now about how far we have come.”
IN REGARDS TO CHAD JOHNSTON BEING BACK AFTER HAVING APPENDICITIS LAST WEEK:
“Yeah getting operated on. I thought he did a pretty good job last week. This week we are back to kind of the weekly side of it now. I thought he did a really good job of fighting through the pain, getting operated on and being back at the track.”
IN REGARDS TO HIS NEW CREW CHIEF AND GAINING CHEMISTRY:
“I wish it was that easy to pick a number. You have been doing this long enough that you know it can be weeks, it can be years. You can’t sit there and say it’s going to take this long. It never has been that way and never will be.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE EXTRA FOUR HOURS OF TESTING NEXT WEEK IN LAS VEGAS:
“Yeah I will take all the time I can get right now. Those four hours at a race weekend is going to be big. That is going to be a valuable four hours for us.”
IF PRACTICE GETS RAINED OUT TOMORROW WHAT AFFECT WILL THAT HAVE IF ANY ON SUNDAY?
“I don’t know. You guys are asking stuff we don’t know about. We got an hour and a half of practice. If it is it’s going to be like whatever we had at the end of practice. I just don’t know. ”
IS THE CAR GOING TO BE DIFFERENT THAN LAST YEAR?
“Of course it’s different than last year. It’s a whole different package than last year of course it feels different. We haven’t been in a race situation yet. We ran an hour and a half of practice, which half of that you spend in qualifying trim.”
