Camping World RV Sales 301
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
 
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
New Hampshire Motor Speedway       
July 14, 2013  
 
Race Highlights:  
Richard Childress Racing teammates finished third (Jeff Burton), seventh (Kevin Harvick) and 17th (Paul Menard) in the Camping World RV Sales 301.
Following the event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Harvick remains fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, trailing leader Jimmie Johnson by 74 markers, while Burton sits 17th, 25 points outside of the top 10, and Menard ranks 20th, 36 points back from 10th.
The No. 29 Chevrolet SS team ranks fourth in the Sprint Cup Series owner championship point standings, with the No. 31 team 18th in the standings and the No. 27 team 21st.
Burton scored his best qualifying effort (ninth) and highest finish (third) of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Burton had the third-best Driver Rating (112.4), fourth-best Average Running Position (7.705) and spent 98.7 percent (298 laps) of the 302-lap race in the top 15.
With a lap time of 125.153 mph, Harvick was listed as the 10th-Fastest Driver Late in a Run.
Harvick completed 52 Green-Flag Passes, 17 of which came while running in the top 15 (Quality Passes).
Menard made 75 Green-Flag Passes over the course of the 302-lap event ranking him fifth overall.
Brian Vickers earned his first victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Kyle Busch, Burton, Brad Keselowski and Aric Almirola.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 28. The 20th race of the 2013 season is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN beginning at Noon Eastern Time and broadcast live on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio, channel 90.
 
 
Menard Finishes 17th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
 
Starting from the 14th position, Paul Menard and the No. 27 Libman/Menards team faced handling issues throughout the scheduled 301-lap event, earning a 17th-place finish when the checkered flag flew at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After slipping back several positions in the early laps of the race, Menard made his way back inside the top 15 at lap 25. Shortly after, he communicated to crew chief “Slugger” Labbe that the No. 27 machine was loose on entry and tight through the center of the corners. The pit crew made a variety of adjustments during the ensuing pit stops in hopes of remedying the issue. The series of chassis and air pressure adjustments provided some relief to the Eau Claire, Wis., native, and he maintained a position within the top 15 until lap 206 when the team began to play the fuel strategy game, pitting on three separate occasions under caution-flag periods for fuel. Restarting in 22nd on lap 219, Menard was able to gain two positions quickly and maintained a top-20 running position for the reminder of the race, ultimately working his way up to 17th when the checkered flag flew. Menard now sits in 20th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into the off-weekend.
 
Start – 14          Finish – 17          Laps Led – 0          Points – 20th
 
PAUL MENARD QUOTE:
“It was a tough day for the No. 27 Libman/Menards crew. We struggled with handling issues for the majority of the day and never seemed to hit on the right setup. I have to give my team credit though, they never gave up and made a variety of adjustments all day to try and get the car to handle better. We’ll use this off-weekend to regroup and head to Indy (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) looking for better results.”
 
 
 
     
Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Team Finish Seventh  
at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
 
Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser team collected their ninth-consecutive top-10 finish after earning a seventh-place result at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon. The California native started the scheduled 301-lap event from the 18th position and ran in or near the top 20 during the early laps. Harvick was scored in the 17th position when the yellow flag waved on lap 203. Crew chief Gil Martin called him to pit road to receive two fresh right-side tires and fuel, positioning the Richard Childress Racing driver eighth for the ensuing restart. Harvick maintained a position near the top 10 during the final laps, ultimately crossing the finish line in the seventh spot. Following his 11th top-10 finish of the season, Harvick remains fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings.
 
Start – 18         Finish – 7         Laps Led – 0         Points – 4th
                       
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
“We struggled terribly today, but we were able to make something out of it. The Budweiser team kept at it all day, and I’m proud of the guys for all their hard work this weekend. We’ve got a lot of work to do when we come back to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the fall, but we know what we need to fix and we’ll work with our teammates to get things figured out.”
 
   
 
 
Burton Caps Off Top-Five Effort with Third-Place Finish at New Hampshire
 
Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team ran in the top 15 for 298 laps of the scheduled 301-lap event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and capped off the solid effort with a third-place finish. After starting the event from the ninth position, his best qualifying effort of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, the South Boston, Va., native maintained a top-15 running position early. Burton reported to crew chief Luke Lambert that the No. 31 Chevrolet felt good, but needed minor adjustments to gain more grip. Lambert and the No. 31 pit crew worked hard throughout the afternoon, making air pressure and chassis adjustments on multiple two and four-tire pit stops while Burton maintained a top-10 running position. After running as high as second place and narrowly avoiding a multi-car accident on lap 226, the Richard Childress Racing driver never brought the black and yellow machine to pit road again as the team played pit strategy in an attempt to take advantage of good track position. After restarting 11th on lap 262, the 21-time Sprint Cup Series race winner methodically climbed his way back into the top 10 and was scored in the fourth position when the caution flag was displayed for the final time on lap 298, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. On the final restart, Burton raced hard for the lead over the final two circuits and crossed the finish line in the third position for his second top-five finish and best result of the 2013 season. With the strong finish, Burton gained four positions in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, moving up to 17th.
 
Start – 9          Finish – 3          Laps Led – 0           Points – 17th
 
JEFF BURTON QUOTE:
“Well, obviously we are happy with our finish.  We would have liked to have been a couple spots better, but we had a good car most of the day and it was very aggressive, hard racing. The cautions didn’t really fall the way we needed them to.  The way it worked out for us, we had to put tires on at a time when everybody in front us only got fuel and that loss of track position hurt us some. That’s just the way it fell out, had it gone green for 40 or 50 laps then w
e were in the catbird’s seat.  It just worked out that way. It wasn’t a bad call, just a set of circumstances.”

Helio Castroneves Continues as IZOD IndyCar Series Points Leader with Runner-up Finish in Race Two at Toronto
Sebastien Bourdais Gets Second Podium Finish of Weekend from Successful Standing Start
 
TORONTO (July 14, 2013) – Helio Castroneves continued the steady consistency that has kept him on top of the standings for the majority of the season by scoring a runner-up finish in Race Two of the 2 in T.O. doubleheader weekend on the Streets of Toronto. With the strong second-place run, the driver of the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet leads the points by 29 markers with 13 of the 19-race season in the record books.
 
Castroneves qualified third on the grid of the 24-car field, and executed a flawless standing start to enter turn one in second place. With excellent pit stops, he maintained track position during the race that saw just three caution flags for a total of 10 laps.
 
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 7 McAfee Dragon Racing Chevrolet, captured his second consecutive podium finish with a third-place run in today’s 85-lap/149.74-mile race.  From the seventh position on the grid, Bourdais also made an excellent start and came out of turn one in fifth place.
 
“Congratulations to Helio Castroneves and Sebastien Bourdais for strong podium finishes today in Toronto during Race 2 of the double header weekend” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “The standing start was very popular with the fans and added another facet to the already diverse racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series.  Team Chevy is looking forward to the next race at Mid-Ohio.”
 
E.J. Viso, No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA CITGO Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, finished fifth, and his teammate, Marco Andretti, No. 25 Dr. Pepper Chevrolet was scored ninth at the finish to give Team Chevy four of the top-10 finishers.
 
Local favorite James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, suffered an issue with his throttle on the warm-up laps, and dove down pit road to the attention of his crew prior to the start of the race.  He entered competition four laps down to the leaders, and was scored 21st at the finish.
 
Carlos Munoz, who replaced the injured Ryan Briscoe in the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet, had a very solid race and finished 17th, just one lap down to the winner.
 
With six races remaining in the season, Chevrolet continues to lead the IZOD IndyCar Series Manufacturers’ Championship standings.
 
The race was won by Scott Dixon.
 
Next event for the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 4, 2013 with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network. Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO – 2 IN T.O.
STREETS OF TORONTO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT – CARLOS MUNOZ 
JULY 14, 2013
ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT DRIVER AND FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS POINT LEADER CARLOS MUNOZ TALKED WITH THE MEDIA THIS AFTERNOON ABOUT REPLACING RYAN BRISCOE AS THE DRIVER OF THE NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET TODAY IN RACE #2. BRISCOE SUFFERED A BROKEN RIGHT WRIST IN AN ACCIDENT SATURDAY DURING RACE #1.
WERE YOU SURPRISED TO GET CALL FROM PANTHER?: “Yeah, I was really surprised because it was really late, and I don’t any experience in an Indy car on a road course. None in my life. I don’t even have my seat here from Indy car, from the Indy 500. I was surprised. I talked to Michael (Andretti), I talked to my engineers, I talked to some other guys, and they said you have to take this chance. This is an opportunity to get more experience, more laps.”
HAVE YOU TESTED ON A ROAD COURSE IN AN INDY CAR?: “Never. First time was today ever. The horsepower, we don’t feel it as much at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway. But with the walls and everything, it’s much more difficult.”
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU DID A STANDING START?: “Back in the year I raced Formula 3. It was quite nice to start with the hand brake. It wasn’t tough to start. I’m not going tohave a good start. I’m going to start last. The race is 85 laps. I’m going to try to make no mistakes and gain confidence lap by lap.”
ABOUT USING RYAN BRISCOE’S SETUP:   “I knew Ryan did a great job in qualifying for today, so I knew it was more from my part than the car. We started, more or less, with the same car as Ryan.”
WERE YOU PLANNING TO STAY HERE, AND WHY DID PANTHER CALL YOU?: “No, my flight was this morning at 6 a.m. So I changed my flight for yesterday, later in the night at 7 p.m., they called me and said do you want to drive Ryan’s car? That’s when we started calling and everything.”
DO YOU KNOW WHY THEY CALLED YOU?: “Not really. Go and ask JB (John Barnes) about it. I don’t know.”
DID YOU TALK WITH RYAN ABOUT THE CAR THIS MORNING?: “Yeah, we talked a little bit. More or less, I had a question about what to expect from the car, what reference points he had.”
WERE YOU ABLE TO FOLLOW OTHER DRIVERS IN PRACTICE?: “Not really in the beginning. I was three seconds slower, and everyone was overtaking me. I ended up only one second and something behind, so it wasn’t a bad for a first experience for me.”
WHERE DID YOU CUT TIME FROM YOUR LAP DURING PRACTICE?: “Everywhere. Each lap I was going quicker. I have too much to learn, especially on braking, since this was my first time on carbon brakes, and it’s totally different from what I’m used to in Indy Lights.”
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL TODAY: “I said (to Panther) I would go race, but don’t expect me to do a great job as I did in Indy. My goal is to not make any mistakes. Yesterday there were a lot of crashes. I saw the race. So it’s get me out of trouble and be quicker and quicker on each lap and not make any mistakes on pit stops and to finish the race.”
HOW DOES YOUR INDY LIGHTS EXPERIENCE TRANSLATE HERE?: “Line-wise, it’s totally similar to the Indy Lights. So that helped me a lot, the Indy Lights helped me. The reference points are really similar to IndyCar.”
HOW WILL THIS RIDE TODAY HELP YOU TOWARD YOUR GOAL OF REACHING INDYCAR?: “My goal next year is to be full time IndyCar driver. This year after the Indy 500, we were working maybe to Sonoma with the Andretti Autosport team. I was not sure because we wanted to be focused on Indy Lights title because it was more important to do one full season in IndyCar than one race in Sonoma, so I think still the goal is to win the Indy Lights championship.”

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO – 2 IN T.O.
STREETS OF TORONTO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES – RACE TWO  
JULY 13, 2013
 
TORONTO (July 13, 2013) – Qualifying is complete for the second race of the weekend on the Streets of Toronto, and seven Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers will start in the top-10 of the 85-lap/149.74-mile on the 11-turn, 1.75-mile temporary street course.
 
IZOD IndyCar Series points leader Helio Castroneves qualified the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet in third in the combined results of the two 12-minute timed sessions.  Defending Series champion, Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, was the fourth quickest driver.
 
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, and Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, No. 11 Hydroxycut KV Racing Technology – SH Racing Chevrolet, were fifth and sixth fastest respectively in the final run-down.
 
Sebastien Bourdais recorded his second top-10 qualifying effort of the weekend, putting the No. 7 McAfee Dragon Racing Chevrolet seventh fastest on the leaderboard. Ryan Briscoe was the eighth fastest driver behind the wheel of the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet.
 
Simona De Silvestro, No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva KV Racing Technology Chevrolet, turned in the 10th quickest lap.
 
“Team Chevy performed well today in qualifying for Race Two of the weekend here in Toronto.” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager IZOD IndyCar Series.  “While we did not secure the pole, Chevrolet-powered drivers will occupy the 3rd through 8th positions on the grid and have the muster to compete for the win.  Once again, 5 different Chevrolet teams are represented in the grid’s top 10 showing the depth of talent in the Team Chevy camp.  Our drivers, teams and technical partners plan to bring that depth of talent to bear on the races this weekend on the Streets of Toronto.”
 
Race number two is slated to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network.
 
Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRACTICE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 13, 2013
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S/MONOPOLY CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ON-TRACK ACCIDENT DURING THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION
LOOKS LIKE THE TIRE WENT DOWN BEFORE YOU WERE GOING INTO TURN 3.  IS THAT CORRECT?
“Yeah, I actually felt it pop or go flat really early.  I just couldn’t get slowed down.  Every time I got on the brakes it wheel hopped.  I felt like I was going to turn right.  I was trying to get the car slowed down and I knew for a long time I just couldn’t get slowed down enough.
 
“We cut a left rear tire down. It’s the exact same thing that happened to the No. 42 car (Juan Pablo Montoya) the third lap of practice yesterday. It’s weird, because we had just put new tires on and actually added air to the left rear, trying to make it better. We hadn’t had a problem, but we were just trying to be safe. So it’s a little puzzling that it actually blew out now, when we were trying to be more conservative.”
 
LOOKS LIKE THE CAR HAS QUITE A BIT OF DAMAGE. ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO GET IT FIXED, OR HAVE TO GO TO THE BACK-UP CAR?
“I don’t know.  It’s torn up pretty good, but we qualified okay so I hope they tell me they can fix it, but I’m not real sure.”
 
ARE YOU OKAY?  YOU LOOKED A LITTLE GINGER WHEN YOU WERE GETTING OUT OF THE CAR?
“Oh no, I’m fine.  It’s ironic that happened because we actually had added air to the left-rear tire to try to be safe.  Then we had a tire go down, so I’m a little bit puzzled more than I am hurt.”
 
HAS A DECISION BEEN MADE YET ABOUT WHETHER IT CAN BE FIXED OR IF YOU WILL HAVE TO GO TO A BACK-UP?
“So, we’re going to try to fix it because we qualified 11th and it’s really hard to pass here. And I thought our car was really good in practice; it’s definitely the best car I’ve had here at Loudon. So we want to race this car. It’s mainly cosmetic. So if they can get the panels out and get it where it’s presentable, I think we’re going to try to race this car tomorrow.
 
“it does look better now that they’ve pulled some of the bent pieces off. The right-rear quarter panel I think is going to be the most critical thing because it was tore up pretty good. But it looks much better than it did 20 minutes ago.”
 
HOW WAS THE CAR BEFORE THIS HAPPENED?
“I honestly thought we had a Top 2 or 3 car after about 10 or 15 laps; our car was really fast. I feel good about it if they can get this car fixed.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
SIX TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS TO START IN THE TOP-10 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
 
LOUDON, N.H. – July 12, 2013 – Six Chevrolet SS powered race cars will start in the top-10 for Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS led the charge for Team Chevy by posting the second fastest qualifying lap, but his time was disallowed by NASCAR during post-qualifying inspection. The five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and current series points leader will now start 43rd for the 301-lap race.
 
Kurt Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet SS, will move up one place and now start on the outside of the front row in the second position. He will be followed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS in third.  Earnhardt, Jr.’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS will start from the fifth starting spot.
 
Last year’s winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS will take the green flag from eighth.  Starting directly behind him will be the most successful driver at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Jeff Burton, driving the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS.  Burton has four wins at the 1.0-mile track.  Juan Pablo Montoya will start 10th in a back-up car following a crash in the first practice session in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS.
 
Other Team Chevy drivers qualifying in the top-20 were:  Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s/Monopoly Chevy SS – 11th, Paul Menard, No. 27 Libman/Menard Chevrolet SS – 14th, Ryan Newman, No. 39 Wix Filters Chevy SS – 15th, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS – 16th and Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevy SS – 18th.
 
Brad Keselowski (Ford) won the pole position and Kyle Busch (Toyota) rounded out the top-five in fourth.
 
The Camping World RV Sales 301 will take the green flag on Sunday, July 14th at 1:00 p.m. ET and will be aired live on TNT.
 
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SECOND
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED THIRD
 
SPECIAL NOTE:
QUALIFYING TIME OF JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S SS WAS DISALLOWED BY NASCAR FOLLOWING POST QUALIFYING INSPECTION. JOHNSON WILL START SUNDAY’S RACE FROM THE 43RD POSITION. PRESS CONFERENCE WAS PRIOR TO RULING.
 
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN
JOHNSON: “I was happy I was able to make it. I was getting a little tight on the watch there. I guess we had a side skirt that was a 16th too long and then something with a pound of weight. The way things are regulated now it’s such a small amount, you pass or fail things. So, we cut it close on time. I was trying to get my heart rate down and take a few deep breaths and went out and hand a nice lap. The car drove really good and I missed it by a few thousandths. So it was very close. It was a nice, solid performance.”
 
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN
BUSCH: “For us, ours was pretty exciting exept ours started later. I drove down into (Turn) 1 and I hit the rev chip so soon that I thought the guys missed the setting on the rev chip. It can mean two things. It can mean you’re really going fast or it can mean that it’s set improperly. Luckily it was set properly and we were just fast, but it threw my timing all off. I really couldn’t quite figure out corner entry and it changed the way that I applied the brake and I just had to adjust. But it was such a weird lap. I was expecting Todd (Berrier, crew chief) to tell me that we were going to be 20th. He said we ran an 0.5 and I was like hey, if we can screw up that big and have that much fun while we’re screwing up and be third, we’ll take it.”
 
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO START UP FRONT?
JOHNSON: “Without a doubt (it’s important). It’s a very tough track to complete a pass on. You can get next to someone, but finishing the pass is really hard. So, we’ll both with good track position, but strategy is going to play a big role in how you finish here this weekend.”
BUSCH: “Yeah, good cars can maneuver and run that low lane and pass cars. Until you get into that Top 10, everybody is the same speed and it’s difficult to maneuver side-by-side and still post a fast lap time. But the place is getting a little older. It’s still the same fun flat one-mile track that is real slick on fresh tires and then the more you run, the better the car sticks. So there will be a lot of movement on restarts.”
 
THERE WAS A LOT OF TALK ABOUT WHETHER THE GEN-6 CAR WOULD TURN THINGS AROUND IN TERMS OF SET-UPS AND COMPETITIVE BALANCE.  DID YOU NOTICE ANY BIG CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR?
BUSCH: “I felt like the rear-end skew, since it’s gone, and some of the rear-end camber, since we have more, it changed the way the rear of the car felt. But, overall in a nutshell, it was pretty close. We didn’t do anything dramatic and set-ups that usually work at Phoenix or Richmond apply here. And that was our baseline and we just had to adjust for a couple of key things from there. But overall, I thought the Gen-6 car has always shown speed on the stopwatch and it’s fun to drive and again, another track record fell at this track (with pole winner speed).”
JOHNSON: “I expect there to be more of an issue of trying to find the balance to get the cars fast because we just have fewer tools to work on the car with right now versus last year. But, man, the cars had grip and were fast right away. My initial concerns went away fast after a run or two and the car run really good.”
 
YOU KEEP KNOCKING ON THE DOOR TO GET A WIN FOR FURNITURE ROW. WHAT’S GOING TO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?
BUSCH: “Fundamentals. I threw away a winning car at Sonoma trying to go too fast on pit road. And some of the events this year, we’ve just had little things pop up that I’ve induced or the team has thrown a wrench in the mix. But we can’t force it. I keep saying it and then I go out there and I try a little bit harder and drive that 101 percent and it steps over the line. Jimmie knows this the best with running as well as he has and has many championships as he has put together. You drive at a certain value and you still have speed in the car. That means you have a window to give. Right now we just don’t quite have that window to give and once we start to back-off of the intensity level, but still have that lap time, that’s when I think it will come together. But we might as well just keep you guys (media) on pins and needles and drag this all the way out to the end. As long as we’re running good, and running and posting top finishes, that’s what the most important thing is.”
 
HOW QUICKLY DO YOU PUT THE WAITING AND ALL THE ISSUES THAT YOU WENT THROUGH PRIOR TO QUALIFYING OUT OF YOUR MIND? WHEN YOU GOT IN THE CAR, HAD YOU FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT? WERE YOU STILL STEAMED ABOUT IT GOING DOWN PIT ROAD?
“I wasn’t steamed. There wasn’t anger behind it. It was like man, if we don’t get our qualifying lap in, we’re going to have the worst pit stall and track position. So, I’m thinking of that angle. The scales are the scales and the lazars are the lazars, so we’ve got to go through there and have that stuff right. There wasn’t anger behind it. There was more anxiety to get out there and post a lap to try to minimize the damage and in that whole anxiety threshold, it was high. Even though I got in the car, I think they let the No. 87 go before letting us roll off, I did my best to calm down and take some breaths and all.
 
“But when they told me to fire it up and roll out, my heart rate was sill pretty high. Coming to the green, there was just a feeling t
he car had and that put me more at ease than anything and helped me get my head in the game and drive the car. The car went in there and stuck real nice and took throttle application. And at that point, I’m like all right. Just four good corners and we’ll take it from there.”
 
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – MET WITH MEDIA AFTER NASCAR RULED THAT THE CAR FAILED POST-QUALIFYING INSPECTION.
 
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
HOW DID YOU GET THROUGH PRE-QUALIFYING INSPECTION AND RUN OUT TO THE GRID; AND THEN NOT PASS AFTERWARDS?
“We’re really crafty. We’re good (laughter).  No, we had some difficulty and as you all know, it was documented that we were a little bit late. We had some problems getting through the initial inspection process before qualifying. We were able to get it and got the car right, but it just wasn’t exactly right. And we weren’t going to know until after qualifying, once we started to tear it apart, what the problem was. What ended up happening is there was a disassembly issue with the right front and that’s why the heights were so messed up as we were going through initial inspection. And that came back to bite us there in the end.”
 
IT IS VERY RARE FOR THIS TO HAPPEN TO THE NO. 48 TEAM. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
IT ALSO MESSES UP YOUR PICK FOR THE PITS, RIGHT?
“Yeah, it’s going to hurt us, obviously; tremendously for the pit selection. But the good thing about Loudon is that if you’ve got a good race car, you can pass. So we’re really looking forward to that. It’s actually kind of a funny race, though. The way the ebb and flow of the event goes, the guys in the back typically get an opportunity to get to the front through some form of pit strategy; so, if nothing else, we can make it exciting.
 
“And yes, I can’t say enough about the mechanical department of the No. 48 guys. They do a tremendous job. And for us to have one single mistake over the course of the last decade or so, however long it’s been since we really had a problem, I think we get a ‘buy’ from that standpoint.”
 
DID YOU HAVE TO CUP PART OF THE SIDE SKIRT OFF?
“Yeah.”
 
SO NOW WILL YOU BE ABLE TO ADD THAT BACK ON WHEN YOU GET THE ASSEMBLY RIGHT?
“Yes. We saw that there was an issue like the left side was real high and the right side was real low and to try to manage those heights; NASCAR does a really good job of making sure that the cars are pretty good going through pre-race and pre-qualifying inspection. And we knew there was something that just wasn’t’ jiving right. And we were able to get through and then afterwards the cars settle a little bit; especially with a track like Loudon, New Hampshire. I think you all see how low the race cars are around the race track. You run a lot of shock. You run a lot of front rebound. It takes a little bit for the cars to come up. With the way that we’re measuring the heights now, you really don’t have a lot of room for error and we just had a little error.”
 
COULD YOU PUT THIS IN LAYMAN’S TERMS?
“We just had a small problem. It happens. There are a lot of things that you’re trying to do in a quick, brief amount of time when you’re changing springs and shocks and sway bars. You don’t have a whole lot of time to get through your final assembly of practice to get the car ready to qualify. And we just missed a little detail there.”
 
WAS CORRECTING THE CAR TO GET IT TO QUALIFY CAUSE IT TO BE LOW WHEN YOU CAME BACK?
“No. That was all our fault. There was nothing from that standpoint. That’s why we were so shocked going through initial inspection when we had the problem with the right side skirt, we’re like man, something is just not right. And it wasn’t.”
 
HOW DOES YOUR STRATEGY CHANGE IN GOING FROM THE OUTSIDE POLE TO THE TAIL OF THE FIELD?
“Well, shoot. I don’t know. We’ll have to get going here. That dust hasn’t settled yet. We’ll have to be aggressive. The thing about this race is it’s a very short race. It’s 300 laps or so. You’ve got to get in there, you’ve got to be aggressive. I look forward to the challenge. I think it’s going to be fun.”
 
DO YOU THINK THE CAR IS FAST ENOUGH TO DRIVE UP THROUGH THERE?
“Yes, the car if fast. The car is fine.”
 
WHY DID YOU COME TO THE MEDIA CENTER TO TALK ABOUT THIS?
“Tomorrow is a busy day. You guys are going to be hunting us down and it’s a busy day. We don’t have a lot of time. We have an early practice at 9:00 a.m. and all of you guys standing around with your cameras and notepads and computers would have been difficult to try to get the car prepared from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. for practice. So we just wanted to get it knocked out and give you the opportunity to ask your questions.”
 
SO YOU HAVE NO ISSUES WITH NASCAR?
“No, not at all. No, we made a mistake. That happens.”
 
HOW DO YOU REGROUP AFTER MAKING AN ERROR LIKE THIS?
“It’s really not that difficult. You look at the issue. You figure out how to put processes in place to where you don’t have any kind of issue. And you just move on with it. These things always happen. Maybe you guys don’t see them as much. They happen to everybody at a lot of different times. We do a very good job of when we have an issue, making sure we don’t do it again. And as long as we can make sure we don’t do it again, we’re going to be fine.”
 
WITHOUT THIS ISSUE, IS IT POSSIBLE THE CAR WOULD BE EVEN FASTER?
“The car is good. We’ve got a good race car. I think it’s going to be plenty fast.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 12, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS –SECOND PLACE QUALIFYING TIME WAS DISALLOWED BY NASCAR FOLLOWING POST QUALIFYING INSPECTION. JOHNSON WILL START SUNDAY’S RACE FROM THE 43RD POSITION. QUOTE WAS PRIOR TO RULING.
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“We had two small issues one with the side skirt height missed it by a sixteenth of an inch.  Then I think a pound of weight was missing or wasn’t right on the right-side weight.  We had to go through twice and that is usually big trouble for teams.  We were able to get it done quickly and get out just in time.  With all that being said it just added a lot of stress to my qualifying lap.  I knew through (turns) three and four coming to the green that I had a fast Lowe’s Chevrolet and was able to get in a good lap and almost got us a pole.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/SEALY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED THIRD
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“It’s one of those interesting laps.  I was on the rev chip so early I was like ‘we must be going that fast’ or we even dialed our rev chip back too far.  These guys are just incredible.  The things that they are finding and the speed we are bolting on just got to thank Barney Visser, (Joe) Garone, everybody is working hard.  They are great at finding speed, Todd (Berrier, crew chief) is great at managing it, we are parked here with the No. 48 and No. 2 after a weird lap, so that means we are doing okay if we can manage all this weirdness and still be fast.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“Yeah I’m real happy with the lap.  I think it could have been better.  We struggled a little bit through (turns) three and four on the first lap, but the car has been fast. Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the guys and myself we have been real pleased with the speed the car has had all day in practice.  So, we were anticipating having a good lap and hopefully that will stick around and give us the pole.”
 
I KEEP WATCHING YOU LOOK AT THE BOARD EVERY TIME ANOTHER CAR GOES BY.  YOU WANT THAT POLE DON’T YOU?
“Yeah, we don’t really do that well in qualifying.  Haven’t in the past several years and we got the pole over there in Kentucky and to get a pole here I think that would give our team some momentum and give us some confidence that we really need to sort of get into these next several race before we get to the Chase.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SIXTH
THAT WAS A NICE RUN. IT SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD
“It felt like a possible pole-running lap. It was off a little bit more than I anticipated but all in all, it was a good solid run. The car did the things that I wanted it to do and maybe looking back on it, it was just a little bit freer than what we anticipated. But yeah, that’s good.”
 
DID YOU WORK ON YOUR QUALIFYING RUNS DURING PRACTICE?
“No, we worked on race stuff; just trying to get prepared for Sunday. And that didn’t go so well, so when we switched over to qualifying trim, that last run we made was pretty close and I felt good about it and I knew we had something to work with.”
 
YOU SAID YOU NEEDED TO WORK ON QUALIFYING. DID YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT?
“Well, short track qualifying is a lot different than a 1.5-mile track where we’ve been struggling. So, we’re just trying to get the set-ups to match my style and get as much grip in the car as possible. It seems like every time we qualify we’re just a little bit too loose. So, today is completely different. The short tracks, we’ve actually done pretty well qualifying here. We’ll just see how it goes at Indy in a couple of weeks and the 1.5-miles after that.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED NINTH
HOW WAS YOUR RUN?
“It felt really goof. I wouldn’t change a whole lot. I would just ask for a cloud like the two guys in front of me and I think it would have been better (laughs). I feel good about where we’re at. We just did two qualifying runs today in practice is all we did.”
 
HOW IS THE CAR IN RACE TRIM?
“We’re going to work on it tomorrow, but it seems like it’s close.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 19TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“Just a little free on that end and probably didn’t quite get what I needed to on this end.  All in all it was three tenths better than practice for our Budweiser Chevy.  The guys have done a good job.  I feel good about our car in race trim and hopefully the sun comes out that would be great for us at this particular point.”
 
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT FOR YOU TODAY ARE YOU GLAD TO KIND OF HAVE IT ALL JUST KIND OF OUT OF THE WAY?
“Well, yeah I feel like obviously we are excited about everything, but there is still the task at hand to race this car for RCR and all these guys as fast as we can go every particular week and try to win races.  Hopefully, we can get through these next few weeks and be in the Chase like it looks and race them hard for the championship.  Hopefully, all the little chitter chatter and everything that has been surrounding everything is gone and we can move forward.”
 
 

Sebastien Bourdais Puts Chevrolet IndyCar V6 on Front Row for Race One in Toronto
 
TORONTO (July 12, 2013) – Sebastien Bourdais, No. 7 McAfee Dragon Racing Chevrolet, led the charge for Team Chevy in today’s Firestone Fast Six qualifying for Saturday’s IZOD IndyCar Series Race One of the Honda Indy Toronto doubleheader.  With his second place qualifying effort, Bourdais will start on the front row of the first standing start in Toronto IndyCar racing history.
 
Bourdais’ effort today is the team’s best-ever qualifying performance and Bourdais’ best result since joining the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 contingent just prior to the 2012 Indianapolis 500.
 
Chevrolet drivers occupied three of the top-six cars competing for the pole of the first of two 85-lap points-paying races on the Streets of Toronto.
 
Will Power will roll off third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, followed by Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, No. 11 Hydroxycut KV Racing Technology – SH Racing Chevrolet, in the fourth starting position.
 
Defending Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, will roll off from seventh on the 24-car grid. Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, was the eighth fastest qualifier, and Ryan Briscoe, No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet completes the top-10 starters.
 
“The grid for the first of two races on the Streets of Toronto was set today,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “It is a mix of Chevy and Honda cars that will be the first to execute a standing start tomorrow.  We are proud to have five different Chevrolet teams represented in the top ten of the field.  The diversity of circuit types we compete on is unique to the IZOD IndyCar Series, and the return to street circuits following a string of ovals is exciting.  It is a challenge to the teams and drivers to execute, and highlights their strengths and weaknesses as evidenced in the number of different race winners there have been during the season.  We continue to work hard to make the Chevrolet IndyCar Twin Turbo V6 capable at all the circuits so Team Chevy will always be in a position to win.”
 
Dario Franchitti won the pole, with James Jakes and Scott Dixon completing the Firestone Fast Six.
 
Race number one of the Honda Indy Toronto 2 in T.O. is set to start on Saturday, July 13, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network. Race number two is slated to begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network.  Each race will be 85 laps for a total of 299.5 miles.
 
Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed the first practice session, racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
HOW WAS THE CAR DURING THAT FIRST PRACTICE?
“We were in qualifying trim the whole time and it was generally loose I would say for most of the practice. We made a final run and we’re moving steadily on fast but by no means are we fast enough. I hit water in three and four. That weeper was a bit of an issue. Hopefully it doesn’t come into play during qualifying. I imagine they’re going to stay on top of that. We just have work to do with getting a car for qualifying for me that I feel really comfortable with.
 
JUST A REACTION TO THE NEWS TODAY WITHIN THE TEAM THAT KEVIN HARVICK WILL BE COMING ABOARD NEXT SEASON WITH BUDWEISER?
“There have been rumors I think. More than anything it’s just nice to be able to get planning and get moving and have everybody moving in that direction. He’s a really good guy. He’s helped me from the beginning when I was running Nationwide. I’m really excited about him coming over and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun.
 
DOES IT CHANGE THE DYNAMIC OF THE TEAM?
“No, there’s not really anything different from yesterday to today or the beginning of the year to now. We’re professional and everybody’s moving in the same direction. That’s to go as fast as we can and to get every car that’s running at SHR as fast as possible. So, I don’t anticipate that much will change through the end of the year either.”
 
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME A WOMAN WILL RUN A SPRINT CUP RACE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE, DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU AT THIS POINT?
“No, again these are not things that I’m aware of. There was somewhere else this year that I don’t think a girl had run a race or something like that. It seems like an odd stat. But being the first to do things is something that’s happened quite a few times but nothing that I keep track of. And on my quest as a driver to be the best driver as possible and as fast as possible and run really well I guess these are just things that happen. I’m running full-time Sprint Cup and we come to Loudon twice.”
 
IN GENERAL HOW DO YOU LIKE THE TRACK?
“I think it’s a good track. I think it’s a lot of fun. That second lane is where everybody runs but the first lane’s possible to run there if the car is hooked up well enough and not too loose. It’s a little bit challenging to pass but I think it’s a good race track.”
 
WHAT DID YOU GAIN FROM LAST WEEK’S RACE AS FAR AS WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAST LAP?
“I only needed to watch it once to see what happened. Actually I lie, I watched it twice to make sure I knew what happened because I watched it right after I pulled up to my hauler. I saw that and I was like, “Wow, that was me. I came down on the 38.” And then I was like, “Man, I just didn’t feel like I moved.” And then I said to myself, “All I was trying to do was follow the 88.” And so I went back to my bus and watched it and I was like, “I did follow the 88 and that is why I came down”. So, I was just not aware enough of my surroundings, not aware enough that we were turning down the track in the tri-oval that much and it really just felt like we were wrapping around the top coming to the finish line but it gets a little bit harder to judge exactly where you are when you’re going through the tri-oval as opposed to just down the straightaway. So I went and told David I was sorry and I’m really sorry. I not only feel bad that it started the accident but I lost five spots doing it. By no means was it me trying to be tough or move. I had enough momentum to finish ninth.”
 
DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OR WOULD THE CHOICE HAVE BEEN TO STAY A LITTLE BIT CLOSER TO THE WALL?
“Yeah, looking back I would have kept my eyes on the wall and stayed closer to it knowing that it kept you further away from other cars. I can honestly say that I got done and was like, “Man, I don’t know what happened underneath me but it obviously collected me.” But it was my fault. I’m just trying to explain to you how little I thought I did but when you’re running two hundred miles an hour it doesn’t take much. Even David said, “I didn’t even barely feel anything”. But it was just enough to turn the car around. Like I said going two hundred miles an hour it doesn’t much.
 
WHEN YOU WERE EXPLORING THE OPTIONS TO COME TO CUP WHAT WAS IT ABOUT TONY’S (STEWART) TEAM AND PARTICULARLY TONY AS AN OWNER THAT APPEALED TO YOU?
“I think there were two things but there was one main thing. And that’s that we’ve got similar backgrounds. We get along great. He’s not only an owner but a driver, so he’s invested. He wants to run well so that means as an owner he’s going to do what it takes to make it run well. The other part of it that made it a really easy decision as far as being able to move forward was just that they’re a two car team so it was possible to ask be able to ask him if they would be prepared to run a three car team. I didn’t have to wait for someone to leave to find a spot. So it made the planning better. And by all means it took a lot of planning. “
 
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO BE IN ESPN’S BODIES WE WANT?
“Yeah, every year.”
 
AND WHY NOT?
“I just never felt like that was something I needed or wanted to do. A lot of the stuff that I’ve done that has been scantily clad has all been swimsuit stuff. I was also asked to do the painted section of the swimsuit issue. I was asked to do that the second year after I’d was in it the first time. I asked one of my most liberal friends if I should do it and she was like, “Um, that’s naked right? Last I checked that’s naked.” Would I feel comfortable? I’m sure it’d be a little bit borderline. There’s a difference to me between going to the beach and wearing a swimming suit and going to the beach and wearing nothing or paint. That’s just pushing the limit a little bit. I mean as far as artistically I think it’d be really fun but it’s not things that I need to do to push the issue with my brand. There’s already enough stuff that I do that pushes that. So, I’d rather stay in my full comfort zone than go that far. I’m not saying there will never be a day. When I speak to them and they ask me each time I say, “Don’t stop asking. I don’t know. I might change my mind one year. And it might be something that parallels something else I’m doing, or where I’m at, or how I’m feeling.” But just not right now.
 
SO IF THEY ASK RICKY TO DO IT, COULD YOU BECOME THE FIRST COUPLE?
“I think the swimsuit issue tried the couple’s thing and that didn’t work. So, I’d be surprised.”
 
WHAT ARE THE KEYS FOR YOU GUYS TO RUN WELL HERE THIS WEEKEND?
“I think qualifying is going to be important that’s why we worked on it the whole time in practice. Not sure it went great but passing is always tough here so qualifying is going to be important. I think that getting through the center of the corner here is going to be really important too. It’s a fairly long corner so you need to get the car rotated. On the other hand I’m not really sure because I haven’t raced here in a Cup car. All I can do is base it off of Nationwide and when we came and tested a few weeks ago.
 
WITH THE OFF WEEKEND COMING NEXT WEEK IS THAT A GOOD TIME FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM?
“Well, I would say that if we had a couple of off weekends it’d be good for all the teams. It’s a lot of work and it’s a grind no doubt. Especially with opening up the testing for those four official tests that can be up to three days long. It wears on a team no doubt. I think it’s going to be nice. Everybody’s been a
sking what I’m going to do. I’m in a wedding. So, that’s what I’ll be doing. The ESPY’s are this week. So, fly out to LA on Tuesday. The ESPY’s are on Wednesday. And then get back for all of the wedding festivities. And then I’m heading down to Indy early. Not really much off-time for me. These last five days have actually been pretty good. I was home Saturday night through last night (Thursday night). That was about the longest stretch I’ve had in one place. Not completely off. I still had a couple things to do but at least I didn’t have to get on a plane to do them.”
 
SOMEBODY ELSE’S WEDDING?
“Somebody else’s wedding. Yeah. No, I didn’t just drop a big bomb right there. It’s somebody else’s wedding. I love weddings. I love love. So, it’ll be fun.”
 
HAVE YOU EVER HAD SPONSORS THAT WANTED YOU TO DO THAT ESPN BODY ISSUE OR THAT THEY DIDN’T WANT YOU TO DO IT?
“I don’t think there’s really been anybody that necessarily says what I can or can’t do. But all I do know is that GoDaddy’s always said from the very beginning and all along is that, “whatever you do we’re behind you”. So, I always felt comfortable that my primary source of concern being GoDaddy would always be OK with whatever it was that I wanted to do. That’s cool for an athlete to know that they’re biggest backer is behind them no matter what. I still have to do things that I feel completely comfortable with and I feel wouldn’t take away from the other things I do. The good things that I do. Because those things can turn negative quick and be louder than the good and that’s not what I want to happen.
 
YOU MENTIONED THE ESPY’S QUITE A FEW TIMES, IS THERE ANYONE YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING THAT YOU HAVEN’T YET?
“You sound like a reporter on the red carpet right now. That’s basically what everyone asks. Since 2005, I’ve been there every year since 2005. And this is what I always say on the red carpet. I don’t know exactly who I’m excited to meet. I mean every now and again I have a year where I’m like, “Oh, this person I heard they know who I am so I’m excited to meet them.” But I’m more one of those people that has an experience there at the ESPY’s and meets someone they didn’t expect to or know much about even sometimes and all of a sudden come away going, “Oh my gosh, he’s a great guy”. Ask me again at the Brickyard and I’ll probably have a story.
 
 
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY                                                    
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed competing for the championship, other contenders and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
 
TALK ABOUT COMING INTO NEW HAMPSHIRE THIS WEEKEND AND COMING OFF OF LAST WEEK’S WIN AT DAYTONA:  “Excited to be here.  This track is challenging for everybody.  Chad (Knaus, crew chief) really likes this race track and the engineering required to get the car to work.  There is very little vertical loading and a lot of lateral loading with the race car and the way you use the springs and shocks and the roll center of the car to make the car work.  Chad really enjoys that exercise.  I feel like last year we were the second best car in both races.  The 11 (Denny Hamlin) had a bunch of speed, but won a few times here and have been competitive and it’s always been a good track for me.  Excited to be back and a lot like the other drivers hopeful to be in the Chase and we look at this track and know that we come back here in the Chase and we need to treat this with a little more care and attention.  If you leave here with a good result, it just kind of checks one of the boxes going into the Chase that you feel like you can be competitive.”
 
DID LAST SEASON’S CHASE MAKE YOUR TEAM MORE CONSISTENT THIS YEAR?:  “I look at 2011 and think there was more growing that went on over that off season leading into ’12 than what’s gone on from the end of ’12 to now.  We had the speed, we had the tools to win the championship last year.  The year before, we didn’t and there was more going on there.  Last year we had that bad race at Phoenix, but still went to Homestead and were in great position to take care of business and a series of mistakes by our own team so we took ourselves out of it.  That’s almost easier to swallow and deal with than it is being slow.  In a weird way we spent less time focusing on changes that we needed to make and what was going on with our speed in the end result than we did in ’11.  We spent a lot of time thinking about things and knew that we needed to dig in deep and rethink our engineering process, the way we were taking cars to the race track and a lot of stuff there.  I think that this off season was really just a continuation of where we were at the end of last year.  Even though we didn’t get the championship, we had a lot to be proud of over those last 10 races and a lot of speed in our car and it’s just too bad that events at the end on top of the 2 (Brad Keselowski) car really doing an awesome job kept us from winning the championship.”
 
ARE THERE OTHER TEAMS YOU CONSIDER SERIOUS THREATS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP?:  “Oh yeah.  Without a doubt.  I think there are a few out there that have showed their strength.  The 20 (Matt Kenseth) car is the first car that comes to mind.  Right now we have a big points lead, but that all goes away when the Chase gets here and that changes the game.  Not only that aspect, but we still have a few months before the Chase starts and we know how fast things can change in the garage area and the speed that an organization may have might not be there two months from now.  We’re looking ahead and we’ve been testing and we have a lot of test sessions left on the books that NASCAR will allow us to test at tracks we race at.  All of that has been saved in hopes that we can find more speed and develop our cars for the end.  I am very proud that we started this season a little bit off on the mile-and-a-half and two-mile race tracks and were able to find that speed and get it in our cars.  Test sessions really kind of take you to that next level and I’m happy that we have that room to grow still.”
 
DOES THE EXPECTATION TO WIN THE TITLE ADD PRESSURE?:  “I don’t know.  I don’t let that outside pressure affect me much.  I rarely recognize it or see it.  There’s more pressure on myself to perform and more pressure that Chad (Knaus, crew chief) has on himself and our team dynamic than anything outside like that.  I really don’t focus on those things.”
 
WILL YOU EXPERIMENT MORE IN THE NEXT EIGHT RACES OR JUST FOCUS ON WINS?:  “Ideally we need to do a little of both, but we’d be foolish to get too far away from what we’re doing now.  It’s completely working.  Bonus points are going to be everything and we missed out on some bonus points through the year so far.  A little of both and I would say that the closer we get to the Chase, the less experimenting we would do.  You need to hone in and know what you’re going to take to the track and get familiar with it.  I think it’s also important to run well leading into the Chase so that the driver is used to the pressure and running up front, pit crew is when they jump off the wall to the car.  There is just something about that is good for a team.”
 
ARE YOU AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME OR ARE YOU STILL IMPROVING?:  “I feel I’m a far better driver today than I am from my rookie year, my first championship or my fifth.  Experience is so helpful and useful and important in our sport.  I remember saying in different media situations that I would trade my age for experience any day.  It really does make a big difference.  When you look at the generations before mine in racing, I saw a stat somewhere that the average Cup driver starting point was in the early 30s.  You look at when (Dale) Earnhardt won his last championship and the bulk of his championships he was older and I think the same thing went for (Richard) Petty.  That’s all because of experience.  I feel that I’m much smarter, focused, my talents are refined, I know the race tracks, I know my industry, everything is so much better today than it was in previous years.”
 
HOW MUCH MORE INTERESTING WOULD A CHASE BE WITH KURT BUSCH IN IT?:  “I think it would be a huge statement.  I’m not sure if it’s going to change much on the track, he is racing for wins now and in the mix each and every week.  To see a smaller team if they were able to make the Chase and fight for the championship, it really highlights NASCAR’s vision or focuses in on the vision that NASCAR has had all along where anybody can come and show up with a race car and race and have a shot.  I think it would be great for the team to make it and I think for Kurt (Busch) to kind of bring everything full circle and to get that done would be really cool for him.”
 
DO YOU THINK BRAD KESELOWSKI IS LEARNING HOW TOUGH IT IS TO BE ON TOP?:  “Yeah, every champion goes through it to come back and try to repeat is really difficult to do.  When the spotlight is on you when you’re chasing that first championship and you get it, that light intensifies quite a bit more coming back the next year and I know it from my own experience and it’s five times that what he’s been going through.  The little things that we’ve dealt with over the years that he’s living through and experiencing now.  Everything from you have to be careful what you say because many more people pay attention and a passing comment is now a headline somewhere.  A previous year it was at the tail end of an article and didn’t mean much.  Now it’s a headline.  That’s just one example of how things really changed.  I think he’s handled it well.&nb
sp; We all hit bumps in the road and learn as we go down the road.  I by no means am perfect so I understand what kind of things he’s been through.”
 
HOW DOES JEFF GORDON FIT IN WITH THE TEAM RIGHT NOW FROM A COMPETITIVE STANDPOINT?:  “I honestly haven’t seen a change in Jeff (Gordon) from when I first started and he was off his last championship year to now.  The feel he has for the car, his focus, his involvement with the team, if anything I would say he’s probably more available to his team and around the race shop today than he was when I started.  He used to tease me because I was the new excited kid who showed up and was there three or four times a week.  He wasn’t there that much.  It’s kind of reversed now a little bit in a lot of ways with the amount of time spent at the shop.  That’s all there and I know he’s working hard and I know Alan (Gustafson, 24 crew chief) is working hard on that team.  They’ve been awfully close. He jokes about how many years of good luck that he had and I guess in some ways he jokes that it’s all coming back on him now because he’s had very fast race cars.  Very capable of winning races and fighting for championships, but he’s had some really wacky things happen to him.”
 
HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL THAT YOUR TEAM IS HOW OTHERS ARE MEASURED IN HOW TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?:  “That’s a big compliment for sure and we’re proud of that.  At the same time, there isn’t a team that is studied more than us so anything we do the others follow quickly and try to take our system or our formula and try to make it better.  We do a nice job though of keeping our blinders on and worried about our car situation and I think in the long run that has been really good for us and allows us to keep evolving.  It’s a smart garage area and people pay close attention to what we do.”
 
WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR IMPROVEMENTS WHEN YOU ARE ON TOP AND HOW DO YOU STAY MOTIVATED AT THAT LEVEL?:  “I think for myself I know that it’s not going to last forever and when you’re racing the best in the world you always elevate your game and your abilities to stay there.  That’s just kind of a natural thing for myself that I believe all drivers share that same ambition to win a championship.  From the team side, Chad’s desire and his passion for the sport and for fast race cars really does it.  There aren’t big areas to work anymore.  It’s really about, as he likes to say, stacking pennies.  You just continue to find a little bit in each area and keep stacking and eventually it will turn into something.  That’s where I think he’s different than others.  There are times when he’s putting in all the hours, but maybe we’re working in the wrong area and we missed it.  That happens.  Majority of the time though they’ll figure out the right area to work in and where the speed is in the car and we’ll get it dialed in.  I like him wearing a 48 headset and on top of my pit box and it works really well.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPING WORLD RV SALES 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 12, 2013
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed, racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, being a free agent in 2014 and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
A THREE TIME WINNER HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY TALK A LITTLE ABOUT COMING INTO NEW HAMPSHIRE THIS WEEKEND:
“Well I have different circumstances there is no doubt about that.  For me it’s a track position race.  I’ve always talked about that and the fact that it’s important to qualify well.  You get a limited number of chances to adjust on your race car and tune your race and work in those windows that either the cautions or the green flag runs give you.  Excited it’s big for this weekend for Wix Filters I believe it’s our first race this year on the Cup side and they are also sponsoring the modified which is a lot of fun for me to come up here and race.  I’ve said before this is the birthplace of track position and a lot of weight is put on the teams and the performance of the entire weekend in qualifying.  We didn’t have the best of practices, but I think we have a car that is better than we did practice speed wise.  We will see what we can prove with the Wix Filters Chevrolet in qualifying.  We spent the entire time in qualifying trim so we will switch over and get some race trim in tomorrow.  We did come up here and test and feel we have a little leg up because we had a good test up here.
 
“Let me just go ahead and say before you guys ask any questions.  This is an opportunity for me to come up here and answer probably five or six questions, but all at once. The ability to save my time and your time every time somebody else asks the same question my answer doesn’t usually get as good so let me do it here all at once.  I’m aware of what happened this morning and the announcement with Tony (Stewart) and Kevin (Harvick) and what SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing) plans are.  I’ve had a good run.  I look forward to finishing out this year.  We have great sponsors in Quicken Loans, Wix Filters, Aspen Dental, Code 3 Associates, Outback they have all done us well.  Look forward to the opportunity to make the Chase, winning races and putting ourselves to have a chance to win a championship that’s my ultimate goal and it always has been. I do not know what my future holds.  I have no idea right now.  I didn’t have any idea at this time last year.  That is something that weighs on my shoulders.  I have a little homework to do.  That is part of racing and part of the situation that I’m in.  I can’t say that I’m happy with how everything unfolded.  I know that there are business decisions and business decisions sometimes trump friendships.  I don’t feel like that was the case, but in the end I’m happy with the three wins that I’ve had so far with Stewart-Haas and the performance and the cars and everything else.  There will be a change for me in 2014 and I don’t know what that change is.”
 
AT WHAT POINT DID THIS BECOME FINALIZED FOR YOU?
“I got a phone call from Tony (Stewart) on Wednesday about 20 minutes to seven and we talked for basically 20 minutes.  That was it.  His phone call was about making the announcement and that I would not be a part of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. That was it.
 
“His stress was the importance of our friendship and that to me will never change.  We’ve only ever argued over how hard we race.  That is the kind of friends Tony and I are.  There is a chance that we might do that again in the future, but we have a great friendship and I look forward to keeping that.  That was the main point of our conversation outside of the obvious of 2014.  That was my first knowledge of what I won’t be doing.  I’ve been a free agent ever since I signed my contract last year in September for 2014 and had the ability to look around.  I will continue to do that.  At this point I do not know what or where I will be.”
 
IN YOUR MIND WHAT WOULD BE AN IDEAL SITUATION FOR YOU IN 2014?
“I don’t know. There are organizations out there that are capable of winning championships and capable of racing I guess into the Chase to give themselves and opportunity at a championship.  It’s obvious that there are some seats that are moving around and becoming available and potentially coming available.  To me I first and foremost want to be wanted for my ability.  Ability behind the wheel as well as what I can do for the sponsors.  That is the most important part.  It’s not easy out there with the economy and what it takes to run one of these race teams financially.  It’s not easy; sponsorship is not at its peak in NASCAR.  There are a lot of things to be considered, but I was sincere when I said it I want to be someplace where I’m wanted.  I want to be wanted for my abilities and the desires that we have as common goals to win a championship.  Every driver out there wants to win a championship.  Every driver out there wants to win races.  It’s the desire that you have to fight through all the things I think that make and separate the men from the boys I guess you could say.”   
 
WE ARE GOING TO YOUR HOME TRACK IN TWO WEEKS.  WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO GET A WIN AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?
“I think for Tony (Stewart) to him it’s more like home court.  To me it’s more like home state and the essence of the history of the speedway and the history of speed at the speedway.  Indianapolis is to auto racing what Daytona is to auto racing in a different way.  The history of speed, the history of land speed, the history of a lot of racing, the great drivers that have crossed that yard of bricks and I say it every year I want to be on that list of winners at that race track.  That is what means a lot to me.  It’s not a brand new facility it is a facility with an awesome history and being a part of that history is one of my personal goals. Yes, it’s big, it’s huge and Tony (Stewart) has been fortunate enough to win it and I’ve been close.  I still want it.”
 
DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMITMENTS FROM ANY OF YOUR CURRENT SPONSORS TO GO WITH YOU TO WHATEVER RACE TEAM YOU MAY END UP AT?  DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE YOU WILL BE IN CUP NEXT YEAR?
“I have no idea on any part of it.  There are no answers that I have.  Obviously, I have my own homework to do.  I have no answers with respect to any of that at this point.”
 
DID OTHER TEAMS LOOK AT YOU THAT WAY?  DID YOU HAVE ANY CONVERSATIONS AT LEAST PRELIMINARY TALKS RIGHT OFF THE BAT LAST YEAR OR EARLY IN THIS SEASON?
“I haven’t had much for conversations.  I’ve really been focused on this year and performing the way I think we are capable of.  We had a brand new team when we started this season.  Matt Borland was an experienced crew chief, but our entire organization within the No. 39 side was brand new.  A lot of guys had never even come to a Cup garage before let alone worked on a race car in the Cup garage.  That’s been a learning process for us.  I think it slowed us down a little bit.  I think we have gained a lot of experience in the first 18 races or whatever that we can provide more experience for the next few to be able to have a better chance at the championship.  We are not out of this chance for the Chase.  We are not out of anything right now.  I think we are 17 points out of 10th.  There is a lot of racing left to go, a lot of points to be had.  I’ve been really focused on this year more so than next year.  As we go through this timing of the season,
the silly gets even sillier.  You never know what becomes available.”
 
LOOKING AT THE SPONSORSHIP LANDSCAPE DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO BRING SPONSORSHIP?  ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE TO MAYBE COBBLE TOGETHER SOME SORT OF DEAL TO BRING TO A TEAM GIVEN THAT THERE AREN’T ANY TEAMS THAT SORT OF HAVE OPEN RIDES WITH CARS WAITING?
“As an engineer we don’t like to use the word cobble (laughs).  It takes everything.  It takes a good team with the right resources, it takes the financial side of it and it takes the driver that can guide the rocket.  Yeah, that is part of the homework is putting all those things together.  Then you have to throw in the personalities of everything and putting people together because even if I am a top 10 driver in my opinion if I don’t have the right crew or the right cars or the right downforce or whatever it is it’s not going to work out.  All those things have to work right.  I want to be competitive.  I’m not going to go out there and just find a ride.  I want to find a ride with somebody that has the same goals and perspectives as I do.”