NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SYLVANIA 300
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and discussed last week’s solid run at Chicagoland, his outlook for this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the new restart procedure and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND AS WE BEGIN RACE NUMBER TWO OF THE CHASE?
“We had a great run at Chicago very happy with the performance, but also pretty happy with the result.  We know we could have gotten more had we not had the tire issue.  The team was fired up this week.  I went in the shop and you could just see a different attitude and a lot of smiles. A lot of guys are really excited to get here to New Hampshire.  This is a great track for us.  It’s been a great track for the No. 24 team for many years.  We tested here a few weeks ago with all the Hendrick (Motorsports) cars and thought that if we make it in the Chase we have a great opportunity.  I’m looking forward to trying to capitalize on that this weekend.”
 
AS YOU SAY A GREAT TRACK FOR YOU.  COULD THIS AMOUNT TO A BREAK OUT RACE FOR YOU?
“It certainly can.  I think what happens when you go to certain tracks that are good tracks and consistent tracks for you, then you have an opportunity. It’s about capitalizing on that opportunity and making the most out of it.  That is the way I look at this track.  I look at Martinsville very similar that it is also one of those tracks.  It doesn’t guarantee anything, doesn’t make the job any less hard.  We are going to have to fight and claw just like we have all year long to make it in the Chase and to get the results that we’ve had.  What is nice is when you claw and you fight and all of a sudden you start to see your cars running better and your pit crew is putting good pit stops together and your restarts are better and the results are better.  That is what we saw last week in Chicago and that is certainly what we hope to continue here.”
 
WHY DID IT COME TOGETHER LAST WEEK?  BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T EXPECT YOU WERE IN THE CHASE AND THEN YOU WERE? WAS THERE A SORT OF EASY FEELING THAT THE PRESSURE WAS OFF OR THAT THERE IS KIND OF A FEELING THAT WELL WE WEREN’T GOING TO BE IN AND NOW WE ARE SO THERE IS KIND OF AN EASY FEELING ON THE TEAM WE’VE GOT THIS? 
“No I think now the pressure is on.  Now we are in it and we want to show everyone why we are in it and what we can do and what we are capable of doing.  To me the question isn’t more why we stepped up and performed at Chicago.  It’s why haven’t we leading up to Chicago.  I think we had the last three races leading into Chicago.  We were pretty good, but previously in the season we just have had our struggles.  We have had missed opportunities and it’s hard to always put your finger on what exactly has caused those things.  All I do know is that this team is ready to step up.  They did at Chicago.  I mentioned that we were probably going to surprise some people and I think we will.  Coming out of Chicago with a solid finish was important to us.  We had a great performance going there last year.  We had the strange throttle issue.  That changed our whole Chase for us.  It was nice to know we had an issue, fought back from it and moved up in the points.  Now we come in here to New Hampshire a great track.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA IS MOVING BACK TO INDYCAR.  COULD YOU COMMENT A LITTLE ON THE SEVEN YEARS THAT HE HAS BEEN HERE, WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN HIM LEARN AND PROGRESS, HOW YOU ASSESS HIM AS A RACING DRIVER AND THE CHALLENGES THAT HE HAS FACED IN A TWO CAR TEAM VERSUS A FOUR CAR TEAM LIKE YOUR OWN:
“I’m certainly very anxious to watch IndyCar next year.  I think it’s going to bring a lot of attention to it.  I’m anxious in a way of being here in these types of cars and the struggles that you have in these types of cars with lack of grip, all the different tracks, how competitive it is among the cars and teams that are out there.  How that experience is going to either enhance or hinder him going back to the IndyCar series.  One thing has always been true and still is for Juan (Pablo Montoya) he is a fantastic race car driver.  He is very aggressive and he pulls off great moves.  I think that he has shown that here and he is going to certainly do that in IndyCar when he goes back there as well.
 
“I think the challenges have just been a question mark on how strong is Ganassi in the Cup Series.  Is it Juan’s inexperience on ovals that have kept him from winning races on these ovals?  He has run really well at times, but then it seems like it doesn’t always come together for that win.  Is that lack of experience and just unique cars or is it the team?  You don’t always know the answers to those things.  You would certainly think a guy of his talent he would be able to adapt to it and so it makes you question some of those things.  I have always applauded him for making that move because at that point in his career all the different kinds of cars that he had driven did not prepare him for NASCAR.  That is a big step.  Even though he didn’t win as many races as I think he would have liked to have it’s been a pleasure racing with him.  I respect him tremendously.”
 
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE WILL BE MORE OF A DETERRENT FOR TEAMS NOT TO REPEAT THE ACTIONS OF MICHAEL WALTRIP RACING A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO THE NASCAR PENALTIES OR THE FACT THAT A SPONSOR HAS ACTUALLY LEFT A TEAM OVER IT?
“I think all of those things.  I think that a sponsor leaving probably is certainly bigger than those penalties.  That is hard to replace especially this point in the season.  I think that was a very loud message that was sent to MWR as well as everyone in this sport.  About what our expectations are and our actions what they can result in if they are negative actions.  I mean that is unfortunate.  You know you see a team go through some decisions that they went through and choices and you want a team to get penalized for those types of things no matter what team it is.  But you never want to see it go to this level where they lose a sponsor.  That is really unfortunate.”
 
AS PART OF A TEAM THAT HAS THE MOST DRIVERS IN THE CHASE ARE YOU STILL ABLE TO WORK WITHIN THE NEW RULES NOW TO HELP A TEAMMATE IF NEED BE ON THE TRACK?  HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO STILL DO THAT WITHOUT THAT SITTING IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD AS ‘HEY IS THIS GOING TO BE INTERPRETED AS SOMETHING THAT IS A PENALTY’? DO YOU FEEL AS A DRIVER THAT IT PUTS YOU IN AN AWKWARD SITUATION WHEN YOU HAVE TO FEEL THE TEAM ORDER AND ARE YOU GLAD NOW THAT NASCAR HAS SAID THAT IS CROSSING THE LINE? 
“Oh yeah absolutely.  I think that we are all relieved in many ways that all we have to do is just go out there and race hard.  I think that right there, that statement that I said gets misinterpreted maybe in some ways by people that might not understand this sport as well as that garage area and members of the media that follow this sport or diehard fans that follow this sport.  Because you would think ‘oh well you just race as hard as you can all the time.’  Yeah we try to go out there and race to win every single weekend.  But if you are having a bad day or you are not in a position to win the race or not in a position to win the championship you are going to be a team player.  That is part of having teammates.  So now it’s going to get challenging and difficult on those days.  On the days where you are there competing for the win and a top-five and top-10 there is no questions.  You just go and do your job what you lov
e to do and what we enjoy doing every single weekend.  I love that that is the position that we are in right now.  We have all four cars in the Chase, all battling hard, racing hard for wins and to win the championship.  We don’t have to worry about any kind of team order or anything because all four of us are in it.
 
“It will get challenging when we get further into the Chase if any of us are not in that battle and how we are going to manage racing as hard as we can as well as what is happening with our teammate for the championship.  I think that we are not going to do anything that is going to manipulate the outcome of the race and we are going to do everything we can to race at 100 percent all the way to the checkered flag.  There might be instances where it might look like we are helping our teammate and we are not.  We are racing them hard, but they are faster than us or something like that.  That is where it’s going to get challenging.  That is where you guys are going to do your jobs very well and going to watch very closely of how business is being taken care of on the race track, radio communications and all those things.  I think not having the digitals (radios) has been a little bit new for the team because they could talk to a spotter about our plan or talk to somebody else on another team about what we were going to do on the next pit stop things like that.  That has changed things.  I think that is also a good thing because we want the fans and the media and everybody to know what we are talking about and what is getting ready to happen at all times.  I think it only makes a better experience for the fans as well.”
 
WHAT WAS IT LIKE LAST WEEK WITH THE NEW RESTART PROCEDURE? HOW DID IT WORK OUT?  WILL THERE BE ANY ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES WITH THAT HERE JUST BECAUSE IT’S A TIGHTER SMALLER TRACK?  WHAT MIGHT THE RESTARTS BE LIKE HERE?
“I liked it and I will tell you why I liked it. Because the thing that I didn’t anticipate was now that let’s say this weekend is more likely going to be the outside lane being the line that the second-place runner will be in.  Before if that person took off and got a little bit too good of a start or the other car spun the tires then all of a sudden they are checking up to not beat them to the line and it’s just causing chaos five and 10 rows back.  You start getting people running into one another and damaging their cars and causing wrecks.  Now it seems like both lanes sort of flow evenly to turn one.  I think that there is not as much of a disadvantage for the other lane.  It just seems like if you are in that No. 2 car lane it might be a little bit less of a disadvantage than it used to be because it just seemed like the No. 1 car lane would always take off a little quicker and that momentum just continues to carry all the way to the first turn.”
 
DID YOU OR ALAN (GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF) SPEAK WITH THE ENGINE DEPARTMENT ABOUT DALE EARNHARDT, JR.’S PROBLEM LAST WEEK?  DO YOU HAVE ANY FEELINGS IT MIGHT JUST BEEN A HEATING AND COOLING CYCLE THING?
“No, it wasn’t any of those things.  We did speak at length about it and we feel like it’s something that we had an issue with a couple of years ago that we felt like we had solved.  We had several engines that had no issues and one that did and sometimes those are just freak things.  The material and the metal how it’s manufactured and sometimes there are just flaws.  That is the only thing that I feel like at this point that we can come up with.  We haven’t been able to duplicate it.  That is one of the biggest challenges.  I will say that I can’t believe any engine made it through that race.  I will tell you why because I’ve never turned so many RPM’s and put so much load on an engine as we did there.  The track was fast, the fall off was not huge, we were hitting the rev limiter, cool temperatures and just wide open in the middle of the corner so early.  Just carrying that long wide open throttle all the way deep into the next corner for a long period of time, I was concerned about everybody’s engines.  That was about as much demand as you can put on one.”
 
YOU SAID A MOMENT AGO THAT WHEN YOU GUYS HAD THE ISSUE IN CHICAGO LAST YEAR IT CHANGED YOUR WHOLE CHASE.  THAT IS SORT OF THE SITUATION DALE (EARNHARDT, JR.) IS IN RIGHT NOW.  HE BLOWS A MOTOR AND HE IS 53 POINTS OUT ALREADY.  HOW DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR MINDSET?  HOW DO YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT YOUR TASK DIFFERENTLY WHEN YOU ARE IN THAT POSITION?
“I think that in that position you have absolutely nothing to lose.  You can instead of maybe having a game plan where you were going to try to fine tune a set-up you can just go completely outside the box and just go for broke and make very gutsy calls on pit road.  You can be more aggressive as a driver.  The engineers can be more aggressive in the set-up as well.  It could benefit them greatly, it could benefit us as well, but it also could cause some challenges.  I think that they are looking at it like ‘listen unless something miraculous happens we are not going to be back in this thing’ to the level that they would like to be. I think there is a part of you that just says ‘okay let’s just see how high up in points we can get and there is a part of you that says we go for broke and if we get on a heck of a role we can still do this’.  You certainly never stop giving up hope.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR TELECONFERENCE.
 
BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT:

JENNIE LONG:  Good afternoon everyone and welcome to today’s NASCAR Cam teleconference.  We are joined by Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet for Furniture Row Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  Busch is 6th in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with nine top 5 and 14 top 10 finishes.  He has three wins and 11 top 10 finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the site of Sunday’s Sylvania 300.

 
Kurt, your team is one of the few teams located outside the Charlotte hub.  How big of a deal is it you were not only able to make the Chase but look like a true championship contending team?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well it has been a significant challenge for the team logistically to operate in Colorado, but other than that, it’s business as usual.  You see our crew chief, our lead engineer, full on assembly group of guys, some hanging bodies, some repairing crash damages.  You see the motor tuner, the motor assembly.  There’s a chassis dyno, seven post rigs, so it’s a bona fide program and we have all the right people, and it was just a matter of having everything fall into place with the performances on track, and we’ve been able to do that.  It’s been a very successful season and we’re in the Chase and we don’t want it to stop there.  We want it to keep going.

Q.  I just wanted to ask you about the unique position you find yourself in being a one car operation, no teammates really to speak of in this Chase.  Is that a hindrance or is it an all in one effort for your team going into the Chase?

 
KURT BUSCH:  You know, one thing that is a strong suit that I’ve noticed with this whole situation is the independence and being able to navigate through some of these waters a bit more aggressively as well as we can steer our ship in a quicker direction and not have to report back to a big mother ship, so to speak.  So being able to just navigate and get things implemented into the cars quickly is so refreshing.

A couple weeks ago we were at Atlanta, which is a bumpy, rough racetrack.  We found a couple items and we had those in our car by Chicago two weeks later.  Those are the types of things that    and that freedom, that helps a single car team.

Q.  In terms of making this Chase, I know for you it’s especially gratifying, but there was some emotion there that you showed once you did make that.  I mean, where did that come from?

 
KURT BUSCH:  The big emotion Saturday night in Richmond when we locked into the Chase was little Houston.  It’s Patricia’s eight year old, and I’m an adopted step dad with him.  He had a summer long list of things he wanted to do, ride his go kart, go camping, fishing, just things that an eight year old would want to do, play video games.  He said he wanted to bungee jump, but we had to drop that off the list.  But one thing that I didn’t get done for him that he had on his list, he wanted to go to victory lane, and I didn’t win yet this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and ran very limited Nationwide races, three as a matter of fact, and didn’t get to victory lane.  So I felt like getting him to the Chase stage was that moment for us to share together, so I lived up as a step dad to his expectations.

Q.  Will you bring him to New Hampshire?

 
KURT BUSCH:  The custody calendar has us juggling him the rest of the year, and we try to keep him at just the East Coast races, and so his father him on the weekends we don’t and we do have him though for New Hampshire and that’s a great race for us because we ran well there earlier this year and led a lot of laps.  Looking forward to New Hampshire this weekend and coming up to the New England area and just trying to continue on the success level of this Chase so far.

Q.  You talked about not having a teammate, but do you view your brother as kind of a de facto teammate in a sense?

 
KURT BUSCH:  He’s definitely a genuine teammate in life in the way that we talk to each other and share information about what we see on the racetrack.  Yes, I can lean on him and he leans on me for that.  And then there’s a small exchange with Kevin Harvick, twofold:  One is he races with RCR, and we’re a team that’s paired up through them with an engineering alliance as well as what we’re doing next year in 2014 as teammates at Stewart Haas Racing.  The two of us have definitely bonded this summer in that fashion.

Q.  Obviously we know about your future for next year, and I wanted to ask you a little bit about Furniture Row racing.  The first question is what kind of a driver do you see fitting in and filling your shoes there?  Do you think it needs to be somebody that can bring some experience, or do you think that’s a real prime place for a young guy to come in and see what he can do?

 
KURT BUSCH:  I think the level of driver that they’re looking for would be somebody with experience as well as somebody that has the potential to grow into whom would best fit that role.  But we’re starting to run out of those experienced drivers, such as Juan Pablo Montoya.  He’s made that announcement this week that he’s going to Penske with an IndyCar program, and you’re now looking at guys like a David Ragan as a veteran or a Scott Speed.  One of the dark horses that nobody is really looking at that I think would be a good candidate is a Josh Wise.  But the list can go on and on.  You have Blaney’s son, you have Truex Jr., there’s probably    everybody that wants a Chase ride, I mean, this is a Chase car, I’m sure their phone is ringing off the hook, and I’m not mentioning the right names.  But I see a young guy fitting in over there that can grow with the team just based off of what I’ve seen with their negotiations.

Q.  What do you think is next for this team?  What do you think is maybe something that they need to look at that you think this slight improvement will maybe mean the difference between winning races on a more weekly basis?  I know obviously you’ve gotten them into the Chase and they’re vying for the championship, but what do you think is kind of the next step?  What’s the missing link for them?

 
KURT BUSCH:  I wish I knew because I’d implement it right now and we’d go to New Hampshire with it.  I feel like we’re a 95 percent team.  We have a lot of tools that are strong.  We go to the racetrack each week with raw speed.  Our pit crew has improved, but we’re missing that last five percent, and I don’t know where it’s coming from, and if we had it, I think we could drive into victory lane with it next week with it.

They’re a fantastic team.  They have a lot of well roundedness to them, and there’s just a couple small areas that I think that they could improve.  But I don’t know exactly what to do to pinpoint it.

Q.  You entered the Chase with no wins, so you were a lower seed.  You look at a situation like Earnhardt and Logano who had situations at Chicagoland, and you don’t have that 15 point buffer that Kenseth does or your brother.  Can you win the championship by using up one of those mulligans, or do you have to be perfect all 10 weeks to have a realistic shot?

 
KURT BUSCH:  You know, the best way to explain this, because there’s a lot of us in the South that love SEC football, and every one of us has a team that we would root for.  If you find yourself early in the season with one loss, your hope is that the other groups of guys beat up on each other and everybody has got one loss.  When that happens, then you have a legitimate s
hot at getting back in this for a championship run.  So until everybody has one loss or one big moment, no, there’s no way they can overcome that.

Q.  Real quick, let’s just go back to New Hampshire.  You’ve got three wins there and a lot of top 5 finishes.  How do you attack that course?  How do you like to run it?

 
KURT BUSCH:  I like to run the long runs there at New Hampshire, making your car work for 100 laps at a time I think is key with some of the strategy that’s been played there the last few years on pitting and then running long distances.  With that said, you cannot sacrifice short run speed, and that’s where I think our Furniture Row car got in trouble in the first race is that our car was a bit too vulnerable, we couldn’t be aggressive on restarts and we got spun around by Kenseth, our championship leader, earlier this year.  We have to protect our car better on short run speed and still have that long run speed in case it comes back to play.

Q.  Just back to your independent status, are you a little bemused by some of the sanctions handed down about collusions among teammates there?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Yeah, nobody can pin it on me.  We’re scot free and worked our way in independently to be a part of this Chase.  There’s different things that you want to do as a team and to help a teammate and then there’s a line that’s drawn.  At the end of the day you have to worry about your car number, your team, your people and how your people are reacting.

Q.  All NASCAR drivers seem to be optimistic before the season starts, and when I spoke to you in Charlotte for the Sprint media tour you were optimistic, but did you really see a Chase spot coming, and was 2013 just a race to race routine for you that you would normally do?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Last year in 2012 I finished with Furniture Row Racing with three top 10s out of six races, and that type of performance level is Chase material. Now, that’s only six weeks, though.  You have to do it over 26 weeks.  And so half the races, if you finish them in the top 10, that’s Chase material, and we did that.  We had exactly that number.  We had 13 top 10 finishes.  So I felt like, yes, we could make the Chase.  I was very optimistic.  Yes, it is week to week, but our team wasn’t Chase ready the first five, six weeks of the season, and so I lumped it into five, six chunk races, and once we cleared that, then I looked at the next six and what had to happen for small optimum goals then, and then bridge it into the next six.  So by race 18, you better be Chase ready because you only have eight weeks from that point to tie it together perfectly to make the Chase.

Q.  And how would you compare it to all the ups and downs that you’ve gone through in your championship in the past, all the changes that you’ve made to be able to do this?

KURT BUSCH:  You know, with this small team, it’s a big accomplishment, and for me it’s very satisfying to have bounced back and put this group in Chase contention.  It’s like a top five moment, with my career, with a championship, and big wins, consistency over the years, making seven out of 10 Chases, this year was a significant top five type moment.

Q.  Over the last few weeks it seems like I’ve noticed you are one of the most aggressive drivers on restarts, and I just would like to hear how you would describe the importance of kind of stepping up, particularly at that time, and has this restart rule that’s been handed down over the weekend impacted the way you approach restarts at all?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well, I think it was the fact that our backs were up against the wall about four weeks ago with our points situation and making the Chase, and I was aggressive on restarts to gain those spots back after some poor pit stops, and it turned out to bear fruit and gave us the points we needed to make the Chase.

I mean, we made the Chase by 12 points.  That’s a decent margin.  But I passed nine guys on one restart in Atlanta being on the aggressive side.

So restarts are important.  I think now it’s in the forefront for everybody with the rule change and how we’re seeing races won, on how important it is on that final restart, which we never do know the final restart until it is maybe that last green white checkered, but every restart has important positions to be gained or you can easily lose them.  It’s a new dimension in our sport that I think is gaining a lot of attention, and teams are looking at how they can benefit around it.

Q.  I saw a stat that showed that you and Casey Mears are tied with the most times caught speeding on pit road with seven, and I was kind of wondering if you’ve analyzed that to hopefully limit that down the stretch here so it won’t hurt you as you’re trying to win the championship?

 
KURT BUSCH:  That’s pretty sweet.  I’ll take that as not a top 5 moment, but I’ll take that.  You’ve got to get a stat in something.

All kidding aside, Chicago was a bogus thing in my mind because my tach was green all the way down pit road.  There’s times when it might flicker red and then you hold your breath to see if you’re going to get by the police, in a sense.  Chicago was all green, never expected to be called in, and we were.

What that means is we’re setting our pit road tachometer too aggressively and too close to the margin, so we just have to be more conservative.  The thing that has to be clear internally with Furniture Row Racing is that the guy setting the tach isn’t going conservative on his own and then I’m going doubly conservative to make sure we’re not too conservative once we’re out performing, because we have to perform in this Chase.  We can’t lose spots on pit road with slow pit stops and we can’t lose spots on pit road driving too slow in a speed zone.

Q.  How tough is that for you since obviously every pit road is different?

 
KURT BUSCH:  It’s not tough for me.  We just need to do a better job at filtering through our tachometer settings.  But the way that our sport has evolved, if I can stand on a soapbox real quick, we have a gear selection that’s given to us by NASCAR, a tire size that’s given to us, we have an ECU unit, the electronic control unit, can tell us what rpm we need to run down pit road.  Why not put a button on the steering wheel that keeps us more focused on crew members on pit road and not chancing how fast we’re going and taking attention from where safety needs to be?

Q.  Just a follow up on some of the topics we were discussing regarding the teamwork.  A broader issue here, we saw some of the rulings that came down last week that kind of were brought about to mitigate some of the manipulation of the outcome of races like Richmond by teammates where you’re having unseemly things taking place on the track.  As a driver do you feel it puts you in an untenable situation to have to field the team order, and then hypothetically speaking, would a driver have to wrestle with countermanding the team order because he feels it’s not good for him or his outcome, and are you glad that NASCAR kind of drew the line and said this is what’s not allowed and this is what is allowed?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well, I can just tell you with all the experiences I’ve been through in the past that I am relieved that I’m on a single car team, that we raced our way into the Chase and did this all on our own without any type of controversy.  I have never been on this side of it to see how sick it gets and how awkward it can feel and just the genuine interest level that is away from the racing side of it can be extreme.

These teams that were on the bubble put themselves in a position over those 26 weeks to not be locked in, and that’s the whole point of what I’m trying to say is you h
ave 26 weeks, why don’t you try to run better, get yourself locked in, so with two weeks to go you’re on easy street.  But team orders are a Catch 22.  You’re trying to do your own thing independently for your own car number, and at the same time there’s a master name that’s on the building, and so you have to adhere to what the general manager or the team president is going to tell you to do, and sometimes you’ve got to do what’s right for your own self, sometimes you’ve got to do what the team tells you to do.

Q.  In terms of just the broader issue of teamwork, how does that manifest itself on the track?  I asked Matt Kenseth this earlier.  Certainly you exemplified what a great teammate does for another at Daytona when you helped him win the 500, but in terms of that even at a carburetor restrictor plate, is it tough to really enact teamwork out there?

 
KURT BUSCH:  You know, when I was a teammate with Matt Kenseth at Roush Racing, I adopted the philosophy early in my career on let’s race one day a week, but we’re going to work together six days out of the week.  So when you have team communication and information going back and forth, you’re there to make both programs stronger, or however many cars are in your stable stronger, and then on the seventh day everybody goes and races for themselves.

Q.  We’ve all followed your ups and downs the last few years from Penske to James Finch to Furniture Row, and you’ve been beaten down seemingly by everybody in the sport, but one thing that I’ve noticed this year is everyone has sort of rallied around you, and the perception has changed maybe with the underdog status and seeing how you’ve humbled yourself and you’ve gone back to really enjoy racing.  What, if anything, have you noticed in terms of the reaction and the treatment you’ve been getting from fans and even your fellow drivers?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well, it’s been a long journey, and it didn’t happen overnight, but I chose to settle into this program with working with Phoenix Racing and finding that genuine fun of what it meant to go back to the racetrack because of all the distractions, requirements and monotonous things and situations that kept developing with a big team like at Penske Racing.  So it was great to get a breath of fresh air, roll up my sleeves blue collar style and work with the guys, and then to do the same thing with the Furniture Row group who’s a step up from where that Phoenix Racing team was and then to try to get the results side of it back, and we’ve done that.  So it’s been neat to have those small goals set forth, and then to achieve those goals, and then to set new ones.

And ultimately we want to be in victory lane, and making the Chase was a great feather in the cap, and it’s been a nice road back, and all along, though, it’s been about having fun and working with the crew guys and letting a story be told without people’s visceral opinions changing the way that things are really actually unfolding.

Q.  Have you noticed maybe any reaction changing from the fans, whether it’s through driver introductions or things that they’ve had a chance to say to you when they’ve greeted or you seen you at the track?

 
KURT BUSCH:  The number one thing that, as I said, I’m not looking for as far as attention and recognition.  It’s just the work with the military, and seeing men and women who are in uniform and coming up and shaking my hand or giving my girlfriend Patricia a hug who’s the president of the Armed Forces Foundation, it means a lot, and she says that she’s never seen this type of reaction, where people are genuinely going out of their way to say thank you.  It means that we’re making a difference and we’re helping our military families who have sacrificed so much and served for our country that they want to come to the racetrack and be part of the NASCAR Troops to the Track program as well as if they’re just a fan and they’re a military member they come up because they’re seeing that Patricia’s foundation is making a difference.

Q.  Would it be safe to say that Kurt Busch is back?  Are you back to being comfortable in your own skin and back to being the driver and maybe the man that you want to be?  Everything is going pretty well for you right now.

 
KURT BUSCH:  It’s going great, just success on the racetrack is one thing and getting your priorities in life in order is another thing, and sometimes you have to take a step back to make two steps forward.

Q.  During the race there seems to be lots of drivers having all sorts of issues.  How does a driver manage their stuff in that situation knowing that you could be the next driver to have an issue or a problem?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well, around every corner is an opportunity for success or failure.  In this day and age things move so quick that something does pop up, you’ve got to roll with it, and you have to react and make educated decisions on what’s going to happen next and how to recover as quickly as you can from those mishaps.  So your team can help you or your driver’s experience can help you.  Lady luck can get involved; you never know.  But the more you’ve been through it, the better you should be able to deal with it.

Q.  How does a driver turn not having a ride from a negative way to a positive way, and once a driver finds a ride, what sort of things will you do or a driver do to kind of get an idea of how the other organization is ran at the racetrack?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well, it’s just a matter of keeping your spirits up and knowing that around the next corner is a potential new opportunity, and when you get that new opportunity you have to take it slow and learn the people, learn the system, and at the same time try to implement the experiences that you have on what it takes to find success on the racetrack and produce those results.

 
Q.  I just have a quick question for you.  How excited are you for a shot at the Cup this year?

 
KURT BUSCH:  Well, it’s been an amazing ride, and to make the Chase with a single car team was a nice accomplishment and something very gratifying, and now here we are one week into it and we have a nice top 5 finish.  We need nine more of those along with a win.  So I’m looking forward to the challenge.  What keeps me even more hungry this year is that we haven’t won yet, and I know we’re capable of doing it, and here it is.  The Chase, it’s the most important time to win, so it would be great to see it all come together.
      

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GEICO 400
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE DRIVERS NOTES AND QUOTES – POST RACE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2013
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER DESIGNATE A DRIVER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
TELL US ABOUT THE CLOSING LAPS AND THE BATTLE WITH YOUR FUTURE TEAMMATE KURT BUSCH:
“Yeah, we had a lot of fun.  Obviously our Budweiser Designate a Driver Chevrolet was running really good after the break there.  These guys did a lot of work in between while it was raining there.  So they did a good job with the car and making some adjustments to the car there towards the end.  Just too loose there the last couple of runs on exit.  Had a lot of fun and came up a couple short, but a good day.”
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 4TH: TAKE US THROUGH YOUR NIGHT:
“We had to overcome adversity with speeding on pit road.  All my lights were green, but hey when you are cutting it that close and they say you are speeding just take it, get your penalty over with and get back on your horse.  We had to come from behind and then we got the waive around.  It was a great call by Todd Berrier (crew chief).  Battling up through on the restarts, one of them we went from eighth to third and then the car just was off just a fuzz.  A little bit tight on entry I couldn’t power down into the corner and then hold the apex.  So when you know you are off just a little bit guys are going to beat you, but yeah we had a battle with (Kevin) Harvick and we brought our Chevy home in fourth.  Top fives are what it’s all about in the Chase and one down and nine to go.  Just hats off to this crew.  It’s a long day with rain delays and just in of focus, out of focus and we gave it our best effort.”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH: YOU HAD TO BATTLE THROUGH SOME UNFORTUNATE SITUATIONS THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF THE EVENING, BUT TO COME BACK AND FINISH 5TH, HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THAT IN THE CHASE HOPES?
“Yeah, really big. The next to the last run, we got ourselves right back in the thick of things. And unfortunately, just didn’t have the speed at the end there, for that final segment to go race for the end. But, from a jack failing to a call on pit road for a lugnut that was not supposedly on, and a variety of issues, it was a great comeback. So, we wanted to finish better of course, but we’re very proud of all the hard work from Hendrick Motorsports, Chas Knaus, and this No. 48 Lowe’s race team. We’re off to a good start.”
 
YOU GUYS HAD A ROLLER COASTER DAY/NIGHT TONIGHT.  ALL IN ALL DESCRIBE THE EFFORT THIS EVENING:
“Just a great effort you know we never gave up just got to keep working through things.  That second to last run we had a very fast race car and got up to the front and thought I had a chance to win this thing, but that last run we just didn’t have what we needed and came home in fifth.”
 
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE FROM THE RAIN DELAY TO WHERE WE FINISHED TONIGHT?
“It cooled off and it gained a lot of grip.  That changed our balance a little bit, but after an adjustment we got it right.  I felt like we had an awesome car.  We just lost track position.  We had a jack fail tonight we had a weird call on the right-rear on one of the pit stops just had a lot of issues with track position, but still got a good finish.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 6TH: A BIG SMILE ON YOUR FACE WHEN YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR. WHAT DID YOU ACCOMPLISH TONIGHT?
“Well, that was an incredible accomplishment. It just shows how much fight this team has in them. We never give up. And, what an awesome Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet race car we had tonight. Whoa! Man, it was so much fun!  To think how far down we were with 40 laps to go, I know we were like 18th on one of those last restarts. So, to be able to come up through there and get 6th and have a shot at a top-5 was a lot of fun. That’s what needed to get this thing started off right. And I’m proud of this team. Can’t wait to get to this next race. What is it?  Loudon? We’re ready!”
 
WAS THE FAST PACE A PRODUCT OF THE LATE RESTART AND BEING COOLER? “When it turns to dark like that, it was going to be fast anyway because of the overcast. But, to be able to have a night race like this where the temperature has dropped so much, the cars are just stuck like glue. If anything, I thought our car was better when we went back racing. We were going to try to make adjustments to make it better during the daytime, but the nighttime sort of brought the car to us. The car just turned a little bit better; we needed that.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 10TH:  “Happy to come out of here with a top-10 finish tonight. Track position was really important. We were stuck in the back of the pack for a while and couldn’t really get going – every time I got up behind someone, I’d just get so tight I couldn’t do anything with it. Matt (Borland, crew chief) got us position with a couple of two-tire stops, and once we were up front we were able to make a little more of it. Our Quicken Loans Chevrolet was definitely better on the long runs. Head to Outback Steakhouse for a Bloomin’ Onion tomorrow. And, we paid 10 mortgages with Quicken Loans’ expanded “Bring it Home” sweepstakes.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 12: NOT THE EXACT FINISH YOU WANTED FOR FIRST RACE OF THE CHASE, BUT GREAT RECOVERY FROM DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES: “Yes, it was actually a pretty good finish for what we had. There were like three or four guys clueless on pit road; they are all stopping and can’t find their stalls – like we’ve never done this before. I was racing Carl (Edwards) and the next thing you know I’m trying to stopped and Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) is trying to get stopped and we are all hitting one another. Hurt our car pretty bad and from there we just battled. The pit crew guys did a really nice job. I had a fast car prior to that. We were making our way forward.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 TIME WARNER CABLE CHEVROLET SS, SIDELINED WITH MECHANICAL ISSUES ON LAP 227:
YOU WERE LOOKING AT THE CAR. WERE YOU LOOKING FOR ANYTHING? DID YOU SEE ANYTHING?
“I was just trying to see if it was terminal or if we can get back out there. I’ve got to get other to the garage and see. But whatever it broke, it was something pretty serious.”
 
IS THERE A CHANCE YOU CAN GET BACK OVER THERE?
“It ain’t the motor, so we’ll have to go see.”
 
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I’m not really sure if it was motor or transmission, but it has got us sitting on the sidelines for the time being, maybe for the rest of the race.”
 
HOW TOUGH A NIGHT IS THIS?
“Pretty tough.  We had a car we were pretty happy with and you know just thought we were going to have a pretty good night.  I don’t know what was going on on pit road there but we knocked the front end off of it on pit road.  Those guys all stopped on pit road in front of us.  We were trying to get that fixed.  We still had a chance to get that fixed and get the downforce back in the front.  We cut the grill all up and the downforce was gone and we lost a lap there.  We were going to get that patched up and maybe be able to make something out of it, but something broke there in the motor.  It’s tough.  It’s going to be really hard to win a championship this far behind.”
 
ANY IDEA IF THE DAMAGE FROM THE PIT ROAD DEAL CONTRIBUTED TO THE ENGINE PROBLEM?
“I don’t think it did.  We had the temperatures under control the whole time. I think that this was either something that was an anomaly just something that just happened or we were really on the chip very hard tonight with the extra speed. Even at the beginning of the race this afternoon we
hit the chip harder than I’ve hit it all year.  We will look back through the data and see if I did something.  Maybe I did something on a restart or something, but I am usually pretty honest about that stuff and I don’t remember doing anything.”
 
FINISHING IN THE 30’S DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE THIS UP?
“We have some pretty tough competition in the Chase.  The average finish is going to be inside the top 10 to win the championship.  So you can do the numbers, you can do the math.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GEICO 400
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE RAIN DELAY DRIVERS NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 15, 2013
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS:
109 LAPS IN WHAT DO YOU GOT?
“So far we have been a little bit too tight, just trying to get the car to turn which I had no issues with that yesterday.  I think we just over adjusted for the weather conditions and things.  Kenny (Francis, crew chief) and the guys are doing a nice job with adjustments.  It was much better that last run we took off and we were close to the leaders speed the first 10 or 20 laps and then started falling off again.  So we have a little bit of work to do, but we are back to ninth and hopefully going forward from here.”

YOU TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND HOW THEY CHANGED FROM WHEN YOU PRACTICED TO WHERE WE STARTED TODAY.  NOW WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SIGNIFICANT RAIN AND IT’S GOING TO BE DIFFERENT AGAIN WHEN YOU COME BACK AND RACE HOPEFULLY LATER THIS AFTERNOON OR THIS EVENING.  WHAT CHANGES IN THE TRACK AND IN THE CAR DO YOU LOOK FOR THEN?
“Well I think you know more rain, probably the most rain that we have had so far.  So it will wash all the rubber back off the track and it will be similar to how the race started I would imagine.  Then it’s going to get dark and everything.  I don’t know if it will free up tonight or not, but I’m kind of expecting it to be similar to how it’s been this afternoon.  Once it does rubber back in at that point we just need to be a little bit looser.  Hopefully we can get that done and go forward.”

I KNOW YOU’RE A SEATTLE SEAHAWKS FAN SO DURING THIS RAIN DELAY HAVE YOU BEEN CHECKING YOUR FANTASY FOOTBALL?
“Yeah, I may go check on my fantasy football.  I don’t know how that is going so far.  Yeah, the Seahawks are going tonight against the 49ers which is going to be a great game.  Probably won’t be watching that I’ll probably be racing, but I hope the ‘Hawks win.  They are pretty tough this year.”

YOU WON’T BE ASKING FOR ANY UPDATES DURING THE COURSE OF THE RUN TONIGHT?
“I don’t think so.  I have enough to focus on right now.  We need to get a good run in today at Chicago and get off to a good start in the Chase.” 

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Comment during red flag
EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE PITS STOP ON LAP 77 REGARDING THE RIGHT REAR. THE OFFICIAL ASSUMED THERE WAS A LUGNUT MISSING?
“Yeah, there was one hanging there. One had fallen off during the hand-in, so it was kind of hanging there; but the tire changer had taken the time. He did his job. He did a great job getting the other lugnut on there and making sure it was tight. The official thought there were only four on there. We all make mistakes. That happens from time to time. Hopefully we can get the Lowe’s Chevrolet back up towards the front and compete for the win.”
 
YOU WERE VERY CALM AND COMPOSED WHEN YOU TALKED TO JIMMIE JOHNSON ON THE RADIO, AND DIDN’T SEEM TO BE RILED AT ALL, EXTERNALLY. INTERNALLY, WERE YOU A LITTLE HOT?
“Well, the competitiveness side of me obviously didn’t want that to happen. We had a good opportunity to come in and retain the lead. But unfortunately fell back about five seconds because of that. So, we’ll just have to get out there and battle with them a little bit. But I think we’ll be okay. The car is running really good. Jimmie is doing a great job and the guys did a really good job of preparing the race car. We just have to get this rain out of our system. Looks like we might be racing under the lights, which might make it pretty exciting.”
 
YOU CALLED HIM IN A LITTLE BIT EARLY FOR THAT SECOND STOP. WAS THAT A STRATEGY MOVE TO MAKE A SECOND STOP BEFORE HALFWAY OR WERE YOU WORRIED AT ALL ABOUT A RIGHT FRONT?
“No, not worried about tires at all. Just wanted to get in here. We felt like we had everybody in a position where we could capitalize on it and catch them off guard and maybe get out there and pull all them down pit road. And all that worked perfectly! The only problem we had was we were a little slow on our pit stop (laughs).”
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Comment during red flag
WHAT WERE YOU HEARING WHILE YOU WERE WAITING FOR THE CUE TO GO ON THAT PIT STOP?
“I was definitely waiting. And I could see confusion. I saw an official waving and I saw my rear changer done and at the wall, arguing with Chad (Knaus) and telling him that the lugs were on. In the end, I guess the official thought all the lugs weren’t on the right rear. And that’s where there was a conversation and an argument. Chad didn’t want me to leave the box without all the lugs on because that’s a penalty and on and on it went. So, long story short, I saw there on pit road while the clock was ticking and we proved our case that all five were on there. I took off. We certainly lost track position but I think we have a strong enough car to get back up there. We just need to get this place to dry out and get my Lowe’s Chevy back on the road and we’ll be in good shape.”
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TWO-TIRE CALL EARLY? HOW WAS YOUR CAR HANDLING?
“It was good. My car has driven the same either way. So, I’m really happy with how my car feels. It’s got plenty of speed in it. The motor is running awesome. It’s nice when you can get up and run the high line and can feel the rpm in the engine and the Hendrick horsepower running down the straight. So, all is good. I’m just looking forward to a nice solid finish today and a good run. Hopefully that’s the only hiccup for the afternoon and we’ll be in good shape when the checkered falls.”
 
WE JUST TALKED TO CHAD KNAUS. HE SAID IT WOULD BE EXCITING RACING UNDER THE LIGHTS. DO YOU AGREE?
“Yeah, I just want to race today. I want to get home and see my girls. So as long as we can get it in tonight, today, or whatever it is, we’re ready to run.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS: YOU STAYED OUT A LITTLE LONGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE DURING THAT FIRST ROUND OF GREEN FLAG PIT STOPS TO LEAD A LAP. DISCUSS THE WAY STRATEGY WORKS ESPECIALLY IN THE EARLY PART OF THE RACE:
“My crew chief just walked away you should have asked him. He was the one that kept me out there.  I think he was working on if the rain did stay and last a little bit longer we would be able to stay out longer than everybody else.  Not knowing what the mindset is of everybody seeing if we might be able to get to halfway at that point.  At the same time the tires aren’t falling off that much so it wasn’t going to hurt us.  Either way we got a point I guess from what you told me, because I didn’t know.  We stayed on the lead lap there after the cycle and feel like our Quicken Loans car is decent.  We need some track position no doubt.  We will keep working on it.”
 
DOES THIS NOW CHANGE THE WAY YOU GUYS APPROACH FROM HERE ON OUT WHEN WE GO BACK RACING?
“No, my goal is to get to the front.  It doesn’t change any approach with respect to that.  What my crew chief does and how we get to the front might be a different story.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER DESIGNATE A DRIVER CHEVROLET SS:
HOW IS YOUR CHEVY?  I UNDERSTAND YOU WERE STRUGGLING WITH IT A LITTLE BIT WITH IT BEING REALLY TIGHT EARLY IN THE RACE?
“Yeah, we’ve just not been able to make it turn getting towards the center of the corner.  Once we get past 15 or 20 laps the cars speed is really good we just have to get it going.  We are going to make some adjustments on this pit stop after we had some time to sit and talk about it.  For as off as I thought we were at the beginning of the race we are not in too bad a position here to make up some ground.”
 
WE JUST SHOWED THE FEATURE WHERE YOUR CAREER REALLY JUMP STARTED AT THE TRAGIC LOSS OF DALE EARNHARDT.  I KN
OW YOU ARE LEAVING THIS TEAM AT THE END OF THIS YEAR.  WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO LEAD THIS TEAM TO A CHAMPIONSHIP GIVEN THE FACT THAT RICHARD CHILDRESS BELIEVED IN YOU AND PUT YOU IN THAT SEAT WHEN THEY LOST DALE?
“Obviously there were some extreme circumstances. We have heard that a lot this week haven’t we.  In that situation there were some extreme circumstances to fill a void for the company at RCR.  I felt like we did what we had to do to make everything right for the employees and everybody to keep that car on the race track.  Richard definitely gave me an opportunity and I will always be grateful for that.  We are just going to race as hard as we can these last 10 weeks to get the best finishes we can and see where we wind up come Homestead.”
 
AS A LAME DUCK DRIVER DO YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?  IS YOUR FOCUS STILL ON DOING WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THIS NO. 29 BUNCH AND BUDWEISER?
“Yeah, you definitely have to be focused.  I’m a one week at a time person.  It’s focus on what we need to for Chicago and Monday morning we will be focused on what we need to be focused on for Loudon.  Obviously during the week there are some conversations and things that need to happen for next year, but the biggest things that we have to worry about are already taken care of with crew chiefs and things like that.  Those guys are all working hard and we are going to work hard as a team this year to finish these last 10 weeks.”
 
YOU ARE ONE OF ONLY TWO DRIVERS TO WIN HERE MULTIPLE TIMES.  WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK IS GOING TO BE LIKE AND WHAT IS IT GOING TO BE LIKE ON THE RACE TRACK WHEN YOU GUYS GET BACK OUT THERE?
“Well the groove was pretty much on the bottom at the beginning of the race there until everybody started burning the track in.  It took several laps for that to come in. We will have to go through that period again.  I think that the cars are going to have more grip.  I feel like they are going to turn better.  They should turn better through the center of the corner, but the speeds are going to be up at the same time so hopefully the balance stays pretty close to the same just higher speeds.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – Comment during red flag
YOU WERE RUNNING 6TH WHEN THE RAIN CAME. HOW WAS YOUR CAR?
“We started sixth and we were passing cars; and then we had some guys change-up the strategy with two tires, so we had to come back a little bit from that, but the car is really, really strong. We were a little bit tight on the longer runs, but we’ve got a really strong race car. So I’m excited about the rest of the race; get this rain out of here and get this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet up a little bit further forward.”
 
WHAT’S THE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE STRATEGY MOVING FORWARD BETWEEN YOU AND (CREW CHIEF) ALAN GUSTAFSON AT THIS POINT WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S AHEAD OF YOU THE REST OF THE DAY?
“Well, we can use the conditions that we had when this race started. It rained earlier. So, we’re really just thinking about what the track conditions are going to be and what our car has been doing on our first run and each run after that. It’s really just about tuning the car to make it go as fast as possible; and keep the team warmed-up and ready to go and just keep that mindset to be ready at any time. Don’t get complacent. We’re fired-up. This day is going well for us and we hope it continues.”