NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
MEDIA DAY
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2016
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. Full Transcript:
YOU’VE BEEN REALLY STRONG IN SPEEDWEEKS. DO YOU THINKTHIS IS THE BEST CAR YOU’VE BROUGHT TO DAYTONA?
“I think so. The good thing is that we know we’ve always had success at these racetracks. What I really like about our performance so far this year is to have natural speed out of the car like we had in qualifying was important because we thought we made gains. The tools at the shop and the little bit of wind tunnel time that we had, reviewing the scans, and the information that we get from RCR is important. When Germain Racing takes an RCR chassis and then build a body on our own back in the fab shop, there are a million different ways that you can mess that up. Our guys really paid attention to the details. We thought we made gains based on the tools that we had and we came back and were faster, so anytime that you can validate the work that you do is what’s encouraging.
“What’s encouraging about that tome is some of the places that we struggled the most have been the mile and a halfs. The mile and a halfs are very critical in getting the most downforce you can out of the car. Obviously, the more you have the easier it is to drive. If we could reverse kind of what we did for Daytona, where you try to make it as slick as you can, as fast as you can, and you kind of reverse those things and maximize getting all the downforce you can out of the numbers we get, I’m really looking forward to seeing what the guys can bring when we get to a mile and a half.”
A MULTI-YEAR EXTENSION FOR YOU. IT HAS TO BE A GOOD FEELING FOR YOU?
“It makes you feel good that you have the multi-year extension. At the same time, it allows you to focus on the proper issues at hand. (Crew chief) Bootie (Barker) and I – and all the guys – look each other in the eyes and work on making our cars better, work on what we have to do to work together better as a team and as an organization. Anytime you’re in a bit of flux on what’s going to happen the following year, it’s an easy outlet for someone to start pointing fingers. We know we’re all staying. We really enjoy the relationships that we have, and we think that our team is just getting stronger. Internally, I call it a little bit of the Dale Jr. effect. When we have a three-year deal, nobody is looking what they’re going to do next. They’re looking at what they have to do to fix what they have. And when they do that, they focus on the right things and not the wrong things. I feel that some of our early success here at this track is due to the hard work the guys have put in. Nobody is making excuses. Everybody is trying to move forward and make it better.”
WITH YOUR CONTRACT IN PLACE AND THE CHARTER IN PLACE, ARE THERE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES WE’LL SEE WITH THE TEAM OVERALL FROM LAST YEAR?
“I don’t think anybody really knows how the charter system will affect the teams or the program. You have a guy like Bob Germain, who has put a lot of his own finances and resources into this program to get it to where it is. Literally before this charter happened, if something went upside down tomorrow he’d have to sell everything for pennies on the dollar. I love that fact that they’re trying to build in some sort of value for the owners; I think it’s important. At the same time, I’m glad that they’re rewarding people who have done this for a while. There’s always a million sides to it, but for me it’s definitely put people in a place where the driver has to sort through some of their things because it changed some things. At the end of the day, I think it’s a really good thing. I’m happy for Bob, which is important. He’s invested so much into this sport, you’d love to see them get something back out of it.”
EXCLUDING DAYTONA, WHAT IS THE ONE PLACE YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY ANXIOUS TO GET TO THIS YEAR?
“Always Martinsville. Talk about a polar opposite. You go from track like Daytona where it’s drafting and a totally different discipline to a place like Martinsville where you drive it as hard as you possibly can, running into each other, the body can be flying off the car and you can still be running well. I really enjoy that place. I used to hate it with a passion. Now it’s one of the places I love to go to because it’s one of the places where I think a driver can make the biggest difference in the way the car drives.”
IS THERE A SPECIFIC MOMENT WHERE YOU SAID, ‘I DON’T HATE THIS PLACE’?
“I started to ‘get it’ when I was in the 42 car. I spent three years in the 41 and just couldn’t put that place together because where I came from you didn’t use the brakes. The open-wheel car you spent very little off-throttle time. Sometimes people forget that I never drove a short track in my life before I got to the Cup level. The first stock car I ever drove was a Cup car, and it was Sterling Marlin’s at Lakeland, Florida. The way that these cars drive and what you have to do is just a totally different discipline, and it took me three years before I went to Martinsville and went, ‘Oh, this is how you’re supposed to drive it.’ Once I got it, we’ve kind of just excelled there ever since. It’s been a good place for us.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED?
“I would love for every top guy in this sport to go through the growing pains that we went through as an organization to appreciate where we’re at now. It’s really hard to explain how that feels. If you can imagine, I had great opportunities with Hendrick Motorsports, ran at RCR, where we really started getting successful toward the end of the season. Chip Ganassi gave me an incredible opportunity, and here I am with some of the top organizations that really have it put together. You pick it apart when you’re there because you’re competitive and you want to get better. But when then economy goes down and Jack Daniels pulled out at the time at RCR and all of a sudden I find myself wandering around figuring out where I’m going to go and I take a start and park opportunity, and I would love every person in this field to have to go through that and know what it feels like. It’s the worst thing you’ve ever done as a competitor. You get some thick skin. It’s tough to balance where you’re making mistakes and the team just doesn’t have the equipment to move forward. You just do it because you want to be in the sport, you want to grow and get better.”
WHAT’S THAT FEELING LIKE WHEN YOU’RE STARTING AND PARKING?
“It’s the worst feeling in the world. You need passion and somebody is saying, ‘OK, let’s go do it.’ And it’s green flag and then OK stop. I’ve never done that in my life. When I was racing big wheels when I was 3 years old I didn’t stop before I got to the start-finish line. That’s what we do. Inherently, that was very difficult to go through, and like I said I wish a lot of these guys could go through it. We’re steering away from that era; we don’t have that anymore. I know where our team has gone, and it makes me appreciate what these other guys are going through that are barely making the field and trying to get in because it’s very, very difficult.”
WITH THE NEW CHARTER SYSTEM, THE PURSE IS A LOT DIFFERENT FROM WHAT WE’VE BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS. SOME OF THE DRIVERS HAVE SAID THEY’VE HAD TO RENEGOTIATE THEIR PERCENTAGE OF THE RACE PURSE OR WHAT YOU RECEIVE BECAUSE OF THE CHANGE.
“Everybody is in that same boat. Thankfully, I have a great relationship with my team owner and the team. As soon as they did that deal, you hope you have a good relationship with your team because, quite honestly, we’ve negotiated deals based on past earning and where things would be. You come up with something fair based on what the team earns and where it feels comfortable, and then when that deal came down it drastically changed what you could receive based on how your contract was written. We haven’t done anything about it. I may go into the Daytona 500 not actually knowing what I’m earning, but I think the relationship I have with my team has been good. All the conversations have been, ‘Hey, how can we get you back to, based on this new format, what we negotiated?’ There’s definitely a lot of internal conversations going on having to do with that. I would think if there’s anything, I don’t want to say it was negative, but the timing of it was not good for the drivers going into the race. But I think the majority of the teams are going to settle it and make it right.
“It could be better or worse. It just depends on how that team owner wants to approach, how do they want to take care of you. I’ve had some really good conversations with our guys. We haven’t made it apriority because we’re going to get it done at some point. It definitely has created some conversations for sure.”
DO YOU GO BACK AND WATCH THE COCA-COLA 600 WIN A LOT?
“I don’t go back and watch it, but when the highlights roll around it’s cool to see. It’s been a lot of years now. I don’t like the stat that I have – the longest-running winless streak. But I think a lot of those things drive you to push and work hard now to try to end that.”
DO YOU THINK AS A SINGLE-CAR TEAM YOU’RE AT A DISADVANTAGE AT A PLATE TRACKS?
“Quite honestly, anytime I’ve tried to partner with anybody at a plate track – teammate or non-teammate — it never works out. I’ve kind of taken the approach now of to each their own. At these racetracks, you take all you possibly can. And if you can give and it works out, cool. But if it’s going to hurt you, you just don’t do it. There have been too many times where I’ve said, ‘Hey, man, I’m going to go with you,’ and then he leaves you hanging. At the end of the day it’s his race; we’re all trying to beat each other. I stopped trying to get false hope that I’m getting help. I just do all I can and do my thing.”
DO YOU GUYS THINK YOU CAN WIN THE DAYTONA 500 THIS YEAR?
“I think it’s absolutely realistic. I think we definitely has as good a shot as anybody. We have been, we know how to get to the front and run up front. Those last couple laps it depends on who’s behind you. Are they forced to shove you? Do they have options? There are a lot of things that come into play, and hopefully we’re in a good position to take advantage of that at the end.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE INTERACTION WITH FANS ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
“The social media thing is obviously huge. It’s right in their lap all the time. It took me a long time, and I still struggle with it some, that this is how I’m communicating with people. But it’s a great way to get your point across. The biggest thing I’ve learned about social media, the biggest thing that scared me at the beginning was all the negative things people post. Why do I want to feed more into that? The good thing is it’s a great outlet to post to people what’s actually going on, how you really feel, what’s going on in your life. It allows you to paint that picture a little bit better. Not that I had a lot of issues with negativity at all, but I saw it though other people. It’s a way of life now. NASCAR does a good job of bringing people in to the racetracks to be able to connect with them. I signed a lot of autographs the other day along the fence. My favorites are the kids. You know when a kid comes up and you see his eyes it’s a genuine autograph. That part is the best.”
AT ONE POINT MATT KENSETH WAS SEEN AS MILD-MANNERED. NOW HE’S A BIG, TOUGH GUY. WAS THERE A PIECE OF HIM WAITING TO GET OUT?
“I’ve never known him ever to be mild on the racetrack. I think a guy’s personality outside of the track and how he conducts himself can be totally different from the decisions you make on the track. I think he’s always been a professional, he’s always done a great job. I’ve never known him at all to give any leeway. We’re not close friends, but I’ve raced him for a lot of years and I’ve never seen where he’s been one to really give. He’s always driving hard.”
NOW WE HAVE THE YOUNGEST POLE WINNER IN HISTORY. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS KID?
“I don’t know him really well, but he has a ton of talent and here he comes now. He’s in a great situation to really take advantage of it, and to come into the Xfinity Series and win in his first year the championship – whether it was the best equipment out there – it doesn’t really matter. To have the composure to follow through and do it and not mess it up is just as important as knowing how to go fast. I think he has a bright future. He has talent and is with a good program.”