NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 27, 2014

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his ‘best/worst’ season to date, the characteristics of the Kentucky race track, upcoming qualifying at Daytona, and more. Full Transcript:

TALK ABOUT CATERPILLAR RENEWING THEIR SPONSORSHIP AND WHAT THAT MEANS TO THE TEAM
“It’s great for all of RCR and it’s great for me, personally. Caterpillar has been such a big sponsor and a great name in NASCAR for so long. It’s a great way for them to get their dealers involved, and the dealers who are fans involved, and some that don’t know it yet. It’s been a lot of fun this year working with Caterpillar, so it’s nice to see them sign-up to come back and keep doing this.”

YOU HAVEN’T WON A RACE THIS YEAR YET, BUT THERE ARE SOME GUYS WHO WILL GET IN ON POINTS. YOU ARE CURRENTLY RANKED #2 OUT OF THE SIX THAT ARE POTENTIALLY IN THERE NOW. ARE YOU BASICALLY TRYING TO FIND TWO WAYS TO SKIN THE CAT?
“This is probably the best worst season I’ve had (laughs) as far as just not having the ultimate numbers. Our average is good, which is still a part of getting yourself into the Chase if there are not 16 winners. So, we have to win. We want to win. If you’re going to win the championship, you’re probably going to have to win something. I don’t see that the winner of the championship doesn’t have a race victory under his belt.

“But we’ve been working hard at it. The guys at RCR as well as ECR have been working really hard at it and I think that we have some things in the works that are going to make us better. But I know that everybody else does, too.”

IN LOOKING AT YOUR FINISHES. YOU HAVE CONSISTENCY
“It’s probably the longest in my career to not have a top 5 in any given season, but at the same time we’re sitting eighth in points, which is probably twice as good as I was at this time last year if I remember roughly. So, that part of it is better. That’s why I said it’s the best/worst year I’ve had without top 5’s and a few top 10’s; and yet consistency-wise, we’re eighth in points.”

IS THERE SOMETHING TECHNICALLY THAT YOU THINK CAN MAKE THINGS A LITTLE BIT BETTER?
“It takes a little bit of everything. From underneath the hood to pit stops to myself; the race car, strategy-wise, some racing luck.  We’ve probably had about as bad of racing luck as you could have had last week at Sonoma. We were going to pit twice when the caution came out twice, two different times. So it changed our strategy and our track position. Had we have gotten to the pits when we wanted to, or if the caution didn’t come out, we would have been right there with Carl (Edwards, winner) and Ambrose right up front.  Not to say that we would have won the race, but we were good. We had to fight back from 21st to 11th in the last 17 laps. Just things like that. We’ve made mountains out of molehills and we’ve made molehills out of mountains.”

THERE IS AN OLD SAYING IN BASEBALL THAT THE LONGER YOU PLAY; THE MORE LUCK TURNS YOUR WAY. IS THAT TRUE IN NASCAR?
“You can create your own luck. And some of it is there to haunt you. In the end, you’re going to catch a piece of debris and run over it and get a flat tire. It’s going to happen throughout the year. But it doesn’t mean it happens on the first lap or the last lap, but that’s where the good luck or the back luck comes in, is if you have a chance to rebound. When it’s happened to us, we haven’t had a chance to rebound. It’s usually been on the last pit stop or the last cycle and here we are fighting back at the end of the race and you can’t do that after everybody gets their stuff sorted out.”

HOW DOES THE KENTUCKY TRACK DIFFER FROM OTHERS
“Well it really is a big circle with the exception of the back straightaway. So that’s one of the biggest things. It’s got a D-shape appearance from the sky, but it drives like a big circle with a small straight. And the character of the bumps is probably like no other right now, as far as the roughness of the race track. It seems like Goodyear has brought a really good tire here that hangs on and it’s rubbering the race track up. One of the best things I think I’ve seen all weekend so far is the fact that the track rubbered up before we even got through half of our practice. Usually it takes, like Michigan, it takes until the end of the race for the track to get good. And we’re starting with a better race track here.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW BUMPY IT IS WITH THE NEW SET-UP NOW?
“It bumps you around to the point that it’s difficult to see at times. The front straightaway is really, really rough.”

WHEN YOU SAY ‘ROUGH’, IS IT ‘CORNFIELD-ROUGH’ (LAUGHTER).
“You’ll see the in-cars (cameras) and if you just do that with your head and try to stay focused, it’s not easy.”

HOW MUCH DOES IT CHANGE FROM YEAR TO YEAR?
“Well, the cars have changed more than the track has. It’s always been a typically rough track, but we’ve gotten stiffer with the chassis because we’ve gotten lower with the chassis and that part of it just makes it that much rougher. It’s like taking a car with no suspension over the railroad tracks. It doesn’t ride like a Cadillac.”

AT DAYTONA COMING UP, WHAT’S THE KEY TO FINISHING UP FRONT THERE?
“Daytona, it’s just so much different than it used to be, which is how I liked it when you could slip and slide around. But you have to have a fast race car and you have to put yourself in position for that last little section. And you have to have a good enough car to not get shucked out of line. It all depends. It could end up being a fuel mileage race. It could end up being a multiple green-white-checkered race. You just never know there.”

WE WILL HAVE KNOCKOUT QUALIFYING THERE FOR THE FIRST TIME. DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE LIKE THE CHAOS WE SAW AT TALLADEGA?
“Yeah, I’m not a fan of it at all.”

WILL YOU HAVE A PLAN WITH YOUR TEAMMATES?
“Oh, we’ll have a plan; but to me it’s not what qualifying is all about.”

WHY?
“Well, it’s not qualifying. Qualifying shouldn’t be chaos. You said it yourself. It’s not what we’re here for. It’s not what I’m here for.”

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
SHELL PENNZOIL GRAND PRIX OF HOUSTON
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 27, 2014

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET,  HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL ULTRA PLATINUM TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET AND JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET met with members of the media at the Shell Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston. Selected quotes below:

HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING SPECIAL FOR THE WEATHER THEY PREDICT THIS WEEKEND?  “I think you would have had to do that in the off season like just turn up fit.  Which I did turn up pretty fit and then maintain it.  You couldn’t do much in a two week break.  It’s going to be hot for sure.”

HOW WAS THE LACK ON THE CURB? “Uh that was hard.  Man, you think they would at least make tape for that nicely when cars are going to … oh my God that was hard.  But I kept going.”

YOU’VE HAD BACK TROUBLE WHEN YOU GET A WHACK LIKE THAT… “Yeah I know that is not good.  I don’t need it.  I know so well when I break my back now because I’ve done it so many times.  Usually you get winded and it’s like ‘oh,ugh, uh’.  Yeah that is bad to hit that at high speed.  Man that would be bad.”

ANY DAMAGE TO THE CAR?
“No I was actually at low speed.  I didn’t even make it to the wall.  It was just violent the way it goes up like that.  Just horrible.”

HAVE THE CHANGES TO THE TRACK BEEN SIGNIFICANT CHANGES FROM A YEAR AGO?  “Yeah they have totally resurfaced the area there was a big problem with.  It’s a lot better.”

WHAT ABOUT THE WEATHER SITUATION?  IT’S NOT NEARLY AS HOT AS SOME PEOPLE EXPECTED IT TO BE AND IT MIGHT RAIN TOMORROW:   “It definitely affects the way the race rolls if it rains during.  You just have to be ready for it.  You’ve just got to be on your game.  If it rains it’s going to make us pit sooner and then go to slicks or wet/dries (tires).”

HELIO CASTRONEVES:
ON THE HEAT: “It is challenging. But I think it is more challenging for the mechanics. Standing out there with helmets and (fire) suits. At least, we (drivers) have air conditioning. (SMILES) Just open the visor, and everything is good.  It’s a challenge. The drivers are all fit, and really strong. I guess we have to see who is the strongest. Hopefully with a good setup combination, will be in good shape. All the performance for everyone is very tough. We are talking the heat – engine performance, sometimes it could be troublesome. Like I said, in terms of us, pit stops could also be a crucial moment because you are losing a lot of fluids. You have to think of all of the details so when you get to race day, you don’t have any issues.”

ON BEING AT HOUSTON: “It is a great atmosphere. You see fans coming over. It is pretty cool Especially having the Shell Pennzoil headquarters here, it’s awesome.

“It is very humid, and it is tough, but we have trained well enough to make sure we don’t have any problems out there.”

ARE YOU MORE ABLE TO ADAPT TO THE HEAT? “It is hot out there.  For Juan (Pablo Montoya) it probably feels more cool, because coming from (NASCAR) Cup when you have the engine in front and the heat comes inside, that is probably nothing. A 45 minute practice is not a practice. But, when you are talking about a two-hour race, the last half-an-hour, when you put full fuel in the car, that is going to be the toughest.  Last year unfortunately we were 50 laps down. We had a little break. We intend this year to not have that kind of scenario.”

HOW DO YOU NOT HATE THIS PLACE AFTER LAST YEAR? “You can’t. That is why racing is challenging. Just because something out of your control goes wrong, I don’t want to think that way. I want to overcome that result. It gives me a purpose to come here, and make it even more of…trust me, I want to win as much as anybody. Plus, Shell Pennzoil headquarters are here, and want to make sure their party is complete!”

IS THE TRACK BEING BUMPY THE ONLY CONCERN? “Yes. It is very difficult to pass. I wish we had a little more straightaway. But, it is fun to drive. But at the end of the day, whoever starts in front will have a huge advantage.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:
THIS TRACK IS NEW FOR YOU WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS PLACE?
“I only had 45 minutes out there and out of 45 minutes you probably get 20 minutes on the track and 25 minutes working on the car.  We had a lot of issues the car was pulling to the right really bad so we were trying to figure out what it was.  Changed shocks, we changed a lot of stuff and it got a little better at the end. I think it’s a process about learning the track and figuring out where to brake and what to do.  The left-front tire was locking a lot.  I don’t know why.  It was making it pretty hard because I was more focusing on not going off than going fast.  You get to the braking area the front tires smoke you are like ‘I will get off the brakes’, I overdrove this corner, oh don’t hit the wall, it was one of those days.  But it’s okay being the first session it is what it is.  You are going to be a little bit behind.  I’ve got some time to look at the data and understand a little more what they are doing and how we go from there.”

IS IT AS BUMPY AS YOU HAVE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE?  “It’s normal.  I don’t see what is the big deal.”

WHAT DID PEOPLE TELL YOU TO EXPECT COMING HERE AND RACING THIS COURSE?
“Oh it’s so bumpy, ‘oh my God’.  It’s okay it’s just a race track.  I don’t know.  Is it bumpy?  Yeah, but I think it’s fun.  I think it’s got a lot of character.  The only thing I don’t like is there are no apexes.  The apexes are curves not walls.  I don’t know why.  I think the drivers all complained that ‘oh you don’t see, you don’t see’, but I think that is the nature of a street course.  That is where when you have an open apex it’s really easy to commit to the wall.  When you don’t have an open apex and it’s a wall it makes it a lot harder for a driver and I think it makes it a lot more fun.”

WHAT ABOUT THE WEATHER?  NOT THE TYPICAL 110 PEOPLE WERE EXPECTING:
“It hasn’t been.  It doesn’t look that bad.  It’s been nice and windy and I don’t know it’s been okay.”

ON PRACTICE:
“Yeah we had a practice.  It was okay.  It is not as bad as people you hear them talking ‘oh my God it’s so bumpy’.  Yeah it’s a street course.  I’ve never been bothered by stuff like that.”

ARE YOU HYDRATING A LOT?
“Yeah, but I always do you have to.”

IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE IN GREAT SHAPE:
“Yeah it’s kind of funny because I was talking to my guys today.  They asked me if I was going to be overweight and I said I think it’s going to be up. It’s kind of crazy this week I trained and every day I trained the weight going up.  I know I’m hydrating I know I’m training a lot, but it should go the other way and it doesn’t with me.  It’s kind of frustrating.”

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SONOMA IN THIS CAR?
“Oh my God yes I tested there and we run like an extra mile and we run the same lap times as them (NASCAR).  Yeah we do the whole course and I think our lap times are within a second or two.”

DO YOU LIKE THE WHOLE COURSE OUT THERE?
“You know what is amazing I’ve been out there for so many years in the Cup (NASCAR Sprint Cup) that to get used to the Indy car was hard.  Because you see them like they showed (Kevin) Harvick that on-board of his pedals and you see how easy he is driving.  In this thing (the Indy car) you are like pedal to the medal you are going.  It’s completely different.”

ARE YOU AFRAID YOU MIGHT TAKE A WRONG TURN?
“No, because the only place you can make a wrong turn is on top of the hill like 3A or whatever it is.  For us it’s nearly wide open so.”

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
SHELL PENNZOIL GRAND PRIX OF HOUSTON
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 27, 2014

MIKE CONWAY, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at the Shell Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston. Full transcript:

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING SINCE THE LAST RACE YOU COMPETED IN AT DETROIT?
“Not racing anything, but was in Le Mans.That is about it really.  Spent a bit of time in Europe and then back here about a week ago.  Not loads to report I’m afraid.”

YOUR TEAM HAS BEEN PRETTY BUSY IN THAT PERIOD WINNING AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY.  HOW IS PRACTICE HEADING OFF OF THAT MOMENTUM?
“A huge congrats to the team on Texas, I was watching it at about 3 a.m. in the UK (United Kingdom).  So far it’s been okay.  Some good track improvements from last year which has been good.  We struggled a little bit in the first session I think.  We put on new tires at the end, but just didn’t get to execute a good time.  We have some work to do I think between the two sessions, but not too bad of a start I suppose in terms of what we think we can get out of the car.”

CAN YOU TALK A BIT MORE SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE CHANGES TO THE TRACK? WHAT HAVE THEY IMPROVED AND HOW IS IT REFLECTED IN HOW YOU DRIVE THE CAR AND THE LAP TIME?
“I suppose the biggest one was as you went through Turn 1 big improvement on the straight there.  We are not taking off anymore.  It’s really smooth now you hardly notice that section which is good.  It feels like the curbs have changed slightly through (Turns) two and three.  It just seems like it’s more of a chicane now whereas last year you could kind of really pound through it.  I don’t know if there is much of a change there, but the rest of it is not too bad.  Typical kind of street track, very bumpy into (Turn) three and then it feels a bit smoother through four, five, that seems like they have ground down some more areas through there.  Yeah, pulled the curbs back in three I believe or four and then the rest is fairly similar.  Still pretty bumpy most places, but the trick is I think the last corner where it’s so quick.  You’ve got big kind of rise and then a dip as you go in.  But it’s not too bad but yeah it gets your attention if you get sideways through there that is for sure.”

ED CARPENTER SEEMED TO SUGGEST DURING THE RADIO BROADCAST FOR PRACTICE THAT THE TEAM WAS REALLY STRESSED OR FRUSTRATED GIVEN THE CURRENT CONSTRUCTION OF THE SCHEDULE.  WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN OUT OF YOUR TEAM DURING THE TESTING AND LEADING UP TO THIS RACE WEEKEND?
“Yeah, they have had a really busy schedule, three test days after Texas.  They had everybody on a coach and they kind of toured around for like a week and a half.  They are really busy and I think the guys got a few days off, but it’s been a really hectic schedule this year.  They all look fresh and rejuvenated and ready to roll this weekend.”

BEING THAT THIS IS A STREET COURSE LIKE DETROIT WHERE WE JUST HAD ANOTHER DOUBLE HEADER DOES YOUR TEAM SHOW UP WITH THE SAME KIND OF SET-UP OR ARE THERE CHANGES THAT YOU MAKE TO IT?
“I think since Long Beach we have had quite a good base set-up for the car.  We pretty much turned out to most of them with that base set-up and then we just tweak it with some things and final adjustments that the circuits need.  But it’s fairly similar to what we rolled out with at Detroit and not too dissimilar to what we had at Long Beach.  We need to make a few adjustments, but nothing drastic.  It’s normally the smaller things once you are in the window.”

DO YOU FEEL THAT ED CARPENTER RACING MIGHT HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF AN ADVANTAGE BECAUSE BOTH YOU AND ED (CARPENTER) GET TO BE A LITTLE BIT FRESH GOING INTO THE STRETCH OF RACES COMING UP?
“Maybe, yeah, I suppose there could be some of that, but I think all the boys are pretty fit in this paddock.  I think the more seat time whatever the track is, is better anyway.  I think it is pretty similar.”

WHAT DO YOU RATE YOUR CHANCES OF HAVING ED CARPENTER RACING SWEEP THE TEXAS ROUNDS OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP?  THE LAST TIME THAT WAS DONE WAS A LITTLE OVER 30 YEARS AGO?
“I would like to think we’ve got a good chance to. Ed (Carpenter) got some guns and a Stetson (cowboy hat) and we got the chance to get some boots to match the outfit this weekend (laughs).  We could have a complete outfit.  I don’t know we will see. I think everyone is pretty confident, but double-headers are always tough and this track is I don’t know.  They are long races, tough races and hot temperatures.  We will see.”

CAMARO Z/28.R AT WATKINS GLEN: Curran Lands First Pole Position for New Camaro
Watkins Glen veteran quick and consistent in qualifying; Stevenson Camaros second and fourth

·         Curran quick and consistent at a home track for CKS Autosport

·         Davis P2 and Bell P4 in Stevenson Camaros

·         Camaros quickest in practices as well ahead of Saturday race

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 27, 2014) – Eric Curran made Camaro history Friday with the first pole position for the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R. The Massachusetts native driving for CKS Autosport set the fastest time in qualifying for Saturday’s 150-minute race for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Watkins Glen International – 2:00.749 (101.367 mph) in the No. 01 Camaro.

Three Camaro Z/28.Rs will start from the first four positions on the Grand Sport (GS) grid for the series’ sixth round of 2014.

“Congratulations to Eric Curran and everyone at CKS Autosport on the first pole position for the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R,” said Lisa Talarico, Chevrolet’s Camaro Z/28.R Program Manager. “It’s the result of many hours of development and engineering to have three Camaro Z/28.Rs in the top four of qualifying at Watkins Glen. We are seeing the potential of this program with our partners at CKS and Stevenson Motorsports. Everyone is cautiously optimistic for tomorrow’s race.”

Curran, driving with Lawson Aschenbach, set the two fastest times of the session. He was 0.155 seconds quicker than Andrew Davis in Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 6 Camaro Z/28.R. His best time was a 2:00.904 (101.237 mph) to make the two Camaros the only cars under the 2:01 mark in qualifying.

“For me, this is one of my home tracks. I grew up in the Northeast and I’ve been coming here since 1996 or so,” Curran said. “I get in the car and ‘boom’. I know this place like the back of my hand. The combination of that and having such a good Camaro Z/28.R was perfect. The car was perfect and consistent. It shows that all the work is paying off. We’re getting better and better.”

Matt Bell was fourth in Stevenson’s No. 9 Camaro at 2:01.563 (100.689 mph). Both the Stevenson and CKS teams will go for the Camaro Z/28.R’s second victory of the season. Davis and Robin Liddell won at Sebring in the Camaro’s second race.

Live coverage of Saturday’s race begins at 11:35 a.m. ET on IMSA.com. FOX Sports 1 will broadcast the race at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 6.

ERIC CURRAN, NO. 01 CKS AUTOSPORT CAMARO Z/28.R
“Kirk Spencer and the guys at CKS Autosport have been working like crazy. This is the most amount of work I’ve ever seen them do in a year. All that is paying off, and you see it today. The Camaro Z/28.R has been really good all year but it’s the first year for it. It’s still sorting it out and trying to find little tweaks. We’ve been fast and consistent.”
(The Camaro in race trim) “Lawson did the long run today in practice because he will finish the race tomorrow. We gave him that longer run to feel it out and he was still pretty quick even then. We keep making the car better and better and sorting it more and more. This Camaro is so much fun – love the car and it’s such a blast. I’m hoping we can finish tomorrow where we start.”

ANDREW DAVIS, NO. 6 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z/28.R
“I’m excited. It’s our best starting position of the year, and it’s exciting to have our No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R up there. The car was really quite good in qualifying. We struggled a little bit in the first session yesterday and missed some time there and a little this morning. But the guys rallied and we made a good change for qualifying. I put down a really good lap on first lap, and I thought that would actually be good enough. But Eric (Curran) had a great run as well and nipped me by a couple tenths. We’ll have a really good car and a good race tomorrow.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 27, 2014

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed visiting the White House last week, how his season is progressing, the rough track at Kentucky, his teammates, and more. Full Transcript:

TALK ABOUT BEING AT THE WHITE HOUSE THIS WEEK AND BEING RECOGNIZED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“Of course it was a huge honor for myself and the team. The fact that I was able to be there with my teammates to experience the tour and those few minutes that we had with the President, was great. Honestly, we’ve moved on from the 2013 season and are heavy into the 2014 season, so it was a nice opportunity to reflect back and to bring back those memories and feelings of accomplishment and to share that with my crew guys. Mr. Hendrick was there, of course, and Chad (Knaus, crew chief) for the first time after all these years. It was just an awesome experience. To look out into the audience and see my daughter there and my wife, it was just a very cool experience.”

CAN YOU EXPAND ON THAT? I THINK HE COMPARES YOU TO MICHAEL JORDAN
“Yeah, it was a surreal moment standing on stage next to him and hearing him reference or compare me to Michael Jordan, with the six championships I assume is where he was going with that, and hear our foundation mentioned and all the hard work that we’ve put in there. I didn’t know what his speech would be. But to hear him go through and articulate with great detail, the things that we’ve accomplished as a team on and off the track and what the foundation has done, I sat there with goose bumps, head to toe just hearing all that stuff. It was pretty neat.”

TALK ABOUT HOW YOU STARTED THE SEASON AND HOW THINGS ARE GOING NOW AND WHY
“We’ve been learning this new package. We didn’t get off to the start we wanted to at the start of the season. Even though we were slow, I really feel there were opportunities to win. We had flat tires and various issues that kept us from going to Victory Lane. And, starting in Charlotte, we didn’t drop the ball. And when we had the chance to win, we took advantage of it and got it done. We won two or three there pretty quick. Really, I feel like the last five or six; we’ve been in position to win. Pocono, I think we had a car plenty capable of winning the race. Had the contact on pit lane and hurt our opportunity there. And then last week in Sonoma, we were one of the better cars on the track all day long. On one of those restarts and bumping and banging, bent the left front suspension on the car and slowed us down quite a bit. I’m happy that the speed is there and it’s just a little more consistent for us compared to especially the first quarter of the year. But more than anything, we’re taking advantage of opportunity and have been able to pull into Victory Lane.”

THE LAST TIME A FULL FIELD DIDN’T SHOW UP FOR QUALIFYING WAS 1996 AT DOVER. TODAY THERE ARE SUPPOSEDLY ONLY 42 CARS HERE. IS THAT ANY CAUSE FOR CONCERN? WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT?
“I don’t have any concern with it. When you compare our form of racing to others, we have double the fields compared to a lot of other major auto racing series’. I hate to see it, obviously. There’s that prestige of having 43 since way back. But I don’t think it has any bearing on the strength of our sport. When I look at all the markers our sponsors look at and why they’re partners on our race car, things are going in the right direction. So, I don’t think it’s a real reflection of the strength of our sport, (or) the strength of the competition on the track. The fact of the matter is this is the top form of racing, in my mind, in the world, and some maybe just in North America. And it’s not cheap. I understand why there could be a short field, but there’s no concern on my behalf.”

YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FEEL LIKE YOU CAN TASTE A CHAMPIONSHIP; EVEN THIS EARLY IN THE YEAR, AND KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO BE A FACTOR. YOUR TEAMMATE, DALE EARNHARDT JR., HAS BEEN PRETTY FRISKY BEHIND THE WHEEL THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. DO YOU THINK JUNIOR FEELS THAT THIS YEAR, AND THAT THESE OPPORTUNITIES ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN? IS HE UP ON THE WHEEL THIS YEAR BECAUSE HE CAN TASTE IT?
“I haven’t been around him at some of those friskier moments. It’s hard for me to speak for him on-track. But in a large respect, yes; he is taking advantage of opportunity. What he and (crew chief) Steve (Letarte) have built with the No. 88 team; we all know that the driver/crew chief pairing is the most important part, and Steve and Junior have hit it off. And there’s no guarantees that next year’s crew chief is going to be able to connect with Junior and create the same speed in the cars. In theory, yeah; I’m sure he’s trying to take advantage of opportunity.

“But sitting in meetings and being around him as close as I am with our situation of the No. 48 and No. 88 being in the same shop, I see a guy that knows his race car better than ever; and a guy that’s focused on all the details. He’s thoroughly involved, is much more open and communicating on a far deeper level than I’ve seen him, especially when he started at Hendrick Motorsports. As my years go on, teams slow down when the communication stops. And his team has gotten faster and faster and he is more talkative and involved and engaged and sits in meetings with notes and set-up sheets. He’s really in the game.”

WITH THE NEW CHASE FORMAT, THERE IS MORE EMPHASIS ON WINNING RACES. WHAT’S THAT LIKE FOR A DRIVER? DO YOU THINK THAT’S MADE IT BETTER FOR THE FANS AND HAS MADE FOR BETTER RACING?
“Inside the car, nothing has changed my approach. It might open up the door for some other teams, maybe teams that aren’t in the big four or five (like) Hendrick, Roush, and Gibbs-type organizations. But I firmly believe there won’t be 16 different winners. So points still matter in transferring into that first phase. I was saying that when we hadn’t won a race and I still believe it today even after winning three. I still think we’ll get a couple of guys in on points. That’s very similar to what we’ve had in the past. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t have a problem with that.

“I am excited to see how the conversation has changed and that so many people are talking about winning. I think that’s good for our sport. But as we work through the Chase, winning I think gets more important the deeper we’re into the Chase than it ever, ever has been. And then Homestead, we’ve never had that scenario before. We’ve never had four drivers with a chance to win the championship; let alone (be) tied for the championship going into it. As the season wears on, things will continue to heat up. Especially deep into the Chase, it’s going to be a pressure cooker.”

EXPLAIN TO RACE FANS HOW ROUGH THIS TRACK IS WHEN YOU’RE BOUNCING ALL OVER THE PLACE AND YOU SAY WE LOVE IT, DON’T TOUCH IT. AND FANS THINK YOU WANT GLASSY-SMOOTH TRACKS. DESCRIBE THIS TRACK AND WHY YOU GUYS LIKE IT SO MUCH
“The glassy-smooth tracks really give us one lane to race on. With the speeds we’re going, in order to pass a driver with one-lane of racing surface to really utilize, you’ve got to be half a second faster. And there really isn’t a half a second worth of speed the way the cars are anymore. It’s so well regulated through NASCAR and so competitive, that you’re lucky to get a tenth, maybe two, is as much as you get. So when you have a surface that throws the cars around and forces drivers to make mistakes, it forces a second lane, a third lane. I don’t think we really have a third lane here. And a lot of it has to do with the grinding that’s been done on the track. Last year I tried to explore outside the black and think about a fourth lane or a third lane near the wall, but the surface just won’t allow it. So we’ve got a good couple of lanes from the three-quarter mark down on the race track that we can use. And the bumps make mistakes out of drivers. They put us in situations where we blow it, and open a door to get passed or look for an opportunity to pass someone.”

WITH THESE CARS NOW PLANTED TO THE GROUND MORE THAN THEY WERE A YEAR AGO, ARE YOU GOING TO GET MORE OF A JARRING SENSE THROUGH THESE BUMPS AND PITCH YOU HARDER OR MAKE IT MORE PHYSICAL?
“Yeah, I think so. We hadn’t had ride quality issues at a lot of the tracks leading up to this point with the old car. We show up with the new car going man, the ride quality is terrible. But we’re going so much faster and on and on. So, yeah, the ride quality is definitely going to be compromised here.”

FOR JEFF GORDON, THE FIFTH CHAMPIONSHIP HAS BEEN ILLUSIVE. HOW FRUSTRATED DO YOU THINK HE IS WITH THE WAY THE SECOND HALF OF HIS CAREER HAS GONE? AND HOW DOES HE HANDLE IT?
“I don’t know exactly. It’s not something really that we spend time talking about. But, I know that the speed is there. I know that the desire is there. The last few years, luck has really played a factor in him making the Chase and the success in the Chase. I feel like a championship is a real opportunity for him. And this year, this format could really be the one. I know it means a lot to him. I know it’s what he wants. But as far as his mindset and frustration or whatever it might be, I’m not all that sure. But I see a guy that loves his job and is highly committed to it in all of our meetings. He’s got spring in his step and is ready to go racing.”

WAS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT AT YOUR WHITE HOUSE VISIT LAST WEEK THAN PREVIOUS VISITS THAT STANDS OUT IN YOUR MIND?
“I’ve been there, not for all of our championships but in general. The top 10 drivers that made the stage were able to go. So, I’ve been on that tour and on that trip eight or 10 times. You end up seeing the same stuff. They are only going to give you so much access to look around in the White House. There are only so many rooms you can go in. But, back to my earlier comments, to have my team there was the difference. Before, you were walking around with the other drivers and it was a great experience and fun, but to actually share those moments and watch the tour take place and all those fresh faces that are my teammates; and hear the story, go to all those different rooms, meet different Secret Service folks was fun. They hosted a very nice lunch for us in a private dining hall, which they said was the second most famous dining hall in the world. The first would be the President’s private space. We were able to share and experience a lot of things together and that really was the difference.”

YOU’VE COME CLOSE TO WINNING AT KENTUCKY, BUT HAVEN’T CLOSED THE DEAL. TALK ABOUT THAT
“We’ve been close. It’s just on that last run; varying mistakes have kept us from going to Victory Lane. We’ve had a car capable of winning; I think two of them, at least. I’m not sure about the third. So, it’s just executing in that final run.”

YOU WERE UPSET LAST YEAR WHEN YOU DOMINATED THIS RACE, BUT WITH THE RESTART YOU DIDN’T WIN. FOR A GUY WHO HAS ACCOMPLISHED AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE, DOES THAT STICK WITH YOU AS MOTIVATION A YEAR LATER?
“Yeah, and a lot has changed since then. Our restart procedure has changed and there were a lot of cat and mouse games going on through last year. That stuff has changed quite a bit now. So I’m happy with the rule changes and certainly still today, feel that the scenario and the games played there is what led to our issue down there in Turns 1 and 2.”

ON YOUR JACKMAN, ANDREW CHILDERS, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HIS IMPORTANCE AND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR YOU TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TEAM THROUGHOUT THE SEASON?
“Those are your guys. That’s your group. They don’t get the credit they deserve. Not only the guys that go over the wall, but everybody back at the shop. We go out there and look good in the race car and pull into Victory Lane if you’re fortunate enough to do that, and smile and get all the accolades, but we’re just a piece of the puzzle. The way today’s racing is, pit road is just as important as out on the race track and creates as many opportunities. Andrew does an awesome job of being the jackman on the No. 48 car. Not a ton of experience; he’s in his second season of being the guy for us and is doing a great job.”

Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Teams Ready for Second Doubleheader Weekend on Verizon IndyCar Series Schedule
Team Chevy’s Will Power and Scott Dixon Looking to Make Return
Trip to Shell Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston Victory Lane
·         Chevrolet  Leads Series Manufacturer Standings heading into 9th race of 18 race schedule

·         Chevrolet IndyCar V6 has won 5 of 8 races held to-date in 2014

·         Will Power Continues to Lead Driver Point Standings at Season Half-way Point

DETROIT (June 25, 2014) – This weekend the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 contingent of teams and drivers head to the MD Anderson Cancer Center Speedway at NRG Park, in Houston Texas for the second doubleheader weekend of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season. The Shell Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston is on deck with two full points-paying races, one Saturday and one Sunday, around the 10-turn/1.683-mile temporary street circuit.
“Last year, the Houston circuit was pivotal in the ultimate outcome of the 2013 Driver’s Championship,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, Verizon IndyCar Series. “This year the event takes place earlier on the schedule and being a double header again, coupled with the new Manufacturer’s points system in place for 2014, carries a serious impact to the championships.  The continued refinement of standing starts will be shown on Saturday and the allowed use of optional radiators for the first time will keep the engineers busy this weekend.  The added challenge of racing in Houston during the mid-afternoon in late June will definitely test the thermal vigor of the engines, drivers and crews.  Team Chevy is up for the challenge.”
Six of the first eight races of the 2014 season have been contested on either a road or street course.  Team Chevy driver Will Power scored the first victory in 2014, bringing the Chevrolet 2.2 liter direct injected twin turbocharged powered No. 12 Verizon Team Penske to Victory Lane at the Streets of St. Petersburg.  His second victory of the year that propelled him to the lead in the point standings was race one of the Chevrolet Dual at Detroit.  Power heads to Houston with a 39 point lead in the driver standings.

The first oval was the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Three time Indy 500 winner, Helio Castroneves, came within just six one-hundredths of a second from claiming his fourth victory in the iconic track.

However, Castroneves took the momentum to Detroit and scored a top-five finish in race one in the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, and a dominating victory in Sunday’s race two of Chevrolet sponsored weekend.  He is second in the standings behind his Team Penske Chevrolet teammate, Power.

Despite having nearly three weeks away from competition none of the Chevrolet powered teams have sat on their laurels and rested on recent success.  Teams have been hard at work testing and preparing themselves for the final stretch to finish out the season.

As the teams resume competition at Houston, two Chevrolet powered drivers are looking to repeat last year’s success. Power was victorious in the second race at the track last season.  Scott Dixon, new to Team Chevy this season, is also looking to capture a repeat win at Houston and turn his 2014 season around and place his No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet in Victory Lane for the first time carrying the Chevrolet banner.

While these two drivers look to repeat as winners, Castroneves is looking for redemption.  Last season the driver of the No. 3 Pennzoil Ultra Platinum Team Penske Chevrolet watched his championship hopes fade away at Houston as two mechanical issues ended his pursuit of victory early.  He hopes this season he can ride the momentum from his win at Detroit and conquer Houston to add to his championship quest in 2014,

The most recent Team Chevy winner, Ed Carpenter – Texas Motor Speedway – will return to the role as owner at the GP of Houston.  Long Beach winner Mike Conway returns to the cockpit of the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

Race number one of The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston is set to start on Saturday, June 28th at 3:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network. Race number two is slated to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 29th with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network.

CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: One Word…FINALLY!
Landmark first trip to historic road course for ALMS champions

·         Corvette C7.Rs face new challenge at Six Hours of The Glen

·         Garcia, Magnussen go for third straight win in TUDOR Championship

·         Coming off second, fourth in class at Le Mans

DETROIT (June 25, 2014) – It’s only about an hour’s flight from Detroit to Watkins Glen International. But over the years, the two have been worlds away from the perspective of Corvette Racing. With the advent of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship however, that distance is no more. America’s leading production-based racing team gets its first shot this weekend at the famed road course during the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

The event is the second endurance race in two weeks for Corvette Racing, which finished second and fourth in class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen – runners-up at Le Mans with Jordan Taylor – are on a two-race winning streak in the TUDOR Championship and stand second in GT Le Mans points in their No. 3 Corvette C7.R.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette are tied for third in the championship and look for their first victory of the season. They were fourth at Le Mans with Richard Westbrook.

Although the team has not raced at The Glen, the four Corvette Racing drivers aren’t complete strangers to the circuit. At the fore is Garcia, who hasn’t missed the Six Hours since 2010 when he finished third overall for Spirit of Daytona. Magnussen was a GT winner in 2005, and Gavin (2000 overall) and Milner (2011 GT) have runner-up finishes.

Climbing back on the podium – much less the top step – will require plenty of skill with a little luck. Sunday’s race marks the first since Sebring in March where all four TUDOR Championship classes will share the track at the same time. The grid stands at 55 cars for the 3.37-mile, 11-turn circuit.

The construction and performance of the Corvette C7.R gives Corvette Racing a key advantage. Based on the 2015 Corvette Z06 production car, the C7.R’s rigid frame gives the car improved cornering ability and stability. Those factors plus the Corvette’s impressive braking performance and throttle response along with Corvette Racing’s strategy and execution will be keys to success.

The Watkins Glen round also doubles as the third race of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. It is a special four-race competition made up of the TUDOR Championship’s true endurance rounds. Gavin and Milner are tied for second in GTLM with Garcia and Magnussen standing seventh.

Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Corvette is second in team points, as is Chevrolet in the manufacturer standings.

Live television coverage of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen starts at 11 a.m. ET, Sunday on FOX Sports 1.

The TUDOR Championship is the result of a merger between the ALMS and GRAND-AM’s Rolex Sports Car Series. Corvette Racing will compete in 11 races around North America plus the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Corvette Racing Display: For the Fans at Watkins Glen
Corvette Racing’s visit to Watkins Glen also means fans can take in a number of activities and at Chevrolet’s Corvette Racing Display in the Fan Midway Area:
Production vehicles such as the North American Truck of the Year, the Chevrolet Silverado, as well as the Camaro, Sonic and Impala
Showcars on location include a Corvette C7.R, and both a Corvette Stingray coupe and convertible, the North American Car of the Year
Fans can see a sample of engines, parts and accessories available for purchase from Chevrolet at their local Chevrolet dealer
Other activities at the Corvette Racing Display include a variety of interactive games for adults and kids
Fans who sign up with Corvette Racing will receive a special commemorative t-shirt
The Corvette Racing display opens 9 a.m. Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It is a short turnaround after a difficult race like Le Mans, but I am happy to go back to Watkins Glen and race the Corvette C7.R for the first time. Certainly it will be much different competing with the C7.R than a DP. This track has a good blend of high-speed parts and technical areas, so Corvette Racing should be able to challenge for another win.  Things won’t be so easy with a six-hour race and lots of traffic. However, Corvette Racing has shown that we produce good strategies and excellent pit stops. It would be great if Jan and I could win our third straight TUDOR Championship race after a second-place at Le Mans. Regardless, a good finish would help us in the points race.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It will be the first time for me in a Corvette at Watkins Glen. It’s an interesting place with a lot of history. The times that I’ve been there in other cars, I’ve enjoyed it a lot. So I’m looking forward to go back there and get back into the TUDOR Championship where we have won consecutive races. We’ve proven the car is good in all conditions. I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be able to fight for a win. It’s longer than a standard TUDOR Championship race and puts a lot more importance on pit stops and strategy. In the past, Corvette Racing has been very, very good in those areas and absolutely have been one of the team’s strongest points.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It’s very much what you’d call an old-school track. It’s got three or four corners on it that are fast and really challenging. You get a huge amount of satisfaction from doing them well. It’s a circuit where you need courage and be fully committed all the time. If you’re at all timid or hesitant with it, then it can bite you. Generally the surface has a high level of grip. You can make a case for many different spots on the track being crucial for lap time, but I would stick my neck out and say that coming out of Turn 1 and uphill to the Esses is one of the biggest influencers.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“If you’re going to put together a calendar for sports car racing in the U.S., you have to have Watkins Glen. It’s one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. I haven’t won there but definitely want to add it to my résumé. I feel pretty confident going there. We have some experience with the car in a low-downforce trim, so if we need to go in that direction we have some knowledge to build from. And we typically run max downforce in the U.S. So no matter what, we should have a good car there. For some of our competitors, a six-hour race will feel a little long. But for us having just come back from Le Mans and doing 24 hours, it will feel like a breeze!”

DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER
“It has been a long time coming but I am personally thrilled to see Corvette Racing finally compete at Watkins Glen. It is an iconic track with such a rich global history, and everyone on the team is excited by the opportunity to see and hear our Corvette C7.Rs make their Glen debuts. As the fans know, it’s a very short turnaround time for us following our strong showing at Le Mans. Rest assured, we readily accept that challenge and are welcoming the opportunity to showcase some ‘Ground Pounding American Thunder’ to all the Corvette and TUDOR Championship fans!”

 
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 22, 2014
 
 
CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS COLLECT SIX OF TOP 10 FINISHING POSITIONS AT SONOMA
Jeff Gordon Maintains Points Lead with Second Place Finish
 
 
SONOMA, Calif. – June 22, 2014 – Jeff Gordon came within 0.591 seconds of earning his sixth win at Sonoma Raceway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Save Mart 350, but crossed the finish line in second. The driver of the No. 24 Panasonic Chevrolet SS led a contingent of Chevrolet power in the top-10, seven teams strong.  Gordon led three laps in the 110-lap race to capture his 18th top 10 finish in 22-races at the 1.99-mile road course in Napa Valley.  The strong run extended the four-time champion’s lead in the 2014 point standings to 20 markers over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson.
 
“I was making some ground up on (race winner) Carl (Edwards),” Gordon said following the race. “I was good in the fast sections and he was pretty good in the slow sections. So, I was having to hit everything so perfect. And I just overdrove it into (Turn) 4 one time and went real wide off and that gave him enough of a gap that I had to close it back in and I just couldn’t put enough pressure on him. And I think had I put some more pressure on him; I saw him really struggling with the grip level. He drove a clean race and he did everything you need to do.
 
“But of course, on that last lap, I gave it my best effort and closed up on him, but I just drove into (Turn) 11 as hard as I could,” Gordon continued. “We weren’t good in 11 anyway. He didn’t overdrive it. I was hoping he might slide up and I’d get a run underneath him. But all in all, it was a great weekend for this Panasonic Chevy and I could have been more proud of the calls made and everything the team did. We didn’t qualify good, but we had a great car in the race.”
 
Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. piloting the No. 88 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet SS, earned his best career finish at Sonoma Raceway in the third position.  Pole sitter Jamie McMurray had a solid day in his No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet SS by finishing fourth.  Paul Menard, aboard the No. 27 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet SS, rounded out the Chevy power in the top-five with a fifth place run.
 
Kasey Kahne came back from mid-race contact with Casey Mears (No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS) to take his No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet inside the top-10 to finish sixth.  Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Johnson had a solid day at Sonoma and navigated his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS up through the field from a 22nd-place starting spot to a seventh-place finish.
 
The day ended in disappointment for AJ Allmendinger in the No. 47 Kingsford/Clorox Chevrolet SS.  He led a race high 35 laps, but was involved in an on-track incident with 24 laps remaining and was relegated to a 37th-place finish.
 
Carl Edwards (Ford) was the race winner, his second victory of the season.
 
The Sprint Cup Series heads to Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky next week to compete under the lights on Saturday night June 28th.
 
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We had a pretty good day.  We started out real strong.  We got bottled up with the No. 5 and No. 15 ran into the back of us and it knocked our hood up.  I think we were running seventh at the time and it put us out of sequence.  The guys did a good job putting us with an option to get good track position there at the end.  We were able to kind of catch back up to I think around 25th or 24th and got new tires and had a good run all the way up to about 10th.  With about 13 (laps) to go I was passing the No. 41 and he kind of pinched me into the tires and it knocked the tow out of the right-front really bad.  The car just didn’t turn as well from there on out.  But we had an eventful day and after everything that happened we ended up with a pretty good result and it turned out pretty good.”
 
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PANASONIC CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD:
 
KRISTI KING:  We’ll get started with our post‑race press conference following today’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 here at Sonoma Raceway.  We are joined by Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet who finished third in today’s race.  Your best finish at Sonoma Raceway, third in points.  Talk about your race out there today.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, I had a fast car all weekend, and we figured that our best opportunity to run well here would be to pit and get newer tires more often than everybody else, so having the two wins in the season, it allowed us to really kind of gamble and go ahead and get back there in the mess and have newer tires, and it paid off.  We were able to drive up through there.

The two leaders, Jeff and Carl, didn’t fall off as much as the 1 did, so I was hoping they might, but they were strong right at the end, all the way up until the end there.

Q.  Dale, could you talk a little bit about the race that you had, an eventful day I guess it would be fair to say, and also I heard you saying on pit road to Stevie, drive every time like this is your last.  It seems to be working.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, I told Steve I think I figured out what the trick is to being a really, really good crew chief is to run every ‑‑ to call the season like it’s your last because his strategy is aggressive and a little bit out of the box, and that pays off in most cases because if you do everything everybody else is doing, you kind of fall into ‑‑ you’re racing a lot more people trying to do everything else they’re doing.  So when you do something different and get off the pattern pit‑wise, get off the strategy and stuff, it allows you to be a lot more aggressive.

My car had the tires and I was able to drive by those guys at the end, but I had an eventful race, and I tore Matt Kenseth’s car up pretty bad jumping that curb.  I was racing him a little hard there coming out of Turn 7.  He probably had the preferred line and I probably should have yielded to him, but I was ‑‑ I thought I was a little bit faster than him and didn’t want to be stuck behind him.  I straddled a curb, and it just lost my car in the air right into his car.  I hope he’s not too sore today.

Other than that, we got tangled up with the 47 somehow.  He wheel‑hopped my left rear tire and that spun him out.  Other than that we beat and banged a little bit, everything that you normally see here.  I had a lot of fun other than the deal with Matt made me pretty sick.  But other than that it was a fun day.

KRISTI KING:  Joining Dale, our second place finisher, Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Panasonic Chevrolet, who is our all‑time winningest driver here at Sonoma Raceway.  Talk a little bit about the race out there today and your second place finish.

JEFF GORDON:  Yeah, it was a fun race, a tough one, certainly tough for the guys making the calls in the pits.  You know, tire strategy as well as us on the track, because the cars just drove unbelievable on new tires, and you just felt like King Kong.  You could just drive it so aggressively.

And then eight laps later, it was where did all the grip go, and you were on ice.  There was some tire management, which I love.  I think that’s really cool to have that kind of a race and all the different strategies, and I mean, Carl, me and Dale were all on different tires as far as laps on them, and it made for a very interesting race.

Gosh, I wish I could have had those last five or six laps to do over again.&nbs
p; I started overdriving it a little bit trying to catch him a making a few mistakes, and I made one in particular that really cost me, and I think if I had just stayed smooth and stuck with it ‑‑ looked like his car really started falling off those last couple laps and I might have had a shot at least putting more pressure on Carl to force him to make a mistake or maybe get a run inside of him.

Our car was great today.  I felt confident it was going to be in the race, and it was exciting when they dropped the green that we did have a car like that.

Q.  Is the strategy now for the road courses to stay away from VIR and Road Atlanta?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, I think even on Friday practice was going so well, Steve said we weren’t going to do anything preparing for Watkins Glen since we were so good, or since it was going so well.  We weren’t the best car, but…

Yeah, I mean, I’ve been doing this a long, long time.  If you know what you’re doing driving these cars on a road course, you can go places and test and learn, but if you’re not a great road course driver, if you’re just kind of run‑of‑the‑mill going over there to Road Atlanta, you’re just going to work your guts out for nothing.  We sort of relied on our teammates a little bit that tested, and all that helped the most, really leaning on Jeff and those guys and what everybody learned when they came out here, and anybody that went to Road Atlanta or Kershaw, kind of leaning on that and just trusting what we were seeing in the data.

We went through ‑‑ it really gave us a bit of a better attitude when we got here, and I think that helped us be more productive on Friday, which that’s really important during those two practices to get everything you can, and if I get frustrated, Steve gets frustrated, we just don’t really figure anything out.  We stayed calm and I felt like we put a good car on the racetrack today.

Q.  Jeff, watching on the TV, it looks like friends or enemies, you were banging around pretty good.  You and Jimmie had a couple of tussles towards the middle of that race.

JEFF GORDON:  Those restarts when you’re double‑file like that, the first few corners get pretty hairy, and there’s not really enough room to go side by side, and so if you’re on the outside you’ve got to squeeze the guy on inside; if you’re on the inside you’ve got to push the guy on the outside.

I got a run off of 4, and I went to go to the outside of Ambrose, and I don’t know if Jimmie dove in there or if he was protecting from somebody else trying to dive in there on him, but as I made the corner, he got into my right rear pretty hard, and I almost went around.  At the moment you’re just mad that it happened, so I took it out on my right front fender, but it did more damage to my car than it did to his.

Then I calmed down and we just went back to racing, and I was able to get ‑‑ he kind of got into it with whoever, Ambrose in front of him, and I got a run on him, but I was able to make a clean pass.

You know, I don’t like to make judgment until you see the video, but we raced hard, and we had a great race and banged with a bunch of guys, but I thought it was all just in good racing.

Q.  Jeff, it looked like that last lap, Turn 11, you made it pretty close, got a little close to him.  Did it feel like a possible pass or was there just too much ground to make up at that point?

JEFF GORDON:  I mean, that particular area, my car was really good.  I could really get into Turn 11.  I was just trying to get him to overdrive the corner and get up off the bottom.  There’s such an advantage to hook around those tires that had he missed it, which he did about two laps before that, I thought that I might be able to make it interesting.  But no, he did lock up going in there, but he made the corner, and that was it.  At that point it’s a desperate move.  It’s not one worth wrecking the guy on because hey, if you’re racing the guy and you get a couple runs on him, he blocks you and he blocks you here and he blocks you there and you’re faster, then you might not give an inch.  You might go in there and you might use the bumper.

But I really had just caught him, and so that’s why I wish I could have had those last five laps to do over again because I think if I could have not made a couple mistakes, I would have been on him with more like two laps to go, and I think I would have had a shot.  But hey, that’s the way it goes, and we finished second.

Q.  Dale, you mentioned the incident with the 47 here at 11.  Is that just one of those things that happened and the hairpin as far as the contact there?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Yeah, I thought I gave him enough room on the outside.  He had a lot of wheel, we’re coming out of that corner and his right front poking out like that jumped the left rear of my car, and I felt it yank on the car real hard and looked in the mirror, and I thought he and about 10 other cars were wrecking, and I thought the caution was coming out.  I don’t know how bad it was for him, but I had just got around him and we got down into that corner and I ran low protecting my line, he shot to the outside and that’s his prerogative.  But I thought I gave him enough room.  I didn’t think I ran him in the fence.

Q.  Jeff, we’ve been seeing you in here a lot lately.  Is this the most optimistic maybe you’ve been about how you’ve been running maybe the last five, six years?

JEFF GORDON:  Absolutely.  It’s certainly the most consistent, great cars that I’ve had going week in and week out, to have cars that are capable of either winning or running up front.  I’m very confident in what I’m getting behind the wheel of every weekend, and that just is because of all the hard work that’s going on at Hendrick and all the data and work that everybody behind the scenes is doing as well as Alan and our engineers.  I’m just working really well with them, clicking with them, but the cars are just really, really good, and that’s making a lot of fun for me.

Q.  Dale, just the meaning of getting a top 5, is that beyond the expectations coming into this weekend, and what does it mean for you and your team to get this type of performance at this type of track?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  Well, aside from holding a trophy, this is like a win for us.  We came in here and knew we had a good car throughout practice, and I’ve been in the top 10 in a lot of these races with two or three laps to go, but we’ve just never been able to finish.  So to be clear of the mess and just have an advantage with the tires at the end, there was a lot of confidence, and knowing we were going to be able to wrap it up or feel like we were in good position to wrap it up and really good.  The car was fun to drive all weekend, had a great time in practice, qualifying was fun, a little frustrating to get hung up there.  I thought we could have qualified a lot better, but still, the cars have been fun to drive.  We’ve been one of the better cars, and that certainly makes it fun with me not having to be defensive and root and gouge for every little spot.

Whatever the guys learned throughout testing and trying to prepare for this race really, I think, helped out the whole organization.  All the cars were real quick today.

Q.  For both of you, the tire testing here got rained out in March, and since tires were a big issue this race, I was wondering if you could tell me how you made up for that.  Second question is for Jeff Gordon:  It’s about when you got a chance to test over at New Smyrna Beach.  I was wondering what you learned at some of these short tracks.

JEFF GORDON:  I’ll take the first one since Dale wasn’t here during the tire test.  It was just the 24 and the 14 and a couple other guys.  It only rained out the first day.  The sec
ond day we actually pretty much got the full day in.  So we were able to learn something anyway, and even though we didn’t actually test on the tire that they brought here, we tested on similar ones, and maybe the 14 tested on this exact one.  But it was close to the one that I liked the most that had good grip at the beginning and it did fall off.  We knew it was going to fall off, but it seemed like some of the other ones fell off just as much or more.

You know, I like this tire.  I think it’s not easy to drive at the end, which can be good and bad.  But it’s got a lot of grip at the beginning.  I think it switches up the pit strategy where it’s not always just about fuel mileage.  We’ve been racing fuel mileage races out here for the last several years, and I think it’s nice that tires make a difference.  I like it.  I wish we had tires like this more places.

New Smyrna, I mean, we’re just short track testing stuff, just seeing what we can learn.  We go to all the tracks that we can’t race on, and if there’s someplace that’s close to Charlotte with good weather that might be able to teach us a little bit, then we’ll go there.

I thought that it was more for fun than learning anything, I’ll be honest.  There’s not another track that we go to that’s anything like that.  Not to mention that there was water seeping out of the track that we were driving on.  It was a fun day, but I don’t know if ‑‑ maybe Dale and those guys learned some things, but I didn’t think that we did.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  It’s a fun track, to be able to go run somewhere.  We’re going to have to test.  The drivers don’t line the tests up, the crew chiefs do.  So when you go somewhere fun, at least it makes it go by a little quicker.

Q.  Jeff, I seem to recall a conversation yesterday with you after qualifying and you said to me, you weren’t really one bit worried and I should talk to you today when all the Hendrick cars finish, and you had four in the top eight.  Is that how much confidence you have right now in the team and the program?  And Dale, you improved your finish here by quite a substantial deal, and you were running fast in practice and looking at your Twitter account it looked like you may have even surprised yourself a little bit how well you were running on Friday.  How big a boost is this for you personally in how you feel about road courses?  Are you starting to love them a little bit more now?

JEFF GORDON:  You like them when the cars are working good.  I’ve had some good cars over the years.

Yeah, I mean, you always say that when you qualify 15th.  You always say, hey, talk to me tomorrow when it’s all over.  I mean, I had confidence that we were much better than that, and that was just based on how our car drove in practice.  And I think that’s kind of what Dale is alluding to, as well.  You have a certain feel that you’re looking for and you look at the lap times and I thought our lap times were competitive and the car had a pretty good feel.  I didn’t feel like we were going to stay back there all day long, and I was hoping that all the Hendrick cars would ‑‑ that didn’t qualify good would come to the front, and I thought that they would.  It wasn’t being like so confident just in everything.  I mean, things are going well for us, but it was really just solely looking at the lap times and how my car felt.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.:  I really enjoy running at Watkins Glen, and I feel like that I understand what I need to do, not whether I do it every lap but what I need to do to get around there and what I’m looking for in the car to be competitive.  This is a real technical track where the corners are lined up one after the other, and if you make a mistake in Turn 2, you really don’t clean it up until Turn 4.  So everything sort of has to line up and the really need to put the corners together in succession, and that takes a certain mentality and a certain understanding of road course racing that guys like myself don’t have coming from late models and oval tracks and stuff like that.

You have to go to school.  You have to study.  You have to listen to people.  You have to run as many laps as you can at practices and tests and stuff like that early in your career to adapt and understand.  You know, just certain guys have certain backgrounds.  McMurray ran all those CART races and I think that paid off for him.  He’s very competitive at the road courses, especially this place, but the Glen has always kind of been fun.  It’s an equalizer because it has so many long straightaways.  You run down a straightaway and get through a turn and run down a straightaway and get through a turn.  Pretty much everybody can kind of figure that out.  But this place is really technical, and if the car is just a little bit off, I sort of get lost as to what I need and what I want the car to do and how I need the car to drive and what I’m looking for in the car.  We sort of ‑‑ when we get off the path in practice, we really never recover throughout the weekend, but we were fast all weekend and just kind of put it together.

KRISTI KING:  Jeff, Dale, congratulations on your run today.  Thank you very much for your time.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 22, 2014
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PANASONIC CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
YOU SAID YOU MADE ONE MISTAKE ON THAT LAST LAP THAT COST YOU THE WIN, AND YOU NEEDED ONE MORE LAP. WHAT WAS THAT?
“Well, it was actually maybe five or six laps to go. I was making some ground up on (race winner) Carl (Edwards). I was good in the fast sections and he was pretty good in the slow sections. So, I was having to hit everything so perfect. And I just overdrove it into (Turn) 4 one time and went real wide off and that gave him enough of a gap that I had to close it back in and I just couldn’t put enough pressure on him. And I think had I put some more pressure on him; I saw him really struggling with the grip level. He drove a clean race and he did everything you need to do.
 
“But of course, on that last lap, I gave it my best effort and closed up on him, but I just drove into (Turn) 11 as hard as I could. We weren’t good in 11 anyway. He didn’t overdrive it. I was hoping he might slide up and I’d get a run underneath him. But all in all, it was a great weekend for this Panasonic Chevy and I could have been more proud of the calls made and everything the team did. We didn’t qualify good, but we had a great car in the race.”
 
CARL EDWARDS SAID IT WAS AN HONOR TO BEAT YOU BECAUSE HE GREW UP WATCHING YOU WIN HERE
“Yeah, I’m starting to hear that a lot more where somebody was born when I won my first championship or was watching me as a kit. But I love racing here. I love being competitive and leading the points and having a shot at winning races, at 22 years into my Cup career. It doesn’t matter; we’re having fun.”
 
DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A WAY AROUND CARL EDWARDS ON THAT LAST TURN?
“On that move, you just want to make the guy overdrive the corner, because if you miss the bottom down there, there is a real opportunity for someone to get inside of you. Carl (Edwards, race winner) was driving a really good race, and the tires were definitely falling off bad. So were mine. At that point, I was just trying to keep the wheel spin to a minimum, and see if I could inch up on him every little bit.  Those last couple of laps I really did. I made one mistake with about six (laps) to go where I overdrove – maybe five to go – where I overdrove (turn) four. I really think that was the difference. I think if I could have got to him, I probably would have had him. But, he was better in the slower sections; I was better in the faster sections. I would have liked to have a little bit closer shot at him going into (turn) 11 on that last lap. Can’t thank Panasonic Tough Book enough. Great having them on board. What a great way to finish this weekend out with a second place finish. Congrats to Carl. He did a great job.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHAT STANDS OUT TO YOU THE MOST ABOUT YOUR RACE TODAY?
“Just putting the tires on and getting the strategy right. I told Steve (Letarte, crew chief) the secret of being a great crew chief is calling every year like it’s your last because he’s had the best strategy every week. The Kelley Blue Book Chevy was fast all weekend, really. And I tried to screw it up there a couple of times in the race but calmed down and was able to get a good finish out of it.
 
“I got into Matt (Kenseth) and jumped that curb and just jumped in there and ran into him. It was totally my fault. It’s kind of like what happened to him last year at Watkins Glen. Just racing a little too hard through there with him and probably should have let him have the spot. Other than that, we had a pretty good day. We’ll cut the shell of this thing and put it in the woods and go to Watkins Glen.”
 
ON HIS RACE:
“I am sick at my stomach getting into Matt (Kenseth) there. I just hopped that curb, and it threw me right into him. I shouldn’t have been running him hard I guess, I just got up on that curb and it just launched me over into the side of his car. I really hope he isn’t hurt too bad. I’m proud of my team. Kelly Blue Book sponsored this race. We had a fast car all weekend. The guys did a good job on the strategy, and gave me great tires at the end so I could be on the offense. Proud of Steve (Letarte); the whole job the team did. The car was fast all weekend. It was a lot of fun.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
YOU WERE ABLE TO KEEP IT IN THE TOP 5, TOP 10 ALL DAY LONG AND HAD A VERY CONSISTENT DAY
“I’m happy that I’m mad that I finished fourth, if that makes any sense. I thought I had a chance to win but when the last caution came out I was working Carl (Edwards) there a little bit, and I was just waiting on him to make a mistake. I felt like I was better than he was. And when we went back green, after the caution, I just used up too much car in (Turns) 1 and 2 and spun the tires really bad and paid the penalty for that the remainder of the run. But it was a really good day. Our pit crew did a really good job. We had a huge group of people with Cessna here today. So, overall, I’m mad that we finished fourth, but we had a great weekend.”
 
WHEN DALE JUNIOR CAME BY, WERE YOU LIKE MAN, TIRES DID MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE, DIDN’T THEY?
“Well, I could see how fast he was catching me and I came on the radio and I’m like, is he on a different strategy than we are? And it was like, yeah. So, when he caught me, I didn’t really put up a fight because I knew that he was going to get by. I was more worried about the No. 27 (Paul Menard). He was another ten seconds back, if he was going to be able to catch me at the end. It was a good race. I thought they had a great tire because it gave up a lot. And putting new tires on made a huge difference and it made it a lot of fun to pass.”
 
ON HIS RACE:
“We had a really good car. Before the last caution, I thought I was going to be able to work Carl (Edwards – race winner) over. He was struggling and I really did not have to drive that hard to keep up with him. I’m like ‘Well, I let him use his car up, and then I will get him when he starts sliding around’. But, then the next caution came out and we took off – it was like he had my car and I had his all of a sudden. I just couldn’t make it happen. But we had a good day, we qualified well. Really solid weekend. The guys did a good job on pit road. We were close, just didn’t have enough.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 RICHMOND/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
ON HIS RACE:
“It was a good day. We unloaded fast on Friday, and we qualified ninth. We were disappointed with ninth actually. We felt like we had a little bit better car than that actually. The first run was pretty brutal actually. We got really loose, and the guys tightened it up with some air pressure, and we got a lot better. From then on, we were a 10th place car probably and then drove up to top-five with tires.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We had a fast car from the start.  Our Great Clips Chevy was good.  I could pass cars early just a little bit, but definitely after like five laps I felt really good and competitive.  Then we started hurting the car.  We just didn’t have track position after that.  We fell back and luckily we got back to sixth.  We easily had a top-five car.  I don’t know how good it was definitely better than that.  I had a great car today.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
“Had a great car just got drilled by the No. 14 (Tony Stewart) and my steering was off from there. We had a great car and the guys with fresher tires got us at the end.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 OUTBACK/BUDWEISER FOLDS OF HONOR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 20TH
“Today was just another day with the fastest car.  We had a chance to win the race and kind of flubbed it up again.  Ju
st got ourselves bad track position and crashed.”
 
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KINGSFORD/CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 37TH
“We led a lot of laps today and we were good enough to win the thing no doubt. It’s just disappointing the way our day ended and to leave Sonoma with a car that’s tore up. I’m proud of my guys and all the hard work they put into this weekend. It’s just tough. We were hoping to bring home a win today for Kingsford and all our partners.”