TONY GIBSON, CREW CHIEF FOR DANICA PATRICK AND THE NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY’S INTERVIEW: 
 
AMANDA ELLIS:  We’re going to start with Tony Gibson, crew chief the No. 10 Go Daddy Chevrolet for Stewart‑Haas Racing and driver Danica Patrick in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  He was born and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida, and earlier this year he led Patrick to her first career pole and an eighth‑place finish in the season‑opening Daytona 500.
 
Tony, growing up in the Daytona Beach area, how special was it to win the pole for the Daytona 500 earlier this year, and what are your goals heading into this weekend’s Coke Zero 400?
 
TONY GIBSON:  Well, it was obviously extremely gratifying to go down there and run well.  To go to your hometown where I grew up and all your friends and family, and to go there and to do something that is pretty amazing, to make history, to just be a part of that is incredible.  It was something that obviously will never be done again, and I feel real fortunate to be a part of that.
 
I’ve got to thank Go Daddy, Danica and Stewart‑Haas Racing and all my guys for sticking through the testing and the building of cars and going and doing all the things it takes to go down there and put those two laps together and make history.  It was pretty crazy, too, with all the media and all the hype going into it, and actually the pressure of actually testing well and going down there and repeating and making it happen, it was a huge relief, but it was also very gratifying and probably ranks up there as probably one of the greatest things I’ve accomplished in my career.
 
Goals for July are the same as they were in February when we went to Daytona:  We want to go down there and we want to make a statement.  We want to try to sit on the pole again, obviously, and this time come up a few spots further up.  We felt like we had a shot to win it, ran in the top three or four all day and had a fast car, and it came down to the last lap and kind of got snookered a little bit there at the end.  But we felt like we were definitely in contention to win it, so we’re going back there with the same mindset, to try to be the fastest car in qualifying and try to close the deal at the end of this thing.
 Q.  With all the spotlight being on you, when you get a good result like a pole and you go through the season and you still have more than average attention being directed to you with Danica, could you kind of explain what that’s like with your team?  Your team gets a little bit more of a microscope than a lot of other teams.
TONY GIBSON:  Yeah, we do, and we knew that going into it.  Most of us on the 10 car, most of my guys were with me when we were with Dale Jr. at DEI, and we’ve been through some of the microscope deal with a high‑profile driver.  So we were kind of used to it.  At least we thought we were.
 
But obviously it’s a little bit more than that with Danica.  The fan base is a little more spread out.  There’s kids and little girls and boys and women and men, and she has a huge fan base now.  You’re dealing with a lot of different folks at the racetrack and talking to different people and things like that.
 
It’s a little different than what we’ve experienced in the past.  So moving forward you want to please everybody.  You want your performance to be good because you don’t want to let your fans down.  You don’t want to let her fans down.  When you’ve got to look a little girl in the eye and she asks you what happened last week or why didn’t Danica win, it’s pretty hard to come up with an answer that’s going to satisfy a little girl.
 
But it’s crazy.  It’s different.  But we approach every week the same.  We want to go in, and we set goals, and we want to do the best we can every week as a team, and we want to build a stronger team and a relationship with Danica because it’s only going to help us down the road.
 
But the demands to perform and run better and to do things like that seem to be a little higher than they were because of the expectations she puts on herself and that the fans want to see her do good.  So that’s a little bit different for us.
 
That’s been a little bit of a struggle for us to get our hands wrapped around and absorbing that and trying to make things ‑‑ try to justify each thing we do and keep ourselves in check, you know.
Q.  And being from the Daytona area, do you believe that there’s anything of a home‑field advantage for a NASCAR team?
TONY GIBSON:  Well, I think there is.  I think for me I have a lot of family down there, a lot of friends, and a lot of history at that place.  And I think it’s kind of like going and playing football or baseball or basketball in your hometown.  You always feel like you’ve got that little ‑‑ you’ve got the eighth man there, and it’s a little bit of a pump‑up and a boost, and knowing that your friends and family are there and rooting for you.  Yeah, I think it’s different, and I think it’s a plus.
Q.  Just want to ask you a couple different things about the organization and such.  Obviously you documented about the early season struggles, but certainly there have been better performances, much more so in the last month or so.  How have things changed?  I know the results maybe at Kentucky weren’t what you guys hoped, but how have things changed and how are things ‑‑ how do you guys feel moving forward compared to maybe earlier in the season?
TONY GIBSON:  Well, I think we’ve definitely made some gains as a company.  We’re nowhere near where we want to be or where we need to be each and every week on every level, from the 39, the 14 or the 10.  I mean, our goals are a little bit less than the other two guys, at least the goals we set for ourselves are a little lower but reachable.  But we have struggled as a company and with the Gen‑6 car, and we’ve worked really hard.  We’ve done a lot of testing here lately, and I think the testing that we’ve done has definitely paid off in her performance.
 
Has it taken us from a 15th‑place organization to a winning organization?  Well, not really.  Dover was a good day and it was a good race for the 14 to win it, but they weren’t the dominant car all day.  They put themselves in a good position.  They were a top‑10 car and put themselves in position to win it and did so.  But the performances have been better, but our expectations and where we need to be is not there yet.
 
But I think the reason that we have been running better is because of the testing and the developing we’ve been trying to do on our 7 posts, our future rigs, and our engineering staff has been working around the clock trying to come up with a solution to what we’ve been fighting with this Gen‑6 car with all three drivers.
 
So I think it’s paid off.  But the bad thing about this is when you pick up two to three steps, they’re still working two, so they’re picking up another one.  So you have to make gains twice as much, twice as fast as your competition just to stay caught up to them like the Gibbs guys seem to be rolling pretty good, so we’re working double time to try to get caught up to them, not so much pass them but just stay caught up.
Q.  And I know you talked about the testing, I know you guys have done three team tests so far this season, the New Hampshire test most recently.  When you’re testing with Danica, is it any different from what you might have done with another driver because of her ‑‑ she doesn’t have as much experience at some of these tracks, and how valuable has that proved to be to have that testing brought back to where you can test at least a few of these Cup trac
ks for somebody like her?
TONY GIBSON:  Yeah, it’s huge.  Any time that we can get to go do a test at the right racetrack on the right tire, even if you’re not on the right tire, but to be at that racetrack that you’re going to compete on is huge.  Any lap behind the wheel of this Gen‑6 car for her is a plus.  You know, it’s definitely been a plus for the seat time side of it.
 
You know, the tests that we have done have been huge, and the biggest thing that’s really helped her is having the data from the other two drivers, the EFI data from the other two drivers as far as breaking traces and throttle traces and steering traces and those things that we really ‑‑ that we can sit down and look at, and she can talk to Stewart or Newman and they can help her if she’s struggling and they can kind of go to some of these racetracks where she hasn’t been.  Some of these tracks she’s never been to in any kind of car.  Having those two guys at a test when we go has been huge for us.
 
And it shows.  I know it doesn’t make us run top 10, but it makes us run 15th to 20th.  That has been huge for her.  That’s been the biggest thing I’d say for us is going to those tests and being able to do that, and if we could do it more, we would, and we go to VIR, we go to Road Atlanta, we go to Nashville, we go to Greenville Pickens, we go anywhere we can go to make laps and learn.  And a lot of these tracks we have ‑‑ even when we go to Nashville, all of our drivers have been there and the Hendrick guys have been there obviously, so we have a lot of data we can look at that helps her on the driving side as well as on the setup side, too.
Q.  You all did the tire test down there at Daytona.  I know they’ve changed the tire setup compared to February.  Do you have any sense of whether that will change in any way the way they race?
TONY GIBSON:  No, it’s not going to make any difference.  Actually the tire when we were on it, we did a lot of drafting.  We did some 20‑lap drafting runs and put the car in several different compromising positions, and everything was good.  But I don’t think any driver there could tell the difference in the tire, and I think that’s what Goodyear wanted to hear.  They didn’t want to hear that they could feel a difference.
 
When we left there, we would have never known that it was a different tire or anything.  I think it’s just a more durable tire, and it’s supposed to be a little bit better for punctures and things like that.
 
I think it’s a plus, and like I said, the good thing is it didn’t change the way the cars drove at all, so I don’t think it’ll change the racing.
Q.  As far as restarts go, we’ve seen a lot of controversy this year on restarts and when people are starting and if people are kind of braking either before or after the zone.  I’m curious as crew chiefs, do you guys look at your own EFI data after a race to see what it says, how fast maybe y’all were going at times prior to restarts to try and figure out what is the best strategy on those?
TONY GIBSON:  We do.  We look at our shifting things that we can do with our transmissions, which is not a whole lot.  NASCAR regulates that pretty good, but there is a few little things we can do ratio‑wise to help that.
 
But on these restarts it depends on ‑‑ these tires sometimes are a little harder than others, and the racetrack, the pavement is different.  So a lot of times you’ll have wheels spin more so than anything to do with the shifting or where the driver fires.  But I think we do work on that when we go test places, we do simulate restarts, but most of that’s working on transmission ratios.
 
The drop from third to fourth, if it needs to be larger or smaller, we work on that for certain tracks.  Dover is one of those odd tracks that has a first‑gear pit road deal and a second‑gear restart gear, so that’s an odd animal, and a lot of guys ‑‑ we’ve always seen it with Jimmie there, that had the issue there at Dover.
 
So we do work on that, and we look at it each and every week.  In our debriefs we talk to the drivers on restarts, how they thought their car did and is there anything we can do to make it better.  So we look at speeds and we look at accelerations and things like that so we can maximize our performance in that area for sure.
Q.  I had a quick question for you here.  This entire season there have been dramatic changes in the weather say from Thursday to Friday and Friday to Saturday and then race day.  How difficult does that make your life getting the cars ready on race day?
TONY GIBSON:  It’s a little bit challenging because the weather is kind of crazy.  Like in Kentucky there, obviously we were supposed to run at night, and everybody was prepared to start in the daytime and the track be tight and then go into the night and it gets freer.  So I think everybody kind of put some adjustability in the car for that, and obviously that didn’t happen.
 
But again, on Sunday the sun would pop in and out and would change the balance of the race car a lot, so that was quite challenging.  But it is; the weather really dictates how our cars drive, not only from the tire side, but the racetrack I think is the biggest player in this deal because obviously what type of asphalt it is.  Like our new paves, it’s a different asphalt mixture than what we’ve seen like at Kentucky when it was paved; it’s a totally different type of asphalt, so the weather affects those tracks differently.
 
So I think when you go to these tracks, whether it’s a new pave or an old surface, the way you approach it are a little bit different.  So it makes a pretty good ‑‑ it’s a balance changer for sure, and it makes it a little more difficult, especially when you’re supposed to run at night and you end up running in the day.  You pull your hair out trying to get it figured out, figure out where you need to be.  It’s a game changer for sure.
Q.  I wondered if you could talk a little bit, I know that with a rookie driver there is a big learning curve, especially early in the season.  How big a boost is it for you guys morale‑wise to return to Daytona where you did have such a high and things did go so well?
TONY GIBSON:  Well, I think it’s obviously a track that we feel like we can win at.  I feel like that’s right in Danica’s wheelhouse there.  She likes the drafting.  She likes the high speeds, and I think most of that comes from the IndyCar side of it.
 
So yeah, it’s exciting for us.  We went to Daytona ‑‑ and before when she was running the Nationwide car, she was really good at the restrictor plate stuff with the drafting and the air and that kind of deal.  So we were pretty excited for going into this year, and then when we went to Daytona and tested, we knew that we were going to be fairly strong down there.
 
So it’s exciting for us, and we’re working really hard.  We work hard every week, but when it comes to the restrictor plate racing, especially going to Daytona, we go all out.  We put every little thing we can into those cars, because we know that that’s a track that we can win at and we can really do some damage, on the good side.
 
But we’re pretty excited about going to these restrictor plate races.
Q.  Is it something you can even feel the excitement in the shop as you get ready to head down here?
TONY GIBSON:  Yeah, you can feel the excitement in the shop.  The guys are just rubbing and detailing and they’re pumped up and they’re excited. We have our trophy from Daytona for the pole down here, and so that stuff we bring out ‑‑ we brought it out this week just to remind everybody of what we can do when we get down there.  It’s a little bit of a morale booster.
 
The vibe is different.  When we
get ready to go here, everybody gets jacked up, and we know we can go here and we can do really well.
 
AMANDA ELLIS:  Tony, thank you for joining us today.  We appreciate you for spending a few extra minutes with us, as well, and best of luck to you and the team this week at Daytona.
 
TONY GIBSON:  Thank you so much for letting me be a part of it, and I really appreciate it, and thanks to everybody for calling in.
 

Back in the USA: Corvette Racing Readies for Lime Rock
Next steps toward title defenses in ALMS
 
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 2, 2013) – Two weeks after both its Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars completed the Le Mans 24 Hours, Corvette Racing returns stateside to continue defense of its GT driver, team and manufacturer championships in the American Le Mans Series. Next up is scenic Lime Rock Park and the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 6.
 
The fourth ALMS round of the year will air live starting at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2 with simultaneous live streaming on ESPN3 beginning with a 2:45 p.m., pre-race show. It’s an event Corvette Racing has won four times but none since 2008.
 
At 1.474 miles with seven turns, Lime Rock Park is the shortest track on the ALMS calendar but offers a surprisingly quick lap with average speeds in qualifying nearing 105 mph. The compact nature of the venue coupled with the two-hour, 45-minute race length means constant overtaking and frequent car-to-car contact.
 
Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen return to ALMS competition as the most recent winners in the GT class at Laguna Seca in May. The pairing – fourth in GTE Pro at Le Mans with Jordan Taylor – drive the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R.
 
Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner share the No. 4 Compuware Corvette. The defending ALMS GT champions – seventh with Richard Westbrook at Le Mans – stand second in this year’s drivers’ standings and are three points out of first. Magnussen and Garcia are fifth but just 12 points from the lead. The Lime Rock round pays 20 points to the race-winners, 16 for second and 13 for third.
 
Corvette Racing leads the team standings, as does Chevrolet the manufacturers’ race.
 
“Le Mans was as challenging as ever. We battled the weather as well as the competition and I can tell you we are glad to get back to racing in the ALMS,” said Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing Program Manager. “The crowd is always great at Lime Rock, and the racing is as tough as anywhere else we compete the rest of the season. At just 1.5 miles in length, Lime Rock presents some unique challenges. You can’t make a green flag pit stop without losing a lap, so your strategy there will most likely determine your level of success. Our guys thrive on that pressure and are ready to go racing again.”
 

Action Express Racing and Stevenson Motorsports Repeat as Winners in Six Hours of the Glen to Give Team Chevy Double Victory
The Victory is the Second Consecutive in 2013 for Barbosa and Fittipaldi in Corvette DP and Fourth Win in Five Races for Camaro GT.R Piloted by Liddell and Edwards
 
WATKINS GLEN, New York (June 30, 2013) – Action Express Racing driver Joao Barbosa battled his way to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen International last year in the difficult and prestigious GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Six Hours of The Glen. Today, behind the wheel of the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) with his new co-driver, Christian Fittipaldi, Barbosa made a return trip to the Winner’s Circle to occupy the top step on the podium and once again collect the winner’s trophy for the overall win.
 
The pair combined to lead 30 of the 171 laps completed in the six-hour race that saw bright sunny conditions quickly replaced with heavy rain that was just as quickly replaced with blue skies and warmer temperatures. Fittipaldi held off all challengers in the final stint of the race to bring the Corvette DP to the checkered flag first.
 
It is the second consecutive win and the third consecutive podium finish for Barbosa and Fittipaldi this season. The victory moved the team from fifth in the DP team standings to third.
 
Not to be outdone, John Edwards and Robin Liddell powered the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R to the win in the Rolex Series Grand Touring Class (GT), also for the second consecutive year. The pair combined to lead a race-high 67 laps of the 164 run by the leaders in the GT class.
 
It is the fourth victory in the last five races for Edwards and Liddell, and closed the team to within six points of the leaders in the GT class standings.
 
“Our Chevrolet teams rose to the occasion today, and dealt with some changing and sometimes difficult circumstances throughout the Six Hours of the Glen,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. “It is always a rewarding experience for everyone associated with the Team Chevy program in the Rolex Series to score a win in both Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring as we did today.  Congratulations to the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP team and the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro team on their repeat victories in this prestigious race.”
 
Equaling its best finish of the season, a runner-up run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the No. 3 8Star Motorsports Corvette DP gave Chevrolet the first and second spots on today’s DP  podium.  Team owner Enzo Potolicchio started the race, and then Stephane Sarrazin and Michael Valiante shared the driving duties for remainder of the event. Valiante was in the cockpit for the final stint to make a charge for the win in the closing laps.
 
The two Corvette Daytona DP teams that came into today’s race holding the first and second spots in the standings suffered setbacks early in the race. The No. 10 Velolcity Worldwide Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP had a mechanical issue with the shifter linkage on the opening lap of the race.  The team was able to make repairs and the car driven by Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor returned to competition. The team was credited with a 10th place finish and now sits in a tie in the standings for the top spot.
 
The No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP piloted by Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney came into the race second in the standings, but also had to battle back from a mechanical problem early in the race. Something went awry in the steering and sent it on an off-course excursion.  The team made repairs in the paddock and got the “Red Dragon” back in competition, but on the long track in a race that didn’t see a great deal of attrition, the team was relegated to a 14th place in class finishing position. They now sit fourth in the team standings.
 
In Saturday’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R led the way for Team Chevy posting a sixth-place finish.
 
Next on the schedule for both the Rolex Series and the Continental Tire Challenge will be the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25-26, 2013.
 
 
DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES:
 
NO. 5 ACTION EXPRESS RACING CORVETTE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE, OVERALL AND DP RACE WINNER:
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI: ON HIS THOUGHTS AS THE RACE CAME TO A CLOSE: “I don’t know. I was on the limit all the time.”
 
WHAT AN INCREDIBLE RACE. THAT WAS A FANTASTIC FINAL FEW LAPS. WERE YOU MORE CONCERNED ABOUT MICHAEL VALLENTE CATCHING YOU, OR THOSE LAPPED CARS THAT BOTH OF YOU WERE STARTING TO APPROACH ON THE FINAL LAP?
“I guess both. I knew that the No. 3 car had a very strong piece. They showed it a couple of times during the race. They were definitely stronger than us. But I think we played the game better than they did. And we, as a team, won the race today. Hats off to Joao, who drove an outstanding stint. And man, I’m very happy. Two in a row is a very nice feeling. We led at the three-hour mark and won the race, so it couldn’t have been a better weekend.”
 
YOU ALMOST HAD A FLAWLESS BECAUSE THERE AT THE END WHEN YOU WERE GOING THROUGH THE BOOT, YOU GOT SIDEWAYS. WHAT HAPPENED THERE? AND DID YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE THROWN AWAY THE WIN?
“I was under limit. I was very heavily under limit every single lap that I could do and maybe I ran a little bit over a little bit. But I managed to catch it, I guess. That’s where 42 years of age and 20-some years of 30 years of racing counts a little bit. And I’m happy that that came into the play. That definitely helped me a little bit like experience over there and it was a great week and a great day. We didn’t have the quickest car on the track today. And I just think that the whole group as a team did an excellent job.”
 
JOAO BARBOSA: TALK ABOUT THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN YOU AND CHRISTIAN AND THE TEAM: “It is working isn’t it? It’s like they say ‘We are in it to win it’. This was a great points day for us. We led at the three-hour mark. We led at six hours. We won the race overall. It is looking great for us in the points now. I think we made a great click.  This Action Express team, man…the chemistry that is going on is unbelievable. The car is running excellent. Christian did a fantastic job. He is a little worn out, but he’ll get over it (SMILES). What can I say, this group of guys has done a tremendous job, and the car drove awesome today.”
 
HOW SATISFYING IS THIS TO HAVE TWO WINS IN A ROW? LAST YEAR, YOU WERE USUALLY AT TEAM AROUND FOURTH OR FIFTH. NOW, YOU ARE SHOWING UP AND WINNING RACES.  “I don’t agree with that. We won the Six Hours last year. So, this team has been doing phenomenal. Obviously the chemistry is working so well and we were able to make the car go fast and these guys are awesome. They did a tremendous job. Every pit stop was great and we were able to bring the car home again in first place. Two wins and a second-place in the last three races and it is looking good. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
 
 
NO. 57 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GT.R, GT CLASS WINNER:
JOHN EDWARDS: YOU HAD TO SIT THERE AND WATCH ROBIN WORK SO HARD THAT LAST STINT, HOW HARD IS THAT?  “It was really tough, especially with the changing conditions. I’ve always said I prefer to be in the car at the end, because sitting on the pit stand I just get a nervous twitch going on with my leg. That is the worst part of the race for me. When I got out of the car, that was the most nervous part for me. Ultimately the car was good in the dry, and we were hoping it wouldn’t rain because those conditions are really tough, and you might throw it off even if you are as good of a driver as anyone can be.”
 
ROBIN LIDDELL: THE PRESSURE WAS ON THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH WASN

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 30, 2013

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 HELLMANN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
ON HIS RACE AND RUN THAT GOT SECOND PLACE FINISH:
“Yes, it was a really good day for us. I wasn’t sure after Happy Hour what we had. We’ve had really quick cars for the last two months, and have not been able to capitalize on it. We’ve had really unfortunate luck. But cool to have a really good run. I was quite a bit quicker than him (Clint Bowyer), and I guess the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) wasn’t on tires, so you are just fighting to get by as quick as you can because you never know when a caution is going to come out, or how it is going to play out.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED EIGHTH
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“We had an awesome fast Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet that is for sure.  I think we passed more cars than anybody.  These pit stops just aren’t going our way.  If we try to stretch it doesn’t work our way.  If we try to pit early it doesn’t work our way.  I don’t know, you just have to keep working hard at it and hope they fall your way eventually.  Pit stops were great when we had them.  The car was awesome on the race track.  It took a little while for it to come in and that last restart I kind of timed it and the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) spun his tires and stacked us up, then cars were four-wide.  That didn’t certainly work out in our favor.”
 
WITH THE BAD LUCK YOU HAVE HAD THIS YEAR YOU GUYS HAVE BATTLED BACK TO 12TH IN POINT’S ONLY TWO POINT’S BEHIND 10TH.  TALK ABOUT HOW THE TEAM CONTINUES TO FIGHT TO GET IN THE CHASE:
“I’m happy the way we are running.  The last two weeks have been very promising.  That is going to help us as we move forward.  We are doing the right things.  We’ve got to continue to qualify better, execute better, hope some things go our way and then I have to be able to get those restarts.  The first one actually wasn’t that bad.  We were going to come out pretty good.  The last one, yeah, I could have done a better job.  I’m just happy with the way the car is working right now.”
 
A LOT OF GUYS COMPLAINED ABOUT THE TRACK HOW BUMPY IT IS. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IF THEY SHOULD REPAVE IT OR JUST LEAVE IT THE WAY IT IS?
“I would rather it stay the way it is.  I don’t like repaves.  I think a smooth new pavement that they are putting on these race tracks now is worse than that.  Yeah, it’s rough and it beats the cars all up.  I don’t think we should be going down on the apron here on restarts.  I think that is pretty dangerous.  Other than that I like everything about the track.  It’s just trying to find a tire that works well here.  That is a challenging thing to do for this surface.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S DOVER WHITE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED NINTH
ON FINAL RESTART:
“I don’t know. We were kind of in an awkward situation in that restart there. And then we were like three and four wide going in the corner, then something happened with the air and just kind of turned me around. Unfortunate, but at least we rallied back for a good finish.  The No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) broke the pace car speed, which you aren’t supposed to, but, they aren’t calling guys on that so I need to start trying that in the future.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
ON HITTING THE TIRE DEBRIS AND DAMAGING HIS CAR:
“You just fix it and keep going. The guys did a good job on pit road all day long working on it and trying to fix everything. I’m not sure we got everything back where it is supposed to be, but we did well-enough to get a decent finish out it. Just proud of how hard the team worked. Did a good job for qualifying, and put a good car out there for the race. Can’t do anything about what happened out there on the race track with that casing.  They worked hard on it to get it right, and get it good enough where we could run well. So, they deserve a lot of credit today.”
 
ON HITTING THE TIRE DEBRIS AND DAMAGING HIS CAR:
“You just fix it and keep going. The guys did a good job on pit road all day long working on it and trying to fix everything. I’m not sure we got everything back where it is supposed to be, but we did well-enough to get a decent finish out it. Just proud of how hard the team worked. Did a good job for qualifying, and put a good car out there for the race. Can’t do anything about what happened out there on the race track with that casing.  They worked hard on it to get it right, and get it good enough where we could run well. So, they deserve a lot of credit today.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 30, 2013
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY LEADS TEAM CHEVY AT KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
Five Team Chevy Drivers in the Top-10
 
 
SPARTA, Kentucky (June 30, 2013) – Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Hellman’s Chevrolet SS, recovered from early issues to finish second in today’s Quaker State 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series race at Kentucky Speedway.  McMurray, who rallied from a mid-race tire problem, had one of the fastest cars in the field at the end of the 267-lap event.  With fresher tires, the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver was gaining on the leader in the closing laps, but was unable to catch him for the win.
 
The race, which was originally scheduled to run Saturday night, but postponed until noon Sunday due to rain, was dominated by Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson until an incident on the final restart.  Johnson, who led a race-high 182 laps in his No. 48 Lowe’s Dover White Chevrolet SS, lost control of the car and spun on a restart with less than 25 laps to go. After a pit stop for tires, Johnson made a furious charge from the back to finish ninth in the race and maintain his position as the series point leader. He now holds a 38-point advantage over second place.
 
Kurt Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet SS, scored his second straight top-ten finish and came home sixth.  The finish helped Busch move up three positions in the standings to 14th.  
 
Jeff Gordon gained more valuable points with a solid eighth-place finish in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS, which enabled him to move up one spot in the standings to 12th.   Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS, finished 10th in today’s event and remains fourth in the overall standings.
 
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard Youth Foundation Chevrolet SS, started on the pole for the race, but hit debris from a shredded tire early in the race.   After several repairs by the crew and some determined driving, Earnhardt Jr. came back to finish 12th. 
 
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was the race winner, Clint Bowyer (Toyota) was third, Joey Logano (Ford) was fourth, and Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fifth to round out the top-five finishing order.
 
Next stop on the circuit will be Round 18 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, July 6th.  Green flag is set for 7:30 pm ET and will air live on TNT, Sirius/XM Channel 90, PRN Radio and

Rain Sets DP Field for Six Hours of The Glen; Front Row will be Corvette Daytona Prototypes of Wayne Taylor Racing and Bob Stallings Racing
Stevenson Motorsports Continues Roll in GT with Pole Winning Effort for Sunday’s Endurance Race
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 29, 2013) – The No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) of Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) and the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP will occupy the front row of Sunday’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen after qualifying Saturday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International was cancelled due to rain and the grid was set per driver’s point standings as set forth in the GRAND-AM rulebook.
It is the third consecutive race that the DP point-leading driver pairing of Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor will bring the Rolex Series field to the green flag.
Qualifying for the Rolex Sports Car Series Grand Touring (GT) class was completed just prior to the rain.  Robin Liddell, driver of the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro, led GT qualifying. It was his first pole of the season but third for the car, with co-driver John Edwards winning poles at Barber Motorsports Park and Mid-Ohio. Eric Curran, who shares the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette with Boris Said, qualified second in-class.
Other Team Chevy in the DP starting field are:
No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP – 4th
No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP – 5th
No. 9 Action Express Corvette DP – 8th
No. 3 8Star Motorsports Corvette DP -10th
No. 4 8Star Motorsports Corvette DP – 14th
 
Race time is 11 a.m. EDT Sunday with live television coverage provided by SPEED. Live radio on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 begins at 10:45 p.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions can be found at www.grand-am.com, and on mobile devices at m.grand-am.com and the GRAND-AM smartphone app.