NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 28, 2014
 
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON AND JEFF GORDON LEAD TEAM CHEVY
IN QUALIFYING AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
FIVE TEAM CHEVY DRIVER’S WILL START IN THE TOP-TEN
 
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (March 28, 2014) – Chevy SS drivers and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon led the way for Chevrolet in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) qualifying at Martinsville Speedway.   Johnson posted the fourth fastest time in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS and will be in search of his ninth victory at the .526 mile short track.  Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS, also an eight-time winner at Martinsville, will start fifth in Sunday’s STP 500.   In all, Chevrolet has captured the victory in over 50 percent of all NSCS races at Martinsville (52 of 103).  
 
44 entrants took to the track for the first session 30-minute session before the field was cut to the 12 fastest cars.  Those 12 cars moved to the final round two and were given 10 minutes to post another fast lap.  Five Team Chevy drivers ended the day in the final top-12 group – with all of them in the top-ten.

Tony Stewart, No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, recorded his best qualifying effort of the season and will roll off from the seventh starting spot on Sunday.  Stewart has three career victories at Martinsville with his last coming in 2011.   Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS will start ninth and Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS, earned her best start of the season posting the 10th quickest time.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the pole winner, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was second and Joey Logano (Ford) qualified third to round out the top-five.

The STP 500 takes the green flag on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET and will be aired live on FOX.
 
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“It was good.  Man it’s really really close on speeds.  I was surprised to see the tires kind of hang on as well as they did.  They didn’t seem to repeat that well in practice.  I guess it seemed if you went out early enough and could let everything cool down the tires would come back and be kind of similar to the run before.  I don’t know all that said it went well.  We have had a good car all day long and fourth is decent.”
 
YOU WERE WAITING TO THE END TO MAYBE MAKE A PASS AND CUT IT CLOSER TO THE END OF THE SECOND SESSION:
“Really managing your tire temps.  I thought there was going to be more chaos in that first outing and it was very well organized to everyone’s surprise I believe.  Where that put us behind is I lost 10 minutes there and then I’m sitting there on hotter tires wishing I had 10 more minutes to cool down like the guys who went early.  That is something we have got to stay on top of, but again I really thought it would be impossible to get a clean lap in that opening five minutes, but everybody stayed pretty well organized and friendly out there.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SEVENTH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I’m pretty happy. Code 3 Associates is on our car this week and the last time I drove their car, we won at Dover last year. Excited for them and excited for us.
 
“We’re battling weather here this weekend. It was supposed to rain out today and we got that in. Now they’re saying it might rain out tomorrow. If that does happen, I’m kind of comfortable with what we’ve got if we have to go straight to the race. We’ve got some things we can do to make it a little better, but all in all, our Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet is a pretty balanced racecar.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY/GET FOUND CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 10TH
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING SESSION?
“Significantly better than it’s been so far this year.  I wasn’t very good in practice and I was laughing telling everyone it was one of my crew guys Jay that said put the fear of God in me to wreck this car.  He’s like ‘it’s a new car don’t wreck this car.’  So I was a little cautious but at the end of the day I don’t think we started off very well, but we made good improvements and when the car went into qualifying trim it was much better than it felt in race trim.  Hopefully, we can learn something from that.  Then Tony (Gibson, crew chief) made good changes from practice to qualifying because I was able to do what I wanted to do and what I asked to be able to do better.  That is why we went faster.”
 
YOU OBVIOUSLY WEREN’T EXPECTING THIS AFTER PRACTICING 29TH:
“Just got to expect the unexpected I guess.  I think that our practice started off a little bit rough because you go out with all those cars out on the track I was following another car and he was not coming up to speed and ended up getting passed by 15 cars it felt like in the first five laps.  You are just not really getting up to speed and in a rhythm so we didn’t really put a lap in at the beginning and then in our qualifying runs I feel like we improved a lot, but we still needed something.  That something Tony (Gibson, crew chief) gave me for qualifying.  That is the difference.  Then just nailing that lap, I mean that is qualifying.  I just have to get better at it.  I’ve got to get better at getting all of it out of the car every time and I have such kind of a negative attitude about qualifying that I said I need to be positive and at least be neutral on it and let these be positive reinforcements.  It’s so important and especially at a place like this.”
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 15TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“We’ll be close enough to the front to at least be able to see when it goes green. It’s our best qualifying effort of the year. When you miss (getting in) by one-hundreth, it’s kind of tough to swallow. But ultimately we’re making our Bush’s Beans Chevy strong each weekend. To have our first top-10 finish last weekend. We’re steadily improving. We started out practice not so good but we got better as it went on. To be in the top-15 isn’t too bad.”
 

CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
FRIDAY PRACTICE RECAP
FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
 
ST. PETERSBURG (March 28, 2014) The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season is officially underway as the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers worked on qualifying and race setup for Sunday’s season-opening race – Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
 
Will Power, No.12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, led the way for Team Chevy with a fast lap of 1:02.6443 seconds, 103,441 m.p.h. A total of 10 Chevrolet IndyCar V6 dirvers were on-track in today’s two sessions on 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course along the St. Petersburg shoreline.
 
Although the weather threatened during the day, the top-10 on the end-of-day final order were a mere.5 seconds apart.
 
Practice for Team Chevy  in the Verizon IndyCar Series will resume at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday. Firestone Fast Six qualifying is scheduled to begin 2:00 p.m. ET.
.On Saturday, fans can see: Mike Conway at 12:15 PM; Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya at 12:30 PM; Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra at 12:45 PM and Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan at 5:30 PM.
ABC will have a live telecast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 30, with pre-race at 3 PM ET. The green flag will fly at 3:27 PM. The IMS Radio Network brings the action live to fans. Both the radio broadcast and live timing and scoring can be found on www.indycar.com.  Radio broadcast can also be heard on XM Radio 211/Sirius Radio 211.
 DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “It was a good day for the Verizon Team. We tried to find the right set up, going back and forth with different things, but, overall, I feel real positive about us going back at it again tomorrow.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  “Not a bad day today with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy. Obviously we wanted to be a little further up the speed charts, but we knew it was going to be a learning process. This is my first time on this circuit so we had to guess a little bit on the setups. Unfortunately we unloaded pretty far off. In the second sessions we picked up a big understeer. At that point we really quit focusing on speed and just tried to get the car driving better. I learned quickly that there are places on the track where the penalty of missing it is much greater than the gain, so from a track-learning perspective I’m much better off than I was when I got here.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “Overall, it was a good job by the Hitachi guys today and it was good to get back out there after a long offseason. We avoided any issues and Mother Nature was messing with us a little bit. We improved a lot over the course of the day and put things together for a good session in the afternoon. That was a much smoother practice and we will continue learning and improving in the Hitachi Chevy as we go along.”
MIKE CONWAY, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA CHEVROLET:  “We didn’t find as much as we wanted between sessions 1 and 2.  We are struggling a bit to get the Fuzzy’s Chevy where we would like it in terms of time.  We tried a lot of things today and we’ll study our data and see where we can improve for Saturday.  The track wasn’t as bad with the grip level.  I think we can get better for the qualifying runs.  We continue to learn with Ed’s team and find the proper settings that I like too.  It’s the season opener so you would like to come out of the gate well.  I know we are working hard to find the best setup.”
ED CARPENTER, OWNER OF ED CARPENTER RACING, FIRST TIME ON THE TIMING STAND AS A TEAM OWNER: “It was okay on the stand today.  It’s a little hard on days like today because we didn’t do the best on track.  It was a disappointing day for Mike and the Fuzzy’s team.  We thought we had some easy things to fix to make the car faster from the first outing this morning.  But, in the second session today, the car just didn’t improve enough as we wanted.  Now we have to work overnight and work on things to get the car better for Mike.  We need to do a better job to give Mike what he needs.  The red flags can hurt a driver’s rhythm during a session but it is the same for everyone.  We will have to work on it now.”
TONY KANAAN, NO.10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET: “We had a very productive day with the Target team although the times might not necessarily show it.  Today is the day to make changes and try a lot of different things, and that’s what we took advantage of doing. We ran into some traffic and lost some time like everyone else, but that’s pretty typical for a street course race. I’m optimistic about tomorrow and gaining more time.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET:  “I think we are in a better position this afternoon than we were this morning with the Target cars.  The times are all pretty tight throughout the field and I think a lot of the other teams took tires at the very end of that session, when we opted not to.  We’re making progress but we just need to keep working hard and be ready for qualifying tomorrow.”
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHEVROLET: “It’s great to be back here in St. Pete.  It was a pretty good first day back at the track.  We made some good setup changes but we still have some work to do for tomorrow.  I think we’re on the right track.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHEVROLET: “We had a really good first day. The No. 83 Novolog FlexPen car made a lot of progress and we got some great data from our teammates. I have full confidence that we’ll come back tomorrow strong.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET: “It was good to be back on track with all the other drivers for the first time in six months.  The Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing team had a productive morning practice. The afternoon session wasn’t as good because of the weather conditions. We weren’t as fast as we hoped, but I don’t think we are that far off. We will review the data and make some changes for tomorrow morning’s practice, then see what we can do in qualifying.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA: NO. 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET: “It was kind of a rough start for the KV AFS team today. Wasn’t quite how we wanted to start the weekend, but I think we have now found the right direction to go. We just need to focus on a few small things, which will make a big difference to the car. There is a lot of work to do tonight, but tomorrow is an important day and we need to keep that momentum.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 28, 2014
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Martinsville Speedway and discussed his winning record at Martinsville Speedway, tire testing at Sonoma this past weekend and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN YOUR AND JIMMIE JOHNSON’S SUCCESS HERE AT MARTINSVILLE?
“Great race cars, great race teams.  I think just the approach that we have had and that is built from having some success over the years.  Hendrick has always given us great cars even from when I started coming here.  I found something that worked for me and I have been able to go back to when I come here and not a lot has changed.  I have mentioned that a lot of times, but this weekend there is the most drastic change I have seen in a long time because of the new ride height rules.  But for the most part, I think not a lot has changed as far as how you approach the way the cars are set up and how you drive the track since I first started coming here.  It’s nice to have something that you have learned that has worked and can be a constant that you can come back with and make it work over and over again.   It’s probably similar for Jimmie since he has started having success here as well.”
 
DO THINGS CHANGE COMING BACK HERE NOW THAT YOU HAVE WON HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN EIGHT YEARS?  WHAT DOES THAT MEAN COMING BACK HERE AFTER A WIN?
“It gives us more confidence.  I have always had confidence here because we always run good and have been in position many times to win but we didn’t.  Whether the caution came out or other things that maybe happened.  So I have always had confidence coming here because of laps led and having cars capable of winning.  But when you actually finish first and you complete what you set out to do it gives you added confidence and momentum going back to that track.”
 
REGARDING YOUR FIRST CUP WIN 20 YEARS AGO AT CHARLOTTE, WHAT DO YOU RECALL?
“That was such a huge moment for me.  I look back at that and I was still just a young kid and it was amazing that I was just in the Cup garage, at Hendrick Motorsports and had the opportunity that I had. You really never know what you are capable of doing until you accomplish it.  So every step of the way that I would go up to the next level and when you win for the first time you are elated and overwhelmed sort of at the same time.  That is how I felt that day and it also gave me a lot of confidence that we could win more races, and then we went on to win the Brickyard. 

“To do it at Charlotte not because it was the longest race, but it’s a prestigious race and people look at it as one of the toughest races to win – especially being longer.  But also just that track in general because it’s not an easy track to drive and win at.  So I think maybe not in the same category as Darlington but close to it.  When you look at tough places to get a win I think a lot of people would think of the old Darlington as one of the toughest and I would say Charlotte is right up there with it as well.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MENTAL TOUGHNESS THAT IS REQUIRED TO WIN THE 600?
“All the sudden we have got to talk about the 600 and I thought we were at Martinsville (Laughs).  I think it takes mental toughness to win anywhere but when you do have a very long race like that its mental toughness throughout the whole team.  There are a lot of pit stops and a lot of calls coming from the pit box by the crew chief and engineers. Then as a driver you go through some ups and downs and it’s such a long race that you just have to stick with it and it’s tough.”
 
ARE ANY OF THE NEW CHANGES AFFECTING HOW YOU DRIVE?
“I think any time the teams find more speed in the car it changes slightly on finding that limit of the car.  Whether it’s rolling out of the brakes sooner or getting on the gas sooner or harder, or not slowing the car down as much getting in the corner.  Those type of things.  But usually the grip of the car tells you that and you are constantly seeking the limit of the car and finding that edge.  So yeah, there is more grip in the car because of the spoiler and of the ride heights.  Nothing has changed, the teams have made the cars faster and you are always having to push yourself and push the car.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NASCAR DECREASING HORSEPOWER NEXT YEAR?
“No, I am not in favor of it.  I think the reason they want to do that is to keep the cars bunched up more and it will do that.  I would like to see things that create more passing that go along with that.  I think more horsepower creates more passing, but it also can create more of a gap between teams, cars and drivers.  So whatever is going to help the sport grow and continue to be competitive and entertaining – I am going to support it.
 
“I am old school so when they start talking about things like that I am one of the last to adapt to it or accept it.  But what I do like is that they are planning for it with the teams, with the manufacturers, with the engine builders to do it the right way instead of just throwing a plate on it. That is not the way to go about it.  It’s going to take some real planning because we saw some tire issues last week and if you put less horsepower on us then the tire issues are only going to become greater.  We are actually going to be carrying more speed through the corner and not less.”
 
FOR DRIVERS WHO HAVE ALREADY WON THIS YEAR, DO YOU THINK THEY ARE BETTER CANDIDATES TO BE ROUGHED UP FOR A WIN AT THE END OF A RACE?
“Yeah, absolutely.  I think that there is such a huge advantage to them to be relaxed and go about business a different way than the rest of us who haven’t won yet.  I think you always have to look at both sides of it.  They are looking at it as ‘okay, we can be more aggressive with set ups and what we can do to prep for the next race or winning the championship’, but you also have to remember there are a lot of other guys are out there that haven’t won yet and are really hungry to get that win because we see how important it is.
 
To me it’s not just important to lock yourself in the Chase, we are all here to try and win the championship. And it is a huge step forward to winning the championship because of the mindset that you go into and how you approach each race after you have gotten a win.
 
JIMMIE SAID YOU HAVE TO BE ULTRA AGGRESSIVE HERE AT MARTINSVILLE TO GET TO VICTORY LANE, WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH?
“That must be why he has been winning a lot lately and I haven’t because that is not the way I win at Martinsville.  You have to be aggressive on restarts and that is just in general to where we go these days.  There are some tracks that I feel I have done a good job with that and others that I haven’t.  For me, this track is about finesse.  This track is about patience.  If it comes down to a late caution then I think yes, it comes down to aggressiveness but also what line you are in.  You want to be in that inside line and if you are in that outside lane then you can be as aggressive as you want but it’s not going to do a whole lot for you to get down and into that inside lane.  So yes, I have a different approach to that.”
 
HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR ARE BRAKES STILL HERE AT MARTINSVILLE?
“That is probably one of the things that has changed a lot.  I think if anything the brakes have gotten so good you have to be more careful of melting the bead on the right-front tire than you have to worry about brakes.  The brakes, the cooling has gotten so much better, the efficiency of the brakes has gotten so much better that I haven’t had to worry about brakes in a long time here.&nb
sp; I’ve had to worry about over heating other things, but not the brakes.”
 
FROM WHAT WE HAVE SEEN SO FAR WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE AT TEXAS?  DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE ANY ISSUES WITH THE TIRES THERE?
“I think we will see issues there.  We saw issues there last year.  I think as a team we are already looking at things that we were doing last year that we can look at trying to improve as far as abusiveness on the tires for Texas.  My question is did Goodyear test there?  Because from what I understand they didn’t test in California and I think that that was obviously a mistake.  Because I think so of those things may have shown up in that test.  Did they test in Texas and if they didn’t then I hope they have a back-up plan because I do think that we are going to have some issues there.”
 
YOU TESTED TIRES AT SONOMA THIS PAST WEEK DID YOU HAVE ANY DISCUSSIONS WITH GOODYEAR ABOUT FONTANA?
“I did not.  No, I’m too mad at them to have a discussion with them about that right now.  I went and did everything I could to put the best test together that I could there to learn what we could to go to Sonoma and win.  Tires aren’t an issue there when it comes to that type of situation we had at Fontana.  I did not discuss it with them.”
 
SO THEY NEED TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING THAT ISN’T NECESSARILY HARDER BUT SOMETHING WHERE THERE ARE NO BLOW OUTS?
“Don’t get me wrong we all play a role in it.  You can easily sit here and say ‘oh well the teams were not conservative enough, there were teams that weren’t having issues.’  Well I mean we saw issues on Saturday and we detuned our car from a tire abusive standpoint.  We still had a great race car but we were having problems throughout the whole day.  We were one of the fortunate ones that never had one that came apart.  Every pit stop there were plenty of signs that it could happen to us just like it happened to anybody else.  I think when you have that many cars that are that close to being on the edge or going over the edge then the tire is too aggressive or something else needs to be looked at.  The teams have all gotten, with the ride heights and everything they are doing, they have got more aggressive no doubt about it.  But that is what it’s going to take to win races and if no tire test happens at that track then I think that I would question why not.”
 
WHY NOT JUST MANAGE YOUR TIRES BETTER?  BUT IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY ARE BLOWING OUT RIGHT?  IT’S NOT A MATTER OF TIRE WEAR?
“Yeah, tire wear I have no problem with tire wear.  I know how to manage tire wear.  But when it’s the sidewall and you don’t know is it the bumps on the back straightaway, is it the apron in turn three and four, is it speed, is it air pressure, camber?  I mean I heard where people were low on pressure came up on pressure and that didn’t seem to fix it.  When those things are happening it definitely makes you nervous because you don’t want to be that close to the edge.  I think we all were very close to the edge.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE AT TEXAS?
“I hope you like the racing in California.  I thought the racing was really amazing.  I didn’t like that we had to have a caution every 21-25 laps.  To me Texas is always harder on tires than California.  So that is what makes me a little bit concerned.  I have loved going to Texas the last few times because I’ve had good race cars and I love how the groove widens out and you can run all over the race track.  But I want to make sure we can go through a full fuel run too.”
 
SO WAS THE FACT THAT YOU WERE SET-UP FOR A LONG RUN IN CALIFORNIA WAS THAT BY DESIGN OR WAS THAT JUST THE HAND YOU WERE DEALT?  HOW WOULD THAT IMPACT TEXAS STRATEGY?
“It is sort of my M.O. it’s part of the way I like to drive the cars and something that is sort of worked for me throughout my career.  I like a car that runs good on the long runs.  I feel like taking care of tires and managing that has been one of my specialties over the years. Part of it is because that is my approach.  Sometimes that hurts me on the short run sometimes that hurts me on the restarts with two to go or five to go.  I mean last week that is just to me the way the car was.  It took a couple of laps for it to come in, but boy when it came in it was unreal.  There at the end I knew that Jimmie (Johnson) had more issues than I had and I tried to push him hard.  Because one I wanted to keep pressure on him and not make it easy for him and I wanted to pass him.  As it turned out as soon as I got to him and pushed real hard I started having the vibration which I thought was a tire issue.  As it turned out the tire was going to make it.  I’m not sure where the vibration came from we never found it.  At that point I backed off and then Jimmie had the problem.”
 
WITH THE PROSPECT OF EVEN MORE TIRE WEAR AT TEXAS COULD YOU BE PERSUADED TO CHANGE TO A SHORTER RUN STRATEGY?
“You never want to be the first one to have tire issues.  So if anything I would probably go with the opposite.  I would go with making sure that you never bring out the caution because of a tire failure.  The other thing is being out front, actually being in cleaner air helps.  To me I wouldn’t do anything any different.  I felt like we were in perfect position to win that race.  Had we been in the outside lane on that last restart it would have been a whole different deal.  We wouldn’t be talking about how terrible of a restarter I am and finishing 13th at California.”
 
THAT LONG RUN STRATEGY DOES THAT IMPACT YOUR RESTARTS AT ALL?
“It does.  I don’t know how everybody else approaches it.  I only know how we approach it.  Sometimes your car just has short run speed not by design it just does.  I would say more times than any our car has long run speed and it’s because of what I’m looking for in the car.  Rarely do I go into a race practice going ‘I want to see my name at the top of the board to put that one fast lap up and be great for five laps and then it fall off.’  I’m always like ‘I don’t care about the board I care about a 10 laps average, a 20 lap average, a 30 lap average and being good in the middle to the end of a run.’  That is just how we approach it.  You could say ‘oh well, but more races come down to short runs now.’  They do, but sometimes they don’t and so I mean that is just the way we race and the way we build it in there.  Then you try to change air pressure and do some things to maybe make it better on the short run so you can have the best of both worlds.
 
“Honestly, last week was not because our car wasn’t good enough on the short run at the end, my car was plenty on the short runs.  It’s because we started on the inside lane and Kyle Busch about knocked me into the grass as I got underneath him going into (Turn) one.  Then they go three wide on the outside of me and we were done.  That is all it takes is that quick of a thing to happen and all of a sudden your race is kind of gone.”
 
WHEN NASCAR CHANGED THE QUALIFYING PROCEDURE THIS YEAR IN YOUR OPINION SHOULD THEY HAVE DONE THE SAME THING FOR THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE?  OR SHOULD THEY HAVE LEFT THAT THE WAY IT WAS BECAUSE IT WAS ALREADY KIND OF DIFFERENT?
“It’s unique and cool and different and fun.  I’m not saying they can’t maybe blend what we are doing now and enhance the all-star qualifying and mix it together, but I love making the pit stop.  Incorporating the whole team into it is pretty cool.”
 
 

DARIO FRANCHITTI, TEAM AND DRIVER ADVISOR FOR  CHIP GANASSI RACING INDYCAR PROGRAM and four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, met with members of the media and discussed his role at Chip Ganassi Racing, driving the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 to pace the 2014 Indianapolis 500, the Chip Ganassi Racing 2014 driver lineup and other topics.  Full transcript:
 
An Interview With:
 
DARIO FRANCHITTI
 
 
THE MODERATOR:  A little different role with Chip Ganassi Racing than last year, kind of stepping in as a driver coach for this year.  Dario, first of all, how are you?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Yeah, feeling fine, thank you.  It’s not really a driver coach.  It’s more of sort of an advisory thing.  When you have drivers like Tony and Scott and Ryan and Charlie, you’re not really coaching as much as occasionally having a discussion about something.  I think we can come up with some ideas.  So it’s more in that kind of role, working with them, working with the engineers a bit.
            Right now we are just getting ‑‑ it’s a new role so we are just getting used to it and we are just all coming up with ideas to maximize it, too.
            So apart from that, no, doing well.  Good to be back at the track.  Get the season started.  A little different not to be out there practicing this morning.  Felt a little strange when everyone was peeling out there for their installation laps, but physically quite good and mentally not too bad, either.  Getting used to the after effects of the concussion and they are getting less all the time, so good.
 
            Q.  And you just mentioned that role specifically, but day‑to‑day, here today at St. Pete, what are your day‑to‑day responsibilities with the team in this new role?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Responsibilities, that’s a big word.  They vary.  Really depends on what the team, what the drivers need.  It can be going to a particular corner and watching or it could be going over data and it could be just discussing tricks in different corners or might bring some direction like we had before.  Just really depends if the Target guys are here, if the Target guests are here, then working with those guys, as well.
 
            Q.  And you are joining us after a pretty exciting announcement last week in New York that you will be driving the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 pace car at the Indy 500 this year.  What is that experience like for you?  It’s quite an honor.
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m delighted to do it and I have said thank you to the guys at Chevrolet and Mark Reuss, Jim Campbell and everybody that made that happen, because I’ve been a Honda driver for most of my IndyCar career.
            So for them to kind of give me the honor of letting me drive the pace car is really cool.  I got to do some practice the other day at the Speedway, a couple laps, and it was good fun.  It’s a very quick car and a lot of fun to drive.  It’s going to be different to be on the grid at the Indianapolis 500, and just savoring all the atmosphere and the crowd and all that stuff because my job before has been to block all that out and just focus.  So that’s going to be an interesting experience.
            And one I’m looking forward to, heading back home in Indiana, bittersweet; obviously it’s the last time Jim ‑‑ that he’s going to sing that.  Hopefully they can record it or something and just play it because I don’t think anybody does it like Jim does.
            So, no, it’s going to be interesting watching all the other drivers getting nervous before the start and stuff and I’ll be nice and chilled out.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m not sure what the Marino sports car program is going to look like after Sebring.  I think they are still ‑‑ Chip and the team and Lou and his people are all trying to work that out right now.
            So, I hope so.  I hope so.  I didn’t actually get to Sebring.  I wasn’t at the race, but it was wonderful to watch at those last laps, I was so proud of the job he did there and he just took off and did exactly what he had to to win that race.  It was a stunning display.  Even Chip was impressed, so I was very proud of him.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Toronto.  I’m commuting there from Scotland.  Moving back home to Scotland, so I’m going to be in Toronto for the races there, the IndyCar races.  Other than that, I don’t know.  I’d like to.  I’d like to see more.
 
            Q.  Following up on that, you moved back to Scotland?  That’s going to be more permanent?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Yeah, uh‑huh.  That’s the plan.
 
            Q.  Following up on what you said, I don’t mean to get personal about it, but it did interest me, you said getting used to the after effects of having a condition cushion, can you give a sense of what that is like?  What does that look like, because we all have taken some lumps.  What does it feel like?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  It’s not the first time it’s happened.  In 2000 I had a very sizable concussion, too, and other ones in between.
            But memory is not that good, that kind of stuff.  Just not quite as sharp.  Some of the guys on the team will tell you I was never that sharp to start with but less sharp or more blunt.  Just a couple little things like that.
            Those are the main sort of things, and just trying to have that balance of ‑‑ because if I push myself to the level I did before and flying around and all that kind of stuff, it’s a little much right now.  So just kind of look for that balance.
 
            Q.  As far as ‑‑ of course you’re going to be a star at Indy now out there in the Camaro, but as far as stars go, there are a lot of champions and all different ‑‑ you get to meet a lot of these people and you have a little star power yourself, for sure.  What does it take to get to the top?  Why are there so many unemployed people that never make it to the very top?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Of racing?
 
            Q.  Of racing, at anything.
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I think there’s about a million different things have to go right in order to be successful, and one of those is luck, being in the right places at
the right time and surrounding yourself with the right people.  It’s not something that’s about one person.
            No driver out there today in the IndyCar Series has got there because they did it all on their own.  It’s about a team of people, and even a success or failure this weekend in the race here at St. Pete, will be because of a team effort, including the driver.
            There’s always ‑‑ yeah, there is that team aspect, we talk about all the time, and it is huge.  And you’ve got to surround yourself with different people along the way, and some of that luck is meeting the right people at the right time.  I was lucky enough to meet Jackie Stewart who wanted to help me.  It’s stuff like that.  When you think about it, and you think of all the things that have to go right to get into the position of even competing in an IndyCar race, never mind winning one; it could have gone wrong very easily at any step along the way.
 
            Q.  How is your relationship with Scott Dixon going to be different with your new role, or is it going to be different at all?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Not really different at all, I would say.  Wow, like if I was sitting here as a driver, I would be thinking of every way how to beat him.
            You know, we had ‑‑ as drivers, we had a very open relationship of sharing information and helping each other to the point we would talk about different corners; and hey, what are you doing there, what are you doing there, and actually offer each other information.
            But now, one of my jobs is to absolutely make sure that ‑‑ do everything in my power to make sure him and Tony, Charlie and Ryan have got everything they need to be successful.  So there’s no ‑‑ I’ve gone from kind of being in some ways, as well as a teammate, obviously a competitor, to being part of that team to make sure that they are successful.
 
            Q.  You’ve obviously worked with him a long time.  What makes him as successful as he’s been?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Skill, determination are the two big things that come to mind when I think of him.  He’s tremendously talented, but the determination that he has is something special, and particularly, as he’s been successful, he hasn’t slowed ‑‑ that determination has not gone away, basically.  He’s kept that and that’s I think one of his strongest assets.  He knows how hungry he was when he was a young kid coming over from New Zealand, trying to make it all happen.  Now he’s got all the trappings of success but it doesn’t change his outlook.  Kind of unusual like that.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m not looking too far ahead.  The job ‑‑ trying to explain the job, but the relationship with the Ganassi organization, with the Target guys, took care of that sort of first thing, because that was the first thing that I really wanted to do.
            So the fact that we quickly, Chip and I were like, hey you want to do this, and I’m like, absolutely and so that gave me that sort of focus but not the same level of intensity as when I was a driver.  So I’ve got the chance to do other things, go to other races.  You know, go and do road trips, take a bit of time off, all that sort of stuff.  I haven’t thought more than, I’d say I haven’t really thought too far ahead right now.  But my goals are, as I said, to help these guys in any way I can to win races and win championships.
 
            Q.  (No mic).
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Double‑edged sword really.  Sometimes I miss it and some days I don’t miss it at all.  Most ‑‑ I used to put a lot of pressure on myself, and my sort of intensity level was fairly high.
            I thought about this all the time; this is all I did, and so I enjoyed the fact I can just chill out a little bit, but I do miss that little hit of adrenaline sometimes that you get from the pressure and being up against it, being up against that pressure.  But it has its good sides, too.
 
            Q.  Either here or at Daytona, did you, when you got to the track, did you have any sense of sadness that you weren’t driving?  Did that hit you at all?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Yeah, Daytona did, actually.  The night before the race, we went out to dinner, and actually the night before practice, we all went out to dinner with Chip and all the boys and we were driving back with Scott, and I think it was with Scott, Tony and Marino, and I started thinking about the next day, and I’ve got to get ready and it suddenly hit me, no, I don’t.  I don’t have to worry about that.
            And I was ‑‑ that was a little sad.  And then the start of the race was a bit difficult.  The good thing about that, Allan McNish was in Daytona too, and obviously he’s just retired, too, so him and I compared notes on what we were going through.
            And sometimes I find myself sort of slipping into the driver mind‑set of getting ready, and quickly it comes back that, no, I’m not doing that anymore.
 
            Q.  What sort of pressures does TK have in replacing you, the champion, and in many respect, the face of the series?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Well, TK is the current Indianapolis 500 winner.  So, you know, he’s a big star.  He’s a big guy.  The pressure, if he wanted to mess himself up, he could sort of think about the pressure of the success of the Target team, the success of the 10 car.
            But I think that’s not a good way to think about things.  TK will write his own story.  Anyway, as I was saying to Kanaan ‑‑ yeah.  No, he’ll write his own story.  Just as well ‑‑ my peripheral vision isn’t what it once was.  Mind you, there’s a few out there with the same problem (Laughter).
 
            Q.  I understand that it’s been decided that they are not going to do double‑file on the restarts, and I wonder, since you’ve done single‑file and double‑file, how do you feel about that?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m for the single‑file restarts.  The double‑file, I think it looks kind of spectacular as it came up to the start, but then what then happened was if you got a run on somebody, the track was blocked, anyway, because it was ‑‑ naturally two‑wide became sort of three‑ and four‑wide; where, if you start on single file, you make a run on somebody and you have a chance of making a pass.
            I just didn’t think it suited IndyCar Racing, open‑wheel rac
ing, when cars are bouncing off each other so much, and that did happen a lot.  So I’m all for the single‑file restarts on road and street courses and Indianapolis, too.  It was a good decision.
 
            Q.  Hope this didn’t get asked, but now that you don’t have to train every day, is that something that you miss or don’t miss?  I’m sure you still work out but it’s a little different?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I’m glad Kanaan left because he’d start laughing at that point.  Do I miss it?  I’m training, not to the same intensity level, but every day I’m doing something.
            I used to run because I had to, and I miss running because I can’t, but I can cycle.  I can do a lot of cycling.  The guys at Trek are fitting me for a new bike this week which will be a challenge with all my various ailments, so going to do that.  I miss it, and I never thought I would, the training part of it, the intensity of it.  But every day I’m doing something to stop me getting fat.
          
 
            Q.  You mentioned Allan retiring about the same time as you; are there any open-wheel, young Scottish racers in the pipeline?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  A few coming up.  In sports cars you had Allen leading the charge, and Marino has been very successful; and you mentioned Sebring, that was a great thing, Ryan Dalziel finishing second, that was a cool day for Scottish racing.
            But there’s a bunch of young Scottish drivers coming up and hopefully they can get the support that will bring them to this kind of level but that’s the tough part.
 
            Q.  Curious if you talked to Rick Mears, if you think your role at Ganassi is going to be similar at all to what Rick does at Penske, or if you had any words with him?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  Rick and I, I saw him at Barber, and saw him at Sebring test.  We frequented some of the same corners.
            We haven’t really talked about that because obviously there was a big rivalry there, or according to some people not, but I guess there is, and so I don’t quite know what Rick’s role is there.
            I tell you this, though, every time I talk to Rick, I learn something.  And I wish that I had him in my corner for like my recent career, because there’s a few races that I may be threw away that I wouldn’t have had Rick been there.
             So if I can help the Ganassi guys and the Target guys half as much as Rick’s helped the guys at Penske, I’ll be pretty happy.
 
            Q.  What is your role?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  You weren’t here for the start?
 
            Q.  I wasn’t, sorry.
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  We’re still figuring that out.  It’s working with the drivers, working with the engineers, the team in general, to get the most out of what we’ve got to try and help in any way I can to be successful to win races.
            It’s not a team that you need to go in there and reinvent the wheel, because they have won, what have they won, five out of the last six championships between Scott and I.  It’s a really good team, a well‑oiled machine that just occasionally, might be something to say that I can offer some advice on, maybe something that I learned about a track or something.
            We are still learning what it’s going to be, and as I say, myself and the team, and Chip, obviously he’s got some ideas about that, too.
 
            Q.  And since you brought it up, what are your thoughts on Rick’s assessment Ganassi and Penske rivalry?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I think it’s been a great rivalry.  I think it’s been going on for 25 years now.  I think Roger Penske is a class, class operator.  He’s first class.  I thought Tim’s comments weren’t in any way.  I thought they were ‑‑ yeah, I think they kind of summed him up a little bit.  If I had the resources that he’s had in his hands, I would be a little upset with the success ratio they have had recently.  I’m very proud of the record that the Ganassi organization and the Target organization has had.
 
            Q.  I remember, recall, that you used to walk the track before the race.  Are you going to miss that or are you going to do that anyway?
            DARIO FRANCHITTI:  I walked it on Thursday ‑‑ Wednesday ‑‑ no, Wednesday I walked it with Scott, Justin Wilson and Simon Pagenaud doing some safety stuff with Colin and Brian Barnhart.  Walked the track with him and had a look at some of the new bumps and all of the rest of the stuff, and Scott was with me so he could kind of sneak off.  And then Tony and I and Ryan and Charlie did the track walk yesterday afternoon.
            So I don’t think ‑‑ I don’t think I’ll be out there tonight doing what I used to do, you know, do my nightly track walk.  I don’t feel I need to do that.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 28, 2014
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Martinsville Speedway and discussed his opportunity to get a win this weekend, his past Martinsville memories and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
TALK ABOUT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY WHERE YOU HAVE HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS OVER THE YEARS:
“Always exciting to come back to Martinsville and with this being the site of Rick Hendrick’s first win, 30 years of Hendrick Motorsports and obviously 2004 with the plane crash there is a lot of motivation when we come to this race track.  It’s great to be back and it’s nice to know that this track is strong for the Hendrick cars and very strong for myself.  We would love to check the win column box.  We are certainly close and we were knocking on the door last weekend and I think we have had a couple other looks at wins.  I think we are really understanding this 2014 package and getting some speed out of our cars and we should be contending and racing for wins I believe.”
 
FIVE DIFFERENT WINNERS IN FIVE RACES.  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SPREAD THIS YEAR AND ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU HAVEN’T WON THIS YEAR CONSIDERING THE SUCCESS YOU HAVE HAD EARLY ON?
“Last week was a real bummer to not pull into victory lane with how strong of a car we had.  We have had some other good top-three runs with a chance to win and didn’t capitalize on that.  But it’s not uncommon for us to get a little deeper in the season before we start winning.  Statistically I think the end of the year is where we heat up the most.  So you know what?  We have a good track here and Dover is coming up soon and there are a lot of big opportunities coming along and with the new rules package that we have – I think that has allowed for the five different winners at five different tracks.  It’s just a challenge right now to figure out what you need and what you want and it’s nice to see so much parity with different teams and drivers winning.  I guess it would be nice if the Hendrick guys were walking away with it and we had won all the races, but there is a lot of parity out there.”
 
AS A FRIEND OF BRIAN VICKERS, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HIS RESILIENCY IN BOUNCING BACK TO WHERE HE IS NOW?
“Yeah, he has definitely dealt with a lot of issues and certainly at a young age.  The emotional and personal side with Ricky (Hendrick), and professionally with the challenges of his health, and even the loss of sponsorship and looking for a ride when Red Bull pulled out….those are tough things to handle.  He is a young guy and he handled it all well. I am glad that he is healthy and is in a great car and he has been running great.”
 
I KNOW YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN WIN AT ANY TIME AT ANY TRACK YOU GO TO, BUT IS THAT FEELING ANY DIFFERENT FOR YOU WHEN YOU COME SOMEWHERE LIKE MARTINSVILLE WHERE YOU HAVE HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS?  AND IS IT ANY MORE DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN YOU DON’T WIN WHEN YOU COME SOMEWHERE LIKE THIS?
“It kind of depends on the circumstances.  With this being our first trip to Martinsville with the new 2014 package, I am very confident because I know the track and Chad knows the track and we will figure it out.  But I don’t know how we are going to unload.
 
“Last year we had a refined package, we knew where we would be and we could play the game the way we needed to, and we had a good feel for things.  So there is a bit of uncertainty and some questions that we need to answer today on the track. But no doubt as far as a mental aspect of walking into a track from a team standpoint and a driver standpoint, when you walk into a track where you have had success, it does put a spring in your step.”
 
WITH ALL THE EMOTIONS FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS WHAT IS IT LIKE WINNING HERE FOR A HENDRICK DRIVER AS COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS?
“It’s a very deep emotion and something you take deep pride in representing the company.   To see Rick and his face and the expression that he has and you can sense in his voice and in his eyes – you can see how much it means to him to win here.  It is a cool, amazing experience to go through.  Rick is a very competitive guy and he likes to win races.  But with all the emotion that you have here I think we are in a good place here.  Absolutely we are sad that the aircraft went down and we lost everybody that was on the airplane, but I am finding today that there are a lot more happy stories as we are reflecting back.  Especially of thinking about little Ricky and the crazy stuff he would do and the stunts he would pull on his dad. There’s a lot of laughter, and I would assume if one of the Hendrick drivers get to victory lane, it would be a very joyful celebration and emotion. Rick and Linda would probably shed some tears later in private, but from a team standpoint, and everybody at HMS, it would be a very uplifting experience.”
 
WHAT IS THE VIBE OF THIS PLACE FOR YOU? AS YOU’VE SAID BEFORE, THIS HAS BEEN THE SCENE FOR SOME INCREDIBLY GREAT THINGS FOR YOU PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY, BUT ALSO SOME VERY SAD THINGS. WHAT IS THE FEELING WHEN YOU COME HERE? WHAT ARE THE THOUGHTS THAT POP IN YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU SEE CERTAIN THINGS OR HAVE CERTAIN MEMORIES?
“It just depends on what activates my mind. Like today, I flew up. It’s overcast. It’s cloudy. The whole week leading into Martinsville, I’ve been excited about coming here to race and feel like we have a great chance to win. I wake up this morning and it’s overcast, and I can’t help but think of the airplane incident. It just kind of depends on what triggers the thought process. Generally speaking, race time here, there’s a lot of very good positive vibes flowing around. I’ve had great fortune to honor and remember our friends in victory lane. Certainly, the day that it happened, I look back on that day a lot and think about how things went down. NASCAR called all four cars to pit lane. We get to pit lane, and there are police officers standing around our cars, and I’m like ‘What in the world has happened?’ Normally there are NASCAR Officials not police officers.  I walk through that from time to time. I hope to never ever go through anything like that again.”
 
IT SEEMS LIKE IT’S A LONG WAY AWAY, BUT TALLADEGA ISN’T THAT FAR FROM NOW. IT WILL BE THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU GUYS QUALIFY WITH THE NEW SYSTEM. HAVE YOU EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT THAT WILL BE LIKE, WHO YOU ARE GOING TO DRAFT WITH OR IS IT YOU GET TO THAT WEEK WHEN YOU GET TO IT?
“A lot of guys paid attention in Daytona to what the Nationwide cars did, and there is a way to run a fast lap, but it’s out of your hands. It just depends on who’s trying to team up, who’s trying to work together, how far somebody is laying back. You know you are getting up to speed and the group behind you, you are pulling them along at a faster rate, do you abort on your lap and trying to catch somebody else and tag on to the back of their draft? So, it is going to be extremely – you can’t predict it. It’s just going to be out of control, in a good way. There could be some wrecks event because there’s going to be a lot of cars coming and going and blending and things like that. It will be a very interesting, I don’t know, 40 minutes of television, whatever it ends up being.”
 
YOU’RE AS GOOD AT TALKING ABOUT TRACKS BEFORE YOU GOT THEM AND LEARNING TO GET THEM. IT’S INTERESTING, YOU TAKE A DALE EARNHARDT JR. WHO’S GOT ONE OF THE BEST DRIVER RATINGS HERE BUT HASN’T ONE OR KASEY KAHNE TALKING ABOUT IT. SEEMS TO THE AVERAGE PERSON IT SEEMS TO BE A MENTAL THING AS WELL AS GETTING THE TRACK BUT NOT SURE. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THIS TRACK? ONE OTHER THING, EARNHARDT JR. SAID THERE’S MORE FREEDOM NOW WITH THE NEW POINTS STRUCTURE TO NOT BE SO WORRIED THAT SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN HERE. MAYBE THAT W
ILL HELP HIM WIN HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME. I DON’T KNOW. BUT WILL YOU TALK ABOUT WINNING HERE AND LEARNING IT? WHAT COMES TO MIND?
“I don’t know exactly. First off that came to mind, when you go to a racetrack and your concerned about how you’re going to run there and you start protecting a nice top-five run or a top-two, top-three, whatever it might be. Maybe you don’t race as open as you should and take the chances that you should to win and be as aggressive as you need to. I was fortunate to get a win fairly early in my Cup career here and I’ve been able to race here with an open mind and not worry about protecting. As I’m on the track, I see a lot of different drivers, they get to the top-five, it’s a tough track to get around and they’re very defensive and worried about every little inch on the track and protecting and blocking and I’ve been able to get so much experience here and understand how to pass and how to set our car up that I’m just thinking offense the whole time. Maybe there is a small mindset there that is the difference.”
 
SPEAKING OF LEARNING THE TRACK, I KNOW YOU HAVE CREDITED JEFF GORDON WITH HELPING YOUR PROGRESSION IN LEARNING THIS TRACK. WHEN YOU COME TO MARTINSVILLE, IT’S HARD NOT TO MENTION YOU AND JEFF. WHAT SPECIFICALLY DID HE DO TO HELP YOUR PROGRESSION AND YOUR SUCCESS HERE?
“With Jeff, we were very fortunate at that point in time to test. We had a lot of test sessions we could use up. I think I had 12 as a rookie my rookie season. With data traces and even just general testing rules and procedures, it was very easy to get Jeff here and work with him and understand what to do. We took every step we could to get me prepared and get me right, and I still was kind of in the way. And truthfully, I think our second trip here, so the fall of my rookie year; I got lapped by Tony (Stewart). So then all of the verbal stuff that Jeff said and all of the mechanical stuff, we basically just put his set up under my car and go figure it out type of thing, it all came together when I followed Tony and could pick up the rhythm. This is a track where a half-tenth per end of the race track is huge. And it’s so hard to even quantify that or see that. It took me following Tony and getting into that rhythm where I picked it up. I was fortunate enough to get my lap back and then I think we ran a top-15 or top-10, and from that point on I’m like ‘OK. I see it. I get it.’ Or maybe more so I feel it and understand that rhythm.”
 
HERE AT MARTINSVILLE WE ALWAYS SEE A LOT OF FRONT SHOCK TRAVEL ON THE CARS. WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW FRONT END RULES, THE HEIGHT RULES, THAT NASCAR HAS BROUGHT OUT FOR 2014, ARE WE GOING TO SEE A LOT LESS TRAVEL AND IS IT GOING TO BE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN FEEL FOR THE DRIVER.
“Definitely. The straightway height versus the corner height will change. That gap will close up quite a bit. Some guys still may elect to let the nose pop up some and transfer weight to the rear tires for forward drive. In general, you will see the cars on the deck and sealed up straightaway and corner. It’s ultimately the goal. Every now and then, especially on a small track like this, you’ll allow the front to transfer a little weight to the back for grip but we’re just going to have to see how the day goes on. This is one of the tracks where you’ll notice a big difference in the car’s ride height.”
 
YOU MENTIONED IT WASN’T UNCOMMON FOR YOU TO START WINNING LATER IN THE YEAR. DO YOU KNOW WHY THAT IS? CONSIDERING MARTINSVILLE AND TEXAS ARE BACK-TO-BACK, ISN’T THAT A GOOD SPRINGBOARD TIME FOR YOU TO START THAT WINNING?
“It’s a great lineup of tracks. Truthfully, every team has good tracks and bad tracks. I think on the calendar our good tracks are placed kind of spring and fall – the Dover’s, Martinsville, Texas, those types of tracks, and we’re getting into them. Hopefully, we can get something here early to check that box and progress through the regular season and make sure our car’s right because there’s a lot of change going on and a lot of speed to still find in our race cars and then buckle down in the Chase. We’ve always operated well in the Chase, and again, a lot of it is because those tracks are really our strong tracks.”
 
YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF CHALLENGES WITH JEFF GORDON THROUGH THE YEARS HERE AT THIS TRACK. HOW DOES THAT CHALLENGE OF RACING HIM FOR A WIN – HOW DOES THAT CHALLENGE YOU? AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM RACING SOMEBODY ELSE OR ANOTHER TEAMMATE?
“When I first got started here, the short run really hurt me especially late in the race, and that was a strength that Jeff had. So, from a car setup standpoint and even driver technique, I kind of focused on that area so that I could kind of cover that base. And now, Jeff certainly still has his short run speed, but he’s figured something out on the long run and runs a much different line. The last couple of times we’ve been here on the long haul, his car has been better than just about anybody. I’ve been the leader and watch him come and run me down so it’s kind of ever-changing. I don’t know if Jeff has consciously worked on changing from short run to long run or if it’s just circumstantial with car and tire and track. Whatever it is. Fortunately, I can identify with it and try to make a change and try to protect myself. I think from a trend standpoint, we usually end up with a lot of short runs at the end of a race here and that’s probably been better suited for us to be focused there.”
 
OF THE LAST 19 RACES, ONLY SIX GUYS HAVE ONE – MAIN TEAMS BEING THE 48, 24, 11. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT IT IS ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT IT SEEMS TO BE SUCH AN EXCLUSIVE GROUP? DO YOU SEE ANYBODY CREEPING INTO THAT ECHELON? COULD WE SEE SOMEBODY NEW BESIDES YOU OR DENNY (HAMLIN) OR JEFF (GORDON) OR MAYBE TONY (STEWART) OR KEVIN HARVICK? IT SEEMS LIKE THOSE ARE THE NAMES THAT EVERYONE EXPECTS WHEN THEY COME HERE.
“It seems like, I don’t know why, when somebody sorts this place out, they’ve got it and you can hang on to it for a while. The 20 (Matt Kenseth) I think surprised us all last fall so I would definitely put him in that expect to win category. The 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) has always been strong here. I’m surprised he hasn’t had a shot at victory lane. The 5 (Kasey Kahne) has shown a lot of speed here.  So, I think there might be those – the 11, the 48, the 24, at first thought but not far behind there is a whole lineup of cars including the 4 (Kevin Harvick). He’s always been strong here, too. I can’t answer why only six guys in 19 races have been able to win here. It’s kind of interesting.”
 
CAN A DRIVER’S SKILLS – YOUR SKILLS IN PARTICULAR – AT A TRACK LIKE THIS NEGATE ANY OF THE CHANGES THAT HAVE COME WITH THE NEW SETUP. DOES THE NEW SETUP MATTER AS MUCH HERE AS IT DOES AT AN INTERMEDIATE TRACK WITH THE AERO AND EVERYTHING?
“I think so. The biggest factor you have here working for you is your center of gravity height. To be able to start the car inches lower will just help put grip and speed in the car. And of course, some small aero implications will come. I think braking will improve because you don’t have the cars that rely on the straights slamming down on the nose and then you’re able to get the whole car lower not only from the front ride height changes but also the open book we have with our rear heights now, you can get the car awfully low, and pick up a lot of speed.”
 
INAUDIBLE FOLLOW UP:
“At the end of the day, it’s still a race car and the teams and drivers – NASCAR works hard to make sure that the people make the difference and the teams and the drivers really instigate that and drive that. A good driver won’t be able to take a 20th-place car and win with it, but he’ll finish better than 20th. The most important thing you can expect out of a good driver is to lead the team in the right way and make the right changes to the car and get it in the ballpark.”
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 28, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed getting his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Martinsville, what makes the Hendrick Motorsports organization so good at the paperclip and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
COMING UP TO MARTINSVILLE CERTAINLY A TRACK YOU HAVE HAD SOME GOOD RUNS AT.  TALK ABOUT HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET YOUR SECOND WIN OF THE SEASON HERE AT MARTINSVILLE THIS WEEKEND:
“Yeah, this is a track I have been trying to get a win at for a long time.  I grew up in a house full of clocks so it’s been pretty illusive.  We have had some good cars in the past here that I’ve felt like could have won races and we just weren’t able to get the job done for whatever reason, somebody was faster or whatever.  Looking forward to having another opportunity.  Just every time we come here we are excited.  I love short-track racing.  I love this track.  I love the history of this place, what it represents.  It’s a joy to run here and a lot of fun to race.  It can be frustrating and you’ve got to battle all day long to maintain your track position, but it’s a good challenge, a fun challenge.”
 
WHAT IS THE KEY TO STAYING MENTALLY FOCUSED IN A 600 MILE RACE?
“Just having something to occupy your mind is enough.  If the car is competitive and your team is communicating with you and keeping you busy, keeping you on task those are keys to being able to stay focused.  When you see yourself with an opportunity to win the race going into the last 200 or 150 miles it’s pretty easy to stay on task and stay focused.  When the car is not handling well you are struggling to run inside the top 10 that is when frustration can kind of creep in and then that just becomes another hurdle for you.  You have to be pretty disciplined to stay on task and just focus on just trying to improve no matter how the thing is starting to shape up.  Because yeah, those last 100 miles you realize mentally and physically that it’s a unique race due to that extra 100 miles.  It’s a very long night and you just have to be sharp all night try to push yourself to stay disciplined.”
 
YOUR TWO TEAMMATES JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND JEFF (GORDON) WE TALK ABOUT THEM WHEN WE COME TO MARTINSVILLE WHAT SPECIFICALLY CAN YOU TAKE FROM WATCHING THEM RUN AROUND HERE THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO YOUR SET-UP?
“We use a program called dart fish where basically it overlaps my lap with another car.  Maybe we look at the guys who sat on the pole or qualified in the top three and then look at my qualifying lap.  I can do that for last year, the year before, we can go as far back pretty much as we want and see what guys are doing differently.  How they are getting in the corner, how they turn into the corner, I can try to learn things that way.  As far as my teammates go I’m out on the track with them.  I know their tendencies and it depends on how their car is driving and how their car is handling as to how they are going to run, drive the corner and approach each corner.
 
“Yet Jeff has a real good knack for finding out how to get his car around this place depending on how his car drives.  He can change his approach to the corner and how he enters the corner to affect the speed on his car quite well here.  Obviously Jimmie has got a lot of success here, but he seems to be very consistent in how he drives and deliberate in how he drives this track.  They are definitely two guys that have had a lot of success here so you sort of tune in to what they are doing, how they are setting up their cars and what their comments are about their cars.  You try to stay on top of that and try to understand how their weekend is going and try to use any of that stuff to your advantage for sure.”
 
DENNY HAMLIN KIND OF RELEASED A STATEMENT ON WEDNESDAY THAT KIND OF LAID OUT KIND OF WHAT HAPPENED ON SUNDAY.  I WAS CURIOUS IF THAT ANSWERED YOUR QUESTIONS AND/OR IF YOU HAVE HAD ANY CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER PEOPLE THAT HAVE ANSWERED YOUR QUESTIONS?
“Well I feel real comfortable with the process and I just was worried.  I thought that the lack of a statement from Denny’s point of view left him vulnerable and unprotected.  I just felt like it was important for him to have a very simple statement that sort of cleared up any kind of assumptions or whatever you have for him personally.  That was good I thought on his behalf to be able to do that as quickly as he could.  I feel great about the process and what NASCAR has had in place for years.  I feel like they bring in the best people from that region that have the best connections to those hospitals in that region. If I’m in trouble I know I’m going to be somewhere where I can get taken care of very quickly.  NASCAR has a team that travels and has all the information on our health and it’s updated weekly if it needs to be.  I like the system that we have in place. I feel like it’s adequate and I’m happy Denny is cleared and ready to race this weekend.”
 
CAN YOU BE MORE OFFENSIVE HERE NOW WITH THE NEW CHASE FORMAT? DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE A LAST LAP PASS?
“Yeah we have had that happen in the last couple of years regardless how the points system is stacked up we have had guys pushing each other around here quite on a regular basis so I assume if there is anyone within reach on that last lap of the leader the leader is going to have his hands full.  That is fair.  I can tell you though as far as being offensive, defensive, you are only as offensive as your car will allow you to be.  I can attest to that over the last six years that if your car is fast enough you want to drive it as far as it can go.  If your car is quick enough to be in the lead you want to get it there.  If it’s not you go as far as you can and try to defend that situation and wait until you have an opportunity to improve the car.  I don’t think I’ve ever raced here walking on egg shells.  I think you can get in trouble pretty quickly if you do that.  You definitely have to be offensive all the time and always try to be aggressive in how you drive the race track and how you race with the competition.”
 
IT’S HENDRICK’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY AND YOU PROBABLY HAVE SOME OF THE BEST PERSPECTIVE IN THE GARAGE AS TO REMEMBERING BACK WHEN IT STARTED.  WHAT IS THAT EVOLUTION BEEN LIKE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND BEING ABLE TO ULTIMATELY JOIN THE COMPANY?
“It’s been interesting to see how Hendrick Motorsports has progressed and changed and evolved.  They were tough competitors when I was young going to races watching my father race.  Just they seemed like they had so many resources and they had quite the dynamic when it came to drivers.  It was just a team that always was going to be challenging for the win and challenging for championships, especially once Jeff (Gordon) got there they were almost unstoppable at that particular point in the ‘90’s.  Ever since really Jeff got there they have never fell off.  They have always maintained their status as one of the top teams with a lot of growth and success.  I think that is a credit to the people working there, management, just a lot of great decisions putting people in key positions.  Understanding people’s talents and being able to maximize their potential just in management and other key roles in the company.  Obviously Rick (Hendrick) has an influence on his employees.  Everybody really strives from the top to the bottom to give their best.  It’s a cliché but it’s so true when you actually get to work there and get behind closed doors and see the influence that he has just on individuals.  Everybody just pushes so hard to do so
mething good every day.  It makes everybody else’s job that much easier.  It’s just good reflection of his influence on the company as a whole, but yeah it’s fun being a part of it.
 
“All those years as a young kid before I drove and then as a driver competing against them you always wonder what is the culture like.  Then when you get behind there and see how they are working on their cars, how they set their cars up, for year’s you have wanted that access.  To finally have it it’s pretty mind blowing in certain areas.  It’s been a fun experience for me.”
 
OF ALL THE SUCCESSES YOU HAVE HAD HERE AT THIS TRACK WHAT IS THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY?
“I think you look at all of them and see how close you came.  We flat go out ran by Kevin (Harvick) that one year in ’11.  I thought we had it.  I thought we were going to be fine once we got out front, but he was just so fast.  I tried to get under him in (turns) three and four but he didn’t have a bumper left to move.  I went in there to shove him a little bit and everything on that corner of his car was gone.  That is just how it works out.  I think the best car I had here was when we knocked the right-front fender off and we ended up running fourth that day.  I was coming back through the field and spun out on the inside of (Ryan) Newman in (turns) three and four and had that not happened I think we would have been in position to win the race because we were by far the quickest car.  Just we had to go back to the back of the field after that additional spin and we didn’t have enough race left to get back to the front.  We ended up finishing fourth, but that car was really fast.
 
“Having that fender torn off kept that right-front tire cool, kept it turning, kept the brakes cool, we were kind of an average car for 10 laps and then after that it would just take off.  I have been trying to figure out how to get my fenders to fall off ever since.  But we have ran into a few things but they just seem to bend and get taped up.  I hope we can be competitive.  It gets harder and harder because the competition seems to get better and better every time you come back here.  Obviously I’m racing with my teammates who are two of the most talented and successful guys at this track.  We got a tough hill to climb, but hopefully we can maybe get it done.”
 
IF WE HAVE A NEW WINNER EVERY WEEK AT WHAT POINT DOES IT ALTER THE CHASE STRATEGY AND DO YOU KIND OF FORESEE A NEW CHASE STRATEGY DEVELOP?
“Yeah I think it will change as it goes as we start to see it happen.   If we have a new winner every week, if we get into week 13 and 14 and we have got 12 winners at that particular point with 10 races left in the regular season guys are going to get a little more protective of their position in points.  I hope that we don’t really get to that situation.  You would like to not have to worry about it the whole process of going through Daytona and winning and feeling like we were in was a great feeling.  Not having the burden of worrying about points and being able to just race one weekend after the next and not worry about anything else was great.  Having to fall back into that mode of concentrating on your point’s position, your track position, maximizing every race to get the most points that is a bit of a burden.  One we always dealt with year after year and this year it seemed to go away.  If we get into about the 12th or 13th week and we still don’t have a two-time winner in the season I think guys are going to start to change the way they think about points.  I don’t think the racing changes.  I don’t think the competition and the product changes.  I just think guys pay a little more attention and if you were at all careless you will be shoring up all that stuff so you are not making mistakes out on the race track.  The pressure will rise for sure.  Intensity I think on the race track I think will stay the same if not increase.”
 

Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Teams Prepared for 2014 Season-Opening Race
Streets of St. Petersburg Kicks Off 18-Race Schedule
 
·         2014 marks Chevrolet’s third year in Verizon IndyCar Series competition with the V6 2.2 liter twin-turbocharged direct-injected purpose-built engine fueled by E 85
·         A Chevrolet IndyCar V6 powered driver won both the pole and the race on the Streets of St. Petersburg in 2012 and 2013
·         Chevrolet is the defending IndyCar Series Manufacturer Champion, and also won the title in 2012
·         In two full seasons of competition, Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers have won 21 of the 34 races held in the 2012 and 2013 seasons
·         Chevrolet IndyCar V6 driver Tony Kanaan is the defending champion of the Indianapolis 500
 
DETROIT (March 26, 2014) – Chevrolet’s drivers and teams are ready. They have prepared for five months for this moment.  The first race of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series (IndyCar) is about to commence on the 14-turn street circuit on the Streets of St. Petersburg (Fla.) for the Firestone Grand Prix. Since Chevrolet’s return to open wheel racing in 2012 their drivers and teams have taken the pole and the checkered flag at the season opening race setting the stage for two manufactures titles.  New faces to the Chevrolet brand along with a new redesigned 2.2L twin turbo engine are the focus as the new season gets underway.
 
During the off-season IndyCar officials made significant rule changes for engine manufacturers.  In 2014, engines are now required to complete 2,500 miles before change-out without penalty, or as high as 2,850 miles if they start a race with just short of 2,500 miles on the engine.  This is a 25 percent increase from 2013 where engines were to be changed after 2,000 miles of use.  This season both engine manufacturers are required to use identical, yet revised twin turbos from Borg-Warner, a technology Chevrolet already had in place. Multiple areas of the engine were opened up to both engine manufacturers to be redesigned and resubmitted to IndyCar for re-homologation.  Chevrolet worked tirelessly during 2013 working in numerous areas including fuel injection, cylinder heads, plenum / inlet system, exhaust headers and calibration to improve upon an already immensely successful engine.
 
Racing is deeply sewn into the fabric of Chevrolet. The dedication to constantly evolve the performance of Chevrolet’s production vehicle line-up is the driving force behind the involvement in the Verizon IndyCar Series, which was never as prevalent as during this off-season.  The engineers working on the updated Chevrolet IndyCar Series engine focused heavily on simultaneously improving its power, reliability and fuel efficiency, which are key characteristics of several current powerful and fuel-efficient Chevrolet production cars.   
 
“Team Chevy is primed, prepared and positive about the start of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season kicking off on the streets of St. Petersburg, said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, Verizon IndyCar Series.  “Chevrolet has had good results on this circuit the past two seasons since returning to IndyCar competition.  With our updated 2.2L twin turbo direct injected V6 Chevrolet IndyCar engines, new formats to the championship points and a race on the road course at IMS to kick off the month of May, there is a plethora of new challenges to look forward to.  Top it off with Verizon as the new Series sponsor to engage the fans with leading edge communication technology and this could be the season to remember.”
 
In addition to an updated engine, a few new faces have joined Chevrolet’s star studded driver lineup for 2014 including the Chip Ganassi Racing stable which houses defending IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon.  A total of four organizations fielding 10 full-time cars will carry the Gold Bowtie as they take on the competition in 2014 powered by the purpose-built Chevrolet IndyCar 2.2L twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V-6 racing engine powered by renewable E85 ethanol fuel.
 
The Team Chevy line-up as the season kicks off in St. Petersburg will be:
 
Ed Carpenter Racing: Mike Conway, No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet (Road Courses only.  Ed Carpenter will drive the oval track races)
 
KV Racing Technology: Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11 Mystic/Hydroxycut KVSH Racing Chevrolet and Sebastian Saavadra, No. 17 KV AFS Racing Chevrolet
 
Team Penske: Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet and Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet
 
Chip Ganassi Racing: Ryan Briscoe, No. 8 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Tony Kanaan, No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, and Charlie Kimball, No. 83 Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
 
For the first time, the Team Chevy IndyCar display will be on site on the Streets of St. Petersburg.  Located in the Fan Midway that runs adjacent to the front straightaway, the display hours of operation will be Friday, March 28th: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Saturday, March 29th: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM and Sunday, March 30th: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM. On display will be a number of vehicles from the Chevrolet line-up including Impala, Malibu, Silverado, Sonic RS, Traverse and Volt.  There will be interactive activities for children and adults alike.
 
The highlight of the weekend will be the driver visits to the stage in the display where fans can engage in question and answer sessions with Chevrolet’s top IndyCar stars.
On Saturday, fans can see: Mike Conway at 12:15 PM; Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya at 12:30 PM; Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra at 12:45 PM and Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan at 5:30 PM.
ABC will have a live telecast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 30, with pre-race at 3 PM ET. The green flag will fly at 3:27 PM.

Dario Franchitti to Drive Camaro Z/28 Indy 500 Pace Car
 
NEW YORK — Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti will drive a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 to pace the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25.
 
It’s the eighth time a Camaro has been the pace car, starting in 1967 – and the 25th time a Chevrolet has paced the race.
 
Franchitti won the Indy 500 in 2007, 2010 and 2012, and he is only the third driver ever to win at least three consecutive IndyCar titles – among four championships overall. Franchitti’s appearance in the Camaro Z/28 pace car signals a new start in his career as he embarks on a driver development role with Chip Ganassi Racing, which will use Chevrolet power in the 2014 IndyCar season.
 
“Dario is a true champion who has earned the respect of competitors and race fans alike,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports. “It will be very special to have Dario lead the field to the green flag in the Camaro Z/28 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”
 
Said Franchitti: “It is a tremendous honor for me to be asked to drive the Pace Car for the Indianapolis 500. As a historian of motorsport and as a three-time winner of this great race, I will appreciate every minute of getting to pace the field in the new 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. Although I won’t be competing in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, this will be as close as one person can get to the action. I can’t wait until May in Indianapolis.”
 
Chevrolet has a long, shared history with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon IndyCar Series. Chevrolet was founded in 1911, the year of the inaugural 500-mile race, and the Chevrolet brothers – company co-founder Louis, Arthur and Gaston – all competed in early Indy 500 races. Arthur Chevrolet competed in the 1911 race and Gaston Chevrolet won it in 1920.
 
“We are excited to have Dario Franchitti lead this year’s Indianapolis 500 starting field to the green flag,” said J. Douglas Boles, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Dario’s appearance in the Camaro Z/28 Pace Car will be special for race fans and it underscores Chevrolet’s important place in the past, present and future of the Indianapolis 500.”

Chevrolet competed in Indy-style competition as an engine manufacturer in 1986-93 and 2002-05 with V-8 engines, and returned in 2012 with the Chevrolet IndyCar twin-turbo V-6 engine with direct injection. Tony Kanaan won the 2013 Indy 500 in his Chevrolet-powered race car, leading Chevrolet to seven of the top 10 finishes – including the top four. Chevrolet also earned the IndyCar manufacturer championship titles in 2012 and 2013.
 
About the Camaro Z/28
The 2014 Camaro Z/28 is the most track-capable model in its history, building on the legacy of the original SCCA Trans Am-series contender introduced in 1967. It is solely focused on track capability, with unique exterior elements designed like a race car to produce downforce that presses the car against the track for greater grip – up to 1.08 g in cornering acceleration – and faster lap times.
 
The aerodynamically optimized design helped the Camaro Z/28 log a 7:37 lap on Germany’s legendary Nürburgring road course – four seconds faster than the Camaro ZL1 – and faster than published times for the Porsche 911 Carrera S and the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640.
 
Additional contributors to the car’s track performance include greater stopping power. The Z/28 features Brembo carbon ceramic brakes capable of 1.5 g in deceleration; consistent brake feel lap after lap; and reduced curb weight. The naturally aspirated Z/28 weighs 300 pounds less than the supercharged Camaro ZL1, with changes ranging from lightweight wheels to thinner rear-window glass. In fact, 100 percent of the un-sprung mass – suspension, wheels, tires and brake system – has been changed from the Camaro SS, dramatically enhancing the balance and overall driving feel of the Z/28.
 
Power comes from the 7.0L LS7 engine, with dry-sump oiling, rated at an SAE-certified 505 horsepower (376 kW) and 481 lb-ft of torque (652 Nm). The engine is built by hand at the new Performance Build Center within GM’s Bowling Green, Ky. assembly plant.

CHEVROLET SS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CONTENDER KYLE LARSON EARNS CAREER BEST FINISH AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TIRE ISSUES PLAGUE 206-LAP RACE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 
FONTANA, Calif. (March 23, 2014) – After earning his first career NASCAR Nationwide Series race in his Chevrolet Camaro on Saturday, California native Kyle Larson piloted his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS, to a second-place finish in the fifth race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season at Auto Club Speedway.  The Rookie of the Year contender made a daring move on the final green-white-checkered restart to battle with race winner Kyle Busch (Toyota). Larson ultimately finished the 206-lap race in the runner-up spot.
 
Larson’s valiant move was a spectacular way to end a race that was primarily dominated by Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s “Spring is Calling” Chevrolet SS and Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS.  Johnson led a race high 104 laps before being stricken with a flat tire with only a handful of laps remaining.  He handed the lead to Gordon, who battled through the field twice due to two pit road incidents.
 
Gordon had a very fast Chevy SS too, and led four times for a total of 23 laps. When the final caution flag came out on lap 199 of 200 it set-up a green-white-checkered finish. Due to the plaguing tire issues, Gordon and the No. 24 Chevy team took four fresh tires; but didn’t get a strong restart and settled for a disappointing 13th place finish.
 
At the checkered, Kurt Busch was third in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, which was his best finish of the 2014 season to-date.
 
Busch’s Stewart-Haas racing teammate and team co-owner Tony Stewart, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS earned his second consecutive top-five finish coming home fifth.  Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS also recorded his best finish so far this season finishing sixth.  AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Charter Chevrolet SS, scored his first top 10 finish of 2014 ending the day at Auto Club Speedway in the eighth position while new father Paul Menard, No. 27 Duracell/Menards Chevrolet SS finished ninth.
 
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, overcame two tire issues to earn a 12th-place finish and Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy/Get Found Chevrolet SS ended the day in the 14th position, which was her best finish thus far in 2014.
 
Kyle Busch (Toytoa) was the race winner and Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was fourth to round out the top-five.
 
The series travels to Martinsville Speedway on Sunday March 30th.
 
POST RACE DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
 
KRISTI KING:  We’ll get started with our post‑race press conference here following the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.  Welcome once again Kyle Larson to the hot seat up here, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished second in today’s race, and also our top finishing Sunoco rookie for today’s race.  Getting a little more comfortable sitting up here in the media center.  Talk a little bit about your racing overall this weekend, obviously with the win yesterday and finishing second today it’s been a really good weekend here for you.
 
KYLE LARSON:  Yeah, it’s been a really good weekend.  I guess you couldn’t ask for more, but was surprised to get up there late in the race.  We were probably a 12th‑place car for most of the day.  We struggled with our Target Chevy being too loose on exit but still too tight in the center.  We tightened the exit up and got way too tight in the center.  My guys worked really hard all day long to find that right balance, and right there on the last pit stop we were able to make good enough adjustments where we could go hard for a couple laps.
 
I was thinking I was going to line up eighth but then the 40 stayed out and I had to line up on the bottom and I was disappointed because the bottom had been getting jammed up once we got to Turn 1, and I was surprised, I just watched it on TV and it was pretty wild, we were four wide there into 1.  Came out in fourth there, I think, and then got to second off Turn 2 the next lap and thought I might have a shot at Kyle depending on where he’d go into Turn 3, but he was good enough to keep it on the bottom and stay ahead of me.  But we’ll take a second.  Long race and definitely didn’t expect to run second, so I’ll take it and head back to North Carolina with a smile on my face.
Q.  Kyle, on that last run from the final green flag, were you pretty much a straight shot to the front or did you have to move around a lot of guys to get to second?
KYLE LARSON:  I had to move around a little bit.  I spun my tires just a little bit, and Jamie was able to get a run to my inside, so I was stuck in the middle.  I think I got to Jeff’s outside.  Luckily I didn’t get tight behind anybody or loose or anything like that.  It was a pretty ‑‑ I guess it was pretty hectic for me, but really nothing too scary for me, either.
Q.  Kyle, describe how you threaded through to get up to second.  How many cars did you pass and who did you pass?
KYLE LARSON:  I don’t know, it’s on TV somewhere.  I don’t know, I just explained, I lined up ninth and was going to try and actually go to Jeff’s inside if I got a good enough restart, but Jamie got a good one behind me, so I got stuck in the middle, but it all worked out.  Thankful for it.
Q.  Can you talk about the tire situation?  Why was everybody having so many situations with their tires?
KYLE LARSON:  I don’t know, just I think it was a little bit of camber issues or something.  We had a little bit of an issue in practice or happy hour yesterday, and then we worked on that and got it better, and we actually didn’t have any tire issues the whole race.  Every pit stop my crew chief would tell me my tires were great.  There was just a small concern that last run we had when people really started blowing tires, but I wasn’t too concerned.
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
 
KRISTI KING:  Kyle, thank you very much.  Congratulations on a great weekend here at Auto Club.  We are now joined by our third‑place finisher in today’s Auto Club 400, Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet.  Kurt, battled quite a few folks out there, especially toward the end of the race, even the boss man.  Talk a little bit about the finish out there.
 
KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, we put ourselves in good position at the end of the race.  This race has two mindsets.  One is to race 400 miles and not abuse your tires.  The other mindset is it’s most likely going to come down to a green‑white‑checkered or a short run at the end with fresh tires.
 
We ran sixth to tenth most of the day.  We might have been able to finish fifth.  I think we were running fifth when Bowyer spun.  To be up front and be in position with the Haas Automation Chevy is what we needed.  We needed that after this season started as good in season reasons with leading laps and running up front, but it’s been horrible with our finishes.  So it was nice to race the boss, Tony Stewart, today for the win.  You’re excited in one moment.  The second moment when it sets in, it’s like, wait a minute, neither the 14 nor the 41 won the race today.  The strategy call was two tires.  Me and Daniel Knost, my crew chief, we both agreed that was the right call.  We beat everybody off pit road by a large margin, and it was because everybody’s stop was slow and maybe we should have put four on?  It’s something you look back on because you didn’t win.
 
Congratulations to Kyle, my brother.  They won the race today with four fre
sh tires, and it was a nice battle up front.  I didn’t get a perfect restart, but it wasn’t a horrible restart.  It’s just that everybody starts pushing and shoving, and I didn’t get down into Turn 1 leading.  I got down into Turn 1 side by side with Tony and the two of us raced for the next three miles side by side.  If I could have gotten clear, gotten up front, maybe we could have brought the Haas Automation Chevy to victory lane, but we’ll take a top 5 any day.
Q.  Kurt, tires seemed to be the issue for so many people today.  Did you have any concerns during the day?  Did you feel anything?  Were you worried about it at all?
KURT BUSCH:  We were lucky, we had our tire problem with two minutes to go in practice yesterday, and that allowed us to go into a conservative approach overnight.  I’m glad that we had that.  Sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise, so to blow a tire and to not pay a penalty by spinning and wrecking your primary car.
 
Tires, Goodyear is doing a good job.  It’s the same type of tire.  But here’s what we have.  We have faster cars, more downforce, and NASCAR is allowing us to put whatever cambers we want into the cars, and therefore it’s up to the team’s discretion if you’re going to have a problem or not.  I’ve been in this game 15 years, and normally NASCAR mandates what certain air pressures you have to run and what cambers you have to run not to have a black eye for Goodyear, by no means is this a problem for Goodyear, it’s actually a thumbs up for NASCAR allowing the teams to get aggressive in all areas.
Q.  Kurt, you said you decided to go with a little bit more conservative approach.  You did that before the race started.  Once all these problems started coming one right after another, can a team go back on that or have they kind of made their bed before the race?
KURT BUSCH:  You’ve made your bed before the race starts, but you hope you’re right up against that edge to drive aggressively and use the tires to that level, and then you still have to wait, though, for the track to rubber in and to settle in over the first 300 miles.
Q.  Had you and Tony lined up right at the start of that last restart, could you have held off Kyle?
KURT BUSCH:  It would have been interesting.  The 40 car threw a wrench into the program.  They stayed out, so he was actually the control car, so I was second, and when he made his first move, the 40 car, to take off, I did, as well, and it seemed like whoever was behind Tony had a serious run.  But it was probably because he had four fresh tires and he had that grip out of the left rear tire where I only had grip with the right rear tire.  It was a good battle.  I wish I would have gotten into Turn 1 with clean air.  We’d be right there in victory lane.
Q.  I wanted to go back to the tire issue problem.  You said you had made, together with your team, a conservative approach.  Does it mean for the rest of the season you run with a conservative approach or just this particular racetrack?
KURT BUSCH:  Just with this track, just with the tire wear that we saw all weekend.  This is a very abrasive track and it chews up the tires.  Next week Martinsville will have its separate issues, but by the time we come back to Texas, that tire should have the durability where the teams can go full aggressive again.
Q.  Very speculative question:  Do you think it was wise to come in for Gordon when he was leading?  Do you think he could have risked his tires and stayed out with the way the tires were performing?
KURT BUSCH:  On that last caution?
Q.  Yeah.
KURT BUSCH:  Because he was the leader?  Is that why you’re asking?  I don’t know what happened to him.  With two laps to go, you would think that you could hang on.  We had half the ammunition.  We had only two right side tires.  Four tires wouldn’t have worked.  The guys from behind would have had fresher tires, and they eventually would have caught you.
 
KRISTI KING:  Kurt, congratulations on your run today.  Thank you for your time this afternoon.
          

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 23, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH:
ON THE TIRE SITUATION
“To be honest with you, the back straightaway is very rough and I think the tire can’t handle the load that it goes through on that back straightaway. And it’s just tearing the tire up where the sidewall and tread are put together. There ain’t another race track on the circuit besides Kentucky that has bumps like that. They’re incredible huge, huge bumps. And I think that plays a big role in it because the tire must see astronomical loads through that section of the race track that it never sees any other time at any other circuit.
 
“So, I don’t think it’s good to cycle a tire through bumps like that. I think that’s why the tire comes apart. I think that’s why a left rear here and a left front there and it’s not air pressure and things like that. We’re moving air pressure around and it ain’t saving the tire. There’s bumps on the back straightaway that get worse and worse. They don’t need to pave the race track. Just pave the back straightaway. Not very cheap, but I’ll bet you won’t have any tire problems anymore.”
 
SO WHEN THE CAR COMES DOWN OFF THE BUMP, THAT’S THE WEAR ISSUE?
“They show it in slow motion during practice all the time. Like the Nationwide guys, they were just banging through there and the cars are moving six to 10 inches in travel; and that’s ridiculous. We run these cars and work within sixteenths of an inch getting them around the race tracks. And for it to be going through that much movement, that many times through the back straightaway can’t be good for the tire. You’re just taking the tire and it’s like taking a piece of Aluminum and just keep twisting it back and forth and it’s going to break in half.
 
“The bumps are getting worse and worse and are too bad now. I don’t think it’s low air pressure. That doesn’t help when you get down too low. I imagine that Goodyear is going to look into that. But I’m telling you, the bumps back there and unlike any other thing we see. If they don’t tear the tire up, I don’t care that it’s bumpy. You just go through them and fix the track whenever you feel like fixing it. But, if it’s tearing the tires up and if that’s why, we need to look into it. Us, as a team, the team’s got to fix it all the time. It might be something fundamental like bumps on the race track there. They’re really bad on the back straightaway.
 
“I feel bad for Goodyear. I think the tire is fine. I like the tire. It’s just those bumps. If you watch the cars go through there in slow motion, it shouldn’t be like that. And grinding them, they tried to grind them and they’re huge. You’d have to grind into the ground into the dirt to get those damn things to move (laughter).”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES THIS WEEKEND? WERE YOU SURPRISED ABOUT TODAY?
“I was fine all weekend. I seen guys having trouble but our air pressure was in the ballpark with everyone else. And we didn’t feel like we were low on air pressure. We felt like we were good. And we knew where low was and we weren’t there. We weren’t going there. We were just going to try to make our car work without going that low. But, it just seemed like every other tire you put on, just wasn’t quite as tough as the next and with everything going on with the bumps back there that that plays a big role in it.
 
“If they don’t believe that, that’s fine. If they think we need to do something else, they’ll do it. But I mean look at that rocker panel on that race car right there (points to the panel). That panel is tore up and folded up and it’s literally pushed up three inches. That’s from traveling and hitting the ground through those bumps. Hell, it’s like an off-road track back there and it shouldn’t be like that. It doesn’t have to be that way, even if it ain’t the problem.”
 
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
TALK ABOUT THOSE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS: 
“Yeah, I thought I wanted to start eighth and then the No. 40 stayed out and we started ninth.  I thought we were in trouble there or at least not going to be able to get up to the front.  I don’t know where everybody went, but I somehow ended up in second there and I was right on Kyle (Busch) down the backstretch.  It went through my mind ‘I might sweep the weekend here’.  A heck of a day for this Target Chevy.  Shine (Chris Heroy, crew chief) and the guys made some good calls all day.  We kept bouncing back and forth between begin loose and tight.  We finally that last run we got good enough on the short run we could charge to the front.  Just hats off to everybody on this car and man what a weekend.”
 
DESCRIBE THE AFTERNOON:
“Yeah it was a lot of fun today.  We struggled or not really struggled but we were just off a little bit all day long.  Got caught speeding and was worried we would get a long green flag run there and maybe go a lap down.  But we were able to stay on the lead lap.  We were really good on long runs, never really good on a short run.  Shine (Chris Heroy, crew chief) and everybody on this Target Chevy made great adjustments during that last pit stop to get me tightened up so I could go hard for a couple of laps.  Was not expecting to get up that far ahead, I thought starting on the inside we might be in trouble because I was really good early on the outside.  I could drive by a couple of rows up top in (turns) one and two.  Somehow we got to second and I was thinking maybe… I didn’t know where Kyle (Busch) was going to go in (turns) three and four because I hadn’t seen him all day.  So I just kind of followed him in there, but we will take a second.  It seems like I run second a lot in stock cars, but I will take a second here at California.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
ON HIS RUN:
“Unreal the amount of emotions of running well today, executing on pit road.  Daniel Knost (crew chief) did a great job and this Haas Automation Chevy was fast and then to race your boss for a win.  Neither one of us came home with the ‘W’ so we are both upset about that, but at the same time it was a genuine moment for Tony (Stewart) and I to race and to put it all out on the line for Stewart-Haas.  I came home third, he came home fourth.
 
“Congrats to Kyle (Busch) he won.  Those guys they have been fast all weekend and he executed and that is what it took.  Real happy with our team.  Kyle did a great job.  Monster Energy thanks to those guys.  We will get it.  We are making headway and we will get.  Thanks again to Haas Automation.”
 
YOUR RUN TODAY WAS A VERY STRONG FINISH FOR YOU GUYS.  TELL US ABOUT YOUR AFTERNOON:
“Yeah it was an awesome finish racing your boss Tony Stewart for a win.  A little like happy, but sad, one of us should have brought it home for Stewart-Haas Racing and it just didn’t pan out with the four tires versus two.  I thought we could have held the advantage, but man it was a battle all day long.
 
“I just have to thank Haas Automation guys they had a bunch of suites here, a lot of people were here routing us on and it feels great to have this Chevy up in the top five.”
 
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FIFTH
YOU HAD AN EVENTFUL DAY.  WALK US THROUGH THAT FINAL RESTART:
“Yeah, I didn’t know which lane he (Kurt Busch) had been running in all day and I didn’t know what lane he wanted as far as where he wanted to be when he got to Turn 1.  Really proud of Chad Johnston and everybody on this Rush Truck Centers/Bass Pro/Mobil 1 Chevy.
 
“Chad di
d an awesome job all weekend and our team did too.  We had some bad pit stops at the beginning, but at the end when we needed it the guys did a great job on pit road.  We had some problem early in the day and then just kept battling back.  About the last 50 laps we finally got the car pretty decent there we just didn’t have the track position to go with it.
 
“It was sketchy not knowing what was going to happen with two versus four (tires) but I was glad Chad made the right call again two weeks in a row.”
 
SECOND TOP FIVE IN A ROW FOR YOUR TEAM AS YOU GET BACK INTO IT IN 2014. TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“Well it wasn’t very good at the beginning.  I had a problem where I spun. Chad (Johnston) thought it might have been a cut tire and I had to tell him that it was just driver error more than cut tire.  I messed up and spun early.  The guys did an awesome job we kept fighting the balance really loose off the corners.  Chad kept working on it.  We had really good pit stops at the end when we needed it and got track position at the end and Chad Johnston had another great call to get us another top-five.”
 
SOME FOLKS THOUGHT MAYBE YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD AN ISSUE BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN YOURSELF AND KURT BUSCH BECAUSE OF THE BLOCKING.  HE CAME OVER AND YOU GUYS WERE HIGH FIVING EACH OTHER ABOUT A GREAT DAY FOR THE ORGANIZATION:
“I don’t think there was any blocking with us.  I never got underneath him like I did Joey (Logano) last year.  I mean he just was trying to keep me to where I was pushing.  I was trying to find an open lane.  What he did was a little different.  I was under Joey last year when he was running me down the race track.  I was glad that we had two SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing) cars there in contention at the end.  We hadn’t been a top-five car all day so really proud of these guys.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
DESCRIBE THE CLOSING LAPS AND WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE RACE CAR:
“The closing laps were pretty much typical restart for me.  I got the inside lane which was absolutely the worst lane for me.  I got actually a decent restart and it just didn’t go well.  I went to the inside of the No. 18 he swerved left that put him in the middle, me on the bottom three or four wide and it just went downhill from there.
 
“I don’t know where to begin with the disappointment for this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet team.  They gave me the most incredible race car today and it is just so disappointing for it to end like that.   I hate the caution came out.  I hate Goodyear was not prepared today for what happened.  They are so good at what they do and that is just uncalled for.  We were having a tire issue there on that last long run and I just backed off.  When I saw the No. 48 had issues I was just hoping we would make it to the end and I was just going as slow as I possibly could trying to maintain the lead and cars were just blowing tires left and right all around me.  It’s unfortunate that was happening.  But most importantly that the caution came out because we did not need that restart.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
ON HER BEST FINISH SO FAR IN 2014:
“It seems like some of our most trying weekends end up with our better results.  We will take it and we will know that there is so much more potential for those weekends where we feel like we are running a lot better.  It was a steady race.  My hope was our car was close on the first run so I knew we could make it better but it is always so difficult when you start off on the beginning and it really wasn’t too bad to start off with.  I think is usually the common denominator and also having a good race is just that first run the car being there.  It was so we just made little adjustments here and there and you know I don’t think we were extremely fast, but we were fast enough to pick them off and move up and have a steady day.  That is what we did.  It’s nice when you get fortunate and lucky and your best running position on track happens to be the last lap so I will take it that doesn’t normally happen.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S “SPRING IS CALLING” CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 24TH
IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD THE CAR TO BEAT AND ALL OF A SUDDEN FLAT TIRE:
“Yeah, we did an awesome job as a race team.  We did everything we could to win the race today, unfortunately something out of our control let us down.  I had that feeling I thought we were going to win here at my home track once again and just a bummer it didn’t work out.  Spring is Calling this No. 48 is fast and we will come back next week to a very strong race track for this Lowe’s Chevrolet and hopefully get the job done there.”
 
MARTIN TRUEX JR, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 23RD:
“Every time we felt the momentum swing our way this weekend, we seemed to take a punch in the gut. After a strong qualifying effort (12th) Friday we blew a tire in practice and had to go to the backup car. The guys worked overtime on Saturday and then made a number of changes to the car for today’s race.  We weren’t perfect at the beginning, but the Furniture Row Chevy was moving forward. Then I ran over some debris that cracked the splitter, which put us at an aerodynamic disadvantage. We fixed the problem as best as we could and we were moving forward again later in the race. But the splitter damage eventually caused additional damage to the car, which knocked us to the back again. Finishing 23rd isn’t great, but we fought as hard as we could for every inch of it. Just a rough weekend overall.”