NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 7, 2014
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed memories of racing in the Las Vegas, Nevada area, the added adjustability in the cars with the new rules package, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s confidence level and may other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING TO LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY SEEKING YOUR FIRST VICTORY OF THE SEASON AT A PLACE THAT HAS BEEN GOOD TO YOU:
“I love coming back here.  I spent so much time here in my younger years racing from racing dirt bikes in the Henderson area.  A lot of years the mini nationals were placed over there for the amateur dirt bike racers.  Literally across the street is where the start/finish and the main pit area for The Mint 400 was which I changed a lot of tires and worked in a pit for many years.  Also competed in a few of The Mint 400’s myself, Vegas has been great to me in racing.  Really kind of growing up on the West Coast a racing hub, so when this track was built here hoped to race on it and certainly had my success on this track and enjoy it out here.
 
“It’s always an interesting race because it’s so early in the season and usually one of our first big tracks that we compete on.  You find out how you stack up and where you are at.  Phoenix went well for us.  We would have liked to have been a bit better but had a very good week and progressed through the practice sessions and in the race.  We learned about the qualifying format and kind of what we wanted to do this weekend.  Then yesterday’s test session was nice.  There were point’s where we were real fast and happy.  Then with the rules like they are now it is very easy to make an adjustment on your car that affects four or five other areas and takes the car right out of the race track and slows you down.  We are learning and we are enjoying the process.  There are a bunch of new challenges right now with the new car.  I love this track and I love the area.  One other thing to add to this race track and how you drive it for whatever reason it’s been a very intense track, a track that bravery usually pays off and I think that fits my driving style and works good for me here.”
 
DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF FRIENDS HERE?  IS THIS A PLACE YOU COME IN YOUR OWN TIME OFF?
“No, I did a lot growing up just from a racing perspective.  Then a night or two out here is good.  I guess I might spend too much time in the casinos and doing things I shouldn’t where a night or two is about all I need.  The banquet week is three days too long because livers hate me by the end of it.  Vegas is fun, but it’s really just in my mind a racing town.  It’s why I’ve been here so many times and I do have friend from the off road racing industry that are in town.  I just saw Brendan Gaughan in the hallway, chatted with him.  Growing up I would stay at his house and we would come out here to the go-kart track and race around.  Just different memories like that, but again all racing based.”
 
HOW WILL YOU LOOK AT YOUR PERFORMANCE AT THE TEST AND WHAT YOU DO ON SUNDAY AND DIAGNOSIS THAT FOR THE REST OF YOUR SEASON GIVEN THAT WE GO TO SO MANY INTERMEDIATE TRACKS?
“I think how we run here will dictate our testing schedule.  If we don’t have the speed or feel like directionally we are going down the right road it would be useful to test on a bigger track soon.  A lot of people have been to Nashville and Nashville is great to get out and run on, but it’s not a mile and a half.  It’s tough to really take specifics from that race track to other race tracks.  It’s a concrete track, different shape and different size than a lot of places we run on.  This weekend is important for sure.  Yesterday was very helpful and useful.  I’m glad that NASCAR allowed us to come out for a few hours.”
 
DOES HAVING MORE ADJUSTABILITY IN THE CAR PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOU IN TERMS OF COMMUNICATION AND BEING PRECISE IN TERMS OF WHAT THE CAR IS DOING?
“Definitely, communication is always key.  The one thing that we have found right now with the ride heights like they are and the options you can run for springs.  You can make a change to a spring in the car and affect your ride heights and completely change the way the geometry works in the car.  As you look at it initially you think ‘okay this will free the car up’ you send it onto the race track, you come back you are plowing tight.  It’s like ‘wait a second what is going on?’  You have to look three or four layers deeper to understand the way everything works together and they are like ‘oh I see, it changed ride heights, which changed this, now I see why the car is tight.’  So there are more steps involved with making a decision now.  I feel like communication still is key, but the thought process on the pit box is more important than it’s ever been because a simple change affects more things now.”
 
DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE IN DALE (EARNHARDT) JR.’S CONFIDENCE FROM WHERE HE WAS WHEN IT WAS REALLY BAD TO WHERE HE IS NOW WHEN HE’S JUST RIDING ON CLOUD NINE ALL THE TIME:
“I feel that and we are all guilty of it.  When things aren’t rolling well you go multiple races without winning or seasons whatever it might be.  I think a lot of people look within and kind of shut down and get quiet.  I certainly feel like Junior is in that category and maybe more so than a lot of people.  Just guessing that pressure from fans, pressure that he puts on himself, pressure of his father’s success a lot of those elements weigh on him heavy and heavier than what a lot of other drivers deal with.  Getting to know him so well now being in the same shop I could see that effect on him and I have always tried to lighten things up and try to help keep him open and having fun.  Steve Letarte is greatly responsible for keeping him open and having fun.  When stuff is not right Steve does a nice job of ‘hey this sucked, let’s move on and do something different.’  That has worked very well for him and has kept his confidence high.  The last couple of races certainly show where his confidence is and what comes with it.  I can say that throughout all of last year and even into part of the season the year before when things really started turning around for him that success leads to confidence.  That circle started and they have been building ever since and we have all seen it in his stats and performance.  This year he is off to an awesome start.”
 
KYLE BUSCH SAID THAT THE PRESSURE TO WIN COMES IN AT CHICAGO AND LOUDON AND DOVER.  HOW DO YOU THINK THIS WILL CHANGE THE APPROACH OF DRIVERS SUCH AS YOURSELF FOR THAT FIRST SEGMENT OF THE CHASE?
“I definitely agree.  The fact that points still count for the first cut to make the Chase, essentially you need to be 16th in points, which is more generous than what we have seen in previous years.  I do agree with Kyle’s mindset.  I think that winning late in the season is very important.  I guess you still can transfer all the way through by having a great point’s situation which I’m in favor of.  I think our series still needs to have that element of consistency and be rewarded for it.  But winning becomes most important from Chicago on.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 6, 2014
              
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW KICKSTART CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and discussed his confidence level, testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, ‘Throw Back Thursday’ and many other topics. Full transcript:
 
HOW HAS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL HELPED WITH THE START TO YOUR SEASON?
“Your confidence brings a positive attitude with it.  We’ve been building that confidence obviously for several years resulting in a really solid season last year, especially throughout the Chase.  Starting off this year with a win and a second place finish just continues to make us feel like what we’re doing is working and what we’re doing is heading in the right direction.  When you get more confidence you’re more positive and relationships with yourself and your crew chief and among your crew members and what have you are better, easier when everything is working.  So far, so good.  It’s a long year and we have to be aware of all the obstacles and challenges ahead and continue to work hard and stay focused.  Take opportunities like today and really maximize that opportunity on the track to be able to learn and hopefully the results will keep coming for us.”
 
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO GAIN FROM TODAY’S TEST AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE?
“I think everybody obviously wants to learn what they can about the rules and the changes in the ride height.  They’re allowing some different things with bump stops as well and there are just a lot of different variables that we have yet to be able to get on the race track.  I know a lot of other teams have tested a lot at Nashville and some places, but there are some teams like ourselves who haven’t really put a lot of time into testing in the off-season due to the lack of reasonable facilities to test at.  I think a lot of teams just really want to get out there and try everything they can and learn as much as they can at a race track that we actually compete.  This stuff with translate to Charlotte, Texas and a lot of other places where we see similar loads on the left-front corner of the car.  Even just to be able to see, you’ll be able to get an idea of where you are against the competition at the mile-and-a-half tracks which are prevalent throughout the series.  Everybody is really anxious to see where they are after all the off-season work and study against the competition.  We got an idea at Phoenix, but that’s a unique race track, not really comparable to a lot of other tracks on the circuit.  This will be a real good idea of exactly where each company is performance-wise.  I know it’s just four hours and it’s one day of testing, but if you can come out of here feeling really confident then you just continue to roll in that momentum and that confidence right on through the rest of the weekend then you can turn it into a really good result.”
 
HOW FAST CAN YOU TURN WHAT YOU LEARN IN TESTING AROUND FOR THE RACE WEEKEND?
“It will help this weekend.  We’re definitely going out today to test what can make our car fast for Sunday.  Whatever we use here will traditionally translate to a lot of race tracks throughout the year.  We may be able to see trends.  We have a lot more spoiler on the car with the new package on the ride height that changes the downforce quite a bit so you’re going to start to see trends whether it be rear-spring split, different things that will be a little bit different from last year that will help you shortcut understanding how to take it to another race track.  If you think that the spring splits closing up a little bit because of certain things or opening up because of certain things that they changed in the off-season as far as the rules, that will translate to the rest of the race tracks and that’s something you don’t really have to go through when we go to these other mile-and-a-halves.  We’ll be able to understand that what worked at Vegas should plug right in at these other places.”
 
WHERE DID YOU FEEL YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS COMPARED TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
“Before, we sort of been all over the board really.  I think in the last 10 races we’ve ran, we’ve been on par with Jimmie (Johnson).  He’s obviously been the lead horse in the organization for a long time in performance.  I feel like in the last 10 races or so we’ve been on par with him if not a little bit better in certain cases, obviously in the last few races we’ve been better, but just in results.  You can’t sleep on Jimmie, he’ll get it going and won’t be a problem.  I think in the last seven years we’ve been at the bottom, we’ve been the third, second, first, we’ve been all over.  More often we’ve been in the back half of the four cars.  We haven’t performed as well as our other three teammates throughout 2009 and 2010 and 2011 we started getting a little bit better.  It’s a very, very competitive group.  Kasey’s (Kahne) as fast as anybody.  Jeff’s (Gordon) got four championships and tons of experience and wins races.  They raise your game, it’s good to have people pushing you and they definitely push me to be better as a driver and I learn a lot from all three of them.”
 
WHAT IS IT ABOUT COMING TO VEGAS THAT MAKES IT UNIQUE?
“The town itself, the mystique of Vegas and the history of this town and how it was built.  How it survives.  I think the track certainly adopted that personality and the way the garage is built, the way the fans have access to us throughout practice and they can really get on top of the car and see what we’re doing, victory lane and how they do the driver’s meeting here is unlike any other place where we all walk out on the red carpet into a sea of fans and sit there throughout the driver’s meeting amongst all the fans.  The track itself is an impressive facility when you compare it to other tracks on the circuit.  Driving in here and when you’re inside and looking around just the facility here for the media, it’s a really nice place and very representative of Las Vegas itself.  I think it’s very fitting and the track itself is fun.  It has some good character with the bumps going into turn one and it’s got a lot of banking and fast speeds.  The groove has widened out quite a bit and makes it really appealing for drivers.  It’s a fun track and it was fun even before they reconfigured it.  Obviously, a lot flatter and a lot less speed, but still just as enjoyable to race on.”
 
RODNEY CHILDERS SEEMS TO HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FROM EVERYONE IN THE GARAGE.  WHAT IS IT ABOUT HIM THAT PEOPLE LIKE OR THAT HAS EARNED HIM RESPECT FROM THE NASCAR COMMUNITY?
“I went to high school with Rodney’s brother and I was at Rodney’s house one time when he was a little kid.  He used to race little quarter midgets and go-karts and stuff like that.  He is a very good driver.  He would come down here to Daytona run Municipal Stadium when they had the nationals here.  He must have been 12, 14 years old showing me all these VHS tapes of his races when I was over at his house that day.  We became friends after that.  I have followed him as he started racing late models.  He was working with Clay Rogers in a shop together with those guys.  He raced every weekend at Tri-County (Motor Speedway) and he won every single race he ever drove down there it seemed like.  I thought he was going to be a race car driver myself.  And he worked on his own stuff so I knew that he was really sharp with the car.  It turns out he might of made as good a driver as he is a crew chief, but fate landed hi
m on top of the pit box.  We have just known each other for a very long time.
 
“I think that people perceive him as maybe the next Chad Knaus.  He has got a lot of respect from his peers because people really realize his potential and his talent.  He has got a great opportunity to showcase that.  I think that obviously Jimmie (Johnson) is going to be one of the guys as a favorite early in the championship.  But I think that (Kevin) Harvick has been consistently in the top five in points year after year.  I believe that he is really in a program where he can shine with the opportunity with Rodney to excel even more.  They will be extremely challenging.  I think that the Phoenix race was just a sign of more to come.  When we went to test at Charlotte his car was by far superior to everyone else there.  I was like ‘man everybody better watch out, everybody better wake up because this is going to be a strong team.’  They are going to be tough and deservingly so.  I think Rodney has already had some good success, but this is a great opportunity for him to really showcase his talent.  I think he’s got a ton of it.”
 
YOU HAVE BEEN THE MOST POPULAR DRIVER IN THE SPORT FOR MANY YEARS.  CAN DALE EARNHARDT, JR. GET ANY MORE POPULAR AND DOES THAT PUT ANY MORE DEMANDS ON YOU THAN YOU THOUGHT POSSIBLE?
“No I don’t really think about it that much.  I don’t worry about the demands or worry about the popularity or any of that stuff.  You take it as it comes whichever way the tide goes.  I am enjoying our success and enjoying the crew I’m with, enjoying working with Steve (Letarte), enjoying everything going on around me.  Everything seems to be in a positive direction right now so just trying to have fun with that.  The fans are really enjoying it. I interact with them on social media a lot more lately is given me a great perspective of how they feel and what their energy is.  We have always had a good connection with our fan base and it’s even stronger now I think.  They are just really enjoying what we are doing.  I think that drives us and motivates us when people are happy with how you are doing and want to see you do well and want to continue to see you do well.  Having that interaction daily is a motivating factor instead of being more pressure.  I’m not working to get more popularity I’m just trying to go win races and trying to have fun doing it.”
 
TODAY IS ‘THROW BACK THURSDAY’.  YOU ARE AN OLD SCHOOL GUY ARE YOU ENJOYING HAVING THIS VENUE (TWITTER) TO SHARE WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR WHOLE LIFE?
“Yeah, it’s great.  You want to throw them all out there at once.  I got a lot of pictures on my phone for ‘throw back Thursday’.  It’s pretty neat.  It makes Twitter fun seeing all the other photos and just being able to be reminded of history and individuals and certain events.  So yeah that is definitely a lot of fun.  I put up a picture this morning in the motorcoach that I had.  Something else happened… oh yeah, Jimmy Means group was asking me, his Twitter handle from his race team was asking me if I had any pictures of him and me.  I had one of me and Brad that Brad gave me.  Brad Means is his son.  Me and Brad are really good friends.  Brad sent me a picture about two months ago.  I posted that on there and some guy says ‘how do you have that? You have that on your phone just sitting there?’  I’m like ‘yeah’ (laughs).  Yeah I’ve got all those pictures on my phone.  My phone is just like everybody else’s phone.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 6, 2014
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed the four hour test session, the momentum the No. 4 Chevrolet SS team brings into Las Vegas after the win last week at Phoenix International Raceway and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW DID THE TEST HERE AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY GO FOR YOU AND THE NO. 4 CHEVROLET?
“I thought it went really well.  We struggled in the beginning just to get the feel.  It took us a couple of hours to kind of get everything situated and get the balance of the car right.  Then we felt pretty good about it after that.  Changed a lot of stuff and did a lot of different things to the car.  Felt like we made good head way in the end and hopefully we can progress on that tomorrow and make it even better.”
 
HOW ENCOURAGING IS IT FOR YOU TO SEE YOURSELF ON TOP OF THE SPEED CHARTS AGAIN COMING OFF A TON OF MOMENTUM THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE? IS THAT JUST MORE CONFIDENCE FOR YOU GUYS?
“I think the best thing that happened today is the car didn’t run very fast at the beginning of the practice.  We were three or four tenths off and had to kind of abort on what we were doing and go a different route.  The next route was not as good and the third route finally wound up being good.  I think those are good things that are, for us, important because it gives us direction when we go to other mile and a half race tracks so we don’t have to do like we did today.  We can get to what has been working for us and just go straight from there to progress that package to make it even better.  I thought that was probably the best thing that came out of today.  We ran really well last week and coming here and running really well right out of the box probably wouldn’t have been the best thing in the world just for the fact that it’s good for those guys to know that sometimes you’ve got to keep working at it.  It’s good for all of us to have to work at it and communicate and do things that you are going to have to do throughout the year to overcome things.  That was good.  I would rather of had us struggle at the beginning of the day and have to work through things and communicate well with each other.  Just nobody gets wound up and everybody just gives the information and they are good at inputting all the information and trying different things.  Today was a good example of that.”
 
YOU HAVE DONE A LOT OF TESTING IN YOUR RACING CAREER.  HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS ONE GIVEN ALL THE RULE CHANGES TO THE CAR?  HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE THROUGHOUT THE SEASON?
“Well we have already done a lot of testing.  Well I say a lot, we have done three or four tests as we have led into the season.  We have been able to gather a lot of information already, but you just never know where you stand until you get to the race track.  Some of the things that we had tried earlier in the year and we tried some different routes today and so when you see where you stack up it kind of gives you a better idea of where you stand.  I think it was a good day for us.”
 
GIVEN THE PREVALENCE THESE DAYS OF COMPUTER MODELING AND SIMULATION WERE YOU SURPRISED TO FIND THAT MUCH ADJUSTABILITY IN THE CAR AND WERE YOU SURPRISED TO FIND THE NEED TO ADJUST ON IT THAT MUCH?
“We have a lot of things we can adjust on the cars this year.  A lot of those adjustments, there are some really sensitive spots, the jack screws and things are much more sensitive than they have been in the past. NASCAR has kind of given us some different things that will help us be able to make bigger swings at the car during the race that are very sensitive and still kind of fresh in the simulation.  So it’s not 100 percent right as you go through some of the travels and different things.  So our travels and things were off a fair amount, not a fair amount, but they were off in the beginning of the test.  So we just got all those right and with the data and things on the car today you can kind of get a better idea of where you were and hopefully go back and zero in on all that and make it better as you go into the next few weeks.”
 

KEVIN HARVICK LEADS CHEVROLET 1-2 FINISH AT PHOENIX
Stewart-Haas driver dominates for Team Chevy’s seventh win in last 11 PIR races; Earnhardt Jr. second to retain championship lead
 
AVONDALE, Ariz. (March 2, 2014) – Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS turned in a dominating performance today leading 224 of the 312 laps to win The Profit on CNBC 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). Harvick’s victory is the 24th of his career and marks him in the record book as PIR’s all-time leader in Sprint Cup victories with five. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver led a 1-2 finish for Chevrolet, which is now two-for-two in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
 
Chevrolet SS drivers took six of the top 10 finishing positions. Coming off a victory at the Daytona 500 a week ago, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. placed second in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS to give Team Chevy a sweep of the top two positions for the second consecutive race at PIR. Chevrolet has now won seven of the last 11 races at PIR.
 
“Man, this just solidifies so many things and so many decisions,” Harvick said in Victory Lane. “It’s been so much work with all the time and effort that these guys have put in, but what a race car. I’m just really happy and thank everybody at the Hendrick engine shop and all these cars sharing information. Dale [Earnhardt] Junior racing there for second was a lot of fun. Man, this is awesome!”
 
Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Pepsi MAX Chevrolet SS placed fifth, followed by six-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS in sixth and Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS in seventh. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10 in the No. 1 Cessna/Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet SS coming home 10th.
 
Earnhardt, Jr.’s runner-up finish solidified his early lead in the Sprint Cup championship standings. Gordon moved up to third in points with his top-five finish at Phoenix and Harvick moved from 12th to fourth with the victory.
 
Next week the series continues the west coast swing competing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday March 9th.
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
RODNEY CHILDERS, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNING CREW CHIEF
GENE HAAS, CO-OWNER OF STEWART-HAAS RACING, RACE WINNING TEAM OWNER
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll start our winning team’s press conference.  We are joined by race winner, Kevin Harvick.  The win today is Kevin’s 24th victory in 468 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
            You got to finish this one today.  Talk about your victory.
 
KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, it’s just a huge credit to the team really, the organization and everybody who has been a part of this process as we’ve gone through the winter and over the last couple months of last year.  To see the amount of change within Stewart‑Haas Racing with the car, the haulers, the pit boxes, everything that has come with putting all these pieces together is just a huge credit to really these guys and all the guys that work in the shop.
            I’m just the lucky guy that gets to drive the car around the racetrack when they’re dialed in like they were today.  Luckily we were able to put it all together.
 
THE MODERATOR:  This is your fifth victory at Phoenix.  That leads all drivers now.  Talk a little bit about that.
 
KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, this has been a great racetrack for us through the years before the repave, after the repave.  I feel like when I come here with Trucks, Nationwide, Cup, these are the types of racetracks I was brought up on.  We used to come here for the Copper Classic, the Winston West days.  This was our Daytona 500.
            It’s fun to come here.  I feel like the flat track stuff is something that we’ve had a good knack at.  Over the years we’ve been able to race a lot of different series and spend a lot of time on this racetrack.  You learn and apply that race after race after race and hopefully you can learn something each week.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Also crew chief Rodney Childers is here.  We’ve had a couple of drivers in here already.  They’re claiming that you two are the new Dynamic Duo; the combination of you two is going to be the team to watch.  Talk about the chemistry between you two.
 
RODNEY CHILDERS:  All of it’s been great so far.  It was a long deal in the making.  He said it best one day.  He said that we had to date for a year before I would actually get married to him (smiling).
            It’s actually worked out really good.  But I’m really fortunate that he believed in me and everybody at Stewart‑Haas Racing with Gene, Smoke and Zippy believed in me.  It’s fun to see this all come from basically where we started when Gene and the guys decided that Kurt was going to come over, Zippy called me and said, We’re going to have to start from nothing pretty much.  I said, That’s perfect.  We can do it all the way I want to do it, we can work hard at it and make it happen.
            Just appreciate Gene and everybody there.  I haven’t been told ‘no’ to anything yet.  Maybe that will end after a few more bills come in or whatever.  But it’s been a lot of fun.  It’s been rewarding to see all the guys work so hard and build nice racecars.
            To come and be fast, able to win this race.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Gene Haas, team owner, talk about how it feels to sit here second race of the season and the success you’ve already seen with these two.
 
GENE HAAS:  Well, it took long enough (laughter).
            No, this is phenomenal.  I think there was a lot of skepticism last year about what myself and Tony, what we were up to.  Was there a lot of madness to this?  Quite frankly, I have to agree with Rodney, that it’s a great team.  There’s a lot of synergy at the shop of people working together.
            I don’t know what we did, but I think we put together a great organization.  I’m very thankful for Rodney and Kevin for being the magic it takes to win these things.  We’ll make sure we don’t disturb that.
            Very, very happy Jimmy John’s as a sponsor, Budweiser.  Without them, we wouldn’t have anything.  We’re very proud of that.  I tell you, it’s a very good feeling.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll take questions.
Q.  Kevin, can you talk about the satisfaction of so soon putting Stewart‑Haas in the Chase?
KEVIN HARVICK:  Like Gene said, there’s been a lot of skepticism as we’ve gone through the off‑season.  For me, I honestly you hear it, I paid attention to it during the off‑season obviously, but as we’ve gone through the first few weeks, you try to put yourself in your own little world.
            Last three days I’ve sat in my hotel room from about from about 7:30 on and said, How are we going to mess this up, as we trying to go through everything that we could do wrong.  Rodney is probably annoyed with me as I’ve come in the hauler and asked about five thousand questions about probably the dumbest things he’s ever heard of.
            All in all, Gene has given us every resource that you can imagine.  Tony h
as been just very supportive of whatever we wanted to do.  Rodney has put together a group of guys that believes in what we’re doing.
            Our dates were really good as we went through time to try to put this whole thing together.  I feel like we’ve known each other for 10 years because he’s a relationship guy, taught me a lot about trying to make sure you know who the people are and what they’re doing, support them.  We’ve had some hiccups throughout the first week.  I felt like we were going to have those.  I think everybody anticipated those.  Nobody has pointed fingers and said it’s this guy’s fault or that guy’s fault.  It’s, What do we need to fix that or this to try to make that better?
            I think as you go through time, the sky’s the limit for this team because everybody is still trying to learn each other’s names let alone what’s going on with the racecar.
            They all know the parts and pieces of the racecar they’re working on.  I guarantee you if you lined them all up, there would not be one person on that team that knew everybody’s name, even him, even if it was the pit crew or the shop guys.
            So we’ve been to a lot of dinners.  We spent a lot of time with the road guys, tried to spend some time in the shop.
            I’ve heard Gene say this as he’s worked through the race shop.  The enthusiasm is contagious at SHR.  I think that is very important.  You’re only as good as the people you have around you.  I’m very honored to drive that car into Victory Lane in week two and have all these guys believe in us from top to bottom, whether it’s Gene or Brett or Tony or Eddie, whoever the guys that were all a part of putting all these pieces together and making all this happen.  It’s quite an honor to be a part of that.
Q.  Kevin, obviously you make a big decision to come over here.  You can hope it turns out a certain way but you don’t really know.  Even when you were fast in December, fast this weekend, you don’t really know whether it’s going to happen.  Now that you’re already in Victory Lane, what kind of validation is it in your mind about your own personal decision to take that leap, make a big move?
KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, I feel like as we’ve gone through time, whether it be selling the race teams, going and shutting everything down, changing teams, changing jobs, doing all the decisions that we’ve done, I feel like you talk to your friends, you talk to your family, you talk to the people around you.
            It wasn’t that I couldn’t be a part of the championship before, it’s just that we hadn’t won a championship before.  We do this to win.  You want to win races.  We’ve been fortunate to do that in the past.  But in this arena it’s about winning championships and trying to be competitive on a weekly basis.
            I felt like I needed that enthusiasm to show up to work.  I get to do this with a lot of my friends, with Tony.  I feel like we’ve had a great relationship in the past.  He’s driven my Nationwide cars.  I feel like as we go through situations, I’ve learned that Tony is one of the smartest people that I know.
            I sat at a roulette wheel with Tony in Vegas about four weeks ago.  I learned he’s just short of Rain Man.  He doesn’t say anything.  He sits there and listens to everything you say, takes all these things in.  I know I’m going to say something and he’s going to remember it four, five, six weeks down the road, Remember back in this meeting when you said this, why do you think this today?
            I learned a lot sitting in our first competition meeting last week and I’ve learned just sitting in the competition meetings that we’ve had that he’s a listener.  I think there’s a lot to be said for that.
            I think as we go through time, I’ve sat there and talked with Tony about what’s expected.  He expects me and Rodney to help lead the charge on the competition side as to what needs to be the direction.
            When he basically said that, it’s like, right off the bat I felt comfortable speaking my mind, Let’s do this.  I think it gives these guys a lot of leeway to do the same thing.
Q.  Kevin, when you get to the track on race day, pretty much everybody in the garage is saying the 4 is the car to beat.
KEVIN HARVICK:  It’s terrible (smiling).
Q.  Does that put more pressure on you?
KEVIN HARVICK:  I called him last night and I said, I don’t know what we need to do, but we need to be sure that our road guys don’t devastate our pit crew guys.  We need to make sure everybody is a cohesive bunch.  Like I said, nobody has pointed the fingers at anybody.  Even if something would have happened today, nobody, in my opinion, would have pointed the fingers and said anything.
            Everybody has just been so supportive of each other, but it’s a lot of pressure when you have a fast car, especially so early into the situation that we’re in with a new team, new people and everything that’s involved.
            It’s our responsibility as driver and crew chief to control everybody’s emotions and expectations.  Really for me it’s made me look at things a lot differently than I have in the past just because everybody’s looking at you, waiting for you to say something or do something.  They look at him the same way, to do something or say something.
            We could have flipped this track upside down and I don’t know that Rodney would have gotten excited about anything.  That’s good for me because I’m very excitable in the right situation.
Q.  Kevin, you said earlier that you thought about 15 ways to lose the race last night or things that could happen.  It seemed like you had 15 restarts in the last part of the race.  Was there any concern that something might happen, you might slip?
 
KEVIN HARVICK:  Always concern just for the fact that the restarts can be crazy and you’re very vulnerable as the leader, especially to the third‑place car to anticipate what you’re doing.
            Joey had been knocking on the bumper all day.  For me going into the last restart, you see all that Speedy Dry down there, they just blew everything into the bottom lane.  They blew everything onto the apron in turn three and four.  You guys couldn’t see that.  I’m like, Man, that’s my line.  It’s full of Speedy Dry and crumbs going into turn three.
            You try to block all that out.  Really for me it was all about not spinning the tires.  I spun the tires a little bit early in the four or five restarts from the end.  The 22 was able to get going.
            I asked him for the restart ratios about, what, two months ago.  They all sent me an email back saying, Are you sure?  I’m like, Yes, I’m sure.  This is what we need to do.  They have had confidence to build those ratios, those things.  I feel like today we had good restarts and were able to make it happ
en.
Q.  As great as it is to win, could you talk about your feelings to have A.J. Foyt present the trophy to you.
KEVIN HARVICK:  I asked him, Have you seen George Snider?  George was part of driving A.J.’s stuff.  A.J. is a legend whether it’s stock cars or IndyCars.  To see him in Victory Lane is like expecting Smoke to shave every week, cut his hair, show up on time.  I haven’t been to anything that he’s showed up on time.
            Seeing A.J. in Victory Lane shaking hands, handing out hats.  It was like, All right, I don’t know what they paid you, but you’re happy.
            A.J. is just a legend in the racing world.  To be able to stand there next to him was pretty awesome.
Q.  Rodney, how much did you pick Kevin Harvick’s brain to put this car together in a way that you felt he could win this race?
RODNEY CHILDERS:  In all honesty, we’ve been to three tests and two races now.  I don’t think I’ve asked him one time how he wanted to set a car up yet.
            It’s our job.  He doesn’t need to be worried about that.  He needs to get in the car and drive as fast as he can, not have to worry about it.
            But on the other hand we’ve had good communication through all of it.  With the rules changing tremendously, all the stuff going on, it’s really, really hard to understand right now for a lot of people.  It’s going to take some time for outsiders to understand it.  It’s just a lot going on.
            But we’ve just been really fortunate.  Like I said, they’ve let me kind of build the team that I felt it needed to be built.  The guys at the shop have done a great job.  We’ve just built fast racecars.  We’ve been fortunate everywhere we’ve been.
            Everybody else is really, really good in this garage.  It’s hard to stay on top and really hard to keep your cars in a competitive mode.  So we’ll just have to keep working hard and hopefully keep that advantage.
Q.  What are the benefits specifically with Stewart‑Haas Racing, with the atmosphere you’re in now, compared to Michael Waltrip Racing and RCR?
KEVIN HARVICK:  For me you have a three‑time champion in Tony Stewart.  You have Kurt Busch who has won a ton of races and a championship.  You have Danica, who wants to get better understanding is like a sponge.
            Our owner is going to come into play and make sure that everybody is doing what they need to do to drive each other in a healthy way to be successful.  This is a hard sport.  It’s hard to win.  You need to celebrate every win like it’s your last one because you never know when it might be your last one.
            I just enjoy racing the cars and being around the people and seeing the enthusiasm that comes with everything.  It doesn’t seem like a job to everybody.  It seems like everybody wants to be here and is having fun doing it.
            It’s just a different atmosphere for me.  The enthusiasm is just through the roof.
Q.  Kevin, was there any part of this day or the car or the race that you felt was similar to your win here in November?  Because it’s a different team, somewhat different car, is it totally different?
KEVIN HARVICK:  It’s like Rodney was talking earlier, you have to have a very open mind to not being set in your ways.  You look at the springs, ride heights, shocks, pieces and parts.  One is in Arizona and one is in North Carolina.  They’re so far different, you wouldn’t even recognize the two setups to be in the same spot in Victory Lane.
            It’s just a different vibe and different feeling.  Nothing is really the same compared to what it was in the fall.
Q.  Obviously last restart of any race, if you’re the leader, you’re going to expect to get run up by the third‑place guy.  In this new format, win is what it’s all about, Joey made a bold move.  Is that what you expected?  Was it bolder than what it might have been?  He said on pit lane, What’s the point of finishing second or third?
KEVIN HARVICK:  That’s what we’re all here for, is to try to win races.  I knew it was coming.  He was able to anticipate a couple of those restarts before, knock the back bumper in, do the things he needed to do to try to have a chance to win.  So I knew the later that it got, the more aggressive it was going to get.
            You try to go into that corner and prepare yourself to get hit.  You hope it doesn’t sacrifice the guy on the outside of you, but you have to put yourself in a position to defend yourself, to get hit.
            I didn’t crowd him.  I felt like I gave him a lane.  I felt like if I could just get myself into the first corner and hit the throttle, I was going to come out ahead of him just because of the fact that we were able to turn sooner all day and get on the throttle sooner on the restarts.
            I knew going down in the back corner I just didn’t need to get spun out.  So I let him have his lane.  I felt like that was going to put the 88 in a bad spot, so I gave him a lane to do what he needed to do, take his chance.  I felt like if we could just keep rolling, we were going to be okay.
Q.  Rodney, this new format of winning and getting into the Chase, what kind of additional tool in the toolbox for you?  The 88, until those cautions, looked to be stretching its fuel more than most people.  They had room to do so.  How might it help you for the next 20 some races?
RODNEY CHILDERS:  I mean, as far as the tools, all of our stuff worked really well and all that stuff.  But our thought process isn’t going to change at all.  We have a team that we want to build the nicest cars and have the nicest equipment.  We want to win every practice, sit on the pole and win every race.  That’s never going to change.
            We’ve got a lot of learning and growing still to do, just like Kevin said.  I feel like we just got to get to know each other better, everybody on the team, keep making our stuff better, and we’ll be even more competitive when we can do that.
Q.  Rodney, everybody has been eyeing you guys since the test in December.  When we hear how tight the box is getting, how do you find areas to build a car that’s ahead of the field as you were today?
RODNEY CHILDERS:  When we went to the Charlotte test, we actually took a car that was raced last year and changed some parts and pieces around on it.  I have to admit, I was on top of the truck ready to puke before Kevin made the first lap at Charlotte thinking, This is either going to be really good or really, really bad.
            We talked before that session at Charlotte.  He asked me, What do you think somebody is going to run?  I said, Probably a 2780 or something like that.  He said, I think a 2018.  Then he run like a 2770 his second lap.  I was like, Holy cow!
            For me it’s been adrenaline and confidence that we can do this, that we will.  Really just feeds off of
that every day.  Working 17, 18 hours on some days, I go home, I don’t even feel tired.  The adrenaline will wear off at some point but hopefully we can keep it going.
Q.  Now that you have won and virtually locked yourself into the Chase, does this change the way you prepare for Vegas or any of the races before September?
KEVIN HARVICK:  I don’t think so.  The car is already in the trailer, right?  We’ll load that one on the truck and hope for the best as we get to Las Vegas.
            For him I think it allows him to stretch fuel windows and do a few things.  For the guys in the shop, it allows them to really broaden their horizon on thought processes and things like that.  You can really get aggressive on really everything.
 
RODNEY CHILDERS:  Yeah, I mean, our thought process going into Vegas really isn’t going to change.  We feel like the cars we’re building right now are really good.  Thankfully we have a little bit of a test session on Thursday to be able to see what we’ve got.  If it’s not good, we’ve got time to work on it.
            We’ve got to keep making ourselves better.  We made too many mistakes this weekend.  Thankfully we were able to overcome that.  We’ve got probably a day of celebration in Vegas, but we’ve got a few other days where we need to concentrate on what we’re doing, making ourselves better, going out there and trying to win the race.
Q.  Kevin, did you feel in all those restarts at the end if you got a length on Junior, you had the car to hold him off?
KEVIN HARVICK:  I felt like Junior had the second best car.  But I was more worried about the 22 because I felt like he was able to anticipate the restart better than the second‑place car.  On the last restart, he was able to get inside of us and be able to make a charge going into turn one.
            Like I said earlier, my biggest thing was to make sure we didn’t get spun out.  I felt like even in the middle of the racetrack, I just wanted to be pointed in the right direction to getting the throttle up off the corner.
Q.  Rodney, as far as your crew goes, have all of them won races before?  Was there anybody in Victory Lane who had never been there before?
RODNEY CHILDERS:  I couldn’t even tell you.  I have no idea.  We’ve all been working so hard, we haven’t really sat down and had conversations like that.
            There is a couple guys that have been with me for a while, then there’s other guys that were new to the team, a couple guys off the 39 last year, just different circumstances.
            I don’t really know.  It will be interesting to find that out here in about 30 minutes.  No matter what, I’m sure they’re happy and excited.
Q.  Gene, could you give us an update on the Formula One application?
GENE HAAS:  Yeah, sure.  After Daytona we went over to Geneva, Switzerland.  We met with the FIA.  It was an actual formal sit‑down meeting with six or seven various people involved in the Formula International Association of Automobiles in there.
            They have a very I want to call it formal way of processing applications in the sense that there is no application.
            But they wanted to meet with us.  It was about an hour and a half meeting where they asked us a lot of questions about how we intend to do this, how do we intend to pay for it, what are the logistics of how you’re going to do this.
            We answered those questions as best we could.  I was there.  Joe Custer was there.  Gunther Steiner was there.  They’re pretty intense.  They had a lot of good questions.
            I think what they do is they take that information, evaluate it, make their recommendations to I think it’s the Formula One’s owners association or next group of people, and the process goes on.
            They said they were going to have a decision by Friday.  They notified us on Friday that, no, they were just one part of that decision‑making process, that the decision making process would come later.  They didn’t give us an exact date, but hopefully it will be in another week or two, maybe even longer.
            From what I’ve learned talking to other people, this is fairly normal.  There’s lots of dates they have.  They don’t really make a decision until they’re sure what they want the decision to be.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Gentlemen, congratulations on your win today.  Good luck next week in Vegas.  Thank you for your time.
 
 
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND

THE MODERATOR:  We are now joined by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who finished second in today’s race.  Currently our points leader. Great way to start the season, a first at Daytona, a second here.  Talk about your run out there today.
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Well, got to congratulate Kevin.  Those guys were two-tenths faster than anybody all weekend in practice.  They were just phenomenal.  To be able to run with them as we did all day was a big confidence builder for us.  Even at the end of the race I thought our laps we put together coming up to the checkered were faster than him.
 
I would have loved to have won the race, am a little disappointed to have come that close.  But our team is performing so well.  Got a lot of great chemistry and good communication going back and forth.  Everybody’s confidence is very high.  Everybody’s mood and morale is really high.
 
Hopefully we can maintain that and not have any bad luck or make any mistakes and continue to keep working towards winning more races.
 
If we run second enough, we’re bound to at least trip into one or two (smiling).  We ran second quite a few races in the last 10 or so races we run.  I feel really good.  I feel like we’re coming around the corner, peaking at the right time this season to try to run for the championship.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We’ll start with questions for Dale.
Q.  Dale, right before the spin, you ran your fastest lap of the day.  If it had gone green from that point, do you think you would have had something for him?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I don’t know.  For whatever reason, on that particular run, we were running about the same times I guess, maybe he was just a tick quicker.  I was going to need some traffic to back him up to me.
 
Then the last run, which I cleared the other cars around me, I was much quicker than him the last four laps or so.
 
It’s weird because you won’t change anything, won’t even pit for tires.  The caution will come out, your car will drive different, the caution will come out, it will drive a completely different way again.  You just hope that that rule comes in your favor every time the caution comes out.  On some restarts I had a loose car for 10 laps, then I would have a car that wouldn’t turn for 10 laps on another restart.
 
I don’t know how that happens or why that happens.  Everybody sort of battles a different balance every time we this a restart and get going again, cycle the tire, have a caution, cool the tire off, get going again.  Makes the balance of the car a little different. 
For whatever reason, that last run was the best compared to Kevin.  Before that I don’t think we had anything for him.
Q.  Obviously Daytona is one thing, but when you get here, the real season starts.  Did this run that you had today answer even more questions in your mind than maybe Daytona did because of the way this applies to some of the other places?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I was wondering if we was going to carry on the momentum from last year, running so good in the Chase.  Also with the rules, I was wondering where we were going to fall in performance with the competition, what did people learn during the off‑season, who was going to stand out like the 4 car did today and all weekend.
Seems like we aren’t behind.  We aren’t where the 4 car is, but we’re definitely close.  Hopefully we can learn what we need to learn rapidly in the next several weeks so we can get up to par and win some races.
 
There’s a couple teams out there that are behind, not onto the new package and new rules.  I’m glad that we’re doing pretty well.  The performance is there for us.
 
Hopefully we can maintain it.  We go to a completely different track at Vegas, but we have a whole day Thursday to figure it out.  It will be good to have that track time.
Q.  You talked the other day about how hypothetically having won a race under this new scoring system could give you some latitude to try some things.  What sort of things were going on in the course of the race that might have been a little different if you had not won Daytona?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  We probably would have went with the same strategy as we had today as far as stretching our fuel mileage.  We were stretching it thin.  We would have went with the same strategy regardless of the situation.  But it wouldn’t have been as nerve‑wracking.  It wasn’t as nerve‑wracking today.
 
Normally you’re just biting your fingernails when he says, We’re two laps short, we have to find two laps.  The yellows are coming out, you think you’re saving, but you don’t know how much.  Today, If we run out, we run out, no big deal.  We can gamble with a better conscience.
Q.  During the final caution, did you even think at all about the battle that you ended up with Keselowski?  Is that what took away any opportunity for you to win?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  No.  Kevin’s going to jump out there and get away from us.  We just didn’t have enough laps.  For one, we didn’t have enough racecar all day long.  He’d just been faster.  For whatever reason, that last run, we reeled him in a little bit.  Cut it probably in half.  We needed another 10 laps, but we didn’t have 10 laps.
Q.  Brad was talking about when you guys were close, he saw the fans standing up when you were going to maybe take a lead.  Do you pick that up during the race as well ever?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  No, I’m concentrating as hard as I can to make sure I get the left front tire where I want it to be on the entrance to the corner, and make sure I got the rolling speed I need so I don’t drive through the fronts in the middle of the corner.  You’re thinking about everything going on in the car.  You can’t really think about that.
 
This place really requires your attention throughout the whole lap.  There are some tracks that are bigger where you can see that, like the front straightaway at Michigan or something like that, where you can get a good idea as to what the fans’ reaction is to what’s happening on the track, but it’s usually much larger racetracks.
Q.  On the restarts, was it strictly Kevin had the horsepower to jump out or was he getting a push?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  He gets to go first (laughter).  I mean, I can’t go when he goes.  I’d be cheating.
 
I tried to go in sync with him.  I think the last few restarts, I matched it up.  He got a push from the 22.  I’m on the outside line, which ain’t the preferred line on that corner.  The leader really has a great opportunity to maintain the lead here if he doesn’t make any mistakes on the restart.
But the first several restarts, he was just kicking my butt at the line, then I started seeing what his pattern was, what he had been doing, was able to time it a little better so I didn’t look so foolish.
 
It was going to be hard.  I tried really hard to get down on the corner to stay on his quarter panel off of two because then I would have a great shot, maybe racing him some.  But his car was so good, he had me cleared pretty easily.
Q.  Were you surprised, with all those restarts, that there wasn’t one where he slipped up a little bit?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Not really.  He’s not a rookie.  Guy’s been around a long time, knows what he’s doing.  He’s won some races here.  He feels good and confident about what he’s doing here.  He won last year here.  When you’re winning at a place with regularity in recent months, you got a lot of confidence.
 
He wasn’t going to be rattled by anything.  I would have had to get to his bumper under green to try to get him loose or do something like that, which I might have been able to do.  We just ran out of laps.
 
He was going to be very, very, very hard to pass.  I knew that.
Q.  I’ve been watching you race for a long time, and I know you have the ability.  The biggest change I’ve seen this year is you seem may more comfortable in your car.  Is that so?
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I think we just got a lot of momentum carried over from last year.  We were running well in the Chase.  I think the Chase performance we had got us pretty excited, real happy to look forward to this season.
 
It’s hard to take away a lot from two races.  Such a long season, so many things can happen.  So many teams can learn and progress and the competition gets tougher and tougher throughout the year as everybody starts seeing what is happening in the garage.  Secrets don’t last long.
 
We just got to work hard, harder than everybody else.  We got a lot of tests lined up.  We didn’t test much in the off‑season, didn’t want to burn ourselves out before the season started.  That’s going to help us, I think, really learn a lot more.  We’re already relatively competitive now.  The testing should help us even more.
 
THE MODERATOR:  Congratulations.  See you in Vegas.
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Thank you, guys.  Take it easy.