NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GEICO 500
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 2, 2015

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Talladega Superspeedway and discussed his thoughts on the new qualifying format at superspeedways, the responsibility he feels to do well at Talladega for his fans and many other topics. Full Transcript:

THIS PAST WEEK YOU RECEIVED A DIECAST FROM KEVIN HARVICK. CAN YOU TELL US THE STORY BEHIND THAT?
“He texted me and said he had a – he texted me a picture of it and said he was going to give it to me. I don’t know how he got it or when he got it or how long he has had it. But he wanted me to have it and I told him he should probably keep it if he had any connection to it. But he insisted on me having it. I thought it was pretty neat. I don’t really know if I have too many autographs of Dad’s, so when I got to really thinking about I don’t know that I have any. I thought that was pretty cool. He (Kevin Harvick) is just a real good guy. We have a real good friendship, just a pretty good respect for each other. I thought that was a cool thing.”

THE LAST FEW YEARS IT SEEMS LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN DOING UP MOTHER’S DAY PRETTY BIG. DO YOU HAVE ANY BIG PLANS THIS YEAR?
“Have I? I don’t even remember what I did last year. (From the audience – you barbequed) Yeah, well I barbeque every day I get off. Just happens that we get Mother’s Day off. I will probably definitely fire up the smoker. I think I have Sunday and Monday off, so that will be a pretty big day. Hopefully, get some friends out there. I think it will be a lot of fun.”

HOW EXCITED ARE YOU FOR THE NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT?
“The one thing I wanted more than anything was for the fastest car to get the pole and so forth on down the line. I don’t really have the best idea on how to do that to make it exciting to where it’s very enjoyable to watch. I like NASCAR’s attempt at trying to put the best product forward in the best interest of everybody, the drivers, the fans and the crews. It’s not going to be as exciting as having guys crashing across the finish line and wading racecars up, but it’s very difficult on the teams to be tearing up all these cars in qualifying. Especially on the XFINITY side, a lot of these guys don’t have good back-up’s or bring back-up’s at all. We will see how this works. We will see how it goes it’s really going to come down to how the fans perceive it and whether the fans enjoy it.”

HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS IT FOR YOU THIS YEAR KNOWING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO ENTER THE TALLADEGA RACE NEEDING A WIN TO QUALIFY FOR THE CHASE? HAS THERE BEEN ONE THAT GOT AWAY THIS YEAR?
“Well I figured we had a good chance at getting a win early, but the cars have been quick. Just haven’t put good races together, we didn’t run that well last week or at Phoenix. We have some work to do at that particular style of racetrack. But everywhere else we have been really fast, we have been real happy with the speed. We will just try to be a little more aggressive I guess to try to win Sunday. We don’t have anything to lose. I don’t expect there to be 16 winners. If there are, there are 16 winners, but I don’t expect there to be 16 winners. I believe we are good enough to get in one of those last few positions by points. We are a good enough team. I’m not really nervous. I feel like I can go out there and be as aggressive as I want to be and take some chances and see what happens. So, I don’t feel like that points or the Chase or anything will be in the back of my mind bugging me buzzing around. I can go out there and do what I need to do and enjoy myself. We have a fast car and hopefully everything goes good on pit road and we have a good shot at getting down there and winning it.”

THE PENSKE CARS HAVE WON THE LAST TWO PLATE RACES IS THERE ANYTHING MORE TO THAT THAN THEY JUST HAVE BEEN IN THE RIGHT SPOT AT THE RIGHT TIME?
“They have great cars and they are great drivers. I think that is where it lies. I don’t really think that they have performance or equipment wise I don’t think they have an advantage over the rest of the field. I guess that is kind of what you are asking. They are great drivers. They’ve got good cars, but I mean I didn’t think Joey (Logano) was all that great at Daytona or standing out above the rest, he just made everything work when it needed to work.”

YOUR FANS HAVE SUCH HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR YOU AT TALLADEGA AND DAYTONA DO YOU FEEL ANY SORT OF RESPONSIBILITY TO PERFORM A CERTAIN WAY TO KEEP THEM HAPPY?
“Yeah I do. I feel like I’m supposed to get up there and lead. I feel like it’s a real disappointment for a lot of people when we don’t finish well and if we are not up in the battle trying at the end. If we are not in that group crossing the finish line that is up front, I feel that disappointment from all the supporters of our team; more so here and at Daytona than other racetracks for sure.”

AT A PLACE LIKE TALLADEGA, YOUR SPOTTER IS A KEY TO SUCCESS. WHEN YOU WIN HERE, IS IT LIKE A WIN FOR HIM AS WELL? TALK ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT A SPOTTER IS HERE COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS
“That’s a great question. I have certainly grown to appreciate the spotter’s job more over the last five or six years. I think it has a little bit to do with how good TJ (Majors) is and how he has improved. But I think at Talladega and Daytona, it’s so important to have an understanding as to what’s going on around you without having to look at it. And, I like to look out the front windshield and try to think about how to move forward and he can tell me everything I need to know going on behind me and I can believe it and trust it and sort of see it in my mind without even looking in the mirror. And that’s so important when you have that kind of connection with someone. And I think me and TJ are kind of unique because we have such a great friendship and we’ve worked together for so long that we really have a mental understanding of what each other is telling each other and he can paint that picture and I won’t really have to do all the work. I won’t have to be looking all around when I need to be looking out the front of the car and thinking about what’s important there.

“So, he does an amazing job. Again, I’ve come to really appreciate that more and more over the years and definitely, I tell him ‘good job’ more often these days and I think it’s because I appreciate how good he is and how much a part of the process he is every race. And it’s most important at Talladega and Daytona.”

HOW MANY CARS DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR CAR GRAVEYARD?
“I don’t know how many exactly. There’s sixty. Sixty was the last count. I haven’t gotten a new one in a while.”

YOU REACHED A MILESTONE LAST WEEK AT RICHMOND WITH 550 CAREER STARTS. WHEN YOU THINK OF THAT NUMBER IN YOUR CAREER, WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT STAND OUT?
“Amy thought it was a big deal and when I told her I didn’t think it was a big deal, she got mad at me (laughter), that’s the one thing I remember. When I hear that number, I think about people that have more than me, and mine’s not significant compared to Mark Martin’s and Terry Labonte’s and people like that. So, I hope that I can race more and get that number up there a little bit further.”

PEOPLE ASSUME THAT RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING AS YOUR FAVORITE FORM OF RACING BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN GOOD AT IT. ARE THESE FOUR WEEKENDS THE ONES YOU LOOK FORWARD TO THE MOST, OR IS IT SOME OTHER KIND?
“I love short track racing. Martinsville is probably my favorite. Bristol might be my favorite. Richmond is pretty fun. It’s a little bit big for a short track, but it’s still a short track. So, I love Bristol and Martinsville the most. I look forward to Daytona and Talladega the most though, because they’re so laid back and there’s really not a lot of work done. The cars don’t handle. You just get in there and mash it wide open and practice for a couple of days. So, I really haven’t had to do a lot the past couple of days, so it’s kind of like a little bit of a break in the middle of the season. It’s really hectic during the week and during all the other race weekends. There’s a lot of stress. This is really low-stress, so I look forward to these weekends maybe more, just to get a little break in the hectic-ness of how this season goes.

“And I like these tracks. I have fun at plate tracks. The way these cars draft, they could be a lot more funner, but I don’t know what you’d change to make them draft a little more fun or race a little more fun. But the cars around 2004, 2005, 2006, they raced a little better in my opinion as far as the show and what the drivers were doing and what we were able to do and capable of doing inside the cars. The cars today are kind of stuck beside each other and you can’t get away from each other and it’s a little bit more difficult. But I still enjoy it. And like I say, Friday and Saturday is easy and so that’s kind of nice.”

WHAT’S YOUR MENTAL MINDSET IN THIS RACE? AS WRITERS, WE OVER-ANALYZE LIKE HE LIKES THIS GUY OR THAT GUY. DURING THE RACE, DO YOU KEEP A MENTAL NOTEBOOK? OR DOES IT GO BACK YEARS? OR IS IT JUST WHAT’S HAPPENING THERE AS TO WHO YOU’RE GOING TO WORK WITH?
“You used to do that. It was so much easier to pass guys in the past and team-up with people and make things happen, so you could pick and choose. You could say, ‘I don’t want to work with that guy. He’s going somewhere, but oh, he’s a Ford. I’m going to get over here with this Chevy and we’re going to team-up and I’ll see him later. In another lap or two, we’ll go by him’. You used to pick and choose because the runs were easier to form and the cars didn’t get stuck beside each other like they do now. Today, you’ve got to take whatever you can get. Every little run and every significant run is so rare, that you might not like the guy, but you’ve got to go and do it. And you’ve got to help people you don’t want to help. It’s difficult because a lot of times you’re helping people get by people you like, or your teammates, even. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do because these opportunities are few. And the chance to progress and move forward and get that track position is so difficult. You’ve got to be in the top 3 all day long to expect to be in the top 3 and the end when it counts. If you get shuffled out, it’s so hard to pass these people with this kind of car. So, we sit there in two lines: the bottom and the middle. And you aren’t going to jump out there by yourself and go around them. So, you’ve sort of got to sit there in line and hopefully some dummy pulls out and he gets shuffled back. Hopefully that happens a lot, and you end up toward the front (laughter)”