NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT SHOWDOWN
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 15, 2015
FANS VOTE CHEVY SS DRIVER DANICA PATRICK INTO THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
Team Chevy Will Field 11 Drivers In Saturday Night’s Annual Non-Points Event
CONCORD, NC (May 15, 2015) – Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 Mobil 1/Aspen Dental Chevrolet SS, became the first repeat winner of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Fan Vote by receiving the most votes for a non-qualified driver following the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Patrick, who also won the fan vote in 2013, will join 10 other Team Chevy drivers when NASCAR’s brightest stars battle under the lights for $1 million in Saturday night’s 31st running of the annual non-points race.
Two drivers in the Sprint Showdown were eligible to race their way into the field for the Sprint All-Star Race by winning one of the two 20-lap segments. Greg Biffle (Ford) was the winner of segment one, and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) was the winner of segment two.
The big event features 11 Team Chevy members in the 20-driver line-up.
The Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway takes the green flag on Saturday, May 16th at 9:10 pm ET and can be seen on FOX Sports 1 and heard on MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 90.
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 MOBIL 1/ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET SS PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We have with us Danica Patrick, the Sprint Fan Vote Winner again.
Your fans have spoken and solidified your spot in tomorrow’s race. Talk about what it’s like to have that kind of support.
DANICA PATRICK: I’m extremely fortunate to have some great fans. They’re very active all across all the social media platforms and just in general cheering for me out loud at the racetrack.
I’m just extremely fortunate. I don’t take them for granted for a second. That’s why I want to do well, ’cause I want to do well for all those people that wear my shirt and wave my flag and wear my hat.
I see them wear it and I want them to see me on the track and be proud and have an exciting weekend. As a sportsfan myself, you always like it when your team has a good weekend. It lifts the mood and makes the weekend that much more exciting and that much better.
I want to do that for them and have great weekends. So I was disappointed with our races tonight. Didn’t have good starts. Car wasn’t good enough. You know, I was really disappointed.
I’m grateful for this opportunity and thankful that Sprint has that format for me to be able to get in a different way. So thank you to Sprint, too.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions for Danica.
Q. You said you were disappointed in the run. Did the car get better as the night went on? Did you find something to springboard into tomorrow night?
DANICA PATRICK: I found a lot of things I didn’t like. So that usually helps springboard it to the next night.
If the car didn’t do anything, that’s where I finished, that’s probably a lot worse.
I wasn’t happy with it, so I hope that means that it’s going to be that much easier to make it better for tomorrow night. We’ll just have to see.
Daniel and I, I was saying to him in the hauler earlier, I said, We really could use a mile‑and‑a‑half test, just the two of us, the whole 10‑car team to get out there and run through some platforms, setups, just get a really consistent direction, because I don’t think we found it. No, we haven’t found it.
It’s hard. It took a long time with Gibson, too. We want to fast forward that learning curve, especially given the fact we’re in such a decent spot in points. We really don’t want to see that slip away.
Anyway, that’s a long‑winded answer to your questions. But I believe that there’s going to be some ways to make it better and hope the car’s good enough that we can start playing some strategy tomorrow night through the segments and make our way up.
Q. You didn’t win the fan vote last year. Did you have any of your fans come up and say, I voted for you this time?
DANICA PATRICK: I saw a lot of things on social media. When you vote there, it sends a tweet out that says, ‘I voted for.’ There was a lot of that.
I’m really fortunate there were so many that have. I’ve been seeing it for a long time. They’ve been very active in getting me voted in. I heard that it was getting even close today. I’m grateful that they came through and finished off the day strong. I hope I can do the same thing for them tomorrow.”